Transcription
You don't own what you can't control. I want you to meet someone who proved that. Dr. Ward Kennard here in Plano, Texas. This man has been practicing medicine as a medical doctor, as a surgeon since 1991, 35 years. 35 years which includes medical school, residency, building a practice, showing up for patients day after day after day.
At the top of his profession, at the peak of his career, recently the health care insurance companies decided to reimburse him 70% less than what they used to pay him for certain medical procedures. 70% after 35 years. No vote, no warning, no negotiation, and he still has to maintain his staff. He still has to meet medical standards. He still has to keep the doors open. All the obligation, but none of the control.
So, I asked him a question. We're hanging out at the Cowboys Club. I said, "Doc, do your peers, other surgeons, ever talk to one another about money and retirement?" Check this out. One of the things we learn the least amount about is the business of medicine. You don't learn any of that when you're in med school. I would guess not. Yeah. You don't learn about retirement. You don't learn about life insurance. You see what he said? He said we don't. 35 years in medicine, and nobody in his circle, not one peer, had the courage to have the conversation. Not once.
Now, Dr. Kennard didn't fail. He didn't make bad decisions. He didn't lack discipline or work ethic or intelligence. He did everything right by every standard his profession taught him. But his profession never taught him ownership and financial management. And the moment someone else decided to change the rules, boom. He has no floor. If you feel that way about your own career, drop "own" in the comment section below. Because what you're about to learn is the law that changes that for good. How? Let's get started. 3, 2, 1, Let's go.
What's cracking everybody? My name's Smart Guy Matt Sappol here, hailing to you from Dallas, Texas, and welcome to the Seven Figure Squad YouTube channel. And this channel is for people who want financial control. Control over the money, their decisions, their future. Faith-based and real-world proven through this channel. So, if that's you, welcome home.
Now, this is episode six of God's Economic Code. Now, let me catch you up fast. Episode one, we talked about order. Episode two, we talked about capacity. Episode three, we talked about freedom. Episode four, structure. Episode five, multiplication. We talked about five laws, five episodes under one system. And today, episode six, the sixth part of God's Code, called ownership. Because here's what nobody tells you. Multiplication without ownership is just somebody else getting richer.
And right now, somebody watching this is working harder than they've ever worked, especially during these tough economic times, pulling in hours, putting in extra effort, serving clients, hitting the numbers. And everything they're building, hmm, belongs to somebody else. The employer owns the income, the bank owns the home, the schedule owns the time, and they wonder, "Why don't I feel free?" Because freedom and ownership are the same word. You cannot have one without the other. Drop "trapped" if you feel trapped right now in your current situation. Hey, I've been there for 12 years, and I know exactly what it feels like.
In Genesis 1:28, God's first economic instruction to man is, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion." Read that again. Have dominion. Not just go find a job. Not work hard and hope somebody rewards you for it. Not build something for 35 years and let someone else, in this case a health care insurance company, decide what that procedure is worth. What you're worth. Have dominion. Authority. Stewardship. Governance. Control. This was God's original design for man. Not dependency. Ownership.
The word dominion in Hebrew, *radah*, means to rule, to govern, to have command over. God didn't create man to be managed. He created man to manage. And somewhere between the Garden of Eden and the modern economy, most people forgot that. They traded dominion for a paycheck, authority for a salary, ownership for employment. And then call it success. If you feel that way, please drop the word "dominion" in the comment section below.
Here's the gap that very few people talk about. Most people confuse earning with owning. They are not the same thing. Earning means someone pays you for your time. Owning means something pays you whether you show up or not. Let me show you the three things that most people are renting instead of owning.
Number one, their income. Salary is permission-based income. Someone else decides what you make. Someone else decides when you start. Someone else decides when it stops. You see, Dr. Kennard didn't decide the reimbursement rate. Insurance companies did. He earned for 35 years, and they owned the rate. And the moment they changed it, his income changed with it as well. See, that's not ownership. That's dependency with a medical degree.
Number two, their time. Employment is a time for money exchange. You trade hours, they set the rate. Now, here's the thing. You never own the hour, you just sell it. And once it's sold, bam, it's gone. Can never get it back. You cannot resell it. You cannot multiply it. Selling your time, your hours, your minutes, your life is the most expensive asset most people never ever think about.
