Brad Johnson: Welcome back to another episode of Do Business. Do Life. Have my friend,
Dylan Bond, here with us today. Welcome to the show, Dylan.
Dylan Bond: Thank you, Brad.
Brad Johnson: Well, to say I’ve been looking forward to this one, my friend, is an understatement. There are so many places we can go. We’ve known each other for I think over a decade now. And, really, if I go back down memory lane, I think the friendship was truly cemented on Broadway in Nashville.
Dylan Bond: Oh, yeah.
Brad Johnson: And we’ll get to that a little later. We’re going to leave a little teaser. We’ll get to that later. That’s more the Do Life side. But one of the things that I just absolutely love about you, man, is you’ve just always been like that guy that shows up, never takes himself too seriously, comfortable in your own skin, just like a real authentic human. And those are the type of guys I love to surround myself with. And you’ve always been that. And one of the things, as we were kind of prepping for this conversation, you’ve been through some battles here lately.
Dylan Bond: Oh, yeah.
Brad Johnson: And I think one of the things, if you’re a financial advisor that’s been doing this for any amount of time, if you’re an entrepreneur that’s been doing–being an entrepreneur for any amount of time, you’ve definitely dealt with the rollercoaster. But, I mean, you recently just survived a scare with cancer. And I want to go into that because I think sometimes in this business life we get so consumed, we kind of sometimes lose perspective of the bigger picture, which is, what’s this whole life for? What are we on this planet for while we’re here? And you just had one of those life experiences that I’m sure puts some things in perspective for you.
So, if you don’t mind sharing, like tell us kind of what went down. This was kind of into 2024-2025. And I think there are also some really serious business lessons that come out of your story.
Dylan Bond: Yeah, for sure. So, it was about mid-September of ‘24. I woke up one morning and my neck was swollen. I noticed it when I went to shave. And fortunately for me, I was going to the dentist that morning and he’s one of my best friends. So, I brought it up to him and he said that “You might want to go see an ear, nose, and throat doctor just to get it looked at. You never know.” And so, I did. And basically, I called the ear, nose, and throat doctor. They told me their first appointment was February of ‘25, so we’re mid-September ‘24.
Brad Johnson: Geez.
Dylan Bond: And so, that was a little bit of a shock, but fortunately, I knew the guy through golf and I had his cell phone. So, I texted him and I said, “Hey my neck is swollen and my buddy, Aaron, told me that he recommended I go see you.” He texted me back, “Can you be here tomorrow morning at 8:00 AM?” So, I was of course there. And so, I went in, he put the scope up my nose, went down my throat, looked at the neck and he told me that it didn’t look bad down there. He said normally if there’s cancer in there, it would usually be discolored and whatever. So, he did say my right tonsil was swollen and red. And so, he did a needle biopsy of the swelling on the side of my neck and that came back negative. And he then recommended also that I get my tonsils removed.
So, I got my tonsils removed, which I would say was probably the most painful thing I’ve ever gone through in my life, and I was hit by a car on a motorcycle and broke my femur in three places. So, it was brutal pain. But when they took the tonsils out, they biopsied the tonsil and found a tumor in it. But it was a type of cancer they told me was that if you’re going to have it, that’s the one you want because it doesn’t tend to spread as much and it doesn’t grow very fast. So, we basically determined, okay, so now I got to go see an oncologist. So, I went to the local oncologist here in the area, and they wanted to put me on the standard protocol, seven weeks of chemo, seven weeks of radiation.
And I knew five other people in the area that have gone through this type of cancer before and did that treatment and it absolutely destroyed them. So, I didn’t really want to go for the chemo. So, I went to Boston and got a second opinion at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. And they had an incredibly different approach. They wanted me to consider surgery to remove, you know, go back in, look and see if there were any other cells there, and then also take some lymph nodes out of the side of my neck. And so, I had to wrestle with the insurance company a little bit to get me approved to do that. So, I ended up going to Dana-Farber. They did what is called Radical Robot-Assisted Tonsil Dissection.
Even though my tonsils were gone, they went back in there with a robot and took more flesh out and were real-time biopsying it during the surgery. Fortunately, the first go around it, it came back negative or they would’ve had to keep digging deeper and deeper, and it could have been a problem. So, I was fortunate there. And then they took 42 lymph nodes out of the side of my neck. And there was cancer in one of the lymph nodes but the surgeon was confident that she had taken everything out and that it was a successful surgery, and that she said, “Arguably, you don’t need radiation, but we would recommend that you do it just to be on the safe side.”
But fortunately, with this clinical trial they put me on with the surgery, there was also what was considered low-dose radiation. So, rather than going seven weeks or 35 treatments, I went basically five weeks with 23 treatments. And thank God for that because, by the last treatment, it was literally really starting to get uncomfortable. So, I did a follow-up about three months later and they did all the scans. They said there were no signs of recurrence and they told me that, going forward, I had less than 10% chance of recurrence. So, I think at this point, it’s behind me. I’m still dealing with a lot of neck pain, a lot of shoulder pain, a lot of throat soreness still, but they told me it could take up to a year or more to get through that.
Brad Johnson: Well, first off, thanks for sharing that and I know it’s just like a friend when you hear another friend going through that, like, I remember when I heard the news because I think you sent a few of us at Triad a little group text and kind of what you were going through. And like immediately, like your heart goes out to somebody, you’re like, “Ugh.” Like, your heart sinks when you hear that. And I’m just grateful that you caught it early enough. You obviously went through the treatment that sucked. You don’t wish that on anybody, but you handled it to where you’re out the other side and I’m just glad we’re here having a conversation, my man.
