The Influential Advisor

082: The Wealth Builder: Essential Strategies for Business Owners, Entrepreneurs, and High-Achievers with Paul Cook

• Paul G. McManus

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Episode Summary:

Many entrepreneurs focus intensely on growing their businesses while neglecting personal financial security. Paul Cook, a veteran insurance professional with decades of experience, reveals how life insurance can serve as more than just death benefit protection - it can provide tax-free retirement income, emergency liquidity, and protection from market volatility. Drawing from real-world stories of families he's helped through tragedies and business owners who've faced unexpected challenges, Paul demonstrates how proper financial protection strategies can make the difference between financial security and disaster.


About the Guest:

  • Paul Cook  began his career with Metropolitan Life in West Virginia, working with anyone who would meet with him. Over his decades-long career, he's specialized in helping business owners and entrepreneurs who wear multiple hats - managing their businesses, employees, and families. Paul has delivered both life insurance benefits to grieving families and witnessed the consequences when people were inadequately protected. 


Key Concepts Explained:

Life Insurance as Wealth Building: Paul advocates viewing life insurance beyond just death benefits. Properly structured policies can provide tax-free retirement income, emergency access to cash, and wealth accumulation without market risk. Unlike traditional retirement accounts, life insurance offers flexibility in when and how much to withdraw without government penalties.

Tax Efficiency vs. Tax Deferral: Paul contrasts traditional retirement planning (401(k)s, IRAs) with life insurance strategies. While traditional accounts offer immediate tax deductions, they create future tax liabilities on larger sums. Life insurance provides tax-free growth and distributions, giving policyholders more control.

Business Owner Vulnerabilities: Paul emphasizes that business owners often have their entire financial identity tied to their companies. External factors like competition, tariffs, or mismanagement can destroy business value. Life insurance provides independent wealth accumulation unencumbered by business risks.

Professional Persistence: Paul's approach involves being "professionally patient" - educating clients about risks and opportunities without harassment or pressure. He uses real stories to illustrate consequences of both action and inaction.


Practical Applications:

Term Insurance Foundation: For those hesitant about permanent coverage, Paul recommends starting with inexpensive term insurance while healthy, with conversion options for future permanent coverage without medical underwriting.

Business Succession Planning: Life insurance can fund buy-sell agreements, providing liquidity when business partners die or retire. Paul shares a tragic example of a family business that spent $70,000 in legal fees that could have been avoided with proper planning.

Estate Liquidity: Life insurance provides immediate cash to pay estate taxes and preserve family businesses and assets that might otherwise need to be sold.


Real-World Impact Stories:

Paul shares powerful examples: a plumber who initially resisted buying coverage but died of a heart attack one year later; a divorced nurse whose policy provided education funds when she died in a house fire; and a business owner who reduced coverage six months before dying.


Connect with Paul Cook:

Email: paul@paulhcook.com 

Book: "The Wealth Builder" available by request


Support the show

Speaker 1:

As entrepreneurs and business owners, we're often so focused on growing our companies that we neglect our personal financial security. What if there were financial tools hiding in plain sight that could give you tax-free income, emergency liquidity and protection from market volatility? On today's episode of the Influential Advisor podcast, I'm joined by Paul Cook, author of the Wealth Builder and a financial strategist who spent decades helping entrepreneurs and high achievers create financial security independent of their businesses. Get ready to discover wealth building secrets that could financial future. Paul, I want to welcome you to the Influential Advisor Show and I've been excited to have this interview with you. You and I have known each other now for, I want to say, five or six years it's been oh yeah, yeah and have had a chance to get to know each other, and you've spent your career in the financial services industry and, for our audience, I'd love to have you just share a little bit about your background and what led you from where you started to where you are today.

Speaker 2:

A myriad of factors. I started out in West Virginia with Metropolitan Life, working with anybody and everybody that I could sit down with. You had to make a living because it was tough when you first get started. You got to stay active and you got to stay busy and you got to be a little bit successful just so you can stay in the business. I worked very diligently and worked hard and long hours.

