LifeWorks Today Podcast → 11 Living The Life You Want

Welcome To Life Works today this podcast is provided so that together we can create a world in which all people love their lives our current human systems aren’t working the way of superior versus inferior or management versus employee or adult versus child we need a powerful positive and sustainable transformation this podcast is for you who seek to be happy fulfilled and peaceful so that your Abundant Life Works

today so welcome to Life Works today my name is Judy Ryan and I’m CEO of Life work systems and this podcast is designed to provide stories and information that are there to help those of you who are listening in any role to expand your potential and grow in your ability to be and feel empow empowered lovable connected and contributing today my guest I’m happy to announce is George brombacher he’s the chief Community officer for the money alignment Academy which is an online resource that helps great organizations get what they already want successful employees he combines online modules with an interactive community and this program addresses the lack of financial literacy it also addresses Employee Engagement and the overall Wellness that too many Americans struggle with and I know for many Wellness is not just the physical world it is the financial world it is the uh Wellness around our emotional social world around our spiritual world so money alignment Academy is a reasonably priced benefit organization that’s been designed to Simply and easily offer to their employees ideas that will help determine what’s right for them George has been recognized he’s a thought leader and an Investopedia top 10 financial adviser in 2020 congratulations on that George he’s also a foundation board member for the Goodwill organization of Central and Northern Arizona and the president of financial consulting professionals woo I don’t know how he does it all addition to his role in the money alignment Academy George also hosts a podcast series called the money Savage podcast I think he’s does something like hundreds or thousands a year George will have to clarify that so George tell our audience a little bit about yourself and welcome to the show well I’m thrilled to be here thank you for having me Judy and we’re pretty familiar with with one another you’ve been on money Savage three times so excited to excited to be on your show and I appreciate the introduction I’m an Investopedia top 100 adviser hopefully I’ll be in the top 10 sooner rather than later but just for a little bit of clarification on that I am you gave me a great introduction I’m a dad I’m I’ve got two boys four in one they’re giving me a run for my money and married live in Arizona grew up in northern Minnesota so duth Minnesota small town uh cold cold cold winners somehow became a tennis player and that that I think I like to share that because that really informs a lot about about me um it taught me that if I really focused and decided on something and sunk my teeth into it that that I could really Excel even though it was or maybe because it was a little bit different than what everybody else was doing which was primarily playing hockey because that’s kind of what you do up there um and so that was that was great it taught me that that hard work pays off and so goal setting and Tennis itself um it teaches you that you need to move on on whether you just had a great experience or you had a bad experience so the next Point comes pretty quickly and then then the next game and the next set so it’s important to be able to recover physically and mentally and then move on and to control both of those States as best you can and then it also taught me that uh being really super proactive in reaching out and figuring out what you want I decided that I wanted to play division one I wanted a scholarship and I wanted to go to a school outside small school outside of a big city and I literally this was before um graduated high school in 97 just to sort of frame this and the internet wasn’t around and it wasn’t easy to do videotapes but my mom found somebody to to to videotape me and so I literally sent VHS tapes to over a hundred different schools with handwritten notes and um so while I was certainly recruited um did not get recruited by the kinds of schools that I wanted to go to so I just did it on my own and so I found Valar University which kind of checks all those boxes small school in Indiana outside of Chicago division one and I got a scholarship so the tennis experience just it taught me all those things and it’s really carried with me uh throughout my entire life so um got into Finance right out of college I was like a lot of people that had no idea what they wanted to do when they grew up um I’m I’m getting pretty close to that at this point at 42 years old I just got into Finance because I didn’t really know what I wanted to do and I met somebody who said come talk to me about New York Life I said sure why not my grandfather had worked with New York Life for his whole career had no idea what he really did but it was a sales opportunity and being a competitive person I I I I sort of jumped on it and so now it’s this is literally my 20th year in in the financial world and you sort of gave a rundown of what I’m working on but fundamentally I’m trying to help people to get better at money and if you look at the numbers the statistics or however you want to sort of dice it up we are not great with money we as as as Americans and we struggle with so much of it and there’s a million different reasons for that um but you’d ask me really what my purpose is and it’s to help people live how they want so I want people to live the lives that they want and there’s a lot that goes into