In today's episode we are joined by Marko Ilincic who shares with us knowledge from his journey of having a portfolio career and running a CEO advisory group. Make sure to tune in to find out how you can use his knowledge to accelerate your journey.
Marko Ilincic shares his journey of embarking on a portfolio career and running a CEO advisory group - a combination of education, brainstorming, accountability and support in a group setting to sharpen your business and personal skills. Tune in to this week’s episode to learn how you can accelerate your wealth-building journey through mastermind groups.
Resources Mentioned In This Episode:
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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.
Christian Rodwell 0:19
Welcome to Episode 98 of wealth talk. My name is Christian Rodwell, the membership director of wealth builders. And I'm joined today by our founder Mr. Kevin Whelan. Hi, Kevin. fornell. Chris,
Unknown Speaker 0:28
good to be with you again on episode 98.
Christian Rodwell 0:31
Yeah, and we've actually got another our members joining us today, but specifically to talk about the power of the mastermind, and ties in really nicely with obviously, our principles of education support connection, which is really the cornerstones of wealth builders.
Unknown Speaker 0:50
Absolutely. And, of course, you the concept of mastermind, you know, his seminal concept recreated, I think, way back in Wall crumbs must be 30s. Chris, not that Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich, everybody should read that book. And simply put, when two or more intelligent minds come together, a third mind is created the mastermind. And it's the wisdom that comes from the collected sense of perspective. You know, we talk about wealth dynamics, when you look at different people with different ideas, different perspectives, different, just different frames of reference, then greater outputs and distinctions come that are then to the benefit of all, and Marco was a true mastermind. Master himself, a very great guy inside the wealth builder program, with a fantastic career behind him as well, I'm sure you'll talk a little more about that. But now bringing the power of masterminds to business people, as he's developed his career into what I think is wonderful, a sort of a portfolio, lifestyle, you know, one like we encourage people to build their wealth in multiple pillars, while his building his career in multiple projects. And that's perfect for Marco, hugely intelligent man, with a lot of willingness to share, and I'm so glad you're sharing with us today.
Christian Rodwell 2:29
Yeah, looking forward to it. And like so many people after spending a long career in the executive, corporate world, you know, you get to a point where enough is enough, and you look for the next phase. And luckily, Marco found wealth builders as he was exploring for his guide. So let's hear Marco talk about that, in his own words. And we're head over to the conversation right now. Marco, welcome to wealth talk today.
Unknown Speaker 2:57
Thank you, Christine. Pleasure to be here.
Christian Rodwell 2:59
Good to have you here, Marco, and you joined wealth builders as a member last year back in 2020. And probably good to kick off Marco by our listeners understanding, you know, what your background is and what the transition has been from where you were to where you are right now?
Unknown Speaker 3:17
Sure, no, of course. So my career is relatively straightforward in that I've spent all my working life with one company. So when I left University, at the Grand Old Age of 22, I immediately, I was fortunate to immediately get a position at Lego the toy company as a marketing assistant. And up until a year ago, I stayed with Lego worked all around the world with them, and ultimately served on their global executive board, whilst also concurrently being effectively the regional CEO of the Asia Pacific business based out in Singapore. And what brought me to wealth builders was the transition back to the UK. We had been expats for nearly 10 years as a family. And that was our second time being expats and my wife was keen to set down some roots and head back to the UK because I have two boys, they were getting older and, and the stability of schooling becomes ever so much more important. So that's what's brought us back to the UK. And in that transition, I really, at that point decided, you know, what is it that I want to do? Unfortunately, there was understandably no board level position for me back in the UK with Lego so it gave me an opportunity just to take stock of my life where I was going, what I wanted to do, and as part of that, really, I decided to now's the time to embark on a portfolio career. And also simultaneously sparked up a little bit more of the entrepreneur that had always been hidden inside me, and in particular, with my involvement with property through the years, which I kind of in parallel to my executive career had done on the side.
