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{\b\fs48 Episode 1551: Interview with Scott Yamamura, Author of "Financial Epiphany"\b0}

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf1 Scott Maderer:\b0}

{ }

{\cf2 [00:00:00]}

{ Thanks for joining us on episode 1,551 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. }

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf3 Scott Yamamura:\b0}

{ I'm Scott Yamamura, author of Financial Epiphany. Challenge yourself 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.}

{\pard \line \par}

{Recognizing the ability you have to multiply your money is key. And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this The Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my friend Scott Maderer.}

{\pard \line \par}

{Hey, you got this ability that even if you waited a few years, that's still ridiculously leveraged. The power of eight is amazing. The power of four is amazing. And so another question I get is from how about those that are 52 and just getting started and just learning you're AO K too, because }

{\cf2 [00:01:00]}

{ doubling money.}

{\pard \line \par}

{Happens here. }

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf1 Scott Maderer:\b0}

{ 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. 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.}

{\pard \line \par}

{In today's podcast episode, I interview Scott Yamamura. I asked Scott to share with you the idea behind his book Financial Epiphany. I also asked Scott about how multiplying money is an ability, not just a trick that we have. And Scott also shares with you more about calling and financial habits. I have a great book that's been out for a while now called Inspired Living.}

{\cf2 [00:02:00]}

{ }

{\pard \line \par}

{Assemble the Puzzle of your Calling by Mastering your Time, your Talent, and your Treasures. You can find out more about that book over@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. I'd love to see you get a copy and share with me how it impacted your world.}

{\pard \line \par}

{Scott Yamamura is a seasoned financial coach, communications expert, and Arthur dedicated to empowering individuals to achieve financial freedom. With over 25 years of experience in communication and design, Scott combines his deep understanding of human behavior with practical strategies to help people overcome financial paralysis.}

{\pard \line \par}

{Break free from debt and cultivate lasting wealth. As an advisory board member of the Financial Fitness Club and the Arthur of Financial Epiphany, Scott offers actionable insight that simplify complex financial concepts, making them accessible to anyone }

{\cf2 [00:03:00]}

{ eager to take control of their financial future.}

{\pard \line \par}

{Welcome to the show, Scott. }

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf3 Scott Yamamura:\b0}

{ Thanks for having me on, Scott. }

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf1 Scott Maderer:\b0}

{ Absolutely. It's gonna be easy to remember your name. This is the nice thing. What Scott are we talking about here? Hey, Scott. Scott. Scott. Scott. Anyway, yeah, we could turn that into a comedy routine, I'm sure. Thanks so much for joining today.}

{\pard \line \par}

{I talked a little bit in the intro about some of the work you've done and what you do as a coach, as a communications person, and of course now an author of your new book. At the same time, I always know that intros and bios and those sort of things, it's kinda like the highlight reel of our life.}

{\pard \line \par}

{It never really tells the whole story. Yeah. So back up for a minute and take people through, what was your journey to get to the point where this is the message that you're wanting to put out into the world. }

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf3 Scott Yamamura:\b0}

{ Sure thing. I like to consider myself as an imposter to the world of finance.}

{\pard \line \par}

{I would've never pictured myself here. A big question years ago may have been, Scott, do you wanna }

{\cf2 [00:04:00]}

{ learn more about how to maintain a house, how to maintain a car, or would you rather understand personal finance and. The other two I don't get, but I decided to go and dive into personal finance.}

{\pard \line \par}

{So and I never would've pictured myself here, but that's actually what I consider the advantage because the average person doesn't understand finances. There's a low level of financial literacy in the country. There's about 37% that would consider able to pass a financial literacy test in America.}

{\pard \line \par}

{And so that was me as well. I started timidly with finances when I started my career, I. Very common and not having a plan and not actually understanding what was happening. In fact, growing up, my mother used to say, talking about money was like talking about your underwear. And what she meant by that was it's a private topic, we shouldn't be out there boasting about our bank accounts, but on the same side, if we don't talk about money, we could be going about it just totally in a suboptimal way our }

