Homebound Wisdom: Navigating Life's Lessons with Homeschooling, Annuities, and Essential Oils | Counter Narrative Ep. 155

Speaker 1: 0:00

If there's one thing the opposition has against us, it's the long game. The liberal Marxist comrades left have perfected a well-oiled machine of putting the right people in positions of influence, and it all seems to begin at the education level. But it seems they may have overplayed their hand. We're talking education, the rise of homeschoolers and more today, along with a long game of our own at home, with financial and physical health. It's Thursday, november 16th. I'm John Scott filling in for my wife, kristi Lee, and this is the Counter Narrative. Welcome back. And it's me, john Kristi's husband. Again, I'm walking through some news headlines. We're going to start off first with Lee. Fang's sub-stack wrote an article of NewsGar's for-profit censorship model merges the government and corporate power. The anti-misinformation startup works closely with the Defense Department intelligence agencies and the world's largest corporate marketing agency. Newsgar is a vaccine against information tool that could use artificial intelligence powered by the NewsGar algorithms to rapidly screen content based on hashtags and search terms. The company associated with dangerous content, newsgar would steer readers to official government sources only. Like the federal Centers for Disease Control the government works with through seemingly benign non-governmental organizations such as the Stanford Internet Observatory. See, I tend to think that the model that X is going with with Community Notes works a lot better than what NewsGar is doing here. Otherwise, on X, to be honest with you, I feel like they would end up labeling them as state-sponsored, as a state-sponsored news agency or a state-sponsored actor. That's kind of what it seems to be. It's just scary 1984 type stuff Coming out of the Hollywood Reporter. To get a little bit into culture, marvel Studios taking stock of strategy amid the Marvel's meltdown, pretty much Marvel is shortening up from multiple films a year to they're only putting out one more this year of Deadpool 3 instead of three films. It bombed. It just plays again into Marvel kind of messing around with the culture wars in this respect and keeps dropping it into their content. It's interesting. I had brought the last so many Marvel movies. I had brought my kids to go see them with my wife. It's interesting just to see the kids come out of the movie and say it really didn't do it for me. It's not the same as the others. I really don't think there's a lot of room for it. I have a video here that I thought was funny from the recent South Park Pandaverse, although South Park can tend to be inappropriate content for some or even a younger audience. It's interesting how cartoons can really dig at a topic like this, and it makes so much sense. So let's cue that clip.

Speaker 6: 3:48

Eric, enough, I've told you there's no such thing as Disney executives who replace everyone you love with diverse women who complain about the patriarchy.

Speaker 3: 3:57

Now be a big boy.

Speaker 1: 4:01

My wife just found that Pandaverse show just so comical. I just love it. I know a lot of people cue to the Simpsons in South Park in that regard, but it's very interesting how they can kind of get to the core of how ridiculous some of this stuff looks. So, picking up with the news from Cleveland 19 News, the ACT test scores dropped to the lowest level in 30 years. The average scores in three of the four subjects featured on the test mathematics, reading and science were below the ACT college readiness benchmark the benchmarks of the minimum ACT test scores required for students taking the test that have a high probability of success in college. The ACT CEO, janet Goodwin, said this is the sixth consecutive year of declines in average scores. You know it's really wild because we're going to have these kind of metrics and we're falling below. You know I came out of Baltimore and they're historically known for the issues in their school systems, especially with testing scores. But between the if she's saying the past six years, it really makes me wonder that a couple of them are only COVID. So I'm fascinated and this kind of leads into the topic of today, talking about education. We'll go with one more news clip and then we'll get to our guest. We had another one from Axios. What's behind the increase in homeschooling? It's shot up during the pandemic. Here to stay is kind of where the article went. There are currently an estimated 1.9 million to 2.7 million homeschooled students in the US. Why? A variety of reasons why families are choosing to try homeschooling and stick with it, from political and religious reasons, to avoiding unsafe situations. Benefits of homeschooling include being able to meet your child at his or her level for each individual subject. The other side, homeschooling can prevent children from learning about and being exposed to other kids from different backgrounds. That seems to be where the Axios article went. Of course they threw in, you know, people wanting to keep their kids, their trans kids, safe, even though I don't think it's as relevant to the topic. I fail to believe most people are taking their kids out to homeschool because of their trans, but maybe they are. I just I think it's interesting. They always got to throw that little tidbit in these articles sometimes. So our guest coming up here with us about the join us is Robert Bortons. He is the Chief Executive Officer of Classical Conversations Incorporated. This stemmed from his mom, who was dissatisfied with the education options she found as a new mom. Therefore, she decided to homeschool her four sons and then develop her own curriculum, with Robert, her oldest son, as her first pupil. In the years since Robert Bortons became CEO of the family owned company Classical Conversations, the company has grown by 300% and become the world's largest classical homeschooling organization. Robert is also a member of the board of directors of the Homeschool Now USA and a member of C12 Group, the largest professional development network of Christian CEOs and executives. Under Robert's leadership, classical Conversations has been named a certified best Christian workplace by BCWI for four years in a row. Welcome, robert Bortons. How are you doing, robert?

Speaker 8: 7:12

Good, how are you?

