As The Leader Grows with Ken Joslin

Coaching with Ken | Fiscal Fitness: Strengthening Habits

• Ken Joslin

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Are your finances in better shape than they were three weeks ago? Let me, Ken Joslin, regale you with the triumphs and revelations from our 21-Day Financial Fitness Challenge. We've journeyed together from constructing robust financial foundations to crafting budgets and squaring off with debt. Hear about the small yet mighty victories that count, like axing those sneaky subscriptions and the wisdom behind automating savings. Ever pondered the link between decluttering and profit or how to impart entrepreneurial savvy to the young minds in your life? This episode uncovers those insights and reinforces the habits that align our spending with our deepest values, all while keeping an eye on the future through wise investments.

Victory isn't just about numbers; it's about cultivating a mindset that champions financial acumen. This chapter of our financial saga delves into the power of punctuality in payments and how a simple daily financial tracking habit can revolutionize your life. I'll share anecdotes from our GSD collective members whose lives have been transformed by embracing a 'millionaire mindset'. Plus, discover through tales of entrepreneurial success, the critical need for vigilant financial management. As our financial challenge wave crests, I want to extend a heartfelt thank you for your support, which has sent our podcast soaring to new heights. Make sure you stick around for the heartfelt sign-off and a tease of what's next on the agenda.

Welcome to the ATLG podcast I am your host Ken Joslin, former pastor turned coach & host of CREATE, the #1 Faith-based Entrepreneur conference in America. My mission is to help faith-based entrepreneurs become the best version of themselves by growing in our Core 5: Faith, Health, Relationships, Business & Finances. You can get more information as well as join our FREE Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/676347099851525

If you enjoyed the podcast, come join our FREE GSD Community of hundreds of entrepreneurs & a ton of FREE Content including CREATE Conference recordings with Ken, John Maxwell, Gary Brecka, Ed Mylett & more. growstackdrive.com/free

Speaker 1:

Hey guys, welcome to another episode of as the Leader Grows. I am your host, ken Jocelyn, super excited to wrap up our three-week 21-day physical fitness challenge. This is the third in this series of the podcast. We did as we literally took our GSD collective through a 21-day boot camp, if you will, for their finances, and so today I want to talk about strengthening habits and just to review really quick. We hit week number one with setting the foundation. We talked about creating a budget debt assessment. We talked about an emergency fund. We talked about building a solid plan and financial goals for where you wanted your finances to be and what you wanted those to look like in the future. That was part of week number one. No spend, weekend meal planning and increased income were some more parts of week number one, and it was just a phenomenal, phenomenal. Two and a half, three weeks. We're actually in day as I record this podcast. Today. We are actually in day number 19, track expenses. So week number two on the review building momentum. That was the title of the podcast. Last week we talked about reviewing subscriptions. Listen, I hit another one this week. I'm not sure if I mentioned on the podcast last week, but I'll tell you here. I've been getting charged for two and a half years for a go high level account that I had not used in over two years, and it was ninety seven dollars a month. Bam yes, so that's another thing, but I hit five hundred and thirty five dollars a month is what I knocked off of my subscriptions every month by reviewing my subscriptions. Week two I'm building momentum Automate savings comparison shop. Negotiate your bills. We had a ton of people inside of our GSD collective be able to negotiate bills and get their bills lowered. Amazing, amazing stuff. Day number 12 was credit score check, making you sure you know exactly what your credit looks like. Huge Day number 13, declutter and sell.

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If you haven't listened to any of these physical fitness podcasts, one of the things we did is I just moved from Birmingham back to my hometown of Atlanta, actually about 30 minutes outside of Atlanta, but now I live in Alpharetta. It's my favorite area in Atlanta. But one of the things I did when I moved was I took clothes and I took shoes that I haven't worn in at least six months to a year, and those things are getting sold. So the shoes that I got ready to sell are all $175 to $300 a pair. Let's just say roughly. I had three pair. They're in boxes, they're still sitting in my garage. I'm going to give those to my daughters and I'm going to say take these shoes, sell them on Facebook marketplace, sell them on eBay, sell them wherever you want to sell them at. They've only been worn a handful of times each of them and they're probably going to make 100 to 150 total off of all three of those pair of shoes. So I'm doing two things. When we talk about declutter and selling, I'm teaching my daughters how to become better entrepreneurs. And second thing is, if they go make 150, I don't want any of the money. You keep the money. You spend it on what you want to teaching them how to be entrepreneurs. But what I'm also doing, I'm keeping them from asking dad hey dad, we got a concert, can you buy us tickets? Hey dad, we got this, can you take care of that? They don't do that when that happens.