Dylan Bond: Yeah, I as well.
Brad Johnson: And I think the other thing in life sometimes, these adversity things, nobody chooses them. It’s not like, “Hey, sign me up for that. I want to get a tougher mindset.” But I think sometimes on the other side of them, they’re perspective shifters. And the other thing is you’ve worked with retirees for a lot of years. So, unfortunately as an advisor, you’ve seen a lot of your clients go through probably battles with cancer.
Dylan Bond: I’ve seen it all. Oh yeah, for sure.
Brad Johnson: So, how has that changed your perspective, maybe your empathy for your clients that are dealing with some of the health struggles that you see just by being in the chair that you’re in?
Dylan Bond: Well, I definitely have more of a relatable experience to share and to support them. But I’ll say, I’ve always looked at our clients as part of the family. And we’re not really super high volume over here and we have incredible relationships with all of our clients. So, one of the hardest parts of the job for me is when clients fall off ladders cleaning gutters and die or end up with fighting cancer or whatever it is. It happens all the time. I’ve been doing it now for 30 years and really, it’s a humbling experience. I think as far as being diagnosed, I think everybody around me was more shocked than I was.
I treated it like any other challenge in life. I just, “Okay, let’s go.” And so, basically, I never really thought about I’m going to die. I never had any fear. I just woke up every single day and just went through the motions. It was brutally painful. But thank God for pain medicine because once I was put on that, it was tolerable. But I never really got into a deep depression over it. I never thought the worst was going to happen. Literally, I believe God is in control of everything. And so, I just did what I do and I got up every day and I just marched through it, and knowing that it’s going to pass. At some point, it will be over like everything else. And it all worked out.
Brad Johnson: Yeah. The other thing I think about is I see this happen a lot. I’ve been close to 20 years now working with advisors like you. So, I inherit a lot of these client stories through guys like yourself that are out there, working hand-in-hand with clients. And one of the things I see is this, and you’ve never lived your life this way, which is one of the reasons I love you, but I oftentimes see this deferring of spending money, deferring of creating experiences with those you love for someday, “Oh, we’re saving so someday we can take that trip so someday we can do this.” And then sometimes life has other plans and there isn’t a someday because tomorrow is never guaranteed.
So, has that made you more passionate, like in meetings where you’re like, “Hey,” when you hear a husband saying, “Well, honey, we can’t take the trip because instead of a million, we need 1.5 or 2 million in the account before we do that”? Do you feel like you’re stepping into those conversations differently now due to your experience and kind of encouraging them like, “Let’s not wait for someday”?
Dylan Bond: Yeah. It’s interesting because basically, our throughline here is you deserve to live the rest of your life with no regrets looking back wishing you had done things differently. So, all the seminars we do, all the first appointments and second appointments, I’m constantly telling people that I always use the story of when I’ve been doing these seminars for literally 20 years now, and quite often I get people coming into the office that are 75, 80 years old. They have tons of money. And when I ask them, “If you could go back in time and do things differently, what would you do?” and the answer 9 times out of 10 is, “I would’ve spent more money. I would’ve done more things.”
And in a seminar environment, I’ll explain to them to the people after I tell that story that the reason they didn’t spend money is because they were afraid they were going to need it in the future. They were afraid to run out of money. They didn’t know where they were or where they were going. And that is the reason why you need a financial plan that you can continue to update year over year so that you’ll be able to identify any potential problems 5 to 10 years out and then you can make adjustments if there is a problem coming to make sure you’re not going to end up drifting or drifting down towards a poor outcome or a crisis outcome.
Brad Johnson: Yeah. There’s a quote out of Alice in Wonderland. It’s the Cheshire cat, I believe, and he asked Alice where she’s going to, she’s like, “I don’t know.” And he’s like, “Well, then any path will do.” So, I mean, it’s funny because it’s like a little pithy quote from a book, but the truth is, in life, if you’re not sure where you’re going or what the objective is, then it’s tough to get you there. There’s no plan, right?
Dylan Bond: Yeah, for sure.
Brad Johnson: The thing that I see, and I’ve heard this over many years, it’s like, I was afraid to spend, or I had this anxiety when the market corrected and I was up all night. Well, the reason being is you didn’t have a plan that said, “Hey, here’s your income stream for the next 10 to 15 years to do those things,” the bucket list trips, the flights to go see grandkids, all the stuff that typically the people want experiences with people they love.
Money’s just a tool to provide that. It’s not, “I should be hoarding this in some account to get an extra comma.” How often do you see that where they show up to your office? It’s almost like the broke millionaire, like their mindset, they’re broke in their mindset, but in their bank account they’re perfectly fine and they have more than enough to do those things. Is that a very common problem you see?
Dylan Bond: Very common. Very common.
Brad Johnson: How do you fix that? What sort of conversations do you have to be like, “Dude, spend some money”?
Dylan Bond: Well, if it’s a first appointment and we start to identify, I mean, it happens all the time, most often, I think. And in a first appointment, I’ll acknowledge that and I’ll explain to them that once we get through collecting your data, we get it all organized, we get it all inputted in our systems, and we can start to run reports for you. We’re going to be able to identify where you are and what you’re capable of doing. And then when we have this second appointment and we work through the reports and the conversation, by the end of the second appointment it’s like I see it all the time. It’s incredible. People literally are like you could see the weight of the world lifted off their shoulders.
