Episode 1509: Interview with Robert Hunt About Why Accountability Isn't a Bad Thing

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining us on episode 1, 509 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

[00:00:06] Robert J Hunt: I'm Robert Hunt. 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 understand that accountability is key.

[00:00:22] And the one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to the Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my friend, Scott Maderer.

[00:00:37] Nobody cares. Nobody cares if I'm fat, broke, unhappy in my marriage, miserable with my company. Miserable with my finances. Nobody cares. We got our own junk. We can't worry about your junk. Nobody really does care Unless you care enough to do something about so the book is titled. Nobody cares until you do

[00:00:57] Scott Maderer: Welcome and thank you for joining us on the [00:01:00] inspired stewardship podcast If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be then you must learn to use your time Your talent and your treasures for your true calling In the Inspired Stewardship Podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others, and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

[00:01:31] In today's podcast episode, I interview Robert J. Hunt. I asked Robert about how accountability unlocks potential in business and life. I also asked Robert about what holds us back from seeking accountability. And Robert also shares with you why accountability helps us achieve real harmony in our work and our life.

[00:01:50] I have a great book that's been out for a while now called Inspired Living. Assemble the puzzle of your calling by mastering your time, your talent, and your treasures. [00:02:00] You can find out more about that book over at inspiredlivingbook. com. It'll take you to a page where there's information and you can sign up to get some mailings about it as well as purchase a copy there.

[00:02:13] I'd love to see you get a copy and share with me how it impacted your world. Robert J. Hunt is the accountability guy and the co author of the book, Nobody Cares Until You Do. He is a business owner in the Dallas Fort Worth, Texas area and helps leaders remove the things that keep them from being their best.

[00:02:33] Robert is an executive coach who runs CEO groups in the Dallas Fort Worth area since 2013, and he brings that experience and wisdom to help people reach their goals. Robert has been married 25 years to his beautiful wife, Kathy, and has two adult children also living in Texas. He's passionate about his faith, his purpose, his family, And his quest to help people be their best.

[00:02:56] Welcome to the show, Robert.

[00:02:58] Robert J Hunt: Good morning.

[00:02:59] Scott Maderer: [00:03:00] Absolutely. Thanks so much for jumping on. I appreciate it. So I shared a little bit in the intro about your work and, the accountability guy and then the book title, Nobody Cares Until You Do, and what you do a little bit there in Dallas, but talk a little bit more, I always tell people the intro is like the end of the journey, it's the capsulation of what we're doing now, but there's always a lot to it.

[00:03:24] that came before that got us to where we're going on. So back up a little bit and tell us what got you to the point where you're at today.

[00:03:31] Robert J Hunt: I grew up in Southern California and my beautiful wife and I moved here in 2010 to the Dallas Fort Worth area. And I came here to do marketing consulting and really didn't find any joy in that anymore.

[00:03:43] As I found that people really didn't understand marketing and nobody wanted to hire me to be strategic. They just wanted me to do project work. And a lot of times if you don't have a reason behind the things you're doing, the marketing doesn't work. And if it's not aligned with who the company is, it's just a lie basically.

[00:03:58] And I just grew tired of the effort and [00:04:00] I came across the guy who was doing peer groups. I'd never really understood peer groups. What does that mean? It's, the mastermind, a cohort, a peer group, this idea of people coming together and helping each other and creating a place of accountability to get things done.

[00:04:14] And I loved it because my purpose in life is to help people remove the things that keep them from being their best. I identified that 15 years ago. And I realized this is what I want to do for my life. And so I jumped on it and I started doing peer groups in 2013. So I've been doing it 12 years now and I love it.

[00:04:32] I love having the chance to come alongside business owners and other leaders and helping them be their best as they pursue their goals. And that's where I'm focused these days.

[00:04:41] Scott Maderer: So for somebody that doesn't know, you mentioned peer groups and the masterminds all in one breath.

[00:04:45] Talk a little bit about, more about what you mean by a peer group.

[00:04:50] Robert J Hunt: Yeah it's when you hang out with your buddies and you're talking about how's work, what's going on, they don't really know what you're doing. So a lot of times the input you get for them is not very founded. [00:05:00] And so you've got people that want to, point to things or help you and give you guidance and give you opinions, but it's not valid.

