Intro: Royal Standley of Oregon Pacific Financial Advisors, offering securities through United Planners Financial Services, member FINRA SIPC, guides clients with empathy in discovering and reaching their financial goals and creates financial plans for clients so they can live their lives by design. In these episodes, he relates his financial insights and discusses timely topics.
Royal strives for excellence and has a passion for sharing his knowledge and supporting his community. Now onto the show.
Aric: Hey, Royal, how you been?
Royal: I'm good. How are you doing Aric?
Aric: I'm fantastic. I'm so excited to get into today's podcast, but you are in a highly regulated industry.
Royal: Yes, I am.
Aric: And because of that, sometimes we have a disclosure that needs to be read. So let's do it.
Royal: All right. Here's the disclosure for today. Discussions in this show are for educational purposes only. Information presented should not be considered specific investment advice or a recommendation to take any particular [00:01:00] course of action. Always consult with a financial professional regarding your personal situation before making any financial decisions.
The views and opinions expressed are based on current economic and market conditions and are subject to change. All investing involves risk. Including the potential for loss of principle securities offered through United Planners Financial Services member FINRA, S I P C advisory service offered through Oregon Pacific Financial Advisors, Inc.
Oregon Pacific Financial Advisors and United Planners are independent companies, and neither Oregon Pacific Financial Advisors nor United Planners offers tax or legal advice. Okay, now that we've taken our medicine, can we get on with the show? Let's go. Hello and welcome to life by design with Royal Standley of Oregon Pacific financial advisors.
Aric: Royal. It's good to see you. How are you?
Royal: I'm good. I'm good. I'm excited for today's interview.
Aric: So am I, scared, but this is going to be interesting.
Royal: As you should be, Aric, as you should be. So today I thought I would turn the tables on Aric and interview him because he has some major life announcements, which I thought would be a great time for him to talk about what he's doing outside of hosting podcasts.
So Aric, are you ready for this?
Aric: Oh yeah, let's do this. Let's have some fun.
Royal: All right. So, so I feel like you've been a secret agent this last three, four months here, you know, leading a double life. That our listeners don't know about so would you take a few minutes and just talk about what the last couple months have been for you.
Aric: Sure. Yeah, absolutely So Royal, you and I've talked many times about what you're passionate about right and in fact in the last podcast We talked about some of the things that you do in your community and you work with children you work with families Uh, single moms, there's, there's a lot that you do in your community. And that's where you and I are very much aligned. Our hearts are aligned.
My wife and I have a history, uh, with an organization called Boys Town. And a lot of people would know Boys Town by the 1938 blockbuster movie. Which it was actually a blockbuster still in black and white with Spencer Tracy and Mickey Rooney. And it was Boys Town. And uh, actually Spencer Tracy won an Academy Award for that. So that was, it was fantastic. Uh, but it was based off the life of Father Flanagan who started Boys Town.
My wife and I started working at Boys Town in 2001 and were there for almost 12 years, raised 68 young men in our program, basically as house parents or family teachers as we're called.
And they live with us full time, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. And we help them to have a more successful future.
And Boys Town has been working with kids and families since 1917. So well over 100 years now, and it's a great organization. And as many organizations, so we left there in 2012, but as many organizations have faced in the last few years, it's very difficult to find workers and find people that want to do certain jobs. Uh, and one of those is live with teenage boys who are oftentimes smelly and frustrating and everything else under the sun. Right?
So Boys Town asks us to come back, uh, as family teachers and my wife and I, after a lot of prayer and consideration agreed, uh, but with that we're not allowed to have a second job, as family teachers, because, you know, having eight kids is a full time job in and of itself.
So one of the things that we did as part of our negotiation to come back to Boys Town was I said, I need six months roughly to be able to work with the clients that I work with and, and with the shows that I work with, with you Royal, and they agreed and said, yep, as long as you're going to be a family teacher, you can do that for a little while.
So I am winding down my time and, right now we're, we've been in the home since April and so running on a few months here. Currently I have six boys in my home. I'll get two more in the next month or so before school starts and be in full swing. And, and, uh, we love what we do and we've been around for a long time or the Boys Town has been around for a long time and helped hundreds of thousands of families with all the services.
That’s where it all started in 1917.
Royal: And you're in the Omaha side, correct?
