Mastering Your Money Mindset with George. G

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

people, life, rat race, thinking, money, podcast, george, years, personal finance, fear, laura, stepping, knowing, ideas, excited, mind, stuck, reawaken, resilient, gave

00:00

Welcome, everybody. We are about to have an awesome conversation. I am here with George Grumbacher or George G from his podcast. lifeblood. I am so excited for this conversation, to hear about his story, how he got out of the rat race and how he helps other people. So stick around.

00:18

The following was recorded in front of a live studio audience at the studio 21 podcast cafe. This is the United Podcast Network.

00:28

Welcome to rat race reboot. I'm your host, Laura Noel. And as a certified coach and former 27 year military leader, each week, I provide bite sized mindset pivots that will help you reset your mind reawaken your spirit and regain your control. Hello, hello, and welcome everyone to another episode of rat race reboot. I'm excited to invite and introduce my guest, George, we have had a previous conversation on his podcast, lifeblood. Of course, the link will be in the show notes, I definitely want you to check out that podcast, but I'm really interested in connecting with you and hearing your story. There are a couple of things on your bio that I wanted to touch on. But first of all, welcome to the show, George.

01:21

Thanks for having me. It's awesome to see you again.

01:24

Absolutely. You know, there are a couple of things here. One, I was reading your bio. And of course, this will be in the show notes to it mentions that you were a tennis player and a handful. But the other thing that really caught my attention is you're a non conforming, transcendentalist. Minimalist. I love that. Tell me about that.

01:46

Yeah, there's there's a lot going on there. And I think the first thing was or is that I dislike being categorized. I dislike titles. I dislike formal bios. And so whenever somebody says, Can I have a bias? I'm like, okay, George, you know, is from this place. And he does this and that. And it's so stuffy all the time. And I also feel like it doesn't necessarily encapsulate who we are, it's just sort of what we do. And I always try and get across, okay, this is actually who I am. This is the work that I'm trying to do the impact that I'm that I endeavored to have. And so those things, being a tennis player, it definitely defined and went a long ways to getting me to where I am today. So that was such a huge part of my life as a young person. I'm still a handful today. So I feel like that's that's that that's an important thing to include. And then, Transcendentalism, I remember learning about that Emerson and Thoreau when I was 13 years old and thinking, Yes, that is that is it right there. That is Yeah. If I had to put a put a finger on it, that'd be it. And then minimalism, you know, there's so many opportunities to add complexity to our lives. And so the more we can sort of peel those layers back and sort of help people do what you're doing, which is reset, reawaken, and I wrote down the third one, but now I can't read it. So you can have to help me with that.

03:18

Oh, regain your control. Yeah, yes. Control? Yeah. Well, you know, it's interesting, because that was the other thing that caught my eye, because I asked, you know, what is your title and you said, present thinking and doing I wrote it down here, because I wanted to bring that up. And you bring up a great point. Because when we simplify things, when we get out of the rat race, we can, you know, put titles on things think that things are certain, but we're spirit in a body. And when we can simplify and distill things down to the essence of who we are, oh, my gosh, life is so much more joyful.

04:00

Yeah, I definitely agree. And, you know, it's it's sort of a cute thing President thinking doing, but that's really what I tried to be doing are those things. I'm lots of things just like we are lots of things. I'm a dad, I'm a husband, I'm the short order cook, I'm the cleaner, also a financial advisor, I'm a podcaster. I'm a writer, I'm all of these things. So you know, just try to be also a little bit clever and creative at the same time.

04:30

Well, I love that. And so tell me a little bit so my audience can understand. How did you get to the spot where you are in your life today? Tell me a little bit about your journey. How you got to be doing what you're doing? What is it like? You know, just we want to hear about you.

