Interview with Mike Crawford

Mike Crawford interview transcript.

Chris Bay:

We’re starting down this road of interviewing our team members at Life Success Legacy so that you, the listeners, can get to know us a little bit, but really part of it is for you to hear the diverse ways that we came to know about life’s Infinite Banking and how we implemented it in our own personal lives. Everybody on our team were clients at one point, and we applied Infinite Banking in our own lives. Then many of us joined Life Success & Legacy because of how it impacted our lives. This podcast is going to be talking with Michael Crawford, one of our team members here. These podcasts are because of Michael; he does a lot of the background technology work. He manages our website, the podcast, and other things for us. Today we’re going to get to hear his story. Michael, give us a sense of where you were in life. When you first learned about the Infinite Banking concept, give us age, family, that kind of stuff.

Michael Crawford:

Sure, I would have been 32 years old. I was working in Baldwin city for a software development company, and I was working a lot of hours and very stressed. It was a good, fun job. I’m very much grateful for it because I’ve learned so much about technology and implementing proper marketing strategies and things of that nature that the time that I spent there was more than valuable.

Chris Bay:

Yeah.

Michael Crawford:

But also at that same time, when I learned about Infinite Banking, my wife was pregnant with our son.

Chris Bay:

Yeah.

Michael Crawford:

And about 6-7 months pregnant stuff.

Chris Bay:

What was your introduction to Infinite Banking?

Michael Crawford:

Well, our office as a software development company, we didn’t get a lot of walk-ins as you might think. We normally dealt with people via email or phone calls or went to their place of business to learn a little bit about them and who they were rather than come to us. One afternoon this gentleman walked in, had a bunch of stuff in his hand, and he goes, I think I need to talk to you, and he pointed right at me, and I thought, do I know this guy from somewhere?

Chris Bay:

Right.

Michael Crawford:

Well, it turns out it was Mike Everett, the founder of Life Success & Legacy. He was in desperate need of a website rebuild.

Chris Bay:

Okay.

Michael Crawford:

So that was my first introduction to Mike Everett.

Chris Bay:

Okay. So, you were introduced to Mike Everett, and then how did it place that you were introduced to Infinite Banking?

Michael Crawford:

Well, you see Mike, didn’t try to sell me on anything at all. In fact, when he sat down, he gave me an overview of the company that he was trying to really take to the next level. He handed me a packet of information between flyers, brochures, handwritten things that were just notes about what he wanted the new website to look like.

Chris Bay:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Michael Crawford:

And last but definitely not least was Nelson’s book.

Chris Bay:

Oh okay.

Michael Crawford:

And being Mike Everett, if you know him at all or have listened to his podcast, he takes the look at the diving board, the high dive, jumps off, and then determines if there’s water after he’s jumped off.

Chris Bay:

Right.

Michael Crawford:

Same thing occurred with this website. He gave me all this information. He asked how much it would cost. We wrote up a contract; he signed a check that day.

Chris Bay:

Wow.

Michael Crawford:

That was the fastest sale I’ve ever made. And then began the process of building the site, which just by a pure reading [crosstalk 00:03:56].

Chris Bay:

Osmosis [inaudible 00:03:57] yeah.

Michael Crawford:

In osmosis. I started absorbing some of the information and considering that my wife was six, seven months pregnant, falling asleep on the couch.

Chris Bay:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Michael Crawford:

Early. I did the first cardinal sin that we teach people not to do. And I read the book after nine o’clock.

Chris Bay:

So, we’re two for two on our team of people reading Nelson’s book after nine o’clock. Interesting. We tell everybody not to read it after nine o’clock, and both you and Everett have both started reading it late at night.

Michael Crawford:

As it turns out, it was more a matter of like I started reading the material on the website and transferring it to the new website. And I kept thinking to myself; this information is very pertinent to where I was in life. I was adding a new human to the world with my wife. And, finances were obviously a concern [crosstalk 00:04:48].

Chris Bay:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Michael Crawford:

Always are right. Most families have that discussion weekly, monthly, quarterly, whatever.

Chris Bay:

Right.

Michael Crawford:

You know, sometimes when they don’t want to, they have it.

Chris Bay:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Michael Crawford:

In my head, I was just like, is there a better way? Where I was, we did not have a 401k program. So everything I did was on my own.

Chris Bay:

Right.

Michael Crawford:

I had to be the researcher, I had to be the investigator.

