Financial Fitness Friday with Glenn Lundy - Investing Quality Time with Your Family

Hey there, parents. In today's episode, we are going to talk about why you should stop spending more time with your family and what you can do instead. My guest today, Mr. Glenn Lundy, I actually met him when I was a judge on the Great American Speak Off.

This was a contest for speakers, and Glenn was in the top four and ended up winning the competition with his speech on Who Am I? And so we start with that topic and then we're going to get into a little bit more about how words matter and why we should be spending less time with our family and what we can do instead. in your house. Don't make this parenting gig harder than it needs to be. Register to become a No Problem Parent. It comes with an app so you can listen to the tips and tools just like you're listening to this podcast. Click the link in the show notes or go to NoProblemParents.com.

Become a No Problem Parent today. All right, parents, welcome back to Financial Fitness Friday. And today it's all about investing in something invaluable, your family. Mr. Glenn Lundy is my guest today and he's a highly accomplished individual with a diverse range of skills and experiences and the devoted husband and proud father of eight children.

You're going to want to check out all of Glenn's links in the show notes by intentionally investing quality time together, whether that means 15 seconds or 15 days. You're not just strengthening bonds with your family. You're also laying the foundation for financial well-being. Plus, finding that balance between work and family can actually boost productivity and overall happiness, which is a win-win for your financial fitness. I'm excited to have you here today.

Welcome, Glenn. Well, thank you very much. I appreciate that. Honored to be here.

The impact you made in three minutes with your Who Am I speech was just profound to me. And I would like to talk about that a little bit, how you came up with that message and a little bit about your story? Yeah. So, you know, who am I is a powerful question that everyone, 7.8 billion people that exist on this planet have asked themselves, can ask themselves and should ask themselves. So in the great American speak off, it is incredibly important to be able to speak to something that everyone could identify with, right? This is a competition for those that don't know what it is. It's like American Idol or America's Got Talent, but for speakers. And you have a very short amount of time to engage the audience and give them something that they can take away that's impactful. And so your initial deal is you kind of want to share your story. We typically want to share lessons from our story. But when you're looking at a three minute timeline,

you really have to get the audience involved right away give them a couple pieces of the story so you can solidify the the uh the message but really you got to make it about them the entire time and so we started the speech with who am i right right out the gate because i knew the audience would be able to connect with that then very short into you know i'm a husband to one i'm a father to eight. I battled things like depression and so on and so forth, right? Now, just a short story.

And then we brought this idea of identity through my child, Meredith. So my daughter, Meredith, she's seven years old. I'm half black. My dad's black. My mom is white. And my wife is white. And most of our kids are some sort of blend of that. So it's very interesting. But Meredith is blonde hair, blue eyes, which her mom doesn't have blonde hair. I don't have blonde hair.

Neither one of us have blue eyes. And she came out and shocked us all. And really for me, I've always, I was a non-believer in God till I was in my early 30s. I've walked this journey with God for the last 15 years. But Meredith was like, just such proof to me that we're far beyond just the physical, right? Because if you take my wife and you take me and you put us together, you don't get blonde hair and blue eyes. And yet that's what we got anyway, right? So she's almost like a proof of God in the flesh for me. But we went into that story to help the audience realize is that our identity has nothing to do with the flesh.

It has nothing to do with what we look like. It has nothing to do with our economic status. It has nothing to do with anything like that. Our identity is something that comes from within and comes from above, right?

And so in three minutes, it's like, who am I? Bring them in. Connect real quick with the story that makes sense. And then turn it right back around.

And through the speech, there was three different times where we said those words, who am I? And at one point, we actually had you, the judges, and the audience say those words. I said, close your eyes and just say those words, right? Who am I?

It's a profound question. And then we just brought it home. We had to bring the passion, bring the energy, and close the deal. But the entire speech was designed with the intention of let's impact everyone in the audience.

