Episode 280
280: [Jonathan Feniak] Shield Your Assets: Choosing Between LLC & Sole Proprietorship
Are you looking to protect your assets and build a secure financial future for your family? On this episode of About That Wallet, we’re joined by LLC Attorney John Feniak, an expert in LLC formation, estate planning, and business entities. We’ll dive into how creating an LLC can shield you from real estate risk, financial crises, and unexpected liabilities. John explains why an Operating Agreement is like a pre-nup for your business and how it ensures business compliance and financial success. If you’re part of the Sandwich Generation, balancing family care and entrepreneurship, this episode is packed with actionable legal advice to help you with risk management, wealth management, and business growth. Whether you’re starting a small business, managing a hedge fund, or simply navigating the complexities of corporate transparency, this conversation will help you secure your legacy. Don’t miss out—tune in to learn how to take control of your financial future!
Discover more about Jonathan and his work:
Visit the Company Sage website: https://llcattorney.com
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DISCLAIMER: The content in this audio is for educational purposes only. Conduct your own research and make the best choice for you. If you need advice, contact a qualified professional.
Episode 280
Transcript
>> Jonathan Feniak: That's the real fear, right? You've built a, uh,
Speaker:wealth over a lifetime
Speaker:and you have one
Speaker:bad thing that happens, right? The tragedies happen.
Speaker:You own a real estate, you own 20,
Speaker:30 real buildings and there's a fire,
Speaker:right? And people die. It happens.
Speaker:Do they get everything you've made up until that
Speaker:point? Are they able to take everything you have, um,
Speaker:up until that point, or you're well
Speaker:insured and you've isolated that risk into
Speaker:an llc that limits your
Speaker:downside if something happens, Obviously we
Speaker:don't want anything terrible to happen to people.
Speaker:>> Anthony Weaver: Welcome back everybody, back to another exciting show, the
Speaker:about that Wallet podcast, where we helped Samwich generation build
Speaker:strong financial habits so they can not only make
Speaker:money, but spend money and
Speaker:actually enjoy their money with
Speaker:confidence. And today I have an awesome opportunity to
Speaker:bring on somebody who has been dealing, dealing
Speaker:with, you know, helping people with
Speaker:LLCs, uh, estate planning, business entities,
Speaker:and so much more. And I really want to bring
Speaker:in this particular topic because I know
Speaker:a lot of you out there have kids and you want to get themalled
Speaker:into businesses. And I figured why not
Speaker:learn how to do it the right
Speaker:way the first time and get it done.
Speaker:So thank you so much, Jonath. Thank for coming through.
Speaker:>> Jonathan Feniak: Hey, thank you so much for having man. I really
Speaker:appreciate it. I'm a, I'm a sandwich generation.
Speaker:I got kids, uh, they're out of college
Speaker:now, but then aging parents and parents
Speaker:passing away and dealing with their estates. Also
Speaker:an entrepreneur. Uh,
Speaker:so I definitely appreciate what it is
Speaker:you're doing and I'm really excited to be here and
Speaker:help, uh, your listeners with starting their
Speaker:businesses and whatever it else it is we're going to talk about today.
Speaker:>> Anthony Weaver: Yeah, uh, one of the things that I've noticed
Speaker:listening to your journey is that you've been
Speaker:running around all of this. So you didn't start off to be an
Speaker:attorney. Like, what did you want to be when you wanted to grow up?
Speaker:>> Jonathan Feniak: Yeah, uh, yeah, that was the question. Right?
Speaker:Uh, so, yeah, it has been,
Speaker:uh, quite a journey. Undergraduate degree
Speaker:in English. Uh, I love to write, I
Speaker:love to read, I love to closely examine,
Speaker:uh, uh, uh, other people's work.
Speaker:Uh, got out of college and
Speaker:couldn't find a job with an English major, useless major
Speaker:perhaps, uh, and went into transportational
Speaker:logistics. And so I worked for
Speaker:dhl, UPS and Airborne
Speaker:Express, uh, and was an
Speaker:operations manager for Manhattan. So huge
Speaker:operations, lot of people,
Speaker:uh, uh, dealing with
Speaker:three different unions, uh, dealing with a lot
Speaker:of managers that were working for me even at A young
Speaker:age and um,
Speaker:my journey there was
Speaker:really about
Speaker:uh being uh
Speaker:generally unhappy with that line of work.
Speaker:It was very challenging because of the hours
Speaker:and um, I didn't see my path
Speaker:to great financial success or a great
Speaker:family life, work, life balance. Uh, I don't think I could achieve
Speaker:that there. So I made a change and started getting my
Speaker:mba was uh, doing it at
Speaker:night and then at the same time made a transition into
Speaker:uh, the sales side of those businesses being a national
Speaker:account manager. And uh, when I graduated with
Speaker:my mba uh I went to work for a hedge
Speaker:fund and was sourcing
Speaker:or finding companies for the hedge fund to invest
Speaker:in and they were micro cap, usually publicly
Speaker:traded but they were sometimes companies that were private
Speaker:looking to do uh, uh, uh some sort of public
Speaker:offering was very successful there, moved to
Speaker:raising capital for the hedge fund raised a lot of
Speaker:money for the hedge fund uh maybe got a little too big for my
Speaker:britches but went out and started my own hedge fund. Uh
Speaker:unfortunately my timing wasn't great. Uh I had
Speaker:some partners and uh, we hit the financial
Speaker:crisis and had uh, my life
Speaker:was uh, financial life, uh
Speaker:had some issues, uh pulled through
Speaker:uh and at that time I was living on the east coast made a move
Speaker:to Colorado and ended up being
Speaker:a financial advisor with Wells Fargo advisor So I
Speaker:was a uh securities license, uh, was
Speaker:insurance, I was selling insurance products, uh
Speaker:whole life policies and uh, annuities
Speaker:and those sorts of things. Uh and then I
Speaker:was unhappy again and maybe every 10 years I got
Speaker:to change careers. Uh I decided
Speaker:that uh, law school uh was
Speaker:right for me and being a lawyer. So I stopped
Speaker:working. I built some so I call it optionality in my
Speaker:life I had enough resources where I could stop working
Speaker:and still survive uh uh, things may have been a
Speaker:little tight but still survive. Uh and then graduated
Speaker:law school two and a half years was top 10%
Speaker:of my class. I treated it very, I was one of the oldest
Speaker:students, uh full time students uh but my
Speaker:teachers appreciated me and then I passed the bar.
Speaker:I was the last uh group uh to take the bar
Speaker:before the pandemic. The so I have not been a lawyer uh that
Speaker:long uh going on five years
Speaker:here. Uh but during that period of time I
Speaker:think what I bring for my clients is real
Speaker:world business knowledge. Having invested in them,
Speaker:having worked with folks who are high net worth individuals
Speaker:who how did you make your money? You was a real estate, you
Speaker:started company, you were the CEO youE just a hard worker,
Speaker:your right place, right time, inherited wealth. So on and so forth.
