Financial Advisor Mark Clure Launches True Wealth Network of Advisors, Shares Insights in New True Wealth Book - Video Chat with Marie Swift

Do you feel called to a greater purpose? Is there something you, like me, feel you were born to do, something that would make a positive impact on those around you?
 
So many of us wrestle with this feeling, yet we never get the clarity we need to move forward. Or we try to fill that void with financial success, only to discover that money doesn’t bring us fulfillment. Either way, we’re stuck wanting more for our lives.

Mark Clure, CFP®, knows that feeling. It’s what set him on a journey that ultimately led him to create The GUIDE Process for identifying and then financing your ideal lifestyle.

I asked Mark to visit with me via a video conference service and have included both the transcript and the video recording of our Swift Chat below.

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Mark Clure, CFP®, is a fiduciary financial advisor with twenty-five years of experience. As a Principal at Enso Wealth Management in Mount Shasta, California, Clure is passionate about helping clients find and finance their ideal lifestyle. He knows what his clients are going through because for most of his life, he too felt the call to fulfill his potential. When he started looking for answers, he pieced together what became The GUIDE Process. His purpose is empowering others to find their purpose—and unlock their potential—so that together we unleash the full power of all human potential.
 
Enso Wealth was recently recognized by Financial Times as one of this year’s top 300 Registered Investment Advisors in the US.

Swift Chat with Mark Clure, CFP®
Transcript for Best Practices Blog

    I find it to be a really profound experience when you actually latch onto your own purpose and its mind blowing when you help somebody else do it. It's a whole ‘nother thing. That's what led me to add other advisors into the mix so they, too, can use the GUIDE Process and the Financial Guide Service, too."  ~ Mark Clure, CFP

Listen to Podcast / Audio Only

Marie Swift: Hey everybody, Marie Swift here. I'm coming at you again with another great Swift Chat. This morning I have Mark Clure, CFP®, of Enso Wealth up in Mount Shasta, California. Right Mark. Where are you today?

Mark Clure: Mount Shasta, California.

Swift: What's happening up there? Are any of the fires coming your way?

Clure: We are not in the direct path of the fires, but they're all around us. So, it’s smoky here; but we're lucky we're not in the fires right now. It's close enough for us to want to be prepared for having to potentially leave the neighborhood for a little while.

Swift: Yes. Wow. And it's a beautiful area. Don't you own a great little gastropub there in Mount Shasta?

Clure: Yep. I'm lucky. It's my favorite place to eat, a few other people's as well. Mount Shasta is an awfully nice place to live if you, if you love outdoor recreation, which I happen to. It's the center of the universe.

Swift: It looks beautiful. Maybe even nicer than Lake Tahoe. So, what I've got here is a copy of your book, and I hope everybody can see this [Swift holds up copy of Clure’s book]. Mark, do you have one that might not have as much glare? Hold one up for our audience.

Clure: Let's see, that's looks a little glary, but maybe not quite as bad. [Clure holds up copy of his book].

Swift: And there you are on the cover of the book. So, this book is called “True Wealth: The GUIDE Process for Finding and Financing Your Ideal Life.” Could you just share a little bit about writing the book? Why you wrote the book? And what you hope will happen as a result of the book?

WHY CLURE WROTE THIS BOOK

Clure: So, first of all, thanks for having me. And second of all, if there’s old adage, “Don't judge a book by its cover,” that is ever true this is the case (ha!). So, the book fulfilled a couple of things that happened intentionally and accidentally to me. The first was I've always wanted to write a book. I've wanted to write a book for years and years and years. And I think that as I've written it, I've spoken to a lot of people who have also wanted to write a book, so I encourage those who are thinking about it go for it, get it started, and get it done.

But while I knew I wanted to write a book, I didn't really know what I wanted to write it about. So the backstory is searching for my own purpose in life and just this perpetually nagging feeling that there was something more there for me. I had a perfectly wonderful, happy life, everything was great but, I just had this suspicion that there was something more I could do and no real process to actually accomplish that.