Aric: Yep, absolutely. It used to be 10 miles outside of Omaha when it started, you know, back in 1917. Uh, but now Omaha has completely grown around it. We are still our own city. We have a high school, middle school, police department, post office, fire department and the hospital on campus.
I mean, it's, it's its own little city. Yeah.
Royal: Yeah. And, and it's not just boys, correct?
Aric: Correct. Yeah. I think it was in the, I want to say early eighties, like 81, 82, somewhere in there. And somebody can correct me if I'm wrong on the history of it, but they started admitting girls, uh, and which is just another level of challenge for us with our boys in our house.
You know, there's girls on campus. So, uh, how to make sure they're having good relationships with them. Uh, but yeah, there's, there's also girls here right now, I believe. Yeah. The number of students on campus because of, again, there are some homes that are, they don't have family teachers in. So therefore, obviously they can't have kids in, but I think we're sitting right around 370 youth on campus.
Royal: Wow. So, so quite an undertaking there. So give me a sense of, of who the, the typical kid is that, that comes into boys town.
Aric: That's a great question. Royal. They come from all walks of life from all over the world. Honestly we've had kids from the Virgin Islands. We've had kids from as close as just a couple miles away from Boys Town, uh, live here.
So a lot of the young folks that come here are coming out of the court system. Meaning they have either been removed from the home because of something that has happened within the family or something that they've done directly. Maybe they've gone to lock up, right? Or, or youth detention, uh, and they are given a choice and I love it because a lot of A lot of states would just say, just keep men for their six months or their one year or whatever that they're, they're in, in jail for where other states are like, what can we do to make sure that this person has a more successful future?
Because the recidivism rate, when you just have somebody that goes to jail, they learn other behaviors in jail, right? I mean, we know that.
Royal: Yeah.
Aric: So if they're given an opportunity to get an education. Go to high school, play football, play basketball, whatever, chess club, choir, band, all these things that Boys Town is because it's its own little city a normal high school, a normal middle school, uh, they, they come out of there and they're much more successful because they've been given opportunities.
So a lot of them come from the court system in one way or another. Um, there are some privately placed young folks here as well. So in other words, something's going on within the family, maybe they're acting out, but they get into some serious trouble with the law. The parents are like, you know what, they need more structure than we can supply at this point, or we're kind of at our wits end and they sign them up to come to Boystown.
And we have a smaller percentage of the population is that, but that's where some of them come from as well.
Royal: And what's, what's the lowest stage that Boys Town will bring in?
Aric: That's a great question that I don't know the answer to. I will tell you that it's, there are so many services that Boys Town provides.
It's, it's a lot of people think of it as the kids that come and live with the family teacher or the house parents. But we have services that go into the family. Uh, with therapists before a child is ever removed from a home to try to fix the scenario there, whatever that scenario is, there's a lot of different components in every family, but they will go in and work with the parents, they'll work with the child, they'll work with the school and they'll, they'll work with, maybe there's a P.O. involved, a parole officer, involved if they've gotten involved with the courts. But they're not in jail, right? They're, they're still at home.
Maybe it's a misdemeanor offense that they're just, they're involved with the courts, but they're not in, in lockup. So that is the ideal scenario where we can go in and help them before the child is ever removed from the home.
But sometimes that does happen. Now, usually it's, we don't see a whole lot of kids that are younger than 11 or 12. And that's, that's the hope we have seen some younger kids on campus. Thank you. Um, usually or pretty much only that I remember that have a sibling here. So maybe they have an older brother or older sister here.
So therefore they bring the younger one on campus. And a lot of times they can be in the same home if they're, if they're both of the same sex, because you know, we do have boys homes and girls homes. Sometimes they start on in two different homes until the relationship can build back because a lot of times it's the brothers that are fighting each other, right?
They have issues. So they go into separate homes until they can be reunified. In one home and develop that relationship further. So it's, it's a trick question, if you will, because there's, there's a lot of components. Boys Town looks at what's best for the family overall. What's best for the child.
And it may be a different scenario. Maybe they don't aren't placed here. Okay. Okay. Yeah. And, and so you're, you're taking these kids, they're, they're going to school on campus. Yes, sir. Um,
How do kids exit Boys Town so that the ideal for any youth coming to Boys Town would be reunification with their family that that's, that's what I think every person's goal is, if the time allows, usually someone stay here is a year to 18 months, 18 months being the ideal length of stay for success. We, there's so much data on this Royal that Boystown has done an amazing job of tracking all the information. And so we know that 18 months is really a vital time for them to have everything that they need to work on.
