We are stoked to bring you high performers who are not just chasing entertaining success, but redefining it through above and beyond service. Squad really quick. Knowledge nugget [00:01:00] coaching knowledge nugget this week is leverage. It’s all about leverage. Leverage does not build character. It reveals it.

I’ve learned this the hard way. Coaching businesses, athletics life. When pressure increases, you don’t rise to the moment. You fall back to your standards. And remember, I always say squad. Goals are nothing but byproducts of your standards. Whatever you’re reaching for the standards have got to meet them, and going back to leverage.

Money is leverage. Opportunity is leverage. Winning is leverage, and leverage is honest, brutally honest. I had a coaching client recently, high performer, winning on the surface. When things were calm, he was locked in, confident saying all the right things. Then pressure hit big opportunity, bigger expectations, and what showed up wasn’t confidence.

It was hesitation, emotion, shortcut, and excuses. Nothing new is created. What was already there just got louder. That’s what leverage does. It doesn’t ask how motivated you are, doesn’t care about your intentions, exposes your preparation, your discipline, and your thinking. I’ve seen it with athletes cutting weight.

I’ve seen it with entrepreneurs scaling fast. I’ve seen it with people who finally make it. [00:02:00] If your habits are sloppy, leverage punishes you. If your thinking is emotional, leverage amplifies it. If your discipline is earned, daily leverage becomes an advantage. Here’s the trap. People chase leverage before they earn the right to hold it.

They want the upside. Without the structure, the freedom, without the standards, the control, without the character. Pressure doesn’t break people. Pressure introduces them to themselves. So if you want leverage more money, more responsibility, more opportunity, ask yourself this first. What would pressure expose about me today?

’cause leverage is coming for all of us. The work is deciding what reveals it, when it arrives, and talking about someone that’s solid under pressure. I got my good friend here, Thomas Cox, a true financial architect who doesn’t just talk money. He engineers it. Thomas is the founder of Cox Capital where he helps business owners and high income professionals stop playing defense with their money and start building real durable wealth.

He specialize in infinite banking. Private lending and capital protection strategies that most people never learn until it’s too late. [00:03:00] This man has scaled multiple seven figure businesses, owns 32 multi-family units, operates short-term rentals, and rents a private lending network that puts money to work instead of letting it rot in traditional systems.

And they know what I talk about with generational wealth. This man is the guy to get you there. He’s also the host of the Owner’s Table Podcast. A top 10%. Squad, don’t go there yet. There’ll be a link in the show notes. You gotta go and check out his podcast. He has over a hundred episodes where he consistently breaks down complex financial strategies into real world usable moves for entrepreneurs who want control, leverage, and optionality.

Bottom line, my guy here, Thomas, helps you own the game instead of renting it, right? So if you’re an entrepreneur, investor, high performer. Or just somebody that really wants to lean into their ultimate human potential and you’re tired of surface level financial advice and wants systems that actually work.

Buckle up. Here’s my good buddy, Thomas Cox. Hey man. Thank you so much for coming on times. First, what is your favorite color and why?

Speaker 4: That’s a [00:04:00] great question. My favorite color’s purple.

Coach Fergie: Right?

Speaker 4: Because my growing up, my dad was a head football coach at a school, and we were the Lanier Purple Tigers.

Coach Fergie: I

Speaker 4: love that.

And so I think it’s just ingrained. I would say that my, one of my favorite colors behind that is Navy. I love Navy blue.

Coach Fergie: Love it. Purple’s, royal and regal man. And plus That’s

Speaker 4: right. It’s,

Coach Fergie: and plus I know your background from our, our chats that we’ve had. Yeah. And it’s a mix of red and blue.

I can see you being chill, but when it’s time to turn it up, brother, go QB One mode. That’s right. See that happening, baby? I love it. That’s right. So if we were to grab a, a coffee or a drink and talk about anything except money, what topic do you think would come up the fastest?

Speaker 4: Ooh, that’s a, I would say a one A would be

Coach Fergie: we just talked a lot about it.

Speaker 4: Yeah. I would say one A would be like the college football coaching world.

Coach Fergie: Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 4: And then one B would probably be family.

Coach Fergie: Okay.

Speaker 4: I don’t have any, I don’t have any hobbies. I don’t play golf. I hunt with my son, but I don’t have any hobbies. So I work,

Coach Fergie: yeah.

Speaker 4: I, and I hang out with my family.

That’s really [00:05:00] all that I do, dude. But I’m about a 17 or 14 and a 10-year-old.

Coach Fergie: Right.

Speaker 4: And so you don’t have much time to do anything else.

Coach Fergie: Right.

Speaker 4: So

Coach Fergie: you’re like my little brother from another mother man. We are the exact That’s right. Same thing, dude.

Speaker 4: Yeah.

Coach Fergie: Like for reals It is.

Speaker 4: Yeah.

Coach Fergie: I love real estate.

That’s my jam, dude. I own 82 rentals. I started investing in 1999. I’ve held them all, never sold one. I believe in their generational wealth kind of thing of why the rich don’t pay because they can refi, take a little money out and live and just hold onto it, right? But you scaled, seven figure businesses again.

You own 32 multifamily units and maybe even more by now, and you run private lending. What’s the biggest financial high income earners still believe? Financial lie. Financial lie, that high income earners still believe that’s keeping them quietly broke. You know the people out there making 2 50, 300 a year, but what’s the lie that’s keeping them broke?

Speaker 4: The lie that keeps people broke is the fact that they have to invest their, the only place to invest their money [00:06:00] is Wall Street.

Coach Fergie: Right.

Speaker 4: For so many years, wall Street has dominated our investing world. Meaning this is how you invest. This is how the rich, no, this is not how they invest. The billion multimillionaires and billionaires only have about 30 to 35% of their wealth in the month.