Number three, their skill. Most people spend their entire career developing skills that serve their employer. Not skills that serve their own platform or platform that can connect to an employer's platform. Collaboration. When the employer no longer needs them, the skill has no home. The skill was never theirs. It was always in service of someone else's mission. So, if you feel that way, drop "renting," as in renting your income, renting your cash flow, in the comment section below.
Now, let me share you something that I've never broken down this clearly before. When I left the United States Marine Corps, I thought I was stepping into freedom. No more government institution, no more military, no more following somebody else's orders, no more career that belonged to the United States Marine Corps. I was going to build something that was mine. So, I became an independent sole insurance producer. Top contracts, top commission levels couldn't bring me down. And here's what made it feel like ownership. The insurance companies were paying me 130%, 140% commission levels, the top in the industry. Top contracts and highest available to anyone out there couldn't get me to move 'cause I was at the top. Nobody was getting paid more per policy than me, and very few others in the country were earning it. And I thought, "Bam, I owned it. I've arrived. I had the best rates, the commission level. I had the clients. I had the production numbers to earn that and keep that, sustain that." And from the outside, it looked like a business. But from the inside, man, it was a trap.
And here's what the business actually looked like every single month. Let me break it down. Direct mail campaigns to five different zip codes. Still remember them. 6154, 61525, 61524. Anyway, let me continue. Let me not digress. About my five zip codes. Because that's what it took to get 50 to 75 people into a dinner seminar after mailing out 5,000 pieces of direct mail. Junk mail. Then, I had to feed them. And then when they got there, I had to present to them. And hope that 15 to 20% would set up a follow-up meeting. Now, do the math. 50 people in the room, maybe 10 to 15 agree to a follow-up. Now, hopefully I get to close five of them in the next 30 days. Why? Because the next month, the direct mail needed to be sent out again before I made back the money I spent on the last campaign. And I had to do that every single month. Reset, repeat, pray. I didn't own a business. I owned a job. Guess who got paid before I did? The mail house got paid. The restaurant and the service staff got paid. The print house got paid. The post office got paid. Everyone got paid before I created a single result for myself as a single father raising three kids.
And here's the part that made it feel kind of real. I justified it with the commission rate. I'm getting 130% commission for every sale. I'm getting 140% for every sale. Nobody's getting paid more than me. But here's the truth I finally had to confront. High commission does not equal ownership. 130%, 140% sounds powerful. But if the income stops the moment you stop working, there's no system running without you. There's no team producing beside you. If there's no residual that outlasts your effort, then the commission percentage is just a prettier cage. You're just still trading time for money, just at a higher rate. And I confused the rate and my commission level with the reality. I was getting paid well per transaction, but I was still dependent on the next transaction. And that's not ownership. It's a high-paid job with no benefits and no floor. And the same trap as Dr. Kennard. Different industry, same type of relative cage. If you feel like you're lying in a cage, drop "cage" in the comment section below.
So, here's the question I finally asked myself. What do I actually own here? Not the income. It stopped the moment I stopped mailing. Not the time, 'cause every hour consumed by the cycle for follow-up, underwriting. I didn't own the clients. They came from a campaign, not a relationship-building type of culture. Not even the commission rate, because the company said that, and if the company said that, the company can change it too, just like the health care insurance companies changed Dr. Kenner's life. I owned nothing. I was renting a business and called it ownership. And that's when, when I realized, I looked at my 10 years, 12 years, I asked myself, things shifted because I asked myself one question: Is this what the next 10 years of my life is going to look like?
So instead of more direct mail, I invested in people. Instead of more radio and TV ads, I built systems that help create leaders that worked in my firm. Because here's what I learned: direct mail doesn't multiply, cold calling doesn't multiply, people do. And a campaign produces clients, but a leader produces other leaders. And leaders create income that doesn't stop when you stop. And that is ownership. That's dominion, as Genesis 1:28 in real time, not over a campaign, over a movement.
Now let me give you some practicality. And here's the framework. There's three levels of ownership, and everyone matters. They build in sequence. Level one: Skill ownership. Own a skill the marketplace will pay you for, not a job skill, a marketplace skill, such as sales, such as leadership, such as problem-solving and negotiation, such as communication. Because when your skill belongs to you, not to an employer, and moves with you, it compounds with you, it can never be taken away from you. Colossians chapter 3 verse 23, one of my favorite verses, says, "Whatever you do, work at it all with all your heart, as working for or working on to the Lord." I'm seeing that's an ownership type of mentality, not working for a paycheck, working to build something that belongs to you as if God is watching you right now.
