Serving Others Is Essential For Getting What You Really Want (Featuring Casey Lang)

Rob  00:05

Do you ever stop to think about what you want? Or are like the Spice Girls used to say what you really, really want? Well, I think that is an important thing to think about. And so does today’s guest on the Truest Fan Podcast, Casey Lang of Lang Financial, Casey talks about the importance of really having a picture for the future. What do you really want to happen in your life, in your business, in your, with your family, with the causes that you care about? And to really think about that, because when you think about that, and have a good picture of that, life has a way of taking you there. So, what do you really want?

Announcer  00:49

You’re listening to the Truest Fan podcast. And now here’s your host, Rob Brown.

Rob  00:58

Welcome, welcome. Time for the truest fan podcast. And today I’m excited to have as my guest, a good friend and a client, Casey Lang, who is the founder of Lang Financial in Parkersburg, West Virginia. Welcome aboard, Casey.

Casey Lang  01:13

Hey, Rob. Thanks for having me. Glad to be here.

Rob  01:15

Well, it’s always good to talk to you. I feel sometimes, like I get the better side of our conversations, because I learned so much from you in the way that you live your life and lead your team. So, as we get started, my favorite question to start with is what’s your favorite baseball team, and for most listeners, they know I’m a huge Cleveland fan. And part of the reason for coming up with the idea of Truest Fans came from that fandom so, so who is your favorite baseball team?

Casey Lang  01:42

Well, I guess Rob I could say I wish I still share that passion with you because I do know it to hit runs deep and I appreciate that. But you know, I grew up a big reds fan so my cousin and I we would we go to reds game with her parents, and we played baseball all the way up through my freshman year. But yeah, I grew up you know, watching Chris Sabo and Eric Davis and the in the nasty boys and love that about my childhood. But I, I’ll say about my freshman year, I fell in love with, with a little white ball that’s, that’s a little smaller than a baseball. And from that point on, I started loving golf so much that I kind of got away from baseball, but I’ll just say I grew up a big reds fan.

Rob  02:24

Well, that’s great. You know, I just think we learn so much from sports, whether we’re observing them or playing them. And I know that with you, your golf, you’re a very good golfer and now you’ve got a son coming up who sounds like he’s doing really well that, that drive that it takes no pun intended to, to be successful, and to be good at good at a sport has an impact on the way you live your life, don’t you think? 

Casey Lang  02:48

Oh, no doubt. So I, you know, also played basketball and I played both sports in college and, and, you know, I’ll tell a lot of people that I feel like I learned as much you know, life lessons through sports, as I did through, you know, through school. So, I yeah, I have a deep passion for both of those sports, because of the things that it taught me in the way that affected my life, for sure.

Rob  03:07

It continues to affect your life. Because as you were talking, I was thinking about the coaching of basketball that you do and something that is really near and dear to your heart to kind of share what you learn from your experiences as a, as an athlete with other young men.

Casey Lang  03:23

Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely. And, you know, I love spending winters in the gym and competing and teaching the kids to compete and, and then basically teaching those life lessons, you know, through, through the sport of basketball, golf is a little different. But when it comes to coaching, you know, I do love coaching basketball, and, and, you know, just helping the kids drive. I love watching the kids, you know, from where they started the season, and you know, how they, you know, face adversity, and just all the things that that happen through a season. And I do think it, you know, at least it did for me, and I think for a lot of people has a profound impact on life after sports.

Rob  03:58

Yeah, that’s cool. And I know, it spills over into the way you serve your clients. And we’ll get into that in a minute. But before we do, I find that most of my clients and guests on this podcast have some knowledge that they have gained through the years from a mentor or a family member that kind of sticks with them and it becomes one of their guiding lights as they build their businesses and build their relationships with other people. Do you have something that really jumps out to you when you think about that kind of wisdom that you got as you were coming up?

