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Redefining Wealth & Living Purposefully (with Deborah Meyer) · The Daily Writer

• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Hey friends, welcome to episode 83 of the Born to Create Podcast.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Kent Sanders and I'm an author, professor, and creative consultant.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: This is the show where we explore the mindset, habits, and skills to help you make a bigger impact in your life and creative work.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Whenever you hear the word wealthy, what image comes to mind?
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Do you picture somebody living in a huge mansion on a hill surrounded by fancy cars and butlers?
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Does the word wealthy create a negative picture whenever you hear it?
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: Are there other ways to be wealthy besides just with your finances?
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Well, money is a sensitive topic, especially for artists and creative entrepreneurs.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: But my guest today helps give us a broader and a much needed perspective on this important topic.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: Her name is Deborah Meyer, and she is the author of the fantastic new book Redefining Family Wealth A Parent's Guide to Purposeful Living.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Deb is a CPA slash PFS, which means a certified public accountant slash personal financial specialist as well as a fee-only certified financial planner.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: She is also the owner of Worthy Nest, which is an independent advisory firm dedicated to helping parents build wealth, and is the owner of SVCPA services, which provides accounting and tax services to entrepreneurs.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Deb is St.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: Louis University's School of Business 2019 Distinguished Young Alumni and a recipient of the 2018 AI CPA Standing Ovation Award for Personal Financial Planning.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: Deb has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Yahoo Finance, and CNN Business, and is a regular contributor to Kiplinger.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Outside of work, Deb spends time with her husband Brian and three sons.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: So as you can see, Deb knows what she's talking about when it comes to finances.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: And as a first time author, she is well qualified to talk about the creative process of writing a book.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: And we explore both of those topics on this episode, and we'll dive into some specifics such as why Deb wrote her new book, Redefining Family Wealth, what it means to redefine the word wealthy, and the value of living purposefully, how the message of the book can help creative entrepreneurs, why wealth is just a tool to help achieve your family's goals and help others, and much more.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: So check out the show notes at KentSanders.net slash podcast zero eight three.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's podcast zero eight three whenever you're finished listening to the episode.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now before we get into the conversation with a deb I want to mention a couple of things.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, I would love for you to check out our Facebook group called Born to Create.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: You can access that by going to KentSanders.net slash Facebook group.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's KentSanders.net slash Facebook group.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: And that will redirect you right to the Facebook group.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: The purpose of this group is to help you on your creative journey.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's a small intimate group.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: There's less than a hundred people there, but I'd love to get us up to a hundred as soon as possible to kind of just get over that 100 member hump.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: It is really a lot of fun to interact with people there, so make sure and check that out because the creative journey is not meant to be traveled alone.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I'd love for you to check that out.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: Now let's get on to our listener question segment.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: This is a question submitted by Carol Stein, and you can find her blog at addicted to joy.blog.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: Carol asks, How can I help ensure that more people see my blog posts?
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: And Carol, that is a phenomenal question.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm really glad that you're concerned about more people seeing your writing.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of writers just put their stuff out there online or on Facebook or they write stuff and they just stick it in a drawer and they hope that by chance somebody might see their stuff somewhere down the road.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I love the fact that you are concerned about doing some things to help your writing get in front of more eyeballs.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: And this is really the fundamental question that all of us deal with as writers.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: How do we get more readers?
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I want to give you some suggestions today that are really practical and doable.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: But before we get into some practical tips, let me share this with you.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: I want to ask you this question, and this is really a question for all of our listeners, and that's this What is the end goal that you want readers to have with your content?