that as well but no wonder we’re so Kindred because mine is to create a world where people love their lives kind of the same thing I just want to commend you on your tennis background because really any high- performing athlete is a person that has a lot of determination and resilience and coming from a family that we learned every sport possible I thought tennis was the hardest of all of them of course I’m not coordinated so it was exhausting and required a lot of determination so that’s a big deal I also want to say that you’re in um a premier sport having two children that are that age four and four in one right yeah I don’t know which was harder tennis or having those kids and also about money you know I think a lot of people think they know a lot about money but they don’t necessarily create a an intention or a real discipline around how they will manage all of that so so tell me a little bit more you’ve kind of mentioned your purpose uh which is to help people have a life they want is that how you said it they have a life they want live how you want live how you want yeah and and you know it reminds me a little bit about when I say I want people to have created a world the conditions and conversations where they love their lives it’s really their life right how they want so that’s very important so many of us are living for what other people want and you’re saying no live the life you want and make sure that you equip yourself so that’s that’s really what you’re committed to causing what kind of behaviors and practices do you do that keep you in that mind yourself of living the life you want and I know some of them could be what you do before we even have this 7 AM podcast you know told me some of your personal practices what are those behaviors that keep you aligned with your own purpose yeah yeah there’s there’s there’s there’s a lot of good stuff in there not necessarily with me but just just just with your question in that yeah you hit the nail on the head that I’m trying to help people live how they want to live not how to your point 100% not how society says or how their folks lived or what they think that they should be doing so for for for me I tennis again just showed me that it requires extreme consistency it requires I don’t want to say sacrifice and hard work but I am I’m an early morning person and in order to become competitive at the level that I was it required you know more Court time and that meant I got up really early in the dead of winter and drove to the indoor tennis place in duth which was essentially you know a concrete Court covered up with you know a metal shed so it’s was freezing cold in there um but before school and then I played after school so to do all the things that that I’m doing it’s it’s because I want to get better I’m always interested in striving um I heard this great uh word you asked me a couple minutes ago if I like quotes and I I 100% do but I I I heard this word it’s called AR and it’s a an ancient Greek word that doesn’t necessarily have an English equivalent but the closest would be virtue and the the definition of it would be what I can be I must be so making sure that when I recognize that I have the potential potential to have an impact or to reach certain whatever it is then I am obligated to myself and my Creator and everything else to be doing what I need to be doing everything that I can be doing to get there okay that that doesn’t mean that I’m working 24 hours a day seven days a week I’m not I’m not falling into this trap of of hustle porn which is another great term uh that our society is is is is giving to us um I I work really hard to get eight hours of sleep every night so I I I get up at 4 420 every morning and so that means I I I’m in bed by hopefully 8:20 doesn’t mean I’m asleep necessarily um but then I get up and I I physically exercise every morning I drink a ton of water I have a a breathing and meditation and mindfulness practice that I do um shower all that important stuff um and then then I’m usually recording some kind of a podcast in um every morning so those are certainly uh things that that need to need to get put into the day I appreciate that you named those very specific things because I think people hold a purpose and they don’t recognize what are those things that I need to do to maintain that or and even when I look at values I even think of it is if I’m not living my purpose what value or behavior do I need to put in place so so I my question is are you do you believe and feel as if you are living the life you want yeah currently currently I am it took it it took took me a really long time to get there though yeah you know I’m uh that’s kind of hard to go going to bed at 8:30 or 8:20 because but I did read somewhere that early to bed early to rise does make us healthy wealthy and Wise It’s accurate you know so good for you as far as your how you express your purpose what are the some of the Visions for the ways that you are expressing your purpose I know I’ve talked about it a little bit probably in your introduction is there do you have a specific way that you focus on I want to express my vision my purpose right now in these ways and what would those be so I spent 14 years working in an insurance company Financial World between New York Life and Mass Mutual which are both accept Prof companies Great experiences and I did that between being an adviser with them and then also in management with them so again wonderful experience is when I retired from that I sort of looked around said where do I fit into Financial stuff if I even do any more because it was not aligned to my purpose it didn’t it just it just wasn’t clicking it was just a job that I was doing and I was good at it and I settled on the world