You can see a sparkle in their eye. And I’ve had people almost in tears saying, “Oh my God, I never realized that I was in a good place.” And for me, that is probably the most rewarding part of the business. Granted, you work hard, you make good money, you have freedom to do what you want when you want it. But the ultimate reward for me is when I truly get people in that care about where they are and they’re concerned, and we can flip that around within a couple of meetings and give them an absolute sense of confidence and empowerment to live the life the way they want to live it. And I think that is awesome to do and I think that’s what really keeps me going in this business.
It’s a tough business. Everybody knows that. But when you have those experiences and people literally are so grateful that they met us, that’s just better than getting paid.
Brad Johnson: Yeah. Well, we started off the conversation with a really big health scare for you. And obviously thank God for incredible doctors. But next down the tier, I think, the power of a financial advisor to have two conversations like maybe you meet them at a public educational event, then they come in for a first, a one-on-one where you’re kind of identifying the gaps or what’s creating the anxiety for them around retirement. But then in a second visit where you can kind of show them, “Hey, good news, we kind of crunched a couple of numbers. It looks like you’re going to be just fine. And in fact, you might even be able to spend more,” like back to the weight of the coming off the shoulders or the twinkle in the eye, you mentioned.
What noble awesome work, like when you really step back because I think a lot of really successful advisors, it’s like every business can be a grind. Every business, you can look at the calendar, you’re like, “I’m slammed. Not enough of me to go around.” But when you really step back at what you do on the daily, what noble, powerful work you get to do, like they’re inviting you into their lives, that’s like a multi-generational decision oftentimes.
Dylan Bond: Yeah, for sure.
Brad Johnson: So, I want to ask you this question. I asked a room full of Triad members the other day, and I want to get your answer. So, let’s say 100 retirees come in for a first, just your local area right there in the Boston area. A hundred retirees come in. How many of those retirees when they show up, have a written income plan that they know how much they can spend in retirement?
Dylan Bond: You know, a very small percentage.
Brad Johnson: Like, if you had to put a number, like out of a hundred, is it one person? Is it five? Is it 10?
Dylan Bond: Out of a hundred, I would say five tops.
Brad Johnson: Five. Which would be 5%.
Dylan Bond: Yeah. They’re normally analytical engineers that love to create spreadsheets.
Brad Johnson: They geek out on it and have created it themselves.
Dylan Bond: Big time. Yeah. And what’s interesting about it is oftentimes they’re not running their spreadsheets properly. They’re not really considering volatility. They’re not considering inflation. They’re just running baseline spreadsheets that show them that they’ll be okay if they earn 5% and take $25,000 a year out or whatever it might be.
Brad Johnson: Yeah. Well, I just go back to… It’s interesting. I asked a roomful. I got zeros, I got ones. Yours actually was the highest I’ve heard, which is 5%.
Dylan Bond: Yeah. And honestly, I think I’m being generous.
Brad Johnson: Yeah. Which is still super low. Like, five out of a hundred is a very low percentage. And back to what we were just talking about, which is millionaires are multimillionaires that are living broke. That’s like the saddest story back to lack of regrets in retirement. And what I see oftentimes our industry is built on accumulation, right? It’s like, “Hey, I’ll manage your assets. Let’s get the nest egg up to a million, 2 million, 5 million, whatever the magical number is.” And it’s kind of the analogy of we’re going to climb Mount Everest and we’ve reached the summit, we’ve hit our goal when we get this magical number that’s in our heads, oftentimes, of like a million or 5 million or whatever, they’ve just kind of predetermined that’s a big, nice round number.
But that actually does not create anxiety because now they’re at the top. Now, they retire. Now, it goes from a done-for-you model, which is the 401(k) or the IRA to a do-it-yourself model but they haven’t changed the rules, right? Literally, now they need that money. They need the income stream because, unfortunately, the old job doesn’t keep paying you when you leave it. And so, how do you rewire a retiree that whole life back to that spreadsheet, “Hey, if I make 5%, 6%, 8%, I’ll get to this magical number,” but they’ve only done half the journey. Now, the distribution is, “I’ve got to make it through retirement. Make sure my money lasts as long as I do.” So, what are the conversations, or how do you flip that perspective when they’ve almost been indoctrinated for their whole life that this is the game I’m playing?
Dylan Bond: Yeah. You basically just have that conversation about the accumulation phase of life and the distribution phase of life. You have the conversation about systematic withdrawals from a volatile asset can really be a problem. Obviously, if you’re in the S&P 500 drawing $2,000 or $3,000 a month out, it drops 50%. Now, you get to sell twice as many shares to get $2,000 or $3,000 a month, and then you won’t have as many shares to catch the rebound. So, it really boils back down to safety, income, and growth. People understand that I think. There are, again, I think a lower percentage of people that aren’t in agreement with the fact that they need to make changes and create less volatility but still maintain the potential for a reasonable rate of return. So, you just have those standard conversations that we all know and we’ve been using for 20 years.
Brad Johnson: Yeah. Do you think like just… It’s almost like, “Here’s an idea that I never considered before.” Is that what you think oftentimes in that second, it’s like, “Oh, there is a way to actually get what I want, which is an income I can depend on,” while also having an investment strategy or a growth strategy that compliments it where I don’t have to like, “Oh, throw all my money in a 3% CD or in a MYGA that I’m locked in for the rest of my life.” Or like, do you think what you see is almost like a light bulb goes off, like, “Oh, this is refreshing. Where’s this been my whole life?” Is that the typical response?
