We are back with another Member Spotlight. In today's episode, we interview our dedicated member who joined the programme in 2019, Steve Clark. Tune in to learn some valuable wealth lessons and hear Steve's journey towards financial independence.
A warm welcome to all the new members of WealthBuilders Academy from last week! Here at WealthBuilders, we truly believe that reaching financial independence is a scientific process that can be achieved by anyone with the right support, education and connections. In this week’s episode of WealthTalk, we hear from our very dedicated member who joined us back in 2019 – Steve Clark. Tune in to hear Steve’s wealth journey, we are certain that you can pick up some valuable lessons from this interview!
Resources Mentioned In This Episode:
>> Connect with Steve Clark [LinkedIn]
>> Join the WealthBuilders Academy
>> REGISTER HERE FOR FREE RESOURCES ACCESS
If you have been enjoying listening to WealthTalk - Please Leave Us A Review!
Unknown Speaker 0:01
The purpose of wealth talk is to educate, inform and hopefully entertain you on the subject of building your wealth. Wealth builders recommends you should always take independent financial tax or legal advice before making any decisions around your finances.
Unknown Speaker 0:19
Welcome to Episode 140 of wealth talk. My name is Christian Rodwell, the membership director for wealth builders. And I'm joined today by our founder Mr. Kevin Whalen. Hello, Kevin.
Unknown Speaker 0:29
Hi, Chris. Good to be with you again. And so pleased to be welcoming new members into the academy. It's always a joy when people decide to vote with their feet choose wealth over choosing to stay the same. And I appreciate their courage, but we're there to help them. We'll be there every step of the way. So as we've helped our guests today, Chris, haven't we
Unknown Speaker 0:52
we have a date? Yes. So definitely a warm welcome to everyone who joined the Academy. And thanks for everyone who joined our webinar last week. That was lots of fun. And you're right. We're kicking off again today with another member spotlight. And this member is one we know well, Mr. Steve Clark, who have joined us as a founder, way back in 2019. And as we know, Kevin, Steve is a creator. He did his wealth dynamics. And he kind of had that light bulb moment. Oh, this is why I'm always coming up with new ideas. And he had switched from a few different businesses. But he certainly settled on the right one. Now by the looks of things.
Unknown Speaker 1:29
Yes. And we'll we'll kind of debrief how we managed to discover this. But as usual, we'd like to listen to the story. Don't be Chris, and then try and see if you can spot the wealth lessons that perhaps could apply to you. So even though Steve story is unique to him, there will be lessons for you to take note. So let's see how many of those that you pick up?
Unknown Speaker 1:54
Yeah. Okay. Let's head on to our conversation with Steve Clark. Steve, welcome to wealth talk today.
Unknown Speaker 2:00
Hello, Christian. Thank you for having me. Very excited to be here.
Unknown Speaker 2:03
It's fantastic to have you on Steve. We've known each other for at least three years now. Right. So first met for escape the rat race.
Unknown Speaker 2:11
Yeah, that's right. So I first met you escape the rat race was meant for that for a year before joining up with wealth builders. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 2:17
Yeah. Great. So we are going to run through our recurring revenue roadmap together today, Steve, and you've been with us since the beginning since we launched as a founder member. So you, you know very clear on the steps that we teach. And we're going to talk about how things been working out for you, and the business that you've been building. So we'll start with the at the beginning, as we do, the roadmap has got three stages. So stage one is building confidence. Stage two is building knowledge. And stage three is building assets. And each of those stages has got three steps. So stage one is building confidence. And step one at the beginning is all about mindset, Steve. So let's begin with your why. So can you remember, was there a particular catalyst or point that you can think back to where you said I can't, I need to start thinking about building my wealth,
Unknown Speaker 3:06
absolutely not. One of these people that found it really quite difficult to pull out a single why as to why I'm doing it. And a lot of people have sort of things that have gone into their life, or a real passion that they can sort of hang on to and say, That's what I want to dedicate my life to doing. And they have real drive for doing it. But that was always missing for me. And I think that doing the wealth dynamics was really useful in helping me understand why that was. And I think, after doing the wealth dynamics, I identified that I came up very highly on the creativity and sort of mechanics side of things, and very low on the other side, which meant that, you know, explained that I liked new ideas, and I like getting my hands dirty, and doing them myself, which was sort of part of the reasoning why there's no wine, I like change. I like to follow whatever is interesting at the time. So it's a pick one thing for life I'm going to do for life, it's just alien to me, and I'm not sure how many other people who score highly on the creative side of things feel about that. But it's sort of a, you know, opened my eyes to well, this is this is why you know, because as soon as I choose one thing a month later, it will change, you know, my my wishes and desires will change. So do welfare. namics really opened my eyes to you know, how I worked. And it allowed me to sort of figure out that well, you know, that is my way that I like just getting involved with things. I don't want to be locked into a single thing I want to do about this, a bit of that and sort of driving towards building a life where that's open to me to sort of get my hands dirty, and you know, stay in flow as it were. With things doing.