of of retirement planning specifically organizational retirement planning 401K plans which is the primary way that we as Americans save her money or save her retirement and then eventually hopefully are able to and I focused on that because I saw so many flaws and problems I saw that it just wasn’t working um and I said well this is fascinating so it’s it became intellectually interesting to me to try to figure all this out and behavioral finance and the psychology behind money uh so that gave me that opportunity to to really dive into that and to learn all about that and then to try to innovate it because okay just because things are done this way does that mean it’s the way that it’s supposed to be and I think again there’s this great scene in the in The Social Network movie the Facebook movie where the Mark Zuckerberg character is sitting across from the winkl vice Twins and he says if you were the inventors of Facebook then you would have invented Facebook and yeah is if these big Financial companies were capable of helping help in people safe for retirement than they would have been helping people safe for retirement yes yes it’s such an obvious thing the the need is the mother of invention right so you were willing to look at the need I know this wasn’t in my original questions to you but can you tell me um a success story and I’m particularly curious about when you understand the psychology around money how have you been able to help someone or some organization however you whatever example to be successful because you were able to impact the way that they see that whole the psychology of it yeah well I think that that manifests in in really probably every day so much of we we we all have Shame about money or or or we’re embarrassed because we’ve not been successful with it just in some way or we have some negative something script running around money from from in from stuff that our parents gave to us and a lot of it is just not accessible I think that you’re seeing things like Robin Hood which is going on right now which is fascinating is is is just evidence that this is an organization that’s making money accessible I I’m not saying it’s good but all of a sudden people are super interested in the world of investing when in fact you could have opened a brokerage account for the last 20 years right but now all of a sudden just everybody is doing it and it’s on the the the the tip of our tongues so that I think that that I think that you need to be you need to be approachable you need to be vulnerable and let people know and so to to to just to give you examples every time I stand up in front of a room or sit down in front of one person I tell them hey I’ve made every mistake that you could possibly make with with money and we all have and then it’s just a matter of what positive actions can we start taking now to start moving in the direction of whatever it is that you’re interested in doing so million stories about helping people get out of credit card debt it’s why Dave Ramsey’s the best financial adviser that’s ever lived he he not doing anything fancy right he’s just helping people get out of debt change simple behaviors right I mean he’s he’s he’s the best case study so for individuals just helping them recognize that okay this stuff is not something that I don’t have access to I can be an investor I can be somebody who who saves money I can be somebody who’s not broke all the time I can be somebody who who understands how my 401k works and I can describe it to people so I love help helping people just to say if you’re at a social event or a cocktail party or whatever and somebody asks you about you’re investing you can explain what your strategy is for your for your retirement investing um I’m a person that comes from a family of a lot of financial advisors and I have also experienced a lot of them in my own life and I can tell you that most of them do not come at it from a place of vulnerability openness and let’s talk about the shame that most of us feel and I think that is a necessary you know the the feeling I typically would get is oh well everybody knows this and you should know this too and this is how you should do it and I always felt intimidated by a lot of the people that come at finances so I I really appreciate the fact that you’re saying you first relate to the people that you’re serving by saying this is not easy stuff this can cause a lot of intimidation and shame and um let me just help you pick one or two ways that you wanna improve and I can give you some help with that very downto Earth very um easygoing so I want to make sure that I take a minute here about halfway through I always try to remind the listeners that life work systems is here for you we specialize in Performance Management through the healthy culture transformation or sometimes people just take a course and then they take another course but ideally it’s through healthy culture transformation so go to our website and learn more about us and how you can get involved with us including access to the information related to today’s episode and to future episodes so you can find us at life work systemsis plural.com subscribe to our podcast and find the main points on each podcast we invite you to also join our mailing list so that you receive information on free videos webinars articles surveys assessments my book how to contact us by phone or email so just about anything you want is on that website and when you go to our website and you look at the details of this episode you’re going to find resources that we’ll share with you welcome back with George grombacher George I’ve got some more questions for you can you tell us a little bit about your vision for why you do your podcast series and any