Marlon Mueller on Building Wealth That Outlasts a Single Generation

If there's something I would tell young people is find out what you want to become and then find the people that are already there. And then ask them, hey, would you mentor me? A lot of people would. That's probably one of the things I had to learn was all about finding mentors. I didn't grow up that way. That wasn't something my parents or grandparents say, hey, go find yourself a mentor. My dad was a mentor to me in farming, my grandfather and so forth. but it was basically doing the same thing they were doing. And when you get in a situation where, hey, we've got to do something different, then I had to go out and try to figure that out. Most trade leaders are working harder than ever and still stuck. There's a better way to compete, and it starts with people. This is Blue Collar Smart, hosted by Hugh Hornsby, 40-year trade executive, industry award winner, and the only media voice built for leadership on both sides of the trade. Every episode, one truth, one action, one step forward. Welcome to Blue Collar Smart. Welcome. My name's Hugh Warnsby, and I am excited to share with you a dream that I have had for many years. It's a podcast, and it's called Blue Collar Smart, Built Different. We named this podcast Blue Collar Smart because at the age of 10, I was diagnosed with epilepsy. And at that time, I had to kind of figure out how to navigate the world differently than everybody else. So when we started talking about the podcast, there were two things I wanted to do. I've been in the plumbing and heating, wholesale industry, trades industry for over 40 years, have turned around or built up over 10 companies, all based on people. And this industry was one that I felt like most people didn't know anything about. And I wanted to do a job of bringing more people into the industry, showing the industry of who we really are, listening to the stories of people of how they got there. And one of the biggest things I wanted to do was to really focus in on the financial aspects of business and personal wealth. So one of my really good friends is Marlon Mueller. Marlon and I met a couple, two and a half years ago. We had the same coach. And since then, we have become really good friends. I didn't realize Marlon was the rock star that he is today when it comes to financials. So Marlon, you want to introduce yourself and just tell everybody a little bit about you and what you're about and what you do? Sure. I'm actually from the Midwest. I grew up in Iowa. I was a fourth-generation farmer. And the interesting thing about farmers is we don't know the word quit. My dad was a workaholic. Fortunately, my grandfather was pretty easygoing, so I saw both vehicles. We'll talk about that later. But anyway, part of the issues I went through in my early years was the farm crisis, which I learned I didn't know anything about money. I knew how to grow crops and all that kind of stuff. And the second thing was estate planning. And we can talk about that too. So from those two hiccups, I spent the rest of my life studying those avenues. So I'm pretty good at them. There's a rumor out there that you had to figure out how to save the family farm. Is that true? So like in the farm crisis and again in 2008 with the housing crisis, the banks are always willing to loan you money when everything looks good. But when things start to crumble, especially on the banking side, then it's so easy. And that's what happened for us during the farm crisis was we actually were in trouble. The banks were in trouble because land values dropped. Just like when the housing crisis, house values dropped, you buy a property at X and now it's only worth half of X or whatever. then the banks, they're still holding a note on something that's not of the same value. That's what happened during the farm crisis. Land values dropped significantly. And so the banks were looking at their sheets and going, oh, our asset sheets aren't too good because we have all this land that's not worth what it was. So they're looking to put more assets under their management. Fortunately, we didn't have any of our land mortgaged. We had a lot of livestock, a lot of machinery and stuff like that. And that's all we used for collateral. And so when we went to renew our note, they didn't want to renew our note. And I said, why? They wanted our land for mortgage. I knew something wasn't right because our note was actually less than it was the year before. And so long story short, we didn't do that. We made some pretty drastic changes. We survived that. And that was a real lesson. It's like, I need to learn how money works. And so, first of all, congratulations. I would imagine that was an emotional time for you and your family. Did you see a lot of farmers that were around you that had to go out of business? Oh, there was a lot of neighbors went under. Banks were shutting them down. I actually had one neighbor, they shut him down, but he actually later on sued them and won because he could show that he would have made it. And it's like, even with the housing crisis, interestingly enough, I was involved with a financial group and we were looking at the crisis. On average, if people would have had an extra $700 a month, they would have been fine, which isn't a lot of money, but so many people just walked. And unfortunately, when prices drop, it's a great time for people to have money to go buy properties. But then it's like the stock market, the market goes down, people jump out. When it goes