The Input/Output Principle

How Your Daily Choices Shape Your Future

What if the results you're chasing aren't the place to focus?

This week, Marc and Cole welcome special guest Chris, who shares the powerful concept behind his company's new name: IO (Input/Output). While the idea has applications in personal finance, this conversation goes far beyond money.

Together, we explore how the principle of input and output applies to every area of life—including your faith, health, relationships, leadership, and purpose after military service.

Whether you're transitioning out of the military, building a business, improving your marriage, or simply trying to become the person you're meant to be, this episode is a reminder that lasting results don't happen by accident. They are built through consistent daily choices.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Why we often focus on outcomes instead of habits
• The connection between our daily inputs and long-term results
• Applying the Input/Output mindset to fitness, finances, leadership, and relationships
• Why patience and consistency are essential for lasting success

The scoreboard in life reflects yesterday's decisions. The future you're hoping for starts with the choices you make today.

Disclaimer: This episode is intended for educational and informational purposes only. The discussion is focused on personal development and general financial habits. Nothing in this episode should be considered financial, investment, tax, or legal advice. Please consult qualified professionals regarding your individual circumstances.

OperationNextChapter@gmail.com

Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:00

When we decide, when we make the decision to make the change, and we go all in, if you will, in whatever you're doing, whatever in life it is, you're going to see the fruits of your labor. You're going to see the output for that will be directly proportionate to the input that you're willing to put into it. You know, finances, food, health, fitness. When you're willing to go all in and you're willing to make that commitment, make the commitment, do the work, get the input that you can read the benefit.

SPEAKER_00 0:55

All right, so we are back and we've had some good conversations lately, but I will say I'm pretty excited about this next conversation. It's been a couple months since we've had a guest on, and so we're gonna do another guest. I don't I don't like commentary, I want to call it a guest discussion. So I'll set the stage for how this came about. My financial advisor slash wise sounding board, Chris, called one day, I don't know, this is about a month ago, and just said, hey, you know what? Just want to let you guys know we're changing the name of the business. And so you're gonna get some, you know, stuff in the mail explaining what we're doing. All right, cool. So, no kidding, that day or the next day, the envelope comes in the mail and I open it up and it's just explaining the new business name and you know, kind of the new branding, if you will. And so it's called input output. And it immediately caught my attention. And I started reading I went to the website, started reading about it, and I told Tiffany, I was like, this would be a fantastic episode with Chris because input output, you know, from his perspective, obviously it's financial, but for us, it's everything in life, it's what we talk about on this podcast.

SPEAKER_01 2:06

I I agree. We talk about what you put in is exactly what you're gonna get out, and you have the opportunity every single time that you're in a situation, every single time something comes up, what are you gonna do with it? You know, you can't necessarily control the input, but you can certainly control that that output, and you can control your input to the situation. What are you gonna do and what's the outcome gonna look like based on your reality and your your response to what's happening? So I'm with you, brother. This this is gonna be awesome.

SPEAKER_00 2:40

So let's welcome Chris. He is a financial advisor, like I said, it's input-output, and we connected with Chris actually through Ramsey. And as he is also a graduate FPU, him and his family, but the three of us together have all experienced that. So we have a lot in common, and I knew this was gonna be a fantastic discussion. So, Chris, welcome aboard. How's everything going today?

SPEAKER_02 3:05

Great. Thanks, guys, for the opportunity to talk to you today.

SPEAKER_00 3:08

Yeah, so just real quick, maybe you know, 30-second minute, you know, introduction of a little bit about your history, what you do now, and you know, a little bit about yourself.

