What does it take to become an extraordinary leader in business and in life?
In this episode of The Strategic Business Influencer, Paige Velasquez Budde sits down with Sten Morgan, CEO of Legacy Investment Planning and bestselling author of The 7 Mindsets of Success. Named a Top 40 Under 40 advisor and widely recognized for redefining the financial services industry, Sten brings a rare level of clarity and candor to leadership, decision-making, and personal growth.
Here are my top 5 takeaways from my conversation with Sten:
1. Entrepreneurship Often Starts Before the Plan Is Clear
Sten didn’t start Legacy Investment Planning with a perfectly mapped strategy. He started it because he couldn’t ignore the pull to do things differently. His story is a reminder that many entrepreneurs step into ownership not because they’re ready, but because staying where they are no longer fits who they’re becoming.
2. Trust Is Built by Raising the Standard, Not Following the Script
One of the most powerful insights from the conversation was Sten’s belief that the bar in financial services is often lower than clients realize. By leading with strategy, creativity, and proactive thinking instead of products, he differentiated himself early, even as a young advisor competing with more established firms. Real trust comes from value, not tenure.
3. Scaling Requires Letting Go of the “I’ll Just Do It Myself” Mentality
Sten was candid about how long it took him to realize that being the hero doesn’t scale. Hiring nice, well-meaning people wasn’t enough. Growth required clear expectations, accountability, and the humility to admit that building a team means allowing others to carry real responsibility, even when it’s uncomfortable.
4. Great Leaders Build Systems That Protect Them from Themselves
From structured hiring processes to decision-making frameworks, Sten emphasized the importance of creating systems that slow impulsive decisions and remove emotion. Whether it’s hiring, investing, or launching new ideas, having a repeatable process allows entrepreneurs to make smarter choices consistently, not just when things feel calm.
5. Strategic Influence Is About Presence, Not Just Performance
Perhaps the most human takeaway was Sten’s reflection on impact. As his influence has grown, so has his responsibility to be present, curious, and intentional with the people around him, at work and at home. True strategic leadership isn’t about intensity alone; it’s about making people feel challenged and supported at the same time.
To learn more about the work Sten and his team are doing, visit https://stenmorgan.com/.
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Want to dive deeper into how today’s most trusted leaders grow their businesses, brands, and influence? Order my book, The Strategic Business Influencer, and get the playbook for turning leadership into your most powerful business asset. Below is a transcript of our conversation.
Paige: Hi everybody. Welcome back to the Strategic Business Influencer, my series for leaders who know that in today’s evolving world trust is the greatest competitive advantage. Today’s guest is Sten Morgan, founder and president of Legacy Investment Planning, and founder of the Elite Advisor Network. He is a certified financial planner and a chartered financial consultant.
Sten is one of the most accomplished young advisors in financial services industry. He launched Legacy by the age of 25 and was named an investment news 40 under 40 advisor by the age of 30. He has also been recognized nationally for reshaping how financial planning is done.
Known for his creative and proactive approach, Sten isn’t just serving his clients, but he’s also helping other advisors transform their business through the Elite Advisor Network. He is the author of Seven Mindsets of Success, where he shares the principles that helped him build a thriving firm at such a young age. And he speaks regularly at schools and conferences to inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs and advisors.
So, as I mentioned, Sten is the best of the best. So we are in for a treat today. So welcome, Sten. I’m so grateful to have you on the series.
Sten: Thank you. Uh, humbled to by that intro. It’s, uh, I think maybe this is true for all entrepreneurs and I know we’ve known each other for a while. Yeah. When you hear somebody kind of read that stuff back to you, I just remember all the hard moments, the challenging moments, like how I’ve changed through all of that.
And so it’s, it’s possible to summarize a lot right there. But, uh. It was definitely a road for sure.
Paige: So, yeah. Well, thank you. Absolutely. And, and we’re gonna talk about all those ups and downs today, and that’s really what I wanna get into. So I, I wanna start, you know, starting legacy investment planning at just the age of 25.
That’s no small leap for someone in their mid twenties, so. What was that turning point when you knew you had to step out from corporate America and go out on your own and become an entrepreneur?