Dylan Bond: Yeah, for sure. I mean, when we do second appointments and we’re pointing out the gaps in their plan and we go through the risk profile of their current portfolio and we always like we use Hidden Levers or Orion Risk Management now. And when you do a risk profile on their portfolio, it’ll show different stress tests like the financial crisis or the COVID crisis or all of those different crises. And it also shows what is a max drawdown number for the portfolio. So, we had somebody in this week and we identified that their max drawdown threshold, their risk tolerance was 25%. And then when we went through the risk profile of their current portfolio was 42%.
So, what we do is, A, we can illustrate use any money. Normally, what we’ll do is we’ll put in a lever for that appointment. Whatever the max drawdown is on their current portfolio, we’ll put in a lever that says market correction of 42%. And then when you show them how everything looks good right now, based on the assumptions we’re using, conservative assumptions. But the way you’re currently positioned, if you were to hit that max drawdown that we talked about, click the button, and boom, all the freaking numbers just crater. And they’re seeing it. If you have a market correction of 42% in that portfolio this year, you’re going to have a much more stressful retirement. So, that I think is impactful.
Brad Johnson: It’s almost like money therapy. Really, you think about it, it’s like…
Dylan Bond: It is. It’s psychology. The whole business is not crunching numbers. It’s psychology. I mean, with the software systems that are out there today just from 10 years ago, it’s just amazing what we can do and it really helps. When we bring a client on, it’s usually the whole ball of wax. They bring everything over. And if we didn’t have the ability to walk them through different scenarios and show them their lifetime tax bill and show them what their beneficiaries will pay at life expectancy, if you die at life expectancy, what the cost of taxes and expenses will be to your beneficiaries, all of those things, if you have common sense and you care about yourself and your money, it sells itself really.
Brad Johnson: Yeah. Well, to think about that, it’s like, “Hey, I’ve identified why you have anxiety.” “Oh, okay. Let’s take a look.” You say you’re comfortable with up to 25%. Well, unfortunately, your portfolio disagrees. Click. I’ve now identified why you have anxiety. So, it’s like if you’re logical and if you want to actually fix the problem and not have a bunch of anxiety your whole retirement where you have to run downstairs and click on the ticker at the bottom and see where you’re at every morning, it’s like it just makes sense to align your plan with how comfortable are you with the ups and downs of the rollercoaster.
It’s funny. It’s like people that don’t like rollercoasters at theme parks, hey, here’s an idea, don’t ride the rollercoaster. And then there are people that don’t like rollercoasters in retirement, but they’re still riding the rollercoaster. It just logically doesn’t make sense. So, I want to go back to one thing because there’s another lesson that came out of your whole health journey, the battle with cancer. And we were kind of talking about it before we hit record. So, when I met you, gosh, what was that? When were we roaming around Broadway? That was over 10 years ago.
Dylan Bond: It was a long time ago. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Brad Johnson: We were much younger.
Dylan Bond: Much younger.
Brad Johnson: We’re much more mature now. We’ve grown up a lot.
Dylan Bond: I don’t know about that, but.
Brad Johnson: So, as I go back, back when I met you the first time, it was pretty much The Dylan Show, right? It was basically Bond Financial was Dylan Bond that is what Bond Financial with a very small team obviously to obviously help with maybe some paperwork, things like that. And I know one of the things that I remember when you joined Triad, you said, “Hey, I kind of like want to build a business that’s not just all riding on my shoulders where we can kind of build a team that serves my clients and also like we can have a bigger impact on the retirees in our market. Obviously, it’s great if you can hire more people, create career tracks for them as an employer. There’s lots of benefits to that.”
And as I look back, here’s a quick snapshot of your growth since you’ve joined Triad. So, 2022, 18 million of total assets gathered. 2023, 30 million, 31 million, sorry, of total assets gathered. 2024, which for context was about three-quarters of a year because the fourth quarter you really started your battle with cancer and your treatment. So, 2024 still brought in 25 million of total assets, and that was working three-quarters of a year. 2025, you were still finishing your treatment, first quarter of 2025. So, really just started second quarter and you’re already pacing for 10 mil. And we were chatting and I said, “Hey, Dylan, if your battle with cancer would’ve happened when I first met you, the Dylan and the business then, would you have been able to produce any business or drive any revenue for the fourth quarter and the first quarter?” And what was your answer to me?
Dylan Bond: Yeah. There would not have been the ability to produce more business. Wanda’s been with me for a long time and she’s got incredible relationships with clients, so she could have handled customer service and our clients were super empathetic for me. I mean, I literally have a hundred-plus cards that are fully written out on both pages, writing and explaining to me how much they care about me and how much they appreciate me. And so, it’s amazing because there are so many good things that came out of that whole ordeal. And how often do you get a hundred of your clients writing you a two-page letter about how much you mean to them? And so, that was a good thing. But no, I would’ve not produced. There would’ve been zero growth.
Brad Johnson: Yeah. Well, and so I’m going to paint a little bit of a picture just for context because I think, from my experience, most advisors, most independent guys that I talk with and gals, they’re like, man, all of them have this desire to not that being a financial advisor is a bad thing, but I think, specifically, when you go into the independent realm where you’re technically an entrepreneur that happens to work in finance, I think every business owner’s like, yeah, it’d be cool to build a business bigger than just me, have a great team around me, be able to serve the clients at a higher level. Maybe be able to go on vacation every once in a while. That’s kind of nice, right?
And so, you started down that track and so you had hired Drew who was really sitting in a service advisor chair, hired a paraplanner. And so, you’d kind of already started to build out the team aspect of the financial advising team. And it wasn’t just Dylan now. It was like, hey, it’s a we, not an I thing.
