Transcript:
On this episode of the Personal Finance Podcast, how to make a Lasting Impact with Your Money. With Derrick Kenny.
Derrick. Kenny believes we've been taught money all wrong. We think wealth comes first and generosity comes later. He says it should be the other way around. Start with your purpose. Start with giving and let your wealth be built around that mission. So in this episode, Derek reveals how to uncover your true purpose and use it as your financial foundation.
Why giving first unlocks new levels of motivation and impact? The surprising reason, earning more is actually the key to giving more and how to use money as a tool, not just to change your life, but to change other people's lives to, but that's only half the story. Derrick also believes the next generation is missing one of the most valuable skills of all communication, and he's on a mission to fix it.
Through his simple Teen Success program, he's teaching parents how to help their kids gain the confidence and clarity to stand out in a noisy digital world. This isn't just another conversation about money, it's about purpose, it's about impact, and it's about equipping the next generation to lead. This episode could be a turning point for you and a turning point for your family.
Let's welcome Derek to the Personal Finance Podcast. So Derek, welcome to the Personal Finance Podcast Andrew. Thanks for having me. I am so excited about our conversation together. Now this is gonna be something that I'm so excited about as well because we're gonna be talking a lot about finding your money purpose, and we're gonna be talking through a ton of things that you and I totally align on, and I'm so excited for this conversation.
Now, you have said that most people have money goals, but they lack a money. Purpose, and I absolutely love that. But can you explain the difference? Well, sure. Having built a financial planning business for 25 years, one of the biggest problems I came across would be the person would sit down in front of me in my office that looked wildly successful on the outside, he or she was the picture of success.
They wanna be like him or her, but inside they were like this wilting flower. And they felt like, Derek, I'm making all this money, but I feel purposeless. I feel burned out, and I don't feel like I'm accomplishing what I really want in the world. And one time this occurred, there was a guy named Dave that came into my office a long time client, and I could tell just by his body language, he was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, Andrew.
And I said, Dave, what's wrong? And he said, Derrick, I feel like I'm going through the motions right now. He owned a large manufacturing company, very successful. But he said, Derrick, I feel like I'm going through the motions. And for some reason these words shot outta my mouth. I said, Dave, is there a cause?
That you care about. And I could tell the questions stunned him. And he sat back and he began to tell me a story about this village that he and his family went to overseas on a family vacation. And he remembered the guide telling him that this particular village had total poverty, but it could be corrected if there was a school house built for the children there.
It would completely revolutionize the economy. And he remembered exchanging a glance with his wife as if to say, wouldn't it be cool? To fund that school. And he got back to the states, things got busy, but my question brought this all back and I said, Dave, what if you did this? What if you set a goal to increase your sales and a portion would go to fund that school?
Well, he got a big grin on his face and his eyes got super big and we began to brainstorm what that looked like. Well, he comes back in the office, not six months later, but three months later. The guy looks 10 years younger. He looks invigorated. I said, Dave, it's noticeable what happened. He said, well, I really got excited about what you said.
Our sales are already up 20%. And I said, how? He said, well, I went back and put a tab on my website and just like you said, to call it the generosity purpose, and I mocked up this picture of a school, let all of our clients know that, hey, we value you and you can work with any. Company for your manufacturing needs.
But when you work with us, a portion is gonna go to fund that school. And his clients got excited. They referred business to him, but most importantly, his team got excited. But the biggest factor, Dave himself, was revolutionized. He now had a purpose. He wanted to make a lot of money to do more good to build that school.
And so that model I began to use in my practice and it's helped so many people find their purpose and connect purpose to their profits and meaning to their money and a cause to their cash. And here's why. Meaning to your money is so powerful, in my opinion, is that what do most people do when they try to earn more money?
Most of the time they look for the bigger house or they look for the fancier car. And those are all great things. You can absolutely, you know, spend your money on those things. But imagine if you flip the script like Derek is talking about right now. And when you flip that script, you actually have a purpose behind every single thing that you do day in and day out.
You're waking up every single day and your purpose is those causes that you believe in. It's pushing forward that message. And I think that is such a powerful way to flip the script and how you really are thinking through this process because you created something called the Good Money Framework. And I love the steps within the Good Money framework and how it's different from traditional advice.
And so can you kind of explain what the Good Money framework is, but also how it's different from what people traditionally will do? Well, most people when they come to a financial advisor, they, they want to grow their money. They think that status leads to satisfaction and it doesn't. It often leads to burned out a feeling of not achieving what you know you're capable of.
And a lot of people look at their paycheck or their revenue numbers and say, look, I'm better than that, but what's wrong? I don't feel like I. Living the life I want. Well, the first step of that is setting personal goals for you. So let me tell you a quick story. So every year my family and I have a family goal setting meeting.
I know this is gonna sound crazy, but on December 31st, we've done this now for almost 15 years. And I remember back 15 years ago, my kids would talk behind my back. They would call me nasty names. It was terrible. They were like, dad, don't force us to set goals. Now they bring their friends to the house to set goals.
And what we do is we set one goal in five areas. Personal, physical, spiritual, business, and one other that escapes me right now. But nonetheless, they're all important goals. And what we do is we then put a timeframe to it, but then we put an emotion of how will you feel? When you achieve that goal, and then we write down what's at stake if I don't achieve that goal.
And then we write down your ideal year as though it's already happened. And then our kids will take these note cards and they'll put on their bathroom mirror in the the center console of their car on their nightstand. And I would have my clients do the same thing. And what we found was, at first they thought it was corny to write down what they wanted.
And then a lot of our clients began to get exactly what they wanted, because what we found was that life has its own set of goals for you unless you. Tell life what your goals are for it, and one is more powerful and one will get you the life that you want. And so, step one of the Good Money framework, and now we call it the Millionaire Money Map, is simply figure out what is it that you want.
You know, there's so many movies where the main character ends the movie with regret. If only I had done this, if only I had done this. I, I sort of fashion myself as an anti regret specialist. I wanna help you right now, figure out, okay, the past has passed. What's in the rear view has already passed you by?
All we have is what's in the windshield looking forward. Let's make it the life you want and don't die before you're dead. I love that, and I love the way that you're talking about kind of setting up some of these goals because overall, if you need to tell your life what direction needs to go in, we talk about this at the beginning of every single year when we talk about our money setting goals, episodes, is that we talk through kind of, you gotta make sure that you have a plan in place for whatever your financial goals are.
You need to write them down. And then systematically you have to work backwards to make sure those goals happen. Otherwise nothing's gonna happen. And so I love the process that you and your family kind of go through that and work in five different areas because it is so important to not just focus on one specific area.
I love that you kind of spread it out over the course of those five areas so that you can have an impact on your life. And so I think that's really, really important overall. Now you talk about discovering your generosity purpose. And I think this is something that can be a huge impact for a lot of folks, because most people here, when I talk about generosity or I talk about giving more every single time, I'll always get emails from people like, Hey.
What is the purpose of me giving away my money? I don't even make much money as it is, and so because of this, why would I kind of give away more money? Where I, a huge portion of what I do is I give away over 10% of my income every single month because that's a huge portion of something that I believe in.
And so overall, I think finding that generosity purpose can be so impactful for a lot of people. But what does that mean? And how can someone listening right now identify theirs? Well, first of all, let me ask you this. How good does it feel when you hear someone that has a need and then you find a way to anonymously?
