[00:00:00] Speaker A: Nobody seemed to be talking about the role that jeans played.
[00:00:04] Speaker B: I took a huge interest into insurance and insurance products.
[00:00:08] Speaker C: Rag is essentially search on steroids.
[00:00:11] Speaker D: I'm Richard Gerhardt.
[00:00:13] Speaker E: And I'm Elizabeth Gearhart. You just heard some snippets from our show. It was a great one. Stay tuned to hear tips about how you can start your business.
[00:00:23] Speaker F: Ramping up your business.
[00:00:24] Speaker C: The time is near. You've given it hard. Now get it in gear.
It's Passage to Profit with Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart.
[00:00:33] Speaker D: I'm Richard Gearhart, founder of Gearhart Law, a full service intellectual property law firm specializing in patents, trademarks, and copyrights.
[00:00:41] Speaker E: And I'm Elizabeth Gearhart, formerly Elizabeth McNamara, founder of Gear Media Studios, the chief marketing officer of Gearhart Law, and a podcast consultant. And I'm also a speaker.
[00:00:52] Speaker D: Welcome to Passage to Profit the Road to Entrepreneurship, where we talk with celebrities and entrepreneurs about their stories and their business ventures. So today on the show, we're diving into a topic that might take some parents and entrepreneurs and make them a little bit comfortable. What if success, risk taking, and even leadership aren't learned behaviors at all? What if they're written into your DNA? So joining us today is Dr. Daniel Dick, an internationally recognized behavioral genetics researcher at Rutgers University, author of the Child Code and co founder of Thrive Genetics.
[00:01:30] Speaker E: And then after we interview Dr. Dick, we will be talking to two amazing entrepreneurs. Neil Centuria, a serial entrepreneur, he says that he just can't stick with one thing. He has to keep moving. Uh, right now he's the co founder and CEO of Ask Turing AI, which is very cool because I've been talking about this kind of thing for a long time. But I haven't actually talked to somebody who has a citation backed AI workspace. And I'm really excited to hear how he does it. And then we have someone with an amazing story.
Alan Porter is a financial advisor and owner and CEO of Strategic Wealth Strategies. And he started his journey as a Blackhawk helicopter instructor pilot.
[00:02:09] Speaker D: That sounds like so much fun. I would love to learn how to fly a helicopter.
[00:02:14] Speaker E: And now he's a recognized tax strategist and he has a whole story to go along with that. And his mission is to help families protect their wealth and retire with confidence. I am really excited to hear his story too. And coming up later on, it's Noah's retrospective along with Secrets of the Entrepreneurial Mind.
[00:02:32] Speaker D: But before we get to our distinguished guests, it's time for your new business journey. Two in five Americans are business owners or thinking about starting a business. And so today we're going to ask our panel, what's one early mistake or tough decision in your business journey that ultimately drove your growth? So. So let's go to Dr. Dick. Welcome to the show. What's the one mistake or tough decision that drove your growth early in your career?
[00:02:59] Speaker A: In founding Thrive Genetics, I thought I had a pretty clear idea of how to use the 25 plus years of research that we've been doing to bring it to people to prevent addiction, improve lives.
And my mistake was really in thinking that I knew how best to bring this information to people, how it would be most useful.
And one of the things that I learned from my co founder and CEO is as he started to talk to different people and think about where could this product be useful? Where could information to help people understand their addiction risk, where could it be used? We actually ended up finding a completely different area that had never even occurred to me where there's been the most traction and interest. And I'm happy to talk about that later. But that was really the first mistake I made and thing I had to let go of was the idea that I had a sense of where this product would be most useful. And the market came back with a totally different idea.
[00:04:06] Speaker D: Well, that is the entrepreneurial world, for sure. You start on one path and then you pivot. But that's a great example and good thing for entrepreneurs to keep in mind as they go forward with their business journeys. Neil, welcome to the show. We're here with Neil Centuria. Neil, what was a mistake that you made or a tough decision that helped you grow as an entrepreneur?
[00:04:27] Speaker C: First, Richard and Elizabeth, thank you for having me. Your question is a mistake, and I would prefer to use plurals as mistakes.
I have two.
[00:04:38] Speaker D: Two.
[00:04:39] Speaker C: I've run eight or nine different companies since 1995, and I've invested in another dozen. The biggest mistake that also fuels disaster and success is I picked the wrong team and I waited too long to make a change.
When I got the right team, I was enormously successful. The team is everything. Your partners are everything.
But when I picked wrong, I just made the wrong. I didn't assess it correctly. Then when I recognized it, I waited too long to make changes. I don't make those mistakes now.
[00:05:16] Speaker D: That's good. So what made them the wrong team?
[00:05:19] Speaker C: Well, this is really an interesting topic. This is something Dr. Dick probably can talk about, which is what I'll call behavioral economics or it's really hard to figure out what that person is like when you're in a foxhole and there's incoming fire. You look around, where'd he go? Or where'd she go?
It's easy. For a 20 minute presentation, a pitch, you could be charming. You know, it's easy asking hard questions and background questions, finding out what they really can do. Resumes are a joke. I mean, I was ahead of this, this, this, this and this. But the truth is I drove a, you know, I drove a truck and parked the boss's car.
Finding out really rigorously trying to understand the characteristics of a co founder. I've always had co founders or a CEO or a president, high level, C level people. Hard.
Don't know. If people spend a lot of time on it, they get it wrong. Half the time it's really hard to do. And once you do it, then you say, well, maybe I'll change. I hope she'll change. It could be changed. I don't want to do it today. It's too much pressure. And then what you really need to do is to scan them immediately when you recognize it.
[00:06:27] Speaker D: Yeah, I have to say that a lot of the hiring mistakes I've made have just been not even doing enough due diligence, you know, beforehand. And I think it's really a good point. And hiring is something of a black art, I think, in that, you know, you never really know how it's going to work out.
But they say hire slowly and change quickly. Those are good words to live by. So, Alan, welcome to the show. Alan Porter, what's the one mistake that prompted your growth?
[00:06:55] Speaker B: One mistake that really prompted my growth was not having a team. A team of specialists to help has what I do say I'm your family doctor. I can treat you for minor illnesses, minor injuries. But if you want your knee operated on, you want a specialist. The orthopedic surgeon. Well, he's the specialist. And that's what I have on my team. Top tax specific attorneys, CPAs and other specialists. And we collaborate together to come up with solutions for people's financial problems. When I found this out, to have a team of people to work with instead of just everybody relying on me because not everybody can know everything.
[00:07:28] Speaker D: Well, I think that's a great lesson. And a lot of entrepreneurs starting out do have to wear a lot of hats. But the sooner you can diversify and get support from other sources, I think the better off you are. Elizabeth Gearhart.
[00:07:40] Speaker E: Well, I'm on the same page as Alan. I didn't have money really to hire anybody and I was working on different things. And then I hired a coach and she has made all the difference.
So I would say if I had everything to do over again, I would hire a coach. But not just any coach. I mean, this coach I have, I feel like she is an incredibly phenomenal person. She's a really good fit for me. And actually she's gonna be working with a friend of mine now because she saw the changes in me and she's like, holy crap, I want that to happen for me.
[00:08:10] Speaker D: Well, you know, not reaching out when it's time to reach out I think is a mistake, but you've corrected that. And I'm pleased to let everybody know that Elizabeth's starting a new career as a speaker and it's really going great. So for myself, one of the most important things that an entrepreneur needs to become comfortable with is discomfort. And it's not appreciating that. Discomfort is part of the journey. And that's pretty much true for life in general. But I think entrepreneurs sometimes deal with it a little bit more just by the nature of the beast. And so, you know, if it's hiring before you're ready, or wondering if you should take the leap into protecting your technology with intellectual property, or saying no to opportunities that don't align with your business goals, sometimes you just have to take that leap. And sometimes it's exciting and sometimes it's terrifying, and sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't. But I do think that not being comfortable with discomfort can be a big mistake. But learning that can lead to growth. So now it's time to talk with our guest, Dr. Daniel Dick. And what if everything you thought about behavior is wrong? She's an internationally acclaimed behavioral genetics researcher from Rutgers University and author of the Child Code. And we'll talk a little bit about how a person's genetic code may matter a lot more than you may have originally thought. So get ready to rethink everything that you thought you knew about parenting, personality risk, and how it plays out in an entrepreneurial role. So maybe you can explain to our audience succinctly and in simple terms what your research is about.
