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"I really think that that is a great way to reflect on—there's only a couple things in life that you can't get back. Time being one of them, and then of course your reputation. And if you just consistently do what you say you're going to do, then I find things tend to work out as long as you're saying cool things or good things.
Key Takeaways
- ◆Thomas subordinates his own capital below all investors, if there are losses, his money gets hit first, and when distributions go out, investors get paid before he does, a structural move designed to align incentives completely.
- ◆He uses DISC personality assessments for every hire, posts the top three dos and don'ts on each person's desk, and has a board-certified psychologist sit with new hires to interpret results and coach leadership on how to interact with that individual.
- ◆Thomas applies combat triage logic to business decisions: ignore things that will be fine no matter what, ignore foregone conclusions you can't change, and focus all energy on the emergencies where your intervention actually moves the needle.
- ◆When he lost all his money in 2008 (after making $150k in six weeks on margin-traded stock options), he traced the failure to misaligned incentives, CEOs collected $20 million severance packages while shareholders held empty bags, and built Lukrom to fix that.
- ◆He maintains 100% on-time monthly distributions to investors with zero impairment to capital, and Lukrom is growing 250% year over year while Thomas and his executive team absorb first-loss risk with millions of their own dollars in the deals.
- ◆Thomas frames every decision by asking, 'Will 80-year-old Thomas be happy I did this?', a mental move learned from his 98-year-old grandmother's funeral that helps him stay calm, prioritize what matters, and avoid reactive mistakes.
- ◆He treats AI agents like employees: each one gets evaluated for a specific role, fulfills a mission, and is hired to give back time, not to replace people, Thomas views agentic AI (customer service, maintenance routing, etc.) as team members you program and manage.
Full transcript
Show
Chad
What's up everybody? Welcome back to Process Over Pressure, the show where we skip the polished highlight reel and go straight to the story. I'm Chad Paris founder of Stonefly Consulting Group, Fly Fisherman, and a guy who spent 15 plus years fixing other people's problems before I got brave enough to fix my own. Today's guest is exactly the kind of person this show was built for. He served in the U.S. Navy, earned combat medical designations with the Marine Corps, which means he literally learned to keep people alive under fire. Then he came home, got into real estate, won National Rookie of the Year at Sperry Van Ness, walked away from brokerage, found his own capital group, and built Lukrom into a lending platform doing 250 % year over year with 100 % distribution pay history to investors. Oh. And by the way, his COO was on Shark Tank and landed a million bucks from Mark Cuban. So there's that also. But here's what I'm really after today. Not the resume. I want to know what a comeback medic sees when he looks at a broken real estate deal. And I want to know what makes a guy put his own money in first before even asking one investor to put a dollar in. and I want to know what it takes or cost him to build something real. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Thomas McPherson. Welcome to Process Over Pressure.
Thomas McPherson
Thanks, Chad. It's a pleasure to be here. I'm looking forward to diving into all those wonderful questions you put forward.
Chad
Great, you know, when we originally met, I had an opportunity to kind of get to know you and what was your first thought when you met? Like, okay, this guy's about to, what is he after? What does he want? Love to know your first impression. I always think that's fun.
Thomas McPherson
Yeah, you know, my first impression is that we're all different. We all see the world differently. But you know, you have a very unique view approaching everything from like a design or systems approach. You know, I kind of with my medical background, you know, trauma background, I tend to approach things from what can go wrong and how can I fix it? Whereas, you know, I think you my my first impression was with you was How can I systematize this? How can I make it more efficient? Reduce the error rate and allow folks to scale faster.
Chad
Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's, uh, it's an interesting, you say that in two different mindsets, you being more of, uh, you know, you triage, right? Like, like, where's it broken? Let's get it fixed. Uh, me coming from the world I've been in, you're right. It's more of like, let's assess, let's process. How do we get there? Uh, so I think this is going to be fun in both of our minds, probably think and look at business totally different. Which is kind of cool because I think we'll have some good conversation, you know, to go back and forth. So, yeah, I'm excited about the conversation. I think, you know, what's hopeful is people, people need to hear the story. And I think that you have an amazing story just, so I'm really excited to kind of dive in. So, so Thomas, you know, kind of reaching that, going back to your beginning here, you know, you, you trained as a, you know, as a combat medic in the Navy, which in itself is his own. unique challenges and, and, and certainly seeing a lot of stuff. You kind of learn, you know, basically learn to keep people alive under pressure. So, so what have you, what, walk me through kind of what that was like. And then now you being in business, you know, the question, guess, people always ask, do you still use a lot of those tactics into your business today? And, and, and what, what was the learning experience from that? It's kind of brought it into, where we are today or where you are today.
Thomas McPherson
Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, September 11th, a little personal background, September 11th happened when I was a senior in high school. I can barely imagine it's almost 25 years ago now, which is a long time. Very formative for guys like you and me and older folks of that generation. And so, you know, I felt a call to serve our nation and protect, you know, what I loved. And I wanted to do so in a way that I thought skills were transferable to the kind of post-military career. So I decided to pursue medicine and
Chad
straight.
