Lyall & Tina Donnelly - Five Rings POWER COUPLE

Speaker 1 (00:01):

All right, you guys ready? Ready. Let's do this thing. Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Alliance Group Podcast. Uh, we have yet another awesome episode today, two extremely special guests. We have Miss Tina and Mr. Lyle, Don Donnelly, all the way from Denver, Colorado. Uh, these are founding partners of Five Rings Financial. Uh, thank you guys so much for joining me.

Speaker 2 (00:27):

Thank you. Yeah. Yes. We were there in the very beginning,

Speaker 1 (00:29):

The very beginning. The very beginning. And we were just talking about this. It's kind of tripping me out to, to, to go back and think of where Five Rings is. You guys have been, you guys first met, uh, the founder and and president of Fiveing Financial. Mike Wilke in 2003. Three,

Speaker 2 (00:46):

Yep.

Speaker 1 (00:47):

2003. And here we are, uh, about to hit 2023 as we're shooting this, you're going on 20 years with five rings, financial and the success. It's, it's just an unbelievable success to where you guys have been there for the whole thing.

Speaker 2 (01:02):

Yes,

Speaker 1 (01:03):

<laugh>, that's incredible. It's, uh, we were talking about two years ago, 2019. This was right before the the pandemic hit. Um, we threw something, uh, Meron from National Life Group, uh, through something, four or five rings. Uh, we called it unofficially, actually, officially the big ass party. And this was to, this was a huge party that we had, uh, here in Atlanta. We, we flew in a, a bunch of five rings. People, you guys were here. We, it was a party to end all parties, I call it, because it was literally right before Covid. It was the, the last party that a lot of us went to for a long time. Um, but this was a party to celebrate 5 million of production. Is that right? Yep. Yep. 5 million of production, which was a, it, it still is a huge accomplishment. Uh,

Speaker 2 (01:43):

It was a big stretch when he put that out there.

Speaker 1 (01:45):

Right. I, I, I remember him throwing that, that goal out there and me thinking, wow, they're really gonna have to, to, to, to grow even more. It an even more increased rate to get to that number. Here we are, the end of 2022. You guys are knocking on the door. It is gonna happen. It's just a matter of, you know, in, in the next couple of weeks, uh, just a couple of cases going place. Five rings is gonna do what,

Speaker 3 (02:06):

15 million?

Speaker 2 (02:06):

15? Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:07):

15. So, boom, <laugh> <laugh>, that's a big old boom. Um, so point being the success story. That is five Rings. Financial continues. The story continues to write itself, and it just, the story gets crazier and crazier with every passing year. Li Lyle, you guys have been there since the very beginning. You were telling us a story earlier about how you met Mike Wilk. Um, good. And it, it, it is, it is a very good story. Uh, it's a great story. So talk to me a little bit about, um, how it is that you, maybe not the entire story from the very beginning, but what is it that you saw in Mike and this opportunity, and kind of talk to me about the meeting and that partnership as it has developed over now we're talking almost 20 years now. Yep. So,

Speaker 3 (02:57):

21 years ago, I accidentally got into the health insurance business,

(03:01)
<laugh>. Right? Right. And, um, and, and a client told me I should get outta the health insurance business. I was kinda like barking up the wrong tree. So he said, you, you gotta get into these index accounting. So that's what I meant, Mike, in Kansas City, uh, I was telling you earlier that, uh, our first mentor that we ever had in our life was many, many years ago. Right. And so I thought, you know, I just need to find another mentor. So divinely inspired somehow some way. We met Mike in Kansas City and, uh, he came to Denver. I, I was actually just asking him to just introduce me to, just to somebody in his organization. Right?

Speaker 1 (03:35):

You're like, I, I, I need a mentor. I'm right. I'm, I'm, I'm getting into this. You're probably too, too big for me, but can you point me to someone who might need, uh, a mentee? Right?