Speaker 1: 7:15

I'm good. You know this is a passionate topic for me. I was homeschooled and so was my wife, so we've always joked when we met each other were the kind of weird homeschool kids. What I'm interested in interviewing you today is I actually was homeschooled through the Calvert School program, which used to be considered a classical curriculum. My stepfather retired in the state of Maryland. He wrote the state assessment test for the Maryland State Department of Education and was a school teacher for many years and it was interesting that I don't know my stepfather's agnostic, my mother's Mormon, and so both of them had different views on why they wanted to take us out and homeschool all of us. But I kind of I very much enjoyed the Calvert School program and during the pandemic we were looking. Apparently they don't even have the same curriculum anymore, which kind of blew my mind while me and my wife were trying to find a curriculum for the kids, which seems very hard to find. So please tell us about what you got going on.

Speaker 8: 8:23

Yeah, classical conversations is a full K through 12 curriculum. We even have college partnerships where your students and sophomore, junior and senior year can earn college credits. Moms can get their master's degree in classical studies through our partnerships and our focus is creating communities that will meet once a week with a trained parent tutor and go over that curriculum together, typically in classes of eight to 12, maybe on the older side with older kids, and our focus is training parents to homeschool and to do it well, and we know that their kids will get a world class education because they love them and they have the tools of learning at their fingertips.

Speaker 1: 9:10

So you were homeschooled yourself.

Speaker 8: 9:14

Yeah, I was homeschooled for 11 years, graduated high school year early, went to Clemson University and got an industrial engineering degree. Did that for about eight years. Before coming back to the family business, A lot of times people ask me if I always was going to work for classical conversations, and it really wasn't an organization. You know, it started when I was in high school. When I was a sophomore, my mom called me to tell me that my dad had quit his job to help raise my younger brothers and she was going to try to see if we can make classical conversations grow. And since then God has blessed it. We are now in 57 countries, we have about 130,000 students and we have about 2,500 communities here in the United States, and we've just seen parents homeschooling for a variety of reasons. It's the pandemic, but mostly they're discovering that they can do it. They can do it better than the so-called experts and that they're loving it being at home with their kids and really living a flourishing life, not one that is demanding they get up early for work and dropping their kids off and just running around all day, but that they're able actually to slow down and enjoy themselves and their families.

Speaker 1: 10:36

Well, you know, that's what me and my wife have been talking about a lot lately, now that we have a newborn in and we kind of can start from scratch. Here is, what do we want to do, moving forward as far as education for the little one, because it's so much of the nonsense we've run into with the other three being in the public school system and a lot of times you don't necessarily always have a choice. You know, I'm in manufacturing, which my schedule tends to be pretty demanding. Christie has a little more freedom being here to do the show, but it's insane the things that are being taught to the middle school age, even as far as elementary. But most of the stuff we've come in contact with has been middle school on up through high school, and we've just almost had to be extremely straightforward in the types of conversations we have with the kids because of what they're exposed to at school and we figure if they don't get the answers from us, they're going to look somewhere else. What, yeah, so what? What do you do as far as a curriculum? How did, how did you? How hard was that for for your mother to come together and put a curriculum together?

Speaker 8: 12:17

Yeah, I mean, growing up there wasn't as many resources for homeschoolers as there is now, and so you know it's going to the library and doing lots of reading. But now we have a team of people that help put our curriculum together. Since it's classical, it doesn't change a whole lot, but we're always trying to make sure that our parents are equipped with the best resources and with the best ways of instilling other values into the next generation. And a lot of public school curriculum is written by people who have never had children, who don't plan on having children, who openly admit that they don't like children, and we're surprised that in public schools or in government run institutions around our country, you know 40% of children are bullied, 30% of them are sexually harassed and about 30% of them can read at grade level. So as a parent, if you are sending your kids to a government institution, I mean you're going to have to spend a lot of time at home kind of deprogramming them and fixing all the things that they were exposed to during the day. So a lot of times it's a lot more effort to send your kid off to be educated than doing it yourself, but it does require you know lifestyle changes or different ways of organizing your life. And, of course, you know, working from home has become much more popular and a lot of people don't understand that when you do homeschool it's not like you're starting your day at 8am and ending it at 4pm. It's typically, you know, for younger age kids one to two hours a day and for older kids maybe three or four hours a day, and you can do it at night or in the morning. You have a lot of flexibility with your life, yeah.

Speaker 1: 14:07

Well, you know, that's how me and my brother really enjoyed it. If you have a curriculum guide kind of laid out in the day to day I mean that's how ours was to where every day it kind of walked us through and what we kind of liked was that self-paced on the level that we were like, well, if we want to knock two years of school out, let's just get it done, you know, and then take some months to kind of unwind and be boys, and we really enjoyed that aspect of it of kind of taking that responsibility on ourselves. I mean, I've seen lots of different programs go through. Look all the stuff going on nowadays with literature and the books. What kind of what kind of, would you say, literature that you have that these kids would be reading around middle school age.

