Jeff Rogers talks about his businesses, Stewardship Advisory Group and Stewardship Legacy Coaching. His book, Creating a Thriving Family Legacy, touches on the outpour of Roger's passion; that we free ourselves to be open to financial freedom so we can give more freely to God's kingdom. Listen as Jeff tells us his story in ministry and how he embraced his calling to enter financial ministry through the lens of God's word.
Jeff Rogers talks about his businesses, Stewardship Advisory Group and Stewardship Legacy Coaching. His book, Creating a Thriving Family Legacy, touches on the outpour of Roger's passion; that we free ourselves to be open to financial freedom so we can give more freely to God's kingdom. Listen as Jeff tells us his story in ministry and how he embraced his calling to enter financial ministry through the lens of God's word.
Yes, yes.
Speaker 2:The surgery.
Speaker 1:Welcome to this edition of a survivor's journey with rocky destefano. Hey Larry. I love your voice. I think a great radio voice and then people get stuck with me. Well, thank no, no, no, no. Hey, we as always, we hope that everyone listening will be able to walk through this journey of leadership with us. No, Larry, the premise of the show, you know this better than anybody. Well, everybody's leading someone or some things, right? Whether you're a parent leading your family, a coach leading a team, a team member, leading a few or a CEO leading an organization. All of us are on a path. Larry, a path of being a leader and that's why we call this a survivor's journey. Fantastic. Listen, we've got a great guest with us today and I excited about. I think he's on quite a path. I mean a great path of leadership and in a different, in a different area than we've been in. That's right, and it works. It. Jeff Rogers, Jeff Rogers, welcome to the studio. Thanks Larry. And Rocky. He, he, he's. He paid attention to Larry and he's talking loudly, which is good. Otherwise Larry yells a little bit some times. No, no, no. I know. I know. He goes back to my childhood where I want to please, please. Okay. Yeah. This is going to be super interesting today and you know, really deals around leadership in your finances and so jeff, we really, really want to welcome you into the show and he's the founder of the stewardship advisory group. Yes. Yes. And we're going to hear more about that. Yes, yes. For her. All about his company in Stewardship, legacy coaching and really and steward legacy coaching, stewardship legacy code. So this is a new endeavor where we have two companies really had to for quite a few years. How did I not know this? Well, you're like a onion. I just keep peeling back layers. We're going to find out more but moment in leadership down my alley. I don't know if you are interested or not, but what it takes to be a leader right there in my field and what your mind does, it's a little idea that I had. I wanted to be an actor, go to Hollywood. Did you really? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I thought you were always behind the scenes. Well, you know, there was a time when I had an agent and I, and I was trying to act and of course I've always acted up, but I've seen your pictures. You were a striking young lads. The weird thing is we're kind of getting ahead of ourselves here, but I was so old when I started acting that I was placed in the category of character actors. Uh, okay. So like you said, and I still have this great people do not realize my maturity. Right. And so I'd go into these auditions for actors that they were looking for a character actor and you probably, one of them was at a universal studios. I don't know if you remember, it was an old guy with an but you know, I could not look like the characters they were looking for. Yeah. So I never got those gigs. So this is all about you wanting to be a leading actor in Hollywood. This comes from Ken Kelly, who's the associate pastor at Bel Air Church and founder of defining artist agencies and a leader of Beacon Hollywood. So if you're coming to Los Angeles to be an actor and you want to be committed, you gotta be committed. You gotta be there with a SAG card. If you want to commit yourself, that means you're a screen actors guild union. He, you're talking about these terms and jeff and I are lost and with no agent, it's time for a reality check because Los Angeles is definitely a union town and yes, you do have to have an agent, but you know, it does make a difference. So simply the real job is that pays decent wages come if you have that SAG card. Okay? So you get paid more if you have a sac. Right? Right. The trick is getting that card. Okay. So it's a myth to think that you can build an acting career in Los Angeles as a nonunion actor, Larry. Right? So there are no agents that I know of or who aspire to represent nonunion actors because there's no money in it for them. Duh. There's still money, so, so what do you do? What you tried to get your sag card and this is what I was trying to do here locally before you get to La, you talk you, you get an agent here in Orlando and you do some jobs or you could go to a Georgia. There's a lot of work happening in Georgia and you get a local agent, you get the job, you find local commercials, film productions, things like that. These smaller markets like Orlando, have big, big productions at times. So you get to work. Okay, so you have to build some professional relationships where you are. And if you do come to la before these major hurdles have been jumped, right? So if you stick with your time, you got to pursue a career. It's just not a hobby. You, you got to have your tools to to as well. You're trying to see. Got To be committed. So there you have it. It might be a good idea to have a website too. So now we know Larry, a few people that are actually local here that are acting that chuck, Chuck Coringa right. And also Gary Clark has done. I've actually asked Gary Clark, I really want to see him do a Viagra commercial so I can bother him. But he hasn't done one yet, but he's been on several different commercial. She now see he's a character actor. He's definitely, I could see the character has definitely a character. Me. I'm just Mr. Mr. Bland? Yeah. Okay. Let's see. You mentioned websites and so we're going segue into that. Um, and we know we've talked acs, creative,
Speaker 3:they kind of came on board and developed our website and when it comes to creating a website, it pays to go to a pro Larry,
Speaker 1:and that's because they don't play games with your money, which, which we love. Now I know acs, creative does brochures, logos, direct mail, ad campaigns and websites. You do everything and they don't want to do your website. I mean they don't want to do your podcast, but they will help you with your podcast by having a very good website.