And also we have a service that works with the family while the kid is here, right? So that the family's getting, you know, some education on how to do some different parenting and some different tactics, some strategies that'll help them when their child comes home. Sometimes, you know, kids come to us and they're, maybe they're going to be starting their junior year. Well, Be really disruptive for them to go home halfway through their senior year and try to acclimate into a high school.
So usually they just stay and graduation from Boys Town.
And the beauty of that is, is that there are so many donors that have, I mean, honestly, that movie in 1938 kicked off an amazing legacy for Boys Town never would have happened without that movie being so popular because they're still little old ladies writing checks, sending them into Boys Town to help support the cause.
And there are so many people that have recognized if these kids can make it through and graduate from high school. From Boys Town High School specifically that they have donated a ton of money for scholarships and grants to help them get further education, whether that's in the trades, whether that's, you know, community college, whatever it is when a child graduates from Boys Town, there's so many opportunities for them to have scholarships and grants for further education because there's just a lot of people that want to support them.
So if they're young enough, we want them to go home. We want them to be back with their family. Um, but if it's really kind of that cutoff time or it's close to graduation, then, you know, we'd rather have them graduate because it's. We know that they're going to graduate. They're not going to go home and face all these issues with half a year left.
Um, I've also had, you know, in our previous day, we had kids that didn't have an option to go home. It wasn't a safe environment. We, I spoke about the young man from the Virgin Islands, a single mother who was working full time. And the tragic part of the story is that he had two older brothers. One was murdered and one was in prison for life because of a lot of gang affiliation and probably some retaliation for his other brother being murdered.
So this young man came to us at 12 and he stayed. until graduation because that was the best plan for him. His mom loved him and missed him and she was able to come up and visit. Uh, but bottom line, he couldn't go back to the environment that he was in because the neighborhood she lived in was just too unsafe.
And so it's, it's all about the kid, all about the child and how they're going to be successful. What's going to make them the most successful. And that's the team makes that decision. It's not a Boys Town decision. The team does that with the parents involvement. If there's courts involved, we all have team meetings regularly to where we say, Hey, what, what's the next step?
Royal: So You said you have six kids in, in your home right now looking to add another two, that's eight teenage boys.
Aric: Yes.
Royal: And you did this before for, for a number of years, what does your average day look like?
Aric: Crazy. Uh, no, no, it's, it's, it's really structured and that's the beauty of it because Boys Town is all about structure.
Um, my wife is amazing. You know that we've talked about that before. She is Type A, which is great because I'm not Type A. And so she has more structure in her than I do. I really like to horse around with the boys and have a lot of fun. Although accountability is the key component here, right?
So we hold them accountable to their daily behaviors. Um, but we have a structured environment where like in the summertime right now, they actually have summer school and, or what they call, an enrichment program. So kids that need to catch up, ‘cause a lot of our young people come to us two to three years behind in their schooling.
So Boys Town does an amazing job of catching them up so they can graduate on time. Most of the kids graduate on time because they'll take summer classes. Some of them go full day school in the summer. Some of them do half day and then do summer enrichment for half the day, which is crafts and projects and community service and things.
So they get the kids involved in, in other places. So we have a morning routine where they wake up, they have to check in by a certain time. So for the summertime, they're checking in by 7. 30. Letting us know they're awake. All right, then go shower, make sure your room's clean. Everything's, you know, they're done down dress ready to go by about 8 15.
Um, or we have breakfast. Uh, if my wife is the one that is up, well, usually we're both up in the morning, but if she's up and eager in the morning, she's always making them a full breakfast. If she is doing something else or she's sleeping in that day, which is rare it's cereal because Aric doesn't cook as much as she does.
Uh, but the boys love it when she's up cause it's a full spread. Then they go to school and then they, they do have lunch at school in the summertime, uh, at the, at the cafeteria, we have a huge cafeteria where they all gather. And then they go on to the second half of their day, whatever that is, whether it's in summer enrichment or, or more schooling, and then they're home by, in the summertime, about 3:45, and then we have, uh, some house pride stuff that we do.