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Day number 14, reflect and adjust. And then I want to hit week number three. This is strengthening habits. We spent 14 days really deep diving into our finances 14 days. So this week, monday I loved it, learned something new Inside the e-book you can go to growstackdrivecom forward slash challenge. Growstackdrivecom forward slash challenge. You can check out the e-book. Inside the e-book there's clickable links all through it. So day number 15, I've got links to three books that are three in my face. Obviously, number one, think and Grow Rich, robert Kiyosaki, and co-authored by my good friend very few people know this Sharon Lecter. She actually wrote that entire series Think and Grow Rich, secrets of the Millionaire Mind by T Harv Ecker Phenomenal book and the Millionaire Next Door Three phenomenal books when it comes to taking your financial knowledge and literacy to the next level.

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Day number 16, which was Tuesday of this week, was Practice, mindful Spending, and I love when Ryan D Lee came on to our GSD Collective about three weeks ago and taught on Wednesday night and he said my wife and I are at a point with our finances where we don't spend money if it doesn't align with our goals and our values. Like for them he goes we value experience, we value fun. So we're going to spend 10K or 15K on an adventure or a vacation for the family, versus spending that money on a watch or a purse or a pair of shoes or something like that, because that's what they value as a family. Wednesday was DIY day. Do something yourself. I hung pictures.

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Day number 18, explore investing Research and find a way in where you want to invest, and one of the ways we do that inside of our GSD Collective is we have a lot of people that have done very, very well. We've got a ton of faith-based entrepreneurs that are doing anywhere from high six figures to seven to eight figures in their business every year. Day number 20, share your progress. That's where we're actually no, I'm sorry. Day number 19 is where we're at today, as I record, track your expenses, keep track of every expense throughout the day to identify areas of improvement. So literally keep track. In that we have a link for you to download the Dave Ramsey Budget app, as well as the Rocket Money app. The Rocket Money app is game-changer. It's been a game-changer for me and a lot of people, dozens of people. We've had dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens of people.

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Take this financial challenge, show up on our Wednesday night calls and it's absolutely making a difference in their life. Day number 20, which will be tomorrow as I record this podcast share your progress, share your financial journey. Where have you won during these 21 days? What have you learned. Tell other people about it, send them to growsatdrivecom forward slash challenge so they can take this physical fitness challenge as well. And then Sunday is going to be our last day Celebrate your achievements.

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Listen, one of the things we do on every one of our GSD collective calls is we gather every Monday morning at 8 am Eastern and then every Wednesday night at 8 pm Eastern for our coaching calls. We start every single call with wins. We celebrate where we're winning. They don't have to be Monday because we're coming off a weekend. It can be a family win, it can be a personal win Wednesday night. I want it to be something that's moving the needle when it comes to revenue in your business, and so we share wins. So if we have somebody in our community that doesn't have wins a week or two weeks in a row, do you know what they're doing when they come on the call the next week? They're looking for wins road. Do you know what they're doing when they come on the call the next week? They're looking for wins. It causes you to press and work harder because you know you're going to show up. There's going to be several dozen people on this call every Wednesday night and they're looking around the room going who's winning and it's amazing. The ones that are the most disciplined, the ones that lean into incremental, not monumental small, daily, disciplined decisions over time, always equal, monumental results. Those are the people that I see win most often.

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But day 21 celebrate your achievements. So I want to dive into this today with you guys and talk about what it looks like for you to take 21 days. Listen, if you haven't joined, I don't care if you're listening to this podcast. This podcast is going to drop in the end of May of 2024, the beginning of June 2024. I don't care. When you listen to this podcast, you can go into growstackdrivecom forward slash challenge. You'll see the physical fitness challenge. Jump into the challenge. You need to do the challenge. It will be an absolute, I promise you, an absolute game changer for you. So three weeks of physical fitness, strengthening habits. So today I want to talk about learn something new and I want to talk about some of the things that I've learned through this week, this week's worth of items for us to do as we become financially fit.

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Number one think and grow rich. I don't know if you've read the book. If you haven't, it's a must read. I remember the first thing that I walked away with gosh. I read this book 20 years ago. The first thing that I walked away with gosh I read this book 20 years ago. The first thing that I walked away with and I've never forgotten is when he writes in the book that this truth.

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So the book, the Think and Grow Rich, is basically a Robert Kiyosaki story. He grew up his dad was the poor dad and his friend's dad was the rich dad. Yet his dad made a lot more money than his friend's dad did, but they were always living paycheck to paycheck. I think in the book it was $200,000, $250,000, close to $300,000 a year, and this was back in that late 60s, early 70s. It's a lot of money back then, but they were always paycheck to paycheck because of what they spent.