Sten: So my story, um, raised mostly by a single mom, you know, so there’s just, the struggle was real. Watching her be Superwoman and figure it out.
I have three kids now. Yeah. And I’m like, I don’t know how she did it. Uh, it was amazing, but didn’t have people that own businesses around me. And so the path was. Get a good job someday, have some security. And so I went to school, studied finance and economics, and I was like, where, where can I get a job that has a good salary?
Mm-hmm. And after I started working for some other people, I realized pretty quickly I was like, man, I don’t really like to, I one, be told what to do, which obviously we all need to be good leaders and also good followers. But there was some spark in me that I couldn’t really understand at first. Of like, I think I’m okay with risk.
Like I think there’s something in me like the, when the, when I come up with ideas, they seem to be somewhat against the grain or different than the status quo. It feels like the average path triggers me a little bit. And so there’s this, this piece of me that as a young team member or employee, unfortunately, came out in a way that kind of.
Triggered those around me. Like, man, he’s a little confrontational. Like he’s coming in a little hot too much. Maybe this guy’s not that humble. And I could see in, in hindsight why it came across that way. But I think for the right people, for the entrepreneurs I would run into it was like, no man, it’s just because of this.
Like, that’s not a bad thing. Like even though some people don’t like that feeling of being challenged and thinking big. So when I started Legacy at 25, it wasn’t because I had this profound. Plan in mind it was because the person I was working with couldn’t stand being around me. Kind of like they felt challenged constantly by this 24, 20 5-year-old advisor.
And they were successful making a bunch of money. And I think there’s some entrepreneurs that can say, Hey, I can, I can hang and I can coach this person through that. And there’s others that are like, Hey you’re a headache. And so when I started Legacy, it was really because it’s like you’re giving me two options.
One, I stay here and I’m an employee in a system I don’t agree with or like, or I guess my only option is to. Try to figure this thing out. So yeah, that was, that was the, that was the step, was walking in one day and saying, Hey, I think, I don’t know if I agree with what’s going on here, to walking out with my things that afternoon and saying, I gotta figure this thing out.
Paige: Yeah. And that has to take so much guts to, to walk away from that security and, and go out on your own. You know, did you, did you at all at that point in your life, have any apprehension or were you just completely confident and, Hey, I’m just gonna go figure it out?
Sten: I think I had enough experience of, Hey, when I put my mind to something I think I can.
Figure the solution out. I don’t know. The path isn’t clear yet, but I bet I can. There’s enough resilience in me, and part of that’s my story growing up. It’s like stuff usually doesn’t go as planned, and when it doesn’t, you, you pivot. Mm-hmm. I was also young and single with no kids, and so I think there was, uh, uh, it, it was risky, but it wasn’t as risky as when I, some other entrepreneurs or advisors, like career changers to me, when you have kids, you know, Hey, I moved across the country, displaced my family and start over.
I’m just like. Yeah, that’s courage right there.
Paige: Absolutely.
Sten: But yeah, for anybody that starts a business, I think most of us didn’t realize what we were getting into, which is part of the trick,
Paige: right? ’cause if we did, you dunno until, you know.
Sten: Yeah. It’s like if somebody would’ve told me, I probably wouldn’t have done it.
And so I’m thankful for the ignorance a little bit. Yeah, I, I feel like, you know, the way the Lord made me, it was like, Hey, you’re supposed to do harder things. And staying in the arena is just a term I always use the man in the arena poem of like, with, with business, it’s like, as long as I don’t quit, a black belt is a white belt that never gave up.
And so there’s something about like, if I can stay in it long enough, if it’s healthy enough, I’m pretty confident I will, I’ll find my way there.
Paige: I love that, that’s very, very powerful. And you know, throughout your career in financial services, this is one of the most high trust industries that I can even think of in the world today.
So how have you approached building those deep, long lasting relationships with clients, especially as you know, a 24, 20 5-year-old advisor when you were starting out competing against much more established firms?
Sten: I love that question. I’ve come to learn now that I coach thousands of advisors and speak and, and written.