[00:09:57] Speaker A: Basically, I study how our genes and our environments come together to shape life outcomes. A lot of my work focuses on addiction and mental health. I direct a large university wide addiction research center at Rutgers.
But I entered this kind of entrepreneurial world because when I became a parent, I. Oh, the irony. Found myself raising the high risk child that I study.
Highly impulsive, highly emotional. And that's when I realized that so much of what we take for granted in the research world, our basic Understanding of how almost all behavior is a product of both our genes and our environments was really just not out there in all of the wealth of information for parents. You know, we have parenting blogs and books and influencers and they were all talking about all the things parents could and should be doing.
But nobody seemed to be talking about the role that genes played in our kids behavior. And I thought that was a huge mistake for me knowing that research really was kind of what saved my sanity when I was going through so many challenges with my son.
And I looked around and I saw so many other smart, capable friends who were parents, you know, wondering what they were doing wrong or what was wrong with their child, if were they, their child was not being the dreamy, well behaved child we all imagine having before we have children.
And so that's really what led me to think about how do we do more to get research to the people who can use it. And that included writing a book and, you know, now co founding a company and being an advisor on several other companies. But that's really what started this journey for me.
[00:11:49] Speaker E: Well, it's funny that you talk about that because we have these stories from when our son was little. He climbed up to the top of this slide and fell off. Richard had him at the playground and then when they got home, I was home, he was crying his head off. I'm like, oh, what happened? He's like, well, he fell off the slide. Oh, he's like, that's not why he's crying. He's crying because I wouldn't let him go back up. And so now our son has two kids and his baby has to wear a helmet because he climbs and the other one does too. And so it's like, did they get that climbing gene from him? It kind of seems like it, right? Yes.
[00:12:24] Speaker A: In our field we say everyone is an environmentalist until they have their second child. And then they realize, I'm doing all the same things. Why is one turning out so different from the other? For example? And I think that's one of the easy ways that, you know, we can, as parents start to see and wrap our head around this idea that they are not just, you know, little lumps of clay waiting to be molded by, you know, the, well, intentions of their parents.
That in fact our genes influence our brain development and that influences, you know, the, the way our brains are wired, which is what contributes to, you know, all these amazing differences we see between people in their behavior. Why some kids and adults are more impulsive than others, you know, or More anxious than others. And Alan was talking about being a Black Hawk helicopter pilot. You know, my father was, is a retired general, was a fighter pilot. And, and you know, lo and behold, so the fact that I have this highly risk taking, sensation seeking child who his father, my father, my brother are in fact all fighter pilots. You know, another example of how genetic predispositions can kind of run through families there.
[00:13:40] Speaker D: Wow, that sounds like the dream family to me. A bunch of fighter pilots.
But I did want to ask, how do genes influence pilots behavior and what behaviors do they influence?
[00:13:53] Speaker A: Genetic influences show up very early in development.
So we start to think about stable genetic influences on things like temperament or personality as starting to emerge around age 3 or so. And by that I mean a lot of kids behavior, you know, before that is really just a product of kind of early brain development. But around age 3, you start to see stable differences emerging between people. Right. And so all kids, for example, get upset or get anxious or nervous sometimes. But when you see behavior that's consistent across settings and across people, so I. E. It's not just the child who like, you know, shrinks behind their parents leg when a dog starts snarling at them. Okay, well that's a normal fear response. But it's the child who's afraid to be dropped off at kindergarten, afraid to try the new slide on the playground, afraid when they're meeting a new person. When you start to see these kind of stable, consistent behaviors that usually starts to emerge around three and then continues into and throughout our lives.
Now that's not to say the environment doesn't play a role. Of course it does. But when it comes to thinking about, for example, kids recognizing that they're all different, their brains are all wired differently, which also means some things are going to come naturally to some kids and some things are not. And so we can really tailor our parenting to what our kids need most and what will work best for each of our kids by being mindful of kind of the way that they're wired. And that's a lot of what my book is about. About kind a little bit of the research and science behind how we know kids behavior is genetically influenced. Some surveys about trying to figure out where your child falls on kind of some of these big genetically influenced dimensions, things like impulsivity, emotionality, extroversion, et cetera. And then thinking about what do we know about what parenting strategies work best for kids with different temperamental styles whose brains are essentially wired differently.
So it's one of the ways I'm trying to Use research to essentially help individuals in their parenting and more broadly, I think there's a variety of ways we can do better at getting research to people to be able to use it.
[00:16:28] Speaker D: So if there's a child that is.
[00:16:30] Speaker A: Shy, shyness is interesting because shyness is actually a combination of being nervous around other people but actually wanting to interact with other people. So that is something that, you know, a lot of environmental influences, too. So if we're thinking about kind of the more genetically influenced underlying temperament, it might be a child who's more introverted, for example, who is not naturally, you know, wanting to be around other kids or, you know, or more maybe a little fearful, who doesn't naturally want to kind of join in with a group of, you know, kids on the playground or whatnot. And when I talk about tailoring parenting to your unique child, it's. It doesn't mean that you're letting the child drive, you know, what they're doing and what you're doing as a parent. But it's the equivalent of if your child was not doing well in algebra, you wouldn't send them to timeout, right. Or say, just do it. Come on, like, do more algebra. You can do this. They actually need to learn the skills of algebra. And so if you have a child who is naturally, say, more fearful then saying, well, come on, join the group, Go right in. For some kids, they naturally can do that. For other kids, you actually need to teach them the skills that maybe don't come naturally. Now, you're probably not going to take, for example, a more introverted child and convert them into someone who wants to be dancing on tabletops, Right. But can you essentially help them with the skills to be able to join a work reception and, you know, mingle and interact with some other folks? Absolutely. And so we talk about that as reaction range, meaning we have genetic dispositions.
But where we land in terms of how those actually play out in real life, we can certainly move kids in where they land, but we can probably only move them so much. Right. You're not going to totally change a child's personality. And you wouldn't want to, right?
[00:18:35] Speaker E: No, you wouldn't. You wouldn't. And I just want to remind our audience quickly that we're speaking with Dr. Danielle Dick, an internationally recognized behavioral genetics researcher at Rutgers University here in New Jersey and author of the Child Code and co founder of Thrive Genetics. And I wanted to ask you, since this is a show about entrepreneurism, which you're here with your book, so you fit right in, but I wanted to ask you a question about entrepreneurs. Do you feel like people are born to be entrepreneurs?
I mean, you know that we have Neil on the show, and Neil is what had 20 companies or something. Is that born into. Can you learn that? What do you think?
[00:19:10] Speaker A: So virtually every complex behavior, whether we're talking about impulsivity, addiction, probably entrepreneurship. Right. Virtually everything that's been studied is partly genetic and partly environmental. And so I would imagine this is now me, you know, conjecturing. I can't conjure up a research study, you know, in particular, about entrepreneurism probably out there. But there are genetically influenced traits which are beneficial, right? So, for example, we know that risk taking is something that is genetically influenced, and many successful entrepreneurs are a little higher on risk taking because you have to take some calculated risks and be willing to tolerate that. That's a genetically influenced trait that probably helps folks who are entrepreneurs or maybe, you know, make some. Some folks more interested in going into, you know, entrepreneurship and starting businesses. That said, of course, the environment always plays a role. It can play a role in, you know, in the. The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune in terms of how our businesses unfold and how our lives unfold.
[00:20:17] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:20:17] Speaker D: I mean, clearly, events matter. And if you could be successful at one thing one time and not necessarily be successful again and then get discouraged and then avoid that activity, or you could be, you know, very stubborn about it and just continue on that path until, you know, you get it. And so I certainly feel like my life, my professional life and personal life have been influenced by events and that it's influenced my behavior. Right. And how I respond to things, my mood, the way I approach people. And so what percentage of life do you think is determined by genetics versus the environment?
[00:20:58] Speaker A: There are all kinds of studies that have looked at exactly that question.
And on average, a rule of thumb is about 50% of the variability between people is due to differences in their DNA, and 50% is due to differences in their environment. Now, that does not mean for any one person, right? So the fact that I became an entrepreneur or I became a researcher doesn't mean that half of that is due to my genes and half is due to my environment. It means across the population, we are all our own unique combination. The way that we kind of help people conceptualize this, and it makes, I think, a lot more sense if you're thinking about it with respect to something like substance use or mental health challenges. Right? But it's. It's true of any outcome. If you think of, okay, why do some People develop substance use problems. We know that it's partly genetic, partly environmental. But imagine we all have a mental health jar. Like if you're picturing those clear mason glass Mason jars, Right. And when that jar is full, that's when somebody is experiencing problems. Right. So they're in the throes of addiction or they have depression or anxiety. Well, what can fill up your jar?
