In today's very first episode; meet your hosts, Kevin Whelan, founder of WealthBuilders, and Christian Rodwell, Membership Director. Make sure to tune in to find out the reason behind WealthBuilders' goal to help those build true wealth.
Meet your hosts Kevin Whelan, Founder of WealthBuilders and Christian Rodwell, Membership Director. Understand the reason ‘why’ behind WealthBuilders’ goal to provide easy to understand step by step process that anybody can follow for building true wealth.
In this, the first ever episode of WealthTalk, Christian and Kevin discuss:
Links and a full transcription of this episode can be found at www.wealthbuilders.co.uk/wealthtalk
Chris Rodwell: So a very warm welcome to episode one of wealth talk, my name's Christian Rodwell, I'm the membership director for Wealth Builders and I'm joined by my co-host Mr. Kevin Whelan, the founder.
Kevin Whelan: Well, Chris, I've never been more excited, use some modern technology to help people get information that they can use when having a shower, when they're running their races, whatever they're doing to leverage their time we can just give a little wisdom on that. And I'm really excited about what we've got to share.
Chris Rodwell: Yes, I am too. So Kevin, let's get into really what Wealth Builders is all about. How did you come about creating and setting up Wealth Builders and give our listeners a bit of a back story, please.
Kevin Whelan: Sure, well, my own story is born out of some tragedy when my father died very young. And of course that's what stimulated me to build wealth for myself because I didn't want to be in a position where if I die young too, I didn't leave a good legacy for my family. Over the years, I think, the big catalyst for me was 2008, Chris, which is when the credit crunch came and pretty much everything fell off a cliff. And I had an advisory business, traditional financial planning business and I realized that in that role, I just wasn't doing ... I wasn't able to help people break free of what the tradition of financial planning and goodwill planning was all about which was really the stock market.
Kevin Whelan: And since then, I've just seen a [inaudible 00:01:40] of people moving on to new things and teaching them how to create streams of income in their lives so they can be financially independent whatever the state of the market. Whether the market crushes or not, whether interest rates go up or down, whether Brexit happens or not at this time, whatever uncertainties they've got, they've got complete control over their finances. And that's what Wealth Builders has been doing for the last 10 years or so, and we've got lots of wisdom to share with people on how to do that.
Chris Rodwell: And you have some wonderful IP, wonderful models which we'll be covering of course in future episodes of Wealth Talk. And I first met you, Kevin, back in 2014, actually coming up to the 5th anniversary, it was April. I remember it very well. It was my first ever property networking event and you were speaking that night, and you talked about a subject which is close to your heart, which is pensions. And at that time, I had absolutely zero interest in pensions.
Kevin Whelan: Well, who has? Let's face it. It's not the most exciting subject in the world, is it?
Chris Rodwell: But after listening to you that evening, something changed and I connected with you the following day. And that really was the beginning of the relationship and also your wisdom over the last five years of ... Wealth Building process has really rubbed off and influenced me so thank you for that.
Kevin Whelan: Congratulations on your successes by the way.
Chris Rodwell: Thank you. And the purpose of the Wealth Talk podcast, what can people expect, Kevin?
Kevin Whelan: Yeah, I think what we're trying to do here is we know how busy people are, and that's the big challenge that anyone's trying to create wealth is there's so much information out there, there's so little time that people have to disseminate what's good, what's bad and a lot of salesmanship out there too. So what I really want to do with you, Chris, in Wealth Talk is to distill down some nuggets that people can get really good solid education that stimulates their brain to create more wealth assets. And we'll talk a definition of assets in due course, but what's interesting to me is there are only seven ways to build wealth, so it's not going to be too long before people get the hang of that.
Kevin Whelan: And of course by distilling it down, it means there's something they can do with each episode. We'll talk about something specific, we'll give them a nugget, an action theme, something they can do that will make a difference in their life. And what we want to see is every episode leads to some positive outcome that makes people a little wealthier than they did or than they would just before that. That's the idea behind it.
Chris Rodwell: Yeah, absolutely, and I think one of the cornerstones of our message is always built around three core areas as well which is education, support, and connection. And that nicely forms the escape, analogy, and that's close to my heart of course with the business that I set up, Escape the Rat Race, and explain why education and support and connection are so important.
Kevin Whelan: Yeah, well, I think when you're talking about building wealth, there's only seven ways to build wealth and of course if you don't know what they are, then you have to start with the principle of education. We know education is the key part of life so from education in school to education in work but there's not very much education in wealth and somehow this just isn't taught in school. What we're saying is, when it comes to building wealth, there is a scientific process to do it and it can be taught and if it can be taught, it can be learned. If it can be learned, it can be applied.
