Surviving Entrepreneurship with Tom Yeaton - Part 1
The Rincon Horizons podcast is where we talk about what it means to reach the summit on your leadership journey. We want to help you lead better so your organization can climb higher. Dylan and Todd welcome Tom Yeaton the President of Yeaton Financial Group to the podcast.
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Entrepreneurship isn't glamorous — and this episode doesn't pretend it is. Join us for a candid three-way conversation about starting businesses when you have a mortgage, a family, and everything to lose. Tom shares his journey from frustrated corporate employee to business owner, the financial mistakes he made along the way, and the faith that carried him through. Todd opens up about his own leap from Siemens to Rincon Aerospace, and Dylan reflects on building DM Supply from a passion for clear communication. Together, the three share hard-won advice on saving money, finding the right clients, involving family in business, and knowing when to finally take the plunge into entrepreneurship. From financial missteps to faith, from client selection to spousal support, this episode covers the real terrain of building something from nothing — and why the timing is never perfect, but you make it right anyway.
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Three entrepreneurs, three origin stories
Building capital before launching a business
Identifying the right clients and knowing when to say no
When and how to bring family members into a business
Handling the highs and lows of entrepreneurship
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Yeaton Financial Group: https://www.yeatonfg.com
Rincon Aerospace: https://www.Rincon.Aero
DM.supply: https://www.dm.supply
The New Retirementality by Mitch Anthony: https://a.co/d/064KYVNX
1440 Daily Digest: https://join1440.com
The Sevens Report: https://sevensreport.com
Our Daily Bread Devotionals: https://www.odbm.org/en/devotionals
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie: https://a.co/d/0gxpLsdu
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey: https://a.co/d/070MvLhV
Aviation Week Intelligence Network: https://aviationweek.com
Logos that Last by Allan Peters: https://a.co/d/08p9Z0RR
Moderator & Co-Host Dylan Mitchell
Dylan is the Brand Strategist, Creative Director, and Founder of DM.supply. He’s passionate about helping churches, nonprofits, and businesses of all kinds build brands that are clear, meaningful, and built to last.
Find Dylan on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylnmtchll/
DM.supply: https://www.dm.supply
Primary Contributor & Co-Host Todd Tuthill
Todd is the Managing Partner of Rincon Aerospace - A consulting company guiding aerospace and defense companies to exceptional.
Todd is an aerospace executive and systems engineer with more than three decades of experience designing aircraft flight control systems
Find Todd on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddtuthill/
Rincon Aerospace: https://www.Rincon.Aero
Our Guest: R. Tom Yeaton, CLU, ChFC - Yeaton Financial Group, LLC
Tom is the President and LPL Financial Advisor at Yeaton Financial Group.
Tom began his career in financial services in fall of 1998, and joined NAIFA the following year. Prior to this he was a marketing executive with a national chain of photo retail stores. He believes his role as the director of merchandising & sales for a Fortune 500 company specializing in documenting people’s most memorable life events has provided the ideal foundation for his work as a wealth & legacy advisor.
Tom’s genesis in the financial services industry was inspired by a brief, but unpleasant experience he had with a conventional financial planner who seemed more interested in selling financial products than providing solutions. He was compelled by his desire to do a better job than that. Driven to make a difference in peoples’ lives Tom helps families navigate the complex world of financial decisions by providing clarity and confidence utilizing a process that matches people’s concerns and wishes with optimal strategies and solutions. His governing belief is that you expect trustworthiness and excellence from your financial advisor, as well as understanding how and why your plan is good for you and your family, so you’ll feel good about working with him and his team.
Great empathy and follow-through on his commitments are symbols appreciated by his clients. He is effectively supported by a team including his wife, Tammy, who serves as Director of Operations, and his son, Ryan, a former Marine who serves as a paraplanner and financial advisor. Tom has built strategic partnerships with many other financial institutions and investment & insurance product specialists including LPL Financial, his broker-dealer and Cornerstone Wealth Management located in St. Louis/Des Peres, MO. This teamwork culture and professionalism help him build long-term relationships with his growing client base and provide excellent client service. His practice is focused primarily on building & protecting retirement income for small business owners, and air traffic controllers.
Tom’s passion is as a financial advisor serving individuals and their families. He has also served the local financial & insurance community in leadership roles in training and management. He has worked with several nationally acclaimed financial institutions and has earned many achievement awards over the years. He’s a 1982 graduate of Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business. He resides in Wildwood, MO with his wife, Tammy, of 41 years. They have raised 3 boys, 6 awesome grandchildren, and recently a great-grandson. Tom serves as elder at Wildwood Christian Church, in Wildwood, MO and enjoys traveling to warm climates, fishing, cycling and staying in shape to keep up with their grandkids and great-grandson.