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: So your overall goals might include speaking, selling books, doing workshops, selling online courses, selling in-person courses or events or experiences.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: So whatever those goals are that you have as a writer, there's one thing that you need that will definitely help all those goals, and that is having an email list.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: And having an email list of subscribers is really important because where you want to be is in readers' email inboxes.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: For example, you can put something on Facebook and only a small percentage of your followers or friends on Facebook are going to see it.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: You can put something on social media and only a small percentage of the people who follow you on whatever platform it is are going to actually see that.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: You can send stuff out through a paper newsletter, but that's expensive and very time consuming and very old school.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: You can get stuff out there in a whole bunch of different ways, but the most effective way, I believe, to get in front of readers' eyeballs is by an email list.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: So everybody checks their email.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody has multiple email accounts.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: Most people have their email set up on their phone.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: So the most certain way that you can have of getting in front of your readers is by developing an email list where you email stuff out on a regular basis because they're going to more than likely see that email.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: They may not always engage with it, but they're definitely going to see it.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: You're going to have a much higher engagement rate over email than you will with something like social media.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to suggest that you use an email marketing service like MailChimp to develop an email list.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: And then you have a place on your blog where readers can subscribe to this list.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to go through all the technical details here, but the basic end result of all that process is that you can send your post, your blog post or email newsletters or whatever you want to send to them, you can send that directly to them via email, in addition to having those things on your blog.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a great way to repurpose your content.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: A great way to capture potential subscribers is by offering something in exchange for their email address.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: So for example, if you go to my website, you'll see a pop-up that right now it says get a free guide.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's 21 time hacks for writers.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm actually getting ready to change that very soon.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: But anytime that you go to my website, you're going to see some kind of a pop-up or message that says, hey, if you give me your email address, I'll give you this guide or this PDF or this collection of resources in exchange for that.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: And that is simply called a lead magnet.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: And with a lead magnet, you're focusing on solving a specific problem for your readers.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: So, Carol, your blog is all about finding joy.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe putting together a simple sheet or a simple ebook about 25 ways to find joy in your everyday life or something like that could be really, really helpful.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: When you put together a lead magnet to get subscribers to an email list, you want it to be something that is a no-brainer for them.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: So focus on solving a problem or giving them something that they perceive as valuable in exchange for getting that email address.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in addition to setting up a lead magnet and an email list, I would suggest a few other ways as well that you can get more eyeballs on your content.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: One is that you can promote your blog post on social media.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: But you have to be careful with that because you don't want to constantly be putting your blog post out there on social media and not put anything else.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you do that day after day or week after week, people are going to honestly get kind of annoyed with that, and they're going to perceive that as a place where you're just kind of trying to get them to do something instead of always adding value.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: So be careful about not posting your blog post or other content like that too often on Facebook or other social media.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: The idea there is not to promote yourself, but to add value by giving people valuable content.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully that makes sense.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, you can get active in Facebook groups and other networking communities with like-minded people.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: So the idea here is you join a Facebook group or you join some other community around your topic, and you go there and you start to become helpful to those people.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: If people ask questions in a Facebook group, then you just answer their questions and try to be a person who's known for adding value and for answering questions and for helping other people.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: Once you do that enough, then they're going to be interested in what you do.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: So the principle here is always that you're going to give before you receive.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: Strategy number three is you can guess post on other people's blogs in order to grow your audience.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: For example, you could write a post for my site and you could figure out a way to blend your topic with mine.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: So your topic is joy, my topic is creativity.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe doing a post something like how to find joy in the creative process, or three ways to find joy whenever you're stressed.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: Something like that where you're taking your topic and you're finding a way to frame your topic for the audience that you're writing for when you do a guest post.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: And that can be a really effective way to then get more subscribers on your email list and get more eyeballs on your blog posts.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: Strategy number four is that you can write for large websites that feature a variety of authors.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: Let's say something like Thrive Global or Huffington Post.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: And then strategy number five, and this is really simple, and this is kind of old school, but that's okay, is that you can have some business cards made up with your logo on them or your website tagline or whatever else you want to put on there.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: And make sure you put your email address and your website address, of course.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: Just make up those business cards and hand them out to people at the appropriate time.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: What you don't want to do is go somewhere and just start throwing out your business cards like NinjaStars.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: Recently I went to a networking event, and the first thing that one of the people there did was to give me their business card, and they tried to get me to sign up for their business and become interested in what they were selling.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: And it was really kind of off-putting because I thought, wow, that's that's crazy.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: You're not even I don't even know you, so why would I want to be interested in what you're doing?
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: So the principle there with business cards is give those out at the proper time.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but there is a time and a place to do that.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it's good to just always have some business cards with you in case people ask for them or in case you have an opportunity to then give them your card and let people know what you're writing about or or what you're doing.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: So those are some really practical strategies.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: And the most important thing that I mentioned in all this response here was the email list.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's really critical to set up an email list.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: So give this some thought and pick one of these tactics, give them a try, and let me know what happens.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: So, Carol, thanks so much for your question, and I will be sending you an ebook, an audiobook version of my book, The Artist Suitcase.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: And for everybody else listening, if you have a question about the creative life, habits, mindset, productivity, or writing, you can submit it by going to KentSanders.net slash podcast and filling out the form on that page, and that will come right to my email.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: Or you can just shoot me an email directly at Kent at KentSanders.net.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: And if I use your question on the show, I'll send you a free digital and audio copy of my book, The Artist Suitcase.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: All right, let's get right to the conversation with my friend, Deb Meyer.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: Deb, thanks for making the time to be on the show today.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: I've been looking forward to this for a long time, and I really appreciate you making time to do this.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate it, Ken.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: So you have a book coming out.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: I think the official launch date is in two days from when we're recording this.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: So this interview will actually come out next week.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: So this will only be like a little over a week previous to when it's coming out that we're recording this.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: So I know you're really excited about this book launch.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: Give us kind of a summary of this book, maybe talk about why you wrote it and how you hope that it'll impact people.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the book itself came about in 2017.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: I had uh gone through a lot of uh personal turmoil that summer, and I went to a writing conference, uh, our mutual friend Jeff Gowens uh called Tribe, and I realized at that time that God was really putting it on my heart to write this book.