[00:05:07] A lot of times people don't even know what they're talking about. And what you want to do is have a qualified group of people who will listen to where you're at. What do you want to do? And then it help you get there. And you can hire a coach, which is what I do. Also, I do executive coaching, but that's coached, that's one on one, that's one person with one person.

[00:05:23] When you do group coaching, you have, 8, 10 people in a room, all with different perspectives, all with different journeys, all with different skills. And when you say, Hey, I've just run out of cash and I don't know how to make payroll this month. And people will go, here's what I use. And here's how I did.

[00:05:38] Are you sure you're out of cash? Did you consider this? And sometimes you don't know what you didn't know until you realize you didn't know it. And being in a room with other people who are going through the same, similar journey. They're not in the same industry. They're not you. They're men and women, young and old, all different kinds of industries.

[00:05:53] Someone is going to see something you don't see. And it's just beautiful that we've never had an issue come up that [00:06:00] somebody in the room hadn't already dealt with, or someone hasn't had experience with in a similar fashion. So you get this benefit of having this advisory board, like a board of advisors if you're in a bigger company, and they don't have any personal connection to your problem.

[00:06:15] If you ask your family member or spouse, hey, what should I do? They've got attachment to your issues. You mean we're not going on vacation this year? All of a sudden these decisions affect them personally. And when you're in a group like this, they don't have any emotion attached to your problem.

[00:06:27] They don't have any vested interest in you doing this or that, and they can give you honest, caring feedback. That's what you need.

[00:06:36] Scott Maderer: So before we dive a little bit more into what you've done and what you do and the book one of the things I like to highlight. on the podcast is how our faith journey and our life journeys intersect and feedback between those two things.

[00:06:49] Would you share a bit about your faith journey and how that's intersected with what you find yourself doing today?

[00:06:54] Robert J Hunt: Yeah, it is who I am. I think it's interesting sometimes people ask me, how do you bring up your, how do you integrate your faith into [00:07:00] your work? And I think the better question is how do you keep it away?

[00:07:03] I don't go to work and pretend I'm not married. I don't go to work and pretend I don't have kids or that I don't like the cowboys, which is hard to do sometimes, but I am going to say that one,

[00:07:12] Scott Maderer: that one could get you in trouble. I

[00:07:16] Robert J Hunt: am who I am. So to turn it off would be weird. And so I've been born again.

[00:07:21] I've come to know Jesus Christ as my Lord and savior. I've been forgiven and restored and connected with God in a very personal way. I can't turn that off. That's the best thing that ever happened in my life. It is part of my work. I don't pass out Bibles in meetings and I don't run around telling people how to live their life.

[00:07:37] But I live mine in a way that pleases God, or at least I try to please God in everything I do. How I run my business, how I treat people, the way I spend my time and money, all that with the mindset of my pleasing God. Because He died for me, He redeemed me, He gave me eternal life and He has actually ownership over this life today.

[00:07:57] And I live like that. So that's where I'm at. That's [00:08:00] how my faith rolls in and out of who I am easily because it's just part of who I am.

[00:08:06] Scott Maderer: Yeah, absolutely. And it, what's the old expression, right? Preach the gospel and when necessary use words. Yeah. Yeah. And

[00:08:15] Robert J Hunt: the reason people don't want to bring up faith at work is because so many people have done it poorly.

[00:08:19] There's been so many stories of people who have condemned or, yelled and said, you're going to hell for this and that. And whether it's biblically true, if someone has a severed leg, if someone has a severed leg, you can go, Hey, your leg's severed. Look at the blood coming out.

[00:08:33] You help them, you care for them. And I just think it's sad that so many people have done such a poor job of living out their faith. that other people are afraid to live out their faith and you really shouldn't be because none of us are perfect. Every single person at work has done something wrong.

[00:08:48] They've made mistakes. They've had problems. They've failed in this and that area, but they still keep being themselves. Why do we, as Christ followers, feel we need to, tucked that away just because we've not been perfect at it. We're not going to be [00:09:00] perfect at it. That's why God forgives us and restores us.

[00:09:02] And he created a plan. He created a business model to save the world through knuckleheads like us. What on earth was he thinking? So he, the, he knew we would not be great at this. He knew that, but he equipped us with the spirit of God that lives inside of us. He equipped us with the ability to learn through his word, to have the encouragement of others, which we call church, and to be able to just be the best you can.