Chris Bay:

And you had been a business owner as well. Right.

Michael Crawford:

Yeah, exactly. I used to own an automotive repair shop in Lawrence, Kansas. And you know, in fact, when the economy took a downturn in 2008, that was one of the first things we had to get rid of was our match on our 401k. So I also took a drastic hit, like everybody else in that time. I had a very bitter taste in my mouth pertaining to these qualified plans.

Chris Bay:

So you’re curious about something else. There’s got to [crosstalk 00:05:38].

Michael Crawford:

You know.

Chris Bay:

Be something else out there.

Michael Crawford:

I had read just enough information to know. I didn’t want to get involved with the Dave Ramsey stuff and his stuff; his teachings were fantastic. But it just didn’t seem like it was the lifestyle that I wanted.

Chris Bay:

Right.

Michael Crawford:

I have read about other things that you can do other types of investments and not only did they seem too risky, they required me to manage them constantly.

Chris Bay:

Yeah.

Michael Crawford:

As I was sitting there thinking about raising a new child and the life changes that were already about to take place, the idea of undertaking additional responsibilities to manage money that wasn’t guaranteed to grow seemed daunting.

Chris Bay:

Yeah. I bet. And you were how old at that time? About [crosstalk 00:06:22].

Michael Crawford:

32.

Chris Bay:

32 or so.

Michael Crawford:

Yeah.

Chris Bay:

That’s pretty high stress.

Michael Crawford:

Yeah. And it’s not unique. I’m not unique in that. Right.

Chris Bay:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Michael Crawford:

That’s what has drawn me towards Infinite Banking, more than anything is the idea that it can be and is for anyone.

Chris Bay:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Michael Crawford:

Whether you’re a college student or whether you are in your fifties or sixties.

Chris Bay:

Or even seventies.

Michael Crawford:

Right.

Chris Bay:

Yeah.

Michael Crawford:

It is called the Infinite Banking concept because of that exact thing. It is infinite in the possibilities of application and infinite in who can actually join it.

Chris Bay:

Yeah. Okay. So you read the book.

Michael Crawford:

Yes.

Chris Bay:

And what was the next step, and what was your timeframe from the time when you start reading the book to the time when you and Mary said, we’re starting a policy.

Michael Crawford:

Well, I read the book in November, maybe middle of November. I called Mike that very next morning at like 7:15 because I just knew he’d be awake. And I said, dude if this is not complete garbage, we’ve got to sit down and talk. There’s got to be something to this if this is not just a scam.

Chris Bay:

Mm-mm (negative).

Michael Crawford:

And he said, all right, let’s do it. We schedule an appointment. In fact, no, I take that back. We did not schedule an appointment. He said you know what? We have a boot camp coming up. It’s our first time doing these things in Lawrence, Kansas. We’re going to do an introduction to this concept, and I’m going to walk through some book review stuff with everybody. I’d like you to join; they’re free to do.

Chris Bay:

Right.

Michael Crawford:

And I said, okay. He said it’d be really good if your wife could make it. And I said, well, she’s pregnant. We’ll see how she feels that day.

Chris Bay:

Yeah.

Michael Crawford:

Fast forward to now, January, it was the middle-end of January. I went to this boot camp, and I took three full pages of notes that day. I went home, and my wife was convinced that they had served a Kool-Aid.

Chris Bay:

Yeah.

Michael Crawford:

At the event and that, I have now joined a cult.

Chris Bay:

Right.

Michael Crawford:

And that being said, she shut me up after about 10 minutes of talking and said, I’m not interested in hearing about this right now. We’re trying to have a child.

Chris Bay:

Yeah.

Michael Crawford:

And I thought, okay, well that may be that. I couldn’t let it die though.

Chris Bay:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Michael Crawford:

I was becoming a little disgruntled in my job just because of the time investments, more than anything. And the fear that that would continue when my child arrived.

Chris Bay:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Michael Crawford:

I didn’t want to feel like I missed out on his infancy.

Chris Bay:

Yeah.

Michael Crawford:

The more I contemplated that, I was like, I’ve got to find a plan. And then things have got to start coming together.

Chris Bay:

Like Mike Everett, this was not only in your brain thinking about you personally, how to manage your money, how finance things in your life; you were also looking at the potential of it being [crosstalk 00:09:00].

Michael Crawford:

Exactly.

Chris Bay:

A career change.

