EPISODE #5 – July 20, 2020

“I personally think it’s like one of the master skills in life, one of the master skills as an advisor, particularly as an advisor to be able to listen so you can really try to understand what somebody else wants and what they’re willing to tolerate in the process of getting what they want. Then when they do, when they are satisfied, then of course it’s a wonderful feeling when you’re able to find a solution that really works for someone else and helps them accomplish what they want..”

You can learn an awful lot by paying attention.

Listen in to how Kevin’s ‘BIG EARS’ have paved the way for his success in the early years as a professional musician, later as a father, husband, friend and financial advisor.

Transcript:

Elizabeth D’Aleo:          

Welcome to Work, Life, and Money Insights with Kevin Ellman, where Kevin shares the stories of his life as the foundation for his outlook on the economy, market, and current events.

Elizabeth D’Aleo:          

Hi everyone. Elizabeth D’Aleo. Thank you so much for joining us today. Welcome to episode number five. It’s hard to believe. I know five seems like a really small number, but to Kevin and I, it’s everything. We’re appreciative that you continue to listen in. I’m particularly excited about today. We’ll get into why in a minute, but Kevin, are you there with us?

Kevin Ellman, CFP:        

I’m here.

Elizabeth D’Aleo:          

Hi.

Kevin Ellman, CFP:        

How are you doing?

Elizabeth D’Aleo:          

Welcome to you to episode number five.

Kevin Ellman, CFP:        

Thank you.

Elizabeth D’Aleo:          

I feel like we’re headed over this virtual hump, right?

Kevin Ellman, CFP:        

Yes, this is like hump day.

Elizabeth D’Aleo:          

We haven’t seen each other in months but it feels like we’re together every single day with all the virtual tools that we have at our fingertips. I was just starting to share with our listeners how excited I am because of the different approach we’re taking to today’s podcast and today’s episode. I’m going to let our listeners in on a little secret and believe it or not, I actually have heard some of these stories before. I enjoy them every time just like they’re the first time. The secret for today is that I have no idea what Kevin’s going to tell me. I have no idea. This could be epic. I expect it to be. I know that we’ll learn something very important and I’m excited to listen. Kevin, what are you going to share with us today?

Kevin Ellman, CFP:        

Well, I hope you’re going to enjoy it. It was fun for me at the time, and it’s going to be fun for me to share the stories. Back in the day when I went to college, I decided I wanted to be a musician. I went to the Berklee School of Music, which was and still is the premier jazz music school in the country. I had an apartment and I had a roommate. As it happened, my roommate was the entertainment director at Boston University. I was at Berklee. He was at BU. We had a lot of fun there. One day he comes to me, he says, “Hey, Kevin. I have Chuck Berry booked to play a concert at BU.” “Hey, Rich. That’s a great idea. That should be a lot of fun.” He says, “Yeah. Chuck doesn’t travel with a band. He figures that everybody knows his music so wherever he goes, he just picks up a band.” I said, “That sounds great, Rich. Good luck.” He says, “No, no, no. I want you to put together a band.” “Oh, now I get it.”

He says, “Do you think you could put together a good band for us?” I said, “Rich, I go to the Berklee School of Music. It’s like the best music school in the country. I think I can put together a Chuck Berry band.” I said, “All right, what’s the date? When is it going to be?” He gives me all the information. Then I go to school and I recruit a guitar player, a bass player, and a keyboard player. We start rehearsing all the Chuck Berry songs. Most of us knew them, but we wanted to really get them down. The day of the concert comes and we show up at the auditorium. As you may know, before a big show, you have what’s called soundcheck. If the show starts at eight, soundcheck is usually at six. We get there at six. We set everything up. The soundman is getting the sound right on the drums and then the bass and then the piano and the guitar and the microphones.