[00:09:25] And that's the model he chose to do it. I think we should just live with that and be happy with it.

[00:09:32] Scott Maderer: So let's talk a little bit about your work and your book. What, When you think about accountability, what is that word? And what does it mean? And because I think a lot of times people have a negative connotation when they hear the word accountability.

[00:09:46] So talk a little bit about why you use that word.

[00:09:50] Robert J Hunt: Accountability is what I do for a living. I run groups that create the opportunity for accountability. One of the key principles of accountability is nobody can hold anyone else accountable. You can only hold [00:10:00] yourself accountable if you want to.

[00:10:02] And people would argue I hold my people accountable. No, you don't. You say, hey, here's what I want you to do. And when they don't do it, do you fire them? No I tell them they need to do that. Then they didn't do it and they weren't accountable. You let them off the hook. And real accountability in the simplest terms means you own it.

[00:10:18] Your employees are not owning it. If you tell them to do something, then they don't do it. and they're still working for you, they didn't own it, and if you fire them, then you're the one being accountable because they didn't do what they're supposed to, so they're gone, they'll take a lack of accountability and go to the next company, but you're the one being accountable because you owned the problem and this person wasn't working here good, so we moved them on.

[00:10:39] So this idea of accountability is not a bad thing, actually. It's a really good thing. We saw it in our own life. I see it in the lives of my clients. The people who are truly accountable, they're rocking their world. They're not perfect. They make mistakes. They still do. But they own it. And they're not spending time blaming or making excuses or saying they can't do anything about it or waiting and hoping it gets better.

[00:10:59] [00:11:00] they're owning it. And I saw that in my own life and the freedom that comes with it. Really accountable. When you truly take accountability for everything in your life, you gain the power to change anything in your life. And then you move from being a victim to being someone who could be victorious in that matter.

[00:11:15] We've seen it in every area of our life that we've taken this mindset and it truly worked. It's freedom, it's power, it's awesome.

[00:11:23] Scott Maderer: And the book, Nobody Cares Until You Do tell us Where did that title and that idea for a book come from? And cause that's a little in your face.

[00:11:33] Robert J Hunt: It used to have a different title.

[00:11:34] When we first started writing the book, I coauthored this book with my friend Salem Thine, who's in our CEO groups has been for six years now. And we wrote this because we wanted people to understand accountability. And one of the key points in accountability is when you get to a place in your life where the pain of where you are is worse than the pain of where you're going to go.

[00:11:53] And you're going, okay, wait. Nobody cares. Nobody cares if I'm fat, broke, unhappy in my marriage, [00:12:00] miserable with my company, miserable with my finances, nobody cares. We got our own junk. We can't worry about your junk. Nobody really does care unless you care enough to do something about it. So the book is titled, Nobody Cares.

[00:12:13] I have taken that as a lesson to everyone. to do until you do. And when you do, you take control over your destiny. You have the opportunity to do something about it and then a lot of people will actually care. I found in my case, when we, 2019, we owed 90, 000 in debt and it was killing us. And it was affecting our marriage, it was affecting our faith.

[00:12:33] We were angry at God for not fixing the bad decisions that we made in our lives, getting us out of debt. it. And we just decided, look, this isn't the life we want to live anymore. And in September of 2019, we decided to sell our house and take the money from our equity and pay off all our debt. And it was horrible.

[00:12:50] It was a hard decision and we loved our house. It was huge and it had a movie theater upstairs and beautiful, big place to entertain and to have fun, but we couldn't afford it. [00:13:00] And so we decided to own our problem and to do something about it. And so we did, we sold the house. And by March of 2020, when COVID was shutting down the world, we moved into this little rental house that we live in today.

[00:13:11] And we paid off everything in April of that year. And we were debt free. And the peace that I had, was unbelievable. It's like the frog in the water where you slowly turn up the temperature and it doesn't realize it's getting hotter till it cooks itself to death. I had got myself to a place of such anxiety and such stress.

[00:13:27] I ended up getting vertigo for 16 days. The doctors couldn't figure it out. I couldn't get rid of it. It was stress related. I had worked myself into such a tizzy over this because we decided in January of 2019, if this year we don't get out of debt, we're gonna sell the house. So all year long I was stressing, I don't want to sell this house.

