Discover the secrets to financial freedom as Lamonte "Monty" Bynum, a Marine Corps veteran and retired law enforcement professional joins Travis Yates on this riveting episode that breaks the mentality of impossible that many first responders have. Monty describes the mindset and the determination that provided financial success while he was working in law enforcement.
Monty doesn't just talk the talk; he walks us through the essential mindset shifts that fire up the engines of wealth and well-being. Tune in and learn how to fuse a heart for service with a head for business, turning the page to an exhilarating chapter of life after service.
Embarking on a career transition can summon a tempest of self-doubt, but in this conversation, Monty cast a lifeline that examinse the daunting wave of identity and potential that often crashes over those in law enforcement and first responders, discussing how to navigate through the storm by recognizing personal triumphs and capabilities. Prepare to be inspired as we share stories of those who've successfully piloted their unique skills from public service into the entrepreneurial waters, illuminating the path to empowerment and success.
Find out more at The Wealthy Servant.
Join Our Tribe of Courageous Leaders:
Get The Book
Get Weekly Articles by Travis Yates
Join Us At Our Website
Get Our 'Courageous Leadership' Training
Join The Courageous Police Leadership Alliance
Discover the secrets to financial freedom as Lamonte "Monty" Bynum, a Marine Corps veteran and retired law enforcement professional joins Travis Yates on this riveting episode that breaks the mentality of impossible that many first responders have. Monty describes the mindset and the determination that provided financial success while he was working in law enforcement.
Monty doesn't just talk the talk; he walks us through the essential mindset shifts that fire up the engines of wealth and well-being. Tune in and learn how to fuse a heart for service with a head for business, turning the page to an exhilarating chapter of life after service.
Embarking on a career transition can summon a tempest of self-doubt, but in this conversation, Monty cast a lifeline that examinse the daunting wave of identity and potential that often crashes over those in law enforcement and first responders, discussing how to navigate through the storm by recognizing personal triumphs and capabilities. Prepare to be inspired as we share stories of those who've successfully piloted their unique skills from public service into the entrepreneurial waters, illuminating the path to empowerment and success.
Find out more at The Wealthy Servant.
Join Our Tribe of Courageous Leaders:
Get The Book
Get Weekly Articles by Travis Yates
Join Us At Our Website
Get Our 'Courageous Leadership' Training
Join The Courageous Police Leadership Alliance
This, this game, this money game, this business game is not as complicated as one you know might think, and there are people that can help you. You know you're gonna have options and you know what I found was, when I started to have financial options, I it just Rejuvenated me. I fell back in love with law enforcement.
Intro/Outro:Welcome to Courageous Leadership with Travis Yates, where leaders find the insights, advice and encouragement they need to lead courageously.
Travis Yates:Welcome back to the show. I'm so honored that you are spending a few minutes with us here today, and I am excited about who we have on today's episode. With us today is Lamonte "Monte Bynum. He's a Marine Corps veteran and a 32 year public Servant. During his career, he pursued business ownership, business acquisition and cash flowing investments, and doing that allowed Monty the freedom to pursue a career and lifestyle that matched everything that he dreamed of. Monty's passion and purpose today is to now help first responders to have the freedom to pursue wellness and Fulfillment while serving, by equipping them with the tools they need to live financially free. Monty Bynum, how are you doing, sir?
Lamonte "Monty" Bynum:I'm doing great, Travis. Thank you so much. Wow, that was thank you. Thank you for that.
Travis Yates:I don't have enough time on the podcast to list everything you've done. But, man, you you are. You are living a life that I think a lot of people look at, monty, and they think, well, that's not me or that can't be me. We're gonna get into why first responders think that there's a whole mindset, as you know, that needs to be shifted. But before we get to that, I just kind of want to just throw it out there and say, man, how did you get here today like? You started, like most other people, military and law enforcement or first responder world and now you are Changing the lives of so many people through what you were able to do in your career. How did that all happen?
Lamonte "Monty" Bynum:Wow, wow, yeah. So it actually started. I Was a cop first. I started, you know, started in college and criminal justice. I knew I wanted two things. I told my mom my mom was a teacher, my, my father was a teacher, father's teacher. And I told her one day hey, I want to do two things, mom. I want to be a cop and I be want to be wealthy. And to her credit, she said it's totally possible. So I went to college. She only said the one caveat is you got a good.