SPEAKER_02 3:18

Yep. Uh so I went to the University of Arizona, I grew up in Michigan, but went all the way out to Arizona to go to college. You know, went to LR's College of Business, College of Management, got a good job out of school, and just it did not feel good. And somehow I became an independent financial advisor through family friends, just people looking, talking, things like that. And it just clicked for me. I come from a single mother household. So my mom worked very hard, you know, doing things, put food on the table for me and my brother, who's also an advisor in our firm. And I started I became an advisor in 2013. About a year or two later, a client actually said, Hey, you should see if Dave Ramsey will, you know, put you in his program for financial advisors. Didn't know that existed, you know, started looking at it, waited four years to get the phone call. And in 2017, I was blessed with the opportunity to become a Smart Vesture Pro with the Ramsey Solutions team. And I've been doing it ever since. And it just really makes a lot of sense for me because I've seen so many things happen for people that just focus on what they do and being intentional with their saving and building wealth. And really the goal is helping life be easier. You know, money's a tool. Money is not something we hoard, you know, to have more of. It really is just a tool to give us the lives we want for us and our family. And then, you know, my brother had a wonderful idea. He came up with the input-output idea for our firm because that is really what we do. We help people work on their input so they can get to the output that they want later on in life.

SPEAKER_00 4:47

Yeah, that's that's gonna be the theme of today is the results we want in life are the outputs and like you said, what we put into it, our actions, our habits, decisions, the effort affects what we get out of it. And so up front, you know, this isn't just gonna be money talk, and obviously we're not giving financial advice at all, but we wanted to kind of delve into how this can be applied to all facets of life. You know, it's more than just money. And we want to talk about money, obviously, but our health, stronger relationships, greater success, fulfillment, more fulfillment in life. And again, this goes back to everything that we put in affects what we get out of life. What does input-output mean? How can you go further into that name of your company now and the theme of our episode?

SPEAKER_02 5:37

So being an independent advisor, I don't work for anybody but my clients. We don't work for anybody but our clients. Our team here is blessed to work with many people across different, you know, lifestyles, all sorts of different places, all over the country. We have clients and, you know, all over the country. I have clients I've never met in person. It's a wonderful thing to be able to talk to so many different people. And when you're talking about money, you know, personal savings, it's a very personal subject. You really get to know people while you're doing that. But the one thing across all clients is being intentional about what you do with money will result in an output. You know, if you want a positive output, you really have to follow the rules of the input. And Dave Ramsey's principles are very important when it comes to that. So it just makes a lot of sense. It really is simple. The financial industry has a has a habit, a bad habit, I think, to elevate financial advisors. Certain advisors, you know, think they're smarter than others. It really isn't that. In many ways, we're financial coaches to help our clients make sure they maintain habits that keep them financially independent or on the road to financial independence. And when we break it down and just say input results in an output, it really, really kind of breaks down all those communication barriers because talking to a financial advisor can be, from what I've heard, intimidating. You don't want to, you know, be embarrassed by your situation or anything like that. So we really pride ourselves on good communication with our clients and really education. That's number one. And when you're educating to the input to get that output later, it's just made a lot of sense for that to be our company name because that's what we do in our company every day.

SPEAKER_00 7:19

I like what you just said, and I want to kind of go back a few years when we first met and give you an idea of our first experience with a financial advisor and our only, to be honest, is Chris. Because he goes off the principles that we learned in FPU and from Ramsey Solutions, our very first meeting involved a whiteboard, and that was it. And on that whiteboard, he wrote out the baby steps. We were going through the baby steps as if we had never known what that meant. But we literally walked through those, and I don't remember where we were at at that point. I'm pretty sure we were already at step four, but Chris wrote it out, and not only is he a financial advisor, but he's a teacher. And that was our experience with Chris. And it wasn't just throw your money here because I said so. It was this is what I want you to know before you make any commitment to me or any other financial investment firm.