Level two: Income ownership. Build income streams that you control. Commission, residual, equity, royalties. By the way, we're going to talk about the Michael Jackson movie right now. Guess what the Jackson family probably wanted to get done? A movie. Why? They want to monetize Michael Jackson's life. And therein lies royalties, long-term equity, and monetizing the music catalog that Michael Jackson bought with the Bad album, with the Sony BMG record label, ownership of buying the Beatles royalties. That's income that doesn't stop when you stop. Income that runs when you sleep, it runs when you travel, while you build the next thing. So when I shifted from solo producer to building and scaling into a team, my income stopped being transaction dependent. It became leadership dependent. I have so much more fun with that, and leadership compounds in a way that transactions never will. Which leads me to number three: Asset ownership. Own things that produce without you. Businesses, policies, brokerage accounts, real estate, potential for a rate of return, compounding intellectual property, systems that run independent of you, compound leadership, builds compound income. You see, this is where generational wealth begins, not in what you earn, but in what you own that earns after you're gone. Proverbs chapter 13 verse 22 says, "A good man leaves an inheritance for his children's children." That is not a savings account. That's asset ownership compounding across generations. Before I continue, drop what level of ownership that you have. Is it one, skill? Number two, income? Or number three, is it asset?
So let me bring it back to Dr. Kenner. And here's what is very remarkable about this man. After 35 years into his career, after everything he's built, he didn't quit. He didn't complain. He didn't accept the new reality as his permanent one. He sat across from me after the introduction from his son Chris and asked the right question: "How do I take control of something that's actually mine?" And that question right there is the beginning of ownership. Because ownership doesn't start with assets, it starts with a decision. And that decision to stop letting someone or something else set the terms of your financial life. And Dr. Kenner is making that decision at 35 years in. It's not too late for him, and it's not too late for you.
So let me connect the full arc here one last time. Episode one, we talked about order, the sequence that prepares the ground. Number two, we talked about capacity, the ability to carry the increase. Number three, episode three talked about freedom, the responsibility that comes with it. We talked about structure in episode number four, the foundation that holds it all. And number five, last, we talked about multiplication, the output when all four are operating. And this episode is a protection of everything you've built. Because here's the real truth: You can have order, you can have capacity, you can have freedom, you can have structure, you can multiply everything in your hand, but if you don't own it, someone else will decide what it's worth.
See, God didn't design you for that. He designed you to have dominion. Let me ask you the question Dr. Kenner is sitting with right now: What do I actually own? Not what you earn, not what you manage, not what you're responsible for, but what do you own? Take that financial inventory. Because here's what 26 years of me doing this in this insurance industry and retirement planning industry has taught me: high income without ownership is just a comfortable trap. And quick side note, I had an interview here with Greg Hardy, all-time sack leader of the Carolina Panthers, and he just told me right now in this interview that it's a very steep drop-off when you leave the NFL. You see, you don't own, just like many of you, like Greg Hardy, he didn't own his NFL career.
You see, back to my personal story, and maybe some of you: high commission rate without a system is just a prettier cage. A 35-year career without control is just a long sentence with a good salary. You don't own what you can't control, and Dr. Kenner proved it. I proved it for 12 years, realized the cage that I was in. And if you're honest with yourself, you know exactly what I'm talking about.
God's first instruction was not to have employment. It was to have dominion. And dominion is still available to you right now today. And if you're watching this and you feel it, that stirring, that feeling in your stomach, that that tension, that quiet voice saying, "I was built for more than this. I was built for more than what my life is giving to me right now." If you feel that, drop "movement" in the comment section below. And don't do it for me, do it for you. Because the shift I made after 12 years of me being a solo producer, that shift that Dr. Kenner is making right now, is available to you. But it starts with one decision: stop renting your life and start owning it. If that's you, again, drop "movement" in the comment section below. If you want more details, let's go.
Now, if this series is building something in you, please consider subscribing to this channel. Hit notification to be alerted next time we upload our next episode. Smash that like button and drop your biggest takeaway in the comment section below. I read every single one, as you can see in the episodes in the past, I replied to as well.
Now, in episode seven, we will talk about discipline. What? Yes, because here's the hard truth: blessing without discipline creates destruction. And that episode will show you exactly why most people can't keep what God gives them. You don't want to miss it. That being said, guys, from Dallas, Texas, I'm the Money Smart Guy. Thanks for joining us. Until we meet again, continue to live smart, continue to live smart and be money smart today.