Take care of that need. Let's say that you've got a friend, uh, who has lost their job and you talk to your family and you go over to their mailbox in the darkness of night and you shove a hundred dollars gift card in their mailbox and you sneak off. And then of all things, the next day God has them call you to tell you the good news of what happened.
And you've gotta have your poker face and your poker voice on to act surprised for them. I mean, literally, is there anything better than that feeling? And there's certainly not. And what we find is the anticipation of doing something good for someone else motivates you to do more good. But there is this psychological component that I've discovered and that is.
Most of us have very little control over our lives. Most of us don't have much agency or the ability to control a lot of what we do. But the moment that we choose to give even a dollar is a moment of total control that we have over that dollar. Whether it's to your local church, to the homeless shelter, to clean up the oceans, to help support a education fund in your hometown.
You get to choose regardless of the amount, you're in control of that dollar. And I believe, and this is where many people will disagree, uh, and if you have a math background, you really have to dismiss what I'm about to tell you. Most people will say that obviously the future value of money is always greater than the present value, but in giving it is the opposite.
Well, Derek, how can that be? If I save $10 and it grows and I give a large amount later on, that's more money. Well, yes, but there's the opportunity cost of the impact missed. So if I give a smaller amount today, that money's gonna go right to impact for a cause that I care about my generosity purpose, and that's going to have a bigger payoff down the road.
So what I would encourage people to do is, and you may have thought about this even when you were a kid, but typically there's something inside of all of us when you say to yourself. That is just not right. And you know it when you see it and you say, it doesn't have to be like that. If I had more money, what would I take action on?
And write that down. And then that becomes the central piece of your generosity purpose. Now you're gonna doubt, and the voices inside will say, well, you don't have enough money. To really make a difference, and I would disagree again, a smaller amount today is worth a larger amount tomorrow because of the impact you make right now.
And the key is just to get started and how we weave that in is many business owners that I work with, and even people who have this entrepreneurial desire in their heart, they know they're trapped in their job. They want to have a side hustle. They wanna have a side gig. One of the craziest ways to motivate yourself and attract people to wanna work with you is your generosity purpose.
When I say to people, when I was an advisor, Hey, a part of what we do is we support local education. It attracted million dollar clients like a magnet because it gave them status to work with a financial professional who was involved in the community. They felt like they were part of something bigger, but it motivated me to do more good, to then make more money, to keep doing more good.
That's why it's called the Good Money Revolution. The more money you make, the more good you want to do, and it keeps spinning around and it attracts people to you who also want to do the exact same thing. Exactly. And I think overall it can really motivate people to really want to accelerate their income, to grow their wealth, to do some of these things that are really gonna make an impact for those causes they believe in.
Now, we kind of alluded to it shortly there, but when someone is looking at doing this, maybe they say to themselves, okay, well I'm looking to build wealth. I'm just getting started. You know, I'm in the early stages of my journey. Why should they flip the script and start to think about this early on, even before they start building wealth instead of waiting until they make it?
Because a lot of people think, I gotta wait until I have a lot of money before I can start to give some of it away. And what are some tactical things maybe some of these folks can do in order to just get started? Get started giving to the cause as you believe in? Well, let me tell you a quick story. So a guy named Michael Norton, who is a Harvard professor, did some, uh, studies on college campuses, and here was the experiment that he ran.
He gave college students envelopes. Some of them had $5 and $20 in them, and he told one group of students, by five o'clock today, I want you to spend this on yourself. And the other group, he said, by five o'clock today, I want you to spend this on somebody else and then come back at five o'clock and we're gonna ask you how you feel about it.
Well, the people who were told to spend the money on themselves, they bought a, a CD or candy or ice cream. There was no noticeable increase of how good they felt. They enjoyed the experience, but there was no lasting impact. The people who were told to spend the money on someone else, they bought a teddy bear for a friend.
They made a donation to the food bank. They took someone to coffee. Those people had a noted, elevated experience in their brain. Of how good they felt. And so psychologically what we know is even small dollar amounts, people feel good about giving money. Even another experiment where this employer, uh, gave all of their employees $20 and they measured great, the employees thanked them for the 20 and were happy, but there wasn't a lasting impact.
The employer that said, here's $20, go give it to a cause you care about. Even though they didn't get to keep the money, they felt much better about giving to the cause they cared about. And so what I ask people to do is identify what is a cause that you care about. When I started my business, for example, I was 26, but I looked like I was 13.
I had no experience. I had no contacts, wasn't the best looking, wasn't the smartest. But I had this passion for helping people with their money. But I also had a passion for helping support local education. I went back to my local high school because no successful businessman or a woman ever came to my high school and gave us this vision as a senior in high school as to what the real world looked like.
They just told us, study history, study math, study, science, everything will be fine. And we knew that was kind of a lie. They were selling to us. And when I went back, I recognized a teacher and a student of the month and did this for a couple months. I get this phone call and a woman says, Derrick, we know that you're relatively new, but we want you to be our financial advisor.
And I asked her a few questions and basically she said, Derrick, we wanna work with you because you care about what we care about. Andrew, that was the light bulb. I said, oh my gosh, I don't have to be the smartest or the best looking or the most well connected. I just have to care about what the people I want to work with, care about.
And that was the light bulb. And that was the moment that my business began to grow. And it wasn't having to overwhelm and convince people of all the the great knowledge I had. I just needed to care about a cause they wanted to be a part of. And so what that did is it motivated me. Now what you can do is you can choose to privately give, which is encouraged.
And the culture says that. Culture says you should not tell people about what you give. It's not good manners. We don't talk about politics or sex or money or what you give. That's on the don't talk about list. What I would tell you though is if you don't talk about it, you're missing an opportunity and not just to share the impact you have.
But secretly you are opening a door, so other people who have the same passion, you do have an excuse to join the cause as well. So you get to be the leader, not just helping them, but it, it's great for business. It grows your wealth, and it actually helps a lot of people achieve their goals and do more good all at the same time.
Absolutely. And I completely agree because I think for a lot of people out there, they think, you know, it's taboo to talk about this, or it's taboo to talk about the money that I'm giving, but you are literally spreading the word about the causes that you actually believe in. And so if you don't talk about it, nobody's gonna ever know that you're actually trying to make an impact there.
And so it's something where I think if you wanna spread the message, it is really, really important. So I challenge every single person listening right now. Think about some of the things that you think are just not right in the world. Or think about some of the the causes that you really want to back.
Like for me, I'll give you an example for me, one of the big ones I love is the Tim Tebow Foundation, because what they do is they go out and they try to fight back against child human trafficking. And I think that's such a powerful impact that they can have on, you know, other people's lives. And so for me specifically, that is one that I really, really like to focus in on.
And so for you, maybe there's something else out there. That really bothers you or you wanna make an impact with? Well, if that's the case, I challenge you to think through that right now. Now, if someone, Derek is listening and they're saying to themselves, okay, I've got a couple causes that I believe in, I really wanna start to give back.
Even if it's a small amount of money, I want to make sure that I can give back to, maybe it's family members, maybe it is, you know, something in the community. Maybe it's a cause that they really, really care about. And you have three levers that help people kind of give more and it's earn more. It's save more, and it's give more.