{\cf2 [00:05:00]}

{ entire lives.}

{\pard \line \par}

{In fact, I like to say it this way. We spend 18 years of our life learning how to make the money getting educated. We spend about 40 years making the money working, and then we spend about 18 years spending the money retired. And so that's most of our life, 70 plus some years. And we may not spend one class, one week learning about this money that our life is totally intertwined with.}

{\pard \line \par}

{I came to that place where I said, okay I'm gonna choose to get past one of these intimidating things. It's gonna be money. I owe it to myself. I owe it to my son. I owe it to my wife and others in my family to, to go discover what this is all about. And once I crossed that threshold, started taking classes and reading books, I realized it wasn't so bad after all.}

{\pard \line \par}

{I like to call it a. Wolf in sheep's clothing where it's just, it's not as bad as we think. If we learn about it in a simplified way, most of us feel very intimidated and }

{\cf2 [00:06:00]}

{ overwhelmed. By the topic. But once we get over that threshold, it's not so bad. And I be, I find myself becoming very empowered. In fact, so empowered.}

{\pard \line \par}

{When I was reading books, I used to write in the margins and in the spaces I thought more than the author even. And so at that time, I. The suggestion was, Scott, why don't you write your own book? And and so I did, I spent three years writing a book, collecting those thoughts, written in the margins of all the other books I had read.}

{\pard \line \par}

{And and it really came to a head three years ago. I. Just writing and starting to develop a message that I could share with others. And as I shared that message with others, what we ourselves were doing as a family that was working with money others were helping, they were coming to realize money can be simple.}

{\pard \line \par}

{Money can be creative, it can be it can bring confidence and empowerment. It doesn't have to be these things. We rely on a calculator or a one year visit to the financial advisor to know we can know and understand money. All the days in between, and so I came to this place where I became comfortable }

{\cf2 [00:07:00]}

{ with it and want to let other people know you can too.}

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf1 Scott Maderer:\b0}

{ Talk a little bit too, one of the things I'd like to highlight on the show is our intersection between our particular faith journey, whatever that is for us as an individual and our life journey and the things that we learn. So as you think about your own faith journey, how has that influenced what you've learned and what you understand and how you put things out?}

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf3 Scott Yamamura:\b0}

{ Yeah, absolutely. I learned early in life mostly from my mother that yeah, serving no matter what age is valuable and it's just a reserved part of your life that's gonna be there. It's a priority your whole life through. We don't have to wait. I. So start giving back. So I started with an action sports ministry that served teens to keep teens to have, give them a mentor to have a place to gather.}

{\pard \line \par}

{Many of these teens were a part of single family households. Didn't have a father around. I. That was actually my case. And so I knew what it was like }

{\cf2 [00:08:00]}

{ to have a place to belong and community and have a mentor and a coach and to focus on this clean, healthy sport rather than get dragged down by some of the distractions and temptations of life when there's not a father there to fill that gap.}

{\pard \line \par}

{And so I started with the action sports ministry and I just got really drawn into, wow, that's. That's actually not just something I can do for a few hours a week. That's actually a lifestyle to serve all the time, to be contacted anytime by any of these these teenagers that I was hanging out with.}

{\pard \line \par}

{I became really good friends and I realized, yeah that's a way of life. And then it moved into when my son was born. 16 years ago, I knew I couldn't be at the at the field or the sports court or with the kids, so many hours per day. So I added in. Something I call my after nine ministry after 9:00 PM I was able to work on video content for ministries and create videos that spread the word about these ministries that were serving people.}

{\pard \line \par}

{And so }

{\cf2 [00:09:00]}

{ we formed a team together. My colleagues and I called, created to Create and we would film and edit videos that helped ministries, churches, nonprofit organizations people helping people. But it's something that I could go out and shoot a video of and then edit at night.}