Thomas McPherson
One of the things that they teach you in medicine, at least in combat, you know, trauma, combat medicine is cooler heads prevail. You know, when you, when you let your stress and the adrenaline get the best of you, your cognitive resources, you know, diminishes significantly. It really kind of goes down. And the same is true in the business world. know, cooler heads prevail. Sometimes people are trying to stir you up emotionally to get you to make mistakes. Sometimes your competition is just beating you. or maybe you made an own goal and you're beating yourself. And I think that is like the single biggest takeaway that I had from the military was remain calm, keep all of your cognitive abilities available to you. And with that, you will be able to make the best decision to either A, avoid the worst possible outcome or B, if you're in a bad situation, you can mitigate whatever damage that is there. Another small little aspect of that that the military taught me was discipline and it taught me how to plan ahead and that something that I think is severely lacking in our educational system and in business kind of in general is really planning not only for the next day and next week, know, but the next month and years really detailed plans.
Chad
Yeah.
Chad
Yeah, you know, that's a man spot on. I have a real belief in that too. Before I got into the business world, actually was a school teacher for 10 years, school administrator. So I've been in that classroom that you're talking about in preparation, know, preparing kids to go out a lot different 20 years ago than it is today, obviously, with the way that the world is and changes and, you know, what we were preparing kids at that time for college. It's totally different than it is today. But I like what you said there is to stay in the calmness. And I think that is such a valid point because when things go south or when things start to happen, if your process is broken, you have a tendency to kind of panic a little bit and start creating a sense of, crap, what do I do here? And that calmness can prevail because just listen, You know it, when you're uptight or in a combat zone like that, people were watching you, right? And they're looking at you and how you handle the pressure and that could be good or bad. So I'm sure the business world and owning their own company, people were coming and got their eye on you a little bit, huh?
Thomas McPherson
Absolutely. And as the leader of the company, you know, if I lose my mind, everyone else is going to lose theirs. We're going to say, you know, oh, it's pandemonium. It's total chaos. And, you know, it was a relatively easy transition for me. You know, I went from one environment that was life or death, high stress with a lot of variables that were out of my control to an environment which was distressed real estate in the real estate market in 2008, 2009. But there was no life on the line.
Chad
Yeah.
Thomas McPherson
Right. So for me, it was very easy to compartmentalize all of these decisions that I was making in the business world as what is the biggest downside? Right. And the biggest downside was potentially a loss of money. And I thought, okay, I can recover from that. Right. We're not losing life or limb. And, you know, there's a great, there's a great kind of quote, which is if you've lost money, you've lost something. But if you've lost your character, you've lost everything. And so, you know, I really think that that is a great way to reflect on, you there's only a couple things in life that you can't get back. know, time being one of them, and then of course your reputation. And if you just consistently do what you say you're going to do, then I find, you know, things tend to work out as long as you're saying cool things or good things.
Chad
Yeah, man, that's a, woo, that's some nuggets right there. I love that. You know, and it's true. We sometimes, when we're in the world and we're working and we're providing for family or not family and we get tied up and it's all, you know, it can very quickly become about paycheck, became about what you're making versus what your legacy is, right? And I think those things are two things. We get caught sometimes thinking, you know, what I make,
Thomas McPherson
Yeah.
Chad
is a example of the legacy that I'm going to live. And I think we get that wrong. I think our character and who we are as a human being is what our legacy is. People are not going to remember how much money you have, but they're going to remember whether you were nice or not, or you took care of somebody, or you were generous, or you worked with someone or helped. I heard this one time. I had a, I was opportunity to work with General Howell Moore, great general. And one of the things that he always said, and I love the way he said this, he always would say, when I went into combat or when he went in there, he was never gonna leave a person behind. Alive or dead, he was never gonna leave someone behind. And I thought, know, all the alkylates he got, all the things, that was the thing that was the most important to him. And that stems right to character, right? That was his value because he knew those men were gonna either come home alive or dead, but they were gonna remember him as someone who never left somebody behind. And that's a character thing.
Thomas McPherson
Mm-hmm.
Thomas McPherson
Yeah, and I think the other part of that is, you know, my grandmother, my Nana recently passed away and we just had the funeral on Tuesday. had 98, yeah, no, had 98 years. She won the game of life, my friend, she won, right? And so I think about, you know, when I'm 80, will this be important? You know, and if the answer is no, I probably need to let it go.
Chad
man, I'm sorry. Ask. Yeah, you missed that.
Chad
Yeah.
Thomas McPherson
Right, and that really, I've got young kids, know, that really helps me be a more patient father, a more patient husband, is putting things into a frame of reference that is removing yourself from the moment. And, you know, kind of metacognition, if you will, thinking about your thoughts and how you show up in the moment. And my framing is always, will 80-year-old Thomas be happy I did this? And if the answer's yes, I should do it. And if the answer's no, I should walk away. And that has really allowed me to focus on what I believe are the most important things in life and business and for me personally.
