Top Life Coach Reveals Proven Techniques to Escape the Comfort Zone with Scott Maderer

This episode explores the journey toward living authentically, emphasizing the importance of mastering your time, talents, and treasures. Scott Maderer shares a transformative four-part framework designed to help individuals awaken from complacency and pursue purposeful lives, culminating in impactful change.

• Overcoming life's stagnation and hitting personal walls
• The epidemic of men sleepwalking through life
• Understanding the hero's quest through storytelling
• The river versus reservoir mindset in personal growth
• Explaining the four-part framework: invest in yourself, invest in others, develop influence, and align with your treasures
• Coaching clients on transitioning from unsatisfying jobs to fulfilling careers
• Recognizing the importance of self-awareness and intentional living
• Finding and building one's supportive tribe for lasting change

Key moments in this episode:
04:08 Scott's Journey: From Corporate to Authentic Living
09:09 The River vs. Reservoir Mindset
13:52 The Four-Part Framework for Mastery
26:59 Energy Framework: Avoiding Burnout
27:32 Discovering Your True Calling
30:13 Practical Money Management Tips
33:41 Planning for the Unexpected
36:05 Making a Career Transition
40:17 Envisioning Your Future
44:06 Creating a Transition Plan
46:33 Final Thoughts and Takeaways

How to reach Scott:
Website: https://inspiredstewardship.com/revolutionary
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/InspiredStewardshipInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/stewardcoach/
X: https://www.twitter.com/StewardCoaching
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/csmaderer/
Book: Inspired Living: Assemble the Puzzle of Your Calling by Mastering Your Time, Your Talent and Your Resources

Chapters

• 0:00 Mastering Your Time, Talent, Treasures
• 3:28 Transformation Through Career and Priorities
• 9:09 Embracing Stewardship, Influence, and Growth
• 21:45 Evaluating Time Usage for Productivity
• 27:01 Discovering Your Energy and Aligning Treasures
• 37:12 Discovering Your Ideal Career Path
• 49:44 Empowering Men to Own Destiny

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Picture this here you are. You've overcome life's ups and downs, reinventing yourself countless times along the way, and with each reinvention a new chapter is written and slowly you start to get closer to living your authentic calling. But wait, something's still missing. There are areas of your life that are yet to be mastered, things like your time, your talents and your treasures, and so today we're going to pull back the curtain on these, as my guest shares his proven four-part process that he's used for himself and for countless others. And before we get into today's episode, let's come to grips about one thing, and that is inevitably.

Speaker 1: 0:38

There will come a time in your life when you will hit a wall, whether it's a marriage that's not working, a career or business that has stagnated, or your personal life is completely flatlined. If you're dealing with any of these, or a combination of them, and you're finally fed up with where your life's at, allow me to help you get clear about what needs to be done, how to do that, so you can start living the life that you were meant to live. Just look in today's show notes and book a clarity call and let's get started today. And with that, let's get on with today's episode.

Speaker 2: 1:13

The average man today is sleepwalking through life, many never reaching their true potential, let alone ever crossing the finish line to living a purposeful life. Yet the hunger still exists, albeit buried amidst his cluttered mind, misguided beliefs and values that no longer serve him. It's time to align yourself for greatness. It's time to become a revolutionary man. Stay strong, my brother.

Speaker 1: 1:43

Welcome everyone to the Revolutionary man Podcast. I'm the founder of the Awakened man Movement and your host, Alan DeMonso. I'd like you to consider, as you listen to today's episode, which areas of your life do you lean on the most? Is it your time, is it talent or is it treasure? And now consider the kind of support and guidance you need to develop the one, or ones, that, once fully develops, would propel you to living authentically, regardless of what skills we've mastered and which ones we have that need more attention. Living intentionally takes work, work that can be done alone, but is much more enjoyable and fruitful when it's done with others, and so the question is how do we get started on mastering our lives? That, my friends, are exactly what my guests and I are going to get into today, so let me introduce my guest.

Speaker 1: 2:36

In 2011, scott Mader and his wife Carrie took inspired stewardship as a business to serve Christian men and couples that are struggling to live out their calling. They work to help align the way you use your time, your talent and your treasures so you can identify and live fully authentic life that allows you to authentically live your calling while serving others, providing for your families as certified human behavior. Senior consultants and members of the John Maxwell team. They focus on helping you understand yourself, understand others and, through that understanding, build the kingdom. Welcome to the show, scott. How are things?

Speaker 3: 3:15

brother, I am doing great. Thank you so much for having me on. I really appreciate being here and hope that we can give some value to your listeners.

Speaker 1: 3:24

Well, there's no doubt about that, absolutely, there'll be tons of value that we can give some value to your listeners. Well, there's no doubt about that, absolutely, there'll be tons of value that we're going to get. In today's episode and in our men's work here, we always talk about everyone being on a hero's quest or a hero's journey, and so my opening question for you today is to tell us about a time in your life when you knew things had to change. What did you do about that?

Speaker 3: 3:49

And how did that journey shape you into the man you are today and the work you're doing? Absolutely so I think I have, like most of us. I probably have five or six of those that I could pick from and talk about, because I think a lot of times, as you mentioned in the intro, we come up to these points where it's okay, wait a minute, this isn't working. I got to change something, we transform something, and then you get to a new plateau and you're whoop, nope, got to do it again. Oh, nope, got to do it again. So one of them, just the last one right before that 2011, 2017 time period that you were talking about in the intro, before I launched the business that I'm doing today, I actually was.

