'Adulting does suck, but we're here to support you'

Stoy Hall realized early on that financial literacy was a scarce resource in his family, and his community.   

Now, as founder and CEO of Black Mammoth, a financial services company in Iowa with clients all over the country, he says that during his childhood, there simply weren’t any finance professionals who looked like him – and there still aren’t enough.   

“There are not a lot of black CFPs,” Stoy said. The data are there to back that statement up. According to research from Zippia, the most common ethnicity of finance professionals in the U.S. is white (71.9%), followed by Hispanic (9.5%), Asian (8.4%) and Black (5.7%). But that wasn’t going to stop Hall.   

“I knew when I went to college I wanted to do finance, so I ended up going to Drake University to play football. And I actually started in accounting, which was a mistake," he said. "But I ended up realizing that while accounting wasn’t for me, numbers and finance were.”  

He ventured into the insurance industry, but Hall’s vision extended beyond the conventional sector approach.  

“What made sense to me was helping people create an entire plan, with that plan dictating what the next move is,” he said.   

In 2020, Hall founded Black Mammoth, an office that offers comprehensive financial solutions tailored to individual needs. His approach focuses on minimizing clients’ financial worries, allowing them to concentrate on their families and wealth creation.  

“I wanted to create more of a ‘modern family’ office feel where we are doing things tip-to-tail for people – and really customizing them.”  

It was Hall’s background and personal experiences that have shaped his specialization. He grew up in a single-parent household, and many of his friends and family are part of the LGBTQ community. As a former athlete and a minority himself, he intimately understood the unique challenges and opportunities that these groups face in their financial lives. In that vein, Hall hosts his own podcast – “NoBS Wealth” – on which he gets people in various professions to share their insights and experiences.  

“My podcast is designed to bring in other professionals from other walks of life – other advisors, other business owners, and so on – to get the public to understand that they’re not in this thing called life alone.”  

It’s this drive to help people feel supported – less alone – that is at the core of all Hall does.   

“I truly believe every person on this planet should have a financial planner,” he said. “And I will die on that hill for that to happen.”    

Aside from marginalized communities, Hall also has focused on another, albeit more privileged, minority: athletes.   

“We’ve heard all the bad stories, we’ve heard good stories, but ultimately there isn’t a really good, safe place to go for athletes. Ultra-wealthy people have a team. They need to buy a car, get their accounting stuff done, buy a home, they have a team that handles most of that. That mindset is a very wealthy mindset that I believe everyone should have. We all should have a team behind us to help us with these decisions because we’re not experts in them.”  

And with the proper support, Hall said it’s possible to separate emotions from money. Money often drives people’s emotions, leading to impulsive choices.   

“Money is the root of all evil, but it runs our emotions, and a lot of people make emotional, rash decisions because of their money situation,” he said. “Adulting does suck, but we’re here to support you.”    

What’s in a name? 

Stoy Hall explains the Black Mammoth ethos: “Black is bold. Black is powerful. To be ‘in the black’ is to be profitable. Mammoths are known for their colossal size and tough exterior, but they also embody quiet strength and natural leadership. Just as mammoths would lead creatures great and small to water, so does Black Mammoth strive to ensure prosperity for all.”