Speaker 8: 14:56

Yeah, so they are starting to be introduced to some of the great stories throughout history. They're reading a little bit Some historical fiction, some original source documents, like reading the Constitution, reading Martin Luther King's a letter from the Birmingham Jail. They are getting exposed to CS Lewis and just some of even reading, starting to read some Plato and some Shakespeare. So we go back to the classics, the books that have stood the test of time, that have been shown to form individuals and to leaders and into humans who are flourishing, who love their neighbors and who love their country versus. You see, in the modern books, just a one most kids can't read at grade level, so they're probably not reading much at all. And those who are, you know we typically will we'll read in a year what many students read in four years of high school. So we just challenge our kids and our students to just read a lot and because they're meeting once a week in community, they're discussing what they're reading, they're hearing from their peers what they are gaining from the text and you have a positive kind of peer pressure situation where, you know a rising tide lifts all boats versus the government system seems to be lowering the standards year after year and that's why we're seeing these terrible ACT results. Like you pointed out, that started well before the pandemic, although they like to blame everything on that. That in you know grades are going, grade inflation is bad. You know you get, you get A's just for showing up and you know behaving even if you can't do the work. So the system was not designed to benefit students. It was designed to benefit corporate interests and let more people into the workforce so that they could open up their factories and make more money for the top 1%. So a lot of people say our government schools are failing and I push back. I think our government schools have been wildly successful. Students can't read or write and they're going to do whatever you know. Big Brother tells them, which is you know. Your very first article you mentioned, you talked about how that was scary to you. Well, that's, that's exciting to most people who have been through our government institutions.

Speaker 1: 17:35

Yeah, it's interesting how they cheer that on. You know I went to the grocery store with my daughter last night and was talking to her. You know she's junior year of high school and I'm like you know what? Could you really tell me that you've learned in school that's truly set you up for success and ready for this world? I mean, I really try to come behind the kids and teach them a very good work ethic, you know, learn to be on time and respect people's time. You know what I mean? Just very basic things. And you know I'm in management in the manufacturing setting. It's amazing. I have a bunch of the COVID kids you could call them. The kids didn't graduate from high school, you know, got hemmed up for those two years. Now they're thrown into the adult world, into a manufacturing setting, absolutely no experience. And you can tell the education systems failed them. We do a lot of communicating through email and Microsoft Teams. You can just tell the way they communicate, you know, through the messaging platforms, just basic etiquette. I mean they're not even learning it at home, let alone in the schools, and I'm very much an advocate for trying to trying to teach a lot of people, especially my employees, the basics of their benefits packages, because a lot of them have no idea. They don't know they get a 401K. They don't know half of these things and it's as if nobody's ever told them before. It's as if nobody's ever told them. You know you got to kind of show up on time if you want your job, like this is kind of the way it goes. You know like and and and. Even in that I still have hope for the younger generations because I still hear things at them. A bunch of the young people are talking about bricks and I'm thinking, wait, what are you talking about currency? You know you don't even know about your 401K and all this other stuff. But they are talking about things that are relevant, our currency and things of that nature. But it's just a shame that we subsidize so much into these systems. And really, you know, I have a bad taste in my mouth just from from my, my stepfather, because he dealt a lot with the cheating that was going on with state assessments around the country, specifically in the state of Maryland. What he always said with the assessment test it was you know, a lot of these people are look, they're, they're very bro, they, they know what they're doing, but they don't realize. They don't realize half the time with the assessment test, that it doesn't work in real world practice. So, yeah, they might be brilliant, but this, really half of this stuff might not be working for kids like it should. And then when you get principals and teachers running a race or parties, you know, so they can continue to get their funding and continue to line their own pockets, it's just fascinating to me. So what, what would you say? Are barriers now? Barriers now when it comes to homeschooling, are there specific states? I would say that they kick back more. I feel like California made it kind of easy, believe it or not, which was interesting when my wife was out there.

Speaker 8: 20:22

Yeah, no, it's pretty easy to homeschool in most states. You know you'll get a superintendent of a school or something that oversteps their bounds, but there's organizations like HSL, daorg the homeschool legal defense association that usually sets them straight and sends them a letter reminding them of what the law is. So you know, some states have a little bit more paperwork hoops. You have to jump through some of them mandate end of year testing on a regular basis. But in general homeschooling is easy to comply with and just is a valid form of education in all 50 states. Internationally it's pretty well recognized. There are some countries that don't like homeschooling but in general we have the freedom to do that here in the United States and around the world. And it's really because those pioneers, like like your parents, like you and your wife, who homeschooled early on, proved that it worked, that you didn't have to, you know, have a master's degree in education to be able to homeschool your kids. All you needed was really the time and energy.

Speaker 3: 21:32

And you know I feel for teachers in this system.

Speaker 1: 21:37

Yeah, you know my mom was a college. Well, I think she might have took some college classes, but you know my mom did a really good job, especially on all the. So I mean we went to I hide damn there every Civil War battlefield. We went to all kinds of the museums in Washington DC. Since I grew up in Baltimore she we get it lined up for us to tour the wastewater treatment plant. So I felt like I was really on Miss Frisles Magic school bus, you know, and and she did a lot of those things. I do think the social elements very important. What kind do you have that network set up that way it sounds like you do from what you were saying to really pull out of these homeschool families together.