SPEAKER_01 8:14

That part's huge right there. You brought a uh a word that I know you and I try and uh emulate. Teacher, right? And and Chris, you said it, you know, in the financial words world, some people are elevated to different statuses or different, you know, different levels. Breaking it down, being a teacher, we can tell people what to do all day. But if you teach them the reason behind why you're recommending that they do things, that's that's a whole different ballgame. That's a whole different connection you're building with them. Let me tell you a little bit about why and give you hope to use some credibility in in my teachings, if you will, in my education, because at the end of the day, you have to educate people about their money and about how the output is directly related to what they input and what their, you know, what their goals are. We talk about that in this podcast all the time. You, you know, what what are you willing to do? What are you willing to do different? If you're not happy with where you are, in this case financially, what are you willing to do differently? And Mark, you and I just talked in the last episode. What's your why? What's your reason behind that? So being that teacher is more than being a financial advisor. Being that teacher is is building that connection.

SPEAKER_00 9:28

So let's talk about the financial inputs, just because we're on that that uh plate right now, but the the very basic thing. And I remember Chris asking us this question, very first interview. Budget. Do you have a budget? And of course, you know, we're teaching it. Obviously, we have a budget. Chris, do you see people having the most basic thing as a budget?

SPEAKER_02 9:50

Yeah, I've had a lot of evolution on this uh since becoming a Smart Master Pro. A little backstory why the baby steps make so much sense to me. My grandfather actually, when I was in high school and college, would be saying, listen to Dave Ramsey. And I never really, you know, picked that up from him, unfortunately, but I do remember it very much so. And when I graduated, I had student loans and I started a spreadsheet by myself. You know, I hadn't spoken, I hadn't heard Ramsey or anything. And it just was a spreadsheet operation get rid of debt. My wife to be had no debt. I was gonna bring debt into our marriage, so I made it a mission to pay off my student loans. And over time, you know, speaking with as many people that follow Dave Ramsey's principles, the baby steps hit home really, really hard and really well when someone gets tired and is fed up. But the one thing that I did notice that the baby steps missing is step zero. And I think that is having a budget. If you have a budget and you've written down a budget and you've started, it means you've started to be intentional. I write everything down. I'm old school. I have a list I write down for things I need to complete with my day. When I write it down across it off, my brain just does something different than if I, you know, click a button on a screen saying it's done. So when clients or prospective clients say, yes, I have a budget, it means right away to me that they are coming to the table and they really, really are looking for help and guidance. And that is an input, having a budget.

SPEAKER_00 11:13

Yeah, that's so true. And you're right, it is it is step zero. And also, we're not promoting, we're not saying you need to go do FPU or follow Day Ramsey. We're just saying that's a perspective we're coming from, and the three of us having gone through it, it's changed our life. And it's the reason that we hooked up with Chris. Cole and I talk about this almost in every episode, but having those basic principles down the budget, and then we got out of debt. What do you think, Cole? Is that what you guys experienced?

SPEAKER_01 11:46

100%. The budget had to be the first thing that we did. And and let's be honest, a lot of people don't like that word budget. But that's the first step to telling your money where to go rather than your money dictating where it just a willy-nilly, you know, hope that hope that all the bills get paid and hope we have food on the table. Right? So if you don't want to call it a budget, Chris mentioned he had a an Excel spreadsheet and he named his spreadsheet. Well, at the end of the day, that was that was budgeted, right? That's that's a form of a budget. You're telling your money what you want to do, and you're having to come up with a plan to ultimately eliminate that spreadsheet and and eliminate the student loan and eliminate that getting out of debt. Again, I I go back. A lot of people don't like, I don't want to put constraints on where I where I spend my money. Well, how's that been working out for you up to this point? Right? How you you don't want to write it down? Cool. How's that one working out? And so, yes, for Jenny and I, that that was it. This also brought Jenny and I to the table. And I'll be totally honest, I am the free spirit in our marriage. I like to buy things. I don't like getting presents at Christmas because I like having my presents before Christmas. But it brought us to the table and it got us communicating on what is oftentimes a very difficult subject in a marriage, within a marriage. Sometimes finances are very difficult. And it brought us to the table and it got us at least looking at the same piece of paper.

