Episode 1527: Interview with Elizabeth Brickman Author of Wealth-Blessed

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining us on episode 1,527 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

[00:00:07] Elizabeth Brickman: I'm Elizabeth Brickman. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others. Develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, talent, and treasures to live out Your calling. Your life is no accident. The Bible tells us in Ephesians two 10 that he has tasks planned for us to do, change the relationship with money.

[00:00:33] You'll change the trajectory of your life. One way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this The Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my friend Scott Maderer.

[00:00:53] Wealth blessed is not a statement of net worth. It's a statement of net trust. [00:01:00] It is a statement of net contentment in God's provision. God owns all the wealth. We own nothing. So no matter how many homes we own, we are all renters.

[00:01:13] 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 learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling.

[00:01:28] 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.

[00:01:47] In this podcast episode I interview Elizabeth Brickman. I ask Elizabeth to share how her faith reset her entire relationship with money, both personally and professionally. Elizabeth also shares [00:02:00] how her new book, wealth Blessed isn't about net worth, but rather net trust. And I also ask Elizabeth to share some of the problems and challenges Christians have when it comes to money.

[00:02:11] 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. You can find out more about that book over an inspired living book.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.

[00:02:33] I'd love to see you. Get a copy and share with me how it impacted your world. Elizabeth Brickman is a compassionate expert in the world of financial advising and spiritual wellness, better known as the Caring Advisor. Elizabeth is also a multi-award winning author whose new four book series, starting With Wealth Blessed is available now.

[00:02:55] Her book will change Reader's Lives as a wealth confident woman in a [00:03:00] profession dominated by male voices. Elizabeth adds a unique perspective that enriches hearts, heals financial hurts, and invigorates generosity Through her writing, public Speaking, and The Caring Advisor podcast, Elizabeth offers a distinctive approach to wealth.

[00:03:16] She helps her audience develop the inner resources of high achievers by tapping into God's power to grow their financial and relational lives with confidence and Christ-centered happiness. Her spiritual insights are rich, loving and lighthearted. A former nationally recognized award-winning financial advisor and president of her registered investment advisory firm.

[00:03:37] Elizabeth has a proven track record of success as a certified kingdom advisor. Elizabeth is credentialed to provide financial counsel from a biblical perspective. Elizabeth offers a much needed perspective connecting finance to emotional and spiritual wellness. Her style is engaging, approachable, and fun.

[00:03:56] She motivates her readers to achieve victorious [00:04:00] breakthroughs via innovative faith-based strategies. Elizabeth loves her life in sunny South Florida with her beloved husband of over 30 years, and her pet orchid. Ophelia Elizabeth is happiest when tucked in her home library, cappuccino in hand, reading, writing, thinking, and praying.

[00:04:18] Welcome to the show, Elizabeth.

[00:04:19] Elizabeth Brickman: Thank you Scott. I'm so glad to be here.

[00:04:22] Scott Maderer: Absolutely. I'm glad to have you on. I talked a little bit in the intro about some of your history, some of the things you've done, public speaking, being a advisor, doing all of these different things, and now of course you've got a book coming out.

[00:04:37] Wealth, bless that. We'll talk a little bit more, but can you share a little bit deeper with folks? I always think of intros as kinda like Instagram photos. They show us in the best possible light, and yet I know that our journey is never really that straight of a line, that we connect those dots. So share a little bit more about your journey and what brought you to the point of wanting to put this message out in the [00:05:00] world.

[00:05:00] Elizabeth Brickman: I think the Lord had this in mind from when I was very little. I am a. Riches to rags story. When I was raised early on that's not the

[00:05:10] Scott Maderer: direction that

[00:05:14] she didn't say that wrong folks. She really meant that keep going.

[00:05:18] Elizabeth Brickman: By the time I was 10 years old, I knew what it was to be rich and to be poor. I was raised initially in a family that had great wealth and they lost everything when I was nine years old. It was like a slow tumbling. First we lost the housekeeper and then we lost the whole house, and so we were left in a situation where I grew up, probably supposed to be poor, bereft or forsaken.

