From Financial Wisdom to Teen Empowerment: Derrick Kinney's Journey to Purposeful Generosity

When Derrick Kinney graced our microphones once again, we knew you were in for a treat. His evolution from financial advisor to a venerated media personality and author of "Good Money Revolution" is nothing short of inspiring. But it's his latest passion project, Simple Teen Success, that's set to ignite a spark in the leaders of tomorrow. Get ready to be dazzled by the insights of a man who's not only shaping the financial world but also carving out a stylish niche in the realm of content creation.

Navigating the shift from crunching numbers to becoming a pillar of the community, my own tale is a testament to the unexpected paths success can take. It all began with a heartfelt initiative at my high school alma mater, celebrating educators and students, which unexpectedly drew clients who shared my community spirit. But beyond that, it's the raw, unfiltered moments—like that speech at Michigan State—that truly connect us. This episode is a celebration of the authentic self, and a reminder that sometimes, the most professional thing you can do is show up as you are.

As we wrap up this exchange of lessons and laughter, we turn our attention to the power of generosity and its ability to transform both businesses and lives. Stories from missed handshakes with former President Clinton to the visceral openness of Matthew Perry's memoir remind us that sharing our true selves is what resonates most deeply. Join us as we explore how giving back through Simple Teen Success isn't just about shaping young minds—it's about enriching our own lives in the process. So, let's raise a glass to empowerment, positivity, and the beautiful journey to making a difference—one teenager at a time.

https://www.simpleteensuccess.com/

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hello and welcome to the Bamboo Lab podcast with your host, Peak Performance Coach, Brian Bosley. Are you stuck on the hamster wheel of life, spinning and spinning but not really moving forward? Are you ready to jump off and soar? Are you finally ready to sculpt your life? If so, you've landed in the right place. This podcast is created and broadcast just for you, All of you strivers, thrivers and survivors out there. If you'd like to learn more about Brian and the Bamboo Lab, feel free to reach out to explore your true peak level at wwwBambooLab3.com.

Brian: 0:41

Welcome everyone to this week's episode of the Bamboo Lab podcast. I appreciate all you be joining in here. As you know, I'm your host, brian Bosley, and today we've got an amazing person coming on For the second time we have last August I think it was the 22nd of August, actually the August 3rd of 2022. We had Derek Kenyon and it was just a smash hit. It was one of those kind of in the earlier stages of the podcast show we were six months into it it was just starting to get some traction. I think I listened to the show, I re-listened to it this morning when I was working out, and I think we were in like 20 countries and you know I don't know like 600 cities at the time. And now you know the Bamboo Lab podcast has gone up to I think we're in 63, 64 countries, all seven continents and almost 2,000 cities. And but Derek's show was one of those, one of those episodes that we did that really just took off. It really kind of just spread out. It really was one of the impotives if that's a plural word for impotence to getting my podcast and show off the road. So I'm like Derek, you got to come back on. So we're going to talk today about some of the new things. We're going to get an update from Derek. But for those of you who may not have listened to that episode or maybe it was, you know it was 16 months ago may have forgot.

Brian: 2:01

Derek Kenny is, I don't know. I was telling him before the show I can't swing my fanny pack around without hitting three or four shows that he's on. This guy is the master of the universe and when it comes to content to create, creation and delivery. Derek has been on CNBC, he's been on Fox News, cnn, fox Business, pbs, wall Street Journal, local shows I mean he's everywhere. I follow Derek religiously on social media and literally he's on a TV show or a newscast or he's being interviewed at least once or twice a week, it seems like, and his content is amazing, and so we're going to include the links to Derek's, all of his content and his social media platforms and the show notes for today.

Brian: 2:55

But Derek has built and bought several businesses and he recently, in the last few years, he sold one for a multimillion dollar exit. He's a former financial advisor. He's helped thousands and thousands of people achieve their financial goals. Forbes named him one of the top advisors in the country. He's the dad of four amazing children, and I get to follow him and his family on Facebook, and he and his wife Kara have been married for 29, 30 years now, and it's one of the things about Derek and I was you know he he's.

Brian: 3:26

He wrote a book that I absolutely loved and I promoted it last August of 22. It's called Good Many Revolution, and it's a national bestseller, and on Amazon it has a 4.7 star rating. 4.7 stars is pretty amazing, and it really changed my viewpoint of money, because his premises money is good and more people should have it, so we can do more good things with it, and it was like it just flipped the narrative in my brain and a lot of people's brain that money is the root of all evil. He also has an incredible top podcast called Good Money with Derek Kenney, and I want to put a link to all of these in the show notes. Get on there, subscribe, buy his book and follow him on the podcast, and it's funny, he's got this new amazing journey he's going on right now that we're going to talk about today as we get an update from Derek. It's called Simple Teen Success.

Brian: 4:21

And, derek, I got to call you out, though, because in your bio on Simple Teen Success it says I'm not the raw, raw 20-something Instagram influencer in skinny jeans. And skinny jeans, dude, you are the most fashionable dude I know in our generation. I know you wear skinny jeans. You have to Because you, I mean, and guys, when you follow Derek on social media, you'll see Derek's shirts stand out. I mean, he doesn't. I never see him in a shirt that isn't multicolored. I don't have, I mean, I guess I'm just too shy for that. But, man, you definitely know what you're doing. Man, you have branded yourself so my brother, derek Kenney. It's so good, it's such a pleasure to have you back on here. Welcome to the Bamboo Lab podcast.

Derrick: 5:09

Oh, brian, as you were talking first of all, it's a pleasure to be with you a second time. I thought you would have taken my name off your list after the first time, but what you said to me makes me feel so good Because you do a lot of content work and you do some things and, you wonder, is anybody impacted by it? And what you said just inspires me, and when I was on your show last time, I decided it was one of the best ever podcasts I was on. Your questions were so good and you're so vulnerable and relatable. So it's just a pleasure again, brian, to be with you. I hold you in high regard, my friend.

Brian: 5:48

Well, like I told you before we started the show today, I'm modeling a lot of stuff I'm doing after you. So 2024, brother, you better watch out, I'm coming to get you.

Derrick: 5:57

There's room at the top for all of us. Let's go.

Brian: 6:01

I'd love to go arm in arm with you there, buddy. Yeah, so I know when we talked a year and a half ago you had written the book. The book was a national bestseller at the time and it's continuing to grow. I know I've recommended it to people. I bought a copy for my daughter, or I got a copy for her. I gave several away. You sent me a box of those books and I was able to give them all the way to people who wrote in right away saying I want to copy the book. I want to copy the book and everybody loves it.

