Jeff Rose | Alliance Wealth Management LLC CEO, GoodFinancialCents.com Founder and Soldier of Finance Author | High Speed Low Drag Podcast


jeff roseJeff Rose
is a certified financial planner and Iraqi combat veteran.

He is also the CEO of Alliance Wealth Management LLC, the founder of GoodFinancialCents.com?and author of Soldier of Finance.

HSLD: Besides the little background that we?ve give about you, could you tell us a little more about yourself?

Jeff: I?ve been a financial planner for a decade now. I love what I do.

About 6 years ago, I discovered what a blog was and launched GoodFinancialCents.com. Since then, the practice and the blog have basically been my babies.

Those two things allowed me to land a book deal along with so many other opportunities. I just love the online realm- the people you can meet and it has just been a blast seeing that success grow!

HSLD: Let?s start with your success quote. What is it?

Jeff: I have so many quotes that I love but for this success quote I am going to go with scripture:

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you ? Matthew 6:33?

I chose this quote because there have been times in my entrepreneurial journey where I was so focused on the money that I forgot about the things that were important to me- the people, my family, my friends, Jesus.

Once I finally made the distinction and decided to really serve Him and those around me then all these things were finally added to me. My wife and I are so much stronger. My family is stronger. My friendships are closer. Everything is better because I have made this my priority.

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HSLD: Let?s focus on your military experience. Tell us a story of your most pivotal moment in the US army and share with us some of the lessons you learned.

Jeff: For me it was all about joining. I was a college dropout as was my father. He went back to get his degree when he was in his 50s and he always wanted me to follow the same path- to be better.

Sure enough after high school, I dropped out of college and started working a data entry job. My mom got me. I was really doing date entry 8 hours a day and I was just miserable and hating life.

My mom and I just always got into it and I realized we were too much alike to live together. It was then that I decided to do something for myself.

A few of my buddies had joined the National Guard and so I decided to do it too. I called a recruiter, initially thinking it was just going to be a weekend thing. I was not ready to do it!

A few months later nothing had still changed so I made up my mind to just do it! I joined the National Guard Infantrymen and did that route.

This was literally one of the best things I had done in my life. It changed me- made me a more disciplined individual and a go-getter.

soldier-of-finance-banner
HSLD: What was the biggest lesson that you learned from that moment in your life??

Jeff: I think the biggest thing that I took out of that was that only ?I? could make that happen. I was the one that had to take action. I had to be the one to call the recruiter. I had to be the one to sign the dotted line.

That wasn?t my parents. That wasn?t my friends. That was me taking action for myself.

If I didn?t take that action I would still be doing data entry or some stupid day job that I absolutely hated.

The lesson is you have to take initiative and take action before things are going to change.

HSLD: Let?s focus on your transition out and the failures, challenges and lessons you got from it.

Jeff: I was in the national guard for almost 6 years. I was in there for 3 and then re-enlisted for another 3. The second time I re-enlisted that was when I got deployed.

I was deployed to Iraq from January ?05 to April ?06.

To think about transition, I was already financial advisor for 2 years and had to transition back when I was deployed and that was tough!

It was tough getting back into being a financial advisor- putting on a shirt and tie, sitting in an office and all of that.

Professionally it was a struggle and it was personally too. One of the hardest transitions was with my relationship with my wife. It was hard to remember who I was before I left.

It was a rough 3 to 6 months. We had to go through counseling and all of that .

HSLD: What was that first civilian step that you took?

Jeff: Luckily I stumbled into becoming a financial advisor. I had an internship and just realized I enjoyed doing it and was enjoying it.

Having the military background really helped me with it because it showed that I had initiative and discipline.

I also live in the mid-west- very partial to veterans. Being a veteran was something I was very proud of so I want people to know that.

Having that has certainly helped me in the eyes of lots of people. People would thank me for my service and I sort of deflected it the first few years but now I appreciate the fact that people appreciate what I did.

HSLD: Can you share with us an AHA moment that you have had that has really spurred you on?

jpegJeff: I started my blog in 2008 and didn?t really know what I was doing. One of the earliest successes I had with it was that I was contacted by CNBC to potentially be in a TV show.

Now I tell you that this show never amounted to anything. I had to pay for the ticket on my end to get out there so I was out 600 bucks but the AHA moment in that experience was that I was meeting with one of the executive producers in his office in New Jersey.

Now I am Jeff Rose a financial planner from Illinois from a little farm town. It was a wonder to me why I was in New Jersey. I was with people with really amazing backgrounds but the producer turned to me and said to think about my background.

She told me that I should have a book that would tell soldiers how and what to invest in. Right when she said that, I swear that this light bulb went off in my head! At the point in time I had no sleep as it was an early flight but I swear the adrenaline just rushed right through me and I asked myself why I had not thought of that before.

When I got home I immediately went to Barnes and Noble to look through the bookshelves to see if there was any book like that. I went to Amazon and also couldn?t find anything.

That?s what started it. A few weeks later the title- Soldier of Finance– finally came to me!

So that trip amounted to nothing other than getting the book idea which is now a book deal and the rest is history.

HSLD: What is one thing that has you most fired up about your business today?

Jeff: The thing that has me most excited is that the success of my business has allowed me to pursue other things.

My wife and I have a joint blog together called dollarsandroses.com and it used to be a make money kind of blog. We did that for three years and just realized that that wasn?t our thing.

We always get questions about our marriage, our kids, our family. So we decided to take a pivot and turn that blog into a marriage design blog.

Our passion now is helping couples make their marriage more- to keep that spark there and just help couples not get divorced. We talk about how to effectively communicate with your partner and how to use products like True Pheromones to keep your relationship exciting. I know it seems very far from what we do but when I think about the things that excite me it really is this because this is us able to give back on just a lot of life experiences that we’ve had. We also help teach couples that fell out of love on how to decide if divorce is right for them.

Making Your Marriage More

Jeff?s Lighting Round Answers?

  • What is the most difficult adjustment you had to make to the civilian world? 1 thing- Adjusting back with my wife and just general living with her.
  • What is the best business advice that you can pass along to people that are making their transition now? Don?t be afraid to fail. I?d rather fail trying than not having tried at all.
  • What is one of your habits that you believe contribute to your success? I think the one habit that I have is I have established this ?high five?. I write down 5 things I need to accomplish the next day every night. When I wake up, I know exactly the 5 things that I need to accomplish for that given day.
  • What is the biggest generalization that you had to overcome in the civilian world? People think I?m supposed to be a morning person because I come from the military.
  • If you can recommend one book what would it be? Essentialism by Greg McKeown.
  • What?s the best way that we can find you? And one last parting piece of guidance. Take it from me- I was clueless when I started. There is so much learning along the way. It?s all about taking that first step and not letting failure hit you.

The main blog is GoodFinancialCents.com. The book is called Soldier of Finance and if you have a spouse and want to work on that connection, you can check out my wife and my blog?DollarsAndRoses.com