But which one do you think people struggle with first and why? Well, I believe that we often are taught that there is this lid mentality, and that is what your current salary is right now is likely going to stay your current salary in the future, minus maybe a hopeful 4% raise every year. Okay? I don't subscribe to the LID theory.
I subscribe to the sunroof theory, and that is, I don't believe there should be a ceiling on your income. And so the question I would ask you and all of our great listeners and and watchers right now is. If you don't decide to change something six months from now, your life will be even worse six months from now.
And so the question is, are you in a job right now that you actually could make more money? For example, this may sound crazy, but you could be the best teacher your kids have ever had, but you will not get a raise unless every other teacher in your district gets a raise. That's just how it's, you could be the best pilot, the best nurse, and it's all based on the union.
Or collectively, everybody gets a raise or nobody gets a raise. So the question is, if you wanna stay a teacher, stay a teacher, but then what side hustle can you launch? To grow your income. See, what I find is most givers are happier givers when they know they're earning what they're worth, it just increases their self-esteem and their self-belief of what they're doing.
Because what happens is giving, I think, is one of the purest forms of control that you have. You get to choose exactly where this dollar goes, but oftentimes the employer, you feel like a victim. I'm stuck in a cubicle. The nine to five grind, it doesn't let up. And so I would encourage people is the best type of giving is when you're betting on yourself and you've launched the side hustle.
You possibly have changed jobs and gotten more money, but don't ever think that, well, I'll give with what money's left over at the end of the month. You wanna give run off the top. I call it tithing. We're big supporters of our church, and this is gonna sound crazy, but it's why I wrote a book on generosity.
Uh, there's been a few times that I will make a pledge to our church and have no idea where the money will come from, and I do that to back myself in a corner, to have to work my butt off to grow my business, to meet my commitment. There's nothing like growing your business based on a verbal commitment you made to somebody when the money wasn't there.
It's crazy. I don't recommend it for everybody, but it just shows you that when you believe in something, people catch that. And when people sense your purpose and your passion, you become irresistible not to work with. But what I would tell you is this, please do not think that giving makes up for poor service, poor quality, and poor work.
It's the bonus. Don't think you're in the business of giving. You're in the business of adding value to people's lives and solving their painful problems. And by the way, if you do that really, really well and you give. There is a moat that's gonna be hard for competitors to steal your clients away.
Absolutely. And I think you and I completely align on this, where, you know, when you're thinking about this process, you're saying, you know, income is probably the most important and powerful lever that you have because income is infinite. It is one of those things that you can truly earn more in an infinite capacity if you really put your mind to it.
There's a bunch of different ways to earn more, but what most people do is they come in and they say to themselves, well, I'm actually just gonna cut back and that's how I'm gonna try to find more money. But income, I think, is the most powerful lever that you have in building wealth. And I know you talk about that as well.
So why you think that income is something that a lot of people out there, you know, they focus on cutting back spending before they actually focus on income. But is there any other reasons that you think income could be the most powerful lever that people could pull in this situation? Well, I, I do wanna touch on this and that is, culturally today the message is live within your budget, make coffee at home.
Live on rice and beans, don't experience join your life. That's really the secret to financial success long term. Right? At least that's what so many people sell us. So one of the, I just recorded some content on this and I, I talked about people raylon, if you don't make coffee at home, there's no way you can retire.
So. $3 for a cup of coffee. When I have coffee with a friend, somebody I respect, my brain becomes like a popcorn machine. Andrew ideas pop. I'm taking notes. If I don't probably make about a thousand dollars off an idea that I walk away from with coffee with somebody I respect, it'd be surprising. So I, I say coffee is the smell of money.
See, it's all how you look at it. Coffee to me is an investment vehicle to make more money. Now, live within your budget is important, but ultimately that's not how people become wealthy. Hey, I achieved great riches because I lived within my budget, typically is you wanna cut any unnecessary expenses, but you wanna focus on the sunroof.
How else can I grow my wealth? But having said that, start giving today. Just give something today and ideally have a family meeting and talk about what is a common cause that we as a family can care about. And in our respective businesses or individually, there would be retired couples I'd work with that they, they felt like they were drifting, you know, their name was no longer on a business card.
They lost their identity. And what happened is people would ask, what do you do for a living? And they were like, I don't know. And they felt lazy. They felt judged. Here was somebody who worked hard to retire, and now they're getting questioned by, well, what are you doing with your life all day? And so to be able to say, well, we, we love to support this cause.
Well now they're associating themselves with something they're passionate about. And typically that's where other opportunities, they actually met some great investors and they were able to join in to build their wealth by finding other people who shared this same passion for the cause they had. But let me say this, what I'm not talking about is you have to give a hundred thousand dollars to the symphony, $50,000 to support the arts.
I literally grew my financial planning business from scratch, giving a $25 Amazon gift card to a student of the month and a $50 Amazon gift card to a teacher of the month, $75 a month was helping attract million dollar accounts. Only because people are attracted to people who are givers and it elevates their status and they feel like they're part of something bigger and it makes you wanna keep doing it.
Absolutely. It really does change, you know, people's even perception of you and especially, you know, overall when you're in a business relationship. I think it's just so powerful. Uh, some of the things that you could do with giving. Now when it comes to this, maybe somebody's listening and they're saying to themselves, okay, I wanna do this.
I have causes that I believe in and I wanna make sure that I can give more to those causes. One thing you talk about that I love is setting up an income target, because I think what a lot of people out there will do is they'll say, oh, I hope I can make more money this year, but they have no plan in place on how they're gonna make more money.
And so thinking through this, I think it is so important for people to set up income targets and income goals. Just like we're setting up goals, you know, for the various areas throughout the year, you can go and set up income target goals as well. So can you talk about how someone can set up an income goal and how lofty should that goal be?
Well, if you make it too lofty, that can feel discouraging, especially the first time around. I mean, if you're making 25 grand a year, I wanna make a million dollars a year. Well, technically all of us do as well, but there's just a longer runway that we need to get there. So what I would tell people is, you can complain about your current salary or you can complain about your current income.
Or you can burn brain cells to figure out how to get the income you want. Okay, so let's say that you're making $100,000 a year right now, and you wanna get to one 50. Once you set that goal and you write it down and you look at it every single day, now you don't have an income problem, you just have a math problem.
And the problem is, how do I get from 100,000 to one 50? And now we can think of ourselves as the CEO of our lives and we figure stuff out. Just like if your son or daughter needed to have a delicate medical procedure and their freaking life depended on it, you as a mom or dad would become a research superhero figuring out what it would take to save your son or daughter's life.
I don't wanna get emotional here, but this is what's at stake. You need to apply that same level of brain cell burn to your income because that level of income can provide investment opportunities. Relationship opportunities, ways for you to possibly buy the duplex you've always wanted. Buy the seed startup in a company.
Launch your own business, all because you made that one decision. You could actually be the person the generations from. Now they look back and they say, you remember Mary, you, you remember Ted? They literally changed our family tree. That could be you. And it starts with sometimes these one decisions.
Alright, I'm off my soapbox now, but I'm very passionate about that topic. Alright, so now what we ask ourselves is, A, in your current job, do you have the ability to get paid more money? Okay? And if you do, then you have to come up with a game plan to get more than the 4% raise. The 4% raise is not the pathway to financial success.
