[00:00:00] Right now, the world needs great men who will stand up and lead with honor, serve with purpose, and courageously fulfill their God given roles as husbands, fathers, leaders, and men. I'm your host, Franklin Swan, bringing you practical tools and powerful conversations you can use every day to build yourself into the man God is calling you to be.

This is The World Needs Men. Let's go.

Welcome back to the World Needs Men podcast. I'm your host today, Franklin Swan. I've got my man Derek Price back on the show for our fourth round. Of this whole conversation around faith, family, fitness, and finance. And we just had the, we were just on a roll already and didn't even have record hit. And so Derek's like, get it going.[00:01:00]

So here we are, we're back. I was like, dude, we just dropped pearls, Franklin. You were dropping pearls. And I'm like, record. We've had several, uh, episodes in a row where we've really dove into these, this framework, these four pillars of life that, that the Faction Foundation focuses on, and those are your, your faith, your spiritual life, your, your walk with God, your contribution to the world.

It's, it's your family, those relationships that you hold most dear, your, your spouse, your children, your, uh, your brother, sister, mom, dad, all those. It's your fitness, and that includes both your Your physical fitness and your mental fitness. And then finally, we, uh, we're coming here today for, for the finance conversation.

And we were talking before the podcast and, and we're real, we're not going to lay out like, here's how to run your business. We're really going to dive into the more of the mindsets and the principles that we embrace as we run business. And these can be applied no matter if you're running a. a retail store, a manufacturing [00:02:00] facility, uh, an online business, a service business, a product business.

It really doesn't matter because these are all, these are all mindsets and philosophies on how to lead your life from the financial and business perspective. So Derek, welcome back. Thanks, Matt. As always, appreciate you having me on here. It gives me a great, amazing And, um, I love everything that you guys talk about on the Lawyer Podcast that come out and I'm just happy to be here yet again.

Thank you. Awesome. Well, why don't you, uh, take us in and also like, just so people know where you're coming from on this, uh, finance, uh, topic, like you're, you were a professional football player. So you've got, you know, uh, background that lends to talking about fitness, obviously. But then hit real quick and just rewind a bit on your business background so that people understand where you're coming from when you talk about these things.

Sure. So after the NFL ended with a neck injury, which was a great first job [00:03:00] and hard to replace that income. That's the very first job. I go to medical school and then come out and um, my first real business venture at Franklin To buy out the practice that I came in as an associate and worked my way into a certain level of, uh, Oh, what's the right word?

I worked my way into a scenario in the practice where I had him handcuffed because of my value, right? I helped grow the practice so much the patient base was attracted to me. I became the lifeblood of the practice. Uh, more so than the other owners. And my first real business move was making the decision, and this would have been like 2003 maybe?

Do I go across the street and start and build my own? Or do I buy out these, uh, other people that I was working for as, as an employee? And I chose the latter, and had the experience of my very first real business move was a one million dollars business. Exactly [00:04:00] 1 million, uh, SBA loan. And I remember that check and I remember that transfer.

And I remember how that felt and, uh, all of the mistakes on planet earth. I didn't realize when I bought a business, how to negotiate the AR, how to negotiate the receivables, how to negotiate, you know, a lot of the go forwards, et cetera, and, uh, as such, I found myself in a business that was wildly profitable and thinking that just the train just changed tracks and came under my tracks.

for a million dollars and realizing that all of the accounts and the balances and the owed And the startups and everything went with the old business. That was negotiation issue 101. And I learned from it painfully and, um, got into, became very entrepreneurial and like kind of our discussion here at the beginning, if you're not willing to risk it for the biscuit, don't get out, don't be an entrepreneur, just stop where you're headed and move on.[00:05:00]

Well, like I was writing checks, if you remember back to when like the credit card companies would send you like a check and you could write a check to yourself that would go on your own credit card. Like, that's how we would cover payroll for a while, etc. And eventually, you know, things caught up and, and um, everything was great and it was, it was wildly successful and I opened up a multitude of clinics and different practices and sold them along the way.

And, um, so on the, on the business entrepreneur side, I would build clinics, staff it with providers, ran the SOP, gave them the formula and the format, maintained all of their, um, you know, the, the, allow the doctors to just be doctors. I ran the business of business and did a lot of vertical integration until I got to my last business, which on the musculoskeletal side, which was orthopedic, surgical, physical therapy, chiro, family practice.

