103: Money Mindset: Locate Money Leaks, Create Prosperity and Freedom with Chris Miles
Chris Miles from MoneyRipples.com tells us how to get our financial situation in order. We cover everything from an easy tool (and app) you can use to track your in and out (plus business AND personal) expenses called Mint.com. He also tells us what to do whether you're a spender, saver, or steward of your money. And a whole lot more!
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Download transcript (.txt)Robert plank show. Episode, 103 locate money leaks, create prosperity and freedom with Chris miles, everyone and welcome back to the Robert plank Show. Today, we're going to talk with Chris miles, the cash flow expert. He's a leading authority on how to quickly free up and create cash flow for 1000s of his clients. And so, how are things today? Chris,
just fantastic, man. How you doing?
I am super. I'm fantastic times 1000 and so, so you say you're a cash flow expert, so I don't really, I don't really know what that is. And when I think of cash flow expert, I kind of think of like, I don't know, like, Susie Orman, Dave Ramsey, Robert Kiyosaki, is that? Is that kind of along the same lines, or is that different?
Yeah, take like Robert, you know, take like Dave Ramsey or Suze Orman, and then totally do the opposite advice that they give. And that's basically what a cash flow expert
is, all right, so, so
closer to Kiyosaki, yeah, what I really help people do is like, one is increase income, and then two, make sure we get expenses down any way we can, but not to a point where you're living on rice and beans, right?
Okay, so not as crazy as Dave Ramsey gets.
Definitely not that crazy. Like it's really about how to have lifestyle freedom, be able to really enjoy the life that you have and get your money working for you, so you're not always working for your money.
I mean, that sounds good to me, right? Because, I mean, you never know any day you might get hit by a bus or something crazy might happen
exactly, yeah, that's exactly it, man,
so cool. So I mean, I'm seeing that, uh, your average client finds $33,000 per year laying around. And I'm seeing that you have all these you have all these skills and all these things you can do for people. And the thing that really jumps out for me is, out for me is you can tell people how to find $4,000 in 45 minutes. That's pretty crazy.
Yeah, it's, it's actually not too hard, you know, that's the funny thing, especially if you're a business owner, like business owners, they leak more money than anybody that I've seen, you know, like, because it's not just what you can lose at home, it's what you can lose in your business. Now, I'll tell you, like, sometimes the biggest money leaks we have is the money that we never make in the first place, the money that we don't earn, the lost opportunity cost, right,
right?
You know, things like that. And so, yeah, I mean, like, when I work with somebody one on one, typically I find about $33,000 a year or so. That's pretty, pretty average.
So, I mean, where the heck does $30,000 come from?
You
know, it comes from two places. Well, two general places. I mentioned one, increasing income or two, you know, maximizing the expenses you're doing. So for example, one, one place. That's easy, that almost everybody will find something is starting to track your money. It's interesting, because a lot of business owners I work with, they'll say, hey, you know, Chris, I always thought that the way to financial freedom is just make more money. Like, if I just make more money, then I'll solve any money problem I have. But what they're finding out is that as time goes on, the more money they make, the more they end up spending too.
Oh yeah, I've noticed that too.
Yeah, it's Parkinson's Law. It's human nature. I mean, whatever, we tend to have our expenses rise to meet wherever our income is, right. So even if you free up money, you know, you'll end up finding a way to spend that later on and say, Man, it wasn't. I just wasn't just like this a little while ago. I feel just as broke as I was before. And I get a lot of people that say that. And so what I have them do first and foremost is to start tracking their money. A great way to do that in your business. First and foremost is use things like QuickBooks to kind of track your expenses and income and everything coming in. Don't just look at your expenses, by the way, don't just try to be cheap, because that's just like the broke, broke, crappy way to wealth. You know, like, nobody saves their way to wealth. Nobody, like, saves enough money in their little piggy bank to become wealthy. It's about, you know, also making money too, right,
right?
So we want to look at both ends of the spectrum, you know, make sure we are wise with what we're spending. Be wise stewards, but make sure I'll start making more money too. And so we look at both. We look at what's coming in and what's going out, both in the business and also at home. When you're looking at home, I recommend tools like mint.com which is a free website you can use, or phone app. You can use on phone app as well. And the great thing is, you can see all your finances in one place, so everything downloads there. You can see all your transactions. You can see how much you're spending in which categories, which is so cool. You can see what you've spent for the month and how you're doing and all that kind of stuff. And seriously, it takes only a few minutes a week to do all this. It's funny because I had one client where she was out in the Midwest, and with them, she was spending a couple of hours a week just doing their finances with her business at home. In fact, she was spending so much time on her business, she didn't worry about the home, which stunk, because then they lost money at home too. And once we had them do that, I said, Hey, listen, guys, like, you shouldn't be spending more than, like, 15 minutes a week, 20 minutes max, on both the business and the personal. And cut that down, save them hours and hours and hours a month, just doing that,
just by using the app, you mean,
yeah, just by using Mint for personal and then QuickBooks for business. In this so
you So, you're, you're saying that. So before this person was using mint, was she, like, tracking it on on paper or something like that?
