Not Your Typical Financial Planner: Kim Butler – Bonus Episode

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[00:01] Welcome to the prosperity podcast in this episode of the prosperity podcast We’re going to approach it a little bit more different and the reason why is oftentimes We have listeners that you know they ask questions or they want to know more about the prosperity movement and then sometimes people really want to learn more about Kim and who Kim is and Arguably this is probably going to be the the podcast episode that should be video So you can see Kim squirm in her seat because really this movement is about you and it’s about the principles It’s not about Kim and she’s never made it about her But we wanted to take a few minutes to really get to know who Kim Butler is so Kim We would love to hear first

[00:52] why This is so important to you and then we’ll learn more about you so the prosperity economics movement as it relates to clients is so important to me because I feel like America needs to get back to solid ground with their finances and I feel like we absolutely positively know how to do it and so our clients that get to learn and take advantage of the seven principles of prosperity the Capability to implement a place to store cash the ability for investments that are outside of the Wall Street realm is a valuable and Confidence-building arena and I want everybody to have access to it I want everybody in America to know that there is a different a better way to deal with their finances And so whatever we can do to share that information and

[01:53] To help people take action, you know it’s so often that we read or hear about something and then for whatever reason we just don’t pull the trigger and and take the action to get the results and There’s a lot of information out there that doesn’t have the ability to actually help us implement the education And so whether it’s podcasts or books or webinars that we’re doing I want people to be able to learn and Implement and so the movement is a way to help people learn From a variety of people that are providing information but then also give them the Personalized way to implement because learning can happen generically but implementation has to happen It does now you use this phrase you said getting back to and maybe it would help us

[02:48] As listeners to understand some of the foundations like where you started and where this You know overall guiding principles where they were absolutely I’m delighted to share that so the background for me personally Started with handling money literally in the fourth grade because we moved to a larger farm in Corvallis, Oregon and My dad bought me a milk cow and my grandpa taught me how to milk and when you buy a milk cow You’re in like it starts that night and so of course we had too much milk for one family This was a big Guernsey cow and she produced probably four or five gallons of milk every day and so we sold that milk to people in our church and people in our community and I started having a lot of money. I mean it literally in fourth and fifth and sixth grade

[03:41] I had stacks of dollar bills because people paid $1 for a gallon of milk I mean, it’s just amazing which had probably about just a little less than a quart of cream on the top of that gallon Of milk and so we had money and so I say we because my family was involved Obviously my parents were helping me and also a few years later my sister Tammy who’s three years younger got a cow herself and so we milked two cows every day and we sold the milk and So I had to know how to deal with income and I also know how needed to know how to deal with expenses Because we had to buy the grain and we had to buy the hay and we had to buy milk equipment and etc etc, etc, so fast forward to Graduating from college and I’ve figured out where I

[04:34] want to work and I had done some interns at law firms and Realized that that wasn’t the right match for me and during one of those times I lived with a banker and so I thought the banking industry was pretty cool and I went to work at a bank right out of college and so I’ve literally been dealing with money my entire life and So maybe we’ll come back to the part where the principals got picked up on but I think The message that I wanted to share there is the value of teaching children at a very very young age How to deal with money and and I literally in elementary and junior high school I dealt with a large amount of money and handled it because my parents helped me see the importance of saving and the importance of paying attention to

[05:23] Income and expenses and taking care of the value that you offer in the community Which you know for me was the milk and the relationship with the customers and that kind of thing So that’s truly the very beginning of all of it. That’s interesting You know you often hear that a people that have these principles or people that had to Wake up early in the morning do the hard work a lot of these farmers and our founding fathers of this country many of them were also involved with laborious work at farms and other things like that, so was it Time that you got to be pensive and think about the guiding principles of your life when you were younger or did this Come from your voracious reading. Where did that really?