Coach Fergie: Thank you. Thank you. Yes.

Speaker 4: 30 to 35%.

Coach Fergie: Yes.

Speaker 4: What people don’t understand is there’s what these things called alts or alternative investing.

Coach Fergie: Yep.

Speaker 4: And there’s so many things, and this is, that’s a po, this is a multiple episode podcast that we could talk about.

Alternative investing may be a good idea down the road.

Coach Fergie: Sure.

Speaker 4: But there are all these different things that you can put your money in to earn. That people just don’t know about Scott they’re clear lost is last year’s Easter eggs when it comes to how to invest and what to invest in. And I would think that’s the number one thing is like I put my money up.

The worst thing I hear I max out my 401k. Oh gosh,

Coach Fergie: don’t,

Speaker 4: oh my. Bless your soul. Yeah. [00:07:00] Hey, the question, the first question I ask is this, if you were a farmer, would you rather be taxed on the seed or would you rather be taxed on the harvest? It’s a no brainer.

Coach Fergie: Yeah, the seed, right?

Speaker 4: The seed. Here’s the thing.

Think about this. If I take a 50 pound bag of corn seed just using corn example, sure. 50 pound bag of corn cost me, 20 bucks. 10 bucks. But if I plant all that corn. That’s gonna produce thousands of dollars of corn. So without it be taxed on the $20 bag of corn,

Coach Fergie: right,

Speaker 4: or the thousands of dollars that it’s gonna produce.

Thank you. Okay, here’s what happens.

Coach Fergie: Keep going, man. This is awesome, dude.

Speaker 4: When you put, when you load tons of money in a 401k, you’re taking money that’s pre-taxed money. That’s fine. You’re taking that pre-tax money and you’re putting in that pre-tax money grows.

Then what happens is pre-tax money grows and the growth is also taxed. So the everything in that thing is taxed. Yeah. Here’s the problem. The government is in massive debt. Okay. [00:08:00] Tons of debt. The only way to get rid of debt is to do one of two things, is to cut programs.

Cut it. Cut costs. Cut costs. Let’s say it that way. Or increase revenue. Cut costs. Increase revenue. There is no magic pill. You can’t wave a wand.

Coach Fergie: Right.

Speaker 4: So they’re not gonna cut costs. They’re not gonna cut programs because when you cut programs, you cut jobs. America’s not about decreasing jobs.

Increasing jobs.

Coach Fergie: Right.

Speaker 4: How do the, how does the government increase revenue? They increased taxes.

Coach Fergie: Right.

Speaker 4: So when they increase taxes, okay, you’re taking say you can’t get to that money, and we haven’t even talked about not having access to that money till you’re 59 and a half,

Coach Fergie: right?

Speaker 4: But what happens is we don’t know what that tax rate’s gonna be.

You’re 53, so you’re not too far. Hell, I’m 45. I’ve got 15 more years before I can even get to that money, number one. But then number two, I don’t know what the tax rate’s gonna be in 15 years. Lord, that’s two more presidents.

Coach Fergie: Right. Yeah.

Speaker 4: So those, I think that’s a long answer to a short question.

Yeah. But I think that. The [00:09:00] unlock for people that are in that 250 plus range is knowing that there are so many more options out there,

Coach Fergie: right?

Speaker 4: Ways to grow your money other than loading it into the market. Now, look, I’ve got money in the market. I dollar cost average every month.

Coach Fergie: Yeah, me too. Yeah, I would say,

Speaker 4: but it’s about 30.

It’s 30. Mine is 33%.

Coach Fergie: Infinite banking.

Speaker 4: Yeah.

Coach Fergie: Tell me, like for some listeners, I always put out a teaser out and different, like my email list is big and I got a lot of people, I do like when I, before I bring you on, I send quick email out. There’s a lot of people out there that don’t understand what infinite banking is.

Yeah. So can you kinda give us, talk to me like I’m a 12-year-old in a sense, in the squad out there. Sure. What is infinite banking?

Speaker 4: Okay. Infinite banking is leveraging, we talked about leverage earlier in your coaching. Coaching nugget. Infinite banking is leveraging cash value, whole life insurance and using that as a bank.

Coach Fergie: Okay.

Speaker 4: Okay. From Mountain Brook, Alabama to Mumbai, India to New York City, the [00:10:00] number one business in all of the world, and it will be for the end of time, Scott is banking.

Coach Fergie: Sure.

Speaker 4: It just is. We could argue about it all day long. The number one business in the world is banking. And what happens is I want you, I want, I wanna teach you this.

I wanna teach everybody this,

Coach Fergie: please. Yeah.

Speaker 4: Everything we do is financed. Okay, track this. Everything you do is financed. If you borrow money from somebody or something, a bank, you’re paying interest to that entity for that money.

Coach Fergie: Yeah.

Speaker 4: If you pay cash for that thing, that car, that house, that whatever that is, lost opportunity cost, that money will never earn again.

Coach Fergie: It’s not leveraged.

Speaker 4: Everything we do is financed.

Coach Fergie: Sure.

Speaker 4: Okay. So what we do with infinite banking is we take a whole life insurance policy, which a lot of people poo on. They do?

Coach Fergie: Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 4: Okay. But we buy as little a death benefit as possible. So that we can maximize the cash value in that policy.

So we’re buying some death benefit, but we’re [00:11:00] all also putting lots and lots of cash in that policy. Okay? Okay. They give the po the money goes to the insurance company. The insurance company use it. What number one they give you a guaranteed rate of the, one of the ones, the policies. I have 4% plus a dividend.