04:47

Yeah, it's a story about intention, and knowing exactly what you wanted to do and then just following each step. That's not true at all. That's not true at all. I mean, I by, I guess what I did, I did play tennis as a young person. And I did that really, really competitively. And that brought me to where I went to school. I'm from Northern Minnesota. So 18 Cold years there. I went to Valparaiso University in Indiana. And I found that because of tennis D one school, I got a scholarship, those were two boxes I wanted to check off, I did that. And then after that, I literally had no idea what I wanted to do for a career, I had zero idea I had, I was a political science major, I thought I wanted to go to law school. So that was my direction, not because I knew what an attorney did, because I didn't know that at all. I just perceived that to be a worthwhile career where you can be respected and wear suit and earn a living and all these things, and got really close to going to law school. And thank goodness, not to say anything negative about lawyers, or lawyering or anything like that, it just would have been a terrible fit for me. So I moved to Arizona, my dad had been in Arizona for a long time. So growing up, I would visit figured tired of the Midwest, hard to cold weather, why not go to Arizona, and I just I found a job. And my first job was selling life insurance with New York Life. And so that's how I got started in financial services. And now 21 plus years later, I own and operate an independent financial firm. I am the chief community officer, founder and chief community officer of a financial wellness company, and the host of a podcast and the editor of a blog. And I write every day, so I'm also a writer. But to answer your question, it took a long time, and it's still an evolving thing. But to escape the rat race, it essentially took me 12 years to leave the environment of a big corporation. And then to go out on my own and to really become an entrepreneur.

06:48

I love that. And there's one thing that I want to touch on. And I think this is important to note, because a lot of people listen to our show and connect with me for coaching. Because they don't know what they want to do. They know that they're cut out for so much more than what they're currently doing. They don't really like the path that they're on. And you noticed early on, you know, I'm interested in law, but something pulled that you. And here's the key is you listened to that voice, and a lot of people don't, we can get caught up and doing what we think we ought to do, we should do. You know, we're following down this path and setting goals. And they're not even our goals. They're the expectations that other people have. And so if you can remember, what was it that got you to kind of shift directions and actually go to a different place, physically, which, you know, ultimately led you down a completely different path. Do you recall what that was for you?

07:56

For sure. And really, fundamentally, the reason that the tennis was important for me, and I don't want to talk too much about tennis, but it's so important is it taught me about really hard work. And if I focus on something and work my butt off, then it's a meritocracy. And when I'm stuck on the court with somebody, there's no politics there, it's the best person that day is either going to win or lose. So it gave me the opportunity to really sink my teeth into something that teaches you that however, the last experience went, however, the last point went, Well, you got a couple of seconds, and then it's time to do the next thing. So you need to get over the success or the failure of the past and move on to the next. And indeed be resilient, you need to be mentally tough and strong and physically strong, and all these things. And so that gave me a really, really strong belief in myself. I know myself to be incredibly capable, capable of learning, I accept personal responsibility, and I'm a very disciplined person. And that's what that gave me. And so when I was 20 years old 2122 and trying to figure this out and looking at making pivots. I was totally fearless. Not worried about I wonder if this is going to work out because I had a track record of success to say, Okay, I know that whatever I decide to do, I'm probably going to be able to do it, I'm probably going to be able to pull that off. And that's translated really every stage of my life. I empathize and spend a lot of time thinking about how do I help people to get unstuck also, and a lot of that from my work comes from a financial standpoint, because I was fortunate where I graduated school, I didn't have a lot of student loan debt, and like a couple $1,000 Literally, versus if I had graduated and I had $50,000 of student loan debt, I would have to start paying that back which means I need to go get a job, which means I probably also have an apartment payment and a Carly's and I'm sort of stuck in this rat race just right out of the gate. And so you just get in your pattern and your habit which I know you talk a lot about, think a lot about out, it's tough to break out of that orbit.