up, they wait. Oh, it's really going up, and then they get in. And it's what happens with a housing crisis, too. They jumped out, and then it turns around and starts taking off, and then they get back in. If you're just able to hang on, and that's the key is hanging on. And it's because it's a long term. Everything always goes up eventually. Was it, I think you shared with me that there really wasn't a will in place at the time? oh so we also had estate issues so my great-grandfather died and when they went to find his will he couldn't find it he actually was moved into town and we think one of the brother-in-laws were pretty much no one of our brother-in-laws probably found the will because he wasn't getting they weren't getting anything and that actually lasted 34 years so I was in my mid-20s when we got that resolved and it ended up actually as a lawsuit at the end. And so I was third generation pulled into a lawsuit. So again, just like the farm crisis, financial issues, not knowing about, I said, man, we got to figure out this estate thing. Cannot be doing that. And because it was, it became so complicated. I always tell people, if you don't have a will or a trust, the state has a plan for you and it won't be the plan that you want. So that's interesting because you would start talking about 2008 and the housing crisis and how everything started to fall. It was a really hard time for a lot of people. But what I'm really interested in with you is it would have been easy to walk. I would take it and just leave. But what propels Marlon Mueller to stand up to what's going on and try to figure that out? Because that's a different type of mindset. Like I said in the beginning, farmers, we just don't know the word can't. It's always, you have a bad year, you go, there's always next year. You're always looking at, it's going to get better. It's always going to get better. So I think it's that can-do attitude that I learned from my dad. He was always like, we'll get her. and so I think that's part of it. It's kind of like with finances too. A lot of people they just they go to work, they have a business, whatever it is, they focus on that and that's what I did with the farming. I got a degree in agronomy and stuff and I changed out our operation, made it very efficient. I was good at that but I didn't know anything about finances. I didn't know anything about how money worked. I didn't know about tariffs. I didn't know how interest rates really it was affecting me. I just knew we paid an interest rate. And so by refocusing and looking at that and studying it so now I talk to my bankers and I say just teach me all the rules and I play your game Because it really is It's a game to me. I love that you say that because what's going on in the trades right now, there's a lot of aging out in the industry. And so we're seeing a lot of private equity start to enter in, especially in the trade side and on the wholesale side. and the company that I'm with, Everflow, was bought. And I remember sitting down with my brother. He says he has a black belt in private equity. He was the president of Ferguson Enterprises and he's always been at that high level, but the biggest thing he said with me is, it's a game, you got to figure out the rules. So talk about that a little bit, because to me, I don't think what you went through is much different than what a lot of people are going through in a lot of the small to medium-sized businesses, whether it's trades or wholesale, is figuring out that gate. We're on the older side of life. I'm not saying we're old. I just say we're on the older side. We went through the 70s. And what was the 70s about? It was about high interest. It was about tariffs. It was everything we're going through now. And there's a saying that history doesn't necessarily repeat itself exactly, but it rhymes. And so I see a lot of the similarities that are going on. And that's just how it is. There's like Ecclesiastics always says, there's nothing new in the sun. There literally is nothing new. Everything's been happening. There's reasons why things happen and when they happen. And there's a repeat. And so you just have to learn. And the thing is, it's all about the long haul. So many people come to me and say, if I only had a million dollars, I'd be set. And I said, if I gave you a million dollars and you're a $100,000 person, within two years or less, you'll be back to a hundred thousand. That's why you receive a lottery win. Expand on that because that I a hundred percent agree with you. It's like, it's a mindset. It's absolutely a mindset. I remember the first time I had a really big real estate win and I really wasn't, I didn't have the right people in my back pocket. In that sense, I didn't have the Rolodex of who I should go to. I was just here about this or that or a disinvestment. And eventually I lost it all. And I was so disappointed because I'm like, man, I'm studying all this stuff. And still I lost all that money. And so it was a great education. But somebody said, hey, just throw a lot of mud on the wall and see what sticks. I always say, yeah, I invest in all these startup companies, different things like that. And eventually my wall got whitewashed. And so the reality is it's a long haul. and for most people it's not about that one shot you're going to make it that's what I was kind of going after man if I just had that one shot I'd make it but what I learned over all those years and all those mistakes is I was always learning something I was the student that I started studying