Redefining Family Legacy beyond Wealth and Possessions with Scott Donald

Imagine having the power to mold your kids into value-creating adults who understand the value of money and work. Sounds incredible, right? Well, our guest today, Scott Donnell, is here to share his insights on how to do just that! With a background in building companies and a burning desire to instill financial acumen in young minds, Scott has dedicated his life to teaching value creation to children. He has created a unique system and an app that not only helps parents save money but also educates kids on budgeting and saving.

Now picture a legacy that goes beyond wealth, where you pass down values and stories that last generations. Intriguing, isn’t it? Scott postulates that creating family legacies should pivot on value creation rather than money accumulation. He meticulously breaks down three types of values – material, emotional, and spiritual – and how each contributes to crafting a successful family legacy. This discussion is punctuated with practical examples from Scott’s life, offering us a real-life portrait of how to instill the idea of earning based on the value created.

This isn’t just about passing on money, but about passing on values, character, and the power of hard work that will have lasting effects. So, join us as we navigate the path to creating a future generation that's financially literate and values-driven.

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Transcript

Cory Moore: 0:00

Welcome to the gentlemen project podcast.

Kirk Chugg: 0:03

And I'm Kirk Chugg. Today, Scott Donnell joins us on the podcast. Scott's partner, Chad Willardson, and our good friend Randy Garn both recommended that Scott be on the podcast, not because he needs to talk about financial literacy again per se, but because he has written a book, he's doing workshops, he's building apps that all help build values in the next generation of our kids. So we're excited to have Scott on. He's a dad. He's very purposeful. He's kind of the poster child of what I'd like to be. After reading his book, I sat down with it yesterday. I got through like 80% of the book in one sitting. Tells you how good and how valuable the information in that book is. So we are super stoked today to have Scott on the podcast and have him download a lot of the nuggets that he has learned over the years on how to teach Our kids how to be value-creating adults. So welcome Scott.

Scott Donnell: 0:58

Well, I'm so glad to be here. Guys, let's kill this. This is gonna be a power hour man, this is gonna be good. Let's go Absolutely.

Kirk Chugg: 1:05

I like it. So talk to us a little bit about number one, how many kids you have, how long you've been married, a little bit of a background, and then I've got a couple questions right off the bat for you.

Scott Donnell: 1:16

Yeah, yeah, I got four little kiddos, four little value creators, now Um seven, five, three and one. A girl in three boys and my wife nicely.

Scott Donnell: 1:27

Oh yeah, oh yeah. It's crazy. I slept three hours last night, so I wish you could. I wish you could see my energy when I slept eight, but that hasn't happened since 2016. So I have a beautiful wife, amy. She's my angel. My first company ended up growing to 600 employees and six million customers, and she was the reason for it, and so, yeah, she's my angel. I started to help her school and it just exploded. So, yeah, that's my family. We live in Phoenix and we are. We have two missions to help a billion people through our companies and to give away a billion dollars to kids and widows, orphans and anti-trafficking. So those are our two missions by 2037.

Kirk Chugg: 2:14

Man, that's awesome.

Cory Moore: 2:16

Those are good missions oh.

Scott Donnell: 2:18

Yeah, we're well in the way man.

Cory Moore: 2:19

Let's do it. So how did you so? Give us a little more context on background, like, how did you go from starting this company to focusing on what we're gonna talk about a little bit today? Legacy.

Scott Donnell: 2:32

I started a company called apex fun run in 2011 to help my wife's school. She was a first grade teacher and she spent her whole paycheck on her kids and I was like, what are you doing? She's like, well, we all do that. That's part of the game. And I was like you're making 38 grand a year, are you serious, right? And I, you know I was barely making anything starting this business to help her. So I started a company to raise money for her school called apex. We teach leadership and fitness and financial skills and we do a big fun run at the end of the two weeks and the school makes like 50 grand and it completely like Brushed any fundraiser that's ever been done. It beats all the product sales. You know, when we were, we were kids we sold pizza and chocolate, all that junk and yeah. So we ended up basically innovating the entire industry. So the business exploded and we went. Now we're in 45 states, hundreds of franchises. It's one of the top top hundred franchises in the world. We just sold that company about a year and a half ago to a group out of Texas who can take it to the next stratosphere.

