Episode 2: Trust the Process

In Episode 2 of The Financial Huddle, the team dives deep into the importance of process—on the field, in college athletics, and in financial planning. The conversation kicks off with a personal story about how new NCAA rules allowing direct pay to athletes are reshaping college sports, sparking thoughtful dialogue about the ripple effects on non-revenue sports and smaller programs like Butler.

From there, we shift to what we know best: helping people make sound financial decisions by emphasizing the why behind the plan. Whether it’s saving for retirement, navigating college costs, or just getting started with your financial plan, we explore how falling in love with the process—not just chasing outcomes—is key to lasting financial success.

This episode also discusses Keystone's processes when working with clients, and highlights our commitment to providing personalized advice, continuous learning, and building trust through genuine relationships. As basketball star Joel Embiid said, "Trust the process." And that’s exactly what this episode is all about.

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Disclosure: Information contained in this podcast is for entertainment and informational purposes only, and should not be considered as financial advice. Financial Planning and Advisory Services are offered through Prosperity Capital Advisors (“PCA”), an SEC registered investment adviser. Registration as an investment adviser does not imply a certain level of skill or training. Keystone Financial Group and PCA are separate, non- affiliated entities. PCA does not provide tax or legal advice.

Transcript

Speaker 01: 0:00

The Financial Huddle does not provide tax, legal, financial, or other professional advice. Listeners are encouraged to consult with their own advisors in these areas. All right, everybody, huddle up. Play calls in. This is The Financial Huddle. Ready, roll.

Brian Minier: 0:15

Welcome, everybody, to The Financial Huddle. I'm here with my compadres, Ryan Fleming, Ed Beemiller. How are you guys doing today?

Ed Beemiller: 0:22

Hello, hello.

Brian Minier: 0:23

Couldn't be better. Awesome. Family's doing well?

Ed Beemiller: 0:26

Sun's out.

Ryan Fleming: 0:27

Sun's out.

Ed Beemiller: 0:28

Family is good.

Brian Minier: 0:29

That's good. Healthy, well. Ready for episode two, man. That's right. What are we getting into? That's right. Well, I think as we kick this off, I had a really interesting conversation with my daughter, Allie. For some of you that know, she is a rising junior at Butler, and she runs track. Go Bulldogs. Go Bulldogs, that's right. We pay enough at Butler, so yeah, go Bulldogs.

Ryan Fleming: 0:53

What's their famous basketball court called? What's it called? Hinkle Fieldhouse. Yeah, that's Jimmy Cheatwood, right?

Brian Minier: 0:59

Jimmy Cheatwood, man. They filmed that season. Hoosiers, man. They filmed that scene there. Classic. Very classic.

Ed Beemiller: 1:04

That should be on every sports enthusiast. I don't care if you're baseball, soccer, football. That one trip to Hinkle Field House is kind of special. You

Brian Minier: 1:16

remember what he said. I'll make it.

Ed Beemiller: 1:18

There you go. And he made it. And he made it.

Brian Minier: 1:19

That's right. Yeah. So we're having this interesting conversation. And she heard the recent news that colleges, universities can now pay athletes directly with this NIL deal and she's trying to figure out what this means for their program and I would not say they're the powerhouse like maybe Alabama or Ohio State so what that means to some of those other universities may not translate exactly to Butler so it's just really interesting conversation trying to figure this out what that means to her and her track teammates and her as an athlete and I was just thinking about this I think the rule is is universities have a cap of like $20 million for their athletes, which is just, this is a whole... Really interesting dynamic that we're getting into. But I was just processing this and thinking about it. What is the process that these universities and these coaches are going to have to go through? And it's just like, that's a lot to figure out. I mean, which athletes do you pay what? Which teams get what? I think you were listening to something

Ed Beemiller: 2:30

the other day. Actually, yeah. Here earlier, not too long ago, had a big... conference live conference Ross Bjork obviously for those here locally Ohio State's AD Ohio State is one of the largest athletic programs outside of being one of the largest universities I believe the statement was Stanford is above them in terms of the number of varsity sports that are fielded and Ohio State has