Yeah, she's like, spreadsheets, like, you know, Excel programs and things like that. Like trying to track it that way and and doing it all old school, like, looking up the bank account statements online, which, if you think about, I mean, think about how many times you go to gas up your car, right? Like, you're, you're going to, you check out how many transactions you have. You like, try to add it up on a calculator, or try to put it in, and you're entering all that in, and what if you mess up? They have to start over again. And it's just, it's a pain in the butt, you know, like, I seriously time myself on mint just for my personal expenses and income from logging in to logging out. It took me four minutes and 17 seconds to update a week's worth of stuff. I mean, four minutes. I mean, that's nothing, right?
So I mean, so how does mint save time? Because, I mean, I've heard of it, I've never used it. So how does, I mean, how is that such a time saver, as opposed to going back and looking at the bank statements?
Yeah, so the way it is this like, so it downloads all your transactions in one place, and even loans. So any loans, credit cards, savings accounts, checking accounts, everything can show up in one place, right? So you can see your balance is all real time. So you'd have to log into different websites to do that. So that's one and then two with your checking account. For example, if you're looking at your expenses and your income, you can actually see all the expenses. But the nice thing is that it remembers how you categorize things. So say, example, for example, you go gas up at Chevron right, or arco, or something like that. You gas up there. Normally it's probably going to guess, oh, that's gasoline. It's going to put it into that category for you. So you don't have to teach it half the time, you know. You occasionally might tell it like, Oh, it's this category or that. And then it remembers what you categorize it as. So say the next time you go grocery shopping at your favorite store, if it didn't get it the first time the next time, it'll say, oh, groceries. And so what's cool is, like, you're not doing any of the adding up. It does it all for you. So it'll say, Hey, here's what you spent for the month. Has even, like, a little bar thing that shows you how close you are. If you want to create budgets on there, you can do that too. You can do all that stuff, but it tracks it all for you real time that you just, you just have to go and make sure that it's categorized right. That'll take a matter of seconds, if not a few minutes max. And then voila, you can see exactly what you spend in every area.
And I love that because, I mean, I've tried doing that before with, you know, like all these, all these different bank websites, they try to do, they try to help you with that, and you have to do it manually. And same thing, they try to guess, but they never remember. Like, if I manually said something, I have to go ahead for every single thing. And I mean, if I have, like, you know, different cards and different banks, and there's different websites and different passwords and different interfaces. And I mean, I hadn't even thought about until you just mentioned that. Like, man, I mean, even just, I mean, log into the different banking sites, even, even that time is saved, let alone the category and all the all the importing and stuff like that.
Yeah, I've had people like, actually say, hey, I really like using my bank site. It's cool because they do the same thing. I'm like, yes and no. Like, they can only track what the you do through that bank. But if you charge on a credit card, it's through something else. You won't you won't ever see that in your bank. Like this says, Let's take everything and put into one place, you know. And just like if you're trying to look at your loan balances, you can see exactly like, what as you're paying it down, what the balance is. So no more logging into five, 610, different sites, you can see it all right, there, real time. It's so awesome.
Well, cool. And so, so, kind of, along the lines of what you mentioned a couple of minutes ago, like, you kind of mentioned that there's a difference between being a cheapskate and, I guess, like, being wasteful, I guess, right? And so, yeah. I mean, could you could explain that, or, like, unpack that a little
bit? Yeah, you bet. So my big thing is I teach people about being wise stewards. Because, you know, if you look at there's really three perspectives around money. There's the spender perspective, right, which we all know, I mean, that's all in scarcity and and it's, you know, that's where you blow money, like you're if you give an extra money, you blow it, or you blow more than what you're given.
So like the college years, right?
Exactly now, hardly the college years, because you, if you were probably broke like most people were. It's not that you maybe didn't want to have money, you just didn't have any, right? But if
you had 100 bucks in the couch cushions, it was gone the next day, right?
Exactly? Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, it's like, easy, come easy, go. It's not. And I'll tell you, some people think they're spenders, and sometimes they're not. For example, I had somebody tell me in an event, they said, Well, Chris, I'm a spender. I said, Well, how do you know? Well, because I hate spending money. And as I said, No, no, you're not a spender. You're a saver, which is also a scarcity, because spenders do like to spend money, savers don't. And savers don't even say, Oh, I had to spend money on bills, so I'm a spender. No, that just shows how much of a saver you are. You're like so in much in scarcity, like you're desperate, you know, like you're, you're the type of person that would make everybody pay for you, you know,
right, right? Yeah. You're the kind of person that would, like, fight someone at a restaurant just to, like, get the get it, get it, like, $1 less if you're eating out with a group or something,
right? You're the Black Friday person that beats the crap out of people, right?
