[EO Chicago] Lessons on Leadership, Legacy, and Learning With Ben Altman

Ben Altman is the CEO and Chief Investment Officer of Altman Advisors, a multi-family office he co-founded with his father in 2016 that serves high-net-worth families. The firm provides comprehensive wealth management, financial planning, and legacy planning services. Under Ben’s leadership, Altman Advisors has built a multi-generational client base, established a ten-year investment track record, and is pursuing GIPS® certification to uphold global best practices in investment performance reporting. An active member of YPO (Young Presidents’ Organization) and EO (Entrepreneurs’ Organization), Ben is focused on integrating AI to enhance client service and internal operations.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

[01:24] Ben Altman shares how Essential AI transforms businesses at record speed
[03:54] Why anonymous feedback unlocks more honest, high-performing teams
[07:59] How Milton Friedman shaped decades of Ben’s modern financial thinking
[09:09] Ben explains Modern Portfolio Theory and its impact on investment strategy
[12:48] Why mastering AI is non-negotiable for staying relevant in 2026
[15:14] Inside the CRIT prompt system for sharper, more effective AI conversations
[19:17] How Ben built stronger relationships through rapid response and monthly check-ins
[33:30] Lessons learned from losing everything and the mindset needed to bounce back

In this episode…

What separates financial advisors who consistently thrive from those struggling to keep pace in a rapidly evolving market? How do top advisors build enduring client relationships while navigating volatility, risk, and accelerating technological change? Increasingly, the answer lies at the intersection of legacy thinking, economic discipline, and AI-driven efficiency.

Ben Altman, a wealth management expert with multi-generational advisory experience, exemplifies how disciplined investment strategy, rigorous diversification, and thoughtful technology adoption define modern financial advisory success. Drawing on lessons from past market cycles, Ben emphasizes the importance of avoiding concentrated risk. He also highlights the value of leveraging AI tools, such as voice-to-text dictation and context-driven prompting, to streamline workflows and enhance real-time client responsiveness.

In this episode of the Rising Entrepreneurs Podcast, Dr. Jeremy Weisz sits down with Ben Altman, CEO and Chief Investment Officer of Altman Advisors, to explore how family legacy, economic strategy, and AI converge in modern wealth management. They discuss how Ben utilizes AI to scale operations and the principles behind proactive client engagement. They also explore practical frameworks for building resilient, long-term relationships that prioritize personalized care, which is essential for trust.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Special Mention(s):

Related Episodes:

Quotable Moments:

“If feedback is anonymous, it’s better because it’s more honest — people are more open about what they’re truly thinking and concerned about.”
“It’s not a question of whether AI can help you; it’s a question of how quickly we can learn before we become irrelevant.”
“Do what you say you’re going to do. All we have is our word, and repeating that enhances our relationships.”
“The hardest thing in business is to grow the business. Nothing starts until a sale is made.”
“If you’re not growing, you’re dying. There’s no coasting — if you think you are, you’re actually going down.”

Action Steps:

Embrace AI tools for efficiency: Integrate AI-driven solutions to streamline workflows and communication so you can keep pace with technological change and remain relevant as processes evolve.
Use structured prompts to enhance AI output: Apply structured frameworks when interacting with AI to generate clearer, more tailored responses that reduce generic output and improve decision-making.
Focus on relationship-building through accountability: Consistently follow through on commitments to build trust, strengthen connections, and sustain professional relationships in fast-paced environments.
Implement proactive client engagement: Schedule regular, structured client check-ins to shift from reactive service to proactive value creation and prevent issues from escalating.
Invest in personal and team growth continuously: Commit to ongoing learning and development to stay ahead of industry trends and support long-term adaptability and growth.

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Episode Transcript:

Intro: 00:02

Welcome to the Rising Entrepreneurs Podcast, where we feature top founders and entrepreneurs and their journey. Now let’s get started with the show.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 00:12

Dr. Jeremy Weisz here, Founder of InspiredInsider.com where I talk with inspirational entrepreneurs and leaders. Today is no different. I have Ben Altman. You can check him out at AltmanAdvisors.com. Ben, before I formally introduce you, I always like to point out other episodes of the podcast people should check out, since this is part of you know, the EO series that I do.