Speaker 2:

I've always been glad that I've done what I've done because I have had a lot of fulfillment and a lot of satisfaction, particularly when people are able to utilize my products and do so in a way that there may be a loss of life because I do sell life insurance but there was an opportunity there to hand somebody a check because I had called on them and worked with them and the thank yous were pretty significant and I felt good to be part of that part, to help people maintain their standard of living and continue on with education and paying off mortgages and things of that nature. I have felt very fulfilled in this business and I've enjoyed every moment of it.

Speaker 1:

Actually, so big question for you is you we help you publish your book. I want to say it's been about a year now.

Speaker 2:

Yes, a little over a year, a little over a year.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so what motivated you to write your book, which is called the Wealth Builder I like the title and who did you specifically gear the book?

Speaker 2:

to. I geared it to business owners, entrepreneurs and high achievers. That's on the cover of the book. I've directed the book to and with emphasis toward them, particularly business owners. I've always worked with business owners because they wear so many hats. They're a business owner. They're worried about getting a product out or service out. They're worried about employees. They also typically have a family to take care of. So there's a lot of different areas in which I can work with these individuals, and a lot of times they're so busy, focused on their business, that they don't think about these other things. I call them ancillary things, ancillary to their business, but very important. And so that's basically how I got started with that and the primary reason that I wrote the book.

Speaker 2:

I didn't think I had it in me, but you encouraged me. You asked me a few questions and I thought, yeah, I could put that down in black and white. I'm glad I did. I've read my book several times, maybe for motivation. Basically, it just encourages me also and it reminds me of the things that I've done in my career that you forget about. You've been at it as long as I have. I'm embarrassed to say how long there's things you forget about, good and bad, and so it's good to be reminded in the book afforded me that personal experience Very cool.

Speaker 1:

What's been the reaction from the people that have read the book?

Speaker 2:

Very positive and I've had several say to me there are things you mentioned in the book I didn't think about. I never thought that would apply to me. Or the big one is I didn't know you could do that with life insurance. I like that one. Tell me more. Yeah, people will say life insurance is a death benefit. I like that one. Tell me more. Yeah, people will say life insurance is a death benefit. You got to die to collect. It's like automobile insurance If you don't wreck your car, you don't collect anything. And you got to die to collect. And I've had people say to me Paul, I mean, somebody else is going to get that money. I'm not going to benefit from it. What if we can structure it in such a way that you benefit? To me, that's icing on the cake. Oftentimes I say you have your cake and eat it too. And you can do that with life insurance if you get into the details of it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, fantastic. And that begs the question is why does life insurance sometimes get a bad rap?

Speaker 2:

Probably because there are those in the financial services industry that think there's better strategies than life insurance and the best way to promote their strategies is to be critical of life insurance. And I won't say that I'm not critical of certain aspects of the financial services industry, but not against products necessarily, and maybe against products, but also against Because a lot of times life insurance, if you've got an IRA, you get a tax deduction on your contribution. The money grows, tax deferred, typically. That's as far as the conversation goes. They don't talk about what happens when they start pulling the money out of retirement, because Uncle Sam's going to get a piece of that and the fact that Uncle Sam give you that tax deduction means Uncle Sam controls it. They tell you if you take it out too early, they're going to punish you. If you don't take it out when they want you to take it out, they're going to punish you. So you're not in charge. I want my clients to be in charge of their money and I afford them that opportunity through the strategies that I can implement.

Speaker 1:

That's awesome, I guess. What I'm curious to know is you've been in the insurance business for your career. You've spent your career in the insurance business. What has you so passionate about what it is that you do in helping people with insurance?

Speaker 2:

I think the biggest thing is helping people to understand the advantages and what the pluses are, because a lot of times they don't. I guess there's a bit of an educational process occurs because I want people to understand okay, you buy a life insurance contract. If I die prematurely, there's a benefit that's going to be paid to my widow or to my business partner.

Speaker 2:

But, if I live to retirement, then there's some other avenues there that I can benefit from and to me that just excites me to have the opportunity to do that with people and to do it for people, particularly if they don't understand insurance to start with, and a lot of times people don't, People just don't. I've never had anybody come in and say, Paul, I've been thinking about dying, I want to buy some life insurance. That's never happened to me All the years I've been in a business it's never happened. But nevertheless people understand what life insurance is. I think. Basically they just don't understand all the nuances of it and all the advantages and the pluses that life insurance can have.