[00:13:43] Lord, come fix my problems, please. And he's no, you. I gave you plenty of money. You wasted it. You just, you got to own this one. All those things to be saying is that when we finally took accountability for our life We were able to change it and life is way better when you own it And we're just taking one thing at [00:14:00] a time and owning it and it's a total game changer

[00:14:05] Scott Maderer: So when you think about that, you went through that with a personal situation, but what holds people back from actually taking that ownership or that accountability whenever they find themselves in a situation like that?

[00:14:16] Robert J Hunt: I think most people don't even recognize that they're not being accountable. I think they fall into the traps that we fell into, which is the first part of the book that talks about the traps that people fall into. They say they blame other people. They make excuses. They say there's nothing they could do about it, or they just wait and hope.

[00:14:33] better and nothing gets b always gets worse.

[00:14:38] Scott Maderer: Or if I'll be back. I externalize it. So I'll u as an example, but there

[00:14:48] Fill in the blank. My life will get better. By the way, it doesn't matter who you put in that blank. That's not a Democrat or Republican comment. That's just a, we externalize it a lot of times [00:15:00] too. Have you seen that?

[00:15:01] Robert J Hunt: Yeah. I think a lot of people spend their life saying life will get better when blank happens.

[00:15:05] There's always a blank. And the reality is your life can be great right now. I did a presentation to a group of people who are out of jobs on Monday of this week. Executives in transition here in Dallas, and I asked them the question at the beginning of the presentation, are you living the life you want?

[00:15:21] And they looked at me like I was insane. They're like, we all have don't have jobs, right? I said, what's it got to do with living the life you want? You have to learn to live your life the way you want as the circumstances change when you. When you have a kid, your life changes, and it's really hard.

[00:15:37] But you should live the life you want while you have the kid, because someday they move out, and then you have to live your life when they're gone. And everything you're doing, when you didn't have a job, you have all this time to maybe pick up the kids from school, maybe visit with friends you haven't seen in a long time, maybe work on yourself and work on your marriage and all these things.

[00:15:53] But instead you spend all your time thinking life will get better when blank happens. The blank in this case is get a job. But the moment you get a [00:16:00] job, all you do is work your butt off cause you got a brand new job. I gotta really prove myself here. I gotta put in long hours. I gotta be dedicated and show them I'm worthy.

[00:16:06] And then next thing you know, you've lost yourself again in another job. So if you can't practice the art of living the life you want when you're in every circumstance, broke, rich, sick, healthy, everything, you'll never have the life you want.

[00:16:24] Scott Maderer: And I believe there's a passage in the book that you and I both read that mentions that about, let me be content when I have all things, let me be content when I have nothing

[00:16:33] It's an idea. Yeah. And that guy goes on to say, contentment,

[00:16:37] Robert J Hunt: because if I get too much I'll forget about you, and if I don't get enough, I'll curse you. And man, that's so us, we need something. And then, and we're like, oh God, please help me out. Help me out. And then he gives it to us and we're like.

[00:16:46] Good. See ya. I'll call you back when I'm out of a job.

[00:16:51] Scott Maderer: I'll call you when I need you. But yeah, don't call me. I'll call you. But yeah, it's, it, I think accountability [00:17:00] is tied in some ways to having that sense of contentment. no matter what situation you're in, it changes the way your mindset looks at the situation in a way.

[00:17:10] Robert J Hunt: Contentment is not the absence of drive. Contentment isn't laziness. Contentment isn't just going I'll just live with this. That's being lazy. And I'm anti lazy.

[00:17:19] Scott Maderer: I agree.

[00:17:19] Robert J Hunt: I think contentment is this idea that I will do my best and I'll leave the results to God. So when a farmer plants corn, he puts the seed in the ground.

[00:17:28] First he has to prep the soil, puts the seed in the ground, he waters it, he weeds it, and he keeps the animals from it. But he doesn't determine how many stalks of corn grow, or how healthy they are. He is content that he did all the work he could do. He can bring water to it, he can, one bucket at a time if he has to.

[00:17:44] But he can do a lot, but he cannot determine how many ears of corn and how healthy the ears of corn are. So contentment is to leave the results up to God and to be content with that. But it does not negate excellence. It does not negate driving and pushing yourself for things. And I think accountability is the idea that [00:18:00] you own it, but excellence comes from the level of how the discipline you do, and you're not being lazy in how you attack it.

[00:18:06] Yeah.