[00:05:45] I was on that track and the Lord took me on a winding road and I became a financial advisor, and I also became a Christian. And what I. Discovered after being a financial [00:06:00] advisor. Was that there are a whole lot of wonderful people walking around, including wonderful Christians, Scott, who struggle with how they see themselves with their identity in Christ as it relates to money.

[00:06:16] Some of them, are trying to resist that prosperity gospel, which is a false doctrine. Others think it's holy to just hate money and they're just gonna be poor and they're just gonna be miserable. And many people use money in a way that expresses some unhealed. Damage within them. We use money to punish to please people.

[00:06:40] We don't need to be pleasing to prove things that we don't need to be proving. We use money in all sorts of ways

[00:06:48] Scott Maderer: to self-medicate.

[00:06:49] Elizabeth Brickman: Yes, because we are just unhealed with some things. My book is a little bit like going to the chiropractor financially. Just a few tweaks, turning to what the Lord says [00:07:00] and also.

[00:07:01] Allowing him to do his financial therapy within us. Because it needs to start from the inside out. There's nothing outside you that can make things right within you. So even if someone gives you a million dollars, you inherit a billion dollars. It cannot make things right within you, and it might make things worse.

[00:07:22] Scott Maderer: I actually talk to people about money being what I call a magnifying glass. Yes. And what I mean is. It tends to magnify the character and the behavior that you already have. Yeah. So if you're disorganized and sloppy and you get money, now you're disorganized and sloppy on a bigger scale.

[00:07:39] If you, that's right. If you're mean and hateful, now you're hate, mean and hateful on a bigger scale, if you're kind and giving. Now you're kind and giving on a bigger scale. It takes the things that you are and just magnifies them.

[00:07:52] Elizabeth Brickman: So true.

[00:07:53] Scott Maderer: So on you, yourself, did you go through a period where you were struggling with that [00:08:00] belief around money?

[00:08:01] Did you know, did you feel like you grew up and you always kinda had it and I understood it from day one? Or is it something that you had to go through your own kind of transformation and how you understood money?

[00:08:11] Elizabeth Brickman: I think that the problem is that I may have expected to be on the path of somebody who just didn't have enough, because from age nine until adulthood, there was no safety net, there were no funds.

[00:08:28] I really had to figure out how to navigate my path and then the Lord stepped in when I was in my early twenties. I was already working. I was always working two jobs. I was always doing a daytime job, and then I was al always doing something at night to enhance my future. Either going to school or teaching a class or doing a second job.

[00:08:51] Just always something to better myself. And one of those night classes, one of my students. Stepped in and asked me a question, [00:09:00] a spiritual question, and she was a stranger. I had just met her. It was really the first night of the class and she, it just pierced my heart. The Holy Spirit used her to pierce my heart, and that's when all of a sudden all I could think about was Jesus.

[00:09:19] And I never said anything to anyone, and weeks passed and I finally got on the. Phone and called my student who was quite a bit older than me. I was in my early twenties and she was in her forties, and I just said, I could you just tell me a little more about what you said last week? And she said, I've been praying for you.

[00:09:41] I'm so glad you called. And I was stunned. I said, you've been praying for me. I was living in such a secular survival mindset that it never had occurred to me that the Lord could be part of my making my way. And so I know you talk about faith [00:10:00] intersecting with your life. And intersection is a perfect word because I was at an intersection if the Lord hadn't stopped me.

[00:10:08] Cold and caused me to surrender my life to him. I would've been on a very different path and ended up with a very different life. And no matter how successful financially I might have become, I would've been spiritually impoverished. I would've lived a cold, brutal life, even if I had become a success.

[00:10:31] But when I surrendered everything. To the Lord, which I did. We, the student who talked to me had several phone calls with me. I went to visit her. We had a lot of conversations about the Lord, and maybe a month or two later, I finally was willing to surrender every part of my being to him. And that's when I became a born again spirit-filled Christian.

[00:10:54] And what that did for me, aside from what we know is the obvious. Is [00:11:00] it allowed me to reboot my life and start fresh right where I was. So all of a sudden it was like putting on glasses when you've been blood, everything was new. The way I approached everything, what I wanted from everything Now, I still was very ambitious.