Brian: 6:29

And I've given it to financial advisors who have been in the business for 10, 15 years and they said, wow, this is such a mind shift on money and wealth and even for them it was a mind shift. And then, of course, your podcast has taken off. I mean, when I look at the people you've had on your podcast I know Matthew McConney. I mean you've had Ed Milet on there I mean that's just a couple of the people who are out there changing the world and you got them on your show and you continue to bring amazing guests on. So can you give us an update Since last time we talked. What's going on in your life?

Derrick: 7:06

Yeah, brian. First of all, great, great question. Let me go back during COVID. And during COVID I sold my business after 25 years. This was January of 2020.

Derrick: 7:21

And I had a decision to make what was going to be I call it Derek 2.0, what was going to be the next to move for me. And I knew I made a list of things I wanted to do. I wanted to write a book and launch a podcast and coach and speak and just do something bigger. It was the reason I made this bold decision that people questioned Candelie to sell and establish business that I could have just coasted on, I could have just mailed it in every day, but I thought my clients and my team deserved better than that. If I'm feeling that I'm ready for the next challenge, I owe it to them and myself to sell, make a clean break, bet on myself again, put my back against the wall and figure something new out. And so I had a conversation with my daughter and she was helping me launch the new business and she said dad, right now, with COVID, if you had to choose between writing the book which is really done in private and you're not helping a lot of people until the book gets published, or you could launch a podcast and begin to help people right now, adding value to their lives and being a voice of reason. She said, dad, I would suggest you launch the podcast. And I've learned with my kids and the people I trust the most, brian, that if someone says something to me, I tend to act very quickly on it. And so at that moment I said OK, we launched the podcast.

Derrick: 8:43

And, looking back some of the early things I did, I said it's embarrassing now to listen to, but it's part of the growth. And I realized that that first episode nobody knows how it should sound, and so you just have to get in the arena, as someone famously said, and get your face and yourself marred by dust and sweat and blood and strive valiantly. And that's what I was doing. And so now, three years later, about 180 or so episodes it's an ongoing process and the purpose of the podcast is every episode.

Derrick: 9:24

Can I sit here in front of the microphone and talk to great guests and pull out of them things they've never shared with anybody else before? Could I get them to help the business owner who's struggling, who knows they are better than their current revenue numbers, say, who feels stuck, who want to make a bigger impact in the world, but don't know how could I give them enough tools to increase their revenue today to be the business owner they've always wanted to be? And that's what drives me. And so every episode I ask did I do that or did I fail? And occasionally I fail, but more than not, I want to add value to people, to make sure they're then improving their lives, and by doing that I feel like I'm improving mine as well.

Brian: 10:09

Well, there's no doubt One of the things I really like about following you on social media and I know you and I get a chance to text back and forth, but you are so active in your community as well. So not just your podcast and your book and now what you're doing with the working with teens, but you stay very active in your community. I mean, you're on the news. Honestly, it seems like every week. You are on the news, at least once a week. But you also in your church and you're involved and you're sharing your heart and your wisdom to so many people face to face.

Derrick: 10:45

It's funny because let me take you back to when I first became a financial advisor, brian. So here I was 25 years old, I looked like I was 13, for goodness sakes, and I looked in the mirror and I had to be honest and I said, derek, who would invest money with you? You look like a pump. And so I had a disadvantage. I knew that I loved working with money, would love helping clients, because I saw my parents who struggled. My parents worked really, really hard but they didn't have a game plan for financial success. And I would ask them about it. They would also talk about how their friends didn't have a plan either. They were just kind of winging it and hoping they would have enough money to be able to retire. And I thought to myself that's just not right. And it was an impetus to say I'm going to go into the financial business so I can help people like my parents, who are well-meaning, they work hard, they care deeply for their families, but they don't have a game plan or a strategy or somebody to walk alongside them to help them reach their goals. And so I got my first job out of college. I took one finance class in college. That's kind of the ongoing joke of how do you build a successful financial planning business. Well, you only take one finance class in college. So I was in a business and I had this crossroads of recognizing. I could either rely on my boss to tell me my economic value in the form of a raise once a year that was probably going to be no more than 4% or I could say Derek, now is the time to bet on you, let's put Derek on the wheel, give it a spin and let's go big on Derek. And that's when I decided to launch my financial planning business. And so, while working full-time, went back and got all my licenses at night with a Merrill Prize Financial, a wonderful, wonderful firm who I'm so proud to have partnered with for so many years 25 years and so now I have all my licenses. And I had this thought at first that man I've studied so hard, brian, people are going to start calling me, asking me to be their financial advisor. And you know what happened? It was crickets. The phone did not ring and I realized look, I've got a problem, I need to figure something out quick.

Derrick: 13:03

Well, a passion of mine had always been local education and I went back to my alma mater high school, sam Houston High School in Arlington, because I thought to myself, if I was in high school I would have loved to have had successful people come back and give me a glimpse of what the future could look like. It was bigger than history and science and chemistry. What do all these classes really mean in the real world? I would have loved to have had somebody come back and just affirm and breathe life into me. So I called the principal. I said I want to start a teacher of the month at a student of the month for Sam Houston High School. They were happy to do it. They wanted any investment from the business community they could get. So, brian, this is going to sound so simple to your listeners, but I took a $50 Amazon gift card and I took a $25 Amazon gift card, 50 for the teacher, 25 for the student. We printed off a certificate and I would go get a picture presenting the certificate and the gift card to the teacher and the student. I would just breathe life and say we are so thankful to have you teaching our kids. Thank you for the impact you're making To the student I would say, just so you know your best days are yet ahead. Well, high school may feel boring and going through the motions, you are preparing for greatness and I am excited to see where you end up five to 10 years from now, just to see someone invest in both of these people.

Derrick: 14:35

So what happened is back in the day we had these things called newspapers. They were the kind of texturing things that people would throw on our front porch and we would read. Now those days are long gone, but I would get a picture taken and have it put in the paper to promote the teacher and the student. Well, within a couple of months I began to get phone calls and the phone calls went something like this hey, derek, we saw you in the paper and we really like what you're doing in the community. Would you be our financial advisor?

Derrick: 15:07

At first I was shocked. I'm like why would you reach out to somebody as young as me? The third time this happened. This was so unprofessional. I finally said to the woman. I said, ma'am, if you don't mind me asking, I appreciate you calling. Why did you call me of all the other advisors in town to have more experience? Why are you calling Derek Kenny? What she said, brian, transformed how I built my business going forward, and it's helped tens of thousands of other business owners since then. She said, derek, you care about what we care about. That's why we want you to be our financial advisor.

Derrick: 15:45

In that moment, what I realized was she assumed I was competent in caring.

Derrick: 15:51

Those were the table stakes, but what separated me from the other advisors was I was in the community and I was supporting a cause that was near and dear to her and her husband's heart local education.