Michael Crawford:

Yeah. For more than any reason, it was the word hope I wrote it down. And I think I still have those notes. I wrote the word hope down at least seven times that day at that first boot camp. That was something that we lacked was the hope that there was something out there that could work.

Chris Bay:

Yeah.

Michael Crawford:

For the hope that our finances would not be the topic of an argument every now and then, especially now you’re bringing a kid around, you’ve got more expenses and hospital bills.

Chris Bay:

Right.

Michael Crawford:

Doctor bills and this, that, and the other. So yeah, absolutely, it was sort of a mind shift where I had to make a decision whether or not I wanted to continue down the path I was on or find something that would fulfill me more.

Chris Bay:

That’s awesome.

Michael Crawford:

Yeah.

Chris Bay:

So you came to a bootcamp?

Michael Crawford:

I did. Yeah.

Chris Bay:

And then what happened after that?

Michael Crawford:

Well, like I said, I went home wife shut me up after a few minutes. I said, okay, well then if you won’t go or listen to that, let’s have Mike come over and do a presentation for us.

Chris Bay:

How’d that go?

Michael Crawford:

Because he’s offered to do that. It scared the living crap out of her; to be real honest, it was so intense. She was so stressed anyway with being pregnant. It freaked her out. But she knew that there was something to it if I was really that into it. That I was continually bringing it up. And she trusts me, but also she knows that I wouldn’t have ever put us in a position of high risk.

Chris Bay:

Right.

Michael Crawford:

Or completely turning our world upside down if I didn’t have to.

Chris Bay:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Michael Crawford:

And so Mike said, okay, well, that didn’t work out as well. Come to this next boot camp. It was March like fifth or something like that.

Chris Bay:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Michael Crawford:

And so, at eight and a half months, virtually eight months pregnant, little over eight months pregnant, we come to this boot. She comes to this boot camp with me, and there was like ten people there, I think.

Chris Bay:

Yeah. And I remember it so clearly because I’ve known mary for years.

Michael Crawford:

Yeah.

Chris Bay:

When she was in high school.

Michael Crawford:

Exactly.

Chris Bay:

I remember just seeing her, she was so pregnant.

Michael Crawford:

Yes. Long story short, she got interested in it because she realized that there was something to it. She felt very comfortable with you, Chris. And she became more comfortable with Mike as that boot camp went along because she saw the event. I think for her seeing other people there and hearing some other people’s stories [crosstalk 00:11:18].

Chris Bay:

Right.

Michael Crawford:

Associated with it and even hearing yours and Mike’s in a different light than just sitting in our living room really made a point to her. It was a very few short days later that our son was born. And we decided to go ahead and get this thing started.

Chris Bay:

Yeah. So Milo’s born. How did you start with policies?

Michael Crawford:

Mary and I both did a policy on each other.

Chris Bay:

Okay.

Michael Crawford:

Or on ourselves.

Chris Bay:

Right.

Michael Crawford:

We did a $5,000 annual premium policy on both of us.

Chris Bay:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Michael Crawford:

And we drew up a plan with you guys in the software that we had available. Without changing our cash flow, excuse me, we found out that we could be debt-free in about eight years.

Chris Bay:

Okay. So how long ago was that?

Michael Crawford:

Three policy years.

Chris Bay:

Three policy years.

Michael Crawford:

Yeah.

Chris Bay:

Okay.

Michael Crawford:

A little over two years ago.

Chris Bay:

Okay. So a little over two years ago. Can you give us just a real quick update? You mentioned hope.

Michael Crawford:

Yes.

Chris Bay:

How’s that hope playing out?

Michael Crawford:

It’s fantastic. We actually used part of our policy this year. Once we paid our premium to go on our first vacation in a very long time. We actually went to Chicago to see the musical Hamilton and to goof around a little bit. It was our first time leaving our son behind, which was hard and exciting at the same time.

Chris Bay:

Right.

Michael Crawford:

We also paid off my student loan. We, in fact, just got the email yesterday that congratulated us that our student loan was paid off. We are down to a couple of car loans, and our mortgage as really our only debt. And we started with, what was it, roughly $250,000 worth of debt.

Chris Bay:

Wow.

Michael Crawford:

Yeah, it’s been pretty amazing. And to be Frank, we haven’t implemented as efficiently as we should have.

Chris Bay:

Maybe not as efficiently, but aren’t you even ahead of schedule though.

