We were lucky to catch up with Billy Guan recently and have shared our conversation below.
Billy, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
I got my resilience from my mom. My mom is one of the hardest working people I know. She came to the United States knowing nothing about the country and started a new life. She was an immigrant, single mother of color that did not speak English. Her opportunities were limited but she understood how to hustle and survive.
She was taking care of me and figuring out life at the same time. She taught me work ethic. No matter what life threw at her, she was able to manage it. Might not be the most graceful, but she never let things hold her down.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
My name is Billy! I am a licensed Financial Consultant at Arkshire Financial. I also work as a Financial Coach for my clients. I have been focused on building my brand up and creating relationships and partnerships through my social media. I am really excited to be growing in this space because I see a desperate need for Financial Education in our country. With everything going on in the world right now, society needs to learn about proper financial management. While everything is getting more expensive with Inflation and the ongoing recession, people’s paychecks are definitely not getting bigger.
We are entering into an age where young individuals can create a massive amounts of income through using social media, but are not taught about things like Taxes, How to save money, The difference between Retirement and Investments, and how to protect Wealth. And because of this lack of financial awareness and education, they fall trap to ridiculous financial “advice” from people that have no business teaching about Finances. It is like the blind leading the blind. My goal is to educate and potentially work with people that are open to learning about these concepts.
I teach about the proper orders of operations on how to handle money properly, how to get out of debt effectively, how to manage your assets, how to save for emergencies, how to build generational wealth. My team consists of professionals that work in Accounting, Credit Repair, Estate Planning, and Real Estate.
I am also excited about building an expansion of new coaches to help more people learn about finances, so if there are any qualified candidates that are interested in learning about how this field works and has a good work ethic, let’s see if we are a good match!
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
The three most important qualities that helped me progress in my business are Empathy, Tenacity, and Coachability.
At the core of it, I work in Sales. In Sales, people have to be empathetic to other people’s needs, because we are in a people business. If we treat every individual as a paycheck, the business is going bankrupt. No questions asked. I have to make sure my clients are properly taken care of and that they understand what we need to do to accomplish their goals. If the deal does not work for them, it will not work with our financial partners, and it will not work for me. It has to be a Win-Win-Win situation or no deal. So understanding the needs of others is extremely crucial. The product knowledge is developed through education and training. That technical knowledge can be learned.
Tenacity is another very important piece of the puzzle. I see so many people think that they want to work in my field and their spirit is so brittle that they cannot even pass the mandated state licensing to even begin a career in this industry. And even if they did get licensed by the states, they end up quitting because someone told them no in their first sales meeting. Having a brittle spirit will not lead anybody to greatness. It leads to mediocrity. There is a sacrifice to be made when going into a business journey…You sacrifice a season to learning the skills required to excel to where you want to go…or you sacrifice your dreams for comfort and mediocrity. Both choices are hard to live with…Choose your hard.
Coachability is probably the most important. No one starts their journey good at what they do. That was definitely not the case for me. I sucked at sales. But I had a mentor that coached me on how to perform better in my business. He taught me how to do presentations, how to structure deals, how to read people, how to be better at public speaking. I had to be open to his coaching and guidance in order for me to improve. If I was a know-it-all, I would never have gotten this far in my business. Being coachable will expedite your learning process because the Coach has walked the path before and they know what to do to get you to the next level.
To develop these characteristics…one must remove their ego. Understand that it is not about you. It is about those that you serve. Service to many leads to greatness. How do you serve the many? By attending to the needs of the many. Solve their problems and your problems will eventually be solved. Will it be easy? Absolutely not, you must have the tenacity to push through and endure the challenges. In doing so, you improve your skillsets. Do we have to do this alone? Also no! It may feel like a lonely journey, but there are people that are ahead of you in the journey that will provide you guidance and consult you on what you need to do to improve.
Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?
I am looking for people to partner up to potentially grow the financial firm with. I am looking for people that have experience in Sales, have an entrepreneurial spirit, and is willing to endure and learn. If the individual has some influence and believe in our mission, even better!
I will be the first to tell you that the financial services business is not easy. It’s simple, but it has a learning curve. And if people do not have the drive to want to improve, or even do the bare minimum of getting that state license, they will crash and burn.
If people want to be collaboration partners instead, let’s talk about how we can teach your community and provide value to the people that trust and believe in your group.
Contact Info:
- Website: Billyguan.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/thebillyguan
- Linkedin: linkedin.com/billyguan
- Other: tiktok.com/thebillyguan
Image Credits
Photographer – Mark Tsui
