Are you looking for a way to get and keep an edge over your competition? Want to dramatically improve your results and are willing to think big? We’re joined by our friend Lacey Langford from the MILMO Show to tackle that subject. She’s joined by Len Penzo of the award-winning LenPenzo.com and our very own Drill Sargent, OG.
If you’re looking to set yourself apart in your field, be sure to tune in as we discuss ways you can achieve an edge. Be bold and take risks, as these are ways to truly learn and put yourself out there.
On the second half of our show, sponsored by DepositAccounts.com, we dive deeper into how you can find your edge. Should you cast a wide net when searching for people who will help you achieve your edge, or should you limit your search to just those who have already traveled the same path that you’re on?
Finally, be sure to stick around for Doug’s inheritance-related trivia question!
Deeper dives with curated links, topics, and discussions are in our newsletter, The 201, available at https://www.StackingBenjamins.com/201
Enjoy!
Watch On Our YouTube Channel:
Our Topic: A Few Word Description
How to be More Agentic (Useful Fictions)
During our conversation you’ll hear us mention:
- Finding your inner power.
- Daring to think outside the box to achieve exponentially better results.
- Finding your edge.
- Creating the internal mindset to achieve greater.
- The (lengthy) compound effect of multiple small improvements.
- How to 10X your results.
- Go big or go home.
- The worth of taking your shot.
- Why actual qualifications trump educational requirements many times.
- Finding meaningful work.
- Doing the hard work.
- Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there.
- Learning by actually doing the thing.
- The value obtained from doing the little things in the beginning that add up to big wins.
- Assume everything is learnable.
- Find what you’re uniquely excellent at.
- Turning feedback into your edge.
- Knowing your competition and market environment.
- Don’t be afraid to fail.
- Don’t be afraid to admit when you don’t know something.
- Don’t refuse to apologize when you make a mistake.
- The underappreciated value of rest.
- Building relationships.
Our Contributors
A big thanks to our contributors! You can check out more links for our guests below.
Lacey Langford
Another thanks to Lacey Langford for joining our contributors this week! Hear more from Lacey at her site, The MILMO Show at Home – MILMO.
Hear more from Lacey on her podcast, the MILMO Show.
Len Penzo
Visit Len Penzo dot Com for the off-beat personal finance blog for responsible people.
Follow Len on Twitter: @LenPenzo
OG
For more on OG and his firm’s page, click here.
Doug’s Game Show Trivia
- What is the average amount of an inheritance in the U.S.?
DepositAccounts
Thanks to DepositAccounts.com for sponsoring Stacking Benjamins. DepositsAccounts.com is the #1 place to go when you’re looking to see if your rate is the BEST rate on savings, CDs, money markets, and even checking accounts! Check out ALL of the rates ranked from best to worst (and see the national averages) at DepositAccounts.com.
Join Us Monday!
Tune in on Monday when we kick off love and relationship week with a chat about what to do when you’ve lost that lovin’ feeling for your financial advisor…with a guy who used to dislike advisors, until he became one, Chris Mamula.
Miss our last show? Check it out here: Here Are Your Best Tax Software Options (SB1474).
Written by: Kevin Bailey
Episode transcript
Did you know that diarrhea is hereditary,
It runs in the family.
runs in your genes?
Runs in genes
That’s even
worse.
I knew his, I knew runs was right there.
What would the Terminator be called in retirement?
TermOVERnator
ex Terminator.
I see. You wanted me to wrap up my whole trademark stuff. So you get back to your joke telling it wasn’t about a bike ride or
No.
are like, and shut up LA
And action.
old on. I got another one. I used to work at a Pepsi bottling plant, but it was soda pressing
Why? Why was that?
you let me emphasize so duh.
soda pressing.
watching Doug through the, well, what I can see through his pixelated face. He is still pixelated. I can still see his disgust.
Doug’s. Doug’s got a filter on his. should clean that. Uh, you should clean that off a little bit
I know it does look like he’s
Len already told him that was like, maybe there’s condensation in your camera.
condensation.
He’s got a dirty camera.
You don’t even want to know why. It’s from
I was
Oh,
your OF his OF account.
His OF account went OF neighbor Doug. OF gone Crazy Feet finder.com.
Doug’s
camera. Seen some shit.
Hairy. Hairy feet, hairy feet.com.
put a filter on itself. So I.
It’s like, kill me.
Self preservation mode.
It’s self-aware. The camera is self-aware. It’s like if I just blur this out, it’s
That’s a ai AI protection.
He is like, sweet.
that a nipple? That’s a nipple. crap. It’s gone.
Uh, all right.
All right.
Let’s do it. Let’s do it.
I am trying to figure out how to talk blurry. 3, 2, 1. Live from Joe’s mom’s basement. It’s the Sta. I got frogs in my throat
It’s the frog in my throat.
all that time. Had to clean my throat and I didn’t do it. 3, 2, 1. Live from Joe’s mom’s basement. It’s the Stacking Benjamins Show. I’m Joe’s mom’s, neighbor Doug. Ever wonder how to get ahead? Today we are gonna share one popular piece, talking about how to get an edge on everyone leading today’s panel is a woman with an edge in military financial coaching.
It’s the woman behind the MILMO show, lacey Langford. Plus Stacking Benjamins, resident Drill Sergeant, OG. And finally it’s the Secretary of Defense. Uh, hold on a minute. That guy just disappeared again. It’s only Len Penzo, but that’s not all. Halfway through the show, I’ll share my inherited trivia question.
And now a guy who hands down the best personal finance advice he can every day. That was kind of boring. It’s Joe Saul-Sehy.
It, it definitely doesn’t compare to the Monday, Wednesday, once this week
Doug, but at least it doesn’t insult me.
taking the day off.
everybody. Welcome, welcome to the, uh, positivity Friday show. I’m Joe Saul-Sehy. @AverageJoeMoney on Twitter, and that’s the voice of Doug. Doug, how are you doing?
Oh, I’m just lovely, Joe, I, all the, all the positive, uplifting talk you had about me before the show started, I’m feeling great.
well, that’s where I was kind of going with that, is that
you look like you’re in the Witness Protection Program. Why are you behind a screen today?
I, I don’t know. I’ve been licking my finger and wiping the camera lens and rebooting. And you guys wait. Six, we’ve been on the on air six hours today, and you just now tell me that I look like a 1984 bitmap.
The fact that he thinks he’s in a separate camera OG is really weird when we’re all sitting here together in the basement.
Yes, I don’t, I don’t
understand.
that’s,
Fourth wall Doug, fourth wall.
easy and, uh, deep under Los Angeles, Mr. Len Penzo is here. How are you my friend?
Great. I’ve been, uh, using today to reflect back on my life and reminiscing about the only time in my life that I ever got fired. Did I ever tell you about that?
Oh, no know.
Yeah, I was, I, I worked at a coffee factory and I, the, the boss fired me. I went and I asked him, I said, I go, why the heck did you fire me? He goes, well, because you have no filter, sir. Absolutely no filter, coffee,
Just a
filter,
Whoops. That’s not it.
no play. I like the other one better.
There.
I,
oh man, I don’t know. I don’t know whose joke book is worse today. We, we had a string of
dad jokes before we started. Woman already poking her eye out. Is is it fair to even call her a guest anymore? I was about to say, Steve, we need the horns ’cause we got a special guest. There’s the horns and, uh, but, but is she a special guest?
She’s here all the time. Lacey Langford’s here.