Speaker 3: 4:19

I'd been a school teacher for 16 years. I transitioned into the corporate world. I've been doing that for 16 years. I transitioned into the corporate world. I've been doing that for 11 years. I was a high powered, had the multi six figure big bonus, ran a team flying all over the country kind of job that most people look at and go dude yeah, this is awesome. You get great money, you've got lots of responsibility and, honestly, I loved it. There was a lot about the job and developing people and spending the time that I had on my team. I loved that part of the job, but I also spent three or four months on the year away from home. I wasn't seeing my wife as much as I wanted. My commute was over an hour. I wasn't seeing my son grow up. There were a lot of things about it that I didn't, lot of things about it that I didn't, and so I actually made a decision with my wife that I was going to quote reverse my climb up the corporate ladder.

Speaker 3: 5:09

So I literally gave them a year's notice. I said in writing this is my last day. I'm going to need to back out of the position that I'm in, so identify a replacement, I'll train them. We identified a replacement. A couple of months I trained them, I put them in my position and I backed off to an assistant position and basically just helped them, supported them behind the scenes, helped them make the transition. After they'd been in the position three or four months, I'm like, okay, now I need to go down to a part-time position. So I went down to part-time. Now six, eight months have gone by. Positions so I went down to part-time. Now six, eight months have gone by and then eventually, at the end, I transitioned out.

Speaker 3: 5:49

The irony of it is the VP of the whole company called me the day before I was leaving and said wait, you're really leaving. And it's yeah. I told you this a year. This has not been a secret. We've been doing this for a year.

Speaker 3: 5:58

It should not be a surprise to you, but that transition and it was in my work life. But the real truth is it transitions my whole life, because my commute now is 30 seconds. I get to go have lunch with my wife. I got to see my son finish out high school and he's now off on his own and works and lives about seven hours away from us. But again, we get to see him and I got to spend that time with him in the last years before he moved out, get to see him turn into a tremendous young man. I now work with clients all over the world. It's allowed me to take those things that I already loved back in my other assignments my career in the assessment industry, my career as a teacher and identify those pieces that I loved, and now I get to spend more time doing those things.

Speaker 1: 6:50

Nice.

Speaker 3: 6:51

Still not a hundred percent. There's still stuff I get to do every day. That's this part of the job ain't so fun. That's the laundry always has to get done right. The dishes have to get washed. There's always a certain amount of just work that you have to do that I don't think most of us get up in the morning and go, yay, folding laundry, that kind of stuff and that's true in business too. But there's still a lot more pieces that are authentically there. Now, again, from the outside looking in, I had friends, I had other family members and people looking at me going. You almost make $200,000 a year. With your bonuses you make more than that. You're on track to be a VP in a few years. You're going to be in the high powered position. Why would you leave this job? You're crazy. But for us and for my family it ended up being the right decision to give me more authenticity in what I get to do.

Speaker 1: 7:45

Yeah, listen, I'm listening to you tell your story and I think about my own journey as a culinary chef and competing in Olympics and everything back then in my early 20s was all about career and I can remember I wasn't a really nice guy, very nice guy back then, because I can remember telling my ex-wife it was my high school sweetheart, but that at the time that you're always I have one of those two, yeah, it was like you're, oh, you will always be second.

Speaker 1: 8:12

I can remember saying that to her and I thought what kind of guy says that to his wife? And and so to hear that you got in alignment with your priorities, what truly mattered is a big deal, because I think for many men, we get focused on our identity as being this career part, because it's that part of us that is providing and we get locked into. This is how we have to provide. And with the other part, the takeaway I had I notes I made was how you took the things that you liked out of your teaching and your corporate job and you were able to keep that into this new career, into this next chapter and phase of your life, and so that I really think it really resonates with me, because it's about us understanding the our some of our time and our talents, and I'm going to get into that right now, about about what you've been able to do.

Speaker 1: 9:01

So let's dive into your book. It's books called Inspired, Living Assemble the puzzle of your calling by mastering your time, your talents and your treasures. And what I liked about in the first part of your book is you have a comment in there about us being a river versus a reservoir. Now it seems to me that we spend a lot of time being reservoirs, don't we?

Speaker 3: 9:22

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The reservoir idea is that things come into our life and I think we have a tendency to want to hold on to those things and, by the way, that's not all bad. I mean that you're in a relationship, you want to hold on to the relationship. You're in a job, you want to hold on to the job. You're making money, you want to hold on to the money. You're whatever. Right, it's a good instinct and it comes from a good place.

Speaker 3: 9:47

In terms of, like you said, we've got this drive, especially as men, to be a provider, to be a protector, to be that person that's taking care of everything. Right. We're solution oriented. We tend to deal with things that way. That's how we see the world. We see everything in our life that way, through that lens, and sometimes, especially again as men it's true for everybody, but I think it's worse sometimes, as a man that also makes us focused on what can we keep? What do we have? What's mine, what do I have control over?

Speaker 3: 10:21

Now, here's the really brutal truth. The truth is, you have control over almost nothing. There is really and truly, if you get down to it, very little that you actually have control over and, by the way, most of it is you. That's it. That's what you have control over. You don't really have control over what your wife does or says or thinks or feels. You can influence it, but you don't really have control. You don't really have control over your job. You don't really have control over the money that you have. You don't really have control over the time that you spend fully. It's you that you have control over.