Partly genetics. So imagine you're going to drop some marbles in the bottom of that jar. Some people start life with just a few marbles. The other things that can go in.
[00:22:21] Speaker D: There, I've lost all mine.
[00:22:22] Speaker A: Well, yeah, I know, right? If you have just a few marbles, you might encounter a lot of environmental rocks, and that can lead to your jar being full and having problems. Right. You might, on the other hand, have a jar that's three quarters of the way full. So you have a lot of genetic risk, and then it doesn't take as much of the environment.
But we're all kind of our own unique combination. And that's true of virtually every life outcome. Right. Part of it's our genes, part of it's the environment.
But what it is for each one of us is going to be our own unique combination.
[00:22:56] Speaker D: Well, that's absolutely fascinating. We're with Dr. Daniel Dick from Rutgers University, author of the Child Code. We have to take a commercial break. We'll be back. Don't forget to experience more of Passage to Profit by subscribing to us on Facebook, Instagram x and YouTube. Or subscribe to our podcast anywhere you get your podcast. Just look for the Passage to Profit show on any of these platforms. We'll be back soon with AI in business, intellectual property news and secrets of the entrepreneurial mind. So stay tuned.
[00:23:26] Speaker G: Do you hear that? That's the sound of uncertainty lurking under your hood. You know the feeling? I know I do. That sudden sinking sensation when you see a check engine light or your car unexpectedly breaks down and you're faced with sky high repair bills. It's time to shield against unexpected repairs with Car Shield. Car Shield is America's most trusted auto protection company and has an A rating with the Better Business Bureau. Don't let the fear of a breakdown keep you up at night. Trust the Shield Car Shield. And say goodbye to terrifying repair boots and hello to peace of mind. Your plan also comes with 24. 7 roadside assistance, courtesy towing, rental car car options, and so much more. Don't wait till it's too late. Call CarShield now before a breakdown. Protect your wallet. Protect your car with Car shield. Get our best protection ever. Call now. You'll thank me later. 8002-6121-7680-0261-2176. That's 800-261-2176.
[00:24:25] Speaker F: Have you outgrown your health insurance plan or just not happy with what you're paying for? The number one reason we all change our health insurance is price. Are you paying too much for your health insurance? Would you like to have better coverage at a better rate or at little or no cost to you? Your life needs are always changing, but have you done anything to improve your health insurance for you and your family? Health insurance laws and coverage are always changing and getting better. It's important impossible to do all the research yourself, but now it's all done for you for free. So regardless of your age or medical condition, take a few minutes right now and find out if you can save money or even qualify for zero cost health insurance in your state. Call now.
[00:25:11] Speaker G: Paid for by cheaper health insurance. 8006-5214-7080-0652-1470. 800, 6. 5.
That's 800-652-1470.
[00:25:25] Speaker C: Now back to passage to profit once again, Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart and our.
[00:25:30] Speaker E: Special guest, Danielle Dick. We're going to finish her interview and then we have two other presenters who are awesome as well. But right now we want to dive into the company that Dr. Dick founded that's just doing amazing things. So what is the name of your company?
[00:25:44] Speaker A: Thrive Genetics.
[00:25:46] Speaker E: And what are you doing with that?
[00:25:48] Speaker A: So one of the things that I have become passionate about is that we need to do more to get research to people who can use it. And so in my own area, a lot of my work focuses on projects where we are identifying the specific genes involved in why some people are more at risk for substance use and other behavioral addictions than others.
And we've made radical progress.
So we can now scan the entire genome. We have found thousands of genetic variants that increase risk. We can add them all up and weight them by how big of an effect each one has to create a genetic risk score for any individual. Now, and not only that, we know a ton about what are the early behaviors, some of the things we were talking about earlier that are in my book what are the early behaviors and the environments that are most predictive of who goes on to develop problems. And so we can put this information together to powerfully differentiate how at risk people are for developing a problem. For example, people with the highest levels of genetic behavioral, environmental risk, 84% of them go on to develop a substance use disorder. People with the lowest levels of risk, 4% do.
But there was no way to get all of this amazing information, these huge discoveries that we have made over the last decade or so out of scientific journals and to people who could actually use this information. I'm a strong believer that knowledge is power because we know that genes are not destiny. So if you know you are more at risk, you can proactively take steps to reduce the likelihood you'll ever develop problems. And that's what we're doing at Thrive Genetics is taking this research and bringing it to people so they can understand their addiction risk profile. To either prevent problems or to have more tailored treatment and recovery programs to really sustain long term positive outcomes.
[00:28:03] Speaker D: I love the program and what you're doing. What is the business model for getting the information out there? Are you publishing papers?
Are you doing tests for people? How do people actually find out what their profile is and how do you get that information to them?
[00:28:18] Speaker A: So we have built a platform, it's available online. You can essentially fill out a short survey. It's those behavioral and environmental factors that we know are most predictive of risk.
You can spit in a tube or swab your cheek. We send these at home, test kits, send it back to the lab, we scan the genome, create those genetic risk scores, put it all together. And we worked, by the way, with psychiatric genetic counselors and whatnot on how to present this information so it's understandable to the average person. And so we put it all together to give this kind of risk profile what it means and then what you can do to reduce risk.
I talked earlier about my big mistake. I thought, well this is great, let's just get this out to people, direct to consumer and actually the whole how are you going to make money in a business? What is a viable marketing strategy, et cetera. As a researcher, that's not something that I naturally think about. My husband is ironically the entrepreneur in this family. And he would say, okay, but how is this going to make money and who's going to pay for it? And I would say, oh, but it's just to help people. And he would say, okay, but there has to be a business model here. And this is really where my co founder and the CEO of the company whose background is in business, he really then did a lot of the legwork to explore where are places where this could be useful. And one of the places where right now we're getting the most traction is Interestingly, in oncology treatment because in particular neck and throat cancers, the treatments are so painful that opioids need to be prescribed to reduce pain so that individuals can endure their treatments.
Because there is so much awareness now about the addictive properties of opioids and, you know, the dangers of addiction.
What they're finding, the doctors are finding is that patients are reticent to take the opioids, they're concerned about addiction.
So what that means is if they're not taking opioids alongside their radiation treatments, it's so painful that often they can't continue with these life saving treatments and that prolongs the treatment. They end up re hospitalized, et cetera. And so it's also taking a lot of time to convince patients that, you know, we can manage this. And you know, obviously the, it's not like everyone becomes addicted who takes opioids.
And so the fact that we can actually create these risk profiles to help people understand, are they one of that small group of people who is at risk, at higher risk for addiction that can be used to essentially put a lot of people's minds at ease so that they can essentially do the best practice treatment, which is accompanied by opioids and pain management.
And for those that are at high risk, they can more closely monitor them and discuss other pain relief medications that could be used. So that's really what we're working on right now. And we're about to partner and start running some clinical trials with different hospitals to look at how that impacts patient outcomes when we can deliver that information to them.
[00:31:44] Speaker E: Well, that's very powerful.
[00:31:46] Speaker D: That's very powerful. So we have to wrap up the segment. Dr. Dick, it's been just fabulous talking with you. We love your vision for helping people identify their risk profile around addiction because that's such an important problem. How can people find you or find out about Thrive Genetics?
[00:32:03] Speaker A: So you can Visit our website, ThriveGenetics AI.
You can also find more information about our ongoing research in addiction at Addiction Rutgers Edu and my own personal website is Danielle Dick, where I make a lot of resources available for parents and where you can find my book.
[00:32:23] Speaker D: Awesome. Now it's time for AI in business. So Elizabeth, what's the plan?
[00:32:28] Speaker E: I'm going to ask each of you for one way that you're using AI in your business.
So, Dr. Danielle Dick with Thrive Genetics AI. What's one way that you use AI to help your business run better?