Yeah? And, I mean, like, yeah. I think that, like, I mean, in my own personal life, like friends and family and stuff like that, I see that. I mean, I see a lot of people just, like, get getting way into debt, or buying a fancy car they don't need just to show off. And then on the other on the savor into the spectrum, like I'll see every now and then, I'll see some like, news article about someone who, like, you know, survived on ramen noodles and crackers for 10 years, just and like, rented out every room in their house to just to, like, pay off the house, you know, by the time they were 20. And I'm thinking at first, like, whoa, they must be like a really, like, you know, financially savvy person. But I look, I read the whole story, I'm thinking, I hope that that era of their life is done because they keep, if they keep being like, watching every penny, that seems like a really stressful way to live,
exactly that's that right there. I mean, you can never have financial freedom in that place. And I know because I was a financial advisor back in the day, and all financial advice is taught from that saver perspective. It's all in scarcity, and scarcity does not put money in your pocket. It only takes it out of your pocket when you're living a place of limit and lack, you know, and you're in fear and everything else, there's no way you'll be financially free. You could put any number in your bank account, and you will still be scared. In fact, more money, the more scared you become. Money is only a magnifier of your soul. It only makes you more of who you already are. So to think that, Oh, if I just have more money, then I'll be abundant, that's a bunch of crap. It's not true. That's why you have to be a steward first. And see the stewards, they're in the middle. They take the best of the spender and the saver, they put into one because at least savers are willing to be wise. I mean, they do want to do the right thing, but usually their default is, I gotta save it all, or I gotta pay off all my debt. That's like their whole focus, right is, save it all, pay off my debt, and they'll never save enough. They just got to keep saving. But as steward says, Okay, I'm willing to use money, but I want to use it wisely in a way that comes back to me at least more than one fold, right? So they're like investors, in a way, they're like people that are business owners, the way it should be, you know, like, if you're, if you're, whether you're at home, as online entrepreneur, or whatever you do in your business, like you obviously want your money to grow and improve and magnify, and you want to be able to put that back in your business, ideally, so you can go and serve more people, because dollars follow value, and the more people you serve, the more money you can make. And so that's what Stewart does. They let money flow. They don't let us sit there and grow and compound for 5 million years in hopes that they become a millionaire. No, they're saying they're like my brother in law, who taught me a good lesson when I was a financial advisor. He came from a wealthy family. I remember he telling me, after I gave him a nice little presentation, he said, Chris, you're telling me, if I give you $10,000 you say you might make me 12% a year, or 1200 bucks in a year. Is that right? I said, Yeah, isn't awesome. Think about that. Be like in 40 years, you'd be like a millionaire, even though he already
was,
you
know, he's like Chris, but I can take that same 10 grand, I can turn around and a few months later make $20,000 out of that in my business. So why would I invest with you? And I remember thinking like, well, you should be diversified. You should put all your eggs in that basket. That's risky to put all your, you know, all your money in your business, which he just kind of looked at me and smiled and said, All right, well, cool. Thanks for your time. That was great. And that was it like didn't do any business with me, which is the coolest thing he could ever done, because that's how stewards think. Stewards think, no, like, what's the best and use I could do with this money and the resources and time that I have to be able to serve more people in a way that it can, you know, the natural byproduct is more money, and then they can take that money and do it again and keep multiplying it and growing it. It's not about letting it sit in some crappy mutual fund or IRA or 401, K, let it compound. It's about, how do we make more money with it and create it fast? How can we Mark Zuckerberg it right? You know, like,
right? And like, invest in yourself exactly,
exactly. Invest in yourself, invest your business. And then when you get to the point where, like, a lot of my clients get to, then there's like, Okay, I can't invest this much in my business. Like, I've got the extra money sitting around. How can I make that money? Make me money. So then I can create other streams of income as well, and that's things that I work on as well. So that's the fun part. Is, like, there's so many cool things you could do, but when you live in that world of being an abundant steward, you're wise the resources. You're not just gambling. It that there is a big difference. Gamblers will think they're stewards, but in reality, high risk does not create high returns. It's low risk. You know, investing in things that you can control and that you know you can create more with. That is what a steward does.
So if someone is like, a spender or a saver, and they want to become a steward, is there, is there, like, an easy way to get there? Like, are there a set of steps or guidelines or just, like, a judgment call kind of deal?
Yeah, absolutely. You know, the best thing you do is, let's say you're a spender, the best thing you do is become more like a saver. And if you're a saver, the best thing you do is become more like a spender. So spenders, for example, they a lot of times they don't let money they need to almost learn to let money sit for a few months, you know, just sit there. Sometimes the best thing you can possibly do, as if you're a spender, is start to grow like a little bit of a savings account. It might be, just be an emergency fund, but just let it grow like just. Putting some money away, let my
pop money cool off a little bit, right?