Scott Donnell: 3:42

But in doing that program, I immediately realized in school I was like why are these kids not learning money skills? They have no concept of the value of a dollar, they have no concept of budgeting. They it's just teachers aren't teaching this and the teachers don't even know the information. And these are the critical practical skills to make a kid like thrive in the real world. And so that's been an issue that I've seen come up over and over and over over the last 10 years of this business. So the first thing we started doing is these children's business fairs. It's like a free give back to help the local community, helping the kids come to a park and sell their products on a Saturday they make like 300 bucks super fun Learning about business. Then we put that on a website children's business fair, calm and now there's 1600 of them all over the world, so it's starting to explode. And then, when COVID hit, we started my first sale calm to help kids do launch their first Etsy like their kid version of Etsy in a marketplace, right, so just teaching these practical skills. And One day I was sitting with Dan Sullivan, my mentor, and I was realizing that only some people care about the entrepreneurship route.

Scott Donnell: 4:58

Okay, only 5% of kids actually have that DNA. They just wake up. They're like how can I go make money today, dad? You know 95% of kids don't. And so we started doing a ton of research like how do we get to the whole world to teach them like legacy money skills and Like really set them up for success? And then that's where the idea in a zoom call with Dan Sullivan and a friendly or this, it was like boom, oh my gosh, we have to create a bank for kids. That's a game, because I know I've taught 6 million kids now and I know exactly how they learn.

Scott Donnell: 5:36

It's through fun and real life application. Fun and real life if you make it fun, it's intrinsically motivating to your kids or grandkids. If you make it practical, then they can do it for life. It goes into their deep, long-term core memory. No more theoretical, no more homework. You can't teach money skills like homework right, you have to do it. You have to actually earn your own money and and manage it wisely. And you also can't do allowance.

Scott Donnell: 6:03

This is one of those lessons I'm going to talk to you guys about. We, we search the world for like the top hundred legacy families, and these aren't like rich families, these are like oh my gosh, you have unbelievable kids and grandkids and great-grandkids. You're like deeply connected. They are kind, generous, they're extremely like, driven and successful and like together, like there's almost no, like separation of the family, like addiction and and and abuse and trauma and divorce and all these things that rip families apart Right money issues. You know, we studied those hundred families and we'd like what are you guys doing? So I spent the last three and a half years of my life studying those families and meeting with them and saying teach me, because 90% of generational wealth is gone by the grid, 90% of generational wealth is gone by the grandkids. Why?

Kirk Chugg: 7:01

Right Skills to manage it are just not taught.

Scott Donnell: 7:05

Shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves in three generations. You ever heard that quote? It's almost like an assumed, because that is 90% of the time. That's what happens. It's 92% of the time. And what we started to see was oh wow, your job is not to just make a bunch of money for your kids and grandkids and die with an inheritance. That's not the case. It's actually extremely different. And all of these hundred families did all the same things, and almost nobody else in the public does them. And they're not just these, aren't. Yes, we studied billionaire families, but we also studied like a net worth of a million, because they had unbelievable family unbelievable every single one and so it doesn't matter the number. What mattered was the setup and the strategies and the implementation. So that's now what I train on, that's what led to the book, that's what led to value creation.

Scott Donnell: 7:59

Kid, the healthy struggles your children need to succeed. That was the first of our 24 lessons that we've learned from these families. And so now we have the Gravy Stack app, which is the first gamified bank for kids and teens to automate their financial competency training and give parents absolute peace of mind that their kids are learning the right money skills. So that's Gravy Stack. But we don't have to talk a ton about Gravy Stack, but I think everybody listening. If you want your kids to thrive, if you want them to get way ahead and learn all the core money skills, stop doing allowance right now. Download Gravy Stack and build in that home economy system and get them playing the games and doing the real life challenges. And, by the way, the average kid is saving their parents like 600 bucks in the first month. Literally saving money in the home, canceling subscriptions, finding coupons, selling things in the garage, like we're training them through the games and the app and it's kid motivated, right. So, anyway, that's my life, that's how I got you.