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_01: I've taken a lot of my experience both as a CPA, financial planner, and mom and Christian, and put that into this book.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_01: So really the inspiration behind it was to help people not only have the right guidance for accumulating wealth and just money and financial wealth, but look at wealth outside of that context and think about some of the bigger life questions.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's really hard as parents, I think, to um find the time to be intentional about what some of our higher calling or purpose is.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: And this book gives them a chance to go through some of those questions, visioning exercises and establishing goals that support that vision, looking at their personal values and the values that they want to pass on to their kids.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_01: So it's um the book's, you know, trying to accomplish a lot of things, but that's really the the core thesis behind it.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: No, I love it.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's really a really good book.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: That's not very good grammar.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's really a really good book.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: I say really a lot, but I do want to compliment you on producing a really excellent book.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: And now I pay attention to things like you know the interior layout, the cover design, and all that stuff.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: Because all those things I think are important from a creative standpoint.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: So congrats on producing, not just writing a really good book, but producing a great looking book.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's important.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: So nice job.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: Very nice job.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_01: I I can't give take all the credit myself.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_01: I did have uh some help.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_01: So I self-published, but I hired a company to help me with some of those decisions on the design, both interior and exterior.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_01: And they went through many different rounds of uh edits.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: So they had the content edit and the copy edit and all kinds of things.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: So it's uh yeah, I I felt good about the product I was putting out there, the finished book.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: So to me, that's the best of both worlds where you have some help, you know, creating your book or what whatever you're creating.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you get help from experts who really know what they're doing with graphics and design and all that stuff.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: But at the end of the day, you actually own your intellectual property as well.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: And you can do with it whatever you want.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: You're free to to do with it, you know, you're free to take it whatever direction you want to take it.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that's that's really a cool thing.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it was a blessing to find them.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: I uh went to a conference called FinCon last fall, really in search.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: I I knew I had the first draft nearly written.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: I was looking for other people to partner with.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I found Julie Broad of Book Launchers and she had a vendor booth, and we talked, and it was just like, oh yeah, this this makes a lot of sense.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_01: So nice having that.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: I do want to dive into kind of your your process of writing the book and some things related to that.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: But before I do that, I want to talk for a few minutes about the actual content and the ideas in the book.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this is a very dense book, and by by dense, I don't mean boring or dry, but I mean there's a lot of content and ideas, um, just a lot of helpful things.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: You have packed a lot of concepts into this book, and I feel like, but I don't feel like they're disjointed.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like you give a very holistic and thoughtful approach to family wealth planning, which is not an easy thing to do.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: And you've mixed it in with a lot of stories and illustrations, so it's a very fun book to read, very pleasant, but very helpful.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: So that's not an easy thing to do with a book on that topic, I know.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, I I didn't want to put it into the perfect personal finance category when I was writing it.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted to look at it, okay, when when you're thinking about wealth, financial wealth is the thing that comes to mind first.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_01: But what is that other context beyond financial wealth?
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: What's the human and social capital that you are uniquely qualified to bring, not only to your immediate family, but broader community and even the world?
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_01: So it's um yeah, it's it's taking a lot of pretty dense concepts and trying to make it more relatable and personable.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: So that's why I include a lot of stories as well.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: So when you talk to Christians or other people of faith, whatever label you want to put on it, do you ever get pushback from people on this idea of building wealth, you know, having financial assets and so forth?
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: Or do you think pretty much across the board people understand that that is actually a good thing?
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a lot of things you can do with money, and you're very limited without financial um resources and so forth.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: Or what do you ever get any pushback on that concept?
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of Christian communities believe that money is the root of all evil.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_01: And to be perfectly honest, you know, that scripture verse, I I look at it in a different framework.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_01: I say the love of money is the root of all evil.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: So if that becomes your God, yes, that's a dangerous and slippery slope.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: But I think there's ways to build wealth, monetary wealth, without letting that become your God.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what this book lays out.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's that framework to try and figure out okay, how can I live true to my uh values as a Christian who loves God and puts him first and still experience this realm of wealth here on earth.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_01: That that's really what you know, the book in a nutshell.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: I do think it's interesting that you know, a lot of people quote the verse about the love of money is the root of all evil, but money is also the root of a lot of good.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of things, a lot of things happen because of money.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: And if you don't have any money, you're extremely limited as to the good that you can do in the world because doing good takes resources, which takes money.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, there are resources you can give if you don't have a lot of money.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, you could be volunteering your time or figuring out other ways to give back to the community.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: But um, and and I do stress that in the book as well, using that as opposed, you know, especially for families that might have some monetary wealth, but also just really want to fully serve the Lord, making sure they're volunteering their time in the best use possible, and then also bringing their kids into that as well.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but you know, I think the notion behind having that financial wealth and resources available to give to causes beyond ourselves, that's incredibly important.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_01: So if I'm making more money this year as an entrepreneur, I'm not feeling like, oh gosh, I'm gonna, you know, be sent to hell.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just saying, okay, now I have more to tithe, more to give, and support these ministries that I care deeply about.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: And speaking as somebody who works at a you know, at a college, a place, a Christian college, a place where we have a a large percentage of our budget is just based on donations and by the goodwill and the generosity of other people.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: So I I'm speaking as somebody who actually, you know, appreciates that.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: And we actually had a situation a few months ago we had a a big sort of gathering at the school, and somebody gave a matching gift of$60,000.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like if our offering was$60,000, they were going to match it.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: And they and that actually happened.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I thought, man, I wanna, in my life, I want to make it my goal to be that guy who can just give a gigantic matching gift.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that's a pretty cool thing.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_01: One of the families I've worked with, uh, you know, they were very blessed.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, the husband went into a good career field as a doctor, and he found that they lived very frugally and they had a lot of extra to give above and beyond that 10% tithe.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: So for them, you know, giving$100,000 a year to charity was was within realm, and they can still work towards these other financial goals.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_01: And that that was just such an inspiration and role model to me as a planner to see this level of generosity.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_01: So it was really, really impactful for me when I first became acquainted with this family.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: So a lot of people listening to this show are creative entrepreneurs.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: In my mind, that's who the show is geared toward.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: I define that pretty broadly.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it could be somebody who's doing music or painting or writing or trying to build a business of any kind because creativity is involved in all those realms.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: If somebody is really drowning, let's say, in debt or maybe they just lost their job, and the last thing that they can emotionally think about is building wealth, where would somebody like that start?
