088: The Pivot to Managing Tech Millions

00:00 - 00:29 | Christopher Nelson: Tech professionals, you're working for equity compensation and you think that you have the golden ticket. But here's the twist. More often than not, you find yourself in the golden handcuffs. What if I told you that these golden handcuffs could be turned into the golden ticket? This is about you figuring out how to go from a money maker that's trapped in that wheel to becoming a money manager and running your portfolio as a business while you're the CEO.

00:30 - 00:30 | null: you

00:44 - 16:01 | Christopher Nelson: Welcome to managing tech millions. This is the podcast that is going to help answer all of your questions of how do you turn high salary equity compensation into a powerful portfolio that can allow you to get to your personal exit. I know that you have a lot of questions. I know that things can be confusing and a lot of times the information isn't right in front of you that you want to hear. Well, this podcast is here to answer that. My name is Christopher Nelson, and I am your host. And I have been exactly where you've been. In April of 2012, I went through my first IPO. And I have to be honest, when the party of that day was over and it was an incredible day, I went home that night to suffer almost in a mental and emotional breakdown because I was so focused on making the money and getting to this point of where I had this equity to invest that when I got to that point, I realized I did not know how to take the next step. I have spent the last 12 years learning how to turn all of my equity that was in a single asset into a diversified portfolio that's in the traditional stock market, that's in private equity, that's providing the income, that's continuing to grow, and will do so for multiple generations. I built a generational asset. And my goal and mission is to share that with you. This is why I've made a decision to take my podcast that was Tech Equity and Money Talk, convert it into Managing Tech Millions to laser focus on this problem that we all struggle with. So this is what this podcast is focused on, is helping you leverage my system, the WealthOps Framework, which is what I've been developing over the last 12 years, which is a systematic way, very similar to the way that we develop software in the DevOps methodology in tech, of how do you actually manage and grow your portfolio in a systematic way. You architect, you build, and then you run. These are some things that I'm going to be sharing as we go deeper into the podcast. So let me clarify a little bit more about what managing tech millions is all about. This is a pivot from tech careers and money talk to tech equity and money talk to managing tech millions. It's been a journey and I started out. I started this podcast because I wanted to really have a conversation with other technology professionals who've been in this situation, who 've built great wealth working for tech equity and helping them get to financial independence. So I started off with a broad conversation about careers, tech careers and money and how it all works together. I realized that then I had to sort of shore that up and like, okay, let me talk about how do you build wealth with equity compensation and how do you manage the money that comes with it. And having that conversation for the last six months, again, I learned a lot. And when I heard from yourselves, it was Christopher, you're really not helping, like you're helping me a little over here on how do I make millions working in tech. You're helping me a little in managing tech millions, but it's not really moving the needle for me. So I made another pivot and I'm really focusing now moving forward under managing tech millions is to really help you answer some of the biggest questions around how do you move from being a money maker to a money manager. It's a big shift. And this has been my 12-year journey. And I know that I can help you accelerate that by sharing all of the tips and tactics that I've learned, and then also keeping you up to date on what I'm doing. Because this isn't, I haven't just set my portfolio and it's running. There really is very little passive in passive investing. It's truly a tax term when you're managing a portfolio as a business. This is something that you do week over week, month over month. And so in this podcast, I want to make sure of that. It becomes your go-to resource for how you are managing your tech wealth from everything from, you know, I have this overexposed position. How do I diversify it? How do I divest from that? What are ways that I want to invest? How do I set goals for my portfolio and et cetera? You're going to hear insights from me and what I'm doing to manage my multiple seven figure portfolio. As I'm growing it to eight figures, you're going to hear the good, the bad, the ugly, and everything in between, because it's important that you understand how this really works? Because more often than not, you're going to look online and get, and get information from financial advisors that they haven't been through what we've been through. They haven't had a sudden wealth event. They haven't had an acquisition or an IPO, or maybe they've built it up slowly. You've built it up slowly over time. But there are astronomers that are trying to tell you how to get to the moon. And I want you to hear it from the astronauts themselves. I'm going to be bringing you stories and lessons from other people who've done this as well. So who is this podcast for? This podcast is for any technology professional who is built up with, you know, $1 million in equity compensation that they're looking to invest, that they're looking to diversify into a portfolio. If you're on that journey and you're not there yet, you're gonna get a ton of value. But the people who have built up that equity from a $1 million value to a $22 million value, I think for you, this is gonna serve you well. And especially if you have the mindset that says, I want to build a multiple generational business that is going to give me freedom today and then allow my family to grow and expand in the future. That's who this podcast is for. If you are a tech professional who's in the middle of your career, you have a million dollars or more in equity compensation, and you're trying to figure out, how do I get it to work for me? This is your home. Managing Tech Millions, which is our audio podcast, it's also a YouTube channel, and it's also a newsletter. All of those in one. Just go to managingtechmillions.com. You will find our landing page that will give you access to all of that. This is for you, a financially focused technology employee who really wants to manage your portfolio, become the CEO of it, and become somebody who's managing a business that is gonna be a generational asset that provides financial independence today and then also can impact your family in the future. This is for you. Now, we've built this to answer your questions because I know that it's hard. I know that when you sometimes are so focused on making the money, and getting to building up your assets that when you get to the point where it's time to manage it, sometimes you don't know what the next step is. And sometimes you have so much equity behind you that you get nervous, you get scared. And it's exhausting when you go online