Unknown Speaker 4:47
Yeah, yeah. So important to really know yourself. And that's all about, you know, the first step there. And just to paint the picture, Steve, you know, kind of tell us what were you doing at the time that you joined in terms of working or so
Unknown Speaker 4:59
yeah. I had, you know, the premise pretty standard entry being that I had no real financial wealth experience. And I was just in a full time job, and a couple of new kids. So you know, right at the beginning, I've got a three year old now. So right the beginning, I had a newborn and a three year old. And just, you know, just living that sort of standard life of, you know, married to kids, full time job commuting, working 14 hours a day, not getting any time, at the end of the day to do much. Having the sort of Fisher Price entry, entry level assets, where you've just got write about few stocks and shares, I've got a bit of a pension, got a house with a mortgage, but nothing that's actually generating me money, you know, it's just the stuff that you pick up along the way. I've never had any financial training at all, you know, from family or from school. So these are the just the things that you sort of absorb, from, you know, what you should be doing, as opposed to having any plan or strategy as to why you're doing it. So I sort of started at the beginning, sort of your bog standard entry level, wealth builder, I've done all right. In life, I had a decent job, of course, it was taking me 14 hours a day, it wasn't really seeing my young kids. And, you know, it was as stable as a job could be, which wasn't very stable. And so yeah, just to drop it in, right, the beginning, I was made redundant back in September, which provides why quite quickly, you know, now you've got mouths to feed, which really sharpens sharpens your focus on doing these things. And, you know, you know, really helped me get going.
Unknown Speaker 6:32
And, as we mentioned, you know, you were a founding member. So when we set up the wealth builders Academy, and it was obviously called Foundation program back in 2019, what was it in particular, that attracted you to join,
Unknown Speaker 6:44
so I'm quite bad at sticking with any kind of plan. So having a structured approach, and the steps to follow through, and a group of people to keep me accountable was very appealing, I'm not sure of ideas, I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty. But you know, I'm the classic DIY, which was explained to me was a very bad, very bad thing to be. And I can agree that it was, but you know, it's hard to fight your internal wiring, and I'm picking this worrying. So having a group that understood that and would, you know, slapped me back onto the, onto the right path through the middle, which, which was, which was ideal. And, you know, the world coaches have been fantastic, just sort of keeping me focused and moving, step by step forward. As opposed to leave me to my own devices, where I'll disappear off when we're doing the latest, greatest thing, and it'll be fantastic. But ultimately, it's a bit counterproductive to where I'm trying to get to, yeah,
Unknown Speaker 7:40
it's okay. So, so, you know, taken a lot of time there at the beginning to really understand, you know, your strengths and weaknesses, which you've explained there, and wealth dynamics, helping with that. And some other parts of the stage one is all foundational, which, you know, is is the debits process, where we ask all of our members just to do a stocktake of, you know, the ins and outs, and did you manage to find any savings there, Steve,
Unknown Speaker 8:02
I did a lot of doing the debit process, getting a spreadsheet, filling out all of the things that were going out. So you discover all these little things that that have added up over time, you've got insurance for the TV set that you don't really need, you've got various subscriptions to magazines that you don't read in, you can just trim all the fat right off. And it also gives you a renewed confidence when you're negotiating with various utilities, that I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna take any of this faffing around from Virgin Media or Vodafone, as they try and pump up the price by 15%. As soon as you sign a contract, you know, you're fully aware of what it means. Now, when these things happen. So then you negotiate them with renewed vigor. But the most important thing I learned from that was that the money that you do find, and you do save, it's important not to just let that disappear back into the ebb and flow of your finances. You know, otherwise, it would just disappear or you find yourself feeling flush one month, and you'll make me buy a hot tub for the garden and then spend, you know, and a new, a new charge of 12 months heating for the hot tub. So what I found was that the best thing to do with it was the Create a standing order to pay that money straight out into another account. And so I've had that money pooling up and I've used that money as capital to pay for the business that I've set up, but I'm sure we'll discuss
Unknown Speaker 9:24
Yeah, perfect. That's, that's absolutely the way to do it. And and the final stage in the foundation for we move on stage two, is of course putting on a secure roof. And this is really the protection of you and your asset. So how was your roof when you when you first looked at it safe?
