Episode 1589: Interview with Paris Cluff About His Journey from Food Stamps to Financial Freedom

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Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining us on episode 1,589 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

Paris Cluff: I'm Paris Cluff, and 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 recognize that freedom is on the other side of discipline 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.

If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got. And I, I have a little bit of a different view on that. So if you like what you're do getting in life, keep doing it. But if you don't like what you're doing in life, it's time to change what you're doing.[00:01:00]

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. 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.

In this podcast episode I interview Paris Cluff. I ask Paris about how his journey out of hardship shaped his approach to wealth. I also ask Paris about how mindset relates to financial transformation. And Paris also shares with you how to align your spiritual and life goals. 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 [00:02:00] 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. Paris has been married to the same woman for over 28 years and is the proud father of five children and two sons-in-law.

He's experienced significant financial hardship, including losing everything and relying on food stamps, but rebuilt his life to achieve a six figure passive income and a six figure liquid net worth. Excluding his home for more than 20 years, Paris has been dedicated to helping families manage, protect, and grow their money, a committed student of his industry.

He has read dozens of books on personal finance and investing. Welcome to the show, Paris.

Paris Cluff: Thank you. It's exciting to be here. Thanks for inviting me and having me [00:03:00] on. Scott, I'm excited to be here and share some thoughts with you.

Scott Maderer: Absolutely. So I talked a little bit in the intro about some of the things you've done in terms of both your business, your personal life, the work that you do around investing and personal finance.

Of course, that's a topic that we cover a lot about. And yet, at the same time, I always think of intros. As never really showing the whole story. They're the Instagram photos they just show the good parts and there's always more. Back up a little bit and take us through a little bit of your journey and what's brought you to the point now where this is the message you're sharing.

I I have a feeling that sentence that says. You've experienced significant financial hardship, you know that. I have a feeling there's more to that story, so Oh yeah. Talk a little bit more about what brought you to the point where you're at today?

Paris Cluff: It's interesting. I was actually thinking this morning as I was on a drive to an appointment I had that.

There's so [00:04:00] much nuance to the human being. There's, we can always just label somebody as this or that or the other, but there's really so much more to who they are and what makes them who they are. When I just to give you a start to my journey and it was I.

In 2001, so 24 or five years ago, I was working for a corporation and the HR department came to me and says, Paris, you qualified for the 401k. And at that time in my life, all I knew about money was that it was green and I wanted more. Like I was, when they said 401k, I'm like, how do you spell that? What does that even mean?

Like who knows what any of that stuff is when they're young and starting out? And I, oh no.

Scott Maderer: Hold on, let me interrupt you. Be honest. How many of us know what that is when you're old and not starting out either too?

Paris Cluff: It's a very good point. Very good point. So it's just, to me, I was, I asked a bunch of my coworkers, Hey, what did you do?

What do you do? And throw darts, flip coins, put it all in the company stock. I didn't think those were good answers. And [00:05:00] I was like I'm gonna have to just DIY this. And so I decided to learn and read and just went to the library and the bookstore and just read as many things as I could get my hands on.

I probably read a dozen books in two or three months just trying to figure out about money, and I really fell in love with all the information, what I was learning. And then a friend of coworker, after I had felt comfortable enough to make my choices for my 401k and what I was gonna do a coworker looked at me and said, Hey, I see you reading all these books.

Can you help me? And it was strange to me because they were older and I thought you should, like, why don't you know already like you? To me it was like, you should have, you should. Why are you asking me? And so I realized though, that as I shared with her some things, she said something that kind of changed my life.

She says, Paris, I finally understand what to do. You have a gift to explain these complicated things very simply, she said, you should do this for a living. And I was like, oh maybe I should so I pursued, I had a I had my Associates in business administration and I was transferring to the university to get my [00:06:00] bachelor's and looking for what I was gonna do.

And I decided to pursue a little bit of what does it, what would it be like to be a financial professional? And I actually met with a recruiter for a financial services firm. And he said, Paris, you can go to school and you can learn and then earn. Or you can work with us part-time and you can earn while you learn.

And I was like, I am gonna earn while I learn. That seemed to make sense to me. I was gonna do that. And so in 2001, I got licensed as a financial advisor and I was able to offer, I got my, all my series whatever. And I got my life insurance and health insurance license and I built a, I was building an agency.