Derrick: 16:04

What that taught me was I've always enjoyed being in the community, but how would I take my community work and actually use it as a business growth advantage, so that people could then have a bigger purpose to step into when they work with Derek? They weren't just getting good returns and a good plan, and they were part of a great team. Now they felt better because of all the advisors they could work with. They picked me and my team because by working with us, they were making the community and the causes they care about even better. What I've come to since learn is it's connected with people on a deeper, more emotional level, because we all wired to want to be a part of a bigger story, but we don't know how to do it. I was simply opening a doorway for people to get good money management, but also feel like they were making a bigger difference in their lives and making other people's lives better.

Brian: 17:03

I remember you sharing that with the audience last in August of 22. It really resonated with me because that's not something I've ever been. I've not been good at that, but I do believe, if I'm not mistaken and I do have a little bit of an edge, because I did listen to our previous podcast this morning when I was on the treadmill but you started this process of the way you market back in high school.

Derrick: 17:30

Yeah, so funny story, so that's funny that you brought high school back.

Derrick: 17:34

So I'll be candid here. I have a very big nose, brian. Okay, it wasn't my choosy, believe me, I would have chosen a different path, but, as genetics would have it, my nose exceeds the national average. Because of that, people let me know about it. I remember when we moved here from New York to Arlington, texas, in the sixth grade. It was a fresh start, but it was the same story for people teasing me about my nose. So elementary school, junior high, high school, it was hard. It was hard for me to fit in. I felt like I was on the outside looking in, didn't have a lot of close friends.

Derrick: 18:17

My mom, out of the goodness of her heart, sensing the desperation of her son, gave me a book and the book was called Go For it by a woman named Judy Zarifah. It's a book I still keep and I look at it on a regular basis because it reminds me of how the written word and how a person can truly impact and change someone's life. So anybody listening right now that ever doubts is what I do matter to people? It does. They just may not always tell you that. So this book really mattered to me. So one of the chapters in the book, brian, as funny as this sounds, the chapter title was how to Become Popular. Well, I was like I have nothing to lose. Believe me, I'm starting from the basement and I began to just implement everything the book said Again, to smile at people, use eye contact, use their name. What happened was I began to develop relationships and friendships. What I realized was that when someone who's a nobody has the heart of a somebody, it's contagious. And what happened is all the other nobodies at school suddenly felt like, hey, here's somebody who's kind and sees me. They felt seen and heard. And so my junior year I had a big epiphany and that was I'm going to run for student body president. Now there were five other candidates and, believe me, I did not come from the gene pool of the popular kids. So this was an uphill battle, but I did some creative things that really paid off and really helped me in business and life today.

Derrick: 20:00

One I had this idea that I would reach out to all of the leaders of all the different cliques, the groups in the school. So, for example, back I graduated high school 87. So here's the terminology from back then. You know the rock and roll crowd, the band crowd, the jocks, the athletic crowd, the honor society crowd, all the different crowds and I said I'm going to approach each of those leaders and say let's get a picture of you and I together, me shaking your hand, and I'm going to put that picture on a poster board where you and all your friends hang out every day at school and I want to quote from you. So, for example, a guy named Steve Mosley who is part of the rock and roll crowd said hey, let's rock the vote for Derek. I still have the poster in my attic that I go back and look at sometimes because it's such a meaningful moment for me, this whole thing. Well, what happened was all of these people had never been approached to be part of something big. They all said, yes, the pictures and the posters turned out great.

Derrick: 21:03

And the other thing I did is I saved up some money working part time and I talked my dad into this. I paid for it that he had to drive because I wasn't old enough. We rented a Lincoln town car, this large, long car, and we put posters on the car and I had my buddies and I in the car and we drove up and down in front of the school for about an hour in our campaign victory vehicle, we call it, and what it did is just there was this new excitement, and so, again, I was the underdog by far. And so at the end of the day, the crackle of the microphone came on and the principal said then your new student body president is Derek Kinney. Oh man, even talking about a bride is just bringing back. It was such a meaningful moment because it was meaningful for me, because of all that I had gone through and the stuff that people had said to me. I felt like I was. I was suddenly validated. But it suddenly was a victory for all of us, like the whole school I remember was clapping, because it was a victory for all the nobodies that suddenly became a somebody, because they felt important.

Derrick: 22:20

And it was that lesson that I then took to college and I said, hey, wouldn't it be fun to double double? And so I did a similar campaign in college and was voted student body president at the University of Texas at Arlington, using the same principles. What I found was that it is so simple to achieve success, and that is when people feel seen and valued and heard doesn't mean you have to agree with them. It just means that you value them as friends. They will do all that they can to support you. And so, going into business, I kept the philosophy very, very simple, and that was let's, let's bring people in, let's deliver what we said we can do, but let them be part of something bigger. But also always remember that they are the hero. I'm simply the guide, I am not the hero.

Derrick: 23:12

They are the hero and my goal is to help them achieve all they want, and the more you do that, as Zig Ziglar famously said, the more you help others get what they want, the more you get what you want. And so I think about that moment at St Houston High School, probably once a week, and I still see some of those, those friends we had our class reunion about two years ago and I was shocked by the number of I mean, now we're all I'm. I'm 54 years old the number of 54 year olds who remember something that took place when we were all 17 and 18. It was impactful.

Brian: 23:50

You know, I remember when we spoke last year and I was just, you know, I was very new in the instill and but I was much newer in the podcasting world at the time and Dave Dick had connected us and he said you need to talk to Derek Kenny, he's got some really good things going. And you told me something to that effect. You said you know, as you do the podcast and go on this journey, you know you're going to make mistakes and paraphrasing, obviously. But, brian, as long as you keep the content and you keep the, that you do it for the people who are listening and not for yourself, people will be very forgiving or something of that nature. And I thought that is so powerful because I can be a very self centered person at times or, I guess, very focused, and I forget sometimes why I do what I do and it's not for me.

Brian: 24:39

I mean, obviously I like the, the, you know the income that comes out of things and I like I do like the accolades at times and I like to know, but really, when it comes down to, what makes me smile when I go to bed at night is hearing from somebody saying I listened to your show today and it really taught you know, it got me off the edge, it pulled me away from the edge, it made me feel inspired, it gave me hope. Listen to that person's story made me realize I can do this too, and that's really what puts a smile on our faces at night. And that but that lesson you taught me was it still resonates in me and that was, I think, prior to our doing the interview. I think we spoke a week or so before we did the podcast show and I thought that's a really good piece of advice to take on this journey, and I've really read, I've used that and it's resonated since.

Derrick: 25:24

And you think? Thanks for telling me that.

Brian: 25:26

Oh, you're welcome.