I am excited. You guys have me back. I was starting to think maybe, maybe family wasn’t Welcome. We say family. No,
It was like it was like one of those did it, it was one of those dysfunctional families we’re
like, uh, yeah.
Although I was the family member willing to tell Doug that he was a little fuzzy. The only one that was looking out for you.
A
And, and, and by the way, you called him fuzzy and he keeps thinking it has something to do with a camera. And it has nothing to do with a camera. He’s just fuzzy. It’s so weird what’s going on in the MilMoney. Show you, you rebranded.
Yes. Big change, new name. It was formerly the Military Money Show. Now the MILMO show with new logo
and
It’s just too much to say. I mean, military money, that’s so much. I mean, why, why use all those syllables? You don’t have time for that.
That’s right and it, I really did it for the Marines. Just kidding. OG.
Because
So
crayons
be a little shorter. Easier to say. Easier to read.
wow. Send your hate mail
and the crayons.
Uh, air Force. Langford.
I know. I did think about that. Doing the logo and crayon, but it was just too much. Too much.
Tell us about your logo. Lacey. What’s, what, what’s the best part of your logo?
Mm. I think the energy and the colors, that was the big thing that I wanted it to be more fun and welcoming. And it’s a green
and
blue,
right when she, hold on a second. Right When she says energy, Steve, uh, cut her off and put the ad break there. Alright.
First time here. Huh? It’s been a while.
and I know I’m rusty. I’m rusty.
3, 2, 1. Wow. Really? And what about the shape of it? Lacey? How, how do you have it all shaped out?
It is an MI can’t tell if you’re being serious. I dunno which way to go here. Really tell you about my logo. I just, it’s all a setup. I feel like the whole invite back is a setup.
Would we ever cut you off Lacey
Never, never, ever
cut her off halfway through. Never the word never. Be fabulous. Alright,
got me last time too.
3, 2, 1. I’m super happy you’re here with us, Lacey, so we can, uh, have some laughs and, uh, but, but really get some stuff done because man, we’ve got a great piece today and a great panel because Lacey’s here, Lindsay. Here. OGs here.
Doug’s here. Let’s get moving. Alright, uh, let me pull this up. 3, 2, 1. Our piece today comes to us from a, uh, uh, new Substack called Useful Fictions. And it’s written by, uh, Kate Hall, who has done a ton of stuff. Uh, she’s an actor. She’s directed, she’s done well. Heck, she was a Supreme Court advocate. She was the number one female poker player in the world.
She started art and perfume companies. Uh, and. LED operations at vea, a pandemic medicine company. She co-founded when it set the record for the fastest startup to take a drug to clinical trial. So she did all that stuff in her thirties, you know, in her, in her, in her spare time. What, what she talks about here is she calls agency how to be more agentic and, and, and what that, anybody wanna define that for me?
Because she, I think she, she does a great job of explaining this stuff, but Lacey, you wanna define what she means by being agentic.
Well, I’m gonna be real honest. I had to look it up when I read this article. I didn’t know that agency was a, a trait, but to me it sums up your inner power. But if you want Miriam Webster’s actual definition, it’s if capacity, condition, or state of acting or exerting power. So I feel like that’s your, your mental fortitude, your your go get it inside.
What’s wild, Len, the way that she does this and what she advocates is looking at things differently than other people do. Like, like really focusing on a problem that either a, people, other people don’t want to look at, or, or B, diving in with both hands and getting dirty.
Yeah, it was an interesting approach. I, I, you know, I, there’s, um, and, and a lot of it, I, some of the things I’ve found myself I had done too and found successful as well. It’s like, it’s almost like, uh, anti. Anti-establishment in that, uh, don’t follow things that the way you normally should kind of do things off-putting, for example, she called, there’s one example she gave.
It was really cool. She’s saying, you gotta get out there and you’ve gotta answer, ask questions that you would never normally ask, for example, and you’ll learn more from the things that you, you know, would never dare asking than the things that you, you would, you would ask for example. She was starting a, a new company or looking, getting into a, trying to do a, a new thing in a some niche.
And so she called the company and she, the CEO and she asked the CEO if she would mind if that CEO would mind if she could run that person’s company for, for a week or so, just so she could try and learn the more about the business. I mean, now that is something that’s very bold and she admits that stuff like that won’t always pay off.
But when it does pay off, uh, the rewards are magnified way more than if you would take the traditional route to towards learning something. So don’t be afraid to step out and actually do things that you might not do normally just because you’re, you’re held back. So just let go and, and be wild, I guess.
Yeah, I wanna get back to that question asking in a second. I also, Len, like her, uh, example, right at the top, she says, everybody’s trying to grind it out, right? If I just work a little harder, if I grind it out, I’ll do it. She talks about finding an edge instead. And her example was when she played poker, everybody studying the hands and studying the cards.
She decided to study the people that she was playing with and that she would get tells from the look on their face and the way they were playing their hand, she would figure out what’s in their hand. Based on that, she starts winning poker hands. Yeah. She tells everybody else that that’s exactly what she’s doing.
They ask her what her, what she’s doing, and everybody goes, yeah, that’s not a thing. That’s not a thing. But it’s funny, OG uh, uh, uh, when we, you know, there’s a popular phrase in hustle culture, 10 x, right? Grant Cardone, 10 x, every organization has, let’s 10 x Gary Vanerchuk 10 x. But, but truly, if we’re trying to 10 x, is it just about finding these edges and then working your ass off along the edge?
Is it, or what Len says being a little bit more bold.
What you can see. I’m working. What’s up? Okay. Okay.
Did you get the question?
Say it again.
Is it about, is it about finding these edge? Is it just, is 10 x really not about hustle, but about finding these edges and being a little more bold?
Well, you know, when I think about like 10 times, I, I think it’s not, uh, necessarily results, but it’s a thinking tool because it’s very easy for us to think in terms of additive properties of, of, you know, if I, if this thing, if I do this a little bit better than I get, a little bit better result. But if, but if you think about something being 10 times bigger or 10 times different, it completely changes everything around how you have to structure it.
I’ll give you a crazy example. My son’s a junior in high school and you know, we’re starting to think about college, right? Well, the normal, traditional college path is four years in college, five years in college, and then you graduate and get a job, right? Everybody kind of accepts that as the way to do it.
Is there a way to do it in a year instead of, I. Instead of four years, like, how could that be done? And that thing, you know, most people go, well, there’s no way to do that. It’s impossible to do an entire college career in one calendar year. But I know of people who have done this and it, it requires a completely different shift in how you do things and think about things way different than actually just doing things differently, like the little additive 1% better type thing.
So I don’t know that the 10 times thing is a bad thing in terms of a, the, the hustle culture, like you said. But, but I, you know, I love the challenge of going, if this were 10 times different, if this were 10 times bigger, how would we do it differently? Just a different thinking tool.
Is that what it’s all about? Lacey maybe being a little bit unreasonable, asking for stuff that’s way above what you think might be possible.
Yeah, I agreed with that part of the article, like, go big or Go home. Like if you’re gonna take the initiative and set yourself apart, like if this is your inner power, like to me it’s going for it, going for things, getting intel, like learning more. But yeah, if you, she mentioned in too about the crossing the moat.
Like if you’re gonna set yourself apart from people in the pack, like you’re gonna have to get uncomfortable and asking for more is a great way to do that. But even if that fails, you also have learned, you’ve checked the system, how it worked. I, I’ve applied for jobs not to get the job, but just to understand the process and to see who responds.