Speaker 3:Yeah. And they can also help you with some advertising and with some ideas to gain a listenership there. They're a pretty talented group of over there.
Speaker 1:So contact acs created there on the internet at a c, s creative. That's a c as creative.
Speaker 3:All right, so next we're going to kind of transition into our interview with Jeff. Fantastic. We are really pleased that you are here with us today. Um, and there's a little bit of disclosure here. We, we know Jeff, we know jeff for years. Jeff, how long have we gone to the same church? Well, we've been going to the church itself, Lake for about 15 or 16 years. So we came on probably just like a year or two before you guys. So, so we've known him for awhile now. Larry knows I'm better because you know, Larry gets into better circles than me, you know, let's just be honest. So anyways, but now we need to place rocky far more often than I eat at Larry's place. Philly is a great place to. Yeah, we try. Although I can tell you we are struggling with the volume, which is a good issue to have. I remind myself every time I, uh, feel helpless for not knowing how to quite get the cars through quick enough that. Thank you very much. That's too much. Business is better than not enough business and that's why we're opening the second store. So. All right, well it's opened by now by the way. That's right. Oh, you're right. See where we're a kind of stuck in a time warp here.
Speaker 1:We're recording this before the new year and the store opens when,
Speaker 3:uh, January ninth, January nights. So I saw you there then. That's right. So Jeff, we're going to talk a little bit about your company and you mentioned the stewardship advisory group and then you also have a consulting company yet. Stewardship, legacy coaching. Okay. And um, your mission statement is, our purpose for existence is to help people be good stewards of the resources God has entrusted to them. And this will be accomplished by helping them develop and implement sound financial and estate plans. So how did it, how did this company get it? Start well, going back to the beginning, it really started as an outgrowth of my career in financial planning, going back to 1983 and uh, I started up in New England and God just blessed all that we did. I was kind of like the rising young star in the company that I had started with and they asked me to go open up a new location
Speaker 4:and said we could go anywhere in the country at Kathy and I were just about to get engaged at that time. So I basically asked them to hold off until we get married. We literally went on the honeymoon. Everything was in storage when we get back from the honeymoon, we moved to Orlando, Florida, didn't know a soul started from scratch. And the rest is. History gets bored or you with a major broker? Nope. Um, I was with a crisp small Christian insurance company called Christian mutual life. And please rocky. I'm sorry. Rocky's testing to see how well his phone is built in whether or not it can withstand punishment. Yes. My, uh, you know, I'm going to put this, I'm going to turn it upside down because for some reason people are texting me quite a lot today. I have fans today, I guess. Yeah, we'll turn the fans off. Will you. So now that was a big risk to, to pack up and move to Orlando. What, what drew you to Orlando? Well, I actually honestly, but humorously tell people that we prayed about it. We looked at the weather maps in the demographic maps and chose Orlando in all three are true. We literally did pray about it. We did look at weather maps and demographic maps. You were coming from England, so you probably were looking for someplace warmer. I would absolutely. And this was 82, 1982[inaudible] 87 that we moved here. Wow. So the, the area, did you move to the Claremont or Orlando area? When we originally moved to ultimate springs and we rented up there in the first few years of our marriage. Then we built our first home in west Orlando and then about 15, 16 years ago we decided we wanted to get out here in the lakes of South Lake County, and so we moved to Claremont. Okay. And I, I'm intrigued a little bit about your company because like I'm looking at your corporate goals and you've got things like to glory, God that's ready to glorify God in all you do to give honest counsel to your clients, provide excellence and plan design and all these things, you know, establish longterm relationships. These seem to be. We talk a lot about a purpose and it seems like these, uh, goals really clearly defined who you are as a person and what you hope your company can, can, can be. Yes. From day one, rocky, I've felt that this is really a calling in a ministry to me is not just a business. It's not just a way that I make a living, but it's really a calling in a ministry to help people to be good stewards of the resources God has entrusted to them. And then as they do that and they achieve true financial freedom, they can give more generously to God's kingdom. And so we do a lot of work with churches and ministries as well, helping them to release resources for the furtherance of the Great Commission. Yeah. And that seems to be, and I know that this book which the, by the way it's called