And so the coaching side and speaking side of my business has kind of forced me to get out of my head, down, growing my practice and say like, what, what’s the status of our industry? And by doing that, I realized like the bar’s actually pretty low, like what most advisors are delivering and what most clients are accepting.
It’s pretty transactional. Or at times it’s very relationship crutch, which means like, Hey, you like me, we grew up together. You gotta do this with somebody, so you might as well do it with me. Mm-hmm. But when surveyed and asked, most clients still feel like there’s something missing. A lot of the business owners I work with, it’s, they wanna hear things like strategy, creativity, proactiveness, and when I’m meeting with a new client, so I’m very, very successful.
You say words like that and they’re like, I don’t feel that with my plan. Like my plan feels reactive, it feels, um, average because I’m putting, you know, and a lot of times your financial plan, you, I can tell you probably who you’re working with and what company you’re working with based on your plan.
’cause either you have like a lot of in, you have a lot of insurance or you have a lot of mutual funds. Mm-hmm. This is a lot of the coaching I do to advisors is like, if you come in and meet somebody and your whole goal is I only get paid if they buy one of my things. That’s not a great advisor relationship.
And so if somebody comes to me and they say, stent, I wanna start a business. I wanna buy some real estate. And I just say, Hey, no, you need to put your money in this mutual fund that’s been around for 80 years and it’s gonna make you 10% a year. You say that to the wrong person. They’re like, no, I don’t wanna do that.
I wanna do this. And so the reason our firm thrives with entrepreneurs is ’cause like, if you wanna do this thing, we’re gonna help you do it. Well, you’re gonna pay less tax while you do it. And oh, by the way, if you want to invest or buy some insurance, we’ll talk about that too. But. I think the industry leads with those two products because that’s what we have to sell when the market is almost demanding a little more.
Uh, gimme a framework, gimme a strategy, gimme a process like coach and encourage me through the process. And so even though when I was 25, I was able to start tapping into, I think people need a little more like energy in their financial planning meetings. Mm-hmm. I want them to meet with me and like exceed their expectation.
I do believe there’s a bar that if I can overcome it with anybody, you could have had an advisor for 20 years, but if I come in and I add enough value, you may not fire them, but you’re gonna say, stent, I want you on the team. And so I think in my twenties I realized if I can bring a better product than what the market’s bringing, I can stand out.
They’re still gonna notice my age. I met with some clients, they’re probably, you know, 50 worth a lot of money. And I walk in, they’re like, what’s going on? Sure. My goal was like Doy. It’s like by the end of this meeting, you’re not gonna care how old I am because I’m just gonna be that good at my job.
Paige: Yeah.
Sten: And so I just had to step into that.
Paige: I love that because it seems like you brought a whole new perspective and way of advising and having those conversations. And I love that you’ve, you know, not only built Legacy, you also launched the Elite Advisor Network where you’re helping other advisors grow, as you mentioned.
And I’m curious, and, and this might be what you answered to the last question, and you can say that if that’s the case, but. What was that gap that made you go from legacy to also wanting to coach other advisors?
Sten: Yeah. I get this question a lot from advisors sometimes who’re like, why are you doing this?
Because the industry would tell you stem, just keep growing your personal income. Like the best place for you to use your time is just grow legacy more and more. Mm-hmm. Um, obviously income can be a motivating factor. It was for me, based on kind of where I grew up and how I grew up. I do see with a lot of entrepreneurs when you do reach the point where you’re like, Hey, my bills are somewhat paid, like I don’t have the fears not driving me daily.
You have to tap into something else. And I, for me, that shifted to impact because this is an audience I can relate with. Like I, I relate walking into a firm and them giving me an assessment and the assessment telling them, Hey, this person has a good chance of being a good financial advisor. You’re hired.
And I’m like, what does that even mean? It means you get to start selling insurance. Well, to who? There was like this lack of a of a path, and then they’re like, Hey, just copy those people. And I’m like, well, those people took 30 years to be successful. I don’t know if that’s the path I want to take. And so as I saw that pattern continuing to happen and I was able to break out of it, it just triggered me of like, man, if somebody would’ve grabbed me when I was 22 and said, Hey, there’s an average path and the industry’s gonna take you down if you let it.