Christian Rodwell 5:19
Yeah. And the first step always, is, is connecting with your why Marcos? So, you know, did you? Or do you have a kind of vision of the future that you want to create? And you know, why working for yourself? And you know, learning more about entrepreneurship can allow you to perhaps reach that destination a little bit quicker?
Unknown Speaker 5:43
The answer is absolutely, yes. I think the answer also comes in two parts. Because whilst at Lego, I learned to become a corporate executive, I learned the ways of operating within a global company, but deep down. Prior to even joining Lego, I was very much an entrepreneur. And I think I always had that sort of fire in me that creativity and that risk willingness within me. So that's sort of first part of the of the answer. I think the second part is regarding the the why that very clearly relates back to when I lost my father, so my father died, I just turned 10 years old, and lost my father. And unfortunately, my family were, were not at all prepared for that. And he left, effectively, me and my sisters and my mother with very, very little, I always, from that point onward, aspired to never be in a position of that level of vulnerability, and exposure. And it just made me a very, very determined young man to succeed and to create a financial independence for myself. Now, that changed, as I grew older, for a financial independence, not for just myself. But more More importantly, and what drives me very much today is financial independence, as well that I want to try and help create for future generations for my, especially my, my two boys. And of course, my, my wife as well, my lovely wife.
Christian Rodwell 7:32
And can you remember Marco, what was it about the the message of wealth builders that particularly, you know, resonated with you?
Unknown Speaker 7:40
Yeah. Well, I, prior to coming back to the UK, I would just listen to and read so many books and listen to hundreds of hours, literally hundreds, if not 1000s of hours of podcasts, whilst I was running. And, you know, I like to run I like to go to the gym, lift my weights, and always with earphones, and just listening absorbing information. So when my wife and I had made the decision, because it wasn't a quick decision that we wanted to come back to the UK and really just settled down for the sake of primarily the boys. Then I planned that out a couple of years in the fact that, you know, it doesn't happen overnight, we need to sort of create a pathway, part of that pathway was therefore exploring who could help me if I was going to make this transition, who could who could help me and, and that's really where I stumbled across wealth builders. And I, I was actually going to try and join a lot earlier than I did, but I sort of left it about a year and, and then came back to it when I'd actually arrived back in the UK. I was going to join the Masters still out in Singapore, before we've made the transition back. But But yeah, various practicalities got in the way and the priorities of the move. And as soon as I sort of got back, I really decided, you know, I need to, I need to to explore this further. Because what I realized is that whilst I enjoyed this wonderful executive career, my network in the UK was, you know, effectively over 10 years old, I, I didn't really know anybody except family and friends. All my business contacts, so to speak, had moved on evolved, I'd lost contact with many of them, which is, you know, natural having, you know, not being living in the country. So what I realized is I needed to tap into a resource that could help provide a real jumpstart for my transition and the way that I wanted to evolve and live my life moving forward. Hmm.
Christian Rodwell 9:51
So you mentioned network there which you know, kind of ties in really nicely with the focus of our conversation today Marco, which is all about the power of the mastermind group. So would you mind by telling us a little bit more about how your CEO group works?
Unknown Speaker 10:07
Of course, yes. So as part of my portfolio career, at the core of it really I sit on a number of external boards for companies that have non executive director or strategic advisor. And, but at the core of my portfolio career, really, I also run a CEO advisory group. I run that through this stage, which is the world's largest CEO advisory company. They operate in about 23 different countries around the world. And I run my practice through the Vistage network. And at the moment, I have 14 CEOs, all of them from non compete businesses, which is super important, because this is a group that meets once a month in complete confidentiality. And we meet for a number of reasons, first of all, many of the CEOs and MDs, and I know having sat in that seat for many years, they feel quite isolated. At times, they feel some would even say lonely at times a lot of responsibility on the shoulders. And it's not always easy to share thoughts or ideas with people in your own company or with your own peers. Because of course, there is always the potential for bias and or, therefore a judgement. So this is a confidential group, we meet once a month to share ideas, a little bit like wealth builders does really, to help each other to pressure test decisions, you know, help each other make the best decisions we could we can possibly make, and also to hold each other accountable. And I know that's really big in wealth builders as well. holding each other accountable to the decisions that we make. Because again, as a senior business people, they can sometimes not necessarily always have that level of accountability to some of the commitments they make to individuals. And this is also a way to just make sure that some of the actions that they agree on, and we agree on, we do actually move forward and execute.