Cory Moore: 8:59

So you said 24 of these legacy lessons is how you call them I can't remember exactly, yep, and some of that is in the book, or all of them are in the book. The first one is in the book.

Scott Donnell: 9:13

The first one is, I think, probably the most valuable one. We probably have time to teach a handful of these today, so I'll get into the, you know yeah, cause I'm on the edge of my seat now.

Cory Moore: 9:23

I'm like, okay, I want the 24.

Scott Donnell: 9:26

Yeah Well you're in luck, no, so we are launching by popular demand. I am a tech builder. I build, you know, content and tech to help millions of people, but I'm being asked to launch these family legacy workshops now. So we are, because the only way you can really dive into this stuff is to practice the tools with. Get in with yourself or your spouse, come to Phoenix for two days, have a great little getaway and like we'll give you all these tools and then you can walk away with all of the tools. It's operational in the home the next day. All the money, conversations, all the home economy, set up, all of the family mission visions Like we have all that stuff for you and the tools. It's a couple, it's simple. It's a really deep, great thing.

Scott Donnell: 10:15

We want to get this out to a hundred thousand families because if they follow which, what we're seeing when you just immediately, like within days, of implementing these things, your kids start to transform very quickly. So that's really what I love. I want to spend most of my time teaching, speaking, giving these lessons out and then let the app come in as the roadmap. Right, every stack is the roadmap to fulfill on this family legacy piece. Right, it's like the automated way for seven bucks a month, right, it's like so simple. So we want everybody in the app as the simple first step for your kids starting at age six, and then, if they can come to the workshops, we might do some virtual as well.

Scott Donnell: 10:59

But people can book a. They can book a call with us. They just go to familylegacyworkshopcom. Just go there, put your name and email in. We will do a family legacy design call like session with you where you can like get your first tools and then, if you want to join a workshop, great. And then we're going to give out on those calls. We're going to give the full 24 list.

Kirk Chugg: 11:21

Sweet and anybody who's listening to the podcast today, see the show notes, because by the time this podcast airs, we're going to have a code for a free month, right? Yep, yep, or listeners of the gentlemen project podcast.

Scott Donnell: 11:37

Yeah, if they go to familylegacyworkshopcom, we'll just give them a free month if they put their info in Sweet. So yeah, the first of these lessons. You want to just get into a few of these, yeah please, yeah, I do Okay.

Kirk Chugg: 11:51

So many so many, so many notes that I had as I read the book. I've got like three pages of questions to ask you, so you'll probably touch on a few of those. But yeah, let's spend a lot of time on this first one and because it's so critical these families.

Scott Donnell: 12:08

they taught their kids to create value first, not money. Everybody thinks legacy it's like, oh, they have a ton of money and you become a billion. No, no, no. These families never focused on money first. They focused on value creation, because money is just a store of value. Right, money is a tool. So that's another piece of the 24 I can talk about in a minute.

Scott Donnell: 12:32

But this value creation thinking is the antidote to all of the entitlement, the spoiling, the anxiety and self-doubt and issues that kids have. Teenage girls have this. It's like it's the biggest thing plugging them. Victimhood and laziness. These are the fears that parents have deep down. When their head hits the pillow at night, they're like I love my kids, I really hope we're not messing it up. Those are the ones they're worried about. They do not want their kids to grow up blaming everybody else and being entitled, being spoiled and being like just rife with anxiety and stress for the future.

Scott Donnell: 13:13

The value creation mindset solves that, and the reason why it solves it is because it gives kids agency it's a system of, it's a lens to see the world that I can create value in every single scenario and situation of my life right now, you see the difference. Instead of feeling powerless and incapable and then they lose the confidence, they go through what we call healthy struggles to create the capabilities and the confidence to create value in the world. That's what these families did from birth. They did that. So they set up a system where their kids can create three types of value material value, emotional value and spiritual value all around them at all times. So material value is what you create and produce in the world. This is what earns money by creating value or it builds businesses. It gets you the job. It helps you get the promotion the fastest. It's like this unbelievable way to find success. And so they teach them this lens of solving problems, finding wants and needs, filling those, having an empathy mindset, listening and looking like being detectives for value. That's the first step.