So, I think hopefully people can learn from my mistakes and my epiphany. And what I hope the book will help me get the message out there to people who can benefit from the GUIDE Process and thus find their purpose, unlock their potential, and together we unleashed the full potential of all, all human potential.

WHO SHOULD BUY THIS BOOK

Swift: Now I'm a Boomer. I'm assuming you're a Boomer too. My kids are growing/grown. I've got a grandbaby on the way. I think he might be a grandpa too. Aren't you?

Clure: Six times over. So, congratulations in advance.

Swift: Thanks. I'm really excited. So a couple more weeks counting down the days until the little baby boy Swift arrives, but you know, I've noticed in my own life and especially with COVID and all of the uncertainties that we have, it just seems like life is more fragile and none of us are getting any younger.

So, I've been reflecting on things like, what do I want to leave as my legacy? And am I really enjoying my work, my family, my life right now, because I mean, the COVID could come and get us any day or a car accident or any number of life-altering things. So, I mean, why not? You don't have to be a Boomer to start this reflection.

So, tell me a little bit about who you're finding this book and the message resonates most with? Is it an age? A demographic like that, or is it a, just a mindset?

Clure: So, I'm going to say that I think it's mostly a mindset. But regarding the demographic, the early results and early test drive seems to be people that are in and around my age, which happens to be 62. So some, a little bit younger and some, a little bit older, but what's been interesting is some people, I got some early responses from pre readers and the previewer said, "Man, this is great, but I wish I'd had this 30 years ago."

And one woman who's in her early seventies told me, "It's a nice book, but it's too late for me." And I said, “You know, I'm not counting you out yet.” A few days went by and she called me back and she told me this story. She said, “When I was young, I was a cowgirl rodeo queen and very good. If I would have been supported more, I could have gone to the Olympics. So, I found a young girl, 14-year-old girl, who's going to be my protege and I'm training her. And she's riding horses every day.” So, basically, for her – and for many of us – it's now all about what you can do for somebody else. So she shifted her attitude.

A lot of people in some of the comments on the Amazon review section have been at people who were 60 years old and said kind of basically, “Maybe it's not too late for me,” and, of course, I totally agree.

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Editor’s note:

“True Wealth: The GUIDE Process for Finding and Financing Your Ideal Life” (Lioncrest Publishing, August 28, 2020) is a best-seller on Amazon.

Learn more about Mark Clure and read the True Wealth book reviews by visiting Amazon now.

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GOOD FOR THE YOUNGER SET, TOO

Swift: I was looking at the exercises in your book, it occurred to me that this would be a great gift for my kids as are now 22 and 30. One of them is married and having he and his wife are having their first baby soon. So, some of this reflection could essentially be about setting your life off right, as you're a young adult. So, the book could be a really great gift that any parent or grandparent could give to the younger set.

Clure: Absolutely! And I will tell you that I also have kids that I encouraged to read it. One of them has completed it has her own purpose statement and just a certain drive to her. It's just nice to have that clarity and as you start test driving it in the real world, you start to attract people that are interested in what you're interested in. It just kind of springs your life forward. I think is a good way to say it.

HOW THE GUIDE PROCESS WORKS

Swift: You've got a great process. Could you talk about the GUIDE Process in the book and how it's all laid out? I want to find out a little bit more about the exercises and this thing called the GUIDE process. I know it's about finding your ideal life and then also financing your ideal life, which I find intriguing. So just talk about the process.

Clure: Sure. So, the first thing was my trying to define my own purpose and looking in all the wrong places and for all the wrong things and it took me 20 or 30 years to actually kind of figure it out and build this process. And once I completed it, I wanted to find a way that I could make it repetitive, so I could repeat it successfully and do that process. I scratched my head a little bit and I thought about it and come back to what I do every day, which is the financial planning process. It’s a five-step process that is loosely built on what the financial planning process is like.