[00:18:07] Scott Maderer: And I would point out to people, by the way, we do have a word for the other, that lazy sense that you're talking about. It's called complacency. That's not the word contentment, yes, that's right. Cause you're right. A lot of times people hear the word contentment, but what they're actually thinking of is, complacency, which is where you sit back and go, I have no control over it.

[00:18:25] Whatever happens.

[00:18:27] Robert J Hunt: Yeah,

[00:18:27] Scott Maderer: that's different than what you're talking about.

[00:18:29] Robert J Hunt: And I would argue for those of us who are Christ followers that we are truly accountable to God. The only person you could ever be accountable to is God. And you will be accountable to God. Someday you will show up in heaven and he's going to go, I don't know how he's going to do it, but it says in the Bible, you will be accountable for all the things you've done, good or bad.

[00:18:45] And so we need to take that seriously. Because we, we got the opportunity to live in America and a lot of people don't live in America. Heck, we live in Texas. We live in the best part of America. We have healthy kids. Darn we have healthy [00:19:00] kids. We have jobs. We have a house. I go to bed every night, sleeping in a warm bed.

[00:19:03] Some people sleep on the street or some people have tiny apartments with a bunch of people that share it. we're so rich and so blessed. And all we do is complain. And I think that's sad that God must just shake his head and go, wow, not only did I give you everything, I died for you. And all you want to do is complain that you don't have enough money or that your spouse is difficult or that the government is the stop it, be thankful, be grateful for what you've already got, and then get out and live a life that shows that you're grateful.

[00:19:33] Scott Maderer: How does that attitude of accountability, gratitude, contentment, all of these things that we're talking about, these mindset things, how do those actually affect. Let's assume that we move towards having them and we, begin to exhibit that. What's the positive effects? How does that affect our mindset or our spiritual life or walk?

[00:19:55] Robert J Hunt: You could imagine if you see the difference between living as a victim or living [00:20:00] victoriously, your spirit is broken down and beat up when you live as a victim. everything happens to you. You're just screwed. You got a bad boss. You got a bad marriage. You got horrible kids. You got bad health. You get finances bad.

[00:20:11] Everything happens to you. But if you take ownership of it, It's yours and maybe it's screwed up right now, but you can do something about it. So there's hope. And when we realized that we were 90, 000 in debt, that was a really tough wake up call. It's not like we didn't notice it. We noticed it at 40.

[00:20:29] We noticed it at 60. We noticed it at 80. It wasn't like, Hey, we're 90, 000. Where'd that come from? And we woke up one day and realized we're not going to live like this any longer. And the idea that you can take control of it and own it is exciting. And even though the journey is really hard, Hey, it's hard to be a victim.

[00:20:46] Your life is miserable, but when you have a path towards where you want to go, and yes, it's hard, But I'd rather have a hard life chasing where I want to be than a hard life stuck where I don't want to be. And in the second half of [00:21:00] the book, once you realize nobody cares until you do, we give you a plan for how to move towards a place of where you want to be.

[00:21:07] You acknowledge the reality, you embrace the suck, you find a solution and you make it happen. And that's the second half of the book. And we walk you through stories and examples and details and exercises to do this because we did it. And we still do it today. We're doing it in our businesses. We're doing our personal life and it really does change the way you look at life.

[00:21:26] Scott Maderer: How does this play out in helping people find, and we talk about balance. I actually hate that word, find that that place where they're able to focus on Their relationships, their work, their, we've all got so many different areas that we're all trying to juggle and deal with, how do you see this playing out and helping people find that place of balance or harmony that works for them?

[00:21:52] Robert J Hunt: One of the reasons why we play victims is because we say things like I can't do this, or I don't have the money for this, or I don't have the time for that. Those are all [00:22:00] lies. The reality is you have the time and money for whatever you want. You just don't want it bad enough, or you've lost the hope that you can do something about it.

[00:22:08] And so what I've taught my clients to do is to understand that when you have overload, you lose your ability to make good decisions and be productive. So in order to avoid overload, we create margin in our lives. Margin is the antidote for the quest of work life balance, which does not exist. So rather than chase this illusion of work life balance, just create a world of margin where there's room for the unexpected.

[00:22:33] So if you book your calendar, for 10 hours of actual meetings and phone calls and activities a day, you're going to fail because something's going to go wrong. The car is going to get a flat. The client's going to call you. Your kid's going to call you. There's always something that's going to go, he's

[00:22:46] Scott Maderer: got to run over whatever.

