Episode 6
· 51:26
Well, good morning, good afternoon, and good evening to all of you. My name
Bill Hocking:is Bill Hocking, and welcome to the one, the only Bill Hocking Podcast. Well, good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, avid fans. Welcome once again to the William Hocking Podcast brought to you from my good friends at the thought partner group, podcasts that matter, books that matter, speakers that matter, talk to Kent, and I'll tell you about Kent in a little bit, and other organizations. We have an amazing guest for your listening and viewing pleasure today. His name is Jason LaBarge.
Bill Hocking:He hails from South Dakota, the great, beautiful state, home of Sturgis, the motorcycle debacle or whatever, South Dakota, and has been in the Annapolis area for a number of years now. And before I actually introduce him a little bit, I'm going to reframe to you as listeners exactly what we try to accomplish with these podcasts. We're really here, in a sense, to kind of spread a mission, and the mission, as I would articulate it, is what does it look like to live a life worth living? What does that actually look like? What can you envision living a life worth living to be for you, for your family, for your friends?
Bill Hocking:And in a sense, reason we ask that question is because we're trying to bring values back into our society, back into our planet, back with our children, and help teach them the things that we were taught when we were young. So we're going to talk today about a number of things that are important to Jason, given his background as a financial planner and an owner of a business, and as an author of a book, which we'll shamelessly hawk in a few minutes. Shit. Absolutely. But we do try to stay away from politics, and not because politics is there's anything wrong with it.
Bill Hocking:It's just it tends to get heated pretty quickly, and none of us are trying to polarize anybody on a podcast. So those are the kind of ground rules, and we're just going to basically act like we're having a conversation on a back porch, just as if we're drinking some scotch or some bourbon, shooting the stuff, so to speak. Two guys in this case having a conversation. Okay. So, Jason, just spend a minute or so, telling our audience about yourself, and I have a number of specific questions I'm gonna ask you during the podcast.
Bill Hocking:But in the meantime, just give us a quick thirty second or minute introduction to you, and why are you doing what you're doing?
Jason LaBarge:Well, William, I'm happy to be here. And the as I said, I'm originally from South Dakota. I grew up in Rapid City, South Dakota, which is not too far from Sturgis. And as a local, when the Sturgis rally comes to town, you tend to leave town. You know, you go there maybe once or twice in your life, and then you kinda tend to plan your vacations around it.
Jason LaBarge:Although, I haven't been out of South Dakota for quite some time. I graduated high school in 2002, went to college up in Minnesota, went back and finished college actually on the Eastern Part Of South Dakota. That's a story there too, but got my accounting degree, thought I was gonna go work for a hospital, and I went to work at a nursing home or a business manager for a series
Bill Hocking:of nursing homes. You also sold life insurance.
Jason LaBarge:Well, we'll get to that in a minute. And so I went to a place called Sunrise Assisted Living, and I realized I cannot believe I studied accounting. I can't see myself being a CPA, or I was a controller at that point. And then kinda by luck, I went to a large financial services company called Allianz Life. They're one of the largest financial services company on the planet.
Jason LaBarge:Not so well known here in The United States but certainly globally, they're, I think they're the third largest financial services company on the planet. And I was what's called a wholesaler. And you work with financial advisers as opposed to working with retail clients. And that was a master's degree for me in this industry. Real I I was traveling the country, and one of the clients I had was here in Annapolis, and I knew that I didn't wanna stay in corporate America.
Jason LaBarge:The gig there was to travel. And so 2013, we're coming off this crazy cold winter. It's something like 70 out of the previous seventy five days were sub negative 15. I mean, it was crazy cold. This is in Minnesota in the Twin Cities.
Jason LaBarge:So I from 02/2005 to 2011, we were in the Twin Cities. I'm sorry. 2013. And crazy cold winter, and I said, Lacey, honey, we're moving to Annapolis. And I always say this is this is probably June 2013.
Jason LaBarge:I always say I moved to Maryland with one wife, one child, zero clients, zero assets under management, started the Barge Financial, fast forward thirteen years, and I've got the same wife, four more kids, five children. We got about 700 clients and we managed just under 1,000,000,000 and then with a b and in my industry, that's a big deal. But to do that in thirteen years, to start this myself, my father was the best man I've ever met, but he just wasn't a financial adviser. He did other things. And so I'm I'm proud of that.
Jason LaBarge:When I look back, I it's kinda there's almost an impostor syndrome sometimes. Like, I can't believe I did this. Like, this is
Bill Hocking:it's really in my industry, it's really something. And so the So so just and and I'm gonna apologize to my fans here, to my listeners, but also to you for interrupting you every once in a while because one day you'll learn this the hard way, my man. When you get no. No. When you start to grow one of these, means you're getting up there in years, which means that you have to interrupt people to get a thought out because if you don't, you it's it's gone.
Bill Hocking:Right. It's in the outer limits, the twilight's I'm a talker between.
Jason LaBarge:I'm a talker.
Bill Hocking:So No. I didn't know that. So I will interrupt you sometimes to cut you off, but, well, maybe to cut you off. As you can tell, avid fans, he and I have a good relationship, so we can have some fun with this. But the the thing I was gonna interrupt you about was your father, you spoke about about him in the past, and I've spoken to you about my father, you know, the rocket scientist, that one day you'll have a chance He to was a rocket scientist,
Jason LaBarge:and we'll you know? The apple fell far from the tree then.