Speaker 3 (03:44):

Right. I just said, Hey, you got somebody in, in the Denver area that can take me into their wing, right. He said, Nope. And so we had another conversation. That's when he said, okay, I'll come to Denver myself. So in May of 2000, oh no, July of 2003, Mike came to Denver and we just hung around for a couple days. I couldn't figure out what he was doing. I think what what he was doing was just checking us out to see if we were real. Cause he didn't have time. Right. Be messing with somebody. And he must have liked us cuz he said, okay, I'll come back and in, uh, October and we'll get this thing started. So that's how it all started. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (04:15):

Wow.

Speaker 3 (04:15):

And October, 2003 were,

Speaker 1 (04:17):

Now Tina, were, were you guys working together at that point already? You guys were, were already a team?

Speaker 2 (04:22):

Well, we've been business owners our whole adult life and most of the businesses we worked together, but I was still in our old construction industry and he was doing health insurance. And what Mike's on us, you know, who knows? That's crazy. Right? Well,

Speaker 1 (04:36):

I mean,

Speaker 2 (04:37):

You're brand new to the industry,

Speaker 1 (04:38):

But he obviously saw something and, uh, he obviously has a pretty good instinct for these things. Uh, 20 years later, you guys have helped build five rings financial into an absolute juggernaut. And as I was saying before, it's not like, oh, well, this explosion happened and now they're all the way up here. It's like this explosion is currently happening.

Speaker 3 (04:57):

It's happening. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (04:57):

It's, uh, it's like a, a mushroom cloud. You know, you watch like a, a, a nuclear explosion and there's a explosion that you think is big, and then there's the, and it, you, it kind of feels like just maybe the beginning of this mushroom cloud that you guys are, are putting out there. Um, you guys talked a lot and, and, and, and you do talk a lot. I've, I've, I've had the pleasure of hearing you guys speak at many Five Rings events. You're always, you know, one of the most honored speakers there, uh, with, uh, with your background and who you are to this organization, you talk a lot about mentorship. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, which is something that runs through the blood and the DNA of, of Five Rings Financial. It's like each one teach one, and, and in some way, each one teach many. Um, Tina, talk a little bit about the, the, the idea of, of mentorship and how much it means just in, in business in general, but specifically within five Rings. Why is mentorship something that you guys hold so, so high?

Speaker 2 (05:54):

Well, we had, when we were first married and years ago in the eighties, Lyle had a, a career, uh, selling resort real estate. And that was our first experience with a mentor. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And so we kinda, and um, we, we just understood that old school kind of apprentice, master mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Yep. Environment. The

Speaker 1 (06:12):

Grasshopper and the

Speaker 2 (06:13):

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly right. And, um, and it's really, really unusual in this industry because you gotta think about this as a whole bunch of entrepreneurs, right? Taking on a mindset to encourage and support and help each other, and even share incomes with each other while we learn and grow in the industry, when in fact, we should be competitors. So it's kind of counterintuitive to mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, the, um, competitive side of, of what the industry normally appears to Right. To be, or seems to be. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (06:48):

Yeah. Yeah. And it's also the fact that if you're mentoring, you're spending time, your time mm-hmm. <affirmative> on someone else mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and you're not spending it on producing, you know, ne necessarily writing that next piece of business to get your numbers bigger. So I think that's also the problem that some people have in the industry with the idea of, well, if I'm putting energy into someone else, then I'm not, then I'm not helping my own business. But five rings, and you guys have shown that's a complete fallacy. If you can build other people, that is how you actually grow the most efficiently, um, in, in, in y'all's system. Um, talk a little bit more about, uh, about, uh, about mentorship from your perspective, Lyle, why you think it's, it's so important not only to be one once you're there, but also to, to get a mentor. That's what, that's what you were searching for when you found Mike.