10:04

Absolutely. I mean, you had a lot of things going for you. And I think, even just everybody has fear of something. And I think it took a lot of courage for you to kind of break away from what the path that you thought you wanted to lead into doing something completely different. I mean, that's, that's a key here, too. And having that belief in yourself, that's something that a lot of people struggle with, I mean, you had the discipline and the repetition and the practice of in your life, when you overcame an obstacle, or were you kind of brushed up against something, you know, a game or a missing point, or whatever you moved on. And a lot of times, when we have situations where we're, it's not going to our liking, we can get stuck. And that keeps us in the rat race too. So we're not willing to move on. But if you can develop that resilience within yourself and that belief and strengthen that belief within yourself, which it sounds like you did, and it wasn't something that was magical that happened, it takes practice, it's time spaced repetition of a way of being so this isn't an overnight success story. This is like years in the making. So I love that I want to share that with people. Because if, if I can do this, and transition from you know, a corporate job or a military career, to living this life on my terms, and you can do this for yourself, then certainly our listeners can do that for themselves. And really a big part of that is being resilient, resilient, stepping through fear, strengthening that belief in yourself. Now did you have as you kind of went on this journey, and you started going down this path of entrepreneurship? Did you have mentors along the way who helped you?

12:02

Certainly, but not, not as many are not as maybe not the right ones. Then I just wanted to say one thing is that I still experience fear 1,000% on a daily basis, I still have anxiety about is this going to work. So it's not like I'm just I'm not like a sociopath that just blindly thinks that everything's gonna work out. It's just that I've been conditioned to know that if I do put the work in, and I take the steps, and I think that that's something that we as human beings are hardwired to desire certainty. And where we are, is certainly going to keep me alive. So my brain says, okay, yeah, this, this is better than stepping outside of that into the unknown and the uncertain, because I don't know that George George might die if, if, if if I go and do that. So it's easy to get stuck there. But I just wanted to make sure that I'm, I still encounter that that fear and uncertainty on a daily basis, I just, I stepped into it. So yeah, in terms of in terms of mentors. There are a handful of people that have been with me throughout my entire life and my professional life. I wish that I had more. And I need to do a better job of trying to be intentional. I also think that I wasn't coachable when I was been when I was in my 20s. Like the chip on my shoulder was probably too big to be accepting input or criticism. So just recognizing that today, I've got a lot of great mentors, and probably just over the past five or six years, but early on in life, I was probably too stubborn, pigheaded dumb to to, to be accepting that that relationship.

14:00

Yeah, we're brother and sister I was, I was definitely the same way. And not until I went into the military were that even while even for many years, when I was serving, I still have that chip on my shoulder. You have to be ready. So no coaching relationship is going to work until you're ready. But I did want to touch in on that that fear. Because I talk about this a lot. We call this the terror barrier. And I don't know about you, but I kind of use fear as just a way of knowing that I'm on the right track. And if I don't, if I'm not doing something that kind of scares and excites me at the same time, then I know that I'm I'm moving laterally. And I think that's interesting because your brain goes haywire when you have that ambiguity. And it would rather know for certain that oh I'm not satisfied with my circumstance, but I know what it is it is what it is then crashed through the uncertainty of going someplace else. Because I, I can always see what I'm going to let go of, but I can't see what I'm about to gain. But do you often find when you crash through the uncertainty and the fear and you work through it? Are your results often better than when you initially imagined?

15:26

Yeah, certainly, I think that, that, that that is true. And I'm just thinking back when I started my podcast, you know, you just don't know how it's gonna go. And I started really writing about a year or so ago, and you don't know how that's gonna go. And, you know, I just committed to writing a book, and I don't know how that's gonna go. So it's. But yes, looking back over life and experiences, sometimes it never goes exactly the way that you want it to. Sometimes it doesn't work out quite as well as you were hoping. And sometimes it works works out way better. But I definitely, I think that you're spot on with the reasoning why we are the reasons why we stay where we are.

16:08

Yeah, yeah. Oh, well, you said you were writing a book. When is that coming out? What is this about? I'm excited for you?

16:15

Well, Laura, I have not committed to the when so I don't have it. I just thought I was gonna write the book. I bet. I bet that I was thinking about how long is it gonna take me and I bet it'll take me probably, probably 60 days, because the books already been on my mind. And I already have an outline of it that I've been working on for several years. So I just actually need to commit to doing the daily work that it's going to take to, to give it life and to bring it out into the world.