Lamonte "Monty" Bynum:So I went to college and one of the internship programs was they would hook you up with a job in Ocean City, maryland, as a seasonal police officer and I got a chance to go down there and just wildest dreams never would have thought that I would have. Not only, you know, while still in college, got a chance to serve as a cop Can I badge and a gun and all that. But actually they had openings in the narcotics section. So I actually started as an undercover cop years ago and they just I got the bug. I got the bug for narcotics and, you know, moved on to, you know, after ocean city, moved on to my home state of Delaware and served there for a couple years and then Decided that I wanted to serve my country and finish my degree, join the Marine Corps, did that for a while and that was a fantastic experience. Got out and came to Georgia and you know, eventually I joined a Couple local departments and was recruited by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation where I served for approximately 12 years until last year and retired.
Travis Yates:So it has been a whirlwind and it's been fantastic that is yeah, wanyi, you're sending a little goosebumps up me because let me just tell you a quick story about myself. I grew up and my mother wasn't a teacher, but she was a high school Principal. My father was in law enforcement. My father okay, rain.
Travis Yates:My father began his long career in undercover narcotics in the 70s. Well, it's his first assignment. And yeah, man, that's. That's pretty crazy. Although when I told my parents I wanted to be a cop, they did not give me any illusions I'd ever be rich.
Travis Yates:So kudos to your mother but, and, like you, I retired last year as well, after 30 years of service. Man, it's amazing stuff and when I look at what you're doing, I think it's what a lot of people look at as they get near the end of their career. Money and they think to themselves and I can just tell you how I thought. I thought, hey, they kind of fib to me in the academy like they told me Pension would be fine and there would be nothing to worry about, and they left a few caveats out.
Travis Yates:I don't know they left out inflation.
Travis Yates:They left out the fact that a lot of law enforcement that retires in their 50s and sometimes in the 40s, have a long life to live past that and Financially it's a different world. And so a lot of cops and I'm sure you've seen this money they wait until near retirement or after retirement to start studying the financial things.
Travis Yates:Yeah you did many, many years ago. Tell us why and how you kind of got started doing that and sort of the what you found out, you know, along the way, because I'm sure you made every mistake in the world. That's why. That's why you're coaching people today to try to I love you could.
Lamonte "Monty" Bynum:hey, that's why you're a doctor, because you, you know, I didn't have a day. Yes, I made the mistakes, that's correct.
Travis Yates:Well, no, I mean everybody does.
Intro/Outro:Anybody that gets outside the box of the narrative money like you're outside the box Most cops don't do what you did.
Travis Yates:They just stay in the box. They get to paycheck every two weeks, they work their extra jobs and then move on down the road, but anybody that steps out of that box, there's nobody to help you. You did it on your own, so I know from being a business owner myself. You've made all the mistakes to begin with, which is so awesome that fact that you're helping people now to try to prevent that. So just gonna tell us how that journey started, because they say that the difference in success and failure in business is the people that were successful Just kept going.
Lamonte "Monty" Bynum:Yeah, so Early on, kind of like you, you know, I had a bunch of great mentors and I remember I had one I'm new cast of County Delo, or shout out to them I had a great mentor. This guy literally was like Superman. I mean, if you this, this was a fantastic officer, fantastic presence, fantastic mindset. And he said he turned to me one day and said you know, I hope you were learning to develop Additional income because you can't count on just one. And he said he held up his extra pair of Handcuffs. He said if you got one, you got none. And he said remember that you're always gonna be back up with everything. And that stuck with me. And then he said this retirement is not gonna be anything. It's not gonna be what you really think it is. He said just do the bath. That stuck with me. And Ever since I always looked at the math most of us are ever is based and when we do the math, when you actually sit down and do the math, it just it did make sense. And then when I would ask hey, could you explain how this 401k is actually supposed to work, because it really seems to give us all the bad stuff and not really any of the great stuff and most of human resources couldn't explain it. So I Was very fortunate when I started, like you said, I learned how to do side hustles. I didn't understand what the difference between a side hustle and a business was and I was very fortunate to have Another mentor said hey, man, you're doing wrong. I was dog tired, I was working long shifts and then I would do my other aside hustles and I didn't have businesses. I had sign also, just warm me up Eventually.