Chad
Yeah, you know, I always liked these podcasts because I try to come up with a kind of a script of what I want to ask the questions just based on the pre-discovery. And I always find it interesting that I never go by the script. And I think that's good because it becomes more about the conversation. And so, you know, here it is again, this is going to go a little off the script, but I wanted to ask this question because something you said. And I've been really heavily thinking about this personally. This has been something where I'm sitting at is when I walked away from corporate America and started my own company and doing podcasts and working consulting and helping companies grow. And it's a very big passion for me. But what's funny is, is my family has realized the difference in me and my stress level and my demeanor, my time and my... attention to details and all those things. And so, you know, for those that are listening out there that may be sitting where I am, I'm just being raw and real with you. And I don't know if you've experienced that, but I can tell you for me, it's been a big shift in just me personally and what I value and how I even see the world, feet away from that, working nine to five for someone else and constantly the stress of trying to accomplish something that you look back and go, no one's gonna ever remember that.
Thomas McPherson
Yeah, absolutely. And the irony I think of when at least for me, when I take the perspective of 80 year old Thomas is I realize a lot of the things that I'm doing in the moment aren't important. And so I do less, but I accomplish more because I'm focusing on only those most important things that drive my either personal goals forward or they drive my business goals forward. And I'm laughing when you, when you said a moment ago, we've gone off script. You know, there's an amazing philosopher, a modern philosopher who is famously attributed with the quote, everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face, right? Mike Tyson, of course, being our modern day philosopher. But I think that is such a fantastic quote because inevitably, inevitably, 100 % of the time, whatever the plan is, I make only one guarantee. It will not go according to plan. You know, that is my only guarantee in life.
Chad
Yeah. That's it.
Chad
And it's true. And I think that, you know, we oftentimes get called in the moment of having to do things to kind of a certain way. And so, you know, I think about this in the business world a little bit is, you know, my podcast is process over pressure. And the reason being is, is that I think there's two, in my personal experience and where I sit at, is I think you're either in two things. You're either in a process or you're in a pressure. And when I mean process, it's much bigger than like, you know, today we're going to send this email, do this, do that. That's, that are parts and pieces of a process. But even in life, if you just look at it in life, you either have a process or you're under pressure. You're either one of the two. so pressure could look a lot like being reactive because you don't have a, you don't have a general plan. Like, does it mean that we don't go off script or we change with a plan? But if you don't know how to think like that, and you don't have that processing the way you kind of process through things, you're constantly in pressure, and you're being more reactive and active.
Thomas McPherson
Yes. Yes, absolutely. You know, proactive is the state of being to be in, you know, being reactive. You've got higher cortisol levels, higher stress in your, you know, in chess. My kids are big in the chess lately and whoever is kind of controlling the board, it is said they have the initiative and the other person is responding to their initiative. And I think so much about that is true in life.
Thomas McPherson
where if you are making moves and you are proactive, you are the one that is creating the environment by which everyone else is reacting to, which I think is just a fantastic way of being. in my medical experience, we had to triage injured Marines and injured sailors. And there was a couple of buckets. One of those buckets were guys that no matter what happened, they weren't going to make it. And that's an unfortunate bucket to have to put people in.
Chad
Yeah.
Thomas McPherson
Another bucket is, know, yeah, they're injured, but frankly, they're going to be okay. I don't really need to do much of anything. They're going to be okay. And then there's that kind of that middle bucket, if you will, which are people that if I take an intervention or I make an intervention, I give them a higher chance of survival. And that is where I had to spend my time as a combat medic was with those emergencies. And I think in life, we don't triage. well enough. We spend a lot of time on the things that frankly we don't need to spend any time on, right? Like they'll be fine no matter what or we spend time on things that are kind of a foregone conclusion. Like it doesn't matter what you do, you're not going to be able to help that. So triaging your way through life like the old Eisenhower matrix, I think has really helped me, you know, delete, delegate or and or focus on those things that are most important.
Chad
And that's so true, such a good part. So one thing I did want to ask you, and I think this kind of relates because, look, everybody knows, I mean, we have a lot of vets that come out of service or come back or have served our country. And I'm very passionate about them. I think that we as a society could do more. These people are, you know, I look at it as people who have, I didn't serve. I wasn't, you know, I wasn't as brave enough to do it as the way I look at it. I mean, I'll be honest with you. I think people who serve our country are phenomenal human beings to do what they do. And so, you know, a lot of vets come back and they have this, this, this, you know, mission or this, they have a command and missions of what they do. And then they come back and they try to come into civilian world and business. you know, has a little bit of a different chain command and there's some, there's some challenges there. And so I was just curious, you being, you know, a former vet, when, you transitioned into the business world or into that, those, did it take some time to translate a little different? I mean, you got the, you got the skills and stuff they learned, but that, that civilian life to, to, to go into the business world doesn't exactly pair up together a lot of times.
Thomas McPherson
It doesn't, you know, one thing that I've observed about the business world is much more so than the military. The military is very strict chain of command. You know, the military is very disciplined. If a sergeant or captain or somebody gives a command or an order, that's typically carried out very rapidly, right? It's executed very quickly without much hesitation or questioning. Whereas in the business world, if you don't have the right people on your team, you get a lot of pushback. You get a lot of sandbagging. And I think some of that stems from A, having the wrong people on your team, but B, also people not being clear in what their role in the mission is. And that's a failure of leadership for everyone to understand their kind of their role in the mission at hand. You know, in the military, even the guys that you would say are fixing trucks or the cooks preparing meals, they are equally important because without them, the mission will fail, you know?