Find Tom on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-yeaton-clu-chfc-69b78b24/
Yeaton Financial Services: https://www.yeatonfg.com
Securities and advisory services offered through LPL Financial, a registered investment advisor. Member FINRA/SIPC.
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Surviving Entrepreneurship with Tom Yeaton - Part 1
Dylan Mitchell
Hey everyone, I'm Dylan Mitchell and this is the Rincon Horizons podcast. This show is about leadership, what it really takes to grow, adapt and keep climbing over the course of your leadership journey. Our goal is simple to help you lead better so your organization can climb higher.
Each and every episode I'm joined by my co host and our main contributor Todd Tuthill, managing partner of Rincon Aerospace. Todd, good to be back on with you and for those joining us for the first time, you mind introducing yourself for us?
Todd Tuthill
Always great to be here with you, Dylan. I'm the managing partner for Rincon Aerospace. We do executive level consulting for aerospace and defense companies. We help good aerospace companies become great, and we help companies that aren't even in A&D move into this industry. Today's episode is one I've been looking forward to for a while. We're going to talk about entrepreneurship.
Not the glamorized version you see on social media, but what it actually takes to start something new when you have a mortgage, a family, a reputation, and a lot to lose. I've known our guest for longer than you've been alive, Dylan. He and his wife are great friends of ours. This is gonna be fun.
Dylan Mitchell
I'm really looking forward to it. And just in the podcast, the prep that we do for all these the prep that we did with Tom, it's just very apparent that he knows this world without further ado, Tom Yeaton is the president of Yeaton Financial Group, a financial services firm he built after a long career in the corporate world. He's been married to his wife, Tammy, for 41 years, a father of three boys, a grandfather of six, and recently became a great grandfather. With all of that, just familial resume out there, Tom, welcome to Rincon Horizons. We're so glad you're here.
R. Tom Yeaton CLU, ChFC
Thank you, Dylan and Todd. It's a privilege to be here. It's my first podcast as a guest.
Todd Tuthill
First podcast awesome. We needed first podcast music I didn't know I wasn't prepared for the first podcast theme we'll have to work on that.
Dylan Mitchell
This is going to be a little bit ⁓ different from some of our other episodes that I've done today. Like you said, we're talking about entrepreneurship, not from theory, but from experience. And that's what I'm really excited about. All three of us have started businesses and all three of us have taken risks and made mistakes and had to figure things out kind of on the fly sometimes. This conversation will be a little more personal and a little more practical, I think.
Tom, if you don't start with your origin story. Every superhero has one. So let's, let's hear yours.
R. Tom Yeaton CLU, ChFC
Well, first of all, I'm not worthy of that. origin story, really started probably shortly after I graduated from college. I just got a business degree and thought I'd get a good job with a good company. And that's what everybody that I knew did. so I did that. I worked for a Fortune 500 companies, got paid OK for the time.
But I soon realized it really wasn't enough. last job before I decided to take the plunge was with a Fortune 500 photo retailing chain of stores that is no longer in existence because of ⁓ digital technology taking over that whole industry.
But it seemed like I was the hardest one working there. I may not always be the smartest one in the room, but it didn't matter as much about my merit as it did who I knew and who knew me or who liked me, the old office politics thing. I was ready for a new venture anyway. I was too scared to make it, make that decision. So I prayed about it and our company got acquired.
And then that company got acquired again and I decided this is my chance.
Todd Tuthill
Tom, if I could, just set the context. This is, you're just married, this is you, have a wife and kids at this point, you have a home, what's the backstory of what's going on in your personal life, as all this turmoil is going on in your professional life?
R. Tom Yeaton CLU, ChFC
Yeah, good question. Tammy was a stay at home mom, three hungry boys at home, mortgage, debt, like everything else. for 16 years, I was in that corporate environment. So everyone defended on me, but I was miserable professionally and it carried over into my personal life. I came home tired, grumpy.
And when we all got that pink slip because our company being acquired, I was in shock. I was in a total funk that weekend. I'll never forget it. That was on my deck, just kind of staring off into space, praying. And Tammy said, weren't you praying about this? I said, well, yeah, but this is not the way I was expecting it to happen. But I firmly believe the saying goes, when meets an opportunity, then great things happen. I was available and I got contacted by a financial services company to consider that world. I turned them down. They offered free lunch. I said, well, I got to learn how to interview and dust up my resume so I might as well pursue that. So that was the beginning of the whole new life professionally and it did change my life personally as well.