Speaker 3: 10:57

And because of that, I think when we shift our mindset and so I do things through the lens of stewardship, right, stewardship is I don't own it, but I am supposed to manage it, I am supposed to take care of it. It's mine to take care of, it's not mine to keep. And that makes me start looking at it differently and go wait a minute. If it's just mine temporarily, then how can I manage it in a way that doesn't just help me, does it just help my family, does it just provide for the circle around me, but actually pours out and influences others and impacts others and begins to make a difference? That's bigger than just me, that's bigger than just even my family, that's bigger than just the people immediately around me and that's thinking more like a river, where you recognize that it's just passing through and it's yours for a little while.

Speaker 3: 11:49

That's it, and so your job is really just to manage it, to expand it, to spread it around and to think about what a river does. By the way, a reservoir does do good stuff. Right, it provides water for the people right there in the town, but a river doesn't just provide for the people in that town. It provides water for the people right there in the town, but a river doesn't just provide for the people in that town. It also provides for the people in the next town over.

Speaker 3: 12:10

It provides for people all the way down. It waters the fields, it serves a lot of different benefits and spreads farther and wider, and so it's really not about good or bad. It's not being a reservoir is bad and being a river is good. It's more about's. Not being a reservoir is bad and being a river is good. It's more about, yeah, being a reservoir is good. Being a river is even better.

Speaker 1: 12:30

Absolutely. When I was reading that in your book it made me think I'm a farm boy at heart here and you always had the slough and the dugout that was part of the farm right. That helped nourish for the cattle, especially if you had mixed farming going on, and that was part of the necessity of the farm. So it wasn't that it was good or bad, it was just part of the farm needed to be able to survive and thrive. And so a great point about it's not that there's a reservoir is bad, but how we're utilizing it. And if we stay there and we think we don't allow ourselves to recognize that being more of a river and allowing things to flow through us becomes even more powerful.

Speaker 3: 13:11

Well, and using that example, if you have the dugout and you don't maintain it and you don't have a way that water comes into it and water leaves it, it becomes stagnant and it now and now it's a problem for the cattle. They're drinking bad water and this is not something you want as a rancher. So even there, there's got to be put. You still got to put in energy and find a way to allow the reservoir to thrive, yes, for it to even continue to be good down down the long things. By the way, that's true of a river too. Rivers change over time and they evolve and they need to be maintained and treated. Again, if you live on a river and your house has ever been flooded, you get this.

Speaker 1: 13:51

Yeah, absolutely so. I mentioned that there's a four-part process or a framework that you've developed and you put it into your book. Can you explain to people what the four parts are and then how you're utilizing it?

Speaker 3: 14:03

So let me back up. I'm a big believer in frameworks, and frameworks are just to clarify for anyone that maybe has heard that word and isn't 100% sure what I mean by it. For me, when I talk about a framework, it's not down to the detailed tactical kind of do step one, do step two, do step three. Instead, it's stepping back up to 30,000 feet, 50,000 feet, and going okay, what is the approach that I'm going to take? And within that approach, I'm going to have to develop tactical stuff. So this is the high level. And then in the book, I also get down into some of the nitty gritty. Okay, now, if you're having a problem here, there's, here's the tactical thing you can do. But the framework is, as you said, it's four parts. So step one and this is by far the hardest for most of us, especially as guys is invest in yourself. This is that stepping back and going wait a minute, what are my real priorities? What are my real values? Who do I want to be when I grow up? By the way, you asked that question. Even if you're 70 years old, I don't care Still ask that question. What do I want this next phase of my life to be? How? What about my relationships? What about my spiritual walk? What about my time? What about my money? What about all of these areas? Are they where I want them to be? Are they not where I want them to be? Why not spell all of that out? And, as you said, that's a lot easier done with help, but it's something you can do all on your own. It's asking yourself those hard questions. So invest in yourself. After you've been doing that and working on that, then naturally what you will find is people will start asking you for help, or you will begin to discover people who are maybe just a couple of steps behind on the same journey that you're on. By the way, I have never seen this not happen. It's almost like the universe goes oh, you're working on that, here's some people that need help. They just show up. It's the cat distribution system. They just randomly show up when you need one, that happens and you begin to shift to investing in others. Now randomly show up when you need one. That happens and you begin to shift to investing in others. Now, it's not that you stop working on yourself and just begin to focus on others, but there's a natural connection where, after you've been investing in yourself for a while, you begin to shift and invest in others as well. This is back to that river idea that we were talking about Now. Now the next two phases are really mixed up and become again. They're natural consequences or natural things that happen out of the first two. So as you're investing in yourself and investing in others, you naturally begin to develop influence. You begin to find ways that other people again begin to look at you and go hey man, I really need some advice on this. I know Bob. Bob's always got great advice on this. Let me go talk to Bob.

Speaker 3: 16:53

That is influence. By the way, earlier I said you can't really control anyone else, but you can influence them. This is what we're talking about. It's that idea of you're not telling people what to do. You're not making anyone do it, you're not manipulating them, which is when you have somebody else do something because it's good for you. That's how I define manipulation. I'm actually a really good salesperson. Trust me, I can convince people to buy stuff that they don't need. Yeah, that's manipulation, because it's good for me. I've got paid. It's not really good for them. And they walk away later, going dude Scott. Six months later they're looking up going sales guy was a slime bucket. He took advantage of me. We've all had that experience right. On the other hand, influence is when you're doing something and you're helping somebody else do something because it's good for them, or yeah.