Speaker:And also seeing those difficulties that they had
Speaker:when theyre part of that sandwich generation. Our clients tend
Speaker:to look like uh, ourselves and theyve
Speaker:got kids theyre worried about. Do I put money into a 529
Speaker:plan? How do I manage, uh, the
Speaker:ability to get financial aid? How much do I devote to my
Speaker:own retirement? I may be inheriting money. What about
Speaker:my estate plan? All of these things. And so I took
Speaker:my real world experience, uh, in all of
Speaker:those different areas and was able to apply
Speaker:it in the law now. Uh,
Speaker:but uh,
Speaker:I'm a strange kind of
Speaker:lawyer. I guess
Speaker:we could talk about that another time. But
Speaker:um, my practice is focused
Speaker:exclusively on this. I'm not a
Speaker:generalist. I focus on asset protection. I focus
Speaker:on privacy, business formation and then
Speaker:estate planning. Uh, in addition to that, they all become part of
Speaker:this whole where. And
Speaker:really so much of that is really asset
Speaker:protection. You've got a business for asset protection. You've got an
Speaker:estate plan to save yourself from est state taxes or save
Speaker:yourself from additional costs. So all these things come
Speaker:together. Um, and I have
Speaker:the luxury of also uh, being
Speaker:one of the owners of a company that
Speaker:uh, company Sage, uh, company Sage is the
Speaker:owner of Wyoming LLC Attorney as well
Speaker:as LLC Attorney, uh, as well as a number of
Speaker:other brands. And we have uh,
Speaker:built those companies to help
Speaker:entrepreneurs get what they need, not get
Speaker:confused, really focus on the compliance
Speaker:aspect and their business success
Speaker:Platform is what we've really tried to build and I think we've done
Speaker:an amazing job. That's part of what I do. But
Speaker:the other part of what I do is I talk to people
Speaker:about how we can come up with real
Speaker:world solutions to their
Speaker:entrepreneurial uh, problems or their entrepreneurial
Speaker:goals.
Speaker:>> Anthony Weaver: Yeah. And because of you've been doing this for so
Speaker:long in this area of the
Speaker:law when it comes to asset protection.
Speaker:Just can you share why this area of law is so important
Speaker:to you?
Speaker:>> Jonathan Feniak: Because a single event could be
Speaker:ruinous. That's the real fear.
Speaker:>> Anthony Weaver: Right.
Speaker:>> Jonathan Feniak: You've built a, uh, wealth over a
Speaker:lifetime and you have
Speaker:one bad thing that happens.
Speaker:>> Anthony Weaver: Right.
Speaker:>> Jonathan Feniak: The tragedies happen. You own a real
Speaker:estate, you own uh, 20, 30, uh,
Speaker:buildings and there's a fire. Right. And
Speaker:people die. It happens.
Speaker:Do they get everything you've made up until that
Speaker:point? Are they able to take everything you have
Speaker:up until that point? Or you're well
Speaker:insured and you've isolated that risk into
Speaker:an LLC that limits your
Speaker:downside if something happens, obviously we
Speaker:dont want anything terrible to happen. To people. But
Speaker:there are the plaintiffs attorneys and there are people
Speaker:who will come after you for every penny youve
Speaker:made up until that point in your life. And so, uh,
Speaker:avoiding that downside risk, when a
Speaker:bad thing happens, I hope it never does. I want
Speaker:you to be able to, and I want my clients to be able to
Speaker:limit that risk into business
Speaker:reality sized buckets of
Speaker:assets that are at risk.
Speaker:>> Anthony Weaver: Has like a friend or family ever been impacted so much
Speaker:that kind of drive you for this? Or it just kind of like, you
Speaker:know, I just see this need and
Speaker:really want to go after it.
Speaker:>> Jonathan Feniak: Uh, so it's sort of a sampling
Speaker:bias. Right. When I talked to,
Speaker:uh, and when I was a financial advisor, I talked to people
Speaker:and they'd say they got lucky. You never
Speaker:had any lawsuits over this period of time? No, nothing happened, man.
Speaker:The people I don't get to talk to are the ones where they had the
Speaker:ruinous event. Right. And so it's been
Speaker:a bias there. Now I
Speaker:get to talk to people who oftentimes
Speaker:they come to me because something terrible has
Speaker:already happened. It's difficult in those
Speaker:situations. The horse has already left the barn.
Speaker:But sometimes they're like, look, I realize I can't do
Speaker:anything. I'm not going to advise anyone. You're not going to hide assets.
Speaker:It's too late. What you can do is now
Speaker:you're like, try to settle, try to get a settlement on this
Speaker:thing. Um, but let's
Speaker:help you plan for the future. So there are
Speaker:plenty of people I speak to now where there is an
Speaker:event that is ruinous because they had all their
Speaker:eggs in one basket. Uh, but
Speaker:they are, uh, I hope that people can
Speaker:listen to this, uh, and realize
Speaker:that it's pretty inexpensive
Speaker:and it's pretty easy, especially with our platform,
Speaker:to manage your LLCs and limit your
Speaker:downside to what it is you feel comfortable
Speaker:risking. The great
Speaker:thing about, uh, America
Speaker:is that the states want
Speaker:to spur entrepreneurship. They want
Speaker:you to take risks. They've
Speaker:given you a vehicle, an LLC or a
Speaker:corporation where you get to say how
Speaker:much you want at risk. I, uh, may be a
Speaker:millionaire. I'm only willing to risk
Speaker:$100,000 on this restaurant. You put
Speaker:$100,000 into the LLC.
Speaker:That's what, as long as you're doing everything right, that's what you
Speaker:have at risk. They want to spur entrepreneurship.
Speaker:If you don't have an llc, all your chips
Speaker:are on their table, every hand, right? Who wants to
Speaker:operate that? You can't sleep at night when your downside is
Speaker:Unlimited. Well, it's limited to everything you own.
Speaker:>> Anthony Weaver: Yeah, that's a sad thing about it. Um, and especially if we
Speaker:don't know what we re doing and sometimes we don't know how to
Speaker:get there to extra funding. But this episode isn't about
Speaker:how to get the funding. It's about protecting your asset.
Speaker:>> Jonathan Feniak: Exactly.
Speaker:>> Anthony Weaver: So have you noticed any trends
Speaker:or challenges, Challenges that
Speaker:um, that are in the asset protection
Speaker:area that a lot of people are
Speaker:coming across or like that you've come across, that
Speaker:is actually shaping your work?
Speaker:>> Jonathan Feniak: Yeah, uh, call it the
Speaker:scourge of social media. Um,
Speaker:you know, a lot of people, not attorneys, not
Speaker:really. I don't think they know what they're talking about. A lot of cases, some
Speaker:do, uh, but some don't. And recommend, uh,
Speaker:strategies that are really, number
Speaker:one, ultimately going to be ineffective.
Speaker:Number two, are too
Speaker:complicated for their current
Speaker:situation. And you know, people come up and
Speaker:I, I'm going to have a trust in
Speaker:the Cook Islands and then I'm going to have a Nevis
Speaker:llc and then I'm going to have a Wyoming Trust and then
Speaker:I'm I to have this. And they're like, well, what's your net worth? They're like,
Speaker:I got a dollar fifty cent in the bank. And well, what's your liability?
Speaker:Is like, well, you know, I've got a W2 job like,
Speaker:tap the brakes, man. Okay. Uh, and people,
Speaker:the analogy I use is people will say, be like, I want the
Speaker:absolute best in asset protection. And I say, okay, if I
Speaker:were advising you on how to get the ab. Absol. Best in home
Speaker:security, what I would say is we're going to build a
Speaker:50 foot wall around the house. We're going to have a moat with
Speaker:alligators, right? And we're going to have guys with
Speaker:snipers, uh, and dogs that'll rip your throat out.