Scott Donnell: 14:33

The emotional value is how you think and feel and make other people think and feel. A kid will connect when they think of a value mindset for emotional value. They will actually connect to helping other people around them. They will help their friends feel better. They will be a better friend. They will understand better what the teacher wants. They will understand how to be a leader on the sports team, that's the captain. You see what I'm saying here. It's all through this lens.

Scott Donnell: 15:02

So emotional value, which might just be the most rare commodity in the world how you think and feel and help others think and feel immediately creates value for everyone in the situation. And then the last type of value is spiritual value. That's how you connect to something bigger than yourself and help other people think about something greater than themselves. I love Jesus. I am not ashamed of it Like, oh my gosh, if I could tell you for days how it's changed my life. Great spiritual value for me and my family. But a mission is also spiritual value. A shared mission and vision, alignment on a team right, having a goal together. We want to put a man on the moon and bring him back safely by the end of the 60s.

Scott Donnell: 15:49

How do you think that united our country? It's like probably arguably the last time we were all so united. That's spiritual value. So a kid can think this way nonstop, because it's one lens to see the world and it completely sets them up for success. This is the value creation mindset. So yeah, that's number one is these families focus on value creation. I wish that it was not called capitalism by the way, that was a name given to us by the French as like a slap. Oh, these capitalists. Right, I wish it was called value creatism, because all it is is people creating value for other people. The increased cooperation between strangers is how I define capitalism. That's value creation. That's how the pie gets bigger, right? So that's the first one. Is they think that way?

Kirk Chugg: 16:50

And that's what the book is about. So if you want a good read and you really want to teach your kids these values like, grab this book. It's probably the best dollars on a book you'll spend all year, so where can they find it real quick? Amazon.

Scott Donnell: 17:07

Or if you like my voice and you want to hear it for five hours, go to audible, amazon and audible.

Kirk Chugg: 17:13

There you go. Okay, so you talked about number one there and a lot of that, a lot of the problems that we see in our kids today, like you said anxiety and laziness, and entitlement, and you know all the things that we hope our kids don't grow up to be. They adopt this value mindset by going through what you called healthy struggles. We all know that we can't save our kids from all hurt and pain, and if we do, then we ruin them. Give us a practical example of how that's worked in your family with 753. Yeah, one. I mean you're not teaching the one year old value creation yet, but I'm pretty positive, based on the few minutes we've had with you, that you're nailing it with your 75 and three year olds.

Scott Donnell: 17:58

We do it every single day. So this idea of healthy struggle is the only way a kid can build capability. So it's the healthy, the value creation cycle works like this Healthy struggle builds capability, which builds confidence in the kids, which then allows them to create value. And then you want to go right back into a healthy struggle. We have 90 healthy struggles outlined in the book. We have all these boot camps that we give in the book for parents to help their kids grow and learn the practical skills. But so much of it comes from this idea where parents go. So let's take a parent who's making money they're finally covering the bills, they're doing well and they say I just want to make sure my kids have all the things I never had. I want to make sure my kids have all the experiences I never had, the opportunities I never had. I want to make sure they don't have to deal with all the problems I had to deal with.

Scott Donnell: 18:52

That comes from a point of love, but the results can be disastrous because what made you you? You went through all these healthy struggles. Now I'm not saying you pass on trauma. Never pass on trauma, trauma that should end with you or your parents or whatever. Don't abuse, neglect. Those things are not what we're talking about. Tough love no way. That's not what we're talking about. What we're talking about is setting up systems and strategies in the home to let the kids thrive. We don't jump in and solve things for the kids. We use them as teaching moments, but we let them struggle a little bit a lot of it actually in many times and we do it in such a way that doesn't break the relationship. Right. Kids need to learn to skin their knees. You should not be jumping and running to school every time they forget something the homework or the lunch. You should not be yelling at the coach to get more playing time. Right?

