The Get Ready Money Podcast
The Get Ready! Money Podcast with Tony Steuer features insightful conversations with financial experts who are changing the way we think about money. Listen each week to catch up on the latest financial trends and hear practical advice from Tony and his expert guests aimed at demystifying the complexities of finance, so you can build healthy habits that ACTUALLY work.
Each episode will leave you with tips for implementing small changes that can have a big impact on your financial future. Tony’s podcast is perfect for listeners seeking to get ready, be prepared, and transform their financial future.
The Tony Steuer Podcast is one of the 20 Best Literacy Podcasts. The best podcasts about Literacy from thousands of podcasts on the web ranked by traffic, social media followers, domain authority & freshness.
The Get Ready Money Podcast
Make Your Money Matter Every Single Day! Featuring Derrick Kinney
On the latest episode of The Get Ready Money Podcast, I spoke with Derrick Kinney, author of Good Money Revolution and Founder of Success for Advisors about changing the way we think about money and adding meaning to our money.
In this episode we discussed:
- Live a day of meaning every single day of your life.
- Ask yourself what it is that you want?
- Anybody can be good with money.
- The most successful ideas are not overnight successes,
- Bet on yourself.
- Why and how women can ask for the pay they deserve.
Derrick Kinney is changing how you feel about money. He believes money is not bad and good people should have more of it. Derrick is the author of the Wall Street Journal and USA TODAY national bestseller, Good Money Revolution.
After applying these proven principles with thousands of clients, Derrick sold his multimillion-dollar financial advisory business to teach these success principles to all financial advisors. As CEO of Success for Advisors, Derrick and his team teach independent financial advisors a 5-step marketing framework to build 7-figure businesses that impact the world.
Known for making complex financial and business topics easy to understand, Derrick has been interviewed on CNBC, FOX News, CNN, FOX Business, Yahoo Finance!, PBS, Wall Street Journal, among others. As host of the top-rated Good Money podcast, he inspires business owners and entrepreneurs to make more money to do more good. His guests include Matthew McConaughey, Mel Robbins, Ed Mylett, Jon Gordon, Daymond John, and Sharon McMahon.
Recently Derrick set a big goal to positively impact one-million teens by giving them money, business, and life skills that aren’t taught in schools. As a passion project, he founded SimpleTeenSuccess.com, a new online program for teens to become money and business smart, build trust with adults, and stand out for the best opportunities.
Connect with Derrick Kinney:
Website: SuccessForAdvisors.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/derrickkinney/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/derricktkinney
Books:
Good Money Revolution: How to Make More Money to Do More Good (Amazon) https://amzn.to/3VHWc8m
Master the Media to Attract Your Ideal Clients: A Personal Marketing System for Financial Professionals (Amazon) https://amzn.to/3xIM1sd
Podcast:
The Good Money Podcast (Apple Podcasts)
Resources mentioned:
Get the raise you want from Derrick Kinney: the 3 questions to ask: https://www.gettheraiseyouwant.com
Peter Lynch - One Up On Wall Street: How To Use What You Already Know To Make Money In The Market (Amazon) https://amzn.to/4dlvyJp
The Richest Man in Babylon by George Clason (Amazon)
Bohemian Rhapsody (movie)
Shawshank Redemption (movie)
The Get Ready Money Podcast and its guests do not provide investment advice. All content is for educational purposes. Guest opinions do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Get Ready Money Podcast and Tony Steuer.
Are you looking to get ready, be prepared and transform your financial future? Then you've come to the right place. This is the Get Ready Money Podcast with Tony Stewart, where Tony has insightful conversations with financial experts who are changing the way we think about money. Catch up on the latest financial trends and hear practical advice from Tony and his expert guests so you can build healthy habits that work, Be empowered with tips for implementing small changes that can have a big impact on your financial future. So sit back and get ready to hear from today's guest.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Get Ready Money podcast changing the way we think about money. I'm pleased to be joined today by Derek Kinney. Derek is the author of Good Money Revolution and founder of Success for Advisors. In this episode, we'll be discussing Derek's insight on how we change the way we think about money and adding meaning to our money. Derek, welcome to the Get Ready Money podcast. Thanks for joining us today.