[00:11:16] I want, I was. Managing a business and I was doing a self business on the side at night. I still was driven to do that, but in an entirely different way and for an entirely different reason. Talk about freedom.

[00:11:32] Scott Maderer: Yeah. One of the things too, I want to draw out or follow up on, on that when, a lot of times I think people, hear a faith moment, a moment where.

[00:11:43] They see things differently. They, they hear that about somebody, and I just want to draw this out to make it real obvious. So instantly at that moment, everything in your life got perfect and you were thriving and money just showed up and, isn't that how that works?

[00:11:58] Oh, yeah. No. [00:12:00] Yeah. No. Things got much worse. Much, much worse. Because now I, now was the time where I was technically a baby Christian. I was a grown woman struggling, but I was a baby Christian, and so I just noticed things I didn't notice before. The lack of integrity of my employers. The, I looked at my future and my present in an entirely different way, and I was given an opportunity.

[00:12:29] Elizabeth Brickman: Out of the blue to take on a different job, a much higher paying job. And I was cautioned not to take that opportunity, but something in me, which I know was the Lord told me to go ahead and do it anyway, but I went into it. With my eyes opened knowing it was not really going to be a perfectly good thing.

[00:12:53] And I worked for one year on a project that completely elevated me professionally, but at the end of that [00:13:00] year, the. Owners of the company swindled me out of my one year salary bonus and ran off to Saudi Arabia and I had been living in a company apartment driving a company car, earning a cushy salary, and now I had no job, no car and no home.

[00:13:21] It was the closest thing to total devastation that I have ever experienced. But through that experience within. Within a week, someone who was going to be away for a month offered me to use their car. I was able to have a place to stay. I was able to get a, not a good job, but a temporary job. And within a matter of weeks, I was offered the chance to open my own business and be funded.

[00:13:49] So God used that and through that experience, I met the man who would. 20 years later become my husband. So the everything was used, whatever was intended [00:14:00] against me, worked for good. But what happened was I ended up going into a very different business and I did it kicking and screaming.

[00:14:09] I did not want to become a financial advisor. It had never even come on the radar. But what happened was I was working in a business and it was just. Ethically not a good fit. I just didn't like what they were doing and so how do I support myself? So I decided to go into the income tax business and I didn't want to, but my whole family had been in that business.

[00:14:33] I had been tutored and schooled and I knew what I was doing. So I opened this tax business and people started asking me to help them with their. Financial planning, and I was not equipped. So I told them no. And then finally one day, like a lightning bolt, the Lord hit me and I said, why?

[00:14:52] Why not? And so I went back to school at night, doing my business in the day and became a financial planner. What's [00:15:00] really ironic is that my brother, who went through the same childhood experience as I also accidentally became a financial advisor. So I think the Lord gave us both a passion to make sure that what had happened to us will not happen to any other person, but we.

[00:15:19] Neither of us saw that at the time,

[00:15:21] Scott Maderer: absolutely. Yeah. I, and I just wanted to call that out because it's, I think it's funny that and I think it's back to, you were talking earlier about the Prosperity Gospel and some of the messages that are come to Christians about money and this kind of false belief that we're promised a life of comfort and ease.

[00:15:38] And, ev everything's. Rainbows and kittens and it's that's not actually the promise that's made. Now again, all things will work towards good, so it's not right. It's not that the bad stuff is there to punish you or to hurt you or to beat you up, but there are things that you can learn.

[00:15:55] From and live into where you're blessed. Even in the, you find [00:16:00] joy in the bad times. You find joy in the good times, it's different joy, but you find joy, I needed

[00:16:04] Elizabeth Brickman: to learn to walk with God financially. I had compartmentalized my life, even as an early Christian, and I thought the Lord is the spiritual part of my life, and finances are a separate part of my life.

[00:16:17] And as I began to really read. The word of God looking at it financially, which by the way, the Book of Proverbs alone was worth my entire certified financial planning. Program. Yeah. But because it really will teach you about it. It's better

[00:16:33] Scott Maderer: than an MBA too know you, you learn more in Proverbs than you do in an mba.

[00:16:37] I know.