It’s about 6:30. We look around. We go, “There’s no Chuck Berry. What are we going to do?” He says, “Well, let’s just keep getting everything squared away and we’ll see what happens.” Quarter to seven, no Chuck Berry. Seven o’clock, no Chuck Berry. Rich comes back and he says, “Hey, Kevin. Listen, we’ve got to let the house end soon. You guys got to finish up.” “All right. Fine.” We just figured we’ll make sure his amp is all set. We’ll make sure the microphones are all set. We go backstage and we have dinner. Dinner is like sandwiches. We’re relaxing and getting ready. I’m practicing on my drum pad, working on my rudiments. The guitar players are practicing without their amps. 7:30, no Chuck Berry. Quarter to eight, no Chuck Berry. Now we’re starting to get worried.

Rich comes down. He says to me, “Hey, listen guys. Crowd is getting a little restless. You guys got to be prepared to go on and do something.” I mean, “What do you mean go on and do something? We’re not Chuck Berry. I can’t imitate Chuck Berry.” He says, “Well, somebody has got to go up there and do something because the crowd is going to go crazy.” Ten to eight, no Chuck Berry. Five to eight, no Chuck Berry.

Elizabeth D’Aleo:          

Oh my goodness.

Kevin Ellman, CFP:        

He says, “All right guys, look, you got to go on.”

Elizabeth D’Aleo:          

I’m getting anxious just listening.

Kevin Ellman, CFP:        

“Are you kidding me? We can’t. They’re going to throw tomatoes at us. We can’t do that.” He says, “Well, you got to go on.” All right, fine. We line up on the side of the stage. We’re getting ready to go on. In through the side door comes Chuck Berry flying through the door, hair is on fire, slams his guitar down, opens the case up, takes it out, puts it on, tunes it up. He says to me, “All right, now who’s the drummer?” I go, “That’s me, Chuck.” He goes, “Listen to me, kid. You lay down a flat, funky backbeat and I’ll syncopate. Okay? Everybody ready? Here we go. Johnny B. Goode. One, two, one, two, three.” He counts it off.

Elizabeth D’Aleo:          

That was it.

Kevin Ellman, CFP:        

That was it. We played the show and everything is fine. Years later I posted the story that I just told you on Facebook and I get responses from drummers from all over the country and say, “Hey, same thing happened to me. I’ve played with Chuck Berry in Chicago. I played in LA.” Then three guys said to me, “Yeah, I played with him, but he hit me.” “What do you mean he hit you?” “Well, I made some mistakes and he turned around, he hit me.” I said, “Well, I didn’t have that problem because I didn’t make any mistakes.”

Elizabeth D’Aleo:          

It does sound like a personal problem.

Kevin Ellman, CFP:        

Yes. I said, “Maybe you didn’t practice enough.”

Elizabeth D’Aleo:          

Well, I think that is the quintessential fly by the seat of your pants. I guess the preparation you did without the main component was just knowing what you were up against in terms of the foundation of the music. Would you say that’s fair?

Kevin Ellman, CFP:        

I would say that’s fair. A lot of people when I tell them that I was a musician back in the ’60s and ’70s, they give me an elbow in the side, they go, “Hey, sex, drugs, and rock and roll.” I go, “Well, I guess there were some of that, but the essence of being a musician is really not that. The essence of being a musician is all about practicing.”

Elizabeth D’Aleo:          

Right.

Kevin Ellman, CFP:        

Everybody thinks that it’s just a crazy life. I used to spend eight hours a day practicing. I had a teacher. I had classes. I went to music school. I studied. I studied and I watched other people play. I imitated. I worked. The essence of being a musician is more about being, it’s almost like being a music nerd or just drilling away. We call it woodshedding. You go out in the back, it is woodshed. You can’t get good at playing anything, whether it’s guitar, the violin, the drums, unless you practice like crazy, like crazy. Then if you’re going to be in a band, you can’t play in a band unless the band practices like crazy.