Speaker 3:Oh, my pleasure, Tony. I have seen you've had some great guests on the show and I'm honored to be one of them, so thank you for having me.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah Well, I'm honored to have you on the show. I'm excited You're doing some great stuff out there, so let's share with everybody what you're up to. What is your origin story?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. So, as we're talking right now, I'm four years removed from selling what would be considered a very successful financial planning business that I started at age 26. And I reached a point a couple of years ago where I loved serving my clients, but I wanted to do something bigger and I realized I'm serving up you know a hundred, you know a couple hundred clients, but I I wanted to provide a financial platform that would be accessible to millions of people, because what I found is that people feel like they're behind financially, they feel like they've been left behind or they're stuck in debt or that they'll never get ahead. And I realized that is just not right. And I wanted to provide a platform of financial education, to make education accessible to millions of people so they could have the life they've always wanted, but didn't know what to do, and so that's my mission right now. So going back. Wanted, but didn't know what to do, and so that's my mission right now. So going back.
Speaker 3:I graduated from college, worked about a year and a half for a small software company. At this company, they bounced my paycheck twice. I got passed over for a raise, was told on Friday, saturdays was going to be a work day, and I vowed that one day, if I ever had my own business, tony, I would run it opposite of how this business ran. But I reached a moment where, when I got passed over for that raise, I asked myself a really deep philosophical question, and that was am I going to stay in this environment where I'm settling for someone else to tell me my value at about 4% a year in a raise, or am I going to bet on myself and give the wheel a spin and say you know what? I'm going to start my own business.
Speaker 3:And I opted for option B and I became a financial advisor and I'm so glad I did. Was it hard? Yes, was it the most rewarding thing I've ever done? By far, because we've helped thousands of people achieve their goals, and so that's why I'm excited to be a guest on the show today to really help people live the life they want, but they don't know how to get there.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. Well, thanks for being here, Derek. I really appreciate it. So, you know, let's talk about that a little more is how can people start to make that move towards living the life they want? You know, especially somebody who feels like maybe in that first job you were in, where they're in that job themselves today.
Speaker 3:You know it's interesting. I think the first step for people to think about is number one don't give up hope. Someone listening right now may be touching 30, 40, 50, 60, whatever your age is, and I would just say, you know, don't die before you're dead. You want to make sure that you're fully living every single day. There's many, many stories of people that felt frustrated. They felt stuck. They felt like everyone else was running a marathon and they were stuck tying their shoes and they wondered what do other people know that I don't? And what I would tell them is if you're married, have this conversation with your spouse. If you're single, with a good friend, but ask yourself what is it that you want? What is it that you want Like in a perfect world, nobody telling you that you can't or you're not going to be successful or you're a failure. What is it that you really want for yourself? And as simple as that sounds, it's probably one of the hardest things anybody can do, because they get honest with themselves and say, man, this is what I really want. I'll tell you a quick story.
Speaker 3:When I was an advisor, probably 15 years ago, I met with a guy. He was 35 years old. I met with a guy. He was 35 years old and he told me. He said, derek, I've got bad news. I just lost my job. There was a corporate downsizing and he was one of the last ones to go. But he said I'm actually pretty excited about it. And I said to myself I've never heard someone tell me who just lost their job that they're excited about it. But what he told me was something that was so deep I've shared it with many, many clients. He said, derek, I'm 35 right now, but I joined that company when I was 18, meaning that with the brain and the maturity I had of an 18-year-old, I made a decision and I've stayed there for another 18 years. Well, I'm a completely different person now. This gives me a chance to make a decision with the life experience of a 35-year-old and not an 18-year-old". I just had to pause for a second and say that is so, so good.