[00:32:41] Speaker A: Our business is obviously grounded in the research and we've been using AI in the research and Machine learning for some time, time to essentially look at, particularly now with the wealth of things that we can collect on individuals. We can collect genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, so all these biological indicators. We can collect digital data on people's health and how it is being monitored moment to moment. We can do brain scans of individuals. What we can really do is integrate all of this information alongside all the information that's in electronic health records, personal surveys, et cetera, to look at what best predicts either treatment outcomes or who is at most risk of developing addiction. And so we use that to essentially continue to iterate and improve our risk prediction profiles that we then bring to people through Thrive Genetics.
[00:33:45] Speaker E: Do you think you could do that without AI? Would it take years?
[00:33:49] Speaker A: It provides a way to integrate this data that just really wasn't possible in years past. So it's a new way of being able to integrate big data that goes beyond the more limited, narrow, kind of hypothesis driven. I have an idea that dopamine might be involved in addiction. Right. You know, are more limited ways that we could study this in the past because addiction, mental health are so complex that we really need to be able to have these comprehensive risk profiles that bring in tons of data and information.
[00:34:31] Speaker E: Great, thank you. So now we're going to ask Neil Santuria with AskTuring AI. I know your whole company's AI, but what's one way that you're using AI? Maybe to speed processes or something.
[00:34:43] Speaker C: We use our own Ask Turing AI. You can sign up and use it. You can start immediately. We use it just the way anybody would use ChatGPT. The only difference is we think ours is better and provides the kind of privacy that everybody know wants. When I talk to people, they say, look, we use ChatGPT, we use Cloud. Do you know it's not private? They said we know that. So we don't really load our private documents or the kind of research that Dr. Dick does. We don't put that in there because that is exposing it to the public. That's the magic.
[00:35:22] Speaker E: Alan porter strategic wealth strategies.com what's one way that you're using AI in your business?
[00:35:27] Speaker B: Well, a lot of people use Chat GPT. I use it all the time. And when I asked Chat GPT to do something, I asked them to do deep research. That's different than just asking them to come up with a script. But I also use that and also use it with hey Gen, I make videos on there. I've got over 500 videos. But those 500 videos were done by me. Now I've got about 20 videos now that were done with hey Gen. And it just looks more professional, more polished. You don't have the us and the pauses and all this other stuff. And then again, I have a team of people that show me how to do this because I don't have time to do it, but they'll do me and they go and step by step by step, it's made a big difference in my business because just of the influx of new clients I'm getting, this.
[00:36:11] Speaker E: Is an important discussion to have and we have it every show so people that haven't used it yet can see what the possibilities are. How are you using it? Richard Gearhart, Gearhart Law I use it.
[00:36:21] Speaker D: All the time too. I'm going to give an example. We're attending a conference next week, so I decided to get organized and find out who's going to be attending the conference and are there people there that I want to interact with for different reasons, maybe to be guests on the show or for other business reasons. And so I put the speaker list of the conference into ChatGPT and I asked them to review all the speakers and then identify people that would be good connections for me.
So it came up with about 20 people that it thought might be a good connection. And so I'm going to follow up with that instead of reading through all of that by hand and trying to figure it out. So for example, in terms of guests for the show, we want somebody who's going to be a good guest. And so I defined what I thought a good guest is and then it was able to find people for that.
[00:37:15] Speaker E: Well, I use it for the marketing and none of what I do is really confidential. I mean, when I do my marketing reports, I anonymize the data that I put in there. So there, there's no names. But I find it saves me so much time for the marketing. And right now I'm having a little bit of a struggle. I'm using it as a consultant, mainly Google Gemini because their last upgrade was really good. So they're a lot better, I think, and they're a little more factual than chat to try to help me build it. Just a pretty simple website and I'm partway there. But I would like I can watch a YouTube video which will tell me how to build a website with this theme. But if I get stuck and have a question that I could go ask Chat or Google or Perplexity. In any case, lots of great ways to use AI. So listeners, you are listening to the Passage to Profit show with Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart. Our special guest, Dr. Danielle Dick. And we will be right back.
[00:38:07] Speaker H: Here's a real life story that affects 50% of all of us out there. It's called Divorce. If you've gotten divorced and now you're struggling to pay your bills and your credit card debts are completely out of control, you need to call this special debt relief hotline right now. We help people with all kinds of money problems caused by different life challenges. A divorce, a job loss, even heavy medical bills. All these life events can sometimes financially stress you out and cause you to get out of control. We help people get their lives back by showing them ways to consolidate and reduce their debt, in some cases for a fraction of what they owe. If your credit card balances are more than $10,000, call us and learn how to reduce your credit card bills and monthly payments. Now here's our number paid for by Debt.com.
[00:38:51] Speaker G: Call now at 8008-1008-5780-0810-0857 800, 810, 0857. That's 800-810-0857.
[00:39:07] Speaker F: Listen, were you forced into getting a solar contract and now you just don't want it anymore? Maybe the solar company misled you? Or is your solar contract buried with hidden fees? Are you not saving the a.m. you thought you would on your energy costs? Don't worry. At the Solar Exit Hotline we can help you cancel your solar contract even if the panels are already installed. Our experienced legal team will review your contract and help you cancel it, possibly saving you thousands of dollars. You gotta call right now for complete details. So listen, if you're not happy with your solar contract for any reason, we are here to help you cancel it. Call the Solar Exit Hotline now for immediate options to help you exit your solar.
This call is 100 free.
[00:39:53] Speaker G: 8009-4140-8580-0941-4085 800, 943-4085 that's 800-94140. 85.
[00:40:07] Speaker C: Passage to Profit continues with Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart.
[00:40:11] Speaker D: Passage to Profit is a nationally syndicated radio show heard in 40 Marcus across the US we'd like to do a shout out to our affiliate K R O E 9, 30am and 103.9 FM in Rapid City, South Dakota. Also, our podcast is ranked in the global top 3% of podcasts and we've also been recently selected by Feedspot Podcasters database as a Top 10 Entrepreneur Interview Podcast. So subscribe to the Passage to Profit show on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and on the iHeart app. And now it is time for intellectual property news.
[00:40:49] Speaker E: This is a bad one, though.
[00:40:51] Speaker D: Yeah, it's kind of a sad one. So today we're going to take a little bit of a departure. It's still a legal case, but focus a little bit more on the dark side of AI. And a lawsuit was recently filed against OpenAI, and the plaintiff is claiming that AI caused the tragic murder suicide of a man and his mother in law, C.T. and according to the plaintiffs, the AI induced a man to kill his mother and then himself. And it raises a new question about when people treat AI like an authority, who's responsible for what it says?
[00:41:31] Speaker E: This is a very serious subject. I know social media has done the same thing. It has led teens to kill themselves, and other people have done it. But this man turned to what he thought was a trusted source.
He had a great life before, but he started having a mental health issue, divorced his wife, moved in with his mother, and started drinking. And the attorneys say it was during this time that he turned to OpenAI.
So, you know, that's the friend you can call any time of the morning, day or night. It doesn't matter how drunk you are, they'll still listen to you. They won't hang up on you.
[00:42:04] Speaker A: Right?
[00:42:05] Speaker E: And it had a lot of authority in his life. It grew to have a lot of authority in his life.
[00:42:11] Speaker D: And according to the legal complaint now, this was just filed just after the first of the year in 2026. So it's a brand new case. But the plaintiff used AI frequently, talked with it over several months, and he used it as a sounding board and a source of reassurance. And at one point he became very depressed. He started cycling downward. And he asked ChatGPT if it could give him a clinical evaluation. And instead of encouraging him to seek professional help, chatgpt confirmed that his delusion risk score was near zero. And so the attorneys reviewed all of their responses, and ChatGPT basically reinforced the idea that he was okay when he really wasn't.
[00:43:00] Speaker E: And the problem was he'd fed so much data into it that but it felt like it knew him. So it knew how to get to him and have him trust it. And it acted as a friend when maybe he didn't have a lot of friends. So if you're that isolated, that kind of constant feedback can be very powerful. And I know when I use my ChatGPT, I mean, I'll ask it questions and it's always giving me positive strokes, like it wants to be my best friend, and I don't really need that.
[00:43:28] Speaker D: I kind of like it, but, you.
[00:43:29] Speaker E: Know, so that's why I prefer perplexity when you're talking about different LLMs, because perplexity is just the facts. Right. But for people that want strokes, ChatGPT is great and it can draw you in that way.
[00:43:41] Speaker D: Right. And so this was a system failure according to the plaintiffs. And, you know, we'll see how the court resolves the issue.
