Garrett Sutton - Are you ready for the success that comes when you find the right team

Hello and welcome to Wiley on Business with authors. A podcast where we talk with the authors that business leaders are reading. It's a known fact that highly successful leaders are generally voracious readers, and that a great book can be one of the most efficient proxies for experience. My name is Jake Wiley and over my nearly two decades of business experience and client service, owning a business, as well as being a CFO, I've had the opportunity to see the direct impact great books and thought leaders have had on business successes. I've had the incredible fortune to be able to sit down and chat with the authors of the books, the leaders we look up to are reading and share some of the backstory and insights that led to these thought provoking books directly with you. Garrett Sutton is a corporate attorney, best selling author and what have Robert Kiyosaki Rich Dad advisors. He has sold more than 900,000 books to guide entrepreneurs and investors. For more than 30 years, Garrett Sutton has run his practice assisting others in protecting assets and maximizing financial goals. listen in to hear how Garrett met Robert was able to become part of the winning team that set him up for a lifetime of success. Well, Garrett, thank you so much for making the time to join me today to talk about your story. I've read most of your books, if not all of them. And you know, you're focused on teaming and building the right brand behind you and getting the support that you need is exactly the message that I'm talking about here on the show. So thank you, one for being here. And then to tell us what's going on in your world today. What's most important to you?

Well, it's great to be with you, Jake. And I have been very fortunate to become associated with Robert Kiyosaki and the rich dad advisors. And, you know, we used to be doing a lot of travel around the world. I mean, the message of financial education is important for you know, people in the US because they don't teach it in school. But even around the world, we've gone to South America, Australia, Europe, Africa, and people like hearing the message there as well. So it's been great to travel around the world, with Robert Kiyosaki and the team. But of course, with COVID, things have slowed down or shut down, eventually. And we're looking forward to getting back on the road. But it's been a, you know, a year and a half of of no travel, you try and do it over a zoom meeting. But I taught a class over zoom, and there were 80 people on a zoom call, and it's just not the same for me. You know, you just, I enjoy the energy of an audience, and you're able to, I think more effectively communicate in person than you are over a zoom call. So I'm ready to get back and travel.

Yeah, that's, that's super exciting. I'm like you used to be face to face with people every day. And then now I'm behind a computer, and it's made a big difference. Yeah. You know, and really, just like you mentioned the energy level.

Exactly. Exactly. So it's been great. I've come out with another book and the rich dad advisor series. So I've, you know, taken this downtime to continue writing in the rich dad advisor series. So that's been good.

All right, what's, what's the name of the book,

scam, proof your assets. And it's about all the widespread deception on the internet through robo calls everywhere else, and steps that you can take to prevent yourselves yourself from becoming the next victim.

Yeah, that's so pointing because I just recently, I've started to get a lot of text, you know, telling me that I've won something. You know, it used to be like, you didn't really get things through your cell phone or text messages. But now I'm starting to see it's like, congratulations, you won an Amazon prize. And it's like, well, no, that's right. I know. It's not real. But man, it is out there.

It sure is. And they're targeting everyone. And, you know, I joke that I, you know, there's so many new scams out there and have to update the book every three months. But the important thing is you just need to know the patterns of the come ons, you know that the charm is manipulation, people pretending to be experts and authorities when they're not and you know, their patterns that are out there that are continuous in all of these scams.

That's it. Yeah. That's amazing. So I guess tell us, you know, for my listeners that may not know you, I guess if you could give me the elevator pitch of who you are, and kind of what your messages because I think it's fancy, fantastic.

Well, I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and went to the University of California at Berkeley and was a business major and then went across the bay to San Francisco. Through Hastings law school, the University of California is law school in San Francisco. And I really liked corporate law, Jake, it just kind of came to me. And so I practice law in Washington, DC, and in San Francisco. And, you know, I really, I spent all my summers at Lake Tahoe. I like skiing. So I moved to Reno in 1989, two weeks before the big earthquake. And my friend said, How did you know? But so I moved up here and, you know, raised the family here, it's just been great in Nevada is a great state for setting up corporations and LLCs, like Wyoming. And so I became associated with Robert Kiyosaki and the rich dad group in the year 2000. So I've been working with Robert and the team for over 20 years now. And it's just been really rewarding to write the books to help educate people, and again, travel the world and spread the message of financial education, which you have to get on your own. You know, they just they are not going to teach that in school. And you just have to know that and take steps on your own to gain the information. Yeah, I