You know, just to kind of a mega practice, multiple, you know, a dozen doctors and center. And when I sold my share out of that, I went [00:06:00] into consulting and, uh, which started my next lane of business, which was going in and I became the CEO of publicly traded hospitals. And I got to deal with big money. I thought I was in big money, but then I got into a hundred million dollar book of business and, uh, traded a couple of hospitals around.

And, uh, like ended up, yeah, my last ledger line was like a, you know, a hundred million dollar book of business that I was, you know, the fiduciary responsible for as the CEO of the business. And I have since moved from that into the entrepreneurial space yet again, and, uh, where I am building my own club faction.

So, um, so we, we, we created this club and that's what we're talking about. This club faction is basically a lifestyle. It's built off of 4XF premise. Which on the for you entrepreneurs is a unique mechanism by Todd Brown. If you say what's 4xf That's exactly what I want you to say because if you google it It's not a commodity that you find anywhere else other than what I provide It's some little business trick for you.

Hence like p90x if you guys [00:07:00] remember that workout And we built the lifestyle and what you and I were talking about frankly ahead of time was I just wrote a 250, 000 check for a online social media brand build group to get us established and entrenched in the cold market world. And it's one of those things that you and I laugh about because we've both been down that road and we've written those checks, those You know, a big one.

I can, hey, 250, 000 is a big check for me. Somebody listening to your podcast, I may be a chump change, but for me, it's a decent check. And it's like, we're going to find out in a year, does this work? Or we're going to find out in a year, like, it didn't work. One of the things that a good entrepreneur will always bring back, and this is probably the epitome of how I look at finance, is you only fail when you throw in the towel.

When you make a move that doesn't pan out, that doesn't yield ROI, that the money just evaporated, you didn't fail, you [00:08:00] paid a very expensive lesson. And if you use that lesson, you'll never make that mistake again. And becoming a serial entrepreneur, a successful entrepreneur, is like earning a black belt in a martial art.

You have to start out a white belt, which means you're gonna make mistakes. The bigger guys are going to take advantage of you. My first click I bought for a million dollars. I was a white belt rolling against a black belt, and, and I got taken advantage of in a lot of different ways, not maliciously, I just didn't know the game, I just didn't know the game, I didn't know the language, I didn't know how it worked, I thought I did, I didn't, uh, expensive lesson learned, right?

You and I were talking before, you know, I was having a meeting with my team the other day, and I told him, I said, I've made more expensive mistakes in business than everybody here combined. So you don't have to worry about making mistakes because I've always, I've already made bigger ones. Truth, right? I mean, I say it's absolute truth.

And, um, so yeah, that's, that's kind of in a nutshell, that's, that's my [00:09:00] financial picture throughout the course of running medical clinics. I owned a multitude of DME companies and billing companies, anesthesia companies. I owned a bunch of CrossFit gyms. I've done a lot of coaching. I've done a lot of seal fit and 20 X and all these other.

You know, contracting stuff. I've, I've ran shooting companies and so I'm, I've been entrepreneurial in spirit and in heart and in practice for, you know, for, so pretty much my entire working life after I got out of the NSL. Well, that tees up, uh, think really well, just to your background and that, you know, you bring a wealth of knowledge and experience into this.

It's not just book knowledge. It's you've, you've done it. And when you sign the check, when you sign that million dollar SBA, or you sign that 250, 000 marketing investment. That's when you know that you've arrived and, and you're playing the game. 'cause real money's on the line and, and you're the one that's gotta figure it out and make it, make it happen, and make it work.

Let's start taking this, this idea of finance. Again, from a mindset and principle standpoint, like what are the [00:10:00] things that you've learned? And as you run your group and as you teach the, these different principles, what are the main ones that you focus on that, that help put us in the right mindset in order to thrive financially, not just making a lot of money, but, but really it's a lot more than that, that we're going to get into and, and kind of take us down that path.

Sure. Well, I have 10. you know, bullets that I like to like, kind of, to keep chambered when people ask me like, well, tell me about the fire ants side of it. And it always starts with what money actually is, is money is a tool. Like, I don't get that emotional about my hammer, I don't get that emotional about my saw, I don't get emotional about the wheels on my car, it is a tool that allows for things to happen.