details you want us to know about that so part of recognizing that that that that that we need help is that you need to be able to to meet people where they are and to I think make good ideas available and and and accessible and I got fascinated by podcasts probably in 2015 when I discovered them I like wow these are awesome there’s a podcast on everything they’re free you can listen to them everywhere and so I started a podcast in 2016 just as a hobby with a friend that I still do today um but then I I said okay well I know how to do podcast Why not start a podcast about financial stuff uh just so that I’m I I I I do writing so there’s written stuff there’s video and then I thought well why not podcast so and then the idea was well why don’t I bring on other Financial people and try to bring forth as many good ideas as I possibly can and tease out super practical stuff that people can listen to for 20 minutes it’s pretty digestible and then put it into practice and it’s morphed into being able to have conversations with folks like you Judy and just PR pretty much every Walk of Life Again getting down to how can I help people live live the lives that they’re really interested in living and and get better so right and that’s what I see I see that you have topics that are not just Financial Rel related and in my I know this is kind of a popular term being a go-giver I see that in you George because sometimes I think well what is he getting out of this podcast that has nothing to do with finances but you’re really more about let me interact with other thought leaders that can bring good ideas to help my listeners and that in itself is highly admirable so I appreciate that Vision that you hold about that how many of these do you do a year I think you have a goal that’s pretty significant what is that goal yeah certainly um I think that we released um need to look at my phone I think I released number 870 today but in 2021 we’re going to do 500 episodes so right around 10 a week like your tennis pro mentality that a lot of discipline so it’s really aggressive yeah yeah so great great so um what are some of the barriers that you’ve come across regarding both your vision for your financial activities but also maybe for your podcast any areas of your life where you’ve bumped up against things that just keep you from feeling like you’re as successful as you’d like well real quick on the podcast um there are no barriers on that at all which is which is why it’s amazing and which is why I’m sinking my teeth into it right it’s like nobody can tell me that I can’t do that or don’t do this sort of a thing right I could do I could do 50 podcasts a week if I wanted to so and I can so that’s one of the things that you know going back to the tennis thing I I sort of went away from the the accepted Orthodoxy of what people did and you know once you get on a tennis court nobody’s picking me right I’m not on a team where maybe if the coach doesn’t like me um I’m not going to get playing time quite the opposite it is 100% merit-based it’s like fighting right it’s like you put two people on a court or into a ring or an octagon or whatever it is and you’re GNA have one person win and one person lose so that’s what’s amazing about podcasting for me or or just just modern uh media being able to have a YouTube show or or really whatever it is so that’s given me the opportunity to to express myself from an artistic standpoint to be creative um so that’s certainly an amazing thing from a barrier standpoint I think that that whenever and you’re certainly familiar with this right we’re working with existing systems and existing assumptions um that have been there and sort of the wheels are turning and I know we talked a little bit about this the last conversation we had that it’s such a fascinating time that we’re living through when we’re challenging so many of the different systems that that that we’re living under yeah so in other words your barrier could be at times you’re perceived as a disruptor of the status quo in terms yeah I I think that the barrier simply is is inertia status quo complacency yes well and I just want to go back to your uh your idea that I don’t really have barriers when it comes to podcast but I also would say that the reason you don’t have barriers is that you’ve discovered what works for you and what and and the fact that it gives you some sort of life or you wouldn’t be doing it you know especially at that high level it’s almost an it’s almost a sport that you’re doing and yet because it’s so natural to you you don’t experience so many uh barriers and I see a barrier that a lot of people have because they pick things to express their purpose where they really don’t have the affinity for it or they don’t have the love for it or they don’t have that confidence for it so you are kind of the master of that and that’s why it doesn’t even feel difficult to you I mean that’s really the ideal way of living a life we want is it doesn’t feel hard because it’s what we want all the time 100 perc but it is hard for sure there’s and I can imagine trying to overcome some of the standard ideas about financial planning and under and financial literacy your biggest obstacle is probably educating people on what they don’t know that they don’t know so that they can open to other ways of looking at it is that kind of what you’re saying sure yeah 100% a a lot of what money alignment Academy it’s it’s distributed through organizations because the idea here is that you bring great information but then it’s the support of community reinforcing that giving a hand up or a kick in the butt when people need it that’s when Real Change is happening like with Crossfit alcoholic synonymous Weight Watchers they’re effective