But I just want you to know there’s this other way you can go and because I didn’t know about another path that caused me to jump between firms and probably piss people off and come across as arrogant because I was like, this doesn’t feel good. This doesn’t feel good. And, and through the grind of that coming out of it being like, okay, I think I understand the industry now.
Uh, not because somebody coached me through it, but because I just got beat up along the way. I do feel like now I have a unique posture of, I’m not like a coach that wasn’t a successful advisor trying to tell advisors what to do, right? It’s like, no, I’ve done it. Kind of broke the mold. I’m still doing it.
Let’s all hang out together and talk about it. And so it definitely kind of hits in me like the community thing I wish I had when I was younger. Mm-hmm. And I’m like, this can be a lonely business. There’s so much opportunity. There’s no reason we should all be solving the same problems differently at the same time.
So it, it definitely does something for me that I want it to be a great, healthy business and be profitable. There’s all that side to it, but being involved in the industry and kind of pushing back and having a platform to do that now yeah, it, it feels almost like a moral obligation, you know? And a calling to, yeah, to touch it.
To tap into that.
Paige: Yeah. Well, it’s so impactful because like you said. You didn’t go have to, you know, you didn’t have to do this. In fact, it’s taking, you know, part of your focus, I’m sure you know, from legacy as well. But it’s so impactful to give others those types of resources. And I know you’re even, you know, as you’re speaking, sharing, you know, hiring tricks and frameworks and what you’ve learned throughout your business, which I think is such a gift to your industry.
I, I wanna get down into the peaks and valleys. Of building a business. So looking back on your journey, what would you say are just the biggest challenges that you came up against while scaling your practices at different points of the business?
Sten: I think early on it was just the fear piece and kind of the loneliness of it.
I didn’t. Have much experience with like community or spaces where people and other entrepreneurs would say like, this sucks. Like I’m struggling today. But we all feel that. And I have those groups now that I get to be around and I’m so thankful for them. But early on, I think the struggle was that piece of it.
Nobody understands, you know, I’m, I’m doing it alone. I’d go to, you know, bible studies or, or or other events and I’d be there with a bunch of people that weren’t entrepreneurs. They were W2 people. I’m like, I feel like no one can talk to me about anything. And it, whenever I tried to go there, people would kind of glaze over ’cause I’m like, you have no idea.
Like what that’s like. So I would say early on it was that as the company grew, it was going from realizing I’m not just like a, a salesperson producer. I have to have a team to reach my potential. And then it became how do you hire, well, how do you encourage and challenge people? Well, my initial kind of move into hiring people was like, Hey, who’s nice?
And who tells me they want to work hard? And then, Hey, get on my back and I’m, I’m gonna carry us all over the finish line. That looks good, and the people around you like you a lot, but it’s not sustainable. And so it led to a point where, for me, I was like, I can’t keep doing this on my own. I’m looking around everybody’s, again, nice people, but nobody’s really carrying their weight.
And then as I tried to get healthier in that and I started trying to hold people accountable, you get to see what people push back on accountability. Make some squirm in which people rise to the occasion. And, and for one of my companies, I had to eventually let everybody go in like an eight month period when I was like, Hey, this is part of me growing as a leader.
I set the expectation here and I’m realizing that’s not healthy or good for all of us, so here’s what we’re gonna do moving forward. Are you in for it? So it wasn’t like, Hey, overnight, everybody’s gone. It was like, Hey, I’m giving you a shot. Like can, do you want to go on this journey with me? And realizing those weren’t the right people.
And then also being able to own like, well, that’s part, that’s my fault. Like, there’s some shame attached to like, I didn’t know any better, but I still let that happen. Um mm-hmm. And then moving into, it’s the idea of like the school project or were you the person that’s like, Hey, just step aside everybody, I’m gonna do it on my own ’cause I, it’s only gonna be right if I do it.
Paige: Yeah.