Ben and I met through EO. It’s an amazing organization. I met some great individuals there. So, some of those I had Michael Attias, he started CaterZen, and he talked about transforming catering chaos into calm with his software. Matt Zalk. He’s in Tulsa. Key Renter Property Management. He’s all over Tulsa, Oklahoma City, and Arkansas. And you know Ethan King sticks out. I’ve learned a lot from him. And co-founder of Zeus Closet. And he talks, you know actually, Ben a lot about AI these days as well. I know you have some EO members you’ve learned from. You have a book there. Why don’t you talk about some of the EO people you’ve learned from?

Ben Altman: 01:14

Yeah for sure. Let’s see here. I have one from an EO member, Ab DeWeese. Which is.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 01:24

Essential AI.

Ben Altman: 01:24

Essential AI: Your All-in-One QuickStart to Using AI in Business and The Workplace. So I always like to read books from my friends. So that’s like that’s like I have like a whole section on my back that’s just like books that friends wrote, which I really love. And then let’s see here, totally on a different subject, but from about a friend’s dad, he was he was a survivor from the camps, and just how this kid, you know, survived and got through it somehow.

So this is a holocaust.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 02:01

The Little General who’s the author?

Ben Altman: 02:03

Yeah, it’s Robert Becker. It’s actually the kid, the child in the story. And it’s really put together by my friend Liz Becker, her daughter.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 02:19

While we’re on the book subject. Right. I always geek out on books. You have another book there that you’re loving right now. You want to talk about that?

Ben Altman: 02:27

Sure. So this is the one that I’m really on, it’s called the AI-Driven Leader. It’s by Geoff Woods. He’s made a career around using AI to help leadership teams specifically, and helping them sort out like goals and metrics, like with AI, which is, you know, I’m from the EOS world, and we do it like manually, you know what I mean? So we do it, but we do it by sitting for nine hours together.

So this supposedly makes it 90 minutes of just that. And it’s a game changer because what it does is it’s the key is this this is what really convinced me about this. If feedback is anonymous, it’s better, okay. Because it’s more honest. If you have six members of a leadership team and they’re all anonymous, anonymously entering their data into an AI platform, and then you let the AI compile it, show where you’re not aligned and where you are, and helps you determine what your goals should be.

So super interesting way to use AI to be anonymous with, you know, with, with what you’re concerned about. So that’s what I’m working on from Geoff Woods who’s a really inspirational guy in the AI space.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 03:54

Ben on the anonymous topic. So I’m listening to right now, I don’t know if you ever listened to Influence, Robert Cialdini, but there’s a new and expanded version which just came out. I think I have an hour and nine minutes left right now, but they talk about anonymous. If you don’t want a hung jury, don’t make people raise their hand and, you know, make it anonymous. I think that’s what they said in the book.

If I’m misquoting that, people can listen to the book and read it or whatever, but it’s a really good book. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion the new expanded version they came out with. And then you mentioned, you know, EOS. So Gino Wickman and Traction, Gino Wickman on the podcast, people can go check that out.

And Verne Harnish on the EO topic of Scaling Up, and Verne was also on the podcast. So people can check that out. And he’s got a great book on scaling up. I think, Ben, you went to get another book. So I’m looking forward.

I’m looking forward to hearing what you’re hunting down there. So as you’re doing that, I’ll mention. So I also had Mark Winters who wrote Rocket Fuel with Gino Wickman. And that’s also a really good book of kind of the visionary integrator dynamic. So what do you got there?

Ben Altman: 05:05

I’ve got here Traction since you mentioned it. This is a formative book for me from the EOS world. And then a new one I read by it’s called Profit Works from some friends of mine, Alex Freytag and Tom Bower. So this one’s cool because it helps you rethink how you’re putting your comp plan together. So I love the whole series with EOS and Patrick Lencioni too.

