Talofa lava and welcome to Behind the Lava Lava Business Spotlight, your gateway to the inspiring stories of businesses and nonprofits that are shaping our community. I'm Michael Tan, your host. In each episode, we delve into the journey of individuals behind these organizations, offering them a stage to share the unique experiences and reach a broader audience.
Our mission is to amplify their voices and give them the recognition they deserve. Our show is proudly sponsored by Matai, a brand that embodies the essence of the Pacific Islands.
Before we get started, a quick reminder to our listeners to follow, subscribe, and leave. A review. If you enjoy our show, you're listening to Behind the Lava Lava. Let's kick things off today. We're excited to spotlight Kenneth Gerber, a Marine veteran and current advisor at Capstone Partners. Hello, Ken. Hi.
So nice to be here tonight with you, Michael. Yeah. Thank you for joining me. Could you tell me about your upbringing, where you're from? I grew up in Southern California, , most of the time in Glendora. , my father was LAPD and, um, I grew up, I went to a bomb threat. I went to a autopsy. I got to do a whole lot of things that cops do.
And then, uh, I went on a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. And spent two years in Toronto, Canada area, loved it, had a great time. I came back and, was in my folks house for about a week. And my dad said, what are you going to do now? We can't afford to feed you. And he's like, how about the military?
I'm like, no, that ain't going to happen. Well, three weeks later, I was in Marine Corps bootcamp. And what was your MOS in the Marine Corps? 25 31 radio operator. Yeah. And how long did you serve in, in the Marine Corps. And how long has it been? I, I was in 86 to 90, so 33, 4 years. Oh, okay. So it is been in a while since you've got out.
And how, how, how's life been since you've been out of the, the military? Uh, how, how have you found adapting to civilian life? You know, there have been ups and downs and one of the things that I just had to keep in mind is put one foot in front of the other, you know, just like on the force marches, all I got to do is just keep moving and on those hard times, I just keep that in mind.
It's like.
And after when you left the service, what did you end up getting into? So at first I moved up to Oregon after I got out of the Marine Corps. And, um, I did a couple of, you know, jobs that didn't go anywhere. And I decided that I wanted to go to school. And, um, my dad was living. Here in Utah down in Cedar and I asked my dad to, you know, put me up while I went to school and he agreed.
So I moved to Cedar City to go to school and, uh, during the get to know you, your fellow freshmen games, I met this beautiful blonde girl and she ran up and gave me a hug. During the games, and it was all over . So you're, you're married. How many kids do you have? So we have, two of our own, and we have housed, we lost track over 30.
We've housed, uh, a lot of kids. Some were through the, , foster care program. Some were through Proctor. Some were just, uh. Homeless kids with nowhere else to go. And then some were actual, um, through foreign exchange programs. And what made you decide, um, what made you get into fostering kids, taking care of foreign exchange?
Kids what made you want to do that? Was it because your wife wanted it or and dragged you into it? Or was it something that you both of you shared? Actually, I kind of drug my wife into it. I Have I've always Loved being around kids. I've always You know been really good with teenagers, and I've always you know, I got a degree in psychology And I've always loved helping kids get into, you know, figuring out life and, and getting past the things that happened to them.
And, , you know, so I kind of drug her into the foster and proctor parenting and the. Homeless kids. But, uh, then when we, moved here and we're living in West Jordan, my wife came home and said, Hey, I talked to this person about foreign exchange students, and I, I was like, well, that sounds great. And it really was.
Cause I'll tell you what they are. Easier to take care of than kids in the foster program. They're the kids that are in the foster program are there for a reason. They've not had the support that they need. They've not learned the tools that they need. Um, where a lot of the, the foreign exchange students, I mean, you know, they have to be really good at school.
Their parents are supportive. That's why they're here. Um, so, uh, it was a little bit. It was a lot different and, you know, we got to have the, a lot of them, well, we got to have some of them for nine months, which was, you know, great because we got to get to know them and right now we have, uh, a foster daughter with us.
She's been with us for, , about four years now. Do you, do you feel like, uh, getting your psychology degree, did it help you somewhat? Or was it a total waste, like some people think that degrees are? Well, that's kind of a, there's two parts to that question. It helped me a lot in my personal journey. It didn't make a difference at all to my income. So now you're into. Getting into the financial services. How long have you been in, in that industry? So I started, I first got my life license back in 2003. And from 2003 till about 2000, uh, 11, I just did it part-time, didn't do a whole lot with it, but then in 2011 I got into Medicare and I was working in one of the call centers and you know, people are calling in every day and I.
I would get four or five calls a day with people saying, I only get 1, 000 or I only get 600 bucks a month from social security. What can you give me for free? And at that point, there wasn't a whole lot I could do for them to actually move the needle and make a difference in their lives. Right. And so I really wanted to.
Make a bigger difference. And I, after doing Medicare for, uh, you know, nine years, I just started looking around and I found Capstone and I really, I vetted them quite closely. I wanted to know, number one, I don't want to push products, which is one of the things that a lot of those call centers would do is they just, you know, push a product.