Speaker 8: 22:18

Yeah, absolutely so. That's the really. The big difference in our curriculum is those weekly communities the parents attend with their students, especially in the younger ages, and you know these communities can be anywhere from 30 to 60 families, although you can start one with one or two. We've got 2,500 ish around the United States. If there isn't one in your area, you know we're. We have a process to help you get one started and we have really trained repers. We have over 800 trained representatives around the US. You can just go to our website, classical conversations comm, to get at the bottom of your screen, type in your zip code and Literally someone from within 30 minutes away from you will be happy to sit down and talk to you for five minutes or an hour about homeschooling, how to get started and if classical conversations Would be a program to benefit your family Now do you fully care, rate the curriculum or do you allow parents to modify or do different things that they'd like to with it?

Speaker 1: 23:22

Yeah, so if you're gonna get together in, community?

Speaker 8: 23:25

Yeah, so if you're gonna get together in community, obviously we need to be all reading the same materials at the same time to be able to have that conversation. But our community for K through sixth grade is 24 weeks and typically you have a 36 weeks a year School year mandated by the state. So you basically have a third of your school year where you can do what you want and many homeschoolers homeschool year round, and Then for the older age groups we go 30 weeks. So you still got another six weeks to pursue other items and of course, you can tailor it. So maybe you know everyone's sick at the house, so while everyone else is reading the book, you know your family's watching the movie. But in general if you're gonna, you know, be together, you got a sack, make a few sacrifices, but you really designed the curriculum and school academic year Around the idea and knowing that families are gonna have other things that they want to pursue. So I like even my own kids are in the program, but you know, maybe we have a family vacation or you know some things go up and we have to miss a week, but we want to make sure that our kids are prepared to have a conversation around, really anything that the world or the Lord gives them to have a conversation around, and so we really focus on teaching them those tools of learning.

Speaker 1: 24:44

I Like that. I like the. Was it hard for you to leave your profession to go and take? Take on this endeavor.

Speaker 8: 24:55

Well, I was in manufacturing so I loved I really enjoyed manufacturing the company I was with. We had a lot of pressure from China as they started manufacturing our products and I had been there for about six years and I had really done all that I could there. So I was looking for a new place to go and I loved being homeschooled sound like you enjoyed it and so I felt like I had a good testimony to say if I can go to college, if I can work my way up the corporate ladder, then your family can do it too, and so kind of. At that point the opportunity to come work at classical conversations presented itself, and you know it was difficult, but it was exciting to just be able to Just pass on something that I love doing to other families.

Speaker 1: 25:45

Sounds like the Lord provided in a big way. I like that. It's especially something you came out of and you can kind of carry, carry that on. You know, for something that your mother started. You know what I mean. That's, it's so cool. Is there anything else that you'd like to Like to break down for the guests?

Speaker 8: 26:03

Yeah, I mean, I just think you know parents, you love your kids. If you're watching this show, you probably understand that the experts have gotten more Wrong and they've gotten right lately and it's really easy to just put them on a school bus and I think the system's gonna educate them. But even if you can't you know homeschool you can still, like you're doing, have conversations with them at night, you know, challenge them, give them extra materials to read, work with them in the summer. So just being an intentional parent is a great way to start working on your own Parent is a great way to start homeschooling, even if you send them off to an institution during the daylight hours.

Speaker 1: 26:42

Yeah, I think really that involvement with parents seems to be the big thing. I think, you know, when you just had the mindset of dropping them off, and I mean all I meant, it's pretty easy to just drop them off and get them out there, but then half the time, you know, me and my wife have to be involved and engage with conversations anyway, just even know what they're learning in school, you know, and half time, half the time, just to counter even the Social element of the stuff, of the cultural stuff they want to throw in there, let alone everything else. I'll tell you, robert, it was a pleasure interviewing you today and I appreciate you coming on with us and I really would recommend everybody to check out classical Conversations calm that's the website correct classical conversations calm and learn more about you know. In general, challenge yourself to Even look at it to see if it might be an option for you and your family. I believe me, if I get to a point to where I can get more entrepreneur and get out of Manufacturing myself, and then even with the newborn, it's something that I'm thinking more about in the direction that the world's going. So it was a pleasure. I appreciate you joining us, robert. I.

Speaker 8: 27:48

Yeah, thanks for having me on, and you can follow me on the Robert B show on X and on Instagram.

Speaker 1: 27:55

I love it. I love it. Go check them out. Up next we have Danny Rosenberg.

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Speaker 1: 30:15

Okay, our next guest, danny Rosenberg, is a 30 year investment industry insider with experience as a successful financial planning professional as well as an institutional distribution executive. He has helped thousands of individuals protect their wealth, their future and their legacy. As one of our amp new sponsors, danny Rosenberg is here to teach us about insurance. John, how are you Danny? I'm great. How are you, sir?

Speaker 4: 30:43

Thanks for having me today.

Speaker 1: 30:45

Yeah, definitely. Why don't we just start right in break it down for dummies for me, what you do and what you offer, sir?

Speaker 4: 30:52

Sure, we have a wealth management practice. I've been helping folks for almost 40 years now. I've been a family business for almost 70 years now and we help families, as well as the businesses they own, planning, create plans, build wealth and protect the wealth they have, as well as transferred from multi generational planning.