Elizabeth D’Aleo:          

Right. I think that one of the things that is unique is that, I shouldn’t say unique, but your approach to it is one of a professional, right? Use Chuck Berry as an example. Perception is reality. Someone somewhere might say, oh, this guy just shows up. He plays, he doesn’t care how he’s going to impact anyone else on the stage or how they feel. If they feel anxious, it’s all up to them to make sure that they’ve got the background going. But there is this underlying understanding. Of course, he’s spending his time preparing and it’s just his approach. Right? Whether he just wants that spontaneity of the results of what’s going to be happening from him showing up last minute, or maybe he’s just one of those people that’s always late.

Kevin Ellman, CFP:        

I think there’s something else going on with him. It’s expensive to take a band on the road, with the hotels and the airfare and the food. I think he concluded that he’s like the father of rock and roll, everybody knows his music. It’s probably not necessary to travel with a band. For him, I think it was an economic decision. I want to go back to one other point. Parents are always really big on having their kids play sports because they want them to learn teamwork and they want them to learn hard work. It’s a very, very valuable experience to play sports in a team. Another way to learn all those skills, teamwork, diligence, practicing, having a mentor looking, watching and listening to the people who came before you and working together in a band to learn teamwork, it’s a different kind of way to learn those skills. It’s also a cooperative context as opposed to a competitive context.

If you’re playing in a baseball team, you’re trying to beat the other team. When you’re playing with Chuck Berry, you’re not trying to beat anybody. You’re trying to make a beautiful experience, trying to share this musical feeling with the audience. My own opinion is that that’s in some ways better preparation for life. Working in a team, in a company, you’re not trying to beat the sales team. You’re not trying to beat manufacturing. You’re trying to create something wonderful together.

Elizabeth D’Aleo:          

Right.

Kevin Ellman, CFP:        

That to me was the essence of that early musical training.

Elizabeth D’Aleo:          

I can see that. I have had more experience being part of athletic teams. I won’t go into my music history because it’s a little embarrassing in comparison. Not that I’m competing or anything. That might be my natural athlete coming out there, but I totally understand what you mean. I really have sat on both sides of that fence. Just feeling what you’re saying in terms of wanting the best result possible is really unique. Being in a variety of different professional settings that we’re faced with as adults, it’s almost like you take a step back now that we’re talking about this and you think about those people at the office, right? You have the water cooler person that likes to chit chat. You have the person that’s just constantly trying to get away with something, whether it’s one more day of vacation or whatever it may be.

There’s a person who really just does anything and everything they’re told without question. You have all these different characters, right. Something I always appreciated was when I either worked with someone or was the person to another, that the end result was ultimately just collaboration because that’s always been the best results in most situations. It sounds like that’s what you’re really talking about here.

Kevin Ellman, CFP:        

Well, that’s really the best word. It really teaches you how to collaborate in a team environment. I think the other thing it teaches you is the pursuit of excellence. I spent a lot of years doing recording sessions. In a recording session, everything has to be perfect. You can’t have any sloppy notes. You can’t have any mistakes, got to be perfect. Being a musician forces us attitude of it’s got to be perfect. You can apply that to anything in life. There’s a follow on story here.

Elizabeth D’Aleo:          

Oh boy.

Kevin Ellman, CFP:        

After I left Berklee, the first band I played with was Manhattan Transfer. We did a couple of short tours. Then their tour was over and they were going to do something else for a while so they didn’t need me right then. I said, “Hey, listen guys, I need to make a living. I need to play with somebody. Do you know anybody who’s looking for a drummer?” They said, “Oh yeah, we have this friend. Her name is Bette Midler. She’s looking for a drummer, we heard. Here’s her number, give her a call.” I call up Bette Midler. She says, “Great, come on down. We’re going to have an audition on Tuesday. Here’s the address.” I show up at the studio. It’s got a set of drums there, and there’s Bette and then there’s a piano. Behind the piano is Barry Manilow. Now, neither of these two people are famous yet, but super talented. They invited me in. They tell me what we’re going to play. I sit down and I play it.