Speaker 3: 17:44

Or it's good for both of you. By the way, it's okay if you get something good out of it. It's not that you should always everything's bad for you and good for everybody else. That's not what I'm talking about. Again, this is that sales experience where you've worked with the sales guy and they've really done a diagnostic to figure out wait what actually is the right thing for you. By the way, a great salesperson will even tell you you really don't need my product. You need this product over there. And I'm experienced right. I've had some salespeople sell me somebody else's stuff. They're looking at you going you don't know, this isn't what you need. You need that. And, by the way, when I do need something that they sell, who do you think I go back to? I go back to that guy because I trust him.

Speaker 3: 18:30

That's influence, that trust, that ability to help people see what's really in it for you, what's the best thing for you. That's part of what influences and that naturally comes out of working on yourself and working to influence and work with others. And then the last phase is impact, the world Idea behind that. What happens naturally is you begin to influence others and help them get what they want. Well, that's impact and, by the way, impact the world. I use that language and people immediately go oh, you mean you've got to have millions of followers and all you impact one person. You impacted the world.

Speaker 3: 19:06

I was a school teacher for 16 years. Three of my former students are doctors. One of them is doing cancer research. You don't think that has an impact beyond the fact that I was their teacher for a couple of years? Of course it does.

Speaker 3: 19:19

The influence I had on them as their science teacher helped encourage them not me alone, but I was a part of their journey that now that impact is going beyond just me teaching them in the classroom into how are their patients being treated, how is the research work? So and by the way, that's natural for all of us, I don't care who you are. You have little bitty impacts that you will never see how that impact ripples out and spreads into the world. That door you held open randomly at the store may have completely changed the world, and you don't ever know it. So being aware of the fact that we've got that kind of long lasting impact begins to recognize and help us focus on doing the influence the right way in. You know, working with others in the right way, working with others in the right way, working on ourselves in the right way. So that's why there's all four of those parts and come full circle.

Speaker 1: 20:12

What I really like about your framework that you just described is it's an inside out journey and we get right with ourselves, we get right with our creator, we get right with how we need to show up and then we can start to continue on. And then I really like the idea on your step three about influence and a couple of notes I wrote down is talking about really. You're talking about being men, being a mentor. Now, that opportunity and I've heard it said that we need three mentors in our lives right, we need to be, we become, we need mentoring, so we need to have that person to help guide us mentoring. Then we have a mentor, that somebody that is along the same path with us, so we're being mentored together.

Speaker 1: 20:54

And then, at some point in our lives teacher, your fourth step, or your third and your fourth step we're the men. We need mentees, right, something to help pass that on into our, into the world, and that's how we're impacting the world. And yeah, and thanks for getting that distinction it's not about a million followers and tons of likes and all this and that's great, that's, you know, part of the plan, but it is about that affecting that one person. You don't know what they're going to do with their life, and so I really liked the how you put that framework together.

Speaker 1: 21:24

Yeah, life, and so I really liked the how you put that framework together. The other thing I was, the other thing I was thinking about your work there, scott is that we can be in in our lives just getting in the habit of being busy.

Speaker 3: 21:34

You know what I mean.

Speaker 1: 21:35

We're just busy for being busy, but are we doing the right things? And so how do you work that type of mindset through with people?

Speaker 3: 21:43

So that's in that time component. Again, I consider myself a stewardship coach. I say I work with people in three areas time, talent and treasures. Now here's the secret I really only work on talent. See earlier conversation about.

Speaker 3: 21:57

the only thing you can actually control is because, how you handle your time and how you handle your money is actually about how you handle yourself. It's not about time and money. Those are just resources, those are just tools. However, as you said, a lot of times we have that badge that we wear, right? Anyone ask you how are you doing? Oh, I'm busy. Right? It's a knee-jerk answer. It's almost like I'm fine, right, we say it just, we just say it. And, by the way, for most of us, it's true.

Speaker 3: 22:24

If you look at most people's calendars and look at what they do, they have filled up every minute of every day with stuff. Yeah, but, as you said, the problem is, a lot of times, some of that stuff is stuff that really isn't that important. It really isn't things that they feel are connected to who they are. It's stuff that they obligated themselves to, they've said yes to it. It's the shoulds, right, I should do this, I should do that, and what I try to help people do. And this works, by the way, in time and money. So we'll stick with times, as we've talked about it. But the philosophy is the same with money, which is wait a minute, let's take a step back, let's do a diagnostic. So, with time, the easiest way to do that is simply write down a sheet of paper. Write down times in 30 minute increments down the left-hand side of the page. Set a silent alarm on your watch or on your phone that vibrates every 30 minutes, and every 30 minutes for the next four or five days. When that little alarm goes off, jot down next to the time what were you doing during that 30 minutes. And I don't mean you have to write down every single detail, this is not.

Speaker 3: 23:28

I sent 17 emails. One was to Bob, the second one was to Sam, the third one was to Susie. That's not what. I just sent emails, that's plenty, okay. Scrolled Facebook, did this. Yeah, what did you do during that half an hour? And usually you're going to have two or three things that you did.

Speaker 3: 23:45

Then. What did you do during that half an hour? And usually you're going to have two or three things that you did. Then, after you've done that for four or five days a week, go back and look at it, begin to color code it, begin to think about what are the things that gave you energy, what are the things that took energy away, what are the things that you consider busy work? I have to do it or I've signed myself up to do it. But honestly, if I had a choice, it's not the most important work. What were the things that were productive work?