Speaker:You're going to be absolutely protected. But it's going to be
Speaker:tough to get the kids to school on time. You're probably going to get
Speaker:sued because of those dogs. And your Amazon packages aren't
Speaker:getting delivered. Instead, how about a ring
Speaker:camera and a new lock? And they're like, oh, yeah,
Speaker:okay, I get it now.
Speaker:'if you are someone
Speaker:who needs, if you're Jeff Bezos, you need those
Speaker:things, right? You ain't Jeff Bezos, dude.
Speaker:Right. So tap the brakes. Let's keep it
Speaker:simple because actually is a case
Speaker:that's going up before the Supreme Court right now. And it was
Speaker:a company, it was actually a company that
Speaker:uh, was large. It was in the real estate,
Speaker:uh, business. And they had a, you
Speaker:know, their parent company and they had all these
Speaker:subsidiaries, but the parent
Speaker:company was providing
Speaker:services. Basically all the employees were lent
Speaker:to the other companies. They were sharing
Speaker:resources, they had accounting, they had separate bank accounts,
Speaker:but they were sharing resources, sharing expenses across all of them.
Speaker:And the court in that case said that there
Speaker:is no real distinction between these. There were
Speaker:two closely intertwined.
Speaker:For us to respect the
Speaker:separateness of these individual entities, we'll see what the
Speaker:Supreme Court says. But it sent shock
Speaker:waave, uh, because people think I'll set up
Speaker:an LLC, I'll tell 10 LLCs. Each of them
Speaker:does this. Is that the other thing? But they're not
Speaker:really getting the separateness because they're not separate businesses. And I had a
Speaker:call with someone today. They have three
Speaker:LLCs already. They made S Corp elections
Speaker:on all three of them. And one of them
Speaker:was doing exactly the same thing as another
Speaker:one, but they just wanted a different brand.
Speaker:I was like, this makes no sense. You're sharing the same employees across. Yeah,
Speaker:sharing the same employees. It should have been a trade name. It should have been a dba.
Speaker:>> Anthony Weaver: J. Dba, Right.
Speaker:>> Jonathan Feniak: Single company with multiple lines of business,
Speaker:the same type of risks associated with it. Uh, do a
Speaker:single company separate trade names.
Speaker:Multiple S corps. Dude, multiple S corps. You
Speaker:got to pay yourself a reasonable salary in each of them and you're
Speaker:undermining um, uh, your fic
Speaker:tax savings. And I'm hoping these sort of things I'm throwing out
Speaker:here, your listeners are familiar with these things
Speaker:and so don't have multiple S corps.
Speaker:Sometimes it's unavoidable where you get different partnerships and so
Speaker:on. But for people, do your S
Speaker:corp and then have it as a management company
Speaker:or have multiple then subsidiaries where it's
Speaker:all flowing up. But then we have one reasonable salary and
Speaker:we actually can deliver on the tax
Speaker:saving promise of an S corp. So
Speaker:don't make it too complicated to
Speaker:start. You can change, you can adapt, you
Speaker:can right size, uh, uh, your business as
Speaker:things change.
Speaker:>> Anthony Weaver: So say somebody that is
Speaker:45, they have a child that is about
Speaker:21 and their
Speaker:child is looking to start a business. They themselves want to continue
Speaker:to work their nine to five because they was like they don't want to deal with the
Speaker:mess. What would you, from your
Speaker:expertise and your experiences, what would you tell them to do? To
Speaker:start with, say it's a, um,
Speaker:let's say it's a lemonade company. You
Speaker:just want to elimina.
Speaker:>> Jonathan Feniak: Right. So put uh, together
Speaker:a Business plan. Right. So and
Speaker:that's one of the sort of extremes here. Uh,
Speaker:maybe not as extreme as people who want to do a
Speaker:uh, something related to NFTS or crypto, but
Speaker:it's out there. Food service number one huge
Speaker:failure rate in food service licensing. You got to get
Speaker:your commerce, the commercial kitchen. You have to get those
Speaker:space available. You have to get permitting. You're going to have to. I've
Speaker:had clients. Well where are they going to sell the lemonade? They're going
Speaker:to sell it in Whole Foods. Great. Whole Foods demands that you have
Speaker:your million dollar plus liability policy.
Speaker:Even getting a barcode. Do you know how complicated
Speaker:it is to get a barcode for a product that you're going to put in
Speaker:the shelves there? Do you know how difficult it is to get shelf
Speaker:space? So having. If
Speaker:my child wanted to start a business.
Speaker:Right. Mhm. Let's do a business
Speaker:plan and figure out what
Speaker:barriers there are to entry for
Speaker:it, what it's going to cost you to get there
Speaker:and then let's just do a unit analysis in order
Speaker:to overcome your initial
Speaker:costs, the timing on this, all of that.
Speaker:How many units do you need to sell now? Tell
Speaker:me how you're going to sell that many units
Speaker:without discouraging them. Make them do the
Speaker:homework, make them get into the
Speaker:details. Create the business plan and whether
Speaker:it's a small business administration or local
Speaker:organizations that offer services
Speaker:on starting your business again, cities and states and the
Speaker:like want to spur entrepreneurship. Make them
Speaker:do that work. And then I would love to invest in your business.
Speaker:I want nothing more than for you to be
Speaker:successful. But in order to get there,
Speaker:I'm going to treat you like I would if I investing in any other
Speaker:business. Make your pitch to me. Here's what it's going to need to be
Speaker:successful to make a successful pitch to dad.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:>> Anthony Weaver: I like that. I like that.
Speaker:So what was the pivotal moment in your success?
Speaker:>> Jonathan Feniak: Um, you know it's funny, I
Speaker:was. My sister was down for
Speaker:Thanksgiving, uh, uh, and she brought a
Speaker:box of stuff here. I'm not keeping this stuff anymore. My mom had passed away, she
Speaker:had a whole bunch of stuff and I found uh,
Speaker:I had started my first company when
Speaker:I was 14 years old. Uh, it was called
Speaker:Happy Dog Industrieseff.
Speaker:And I made skateboards. I was a skateboarder and so I
Speaker:would buy skateboard, they were called blanks. And then I
Speaker:would go to friend work, to the skate shop. I'd go in and Id'trace
Speaker:the shape of the hottest boards that were out. And I would cut
Speaker:them out and sand them and, uh, put some
Speaker:polyurethane on them and sell them for half the price of what
Speaker:the boards were selling for at the shop. I loved
Speaker:it. I loved it. Right. I didn't have an
Speaker:llc. My liability was low, whatever else, but it
Speaker:was. I'm going to invest, and I bought
Speaker:20 or 30 of the blank boards,
Speaker:but then I got all that money back, and then I bought more, and then I
Speaker:bought a better saw, and then I bought this, and then I bought that,
Speaker:and, uh, I think, um, I still. I've been chasing
Speaker:that high for when I was 14 years old,
Speaker:you see. All right, there's some risk here.
Speaker:I got to put money out the door. But when the money starts coming
Speaker:in, that feels so good. And I have to
Speaker:say, my friends loved it. Right?
Speaker:It was fantastic. For that, they're getting the boards, half
Speaker:price. You know, I made up this
Speaker:hat. Should, um, pull out the hat, uh, and
Speaker:had stickers. And, uh, I made
Speaker:a, uh. Uh, actually, I'm
Speaker:thinking about this. I hired a friend of mine
Speaker:to do a logo for the company. He was an artist,
Speaker:and I had no agreement with him. I'm not sure I have the
Speaker:right. The title, the intellectual property
Speaker:might not. It's probably not mine. Right? There's the laws
Speaker:about that. Uh, I did not know what I was doing, but
Speaker:that was so fun.