Speaker 3:create a thriving family legacy, how to share your wisdom and wealth with your children and grandchildren. And it's a published by Forbes book, which is, you know, first of all, anybody who writes a book, that's a pretty big accomplishment, but it sounds like this has been brewing for awhile and this is an exact outpouring of what you feel like God has given you as a mission.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's correct. Rookie, our second company Stewardship Legacy coaching is a company we're through that we have a process where we serve high net worth families and business owners across the nation in helping them to build thriving, multigenerational family legacies and do it in a way that is done through the lens of biblical stewardship. And so the principles in this book are something that God has been nurturing in my heart for well over a decade, probably close to two decades, and it was just a message that I felt had to be shared with the world, had to come out into. One way of doing that is to write a book and get it out beyond what your own vocal chords can communicate.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely. I think that you know, you're, you have a circle of influence and you've already absolutely influenced your clients and people within our community in Orlando. And now this book gives you the opportunity, the introduction to go anywhere because a lot of times what will happen, I would imagine, is somebody will read this book and Omaha and say, now we got to get this guy out here to speak and kind of share his passion and his vision. And you mentioned that you, you feel a real call to help people be good stewards with their money. And then the good stewardship allows them to bless others for eternity and for the kingdom and the Kingdom of God.
Speaker 4:That's correct. And in create a thriving family legacy, we, we look at legacy holistically, we look at it in terms of five different areas of your legacy, number one, your personal legacy, what you want that to look like. Second is your family legacy in a multigenerational way, your children, grandchildren, and even future generations. And then third is your financial legacy. So there's a financial component to it, but it's a lot more than just the financial aspect. And then for business owners, we look at their business legacy, how can they steward their business, turn it into a platform to serve others, kind of like the servers journey that I'm on your podcast today, and also ultimately serving the Lord for those that are Christian business owners and using their business as a platform for Christ. And then that leads to the fifth area of legacy, which is your kingdom legacy. Um, what can we do with our time, talents and treasures, our leadership relationships and influence to maximize our impact on God's kingdom? So we look at that area of legacy more holistically than a lot of people do.
Speaker 3:Yeah. And it sounds like that. And I was intrigued a lot by if you could speak a little bit like what do you consider the difference between personal and your family legacy, because I know that plays a big role in your book.
Speaker 4:Yeah. Great question in rocky. So personal legacy has to do with identifying God's purpose, God's call on your life and your passions. What are you passionate about? What are you gifted about an in when you leave this earth, what kind of footprints do you want to leave behind? What kind of ripples do you want to leave in the lives of others? So your personal legacy is not just about your family, whereas obviously family legacy is more about going down generations, children, grandchildren, but also, you know, as you guys know, cause we've been journeying together for well over a decade, probably close to two. The three of us, Larry, rocky and Jeff. Hey, we could have a new show here. I think we actually, we definitely least like a small group or a band. Do you play any instruments or a. no, I play the radio in the CD now. Now nowadays I play itunes. Okay. See our lead singer then, as you know, if you don't play, you gotta know you would want me to be the last singer in the place. Yeah. But um, yeah, I forget where I was before rocky, distracted. We were talking about
Speaker 3:difference between personnel and family and you were saying and allocate it as. So my personal life, I have influence on a lot of people in my life that are not my kids, but then there's another legacy after be concerned with which is with my kids.
