Welcome to the Thought & Action podcast hosted by Erik Flegal. The Thought for the Day is to understand how we do community here at Family Fortune. The goal has always been to give back, and we give back on multiple platforms, some are digital, some are face-to-face, but think about and consider how we do it and then go out, action-wise, and do it yourself. Find a community that you can plug into, that you can give back to, and start that relationship of constant give and take, and grow the community that’s near and dear to your heart.
Today we are joined by our Chief Compliance Officer Joe McQuaid about the subject of community.
Define Community
Face-to-Face
This is going to sound funny coming on a podcast, but that’s part of the community, and we do that through, community events.
The face-to-face community and the face-to-face events that family fortune financial does regularly.
Digital Community
Because we have a passion for connection and education, digital communities are also what people need.
There are four main pillars in our company, access, transparency, fiduciary, responsibility, and community. This type of work works in tandem with access. It is important to give people access to education, resources, and people, that’s a community all on its own. Face-to-face community, digital-online community, the online where we have more of a focus on education.
Red Carpet Charleston
In any city in America, there’s a lot of people moving in and out. We want to help people meet each other. Everyone’s going to have their established groups, but who wouldn’t want to meet some new dynamic people. For example, if you got a chance to meet the president, Elon Musk, or somebody that’s, dynamically doing something, in a different area of the city or a company, wouldn’t you want to meet them? We try to set up these events that happen periodically throughout the year and bring together some of these kinds of people. They can get better connected, they can meet each other, then we all win together. When you meet people face-to-face, and if you have differences, you realize very quickly, you’re not that different. Your height might be the only thing that distinguishes you, but you’re sitting there having an interesting conversation. In the course of one night, you can meet 10-20 people and establish a friendship or a relationship, that can help not only you in the city, but can help the city itself also grow that face-to-face connection. It helps us corporately as well.
This event is free, we’re not making people pay to do this, this isn’t a chamber of commerce. This isn’t a bunch of people sitting around with name tags on, introducing themselves, and trying to immediately do a business deal. This is something we do as a community service.
From Red Carpet Charleston we’ve seen, friendships formed, business deals are done, political campaigns helped, you name it. Sometimes in our mind, we will get somewhat pigeonholed, preventing initial conversation. But when you go there, you meet people. We’re putting dynamic people together. You may see these people end up on the boards of local museums, you may see multimillion-dollar business deals done, we’ve seen both. That’s the magic of it.
Family Fortune Financial Lunches
Something very simple, that’s somewhat of an extension of the red carpet. Trying to bring in, complete strangers in a very simple way to meet each other, and get off our phones. I’m not going to get to know you through Facebook, I’m not going to cyberstalk you to find out what you’re about, I’m going to go actually meet you, and I’m going to have a meal with you. Within that 30 minutes to an hour, I’m going to learn so much more than I can spending hours trying to connect with you on LinkedIn, or send you emails or find out what you’ve done. It’s a smaller version of a red carpet and over a meal.
The Digital Footprint of Family Fortune Financial
Thought and Action Podcast
It’s born out of the fact that finance is so much more than investments. A lot of times people will think of a financial advisor as someone who times the market or figures out what stock to buy. That’s a part of it, but it’s a very small part of what we do. It’s wealth generation. It’s a legacy creation. The legacy itself sometimes comes from protection. We’ll go through topics that aren’t investment-related, we’re sure we’ll do investments, but we’ll also talk about estate planning. We’ll talk about strategies for your retirement, planning your business, liquidation strategies, tax strategies, different things that affect your wealth but aren’t necessarily investment-specific. This is why we’ve had episodes on wellness in the workplace or virtual philanthropy. Your money is a tool to enable your legacy. Your investments are tools. Your Tax strategy is a tool. Your estate strategy is a tool. Thought and Action is meant to allow the audience to ask their questions, get their answers, and then build their legacy.
Knowledge Nuggets Podcast
We have another education-based podcast. From our sister company Fortune Foundations, call Knowledge Nuggets. This is meant to grow that legacy for the clients as well. On multiple occasions, our clients have said “I’m worried about this child,” because they don’t know how much they have, or haven’t had us sit down and explain it to them. Sometimes they are afraid that their child is going to blow it all themselves. The best way to get out in front of those fears is education. Teaching them what a stock is, what a bond is, what compounding is, how you can live on investments, what a mortgage looks like, and understanding debt. Basic things that are not taught in school. There is a certain amount of, “how do I get my kids started,” and that’s where Knowledge Nuggets comes in, to facilitate a foundational level of understanding. That way your legacy doesn’t dissipate, because of a lack of knowledge. We’re accessible if they have additional questions, they can always ask, but there’s the framework for understanding, education does spur the legacy. Education makes it last more than one generation.
Benjamin Franklin once said, “knowledge pays the best interest.”