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And so one of the things he talks in there is about the definition of wealth was number one takeaway. Number two was about taxes. The definition of wealth he talks about in Think and Grow Rich is this Wealth isn't an amount of money, but it is when your assets create recurring revenue enough recurring revenue to pay your expenses every single month. So let's just say your bills are three grand a month. That's all they are. It costs you three grand a month to live. That's everything. Your house and you may have a house that's paid for a car it may be paid for your expenses every month are $3,000. So if you've got assets let's say, rental properties, multifamily stocks you've got some investments, crypto, whatever that looks like and that crypto or those stocks or those homes bring you in more than three grand a month, by definition. And what Robert Kiyosaki says is you are wealthy because you don't have to work. Your assets make enough money for you to be able to live every single day.

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The second thing that I learned off of Think and Grow Rich was about taxes, and this is what he said. He goes wealthy people earn money, spend money, pay taxes on what's left over. Poor people listen to this. Guys earn money, pay taxes and then spend what's left over. I just want to say that for you one more time so you don't lose this. Rich people earn money, spend money, pay taxes on what's left over. They understand the power of having a business an LLC, an S-corp, a C-corp, whatever it is. Having a business an LLC, an S-corp, a C-corp, whatever it is they understand the power of then the tax shelter that comes with having their own corporation. It's huge. Poor people earn money, get taxed on their money and then spend what's left over. I'll never forget it.

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The first year I was doing mortgages with my good friend Chris, back in 2001, 2002, I made $146,000. My first year I was his number one loan officer. I'd never done a mortgage. I didn't know a 1003 or a 1008 or a Respidoc. I didn't know anything about anything, I just knew people. People trusted me to do their mortgages and they trusted me to take care of them, which I did. Obviously I was his number one producer. But I'll never forget that year. Chris and I had started an investment property company. I don't know. I think we bought six, seven, eight houses, flipped some, held some.

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But I remember that year in my K-1, that was my statement that I get for it being a joint LLC my K-1 was a loss. It was a huge loss. As a matter of fact, we did all the depreciation, the money that we put into the homes, all the stuff that we had to do the rehab. I had such a loss that almost every penny that I had paid into federal and state taxes in my W-2 job because being a mortgage originator, a loan officer. You were not 1099, you were W-2. So they took taxes out on you like crazy. It was to the tune of in between $25,000 to $30,000. I got every penny back on my taxes that year because of the loss I was able to show on our LLC. So I got every penny. That was like the first time.

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The oh my gosh, this really works was one of the first moments where I realized the truth of what Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lecter said in Rich Dad, poor Dad. Rich people earn money, spend money, pay taxes on what's left over. Poor people earn money, get taxed and spend what's left over. Because that's what happened to me. I'd made $146,000 and that was my first year ever making over six figures. I got hammered in taxes but at the end of the year, because I started a business and I had that LLC and that K-1 and the loss and the depreciation, I was able to file that against what I had already paid in, because my bottom line was my LLC K-1 and my W-2 that I had for my mortgage origination job. I got almost every penny back that I paid in state and federal taxes. That's when it was like boom, aha, this makes sense. So that's huge Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, an unbelievable book.

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As a matter of fact, one of my five affirmations actually my first affirmation that I do every single day is I have a millionaire mindset. I have a millionaire mindset and I've shared this story in the past. That happened to me a couple years ago. It was the beginning of August. We were in one of our first. We were in our first ever mastermind in Sundance, utah, and I got a text from one of my contractors. It was like August 2nd, 3rd-ish, and he was like hey, just wanted to check on my invoice from the 1st and I'm busy, right, I've got I don't know 35, 40 people at our mastermind Gary Brecka and Randy Garn and Brent Gove and just the whole crew. We had an unbelievable three days together and I've got all these people at my mastermind and I'll never forget.

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I was in the shower the next morning and I'm doing my affirmations and I look in the mirror and I go Ken Jocelyn, you have a millionaire mindset. And I'm telling you God spoke to me as clear as I've heard him ever speak to me in the past. He goes no, you don't, you can't pay your bills on time. And I was like holy cow. I picked my phone up, I text my graphic design company guy who'd been doing my stuff for 15 years, a long time and I said, dude, I'm so sorry, I just took care of your. I just took care of your, your invoice, because God was saying listen, the way you pay other people is the way other people are going to pay you, and if you don't have an expectation that you need to pay on time, why do you think that you're going to carry a? You're going to carry a spirit of where people want to pay you on time as well. You will reap what you sow when it comes to that. So that was one of the things. This is my number one affirmation. I have a millionaire mindset. What does that look like? So, week number three we talked about that.

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The mindful spending thing, guys, is huge Is what you're spending? Is what you're spending or does what you're spending align with your goals and does it align with your values? And if you're single, or if you're married with kids, like you and your spouse need to talk about this. Are we spending money that's in alignment with our values and our goals? And if not, then you've got to change that.