Chad
So true. And so, you you think about that in the business world. And when I have conversations with business owners, one of the things that I, it's kind of been a relevant thing that happens. And it doesn't matter if you're, if you've got, you know, one employee or you have 200 employees. I talked to lot of variety of different business owners and I'm always generally, you know, love to understand. And it almost seems like every time there's a couple of things that always comes out. One being they're not very confident in the team that they have. I hear that a lot. I hear that. And then the second is, is that they're spending a lot of time doing things that they don't really enjoy, that they would rather do because they can't find people to do it the way they would do it. Those are two things I hear a lot. And so...
Thomas McPherson
Mm-hmm.
Chad
Being a business owner, I have my own theory. I mean, I have my own belief in it, because I've been there and done that and I get it. But what are your thoughts on that? I hear it all the time, so that's why I'm asking. I love a perspective from somebody who's running a very successful company.
Thomas McPherson
We all have natural talents and mental gifts, cognitive physical gifts, whatever those talents are. And one of the things that we do here at our company is what is known as a personality assessment. It's a disc profile, D-I-S-C profile. And what we do with that profile is we make sure that the person that we're hiring for the role is well suited. They have all the kind of natural predispositions for that role. For example, I'm more of a visionary, I'm more of a big picture thinker and more of a leader. That just happens to be my personality. There are people on team that are more detail oriented. They need facts, they need figures, they need all of the information before they take a step. For example, I might say, hey, let's climb to the top of that mountain, who's ready? Me, me, me, great. I turn and I start going. Whereas other people on my team will say, What time are we leaving? What do need to bring with us? Who else is coming? You know, those are the people that are fantastic accountants or operators or people that are getting specific tasks done related to what they're naturally predisposed to be good at. Whereas if you put me in front of a spreadsheet, I can do it. You know, I know the math, I know the formulas, but it empties my gas tank very, very rapidly because I do not enjoy doing it. So.
Chad
Yeah.
Thomas McPherson
One of the things that we've done here is actually we put that personality assessment on everyone's door or desk. And so everyone can see like the top three dos and the top three don'ts. You know, for me, one of the top dos is be very concise and to the point. One of the top don'ts, ramble. You know, like I got stuff to do. If you've got a question for me, get right to it. Don't talk about the weather. Don't talk about your kid. Get right to it. I got stuff to do. And so what we have found a tremendous amount of success in the company.
Chad
Yeah.
Thomas McPherson
is making sure that people are aligned with their own kind of natural genetic or environmental, whatever it was, that upbringing, that predisposition for their role. And we've even had fantastic people that weren't in the right role, and we move them to a different role, and then next thing you know, they bloom. They're doing absolutely fantastic in that new role.
Chad
Man, you you're giving me goosebumps over here as I love it. think about this when I, I'm a big, I love disk and I think assessments are so big. think they're what, what's funny though is, is that when I'm consulting people, always ask, have you ever done a personality test? This is the, one of the first questions I always ask. You'd be shocked at how many don't. And then the ones that say, the ones that say, Oh yeah, we've done those. And I'm like, okay, well, what did they tell you?
Thomas McPherson
Okay.
Thomas McPherson
Yep.
Chad
it's somewhere, because they do them because it's the thing to do, right? It's the let's do that, but they don't know how to read it or they don't know how to incorporate it into their business. And, I like what you're doing because you're not only you do that, but you're putting, you're using that information, which is very, very, very, very good information and putting your people in a position to win, which in long-term is going to make them productivity. way more, they're going to be happier in their job. they're going, your company as a whole is going to thrive and it's going to give you a better result of action plan. Even down to the coaching that you do, everybody has to be coached differently. Like they can't all be coached the same. They're all not in the same bucket. You got to coach them differently. So that's really good to hear. Like I think that's an area that I think a lot of business owners struggle in. because A, they do them because everybody said they need to do one, but they don't really look at them and understand. Well, how do I turn this into the business world? And that's where.
Thomas McPherson
I have. Yep, no, absolutely. And knowledge is useless unless it's embodied. Unless you embody and do something with that knowledge is completely useless. And what we did is we actually recruited a psychologist to sit on our board who is very familiar with those disc profiles. And so after one of our people do a disc profile, they sit with this psychologist, this board certified psychologist, and they go through their disc profile and
Chad
Yeah.
Thomas McPherson
You know, these things aren't 100 % accurate, but they're close. You know, they're close. And then after that person has sat with that psychologist, that psychologist then sits with me and other senior leadership at the company. And we talk about how we as the leaders should be interacting with that person. And, know, this kind of gets down to love languages, know, words of affirmation. Some people will absolutely glow and thrive if you give them an attaboy, a verbal attaboy in front of the whole group.
Chad
yeah.