[00:16:38] Elizabeth Brickman: And it's so easy to read, too bite-sized pieces. Read the same chapter as the day of the month and you're done a couple of minutes a day. And I read it again and again but I learned to walk with the Lord financially and be a steward of whatever little or much he chose. I. To [00:17:00] allow me to manage of his money.

[00:17:04] Scott Maderer: So let's talk a little bit about the book. So the title is Wealth Blessed and there's baggage that comes along with that title, I think. So what does it mean when you say Wealth Blessed?

[00:17:15] Elizabeth Brickman: Okay, the full title is Wealth Blessed. Why Good People Lose Everything and Why You Don't Have To.

[00:17:22] Wealth Blessed is not a statement of net worth. It's a statement of net trust. It's a statement of net contentment in God's provision. God owns all the wealth. We own nothing. So no matter how many homes we own, we are all renters. And so we want to allow the Lord to. Bless us by not interfering with what he, not only what he says to do about money, but all the interferences that get in the way from childhood on, for example, [00:18:00] as a child who lost everything and became poor, but already knew what it was like to live in a rich way without God's intervention.

[00:18:09] Healing I might have. Who knows what way I might have responded to success. Maybe I would've bought myself everything to prove that I have money. Or maybe I would have, only God knows what mixed up thing I might do. But as a financial advisor, what I've discovered to my shock was that helping all these clients who had worked hard to acquire.

[00:18:35] A measure of wealth, and most of my clients were Christians. What I discovered was that those childhood wounds or even adult wounds, they hound us. They distract us. In some cases, they can derail us, and so we need to expose all of those little things to the Lord and ask for his healing. Now, there's another thing that I learned that was fascinating and [00:19:00] that is.

[00:19:01] If you are the first person in your family to have some money, some wealth, some affluence, if there's no other person in your family who modeled what a godly lifestyle is with money, then you're just going to guess what And where will you learn how people are with money? What from television commercials.

[00:19:23] From Televis, secular television shows that have a very different moral code. How will you know how to live? So one thing that Wealth Bless the book does is I model, oh, about 40 different elements of clients. Who lived in a wealth blessed way, how they thought about things, how they emotionally responded, even their different styles.

[00:19:50] I use mind, heart, spirit, and style. How they relate to money in these four ways. And if they're just fun little things. For example, you [00:20:00] might think if I have a lot of money, I'm just gonna buy the best car and I'm gonna trade it every year. But wealth blessed people. We'll often buy a moderate car and hold it for seven years or more.

[00:20:11] And, but yet there are also very different styles that are all acceptable. And so the book shows you how to prioritize and how to understand what's right for you.

[00:20:22] Scott Maderer: Some of that too backing up to what you said about where are you gonna learn from it I've also seen folks. Let's face it, you mentioned secular TV and those sorts of things, but even a lot of the message we get within Christian circles around money is not necessarily the most biblically based or healthy of attitudes around it. I see that as well,

[00:20:44] Elizabeth Brickman: and I can understand how that happens. Those of us who truly want to be holy and live for the Lord, we don't wanna love money because that is a sin. And so some of us think the only alternative is to hate money.

[00:20:58] The problem is [00:21:00] who is going to fund churches and ministries and kingdom initiatives? If we decline the opportunities God gives us to earn and give, isn't it better to earn and be a participant in all that God wants to do financially rather than to just disparage money? Because if. If all the wealth leaves the Christians and goes into the hands of those who don't believe in the Lord who's going to do this?

[00:21:29] So he has appointed each of us to do certain things. It's Ephesians two 10. He's got tasks for us to do. Those tasks may or may not include. Being a carrier of his wealth and passing it on to his initiatives. Now we can never have more than he ordains, but we can have a whole lot less if we don't do it his way.

[00:21:55] Scott Maderer: When you think about those challenges that come to us, you mentioned the past traumas or [00:22:00] the traumas that we have now, or. Going out and performing, we call it keeping up with the Joneses, but really it's just performing for others. It's part of, it's often a sin of pride that's being shown.

[00:22:11] That's right. When we talk about. This for people of faith? What have you seen that is helping block or help blocking their understanding or their behavior around the way they relate to money?