You have to ask yourself three questions. How do I help the company make more money, help the company save more money, help the company be more productive? So you need to think of yourself no longer as a title on a business card. You are a paid problem solver who provides expertise in solving a specific problem.
And so when you look at yourself like that and go to your boss and say, Hey, I've identified three ways to help the company make more money. I want to preuss a raise with you that once we do these things for 60 days, I wanna put a raise in place. Well, your boss is going to be open to that because they're going to be based on, Hey, I wanna make more money as well.
And even if you don't hit the target, you being in close communication with your boss on a regular basis is typically not a bad thing. Okay? So we've got that in play. The second thing would be, do I want to change jobs? Do I realize, you know what, here my income is capped, but you're gonna have to reconstruct your resume.
Old resumes look like, you know, the dust is on them. No longer say, you know, I'm good at numbers, or I'm good at folding things, or putting paperclips on things that the goal is you wanna state the problem at the top of the resume. I help solve this problem so this company can make more money. Boom. You see, that's a header.
You know, that's a line that captures people's attention. So it possibly means changing jobs or launching the side hustle. The key is with a crafted plan and you taking deliberate steps. And again, what I would suggest is carve out 30 minutes a day, whether it's when you first wake up before you go to bed, but put it in your fixed calendar time block, 30 minutes a day, income increase strategy, and you hit it 30 minutes a day.
Um, one lesson I learned many, many years ago, the person who wrote, uh, the Chicken Soup for the Soul Series, Jack Canfield, he talks about the rule of five. And he gave me this example. He said, Derrick, if I go to the Redwood Forest with an ax, and those are big, big trees, and I take five swings a day, and by the way, I'm not advocating chopping on a redwood, just go with me for the example here, okay?
Yep. And I take five big swings a day. Eventually, what's gonna happen? That Redwood's coming down now, it's gonna take a while, but days I don't show up to take the five swings. It's gonna take longer every day. Five swings that redwood is coming down. So the bottom line is, I would not wanna stand between your listeners, Andrew, and someone who is determined to get more money, because with a game plan, 30 minutes a day, literally you're unstoppable.
And you do that, that confidence that wells up within you. You're not just gonna make more money. You'll be making advances in your relationships, your career. There'll be a lot of other spokes on the wheel that expand because of that one move you make. I couldn't agree more. And I think overall, for a lot of people listening right now, it is so important what Derek's talking about to make sure that when you are starting to ask for a raise, you don't wanna get those standard three to 4% raises every single year.
'cause inflation is rising at a 3% rate every single year. And so if you don't even get those standard raises, you're taking a pay cut every year. But it's so important to make sure you're collaborating with your boss and communicating with your boss in order to make sure that you can earn more. Here's what a lot of people did in the corporate role when I was there, is they would walk into their boss's office, they would swing the door open and they would say, Hey, I'm fed up.
I wanna make more money. I deserve to make more money. And every single time, obviously they were rejected because there was zero anticipation from their boss that this person was gonna be coming in there. And instead, if you start to have that conversation with your boss, work collaboratively on the things that you can do and show your value.
Make sure you're tracking your value and all the things that you're doing, just like Derek said, areas that you're saving more or making the company more money, or making the company more productive. Those are gonna be super, super powerful things that can help you when you collaborate with your boss.
And in setting up that daily 30 minutes is something I think is so incredibly powerful for most people. Because what most people will do is they will sit there and they'll let weeks go by and they won't even think about it again. And then all of a sudden they'll be like, Ooh, I didn't make more money yet.
I gotta figure out a way to do this. And so instead, spending time every single day, having that time blocked is gonna be one of the most important things that you could do. If you wanna achieve something, you need to work on it day in and day out every single day. And just having a small amount of time, like 30 minutes is going to help you do that.
So I love that system and that process. Because I think if you're working on it 30 minutes a day, it's inevitably going to happen and you're gonna at least make more money, uh, over that timeframe. And it's really, really important, uh, that you set that up. So when people are thinking about the three levers and when they're thinking about, you know, how they can actually balance all this stuff out, how can they balance all of it without feeling overwhelmed?
Well, the key is to take one step at a time. And one of the things that I will do, I'm an A personality, so I tend to move pretty fast. I set lots of goals. Whenever I feel overwhelmed. What I found is effective for me is just to stop. Now, it's opposite of what I wanna do. I wanna just keep going and keep banging my head against the wall.
But when I stop and I just say, okay, what is one thing I can do right now? And I write that one thing down, and then I do that one thing. Well, now I've got momentum, and then I ask, okay, what's another thing I can do? I write it down. I write it down because it gives me a feeling of accomplishment to check off the box that I did it.
Well, now I'm back in the game again. Because sometimes as counterintuitive as it sounds. Yeah, slow is fast. You know, one of the things when I'm on a stage and I talk about how do you talk to people in high stakes conversations, because ultimately money is made when you're having a high stakes conversation and you hear that, uh, you know, when, let's say there's a, a man is in church and it gets called on to pray by surprise or gets called on, and this happens with, with women as well, and suddenly their voices go way, way high and they talk really, really fast because they're surprised.
I'm here in Texas and we love our barbecue and the way they cook brisket. My favorite barbecue item is they cook it low and slow. And what I tell people is when you're in a high stakes conversation, you want to go brisket, you want to talk a little bit. Lower and just a little bit slower. And when you do that, you automatically sound more authoritative and trusted and credible.
And when I talk a bit lower and slower, people wanna lean in and they say, what is he talking about? And so I would encourage you, the moment you feel the most nervous is when you need to talk the lowest and the slowest to counteract that. Because typically, those high stakes conversations are the moments where money is made.
And so please don't think that, again, giving is the ticket to grow the business. Giving is a way to compliment what you're doing. Ultimately, people want to know you, like you, and trust you. And I love the analogy, Andrew, that you said about many people, bang on the boss's door. Please remember this besides this great podcast.
People's favorite radio station is always W-I-I-F-M. What's in it for me? Yep. And people play that station loudly every single day. Most people, as much as I hate to say this to myself, don't even care about me. All they care about is do I have the ability to help them make money, save money, make their life better, or increase their productivity and help them achieve what they want in life?
And when I do one of those five things, I have the ability to help them become wealthy and then simultaneously a. I become wealthy as well, and my income goes up. So if you're only in the camp of I'm going to beg and bang on the door of my boss for a raise, you'll probably get it because labor force is pretty tight right now, but you're not getting paid the true value of what you're worth.
You've gotta help other people make money, save money, be more productive, improve their life, help them achieve their goals. You do those five things, you're gonna start making the money you deserve, and you're gonna feel good because you're helping make other people's lives better. Absolutely. And that that is such a key is that you know, when you start to earn more, when you start to be able to pull some of these levers, you can really, truly change other people's lives.
And I think that is just the impact that a lot of people, if you focus on that as your North star, instead of just buying more stuff. And there's nothing wrong with buying more stuff, as we'll talk about in a second, but overall, I think it's just so powerful to have that north star that you can look at to motivate you going forward.
Now, a lot of personal finance advice is guilt driven. Now we alluded to this a little bit earlier. You know, stop spending money on lattes, is what a lot of people will say. Or, you know, stop spending money on fun. And you and I kind of agree on this, and we take the opposite approach where I want you to spend more on the things that truly bring you value and more on the things that you truly want to do.