Kevin Whelan: Therefore, if you know that there's some wisdom out there, there's some knowledge you can pick up and use, then the next thing is support. Now, what that means is the ability to surround yourself with people who will help you, so whether it'd be making sure your partner is supporting you or finding a community, which is really what Wealth Builders is all about. It's a community of support, so you don't feel like you're doing this on your own, so that's really important and that's quite a key part of our message.
Kevin Whelan: The third is connection. The fastest way to create wealth is to bring education to life by working and talking to people who've been there and done that. In a sense, what we've done together, Chris, so you know what I've done and created wealth for myself and you've copied some of those things but applied your own twist to it. That's what connection is all about, it's a community that we've created for ourselves now, where people are genuinely sharing the lessons they've learned and are willing to share as they move forward and help somebody else as well. So the whole community is what we'll introduce people to over the course of the coming weeks and months.
Chris Rodwell: Now, we both speak at events and when the question is asked of people there, "Who'd like to become financially independent?" Every hand pretty much goes up.
Kevin Whelan: Everyone, 100/100 would put up their hand, yeah.
Chris Rodwell: But the statistics suggest that not all of those 100 make it.
Kevin Whelan: Well, there's really no ... I'm an economist by training, Chris, and as you know, there's no key data but the anecdotal data that's reported is about 95% of the population. It's only in the Western world and UK and the US just simply want to get to a place of financial independence. Now what do I mean by that? I meant that the money that they have flowing, so it is about flow of money, coming into their life from things they own is enough so they can live the life they want. Whatever they want to do, however they want to do it, doesn't matter to me whether it's 500 a month, 5000 a month or 500,000 a month. It doesn't really matter.
Kevin Whelan: What matters is the lifestyle you want, can that come from things you own and continually flow? And only 5% do that, what we're trying to do is try and impact to help more people. We believe everyone has the right to be financially independent and our ambition at least is to try and get at least 50,000 people on that track so that they can not just create wealth for themselves, help other people too, but leave a great legacy for the next generation. Which circles me back really to that original point that I made that the original reason I decided to create wealth for my own self and that's why I never really was part of the rat race for very long. I got out of it pretty quickly at age 28, that's why it was really important to me.
Kevin Whelan: So it's a full circle really, want to help lost of people so they can get a part of their own financial independence as well.
Chris Rodwell: Touched on community being such a big part of Wealth Builders which it is and primarily based here in the UK, talk about some of the people that Wealth Builders really serves well. What are some of the situations and circumstances that people come to wealth builders looking for help with?
Kevin Whelan: Yeah, I suppose you can break it down into ... First of all let me make a statement and then say how then we can help. So my view and the view of other people certainly is that in order to create wealth you have to be an entrepreneur. You have to see value, create value, and be part of your own value creation. You can't just be at the mercy of the stock market and the value which you simply have no control over. In essence what we're trying to do is help people become better, stronger, more able entrepreneurs, creating streams of recurring income so that the income flows without them. So the money shows up, they don't have to show up, that's the ideal scenario.
Kevin Whelan: And a lot of people want that, but we find that there's probably two groups of people who want it more than anything else. Maybe high income employed people who really can see that the transition from their high income now to what their pensions going to give them when they reach retirement is such a huge, huge difference that they want to find their way out of the rat race. You've done a great job yourself, Chris, with your own community of Escape the Rat Race and I think that's a big market of people who want to almost cross a bridge from being employed and dependent to being in business and independent.
Kevin Whelan: Now, the business that we tend to see worked really well in the UK especially is property and of course one of the big areas for property people is property is expensive in the UK and they need to get access to more funding. We also through the community can share and show people how to get access to more funds so that their property journey keeps going so it then gets to a place where it can support them. And the third group would be business owners themselves who possibly really just have jobs. They're wearing 10, 12, 13 hats, all doing different skill things that previously their employer was providing them but they now have to provide for themselves.
Kevin Whelan: Consequently, they have so little time, their bandwidth is so restricted that they just don't see enough. They don't have enough time to be able to turn that business into something that itself can create recurring income. And I spend a lot of time with business owners, almost slowing them down so that they can create recurring income for themselves both inside their business and of course by making more profit can create more wealth outside of that business. Because in the end, to be wealthy you in the money management business, everybody is, just so few people really grasp it. so by learning it as early as possible, then not only do you master it but then you can pass those skills and that wisdom on to the next generation. I know that's a long answer but ... you can tell it means something to me, right?
Chris Rodwell: It does and the word that springs to my mind is leverage, so it's really understanding the different ways of generating those recurring incomes streams but using leverage in the right way to achieve that.