Okay. Okay. So I’m growing on that money, but what happens is when I put that money in that policy, I can then borrow from that money. Okay, so I’m gonna, I’ll give you a great example of what I did last week. I have $300,000 in one of these policies.

Coach Fergie: Sure.

Speaker 4: I borrowed a hundred thousand dollars and let a house flipper borrow that money.

Coach Fergie: Okay.

Speaker 4: He’s a hard money

Coach Fergie: situation. He

Speaker 4: Hard money. Hard money. We can get to that later. Hard money. I, he’s gonna give me 15% over the course of six months.

Coach Fergie: Yeah.

Speaker 4: Okay. My, the 300,000 is still growing at 4% because I didn’t take the money out. I borrowed from it.

Coach Fergie: Okay.

Speaker 4: Even though I’ve got a hundred out working

Coach Fergie: yeah.

Speaker 4: I’m still earning on 300. Yeah. So my a hundred out here is working. I’m getting 15% out here right now. I do, I gotta pay a little interest [00:12:00] on this, but it’s daily average balance interest. So let’s just say I have to pay 2% on this money ’cause I’m wanna get it out. Six months

Coach Fergie: right’s

Speaker 4: fixed rate, by the way.

So I’m gonna make 15% over here. Pay 2%. Call it 13%. 13, 13%.

Coach Fergie: Yeah.

Speaker 4: On the a hundred.

Coach Fergie: Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 4: But then also, don’t forget my three hundred’s earning at 4%

Coach Fergie: still. Yeah.

Speaker 4: So in essence, what infinite banking is this? It is being your own bank.

Coach Fergie: Like

Speaker 4: you

Coach Fergie: said, I’m building, the banks are the most powerful. So if you can have a itty bitty chip of being your own bank.

Right.

Speaker 4: Being my own bank. Yeah. And so I, infinite banking is using it. Now look, here’s the owner. This is not an investing tool. This is a savings bucket. That we can then invest from.

Coach Fergie: Okay,

Speaker 4: so the rate is not gonna be astronomical,

Coach Fergie: right?

Speaker 4: You’re gonna get a 4% rate plus a dividend. They’ve given a dividend every year for the house, 186 years.

Coach Fergie: Sure

Speaker 4: you’re gonna get, but this is a savings tool. This is not gonna, this is not gonna, this is not the if,

Coach Fergie: right?

Speaker 4: This is an and asset. I’m gonna do this and take [00:13:00] this and invest in real estate and take this and do hard money and take this and do land syndications,

Coach Fergie: right?

Speaker 4: So this is an and asset.

Coach Fergie: Love it.

So it’s at walks hand in hand with the other investment vehicles that you’re involved in then.

Speaker 4: Absolutely

Coach Fergie: love it. Absolutely. I love

Speaker 4: that. So the people that can use this the most, Scott, there’s three groups. Okay.

Coach Fergie: Okay.

Speaker 4: Write this down. Any business owner,

Coach Fergie: sure.

Speaker 4: If you own IT business, any kind of business at all, and you use money, which everybody does, this is perfect for you. Okay. Investors. Okay, that’s the second bucket.

Coach Fergie: Sure.

Speaker 4: If anybody is what I call cycling money, giving money here, taking a profit here, getting money there, taking a profit here. People that cycle money are wonderful.

That’s investors number two. Number three is what I call high income earners, and I say that doctors, lawyers, vets, dentists, C-Suites, the people that you coach.

Coach Fergie: Sure.

Speaker 4: That is perfect for them. Is this made for. A school teacher that makes $66,000 a year? No, it’s not. Probably not. Yeah, it’s not discrimination.

Nope. Is it made for a fireman that makes [00:14:00] $81,000 a year? No, it’s not. This is for people that have excess cash over their expenses. Number one,

Coach Fergie: right?

Speaker 4: Or number two people that are cycling money. And I say that I got a guy that pays himself $60,000 a year, but he has A-H-V-A-C business where he is, bringing in eight or $900,000 a year, but he pays himself 60.

But he uses his the business money to have a policy. So that he can Yeah. Buy trucks.

Coach Fergie: Yep.

Speaker 4: Buy equipment, hire quicker, things like that.

Coach Fergie: Love that.

Speaker 4: So that’s the ecosystem.

Coach Fergie: Yes. Yeah. You know what? My dad love him. My best friend in the world, actually lives in Alabama.

Speaker 4: Roll. Todd Roll. Yeah. He would love that. But yeah, but like he was, he worked on the, we lived in Detroit, he worked on the line at General Motors, right? Yeah. So I never knew what wealth was. Sure. Had really bad imposter syndrome when I started making money, never held onto it. I was just like, I didn’t know how to keep it.

Coach Fergie: And then, I was blessed to. Be introduced to a group of they’re Jewish, they’re allowed me to say this. I [00:15:00] call ’em, I affectionately call ’em my Hebrew hammers. Yeah. And they really taught me about generational wealth, what you just said there about infinite banking and what you just said about the 401k, or, borrowing away from it and knowing that, like that low tax on the seed.

If you start taking money to that 401k. That big tax, that’s the harvest that you’re getting taxed down, like what you’re dropping right now. Squad, what he is dropping is stuff that is not said on NMS nbc. It’s not said Yeah. To people. Okay. What he’s dropping, you need to really tune in and be taking notes.

’cause I got a full page of him already. Okay. Squad thomas, you help people protect capital. Not just grow it, but you help ’em protect it, which, you’re an oline coach once you thrown in there, so you know a little bit about that, right? So what’s the biggest mistake?

Successful entrepreneurs. Make when they start winning financially. And how does ego kinda show up in bad money decisions?