Like, to understand their infrastructure, who, who’s doing the hiring, who’s doing the responding. So there’s all these reasons why you could be doing that thing. That’s the main reason. Like, okay, maybe I’m going for this job, but if it doesn’t work out, I’ve learned all these other things by going big. And I think that’s like negotiation.
Whatever you want, you should ask for more in hopes to land where you want to. So I think going forward it’s big and like, to me, some of the stuff’s like shooting your shot, like you see an opportunity. I don’t if remember Joe, that’s how we met. I actually went up to you at a, at an event and said to you about a podcast and I was like, you guys missed something.
You didn’t have somebody like me in the show. This year, and I listened to every show and you said to me, you’re right. We didn’t, okay. Next year you can be on the show. And it was the podcast for FinCon, and that’s how we met. I introduced myself, but then you did invite me on the show. So it’s like I had the opportunity to introduce myself, but also tell you, Hey, this is an opportunity you guys could do, but it also turned out to be an opportunity for me, so it was like, what did I have to lose by introducing myself?
It was either, it was either invite you on the shore show or enforce the restraining order. I had one of two choices there, Lacey. So we
Hey, hey, hey, Joe. I wanted to, Lacey brought up about getting jobs and stuff and, and I, I think I’ve brought this example up one time before. I mean, by all means be bold when you’re looking for jobs. Don’t ever say, uh, if you look at the job qualifications, let’s say there’s a couple boxes there that you don’t tick, don’t pass up.
The job, uh, request putting in and, you know, ask for an interview just because you don’t tick all the boxes. And I, I have a firsthand example of that with my son, a high school dropout who taught himself, uh, I, you know, computer technology, IT stuff. And, uh, he actually applied for a job that required a college, four year college degree.
He already knew what he was doing, but he didn’t have the degree. He applied and he ended up getting the job. So this is a high school dropout, and I mean, today he’s working for a, a Fortune 30 company. Uh. Making six figure salary. He’s still, you know, he’s a high school dropout with no college degree and he is working in the, in the industry there, doing that all because he was not afraid to ignore what they requested in the job application.
And he just said, you know what? I can do this job. I know you have these requirements, but I’m going to apply anyways. And it paid off. I mean, that’s, I, I don’t know. I bet you 95% of all people, they see a requirement and they say, oh, I don’t have that four year degree. They would not even dare to apply. So be bold.
I mean, get out there and don’t be afraid. What’s the worst that can happen? Somebody will tell you no, that’s the worst that can happen.
There’s, even though Len, there’s a, there’s the other side of that too, which by the way, congratulations. And that is a, a kick ass story about being bold. I also like the flip side of that, which is I saw some, I don’t know, I saw some social media posts the other day saying, so thing about I just wanna do meaningful stuff.
I just wanna do meaningful. I wish that, I wish that I knew younger that that, uh, that if I just did meaningful stuff, like my life would be better. This is somebody who’d already made it, had done great things. But then I see Kate in this piece who says the moat of low status is one of my favorite concepts.
’cause I feel like when a lot of people hear meaningful work, they think of high status work. I think that’s the reason why they’re selling ring lights at target now. ’cause every kid just wants to become an influencer when you don’t know anything about anything. Right? So I just want to immediately get famous or whatever it is.
The idea that making changes in your life, especially when learning new skill sets, requires you to cross a moat of low status, a period of time where you are actually bad at the thing or fail to know things that are obvious to other people. Like she talks OG about this idea of a moat. And that really, I think, to get to meaningful work, that appreciating that moat and loving that moat that it’s not gonna be easy is I think the way to separate yourself from other people.
I think about the, the book that George Leonard wrote called Mastery, which is a similar concept, right, where it’s like this long period of time where you’re doing a thing and nothing is. Actually happening in terms of progress. It’s just as they call it, like being on the plateau kind. So a similar type of type of metaphor of, of just this long sludge of nothing is happening and I’m doing this thing over and over again.
I think it’s a very interesting, uh, thinking. I think it’s very, I don’t wanna say this. 3, 2, 1. It’s very interesting thinking to consider the idea that enjoying that period of time where you’re actually pretty crappy at something and enjoying the period of time where the stuff doesn’t come naturally to you, or like she says is unknown to you and yet is seemingly known to everyone else.
When we think about like financial planning things, we talk about this stuff and we, on this show, Lacey, on yours, Len and your blog have been, have been doing the same stuff for a long, long time. 13 years we’ve been doing it letting probably longer and. And, and you go, well, how many times can I talk about a Roth IRA?
But we have to remember that there’s a whole tranche of 25 year olds who for the first time just like unclogged their ears and went, okay, I should do something about money. And if we treat it like, you know, oh, well, everybody knows what a Roth is, so let’s just move on to the next thing. There’s a whole bunch of people and a whole generation of people that every single year come up going, wait, what’s this again?
What, what, what’s, hold on. What’s the difference between taxable? What’s taxable? What does that mean? And you go taxable. What do you, what do you mean you don’t know what taxable is? But that’s that, you know, sometimes I feel like that’s where we are. And I think we have to remember that there’s a time and a place for kind of back to the basics when it comes to our role, you know, as, as it is in terms of education.
But, but, but being okay with it from, from the receiver’s perspective too, saying like, Hey, yeah, I don’t know what this is, this is true for any. Sport that you try to do any activity that you’re brand new at. I’m like, think about game night with Joe. It’s like, like, wait, hold on. Explain it to me like I’m stupid.
He’s like, I just did. I’m like, I’m dumber than that. Try again.
Little lower, a little lower.
Keep it driving it down, and Joe’s like, this is so easy. You just moved this piece and you did all this card, and then we fight and I always win. It’s like, wait, what?
None of that. None of that is true. What I like about what you’re saying OG too, is that, you know, when you’re first learning something, and Kate talks about it in this piece, is that it forces collaboration. I mean, Lacey just, just, I’m sure when you began in the military, well, in the military you’re forced to c collaborate,
you’ll collaborate.
You, you will collaborate,
but also when you were learning about money. But, but I love this idea that if you decide that the moat that you’re gonna swim the moat, not only will you be better for it, I think you’re better for it because you’re forced to collaborate with other people.
Yeah, but you’re also, you can never get to good unless you go through bad. You know, unless you’re just have a god-given talent of something. But like anything, like in money, in business, whatever your craft is, you’re never gonna be good unless you get in that moat and like figure out how to swim and sludge and get better and then move forward.
And you’re right, you do sometimes have to reach out to other people that are further along than you or have that experience or that knowledge or resources to help you expedite getting out of the moat. I think, you know, it’s great to like be there and learn and get the basics and, and understanding, but I think everybody’s eventual goal is to get out of the moat.
I don’t think you have to collaborate. I don’t think being in the moat forces you to collaborate, but I think collaboration gets you out of the moat faster because you can, you can get across the moat learning from your own mistakes.
It just takes longer. But if you’re collaborating, you know, the people you’re collaborating with who are smarter than you, uh, can teach you things a lot, can, can show you the ropes and get you out of that moat a lot faster.
And like I’m just
recently
you should.
oh, go ahead.
I’m sorry, Lacey. I was just gonna say you, I think you hit it. It was,
She
says that very thing Len. She said it’s possible to cross the mote quietly by not asking questions and not collaborating. But these trade-offs really Nerf learning. Yeah. Lacey,
Oh no, I was just gonna say that I’ve been recently doing this with my conference learning Facebook ads, and that’s public. Like you’re putting these out ads out to the public and, but I need to learn. I need to figure it out. That’s the way I learn best, not by somebody telling me all about it. It’s like, I need to figure this out.
