YouSaid · the spoken record

Joe McLean

lines on the record: 108
first: 2026-06-08
most recent: 2026-06-08
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“I think so. And by the way, I think you know 90% of these NILs are all probably $100,000 or less. They're much smaller. And that's by the hundreds a lot, but there's much smaller deals. It's reminding...”
2026-06-08 · Masters in Business · NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And then just setting up some success. The good news can be that they're learning these life lessons before they become a pro. Because what we also remind them is that every MBA NFL scout is watching how you're reacting to this money. Now, if you get a million dollars and you go buy a Ferrari, which happens, they're going to put that on their board, that this is someone that may not be responsible when we give them $10 million. And so they're getting into a window into a human being as to how they may react once they turn pro. And so these are all conversations. We're just having much, much earlier. But I think it could be a good thing long term. I know as a college sports fan everybody's like, I don't like these portals and I agree with them. But as a young person with opportunities, they're going to be smarter. They're going to want to learn faster. And there will be more successful outcomes than.”
2026-06-08 · Masters in Business · NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Right, and that's extraordinary. And so, how do you pass up going to another school for those types of things? So it's really getting them to sit down and think about. Some things that are important besides money, their college experience, who's the coach that you're going to be coaching for, does that match the style that you think you could have success in? Then outside the financial advice that's required that, hey, you're now a 1099 contractor. There's no taxes taken out of these deals, right? And so you can't just spend 100% of it. You owe money to the government. And so that becomes that whole lesson of gross versus net.”
2026-06-08 · Masters in Business · NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Even worse. You know, what's interesting is I was blessed with four years of Coach Lud Olsen at the University of Arizona and had an extraordinary network of alumni and teammates that I got to know or were also coached by him. So I see this. I see the benefit of staying for four years for not jumping around school to school. And so at the same time I'm trying to not sound like I'm 52 years old and say back in the good old days this is what we did because We weren't getting contracts offered to us for a million four. I just looked at a, there are research services out there for each of these sports, and I just looked at one for a player. And they averaged 5.6 points a game this year, but they're projected to have success. They're going to get 1.8 million dollars next year to go play as a sophomore in college.”
2026-06-08 · Masters in Business · NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'm trying to cross the creek. There's a log that I'm going to walk on. If I take my eye off that log, there's instant feedback. I'm going to fall in the water, right? If the laws of finance say, if I have abundance of money going out of my life, and if I take my eye off my money, nothing happens. There's no immediate feedback. American Express doesn't call and say, hey, if I'm paying my bills every month, slow down. Like you just spent $55,000 this month. Slow down. No, they're giving you more benefits. And so the laws of finance give you no immediate feedback. And so the philosophy has to be creating a standard of what you're going to focus on in the future. It could be a month from now. Let's just win this month. And then that's when the next six months. And all of a sudden now we're winning for years. But that's until you become aware of that. Most people don't have success in it.”
2026-06-08 · Masters in Business · NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, it's almost difficult. It's impossible to beat. And so that became my investment philosophy, even with young people or old people is older. When you think about the laws of physics versus the laws of finance. Okay, and we think about this abundance laws of physics say”
2026-06-08 · Masters in Business · NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“20 30, 40 years out from what the compounding effect could be is it looks nice, but it's just there's behaviors and discipline that have to be created. Of level of are you winning or losing each month? And the one thing with, if you look at contracts today in sports and how big they are, as you know with anything, with great abundance typically comes less discipline, right? You see a lot of people with great talent, but they don't necessarily work that hard. But if you work hard and you have talent,”
2026-06-08 · Masters in Business · NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Day by day. Really? It's a long game. There's no level of like putting a Monte Carlo analysis in front of someone and showing them.”