entity structures and all the different types and how they work and I started looking at estate plans and trust and power attorneys and all that kind of stuff I would just pick subjects and I just started studying them, maybe for a whole year or two. And so that's what I've done over the years. And then it's just a matter of implementing. Once you learn, if you want to call it the secret, there is no secret. You just learn the principles and you're thinking outside the box of what you're taught. Almost everything everyone is taught financially is wrong. We have the financial world that teaches. And what are they teaching you? They're teaching you to hand over your money to someone who's an expert, and they'll take care of it. But that's why I have my formula. If you can see that, it's M3 times IV times Y equals freedom. M stands for money. There's three things I've learned you've got to do with money. You've got to control it. You've got to learn how to multiply it. You have to learn how to protect it. Then you've got to get in the right investment vehicle. That's IV. Most people are in the wrong things. They're just in mutual funds or 401ks. They're diversified. But if you look at the diversification they're in, a lot of them are still investing in the same stuff. And then the why is you. It's your mindset. It's how you think and what you think. And a lot of people, they'll look at their checkbook and go, oh, I'm broke. And I don't have any money. And money just never stays in my pocket. They're feeding their minds, that kind of stuff. I look at my checkbook. If it's empty, I go, oh, more money's coming. I don't know where, but it's coming. It's a different mindset. Yeah, it's funny. Because I was on with George Wright yesterday, and what I said is the most important conversation is the conversation that we have with ourselves and that words matter. Absolutely. So many people are having the wrong conversation. Proverbs, it says that the tongue is mightier than a sword. It has life and death, and literally life and death and finances, your health, everything else. So that equation that you have over there, do you have a system that goes with that? Yes, in a sense. Though, it's just something I developed over time just from learning different aspects. One of the things that I love to utilize is life insurance. Partly because banks are banks. And the banking industry has changed a lot. And the rules have changed a lot. Especially after, I think it was the Patriot Act. People always say, hey, I got my monies in the bank. Literally what you're doing is you're loaning your money to the bank to use. because they're taking your money and they're multiplying it out there. They're loaning it out up to 10 different ways. So they're giving you half a percent to if you're on a money market account, maybe getting 3.5% interest in the current conditions today. But they're taking that, say, $1 that you have, and they're sending it out 10 different ways, and maybe they're getting 7% to 15% interest on that money. Or if it's credit cards, it might get up to 29%. So they're making a lot more money on your money. But the other thing that a lot of people don't understand is if there is a, the government always bailed them out in the past and they changed rules. And now it's actually on the depositors and we can be on the hook. And that's kind of what happened in Cyprus in 2008. Depositors couldn't pull out their money. So I'm not, I'm always a little cautious about having a lot of cash in banks. So I use life insurance companies. A lot of people don't know this either, but banks are the biggest life insurance holders. Because it's the safe place to hold their money. Because they have to have reserves. And that's where they keep it. They call it BOLI, bank-owned life insurance. So do they use that? Do they use the life insurance to explain that to the audience? See, I'm an expert at it. I just know that's what they utilize that as a safety net. And if you went, if you came into a bank with your cash value, say you got a $50,000 in your cash value, you can use that as collateral. They will accept it because they know the value of it as a collateral. That's why I, once I learned that system and we use a little bit of a tweak on our system for life insurance. So we're going after the cash value. We're trying to dump as much money into cash value and life insurance because it's life insurance, meaning I'm using it during my life. A lot of people look for the death benefit, but I don't care. I'm dead. It doesn't do me any good. But it's a great transfer of wealth, too. So that's what I'm using it for. I'm using it for during my lifetime to be my banking vehicle, but it also it's my leverage of creating additional wealth to the next generations. That's amazing. So in our industry right now, in HVAC and trades, there's all this conversation about people turning wrenches. The average age right now of people entering into the trades is around 25 years old, which means that they either went to college and tried something and it didn't work out, or maybe they went in the military, or maybe they were just lost. And the one thing that most people talk about is it's a great opportunity. But the challenge that's happened in it is the culture and the people. And one of the things I wanted to kind of have you expand on for those people getting into the industry, a lot of what happens is that they'll work for 40 years and I guess a lot like farmers, your back and your body and everything starts to hurt What would be