Chad
yeah.
Thomas McPherson
Other people like little gifts. Other people like quality time, right? Or physical touch. We don't do a lot of physical touch, but you you do what you can. And what I was just kind of getting back to was it's so important that you speak to your audience. you know, every, whether that's an entire company or an individual or a team, they all have their own culture. They all have their own flair and flavor. And it is so important as the person kind of leading that company, leading that ship, if you will. that you're speaking to the audience in a way that they can hear it and then embody that information so that it becomes useful to them.
Chad
Yeah, I totally agree. That's really, really good. So I want to, want to, we've been, we've been talking here a little while, but I want to make sure I would, I would be remiss if I didn't hit on your company and kind of what you're doing. So, uh, Lucrum's, know, company you're running today. And one of the things I thought was interesting is, you know, you, you're very bright, very smart guy. I could tell when I met we was like, you know, guys get it.
Thomas McPherson
Yeah!
Thomas McPherson
Thank you.
Chad
But what I thought, the thing that I was like kind of attracted me is thinking, man, you don't just talk about your business, you actually put your own capital into it. Like you put your money where your mouth is, so to speak, just say it Frank. so what-
Thomas McPherson
Here we do the old money.
Chad
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, let's be honest. So you're not like a lot of people. I mean, are people that have done it, I'm just curious when you did that, tell me a little bit about the company and where you are and the reason why you structured that way. Because I think it's something I would have to imagine is very passionate to you based on you know, your willingness to say, okay, I'm going to step up first.
Thomas McPherson
I will answer the question. I'll do it in a roundabout way if you want to stick with me here. So, yeah, I appreciate that. Well, it's your show. know, we've humanity, humans have evolved over the last several thousand years from relatively small tribes to these kind of, large multimillion or even billion person countries or cities or whatever those are. You know, when you're in a small tribe,
Chad
Hey, you're the guest. You can do what you want to.
Thomas McPherson
you really had to look out for one another and you had to do what was in the best interest for the collective group, right? And we've gotten away from that a little bit. I think a lot of our systems, a lot of our institutions are broken because of the lack of intimacy and the lack of really knowing the people that you serve. And to kind of bring this home, when I was in the military, again, my job was to keep my Marines alive, keep them safe, bring them home, right? Preferably alive. And what happened was I got used to risking my own life to protect and serve my Marines. Now, I'll share a quick experience. When I was in the military at the end of my career, I had been reading the Kiyosaki, Rich Dad Poor Dad, Think and Grow Rich, Millionaire Mind, all of these books from a young age, because growing up, I had been told, you know, no, when I asked for something, and they didn't say, no, I'm your parents, that's enough.
Chad
Mm.
Thomas McPherson
They said, no, we don't have the money. And so in my mind, I associated having money with freedom and the same is true today. And so I decided to invest in the stock market. Now I was in the military and my life was, you know, at risk from time to time. So my risk profile was pretty high. And so I borrowed money from some banks. I opened a margin account, not a, not a cash account. And I bought stock options.
Chad
Yeah.
Thomas McPherson
And in about six weeks, I made 150 grand. It was great. That was the worst possible thing that could have happened to me because I thought I was a genius. I thought I was the smartest guy in the room. And then when I was getting out of the military in late 2008, the stock market crashes and I literally lost all of my money. I owed the brokerage firm and I owed the banks. And I realized that was because of misaligned interests. or misaligned motivation. The CEOs of some of those companies that failed, Bear Stearns, Lehman, you name it, they said, hey, listen, the company's bankrupt, but I will stick around and so will the executive team. We'll collect our $20 million severance package and we'll wind down this company through bankruptcy. Meanwhile, the shareholders got stuck holding an empty bag, right, of IOUs. And I thought there's something fundamentally wrong with our investment system where the investors, the people taking all of the risks are not the ones who are being financially rewarded and protected by the people that they have trusted with their money. So what I decided to do when I started my company is I have invested millions of dollars. My executive team, my board of advisors have all invested millions of dollars in the company. And what we did to totally align ourselves with our investor base
Chad
Yeah.
Thomas McPherson
is we subordinated our interest to all of our investors so that if there are any ever losses or impairments to value, we absorb those losses before our investors do. And the same is true on the reward side. Whenever it comes time for a distribution, our investors get paid first. And only after they've been paid in full do we get our distributions. We built that into the very structure of our company and of our investment products. Now, when you do that structurally, what happens is you make different decisions. Knowing it's my money on the line, I'm the one risking first money, you know, we make better decisions that I think are in the client's best interests. We're not willing to take as much risk. And we also do certain things to ensure transparency and accountability. because we know that our investors demand that.
Chad
Yeah, wow, that's so impressive and very rare, honestly, very rare. People are like, that's not how the system works.
Thomas McPherson
We're hoping to change the industry. We're hoping to be leaders in the space and get more financial executives to adopt that philosophy.
Chad
Yeah, I think, you know, kind of going back, but this is what you just said and going back to that, that, that tribal reference, right? You literally are inserting that, that tribal belief back into your own company. You're going to take care of your people first. And that's kind of what you've, that's, that's, that's what you've done. That's what you are. I mean, it's what you are doing. Um, and so, you know, that's a scary thing too. Because now you're right. Your decisions are gonna be way different when it's your own money, right?
