Mark Willis

Episode 419: The Secret Tool to Unlimited Compound Growth in Your Life

September 12, 2025 by Not Your Average Financial Podcast

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In this episode, we ask:

Would you like to read our new book, The Business Fortress?
Have you ever watched a rocket takeoff?
What are the tools that I use?
Have you read Atomic Habits by James Clear?
What did the study in the journal of Applied Psychology say?
How do small changes lead to a big impact?
Have you read Mindset by Carol Dweck?
What could you do instead?
What is an After Action Review (AAR)?
What could you do for 5 minutes every day?
What is the K.I.S.S. principle?
What will you keep?
What will you improve?
What will you start?
What will you stop?
What about DayOne or Notion?
Would you like to share your AAR on the Not Your Average Financial Community?
Would you like to get a full focus planner (Michael Hyatt’s Full Focus Store | Amazon)?
What about using the Pomodoro method technique?
What about apps like the Headspace Meditation app?
What is the ICE Matrix?
What about impact? How much will the idea contribute to your goals?
What about confidence? How sure are you that this will succeed?
What about ease? How simple or complicated is this to implement?
Does this goal align with your values?
What are the action items and takeaways?

Episode 353: When My Parents Died, Here’s What Happened Next

June 7, 2024 by Not Your Average Financial Podcast

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In this episode, we ask:

What did Mark learn from his parents?
What was a great gift?
What happened in high school?
What did Mark receive after college?
What happened with Dave Ramsey?
How many jobs did we work?
What did Mark’s mom do?
What about health ratings?
Would you like hear Episode 43?
Would you like hear Episode 322?
What did they discuss?
What happened?
How did Mark’s mom leverage her policy’s cash value?
What about the Roth IRA?
What happened next?
What happens with a health rating?
What about Mark’s dad?
Would you like to hear Episode 302?
What about the Upton Sinclair paradox?
What was Dad’s philosophy for money?
What did he believe about home values?
What did Mark’s mom do through the cancer diagnosis?
What are the limits on a Roth IRA?
What happened in January 2017?
What about estate planning?
Are your documents in place now?
Are your parent’s documents in place now?
Do you have a will?
Do you have a medical power of attorney?
Do you have a financial power of attorney?
What avoids probate?
What does not avoid probate?
Are life insurance proceeds private?
Do you owe them or not?
How might you avoid heartache?
What goes directly to the beneficiaries?
How much did she pay in as premium?
How much did the benefits pay?
What was the return?
What was the tax?
What were the fees?
Where did Mark and his brother put the money?
What would Mark prefer?
What makes Mark smile?
What happened with Mark’s dad?
What happened at the end?
Do people actually invest the rest?
What happens with term insurance?
What was worthless to him?
Is your will updated?
What are the issues with term insurance?
What about love?
What has Mark learned through losing both parents at a young age?
How about a tale of two parents?
What are the big takeaways?
What is messy?
How might you leave the best last gift?
What about letting policies expire?
Where would you like to be buried?
What songs would you like to be played at your funeral?
Would you like to hear Episode 149?
Does this story resonate?
Do you have a similar story or experience?
How might you leave the best last gift?

Episode 342: Beware of Analysis Paralysis

March 22, 2024 by Not Your Average Financial Podcast

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In this episode, we ask:

What is the exceedingly odd number?
Why?
What about the imperial Roman war chariot?
What about the space shuttle?
What are the historical roots of our financial principles?
What are the ruts?
What are the engrained financial beliefs?
What would you do?
Who is stuck in the rut?
What is analysis paralysis?
What about second guessing yourself?
What are the phases?
What about curiosity?
What about hope?
What changes?
What about the fear of making the wrong decision?
What about missed opportunities?
What about real consequences?
What about the inverse relationship between spinning tires and forward momentum?
Where is your energy going?
What do we do with overwhelm?
When does this become a problem?
What about confusion?
What about whirlwinds of thought?
What about the spinning wheel of over-thinking?
How might analysis paralysis sabotage the big issues in your life?
Is the tire just stuck in the snow?
What happened to Mark when he learned about the Bank on Yourself® type whole life insurance policies?
Do you truly understand the policy?
What about rigid thinking?
What about cognitive flexibility?
What are some both/and ideas?
What about an example?
What happened at the year-end review?
What about perfectionism?
What about being careful?
What about people pleasing?
Is the person I’m trying to please planning to be financially involved with my financial future?
Who has made mistakes with money?
How might one recover resilience and confidence?
What did Mark learn when his car was stuck in the ice and snow?
What is the correlation between learning and doing?
What do you need to know?
What about the contractual guarantee?
What about the financial ruts of the past?
Where do you want to go financially?
What are some steps?
What are the signals the body and mind are sending?
What about the permission to be flexible?
Are you confident that you can make good decisions?
What’s the worst that can happen?
Who is can deal with moments of stress, challenge and discomfort?
Who deserves to get a voice, and who are the stakeholders?
What can we predict?
What about a financially solvent future?
Do you know enough to make a good decision?
What are your success stories?

