About
"My name is Rob Cook I'm first and foremost a husband, father, and man of faith. But I'm also a CPA, CFP®, and former finanical advisor..." - Podcast Intro
Who is this guy?
Hello, and welcome to Contenders Wanted!
My name is Rob Cook. As you can see from the quote above, I’m a CPA (or Certified Public Accountant), a CFP® (or Certified Financial Planner), and a former financial advisor. But to me, what's most important in life are my faith, my family, and my health...in that order.
This show and the various ways in which we try to serve our audience are an expression of my love for personal finance and my desires to serve young families by helping them create wealth and solve the large stressor for most families: money.
I began my career working in public accounting at the highest possible level at a company called EY. Unique for that company, I worked in both audit and tax while there, serving clients of all shapes, sizes, backgrounds, and complexities. From audits of publicly listed entities (like Apple) and private unicorn start-ups, to taxes for CEOs, international athletes, local small business owners, to creating family offices for ultra-wealthy families, I saw it all.
But I left public accounting and joined a great local wealth management firm because I wanted to help families create wealth. Then a funny thing happened, as much as I loved and respected those who I worked with, I realized that they really only tried to protect wealth. Nothing wrong with that, but for me, I wanted to help others create it!
So after a 3.5 years of learning as much as I could, I left and now I work by day building a startup company (Elements®) that’s trying to change the way advisors serve their clients so they can provide advice anyone, and so more people can get access to high quality financial advice and create wealth. Then by night I am the host of the Contenders Wanted podcast and use Elements® to serve our audience.
How did the show come to be?
That is a great question! It all started in the pandemic. I had always wanted to do a podcast, in fact I had been listening to them since 2010, long before they were ever mainstream. So when the pandemic hit and I needed a way to connect with people for my job without being present, I didn't have any more excuses and dove right in.
However, when the show first started I couldn't talk about financial topics because at the time I was still a financial advisor. Had I wanted to talk about finances at that time, I would have lost all creative control and not been able to speak my mind freely due to compliance rules, and I didn't want that.
But I couldn't help it coming out sometimes. Despite my education, credentials, and hard work, my family still was working to solve our own money problems, and am deeply passionate about personal finance and investing, so I couldn't help it.
Then I noticed something interesting as I dove head first into this world of podcasting and social media. I couldn’t relate to so many people on my social media feeds who had supposedly figured out how to solve their money problems.
Most seemed to either have found financial success before they had a family or they sacrificed their family in order to get there. I didn’t think that was necessary to solve my money problems, and honestly, I wasn’t willing to make those sacrifices.
To top it off, I knew solving our money problems without sacrificing what’s most important could be done cause I had seen it growing up in the lives of my family and my family’s friends, I just needed to find the blueprint.
And from that, Contenders Wanted was born, and once I was no longer a financial advisor, we moved the focus from general success to an emphasis around solving our listeners money problems.
It's been a journey, but I love the show. I love serving our audience in any way I can and I count it a great blessing to be able to do this.
Hey guys, I'm not huge into social media other than for the podcast but if you'd like to learn more about me and what I do, feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn by clicking on the LinkedIn button to the right or by entering the URL below in your browser.
LinkedIn URL: https://www.linkedin.com/in/contenderswanted/