IAM 324 – Entrepreneur Helps People to Solve Financial Problems

Chris is the Founder of Lionshare Partners, a trusted financial planning firm. He draws on a decade of multidisciplinary experience to help high-net-worth individuals and small business owners solve their financial challenges. Prior to founding Lionshare, Chris helped manage over 300 million dollars of individual and institutional assets and held senior roles at multiple globally-recognized investment firms.

An entrepreneur, speaker, and media personality, Chris has been featured in several news outlets such as CNN, Huffington Post, Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. He is currently a Board Member of the non-profit organization, Strive LA, a mini-campus for Los Angeles inner-city youth. He also serves as a market analyst for the iHeart Radio podcast, “City Watch on the Air.”

• CEO Hack: Feedly and Buffer
• CEO Nugget: Remove toxic relationships early on and replace them with relationships that will help you grow
• CEO Defined: Personal IP

Website: http://www.chrisojackson.com

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Transcription

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INTRO 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long interview?

If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of.

This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:30

Hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Chris Jackson, of Lionshare Partners.

Chris, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Chris Jackson 0:40

Gresh, thanks for having me.

Gresham Harkless 0:42

No problem. Super excited to have you on. What I want to do is read a little bit more about Chris so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing.

Chris is the founder of Lionshare Partners, a trusted financial planning firm. He draws on a decade of multidisciplinary experience to help high-net-worth individuals and small business owners solve their financial challenges. Prior to founding Lionshare, Chris helped manage over $300 million of individual and institutional assets and held senior roles at multiple globally recognized investment firms

As an entrepreneur, speaker, and media personality, Chris has been featured in several news outlets such as CNN, Huffington Post, Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. He currently serves as a board member of the nonprofit Strive LA, a mini campus for Los Angeles inner city youth, he also serves as a market analyst for the I Heart Radio Podcast City Watch on the air.

Chris, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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Chris Jackson 1:38

I'm fired up and ready to go.

Gresham Harkless 1:40

Let's do it. So the first question I had was to hear a little bit more about what I call your CEO story and what led you to start your business?

Chris Jackson 1:47

Yeah, I mean, I've been in the personal finance field for about 10 years serving both sides on the sales and client acquisition side all the way to the client service and delivering the financial planning models. Over the last couple of years prior to launching my firm and in 2017, I didn't like the direction I saw it was going in. In the industry a lot of private equity firms were buying up investment management firms, moving the prices up, making it very tough for financial advisors to have a really healthy engaged conversation because it was too big to handle in a two-hour face-to-face meeting for a client. You move it down in a 30-minute virtual conversation, you really can't go in-depth and provide what you want to provide.

So that led me to look to alternatives in terms of what can I do with my own time with my own abilities and skill sets. And, you know, thankfully, there were organizations out there that were helpful in providing a launching, you know, my wealth management, firm Lionshare to the point where now I can serve my own book of business, I can be more flexible, and who I bring in one thing that's very tough in the wealth management firm is you can find a fantastic family could use your help.

But due to some impossible hurdle, or some hard hurdle, like they must have a million dollars invested with you, you end up taking no and turning down some pretty good clients. And you end up accepting some clients that just chasing you know, in return, they're not really trying to engage with you on a personal level, they're trying to almost hope that they can roll the dice with you like a casino and get a big payout based on market returns.

Gresham Harkless 3:29

That makes perfect sense. And I definitely appreciate you for you know, starting your own, you know, organization, your company, because a lot of times you get to help out, which I think you sometimes forget, but you've been able to do that from a Lionshare standpoint, but also from a board member as well. You know, you really get the opportunity to make an impact.

Chris Jackson 3:46

Absolutely, I mean the one thing that's very important for me is you know, there's one that wasn't a lot of African Americans in our field, and bottom line, that's always been an issue in the finance industry in though there's been many programs and outreach programs and America and Wells Fargo all the launch minority woman based programs to get more representation. It's there's still a huge gap there you know, and what makes it different from typical for on African American side is that we don't have our own unified language you know, if you my appeal in Latin Americans and Asian Americans where they can consolidate into well I speak this language differ I have a stronghold on this community.

You know, for us, it's always been for African Americans always been in a lack of access to prudent financial literacy and education that has led some the huge inequality gap. So one thing I like to do with strive and what I'm working on right now with a director and writer, Christina Cooper is financial literacy program called Wikinomics, where we go into some of these underserved communities and talk to the school district and talk to some of you know, the high performing seniors that are graduating and say, hey, this is what you're learning in schools and I can learn in college but this is going to prove to be the building blocks for your success. If you want to be an entrepreneur, if you want to be kind of if you want to not go the college route,

Gresham Harkless 5:05

Absolutely. I definitely appreciate you for doing that. Because, and I never even, you know, thought about that too, you mentioned that but yes, definitely language in and of itself is definitely a you know, fire. So not having that unique language, I guess you can call it can be something that, you know, can be somewhat of a hurdle or something you just have to kind of deal with.