Yeah, exactly. Because some people, like I mentioned, some people get confused. They think they're there's stewards, but they're really just gamblers. And I can perceive there might be some people listening right now saying, Oh yeah, I'm a steward. I'm gonna take money and go make money with it, and then they blow it all and they lose it, right? That's not being a wise steward. Why stewards make money, they don't lose it, you know? And so, so spenders gotta understand, like, Hey, it's okay to let money sit like you said, let it cool off and and, and actually build some peace of mind. And you'll find out that you'll hit this new level of abundance you've never hit before. But on the flip side, if you're a saver, you don't need to save more money. In fact, you need to do the opposite. You probably need to see what you can do. Take that money and make more with it, and and stop sitting on it so long. Now, granted, if you don't know what to do, this is the big thing. I teach a lot of my clients, you know, if you don't know what, where to put your money, the best thing is, is put it somewhere where it's safe and it's guaranteed you're not gonna lose it. You know, don't throw it in your IRAs or 401, K's, you know, keep it in savings. Keep it somewhere where, you know, you can get to it, right, even if you just keep it in savings. But if you're a saver, it's okay to spend some money. You know, I had one client in North Dakota. He was a chiropractor, and I remember his big thing was, like, they didn't have much money. They were pretty paycheck to paycheck. We were actually able to free up over $6,000 a month for him. And what was so cool is that after we had done that, he finally gave himself permission to buy a $6,000.04 wheeler
cool,
and his wife bawled. I mean, I finally got to meet them face to face, and she was just bawling in gratitude, because she said, You don't understand what this means. Like he would think he would always have to keep working, keep working his tail off. Never give time to his family, and now he's given time as a family and that four wheeler, some people might say that's an unwise investment, because they're blowing he's thinking he's blowing 6000 bucks on a toy. She's like, but no, that was family time like that means so much more to us than anything he could have spent his money
on, right? I mean, as opposed to just like, growing a number, which, I mean, first of all, like, what are you growing the number to? And what does that get you, like, if you have $6,000 in the in the bank versus 6200 what's the dang difference?
Exactly? Yeah. I mean, it's, it's, it's really about, you know, especially if you come on that saver paradigm where he was just, he didn't give himself permission to ever spend money that was big for him, that broke a big, huge fear barrier in his mind, and that allowed him to loosen up and become more like a steward and and I'll tell you like it makes a world of difference, because when you're willing to let money flow, whether you need us, you know, if you're a spender, let it flow a little bit differently, or a saver at least, let it let it loose a little bit. What happens that you'll tend to find that you'll have more income start to come in too, because they're all tied together. How you spend money also determines how you make money, too. And I don't want to get too deep into that, but let's just say that like, you know, just like water, just like blood, money is meant to flow. If you stop that flow in any way, shape or form, you know, that's where you know, or you let it bleed out, that's where you run into problems. And so if you want better spiritual health, you want have a lot more money in your life, you just learn to do in a very healthy way.
So, I mean, so it's like, so there's these two ends of the spectrum. It sounds like, right? Like a spender on one and saver on the other, stewards in the middle. Like, would you say that, like, most people are, are one of the extremes, or are a lot most people in the middle? Like, what are you seeing?
Yeah, most people are one of the two, or somewhere, I would say one of the two sides. I mean, they're in scarcity, either spend or saver. But there's different, varying degrees of that. Like, I wouldn't say they're so far extreme. They're like, they're, you know, like, you know, using up flat coke to make bread and things like that. Not fresh. And Eric White, there are a few of those people, too,
cleaning your own mortar oil or something
seriously? Yeah, we're using your own motor oil somehow, right? No, it's not like that at all. But most people are on those two extremes. Very few people I ever see have really mastered being a steward, and that's okay. I mean, if you think about how most of us are raised, we're usually raised by parents that are one or the other or both. My parents, my dad was a saver. My mom was more the spender. She had some steward type inclinations, but she hadn't quite mastered it yet. So I had to kind of learn from two different parents who, like most parents, most couples I work with, they usually come from different ends of that spectrum.
Okay. I mean, that makes sense, and I think that, I mean, with me, I think that both of my parents were they both my parents were savers. Somehow my sister became a spender, and then I was a saver for a long time, and I didn't even realize that, like, I had a period of time when I had 40 grand in the bank, and not even in the whole bank, but it just in savings. And I wanted to buy a $2,000 couch, and I, like, delayed it for years and years because I just, I couldn't stomach it, and then finally, I just put it on a credit card and then paid it off in like, you know, like, over like, four months. And then, kind of that way I had, like, like, kind of, like, it seems like you're alluding to, like, use money as a tool, right? Like, have, even though, like, you could pay off all the debt, or you you could, you know, you. Go super crazy. It's like, you kind of kind of manage what you have, I guess, and almost like you're saying, like, you figure out what you are, and then kind of like, go in the other direction, and kind of like, go against your nature, because it's better to it's better to have the best of both worlds, I guess,
absolutely. Yeah, it's interesting. There's always a price versus cost to money. You know, for example, just in this last year, I went through a divorce, and you ever want to have a way to have a way to rock your financial world, just go through a divorce, right?