because they’re bringing great information but then there’s the community behind it that that really reinforces everything and with with with with organizations who wouldn’t want to do that who wouldn’t want to do everything that they possibly can for their employees and to help them be better at money but you know that’s that’s that’s a nice thing to have but we are especially right now just try trying to keep the lights on during covid and there’s a long list of stuff that we need to be working on and this is on the list but maybe number 25 and if I never get past number three then there’s very little chance that I’m ever going to actually put this um put something like this in in in into practice so that’s that’s that’s a big part of it life life is very busy saying in a sense you’re applying it takes a village to the financial literacy just like it does to any other Endeavor how do you actually go into organizations like what’s the process what if if somebody listening were to think wow we could use a community-based understanding about financial literacy how how do you approach what is the process yeah it’s as simple as as as anything else if somebody says yeah I I’d like to have a conversation then it’s just familiar familiarize yourself with with what money alignment Academy is and it’s it’s just you can just Google that or type it into the search bar and then simply Reach Out can have a conversation if it’s a good fit for the organization so yeah I think what’s interesting about how you’re describing that is there’s not some big high flut and process you go through to meet people to do this you are making yourself receptive to those that want what you have that’s what I I I personally I pray every day that the people that are passionate about the things that I’m bringing find me and in a sense it’s almost like that’s what you’re saying there’s no pressure of pushing the the the river you know you’re just saying I’m here I’ve got this amazing thing and people know enough about about it that they know whether to come to me or not and that seems to be working right yeah that’s that’s really where we want to be I just listening to uh Gary Vayner talk about that and the person he was talking to and if you know Gary ve he’s he’s the king of all things content but he’s such a such a thoughtful person and he’s talking to somebody who said you know these people just you know I’m talking to people and and they’re giving me push back because I don’t have this I I don’t have a certain designation was was was was the uh the sticking point and he said well stop talking to those people then right you know there are millions and millions of people out there who could potentially be needing it so if they’re not liking what you’re doing then go talk to the people who do exactly and there’s a maturity that comes with it that says I know I’m not for everyone and people that aren’t drawn to me that’s okay but I’m here for those that are ready for me and that’s somewhat unusual George so I plaud you for that um tell me a little bit about some of the philosophies or the mindsets that that you hold that inspire you that help you I mean you just mentioned one right there but what are any other kind of guiding principles that you follow yeah with uh with getting a little bit older has has brought a little bit of wisdom which thank goodness for that because that’s not a guarantee necessarily so my my one of my favorite quotes used to be in this life you’re either the hammer or the Anvil and for me forever I’m like I’m the hammer I’m going to go hit things you know and nothing’s going to stop me that’s that whole tennis mentality right which served me extremely well through it got me all the things that I wanted it really and um but you recognize or I have rather probably five years ago the shift started to happen and I never understood the idea of letting things come to me never got that I’m like what are you talking about I’m just supposed to sit here and let things come to me um so I’m not I was not always and I’m not now some enlightened being that just had always just let the universe sort of flow through me but recognizing that that’s really where I want to be and the things that I want to do is to have more of Life come to me yes and do my work and that when I’m throwing that into the universe that in fact things will come through me yeah I actually find the less I try to make things happen the more things happen but it is a a a different perspective it is a different philosophy then I’ve got to go out there and make everything happen and you are the hammer because you do your Hammer the way you love life the things you love to talk about the things you love to do but you’re not out there trying to force anything and then you get to have that experience and I think if you’re like me the more that comes to you the more that you trust more will come to you you don’t you even do less of feeling pressured or stressed or as if it’s all on you like as if you’re not alone so I hope the people listening really hear that because that is revolutionary that really is thought leadership to say we’re in a point in the world where we dance our dance and we do it as with as much talent as possible and then we let go to some extent we hold the vision we invite the vision but we don’t force or strive so even when you thought you were being the hammer probably earlier in your life you were more of an anvil than you know knew you were if you if you felt that you had to make it happen so I think you become even more fine-tuned so that’s awesome to share any other uh practices that you feel help with your Effectiveness in your life Seth Goden is this amazing we we again we were talking about quotes and he just is such a