Lamonte "Monty" Bynum:A mentor, you know, hey, this is how we build a business. We Build systems and we look at profits. We look at, you know, revenue. We do all these things and we've learned these things. We got a loan, these, you know what, what these, what these definitions are. We've got to, you know, get mentors. We've got to have a real purpose. Just like when you went to the academy, there was a SOP or how to do things. There was a standard. You know training process as you do these things. That's what you have to do. When, if you're gonna be an entrepreneur and you said, look, you know, if you mimic, this is what you're gonna get, you think that's how business works and that's not so. Invest in yourself, get a coach and they're gonna help you build systems. They're gonna help you leverage your time, leverage your resources, and that is one of true businesses. A business is something that operates without you and generates income without you, and that's like you said.
Lamonte "Monty" Bynum:Throughout three years I made mistakes and Typically it was when I did not humble myself and say, hey, you don't know everything in this field. I've owned everything from transportation companies to marketing companies, to a bar restaurant, to a computer software company. We own several laundry mats. We own a couple of commercial Businesses, a couple commercial real estate. Yeah, I got it. Every time I failed, I did not humble myself and I didn't learn from an expert. I didn't learn from someone else and I realized that Pretty much the only reason that you know folks in law enforcement left was hey, guess what?
Lamonte "Monty" Bynum:I got a job and it would crush me. Here are the most amazing people Out there and I say this all the time Travis, we're a different breed. We just are, yeah, and constantly. You know our leaders and everyone else. They want to put us with everyone else and I get it Sort of. But we are a different breed who decides to put their hand up and say, yes, I will go into Danger, I'll be the one that chase down the bad guys. I won't be the one that'll miss these you know Important times with my family to protect your family. That's pretty selfless person. That's a pretty amazing person and it would break my heart literally. I I see these guys that I would work with and shared you know great times laughs and angry, oh hey. And see these guys leaving and ask what, what are you doing? Yeah, I got a great job. Great job. You just spent 20 to 30 years busting your hump. You're gonna work for someone else. I just it would scare me, yeah what's interesting, monty, is, is we.
Travis Yates:We do this extensive background checks. We give Police officers more power than the president. We had the power to take human life on American soil.
Travis Yates:The president, united States, doesn't even have that authority, and we give them all this, you know responsibility, and then we get them inside a police department and then we make them think, hey, this is all you can do, this is it and I speak to law enforcement professionals all the time and it's a mindset they literally think that this is it. They get comfortable with what this is. Well, the problem is is that will not sustain you past the working age in law.
Lamonte "Monty" Bynum:Right, but then what is? What is this, though? And that's the funny thing, because you know, and I know we've we've had supervisors that would come to us and say hey, travis, guess what? I need you to put together a presentation for the community. Oh and, by the way, I need you also to, you know, set up an ops plan for this tactical operation. Oh and oh, by the way, I need you to set up a by-blast. And oh, by the way, what I realized was You're right, it's just a mindset that that we we have in our head, but really we are perfectly situated For being an entrepreneur.
Lamonte "Monty" Bynum:Why? Because we're creative problem solvers. We don't have all the answers, but we constantly have to, we have to win, we have the option of failure, we literally have the public there after us, we have leadership sometimes are after us, and then we have prosecutors even sometimes are after us. We have zero room for error. That's amazing. So it's just like you said. It is A mindset, but that can be easily shifted, and then they realize, when they start taking inventory I've done a lot of cool things.
Lamonte "Monty" Bynum:I actually have done these things to your point. I am, you know, I have been able to Carry out this tremendous responsibility at high level. Sure, you know, don't you know doing this product? So this thing, whatever, it's nothing. I just need to learn the ins and outs. That's nothing. They realize that that's what we spend a lot of time helping and we spend a lot of time on the mental part of this. First, because once we clear out those news things like a posture syndrome or limited beliefs about money or you know, all these blocks now your mind is open. Now you're like, okay, I've got all that. Now I went from, like you said, having blocks I can't to what else can I do? I can do anything and it's amazing to see this blossom. It really is like these guys blossomed to. They come in like I would like to to yeah, I'm going to. They just completely change your language and there's only like rockets. It's just truly amazing.