{\pard \line \par}

{And that's why I call it the after nine ministry, after my son and wife fell asleep. I could keep going 'cause I'm a night owl. That's my way. It was making use of that time. And then finally we get to the third chapter. Of serving, and that's personal finance. So once again what we had just gone over was when I realized for myself that I had discovered, even been given as a gift.}

{\pard \line \par}

{I feel an understanding on personal finance, this thing that I'd never thought I would embrace. I wanted other people to have that option as well. And so that's where we're at now, where it's a ministry to help people. Understand finances and get outta debt and be empowered with finances so that they can use it for their purpose here on this earth.}

{\cf2 [00:10:00]}

{ }

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf1 Scott Maderer:\b0}

{ So your book is, financial epiphany and that's a, an interesting turn or phrase. So talk a little bit about the concept of the book. What is it that you lay out why is this an important concept for folks to understand? }

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf3 Scott Yamamura:\b0}

{ So the core message of the book it breaks one of these myths.}

{\pard \line \par}

{So there's a myth that when I get my job when I start working, it's later that I will start stewarding my finances. It's later that I'll learn about this. Let's put that off to later. Lemme just worry about just starting this job and learning my tasks and working my way around the office.}

{\pard \line \par}

{And so we say when I get promoted, when I get, when I make more money, when I'm older and wiser, then I'll learn about money. That's the great myth because it's actually flipped. I. When we start early with money and steward money early and learn about it early and start investing and saving early then it is then that we are leveraged and we can use that for our life's purpose.}

{\pard \line \par}

{\cf2 [00:11:00]}

{ So the book really breaks through that barrier and says, Hey, if, what's the problem if when we're younger in our careers, or even in our thirties or forties, we're not getting money. It's intimidating, it's overwhelming. There's so many constantly roving variables that we don't want to dive into it.}

{\pard \line \par}

{And that was me. So I came up with what was working for me, a simple and creative method of understanding finance. And I'm a communicator. My, my profession is communicating to hundreds of thousands of employees of a corporation and being able to do that any and every day. That's my job is to distill images to.}

{\pard \line \par}

{Only what people need to know to have success. So that's my career. I thought, why don't I bring that to the world of personal finance? That's why I call myself an imposter. I'm not, I didn't study finance for a career. I understand finance because I want my family and other people to know about finances.}

{\pard \line \par}

{So the the book teaches a simple concept. So }

{\cf2 [00:12:00]}

{ breaking it down, if someone starts a, a. Common career at age 22 and works for the common duration of 40 years and earns the common rate of return of 7.2% on investments. These three things, these three common circumstances, it makes money freeze. It makes money understandable.}

{\pard \line \par}

{It makes it stay in one place so we actually can understand the rest of money over the course of our lifetime. When I realized you made money freeze like that, it wasn't these constantly roving variables where we're floating around in space, not having a place to plant our feet. We're now planting our feet.}

{\pard \line \par}

{And then I came up with three financial epiphanies I've been sharing with folks. One is with those common circumstances, a single investment of money actually doubles every 10 years. That's easy to understand. Money doubling every 10 years. It hearkens back to the parable of the talents from the Bible that }

{\cf2 [00:13:00]}

{ talks about different servants being given a different amount of funds and they double it.}

{\pard \line \par}

{And those who double it are rewarded for their ability to do that. And that's a very literal way of reading that parables. It's obviously about using our time, talents, and treasures altogether, and not just our treasures. But that's what inspired me to say, okay, if we understand how money doubles, boy, we can think about money doubling.}

{\pard \line \par}

{And that's our filter for seeing money and understanding money our whole life. So if money doubles every 10 years, what if we don't look at just 10 years? What if we look at 40 years, the average career length? It doubles to two, twice as much, and then four times as much, eight times as much, then 16 times as much.}

{\pard \line \par}

{Across a 40 year career. Wow. Now we know if we invest a thousand dollars, that's $16,000 later. Maybe I won't spend that thousand dollars. 'cause I know the opportunity cost is I'm missing out on $16,000 later. That's incredible leverage. I want to point out that }