So in other words, you know, we're going to do some yard work outside. Cause these are, very large homes that they have to live in. I mean, it's basically eight bedrooms, you know, with our, with our own private quarters, eight bedrooms.
And it's a, you know, it's a big area for them, like our dining room. Royal. I think I sent you a picture. We have a 14 foot table, um, with lots of room for everybody. So we, eat dinner as a family, always at the table. Somebody, you know, volunteers to pray, pray over the meal. And then we decide what we want to do for the evening.
Sometimes, you know, we always have time for homework. Of course, we have a structured study time.
And then maybe we go to the field house. And when I say field house, most college campuses have what's called a field house where they have multiple basketball courts. This is no different. They have I want to say eight basketball courts, volleyball court, indoor track, racquet, four racquetball courts, an Olympic sized swimming pool I know, oh, weight rooms all sorts of stuff for the kids to get, you know, physically fit, because that's part of mental fitness as well, being physically fit, and especially when you have a kid who's come out of a lock up situation, they don't get a whole lot of time to exercise.
Usually it's just, here's your three meals and, and, uh, enjoy your cot kind of thing. So, yeah. Here it's different. We know that the overall health of the child is, is vitally important in every aspect. So there's a lot of resources here for them to, to get physically fit. Like I mentioned the sports teams earlier, there's always something to be involved in.
Royal: Very nice. Very nice. So, so you're, you're very busy during the day. I know you're also, you know, working with, you know, doctors, therapists, that sort of thing, coordinating all those schedules for the, for the boys as well. So it's interesting that you and your wife decided to go back to it. Who, who kind of took the lead on that decision?
Aric: So again, it was interesting because, because of the shortage of employees, Boystown did something very unique in my opinion, they put out an all call basically saying, if you've been a family teacher before and you still work here at Boys Town in a different capacity, which my wife did, she was working in a, uh, in a program called MST multisystemic therapy, which is again, that's the program that goes into the home before the child ever is removed from the home, uh, by the courts or by their, their parents to help try to fix things before that comes to pass.
She was working in that capacity and they said, if you've ever done this, we like on-call assistance. So every family teaching couple has an assistant that works with them full time about 45 hours a week. And There's a lack of assistance as well, because again, it's hard to find people. So they asked for anybody who's done it before, would you mind being an on-call and doing this every once in a while?
Royal, she, she signed up for, she's like, I'd like to go back into the home and just, you know, do that a little bit. I'm like, all right, that'll be great. The first day she came home, I knew that that was it because she was like, Oh, we had so much fun.
We did this and she just, she and swimming and she had so much fun. I knew at that point, I'm like, Oh, here we go. And it wasn't, it was like a month later. She's like, Hey, I kind of want to go back. And they're asking us to come back. And I was like, I know, I know that's okay. I've been preparing for this.
So we knew it was the writing on the wall, but it was definitely my wife drove it. The interesting thing is back in 2012, when we left, we had another couple that we were really, really close with. They left at the same time. And Candy and Regina is her name. Uh, the, the other couple's wife, she actually had dreams in October of all of us going back and being family teachers.
It's like, okay, yeah, right. Whatever. Now they're back,also, they came back with us. So, we live across the street from each other. So my wife's super happy and we enjoy getting our families together.
So it's, basically right now, 12, they have six also. So we got 12, 12 teenage boys and. The four of us and our assistants, we all go out and go have fun, you know, and we go to the lakes a lot because the boys love to fish.
And, uh, been able to do that here locally and, you know, getting out in the heat and being able to jump in a lake. That's, that's just a lot of fun.
Royal: So, so. You know, you, you, you've been doing podcasting for years. What are you going to miss about that?
Aric: Honestly, I love the information that I learned, right? I get to be a part of it. I get to ask the questions that I want to ask. Now, obviously I asked questions that I would hope the audience would have as well, but it's when you and I have a conversation, that's like, I get to pick a brain every time that I get together with you, I'm learning something new and so I love that. I love being active, an active part of it.
I do enjoy listening to podcasts, but the fact that I've been able to entrench myself with some really brilliant people, I don't think there's anything better than that.
You know, one of the other things I do is I, I love helping people. So I, I like helping the development of your podcast and getting you to that next level where you feel more comfortable with whatever subject matter that you're, speaking of at this point, you're a pro Royal.