So I appreciate you for doing that. And, you know, starting those programs as well. And is there anything, I guess deeper that you can kind of touch you like if somebody is like a business owner individual is listening to this? And, you know, tell us a little bit more about how you're serving your clients and what you feel is your secret sauce, and it sets you apart.

Chris Jackson 5:39

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, what makes me separate is I have what I call retail, and I have a full-service solution. And the retail, what I'm looking to launch is it's called Cash Fit University. And there are a lot of do-it-yourselfers out there, who just want a little bit of nudge, a little bit of guidance, but they don't want to full-on relationship with me. But they want a place where they can find well source material, updated material on all kinds of different financial planning topics, you know, from college, plenty of tax planning, estate planning to insurance analysis.

And what I want this university to be is a place where people can pick up where the public schools should really be starting and provide that full, comprehensive financial planning education for themselves. And once you kind of get a sense of that basic education, then you start asking questions in terms of hey, do I really need to engage in financial planner? Do I even enjoy doing this? Do I have the time, the technology, and the discipline to do it myself? And from there, you can say, You know what, the retail gave me some insight, I really want the full service. And that's when you will engage with me on a one-on-one basis.

And for most clients that I deal with, there will be small business owners and retirees, and I will have a lot of attorneys and young professionals. And what I'm really trying to do is help them engage in terms of entry. Three basic questions, you know, where they are right now? What do they have? What are their incomes? What do they do, and where do they want to be in the future? And what are the tools and what are they willing to do to make those changes to make the future come to fruition?

And if we can't get a line on those three, and the first one really is not much alignment, it's just your balance sheet. But for the other two components, we can't align on that, then my job is to help you find someone that can be a good source for you on the financial planning side. Because not everyone's a good fit for me. And that's for most businesses. But the retail solution along with the the full service, that's kind of what sets me different is usually trying to find a way I can help you.

Gresham Harkless 7:33

Nice, I definitely appreciate that. And it seems like you know, in this way that businesses and I guess people really have dictated This is that, you know, a lot of times there's certain solutions that people want or they're looking for they know kind of maybe not necessarily know exactly what they're looking for. But they might have, like you mentioned the time to be able to do it, but they may not have the actual resources or knowledge to be able to do that. So being able to kind of fit into whatever mode somebody might have is definitely you know, a great example of a secret sauce, and appreciate you for sharing that with us.

Chris Jackson 8:05

Absolutely.

Gresham Harkless 8:06

No problem, and I wanted to switch gears a little bit. And I wanted to ask you about what I call a CEO hack. And this might be an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but it's something that makes you more effective and efficient.

Chris Jackson 8:17

Yeah, I have a couple but the one I like a lot is called Feedly. And that is a way for me to consolidate all the different media sources that that I'm interested in, whether it's real estate or economics, investment markets, or trade policies, and I can take what's important at the end current, and then go ahead and repurpose that through my social media channels. So I don't want to spend too much time fishing through what I want to talk about already have these filters preset, and they do a good job of just updating me on what I can push out. So I sent out about five articles a day, on my LinkedIn page on Facebook, and to have it already preset in terms of how I create that is important.

And then I use another app called Buffer where I can set out for the whole entire week, those 25-30 articles, so they're already kind of scheduled to go and that kind of does all of my outsourcing and all of my because again, my job is position myself as an expert. And to be kind of ahead of what's current, but also make sure I have enough content pushed out. Because you never know when someone's going to chime in on LinkedIn or Facebook or actually catch you on an article. So you gotta be you got to be consistent. But you also got to have some compelling and interesting things that people can click on talk to you.

Gresham Harkless 9:43

Absolutely. I love both of those hacks just because a lot of times I used to always say the name of the game is visibility. So you know being in knowing everything but no one not knowing of you or of your organization doesn't really help out so you kind of have to balance that both and like you mentioned that consistency aspect of making sure you're pushing out. And having that valuable content that's being, you know, sent out to the internet, so to speak, allows you to get that opportunity to be from the front of mind and be, you know, positioned as that expert person to call and go to.

Chris Jackson 10:17

Absolutely.