Bill Hocking:The point is we both revere our fathers for a lot of reasons, and it sounds like your dad taught you some serious ethics, work if anything else, work after because to go from zero, no clients, one kid, etcetera, fast forward thirteen years, and now you're at 1,000,000,000 with a B and assets under management, that's a hell of a ride. So what would you say if you had to summarize it?
Jason LaBarge:What was the two most important things you learned from him that enabled that success? So my dad was not the most successful man in terms of financial. Okay. But he was an he had incredible interpersonal skills. He could really connect with you.
Jason LaBarge:There there the nobody ever met my father and walked away from him saying, I don't like that guy. Right? Like, he just was a friendly, happy go lucky. So he was in sales. And but in Rapid City, South Dakota, you know, they're just he stood in between the eras of the Montpas to the eras of the box stores.
Jason LaBarge:So in the time of Montpas, he did extremely well. He sold office supplies. And then when the box stores started to come in, he didn't adjust maybe like others could've or should've maybe took a risk to do something else. Very loyal. My father was a very loyal and a lead by example.
Jason LaBarge:I'll give you three. Lead by example. He was not a guy to sit down and say, Jason, let me tell you about the birds and the bees. Let me tell you about, you know, the meaning of life. He was a lead by example.
Jason LaBarge:Watch me. And so I I need to embrace more of that. I've tended to opposite of that. I'll tell my kids yakity yak. Keep talking.
Jason LaBarge:Tell them what to do. Tell them the meaning of life. You know, where they just need to watch. There's which is what I did. I think the last thing too which is great for him on the values.
Jason LaBarge:My dad was at church every Sunday my entire life, his entire life. And I don't know that he could even quote you Paul or, you know, John, Mark, Luke, ironclad Catholic. Couldn't tell you the scripture. Went to Saturday night mass from time to time because it was the shortest mass. Catholic schoolboy from the, you know, sixties.
Jason LaBarge:Just a just think good.
Bill Hocking:He was in in the Catholic prison system, as I call it, in the sixties, like I was, twelve straight years of the prison system. And then I went to University of Maryland in well, back when the hippies were running around. So imagine going from a prison system of twelve straight years of nuns beating the daylights out of you, and then brothers beating the daylights out of you, and then in high school, the Zavarian brothers beating the daylights out of you in a prison system, high school with no Zavarian, Franciscans, Zavarians, Jesuits. In this case, it was the Zavarian brothers. And there were no bulls.
Bill Hocking:Well, you learn something new every day.
Jason LaBarge:I knew the Jesuits. I'm very familiar with the Jesuits. Most of
Bill Hocking:the Jesuits are priests. Remember I told you my uncle was a Jesuit priest. My dad's only brother was a Jesuit priest. As and if we have time, I'll tell you a funny story about that. But the point about
Jason LaBarge:is the the the the barons? Hex.
Bill Hocking:Oh, but France, I know you're in sign. Yeah. So he remembers. My son, he does
Jason LaBarge:my name is Francis my son is Francis Xavier. We call him Xavier. There you go. After Zavaria. Yeah.
Bill Hocking:Okay. So the point is no women in high school. And then all of a sudden, you land the University of Maryland with 30,000 people, more than half of them female. And those are the days of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Right?
Bill Hocking:Hippies running around, peace, love, whatever. My dad never did that.
Jason LaBarge:My dad was just side edge, always like, he, you know, he grew up on a ranch and so he would talk about he had to get up and and he'd be so embarrassed sometimes because he'd have like cow shit, cow poop on his shoes and he'd be, you know, people kind of make fun of him, you know, because he grew up on this ranch and and he was one of four kids And Frank and Marcella were his parents, and they only they have four kids. They own two boys, two girls. The girls went public. The boys went to private. And so they and my grandfather, was just your stereotypical entrepreneur but just couldn't make it big.
Jason LaBarge:Right? Try like, always a rancher but tried a new trucking and tried a different things. Always a worker but just didn't hit it big, you know, on anything. And then Rapid City grew. So the ranch that they had at one point was out of town, but then it kind of embraced in the town.
Jason LaBarge:And so they ended up selling and and so on and so forth. But I came I'm very blessed to come from a great family background. My my father's passed away handful of years. My grandfather's been dead forty five years and still beloved, still thought of by my cousins and broader family. Like, it's really really something I'm proud of to carry on that tradition because I think when people meet me, it's a it's a carrying on a tradition of my grandfather, my dad.
Jason LaBarge:Just gotta live longer, man. Both of those dudes died at, like, 77 or something like that. So I'm like, man, I gotta I gotta hit 80 and beat the and beat the the, you know, the men before me. But, you know, when you think about values and, you know, yes, you can certainly be told them, but I think you gotta be showed it. Right?
Jason LaBarge:You gotta you gotta see it over a period of years. You know? And I think that's what I'm trying to instill in my chili.
Bill Hocking:I mean, the whole concept of leading by exam, what a novel idea. Novel idea. I mean, how many people today just give lip service out that you know what and people
Jason LaBarge:can see through that? They can. And, like, and now we live in this world of I mean, we're sitting here on podcast. Like, there's this content, content, content. And so to keep somebody's attention, is is one thing, and then it's just more successful over a period of time to demonstrate.
Jason LaBarge:I think just generally speaking, that's the father's job. My dad was one to always try to get me a job. He he dried my dad would pick me up my freshman year, my first job. My shift was four to six at a car wash, graffiti's car wash. Car would come through.