A Gifted linguist and and writer and the brevity which with he writes is just it’s so incredible that his economy of work words and just he just gets it all right and I was listening to a show that he was just talking about he was talking about putting himself on the hook for things and being on the hook that’s a whole another thing that we don’t need to talk about today but that’s really this this concept of put yourself on the hook throw it out there here’s what I’m gonna do and then you need to step up and actually follow through on it yes even just moving toward it you know one of my spiritual teachers is Matt KH and he says commitment is everything he said I don’t care if you or you yodel just commit to it and I just remember that all the time because it’s so funny but um absolutely and and it doesn’t mean you have to have the entire script and the whole proof that it’s going to work you just start taking steps towards it love that what is some of the most encouraging things you would say to people that are listening right now say that that that in this very Dynamic time for you you also to challenge the assumptions under which you are living so why why are you doing the things that that you’re doing in every aspect of of your life why do you drive the car that you drive why do you live in the house that you live in why do you eat the food that you eat why do you do what you do for hobbies why do you interact with your loved ones the way that you interact with your loved ones why do you why are you a Republican or why are you a Democrat or why do you hate the government or why do you love the government take a big step back and to think about okay why is it that I think this why am I acting in this way and then think about okay what’s what’s what’s really true about these things I got turned on to uh this idea of first principles relatively recently and first principles thinking is simply reasoning by what is true and not reasoning by analogy so Elon Musk is the perfect example of this he said you know what I want to do I’m gonna build a rocket company so instead of going and buying an existing rocket because he realized they were too expensive he figured out I need all these materials that it’s GNA take to buy a rocket and then I’m GNA go Source the materials on my own so that’s that’s what he did and he built SpaceX and think about Tesla instead of just going and figuring out how GM makes cars and how they make batteries he did it on his own and so think about that for your life think about okay what am I really interested in doing I want to be a healthy person what does that really mean I want to be financially successful okay what does that really mean I want to be a good dad or husband or Community member whatever it is about what you really want then take a big step back and say what are the systems that I’m living under that are stopping me from getting what I want yeah and then rebuild it start taking those positive actions I think what you’re really saying is start trusting your own inner guidance system instead of what everybody else is telling you you should think feel and do and that is uh somewhat of a rarity I don’t think people he enough live the life you want or in my case live a life in which which you love your life which is very unique to you so we can’t really hear that enough so it’s very encouraging for people to be listening to this and hearing you say get clear about who you are be okay wanting what you want even if it looks like crazy like when you talk about Elon Musk wanting to build Rockets I mean most people would go what you know but whatever it is that we love it’s important to honor that and it and it can’t happen if we have too many other voices crowding out our own voice so awesome advice it’s just a hard for people to let go of the conditioning of doing it the way that everyone else says is the quote unquote right way so it is we only got one crack at this deal though Judy we got we got one one one timer on the track yeah so why not find what we love and then the path to it rather than what we think we’re supposed to do so awesome George well I am so grateful and I just want to thank you uh for being my guest today and I also want to thank our listeners who are listening to this wonderful podcast today I appreciate your intelligent and your thoughtful insights and I’m sure that those who are listening to this podcast are going to get a lot from what you have to say this podcast is brought to you by life work systems again the intent of this podcast is to provide you with hope and new ideas and I know we all got that today with George so um I will post information on our website about George and any of some of these authors maybe if he wants to provide me uh some of the resources or some of the things that have guided him I’d be happy to make sure that that’s on our podcast page so we invite you to join join George and I in creating that world where you live the life you want where you love your life and where you can grow masterful in making sure that your life works today because that’s really what we want is a life that works thank you again have a good day thank you for having me you’re so

[Music] welcome thank you for listening to Life Works today this podcast has been brought to you by life work system CEO and host Judy Ryan the intent of this podcast is to provide you with hope and new ideas for Greater Joy in your life and work for more information on our organization and earlier podcast episodes related articles videos and more please visit our website at Lifeworks systems.com be sure to subscribe to our podcast and mailing list we invite you to join us in creating a world in which all people love their lives and where your life works today