Speaker 3:If we're being honest, many of our listeners may be thinking I'm in a situation in my life right now that I made the decision to be here maybe two or three decades ago, and I'm a completely different person. I would encourage people to do is ask yourself right now, given your life experience, given your goals and your dreams and your aspirations, what is it that you want? And begin to write that down. I like to say, write down three personal goals and three financial goals. And, most importantly, what I would tell people is not just how you'll feel when you achieve it, which is important to assign an emotion to it, but get this, write down what's at stake if you don't achieve the goal. How rotten might your life be if you don't reach that goal? Or maybe you won't be able to spend time with your grandkids or travel or see and do all the things you want to do? Those will not happen because you don't take action.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. I love that. You know I talked about priorities with goals, and I think that's another way of talking about priorities. It's like some goals are much more important than others and that has to be a factor in your goals, because you can't always meet all of your goals at the same time.
Speaker 3:You're exactly right, and I'll tell you another story. I was in the office catching up on a few things on a Saturday morning and I saw my voicemail light blinking and for a quick moment I thought, if I check that I'm going to be distracted, it's going to take me off my game. But a voice inside said you need to press that button. And what I did and heard next, I've never, ever experienced before. There was a frantic woman's voice on the voicemail that she said Derek, this is so-and-so, you have to call me back, they're about to send me to jail and I don't know what to do. Well, I've never had anybody tell me they're about to send me to jail before, much less on a voicemail. I knew I couldn't wait till Monday to call her back. She was hoping I'd be in the office as I probably was too much, called her right back and I said so-and-so, tell me what's going on. She said, derek, I got this letter in the mail and they're about to send me to jail. And I said okay, let's pause for a second. What does the letter say? And she read it to me you didn't move money. The check you wrote has bounced. It's a non-sufficient funds notice. Well, all that it was was she hadn't moved money from her savings to checking to cover a check. She bounced a check but for some strange reason she thought she was going to be sent to jail and I said why in the world are you telling me you're going to get sent to jail? So she tells me a story. She says, derek, when I was a girl I was seven years old she said I overheard a conversation with my dad and a store owner calling him. He had just bought school supplies for her and her sister and her dad accidentally bounced a check and the store manager said to her dad I know you bounced this check. I'm going to send the cops to your house and send you to jail.
Speaker 3:Well, as a seven-year-old girl, she grew up she was now 55 years old believing that if you bounce a check you go to jail. Well, as a seven-year-old girl, she grew up she was now 55 years old believing that if you bounce a check you go to jail. And I got to tell you that was eye-opening in terms of she and I's relationship. We'd worked together for 10 years. She was always complaining about never getting a raise, never getting the promotion she wanted and, most importantly, she never took the great advice I gave her. It cost her lots of money, but besides that I said you're not going to go to jail, there's no orange jumpsuit in your future. We'll call you Monday. I'll help you move the money at the bank.
Speaker 3:But I said come in the office next week. I want to unpack what you're telling me. So she comes in and basically I helped her label what she was feeling as bad money beliefs. She'd heard that term but didn't know how it impacted her. And I said ever since you were seven years old, you believed that if you make a mistake, you bounce a check, you do something and it's wrong, you're going to get punished. And what she realized was that was exactly right. And when she left the office that day she said it was so freeing for her to feel like she didn't have to live under this weight of these beliefs she had. Well, what happened next? Tony was shocking. Within six months she got a $15,000 a year raise. She got a promotion to the level she wanted, but most importantly and I say this jokingly she began to take my advice because she wasn't worried about risk.