Speaker 4:Right. And then we also look at a legacy not only going down generations, children, grandchildren and future generations, but also, as you guys know, this is where I was going with it, that you guys know that Kathy and I have been caregiving now for about five years for both of our dads in our home. Both of our moms are in heaven and Kathy's dad has Alzheimer's. And when her mom went home to be with the Lord five years ago, we felt that we needed to bring him into our home and care for him at least as long as we could. And so far that's working out, he has Alzheimer's and, and so we feel like we're serving him well during this season of life and we're building a legacy that goes up a generation. Same thing with my dad. Uh, my dad is still sharp. They're 86 and 87 respectively today thing, but he has a mobility issues, Copt and stuff and can't really live on his own. And so, uh, so we view legacy, even family legacy, not just in the traditional sense of going down generations but also building great memories and serving your parents. And sometimes grandparents will,
Speaker 3:you know, I, I don't think I would have thought of it as that. That's a great point that you want to go up as well as down because I think everybody's thinking about their kids and their grandkids and you know, but you've actually said, well, how do I honor my parents too? You know, which is a wonderful thing.
Speaker 4:Yeah. Actually I wasn't the guy who said it, God said it in his book, right in the word of God. And so we're just trying to live that out. And, and, and I, you know, that does start with a sound stewardship of your money because you have to be able to do it economically. Yeah, absolutely. You've got to have time, margin, financial margin to be able to serve, whether it's your children, grandchildren, or parents and grandparents for that matter. Okay. So I want to bring you to, and it's really the first page, but I was kind of moved by this and I'm going to read this because it says, um, it really talks about your, your grandmother a gram Rogers, and she gave you your first Bible and she a kind of shared God's word and, and her love for him with you and, and you really thank her. A lot of, you know, for this, for the seeds that you planted in your life. So talk a little bit about the role that she played in your life and, and, and how much he impacted you. A great question. Rocky. Um, yeah, my, my, uh, Graham Rogers is what I call her. It sounds better when you say it. She was a very influential. She was probably the most generous person I have ever met. And uh, and also super godly. Um, uh, my parents when I was growing up were not Christian, so I did not grow up in a Christian home, but grim rogers was a godly grandmother. She was very successful financially in the sense of she sold real estate and Avon and she was just a really gifted at the relational aspects. But as I look back and I didn't really notice this then, but as I looked back, she never really had much to show for the, the good money that she made. And the reason why is because she gave it all away and I remember times, uh, uh, traveling with her on, on the weekends with my brother in her car and we would go to visit people that had bought Avon or something like that and she would bring them groceries and I'm now looking back. I realized she was giving away far more than she was getting. And that just left an impression on, on my heart and life about caring for others and being generous. And one example of that, you mentioned rocky, is that Graham Roger gave my brother and I, our first bibles in, she gave them to us on her birthday. So most people get gifts on their birthday. Grand Rogers gave us a gift on our first birthday and it was our very first bibles. And, and, um, I remember she wrote inside the cover read psalm 46 one a, which I did. I wasn't really familiar with God's word back then, but I read it and it says God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. And, um, uh, that again, I wasn't even a believer at that time. I believed that there was a god, I believe Jesus was the son of God, Virgin Birth, you know, Christmas, Easter, resurrection, all that kind of stuff that, you know, many Americans believe, but, but I didn't know him personally, but I started to, uh, to, to in a sense, love God's word. Even back then, I took that as a promise. And, and I've, I've, uh, I've number one by reading it a number of times. I ultimately memorized it. And now throughout my life, you know, I can look back and, and in at times when I needed that verse, um, you know, go back to it and know that God is my refuge and strength and he's ever present. And he's, he's, uh, uh, help in time of trouble versus like, that are to me are amazing because at different times of your life they mean different things because sometimes it's a joyous, yes, the Lord is this. And other times when you're very down or very deeply hurting or some kind of crisis, it becomes a different meaning altogether. And I, I've always loved there in so many verses like that where it, depending on your circumstances, they can come alive again for you. Yeah. And that's why it's called the living word of God because it has a living purpose and God accomplishes that which he sends it for to do in our lives. Whether, like you said, a joyful time or a time of mourning or you know, a, a difficult season of life. So I was intrigued a little bit about, because you say