Speaker 4: That’s such a good que That’s such a good question. So there’s two things there. Okay. There’s two mistakes they make. Number one, not enough margin. [00:16:00] And if COVID didn’t teach us something, you gotta have margin in your business.

That’s the first thing they’ve gotta, you’ve gotta allocate a place to put the what if money. Okay. Got it. That’s number one. Number two is lifestyle creep. You’ve heard this a gazillion times. I make a hundred thousand dollars a year, and I live at 90, $95,000 threshold. This is not good. Not good.

Coach Fergie: No.

Speaker 4: But then I make one 20 and I now live 1, 1 20, 1 50, right? Yeah. And then I make one 60 and I’m now 1 55 at that rate. Scott, you can’t produce wealth,

Coach Fergie: right?

Speaker 4: You can’t produce wealth. And so I, I encourage people all the time, it’s like, Hey, have a standard that you live by, meaning your grocery bill your power bill, your mortgage, all these things have a standard that you live by and if you’re gonna buy anything else.

Make sure a someone else is paying for it. Okay. That’s the most important thing. Or it’s gonna produce income in some way. Only shape four or five. Okay. Okay. Great example. You have some examples

Coach Fergie: [00:17:00] there, Thomas,

Speaker 4: if don’t mind, please. Yeah, that’s great. So we, my family and I have dreamed of having a house at the lake.

We’re outdoor people will water people. And I told my wife, she’s I want a lake house. And I was like, okay, that’s great. I said, but. You, we have three kids, and for the next 10 years we’re gonna be playing sports. I said, so there’s 25, 30 weeks a year, we’re not gonna be able to be there.

And I said, so we’re gonna rent this place out. And she’s I don’t want, I don’t wanna do that. I said, baby if we don’t, it’s gonna be an added large cost that I don’t know that we wanna absorb. And so for example, we have a place that’s two and a half acres on a lake, and I’ll send you the link that we short term rental.

And it costs about a hundred grand a year.

Coach Fergie: Yeah.

Speaker 4: To keep it operating, whether it be mortgage, the power bill, the water bill, all the things.

Coach Fergie: Yeah.

Speaker 4: It’s about a hundred grand a year. Large. Yeah. So we need to rent the thing out to, to break even. But here’s the thing. If I rent that house to Scott and Susie, you’re paying that bill.

Yeah. Like for example. The month of July is about 15, [00:18:00] 20, 20, 20 something thousand dollars to rent it for the month.

Coach Fergie: Right.

Speaker 4: I mean that, that’s great. That pays a lot of the expense, so I really, I have to drop three or $4,000 a year in there sometimes. Yeah. If there’s an expense that’s out of the ordinary.

Yeah. For the most part, Jimmy and Susie are paying for that thing. That’s an asset. A hundred percent. Yeah. That, that I will probably never sell, but. If I can leverage that.

Coach Fergie: Love it. Yeah.

Speaker 4: I can

Coach Fergie: leverage my knowledge nugget man. Yeah. Because I,

Speaker 4: he liked that. Yeah. Yeah. If I can do that that, that’s why.

Yeah. So that’s one thing that that, that helps that we can buy, that will produce income.

Coach Fergie: Yeah. Love it. Like to me, real estate to me. Is the best vehicle because Sure. It’s, it one, it’s a low threshold to get into. Like you can go buy a house, right? Sure. If you find the right, mentors, if you will.

And I was blessed to have them, and just start building the portfolio up, building portfolio up. And it’s, with my, Susan, it’s funny you said Scott and Susie, . Pull a [00:19:00] little money out of it and let the runner just keep paying their note.

You know what I’m saying? It’s just Hey, ’cause we’re frugal. Like

Speaker 4: Yeah.

Coach Fergie: Like when we go, when we travel, we’re first class and we eat out, we’re first class. Sure. But other than that, it’s we’re not palm beachers, no. You know what I’m saying? We, I think that we could be if we wanted to be, but there’s sure there’s nothing in it.

And we’re both, she’s 60, I’m 53. It’s kinda you know what, man? It’s like we’re just, our kids are grown. It’s just dude, let’s just live it. So we do that, but just leveraging the money, man. And I knew that you were gonna come with some gold about leveraging. So it, you’re obviously in the private lending sector as well, like straight up.

Where do you, where do people get greedy with their leverage that you’re seeing? And what’s the fastest way you’ve seen smart people blow up Good wealth?

Speaker 4: The hardest word in the English language is no, a

Coach Fergie: hundred percent. Dude, it’s easy to say, but hard to action.

Speaker 4: People get shiny object syndrome, whether it be getting overextended socially,

Coach Fergie: right?

Speaker 4: [00:20:00] Overextended from a business standpoint. And what happens is they wanna go do every little thing. And when you get overextended, you start being below average at everything. So where people over leverage, in my opinion, is getting too far, too much in debt to where you don’t have any margin to where if something happens, you can’t pay for it

Coach Fergie: margin real quick.

Thomas is margin like a little nest egg that kind of is there, or again, I know what it is, but people wanna hear it from you.

Speaker 4: Okay, so there’s a great book out there that we do a lot of our finances about. It’s called Profit First. Mike Malitz read it years ago. It’s unreal. Okay. So one of the things that he always talks about is he says, pay yourself first.

Coach Fergie: Absolutely.

Speaker 4: Okay. A lot of the times, a lot of people take their a hundred dollars that they made.

Coach Fergie: Yep.

Speaker 4: And they’ll pay all their expenses, pay everybody else, and then whatever’s left at the end is mine. No. Let’s pay ourself first.

Coach Fergie: Yep.

Speaker 4: And then back everything outta that. So one of the things he talks about in that is a is it is old school Dave Rams.