Casey Lang  04:29

Yeah, that’s a big question that might take us a long time to kind of go through all those mentors and all those different things. But you know, as I thought about that, I would say a couple of things stand out. So I love reading books and learning through you know, through reading and there’s probably a lot of books but two that jumped out as I’m thinking about this question and the first one is thinking grow rich, you know, and just the whole concept of you know, cementing something in the subconscious mind and setting a goal and then achieving that goal, you know, I think back to the sports, I think you set goals and you work towards achieving them. But you don’t necessarily have a deep understanding of how that works. And I think that book does a wonderful job of just helping you think about what is it that you really want, you know, in life or financially or in business, and then learning the process of, you know, setting the goals, creating it inside the, creating it in memory, and then creating it in the subconscious. So, I just think, you know, I studied that book, did some study groups with that, and I think early on that really just kind of helped me think differently about goal setting, and, and achievement. And then another simple one, it’s actually a parable called the Go Giver. And inside the Go Giver, there’s what they call the five laws of catastrophic success. And one of those is the law of compensation. And it talks about your income being drive by how many people you serve, and how well you serve them. So you know, I’m a big believer in add value, add value, add value, add value, and the compensation will come. And I think some of that belief came, you know, from that book, and just some other things that I’ve, I’ve seen in read along the way. So there’s a whole bunch in there. But for whatever reason, today, Rob, those are the two that kind of stick in my mind when I when I think about that question.

Rob  06:12

Yeah. And those are, those are great. You know, I love what you said, that you drew from Polian Hill and thinking Grow Rich, that you need to think about what it is you really want. And I think that is hard for a lot of people to do even, you know, financial advisors who I work with, who are working with their clients, helping them achieve their goals, and having that conversation with clients about goals. They do it all the time. But then when you talk to them about what they really want, it’s difficult. Why do you why do you think it’s so hard? And other? Is there anything that you do to really kind of stay focused on, on what you really want?

Casey Lang  06:51

Yeah, I think that’s a great question. I mean, you know, what do we do for a living, I tell people, a lot of times, we’re gonna be the only person in your life that write your goals down, and then, you know, somewhat holds you accountable to those, you know, and a lot of times, I’ll even ask, has anybody else ever helped you with a goal setting session? And it’s amazing how, how often that answer is, is no. And you know, so I think that’s one thing that’s great about what we do as a financial advisor, you know, our, you know, our Why is empowering people to live their dreams. And, and I think by, you know, I feel like if we can do a small part of that empowerment by helping them really think about, you know, one or two times a year, what it is that you want, that’s always evolving, right? You know, that doesn’t change. But then if we can at least get the bones of something on paper that doesn’t have to be perfect than that, then they’re going to gravitate towards you know, that, and I don’t, like I said, I don’t think it has to be perfect. And I think it’s going to be evolving all the time. But even if they take the time, and it’s the only time they take is a couple of hours every year and we write that down. And it’s amazing how, how often, you know, they achieve it, we actually have a system where we have a one page financial report card. And a lot of times, I’ll take the very first one of those that we did for a client, and then show him the one that they have today. And I always say, you know, I know they’re going to be much further along, because when they met with us, they actually wrote down some goals and work towards that. So, so yeah, I don’t know if that answers your question. But you know, absolutely. It’s a neat thing as a financial advisor. And, you know, I think it’s great that we get to help people think that way. And, and ultimately, that spills over into our life,

Rob  08:21

Right. And working with financial advisors, I think that is oftentimes when the light bulb comes off, goes off, and in my interaction with them, because they’ve set those goals written things down for the clients, but they haven’t done it for themselves. And then when they finally start to record, you know what it is they really want. And sometimes I think I even asked them, Do you really want that? You know, because the first thing might be, you know, I like to make a kazillion dollars. And so why do you want to do that? Do you really want that? What’s that really going to get you?

Casey Lang  08:53

It was funny you say that. So that’s such a great point. And the reason I think it is because you know, as a financial advisor, who’s asking you about your goals, you know you ask people all day, but I tell people, you know, I’m going to hold up your financial report card, and I’m going to give you perspective on that and help you set, you know, realistic financial goals. Well, it’s really hard for a financial advisor to look at their own personal situation, you know, and see where they can go. And, you know, I agree, I think that without having someone do the same thing for them, it’s going to be much harder for them to get where they’re trying to go, you know, to your point. And, you know, so I think, you know, it’s hard for us to be objective for ourselves.