Speaker 3 (07:38):

So, when I very first started working with Mike, just a quick little side note. I said, Mike, I know I can make a lot of money. I know who you are. I know you like to build stuff. I said, I don't wanna do that. I just got rid of 35 employees. I don't wanna do that. He says, well, you know, you're not getting any younger. What's he said to me? I said, what do you mean by that? He says, well, if all you ever do is sell, you're gonna get burn out. But he said, if you let me help you build a team, you'll never get burn out, because you'll always be pouring your heart into somebody else's life. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So I thought about that for a second. He was actually pouring himself into my life, so I needed to pay it forward. Yep. And so if people would, would, um, embrace that their lives will be much more full mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and they'll actually grow. They'll be, they won't be able be able to help Billy a big team.

Speaker 1 (08:24):

Right? Yeah. It's, uh, it's, it's just, it's just been amazing to watch. We were, you know, we have, we've had several guests from Five Rings, financials, uh, five Rings, financial on, we've had, uh, Gustavo and Marina, uh, Coto, uh, we've had Beatrice and, and, and Felipe, no, Weiss. And this is a theme that I always end up talking about when I have folks from Five Rings. It's like, you, it's, it's so important to find the right person, uh, to, to kind of tie your wagon to, and then to turn around and help someone, you know, help the the next person get to where they helped you, you know, reach. Um, so it's been pretty incredible. Just, uh, Tina, what has it been like, uh, just in general? I know this is pretty hard to put into words, I imagine, but over 20 years you guys have watched this, this organization, um, grow. But especially lately, what is it like when you're at these, you know, national training camp, for example, and you look around these rooms and you're like, I mean, I'm blown away by it. I can't imagine what you're feeling when you're in, in those, in, in those scenarios,

Speaker 2 (09:28):

You have moments of it being really surreal. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Like, we ha we helped start this. Um, but you know, we're just people, right? We've just worked, we've had really great work ethics and, and we're just people. And, you know, 90% of the people that come on board with our team with fi in the five rings in environment are new to entrepreneur, being entrepreneurs and working on their own. Yeah. And so, I don't, I don't think that we think that it's us. Right? Right. We, we just find people that have a little fire and we just have built, and, and you know, Mike has designed this incredible environment where anybody who has a little desire mm-hmm. <affirmative> to do more, who has that, you know, their soul is going, I know there's more in me. Right. Can step into this environment. And I, and I think my, my feeling is, is that everyone in that room, all the leaders in that room are just, um, heart-centered servant leaders that are just pouring into other people.

(10:28)
And so you don't really see that. I mean, obviously we all have to deal with a little bit of ego cuz we're doing stuff on our own, of course. But it, of course, it is such a different environment than, um, you know, what it could be or what somebody might suppose it would be with the fact that, you know, this business crew, we just work with people every day and, and don't really look at that piece of it. We're just Yeah. Yeah. Still just, you know, in, in the work and loving on people. And I think, I think most people wanna be part of something that's on purpose with a purpose. Right. And, um, when you're in that energy and that mindset, it isn't about that. Oh, that structure of look liquid I just did. Right. Because it's, we are just starting. Yeah. It's tiny little baby. We haven't helped nearly enough people. We haven't, um, impacted nearly enough households. So it's just the, we just got lucky and got to be in the beginning. That's

Speaker 1 (11:21):

An amazing thought, isn't it? That's an amazing thought that, you know, we, we've, we, this is just the tip of the iceberg. There's so much work to be done. Yeah. Right. It's pretty unbelievable. Lyle, talk about that a little bit. Tina touched on it. Um, what, what do you think are the qualities that make for someone who really fits well in your or organization? I mean, 20 years of seeing people, recruiting people, training people, seeing some people leave, uh, you know, some, some people exit. What are the common qualities that you see someone who really can thrive in, in, in five rings financial,

Speaker 3 (12:00):

Number one is that fire, excuse me, that fire in their heart. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, they gotta have that flame burning. Or maybe just even just a flicker. Yeah. Because we've helped take, take people from that flicker to on fire.

Speaker 1 (12:11):

Yeah.