So once you, once you change your relationship with money, from having a, like an emotional reaction to the, the utilization of it, or the loss of it, or the missing of it, or the accumulation of it, And you understand that money is a tool that can enhance the quality of your life [00:11:00] and it can provide opportunities, but it is not a measure of your self worth.

or success. And I'm going to say that pretty much everybody under the age of 35, but here's me say that is going to say, yeah, okay, whatever. It's an old guy and yeah, that's how they think about it. But like, I want this car. I want this watch. I want, listen, we all go through that and it's a phase. And again, remember I told you the pursuit of money is that white belt to black belt, the pursuit of business, entrepreneurship, anything of mastery.

takes time. And just like when I was a jujitsu purple belt, you learn all these new techniques and you want to show everybody all the stuff you learned by the time you get to black belt, like you just, you're humble, you're smooth, everything's easy. But there is going to be that phase in your, in your entrepreneurial life or your business life where you want to, where you want to pop your chest and flex.

And here's my watch. Here's Here's my cars and here's my house and I'm gonna take pictures and forever private jet, but understand that's okay But do not [00:12:00] allow money to become your false idol your deity or God and do not allow it to be a measure of your self worth or success and do not Interplay or believe that money is the derivative Variable to create happiness, of course, nobody's upset when you can pay your bills You And yes, there are a lot of very happy, very poor people.

And there are a lot of very miserable, very rich people, but once you understand money as a tool, as an entrepreneur, I think it frees you up, Franklin, because. I'm not trading something I have a, an emotional relationship to. I'm just moving marbles around the board. Some marbles fall off, some marbles show up.

I care about my wife. I care about my kids. I care about my health. I care about my pursuit of faith. I do have to recognize and care about the utilization of that tool called money, but I don't have an emotional reaction to it. And [00:13:00] when you can do that, I think you do better. And I think that if you talk to any gambler, like scared money, doesn't win, like people that try and build a business with scared money, like, Ooh, I don't know if I'm gonna spend this.

I got to hold this. I got, I got a scarcity model. You're not going to move, man. You have to, the second point is that pursuit of abundance and recognize that pursuing financial stability and abundance is natural application and aspiration, and it enables you to create a life of comfort and security for yourself And your loved ones.

I'm like, I get that. So to say that money isn't important would be remiss in this capitalistic society, but I'll, I'll kind of pause out there, but those are my two main topics that I like to start the conversations with. Yeah, a hundred percent. No, you know, running a business. I know for a fact that the more emotional you are about the money, the, the less effective you will be at running the business.

And so when you can not tie your value, your worth to it and just look at it through that lens of this is a [00:14:00] tool and I can use this tool to invest, to hire people, to, you know, buy a business, to invest in marketing, then you're just able to make a clear, rational decision, and then recognizing, like, the second thing you said, you know, pursuit of abundance.

You know, I believe as men, being the World Needs Men podcast, one of the things that we should be focused on doing is bringing a sense of security to our families and to our, especially to our wives, and a sense of stability. And here's the bottom line. When you can put more money in the bank, and when you consistently put money in the bank, you create stability.

And just certainty out there for your wife so that that's not an issue that that she's worried that you're not going to be able to pay the bills. You're not going to be able to put food on the table. You're not going to be able to keep the lights on like we owe that and we owe that pursuit of creating abundance for our families.

We owe that to our family. [00:15:00] Totally. You know, I call that um, You know, going into my third and fourth principle is like balancing the life equation, right? So, and that's simply acknowledging what you just said is that true wealth and the accumulation of money and building an account isn't just about the accumulation of money and building an account, but it's about balancing your financial successes with your actual personal values, relationships, and your well being.

So, so when I look at somebody and I ask them, like, are you, are you economically healthy? What the heck does that mean? If I, if I said I want you to put your, your bank account on this side of the line, and then an equal sign, and on this side of the line I want you to write out, are you living the personal values, have you maintained the relationships, and then your health and is your well being where you want it to be, which means are you equally as happy with what you see in this account as what you live over here?

And, and for, for us, Franklin, for you and I, [00:16:00] I know that we share a lot of friends that this right side of the equation, this money, this accumulation of wealth is, is bigger and better than, more than they'll ever use. And I come over here and they're spiritually bankrupt, cheating on their wives, watching porn, drinking, you know, doing drugs, whatever, having sneaky lives, bat phones, all that, all that BS.

Their kids and their wives need them for the money, but they don't really want them around. They're not trying to reach out to them, not trying to be part of their life, and their fitness is falling off because they're making bad choices. They're working so much, they don't have time for the gym, and their mental health is just all over the place.

Well, is that wealth? I don't think so. That's not a balanced life equation. The balanced life equation says wealth is the accumulation of money in this side, balancing against who you are as a person, your values, your relationship, your spirituality, et cetera. And if there was a scale, life is about like, can you do this?