{\cf2 [00:14:00]}

{ it's ridiculous leverage to have this power of 16 and that's the other part.}

{\pard \line \par}

{The third epiphany is when, actually I'll just I'll say it this way. When people are used to saying, wow, money grows and it's gonna be 16 times more, 40 years from now, we're now minded. We don't actually that the common person, even though they might hear they might say.}

{\pard \line \par}

{I am now minded. I'm not future minded like that. I can't wait 40 years from now. That doesn't concern me. I still will not act because we like immediate gratification, right? Not delayed gratification. We're Americans. We love immediate gratification. We want it now. And so when you flip things around, instead of saying a thousand dollars turns to 16,000, if you flip it around and you say, oh, I have the power of 16 right now, I have this multiplying power of 16.}

{\pard \line \par}

{It's about me. It's not about money growing, it's about this ability I have. And it's diminishing over time when we realize that's what's happening now, it's very personal now. It's not about money now. It's about what we can }

{\cf2 [00:15:00]}

{ do and we realize that we need to take action now because this power diminishes over time.}

{\pard \line \par}

{We'll get more into that, but that's basically what the book teaches is to steward and to steward early, to empower people and give confidence. Early in life. So we take action and have finances to steward and to use towards our life's purpose. Those are the financial epiphanies. }

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf1 Scott Maderer:\b0}

{ So when you think about that molding, multiplying and you treat it as an ability like you just, did you talk about that?}

{\pard \line \par}

{That strength that we have? Unpack on that a little bit more. What, yeah. What's different about that approach? }

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf3 Scott Yamamura:\b0}

{ Yeah. So instead of money growing, we're saying it's an ability, and I love that word, ability. In fact, I use sports ability as a parallel. So when you think of NFL football players and Olympic ice skaters and Olympic gymnast and all these really highly skilled athletics, the athlete themselves, they're hitting their }

{\cf2 [00:16:00]}

{ prime somewhere in their early twenties generally.}

{\pard \line \par}

{Early, and we get that. We understand that. We know there's a window of time where we can act, and the great myth that we had mentioned before is that, oh, I'll get better at money later. I'll learn, I'll worry about this later. But no, it parallels athletics. Money parallels athletics where when we act early, that's when we're the best at multiplying it.}

{\pard \line \par}

{It's like planting a seed. Can you imagine planting a seed and someone expecting to say, oh, is it a tree yet tomorrow? Yeah. All of us know that's gonna take. Years and years of growth and money is the same way. It's like planting a tree. It's like athletics. It's those seeds that we plant early that grow big.}

{\pard \line \par}

{We should keep planting the whole time, day in, day out. But it's those ones that are early and when people understand. And break through that myth. Then they get I didn't know that. I didn't, I thought it was later. No, it's actually now. And so it causes us just like an athlete if we were told }

{\cf2 [00:17:00]}

{ you have this ability to multiply money, now you have this ability to play this sport.}

{\pard \line \par}

{Now the best now. We'll make sacrifices, and that's what money takes. We'll make sacrifices and we'll set things aside to prioritize this ability that we have only for a time. And just to make sure we quantify that, if a 22-year-old who starts their career has the power of 16, 10 years later, when the 32, they have the power of eight, it's having 10 years later after that at 42, the power of four.}

{\pard \line \par}

{Power two at 52. And then the average person is retiring in their sixties, so enjoy the fruits of their labor. Hopefully. But this multiplying power with money is, it is diminishing for the average person that. Isn't savvy enough to figure out another way. And and we're really speaking to the common day person.}

{\pard \line \par}

{Common day circumstances is what we're laying out here. If most people are don't have financial literacy, and if most people, we'll say, some will say 78% of people are living paycheck to }

{\cf2 [00:18:00]}

{ paycheck, 77% of people are in debt around a hundred thousand dollars. Most of us. Are in financial distress, but we're just not showing it.}