Speaker:And really what I get to do now is
Speaker:eavesdrop on other entrepreneurs.
Speaker:I get to hear so many cool things that people are doing,
Speaker:and I'mr an
Speaker:empath, and I love to hear their stories
Speaker:and hear their success and then help them
Speaker:really focus on that business again. That
Speaker:overcompication, if it's taking you
Speaker:away from delivering product to a
Speaker:customer, bringing in revenue, really think
Speaker:about, do I need this at this point in time? And the Cook Islands
Speaker:Trust and Nevis and all these other things, and multiple
Speaker:entities. And so tap the brakes.
Speaker:How are you going to be successful? And how can I help you be
Speaker:successful?
Speaker:>> Anthony Weaver: I like that I might be. The title of this show just called Tap the
Speaker:Breaks. How can you be successful?
Speaker:Love it.
Speaker:Uh, so you work with many entrepreneurs and families,
Speaker:setting up their LLCs, and so forth. Um,
Speaker:but one concept that I've heard you
Speaker:mentioned is that a business operation agreement is like a
Speaker:prenup. Can you explain a little bit more
Speaker:about what you mean by that?
Speaker:>> Jonathan Feniak: Yeah. The operating agreement for an llc,
Speaker:uh, is the document that
Speaker:will, uh, direct the management and operations
Speaker:of the company. And,
Speaker:uh, you want to go in.
Speaker:You hope for the best, but plan for the worst. At the
Speaker:beginning of a marriage and at the beginning
Speaker:of a business, everyone is in
Speaker:Everyone'it's. Fantastic. Everyone's excited. Everyone's going
Speaker:to participate. We're going to, we're going to share the expenses
Speaker:in this way. We're going to divide up the profits in that way.
Speaker:We're not thinking about the breakup. And
Speaker:uh, an operating agreement lays
Speaker:out the rules of the
Speaker:game. What happens if someone wants
Speaker:out? Do I have to buy them out? Can they just
Speaker:leave what they do? They suppose they don't participate
Speaker:anymore. What, what is the authority
Speaker:of an individual? I a terrible, uh, story. There are two guys. One of
Speaker:them is very well healed, right? One guy' wealthy. The guys not
Speaker:so wealthy. They decided to invest in some real estate together.
Speaker:Do their first deal. Everything's fine. The
Speaker:wealthy guy goes and signs a
Speaker:contract for the LLC to
Speaker:purchase property. Right. Puts money
Speaker:down on it. Right. Put some earnest money down
Speaker:and then goes to his partners like, great news. I
Speaker:found this great property. You need to put in
Speaker:$50,000 into the LLC within a week.
Speaker:I don't have it. Right. So that would be something that
Speaker:would be covered in the operating agreement.
Speaker:What is the authority of a member? What is the
Speaker:authority of a manager?
Speaker:Any individual member. A manager can spend up to
Speaker:$1,000 without the consent of the other members or
Speaker:managers. Anything above from
Speaker:1,000 to 10,000 do you require?
Speaker:Uh, uh, let's assume there's more than two
Speaker:members. You require a majority consent.
Speaker:Anything above 100,000. Unanimous consent required, something like
Speaker:that. So you build that into the operating agreement
Speaker:so that everyone understands what
Speaker:they can and can't do. Failing to discuss it is one of
Speaker:the problems. And so the operating
Speaker:agreement is a point of discussion. We can
Speaker:discuss it. Let's get all this stuff out here. And sometimes I
Speaker:actually to call today, I'm not sure they're moving forward
Speaker:with the business because there was something we came
Speaker:up with and without getting into the details and giving up
Speaker:attorney client, uh, disclosure here,
Speaker:um, uh, I should say attorney client privilege.
Speaker:They had not discussed a key
Speaker:point. We raised the key point and
Speaker:they started arguing with each other. So guys, our consultation
Speaker:is done. You need to work it out. And if you can come up with the
Speaker:terms, then lets then move forward with this thing.
Speaker:But youre going to discuss it at the
Speaker:beginning, get it memorialized in the
Speaker:operating agreement. And if those bad things that
Speaker:you hope arent going to happen, you have a roadmap
Speaker:for how you're going to Handle them. That's what a prenup is,
Speaker:right? We're going to be married, everything's going to be
Speaker:great. As soon as we, if we have kids together or I saw
Speaker:one, you know, if we're together 15 years and the prenup evaporates,
Speaker:great, okay, great. What if that doesn't happen? Right.
Speaker:Then what we brought to the marriage, we're going to leave with
Speaker:or know whatever you come up with. So it is a
Speaker:tough discussion that prenup, the operating
Speaker:agreement can be a tough discussion as
Speaker:well. Usually not as severe as the
Speaker:company is not going to move forward. But you're getting it out in the
Speaker:open and then there's not going to be a surprise where I need to come up with
Speaker:a $50,000 check in a week.
Speaker:>> Anthony Weaver: Right.
Speaker:>> Jonathan Feniak: That kind. So that's why the operating agreement is
Speaker:important. And one of the things that
Speaker:people m. Miss the
Speaker:operating agreement is a contract. And it's a
Speaker:contract that's binding on the signatories.
Speaker:Okay. You and I
Speaker:enter into uh, AMAN llc. We
Speaker:sign our operating agreement, somebody sues us.
Speaker:Has no relevance. They're not a signatory to that agreement.
Speaker:Right. All we're going to get
Speaker:is if they're trying to
Speaker:force the company to do something,
Speaker:there may be provisions. And in our operating
Speaker:agreements, the ones we provide to our uh, uh,
Speaker:formation clients at Wyoming LLC or LLC
Speaker:attorney, there's provisions in there about
Speaker:what those parties, the people who are
Speaker:suing can do. And so one of
Speaker:the most important provisions is that, and
Speaker:it's based on this idea of pick your partner. Right.
Speaker:I can't have a new partner
Speaker:forced on me. That is
Speaker:critical to have in that operating agreement that you
Speaker:can't go sell your interest to somebody else.
Speaker:Somebody can't forclose on your interest. And now
Speaker:I've got Wells Fargo as my new business partner.
Speaker:Or you sell it to your brother in law and he's
Speaker:my new business partner. No, I didn't sign up for that.
Speaker:So um, uh, really important concepts
Speaker:and I used to uh, do
Speaker:custom operating agreement drafting for
Speaker:people. A lot of work, thousands of
Speaker:dollars I would have to charge for it. And
Speaker:at the end of the day 90% of them needed the same
Speaker:things. So working with uh,
Speaker:the technology team that we have,
Speaker:we went through and we created call it a
Speaker:custom operating agreementments like mass customization, 30
Speaker:or 40 questions that you answer. And then
Speaker:at the end when you submit it, an
Speaker:operating agreement comes out that contains all these
Speaker:different provisions. Right. Uh,
Speaker:its a great tool. Its available for The Wyoming companies, most
Speaker:people, they have a Wyoming holding company, uh,
Speaker:and thats where the ownership and the partnership is.
Speaker:But uh, has been a fantastic,
Speaker:uh, powerful tool for our
Speaker:customers to have those discussions.
Speaker:>> Anthony Weaver: Nice. Yeah, because I'm thinking now
Speaker:because business and all the business is mostly
Speaker:like a relationship at the end of the day really.
Speaker:>> Jonathan Feniak: Um, it's a partnership. It's a marriage, man.