Thomas McPherson
You know, the irony was I actually thought my team would take more risk because they'd say, well, listen, we can afford to take more risk because we're acting as a buffer to protect our investors. Right. So I thought they might be willing to chase more deals and chase higher yields to kind of go after better returns. But the opposite happened. My team actually became more conservative in their underwriting because At the end of the day, they realized it was their money that was on the line first. And thankfully, you know, we've had a fantastic track record. You know, we've made all of our distributions on time every single month. Our investors have never had any impairment to their capital. And we've got a great track record in history of success.
Chad
Yeah, I think that I think the business model that you just walked us through is, is, is, is definitely different. It's disruptive, but I like that. I think that we often, again, kind of relating this back to the, again, the process and kind of what we talk about, you know, there, we can always keep doing the same way everybody else does it and, and, and tip and a lot of, a lot of people will say, well, this works. So let's just keep, Let's just repeat the cycle because it works. Like it's been proven, right? It's been done. But I think real leaders and real visionaries and entrepreneurs are finding ways to disrupt that system, to create their own path. And what I like, what I'm hearing is, is that you've done that and you're having success with it. And so how many people now will follow and say, well, that's the new process? It will be interesting to see.
Thomas McPherson
If we look back over the last several thousand years, technology evolved very slowly, very, very slowly. And you and I, we were born really at the end of the analog age. We are now going into the digital age in a big way. And change, radical change is happening faster now than ever before in human history.
Chad
Yeah.
Chad
yeah.
Thomas McPherson
faster than most people can perceive or comprehend. you know, AI is going to rapidly change our world, advances in material sciences, nanotechnology, the list goes on and on, you medical advances. And I think that one of the approaches you have to have as a leader in life is you have to encourage, adopt, and lean into change and disruption. Because if you do not, you will absolutely become extinct like the dinosaurs because there are other leaders that are doing that and every industry across the board is going to undergo such a radical transformation in this next decade. Even by the end of this decade, I'm telling you, five years from now, things will be barely recognizable.
Chad
Yeah, I could not agree more. mean, I'm part of what, why I walked away from corporate America and started my own company was to be a disruptor. mean, I do, yes, I do consulting, is, which is, you know, which is a lot of people do consulting. My approach is totally different. But the thing about, you know, you mentioned like the AI, the AI automation is something that I've done a lot of. And honestly, I always tell people because It's again, everybody's talking about AI, right? Everybody's out there talking about technology and the advancement of technology. And it goes way beyond AI. There's so much more. mean, it's just, it's just the platforms that are out there today are totally different than they were during our time. But I always tell people when they ask the question, cause a lot of people get very scared about, you know, I just use AI for example, they get very scared about it. Like, ah, you know, I don't know and all this. And I tell people all the time, is AI is going to be.
Thomas McPherson
Yeah. Yeah.
Chad
like the website was 25 years ago. When it first came out, everybody was like, I'm not putting that, I'm not putting website and internet, I'm not doing all that. And we had the old dial up where it went through a whole con, we went through this whole variation, right? And now you look at companies today and you really can't survive if you don't even have a simple website. Like that's, can't. So I tell people,
Thomas McPherson
Yeah.
Chad
Think of it like, hey, I like that. What we see today is great. 20 years from now, if you're not using it, you're going to be so far behind and lost. And it's going to be so advanced that it's growing so fast.
Thomas McPherson
Truly, saw a stat, there's a famous MIT graduate and a futurist technologist, a guy named Ray Kurzweil, brilliant man, and he's been incredibly accurate on his predictions. And I think, and I might get these dates slightly wrong, but the overall theme is accurate. And it's something like by the year 2030, we will have a supercomputer that has the computing power of one human brain. And by the year 2040, we will have a supercomputer that has the computing power of the entire human race. I think about what that will mean from a technology, medicine, what that will mean from a cultural standpoint. And technology's awesome until it becomes a substitute for in-person interactions. Because at the end of the day, what we're noticing is It's very challenging on a phone call to get someone or on a video meeting like this to get someone to invest a million dollars or even more in a project. But if you sit down in person and you get to know someone that really helps move the conversation forward in a big way. And so while there are certain aspects of our society that will be radically disrupted, there's also certain aspects that I think will remain timeless. And that is being in person, being face to face. and making those connections because at the end of the day, business is still relational. It is absolutely still relational.
Chad
Totally agree. And I am not an advocate for replacing people. That's not, a lot of people say, you do AI, you're in for replacing people. I do not believe in that. I would tell you that I value, and this is what my belief on the entire, where AI is. And I'll tell you, I think you have to do as a business owner, and I tell clients this, as a business owner. You have, just like you do an evaluation of your people and put them just like we talked about this, and you put them in the right place. You have to treat AI like an employee.
Thomas McPherson
Yeah, absolutely.