At the end of the audition, they announced, “Well, Kevin, you sound great. You got the job. We’re going to have a couple of rehearsals. Here’s the address for the first gig.” It’s called the Continental Baths on, I think it was West 76th Street, something like that. We rehearsed. I learned all the tunes. The day of the gig comes. I pack up my drums in my Volkswagen Squareback and I drive over to the gig. I pull up in front and two really cute guys come out. They say, “Are you the drummer?” I said, “Yeah, I am.” He says, “Well, all right, let us take all the stuff downstairs and you go park because it’s impossible to park in this neighborhood. It might take you a while.” “All right, great. That’s really, really kind of you. These people really know how to treat musicians, most places don’t.

Finally, I parked the car. It’s about six blocks away. I walked back. I go downstairs and they’ve set my drums up. Not only have they set them up, but they’re polishing all the metal on the drums. I’m like, wow. These people really know how to treat musicians. I got everything set up. I got everything placed and tuned. I go backstage and I warm up on my little drum pad. Bette is practicing her jokes and doing her vocal exercises. Barry is chilling. Bass player is practicing on his bass. The stage manager comes back, says, “Okay, time to go on.” We go up on stage and you can’t see anything. Then all of a sudden the lights go on and it’s like, you’re blinded. We’re on stage and I’m playing and I’m kind of peering up beyond the lights and I’m looking and I’m like, something seems very strange.

I give the bass player an elbow in between songs. I say, “Mike, Mike, is it my imagination or is the whole audience men?” He says, “Yeah, it’s all men.” I said, “Mike, am I seeing things? Is everybody naked?” He says, “Yeah, they’re all naked.” I said, “Where are we?” He says, “Didn’t anybody tell you?” I said, “Nobody told me anything. They gave me the damn address.” “Well, we’re at the Continental Baths. It’s like, Plato’s retreat for men.” I said, “You’re kidding me.” He says, “No, man, I’m not kidding you. We play here all the time.”

Elizabeth D’Aleo:          

Well, at least they didn’t make that a prerequisite for you.

Kevin Ellman, CFP:        

I go, “All right, fine.” We keep playing and the audience is going absolutely bonkers. They love her. She is the raunchiest person you’ve ever met in your whole life.

Elizabeth D’Aleo:          

This was the first time she was performing there as well?

Kevin Ellman, CFP:        

No, no, no. She plays there all the time because she was like a regular. She had a real following among this community and super raunchy.

Elizabeth D’Aleo:          

That’s amazing.

Kevin Ellman, CFP:        

It was crazy. After the gig, I guess this is the gig. This is what it is. We played there a few more times and then they say, “Okay, now we’re going to go to like Midtown for the regular audience.”

Elizabeth D’Aleo:          

The dressed audience.

Kevin Ellman, CFP:        

The dressed, yeah, exactly. We’re playing Downstairs at the Upstairs. Upstairs, Joan Rivers is headlining and we’re playing downstairs. We played there for a few nights and everything is going great. It’s like a Friday night. We’re backstage. I’m practicing my pad. Bette Midler is doing her vocal exercises. The stage manager comes back at eight o’clock. He says, “Okay, Bette, it’s time to go on.” She says, “Well, I’m not ready.” “What do you mean you’re not ready?” “I’m not ready. I’m not dressed. My vocal chords are not loosened up yet. I’m not ready.” The guy says, “Well, it doesn’t really matter if you’re ready because you got to go on. It’s eight o’clock.” She says, “Well, I’m not ready. I’m not going on.” He says, “Well, somebody has got to go on.” She says, “Barry, why don’t you go up there and do something?”

He says, “Okay, fine.” He turns to me, he says, “Listen guys, you probably don’t realize it but you know, I kind of do my own thing. Also, I write songs, I sing. I got a couple of songs. We can play my songs.” “All right, great. Show us how they go.” He shows us how they go. The first one is Mandy, which was his monster hit later on. The second one is At the Copa, which was also a monster hit. We go on and we played these two songs by which Bette is ready. She comes out. She starts singing. It went so well that from that point on, the Barry Manilow band open every night for the Bette Midler show. That was the worldwide debut of the Barry Manilow band. I was in that band. We ultimately did a recording and I’m on those albums. It was a fantastic experience because the level of talent was so high.