Speaker 1: 31:11

I like it. So, danny, thanks. What are? What are fixed index annuities and why might people be interested in them?

Speaker 4: 31:19

Sure. So a fixed index annuity is a fixed annuity where your principal is guaranteed, and it gives the investor the opportunity to grow or outpace inflation. By investing in indexes inside the contract, you have five to 10% liquidity a year, and the evolution in these products has really been quite substantial over the past couple years. Before I get into that, though, there's two real reasons anybody would buy an annuity, and the reason this is valid conversation today is there's a lot of estimates that the Social Security Social Security Trust Fund is going to be depleted by the mid 2030s. So how do Americans really plan for their future and guarantee an income stream they can't outlive? This is where annuities come into play, and it's probably the best investment opportunity for really protect that stream of income in their wealth. So there's two reasons. The first reason is a guaranteed income stream for life for themselves and or their spouse. The second reason is a protected growth strategy. Guaranteed income for life means, essentially based on the assets you put in there, you're going to be guaranteed an income stream you cannot outlive. So, in addition to Social Security and maybe a pension, which are rare these days you can guarantee an income stream for your lifetime. Safety, stability, security it's a very important part of the wealth management and financial planning process. Second part is protected growth strategy. What that means is you have an opportunity to reduce all the brokerage fees you have and invest in one of these types of annuities where your principal is protected. You have 5 to 10% liquidity a year and you may have no cost, fees or expenses. So if you compare that with a traditional brokerage account, you can save a lot of money and fees, costs and expenses every single year. What's very interesting and thank you for the question is the evolution of these products in the past couple years. This has really been a game changer in wealth management and financial planning. Let me explain. First, this change has been structurally and, second, has been on an investment management perspective. So, from a structural perspective, fixed index annuities always had limits and caps and participation rates and spreads, and that was your only option because that's how the insurance company has their liability. Remember, an insurance company is taking away all the downside risk and guaranteeing your principal in these products, so they have to have a way to make some of the upside and take that so they can become profitable, which you want, of course, and that was your only choice. Go ahead. I'm sorry, did you have a?

Speaker 1: 33:56

question. No, it's interesting for me listening to you, danny, because it's always broken down to me that retirement was supposed to be based off that kind of three peg store right, you'd have a pension, you'd have your Social Security and you'd have your 401k. And then I look at someone like myself or my wife to where there are no pensions anymore, on our age bracket and what's going on with Social Security. And then the industry standard for 401k matches continues to drop, I feel like every couple of years. It's interesting for me. I was a. I ran a labor union for three years, not by choice but because it kind of needed to be taken over. But I remembered having to negotiate those contracts every so many years when they came up and I was just always fascinated by that. At first it'd be we'll match 100% to 7% and 100% to 6%. Now it's 50% to 6%. So I look at somebody in my age bracket, you know, and younger, and it's like what do we even have to retire on? And then that fear of Social Security, of taking the dive, as you would say. But keep going, sir.

Speaker 4: 35:03

So that that's exactly the point to be financially independent, for Americans to be self-sufficient and independent, you need to plan, and what's available out there. In today's world, like you said, you know, these benefits are going away. So the the one of the great planning tools remaining are annuities. Now they're very misunderstood and there's all kinds of propaganda in the media about why they're bad, and people attach all these emotions to them, which is ridiculous, because it's just a tool in a toolbox. That's it. It is a tool in a toolbox and you use it to guarantee income or the protected growth strategy and, like I said, as these products have evolved, you now have the option for to grow this money in the following fashion. Think about it this way so you have your principal guaranteed, you have five to 10% liquidity a year without fees, costs or penalties, and you have the opportunity to invest in indexes that are uncapped with no fees. Now the big evolution on this has been who's managing the money? All the great institutional money managers have now started to participate in these type of products Barclays, goldman's, blackrock, dimensional, fidelity, citi, jp Morgan you can go through the list of every great institutional money manager and they are now in this space. So when you put it together, it's fascinating. Actually, these past couple of years have really evolved into. This is what I'm seeing. Interestingly are very affluent clients using these type of products as fixed income alternatives and supplements, because if they have a million dollars, for example, they're paying 1% fee every year. In a brokerage account which I'm an RIA, so I do that you can put it in one of these and have no fees and have your principal guaranteed. So there's a lot of metrics and there's a lot of attribution. That makes these very attractive. But now think about it guaranteed principal, 10, 5 to 10% liquidity a year, the opportunity to not only outpace inflation but grow, and you have institutional money managers to invest in.

Speaker 1: 37:10

I like that. Danny, I want to throw this in for my wife. You can get a free report today at Christygetinannuitycom. And while we're on that topic, how about you tell us more about your free report and how our audience can qualify for a free consultation with your company?

Speaker 4: 37:28

Sure, it's really easy. I just fill out a few questions on that website that you gave and then, if you qualify, we'll set up a meeting and we'll help you. We'll answer your questions. I've helped thousands of folks and I love to help people and I look forward to helping anybody who's looking forward to becoming financially independent.