Putting money on the line also helps expedite like the learning process, but it’s like, I gotta be bad at this before I can get better. And I wanna have that understanding in my business so I can do this in the future. And even if I pay somebody to do in the future, I wanna have an understanding if they’re, they’re wasting my money.
So it’s like, yeah, it’s gonna be embarrassing for a while. I’m gonna be in the moat, but it is what it is until you know I can get good at it.
I was just talking to some new podcasters about that, about edit your own show when you first start out. You definitely want to have a pro like Steve Stewart, like we have do it, but, but you know what you want when you have edited your show for a while, and Steve is way better than I was, but I can collaborate with him far more because I did a little bit of that.
Myself, uh, Len, I wanna get back to your son’s fascinating story because Kate talks specifically about something in here that I think that she did. You know, a four year degree is really a gatekeeper, right? You got a four year degree and what the gate, what the gate is, is that you learn this stuff and we often go, well, if you don’t have a degree in X, Y, Z, that means you don’t learn.
But Kate has a bolded section to this that says, assume everything is learnable. Your son did that.
Yeah. He, he took no for a minute. The problem, you know, let me go into, I don’t wanna make it sound like my son’s just a dropout. ’cause he was my son. Is he, he’s has ad hd not the H part, but he has a DD So it made very learning books and learning school. It just, it, he couldn’t compute. Um, but if you showed him things or like, uh, you know, he could teach, learn.
Like YouTube and stuff, he could learn from that, or by, by doing in demonstration. He soaks things in like a sponge. It just school, the school environment was terrible for him. So that’s why, you know, that’s why he was the dropout. And he refused, he realized he couldn’t learn from school, but he had that thirst for knowledge and he taught himself.
And so he, you know, he didn’t let that constrain him. He didn’t let the fact that, oh, well, you know, he couldn’t, he’d never get a high school degree or a college diploma for that matter. He didn’t let that hold him back. He still had his goal. He said he was gonna meet his goal and he went about it the way that he knew how to do it.
It was unconventional, but it worked. And then he had the bravery. It, I, to me it’s bravery. ’cause I would never would’ve done what he did to actually apply for jobs that were requiring college degrees, which, I mean, he, I remember when he told me he was doing, I was like, man, you’re, you’re crazy. But it, he was, he wasn’t afraid.
And it worked. And, um, you know, you just, you don’t let conventions. Conventions are made to be broken. They are made to be broken and, and sometimes you have to break them. It’s your only way to succeed is you have to, you have to break those conventions sometimes.
She also says, OG, here, that, uh, supposedly fixed rates can be altered. Some things you can learn, confidence, charisma, warmth, tranquility, optimism. Someone recently asked me how one could go about learning charisma, and the answer she gave was really boring. She said, by reading a few books, watching many hours of charismatic people interacting with others and adopting a few of their habits, is it truly that easy?
I, I, I believe that everybody has a certain thing, uh, that they’re good at. You and I speak this language from our coaching program called Unique Ability. And, and I believe that, that we spend a lot of time working on the things that we suck at, trying to get them a little bit better. And Dan Sullivan, who runs Strategic Coach, the coaching group that you and I belong to and many others, uh, he’ll talk about that and say, you end up, all you do is work on your weaknesses, then you just end up with some pretty crappy weaknesses.
’cause, ’cause you know, if you’re just not good at that thing,
Oh, you make your way to mediocre.
you’re just gonna maybe be mediocre on it. Yeah. As opposed to saying, well this is what I’m really good at. I’m gonna lean into that. So, you know, that’s a great example of, of Len’s Kid where it’s like, you know. Would he be a really, I, I don’t, I’ve never met your son before, but you know, maybe he’s not gonna be the Supreme Court justice orderer, you know, but he’s gonna be an amazing cryptographer who can like crack codes and, you know, see it instantaneously because that’s the what, that’s what he’s really good at.
You know, on a computers thing, I don’t know anything about computers and I would be so lost if I tried. I believe I could learn it, but not to a, not to a level of proficiency that is, you know, excellent. It would be a very competent activity as opposed to leaning really hardcore into the things that I’m really good at and just spinning all of my energy and focus on that.
And if I wanna learn something different, it’s learnable to a competency, but not to an excellence or, you know, profoundly unique ability type, type level. I don’t think.
I love these ideas, focusing on your unique ability. I’ll ask your, our stackers hanging out with us. What is your unique ability? And is that what you’re, is that what you’re, you’re focused on right now? And then also, uh, if you’re in the moat, you know, how do you, how do you, uh, make the best? How do you make the most outta that time?
We’re going to dive into some more, uh, little bit quirky ideas that Kate has here that I absolutely love. But a couple things before we get to our, uh, middle of the show general extravaganza, we have Len Pezo. Guess what? We have a Valentine’s Day giveaway for our stackers coming up. How about that?
I love it. What am I, what am I getting?
Valentine’s Day.
I love it. That’s
very nice. Yes. Well, well, here’s the deal. Uh, we, we don’t really espouse Hallmark holidays and, and spending money. Do you guys spend a lot of money, Len, on, on Hallmark holidays like Valentine’s Day, you and the honeybee,
Uh, not, not too often the, I will get a card, maybe some, some flowers or something. But, uh, the cards are, the cards are ridiculous these days. I mean, have you bought a Hallmark card? Um, there goes your sponsorship with Hallmark. I mean, you get a card, it’s like, what is it, $10, $12 for a card these days? It’s absolutely crazy.
Make
were joking about that. Lead on Monday show that, uh, that’s the real holiday. Uh, the real Valentine’s Day massacre was the Cardile. When everybody figures out how expensive these Hallmark cards are, now you’re like, really? For a piece of paper, somebody gonna throw away in a week?
Yeah, it’s crazy. It’s crazy.
Well, uh, Lacey, at your house, Valentine’s Day, a big deal.
um, just like little something for the kids, like sharing in the morning. But I was gonna say we don’t spend a ton of money, but we just recently bought. Candy And that is also through the roof to, you know, put out for them in the morning. Yeah, pretty much. And they, they’re teenage boys so they can eat a lot.
So you can’t just like, give ’em one thing and think that’s gonna hold them over. But I completely agree about the cards. You gotta flip those suckers over and check the price before you definitely go up to the register. I, I look at the dollar, dollar 50 under $3 cards.
Well, well, the homemade cards, I like the homemade cards.
From the heart, from the
we’re. Yes, absolutely. Uh, good stuff there. Well, we don’t want our stackers, uh, uh, spending a bunch of money on a Hallmark holiday. So instead, and by the way, we also don’t care if you have a Valentine or you are our Valentine, Stacker. You are our Valentine, and that’s why.
You can be frugal this year and instead waste our money. Here’s what, here’s what we’re gonna do. We’re giving $200 to spend a local restaurant. It cannot be a chain restaurant, it has to be a local restaurant. Take a friend, take, take a valentine, take a group of people, but spend 200 bucks of our cash anytime around Valentine’s Day.
And guess what? We will publicize that that restaurant was your Valentine, that you liked them enough that you went there with our money. And then, uh, you guys just have a great time, uh, using our cash. Here’s the way that you enter. You get one entry. If you enroll in the thing that is the take home version of the show called the 2 0 1, it’s our newsletter, comes out twice a week.