You have an account that is an emergency account. Knowing [00:21:00] what that number is. And here’s the crazy example. Okay. This is this week. This happened yesterday. Okay. I didn’t even know you were gonna ask this question. So I’ve talked to my one, my partners in some of the apartments I own. It’s just me and him.

We own some units together and dude, we have a huge nest egg in these apartments. Okay. We just. Rents have been up. Expenses have been down. It’s great.

Coach Fergie: Yeah.

Speaker 4: And he is Hey, do you wanna pay us? I’m like, ah. I said, let’s hang on. Let’s hang on for another three months.

Coach Fergie: Yeah.

Speaker 4: If we get to this number, then we’ll go from there.

I get a bill yesterday for $7,900 because something was wrong with the roof. And I sit there and I go, if we’d have taken five grand a piece. Would it hurt us know, but like it’s just one of those we had margin much

Coach Fergie: to know.

Speaker 4: It is

Coach Fergie: to

Speaker 4: know. Yeah. So with real estate, and I don’t know if, I don’t know if you’re gonna agree with this or not.

With real estate, my opinion on real estate is this. If I need the money from the real estate to pay for my lifestyle,

Coach Fergie: yeah.

Speaker 4: It’s probably not a good investment. [00:22:00]

Coach Fergie: Nope. A hundred percent. It’s

Speaker 4: probably not a good investment.

Coach Fergie: Yeah.

Speaker 4: Then there are people out there that their rentals pay their lifestyle and that’s fine if you, if that’s the way you’re structuring it and you’re not paying a management company and you’re fixing the stuff yourself, or you got a small team whatever.

But we buy real estate with the intention of not having to cash flow. I can either cash flow for a to buy more stuff.

Coach Fergie: Right.

Speaker 4: Or to b, to pay down debt quicker.

Coach Fergie: Sure.

Speaker 4: That’s an argument. As long as the day. As long as the day is long. Yeah, we could we could talk through that.

And you have an opinion. I got opinion like nobody’s wrong. It’s just a, like one of my partners, he’s pay it down. I’m like what’s the rate? There’s all these factors involved.

Coach Fergie: Yeah.

Speaker 4: And that’s my real estate thought process.

Coach Fergie: No, I love it. I love it. That’s I believe a hundred percent that it shouldn’t be what you live on.

I, my mentors told me from jump is work your day job, but mind your own business. So it was like I’d work, whether I was personal training people getting into the realtor market part of my life and whatnot. But I’d also say, okay, we’re gonna invest in something. We’re gonna [00:23:00] do something and just put this money towards it or leverage somebody else’s money.

So I got really good at, if I saw you and you’re driving a $60,000 ride, this is 1999, so 60,000 is like 120, 150. Huge. So I’d be like, Hey, you know what? That’s a nice car. I buy real estate, I’m paying between 12 and 15% returns. Here’s my card. You’re the first lost payee, on the hazard insurance, and you’re the first deed holder on it.

And people would be like, what? I would pay them their money, man. I would raise two, $3 million in a weekend to go out of buying spree of real estate that would handle my card and be like, you’re paying 12, 15%. What are you making in the market now for? Done. Yeah. So I used to do that.

That’s how I built it up.

Speaker 4: Wow.

Coach Fergie: And so it just started growing it. So I’d get, yeah, it was, the money was pretty hard, but man, I would get out of it just as fast as I got into it. Meaning get ’em their money back. They’d be like, I want my money in play, David. I want my money in play. So what that gifted me, now that I’m in my fifties, some of these people still, I can go $2 million anywhere here in South Florida.

And as long as I send ’em what I call it, my pb, my [00:24:00] project budget, send it to ’em and they sign I can have money wired in a day. Wow. So these people want their money in play. I don’t pay quite as much as I did back then, but Sure. Still it’s just the leveraging. Leveraging of it, so that’s why for me, real estate’s my vehicle.

Oh. It’s just like I love it, and I don’t touch it, yeah. And I wonder, sometimes times I’m like, dude, if I’m not gonna enjoy any of this. But the thing is there’s people after me and I’m, do I would like to think that I’m doing what you’re doing. You’re planting trees that you’re never gonna sit in the shade of for people, right?

Yeah. And it’s dude, it’s like that. Once I get, as I got older, I was like, that’s a better feeling for me.

Speaker 4: Yeah.

Coach Fergie: Than making it all on my own and then saying this.

Speaker 4: The Bible says, and I’m not sure what our believer section is on this pod, but the Bible says a great man takes care of his children’s children.

A

Coach Fergie: hundred percent. Yes.

Speaker 4: Yeah. And, but I’ll say this too. There’s a guy named, this guy named his first name, his last name’s Perkins. He has a book called Die With Zero. Don’t know that. I agree with that. Don’t know that. I agree with that. But I also do agree that there’s a time and a place to spend [00:25:00] that money.

Coach Fergie: Yeah.

Speaker 4: How are we spending that money? What are we spending that on? Are we spending on things that are gonna impress other people? Or are we gonna spend it on things that create more, a better atmosphere for our family?

Coach Fergie: Love it.

Speaker 4: And i’m a big believer in trust. I’m a big believer in life insurance, yeah. One of the, one of the things, one of the part a portion of my life insurance, and this is way in the weeds, a portion of the life insurance that I have will do this. It is written in our trust that it will go to insur. A million dollars will go to ensure the most insurable child that I have. Meaning the one that’s got this most insurable, one that’s got the best insurability, that policy will then be the beneficiary of his policy or her policy will then also be the trust.

Love it.

Coach Fergie: That

Speaker 4: makes sense. So the money that when I pass away goes into the trust, a million dollars goes to ensure that most insurable child

Coach Fergie: yeah.