So, a little bit of a backstory is several years ago I was working on finding my purpose and establishing my business and I came up with, and again I live in the mountains, I live in the country, the GUIDE process, and I actually, started what's called the Financial Guide Service. I trademarked the name and I really kind of put it away and never used it until I started to write the True Wealth book. The GUIDE Process, and I won't give away the whole story, but the word GUIDE spells out the process –both the process for finding your purpose and then, secondarily, it, spells it out again for that, for the ability to finance your ideal life, so you are able to act on your purpose and make it a reality.

PURPOSE OF THE BOOK

Swift: I'm looking at the back cover of your book and we should just tell our listeners, our viewers today, that you're a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional and a wealth advisor with 25 years of experience. And you're a Principal at Enos Wealth Management in Mount Shasta, California. The blurb on the back of the book says that you're passionate about helping clients find and finance their ideal lifestyle and that you know what your clients are going through because for most of your life, you too, felt like you had yet to fulfill your potential. So, is there anything else you'd like to share about your journey and what this book means to you and how it's helping people?

Clure: I'm so glad you asked the question. I will say that it's early; the book was just published a few days ago and I've already gotten so many wonderful comments and, again, the reviews on Amazon, but also the calls and messages—it's really heartwarming. But several people have told me it's changed their life in such a positive way. And a lot of those people weren't 20 years old, they were 50 and 60 years old and they were able to work through the process and absolutely define their purpose.

The book is designed to be a workbook and it helps you develop a purpose statement. People have been sending me their purpose statements and I'm collecting them, by the way. It's more than heartwarming. It's super enjoyable to read them.

I find it to be a really profound experience when you actually latch onto your own purpose and its mind blowing when you help somebody else do it. It's a whole ‘nother thing.

That's what led me to add other advisors into the mix so they, too, can use the GUIDE Process and the Financial Guide Service, too.

AN OPPORTUNITY FOR ADVISORS

Swift: Oh, that is so cool. So, let's talk about that. I think you've already started your first advisor group. Do we call it a training group or is there some kind of a certification?

Clure: So, yes. So, after the book was completed, the first thing that happened is it changed the way I operated with clients and it changed the questions I asked and the relationship.

People may find this startling, but financial planning can get sort of mundane. That you know it comes down to a math problem. If you put $517 a month into this account, 20 years from now, you'll be able to retire and not run out of money. Which has a certain level of, you know, I mean, there's a good purpose to it, but for clients it doesn't really seem to capture their imagination. And many of them don't complete the whole process.

Finding your purpose and then financing it is much more exciting. For clients, it's kind of like planning a dream vacation, that's their life. And they come to life. And I did want to share that with other advisors. And that's where we are so far. We've got a small team (and hopefully adding to it) of advisors who will spread the gospel according to the True Wealth message and GUIDE Process.

Our test group of five advisors and an “advisor's advisor” have participated and gone through the training. The first part for them was going through the process for themselves, finding their purpose and then being able to complete the financial planning part of it. Which is basically cash flow analysis, making the money work. For most people, you can't run out and quit your day job and join the circus—because you still have to feed the family.

So, it's a process of being able to keep the cash flow going and make a shift to a similar or completely different occupation or even in retirement, like I mentioned that our rodeo queen, that she retired. She's been retired for some time and I will tell you it's much more fulfilling to create a better life for somebody else.

USE IT AS A WORKBOOK

Swift: Yes. The more we give away, the more we get and receive in return. I love your message. And I can't wait to dig into the book and revisit some of these things.

You know, a long time ago, I started my own reflection and then I just kind of lost it. I got busy because I'm a business owner and I'm a mom and, well, you know, all that stuff, but this is really helpful because it's very practical.

I don't know if our viewers could see, but it's a big book [holds up Clure’s book]. It's softbound so you can actually write in it. And so it talks you through a narrative and it gives great examples, but then it has practical advice and places where you can actually journal and write down answers to the “prompts” that you have here, Mark, which are spectacular. So, anything about using the workbook and the book itself to get to a good outcome?