And what was crazy, Jackie, is afterwards, like I thought it was a story of kind of black and white. You know, for my story, it was a black and white type thing. But I had so many people come up to me after and say, hey, I was rich and grew up around poor people. I was poor and grew up around rich people.

I was, I had a New Zealand accent, but I grew up in Australia or Austria, right? Like it was, it was crazy how everyone at some point had a story where they felt they didn't belong in their identity. They were trying to attach to something on the outside. And it really comes down to understanding that that identity is an inside job, not an outside job.

It was absolutely incredible for me when I heard it. And I think for anybody listening today, if you're feeling like you don't belong and you're trying to fit into this, that or the other group and be who others think you should be, take a minute, close your eyes and say, who am I? It's really fascinating because typically in today's society, if you ask somebody, you know, who are you? They'll usually go to a role, a title, a job.

Who are you? Oh, I'm a doctor. Who are you? Oh, I'm a stockbroker.

Who are you? Like all these things attached to work. And if you really go back and look historically at how humanity has evolved over time, it's very interesting. This whole concept of working for money or working for someone didn't really come into play until the late 1800s, early 1900s.

Like this is a new concept. So for thousands of years, people's identity was associated with the things that they felt passionate about and the things that they did on the daily. Right. And you saw that the family dynamic was strong and powerful in previous centuries.

Right. Fast forward, industrial revolution and technology and so on and so forth. You have to have and have nots wealth gap that's expanded. You have the wealthy versus the worker, you know, and they over time have convinced us all that we are a job.

We are a role. We are a peg in a big wheel. And the reality is that was never God's intention for us. We are far more than that.

we are spiritual beings we are um capable of of new innovative ideas we're capable of creating legacies that last far beyond our lifetimes like we're so capable but that's not necessarily the message that the media or big government or those in power or whatever would want you to hear because capable people, spiritual people don't fall in line, right? And we need people to fall in line. So it's just really interesting that in today's day and age, if you ask someone who they are, they'll immediately go to a role, a job, a title.

And that's part of what we are trying to do through Rising Run, through my automotive endeavors, through the stages I speak on, is to ignite what you just shared right there, where you close your eyes and get rid of all the outside. and say, who am I in here? And that empowers you to become the best version of you that you can possibly be. And again, in just three minutes, you said all of this stuff, which is just like, you know, just summarize.

That was the hardest part, by the way, by far. I'm used to like 45 minutes. Give me 45. Yeah, exactly.

Three minutes was tough. So you are the father of eight children. I am? trust me I'm just as shocked as other people sometimes oh my gosh it's amazing well tell us a little bit about how you navigate fatherhood and work and all the things um and still keep that identity there's really two aspects to that the first and I think is probably the most powerful and important in my experience is at some point along the line I remember being uh in my area that I write in the morning and I wrote the word spend on a piece of paper and then I crossed it out and I changed it to the word invest and I started to process that I'm like okay wait a minute when I'm in a conversation with people they'll say I'm going to invest in the stock market and what is the expectation when you invest in the stock market you want to return on the investment, right? Like you're going to make some money. Otherwise, you're not going to go do it,

right? When you invest in yourself, you expect a return on that investment. When you invest in your business, you expect a return on that investment. I'm going to invest in paid ads on social media. I expect a return on that investment. So when we use the word invest, intuitively, we expect an ROI. That's just natural. Now let's reverse that. Let's think about the word spend. Spend, if I spend $5 out of my bank account, I have $5 less, right? I don't expect an ROI on that. And here's what I found. People would say, I'll invest in stocks, invest in business, invest in self. I'm going to spend time with my kids. I'm going to spend time with my family. I'm going to spend time on vacation. I'm going to spend time watching Netflix. I'm to spend, right? That's natural language. Guarantee you'll hear it all the time. Invest versus spend.