Chad
When you do that, there's a place in the system for it. You're not looking at it as a replacement, but how does it fit into my system as an employee? Always think of it as an employee. If you do that, then your mindset around it changes because now you're looking at it as an individual that works for you because that's really what it does. And, and rather than it being a replacement, it's more of how can we operate in this so that our process is giving us, cause it's all about, listen, Everything we do today is about time. It's all about time because there's only so much time. And if we, if we, if we're spending, you know, 20 hours on the telephone, we're probably not being very productive because we're distracted. And so you have to think about it. That's why you hire somebody, right? When you go to hire your first employees, not because you said, oh, well, we've made enough money. We're just going to hire somebody because we need somebody sitting over in a corner. No, you're trying to get time. So you got to think about AI the same way. When I hire it, it's an employee. It's giving me time. What time is he going to give me? What is he going to do that I'm not good at? That's the way you have to look at
Thomas McPherson
think that's a fantastic approach. As we get closer to agentic AI in a lot of areas, you need to view each one of those agents as an employee. And are they fulfilling the mission that we have programmed them to fulfill? Because you will have multiple agents, customer service agent, a technician agent that is routing specific maintenance requests, whatever those different things are across your company and viewing each AI use case as an employee I think is a fantastic approach. I haven't had that approach and I'll definitely sit with that for a little while.
Chad
Yeah. You know, maybe it's a nugget I give you, but I've been, I've been really doing a little bit of kind of my own research on this and just the topic. And cause I'm, always wanting to, you know, I think when you look at it you kind of start thinking about how it fits, sometimes we get way big and we start thinking about stuff like in a, in a, in a huge view. And I'm more of a, I like to think of it in the, in the granular, like where we are. Um, and that's the, that's what I kept coming back to is that, you know, um, We got to evaluate this differently because every company is different, right? Every company has different problems. The more money you make, the more your scale, your problems are totally different than someone who's planning to start now. I mean, when you're starting out, you're just trying to get business. You're just trying to make sales. You're just trying to grow. You're in grow mode. And so you kind of think about that and where you are as a company. So one thing I've... We're getting close to time to wrap up, but you've been very generous with your time. So I'm a very sticker on. I'll make sure to your time.
Thomas McPherson
Yeah, I think.
Chad
What is it that if we asked the question, like, you've got an awesome resume, you've got it. But if there's one thing that we was like not going to find on your LinkedIn bio that you're probably really proud of or something that means something to you, what would that be?
Thomas McPherson
That is a fantastic question. Let me sit with that for just a few seconds.
Chad
And I'll, as you're sitting there processing, I keep thinking along and I just think sometimes we get to know the person, but what is, I always like to ask what what will we not find about you that you carry?
Thomas McPherson
Yeah, I, such a good question. You know, I could rattle off some of the accolades and some of the awards and some of the big adventures, but I, I think I'm going to sit with, you know, I saw, as I mentioned, I was at a funeral and I had a chance to see gravestones and I was walking through cemetery and you can see some of the things they list on the gravestone. You know, they don't list, your award. rookie of the year, they don't list, you know, I made $10 million in his lifetime or a billion. They don't list any of that stuff. You know, the things that they list are truly the most important things to me. Father, husband, son, community member, you know, contributed in meaningful ways. And so, you know, I would say in my heart, I'm not perfect, but in my heart, I generally try and do good. Everywhere that I can I participated in the military and a lot of suffering and September 11th happened and We were I think lied to the American public was lied to by Dick Cheney and a bunch of other people to get us to invade Iraq And here we are back in the Middle East again And so, you know, I think I again I participated in a lot of human suffering and I want to spend the rest of my life contributing to a world that is more abundant for more people. You know, I think that we have unlimited resources on this planet, truly from our perspective, unlimited resources. Every person can have all the food they want. Every person can, you know, have a safe place to live and call home, education, medical access, et cetera, et cetera. And for me, it's all about allocating those resources better so that we can all be living a more abundant life.
Chad
And I solid go, couldn't agree with you. We often sometimes in life get caught up in our own personal square. I call it our personal square. And we don't really stop to think about the people outside of that square. And you're right. mean, we're a country that is hurting. It really is. mean, there's so much divisiveness, this stuff out there. I just, I'm like you, just, I think it's good sometimes just to stop and say, you know, what can I do today that may help somebody? Like, and I mean, just the simplest things. was, the other day I was at a store and I'm like you, just, there was this little old lady and I just said hello. I didn't do anything, I didn't give her anything. And she let up. And, know, just having a conversation with somebody that actually stopped and I like noticed her. I got back in my truck and I'm sitting there going like, I didn't do anything. just said hello and just talked to her. But this lady went on and went on and you know, I found myself 20 minutes listening to her and I'm like, you know, that was probably all she needed today to, to, to make her feel good.
Thomas McPherson
Absolutely.
Chad
It was 20 minutes of my time. And no, hey, don't get me wrong. I've gone days where I'm like, I don't want to talk to somebody and I ignore them and keep walking. So I'm guilty of that. Hey, look, I'm not perfect. But I think that's, that's the thing that we need to do is stop and remember that we're not the only people in the world. There's other people. And if we can, we can give a little generosity or a little hello or thank you. know, thank you goes a long way. We should do it.