Speaker 3: 24:11

Productive work is work that isn't just done but actually leads to other things. It could be work you're doing in business that leads to more clients. It could be work that you're doing to make to build a process or a framework or something that makes everything else easier. It could be work that you're doing to build a process or a framework or something that makes everything else easier. It could be whatever. It's work that moves the needle. It's not just work.

Speaker 3: 24:33

Most of the time, sending an email isn't that productive. Now, again, doesn't mean busy work is bad. You still have to do email and you still have to do that. But how am I controlling that? Is it influencing? Is it just coming into my life randomly at any time during the day, or do I have set times that I deal with email and things Begin to look at the patterns. And, by the way, I've never had anyone do this and not come back after it and go.

Speaker 3: 24:59

I cannot believe that I spend so much time on something. Okay, by the way, that something is different for a lot of different people, but we almost all have something that we're like I've spent in how many hours? And you just can't believe it. You would never have guessed it. And for money, by the way, it's the. You all have a category that you're. If you actually wrote down everything you're spending in that category, you would look at it at the end of the month and go I'm spending how much on? Oh, my Lord, okay, I can't believe I'm spending that much on that. We all do that. We just naturally have, over time, things that build up that become busy and we never examine it. That's back to that invest in yourself and because we never examine it, we can't really become aware of it. And if you're not aware of it, you can't begin to change it. So the first step is that awareness step for almost everyone.

Speaker 1: 25:55

Yeah, I completely agree. I was just writing down a bunch of notes, and one of the nuances that I put down here is that you talked about when you're describing how you're asking people to look at how they're spending their time.

Speaker 1: 26:05

We use we use the Eisenhower matrix model, to plot it, and what I hadn't considered was that you made a comment of what gave me energy and what took energy away, which is really key, because my mind goes, if it's giving me energy, I'm probably leaning into my talents. I'm leaning into the things that I enjoy, whereas other things I may be good at, but they right, they just suck the energy out of my life. And maybe you're really good at making complex excel spreadsheets, but it's not your love, you just happen to be good at it and I think that's like me it's both.

Speaker 1: 26:43

I love it, I love it, I do too, don't get me wrong nothing better than a nice, powerful formula. Yeah, my accountant always gets floored every year, so he added another tab. The thing's like two megabytes. What are you doing?

Speaker 3: 26:59

yeah, the energy framework. The reason I use that a lot is there's two things. One is avoiding burnout, because if you work with anyone who's ever burned out, or if you yourself have burned out, that one of the problems is doing too much stuff that drains your energy. Said another way, being around too many people that drain your energy. That can happen too. We all have those relationships. That is really shouldn't spend as much time as I am with this person because not an energy giver. So it's examining your life from that framework. It helps you avoid burnout. The second reason is exactly what you said. It also helps you begin to identify.

Speaker 3: 27:35

Hey, wait a minute, this is more than just a passion. This is probably something that's aligned with my real. You know what I'm supposed to be doing in the world in some way, shape or form. This is what gives me energy. When I work with a client and I've been coaching there are clients and there are situations. I get off the call and it's give me 10 more of those. I am ready to go. I cannot go to bed now. I can't lay down and go to sleep. I I've got energy and that's because those experiences are aligned with how I'm wired, what I love to do. What gives that? This is it. This is what the creator designed me to do.

Speaker 1: 28:13

Yes.

Speaker 3: 28:14

How I discovered that is back when I was teaching. I noticed, when I was doing the instruction stuff, golly, I hated it. But when I redesigned and started doing teaching, where it was much more dynamic and much more, I was the facilitator, I was the coach. I wasn't the guy with all the answers. How can we discover that Same thing when I was leading teams, I led teams more as a coach that I did as a director, even though my title was director.

Speaker 3: 28:41

I'm like no, what do you think we should do? You coming in with a problem? Great, what are your solutions? What do you think you should? Yeah, that sounds good. Go do that. It's. I didn't have to be the guy that came up with all the answers, and when I got it to the point where I could call my time into a meeting and go here's what we got us to deal with. And then, basically, that was it. That was the last thing I said during the entire meeting Okay, we're doing something. Right now, they can self-direct, they can self-lead. Guess what? Now, as a coach, I get to do that much more. Right, that's what I meant earlier when I said I was using past experiences to discover hey, these are the things that I'm really supposed to be doing more of. How can I do more of that?

Speaker 1: 29:26

Yeah, exactly, Exactly Okay. So we're about two thirds of the way through your program here. So we're working with people. They're able to master their time. Give them a chance now to really start to hone and really develop those talents and then talk about aligning to their treasures. What do you mean by aligning to our treasures?

Speaker 3: 29:46

So, again, from a framework perspective, the question is no different than time. Practically, there are some differences in that the first thing you have to do is and this sounds I love coaching in a way, because I tell people as a coach, part of my job is to tell you stuff that you already know, but to help you actually execute on it. Because hold you accountable, keep you executing, give you tools, give you tips to make it easier, because here's like the brilliant thing with money, you should live on less than you make. I know earth shattering, right, I've never heard that before. Everyone knows that. Right, you should actually spend your money on things that give you value and that really are the most important things. You shouldn't waste your money on stuff that you actually don't really care about but you're spending money on it because it's a habit. It's literally sitting down again like awareness is the first step. Sit down and write down what you're spending. Keep track of it for a month, keep track of it for a couple of months, look back on it and review it. Now, real truth is long-term. You need to make a plan and then you're tracking against the plan. By the way, the plan, the spending plan, otherwise known as a budget. People don't like the word budget. Fine, call it a spending plan, I don't care.