I was doing really well in about 2008. I I had a wake up call and for those of you who are old enough to remember 2008, it was quite a economic downturn and there was a huge wake up call for a lot of people. And I we can talk about that more later, but I just realized that as I was [00:07:00] building a career I just needed a real, I changed from being a financial advisor in that period of time.

I moved to becoming a more of a health insurance agent and I built a very strong, now I, today I have a six figure passive income with my health insurance book of business serving Medicare eligible health insurance individuals. And so just in the last couple of years though as that business got to the point where it was self running and.

Passive, I realized I wanted to go back into financial coaching and education and teaching people how to really manage their money. And that's where I started my YouTube channel and I started to grow. And so that's where I am at today is I've built a really nice base with my health insurance business.

And now that I have some more time to do some things, I really want to help people with their money.

Scott Maderer: So let's go back to 2008. And I wanna first off, share a little bit about what happened for [00:08:00] you. Again, like you said, for folks that are old enough to remember obviously that was the mortgage crisis.

We had the recession, we had a lot of things going on during that time. Mortgage crisis causing the recession and so on. The dominoes fell. So how did that play out in what was going on in your life?

Paris Cluff: So I was one of those guys. I I'm, we're gonna talk about faith, of course, on the show.

I love the fact that we're gonna get the chance to do that. 'cause I'm a man of faith, I'm a Christian and I was I was one of those, I got a little ahead of myself and I was a little more prideful than I probably ought to have been. I was making really good money for the first time.

Af after building an agency, I was knocking on the door of six figures as in commission. Six figure commission only is pretty. I think that's a pretty cool milestone. And so I was so excited. In fact, I was like, oh, God's gonna bless me 'cause he's gonna want to have, you know me help all these people, so I was middle of 2008, I was totally on track. And then all of a sudden towards the third quarter [00:09:00] of 2008 when everything actually collapsed, all of my clients started calling me and saying, Paris, we need to be liquid. We all of our, their real, I had a lot of real estate investing clients who were trying to flip properties and do stuff and properties.

They would buy the property, so they were cash poor, and then they were trying to flip it so they could be cash rich and the houses weren't selling. And so they were like, Paris, I need all of my investments from the last flip to be able to service the new flip. That I haven't been able to flip. And so I was just one by one.

I just watched as my assets under management diminished as my clients pulled away. And I just, I went from knocking on the door, six figures to maybe five figures. I barely made it. It just was not a good year. And, I remember one day it was actually 2009 by the time this happened, because I had drained all my sa, it took about six months for me to drain all my savings and realize that I had nothing left.

And I was like, thank [00:10:00] goodness I had enough in savings to give, get me through six months or so. But I realized that I needed to make a change and I would. I remember sitting on the couch in my living room having just hung up the phone with a creditor. And if you've ever been on the phone with a creditor who's just aggressive you know the pain that I'm about to share.

He was screaming and yelling, we're gonna bleed you dry. We're gonna take you to court. We don't care anything we want our money. It was just really,

Scott Maderer: we'll take your, we'll, take your firstborn, you're gonna be thrown in jail, both of which are lies, by the way. Yeah. All that stuff. But they still say,

Paris Cluff: yeah, all that stuff.

And I'm just sitting on the couch and I just hung up the phone and I just was, remember I just said, God. I've never been in this place. I've always been blessed by you. I've always had enough to feed my family. I had, at that time, I was, I think I had three four kids. I have five total, but I think.

I think I had four at the time and my, and I just had a brand new one I think. And I [00:11:00] realized that, I was like, this is the first time in my whole life I've always been responsible. I've always been the one who take care of things. And I just realized, God, I didn't do what I could have done, and if you give me a chance, I'll do better.

And I realized in that moment I was like. I can't get any lower than this. At least in I'm sure you, I could have, but I didn't want to temp the fates at that point. I was gonna, I was gonna say be

Scott Maderer: careful saying that out loud. Yeah.

Paris Cluff: I'm like, this is the lowest I've been God help me.