Travis Yates:Well, and I it's so bad in the profession. As far as that imposter syndrome, I can remember guys or gals leaving it right at pension 20 years. They got to pitch and they left, and leaders in the department are like what are you doing? You haven't maxed that pension out, you haven't done this, you haven't got this much in your forward. Why are you leaving so early? Because there's this mindset that this is it, and the people, though, that I saw that had your mindset money, this. I'm more than this, I am capable of more than this. They have just gone gangbusters, right, they have really exploded, because what I think law enforcement are all first responders don't understand is this you have unique skills and abilities that most people don't have just through the job you had to do.
Intro/Outro:That's right.
Travis Yates:But they just need to transition that To outside of the profession. So someone's listen to this money and and maybe I'm just going to give you a, you know, give you a demographic here. There there are 22 years and they could retire, but they're hanging on a little longer. But they, they think they can do more, they want to make more money, they want to have more freedom to be with their family, but they just don't know where to start. What would you tell them?
Lamonte "Monty" Bynum:Yeah, that's, that's. That is everybody that we literally very few really know. And the first thing is Is we have to get clear with your vision. What do you want? And often times they they misinterpret, they think I'm talking money and it's, it's not. I mean, which is it's good, you're talking live, right, live, talking live, style, what? So we've got to have a real clear vision about you know, personal and professional In your dream vision. That's what we need. You see, you know goals, where we come from, not to that's. Often times we get it backwards. We think, well, that's where I want to go, where is that? Tell me where you really want to go.
Lamonte "Monty" Bynum:Okay, money, when they really kind of, you know, sit down and realize it's, it's, it's open there, the author of their new chapters they study. Okay, here's, here's my picture. I want to create a business that I earn passive income of approximately thirty thousand dollars or more a year or a month. I own no less than four businesses that I have managers that actually take care of the day to day, etc. Etc. Etc. I'm able to, you know, work out when I want, I'm able to. You know, travel when I want, I'm able to. So, when they get that kind of clarity. Now we have a filter. Now we know some things that we can and can't do, some things that we really won't do. And that is that's the beginning.
Lamonte "Monty" Bynum:People think, well, I can, let me just have a general idea. Well, that's not going to work. We moved to the Canada. We didn't have a general idea. It was very specific. We had that. We had the twenty six week you know outline. Like you know, gosh, we're gonna be doing all this. Well, it was at first pretty daunting, but later on we realized, hey, it's a whole script here. It's actually all laid out. I just got to follow the plan. I'll make it Same thing here. If you don't understand where you really want to go, you're just going to end up on a treadmill and not moving anywhere. So that's the first thing Figure out really where you want to go and don't worry about why. I don't know how. I don't know how I'm going to come over resources. I don't know. That's not your job. It's the first thing you do on what you truly want. You do that and then we're halfway there.
Travis Yates:Yeah, there has to be some almost self-sabotage sometimes, right? Oh yeah, Because I don't think people outside of law enforcement listen to this. Understand, when you talk about imposter syndrome and I can't, I can't, I can't, that is huge man. And I mean, even though I've always done things outside of law enforcement, every day and every morning I got to get my Bible out and talk myself out of that imposter syndrome.
Travis Yates:You know, I've got to because, because, even though I didn't believe it, you're inside the culture that is all around you that says this is who you are, You're not Travis Shates, you're police major. You know you're not Travis Shates, you're a cop, and your whole world revolves around that. And when you get outside of that, in this entrepreneur world, well, here's what I've realized. Monty, Of course you realize that a lot longer before me unfortunately, I was not on your heels is there's a whole big world out there that we don't even know about.