We’re reading The Five Dysfunctions of a Team again. We have a couple new leadership team members that we’re rereading it and looking forward to that as well.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 05:38

I remember reading a long time ago, Death by Meeting by Patrick Lencioni. And the interesting part is I love his books because they’re, like, shorter. I can finish them, finish them quicker, and they’re easy. They’re easy to read.

So anyways, we’re going to launch into it. I just had to get your books on that note. And before, before I formally before I formally introduce Ben, this episode is brought to you by Rise25. At Rise25, we help businesses connect to their dream relationships and partnerships. We do that in a few ways.

One, we’re an easy button for a company to launch and run their podcast. We do the strategy, the accountability, the full execution, and production behind the scenes. We’re also an easy button for a company’s corporate gifting, so we make gifting staying top of mind for clients, partners, prospects, it could be even for staff from a culture perspective, simple, easy and affordable. Just give us the list of addresses. We do everything else. It’s been. It’s not like we send one-off gifts. It’s think we send three gifts a year for 4 to 5 years. Okay, so not just one-off gifts. So we kind of call ourselves the magic elves that run in the background to help it help companies build amazing relationships.

Because, Ben, I mean, we know each other at this point. Like the number one thing in my life is relationships. I’m always looking at ways on how I can give to my best relationships, and I personally have found no better way over the past decade to profile the people and companies I admire and share with the world what they’re working on, and to send them sweet treats in the mail so you can go to Rise25.com email support@rise25.com to learn more.

And I’m super excited. This has been a long time coming. Ben Altman combines a love for people with a passion for numbers, and he’s actually the CEO and Chief Investment Officer of Altman Advisors, and it’s a multi-family office he founded with his dad in 2016. He’s also a member of YPO and EO. So Ben, thanks for joining me and start us off with Altman Advisors and what you do. I’m going to. I’ll pull up the website.

Ben Altman: 07:42

Sure. So. Well, Altman Advisors, first of all, we’ve been in business for 49 years.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 07:54

Yeah, I was looking at this timeline here like on the Altman Advisors about I’m like, oh my God, this keeps going back.

Ben Altman: 07:59

I know, I know, it’s it’s it’s 1958. Look at that. Yeah, my father studied with a guy named Milton Friedman, which it was his kind of his idol. It’s there’s a famous book. I’m going to butcher it.

Capital and freedom or something like that. We’d have to look it up.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 08:21

I’ll look it up as you’re talking.

Ben Altman: 08:23

Yeah, that’s another that’s another good one. But the.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 08:27

He’s an American economist. It’s that one.

Ben Altman: 08:32

Tell me another one.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 08:33

He’s in. He’s an economist. Is that. Yeah. Yeah okay.

Ben Altman: 08:36

He’s he’s he was a Nobel laureate and University of Chicago. He’s part of the reason USC is so famous for their MBA school and yeah, Nobel Prize winner. Basically he’s a free marketeer. You know, you let the markets do what they want to do. That was the idea.

And that really influenced my father. And yeah, let’s see here if it says it.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 09:04

I’m looking. Capitalism and freedom. It looks like.

Ben Altman: 09:09

Capitalism and freedom. I said capital right. Capitalism and freedom. Right. So yeah, that was an influential book.

And he ended up catching him because Milton was still working at UFC at the time. So it was just, you know, some, some formative, influential things there. They also developed something called modern portfolio theory, which is really what we use. I empty is the acronym, but modern portfolio theory is the use of the markets to create, to choose where you want to be on what’s called the efficient frontier. Have you heard have you heard that term before?

The efficient frontier? I wish every person knew what this was. I mean, it’s really something that we should be teaching in school, but we’re not. Like to children to, you know, this this kind of like. But what it what it says is basically you a bond is less risk than a stock.

But if you combine 20% equities with 80% bonds, it’s actually less risk than 100% bonds. Okay. That’s interesting. And then you as you as you are willing to accept more risk, you’re you’re able to get more returns and you’ll you’ll make more over time. Depending on on how extreme the risk is, if it’s if there’s there’s issues with that, if it’s concentrated or you use leverage, it throws the whole thing out the window.