Now, if you're going to [00:17:00] go grow a ton of money, why not make sure that you put a ton of time and stock into your spirituality and your family? And if you're going to put a ton of time and just say, I'm going to go be with my family every single day. Well, it'd be remiss to say that you don't have to have money to allow that to happen.

So there's a certain cost of the life that you lead, and when it does this, then we have a wealth that we're happy with. And we always say, if I add more over here, I'll be happier. No, because then you go out of balance, right? If you find out I got all this money, uh, my kids don't want to talk to me. My wife and I are having problems.

We haven't had sex in a month because we can't share the same bedroom. Like, it was a massive problem, right? And with that, the second piece of that is that moral compass. So I look at my equation and I say, I have to, to, to talk about money, I have to maintain my morals and integrity in the pursuit of this financial and money should serve my life goals, not dictate my life goals.

So I have to balance my [00:18:00] life out. I have to drop a moral compass over the top of it and say, am I, am I, am I practicing with integrity while I'm pursuing financial success? Or am I, am I telling everybody that I'm going to church every Sunday, sitting in the front row and like, hallelujah, I'm all in on worship, praise God.

And then I turn around and sell somebody snake oil and I turn around, rip somebody off. And I turn around and I'm like, Hey, it's business. And I do that bullshit and I tell this lie to myself and these other people like, Hey, man, that guy feels like he got ripped off. Yeah, well, he signed the contract. He made, he paid the money.

I got him. Okay, that doesn't, that doesn't square with my moral compass. It probably won't square with yours. No, a hundred percent. And the thing that really jumps out to me in this is this idea of finances compensating for these other areas of life that are in a deficit. Right. So, and I think there's a few points I want to make on this.

One, if the money went away, if that's the, like, if your wife and your kids didn't, don't have any [00:19:00] reason to stay, if the money goes away, then that's a wake up call. Preach. Right? Yes. It's like. Yes. Let's just fill up the bank account and the, and then your, your marriage gets worse. Your relationship with the kids gets worse.

Your fitness and your health, your sense of purpose and your relationship with God, those keep going down. And so you think. That well, if I just pile up more money, if I just build a bigger business, if I just grow revenue and profit, if I do enough of that, it'll counteract and counterbalance the other side.

The other thing is, those other three areas will be like a little ember that floats over, catches, and your whole financial world will crumble. And then when all of that's gone, If that's been your only focus and it's been an emotional tie, it's been pursuit of that, you know, as an idol or in not just as a tool and something that you use to create abundance for your, for your family as you pour into them and build your relationship with them and keep your fitness and your, and your health on point, [00:20:00] then they, they just leave because the money was the only thing keeping them around.

And if you find yourself and like, that's why this faith, family, uh, fitness and finance framework is so important is because if you only pursue the one, the others will be neglected to the point that they will be bankrupt. Absolutely true, man. And, and, and let's, let's not skip over the lie that we alpha males tell ourselves is that when there's struggles in our life, And we say maybe, um, I'm having problems with my wife, blah, blah, blah.

And we think, and we tell ourselves, well, I'm going to dive deeper into my business because it's a hide for us. It's our project. It's our love. It's our mistress. Our business becomes our mistress, right? And I go and spend a hundred hours a week with my mistress and I make all this money and I turn around and my wife and I don't have a good relationship.

And when you look at the math, I spend about seven to eight hours a week with her. Then you [00:21:00] compound that over, let's just say 10 weeks. I have a thousand hours toward that. I've given to the relationship of my, my beautiful mistress, this business, and I have 80 hours I've given to my wife. You see, where you are is who you become, where you put your time is what is the water that you, the ground that you water is, the grass is gonna grow, or whatever that, that metaphoric saying is.

But like, think about that for a second. Like, I know that we lie to ourselves because. I go home and my wife and I might be in conflict. I go back to business. I'm the boss, right? Nobody nobody can I'm gonna say whatever I want. I get an artificial reward and a pat on the back that I'm doing a good job for my business when the money shows up and I go home.

And I seek that from my wife, who I want to pat me on the back and tell me I'm a good husband. And I'm not getting that because I'm not putting in the work to earn that. So I assume [00:22:00] like, well, I'm gonna go back to my business and it becomes comfort. I become addicted. I become addicted to the dopamine of the business, to the control of this affair they're having to this mistress of work that generates all this money for me.