{\pard \line \par}

{Credit borrowing all these things, they allow us to live a life that under the hood there's not a lot of robustness and sustenance under that to maintain that lifestyle. One day there may be a, maybe a day of reckoning that shows what's really there. In fact, Warren Buffett, the fame investor, says that when the tide goes out, you can see who's been skinny dipping. We're the tide. The tide is there and the water's there. Everybody's looking good. We all have our cars, houses, el electronics and clothing items and all of that. But one day, a day of reckoning may come. Usually it's the gonna be by the time you retire, if not before, or a pandemic that shows what's really there the whole time.}

{\pard \line \par}

{And exposes things. And most of us have some habits that we need to do something about. We don't know that we have something to do. We don't know 'cause everybody's sitting on the edge of that cliff together. }

{\cf2 [00:19:00]}

{ But that ability or understanding, we have the ability, it takes a coach to tell us that. To say, Hey, did you know this about yourself?}

{\pard \line \par}

{This window of time to act. You need to take action now. It takes a coach. Otherwise, the prevailing messages. Marketing and advertising, and that's what we're all listening to. A coach's voice needs to be there to tell us otherwise and to get us to take action. }

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf1 Scott Maderer:\b0}

{ So you talked a little bit there about, about habits and having our calling.}

{\pard \line \par}

{And that's a big thing that we talk about on the show is helping us discover our calling and align our life with our calling. So how do you see these ideas of financial habits and financial behaviors. Helping people discover and live their calling. }

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf3 Scott Yamamura:\b0}

{ Absolutely. I think like with any sport you're not just gonna say, let's say you're playing football, you're not gonna just say, I.}

{\pard \line \par}

{The defense is gonna open wide for me to run right through, and they're just gonna leave me alone and let me score. There's gonna be a lot of distractions to our calling. And so we talked about, the }

{\cf2 [00:20:00]}

{ temptations of the world through marketing and advertising. $400 billion a year spent on advertising to Americans, and then we're the most advertised, marketed to society on the planet.}

{\pard \line \par}

{About a thousand dollars per person, even the babies. And there's a lot of distractions out there. There's also, what is everybody else doing? There's the ash conformity experiment where Solomon Ash had a group of actors, and then another person, unsuspecting person came into the group. Everybody answered a question wrong.}

{\pard \line \par}

{The new person went right with it and answered wrong as well. It's hard to go against the group. What is the group doing? I'm gonna automatically do that as well, unless I get coached to do otherwise. And so that's a, that's another thing. What is the bandwagon doing? I. The way of the believer is actually the narrow path.}

{\pard \line \par}

{It's not the wide path, and it the same is true for finances. And so when we are able to navigate that, and it takes community, and once again it takes, it can take mentorship to get through all this. How do we }

{\cf2 [00:21:00]}

{ know who to trust? How do we know what's right with money and whatnot? We learned to steward and stewarding our finances and our life guards us from those distractions.}

{\pard \line \par}

{Allows us to make those sacrifices and say, yes, I want this. Yes, I want this now, but I'm gonna, I'm gonna put it off. If I learn how to steward my finances and multiplying them, that creates a more sustainable way of living out our purpose. The very reason why we're on this earth, maybe the, our entire life.}

{\pard \line \par}

{We can fund our purpose when we're good with money, but it does take being good the earlier your. Stewarding it, the more resources there are later to steward towards our purpose. We all have an assigned purpose and finances is just part of it. As you like to say, there's our time and talents as well that we need to apply.}

{\pard \line \par}

{I focus on finances and that's just one of the pillars that we need to have in life. But when they're all there, oh my goodness, that has a multiplying effect. It really does. }

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf1 Scott Maderer:\b0}

{ So I've got a few questions that I like to ask all of my guests, but }

{\cf2 [00:22:00]}

{ before I, I go there. Is there anything else about your work and what you've discovered around financial epiphanies that you'd like to share?}

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf3 Scott Yamamura:\b0}

{ Yeah, I do get the question of what about the broke 22-year-old and absolutely. We've all been there where they're just, we're just starting their career and don't have a lot of resources. Absolutely. Paying off debt. If we just find out that we need, we have this multiplying power, this ability with money, and we just came outta college with debt.}