You know, you’re you’re going to be radically different and not predictable. But the When it comes down to basic asset allocation, it’s the it’s it’s the it’s you know, we use the term diversification all the time right. But what it means is how is your. Portfolio constructed. How is what which asset allocation is it.

So we have eight models. It’s from cash management to equity. The balanced ones are the most common. So we go from conservative to aggressive. And yeah a fixed income and equity and cash management.

So there’s five different balanced. And we’ve got a ten year track record at this point thankfully. And yeah we’re just kind of moving along moving along. We’re we’re getting what’s called Gifts Certified which is the global investment procedure standard. So that’s that’s what we’re working on right now.

But that’s It’s a major project to be able to show everything that you have in a in a way that’s accepted by the entire world and in, from a financial sense. So it’s the it’s the global investment, I think, procedure standards or something like that.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 12:03

I’m going to as you’re looking that up real quick.

Ben Altman: 12:07

I’m performance standards.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 12:09

You know, I know that AI is a big initiative. And we could talk about how you’re incorporating AI before you do. I just pulled up these are the books by Milton Friedman. He’s got a lot here. Capitalism, freedom.

So I’ll have to check on an audible because I listen to everything on audible. But capitalism freedom is here. Free to choose is here. Money. Mischief is here.

I mean, there is one, two three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, 11, 12. I mean, there’s a lot they keep going here. So this is the second page I won’t go on. But you know, if you recommend capitalism freedom I’ll have to check that one out first. Yeah.

So talk about AI and incorporating AI in the company you mentioned with with iOS. How else are you incorporating AI?

Ben Altman: 12:48

Yeah, well, number one, it’s it’s it’s what I’m responsible for. I realize in 2026, you know, it’s not a question of whether AI can help you. It’s a question of how quickly we can learn how to make that happen before we become irrelevant, which is the risk. Basically, what Jeff Woods would say is the world’s changing so fast right now, and it’s not going to get any easier, like just get started. So I’m just like, you know, learning it’s it can be frustrating at times.

It can be, but then it’s very rewarding. You know, once you actually master something.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 13:33

What tools are you playing with? Yeah.

Ben Altman: 13:36

I love well whisper is the best dictation software, so I just love it. I mean, I it’s so cool to just change your keyboard and it actually works. And it actually fixes, you know, let’s say you stutter or you say something like, you know, something slightly off. It actually fixes your English. So it’s smart, you know, it’s the best one out there.

So I like that, that, that you can use directly with chat because we can speak a lot faster than we can type. So I mean it’s just an amazing thing and you know. It’s it’s a great tool. And, you know, especially if like you might have a certain like, you know, you might have a circumstance where you can’t type and so or, you know, you injured yourself or something like that and you got to do a shoulder surgery or whatever. Well, this is a total workaround basically.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 14:27

So yeah, I find it totally, really fast. And I look at I know we were talking before we hit record is what things can you incorporate use AI for to make things easier? Like for me I look at kind of 80 over 20. Where am I spending 80% of my time? I spent a lot of time, unfortunately, in email.

So what’s been a lifesaver for me is using whisper Flow and Gemini inside of Gmail because we use G suite and that’s been huge and speeding things up, right? Because like you said, I could just dictate it, go in there. It basically is what I wrote, but then it doesn’t, you know, it’s not run on sentences how I normally would type it and it formats it properly. Any other tools you’re playing with?

Ben Altman: 15:14

Yeah, I’m starting to use Plaud, which is this, this tool that’s for note taking, trying to incorporate that into my cloud right now. Let’s see what else. Playing with both Gemini and Chat. I’m using something you know I’m it’s it’s something I can’t believe I didn’t you know, it’s just I can’t believe I didn’t know. This is something called crit.

You’re familiar with crit. Okay. Context. Role. What role do you want the AI chat to play?

Interview. The key is we’re all using the chat software incorrectly. All of us. Why? Because we ask it questions.

So this reverses the table. It gets it, asks us questions before it spits out an answer which is much more consultative. You’re actually teaching it. So oh I want let’s see here context. Could be take any situation.

I, I want to teach about a mega backdoor Roth right. Because that’s a cool tool that we use.