Christian Rodwell 12:32
Yeah. So you mentioned the number of 14 there, Marco. And that's a real kind of sweet spot, isn't it for mastermind groups. So anywhere sort of around about, I'd say between 10 and 14 years is just a good number. Why do you think that is? Yeah, well, actually, I
Unknown Speaker 12:47
have to say this is a third party research, extensive research that's been done by Vistage. They've been running SEO groups around the world, or helping organize CEO groups around the world for 40 odd years. And during that time, they really narrowed down that their sweet spot between getting diversity of opinion. But whilst also having a manageable number in one room, is between actually 14 to 60. That's, that's where the sweet spot really is. So that's the background to that for some that may seem Well, that seems quite a lot. But actually, on the contrary, because you've always got that trade off between, as I said, diversity of perspectives, experiences that people can share with, of course, then being able to manage the number of attendees in a room or a virtual room as we're operating currently, in an effective and an efficient manner.
Christian Rodwell 13:53
Yeah, and I guess, personality, as well as just experience is really important there as well. And, you know, you've taken the wealth dynamics test, Marco, so you understand, you know, the different entrepreneurial profiles that exist, but when you can get a good balance across the different dynamics that just adds me know, another element to it as well, doesn't that
Unknown Speaker 14:14
it's, it's absolutely crucial. It's actually why, you know, this is an invitation only group. You know, if you were to come today and say, Mark, I want to join this group or one similar to yours, here's the money, I would say thank you very much, but absolutely not until we further explore, you know, what is it that you feel, you know, we I can help you with because I also coach each of the CEOs on a one to one basis as well each month for, you know, an hour and a half to two hours every month and there's as well as the one hour group meeting and, and it's important that there's a given as they get, because I'm not interested in just having people who, who want to be part of the group to only get You know, I think they're given the gap is really important. So there's a mutual selection process. That's really how I like to explain it. And, you know, through that mutual selection process, you know, what I'm constantly looking for a really two key things. Curiosity has consistently been one of the key things I've looked at when I've hired people all around the world in my executive role. I've always looked at curiosity, curiosity, is one of the key lead indicators for potential. And so I'm always looking, are they're curious, are they wanting to learn, are they wanting to ask more than they tell? That's the first thing. And the other thing I really look for in my members is humility. You know, egos get left at the door. Because when egos get left at the door, you can open yourself up, to really share what's going on for you, how you're really feeling, what is worrying what's keeping you up at night about your business. And of course, business and private life, as we only know too well, during the last year or so has become, you know, emerged then and very, very difficult to define, given that most people are working from home. So we're also looking for members, you know, who are able to share, and they're talking about what's going on for them things that may not be going well, you know, even at home, for example, because we're all human, you know, we are CEOs, MDS, or business leaders, but at the end of the day, we're all human, and we get impacted, our performance gets impacted by lots of external environmental issues, including, of course, our own environment at home.
Christian Rodwell 16:52
And for people listening Marco, who perhaps are looking to create their own, you know, mastermind Alliance, or perhaps already part of a similar group, can you give any tips on structure? So, you know, is there a particular length of time? Is there a particular format, certain things that people should be including in a mastermind session, and things that perhaps, are not a good use of time?