Speaker 1:

Very cool. Along those lines, in your book the Wealth Builder, you share a number of powerful stories about family facing those unexpected tragedies. Right To your point, we're all going to die at some point, right? We just don't know when. And so how have these experiences shaped your approach to what I would describe as financial protection strategies?

Speaker 2:

Probably the best thing I could say about what I've done is to be persistent. A lot of times people you typically will hear objections, people who object to doing what you think they should do. I had a plumber, for example. I sat down with a plumber and his wife and she sat on one end of the couch. He sat on the other the whole time. She had her arms folded and he would say dear, what do you think? And she'd say it's up to you.

Speaker 2:

The guy was really putting pressure on himself but he kept telling me it seems like an awful lot of premium. I said yes, sir, it is. But I said imagine you not here. What kind of financial stress that would put on the family because you're here and you can pay the premium now and every once in a while he would say it's a lot of premium. I said, well, you're working and it's difficult to pay. Imagine what it's like if you're not here. So anyway, he ended up buying a contract. A year later the agent because I was in management at that point, the agent that was with me went back, sold him an additional contract. The policy got approved and put in the mail to the agent to deliver to the client.

Speaker 1:

And before that happened.

Speaker 2:

The boy dropped dead with a heart attack. So I was always appreciative of my effort. I'm glad the guy took action, and I could have very well have said, yeah, it is a lot of premium, maybe I can check back with you later on and see if things are better. And that later on may never happen, and so I was always glad of that. I also had a nurse who bought a policy. She was divorced with a 12-year-old daughter and she wanted her daughter to have money for education if something happened to her prematurely. A year later her house caught on fire and the lady perished. The daughter got out, but the mama didn't, and I was able to deliver a check in that situation, and so I felt these are sad situations, but thank goodness I was able to come in with a check and make things a little easier for the survivors than they would have been.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and I can imagine throughout your career you've had any number of those circumstances where you really see the impact that being properly protected can have it on family?

Speaker 2:

Yes, definitely, and then I've seen some where they were inadequately protected. To me, that's the stressing part. I had a situation where a fellow got killed in a car wreck and he had a $1,300,000 death benefit in his life insurance and six months prior to that his wife came into the office and said we need to cut this premium back, I need to reduce the death benefit. We just can't afford it, and when they really could, it was a matter of priorities for them, and so we eliminated the term part, which was a million, and the $300,000 was the permanent part, and that's the check I delivered to her when he got killed was the $300,000. So I felt real bad about it, but in fact I encouraged her to put it off for another month before they actually made the decision, and she did, but she still came back and made it. So, again, that was a situation that I handed a check, but it wasn't near what it could have been.

Speaker 1:

So you're in the business of really helping people think longer term and set priorities for their life and their family? Yes, most definitely You're professionally persistent in getting out the message really, so that you can benefit and bless the people that you work with. That's what I'm hearing.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's my objective. One of the things, too that I've encountered several times, many times somebody wants to wait, Okay. Several times, many times somebody wants to wait, Okay, Say, and maybe I'm talking to them about establishing a permanent plan where they can accumulate cash and help supplement retirement benefits, and they say I want to wait. So my objective is which, at that point, typically, let's go ahead and get the term insurance issued. Term insurance is real inexpensive and then later on, when your situation is different or improved or better, a frame of mind has changed Now that we can convert that term to the permanent plan without going through medical underwriting. So let's go ahead while you're healthy, because this is as healthy as you're ever going to be, is right now, because it's downhill from here for everybody, and so let's go ahead and get the term issued and then you can make a decision later as to what you want to do going forward in terms of accumulating money.

Speaker 2:

To me and when people, that's very frustrating for me when people say at that point no, I'll just wait a little. While I've had people wait. I had one guy came down with ulcerative colitis and almost died after an interview like that. I've had several situations. I've had heart attacks to happen. I've had people come down with cancer. Those are the frustrating ones that I feel like it's so easy to have made a decision Life insurance is too inexpensive to not have really a good bit of it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, the next question I have for you, and this is specific towards the business owners that you work with, and I'm a business owner myself. You're a business owner and I think so often we're so focused on growing our companies, but sometimes we neglect our own personal financial security, and this may be a bit of what we talked about, but just from this point on, feel free to expand upon it. How can these business owners or entrepreneurs or just high achievers in general that are busy and doing what they do well, how can you help them better balance these priorities? What have you found to?