Oh, yeah. I mean, permanently, right? Because not only the lawyer fees, but then that recurring income, you got to pay the dollar money or whatever.
Oh, absolutely. And, you know, for me, it was like, you know, them being on my own for first time in years. I mean, because I've got, you know, six kids and everything, like I was, pretty much was, you know, strapped down and then being on my own. I remember one time I was thinking, like, you know what? Like, I haven't bought, like, like, good Whole Foods, like eating really healthy, like we we didn't eat bad, like, we always cooked at home and things like that. We weren't eating horribly. But enough so I'm like, you know, I can get more fresh vegetables and fruits. Like, I haven't given myself permission to do that ever even when we're married. So I just thought, you know, I'm gonna eat more fresh. And it's funny now, like it, yeah, of course, it raised my food bill a little bit, but I'll tell you, like, it wasn't nearly that much. It was mostly in my head that those things are happening because I have those safer tendencies. And, you know, you hear your your dad's brain in the back your mind, you know, kind of, you know, saying things or hearing their voice and, and you're like, Oh yeah, I got to keep it cheap. I'm like, No, I can. Let's get this grocery bill up higher. And I'll tell you, like, my productivity and what I do in my business, I work less and make more, you know, and, and I feel better. And when you feel better, you tend to make more money. And then business that's huge. And so, I mean, that's why investing in vacations and time away from your business sometimes could be the best investment you make in your business, you know. So be aware of those things. Be aware of what makes you most productive, what makes you the best producer possible. Because really the other way I find money for people is how to get them to create more value for people, where can we do that? And because dollars follow value if you want to create more money, stop asking how to make more money. In fact, remove that question from your brain. Never ask, How do I make more money? Only begin asking, How do I create more value for more people? And and there's a lot of different ways to do it that sometimes are out, you know, in your business, but also outside of your business too, and how you take care of yourself and how you allow yourself to be the best producer possible in people's lives. And
that makes a lot of sense. And I hadn't even thought about it in the way that you're explaining it how. I mean, not only is there, like the, you know, following the money coming in, the money going out, but also, like all this, this, like interrelated stuff. And almost like your whatever that that money personality, or like your relationship to money at home, affects your business and vice versa.
Oh yeah, yeah, they're all intertwined. I mean, your physical health affects your money, your spirituality and your mental state of mind, you know, your state of being, things like that. I mean, all these things are intertwined. Your relationships, everything. I mean, they're all interconnected. And so, I mean, when you're looking at trying to create real wealth, you got to look at it, and more than just with money, you got to look at in all areas of your life. Because I've seen, I've seen friends who went from having, like, 100, 100 million plus dollar empires to nothing because they couldn't take care of their health, or they they kind of went, you know, wayward, and they let their mind take over and do some crazy things. And next thing you know, like, it's the money's gone, you know. So it's a and I've seen also reverse. I mean, I've been in situations where I've, you know, I've, you know, been in the hole, like $1,000,000.16 $1,000 in the hole each month. I've been in those places where I had no money, no credit, no savings, and had a battle back and pay off over $900,000 in three and a half years, you know. And and that that required a lot of mental and emotional discipline. And I mean that that was huge. That was the stuff that I did. You know, that's not even stuff that you do with money, because I didn't have money to make money. You don't need money to make money, but you need to be really resourceful to make money and and to really focus on how you provide value best way you can to other people and and when you start to understand those true principles, and you start to combine the strategies with that, that's when everything just works like magic. So
could you explain that a little bit like, how do you make money without money? Well,
we all did it. I mean, you mentioned college, right? I mean, if it really did take money to make money, we would all be dead because, I mean, we would be trying to search for couch under couch cushions for money. The thing is, like, if you think about it like a resume, for example, when you maybe first created a resume, once upon a time, you know, when you did a resume like you're putting the things that don't require money. I mean, you're putting down your skills, your experience, your education, your work history, your references, or relationships. I mean, all those things are part of what make up who you are, and the more valuable you are, the more you can charge people for that service, right? Oh, yeah, work for that job. And so it doesn't take money to make money. Like I said, don't. Don't ask the question, how do I make more money? But ask instead, how can I create more value in such a way that people want to exchange money with me for that value? And so you have to be really good at figuring out how to solve problems. And. Serve people and and add value in such a way that they say, I want that in my life, because having you in my life makes my life worth more than not having you at all. Let me exchange these pieces of paper so I can have that more of you in my life. So that's really the secret to making more money.
It reminds me of like, like, Think and Grow Rich and specialized knowledge and stuff like that.