{\pard \line \par}

{I. There's a saying by GK Chesterton that says, if there's ever a train I wanted to catch, I was able to catch it because I missed the one before. And that's the American story right there. We'll actually get fired up about doing something because we decided we wanted to do it and we missed our opportunity.}

{\pard \line \par}

{So we said, okay, I'm getting on the next one. I didn't get my ticket last time. I didn't pack my luggage. I was not waiting on the deck for that train. I missed it. I missed, I got in debt. I didn't know. I didn't know I was supposed to understand finances. }

{\cf2 [00:23:00]}

{ I am just starting now. And that's most people. And so we say, get on the next one.}

{\pard \line \par}

{Don't get on someone else's train. Get on the train that's supposed to be for you. Get on your train. When are your finances gonna be ready? When did this hit your heart? When did you become knowledgeable and passionate about getting right with stewarding your finances and get on that train? Your train so it isn't too late, it's your time.}

{\pard \line \par}

{So that's what I like to say for the 22-year-old, and I like to remind them that they are like an athlete. Hey, you got this ability that even if you waited a few years, that's still ridiculously leveraged. The power of eight is amazing. The power of four is amazing. And so another question I get is from how about those that are 52 and just getting started and just learning you're AO K too, because doubling money.}

{\pard \line \par}

{Happens here and in first world nations. It doesn't happen everywhere. I just got back from Sierra Leone, Africa, one of the poorest countries in the world, }

{\cf2 [00:24:00]}

{ and you realize there are those living without electricity and without running water. And their kids, their only meal they may get is rice mixed with sauce.}

{\pard \line \par}

{Because they went to school that day. And that's where it was provided. And you realize when we really back up and look at the world, the US is in the top 10% of wealth in the entire world. And so we start out with opportunity and prosperity. And so if we're 52 we have the ability, if we're gonna work 10 more years to.}

{\pard \line \par}

{To double what we have. So someone owes a hundred thousand dollars. We're talking about it. Just if you put it in the right place where it's earning 7.2%, that's gonna double a hundred thousand share of 200,000 in 10 years. If you have 500,000 without doing a thing, it could turn into a million dollars.}

{\pard \line \par}

{That doesn't happen everywhere. Another way I like to say it is that if someone asked you to work an 80 hour }

{\cf2 [00:25:00]}

{ week you would think, wow, that might burn me out 80 hours. That's. That's that's a lot of hours. I might not be able to go into work the next week, but then let's say they changed it and said, you know what, instead of 80 hours, you only have to work 40.}

{\pard \line \par}

{Your 40 hours, your income's gonna be doubled. Your effort is doubled. Doubling is so powerful. If we were to work 40 hours instead of 80, we would be like, thank you. My efforts are doubled. Doubling is amazing. That's the same power that the that 52 year old has. And just to put it into perspective.}

{\pard \line \par}

{The 22-year-old who has the power of 16, instead of working a 40 hour week and it doing the work of 80 hours, it's like working a 40 hour week and it doing four months. Of income and effort that leveraging power. That's why I say it's ridiculous. 'cause if we, any, the average person were to work one week and say, you're gonna get four months of pay for every week you work we will take action because that's ridiculous leverage.}

{\pard \line \par}

{It's so powerful. I want people to }

{\cf2 [00:26:00]}

{ really understand that. }

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf1 Scott Maderer:\b0}

{ Absolutely. So my brand is inspired stewardship, and I run things through that lens of stewardship, as you mentioned, and you've mentioned stewardship a couple of times during the show, but that's one of those words that I've discovered means a lot of different things to a lot of different people.}

{\pard \line \par}

{So when you hear the word stewardship, what does that word actually mean to you? }

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf3 Scott Yamamura:\b0}

{ Yeah. Being mindful over the resources that we've been given. So stewardship means to me that things are not necessarily earned. Yes, we need to do our part to receive any of these things. A skillset, we have to opt into to learning and training and putting in all those hours to increase our skillset.}