Dylan Mitchell
I know you mentioned a little bit and we'll get into it later in the show, but I want to make sure we hit a top two. Your faith and how does your faith make Yeaton Financial Group different?
I won't say that we are a non-profit Christian organization, but we are Christians. We base all our decisions based on Judeo-Christian values. When it comes to investing, we only work with financial institutions that we know do not align themselves or or gain most of their profit knowingly from activities that we feel are counter to our Judeo-Christian values. It's hard to say, we don't work with anybody that's not Christian. Well, then I probably wouldn't have a smartphone. But our clients work with us because they trust us and we don't take that for granted. And I think you may have all the knowledge in the world, but if there's not trust of a client, somebody that's not trust us, then it's moot, it's all moot.
Dylan Mitchell
Good. Todd, real quick too. You started your own business. ⁓ What made you want to start Rincon Aerospace? I don't think we've ever really taken the chance to unpack that in depth.
Todd Tuthill
Interesting question too. Well, you know, Dylan, I'm a systems engineer talked about that a bit on the podcast. I started with large companies. I started when I met Tom, we'll get to that in a few minutes, I met Tom and Tammy in St. Louis, started my career there for a company called McDonnell Douglas, eventually became Boeing, designing flight control systems for aircraft. I spent 14 years in what became Boeing St. Louis and I was sure I was going to retire from Boeing. I came out of college with my shiny new degree, this is what I'm going to do for 35 years and I'll roll off into the sunset with a nice retirement. Well, of course that didn't happen.
I was recruited to MOOG aircraft. I moved there, eventually became Director of Engineering. I was able to work on some incredible aircraft, some that are in service and some their still in development. And I was sure I would retire from MOOG. I was certain this is it. How then I got recruited to Raytheon here in the desert in Tucson. So I went there, became guidance electronics department lead at Raytheon Missile Systems and I was sure I was done. I was gonna retire from Raytheon.
Dylan Mitchell
I'm sensing a theme here.
Todd Tuthill
Yeah, so I got recruited to be the Vice President of Global Strategy for A&D at Siemens. And I got to travel the world. I got to meet incredible people. And once again, I was sure I would retire from Siemens. But about a year ago right now, and I'm about to leave for an entire summer of travel. And man, I was so tired of travel and I knew I needed to make a change. And like Tom sitting on his deck, I'm praying about it. Gee, what should I do? And I could tell, while
It was a great job, great opportunities, all these things. knew I was not living the life I wanted to live, being gone all the time. Like I said, get to go in incredible places, meet incredible people. That was wonderful. But, I just didn't know what it would look like to leave corporate life, but I also couldn't imagine spending the next five years of my life working like that.
It's hard to walk away from a steady paycheck. Last October, I decided to start my own company and I spent my whole career working for large corporations. I wanted the freedom of working for myself and I was able to do that. This is kind of what led to this podcast. It was a conversation Tom and I were having over his kitchen table in St. Louis about about six weeks ago. And I was telling him, you know, Tom, one of the best decisions I ever made was to hire Yeaton Financial Group. And it was your advice Tom your advice and and asking me to do some hard things financially that I didn't really want to do that that allowed me to set up and to have the ability in the confidence to walk away from this steady paycheck. I knew it would take a while to rebuild that income and that was okay I could afford to do that. I wanted to do it. I got to do it. and that's how Rincon Aerospace was born I've got a careers worth of experience I can use to help A&D companies and that's how I was able to create the coolest opportunity of my whole career. This time I won't say I'll do it until I retire.
I've got no idea what God's got in store for me. That's how Rincon Aerospace was born. And as you know, that's when you and I met. You do a whole lot more than host this podcast for me. Dylan did my whole brand identity. We talked about, go back to our first episode where Dylan and I talk about that. But that's...
That's how I got there and a lot of it really had to do with the confidence and the really good decision I made to start working with Yeaton Financial Group and Tom and Tammy and their company several years ago.
Dylan Mitchell
Isn't it funny how many times we think the thing is the thing and it ends up not being the thing, but most often is the thing that gets you to the thing.
Todd Tuthill
Yeah, God just laughs at us when we make those decisions, doesn't he? He really does.