Elizabeth D’Aleo:          

Right. I mean, here I am listening and I’m sure our listeners are going to feel the same way. Throughout today, throughout this episode, you’ve been sharing with me the feeling of seeking perfectionism as a musician and really sharpening your tools and showing up ultimately as the best version of yourself. You have all these experiences, I’ll call them the behind the curtain experiences, right. That maybe the people looking from the outside in who see just the shiny polished drums and the beautiful outcome of the music that they don’t see all the behind the scenes scurrying to get everything together. Do you have a moment in time or maybe more than one moment where you sat back and you said to yourself, wow. I made it?

Kevin Ellman, CFP:        

I never really felt like I made it. I did feel looking back later that I did, I lived the dream. I had a dream to be a serious player. Originally I had this fantasy, I was going to be like a jazz player. I was going to play jazz, and then little by little I realized, well, everybody I know who’s playing jazz is starving. I don’t want to be a starving jazz musician. I ended up playing pop and rock. I played on some big stages in the city. I mean, I played at Lincoln Center. I played at Radio City Music Hall.

Elizabeth D’Aleo:          

So cool.

Kevin Ellman, CFP:        

I played a lot in the outdoor festivals. I played every city, every major city in the United States, not much international travel. I have one other story which I want to share. Bette Midler was becoming more and more successful. Somewhere in there, she got discovered by Johnny Carson. We got invited to go on The Johnny Carson Show. Rather than play with the Johnny Carson band, she wanted to play with her band. We set up on the side and Johnny calls her on stage. He introduces her, she sings a song. We’re singing, You Got to Have Friends and everything is going along fine. We played the verse, then we played the chorus. We played the verse and the chorus then we go to the bridge. First chorus out.

Everything is going along fine. I’m watching her and I’m paying attention. I can just tell by her body language that normally she like raises her arm and twist her neck when we go to the chorus but she’s not doing that now. I can tell, wait a second, something’s off. I look over at Barry and I raised one eyebrow. He raises his eyebrow back which means, yeah, I noticed the same thing too so get ready. Okay. This is all happening in the space of two tenths of a second. We realized that she’s not going to go to the chorus as usual. She’s going right to the bridge. We seamlessly just follow it to the bridge, play it perfectly. Then we come back, we play the verse, chorus, and we play it out. Everything is fine. Then she goes on to have an interview with Johnny. This to me was like a textbook example of why music training is so wonderful because in order to play music, you have to listen and you have to pay attention.

It’s not just listening with your ears. It’s watching body language. I know this from playing with hundreds of musicians over the years, of watching them, seeing what they’re going to do, getting the feeling from what they’re going to do by watching their body, listening to them. You can tell, we’re about to go to another section. How do I know? I’m not exactly sure. I can tell because the way the music is flowing, but I can tell that maybe the way they’re playing, they’re kind of bringing their phrasing to a conclusion. If that section is going to be over, ready to go to the next section. I go to these jam sessions all the time. You don’t even know what they’re going to play. They’re just going to call out a song. They’re going to play it. If you don’t know it, you just got to just watch the guitar player and he’s going to give you cues.

If you’re alert, you pick them up. If you’re not alert, you might not. I mean, I’ve had this experience hundreds of times, maybe thousands of times playing music. This is an incredible life lesson that applies to whether you’re a parent, whether you’re a spouse, whether you’re a friend, whether you’re listening with clients. I mean, I’m sure you’ve had the same experience when you say to somebody, you just say hello, and you can tell something’s wrong. You just say, “Hey, what’s the matter?” They go, “Nothing.” Of course, they go, “Oh, nothing. I’m fine.” “You’re not fine. Just tell me.

Elizabeth D’Aleo:          

I think you and I have actually had these conversations.