Jason LaBarge:I'd have my towels at Washoe. That was the longest two hours of my life. I would look up at the clock. Yeah. Thirty more minute.
Jason LaBarge:I mean, it was I was a freshman in high school in between basketball and different sports that he'd pick me up and drive me down there.
Bill Hocking:And How old were your freshmen? Say you're about 14? Four had a
Jason LaBarge:paper out. Was with my technical first. But, yeah, probably what are you? Fresh 13? It depends on 14, I suppose.
Jason LaBarge:Yeah. That was my first gig, graffitis, car wash. It was four to six, and then I would come on the lunch rush on Saturdays, like, you know, tended to. And that was, like, the longest
Bill Hocking:Four hour. No. That's hysterical because, you know, we one of the things that, like, your dad taught you was he threw you into a meat grinder, and he basically said, you'll figure out a way out of it. You'll survive it. It's not gonna kill you.
Bill Hocking:There was no helicoptering back then. It was the more you fall and crash, the harder you know, the the tougher you're gonna be, and you're gonna learn by failure sometimes as You
Jason LaBarge:guys had it even more so. Like, my dad and you and what I grew up in a generation that was even more so. Like, I I distinctly remember in the summer hearing Jason. I was like, alright, guys. I gotta go.
Jason LaBarge:Or, like, you you knew when it was starting to get dark, it was time to go home. If you were at a friend's house, the the friend's mom would cook you lunch and I'd go home, and my my mom would be, oh, what'd guys eat for lunch today? Or if we were at my house, my mom would make grilled cheese soup for everybody. It just was it was a community that we just don't
Bill Hocking:See, ironically, because of your age, you know, you're in your thirties. Well, you just must have just cracked over it. Congratulations. You're gonna be older than dirt. The fact is, you know, that was one of the topics of one of my earlier podcasts with my friend Dave Stutzman was about kids and this whole notion that when we were kids running around, they kicked you out.
Bill Hocking:Your parents kicked you out of the house early on Saturday morning and said, I don't wanna see you until 06:00 or dinner, and you better be here or you know what's gonna happen. Don't wanna be there either. And I don't wanna even know what you're doing. I I trust what you're gonna be doing is not stupid and neanderthal. I think it And the village would more or less be taking care of you.
Bill Hocking:You're on your bike. You're hitchhiking. You're whatever. But there was no helicopter or anything. You wanna go to the store?
Bill Hocking:Put your thumb out if you're a guy, or get on your bike or walk. There was none of this helicoptering, taking people places. And it sounds like where you grew up, even though you were so much younger than I was, you still had some of that. I mean, your parents, the community didn't have this sense of fear about what's gonna happen to Jason or other people like him. They're over at so and so's house.
Jason LaBarge:Playing sports, here here We had a blitz. We had a open lot next to my house, and we'd play baseball and wiffle ball and home run derby. And I think we just live in this, especially here in Maryland. The it's and my son is over at Severn, which is a high end big big bucks oil. He's like, dad, this place is a competitive war zone.
Jason LaBarge:It's a competitive war zone. Bunch of alphas. It's a competitive war zone, dude. And so I can see why teenagers and then young men having such a hard time because teenagers, you're competing, you didn't make the lacrosse team, you didn't make this team or whatever. And then, as you age, it becomes this world of, this wasn't what I thought it was and but then, your neighbors making this money or this person who noted that like this keeping up with the Joneses.
Jason LaBarge:It's just, I don't remember that being as pervasive back when I was growing up. Like, we were all the same. Like, we weren't rich. We weren't poor. Right?
Jason LaBarge:Like, we were just middle class kids.
Bill Hocking:Well, you were Middle America.
Jason LaBarge:We were middle America. Really? There was no it was well, it was the epitome. It's literally this middle of North America is where I live.
Bill Hocking:I mean, this area, even though it's Maryland, you're so close to DC, and you've got all the politics coming with DC and all that dog eat dog kind of a thing. And where you grew up in South Dakota, you just didn't have that. And a lot of us that, in my case, have grown up here, we've never known anything but it. You know? You just kind of bemoan the fact that it would have been great to live in South Dakota and never have to worry about that kind of pressure and doggy dog kind of stuff.
Jason LaBarge:And it's up to so, like, it's interesting, especially around Baltimore, some of the kids we other people we run around now, they'll ask what school you went to, and they're they're asking what high school you went to to indicate your socioeconomic background, where you, you know where where I grew up, there was public school, and then there was a Catholic school. And there was a Christian school too that was small. But even the Catholic school kids like I was, it wasn't wealthy. It wasn't a like, especially back when my dad went, like, nowadays, private school would indicate wealthier or, you know, or trying to be back in the day, it didn't. It was just that you just valued educate you valued religion.
Jason LaBarge:You you valued that more so than maybe your neighbor. It didn't indicate I'm wealthier than you. I I think that's changed,
Bill Hocking:like, since I graduated. Well, the cost of that private education.
Jason LaBarge:It's gone up.
Bill Hocking:Yeah. Going up a lot.
Jason LaBarge:My yes. 100%. Like, and I was lucky too real quick. I had a godfather, Roger Johnson, who was my father's best friend, who took the role seriously. Still does.
Jason LaBarge:Owned a construction company. And so that was one time in my life I did kinda feel like a prince or feel like a rich kid because he would let me come work in the summers. And I'll tell you, man, that was six to six. Road construction, work your tail off. How are you, dude?