And I just got this really quiet assurance that said we'll rebuild stronger and. I got you. And that was so powerful to me, and I was like, you know what? If God has got me, I know I can do it. And so I could have a lot of my associates, I actually went to a convention and for my company that I was self-employed, but I worked with a company as a 10 99.

So I went to a convention they put on and I had found out that a few of my colleagues that I knew about had actually taken their lives because of they, they were just [00:12:00] hit so much harder or they were hit hard as well. And I just thought I'm so grateful that I didn't have that temptation.

And so I was able to, my wife went back to work for the first time in 10 years. She pulled through and helped out paying the bills until I could rebuild my business. And within a very, within a few years, I had I barely escaped by not, I didn't have to file BA bankruptcy. Thank goodness.

But I told God at that time, I said if I can rebuild this I will be build stronger. And since that point, I've never been I had credit card debt and I was doing some speculative investments and you know how people oh, check out this idea and do this over here. And it was. Okay, let's put our money there.

And before you know it, you're, you, it's a scam or some other swindle it. And so I realized, you know what, I'm gonna do it right this time. And I rebuilt and I've, I have not had consumer debt since. I, of course I have a mortgage and things of that nature, but I just don't. I [00:13:00] haven't had a credit card debt.

I pay my credit cards every month. I've built savings. I have really good buffet. It's really given me the ability to say I'm gonna be more intentional with my money. I'm gonna be, if I'm gonna be a steward over my family and a father and a husband. And not just that, but I have a. I felt like I had a stewardship to my clients to show them that I was gonna live what I teach and lived what I preached to live Now what I knew was the right thing.

And so that's that. It just reinforced that in me, and I've not, and it changed me completely, almost to the core of my who I, from that point forward I had a whole different level of commitment and intentionality with my money specifically, and then also with my life, just how I. Did things after that.

So it was a significant experience. I lo, I literally had my house foreclosed on. I remember the day that the guy came and knocked on my door and I opened the door. It's the repo guy. And he's Hey, Paris, I'm here to [00:14:00] collect your car. And I, we gotta do, I said, you know what? I just turned it in of course he probably was like, yeah it's probably around the corner. And I said, no, I actually just. I drove it in this morning and turned it in because I knew you were coming. And he called and confirmed it, and he's like, all right, you're good. Have a good night. I'm like, I'm about to lose. I just lost my car. My wife's car's going next and my house is going.

I, I literally lost everything, moved in with my brother and rebuilt and it was a significant experience and changed my life. I don't recommend anybody do it, but at the same time I know that those defining moments in life are what make us who we are, and so I'm grateful that it happened.

Scott Maderer: Let me ask you a question because so you were a financial guy.

You'd been in the industry, you were trained in the field, you talked to people about risk and reward and goals, and managing money and all of this, and yet you were exposed in a [00:15:00] way that, that. Put you out there where this could happen. Yeah. And like you, you're talking about it before and after.

You're talking about doing it different now. Why didn't you do it different before? What do you think was the. The barrier to doing it that way. Why did you have to learn the lesson the hard way instead of knowing it ahead of time?

Paris Cluff: I think that's just part of human nature of that when everything's great, we think everything's gonna stay great, and we don't, I never, I don't think I ever saw anybody really struggle like that.

And so I didn't, it, it didn't dawn on me what could happen. And I didn't believe that would happen to me. It's oh, that's gonna happen. That happens to other people. And so it's this weird, delusional. Thing that happens to, I don't know if it happens to all of us, but it happened to me. Yeah. It's called

Scott Maderer: the normalcy

Paris Cluff: bias.

It actually has a name. There we go. So the, yeah. I just didn't believe that's gonna happen to somebody else. That can't happen to me. I'm building a great agency. I'm working with a bunch of people. And another [00:16:00] thing too is that I found this thing, I found it very strange, and it's like the old story of, about the cobbler who's a shoemaker, who has, whose children don't have shoes, right?

The cobbler whose student had kid. And I thought to myself. I feel like part of the awareness that came at that point in my life was I believe that I was teaching people so much about what to do with their money, that I believed that I was doing it too. Like I had convinced myself through, through some kind of, I don't know what it, there might be a scientific term for this, but I don't know what it is, but it's like I talked about it so much.