StackingBenjamins.com/201 and inside of the 2 0 1, there’s a little code and you can use that code to help somebody else get the 2 0 1. And if that person enrolls, guess what? You get three entries and they also get one. So you’re sharing the love with them. Isn’t that brilliant, Lacey?
It is. It really is brilliant compounding.
It is Yes. Showing the love to all your friends. But,
I think I
heard about something similar at, uh, in a last Amway, uh, conference I was at. Didn’t they have some?
here’s the deal. If you sign somebody else up, you get three and they get one, and then they go sign somebody else up. The difference is we’re teaching you how to save money.
Oh, okay. All right.
Yeah. There you. But that is good. If I start drawing circles about this Valentine’s Day thing on a sheet of paper, or if I, here’s the deal, stackers.
I can’t tell you anymore about this promotion. You gotta, I, I gotta come over with a friend of mine and talk about it. Right? I can’t tell you exactly what it is. StackingBenjamins.com/201. That was a joke for everybody. StackingBenjamins.com/201 and, uh, sign up now and then sign up your friends and spend our
Sign up here. Friends,
That didn’t, that didn’t quite go the way I wanted it to.
as long as they open emails, we’re good with anyone.
Yes. Stacking Benjamins, it’s kinda like Amway, uh, at the middle part of the show. We normally don’t do that. What we normally do is we have year long trivia competition between our three frequent contributors, Len OG and Paula Pant, and Lacey. Today you’re playing the part of Paula, and that means there’s good news and bad news. Which one do you want first?
Mm, just very large shoes to fill, but I’ll take the bad news first.
Well, the bad news is you’re in last place. Uh, but the good news is Paula’s always in the last place, so it’s very,
good. That’s good. I cannot drag her down anymore.
You cannot. Len has two. OG has one. Paula has zero. She’s not one this year yet. Uh, but there, the other good news is, is that that also means you get to guess last OG will guess in the middle.
And Len as the dude first, you’re gonna kick this thing off, but we need a trivia question. Doug, what’s on tap today, man?
Hey there, Stackers. I’m Joe’s mom’s neighbor, Doug. I’ve been thinking a lot about retirement lately, and I’ve decided that I wanna spend my last handful of years on a beach somewhere, maybe Fiji or Malta, heck, maybe even Bali, since it seems like Joe’s moving there. I just want a peaceful life on the beach where no one can hassle me about having loud parties or too many gorgeous people around me.
Not that I’m having loud parties, but I’m sure Joe’s mom wouldn’t like it if I did. Plus parties are like a magnet for teenagers, and the last thing I need is a neighborhood kids coming over trying to drink my beer. God being the coolest adult in town really can be a curse. I know the average house is a lot smaller on island, so I’m gonna have to get rid of a lot of my stuff means a lot less to clean up, you know?
Not to mention, Joe’s mom will surely put me in her will, so I’ll have a nice little chunk of money coming in there as well. It’s gonna feel great to relax and focus on spending all of my money. Today’s trivia question is what is the average amount of an inheritance in the us? I’ll be back right after I go see how much one bedroom houses are going for in Cozumel.
All right. Well there it is. Uh, Mr. Penzo,
what are you
Oh my God, because I just, I just read an article. It was, they were, it was talking about how, oh, I forget, some percentage of people were counting on an inheritance to wipe out their debts. They,
and um, yeah,
what a
like a solid
plan.
it was like, it was like two out three. Two outta three people said they were counting on an inheritance to wipe out their debts.
And it mentioned it, it mentioned the, I dunno if it was the average, it mentioned a range of based on people’s income, what, how much the debt was. But your question is what Doug it’s, it’s. How much, what, what’s the
What is the average amount of inheritance
Oh, so the average amount, so if people are, 67% of people are counting on that inheritance to wipe out their debts.
I don’t think people have a lot of debts. I mean, I like a million dollars or something. Right? I 67% of people don’t have a million dollars in debt. So, and I’m helping, I’m helping OG here and Lacey out. I should probably just shut up and give a number. Um, but I’m gonna say, I’m just, I’m gonna say quarter million dollars.
I’ll go with a quarter million.
$250,000. og. Is that high or low?
I, I, I think, I think if the, if we include lots of people that get
$0, I think that’s very high. I think that’s very high. So I’m gonna go, um, a way, way, way different number. Uh, I had in my head 39,000, so I’m gonna
say $39,000.
$39,000. Lacey, you got 39 on one end, two 50 on the other. It’s a big field goal there.
It is, but I also had a number in my head, and I think it’s way lower than Len like, I mean, I. If that was happening more frequently, people would seriously be holding out to pay off their debt. Like why bother run it up if you’re gonna get that much money? But I agree with og. There’s a lot of people that get nada.
This is hard, but the number I had was $30,000 and I’m gonna go with that. Paula may be a little frustrated with me, but
I think $30,000.
lot of zeros out there.
$30,000. Lock it. I, I thought when you said there’s a lot of zeros, I realized later that you were talking about the number of people that get zeroes. I’m like, yeah, there’s four zeros and 30,000. That’s a lot.
I thought he was talking about losers.
A lot of zeros in here.
I guess so. I, I, I think so. After I misinterpreted that one, I’ll take that one personally. Uh, we would love to tell you who is, uh, closer. Is Len closer with 250 or is OG with 39? Lacey with 30,000? We’ll find out in a minute. 3, 2, 1. Len, you kicked it off with 250,000 bucks. You’re, you’re in the stratosphere compared to these two yahoos.
What are you thinking? You, You,
might have
this wrapped up.
I, agree that a lot of people probably get zero, but I think there’s also the, the, the people that skew that average is, there’s probably people that get five or 10 million. So, and that will skew just as much as the zeros. So I am, I’m fairly confident. I like, I like where I’m sitting on this one.
You like the Bezos factor
there?
Yes,
Yeah. OG 39,000 looks like you’re not gonna get the downside much. ’cause Lacey took that away from you.
you.
are welcome.
Uh, I,
I’m feeling, I’m feeling, pretty good. I, I think this number is, I think this number is, you know, in the tens of
thousands. Yeah,
Is it a five digits, a
Yeah. I think so.
It’s just whether or not it’s three, three tens of thousands or four tens of thousands.
Lacey, you feeling good that it’s even lower than og?
I am a little nervous now that Len brought up the 10 million plus people, but I just, I’m gonna be, I’m gonna stick with it. I’m confident. I’m confident
Well, here we go. Everybody sit back. ’cause it’s that time Doug who’s winning.
Hey there, stackers on future beach bum and guy who’s open to being included in your will. Joe’s mom’s neighbor, Doug. I know it’s a long way away, but I’m really looking forward to retiring. One day. I can already
feel the
It might not be as
I
as you think it is.
I’m getting that. Getting that feeling. Today. I am. I can already feel the warm ocean breeze.
It’s okay, Joe, because I’m already picturing myself on the beach, the sand between my toes. Nothing to worry about except which umbrella drink. I’m gonna spend time with that day while I lounge around in a banana hammock. No, no, not that. Get your mind out of the gutter. A banana looking hammock. You know the, I mean, I look great in a banana hammock.
You know the yellow, nevermind God. Today’s trivia question is, what is the average amount of inheritance in the us? The answer, well, it’s fun to daydream about inheriting a fortune from a long lost relative. Less than a third of Americans will inherit any money at all. The average amount that the few lucky who do is. It is $203,800 less than what? Lend guessed. $16,200 less than what Lacey guessed. And $7,200 more than what? OG Guest, because the answer is $46,200, making OG our winner. $46,200.
very interesting.