In the past, there isn't really liability as necessarily associated with this, but. But if this is true and if they can show that ChatGPT pushed this guy over the edge, then I think, you know, something needs to be done.
[00:44:03] Speaker E: Well, you can argue that it's free speech, but it's really more about responsibility.
Can a computer have free speech?
I mean, it's not even a person.
So it's really new territory and it's going to have to be figured out in the courts. But hopefully this will set a precedent. At least people will be aware of it. And maybe some of the programming will change. I know Facebook has gotten a lot of grief and acts over the echo chambers of negative language, so maybe some of that will apply here.
[00:44:31] Speaker D: Yeah. And from an intellectual property standpoint, most companies consider the algorithms that generate the responses as proprietary trade secrets. And they do this because they want to protect their business and their investment in creating the code, which is understandable. But on the other hand, I do think that that on issues like this, there should be some level of transparency and, you know, some guardrails. And my guess is that this lawsuit will hopefully encourage the, you know, the Geminis and the OpenAI's and the Clods to investigate their own systems and try to put in guardrails so it doesn't happen again.
[00:45:10] Speaker E: And the reason this is important is because I had said earlier in this program in a different segment that right now this is experiencing the fastest growth of almost any tech platform ever.
And the growth rate of ChatGPT users has doubled in 2025, and by 2028, the prediction is that people will be using these large language models, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, more than they use Google Search, and eventually they'll use them instead of Google Search. They don't know how long that'll take. So if these are sending people into a spiral because they trust they're agreeing with every negative emotion and the people trust them, that could be dangerous for all of society.
[00:45:50] Speaker D: Yeah, kids, especially teenagers, so Our purpose is just to make people aware of this possibility. If you're using AI, just understand that it can unintentionally lead you in the wrong direction. And especially if you're a parent, make sure that your kids don't fall into the same trap.
[00:46:08] Speaker E: With that said, after that somber note, now we get to move on to Neil. Sorry, Neil. So, Neil Santuria, co founder of AskTuring AI and Blackbird V.com you are deep in the AI world. You know a lot about it. So tell us. We talked a little bit about Turing, but we want to hear all about it.
[00:46:30] Speaker C: We started this company. It's software. We provide a private confidential RAG platform for business, primarily businesses.
[00:46:40] Speaker E: You have to define RAG for people. What is it and what does it do?
[00:46:43] Speaker C: Yeah, rag's a big deal. So RAG stands for retrieval Augmented Generation.
We actually have a video on our website. You can learn what RAG is. But let's make it simple for everybody. RAG is essentially search on steroids. So rather than keyword search, which is Google and chat, that's what they do. We create what's called vector databases. So each contextual thought, each word, each sentence is broken down, disassembled, reassembled, and without getting, you know, I'm not a tech, really.
[00:47:18] Speaker E: Right.
[00:47:19] Speaker C: What you get is a deep, honest, correct answer. So we have no hallucinations because we're only pulling from what you have. And RAG is a way to deal with. You want to ask a hard question about legal documents or financial documents or manufacturing, we're really good at that. And chatgpt, none of them do rag. Why do they not do rag? It's expensive, you know, it's a little bit like a Ferrari. There's lots of Geos available, Camrys. Knock yourself out. You want a Ferrari, you have to pay a little bit more. But what it does is really special. So that's what Turing is. Ask Turing is a RAG based platform for businesses and individuals who care deeply about privacy, memory, context. Context is a kind of a keyword that says, what did I do yesterday?
What am I doing tomorrow? And when I look back in two weeks, can it assemble all of it? That's really the magic of the, of the AI experience. And you're right. Google's greatest threat is that all the LLMs, especially perplexity, are going to become the search engines. So if Perplexity becomes your default search engine, where does Google's ad business go? That world is like way over my head. I don't care which LLM goes out of business as long as there's one available for me to access.
[00:48:35] Speaker E: Well, Google Gemini has the marketing to make their soar and they will because it's coming up on my phone now. And Google has a lot of experience in this, I think. So for people to use your system is the first step to load all their data into it. What do they do?
[00:48:51] Speaker C: The perfect solution is you go to the website, you get a free account and you can use it with basic AI numbers. You can use it as a search engine. It's great.
But what you really want to do is you want to put in what you're working on. I'm working on this contract. It's an easy. It's drag and drop. Load it in, then you want to talk to it. Where is the. So, for example, the baseball teams that use ours, their problem is simple. All sports teams have the same problem. They have enormous rules. We put 1700 pages of the Major League Baseball rulebook into Turing. Now, if you want to ask a question, that's a really powerful piece of work to do, then I got all the agents, I got players.
That's the value, if you will, at a business level. But you can start tomorrow. You can just say, look, I'm interested in my daughter. She teaches challenge disabled children. And she wanted a lesson plan. Put all the stuff into Turing asked and there it was.
So the trick is to use our product to get more value.
You have to be a participant. It's not ask a question. We do that. But that's table stakes. Everybody does that. The value is can I understand what is in my own data and can I get better?
We'll call it information business models.
[00:50:12] Speaker D: So what guarantees do we have that your system is secure? Because that's, you know, you're talking about security.
[00:50:19] Speaker C: Yeah, we're long on that. So we've got every single certification you can get, but the one that matters the most is SOC 2.
I'm sure Dr. Dick knows about that. All you can say is we give you every proof that we're secure. There's no magic. All I can say is we qualified for multi factor authentication. It's upside down. There's four factor. I can't prove it to you. It's just that we've never had a breach. So for now, cross your fingers.
[00:50:45] Speaker D: I received a link to your software and I created an accountant. I used it a little bit this morning. One of the things I really like is that it chooses from all the different LLMs. And so according to your advertising, the query is written by the user and then your Software decides which LLM would give the highest quality answer.
[00:51:09] Speaker C: Not only that, that's correct. So not only are we multi model, you could pick I only want cloud. But what we have is an auto feature that says you've asked a prompt comp and we internally pick from all of the LLMs who will give you the best answer. The other thing we do that you don't get from co pilot or any of the others, you get to say, all right, that's an interesting answer. Now I want to ask again to someone else so we get to compare your answers. So the way you get real granular is to be able to cross check against multiple LLMs. Anybody who's using chat Copilot's not letting you use perplexity. Okay. They're not letting you go across and do whatever you want. So you have to be Switzerland. You have to be a neutral party. You have to say, look, I'm going to work for you.
[00:51:55] Speaker E: This sounds like really powerful software. I want to dig a little bit into your background as a serial entrepreneur. So you have started many companies and you never sit still. You keep going to the next one. But what made you choose this? I mean, obviously there's a need for this, but what made your mind go there when you were thinking of a new company to start?
[00:52:14] Speaker C: I'm going to defer again to my analyst and Dr. Dick. So I have two themes.
I call it R and R. You think that's rest and recreation. I'll tell you what my R and R is. I was motivated by revenge and redemption. It is environment and parents and it is wiring.
I was built a certain way. And so if you think about entrepreneurship, not all, not all, but many are driven by. They've been dismissed and they're going to show the other guy. So, you know, the joke on Zuckerberg is he couldn't get a date with that girl and that's why he started Facebook.
I mean, if you think about what, what motivates people, go to Tom Brady. He's, he's picked last 209th in the, in the NFL draft. He was determined to show people.
So I come from a place of polite revenge, not revenge like with a knife or a gun. But I'm determined to prove, you know, and after you've proved it a few times, you'd think that would be enough. And the truth is, you keep proving it. And redemption, redemption is about other people.
[00:53:22] Speaker D: What happened to put you in the revenge mode?
[00:53:25] Speaker C: Oh, I had parents. Did you.
[00:53:29] Speaker D: Once again, parents get to blame siblings.
[00:53:32] Speaker E: That was Worse, you know, I can't.
[00:53:35] Speaker C: Give you the answer because it's a. It is a psychoanalytic answer, and everyone is different. And it's simple things like imagine being bullied or I'm going to be dismissed. Why do you got to think about how people become actors? How do you choose to be an actor? I mean, some people do wake up and want to dance on a table. I do believe in genetics and DNA and wiring. But in my case, I was determined to show my parents weren't very fond of me and I learned how to type. Here's a story for you. So my mother says, look, I don't think you're ever going to amount to anything, but at least you could be a secretary. And so I did learn to type. I typed 100 words a minute. When I was in the Army, I was the company clerk at mash. I got to sit and do all the typing because nobody else could type as quickly as I could. So she's right. I did. I had a life in the army as the commander's radar O'Reilly. It was a perfect.