R. Tom Yeaton CLU, ChFC
That is so true. And I think Todd, I thank those kind words. Todd and I, we have a great background, maybe a day for a different blog, but I respect Todd's expertise in his field and I respect his courage in making this move. And he's benefiting from mostly the mistakes I made when I made my long time ago. Someone said that that's the essence of wisdom is learning from other people's mistakes. When I made the move, when I did, I really didn't know what I was gonna do. I wasn't even sure I was gonna stay in that industry. In fact, I didn't stay in that industry. At least he's staying within the arena of what his knowledge is and he can take... that knowledge base and those relationships with people and leverage them to launch into a whole new arena. He's got the raw material to be the most successful consultant and coach himself for others than most people I've worked with the last 28 years.
Todd Tuthill
And thank you for that Tom, I appreciate that. And Dylan, you're an entrepreneur too. What about your origin story? How did DM Supply, your company come to be?
Dylan Mitchell
DM Supply, that's Dylan Mitchell Supply, Digital Media Supply, however you want to roll it off the tongue. Really just came out of years of serving in around the local church realizing that there's a lot of great churches that unfortunately struggle to communicate clearly.
I'd sit in services or work with ministries that had these really awesome mission. This great people strong leadership, but their branding their messaging website. It didn't really reflect what they were actually trying to do to no fault of their own. So I realized pretty early on that design isn't just decoration and that communication matters. Clarity matters the way a church presents itself can it either builds trust and connection or it frankly creates friction before someone ever walks through the front door. DM Supply started from that kind of tension that I felt. I wanted to help churches and then later on mission driven with excellence in a way that actually supports the mission instead of taking away from it. That's a 30,000 foot view to that answer.
Dylan Mitchell
In the spirit of keeping things moving I would love to talk about the financial side of entrepreneurship
Tom, when people think about starting a business, ⁓ most of the focus goes to startup costs. I know that to be true for myself, but what are the financial considerations people usually don't think about what tends to catch them off guard?
R. Tom Yeaton CLU, ChFC
Again, such a good question, Dylan. Obviously when there's startup costs, that implies you got to have some capital to cover those costs. This could be a series of many months, but starting a business is difficult with capital. It's virtually impossible without it.
Frankly, without that, I don't know if I would have been able to make even that ran out. got to have capital, you've got to have access to capital. And in my case, I even used my 401k. I was only 39 years old. So that meant I had to eat that 10 % early withdrawal penalty, but that's the only capital I had. And my thinking was back then that, you know what? My business will be successful than make up for it, which I have, but it's never, never a guarantee. Thinking back on one degree I was intimidated and very scared, but I was somewhat cocky and that I felt I could do this. I didn't make much of an adjustment in my expenses.
Another major mistake. There's no room for pride when you're going into the business. That doesn't mean be sheepish and scared all the time, but just be smart. My wife Tammy is militant when it comes to cost cutting, and we made some major adjustments for many years. That's what you got to do.
In fact, I would say that if you're starting off as a W-2 employee, and once you get that entrepreneurial bug, which I had early on and what I did not do and I should have done is begin acting like a business owner immediately. Even especially when you're bringing that paycheck, maybe even back off contributing to their 401k. That sounds horrible, but short of course getting the employer match.
But what I find is that when I have a client that says, hey, I'm thinking about going into business. Okay, well, tell me about your capital. Well, I've got a million dollars in my 401k. Okay, that's great. You're 50 years old, right? You're willing to take that hit? But if they would have alongside their 401k saved some money in a non-taxable environment, they would have some working capital.
Todd Tuthill
So Tom, you talk about, I'm a W-2 employee, I'm working long, I'm saving money in a 401K. What are some other options? You talk about putting money in other places, places to shelter money from taxes. What are some great options for people in that situation? They want to be an entrepreneur, they want to start a business, they've got their 401k. What's some other places they could put money so that they can have to start a business like this?
R. Tom Yeaton CLU, ChFC
Well Todd, that's a good question. I know I asked it and I get asked that question a lot too. But what I find is that my experience has taught me that people are more focused on the place to put money than they are the behavior of getting money into that place. I have a client that I met years ago was scared of the market, never put a dime in their 401k. Didn't put any money in the market. They simply lived within their means. They gave to their church. They saved money like crazy. They ⁓ funded their kids' college with cash. They had seven figures in savings and retired comfortably with a nice house and no mortgage and they didn't do anything fancy except demonstrate the power, of discipline, living within their means, starting saving early.