Unknown Speaker 9:42
I didn't have a roof. It was just just rain coming in. fairly risky. So I had none of these things in place. Like I said before, there's no real guidance, you know, unless unless you take this on as a project, and no one really tells you in life. You know, I come from a single parent family so my mother was just You know, working two jobs. So she didn't she didn't retail come from state schools where no one really teaches you about personal finance and even even University and what I don't teach you about personal finance unless you do, I guess a business or economics degree. And that's probably focused on business finance, which you then apply to the lessons of your own life, but there's no real public awareness of how to deal with these things in your in your life. And so it was, you know, having this this framework where there's a beginning and end as well, of all the things you need to do, it was easy just to move through them, you know, we move the house into tenants in common as well. And then got a well put together where the house was protected should one of us pass away and put into trust, we work through got the powers of attorney set up, but health and financial love mailing about back and forth between us and people that we wanted to be have the power of attorney to get their signatures. And that took a while but you know, it's lovely to have it in place. But the one that sticks with me most is life insurance. Having two young children, you don't realize, you know, how important it is to have life insurance. And to actually think about it, it comes to mind, every time I'm sort of stood in the middle of the road, leaning over a car seat, plugging in my kids, seat belts with my ass wiggling out into the road, you know, as his car speed pi. And I just think, you know, it's just one distracted driver, it's got to hit the door on the other side as they speed pass. And you know, that that's me done. So it comes to mind, then, and it's also been sort of, but very much to the fore with in the past year, three people in our sort of circle with kids, the same age has been struck with cancer with, you know, one of them passing away, leaving an 18 month old wishes, absolutely tragic, but it just goes to show that, you know, these things are random, there's nothing that those people did, to deserve or warrant, you know, getting cancer. And, you know, for them to have that is absolutely tragic. But you know, you can protect your family, at least with life insurance. And, you know, I feel very glad that I have that in place now lifts, it lifts a weight that you didn't know you had. But once it's gone, you sort of feel a lot more confident that you're, you're doing it properly. So I'm sort of, you know, I'm very happy to have the roof in place.
Unknown Speaker 12:26
No, thanks. Thanks for sharing that Steve, such an important step. And you know, that that kind of finishes off the foundational elements. And then we can move into, I guess, some more exciting stuff, which is building knowledge around the Seven Pillars of Wealth. So So step four is what we call assets. And this is where we look at what are those seven pillars? So when you first join wealth builders, Steve, where any of those pillars active for you, and which ones have you chosen to focus on?
Unknown Speaker 12:54
Yes, so when I joined, I had like, the Fisher Price, my first assets, so two assets were, you know, pension that thrust upon me by an employer, I had a house that was mortgaged, I had a few stocks and shares were you thrown a few quid in spare quid into an ICER. And you've dabbled with that we have no strategy behind it. It's just things that you acquire. So I had a few things that I'd done with the money that I had, but there was no strategy behind it or, you know, reason that I was doing it other than, you know, you have an awareness that you need to save for your retirement in some format. And you know, that these are the standard things to be doing. But of course, you know, they're not quite as they appear. So the pensions just in a scheme where there's no some company taking a slice of it year after year, and not really doing anything to aid the performance of that pension. The stocks are just randomly chosen by as companies that I thought were decent companies and having a bit of dip at the time. And I thought, you know, they'll bounce back from that sort of buy, buy low, sell high. But again, you know, no knowledge of this no education as to what it was gaining a score can tell you Pythagoras theorem, but we learned nothing about building your own personal finances and how the stock market worked, how to invest your own money, and how to look after your finances. So yeah, pretty much your generic level of assets with no strategy behind them, the bog standard ones that people will pick up as they wander through life, but nothing, nothing. No brain power applied to that.