[00:54:29] Speaker D: So did your mother ever change her mind about your prospects?
[00:54:33] Speaker C: Yeah, I guess you have to ask her. She died 10 years ago.
[00:54:36] Speaker E: Well, I want to move on from this and give Dr. Dick a chance to ask a question.
So do you have a comment or question?
[00:54:43] Speaker A: I think this is absolutely fascinating. The idea of starting multiple businesses and doing different things across your life. I love that. And I am curious about.
You know, as I mentioned, my husband's an entrepreneur, so he has me listen to lots of. Of different podcasts, things like how I built this. Right. And they talk about the ups and the downs of the process. And I love your R and R.
And I'm wondering what has kept you engaged in it? What keeps you excited? And when do you decide? Okay, I'm moving on to the next venture.
[00:55:24] Speaker C: Well, either you've sold the company or I went broke.
But I'll tell you what I think is important, and you listen. This is about retirement, and we haven't even talked. I like what I do. I really get pleasure. It's not work. I was built a certain way. I'm 75.
This is company number eight or nine. I don't keep track.
[00:55:45] Speaker D: You've done a lot of different technologies. You're not just the software guy.
[00:55:49] Speaker C: Well, I've never been the technologist. What I think is, if you want to be an entrepreneur, either you can write the code or you can build a team that knows how to write the code in the Case of Oberon. This was a very unique project involved something called dme, which is dimethyl ether. It was going to change how methane is converted into fuel. Our partner was Volvo. I really liked it. I couldn't show you exactly chemically how to create dme. I could show you the little molecules, but I knew how to build a team and a company and a partner.
So the entrepreneur game is you don't have to necessarily do it yourself. As a matter of fact, I don't think you can do it yourself.
So you gotta love what you do. And that's basic for Alan, Daniel, any of you. You love what you do. And you know what else? It's kind of I really like winning. It's a little bit embarrassing and I don't like to lose. Now, there's an interesting article recently written by one of the Harvard professors which was go big or go home. And the argument was, you know, you got to go for it. And I'm of the opinion, by the way, that you don't necessarily have to go for it sometimes. There's a lot to be said for Live to play another day.
I will point out the most recent set of football teams games last week where all you had to do was kick a field goal and stay in the game. There's a lot to be said for staying in the game.
And the last sentence, on the matter of entrepreneurship, I think you need to respect the investor's money. I treat it like mine. But the important sentence would be, don't leave a mess.
I take care of the employees.
I have the same assistant. The same administrative assistant has been with me 31 years. I admit that the chain and the ball attached to the desk are getting older. But she didn't leave. I have the same cfo, the same. I have teams that come, they don't leave. Sometimes, you know, it's, we make successes, sometimes we don't. But nobody leaves.
[00:57:43] Speaker D: Another facet of your career that I find fascinating is that you started as a screenwriter, right? So you worked as a television screenwriter. You wrote for shows like MASH and Alice and the Tony Randall Show. So how did you move from screenwriting to entrepreneurship?
[00:58:03] Speaker C: The business of Hollywood is Byzantine and rotten. I was at the American Film Institute and then I stayed in Los Angeles from 1971 to 1981 as a writer. I did what writers do. It is a really difficult business. So I'll tell you a quick story about Hollywood. So I write a script these at the time when they were doing 90 minute movies on television, not real movies. I pitch it to. I think it's at Lorimar, which may still be around. See the guy, he says, you know, I read this. It's fantastic. I cried. I cried. It was emotional. I said, great. He says, no, but they're only buying comedies. Said, okay, I'll be back. Month later, I come back. I actually have a comedy. I give it to him. He says, oh, fell off my desk. I got bad news for you. They're only buying tragedies. Now a true story. I actually reached across the desk. I grabbed him by his tie. I said, I'm never going to work in this place again. And I walked out. And I walked out of Hollywood. I went into the real estate development business, and I built 2 million square feet of real estate before I got bored by that and went into technology.
[00:59:08] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:59:09] Speaker C: You know, I care about legacy. We try to be philanthropic. I care about my employees. I'll tell you a quick story about an employee.
I hired a really important person.
I do the interview. It's an hour and a half, hour and 20 minutes at the end. He's got all the qualities. And then I asked him the final question, and he confesses to this. He says, I've made a lot of money for a lot of other people, but not so much for myself.
I should have taken more risk. I hired him on the spot and I said, I will make you richer. And so far. So far, so good. We'll see. But this was a guy that I knew had all the. He missed one. He didn't take care of himself. He says, when he says, I should have taken more risk, he's the perfect guy to run a startup.
[00:59:52] Speaker B: Awesome.
[00:59:53] Speaker E: Great. Neil Centuria. How can people get a hold of you?
[00:59:57] Speaker C: They could use a net, but. But otherwise you would go to Ask Turing AI. And my personal email, feel free to send it. Is Neil.
[email protected] Just the letter V like Victor, but no word. Blackbird V.com and Turing is spelled T.
[01:00:16] Speaker E: U R I N G. Is that right?
[01:00:18] Speaker D: It is. It is.
[01:00:19] Speaker C: Alan Turing.
[01:00:21] Speaker D: Sign up for Ask Turing. I did. I think it's a great platform and we're going to be looking for ways to use it at Gearhart Law.
[01:00:28] Speaker E: Oh, I love looking at new software and playing with it. That'll be fun.
[01:00:31] Speaker D: Passage to Profit with Richard and Elizabeth Gerhardt.
[01:00:34] Speaker E: So now we're on to Alan Porter. He's been sitting here patiently. He's been sitting on this story like he started telling us, and we're like, wait, save it for your interview. I'm like, oh, my God. I gotta hear the rest of this story. Wait, so he has. Strategicwealth strategies.com Alan, do you want to tell us your story now?
[01:00:51] Speaker B: Okay. Well, like I said before, I never thought I'd be doing what I'm doing right now. I retired in 1993. I was a Blackhawk instructor pilot. I had made a safe line for every takeoff and a. Dodged all the bullets and had a great career. And I loved what I did. I had a passion for flying and I had a passion for serving my country. Country. And after that, up until 2008, I had a successful real estate and mortgage business.
And I live in Fayetteville, North Carolina. And my son lived in Little Rock, Arkansas with his. With his wife Lynn, who's 39, and two daughters. They were 7 and 4. And we went up there for Christmas in 2009. And my son had been 100% disabled for over three years, still not getting his disability. Hired an attorney finally got into this building in the summer of 2010. But January 5, 2010, changed my entire life.
His wife, Lynn called me up. She said, alan, I've been diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer, and they've given me six months to live. And of course, we were devastated, but there's no money coming in. My family's, my son's family, except what I give them. And I don't know how long I keep doing this. I was like 99% of the people out there that thought life insurance was a death product, that you had to die to benefit from it. Well, little did I know she had a terminal illness rider on her life insurance policy that let her access the death benefit, which was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, completely tax free, which I knew nothing about out. And if it not been for that, my son would be bankrupt. And it took a huge financial strain off of me. Well, Lynn passed away about a year later, so I moved my son back here. But my problems didn't end then because he's still in the same condition. He. He still, he looks like he's 85 years of age. There's no cure for what he has. He has diet type 1 diabetes, but he's got something. There's no cure for him. They don't, they don't even know what it is. But my daughter, who's an oncology nurse and her husband's a doctor, had given birth to my third grandson. And a month later, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. And it was very bad. We didn't think she was going to live and she's 12 years cancer free now. But in 2023 she contracted graves disease and thyroid eye condition. And at that time, and still there's only one treatment for it's called Trapeza and it's very expensive. It was like $32,000 from the first infusion. There's eight of them and the last one is almost a quarter of a million dollars now thank God it was covered by insurance. But the problem is January 2024 came back and she went to the doctor in February. The doctor said, Nicole, I'm sorry, there's nothing we can do until you go blind and then we can operate. I mean, what a prognosis. So we sent her to Duke. She didn't qualify for Duke because she took the Tripeza. We did get her into the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota for about four days of testing and consultation. But there's basically nothing they can do for you either. They got some experimental medicine that's not approved by insurance. It's over $500,000 and maybe, maybe 50% effective, but it's not even approved for this disease. So right now she's just living day, day to day, slowly losing her eyesight and we're praying to God something that could be done for.