Michael Crawford:

Yeah, we’re a little bit ahead of schedule. Some of it was because of a small windfall that came our way in the form of a bonus for Mary that we were able to reinvest.

Chris Bay:

Okay.

Michael Crawford:

In our policies.

Chris Bay:

Right.

Michael Crawford:

Last year. Honestly, we’ve just become smarter with our money.

Chris Bay:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Michael Crawford:

Like to be real honest, it’s not so much that we’re making more money or being given gobs of cash by other sources, but we are learned how to be very smart with the use of our money. And not change the things that we want to do, but alter the things that we don’t need to do.

Chris Bay:

Yeah.

Michael Crawford:

It’s just been really good because now we have that open conversation instead of arguing about the money.

Chris Bay:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Michael Crawford:

We are actually talking openly about, okay, well, what if we take this money and do this with it? And having you guys as coaches has been unbelievable because it’s taken the stress off of our relationship where you guys can be the mediators.

Chris Bay:

Right.

Michael Crawford:

It sounds odd to say it that way, but honestly it is refreshing.

Chris Bay:

Yeah. Well, we all know finances is one of the top stressors in a marriage.

Michael Crawford:

Yeah.

Chris Bay:

It’s one of the top stressors for us as Americans, and that impacts our health [crosstalk 00:14:22].

Michael Crawford:

Yeah.

Chris Bay:

And our relationships and everything. So with IBC, so many times, it relieves that stress.

Michael Crawford:

Yeah.

Chris Bay:

One thing that I didn’t ask you about, and I’m curious if you touch on it, is how did you capitalize your plan and your policies?

Michael Crawford:

Yeah, so we didn’t have any money. We were saving every penny we had just for our child’s birth because we knew that that was not going to be free. When I had left some other jobs and moved past owning my own business, et cetera, I had a few IRAs, and Mary had some old Roths from another company that she had worked for. And all told, we were able to cash those out, pay the penalties and taxes upfront.

Chris Bay:

Right.

Michael Crawford:

And capitalized our system saved a little bit behind because we knew that first year would be rough with the new child, and some of the unknown expenses. We’ve been able to honestly, by the grace of God, pay all of our premiums with fresh money.

Chris Bay:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Michael Crawford:

And so it’s been a very fun and exciting adventure.

Chris Bay:

Yeah.

Michael Crawford:

Learning how to take better advantage of our current assets.

Chris Bay:

It’s a great story. What I love, I wish we had a camera right now that people could be seen because sitting here between us.

Michael Crawford:

Yup.

Chris Bay:

Is a brand new policy that you just received.

Michael Crawford:

I did.

Chris Bay:

Tell the audience real quick. As we wrap up.

Michael Crawford:

Yup.

Chris Bay:

What is this policy?

Michael Crawford:

Well, this is a policy for our son, Milo.

Chris Bay:

Yeah.

Michael Crawford:

It’s pretty exciting too, sorry, to get him started on something that will forever change his life. He’ll never.

Chris Bay:

Changes lives. We think about Nelson’s number one principle, think long-term.

Michael Crawford:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Chris Bay:

And for us as guys, often we think about our families.

Michael Crawford:

Yup.

Chris Bay:

Our kids, those kinds of things.

Michael Crawford:

Yeah.

Chris Bay:

And that’s exactly what you’re doing. You got a policy on your son.

Michael Crawford:

Well, and what I was going to say is he’ll never have to borrow money from an institution.

Chris Bay:

Yeah.

Michael Crawford:

He’ll never know the fear of not being able to make a payment or, and it’s not for the fact that I’m a wealthy person, but by taking advantage of something that has been in place for 250 plus years and utilizing it for our benefit will forever change his and our lives.

Chris Bay:

Yeah. So thanks [crosstalk 00:16:47].

Michael Crawford:

Yeah.

Chris Bay:

For sharing your story. Thanks for sharing your heart. Michael Crawford, you are a blessing to this organization and just as a friend.

Michael Crawford:

Thanks Chris, appreciate that [crosstalk 00:17:00].

Chris Bay:

To our listeners, thanks again for joining us on these podcasts. You are getting a sense of who we are. We are a heart-driven organization. We love helping people. Please check out our website at lifesuccesslegacy.com, which Mike Crawford that you have to hear today. He is the man who makes that thing happen. If you have not read Nelson Nash’s book, get a copy of it and read it. Again, don’t read it after nine o’clock like all of us did. Thanks again for joining us.