Speaker 1: 37:50

I like that. Would you like to touch a little bit about Roth IRAs by chance?

Speaker 4: 37:55

Sure, sure. So a Roth IRA is one of the last great planning tools. So what happens is the Roth IRA gives you the opportunity to put money away on a tax-free basis. Also, there's a couple of really big planning opportunities you have with Roths. First of all, you're not required to take RMDs or required minimum distributions when you hit age 73. And the other thing is, not only is this tax-free pool of assets that you create with Roth, but you can transfer that wealth tax-free also. So, as part of an overall plan, a Roth could be a very, very valuable planning tool. And, by the way, you can do partial Roth conversions. You don't have to do it all in one year. You look at your tax bracket, you look at the planning goals and you can do it over a period of time. Some of these fixed index annuities, by the way, offer bonuses that will have offset some or a substantial part of your tax liability on these. So it's certainly worth taking a look at.

Speaker 1: 38:56

Yeah, I'll tell you, dave, since the topic that we were kind of talking about today was education. It's just, it's still wild to me. We subsidize education for the American public and most of us aren't set up to be able to handle our own selves financially when we get out of school and get out into the world. And especially, as I said before, it's someone in my generation, I mean, I'm 40 years old, but I don't have those safety nets that my parents and my grandparents had the pensions and everything else. So, if anything, we have to think smarter.

Speaker 4: 39:28

If you want.

Speaker 1: 39:29

Danny's free report and to see if you qualify for a free consultation, remember to go to ChristyGetInannuitycom and the link is in the video description below. Danny, I'd really appreciate you joining me today as I'm handling the Baby Leave.

Speaker 4: 39:43

Fill-in show no thanks for having me. I really appreciate it. And don't forget to join your local surf rider foundation. Surf Rider Foundation is an amazing organization where we fight to keep pollution out of the ocean, we do beach cleanups, we do education for youth and it's just a wonderful environmental organization. So join your local chapter and keep the stoke going.

Speaker 1: 40:06

I like it. Thank you, danny. Thank you, have a great day. Our next guest, stacy Morris, is also an AMP News sponsor. She is a seasoned entrepreneurial wife and mother of two teenagers who made a significant mark in the wellness industry as the founder of Young Living Essential Oils a decade ago. Stacy's entrepreneurial journey started during the final stages of her MBA, where she recognized the potential to revolutionize holistic well-being. Stacy's commitment to empowering families is evident in the organization's mission to restore and enhance well-being. Through Young Living, she has successfully provided individuals with the tools and resources to reclaim control over their health and pursue a life aligned with their aspirations. Welcome, stacy.

Speaker 6: 40:53

Hi, thank you for having me. Actually, young Living has been. It is celebrating its 30th year. I found Young Living yes, I found Young Living when I was going through and finishing up my master's in business. I had had businesses in the past, did not want to really do network marketing, but found the amazing wellness that works. I've been doing this for 10 years. We have a worldwide team of really just serving people and really helping people to be empowered to take their health and wellness back. The last time I went to my primary care provider, he had a little check mark, a little box. He proceeded to ask me all these questions that the insurance company wanted to validate and did not care about me personally, did not ask how I was doing. It was just very formal and robotic. Yes, I basically fired him after that. We want to be empowered to. We're the ones that are in our bodies, we're in our homes and we know when we feel off or when we don't. Basically, what I do is I help people understand and take back their power. This is all part of this wonderful, great awakening that we're having in the world that we thought was a certain way and truly is not. I'll tell you.

Speaker 1: 42:27

My introduction to Young Living is actually from my cousin. She was, I guess, a consultant on Young Living products at a Cleveland actually. She turned me on to what thieves, toothpaste and the hand soaps and stuff like that. I just thought it was very cool. She's super passionate about it. We actually got our diffuser the other day, so we were diffusing some lavender last night. It was definitely soothing winding the kids down at the end of the day.

Speaker 6: 42:57

Yes, isn't it?

Speaker 1: 42:59

amazing what truly is.

Speaker 6: 43:01

We're essential oils. Most people understand what essential oils are now because of Gary, His passion for truly having therapeutic value with essential oils. Previous to him, we knew about fragrance oils. We know about how the limbic system, whenever we smell something, if we're walking through somewhere and we smell something that brings us back to an apple pie that our grandmother's made in the kitchen, that's all tied back to the limbic system. Not only are we inhaling things that are good for us and bad for us, we need to understand how we are consistently bombarded with toxins in our life. Actually, we don't realize and recognize and that's the paper we put together is understanding the top 10 chemicals that we're unknowingly bringing into our home. I'm going to give you a couple of steps that you can take today. Go and grab our report, but today what you can do is you can go under your sink and look at all of the cleaning products that you have in your home. If it says caution, danger warning which used to be back when I was little, used to have a little pirate symbol, a pirate flag, it would tell us, and there's still notifications in there. If you accidentally ingest, call poison control. Today, what you're doing is when you're spraying it in the air, when you're spraying it on your counters, when you're spraying it on the floor, our pets are picking it up on their feet. Our babies are picking it up on their feet. They're putting stuff in their mouths that have chemicals on them. There was a report that basically said a couple of years ago that said that cleaning chemicals was about as bad as secondhand smoke. If we can eliminate some of the chemicals that we're voluntarily bringing in, then that's just going to help offset the load. What I do is I will sit and walk with people and just go. Okay, here are the things that you can do so that you're not sick. I think we've been programmed to feel like just getting by. We just feel busy, we feel tired, we feel depressed. All of that, once you start doing some digging, is programming. It's programming to keep us powerless, to keep us in the system. I loved what we were talking about with classical conversations. I was not a traditional homeschool mom and I utilized classical conversations as a stepping point to empower me to do what I could for my kids.