Speaker:>> Anthony Weaver: It's a marriage. Because people always
Speaker:argue with me when I keep saying like, you know, marriage is a
Speaker:business at the end of the day. Like if the government wasn't
Speaker:involved, you know, how many divorces will happen
Speaker:tomorrow. It's crazy.
Speaker:Um, but one of the things about this collaboration
Speaker:piece is that you
Speaker:um, you had this permanent vacation to
Speaker:Colorado. Uh, I just wanted to know what was that
Speaker:conversation like, uh, when you decide to
Speaker:settle in Colorado, what's your wife?
Speaker:>> Jonathan Feniak: Yeah, well, I've resettled a number of times. I don't live in
Speaker:Colorado anymore. So I'm a Wyoming and Colorado license as
Speaker:attorney. I live in Puerto Rico.
Speaker:>> Anthony Weaver: Sweet.
Speaker:>> Jonathan Feniak: Yeah. Uh, so when the
Speaker:financial crisis happened, um, uh,
Speaker:I mean it was good timing, it was bad timing.
Speaker:Uh, my wife's mother had been a
Speaker:25 year survivor of cancer. But it came back
Speaker:and over that the
Speaker:2008, two, uh, thousand nine.
Speaker:2008 or 2009, don't hold me to the year, uh, she
Speaker:came out and saw her mom and her mom's health was really failing.
Speaker:And so uh, said, she said
Speaker:john, I need to be there with her. I didn't want to split up our family.
Speaker:With the financial crisis, things were not going well.
Speaker:And I said uh, well if I can find
Speaker:work in uh, Colorado then let's move there.
Speaker:And so wind up. We move for family. I mean that's the sandwich
Speaker:generation. My kids were in first grade
Speaker:kindergarten and then an aging mother
Speaker:and mother in law, uh, I love
Speaker:dearly. And we made the decision for
Speaker:the good of our family for that sandwich
Speaker:generation. Uh, then after
Speaker:all that time in Colorado, uh, up
Speaker:until 2022, uh, we were in
Speaker:Colorado, so 14 or whatever. Count the number of
Speaker:years. 13, 14 years. Uh, and then uh,
Speaker:the business, the Wyoming LLC
Speaker:attorney, uh, and the LLC attorney business,
Speaker:uh, we saw a great opportunity in Puerto Rico
Speaker:for uh, a whole host of reasons.
Speaker:And because my kids were now gone,
Speaker:they went to college. My wife and I, uh, we were actually
Speaker:married in Puerto Rico, uh, and loved Puerto
Speaker:Rico, loved Puerto Rican people, loved the
Speaker:culture, uh, and had been visiting it for
Speaker:periodically over the years. We said let's
Speaker:change. Life is short man, living in paradise
Speaker:is a good thing. Love the mountains, love Colorado. But I love
Speaker:Puerto Rico too.
Speaker:>> Anthony Weaver: So like are you'all going to move back
Speaker:for the kids? So you're going to stay there? I like, you know what?
Speaker:>> Jonathan Feniak: This is it. No, no, I love, I love Puero Rico. The kids are,
Speaker:you know, uh, one's graduated already, one's got an next
Speaker:semester. Uh, and they
Speaker:are, you know, they got their own lives. They come.
Speaker:Who doesn't love to come? And everybody loves to come and visit us.
Speaker:Uh, come on down. You are welcome. Uh,
Speaker:we, we uh, uh, we don't
Speaker:envision leaving Puerto Rico. I
Speaker:mean the weather is gorgeous again. People are wonderful. Going
Speaker:the beach every week. And uh, it's also
Speaker:super easy. So it's a US territory. We don't need
Speaker:it. You don't need a passport. Have so you have a passport. But
Speaker:easy flights to New York and Atlanta and
Speaker:wherever the heck else we uh, want to go. So it
Speaker:is a, it'a fantastic uh, place to live.
Speaker:And I don't envision, uh, you never know what life's going
Speaker:to throw at you. You know, there was, there was a study, uh,
Speaker:that Harvard did and it's called uh, it was a
Speaker:longitudinal study. I forget who did the study. I apologize
Speaker:to, to the author of the study. But it was
Speaker:like they asked people like, like what was your life like 10
Speaker:years ago? And they're like, man, it was crazy.
Speaker:It was so different from what my life is now. And then they ask them
Speaker:what do you think life's going to be like in 10 years? They're like, yeah, it'll be exactly the
Speaker:same. Do you think they were right? They were not right. Right. It is
Speaker:a, uh, uh, and my 10 year
Speaker:cycles, it was fine. It was operations
Speaker:and then it was finance and then it was law
Speaker:and we'll see where I am in 10 years. Go be a
Speaker:chiropractor, you know, massage therapist, piloty
Speaker:instructor. I don't know'be something.
Speaker:>> Anthony Weaver: All right, uh, so what advice like do
Speaker:you give people who are hesitant to take that first step
Speaker:in secureing that financial future?
Speaker:>> Jonathan Feniak: U, uh, no time like the president. Right. You
Speaker:need to u, uh, you know, be
Speaker:cautious. Um,
Speaker:don'and.
Speaker:Dip your toe in. There's people. We dive
Speaker:all into it. Uh, 100% in. Burn
Speaker:the boats at the beach of idea. When
Speaker:it comes to starting a business, I think
Speaker:it pays to step back, slow
Speaker:down, don't overcomplicate.
Speaker:And one of the key things I've said
Speaker:is that let's assume
Speaker:everything Goes right, you got a product you're going to
Speaker:create, how are you going to sell it? Ultimately,
Speaker:every business owner is in sales, whether they're selling
Speaker:themselves, whether they're selling a physical product,
Speaker:whether they're going to be selling a digital product, whatever it is they're
Speaker:doing. You are in sales, how are you selling that product?
Speaker:Forget about how you're going to get there, forget about how you're going to create it, what advice
Speaker:you're going to get, what it is, how will you sell it?
Speaker:That in this age is the most
Speaker:difficult thing. That is the thing. I'm going to be,
Speaker:uh, an influence.
Speaker:I'm going to start a podcast. How are you going to get
Speaker:followers? How are you going to get listeners? How are you going to get people who are
Speaker:willing to pay for your services? Right. And so if you start
Speaker:out with that mindset that I will be a
Speaker:salesperson in this, uh,
Speaker:that is a fantastic place to start.
Speaker:>> Anthony Weaver: In your experience, what mindsets or actions just to
Speaker:of help people move forward when they starting a
Speaker:business or even just protecting their assets.
Speaker:>> Jonathan Feniak: Right? Yeah. And so when it comes to starting the
Speaker:business, I like to focus on,
Speaker:assume everything goes right, you can actually create the product, you
Speaker:can, you know, your business structure is going to be fine, all that stuff's going to work. How
Speaker:are you going to sell the product? And you sort of, uh, realize as an
Speaker:entrepreneur you are a salesperson, uh,
Speaker:first and foremost you need to figure out how you're going to
Speaker:sell the units. It's required to support
Speaker:yourself, support the business. What are your unit
Speaker:volumes going to be? Whatever your units are, uh, if
Speaker:you're going to be an influencer, how are you going to get people to listen
Speaker:to uh, your podcast or
Speaker:subscribe to your feeds or if you're a consultant, how are you going to
Speaker:get those clients? Uh, if you're selling
Speaker:widgets or physical product, where are you going to sell it?