And the product that made the most money, you know, and that is not what I wanted to do and how I wanted to run a business. And so I looked at Capstone and Capstone was all about strategy and about doing what was right for the client. And that is one of the things that sold me there. They also have some of the most amazing leadership that I've ever experienced.
And I, it's been, it's been really cool because there's times when, uh, you know, the people who are in charge have to tell me that I'm doing something wrong. And I've never before been at a place where they can tell me I'm doing it wrong and I feel good after they finish telling me how wrong I did it.
So, so what, what, what's your target client or target audience that you're, you're looking for and how, how you can cater to their needs specifically? Okay. Yeah. Great question. I work a lot with. A couple of different targets. One is I work with businesses to help them get and keep good employees with additional benefits.
And then we also, uh, my other target is families. There are so many families out there that they just don't know what they need in order to get them. And most of them don't even have a strategy. I mean, you know, they might have a 401k from two or three jobs that they worked before and they have insurance at work and they have some term here and they just have a bunch of products all over the place and they don't have a strategy.
They don't know what they want their retirement to look like and they don't know. What they need to get their retirement to look like they want it to. And yet that is so important. I mean, you know, if, if we don't know what the mission is, we're never going to accomplish the mission. And so we come in and we start with strategy.
I start with strategy. I want to help people figure out what is it going to look like when you retire? You know, some people, they want to not work. Other people, Oh, I want to work because if I don't work, I'm going to die, you know? So people have different needs and I want to find out what those needs are.
In fact, I did this for myself. About four years ago, four and a half years ago. And, you know, I put together a list of the top 10 things that I wanted when I retired. And number one on that list was to move out of the valley. We were living in West Jordan at the time. I was tired of the smog. I was tired of the traffic.
I just wanted out. And, you know, my wife said, well, you know, Hey, the kids are grown. They're out of school. We don't have to wait. I said, done. And we moved to cameras and I've loved it up here. It's been such a blessing to our lives. Comes back to the strategy, finding out what is important. And, you know, because one of the things that I list, you know, I listened to a lot of podcasts and stuff, and one of them was talking about how.
In the military, we learn some great tools, especially in the Marine Corps. We learned some great tools for how to have a life and make it amazing. The problem is once we get out, we quit applying the tools that we learned. In the Marine Corps. And all of a sudden, we're, we don't know what we want. Yeah. You mentioned strategy.
What, specific tools, uh, do you offer? Are you just offering like insurance packages or what, what kind of, things are you, the services are you offering when a client comes to you when, when you're discussing the strategies? Do you have a list of all the insurance carriers or? That's a great question, and the answer is we go into such depth into what they want because it's going to be different from every client.
I work with a number of different insurance companies, and I'm going to pick the one that mixes with them. You know, I do, you know, some term, I do some whole life. I do annuities. I do, Uh, you know, we can do asset management and, you know, retirement, we will explain their 401k, how it works, what the, what they're going to have, you know, we can figure out from what they're putting away, what they're going to have at the time that they're planning on retiring.
One of the things that we offer people to get their strategy is a complimentary financial evaluation. So we will. Meet with them. We'll ask a bunch of questions to find out what they want, when they want it, and what they're doing to get them there. And then we will put together A plan that's step by step that's going to meet what they want when they want it.
And then, we'll have a second meeting after we get it. You know, the first meeting is to get all that information. And the second meeting we come back and we present, Hey, this is what we've come up with. This is your roadmap. That's going to take you from where you're up, where you are, to where you want to be.
As long as we follow it and those are complimentary and so it is so easy to get this information and yet so many people don't, what would he say is what are some of the biggest challenges that you've faced as an advisor or? In your career as a whole. Some of the biggest challenges, I mean, you know, this is a, a tough business.
There's a lot of people, you know, they churn a lot of people because it is. Something that we come into and, you know, I, I don't get paid an hourly rate. I get paid, by products that I put into place, but here again, I'm not product focused, I want to do what's right. So it's, it's been quite difficult to build up a, you know, a group of people, of clients. Quickly enough to cover expenses, right? That's been my biggest problem. So we're going to take a step away from the business and turn to the community side. I know you've been involved in some of the community efforts, like, uh, especially for veterans. What are some ways that you, you are involved or give back to the community?
Awesome. Yeah. Today I went and, uh, took. The scouts in our area on a four mile hike in the snow. , so I'm very active in scouting. I'm very active, active in the Marine Corps League. We're active in the, you know, I've worked for a number of years with the VFW. And then, um, I was also, you know, I've, I've been to your dinner and, which was amazing, by the way, had a great time.
Um, the United Veterans Council, we helped them. So I, I work with all of the military organizations that I had found just because I love being around. Those people, my people, you know? Yeah. That's amazing. You're, you're very involved in the community that helps you and helps others who you come across.
So what, and what, what are some aspects that you enjoy in your role, like overall as a person, as a, it can be. As a parent or as a financial advisor or, or even being involved in a community, what are some aspects that you enjoy? Okay, so the, the thing that gets me going every morning is building relationships.
And, and it doesn't matter where I'm building them. I mean, I, I loved going, , to the, , Pacific Islanders. , conference that you had a month ago, and I made so many contacts and friends that, you know, I met and were able to build relationships with. I work really hard, , you know, with my, my two boys , we go out to lunch once a week with.