And so overall, why do you take the opposite approach with this? Well, let me give you an example. So I was driving to the TV station like a week ago to an interview in Dallas, and I took an Uber there and in the car I filmed myself and I asked a question. I said, now this Uber ride is costing me $49 from my home in Arlington to Dallas.
And $49 from Dallas back. So that's a hundred dollars. Is it worth me spending a hundred dollars to have someone else drive me? I said, first of all, the first 30 minutes, I'm gonna practice my script so I know what to say on tv, but on the way back, I'm gonna call people back, check emails, and likely probably make at least a thousand dollars in revenue on the way back in the car.
How many of you would do the same thing? And it was kind of split. I mean, you have to have an entrepreneurial mindset to think like that, but oftentimes, I might be on a Saturday and I may be watching Netflix and someone else is mowing my grass and someone, well, Derek, you're lazy. What the heck? Why are you watching tv?
You could be mowing your grass yourself. It's because I'm choosing times to put my brain on the payroll and times to give my brain a break from the payroll because it gives me a better brain. I want my, my whole concept is I've gotta manage my brain cells to create revenue and add value to people's lives.
If I'm burning brain cells on the smallest things, there won't be enough brain cells to go around to do the big things, the big goals I've got. And so that's what I would tell people is, look, you've gotta find out what are your goals? There's lots of good opportunities, but there's few great ones. And when you learn to say no.
To the good ones and focus on the great ones. Those are levers that will dramatically increase your income and your opportunities. So the goals that you gotta go back to that and say, this is my goal, is this opportunity in congruence with my goal. And if it's not, thank you so much, Andrew for that opportunity.
I wish you the best with that, but it's not on my goal path. And the more that you say no, the farther you can go, it's amazing. And the other thing I would tell people is I recorded a quick video. This was at two 30, a few nights ago in the morning, I got popped up and I began to record videos of ideas I was having.
And some of these are really, really good ideas, but when I've not done this, I miss great ideas in the morning. I'm like, I'll remember it. I'm not getting outta my nice warm bed. But this particular night, I got up and captured them. And the ideas I got, there are several thousand dollars of ideas on those videos.
I could either wake up and be tired or wake up and be tired, but about to make more money, and one was more attractive to me. So it's all how you think. And just remember, people who make the most money think differently. It's why they make the most money. And when you're okay with that, you, you become better, uh, to deal with that.
Absolutely. And I think it's one of those things, just to kind of piggyback off your point, I think learning to say no is a skill and I think overall a lot of people out there, you know, when I was in my early twenties, I would say yes to literally everything. I would say yes to making sure I save money by, like you said, mowing the lawn or making sure I was cleaning my pool or doing all those different things.
All of a sudden I realize when you start to learn to say no to the things that don't matter to you anymore or that's not gonna provide you the impact that you want, overall it makes saying yes so much easier. And your yeses are so much greater because you said no. And I think that's just a such a powerful lesson that a lot of people need to learn.
Uh, and it's definitely a skill overall. Now, what would you say to someone who feels guilty? Because a lot of people you know out there when it comes to their money, they'll start to feel guilt around not giving enough or not saving enough right now. So what would you say to someone who starts to feel guilt around their money?
Well, uh, again, what I go back to is you've gotta figure out what's important to you. What is it that you want? I mean, ultimately we all have one life and we're all gonna reach the end of that. And are we going to have regrets of what we could have done or are we going to be thankful like, man, I'm sure glad I did that.
It didn't turn out very well, but I'm sure glad I did that. It's a great story. So I would just ask people right now, the moment they finish listening to this. Write down your five goals, what those are in your life. Then once you know what that is, now you can assign value to what it is that you want. And by the way, it's okay to want to make a lot of money.
One of the core tenets of my book is how to make more money to do more Good. But I wrote it because I would have clients come into my office, this was pre pandemic, and say, Derek, I'm hearing a lot about how it's bad to want to make a lot of money, that if you have a lot of money, you must be a really bad person.
Like you're withholding opportunities from other people so they can't have, so you can have all of it. I was like. Who in the world is telling you this. And what happened is there's this whole vibe about, look, if you just wanna make it all about money, then you're bad. And so that's where this concept came about was, look, I'm a big fan.
I like, I really like money. Money to me is fun to manage. It's fun to make. It's fun to grow. It's fun to help other people make money. Money to me is just really, really fun. But what I realized was, what makes it even funner, if that's a pretend word, is to tie a cause to it. Like I wanna go make a lot of money for all the good, like all set goals up of here are the things I wanna give money to, but I need to make the money first to do it.
A friend of mine, Dan Miller, he has since passed, he said, Derrick, one of the things I would tell you is if you want to help the poor, don't become one yourself. That was deep when I heard that. I love that. It was also kind of mildly offensive to the poor, but nonetheless, you don't wanna be, you don't wanna become poor.
People think, well, I, I, I need to not have any money. That's gonna be my greatest sacrifice. No, no, no. Go make a lot of it by adding value to people's lives so that you can then be the giver that you want to be. But keep in mind, a lot of life, you will be misunderstood. People will question you. People wonder what you're doing.
And as long as you can state, here's my goal path, this is what's important to me. People purchase passion, they'll question you, but they purchase it because they wish they had the same level of passion that you did. Absolutely. And that kind of leads me into my next question. 'cause you talk about money being a tool, not the goal.
And I think overall, you know, we've talked about that a ton on this podcast, how money is a tool and it's a tool to get you specific outcomes that you want in life. But why do so many people get this backwards? Why does so many people not realize that money is a tool? Well, I think we've grown up with our parents and grandparents, well-meaning saying, look, you're probably only going to make so much money in life because they're sort of the haves and the have nots, and we're sort of one of the have not families.
We're not the well to do family. You're always gonna be probably at this level and at a young age, I think people, grub believing that this is my lid. Um, this is why they don't get the promotions or the pay raises. It's more of this mental holdback that they were taught when they were younger. And because of that, it's, it's these, the belief system that often creeps in.
For example, I, I had a woman in the office, uh, this was several years ago. I came in the office on a Saturday to check and kind of follow up on things, and I saw my voicemail. I blinking, pressed it in this frantic woman's voice. She said, Derek, Derek, I know it's Saturday. You've gotta call me back. They're about to send me to jail.
Can you help me, Andrew? Have you ever had anybody leave a message that say they're about to be sent to jail that ever happened to you? I have not had that happen, nor had it ever happened to me. So I knew I couldn't wait till Monday. Called her right back. I said, why are they going to send you to jail?
She said, well, I got this letter that said I didn't move my money from savings. A checking. She basically wrote a hot check on accident. It was a non-sufficient funds letter, and she said they were going to send her to jail. I said, well, first of all, why do you feel like. They're going to send you to jail.
So she tells me a story. She says, when I was a kid, I overheard a phone call that my dad took from a store owner saying that he, his, her dad had just bought school supplies for she and her sister, that her dad had bounced a check and that the owner was going to call the cops and send her dad to jail.
And so she grew up, she's now like 65 years old. She'll grow up believing that if you bounce a check. You go to jail or if you make a bad decision, you go to jail. And so this was a woman on the outside the picture of success, but on the inside, this wilting flower, she was complaining about getting passed over for the raise the bonus.