Speaker:How are you going to sell it? And think about the sales side
Speaker:first and then all of those other things
Speaker:fall into place. Those are the easier parts I think
Speaker:in today's uh, in today's economy is how are
Speaker:you going to get eyeballs on your product. And then
Speaker:when it comes to asset protection, thinking
Speaker:about that, thinking about where your risks are
Speaker:and uh, do you have risks that you
Speaker:can't cover with insurance? Insurance is
Speaker:great, uh, hopefully not too expensive,
Speaker:uh, for you to obtain, but that's the first line
Speaker:of defense. Uh, when it comes to asset protection,
Speaker:figure out how you can cover yourself when it Comes
Speaker:to risks and then figure out what is
Speaker:it you're willing to risk on the business.
Speaker:That's where you get to, you're going to form that llc, you're going to limit
Speaker:your downside risk by only putting
Speaker:into that LLC the amount that you want to or willing
Speaker:to potentially lose. And so you sort of start out with.
Speaker:And I get, I don't know,
Speaker:not invited to uh, uh, some
Speaker:meetings. But I tend to be negative. Right. And
Speaker:so and I talk to anyone and I need to hold myself
Speaker:back to not be the most negative person in the room. But
Speaker:thinking about um, those
Speaker:negatives that are, if they're
Speaker:complete, it's a one in a million chance the negative then not
Speaker:worth thinking about most likely.
Speaker:But there are things that are know
Speaker:there's the known unknowns, uh, that
Speaker:something bad could happen. If you own real
Speaker:estate, there could be uh, an
Speaker:accident. Right. Your tenants could get hurt, they could
Speaker:sue. Having the insurance, having the LLC
Speaker:protects you. In that case, if you'got you're selling a
Speaker:food product, something like that, someone gets sick from it, uh,
Speaker:you've got your product liability insurance
Speaker:and then you've also got the LLC to protect you. So
Speaker:thinking about those downsides but also you know, when you're
Speaker:starting how am I going to sell this darn thing?
Speaker:>> Anthony Weaver: Yeah. And the beauty for those of you who
Speaker:are listening is that the reason why we want to,
Speaker:we can't give specific answers is because
Speaker:everybody's situation is going to be a little different.
Speaker:So remember this is just hand waving
Speaker:information uh, meaning we just touching
Speaker:this but you still got to do your research.
Speaker:Definitely talk to John and his team uh, so we
Speaker:can get you a specific information that you
Speaker:need.
Speaker:So John, with that being said we're going to slide into the third
Speaker:sement which is the features. Um, and
Speaker:this one is where u,
Speaker:um, a lot of the people who are okay, we're listening
Speaker:about the asset protection but there'something that you've
Speaker:mentioned about which is called the six steps to
Speaker:asset protection. And how can we apply that
Speaker:to um, our businesses as an
Speaker:entrepreneurs or even just for all families.
Speaker:>> Jonathan Feniak: Yeah. And so I, you know I'm going to push
Speaker:back a little bit. Uh, you know,
Speaker:and it's easy to digest and I think it's good, you know,
Speaker:for, for podcasts perhaps. But, but what
Speaker:are the steps to asset protection? We need
Speaker:to assess what your risks
Speaker:are. Right. We need to assess what assets
Speaker:you have and then come up
Speaker:with a plan that makes
Speaker:sense. That really is the key here.
Speaker:And I Think there's too much, you know, what does a lawyer
Speaker:do? You know, a lawyer hears
Speaker:about your situation and provides customized, uh,
Speaker:advice for you. Um,
Speaker:so I think it's hard to say,
Speaker:you know, those six items.
Speaker:Uh, and again, I don't
Speaker:want to. You need these six things and I see videos and
Speaker:you need these 10 things in your LLC operating agreement. You're an
Speaker:idiot. That's not true, man. It's not true. That's not the
Speaker:way really this works, right?
Speaker:Size it for your needs. We've got a great
Speaker:team. Uh, we've got great information
Speaker:on our websites. You have the ability
Speaker:to talk to attorneys, uh, if you
Speaker:have I go the Occams razor approach.
Speaker:Let's keep it simple, uh, at
Speaker:the beginning and then we can scale later
Speaker:on. But we make you have these amenities, I
Speaker:call it, that you can uh, talk to,
Speaker:educated our entity
Speaker:formation team, uh, help you understand what the
Speaker:choices are. Uh, we also, we
Speaker:have uh, created inside of the
Speaker:client portal the products that are there and
Speaker:the things that are there. The services that are there are, uh,
Speaker:ones you have a likelihood of needing. I find
Speaker:a lot of folks, there's a thousand things and it's
Speaker:so cluttered with potential options. You don't
Speaker:know, do I need this thing? And so we've
Speaker:tried to really provide those things that there's a
Speaker:high likelihood that people will need. And then we've also
Speaker:created packages or bundles and saying,
Speaker:okay, you're just starting out. Keep it as simple as we
Speaker:can. Okay, you're sort of thinking about the future and
Speaker:this one is where maybe you're in a more advanced
Speaker:stage. So, uh, I'm going to push
Speaker:back on a one size
Speaker:fits all approach, I think.
Speaker:Figure out how you're going to sell your product, come up with a
Speaker:business plan just like you said with the 21 year old. Uh,
Speaker:let's get you to think about how we're going to make this, how you're going to
Speaker:make this thing work, where the money is going to come from. Uh, and
Speaker:then an LLC is really the most
Speaker:basic thing. Protect yourself from
Speaker:having all of your chips on the table.
Speaker:Uh, that is a huge part. And then let's focus on
Speaker:simplicity in most cases. Uh, not getting
Speaker:too complicated. Uh, so I'm
Speaker:sorry if I'm disappointing you, uh, on
Speaker:the six things, uh, but I think
Speaker:there's more to it to that and I don'to I don't
Speaker:want to present a vision of uh, if you do these six
Speaker:things, everything's going to be fine.
Speaker:>> Anthony Weaver: No I appreciate it because it's the six steps
Speaker:came from something you talked about like
Speaker:four years ago which actually shows your growth
Speaker:in over
Speaker:years. And I love that you actually
Speaker:uh, are pushing back on that now. Uh,
Speaker:because the way of the Internet, everybody just
Speaker:putting things out there and we just want to, want to make sure that
Speaker:everybody's protected it properly.
Speaker:>> Jonathan Feniak: Yeah, properly. Properly is the key and that um,
Speaker:don't overcomplicate it. Uh, and you know,
Speaker:example know people, they're going to
Speaker:uh, they have an idea, it's going to be the next
Speaker:Google. They haven't written a line of code,
Speaker:they don't have any investors. Uh, it's just them
Speaker:sitting in their basement. Okay. And so then they go and they
Speaker:form a Delaware corporation, they hire a corporate
Speaker:attorney, they do all these other things, they spend a whole lot of money doing
Speaker:it. No investors ever come
Speaker:know they never get the code actually written. So
Speaker:for those people let's start a
Speaker:simple Wyoming
Speaker:LLCay. It's going to be a single member
Speaker:LLC. We're not going to make a tax election on it. We're going to keep
Speaker:it simple. Hey, then you know what happens
Speaker:youe making somet traction, right? Youre going to bring in a
Speaker:partner, right? Great. Lets turn it into a partnership.
Speaker:Right. Then we say hey wait a minute, we'going to do friends
Speaker:and family. We'going to have some friends and family who want to invest.
Speaker:Is it a securities offering? We'think about those things. But we'going to do
Speaker:a conversion to a corporation and you can
Speaker:do that. You can make an llc, turn it into a corporation
Speaker:and were going to change the tax status of the company with the IRs
Speaker:to C Corp tax status. Fantastic. Wait a minute.
