Empowering the Middle Class to Become Millionaires with Derrick Kinney

Jordan Mendoza (00:01.487)
Hello everyone and welcome to the Blaze Your Own Trail podcast. My name is Jordan Mendoza. I'm your host and I've got a very special guest today. His name is Derek Kinney and I'm going to have him tell you a little bit about who he is and what he does today.

Derrick (00:16.366)
You Jordan, I built a very successful financial planning business over 25 years, but I realized there was a problem and that was I was helping a select few people become millionaires. And I realized there were a lot more people hurting. And so I took the five steps that helped the most people become millionaires. And I've traded that in for a program that helps middle-class become millionaires. It's called the Millionaire Money Map. And it's way to help every American achieve financial freedom that they deserve.

and I couldn't be more passionate about helping people finally live the lives they've always wanted but didn't know how to get there.

Jordan Mendoza (00:53.399)
I love it. Appreciate you sharing that context. you know, my favorite part of the show, Derek, is really taking a rewind and getting deep context into my guest's story and their journey. And so we're going to actually rewind back to the adolescent years, you know, elementary, middle and high school years. So if you can share with the audience, you know, where were you born and raised and then what kind of kid were you? What did you get into in the early days?

Derrick (00:55.554)
that.

Derrick (01:20.994)
Whole lot of trouble, man. So I actually born and raised in Washington state. was born in a city called Bellingham, Washington up in the far Pacific Northwest, kind of the tip corner up there. And interestingly enough, we moved six times before the sixth grade. So my dad was a metallurgical engineer, super smart guy, but candidly, he struggled to either keep the job or get transferred or lose a job. And so we moved around a lot. And so

Because of that, I didn't have a lot of early friendships growing up. So that was was problem number one. Problem two was I had asthma as a kid. Really, really bad. Now, I didn't know anything different. That's just what happened. But there was goofy stuff like I had allergies. And surprisingly enough, I couldn't even go out to recess. I had to stay inside because allergies out in the air and stuff. It just the strangest stuff. So I come to Texas in the sixth grade.

And if you can see by my profile Jordan, my nose is slightly larger than the national average. And because of that, I was teased mercilessly as a kid. And so it really shaped me. So early on, if I'm being honest, it was kind of a lonely period for me. And it wasn't until high school that everything turned around. And my mom, sensing kind of the desperation her son was in, gave me a book.

And rarely can I say that a book changed my life, but this one did. It was a book called Go For It by a woman named Judy Zarifah. And there was a chapter in that book, oddly titled enough, it was called How to Be Popular. And I thought, well, heck, nothing to lose. And it just talked about ask people questions about themselves and look people in the eye and be interested and be a friend to people.

And I said, I had nothing to lose. mean, I was really at the lowest point in my life. I didn't come from the gene pool of the popular kids. I didn't have all these built-in relationships. And I began to do that. And it gave me the confidence to run for student body president my junior year, which would have been my senior year. And I had this idea, Jordan, it was kind of crazy. I realized that I'd have to do something different. So I realized as I looked around the high school, there were all these groups of people

Derrick (03:40.93)
who felt like me. They felt overlooked, underappreciated. They weren't the popular kids either. The band crowd, the rock and roll crowd, all the different people. And I had this idea of I would reach out to the leaders of all of those groups of people and have a picture of me and them taken together and put that poster all around the school where they hung out with their friends. Well, what happened was is those people had never been approached by anybody to do something like that. They felt important. They felt valued.

Well, suddenly what happened was out of five people running, when they announced the winner at the end of the day, the crackle of the microphone came on and the principal said, and the winner is Derek Kenny. I was overwhelmed because it wasn't me that won that day. It was we that won that day. And what it taught me was is that when you can give people a voice and make people feel valued and important, all your own troubles, they go right out the window. My nose didn't matter. All that mattered was

Jordan Mendoza (04:26.916)
Yeah.

Derrick (04:39.15)
people felt like they were part of something bigger. And that's what lesson has, has led me into business today, just helping people feel valued and important and heard. And you can build a lot of businesses based on that one single principle.

Jordan Mendoza (04:52.921)
Yeah, that's great. I appreciate you giving that context and you know, we're all going to deal with adversity. It's why I'm getting ready to release a book called The Power of Adversity, know, real life stories and lessons for success because that's the one thing I guarantee anybody that's listening, you're going to face adversity. You don't know what it's going to look like or when it's going to come, but we just have to figure out ways to overcome it. And it was, really cool to hear that you found, you picked up a book, you know, I don't know. I don't think in high school I read a single book.

