Seth Streeter, Co Founder Discusses “The Categories of Success” | Mission Wealth Management

we are here to inspire inform and connect the community of entrepreneurs this is business rockstars I’m paddle Bryan and Seth Streeter is with us hello Seth I’ve got nice to have you drove down from Santa Barbara today so you’re actually doing well that’s a great community with a great community so very fortunate now you are co-founder of mission wealth what’s that it’s a wealth management company that we founded 17 years ago and we work with about 800 families today and we’ve been growing nationwide and it’s a service business so we’re here to help families kind of empower them to achieve their goals to make smart choices with their wealth and also help their families become prepared for wealth have you always been involved in the financial inch I have been yeah I mean since right out of college now been 25 years I’ve been in the finance area but the business and the industry have really evolved so it’s never a dull moment well the clients have involved had been evolved right I mean baby boomers mm-hmm are now out there and I assume most of them saved enough money it’s really true and and the mindset

around wealth has really shifted you know used to be you know you know like my parents generation is you went where there were jobs you made your family kind of move accordingly can you build your life and now Millennials are saying not my lifestyle comes first you know the job can come second my lifestyle is what’s my priority and I’ll just find a way to work so I have the maximum flexibility to do what I want to do very different from the generation or two before them what are the nine dimensions of wealth I see this year well the nine dimensions of wealth really has been something that I’ve expanded as I’ve worked with you know hundreds of families over the years I’ve seen how people initially focus on success being all about the money do I have enough money can I do the things I want to do but really I started to realize that people may have all the money and all the material possessions in the world but they might not still be happy or fulfilled and so in my work I’ve identified eight other categories besides finance and those categories begin with impact the impact that they have in their community or maybe the

world at large it goes into their emotional well-being which is their general attitude how well they sleep their stress levels we then get into their social connections and money can’t buy me love it can’t so it’s the quality of their intimate relationships they’re their friendships or relationships in the community I need how do you connect that some money well it’s really connected to wealth so it’s really about wealth and how wealthy are you we should be looking at metrics outside financial metrics when we assess someone’s wealth so social relationships aren’t necessarily money but they are part of someone’s wealth because if you’re you know working all the time and you’re a stranger to your family and friends are you really wealthy if you you know can’t climb two flights of steps about being winded because you’re not healthy do you have wealth you know so a lot of people would argue no did you always want to be an entrepreneur always yeah ever since I was a kid I have you know started businesses made you think you could be I just didn’t know I couldn’t be really and and I always kind of dared the dream

throughout college I had small little businesses i worked on and started so I’ve always kind of known I could work for myself when I was in college I wanted to make mom and dad happy and get a job that had good benefits that’s what they thought I should have so I found financial services largely because it allowed mom and dad to be happy with me having working for large companies with you know saw with benefits but yet me being able to build my own business as an entrepreneur your parents lived in South Dakota right there from South Dakota yeah I’m pretty familiar with that area yes you are so what what what about South Madison South Dakota what about that that made them want you to be a wealth advisor well I wouldn’t say that my parents necessarily wanted me to be a wealth advisor but they grew up they wanted the cabin on the lake yeah they you grew up in a very tight-knit family and a very strong work ethic as farmers both sets of my grandparents or farmers and so they instilled in my brother and I just a tremendous work ethic and they wanted us to be successful to do our best and to

hopefully make a difference and so my mom and dad were really inspirational in that way they both did really well in their careers and so I just set out to say I want to work hard I want to make a difference and I was always an entrepreneur which was different than they were so I wanted to do it my way how many people work in your office 2077 how’s that managed well we have a headquarters in Santa Barbara we also have five other locations and so we centralize certain operation find a better place by the way for you yeah you know you want to build your business where you want to live right so lucky that was part of us during the dream yeah is a bill that where you want to live so we have our kind of central operations out of Santa Barbara and then we have other offices in northern california los angeles area Colorado Arizona how has your business mission wealth grown over the last ten years it’s grown tremendously we’ve doubled just in the last five years in size and we’ve really institutionalized a lot of the service offerings that we provide and a lot of the systems and technology that we use we use top notch

you know technology but really it’s still a people business so at the end of the day you have to find ways to connect with people and add value with people and you have to find ways to kind of move up the value chain as other technology solutions are coming in for the more commoditized components of investment management we’ve had to find ways to really add a lot of value above that we are here to inspire inform and connected community of entrepreneurs this is business rock stars I’m Pat O’Brien Seth Streeters our guests you know you watch TV today and almost every other especially on the cables at CNM and almost every other ad is about finance right do you have a dumb bunny did you save enough money what are you going to do come call us mm-hmm if you seen that implode in your area too but we’ve absolutely seen you know the impact of media and how that’s kind of steered individuals to have a mindset of what success is you know typically it’s it’s a nice car it’s maybe the boat it’s the travel it’s you know material possessions and that has fueled a lot of people to make sometimes very poor