Kevin Whelan: Yeah, and one of those forms of leverage and we thought long and hard didn't we Chris? When we talked about creating materials for people is ... If bandwidth is a problem, isn't probably one of the best ways to tap into some wisdom through the use of a podcast? Because you can really tap into that, whatever you're doing. If you're commuting on a train, dial in. If you're exercising, dial in. If you're at home after dinner and you're in bed the last 10 minutes instead of reading a book, dial in. So you've got opportunities where you can get some of that knowledge, that first part of the ESC, get that education and build that first and then you can move on to getting your support and connections once some education is really stuck with you and you go, "Yeah, I'd like to explore further."
Kevin Whelan: But until you get to that point passed curiosity, you don't really get the chance to build support levels around you and build connections around you because you haven't got enough education to make a start.
Chris Rodwell: And it always begins with education.
Kevin Whelan: Always begins with education.
Chris Rodwell: And for people listening now, Kevin, who maybe feel that they're really, really at the beginning of the journey, that they don't have assets. They maybe haven't purchased a house yet. They don't have investments. They may feel, "How can I build wealth?"
Kevin Whelan: Yeah.
Chris Rodwell: How would Wealth Builders able to support those people who really do need to get the education first?
Kevin Whelan: Yeah, well the core thing there is to recognize that wealth is built step by step and wherever you are on the steps, and we've got five different levels, of wealth which we'll share on another podcast. But of course, when you're starting off and maybe not feeling like you're in the best place, maybe you've got more months left to the end of your money. There are definitely things you can do to make progress, to save money, not by penny pinching but by being smart and we've got lots of ways to do that. And all sort of different ways in the foundation and the process we call debits which is a whole range of different things, we teach people how they can save some money, wasted money that's in their life and put that money to good use.
Kevin Whelan: So instead of just saving money, which is where ... There Are some really great websites and other places where you can learn to save money. It's the saving and then using that money because any money you save, you can always even just put your money into a tracker fund and start building wealth that way. Or if you got debt you save some money, you can reduce it of your debt bill and that increases your net take-home. So the step by step by step process. Wherever you are on the ladder, whether you're right at the very beginning or you're at a point where you've created so much wealth in your life you're ready to share that with the next generation, there's a step by step process to do it. And we'll share that along the way.
Chris Rodwell: And that's it. That again comes to the key feature of Wealth Builders is the community that you've built up, Kevin, are very much ... That's part of the values is sharing the knowledge, sharing with the rest of the community so you can learn from those that are already a few steps ahead of you.
Kevin Whelan: Exactly right. In fact, we enshrouded in a document and maybe it might be sensible to encourage first time listeners to go check out that document which is the Wealth Builder Values. The values are seven principles that we live by which you'd expect to include some things like unimpeachable and unwavering integrity and that's really important and the principle of sharing. And all of these things are there in this document called The New Declaration of Independence, obviously a play on words on the American Declaration of Independence and we invite people to have a look at that. And there's a place we have it specifically on the website, Chris, isn't it?
Chris Rodwell: Yeah, and I think the best place for everyone listening now who just wants to get connected, we've got the Wealth Builders website which is wealthbuilders.co.uk. We have the Wealth Builders Facebook group and we have the Wealth Talk page on the website as well, so wealthbuilders.co.uk/wealthtalk. Everything that we've touched on today will be listed on that page so you can just dive in
Kevin Whelan: Have a little look, just check it out, make sure you feel comfortable with what we have to say. All of the education by the way we provide is ... There's so much free content. There's no ... You know my style by now, Chris, there's no up sales, there's no creativity around anything other than helping people to get more information. We recognize that many people are drifting in life and we want to help them get stuck into doing something as opposed to stuck in a rat and that's what we're about. So go and check us out, wealthbuilders.co.uk and with a bit of luck we'll see some more on the next podcast.
Chris Rodwell: Yeah, so pretty much we're wrapping up episode one here. I hope that's given you a taster of what to expect, got you excited about wealth building process. Kevin, in future episodes, what are some of the other reasons why someone might want to plug in and keep checking out wealth talk?
Kevin Whelan: Well, they're going to discover the seven different assets so that's a realization in itself and I think why don't we pick on ... next one, why don't we talk about the three different type of people we meet? The drifters, the DIYers, and the dynamics?
Chris Rodwell: The three Ds.
Kevin Whelan: The three Ds. Why don't we share that and why it's really important to know who you are so that is you begin your own wealth journey you start in your own mind.
Chris Rodwell: That is a cracking one. So let's make sure we do that as episode two so go check that one out right now. Get connected to wealthbuilders.co.uk/wealthtalk and we look forward to seeing you in a future episode. Thanks, Kevin.
Kevin Whelan: See ya.