think I think that that's the right message. I've learned so much. I started with Rich Dad, Poor Dad, I don't even know how many years ago, but it's changed my life, right? It's made a difference in the way I look at the education that I got. So I'm a CPA, by training, and I've retired from accounting several times, and you don't get it at school, you really ensure that don't, in what you know, what we're talking about here is is building teams. And I think that one thing that I see a lot of entrepreneurs do, I've done it myself, is you try and do it all by yourself. Right? You figure out like, Hey, I got to bootstrap this thing. And I got to put it together. And you know, I read all the biographies and the stories, and it's, you know, you just do it all by yourself. And that's the true mark of a real entrepreneur, in the short answer that I've seen, is that that's absolutely not true. Right? It's you have to build a team of people that one are passionate about what they're doing, and two are really good at what they do to surround you. And, you know, I think that your your message about the legal protection, and you know, protecting the assets that you have built, is so powerful here. Let's, let's jump into this and people need to go ahead, I'm sorry,

no, people need to realize that they can't do it all. I mean, you don't need to learn the rules for depreciation, right? on real estate, it's kind of complicated. Let your CPA do that. And then you Your time is much better spent, going out identifying properties, raising the money doing the deals, and let someone else handle the the stuff that you can pay for. It's not expensive to get a CPA or an attorney on board. Despite what people think it's just not that expensive. Your time is better spent doing what you do best.

Yeah. And I wholeheartedly agree, that is my message to all the entrepreneurs that I work with is figure out what you love, and what gets you excited. And do that right. And don't do these other things. So I guess the question for you is your your success. I mean, obviously, you've connected with Robert Kiyosaki. And that's been a whirlwind. But how much how important to your success today, would you say is reliant on other people?

Well, becoming associated with Robert has been just, you know, phenomenal for my business. And not everybody can do that. But at the same time, you know, if you get involved in your community, and if you're good at networking, and you meet people, you know, you're not going to get business by sitting behind your desk, just hoping the phone will ring. I mean, you've got to get out there. And, you know, put your message out there in a way that is not, you know, shyster ish, you know, in a way that is friendly, and communicative. I do think having a book is a great way to go. It's a good business card. And if you are so inclined, that can be something that helps you a lot. It just gives you that credibility. A lot of people are doing books right now. So, you know, just know that it's a crowded field. But you know, if you're a professional or if you are involved in certain activities that you can write a book about, that can be beneficial.

Right. That's great advice. I actually had this conversation with my wife the other day, it's like, maybe we should write a book. She's like, what you're doing a podcast. Like, are you focused enough here? Yeah, but on a podcast, you can hold up a book right? That's right. Can you give me an example of where you realized, like the power of leveraging other people, and how that impacted your career? You know, I

think the the big huge lesson came when I became an associate with Robert Kiyosaki. I mean, I hadn't done any sort of leveraging. Before that. You know, I was a corporate attorney, and I just worked for a law firm. And, you know, you hope that the clients come in, you're going to be, you know, you try and get known in the community. But it's not the leverage, like you have with a Robert Kiyosaki. So I mean, that, for me, was absolutely huge. Now, if you're going to be in your community, and we just touched on this, I mean, you you want to get known, you want to join the chamber, you want to get involved with very basic groups, and you can leverage those relationships to your benefit, of course, you're going to do a good job, you're going to do the best job you can. So everybody else is saying how great you are. I mean, it's one thing for you to say how great you are, but your if your clients are saying that

all the better, is he jumped on the Robert Kiyosaki train, right. And I'm sure it was quite a wild ride, especially in the beginning, when you were kind of transitioning your mindset, but was it? Was it a struggle for you? Or did you get it to kind of work itself out it come naturally, of how you could leverage and work with other people?

It was, it was natural, it just came together seamlessly. So I didn't have a problem with it at all. I mean, you're thrown into this vortex, and you're gonna sink or swim. And it was it was an area in which I could swim.

That's great. How about how about a good example of a time where you got it wrong? Right? You maybe you tried to do it all by yourself and kind of the lesson that you learned along the way?