choices with money and so we really start with a foundation where we help people identify and prioritize all their goals all their current assets liabilities cash flow and then come up with a sustainable plan for their future so that they can have financial independence they want to work great but they can work by choice so how do you pull them out of that mindset we have a process that we take clients through where we help them kind of reflect on some deeper issues and we ask questions around their career you know for instance are you passionate about your career do you love what you’re doing do you feel like it’s leveraging all of your talents and skills and Pat you’d be amazed how many people are doing jobs that they don’t love their doing jobs this because all the time you know and so we can go in there and I have a number of examples where we’ve helped people kind of re-evaluate where they are in their lives and help them kind of lean into you know an area that they kind of didn’t know they could dream about and make make a reality so you’re kind of a life coach / investor it’s an

integration of the two I mean you have to have the substance of the financial planning and the investment acumen but you also have to be able to help people kind of shape their lives in a direction they want to go is that difficult extremely goes wrong i was going to say because they’re dealing with some high high l what’s the word in their own ways yeah like I’m not changing for you about yes and so yeah there’s rigidity we all have kind of arrived where we are based on you know shaping that we’ve had from our families and from society at large so you know I had a corporate attorney who was making well over a million dollars a year and he was working all the time flying all the time he had a bad back so he was miserable and after meeting with he and his wife I realized that his passion was really history and so I said how about you find a way to do something in history so how am I gonna you know keep keep this house because they had a beautiful estate home and after working with them about some different kind of financial planning angles they realized that he could work much later in life if he did work that

he enjoyed that they could downsize their home later in life once her kids were out of the house and that they did need this country club they never visited and lo and behold two years later he became a high school history teacher and he’s really happy they get to travel during the summers which is what his wife always wanted to do and so yes he’s going to have to work a little later in life but I would say he’s much wealthier today than he was before but don’t you find that almost everybody’s working later in their life yes nobody retires and it’s a really healthy thing to do you know to be a lot keep working because it keeps your mind intellectually stimulated it makes you feel like you have a purpose it connects you socially it’s a lot of different types of people I mean there’s a lot of studies that show that staying engaged is a key aspect to longevity not engaged is aspect of stress and heart attacks and strokes right no like honest and just not having that sense of purpose of why you’re getting up every day so being able to get up every day and be engaged and feel like you’re out there

to make a difference that’s key and every entrepreneur you know it’s all about their passion that’s the fuel behind their organization first thing you go in what do you ask for somebody calls you in and you’re going to help them it’s the first thing you ask for first we need to get together in with uninterruptedly evaluate where they are and I always start with the client is so I was saying what’s top of mind for you and usually it’s coming from the financial area I just want to retire I just so how many of them excuse me how many of them are not attainable almost all of them are attainable it’s just a matter of degree so it’s helping them to really formulate you know a realistic set of kind of goals and guidelines it’s attainable people can make major pivots in their life they don’t realize they just never really hit the pause button long enough to reflect and redirect on you know things that they would rather do you think a lot of people think that’s just too radical for them I think people never even think about it they don’t I don’t either they don’t think about what they could do and how they

could do it and so when you have then a credential team that can walk them through a systematic process to really evaluate what is realistic it’s just a wonderful to see the transformation what’s the culture around your office 27 we have a really really strong culture that’s the thing that I’m most proud of for our company I always say that culture eats strategy for breakfast so you can have the best laid plans but if people aren’t getting along and they’re not aligned toward a common goal those plans aren’t going to be executed on we are here to inspire and form and connect a community of entrepreneurs this is business rock stars on Pat O’Brien back in a minute you

we are here to inspire inform and connected community of entrepreneurs on paddle Brian this is business Rockstar assess reader is our guest you know any runs mission wealth the term wealth has changed I didn’t and it would wealth used to me mean the Carnegie Mellon’s and that’s what’s right right it really has shifted yeah and it shifted in a lot of different ways you know it used to be that people would simply invest for return and now people are investing for impact and for alignment with socially responsible investing people used to spend money make make purchase decisions based on the lowest cost and now they make decisions based on how a product of source and maybe what the purpose is you know behind a company people used to get a career just based on the biggest paycheck and now people we talked about Millennials before we’ll go work for a company for less money because they feel aligned with the values and mission behind the company yeah I’ve always said never do anything for the money right I mean the first couple months is great yeah and I’ve done that by the way nothing and very famous executive and

television said bet you’re making a mistake don’t ever do anything for the money he knows a lot of money well I didn’t know was miserable how has financial help changed financial advice used to largely be just about numbers cashflow tax returns state plans investment portfolios and now it’s really becoming more broad I call it holistic capital so if someone has all the money in the world as we referenced but they’re not happy in their life they’re not physically healthy they don’t have relationships and not in a career that the line they’re not intellectually stimulated then they’re not really wealthy and so now my industry is beginning to measure metrics around holistic wealth not just the financial numbers and that’s who you know what you do your passion you yeah we have you know these nine dimensions of wealth that are each really critical so its impact the difference that you’re making it’s your emotional well-being it’s your relationships is how much fun you have in your life it’s your physical health it’s your spiritual kind of groundwork to a framework beyond yourself it’s your intellectual wealth