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: Let's say somebody who is ground zero or below ground zero, maybe they're just drowning financially.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: Where are some places they could start to begin thinking about all these things?
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think a lot of it is going back to some mindset around money.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_01: If if you grew up in a tough childhood and you have some stumbling block of what money can do, I feel people that come from very poor childhoods, they go one of two directions.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_01: They, when they are finding some financial wealth opportunities later in life, they either spend frivolously because they're like, well, I didn't have this when I was growing up, or they're really trying to find a way to um just replace that level, like there's such a gaping hole in their heart of having that hardship that it's hard for them to move into positive territory and mindset around money.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_01: So I think number one is just figuring out what is your money mindset before.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Before you even start looking at tangible ways to build wealth.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_01: Then you can kind of move into the goals.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: What are you really after here?
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_01: Are you trying to pay off debt?
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_01: Are you building an emergency fund?
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: What are those higher aspirations that you're working towards over the next one, two, or three years?
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_01: And then there's tactics to actually get there.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: So that's where I come in as a financial planner is helping people, once they've formulated their vision and goals, then I'm helping them come in and say, okay, here's how we're actually going to get there.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: Here's a roadmap and leading people step by step.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_01: So those three things I think are really impactful no matter what the situation is.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_01: But especially for creative entrepreneurs, there's so much overlap between personal and business finances as you're building what you know, if if it's a business or just trying to sell your art or music, whatever it is, you're still essentially a business owner because it's your product or service that you're offering to others, and you don't know how successful that may or may not be.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_01: So it can be difficult to budget for the business, but also just realize before you even go on that venture and make it your full-time role, figure out what you need to live on and provide for your family, and then start to fill in those gaps and see what you have as available additional resources.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_01: One of the other ideas I have, and I think you're doing this really well, is kind of figuring out these side hustles.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you have your core position that you're paid to do, maybe in a specific salary, but figure out what are some of the other things that really bring me alive internally that I have, and not a lot of other people have that unique gift.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_01: And just take these tangible steps to day by day get a little bit closer to that goal of making that maybe your full-time gig down the road or full-time job.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know what's been interesting about my side hustles is that that, well, I'm doing too many, I'm doing too big of a variety of things right now, I would say.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: But it's funny the way that you get clients, I don't know if this has been your experience, but sometimes clients just come out of pla they come from places that you weren't expecting, either from relationships with others or they just kind of come out of the blue.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: And like the channels of marketing and advertising and things that you're doing that you think will bring clients sometimes don't always bring clients as much as you think, but they do come from other places just because of relationships and networking.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: Has that been your experiences too?
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_01: It has to a certain extent.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_01: I think uh, you know, when I first started my firm where they nest uh back in 2016, I knew I was starting with zero clients.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_01: So I had plenty of experience as a financial planner, but I didn't have uh an existing client base because the firm I worked at before had a lot of um very affluent families, and I I didn't really, that's not who I was called to serve.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_01: So I basically said, okay, what do I feel comfortable doing personally?