That of course I'm doing it too. Because I'm telling everybody how to do it. So I have to believe somehow, like I convinced myself that I was doing it too and I was in a better financial position than a lot of my peers. However, I realized that. That even though I was able to continue to live okay, for about five or six months, it drained everything that I had.

And after that I was like, [00:17:00] I have nothing left. I, now I have to make a choice here. And it was hard. And so I feel like that normalcy bias, like the human just mentioned, was part of that. And so I I remember at. In 2002 or three, I read a book called The Ultimate Gift, and it's a great book.

I highly recommend it if you wanna read a good book. It's they made a movie out of it actually. And in that book, they the main character, one of the main characters says something you've never really lived. Until you've lost everything. And I got the concept in the book, but I didn't, it didn't dawn on me until I actually personally lost everything and I realized I, I've really lived now, so that's a really good question, Scott. I don't know if I have the full answer to that, but that's what I think. Yeah,

Scott Maderer: and it's, I mean it's I'm a financial coach, right? I help people on the mindset, behavior side, not the investing and that kind of thing. And people always people will say [00:18:00] things like you don't really work with people that have money.

And I'm like. No, I work with tons of people that have money. I work with clients that are making multiple sick figures. I work with CPAs, I've worked with financial advisors and as clients, so they're like, but those people should know better. And it's yeah, but there's a difference between knowing and doing, exactly. Sometimes you need someone else to come alongside you and go, Hey, wait a minute. Time out. Yeah. What are you doing? Let's actually look at what actions you're putting in place and again, it's not everybody, but. There's some, just because on paper you quote should know about you can make $600,000 a year live paycheck to paycheck.

Paris Cluff: Yeah, it's perfectly

Scott Maderer: possible.

Paris Cluff: Totally, absolutely. And that's one of the things that a lot of people come to me and say, Paris, what's the difference between a financial advisor, a financial planner, and a financial coach? Yeah. I'm like financial advisors has a product or service like a stock bond mutual fund, something like that to retirement plan to sell you.

Then even, you can even be a financial advisor and have life insurance as your product. [00:19:00] But then there's a financial planner. A planner will say, okay, here's where you wanna go. Here's where you are. Here's the path to get there. Hand you the book and say, have a nice day. A coach is gonna say, okay, now let's put all this into action.

Let's help you implement it. I'm gonna guide you, direct you a financial advisor or planner, might help you get outta debt, but a financial coach is gonna figure out why you got into debt in the first place and help change those habits, behaviors, and beliefs so that you don't ever get back into debt.

'cause I've had what's the cycle? We all know the cycle, right? Get outta debt, get back into it, get outta debt, get back into it. And a coach will. I got outta debt. I gotten outta debt. This is the fifth time. Wait, what?

Yeah, a coach will help you get out and stay out. Hopefully that's that's the purpose anyways, I think.

Scott Maderer: And I agree with you, and again, it's not that one of those is better or worse or you need it's just they serve different roles. You need 'em for different reasons. A hundred different people need 'em at different points in their life. So I agree with you a hundred percent. So you mentioned a lot a, about how this kind of [00:20:00] affected your pro, your.

Your faith as you went through this and how you felt like a little bit of it was maybe the sin of pride, so to speak. Which I think a lot of times is the root of a lot, a root of a lot of the mistakes that we make. Talk a little bit more about how your, how did your faith evolve and change?

How did this was some people go through these sorts of things and it challenges their faith in different ways, or it helps them become more faithful? Or how did it play out for you?

Paris Cluff: So that's a really good question. Thanks for asking. I remember actually just being on my knees and just pleading and reasoning and saying why of course the questions, obviously, why did this happen to me?

And then it's. Turned from, and this is where I really believe that mindset changes everything. Because there's a lot of people that will take a scenario, a situation like that. And like my colleagues I shared earlier, they ended up [00:21:00] going the direction of taking their life where I took the direction of I'm gonna go rebuild this.

And I believe that had a lot to do with, and not saying that they didn't have faith or they didn't have a faith, I'm just saying that's what changed my faith was that I knew that if God was gonna be there for me, I could. I could. Rebuild. I could do it better. I could. And so I was, I just listened more carefully after that.