[00:22:26] Elizabeth Brickman: That's a really good question, and I think the single biggest issue that I've seen is. Sometimes when we, when we meet the Lord, okay the old is dead and we're a new person.

[00:22:41] But if we don't embrace our new I identity in Christ, if we just because the old identity is dead. We're left in that never land. We're not confident, we're not Christ confident. And so a poor identity will affect how we use [00:23:00] money. So some of us are very successful and still see ourselves through damaged eyes.

[00:23:05] And part of what I do is help people see themselves as God sees them. A very worthy one of a kind, much needed person in this world.

[00:23:18] Scott Maderer: Another area that I talk a lot about with folks both in my coaching business as well as on the podcast, is the mindset versus the math. And I'll be transparent, I have seen a lot of financial advisors, not all by any means, but a lot will focus on the math side and not talk about the mons mindset or the goals or the behavior and that side.

[00:23:39] What have you seen as that balance between kind of. Focusing on the math, and focusing on the mindset and the behavior side when it comes to finances.

[00:23:48] Elizabeth Brickman: God says it's appropriate for us to work and earn, not to be looking for handouts, but it is also even more appropriate that we give.

[00:23:59] [00:24:00] Now, you can't give if you have nothing to give. So you do need to earn and be an active participant in, in life. But I think the issue is that if we have a love of money. We are headed in a very bad place. So if our mindset is simply, the Bible says PSAL Proverbs 2120 the one of the translations says, the wise man saves for the future.

[00:24:27] The foolish man spends whatever he gets. So saving is appropriate. We know working is God's will, but the mother load of financial happiness comes through. Generosity. That is God's heart. If you want to merge your heart with God's heart, give something and you will experience a feeling of intimacy with God, a feeling of confidence, a feeling of wellness and [00:25:00] contentment like you've never experienced before.

[00:25:03] Scott Maderer: And honestly, I would challenge people too, because I have heard people say, I don't have enough to give. And the truth is, there's always a way to give, maybe it's time instead of money. Okay. Maybe it's, giving in a different way. Okay. But there's still ways to get involved with generosity.

[00:25:24] It's not an income problem, it's a mindset and a heart problem.

[00:25:29] Elizabeth Brickman: We all love physical fitness and becoming physically fit and we know that we work a muscle and we work our biceps and then it, we work it to failure to the point where it, and then we say, yay, that's good, because that means in a few days it's gonna be stronger, and then the next workout is better and we increase our weights that we work out with well.

[00:25:49] It's the same with generosity. You start today, you start where you are, you write the biggest check you can or give the biggest amount through. Whatever means you can. That [00:26:00] may be $10 this week, that may be a hundred dollars. And then allow God to build that generosity muscle. As he does that, he seems to provide more for you to give.

[00:26:15] Now, that doesn't mean that it's a straight line. My husband and I went through a really bad 10 years after we had learned this and we learned what it was to prune. Our disposable spending. And so what we did. During that time, and I'm not taking credit for it, I'm thanking God that he gave us the mindset to do it.

[00:26:37] But instead of taking back what we were giving, we just cut back on frivolous things. So instead of a European vacation, it was a one night stay across town to get away. We cut back on that and we kept to our giving goals. And that's another good point. Set a goal. Set a giving goal. No matter where you are you just barely getting [00:27:00] by?

[00:27:01] Set a goal that this year you will give a certain amount, and I would even incorporate now, I hope no criminal is listening. I would incorporate that goal into your passwords to remind yourself every time you're typing in a password of what that giving goal is, it needs to be before you every hour of the day.

[00:27:22] And what we found is every time we set a goal. Instead of saying, how much should we give, it was, wow, we're work. Look at this. We're 60% of the way for the year and every year increase that goal just a little bit. It's amazing when we do the littlest thing, God seems to do the biggest thing. It's almost like the parent standing behind you when you're on the bike and you go to a two wheeler and you're trying, wow, I'm gonna do it.

[00:27:51] And you don't realize your parent is right behind you. Making sure. That you don't fall. And if you do fall, he picks you up.