So I looked at that and I thought, oh my gosh. Okay. If the expectation is a return, how much time do each of my kids do I need to invest to get a return? So Willow, she's nine years old willow is driven by wonder and invention she's the kid that asks why about everything and she wants to invent new and anything that was shouldn't be and she questions it all which at times can make a door through the drywall but at the same time i know she's going to change the world right um willow requires about a 15 second investment of time to get a return So I'm on the phone or I'm on a Zoom or I'm on whatever, and Willow now has a question.

Dad, dad, dad, dad, dad, dad. Hold on, hold on, hold on. I'm on a call. Hold on, hold on.

I'm on a Zoom. Hold on. Dad, dad, dad, dad, dad, dad, dad. Whereas if I invest 15 seconds, I say, hey, Jackie, hold on.

Hey, Willow, what do you need? What is it? She asks her question. I respond.

she feels seen heard significant and now she doesn't want anything to do with dad she's good she's like love you daddy gives you a hug and she's out right so i could spend 15 minutes trying to get her to be quiet i guess or i can invest 15 seconds and i can get the get a return my son joel requires a different investment with him he likes fishing soccer sports so on and so forth and he responds when dad's a part of that, right?

So if I'm noticing my son to be a little sulking or not his normal self, I can look and say, oh, I haven't invested enough time doing the things that he loves to do, right? We might've seen each other. We might've been in the same room, but I haven't invested into the things that he cares about, soccer, fishing, farming, not my things, but totally his things, right? So I invest time in those things.

And I get a return. My wife requires an investment of about an hour every night watching Big Bang Theory, Everybody Loves Raymond, or King of Queens, right? Like if I invest that hour with her, even if we don't see each other all day, or I've been traveling, or we're running around with the kids, as long as I invest that hour with her at night, I get a great return from my wife. She feels seen, heard, significant.

our relationship is really powerful. In my business, I do automotive training with owners of car dealerships to help them scale their dealerships. I used to spend time going to a hotel on Tuesday night, showing up at their dealership Wednesday morning, spend all day with them while they're in the middle of doing all these other things and distractions. Then we'd spend time together having dinner. And then I'd spend however much time it took to come home on Thursday. That's what it used to look like. What I've built now is I invest one hour on Tuesday from two to three and one hour on Wednesday from two to three, where I'm live in front of a Zoom and they come in and ask any questions that they have. We solve their problems. They feel seen,

heard, and significant, and they get back to work. They get a far better ROI on their time and I get a far better ROI on my time. So instead of spending all this time traveling all over the world, we invest a dedicated hour with no other distractions and we get far further than we ever did when we spent that time. So people say, hey, Glenn, you know, you must be very busy with eight kids and a job and a show and all these things. It's like, no, I'm really not. I invest an hour into myself every morning because I need that hour to get a good ROI and I'm meant to be in a good space mentally, physically. I invest about an hour into my daily morning show. I get a great return from that. It makes an impact. We grow an audience. People build trust. It helps support the business, right? I invest the time with each individual kid that they require in order to get an ROI and some of them need a little more than others and that's okay it doesn't have to be equal time it's an investment to get a return that's the key how do I get a return and so I'm able to travel speak on stages run my business I've got 10 employees all because I think through investing not spending I invest time on social media I don't spend time on social media a lot of people spend time. I invest. I'm like, hey, I'm going to invest time. I'm going to see what people are doing that's working. I'm going to make sure to comment on other people's posts so that they see

me and I see them. They know that, hey, I'm investing a little time and energy into you. I'm going to like stuff. When I watch Netflix, I'm going to invest time in Netflix. I'm not going to spend time watching some show that matters nothing. I'm going to invest it and say, how can I get a return out of this? And sometimes that return is, I just need mindless for an hour.

Like I'll invest an hour into the Mandalorian because it brings me joy. It brings me some peace, right? Like I thoroughly enjoy it. I do not feel any regret or remorse when I invest in time in Mandalorian, right?

So it's not don't do these things. It's just invest in a way that you expect a return from it and you'll find you have time to do it all. So intentional. Yeah.