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The number one thing, guys, that I have heard out of this 21-day challenge and as I record this, we're in the last three or four days of the challenge right now and every Wednesday night on our calls, what I hear from our collective, our GSD collective, which is our community of faith-based entrepreneurs the number one thing I've heard is because part of their tasks every single day is to look at your bank account. To be able to literally, we gave everybody we dropped. We have a dedicated Slack channel for everybody in our, in our, in our collective and inside. That dedicated Slack channel is our five, is our core five faith, health, relationship, business and finances. So in that GSD finances Slack channel, we actually dropped a spreadsheet that's actually a personal financial statement spreadsheet.

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So every day you go in and you put I've got this much money in all these accounts, I've got this much debt here, I've got this much debt here, I've got these credit cards, boom, boom, boom, boom. And every day it spits you out exactly what your net worth is. You say, ken, why should I do that every day? This is the one there is. If there's one thing that I heard from Grant Cardone, who's been a friend and mentor now for about four years that I absolutely agreed with, because a lot of stuff Grant does I don't agree with. But the one thing that I agreed with was this and it took me some time to kind of go hmm was this he said money is like a woman If you don't pay attention to it, it will leave. So the number one thing that I've gotten out of our GSD collective from everybody that's involved dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens of people in this challenge has been this number one thing. I am paying more attention to my finances now than I ever have in my life.

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You say, ken, I thought you had some amazing entrepreneurs in your collective. Oh, I do. I've got some of the top. I've got a guy that does 91 million a year in sales. I've got some of the top real estate the number one real estate person in South Dakota, the number two real estate person in the state of Nebraska, the number one team out of California. The number one team out of California. The number one EXP guy with 29,000 agents in his organization. I mean, I've got the top of the top. We've got some of the top. We've got some of the top. One of our guys owns several health spas where they're doing all the health spa stuff. In his third year he's going to do about $3.5 to $4 million in revenue. But here's what I've learned, guys that as an entrepreneur, the more successful you get what, the busier this if you're watching this on video the busier this calendar gets. The busier the calendar gets, the easier it is not to do. The daily habits that actually got us in position to be successful.

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And you want to talk about something else. It is this. It is the daily habits of looking at your finances, of being aware where your finances are. So track expenses.

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I literally I felt bad during part of this challenge because I literally had been so busy doing so much stuff that I was not tracking my finances. Well, like I wasn't tracking what I was spending, what was going on. I just told you I had a $97 charge that had been getting charged for two and a half years. I thought it was another CRM company that I was using and I was like dude, dustin man, this isn't right, I'm still getting charged. He goes. Dude, that's not my charge. And so I had to. So it took me about two or three days with the go high level team because the credit card number had changed several times. I think it changed twice. So the original credit card number they got got skimmed or expired so I got a new. And that one got skimmed or expired so I got a new one, literally the card that I had. Now they had to go through and research to find out where it was and it was an account that I had not used in over two years. You're talking about, I think it. I think it came to 2640, $2,640 that I paid, that I didn't pay and I'm in negotiation right now trying to get the majority of my money back right now. But it was, but that was my responsibility.

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But the faster we go and the quicker we go, what happens is it's easy for us to lose sight of the important things. Now we talk about the important things as being our core five. My faith, that's number one for me. My health, that's number two, and you guys know my story. The majority of you guys do. If you hadn't seen my before and after picture, go to my Instagram page at Ken Towson, I've dropped over 85 pounds. When you look at my before and after picture, people go. There's no way. That's you. I'm like. I promise you that was me Faith, health relationships, and then your business and then your finances. When you get busy. When you get busy and you start winning and things are going well, it's easy to drop some of the habits when what you need to do is really drill down on the habits even more so, which is why we did this 21 day physical fitness challenge.

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Listen.

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If you haven't registered yet, go to growstackdrivecom forward slash challenge. Growstackdrivecom forward slash challenge. Would love for you guys to join us. Listen. I would love to hear about how this challenge has helped you strengthen your financial position. I love you guys, listen.

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The only thing I ask you to do on this podcast is this we hit the top 2%. I just got an email this week. We hit the top 2% of all podcasts in the country. We just hit that this past. Well, two weeks ago I got the email said congrats, you're in the top 2% of all podcasts in the entire United States of America when it comes to business and personal development. The only reason we can do that is because of you and because you're sharing our podcast. You're telling friends about it. If this has made a difference and we've added value, I'm going to ask you, man, text two or three friends. You've got to listen to this podcast Screenshot. This podcast If you listen to it on your phone which the majority of people do share on Instagram. Tag me and I'll give you some love as well. I love you, guys. Until next time. I'll see you on. As the Leader Goes.