[00:27:58] Scott Maderer: Yeah. I've even had [00:28:00] folks so you see this a lot when people are quote, getting out of debt, but I've ha I've done it as well with generosity or giving where put a big thermometer or whatever on your refrigerator and you color it in as you go, this is my giving goal for the year. And you fill it in, making it something visual is. For a lot of folks, motivating, like you said, where you see it and this is what I've said I'm going to do and this is what I've promised and then follow through on that.

[00:28:23] I think it's good feedback. Only you know what your temptations are. I'll give you a little secret. So I, because of my childhood, I loved to save because that's how I felt secure. And as I grew more successful in my business, I would, I was thrilled when I could take a chunk of money and put it in savings.

[00:28:45] Elizabeth Brickman: But what I learned to do, and believe me, it was not easy at first, but I learned to say, okay, I am never going to save. More than I give. So if I was going to put a thousand dollars just to use a round number [00:29:00] away, I forced myself at first to say, Nope, I'm going to give 500 and save 500. And as the numbers rose, it wasn't as hard as it was at the beginning to say, and then it became just an automatic thing.

[00:29:15] I would never save more than I gave. I think also people should start to give. Even while they're working their way out of debt.

[00:29:26] Scott Maderer: Yeah. My, my wife and I did and it was again, like you said, it's part of that working the muscles thing too. It's getting in the habit of it, and it's from a, I.

[00:29:36] For a Christian mindset thing, again, it is helping you put money in the right place, which is, money's not my security. Money's a tool. It's a thing that God blesses us with, but it's not the security. My, my source of security needs to come from God and if that relationship gets messed up well.

[00:29:55] Your heart's not right with money. And I think that's one of the reasons we're challenged to give no matter [00:30:00] what our situation is it helps us say at the end of the day, money's not what I'm worshiping. God is where my heart is. And the money has to come second.

[00:30:08] Elizabeth Brickman: And the reason you want to do this also is, believe me, as one who for 25 years worked with successful clients, is you will never have financial happiness.

[00:30:21] Unless you have your relationship right with the Lord and the order, the holy order of how you work with money is right. So you're doing it not just to honor him and obey him, you're also doing it so that you can have some happiness along the way.

[00:30:39] Scott Maderer: 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 what you do or your book, wealth Bless, that you'd like to share with the listener?

[00:30:51] Elizabeth Brickman: Yes, we are in the midst of something that's called the Great Wealth Transfer. It started about two years ago, over [00:31:00] the next couple of decades. This is a big number. I'm gonna tell you, 84 trillion that's with a T will be passed two baby boomers and also by baby boomers. And on the surface, this sounds like a really great thing.

[00:31:15] Yay. Money's coming. But the great wealth transfer may be the worst thing because if those who inherit the funds are ill-equipped, this influx of money may distract, confuse, or even ruin them when we're given something that we don't know how to handle. Even if it's a good something, it can become dangerous and toxic.

[00:31:38] Scott, even though it was never meant to be, you would never give a lobster to a baby because they just couldn't. Handle it. So an ill-equipped heir, someone who received an inheritance may end up leaving the church or worse leaving the Lord. So we all need to be inspired and financially [00:32:00] invigorated.

[00:32:00] And that time to do that is right. It is Now, we're not too early, but we're not too late.

[00:32:10] Scott Maderer: So my brand has inspired stewardship and I run things through that lens of stewardship. And you've mentioned that word several times today while we've been talking. And yet I've also discovered that's one of those words that even in the Christian circles, it means different things to different people.

[00:32:25] So I like to ask, what does the word stewardship mean to you?

[00:32:29] Elizabeth Brickman: I love to talk about this. So stewardship to me. High level, and high as the heavens, high level management. Now, we all want to be in management, whether we realize it or not, whether it's the management of our own kids or the management of our homes, or the management of a corporation, or of our own business or of our finances.

[00:32:54] We all secretly or not love to be in management. And so [00:33:00] stewardship is a very. Happy word, because it's management of God's wealth. It's an opportunity to be coveted. They talk about C-suite managers, and that's c has to do with corporations. Because the chiefs in corporations, whether it's CFOs, CE Os, COO they are very high level management.

[00:33:22] The c and c-suite for us stands for Christ. And so it is a wonderful thing to be a steward, a high level manager worthy of being used to carry his money for his purposes. Oof. I like that. I like that. I'm gonna I'm probably going to steal some of that. You are welcome. Just to let you know that is good.