[Continue to Page 2]

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 16:29

I’ll pull that up as you’re talking about it.

Ben Altman: 16:30

Speaking of the whole context, sure, I give the whole context of it. And then I say, you know, role might be expert, financial advisor and tax accountants, you know, in this subject or something like that. And then the interview questions I say this is this is key. Ask me up to three questions, one at a time. Let’s see here.

Ask me up to three questions one at a time. Yeah. Oh to gain a deeper understanding of of the subject. So that’s a standard line that I put in there. So three questions one at a time to gain a deeper understanding.

And then let’s see here and then the task. What are you trying to accomplish. So you say hey I want to I want to I want to write a piece on the mega backdoor Roth and, you know, help me formulate one, or I want a script for a video that I’m making, you know? So that’s been a game changer. I’m glad that I’m now I’m.

I think it’s actually cool that you didn’t know what it was, because I.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 17:42

Know I didn’t. I’m pulling it up here as we’re talking. It says create context role interview task. And so this is written by Joe Pulizzi. Actually, I had him on the podcast many years ago.

And but this is more recent. So yeah, I’ll have to give this a look, but it’s amazing. So you’re like contacts and you talk about role and then the interview and then the task.

Ben Altman: 18:08

Yeah. So act as a strategy coach who helps creators uncover blind spots and identify leverage points others miss. That’s that’s that’s a role. Yeah.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 18:18

He quotes Jeff Woods by the way in this in the author. Yep.

Ben Altman: 18:21

Yep. Look at that. It’s so so the key the key here is to get chat to ask us questions versus us asking it questions. And if we think about it, if we’re talking to a client and we’re helping them solve something, we don’t start by talking. We start by listening, right.

And then and of course asking questions so that we can listen. So it makes sense. I mean, it’s how we operate. Why would we not do that in the AI space? This is a game changer for me.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 18:52

Yeah. No.

Ben Altman: 18:53

Go ahead.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 18:54

No I was going to say, you know, I know you’re thinking a lot about AI, but also about, you know, you’re very big on growth, but growth kind of underlying growth when I observe you is relationships. Can you just talk about some of the ways that you think about and follow up and build relationships with people?

Ben Altman: 19:17

Yeah. Let’s see. Number one, do what you say you’re going to do that. All we have is our word, right? So if we do that repeatedly we enhance our relationships.

Another one I would take from EO and Ypo is. Speaking from experience, which I didn’t realize, like I was doing, that I thought it was controversial to say, hey, well, when I took out my home equity line and blah blah blah, like, I didn’t know that that was actually a technique that leads to longevity in relationships. Fact. Okay. Is, hey, in my experience versus you should do this.

How annoying was it the last time somebody said you should do this? Do you want to do it or do you want to do the opposite? Right. So it depends on our personalities. But most most people don’t respond to that well.

And so when we are humble and we speak from experience, it it leads to longevity. I would say also just what makes us unique. We have a 60 minute rapid response time and a 24 hour resolution. If not, we give an ETA that’s agreed upon. And so that creates accountability.

It creates a service expectation. And then we meet monthly with all of our clients and so that it it like it just becomes a pleasure basically. So it’s, it’s like it’s like running a doctor’s office in a way where kind of financial doctors. So we have it like it’s a tight appointment schedule. We’ve got five advisors at this point at Altman Advisors that are client facing.

We’ve got seven that are registered. And yeah, that’s. Those are some of the tidbits. I think just knowing the details of people’s lives too. I’m not a detail detail person, but I’m, I’m I’m detailed enough.

I’m selectively detailed. They call it a more big picture. But I can get detail. And I’m kind of like a social, analytical type. I’m a little bit of an odd bird in that way, because most, most times we’re either analytical or we are social type.

I’m somewhere in the middle where I’m selectively social, and I’m also selectively detailed or conforming. So it because of that, I drive just the way I think. I a funny trait I’m 84% less patient than the general population. Okay.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 21:53

So how do you quantify that.