Speaker 3 (12:12):

Uh, there's that. Then also people have to, um, they wanna, they need to, they want more in their life. That's pretty much, that's it. Just the flame. And then I want more, uh, people that have a purpose. Yeah. Um, and people that are tired, tired of, uh, working for a living.

Speaker 1 (12:30):

I think, you know, something I've, I've kind of noticed is a, a theme and you, you guys use it in your, in your, in your messaging when you're out talking to new people, it is kind of what you both refer to here, which is like, you have that nagging feeling that like, yeah, you know, you, you did this and, and you did this in life and you ended up here and you're kind of haunted by this. Is this gonna be it? Like, is this, is this who I am? Is, is this my potential? Right. Have I reached it? And there's a lot of people out there that are working their jobs for somebody else, working their day jobs that they might not like that much with this nagging feeling in their soul that like, is this it? Is this, is this what I was put here to do? Um, and those are the kind of people that I think you guys look for, and I think that you can really take and help kind of fill that, that, that, that inner vessel. Right. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (13:24):

I think, um, the, you know, there's a commonality among the people that are successful here. And that is not only did they desire to do more, have control of their life, maybe have control of their time, choose a better neighborhood to live in, have better schools for their kids, all of those kind of things. But they also took action mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and they got really uncomfortable in the beginning, and they got really coachable. And, uh, and then I think the biggest thing for us was you just have to trust the system and the model. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and the people that are, are mentoring you. You just kinda have to have this blind faith for a while while you get in there. It's obvious that every, all of the products that we work with and the companies that we represent are amazing. Right. That's a given.

(14:08)
Um, so then it's all about doing it enough that you can do it on your own. And I think the, the people that have a hard time here is they're not willing to just trust, turn over trust and turn over the, the, um, activity, you know, they, you know, just do the activity that is required in the beginning and then just get in the groove of it. Right. And just spend enough time in the actual actions of doing the business. Right. Versus studying it or watching it or whatever. You gotta actually do it. Right? You gotta be with people. Right.

Speaker 1 (14:42):

Or, or, you know, take, oh, well, I see what I'm supposed to do, but let me just take some time to rework it and, uh, yeah. I can, I think I can improve this, uh, this this tried and true 20 year old system. And I'll do it on my own. I'll gonna take some time to perfect the system, and then I'll do it my way. This is something that we were talking about before, Lyle. It's, it's, uh, uh, you really just want to say just, it's a proven system. It works. I promise it. It's, it's working. Do the system. Right.

Speaker 2 (15:08):

That's, that's a, that's a very expensive choice when you do it that way. <laugh>. Right. Millions of dollars lost.

Speaker 3 (15:14):

Yeah. So that's why we had the success we had when we met Mike. We'd been mentored before mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And in order, if you're gonna be mentored, you gotta do what the mentor Right, right. Says you need to do. Exactly. So we, when I met Mike, I said, okay, Mike, I will do whatever you tell me to do. Exactly.

Speaker 1 (15:31):

This is something that you learned from your previous mentor. Right. This is

Speaker 3 (15:34):

In my

Speaker 1 (15:34):

Twenties part of this story. Right.

Speaker 3 (15:37):

Exactly what you told me to do. I will do it to a T perfectly. I will not waiver. I And you told him the same thing? Well,

Speaker 2 (15:44):

No, not quite. I was, I was, do you remember in the beginning I was driving Mike nuts, Uhhuh <affirmative>. Well, why do we do this? And why do that Uhhuh and why do we say it this way? And why do we say

Speaker 1 (15:51):

It that way? Which, which I'm sure you guys get a lot of at vibrance. Yeah. You were of course, right. You were going that, that, that journey yourself.

