Today we’d like to introduce you to Lucio Vallarta.
Lucio, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
So it all started when I was roughly 11 or 12 years old. One day single-handedly change my life forever, but for it to make sense I must first give you the back story. My mother and step-father owned a clothing-resale business at a local flea market. I had a good life, life was actually just starting to settle down for me. My mother divorced my father when I was a toddler and my father moved to a different city when I was around 5. That being said I was a very timid, self-conscious little boy that was uneasy around other men since my mother was my only parent up to this point. Why do I go back this far? It will help paint a better picture of who I am today, I promise. So going back to my first scene, my step-father came officially into the picture around age seven, so at age 12 I’ve had five solid years of a stable familial situation, which is why I mentioned that at this point life was good.
Unfortunately around this time, my step-father and mother started to have marital problems which eventually led to divorce. Remember the business I mentioned earlier? This divorce will have a huge impact and will teach me my first few lessons in business & finance. My mother was the operative manager; finding deals/ wholesalers, negotiating inventory prices, setting profitable margins, & essentially created arbitrage by selling and buying brand-clothing in different markets. However my step-father was the face of the business, the salesman. A charismatic man that everyone wanted to befriend and ultimately buy from. Business was good generating over $3,000 on its best weekends, that added to my step-father’s day job throughout the week gave us a great sense of financial security. But like I mentioned that didn’t last long, after the divorce the business lost its best salesman. And with it we also lost the stable day job income as well. Unfortunately, my step-father was laid off and unemployed for long time. Meaning no child support either.
So here we have a situation where there’s no more stable day-job-income, no father figure, no child support, a single mother with two kids, and a business that just lost its only salesman. Things got bad, really really bad. The business went from $3000 a weekend, to $1000, to $500, to $ 250, to $100 a weekend very, very rapidly. My mother feel in a deep depression and was lost in her abyss. I must say that as a 12 years old, first-born, I felt helpless, and the stress that my mother was facing was now inherited as my own. This all leads to the day that changed my life forever. It was one Saturday morning (first sales day of the weekend), and my mother was down to the last $20 in her pocket. I remember that morning I was starving and asked my mother if we could stop by and get some breakfast. She admitted to me that she only had $20 left that we needed to pump gas for the truck to get us to the flea-market. Needless to say, we went without eating breakfast that morning. I knew things were bad but I had no idea we were down to our last $20! Upon arrival my mother said to me “son please go set up shop I need a moment”. I remember getting worried because as I was setting up shop I could see my mother crying in the truck. I felt helpless, but I believe my innocent 12 years old mind was sheltered from truly understanding the severity of things.
So my only solution at that point was start selling and start marking everything up! Higher prices means more money right? LOL. I don’t know if it was that people were intrigued to see a young boy selling so passionately or if it was the universe sending us a last minute life-line. But the blessing happened. I started to sell like a madman! in the span of 30 minutes I had roughly $200-$300 in my hand. I was static to say the least! I ran to the truck and knocked on my mom’s window. Still crying and not being able to look at me she was waving me to go away and kept saying, “go set up shop I’ll be there soon”, I responded, “MOM! Look! I have money!”. I saw her eyes light up, whip her tears, and the first thing she said was “go get us soon breakfast”. It wasn’t a great turnaround business story. We closed soon after and my mother eventually got a job as a housekeeper. However, that day will forever be in my memory until the day I die. I learned the power of money that day. The pain that the lack of it can cause and the good that it can bring in an instant. It’s the single most powerful man-made tool on earth.
That day I learned many lessons. Never get comfortable with money. Sales cures all. The market is the market, and it’s ruthless. Never rely on any income. Invest wisely. Be self-aware of your situation and the risks that you are exposing yourself and your family to. Essentially I learned risk management that day. Ever since that day I was worried about money, I knew I had to have it. Not for luxury. For survival. In middle school, I worked weekends as a shoe-shiner, then at a hardware shop. I took a two years sabbatical then in high school, when I was legally able to work I started working for the Golden Arches. In high school, I held a series of fast-food jobs to help my family get by. However, the real mindset changer came from my high school. I heard Bellaire High School was a good school so I asked my mother if I could go there. I owe my mother everything but this was probably the second life-changing decision for me. So rather than going to Sharpstown HS as I was zoned to my mother moved us to Bellaire paying rent for an apartment that was way out her reach. But she did it because she wanted me to attend a good school. Bellaire exposed me to a different world. One filled with rich kids that never had to worry about money like I did. Although I never fit in that crowd, I admired them from a far.
On my after school walk to work, I would see the Ferraris parked in these kid’s houses, admiring every bit of elegance their lifestyle portrayed. Perhaps it was unhealthy, but it motivated me to be better. I exposed me to a world I had never seen before. That paired with my work ethic, and my mother’s support, and this country’s opportunity, I knew it was only a matter of time before I too lived in one of those homes. Long story short, I quickly realized that I could make more money if I moved into sales jobs, so I did. I worked a series of sales jobs as I attended UH to get my BS in, you can probably guess it, Finance. I figured if I could understand the financial markets the issue of money will never be an issue. Pretty gullible thinking. However, I dedicated every day of my life to studying money and personal finance. During my time in college I had already worked as a real estate agent for a big realty broker in Sugar Land, became a banker in River Oaks for Regions Bank (another eye-opening experience), and worked for JPMorgan with my series investment licenses selling investments and baking products in the Heights. All before the age of 24. It was really my time in the banking world that opened my mind about money. I was blessed with the opportunity to work in 2 of Houston’s wealthy communities, River Oaks & The Heights.