16:44

Well, I'm excited to share it with our audience too, when it comes out. But let's hear about what you're doing. Now. How are you helping people and because that was one of the other elements that you mentioned, was you make it a point to help others. And I think that's an important element with any goal. Or with any of course, any business, you want it to be in the context of service serving other of course, you're you're wanting to grow your business and expand it. But it's in the in the mindset of being of service providing something that will help enrich other people's lives. And so we want to hear all about what you're doing.

17:24

Yeah, I appreciate that. And my little tagline, I figured out a couple years ago that I'm trying to help people get better at money so they can live how they want. And so broadly, I want to help people get better, so they can live the lives that they want. And the only way that anybody's ever going to live the life that they want is if they actually figure out what that life actually looks like. Which you know, and so my part of that is, is the personal finance piece. And I would wet rather be useful than brilliant. So I'm always trying to figure out how can I take these ideas, which are not all that exciting, or maybe confusing or intimidating or not interesting to people, and make it so they can give it the air and the attention that it needs to take an implement, and then make it a habit and make it a beneficial financial habit. So that's really, what I'm constantly working on, is to figure out new ways of presenting that information. And if that's through listening our ears or watching on video, or the written word, whatever it might be, that's, that's what I'm trying to do is help people to get better at money so they can live the lives that they want.

18:35

I love that. And, you know, if we are spending this is another way people can get caught up in the rat race is worrying about money. So if you know that that's not a strength for you, in terms of what do I do with money? How do I handle it, then definitely reaching out to George would be a great idea. So that you have a little bit of certainty, and you can plan. And I love that you put in that context, having a goal. You know, not only do we want to live the life that we want to live, but we also want to plan and have goals around. Well, what would it take to live that life and having the financial backing? To do that? That's incredibly important. So I thank you so much.

19:21

There's a there's there's a lot personal finance is is a lot And fundamentally, you and I I need to be the CEO of my financial life. I need to be the person who's most interested with my financial success, because there's a very little very little chance that any other human being is going to be more interested or should be more interested in my success than I am. But that doesn't mean I have to do everything right. It doesn't mean I need to become an expert in investing or know everything about insurance or taxes. It just means that I need to take ownership of the pieces that I'm going to own and make sure that I'm bringing on the right people to To ensure that everything that needs to get done is actually getting done. Because money is very, very time sensitive, and such as life, right, we got one crack at this deal, we get to go around the truck one time. So the earlier we get started with all of it, the better.

20:15

Yeah, and I love that you're saying, taking responsibility doesn't mean that you're in the weeds doing the things. But I remember, when I first started my business, I was like, Oh, I don't want to do this, here you do it. But I was blind, to things that were going on in my account. And once I took responsibility for that, and I had the right people in place, and I knew the correct questions to ask. That's how I stayed on top of it. And I think there are a lot of people that don't feel comfortable around money. So I think a big element of this is helping people, it sounds like get comfortable with numbers and comfortable with, you know, dealing with money, or at least having the knowledge and knowing the mechanisms and the processes that you need to have the people you need to have in place. Taking responsibility is a huge piece of it. And the other thing that I wanted to touch on was, you are helping people create habits. Now how our minds work, if you just bombard people with a bunch of information, it's not going to have stickiness. So I like that you are finding different ways that to simplify this information and to get it into workable solutions for individuals at an individual level so that it has stickiness.

