My team and I trained fifteen financial counselors today!  We trained seven new counselors for NewSpring Church and another eight counselors representing five other churches!

THAT FIRES ME UP!!!

I can not believe that I get to do this for a living.

If you are interested in being trained as a financial counselor, check out the upcoming Financial Counseling Experiences HERE. 

I heard several times that Crocs were great shoes.  I finally heard it enough that I bought a pair.  They are great!  So great that I wear them everywhere.  Including to Iowa in January in snow.  When I finally tried out a pair, I thought, "Why didn't I listen and take action earlier?"

I heard several times that iPods were incredible.  I finally heard it enough that I bought one.  It is incredible!  So great that I wear it while running, driving, and sitting on an airplane.  When I finally tried out a pair, I thought, "Why didn't I listen and take action earlier?"

"Why didn't I listen and take action earlier?"  This is a question I have asked myself many times after discovering a new thing that enhanced my life greatly.

It applies to my finances.  When I first prepared a written spending plan before the month and the money arrived, I asked myself this key question.

I wonder how many more things I should be listening to and taking action earlier?

I challenge you to ask yourself the same question.

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My team and I are training financial counselors this Saturday at NewSpring Church's Anderson Campus (February 28, 2009  9AM – 2PM).  It is one of our most favorite things to do!  We will be training new financial counselors to add to our awesome team here at NewSpring Church.  BUT we will also be training folks from several other churches.

THAT. FIRES. ME. UP!!!!!

I love helping other churches start their own financial ministries so that they can provide PRACTICAL, FREE, and RELEVANT financial tools.  Our communities are desperate for help.  We can help them.

Interested?  If so, click HERE to register! 

Casey Graham (The Change Group) and I were speaking with our pal from Australia, Will Henderson, about our crusades and we came under fire from paperwads, pencils, and decorative items thrown by chief suspect Troy Gramling.

You can watch the video at Will's website HERE.  I tried to stay on task, but it was DIFFICULT!

I have met a ton of people who are experiencing the harshness of the following two key items:

• No Plan, No Savings, Piles of Debt
• Loss/Reduction of Income

Here is what you can do when faced with this situation.

1. Cry.  It is OK to be regretful for awhile!
2. Take time to prioritize who will get paid and who will not get paid.  (Read the post I wrote HERE about priority order.)
3. Write out your goals.  Make sure they are SMART.
4. Prepare a written spending plan (even if you know that it will not balance to Exactly Zero).  This will allow you to fully understand your "Go Get This!" number.
5. Take ACTION!

There can be a tendency to just focus on #1 and hope for everything to just work itself out.  Usually, this is not the case.  Recovering from this type of issue is emotional and gut-wrenching, but it requires one to take action.

You CAN recover from the mess! 

I am PUMPED to announce …

The FINANCIAL LEARNING EXPERIENCE is headed to DVD!  The experience that I have been teaching around the nation is going to be released on DVD March 12, 2009 at the Unleash Conference hosted by NewSpring Church.

I love to travel and teach the FLE, but I can only be in one place at a time.  Now, I will be able to teach the class forty times a week!

When I launched this crusade back in September 2006, I had a stated goal of teaching 100,000 people in the first five years (by October 2011).  After 2.5 years, we are nearing 20,000 people taught, and it is in position to grow exponentially.

The crusade would love to partner with you to provide financial education to your congregation and community!

I am STOKED about the opportunity to speak at Revolution Church tomorrow morning.  In the afternoon, I will be teaching the Financial Learning Experience.  My family and The Saving Freak's family were able to meet up with Gary Lamb and his family for dinner.

Whenever I have spoken at a church more than once, it provides an opportunity for me to evaluate the changes that have taken place with the crusade since the last visit.  So much has changed!  The last time I visited Revolution, it was the first time we had professionally printed Financial Learning Experience booklets!   We were BIG TIME!!!

What has changed since then?  Just about everything!

Here is a quick list of the changes that come immediately to mind:

• I Was Broke. Now I'm Not. has been released and several thousand copies have been sold.  (I guess I can't accuse my Mom of paying people to buy it anymore!)
• The I Was Broke. Now I'm Not. Group Study has been released and several thousand copies have been sold.
• New Websites have been developed.  The Next Steps page and supplementary Group Study sites are helping others take their next steps toward financial freedom.
• We have trained over sixty financial counselors.  Twenty five of them at NewSpring!  You can get trained too!
• The I Was Broke. Now I'm Not. team has grown.

What changes are in store?  Well, Monday is a day for a HUGE announcement in the life of the crusade!

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I am passionate about helping others accomplish far more than they ever thought possible with their personal finances.

I need your help to reach others with the simple message that:

• God owns it all.
• We are managers.
• INCOME – OUTGO = EXACTLY ZERO

So with this series, I am going to challenge you to teach one person this stuff during the next month.

Part 5  Have the meeting!

Remember, authenticity speaks volumes.  Teach them the tools you have actually used.  Offer to help them put together their first budget.  Point them to the free tools on the Next Steps site (HERE).  Help them calculate their debt freedom date.  Encourage them.  Pray with them.  Offer to meet with them again.  Follow up with them.

I can not wait to hear how your teaching goes!

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I am passionate about helping others accomplish far more than they ever thought possible with their personal finances.

I need your help to reach others with the simple message that:

• God owns it all.
• We are managers.
• INCOME – OUTGO = EXACTLY ZERO

So with this series, I am going to challenge you to teach one person this stuff during the next month.

Part 4  Set up the meeting.

Of course, this conversation could happen spontaneously which would be terrific.  But if it does not, take the time to set up the meeting.  In Part 2, you thought about the best setting for a meeting.

It is important that you are clear about what you want to discuss.  It is also extremely important that you let them know that you are not wanting to tell them about all of the bad things they are doing when it comes to money.

The invitation needs to be born of your own authentic desire to help others learn these principles that have had such an impact on your own finances.

Here are some ways to phrase it …

• "I have had my finances rocked lately – in a good way!  I would love the opportunity to show you what I been able to do to take my finances to the next level.  I am not going to sell you anything.  I am just so excited about what has happened!"
• "Remember how broke I was?  Well, I am getting un-broke and I can't believe how straight-forward and easy it really is.  I would love to have you over for dinner to show you the free tools I am using."

How awesome is it when you can help someone and there is no sales-pitch at the end of it?  Just a geniune desire to help them learn a tool/tip or two that can help them too!

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I am passionate about helping others accomplish far more than they ever thought possible with their personal finances.

I need your help to reach others with the simple message that:

• God owns it all.
• We are managers.
• INCOME – OUTGO = EXACTLY ZERO

So with this series, I am going to challenge you to teach one person this stuff during the next month.

Part 3  Prepare for your meeting.

First, I want you to know that if you are taking this challenge, I have an assumption that you are applying these tools/principles.  You can not fake authenticity.  The best teachers I ever learned from are the ones who are actively thinking about and applying the knowledge they have.

Since you are indeed applying these principles and tools, then it is important that you provide some transparency to the individual you are teaching.  Of course, it is not necessary for you to reveal all of your personal financial picture.  Where it makes sense, show them a copy of your budget, debt freedom date calculation, before/after insurance quotes, and retirement calculations.

Have samples of these readily available before the meeting so that you will have them available should the opportunity present itself.

Maybe it would be worthwhile to take a few moments to brainstorm some key financial decisions you have made that have impacted your life – both good and bad.

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