Gresham Harkless 10:19

Nice. And now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. And this is a word of wisdom or piece of advice. Or if you can happen to be a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Chris Jackson 10:28

That's a good question. I would tell my younger self, to remove toxic relationships earlier on, whether that is friends that I've grown apart from that were being leeches of your time, relationships that weren't really allowing me to perform the way I needed to perform. And I would replace those with key members that are actually going to push you to help you grow. One of the best things I did was I joined a lawyer Basketball League, I'm not an attorney by join the lawyer basketball league as a just a whim my friend wanted me to do it.

And in doing so I made contacts with about 20 to 30 different attorneys. So when I eventually left my firm to launch my own firm, I got sued by asking for a substantial amount of money. And due to the fact that I had this relationship, this network, I was able to walk to utilize them. And then I had the firepower needed to wiggle myself out of that lawsuit with ease. And it wasn't if it wasn't for me to break away from my own small network and push into a larger network, I wouldn't have the capacity to actually be able to get to where I'm at now, without paying a substantial amount of money.

So getting rid of the toxic people in your circle, and replacing them with people that can actually help you add capacity to grow as a person and learn new things, and keep you driven and pushing is something that I wish I could tell myself when I was 18.

Gresham Harkless 11:18

Nice, I definitely appreciate you for sharing that with us. Because a lot of times and I heard a lot of different, you know, nuggets within that, that really big nugget is that, you know, a lot of times you know us as people, and sometimes I start to understand a lot more as I get older as you start to grow apart from maybe who might have been your friend 10 years ago or might have been, you know, somebody spent all your time with whatever that is.

And as you evolve and grow. And as you start to have different goals, you have to evolve with that and being able to kind of you know, open yourself up and get out of your comfort zone to go to different, like you said groups or might be a basketball league or whatever it is, it allows you other opportunities that may pay off in ways you never would have thought of in the short term.

Chris Jackson 12:46

Exactly.

Gresham Harkless 12:47

Nice. And now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different, quote-unquote, CEOs on the show. So Chris, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Chris Jackson 12:58

For me, it's personal IP, you know, it's, it's the ability to, at any point in time, create intellectual property for yourself in your business, the one thing I didn't like about the wealth management firm, and even in a lot of corporate America, is how they suppress your individuality. That the image has to be the company that the image has to be projected in, that you yourself and your individual strengths. And what you provide to the community.

And what you provide your clients has to be suppressed for what is the image of the company, if you have a better solution or a better way to deliver a service. Generally, that gets squashed or gets lost in red tape lots of Beraksi never get a chance to actually implement those things. But having your own company means you get to you have your own personal IP, I can present what I want my story to be at all times to myself, to my clients, and to the community. And that's the most important thing that you could actually I think you could possibly do when starting your own company is having that versus going the corporate role.

Gresham Harkless 13:59

Absolutely, I appreciate that definition and you know, personal IP and being able to kind of control the narrative, rather than you could in other kind of avenues is definitely huge and a big part of being a CEO. So I appreciate you for sharing that with us. And that definition was spot on. So Chris, I truly appreciate your time. What I wanted to do was pass you the mic so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know and then of course, how best they can get ahold of you.

Chris Jackson 14:25

Absolutely. You know, I would say one thing is that the word Personal Finance, Financial Advisor, it's becoming a term of art. And there's a term called fiduciary that which is very important I want to make sure that anyone works with when they're working with a financial planner, or financial advisor is that they work with someone that is a fiduciary.

And what I mean by that is someone that's not going to be selling you products as we saw in the commission that their conflict of interest, their gain in the transaction is you bind something, the gain in the transaction needs to do they ever able to transform your life through advice and there is a fee for service planners, flat fee retainer, financial planners, and those are the ones you should be working with.

Because at least you know, at the end of the day, that you're paying them for their advice and know no matter what you do outside that they are not going to get additional pay for that. So you know, their advice is tied to what's best for you and what's best with the wallet.

Gresham Harkless 15:20

Absolutely, that makes sense. You want somebody who has a fiduciary, correct?

Chris Jackson 15:26

Yes.

Gresham Harkless 15:27

Nice, and people that want to actually reach out to you what's the best way for them to do that?

Chris Jackson 15:31

They can go to Christojackson.com. Or they can reach out to me at cjackson@lionsharepartners.org.

Gresham Harkless 15:47

Awesome. We'll have those links in that information as well in the show notes. So Chris, I truly appreciate your time. Appreciate all the awesome things that you're doing. I hope you have a great rest of the day.

Chris Jackson 15:57

Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.

OUTRO 15:59

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes, Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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