your intellectual capital and then it’s your career how many people out there do you think had so much fun now they don’t have any money I think a lot of people but you can be wealthy and have a lot of fun you know you can be spiritual and really wealthy and I think it used to be people thought those were two extremes you either had to be the capitalist you made a lot of money or the you know yoga retreat person who is you know happy and spiritually peaceful you can integrate those two and that’s really the key I think the rock stars the older rock stars of the round yeah are the best examples guys it literally tried to kill themselves druggies and uncle right and then we have worked with some you know rock stars and athletes well where they come into a lot of money in a very short period of time and then you know they burn through it and five years later it’s amazing they have virtually nothing I remember of basketball player came into camp on year and he had a hundred and I’ll hit him like a maibock or savings right and he put another hundred grand into it and I said you are not going to last you got good speakers in

your car so is it much fight push back on this when you come to a company I mean people are so set in their company ways well you know I don’t start with this we start with the traditional financial planning investment management usually it’s when someone’s had what i call a life event you know they’ve gone through a divorce they’ve just sold their company maybe they just lost a parent they just you know retired that’s usually when people become a little more reflective and they start to say what’s it all about you know I’ve made this money now what so sure I need to invest it you know properly and I need to make sure i’m spending reasonably and I’m smart with my taxes what else is there to life beyond just managing my money you’re pretty active yourself right yes you volunteer a lot you’re physically fit you connect with a lot of people I mean it’s all good stuff so really what kind of dad have two wonderful children and i live in santa barb and i live in Santa part I hate you yes but not really but what a great place and you also meet a lot of people up there that probably could use some help too right oh yeah

now we’re really lucky Santa Barbara attracts a lot of wealth a lot of fascinating people going with anywhere choose to live there but again I’m in Los Angeles I’m in San Francisco Mayan team is really covering the the whole United States so we have wonderful advisers all over the country and we meet fascinating people everywhere so inspires life purpose is that’s what everybody wants yes be happy right to be happy and add some change yes okay so tell me about that well inspired by purpose is a process that I’ve worked with and a lot of CEOs by the way really lean into this which is a series of circles where the top left circle I talk about their natural gifts of things that have just come easy to them the whole lives they’ve always said Pat you’re just great at this and then the top right circle is other skills and their experience their training that they’ve kind of learned over the years and then the bottom left circle is their passion the things they just love to do if they had all the time and money in the world this is where they’d spend their time and then the bottom right circle are the trends that they see out

there or the greatest need and so when you intersect those four circles that area is where your inspired life purpose really can form so how do you explain to people that say entrepreneurs listening out there that you should start a little earlier maybe mm-hmm well absolutely I mean hopefully an entrepreneur has started a business based on a passion right so they should be starting from there if they’re not starting from there it could be a really challenge because that passion is gotta just for the money just for the money or just because of an opportunity you know they have to have that passion because things will be challenging at times and that passion is their fuel but once they’ve done that then it’s a matter of saying okay how can they further express themselves and their unique gifts and be really authentic as part of the formation of their company so what about them is unique that can then be turned into the product or service why are people afraid of set to to just completely change your lives because it’s scary yeah you know the society has told us to go down the direct and narrow work your way through

school to get into a good college get out of college get a good job work your way I accrued ladders and hit a house get some kids that’s your life right that’s the routine script that we see you know and from this chair I’m seeing more younger people we just said the hell of that I’m not doing that got out of college start of the nap or a business yep something and did their own thing and they’re very happy yes and that’s why I love working with entrepreneurs because they tend to already be oriented that way so when you can take someone who’s already oriented that way and then amplify their gifts and amplify the reach even further it’s tremendously rewarding work what advice would you give the entrepreneurs out there about keeping your staff focused on themselves as well as work well I think that affected you yeah I mean balance is key and it starts by leading by example so you know you want to have work ethic as i shared and you want to have that passion but if you don’t have proper fuel due to nutrition or exercise or sleep then the business is not going to be sustainable and same with your key

team members so demonstrating as part of the corporate culture that balance is important so you know we will go do a yoga class as a company we will do off sites and go volunteer together we’ve done habitat for humanity or volunteer to food food bank showing them that there’s different dimensions besides just work helps the team come together it keeps tremendous employee loyalty and clients and customers really appreciate that too I find that a lot of people are we talked about this before are buying into it sounds bad but are buying into this because it is better for you it’s better for you and it also is better for the business you know again as we shared consumers are making choices where they want to buy from companies that are mission driven and so when a company is about more than just profit then you’re going to have actually more growth as far as people wanting to buy your product or service and people wanting to work for you how have people with money changed I think people with money are really realizing that it’s not just about them that they are creating a legacy with their family with their

children their grandchildren and also in the communities that they serve so I think we’ve actually found that people with wealth are becoming more mindful they’re becoming more aware of the importance of the stewardship of their wealth and they don’t take it as lightly as they did before mindfulness is not just a hippie deal no it’s a hippie deal it’s a lifestyle it’s a life deal set thanks coming in thank you so much that’s true your mission well stuff this is business rockstars I’m Pat O’Brien we’ll see you next time