Episode 159: Why Work with a Bank On Yourself® Professional?

September 18, 2020 by Not Your Average Financial Podcast

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In this episode, we ask:

What do you call a … ?
Are all financial professionals right for your needs?
How many designations and credentials are available for financial professionals?
What about the CPA?
What about the CFA?
What about enrolled agents?
What about the CFP®?
What about Mark’s CFP®?
What about a generalist designation?
What about a specialist designation?
Can anyone call themselves a financial advisor?
What about life insurance agents?
Why work with a Bank on Yourself® Professional?
Where do you find expert help?
How many Bank on Yourself® Professionals are there in the U.S. and Canada?
What about maximizing finances?
How is the Bank on Yourself® Professional program critical to success?
What about “just googled it” advisors?
What about ongoing mentoring?
What about client relationships?
Do you really have a Bank on Yourself® type life insurance policy?
How could you know?
Why does your advisor matter?

What does it take to have a TRUE Bank on Yourself® type life insurance policy?

Is whole life insured offered?

Is what I have whole life insurance, universal, variable or something else?

Is the insurance company mutually owned or stock owned?

Is the insurance company’s customer service educated enough to help me with the ins and outs of policy loans (or is it going to be a nightmare every time I try to call customer service)?

Does the company have a HIGH COMDEX rating (90+)?

If I take a loan, will it affect my policy in the short and long term?

If I take a loan, do I have non direct or direct recognition loans?

If I take a loan, how will it affect the policy, short-term and long-term?

Do I have Non-Direct Recognition loans (which crucially allows my cash value to grow even on the cash value I’ve borrowed against) or Direct Recognition Loans (which stop the growth of my cash when I borrow from the policy)?

When will I pay loan interest (at the end of year or immediately?)

What are my loan limitations (what they’ll allow me to borrow)?

What is my loan interest rate on this policy? (Is it above industry average?)

Is the loan simple interest all year long, or is it compounding against me?

Does my whole life product pay dividends?

Is the dividend based on company performance, with me participating as an owner, or is it merely “interest sensitive”, based on industry competition and pre-formulation?

Has the insurance company paid dividends 100 years straight?

Are paid-up additions (PUA) offered through premiums or just through dividends?

What is the insurance company’s PUA load cost? How does it compare to other whole life products?

What are the PUA limits and gotchas? (When and why must we reduce our PUAs even if we don’t want to?)

Were any other riders available to help accelerate my cash value growth? (e.g. term rider)

If I miss a premium payment, are there any protections? What will happen to the policy guarantees?

Was there a Chronic Illness Rider or similar available? What are the fees for this rider?

What are the limitations on Chronic Illness/ Long Term Care / Accelerated Death Benefit riders?

Was there significant dividend variability (e.g. over the last 12 years) suggesting risk to future cash value growth?

Will this policy MEC, and do I want it to lose specific tax advantages?

Will both principal and gains be accessible tax-free under current law?

What about the agent?

Am I having to educate the agent?

Is my agent among the 200 Bank on Yourself® professionals in good standing?

Do labels matter to you?
What about your family member who has a life insurance license?
Would you like Mark to review an inforce policy for FREE?
Would you like to join our mailing list?
Would you like a FREE book? Send us a screenshot of your review to hello@nyafinancialpodcast.com, and we’ll send you a book!

Episode 147: To Win The Lottery, You Have to Buy a Ticket with Ros Kaspi

June 26, 2020 by Not Your Average Financial Podcast

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In this episode, we ask:

