Think in 360: Living with Clarity Around Health, Wealth, and Time (Ep. 1)

 

How do you create a mindset that helps you make smarter life and money decisions? 

In this debut episode of Mastering the 360 Mindset, host Jon Meyer shares the philosophy connecting health, wealth, and time, and explains how this 360 perspective can help you make decisions that truly align with your life. Drawing from his unconventional start in fundraising and decades in financial services, Jon reveals why success is about leading clients toward meaningful goals, not just managing money. He also reflects on lessons from his father, the value of thinking across generations, and why time is often the most valuable asset of all.

What You’ll Learn

• How Jon’s early experiences shaped his financial philosophy
• What the “360 Mindset” really means and how to apply it
• Why time often matters more than money
• How to think across generations in your financial plan
• The hidden behavioral traps that derail smart planning
• And more!
  

 

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Watch us on YouTube at https://youtu.be/r9djTczaQNY.

 

Resources:

• Die With Zero by Bill Perkins

Connect with Jon Meyer:

• BGM
• LinkedIn: Jon Meyer
• Schedule a Meeting

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Transcript

Jon Meyer: People oftentimes have way too much information at their fingertips. The Internet’s given us a big funnel and trying to funnel that information down to what’s important has been the hardest part for most people. Too many times I think people come in thinking it’s just about investing. And investing to me is like 20% of the equation.

Jon Meyer: So really the 360 mindset is thinking about all the different angles you need to approach something at. And really for us, that looks at the intersection of health, wealth, and time. 

Voiceover: Welcome to Mastering the 360 Mindset with John Meyer from BGM. Join us as we explore ways to make the most out of your wealth, health, and time, unlocking opportunities for balance and lasting success.

Voiceover: With insights from John’s years of experience and guest experts, you’ll gain the tools to design a life that works on your terms. Now onto the show. 

Patrice Sikora: No jargons, no trick questions. This is the place for straight talk about real life financial choices you have to make. Welcome to mastering the 360 Mindset with your host, John Meyer.

Patrice Sikora: I’m Patrice Kora. John, it’s good to meet you. This is, uh, a first for you and I’m looking forward to an entire series of podcasts with you. How are you doing today? 

Jon Meyer: I’m doing great, Patrice, nice to be here. 

Patrice Sikora: Alright. We’re talking about obviously financial services. How did you get into this area? 

Jon Meyer: Yeah, it’s kind of funny.

Jon Meyer: When I look back, I was actually. Doing some fundraising for a politician at the time and I found that I enjoyed just talking about money. And so when I decided I had to switch careers, ’cause politics is not a real career, I decided that I should try to get into something where I can talk about money, uh, and work with people.

Jon Meyer: And so I jumped into financial services just through someone I knew. What ended up happening though, what’s interesting is. I found that I really enjoyed leading people to a destination, and I figured that out pretty quick in the career and leading you to a destination, whether it be retirement or helping your kids with college or whatever it might be turned out to be.

Jon Meyer: The thing that got me most excited, everyone says they wanna be in this industry to help people. Um, helping is one thing, but when you lead people, I think it’s just slightly different. 

Patrice Sikora: You talk about leading them to a destination. What do you mean by that? 

Jon Meyer: One thing that I’ve learned is that. People oftentimes have way too much information at their fingertips.

Jon Meyer: The Internet’s given us a big funnel and trying to funnel that information down to what’s important has been the hardest part for most people. So for me, it’s a issue of trying to get them to see, here’s the two or three things that actually matter, and this is what you should focus on. It’s kinda like when you build a portfolio and everyone says, well, why do you.

Jon Meyer: Not have this or that in it. And oftentimes this or that is just a 1% thing, like it doesn’t move the portfolio. And so that’s where I look at it and say, how do we try to move things along? And it’s really gonna be the couple of big things that move people along. It really doesn’t come down to, oh my gosh, I missed out on all these other things.

Jon Meyer: So to me it’s a funneling issue of information. 

Patrice Sikora: Alright. And you said you’d been doing some fundraising for politician. I mean, how old were you when you finally said, you know, I really like this finance 

Jon Meyer: thing? So it was funny. I, uh, when I graduated, jobs were tough to come by and when I first got outta school, I actually jumped into a Burger King job managing a Burger King.

Jon Meyer: And I found out in six months, I am not a food service guy. And so after that I, I. Bounced around for a little bit, trying to just find some part-time stuff until I kind of got this idea in my head that I really enjoyed the fundraising part since I had done it the summer prior. And that’s when I decided I’ve gotta meet someone in this industry.