Speaker 2:

be effective.

Speaker 2:

The thing is basically to get together with them and try to encourage them in a way that gives them peace of mind, because I think that a lot of times in a business there's there were so many hats and there's so many situations that they've got to deal with on a daily basis. A lot of times, as I've mentioned earlier, a lot of the things that I do they don't give thought to or they're not aware of it. I oftentimes say people don't know what they don't know, and not to be derogatory, but it's a fact of life and there are things that I can bring to the table that can enlighten them, can encourage them and, as I said, give them peace of mind, basically help them make decisions, to implement plans, I guess you might say, for unexpected events, because that's what insurance is for. I like to look at it from the expected event and that is retirement. You get out there, you got a bucket of money established and you got an income source and I've helped somebody to be a part of that, so that to me, that's important.

Speaker 1:

Tell me a little bit more about that. So from a business owner perspective, I think it's a little bit different from, maybe, a traditional employer or professional, where I think for a typical non-business owner you think, okay, 60, 65, I'm going to retire. I think, at least in my experience, business owners can be a little bit more over the map. Maybe they retire, maybe they continue. What's unique about business owners in terms of how you help them set those goals for themselves?

Speaker 2:

A lot of times their standard of living is higher, perhaps, than their employees. They want to times their standard of living is higher, perhaps, than their employees. They want to maintain a standard of living. They don't want to diminish their standard of living. It takes money to do that. They have greater capabilities financially. In fact, I saw this the other day, back when our country was establishing the tax laws. They did it for business owners, not for the individual, and one of the advantages that a person could take advantage of that owns a business is that the company can make the premium payment for their contracts and then that passed to the business owner as an income expense and the company can deduct it. And then the business owners his cost is just the taxes on the premium and everything's copacetic. You pay taxes on it. His cost is just the taxes on the premium.

Speaker 1:

And everything's copacetic. You pay taxes on it, so the government's free and clear of it. And that leads me to my next question, which is in the book you talk a lot about what you describe as tax-efficient wealth-building strategies, and so, when it comes, whether it's business owners or just high achievers in general, what are some of the mistakes that you see them making currently?

Speaker 2:

I don't know if it's so much a mistake as much as a direction that I would consider not all that favorable. The financial services industry promotes 401k plans and IRAs, as do accountants, because accountants are looking for deductions. An IRA contribution is a deduction, which is good, and the federal government promotes these, but the thing of it is that when you go to retire, you're going to have to pay taxes on every penny of that money. Heaven knows what the tax bracket will be. You pay the money to the government and the other ones that establish the tax bracket, and I don't know of too many people that, when they go to retire, want to give up any money.

Speaker 2:

I don't know that you can have too much money, but certainly if you're on a fixed income, you want to maintain that as much of that fixed income as you possibly can and not give any of it to the government. Establishing a retirement plan that you have to pay taxes on is a disadvantage to the client. You can make money or it can be zero, but you're not going to lose money and as a result, you can have more money at retirement and if you can get that money as a retirement income stream and not pay taxes on it. To me, that's the best of every world.

Speaker 1:

I think you're right. It's your CPA. Typically, they're looking for immediate tax deductions and so then that, as you said, it reflects in like a IRA or a 401k, which is oftentimes tax deferred, meaning to your point that you're going to pay that at some point, and often on a much larger pool of money at that point. Yes, from my understanding, the thing that is closest to life insurance is maybe like a Roth plan, meaning that you pay taxes immediately but then it grows tax-free. How would you compare or contrast maybe a Roth to life insurance?