Kevin Ellman, CFP:        

Absolutely. This is regular conversations between husbands and wives, or parents and children. “Hi honey, how did it go at school?” “Fine.”

Elizabeth D’Aleo:          

“Fine.”

Kevin Ellman, CFP:        

You know it’s not fine.

Elizabeth D’Aleo:          

It’s the worst word in the English language.

Kevin Ellman, CFP:        

Of course, they’re saying in such a way they want you to ask anyway. I had this experience particularly with clients where, let’s say you’re talking about risk tolerance. You ask a question, “Well, how do you feel if the market were to go down 500 points? How would you feel about that?” You might get an answer like, “Well, I’m okay with that.” But they don’t say it in a really convincing way, so you have to probe a little further. “Well, what happened the last time the market went down?” “Well, I didn’t sleep for three days.” “Okay, well maybe we should do something a little different.”

Elizabeth D’Aleo:          

Right.

Kevin Ellman, CFP:        

I personally think it’s like one of the master skills in life, one of the master skills as an advisor, particularly as an advisor to be able to listen so you can really try to understand what somebody else wants and what they’re willing to tolerate in the process of getting what they want. Then when they do, when they are satisfied, then of course it’s a wonderful feeling when you’re able to find a solution that really works for someone else and helps them accomplish what they want.

Elizabeth D’Aleo:          

I agree.

Kevin Ellman, CFP:        

I’m not sure how you learn that. I mean, they don’t teach that in advisor school.

Elizabeth D’Aleo:          

Well, I mean, you and I have actually talked a little bit about this, right? It’s just some of it is intuitive. Some of it is not. Some of it is learned or we are educated to learn it. It really is a very individual type of thing because every skill can be taught, but not every skill can be learned, if that makes sense. Right. I can teach everyone in the room, but not everyone is going to learn it and not everyone is going to learn it the same way. You and I actually have conversations all the time around learning style. A lot of it is applied through whether it’s with one another, right. You and I getting to know how to work with one another or getting to know a client we’ve been working with for some time but maybe never seen an extreme downfall of the market.

How do we help them through it? There’s all sorts of learning that happens on a regular basis. It all goes back to that infamous saying of that, we as humans were created with two ears and one mouth for a reason, right. It applies to music. It applies to parenting. It applies to what we do every single day working with clients for their wealth preservation and wealth improvement and growth. It’s an enjoyable skill to see have a positive impact on someone. Wouldn’t you agree?

Kevin Ellman, CFP:        

Yeah, I agree. I’m grateful for the fact that I had and still have the musical experiences I’ve had, because I think it was a tremendous learning lab for, as you said, collaboration, really honing and perfecting my listening skills. I mean, I do remember even when I was 14 playing with some older, more experienced guys. They’d comment, they’d say, “Hey, Kevin, you really have big ears.” Meaning that I really listened and I really play with the music. I really could blend with other people. I think I had some of this naturally, but the musical experience was an opportunity to really hone it and perfect it. Then later in life as an executive, I took courses in active listening and I read books about parenting which really supported the same ideas, but one of my models is you can learn an awful lot by paying attention.

Elizabeth D’Aleo:          

Exactly, right, and seeing. As we know, I have a two and a half year old daughter. I’m teaching her these things every single day and a phrase that very often will leave my mouth in the recent days is turn your ears on because I know she hears me, but is she listening? There’s a big difference between hearing something and listening. It’s that important. That really, it’s a lifelong lesson. Normally, you may share a curve ball with us, and we may get there. I do have one thing that I want to go back to.

Kevin Ellman, CFP:        

Sure.

Elizabeth D’Aleo:          

I want to go back to you and the other guy, okay. The other guy who got hit. You didn’t, and he did. Right? In a simplistic way of describing it, he did because he made a mistake or he made mistakes. Right? Okay, fine. That’s easy enough to identify, but why do you think that in that moment what attributed to you not making a mistake?