I mean, you, you've been doing this for almost five years. And I'm excited to see what you do next. I mean, I know you're going to continue podcasting and you've got another great host coming or co-host coming alongside you, which will continue to, you know, ask those questions that need to be asked, but I've already subscribed.
I subscribed to your podcast a long time ago. I don't necessarily listen to all of them cause I've been on them, but I will now because I won't be, you know, live there when they're recorded. So, um, right. That's what I'm going to miss quite honestly.
Royal: And, and now that you have all this kind of financial knowledge in your head, are you going to be able to share that with your family?
Aric: Yes, absolutely. And the nice thing is that there have been so many times when I just take a little nugget here and a ittle nugget there, because I've been working since, since 2012, I've been working with financial advisors in one capacity or another, uh, I did a lot of coaching and consulting and so helping them to develop their business was always fun.
And, and again, it's, it's very similar. The funny thing is, is that coaching and consulting is so similar to what we do at Boys Town, because we help the kids set goals. We hold them accountable to the goals. We help them map out what they're going to do over the next few years. What, you know, what they truly want.
And so being a coach and a consultant is about 85% accountability in my opinion, and then a lot of creativity with helping them to, to find out what they want to do.
So it wasn't really a change. It was just a change of who I was working with. And so having that knowledge, uh, it's great. And we, we do have programs here at Boys Town, like an aftercare program that helps them, but to be able to, I have two seniors in my home right now, and to be able to walk them through what it looks like to carry debt, why it can be very detrimental to carry debt in a wrong way, how to develop your credit in a positive way. Uh, because the nature of the beast is we have to have credit, you know, to do anything really. And so how do you develop that in the right way?
And I think my daughter is a good example of that. She was much smarter than her parents and she has, she actually has better credit than I do. Well, I think I told you that, but she did it the right way. She listened to mom and dad. Um, so it's great. And to show them, Hey, this is the possibility for you. You don't have to follow in the footsteps of what's happened before in your family.
And that's kind of what I did. You know, my parents didn't have a whole lot of money and they ran into some credit issues and so on and so forth. And I did the exact same thing. Cause I just didn't know better but being able to work with these young folks and get them set up on path.
So they're not just going out and charging shoes is the big thing. Royal right now, you know, charging all their brand new pairs of shoes saying, you know what? Treat yourself every once in a while, but not every month to a 250 pair of shoes. Let's talk about that. You know, what are you doing for work at this point? It'll be eye-opening to a lot of them, but I think it's, it's so vitally important.
So yeah, there's, there's a lot that I get to pass on.
Royal: What else are you looking forward to in this new journey that you're on this new old journey, this new old journey? Well, like you're getting kind of a second chance here for a second opportunity.
Aric: I'm looking forward to more success stories. Well, we have kept in contact with most of our youth that want to you know, we're not gonna press the issue, but we do keep out of those 68. We're probably In fairly steady contact with about 40 of them.
Um, and to have, you know, the young man down in Texas. I've got a young man down in Fort Worth who didn't have a father figure growing up and to hear him say, you know, I don't think I would be where I'm at without Boys Town, without you. Um, I'm not taking all the credit by any means because it is a huge team that helps these kids succeed.
Now he's the father of four kids and he's married and he's successful and he's been coaching his kid’s baseball teams and he never thought that was possible because he didn't have a father that did that with him.
So the coaches have played, the coaches here at Boys Town have played a vital role in his life. Um, Candy and I played a vital role in his life to, to show him, um, our marriage isn't perfect. And they knew it wasn't perfect because there's times when we argue a little bit in front of them, not, not the arguments maybe they were used to like the, the hitting and fighting and stuff that they, a lot of these kids have seen through their life, but to know that it's okay to disagree, maybe have a little argument, but come back together as a married couple and still love each other.
Royal: Right.
Aric: And somebody is not walking out the door. Um, and he's committed to his wife and he knows that even though they're going to argue, they're not agree on everything that there is the possibility to still be there and he, and he loves his kids with a passion. And so those stories,
It's funny, ‘cause I say my boys or my kids, most of them are like 30, 35 years old now, but it's, and I've got one of them that just said, my 13 year olds acting the fool. I need to bring them to your house. I'm like, all right, we're ready for them, you know, but you got to move in too, and he's like, wait a second. I was like, yeah.