Brian Minier: 3:03

36

Ed Beemiller: 3:04

varsity sports and if you look at the And I'm sure a lot of people are familiar with this. Most of them are not revenue generating. They basically cost money. And so interesting kind of tying into this now that colleges can pay directly. Well, how much is going to go towards, in most cases, the football program, which is by far the largest generating business or sport within college? these universities and it's really many of these universities have developed their entire budget around the revenue produced by that football team to then pay for all these other quote-unquote non-revenue sports. The big thing about this specific press conference with Ross was that he basically came out and stated that they are going to continue to support, they have a new program, all 36 varsity sports, whereas a lot of schools are talking about what sports are we going to cut, you know, because they have to manage that budget just like anyone else.

Brian Minier: 4:13

Al, you even said some of the programs may be cut and maybe even some of the... the athletes on the track team there might not be enough roster spots for for everybody so every school is going to have a different process trying to figure out what that looks

Ryan Fleming: 4:28

like

Brian Minier: 4:28

yep

Ryan Fleming: 4:29

yeah and you guys are talking about process and i know we're going to talk about that today and some of the things that we do and think that are important in our process and at keystone our business but you know i've been had i've had the fortune of coaching a lot of travel ball teams you know you guys know my oldest son uh you know plays college baseball you know your son plays college college football. Your son was a very good football player in his own right, coming up through the ranks. Right now, I coach my 13-year-old son. Whether it be teenagers, athletes, adults, it doesn't really matter. I think so many people in life, what they do is they forget about the process or they don't want to commit or fall in love with the process and their mind is always towards the outcome. Whether it be, how much money am I going to have in my retirement account? Am I going to be okay? Am I going to get first team all state? Whatever it may be, a lot of human beings in life, they focus on the outcomes of things. And I think that can lead to a moving target. I think it leads to disappointment. And at the end of the day, if you want to be great at anything, there's no secret to success as we know, right? You have to fall in love with the process, the day-to-day grind. You hear stories about Kobe Bryant all the time and just how he was just an assassin with the process. And that correlates into what we do as financial professionals. For the listeners out there, we We've worked really, really hard on our process in many different areas. We're learning more about that. But one of the things that we committed to not that long ago, guys, was the process of studying to become a certified financial fiduciary. And we felt that that was super important for a lot of reasons. But it was a process to study and learn. And, you know, the CFP and all these designations people get. But, you know, let's talk a little bit about some of the things that you do with your process. My process is similar but different. Ed's is similar but different, you know. Let's get into that.

Brian Minier: 6:30

Yeah. I think the process is so important. It's amazing to me. And I know you guys have very similar stories where you'll meet with somebody and they'll show you their statements. They'll show you, this is what I have saved up. And I was working with this person and they put me in this particular strategy, whatever that strategy is. And you're like, well, tell me a little bit about that. Why? And what do you hear a lot of times? I'm not really sure. I'm not sure. This person that I'm working with just said that this was a good strategy. And what you find out is there was no rationale. There was no process that that person was taken through to solidify or validate why they were in

Ed Beemiller: 7:10

that particular situation. Yeah, a lot of times they don't know why they were put into that account. That's right. And then they meet with someone and they get asked the why and they're like, I have no idea. I met with someone, they told me to do it, so I did it.

Brian Minier: 7:23

Good return, right?