and you're looking at all the other gurus that are telling you, well, oh, you know, try this strategy here, try this option here, get real estate here. This is going to be different than that. And I'm telling you why. Because this is coming from the perspective of somebody who is living this day in and day out. I am personally managing my portfolio. I'm the CEO of my portfolio. And I built a team around me to be able to get its performance to where I need to be, managing it to goals year over year. And on this podcast, I'm going to be sharing with you the good, the amazing, the bad, the ugly, all of the things that go with being the CEO of your own portfolio. I'm going to be walking alongside you as you shift your mindset from being an amazing moneymaker to being an experienced money manager. It's truly this mindset shift that you need if you wanna get to financial independence. Because ultimately the people that are successful in financial independence and not just creating other jobs for themselves, but are creating a scalable business are doing it with a system. They're actually in networks. They're talking to people about how this works day in and day out. And they're building a scalable business that works for them more than they work for it. This is what we're going to share here. And this is where, like, this is your ultimate guide, taking a step back. This is, this is the culmination of a year and a half journey that I've been on where I've taken the podcast that was tech careers and money talk, where we talked about careers and money and how it worked together to then tech equity and money talk. How do you make tech millions with equity compensation and then manage the millions that come with it? based on feedback where you really want clarity of how do I manage my money day in and day out like a business? How do I become a CEO of my portfolio? That's what we've done is we've done a pivot so that those are the types of questions that we're gonna answer. Think of this podcast as your resource to provide you strategies. We wanna make sure that you understand how do I divest from an overexposed position? That is going to be a topic that we're going to cover in detail. We're going to, I'm going to share with you some of my personal strategies. I'm going to bring on experts to tell you what they would do in that particular situation. We're also going to look at the way that we invest. How do we actually get really good diversification in traditional markets? How do I start getting exposure to private equity? We're going to dive deep into how do I build it as a business? How do I put a framework? How do I put it into a company? How do I make it tax efficient so they can really grow and scale? How do I really think about setting it up for the future in an estate plan so that I can transition wealth to the next generation seamlessly? Let's talk about the next generation. You need to be focused on succession planning now. Even though I know my sons are 10 and 12 and I am helping them think about how they manage money? What do they think about money? What do they think about consumption versus creation? How do they think about what they need versus what they want? These are all topics that we're going to be talking about on this podcast. And even more, I'm excited that you're here with me on this journey. And I want to let you know, like, we're not starting from zero, like we have been covering off on, on some of this before. And Uh, if you go back to some of our earlier episodes, we've broken this down. So if you want to get a headstart and you want to get focused on what we're going to talk about in the next, in the, this upcoming year, 2025, you can go to episode 73, your portfolio as a business. That is a complete episode where I broke down, why do I run my portfolio as a business? What are some of the strategies and tactics that I use to do so? You can also go back to episode 39, the 50-50 portfolio strategy. This is where I have asset categories of growth in income in ways that I manage my portfolio to ensure that my portfolio is growing at a rate that that I wanted to, and then I also have a producing income as well. This is the way that I manage my portfolio and I will do so going forward. Episode 60 gives you the overview of income bearing assets. I know that people today are being inundated online with passive income, this passive income, what does that really mean? Where can I get true income in my portfolio? And why is that important? Well, if you go to that episode 60, that's going to give you a breakdown on a lot of the different types of assets. Also in episode 83, I covered off the evergreen portfolio strategy, which is how do the ultra wealthy create portfolios that go on for generations? Well, it's simply a math problem. And part of it feeds into what I was teaching before is the 50-50 portfolio strategy if you need to have income there. So the evergreen portfolio strategy in episode 83 gives you more. And then episode 84, exit planning. How do you get from where you are to the exit that you deserve so that you can live the lifestyle that you want? I've been talking about this stuff for a long time. I have, and it excites me, and I am more passionate than ever to focus on my mission, which is I want to help 1,000 technology professionals who want to run their portfolios as a business, get to financial independence. And Managing Tech Millions is going to be an educational platform where I am going to give you a lot of information. I want to make sure that you then go and subscribe. If you go to managingtechmillions.com, that is going to be our hub where you can subscribe to the podcast. So follow our audio podcast, subscribe to the YouTube channel. You can also sign up for our email list where we're going to send out every Tuesday, we're going to send out to you a strategy or we're going to give you updates into what's going on in my portfolio, things that you can follow along as well. And you can also learn about the Wealth Ops Collective. I am starting in 2025 a community where we're going to be managing our portfolios together. I'm going to be giving a free workshop every single month where I'm going to be teaching people. It's not going to be a big pitch. I'm literally going to teach people every month how they build out their portfolio as a business and how they run it. I'm going to give them that simple framework so that they can go and execute it themselves. I'm so excited to make this transition. I'm so excited to make it with you. I just want to make sure that as you move forward, if you have any questions, comment down below. If you're watching on YouTube, hit something in the comments. I want to reply to that. If you're on the newsletter, hit reply. I answer all questions, but ultimately we're moving into 2025 in this new direction to help you more deeply. to help you answer those questions, to help you get unstuck and take the next step that you need to so that you can effectively manage your financial future. Thank you and we'll see you in the next episode. In the next episode, I'm going to be breaking down the WealthOpps framework. I want to make sure that you are clear and you understand what this framework is so that you can get clarity on what an effective system looks like to manage your portfolio as a business. See you in the next episode.