your suggestion for people that are entering It doesn just have to be into the trades industry but in the industry on how they should really manage their wealth and their finances. I was just thinking about that. People, just like farmers, there's, I think the average age of farmers getting close to 60 and not a lot of young people are getting in it. But unfortunately, the thing is we need them just like we need tradespeople. It's interesting. I've always been a worker. I grew up on a farm. I learned how to do electrical, plumbing, all that kind of stuff. I've always done all that stuff myself. I equate with all those people. But I've been telling a lot of young people, I was like, college, it's not the all, end all for most. Really, when my boys were getting ready for college, I said, it's a piece of paper. Unless you're going to be a lawyer or a doctor, you need something specially, it's a piece of paper. It says you can get a job. But that's not the goal here. The goal isn't to have a job. The goal is to have financial freedom. The goal is to maybe create businesses and passive incomes and real estate and stuff like that. And so they ended up going to business college, but they don't really learn what you really should learn. They've learned more outside of college. And that's what I told them. I said, when you get out of college, the last thing you want to do is stop learning. Most people will say, oh, I'm done with college. I'll never read a book again. Readers are leaders. That's a saying. And I have learned more outside of college over the last 35 years, 40 years than I did when I was in college, because I'm always studying. I said, I tell people, if you're not learning something every day new, you're going backwards. The goal is to keep learning. And because there's so much to learn. You know, and you find yourself being elevated around those same type people. Right. Who really move your game. Now, I know you're in several different groups and that's got to be something that really has helped you elevate your game just by being around some just incredible people. I say it's the people you're around and the books you read will change your life. And for me, I was in lots of different groups, but I finally kind of came to conclusions like which one serves me the best? Where am I going to get the best return of my time? Because time is so important. Money is easy to make. I remember when I was involved with an indoor football team with some other millionaires at the time. I wasn't that yet, but I had some real estate deals. So I had money and they knew it. And I remember we were talking and one of the guys said, making money is easy. Keeping it is hard. And I used to think, man, it's still hard, but really money is pretty easy to make if you understand how it works. But then the key thing is learning how to keep it. And so being around those kinds of people that have money, understand how money works, own businesses that they know how to scale it, have systems in place. And like you said, when you start off, when you're young, you're ambitious, you're going to conquer the world, you're trying to accumulate. And when you get to our age, you're like, you don't want to work that hard anymore. You want to try to rely on systems and you're trying to get rid of stuff. So it's a reversal of where you start. But the key is so many people want to enjoy life up front and they want to have that lifestyle and everything else. And I said, you have two options. You can either work hard and have it easy or you're going to have it easy up front, but then you work hard at the end. When you have those kinds of conversations, where does purpose and your why come in? That Seems important to me, but not everybody figures that out. That's a great question. And I remember when we went through the farm crisis stuff, and then I was trying to be challenged by what else should I do and to kind of help support the farm. And people were like, what do you want to do? And it's, I don't know. I spent most of my life going, I don't know. But I ended up, what I did was I kept studying about finances and trust and all that kind of stuff, and that became my answer. That's what I like to do. So I draw myself up around doing that kind of thing. So I think the key is figuring out where your God-given identity is. What is it that God has put in your life that excites you? If it's dull and it's a drudgery, you're not inside your identity of who you're supposed to be. Well, I don't know what you think. I know what you think because we think very similar on a lot of this. But so many people are so interested instead of trying to create what's right for them. yeah we both have read the book the science of getting rich that was published in 1910 and i think it's one of my top books to read continually every little bit i'll grab it and read it it's a quick book but so you know stuff in there i read i'm like oh my gosh i didn't catch that yet i've read it probably 10 times and one of the things in there i really appreciate what it says it's not about competition. When you're in a competition mode, you fail. It's all about being creative. Nobody would ever think of taking on the taxi industry. But they did. It's called Uber. Thinking outside, it wasn't a competition. They weren't even competing. They were just creative. And they did something different. And it became highly successful. And now people are happy. Now you have Lyft and everything else. And you have so many people that live that world that are transformational