But then it goes into the next thing that I'm talking about. And my next one would be enjoy the journey. Well, if you don't enjoy your life with your family and your loved ones, your kinfolk and your spouse, and you just enjoy the pursuit of money, well then why are you, then the money is not doing the tool job it's supposed to do, which is allow you to have more experiences, allow you to have more freedom, allow you to experience and have more things to play with.

You see, you have to remember to take time to enjoy the experience and opportunities that money provides, rather than just becoming consumed by the constant quest for more. And I've had that conversation with a lot of friends, and I'm like, listen man, would you put an 80 foot deep pool in your backyard?[00:23:00]

And they're like, no, that would be stupid, it would be a massive waste of money. Why is that? Well, nobody could ever swim to the bottom of that pool, it would be silly, after like 12 feet. Maybe 15 feet if I have a high dive, like it just becomes, it doesn't make any sense. It'd be a massive waste of money.

So then you only spend 300, 000 a year, your bills are paid for, whatever. Why, why are you pursuing making 5 million a year? And that's where all your time goes year after year, after year, after year, after year, after year, after year. Like at what point in time are you going to go enjoy it? Because right now all I'm seeing is you're, you're building A 50 foot pool, a 60 foot pool, so you built a pool that you will never experience swimming to the bottom of.

You are putting water down there that you will never, ever get to. And you're not even taking the time to swim in the pool that you have now. Like listen, a lot of the guys that we know, Franklin, might do one or two vacations a year because they can't leave their business. They can't [00:24:00] leave their mistress.

The business doesn't give a shit about you. You are addicted to it, right? The alcohol bottle isn't pissed off when you don't drink it. You want the alcohol bottle. Make sure to maintain your relationships the right way. Well, uh, you know, I love this idea of enjoying the journey and a couple of things that I think of, you know, to peel off of this, our business, the purpose of our business, as family oriented businessmen is that our business funds our family.

Like what other purpose, like outside of that, it's all ego, right? So the real point of this, like, and even connecting back to the pursuit of that abundance, the purpose of the business is to fuel our family. And when we invest in our family, what happens is our family, I'm sorry, funds our family, and our family.

will fuel the business because that's where we get filled up. That's where we have connection and joy and purpose in our life. And then we take all that energy into the business. Lo and behold, the [00:25:00] value of the business, the value it creates in the world goes up. So more finances are created. You're able to fund your family better.

And it's this nice little cycle where they both are living in harmony. And one of the things that I struggled with for a very long time and had a lot of scarcity mindset around this, I looked at things like. Everything from as small as date night to going on a trip and a vacation, that was an expense.

And I was, I always looked at that as like, you know, there's this piece of me that I didn't want to spend the money on a vacation. And even more than that, I didn't want to take the time, to your point, away from the business. And what I had to the hard way and painfully realize over time is that taking money out of the business and taking money that I earn and investing that into my family and taking time away from the business and investing that time into my family in the forms of date nights and trips and getaways.

and Vacations, that is the best investment I ever make. [00:26:00] And when I make that investment in my family, I get fueled up. And when I'm fueled up, that goes right back into the business and then the funds go up. And it's, you can either cycle up in this or you can cycle down and the choice is yours. That's um, I feel like you have my cheat sheet in front of you, but that's my next point after enjoying the journey is mindful spending.

And exactly what you said is practice mindful spending means prioritizing experiences over material possessions and recognizing that the memories of relationships Often yield greater satisfaction than items. So I'm going to call a hard stop. All of the listeners here, I'm going to test you right now.

So if you're kind of casually listening, listen hard. I want you to think back two years, three years, four years ago. And I want you to tell me what Christmas presents did you buy your wife? What did you buy your kids? What did you buy them for their birthday? You know you spent a lot of money doing it.

You know there [00:27:00] was a lot of stuff under the tree. Matter of fact, you know there's a lot of stuff that you got that day. I want you to think about that. I'll give you a second. Hard pause. Now I want you to go back a year, two years, three years, and think of a vacation you took with your family and experience that you had.

And you'll be able to tell me what temperature it was, where you were, what you were wearing, what the smell was like, what you had for lunch. You'll tell me the conversation, the laughs, the jokes. You'll tell me the memories and it's gonna make you smile. So I ask you, what's more valuable? New shoes? A new watch?

A new iPhone cover? Or vacation? Time? Experience? I will tell you. Think back to your childhood. You have experiences you recall. Think back to your Christmases. You don't remember what you got during your 8th grade Christmas. I have no idea. Because things come and go. Experiences is what makes us who we are.