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm more of an introvert.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_01: I do not enjoy going to bigger networking events or being the center of attention.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um I'd rather be, you know, just having that small conversation with one person, really going deep in the conversation with them.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_01: And for me, it was all about how am I going to reach others in a positive way and still stay true to who I am internally.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_01: And in that particular case, that's how I started writing.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_01: I I had never really written anything to the public up until 2016.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_01: So here I am a couple of years later, and I have a book.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_01: Uh it just it turned into this passion.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I I was very blessed that someone at XY Planning Network took notice of some of my early blog articles and they suggested me for one of the Kiblinger contributors.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_01: So I was able to start writing for Kiblinger.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um anytime I wanted to submit an article, they would edit it and publish it.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_01: And that was a huge thing for me, just building that business.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_01: So again, I found people in that way, and I wasn't really knowing what it would look like when I first signed up for that.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_01: I just kind of said, okay, this is a great opportunity, let's take it.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_01: And I've had a couple of clients come from that, but not a lot.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I've had a few clients come from social, well, not really.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_01: I have put a lot of effort into social media because I figured, okay, online is where I want to be, and I haven't really seen that convert.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_01: So I, you know, I think it is just putting yourself out there in different realms and seeing what sticks.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_01: But as you said, it might be getting um just having those random relationships come into play uh that you connect with casually and you're not looking for it.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, I think that's really true.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: Just the idea of an opportunity comes up, you take it and just see what comes of it.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: So many times people uh and maybe I'm speaking of myself more than anything, but you kind of have this plan that you think you need to follow and you ignore everything that's not on your plan, but this opportunity comes up and you just go, well, that's sort of not in my schematic or my framework of things that I want to do, but you may be missing out something that's really cool.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's like so yeah, just this idea of something popped up on my radar screen that I wasn't anticipating, but I'm gonna jump into this and just see what happens.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: And for you, that sounds like it was the case with Kiplinger.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_01: It was, yeah, definitely.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_01: You never know where you're gonna find those opportunities.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but it's so true, especially today with so many opportunities online and in person, and there's just so many things happening, and I think it's really cool.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: So talk about the the backstory of the book a little bit, if you could.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: Uh a lot of people who listen to this show are writers and they're very interested in the process of how do you go from A to Z to writing a book.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: So you've walked through this uh a little bit a few minutes ago, but I'm interested specifically in okay, how did you go from not having a draft at all to writing your first draft?
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: Because I think that that is a super critical step in the whole process.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: You know, once you get a draft done and you have editors and cover designers and whatnot involved in the process, then it's kind of like it's a done deal, it's going to happen.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: But how long did it take you to write that first draft and and how did you actually do that on a like daily basis?
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, I um I think I mentioned in 2017, when I went to Jeff Gone's conference, that's where I really felt like this is something I need to do.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I wasn't in a position to start on the book right away at that point.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um I actually was planning a kind of crazy hiatus with my family.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_01: We went abroad for a couple of months and lived over there.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_01: And uh when we returned, that's when I was like, okay, I'm gonna get serious about starting this book.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_01: So it was April of 2018 when I said, let's get serious.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_01: And luckily, there was a special giveaway at Jeff's conference that I ended up winning again, opportunities that you just didn't expect.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_01: And it was one-on-one coaching with Jeff.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, he's written a couple of best-selling books.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_01: So I was so ecstatic that I had that opportunity to touch base with him.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_01: And he really coached me through the outline.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_01: So I by the time I was done working with Jeff, I already had a clear idea of every single chapter and one-page paragraphs to support each of those chapters.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_01: And at that point, I was like, okay, I think I'm good.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_01: I I'll I'll write the book.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I did.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_01: So he didn't hear again from me until I had the book finished, and I was like, Yeah, I'm I'm ready to put this out into the world.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_01: Do you want to take a look?
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_01: And he said, Yes.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_01: So it was really, really a blessing.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_01: But uh yeah, it was the the process of writing itself did take a little bit longer than I expected, but I just kept pushing forward.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_01: I said, okay, well, I know I'm going to FinCon or I know I'm going to the next tribe conference, whatever it is, and I want to be able to have that first draft done by the time I get there.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_01: That that was kind of my higher level goal.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_01: And then I just had to back into ways to make that work on a weekly basis.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_01: So I didn't end up doing daily writing.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_01: I found for myself it was actually easier to carve out a four-hour session, maybe one day a week, and just write.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_01: But I did that consistently week after week in that roughly five-month period.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_01: So it it ended up working out for my schedule.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_01: I just, because I'm running Worthiness, the investment advisory firm, and then I also have an accounting firm and a CPA by background, uh, it was just too hard for me to commit to that daily writing habit.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_01: So it it ended up working out pretty beautifully.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_01: I also find too when I start and stop something, it takes a lot of energy to shift into that new realm.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_01: So it was just nice to be able to say, this is my focused writing day, and and then maybe shift into something else for you know four hours or whatever.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: And you have kids too, and husbands.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: So that's an important aspect of it.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not like you can not like you can just write whenever you want to.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there there were a couple of times where I'm like, okay, it's the weekend, and I did not get to my writing goal during the work week.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_01: I would really love some time, and my husband was very supportive.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I told him I would not have this book written had he not been there to help uh with the kids and and making you know everything, everything work.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_01: And that was a big concern.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, when I felt called to do this, I realized I'm in a stage of life where I have a lot to give to my family outside of the businesses, and it it caused a lot of bit of you know, quite a bit of inner turmoil.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I even had my mom who I deeply confide in.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_01: She was just like, no, I think you're too busy.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_01: So she was not a cheerleader for me at all.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_01: And then now that it's done, she's like, okay, I'm glad you did it.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_01: There's no real right timing.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_01: And that was my point all along.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, okay, the kids are gonna get bigger.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know that our life is gonna slow down as they get bigger.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_01: They're just gonna be involved in more activities and you know, things like that.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, just there's no perfect time to create.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_00: There's not.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: And man, that is such a good lesson.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I'm gonna write that down.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_01: That's no perfect time to create.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_00: So can you talk for for a second?