that it's all about the transaction. Transactions are very important. But if that's all it's about, then you end up chasing the wrong thing. And if we're not creating something for somebody else, because worth, don't you think worth is just about the value that you give? Yeah. People always think if you have a lot of money that you're worthy and so forth, but it's not about the money. It's about who you become. So I have a friend that, here's a book, Until I Become. I remember I told him, I said, that's a dumb title. But then I thought about it a lot because he had a lot of challenges when he was younger. He had challenges in school. The guidance counselor in his junior, senior year said, you'll never amount to anything. You're not very smart. And now he rang the NASDAQ bell three times. And I relate to that story because I was ninth grade. They tried to send me to special needs. Yeah, he went through a whole school that way. And he's super smart. But the thing is, people will label you, but it's not the label you have to accept. And so when people say, hey, you're just going to be a worker, I like working. But it's like, work smarter, not harder. and surround yourself. So one of the things this guy will tell, he has lots of goals. And he'll say, when I get a big goal, he said, my thing is to figure out how to make the goal come to completion. He said, my goal is to find the people that I know or they know that will help me get to that goal. That sounds a lot like the who, not the how. Yeah. Nope. Dan Kennedy. Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, it's a different mindset. It really is. And I think what you just said about the who, not the how. If there's a message to people, there's way too many people trying to do it on their own. And of course, I'm very faithful. And I look up and as I went through stage four cancer and overcame that, and I had to flip that script on the way that I was thinking. It ended up becoming a mindset. And the who is so important. So many people get stuck in the how. but the other thing you said is who you want to become in trying to make that happen if there's something i would tell young people is find out what you want to become and then find the people that are already there and then ask them hey would you mentor me a lot of people would that's probably one of the things i had to learn was all about finding mentors i didn't grow up that way that wasn't something my parents or grandparents say, hey, go find yourself a mentor. My dad was a mentor to me in farming, my grandfather and so forth, but it was basically doing the same thing they were doing. And when you get in a situation where, hey, we've got to do something different, then I had to go out and try to figure that out And mentors don necessarily always have to be a person It could be a book like the Science of Getting Rich book Wallace Wallace is kind of like a mentor Yeah Earl Nightingale he my guy and I never met him, but I think he talks to me at night. Dennis Waitley, some of those people, they're not around anymore, but their message just lives today. It's like they say, nothing new under the sun. It's the same concepts. I always tell people there's the greatest book on wealth is the Bible. Yeah. There's 700 passages just about money. To me, it's when you buy something, like you buy a tool or whatever, and you read the instructions, how to put it together and all that kind of stuff. That's kind of how I say the Bible is. It's our instruction manual. And everything you need to know is right there. It's the best leadership book that there's, that's out there. And it's funny, like you said, a lot of those rules have been around for years. They just happen over and over again. But there is, there is, you look at the poor, you look at the middle class and you look at the wealthy. There's really a reason why they are where they are. Part of it is because of the mindset, part of it is because of what they do and how they do it in a certain way. But it's also in the teaching. So like, You take a middle-class family, what are they going to teach them? They say, hey, go get yourself a good education, go to college, get a good job, put money away in a good investment vehicle with some broker, and then retire for 40 years. That's their system. But the wealthy, it's no, it's like they don't go out and buy the fancy bags for women and all that kind of stuff. They own the companies that produce that. They're looking at how they buy assets that create cash flow, create more assets for them, that creates their wealth, that creates their lifestyle. And that's what they're teaching their kids. They're teaching their kids how to run companies, how to have LLCs and entity structures and setting up trust early and setting up investment vehicles and teaching them how to do that. Because I was always like, you've heard this, the first generation makes it, the second one maintains it, and the third one loses it. So my thing was, how do you get it to the fourth generation? And I struggled with that. You know what I found out? I don't have to worry about that. All I got to do is teach the next generation. So I've been teaching my kids most of my life how to handle money, how to think about money. And they're doing well. They're actually doing better than I was at their age. But that's what I wanted. Yeah, you have to be proud of that. Yeah. You want them to learn how to handle money, make money. And so because wealth isn't about transferring money. Wealth is about transferring your ideas, your values, your