Ed Beemiller: 7:24

Yeah. Oh, great return. Great return. Always great return. I've never, you never speak to a- 36% every year, right? You never speak to a financial professional that sits there and doesn't say, oh yeah, we were 20% plus every year. I mean, that's something

Ryan Fleming: 7:38

we all know that. We hear that all the time. But you get a lot of people that say, well, I hate this. I don't really care. They were introduced to me by my brother, and they just did what they did. And I get that to a point. But at some point in time, it's your money

Ed Beemiller: 7:51

that you worked hard for. But the why, why did they do that? They may not care about the process, but what do they care about? They care about retiring someone, having financial independence. The opportunity or the choice is, for when to stop working. Ultimately, that's why, you know, people save to have a certain lifestyle, to have a certain freedom and independence. And, you know, just by putting money in it, there's no process that's being followed. You're just kind of hoping it turns out well, right? I mean,

Ryan Fleming: 8:26

yeah, yeah. And that's what I'm saying. Like you hear commercials like Voya, you know, what's my number? What's your number? And again, that's a focusing on the outcome. They're focusing on the outcome. I just had somebody a couple, a couple weeks ago come in and say, if I had $3 million, is that enough? Can I retire? That's just such a relative statement.

Ed Beemiller: 8:46

Well, you don't know because, all right, well, what lifestyle do you want? I'm going to need $400,000 a year because I'm going to live a lavish lifestyle. Well, then $3 million is probably not going to do it. Probably not going to make it. you know, looking at that and saying, all right, well, half a million isn't enough, you know, from that standpoint. But once again, the process needs to be customized to each individual. and what their objectives are and understanding that and putting them into the right process is very important.

Ryan Fleming: 9:35

Then the other side of that is, you know, there's some people that are listening that haven't had any process, but they're just starting. I mean, maybe they met us or they met somebody else and they're just now going through a process of automatic withdrawals from their bank account to like a Roth or something of that nature. Or, you know, like, for example, my kids. I have a daughter who's graduating, getting ready to go to college, and she's just the beginning process of her entire life of learning that she can't spend everything that what she makes and you know to automate you know put out x y and z per month and so you know whether or not you're just starting the process because you're young or you're older and you've put it off and you're getting some good coaching and you're just starting the process like the process is a grind it's not fun it's not easy it's tumultuous it takes time and a lot of times people quit when things get hard and so we want to coach our our clients through that to say, not only do we have a process, but we want to make sure you understand the why behind the process. And then we're going to hold you accountable. Yeah. And sometimes the process can be boring.

Brian Minier: 10:40

It can be tedious, repetitive. But that's where the genius is. But that's what makes it successful. That's right. And so I know when I'm meeting with somebody, there's a process that I have to take them through in order to figure out, hey, what is going to be the right fit for you? I know, Ed, you have a process when you are working with somebody you know what would you say is important to the why do you have to take them through that process and maybe talk a little bit about a couple aspects of

Ed Beemiller: 11:09

that process yeah and one thing just to start this off it's never too late to start a process that's

Brian Minier: 11:15

right

Ed Beemiller: 11:15

and so many times you know and i know we all have this we'll come in you know a client will come in and maybe they're in their 50s or you know they've gone through life you know they had kids had to get them through college braces everything growing up they're like i have Yeah.

Brian Minier: 11:39

And that happens more than you think it does. A lot of people that are out there are like, man, I'm so embarrassed because no one else has been in that situation. We see it all the time.

Ed Beemiller: 11:47

And so the issue is, it's never too late to start the process because you still have that goal of retiring or financial independence, whether it's at 65, 67, 70, whatever it is. Or if you just want to pull back and maybe change jobs into something that you've always wanted to do, you love to do, well, having that financial independence... you know, by following the appropriate process is very important. So the first thing, and I know we all do it, you know, when we talk about processes, well, you know, we have processes, but those processes are customized to each individual because each individual is coming from different circumstances, different income. How many kids do you have? You know, if you're, are you married? Are you single? You know, what's the age difference between the spouses? You know, what do you, you know, what is your income objective? You at some point. And then you customize that process to that individual or to that family. And well, how do you do that? Well, first and foremost, the first thing you have to do in a first meeting is listen.