Unknown Speaker 17:19
I think that's a really great question. I mean, I'm very fortunate, because I operate my SEO group, you know, through Vistage, which is, as I said, just got years and years experience, they've, they've been able to really refine what, what does work and what doesn't work, I think an important element, which perhaps is overlooked, or perhaps some people feel is just difficult to, to organize, is ensuring that you're not just learning from the people in the room. And if you can imagine being, you know, if you are a business leader sat in a room of, you know, with 14 to 16, other CEOs, MDS respected peers, with years of experience with years of knowledge from non compete businesses, there are no customers there, there are no suppliers there, there are no board members from your business there, there are no none of your leaders there, you can really ask them, you know, whatever you want and get unbiased, unfiltered advice. That's powerful. But when you add as well, the option of getting external input, and by external input, I mean, really getting world class speakers to come in and talk to about topics which are relevant for you, and the rest of the members. I think that's where that balance of both internal and external is really powerful, because let's face it, most CRN n MDS, they have great development plans and ibps for members have their own team. But for themselves, they don't necessarily always have very robust development plans. So this is an option for any type of forum or group to really stay sharp with the latest thinking of what's happening externally. And I think that's important. So don't just create a group just to meet and share ideas. I think that's great, and it's beneficial. But I think leverage your networks leverage who you know, to come in and just to speak for an hour on a particular topic that's relevant. So you're getting some outside in latest thinking as well as a really important balance, I think to try not to.
Christian Rodwell 19:37
And in terms of the accountability you've mentioned, obviously, that's a key part of a mastermind group. Marco, do you have some examples of how you hold one another accountable within your group?
Unknown Speaker 19:49
Yeah, for sure. So for example, in my group, you know if we have a external speaker coming, so when we meet, we meet once a month. Half the day is usually just if you like with the group members, the other half of the day usually involves an external speaker who come to present to talk about, you know, latest thinking on strategy or leading change or diversity and inclusion, whatever the topic may be, will will always then try and break that down afterwards to Okay, what are the key things we heard? And what are the actions we want to take back to our to our respective businesses? What's really important is I think, if you're meeting in a group forum, and you're coming away with some ideas, great, but what are the actions you're going to take away? And that's really important, and we always document those actions, share them, and we start each following meeting by saying, Okay, did we complete those actions. So discipline is really important. a specific example, is in our November meeting, and towards the end of last year, we didn't have an external speaker there, because we wanted to really focus on some of our goals for 2021. And I ran a process where, as a group, we ended up getting to three goals we wanted to achieve. In 2021, one had to be a personal one, because that's important. Again, we're all maybe business people, but we're all human. And the other two had to be business related. And we broke down those goals into the key initiatives that were going to help us get there. And then what we do once we've issued them, we reviewed them. So from the November meeting, we reviewed them in January, and we scored them one to 1010, being we've completed it were well on the way we've done it, it's not good either. Part one is we've not even started this goal. So in January, we we said okay, how are we doing on these three goals that we set in November, and we gave scores, and, you know, there were a lot of threes, fours, etc, made a start, but you know, dadada, and, and again, we then are going to review it in April. So every quarter, we'll review it as a group and score it again, how are we progressing? And I think it's that sense of, gosh, coming to the meeting, I've got, you know, surrounded by other respected peers, you know, gives you that extra impetus to make sure you don't just turn up and say, our, I didn't have the time. You know, it's it's other things have got in the way because you know, of course, you want to, you know, you want to demonstrate that you you have done what you said you would do. And that's that sort of sense of accountability, I call it a stickiness, which sometimes, you know, as, as individuals, we, you know, things do get in the way, and we need a little bit of help, just to make sure that we Yeah, we we execute what we said we would execute.
Christian Rodwell 22:42
Yeah. And apart from the group meetings, Marco, are there any other ways that support your members? And, you know, how do they support one another outside of the group?