that you weren't really a Christian or you are like a Social Christian kind of like people are social drinkers a little bit, you know, but you, you had this faith now and I, and not only you, because in your book you talk about your debt, your parents accepting Christ and becoming Christians, um, and your brother to talk about your road to faith. Like when did you kind of have your own faith? Yeah, for me, rocky, it became real in the middle of my junior high years. Uh, I was not following Christ and I was hanging out with the wrong crowd and actually leading in that group and I would consider myself a juvenile delinquent. Certainly my teachers did. And the police officers and that type of stuff. And, or youtube got a lot in common. Yes we do. I haven't heard that part of your story. Rockets. We'll have the. We'll have to get together on and you could probably just hit your story and repeat. And it's the same thing. And in the middle of that, um, I, I really realized that life is made up of the choices that we make and I realized that the choices I was making was leading me down the wrong path. They weren't going to lead to the type of life that, that, uh, that I wanted. And I remembered the verses in really the example of my grand rogers who had lived out her faith joyfully and, and generously. And at the same time, my best friend in junior high, his mother was a widow and she started a youth group, uh, in our, in the small church in that town. And he had to go to the youth group cause it was his mother. A leading was amazing how that works. Right? And I was his best friend and they did fun things like roller skating and bowling and stuff like that. So I went just because he was my friend and I liked what they, what they do, but they're at a youth rally. I heard about heaven and hell, I heard the plane Gospel really for the first time. That really penetrated my heart. And I knew for sure where I was going if I died that day and I didn't want to go there. And so, uh, I like to say my daddy didn't raise no fool. So, uh, so I, I surrendered my life to Christ that night and my best friend came back to Christ. He had been backslidden. Um, and uh, we, we, uh, we started leading for good in our junior high. We actually saw a revival where so many young people were coming to Christ. Uh, this was a small church in rural New Hampshire with about 50 people. And, uh, at one point we had a youth group of 75. So we, we outnumbered the rest of the church. It was pretty amazing to see what God could do any transformed, not just my life, but many lives. And in that process, uh, the pastor of that small country church, uh, just who he was. Also our school bus driver in the town because it was bi vocational had to do that to make a living. And um, he uh, he came over to visit our house numerous times and would talk to my mom and dad who had, had a difficult religious experiences growing up and, and, uh, had, uh, had not trusted Christ. And, and over a period of time he answered their questions gently and lovingly. And then, um, uh, then I saw my dad come to know Christ. I'm at an evangelistic service. And then my mom came to know Christ. Actually my brother got saved before them actually at my baptism. And so one by one I saw acts 16, 31 right come through which says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved in your household also. And so it's Kinda cool to see our family come together in, in Christ.
Speaker 3:I had a real similar story to where I became a Christian similar experience where I was faced with the Gospel and I couldn't deny it, just knew that it was real. And then over the period of several years, my first, my mother thought I was going to like a witch doctor. We were raised Catholic. So you didn't stop being Catholic. But I stopped being Catholic and she went to my church and she thought for sure the gentlemen with some kind of Voodoo priestess, but, um, over the next four or five years I watched one by one as my sisters and parents became Christians and it was a wonderful feeling of knowing that God said it and it came true, you know? Absolutely. So, um, talk about, because I know you went to school in New York, uh, at first. Right? And what did you go to school for? What, which, what were your thoughts? Yeah. So
Speaker 4:as a teenager, after I became a Christian, I really felt called to ministry in A. I thought the only way you could do ministry was to either be a pastor or a missionary or something. And so, um, I went to word of life Bible Institute up in Spring Lake New York and had really mapped out my plans. I planned to go onto Liberty University and then Dallas theological seminary kind of had the whole plan mapped out. And I'm in God's sovereignty as I was graduating from a word of life, my, I was talking, remember those things called, called payphones in you and I are too, too young for that, but he's told us about to invest in them. I know a lot of people who did probably not a good investment. Kind of like investing in Railroads to Warren Buffet. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, you're right. He still does it. So. And uh, let's see. I really shouldn't go off track like that because when you were talking about how you had, um, your kind of, your life chart. And let me tell you what Dallas theological seminary, one of my favorite writers and speakers, Howard Hendricks. I love that guy. Maybe you've heard of him. Oh yeah. How, how he was one of our guest professors, uh, at a, at a board of life, not only in the Bible Institute. Powerful. Yeah. Yup. They had, they had a lot of great. So him and Charles Robbery, you know, the guy who wrote the Bible study and yeah, a bunch of people like that. But yeah, it was, it was great. But, um, yeah, it was, as I was graduating, I talked to my dad on a, on a payphone, he was back in New Hampshire and he was a new believer at that time. My family had come to know Christ and um, as I was sharing with my dad about going on to Lynchburg, to liberty, he said, Jeff, I don't know why, but I just have this strong feeling that you should come home to New Hampshire. And I said, but dad, there's no Christian colleges or seminaries in New Hampshire is not exactly known as the Bible belt. It is absolutely not the Bible belt. No question. And I'm in and my dad did not. It all demand it. He just said, I have this strong feeling. And um, I had learned the biblical principles of authority and even though he wasn't demanding yet, I prayed about it and I just felt led of the Lord that I, that I should submit to that even though it didn't make any sense from a human perspective. And so I went back to New Hampshire, got involved in, in serving, in youth ministry in my local church. Started going to Franklin Pierce College of law and business at night, just trying to pursue education. And um, it was during that time, uh, over the next few years that I saw two main reasons why God redirected my path from what we would normally consider vocational ministry. The first was about three or four months after I got to New Hampshire, a suddenly one morning my mom went home to be with the Lord. It was totally unexpected at a young age, at the age of 46. It seems very, very young to me. Yeah, absolutely. Uh, don't seem that way to me, my back in college. But now it certainly does. And um, you know, if I had followed my plans, I would have been 900 miles away in Lynchburg, Virginia. But as it was, I was there the morning my mom went home and my brother had started cpr owner. He was an emt and my dad was there and I, as I dialed the phone for the ambulance, I knew my mom was gone. I knew she wasn't going to be revived and I had absolute total peace about it. Not that I was joyful at all, you know, it was upsetting, but I had a God's peace that passes all understanding. And then, um, I was able to, uh, to share at her funeral about the blessed hope that we have as believers have one day reuniting with our loved ones in heaven in some, uh, at, during that service, I had the opportunity to see my older sister, uh, come to know Christ, bow through through my mom's home going. And so I saw God take something that would really be a tragedy from a human perspective and turn it into something, you know, a triathlon take what was, what would be death and turn it into eternal life for somebody else. And so that was, that was just awesome to see. Amazing.
Speaker 3:You are obedient to your data bed, into what you heard through prayer. You got a chance to spend three good months with your mom. And 46 is such a young age. So, so your father who is still alive has lived 40 more years plus without his bride.
Speaker 4:Yeah, absolutely. And, um, so here's the rest of that story. This is, this is one of those God things were you, when you look at all the pieces put together, you go, there's no way that this could happen, but for God. So remember that, uh, my best friend that I told you about,
Speaker 3:we came back and he became a Christian again.
Speaker 4:Yeah. Who, um, whose mother had started the youth group while she was a widow and she and my mom were friends and um, after my mom went home to be with the Lord, uh, a number of months later, guess who my dad married my best friend's mother, who was also my spiritual mother because she was the head of the youth group. She had been discipling me. And so, uh, my, uh, my best friend's mother became my stepmother and also my spiritual mother. And my best friend came here. Your brother came, my stepbrother and Christ. So yeah. So pretty cool things. Um, so that was one reason why God had redirected my path back to New Hampshire. The second was about three years into it. Um, I met an individual who, uh, was, uh, another one of my best friends and he was the guy who really, he was already involved with this, uh, this Christian financial services company and I loved what he was doing and the ministry aspect of it. And um, through, uh, we were both doing youth ministry together, you know, not vocationally, just, you know, Kinda like youth leaders or whatever. And um, it was through him that God led me into this business, which is now a ministry which years later resulted in the creation of stewardship advisory group. And then now stewardship, legacy coaching and, and, uh, really, uh, a national ministry that we, that we have with about 10 offices across the country and serving families all over the nation. And, you know, if I look back and had followed my plans, none of that would've happened. But by following God's plan and, and, uh, you know, his principles, he does incredible things in and through and around our lives.
Speaker 3:So talk about this organization, because I know it's been around since the 18 eighties, is that correct? I'm not, not stewardship advisory, but the, the, the organization that you. Yeah. What did you immediately know? This is a fit, like, this is what I'm supposed to do.