Speaker 4: That money, that policy on him will then, that death benefit on him or her [00:26:00] will then go back into the beneficiary, will be about the trust so that wealth will perpetuate itself.

That’s the first thing. So what we’re doing is my kids, possibly Scott, will never have to use a bank. When they wanna buy our first house, they’re gonna, they’re gonna go to the family bank.

Coach Fergie: Yeah.

Speaker 4: And the interest is gonna,

Coach Fergie: you just said it earlier, dude, that there’s nothing more powerful brother.

Speaker 4: Yeah. But if I can perpetuate that and then they can then do that with their kids. That is legacy and longevity. That, that is. It’s

Coach Fergie: generational baby.

Speaker 4: It’s generational.

Coach Fergie: Love that, dude. I love it. Have you seen the movie Back to the Future?

Speaker 4: I have

Coach Fergie: All, I love it. Let’s get that DeLorean of Marty McFly, man.

Yeah. Let’s go back to the double deuce, the 22-year-old Thomas, right? Yeah. Is there, what kind of knowledge nuggets might you drop on him, not to change his structure? ’cause dude, the stories we talked about off Mike, and I’m sure that we’ll talk about in Per person or pretty awesome stories to live Cigna, like all those people, right?

Yeah. But what might you tell ’em to maybe help ’em shorten a learning curve or blast through a little bit quicker?

Speaker 4: Create. [00:27:00] Relationships with people that are out of your league. Quicker.

Coach Fergie: Yep. Quicker.

Speaker 4: Quicker. Yeah. Get with people quicker. Yeah. Now here’s the thing. Everybody always asks me the question of would you go back and do it? What would you do different? I would do a lot different.

Coach Fergie: Sure. Me too.

Speaker 4: I’m not sitting there and say, I’m not sit there and say that, oh, I, everything happens for a reason.

I get that. I would get in finance a lot quicker.

Coach Fergie: Yeah.

Speaker 4: I love coaching college football and college football was great and I love my business, the businesses that I own currently, that I, where we built our wealth. But I really do feel like that finance, being in finance earlier would’ve been better for me.

I love what I do now. I do, but I know that going back in time and understanding relationships matter quicker. Yeah. The other thing is I would get into. Sales or sales training quicker?

Coach Fergie: A hundred percent. Yeah.

Speaker 4: Because everything we do

Coach Fergie: is a

Speaker 4: sale, Whether it’s putting my 10-year-old to bed

Coach Fergie: Yep.

Speaker 4: [00:28:00] Or selling Jesus to someone that needs to know about Jesus or selling a policy or whatever, or selling to my wife that we need to do X, y, or Z.

Coach Fergie: Yes.

Speaker 4: It’s all sales.

Coach Fergie: A hundred

Speaker 4: percent. And understanding and knowing and being better at that earlier in life would’ve probably helped me. Yeah.

Coach Fergie: The powerful questions is, what I always say is I would ask myself more powerful questions.

Speaker 4: That’s

Coach Fergie: good. Meaning it, like the easy questions is, do I get a job? You know what I’m saying? And everything in life you just said, it is either a sailor or a question. If you’re driving down the street and you need to make a left, there’s something that immediately fires in your brain that says, should I hit my blinker?

It’s a question. Yeah. It’s a low rent question, but still a question. Sure. You know what I’m saying? So level up the questions you ask yourself because. A lot of my clients are like, should I do affirmations? I’m like, absolutely, you can do ’em. But why don’t we flip those affirmations into a question?

’cause as humans, our brains are, evolved to problem solve. So if you’re saying, I’m good, I’m great, I’m terrific, and how is it that I’m so good? I’m so great, I’m trying. Your brain starts working. The [00:29:00] reticular activating system starts going, and boom, you start feeling that way, right? Because it’s answering the question, the powerful question that you gave it.

Sure. So I love that you said that. How does Thomas want his dash? Remember that little line in between your incarnation date and your expiration date? I knew you being an athlete would understand that.

Speaker 4: Yeah.

Coach Fergie: Question, but how do you want your dash? Remember, brother?

Speaker 4: I think the first thing is I want people to know that I love Jesus, number one.

Coach Fergie: Love it. Love that dude. I love this. Yeah. Awesome.

Speaker 4: I want people to know that I loved and gave to my family.

Coach Fergie: Yeah.

Speaker 4: That, that. Is it’s so important. Yeah. And then I also want people to know that I was extremely. Unbiased to the surroundings that I was in. I get it’s a blessing and a curse because that’s, some people say, yeah, some people say, I never know what you’re gonna say.

Coach Fergie: Yeah.

Speaker 4: And sometimes it’s super appropriate and sometimes it’s super inappropriate. But I do a really good job at knowing the room. I teach my kids all the time. You [00:30:00] gotta know the room. I tell my staff all the time when we go to serving an event or do something in an event, I said, you, you have to figure out in 30 seconds, one of two things, does the client want to be your friend?

Or do they view you as the help? You’ve got 30 seconds to figure that out because if they view you as the help and you think they’re viewing you as a friend,

Coach Fergie: thank

Speaker 4: you. We’re gonna be in trouble.

Coach Fergie: Love

it.

Speaker 4: So we have to figure out how to read the room and know the room that we’re in extremely quickly.

Coach Fergie: Quickly.

Speaker 4: And we, if we can do that and then act accordingly.

Coach Fergie: Yes.

Speaker 4: Then it’s a huge linchpin

Coach Fergie: dude. And. That goes for any room. Any room,

Speaker 4: bro.

Coach Fergie: Are people gonna look at you like you’re just low rent person or are they gonna look at you as one of them? The second you can really decide that is how you can approach it and you can still, Hey, and

Speaker 4: either one of them are fine.