2026-06-08 · Masters in Business · NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“To that marketplace was simply access, access to the capital market. So that was, I always tell the young people, if you ever watch Pursuit of Happiness, great movie, Will Smith, cold calling. He was just giving you access. And then it became about alpha and generating, how do I, my black box research is better than this person. And then it became about spending and income strategies and retirement. That was the third one, all satisfying the baby boomers. Now, the value proposition has flipped. It's access not to publics but it's to privates, and its spending and income, not in your retirement, but in your entire life for your towered life in terms of managing that lifestyle. So these are things that we've done from the very beginning because there will never have been a dollar to invest if I didn't control the cash flow.”
2026-06-08 · Masters in Business · NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Your friend asked you about. A little bit, I would say the MAI and the rest of the industry is coming quite interesting to how we've serviced athletes. And it's not just because they were athletes, it's just because they were young people. The industry is trying to turn towards how to service the next generation of wealth and this transfer of wealth that's happening from the baby boomers. And if you look at the history of advice, the history of advice really was built on the backs of the baby boomers. So I always look at 1981 had, I think it was 600 or 700 mutual funds to choose from. And all of a sudden, it was this hockey stick. It just exploded. And what happened? Well, it was a baby boomers returning 35, which usually tends to be the age where you finally have some money to spend and invest. And then you look at this explosion and the value proposition.”
2026-06-08 · Masters in Business · NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But there was another level, as you know, of acquisitions and really growing. And so, you know, we had gone from $12 billion to 80 plus billion in assets. So it is difficult to maintain the culture, but it's a very independent fiduciary-minded world that was aligned to me. I think the evolution of where the advisors and the clients are going now from here is this level of partnership, because that was what I was experiencing in my boutique is not a client advisor or advisor client relationship. It was a partnership because it's young people don't be told what to do. They want to be given information to make better decisions, but don't tell me what to do. And so I think I've learned a lot in that culture that that's where now the term family office is everywhere. That's how you got to build it going forward.”
2026-06-08 · Masters in Business · NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The good thing was Annette took a long time for me to figure it out before I made a decision was the firm was a service-oriented business. It wasn't a business that was providing services. And so that was very different for me because I actually was not, I didn't come in with any high level of business prowess. I was a service provider. I still am. I think there's nothing beneath me in terms of what's required to serve a client and the people around them. And they had the same mindset because it was actually at the time a loss leader for the IMG business. And so IMG would charge their 20-30% and they would have MAI, which was McCormick Advisors International was the acronym. And that was just a service center to do your taxes, your bills, and build your portfolios. And so they had the same mindset that I had.”
2026-06-08 · Masters in Business · NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Then there's no money. And it's one of the most difficult sports to survive, the successful ones. Obviously, as you said, could have 30, 40, 50 years. But it's a winner-take.”
2026-06-08 · Masters in Business · NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“If you can do it, yeah. But there's nothing like golf has a completely different level of financial planning because there is no guaranteed contracts, right? That's right. If you win a tournament, yes, you may get a year or two of your tour card. But if you don't and you're missing cuts”
2026-06-08 · Masters in Business · NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And his level of wealth was extraordinary that would rival the likes of Stephan Curry and Kevin Durant, as you see today.”
2026-06-08 · Masters in Business · NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He did that and a lot more. Everything plus the royalty rights and the drink, right? And that umbrella, that iconic logo that he has, if you're in that golf world, you know that's Arnold Palmer. And he was the one who famously told every athlete, if you're going to put your signature on something, make sure people can recognize who you are. And I know Peyton Manning and others have taken on that banner. And so he was a Trailblazer very early days.”
2026-06-08 · Masters in Business · NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No kid. Wow. And extracted extraordinary value out of that. And it eventually became a sporting goods and equipment company. So they were very savvy when they did that deal with Arnold Palmer and McCormick came in and unlocked all kinds of value for Palmer. And so when you look at athletes now, they talk about becoming an owner of everything they do. This is something they did. This is 1973, 74.”