So, but it's fun to hear those success stories and see these kids flourish. I say kids, but young men flourish in, in their, in their lives.
And then their careers had some that have just really done well and just never thought it possible because they have their own money stories, right? And the money story their family told them was a lot of negativity and being kept down and not giving opportunities. But these young men have worked hard and realize I can do this. And if I just put my mind to it and use the skills that I've developed over the year, you know, and respect authority, respect other people, I can make it far.
And I'm just shocked by how some of them have been so successful, quite honestly.
Royal: That's wonderful. So I, it was definitely, I would say, bittersweet hearing about this change a few months ago. You know, we, we are going to miss you incredibly here at Oregon Pacific. Uh, you know, we, I just appreciate it all the time and energy you've put into, you know, really making this a great podcast. So I just want to thank you for that. But, uh, before I let you go. Um, is there anything else that you would like people to know about this next stage in your journey?
Aric: I just want to echo something you've said many times in this podcast role is that when you find your passion, just grab it with both hands and hang on, do, do what you feel that you need to do. And when it comes to the passion that you have for the people that you work with, that that's translated through the podcast, through the things that you do.
Royal: Thank you.
Aric: And the fact that you then take that passion and turn it into something beautiful with the organizations that you work with. I'm not soliciting donations for Boys Town. That's not what this is. What I'm saying is that what you've said so many times is when you find something that you're passionate about, support it.
And so to every listener, whatever that is, think about what makes you the most happy. Supporting and just be sure to do that. Support it one way or another. If you've got time, give them some time. We have great mentors here at Boys Town that come in and mentor these kids, some business owners that come in and mentor them and show them, Hey, this is where I started from. A lot of them started from single family, you know, single moms, where it was, you know, all the cards were stacked against them, but they did something different. And so these mentors are able to impart that wisdom to these kids.
And I know that that's what you do in, in the support that you give by being on different boards of different charities and I know that you support them financially. So I think that that's vitally important because when you do that, it, it, it's kind of selfish because you find so much joy in it, um, that you get more than you give. And that's just my opinion, but that's, that's the only thing that I would say at the, at the end of this.
Royal: Well, that is, that is wonderful advice, Aric. Thank you so much for sharing that. So with that, um, I'll let you kind of wrap it up as you always do so artfully, but I just want to thank you for everything today, Aric, and, uh, just, uh, appreciate this journey that we've been on the last few years.
Aric: I've appreciated you, Royal. I respect you and love to see the growth that your company has had from the time you started to now. I mean, you've, you've grown so much. And not just the podcast. I'm talking to your business. And that means like, I think you said on the last podcast, the more people you're bringing in, the more people that you can train and mentor.
Uh, to do what you do at Oregon Pacific financial, the more families you impact. And that's what I think this is about is successful families that can then contribute to their own community, contribute to, you know, multi general relationally to their kids and grandkids. That's a beautiful thing. So thank you.
And, uh, I love this journey. And since you turned the tables on me, I was thinking about having you do the close, but if you want me to do it, I'll, you know, that is my job,
Royal: I'll, I'll let you do it. You've got it down.
Aric: All right. Deal. Royal. But I will ask this. Look, people don't want to be on a journey alone and I know that there's, there's folks that have listened to this and kind of heard some of the things that I've said about what you do. If they want to learn more about that, why don't you give them some contact information so they can reach out to you directly and just start a conversation.
Royal: Yeah, absolutely. You can visit our website at opfa. com. Uh, you can email us right there from the website, schedule an appointment and reach out to us. We'd love to hear from you.
Aric: Well, thank you so much. I appreciate you.
Royal: My pleasure.
Aric: And our last thank you goes to the listening audience. Thank you so much for tuning in and listening to the life by design podcast with Royal Standley.
If you have not subscribed to the podcast yet, please click the subscribe now button below. This way, when Royal comes out with a new podcast, it'll show up directly on your listening device. And we humbly ask that you rate this podcast, write a review and share it with somebody because that helps other people find the show.
Again, thank you so much for listening today. For everyone at Oregon Pacific Financial Advisors, this is Aric Johnson reminding you to live your best day every day, and we'll see you next time. Thank you for listening to the Life by Design podcast. Click the subscribe button below to be notified when new episodes become available.