Coach Fergie: Yes. Yes. Yeah. Squad, I’m not saying if you, when I say low rent or something like that does not mean that, that you’re not fine. He, Thomas called me on that. I appreciate him for doing [00:31:00] that because it’s true. It doesn’t matter. It’s just how you approach communication with that.

Speaker 4: Right.

Coach Fergie: Yeah. I love it. I love it.

Speaker 4: But you also have to figure out too, and this is. My buddy, Paul does a really good job at this. He does primarily insurance and annuity sales, and he does a really good job, makes over a million dollars a year doing it. You have to figure out when you’re talking to that person, Scott what do you, as the person talking, need to lean into?

Do you need to and hear me and the guy squad, listen, I’m not I’m just speaking the truth here. Do I need to stroke this person? Or can this person be talked to? Like a friend?

Coach Fergie: Yeah.

Speaker 4: Does he need to be spoken to as like a mentor?

Coach Fergie: Yeah.

Speaker 4: Or does he need to be taught like, like you have to figure those things out.

’cause some people need to be stroked, bro.

Coach Fergie: Yeah, man.

Speaker 4: Or, and then some people don’t need to be. Yes. They wanna be super real and super. So figuring those things out super quickly is extremely [00:32:00] valuable.

Coach Fergie: Got it. And Quai is talking about you really being curious and knowing, the temperature of the room.

Hey, time to Shine today. Podcast Varsity Squad. We are back. And Thomas, we’re definitely gonna make it a point to meet up live, whether you come down here for an interview or hey, I’ll go up to be Ham and for interview and hang out for a day or Something’d.

Great. Yes, I’d love that. Susan and I absolutely love or love Alabama, period. So like to hold. Be awesome.

Speaker 4: A second. Hold a. Your fiance’s name is Susie or Susan?

Coach Fergie: Susan, yeah. Yeah, because you’re like Scott and Susie and I was like, oh, does you know

Speaker 4: us Suzy Susie is my Susie is my example name my kids.

That’s

Coach Fergie: what I heard

Speaker 4: it,

Coach Fergie: Scott and Suzy. I was like, so funny. That’s my guy.

Speaker 4: My kids say that. My kids always say, yeah, Susie. I’m like, yeah. That’s so

Coach Fergie: funny. I love it. Yeah. Yo, it took me 47 years to meet my life partner. But man, we have a blast, dude. Love it. It’s awesome. But so good. I got a leveling up lightning round every, like you and I will talk eventually one day face to face about some of these 15, 20 minutes each.

Today you have [00:33:00] five seconds with no expeditions, and I promise you they can be answered that way.

Speaker 4: Got

Coach Fergie: it. Ready to level up, brother?

Speaker 4: Let’s do it.

Coach Fergie: All right. Two minute warning. Here we go. So Thomas, what’s the best leveling up advice you feel you’ve ever received?

Speaker 4: Get in the right room.

Coach Fergie: Love it. Share one of your personal habits that contributes to your success.

Speaker 4: Exercise every day.

Coach Fergie: Awesome. So you see me walking down the street, or I’m at an event like Perky. Looks like he’s in Ind Doldrums. Is there any book that someone handed you or they said, read this? It’ll, it lift you up, other than the good book.

Speaker 4: The Wealthy Gardener.

Coach Fergie: That’s actually a great book.

That is awesome. You most commonly used emoji when you text?

Speaker 4: I don’t, I’m not an emoji.

Coach Fergie: I’m

Speaker 4: sorry.

Coach Fergie: Nicknames growing up.

Speaker 4: Cock Cocks.

Coach Fergie: Love it. Any hidden talent or superpower that you have that nobody knows about until now?

Speaker 4: I’m a pretty good, I’m a really good on the fly. Or

Coach Fergie: I love it. Love it. Chest checkers a monopoly,

Speaker 4: monopoly

Coach Fergie: headline for your life.

Speaker 4: Keep going. [00:34:00]

Coach Fergie: Yes. Superstitions. As an athlete, did you ever buy into any of them?

Speaker 4: Not really.

Coach Fergie: I didn’t either,

Speaker 4: man I didn’t. I was, and this is a long answer. You won. I was, no, you’re fine. I was the opposite. Like I would do things oppositely. Two,

Coach Fergie: to

Speaker 4: not be superstitious. Now, I’ll say this, when I was playing, I used to eat a hot dog in the third quarter on the sideline.

Coach Fergie: Okay, that’s fair. Yeah, that’s a small one. I played ball, and our primary is wrestling. But I did play baseball and like I would kick the line like a lot of the coaches walk over it. I kicked the line, I kicked the chalk. That’s right. Go to ice cream flavor.

Speaker 4: Bremble Berry Crisp from Jennie’s.

I’m an ice cream guy. I’m an ice cream guy.

Coach Fergie: You too, dude. Awesome. There’s a sandwich called The Peacock. What are we putting on that sandwich? What are we eating?

Speaker 4: We’re gonna take brisket.

Coach Fergie: We’re

Speaker 4: gonna toast the bread. We’re gonna do mayonnaise. Okay? Okay. We’re going to do pickles and we’re gonna do some sort of chow relish or something like that.

Coach Fergie: Love it. What kind of bread we putting [00:35:00] on it,

Speaker 4: bro? White bread.

Coach Fergie: That’s it, baby. I love it. White bread. Pull all the good stuff out. It’s gonna taste better. Yeah. I love it. Favorite charity and or organization you like to give your time and or money to?

Speaker 4: Church of the Highlands,

Coach Fergie: beautiful.

Speaker 4: Highlands Col, Highlands College or Church of the Highlands.

