Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Billy Guan. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Billy, appreciate you joining us today. Everyone has crazy stuff happen to them, but often small business owners and creatives, artists and others who are doing something off the beaten path are hit with things (positive or negative) that are so out there, so unpredictable and unexpected. Can you share a crazy story from your journey?
Two stories that have impacted the way I conduct business. Not a fun story by any means and it hit too close to home for me to not honor the individuals that are in the story.
The first story:
When I used to work in real estate, I met this couple that was doing an open house. As I transitioned to a different brokerage, I realized that they were in the same office as I was and we became friends. During a company function, they had mentioned they wanted to learn about Estate Planning and Wealth Planning, but COVID 19 had put those plans on hold. After the Pandemic subsided, I reached back out to my friend to set a time to reconnect. Literally a week and a half after our conversation, I found out that he was murdered through an urgent announcement at the Real Estate office. So unfortunately we ran out of time to discuss something that we wanted to prevent…leaving behind Generational Poverty. Our office had set up a donation in his honor to ease the Financial burdens for his family and kids.
Second story: I had a client that I worked with that passed away last year that I recently found out about. We were working together for about 6 months a few years ago. Young mom of a few kids, primary Bread winner, that I was helping to get out of debt. I noticed that she did not have any life insurance plans to protect her family so we were trying to shift her budget to accommodate for that. Unfortunately, the expenses were just too tight and there was a little too much debt that I didn’t press the subject hard enough because we needed to get them above water, we decided to revisit the idea a few months down the road. Unfortunately, the client ended up ghosting me and stopped responding to my texts and calls. Found out later that she was diagnosed with an aggressive breast cancer and had unfortunately lost her battle. Her husband had to set up a GoFundMe to help offset the costs of death and replace income to take care of the kids. We had ran out of time, and because I did not press the subject harder and brainstormed potential solutions with her before she got sick, her family was saddled with the heavy costs even though there would have been affordable plans that would have softened the financial impact. To this day this story is a reminder that I need to improve my processes so families will not be as heavily impacted by tragedies.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My name is Billy Guan, I’m a financial coach and tax advantaged retirement consultant. I educate people on how to become masters of their money so that they can create Financial Freedom and Generational Wealth. I’m also a hobbyist magician and I sometimes use money magic to demonstrate some of the financial principles that I teach to my clients on my social media. I work with some of the internet’s favorite influencers and content creators behind the scenes on their Finances.
I am also one of the top Financial Consultants in the country at one of the oldest financial institutions in the industry, as well as one of the top producers at my Financial Firm, Arkshire Financial. I was inducted into our firm’s most exclusive group that only the Elite producers of the company have membership to: The Seven Figure Club. There are only about ten of us in that group in the entire company.
What sets me apart from the rest of the industry is that I am not focused on taking people how to invest…while it is an important component, I approach it more holistically to repair my clients’ philosophy and relationship with their money. It can be very uncomfortable, but in order to progress, I help my clients process their Financial traumas so that they can come up on top of it. Once we have that foundation in place, I show my clients step by step how they can build their wealth effectively and efficiently.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
I had to unlearn that high ticket sales are the only things sales professionals need to focus on. In doing so, I now better help clients create perspective on why certain financial principles are extremely important to implement and should not be left to chance. Not all sales needs to be a home-run, sometimes the smaller things build up to make the big things if it means the client is well taken care of. We can always add additional financial vehicles to their portfolio when they are more ready to do so.
In my current work now, sometimes the Financial products that may feel seemingly insignificant can be the world of difference for the families I work with. So now I’m more urgent and assertive on having clients create at the least the barest of minimums. Having some plan is better than having no plan.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
Character, integrity, transparency, sincerity, and honesty.
My name is all I got. How my clients feel when they work with me is extremely important because they are trusting me with their hard earned money. My job is to guide them properly so I have to act with the utmost integrity. I want to make sure my clients are well taken care of first and foremost so that their financial futures are secure and that my name is not tarnished by any misconduct.
I’m always very nonjudgmental, communicative, and transparent with how I work with clients because I work with individuals in all walks of life. There is enough Financial discrimination going on in the world outside already, I want to create an environment where people of all industries feel comfortable and welcomed.
Contact Info:
- Website: Billyguan.com
- Instagram: Instagram.com/thebillyguan
Image Credits
Mark Tsui