Who is Ros Kaspi?
What’s her story and background?
What were people telling Ros?
What caused Ros to change tracks?
Where did Ros find her opportunity?
What caused Ros to go out as an entrepreneur?
What about yoga?
What about a retreat?
What about a bed and breakfast?
What did Ros learn about opening a business?
Who was on her team?
What happened to her father?
What did Ros do in Chicago, and what did she learn?
What about happiness?
What about credit cards?
How is Israel different from the U.S., regarding credit cards?
What about Bank on Yourself type whole life insurance policies?
What about property?
What about real estate?
What’s an amazing way to buy property?
What was it like learning about the Bank on Yourself strategy?
What about the portfolio of policies?
How have the current events impacted her tenants?
Has the coronavirus impacted her income?
How has her perspective changed around money?
How is an employee mindset different from an entrepreneurial mindset?
How might your money work for you?
What does Ros love about Mark?
What about talking through ideas?
What about getting good feedback?
Do you have a personal financial advisor who is always there for you?
Is your financial advisor available?
What would Ros say to someone who is concerned about being too old?
How did Ros purchase a policy?
How did Ros purchase a cash property?
What are the things that intrigued Ros?
What other nuggets of wisdom does Ros have to share?
What other feedback does Ros have?
What about a “win the lottery” joke?
Do you move your feet?
How much do you want to make?
What direction do you want to go?
What about Bob Proctor, Jack Canfield and the mastermind group?
Isn’t that amazing?
How might we overcome obstacles?
If you could not leave money to your children or to the world, but only principles, habits and ideas to achieve success, what would those be?
Would you like to reach out to Ros? Email her at roskaspi@gmail.com!
Have you been sucked into financially difficulty?
What’s the next first step?
Are you the boss of your money?
Is your money ‘your employee’?
What does Ros want to add about the tax benefits?
What about the mastermind?
What’s the difference between success and failure?
What’s the difference between being alone and being together?

A world traveler, Ros Kaspi was born in Chicago, lived in Tel Aviv for many years, and in 2004 came back to Chicago to take care of her mother who just reached 99.

A business woman, an entrepreneur and Manager of a global company, she has experience and expertise. She studied Life Coaching with Bob Proctor and used his teachings to create Mastermind groups.

In recent years she has turned to real estate, purchasing condos, while using Bank on Yourself type whole life insurance policies to reach her real estate goals. Would you like to reach out to Ros? Email her at roskaspi@gmail.com.

Episode 133: Client Spotlight: Engineers and Bank On Yourself® Superstars, Derek and Amy Baker

March 20, 2020 by Not Your Average Financial Podcast

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In this episode, we ask:

Who are Derek and Amy Baker?
How did Derek earn his first dollar on the horse farm?
How did Amy earn her first dollar while camping?
When did they start thinking beyond the employee mindset?
How did thinking about paying for college motivate them?
What sort of real estate investments do they hold?
What did they learn at the conference?
How did they meet Mark?
How are they saving for college?
What do they love about the concept?
Why did Derek and Amy choose to work with Mark?
What do they love about working with Mark?
What did they learn?
What about who you know?
What about who you like?
What about who you trust?
Is this too good to be true?
What about moderate and solid growth?
What about liquidity?
What about access?
What about government restrictions?
What about going against the grain?
What about building generational wealth?
How do they use their cash value?
How does this affect their real estate work?
How do they deploy cash?
What about property inspections?
What about traveling to the property?
What about putting money into the value add?
What about advertising cost?
What about Bridge loans?
What about repairs?
What’s the scariest part of banking on yourself?
What about the time to “brew”?
What does it feel like to be a financial weirdo?
Why did Derek and Amy get into real estate?
How do they set themselves up with multiple streams of income?
What was the wake up call?
How are they building assets?
How did the Bank on Yourself® type policies help them through difficult times?
What about the flexibility of the policies?
How does this feel like a safety net?
What about fees?
As engineers, how did Derek and Amy get past the initial cost of life insurance?
Is this unbelievable?
What about the power of Bank on Yourself® type policies?
What are Derek and Amy doing with real estate syndication?
Would you like to reach out to Derek and Amy?
- info@jamtineinvestments.com
What advice do Derek and Amy have?
How might you be more active and present?
Are most people overly passive with their money?
When is the best time to take a step?
What do you love about Derek and Amy?
How do they use real estate investing AND Bank on Yourself® type policies?
How do Derek and Amy think out three generations?
What makes all of the difference?
Would you like a FREE book?
Would you like to leave us a review?
What are people saying?
Would you like to leave us a voice message before April 19, 2020? Our question is:
- What does a realistic budget look like?

Derek and Amy Baker are Founder and Co-Founder of Jamtine Investments headquartered in Grand Blanc, MI. They currently own and manage a multifamily rental portfolio of 253 units in Michigan, Texas and Tennessee. Derek and Amy have been active in real estate since 2016 with an emphasis on apartment syndication. They are members of Think Multifamily led by mentors Mark and Tamiel Kenney.

Derek and Amy are graduates of Michigan State University. They both currently work for General Motors as Engineers and both hold a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering and Master of Science degree in Engineering Management. They have three beautiful children Molly (4), Emma (2) and Brayden (8 months) along with their perfect rescue dog, Izzy.