Derrick: 25:27

As you said, that it reminded me that a gentleman who I highly respect he has since passed away, but he was someone that, as I was involved at Rotary Club and I went on to become a Rotary Club president, he sensed in me that I had a high need for perfection, but I needed everything to be just right. And one day he pulled me aside. He said, derek, can I tell you something that that might really help you? And you know, when someone you respect pulls you aside, you know it's about to be golden advice. And what Tom said to me was so simple, but but it's so powerful. He said, derek, remember that people like imperfect people better, people like imperfect people better. And he said the more real and raw you are, you think you have to be perfect to grow your business, and that's what clients want. But no, they just want real and raw. They want someone who is just like them. And I'll make this point even further I'm a suit and tie kind of guy.

Derrick: 26:30

When I had my financial planning business, I wore my jacket to the office. I would hang it up on the back of the door kind of Mr Rogers alike, I guess. But I wouldn't see clients in my cufflinks in my tie. That was my look, because I wanted people to know that I'm professional and it set the tone for how we manage their money and build a relationship.

Derrick: 26:50

And one day I was running short on time and well, actually I actually had time. I was able to go home before my daughter's volleyball game and I changed into shorts and a T shirt and I go to the game and I couldn't believe the number of my clients who also were at that game. So, derek, it is so nice to see you in shorts, it's nice to see you relax, it's nice to see you look like a real person. And I was dumbfounded, brian. I was like I thought people wanted to see the certain look. They just wanted to see me being real. And I would just encourage your listeners right now that if you're trying to look a certain way, trying to sound a certain way, trying to act like you think people expect you to act, don't. People purchase passion, but they purchase you and your uniqueness. Your uniqueness is possibly the greatest asset that you have, and the more you use it to your advantage, the more people want to work with you.

Brian: 27:55

I love that so much. When I was running, when I had employees in my firm before I decided to go lone wolf again because I'm much more of a lone wolf guy than I am Anything else, derek and I remember my employee saying, brian, do we ever get a casual Friday? I said, yeah, it's called Sunday. I mean, it was dressed to the nines every day. And now, honestly, I never really liked wearing a suit, but I wore it for so many years because I thought that's what.

Brian: 28:25

And I wore a suit, derek, when clients didn't even see me. I did all the marketing over the phone. Of course, I traveled a lot and got client contracts and negotiated deals and my team would go out and do the consulting. But even in the office, on three or four days a week, I was in a suit. And, honestly, I haven't worn a suit other than twice this year and that was because I was at two weddings. And if I go to an event that calls for a dress up, I will. But I love what you said and I had a. Really do you know it, fred Schulte?

Derrick: 28:58

I know the name.

Brian: 29:00

Fred is a financial advisor with the Marrior Prize as well. He's in New Jersey. He did a lot of traveling and speaking for the firm a few years ago with his book that he wrote called Just Show Up, and he's still an advisor. Incredible human being.

Brian: 29:18

Good friend of mine and I had the opportunity to do a speech at Michigan State University three months ago and they had contacted me and said hey, we're going to ask you to come on stage. There are going to be, I think there were 12 total speakers and you only get five minutes a piece and you have to condense your 45-minute speech down to five minutes, which I took it on because it was such a challenge. Right, it has a big challenge, it's a huge challenge. And you had to use slides and I've never done. I don't use slides when I speak. I've never had, I don't like them. But I said I'll do it and so, anyway, I had two options to do a speech. I had a speech on a really polished topic that would really resonate with the 200 people in the room, and then I had this other speech, which was incredibly raw. I mean, it was dark. It was dark and raw. And I was talking to Fred one day and he said you know the answer to that question. He said everybody on that stage other than you will be polished. They will be. They will give the speech that they think the other people want to hear. You're going to give the speech that they need to hear. And I said that's it. So I gave the raw, dark speech talked about you know some, or how I found my purpose in life through the darkest moments of my life and it was an incredible success. I was. When I got done, I had so many people come up to me during after the event and the after hours up on the, the head of the rooftop bar where people are up there having drinks and just saying I cried and you know this is amazing. And I met some amazing new friends there. I brought one or two people from the who shared the stage with me onto my podcast as guests already other speakers and it was one of my proudest moments, not necessarily because I thought it was the best speech I ever gave, but it was because it was the rawest speech I ever gave. I felt completely myself up there and it was. It was so fun. So what you're saying is so incredibly powerful. You know, be yourself, be raw, because I love that quote that I've never heard it written said that way.

Brian: 31:20

People like imperfect people better. And don't, don't you think, though? I mean you think about that, derek. We do go through life. We all do with this desire to please other people, to appear a certain way, and I call it the cameras on. We behave a certain way when we're around other people, like we would if we were on camera. We do when we're behind closed doors and the cameras are off of us, and the more we can coordinate those, or the more those two can be alike, the more people are going to follow you, if you can be. I know we're all going to act, we're going to scratch certain things and we're going to make more different noises, and we know when we're behind closed doors and we are out public. But in other areas, if we can just be very similar to how we are behind closed doors when we're out in public, people connect with that. They really do. I mean, it's so powerful, and I think that's really why we've lost so much trust in commercial, in corporate media or in politicians today, because they seem so distant, and it's those ones that can really connect with the audience or connect with their constituents. You just kind of feel like you're drawn to them.

Brian: 32:36

I like celebrities. I always find like. I like Matthew McConaughey a lot. I like his movies, I loved his book. I've been in contact with his people to bring him on the podcast and that was an inspiration from you having him on your podcast and it's just. Everything is so authentic and real. Maybe that's not even a real him, I don't know, but that's how I feel. And there are certain people who are in the celebrity role where you feel like I could have a beer with that person. You know Gronkowski was that way. You know he's one of those guys that you look at him and go. I could sit down and smoke a cigar with him and he'd be the same guy off stage as he is on stage. It's so powerful.

Derrick: 33:15

I'll tell you something too, matthew McConaughey. It took a long time for us to get him on the podcast. We had to jump through a lot of hoops. That was early on in the podcast, before Momentum, and people began to reach out to us to ask if they could get on. But this was the early, early time and so we set it up and I remember feeling nervous. I mean, he at the time was our most famous guest, most well-known. He had a book that was just out called Green Lights, which was getting a high acclaim.

Brian: 33:49

Fantastic book.

Derrick: 33:51

And I remember I took my daughter with me to the studio because I wanted her to kind of be a part of this. And I remember the one word that I left that time with Matthew McConaughey. We did this by Zoom. He's in his living room super casual, has his arms stretched out, just he and I having a conversation, but the word was present. He was so present. Now I wasn't naive enough to think that I was his only interview that day and he woke up and told his wife oh my gosh, I get to talk to Derek Kinney today. Honey, I was probably one of 20 interviews he was doing that day. But what I know is that in the 45 minutes that he and I had together, he was present, he was engaged, he told me stuff I've never heard him tell anybody else before. And now was the goal was how do we add value to our listeners? But some guests you can tell, and I meet a lot of great people. Some of them you're sort of like okay, move on, derek, I'm with you. I'm on to the next thing. But McConaughey here, he was one of the top actors in the world, immediate name recognition. He made me feel like I was the most important person in his universe. And the other time I've had that feeling.