Dylan Bond: Correct.
Brad Johnson: And so, thank God you had, because now, at least the foundation of your business was somewhat prepared to deal with your absence. And also, your clients were taken care of, right? Like, had you been the only guy servicing them, building plans, your clients would’ve been abandoned for like a six-month period, right? They wouldn’t have had anybody to continue to monitor the plans.
And what’s wild is, I mean, $31 million in 2023 where you had a full year, $25 million of total assets where you only worked three quarters of the year. You actually, from a pro rata standpoint, produce more in a year where you had cancer than in a year when you did not because of the team, right?
Dylan Bond: Right, yeah.
Brad Johnson: So, give me some of the tips, like if you were talking to yourself, giving yourself advice back in the day, or maybe another advisor out there that’s kind of struggling to build a team around them, what advice would you give them?
Dylan Bond: Yeah, I mean, first thing I’ll say is that I’ve been wanting to expand the team and free up my time for a long time, probably, close to 10 years. I’ve conveyed that to other firms that I’ve worked with. And we’ve talked about it quite often, but there was no execution ever. And when I came on with Triad, working with Ryan and the coaching team, Nick, and those guys, Jordan, they were involved to a point where I was taking action, right? And it’s not easy when you’re hiring people and getting them trained up and all that, it’s not easy. But it’s something I had wanted to do for a long time. I knew I wasn’t getting any younger, but you guys actually made it happen.
And so, if I were to give myself or anybody advice out there, the sooner you do it and go through the– like, I think Ryan and Nick call it storming, norming, and performing. So, if you go through the storming phase, it will always be there. But it’s just like Simon Bowen says, as we sit here today, the simple passage of time will get us to the future. And the sooner that you get that working, the sooner you’re going to free yourself up, the sooner you’re going to not be relied on for every single client meeting. You’re not going to be relied on to do a first appointment if something comes up. You’re going to have a lot more freedom and you’re going to have more time to do more marketing and focus more on the business. So, there’s a lot of positives in doing it, so don’t let procrastination get in the way. And I would execute on doing that if you’re in a position where you’re still carrying the weight of the whole show.
Brad Johnson: Yeah. Well, you mentioned Simon Bowen, and there’s a great episode I did with him, and it’s kind of the futures model that you’re talking about. So, if you’re listening or watching and you aren’t familiar, just type in Simon Bowen futures model. In fact, I think that episode, we clipped it out. It’s like a little 10-minute conversation, but the concept for those that aren’t familiar, it’s you’re either– and if you’re watching on video, I’m talking with my hands here. So, it’s kinda like, here’s today, it’s the present, here’s the future, and that can be 3 years out, five years out, 10 years out.
And what tends to happen, and I’ve seen this a lot from a coaching perspective, it’s the old quote is insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, right? And so, here’s this model. I’m burned out. It’s all on me. I’m the sales guy, I’m the marketing guy, I’m the paperwork guy. And the longer you wait, the further, the more red line behaviors you have and you just start to burn out, get exhausted. And obviously, no entrepreneur built their business. It’s not like, hey, I want to form a business and just be burn out the rest of my life, right?
And to your point, you have to change behaviors. And when you go from a me, which is where you were when we met you, to a we and team, now, it’s not all about you. Now, you have to develop different characteristics. Leadership, for example, right? And back to the green line…
Dylan Bond: That will be the hardest part of doing it is you’re so used to doing it yourself that you don’t think that anybody else can. And you have to check your ego at the door and trust it. And there’s going to be mistakes, there’s going to be oversights. You have to, obviously, identify them and try to continue to make sure that they don’t happen again. But the hardest thing about it was, like, Drew started doing the lion’s share of the annual reviews. So, I would be in the office knowing that I’ve got clients getting an annual review. And I felt like weird when it was first going on. But now, I’m at a point where I’m happy because…
Brad Johnson: Refreshing.
Dylan Bond: They’re still super happy. He’s spending lots of time with them, getting to know them, updating the plan, uncovering opportunities, new assets, et cetera. He is doing all of that. And I’m focusing on doing more marketing or something else. So, it’s awesome. It really is. There’s plenty– if you’re by yourself, you got all kinds of stresses and struggles. If you got a team, you’re going to have all kinds of stresses and struggles. It’s just the nature of the business, but they’re different stresses and struggles. And you got to appreciate them for what they are and the fact that as that team continues to mold together and it continues to grow, it’s going to create more opportunities for everybody.
Brad Johnson: Yeah. You hit a really key point there. Being an entrepreneur, you signed up to be a problem solver, right? So, if you’re a solo entrepreneur, it’s all on your shoulders. There’s problems that you have to fix on the daily. And a lot of those is, there’s only so much of me to go around, like, I don’t have enough hours in the day. Okay, well, now, build a team. You still have problems to solve. It might be, wow, I’ve got to lead this small group of people that’s butting heads, the storming phase you mentioned earlier, but now I’ve got to step in like the team captain and say, “Hey, guys, we’re all here for the same reason. Let’s work through this. Looks like we got to tighten the system up, whatever.”
So, at the end of the day, you’re still solving problems, but the difference is if you solve that second problem and you do it well, first outcome, your clients are served at a higher level. Like, think about when you were selling relationship advisor, service advisor, planning advisor, wearing three hats, there is no way you can be the world’s best of any of those three things if you’re doing all three, right? Dan Sullivan says, what if procrastination were a form of wisdom?