Uh huh. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, specialized knowledge is huge. Generalized knowledge is huge too, when you're a business owner, because, you know, if you become the CEO of your company, you got to be able to speak all the languages of your different departments. I mean, you got to speak the language of sales, even if you're not the one selling all the time, you still got to understand that language, that in that world. You understand the financial world, and speak that language. You gotta understand the operations world, and, you know, and all these other things, right? Like all these things that help make up your business, you gotta be able to speak those languages when you're the CEO. And so, yeah, it's specialized knowledge, you know, creating that niche to make you rich, so to speak, right?
Yeah,
but as a business owner, also having enough general knowledge too, so that you can turn around and be able to communicate and work with those relationships, because it is through those relationships you can create more production, more money, more value for more people, because you can't do it on your own. I mean, you could try, and you can go so far doing on your own, but eventually you're going to need more people to leverage to be able to create something that's bigger, something that's more of a legacy that goes last beyond you,
like a really good reason why?
Oh yeah, gonna have a great purpose. Gotta have a great reason why, and great people around you to support you.
So if someone was trying to, like, get in that frame of mind, get in that state, and they were, I mean, if someone was like, I don't know, I don't know how to even ask this question, but it's like, there's a there's a lot of people out there who just kind of, like, they've been going on a certain path for a certain amount of time, right? And just stuck in in certain habits. So how would someone get from just a place that they don't want to be into being like this, like person in a good money mindset? I guess,
you know, it does take practice, and that's why, with my clients, a big part of what I have to teach them is looking at money differently, you know, you know. And that's why I even have my own, my own podcast. I have the Chris miles money show that I do as well, just for that reason, because, you know, there's a lot behind that between business and money and everything. But I'll tell you, like, one of the coolest strategies that I teach, something you can do every day. It doesn't have to cost you a dime. That will help you change your state each day. Is doing. What if you ever heard of Tony Robbins? You know, Grand Master of personal development. I mean Tony Robbins, he teaches a thing called the the Hour of Power, right? Some people call it power hour or morning ritual, whatever you want to call it. The thing is, first thing when you wake up in the morning, don't go to your computer, don't go to your phone. Like, don't go on to technology. Like, first and foremost, like, Get out now start get your body moving. Like I notice when I move my body, like better ideas start to show up. I start to feel better. And when I feel better, I get better ideas. And when I have better ideas, then I can create more value, and that's where I make more money. So I focus on the physical aspect. Like, make sure I get up and work out. I do maybe more intense stuff than some people do, but heck, if it's just like a walk or it's just, you know, don't going up and down your stairs, whatever it does get your blood pumping. Do that wake your body up. Then do things to help control your mind, you know, start, you know, listening to things like podcasts or reading good books and things like that, meditating or whatever you might need to do. Then even like, spiritual type disciplines too, like prayer, reading scriptural text or again, meditation, journal writing, whatever you do that gets you like, like sharp right from the get go, first thing of the day, you'll find out that you'll get into that top percentile of whatever you're doing compared to everybody else. Because people don't do that. People use this roll out of bed, they get their cups of coffee in, and then the next thing either they're just getting out there and they're on the computer and they they've lost the whole ability to create and make more money and to switch things around. Especially we want to change your state. You got to start changing what you're doing each day. And some of those habits are like things like that. That's doing something simple like that each day. And it doesn't have to be an hour. It could be a half hour, whatever it is doing that. I mean, that's the thing that got me out of my help me get out of my mess, to stay in the grit and good enough mental state so that I didn't have to declare bankruptcy, even though I could easily have done it. In fact, I've had, I've had bankers in the past, say, when they looked at my credit history, like, yeah, we want to see your history. I'm like, oh, yeah, I've got some history. Check
this out. And how much time you got to look at this thing
I know, and they look at it like, wow. Like, man, if I saw your situation, I would told you to file for bankruptcy. I'm like, I know, but I felt like I didn't feel like I needed to, like, unless somebody's gonna threaten throw me a prison. I wasn't going to do it, you know. And it was a hard battle. It was much harder than filing for bankruptcy, but I'm glad I did, because that's the resourcefulness that I learned that allowed me to find extra cash flow for my own situation, to dig out of a $16,000 a month hole, to getting back into positive cash flow. And that's that's why, when people come to me, that every entrepreneur will come to me and say, Chris, I'm a little bit embarrassed about my situation. Doesn't matter how many, how many 1000s or hundreds $1,000 a year they make, they'll still say they're embarrassed and. Like, Listen, you can't have been any worse than I was. I'm probably the one financial guy I'll say I've been worse than anybody that I've ever met with and, you know, and that's okay, I can't judge you for it. And that's where we I can see it from a very optimistic angle, you know,
right? Because, because you've been there and you've been worse than where they were. So, oh yeah, would you say that? So to dig yourself out of that hole, I mean, would you say that? Like having, having those better habits and having that better resourcefulness was the reason for for that, or was it something else?