Um, so I'm very, very active in building relationships everywhere I go , I really, you know, work hard to learn people's names. I work hard to smile and help them know that they matter and that I am glad that I met them. I know you mentioned some of the things about mental health. How has it Tied to you personally, looking back into your life, how has your mental health been so far?
Um, wow. So after I got out of the Marine Corps and went to school, um, actually it was, about 10 years, uh, eight years later, I went and got, tested and they found out that I was ADHD. In fact, The psychiatrist said I was off the charts, and I have had to learn how to put into place tools that will keep me focused rather than relying on a medication because medication didn't work for me.
Um, so I have put into place, I mean, you know, my, my wife has helped me and we have to keep things quite organized in our house. Because if, if things get, if there's too many things in sight. It draws my attention to many places. I get scattered. , I also, I am a creature of habit when I, you know, my keys are either in my pocket or on my dresser.
There, there should be nowhere else that they are, you know, just because if they are somewhere else. They're lost. And so I have really become a creature of habit where this has to be done. Then this has to be done. And I just, I have to make step by step and tie the things that I'm doing. You know, one thing to the other, so that when, when I do one step, the next step, it automatically follows because it is one, you know, it's one step it's tied.
And then, uh, I've also, I spent years dealing with depression and I numerous times, well, a number of times thought about ending my life. And luckily I never got to the point where I actually did it or tried, but there was, there were so many times that I thought about it and it was, it was just wanting to end the pain.
You know, I was, I felt like I was in so much pain and I didn't know how to get past it. I didn't know how to move forward. And, you know, I did use medication for depression for a number of years, and it got me far enough that I could then start looking for tools and start putting those tools into place where those tools would actually get me.
Out or keep me out. And you know, it's been, , I had, I had about, it was about three years ago. Um, when, you know, there was something in my life that happened and it was pretty stressful and. Pretty overwhelming and for a second, I thought about, you know, ending my life again, but it didn't, it didn't last very long.
And that was the last time I've had that, uh, problem. But I, you know, and because of that, I mean, I've got a ton of t shirts and all of them. Have something about, you know, you're here and I'm glad you're here and I might not be able to fix your problems, but I can promise you won't face him alone because I want to be there for anyone that's going through that because I understand how tough it can be.
I know what being depressed for years and years are. I, you know, I was going through a probably close to 20 years, I dealt with depression and it is overwhelming and I get it and it is, for me, it was so hard to move and the medication was enough that I could start moving and once I started moving, it was like a snowball effect.
It, it started to gather and grow and it became easier and easier to move the, the more I did, and then the farther I got away, the, you know, the problems didn't seem as big or as overwhelming. Yeah, thank you for, for sharing your story and journey, , Ken. , one of the reasons why this podcast was, was started was.
Because of men's mental health. So I, I was diagnosed with severe depression. And because of this podcast, I found a way to cope with depression. Mainly because, uh, the past years I've had a lot of suicidal ideation, uh, anxiety and depression. And this is one of the ways for me to overcome, , these mental states is to express it through my podcast, so I'm, I'm glad that you joined me today, Ken, to share your stories, and I really appreciate it.
So, for our listeners, how can they find you if they want to seek your services? So, uh, you know, they can contact me at kgerberatfinancialguide. com. I'm also available on Facebook and LinkedIn. Uh, LinkedIn is, , Ken Gerber with two N's and, Facebook, I think is the same. And, they can call me my number.
It is 8 0 1 5 0 2 4 9 9 9. And to our listeners, please seek out, Ken if you need help. And do you have any last remarks or shout outs to anyone before we close? I just, uh, I wanna thank you. It was so great the first time that we met. I just, I was so happy to have that connection. I mean, you know, I just, I felt something when we.
You know, when we shook hands, you know, I just, all of a sudden you were my brother and I knew it and that has meant a lot to me and I just really appreciate you for what you do. I mean, you spend so much time and energy in putting things into the community and I just think that's. Amazing. And I want to really recognize you for what you do.
Uh, you know, getting on this podcast and opening yourself up. I mean, that's not easy, especially we've been taught that not only is that not easy, but we've been taught that you're not strong if you do that. But the fact of the matter is only the strong share with others how they feel. And you are making a difference for veterans and our brothers and sisters.
And I am so grateful for you and to be a part of that and to be able to know you. So thank you. I appreciate it, Ken. , I'm glad that I came across you and I'm humbled by your words. Uh, I know we will be. Continuously meeting at a lot of events in the future and and we'll stay in contact and I really want to express my gratitude for you for joining me today on Behind the Lava Lava. So thank you. What's up brother? So to our listeners, thank you for joining us. On this episode of Behind the Lava Lava Business Spotlight, we trust you found our discussion enlightening. The businesses we spotlight, especially Ken, Ken here, they need your support. And we encourage you to explore their websites and social media platforms to discover more about them and find ways to contribute.
So if you found value in this episode, don't forget to follow Behind the Lava Lava. And leave us a review. This is Michael Tan signing off. Tofa soifua.