And what I see all the time from advisors, like, well, only I build the best plans. Then I’m like, well, why is a stack of five plans sitting on your desk right now that you haven’t gotten to? Because you’re doing everything. So, are you the world’s best planner when you can’t even get to them? You know what I mean? And so, how much of that was it like once you kind of gave yourself permission to let go and let– it’s like raising a kid. They’re going to fall and skin their knees a couple times, but that’s the only way they’re going to learn how to walk, right?
Dylan Bond: Right, yeah.
Brad Johnson: So, did you have to develop that muscle? If you were like, man, going back, if I just told myself this, I would’ve gotten there a lot quicker. Like, what was the breakthrough for you?
Dylan Bond: I think I’m still developing that muscle every day. But really, I think again, the whole health issue that I went through, it just sling-shotted the process of getting there, that there was no other option really. And it was just amazing how everybody in the office just stepped up and kept going forward. And that made me realize the fact that I’d come in here and there, but I was, yeah, I could barely talk. I was in a lot of pain. But to see them and know that they were doing it was just a real aha moment or awakening for me.
Brad Johnson: You reminded me of a story. Shawn actually, I think, shared this in his book, The Advisor Transformation. Real life story, one of Shawn’s old friends and old clients just called him out of the blue. This was like the first year of Triad. So, I guess three and a half, four years ago now. And I think the guy’s name was Joe. I don’t remember his last name. But basically, Joe was another advisor’s friend who came down with terminal cancer and he had a team, but he was still very much the advisor in charge model where everything went through Joe, all the appointments went through him. And it’s very common, there’s a lot of firms out there even today where one firm is built on one founder’s personality, right? Everything kind of flows through them.
And this guy, literally, because he wanted to make sure his wife was taken care of, they literally, in six months’ time, got two other advisors on the team that had been there the whole time, but just hadn’t been empowered. They got them up to speed and almost passed the reins of running the firm in record time, six months. And Joe passed away. And Shawn’s story, it’s kind of a sad one, honestly, in the book, but he is like imagine if Joe would’ve done that 20 years ago, the business he could have been running, the freedom he could have had, the team he could have empowered, and it’s like to wait for an emergency in your business to do that versus doing it proactively, you’re just cutting yourself a really lousy deal as a founder and as an entrepreneur.
So, I love that you’d already started the process, so you were actually better prepared when the curve ball got thrown at you. Any other just learnings or thoughts just before we get off that topic from your front?
Dylan Bond: As far as you had mentioned, an advisor that thinks only I create the best plans, well, if you can create the best plans, then you can help your team learn to create the best plans, and then, ultimately, if you have a couple of different advisors in there that can create the best plans that you showed them how to do, then you’re going to have a lot more leverage and a lot more bandwidth to take on more opportunities.
Brad Johnson: Yeah. The analogy I use a lot, Dylan, I probably overuse it, but people get it when I use it. That’s why I always go back to it. Imagine running a McDonald’s as a one-person show. You’re taking the orders at the cash register. They’re like, I’ll take a Big Mac. You now run in the back, make the Big Mac. Then you’re like, oh, shoot, I got to go clean the tables. I got to go service, right? Go throw the trash away. People would look at that McDonald’s and they’d be like, this is the most inefficient McDonald’s I’ve ever seen, but financial advisors do it all the time. It’s the orders, the appointment, making the Big Macs, the planning, building the product, right? Services, what happens after they buy it. But yet, so many advisors are running around like a wild person doing it all and wondering why there are restaurants in shambles. And so, it’s wild.
Dylan Bond: And not only the restaurant, but their mind.
Brad Johnson: Yeah. They can’t unplug.
Dylan Bond: Eventually, they’re going to go home and kick the dog and whatever, just be miserable. So, at the end of the day, there’s so much opportunity out there. The majority of financial advisors out there are not doing things the way that we do it. And the biggest hurdle I think, I get, we often put hurdles in front of ourself, mentally, in this business. And I think one of the biggest hurdles that I’ve fought with for quite a long time was knowing that any people showing up to seminars, coming to a first appointment, knowing they already have a predetermined profile of whatever and a financial advisor is, and the job is to break that mold and really get them to understand how we are incredibly different.
Brad Johnson: Yeah. I was talking about this the other day with our PR firm. Our business does a lot of clients a disservice by indoctrinating them almost like a religion. It’s like this is the only way, this product, this investment strategy, whatever it may be. And the truth is, from my experience at least, what most people actually want is just simplicity and clarity. And they’re like, wait, okay, I’ve got this anxiety. Do I have enough? Can I retire? Okay, well, what are we solving for? Okay, well, here’s enough money to check off the bucket list trips to go see the grandkids twice a year. Is that enough? Do you want to see them twice a year? Do you want to see them four times a year? It’s Covey’s 7 Habits, start with the end in mind.
Now, going back to the spreadsheet and saying, okay, let’s see if we can get there. Oh, maybe we need to work a couple more years to pull that plan off. Maybe we need to take on a part-time job at a quilting shop because we enjoy quilting in the first two, three years of retirement. There’s all kinds of ways to get to these ideal outcomes, but most times, people’s anxiety, their kind of biases almost get in the way of helping them accomplish what they want.
Dylan Bond: Yeah, definitely. Definitely. And as an advisor, you can put yourself in a mindset, because I’ve done it many times in my career where you know they’re thinking that. And sometimes, that’ll eat away at you. So, now, you have to go into the meeting, maybe knowing they’re going to think it, but (a) calling out, most advisors don’t do this, and (b) giving them such an experience that they’ve never had before that makes them come back.
