2449 - A Thoughtful Entrepreneur’s Guide to Financial Planning, Investing, and Living Abundantly with COE Financial Group's Chad Coe

0:04Welcome to the Thoughtful Entrepreneur. If you're committed to growing your business by serving audiences with generosity and real expertise, you're in the right place. This is a daily 15-minute show featuring leaders who believe real impact comes from generosity, not hype, which means as a listener, you're going to get the good stuff. In fact, we created podverified.com to give thoughtful leaders like you free tools to show up better on podcast stages like this one. That includes your free podverified score, free podverified guest training, a free media kit builder, and so much more. It's the first ecosystem of its kind built by podcasters who genuinely want to help guests thrive and grow in podcasting.

0:47Visit podverified.com if you'd like to be featured as a future guest. I'm Josh Elledge. Let's get into it. With us right now, Chad Coe. Chad, you are the founder and owner of Coe Financial Group. You're found on the web at coefinancial.com. That's C-O-E financial.com. Chad, it's great to have you. Thanks for being here, Josh, and allowing me to be able to be part of the Podverified podcast. Thank you. Oh, yeah. Well, we actually call it the thoughtful entrepreneur. And that is you, my friend. But before we talk about the work that you do and who you serve, you know, always love hearing what, you know, what leaders are doing for fun when they're not at work.

1:31And we were kind of talking and you're a fellow pickleballer. Tell me about and you're up in the Chicagoland area. Do you during the winters, you know, during the inclement months, do you do you also play indoors or where do you get most of your pickleball time? No, we play indoors. It's the rage. We all love it. I have a group of friends that play two, three, four times a week, and we can't get enough of it. So I would consider myself an A-, B-plus pickleball player, and we're just out there sweating and doing and pushing pretty hard. But I definitely like it a lot, and I play pretty hard. And one thing about me is I like to win.

2:09All right. So for someone who's never played, you know, and you could tell, you know, when someone's like me goes out on the court because I'm running all over the place. And so that's one clue, you know, that an experienced pickleball player, you know, I took I did take some lessons. And so I kind of learned some basic strategy. But if you were to share maybe like one or two tips to a beginning pickleball player that might help them improve their game, what would you recommend? Well, number one, it's funny because my wife gets mad at me because I keep my left hand in my pocket. Because for most of the time, I'm playing with people where it's boring.

2:44But here's the bottom line, right? You have the racket out in front of you. And you look and see where the ball is going. And you see the direction upon which people are standing on the other side of the court. And then they step in and you can see where their shoulders are and where they're looking at. And that's where the ball is going. So if the hands are out and it's just a quick flicker when you're at the kitchen line, you could get back pretty much anything right high low up down and then when you're behind the ball it's just about coming over the ball giving it some top spin or knowing how to slice and come through the ball so when you slice it's not down when you slice it's coming through the ball right yeah and giving it enough clearance to go over the net of about a foot or a foot and a half and it's really a game changer.

3:29Wow. Yes. So that's, you know, I'm not nearly at that level where you're really watching your opponent and seeing how they're squaring up and how they're getting ready to hit it. But I would imagine after you do it a thousand times, you know exactly where that ball is going to go. Yeah. So the other thing you're going to think about is people have a tendency to serve in the same place and people have, when they're better, they have a shot that they do, whether it's a cross angle or a lob or something that they do. They have a tendency to do it often and repetitive. So once you know their game and where they hit it and what they do, you could actually react ahead of time and know where the ball's going before they hit it.

4:13A little bit of poker playing going on. I like it. A little bit. I play tennis as well, and it's the same thing in tennis. Ah, very cool. Chad, I appreciate that. Thank you so much. I always, listen, And if I guess if I had a separate podcast where we talked nothing about, you know, talk about pickleball, I would enjoy it because I feel like I would learn a lot. So, all right. I'm going to try your tips next time I go out and play. Chad, yeah. Tell me about the work that you do with Co-Financial Group. Who do you serve and what do you do? Look, at the end of the day, I serve those people that want retirement planning and want to be able to retire and stay comfortably retired.

4:47But a bigger, like as a servant's heart and somebody that's a thoughtful entrepreneur, my goal is to be a connector that helps other people get what they want. So I love the idea that I can interact with people who have money, looking for help or guidance when it comes to the money, but someone that could also help them find their way, whether it comes to confidence, whether it comes to getting new business, finding opportunities, or even in some cases, is just helping people's kids find their next opportunity or job. So, well, in your world, too, I'm wondering if you could kind of catch us up for, you know, for those who have not been paying attention to some of the top line, you know, headlines or trends going on in your world.

5:34I mean, we're recording this. I mean, you know, there's a lot, I don't say volatility, but there's, there's a lot of movement going on. There's a lot of things going on, you know, might feel unstable at times. But, you know, what are you advising to your clients? You know, here we are kind of, again, in the middle of 2026. Well, I advise clients, and it's a rule that's going to be the same thing in 2030, 40 and 50. You can't listen to the noise. Don't watch the news. Companies are greedy. Earnings is what drive stock price. Politics are policy, and that could move the markets a little bit based upon government policy.