Lamonte "Monty" Bynum:Yeah, and here's the thing. You know, travis, growing up I think we're, you know, probably close in age, you know I always thought the police were like one that could do no wrong and they just had the most amazing job and could do everything. And that's the thing it's. Now we view it as limiting. Where we know to be successful in this job it's not. The challenges are almost unlimited, but nearly every single day there's millions of officers that succeed, you know, every day, and rise the occasion to the challenges. That's evidence every single day that being an entrepreneur is nothing.
Lamonte "Monty" Bynum:And see, it's really about your viewpoint. It depends on how you view it. Everybody else on the outside that doesn't understand what it is to be a cop says you know, you're just a cop, really, really Well, I'm one of the best negotiators out there. I know how to talk to you know to different demographics. I know how to you know get people to do what I want. I know how to you know, physically be in shape and then take care of myself. I know how to work undercover. I know how to work under stress. I know all these things. That's a person that can do anything. We just label it differently. Some of us label it differently. I think, if we really step in and push back to all these people that want to, you know, giving and supplying us with living beliefs, if we step into the power of that, what other career, what other career allows us to do so much and meet all these challenges and provide us with all the evidence that we literally could do anything? No, I mean, that's the way I choose to live.
Travis Yates:Yeah, the profession is amazing. I want people to know this. Just in my knowledge, I looked across the hallway one day when NYPD came out with their first podcast in the country Really, this is way back in the late 90s or 2000s and I asked this guy next to me, I go how can we didn't have a podcast? He goes what is that? And I told the guy to put it up and he worked for me. So he did it, but within 30 minutes he had it up. He figured it out. Same thing with the.
Travis Yates:Department of New Website. They didn't have any money to do a website. So I looked at this guy and I said, figure it out and get it done, and in three months the dude had done a fantastic website we were so adaptable. And when it comes to the business world, entrepreneur world, that's gold, Is it not? Yeah?
Lamonte "Monty" Bynum:absolutely. And it's not only that we don't know fail. So on the outside, again I hate to really criticize, but again we're a different breed and I'm speaking to our people out there. We're a different breed. Too often civilians will just fail, they'll sit down. But we don't have that option. We never had that option. The major just told me I got to get this website up. Guess what? I'm getting this website up. We will make phone calls on the benos to the major all over the place to figure this out. We will figure out how we're going to make this operation happen and make sure everybody goes home. We will figure it out and we'll get it done. That's a great point.
Travis Yates:Bonnie, it's a great point. I mean, I couldn't remember like two years ago I was tasked with doing an annual report. Now I can write.
Intro/Outro:I can write, but I couldn't do any graphics.
Travis Yates:I ended up going and paying some graphic due with my own money to get it done, because I was told to get it done. And you're so right when you say we do not fail, we do whatever it takes.
Lamonte "Monty" Bynum:That's right. So why would you not? The only reason, the only reason, is we don't know how to do it ourselves. So then we start to we have really bad self-talk. Well, that's not true, and that's where I kind of get the people to get my hands on. Hey, that's not what a true business person does.
Lamonte "Monty" Bynum:And I see I learned this in the Marine Corps. The Marine Corps, I didn't get to do a lot of cool stuff as much as the operators. I was an officer, and so in the Marine Corps, yes, we've got to learn and know most everybody's job, but we're truly a leader. My job is to recruit. Well, my job is to give my folks all the resources they need to succeed, and that's what you do as an entrepreneur. You're a boss. You.
Lamonte "Monty" Bynum:It's not about you know how much you know. It's about recruiting and putting together this fantastic team to get the mission done. So that should really take off the pressure instead of what we normally do as officers. It's on us. We got to get the job done. In business, you put a team together. It's not about you know how you're gonna do it. It's like ask a different question who knows how to do this? Well, the major knows how to do this. He speaks all the time. He knows how to put together a fantastic problem, a fantastic program. He knows how to, you know, do these trainings. He knows how to. That's who I'm gonna talk to. I'm gonna talk to him about, you know, I wanna have a coaching program. I wanna have a speaking. You know, that's who I'm gonna talk to. We have to ask better questions and we really have to get clear with our vision, because it's totally doable and I truly I want them to have the option.