Jon Meyer: And so I just started cold calling people until I found someone in the industry. The interesting thing is that guy who did hire me, uh, retired recently, and he, he and I still talk, so it’s. Still fun for me to go back and think about how I got started. 

Patrice Sikora: That’s awesome. That’s awesome. Sounds like he’s quite the individual to take a chance on a kid coming, coming to him on a cold call.

Jon Meyer: Yeah, and he, what he told me was there was plenty of other, um, managers at that company at the time that said, ah, I don’t know if this kid’s worth it. So I find that funny. 

Patrice Sikora: Alright. Alright. Now you’re naming your podcast, mastering the 360 Mindset. Correct. 

Jon Meyer: Yes. 

Patrice Sikora: What is it? What is a 360 mindset? 

Jon Meyer: Yeah, so I think too many times when we think about making decisions, we think too short term and short term decisions have long-term ramifications.

Jon Meyer: So really the 360 mindset is thinking about all the different angles you need to approach something at. And really for us, that looks at the intersection of health, wealth, and time. So for us, we’re always trying to help people optimize their situation. I think a lot of people, when they get into the world of financial advice and that that can include a lot of things.

Jon Meyer: That includes not just financial advisors, it can include your CPA, your lawyers, anything to do with advice. I think too many times people go 80% of the distance. But they miss out the last 20, so our job is to optimize the last 20. Hmm. And try to help them see all the angles and why things might be slightly different than they think.

Jon Meyer: When you think about saving for retirement, everyone saves into a 401k, but what they’re not thinking about is down the road when they actually pull money out, they’ve created a little bit of a tax time bomb because all the money coming out is taxable. If you don’t think about that 20 or 30 years earlier and start building something that’s maybe gonna build into half your wealth in 401k world and half your wealth somewhere else, you kind of lose control of the tax issue.

Jon Meyer: And so it’s coming at it from those different angles that I think adds the most value to people. And that’s kind of that 360 mindset. 

Patrice Sikora: Is that easy to explain to somebody? 

Jon Meyer: It’s sometimes easy to explain if they’re looking for something, but I will, I will say our industry hasn’t done a great job at explaining that, and so too many times I think people come in thinking it’s just about investing.

Jon Meyer: And investing to me is like 20% of the equation. Who do you like to work with? So I like to work personally, I love working with people that are, they allow themselves to be led, so they could have been. Do it yourself first for a while even. But they get to a point where they realize we need someone who’s gonna lead us and someone who is gonna give us an opinion.

Jon Meyer: I like to give my opinion. People don’t have to follow it, but if they do want an opinion, I’ll give it. And at the end of the day, it’s up to them to decide if they want to use it. So it’s usually the people that are willing to finally say, I’ve had enough. In fact, some of the best clients are people that actually had something go wrong somewhere.

Jon Meyer: Because now they understand what good looks like. And so when they do start working with us, I think they’re a little surprised at how many different things we do with them. It’s not just investing, it’s not just talking retirement. It’s a lot of other things too. And I think when they see that, they get a little bit surprised and it’s that wow moment.

Jon Meyer: That gazes them to say, I like it here. And they become good clients. And some of my clients I’ve worked with for 30 plus years, so it’s been interesting to see people once they see it, stick with it. Any stories I remember, uh, years and years ago, and, and it still happens to this day where I was working with a family and one of the, uh, I was working with mom and at some point I just said to mom, you know.

Jon Meyer: You’ve done this great estate plan and everything, but we should bring in the kids. And she’d never thought of that. So we got all the kids together to have a conversation about what mom’s estate plan looked like. 

Patrice Sikora: Hmm. 

Jon Meyer: And then mom passed away. Everything went as planned. And all the kids, to be fair, have hired me since then.

Jon Meyer: Nice. Because they ended up wanting to, um, work with the guy that actually talked about things differently than just. Normal. And then what’s interesting now is I’m now also working with their kids. So I’m, I’m on that third generation. And again, the, those people are telling their kids, you know, this firm does it different, so you should be thinking about this.

Jon Meyer: And it’s, it’s interesting to me. ’cause half the time it’s just talking about little things like the tax ramifications of something. It makes a difference and not enough people get that elsewhere I guess. 

Patrice Sikora: That generational business. That’s something I think every financial advisor would dream of having.

Patrice Sikora: They, they, that’s what you want. 