But when this stuff happened to me, I took a huge interest into insurance and insurance products. Now understand I used to have my series 63 where I did stock and bond portfolio and everything. But I have a team of people that do that right now. I don't have time for that. That's part of my team team because I concentrate on insurance products whether it's fixed or fixed, indexed annuities or cash value life insurance, whether it's indexed or whole life.
And what I found out, it's amazing because 95 to 99% of people I talk to and to include CPAs, attorneys and financial advisors have no idea what I'm talking about. I show people how to reduce and possibly eliminate both debt and taxes. I show people how to secure a tax free retirement that does not affect the taxation of Social Security or the means testing for Medicare Part B or in higher earners Irma tax which will be in the thousands of dollars per year. Let me ask you, have you ever heard of sequence of returns risk?
[01:04:26] Speaker E: I don't know a lot about financial stuff, I have not. But I find what you're saying really fascinating to be honest with you, because.
[01:04:34] Speaker B: 99% of people don't and that includes the advisors. But if you're 65 and you got a million dollars in your stock portfolio and you take a 4% distribution rate that's supposed to be a safe distribution rate to last for 30 years, index for inflation. All of my policies go to age 120, but that $40,000 a year is not guaranteed. Do you realize if you have a loss in the market 10% at age 65 now you're down to 900,000, minus the fees you pay that financial advisor, whether you make money or not. And then guess what happens if 2008 happens again where you lost 38 to 52%, you're going to be out of money in the fifth year. Basically what sequence returns risk is, is if you have a loss in the market, when you start to take the money out within the first two to three years of a 10 or 20 year period, as compared to the last two to three years of a 10or 20 year period, you're going to be out of money in the fifth to the ninth year. And people are not prepared for it. They're not advised of it. I've got multi millionaires that have tens and hundreds of millions of dollars in their stock portfolio, and they're 65 to 75 years of age. And their financial advisors have never told them about the risk in retirement. The number one risk in retirement is running out of money before you run out of life.
[01:05:40] Speaker D: So how do you calculate that? How do you figure out how much Runway you have after retirement?
[01:05:46] Speaker B: Well, it all depends on what you want to do, what kind of lifestyle you want to lead. When I talk to people, they all tell me that we're going to be in a lower tax bracket. I said, well, I beg to differ. We got over $37 trillion deficit. And even the grudge report said 2030. We don't raise our tax about at least 60%, we're gonna have more interest than we can pay and the company will go bankrupt. But the thing with retirement, it comes into a lot of different areas.
You need to, people need to understand it's not rate of return in retirement, it's about distribution of your assets. I've got, and I'm not against the stock portfolio at all, but people have to have different buckets of money and they have to have guaranteed income in their retirement. And it's been proven by Harvard study, if you have guaranteed income in retirement, you leave a happier, healthier, less stressful and longer life. And that's a fact. But we're living longer now. People are 95%, if you're married, live to 95, some of them live longer. Than that. And people are not prepared for long term care.
I mean this is devastating.
[01:06:45] Speaker D: How do you go about figuring this out? Do people talk with a financial advisor? Are there some things they can do themselves to take whatever they have, whether it's just Social Security and a few dollars here or there, maybe a house or maybe they've been fortunate enough to save over the years. How do you assess what you have now and then understand, well, how much money can I really afford to spend after I retire?
[01:07:16] Speaker B: Well, it's funny because you heard these, these, these large corporations. What's your magic number? What number do you have to have in order to retire? Well, they don't take into consideration inflationary thing. But here's a big mistake that people are making. The 401k and your qualified plans. Ted B. The father of the 401k invented back in 1973. He said it's a disaster and needs to be redesigned. Very few people understand that the fees. 58% of people don't even think there's a fee in their 401k.
Understand this. The average fee in a 401k and this by Forbes magazine lap times is 2.99% and people will have less than half of their money and then they get hit with taxes from 20 to over 55%. They're going to be out of money in the fifth or seventh year.
[01:08:00] Speaker E: What do you think about having rental properties and just keeping those forever till you die?
[01:08:07] Speaker B: Well, rental property is great. All financial vehicles are great. But rental property has risk and you have risk in retirement. What happens if your renters trash the place? There's risk in all financial vehicles. But what I do is I show people how to mitigate and eliminate the risk in retirement. Just like I said, number one, fear running out of money market risk, government risk, tax risk. Most cases I can protect you from lawsuits, liens and judgments. Very few people understand about the taxation of Social Security or the means testing Medicare part be which will be in the thousands of dollars per year. If you're 65 and married and you make $44,000 a year outside divisional income, 401k stock portfolio, rental property or anything, and you're paid $3,000 a month in Social Security, 85% of your Social Security is going to be taxed and that puts you in the 12% minimum tax bracket, 10.13 effective tax bracket provided taxes don't go up, you're writing a check to uncle Sam for $6,000 a year. And it also affects the taxation of Medicare Part B or the means testing and that can go up over 350%. And if you make enough money now, you have perma taxes and that alone is going to cost you tens of thousands of dollars per year and people are not prepared.
[01:09:18] Speaker E: Well, when should you start taking out your Social Security? Let's say you're still working and you're making money. What age should you take it?
[01:09:26] Speaker B: The longer you let it go, it grows by 8% every year with cost of living increase. But I took mine at my mandatory car age. I'm 73. And I've taken my money and put it into an index universal life insurance policy. I don't need the money right now. I'm going to pay on it for 10 years now. I'm going to make more money than what my, my Social Security was paying me and I'll have my Social Security on top of that. But every, everybody's situation is different.
People, you know, they got very, very poor health and they don't have any other forms of income. There are so many people in the United states. I think 50 to 60% of the people in the United States are. States rely on Social Security as their number one form of income in retirement, which is very sad because most people are in poverty whether you think so or not. But like I said, the longer you wait, the more income you can get. It depends on your financial situation. It depends whether you can work. I'm like, Neil, I absolutely love what I, what I do. I'm never going to retire as long as I have a sound, sound mind. Because what I want to do is I want to educate people on the financial strategies the wealthy in the banking institutions have been using for years. It's all about education.
[01:10:31] Speaker D: So I guess we have two septarians on the show.
[01:10:34] Speaker E: I guess so.
[01:10:35] Speaker D: And so that should be inspiring to all of our listeners who.
[01:10:39] Speaker E: They sure don't seem like they're in their 70s. Dude.
[01:10:41] Speaker B: No.
[01:10:41] Speaker D: And they're, they look a lot younger, both of them.
[01:10:44] Speaker E: Yeah. Well, we have to give Dr. Dick a chance to chime in here.
[01:10:46] Speaker D: Dr. Dick, do you have any questions or comments?
[01:10:49] Speaker A: I have to say this is one of those places where I think it's so important to partner with people with experts, expertise and passion in different areas.
Because, you know, listening to Neil talk about his passion for his companies and Alan, listening to you talk about your passion for finances, I'm obviously passionate about research and getting it out. But I will tell you that the numbers and the money piece is in fact one of those things that no matter how much I read about it, I just can't get into it. Right. Like, that one doesn't get me out of bed in the morning. But I love that it does for you and people like you who I can learn from and work with too, so that I don't have to become the expert in that.
[01:11:35] Speaker B: That's exactly right. I mean, but here's an example. I'm a certified tax and business advisor and one of my clients, a doctor, he's 51 years of age. We're getting back $2,280,000 in taxes he's paid over the last three years.
[01:11:49] Speaker E: That's amazing. Alan Porter, how do people get in touch with you to get this advice for themselves? What's the best way to reach you?
[01:11:58] Speaker B: Always call me at 9105-5110-4691-0551-1046. Now, I don't charge my consultations. It's all about education.
My email address is strategic wealth, the number zero mail.com and you can always go to my website, which is www.strategic wealth strategy.com. i've got hundreds of movies on there. I've got podcasts. I've got a calculator for retirement you can click on there, put your numbers in there and find out how much taxes you're going to be paying on your qualified plan when you take it out.
[01:12:31] Speaker E: I know someone who's going there right after this show, Richard. Unfortunately, we have to end your segment, Alan, but this has been eye opening and encouraging, I will say encouraging for me because it sounds like you have some really good ideas for people that really hold on to their own money, which I think is great at this point. We have to take a break, listeners. You are listening to the Passage to Profit show with Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart and our special guest today, Dr. Danielle Dick. And we will be right back.