Lamonte "Monty" Bynum:I so for the last 10 years I had no idea how much I was making. I was financially and I'm not bragging, just saying that it is possible to live free, to totally live free. I was able to move to an agency that it was my dream job, to be a special agent with the Georgia Bear Investigation, a fantastic organization, and I mean you couldn't dream up a better position. And because I wasn't tied to income and wasn't tied to a job or advancement, I could move and eventually get my dream job. That's why I want law enforcement to have options.
Lamonte "Monty" Bynum:So if you really enjoy which I hope you do enjoy being in law enforcement, being financially free takes that burden off. It allows you to. When you're off, you're off and you pour into being healthy and wealthy and fulfilled and taking that stress off and decompressing and being with the most important people in your world, and then you become a better officer. If we part of leadership, if we put this into, you know new kind of understanding, we're gonna get better products, we're gonna get better service, we're gonna get better officers. But, to your point, what you're teaching is sometimes leadership is a little stubborn.
Travis Yates:Yeah, it's a little bit stubborn, it's a little bit incestual, right when we're learning from others and we shouldn't be learning from them, and but I think that goes to the mindset that we're talking about, and I think we've I mean, I spent a couple of hours just trying to convince people that you are much more than what you think you are. And, of course, the last several years has been extremely brutal for law enforcement and you know they get blamed for literally everything.
Travis Yates:Sometimes they have meters that blame them for everything. What I love about what you're talking about, monty, is it puts the control in the individual's hands. Right, and I would assume, when you talk about financial freedom, entrepreneurship and processes, that you want them to start with their vision, but you want that vision to encompass what they want to do, what their interest are Because where their? Interest are, is probably where their skill set is, is it?
Lamonte "Monty" Bynum:not Exactly. You know we're not a cookie cutter. You know coaching organization at all, I mean it is. We totally want your vision. If you just want to be a speaker, great. If you want to, you know. If you want to have a farm and that's your side business and that's where you eventually okay, then let's make that a business and not a hustle where you now have two jobs. It is absolutely about what you want to do and that's the important thing. That's where your energy is going to really flow. That's not saying it's going to be easy, because I'm not one of those. It takes all our work, but understanding that you're going to work hard either way if you're going to be successful. Where do you want that hard work, you know, to pay off, for someone else or for you?
Travis Yates:I want to tell our audience just a quick story, and if you're just now join us, I'm talking to Monty Bynum, marine Corps veteran, 32-year-old public servant, known as the wealthy servant on all the social media pages and this is just gold. Folks, you better turn around and back us up and listen to it again. But I want to tell you a quick story that I think goes to the heart of what you're talking about. So I was called a couple of weeks ago from a girl that used to work for me. She's now retired. She didn't get fully vested, she's, but she's vested. Eventually. She got 10 years in but she wants to be more of their family and her kids and she's been missing a lot of that.
Travis Yates:But about about a year ago I had a real bad cough and she says hey, I make these concoctions through natural herbs. Of course I'm like you know whatever? Well, she gave me this thing and all the, all the stuff that the farmers. She didn't help me. I take one shot of this stuff and it was just cured instantly. So I tell her I go. I don't know what you're doing, but no one else is really doing this and it's pretty amazing. She goes oh yeah, I've been going to some of the the outside fairs and and the herbal groups and it's very, very popular and I said I think you have something here.
Travis Yates:Well, long story short, she's now building her business around this idea that she loves, which is natural herbs to make people more healthy and more well, and she's obviously working on the marketing and the funnels and all the differences. She's learning it right. She's learning all this stuff. And I told her, I said this is going and her husband, who's also in law enforcement, has the mindset of what are you doing? You're now leaving, you're not getting the full pension, and she tells him there's only so much money you can make eight hours a day. She said, well, this is going to be special and it's special because she, that's her interest, that's her passion, and as soon as she plugs in the processes that you coach people on, monty, it's going to be a winner.
Intro/Outro:And it's just, oh, absolutely.
Travis Yates:And so you talk about coaching, monty, and I want to mention that briefly because I think you talked about sort of the mindset or the stubbornness of our profession. We sort of think we don't need that help, right, it's just a personality thing. We're out there on the road ourselves dealing with the craziest things ever. Maybe you have a backer, maybe you don't. And we had this sort of mindset after a while that, hey, I don't need anybody else's help. But the truth is the every billionaire on this planet has a success coach.