My faith was as I listened to my inspiration, as I listened to what I believe is the Holy Ghost. The Holy Spirit as teaching me, guiding me, directing me and help helping me. And I just remember one day I was, after I'd lost everything and I was, I just had. I was asking, God, should I go back to work?

Should I go get a job? Because being self-employed is one of those things. It's like you're a, you have to be an adventurer. You, it's, there's a lot of risk in being self-employed and there can be anyways, but the reward is also just wonderful. I would not, I [00:22:00] tell people now I'm unemployable because I just love being self-employed.

And a business owner. But I remember at one point I was like, God, do I. Do I go back to work or do I continue to build my business? And the impression was so strong, continue to build your business, let your wife go back to work. She can pay some of the bills, and then you build your business. And she ended up going back to work and then going to school to do what she does now.

And my business turned around by the time she was even done with school before she was done with school, my business turned around and I was able to she was able to, just get through school and finish. And then her income actually ended up becoming all extra income for many years and just rebuilt ourselves properly.

And it was because I feel like it, I was. There was more tranquility, there was more peace, there was more stillness with my, in my walk with God and my management of money that I I feel like there's a lot of hustle and bustle of [00:23:00] trying to be speculative with, get rich quick schemes and get I'm sure that there are ways to get rich quicker, but I don't, I just, there's a lot of people like Paris, come here, look at this shiny object.

I didn't. I wasn't enticed, I just wasn't enticed as much because I knew that I, if I listened carefully to my intuition, to the Holy Spirit, whatever as I, that inspiration, I just knew I'd be guided and directed more appropriately. And so I've really built, since then, I've tried to listen very carefully and just be still.

And I don't get involved in all these crazy make money schemes that are out there. And some of 'em, I might have missed an opportunity or two, but I feel like I, I actually ended up being a better off because of that. But I think that's one of the things that I really decided I was gonna build my business, build my personal finances more with strategy, more with sound fin principles.

And so I now. When I teach somebody to how to manage their money I literally share with them, look, I'm gonna share with you [00:24:00] how I do my money. And if that resonates with you, you might, and everybody's in a different situation, so there's a different strategy that they may want to take advantage of, but I'll share with them the basics are.

You need to get good with, get your income dialed in, get your expenses disciplined. Have a balance sheet where you know your assets and your liabilities, and then let's start to build your assets and let's start to reduce your liabilities and let's grow your net worth over time. Just that it's almost like I became, there's a different, to me, there's a difference between rich and wealthy, and rich is flashy and they want to show everybody how much money they make.

And wealthy is just quiet and we just, I just wanna build that wealth. And I think there's more if you read in the in the scriptures that the mentality of the, of a wealthy is more kind of the. That's more, it's more taught that way versus flashy rich. Being in love with your money.

You just remember the parable of the rich man who comes to Jesus and says, Hey I've been obedient in the commandments my whole life, but, [00:25:00] and what lack I yet? And he says, sell all that thou has and come follow me. And he went away Sorrowing because he had many assets and many I can't remember what the actual scripture says, but he says he had much, he had a lot of stuff, basically.

And I realized, you know what? I need to, I need. Separate myself from the stuff, although it's important to, it's nice and to have the blessings come, but am I willing to sell it all if God said to? And that's what made the difference for me. It's like it just changed my whole perspective on, on how I accumulate wealth and why I accumulate wealth and the reasons behind what that wealth is gonna do for me and my family.

And then help hopefully bless others with it as well.

Scott Maderer: That. That brings us to the question that, and I think you just spelled some of 'em out, but I wanna give you a chance to unpack as well for you and people that you work with now. What do you see as some of the mindset shifts that help people begin to have a different relationship with their [00:26:00] money?

Look at it differently. Not just be quote. Chasing the almighty dollar and so on. We it's a weird culture that we have in this country where we simultaneously almost lawed people that are ultra wealthy and hate them at the same time, I know it's a weird dichotomy that we have.

What do you see as some of the mind shifts that are necessary to have a more healthy money relationship?

Paris Cluff: A couple of them I think are just first the ability to believe that you can do it. There's a lot of people that think in order to get rich, I've gotta step on toes. I gotta do something illegal.