Speaker:Things are going so well. Now weve got
Speaker:venture capital investors who are coming in. You know what they want,
Speaker:they want you to be in Delaware. We're going to do um, a domestication
Speaker:of the company to Delaware, move it to
Speaker:Delaware and then those investors are willing to
Speaker:come in. They really like the laws in Delaware. They're like the Court of Chancery and
Speaker:all that stuff. But what we've done in the meantime is that initial
Speaker:stage, single member Wyoming llc.
Speaker:Inexpensive, easy to administer.
Speaker:Compliance is easy. They don't have any separate
Speaker:tax filing to do. And then they've scaled up
Speaker:and changed as the situation demands
Speaker:it. Maybe then they do a ah, couple of
Speaker:subsidiaries for different products or they've got an IP
Speaker:portfolio without all these other things.
Speaker:None of it is you set it and forget
Speaker:it. You're going to be constantly reviewing,
Speaker:adapting, changing as things progress.
Speaker:But if you start out super complicated, you're
Speaker:wasting money, you're wasting time and almost all
Speaker:situations. So keep it simple and then let it
Speaker:grow.
Speaker:>> Anthony Weaver: That's the best way to go.
Speaker:>> Jonathan Feniak: That's we can do, man.
Speaker:>> Anthony Weaver: Right.
Speaker:Uh, so this one is about you though. So
Speaker:what areas are you focusing on and
Speaker:improving your life or your career?
Speaker:>> Jonathan Feniak: Yeah, um,
Speaker:I love to do clee. Right. So
Speaker:continuing legal education. It's a requirement
Speaker:under the, you know, if you're a bar admitted
Speaker:attorney. Um, I love to
Speaker:hear people who are nerds on particular
Speaker:subjects and diving
Speaker:into the clee and you've got an
Speaker:experienced practitioner telling you
Speaker:all of these different things. What they've learned,
Speaker:I love. So I'm about asset protection.
Speaker:So what I love hearing though is I do
Speaker:clee who are on the other side, the
Speaker:plaintiff's attorneys, what do
Speaker:they do when they're evaluating? Do they take a
Speaker:case? Right. They will search you,
Speaker:they will look into you, they will investigate your
Speaker:llc, they'll see who the owner
Speaker:is, they'll do a search through one of the Lexus
Speaker:Nexus or Westlaw or something. They'll find out what
Speaker:properties you own, what properties you have owned, how big a
Speaker:mortgage you have, do you out. They make credit reports, let me do all of these
Speaker:things. And so that
Speaker:guides the advice Those types
Speaker:of CLE's understanding other people who may be trying to
Speaker:come after my clients. Right. What
Speaker:those other folks are using and then we can adjust
Speaker:our strategy in that same way. Listening
Speaker:to clee, when uh, the
Speaker:bankruptcy clele'that's a big
Speaker:downside. How can you protect yourself
Speaker:even in the event of uh, uh,
Speaker:a bankruptcy? I listend to CLE's
Speaker:on domestic relations. So
Speaker:divorces, what happens, what do those cases look
Speaker:like? And so I building this. And I'm not a
Speaker:divorce attorney, I'm not a bankruptcy attorney,
Speaker:I'm not a litigation attorney. But all of these
Speaker:things inform my ability to help my
Speaker:clients as I think about the worst case scenarios. The
Speaker:sky is falling, there's a hole in the ozone layer, whatever the heck else it
Speaker:is. So thinking about all of those things was
Speaker:a. We had talked briefly before and at the
Speaker:beginning here and we're talking about that corporate
Speaker:transparency act, right. And uh,
Speaker:there's a Texas court and I just did a
Speaker:video, I put it on YouTube, uh, about this Texas
Speaker:court, put a nationwide uh,
Speaker:injunction on the enforcement of that
Speaker:law. What happens now? And
Speaker:I watched some videos on YouTube and on TikTok and other
Speaker:places, you don't need to do it anymore. This doesn't
Speaker:exist. That's not correct. Right. I
Speaker:think ultimately, without getting what my prediction is
Speaker:here, it's more nuanced than that. And
Speaker:so digging into those details, reading the underlying cases,
Speaker:doing the clee, uh, that's what I focus
Speaker:on. Being better at what I do. It's
Speaker:rare I get a novel sor of
Speaker:question, but, man, I love those novel
Speaker:questions. Love. I love them. And, uh,
Speaker:luckily I make people tell me in advance what we want to talk about.
Speaker:And oftentimes I find myself. I'm going to do
Speaker:clele on this. I'm going to do contining legal education. I'm going to dig into
Speaker:the details, look at the case law right now, look at all of these
Speaker:things so that I can give my clients the most relevant,
Speaker:timely advice.
Speaker:>> Anthony Weaver: Yeah. And the beauty of having
Speaker:somebody that's curious about the product or curious about
Speaker:the industry, those are type people you really want to have on your
Speaker:team, uh, regardless of your
Speaker:business. Even if whatever business you're falling into,
Speaker:or even if your family, like, hey,
Speaker:family, we're going to start looking at how other families
Speaker:are dealing with their issues. We'ren t go to, like you
Speaker:said, like the family courts or whatever, because you can go to court
Speaker:for free. So it just kind of show up and listen to people's
Speaker:stories. It's much better than reality tv,
Speaker:honestly. I, Yeah, I like it. So,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:>> Jonathan Feniak: And I, you know, it's, it's, it's. Sometimes I get to,
Speaker:you know, uh, peer into other people's
Speaker:problems and things and, but other people's successes as
Speaker:well. Uh, and I learned from, I learned
Speaker:from them, uh, maybe, uh, not as much as
Speaker:they're learning from me, but I learned quite a bit, uh, from them.
Speaker:>> Anthony Weaver: Awesome.
Speaker:Is there anything that you want to leave, uh, the audience with
Speaker:before we dive into the final four questions?
Speaker:>> Jonathan Feniak: Uh, so.
Speaker:No, no, let's dive into the question. I mean, so my team came
Speaker:up with, uh, a code
Speaker:that's going to give, uh, your listeners, if they do have a need for
Speaker:an llc, uh, give you, give
Speaker:them, uh, some discount. I. I don't know.
Speaker:>> Anthony Weaver: Oh, I have it, I guess.
Speaker:>> Jonathan Feniak: Okay. About that.
Speaker:>> Anthony Weaver: Right?
Speaker:>> Jonathan Feniak: You got the code. All right, good. Uh, I want to make sure we talked about
Speaker:that. Um, you know, I didn't,
Speaker:I don't know if I said it. I think I did about my own background.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, we're fine. Let's go.
Speaker:>> Anthony Weaver: Let's run with it. All right.
Speaker:>> Jonathan Feniak: Let's run with it man.
Speaker:>> Anthony Weaver: All right,
Speaker:number one, what does wealth mean to
Speaker:you?
Speaker:>> Jonathan Feniak: Um, wealth to me is
Speaker:having optionality to do the
Speaker:things that I want to do. Realizing that
Speaker:10 year plan, what it looks like 10 years in the future. I
Speaker:dont know what that's going to be. I may want to change.
Speaker:I dont want to have anybody who can tell
Speaker:me hold me hostage effectively in
Speaker:my own life. And part of that is
Speaker:managing your expenses as your income rises.