So if you want to zipper lock your family together, [00:28:00] versus just surface seal them, then interwine in their experiences with them, because now you shared a common memory of good, hopefully, so long as like everything goes good on a vacation, that you and them will always remember. And that's how you build unbreakable bonds.

When you buy them shit, it's this, easy to break, easy to forget, very little stickiness. When you do things together, you remember it. You remember a concert you and your wife went to 10 years ago. Would you buy her that year for her anniversary? You have no idea. That's my point. And when you say mindful spending, I'm going to throw in this there.

Don't stop being a cheap bastard to the men out there, because here's, and, and especially if you run a business, I promise you, you're going to resonate with this. I just approved today, like without even giving it a second thought, 5, 000 worth of computers that my team needed in order to do the job. that they need to do.

Did not bat an eye. But when's the [00:29:00] last time you, without batting an eye, dropped 5, 000 on your wife to take her on a trip and didn't make her feel guilty about it or hem and haw about it? And again, I did all of those things, like made her like have to almost fight me just for us to go on a trip. And I was stupid and I was dumb about it.

And I was that, I was that cheap bastard that would spend money in his business like. Not even a second thought. And then I'm going to make, you know, going on an amazing adventure with my wife, some big deal, like the business is going to go out if I, if I leave for five days, right? And so mindful spending, should you overspend?

Of course not. But I think, especially for the business owner that we're talking to, it is far often not that you're spending too much money. It's that you're spending, you're willing to spend it things. that don't matter as much and you're not willing to spend it on the things that do matter. McCreed.

Totally agree. [00:30:00] And, um, you know, if we're talking about money making you feel good to some degree and the pursuit of gaining it and the tool and they can do things to make you feel good, I'm going to challenge you with, you could pay 50 to go get a hundred bucks to get an hour long massage. Feel great.

You could pay a hundred dollars to go to a comedy show. Make you laugh. Feels good. Have you ever given a hundred dollars? to somebody in need. If you haven't, I'm going to highly suggest if you're looking for a feel good, generosity and impact. Use your financial resources to make positive impact on others.

The generosity not only enriches the lives of those around you, but also adds depth to your life. Meaning I can go spend 50 to take my wife and I to the movies, which, which is funny that I'm saying it's 50, but you guys all know it's 50. If I gave 20 to the guy at the gas [00:31:00] station trying to find his way home, if I gave 20 to the guy sitting outside of the restaurant eating out of the dumpster, if I gave 20 to, to a church or a charity, like, You're not doing that.

It's supposed to be selfless, but to say you're not allowed to feel good about it is silly. Yeah, I feel good about it. Yeah, I do charitable work. I feel great. When I build houses for homeless, I feel great. When I go to the soup kitchen and pour soup, I feel great. When I used to deliver toys to people. The Cancer War and Children's Cancer War at Christmas, like, I feel great, right?

Because your soul knows when you're doing things that are bigger than you and rewards you. So enjoy it. And if you're looking for like, I like things to make me feel good, give money away. You'll feel like a million bucks, but you won't know until you do it. Love it. 100%. What's your next point? So, uh, after we go through all the etherical stuff, we've talked about balancing your life, moral compass, enjoying the ride, mindful [00:32:00] spending, generosity, impact, this stuff.

I do think. You have to have financial literacy. I do think you need to invest time in understanding financial concepts and strategies because knowledge empowers you to make informed decisions. And if they get those informed decisions align with your goals and values, then you're, then you're moving in the right direction, but become a student of finance.

I have been in big business meetings. And when people use the wrong words and wrong vernacular, and they don't understand what they're saying, they don't understand KPIs, or even the contributions, or red or black, or ledger lines, or things like that, it immediately changes the perspective of how you see that person.

So if you want to play in big circles, make sure that you speak the language. Make sure you understand how money flows. Ins and outs and center. If you don't do that, it's like, again, you're showing up and saying, Hey, I want to go play with black belts. Would you understand jujitsu? I saw a movie on it once, [00:33:00] but like, I'll just, I see red when things happen and I'm bodies hit the floor.

I'm like, well, that doesn't actually work that way, but it's super fun that you think that. And then put a long term vision behind it. Like when you're, when you're thinking money, that accumulation of money, the utilization of money, the spendfulness, the compasses, the balancing life's equations, think big pictures, think long term, right?

It's the delayed gratification that monetary accumulation can bring us. It's setting clear long term financial goals. that reflect your aspirations and values because this vision will guide you and your actions and help you avoid what I like to call like impulse decisions that are driven by like immediate desires.