Brian Minier: 12:53

We

Ed Beemiller: 12:54

have questions that we ask as part of our process, but I hear from a lot of people feedback of, well, I just went in and they didn't really ask me a lot of questions and they just put me into this account and that account. So that is what we call and refer to, that's selling product. We try not to sell product. We try to sell a solution that meets your objectives that you told us. So when we listen and understand what they're looking to accomplish, At the end of the day, we work in reality, right? So if someone says, I'm saving $100 a month, and they're 55 years old, and their income gap or what they need is $50,000 a year, you have to be realistic with them and say, that's not going to do it. So either A, you're going to need to modify your objectives, or B, we're going to have to save more money, or we're going to have to change the process. But once again, having a process leads to, Ryan, what you brought up, an outcome.

Brian Minier: 13:53

Yeah, and I think the one thing that you're really good at, Ed, and I've heard you talk to some of the people that you work with, you're really good at listening. You're really good at taking time to get to know that person and understand them. That's part of your process is taking time to really ask appropriate questions. and you would think, of course, duh, everybody should do that. There's a lot of people in our industry that don't. The question is, what's your account balance? Ryan, tell us a little bit about, I know you're really good at listening to people and making people feel comfortable. Tell us a little bit about your process of how you go about doing that.

Ryan Fleming: 14:26

I remember a few years ago, I was attending a church service at our local church that we go to, and the pastor said a pretty profound comment that stuck with me. He said, what people care about most, they're going to figure it out. That's very true. What people care about most, they're going to figure it out. And relative to what we're talking about is we got to get to the heart of the matter, right? We got to get to really what is the emotion behind why people are sitting in front of us, right? I mean, until you get that facade broken down and you truly seek to understand the heart and the emotion of why people are sitting in front of you, it does become transactional, right? It does become transactional. And so we do work hard for that. As far my process same thing as Ed I really want to ask good probing questions that are honest sincere questions but I also don't want to just take the surface answer because I do realize sometimes people are guarded they don't know us immediately right up front they're not 100% comfortable right away so I think part of my process is actually being bold enough to dig a little bit deeper so when you say that what do you mean by that help me to understand and I think because of that then it just it just Bolden's more long-term trust. But one of the things I want to talk about with process, and it's been part of my process for 18 years, is I help a lot of families through the financial aid and admission system, the college planning journey. And that is a crazy process on a lot of different fronts because college planning is a retirement issue. And so they have to know the process of the admission side and how they're going to be able to pay for it. And it

Ed Beemiller: 16:08

changes

Ryan Fleming: 16:09

all the time. And it's changing all the time. So That process, the point about what I'm saying about that is that process is ever moving. It's always evolving. It's convoluted. Laws change and percentages change, so on and so forth. When you're in a process, you have to also be willing to adapt, us as advisors, but also as clients. Many people that are listening to us today, they may be in the process of accumulating wealth. They're climbing Mount Everest. They're saving into 401ks, Roth IRAs, cash value, life insurance, whatever it may be. They're in the process of trying to accumulate and that's hard enough. But then they got to switch their process and they got to figure out how to decumulate. They got to go into distribution and that's a whole different process. And so that's why the value of a good, trusted advisor to be a thought partner with these people to coach them through the process at various different stages is very important to us and why our listeners right here, we would feel are getting good value from us, right? Yeah,

Brian Minier: 17:19

for sure. One of the things that when I teach some of my classes, I say, your plan is going to be different depending on what you want. So for example, if your plan is to leave a million dollars to your three kids, that plan is going to look different than if you want your last check to bounce. Those are two different plans. There's different tax ramifications. There's different spending plans, how to take those distributions. One of the processes that I try to implement is we're going to put together a financial plan first before we even talk about the movement or the implementation of any strategies. And I feel like that process works because then the people that I work with understand the why behind what they're doing.