Sten: But that, that, that doesn’t scale, that doesn’t have a lot of impact versus like, well, I need to work well with others. I need to motivate and encourage them. Allow them to make mistakes in a safe environment. And so I’d say over the last five years, that’s been the most challenging part for me, was realizing I can’t do it alone.
You know, there’s just some humility in that of like, oh, yep. Um, mm-hmm. And then saying, okay, what does it look like to build a business that can survive without me? Because I realize a lot of entrepreneurs have a business that’s so reliant on them. They’ve just created like a really rough job for themselves.
They’re working 80 hours a week. Yeah. Underpaid. Overworked on the weekends. It’s like you would never say yes to that job if somebody offered you that pay for that amount of work. Mm-hmm. Yeah. We do it to ourselves. So I’d say it was, it was kind of the emotional piece early on, and then it was kind of moving and maturing as a business owner to say like, okay, now I need to get the right people around me so this doesn’t feel as heavy every day.
Paige: Yeah. And you know, those are tough transitions to go through, but I feel like almost every entrepreneur has been through that at some point of their business. And, you know, maybe some couldn’t make the decisions that you and ultimately ended up doing as you continue to grow as a leader. I’m curious, just as you look for the right people, this is one of the hardest things business owners and leaders face.
How do you. You know, has, have you found a, a trick or a hack or a best practice in, in hiring the right person or identifying that from the front end of conversations?
Sten: Yeah, we built a process now that helps protect us from ourselves, being like, man, this person seems great. Let’s roll. You know, they the urgency of like, yeah, the sooner we have a great person in here, the better for all of us.
So it’s like that urgency is real, but by hiring the wrong person multiple times. I just had a person a young advisor that moved from another state. To take a job here. And I get offers all the time. Advisors, Hey, I’ll work for free for a year if you’ll just train me. And so this person moved here.
You know, in my mind I’m like, man, that’s some tenacity. Like they’re willing to take some risks, they’re hungry for it. But once they started, I was like, this person has no energy. Like they doesn’t, they don’t seem excited to be here. And then when I’d try to coach ’em through something, they would argue with me.
In my mind, I’m like, you’re 24, you’ve done nothing yet, and you’re arguing with me on something I’m trying to teach you. And there’s one part of me that looks back and I’m like, I wish somebody would’ve sat with difficult STEM when he was in his twenties and kind of show me some patience. But then there’s another side where it’s like, I don’t have the energy, you know, as a married dad with three and, and companies to argue with you every day about something.
Mm-hmm. Like, you’re making it too challenging. And so we were in our first 90 days and 30 days in, I said, Hey, this isn’t working out. I had to sit with the fact that he moved here for the job and now he has to move back. He had every opportunity for it to go well, but it didn’t. And so my team, we debrief and we say, how did that happen?
What did, what did we miss in this? It’s never perfect. Somebody can always show up and you’re like, wow. Until I’m in the office with you every day and actually delegate some stuff to you. And we have like some healthy conflict. I can never know for sure. But with our process now, we put, we are really focused on, is this a great job description?
Does it communicate who we are as a company and what this person has to do? We then send them, we use a company called Spark Hire, and we send Spark Hire Link, which is a, it’s a video recorded interview, so they get three questions and then they have to answer those three questions on video. So we get to see them.
So one, you might have somebody that doesn’t even take it. It’s like, well, if they’re not willing to jump through this hoop, then they’re not a good fit.
Paige: Right.
Sten: They do take it. We get to see them and be like, okay, what’s their energy like? And then April on, my team will then have a call with them for like 20 minutes.
Mm-hmm. And that call is for her to confirm, Hey, here’s the job description, this is an in-office role. And just make sure, like, is there anything here that is gonna be a deal breaker or are we on the same page? Then they have a virtual call with me for 20 minutes, which is really more of a culture call.
It’s like, Hey, why do you wanna work here? Like what do you think you’re gonna bring to the team? What environment’s best for you? If they make it through that, we then send them a kolby assessment, and then we run that through some ai. And if that goes well, then we have our first in person compare that to then in his twenties, like, Hey, I’m meeting you at Starbucks.