Like, I need this right now. Whabam! And then you're like, yeah, I paid a lot of money for that. Like, my buddy did an ice bath. I thought it was really cool. So I spent five grand on an ice bath. It's been in my garage for like, what, three years now? And my wife's like, can you help me, man? You know, twice. I'm like, I know, but like, maybe next year I'll try.

like impulse decision, right? Have a long term vision. [00:34:00] And if you have a long term vision, then you can set aside money into like a portion. It's like, maybe, Hey, you know what? I've made enough money that I'm going to put 10, 000 this year into stuff that like, maybe it's a sauna. Maybe it's a massage package.

Maybe it's a chiropractic package. Maybe it's a home gym. I hope I use it. But if I don't, it was part of the budget that was allocated for it. When you have financial literacy and you have a long term vision, you can allow for that move versus. Oh man, I just put 5, 000 on my credit card, would you have that 5, 000?

No, I wasn't thinking about that, but I really wanted that widget that fit. Okay, that's probably not a good idea. So, so there's a guy, Keith Cunningham, I don't know if you've ever heard of him. Super smart guy, very, very successful businessman. And he calls counting the language of business. And the, the thing that, uh, you know, financial literacy is, is so important.

I think one of the challenges with it is it's also not real sexy. Like [00:35:00] we're talking about what I get from financial literacy. I look back at my, my four year, you know, college degree in business. The two classes that I took that have more impact over my day to day running a business of all the classes I took are two financial accounting classes.

I understand how a balance sheet works. I understand how a P& L works. I understand cash flow. If you don't understand those basic things, you're not, you will not be able to run a business. You won't be able to understand the pulleys and levers. of all of those tools and how to, how to manage them. And so a lot of this gets into the very simple stuff that's kind of boring, but man, if I didn't, if I hadn't taken those classes, there's no way I could run my business.

Yeah. Yeah. If we're playing favorite classes from high school to, to, uh, college and outside of like the med school side, accounting, well on just understanding the [00:36:00] basics, basically being able to run QuickBooks. Number two is going to be typing. Like learning how to be able to type very quickly and keep up with the speed of conversation.

I remember taking typing in high school because I was like, I just need a jock football class. It was like the best class I ever took learning how to do this. So, counting and typing for me, and then, um, a statistics class, understanding how to use math in the assessment of probabilities and ratios and things like that.

And the last, the last point I'll get to, and I like to, I do this on, on purpose because I leave it as my, as my, um, ending point, is celebrate your achievements. Listen, if you had a goal of losing 50 pounds and you lost 50 pounds, guess what you're gonna do? You're gonna go out and party, you're gonna tell your friends about it, you're gonna feel like a million bucks, you're gonna buy yourself a new set of clothes that fits you better, you're gonna do some different things, you changed your life.[00:37:00]

On the flip side, if your goal is to put 50, 000 into your account and you do that, take time to celebrate your achievement. You worked your ass off for that, man. It's hard. Making money is not easy. If it was, we would, we'd all just sit at home and do it. But it's hard to make that money. So when you celebrate those financial milestones and achievements as part of your journey, you know, we need to do that.

And you always remember to just keep them aligned with your overall purpose and your values and your missions. And it's going to just contribute to a well rounded life. To say that you have financial success and you can't Celebrate it periodically is silly. You absolutely should, man. Pat yourself on the back, like, good job.

Now, are you maintaining balance? Ooh, I made a ton of money, I'm super happy about it. Little out of balance, what do I need to do? I need to go get right with my family. See that? You're constantly doing this, and life is constantly doing this. But at the end, I will say that these points that I give to you, they all reflect that holistic approach to finance that aligns with the values [00:38:00] that I put together, Club Faction, that promote a balanced, purposeful life where money serves as a means to enrich your experiences and your overall relationships.

Remember, it's just a tool. It comes and goes. We don't own it. It flows to our fingers. That's it. You know, the, the space I've gotten to, and I think that to, to realize that this place exists, to get to a place where you're not so worried about losing money because you have enough confidence in your ability to make it, That, you know, you can just make more.

It's a great space, right? And so I think too, like the dollars that you create, it's not because you're able to take advantage of somebody or swindle or market your way into just, you know, making somebody make a bad decision, ultimately think of it as. The dollars I create are simply a reflection of the value I create in this world.