Speaker 3: 31:06

The idea is, I said this is what I'm going to do, and then I track and go did I actually do it? And if I didn't, is it a budget problem, is it a fluke, or is it a behavior problem? By the way, most of the time it's not actually a fluke. People think that there's a lot of stuff. Oh, I couldn't have predicted that was going to happen. Yes, you could have. We'll talk about that one in a minute.

Speaker 3: 31:26

But the first two is it a budget problem? I have seen people that write down their budget. They've got a family of four and they're like we're going to spend $250 on groceries. No, you're not, okay, unless you live on that farm that we were talking about earlier and you grow all your own food. No, you're not, and honestly, probably not even then. It's just not possible. And yet people have these sorts of unrealistic expectations of what they're going to spend. That's why I say sometimes the answer is you discover that's a budget problem. I'm just budgeting way too little money for that activity. Maybe it was what it cost 10 years ago, but in my head that's still what it costs and that's not what it costs anymore. And this is the kind of reality check.

Speaker 3: 32:14

The third category is it a behavior problem? This is you put down $2,000 for groceries and $2,000 is actually a reasonable amount for your family, but you're spending four grand. Why? That's a behavior issue. That's a. You're going out to eat too much. That's a. I'm buying fillets when maybe I should have just bought sirloin or that kind of thing I'm buying.

Speaker 3: 32:37

You know, I love the people that are like I never buy generic, only the name brand stuff. And it's. You know that a lot of times the generic stuff and the name brand stuff come from the exact same product. They just literally it's what label they slap on the outside, like it's literally the same stuff in the back, not always, but a lot of times, and that kind of thing. So you begin to find where sometimes, yeah, it's important by that's really what your family will eat, that's really what your family.

Speaker 3: 33:04

Fine, buy a more expensive thing. It's not a do it, don't do it. It's examining it and going why am I spending four grand of two grand as a reasonable number for me and my family? That's the. It's a behavior problem, that's. And there are tips and techniques that we can do that, like, for instance, switch to using cash for that item Tracking. If I have two grand in an envelope and that's all I can spend for groceries, when I look in the envelope I got $22 left. That's it. I can spend $22. So you can begin to do these sorts of techniques to manage it. The third category the fluke. And I want to point out why a lot of times we think something is a fluke when it really isn't because, it's understanding the difference between unexpected and unplanned.

Speaker 3: 33:53

Right Car maintenance is a great example. How many of you have ever owned a car? How many of you have ever owned a car that didn't need maintenance? I would love for somebody to show me that car, because I will buy it. I don't care how much it costs, I'm buying that car.

Speaker 3: 34:11

Every car needs maintenance. Every car breaks at some point. Tires go flat. You need new tires, you need to change the oil, the transmission goes out, whatever it's actually predictable. Yes, now is it unexpected? Yes, I don't know when my transmission is going to go out, but I know that at some point. By the way, I don't even know, it's going to be the transmission, maybe it's going to be the water pump, whatever. Something on the car at some point is going to need repair.

Speaker 3: 34:42

So this is the idea of actually setting aside some money in your budget for that stuff. You can plan for the unexpected. So the flukes are the really very fringe. Every once in a long while, life does truly give you a black swan. You know that just shows up and you're like I never would have seen this coming. No way to have seen this coming. No reasonable person would have predicted this but it's.

Speaker 3: 35:14

And, by the way, for that you just actually have some money aside that you just generally have for emergencies. Yeah, that's the emergency fund. That's where that comes in, because that's the black swans, but a lot of stuff that we think are black swans. Oh, how could I have predicted my car was going to break? You're over the age of 12, dude. You could predict that your car is going to break. It's going to break I don't know when, I don't know what, but I know it's going to break. And we all have those sorts of things, too, that we should be reasonably putting into our life, putting into our budget, putting into our plan. Recognize. It really comes down to that awareness and recognizing and being proactive instead of react.

Speaker 1: 35:55

Yeah, yeah, I really like how you framed that out for us and helped us get clear on what that really looks like, and so I want to go. I want to backpedal a little bit, get clear on what that really looks like and so I want to go. I want to backpedal a little bit. And you talked about your journey from being teacher corporate and then you decided in a year here you gave that letter, the resignation letter, and you transitioned from the job and I wouldn't suggest that maybe the job you hated the job, but there's going to be, there's going to be clients I'm sure you're working with and the people on this listening to this podcast, that really are in a position where they just do not care for their job at all. They need to, they want to transition and maybe they have an inkling of what their calling is. How would you coach them on making that transition?