2026-06-08 · Masters in Business · NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, yeah. And that was Mark McCormick was the for sure the OG and the sports agency world where his focus was to take an athlete to an entrepreneur, to an owner of everything they did. And that's when he famously got Arnold Palmer out of a Wilson deals on just about everything he ever did and had a handshake deal with Wilson that Mark saw the value of what he was doing for that company and was able to renegotiate that. Most people don't, like Wilson was actually a meatpacking company way back when. And it was in a banker came in and saw that it was undervalued because they weren't utilizing the entire cow. And they started taking the hides and making footballs and basketballs.”
2026-06-08 · Masters in Business · NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And that's when I had someone come up to me and I was trying to find an investor just to help me out because I couldn't support it myself. And that's when I was introduced to MAI at the time who unbeknotes to me really, that was a very quietly built family office for athletes dating back to Arnold Palmer and Mark McClark.”
2026-06-08 · Masters in Business · NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So that happened all in less than seven years. And it was in sports, I realized a couple things. One, I didn't want to have a client base where it was only athletes. You had to pass the test of a 50-year-old business owner who was going to ask more sophisticated questions that was going to challenge you to make sure that you create a process, a plan, a portfolio that was sophisticated enough to support his or her needs. So this became this mutual admiration club of entrepreneurs, business owners, and athletes. And I found that, you know, baseball player wants to talk to an NBA player and a golfer and so on. It was a great connection to have community built in there. And that's how all these other sports came up about it. I was a classic case of high growth trying to keep up with operations. So it's constantly taking my own capital and reinvesting and trying to stay up with the support.”
2026-06-08 · Masters in Business · NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I had no idea what a family office was at that time But I was identifying this was the need. So long story short, it couldn't be done at a traditional wealth management business. It had to be an RAA at the time for me. And so that was the move to start intersect at the time, which was heavily focused on personal finance and family office. And I was still learning the game too. And the contracts weren't as big as they are today. But I remember being in the 2011 draft, and I think I was competing against two other financial advisors, maybe, maybe. Nobody was. Was really interested in this industry”
2026-06-08 · Masters in Business · NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And it was as something that they were open to but not interested in because it was way beyond investing. It was personal finance and cash flow and budgeting and creating a protected circle of because there's so many things that could touch someone's money. It could be the car guy, could be the suit person, could be the jeweler, could be the family that needed to be controlled and put the scoreboard up financially as to what required to have success.”
2026-06-08 · Masters in Business · NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There was no class that we ever took in college. And even if there was a class, you probably would not have paid that much attention to personal finance and investing. And so in sports, in wealth was not something anybody was really interested in. I heard it from other firms who said, I don't want to get involved with athletes. It's just babysitting. And so back then, there was no sports and entertainment divisions at wealth management firms. Nobody was involved. And so I went to Burnseed and said, this is it. This is where I want to be. I'm going to focus my whole rest of my life on this. I'm going to be a coach, but I do do it in finance.”
2026-06-08 · Masters in Business · NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Being on the road and realized no one has ever sat you down and walked through a level of planning that would be required for this level of wealth to prepare you at age thirty two to live off of this money.”
2026-06-08 · Masters in Business · NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Former minister and then had a master's in neurolinguistic programming and then understood how to communicate effectively with people. And I spent two years on the road doing that and then eventually became an advisor at Bernstein. A bunch of old teammates. I was less than a year into my financial advisory career. came up to me when they were getting ready to retire and they said I've been watching you. I think you're in that money thing. Can you look at look at my stuff? That money thing to do that money thing, right? That's what they said. And these were 32 year olds. Some had made over $100 million in assets. I had not grown up with any wealth, but now I'm 15 years into the career and just kind of learned from other families and obviously the companies that have taught me things.”
2026-06-08 · Masters in Business · NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So I went on from wholesaling and then I ended up, I went to two other companies, Lord Abbott and then Alliance Bernstein. And Alliance Bernstein at the time launched an advisor institute, which was there was these 300 advisors at Bernstein at the time that were bringing in 100 plus million in assets every year. And it was a highly dedicated and focused team. And so I went out and trained that to financial advisors as how to build a business and work with centers of influence. And I met another kind of mentor in my life who was a former...”