Well, I think lawyers need to realize, and a lot of professionals need to realize they can't do it all. You know, and there was a time early in my career where I took on some family law matters. And, you know, I just, I didn't like it. I didn't like be, you know, being the priests bartender, listening to everybody's problems all day long it which is what happens in family law. And I realized that, you know, I enjoy the corporate world, I enjoy asset protection, and I really did not enjoy family law. And so you learn early on that if you're going to do your best work, you should enjoy what you're doing. I have friends who love Family Law, who love helping people get through troubled situations and more credit to them. But that was not me. So I learned that fairly early on that I really needed to enjoy the type of law I was practicing. And, you know, with with asset protection and setting up corporations and LLCs, I can see that I am helping people directly. Because if they don't set up these entities, they get sued, they're going to be personally liable for these claims. So, you know, in my niche of law, I am helping people protect themselves.

Yeah, and I think that's a really good segue into like, the next question is, you found what you're, you're passionate about, right? Kind of the direction that you wanted to go. And then you kind of built your organization around that. What were some of the challenges to get everybody kind of in line with your vision and keep them in line as you as you move forward? Right? They did not come through.

Can you hear me?

Garret Can you hear me? No. Can you can you edit this? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Let me see. Good. Good, cuz I didn't hear a word you said. Okay. Can you hear me now? No, still no. Yeah, yeah. Okay. I guess. Okay. Yeah, I can definitely edit this. So I in terms of you know, you've got your new vision, where you where you feel passionate about it. How did you get everybody on your team aligned with your vision? And how did you keep them aligned with your vision as you continue to grow and grow rapidly?

Well, team is really important. And, you know, Jake, we have a great team here and it takes a while to learn what we do. And so, you know, we really engage in a lot of education so that the incorporating specialists know what Doing can actually, you know, answer the questions and all. But one of the ways to get people on board is to provide bonuses. And so, you know, I want my employees to own a house and a car, you know, and so we provide bonuses based on how well the whole office does. And that gets everybody on the team. Not that they wouldn't be otherwise. But I just I value them so much that I'm happy to pay a monthly bonus to them.

That's great. How big is your team? We have 12. Okay. Yeah, well, that's awesome. So it's,

I mean, it's lean. A lot of companies have a lot more people, but I'd rather have a lean organization that just really works tightly together and can benefit together.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I guarantee I gotta believe it feels like a family over there.

Yeah. Yeah. And if someone comes aboard, and they just if they don't fit in, you know, and it's no harm, no foul, I mean, everybody gets a chance. But if you're not going to fit in here, it's not. It's not only not good for my employees, but it's not good for the person who's not fitting in, they should find another place where they're going to be more comfortable and, you know, fit in. But

yeah, I think the point that you're making there is, is just a really great piece of advice, in that sometimes you have somebody that's not a good fit, and you keep them because you feel like you'd be hurting them if you let them go or move them on. And the reality is, is that it's not good for either party, you know, like being in this bad relationship for a long time. And when sometimes you set somebody free, it feels like, you know, the end of the world, there could be crying and hugging and all those things. But at the end of the day, it's for the best. Yeah, that's that's a tough lesson for entrepreneurs to

get. Absolutely. But you know, you're doing them a favor, too. I had someone come back, and I saw them that, you know, we have a minor league baseball stadium across the street here. I saw them at a game. And they can they thanked me, right? Because they weren't happy here. And they found a better situation. And it's good for both parties. Yeah,

I mean, that's that's exactly the point. It just feels really awkward at the time. But it's the right thing to do for everybody. So in terms of like your business, let's let's get into to the legal. Because I think a lot of folks overlook this right having the right structure. Can you talk about what the right structures are for the right for folks and what they should be looking at and why they should be looking at particular structures?

Well, the the key structure is to have if you're going to be engaged in in business, or investing in real estate or other assets, you want that asset protection, if you hold the business, or the real estate in your individual name, and you get sued, the person has a claim against you individually, they can reach all the assets that you own individually. And so you know, the the government allows you to be a sole proprietor where you don't have to do much you just get started in business, or a general partnership where you shake hands with someone and all of a sudden you're in business with them. But the problem is, in a sole proprietor situation, if you get sued, all of your assets are exposed. In a general partnership situation, it's its liability times two, because you're responsible for the mistakes of your general partner personally responsible. And so the government allows us to have corporations LLCs, in some cases, you use limited partnerships. And it's great and encourages people to take risks, which is what we want in our society. Unfortunately, again, the government in sixth grade or eighth grade doesn't teach the kids that you have these options. You have to understand this on your own, but at least the government offers this up. The other thing to know is that states compete against each other to be the best, which is great. Most countries that the corporate law is federal, it's a national law. And you don't have competition between the states. Well, during the American Revolution, each state wanted their own corporate law, because, you know, we all thought that British East India Company, this behemoth and so they wanted to protect their state state the state at the constituted constitutional convention. So we have Nevada, Wyoming and Delaware each have their own corporate law, and they get to compete against each other, which is good for us. Because you know, we benefit from this competition. And so when you set up as an LLC or corporation, you want to consider what state To set it up in because some states have stronger protections than others.