Jason LaBarge:Carrying six by sixes. Oh, man. You know, I muck in concrete. And but to this day, that man has always looked out for me as a role of the godfather, not a ceremonial, not a, hey. I'm gonna go at a at a baptism and just hang out.
Jason LaBarge:He's always taken it very seriously, and I was very blessed or lucky to have him and still do to because he's successful but very down to earth. And that's the other thing about growing up in the Middle America is you didn't wanna show your wealth. Like, Roger bought his wife. I shouldn't be saying this. Bought his wife a mink.
Jason LaBarge:Just always classic story. My my parents talk about bought him a bought his wife a mink by coat, never to wear. Never. You know what I mean? Like, was the they didn't wanna and those and back then, you just didn't wanna show your wealth where and maybe there's an element to that today too, but there's certainly a a keeping up with the Joneses Oh, yeah.
Jason LaBarge:That I think is it it's just that's America. It's capitalism, but it just seems like here it's just hyper and more so than rest of the country.
Bill Hocking:It's fascinating, bro. So let's talk about capitalism. Let's talk about making money. That's what you do. You help people make money.
Bill Hocking:You help them keep it. And one of the things I've learned from you during your seminars and things, and avid fans, I'm not ashamed to say this, Dr. LaBarge here, and I call him Dr. because that's a sign of reverement from me. He's not just Jason. He's Dr.
Bill Hocking:LaBarge. He's a financial advisor. So he's helping me make Dean Eris. So one of the things I've learned from you that I've never heard from any other financial advisor, because the nomenclature is different, is this concept of red money versus green money. So tell the audience a little bit about that.
Jason LaBarge:Well, I think that it first of all, I don't even think that my job is to quote make people money. What's awesome about my industry is you can make good money. You can provide for your family in a way that's great, but it gotta make a difference every single day. Like, people I don't care if you got a million or you got 10,000,000. You don't feel like you have enough?
Jason LaBarge:You feel like you're gonna run out. There's always a worry. And so I get to play this role where my parents were my dad was sales. My mom was a teacher. And so I get to meld both of those together.
Jason LaBarge:And my mom was more of a teacher therapist. She was a special education administrative, what she was. And so it was more it was a quasi teacher, quasi therapist. And so I get to meld both of those specialties and the the it's amazing because we just we help people. Think about what we're doing.
Jason LaBarge:Think about that important transit, that transition from I'm working. It's who I am. I'm an engineer. I'm a lawyer. I'm a teacher.
Jason LaBarge:And then all of a sudden, I'm just Jason. I heard it. Yeah. I'm Jason. Yeah.
Jason LaBarge:What am I gonna do? Yeah. What I have enough.
Bill Hocking:What's your worth? I mean, where what's my identity? What's my mission in life? Not for men who are alpha perhaps or maybe not alphas. Their whole life they're geared towards you are a provider, and of course women provide for themselves as well, and it's great that they're doing that, but men tend to take this on themselves and say, I've got to take care of my family, take care of my number one customer, which is me, so I can take care of them.
Bill Hocking:And all of a sudden, that whole identity piece has now shifted when you retire. What am I going to do with my life? And now as a financial planner, you're now a consultant, a therapist, a listener to them because they're going to start worrying about, I'm not this fancy lawyer anymore. I'm not this engineer building this or that.
Jason LaBarge:And then you have that, and then you got the money component. And so it's and we've tried to keep it very simple. And so and I can't claim to have invented red money, green money. I have coaches that that I work with that that kind of help me come up with it. So red money, green money boils down to green money is your safe, your income.
Jason LaBarge:Red money is your inflation hedge. That's your growth. So you wanna have day one in retirement, your income coming from green side. And for one of the advantages of around here is the federal government, the the contractors, for the most part, still provide pensions. And so red mine or green money rather would be Social Security, your pension, plus living off interest, living off annuities, living off of, you know, dividends aren't necessarily guaranteed but those types of things that you know no matter what happens, I'm getting 8,000 a month.
Jason LaBarge:I'm getting 10,000 a month but then you got this other bucket that in ten years, I'm gonna or five years or whatever the number is, you're gonna need to withdraw some of that red money because that 8,000 needs to be 10,000. But so you would need growth there. And then inside of that red money, can have, you know, different diversification, different asset classes, stocks, bonds, alternatives, real estate. But what's, I think, driving a lot of fear as it relates to retirement is these institutions that we grew up relying upon or at least thinking we were gonna rely upon. Pensions.
Jason LaBarge:Pensions, Social Security. Deloitte announced a couple weeks ago, they're gonna stop doing PTO. They're gonna stop doing family leave for for, you know, having children because it's it's a joy to work here. You know, that that goes in line with what used to these employers used to offer pensions. They used to offer four zero one k match.
Jason LaBarge:They used to offer PTO. Now it's like, there's a thousand dudes out there that'll work here. We don't need to do any of this, and they're probably right. But as a retiree, as a person thinks about retirement, that means it's up to me. Right?
Jason LaBarge:Like, I can't rely upon Social Security like our previous my grandmother, Marcel, lived on Social Security. That was her deal. You know? Frank LaBarge was as good as a man as he was. He was not a very successful man.
Jason LaBarge:And so, you know, the wealth that he tried to build, he died unexpectedly in 1982. She lived another forty years basically on Medicaid, and she meant the absolute world to me. Never would have known it, man. This woman was not a complainer, had polio when she was eight in the middle of Eastern South Dakota. Just amazing.