Derrick (05:03.176)
that'll be good.

Jordan Mendoza (05:22.725)
I'm being honest. So the fact that you pick one up, I mean, that was a big deal. And then the fact that you read it and that you extracted the content and then you went and actually applied it and it worked. How cool is that? And what I heard from that is that you learn soft skills. You learn things that there are so many people in 2025 are missing. Looking people in the eyes, smiling, being energetic, shaking people's hands.

Derrick (05:47.789)
Yeah.

Jordan Mendoza (05:51.065)
Those are things that even today I think people are missing and you learn those at such a pivotal time where you needed confidence, you know, and you got to essentially get this borrowed confidence from multiple people that were almost in the same place you were and you were able to bring everybody together, essentially crowdsourcing is what I would call it back in a time when it didn't even exist yet, you know? And so what I want to hear is

Derrick (06:16.973)
That's what we'll say.

Jordan Mendoza (06:18.891)
what happened next, right? So you go from, you know, the kid that's bullied, the kid that's kind of overlooked, you know, maybe you made fun of, and then you, now you're at the pinnacle here, student body president, what happens next? Do you decide, does that confidence help you maybe get a job or maybe get a gal or maybe bring you into education after high school? I'd love just to hear what trail you decide to blaze next.

Derrick (06:45.282)
Dude, I would take all of those options Jordan, but unfortunately it didn't quite work out like that, but I liked the way that sounds. so I, I then went on to college and, I squeezed four years into six. was working part time, kind of paying my way through, but I'm always been a big goal setter. And I think when I look back on my life, that's one thing that really has helped me stay motivated is I would, I would write goals down and I would visualize achieving those goals. And it helped me.

make it easier to achieve those goals. Didn't mean I always got it exactly right, but it gave me motivation as to why I was doing what I was doing. So I set a goal of like, you know, if I could become student body president in high school, could I double double? Could I create the same strategy and do the same thing in college? And so ended up doing that as well, which was really, really cool. And what happened there was, I was questioned a lot because I'm going to our local,

college. It was a reputable school, but I'm here in Arlington, Texas and my buddies are going away to Texas Tech and USC, all these big schools. And suddenly you begin to feel inferior. You know, people ask you, why aren't you into a bigger school and why aren't you doing this? Why are you staying at home? And you begin to question other people's goals as it relates to your goals. And I began to realize, wait a minute, that is your goal path, which is great for you, but it's not my goal path.

which is what I want to do. And so if I bought into their goal path, it makes what I want to do feel inferior. And I realized that's not right. So I graduated college and then went into a job and my major was communication. You my dad always told me to get your degree. It's a stepping stone and I love speaking and talking and so forth. But I realized a communication degree was not valuable at all on the open market. Okay. My first job was $24,000 a year.

working as a marketing director for a software company. And I was more of a dress up kind of guy, but at this office, it was a computer company, very, very small, like 10 people. They brought their dogs to work. They wore shorts and flip flops, had their ponytails. I mean, I was like a fish out of water. And I remember this moment and this moment that I'm going to share with you, Jordan, was critical for me in terms of a decision I had to make. Our boss was pretty famous for on Friday afternoons telling us, Hey, by the way,

Derrick (09:10.446)
tomorrow's a work day. I need everybody to come in Saturday and work. And I'd have to call my wife and bust the plans we had made together. And it was just disappointing and frustrating. There's got to be a better way here. So we did this for a long time, pushing this new product out. Well, we got it out and then they announced bonuses. And I told my wife, man, I'm excited about this. We're going to do something. Everybody was excited. And then I got passed over for the bonus and two other customer service people got passed over.

And it was devastating. I felt embarrassed. I felt shamed. I felt like, why did I do all this work and other people are benefiting from this? And it was in that moment I realized, okay, Derek, you've got a decision to make. You can either stay in this job and let someone else tell you your value at about 4 % per year, because that's the raise I would get every year. Or I can take this moment and take the chips and bet on Derek.

and give the wheel a spin. And I thought to myself, my dad had always talked about, Derek, know, take risk and do this kind of stuff. And my dad would always get to the point of taking the risk, but then never doing it. And I realized this is where my dad was. He was at the same point, but he chose the 4 % safe route. I can't allow that trap for me. And so I'd always enjoyed working with money and saving money, investing in it.

And so while I was working full time, went back and got my licenses, began to study. And it was about six months later that I left there and started my own financial planning business. Now, was it hard? It was the hardest thing I've ever done, but as the saying goes, it's always more fun to work 80 hours for yourself than 40 hours for somebody else. But fast forward, it was that pivotal day, that decision that then led me to build a business. But Jordan, this was the key thing.