Unknown Speaker 22:52
Yeah, it's another great question. I mean, there's a, there's a, sort of a formal answer to that. And then informal and unexplained, the formal is what I've already mentioned. So when a member joins my group, it's not only access to the group, on a monthly basis, when they meet together, and to the speakers that come to those sessions. It's also one to one coaching with myself. So, and I use the word coaching quite broadly, because some people use me in very traditional sense, as a coach as a, as a business leader, coach, others more of a mentor or a sounding board, it varies quite dramatically. But, you know, I spend, you know, an hour and a half to two hours each month with every single member supporting them on their opportunities, or challenges that they may have, or sometimes even just talking things through, you know, getting things off their chest, which helps because as I said, a senior leader, sometimes you don't have that avenue to let go, and you don't want to necessarily always bring it home or share it with friends. Cuz that's, you know, precious. So this just gives that opportunity. So that's sort of a formal component to the answer that the informal is that I strive to make sure that the group is not just dependent upon me. Of course, I chair the group and I do the meetings and, and have the one to ones. But where it becomes really powerful is where the members themselves, contacting each other sharing ideas, opportunities with each other. And we just got so many examples, since I launched my group of members really supporting each other informally, and we obviously have each other's contact details and emails, but we've also set up a whatsapp group, which obviously many groups do that it just allows for instantaneous quick, you know, I've got this issue. I'm renegotiating a contract with a supplier Has anybody had experience of X, Y, and Z? Boom, get a response. And the beauty about, you know, the group is if somebody in that group doesn't have the answer, which is relatively unlikely, because in my experience, there's usually seven or eight key themes. regardless of the size and complexity of your business. There are seven or eight key themes that impacts every single business and every single leader. But if somebody doesn't have experience or knowledge or understanding, then the great thing is we can tap into that's where we can tap into the Vistage network, the global Vistage network, post something on the Vistage website. So hey, has anybody got this, and there'll be guaranteed somebody in this country or somewhere else around the world that will be able to support and help so
Christian Rodwell 25:48
yeah. Now, as a wealth builders member, Marco, you obviously understand the, you know, the power of the Seven Pillars of wealth, we're talking specifically really about business today. But where does that fit for you within, you know, the pillars? And, and, you know, are you looking at other pillars, in addition to business to to help you build your own wealth?
Unknown Speaker 26:09
Oh, absolutely. And it's really the key reason I joined wealth builders, because I mentioned right at the beginning, I mean, simultaneous to my executive career, before I sort of moved to this doing what I'm doing now, I always loved property. And I'd always been buying property alongside doing my day job. And I've been very, very fortunate that somehow I've, I got quite involved in a number of initiatives and ventures, the last one, you know, before I left Lego, I bought a beautiful property on the shores of Lake Como. And, you know, completely renovated, it took it back to brick, there's actually only one more left standing and completely refurbished it into a beautiful three bedroom. Villa right on the lake. And was fortunate enough, we, my wife, and I, we actually won an international award for that, and the work we did there, and that just gave us confidence. That wow, you know, and this was back in 2018. Wow, we, we, you know, actually, we might be pretty good at this. We've dabbled along the way with the ad hoc project. So property is a key pillar. And that's where I've had loads of insight and advice through the wealth builders network. It's been absolutely fantastic. And since coming back to the UK, we've been back for 18 months now. I think we're on to property number six. Number seven, shortly. We're just in a bidding process for number number seven, which is will be our first commercial property. But we've we've we've had about six different residential projects in 18 months, so we've been going pretty hard and fast. Some of them are by to let for that reoccurring income, some of them have been just by refurb, and sell. So property is a key pillar. The other one is the pensions pillar, and SAS. So I set my SAS up. very fortunate that, you know, during the years at Lego, I'd had a SAS, but like many people, you know, probably spent all of 20 seconds a year looking at the annual statement that came through and sort of filed it away. And again, in my transition period, when I was starting to really started to think seriously about moving into the direction I wanted to go with my my career and my life. Having that flexibility and freedom and financial independence. You know, the SAS pillar just suddenly became evermore relevant for me. So I've set up my SAS made the transfer. And in fact, the property I just mentioned, potentially our first commercial property that we we may be purchasing will be the first sort of utilization of my SAS in in order to bring that alive. So
Christian Rodwell 29:07
yeah, fantastic. Well, we certainly enjoy having you as one of our members, Marco, and your contributions to the community. So thank you so much for sharing with us today around the topic of the power of the mastermind, and I look forward to the dinner invitation to Lake Como.