{\pard \line \par}

{And the same with money. But. We do our part, but we are, we don't deserve these things. We're blessed with them. They're optional. Warren Buffet says, if you're born in America, then you've just won the ovarian lottery. You've been }

{\cf2 [00:27:00]}

{ born into this place where there's automatic blessing. And once again, as I just mentioned a couple weeks ago, I got back from Sierra Leone in Africa, where if you're born there.}

{\pard \line \par}

{You might not be going, you might not be promised school, and you might not have electricity. You might not have running water. You might be spending your day finding food for the day and going to the well and sitting on your porch looking for a farmer that you could assist and maybe get something for the day in return.}

{\pard \line \par}

{And so stewardship is a gift. Because if, just depending on where we were born in the world or the time that we were, we'd have a different set of cards. And so I always look at it as we deserve nothing. But if we are given something, boy, why don't we use that and connect that to our purpose? And God has given each of us.}

{\pard \line \par}

{A purpose and speaks to us all the time on what to do with what we have, and if we are constantly looking at our }

{\cf2 [00:28:00]}

{ resources, our time, talents, and treasures as a gift. What am I supposed to do with this gift? Okay. Yes. Look out for the family. We're asked to do that and look out for a greater family and look out for our community, and maybe even look after through organizations, someone on the other side of the world.}

{\pard \line \par}

{That's stewardship. When we look at, I just need a little bit for myself. But boy, there's all this, all these resources that can be leveraged to do good in the world, and. And we're playing out a strategy. We're playing out a plan. This is really serious business. It's our life's purpose.}

{\pard \line \par}

{Let's take this seriously and let's put our finances towards our purpose and towards stewardship. I. }

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf1 Scott Maderer:\b0}

{ So this is my favorite question that I like to ask everybody. Imagine for a moment that I invented this magic machine, 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.}

{\pard \line \par}

{But through the power of this machine, }

{\cf2 [00:29:00]}

{ you were able to look back and see your entire life, see all of the ripples, all of the connections, all of the impacts you've left. What impact do you hope you've left in the world? }

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf3 Scott Yamamura:\b0}

{ I really like that question. I've once heard someone say our duty to help make heaven a crowded place.}

{\pard \line \par}

{I like the sound of that. However, }

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf1 Scott Maderer:\b0}

{ it does vaguely sound like a threat. }

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf3 Scott Yamamura:\b0}

{ Yeah, there you go. Depends your perspective, how there's two different ways you could take that. Yeah. And yeah, given that. I've already seen in my life that, alright, so if it was action sports if it was creativity, if it's finances, there's certain things I've been assigned, it could be something else.}

{\pard \line \par}

{Years later, it could be something else. Keep it coming, whatever I'm assigned. And so I just would hope that I had been faithful and use each one of those things that I've been requested to do that I would lean into it. I look at each one of those things as a bridge. You've got people. You've got, God, what }

{\cf2 [00:30:00]}

{ is that bridge?}

{\pard \line \par}

{Okay. Currently, if it's finances, great. That's something that, that we use lifelong. So that's always gonna be valid. I see. But if there's something else that gets added in there, I hope that I'll opt into that and just do everything that I'm assigned to do. And I may be assigned to just reach the one person.}

{\pard \line \par}

{Maybe it's a thousand. And I think to be okay with that. It. It isn't about our numbers gain. Even though I said make heaven a crowded place, it's more being faithful to what we're assigned to do and I hope that, looking back I. That can be true. Currently, it's helping people learn how to multiply their money to one, give 'em a reason to get outta debt, and two, actually have resources to use and teaching that multiplying that's right in between is important.}

{\pard \line \par}

{The same as I've been told that you feed a person first, then you can share. Faith, you house someone first, take care of the emergency, and then }

{\cf2 [00:31:00]}

{ you can speak to their spiritual life. Let's take care of the immediate human need and and then embrace them and walk with them slower and further, but act fast on the immediate need.}