Unknown Speaker 14:29
So which of the pillars once you understood the seven different ways did you decide that you were going to focus on
Unknown Speaker 14:35
so often, as you mentioned before, I've worked with you in the past, I've always had an entrepreneurial streak and wanted to set up a business but I've always been a web developer. So my business training hasn't quite been there. And what I think is the next greatest and latest thing doesn't necessarily work as a business. So from working with you Guys, it quickly became apparent that the AIP was my strongest suit, I could package up this 20 years of experience and produce a product which was ideal for a niche market. I've been working with some large companies such as Waitrose and Sainsbury's for a long time, and the job that I'd had there was to build systems which could be used by anybody, which meant as long as I pick the right niche, I'd be able to build a product which, you know, could be, could be used by someone off off the street as well, which was basically our remit for these large companies, because they just had so many people coming and going that requiring a learning curve or any kind of education to use the system just wasn't really a viable thing. There are 1000s of people come and going churning months on. So I P became the first thing that really stood out as something that I could do. I had pension, but it wasn't, it wasn't a 400,000 pound pension that, you know, could instantly start generating me back, you know, the level of wealth made it the most interesting pillar. So yeah, IP was IP was the one that was for me.
Unknown Speaker 16:06
Okay, so kind of combination of the IP pillar and the business pillar there. And and then, you know, the next step is leverage. And that's the key to wealth building. So once you've decided on the pillars, that you feel the kind of right fit, then looking at what were your points of leverage, and we noticed five types of leverage and as financial leverage, intellectual leverage relationships, systems and time, so So which, which areas of leveraged you would you say you've, you've used the most?
Unknown Speaker 16:32
Well, there's always a, you know, sort of pull a little bit from each one. So financially, you know, I, I'd saved up some money, but after the debits a bit of cash to start buying assets, that I'd need to create the new business, obviously, you can't do everything yourself. So you need to have a bit of money behind you to buy the things that you need and set it up correctly, so that you don't have to keep going back and fix a leaky ship as a way you can actually get proper things in place from the outset. IP, which is the one I'm leveraging the most, you know, like I said, I've got a lot of experience in web development. So it became the obvious thing that why am I why am I trying to invent a new will, and you know, just take what I know, and use that? No, it's been it's been highly sought after, by, by these companies, and I can repackage it and just create a product for myself. So that's where I've gone. Relationships. You know, it quickly became clear that the network that I had is, you know, was entirely useless for what I was trying to do. You know, this is a network of developers and, and people within large corporations. So the area that I wanted to work with the niche I wanted to work within was property. So wealth builders conveniently provided me with a massive network of people, trusted people that I could tap into to help me develop that product. I bought all the technical knowledge. But what I was lacking was hands on real world experience of the property industry. So through wealth builders, I've been able to work with property coaches, who've sort of taught me through how investment works, or the things that investors need to see how to satisfy investor needs. I've been, we're able to work with developers, property developers and investors, to beta test the product and to sort of count the fat and add in the things that they actually need, you know, because creating a project product from my own imagination, there was a lot of things I thought were very important. But in the end, it was overkill. And so I could remove those to simplify it. And to streamline it and to put emphasis on the things that they do actually need. So much like with Microsoft Word, where the product gets bloated quickly, and no one's ever using Mail Merge, and all of these things like a cut out those things that people don't need. And I could put real emphasis on things that they do need, such as having a system that manage their social media, and push out their updates across all of their platforms, and having a system that would allow them to build a mailing list and then mail out to that mailing lists with their latest updates, and things of this nature, rather than stuff they didn't need. And on top of that wealth builders, you know, is actually provided me with referrals. So I've actually got business in from wealth builders, and have happy clients that I'm working with from the community. So that's great as well, it started to pay for itself, which has
Unknown Speaker 19:20
always had, you know, great, great examples of bringing leverage into play there, you know, systems and, and time, I suppose you you mentioned obviously, initially you were working long hours you were commuting every day, you had young children to look after, obviously redundancy came along towards the end of last year. Steve, that gave you a lot more time right. So how is that allowed you to put that
Unknown Speaker 19:41
yeah, so you know, full time job, as I mentioned, was taken out 14 hours a day was really slows, really slows your progress down. As everyone probably knows, and takes a lot of your energy, just sort of doing that for five days a week. But you know, working from home and redundant so I had the option of redundancy or redeployment but I thought I was in a position to take the redundancy package and the the gap that gave me were pay my bills for a while I was in a position to rotate. This is the opportunity this is life. This is life opening up now this is my this is my shot. So I took redundancy is kind of like, you know, when the general senses boats to the beach and and burns the boats behind them, there's no going back now, you know, around the beach is only going forward. There's only there's only forward to go. So yeah, I've got you know, had some money to give me some breathing room to do this. I now had the time to do it. And so yeah, I took that on. I forgot.