You seem nice. Like, let’s see how this thing goes. Sure. So it is just trial and error, figuring that out. And then whenever possible, we try to pay them for a project first. I was like I wanna see you in action. For a young advisor, they have to come in and present to us, and they’re, it’s not gonna be perfect.
You know, they’re gonna be uncomfortable. Like, are they willing to, are they gonna suit up and come in with some good energy and, and enthusiasm, or are they gonna show up late? And so we’re just looking for these little things like how can we get as much data before they start as possible? Knowing that every hire is a risk, but a great hire is a 10 x opportunity, and the wrong hire is a three to six month headache.
I think I just have to take it more seriously than I used to.
Paige: Yeah, I, I love that really defined process and especially the video interview from the very beginning. I think that’s incredibly powerful. You know. You as a leader. I’m curious with multiple ventures like Legacy and the lead advisor network, I imagine at some point you have to decide where most of your focus is going to go.
Mm-hmm. You can’t focus on everything all the time. So what does that decision making process look like for you and how do you balance all of that?
Sten: Yeah, there is a, um, a great book called Essentialism which is really impactful. Like if you do put all of your energy in one direction, you will go farther. And I’m advising business owners and I’m on my a whiteboard in my conference room, and I show them, like, tell me all the things you’re doing. And all of a sudden I start writing out this list.
It’s very common for entrepreneurs, visionaries to just start a bunch of stuff. Mm-hmm. And get distracted. I would never wanna like put that fire out though. ’cause that’s part of your superpower also. But it’s like who can contain it? And there’s the great book Rocket Fuel. Like do you have your integrator with every visionary that kind of slow you down?
April on my team is like, Hey, we have a parking lot for your ideas and we’ll revisit it later. ’cause she’s like, some of ’em are great, we just can’t do ’em all at once. Mm-hmm. So I think it’s, it’s kind of building a framework of protection around myself to say, I, I want to thrive and create content and do my thing, but I still need to stay focused on the things that will have the biggest impact.
So with these, even though those are two separate companies, EAN, the Lead Advisor Network essentially watches what I do with my clients and then packages it and teaches it to other advisors. Mm. So they’re very cohesive in that. Okay. Where if I saw an advisor was like, Hey, I’m a financial planner, but I’m also like a real estate developer.
I’d be like, you know, that feels like a complete pivot, right? And so for me, it does not, it feels like when I show up here and I’m working with clients and then somebody says, Hey, Sten, you have a, a speaking engagement next Tuesday in Nashville for two hours. I’m like, oh, great. I’ll just work that in. And I really enjoy it.
So I think we found a really good rhythm of that. And I think I get in trouble if I’m doing too many things, if I don’t have a good team. Mm-hmm. I should be able to operate on, on a couple different platforms as long as the team is there supporting it. If I tried to do all this stuff 10 years ago, it would’ve been a disaster because I still take my kids to school every morning.
I’m home when they’re there. I help make dinner like, but my goal with my team is like, when I’m here from eight to four 30, it’s game on like in. Yeah. Sitting around, not like we were gonna be so intentional and focused. And I think that’s how, you know, some people accomplish 10 x in in the same day as somebody else is just their level of intentionality.
Paige: Yeah, I think that’s so true. I feel like when I became a mom, I even got. Better at what I could accomplish in a short timeframe. Yeah. Because you have to, you absolutely have to. And I love your idea of having a parking lot of ideas and someone to help manage when the right timing is, but still capturing all of that and not squashing that.
Um, ’cause I feel like that’s where, you know, a lot of entrepreneurs get dinged or, you know, they’re like, ah, you know, I’ve been told I can’t. Share new ideas anymore. My team’s tired of it, so I love giving the right outlet for that. I went
Sten: to a, a great event Alex or Moey, great content creator, entrepreneur.
I went to his event, this was maybe four months ago, but his team was there presenting and they’re like, whenever he kind of gets spun up with ideas, we put ’em in content jail, which means we’re like, all you get to do for the next two days is go and create some new content. ’cause you need to stay out of our way ’cause we’re getting stuff done.
Yeah. So for any creatives, visionaries, like listening, I don’t think it’s fully expressed that part of you with no control or mm-hmm. Totally suppress it. There is a way to, to benefit from that part of you. ’cause it is a superpower without it derailing everything all the time.