SPEAKER_00 13:25

Yeah, it's you you nailed it. That conversation is very difficult to have. And budget sounds restrictive, call it a spending plan, whatever you want to call it, but it gives you permission to spend is what it does. And unfortunately, it's hard to describe that or have people understand that a budget is your friend, but until you know where your money is going, and most people probably know where it's coming from, but most people don't know where it's going. You're not gonna solve your problems until it's on paper, whether it's right, paper, and pen, Excel, whatever it is, you gotta have something written out and really see the ugliness, because that's probably usually what it is. It was for us. That was a very hard pill for Tiffany to swallow just to see the ugliness. But until we took that step, we weren't gonna do anything. We're gonna change anything.

SPEAKER_02 14:16

You know, some people see budget as a four-letter word, if you will. But I've I've seen some crazy things, but I always start the conversation with, you know, people that meet with me, prospective, you know, clients, things like that. Do you have a budget? Are you committed to getting out of consumer debt? And if, you know, they're not, you can tell. So it's so important and it's the basis of financial wellness, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_00 14:40

Yeah. And you just mentioned a couple of those inputs, you know, the debt, uh, having a plan, living within our means, and saving. You know, all those are inputs to get an output of what we want in life. And for some reason, I don't know, it's hard to connect those dots. Like you want this, but you're not doing this. How do you explain that to people?

SPEAKER_02 15:01

I like to tell, share stories or experiences that I've had with other people that have succeeded. Um, especially if I, you know, I'm speaking to someone that I know can get out of it if they really commit to it. I like to share stories because it demonstrates that someone has been where they are and that they can get out and they know where to, they know how to. It's just that work. You know, I think a lot of people are so tired of the society we live in is based off of, in many respects, mass extraction from people. You know, this cost this, and this is what it should, it's gonna, there's gonna be a surcharge, there's a tax, there's this, there's this. And I think people are just so tired at some point that they cannot commit to doing the work. But something changes in people, and I've seen it happen to where they're just like, I'm tired of being sick and tired, I'm gonna do this, and they go right through it. And those conversations usually happen when, you know, something bad is gone on. Like, you know, they have a lot of debt and then their HVAC goes out or something like that. And you can really tell when someone's serious, and when they're serious, you genuinely want to help them. You want to help them get through. But you it you gotta be able to see that in them, that they're just tired of being in that predicament. If they're not, you could tell. And it's just like, okay, you're not ready yet. And that's something I've learned over the years. It's not something that I thought would happen, but you really can tell when someone's serious about helping their own situation improve over time.

SPEAKER_00 16:26

What's some of the indicators you see when you know they're not ready yet?

SPEAKER_02 16:30

A big one's car payments. You can tell when someone's talking about their car in payments or if it's their car. The nicer the car, typically they're talking about payments. That's one thing some people just can't give up the idea of driving a nice car. And that's usually a sign I can see. Or credit cards. You know, credit cards are I need the points. I need the points. Um, that's a big one. But I think you can really understand that they're serious through how they're talking. You know, how how they're choosing their words, how they're choosing to speak about it. Because when they've been through a lot and it's just so much that they're done with it, you can tell they're really like, okay, it's done. It's behind me. I'm ready to move forward. And that's what has to happen. You know, nobody ever did the baby steps partially and succeeded. I've never heard of anybody doing that. It's something that takes a lot of hard work at the beginning, but it's it's something that snowballs in the in the person doing its favor over time. You know, we talk about the debt snowball. But once that's over, it starts to create a big snowball for the person that's done that work and that output just makes life easier to live in in a society that everything costs really a lot of money nowadays. Everything seems to be getting more expensive every day, but really helps with that stress and helps with marriage, helps with relationships. And you can tell when someone's ready to go down that road towards that.

SPEAKER_00 17:55

You know, I could talk finances with you and Cole for the rest of the day if we wanted to, but I kind of wanted to flip it to another aspect in life. And Cole, I'm gonna punt it to you. You work in the behavior health industry. Do you see similar things that Chris is describing as far as behaviors when people are ready for change and ready to make their life better and get out of whatever mental health or behavioral health crisis they're in?