Speaker 3: 45:48

My kids are older.

Speaker 6: 45:50

I just definitely wanted to say that classical conversations is a great stepping stone and it gives you that community, because there's always that well, they're very awkward, they don't get any social stuff. That's where classical conversations comes in, because you have this wonderful opportunity to meet weekly and meet friends. I will tell you that my daughter understood much more as far as critical thinking just because of that this goes along together is not only is classical conversations helping you to help your family be more ready for when things happen, you can have that clear mind. But what young living and this wellness journey that I take people on truly helps to clarify everything. 95% of cancers are because of environment. That is a huge thing. It's because we're unknowingly bringing them into our home.

Speaker 1: 46:45

If you can easily push that out. That's a big reason I was just going to say that's a big reason. Why I've really felt drawn to Bobby Kennedy Jr in that respect is because I really appreciate him. You could scratch anything else he's talking about, but just going in on the environmental things and what's in our food, what's in our medications Now I'm coming out of food manufacturing. Prior to me going, I'm in a whole nother field of manufacturing. Now, unfortunately, I don't talk a whole lot about what I do just because what my wife does. In the current culture we live in but I worked for Smuckers and Pillsbury for 10 years I was always super amazed at what the FDA allows in food. We don't truly have enough people to be able to even source raw ingredients, so we take companies words at it and suppliers words for it. I wanted to kind of lead that into young living. How are you able to source to be able to get oils? Because what my curiosity always is with a lot of things I'm always okay what kind of verification at least the best that I can of what kind of verification can I get on what they're actually using to give me this fish oil product I'm getting right, or this flour? I truly want to know, because I know there's not a lot of oversight on things half the time how do you do that for your company?

Speaker 6: 48:08

So with young living, young living has and they're based out of Salt Lake City. They have farms all over the world and one of the things and because this industry is not regulated, there is FDA generally regardless safe, as in most vitamins and supplements on the market. So same thing with essential oils. So being an understanding the manufacturer is super important. With young living, you go to the farm, you can go to the farm, you can go to the farms all throughout the world as to where the plants and botanicals grow their best and you'll see things. God is amazing. So God put Frankincense in the Middle East, but he also gave Palo Santo, which is a type of. It has a lot of the same constituents as Frankincense. That's in South America. We have a North American type of Frankincense. It has similar molecules and so being able to understand the seed to seal quality, which goes through in its rigorous testing of the soil for making sure that there's nothing in the soil, we don't use any pesticides and we do 30 tests within house, we have like 50 scientists that go through and make sure that the product that you're receiving it's called seed to seal. So it goes everything from planting making sure that the seeds are the absolute best non GMO there's. There's. They do hand-weeding. There's no pesticide. Like I said, there's no pesticides. They tested after it to make sure that the molecules are there. So they want to make sure that these specific molecules are in a specific plant and then what they do is is they distill it. We distill it the first time and it depends upon the type of plant. So each like rosemary distillation would be a certain period of time, versus a grand fur would be a certain time. Rapallo Santos, different plants have different molecules and, depending upon the distillation and how long it's done, young Living has the biggest and largest catalog for the appropriate types of distillation. Again, gary was a the you know, grandfather of modern distillation. It's if it doesn't have they have, they have a saying if it's it's. He built a product for purpose and not profit, and so being able to. So art oils. We had a couple of years ago, one of our favorite blends. It's called Valor, which helps with normal. It helps keep you brave, okay. So if you need a little step up to help make you brave, valor would be one of those oils. Now, some of the constituents. There's four constituents that were there when out of stock, so Valor was out of stock for a year and a half. We had shirts made, we called it Valorgate and so, being understanding that that when you have product that goes as this is God's, god's molecules plants, you know this is natural and sometimes you know we, we will get some, we'll get some, you know, from the farm or what we have corporate. We have corporate kind of controlled farms as well. So they're they'll, they'll do like farms in the Philippines which are like a family farm for specific alami, which is is wonderful for the skin. But they'll go in and they'll have the seed to seal quality verification for that specific oil. So not only will they test it at the farm but they will also test it back at corporate to make sure that all of those molecules line up with what they're supposed to be and then make sure that that comes directly from young living. So I don't necessarily this is my stash. I don't sell. I don't sell a little bottle, I sell education. So I help and really I'm not selling education, I'm helping people get started. And then young living gives me a commission to help people not only buy the oils wherever they're at, cause we're all on different wellness journeys. I was not particularly, you know. I was thought I was like hippie oils. It was just weird to me, you know, and then I went.