Jon Meyer: It is what you want, and it actually makes it more fun because you actually understand through the generations what they’re trying to do. If you think about the, uh, big families like the Rockefellers, they think in a hundred year increments because they’re always thinking about three year or three generations.

Jon Meyer: And so from our perspective, I think too many people don’t think that way. But when you think that way, it changes what you’re gonna do. Again, short-term decisions have long-term ramifications, so if we can think longer term, we make different decisions. The easy one for a lot of people is most people have plenty of money and then they start to get too conservative in their investing, but they should be thinking about investing for their kids, their grandkids, because those are the people that are probably gonna spend the money.

Patrice Sikora: You mentioned health, wealth, and time. Of those three, which comes first in the planning process, which is second, which is third. 

Jon Meyer: It’s a little counterintuitive, but I think time comes first. Okay. And I say that because we always talk wealth, but money buys you stuff and it’s, it’s a tool for something. And from my standpoint, what I see most people doing is they give up on time.

Jon Meyer: And so they don’t retire early enough. They don’t see the opportunities early enough. There’s a great book out there. With zero that talks about the optimal period where your wealth is at, not its peak, but at a high enough level that you can enjoy it while your health, your wealth is going up, your health is coming down, and while your health is coming down, the peak point where those two intersect is in the ear, your early fifties.

Jon Meyer: Now, if you think about that when you’re in your early fifties. How many people at that point say, I’m gonna start spending money and enjoying it. Yeah, you don’t. They don’t. No. They wait till they’re 65, 70, 75, and the next thing you know, they’re sick. And so to me, time is the thing that we gotta be thinking about first.

Jon Meyer: How do we use it? When do we use it? What can I buy? Um, how do I buy time? And with that, health comes in a close second because if you’re unhealthy, you’re miserable. And I’ve found so many people that get to the point where they wanna retire and within a year or two they’re sick and they don’t enjoy it.

Jon Meyer: So I’d like to say wealth is first ’cause that’s what I do for a living. But it’s not, it’s really, the numbers are kind of ancillary sometimes to all these other issues. 

Patrice Sikora: That’s really interesting to think that. The optimal time is in your fifties to be doing things because you don’t, you have a family or a career or both, and you’re not, you’re still thinking long term.

Patrice Sikora: Well, I’ll, I’ll travel in 10, 15 years. 

Jon Meyer: I think most of us spend most of our lives putting things off. 

Patrice Sikora: Yeah. 

Jon Meyer: And we, we end up getting to a point where we’re like, well, I wish I would’ve, I wish I would’ve. And that part. Is what’s frustrating when we see it. ’cause it’s really hard to turn someone at that point.

Jon Meyer: It really is 

Patrice Sikora: have to give them permission to spend, 

Jon Meyer: you give them permission to spend and you keep saying it seven times until they, until they live it. 

Patrice Sikora: All right. Why this podcast now, John? 

Jon Meyer: Because I think. Two things. One is I’m at the age where I’m also looking at this and I’m looking at it from my perspective and saying, what am I missing?

Jon Meyer: How could I do it better? You know, and I, so for example, I talk all the time to clients about how healthcare’s changing and how if you wanna be healthy, more likely than not, you have to spend cash these days to get other things done. You can’t just go to the doctor when you’re sick. So I started asking myself, well, why am I not spending the cash to do it?

Jon Meyer: And so I have started doing that. I’ve, I’ve reached out to, uh, integrative medicine practice and I’ve, I’ve been talking to other people and I think that’s why now is the right time because I’m going through it myself. And whenever you’re going through it yourself, you’re looking for answers. And so it comes to the second thing, which is I know a lot of interesting people, and I thought, why not?

Jon Meyer: Interview other people about some of this stuff and ask them in their expertise what they think is going on within the intersection of health, wealth, and time. So to me it’s about a little bit of learning personally, uh, because I’m very curious, but also bringing in people that I think could be helpful.

Jon Meyer: And some of ’em are just average people that no one would suspect have anything to do with whatever, but. I’m excited to do it. 

Patrice Sikora: You’re gonna blow their cover, huh? 

Jon Meyer: I’m gonna blow their cover. I’m gonna blow their cover. Absolutely. 

Patrice Sikora: What was it like growing up? Is that where you feel you, you formed your values or were there experiences growing up that reinforced values?

Jon Meyer: When I look back, my father was a small business owner, and I think that had a unbelievable. Um, impact on who I am and what I think. I remember a story that I lived, unfortunately when I was about 10 or 12 years old. My father’s business was, he was an electrician in a small town. Everyone knew him, and his across the street from his business was a general store that had a candy section.