I gotta do something that you hurts others. And that's just not true. You can build wealth in a way that's congruent with Christian principles and with good human. Being [00:27:00] principles and there's you can do it. It just, one of the things too is that a mindset of. Who controls your money.

And I do know a couple of scientifical things like the, one of them is the locust of control. And if you believe that everything out there is doing it to you and that you have no control, 'cause the environment, the family the neighborhood, the, your your ethnicity, whatever. If you feel like there's nothing I can do because this is just how I was born, or this is my situation, there's, I can't change it, then you're probably never gonna make it.

Or it's gonna be really hard, but if you believe that, hey, no, regardless of what happened, I have a internal locus of control. Meaning, regardless of what happens in my life, I can change, I can make a difference. I can do something different. And so one of the things as I talk with people who change their perspective is that they realize, you know what?

Money isn't. Difficult. It isn't hard. I actually can control it. I [00:28:00] actually do have control over my spending. I can say no. I can say yes to the right things and no to the wrong things. And as I coach people through that process, they start to build confidence. And as that confidence builds, they realize, wow, we can do this.

And so I think one of the biggest mindset shifts is realizing. And believing that you actually have control over your situation, whether you and it goes back to that old saying whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right. And I agree with that and that's one of the big mind shift changes that I see.

As I one of my clients just shared with me the other day and in one of our sessions she said I finally have some peace 'cause I know where my money's going and I know what it's doing and I feel so good about it. And that. Strategy, just knowing like she knows when the money comes in, she knows exactly where it's gonna go and what it's gonna do.

She has a place in for it. And she's that whole idea, I just didn't have that before. Everything was so scattered and chaos [00:29:00] and now I feel like I have some control and I can actually do this. And that to me was like a huge payday as a coach. Absolutely. When I think I agree a hundred percent that idea of looking at what you have control over it's the difference between saying, I chose to do something and I had to do something.

Scott Maderer: And you may take the same action, but those are two very different statements about that action. You're right. In terms of what you're actually thinking and believing. When you work with folks that that are worried about it. Christians, others that are worried about the spiritual side of money as well and the faith-based side and aligning, again, whether that identify as Christian or else, but they're worried about aligning their money with those kind of spiritual side of their goals.

What do you see as important for them to be [00:30:00] able to do to make sure that they're putting things in the right place?

Paris Cluff: I have a saying that says, and it's actually a, I think it's a, it's a saying from, I think Henry Ford said it first. I can't remember. There was somebody that said it first, but I added something to it.

It says, whether money doesn't make you, it reveals you. And so I think that's where the traditional one ends, and then I added and then it magnifies you. And so if. If you're a conspiracy theorist or you feel like the world elite are doing this whole, all these things to us, you say follow the money, right?

If we wanna know what the corruption is, follow the money. I believe that if that's the case on the enemy side, why wouldn't the Lord have a similar thing on his side where let's follow the money and let's build. Good things. And so to me if money doesn't make me, it reveals me and then it magnifies me, and I have a [00:31:00] genuine desire to bring good and light into the world, why would I not want to magnify that?

And so money gives you voice. And if you have a voice for good and voice for light, you need to have more of a voice. So money will give you that opportunity. As long as you remain true and faithful to that, I think that you're gonna be able to align very well. And that's the message that I wanna share is that right now one of the biggest causes of divorce is money.

One of the biggest causes of stress, which is the leading cause of disease, which is a huge issue, is money. And so what if we got our money right? What if we. What if we got past the money? What if we figured money out? What if you didn't? And I jokingly say to some of my couples who are married clients, what if you didn't?

What if you didn't have to fight about money anymore? What would you fight about? And they're, I don't know. I, we'd have to find something new to [00:32:00] fight about, oh, don't worry. I'm sure

Scott Maderer: you can, I have confidence in you. There's plenty

Paris Cluff: of things to fight about. But what if we took that off the table, or at least.

Got that to the point where it was so reduced that it didn't cause other stresses in your life. And you maybe now that your money is in order, you can you feel good about yourself physically, and you can start I don't know, eating better, exercising more effectively. One of the things too that I realized is I have actually been a leader in my church and I would go and visit with families.

Who were struggling. And one of the things that I found regularly was that MAs Maslow's hierarchy of needs is real. And if you don't have enough money to put food on the table, or you're worried about how you're gonna pay the next bills, how are you gonna have time to read the scriptures and feel good with your walk with God?