[06:10] surface well as we’ve fast forward so I worked at the bank for about three years and Just got tired of the restrictions that banks have and this is the late 80s So banks were not doing investing or anything. It was just simple savings accounts checking accounts The trust department happened to be nearby where I was working So I did have exposure to some of the investments and other things and it’s just always been an area of interest Of course, the internet didn’t exist at that time. So I did read widely I’ve always enjoyed reading and thankfully can read very quickly. So I am able to consume a lot of Material and it was just a curiosity plus it was my profession and I didn’t have children at the time

[06:55] And so I spent lots and lots of time reading and learning and listening to The clients at the bank and how they were handling their money And I think that’s a really important part of it because a lot of our clients were entrepreneurs They were real estate investors. And so I just picked up on a lot of the things that they were doing So when I left the bank I wanted to get into the typical financial planning industry and I use that term just very broadly So I interviewed broadly. I interviewed at stock brokerages. I interviewed at life insurance companies I interviewed at boutique what we would call financial planning firms and I looked at a wide array of Just the area of helping people with their money and I was

[07:43] Early 20s I have blonde hair. I was very quickly in many of those Interviews cast into a role of support, you know a secretary or something like that I was very clear that is not what I wanted to do. I wanted to be dealing with the clients I wanted to be helping the clients I had done that at the bank very successfully and I wanted to now step into a more Entrepreneurial role of helping the clients so I found a small firm that trained us and Enabled me to help my clients specifically directly with a mentor at the time and I learned what you would call typical financial planning I very quickly figured out that one of the best designations to support that typical financial planning Was the certified financial planner designation out of the College of Financial Planning in Denver

[08:33] And so over the course of two years, which is how long it took at that time and six different areas I got that certified financial planner designation and really just dove in and did typical financial planning for about five years You know one thing that I have learned from spending a lot of time with you is the language that you use So you’ve been using this word typical financial planning and I think some of our listeners may have picked up on this as well But you’re very intentional with the words that you use. So I hope unpack that a little bit for us Happy to and you are right. I think words are very very important and believe me I messed them up and over time I figured out with this arena of financial planning that the word traditional was sometimes used to apply to

[09:26] financial planning in its traditional sense so traditional means Longevity it means been around for a while and I started to think about What the work that we do today? means as it relates to the word traditional and I from a marketing standpoint wanted to use a word that applied The concept of different to our work. So I was thinking okay. Well, okay traditional financial planning That that’s what people are calling it but that’s not really accurate because the work that we do with real estate and with whole life products and the Strategies that we do that are very economically based which we’ll come back to Because of our principles that are economically based These are truly the traditional methods when you go back into the 1800s and the early

[10:23] 1900s the work around real estate and whole life insurance and the principles that we use those were the only Methods that got used and so in my earlier years. I let the traditional word Still be applied to financial planning and I used the word non traditional for our work to try to differentiate it but over time I realized that that was horribly inaccurate and I Just decided that it was very necessary for us to use the traditional word Our work with whole life and real estate and the principles that we operate with has been around not only since the 18 and 1900s but way back even in biblical times For example, like The Richest Man in Babylon, which is a book by George Claussen that you can read and it has in essence our

[11:17] work That’s traditional So once I got clear on that then I had to figure out a different word to apply to What is known as financial planning today, which you know, even when you use the term investment today It it has a very normal boring ah typical Approach and so it literally was just something that With a little bit of thought probably was on a walk with Emma dog or helping the alpacas in the barn. I Realized that the term typical is so much more accurate to apply to what’s done with finances today in the realm of Wall Street and the banks and the definition of an investment which just makes most people go straight to stocks bonds and mutual funds and How cash is handled all of that is typical and I love

[12:16] The definition of typical applied to this work because the word typical has just a little bit of an undercurrent of What’s the word I’m looking for? Like not ideal. It has just an undercurrent to share the message that it’s Something that could be better Typical implies that there might be something else out there And so I think it’s so accurate that there is typical financial planning that goes on around people’s money and Then there is traditional Prosperity economics work or principle based work that can go on around people’s money. You know, it’s really interesting You know if we dive even deeper into language, there’s something that you often talk about which is this and Thinking so what that means is most of us and guilty parents myself included often is you know

[13:20] I’m thinking oh you can have this or this But when Kim is thinking she’s looking at it say, okay How can we have this and this and how did you start to think that way? And how have you applied that early on with money? I realized that there truly was a way to have money move through assets, which is a very specific definition of our sixth principle and With that movement get one dollar to do two jobs. It’s very prevalent in real estate It’s very prevalent in businesses and it’s very prevalent in whole life insurance and so with that and the ability to have two jobs that Necessarily brings in the word and so okay. That was fun for many many years now I’ve been talking about one dollar doing more than one job could be two could be ten whatever it is and I