Derrick: 35:12

When I was student body president back at the college, our wheelchair basketball team won the national championship. Okay, it was a thing. Our team was really, really good and, like most college D1 schools, when they went to national championship, where do they go? Well, they go to the White House. And so someone had the creative and innovative idea to say we need to take the wheelchair basketball team from UTA to meet President Bill Clinton. Well, as the student body president, I quickly told the university president and said, hey, I need to go with the team, to quote represent the students. And I really built the case up and he bought it. And so here we are now and we're in the line to meet President Clinton.

Derrick: 36:00

Now, candidly, I wasn't a big fan of the politics of Bill Clinton, but something happened the moment. He looked me in the eye and he reached out his hand and I shook it. He made me feel like I was the one person in his universe and he said Derek, it's so great to have you with us today. I'm glad you're here. It probably was all of five seconds, but those five seconds I still think about 20 plus years later, and so the lesson that I took from that is when you can be present. I think it's the greatest present that you can give the people you care about, because they're going to talk about you, whether you want them to or not. Make the story be a memorable one about how you made their life better as opposed to. It was obvious he was busy that day and didn't have a lot of time for me. Which way would you rather tell the story about you?

Brian: 37:03

I have heard that story about President Clinton so many times Now. I have a story like that I want to share with you. But I took a different route when I was in college back in the day. I was a Democrat. Back then. I mean, I identified as a Democrat. I don't even think I knew what I was, but anyway I joined this group called the Young Democrats and I think I did it for extra credit in a class.

Brian: 37:28

And anyway, on this particular day, saturday, bill Clinton was in town. He was in Lansing, I think, michigan or Detroit, and the whole group was going. So yeah, you know I'm going to go, I'm going to go. Well, on Saturday morning when they called my house, I lived at the rugby house with the other players. They called and I had partied the night before. To be honest with you, I didn't even take the call. I didn't even I don't think maybe you remember my answer and said I don't know, he's not here, he's sleeping. Anyway, I missed the bus to go and to watch him speak and the entire group got to meet him, shake his hand, get their pictures taken and I remember them saying at the next meeting that that's how they made them feel, like everyone made them. He made them feel like he was the only one and I thought, whether now or not I like his politics back then, his viewpoints, I certainly would love to have met him but alas, parting on Friday night was more important than meeting the president of the United States, so my priorities were a little misaligned back then. I think you know you were talking about that rawness, derrick, and you know one of the things I did after Matthew Perry died.

Brian: 38:35

The actor from Friends is. I got his book. I think it's called Friends Lovers and the Big, terrible Thing it's his memoir. He wrote it right before he died, I mean within, I think, a year before he died. He wrote it. I think it came out this year and I listened to it on Audible as I was traveling and it was amazing.

Brian: 38:54

I never really liked his character on Friends. When I would watch Friends back in the day he wasn't my favorite character. I found him funny, but his rawness in his memoirs was mind-boggling. How raw he was about his drug addiction, his drinking problem, the mistakes he made, and it made me just regret that I didn't pay more attention to this man as he was alive, because he had to strengthen him and the ability, at least in those memoirs. It made me realize this guy had an ability to just be himself and unfortunately that took him down some very dark paths when he was alive and thankfully he did clean himself up before he passed.

Brian: 39:41

But if anybody out there gets a chance to buy that on Audible or listen to his book I think listening to it because he actually does the narration himself I think you will be even if you don't like him as an actor or never watch Friends just hearing the journey that a man or a woman can go through and be so brutally honest about it. I mean it's inspiring, it really is. Derek, you mentioned something in your book and you mentioned something on your podcast several times and I've heard you use this term quite often the generosity purpose. Can you share with us what that means a little bit and kind of dissect that a bit for us?

Derrick: 40:23

Yeah.

Derrick: 40:24

So let me tell you a story. So when I wrote my book, one of the researchers that I included in the book talked about some brain research that's done and they talked about how they will have people watch TV commercials and see how their brains respond to it. So, for example, if one of the people was watching a car advertisement and it talked about the horsepower and the newness of the car and the features, their brain would register a certain way, but it wasn't anything over the top, it wasn't anything meaningful. But if in that commercial, the car company said, with every purchase of a car we make a donation to Special Olympics, or to support the Olympic team or to help clean water, there was a part of the person's brain that registered in a very, very unique way. And it was interesting because what she said was she said, derek, when people who are watching these commercials saw a giving component, their brain responded in the same way as they would responding to someone they love. So if you're with someone in a romantic relationship, that feeling you have was the same feeling these people's brains were exhibiting when they saw a company doing good. And as I thought about that, I call it the generosity purpose, because within all of us is a deeper need to make a difference.

Derrick: 41:56

Now most people will buy the lie that we're sold by social media, we're sold by so-called influencers and so-called experts that, hey, once you get a million dollars, then you're going to be on an easy street. Once you've got a couple million bucks or you have your own business, you are in control of your own ship. And the problem is, people sacrifice everything to get there. They lose their families, they lose their kids, they lose their own self-identity and suddenly they wake up and they're rich, but they're poor, poor, poor in every aspect of their life. What I found is that when you read what I call your generosity purpose, it's a cause that you care about. So, for example, everyone listening right now, whether it was when you were young or just recently what is something that you've always had a passion about? If you could have unlimited money, what would you want to help solve? And for some people it might be. I want to clean up the oceans. I want to get people drinking water. I want to ease the homelessness problem. I want to make sure people don't have food insecurity. Whatever that is for you. It's so unique is to determine and say my generosity purpose is fill in that problem. And then what we want to do then is use that as a new sense of motivation to go make money, to do more good with it. And what we find is exactly what I stumbled upon when I launched my financial planning business, and that was when you care about what your potential clients care about, they want to work with you. It wasn't enough to be the smartest financial advisor or get the best returns. People want to be part of something bigger. And so what the generosity purpose does is it gives you sort of.

Derrick: 43:49

You remember, brian, those choose your own adventure books when we were kids. So think of it like a modern day choose your own adventure book. And so one adventure would be look, derek, I've always been raised at giving this private. I do this in secret, nobody knows about it. That's fine. So your adventure can be you pick your generosity purpose and you say I'm going to grow my business by X percent this year so that, privately, I can give more money to this cause I've always cared about. And you use that as a motivation to say money is not bad and making a lot of it's not bad. Now it's the perfect new reason to go make a lot of money to do more good.