21:40

Yeah, I think that if you, you, you, you go from being new at something. And it's overwhelming as as you're learning it, and then you get better at it. And then you start teaching it. So you get better at it. And you figure out, okay, how can I really distill this down to if I just showed somebody an image. And I talked to them a little bit about it like a heuristic that they kind of get it. And the newest thing that I'm working on is the gold, silver and bronze medal, we're all familiar with the Olympics and the Olympic platform, and the winner is gets gold, second gets silver, third gets bronze. And so then toying around with the gold medal of personal finances that you need to pay yourself first. And I'll go through this really, really quick. But if you just got in the habit of making sure that you before you pay anybody else put money aside for you, you'd be really, really, really in a great spot. silver metal is stay out of debt. If we can get debt free, if you're out of debt, stay that way. If you're in debt, do whatever you need to get done to get out of that debt. And then the bronze metal is to diversify. So to take a very diversified approach to your investing where you're putting your money. Think about if you're 15 years old, Laura, and you understood those three things, start saving money from me immediately. Don't get in debt. And the money that I do have make sure that it's diversified. I can almost guarantee financial success. But that's also true at 25. It's also true 3545 years old. So doesn't need to be that complicated. If you just do those things. That is a good framework.

23:19

That's great. And so really, it doesn't matter what age you're just starting, what did they say the the best time to invest and do all that was yesterday or 20 years ago. The second best time is right now.

23:31

That's right. When a tree 30 years ago, next best time to plant a tree is today.

23:35

Yeah, I love it. Well, is there anything else that you'd like to share with our listeners? How they can get in touch with you because I really enjoyed today's conversation. And they would do themselves a big service if they reached out to you because you're not only dealing with the money, but you're also dealing with the mindset around money, which I think you need to do both. And that's why I think it's it's such a great opportunity for us to share this information. I'm really grateful that you've been on the show today.

24:05

Yeah, well, I'm super grateful for the opportunity. I enjoyed very much our conversation when you on my show. So grateful to be on yours. And I have a I've got a bunch of courses, I've got a handful of free courses, I have a free course on how to get out of debt. I've got a free course on on goal setting a free course on on getting clear on your values. And then I've got a bunch of other paid courses. I'm really excited about our DIY financial plan course that we have. So if you are if any of that resonated with you have just started taking control your financial decisions and arming yourself with the right questions like you were talking about Laura so that when you are engaging with professionals, you know how to handle those relationships. And that could be a good course for you. But you can find everything about me at money alignment. academy.com Awesome.

24:53

Well, thank you once again for joining us on the show. I know I got a lot of value out of our conversation. I know Our listeners have to. And I look forward to connecting with you again sometime in the near future. Thank you. Thank you so much. Well, today we're going to end our show the way that we always do. And it's with taking inspired action. And today, I really want you to think about money, your money picture, what do you want your life to look like? How do you want to feel? When you look at your bank account? If you could have more than enough for all of your wants and needs? How different would your life be? How would it feel each and every day? Waking up in your shoes? Would you feel at ease? Would you feel more present and connected? Would you spend more time just living in your joy than worry? I want you to build a mental picture. If there were no obstacles? What would your life look like? How much would you like to have in your account

26:29

they could take care of all of your wants and needs. There are no obstacles and I want you to bring to mind that you are living this life right now.

26:50

How does it feel being you? How is this life impacting those you love? And even what kind of ripple effect are you having in the world in your community?

27:22

Because that is meant for you. So just hold that image. It's happening right now. Ask yourself, What can I do today to move me closer in the direction of that image. And it's things float to the top of your mind. Just jot them down and then take action today. Because right now you're in harmony with the image that you want. And so when ideas come to you, those ideas are also in harmony with what you want, not with what you have. And this is what taking inspired action is all about.

28:47

Welcome back, everybody. And remember to take action on those ideas that floated to the top of your mind that is inspired action. And if you're at a loss for some action steps, go to the show notes. Look up George connect with him. He has so many opportunities for you to really take a look at your finances, different levels. Connect with him. I can't recommend that highly enough even to do it. I'm tongue twisted today. But anyway, I want to thank you so much for joining us today giving us a listen. If you have any comments about today's episode, leave us a comment leave us a five star review. This is how we get our word out to more and more people go wherever you listen to your podcasts are and leave a review. We always read them and appreciate them. But until next week, remember, everything is created twice, first in your mind, and then in physical form. We'll see you next week.

29:50

The views and opinions expressed by the hosts guests or callers of this program do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the studio 21 podcast Cafe the Unite Any Podcast Network its partners or affiliates.