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf1 Scott Maderer:\b0}

{ So what's on the roadmap? What's coming next as you continue on your journey? }

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf3 Scott Yamamura:\b0}

{ Yeah, so the book Financial Epiphany that I wrote launched a little less than three months ago. So these are still the early stages, and thanks for bringing me on because it's about sharing the message and giving people a simple and creative way to understand finances.}

{\pard \line \par}

{Because some, as I spread the seed and share the word, it really connects with them and they are making amazing, progress and changes in their life. And so it's about continuing the conversation, spreading the message make hard things easier to understand. That's my job as a communicator.}

{\pard \line \par}

{Help people realize they're multiplying power with money and coach them and realize it's an ability and put these numbers to it that they'd never heard before. You have the }

{\cf2 [00:32:00]}

{ power of 16 when you start working, and then eight, four, and two. I can mention coaching and meeting one-on-one.}

{\pard \line \par}

{I don't actually have a business for meeting with people, but I can tell you one of the greatest blessings, and so I'll continue to do this, whether it's a book or a podcast or speaking or meeting one-on-one is that just last week I met with someone who hadn't understood their multiplying power.}

{\pard \line \par}

{They're in their thirties, and when I said, yeah, the multiplying power of eight. If you move this money that's earning nothing in your checking savings account, and let's put this over into your retirement account, you have the power of eight. It was gonna turn into $200,000 instead of just sitting there.}

{\pard \line \par}

{And they didn't know that. And so another family I met with their son had a windfall and their resources, because this. The senators has the power 16 just starting work that was gonna turn, that windfall was gonna turn into }

{\cf2 [00:33:00]}

{ millions of dollars by the time they retire. They hadn't understood that. So this input output.}

{\pard \line \par}

{That people can grasp now they can take confident action. And the last person, I love this story because it's one almost any one of us can do. He decided instead of buying new for a car, he bought used. And he said, okay, that $10,000 since I'm in my forties, that can double to 20 and double to 40 by the time I retire.}

{\pard \line \par}

{And so he understood his multiplying power. I love seeing it applied. It's so simple. I use it. All the time, and I think I always will these epiphanies because it's so simple and it causes the action. 'cause by the time you get to retirement or your kid going to college, you want to have already been doing things for a decade or two or three or four.}

{\pard \line \par}

{It's all about confident action. You can invite in. Complexity later. Many people want to get more savvy than that, but this is the way to get started. And so that's the journey is getting the simple }

{\cf2 [00:34:00]}

{ message out there }

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf1 Scott Maderer:\b0}

{ so you can find out more about Scott and his book over@financialepiphany.com. Of course, I'll have a link to that over in the show notes as well.}

{\pard \line \par}

{Scott, anything else you'd like to share with the listener? }

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf3 Scott Yamamura:\b0}

{ Yeah, via that website you just mentioned, financial epiphany.com. I can be reached out there. You can email me from the contact page of the website. Consider picking up a book. Probably the, my favorite thing to hear regarding that book is when a parent or middle-aged person orders it for their child or their niece or their nephew and they say.}

{\pard \line \par}

{They aren't very interested in finances right now. This might be the perfect gift because when we're in our early stages of life, we're thinking about college, we're thinking about our first job, our relationship, our social circle. And so I call that the l when it come. When a message comes to someone, like a middle-aged person who cares about money and then they teach, they send it to someone younger who needs to hear it, }

{\cf2 [00:35:00]}

{ but it needs to come from them.}

{\pard \line \par}

{And that's just a, a a ask for anybody out there that's interested to, to gift the message. And other than that, yeah, feel free to contact me and thanks for listening to the Message here.}

{\pard \line \par}

{\b\cf1 Scott Maderer:\b0}

{ 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.}

{\pard \line \par}

{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 }

{\cf2 [00:36:00]}

{ feed. Until next time, invest your time, your talent, and your treasures. Develop your influence and impact the world.}

}