Speaker 3:What that taught me was even people who look successful on the outside. Oftentimes they are wilting and feeling the weight of not wanting to make a financial mistake, or they've been told that they're not good with money, or they've made a bad decision in the past that they feel like I don't want to be embarrassed by making another bad decision, and all of those things hold people back. They can't achieve the goals they want when they're second-guessing everything. They do. So first of all, when you set goals but also ask yourself what is my relationship with money, is it the neighbor I love to hang out with or is it the one I wish moved next door to me and I hope they move away soon? You want to make sure that the bad money beliefs of the neighbor that we don't spend a whole lot of time with.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, what you said so much here, derek, but I think you know you and I were talking a lot about this pre-show and watchers and listeners have heard other guests talking about this is that it's really a lot is our money stories, our experiences around money, our culture around money. Know that so many of these things come into play and that you know for the advisors and insurance agents out there in the audience is you have to talk to your clients about these things. It's like once you were able to unpack that, it completely changed the dimension of your relationship with the client and took it to a whole other level where I bet your client was also very grateful to you and your firm.
Speaker 3:Well it was, and it was interesting because it gave me an insight in, not just to other female clients I've got, but all of my clients, and I began to ask them deeper questions. I've always been a good question asker. I find I learn more by asking questions and by telling people things, and with her it really taught me that you know, most people on the outside thought of her as highly regarded, highly respected, but here she was like this wilting flower on the inside, and what I realized was the more that we can listen and really find out what people's not just their goals are, but really what they really want for themselves, for the advisors listening. For example, if you have a client come in the office, my guess is that as they talk about their concerns, you could probably begin solving their problems right then. You could design a financial plan right in the meeting because you've seen and heard almost all of their concerns. The problem I find as advisors, though, where we do clients a disservice, is we begin to form an opinion too early of what we think the client wants, and that's what hurts the advisor, but, more importantly, it hurts the client, because clients have this deep-seated need to feel heard and understood and valued.
Speaker 3:And one of the questions I love to ask clients is whether now I coach advisors full-time and so forth and do consulting for companies. But I always ask right off the top, what is the greatest service I could provide for you? And then I stop talking and I just want them to have a blank slate. It's almost like giving them a canvas and here are several things of paint and some brushes and I want them to paint the picture of what it is they want, because we're basically painting their story that I want to help them achieve to be able to spend time traveling. Well, a lot of people would say, okay, well, how much do you think it would cost and where would you go? And I think that the missing questions there would be how will it make you feel having the freedom to travel? Or who will you be traveling with? And describe in as much detail the sounds and the sights and the smells of where you're going to travel to.
Speaker 3:You want these people really thinking about this is the full dimensionality of what I'm going for, because the more emotions we can attach to their goals when things get hard, when there's tough political news and tough economic news and tough job news and there's temptation to spend on things we want today but need to defer that to get a bigger thing tomorrow.
Speaker 3:Those sights and smells and all those things will cause them to stay motivated to achieve that goal and that's why I think it's just so important to have that personal relationship. And one of the things, too, is whether somebody listening right now maybe they feel stuck in their job and they're not in their own business and they feel like they are in my situation, like I was as a 26 year old. They're waiting for that evaluation, waiting for that raise. And one of the things that I feel really passionate about, tony, is helping people earn the money they deserve and we put together actually it's a free guide, but the people who use it all of them report that if they use it and follow the steps, are making more money. And do you mind if I share that just super quick?
Speaker 2:Oh, yes, and then if you can share a link after, I'll make sure to put it in the show notes.
Speaker 3:Yeah, just in a moment of shameless self-promotion. The link is called gettheraseyouwantcom Gettheraseyouwantcom and the purpose of that is it's a free guide and it's about eight or nine pages, but it walks people through based on what occupation they're in, what to say, what to do and how to set a goal with your boss to get a meaningful raise and not have to settle for just the 4% or the cost of living, because you're never going to get wealthy that way. Many people, I feel like, are underpaid. But once you realize that your boss's favorite radio station is WIIFM which is what's in it for me and once you realize that and you're helping the company either save money, make money or help the business grow, and you have a strategy to do that, then you can get a pretty sizable raise if you know what to do. But it's gettheraseyouwantcom.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so speaking of that, especially, you know, I think, for women, who you know have a gender pay gap, is, you know, especially urge women to go out? There is, is, what would you say to women to encourage them to ask for what they're worth if they're struggling with?