Now, as a financial advisor, had they just put a little bit of that in the market, they would have had a whole lot more. But guess what? I have a lot, I know a lot more people that play the market, I'm air quoting here, that are broke.
So the point is that the place is not nearly as important as the behavior. good advice I got early on, before I got in this business was, if you can learn to live on 70 % of your income, you will be wildly successful financially, whether you own your own business or not. That's 10 % to God, 10 % to yourself, 10% to your employer 401k and myself meaning someplace other than the 401k. It can be a money market mutual fund it doesn't have to be fancy, but what's more important is doing it just doing it can get into Roth IRAs, they're tax free, they're awesome, but that has some rules involved too that you gotta wait until 59 and a half. Don't get it complicated. Just put money someplace you have access to so that when you're ready to make that move, you've got working capital that's available to you right now.
Todd Tuthill
Everybody you heard it here first, the guy who makes a business selling you different ways to invest financial money is saying, don't worry about the things, don't worry about the places, just save some money, just do it. Just, wow, great advice. Even advice that may not necessarily benefit you financially in your business, but great advice nonetheless. Just save some money, especially when you're young, put that money away.
Dylan Mitchell
It's a great quote from Nike. Just do it. We'll apply it. That'll be the quote for the podcast and we'll put those social links to it.
Todd Tuthill
You think that's the title of the podcast? Just do it. We'll see. don't know. We'll see.
Dylan Mitchell
Just do it.
Dylan Mitchell
Tom, ⁓ on pensions, pensions used to be the norm. ⁓ and most people entering the workforce today probably won't ever have one. ⁓ I, I certainly don't.
How should that reality change the way that younger workers and especially business owners ⁓ think about building their financial future, if at all?
R. Tom Yeaton CLU, ChFC
That question really addresses mindset. Our grandparents, can't even say our parents anymore, but our grandparents didn't have to worry about financial planning or investing because they worked their whole lives for a single company. The company offered a pension.
We talked about the three-legged stool of retirement. One leg is social security, one leg is pensions, one leg is whatever other savings you have. For the private sector, we don't have one of those legs and that's pensions. So the mindset has shifted. Now, because of the ERISA Act back in 1974, and Gerald Ford administration spelled the end of pensions in the private sector and created what later became 401Ks and Thrift Savings Plans but pensions is a, they're a tool. They're an actuarial tool that provides guaranteed lifetime income without regard the market. They're great.
But just because your company does not offer a pension doesn't mean that you can never benefit from a pension-like financial instruments later. So where does it start? It starts with saving money, having capital, all right? When an employer offers a pension in the public sector, we mean the government, federal, state, even local, city, they will fund the pension. And then eventually, ⁓ someone, manages it and then you hope that they manage it well and you hope that pension is when you retire.
For the private sector, whether you have a, in the public sector whether you have a pension or for the private sector you don't have a pension, the beginning fundamentals of financial management are the same. You've got to save money. You got to save money. And, but the mindset is different because now you're the one that's responsible for its growth, not your employer.
And that's where the financial industry, financial advising industry was born back in the seventies because folks needed help. ⁓ I love the ERISA Act, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, because people our help.
But there's nothing magical about a pension. I work with most of my federal clients that I work with. About a third of my client base are federal workers and most of them are air traffic controllers. They retire with not one but two pensions. But guess what? If all they did rely on their pension, they're gonna have financial problems.
They won't have an income problem, it's not enough for them to live out their lives in the lifestyle that they've grown accustomed to. They still have to save and invest money.
Dylan Mitchell
That's all the time we have for this episode, but this conversation isn't over yet. We're going to pause here though, and we'll pick it up in the next episode. Huge thank you to Tom for joining us today and Todd as always. Thank you so much If you want to learn more about Tom and Yeaton financial Group, you can find that information at YeatonFG.com. That's Y-E-A-T-O-N FG.com.
Every episode of Rincon Horizons, we unpack the decisions and disciplines that shape us as leaders at work, at home, and everywhere in between. Our goal is simple, to help you lead better, so your organization can climb higher.
If today's conversation challenged you or encouraged you share with someone who's thinking about making the leap. You can find out more about Rincon Aerospace or connect with Todd using the links in the show notes or at Rincon.Aero. That's R-I-N-C-O-N.Aero. I'm Dylan Mitchell. You can learn more about my work at dm.supply. Thanks for listening and we'll see you next time on the Rincon Horizons podcast.
Securities and advisory services offered through LPL Financial, a registered investment advisor. Member FINRA/SIPC