systems, your assets that they can continue to grow. Yeah, and I think the science of getting rich, what is it, mind, body, and soul that you need to have all three to go with there? I think that's a pretty impactful statement. Talk about your four Fs. And then I was going to ask you, as we start to wrap this up, what we really want to do is we want to leave the listeners with something that they could take home and say, wow, Hugh, I didn't ask that question. Or there was a question that I should have asked that you think they might be thinking. Do you have something that you can share with your 4Fs? And then is there something that you can share that maybe these people could really use and take some action on? so really i love the four s because that's the action steps and my four f's are faith family fitness and finances in that order because so many people they go after money but they neglect everything else and so they get a lot of money but then it's like steve jobs had lots of money but he had no health at the end he would have given up all the money for his health long so So the thing is, I always say faith. Partnering with God is a great thing. Having faith and leaving that legacy with your family. Because there's only one thing you can do. There's only one thing you can leave with your family, and that's your faith. That will carry on. Because if you believe in heaven, you want your kids to be there with you. So faith is number one. Second is fitness or family. Because family, that's your support team. You want them all to be on the same team. That's the beauty about farming. I farm with my grandfather. My father was a family thing. We work together. Family that works together stays together, the deal. And they support each other. The third part, F, was fitness. Because if you don't have your health, then what good to have all this money? And I see that, especially the older we get, the more we see our friends. They're falling apart. They're having issues. And I always tell younger people, it's like, no, you start now. Eat right. eat the right food, stay away from all those processed foods, all that kind of stuff. Exercise regularly. Just do healthy habits. Because again, over time, it makes a difference. And then the last one, of course, is finances. And really finances, it's all about doing the right things. It's like you make your money, you always want to pull some aside. There's bread and seed. Bread is what you got to live on. That's your housing, your food, your vehicles, the things the necessities, the things that you have to have. That's your bread. The seed, that's your investments. If you don't ever plant any seeds, you'll never have a harvest. Most people are eating their seed. They're buying things they shouldn't be buying. So the thing is, when you're making money, always pull percentage to the side and build it up. And I use life insurance to cash values the way we build these systems. It's a little different than traditionally. There's a little secret to that. But once you're doing that, you're putting that into that cash value. That's your emergency fund. That's your go-to fund. If a tire blows, you're like, oh my gosh, I don't have any money. You got money. It's right there. Just grab it. And then it's also, that's your borrow from fund. And I literally, I use it. So I have that money in the cash value. It never leaves me. If it's in a check-in account, you go write a check, the money's gone forever. Never to come back. In my life insurance, it never leaves. It's always making money for me. I can just borrow against that to go buy a vehicle or buy into real estate. And then you can actually make it work more than once. So like I've got real estate deals. We refinanced, got the money back, went and go into another real estate deal. So in that short example, I've got money working three times, same dollars in three different vehicles. It's in the cash value. It's in property number one. now it's in property number two. You can do that with all kinds of stuff. And that's one of the secrets of the wealthy is they create these assets, but they really don't sell them and create a tax issue. You just borrow against them. That is awesome. Hey, first of all, I want to say thank you. And I want to say thank you to our guest for showing up because there's a lot of places that you can be. Marlon Mueller has become a really good friend of mine and he's amazed me, amazes me with his, I love the four F's because I think that that is a, that's an operating system that obviously can work for everybody that's out here. Our industry is just an incredible industry. The trades are a great place to be. The wholesaler side of it is mostly built by families and there's a lot of things going on there, but the family farm and what you've done, there's what you've been able to do with all of that is really, we got to say thank you to you. And thank you for sharing this wisdom with us on our first podcast, by the way, Blue Collar Smart Built Different. And when I think of Marlon Mueller, I look at him as blue collar smart and built different. So just want to say thanks, Marlon. We'll have some more conversations with this and just really more than anything else. Thanks for the friendship. Every great trade organization was built by someone who chose people over price. Blue Collar Smart exists for that leader. If you found value here, subscribe and share this with the operator who's ready for the next level. Built different. Trades proven. Hugh Hornsby, voice of the trades. you