Advising Influencers, NIL Athletes, and Women with Madison Broyles

Speaker A: It is second knowledge to us. We can answer any question on a dime, but no one is really dedicating the time to the younger generation. So what we're seeing then is you're having a bunch of females that are ill equipped to be CEOs to run their company, to feel empowered. That is what we're really trying to do. Let's instill good habits, let's get them invested younger, let's get them involved. And then when they're in their 60s, they've already been retired for 10 years because they did all the work upfront. And it might not make us any money, but it is our way of contributing.

Speaker B: Welcome to the Active Advisor Podcast brought to you by Harbor Capital. Join us as we learn from pros who have helped thousands of investors live better lives. I'm Brian Moore and I'll be chatting with some of the brightest minds in the financial advisory business. Brian bringing you insights on practice management and investment research that works for advisors and their clients. Joining me today on this episode of the Active Advisor Podcast is Madison Broyles, Executive Vice President at Astra Wealth Management. With over a decade of experience in wealth management, Madison specializes in serving ultra high net worth clients by providing a seamless and stress free financial experience. That said, her dedication to building strong relationships coupled with her expertise in financial planning has served her throughout her career, making her a trusted advisor to business owners, female executives and multi generational families. Outside of her professional life, Madison is also an avid tennis player, a committed volunteer and a passionate traveler. Without further ado, welcome Madison. Thank you so much for joining us today.

Speaker A: Thank you Brian. I am happy to be here.

Speaker B: So sounds like you got a lot going on at Astra from our previous conversations that I'd love to dig into. But typically here on the Active Advisor, I love to get the conversation started by asking one question. What's the first memory that you have related to money or investing?

Speaker A: Great question. I think it depends on who you ask. If you asked my father, he would say that my first memory of Investing was on October 19, 1987, which is also known as Black Monday. I was the ripe old age of 25 days old. He was working for EF Hutton at the time as a broker and the previous Friday all the other brokers, the other four, had decided to stand up and leave. They were going to a different wirehouse. So my father, being the loyal man that he is, decided he couldn't do it. He was going to stay and knew that Monday chaos was going to ensue. He was going to Inherit four other books. Clients were going to be angry. So in his mind, he thought, hey, I'll bring my newborn. And to act as a barrier so people can't yell at me. He had no idea, of course, that there was going to be a swift and severe market crash that wrecked the markets globally and wiped out the equivalent of, uh, 1.7 trillion in U.S. dollars today. So that is what happened. He comes into the office. He said that there was a line outside the door all the way down the street. He is the only broker there. Everyone is screaming until they see me in a Moses basket, I guess put it right on the desk. And I was sleeping. And so every person that came in felt like they had to whisper and they couldn't get too angry. So that is his opinion on it. So I guess a subconscious memory. My first memory is really when I was 15 years old and got a summer job at Sonnet. That's back when you could roller skate and they gave you coin dispensers that you could wear around your waist and a fanny pack full of cash. And I loved it. So I figured two things out pretty quickly that actually I think correlate to what I do today. That I could make a profit. I was obsessed with tips. And I figured that if I could calculate a customer's change quickly in my mind, I could then convert it to, uh, change. And if I converted it to change, I had a. It was way higher chance of being able to keep those tips because people don't like to have a handful of change for them. So that was the first thing. I loved it. So I would just sit here and calculate. If I was your car hop, you did not get $4 back. You got 16 quarters in the hope that I got to keep those 16 quarters. That is kind of my approach. And then I realized that every time I have to go back to the same car, the tip doesn't really change. So I wanted to cut down on how many times I went to a single car. Why was I having to go back for trips? And it was because either they wanted more condiments or where they need a napkin. So I just came fully stocked, had it prepared, sort of dishing out their change, and ended up making quite a nice profit. And that is where I realized what kind of wealth creation was. I was 15 years old and thought the sky was the limit. I was so rich, I was going to buy a house. In reality, I could really only afford a pair of jeans. But that is kind of what kickstarted my whole obsession with wealth creation and always looking for that next way to improve.

Speaker B: Very interesting story. That is the best one I think I've heard. And I do like growing up, uh, in that area. I do fondly remember Sonic in the days of the car hops. I think people drop more platters today of food than they did when they were on roller skates.