Jason LaBarge:Amazing. But This was your grandma? This is my grandmother. Amazing. And so the point here is that we used to think we could rely on these things.
Jason LaBarge:And the further out we look, it's on us. The responsibilities, a 100% us, which is thus wrote the book.
Bill Hocking:So here's the shameless plug for the book.
Jason LaBarge:That's the one and only we'll do. But, no. Like, the title's called If It's Meant To Be, It's Up To Me. And on the title of it, I have pictures of my family history. Family history has always been important to me.
Jason LaBarge:But the the point and my mother said that to me my whole life. Jason, if it's meant to be, it's up to me.
Bill Hocking:Where where can I
Jason LaBarge:where can people buy? Amazon. You can get on Amazon or you can get on our website. We'll have a link out to it, but, like, the point that it's important that your listeners listen to this because this is not the end. This is the beginning.
Jason LaBarge:Is Social Security going to be taking away from us? Yes. But not the way we think it's a it's not a poof. It's gone. It's a slow burn.
Jason LaBarge:Pensions being taken away was a slow burn, and so the the responsibility is falling more and more on each American. And it's amazing that I get to help because there are still tools available that we have to leverage and maximize. But, man, it never has a it's so fascinating to see people who are what I would be as wealthy still worry about how they're gonna provide food tomorrow. I mean, it's such a it's I have to bizarre. The the doesn't matter how much money you have.
Jason LaBarge:There's always somebody with more. And or you think there's somebody with more, and you think you want more, it's and it Joe Rogan, his podcast talks about this. It's like, what are we building this thing for? What are we trying to get to? What are we doing here?
Jason LaBarge:Why are we building all this technology to get to what particular point are we trying to do? Like, when when does somebody say enough is enough? And I see it every day.
Bill Hocking:Yeah. And you could probably talk to people every day that are worried sick about stuff, and they have more money than God, more or less. And you're looking at them proverbially with your head tilted going, you're fat, dumb, and happy, and you don't even know it. Why are you stressing about it so much?
Jason LaBarge:And, like and so the the consultant, the therapist role and I got that from my father. One of the so a lot of my colleagues last met a billion in, like, thirteen years. You started doing library seminars with zero clients. There were people like you that came on early probably thinking I was bigger than I was, but colleagues asked with what how'd you do it? How can we replicate?
Jason LaBarge:Right? We had a guy in here last week trying to learn from us, and you can't teach the heart. You can't teach genuinely care. And I've got that in in if you can bottle that up and sell it, I've got it. Like, I I can't help it.
Jason LaBarge:I can't help myself. I I just I'm genuinely interested in seeing you succeed, and I can't fake it. I just you people know when you're faking it.
Bill Hocking:See, take that point, which and I'm not gonna make a shameless plug for a book that I wrote. This is about you. But the whole concept of this is part of my DNA. It's something I it's part of who I am. I'm not trying to act this way.
Bill Hocking:This is who I am. So, the message there is you don't necessarily have to be born that way, but you can develop. And how do you develop being a kinder, genuine person that genuinely cares? You aspire perhaps, you aspire to be more that you're not, but you identify people like you that are maybe where you like to be, and somehow or another, you are where other people strive to be. And because they look in the mirror and necessarily don't see a kind person or a person that generally cares, but they realize somehow or another, I've got to start doing more of this.
Bill Hocking:It's harder for me or it's not easy for me. I don't know how to do it, but what's wrong with you saying to somebody like that, just do what I do. Try to do what I do. And you won't do it the same way. It won't be as easy because it's not it's not as natural.
Bill Hocking:Doesn't mean you can't do it. The question is, why do you want to be more like that?
Jason LaBarge:I think it starts with self acceptance, self love. I think it starts with you gotta love who you are before you can kinda embrace other people, and we live in this world where not everybody feels that way about themselves. There's so many reasons not to or things we and so I've been on my own journey of of self acceptance, accepting who you are, and embracing who you are, and and I think you gotta start with that. You gotta start with, like
Bill Hocking:What if you've been beat up your whole life and being told by your parents or other people, unfortunately, that you were dog meat, that you weren't worth anything? So your self esteem is in the toilet, and all of a sudden you're looking at a guy like Jason LaBarge who seems to be on top of the world and has all this self esteem and self confidence because he's very comfortable in his own skin, and this person who's been the recipient of not a whole lot of edification like you have and maybe like I have growing up, I want to be like Jason. I want to be like Bill. I want to feel good about myself when I look in the mirror, but I still don't see what I need to see because I've been told my whole life I've been uncrap. So how do I how do I change that?
Bill Hocking:As a therapist, how will you advise people? So first, it again, I'm not
Jason LaBarge:an expert in this particular arena, but for me, it begins with doing the things every day that you respect. Right? Like, can't change with the past, but you can say, you know what? I'm gonna get up. I'm gonna work out.
Jason LaBarge:I'm gonna eat right. I'm gonna read. I'm gonna surround myself with people that are positive. What you do every day tends to then like, you know, success is a byproduct. It's not the yeah.
Jason LaBarge:You know what I mean? Like, I I am successful because I do these series of things every single day, and I've committed to doing that.
Bill Hocking:You know? You're you're a sports guy. And how many athletes that you respect that you know are really good at their game have not practiced on a regular basis? They all work. It takes work.