Unknown Speaker 29:22
That's great. Thanks, Christine. Thanks for having me. been a pleasure.
Christian Rodwell 29:26
So I heard lots of parallels there in Marco's conversation with you know, the the teachings of wealth builders so we can dive into those in just a second Kevin but before we do that, that may head on over to trustpilot and pull out one of our latest reviews and we've had a review from Royce and he says I've been extremely impressed with wealth builders and can't recommend them highly enough. I was completely unaware of what a SAS was. And wellfield has helped me through the process of understanding the potential and then guided me through the process of making a reality. And he says I've now gone on on onwards through the process of utilizing my SAS within the rules and guidelines, which again, wealth builders helped with. And that has had a positive financial impact on me and my family today, and not in the 30 odd years time when I'd be due to retire, just work out the compounding on that.
Unknown Speaker 30:20
Hmm. Well, interesting. I mean, it's good to focus on some of the aspects of that. And certainly, the power of using your pension instead of waiting till you're 60 when you can use it in your 30s 40s and 50s. Very powerful, but we talk about SAS a lot in the program, don't we Christen? Always looking, you know, for people to participate more, in fact, we've got a conference on SAS coming up. And that conference is all about SAS, it's called the SAS Alliance conference. So anybody who's remotely curious about that, should head over to SAS alliance.org, I'm sure you could put a note in the show notes, Chris. And it's the 25th of March. And we'll be talking about case studies and inspirational ways to use your SAS to give you leverage, almost to pick up the pensions, put them in a shoulder bag, cross over the divide, and use that money for your entrepreneurial pillars of property. Business. We're focusing on property on that day. But you know, there's so many good lessons to be had from that. So 25th of March, if you're around, and you want to register, it's free. Everything we do is about giving away some great content for free. And of course, there's also access as well for the recording for our members. So you're looking forward to that, Chris?
Christian Rodwell 31:44
Yeah, yeah, well, we welcomed a lot of new members over the last seven days, following the webinar that we held a couple of weeks ago, Kevin, so really great to connect with people, you know, joining and starting their wealth building journey. But, you know, always good in a way to say goodbye to people that have perhaps concluded their journey with us and have hit their financial goals. And one such person this week was Martin, who we just like to say congratulations to, and we bid you a fond farewell, but obviously still being connected to the wealth builders community in some way. But now moving on was from financial independence towards abundance, which is, you know, so pleasing that we have the opportunity to help in some small way with that.
Unknown Speaker 32:30
Yes, and congratulations to Martin and his family. We do wish him well. And it's it is lovely to see, feel a little bit like a granddad seeing the kids graduate. But you know, Martin's a great guy. I'm glad that he chose to spend some time with us to build his journey. And abundance is always around the corner, Martin, because once you've set the wheels in motion, and your wealth building is a matter of the focus of and repeating, then it's automatically likely to happen, that you'll get through through that barrier into abundance. So I'm sure we'll hear about his philanthropic intentions in the long term, as he powers onwards and upwards. So yeah, always good to welcome the new. But sometimes you've got to say goodbye to the old because we've served our purpose, Chris, we've done a good job.
Christian Rodwell 33:20
Yeah, well, let's continue to do our best. And let's look at the power of these masterminds. And I've written quite a few notes, actually. But of course, it always begins with a reason why and a catalyst and actually recognize that Marcos catalyst was not dissimilar to yours, Kevin.
Unknown Speaker 33:38
Yes, it's always tragic. I mean, he was much younger, of course, wasn't he talked about losing his dad at 10. And that stuck with him, didn't it really not just the tragedy of that, but the importance of what that meant for him, and decisions that he made. And that's always powerful. And if you get a powerful catalyst like that, you become virtually unstoppable. So that's the reason we always encourage people to connect with their reason why, of course, it doesn't have to be tragedy definitely does not. But finding a good reason why is, is really setting the scene for being able to build on that platform to go on and create lasting wealth for yourself and the next generation.