[00:33:48] Scott Maderer: I've a true artist. I steal good ideas.

[00:33:52] Elizabeth Brickman: Share it away. That's good.

[00:33:53] Scott Maderer: I will give, I will try to give credit at least the first few times I steal. Okay.

[00:33:57] Elizabeth Brickman: I appreciate that.

[00:33:59] Scott Maderer: So [00:34:00] this is my favorite question that I love to ask everybody. Imagine for a moment, Elizabeth, that I invented this magic machine.

[00:34:06] And with this machine, I was able to take you from where you are today and transport you into the future, maybe 150, maybe 250 years. But through the power of this machine, you were able to look back and see your entire life and see all of the ripples, all of the connections, all of the impacts you've left behind.

[00:34:24] What impact do you hope you've left in the world?

[00:34:28] Elizabeth Brickman: I would like to see people healed. Financially from whatever is keeping them from the fullness of God's provision. And I really want to see the generations that follow these people to be financially whole and well because their parents created that model that will, that will feel familiar to them to do it the right way to do it God's way.

[00:34:57] And the other thing is. I want [00:35:00] Christians to believe in themselves, in God's purposes for their lives, so they will be courageous and invigorated and purpose driven and intentional about money. I want them to feel wonderful about their very important position in this world. I, what I don't want is to see children growing up with parents who did not.

[00:35:23] Have benefit of this information and therefore unwittingly pass along habits and patterns which will then seem familiar to their children so that their children wouldn't get the benefit of living high above the financial frustration that dogs most of us, wholeness in money. A strong relationship with.

[00:35:48] Money and the Lord will open up so many possibilities for financial significance. Because, Scott, when our finances are in order and our heads are aligned with God's [00:36:00] financial instruction, we can do great things for the kingdom and we can find significance. We can do greater things than we ever imagined.

[00:36:10] Scott Maderer: So what's on the roadmap? What's coming next as you continue on this journey?

[00:36:14] Elizabeth Brickman: Ooh. I have four books coming out by the end of next year. Wow. Wealth. I Know. Who would've ever thought wealth Blessed will be out next month. Wealth Confident will be out August 19th, and that covers seven different powerful attribute that will make you rich from the inside out so that you do not repel.

[00:36:38] What you might attract, and not prosperity gospel here, but aligning yourself with the principles of the Lord. And then right now I'm working on and trying to complete the manuscript for Wealth by Design, and that's a beautiful book that will come out next year. And then finally, either late in 26 or early 27, wealth in [00:37:00] Relationship.

[00:37:01] Will come out. Plus, I'm busy with my own podcast, the Caring Advisor, which airs every other Wednesday. It's not technical, it's not coaching, it's just emotional and spiritual and it's about money. So it's a just a 15 minute. Blurb sometimes with guests. I hope you'll be on with me. Scott, you have so much to say but just a delightful little while you're driving the kids to soccer practice or or on your way to a meeting.

[00:37:32] A little uplift. Absolutely.

[00:37:42] Wealth Blessed just came out March 18th.

[00:37:53] Scott Maderer: You can find out more about Elizabeth Brickman over at her website, elizabeth brickman.com. [00:38:00] Of course. I'll have a link to that in the show notes as well. Elizabeth, anything else you'd like to share with the listener?

[00:38:07] Elizabeth Brickman: I want everyone to be encouraged that you can lift the financial direction of your life and in you can increase your capacity to hold and manage God's wealth.

[00:38:18] Your history is not your destiny unless you invite it to be so you really can close the gaps, heal the hurt, and put God at the center and you at any financial level. Can learn to use money in a way that satisfies you and glorifies God.

[00:38:44] Scott Maderer: Absolutely. Thanks so much.

[00:38:47] Elizabeth Brickman: My pleasure. Thanks for having me.

[00:38:53] Scott Maderer: Thanks so much for listening to the Inspired Stewardship podcast. As a subscriber and [00:39:00] 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.

[00:39:20] Rate 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 time, your talent, and your treasures. Develop your influence and impact the world.