$46,000 still pays off a lot
of debt.
It does.
It
does. I bet. You know, I was thinking like house too. I was thinking, oh well you’re gonna pay up your mortgage and all that
Just trying to think. Is my
mom and my dad average? I
Or a lot of trips to Vegas.
Oh, could you imagine taking 40 grand to Vegas? How cool that would be like
You’re like
I didn’t expect any of this money, so I’m either gonna get a $90,000 inheritance or zero
90 or
Let it ride.
the exact, yes. What did we find out the other day that we’re like eight doubles away from a billionaire or something? We just gotta play
blackjack eight
Yeah.
30. No,
- You’re 32 Blackjack. Hands away from being Elon Musk if
you got a
hundred bucks.
I’m starting with
46,000.
Yeah,
we’re gonna expedite that.
I know.
get this, get this guys. This is just neighbor Doug dropping more knowledge on you. As of 2023, the latest data that was available for average American debt came from 2022. Prob probably shouldn’t give this away ’cause this should be a trivia question coming up, but it’s just who I am. The 46,000, uh, is only about half of the average debt.
An American carries at $101,000.
well it looks like you gotta kill both your parents then.
Yeah.
Wow. That escalated
mom and dad.
Is that true?
Reminds me of when comedian Lisa Curry was with us and said, you just gotta roll ’em off the dock. Yeah. Not good. Uh, hey, time for the second half of this show, which is, uh, brought to you by depositaccounts.com.
Lacey, you know what happens when you go to deposit accounts.com?
What
She’s gun shy now. After
She,
two,
she’s Gotcha.
she’s like, you ain’t cutting me off this time buddy.
a little skittish. Little skittish. Surprise me.
You, find out, uh, that you can compare more than 275,000 deposit rates from over 11,000 banks and credit unions and do it all for free. Lacey, it’s all for free at depositaccounts.com. Give you an example. The national average on savings accounts. As we record this, it’ll be different by the time you hear it, but it’s ticked up a little bit to 0.51% on a savings account.
But if your savings account is in the top 1%, which is many different institutions, you know what? It’s 4.99%, which is also up from last time that we saw it’s CDs checking accounts, money market savings accounts sell there probably don’t have a best in class relationship with your lender. Head to Stacking Benjamins dot com slash whoops. Head to deposit accounts.com. Buy Lending Tree, and uh, you can. Compare, ditch, switch and save. All right, let’s dive it back into this piece. I, I really like this idea of, of finding edges. Uh, but one area, Lacey, that she talks about finding an edge, which was, uh, which was a little counterintuitive. One of her, one of her ideas is increase your surface area for luck.
And I’m like, okay, I like to have more luck. But she said the last couple times I was looking for a project, I made a point of meeting as many people doing related work as I could, even if there was no obvious benefit to doing so. This runs contrary to all the advice that I’ve ever heard. Like, you know what?
Focus on the people that have done it, people that have been there. Find your in strategic coach land that, uh, OG you talked about earlier. Find your who right. Find the right who. Well, she says that she discovered by casting a wide net that I have. What I discovered by casting a wide net was that I have very little ability to predict how useful a call will be in advance.
Relevance is easier to predict, but it’s a not a very good proximity. It’s not a very good geez, but it’s not a very good proxy for usefulness, which is a product of lots of other things. And she says, actually, the more confident she was that a conversation was gonna be relevant, the less likely it was that something exciting would happen.
Like when she was sure it was gonna be fruitful. It wasn’t serendipity like do you, do you just say, she says, say yes to a lot, say yes to as much as you possibly can.
Yes, I completely agree with that. I know people might think it’s crazy, but I get a lot of outreach. I take most every call that somebody wants to set up with me because I’m like, alright, there might be something great here, a great connection, or I’m also on the side of maybe I could help them. They’re reaching out because they need something.
There are times that things don’t work out, like, alright, well no, I don’t wanna buy your product or your service, or whatever that is. Um, but it’s great to know what you’re doing. But that’s one more person that knows, you know, whether it’s about my conference or about the podcast coaching, you know, I’m meeting more people and developing relationships and I believe in the long game like this.
This might not be something that’s gonna launch something right this moment, but two years from now, this connection and this relationship might be the thing that I need. So I agree, like you can increase your luck and the chances of things happening the the wider net that you cast and that’s falling opportunities that come in your lap.
Whether you’re at a conference and you’ll meet somebody that’s standing on the wall, you never know what they do for a living and you know, maybe where you can help them or they could help you. So I say I agree with that.
I do agree that serendipity and just putting, putting yourself out there and being willing to have conversations, especially at conferences when you’re likely to meet people you don’t know is a wonderful way. Well, like you said earlier, so how you and I met Right When, uh, I like that. But I also think that you’ve got this other com, um, precious resource called Time and Man, if I took all these, Lacey, if I took all these, these calls and spent all this time
mining
me, so
for maybe something, well, by bigger you mean I eat a lot more cheeseburgers.
Is that what you’re talking about? Because Yes, but, but for all of us, we all have the same amount of time.
but I put a limit on it. It’s not a blank check to say you can have, you know, an hour of my time. You know, 15 minutes is, you know, and a lot of times I don’t even last 15 minutes, a very quick introduction and maybe they just wanted to tell. A lot of times people just wanna tell me something and they wanted to meet me or, um, you know, an opportunity later on.
So yes, I, you do have to be careful with your time, but it’s not like, you know, a lot of people don’t show up by the way, you know, they’ll say that they want this meeting and then they won’t show up. And so then it’s like,
okay, well this is, yeah,
it does. It blows me
blows me
away. Happens all the time and you’re like, wow, so much has happened. Just, who is it that said that? I think it was Woody Allen. Like just showing up. Just showing up and being in the place is, is a huge part of success. But Len, you look like you had something to say on this topic.
Uh, well, I, I, I think there’s a danger there, there’s a lot to be gained. If you look at like a continuum line about like, where you’re at on one end and you, you’ve got a problem with, and you, you want, uh, you know, you’re trying to figure stuff out. And if you check, if you’re constantly referring to people close to you in your, in your little circle, uh, you might not, you might not get.
The answer that you’re looking for, maybe because everybody in that circle sees things the same way you do. However, at the other end of the continuum, people have no idea what you’re doing. And they’re totally, and this is where I think she’s talking about, I mean, she’s going way out there talking to people that aren’t even in whatever niche she might have a problem in or what have you, and she’s thinking she’s gonna mind some, some fantastic nugget of information.
I think, yes, there’s a, there’s a potential. You could get a, a huge nugget of information, but I think the odds of that are very. Low. And so I think there’s a benefit of not going way out on that limb, but maybe away from you, but maybe at the midway point and start checking with people and, and getting opinions and listening to people that aren’t quite so far out.
I think you’ll have a better chance of striking gold with them. Um, but, uh, you know, it, it all depends. I think it’s also very important whenever you have issues, it is good to get outside of your close knit circle because you tend to see things. All of you in your circle will tend to see things the same way.
I know this in my engineering career when we ever had a problem, there was lots of times that we, our team would get stuck and we would have to go out of our entire division of the company and go to a different division. Of engineers, and then they would spot a problem right away. So they were still in our niche, right?
