Surviving Entrepreneurship with Tom Yeaton - Part 3
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 3
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.
Welcome back to the Rincon Horizons podcast. We're picking up right where we left off with Rincon Aerospace managing partner Todd Tuthill and Tom Yeaton, president of Yeaton Financial Group.
Todd Tuthill
Tom, if you look back in your career, I'm pretty new in business relative to you, your business, Dylan's pretty new in business too, but if you look back over the decades of experience in your business, and you could change, what are some things you would have done differently, and what are some things you've actually done right, that you'd say, I really nailed that one?
R. Tom Yeaton CLU, ChFC
The one thing that I got right was I married up. If it wasn't for Tammy....
Todd Tuthill
Yes, yes you did. That's absolutely true. I know Tom's wife Tammy and I can vouch that he did. As did I.
R. Tom Yeaton CLU, ChFC
As did you. And Dylan, I trust you can say the same.
Dylan Mitchell
Yes. Yes.
R. Tom Yeaton CLU, ChFC
I've seen a lot of very talented business people fail because they didn't get the support of their spouse. Buy same token, I've seen some very talented, successful business people at the expense of their families. I've had a client, tell me. "Your wife is your secret sauce." I said, well, I know that, but thank you for telling me. So that's the one thing I did right, I married Tammy and she wasn't the business with me, I always had her support. So that's critical, I think, in any business ventures. To have support of your spouse, your significant other, your close family.
The other thing I think I would have done differently is manage my time a lot better. And Dylan, you addressed this with, let the business consume you, I think you said. I had a business coach that would draw a circle on a whiteboard, big old circle. And then inside that circle, he'd draw a smaller circle. And he said, you know what this is? I went, well, no, you're the coach, what is it? And the big circle, he would say, for most of us, it's business. And the little circle is our life.
So in other words, I struggled with being in the moment. When I was at a ball game watching my kids or being with my family, my mind was in the business. If I was in the business, I felt guilty and shame because I thought I wasn't spending enough with my family. And he said, I thought he was gonna tell me about how reach my target He did all of that, but he started with the mindset issue and that's but the most important and as we need to flip the script, the big circle should be your life. The little circle should be your business. That's what fuels the bigger picture. And the tool that he gave me to do that is a concept called periodization. Periodization is not a new term. It was developed in the fifties and sixties by Russian physiologist named Leo Matveyev.
In essence, it was designed to optimize athletic performance using long term training plans into smaller, manageable cycles. The beginning of the year, we have New Year's resolutions. Why is it that after about two or three weeks, they're gone? It was because we think we have 12 months to get these things accomplished. We let ourselves off the hook. So, periodization divides a year into four 90-day periods. My coach called them 90-day wonders. That's all I focus, all you focus on is 90 days. That's the year.
And then after that 90 days, you got another year. So each year is like four sub years. But then we divide each day into four different themes. One is red tape day, which is administrivia. The other one is blue sky, which is working on your business, not in your business. Third is green machine, which is you are in your business and jamming. And the fourth one, which is the most important, is what we call mellow yellow.
Mellow Yellow is the day you check. You're not in the business, you're in your life. You're with your family. And every day, if you saw my calendar, it's color coded. And every day, I know that I'm going to be working on developing financial plans. Or tomorrow, I'm focusing on just meeting with clients. These past two days, I've had eight meetings. I can't do that every day.
So it's all about focus on what needs, what matters the most on that particular day. Don't feel guilty about what you're not.
Because you know that, for these next four days or next week, I've got a mellow yellow week because I'm going to focus on being with my family. And that has mentally freed me up more so than being financially independent through the business.
Dylan Mitchell
That's phenomenal advice.
Todd Tuthill
Great advice. Tom, I know we talked about your family a bit, but maybe a question about that. A lot of entrepreneurs involve their families in their business, their spouse and their kids. You have really leaned into that. What have you learned about running a business with your family and the people closest to you? And what advice would you give people considering a similar kind of thing, doing business with their family?
R. Tom Yeaton CLU, ChFC
Tread carefully. A Yeaton didn't enter in my business until seven years after I started the business. That's only after I've went through four or five different assistants and realized they were either stealing time from me or just not vested in my success.
Todd Tuthill
What a cool piece of advice. Employees that are invested in your success. And maybe that's a way to think about members are so key to your business. And we've all seen that probably when we tried to people that are just not invested in your success. So great advice right there. So that's a good thing.
R. Tom Yeaton CLU, ChFC
Oh, yeah. Right. And thank you. a lot of people can't work with their wives. They say, oh, I can never work with my wife. Well, you know, Todd, you know, we work out of a house. We have a brick and mortar offices that we can meet clients in. Because of COVID, with a few bright spots, we now work virtually for most of time. Her office is down the hall, next bedroom. We turn into an office.