Paige: Yeah, absolutely. Now I want to have you just share some thoughts, um, consulting strategy with the entrepreneurs listening to this show.
Most of them that are listening or have been guests on the show, they’re not just running one business. Yeah. Uh, they’re often juggling multiple ventures, investments, side opportunities. So from your perspective, what do serial entrepreneurs need to know about investing smarter in creating passive income in a way that truly builds that long-term wealth for them and their families?
Yep.
Sten: A big part of that is just good data. Like do you know where you stand at all times? I have a, a personal monthly scorecard. I review. I have a bookkeeper that runs data just so I always know, like where do I stand? But also with each one of my companies, we look at a monthly scorecard. You need that updated data to make better choices instead of always responding and reacting.
And too often I’ll meet business owners and I’m like, Hey, you actually knew this was a problem six months ago. It just now is showing itself fully, and now we’re scrambling at the end of the day. Mm-hmm. Where you knew this, this wasn’t profitable. If we would’ve just asked the right questions. And now literally you show up to work every day, you’re losing money to work.
Why are we doing that? So I’d say that’s a big part, is like just at least make sure you have access to clean, accurate data at all times. But what I teach a lot of entrepreneurs is a process and, and a process helps remove emotion from it. A lot of us have invested at one point because a friend told us to, oh, this thing is awesome, you should do it.
Or we had some liquidity sitting somewhere and we’re like, we should probably just do something with this. So we put it in something good that we kind of understand, but maybe not. And and the more entrepreneurs and investors I’ve met, it’s like there’s a lot of those stories and the ones that do it well have like a system in place to slow them down just a little bit.
You can’t wait too long. You’re gonna miss out on good opportunities, but you can’t just react all the time emotionally. I call it the investment decision filter. And so for everybody listening, you know, and this is something we teach and coach on too for our clients, is you should always run an investment decision through these filters in this order.
The first one is risk. Does my risk tolerance match what I’m about to get into? There’s two sides to this. One is understanding yourself well enough. ’cause most of us would say, oh, I want upside. Yeah. But when it gets rockier, if it drops, like can you tolerate the experience that you may have? Mm-hmm. The other side is actually truly understanding the investment, and most people do not wait and truly understand the investment.
They’re relying too much on hope. It’s somewhat of a gamble. There are usually more questions you should ask up front to say like, is this, does this fit with what I’m trying to accomplish? The next is performance. You need to understand like the, the past performance of something does not guarantee it’s gonna do the same thing in the future.
Any good investment has what we call asymmetric risk, meaning your chances of winning need to be higher than your chances of losing. Because if it’s 50 50, you’re kind of rolling the dice. Mm-hmm. The best investors know how, like, hey, the invest this investment has a four times higher likelihood of winning than losing.
Well, great. So if you do that four times, even if one goes to zero, you’re still winning. Yeah. The next one we have risk performance, and then you get into taxes. Understand, like what? What does this help me on taxes? Does this have like a neutral effect on taxes? And then you’ll get into time, and this is really big for entrepreneurs, if this investment requires you to be successful, do you understand and have the time to make it successful?
This would be if like, Hey, I wanna do a real estate flip. Okay, do you understand what you’re getting into? Like are you ready to go down there and like check on it and work on it? And then the last filter is fees. Like what’s the cost of this investment? Fees should not probably be your first one because most of us would pay more for an investment if it had a more like a higher return.
Sure. But we still need to understand what’s the cost of me getting into this. And so that’s a really high overview of it. But when we teach people to go through that, it slows you down just enough that if I can help you avoid one or two bad investments a year because you’re like, I’m glad I thought about that.
And I had a system of questions to ask myself. That would totally change most people’s process.
Paige: Yeah, that’s huge. Having that decision, you know, making filter to go through because those are questions and, and having it in the proper order, I think is, is really important as well. So thank you for sharing that, Sten.
Now there are two questions that I love asking every entrepreneur that comes on this series. Uh, the first one is, who are you in addition to being a CEO?
Sten: Hmm.