Speaker 2 (15:56):

And I think, um, maybe with women especially, we gotta make sure that we make sure that we know that this is okay. And I just kept bugging the heck out of him, making him crazy. And he finally said, okay, we need to make an agreement 12 months, just trust me. Can you just trust me in 12 months and then at the end of 12 months you can kick my behind if it doesn't work. Right. And, um, that changed everything

Speaker 1 (16:21):

Because you did it for 12

Speaker 2 (16:22):

Months, changed everything. I just said, all right, I all right. I, what do I have to lose? And I have everything to gain. Right. We had everything to gain. Yeah. And, um, that decision, those decisions to just work the model and trust him. And we didn't know at the time, you know, he saw our future way more clear than we saw mm-hmm. <affirmative> at the time mm-hmm. <affirmative> mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, so, you know, you don't see any of that in the beginning. Right. So you just really have to have some blind faith for a while and just get in there, do the work, and man, you're gonna, you know, at some point, pop out the other end and be like, oh, <laugh>. Right. That was a good choice.

Speaker 1 (16:55):

Talk about this, uh, this idea of synthetic experience, right. As, as that applies to what we're, what we're currently discussing. Right. You basically went to your mentor, Mike, and before that your, your mentor, uh, you learned it from, from that guy who said, just do exactly what I tell you to do for X period of time. And I promise you, if you promise me to do that, I promise I'll pour into you and I promise that you'll be better for it. Um, talk about this idea of synthetic experience. Okay. And, and why it's so important.

Speaker 3 (17:24):

Lyle. So my first mentor, his name is Bob. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I got into the resort real estate business when I was 29 years old. Called me in the office, said, close the door, sit down. I did. And there was 30 other agents in the other room waiting for the Monday morning meeting. He said, okay, so you're brand new. He said, I've been doing this for 25 years. I'm pretty successful at it. He said, if I've offered this to every other agent in the other room, but no one's taken me up on it. I said, what? He said, well, you ever heard the experience as the best teacher? I said, yeah. He said, well, there's something better than than experience. I said, what's that? He said, synthetic experience. I said, what do you mean by that? He says, well, if I told you I needed to walk through a minefield before you come into the office tomorrow, would you wanna go first or would you wanna follow somebody?

(18:10)
I said, I'd like to follow somebody <laugh>. Right. He said, that's synthetic experience. So he taught me every little intricacy that you could think of, you know, on how to meet people and, and just all of it, and words and, and this and that. And as a matter of fact, um, last time I did the synthetic experience speech at Five Rings Financial, I got to thinking more about Bob, my first mentor, and I was 29 years old. My ego was pretty big. So I had thought that I made all the sales mm-hmm. <affirmative>, but when I look back on it with a different, uh, lens, I thought to myself, you know, I did all the, uh, presentation, but on every meeting I called Bob in, Bob made every sale <laugh>, he was the mentor, but not only the mentor, but he actually was the, the glue. And he, he's what made it all happen. So that was why I was so open to work with Mike, is because he said the same thing. He said, well, of course. He said, if you, I've been doing this for 21 years, I pretty much know everything there is to know, just put me in front of people. So I did that. And for the very first year, Mike did every, almost every sale that we did mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and he gave us half the money.

Speaker 1 (19:23):

Yeah. Right.

Speaker 3 (19:24):

Like, holy smokes. Right. So that's what, but made me finally look back and say, okay, wait a second. I wasn't quite as cool as I thought it was <laugh> when I was 29. Say, oh, yeah, I made all this money this, that I was amazing. No, I wasn't. Bob was amazing.

Speaker 1 (19:38):

But you were, you were soaking that up. You were there in every meeting listening to how Bob did it, watching how he did it, and making mental notes, kinda learning, um, learning through, through, through his experience. Right? Yep. This, this synthetic experience that he was

Speaker 3 (19:51):

Talking about. And then, so Mike picked the ball up right. From, from that point when we started working here, did the same thing that Bob did. Every person I put him in front of, um, he, he either sold them something or recruited them. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And that was the other huge, the reason we've had so much success is Mike created a foundation for us from the very beginning Right. Of, of building a team.

