Episode 1186: Develop Your Influence - Interview with the Host of the Contenders Wanted Podcast Rob Cook – Part 3

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining us on episode 1,186 of the inspired stewardship podcast.

[00:00:07] Rob Cook: I'm Rob Cook. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to focus on what is really important while achieving success is key.

[00:00:23] And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this, the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott.

[00:00:30] Real success has a host of different elements to it. If I had the bodied up in condense it into one phrase, I'd say it's living a life worth living. It's the general phrase that I would say, but that has so many pieces to it, living a life worth living. And that really. Is unique to every single person.

[00:00:50] Scott Maderer: Welcome. And thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must [00:01:00] learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling in the inspired stewardship podcast, who will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can.

[00:01:15] The world

[00:01:16] in today's interview with Rob cook, I ask Rob about leadership and influence. I also ask Rob to share what he feels success really looks like. And Rob also shares with you the difference between real success and failure. One reason I like to bring you great interviews. Like the one you're gonna hear today is because of the power.

[00:01:38] In learning from others. Another great way to learn from others is through reading books. But if you're like most people today, you find it hard to find the time to sit down and read. And that's why today's podcast is brought to you by audible. Go to inspired stewardship.com/audible to sign up and you can get a 30 day free [00:02:00] trial.

[00:02:00] There's over 180,000 titles to choose from. And instead of reading, you can listen your way to learn from some of the greatest minds out there. That's inspired stewardship.com/audible to get your free trial and listen to great books the same way you're listening to this podcast. Rob is a CPA and CFP fiduciary financial advisor who looks and plans beyond stocks and bonds and traditional financial planning with his clients.

[00:02:31] Rob believes that when thinking and talking about wealth, the conversation shouldn't be focused on money, but instead on the purpose for our money, In other words, the legacies we are creating today for our families. Rob is also the host of contenders wanted podcast, where we believe you could have incredible success without sacrificing what's most important through the podcast.

[00:02:55] He leverages his personal experience and interactions with the ultra successful [00:03:00] to help success oriented parents with young families, get more time balance and financial freedom in their lives. So they can move from being a contend. To a champion. Welcome to the show, Rob. Thanks,

[00:03:12] Rob Cook: Scott. Appreciate you having me on the show.

[00:03:15] Scott Maderer: So one of the things I like to do Rob is define terms and words. And when we think of influence, one of the words that people tell me comes to mind for 'em is leader. So how would you define leadership?

[00:03:30] Rob Cook: I'll admit when I saw this question, I thought about it a lot. Cause I feel like leadership is one of those just ethereal terms out there that, yep. That's why

[00:03:40] Scott Maderer: I ask many

[00:03:42] Rob Cook: things. Honestly there were a couple of specific things that kind of came to my mind when I think of leadership. The first one of.

[00:03:52] Is servant leadership. That was the first phrase that just popped in my head is servant leadership. I think, to be a good leader in any fashion, you have to [00:04:00] be willing to serve your people. And I think the next thing that followed in shortly thereafter was also being a teacher in a visionary and an example to me a leader not only teaches the way he shows the way forward.

[00:04:16] Inspires the way forward for the team or the group or the tribe that they lead, whatever that looks like. And then the last thing that kind of came to my mind and when I'm thinking, as I try to dig deeper for what is leadership to me leadership to me is responsibility. It's owning the good and the.

[00:04:40] It's looking out for and caring for those on your team who are at a disadvantage or who need the extra help. It's empowering those that are doing great, but then also lifting those [00:05:00] who maybe are falling behind. So I think those three pieces there service some version of influence teaching providing vision and then owning the responsibility, owning the outcome.

[00:05:14] Those three things are, to me, what makes the, is what it means to be a leader. So would you view yourself as a.

[00:05:20] That's a, okay.

[00:05:23] Scott Maderer: sorry. I'm gonna be real

[00:05:24] Rob Cook: here with listeners for a second. Let's be real. You asked that question and immediately what goes on in your head? Of course I'm a leader. I'm a great leader of, yes. I wanna say that I'm a leader. Really? Of course you wanna say that, but do I think that I am embody all of those things perfectly?

[00:05:38] No, not at all. Do, are there some that I probably do better than others? Yeah. Yeah. For. B and have I had leadership thrusted upon me sometimes? Yes. Have I sometimes taken leadership? Yeah, of course. With I'm a big guy. I'm 6, 5, 2 40 I've allowed [00:06:00] person. I have a big personality. I have a loud voice.

[00:06:02] Sometimes leadership just comes. But do I view myself as a leader? I don't know. Like I said, in previous episodes I view myself as just a good soldier. Maybe I'm a captain. I got a small little little band here, my band of brothers, but I don't I wouldn't say that I view myself as this great visionary, a great general or great Admiral, or however you wanna describe it.