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I actually hadn't anticipated on asking this question, but because you're a business person and a very thoughtful one, I know that you have a strategy for this book.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_00: So in other words, a lot of people write a book and they just go, well, I'm gonna write a book and I'm gonna have a book, and that's sort of the end goal of it is to have a book.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: But I know that in your mind, you have thought through, okay, I'm investing time, money, emotional energy into creating this this book, which is a product, you know.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: What are you hoping that that accomplishes strategically for your business?
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: Are you hoping that that brings in clients, uh, gives you more other opportunities for speaking, writing, coaching, whatever, you know, kind of a whole range of things.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: Is that kind of part of your overall business strategy?
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, when I uh started writing, it was one of those things where I didn't know exactly where it was going to take me.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I still don't know.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_01: I I, to be perfectly honest, I rely a lot on signs and confirmation from God that yes, this is the path he's calling me to.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_01: I I don't envision being a speaker who's on the road every single week just because it's unrealistic with my lifestyle at this point.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um my husband still works a full-time job, more than a full-time job, so it would be just too traumatic on our kids for me to take that kind of thing on.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_01: But I do on this book, does open some opportunities that wouldn't have been there had I not written it.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_01: So, for example, um, if I did want to migrate over into more of a coaching role and not just have to work with clients one-on-one, I could maybe offer some group coaching services.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_01: I set up a separate company for this book.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_01: So, from a compliance standpoint, I don't have any conflicts there on what I'm doing.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_01: I have very different business models for these two things.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_01: So the thought process with the book is eventually I'll have some online courses.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_01: I want it to help a lot of people.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_01: At the end of the day, it doesn't matter if that brings me more one-on-one relationships with clients.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's really, I want to find some impact for people that might not be able to hire me one-on-one.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_01: I want them to really pick up this book and say, wow, this changed me in a good way.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_01: And um and to have online courses that can kind of go deeper than each chapter in the book.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_01: Because the book's, you know, less than 200 pages.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_01: So it's not to go in the level of someone who might need or research or whatever the concept is, taking those um chapters apart and going deeper, that's that's the plan with redefining family wealth.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: Now, let me dig a little bit more into what you said about setting up a separate company for the book.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'm really intrigued by that.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: So you mean setting up a company just specifically to have your own imprint for the book?
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so basically I'll be an open book about or open about this.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um by self-publishing, one of the recommendations that book launchers had is to set up a separate publishing company so that I have its own logo and its own name, and I chose Chasing Grace Press.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_01: So technically I have a separate company.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_01: There, one of the DBAs is Chasing Grace Press.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_01: Another DBA doing business as is redefining family wealth.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm housing it under an LLC, but then just creating different DBAs depending on which thing it's going after.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_01: So right now I don't have a website for Chasing Grace Press, I just have the logo that's imprinted in the book.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_00: But see, I think that's a very smart business decision because you know, and and you have your own ISBN for this book, like you had to purchase those, or the company did.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_00: So now you can go to other printers, you know.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of people just go through Amazon and you're kind of stuck with whatever Amazon gives you as far as your ISBN and and so forth.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I love how you've done that because it gives you way more opportunities.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I agree.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_01: It's I I some of it was intentional, but some of it was just really following the guidance of book launchers and and Julie Broad, the the um founder of Book Launcher, she actually being a top seller on Amazon for you know sometime around her launch week.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_01: And then she's now coaching other authors on how to, you know, who are typically it's people who are already um entrepreneurs who have established businesses and then they want to do this book as well.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_01: So it's uh I it was really just following her guidance.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_01: But I I wanted to hear from the experts first before I kind of ventured out and just tried to figure it all out on my own.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_01: That was definitely cute.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_00: You saved a lot of time, I'm sure.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_01: It's still time consuming, no doubt.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_01: But it's yeah, it's definitely been nice just having a guided roadmap.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_00: So as we start to wind this down, let's dive into the topic of creativity a little bit.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_00: I would love to know what is one habit or practice that has contributed the most to your success?