Like, how are you gonna have time and energy and mental bandwidth to really take time to do that? We are so worried and stressed out about money that we. Escape into doom scrolling, or we escape into a show on [00:33:00] Netflix, or we escape into movies. What if we didn't have those? That stress? What if that stress was reduced So much so that now you could choose to say, you know what?

I'm gonna go pray. I'm gonna go read the scriptures. I'm gonna go have a, I'm gonna go minister to my next door neighbor. I'm gonna go serve somebody. You have the time, the talents that, and the resources to give. That is why I, that's the money message that I want to get, bring to the world. Yeah, I, I.

Scott Maderer: When you said Netflix, it reminded me of the meme that, you know hey, this is Netflix.

Would you like to watch an eight hour movie? Oh, no, I can't commit eight hours. How about if I break it into 30 minute Chucks and give it to you in 16 of them? Oh yeah, I'm in. It's it's so funny, isn't it? It's like somehow or another we'll binge, yeah, exactly. Eight hours worth of stuff, but we won't watch it as one fell chuck.

But but your point is right when we put a lot of time and energy into [00:34:00] things that often are really not the most important things, but they suck us away for the most important things if that makes sense. And it's really about getting it into alignment. It I agree with you a hundred percent.

So I've got a few questions that I like to ask all of my guests, Paris. But before I ask you those, is there anything else about the work that you do that you'd really like the listener to hear?

Paris Cluff: There's another fun saying that I like to share, and it's if you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got.

And I, I have a little bit of a different view on that. So if you like what you're do getting in life keep doing it. But if you don't like what you're doing in life. It is time to change what you're doing. And so a lot of people are like I'm broke, or I have no money, or I ha I'm in debt to my eyeballs.

Or I how do I invest? Like I do I have the right kind of insurance? Like they have all these questions, but they don't do anything about [00:35:00] it. And it's like the, there's a story of a guy that walks into the park and he walks up to this guy on the, and there's a guy reading a newspaper on a bench with a dog at his feet, and the dog is whining and just like over and over, he keeps whining and the guy's Hey, your dog's whining.

Is there a problem? And he's yeah, he is laying on a nail. He's what? He's so he's whining about the nail that he's laying on. He says, why doesn't he get off of it? And he says, 'cause it only hurts bad enough to whine about, not bad enough to actually do anything about it. And that embodies that quote that I just shared earlier.

It's you know what it. And that I'm guilty of the same. Like I'm looking in the mirror right now, a hundred percent looking in the mirror. And, I'm a father of five kids and I've been married to the same woman for 28 years. I just I get the reality of life and that we get comfortable and we get in our place and we don't wanna change.

'cause change is hard. But at the same time, I realized change is the only constant. And so that would be my message cha. If you're, if you don't like what you're getting in life, [00:36:00] look to what you can do to change and and make the change. It's, it is just that simple.

Scott Maderer: So my brand has inspired stewardship and I run things through that lens of stewardship and and yet I've discovered over the years that stewardship is one of those words that can mean 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?

Paris Cluff: I think of a few words. One is responsibility and taking responsibility for what what you've been given in life and the blessings that I, and stewardship, of course, is a very spiritual connotate connotation, or I think that's the right way.

Connotation. And so to me it's not just a stewardship, not just a responsibility to your job or your employer or to your clients, it's a responsibility to your family and to yourself to be and walk with responsibility. I have something that I share a lot. [00:37:00] It's called the three Ps of fatherhood.

And I call it that because it's just a husband, a father, a man and it's preside. Provide and protect. And to me that kind of embodies stewardship. Are you presiding? And presiding means to just make sure that what's supposed to get done is getting done. Pro protecting is a broad range of things.

It's not just a physical protection, it's, to me it's spiritual and an emotional and financial protection. Are you protecting your family can against a lot of different things. And then providing of course is not just providing money, it's providing wisdom, it's providing, lessons. It's providing experience, it's providing legacy.