Speaker 3:that. Going back to the money belief and I want to make sure that you mentioned women, so we'll focus on that in this example Having these women ask themselves do they feel themselves as worthy to make more money, do they feel confident in making more money? And I hope all of them resoundedly say yes, but don't make this mistake. Say yes, but don't make this mistake. The mistake many people make is they knock on the boss's door and they either A demand a raise Look, I'm underpaid, I need to make more money or they do B, which is almost equally worse. You know, I did some research and, based on my role, I'm underpaid by this. You should be paying more money. Well, basically, that's in the past. Most bosses don't care about paying you to make up for the past. This is all about defining a plan for your future and how do you help the company grow in the future. So here's what this would look like is in your current job, let's say someone listening right now is you might be the assistant to the sales manager, you might be the vice president, general manager, whatever your role is, ask yourself, in your current role right now in the company, what could you do to help the company make money, save money or grow the business in your current role, and then the guide I put together walks you through how to do that. But then what you want to do is come up with a game plan of taking that to your boss and say, hey, I love working here and I want to make more money. But I know to do that, I need to help you and the company make more money. Here's an action plan I've put together and I want to review this with you. Well, first of all, your boss will have never heard that before, because nobody ever thinks like an entrepreneur inside of their company. You're going to stand out just for that. But B, most importantly, your boss are going to walk through this and say, look, here are these ideas, tell me how you feel about these ideas, and whatever they say you might say back, let's do this. I want to test this for a month. I want to let's work on this, and after a month or 60 days or 90 days whatever it is that the boss is comfortable with at that point then I want to talk about a prearranged salary increase. So that way it's set. Now you know, here is the goal I'm working toward and they know you're going to be working toward this and then you're going to be setting up a review with your boss, probably every week or every two weeks, to review your progress.
Speaker 3:So what happens out of this is there's a game plan, you're communicating more with your boss, deepening that relationship and even if you don't achieve all the goals, they will know how serious you are and you just become a more valued person on the team. So, whether you're female or male, regardless, the key is, I believe everyone should have the ability to earn what they deserve. But the key is when you're helping the company first and they recognize that, then they want to help you Because, let's say, for example, you find a way to make the company an extra $10,000. Well, a smart business owner or boss will say, well, sure, I'll give you 5% of that or 10% of that, because every dollar you're making us, we're giving you a dime or 20 cents.
Speaker 2:That is really really good, roi that's awesome, you know, and I think you said something there that we should stress everyone should get paid what they're worth. And I think the other thing you said that I think is super important and I know I've used this in past employer situations is you have to talk about how it's going to benefit the employer. Everybody in any kind of human transaction always wants to know what's in it for them. That's right, as you mentioned, and that's amazing advice. So, derek, I want to run through some of the what I call the already questions, which are those I ask every guest. The first one is what basic money concept do you wish people knew?
Speaker 3:I think the basic concept and this is I always like to keep things simple with my clients when I have my practice, but investing rule number one is follow consumer behavior. So so many people don't feel like they're confident as an investor and I would tell them, I would tell them, with teaching their kids, with investing for themselves, do one of two things ask yourself what products or services do I like? I'll ask this when I speak at high schools. I'll ask the students hey, what types of shoes or shirts or phones do you like? Apple, adidas, nike, whatever it is? I said, well, do you think that if you like Apple, adidas, nike, whatever it is? I said, well, do you think that if you like those brands, that other teenagers around the world like them as well? And they all say yes, well, so let's buy a stock in one of those companies. And I'll say the same thing to adults, for example.