Speaker 4:Yeah. It wasn't immediate. It was really a over a period of, um, you know, uh, probably two or three years as I saw what he was doing in the ministry that they were having a working with churches, working with Christian believers. Uh, they're, uh, they, they were committed to what now is called biblically responsible investing. Back then nobody even knew what it was, but, you know, going way back to the 18 hundreds. This company that had been started really by pastors had a commitment to not invest any of the client's monies and things like abortion, pornography, gambling, alcohol, tobacco, and those types of things. And instead, what they did with the money is they invested in helping to build Bible preaching churches, Christian schools camps. In fact, the, the college that I graduated from, word of life, um, uh, some of their facilities had been built through, uh, through that organization. And they had people on the board of directors like Jack Watson of word of life and uh, the, the head of the chairman of the board of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association back then was on their board and, and kind of like a, you know, an all star team or who's who. And um, it, as I saw the ministry aspect of what they do, um, it, it was a, it became real clear that that's what God was calling me to do.
Speaker 3:So. So when did you. Well, and I guess we should ask about your better half to, because I know we all are made so much better by being in this biblical marriage where we truly understand the love of Christ. I've learned more about sacrificial love by watching my wife loved me. But talk to me about how you met your wife and, and, uh, um, you said you were engaged, I guess early, but, but talk about that at that part of your life.
Speaker 4:Yeah. So, uh, as I was working with that, I'm a Christian financial services company that I had started with my manager, uh, lived in southern New Hampshire down in Salem. And so, uh, he took over the Massachusetts territory as well as New Hampshire and Maine and I was kind of like his bright young star as it were. Not My words, but that would have been his. And um, he wanted me to move to southern New Hampshire and help him to, uh, to build out a Massachusetts. And so he wanted me to go to the same church that, uh, that he did. Uh, and uh, that happened to be the church that Cathy, my wife grew up in. So she was going to that church since a t minus nine months. Her, her dad played the piano in the church, her mom ran the nursery. Uh, and uh, so, um, so we met at church.
Speaker 3:That's awesome. That's awesome. And now was it like the bolt of lightening you knew right away or?
Speaker 4:Um, no. Um, she was still in high school at the time and Yep. So I had to wait for her to grow up, um, and uh, so yeah, it took a few years, um, and uh, but, uh, but she had caught my eye and she was involved in, in, uh, you know, even as a teenager and leading Awanas and five clubs for child evangelism and I appreciated, uh, the, uh, the, the ministry heart that she had and uh, that godly aspect and those were the kinds of qualities that I was looking for in a wife.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Which, you know, it's amazing that when I, I think I knew prior to tricia knowing, I was pretty sure that I was hearing from God that she was supposed to be the one I married. Um, I had to wait a while for God to kind of convince her that I was the one but it. But it's worked out pretty well. So I'd say yes. So, so talk to us a little bit about the creation of this book. What, what do you hope to really impart to people? Because you mentioned that you'd like to a somewhat, you feel like you're supposed to bring this message, you know, nationwide, worldwide even talk about kind of what you're hoping people get out of this.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so rocky, we, we stand at the largest wealth transfer in the history of the world. The baby boomers and the builders ahead of us have accumulated really a massive amount of wealth and ultimately we're going to pass that onto our children, grandchildren, some of it to the government if we're not planned out well in, in good stewards. And so far everybody's been talking about this massive wealth transfer now for probably 15 years.
Speaker 3:Talk about the numbers because I've heard this and it's astounding the amount of money that's gonna about to be transferred.
Speaker 4:Yeah. So there's different statistics and studies that have been done at different times, but the number that I consider to be the most reliable is$46,000,000,000,000 will be transferred over the next 30 or so years now from the builder and boomer generation to the generations coming behind us. So yeah, it, it is a massive wealth transfer. And one of the concerns that a lot of people have is how will that wealth effect my children and my grandchildren, will it actually be beneficial to them to, you know, get all this wealth suddenly, you know, because we all know the statistics of people like lottery winners and stuff that, you know, the average inheritance, regardless of its size, is lost within 18 months. So there's this wealth transfer aspect and one of the things that I'm passionate about and one of the reasons for writing this book is this idea that we need to prepare our heirs to be wise stewards, prepare them for the wealth that they're going to receive. And so, uh, that's the subtitle of our book. The main title is create a thriving family legacy. But the subtitle is how to share your wisdom and wealth with your children and grandchildren because you see, if all we do is give them wealth in, we don't impart wisdom. It's actually dangerous yet. And so I like to ask people this, um, do you think it's possible to give your children or grandchildren too much wealth so that instead of it helping them, it could end up harming them instead of it being a blessing, it could end up being a curse. And most people have never thought about or been asked that question before. But when you ask them, they go, oh, absolutely, I think, uh, too much wealth to quickly would not be good. And so we're passionate about helping people to get intentional and proactive about transferring their wisdom, family values, virtues, character, work ethic, even just kind of knowing the value of a dollar so that when their children or grandchildren received that they're prepared for it, they're prepared to steward it well, that doesn't ruin their lives. It actually becomes a financial capital that they can use to be a blessing not only to their families, but to the world around us and ultimately even to the Kingdom of God.