Ben Altman: 21:56

Well there’s it’s like two standard deviations basically. But it’s through culture index, which is something else that we use that has really taught us about ourselves. So my impatience drives detail because I want I want to get something done. And so that’s when I dive into it. But the key is like knowing the details of, of of if we’re talking about clients, about their lives, you know, knowing all just remembering.

And, you know, hey, when that happened in 2016 or 2008 or, you know, just knowing the history is priceless. I think, in the, in the eyes of the client. So I.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 22:36

Think.

Ben Altman: 22:37

Those are some of them.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 22:37

I had a question. Ben, what sticks out to me is, you know, working with family can be interesting. So I’d love to hear what it’s like working with your dad and some of the lessons learned before you go into that. One thing you said reminded me, which is do what you say. One of my favorite books is The Four Agreements, and it’s very short, so I try and listen to it every single year.

But essentially it’s. Be impeccable with your word. Don’t take anything personally. Don’t make assumptions and always do your best. And it’s just a reminder for me.

So thanks for that reminder.

Ben Altman: 23:19

Let me hear those four again.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 23:20

Be impeccable with your word, which is kind of what you say. Like do what you say you’re going to do. Right, right. Don’t take anything. Don’t take anything personally.

That’s a difficult one for me. I mean, like, it could be just driving in the car and someone cuts you off, right? And it’s like, oh, maybe they’re just in a rush. Maybe their wife’s pregnant. They’re driving to the hospital, I don’t know, like so the other ones don’t make assumptions, right?

Ben Altman: 23:46

We say you lose people with assumptions.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 23:48

Yeah. And then the last is always do your best because the best could be different. The book. It makes me think, okay, like, if I’m not feeling well that day, my best is going to be different than if I got a good night’s sleep and everything like that. So it’s just doing your best for that given moment or situation, right?

Ben Altman: 24:05

It’s all that you can do. Yeah, I consider that like the one option basically is okay. If our one option is to succeed, then you know, we’re going to do the best we can and that’s all we can do. You know, that’s that’s you can’t do more than that. And you and if you’re if you’re in it, you’re in it to win it.

Which is what happened when I started with my father. I knew that this was a long term decision. I was 23. He was 63. We’re 40 years apart and I am now.

I’ll be 46 on Saturday, so that’s half my life. I cannot believe it. 23 years, right? And I mean full time. I started when I was 18 with him, but 18, 20 I worked with him.

But 23 is when I started full time, and I knew it was a one way road when I was doing like, I’m this is you going all in like, this is, this is I have a job to do, which is to figure out how to continue this business, you know, on my own, which is, you know, that that that ultimately, yeah, I can get into some of the details of what it was like to go ahead. Yeah. But yeah, The first thing I did well, it was a kind of a change of plans. I was not he. My father taught me that many things, but he taught me specifically.

The hardest thing in business is to grow the business. Okay. Get a new client. Nothing starts until a sale is made. IBM like, which is in that little timeline the.

So he said, don’t work for me. You’re 20. That was 22 at the time. Graduated college. And he’s like don’t come work for me.

Meanwhile, my my Cuban Jewish mother is like work for you have to work for papi and da da da da. You know, you can picture my mom is over here and my dad’s pushing me going like this, and but he he’s really he really was directing me to build my network. And so I was working at a bank. I speak Spanish, so I got a job giving loans to individuals that don’t speak English. And it was this is 2002.

It was it was with the whole issue of redlining and where we were lending and not lending. So I was hired as a bilingual worker that could help and I could help translate for.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 26:56

Did you grow up speaking Spanish because your mom spoke to you growing up? Or.

Ben Altman: 27:01

You know, I have you know, what happened was my brother, my older brother was so confused that he was delayed. He had delayed speech. And they this was before ESL. So English, English as a second language. This is the 70s, right?

So they didn’t want to admit him into school into into even, you know, into preschool or whatnot. So now there’s programs and so on. But we heard three languages in one sentence because we were really my parents were both working and my grandfather lived about two blocks away. And. Interesting dude.

He was born in 1902 and he had lived in. Three different continents. He was a refugee multiple times and once from Europe and then again from Cuba. So he spent about 40 years in Cuba, made a wonderful life for himself. And and then he uprooted again when he realized, interesting going back to mortgage.