Ryan Fleming: 18:03

Yeah, and so... there's this idea of the process of data gathering and education, but there's also the process of nurturing the relationship. So what are some things that we do in our company that we do to nurture relationships? So one of the things we do is client appreciation events. We've done a few of those over the time, and they've been great, but there's a process to that, right? Yeah, and

Ed Beemiller: 18:28

one thing, I'm part of a networking group, and the motto Mm-hmm. Yeah, absolutely. you know, it's having these touching points. And, you know, part of why we're doing this podcast and we talk about processes, right? Well, let's go back to the whole process of how we got here to start this, right? We've been talking about it for a couple of years, but it's important to follow that process. But within my networking group, we get to get up and say like a little 60 second commercial of who we are and what we do and what we're looking for. One thing I always talk about is I've asked the other people, do you have a financial planner that you work with? Do you have a financial professional? Or are you working with anyone or doing it all yourself? A lot of times, even with clients, the response I get is, yeah, I don't really have a process. My company has a 401k. I'm putting money into there and just hoping it will be enough.

Ryan Fleming: 20:02

And conversely, for people that feel like they have a very, very tight process, that a lot of engineers have a good self-directed process, I always just say, man, if you feel so great about your process, then you probably wouldn't mind having another set of eyeballs to double-check your work to make sure that that process is as efficient as you can.

Brian Minier: 20:21

So there's that side of it. I always joke, I always say, when you come in, if you're an engineer, you're going to give me your spreadsheet when you come into the office. Absolutely. Absolutely. To

Ed Beemiller: 20:30

quote the great Nelson Nash, though, there are some people you can't teach. So at the end of the day, we'd like to work with every single person out there because we feel every single person out there needs assistance. A lot of people just have no third party that they're going to help guide them to put that process together. Now, some of the folks we work with think they know everything, which in that case, sometimes you just have to say, okay. If you got your own process and you think it's better than anything else, then all right.

Brian Minier: 21:04

Yep. Not much you can do with that. Nope. Yep. Anything else, Ryan, that you would say from a process, why it's so important and what you have seen over your career that has helped your clients and the people that you work with?

Ryan Fleming: 21:20

Consistent effort will always play out farther and longer and deeper than just... fly-by-night concepts, chasing the wind, if you will. And that's been tried and true in a lot of areas in life. The outcomes that people want in life, they may come to fruition, but you might actually 10X your outcomes if you fall in love with the process of that thing. And let me tell you, that's shown up in my life, that's shown up in other people's life that's more public. The real genius, the real mastery, the real... winning in life is not in the shiny trophy or how big your bank account is it's in the day-to-day grind uh the heart and soul of the process and the reality is is that not a lot of people are willing to pay that price

Ed Beemiller: 22:13

oh yeah

Ryan Fleming: 22:13

right and and that's and and and we take that in as athletes and ex-athletes and things like that i think that gives us a little bit of a leg up because we've lived that you know we've gone through a process of grinding in the weight room and hot weather and a long season and And things with, you know, it's 18 years for me. And gosh, I mean, how many years have you been doing this?

Ed Beemiller: 22:34

I've been 33 years in the financial services. Financial planning, right? Financial planning has been a long

Ryan Fleming: 22:40

time. It's a process to get up every single day and rinse and repeat. And

Ed Beemiller: 22:45

we have to watch not to chase the shiny penny. And the shiny penny, when we look at things here, in the last several years plus has been a lot of talk about cryptocurrency. So once again, it's about... managing that process. Don't just chase that shiny penny that, oh, everyone's talking about it, so I should be doing it. The reality of it is the process drives to The outcome. The outcome,

Brian Minier: 23:13

exactly. Yeah, and I think it's just important for those that are listening is we take the process of working with whoever it is very seriously. We put a lot of time, put a lot of effort in making sure that that is right for that person.

Ryan Fleming: 23:28

100 million percent. And we do self-education. We try to learn constantly by no means do we think that our process is foolproof. That's why we're always on the hunt to gain more knowledge from other people. I think he said something like, trust

Brian Minier: 23:59

the process. Trust the process.

Ed Beemiller: 24:04

That's all you need.

Brian Minier: 24:05

All right. I think that's a great way to end. Thank you for tuning in today, and we look forward to talking to you next time. Thanks, everybody.