Derrick: 44:34

The other path that you might choose would be and I think this is the better path and it's what skyrocketed my business was weaving your generosity purpose into your business, in other words, picking a cause that is of interest to your clients and your prospects. But in your heart, you know you want. For example, mine was always investing in the lives of young people. That was my theme, and so I would support the local baseball teams. I would recognize outstanding students at schools if there was a cause that I could give a scholarship to, and I let our clients know that when you work at the time with Derek Kenny and associate it's, you're part of something bigger. You're making a real impact, and so when our Christmas party is every year, I would actually bring the principles of the schools that we help support and sponsor their students, and so now the clients are there to have a great meal and enjoy this great experience, but their favorite part of it, brian, was hearing from the principles, knowing that they were part of making other people's lives better.

Derrick: 45:45

You see, maslow had it right the self-actualization at the very tip of the pyramid. All of this inside of. For being honest. Yes, we want to have a lot of money. Yes, we want to have great friendships and relationships and be liked and loved All those things we all want, but deep inside of all, by ourselves, at night, and nobody else's around. What we're asking is the question is my life making other people's lives better? Is my life making other people's lives better? Knowing that it's not, you could be the richest person, but you're the most bankrupt in your goals and desires and you're left shallow, knowing that you're not doing anything to make other people's lives better than what they were before they interacted with you.

Brian: 46:31

You are. What you're discussing is what Simon Senex calls, and you were doing this long before he wrote his book and that you were playing the infinite game. You know you weren't making money just to make money. One of your making money was for a deeper cause, a bigger cause, like you say, something bigger and greater than yourself. That's obviously no doubt why you've been so highly successful and really everything you've done so far, at least from what I can see in the last several years Now, if I can segue now and I always knew talking to you before, listening to your podcast, reading your book and just following you obviously investing in the lives of young people has always been a big generosity purpose for you. Now you've taken this to the next level and with your new program called Simple Teen Success, can you really and we're going to include the link to the website on here and I want you to share how people can help with this as well but can you share with us a little bit what you're doing with Simple Teen Success?

Derrick: 47:33

Sure. Well, let me tell you why I started it. It takes me back to the same Sam Houston High School, and that is, if I had had access to people that gave me practical money, business and life success skills when I was in high school, my life would have been dramatically different. I mean, I would have seen a world of possibilities that it took me years after college to finally understand, and I'm still realizing what's out there. But if there would have been a program like this, it would have supercharged the pathway for me to be even more successful, especially as a young person. And so what I realized was I don't want any more teens to have the same struggle that I did.

Derrick: 48:21

I believe that when people express belief in young people, these young people have goals and dreams and desires. The problem is, we often tend to write them off because, oh, they're just looking at their phone. All they're doing is they're on their phone and they're not interacting with people, and the reason they're not interacting with people is we haven't given them a simple playbook for success, and so what we've launched is what I call teen coaching for money, business and life success skills, and it's a proven and simple plan for teens to become money and business smart, how to build trust with relationships and adults and how to stand out for the best opportunity. So, for example, one of the things that we teach is how to confidently walk up to your friends' parents and have a meaningful conversation. You know, one of the things that we joke about is the teens will say Mr Kenny, I went to Target and I saw my friend's mom and I was embarrassed so I just ran off hoping she didn't see me. Okay, let's figure out a way to correct that next time. Okay, and what we talk about is what are some ways to engage in small talk? And I'll say okay, when you walk into the coffee shop or you walk into Target or the grocery store, plan on, if I see another adult that I know what is. The play I'm going to run is what I call it, to keep it simple, because a lot of these teens they know sports or they're involved in music or band and there's different plays. They run to get things. So let's just make it easy for them to process.

Derrick: 49:58

What we talk about is walking up to the adult and saying you know, hi, mr Bosley, it is so nice to see you, and just reach out your hand. And, by the way, it's never nice to meet anyone. I always tell the teens never say nice to meet you, because what happens if you've met them before and they remind you of it now? You look like you have no memory and you feel dumb. And we don't want teens to feel dumb. So we always want to say, mr Bosley, it is so nice to see you.

Derrick: 50:26

And then we give them a question to ask, to launch the conversation hey, what's something you're most excited about right now? What's something you're most passionate about? Hey, what brings you into the coffee shop today? Giving them a question that's easy to ask, that opens up the door. What that does is inside every adult's brain.

Derrick: 50:50

Brian, I firmly believe this to be true. It is a part that is reserved for teenagers. They respect, and so when other adults ask them to refer them to a teenager, you want in their brain to be one of the names they store that says yes, I remember Tim. Tim was so nice to me, he was engaging, he walked up to me. When the internship opportunity comes up or the part time job or whatever it is, you want them thinking about Tim. And what I would say to every parent right now. Every parent I know wants to give their teens the tools to be successful. Parents and principals and teachers love your kids. They just don't have the time or the resources to give them all that they need, and that's where simple teen success comes in a fun way to add this to the conversation for teens and really make it fun for them.

Brian: 51:50

You just said they're taught a 56 year old man. Because I do say it's nice to see you when I see people and I really like the idea of asking a question. It engages a conversation. It really is actually, because sometimes when you say it's nice to see you and they say it's nice to see you, there's an awkwardness there. Now what do I do? Where do I go? Do I walk away? Do I and it is good to say something you know ask a question such as what brings you here today? How have things been with you and your family? Just start that conversation because we're all fairly good at conversing, you know for the most part, but you know, if we can get into an engaged conversation, we feel comfortable anyway, and I saw on the website for simple teen success that something to the effect of 93% of parents don't believe that high school gets their children ready for life, gets them fully ready for life or something like that. That's a big number.

Derrick: 52:41

Well it is. I was shocked by that, and that's a nationwide survey that said 93% of parents don't think that high school prepares their teens for the real world. And so the problem is, if we're being honest, most parents don't feel equipped to teach their kids money and business, especially. They can fumble through the life skill part, but the money and business piece they look in the mirror and say we have failed financially. What can we possibly teach our teens? And the problem is then it's doomed to repeat itself, and I just feel a burden. I just feel a strong sense for this next generation that if they're not equipped with the money, business and life skills they need, they will not be the leaders that we need them to be, and I know every parent wants their teenager to reach their full potential. So the word this idea came from is kind of a funny story. Brian is when my kids went to a local private school, I wanted to teach what I called a business club. I wanted to give these teens these tools, but I wanted to wait for a student to approach me. That way there was buy-in from the other students. I don't want to be this random parent preaching and teaching at the kids and they feel like they don't want to listen. So a young man named Jared Steele he was a junior at the time said Mr Keny, I've got this idea. What if you came and taught a class at the school and we called it the business club and I was like, boom, I'm in. I was just waiting for the student to ask me and the door would open because I wanted to be really student led and bought into. And what happened was is every semester I would pass around a list and I didn't realize how important it was at the time. But I would ask everybody what their favorite candy was, and so I would have them write down. They'd write down Hershey Bar or Salvatore Patch Kids or Nestle Crunch Bar or Reese's, and so every two weeks at our meetings I would bring their favorite candy. That way they knew they always had their favorite candy. And one of our meetings I said hey, just out of curiosity, a little marketing poll here. How many of you, being honest, are here just for the candy? Half the hands go up. I said that's great. I said this is business. And I said part of me modeling a successful business for you as teens is. I got you here because you knew you would get your favorite candy. What was in it for you? I said that's great. How many of you just want to be here because you want to learn? The other hands go up. But what happened was is it taught me, and it taught the students, that what's in it for me when you make it for the students.