[00:06:23] I don't know. I think I have the ability to lead, but I wouldn't consider myself a great leader. If that makes sense.

[00:06:31] Scott Maderer: Okay. It's interesting cuz I just asked if you're a leader, you put the context of great audit.

[00:06:37] Rob Cook: Fair enough. that's a good point. See, in my mind, I, if you're not a good leader you're a dictator, basically to some extent or like you, I don't know, there's a difference between leadership and management and I don't wanna be a manager.

[00:06:52] I wanna be a leader Uhhuh, if that makes any sense. All right.

[00:06:57] Scott Maderer: So if you embody those [00:07:00] crates that you. Talked about even in a small way, you're still a leader.

[00:07:06] Rob Cook: That's true. I, I see what you're saying there. And I hope that I embody those things to some extent, at least in my home. So I, I would hope that I would be considered a leader by my family in our home.

[00:07:16] And I'm confident that they do, but. I don't know. It's just, when you asked that question, that's just my brain went right. It's well,

[00:07:21] Scott Maderer: It's interesting that, because I think our brains go to two places. One is the knee jerk. Of course I'm a leader and the other is the, but no, I'm not.

[00:07:29] The opposite side of it, because again, I think we put. Levels on that, that we see too. And so this next kind of, question's gonna have, I have a feeling we're gonna have the same discussion. Yeah. How about success? We've talked in the last few weeks, a little bit about success and how you saw some different models to it, but in your words, what do you say real success looks like?

[00:07:54] Rob Cook: Yeah. For me real success [00:08:00] has a host of different elements to it. If I had the bodied up and condense it into one phrase, I'd say it's living a life worth living is the general phrase that I would say, but that has so many pieces to it. living a life worth living. And that really is unique to every single.

[00:08:18] What might mean living a life worth? Living to me is very different to Joe blow around the corner or John Smith down the street. So for me, success looks like being fully present with my family. To me, it means a life of service. To me, it means living a life of kindness and mercy and selfless sacrifice.

[00:08:41] It's a life of my faith in my family. First, like I've talked about in other episodes it's a life that has all of those things. And then more but to me that's what real success is living a life worth living and whatever that means to. .

[00:08:58] Scott Maderer: So what then do you think [00:09:00] is the difference between folks who succeed and folks who maybe don't

[00:09:07] Rob Cook: well, I think we, we touched on some of these also as well in the last couple of weeks, it, the first one was just don't give up. We talked about how sometimes to have success and live the life that you hope for and you want, and you feel is a meaningful life and going the direction you want it to go.

[00:09:25] You gotta just keep moving forward. And I've seen that principle played out multiple times in my life. And then also we gotta make it a priority. We also talked about that. I think also for those that this is actually something else I was that just popped in my head. I was thinking about here, difference between those who succeed and those who don't.

[00:09:46] I think having the right system is also really important. I have a poster that hung in my office at work that I received when I was in, in college. Actually I walked onto my college football [00:10:00] team. My freshman year just only played the one year. There's a host of stories we could just talk about from that, that teach about success and life in general.

[00:10:07] But I got this poster randomly from my coach that year that's called the road to success and it was actually a poster made in 1913 by the national cash register company that doesn't even exist nowadays. But it's called the road to success and what it is, it's literally this little road.

[00:10:23] And it I could send you a link afterwards if listeners wanna see it themselves. I found it online actually before this. And it's this road that kinda leads up this mountain at the very top of it. There's this big, bright, shining thing that says, oh, success. But all along this little path, there's all sorts of things that are the distractions and the things that can take you from traveling down the path to success.

[00:10:44] But in the middle of the path, there's a railroad track. That leads right up to the top really quick. And in the middle of, if you go to the beginning of the path on the train, there's a little train station that says the right system and the railroad track has a bridge that goes over this river at [00:11:00] one point.

[00:11:00] And it has a tunnel through these mountains of difficulty and it gives you on the other side to the, this. Path to success. So for me, there's a host of things. I think giving not giving up, making a priority are really important, but then also just having the right system can be a fast track for you.

[00:11:16] And whether that system is literally within the right company, the right organization within the right belief system, within the right, quote unquote belief system within the right Just system for your life and the way you live your habits, I guess in a way, could be a system your interactions, the people with you could be a system in some way having the right systems in life to get you to the final destination that you're hoping to reach thinking long term and putting what's most important for you as a top priority and planning with your life with that in mind, I think, and building the systems that will get you there is one of the keys to success as well.