Brad Johnson: Okay. Clock is ticking. So, we’re going to do a little pivot here. So, in your career, one of the things you have done, hundreds of, to this point, if not maybe a thousand plus, is public dinner events. And we were talking about it before we went live. And you’ve shifted here more recently to a little bit more of a focus on educational-based events oftentimes, I think, without dinners, right? And give me kind of the– what’s the same, what’s different as far as a dinner event versus an educational event, and then kind of the why the shift from your side from a marketing perspective?
Dylan Bond: So, I think I did my first dinner seminar somewhere in the neighborhood of like maybe 2004, somewhere in that neighborhood. And I did them relentlessly for, you know, 20 years. And for whatever reason, in recent years, they weren’t as effective. I mean, back in the day, for every dollar you spent, you made five, and whatever. So, we just wanted to try something new. And I think maybe I just wanted to experiment with the educational seminars. I knew others were having success with it.
So, we started doing the educational events just about two years ago. And so, the one thing that I realized if you compare dinner seminars to educational events is the attendance is going to go down a little bit. You’re not really going to get an average attendance at an educational event as large as an average attendance at a dinner event. But the people that do attend (a) are showing up for the information, and (b) what I found is that the case sizes for the people that come in to take advantage of the first appointment strategy session. I found the case sizes were higher and that they were more in the mindset of looking for opportunities to improve their plan. So it ended up being a blessing in disguise. Maybe you get a few less appointments per event but you’re making it up on the size of the cases, so you’re not seeing as many people, you’re not spending that much time. You’re focusing on really good opportunities for those that do come in for the most part.
And it’s really worked very well for us. We do them in the mornings at around 10 o’clock. Every once in a while, we do them at night at six o’clock. So, we kind of mix it up a little bit. I found that we do retirement income planning, we do Social Security, we do taxes in retirement. And taxes in retirement, it seems to be the one that draws the most and gets the most response. but I think anything works really. But for me, my mind is better in an educational event than a dinner seminar because you’re there more to deliver information and help people better understand the topic. And at a dinner seminary, you’re going to be perceived more, I think, as selling something. So, I think there’s a different outlook for the attendees and a different outlook for me as the presenter.
Brad Johnson: I mean, it just makes sense if you think about the psychology behind the attendee. Why are they showing up to a dinner seminar for the dinner? Let’s just be honest. It’s not, Dylan’s the most amazing speaker, I want to come see him, right. The dinner is kind of the carrot that gets them there. If you think about on the flipside, the educational side, they’re seeking knowledge about something that concerns them and they’re looking to educate themselves. So, it just makes sense. They’re maybe showing up with a little more intention seeking help.
And I think the other thing that’s really important when you look at, I look at across all the Triad member firms that are having success with education, you have to check the box on round education. It’s like, hey, here are the strategies we often see retirees struggle with. Obviously, I know in Massachusetts, you’re very blessed with very generous taxes, as in they take a lot. And so, obviously, it makes sense. Retirees, especially ones that have been done well for themselves, that is going to be a big concern.
So, if you can speak to, here’s a strategy or two we’ve seen some of our clients take advantage of, if you need help there too, come in. It’s almost like a natural next step versus I’ve got to sell you into an appointment and convince you to come and see me. So, is that kind of why you vibe with them a little bit more?
Dylan Bond: Yep. For me, for whatever reason, I just feel more comfortable doing the education events over the dinner seminars. And there’s no wrong or right. I did dinner seminars for a long, long time. And you’re saving the money on meals, but at the end of the day, I don’t know if that’s enough of a reason. But yeah, they work well.
Brad Johnson: Yeah. And I think that, I mean, we’ve got a lot of Triad members that do both, right? So, at the end of the day, it’s how much volume do you need on the calendar? And the analogy we make a lot, it’s almost like a slot machine. Like, if I put money in one slot machine, I put in a dollar and I pull the handle, and on average, it pays out three and I’m helping people, cool. Well, what’s this slot machine do? Oh, I put in a dollar here, it pays out five. Simple math will tell you maybe I put more dollars in the five to one than the three to one, and then what is the frequency, right?
Dylan Bond: Yeah. One thing I’ll add, Brad, is another thing about educational events in dinner seminars is there are a lot of people out there that get a dinner seminar invitation every night. every day in the mail, one comes in, right? And so, they’re seeing it, they’re thinking about it. There’s a whole class of people out there that just would never attend one, but they want the information. So, if you drop in the educational event seminars coming in where it’s at a library or whatever, and those people that, for whatever reason, never wanted information on the topic, but for whatever reason, didn’t want to go to a dinner seminar, so you’re almost marketing to a different type of person. So, really, everybody should probably consider doing both because you’re going to probably see different people at the education events than you would at the dinner seminar.
Brad Johnson: Yeah, I couldn’t agree more. Like, one of the things that– well, COVID is a prime example. If you rely on one marketing funnel for your entire business, a curve ball can really blow the thing up, you know? And obviously, it did it for a lot of us during COVID because just public events were not an option. But if you diversify your marketing strategy, it’s obviously a lot more bulletproof if we do get some random curve balls along the way. So, we’ve always been a champion of that at Triad.
I see our time kind of ticking away here. We haven’t got much into the do life side, so I want to carve out a little time because if there’s one guy I know that knows how to do life, it’s you. You like that? Here’s my fun, Dylan. You do well, you check that box well, and I think what’s cool is you like to have fun. Like, back to– it’s funny how the theme of what you’re creating for your retiree clients, it’s like, let’s not die with regrets. Let’s not look back and say, I wish I would have. And I think you’ve been a good example of that. Like, that’s true to your core who you are.