Speaker 1 (20:14):

Yep. And that, yeah. That is the amazing thing about, about the synthetic experience idea. It's the idea, I think what, what Bob was saying to you is, yes, experience is great. Experience is is awesome. You get to go through life and you get to fall on your face, and then you get to learn from that. Right. And then you come out of the other side having learned something. So that's what experience does for us, is through our failures, we learn better ways of doing things. Synthetic experience being, what if you didn't have to fall on your face and learn from me falling on my face Exactly. 10 years ago. Yeah. I'll just teach you the lesson. Yep. Right. And you don't to fall on your face and your nose can stay, you know, not, not broken from all the falls on your face. Um, it's, it's pretty incredible.

(20:53)
When we were having that th this discussion, uh, earlier be before the podcast, you were talking about, um, being there with a great mentor and just being able to soak up from them. Um, and the first thing I said, it was me and Lee Duncan threw room. I said, that's exactly what I did when I came to Alliance Group 10 years ago, was I didn't know anything about the industry. And I just listened to Lee speak and I, and I soaked up his ways of saying things and his, his little mannerisms, his his ways, his phrases that, that he coined in the way he taught, I I, I did it a lot kind of unconsciously. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, and I said, I did that from Lee. And Lee immediately said, without missing a beat. And that's what I did from Jerry Stratton. Um, so it, it is, it, it is awesome to hear, um, how big of a role mentorship plays, not only in, in your y'all's amazing story, but in five rings. Um, it's something that you guys put a lot of, um, a lot of value on and, and it shows the, the, the results, the proof is in the pudding, as they say. Right.

Speaker 2 (21:51):

You know, the, um, there's so many industries that that do that. You know, you have the master teaching the Apprentice mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, plumbers, electricians, doctors. Right. And, you know, we're working in an industry with people's biggest decisions. Right. Don't you think it would work here too? Mean it might be a good idea. Makes perfect sense. Doesn't it might be a good

Speaker 1 (22:12):

Idea when you think about it. It's a completely rational thing. It doesn't, it's not really rocket science. It's, um, but you know what the mentor is looking for, what your mentors were looking for. They don't want to have to argue with their mentee about what they should do. I don't, I don't have time for that. I'm a busy guy. What Bob and Mike were looking for is, do you promise that you will do what I ask to do? Because I have so much to teach you, but I don't, I just need to give it to you. I don't need to fight with you to take it. Right? Yep. Um, so for people out there who might be, uh, convinced by this, uh, this conversation that we're having, that I, I need to go find this, this mentor, um, that's something I think that's very important is that your role as a mentee is extremely important in your attitude going into that, that that type of relationship. What makes a good mentee? Would you guys say?

Speaker 2 (23:03):

Coachable. Coachable. That's number one. Um, and, and being able to manage their ego, because at some point you do think you have the answers. This is an industry that takes a while to actually understand it all and mm-hmm. <affirmative>, no. I don't think you ever know everything.

Speaker 1 (23:17):

No, no. I think, I think Mike would would tell you that he's learning every

Speaker 2 (23:20):

Day. So that, that being a student forever with it, having, you know, that kind of attitude about it, where you're always willing to learn more and, and, um, we do a lot of collaboration on our team. There are few cases that aren't involving a couple people talking to each other. Right. You know, the two, two heads are better than one always. Yeah. So that's just, uh, kind of the way that things happen in our team.

Speaker 3 (23:46):

So when we very first started working with Mike, he came to Denver in September of 2003, and we just hung out for two days, drove around Esther's Park and this and that. And I thought to myself, what are we doing? Why are we just hanging out? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, what the heck is going on here? Right.

Speaker 1 (24:02):

<laugh>.

Speaker 3 (24:04):

And then he said, Bo, he is leaving. He said, okay, I'll be back in October. I said, what do we do? He said, just put me in front of people. I'll do all the work and give you half the money. And it took me a long time to finally figure out why he just hung out with us for those two days.