Travis Yates:That's right, the greatest golf players take a coach with them everywhere, that's right. Everybody that's been successful. They still have a coach. Tell us the importance of this and why we need to be considering this.
Lamonte "Monty" Bynum:Yeah, absolutely, and it drives me. There's one thing that drives me crazy is when people well, you see everyone's well, self-made, self-made million. That drives me. It's not true, it's never true. And if you ever see that, by the way, run away and I will tell you how about the?
Travis Yates:how about the? I just made $40,000 doing digital marketing in my first month's run away from the world.
Lamonte "Monty" Bynum:Right. Run away from that is exactly, yeah, exactly, yeah, we're. We're all about like, doing the work, we're all about doing the right things and having a coach helps you focus, helps you be able to, like you said, every successful person that really wanted to go to the next level had a coach. If we all think about when we were back at the academy, we, we didn't like those coaches, but they call them different, those DIs. But those are the folks that got us through. They didn't just hand us a badge and a gun, they wouldn't walk us through the process. We, there was a whole process where we understood the evolution. Hey, we weren't worthy day one, we weren't, we had bad attitudes, we weren't, weren't working as a team. Suddenly we, we, you know we're still thinking as individuals, but halfway through we started to think as as as a team and more about the mission. And then it changed with the, you know, our DIs turned from DIs to coaches. And then it was they started to kind of mentor us and kind of start us, you know, for the FTO program, that started to be more meant to, you know, into that coaching process towards the end, getting us ready for the FTO program and getting us ready for that mindset. That's exactly what we do is in the beginning. It's the whole process of the Crawl Walk Run and we can, we can.
Lamonte "Monty" Bynum:The truth is, travis, you don't need a coach. Question is do you want to go faster? Do you want to avoid some of the pitfalls? Do you want to really max out your potential? Because if you do yes, then you need a coach. Yeah, I can go to the gym and work out. I don't need a coach If I want to get to the next level. It's good investment and that's really what happens here. You're investing in you because you identify what you want. Now, some people just kind of that's the whole purpose of really finding out what you want, what you really want from there. Then you get a team and your coach is part of your team. There you should actually demand results. You should get a return on your investment. This is what I'm looking for. This is what my vision is. This part of the coaching process is hey, that is pretty obtainable, or okay, let's have some real talk.
Travis Yates:Yeah, that's, that's powerful stuff, and I think probably there's a fair amount of fear in everybody, right? But, what law enforcement or all first problems need to understand is you didn't know what you know the first year or the first two years, like Right. I'll just speak in general terms. It takes six, seven, eight years before a cop kind of comes in.
Travis Yates:I think I've pretty much done this and been there Right, and so we can't go into this venture after you look at Instagram and think you're gonna be a millionaire in six months. There is some grind, there is some work, but that coaching process, monty, and especially you you can really shorten that Because you're able to almost pour firehose in them as far as information goes right and really.
Lamonte "Monty" Bynum:Yeah, and so We've. We've spent the time until your point like I've got the scars in the beginning where it did just about everything wrong. I had good ideas and you'll hear that all the time you. You remember being on the road, we parked, you know, car door to door and we talked about all kind of crazy ideas. You know, I ran off of one of these ideas and I was way too soon. With one of my training companies. I spent $40,000. That was a expensive seminar Because I didn't reach out and I didn't humble myself and Learned from other people that had or were doing it. So that's the difference and that's where it was proof positive to me that, yeah, it was well worth the investment.
Lamonte "Monty" Bynum:Today, I, I, you know, I literally invest folks salary, but what people? You know what people currently are earning on their salaries first responders. That's why I invest a year so that we are learning these technologies to get to the next level, because now I, now we know everything's possible and part of what I'm doing is I want to learn this and I'm gonna pass it to everybody that works with me. I'm gonna pass it to as many people as I can. I Want to teach people. It's your choice Do it, don't do it. You have the option, but that's a lot better place to be instead of I'm gonna stick around here 30 years, because this is the best I got.