[14:24] Have a value that’s very important to me that is efficiency So like when people give a list of values one of my values is efficiency. I apply it to everything. I mean when I’m Walking to the barn like I take the straight line not the curvy route I mean it it’s I sometimes have to back off the efficiency thing It’s so important to me all the time and so anytime you’re working with efficiency and you can get one dollar do two jobs or one step to do You know to get two results the word and just comes in and so over time I started to play with it in other spaces and then Todd So my husband Todd Langford and I I don’t remember when this happened But probably just maybe five or ten years ago somehow the word and

[15:14] turned into the word both in some example and we just Adopted it hook line and sinker and so we talk about living in the house of both we talk about always seeking if you can do both always using the word and to further the discussion and then added to that a Comment that a mentor of ours Vince Dodona shared is the word but But when used in a sentence essentially eliminates everything that you just said I like your tie, but I would prefer it be purple means. I don’t like your tie and so I strove to remove the word but from my language and the logical replacement is and and then there’s one additional thing that happened and that is reading the book Yes, and written by Second City, which is a comedy club in Chicago and

[16:18] Yes, and is used in comedy to further the discussion to enable people to keep going and They teach this not only for their comedians But they created this whole course to teach business people to use the term Yes, and to further the discussion so all of this just comes full circle and has supported the idea of the word and the concept of the word both the ability to say yes, and instead of the word but as You know we learn more about you and like the thinking the language you use it’s been a progression Over years and years, but as we look at that progression It’s all been based off of a foundation of hard work foundation of these principles that you’ve developed over the years and When did they first start and do you feel like there will be more very interesting that we’re asking the more question right now

[17:21] But I’ll start with the first start. So at some point in my career I’m trying to think I had realized that the typical financial planning approach was not going to work and so I was casting about for a solution because I was doing a financial plan on my own family and realizing it was just a big joke and our Entire story is written in our book financial planning has failed if people want a little deeper dive into that aspect of it But just from a verbal standpoint I just realized that there was there had to be a different way and I thought back to all of my clients at the bank the Entrepreneurially oriented clients and an entrepreneur is first an entrepreneur in thought so you can be an employee and still be an

[18:10] Entrepreneur there’s an entrepreneurial thought process that can occur. And so I had a lot of people in that space as well and I started to realize that there was some similarities between how they approached money, but also how they approached life and So we were working with a marketing firm to create some material some handouts some collateral and I’ve always Really appreciated principles. I’ve always been aware that living a principal life was important My father was a elementary school principal So I always was really clear on the spelling difference between pal and PLE and what that meant literally that I think is the only reason why I was clear on that and so it just seemed right to Have some principles to work with to have something to guide us to have something to

[19:13] use as an opportunity filter to check things against and So I literally sat down one day and thought about okay. What would the principles be and They came together Faster than I ever could have imagined It literally turned into seven principles in a matter of five minutes of writing just like fell onto the paper and We have tweaked how they’re defined only one time in an effort to just clarify them a little bit and They have been in existence for 20 some years and I’m so grateful And I I really just have to know that the credit goes elsewhere because like I said They just fell onto the paper, you know, if you think about that and not to Draw an Unfair comparison, but if you think of how our country was established and we had these founders get together

[20:16] The words almost fell on paper. I’ve been in Philadelphia and I’ve set inside of those rooms And one of the strange things is they actually Went and closed all of the windows and locked the doors and they did that because they didn’t want people from the outside Shouting in and distracting. They didn’t want them taking Information that wasn’t quite thought through and these founders were in in these rooms and it was hot They had heavy clothing on it was uncomfortable But they went through and these this hive of these smart people Were able to guide us and something that’s stuck around for years and years And so you were guided will say you were Able to put this together and on top of that now you’ve built this

[21:14] Community and I’m not saying you as in Kim Butler alone with your flag on top of the hill, but I’m saying you’ve Had this tenacity to push forward so to I guess You know go a little bit further out from just you The community is also a part of you and those principles and I’d love to hear more about that as you hear I tend to use the word our or we often and sometimes it’s just in an effort to include God in the conversation sometimes it’s truly because Anything that gets built like this is absolutely done with a team or a community and it’s interesting I have really resisted the word tribe and Prefer the word community because I think tribe implies that there’s some type of guru leading it and