Scott Donnell: 19:50

We had this happen three days ago. My daughter got into the wrong second grade class and Amy's like oh no, she's in the class with potential bullies and issues and, oh my goodness, her two best friends are the other one and the school has like a zero switch policy. But then she's like we got to figure out. And then we said, all right, value creation. What's going to happen here? This is going to be an amazing, healthy struggle for Reagan. She is going to learn emotional value. She's going to learn how to love the bully into friendship. She's going to learn leadership. She's going to learn compassion. She's going to get a new lens for everybody that she's ever going to watch, that's struggling and alone and marginalized. You see the difference, you see the switch. So now that's the conversations we get to have with Reagan to prepare for the school year.

Scott Donnell: 20:42

I had a friend growing up whose mom fired the driver's ed teacher because she failed. The daughter failed the driver's test. That doesn't help a kid create value in the world. Right, it's a crutch. So we have 90 of these in the book that these families help. These are hard skills, soft skills, practical skills, business skills, but the value system is there. Once you get the idea, you can start to think in every situation. How does this create the most material, emotional or spiritual value for my kid in this situation? And you want to be there, you want to love them, you want to help guide them. Another one is this Can I go into the second lesson?

Kirk Chugg: 21:28

I think this is okay.

Scott Donnell: 21:30

Because this second lesson is actually number six in the 24. But I'm going to say it now because it is mentioned in the book. These families did not do allowance at all. This is tied to a lack of motivation and an aversion to work. From a recent study by Jumpstart it's coming. It's coming. It's socialism.

Scott Donnell: 21:52

I mean you're just giving your kids money for free, or you're giving them money for a list of chores that they may or may not do, and half those chores that you shouldn't pay for and the other half of those chores you should pay specifically for. Kids need to learn to earn based on the value created. Why are you paying the kid from a list of chores where they might have to go pull weeds for an hour or then wash a dish? It doesn't make any sense. They don't learn value creation that way.

Scott Donnell: 22:17

And then the biggest problem are parents who say well, I don't pay my kids allowance, they just do all their chores like they're told. Well, okay, well, your kids now making no money to make financial training happen. You're paying for everything for them. Now the bank of mom and dad's going to roll on till they're 25, 35, 40. You have to find a system in the home to let the kids create value and then learn on their own and grow, and that's why we created the home economy system. So the home economy system is number six on our list, and I want to talk about this because it is in the book. Okay, yeah, the home economy system is what all hundred of these families did. Isn't that cool?

Kirk Chugg: 22:58

So no outliers at all. All hundred of them?

Scott Donnell: 23:01

Yes, but the problem was they didn't have an automated system of doing it easily, so they all did it in various forms. They would use like a whiteboard with a list or a ticket system or a sticker system or a point system, or they just literally paying them their kids stuff. So they all had these annoying ways of doing it and it's always a struggle, because anyone listening to this knows exactly what we're talking about. You get into these cycles of frustration or nagging or the same chorefights or the same behavior problems, and then you give up after three months of some strategy. Okay, so what we did in Gravy Stack is we took the lessons of these legacy families and we turned it into the software in the app that automates the home economy system for you. You literally get a print out for the fridge every Sunday of all of the home economy, and I'm going to explain it to you. So, instead of allowance this is what the best families do they have the 3E system expectations, expenses, extra pay. You set up the expectations first with your kids. These are the things I'm not going to pay you for. These are the expectations in our home to have your last name and to have your rent. This is your rent, kid. Right, you're going to make your bed, clean your room, brush your teeth, shower or bathe. Do well in school. Do your best. Get your homework done. Do your best in school. We expect high grades, like it's expectations. You see what I'm saying. You're not paying for that.

