Become Your Own Banker to Control Your Finances

230: Become Your Own Banker to Control Your Finances with Mark Willis Joining me on the podcast today is Mark Willis. He's the owner of Lake Growth Financial Services, a financial firm in Chicago, Illinois. Mark is going to lead us on the journey of understanding our financials better. We're going to be looking at how to be the bank for our company, what it means to take back ownership, money, and lending instead of being a slave to the banks or to somebody else holding a note over our head or having so much debt that we don't know how to get out from under it. Mark will share stories and give us methodologies and mindset changes so that we too can be in full control of our finances.  Topics Mentioned: Cost of Debt  Building Wealth  Money Mindset  Generational Wealth  Key Thoughts:   That became my mantra, I want to be better than debt free. And so, as a financial planner, now, I help people become better than debt free. I have since paid off my debts. But more than that, I bought them back by becoming my own banker, paying the student loan snakes off, and actually collecting that money from myself to get a profit off the debt that I once paid to somebody else. Mark Willis (6:03)   It's kind of the Profit First dilemma that we see all the money sitting in the bank account, and they just start taking it. What they've done in essence, is they rob the company coffers to live a lavish lifestyle, to go on trips to fix up their house, to do whatever, to pay a medical bill. I don't care what it is. But they took it from the business prior to when it should have been taken. And now the business is running lean, and they're struggling. And it was the entire lifeblood to build their life and they just destroyed the lifeblood. Michele (23:23)   When you have the bank, you control the whole card table. Imagine how this would work in almost every business. Mark Willis (42:07)   Today has been all about taking back control. And I want to encourage you to do that. Because if you own it, you can change it. And that's the beautiful thing about profit. We're building it. Michele (50:09)   Contact Michele: Email: [email protected] Facebook: Scarlet Thread Consulting Instagram: @ScarletThreadATL Website: ScarletThreadConsulting.com LinkedIn: Michele Williams Contact Mark: Email: [email protected] Website: https://lakegrowth.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/notyouraveragefinancial/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lakegrowth LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marklakegrowth/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/LakeGrowth References and Resources: Work with Me Metrique Solutions Scarlet Thread Consulting Debt for the First 5000 Years by David Graeber Profit First by Mike Michalowicz