Bill Hocking:Brady, for example, lots of other people that Michael Jordan. These guys worked every single day, they had believed in them, but the point was they were committed to a work ethic. And so for those of you out there that think, I'm just going to turn a light switch, and I'm going to become magically successful or magically self confident or whatever else, you're deluding yourself, because this stuff takes work and dedication and time. And, like And does
Jason LaBarge:take Sometimes a lot of successful people too, there's a certain element of impostor syndrome. Like, I'll look around and be like, I can't believe I did this. And then I'm like, you know what? I can't because I literally just go to work every single day. My mother has a lot so as a therapist teacher, my mom had a lot of, like, quips and and little sayings that she would try to get through to her students.
Jason LaBarge:And so if it's meant to be, it's up to me was one. Another one was 90% of life is showing up, like, literally just showing up. Just, Jason, 90% of life is just being there. And so and, like and and I'll tell you, there's there's some some net potential problems with that too. Like, I don't have a ton of friends.
Jason LaBarge:Right? Because I spent ten years, thirteen years building this. So when guys would be like, hey, Jason. Wanna go golfing? It's Friday.
Jason LaBarge:Let's clear the schedule. Hey, Jason. You wanna go drinking the night before? Like, it's Thursday. Let's I would have for ten years not have to say no.
Jason LaBarge:I beg, no. Or even Friday night would come around. I'm pooped, man. You have you have your social life. You have your parenting life.
Jason LaBarge:You have your professional life. You can't hit all three hard. Something's gotta give. And for me, I hit the professional life, and I hit the father life. I thought those are the two things that are important to me.
Bill Hocking:And the husband wife.
Jason LaBarge:And the husband wife, family life. And so it it it impacts your social life. Like, I don't know how some of these people are out drinking as much as they do or a lot of people have moved over to, you know, the the marijuana. I don't know. Something's gotta give.
Jason LaBarge:Right? Like, you're either
Bill Hocking:Well, it does affect. It impacts other aspects of it. Absolutely. Life's a series of choice. That's right.
Bill Hocking:So the shoes
Jason LaBarge:and the success is the byproduct because I'm choosing to be family first, business second, social life third. But then I then I look around. Do I have a ton of friends that I can just call right now and say, hey, buddy. Let's go to this or I know.
Bill Hocking:I understand. I submit that you have more friends than you're giving yourself credit for. So just because you're not going out drinking with them on Thursdays or Fridays doesn't mean they're not your friends. It's just that you don't hang around with them a lot. You don't have a big click to point it.
Bill Hocking:That's a guy thing too. But what you also have is you have a huge cadre of what I'll call boomer clients. I And that was one of them. We're gonna gonna yeah. Be starting up up here.
Jason LaBarge:If you think about you, you would say for a couple of years, hey. Let's go to the the the tournament. Let's come down to your house or, you know, you and Mike would go down and and watch the basketball tournament. And did I ever go up? Exactly.
Jason LaBarge:Was I ever there from a Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday? Mark. The March, Matt. It's exactly right. So, like, what I was I ever there?
Jason LaBarge:Every year you'd ask me to go and then there's a certain point that you stop asking because Jason is not gonna go. And so you're one example I could give of several.
Bill Hocking:But it doesn't mean that I didn't just still don't want you to.
Jason LaBarge:Totally. But like and and I'm not trying to bust your your your chops there, but, like but but then I can look around and I have all this. Like, what maybe there was a balance in my life that I needed to say, hey. Friends are important. Social life is important.
Jason LaBarge:I need to maybe up that and less professional. I just went super hard on building this.
Bill Hocking:But you know what? You know, you're gonna you can you have what it takes to have friends. That's your personality. So you can tomorrow, can go because of your personality, you can go meet three or four or five people you'll even know, within and a couple of months they're going to be friends of yours. That's kind of who you are.
Bill Hocking:So you don't have to worry about that. You've got your priorities right. I like to think that I have my priorities right, which is my faith, my family, and then my identity as a writer, as a podcaster, as an author, I a tech mean, I'm proud of things that I've done in my life, and I'm also disillusioned with all the things that I have not accomplished that I set out to. So that's something I have to wrestle with. Is that emotion As you get older, because you realize something very physical, and that is your time's running out.
Bill Hocking:The older you get, you realize those sands and that hourglass are starting to fall, and there's less and less at the top part. So now all of a sudden, time has a completely different meaning than it is when you're 40. When you're 50, it's different. When you're 60, it's different. When you're 70, it's different.
Bill Hocking:Whenever I'm 80, and I will make 80, I'm going to feel even more like this because you have less and less and less, which means things that you do mean more because at age 40, you've got arguably fifty plus years ahead of you. You're not even halfway there, Pat.
Jason LaBarge:Middle age.
Bill Hocking:Now, I mean, your hairline looks like it, but more than halfway.
Jason LaBarge:How do I needed it?
Bill Hocking:Yeah. But the point is your life I mean, your wife love you anyway.
Jason LaBarge:Of course. How do I
Bill Hocking:need it? Right. The point is, you know, you're you're gonna your your personality is gonna change as you age, but you don't have to worry about that yet. What you worry about right now is what you are worrying about, keeping your business growing, taking care, being the steward that you are of people like me and other people that you have as customers. That's a full time job, and you're also walking that walk for your children.
Bill Hocking:You've got five kids, and so they're looking at dad helping other people be successful or maintain success, and they're saying, Dad's walking the walk. He's not just talking about it. He literally is helping them. Plus, he's helping them be happier in their spaces because they're venting about all this money they don't have, and Joe has this, and Jane has that.