And the more value you can create, the more dollars you generate. [00:39:00] And so, as long as you're creating more value for more people, then you're always going to be financially successful. People pay for value. They always have and they always will. And so if, if you're just looking at and going, you know, think of the financial side of your life as your pursuit of creating value in this world and the finances will show up as you create that value.

And then once you have those finances, here are some principles that Derek's gone through that allow you to navigate that part of your life, remove the scarcity and the poverty mindset that a lot of us are, we don't just grow up that way, but we're just surrounded by it. Right, we're surrounded, everything in society is pointing towards scarcity, not abundance.

It's a lack of, not a, an abundance of. And so as you can do those things and then implement these, uh, these principles, then you're able to bring your family along. You're not losing your marriage over your business. You're not losing your health. You're not losing your kids. And they all work and play together.[00:40:00]

You nailed it. Wrapped it up. Like. Thank you. Money's a tool, use it for experiences, but keep your life balanced. Don't be a cheap bastard, take your wife on a date night, not a trip. Invest in, hey listen, we invest in your business, invest in your family, invest in your spirit and smile, invest in your, in your, in your safe, invest in your fitness.

My wife listens to all these, uh, and, uh, Uh, I'm just plugging this in there for her right now. 'cause when she hears this part, she's gonna be like, hell yeah. Right. she'll be like, yes. Yes. He was a cheap bastar. So Frank should take all of us on a vacation. That's what I'm thinking. Yeah, exactly. Chief Pastor Frank, take on vacation.

She just wants to be two of us, our kids. Right? Uh, Derek, man, this has been a great experience and, and I've loved going through this and really diving deep into each one of these. Pillars, and I hope the listeners get a ton of the value out of this is just kind of getting their mindsets and their, their perspectives around these areas of life that matter because when you [00:41:00] can win in your, in your faith and in your walk with God and your purpose in life, when you can win in your marriage and your relationship with kids, when you can win in your health, both mentally and physically, and then when you can win in your business, financially.

And if you can do all that at the same time, I mean, you are crushing it by anybody's standard. You are wealthy. That, like, that is, that is wealth. And if any one of those is not in a place of abundance, then you're in poverty, right? And all of those have to, like, you can't be wealthy and not have healthy relationships.

You can't be healthy or wealthy and, and be, uh, sick and, um, and have a body that's falling apart. So I just really appreciate your perspective, your wisdom, your experience that is poured into each one of these episodes that I know is going to be really beneficial for a lot of men. That's awesome. Yeah, I'd love to be back, have you back now, like you're in great conversation, or if that's a word I just made that up, I don't know.

Yeah, I appreciate it, Franklin. And I hope that it's [00:42:00] anything. Just pick apart one thing, guys. I've had people say like, man, you give so much advice. Where should I start? And I go, the one that hits you the hardest is where you should start. On the one piece, on the one line, even if it's one word. Start there.

You don't have to do all of it. You don't have to do everything at once. It's ridiculous. Delay your gratification. Just dive in and start somewhere. But I will leave you with one thing. The world is not waiting on you. You have to go do what you're going to do. Do not keep talking about it. Take action.

Just do it. Franklin and I will give you a thousand stories each of things that we tried that did not work, but we won't say we failed because we did not quit. We just know what doesn't work. Hey, going that way down the maze doesn't work, so I'm going to go this way instead. Okay. There's a value to that.

Sometimes it's very expensive. Detour. Been there. Done it. We've all been there. Join the club. Welcome to the club. Welcome to the club. Hey man, I lost a lot of money. Cool. Awesome. Now you can, now we can, now I can relate to you. So business, entrepreneurship isn't lotteries. So good luck. Love it. Thanks [00:43:00] Franklin.

One last time, if someone's listened to all these and they have resonated a little bit more with you each time, where would they find you? And of course, it'll be on all the show notes, but just for you to say it. ClubFaction. com Go to ClubFaction. com and it goes to all of our offerings and services. We do the one and two day experiences.

We do, I do corporate training packages where I go in and work with businesses and changing their culture, um, working with individuals, working with small groups, et cetera, basically, if there's an opportunity for me to move the needle and change lives, I'm in, that's it. Maybe at clubfashion. com. We'll get you everything.

Perfect. All right, man. Thank you for joining. And that wraps us up for today. If

you enjoyed today's episode, please subscribe to the podcast, give us a rating and review and share this episode with one man, you know, needs to hear this message. We want to encourage as many men as possible to show up as the strong leaders, [00:44:00] loving husbands and intentional fathers their family deserves.

And until next time, I'm Be the man the world needs.