Episode 1191: Impact the World - Interview with Host of the Contenders Wanted Podcast Rob Cook – Part 4

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining us on episode 1,190. One 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 Maderer.

[00:00:30] But at the end of the day for me, I think it's just, I, at the end of the day, wanna be able to walk, stand before God with confidence in his presence that I've done the best that I can and be greeted as a friend. And I don't think that requires me to change the world. It's just changed. Maybe my little world be

[00:00:48] Scott Maderer: a good influence in my own little world.

[00:00:50] 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 caller. In the inspired stewardship podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that.

[00:01:14] Can impact the world

[00:01:15] in today's interview with Rob cook, I ask Rob about what stewardship means to him. I also ask Rob to share some of the top principles that he feels can help make a dent in the universe. And Rob also shares his hope for his legacy. One reason I like to bring you great interviews. Like the one you're gonna hear today is because of the power.

[00:01:37] 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 trial.[00:02:00]

[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.

[00:02:30] 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.

[00:02:54] He leverages his personal experience and interactions with the ultra successful to help [00:03:00] 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,

[00:03:11] Rob Cook: Rob. Thanks, Scott. Appreciate you having me on the show.

[00:03:14] Scott Maderer: So Rob, last week I asked about one of the words that I like to get people to define. And this week I'm gonna ask about a different one so I've my brand is inspired stewardship. I talk a lot about stewardship that's a lens that I live my life through for you. What does the word stewardship mean?

[00:03:34] And what would you say its impact has been on your life?

[00:03:37] Rob Cook: Honestly, when I hear the word stewardship, the phrase that just goes through my mind is my life is not my own. In fact, nothing that I have is mine. As we've talked about in, in previous episodes, My faith heavily influences the way that I view the world around me and I interact with it [00:04:00] and what I put as a priority.

[00:04:02] And so when I think of stewardship, I think everything that I have has come from God and then therefore, nothing that I have, quote unquote is my own. Therefore, I must take good care of. Like the parable of the talents given in the new Testament and for those of a Christian background I may have been given one talent. Maybe I was given two talents or maybe I was given five talents.

[00:04:28] I think I know one, three and five I think is what it was. Either way doesn't matter how many I was given. They're not mine. My job is to just make good use of them, try and double them so that when the Lord returns and that's the way the parable goes. I. I can be a good and faithful servant and return back report back to the Lord and having done well with what I was given.

[00:04:51] So for me, stewardship has a faith element built into it, right from the beginning, because nothing is my own and [00:05:00] my job is just to make the very best of it.

[00:05:02] Scott Maderer: So how do you think that's played out in your life?

[00:05:05] Rob Cook: For those who have listened to the previous episodes we talk about various, we've talked about a couple of different points in my own personal journey. And at each of those points, there are, there's this element of, I want this thing, Lord.

[00:05:24] But let me know what's most important. And his will is one that will always override, will always win out. So like we talked about my career changes and how turned down certain job opportunities, just because. My wife and I felt prompted that wasn't the right thing. Even though on the surface, it looked amazing and then took other job opportunities because we felt prompted, like we were supposed to take them, even though certain details at the time looked, Ugh, gut wrenching.

[00:05:51] But in the end it always seems to work out best because my life is not my own, my, as a steward of my own life, as a steward of [00:06:00] everything around me, my job is to. Do my very best be my very best personally. But at the end of the day, submit to the will of God, in my opinion, submit to his plan and his path for my life.

[00:06:18] Because at the end of the day, it's always better than what I could make of it on my

[00:06:21] Scott Maderer: own.

[00:06:22] So if somebody wants to make a dent in the universe, if they wanna make a change in the world, whatever that means to them, what are some of the things you think they need to focus on or learn or pay attention to?

[00:06:36] Rob Cook: It's funny when you ask this question, when I saw it in the pre-meeting notes, I.

[00:06:45] My first initial thought was it depends, right? it depends on if you're thinking from a spiritual perspective or if you're thinking things from more of a you call it temporal perspective or professional perspective, or those are two D actually, maybe they're [00:07:00] not.

[00:07:00] At first, I thought they were two different answers. And I realized that actually at the end of the day the universal principles are universal. They apply no matter what. So that's why they call 'em universals. Exactly. So if you wanna make a dent in the universe in my opinion there's actually a, there's a scripture in, in my faith that really typifies this for me.

[00:07:22] And if you don't mind, I'm just gonna read a quick section of it where it. No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood or this spiritual power, but only by persuasion, by long suffering, by gentleness and meekness by love, untrained by kindness and pure knowledge and without guile.

[00:07:46] So that listed a bunch of different attributes. But for me, kinda those first few if you wanna change the world, Persuasion is part of it, right? Whether you call that sales or you call that teaching, [00:08:00] or you call that persuasion, or you call that having a vision, whatever, you have to be able to impart that to other people by long suffering gentleness and meekness there's, if you want to impact the world, you're you can't be.

[00:08:14] We're gonna assume when you say impact the world in a good way, , you have to have certain qualities and attributes about yourself that enable you to be able to connect with people and to be able to serve them and to help them. And then this idea of loving untrained without Gail.

[00:08:30] You have to, it can't be fake. People will feel that. And our BS detectors are gonna go off like crazy. So I think if you're, if you really want to change the world, impact the world, you have to have the ability to convey the message or the meaning or the vision or whatever it is. That's important to you in an effective way.

[00:08:51] You need to be able to. You need to be a type of person that people can have confidence in and trust in, and you need [00:09:00] to be genuine in your care for and desires for the wellbeing of others.