Christian Rodwell 34:20
And sticking with the why, you know, why did Marco set up the mastermind? Well, I mean, it's based on his years of experience. And this is something we often see and we talk to our members about Kevin is, you know, people want a change, they perhaps you know, want to get out of the rat race and focus forwards on a more entrepreneurial life, but you mustn't forget the years of experience that you've built up because you can you can take that with you, can't you and use it to good effect to start building recurring income streams.
Unknown Speaker 34:51
Yeah, I think a friend of wealth builders, Daniel Priestley says it really outstandingly Well, we're all standing on a mountain of value, but because we're standing on It's underneath our feet, we overlook it. And this is true of most people. And I think Marco has tapped into that, hasn't he? and used his corporate skills, have you really high powered job at Lego having gone through right the way to the top. And now he's bringing his insights, or his learnings and his ability to create and build relationships, outstandingly Well, with other CEOs. And we're not talking about low level people here, we're talking about, you know, very sophisticated people hand chosen, you know, with those double skills or double mindsets that he mentioned, which I thought was outstanding point, which is curiosity and humility. I mean, if you think about the curiosity, one made me smile when I heard it, because kind of resonated with the very first ROI that we try and teach people, Chris, which is your only ever one, relationship, opportunity, or idea away from completely transforming your wealth, which is curious, isn't it? You've got to have curiosity to be seeking that. And when cheeky People often say to me, Kevin, you know, why aren't you retired? And it's like, well, I'm still curious. I still love and fascinated by what people do. Their distinctions, their differences, their points of view. And I'm always learning from other people. So, you know, it's great that he brought those two skills. And the humility is important, too, because often, when people reach the top of their career, it's not too difficult to see that they can become arrogant they can become, as opposed to, you know, self absorbed in their own status, and so forth. But for looking for humble people, coachable people, teachable people, open minded people, it and picking those, you know, and I'm probably that means from Marcos perspective, deliberately not picking those who show the signs of arrogance as opposed to humility.
Christian Rodwell 36:59
And the other lesson, I think there as well as not forgetting your experience is to recognize your wealth dynamic, and what gets you into flow. And in terms of masterminding, it can be really good for someone who's who's a great connector, perhaps they are still at the early stages of their journey of wealth building. But if you are naturally good at connecting people together, then that is a great way to leverage relationships is something that I did as well, at the beginning, Kevin is actually bring those people who have the knowledge, the experience, together with the people that want to learn, and just be that glue in the middle. And it's a great way to elevate your own knowledge at the same time.
Unknown Speaker 37:42
Oh, absolutely. And in the program, Chris, that we teach, when we talk about the business pillar, will often say that one of the ways to build a very viable business is not to be the business owner, but to be the gateway, you know, so you, you create a pathway of connecting. And seeing that a group of people a niche, in other words, have a identifiable problem that you can see. So you just need to be curious about that. You see the problem. But then you can see all the various pieces in the jigsaw puzzle, let's say that would solve that problem. And then you can create a relationship with those jigsaw pieces. and solve that, you know, whether it's dentists, whether it's lawyers, whether it's vets, whether it's, you know, people leaving the police force, and looking for a new career, after that, whatever you see is the niche that you can spot, and often you'll spot it through the virtue of your own career, you know, if you can see there's a pathway people are seeking, you can become the gateway to helping people discover that pathway and just showing them the door and create value for you, and value for them in the process.
Christian Rodwell 38:56
So another parallel I picked up on that Marco talks about is that CEOs often feel quite lonely and isolated. And we hear that as well. Don't wait for people in the wealth, wealth building journey when they simply haven't got people around them that they can talk to about this stuff. So friends and family often just don't get it. And so people need that support, then they're looking for a community. And Mark has done a great job of obviously pulling those really self selected groups. And he actually said, you know, it's, you know, both sides need to it's a mutual selection process, right. So it's got to be a win win for both sides. And, and that's the same with us, isn't it? Really, we need to make sure we're a good fit for our members, and they're a good fit for us.