Kevin Ellman, CFP:        

Well, two things, I think Chuck was very clear that I was to lay down what he called a flat, funky backbeat and he would syncopate. Left to my own devices, I might’ve had decided to have a little bit more fun and play a little bit more syncopation. That might’ve caused him to get annoyed. First, he was the band leader. He gave me instructions and I followed the instructions. You and I have had this conversation before that I’m coachable. As a musician, particularly if you’re a sideman, if he wants me to play a simple beat, I play a simple beat. If Bette Midler wants me to play a little faster, I’ll play a little faster. In other bands where I was really more of the artist myself, well, then I’ll play what I want. But in those situations, it’s a supporting role and you’ve got to give the artist what they want.

I think that was one element. The other element is if you’re not paying attention and watch Chuck raise his guitar and bring it down for a stop, you might miss it. I think those are the two things. You really got to pay attention and you got to be willing to support other people and give them what they need.

Elizabeth D’Aleo:          

Yes, and that I think goes back to the collaboration without having to force control. You know, what they say, staying in your lane, right. Knowing your role and being the best in that role. If we kind of take it to wrap it up here, there are some certain messages that I’ve heard loud and clear. First of all, I just want to thank you for always sharing these stories. I personally appreciate them. I personally always get something out of them other than just a good laugh of course. But today, what coming full circle, what I’m hearing pun intended is that we need to listen to then collaborate to learn.

Kevin Ellman, CFP:        

Yeah. I think that’s good. I think it’s also about giving something or somebody, particularly your children, your complete undivided attention.

Elizabeth D’Aleo:          

Right. We’ve also had that, right. I mean, just so our listeners know, it’s the real life Kevin Ellman, right? I think there’s one version of you, which I really respect. You get what you get, right? You’re not going to get a different version of Kevin Ellman no matter how hard you try. I think one of the things is important for our listeners to know, especially for anyone who may be considering partnering with you through their wealth management, is that who you are as a dad, is who you are as an advisor, is who you are as a boss, is who you are as what I’m learning to be a friend. One day we had something scheduled. I actually even think it was a podcast recording. You said, “My daughter needs me, that’s where I’m going to be.”

I said, okay. Obviously, I would never question that. The words you share with us are the words you live by and it’s very admirable and it’s just very, very special to be able to share it in this way. Through all of this, you’ve shared your funny stories. You’ve shared some crazy stories and I’m excited for more to come. But for right now, if someone wants to learn a little bit more about you professionally and what you do currently, where can our listeners find you?

Kevin Ellman, CFP:        

Well, we try to have everything that we’re doing available on our website. It’s wealthpreservationsolutions.com. If you forget that, you can always Google me and all of this stuff will pop up. Wealthpreservationsolutions.com. We have articles, we got videos. The podcast will be there. All the information you might need to at least get an initial familiarization with our company.

Elizabeth D’Aleo:          

Great. Sounds great. To our listeners, thank you again for joining us. We look forward to sharing more stories with you and more life lessons. But for today, please remember to review, rate and share this podcast. As always, stay happy, stay healthy and stay wealthy. Bye.

Elizabeth D’Aleo:

Thanks for joining us today for Work, Life and Money Insights with Kevin Ellman. For your free copy of Kevin’s book, The Seven Biggest Money Mistakes People Make And How To Avoid Them, just text, “WEALTH,” to 88799. That’s, “WEALTH,” to 88799. Everyone’s circumstances are unique. And the content of this podcast should not be construed as financial, tax or legal advice. Please consult with your professional advisor or contact Kevin Ellman to learn if the complimentary personalized review or candid snapshot of your portfolio is right for you by visiting wealthpreservationsolutions.com.

Elizabeth D’Aleo:

The opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the author, and may not necessarily reflect those held by Kestra Investment Services, LLC, or Kestra Advisory Services, LLC. This is for general information only and is not intended to provide specific investment advice or recommendations for any individual. It is suggested that you consult your financial professional, attorney, or tax advisor with regard to your individual situation. Comments concerning the past performance are not intended to be forward looking, and should not be viewed as an indication of future results.