Speaker A: Oddly enough, 100. It was what? And I was not in the kitchen by any means. I was a cashier. And it was fantastic. Lowell, Arkansas.

Speaker B: That's absolutely still amazing. I still can't get that image out of my head, because I vividly remember those growing up. One of the things I'd like to talk to you about is it's no secret that women are, unfortunately a minority in the financial advisory space. I'd love to hear what challenges you faced in your professional journey and how you've helped overcome those.

Speaker A: Unfortunately, I have faced many challenges throughout my entire career. Really hasn't gotten better until Astra. I'm firm now because I realized that to invoke change, I had to be in a position of leadership. So all my other firms, I was either the only female advisor, and then before that I was operational staff, or I was a senior investment analyst, or I was running the wirehouse. I did every other position, but I had never, until I'm here, been in a position of leadership. And so, uh, I've thought a lot about the challenges I faced, and I've been able to kind of put them into two different categories. One being a misalignment of integrity and moral character. What that means is that throughout my career, every advisor I've ever worked for, there was a misalignment on the products we were giving our clients and why we were doing so. I never understood why we were selling certain products, or we were pushing proprietary products, or we were selling things based out of fear when we wouldn't have put those in, uh, our family's portfolios ourselves. Like. So that is a huge issue I always had. I never. And I asked a lot of questions that was never really favorable for a lot of the advisors I worked for, because I did not understand why would we, you know, buy a product for a client that we wouldn't put ourselves into. And then second, unfortunately, a, uh, big problem is that I am a young female in a old man's world. And so the industry has made huge strides for women. Unfortunately, it's not enough recently. I mean, I can tell you some horror stories. I've got some honorable mentions. I can tell you about that. I face That I know my male counterparts would never even imagine going through. But I first got hired, uh, they asked me to dye my hair for a more conservative look. I had highlights. That's all I had. One financial advisor, I called them fa. One FA called me into his office. He said, hey, I know you want to be a financial advisor. You do not have what it takes, but you're great at new business development. So every new person you bring in, just go ahead and bring them to my office. I also had, I was allowed to be, uh, the client associate to the professional development program, the PMD program, so meaning I had to do all their work, I had to talk to the clients, do all the servicing, do everything. But I wasn't allowed to be in the program itself. I have been called every different name in the book, whether it was the high schooler. Once had an advisor called me Mary for over three years. Madison and Mary do not sound alike at all. I once shared a wall with an advisor who did not acknowledge my presence for two years. Two years. And he was my age. So I mean that's what there's 270 business days in a year. So that's what 520, 520 opportunities for this guy to be a decent human and just didn't happen. I have been stripped from my operational staff. This is actually, unfortunately a trend in the financial services industry that if you're a female advisor, it is assumed that you have an operational background that you had to kind of put in your time. And so when you're short staffed or when things are crazy for the holidays, like right now, I cannot tell you how many times that I was removed from my operational staff, meaning that like I had to do my own client paperwork and then I had to do the partner's paperwork or I had to do the lead FA's paperwork. Even though I was an advisor myself because I was a female and I had experience and I was a team player. One time I was in an office that I had decorated, I've been in for three years and they moved me to the travel office. Didn't have a window, it was in the back corner because we had hired a male advisor who had a bigger book than me. Didn't matter that I had been there from the beginning, helped build out that branch. He wanted it, he got it. There's just been a lot. Oh, I had one advisor who had a box in his office that made me lock up my cell phone every day. And I was allocated 10 minutes every three hours to look at it. But I had to do it in front of him. I mean, it's just been. Oh. I've also been told, like, I've, uh, taken many training classes on sales. I was told not to take a purse because purses distract men. They don't know what are in them. So I can't close the deal because they're looking at my purse. I've also been told I can't wear color. I love brightly colored suits. I have been told new by numerous different managers to stop, that I needed to wear black. I needed to be conservative. It's just anything that they could kind of monitor or micromanage or it happened. And so it really wasn't until I realized that I was so sick of being passed up for any type of promotion. I cannot tell you, we in this industry, especially as advisors, they firms, a lot of times judge you based off your production credits. So it's in it. You're fighting against your brother or your sister, and it's all about survival of the fittest. It's about intimidation, it's about fear. And that's the problem, is that instead of being colleagues, you are enemies. So how does that help? I never had anyone to go to. I also, any man that ever said that they were going to be a mentor never actually mentored me. The only person that actually did what they were going to say was David Darst with Americana Partners. And he took me underneath his wing. And honestly, I credit him to giving me the confidence to leave and to go and find a position where I would be valued, where I would be in a position of leadership, where there are female partners. There is laughter in our office. We just got Dallas Business Journal's Best Places to work. We got number six, which is huge because not only have I never worked for a firm that ever has received that award, but I've never worked for a firm that cared about that award. Why would they care? It's not about that. It's about sales. It's about production credits. It's about your revenue. And so those are the challenges I have faced. My goal is that women don't ever have to kind of go through that. I would also say that we're doing a lot of things in our community here in DFW to ensure that younger females don't go through that. I think a lot of things have changed. It's almost taken a shift now. All the big wirehouses, they have huge HR departments that are terrified of women coming to report anything. But so then it shifted to the RIA space where. That's the independent space where there's not even. A lot of firms don't even have HR managers. I've experienced that. I asked if I could speak to hr, and we didn't have anybody. There was no hr. It had to be created. And then it was our CEO's assistant who was then given a bonus if there were no reports. I mean, it's just there's so many things about this industry that are changing for the better, but we want to change it faster, and we need more women. It shouldn't be this hard. We just. We need to make strides. And so that's what we're trying to do here at Astra.