2026-06-08 · Masters in Business · NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Course. We all do, right? That's the fun one. So the discipline is you've got to fill the first two, you know, before you got to reserve the right to be an entrepreneur or to fulfill.”
2026-06-08 · Masters in Business · NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So that could actually be setting up a business. It could be even I throw venture capital and private equity over there early stage opportunities. It could be the second car. Because I don't care what kind of car you get. I don't care what kind of watch you buy. You just get one. If you want to get another great car, sell the other one and get the next one. But that extra bucket, it could be 5% to 10% of your life. That sits over there. Now, when you put a safety and security bucket, a growth bucket, and a dream bucket in front of a young person, which one do you think they want to fill first”
2026-06-08 · Masters in Business · NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“In real estate over time. However, inside the growth bucket for the first contract of their life, eighty five percent of it has to be liquid. It has to be liquid because quite often I saw when I was researching young athletes were far too illiquid. They were investing in private deals. They didn't know the value of it. It wasn't supporting their lifestyle. And then all of a sudden they didn't have the safety security bucket and they had to sell everything and most of it wasn't worth anything. So it's no genius asset allocation strategy from Yale that I came up with. It's just life and having someone prove to us over time that they know how to save and they're responsible for the money so they can reserve the right for the third bucket, which is the dream and entrepreneurial bucket.”
2026-06-08 · Masters in Business · NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, I want two years of seasonality to support your lifestyle inside the safety and security bucket. If you buy a home, it has to home where you want to live, not necessarily where you play. Quite often someone gets traded multiple times. They bought homes in multiple cities, and now you're trying to sell a house in Milwaukee when you're playing in Dallas, but you really live in Florida. So just put the house that you want to live in long term in the safety and security bucket. And typically we'll buy that with no debt because I don't know when the next contract is going to come. Once you've filled that bucket, the second bucket is the growth bucket. This is where now you're starting to get to understand how money works for you. And in theory, all I want young people to understand is if you get 24 paychecks from the MBA over a 12-month period, our goal by the end of your contract is to find 24 other ways for you to get compensated. It could be in bonds, it could be in dividend, it could be...”
2026-06-08 · Masters in Business · NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So there's a safety and security bucket, and that typically is your cash to support at least those are 24 months. Because I think in the NFL, you may get paid during the season, major league baseball, maybe six months. The NBA could be over a 12-month period. Everyone's cash flow is different. Right.”
2026-06-08 · Masters in Business · NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Paying taxes in every single state and sometimes city that they play in. And whether it could be playing for the New York Knicks or the Golden State Warriors and you're paying a much higher level of tax. And so going through that whole experience for the very first time. Well, the Toronto Rapid. Exactly. Even higher. Exactly. So helping someone pre-experience what it's going to look like and feel like to get paid for the next three years. And because we've seen the movie over and over. I'm just trying to show you the movie. Your story is going to be different than everybody else's, but there's going to be common ground.”
2026-06-08 · Masters in Business · NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So there's a tax that everybody in the NBA gets. It's up to 10%. And it's related to the agreement they have with the owners that they have to get up to 49% of a number of a revenue. And if the owners don't get that number, then they get to dip into the cookie jar and take that basketball related income and put it in their pocket. So most of the time they get 65% of that back. But that in our budget, we budget as if you're never going to get it back. So it is a nice cherry on top at the end of the year. But when you think about...”
2026-06-08 · Masters in Business · NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You get a chance to show, especially early days, like the rules evolve over time once someone has shown their level of professionalism with their money. So early days, there's that three bucket strategy that I've always put in place, which is that safety and security bucket that you're referencing. But that's the first time someone's learning what an MBA or an NFL or an MLB contract looks like. Like here's the DOI just signed, but then what's all these red numbers that go through it and who's FICA and all these terms? And, you know, they see that what a $10 million contract really is. It's much less than $10 million. It's, much, much less. And then there's in the NBA there's another tax. It's like a jock tax that they may or may not get back based on basketball related income, which is another 10% that's attached to these things.”