Speaker 3: 36:36

So absolutely so. The first thing is, let's talk a little bit about that, having the inkling part, because first step is getting some clarity of what direction do you want to go right? Because, again, if you set out on a journey and you don't have a destination in mind, you're just wandering, you're never going to get there because there is no there and again it may. You may not be able to find the perfect answer, know all of the details, but a direction is how I would frame it. So there's two questions or two activities that I'm going to suggest for people. The first one I actually already alluded to it, it's the looking back activity. I did that whenever I was working in corporate. I sat down and I started writing down on a piece of paper. By the way, I'm a big advocate on writing it down on a piece of paper or typing it out on a computer screen. Or, by the way, if you're not a writer, do what I did. There's this wonderful tool called a voice recorder on your phone. Go for a walk and talk. I talk much better than I write, so I talk things out. I turn on a recorder and just talk about it. So this activity is sit down and think about brainstorming everything you've done in your life, at whatever point you're at I don't care if you're 20, I don't care if you're 70, just start brainstorming, writing down the activities that you've done. It doesn't have to be jobs, by the way, it can be, but it doesn't have to be. It could be volunteer work, it could be things around your relationships, it could be things you do as a hobby, I don't care it, just activities. And then ask yourself two questions when I did that activity, what was it about that activity that I loved? What was it about that activity that gave me energy? What was it about that activity that was good? That's the first bucket. And again, just start writing down. That was good. That's the first bucket. And again, just start writing down. What are the things about that activity that gave you energy, that gave you joy? That, by the way, you're not allowed to write nothing. You got to find something. Okay, cause there's always something. There's always something good about anything we did. Then the second column is what about this activity did I not like? What about this activity took energy from me? What about this activity took energy from me? What about it did not bring me joy? What were the negatives.

Speaker 3: 38:50

After you've done that, begin to look for patterns. Right, I began to look for things that, huh, even though I was doing this thing that has nothing to do with this thing other here what I wrote down in the joy column was really similar. Yeah, I phrased it a little differently, but it's basically the same underlying thing. Hey, what I wrote down in the hate column turns out those two over here. That's similar. And you're looking for those patterns of what gives you the joy, what gives you the energy. Those are probably more in alignment with the direction you should be going in.

Speaker 3: 39:24

And what are the things that I don't like, that don't give me joy, that don't give me energy? Those are probably the things that I want to try to avoid. Again, you're not going to eliminate them completely. There's always going to be a little bit of that in your life. But what can I do to reduce it, to make it less? What activities? And then just begin to brainstorm what are things that I could do, career-wise, job-wise, activity-wise, that move me in that direction? So that's the looking backwards activity. I'll pause there. There's a looking forward one too, but I'll pause there and see if you've got questions about that one before we do that one.

Speaker 1: 39:55

Yeah, no, I think that is perfect. I took a bunch of copious notes there on it. I really liked that idea. Again, it goes back to the start of our conversation, where you talked about things that bring energy and take energy away. So I like how you're staying in that modality to help us really understand what it is that is going to propel us forward. Yeah, let's take on that second part.

Speaker 3: 40:17

So the looking forward activity. This is a little easier in terms of describing. It's actually, for most people, a little harder in terms of the doing. So, just to warn you, this is one that I have seen people spend a month or two on this, answering this. It's a pretty simple question but it takes a while to answer. So here's the framing. Imagine for a minute it's five years into the future. You just have to project yourself in time five years into the future.

Speaker 3: 40:42

You happen to be walking through an airport I spent a lot of times in airports so I make this an airport question where you've already left the place you were at, but you haven't gotten home yet and you've got a connecting flight. As you get to the gate, you look up and, sure enough, those dreaded words flight delayed oh man, four hours. You've now got a four-hour layover in the middle of nowhere in a city that you really don't wanna be in. So you do what anyone else does in an airport when they've got a four-hour layover that they didn't predict you go find a bar or a restaurant to hang out in for a little while, depending on your preference. When you go find that place, you're walking into that restaurant. I'm going to call it a restaurant for me because I don't go to bars. But you walk into that restaurant and it turns out as you're looking for a table, all of a sudden someone stands up. It's a friend of yours that you have not seen for the last five years. It's a dear friend, somebody you really like, but you just haven't had a chance to catch up with them. They moved away, you moved away, whatever. You haven't seen them for five years. And they go, come on over here, you go over, you sit down at the table with them. Turns out they've also got a layover for about three hours. Y'all got three hours to sit here at this restaurant table and catch up.

Speaker 3: 42:04

Your friend looks at you and goes man, how are you doing? How have the last five years been treating you? And you say you know what? This has been the best five years of my life. Because your job is to tell me what comes after that word. Because what happened in your career? What happened in your career? What happened in your finances? What happened in your relationships, what happened in your spiritual walk, what happened in all of the components of your life? What happened in your life to make you legit? Look at this friend and go man, these have been the best five years of my life. Man, these have been the best five years of my life.

Speaker 3: 42:38

By the way, for most people it's not. I play golf seven days a week. You may think that's what it is, but that's probably not really what it is. Okay, no, maybe I got a new job and I'm making a million dollars a year. Probably not that either.

Speaker 3: 42:52

Okay, go deeper than just what you think is the surface level stuff. Look for the underlying emotion. Look for the stuff. Look for the underlying emotion. Look for the feelings. Look for the why behind it. If you want a million dollars a year, why do you want a million dollars a year? What is it about a million dollars? That's magic. Why is it not two million? Why is it not three quarters of a million? What is it about that number? Because, guess what? It's not the number, it's some underlying something that you think having that number will get me. It's freedom, it's flexibility, it's family, it's legacy, it's things like that, it's security. Those are the real drivers.