Jason LaBarge:Let me tell you two things. Number one, the there's a there's a I've come to the conclusion that this is what I was made to do. When God made me Yeah. This is exactly what he made me to do. And I feel incredibly blessed.
Jason LaBarge:You are. You have found that. Yeah. Think about how many people you've ever met in your life that are doing a job they'd maybe dislike or they're whatever. Like, this is what I
Bill Hocking:was made. You're blessed. And in some ways you're very lucky. For sure. But you also make your own luck.
Jason LaBarge:You do. There's a scene on you've you've heard the show Landman? So there's a scene as yes. There's a scene where Billy Bob Thornton is talking to guys, Billy Bob, somebody's talking to Jerry Jones. And he's Jerry Jones in the show.
Jason LaBarge:And I heard Jerry. Cowboys on. Owner of the Cowboys. He's in this show. And it's it's one of the best scenes because Jerry Jones is talking about his life, and he's talking about, I wanted to work with my kids.
Jason LaBarge:So I did not wanna have a relationship with my kids where I only saw him at Christmas and Easter. So he's like, I bought the cowboys to work with my kids. It's amazing. He talks like, I wanna be right next to them in the workplace. I don't wanna just see them couple times a year and be that kind of father.
Jason LaBarge:I wanna be involved in their life. It it totally changed my view on Jerry Jones. I I and I almost started crying over because it was like, that is exactly what I'm doing. Like, I built this because I came to Maryland with a remember, was a wholesaler. So I saw a whole bunch of financial advisers doing all kinds of different things.
Jason LaBarge:But I but but I came here with a vision to have what I used to call a one stop shop, but then a guy like you, a tech guy came up to me and said, no. No. It's a single source solution, which is something I think you would say, where we have financial planning, estate planning, tax planning, Medicare, Social Security planning, you know, various other things, but it's really that core of financial, estate, tax, Medicare, Social Security planning, and all those four pillars, I can have three sons or or two daughters or whatever doing that. Right? I can say, son, you want to work in the firm?
Jason LaBarge:Go be an attorney. Son, you wanna work in the firm? Go be a CPA. Son, you wanna work in the firm? Go get your series seven and be a financial person.
Jason LaBarge:Or, hey, son or daughter, you wanna go be a be a the the office manager and run the financials? Go to I'm gonna work with my kids. I'm gonna be around my kids.
Bill Hocking:See, when they're old enough, like the one that's in at Severn is still in high school, and he's the oldest. Right? Yeah. But he's
Jason LaBarge:he's 14. Now he's 15.
Bill Hocking:So he's the oldest. So he's got a number of years before he's worried about working anywhere for you or for anybody else. But the point is you're setting the ground rules here. You're setting the platform and the foundation for the opportunity for the kids to join you in the business if and when they want to.
Jason LaBarge:Is there nothing more amazing than
Bill Hocking:of course you're going be involved in it, but eventually, you're gonna wanna hand the reins over to them, and then you sit back, you put your feet up, and wouldn't life be just sweet? Wouldn't that
Jason LaBarge:be interesting about that? And I'll shift gears real quick on it because I think it's important to mention too private equity. So private equity is taking over the world. Uh-huh. Buying everybody.
Jason LaBarge:And, like, I was just the example of we have cookies out in our lobby. If private equity bought us, the first thing to go is private equity. Second thing to go is Iman working on the front why some AI thing can answer, direct people where to go. Private equity used to have a function that I think was important. They would say, okay, Bill.
Jason LaBarge:You built a business. Your wealth in large part is tied into this business. So we're gonna give you a 30%. We're gonna buy 30%. We're gonna give you a liquidity event so you and your wife can go buy beach house and go do your thing.
Jason LaBarge:We're not gonna run it. We want a dividend. Your son or whoever, daughter can come in and run it. That's what private equity was created to do. Then they got greedy, and they bought they're buying not 30%, not 51%.
Jason LaBarge:They're buying a 100. And they're buying brands and they're running them together, and my industry is no different. I get private equity solicitations all the time to either be part of a larger network hawking financials buying LaBarge, buying Johnson, buying Premier, applying buying this, or I could be the lead in LaBarge Financials buying all these firms using private equity money. And I'm convinced they want an ownership list society. This is capitalism on steroids where every American's gonna end up working for one of two companies.
Jason LaBarge:It'll be megalith number one, you know, I was gonna put a conglomeration of companies together. You know, it'll be it'll be, you know, Google, Mercedes, you know, Walmart, eBay, or you can go over here and you can work for Microsoft, Apple, Toyota, and and whatever. Like, all these hyphen you know, because private equity is buying everybody, whether you're a dentist, financial adviser, you're a podcaster. That to me is that to me is what's scary, is you're gonna end up with because as a small business owner, I look at Suburban Park, our community. It's my responsibility to be a steward, to help be a steward, to make sure that there's jobs.
Jason LaBarge:I have four interns that started. These are college kids that that, you know, private equity maybe doesn't employ. Right? They're in the community. They live here.
Jason LaBarge:They've got a job. They have enough to like, as a small business owner, it's our responsibility to to make the kind of community or contribute to the kind of community we want, and I fear that private equity is the antithesis of that. It could very well be. I think it's common.
Bill Hocking:Yeah. It could be. It's kind of a heads up that, be aware of that this juggernaut is and down the track.