He he knew he knew what it was because Castro wasn’t originally an outspoken communist, okay? It became opportunistic for him. Che Guevara was and and Raul was, but not not not Fidel. And. But he was an opportunist.

And eventually the house that my grandfather built in Santos Suarez, which is a suburb of Havana. Didn’t have a mortgage payment. And you know the old phrase, if it seems too good to be true? It probably is. He’s like, oh man, I don’t have a mortgage payment.

Guess what? I don’t own my house anymore. Okay. So he knew that it was it was a it was a takeover. It was it particularly affected the middle class, upper middle class and middle class.

The upper upper society was became part of government and so on. And then it left a very rich and poor scenario. The middle class all came to, you know, that’s why we have Miami and Las Vegas now. It’s because Havana closed and Miami and Las Vegas Opened. I mean, Miami and Las Vegas were nothing before the Cuban revolution, basically.

So that was that was this is all like ingrained in me. And he raised me. He certainly didn’t speak English. I have no idea how he communicated. He would speak English, Yiddish and Spanish in the same sentence, okay.

Because he would use whatever word came to him. So it has something to do with like I have very I really love languages and.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 29:57

I’m sure you picked it up at a young age.

Ben Altman: 30:01

I just didn’t it wasn’t. I had to really the real reason I speak it, the reason I’m telling you that story is because when I came around, they said, speak to him in English because my brother had problems learning English. And so I really had to learn it. I learned it in school and then and then the kicker is, and I recommend this for anyone from experience is to spend a year immersive in two semesters immersive in. I did Spain, Madrid and that’s how I really dialed it in, you know?

So keeping it up, you gotta you gotta travel. Sorry. You gotta travel to Spanish speaking countries. You’ve got to speak Spanish. I speak Spanish every day with with my executive assistant, Franca.

She’s from Argentina. So it’s to me, it’s like a priceless benefit of working with with somebody from South America.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 30:54

So talk about a couple lessons from your dad over the years.

Ben Altman: 30:58

Okay, I. Don’t. I’ll say it. Don’t. This is a very simple one.

So we lost everything, like at least once. Okay. Where we were started at zero again. It was 1989 and United was was it was a sure thing. Okay.

And by the way, whenever it’s a sure thing, it’s not a sure thing. It’s usually the opposite Whenever there’s a consensus, it’s wrong. Okay, that’s something he would say. And so united in American we’re going to merge. It was a sure deal.

The entire office levered up borrowed on their houses, borrowed in their accounts to buy for the merger. Guess what happened. The merger never happened. People literally went negative. Okay, forget losing money.

You can go negative. So that was a that was twofold lesson. One was concentration which causes chaos. Two was is leverage. So imagine a comment.

You’re already you’re already taking crazy risks with concentration. And then you do it on leverage. That’s like you know it’s nuts. So that that was a lesson we we as a family, we lost everything restarted in 1990 I was ten. And yeah, that’s that’s a lesson that really stuck with me.

Actually one I learned, which was very similar, was I just remember he always said to me, you know, if he gave me a dollar, he would say, we’re putting $0.50 in the bank, okay. And I remember that I’m doing it now with my kids. My kids reminded me like, like I, you know, I said something like that. And, you know, when I had a bar mitzvah, I didn’t, you know, there was no like, I he took the money, he put it into an account. And by the time I was 18, it was $10,000.

Okay. And, you know, over, over, over those, I guess, five years of growth and whatever we put in there before that. And. I worked for him in that year. I remember I was I interned with him two years later I interned again with him.

It was the year 2000. Okay. What happened in the year 2000?

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 33:28

Dot com. crash.com.

Ben Altman: 33:30

Com. So guess what the 10,000 had turned into. From 1998 to 2000.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 33:39

I guess it depends what you’re invested in, I don’t know.

Ben Altman: 33:41

It’s like for tech stocks, it’s like Sun Microsystems and I don’t know what else. Okay. Adobe I think Adobe was one of them. Maybe Microsoft I remember Sun Microsystems. So I have four stocks right.