Speaker B: No, that's great. I think one of the things that gets lost in the money sometimes is basically that we're all humans and this is a customer service job. And not everybody has to wear a black suit. Not everybody has to dress. If you want to connect with people, sometimes being different or being your authentic self actually will help you find the right clients for you. And I think that is what bravo to you for doing that, because I can't even imagine it's been a tough journey, but I think sounds to me like you're in a place where you belong and you're positioned for success. And in a previous conversation, building off of that, you mentioned that you're working on a special project. Can you tell us about this passion project, I believe is the word you used exactly, at, uh, ASHRA Fiduciary Services and what this really means to you?

Speaker A: Yes. So we are very excited. It is called Astra Fiduciary Services. We call it AFS for short. And there's five of us that are advisors that came together, and we think that there is a need in this market. Each one of us has had a personal experience with either trust assets or estate assets that have imploded. And we have seen what has occurred. So to give a little knowledge, when you have a trust, you are required to appoint either an individual, say a family friend or a family member, to be a trustee over the assets should something happen to you. Or you can hire a corporate trustee, which tends to be a bank. So we can go both routes. So if you hire, if you assign a family member or a family friend, it can be quite burdensome if they don't. If they're not in the industry, how do they know what to do? The smart ones hire, uh, financial advisors. They don't have to, though. They can manage the assets the way that they intended to Be, but very loosely, it can also be detrimental to a family or to a family friend. Go the other way. Okay, let's hire a corporate trustee. With corporate trustees with banks, I've always been kind of blown away by the banks that are corporate trustees because bankers are not qualified essentially to manage assets. They're not financial advisors, they're not planners, they're not CPAs, they're not estate planners, they are bankers. So what happens when you have a corporate trustee over your trust assets? That they are very rigid. They follow the corporate bylaws to a T. There is absolutely no flexibility. When in reality there is flexibility. They also tend not to understand kind of how the way that the accounts work. Distributions are very difficult. It's a process. So what we have decided to do is why don't we cut all of this out and let's make advisors corporate trustees. Why aren't they doing it already? Great question. So it actually turns out you have to park your Series 7 and a lot of advisors don't want to do that. So you can be hired by a corporate trustee or you can be hired by an individual to manage trust assets, but you cannot custody them yourself. Meaning you cannot go in there, create the trust, do the docs, go to the irs, get the tax identification number. You cannot be the trustee. You cannot be managing the assets on behalf of that client. You can be the advisor, but the trustee is the client. So in our minds what we were trying to solve is let the advisors holding other advisors accountable, let's be the trustees over the assets because we know what we're doing. Example is I had a 13 year old hire me three months ago. Her father passed away. There was not a will, so they were going through probate. Probate is an awful experience. Most people, if they have not experienced it, they have no idea what they are in for. It is not easy and it is not fun. You have to attorneys are involved, especially with the minor. Then your assignment executor. So the brother who is in his late 20s became the executor. He is in the car industry. He has no idea what to do. So he hires the first guy he looks up on the Internet to be his attorney. This attorney is vastly underqualified. Assets are tied up for two years. The judge is now getting back involved. The attorney for the minor has never showed up. So it was a referral. The mother calls me in hysterics. We have three months to get the assets. Otherwise it goes into a different type of court dealing. So in those three months period I was able to locate all the assets. They were scattered all over. You had trust or you had, you had to sell assets. We had cars, we had a home, we had five to nines, we had retirement accounts, we had investment accounts. None of them had ever, no one had ever looked at them, no one had ever even talked about them. So we had to do the data gathering, we had to create the trust. We had to create the trust agreement. We have an attorney to do that. We had to file for the tax id. We got the tax id, our custodians, fidelity, we opened up the account, we were able to locate all the assets, divide them up equally and then get them here. And then we were able to invest them properly and all within a three month period. And I cannot tell you the most amazing feeling was talking to the mother and to the 13 year old who could not thank me enough because this has been a nightmare that never ended. And so they're just normal people. They had no idea it was her stepdad or uh, her father that she wasn't really in contact with. And he died a wealthy man and just there was no will. So what do you do? So we were able to come in and really assist her and help her. And then not only that, but I hired the financial advisor. I use Morningstar, we're using the CFA Institute like backed mythology on how are we allocating these accounts? Why are we allocating account this way? Are we sticking within the time horizon? Are we sticking within um, a risk tolerance? And then we are holding that advisor accountable, which is amazing because we have not seen that happen in a very long time. What we are seeing is a lot of the baby boomer generation had one guy. He was the advisor, he was the agent, insurance agent, he was the planner, he was their guy. Problem is, is tends to be that guy was their age. What happens if that guy drops the ball? All your eggs are in one basket. There's nobody, there's no checks and balances. So what we've done is we've been able, we are, we created AFS and we are providing personalized and customized executor and trustee services. So if you ever need an individual who is qualified to manage your trust and make sure that it is pursuant to your wishes and your family's legacy, then an advisor is the way to go. And we have been able to make that avenue possible.