I said, let's come in next week. We'll help you move the money and cover the check from the bank. I'll help you with that. But come in, let's unpack this situation. So we begin to talk and she begins to realize, oh my gosh, all these beliefs I've had have held me back within three months. She got a $25,000 a year raise and got promoted to vice president.
And it was all because she realized, oh my gosh, I was letting these belief system hold me back. So what I would tell people is, and this can happen to very successful people. Is something off with your money? Are you not making the money that you know you deserve? Not that you want a handout, but you know that you're capable and you're worthy of a certain amount, you're not making it.
Ask yourself, are you doing something? Is there something in your head holding you back saying that you don't deserve it, you're not worthy about it, or you worry if I make a mistake that I can't have money? And what I told her is, look, people who have money make even more mistakes. It's sort of the football analogy of if you get beat on the long ball and they score the touchdown, the coach says, you just forget about that one.
It's the next play that counts. And that's what I began to tell her, and it helped her and a lot of our other clients as well. Don't worry about the past play. It's the next play that counts. Exactly, and I just read an article this morning actually, it was talking through just the psychology behind money.
And you know, a lot of us have talked about this in the past, but it's one of those things where, you know, by age seven you have a lot of things ingrained in your brain already about money. And if you don't realize you know how to utilize money properly, you have to kind of rewire your brain. I had to do this, uh, very, you know, early on in my twenties where my first job, I wasn't making much money.
I was living paycheck to paycheck and I had to rewire my brain and understand how money works. I was self-taught. And so I started to read books and I started to go through all these processes. And the more you learn about how money actually works, the more you kind of see the opportunities that are available to you and how it is a tool that will unlock so many really cool situations in life where you can get financial freedom, you can be in different rooms, have different opportunities.
There's so many cool things that you can have just by learning how to build wealth. But the most important one overall is that you can have impact with your money. And I think that is just what is so cool about this. You and I both have kids, I have really young kids, and we have kind of started to think through, well, how can we teach our kids about generosity and how to manage money?
And so we came up with this idea to kind of give them three different jars where one is saved, one is spend, and one is give. And that's kind of how we taught them to at least budget. You know, while they're under the age of six, you know, how to kind of put money together in a budget and do it with these three different jars.
But how have you found ways to teach kids how to be generous or how to teach them about generosity? Well, it's funny, there is a business club. That I taught at our kids' school. So our, our kids went to a local school and I thought to myself, Derek, you've got some business wisdom. You wanna share it? But I wanted to wait for a student to approach me because I don't want it to be like parent led.
I kind of wanna be the, the parent forcing this on the kids. So a student came to me, I'd prayed about this, and his name was Jared Steele. And Jared said, Mr. Kenny, would you consider like teaching us about this? I said, yes. Well, do you wanna think about it? No, no. I've been waiting. I just didn't know who it was going to be to ask.
And it's you. So we do this and there's a $5 challenge. That I began to do now, we started this club with about 10 students that grew to like 80. At the high point we had had to take over the gym. It was the biggest club in the school. And so I would give out a crisp $5 bill to everybody. Uh, in the room there, as you can imagine, it caught their attention.
And I said, here's the game. I said, in life, there's moments where your back is against the wall and you have to make something happen. Here's the deal. In the next 24 hours, whoever can make this $5 into the most money will win A suite of fabulous prizes, a hundred dollars Amazon gift card. And it was really nice.
And, and the goal was, it wasn't about the money, it was the lesson to teach them and motivate them. And I said, now outta curiosity, how many of you right now are probably not going to participate in the $5 challenge? Half the hands go up. I said, okay, that's great. I said, the $5 is yours to keep. Buy yourself a cup of coffee.
Give it away. No problem. How many of you wanna do this thing? Half the hands go up. I said, okay. Here's the deal. You're gonna be faced now with voices inside that say, what are you doing? You're dumb, you're stupid. This is the dumbest exercise ever. Just fight that. And then 24 hours from now, I want you to text me what you did.
Okay? So 24 hours later, I began to get text messages from these students, and one of them, a storm had come through the neighborhood and he decided to buy a box of trash bags for $4 98 cents. And he went around to all the houses and offered to pick up the debris in their yard, and he raised $90. Okay.
Another young man texted me. His sister had a soccer game, hot day on the soccer field that that following day, and he bought two cases of bottle of water and sold the bottle of water and made like $75. Okay. My own daughters waiting to the last minute they made cupcakes and went around the neighborhood and told people, Hey, we're selling cupcakes.
It's a $5 challenge. One of our neighbors went back and gave them a $100 bill to reward them just for doing something hard. Now the cool part of the story is all of these students learned some really cool lessons, but man, it gets me emotional thinking about this. Dang it. Um, the student who did the trash bags asked me to write him a letter to get him into the UT Austin Business School.
And with great pleasure, Andrew. I wrote, your school is about to get a student who took $5 and made it $90 with a box of trash bags and initiative. Think what he'll do with an MBA from your school. I would encourage you to give him every possible scholarship. And I believe they almost gave him a full ride.
Wow. So, so the lesson of all that was, oh. It was a good investment and I told those students, I said, all of you are really, really good investments. You are worth me giving you $5 because I bet on you any day. And some of them still talk about that, that it was that moment where they had to do something.
Their back was against the wall that prepared them, that didn't quote real life when their back was against the wall. They had the courage and the belief in themselves to do it. And there's, there's truly something when you're teaching to give real world exercises like that for people. Because once they start to see this, they will never, ever forget that exercise.
And that is something I think that is so powerful for people listening right now. If you want to teach and if you wanna teach other people, you know how to do certain things, maybe you're listening to this and you're like, I wanna teach other people about money as well. I wanna teach my kids about money and I wanna plant that seed into them.
Well, if that's the case, learning how to find real world situations, just like what Derek explained is so. Powerful for people because they will not forget it. And I think that is just so impactful long term because you can do these small exercises and once the light bulb goes off for them and they understand the exercise, all of a sudden they can take that to huge, different, insurmountable, you know, options that are out there where they can start a business, they can do all these different cool things that makes it really, really powerful.
Now, one thing I love. Derek is that you have this new course and you gave me a sneak peek at it before you actually launched it originally called Simple Teen Success, and you created this program that basically is, you know, teaching a huge gap in the market today for a lot of teens out there. Now, as a parent yourself, you've kind of seen some of those challenges firsthand.
So what do you think are the key skills or traits that kind of can help a teenager stand out and set themselves up for success early on? Well, one of the biggest challenges, and this is what teens have told me, is Derek, we don't feel comfortable talking to adults. Okay, so let me paint a picture. Let's say that a young person, let's say they're a junior in high school, they walk into Target or to Costco and they happen to see parents of their friends, but those parents don't see them yet, and the young person has a choice to make.
Do they a confidently walk up and say, well, hi Mr. And Mrs. So-and-so. It is so nice to see you. Or did they dip into the chip aisle and hope they don't see them? Yeah. By a show of hands, when I ask this to groups of teenagers, probably 80%, they're dipp into the chip aisle, okay? And so I asked them, I said, now, why would you do that?
Well, a, I don't wanna look foolish. I don't know what to say, and it feels embarrassing, so I don't fault them because they're being honest. And so what I realized was we need to give teenagers a playbook of exactly what to say and do. So opportunity, uh, comes true for them. And so while we practice, then in this course is.