And now now I told you what it is. So what did the 10,000 turn into. There’s no I’ll tell you the right answer 2000.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 34:07

I don’t know.

Ben Altman: 34:08

A hundred thousand, 100,000. Yeah.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 34:11

I guess certain tech stocks went down. Those ones went up.

Ben Altman: 34:15

I haven’t gotten to the down part yet. I’ll tell you what it eventually got to. So from 98 to the year 2000, it went from $10,000 to $100,000. Okay. Ten-x.

And. I’m like, hey, pop, should we, like, maybe sell these things? Like do something. He’s like, no, it’s fine. It’s like good.

You know, you don’t see the future. Right. That’s the funny thing about markets is that they humble you and you have to go through bear markets to understand the market. In fact, we say you have to go through two bear markets to understand the market. Otherwise you really don’t understand the market.

You got to go through bear markets. So that’s when you test you learn. And so. Yeah that was my first experience with a with a dramatic deep bear market. The the Nasdaq was down 60%.

You know it’s just you have. So what happened by the time by the time 20. Let’s see here 2003 came around. I’m now working with my dad full time. Take a guess what it was.

What it was down to.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 35:27

I’ll say 5000.

Ben Altman: 35:29

Close 10,000. It was back.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 35:31

It was back down.

Ben Altman: 35:32

It was back down to 10. So I started with 10k, you know. And you know, that was, that’s the way. And I appreciate how he raised me. He wanted me to be hungry. And so he wanted to limit what I would have. And you know, he didn’t pay me much. I think I was making $35,000 a year or something like that, and I was just working. And, you know, the funny thing is, we talk about my father a lot, but my mother was really even an even bigger influence to me in business initially. She was a licensed clinical social worker for like 50 years, one of the first Spanish-speaking in the city of Chicago, like 1960s.

And she taught me to have that social service mentality, basically, and that my father would say, like, the worst people in our business are the ones that are focusing on what they make. If you focus on doing good things, good things happen, right? So these are all things that I’m, you know, I’m thinking about. But basically I just went in with this kind of like altruistic. I wasn’t worried. I wasn’t really I wasn’t making anything off of it. Like I had my like 35K salary or whatever I started with, and that was because I had no compensation. And my job was just , to take care of people. We ended up, you know, going from we were the top producers at UBS in our office was a small office, and then later they combined all the offices. I remember we were number seven and six, five, four.

We ended up getting to number one again, and it was just from like grinding. It was work. I worked long hours, I did the best I could, and before I knew it, we had 250 clients, and we were the top producers at UBS Wealth Management in Chicago. So that was that was that was the interesting thing is that I was still even though we were ‘the top producers”. Right.

We really didn’t. I had a growth problem. If you have 250 clients and you’re working from 8 a.m. to midnight, setting up a bond trade before the morning, and then you got 25 to 30 phone calls a day because you’re handling so many people. How do you grow? And so an interesting thing.

I’ll grab one more book. Let’s see here. This is a big influence for me. This is a big influence. It’s The Supernova Advisor. So this is the other thing that really influenced my business. And he said, basically, you’ve got to give away the bottom 5% of revenue. You would not believe out of 250 clients, that was 100 clients. Okay, I think it was 5 million. And we ended up creating a minimum. That was 3 million at the time, and we got three $5 million deposits after giving away five. How could you give away 5 million with 100 people? One client replaced it. And then I did it two more times. And the reason I did it is because of Supernova.

Supernova told me meet monthly with your people two times in person, anywhere in the country. And so that’s what I did. And I’ve been doing it since 2015. I’m now in my 11th year of this. It is unbelievable. I’ve taught it to the team. We run it like clockwork, and it changes your business from being a reactive business, which is most businesses, to a proactive business where you actually have a life and you might have some time to market selfishly. You know, you have a structured life and then you have some off time. Well guess what? You got to grow too.

That’s another thing that we think about. We would say if you’re not growing, you’re dying. Okay. There’s like two directions. There’s no there’s no like, hey, I’m just going to coast.

If you’re coasting, you’re going down. So it’s that mentality was.

Outro: 39:59

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