That's, that's a really interesting point. Because I think a lot of people would just look at and say where I'm doing business is the state that I should be. And you specifically call out three states, I guess, could you could you talk about that, right? So if if I'm in business, and I'm in Georgia, but I want to set up an LLC in Nevada, and there's a reason for that, how does that how does that work?

Well, if you're going to be doing business in Georgia, you're if you've got a brick and mortar store, if you have employees, you're going to have to either set up in Georgia to begin with, right, because you're doing business there, or you set up the Nevada LLC, for the good law. And then you qualify to do business in the state of Georgia. Because you know, you're part of the Georgia tax system. At that point, you're employing people there. It's easily done. But you've taken the step of saying I like Nevada's law better than Georgia's law. And a lot of our clients do it that way.

And you would definitely be able to provide the advice as to where to choose?

Oh, yeah, yeah, we offer a free 15 minute consultation. So you can call the office and talk to one of the incorporating specialists, and we'll run through it with you and discuss some of your options.

Okay, that's great. So we've talked about, you know, kind of your business as it is, how you've grown it your vision? How about mentoring? Do you mentor? Or do you have a mentor?

You know, I don't have a mentor. And I do what, when I get on the phone with clients, I feel like I'm mentoring. You know, I mean, I'll get on the phone with someone for half an hour. And we go through their structure. And, you know, I make recommendations and advice, and it feels like mentoring. And my goal is to set people up properly right at the start. So they don't have to come back to me all the time. I mean, if if we can get it done the right way, right at the start, then I don't have to be on the phone with them until they move on to the next adventure. And so, you know, that that is mentoring for me. But I try and, you know, do it efficiently at the start, if you will.

That's perfect. And you've never you've never had a mentor in formal or, or otherwise,

I probably should have when I was younger. You know, I didn't know what Jen was up for a while, right? So I could have used a mentor in my 20s. But I just never had that opportunity.

That's interesting. That kind of that's a really good segue into the kind of the last question. If you could go back in time, and give your younger self a piece of advice. What would it be? And when would you go back and tell, you know, speak with your younger self?

I would go back to my younger self at age 28. And say buy real estate. I really know. I mean, I would have if I had bought real estate when I was 28 years old living in the Bay Area. If I would have done really well. Would you have would you have taken that advice needed teach this in school, right? Oh, yeah. You know, I had, my dad didn't invest in real estate, no one around us invested in real estate. It wasn't something that came up at the dinner table. But I wish someone had said, Look, this is the way for you to provide for yourself in later years in retirement. Now, I did get that lesson. Once I joined up with Robert Kiyosaki. I mean, he was all over me to invest in real estate. Thank God I did. Right. So it's been good, but I wish I'd done it when I was 28 years old.

But I'm trying to think when I started when I was 25. It was actually is actually right after a read Rich Dad, Poor Dad for the first time was like, well, let's go out and do it. And then do it. Great. But you know, it started and it's gotten better since? Yeah, yeah. Good for you. Yeah. Okay. Well, thank you so much for joining me. This has been a great conference. Yeah.

Well, you're gonna make a few mistakes at the start. I mean, that's completely normal. But I'm glad that you got started early. I you know, Jake, I hear from so many people who said I read Rich Dad, Poor Dad. I started investing in real estate before I was 30. And thank God I did and that book is that powerful people take the steps to provide for their future just by reading that book. Yeah, totally agree.

Well, thank you so much for making the time for me today. This has been a great conversation. Well, thank you Jake. It's been a pleasure speaking with you. That concludes this week's show. Thanks for listening. Please leave a review on your favorite podcast platform or directly on the site. Your comments are truly appreciated, good, bad or indifferent, and we'll help make the show better. This is Jake Wiley with Wiley on business and we'll talk again two weeks