2026-06-08 · Masters in Business · NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Most young people are going to be like, I'm a one in a million. That's not going to be me. And the reason why a lot of them do go broke still is not many clients, many athletes, retire with $10 million, $15 million, $20 million, but they have significant burn rates that are $3,000, $4 million. And so do the math in five years. It's gone”
2026-06-08 · Masters in Business · NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Because everybody knows that, you know, it's we'll talk a little bit about the pros pro, but everybody knows that you under your business on the court, you hand your business off the court, and that you're somebody that's respected in both the business community and the community around the team that you play in, because there's going to be pros in that locker room and there's going to be knuckleheads. And if you don't know who the knucklehead is, I promise it's probably you. So what we want to do is just teach you the traits to become that person where someone wants to walk directly to your locker and ask questions. And so that verse is showing them the statistics of going broke.”
2026-06-08 · Masters in Business · NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Doesn't, and that's if you think about if I'm talking to a 1920-year-old and I say, you know, what if in three years from now the next number one draft pick walks into the locker room and they walk directly to your locker?”
2026-06-08 · Masters in Business · NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And then it's second deal, then it goes to 70%, third deal, it's 80 to 85%. And then what we realize is we had clients talking in the locker room about how much they're saving eventually, but how much they're saving. And then we would show a scoreboard report of, hey, so-and-so, he saved 92% last year. You saved 74%. And he's like, I don't believe it. And then they're texting. It's easier said than done now when you see the level of the contracts and how much money is going in and out of someone's life on this basis.”
2026-06-08 · Masters in Business · NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Not a great motivator for young people to make decisions. Putting it around a milestone and or a level of respect that they want to attain does. And so for me, that became the parameter of then, okay, if you want to be a common client, we want to have a relationship built on mutual respect, then there's some things that I'm going to require. And for me, it was 60 cents of every net dollar that they earned. After tax, after agent, after all that.”
2026-06-08 · Masters in Business · NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It came from learning from my early mistakes as an advisor because I was willing to take anybody as a client. That was the one thing. If I looked back, I wouldn't have done that. But you're building a business. You try to get revenue. And that happens. Everybody does it. How I came up with the measurement was a young person saying, I want to be a millionaire. And they had an NBA contract. It was a three-year deal. And I said, all right, when do you want to be a millionaire? Because here's the money you're going to make. Here's the taxes that you're going to pay. You can actually make that choice as to when you want to log into your account and see a million dollars. And so it's like, well, what do you mean? He's like, well, if you save 30%, it's going to be May 1st of 2028. That's when you're going to have a million dollars. He goes, well, I don't want to wait that long. I said, okay, well, what if you did 40%? What if you did 60%? And so what I realized is using fear.”
2026-06-08 · Masters in Business · NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Perseverance. This is something I'm trying to teach my kids. I learned to fail and really enjoy it. And for a while, I was failing and not... Really reflecting on why I failed. People use that term a lot. Like failure is a good thing. It's the best thing to happen in my life. It's not the failing part. It's what you learn from failing that really is effective. And so in the idea that you're willing to bet on yourself at all costs, no matter what, if you think about that as an athlete, then the mindset is I'm willing to do whatever it takes. I'll go broke to try to get this done. I have been broke. I'll take as many risks as I possibly can take. I'll fail, fail, fail. Those are not necessarily great attributes as an investor in terms of translating that mindset. So as an advisor to appreciate where an athlete's coming from to actually make them aware of those types of traits that are great qualities to have success in your craft, but net may not be great qualities to have when you start thinking about financial advice and investing.”
2026-06-08 · Masters in Business · NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I see a little bit too much where younger people jump to become an entrepreneur. And I get the premise to want to be an owner of everything you do quickly, but there is a level of foundation and humility that can be accomplished by going and seeking out another environment that provides those tools for you.”