Speaker 1: 52:06

I just missed exceptions, right, like I think some people think, okay, well, you just diffuse them. And then my cousin was the one that broke down and well, you got toothpaste and you can do this with it and you can put this in a roller, and so I was very fascinated by that. It's like what, what are parts of the body that actually take in oils? I feel like, isn't it like, isn't it almost like you can, you can roll like essential oils on the bottom of your feet, like what are those points that absorb better? I guess is what I want to stress.

Speaker 6: 52:35

So there's by the flex points. Our skin is the largest organ in our body, so that's why you know, when we put something on our skin so we can, we can use things topically, we can also use inhalation, we can also with young living, they have a vitality line that we can take internally. Now I would not recommend anybody take essential oils internally. Any other product other than Young Living and all of our supplements have essential oils in them, because Geary did studies and he showed how, you know, the essential oils work within the body. They're more bio available. So our supplements, like our vitamin B, our vitamin D, we have a wonderful vitamin called master formula which is kind of your all around daily needs and really it's for every body system. So we have over 800 products with Young Living that are amazing, and so what I do is I break it down with people to find out where exactly they want to get started and we do it a little bit at a time. We become very strategic and what they want to accomplish. I'm not a doctor, so everybody takes their own power back. I can tell you what's worked for me, but I can't. I'm not a doctor. I'm not going to prescribe, I don't. You know I don't push that because that's not only you know, it's taking away the person's power, because that's the whole gist of stepping into your wellness journey. But I also help people not only offset the cost of it but also create that time freedom that we were talking about with classical conversations. Being able to have to build time freedom, that's what you get when you homeschool, you have the ability, and so so for me, I was just praying to be able to help people build businesses or be a business assistant. You're not an assistant but a, you know, consult it. And so, with that's what I'm doing, I have a team that's successful in sharing these wonderful, amazing products, and so, with Young Living, what they do is they pay actually me more to help business develop, people build a business. So there's always an option there. It's never it's like a buffet. You know we have this product, we have lavender, we have the thieves toothpaste, we have the whole thieves household wine, which is amazing and smells amazing. But you know, we have this opportunity to really step into blessing others and being being an answer prayer for others, to be able to give people that ability to make a true, honest wage for having your own business and so there's lots of amazing. You know retirement and pension things with. You know building, building that I will tell you that with my Young Living business, just on an annuity level, I would. You know it's, it's an amazing. I get, you know, monthly commission from that and so it's like having a new 80s. So I know that sounds awesome. Yeah, yeah. So, just just FYI, we do have a Friday special that's going on until the 18th, and so there's products anywhere. You want to get started, go ahead and use the link below. It's rebel kit forward, slash KL and you become part of Christie's organization and our team, and so we'll be able to kind of walk you through it. But you'll save 25 to 50% off until Saturday at midnight.

Speaker 1: 55:59

Yeah, and again, if you want that free consultation, rebel K it slash KL. So we can, we could support you and, as I said, we've very much enjoyed having the lavender last night. It was definitely the perfect wind down. Well, stacey, I really appreciate you joining us and look forward to speaking more about these products. Thank you, and now, coming up, a word from our sponsors.

Speaker 5: 56:37

Hi, this is Sean Morgan with an amp consumer report. I'm here with Danny Rosenberg, a specialist in insurance, and Danny. A lot of people are worried about Bidenomics, about the situation with the economy, how volatile everything is, and they're curious about fixed indexed annuities. What are the advantages?

Speaker 4: 56:52

So a lot of people are looking at fixed index annuities as a separate asset class. You don't have any downside risk, you don't have any downside volatility or capture or drawdowns, but you still get some of the upside and people will actually purchase annuities for two basic reasons. The first is guaranteed income for life. So the only way you can really guarantee an income stream you cannot live is through pensions, through social security or annuity. The second reason people are interested in annuities is because they want what's called a protected growth strategy and again, you'll get some of the upside of the equity markets with no downside risk, no downside volatility, no drawdowns or corrections. So it actually acts as a separate asset class and is a great way to protect assets.

Speaker 5: 57:37

That's great and I know for a limited time you're offering free consultations for those who are seriously interested, so we'll put a link in the description below where people can book that consultation. Thank you for your time, Danny.

Speaker 9: 58:24

I don't know if this country can be saved. The information war on any battlefield, on any physical battlefield that I have been on, has always been the most important component of war itself. So they were actually people in our government that were in the executive branch undermining the president of the United States without his knowledge. So that's basically an act of treason. Okay, welcome back.

Speaker 2: 59:01

Luke. The scripture of the day is Luke 13, 24 to 27,.

Speaker 1: 59:08

strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When, once the master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door saying Lord, lord, open for us, and he will answer and say to you, I do not know where you are from, then you will begin to say we ate and drank in your presence and you taught in our streets. But he will say I tell you, I do not know you where you are from. Depart from me all you workers of iniquity. I'd like to thank you again for watching. Don't forget to share the counter narrative. I appreciate having the honor to be able to fill in my wife's shoes for a few days and see, I guess, sometimes how difficult producing a show and putting forth the show for an audience can be. Thank you for joining us again and I'll see you tomorrow again, don't forget to share the counter narrative. My name is John Scott.