[01:12:58] Speaker F: It's more than a rebellion when your teen is slipping into drugs or alcohol, when social media and pornography consume their time and their mind, when depression and even suicidal thoughts cast a shadow over your home. As a parent, you feel powerless. There is hope. At Turnabout Ranch, troubled teens step away from the chaos and into a clarity of nature on a working cattle ranch, care for horses, learn responsibility, build trust and rediscover purpose. It isn't theory. It's real work, real therapy, real healing. Families from across the country have found transformation right here, just when they thought hope was gone. If your teen is struggling with addiction, harmful online behaviors, even weight management, call right now and get the help you all need.
[01:13:45] Speaker G: 8002-7714-3280-0277-1432.
800-277-1432. That's 800-277-1432.
[01:13:58] Speaker C: It's passage to Profit.
[01:14:00] Speaker D: Now it's time for Noah's retrospective.
[01:14:03] Speaker E: Noah Fleischman is our producer here at Passage to Profit and he just has a way of putting his best memories in perspective.
[01:14:10] Speaker I: You know, everybody's screaming about AI right now, but the fact is there are many long standing existing technologies in our world that are to this day vastly underutilized. I'll give you an example. There's that real feel, technology. The thing that the weather People on TV used to tell you, it's going to be 14 degrees tomorrow morning at 7am but actually you're going to feel like it's nine below.
How do they do that? How do they compute that? And how can they actually tell me that confidently? And you know something? After all these years, they're almost never wrong. So what if we applied that same technology to something like personal finance? Well, it's a 30% loss you're going to incur over the next six months, but actually you're going to feel destitute and bankrupt for the next seven years or in relationships. I know we've only been dating five months, but this breakup is going to make you feel as though you just ended a 35 year marriage.
So accept this $10 gift card from me, please.
You know, if we keep going in this direction, we're not going to need therapy anymore. Want to get in touch with your feelings? Just check the app.
[01:15:08] Speaker B: What are you going to do?
[01:15:09] Speaker I: Argue with technology now more with Richard and Elizabeth.
[01:15:14] Speaker C: Passage to profit.
[01:15:15] Speaker E: And now it is time for Secrets of the entrepreneurial mind.
So, Dr. Danielle Dick with Thrive Genetics AI, what is a secret you can share with our audience?
[01:15:27] Speaker A: Being a researcher and obviously working with lots of undergraduates over the past couple decades, one of the things I think a lot of people feel is I need to be expert in something. There are other people that know more about this. You know, this isn't my wheelhouse. Certainly as a PhD I felt that way. I had expertise in a particular area, you know, in research and what I do there.
But starting a company and moving out of just the world of academia into the business world was a real leap. It felt like being a student again. I didn't know what I was doing. I was learning all new things.
But it was exciting and I have loved where it has taken me. I'VE met interesting new people like you all that I would have never probably crossed paths with before.
And to hear other folks like when Alan and Neil were talking about they're still passionate about what they do, I thought that only existed in academia. I thought professors were the only ones who kind of, you know, wanted to die in their corner offices there. But to my mind, the secret is being okay with trying new things and stepping outside of your comfort zone. I think that's where some of the most most exciting twists and turns of my life have happened. Which is hard for me to say as a very type A planner, but, you know, I loved Neil's story about how he started out in Hollywood and ended up as an entrepreneur. Those kinds of understanding life is not a straight line, but there are twists and turns and embrace that journey. That's, you know, finding out those exciting things you never expected to lie around the corner.
To my mind, that's really the secret to continuing to find new passions and find new ways to contribute to the world.
[01:17:34] Speaker E: Absolutely. So, Neil Santuria with AskTuring AI. What is a secret you can share with our audience?
[01:17:43] Speaker C: I'll make it easy for you.
The key is not to do stupid things. And in order to do that, I'm going to encourage people to read. And the books they need to read are exactly on behavioral economics. And what they have to do is they have to read Dan Kahneman and Twersky and there's a dozen. I've written a couple books. There's one of the rules in the book says it's what you don't know that you don't know that will kill you.
I'm a passionate fan of, of Kahneman and all of his books about how people make decisions. Decision making is hard.
So the key is not all the books about discipline and dedication and blah, blah, blah. It's really about how you think about decision making.
And I'm going to support Dr. Dick on two more things. Get a mentor or get a coach. And they're not so easy. There's a thousand companies that say sign up and we'll be your coach. Let me tell you, I had the Same analyst for 35 years.
[01:18:40] Speaker B: So.
[01:18:40] Speaker C: And by the way, his kids finally graduated college. So I was, well, I think you need to study. Read all the other stuff. I don't know. But I'm, I think those books, not books about dedication, it's books about decision making. The decision tree is a complex one.
And all the other qualities of being flexible and pivot and awareness that comes with that's baseline.
But my recommendation is read some books, real books, and it's okay to read books that aren't on the topic. Like, it's okay to read Hemingway. It's okay to read Faulkner. It's okay to read Dostoevsky. It's okay to read Proust. If you can get through it, it doesn't matter. It informs how you think, and how you think is where really passage to profit occurs.
[01:19:32] Speaker E: Excellent. Thank you. Yes.
[01:19:36] Speaker D: Nicely tied up there at the end.
[01:19:38] Speaker E: Yes, I like that.
Alan Porter with strategicwealthstrategies.com what's a secret you can share?
[01:19:45] Speaker B: The secret I can share is to have an intense passion for what you do and being able to learn from others and to have a team that you can count on.
Because like, like Neil said, not everybody knows everything. And that's why I do what I do, too, because I have a team. I learned that after the first six months I was doing this business.
Not everybody can know everything. And I teach them to think outside the box of conventional financial planning. And I want to create a paradigm shift in people's thought process about finances. And when I come across with the passion that I have and my team concept, it resonates with my clients.
[01:20:22] Speaker E: Excellent. Richard Gearhart with gearhartlaw.com I've been thinking.
[01:20:26] Speaker D: A lot lately about firm longevity. Gearhart Law is going to be celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. And I've been thinking about how have we managed to stay in business for that period of time? And I attribute it to talent and passion. Those things are important, but I think what's more important are the systems and the routines that the organization develops and the habits that it gets into that. And you also have to be able to get out of tricky situations because every once in a while something is going to come up and it's going to be a difficult one. And the way to get out of a tricky situation, I find, is to talk about it with other people and ask their opinion about what they would do and what they think the course is. And then. And based on that, you can come up with your own solution or, you know, you can adopt one of theirs. But I think it's important to get a lot of perspectives on that.
[01:21:23] Speaker E: Excellent. Spoken like someone who's.
[01:21:25] Speaker D: Who's faced a few.
[01:21:26] Speaker E: Who's faced a few.
So me, Elizabeth Gearhart with Care Media Studios, I'm going to go a little bit more in the weeds than you guys because I do this every week practically. And I'm going to say right now, in early 2026. If you want to improve your brand visibility and your business visibility, one thing that is really power powerful is to give presentations. Being on podcasts helps too. Giving physical presentations really helps a lot because I've been doing a lot of research on Marketing in 2026 and all these LLMs who we love and hate, they're looking to see that you're which is so ironic. They're looking to see that you're a real person, that you're not AI generated, and they're looking to see your expertise. So if you can get invited to speak somewhere or get invited on a podcast, this is even better because this is iHeartRadio, which has a huge brand identity and that the LLMs recognize, then that really helps you and it helps your website authority and everything you're doing.
[01:22:23] Speaker D: So that's great. That's it for us. Passage to profit is a Gear Media Studios production. It's the nationally syndicated radio show appearing on 40 stations across the U.S. in addition, Passage to Profit has also been recently selected by Feedspot Podcasters database as a top 10 entrepreneur interview podcast. Thank you to the P2P team, our producer Noah Fleishman and our program coordinator Alicia Morrissey, our studio assistant Risiket Bussari, and our social media powerhouse Carolina Tabares. Look for our podcast tomorrow anywhere you get your podcasts. Our podcast is ranked in the top 3% globally. You can also find us on Facebook, Instagram X and on our YouTube channel. And remember, while the information on this program is believed to be correct, never take a legal step without checking with your legal professional first. First Gearhart Law is here for your patent, trademark and copyright needs. You can find us at gerhartlaw. Com and contact us for a free consultation. Take care everybody. Thanks for listening and we'll be back next week.