I love that. the of the investment versus spend why would you go spend that's a deficit it's a negative word invest time in your family next week i'm going to invest time with my family we're going to the lake we're riding on a boat we got jet skis like we're going to invest four days together out on the lake it's going to be amazing we're not going to go spend four days on the lake but then you come back tired exhausted you feel like it was more work than it was worth you're behind on your Your work, like when you go spend time, it never returns joy.

When you invest, you get that return of joy. The expectation of a return, that is the most important aspect of it is, okay, how much time do I need to invest to get a return? And what you'll find is it's usually a lot less than you think. You know, I got to spend four years doing this or I got to do 10,000 hours.

There's that 10,000 hour thing, right? I got to put in 10,000 hours. You know what? I put in, Jackie, I used to go golf in the mornings before work. When I worked in a dealership, I would go golf in the morning and I would tee off at like 6.30 AM. I'd play nine holes by myself. And I did this for years, playing four or five days a week before work. I did it for years. Guess how good I got at golf? Terrible. I was just as good when I stopped doing it as I was in the beginning. Why? Because I was just spending time on the course. I spent an hour and a half swinging a club every day. No coach, no one to tell me I was doing wrong or what I could be doing better. I didn't invest time in getting better at golf.

I just spent time golfing. Completely different, right? So you can go spend 10,000 hours on anything. You're not going to become an expert at it. Invest time. Invest with the expectation of a return? Am I progressing? Am I getting better? Is this working? If it's not, who do I need to ask to help me do this differently? Or what do I need to invest in to make this to where it's actually progressing? I'm actually moving somewhere, right? So if you have that expectation of a return, now when we invest the time, it doesn't take anywhere near as long as we think it does.

That is genius. I could talk to you all day. Your daily morning show, hashtag Rise and Grind. Is this the kind of thing that you're talking about on the morning show?

So Rise and Grind is motivation, education, inspiration. That's what you're going to get. When you come watch the show, you're going to get motivation, education, inspiration. No politics, no news, no devastation, no destruction, no nonsense.

I looked at the world and I noticed that the morning is filled with bad news. And at night, if you stay up late enough, you can maybe get some laughs with all of the fun, entertaining shows are on at night when most people are in bed asleep. And the day is filled from 5 a.m. till about 10 a.m. with news, violence, destruction.

And so I realized, my goodness, man, most people in the world are waking up going right into that. And we wonder why we're in the state that we're in. So we wanted to create a space that is safe from all of that. It's literally motivation, education, inspiration.

You might laugh. You might cry. You might be inspired. And that's why we created Rise of Grant.

I wrote a book called The Morning Five, Five Simple Steps to an Extraordinary Life. you can download it for free at themorning5.com and that is the number five themorning5.com and it's five simple steps first thing in the morning step one never hit the snooze button step two don't touch your phone first thing in the morning step three is gratitude and goals write down 10 things you're thankful for and then your goals step four is to take care of the physical run, walk, run, play golf. I don't care. Just get in motion. And then step five is to send out an encouraging message. So take that positive energy that you've accumulated through your morning routine and release it out into the universe, make an impact in somebody else's life.

You are truly a gift. I'm so thankful that I was able to be connected with you and to see you. I appreciate all that you're doing. I look forward to following you and staying connected. Thank you so much, Glenn, for being on the show today.

Yeah. Thanks for having me. Always an honor. It's a pleasure to be connected, Jackie.

All right. That's it for today's episode of the No Problem Parenting Podcast. Hey, thanks guys for tuning in. If you found value in today's episode, click the subscribe button and share it with other parents who might need a little boost. Stay connected on our socials by following at No Problem Parents for more parenting tips and get your free download of the 60 ways to respond to your kids without losing your cool. Go to noproblemparents.com. Until next time, And remember, your confidence comes from embracing both successes and setbacks.

So take a deep breath, embrace the chaos, and remember, you got this.