Unknown Speaker 20:42
It was all about time leverage. So yes, you know, having more time has really accelerated now allowing you so let's give let's give the business a quick plug, then Steve So so what is the name of your your business.
Unknown Speaker 20:53
So the business that I built what's called property portfolio dot Cody, UK. And it's all about helping property portfolio property professionals, when investment and grow their portfolio is designed to allow them to tell the story behind their business, to allow investors to become familiar with them and build trust and essentially just raise their profile amongst the investment community and help them win the investment that they need to grow.
Unknown Speaker 21:18
Yeah, beautiful looking websites very, very, very easy to upload and update. So property portfolio.co.uk, go and go and check that out and get in touch with Steve.
Unknown Speaker 21:28
Yeah, that's been a real key thing that people have told me that they need these things easy to update. So I've stripped out all the all the need for any coding or anything like that. And if you can use Facebook, you can use this system to publish a website within within a week. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 21:43
alright. So that covers off stage 12, which is all about building a knowledge, you know, getting to finding where your leverage is, and then really getting clear on the strategy. And the final stage of the roadmap, Steve, as you know, is all about building assets. So this is where we teach the process of turning the wheel of wealth. So the wheel of wealth is a really vital step in the whole wealth building process. Because when you understand how the wheel works, you can apply that to any strategy, any pillar, any asset, really. And if we apply the wheel of wealth, Steve to your business then So it consists of education, support connections, due diligence and Guided Action. So you know, education, obviously, you've talked about gaining that through through the wealth builders program. And support comes from your coach, right. So every month, you you have a one to one call with your wealth coach. So you know, how has that helped you to focus by having someone there who's already kind of walked the path and can guide you from making mistakes?
Unknown Speaker 22:39
Yeah, so that's been that's been really, really good. So we're with Carole Robinson. And she's she, she essentially helps me stay on the path, which is the the biggest issue I have, you know, there's no real tasks that are a problem. For me, it's more about cutting away the ideas that I have that don't move, be closer towards the destination, because left to my own devices, I have a million ideas, I want to get started on them straightaway. But that doesn't necessarily help me or the clients get to achieve the goals that we're looking to achieve. So Carol, I speak to every month, and she she listens to me waffle on and that and then she goes right, but what you're trying to do is this. And so how does that move you closer to this? And I go? Well, it doesn't. And she says, Well, can we put that to the side for the moment and come back to that later? And I say yes. And then we focus on the things that will move me forward, which is fine as well, because I'll have a million ideas of how to do that. But yeah, she basically you know, it's basically like a school teacher, just kid you know, with a with a cane just rapidly on the knuckles every time I try and wander or daydream about what needs to be done next, she keeps pulling me back to that rope that runs through the middle, you know, I have to keep pulling myself along that rope rather than going off on a wonder.
Unknown Speaker 23:57
Yeah, I love that analogy. And yeah, Carol's such great coach. And yet, I'm so pleased that that you've got built up that strong relationship together there. So So focusing turning the wheel. So as we said, the wheel consists of, you know, several stages there, the final part of the wheel is obviously Guided Action. So once you've got the support in place, you know, you've made the connections through the community, as you mentioned, you know, done your due diligence. So making sure you know what, obviously, you know, the rules and regulations are around everything that you're doing, then you've got to take Guided Action, right, guided action should result end up in some kind of results. So what are those results for you, Steve?