SPEAKER_01 18:24

For sure, Chris brought up the phrase, they have to be ready. Right? And I'm not saying that you have to be ready to fix, you know, quote unquote, your behavioral health, but you have to have the mindset that that you're ready. And you see people, um, and and Mark, you and I saw it towards the end of our career. And again, I'm not pointing any fingers or anything else, but you see the people who have crisis after crisis after crisis after crisis, and they don't do anything to affect the outcome or to mitigate the circumstances of their life and mitigate the things that are happening that are putting them in the crisis, continuing to put them in the crisis. You know, that crisis could be financial, it could be relationship, it could be whatever that leads them to the behavioral health. And you know, I'm not gonna take away from medications or anything else. Medications are needed to kind of take the edge off, but but we see people who seem to want to stay in the crisis and want to stay the victim of circumstances that sometimes are caused by their choices. And so in everything we do in life, you have to be ready to change, you have to be willing to change. And and Chris, you hit it. And Mark and I, you we all we all lived it, right? We had we did things, you know, we spent the money to get us in the positions that we we were in when we when we decided to make the change. You know, we were in quote unquote crisis and continued to be and continued to wonder where the next meal was coming from and all those things because of our spending habits. And again, I'm speaking from the free spirit. I really liked buying things. I already knew what was wrong. I already knew that the spending habits were wrong. I had to come back to the table and be like, you know what? I'm sick and tired of this. We're not gonna do this, I'm not gonna do this anymore. And and I see that in the behavioral health world. You know what? I I need to do things different. I need to take my life in a different direction and and not be the victim of every circumstance. And so, yeah, I think it applies across the board. Can we change everything? I would argue that you can affect change in everything. Can you change everything? No, but you can affect the change in everything.

SPEAKER_00 20:44

Well spoken, Cole. Uh Chris, going off of what Cole said when I listened to the Ramsey show, it's usually what has gotten folks into financial trouble is not money, it's behaviors. What what do you see?

SPEAKER_02 20:59

Yeah, I think being intentional is the most important thing you can do with money. You know, pausing, taking some, you know, time to think about how you have your finances set up, building a budget, that intentionality a little bit every day, one foot in front of the other, can take you a really, really long way. So it it just goes to show when you affect your input, you get your output that you want later. That's really what the idea is, like you guys are talking, and that it really applies to money. But we live in a world where there's so many distractions when it comes to money that it makes it really, really hard for a lot of people to realize that, hey, if they're in this box, they can basically get out of the box if they want to. Now, of course, income limits, you know, if you need to make more money, you can do things driving Uber or things like that, you know, side hustles while you're working to set up your financial situation to be easier. But these are all things that we decide to do on our on our own as we go. And once you decide, taking those little steps every day gets you really. Really far when you do it for a long time.

SPEAKER_00 22:02

And I also wanted to ask you, because Cole and I talk about pretty much fitness, finances, family, um, faith. We can kind of put it into almost every episode we we do. But relationships is another one of those that you get out what you put in, but from your perspective, I'm guessing you meet with couples like you do with Tiffany and I. How do you see not just finances, but overall the relationships affected by input-output?

SPEAKER_02 22:31

That's a great question. And wow, I've seen so many different things. I'm the nerd in my marriage. My wife has taught me how to let go of that and have fun and do fun things, which is really cool. But for the beginning, it was I was just like really, you know, steadfast and strong. We can't do any of this, any of that. Taking little steps every day as you go takes you a far away. And being able to do things that are fun is even more fun when you know that it's okay. It's not gonna, you know, there's not gonna be a huge bill later on that you can't pay. It isn't just a YOLO or it really is a lifestyle. And the amount of cortisol reduced over time by that is huge, which I imagine better health, better sleep, better conversations with your spouse, better focus. You have like if you have kids, okay, now you can focus on what's best for the kid instead of how do I pay my you know credit card bill or something like that. It just over it's how we're meant to live, in my opinion, free of that financial stress that constantly is crippling people all the time. And it's really difficult to get through baby step one, baby step two, baby step three. Over the times, I've heard that's the hardest step to go through. Because now you're putting money into a savings account, you're building it up, and you want to start investing, and it takes a long time to get past that, but it's so important. But yeah, I think it all just results in better way of life, you know, happier lives.