I see her in the morning. I see her at lunchtime. I see her at end of the day. This is like any other workplace. We have a job to do works for us, but it doesn't work for all spouses. But like I said earlier, whether your spouse is working with you or not, you got to have support. You got to have the support. And then when Ryan came on board after he was in the Marine Corps for eight years, it's kind of funny.
I had been in the business for about 15 years, 14, 15 years when he came on board. You what he asked me? When he got on the Marine Corps, I asked him, so what do want to do? He was in satellite imagery, so I thought he might become his own air traffic controller, that kind of thing. We had contacts. He says, well, I'm thinking about maybe joining the family practice. And I said, well, that sounds great. So then his next question was that funny question in that movie, Office Space. He says, I just have one question. said, well, sure, what is it?
"What exactly is it that you do?" 16 years. He doesn't know what I do for a living.
Dylan Mitchell
you.
Todd Tuthill
That's great. You needed to have hired Dylan promote your business,
R. Tom Yeaton CLU, ChFC
man, man, talk about a marketing problem. Anyway, so he bought into the mission it's all working and he worked remotely, of course, out of his house.
When you bring on a family member, be professional. it's just like when I, I had mentioned this, another mistake I made early on was I got sidetracked with real estate back in just before the great recession in 07 and 08, terrible timing. I learned to keep my day job from that. But one of the bits of advice I got from there was have an end game with no matter what you do, whether it be a project, a house, a business, always have an end game. It's a succession plan. And be careful in renting to family or close friends because they have a tendency to take advantage of you and not pay the rent.
It can happen in business as You enter in a professional agreement, have it writing. We did job description the whole bit with an agreement that if this doesn't work out, here's the process of exiting that. That will protect you from future awkward, intense holiday and birthday gatherings with family because you had to fire your cousin or your in-law.
Dylan Mitchell
Wow. I guess no one really, unfortunately thinks about the side of it that can get messy until it does get messy. And then it's, leading from, panic instead of leading from a place of established plan.
R. Tom Yeaton CLU, ChFC
right.
Dylan Mitchell
Moving right one of the segments we come back to every episode is the Rincon Corner.
The Rincon Corner is about a turning point moment, a pivot, a hard lesson, a mistake that changed the direction of your career and shaped you as a leader. So with that in mind, Tom, do you have a Rincon Corner?
R. Tom Yeaton CLU, ChFC
I just touched on it. Yes, I do. Well, several. Keep the main thing the main thing. Stay in your lane. none of these quotes are mine. They come from business coaches or books I've read. But try not to get distracted by the shiny object or FOMO, know, fear of missing out. My clients are distracted all the time with AI and social media. Everyone now feels they can be an expert on financial plan.
And there's a lot of information out there. And with that, there's a lot of ignorance. It's not just the information itself. What do you do with that When you made that decision go into that business, being a business that you're familiar with, and if you're not familiar with it, then take a long time to study it, become a student of that business. When you get into the business, become a student of the industry.
Never stop learning when it made a difference for me and this goes to an earlier question that Todd mentioned about early on, transition. I likened to the Spanish explorer was it Cortes, Hernán Cortes, back in 1519. He was the one that conquered the Aztec Empire in what we now know as Mexico.
You know how he did that? You probably heard this term before. When he arrived He burned his ships. He scuttled all of his ships in the harbor. So there was no path for retreat. His men absolutely had to move forward. I think where I find is that a lot of folks, when they get into business, they give themselves a path of retreat. And I get that because you're scared, but have the mindset of no retreat that dedicate all your being successful, then failure has no option.
Dylan Mitchell
Failure is not an option.
Todd Tuthill
Failure is not an option. Burn the ships.
R. Tom Yeaton CLU, ChFC
Burn the ships.
Dylan Mitchell
We've got one more recurring segment on the show. It's called Rincon recommendations. We've kind of expanded this segment beyond just books. It used to be just a book recommendation. But because leaders don't learn from books alone anymore, they learn from podcasts, newsletters, blogs, conversations. Just the idea that the input that we have shapes the way that we think. Todd, with that in mind, we'll start with you. What's something you've been learning from lately?
Todd Tuthill
I use something called the Aviation Week Intelligence Network or AWIN. I use it every day. When I talked about Aviation Week before, probably anybody in aerospace knows Aviation Week is a magazine. AWIN is a lot more than a magazine. They've got analysis, they've got just incredible insights, If you're in aerospace, if you're working in this industry, you really need to subscribe to AWIN. There's all kinds of levels and ways you can subscribe to it. I couldn't recommend it any higher than I do. It's just a great service. I'll put a link in the show notes.
Dylan Mitchell
Perfect. Tom, same for you. What's a book, podcast, blog, newsletter, ⁓ anything like that that you'd recommend to the leaders listening today? And no bonus points if you mention our podcast.