Rob  09:34

It is and the other thing that I think comes out of that for both the clients of an advisor and for my clients that I work with, when you have that picture of what you really want it really adds to your self-belief you know, that’s one of the biggest lessons of Truest Fan is believing in yourself. And I think it’s hard to believe in yourself if you don’t know what you really want because then you have a way to kind of question your decisions, you know, whether it’s a decision that you’re making to spend a bunch of money on a vacation home and retirement as a kind of a financial advisor, or you’re a financial advisor, and you’re trying to decide, you know, am I ready to add that next member to my team, but when you can bounce that up against, you know, I have this belief, this picture where I want to go, it becomes more clear.

Casey Lang  10:21

Absolutely, yeah, it helps you be focusing on the right things. Because when you get a whole bunch of clients and a busy life, it’s really easy to be focusing on the wrong thing. So, you know, having somebody that’s helping you stay centered on where you’re trying to go, and then prioritizing your workload or, you know, day to day activities, you know, it, it makes sense. It’s just like us with a client, they come in, and they say, I want to have this much in retirement, and I want to retire at this time. And I say, Well, you’re not saving enough to do that. So, here’s what you got to give up. And they say, I don’t want to give up that much. I said, Well, this is work two years longer, and they’re like, oh, okay, that’s fine. I’m gonna keep doing it this way, you know, so yeah, when we can get really clear with them on what their situation looks like. It definitely helps them be more just directive and intentional. That’s what I’m looking for intentional on their decision making. Right. Well, I think in as I talked about that as being a little bit of self-belief, but it’s also believing in what you really want, you know, the not having those, those distractions. I also love what you said that you drew from the Go Giver and focusing in particular on the law of compensation. And sometimes I think that can sound selfish, or even when you say something like I give to get, you’re saying, give first and get second, but sometimes because of what you may have gotten that that get seems like, well, you only did that because of what you would get. So how do you, how do you square that? How do you really focus on, and I know, this is not an easy, not an easy thing to think about? It’s funny. So you know, I’m also the managing director here inside our firm. So I help coach new advisors. And, you know, I can remember so many meetings where I met with somebody and helped them get out of debt never got a dime. Where I met with somebody and build a financial plan for them. And they didn’t, you know, you know, didn’t invest any money or purchase any insurance or, you know, never made anything. But I remember those clients would come back to me five years later, I didn’t know at the time they were going to come back. I didn’t know if I was going to be in the business five years later, right? But every opportunity I got to help someone and push them forward. I did it regardless of the compensation. Now, if I started a business today, and I’m 40 and I know what I know would I do that absolutely not, but at the time, it was the absolute best marketing I could do. You know, so I don’t think it’s selfish personally, just because, you know, I just think that’s how it works, right? I think the more you, you know, give in value, you know, you’re going to get in compensation, but then also, it’s not selfish. Because once you get that compensation, it’s what you do with it, you know, if it’s all about you, you, you, you and not about others and giving then that’s where also I think it could be perceived as selfish.

Rob  12:58

Right, right. Because you can actually use that giving and getting to help you achieve what you really want, which oftentimes isn’t just stuff you know, for yourself, it’s the things that you want to do to help other people it’s the time that you get that you can give to the kids that you coach in basketball and help out in the in the community and I know that that’s something that’s really important to you

Announcer  13:24

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Rob  13:50

So, so let’s, let’s change gears. What, what makes you smile? What goes on in your life that really makes that, that frown turn upside down?

Casey Lang  13:58

Yeah, so to me that’s an easy one, you know, it’s my family so I’ve got four kids so life is busy at home and super thankful to have a wonderful wife that that handles the load at home you know for me so that I can focus on business and coaching and all the things that I do you know in lots of business travel and after work business stuff and golf so super thankful for her but, but the kids you know I’ve got a four year old just turned four and when I come home and she runs, runs up to me and says Daddy, Daddy and you know so really just, just that I also have to say super lucky to have great siblings, parents, mother in law and friends and a wonderful community that we live in so really all that stuff combined but definitely my family first and foremost.

Rob  14:44

Yeah, that’s great. Yeah, I know how much you love your family. I love seeing the posts now you don’t do it very often that you put up on Facebook of you and I think in many times you’re your daughter is in his in your arms. Which is very, very cool. So let’s turn the corner Enter again and go back and think a little bit about your business. So, you know, is there an ideal client that you serve someone that you feel that you can serve the best as you, as you build your business and build your team and reach out to help other people?