Speaker:There'that tendency to let your expenses
Speaker:rise in line with them. But keeping it where you've got the
Speaker:comfortable lifestyle you want and
Speaker:if something terrible happens, it's really
Speaker:not going to affect you. And I think that's what wealth is. Where
Speaker:people uh, and your lifestyle is not holding your
Speaker:hostage or your boss isn't holding you hostage or
Speaker:other people in your life are't forcing you to do things that you
Speaker:don't want to do. That's wealth.
Speaker:Nice.
Speaker:>> Anthony Weaver: Number two, what was your worst money
Speaker:mistake?
Speaker:>> Jonathan Feniak: Uh, doing that. So the
Speaker:2008 financial crisis, you know, I got too
Speaker:far out over my skis and
Speaker:uh, was doing very well financially
Speaker:and let my expenses grow in line
Speaker:with my uh, income. And then
Speaker:financial crisis hit and you see a
Speaker:70% drop in income.
Speaker:You've got problems. And so not letting that happen
Speaker:again, that was in my youth. I wasnt that youthful as my
Speaker:30s. But uh, uh, it is
Speaker:something I would, I would never and have not let happen again
Speaker:was just not having that
Speaker:optionality, not having the reserves. If your
Speaker:income dries up, how long could you
Speaker:survive without that income or with a significant
Speaker:decrease in income?
Speaker:>> Anthony Weaver: All right, number three, is
Speaker:there a book that inspired your journey or changed your
Speaker:perspective?
Speaker:>> Jonathan Feniak: I love uh, uh, A Conman.
Speaker:He is the writer of Tipping Point
Speaker:and, and other books. Uh,
Speaker:his approach to thinking about how
Speaker:group dynamics and how things happen, how big
Speaker:things happen has
Speaker:been really important for me
Speaker:to think about how I interact with others. He's got this
Speaker:concept of the maven. Those are the people
Speaker:who can be counted on to sort of spread the
Speaker:word about something. If you can get mavens
Speaker:to be fans of your uh, podcast of this
Speaker:podcast. If we can get mavens who love
Speaker:our products, sometimes they're called apostles,
Speaker:uh, those ideas when the
Speaker:small things make a
Speaker:big difference and you don't need to please everybody.
Speaker:But are you pleasing the right people? Right. Do you have those apostles? Do you
Speaker:have those mavens out there who are trusted by
Speaker:many?
Speaker:>> Anthony Weaver: All right, number four, what is your
Speaker:favorite dish to make?
Speaker:>> Jonathan Feniak: Oh, paella for sure. So I
Speaker:got a paella pan, uh,
Speaker:15 plus years ago. I got it uh,
Speaker:at a, uh, Goodwill Massive.
Speaker:>> Anthony Weaver: Like I didn't know they was like a specific pan
Speaker:for.
Speaker:>> Jonathan Feniak: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's a big circular pan. It's shallow.
Speaker:And I cook my paella on the grill.
Speaker:And uh, u. That's like the traditional way. I
Speaker:use orange wood, charcoal.
Speaker:Uh, very traditional. Uh, it
Speaker:is, it's about, you know, it's about uh, an hour of
Speaker:prep and then over the grill for an hour
Speaker:and it's a showstopper. It's, you know, if I have
Speaker:a dinner party, I make the paella. It's a showstopper
Speaker:and people are just absolutely forward with man.
Speaker:>> Anthony Weaver: Okay, tell me something new it
Speaker:know about it. That's pretty
Speaker:cool.
Speaker:Uh, so we got the last question of the show, which is where could
Speaker:people find out more about you?
Speaker:>> Jonathan Feniak: Yeah, ah, uh,
Speaker:our company is company Sage. Uh, company
Speaker:Sage owns llc Attorney
Speaker:Wyoming LLC Attorney and some other, uh,
Speaker:brands, some other entity formation, uh,
Speaker:business success platforms, entity
Speaker:compliance platforms. We have
Speaker:designed this thing. The attorneys have been driving force
Speaker:and designing this to really meet the
Speaker:needs of entrepreneurs. Our Wyoming website has
Speaker:fantastic articles, uh, the overall majority
Speaker:written by a attorneys about niche topics.
Speaker:Um, I think there's a lack of. A lot of the stuff on
Speaker:the Internet is written by AI now. And so we attempt to
Speaker:be a source of truth. Uh, you check out our
Speaker:YouTube videos. I've done a bunch of videos
Speaker:there. Um, so on my other side
Speaker:I've got finiac, uh, uh, dot
Speaker:com. So that's my law firm website where
Speaker:you can schedule consultations with me to
Speaker:talk about, uh, instead of those six easy things, let's
Speaker:talk about some of the hard things. So between
Speaker:those two, if you really know what you want and know what you want to do,
Speaker:the LLC attorney or Wyoming LLC attorney brand
Speaker:websites are fantastic. If you're not so sure, I
Speaker:recommend calling in. We've got great teams who
Speaker:actually answer the calls. They're teams that they're either in
Speaker:Puerto Rico or they're up in, uh, Scottsdale, Arizona and
Speaker:Wyoming. They're all over, but they know
Speaker:these things inside and out. Talk to them,
Speaker:see if they can help. And then if they can'they'll say
Speaker:you need an attorney. I'm not the only attorney associated with the
Speaker:brands. You need someone to do his IP does ip. You
Speaker:need someone who can help with international tax. You need
Speaker:all these other things. We have attorneys that you
Speaker:can, uh, call upon without doing a
Speaker:retainer, without doing something Complicated. Keep
Speaker:it simple and speak to people who are subject
Speaker:matter experts. So a, uh, lot of different ways
Speaker:to get in touch with us. Uh, it'not a one man
Speaker:show here. Very large organization with
Speaker:amazing, talented, knowledgeable people.
Speaker:And uh, I recommend you start with those resources.
Speaker:>> Anthony Weaver: Awesome.
Speaker:And for those of you who made it this far, at the very
Speaker:end of the show, I mean LLC
Speaker:attorney.com has blessed
Speaker:everybody who is listening to this is
Speaker:100% off your
Speaker:uh, your formation fee for the initial
Speaker:filing. So to redeem it, all you have to do is
Speaker:enter the code. Wallet Pod
Speaker:100. It's W A L
Speaker:L T mean W A L L E
Speaker:T p o d
Speaker:100. Uh, put that
Speaker:in under the partnership code
Speaker:and like one of the final checkout page. You
Speaker:all good to go. So go ahead on and start your filing today. There's
Speaker:no reason why you can't start that process. So let's go on and
Speaker:get you started. You know, shout out to John if
Speaker:you want to say like, hey, John, I signed up. Hit me up
Speaker:when I'm ready. So let's make it happen.
Speaker:>> Jonathan Feniak: Yeah. Awesome. Thank you so much, uh, for
Speaker:letting me babyna here. Uh,
Speaker:it was great meeting you the first time and it's absolutely, it's
Speaker:fantastic to meet you again and
Speaker:uh, we are absolutely here to help.
Speaker:>> Anthony Weaver: Awesome. Well, thank you so much, John, and thank
Speaker:you. Many blessings to you and your family. I'll take care.
Speaker:>> Jonathan Feniak: Thank you.
Speaker:>> Anthony Weaver: Welcome. Right, one,
Speaker:one handle
Speaker:right.
Speaker:>> Jonathan Feniak: What? You're on. You're on speaker
Speaker:and it's coming through in here, honey.
Speaker:>> Anthony Weaver: Okay.
Speaker:>> Jonathan Feniak: Gosh darn it. Hold.