Travis Yates:Well, when you talk about investing in yourself, if that's the only thing people take out of this, that's the only thing you take out of this. You did not listen. You need to go back and listen a few more times, but that's something when I was in the profession and I can speak for the vast majority of people in the profession. Well, I'm not gonna spend money on that training.
Travis Yates:I'm not gonna spend money on that course the department can spend money on that right and now, after I retired, I ended up really investing money into the things I want to do and it's paid a ton of dividends, right and so if we would, if I would have started doing that a decade ago, I'd be much further ahead. So it's very important to understand that. You know, the police department sent you through the academy and they taught you everything this. No one's gonna do it for you. You bet you can do it in a much shorter time period and you can get the right information, because there's a lot of bad Information out there, as you both know. If you just pick the right person and Monty man, listen, I could probably talk all day, but I would. I just want to. I want you to just tell people where to find you kind of kind of where they find you, what you do for people, and and and we'll go from there.
Lamonte "Monty" Bynum:Yeah, I'm like you said. I'm on Instagram, I'm on Facebook, linkedin and Wellington is one of our you know, my most popular social media. Monty, be a wealthy servant. You can find me and connect with me there. Love the chat with you. If you have ideas, if you have questioned anything, hey, I'm retired, aside from looking at some commercial deals and other things like that, I'll you know, there is a calendar that you can book a time we can talk. I love if you're just. Hey, I'm worried, do you mind? You have 15 minutes to talk to me? Hey, that's what I'm here for. I, before I left, my fiance said hey, this is.
Lamonte "Monty" Bynum:There's so much, like you said, there's so much bad information. You need to stick around, you need to make yourself available. You, you've been there, you've done that and you're at least one person they can trust. They know you've actually been through the door. If they know you've missed, you know, christmases and and on all these things.
Lamonte "Monty" Bynum:There's a lot of people out there giving bad information and that's my main point. You don't have to take everything that I say. I at least want you to be able to discern and Actually know why you're deciding. It's not because Monty told you to, or Travis told you to. It's because, okay, I hear what you're saying, I understand what you're saying and this is my decision, because I also believe it's a good Decision to make, as opposed to hey, monty just told me to, you know, to buy the stock or buy this business. I don't know why, but I'm just gonna do it and that's what people have right now. Hey, buy this 401k or invest this 401k and it should work out. Let's fingers crossed it should work out. It's not gonna work out, guys.
Travis Yates:Yeah, I don't wait till you're 50 and you look and go oh, wait a minute, I didn't mention that that 401k.
Intro/Outro:Well, they didn't mention that Roth being better planned outside of the government entity.
Travis Yates:There's all sorts of things. Monty, if I could have found you when I was 21, I'm probably gonna beat somewhere sipping of my tie, but I didn't, and so we got a little catching up to do. But the service you're providing to the servants out there are amazing. I want everybody to know who you are. You can literally change the lives of the profession and you're not telling them they have to quit, but they could certainly get started and the day they walk away.
Travis Yates:They're not looking for a bank security card job, right, they they actually? Already set up and that is, to me, is really amazing, because we're not talking yes, we're talking money, but we're talking about a lifestyle that puts you with your family more, that puts you in more of a Better headspace, that puts you a better shape physically, and that's what that's about.
Lamonte "Monty" Bynum:Right, instead of like, hey, you know, wouldn't it be better, if you do those valuable hours? They're more valuable than you think. They're more valuable than a hundred dollars an hour that you're gonna do on your pay job. You know it's spent with your son, your daughters, your, your wife, your husbands, you know, your, your boyfriend, girlfriend. This that's the valuable thing, and if you can understand that and invest your time how to learn that, you know this, this game, this money game, this business game, is not as complicated as one you know might think, and there are people that can help you. You know you're gonna have options and you know what I found was when I started to have financial options, I it just rejuvenated me. I fell back in love with law enforcement and I hope that, you know, I hope that happens for people. At least they have the option they have, and that's all I want people is. They have the option to freedom.
Travis Yates:Amazing stuff, monty by them. Thank you so much for being here and, if you're listening, thank you for being here and just remember lead on and stay courageous.
Intro/Outro:Thank you for listening to courageous leadership with Travis Yates. We invite you to join other courageous leaders at www. Travis Yates. org.