Scott Donnell: 24:26

A lot of parents pay for those things in allowance, which is a terrible idea. Okay, they need to understand that. There's roles in the home that you're expected to do, maybe even dishes and trash. That's similar. Then the next step is where everybody goes wrong Expenses. Parents rarely pass off expenses to their kids, maybe once in a while. Right, with our system, there's 12 categories of expenses that you can start to pass off to your kids, starting at age six, believe it or not. And then they have a motive to earn. You have to understand this key piece. A kid that has all of their needs covered and all of their wants covered does has no motivation to earn. In fact, they don't even wanna talk about money. We surveyed a thousand families when we started this not the legacy families, but like a general survey and the majority of the kids said that money is the number one conflict at home that we hear about right. So parents say things like we can't afford that. Do you know how much that costs? Money doesn't grow on trees. Do you know how hard I worked to get this for you guys and you just wasted it? You know they hear that stuff all the time. Or parents struggling over money decisions and bills, and so they just wanna like say forget it. So in our system we give a positive view of money and so the expenses piece.

Scott Donnell: 25:52

These are things like start with toys, trinkets, souvenirs, tech. Start with those, go into clothes, sporting equipment. Birthday presents for friends is my favorite one. How many times did you buy the present for your wife, wrapped it, got the card, kids signs it, chucks on the table, doesn't even think about it again. If that kid earns the 15 bucks from you at home in the 30, which I'll explain they earn it. They help you get the present with you, help them wrap it, bring it to them. They're gonna run up to that kid to open this right now. I wanna see your face. I got this for you for your birthday. That's a generous kid for life. You see the healthy struggle that creates value. See what I'm saying? Absolutely, yeah, that's great.

Scott Donnell: 26:40

So now that you've got those expenses passed off. And then when they get older, it's like social outings with friends, social trips, mission trips, gasoline insurance. All those things are listed in our app and in the book. Once you've done that, you've saved hundreds of dollars a month as a parent because now they're paying for it. You can pay them now to buy those things. So now you just saved yourself hundreds of dollars a month that you can now pay them in the third E, extra pay, we call them home gigs and this is a system in the app where you create five, 10, 12 home gigs that repeat daily, weekly or monthly or one-offs, and it's in that calendar printout for the fridge. And so now the kids at all times know exactly where to go to earn the money on top of the expectations. They do their expectations as the table stakes and now they can earn money to plan ahead, to start covering their expenses and then whatever's left over, fun stuff. And then in the app for Gravy Stack, every dollar is automatically split that they make into their save, into their share and into their spend accounts. So now they learn automatically all of these incredible things. They learn oh, I can't spend all 10 bucks I just made. Oh yeah, it's auto saved and auto shared and investing in the save jar. And then they realize, oh, I got to plan ahead. I have an expense coming up, right, you have one hard conversation where they didn't make the money and they really want the expense that they're in charge of and they can't do it. Guess what? Healthy struggle, immediate value.

Scott Donnell: 28:16

Two weeks into Gravy Stack, our kids don't ask mom and dad for money ever again. Think about the benefit to mom and dad. No more nagging over chores, no more fights, no more of these spirals. Kids start planning ahead. They start making decision trade-offs. I don't need the Nike Air, I don't need the Air Jordans, I'm good with the Reeboks right. They start budgeting. They start understanding the price of things, all these things that parents are like. I wish my kid learned this in school. You can't homework this stuff in school. This is why they don't teach it. It can only happen at home. It has to start at home. We just made it very, very easy. So that's what Gravy Stack is and that's the home economy system.

Cory Moore: 29:02

That's awesome. So now I want the rest. I want the other 24, of course, I'm gonna have to come to Phoenix. It sounds like I'm all in.

Scott Donnell: 29:11

Yeah, yeah. Well, the workshops are gonna be. They're powerful man, but I think the first step would be anyone listening just go to familylegacyworkshopcom. And then, by the way, if you do the workshops with us, you're gonna get Gravy Stack for life. Okay, so we will give you Gravy Stack as part of it and because it really helps to sit down with us and our team and just operationalize, because our whole goal with this is like get as close to the home and operational, practical use as possible. I am not a fan of complex theoretical ideas that have no practical use whatsoever. I think that that's fine later on, but what we wanna do is make this stuff operational from day one. So that's what the workshops do, but I can go into a couple more if you want to.

Kirk Chugg: 30:05

Yeah, let's hit a couple more.