R. Tom Yeaton CLU, ChFC
Well, that goes without saying will tell you that this is the only podcast I actually listened to especially recently
Dylan Mitchell
Yeah. Hopefully you learned something. I don't know if we've we've taught anything.
R. Tom Yeaton CLU, ChFC
⁓ Yeah, ⁓ absolutely absolutely I will confess though. I'm a baby boomer. I'm not so much a podcast person As I am a reader I recommend to my clients what I would do myself that is Don't do the doom scrolling on financial media. I call it financial pornography. They publish what they think people want to hear and all it does is get people worked up and depressed.
I subscribe 1440 Daily Digest and Business and there's two. It's called 1440 Daily Digest for just news without commentary. It's just the news. You draw your own conclusions. It's usually about a three or four minute read. And then 1440 also publishes on business and finance. It's a daily thing. I think it's even a free. I like free.
There's an industry wide, I like the Sevens Report by a guy named Tom Essay. I also love our daily bread devotionals. I've been doing day. The Bible, of course, that goes without saying.
But I would recommend too, again, going into business, there's some classics out there that make a difference. I don't care what business you're in, but if you don't know how to win friends and influence people, you're not going to be successful. So Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People is one of the first books I read early on. And I've read it a couple of times since then. Also, Stephen Covey's The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Profound. It was a game changer for me. And I read that when I was working for Eastman Kodak back mid 90s. That planted some seeds for my transition in the business.
Todd Tuthill
Great recommendations, Tom, and we'll put all those in the show notes. And Dylan, what about you? What would you recommend?
Dylan Mitchell
I've actually been this was a Christmas gift that I got two years that's how long it's taken me to come back to this one. Lately, I've been spending a lot of time in a book called Logos That Last by Allan Peters. It's a strong look what makes a brand mark hold up over time, not just visually, but kind of conceptually.
I'm a big believer in studying people who are kind of doing the work you want to do. And Alan's one of those for me, someone that I It's also one of those books that I can come back to when I'm stuck just to kind of reset my eye and get moving again. It helps me get unstuck and also doesn't give me some bias don't want to steal someone's idea. So I can look at this and be like, you've already done something very similar to this. Let me not do that.
Great book. We'll toss that link in the show notes as well.
R. Tom Yeaton CLU, ChFC
Dylan, it's not stealing if you give them credit and then you can call it research.
Dylan Mitchell
This is true. This is true. Well, isn't it Steve Jobs that said great artists steal? I think that was Steve Jobs.
R. Tom Yeaton CLU, ChFC
Yeah,
Todd Tuthill
I think it was.
Dylan Mitchell
Todd, before we wrap up any final thoughts you want to leave leaders listening today with.
Todd Tuthill
I'll just finish by you to Tom for coming on, giving us some great advice. So many good things. I go back to I'm thinking over the things Tom said, basic advice of just save some money. Don't get so wrapped is it this investment or that investment? Especially when you're young, just put some money away in a couple different places. So really, really good advice, Tom. Thank you for coming on. Thank you for all the advice and thank you friendship that we've so long.
R. Tom Yeaton CLU, ChFC
That's more important to me.
Dylan Mitchell
Tom before we let you go, same question for you. We want to give you the final thoughts for the leader who's on the fence right now? Maybe the person with the idea, the experience, the credibility, who's still waiting for the right moment to make the leap?
R. Tom Yeaton CLU, ChFC
I would say don't wait for the perfect day because it won't arrive. Vincent Bardi said no one is perfect but pursuing perfection will bring excellence. So get to the point there.
You can't see yourself going back. Take the plunge. The timing may not be great. It usually isn't. I took the plunge the year before the dot com bust, and the year following that was 9-11. It was the worst possible time. The timing doesn't matter. You make it the right time. It's what you do.
Dylan Mitchell
Wow, that's good.
Todd Tuthill
Make it the right time. That's really good advice.
Dylan Mitchell
There's so many good show titles in this.
Todd Tuthill
It's gonna be hard to pick one. I'm just sitting here thinking about what are we gonna call this episode? I don't know.
R. Tom Yeaton CLU, ChFC
Yeah. I've researched all of that. None of that's mine. I just don't remember who I got them all from.
Dylan Mitchell
If you want to learn more about Tom and Yeaton financial Group you can find him at YeatonFG.com. That's Y-E-A-T-O-N FG.com or connect with him over on LinkedIn will have those links in the show notes as always.
Todd, thank you so much and thanks to everyone for listening. Every episode of Rincon Horizons is about unpacking the decisions and disciplines that shape us all 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 it with someone who's thinking about making the leap. You can also learn more about Rincon Aerospace or connect with Todd through the links in the show notes or at Rincon.Aero. That's R-I-N-C-O-N.Aero I'm Dylan Mitchell. can learn more about my work at dm.supply. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time on Rincon Horizons.
Securities and advisory services offered through LPL Financial, a registered investment advisor. Member FINRA/SIPC