[00:22:47] So yeah.

[00:22:48] Robert J Hunt: And then you show up to the next meeting late and everyone's mad at you. Feel stressed. So then you answer the email incorrectly and you're barking at people 'cause you're overloaded and stressed. So if you don't even manage your time, which is the easiest one, you can measure it [00:23:00] and you can control it, and it's a finite amount.

[00:23:01] If you don't manage that well, nothing else will get managed. So we start with time and we refuse to book ourselves to a place of exhaustion. So every day you should not book up more than 60, 70% of your day in actual committed time. That way you can say, okay, someone needs help, I can stop and talk to them, or my car breaks down or, whatever.

[00:23:21] So that's just the one bucket, there's time. Then there's money, health, and emotions. And the first three all eat up the emotional bucket, and I can't really measure where I am on my emotional bucket. So I guard that the holy grail, by making sure the time, money, and emotion, or time, money, and health, are created solid, healthy, defined margins.

[00:23:40] And then I just live my life that way. It's that easy. Once you get the habit of establishing room for the unexpected, and that includes your money. Most people live beyond their own finances. If I make a hundred thousand and I spend a hundred and ten thousand and I put it on a credit card and I pay it later with the next year's money.

[00:23:56] I'm just waiting to catch up with myself. But we want you to [00:24:00] live with margin. tithe your 10 percent that honors the Lord for what the gracious money he's provided, but then we want you to put another 10 percent away. And save and have it for when something goes wrong and then live modestly with the rest of it.

[00:24:12] God gives us that whole 90 percent of our money to do whatever we want with it, but it's still his money and he still expects us to use it well. And I think if we can create margin in our money when someone is hurting and needs help, you'll have money to help them. You could actually give a friend some money when their car breaks down and they're broke.

[00:24:29] You could be that guy who helps other people when they need help. That's the solution to avoiding overload and getting burned out.

[00:24:36] Scott Maderer: My wife and I loved it when we added to our budget a line that's just says spontaneous giving. And we literally just set aside a little bit of money every month and my, my wife occasionally will come home and be like I bought some fireman's lunch today, or, or, or I'll come home and be like, Hey I bought the, I bought a homeless guy lunch today or, whatever we did, it shows up a million different ways, but it's, [00:25:00] it gives us that flexibility and freedom to just, Not worry about it.

[00:25:03] We get to do this is

[00:25:04] Robert J Hunt: where you proactively create the life you want to live. Every time we got to an intersection, my wife would always be freaked out by people asking for money and it would make her nervous. Like they're going to bust the window down and take her purse or something. And so I said, listen, why don't we just proactively create something that takes the awkwardness out of it?

[00:25:20] So we went out and bought 10 Chick fil A cards and put a 10 bill and a note that says, Hey, I don't know your story, But you're still a child of God. And we just want to give you this money and say, God bless you. And ask the Lord to protect and provide for you and let you know that someone out here loves you.

[00:25:35] And we've, we put them in our armrests of our car. So when we get to intersections, we're actually looking for people to give it to versus trying to avoid them. And that comes out of our giving fund, where we get to be able to give graciously like you're talking about. And so if you proactively create the life you want, instead of having to react to things that are thrust upon you, life is way better.

[00:25:56] Scott Maderer: Yeah it's moving to a proactive mindset as opposed to reactive mindset. [00:26:00] So I've got a few questions that I like to ask all of my guests, but before I go there, is there anything else about your book or accountability that you want to share with listener?

[00:26:10] Robert J Hunt: Yeah, I think the best way to get started in this whole awareness of accountability is go to nobodycaresbook.

[00:26:15] com and take the satisfaction assessment. It's free. We don't ask for your information. Just go on to the website, look under resources and fill out a satisfaction assessment and declare honestly really honestly, how is your marriage compared to what you thought it would be the day you got married?

[00:26:31] How is your faith compared to the day that you first met God? And score honestly how satisfied you are in your business and your personal life. And then ask yourself why am I not satisfied in these areas? And then look for the traps that are blame and excuse, or say, I can't do anything about it, or I'll wait and hope it gets better.

[00:26:48] And if you find those things there, you're in the trap. You need to do something about it. You need to own it. That's the first step towards really understanding what accountability looks like.