Speaker 2:

The big thing with a Roth is that you're limited on your contributions depending on your income On life insurance. You're not. What your capability of doing with a life insurance contract from a cost perspective is up to the individual. It's not restricted. Plus, you can have income streams set up. I guess you might say it's much more structured. You can let the insurance company retain the money and start giving you an income on that money. You can adjust that income if you see fit. You can stop that income if you have a period of time in which you don't need it. But at the same time if something happens to you prematurely you get killed in a car wreck or you have a heart attack, then there's a death benefit that is substantially greater than the amount of money that's been accumulated. So the life insurance and you tie the life insurance with the tax. Not only the tax deferral but the tax-free income aspect of the life insurance contract I think far outweighs the pluses and advantages of a Roth IRA.

Speaker 1:

Next question is cashflow management is critical for business owners, for entrepreneurs, really for everybody. Can you share any examples of how proper financial planning has helped your clients weather some of those unexpected cash crunches that we all typically face at some point? Everybody hits them sooner or later.

Speaker 2:

Sooner or later. It's like wrecking on a motorcycle. It's not if, it's when. And it's true about money, yeah.

Speaker 1:

So, getting back to the topic of business owners, I find it interesting and I think probably both you and I might relate to this is that a lot of business owners have their identity intertwined with their business right. It's their baby. I think a lot of business owners choose to continue working not necessarily because they have to, but just because they enjoy it. It's retire from what? And so when it comes to helping a business owner plan for their retirement, how do you encourage them to think in terms of maybe some of the typical standard approaches? We talked about a 401k, 401 qualified plans, 401ks, IRAs, et cetera. Maybe those aren't the best fit. How do you approach that conversation with business owners? First, off.

Speaker 2:

Try to communicate the independence of the decision. Now, when I say independence, I'm talking about it's not company related. A lot of business owners work constantly. Any monies that they can make they put back into the business, and I can understand that they want to grow it, but at some point decisions need to be made about. Okay, what happens to me when I go to retire? Where's my money going to come from? Because I have encountered a lot of different things from business owners in relation to what their expectations were from the business and yet factors beyond their control. Particularly early on in my career, when I worked with people in the coal industry, there were a lot of situations where they expected wealth and easy life and they didn't come out that way. They didn't turn out that way. Too many factors come into play that can affect a business owner, like tariffs for one.

Speaker 1:

Okay, Unexpected, that's correct.

Speaker 2:

And so I think it's extremely advantageous and sometimes it's difficult for a business owner to understand it. If there's ways in which monies can be moved out of the business to put into a strategy that he owns and he controls, basically unaffiliated with the company, unencumbered by the company, then he's far better off. In other words, he's got another era in his quiver financially, rather than having it all set right in the business.

Speaker 1:

It just comes down to the idea of diversification. Right, correct, absolutely, because I can relate. I've been in business for myself now for over 10 years. And you start I'm going to be rich. I can envision myself on the yacht smoking cigars and throwing money around.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that can be a person's aim, but a lot of times I had a person tell me. He said we're going to operate this business for 10 years. We already have a 10-year plan and when the 10 years is up we're going to sell the company and I'm moving to the Bahamas or the Cayman Islands or somewhere. It did not turn out that way.

Speaker 1:

I was just reading an article yesterday about a business owner who's built up a company it's actually a competitor of mine and they grew it to, I want to say, about 20 million in revenue and they were looking at exiting for about maybe 40 million. And then, over the course of a couple of years, some mismanagement happened and, long story short, he ended up getting, instead of the anticipated, his share, which would have been a portion of 40 million. Yeah, he ended up getting less than a million. And there's just life. Business is interesting, right?

Speaker 1:

There's all absolutely there's all these curveballs that we don't expect, and to be expected that these things are going to happen, not knowing what they're going to be, and so just having that diversification really, I think is so important. I want this to work and at the same time, I have this other backup plan or other way to protect myself.

Speaker 2:

Yes, absolutely, and we can see story after story of companies in America that have gone through some of the things they've gone through. The first thing that pops in my mind is Chrysler and what Lee Iacocca did for Chrysler. Now, obviously that's on a grand scale, but the same thing can happen to one person operating a company with 10 employees. There's factors that can come into play. Somebody can rest their business. Let's take the restaurant business. We all eat out a lot. There's restaurants here in this town that have been very successful and then all of a sudden the Texas Roadhouse opens up in town and, wow, the parking lot is almost empty. In these other places In Texas Roadhouse you can't find a place to park. So there are so many factors that can come into play.