Speaker 1 (24:17):

Why do you think that was?

Speaker 3 (24:18):

He wouldn't, to find out if we were coachable and also if we had that little flame burning in, in our, in our, cuz I was old already. I was, I was, uh, one month short of being 49 years old. And when you normally, when you work with people of that age, a lot of 'em think they already arrived. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, right? Ah, yeah, I know, I know this. Right. See, he, I think he also wanted make sure that we were, uh, we didn't have that attitude. Right. So he's pretty smart. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (24:47):

<laugh>. Yeah. He must be. Right. You're right. Um, it's, it's, uh, it's, it's just an awesome story. Um, you guys now we're, my gosh, I'm to almost 20 years into this. Yeah. Um, where are you at right now as far as, I mean, you know, five rings in, in general has gone to to 15 million. It's, it's, you guys are exploding. What are your goals, um, that you have in, in front of you for, for for 2023 and, and beyond? What are, what are the donnelly's thinking about every day and, uh, trying to accomplish here in the near future? What, what are the next goals?

Speaker 3 (25:23):

Well, we've just started a couple brand new, brand new teams. I mean, brand spanking new Wow.

Speaker 1 (25:27):

Folks, you're still doing it.

Speaker 3 (25:29):

We probably don't need to do it, but <laugh>.

Speaker 2 (25:31):

But it's fun.

Speaker 3 (25:32):

It's fun.

Speaker 1 (25:33):

This

Speaker 2 (25:33):

Is, it's really exciting. Yeah. Working with new people and, and giving them glimpses of what their future can look like and helping them. It is that pay up for if we Oh my gosh. With our backgrounds, you know, if we can do it, anybody could do this. Right? That's right.

Speaker 3 (25:49):

Yeah.

Speaker 2 (25:50):

Like,

Speaker 1 (25:50):

Yeah. Well, let's, let's talk a little bit more for, for those, uh, viewers who might not know the backgrounds. You guys, we, we ran over this earlier, but you guys are, we, you consider yourselves sort of serial entrepreneurs until Totally good. You met Mike, right?

Speaker 3 (26:04):

Kinda serial black, black sheep too though. Yeah. I dropped outta high school. Right. And then our life was kind of, kind of a mess for a long, long time.

Speaker 2 (26:14):

We did a lot of things in our early days, and then the, the 15 years prior to this, we had a, a pretty good, uh, company in the construction industry. Right. That was very successful. And then we had one big year long project, a big industrial project that, you know, was one of those things that at the time you think it's the worst thing that ever happened to you.

Speaker 3 (26:34):

Devastated us.

Speaker 2 (26:35):

Yeah. Looking at, you know, bankruptcy and dealing with the IRS and all stuff.

Speaker 1 (26:39):

This is one stuff, one huge deal that was gonna be the big one. And it fell through in most massively

Speaker 2 (26:44):

Year. Last project.

Speaker 3 (26:44):

Yeah. Big quarter. Quarter quarter million dollars. They didn't pay us.

Speaker 1 (26:46):

Oh my goodness.

Speaker 3 (26:47):

After an entire year. Oh my gosh. So it was the worst day of my life. But then we look back now, it's like, oh, that was the biggest blessing of my life.

Speaker 1 (26:54):

Isn't it strange how, how that works out? And it's like the, the older I get, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm 40 now, but the, the, the older I get, the more I kind of recognize the pattern of when something bad happens that you think is terrible. It's that whole thing. It sounds trite, but when one door closes, another opens. Right. It's absolutely true. And you guys, I imagine you couldn't be more, more happy that that huge contract fell through. Yeah. Yeah. <laugh>

Speaker 2 (27:18):

We've learned a lot since then, and we've done a lot of, um, you know, part of what Mike provides is not only a, an environment where you can learn to be, you know, get a master's in business mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, but there's also this side to it of, of when you're working with people and growing and leading other people, you have to do a lot of personal work. Right. You gotta get out of your own way and you gotta get out of your own head and you gotta maybe heal up some old stories and replace them with some good stories and, and, um, you know, that's definitely started being in this environment with him. Definitely started that. And, um, the ability now to, like you said, look at challenges as an, oh, you know, what do I need to see here? Mm-hmm. <affirmative> triggers something triggers you.