Derrick: 55:21

And what we did is we began to incorporate fun. We began to give out gift cards for participation. We began to have fun contests. We would have a $5 challenge. I actually gave out. We had about 50 students. I gave out $5 bills to all of the 50 students and I said here's the deal. I said this is my money, but you are a worthy investment to me, and so this is why I'm giving you these $5. So what I want you to do is those of you that want to participate, we're going to do a $5 challenge in the next 48 hours. How much can you multiply this $5 into? And the winner will get a. I think I gave away a $50 Amazon gift card plus.

Derrick: 56:02

They got to keep whatever money they made, and so my own daughter, feeling the pressure and wanting to do this, baked a lot of cupcakes and went around the neighborhood and the very last person said well, hey, let me do this, I'm going to give you a $100 bill and I'm going to pay for everybody's cupcakes. Now you can go give them out for free to the rest of the neighborhood. Well, that lesson, my daughter, we still talk about that. He was so generous but he modeled generosity for my daughter, another young man. There was a storm in the neighborhood and so he bought with the $5, he bought a $5 bag, actually a box of trash bags, and he went door to door offering to pick up tree limbs and rake leaves to all the neighbors, ended up with like $85. He turned $5 into $85. I remember when he asked me to write a letter of recommendation to get him into his MBA program at the University of Texas and I put as a paragraph I said you're going to get a lot of letters from people, but just so you know, clay, which was his name, turned $5 into $85 by creatively meeting people's needs. Think about how much more he could do with a degree from UT Austin. When he got the acceptance letter and a really generous scholarship, he said Mr Kinney, thank you so much.

Derrick: 57:29

And the point was that was practicality we want to give these teens practical ways that they stand out and it pushes them out of their comfort zone, but the secret sauce, though, is a lot of gift card giveaways. So on our we have 45 minutes every other Tuesday night, 8 o'clock, central. We've got fun gift card giveaways, really cool special guests. Bill Godara was on recently, who launched the number one restaurant in the world, a leather Madison park in New York City. We've had Rich Redmond, who is the touring drummer for Jason Aldeen. Sharon McMahon, known as America's government teacher, was on this past Tuesday, and to see the teens interact with these very popular people but see them as real is, we want to give these teens this aspirational quality to say, my goodness, if they can be successful, I can be successful.

Brian: 58:23

Well, I questioned for you and I think this is one of those things that I really wish I would have known more about this when my children were younger. So that's a question I have is for the simple teen success, where what is the age group you're really targeting to help?

Derrick: 58:38

Yeah. So if you're, if your teen is in high school so ninth grade, 10th grade, 11th grade, 12th grade. We've also got some parents who enroll their teens when they're in junior high. That's fine, but the bottom line is it's really that high school target market. Just because they're so malleable. They want to do better. A lot of these teens have business ideas and I tell them there's no reason for you to wait. If anybody tells you you're not smart enough, you're not good enough, you don't know enough, disregard that.

Derrick: 59:14

There's teens all over the world right now who are generating creative ideas. I want them to be each of you and Bron, I will tell you in this. I think you'll appreciate this. We've made a strategic business decision, and that is. We tested this locally for the past couple months and the feedback from parents has been great. You'd kind of expect that, because they want the best for their teens, but the teenagers love it, and what we're going to do now is I've decided to roll out the program for free. We're going to roll it out for free. We're going to give away the entire spring semester, which is 10 live online events, completely for free, to get this into the hands of as many teens as possible all over the country, because I believe no teen should be left behind. And then, once we do that, like I said, I think I want to launch the movement of helping every teen have the tools they need to succeed.

Brian: 1:00:18

Wow, now you definitely make me wish my kids were still in high school. So I'm a parent of a high schooler, or maybe I'm a high schooler myself and I'm listening to today's episode. How Do I Connect With you?

Derrick: 1:00:32

Yeah, simply go to simpleteen-successcom and you can click on Start for Free Now and boom, you'll be automatically enrolled. And there's some really cool things. That happen here too is we send each teen an encouraging text message each week. We send an email to the parent each week with a recap of what we're teaching the teens. Lots of fun, gift card giveaways, chick-fil-a, chipotle Visa, like I said, great influential guests, but also we've got a nice downloadable so the teens that want to be more participatory can fill in as we go through the live online event.

Derrick: 1:01:19

We keep it light, we keep it fun. But now we're having even it's kind of funny we're having Chick-fil-A operators say I want to add more value to my teen, I'm going to sign them up for this. We're having private schools, we're having youth groups, we're having even public schools all around the country say, hey, we want this because they recognize they do a great job of providing the academic piece for their teens, which they're really good at. They want to give practical life skills, but they don't have the time or the resources to do it. That's where simple teen success steps in and complements what they're doing and why principals and parents especially love it.

Brian: 1:02:02

This is the perfect example of why I do this show and why we call it. The subtitle is ordinary people doing extraordinary things. It didn't even dawn on me until you were. As you were talking, I'm thinking I coach a couple of high schools, the presidents of a couple of high schools, so I'm going to talk to you and see how I can, because I just think this is amazing. Now, okay, let's say I'm not a parent of a high school, or I'm not a high school or myself, but I'm an adult saying I kind of want to help with this deal. Can I get on the website and get information on that too?

Derrick: 1:02:38

Oh sure, sure, yeah, right now. Yeah, just simply go to simple teen success. And yeah, right now we're in the process of enrolling teens. But here's what likely will happen for some very enterprising companies, even local businesses, as they will say you know what, derek, we want to partner with you on this, and so we're going to scale this out and get as many teens enrolled as possible because we want to add value to that. And then likely will be some companies that come in behind the scenes and say, hey, we want to proudly support simple teen success as part of their generosity purpose, and then it goes and grows from there.