Fun, real-life story, we’re on Broadway. We go down the street. It’s you, me, my co-founder Shawn. And this is well over a decade ago. And Broadway’s fun. It was very different back then. It’s changed in the last 10 years, but we kind of go into this little hole in the wall and it wasn’t a country honky-tonk. It was a little bit more alternative rock and…
Dylan Bond: Yeah, I think Gavin DeGraw owned it.
Brad Johnson: Gavin DeGraw. Is he the lead singer of Bush?
Dylan Bond: No, no, no, that’s not him. I think his name is Gavin DeGraw. But he was a famous musician and he owned that bar, I guess.
Brad Johnson: Okay. So, we go in there, of small crowd, but they’re getting after it on stage. And the next thing I know, Shawn has bribed the guy on stage a hundred bucks for you to hop up on stage and belt out your favorite song. And I just remember, and then rumor has it, there might be a YouTube video floating around, but we don’t want to put that in the show notes.
So, I’ll tell you what I fell in love with the guy that was there, is you weren’t afraid to hop up on stage, grab the mic, do your rendition of karaoke, and the guy that was there to perform was still up on stage and he was loving it too. I think he was playing the guitar while you sang. And I just have always loved that infectious energy you carry yourself with. And I know you’ve got annual snowmobile trips, and so, if we just look kind of through the do life lens, because I think it’s really easy in this business, it can consume you, there’s always a to-do at the end of the day that doesn’t get done. So, how have you tried to balance, like, hey, let’s have fun while we live this life, let’s not take ourself too seriously with also, obviously, running a really successful business along the way?
Dylan Bond: Yeah. Brad, you’re breaking up on my end. I don’t know if you’re hearing me clearly.
Brad Johnson: Yeah, I got you.
Dylan Bond: Okay. I mean, as far as the whole do life thing, I hear things throughout my life and some things resonate with me. And the live every day like it’s your last is one that really stood out to me. And was at a point where I wouldn’t think about yesterday or wouldn’t think about tomorrow. But I like to have fun. I love people. I can get along with anybody. And it’s just, life’s too short to not enjoy what’s out there. So, that’s kind of the mindset there. And so, on that YouTube video that might be out there, the best part of that video, by the way, was your laugh at the end, and you said, unbelievable. That was hilarious.
Brad Johnson: It was. It was unbelievable. Well, and you know what’s funny is, I think all of us in this life, sometimes, we can be guilty of taking ourselves too seriously. It’s like, oh, what will other people think? Or is this embarrassing or whatever? At the end of the day, I don’t know, maybe it’s me getting older. At the end of the day, we’re all going to die and it’s not going to matter. So, like, why be stiff walking through life? Just treat others as you want to be treated. Enjoy it, have fun. And I personally believe, people like enjoy being around other people that carry themselves that way. It’s just fun. It’s more fun that way.
Dylan Bond: it is. It’s awesome. And it’s fun to just be out there with random people and get to know people and learn about them and laugh with them and whatever. It’s just awesome.
Brad Johnson: Yeah. Well, cool. Well, that might– I mean, usually, I close with the question, what’s your definition of do business, do life? But you might have already just given it to us. Do you have any additional thoughts kind of on that topic that you want to share?
Dylan Bond: I would say that pretty much my whole career, I’ve been more of a lifestyle advisor, if you will. There was a time in my life where I’d work really hard for the first half of the year, and then when I got to a point where I didn’t really need to work anymore, I would basically just disconnect. And I think, there were benefits and curses to that. But I think you got to do what’s right for you and give everybody the benefit of the doubt until they prove you wrong and just be happy with whatever makes you happy.
Brad Johnson: Well, and what’s been really fun for me to watch, man, because I’ve seen all seasons of your business, I’ve known you for long enough, and you’ve always been a very skilled relationship guy. That’s one of the things that makes you really gifted at what you do. But where you had maybe under-indexed was building a team and just high quality, high caliber team members around you. And the beauty of now that I’ve seen you start to take that journey, now you can actually have both. You can have a lifestyle that you enjoy, a business that’s growing where you’re not necessarily there and serving your clients at a higher level, and it’s kind of like the have your cake and eat it too of life and business. And it’s really awesome. And that’s one of the things that fires me up, because who wants to be a slave to their business their whole life.
Dylan Bond: Yeah, that’s for sure. I mean, in the early days, you’re basically doing everything and you’re doing seminars at night, you’re working all day, you’re meeting people after hours because they work. And if you’re not careful, your life will pass you by. I’ve got three kids and fortunately, I was able to take time to be with them. But there were times when I’d be working nonstop morning till night and missed a lot of things. So, you got to balance it. And life is much more important than business.
Brad Johnson: Yeah. Well, end it with this quote. I just heard this the other day. You got to remember your last shirt doesn’t have a pocket on it, aka, you can’t take it with you, so…
Dylan Bond: There’s no luggage rack on a hearse.
Brad Johnson: There you go. We could probably trade these for a while. We’ll just do our standup routine here. Well, hey dude, thanks for carving out the time. I always, always enjoy our conversations. What’s fun is I never know where they’re going to go, but they’re always going to be fun wherever they do.
Dylan Bond: Yeah, I appreciate it.
Brad Johnson: So, thanks for coming on. Thanks for sharing the wisdom, Dylan, and looking forward to hanging here in a few months.
Dylan Bond: Thank you. I look forward to it as well.
Brad Johnson: All right, till next time.
Dylan Bond: All right buddy.
Brad Johnson: We’ll see you.
Dylan Bond: See you.