Casey Lang  15:14

Yeah, you know, I think there’s really two subsets the first one, you know, is somebody prepping for retirement or right at retirement age, so, you know, there’s a lot of plants up and down the Ohio River where we live here, and you know, somebody that says, hey, you know, can I retire? Am I in a position to retire? When should I retire? You know, we’ve had, you know, I have had in our firm has had 1000s, and 1000s, of meetings through the years, and just through all of our expertise that we’ve built, I think we’re really good at helping somebody find out if they’re ready financially, and a lot of times, if they’re ready, you know, emotionally and mentally, you know, and then basically, once we do get them as clients, and once they do retire, it’s just all the stuff that goes into that, you know, continual financial planning, cash flow, risk management, estate planning, and just, you know, all the things that goes into that, that retirement planning. The second subset is really business owners. So, I grew up, my dad was a business owner, you know, he has five brothers, and four of them are business owners. And so a lot of Thanksgiving and Christmas talk was business. And you know, and for that reason, I think I’ve gravitated towards, you know, loving not only my business, but just business in general. And so, we’ve got a lot of business owner clients, as well, that we just help, I’ll say more holistically kind of connect what their personal aspirations are with their business, and then just help them you know, plan around that, which isn’t easy, you know, isn’t an easy thing to do a lot of times for a business owner. So we come in and kind of do the same thing we do for that retiree market with the business owner market. So those are the two biggies, there’s obviously a lot of one offs, and we live in a small community. So we’re never turning anybody down. But those are kind of, you know, our ideal clients.

Rob  16:53

Right. And going back to that, giving and getting and the law of compensation, you said two things, you said that you’ve had 1000s and 1000s of meetings, whether it’s you or the folks on your team, every one of those meetings wasn’t necessarily to get but to give somebody some advice, or some help, whether it was a simple question, or a complex question. That may be somebody who has a multimillion-dollar business, and they’re trying to sell it, and they’re trying to figure out what that’s going to mean to them in their life outside of their business and outside of their money.

Casey Lang  17:27

Yeah, it’s funny. So, I had a client in here a couple days ago, and they had a pretty complex family situation with just money and siblings, and their mother is in an assisted living facility. And, you know, kind of even really towards the middle of the meeting. That’s what they wanted to talk about, obviously, their clients, there’s compensation there. But you know, we spent the majority of the meeting working on her mom’s stuff, and you know, our mom’s money isn’t here. And she’s like, you know, is this something you really do? Like? Well, it is yes, because we talk about money, you know, every day. So yeah, it’s amazing how many one-off conversations we have, that aren’t directly related, but are intertwined, that I think, you know, helps people.

Rob  18:03

Right. And that’s, and again, that’s that, this that giving, because you stop, and you take the time to do it. And it’s just amazing sometimes how that, how that comes back. And the other thing that you said, that is also I think, really important, because it’s, it’s, it’s very kind of special thing about your business, you really take pride in the community that you live in and want to wanting to be known as somebody that whether it’s you individually or your team, people can come to and ask those financial questions. And so, you’re willing to talk to anybody not you know, even though you have that ideal client, you know, who you feel you serve the best, you don’t turn anybody away. And I think that’s, that’s very special too.

Casey Lang  18:42

I appreciate that. I know, sometimes, you know, consultants and people like yourself,

Rob  18:46

And me.

Casey Lang  18:48

I should, I’ll just say it right? And I know, you mentioned that maybe that’s not always the best business model from a profitability perspective. But yeah, it’s important to us, if somebody wants help, you know, we’re going to help them to the best, to the best that we can.

Rob  18:59

Right? Right. You can’t do everything for everybody. But there’s, there’s and that’s again, another great thing about your business is you’re good at it systems and how you can put the way you serve different clients who have different needs into in different ways so that they’re getting what they need, but not to the point where it’s going to take so much of your time that you’re not able to really serve those clients who, who you’re really, who, who you spend the most time, who need to spend the most time with

Casey Lang  19:24

For sure.

Rob  19:24

So obviously, you’re accepting new clients, what’s the what’s the best way for somebody to get to know about you or to contact you?