Speaker 3:This is one that might cut close to home to some of our listeners right now, but I'm a big fan of, for example, novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly. You know big weight loss areas and so, as I see people I know that are losing weight, they appear to be having success the way that I can best celebrate them now. This may sound funny, tony, is I give them a high five, then I go buy the stock. Okay, that way I'm making money as I'm celebrating them, losing weight. Or I might go buy some Nvidia stock because I love AI, I mean. All of these are examples and again, check with your advisor about what's appropriate for you. But the bottom line is, when people are using products and services a lot, those are good first steps to invest. But also, looking at some of the ETFs, again, we just want to keep investing simple. The simpler it is, the more likely people will take action and actually learn to enjoy it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 100%. That's great tips and I know that was a rule Peter Lynch followed. For those people who remember Peter Lynch and Fidelity Magellan, one of the most successful mutual fund managers, he talked about the same principle. Just a quick caveat for everybody watching and listening this does not constitute investment advice. We are not making any securities recommendations. Sorry, just got to throw that out there.
Speaker 3:Yep, that's exactly right. Yeah, check with your advisor, of course. Yep, yep yep.
Speaker 2:So, derek, what is one simple?
Speaker 3:thing people can do each year to set themselves up for financial success? Well, I'll tell you this question. I take this question personally. So on New Year's Eve morning every year for the past 15 years, I have held a family goal-setting meeting with my family. We have four kids. When we first did this, the kids would moan and groan and they probably threw stuff at me, but I would walk them through a goal-setting exercise of setting one business goal, personal goal, financial goal, physical fitness goal, all those types of goals, and I had it back in their handwriting when they were younger. And we've done this now every single year.
Speaker 3:I Believe the single most important thing people can do is to write goals of what they want every year and then to supercharge that, write it on a note card, like I do with my family, and Keep one copy by your nightstand and one copy in the center console of your car. And the reason for that is life will come at you fast. You know, we know that psychologists tell us that the average person experiences three to four crises per year, which seems like a lot, interrupted by the occasional emergency. So what that means is that all of our lives are like a roller coaster we're either coming out of a crisis or about to go into one, and once you accept that that is life, it makes it more palatable. So, without goals, you're simply a passenger on someone else's roller coaster, and I can't let that happen. I can't settle for that for you. By you setting goals, then you own the roller coaster and you get to own the speed at which the ride operates. That's what you deserve.
Speaker 2:Well, that's awesome, and I want to go back to what you started out with is having a family goal setting meeting. Now I urge people to have family financial meetings. A family goal setting meeting Now I urge people to have family financial meetings. Same thing is there's a couple of things. Is you know, you're communicating with your significant other about your money which is super important because that's a leading cause of divorce is money arguments but you're also teaching your kids about money and having real financial literacy conversations. Like you said, your kids are reflecting back on their goals from prior years, so it's an important financial literacy conversation. So, derek, what money myth are you trying to break?
Speaker 3:Oh, money myth would be that only a select few people can become wealthy, and the biggest money myth is that, well, there's a finite amount of money and I probably will not get much of it. When I hear people say that, it really makes me angry, because what we find is that money flows where value goes, and if someone comes up with this ingenious idea, suddenly they become wealthy. The money comes from somewhere and it's actually coming from other people who want to buy that product or service. And so what I would just tell people is once you have an idea I mean I would tell my kids this when they were younger, but I've been telling myself this recently, just in a moment of vulnerability whatever I can conceive and believe I can achieve, I will achieve, I must achieve, and it does sound sort of cheesy on the surface, but it's a reminder of what I say to myself and what I believe dictates my future.
Speaker 3:You know, a good friend of mine told me a story recently and he took gymnastics lessons as a kid and it was as he described in his words. It was this larger kind of German woman, a thick German accent, and he would. She would say Bill, where the head goes, the body will follow. Where the head goes, the body will follow. That sounds so simple, but it's so true. I mean, obviously, in gymnastics you put your head down to tuck in for a somersault, your legs are going to flop right over. But in terms of how we live our lives as adults and with money, where your head goes, your body will follow. What you believe and what you take in and the things you read and the people you talk to will lead you to be successful in the best version of you, or the one you wish you could get to, and you're frustrated because you can't get there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's awesome. Advice is you know that the mindset and how you think about things is going to have a huge impact not only on your financial life but, you know, on the rest of your life, because money is related to everything. So you know, let's get out the time machine for a minute. What advice would you give your younger self if you could go back in time, knowing what you know now about money? Younger self, if you could go?