[00:11:56] Scott Maderer: And national cash register company does actually still. [00:12:00] Oh, it does. Yeah. They're now called NCR. Oh, okay. And they mainly do consulting and other work, but yeah, they do actually still exist as a company. Believe it or not.

[00:12:11] Rob Cook: I did not know that. I guess I shouldn't have said that before. I just assumed they no longer existed.

[00:12:16] Scott Maderer: Yeah. They've changed their name and they completely changed what they do. They don't. Cash registers per se anymore. The same way I can imagine. Yeah. Yeah. But it's a very it does actually still exist as a company. It's NCR. Wow. Is what they call it. So I stand corrected. You will tweak your story moving forward.

[00:12:34] Yeah. Welcome. I will welcome to a mindful of trivia. I know, I

[00:12:38] Rob Cook: love it. I love random trivia effects. That's fantastic. Thanks for sure that.

[00:12:43] Scott Maderer: So let's talk a little bit of let's go the other direction. We talked a little bit about success. You've talked about leadership. What about legacy? How do you think about legacy?

[00:12:56] What do you think others maybe get a little [00:13:00] wrong about it how do you look at legacy?

[00:13:03] Rob Cook: Yeah, this is actually something that I think and talk about a lot with just like my clients. And with. People on the show on my own show contenders wanted. Cause I think we don't talk about, or think about legacy enough or I guess better said soon enough in our lives.

[00:13:21] At the beginning, when I was thinking of what I was gonna say, my mind was like, oh I think people think too narrowly about legacy and that that might be true. People might think, oh, they only think about money maybe, or they only think about maybe their family. But I think the bigger issue is not that we don't think about it, but we don't think about it early.

[00:13:39] And I think that's part of the reason why I talk about it on my show is so that hopefully those of my millennial generation will think about it now and plan now and position themselves now so that when they reach our parents and grandparents ages, it's not, oh, by the way, I want to have a legacy and shoot.

[00:13:58] I better course correct. And. [00:14:00] Do all the stuff to hopefully get there. Instead when when, by that point, most of what would be considered your legacy will have already been set or be in full motion. I think thinking about it earlier is one of the most important things that we just don't do, that we get wrong.

[00:14:19] And I think that's just a natural byproduct of life, right? When you're in your twenties and thirties and forties, life is just. Especially, if you have a family there's just a lot going on. You've got you've, you, you have work pulling on you, you have your family pulling on you, you have your friends, your, those relationships pulling on you.

[00:14:37] You have other organizations, whether they be church in my case, or charitable or community focused that you have all sorts of things pulling on you. And you're trying to do good in all of them. It takes a lot of time and taking the time to pause and to think, and to slow down and to really think in as a Emil VAT, who's been on my podcast, [00:15:00] says think in terms of decades and not days suddenly that puts perspective on a lot of things and helps us in the busyness of today.

[00:15:09] Adjust and keep what's most important at the forefront.

[00:15:14] Scott Maderer: You could follow Rob on LinkedIn as Rob cook or find him over on Facebook. Is Rob cook the best place though, to find out more about Rob or his podcast is over at his website, contends wanted.com. Of course I'll have links to all of this in the show notes as well. Rob, is there anything else you'd like to share with the listen?

[00:15:35] Rob Cook: Yeah. For those of you who would be interested, I actually have a, I call it the financial freedom Pathfinder quiz, cuz I'm trying to help more people on that financial side through contenders wanted, if you've ever wanted to know what path should I take to reach financial freedom? What's the the best path suit for me and my personal desires and predispositions and all that sort of stuff.

[00:15:55] I've taken 10 plus years of personal finance [00:16:00] and wealth. Learning about wealth and wealth creation and talking with people on my show and different things and created a quiz that helps people figure out which of one of the 25, I think are the 25 unique paths towards financial freedom is best suited personally to them.

[00:16:13] So if anyone's interested in that, you can check that out by going to contenders, wanted.com/freedom. You can fill out the quiz get that for free. And there's also a couple of bonuses that come along with it, just for completing the.

[00:16:23] Scott Maderer: Awesome. That is a that sounds like a great gift. I'll link that up in the show notes as well.

[00:16:28] So folks can find it easier if they're driving or otherwise. Can't find it. Thank you so much for being on the show today. Really appreciate everything that you've shared.

[00:16:37] Rob Cook: Thank you, Scott. Thanks for having me on.

[00:16:39] Scott Maderer: Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast, as a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this. Please do us a favor. [00:17:00] Go over to inspired stewardship.com/itunes rate.

[00:17:07] All one word iTunes rate. It'll take you through how to leave a rating and review and how to make sure you're subscribed to the podcast so that you can get every episode as it comes out in your feed until next time invest your. Your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact the world.