Coach Fergie: Beautiful. Last question, we can elaborate on this one. What’s the best decade of music? Sixties, seventies, eighties, or nineties?

Speaker 4: Nineties.

Coach Fergie: Nineties. All right. Very cool. Very cool. So how can we find you, Thomas?

Speaker 4: Thomas cox.co. Thomas cox.co. That’s our website. And then obviously all the social platforms YouTube, Instagram.

You can search Thomas Cox thomas cox.co on all of them, and that’s where you’ll be able to find everybody.

Coach Fergie: You look at all Jack down here now he is got awesome YouTube Channel two Squad has, all the stuff and all of these links will be in the show notes once he accepts my LinkedIn invitation.

Speaker 4: Yeah, I accepted

Coach Fergie: it. All right, bye man. Yeah. If I bet if I do hit, the VI Vimeo and YouTube, I’m sure you’ll be able to see it. I’m a first connection with my guy. Yes, I am now. This is beautiful. Awesome man. This is awesome. So [00:36:00] squat, all of these links, including. His top 10% global rank at the owner’s table will be in.

It’ll be in the show notes as well. Awesome. So if you can, Thomas, please leave us with one last knowledge nugget we can take with us, internalize and take action on. Goals are great, habits are better. What are we gonna do? ’cause this is we’re at the beginning of the year. I’m not sure when this is gonna air, but don’t create goals as much as we’re gonna create habits. You said it in a way earlier, you said it, you don’t rise and fall to your expect, your expectations. You rise and follow to your standard. You said standards. I think it’s standards. Yeah. I think it’s standards are habits.

Yeah, a

Speaker 4: hundred percent.

Coach Fergie: Yeah.

Speaker 4: You you’ve gotta get into, you’ve gotta get into things that are non-negotiable. Love that. There are a handful of non my morning from four. Four 20 to seven o’clock every day. Yeah. Is non-negotiable. Yeah. It’s gonna happen now. May be backed up an hour. Yeah. But that routine, it may be shorter, but that routine of things that I do is gonna happen seven days a week.

Coach Fergie: Right.

Speaker 4: 365 days a year. Yeah. And so having. Having [00:37:00] habits that you’re gonna fall back on is absolutely critical. A

Coach Fergie: hundred

Speaker 4: percent. And to make it in any part of your life.

Coach Fergie: I have clients that fly into Palm Beach for my, one day out, a day of power, and they’re like, I talk and we have a certain routines that each one of my clients do, and they’re like, oh, do you are legit.

They wake up, we walk right out, there’s coal plunger in, we’re out, boom. Aerodyne bike real quick just to get the blood back to the muscles. Boom. It’s like foam rolling, boom. And this is what I do every day. I’m 53 bro. And I still like to submission grapple. , I get after it in life.

Wow. Yeah. And I have to keep myself and, a coaching roster is, I’m blessed to have it, sure. So it’s they’re like, oh man. So it’s pretty cool, like you just said. With the habits and standards, they’re byproducts. I’m blessed, a pro bono coach.

Speaker 4: Yeah.

Coach Fergie: High school wrestling, right?

So I’m like, what is, his name’s Austin. He’s going for his four time, first time in North Carolina. First time, four time state champion, North Carolina. Wow. And I’ve had him since he was like seventh grade, and I’m like, what is the Austin in March? Reaching back into October and shaking your hand for [00:38:00] doing today?

Speaker 4: Sure. Oh, that’s,

Coach Fergie: that’s a good line.

Speaker 4: Yeah,

Coach Fergie: that’s a good question. You know what I’m saying? What are you reaching back in time? What is that? Top of the podium kid doing reach, and I do it with over at Philadelphia Eagles, man, I can’t say his name out loud, but if you know the Eagles, you know who I’m talking about.

Like he’ll, his like, what are you doing? In February, what is the February ZB doing? Reaching back, saying, what do you do today? To make it happen. And that’s for your investing brother. It’s goes for parenting, it goes for everything, right? Yeah. Your standards are everything, man. Squad. This has been just fricking awesome, man. It, the big lie that my good friend Thomas pointed out is, invest your money only in Wall Street. None. That’s wrong. The ultra wealthy only have 30 to 35% max in the market. He loves the alt vesting. He wants you to get rid of debt.

Cut, cut program costs, or raise revenue, or, those are the three types, right? Infinite banking. Go back and listen. I’ll put a link directly back to Infinite Banking. So you guys that are on the come up, my awesome listeners that are on the come up that are becoming earners, the high income earners, business owners, investors, this is [00:39:00] the, this is where you’re gonna get to the infinite banking and Thomas is gonna be there ready to help you.

You want you to make sure you have margin in your business. No crappy lifestyle where you’re overspending. You don’t want more month left. And not enough money for the month. More month, less money. However that goes. My guy here lives a life of intention, not attention. That’s what I love.

He’s leaning into the people he is. He leaned into this interview, showed up on time, ready to rock what he’s allowing me to even carry him a little bit long. He wants you to make sure you create he relations. Are going to help you level up. Don’t just show up and ask with your ma handout squad, offer them something, whether it’s a wash or fricking car, but learn from them.

Get your asking gear, okay? Get out there and do that. And just also, like we always say, create better habits. You’re going to get better results. All right? That’s what my good friend Thomas does. You level up his health. He level up his wealth. He’s earned his varsity. Another varsity squad letter here. For his life.

He can hang on his wallet over there, put on a jacket. Really appreciate coming on the series. Note, Thomas, absolutely love your [00:40:00] guts, man. This has been awesome. So thank you. We’re gonna definitely do it again. Yes, sir.

Speaker 4: Absolutely.Coach Fergie: Awesome. Chat soon. Thanks Scott, sir. Bye. ​

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