Teaching them what to say, to walk up and say, well, hi Mr. And Mrs. Smith, it is so nice to see you. And then oftentimes they're gonna be caught by surprise, but they'll always ask, Hey, well, how's school going? And this is where the teen can either fumble the ball or cross it over the goal line and score the touchdown.
The teen shouldn't say, oh, school is fine. And then the conversation ends. Instead. You wanna say, and we train them on this. Tell them something you're excited about. Because no teen is ever excited about anything. Right? And when you sound excited, you stand out. Because the secret to connect with adults is to relate to them.
You see all adults, I joke about this. We all have this private club that we all talk about, the teenagers who engage us, who we would engage and say, Hey, do you know somebody who could watch my house for the weekend while we go on vacation? Or somebody who could intern at our company? And that list is very, very short.
But the teen that walks up and shakes your hand. Well, hi Mr. Smith. It is so great to see you. Those are the teams you remember, and so we teach the team to talk about, you know, I'm taking this class in school that I really, really love, or I'm working part-time and I really love this opportunity. Or Here's what I'm working on.
Well, suddenly now you're engaging. Then we teach the team how to end the conversation. 'cause that can be awkward too. Well, I don't want to keep talking. Hey, I know you're in a rush. It was so great to see you both. Have a great day. Outta there. The whole interaction takes less than 60 seconds. But what you've done is you placed a seed in that adult's mind of you are on the teen approved list.
Exactly. And so, so the whole course is giving teenagers a playbook. For example, one of my favorites is, I call this the sports stand to play. So how many teenagers are caught in the baseball, uh, bleachers, the gymnasium bleachers, watching their, uh, sister or their brother play basketball, football, baseball, whatever it is, and suddenly you're seated next to a random adult and you've got this decision to make, do I just stare straight ahead and not look at the adult at all?
Pretend like he's not there for two hours. Or do I engage the adult? Well, teenagers just don't know what to do or say. And so we teach them a couple questions to engage the adult. And because oftentimes what we learned is Andrew, and this is real important for adults to hear. Most adults feel as ill-equipped to talk to the teen, as the teen feels ill-equipped to talk to the adult.
So just realize you're both are on neutral territory right now. Don't wait for the adult. 'cause oftentimes they won't. They don't know what to say either. So instead you wanna say to the adult, Hey, who are you here to see? And that adult will typically say, oh, that's my granddaughter. That's my grandson.
Well, now you're talking, a dialogue has emerged. And then you wanna say, oh, hey, outta curiosity, are you from insert whatever city you're in. Are you from Arlington? You're from Dallas? No, I actually am from Boston. Well, now a deeper conversation has emerged. Now you're actually talking to somebody. Okay, now you wanna say, Hey, crazy question.
What's something you're doing right now that you're super excited about? I know it sounds like a crazy question. Well, now they're gonna share something they really like. Man, I really like woodworking. Uh, I love running marathons. I love whatever it is. Well, now the key is you've had a bonafide conversation that my last for five minutes, my last, the whole game.
But here's the key. Is it likely that you'll see that person at the next game and the next game? Well, now you have a friend. Well, hey, hey, Mr. Jones. It's good to see you. Well, hey Tim. Nice to see you. Now you know somebody and see what you didn't know was Mr. Jones owns the hardware company. Who knows a friend who's looking for the intern who needs somebody to be, and that's how it goes.
But unless you engage the adult, the door of opportunity will stay closed. So that's what the whole course is about, is just simple practical ways to give teenagers the confidence to engage with adults. So opportunities come their way. The skill and confidence that comes with learning these skills is just gonna be the most important thing overall.
I think as time goes on here in the Revolution world, there's a lot of folks right now who spend a lot less time engaging. In fact, I just read a study that people are engaging or spending time with other people in person, 50% less than they used to. Wow. And I think it's just so incredibly impactful that if you can have conversations with people and if you can even just make sure that you're saying hi to people, they found that the kids who were the most popular in high school were the ones that just said hi to the most people.
And I think it's just one of those things where if you learn how to have some of these communication skills instead of running away from them, it can absolutely unlock so many different opportunities for you. Because when teens can learn to have these conversations, it makes you know their adult life so much easier because they can naturally just have some of these adult conversations.
And I think even adults need to learn some of these skills. I learned some things just from going through some of the lessons that you had there. Uh, that I think are really, really important. So what are some practical exercises that maybe parents can kind of work through with their teens to strengthen their communication skills?
Well, one of the things that I, I think no parent wants to force a course on their kids. No parent wants to look uncool. I mean, there's so much pressure these days of like saying no, most parents don't wanna have one more No. To say, so one of the effective strategies that we've tested, and it's proven to work for parents, is to approach their teen and say, Hey.
I've got this crazy idea, but I don't think you're going to like it. So go negative with it and then let them say, well, well, what do you mean? Well, there's this course that people are talking about, about how to better communicate with adults that people are saying it's really cool, but I don't know if you are going to like it or not.
Well, let me decide that. And suddenly the teen is bringing themself into this. No discussion. They're selling themselves. Well, I tell you what, why don't you watch it and you can stop anytime or if you watch the whole thing just for fun, you pick the chore you least like to do around the house, and I'll do it for you.
Well, okay, I'll do it then. Well suddenly now you are the cool parent through the whole dialogue. You didn't force them at all. You threw it out there. You took it away twice and they are the ones that opted in. So that type of approach can be very, very effective for something like this. And what we're finding is the teenagers really like it.
It's binge-worthy. It's like five to 10 minute sessions. Very, very easy. And this was kind of cool and we, we will actually revive this again, Andrew, based on the response we get is Robert Graham. These are the shirts I wear and they're like wearing art. Robert Graham actually wanted to partner with me on this and they said, Hey, for the teens, the first three teens who take the course and send you their three takeaways, we will let them pick anything from the Robert Graham website that they can wear.
It was cool. And so here Robert Graham is shirt I've worn, I've worn these types of shirts for years. But they were like, Derek, we love what you're doing because their brain is all about confidence and they know that my course is about giving teens confidence. It was just this cool synergy. So the key is if you tell your teen, Hey, you're gonna take this course er, you might as well just check out on that one.
But if you do the takeaway, highly effective. Exactly, yes. It's a, it's, it's like the psychology game almost with, with them. Which is, which is absolutely awesome. I love that. And, and I think it's really, really powerful overall. And these are the lessons that I wish they taught these more in schools. I wish they taught this stuff, you know, along with personal finance, obviously in schools.
'cause this is the stuff people are actually gonna use. And I think that's why it's so powerful. So in your opinion, are there any skills, 'cause you've been around teenagers and one of the cool things I love is that you're teaching this live inside the course, which is cool. But in your opinion, are there any skills that teens need to develop before they go off into college?
Or what are the most important ones that they need to develop? Well, what I'm gonna tell you is gonna sound really crazy, and I didn't believe it at first. Okay? So when we filmed this course, we had 13 teens come over to the house, uh, different ethnic backgrounds. I wanted everybody who took this course to see themselves in the course, okay?