This exposed me to millionaires, I studied their accounts, how they made money and utilized money. I realized that they don’t see money the same way the average American does. They see it as a tool, no emotions, just utility. They use it to make moves that will propel them forward (growth), the average American uses it to keep things the same (survival). I studied them and learned to speak their language, I was fearless. Nobody no matter the net-worth could intimidate me because I was on a mission. To collect money. At 24, I became #1 in investment sales for my market. I was on the fast-track to riches! The bosses loved me, I worked for the #1 investment firm in the country, and I knew exactly where I was going. All of a sudden God/The Universe changed its plans for me. I was Christian, listened to Dave Ramsey, and read many books that expanded my mindset beyond JUST money and into seeking purpose.
I started to get a weird desire in my heart that I wanted to bring the money-management teachings of the millionaires to the average American. But WITHOUT the net worth requirement. I had no idea how I would do this being that the financial industry doesn’t have a model in which you provide REAL financial advice to people that don’t have significant amounts of money to invest. Usually you bring the money, usually a minimum requirement of $250,000, and THEN we give you financial planning and investment advice. But what about the other 99% that doesn’t have $250,000 to invest? Do they not have the right to financial advice? They’re just supposed to figure it out, and THEN come to us, the professionals? Seems ironic, but I’m not surprised, my industry is living up to its reputation.
In April of 2017, the Department of Labor hit our industry with the Fiduciary Rule, which states that Financial Advisors are to put their clients’ needs first, in-front of their own interest. A stricter standard than the traditional suitability standard. Without going too much into financial jargon and the specifics this law woke me up and put RIAs (registered investment advisers) on the radar for me. Since I worked for a broker-dealer, I had never considered the possibility that a purely “Financial advice” firm was even a thing! A couple of months later, In July 2017, I quit my job, and The Lamb Financial Planning was born. I had no idea how this was going to work out, but all I knew was that it was my life mission & purpose “to help people better their financial lives” and this to be the path that got me closer to my purpose. So I took a blind leap of faith.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
This has been far from smooth. I’m sure every business owner and entrepreneur can attest to that. My biggest struggle was that this concept of “financial advice for a flat fee” is new in the marketplace. I call it a movement, a revolution in the financial industry, of financial advisors that want to offer real financial advice not just to the wealthy. However, as corny and heroic as that sounds, the market isn’t going crazy and flooding us, RIAs, with business. Turns out that most people say they want transparency in their fees and hate that financial advisors get paid commissions, but when you ask them to pay you upfront for a financial plan they aren’t quite sold on that idea either. I don’t blame them. It’s hard to see value when you can’t quantify opportunity cost, and you feel like your personal financial situation isn’t all that complex because you’re not wealthy nor have a trust or estate to manage.
In this day-and-age it seems like you can simply google the basic personal finance topics and you should be silky-smooth! So part of the struggle was that there was no blueprint to follow. The value proposition is hazy. There is no market research on whether people are actually willing to pay for this service. And differentiating yourself from other financial professionals as a REAL financial advisor isn’t an easy task either. People see the firm name and rightfully think, “Oh that’s wealth management, not for me”. And I’m like “No wait! See, I offer financial advice for a fee, so anyone that wants to see financial growth in their life is a potential customer!”. Too hazy, too hard to understand, which equates to quick loss of interest, attention, and ultimately no sales.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into The Lamb Financial Planning story. Tell us more about the business.
We offer Financial Wellness. This means we help you create a financial roadmap for your goals, passions, & lifestyle. We do this through a Financial Plan followed with monthly Financial Coaching. We don’t sell Investment so no commissions, which means we only get paid what you pay us. We offer this service at the individual level and the business level, for businesses that want to offer this to their employees as a company benefit.
Our firm is a Registered Investment Adviser (RIA) in the state of Texas. Which means that we are legally structured to be able to offer you financial advice without restrictions. Most financial coaches cannot advise you on investments because they are not RIAs. We can. We also have an agreement with TDAmeritrade to provide our clients with custodial investment services. This means if you want to invest and have us manage your investment accounts (Build a portfolio for you), we can, all investments and your money are held at TDAmeritrade. Meaning we don’t hold your money. No Bernie Madoff schemes here.
As an RIA, we aren’t allowed to reference testimonials, but what I’m most proud of is being able to make a real difference in someone’s financial life. Whether it’s saving them $40,000 on the purchase of a business because we were able to point out major negotiation areas, or helping someone change their investment portfolio to allow them to have five times more money at retirement, those are REAL differences.
What sets us apart from others is our youthful, out-of-the-box, non-traditional-mindset approach to all areas of personal finance. We don’t agree that getting married, buying a home, having three kids and staying at a job for 30 years is the right financial plan for EVERYBODY. It’s a great plan for many, nothing wrong with it, but it can’t possibly be the same for EVERYONE. We live in a new era of laptop-income, Instagram influencers, travel junkies, and side-hustle entrepreneurs. Why would we ever offer cookie-cutter, this-is-what-you-must-do-by-this-age financial advice? Times change, generations evolve, and their financial plans should reflect that.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
None. I believe in “life happens because of you, not to you.” Whoever said that came up with a great motto to live by.
Pricing:
- Personal Financial Plan: $750
- Coaching thereafter starts at: $83/mo
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thelambfinancialplanning.com
- Phone: 713.505.4668
- Email: lucio@thelambfp.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/luciovallarta/
Image Credit:
Photo credits to Jonathan Davila & Gerardo Escobar.
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