They were still engineers. We weren’t going and asking, we weren’t asking chefs. We weren’t asking hairdressers, but we were asking people in our niche, just not in our circle, and they could see something so clearly, and we couldn’t just because we were so close to it, and we were all kind of confirmation, biasing each other.
So I, I think, yes, go outside, but don’t go so far outside because I think the odds of hitting that huge nugget from a hairdresser, for example, if you’re is, is very, very, uh, the odds are very low.
Yeah. Or from an engineer.
Or
from an engineer. If you’re a hairdresser,
it goes the
Yes, that’s correct. Yeah. Yeah. That’s right. That’s right. Yeah.
A hairdresser coming to an engineer for Exactly. You’ll probably, she’ll probably get, uh, she or he would probably get a, uh, bad advice most of the time.
Uh, uh, which is related to the last point on here, OG, which is, you know, when Lynn talked about going to a different group of engineers, he was asking for real feedback. And so often you find that we don’t get an edge because we, you know, we don’t like getting feedback. We don’t. We we, true. We say we do, but man, my experience is we don’t.
Yeah. I mean, it takes such a, it takes such a, um, uh, a mental place to be okay with somebody telling you that you’re probably doing it incorrectly. I mean, sometimes you get feedback to that’s good, but that’s, that’s easy feedback. You know what I mean? Like, that’s easy to hear. It’s not easy to hear when it’s, it’s not great.
And, um, especially when you think you’re doing your best or you think you’re doing the right thing for somebody to, to, you know, honestly share that with you. It’s very difficult to give that also, right. Without sounding like a complete jack wagon or, or that you’re complaining or, you know, whatever the case may be.
So, um, uh. This is probably the hardest thing out of all of this is to, is to, is to be okay with other people’s opinions and know, and then I guess secondarily to know whether or not those opinions are worth paying attention to. You know, that’s another whole, I mean, we get, we get feedback all the time about the show.
Some of it’s great, some of it’s not great. Some of it we can use to help and we do. Sometimes we get it and we go, well, we’re not gonna be talking about that. ’cause that’s not what that, you know, the
politics are coming up the election. People are gonna say, oh, you guys don’t tell, talk about the, the election.
It’s like, well that’s not what we do. That’s not our thing. So, you know, we know we can disregard that. But there’s other things that we do try to pay attention to.
The, uh, this, this strikes me that you guys have all had some things that maybe aren’t on this list that are edges that you go for that, um, that are not here. Uh, Lacey, when you think about some edge that you’ve gotten, uh, that maybe doesn’t appear here, what’s one that that’s really worked for you?
Gathering intel. I think that’s really important to understand a playing field, whether that be, you know, as a financial coach in business, a podcast, or doing a conference is doing the research. So I understand the whole playing field. That way I can better, you know, just make decisions that work well for what I’m trying to do.
And I don’t think, you know, a lot of people do the research, whether that’s finding sponsors for my show or the conference. It’s, you know, reverse engineering the information you gather and then applying that in a way, you know, that’s mutually beneficial. So I feel like I do a lot of gathering information and then trying to make a strategic plan, which I think sometimes gives me an edge.
There’s been a lot of times I’ve seen people that, uh, that, that go into a field and, and I’m always surprised they’re gonna put tons of money behind a, behind a project and they haven’t done hardly any intel. I know a guy that was, uh, creating a, a board game and I was talking to him about going out and playing a bunch of other board games.
He’s like, I’m afraid I’ll steal from them. And I’m like, well, yeah. ’cause they all kind of steal from each other. Like, you gotta know what’s out there. And the board game really sucked because he hadn’t done that work. It just, no intel, just, I’m gonna, I’m gonna, I’m gonna make a game and I’m not gonna see what, what really the marketplace is looking for.
It was, it was pretty wild. Len. Uh, what’s another one that’s not here that’s worked for you?
Uh, well, a big one for me is, is, and this took me a while to learn actually to, it’s kind of, I’ll give you one and, and then the corollary kind of is one is don’t be afraid to fail. I think people who are afraid to fail, um, will not take risks that they need to, to better themselves in life. And there’s a corollary to that too, is.
Uh, don’t be afraid to say you don’t know something. Um, and because that’s another thing I had to learn is when I was just starting out, I was, I figured after I got hired that I had to have the answers every time somebody asked me a question and I got into trouble a few times making things up on the fly just because, so I didn’t wanna look stupid, which in ironically, I ended up looking stupid when my opinion, which I thought, you know, I’m trying, I’m faking it, basically when, and, and it turned out and it blew up in my face.
That took me a while to learn too, is it’s okay to say you don’t know something. When you admit to that, then that encourages you to go out and actually better yourself or learn what you need to learn. But the failure thing is also, there’s nothing wrong with failure. We learn more from our failures than we do from our successes in life.
And um, like I said, you’ve gotta go out there. Don’t let fail the fear of failure. Hold you back ever.
Len a great, a great, uh, corollary to that one that I learned from a mentor. Luckily, fairly early on, maybe around 30, early thirties was, was, uh, apologize. Not just, not just say you don’t know, but, but, but if you mess something up, apologize and often even apologize when it wasn’t your fault. ’cause everybody else on the team knows it wasn’t your fault and you’re just trying to get away from the blame game and get the ball moving again.
And everyone appreciates
that.
Yep, absolutely.
I think those two really go together. og, how about you?
I think that, um, um, people underestimate the power of rest, which is like just that thinking time, that ability to to just be by yourself and, um, have the capacity to just think and. And, uh, you know, whether that’s like going for a walk or, or having a day where you just don’t do any work related stuff whatsoever because it’s so anti, it’s so anti thinking around, you know, I always have to be doing stuff.
You mentioned Hus hustle culture before, you know, like you always have to be doing stuff associated with your business or your training or your, you know, career. And the reality is, is that your best ideas come, you know, when you’re not thinking about that stuff and you get those by separating work and play and then, uh, and you get, you get more of it by having good rest and that rest could also be good sleep.
Um, there’s a lot of evidence to suggest that, you know, that idea of work until midnight, get up at 5:00 AM and going to the gym and all that stuff is destroying your creativity and, and productivity. So, um, so. Give yourself the time to be restful, whether that’s, you know, just daily in terms of sleep, but also periods of time throughout the day where you’re not, you know, just pouring over slack and email and that sort of thing.
You, you made me realize two OG and I love that one. And that, and that’s, that’s hard I think for a lot of people thinking, well, how am I gonna get more done if I’m away? And yet she has one that is parallel to yours that says, don’t work too hard. One of my favorite things that she writes here is, uh, my rule is never take instructions on how hard I should work from somebody who hasn’t burned out before. Very, very few people don’t take it seriously enough that you need time away. Uh, I love that it’s, those people have been burnout that actually are, you know, know exactly where that ball game’s played, uh, uh, Doug during your career, which one served you well?
Uh, which one? That’s not on the list or
the list.
list? Not on the
list.
You know, I. I suppose you could analyze a couple of the items on the list, and this one might be buried in there. But what didn’t just jump out at me was about building relationships with people that you don’t think you need to, especially in a, a corporate environment, um, where you kind of look at your org chart and you think, these are the key people I need to get to know.
Um, there can be too much focus on that and it’s short term thinking. It’s myopic vision to think that that’s where your future lies. And so go lateral, whether it’s within your company or just within your, uh, social spheres and social networking work relationships laterally, not just vertically.