6:17But when it comes to companies and stocks, it's based upon earnings and future growth. And if we believe that companies are going to continue to be greedy and companies are going to continue to grow, then over time, a good diversified portfolio is the answer. But honestly, people are getting so caught up with the news, whether it's on their phone or TV or wherever, that it's just creating a scary environment for a lot of people, which is why they hire someone like me or any other advisor. It's to be able to help them stay calm, stay focused, stay diversified and make smart decisions about their money.

6:53Why is it that general, so tell me more about why, and I know this sounds like a really elementary thing that we're talking about, but why is that good advice when we're surrounded with scary headlines, panic, you know, this is going, oh, now this week it's different, you know, why is, you know, first off, and I'll tell you, it probably makes sense to work with someone like you, so we're not making such knee-jerk reactions, because, you know, everything that you hear, you know, whether it's, you know, someone trying to make headlines or, you know, it's, you know, the financial reporters themselves, you know, trying to keep eyes on, you know, their content or whatever.

7:32There's a lot that can really cause people to panic or make rash decisions. So let's just think about this. It doesn't matter if my thoughts are good or bad, but here's the deal. If you have$100 ,000 and it's under your mattress, how much is that$100 ,000 in 10 years if you don't spend it. Whatever it's worth relative to where inflation has gone, I would imagine. But yeah, it's still$100 ,000, whatever$100 ,000 happens to be worth. So are we willing to risk, based upon historical performance, to have future growth so that if you leave your money alone, diversified and invested, that$100 ,000 has the ability to become$125 ,000, $150 ,000 or$200 ,000.

8:20Now, when you're retired, are you better off having$200 ,000 or$100 ,000? I'll take the two. So this is the conversations you could have with people finding out and listening to what their risk tolerance is. And then if they want cash in the bank and they put under the mattress, that's one way to invest, or at least not to lose your money. Because people are afraid of losing their money. They're afraid of losing their money. They're afraid of public speaking and they're afraid of dying. So my goal is to just help meet people where they're at and give them ideas that maybe they've never thought about to have future growth and future opportunities.

8:58And tell me, do you work with many business owners then as well? And if so, I don't know if your advice changes at all or if there are any other sensitivities that a business founder owner might have relative to long-term planning? So when it comes to caring about other people, I have an entrepreneurial dinner where I have 25 different entrepreneurs come where I get to work with them. Some of them are clients and some of them are just people that we're having a dinner with and having conversation around. At the end of the day, your values and your goals, you have to know what they are. What do you care about?

9:38What's important about money to you? and what are your goals that take time and money to achieve. Then you create a plan, a financial plan, a business plan, a life plan around what it is that you care about. And then that's what I help with. It doesn't matter if you have a business. It doesn't matter if you're a stockholder of a public company. It doesn't matter if you're just someone that has a job with a 401k. The bottom line is where do you want to be when you retire and then what are the steps you're going to take to be able to get there? And so there's obviously a lot of great advisors out there, and there's probably also some bad ones.

10:17What would you recommend? So how do you recommend, Chad, if someone's like, listen, sorry, Chad, for whatever reason in this hypothetical, I cannot work with you. I don't know, whatever the reason is, but I have to find someone. What advice would you give them to help identify a great advisor versus someone you're like, you might not think highly of? Well, I had someone in my office today that had a sophisticated money plan, right? So they come from another country. They're sitting with me. They've done well. They have real estate. their investments, and they're interviewing four other financial advisors.

10:58And personally, I'm not worried about any of the four that they're meeting with because they're not me. I come with my own unique brand. I've written four books. I understand real estate. I understand investing. And I'm patient to be able to sit with them and to be able to give them guidance that they're ready to hear. So if it's not going to be me, I just recommend an independent firm that has a fiduciary as an advisor who understands both investing from the public markets, the stock market, and real estate, and maybe some alternative investments that they might be aware of and know of. But I love the idea that you're not being told by one of these major institutions how to invest and where to put your money and being told what to do.

11:40Because what I found when I started at the wire houses, or the banks even, is that it's all about them. It's what they want. It's how they want it. And then they charge fees that are either about them or they're hidden fees that people don't know that they're paying. So I try to be as transparent as possible. But I love the idea of independent advisors who sell from the heart. Chad, I also want to point out that you are a speaker. Did you mind maybe just sharing a little bit about your work on that front? And I know you've got a book, The Power of People-tizing. Tell me about your work there. And by the way, your website for that is chadcospeaker.com.

12:25Beautiful. And I'm also an auctioneer for charities where I've raised millions of dollars standing in front of 500 people asking for$1 ,000 now,$2 ,000. Who would have been a$2 ,000 now,$3 ,000? Wait, wait, wait, wait. No, no, no. Keep going. Let's hear the auctioneer voice. Well, I have$1 ,000 over here now,$2 ,000. Who would have been a$2 ,000? Would have been a$2 ,000? Could have been a$2 ,000. Now$3 ,000. Now$3 ,000. Now$3 ,000. Now$3 ,000. Now$4 ,000. thousand over here now. Who'd have been a five? Who'd have been a five? Could have been a five. I won five. Five thousand of the room over here now.