Unknown Speaker 39:41
That's true enough, Chris. And I think you know, it is true that we do think sometimes people who might want to be on the journey, but perhaps they're showing the arrogance, not to humility, and we would decline to invite them to be part of the program and that's important for us to to be 100% true to our values. It's interesting though this whole process, it's weird, isn't it? When you think about it, grown up people feeling isolated and lonely. When they're building their wealth, it's weird. I had a conversation only today with a SAS trustee who said, you know, she'd had her SAS for a little while. And she was feeling like she just didn't have enough conversations with herself, it was difficult to get it out. So, you know, we talked about being a sounding board to help her get those ideas out, and discussed, worked through and then implemented, you know, and sometimes you need the perspective of other people back to your point about what you can be in flow in one way of thinking. But often what you need in a business in particular, is you need many flows to be working all in the same direction. And how you harness those flows. How you channel those flows, is through the perspectives of different people who've got different wealth dynamics, different perspectives to you. And I think that's one of the big powers that Marco's being able to pull together for the people in his, you know, high level group.
Christian Rodwell 41:05
Yeah. So I think a lot of good lessons there today. And again, just really emphasizing the importance of the people around you. And there's a phrase isn't there that's, that's often used Kevin is your network is your, your network, or perhaps the other way around. But it's, it's important that you are surrounded with people who are kind of on the same wavelength, because it will definitely accelerate you, it'll make the journey more enjoyable. And you'll build your confidence because you'll feel okay, I can see there's other people here, they get it, and they get me and we can work together. And and that's I think what it's all about,
Unknown Speaker 41:46
Hmm, I think well, I remember one person who said it, I can't remember who it was Chris, but I remember them kind of saying, you know, you're Imagine you're in a lighthouse, and you've got four aspects of that, and there's four windows, whatever window you're looking out is the only view you get, you know, but if you can see that someone's looking north, someone's looking south, somebody's looking east and somebody is looking west, and you've got that perspective of all areas, then you've got a 360 degree vision, which is, you know, 2020 vision, it's perfect vision. And when we look at that, not through the eyes of a window, or the lens of a window or a glass, we look at it through things we have to do in our business things we have to do in our careers, things we have to do in our wealth, building lives, we need those additional perspectives. Otherwise, we can go slower, we can get stuck. And we can lose enjoyment as so many people do. Because as you say, not everybody gets it the only 5% maker. So by definition, 95% of the population, Chris, don't get it, or certainly they don't get it enough to take action. So we're delighted Marcos taking action, we're so thrilled he chose us to work with. And actually, you know, I'm looking forward to working with Marco and he's going to be sharing with me some of the values and the process that he's done so well, to help me shape my mastermind program in terms of the mentorships that that I have, and bringing more of a group dynamic to it instead of just me working one on one with people Chris in our current mentorship program, he's going to help me kind of bring the mastermind perspective to it. So I'm going to grow as a as a teacher and as a guide, by working with people like Marco so and I think he would agree that humility on my side with his experience will lead to good things for both of us so very much looking forward to working with Marco
Christian Rodwell 43:41
Yeah, and congratulations to Marco Of course for you know, turning the wheels building his wealth outside of the you know, the the mastermind groups they've talked about, obviously, building wealth across the property pillar now using his pension and, and expanding into more advanced strategies as well. So that's great to see. Okay, well, a good, a good one there. And we're edging ever closer to that big 100 kV and we better start having to think about what we're gonna do for that, but certainly looking forward to it. And hope once again, you've enjoyed listening to today's episode, and we will be back once again. Next week, same time, same place, so until then, Kevin, okay, my friend. Until then,
Unknown Speaker 44:25
I'll see ya.
Unknown Speaker 44:29
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