SPEAKER_00 24:00

Cole, we've kind of talked about this before where the inputs we put into our marriage and our relationships always involve communication. It involves time, it involves being present. How do you see that in all the facets we talked about, and even leadership and leading our family and your job, how those inputs react to the outputs?

SPEAKER_01 24:22

More, the more you give, the more you get. I mean, it is that's simple, but but that's in my experience, that's been it, right? When you go into something half-heartedly, you go into finances half-heartedly. You know, Chris, you said it. We're talking about the baby steps. Nobody has that you've seen has been successful completing part of the baby steps. Well, nobody's been successful at the gym, Mark, when they they work out half-heartedly, or they're there and they're working out as hard as they can, but they're eating like a garbage can after that, you know. What we put into everything in life, what we put into our diet and and how strict we want to be with our diet, how much we want to work out, our faith, you know, our our are you reading your Bible, are you studying, you know, is going to draw you closer to to God and and you know, improve your relationship, our finances. If you're half in on your finances, well, guess what? You're half out too, and you're spending money behind maybe your wife's back. You have your own credit card that you're using and everything else. When we decide, when we make the decision to make the change, and we go all in, if you will, and whatever you're doing, whatever in life it is, you're gonna see the fruits of your labor. You're gonna see the output for that will be directly proportional to the input that you're willing to put into it. You know, finances, food, health, fitness, whatever that is, your faith, whatever that is, your family, you know, if you're half-heartedly present at home, which been guilty. I've been there, my family relationship struggled. So when you're willing to go all in and you're willing to make that commitment, make the commitment. Do the work, give the input so that you can reap the benefits of the outcome.

SPEAKER_00 26:08

Yeah, that's so true. You know, sometimes I feel like we're a broken record on here because we're saying the same things a lot and we're just saying it in a different way or a different perspective or a different topic. But this input-output model is literally why we started this podcast to help people transition out of the military into civilian life, and it was about the input you put into your transition and what you get out of that. And we both discussed the things that we should have done different to get a different output. And this discussion today is no different when you're talking about Chris and money and talking about behaviors, our marriages, our fitness, our health. Like it just all goes together. But I think maybe we have to break it down. We can't do all of it at the same time. Chris, how would you respond to people that come to you that maybe this isn't the time for them to worry about money? Maybe it's something else in their life that they need to focus on first. Is that a possibility?

SPEAKER_02 27:10

Absolutely. I mean, living in the United States of America, I think we all pride ourselves on that we're we live in a free country, freedom, freedom, liberty. And I think when somebody is facing getting out of debt or, you know, getting back in shape or reconnecting with their faith, I think there's something that happens inside everybody's minds that says, I'm gonna lose some of my freedom while I do this. But the really paradox of it is if you do it, you get more freedom later if you do it properly. You know, you're working out, you're taking better care of yourself, you feel better. You know, like I have three kids. I, you know, I tried my best to stay in shape the past couple years. I was really bad at it before. But now I'm starting to see those fruits where I can run around with them longer and do more fun stuff with them. The same thing applies with money, but I think that initial thing, I'm gonna give up some of my freedom for a while. Some people just can't get past that. And if they're not in a place where they can seriously address, you know, the inputs that are really clouding everything up and making everything difficult, they're not ready for whatever they go they go at, whether that's fitness, money, relationships, you know, what have you.

SPEAKER_00 28:27

So have you ever advised somebody to take care of something prior to, say, getting into investing?