Thomas McPherson
Absolutely. Human connection at the end of the day is, I think, one of the most beautiful drivers of happiness, of business, of so many aspects of our civilization, and that is connection. And I think that if we were all a lot more connected to one another, we would see a lot of conflict go down, and we would see actually a lot of productivity and prosperity go way up because of human connection.
Chad
Yeah. Hey, there's no doubt about it. When everyone's feeling good, it's better. Just to add. Well, again, as we wrap this show up, if someone was trying to get in touch with you or look up your company, could you share with them how they would do that?
Thomas McPherson
Absolutely. Absolutely.
Thomas McPherson
Yeah, you know, we've got a website like we talked about, you know, the yellow pages, you and I are old enough to remember the yellow pages, those things are, you know, kind of ways of the past. And so our website is simple www.lucrum.com. It's a play on the Latin word, like lucrative investment. So lucrum is that kind of base word, which means profit gain advantage, wealth abundance. And so
Chad
Yeah.
Thomas McPherson
They can go to the website, can find our contact information, they can find my information to the team and give us a call and reach out and we can talk about how we can help them invest or how we can help them accomplish their financial goals.
Chad
Well, thank you very much. Like I said, guys, if you're out there and you want to find somebody different, if you're tired of investing with the same away and you're looking for someone who really wants to partner with you, Thomas is your guy. You should, you should definitely reach out to him. think you'll, you'll enjoy your conversation and probably maybe a little breath of fresh air is doing it some way a little different than a lot of people. So again, thank you again for coming on the show. It's been a great conversation and thank you for your service and your time you've given this country. really means a lot to me as a person who lives here. So I just want to thank you for that and thank you again for being on the show.
Thomas McPherson
Thank you very much. for paying taxes so that I had a salary when I was in the military. It's good. Right, Chad.
Chad
the So that, so we'll stop the show there. Man, thank you very much. I thought it was fun. I hope it was fun for you.
Thomas McPherson
Yeah, it's great, man. That's good. I hope it is meaningful and drives your business and your viewership base forward and provides value for you.
Chad
Well, I appreciate that. And like I said, I'll get you the raw footage and you can use that as well. You know, however you would like to use that. And, uh, yeah, I mean, uh, I thought it was good. love the, I, again, I, you know, until you go through it, you kind of see what I'm saying. I just wanted to be, I want to be enjoyable, a conversation. don't like all that. I, yeah, I don't know. I just, I want it to be fun. And I wanted you to feel like, man, this was fun. I enjoyed it. I didn't waste that much time. Like we went through 45 minutes like that. It didn't feel like.
Thomas McPherson
Yeah.
Thomas McPherson
It did, it was quick, almost 50, I mean, that was great. That's when you know you're having fun, man, when time flies.
Chad
Yeah. It does. Well, hey, Thomas, listen, thank you again. You'll get the raw footage. I'll send that to you. And I'd love to follow up sometime and catch up. don't know. You had mentioned before that, they say, Hey, how can we help you? Whatever. If there's, if there's some things that, that we can help or pass around or listen to or, you know, help solve, that's what I do. I'll be happy to engage and help in any way I can.
Thomas McPherson
We just got through taxes and audits and a whole bunch of other stuff. We've been swamped with a lot of kind of administrative stuff. What I'd like to do is, you know, me and the team and a bunch of folks were busy the rest of this month. if Chad, if you would be so kind as to reach out in May, you know, I want to get you in touch with my COO and our director of lending. think there might be some ways that we can approach processes, systems, automation and AI in a more thoughtful way with someone that has done it.
Chad
Yeah.
Thomas McPherson
before, we're real estate guys, we're finance guys, we're not process, we're not AI guys, but everyone needs to start getting better at those things. And so I realized we need some consultants to help us do that.
Chad
Yeah, be happy to do that. And just so you know, the way I work is I don't, I'm not going to charge you something for a conversation. I don't work that way. It's not how I do it. I am a, put my money where my mouth is, so to speak. I'm going to, it would be a conversation where they would just need to tell me truthfully, like here's some areas I think we're struggling on. Here's some areas we're doing good. No one else is going to get this. This is not going out to the masses. And all it does for me is to help me to give you. Hey, here is what I heard and here is an action plan to it. It's a process. And then they can look at it and go spot on, not good, re-change this, do that. It makes it way better for you guys than trying to just splatter approach. And then if you see it and you go, yeah, this dude's right on, this guy can help us, then we can talk about that. But there's no need to be. Financially obligated to somebody to have a conversation and try to give them help. I don't believe in that way and that's not how I do business. It's more of let's see if we can fix it. You don't need to spend money if you don't need to fix it. So I just wanted you to know that like there's don't feel like you're going to have to pay a bunch of stuff up front. That's not how I work.
Thomas McPherson
Good. Well, I appreciate the additional color and I'll look forward to connecting with you in May. Please ping me and we'll get set up. All right. You too, Chad. Thanks.
Chad
All right. Sounds great. Thanks. Have a great weekend.
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