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_01: Gosh, uh, I think the habit that's most contributed is just having the discipline to carve out that creative time.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_01: So what when I am faced with a busy schedule, I use Google Calendar as an example to just block all of my work days.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_01: And I have every Monday from three to five, I'm gonna write my next blog post.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_01: Uh when I was constructing the book, I had you know a set day each week that I was gonna spend at least four hours writing.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_01: So for me, it was just carving out that time intentionally in my schedule to be creative, or in my case, it's just writing as my kind of creative outlet.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_01: But um I also recognize that creativity can spark at other times.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_01: So if I'm out for a walk or I'm exercising just in the gym, I occasionally, you know, will be listening to a podcast and suddenly have like, oh my gosh, there's another aha moment.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_01: So I I think you just have to be open to having a little bit of structure around what that time is going to be each week for you, but also have the opportunity to see there might be some other things that pop up that are creative moments, and just making sure to write that down so you can follow up on it later during your more designated creative time.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_01: At least that's worked for me.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think that that's fantastic.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_00: Just the idea of scheduling your creative time.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_00: And just being disciplined with that and and seeing what happens.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_01: So can you talk about a Yeah, and I'm sure that goes against what a lot of other creative oh I'm sorry.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, no, no, no.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sure that goes a lot against what other creatives might be thinking.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_01: Because you know, most when I think of creative persons, I think, okay, they're just doing things on a whim.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_01: I never considered myself creative until I started writing, and then I was gonna do this.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_01: So I think having that kind of analytical brain has helped me in some regards getting a little bit more structure around the creative process.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_00: Well, structure is a good thing.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_00: You know, nothing really gets accomplished without structure.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_00: Can you talk about a creative disappointment that you've had in your life and how you dealt with it?
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, I think there have been times where I've just looked at the work I put out.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_01: And again, I feel like writing has come a little bit more naturally to me, but as a young child, I never felt like I was creative or special in that regard.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_01: Like it just wasn't even on my radar because I was like, I'm good at math, and that's about it.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_01: So I think it was just coming over that childhood fear that yes, I can be a creative person as well and still find fulfillment in some of these other outlets that weren't more of the traditional math science reading, whatever that you learn in school.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, school was always such an important part of my upbringing that I was like, I was clouded by that.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_01: And then as an adult, you know, there have been times where I write something and no one comments on it, no one likes it, nothing.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_01: And then I'm like, okay, they must have hated it.
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so just figuring out is there something that I need to change within the writing style to make it a little bit more appealing or get more engagement?
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_01: Or is it just literally something that they just didn't think to comment because I didn't ask them to comment and didn't yeah.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that's um I'm still a work in progress there trying to figure out what people like or don't like.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, as this book comes out, obviously I'm gonna have reviews, and that's very scary to think about the you know, even if I get a hundred positive reviews, that one negative review is probably gonna be uh difficult for me to handle.
• 42:19
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm more of a perfectionist, so just learning to get over that uh judgment when when others don't love your creative work.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's hard.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's really hard.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_01: But I'm I'm trying to get in there ready for battle.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_00: So one last question, actually two last questions.
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um Are there any particular books that throughout your creative life or throughout your business that have really impacted your mindset and the way that you think?
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Michael Hyatt's book, Living Forward, came out a couple of years ago, and that was very instrumental for me.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_01: Uh it's talking a lot about life planning.
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, I I felt at that point in time I was still just kind of drifting through life.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_01: Like I didn't have clearly defined plans for what I wanted my life to look like.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_01: I was just kind of going along with whatever opportunities arose.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_01: And going through those exercises really challenged me to think about how I can bring my unique gifts to others.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_01: And it it was a foundational point for me, again, in starting to write this book.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_01: It just grounded me and and helped me see a bigger vision than than the one I could see within myself.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'll have to check that one out.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't have not read that one, but it sounds great.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, up until this point, any of my new clients, uh virtually all of them, get a copy of that.
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_00: Nice.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_00: So well, this has been really fun.
• 43:59
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I've Appreciate you sharing so much about your writing process and about the topics included in the book.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_00: And man, I just really want to encourage everybody listening to get this book.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's so packed full of good stuff.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you for writing a for taking the time and effort to write a good book.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, thank you, Ken.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_01: I really appreciate it.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_00: How can our listeners best connect with you?
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_01: They can go to my website.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's redefiningfamilywealth.com.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_01: And there's all kinds of information there.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_01: You can click on the book tab if you're interested in ordering the book.
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_01: There's a blog section that's very detailed, even kind of separates out section by section one's foundation, another's goal setting, tactics, and then uh legacy is the final section.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_01: So that's another uh cool place.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Deb, thanks so much for doing this.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I appreciate you making time for it and appreciate your friendship and getting to know you the past few months as well.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_00: So this has uh been a lot of fun.
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_01: I really appreciate it too.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_00: I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Deb Meyer.
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_00: I had a lot of fun with our interview, and hopefully you enjoyed it as well.
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_00: Here are my three biggest takeaways from our conversation.
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, wealth is neither good nor bad, it's just a tool.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you are a Christian or a person of faith, this may be kind of a struggle for you to think about this concept because many times in the church world we talk about wealth or money in very negative terms.
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the Bible says that money is the root of all evil.
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_00: Or does it?
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's what people think that the Bible says.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible does not actually say money is the root of all evil.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_00: It says the love of money is the root of all evil.