(28:01)
It's like, Ooh, here's a lesson. What do I need to learn here? Right. Um, so that's, you know, that's part that gets you into this space where we had something to happen a couple years ago, right before one of the talks for national training camp and, um, and where maybe, you know, 15 years ago, we would've been pining over that for days or weeks mm-hmm. <affirmative> it was, you know, recovered and reworked and figured out in a matter of hours. And so yeah, it's just, um, it's experience this, it is experience and it's being surrounded with people that are encouraging you to grow and, you know, rise up above these just survival thoughts and, and start really designing and engineering your own future, making your own choices consciously and yeah. Managing yourself talk and all of those things. That

Speaker 1 (28:51):

It is something very important that I've always noticed. Um, with Five Rings, you know, again, I've been with the Alliances group 10 years, so it's, I would say probably nine years ago was my first five rings event. It was, uh, it was at, I don't want it, I can't remember the name of the, I don't think it was at Best Western, but it was in Hampton. In Hampton. Hampton Inn. It was it Hampton Inn in Denver. I went with Jerry Stratton. It was so cold, I'd never been in negative weather before. It was, uh, my water bottle and my backpack from the plane froze in the plane in, in the car ride from the airport to the, uh, to the hotel. Um, and it was, it was I think maybe December, I wanna say like, it was definitely December, but I wanna say it was like 50 people maybe that were there a little bit more possibly.

(29:32)
Um, I've watched this organization, and it's not just the numbers at the events, it is what Tina was referring to. There's growth happening, there's, there's personal growth happening. I'm not, not just talking about the numbers, which are obviously going up and obviously I think tie into that personal growth, but you're seeing people who I met eight years ago that were terrified of, of speaking. They're, they're, uh, you know, publicly, they're, they're confidence levels. Were, were lower. You know, you can kind of pick up on that things and you see people developing confidence. You see them literally going and doing Toastmasters classes and dev and developing skills, and then all the training that you all do. And they're, they're, they're learning their craft and they're becoming more confident, and then they're passing that confidence Yes. To a, a new group. And it's just, it's incredible to watch not just the professional development, but the, but the personal development that, that happens within Five Rings financial, and it's gotta be really, um, really gratify gratifying for you guys to, I mean, you, you sit back after 20 years of, of watching people develop. It's gotta be amazing to kind of look out over this huge group of people and just say, look at us <laugh>. Look at, look at what we're doing. Right. Look at what we've built.

Speaker 2 (30:49):

It's probably easier to see it in others than you see it in yourself. You know, like we look at some of the people that we've worked with and, and watch them have moments of being in such gratitude of saying, I'm finally in a place where I can be authentic and work in my areas of gifts and talents, and just really, you know, grow into, into this powerful empowered mm-hmm. <affirmative> person who's now really impacting their communities. And it's, it's an amazing thing to watch.

Speaker 1 (31:19):

I bet. Yeah. I bet. Um, you guys, thank you so much for, for, for being guests, uh, on the podcast today. Um, we're, uh, we're actually in the studio filming a couple of Lyle's most amazing, his greatest hits, <laugh>, uh, of, uh, of, uh, napkin presentations. Uh, so I know all of our agents are gonna be looking forward, uh, to kind of seeing that, uh, and, and getting to learn from the awesome experience, um, both synthetic and actual experience, uh, earned experience, I suppose you would say, uh, of these two awesome people. Tina and Lyle, thank you guys so much for joining us on the podcast.

Speaker 2 (31:54):

Thank you. Thank you. It's so great to be here with you guys. Thanks for inviting us in.

Speaker 1 (31:59):

Listen to this interview and group.

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