Scott Donnell: 30:06

Okay, most of the financial planning world and the insurance world and the annuities world, iras. All they're doing is focusing families on securing and growing long-term wealth. Right, come here for the peace of mind that your money's working for you and you're slowly plotting along and you'll have retirement and something left over for kids and grandkids. Yeah, the accumulation phase. They're focusing on the accumulation and protection of wealth. What these hundred legacy families realized is the next step, which is your kids need heritage, not inheritance. I'll say that again your kids need a heritage that matters, not an inheritance number.

Scott Donnell: 30:55

So many people in the world, they care about doing things for the kids, for the family. I make money for my family, I provide for my family, I work really hard to get into my kids into the best schools, into the best teams. For the kids it matters way more what you do with them. Life is way more important than for. What you leave in your kids is way more valuable than what you leave to them at the end of your life. And these families, the light bulb came on very early, so they care way more, not about a money amount, they care way more. In fact, they actually went the other way on the inheritance side. I can explain that in a little bit. But these families focus so hard on preparing the kids for wealth and for the family name so it has to mean something to have your last name. They focused all their efforts on that the mission, the values, the systems of being a part of our family. They tell stories of the family. You know our family.

Kirk Chugg: 32:07

Tell us the story of your family that's in the book, because I had to read it like three times yeah it was cool, but this you have to know.

Scott Donnell: 32:15

When, when families tell stories of what it means to be in your family, kids carry that name with them for life. It is a superpower. Okay, I forget the exact statistic, but it's like they're eight times higher. How does it? They're eight times less likely to like separate and go through all the problems that happen in fractured generations. They're eight times more likely to stay connected, have healthy relationships, stronger marriages, stronger kids. When they know what it means to have your last name, deep connection Cause it's like here's the baton run right. So like in our family, and my family is like 70% of all of these lessons.

Scott Donnell: 32:55

My family did a pretty darn good job. Okay, I'm very thankful. I come from four generations of, like, very successful entrepreneurs that gave it all away and didn't didn't set us up for failure. They set us up for success by training us how to fish. Okay, I'm very thankful for that. I have no imposter syndrome. I have no guilt or fear that what I have isn't created by hands and feet and God's, god's leading. So these families so like our family we come from like Scotland, like we go all the way back to King and Grippa, and you know crazy stories of like conquering new lands and like some guy in our history cut off his hand and chucked it to shore so we could own the island first, and we have our ancestors came across the organ trail right. Incredible stories of our family. And here's my advice and, by the way, I carry that with me to this day. I'm a leader in my family, my community, and I have that strength from my family line. It doesn't matter what, what, what your family is, you have the opportunity to create that legacy right now.

Scott Donnell: 34:00

We tell stories of our kids. We tell great stories that that embolster the values of our family. So here's my advice on this piece and we actually do this as an entire part of the workshop. We help families really build these values that matter and that are remembered. And the stories that are remembered Because it's one thing to be like. Here's our two paragraph mission statement Like no one, those don't matter, those don't create value. Kids can't remember a two paragraph.

Scott Donnell: 34:28

Okay, so for our family, we believe in faith, family and fish. My three year old can say it every day we love God, we love each other and we care about fish, fun and adventure, integrity, service, which is the value creation and then hard work. We get things done. We leave things better. We always show up. We love strong Like our kids say this stuff every day and then whenever we see them do something that that shows one of those values, we celebrate the heck out of it.

Scott Donnell: 35:04

Stories matter more than values. Stories win. In fact, every single value you use, you hold as a family, needs to have a story behind it or it will not be remembered, it will never be applied and it's useless. So we are huge on crafting like a family story that can be passed on. That's what our workshops do and that's what all these families did. They really got like deep into this and then it built their rituals and traditions and rhythms Like it and that's what connects families.