12:48Six. I have six thousand right now. Seven. Who'd have been a seven now? Could have been a seven now. I got seven. Seven over here now. Eight. Yeah. I'm feeling my hand want to raise so I can be a part of that momentum and that action. I have a really great story. That's the voice. Yeah. So if you ever heard of the band Train, I was on a cruise with them with Pat Monahan and they were doing a wine, a wine tasting. And I got up and I said, you're giving some money to charity. Let me do an auction. So on their Instagram page, we sold four bottles of wine for$16 ,000. Oh, wow. And I did that impromptu.

13:19So the bottom line is when I'm speaking, it's really about life lessons to be able to live your most abundant life personally, professionally, and financially. It's about being able to remove your roadblocks and to be able to have fun by doing everything that you do on purpose, using your calendar to create the free time to play pickleball, tennis, golf, or travel. And it's about knowing and being conscious as you go through life to what it is that you want. So when I'm out there speaking, I speak on these topics. I could speak on financial topics. And I speak to large organizations and small ones based upon what it is that they need for the audience they have.

13:57I also can do a workshop because I have this Abundant Life experience, Abundant Life Roadmap I go through, where we talk about your values, your goals, your gap analysis, and then your SWOT analysis based upon future thinking. So Josh, looking out three years, what has to happen so you feel happy with the progress of your podcast? And with future thinking, people really love that and it creates a deeper relationship and trust. I love it. Chad, I know that you also have a YouTube channel. You interview and talk to great folks. So that is all linked up from your website at both CoFinancial and ChadCoSpeaker.com.

14:40Tell me about the podcast that you've got. Well, I do two different podcasts. One, my wife of almost 10 years has always said to me, I'd love to do a podcast with you. We have voices that people want to hear. So if you go to The Chill Experience on YouTube, her and I do a podcast where we sit there for 30 minutes and just rapport about what's going on in our life and her life lessons that she wants to share with people. So we have a lot of fun with that. We just committed to another six months and it's working. It's a nice 30-minute show where I'll ask her questions or she'll ask me questions and we just put our thoughts out there.

15:16The other podcast. What was the name of that again? The Chill Experience. The Chill Experience. Yeah, and you can see the logo. We have about 12 shows up, and it's working. It's something that we both enjoy doing, and we committed to it, and we're doing it. Did you find it? I did. I'm finding a lot. My algorithm is going to be filled without chill out stuff and chill music right now. But I'll find it. We'll get it all linked up to our friend that's listening to our show right now. It's The Chill Experience, and it's on YouTube. The second thing I do is the co-financial group, which is Leadership Insights.

15:52And what I'm doing there is I'm just finding the very best people that I have in my network that could share their mindset and what they do to be able to come great at what they do and what they have. So I'm talking to people that have created businesses, built businesses, sold businesses. I'm talking to Olympians. I just had an interview with Justin Gatlin, who won the gold medal for the 100 meter. John Coyle, a speed skater, won the silver medal. I'm going to be interviewing and talking to Jason Dunn, who runs 100-mile ultra marathons. But on the business side, you know, everyone has a story.

16:26So this one person I was talking to, he's been stabbed. He's been shot at. He lived in a whorehouse. He's been in drug houses. He overcame all that to be able to buy and sell companies that valued at over$500 million. So we all have histories. And what I try to do is encourage people to stop listening to their history and start looking at what they could do going forward and know that life's a journey. And we just want to be able to enjoy the journey at where you're at. So even myself, I grew up in special ed through third grade. Believe it or not, my third grade class was three children, three kids, teacher, cattle prod, padded walls and no desks.

17:06Going into fourth grade, I broke my femur in half. and what I overcame is that I was in remedial up through high school and but I figured out a way to graduate from the business school at UIC with both a finance and marketing degree. So even though I have a history and I use it in my story so I'm not a braggadocious, I use it to be able to learn the steps I need to do to get where I need to go and it's one step at a time. It's not like I'm taking leaps and bounds. So as I sit here today with a successful life and everything I've done is what I manifested and what I create, we all have a history.

17:43And nobody would probably want to trade places with me when I was at this school with no desk and padded walls. Trust me, it was pretty crazy. But it gave me the energy and the foresight to know I didn't want to be there. And the way to get out of there was to try hard, work hard and play hard. Love it. All right. So, Chad, our friend that's listening right now, obviously you've got your two websites, chadcospeaker.com and cofinancial.com. Where would you recommend that our friends go from here if they want to connect with you or if you have any resources that you'd recommend? Certainly a lot of the content you're creating sounds great.

18:23If you go to chad, if you go to cofinancial.com, they could download my new free book, which is Your Financial Dreamhouse. So they could create an abundant life through reading your financial dream house. If they email me at chad at cofinancial.com, I'm going to respond. And on LinkedIn, I connect to everybody whose name I could pronounce. And I'm more than happy to be supportive and help anyone that's listening to your show, Josh. Excellent. Chad Coe with Coe Financial Group. Chad, it's been a great conversation. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you as well for the pickleball tips. You bet.

18:58Thank you so much, Josh.

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