You know, I really do, like I think that was all part of it now. I mean, I did have certain things that I had to say in my head, even though some days were more challenging than others, because there's days I just woke up in despair. I mean, that's why I had to get out and do something, get my body moving, meditate. I remember like, I'd do a walking meditation, where, just like, deep breathing while I'm walking, after doing, like a little workout. And I remember like, you know, like just exhaling the words, Be still and know that I am God, you know, and then taking off one word at a time, be still and know that I am be still, and know that be still a no, be still. Be be like, doing that as I'm walking, you know, and just to try to calm my mind down, because I'm freaking out, right? But just like Kung Fu Panda. Have you ever seen
that movie? No, I
haven't, you know, I've got six kids, so now I just quote kid movies instead of cool ones, like Tommy Boy and stuff, but,
oh yeah,
but, yeah. Like, you know, in that movie, like, you know, the kung fu master said, you know, there are no accidents, right? That law of synchronicity, there are no accidents and, and I remember saying that to myself, like, okay, there's no accidents. This is all happening to me for a reason. You know, I don't know why, but I know that I'm going to come out on the other side of this. I don't know how that's going to happen, but I know I will. And that, and that was critical for me, because I had to tell myself there was a higher purpose. And I just told myself, I said, Hey, listen, if I could help at least one person benefit from all the crap that I went through, if my pain could be somebody else's gain, then that was worth it. And and I'll tell you it's, it's led to now 10s of 1000s of people's lives, that's helped less because of it all, because of the crap that I went through, you know, and, and that struggle, and, and that's the thing, I think is key, is that when you start to realize that everything happens to you for a reason, that you know, even if you think something's crappy, you don't know if that might be the better path for you. Because if that hadn't happened to me, I can guarantee I wouldn't be where I am today. I wouldn't be as wise as I am today, and I wouldn't be teaching what I teach today and helping as many people had it not been for that. Because up to that, I thought I had the Midas golden touch. No one could stop me. But since then, I mean, since learning that, Hey, I am fallible. I can violate principles like every other human being, and I need to make sure that I'm wise with what I'm doing that's led to so much more wisdom and patience, and it's allowed me to guide people and save them. I mean literally, I think I'd probably say, in total, in the last six years, of people I've worked with, I've probably helped them make or save at least $100 million cumulatively.
Cool, and it sounds like, I mean, it all connects, right? Like, you think, kind of just looking at like, Oh, if someone's, you know, if someone's, like, really deep and dead, or makes really bad financial decisions, or doesn't have a lot of cash flow, or has a lot of cash flow, but then the Parkinson's Law catches them up. You think, oh, they just, either they just had bad luck or they just had bad decisions. But it seems like, what, what you're saying? What you're saying is, like, it's something deeper, and it pretty much like, connects to everything. It connects to, to your your morning routine, your your mindset, your relationships, all that good stuff,
everything. I mean, there's, there's definitely strategy to it, but there's the mindsets huge. Like, if you don't have the right mindset, your strategies will will create something different than what you want, you know? And that's and that's key. Like, I see people out there that teach only strategies, that try to be like financial gurus, and then that's all they teach. And then they wonder why people aren't getting results. But on the flip side, you got people that teach only mindset, but that then people don't know what to do with it. You gotta have both go figure out, like that one two punch of, okay, I've got the right abundant mindset, that steward mentality. Add that with some strategies now, and now we're more intentional. And now my business improves, and that grows. I start making more money there. I bring home more money. I'm actually have more time. I'm more free to do what I want to do. And which is the whole reason why I became a business owner, right? And that's why most people do is they want more control and more freedom, not to live the American nightmare, but to live the American dream, you know,
yeah, I mean, all that makes a lot of sense to me. Like, um, I mean, yeah, on one hand, like, if it's, if it's all mindset, there's nothing concrete to do. But then if it's all, if it's all, like, steps and strategies, but there's no, there's you don't fix the root of the problem, then you're just gonna find yourself in a worse hole, right? Because, like, you don't have a better, you don't have a better, you know, way of, way of going about things. You increase the income, and then you get even in the in even more debt, even more of a hole than you were when the income was low, right?
Exactly. Well, that's, that's why I have even my own clients come from you all over US and Canada to my own live events, because I'm like, You guys gotta make sure you learn the money. Mindset, even though I give them audios and stuff to study, still, I'm like, You need more of this, because this mindset stuff is huge. But the same time, the strategies, like where I teach people tax strategies, where the average entrepreneur finds at least five to 10 grand a year that they save in taxes, you know, or how to pay down debt the right way, not the way that everybody else has been teaching, you know, but in a way that actually creates the most, biggest bang for your buck and best rate of return, and how do you make more money in your business? And, you know, all that kind of stuff, how do you save money on insurances? I mean, all that kind of stuff that I look at, right, right? That's, I mean, that strategy has to be there. But if I don't have the mindset piece with it, like I don't, I have watched, but people don't get nearly the results, especially if I'm teaching them how to make more money. If I don't give them the mindset piece to like, they screw it up. They end up gambling their money away, and then they lose money instead of make money,
and they backslide back to the person they were before they came to you.