Brian: 1:03:18

Okay, great, and everybody. We're going to include a link to simpleteensusuccesscom at the bottom of the show notes, so just go right to that and click right on it. We'll make sure we make this very, very user friendly. And on the website I was scanning it the last couple of days and there are several quotes from young people who have worked with Derek. One really kind of stood out. This gentleman is a now at Stanford University, but he wrote Silicon Valley. There at Silicon Valley, the only thing that really matters is how well you can sell yourself and pitch your ideas. I'm glad Mr Kenny gave me the tools to be confident and believe in myself. Mr Kenny was always there to encourage me to think big. I mean, that's one of the greatest testimonials you can ever get us from a young person, saying that you taught this person confidence and believing in himself and really to think big the magic of thinking big. I mean there's very, very few things more important than that as we develop these next generational leaders. So this is an amazing thing. When you reached out to me a few months ago on this, I thought, okay, I got to figure a way to look into this and really see what I can do to help Derek build this process and make this as successful as possible. So I would encourage anyone out there who has a teen, who is going to have a teen, or is a teen him or herself, or just wants to be involved and help out. Please click on the link below to Simple Teen Success.

Brian: 1:04:40

Because we sit back so often, derek, as you know, and we complain about our country, we complain about our world, we complain about the future generation. Let's stop complaining. Let's give these young people the tools and the resources and the confidence. Let them realize they are valued, they are seen, they are heard. This is how we solve the problems of the future. This is how we do it. We don't sit and complain and bitch about it because we're seeing statistics and data and watching television news and seeing kids do really kind of dumb things. Let's fix the problem. It's that simple. I think this is amazing, brother. I'm so honored and proud that you're doing this. I have one more question before we wrap up what are your intentions for 2024? Do you have any big plans?

Derrick: 1:05:30

Well, the big plans are to really go big with Simple Teen Success. There's two. Well, there's a lot of plates I spend, but my passion is really investing in the lives of young people, because I believe that businesses the smart ones, will want to come alongside us and say, derek, we also want to invest in the lives of young people. How can we help partner?

Derrick: 1:05:56

My crazy, crazy goal Brian this is going to sound crazy crazy is to impact the lives of 1 million teens all over the country. It starts with one at a time, growing Ultimately when the teens are part of this, because parents ask, derek, I want this, but will my teens like it? I don't want to force this on my teens. What we're finding is that teens that are in it love it because we're taking what they typically think of these boring topics and make it fun. And while they're having fun, they're learning some stuff as well, and I think that's every parent's dream is to lay their head on the pillow and I, knowing that, I did what I could to help my teen reach their full potential.

Brian: 1:06:40

I couldn't agree more. I think this is just one of those unique tools that I don't know why somebody hasn't done this before. At least maybe they have, but they haven't done it with the passion and authenticity that you're doing it with. I think this is going to be highly successful and I'm just I'm looking forward to it. I'm going to learn more and more and try to propagate this and promote this as much as I possibly can, because I started thinking, ok, I don't have a teenager, I'm not a teenager. Ok, I know some friends who have teenagers who could probably use this. But then, as you were talking, I thought, wait a minute. I know a couple of schools. I know several schools who have thousands of students that could benefit from this, and so we'll talk further on that. So anything you want to leave the audience with today, derek?

Derrick: 1:07:32

I mean, brian, what I would tell you is that when you do something big, when you take action on an idea or a thought or a new product or service that you've been thinking about, expect people to misunderstand you. Expect people to question you, especially the ones closest to you, and don't see them misunderstanding you or questioning you as suddenly you are the enemy. They're simply wanting to protect you from losing money, wasting time seeing you fail. And what I tell entrepreneurs and I find this is very, very common is that when they try to explain their new idea to someone and the person doesn't get it, that's okay. That's just your focus group telling you how can you better clarify your message so that a third grader can always understand what you're saying.

Derrick: 1:08:31

And it's very, very important to realize that big ideas are typically misunderstood and they're really not big enough ideas unless they're misunderstood. But your goal is to get people to understand them. Just like on simple team success, you wouldn't believe how many changes we've made to the website, how many changes we've made to the messaging to try to make this as simple and easy to understand for people. Now we call it team coaching for money, business and life skills. It's not more complicated than that. And so how can you use, I like to say, the least amount of words wins. So whatever you're doing to market and promote yourself, how can you do it? With the least amount of words, and ideally, the least amount of commas is the best way to go.

Brian: 1:09:21

Well, the website. That's one thing I did notice. It's very clean and very easy. I love the one part of this where it says extraordinary teams achieve their dreams. Your team deserves to be one of them. I mean, I love that. It's so interesting.

Brian: 1:09:37

I'm gonna talk to the audience right now, and one of the things when Derek when I asked Derek to come back on, I really wanted to spend the entire time talking about a simple team success, because it's so important. But, as you probably got from this episode, as well as the one from August of 2022, derek just spews wisdom the entire time he's talking. I think if he and I were sitting here taking apart a toaster and putting it back together, I would have to have a pad of paper and a pen around, because he would find a way to. He would turn that into 13 life lessons, and that's just. It's so true. It's so true and that's what you know. I shared that with you before we started airing today that let's just talk, let's give an update, cause I know whatever comes out of your mouth is gonna be people are gonna have a pad of paper and they're gonna wanna they're gonna wanna take notes on this, and that's I'm gonna encourage anybody who's listening to this.

Brian: 1:10:25

When you're driving or on your treadmill or hiking or running and you can't go back home, go back to your office, sit down and re-listen to this episode and grab a pad of paper and a pen, because I took a lot of notes, but I'll go back through this one this afternoon or tomorrow and I will have a fresh piece of paper to get more of the learnings that I didn't be it wasn't able to capture. So, derek brother, I really do love you man and I respect you so much and you know, as a, as a, as a fellow human sharing this current life on the planet in 2023, I can't thank you enough for making this world a better place now, in the future of our children. So it's an honor. I appreciate you very much, brother.

Derrick: 1:11:05

Oh, brian, I love you too, man, and I love what you're doing. You are making a big impact and I always love our conversation together. You just have a way of asking the right question at the right time and it pulls out the right answer that listeners need, and so I give you credit for that. But thanks for having me Just a joy to be with you and love, love what you're doing. It's a pleasure to walk alongside you as we both attempt to make the world better.

Brian: 1:11:31

Let's do, let's continue to make the world better in 2024.

Derrick: 1:11:35

It's a deal I'm on board with that.

Brian: 1:11:37

Well, thank you, and thank you for being such an amazing guest on the bamboo lab podcast, eric.

Derrick: 1:11:41

Thank you, brian, my pleasure.

Brian: 1:11:43

All right, everyone out there, please I know you're going to love this episode. I don't ask if you could please smash that like button, rate us, review us and share this episode with three people. And if you have a teenager out there, or if you are a teenager, or if there's any way you'd like to contribute and make the simple team success program even more successful, please click the like the button, the link below, and get on here and explore this a little bit. This is the way we change the world right here. This is one specific thing we can all do right now to make the world a better place and in the future. So, everyone, thank you for tuning in. I just want to stress please, everybody, get out there and strive to give and be your best. Please show love and respect to others and don't forget to show that love and respect to yourself and also live intentionally. Go out there and enjoy the journey, suck the marrow out of life. I love each and every one of you. Thank you so much.