Jason LaBarge:And think about every year, you've got Harvard business school grads, smart people, graduating new mint, and they gotta find businesses to acquire to keep the machine going. And for some people, it's great. Right? You have a liquidity event. It pays.
Jason LaBarge:You may like, let's say my kids don't want anything to do. Let's say they're successful on their own, you know, doing whatever it is. They wanted a dentist or they whatever they wanna do. Then maybe you look at private equity, but then I'm worried about the clients. Right?
Jason LaBarge:Like, they've expected a level of service from the Barge Financial for ten, twelve, twenty five years that private equity is gonna be something different. Maybe not better, maybe worse, maybe what it's just something different. And in negotiation with these groups, I can say and request anything I want. But once the deal's over, it's it's their company. Right?
Jason LaBarge:And so who's are they contributing to the local community? Like, I think I like, I've been, and so that's things that I fear for the country at large and that's not a politics thing, right? That's just a that's just a it's a business thing and we're so we're so hypersensitive to the lowest cost. I wanna get it the cheapest I possibly can and not understanding that there's an impact there. Right?
Jason LaBarge:Amazon owns everything. And so do we want that? Is that the kind of world we wanna live in? Like, that's the kind of thing that that but then as an investor, I'm all about Amazon. I already know as an example.
Jason LaBarge:But, and so, yeah, it it's
Bill Hocking:well, you think about it. It's it's first of all, can you do anything to slow it down or stop it? That's one thing. The second thing is assuming that you can't. How do you adapt to that?
Jason LaBarge:Or how do you insert the values in the community that that you want to instill because the business gives me the opportunity to do that. Right? There's boards you can sit on. There's different things that you can you can wield influence or get the values that you want.
Bill Hocking:Well, you just got to keep doing what it is you can do if in the realm of your capabilities, because in a way you feel a responsibility to give back to the community because this community is- to what was embraced, is embracing you, a lot of your clients are part of this community, like me. All right, Jason, we've got just a couple seconds left. I'm going to put a plug in for a gentleman named Kent Gustafson, and he's part of this organization that I'm a part of. And there's a group of people that surround him, but the part of the business that he's responsible for is called Talk to Kent, and he's one of these kind of guys that he coaches coaches. He also helps people write books.
Bill Hocking:So Kent, in a sense, has helped guide me to this particular book. I'm getting ready to and you've already written one, but if you can write one, you probably can write some more, and you probably will. So in a sense, this guy Kent is somebody that maybe one day you'll get a chance to meet. He is scary smart.
Jason LaBarge:How'd you meet?
Bill Hocking:I was introduced to him from somebody else that I knew from Microsoft, when I was at Microsoft, that is retired, long retired, and who's written a couple books himself. He and I were talking a little bit, I said, I've had this book in me, just like a lot of us have books in us. I said, I want to write this book and I want to get it published. And this guy said, You need to talk to this guy, Kent. So I reached out to him, had some discussions.
Bill Hocking:So in addition to being a coach of coaches, and I consider myself a coach as well, this guy has assembled a global organization of people that help with podcasts. Well, that's where he lives, but he's from New York. He's engineered podcasts, speakers. He has this network of speakers that have different topics, and the other thing he's also doing is, for example, something I really care about is servant leadership, and what does it look like to live a life worth living? There are other people out there that kind of feel like I do about servant leadership, so he's created this ability to create an anthology.
Bill Hocking:So there can be 10 or 12 people that I'm going to be looking for through this platform that would like to co write a book with me. And so that's one thing they can't help spearhead, is these anthology groups of people that are Like multiple authors. Correct. So you have some people that say, I love to write a book, but I don't think I have enough. I can do a chapter, but maybe I can put a chapter or two chapters together, maybe not a whole book.
Bill Hocking:So there's room at the table for those kinds of folks. So maybe one day I'll get a chance to talk. No. Talk to kent.org is his I have two coaches that are business coaches that I
Jason LaBarge:lean on, and they've helped me tremendously. So anytime you can find somebody to help advise you Yeah. That's amazing.
Bill Hocking:Yeah. Alright. Any last words?
Jason LaBarge:No. Bill, I appreciate the the opportunity. Hopefully, you found it valuable. I Hopefully, the audience did. Hopefully, they find it valuable.
Jason LaBarge:And Oh, it's LaBarge Financial. Was gonna say that at labargefinancial.com.
Bill Hocking:Yep. But one way when we finish this podcast, we'll make sure that that that link to your website is is in here so people can see it. And, again, everything that this guy has just talked about is embedded in this book.
Jason LaBarge:Or if you wanna even, you know, call, email my office, we'll send you a copy, for free. You don't have to go out and buy it. But we can we can send it out Okay. For anybody listening here. Well, Jason, it's
Bill Hocking:been a pleasure. God bless you. You know, I'm gonna pray I'm gonna pray heavily for your wife because there's five kids and having to deal with you. You know? But since you're part of the Catholic prison system as I am, I know I can do this.
Jason LaBarge:I'm the line. Right? Yeah. Fifty minutes. I think we're good.
Jason LaBarge:Alright. Thank you, sir. Yep. Have good day.
Bill Hocking:Well, avid fans, as they say in LA, that's a wrap. Thank you so much for listening to today's conversation. We hope you enjoyed it, and we hope that you learned something that perhaps there was a few pearls of wisdom that you took away from today's conversation. Thanks again, and until next time. God bless.
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