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, money is just a tool, and loving money too much is really where the evil part comes in.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_00: Money can be used for good as well as it can be used for bad.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_00: Money and wealth are just tools that we can use to hurt others and to pursue selfish things, or we can also use them to serve others and create a better future for our families.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_00: So I really want you to think about that.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_00: I would really encourage you to get Deb's book because she goes into a lot of detail about this whole issue of thinking about wealth in a proper sense.
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, that's the whole idea of the book, redefining family wealth, because there's more ways to be wealthy than just having a lot of money.
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_00: So get the book and that'll walk you through a whole bunch of steps and processes and tons and tons of practical tips that can literally change your life.
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_00: As somebody who is digging my way out of debt, just to be totally transparent with you, I can attest that when you have debt in your life, it brings a lot of stress.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_00: But when you're not so worried about money, you can give more and you have more options in your life.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_00: So money and wealth are tools that can get us into trouble, or they can also do a lot of good in the world.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, stay true to yourself.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_00: I loved Deb's comment about staying true to who you are.
• 46:57
  SPEAKER_00: She was working on a job that she didn't enjoy, so she wanted to go a different direction.
• 47:01
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, if you listen to this podcast for a while, you'll see that this is oftentimes a theme with our interviews, that people were doing something that they didn't like, then they wanted to make a shift, now they're doing something that they love much more, and something where they're adding a lot more value to the world.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's a really common theme that is true for a lot of people on this podcast, and it's true for Deb as well.
• 47:22
  SPEAKER_00: There's this concept of taking control of your own life and determining your own destiny.
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I love the fact that she has started her own things.
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_00: She has a couple of businesses and she self-published this book, and there's a really vital principle there of taking control and having ownership over your own life.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're in a situation that you don't like, my question to you is what can you do to change it and start to go a different direction?
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_00: Be true to who you are and don't let other people control your destiny.
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_00: Number three, creativity follows a process.
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I hope that you were listening closely to what Deb said about how she actually wrote this book.
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Deb has a couple of small children, she runs a couple of businesses, she's very busy, she has clients, she has a busy life and all that, as many of you do as well, but she still managed to write a book.
• 48:13
  SPEAKER_00: So how did she do that?
• 48:14
  SPEAKER_00: Well, she talked about her process of blocking out, and I think she said it was four hour blocks of time on a weekly basis.
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_00: I may have the details of that wrong, I need to go back and listen to it again.
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_00: But the gist of it is that she just scheduled it on her calendar and made it happen.
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_00: Now that four-hour block of time may not work for you, it may be some other kind of strategy or some other way that you schedule your creative work.
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_00: But the point is do what works for you.
• 48:40
  SPEAKER_00: There's no perfect time to create.
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_00: You just put on your calendar and then you do it.
• 48:44
  SPEAKER_00: This is what professionals do.
• 48:47
  SPEAKER_00: If you're an amateur creative or an amateur artist, you just create whenever you feel like it, or whenever you feel the whim, or whenever the muse strikes you, or whenever you quote unquote have some extra time, which none of us ever seem to have.
• 49:00
  SPEAKER_00: But professionals create on demand.
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_00: We set times to do it, and we show up, and it may not be perfect, and we may not always be in the mood, or always feeling 100% energetic, or whatever, but we do it because that's what professionals do.
• 49:14
  SPEAKER_00: So those are three things that really impacted me from this episode.
• 49:18
  SPEAKER_00: And um, man, this was a great interview.
• 49:20
  SPEAKER_00: I just really, really enjoyed it.
• 49:22
  SPEAKER_00: Well, friends, that wraps up this episode of the podcast.
• 49:25
  SPEAKER_00: I want to extend a huge thank you to Deb Meyer for taking the time out of her really busy schedule to share in this amazing conversation.
• 49:33
  SPEAKER_00: You can find the show notes at KentSanders.net slash podcast083.
• 49:39
  SPEAKER_00: And most of all, thank you for listening.
• 49:41
  SPEAKER_00: You are the reason this show exists, and there's so many podcasts out there.
• 49:45
  SPEAKER_00: I think there's something like 600,000 unique podcasts that you can listen to today.
• 49:51
  SPEAKER_00: Now, not all those are active, and you know, some of those are older shows and whatnot, but wow, there's so much content to listen to these days.
• 49:58
  SPEAKER_00: So it's really a huge honor that you're listening to this episode today.
• 50:01
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you.
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_00: I would love to hear your thoughts on the show.
• 50:04
  SPEAKER_00: What do you like or not like, and what do you find helpful or not helpful?
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_00: Let me know.
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_00: You can shoot me an email at Kent at KentSanders.net, and if you have any suggestions for guests, let me know that as well.
• 50:16
  SPEAKER_00: I also want to encourage you to subscribe to the show.
• 50:19
  SPEAKER_00: That is the best way to make sure that you don't miss out on future episodes.
• 50:22
  SPEAKER_00: You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or your favorite podcast app.
• 50:27
  SPEAKER_00: You can find lots more resources to help you unlock your creative genius at KentSanders.net.
• 50:33
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, remember that you were born to create and designed to make a difference.
• 50:38
  SPEAKER_00: Now go create something awesome.