Episode 132: The Reason Why We’re Broke and How To Fix It

March 13, 2020 by Not Your Average Financial Podcast

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In this episode, we ask:

Would you like a better sense of control and purpose?
Why does anyone do the thing that is not in their best interest?
Is there a lack of information?
What controls our unconscious?
How many of our decisions come out of our unconscious?
What beliefs do you have about money?
Is money the root of all evil?
Will your spouse take care of you?
Are you good with numbers? Do your eyes glaze over?
What do beliefs lead to?
What is the B-E-A-R trap?
What did Fortune magazine say?
What about the lottery winners?
Where do lottery winnings go?
What are the four exit ramps off the B-E-A-R trap?

What about Beliefs?
How many original thoughts do you think each day?
How often do you think about money?
What do we believe about money?
Do you journal?
- What do you truly believe?
- Have you written your beliefs down before?
- Where do each of these beliefs come from?
- What would your life be life if these beliefs didn’t exist?
What about mirror neurons?
What about Jim Rohn?
What about Excuses and Effort?
- How might you move from resentment to gratitude?
- What have you done already?
- What worked? What didn’t work?
What did Dan Sullivan say?
What about Actions?
- Who are the new people?
- Who do you look up to?
- Do you budget?
  - Do you track your financial structures with software like You Need A Budget?
What about Results?
- Why do I handle money this way?
- What about relationships?
- What about health?
- What about hobbies?
What’s the upward spiral?
Can you change your beliefs?
Do you have to retrain your mind?
What did the Dalai Lama say?
Do we all start with the same potential?
Do we all get the exact same 24 hours?
Do you believe that we all have the same potential?
What are you doing with that potential?
What about activated potential?
What one action can you do today?
How can you move to massive action (over time)?
What is the goal?
What is the one thing I can do today,
toward my goal,
such that by doing it,
everything becomes
easier or unnecessary?
What is a distraction?
What about results?
What went right last week?
What went wrong last week?
What can you improve based on what you learned?
What is the Keep Improve Start Stop (K.I.S.S.) method?
How do you come back to belief?
How do you see yourself?
What is a weekly preview?
What is a weekly review?
What are the 3-5 major accomplishments you feel good about?
What is the one thing I can do today,
toward my goal,
such that by doing it,
everything becomes
easier or unnecessary?
What went right?
What went wrong?
What is the Full Focus Planner?
Do you have a physical journal?
What are people saying?
Would you like a FREE book?
Would you like to answer our question of the month?
- Leave us a message on SpeakPipe before April 19, 2020?
  - What does a realistic budget look like?

Episode 100: A Not Your Average SPECIAL SHOW!

August 2, 2019 by Not Your Average Financial Podcast

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In this episode, we ask:

How might we say thank you?
Do you know how highly we recommend our producer, Larry Fleming?
What were the origins of Lake Growth Financial Services?
How did the podcast come about?
What makes this podcast so much better than an email full of answers?
What’s your favorite episode?
What do you love about the podcast?
How might you really learn something?
What have you found surprising?
What about the evidence from studies that doesn’t hit the mainstream news?
What are the big “aha” moments?
What have you changed since listening to the podcast?
How is your stress reduced from learning these concepts?
What about topics that are related to your whole life?
What do listeners have to say?
Have you heard the Grandma’s Wealth Wisdom podcast?
What would you like to see next?

Take the 90-second Survey now!

Complete before August 31, 2019

Episode 12: Our Stories with Money

November 24, 2017 by Not Your Average Financial Podcast

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In this episode, we ask:

What did we get wrong? What did we get right?
What is Holly’s story with money?
What promise did Holly make to herself?
What book influences Holly profoundly?
What are Holly and her husband doing with their finances now?
What breakthrough did Holly experience?
What is Holly thankful for?
What is Mark & Katrina’s story with money?
When did Mark & Katrina start paying attention to the flow of cash?
What did Mark & Katrina find wrong with Excel sheet budgeting?
What did Mark & Katrina do with all of the average financial advice?
How did student loans affect Mark & Katrina?
How did Mark & Katrina’s influential professor, Kent Smith, affect the course of their story?
Where did Mark & Katrina get stuck?
What was Mark & Katrina’s breakthrough?
What did Mark’s mom say about Mark before she died?
What is your story with money?
How do you talk about money?
What do you believe about how much you earn?
Who taught you to think about money the way you think about it?
Why are you (financially) where you are today?
What would it take to think different about money?
…More!