Speaker 3:Well, and, and this is the amazing thing too because you talk about, um, you know, stewardship and everybody immediately thinks about stewardship of money, but it's not just about money, it's about their time and their talents and you know, in some degree their legacy and I think that's what your book is really trying to hit at. As you know, getting money as wonderful giving money to a kids or grandkids that have the character formation is, is it can be life changing. I mean, can you imagine if$46,000,000,000,000 is given and use correctly? The good that back in due to 18 months it might be gone. So if you're not careful. Yeah. What's this quote you, you pulled from the book, but real quick before I hit on that, because he got me on a topic and we about this too because chick fil a, you know, true it, it has been when he was alive, was so cautious, so careful with, you know, trying to impart the wisdom that you're talking about to his kids and his grandkids because he realized what he was about to do when he passed was to give a whirlwind. In fact, I, you know, I've heard upwards of some of the, um, trust is it's almost a million dollars a month these kids are receiving. But if they were receiving it and they were using it foolishly, how disastrous that can be. So he really kind of talked a lot about the things that you're talking about in this book.
Speaker 4:They're a great example of the Cathy family of have a family that's done it well, but when you look at it, the majority of families, even Christian families, have not done it well. In fact, there's some statistics in the book, you've probably read it. Rocky, uh, called, um, uh, their wealth transfer statistics and basically it says, this is an old saying has been around for 100 years or so. This says shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations. Generation one builds the wealth and as they're doing so they're building values. Then they transferred onto generation to which simply maintains the wealth and oftentimes starts to squander it and they begin to lose the perspective and the values and the wisdom of generation one. And by the time it gets to generation three, they've squandered the wealth and they have nothing to show for it. And so if you look at it, statistically wealthy families over that, a three generation period of time, less than 10 percent of the families still have any of that wealth left. And you can look at that in the lives of, of, uh, people, um, like, um, uh, uh, the vanderbilts cornelius vanderbilt. And you compare them with the Rothschild's, a rothschild of, of Europe in the Cornelius Vanderbilt was the wealthiest man in the world, a shipping railroads and all of that kind of stuff back in the day, uh, built much of long island built of course the biltmore estate in North Carolina. And I'm now three generations later. There's not a millionaire among the vanderbilt family. And, um,
Speaker 3:so this, uh, and I'm going to ask you about your time here because I'm intrigued by this and we don't normally do this, but if you have time, I'd like to actually take this to another episode because I don't think this is stuff that we should frivolously talk about. I think it stopped that we should really build on. So if you're okay with us doing that, I'm good. We're going to take it to a part two. We've only done this one other time with Mr Wheeler from a hurricane of love. But we're going to do this. So we're going to pause here and then pick up this topic at the next show. Well, this is exciting because you're going to have jeff back for another, another podcast, right? Absolutely,
Speaker 1:yes. Okay. Jeff, thank you for being here and thank you for hanging around for doing another show for your willingness to do a second episode with us. So thank you Larry and rocky. So, uh, we want to just thank you for listening and, uh, share your ideas with us. Let us know what you think. Certainly a, you want to pick up Jeff's book, it's called create a tribe being family legacy and you'll hear more about it on an upcoming podcast. I'm, uh, Larry, uh, no. Let's see. What am I, you to Larry? So rocky. I'm your faithful companion here. My Hall to my oats. Larry, did you like that group? Oh yes.
Speaker 3:You are hauled my oats. And as always, guys, we're on a journey. We're going to talk a lot more about this in the future, but we believe that it's all about how you lead people and lead yourself while you're on this journey. And that's why every week we share a server's journey with you. I'm rocky desk to final and together we're going to become better leaders.