Clure: So that's really it. It's my strong belief and proven so far in the real world that if you do the process, you will find your purpose in life. Which again, it'll be a “moment.” I remember when we finally cracked the code for myself. But you will find that purpose and you will be able to execute on it. What's been super interesting, and this becomes more interesting for advisors, is all the feedback that I've gotten has been on finding your purpose. And which means none of the feedback I've gotten has been about financing your ideal life, yet.

I will say that a captivating part of this story is the finding your purpose part. Here's where I need the advisors. The client's I've had and new people that I've come in contact with, are very focused—once they find their purpose—on letting somebody else deal with the mechanics of financing it. That's where advisors come in to help do the financial part of the guide process.

BECOMING A BOOK AUTHOR

Swift: Yes well, I love this book. I think it's fabulous. It's got to be helpful with your clients. It's a practical tool and prospective clients are going to be impressed to see that you're a book author that you've taken the time to write this.

How was it getting this book to print and up onto Amazon and now promoting it through all of the political unrest, the political upheaval that we've got going on, COVID and the lockdowns and the fires? Oh my gosh, 2020. So, what has been your experience becoming a book author through all this?

Clure: It's been an interesting time, but like all times, you know that the future is fraught with the unknown and this is the real world. I think the fires and coronavirus lockdowns have actually impacted a number of things. There have been delays in getting things out. I will say this for any budding authors out there. The writing of the book is it takes a lot of energy. And I devoted a lot of time to writing the book, figuring out the pieces as we went along.

Once you write it, you’re done for a little bit, but it's not over. So, the marketing piece of it in my view takes more energy than the writing of the book. The book was kind of in me. And I just let it out. The marketing is kind of a new experience and it's fun, but it takes energy. I would say its energy you better be willing to deliver after you've written the book.

LET THE CELEBRATIONS BEGIN

Swift: I know you have some fun things in store. You have an open house and a book signing and what is that like in October, soon, just right around the corner?

Clure: It's amazing. That October is right around the corner. We are having an Octoberfest-themed party, which sounds awfully fun, at the restaurant, you mentioned—the Pipeline Craft Taps and Kitchen in Mount Shasta. I think it's October 6th. I believe that's the right date. We will be following CDC guidelines, but we have a nice outdoor deck and plenty of beer. So, it should be a fun event. And I look forward to it.

Swift: Well, congratulations on your book. I know that you need to go and attend to your business and you know, maybe even have a “go pack” in case the fires get too close to your home, but I wish you well, and congratulations on the book.

I can't wait to hear how it's going. Maybe we can follow up in three months to see how the True Wealth Advisor Network is growing and how the book is being received by the general public and by your clients and your friends?

Clure: That'd be exciting. I look forward to that and thanks Marie. I've really enjoyed talking with you today.

Swift: Thank you. Just one last thing I need to say in closing: In these strange times, it's really kind of comforting to have something tangible and to use a pen and a paper instead of fingers on the keyboard and being all digital. So, again, I would recommend everybody get ahold of this book. It's available now on Amazon, and I would recommend that you buy the softbound copy and do the work with a pencil and an eraser close by. I think it's on Kindle too, isn't its Mark? But there's something cool about it being tangible.

Clure: I agree. I'm kind of a hands-on guy; in fact, the whole book was written on a yellow pad rather than a keyboard. I do like the ability to take notes in the book and recommend that version. But for people that like it electronically, and many of them have successfully completed the whole process electronically as well, it works fine. Take it either way. I just want to get it out there.

Swift: Different strokes for different folks, right? Well, I'm kind of old-school in that regard. It helps me think and internalize when I write.

I so appreciate your time this morning. Thank you for, for being with me. I'll follow up with you in a couple of months to see how it's going.

Clure: Thank you so much, Marie. 

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