Speaker B: That's amazing. I loved hearing the stories. I mean I think that's something that definitely kind of brings it home for a lot of people listening. It's Glad I asked. Uh, I've been in the financial business a while. Is this kind of a unique offering? I mean, it sounds like it is to me. Or. And did you base it off of something that you saw or read? Or was this really. You're like. You were in your unique position. You're like, you know what? It's happened to me. I've experienced it. We need this.

Speaker A: No, it was. I've experienced. Can be very difficult when your estate is not in order and the patriarch of your family passes. They can be the smartest people in the entire world. And if that estate is not locked up, it doesn't matter. I have seen where family members have to seize other family members because the insurance policy has lapsed. That was going to refund the trust after they paid the estate tax. Estate tax is real. It is 40%. It goes to the government and has to be paid in a very timely manner. What happens if that insurance policy that is going to refund the tax payment isn't there and that trust is supporting every one of your siblings? You then, uh, do I have to start seizing assets? You have war. Three breaks. Uh, it is just a very awful situation to be in, especially when you're later in life. If you're in your 70s and you are accustomed to having a steady inflow, whether that be from your job or whether that be from a trust, it is still something that you've always relied upon. And then all of a sudden it's not there anymore. You are actually changing your livelihood and in a manner that is detrimental at the worst time it could ever happen. And families are ripped apart. I have seen it firsthand and it is heartbreaking. And so that is what we are trying to solve for. We want to make sure that families are protected because the worst thing in the world is when the second generation falls apart because it tends to lead to the third generation. Now you have families that are broken over decades when it all could have been solved by just checking and, uh, double checking that policy. Double checking your will, double checking your estate plan. It's easy to do. It only really takes a couple hours to actually, really do it all. But pen to paper is what matters. And you'd be surprised by how many people do not have their estate in order. It's. It blows our mind.

Speaker B: I like to think of myself as a realist. I probably wouldn't be surprised. But yes, I'm. There's no doubt that the number is way more than it should be. And that's the true part. And Scary part. At the same time, love hearing about kind of your outlook and the way you've had your experiences. Would love to kind of shift gears here to another niche focus, which I know you have, which is serving influencers and college athletes. What are some of the unique challenges faced by these athletes and how are you helping them?