[00:09:06] Scott Maderer: So this is my favorite question, but for a lot of guests, they say, this is their least favorite question. so Uhhuh last week, we talked a little bit about legacy. So if. Invented this magic machine. And I could grab you from the chair where you sat today and transport you into the future a hundred to 150 years and magically, you were able to look back on your whole life and see the impacts, the ripples, whatever you wanna describe it, that you've left behind.

[00:09:36] What are the, what's the impact that you hope you've left behind in the world?

[00:09:41] Rob Cook: I'll admit, this was a really hard question for me. it is for everyone , which is ironic, cuz yeah. And I think it's ironic because I'm here I am the one saying, yeah, we need to think about legacy more, but I'll admit, I've thought about it a lot and I don't have a good answer. In fact, I jokingly wrote down.

[00:09:59] I don't [00:10:00] think I have to change the world. I could just, what if I just wanted to just be really good at being me? and just impact my own little world. Meaning my kids, my own family. Like I, I look at, for example, I look at the life of my grandfather. He was a very successful entrepreneur who worked very hard for many years.

[00:10:19] He had his own challenges that he had to overcome. And he had a father that died when he was young and various things, but he passed away a couple years ago. And. When he did it, wasn't like he had a great procession that took him through town and people from around the world wept at his passing.

[00:10:41] In our little community, he made a big impact and there were a lot of good people who showed up for his funeral. Hundreds actually. And he was, he just went about doing good, [00:11:00] serving others, loving his family, serving them and helping where he could.

[00:11:06] And I it'd be great to, to be a world changer. Who it's. Of would, why, what, of course it'd be good to be me be remembered, but at the end of the day, that's probably not gonna happen for most of us. So why don't I just make the very, most of,

[00:11:24] of my time with my family, why don't I make the most of being the best me that I can be, and it'll have the impact that it's supposed to have, whether that be great or.

[00:11:38] Relatively speaking

[00:11:40] Scott Maderer: well, and I would argue that is impacting the world.

[00:11:43] Rob Cook: Yeah. But I guess then I think the world I'm thinking of the Gandhi's the Martin Luther king JRS the people who shape history, to some extent you could say the Alexander, the greats, right? The George Washington's, [00:12:00] the Caesar. That whether good or bad everyone view any of those people, but at the end of the day, for me, I think it's just, I, at the end of the day, wanna be able to walk, stand before God with confidence in his presence that I've done the best that I can and be greeted as a friend.

[00:12:15] And I don't think that requires me to change the world. It's just change. Maybe my little world be a good influence in my own little world.

[00:12:26] Scott Maderer: And I think that's part of it is how do we define what is the world that we're impacting?

[00:12:32] Rob Cook: True. Very true.

[00:12:33] Scott Maderer: So what's coming next for you, as you continue on this journey of the podcast, the work you're doing, living with your family, what's coming what's on the roadmap.

[00:12:43] Rob Cook: I'll admit I'm not a hundred percent sure , I'm at a unique time. I've had some interesting opportunities pop up as of late that it who knows. I know that for me, the. The future, is it gonna be [00:13:00] the as good as it's gonna be because I'm gonna work hard and I'm gonna make the very most of it, but I'm not a hundred percent sure I've got my podcast.

[00:13:06] That I love. It's my little passion project and I love trying to help people through it. So I've got some things that I'm working on. On that end. I'm gonna try and actually infuse. I'm not trying, I am infusing this year. Some more of what I do as my day job, personal finance into that kind of with some financial consulting and different things.

[00:13:23] So that's fun and exciting. I enjoy that and I wanna be able to help more people and leverage some of this expertise and knowledge that I've got. So that's exciting. I'm excited about that. But I'll admit that there in there are two pieces inside of me. There is this.

[00:13:40] Ambitious driven, tenacious fighter, this contender that's inside of me. That's always trying to go for greatness and make the most of myself and become everything. But then there's also this just

[00:13:54] Scott Maderer: a little

[00:13:56] Rob Cook: bit more shy eye um, just [00:14:00] diligent, obedient soldier, disciple on the other.

[00:14:04] That's Hey, whatever happens. And whatever the Lord has in store for me, the Lord has in store for me. so I feel like each has its kind of its own directions, its own agenda. It's its own approach. And then they're all, they're both competing for dominance. It feels like all the time inside of me.

[00:14:18] And most days I'd say it's probably that fighter that's pushing. But whenever the the other side discipleship side pops its head up it tends to take precedence. I'm not a hundred percent sure I'm gonna keep working, keep growing. And I just hope to continue to do well.

[00:14:35] So like I said, so at the end of the day Lord helps those who help themselves, but he'll make a heck of a lot more than me than I can make of myself. So keep working hard and. Who knows time will tell

[00:14:46] 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 [00:15:00] 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.

[00:15:07] 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 for me and my personal desires and predispositions and that sort of stuff.

[00:15:27] I've taken 10 plus years of personal finance 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.

[00:15:44] 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.

[00:15:55] Scott Maderer: Awesome. That is a that sounds like a great gift. I'll link that up in the show [00:16:00] notes as well.

[00:16:00] 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.

[00:16:09] Rob Cook: Thank you, Scott. Thanks for having me on.

[00:16:10] 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 episode please do us a favor. Go over to inspired stewardship.com/itunes rate.

[00:16:38] All one. 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 time, your talent and your treasures. Develop your [00:17:00] influence and impact the world.