You got it?
Oh, man. So, I mean, when we covered a lot of really cool stuff today, I mean, my favorite part out of all this other that, I think my second favorite part was the mint.com thing. I'm gonna be signing up to that. And then just the way you laid it out about spenders, savers and stewards and all that, all those little nuggets of the the meditate, like the meditation Tony Robbins Power Hour, all that stuff. So, I mean, aside from, from all those little, cool little tidbits, is there, is there, like, one big mistake you're seeing over and over with all of these clients are helping out that you just, it's like the number one thing that just you always see happening,
I would say definitely the tracking the money is the thing that they're not doing. I very rarely ever find someone who's tracking the money properly to where they feel like so confident they know exactly how much money they have, where it's all going, and that allows them to move faster in business, too. And so doing that properly, they might be doing a little bit, they might be looking at their balances, but they're not tracking money if. And I'll tell you, like, if you ever say you're too busy to do it, you're losing at minimum $500 a month or $6,000 a year, right there. And I've had, I've had people where I have one lady in Silicon Valley, California was making a quarter million a year, but still broke found out she was spending 52 like, like $5,600 a month, eating out.
Wow,
5600 you know,
geez,
crazy. I mean, that's California still, but that's not we know. Both know California's not that expensive.
It's not like you buy or anything.
No, oh, any, even another guy worked with a dentist in Virginia. I mean, he was great, but he just wasn't. He was just focused on making money. We found an extra $16,000 a month in his practice, just in his business. On top of the $6,000 a month, we helped him free up. I mean, in total, we helped him save over 300 grand that year. I mean, that's that's kind of stuff that, if you're aware of what's going on, you're watching what's happening. That's a great start. I mean, if everybody would do that, man, when I coach them, it makes it so much easier, so
they can at least find the problem, right? Like, isn't that a like, isn't that what, like, the drug addicts and stuff say, like, the first step is knowing you have a problem or admitting you have a problem.
It's that awareness, right? Yeah, once you're aware of what's going on, like, it's such a big eye opener. And people find money just because they track, not because they spend less, but just because, a lot of times they'll say that there's more accountable, and whatever extra they have, they'll say, You know what, they'll put that money away. Maybe I'll keep that in emergencies, just in case. Especially if you're a business owner, it's not just emergencies. You need it for opportunities. And a lot of times you miss opportunities because you don't have the money laying around, right?
Oh, yeah,
money there.
And I noticed that too. Like, I mean, I probably haven't gone back as much as I should, but I noticed, like looking back in, like, my business, like looking back in banks and statements I don't have mint.com set up, but like looking back at, you know, like, like, memberships I'm not using, and stuff like that. And little like, you know, $80 a month things in my business, and my attitude used to be, oh, whatever it's 80 bucks a month. Like, who cares what that adds up to. But then I say, oh, and once I actually drill down, there's like 10 or 20 of those things that are dinging me 80 bucks every single month. And what is that every year? And what's what could that have built up to for five or 10 years? Like you said, not just to get a higher number, but to have the peace of mind, to be able to use it for whatever opportunity. I mean, just kind of a different way of thinking.
It all adds up. Yeah, I had a graphic designer who we found an extra $1,500 a month from the little things that just added up, you know, and we'd have to sacrifice their life at all like they still were able to be free and do stuff so go out and eat and things like that. But mean, $1,500 a month, that's 18 grand a year, you know, back in your pocket, that you'd even know you were losing the first place,
and imagine, like, over a lifetime, like, how many cars that would buy, or how many college educations for the kids or something,
that's true. I mean, 18 grand a year. I mean, after like, 15 years, that's over a quarter million
dollars, right? Yeah. So alright, so I mean, you have all these, all these cool success stories and all these cool strategies. I mean, I want to send people over to you so they can find out all about what it is you do, what it is you sell, about these, these seminars and this coaching stuff that you do. So where can people find out more about you?
Yeah, you know, if you want to hear like it's a natural, real, specific strategies, kind of like what someone we mentioned today, but a few more, like even like how to pay off debt and things like that. You. You can go to www dot money ripples.com, that's m, O, N, E, y, r, i, P, P, L, E, s.com, and right there on the front page, you can actually get that the e book called Beyond rice and beans, seven secrets to free up cash today. That's kind of my slap at Dave Ramsey right there.
Nice
and and, and then also, like, if you like podcasts, I mean, if you like, you know, you go on iTunes, look up the Chris miles money show, and you can listen to stuff there. Too
cool. The Chris miles money show, and while you're doing the power of our and the mantras, perfect compliment, right?
Absolutely
awesome. Well, cool. Thanks for being on the show, Chris and sharing all your cool knowledge and wisdom.
Yeah, you bet Robert appreciate
it.
You got it.
You
Filed in: Archive 1: 2012-2016 • Interview • Mindset • Podcast
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