Speaker A: So young athletes are something that we are very passionate about. Me particularly I grew up in a coaching collegiate family. I am from northwest Arkansas. My grandfather was Frank Broyles. I watched him for my entire life, until recently, uh, change student athletes, trajectories of life. He was all about education. He was a coach, he was a mentor and he had very strong feelings about paying children because essentially they are kids. Significant amount of money for a performance that is short lived. So the nil started changing the roles in 2021 and it has changed the entire landscape of collegiate sports. So what I have been working diligently on over the past couple of years is how do we protect these students? I remember being 18, I thought I knew it all. In reality I knew nothing. And I wasn't even being given anything. I was given a scholarship and I was like, I am loaded. So what do we do for these children that are going and getting significant amount of sums? And when I say significant it is to that sum certain individual meaning $50,000 could change a, uh, young kid's fees from an impoverished area, say east Arkansas or Mississippi. You have these students that can be paid anywhere from 50,000 to even a hundred thousand, but that's more money that their family's ever going to see. So then how do we ensure that it is in their benefit, that they're not going to blow through it, that they're not going to trust a friend to invest it for them or worse, have a family member take, take it or what I have put together is a cohesive plan and I have based it off of one thing that resonated with me, that Warren Buffett said he always talked about the two biggest detriments to an investor's portfolio is management fees because it's an inverse relationship to performance. Second is the investor themselves. People panic, they pull their money out when, when everything's going red, that's when you should be buying. But people sell I at the worst times or they'll sell because it's something, it's a short fix. It's they want to go travel, they want to do something that is, uh, here and then now, when in reality it should be, it's better spent for the long term. So how do we protect these nil students? We have put together a financial plan based off of various products that essentially have lockups. What does that mean? That means that the money cannot be accessed through for a certain amount of years. So throughout, uh, I've been working on this extensively for a long time and I have found an annuity product don't really sell a lot of annuities. This is the only one that's ever like checked all my boxes and it is based off of option hedges and it is a six year lockup. All it does is it tracks the s and P500 and it is uncapped. There is no management fee. The only thing that you are giving up is your liquidity. So it is a six year lockup. So it has. I have put clients in it before. It has done really well and it's a way to protect themselves against themselves. So then we also have incorporated life insurance. There is a way for you to structure a life insurance policy that can be used as compensation or as a retirement benefit in collegiate contracts. It is a skilled. It is a technique that can be used that people are starting to do more of. It got pretty popular when Jim Harbaugh did it as a coach. He used some of his compensation that was given to him as his salary and put that into a life insurance policy where they overfunded the premiums and invested those premiums into the market. Got compounded interest for years and years and years. Those are kind of products that we can do for these nil kids. And we're talking about picking a percentage of it. We're not by any means saying we're putting all of it into these products. They're locked up, they can never access it. It's just being intentional about at least half of it. Because at the end of the day, maybe they blow through, uh, you know, half of it. They still have that other half that's protected and they're learning. We get them involved. We have them get on the apps, we teach them. Honestly, a lot of the students I've sat down with want to know. They're fascinated by it. I give them, um, we. A lot of times we'll give our younger clients that are family legacy clients. We give them everything for free anyway. So get the app, we get them accounts. We're just doing cash or we're just doing cash management. We'll give them an investment portfolio. But we're teaching these students on how to invest in good habits so that they know what to do when they're approached by someone that might not be in their best interest or if they have a family member that's asking for certain things. M. Well actually even talk to my advisor because it's already been. It's already been invested. I'm sorry, you need to call them. And that's what I always say. Let me be the bad guy. Let me talk to him. Let me talk to Uncle Joe. Happy to talk to Uncle Joe. Uncle Joe. How are you doing, Uncle Joe? Unfortunately those funds are allocated. Can't really touch them. But give me a call in six years, we'd love to talk to you. That kind of thing. We react as like their provider. And so there's. And I'm talking. I'm um, not necessarily talking about the students like that are getting the million dollar contracts. Those are not the students I'm talking about because nine out of ten times those students come from affluent families. They have been in a position where they've been able to have private lessons and be masters of their sports because their parents were able to afford to put them in it year after year and get coaches and all that. But I'm talking about the students that get anywhere between the million and below. How are we protecting those students? Because we're definitely not protecting them on the field because what's happening is there is no allegiance to your team. You can look at the University of Arkansas right now and it is night. It is as plain as you can see it. We have lost more football players in the portal because they know that they can go in the portal and get paid a higher payout on a different team. It's just there have got to be guidelines. And so until they come down with stricter rules, we want to be a guiding light for these students. We just want to help and we're in it for the right reasons. I have it's Student athletes are near and dear to my heart. It is something that is ingrained in me. It is in my blood and is something that I am in a position to help. So why would I not?