Speaker 3:back in time, knowing what you know now about money. Well, so growing up I was teased a lot, tony, just to be honest with you, about my nose. My nose is larger than the national average and in junior high and high school they let me know about it and it really impacted my self-esteem. And so when I graduated high school and went into college, if I had had a better view of myself and been more confident, that would have helped me. Now I did overcome that and it's kind of funny because I I convinced myself that the size of my nose determined the size of my bank account, and it was a good reminder that you know everything's bigger in Texas, so we're just going to roll.
Speaker 3:But what I would tell myself would be to bet on myself that there's always going to be two stories. One story is I wish I would have done that, even though I might have failed, versus. I wonder what could have happened if I had tried to do that. Both stories might end the same way, but one of them at least. You bet on yourself and it's a more fun story to tell and to learn from.
Speaker 2:I love that. I wonder what would have happened if I tried. I tried because I think so often. You know, we just don't think about it. We think that negative thing or what you were talking about earlier. We get caught up in the crisis of the day and we don't fully think about that.
Speaker 2:And you know it gets back to what you were talking about earlier is helping your goals, and if your goal is truly important to you and you're invested in the goal, like you were talking about with the smells and the sounds, you're going to be much more likely to stick with the goals, because there are goals. And I think the other thing about goals, too, is they have to be your goals, not your financial advisor's goals. I think that's really important, and I think that gets back to what you were talking about before is advisors need to listen and not project their goals on the clients, and listen to what the clients actually want to achieve. So this is awesome stuff. So, Derek, what is your favorite money resource? Whether it's a podcast, book, newsletter, app or website? What's your number one recommendation?
Speaker 3:Well, there's a book I like, and the reason I call it a resource is it is so simple. And one of the things that holds people back, I believe and in my experience working with clients for 25 years is they feel like there's this secret code or this vault where all the money secrets are hidden and unfortunately they don't have the code to get into it. So my favorite book is called the Richest man in Babylon by George Clayson. It's a small, thin book written back, I think maybe in 1960 or so, but it's a series of fables of a guy back in old Babylon and he's teaching money lessons throughout the book and one of my favorite lessons is a portion of all you make is yours to keep, in other words, the principle of paying yourself first. And it also talks about risk, how the essential mantra is fortune favors the bold.
Speaker 3:You know one of my favorite movies it reminds me it was a movie called Bohemian Rhapsody, a movie about the rock group Queen, and they're in this recording studio and they want to do some more riskier type of recording that other people haven't done and the producer really squashes. He says Derek. You know, he didn't say Derek, he said to the band members there's a formula that we follow for songs and it's a proven formula. And you know, the band members said look, we want to do something different. And one of their members said fortune favors the bold. And they went on to be highly successful because they were bold. People questioned them and people made them feel misunderstood, but fortune tends to always favor the bold.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love that. Well, I love that movie. It's a fantastic movie. Whether or not you're a big Queen fan, it's just a story. But, as you point out, you know, and the title of the movie, one of their most famous songs, bohemian Rhapsody, is like no other song that had ever been before and I don't think there's been any other song like it since, you know and didn't it? If I remember right, it took them a long time to record it, just to get it right, didn't it?
Speaker 3:It did, and it didn't do well when it first came out. You know their songs, kind of like the movie some of your audience may recognize Shawshank Redemption. That movie was a similar vein where it came out, but it really developed more of a cult-like following years later, much like Bohemian Rhapsody did. And I think that's a lesson too, that sometimes the most successful ideas are not overnight successes. There's a lot of overnights until you actually achieve success on many of the best ideas.