[22:03] That is not what I’m interested in I want to build a community where Todd and I and in time very quickly other people We’ll talk about them in a minute are the current leaders and yet that implies that there will be others And that’s how I want it And so I want to talk just briefly about the coining of the term prosperity economics Because we developed the seven principles first and our firm’s name partners for prosperity That was chosen also well over 20 years ago And I remember the attorney at the time said I don’t think you should use the word partners because legally it implies something and I said I’m absolutely using the word partners because it implies something and so then of course the word prosperity too is

[22:50] applicable to money and that was pretty easy and it came about also because we were fairly quick to have a website in the early web days of the internet and It just looked good partners the number four prosperity comm so that the actual LLC was spelled For but the number four in the middle just separated the terms out So then at some point and this is probably only about I’m gonna say ten years ago I felt like there was a need for a name for the community that I wanted to build because it didn’t exist and Todd very much also wanted a community and so just always loving the word prosperity and Then Realizing and we need to bring this up. So I’ll just bunny rabbit trail this briefly our principles are

[23:44] economically based they’re not just financially based and the distinction there is finances particularly personal finances are very restrictive to cash savings investments Mortgages, you know mostly products we think of and yet we live in a wider world and and that wider world is an economy and there is a personal economy and there is also a Nationwide economy and a state economy in a worldwide economy. And so the term Economics as much as I didn’t even like econ in college The term economics is more applicable because it implies that wider world with in Which our money works, but also within which we work as human beings We you know an economy is a bigger picture of everything and it includes more and so I just felt like the term

[24:47] prosperity economics was more accurate to Apply to what we were doing as human beings what we were having our money do and how we thought about things Because first of all the difference between prosperity and anything else and and it can be quickly Boiled down to prosperity versus scarcity or abundance versus scarcity but prosperity I like because it implies money a little bit more and then Again the term economics to apply that larger picture and include things like taxation and aspects of real estate which are not often included in personal finance and the way that the various products interplay that is economics so prosperity economics just seemed to make sense and so that term was coined and

[25:42] Has been used and developed and I’m super grateful for it because I think it really really says a lot I don’t think there’s any other better term that we could be using. So you feel very much that Juan you’re being very intentional with your language and you feel that this is Beyond you obviously and it has enough momentum To become a legacy something that’s gonna go generations Understand where it currently is and then where you see it going when Todd and I decided that there was an important need for first of all just an event Where like-minded people could get together and then second of all support for that event? You know, you can’t just have an event once a year and expect to get anywhere

[26:26] You’ve you’ve got to have ongoing communication and whatnot. We decided to set up a structure Where the event and the community could build and it would be very clear where the benefit of That business and the opportunity around the event was and that it would exist beyond our lifetime So the easiest way to do that is to set up a nonprofit. So Thankfully, we were able to get a nonprofit a pure public charity a full 501 c3 Approved for financial education and that’s not an easy step to get something to prove for a full public charity but we did and then we Created an event and a community and started to build and I think we’re on our sixth now as we head into 2019 of an event for advisors and yet I’ve always had all along

[27:21] The goal to have the prosperity economics movement supported by the prosperity economics 501 c3 Before both advisors and clients because clients need the same thing that advisors do Which is a community of like-minded people that are handling their finances and their lives the same way so just like a whole life friendly financial advisor struggles because Whole life insurance is the redheaded stepchild of the financial services Product world and whole life agents are the redheaded stepchildren of the financial services world We you know, we can’t go to the typical Financial industry events and feel at home our clients are the same way They can’t go to their quote water cooler or their online chat room and feel at home

[28:13] Talking about self-directed IRAs and whole life insurance and real estate investing and bridge loans and life settlements, etc Etc clients sometimes ask what’s the biggest risk in buying life insurance as a place to store cash and I will tell them it’s when you tell your friends that this is what you’re doing and they look at you like you have green hair and They ask the same about life settlements and I’ll say it’s when you tell your friends that you’ve bought life settlements And they look at you like it’s immoral. And so this Need of or the desire. I’m not a big fan of the word need this desire to have Similar thinking and acting people is necessary for both the clients and the advisors and