Jon Meyer: So I went in one day and I’m perusing the candy and sure enough, a kid that age has no money. So I just took a candy bar and started to walk out. And the owner of the store stopped me and said, are you gonna pay for that? I panicked. And I said, here, you can have it back. Please don’t tell my dad. ’cause I knew he knew my dad that evening.

Jon Meyer: My dad called me into his bedroom, um, and I thought, oh my God, I’m dad. And he didn’t yell at me. He said, I want you to understand that. Business owners especially, but people in general work hard for what they have. You have to pay them for what they’re giving you, and you have to work hard yourself for what you get.

Jon Meyer: If you can’t afford something, just don’t do it. Hmm. And then he sent me to bed. That stuck with me like crazy. The rest of my life, I, I’ve never once thought, give me something before I work for it. And in fact I work hard, hard, hard just expecting that eventually the fruit will come. Um, but that’s really shifted my values.

Jon Meyer: It’s made me wanna be a small business owner. And from my perspective, it just completely changed my trajectory in life. And I look back at that and I’m like, it’s amazing at, at age 12 how much different things could have been had I not stolen a candy bar. 

Patrice Sikora: Wow. That is, what do you think you might be doing otherwise?

Jon Meyer: I wonder if I would’ve ended up just existing in some way. Mm. And not leading, you know, there’s a lot of people that go through life just existing, and I think that that’s a sad spot to be in sometimes. So to me it’s a question of, of existing versus leading, maybe. Um, and I just feel like I, I could have easily been the guy that moved into some.

Jon Meyer: A large corporation, nothing against that, but I could have just been a cog in the wheel and I don’t know that, that’s my personality. So I’m glad it didn’t happen, but could have happened that way. 

Patrice Sikora: I like that. I like that very much. And then you were talking about, you know, time and health and wealth. And to be honest, I probably would’ve put wealth first too.

Patrice Sikora: But when you start thinking about the time element that’s. It’s incredibly important and it is number one. So what are some other misconceptions that people have about finances and planning? 

Jon Meyer: You know, outside of that, when you actually talk about wealth and numbers, some of the misconceptions occur around simple things like, I have to get the highest returns.

Jon Meyer: No, you don’t. If you spend within the realm of what you have, you’re fine. It’s overspending that causes the problems. ’cause trying to get more returns aren’t, it’s not gonna work. Um, another misconception I think, is that what I said earlier, people save too much in one way and they don’t think about all the other ways they could be saving.

Jon Meyer: And so they create tax problems that they just didn’t even know existed. And so I think a lot of times when we talk about misconceptions, we’re talking about things that are, again, going back to my. Term optimization. How do you optimize something? Too many people don’t think about optimizing. They just kind of plow down the path.

Jon Meyer: And I would say one last misconception I see a lot is, is that planning isn’t about numbers. It’s actually more about behavior in general. And so I see a lot of behavioral problems that occur. We all have ’em as human beings. Even I, everyone says, oh my God, the market’s down. You must be excited to buy.

Jon Meyer: Sure. That’s what I’m trained to do. And at the same time, I go home at night and my spouse looks at me and says, oh my God, the market’s down. And there’s a moment of panic in my thoughts to, as I think, yep. I’m providing for my family. So I think there’s always, when you think about misconceptions, a a lot of times it comes down to.

Jon Meyer: What’s going on inside our heads and our behaviors. It’s not about numbers, but when you talk about numbers, then it’s a question of how do you optimize them. 

Patrice Sikora: I think that’s a great note to wrap this first episode on. And uh, I’m gonna ask you how can people reach you? 

Jon Meyer: You bet. If people wanna reach us, they can go on our website, BGM360.com and you can easily find my bio there.

Jon Meyer: And if you wanna schedule a meeting with me, you’re welcome to do it. There is a link. 

Patrice Sikora: All right folks, be sure to like and follow and share this podcast, share with others that you care about. Thanks for being with us and we’ll see you again soon. 

Voiceover: Thank you for tuning into mastering the 360 Mindset. If you enjoy today’s episode, help us spread the word, share it with your friends and family, and anyone you think you could benefit, and be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode.

 

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Want to learn more about working with BGM? Visit BGM360.com today. Until next time, keep mastering your 360 mindset. The information covered represents the views and opinions of the guest and does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of John Meyer or BGM. The content has been made available for informational and educational purposes only.

The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional investing advice. Always seek the advice of your financial advisor or other qualified financial service provider with any questions you may have regarding your investment planning.