Speaker 2:

And it doesn't matter what the industry is restaurant or a machine shop because I dealt with machine shops and electric belt shops and motor shops and all those kinds of situations that fed the coal industry early on in my career. But it can happen to any industry. Nobody is immune and mismanagement. It can happen. In insurance. I've experienced that with insurance companies that were doing fantastic, had a great product, a great compensation package, great communication, great service and a few positions at the top, change Whoa, and in five years you're dealing with a whole nother kettle of fish.

Speaker 1:

Along those lines. Do you have any tips or strategies for a business owner when it comes to them thinking about succession or estate planning? How do those things factor into what you do?

Speaker 2:

Answer to that question is yes as far as succession. A lot of times people are in business with others and at different ages, but rarely are two people the same age or three people in a business.

Speaker 2:

Sometimes you have an the same age or three people in a business. Sometimes you have an older person. I was involved in a business like that in West Virginia. We had older people and younger people and you can again life insurance can come into play for a business owner. You have a buy and sell agreement.

Speaker 2:

In fact I had a situation with a father who had four sons and they were in the coal business and I tried to get the father to sit down and do a buy and sell agreement between the four boys and himself and he said his accountant recommended he didn't do it. I said that's pitiful and but as it turned out, unfortunately the youngest boy got killed on a mine site. He was driving a truck down a hill and the road gave way and he rolled over about 50 times and he got killed. And in fact the dad told me he said I've spent about $70,000 on legal fees and trying to take care of my daughter-in-law. He had three. The boy was married and had three children and he said it's been a can of worms and just a nightmare for me and I said I called him by name. I said $70,000 could have bought an awful lot of life insurance for you.

Speaker 2:

How $70,000 could have bought an awful lot of life insurance for you. How easy it would have been. He could have gotten his son's portion of the business. They had three coal companies involved and all five of these guys the daddy and the four boys all owned a different piece in each company. It was a can of worms. And he could have bought the daughter-in-law out, give her a nice big check. Everybody could have been happy. Obviously, the loss of the son and the husband was dire, but nevertheless, financially it could have been happy. Obviously, the loss of the son and the husband was dire, but nevertheless, financially it could have been a whole lot better off than it was. So the ways to solve problems this way it's so easy to do it if people would do it, but people procrastinate, so a lot of times in a situation like that it doesn't get done.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I guess. To me, that begs the question is how do you get? The theme, I hear, is it's your job, is to help people make decisions that are going to benefit them long term, and the biggest challenge that you face and really what your book's about educating people is ultimately helping them to overcome procrastination. It sounds like one of the biggest challenges. Yes, how do you get people to overcome procrastination? Sounds like one of the biggest challenges. Yes, how do you get people to overcome procrastination? I think this would be great for any number of areas, right? Of course, in your case, it applies specifically to what you do, but what have you found to be helpful or effective in helping people overcome procrastination?

Speaker 2:

Two words pop in my mind when you ask that question and I guess it would be professionally patient. Okay, and I say professionally, what I mean is I don't harass people, I don't pressure people. I try to paint a picture that gives them clarity as to their situation and to the dire need of it. I can relay stories to people. You talk about estate planning. There's Joe Robbie on the Minnesota Miami Dolphins and the stadium and he died and the family had to sell the whole McGillicuddy in order to take care of Uncle Sam.

Speaker 2:

Well now, not everybody's estate's that big, but somebody might be worth $10 million, $15, $20 million that big, but somebody might be worth $10 million, $15, $20 million, and it doesn't take a whole lot to create liquidity for that estate through life insurance because it's payable at the exact moment that it's needed.

Speaker 2:

And as far as estate taxes are concerned, you got nine months from the death of the estate owner. You got nine months to pay Uncle Sam, and that life insurance can just solve a ton of problems help businesses to remain intact, help the family to retain businesses and property. There may be farms, there may be a myriad of different things, so there's just a lot of the avenues in which life insurance can be a benefit is amazing. It doesn't matter whether you're just starting out. You're a young man with starting a family and without a lot of premium dollars, you can start with term insurance and you can build through the years. One of the things that really comes into play is the discipline. You've got to have discipline to do anything and to carry through with anything. Maintaining life insurance and acquiring it to start with has a lot to do with the discipline aspect.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, starting to wrap up, I have a couple of final questions for you. Okay, and just reflecting back over your career, what are some of the changes that you've observed in your career, whether it comes to the industry or to the way that people invest, or just your observation? Standing where you are today, what are some of your observations about what you've seen change over the course of your career?