[28:57] the education the information shouldn’t really be different if we Agree that we want to be transparent in our work Why shouldn’t a client have access to the exact same information that an advisor has access to? Why should we have to have separate audiences? For our work now that being said clearly an advisor is probably going to know a little bit more Want to know a little bit more have a deeper dive into the various products So products are things that we buy and the various strategies strategies are things that we do Than a client yet for the client that really wants the deep dive I think they should absolutely have access to and be able to have as much information as the advisor does And I’ll tell you we got the coolest compliment about three months ago from a financial advisor trained typically

[29:55] Wall Street guy basically that came to a three-day truth training Which is something that Todd Langford of truth concepts and myself provide that’s typically for financial advisors however, we have had more and more clients show up at it and this man said after the first day I have never been in a training where we got so much good information and handled so many issues for an entire day and the realm of compensation to the advisor has never been mentioned this entire day and Of course, it didn’t get mentioned the second or the third day either. And so that was a really cool just Identifier I think of how we operate. I mean, of course, we’re in business to make money before if we’re not making a profit

[30:51] we can’t serve our clients and Yet it’s so important that the information the education The concepts and the numerical proof are out there And so that is one of the goals of the prosperity economics movement. So it’s beyond you and Where do you see this happening? Like where do you see it going in the future? So I believe that the movement will continue to grow it will continue to add Advisors to it. I get an email probably once a week from an advisor that says oh my gosh Thank you so much. This is how I’ve been thinking all along and You’ve just put the words to the paper or the numbers to the calculator in a way that really resonates with me and so I’m always really really grateful for those emails and

[31:44] I believe that with the current leadership So I want to add in that Patrick Donahoe has joined the current leadership of the prosperity economics movement We’re really grateful for his wisdom and expertise I think Patrick and Todd and I are three very different thinkers and doers and So that third component was really helpful and necessary and Spencer I would really include you as One of the leaders and one of the helpers in the movement and getting the work done because it’s so valuable to have Podcasting as an ability and just your questions and I’m always really really grateful for you on our podcasts because you have good questions and you come to it with good information and there’s sometimes I rely on you for

[32:32] The content just as much as the questions that spur my own thinking and so I believe that There will be continued unique abilities that come to the movement that are attracted to the principles and the space that we provide for authenticity and transparency and economic based thinking and proof With their own skill sets So Kim has a skill set Todd has a skill set Patrick does Spencer does and there will be other people and there are already That are coming to the movement and Contributing their unique gifts and talents to enable this movement to grow in order to And this is my singular goal. I’ve stated it numerous ways numerous times over the last five years help more people in more ways because clearly we want to help people with their finances and

[33:31] in order to help people with their finances you have to help them with their thinking in their education and in order to help people with their thinking their education you have to have collateral like books and calculators and podcasts and webinars and It will just keep going from there as we continue to build and drive forward In a movement that will absolutely Supercede our lifetimes, you know When we have this conversation it’s Here my goal was to be able to extract as much as I could out of Kim Butler and oftentimes when I talk with people it’s easy to get them to just rattle on and talk about their accomplishments or who they are and This has gone back to what the community is doing and what you’re doing and it’s not about Kim and

[34:26] As a side note for listeners, I’ve spent a lot of time with Kim on the microphone but also in person and my kids have spent time with you and There is often times when you meet celebrities or people that have Accomplished a lot in their life. There’s Their persona of who they are on stage or who they are in public and then who they are in private there’s No difference between the Kim Butler on microphone or on stage Than the Kim Butler in the kitchen or in the house We’ve my kids have heard both they’ve heard the language they’ve understood that Hard work is necessary. They’ve gone out in the morning and done the chores It’s a life that is guided by principles and it’s a life that is can’t use the word eternal, but I’m saying

[35:24] Long-sighted and there’s no shortcuts to what’s happening here, so it’s been wonderful and I again try and try and extract as much as I can out of Kim Butler life, but for you as listeners Hopefully you’ve been able to realize that it’s really about you and it’s about this country and it’s about Getting things to change getting us to be focused on the guiding principles of this country That’s really what it was and that’s what these principles of Prosperity do for our listeners as well So it’s been a good conversation Is there anything that you would love for our listeners to know about you before we start to wrap up? Well, I do want to share one more thing about where I think the principles are headed because just recently