Because all these skills apply to everybody. So one of the questions I asked was, how many of you are comfortable with your smile? No hands go up. And I'm like, what? And I said, outta curiosity, why do you not like your smile? And these were very, I encouraged open conversation. They said, well, I feel like I look goofy, I look awkward, I look dumb.
And I said, really? And so I gave each of them a handheld mirror and I said, here's what we're gonna do. This is gonna make you feel really goofy, but I need you to do this. I want you to look in the mirror, and I want you to see what a good smile looks like. And so they're all smiling. And I said, here's the deal.
I want you to remember what a good smile feels like. For example, when I go on tv, and I'll illustrate this for you now, when, when I'm interviewing and I go like this, I know it's a good smile. I've practiced. I know when my top teeth touch my bottom lip, it's a good smile. Just like when a woman takes a picture, they go into the the fancy pose, like they put their leg out, their arm out.
It's like instinctual. And so what I encourage people to do is, especially when you're face to face. When you know what a good smile feels like now you can be confident that you look good. And so what I told the teens to do was take the mirror home and practice smiling so that you know what a good smile feels like.
And then I added the dad joke and I said, it increases your face value. And they all laughed. I mean, that kind of thing. But nonetheless, the goal was look at how can you make people feel with a first impression. So in our business club for example, we would do exercises, like we would divide the whole group up and have one group walk where the other group, and when they got within 10 feet, I would have them nod and smile and within five feet, Hey, how are you?
Which lines up directly with what you just said? If people just say hi to people, they're more liked. Okay. And we would practice that. And so what would happen is. And this was a lesson I learned as an adult. I thought I knew what the best exercises were for these teens. Well, we did this for 10 years, so people graduated high school, went to college, had families, started their own businesses.
They begin to come back to me and said, Hey, Mr. Kenny, um, you remember when you taught us about know you, like you, trust you? Well, that helped me get this job. Or do you remember when you told us about walking toward and, and saying hi to people? Well, that opened up a door. Or do you remember when you taught us never to say, nice to meet you because I met them before.
Instead say, nice to see you. It caused me and kept me from embarrassment. And so what I did is I took the feedback these teens gave me that said, actually worked like they actually liked it. And we just put that into the course. So it was a lesson for me of like what I thought would work. I don't know.
But what tested the teens said really was effective. That's in the course. And so we set this up, I think it's like $97 plus there's a, a bonus course in there. The the key is we just wanna get this into the hands of as many teens as possible. Because we know it's a game changer. You know, if you can connect with adults, they are the doorways of opportunity for scholarships, part-time jobs, full-time opportunities, but most importantly, I just know that a confident teen is a better teen.
And one of the things we teach them, I'll just add one more thing if I might, Andrew. One of the questions that we teach the team to ask, and this causes hard palpitations in many apparent, is we will say to your parents, to the teens, okay, on Friday, say to your mom or dad or both, Hey, could we meet for 30 minutes on Saturday morning so I can review my week with you so that you know what's going on?
I love that. That's like every parent's dream. Like parents have called in and said, dude, that one question was worth the whole course. Because no teen does that. It's the heartfelt desire of every parent to have that. And what that does is it builds respect. And I said, it's no guarantee, but there's gonna be moments where you may need the, the longer curfew.
And if you built a trust with mom and dad, they can count on you and you're asking them the other question, Hey, by the way, of all the chores you want me to do, what's the most important chore you want to make sure I do this week? You ask those two questions, you're pretty much golden in terms of building trust with your parents.
Exactly. That is such a powerful thing is that you actually have things that where you can connect with the parents as well. And I think it's just so important, uh, for people to have these skills and I think it's so cool what you guys see. So if people wanna get the course, Derek, where can they find that before we jump into the quick questions here?
Yeah, yeah. Uh, simple teen success.com. Simple teen success.com. Uh, John Gordon Wil Gadar, a couple other great people have endorsed it and, uh, speak highly of it. The bottom line is it's only stuff that works and the teens are giving us feedback now that this is great. And even parents are telling us, Hey, they're seeing their teens confidence improve rapidly.
So I, I always like to say, take what I say as a grain of salt. Take what the parents say as proof. Exactly. Again, I've gone through some of the lessons. I think it is so incredibly powerful and it is one of the most impactful things. So we'll link that up in the show notes down below as well. Okay. Uh, so you guys can check that out.
Now, Derek, I wanna shift gears here to a couple of rapid fire questions that we ask all of our guests that I absolutely love, and I would love to hear kind of what you say on these as well. So if you could tell your younger self one thing, what would it be? Oh, don't worry about what other people think. I love it.
That's a lesson in and of itself. It's a skill overall, I think sometimes that people have to develop over time. What is the best money advice you've ever received? Bet on yourself and also listen to yourself if you feel like, uh, I always pray about decisions and so if I feel like God is calling me to do something, as crazy as it sounds, I take action on it.
Um, action is what leads to satisfaction and it's made me quite a bit of money doing things that I feel like I know I need to do that make me feel uncomfortable. Typically, the best opportunities make you feel the most uncomfortable. That's when I know I need to do it. I love it. How do you plan to level up your finances in the next year?
Well, one of the things I like to do, I believe, like your net worth is like the report card for adults. Okay. So I review my net worth every single quarter, and I set, uh, financial goals that I want to hit every single quarter. And then my wife and I are talking about money all the time. But that those, for me, I clearly evaluate.
Again, money's very important to me. It's the business I'm in, and so I wanna make sure that I'm always practicing what I'm preaching and by monitoring my net worth that helps me do that in the best way possible. I love that. The last one is my favorite, which is what does wealth mean to you? Well, wealth means to me different categories.
We were on the court with three of our kids last night playing pickleball. That's relational wealth, man. You're asking questions that generate some emotions here, Andrew. You know, when I think about a stoplight I was at with my son a few months ago and I said, Hey, what are you, what are you gonna do now?
He opted to go the non-college route. He said, well, I think I'm gonna start my own business. And I said, why? He said, well, because that's what we do in our family, because all of our kids are entrepreneurs and dad's an entrepreneur, and it hid me that more is caught than taught. And I was like, whoa. So that's wealth.
And then I think about just teaching our kids that there's no lid. We, we have a sunroof family and not a lid family. Yeah. That's what wealth is. And so now I'm seeing some of these lessons and I'm seeing all of our kids launch their own businesses and now they're rolling. And now the biggest wealth is just for me to just get outta the way and let them create their own wealth.
I love it. And I think that's one of the most impactful things that we can have, is teaching those lessons to our kids and kind of passing that out from generation to generation is so incredibly powerful. Well, Derek, this has been absolutely amazing. Thank you so much for coming on here. Where can people find out more about you, more about your podcast, more about everything else that you do, in addition to, we'll talk about Simple Teen Success again.
Yeah, a couple places. Uh, derrick kinney.com is the primary website, uh, simple Teen Success, of course, where to buy the course. You can follow us on LinkedIn at Derrick Kinney. And then our most popular channel is Instagram at Derrick Kinney. Just daily tips on how to make money and save money and, and really, uh, get paid what you deserve.
Absolutely, and thank you so much. We'll link all those up down in the show notes below so that everybody can check them out. Derek, thank you again so much for being here. This was awesome, Andrew. This has been great. Yeah, I always love your podcast. You're such a great person. You're the real deal. I've enjoyed every minute of this.
Thanks for having me. Thank you.