Speaker B: Well said. And my Sooners have been beaten up in the portal as well. So uh, bad I follow the reason I've m. Been a kind off season. Want to switch gears just a little bit to another group that we've talked about. Love to kind of hear you walk us. There was a star. I know uh, there's an acronym behind that which I always love being a former military guy. Uh, and if would you wouldn't mind giving us kind of a quick sneak peek at what you're building for this

Speaker A: audience, of course, be happy to. So stars stands for successful Today. Almost rich. What is happening in our industry is that advisors tend to only help those individuals who already have a net worth. If you go to Merrill lynch or JP Morgan or Goldman Sachs, they require $250,000 in assets or they won't talk to you. How does that help anybody? What if you don't have $250,000, you still need help? So we are creating a subscription service. It is an app and it is essentially an advisor on call. It's uh, like Teladoc. You can access a financial advisor and ask them questions at any time of the day. You are paying a monthly fee, you get a financial plan and you get an advisor. So we are very excited about this because this is what we are creating for the younger generation. One avenue that we are really going down, that we really want to help are influencers. You have young women dominating women that are making six figures or more by their own companies. Are they getting their own benefits? Are they actually, is it cash flow? Are they investing it? Do they have a financial plan? Do they have a will? Where are the assets going? Are they llc? Do they have a company? You know, there's so many questions that no one is really helping these younger generations with. So we thought that there was a huge opportunity for us to come in. Let's create an app. The younger generation does not want to come into our office and sit down with us. They want to talk to me at 9 o' clock at night and they want to text me, which I'm okay with. So that is what we're creating. We are creating an app service. And to be honest, it is exceeded our expectations. I was a little nervous because I have friends that are in tech. I am of the generation where we got Instagram after college, thank goodness. But it has been wildly fascinating the developers that we have been able to create a seamless app where you can go on and it's by clicking a button and you can upload anything you want. And you do not have to have any assets. You don't have to have any assets transfer, uh, or uh, transferred to us either. So let's say you have a 401k, it's enrollment period. You're doing it late at night because you know that's the only time you have to do it. You don't know the difference between an HSA or an FSA or a 401k. So that's when you pull up your app. We have a messaging service just 24 hours a day, and then you're sending it to an advisor. And so we are actually going to have a staff member that is going to be a nightmare. Essentially, we have a staff member that is going to work nights. He is going to be available at any time to answer those questions. And so an example the other day, my tennis pro, so she is a couple of years younger than I am, she is not from the United States, but she was texting me and was showing me screenshots of what an HSA is, what is an FSA. And I was like, okay, do you have a 401k? She was like, I don't know what that is. I was like, let's scroll down. So it's just things like that. And then I was talking to another person at our tennis club and young gentleman, he was talking about his 401k. He said he was invested. And he was telling me his frustrations that he wasn't getting any compounded interest. And it was just sitting there and I was very confused. What do you mean? He did not actually. He was just contributing. He had not actually invested his ass. The funds in his 401k for three years. And he works for a very prominent family. In the text, um, I'm like, what? So it's just an education. And I think that people in this industry take it for granted that it is second knowledge to us. We can answer any question on a dime, but no one is really dedicating the time to the younger generation. So what we're seeing then is you're having a bunch of females that are ill equipped to be CEOs to run their company, to feel empowered. They. That is what we're really trying to do. Let's instill good habits. Let's get them invested younger, let's get them involved. And then when they're in their 60s, they've already been retired for 10 years because they did all the work upfront. And it might not make us any money, but it is our way of really contributing. But not only that, what we're doing is we're hiring young advisors and we're teaching them. Um, this is a great stepping stone onto being a full financial advisor because it's pretty much implemented for you. And then we're there in case you have any questions. But it's a great training tool within our firm where we can have our operational staff get involved. We can have any of our younger advisors feel that they are educated and they have clients. The best advisors are because they've been in the industry for a long time because you just learn as you go. But if we can kind of fast track that while also helping out these younger generations, it's a slam D for us. So we are very excited about it. It is an advisor on call, and we will charge, I think it's 49.99. And we're there for you if you need us or if you don't. So we're really excited about it.