It's providing in a way that you actually, hopefully let your kids stand on your shoulders and make the world a better place as we lift everybody. So stewardship to me embodies I. I guess I just, that was a, kinda a long-winded answer to that, but that's how I see stewardship [00:38:00] is very important to me. I take my stewardship, my responsibility as a father, as a husband, as a man, as a son of God.

I take those things very seriously and that's what I think stewardship means.

Scott Maderer: 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 maybe 150, maybe 250 years into the future.

But through the power of this machine, 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?

Paris Cluff: I, I really appreciate the idea of being a chain breaker. Not that I have a lot of family that has major issues, but I, Jeff, I definitely wanna be one who is when my grandkids or great-great-great grandkids look back, they say, you know what?

That great grandpa Paris he [00:39:00] changed our family tree. He was the one that did so much for our family, not just. Financially, but spiritually, emotionally, and changed. I broke generational curses, broke the chains that, that, whether they're spiritual, generational, curses or otherwise, I just wanna be able to have them.

I would love to look down from heaven and see my great-great-great. Can kids say, you know what we're in a whole different place because of some of the things that were implemented by Great-great-great Grandpa Paris. That would be awesome. So what's on the roadmap?

Scott Maderer: What's coming next for you as you continue on your journey?

Paris Cluff: I definitely I have a, I have built a little bit of a YouTube channel following, but I'd love to start a podcast myself and really share YouTube's nice because you can get five to 10 15 minute clips out. But the deep dives like we've done today are, I think they're more meaningful.

I think a lot of people in America are [00:40:00] they say that we only have an attention span of a goldfish, but, I heard Jordan Peterson recently on a podcast say, you know what, we're actually more and more evidence is coming out that we like the longer form stuff, and we're actually want to take deeper dives into conversation.

So I'd like to start a podcast where I take a deeper dive into that. I wanna build a community around financial literacy and not just financial literacy, where we just are educated and we know. Different financial strategies, but where we can actually share with each other ideas, share strategies even as fathers and parents as husbands and wives, just share with each other how to navigate this world.

And so I'm building a community. I would like to build a community. I have a resource right now that I'm utilizing to build that community. And so between my podcast coming up and building that community, that's where I'm headed. Awesome.

Scott Maderer: And you can find out more about Paris Cluff over@pariscluff.com.

I'll have a link to that over in the show notes as well. [00:41:00] Paris, is there anything else you'd like to share with the listener?

Paris Cluff: Yeah, when I first started in business as a financial advisor, I would call upon people to help them. I was trying to sell an invested end of some kind, and I would invariably get the idea the response that I don't have any money, I don't have any time, I don't have any, I, my debt.

I, I have, my budget is too tight. I don't have any money to invest in the future. And it's so important to make sure that we have all those things and we all need to have financial tools and financial products in our portfolios. And so I decided I'm gonna create a way to help people find money.

And I, so I developed a strategy to help people find money and money that they're just not, and I'm not talking about eating rice and beans. I'm like literally finding money that you're mis allocating. And I created an ebook. It's that outlines my system and it's helped many of my clients find an average of $300 a month.

I've had some clients in seven, $800 a month that they've been able to find through this, through my system. And so if you go to paris [00:42:00] cleft.com/freebook. That's Paris cl.com/freebook. You'll download the free book. You'll be asked to upgrade if you want. If you're somebody who likes to learn with videos and audio or whatever, and you wanna have a more expanded version of the ebook into like workbooks you'll be asked to upgrade there, but you, it's not necessary.

But that ebook is actually gonna give you some really good information. And that's something that I'd like to offer your listeners as part of my. Just let people know, Hey, this is something that I wanna share with you so that you can at least get started on your journey towards financial freedom.

'cause I believe the first step to financial freedom is having a positive cash flow.

Scott Maderer: Absolutely. Oh, thanks so much for that. I appreciate it. I'm sure the listener will as well. I'll make sure I put a link to that over in the show notes as well. So if you were driving right now and we weren't able to capture that, it'll be over there in the show notes for this episode.

Thank you so much for coming on.

Paris Cluff: It's been a pleasure. Thank you, Scott, for having me. I hope that I was I provided value and I edified the listeners. So[00:43:00]

Scott Maderer: thanks so much for listening to the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this episode please do us a favor. Go over to inspired stewardship.com/itunes.

Rate 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 [00:44:00] world.