[36:18] Patrick Donahoe thought that there were a couple additional ones that should be added and I’ve been very content with seven It is a very complete number and I haven’t really ever even thought about it until Patrick brought up About four or five additional words that he thought would be important principles and so literally just in the last month, I dug back into a bunch of written material that Patrick had much of it from training at Todd Langford’s truth training and I Got his team Nick Welch dug into some of his writings as well dug back into my original busting the financial planning lies book and Just started to rethink the principles and how they are laid out and so I believe that will will we will be adding a few and

[37:16] Will adjust the wording that defines each of the principles a little bit and I’ll probably keep the seven original principles for partners for prosperity and Yet enable the 12 or so that I think we’re going to be using For the prosperity economics movement to be for the movement a higher number Slightly differently described possibly a little different order and we’ll just see where that goes But I think it’s so important as human beings that we remain open to change For the better and as you know, one of our favorite words to work with is even better to make things even better and so as a human being when you stop close when you stop Having your mind be open if you have a closed mind if you’re not willing to grow that

[38:12] signifies death and I mean that literally physically emotionally and in every other way and Frankly, I love that you use the word eternal. I I think that that’s a an important aspect and not to get too spiritual in the discussion, but that aspect of our lives and our money is an important thing to think about and there’s even some Financial advisors in the movement that talk about an eternal return With their money they use internal external and eternal and I don’t prefer that because it is not something that we can prove Numerically and one of the things I’m so grateful for is The connection to Todd Lingford and his truth concept software and Todd and I are married now, but we met long long ago

[39:05] When he had software that I purchased and came to his trainings Numerous times in order to learn the use of that software and it is only because of truth concept software that our ideas have the validity that they do because they can be numerically proven because Ideas are awesome. But when you’re talking about money, if you can’t numerically prove those ideas Then they’re going to be suspect and that’s why while I like the term eternal returns I don’t want to use it very often because it’s not numerically provable now maybe at some point in the future will develop some type of Capability to prove that but as an example Dan Sullivan has a 25-year game plan at age 75 That’s eternal Dan Sullivan who is my mentor talks publicly about the desire to live to 156

[40:07] Whether he makes 156 or not is not the point the point is he’s stretched his Perspective out there way into the future so much So that you could call that eternal and I’ve just adopted that thinking, you know the phrase stretching your perspective I think that’s a great summary of many of the things that we’ve talked about because here We’re we’re seeing this community. We’re seeing the way that you think Todd and Patrick and the advisors and they’re out and While the podcast serves as that vehicle that can affect a lot of people’s lives One of the multiplier effects is being able to train and associate with these other advisors that they also have their podcasts and their books and so One thing that you can help teach them

[41:04] It will then pass on to hundreds or thousands of people and it’s because it’s so critically important and one thing that I’ve noticed is that all of this is To help you as a listener This isn’t the Kim Butler movement or the Todd Langford movement or the Patrick Donahue movement This is to help you and your family and so as you listen to this in your car or with your earbuds on understand that the books that are written the podcasts that are shared and everything that is done is to help you and your family and That is one thing that I am Eternally grateful for as we wrap up I will add that recently a longtime client said hey I haven’t talked to you in a while What’s changed with your financial recommendations and I said?

[42:03] Absolutely nothing now. This is wonderful to hear Well, thank you Kim for sharing a little bit of more insight about who you are and Why you’re doing what you do and what our listeners are, you know what they can get out of it one thing that we would love for you listeners to do is if You love this podcast one make sure that you’re subscribed Next would be to leave a review and let other people know about it and Then to go even further is to share this with other people that you know of and that could be Letting them know one of your favorite episodes or just using it as a vehicle to help teacher children or family members It’s a way that they can get education and a bite-sized piece that will help their lives both financially

[42:59] But it’s also gonna help with those guiding principles that will make them live the lives that are gonna be more fulfilling So thank you for spending time with us Thank you for listening to the prosperity podcast to take control of your money and have it work for you Visit us at partners for prosperity calm if you liked this episode Make sure you subscribe and leave a review