Speaker 3: 43:30

So you begin to describe what is it about my life that's made it the best, and the deeper and the better. You can do that again now. Look for patterns. What is it in there that keeps showing up? What is it in there that keeps bubbling up? And if you do both of these activities, you're going to see some stuff that it's. That's probably more in alignment with what I'm really designed and put on this planet, for. That's the thing I should be doing. By the way, that does not mean you can instantaneously transition to it. Back to that, making the transition. Now you've got to start asking okay, if that's the destination, what's the map?

Speaker 3: 44:10

Do I need to go back to school? Do I need to get some training? Do I need to spend some time learning a skill? Do I need to? What do I need to do to make that happen? And, depending on what it is, there could be a million answers to those questions. For some people, it is as simple as I quit my job and go do that, and for other people it's no, I need to prepare and do these things first. I need to save some money, or I need to learn a new skill, or I need to do something else. Depends is my favorite answer to a lot of questions is it depends, because, honestly, that's the answer to a lot of questions and it does depend. But that's where you then begin to be able to make that map. That is the actual transition plan.

Speaker 3: 44:51

The problem that I see with a lot of people when they hate their job is they quit their job because they hate their job. They're leaving their job but they're not going anywhere, and so they usually end right back up into a different job that they hate in a different way. You're like huh, why do I hate this job too? It's because you never made the map and figured out the destination, because guess what? You can do a job you hate for a long time if you know there's a reason you're doing it and it's to get you somewhere else that you love.

Speaker 3: 45:27

Now, all of a sudden, it's like I can invest in this job that I don't like and, what's more, you'll actually find out you enjoy it more because you have a reason behind it. You're no longer just digging holes in the yard, but you're making a ditch to keep floodwaters away, or you're. There's a purpose behind it. There's a an autonomy and a reason behind it. Now, all of a sudden, it becomes much easier to do even those things that maybe you have to do for a while. You make that transition that aren't your favorite things.

Speaker 1: 45:54

Yeah, exactly, in our work we talk about it like sleepwalking through life versus being intentional, and so we tend to repeat the same patterns in our lives. Back step one spend. Figure stuff out for yourselves, man. I just love this conversation we've had so far today, scott. But if there wasn't some, if there was something we didn't get a chance to touch on that we haven't touched on today, what would be the one takeaway you'd want our listeners to have?

Speaker 3: 46:32

you know, the most important takeaway is I want to go back to that idea that I alluded to earlier about where the zone of control is, where the thing you can deal with is. I said it in terms of time and money. The real truth is I only work on talent because revolutionary change, because the more we can do to spend that time and that energy and again, don't get me wrong, I know it's hard but really invest in yourself and figure out what it is you're put on this planet to do and how do I do that. That really is the step that unlocks everything else, because, at the end of the day, that's the zone of control. That's the thing. When you look in the mirror, you're looking at the problem. The good news is, you're also looking at the solution. If you'll spend the time and the energy to actually do it, because you can do it, you can change. It's a question of do you want to and do you have a big enough driver to do it, and that's honestly the biggest, I think, overlooked place for success that most of us just don't spend the time doing.

Speaker 3: 47:54

In fact, you said it sleepwalk through life. I call it being reactive instead of proactive. Things come at me and I deal with them. You don't have to live that way and find your tribe, and it could be who, I don't care who. It is. Different people find different tribes and I'm like you. I point people to a lot of people that do work that's very similar to my work Because, honestly, if you're going to hear it from that person better than you hear it from me, dude, go, because I'm after the change, I'm not after being the change agent. I don't have to be the one that may help them make the change, if that makes sense.

Speaker 1: 48:27

Yeah, it makes complete sense, because, as the saying goes, when the student's ready, the teacher appears, and that teacher could be you, this time it could be me, next time it could be somebody else, and so that's why I love doing this podcast and having guests such as yourself on it, to hopefully it resonates with somebody and it inspires them to change. So I just want to say, scott, thanks so much for being on the show, and I think we've left quite a few breadcrumbs for folks to figure out on how to live an inspired life. But if men wanted to get a little bit more information and get interested in getting a hold of you and participating in your work, what would be the best way for them to do that?

Speaker 3: 49:02

So I actually put together a page just for your listeners. So if you go to inspiredstewardshipcom, slash revolutionary should be easy to remember. Basically, on there there's some free resources. So some of these activities that I was talking about, if you want it in a written form that you can actually refer to, they're on there as a free resource. You can just sign up for the stewardship tips and you'll get those in your inbox.

Speaker 3: 49:26

There's a link to my book If you're interested in finding out more about Inspired Living, and then my own podcast. I have a podcast as well and a couple of other resources on there as well. There's a link on there that you can set up a time to chat with me. Honestly, I've had folks do it. This isn't about oh, sign up for my coaching. If something that we talked about resonated and you'd like to just talk a little bit more about it and get a little bit more tips, feel free to jump on my calendar. I'm always happy to talk to people and see if I can help you break free and if that coaching is right for you, great. And if not, also great. If I helped you all on the journey, that's awesome.

Speaker 1: 50:03

Love that. I'm going to make sure all that information is in the show notes for today's episode and anywhere that you're on social media so people can reach out and get a hold of you. Once again, scott, thank you so much for being on the show. Really appreciated having you here today, absolutely.

Speaker 3: 50:17

I was honored to be here and thank you for having me.

Speaker 2: 50:27

Thank you for listening to the Revolutionary man podcast. Are you ready to own your destiny, to become more of the man you were destined to be, to become more the man you are destined to be? Join the brotherhood that is the Awakened man at theawakendmannet and start forging a new destiny today.