2026-06-08 · Masters in Business · NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So they have a, I don't know, I never knew which was sense of accountability. There's a schedule. There's a structure. Every day you wake up knowing what the common goal is, both as an individual and the role you play. And there's a level of expectation as to what you need to, not just accomplish in one day, but one month, six months down the line. You have the NCAA tournament. You have all these things going on that have longer term or goals, but you got to have a day-to-day discipline to execute on that. When you transition, it's all gone.”
2026-06-08 · Masters in Business · NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And he goes, The sooner you learn that, the sooner you'll be curious to start having this level of intellectual curiosity. And I hold on to that every day. It's one of the great gifts he gave me, honestly. What I got to do at Franklin Templeton was spend six years in a car. I think I drove over 400,000 miles as a wholesaler all over the state of Pennsylvania, all over the state of Arizona and Northern California were my regions. And do hundreds of rubber chicken dinners communicating. I wasn't the advisor, but I was working with a financial advisor. And I got to just meet hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people going through different situations with their money. And I learned from all these other people. It was an awesome experience with them.”
2026-06-08 · Masters in Business · NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Honestly, the best company I've ever worked for. Wow. For transitioning, the transition for an athlete to do anything else is a very, very difficult thing because the thing that you have as an athlete is you have structure, you have a schedule, you have a sense of accountability, you have goals, you have a connection with a team, you have all of that. And the day you stop playing, You're on an island. There is no schedule. There is no level of accountability. And so what they gave me was, and this was, I think you wrote it in your first book, the first thing that this Jim Escobito told me, he was my manager at Franklin Templeton, who said, you don't know nothing about nothing.”
2026-06-08 · Masters in Business · NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But didn't really know what it was. And so I just said yes because he looked like a coach to me That was it. That was the only reason I got into finance for services.”
2026-06-08 · Masters in Business · NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I went and I had no idea what to do. All my buddies at the time, this is 1999. So everyone that I knew in the Bay Area was working for a doctor. And I would show up in a suit, and everyone else was in flip flops and t-shirts. And it's like, this doesn't feel right. I need structure. And so I started playing basketball for this club called the Olympic Club. And I met lawyers and accountants and financial service people. And so they put me in the direction to interview. I interviewed every financial service company. A lot of the big ones, the Goldmans of the world, said go get experience and come back. And then I met an old former athlete who had success at Franklin Templeton, and he said, I'm going to give you a shot. I didn't even know what I had an experience investing in mutual funds with the money I made in Europe.”
2026-06-08 · Masters in Business · NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No care. And it made it all the way through pre draft. I was getting on the bus to go to the very first game opening day, and I watched all of our Miller walk past me in the locker room. And I was like, well, Oliver Miller's not on our team. And then I realized, no, he's coming to take my spot. And so Rick Allaman looked at me and his head went down. And I don't even remember what he said. I just knew that was that it was over. That was as close as I was going to get was walking to the bus And now I had to figure out what to do next.”
2026-06-08 · Masters in Business · NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I couldn't believe it, but he said if you can be here next Tuesday, show up. And so Tuesday turned into 22 straight days of workouts. If I was just literally working their draft pick out, they ended up taking Jason Williams. But I got to listen to everything they were looking for and the process. And long story short, the 23rd day, nobody else was there but the coaches and they said we're working you out. Today's your day.”
2026-06-08 · Masters in Business · NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“They were both on the court and off the court. The closest, I will say the closest I ever got to the NBA was when they went on strike and the Sacramento Kings had the seventh pick in the draft, and I lived in the Bay Area. And I knew they didn't have any NBA players to work out their draft picks. And so I went and called the scout and said, hey, I'll bring my own lunch. You don't have to pay me. I'll just guard the guys that you need. You just redshirting the whole thing.”
2026-06-08 · Masters in Business · NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source