[00:26:59] Scott Maderer: So a [00:27:00] question I like to ask all of my guests, my brand is inspired stewardship, and I run things through that lens of stewardship.

[00:27:06] And yet that's one of those words that I've discovered means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. So when you hear the word stewardship, what does that word mean to you?

[00:27:15] Robert J Hunt: Yeah it's how we take care of what God gave us and I guess, or whatever responsibility you have. So if I have my own company, so I'm a steward of that.

[00:27:24] It's how I take care of it. It's how I use it, invest it protect it, grow it. That is stewardship. It's getting a good return. I always think back to the parable of the talents in the Bible where God gave some person, Ten and some person five and some person one and or whatever the numbers were.

[00:27:42] And then he says, go, I'm going away for a while. And he comes back and the first two guys did a good job doubling their return. And God was really pleased with them. And the further guy just buried and say, here you go. I'll give it back to you. Stewardship is giving God back what he deserves for the gracious gift he gave you.

[00:27:57] And you should be of good. You steward of a [00:28:00] good investor. Can't use the word to define the word I know, but you have to be a good investor optimizer of that resource.

[00:28:09] Scott Maderer: So this is my favorite question that I like to ask everybody. Imagine for a moment that I could invent this magic machine. Then with this machine, I could take you from where you are today.

[00:28:19] and transport you into the future, maybe 150, maybe 250 years. And through the power of this machine, you were able to look back and see your entire life, see all of the connections, see all of the ripples, see all of the impacts you've left. What impact do you hope you've left in the world?

[00:28:36] Robert J Hunt: I want the people who know me or knew me to know I love them.

[00:28:41] In my vision of my business. My vision statement. It says I'm creating a community where business leaders feel loved and cared for while they pursue their personal and professional goals. That is my vision for my business. I'll make money along the way, but what really gives me joy is that the clients I have, the people in [00:29:00] my world know I love them.

[00:29:04] Scott Maderer: So what's on the roadmap? What's coming next as you continue on this journey?

[00:29:08] Robert J Hunt: I want to go and do workshops and talk about the principles of accountability through our book. Nobody cares until you do anywhere in the world. I want to go to countries and groups and businesses and organizations, whoever will bring me in to talk and tell the story and teach the principles of accountability to create a culture where people feel empowered to live the life they really want and bring that to work every day.

[00:29:32] I've done two workshops last year. They were great. Very successful and we had a lot of fun, but it's a lot of work to do a workshop, getting it set up and getting in the room filled and running it, it was exhausting. And I got a business to run. This is not my business. This is my joy. So if anyone, it will fill a room and invite people and get 'em to show up.

[00:29:51] I'll come present this principle and I want to teach people that life is better when you own it.

[00:29:58] Scott Maderer: So you can find out more [00:30:00] about Robert over on his website for his business at refdallas. com or find out more about the book at nobodycaresbook. com. Of course, I'll have links to both of those over the show notes as well.

[00:30:12] Robert, is there anything else you'd like to share with the listener?

[00:30:16] Robert J Hunt: Yeah, my theme for this year is intentional living and the idea of life is short, so don't be lazy. And I found myself being lazy a lot last year. Lazy, you know you're supposed to do something and you don't do it. Or you know you shouldn't do something and you do it.

[00:30:29] It's lazy. And I think if we keep using the word lazy, it's so offensive. It's like our book, Nobody Cares. It's an offensive kind of phrase. But we want you to feel the ouch of the phrase. You're being lazy. Because nobody would want to be called that. But when you don't do what you know you should do, you're being lazy.

[00:30:46] And when you do something you know you shouldn't do, you're being lazy. So really think about it. Why are you being lazy? And what would it take to change that? Because I think we're being more lazy than we really recognize.[00:31:00]

[00:31:01] Yeah, and one other thing I want to make sure I mention. I have created a URL for this podcast. If anyone goes to nobodycarespod. com I use the code word inspired. I will send them a copy of my book at no charge. If you want to read this book and let it change your life and you can't afford it, I will mail you a copy for free.

[00:31:20] It's available on Amazon or my website, but if money's tight, I would love to give you a copy for free. So nobody cares pod. com use the code word inspired and I'll mail you a copy.

[00:31:32] Scott Maderer: Awesome. Thanks so much for that.

[00:31:48] 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 [00:32:00] 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 inspiredstewardship.

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