My businesses are ASB Elite and Weber Boys Entertainment. ASB Elite is a Financial Optimization Firm and our main objective is educating people and provided what ever necessary tools or resources to achieving financial optimization. Then my brother and I started a podcast as a creative outlet which has turned into script writing for comedy sketches and so on. I was just selected to be in The Top 100 Magazine for People in Finance. I am also a part of a family insurance agency. I played hockey growing up and enjoy fitness and MMA.

www.asbelite.com
www.sociallyawkwardpod.com
@realjustinweber
@asbelite

1.) What elements and/or characteristics made you say to yourself that you wanted to do finance for a living? What inspired you and your brother to start the Socially Awkward Podcast? Who are your influences/heroes/role models?

I am in finance because I have seen the fundamental cracks in our economy and I am hell bent on filling them. I believe money is a resource, like water more than like a good. If it were a good, it would be finite or limited but I just wrote a whole article called “Growing Money on Trees”, which talks about creating money; who does it? How does it work? And who controls it. My brother and I are best friends. We both consider ourselves to be pretty socially awkward and feel like we aren’t alone, so we wanted to build an unedited and uncut platform to talk about a broad range of topics while maintaining the fact that were just being silly brothers. More than anything, it’s a creative escape from all the finance. My barber told me the other day, “It’s important to be worldly” and what better way than to get into interesting stuff with your brother? I have many influences and enjoy learning and being inspired by others a lot, but the main ones that stick out would be my dad, Elon Musk, Joe Rogan and maybe Mark Wahlberg, if he would start waking up at 5:30 instead of 3:30.

2.) If you could compare yourself to an already established entrepreneur, who would that be and why? If you don’t like to compare yourself, then what separates you from other entrepreneurs out there?

There are a lot of great entrepreneurs out there. As far as separating myself from the many, I believe that there is plenty to go around opportunity wise. I am seeking similarities rather than differences, more room for art and collaboration in my opinion. I try not to think about setting myself apart from anyone in general.

3.) Everyone in life goes through adversity of some sort? What is the most difficult thing you’ve had to endure on your path to becoming an entrepreneur?

The most difficult thing I’ve endured was losing my hockey career. I was fortunate to have an opportunity to play hockey in the Ontario Hockey League which is a Canadian Major Junior League. For one reason or another it didn’t pan out and I was quickly sent home. I missed my window and realized I wouldn’t ever make it to the NHL like I wanted to. After playing my next season in Omaha, NE I decided, no more and I was done. When I stopped playing, I felt like I didn’t know who I was and digging out from that depression taught me some really tough lessons that I am now, extremely grateful for.

4.) How do you prepare yourself to work? Are you intrinsically motivated? If not (or if so), what is your process?

I prepare myself for work mostly by staying sharp and healthy. Obviously staying up to date on reports, changes and all the other boring stuff, I also train hard in the gym, try to eat my best, and give my brain the best chance at handling each situation, as it comes up and as best I can. I like to practice a type of stoicism in preparation, which I feels like allows me to focus on what is real about a situation or event.

5.) As we all know, the financial industry is a huge industry; a highly competitive industry. With that being said, what do you plan to do to make sure your business stands out from the rest?

It is a big industry. I don’t feel any competition among people who do what I do, I commend and respect them. At the end of the day we are going to all have to work together at some point as a collective body of information. I think that its best to pool the ideas and expertise of leaders to optimize the future.

6.) Many people are considered to be financially illiterate. Can you explain what financial optimization means? Is there anything you can suggest to the person or persons who are financially illiterate that would help them become more informed on financial matters?

I would say 9 out of 10 people I meet or speak to even, are not financially literate at all. We work diligently and creatively to produce content which gives people information and knowledge while being entertained. Financial optimization is a process where a person becomes their own economy and doesn’t have to rely on investments nor are they subject to the Bank’s “game”, in order to offset their expenses as well as tax obligations. A way to save and accumulate without having to sacrifice.

7.) This might tie into the previous question, but if the economy is in bad shape, what do you think should be an entrepreneur’s (small business owner or big business owner) top priority? What should the average, everyday middle (and lower) class person do to gain more upward mobility in a harsh economy?

I think the foundation is where we are in bad shape. Right this second, we are riding the highest high we have ever had stock market wise, but for how long? The best investment anyone could make is in themselves and thats what entrepreneurs do, so keep doing that and be curious about other things. That will help with diversity incase one of the businesses fails. Overall, the tools and resources are out there for financial optimization, its just up to us to educate people and hope 2008 doesn’t happen again in the meanwhile. Because the government doesn’t have the money to bail everyone out again and it certainly wont recover like it did last time, we really have to do our best and empower as many people as we can by talking about it and learning about it.

8.) Going back to the Socially Awkward Podcast, what topics do you and your brother typically discuss? Which topics seem to get the most reaction (positive or negative)?

We use the podcast as an outlet. It is so fun diving into the most random things from sports to comedy to cultures to even psychology. We are still fairly new being only 19 episodes in however we did have a Tinder segment that wasn’t a fan favorite and had to pull the plug on that but I think we just did it wrong. It could for sure work.

9.) Social media is obviously an extremely important element in today’s world, especially when it comes to business, branding, marketing, etc. With that being said, do you think an entrepreneur will be able to survive in today’s economy if they’re not social media savvy?

Oh yeah, I think without a doubt, social media is imperative. It is also really important to draw a line for your emotional sake to make sure that you don’t get too bogged down with negativity when it comes to separating business from personal on the web.

10.) Professionally, where do you see yourself 5 years from now?

Professionally, in five years, I will be continuing efforts of financial optimization while having a silly goose time with my brother, Z, on the Socially Awkward Podcast.