Speaker B: That is absolutely amazing.

Speaker A: It's very exciting. And we do not. And that's the thing is, I was talking to some of my girlfriends that are were late 30s about their finances, and they were embarrassed to tell me that they haven't really done much because they've been embarrassed to ask. And I feel like there's a lot of guilt or almost kind of like a fear of missing out because you haven't been as knowledgeable as you should have been throughout your 20s and your 30s. And this is a platform where there's no embarrassment. It's your phone. You don't necessarily have to see the face of the advisor until you meet with them. And even then, if you don't want to see your face, you don't have to see her face. But it is a platform that is there to provide guidance and advice for whatever you need. And you do not have to have assets and they do not have to come to us. We will help you in any way we can.

Speaker B: Okay, so so far, I count two revolutionary changes that you, the firm Asher, have done kind of to the financial landscape. Last question before we wrap. What's going to be number three?

Speaker A: Ooh, that's a good one. We are in the process of creating Asher Insurance Services, where we are going to be able to have our own policies, write our own policies, have agents that get their full commissions. I cannot tell you how many times I have done an insurance policy and was never given the commission that I deserved. So what we have done is we have created bylaws where every agent in the firm gets 100% of their commission. 100%. And if there's a scenario where we start building so much wealth or need within AIs, then we will have maybe a certain percentage go to a staff member, but also we're doing it to our operational staff. Anybody they bring in, we are splitting it with them. 50. 50. Even if they're not an agent, it is something that we are trying to get involved in because if you are a financial advisor and an insurance agent, you are held to a hired standard. So we have no choice but to review your policy. Other agents that are not financial advisors, they get paid your commission in the first year, and then you never hear from them again, which leads into the estate planning problem of a policy lapsing that should go to fund your tax liability. So it all kind of intertwines. But yes, Astra, we are making strides to kind of fill all the gaps. And the sky's the limit.

Speaker B: I love it. I love it. Last but not least, how can people find you?

Speaker A: So have an Instagram. Astro Wealth Management Group. We have a Facebook. We have a Twitter. We have a blog. We are also located in Plano, Texas. You can reach out to me directly. I also have Instagram. My name is Madison Broyles. We would love to hear from anybody and everybody. We are here for our clients. We are in it for the long term, so please reach out to us. We are here for you.

Speaker B: Well, thank you so much for joining us today. It's been absolutely amazing and definitely enjoyed our conversation. But now, selfishly, we get to move on to my favorite part of the episode. 60 seconds with Madison Broyles. Or as I like to say, a lightning round nickname.

Speaker A: Maddie Patty.

Speaker B: Hidden talent.

Speaker A: Eating nachos.

Speaker B: You could instantly become an expert in anything. What would it be?

Speaker A: Forge Broadcasting.

Speaker B: Best professional advice you've ever received.

Speaker A: When I was in training at Merrill, one of the managers looked me in the eyes and said, we can dang near fix anything, but we cannot fix it if we don't know it.

Speaker B: Bucket list. Travel destination Croatia. What's one piece of financial wisdom you wish you knew sooner?

Speaker A: It is not about timing the market, but your time spent in the market.

Speaker B: What's the biggest life lesson you've learned from your clients?

Speaker A: Time is a thief. Live life to the fullest and protect yourself.

Speaker B: One word that describes your investment philosophy?

Speaker A: Suitability.

Speaker B: What's one piece of advice you would give your younger self?

Speaker A: Don't listen to anybody. I wish I would have never doubted myself. Trust your gut. Be authentic to who you are, and you will always prevail. Let your work speak for itself. That is what I wish I could go back and tell myself.

Speaker B: What's one question you think all clients should ask their financial advisor?

Speaker A: I would say go check out your advisor on finra broker check. You'd be surprised by what you see. And then second, I would ask your advisor on simple versus compounded interest and ask them about what it means to protect against the downside.