SPEAKER_02 28:36

Yeah, over the years I've gotten referrals from family and friends, you know, and uh clients. And when I have the conversation of you need to get out of consumer debt, I've had people that just can't do it and they can't come back. You know, I'm not go I can't manage any of your investments until you take care of this. This is really gonna set you up on the right path. And it's just not the right time for them to get started, I guess. And they make that determination. I don't, but it's so important to set the field in your favor when it comes to money, and that's how you do it. Just start being intentional, start writing down the inputs, you know, start doing the things that affect your outputs later. And it I like I love your guys' conversation that you continue on, and that's constant, you know, in all areas of life. This can be a philosophy that really breaks it down and makes it easier to understand. Because, like money, you know, it's a big, uncertain, you know, world, the market's scary, you know, what's going on in the world, investing's scary, all of this. It just needs to be broken down into simple terms. And I think that really can help people take those steps forward when it's like, oh, I can do this. You know, I can make this one little change right now. Okay, and then I'll make another change, and then I'll make another change. You know, little baby steps instead of one big giant lift results in success. So much more.

SPEAKER_00 30:00

Cole, I kind of alluded to it earlier, but listening to some of the Ramsey episodes, a lot of the times people call in and you hear one of the hosts say, like, you guys don't have a money problem, you have a marriage problem. When you guys were going through FPU and getting your stuff together, what came first? Did you guys get the marriage under control or the finances, or was it kind of at the same time? How did that work for you guys?

SPEAKER_01 30:24

They both worked hand in hand. Honestly, the sitting down making the budget, the sitting down coming to the table. And I know you guys are nerds, so you don't understand me, but I'm the free spirit. It wasn't difficult for me because I was ready for it. I knew I recognized what I was doing wasn't working. I also recognized what I was doing was putting added stress in our marriage. And so when we're with the church we were attending over there, it was, dude, it was relief. I felt relief immediately because it was like, it's okay to be a free spirit. I just have to remember that I have to come to the table and I have to, you know, dial it back. It wasn't that all of my you know free spirit was taken away with the money. I could still spend money. I just had a specific pot, a small, much smaller pot that I could spend with, right? And so it was very freeing. There wasn't one before the other. It all kind of happened at the same time. And honestly, watching Jenny's seeing the relief on Jenny's face, that's all I needed. That right there was the non-monetary, but that was all the reward that I needed.

SPEAKER_00 31:40

Yeah, that's ironic because Tiffany was in the same boat as you, being the free spirit, and it took a while for her to kind of come to the agreement that her free spiritedness of buying a shirt or clothes at Target without really consulting what we actually had in the bank was part of the problem, right? We both contributed to our problems, right? She too had that eye-opening moment when and the light went on when it realized she realized, okay, I can I can help us help each other. And I think probably you and Chris both know, and maybe our listeners, but we both have separate checking accounts that we put money into every month so you can spend and not have to consult each other. It's just for you to go spend on what you want. And that was the difference in her spending habits, being like, okay, I still can buy what I want to with this little account and not have to tap into our combined checking account that pays all the bills. And that was one of the things that we teach people in FPU is if you do this, this will break some stress that you probably are both having. And that was the answer for Tiff.

SPEAKER_01 32:46

I'm not gonna lie, there were times that I went to Jenny because she didn't never spend all of her blow money, which I thought was completely inappropriate. And I didn't ask for a loan, I did ask for a couple grants. Can I get a grant for this? And I will tell you that without fail, her answer was no. I still don't think it's appropriate, but you know, whatever.

SPEAKER_02 33:07

There's something about it, you know, the Amazon packages that continually show up. I don't have any stress about those at all. No, you know, right. My wife Rachel has her money.

SPEAKER_01 33:16

I have my money. That's you know, so it's so funny. Mark and I have talked about that very subject to Amazon. But when people's porches are full of Amazon boxes, they might not be in as good a financial position as you think. Yeah, that's true. It's very funny.