Scott Donnell: 35:38

And so there's a, there's a quote out there If you want to, if you want to kill a culture, get rid of the chief storyteller. I love that quote. That is so true. I mean, think about it. The last World War, two vets are almost dead and now we have a new generation that never thinks about it, never thinks it even happened, doesn't understand the weight of it and believes in democratic socialism and that we're in late stage capitalism. It's like, oh yeah, we have to pass on the stories, we have to share, we have to tell the truth, right? So stories mean everything to a family's heritage. So again, it's heritage, not inheritance, as the focus. That's a big that's really good.

Scott Donnell: 36:25

Yeah, Stories win. I mean, what are you going to tell your kid Like when you're sitting around the campfire? You're going to be like, let me tell you the definition of integrity. No, you're going to tell him a story, a principle based story, of something in your life that was so hard to do to have integrity and how you got through it and the benefits that happened from it and why it's a family value. Principle based stories win. That's what we focus on.

Cory Moore: 36:57

It's good for business too, actually.

Kirk Chugg: 36:59

Yeah, yeah, that was the first thing I wrote down was I wanted you to talk about heritage, not inheritance, so thanks for touching on that. I didn't even have to ask the questions. You've touched on about 80% of what I wrote down today. So, home gigs, what's in a last name? Healthy struggles, how do kids learn? The value creation cycle. You touched on all of it today. Scott, I think we could probably spend hours with you on a podcast. If you want to check out more of Scott's content, you go to his podcast and listen to his podcast that he does with Chad. Do you want to drop the best place for them to go find that and the exact name, scott, so that they can find you?

Scott Donnell: 37:44

If they want to hear more about. We have a show called Smart Money Parenting. It's doing great, helps families. These are 20-minute topicals, fun stories, very simple. Most of our parents or grandparents are listening to it on a workout, on a drive or hanging out doing laundry. I mean simple, simple stuff. But yeah, we just hit our 55th episode. We're just getting going. We got as high as number two for all families, which is awesome, and we're kind of up and down the charts. But that's our show. And then you can just find me on socials. I'm Scott Donald.

Scott Donnell: 38:20

Pretty simple, but I think the best thing I want to give to the audience is the workshops and the Gravy Stack app. This is like we've been put. We put the last three years straight into building this right with hundreds of people. We've got coders working around the clock, dozens of them, and this will move your family forward faster than anything I've seen.

Scott Donnell: 38:42

You know, I just got a text from a friend he's like for the last 12 years, my kids argued over chores and for the first time with the Gravy Stack app, they are arguing over who gets to do chores. They're coming up with chores. Think about that for a second. Have you ever heard of a family where the kid comes up with new things to do. I haven't. That's the power of setting up this system. So Gravy Stack is something I really want to give to the family. So if you want to go to the familylegacyworkshopcom, put your name and email in. We will do a design a family legacy design call to help you out with this home economy system and we'll give you the month of free of Gravy Stack. And then, if you guys want to join our workshops one of our workshops with their spouse we'll give you Gravy Stack for life. So we want that training.

Cory Moore: 39:38

Thanks, scott. Well, it looks like we're at the end, unfortunately, scott, because I could just keep listening. But we do ask all of our guests a final question. Let's go, and so you might give it 30 seconds to think about it or you can just jump right in, but we always ask each of our guests what it means to be a gentleman. What does it mean for Scott to be a gentleman?

Scott Donnell: 40:03

So many things just came to mind what it means to be a gentleman. Live like no one else today so you can live like no one else tomorrow. I think a gentleman does the tough stuff first.

Cory Moore: 40:26

That needs to be done, and they tell us, life be better if they did that.

Scott Donnell: 40:33

And they tip well.

Kirk Chugg: 40:36

Hey, that's not been said before.

Cory Moore: 40:37

No, that's a good one.

Kirk Chugg: 40:41

Scott, thank you. Thank you for that. Thank you for your time. Go to familylegacyworkshopcom to connect more with them Smart Money, parenting Podcast, the Value Creation Kid book and the Gravy Stack app. One thing I can say about you, scott, is you're creating value everywhere you go. Thank you for that. You are leaving the legacy that you are living to your kids and to the people that interact with you, so thank you very much for that. Thanks for joining us today. I'm Kirk Chug and I'm Corey Moore. Thanks guys, Thanks everyone.