Yeah, definitely a, a dad and husband. That’s big for me, not having a father figure growing up. That was always something in my mind with, I have two girls and a boy, so, um, yeah, I think someday my hope is like, it’s crazy that dad spent that much time with us. ’cause now we’re adults and realize what he, what else he was doing.
Um hmm. I get to meet with a lot of, you know, entrepreneurs who made a lot of money and none of ’em are like, I wish I worked more. Yeah. So I’m thankful to the business I’m in. I get exposed to that. And so early on that kind of took hold that at some point you have enough and sacrificing for more.
Usually we do that out of like trauma meaning mm-hmm. We need constant feedback from the marketplace that we’re good. And good enough. And so we keep chasing it even if we have the money and don’t need it. So, and then after that, I, I, I’d probably say, you know, stepping into more of like a mentor role. I think I had quite a bit of success at a young age where I was like, I can’t be a mentor yet because I’m not old enough. And I started realizing no, people are actually watching and mm-hmm. And curious what I’m doing and why I’m doing it.
So I think there’s. A responsibility to that, that some people embrace and others reject. I was on a phone call with a buddy the other day and he, he said, Sten, you kind of feel like an anchor to a lot of people. I was like, what do you mean by that? He’s like, well, an people attach themselves to an anchor and if the anchor moves, everybody else moves.
And he is like, sometimes that may feel unfair because you’re like, I don’t get to behave like other people because I impact them too much. And so I kinda had to, I had to sit with that and journal on that and I was like, well, I think I’m okay with that. Like, I think that’s something I’m willing to be, not an unhealthy way, but like there’s just mm-hmm.
Part of it. Like if the Lord’s puts you in a place where other people are watching you, what are you gonna do with that responsibility? So absolutely. I think I’m trying to step more into like, I’m okay being a mentor ’cause I have mentors, but I think there’s a group now saying, Hey Stan, will you help us out?
Paige: Yeah. Well, it seems like that’s kind of become your mission field a little bit. Yeah. In a way as well. So that’s a beautiful perspective. The, the second question I have for you is what is the impact that you wanna have at the end of every single day?
Sten: Hmm.
With what I’ve learned about myself and my own story, I think being present is harder than it sounds. Uh mm-hmm. Sitting in moments with people leading with curiosity. There’s a, there’s a path of just bulldozing through life and like getting success and potentially having kind of like a wake of collateral damage behind you of people that are like, he never cared, never asked, you know, he was a nice guy.
He kind of helped if you asked, but he was just never present fully.
Paige: Sure.
Sten: I think there’s an element now of like, with even the teams I work with, it’s just like, Hey, how are you? What are you struggling with? Hey, what do you, what would you love to accomplish now? It’s a shift from succeed to get attention and take care of others ’cause that makes you look good to mm-hmm.
Get less attention, lift others up, and kind of accept who you are and where you are a little more. I think if I was able to give that energy off more each day to where people just felt like calmed around me challenged, yet encouraged at the same time, versus like, man, when I’m around that guy, he just makes me feel bad about myself.
’cause he is just going all the time. Mm-hmm. I think people remember, you know, not what you said, but how you made them feel. So I think that’s it. But, but with all that, I’m gonna still say I’m still intense, you know, like I’m still bringing it every day. Like I don’t, I don’t think I, you have to lose the fire to tap into that.
But I, I think I wanna leave more people feeling challenged and encouraged at the same time.
Paige: I love that. I, I think that speaks so much to, to your heart and, and your leadership. Well, Sten, thank you so much. You bet. Because you just shared so much knowledge with, that was fun. Um, everybody listening and so I’m just so grateful for you.
If anybody wants to learn more about you, legacy Elite Advisors Network, where do they go?
Sten: You can go to invest legacy.com. We love working with business owners, um, so check that out. If we can ever help, we’re happy to.
Paige: Amazing. Well, Stu, thank you so much. There are so many nuggets and knowledge and wisdom in this episode, so I appreciate having you on and you just taking the time to do this.
This
Sten: was fun. Thanks, Paige. It was good to see you.
Paige: All righty. Good to see you too. See y’all next time.