SPEAKER_00 33:31

We'll we'll come back from a nightly walk, you know, after dinner and stuff, and there might be a box sitting there, and she'll she'll not always, but most times she'll say, I use my blow money, you know, like it's reconfirming.

SPEAKER_01 33:44

But can I get a grant for so I can have some extra blow money for the rest of the month? I'm just saying, it's not a loan, it's a grant. Not to beat a dead horse. All of this applies in every single facet of your life. What's your input? What's your desired output? Set goals. What's your desired output? And are you willing to do to do the hard work on the front end with the input?

SPEAKER_00 34:09

Chris, I appreciate coming on and having this discussion. I know it is probably a little more outside the financial discussions that you have every day. What's one piece of advice that you would leave our listeners, money or not, that would just make their life easier? What's something that you could say, like, hey, you know what? If you did this, because this is what I see, your life is going to get extremely easier.

SPEAKER_02 34:35

I think going against the grain, being contrarian to how society tells us to function when it comes to these things, do the opposite. You know, the herd mentality is the world. You know, if you're doing things differently and you're putting one foot in front of the other every day, you are going to get a better outcome later. And I really believe in that. My life, uh, that's what has happened to me, you know, as my life progresses. I've seen friends do the same thing. But, you know, the TV tells you to be afraid and you're afraid, that's probably not going to result in a good output for life. Or, you know, this the same doom scrolling, if you will. You know, if you're going on and looking for reasons to be upset, you're gonna be upset. You know, so do things that are different that helps you be happy and helps meet the lifestyle that you want to do by being intentional and kind of just drowning out all the noise. I've seen lots of people succeed over the years doing that.

SPEAKER_00 35:37

Yeah, that's great advice. Tiffany and I have had the habit of calling ourselves unicorns because we definitely go against the grain and we're running the opposite direction where everybody else is running, and we're weird for it. And I and I don't mind being weird, and people can say or think what they want. That says more about them than it does about me. I'm okay with that. What's your thoughts, Cole?

SPEAKER_01 35:59

A hundred percent. We are perfectly okay being us. And that doesn't mean we're trying to keep up with anybody. That means that we're going to do what makes us successful. We're going to spend on th spend money, spend time, um, which is money. You know, your time is what's important to you on what we want to spend. And we're okay with that. You know, we're not going to try and keep up with anybody. And it it pays off. It has paid off in every facet of our life. The freedom that is in that is there, there's no dollar figure you can put on that freedom. And, you know, I'm okay being weird. That's cool.

SPEAKER_00 36:40

So, what I hear you guys saying is whether it's money, your marriage, relationships, your health, your career, your transition from the military, whatever it is, better inputs create better outputs.

SPEAKER_01 36:56

I would agree with that. Maybe that is what I'm saying. But I would agree with that. 100%. You don't have to keep up with anybody. You know, you don't have to do scroll and find the negativity. You can do scroll on Amazon and find what you want to buy next as long as you have money in your blow account. Yes. Input directly relates to output.

SPEAKER_00 37:18

Chris, thank you for changing the name of your company because we wouldn't have done this episode without that. Yes. But also thank you for your time and sitting down and talk talking with us and just giving us a little perspective of what you see and how input-output affects more than just finances, what your world is, but you see more than just money in your conversations with clients. And I I really appreciate you coming on and talking with us and and sharing some wisdom for our listeners.

SPEAKER_02 37:46

Thank you guys for the opportunity to talk to you guys today. And uh, it's it really is addressed across all of our lives. If you're intentional with your inputs, you're gonna get better outputs. It's so true. And I think uh taking the time to talk about that like you guys do. Really cool.

SPEAKER_00 38:06

It's uh about the weekends, I'm very weekend. If this episode brought you value, share it with someone who needs it. Follow the show wherever you listen to podcasts, and remember your next chapter doesn't happen by accident, it happens by design.