You know, I love about that too. Doug is when you see people that just work vertically, like everybody in your organization sees that. And just total eye roll too. Like really, really, you, you, you’re not gonna pay attention to anybody except the one. One person you think can give you a raise. Just so, so frustrating.
Uh, thanks for all that guys. That was super helpful. We will link to this, uh, Substack piece. It’s the only piece, by the way, on Substack, at least to the point that we recorded this, that Kate Hall has, uh, written, wrote very early this year. And, uh, just super stuff to work from. Uh, let’s find out, speaking of super stuff, what’s going on, where all of you are.
We will, uh, we’ll start with, well, we’ll have our guest of honor go last, uh, og what’s going on with you this weekend besides, uh, super Bowl weekend?
Yeah, that’s, uh, that’s about it. This is, um,
the final,
Aren’t we legally required to say the big game weekend?
I’d love it if the Super Bowl sued us. That’d
be great. Super
great
Publicity, free marketing.
Super Bowl. Sues very small financial podcast. For saying the word Super Bowl. Super Bowl. Super Bowl. Super Bowl. Come get me, Roger. Come on, Roger Goodell,
This is, uh, for us, uh, the beginning of the spring sports season. So baseball started, or starts, I should say tomorrow with our first away game, uh, as, as, uh, uh, for the spring high school varsity football or baseball season. So, so, yep, it’s kicking off. The quiet time is over. Now it’s time to, you know, baseball every other day, track every other day.
It’s, uh,
go sit in the
stands
it’s, yeah, and it’s usually perfectly good weather in February to watch baseball. I mean, it’s just like when I think baseball, I think February weather. So I’m really looking forward to,
And you’re in
the sunny, warm
pe
crime of river.
Yeah, I.
I mean, it
PE people in Boston
and and in Idaho are giving you the
finger right
Well, yeah, but they don’t
start playing baseball in February in
Boston and Idaho either.
They’re
I had baseball practices in high school where we shoveled snow off the field to practice, so I don’t want to hear it.
Did you have to walk uphill to get there?
both ways
it
in the snow.
Listen here, Missy.
Len. What’s going on at Len Penzo dot Com?
Uh, let’s see. We are, we discussed this week, we discussed the difference between currency and money, and I know people use the terms interchangeably, but there actually is, in the macro economic world, there is a difference between the two. And, uh, we go into those differences and, uh, it’s just kinda a little interesting.
Uh,
interesting. Yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s actually pretty cool. Uh, so if you’re interested, stop on by lenpenzo.com.
That’s talk about, uh, an aha. I think Len, for a lot of people, like really
Yeah.
good stuff. Uh, Lacey, thanks for, thanks for hanging out with us again.
Thanks for having me. It’s always an adventure.
She’s like, and I’m never coming back. ’cause you tricked me and cut me off on stuff and No, it was super, I’m so glad that, uh, you were here. Well, what, what did we talk about first? Do we talk about if we’ve got creators in the audience? Do we talk about the conference first and what’s, uh, what’s happening?
Or do we, do we go into the show?
Uh, we can start with the conference. Yeah. MilMoneyCon is coming up April 25th through the 27th in Denver, and that’s shaping up, I think it’s gonna be a lot of fun, wide variety of speakers and, um, really helping bring together military financial professionals, um, got some tricks up my sleeves to help people.
I’ll be better at their craft and connect, making meaningful, meaningful connections and continue their education and stuff. And then on The MILMO Show, really focusing on getting back to the basics. I think. Some things, you know, like how much is your trash really worth? Like pe grocery bills are way up. So talking about some things like getting back to the basics, like making sure that you’re not throwing out food, that you’re repurposing it, that you’re freezing it.
Some things that, um, you know, watching your budget, the things that are really, you know, people need right now to make some wiggle room in their budget to make sure their every dollar is counting. So, getting back to the basics.
I love that. I remember we had chef, uh, who was it? og Frankie Celenza on the show, and he talked about how the average person, Lacey, you probably already know this, throws out a third of the stuff that’s in their fridge.
Yep. It’s nuts.
Yeah, that’s what made me think of it. I saw my son throwing out a piece of perfectly good sausage. He, it, nobody had taken a bite out of it. He just like chucked it in the trash. I was like, we can put that in the fridge and make a sausage biscuit out of it. Why would you throw it out? He is like, oh, I wasn’t going to eat it.
I’m like, that doesn’t mean it’s bad. Like that’s worth, you know, money. So yeah, it really is like produce. They buy with good intentions that they’re gonna eat healthy this week and they just chuck it. Or people, a lot of people don’t like leftovers. Well then you gotta get creative.
we had a, we had a, a salad. We threw, we threw out Y yesterday, which was just a meal planning. I, uh, horror story, like we should have eaten it on time. I accidentally didn’t label it. I’ve been, since Frankie was on the show, I’ve been putting, I’ve been putting the date on stuff and trying to make sure that the stuff that goes in the refrigerator first, like we eat that first, but we didn’t do that and I ended up having to throw away a bunch of, uh,
I, I’m convinced those produce drawers and refrigerators are a conspiracy from the produce Farmers of America. ’cause once it goes in that drawer down there in the lower left of your refrigerator, it’s never to be seen
again. You forget that that lettuce or that onion is down there for like four months and it comes out black and soupy, and that’s how they’re keeping their revenues going.
That’s it.
like, there’s a guy.
key. Those are are the key to keeping that produce nice and, and fresh. Longer is rapid in paper towels, it absorbs the moisture. And, um, we, we keep, we keep especially all celery and, and green onions and mushrooms. You wrap those things up in paper towels and they last a long, long time.
You’d be shocked how long they’ll last.
Well,
I saw a guy on
Instagram. I
we should let Lacey talk.
it’s fine. I was just gonna say that I saw a guy on Instagram and he broke down all of that produce stuff that, onions, potatoes, they should never go in the refrigerator. And how to properly store them to get the most out of all of them so they don’t go bad. Like some things need to be stored in a paper bag and you know, like potatoes, onions, no sunlight, that type of stuff.
So yes, you’re right. The produce drawer is probably not the place for everything.
That, that’s exactly what I was gonna say, Lacey, was that I, I learned, I learned that some stuff doesn’t even go in the refrigerator in that drawer. And, and by the way, we tried to tell Doug that we need to keep him in a paper bag and it didn’t work. So he figured, figured that one out. Speaking of Doug Doug, what, um, what, uh, what are our takeaways today?
What’s on our to-do list today? Well, I’ll tell you, Joe first, take some advice from our piece today. Look for edges that other people aren’t thinking about differentiate. Second, take some advice from our resident, MILMO, Lacey Langford. You need to get comfortable swimming through the nasty muck floating around in the moat of low status like the produce drawer in your fridge.
Once you’re covered in the scum of
ignorance and fear, you’ll start learning how to crawl outta that primordial soup, wash off the stench of stupidity, and launch yourself into a life of learning and prosperity.
I’m pretty sure that’s a direct quote of what she said. I, I was taking notes. Second. And lastly, what’s the biggest to do?
Do not ask Joe’s mom how much money she’s planning to leave you. You might end up getting yourself cut out of her will altogether. She’s touchy. Thanks to Lacey Langford for joining us today. You can find her podcast MILMO show wherever you’re listening right now. We’ll also include links in our show notes at Stacking Benjamins dot com.
Thanks to Len Penzo for joining us today. You can find Len at len penso.com/paper towel. And finally, thanks to OG for joining us today. Looking for good financial planning. Help head to Stacking Benjamins dot com slash OG for his calendar.
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