Casey Lang  19:32

Yeah, so Lindsey has been with us 10 years and she answers the phone and chit chats with clients and get some to either me or the best advisor on our team, you know, to help and you know, the best way to me is calling. Calling our office 304-973-plan which is 304-973-7526. Most of the time you’ll get Lindsay or Kelsey and they do a great job of basically, you know, lining up my schedule, you know, so that we can help those people Oh, yeah, and I know that we, we didn’t get to that either. But I mentioned them. And I have to at least take a second there to say how wonderful my team is. And obviously Lang Financial wouldn’t be where they’re at today without them. And I’m, you know, just thankful and grateful, you know, to work with some wonderful people. And I think that really comes out in the way that we serve our clients.

Rob  20:17

It absolutely does. I don’t obviously spend every day with your team. But I’ve had enough interaction to know that your team is a very special group of people who, like you, are really out there to add value into the lives of the folks who they interact with, whether they’re clients or people just calling in with questions that they can be helpful with. So, it’s a special place. So, let’s, I’m going to wrap up here. But before I do, I want to do a little bit of a summary because is I think about this whole idea of being you know, a Truest Fan, which includes believing yourself, but also the idea of, of giving others to giving to others. And you’ve, you’ve talked a lot about that when he talked about the idea of the law of compensation and giving to get although I guess maybe those were my words for kind of pulling that together. But you also talked about the importance of starting that whole process out by thinking about what it is you really want is a guiding point. So, I think those are great, great, great stories, great nuggets of wisdom, really, that, that the listeners can appreciate. But as you think about those, is there, is there anything else, is there is anything else that kind of comes to mind that you really want to share with the audience is a takeaway for how they can grow and be better versions of themselves?

Casey Lang  21:33

Yeah, I guess the only thing I might add there is, is just, you know, I love this business. And so, you know, I think that we talked about hobbies, and you know, golf and basketball and family, but you know, I don’t feel like I’m going to work every day. So, because I love what I do. And I think that ultimately allows me to be a continual student of the business. And when you’re a student of the business, not only working on it, but in it, I think that’s where the value, you know, that’s more of where that just compounded value add happens. So, I guess, you know, once again, one of the things I do to help coach, our advisors is just talking about the importance of just being a student of the business and be always learning. You know, I think that’s, that’s one of our core values as well is just, you know, continuous learning, continuous improvement. And, you know, I think that’s, you know, key to any great business owner, but very important for financial advisors to constantly be growing,

Rob  22:24

Right, yeah. And that’s when the business is really coming from the heart and not from the pocketbook. Because obviously, it’s a business where for those who are successful, that can be very financially rewarding, but when you can connect that and I think that really goes back to that whole law of compensation that you, you spoke about earlier. Well, I think I think that’s great. You know, obviously, to me, you are, you’re a real pro at what you do. But I, I’m guessing that the audience who’s listening in also feels blessed by the opportunity to hear, hear you talk about the way that you’ve, you’ve built your business and the way that you live your life and give to others. It’s a pretty impressive thing. So I really appreciate your time on the podcast today.

Casey Lang  23:05

Yeah. And I guess I would like to, you know, just make sure I say thank you. I was kind of looking Rob, it’s funny, I was looking, our first conversation was 8,17 of 17. So you know, five years of working together. And I remember, you know, the presentation you, you did to me early on was this whole idea of, you know, helping advisors get to 250 million of AUM, I was somewhere around 100 million and a little less than 70 million in advisory assets at the time. And I was like, wow, I mean, how great would it be to be there 10 years from now, whatever. And, you know, I think it took about four. And you know, I want to make sure that I say yes, from a business perspective, I want to thank you for everything you’ve done to help us but also just, you know, being a friend along the way. So, thank you for everything you’ve done for me and for our team. And you know, it’s amazing how I think kind of to our point, once you get clarity on, on where you’re trying to go, how quickly we can get there.

Rob  24:00

Yeah, that’s, that’s awesome. I don’t do paid advertising on my podcast, but that might, that might qualify. And the cool thing is, is we’re recording this, so this will be released later than that date. But we’re just six days away from the 17th of August. So, Wow. Five, five years. I’m glad you went back and found that that’s cool. All right, Casey, thanks so much. We’ll wrap it up here. Thanks, everybody for listening to the Truest Fan Podcast and I hope more than anything, you take the ideas of thinking about what you really want and giving and getting great, great ideas to walk away with today.