Speaker 2:I love that the most successful ideas are not always overnight successes. I'm making a note of that because I want to make sure I get that in the show notes for everyone. That's awesome. So, derek, to wrap up, what is your number one tip on changing the way we think about money?
Speaker 3:I think it's important to tie a cause to your cash and to insert meaning to your money. You know one of the things when I wrote my book Good Money Revolution, there was this voice and culture saying money is bad and if you have a lot of money, well, you're a bad person. If you want to have a lot of money, that's wrong and I completely disagree with that. I want to tell people good money in the hands of good people gets good work done. And what we find is that so many people I would say this with my own clients is they would be scrolling social media or they would see in the media or hear from different people that if you just had a million dollars or two million dollars, then you're going to be happy. We found people who would work all their lives to get to that level, thinking they would achieve what they wanted, and then they hit it one day and realized I'm not any happier than I was before. I don't feel fulfilled at all, and I thought that is just wrong for them to live their lives and save and scrimp and make sacrifices, hoping to achieve happiness based on a dollar amount in their bank account, and what we found was the medicine for that was to connect meaning to your money, and what I mean by that is that, instead of waiting until you have in your mind a lot of money, pick a cause that you care about right now. It might be back when you were young. It could be an issue right now. The three questions I would ask is what's a cause you care about, what's wrong in the world you want to right, or what's an injustice? You see that you say that's just not right Could be in your community, could be around the world. For me, I love investing in the lives of young people. When I was in high school, no successful business people ever came back to my high school and gave me a glimpse of what life could be like in the real world. I said that's not right. I want to do something to correct that. I don�t want to repeat that story. So, whatever your cause is, I would encourage you to start giving some money now to that cause, because what we find is that the joy that brings you as you�re giving money to a cause. It could be $50 a month, $100 a month. The dollar amount doesn't matter. It's the fact that you're doing it and you're impacting lives. Now. You see, if you wait until you think you have quote more money, lives will not be impacted because you're waiting. There's a cost of waiting there. What we find in my book talks about this is the more joy you have from giving motivates you to want to make more money, and then the more money you're making, you want to give more because of how great it makes you feel. So the point is my goal.
Speaker 3:If you take one thing from this interview with Tony and I, I want that when your head hits the pillow tonight, you have lived a day of meaning, knowing that you have impacted others, people on their deathbed. All the movies depict the moment where the main character says I wish I would have done this. I wish I would have lived differently. I don't want that for anybody listening. I want people to live a day of meaning every single day of their life, whether you're working for someone or for yourself, when you have a cause you care about. Suddenly, for some reason, giving to others takes the eye off of your own problems and makes your problems lesser, because you're helping solve other people's problems, and I think it's a deep-seated need. We all have to make sure that our life mattered and that we made other people's lives better because we lived.
Speaker 2:That is awesome and that's a great way to close the show. Live a day of meaning every single day of your life. I love that. So, Derek, where can people learn more about you, connect with you and pick up a copy of Good Money Revolution?
Speaker 3:Yeah, great, great. Well, you can download the free guide gettheraseyouwantcom. We want to help people start making more money that they deserve right away. And then my website is derrickkenneycom. D-e-r-r-i-c-k-k-i-n-n-e-ycom. There's free resources there. There's also a link to buy the book on Amazon there as well. And again, my goal is we want to make money super simple. So many people feel like they've been left behind. We want to get them caught back up and move them ahead. That's the number one goal.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. Well, derek, thanks for being here today joining us on the Get Ready Money podcast.
Speaker 3:My pleasure. Thank you, Tony, for having me. I really enjoyed it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is a lot of fun, and thank you, as always, everyone, for tuning in this episode of the Get Ready Money podcast. If you learned something today to change the way you think about money, please be sure to subscribe and tell a friend. Until next time, let's change the way we think about money.