Speaker 2:

The one thing I think could be information. People have access to more information today and some people like if you own a car dealership, you don't want people knowing a whole lot have a whole lot of information. But in my business I'm glad they have information available to them because it can make them more aware At least it should you would hope. But there's still a reluctance on the part of people, I find, to a certain degree in taking action and taking steps. There's always something else that money can be used for. But I think information being available to people today is the biggest factor that I've seen through the transition in my career.

Speaker 1:

The one thing that information is not going to solve is the habits.

Speaker 2:

That's correct. There has to be a change.

Speaker 1:

If a listener could take away just one message from your book the Wealth Builder. What would you want that message to be?

Speaker 2:

Be open to ideas you may not have thought of before, to new ideas, particularly about accumulating money. I have that on my business card helping people accumulate money, life insurance. We know what life insurance does it pays the death benefit if somebody dies prematurely. No, look at it from a different perspective. Look at it from a honestly from a selfishly motivated perspective. Okay, I own a life insurance contract. If I die, the beneficiary is going to get the money, but I bought this contract so I can have a tax-free retirement income when I go to retire. That I control as to when I draw it, when I don't draw it, if I draw it and cease to draw it and want to wait to draw it again. There's a lot of flexibilities there and it's their decision and it's they're in the driver's seat with a strategy like that.

Speaker 1:

And what's the best place for our listeners to get a copy of your book?

Speaker 2:

The easiest and the quickest way would be just to drop me an email. Okay, it's Paul at Paul H. Cook at C-O-O-K. There's no E on it. I'm a working cook, paulhcookcom. Paul at PaulHCookcom. The H is real important. If you don't put that in there, it ends up to some guy in England.

Speaker 2:

Surprisingly, I have my own whole story about middle initials, so I appreciate that you said that and also put your mailing address in there so that I'll know where to ship the book to you. And as soon as that happens and you read the book, then hopefully we'll have an opportunity for a conversation, perhaps a Zoom meeting. Answer any questions you might have. I'd be happy to do that. Be thrilled to do it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and do you work with people? You're based out of Tennessee, do you potentially work with people nationwide, or who's the best fit for your service?

Speaker 2:

Typically people in my region, I would say within 100, 200 miles of my area. Here would be fine. We can do Zoom meetings. We can interact in that fashion through Zoom meetings and correspondence. So yeah, that's another way we could do it. So I work basically in probably anywhere east of the Mississippi River.

Speaker 1:

Okay. Do you find now, at this point, that people are more prone to want to meet you on Zoom or to come into your office? You have a mixture of both.

Speaker 2:

Okay, things can be done quickly with a Zoom meeting. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, is there any question that we haven't discussed that you think would be important to this conversation?

Speaker 2:

I put in the book, a quote from Henry Ford Whether you think you can or you think you can't, either way you're right. And a lot of times people say what's that mean? Why is that in there? It's in there because it gets down to discipline. If we think we can do something, we can because we think we can. If we think we can't, then we can't. And so whatever our frame of mind is drives and dictates what we do. And the same thing when it comes to financial planning and strategizing to accumulate money, there has to be the discipline of knowing I can do it and have the mechanism and the strategy in place to do it. And that's what I bring to the table.

Speaker 1:

And I think a takeaway for me is just the diversification. It's especially for a business owner. You don't know, while we get into business with the aspiration to live the good life and to some degree maybe we make more, hopefully, than not being in business, it's still I know from my own personal experience. Risk mitigation and diversification are a couple key principles and what you bring to the table I think is a very helpful awareness for people.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think so, and I appreciate your observation, paul. Thank you very much for your time today. I've enjoyed the conversation I have too. Thank you for your time. I've enjoyed the conversation I have too. Thank you for your time, I've enjoyed it.