Unknown Speaker 24:35
Well, before we do that, I just want to mention, as far as education goes, one of the things that was really helpful was the enterprise club that Kevin ran, and he basically gave me the three rules that I need to engrave upon any business that I'm setting up so that it has a future. So as far as results go That's one of the strongest things about the position I'm in now is that the business does fulfill those three roles is it's niched, which means that I can go deeper and deeper into that niche and provides built a tool that's actually quite unique to the need of property developers and property investors. And hopefully, that, you know, helps it be any competition, because anyone doing any kind of services to generic around, this just isn't going to be able to find it provide the depth of property, relevant things that I can provide, is built around a recurring recurring subscription model, which means that I can look after these clients, you know, it's not just, you know, they give me some money, I build them something, wham, bam, Thank you, ma'am. And I, you know, never speak to them again, every month, I can now provide resources to them and be available to handhold them and guide them through to help and get things running. They're never alone. There's any questions, you know, we've got that relationship that's ongoing, so I can always help them. And the third thing Kevin taught me was build it so that you can remove yourself from the process. And one of the problems I had before this was I built this all seeing all dancing solution that really required me to be the font of all truth with it. And I wouldn't have been able to onboard people to support me with that wouldn't been able to onboard a team very easily. So when I've done version two, it's now it's now a lot, it's now built in a way that I can get endless amounts of people to help me and make sure that the clients means it just met, you know, by the team around me, you know, rather than just having me as the point of failure. So, you know, the business is built around these three things that I learned in enterprise club. And as I mentioned before, I've had businesses that have sort of come and go, because they just didn't have the proper structure. So one of the results is that this business I have now it's just, it's built a lot better from a business perspective, rather than just, oh, I've got a brilliant, brilliant product that I think people want, is that right? There's actually a business behind it now that satisfied the needs of the clients, rather than the things that have popped out of my head as dreams that they'll want. It's like, right, we can actually go to proper business now. And the other thing that I did was a business validation course with you, Christian. And that really helped me analyze what the business was about who it was for, and take it away from what I thought it should be, and help it become what the customers thought it should be what actually they actually needed. And that's not about guessing what they need. That's about speaking to the customers and finding out what it is that they actually need. So I identified who I thought was my ideal customer, and then they've spoken to several people from the community fit that profile. And you know, what it is that they want, what it is, they don't want, you know, the real areas that matter to them, and the things that just basically make them glaze over and confuse them. And yet, we don't need that. So it's really helped me make the business a lot more viable. So, yeah,
Unknown Speaker 27:57
let's go to now, there's obviously there's many types of results, you know, more confidence, just as you say, more structure. And of course, we want to measure the thermometer, right. So the the goal is always to start increasing recurring income, and you're still at beta stage really just, you know, just launched with the business, but you've now got paying clients and recurring income coming in Steve.
Unknown Speaker 28:20
That's right. Well, like you say, it's still early days, but I do have five clients and that's putting money into onto the thermometer. And that's recurring every month. So it's sort of a proof of concept. This works. I just need to ramp up now. I'm happy, happy with the business model. happy with the product, the customers are happy now. It's just a matter of helping more people get their profile, raise their profile online by using a system.
Unknown Speaker 28:46
Yeah. And how confident do you feel Steve that obviously now you're on the right track that you will hit your security level? You know, in the coming months or year?
Unknown Speaker 28:54
Yeah, all the pieces are there. So, you know, the fact that I've got five paying customers who are all happy is the proof of concept, you know, is working for them. There's no reason why that can't be 500 customers with the way that I've built it, it's a platform rather than a service that needs people to spend lots of lots of time on. So it's something that you know, we can get go really quickly for people and once they're up and running, you know, all looks after itself. So
Unknown Speaker 29:21
yeah, so excited to see that building. Yeah, yeah.
Unknown Speaker 29:25
Well, you know, that you know, it's been a it's been a battle to get to get there, what we're building the product, refining the product and fighting against my own inclinations, to tinker, tweak, start over again, rebuild it, and to do all these things. So I'm not I've been a slow burner, but I've always been there in the background. I've always followed all of the wealth builders calls and things like that haven't been so great at filling in the paperwork.
Unknown Speaker 29:49
No, but that you know, and this is what I like about the conversation. Steve is you know, it's just real, right? It's not glossing over this is the reality business isn't easy. You know, you try things They don't work, you try things again, you get a little bit better you keep refining. And that doesn't happen overnight, you know, that can take a little while.