Jordan Mendoza (10:57.125)
Yeah.

Derrick (11:08.435)
is here 30 years later, my kids, all four of them are now business owners. And it was because I, if I might say this, this may sound sort of a patting myself on the back, but because I made that decision of boldness and courage, it then set the stage for the next generation in my family to also believe, well, if dad did it, well, all of us can do it. It reset the belief button of what was possible in our family.

Jordan Mendoza (11:37.817)
Yeah, I love that. I love that context there and I appreciate you sharing that. And I see the same things in my kids. You my oldest is 20 and he's has a job in sales and he's going to has the potential to do six figures at 20 years old. And and he is doing what some of people look at and they would say, why would you do that? And he's out knocking on actual doors and he's doing business and customer development and trying to get people

Derrick (11:38.2)
Yeah.

Derrick (11:54.392)
Fantastic.

Jordan Mendoza (12:07.845)
to remodel their home in a few different areas. And when I tell you, for anyone that's listening that's never done door to door, it's worth its weight in gold. You're going to learn about yourself. You're going to meet yourself and you're going to find out how lots of humans are, like their attitude. And it's so interesting to see him going through all the things I went through 20 years ago, you know, when I was doing it and being able to encourage him.

and tell him he can do it too, you know? And so I love that you said, now you got all your kids for your children are entrepreneurs and that has to make you proud, right? Because it's like, they saw you do it, they saw you grinding, they saw the early days, they saw the losing the clients and staying up late and they got to really witness what it looked like and see you come on the other side of it. And so for them, it's like, wow, that looks like it's fun.

if he can do it, we can do it, you know, and there's that belief. And then they also have you as a mentor and to be there to coach them and guide them along the way. So I love that. so your first gig, you're only there six months and decided to blaze a trail six months later. And so for the audience's context, how long has it been now since you decided to jump and have been doing things on your own? And then also I want to find out what opportunities

Came about with that. Yes with that. You know what? I'm gonna bet on Derek. I'm gonna invest in myself here and go all out

Derrick (13:44.29)
Yeah, you know, I, was at that job actually a year and a half right out of college and then went over to Ameriprise financial. And that's where I began to build my financial planning business. And fast forward was there for 25 years, sold that business in January of 2020. So I'm about four years, four and a half years removed from that now. And when I first started that business,

The problem I had was I was 24 years old, but I looked like I was 13. And I looked in the mirror and said, who's going to invest with a young guy like me? And I didn't have the country club membership. I didn't have that, that, the gene pool of all these, these famous people or rich people to call on. It was just me versus the world. And I didn't, you know, have all this financial knowledge, but I had a desire to serve people. And as I looked at my parents,

I saw them working hard, but they struggled. And they worked to put food on the table for us. Both of my parents worked, but they didn't have a game plan for when they could retire or they weren't ever looking forward to anything exciting in their lives. And then I realized as I met their friends, they were in the same boat. And I thought to myself, here are all these people's parents caring deeply for their children, caring deeply for their family, wanting to give them a better life.

but they're not having a game plan for their own financial freedom. And I thought, I don't think that's right. I want to change that. And so that's what motivated me to become a financial advisor is to help other people like my parents be able to have the life they want once they finish working. And that's what motivated me. But I realized I needed to find a way to build my business. And so going back to high school, I was thinking back when I was in high school, nobody successful ever came back.

and talked into us and expressed belief as a high school student to give us a glimpse of what our future could look like. know, everybody said, do well in school and study history and math and science and all the stuff you need, but nobody ever told us about here's the business you could start or here's what your life could look like. And I thought, I want to change that. And so I began to go back to my alma mater, Sam Houston High School, still here in town. And I presented a Teacher of the Month and a Student of the Month award.

Derrick (16:04.13)
And the whole purpose was I wanted to breathe life into these students and tell them, I know you're just studying now, but you have a great potential future in front of you. And I wanted to breathe life into the teachers and say, look, you may be just be teaching a class, but on Christmases and Thanksgivings around the dinner table, your name is going to be the one that gets brought up because of something you said to these students to inspire them to be great.

And it was just powerful. would leave there. I had to give the teacher a $50 gift card and the student a $25 gift card. And then we got a picture taken with the teacher and the student, myself and the principal. Well, back in those days, we had these things called newspapers. It was really cutting edge technology back then. It's kind of gone by the wayside, but they put the picture in the newspaper. So a couple of months go by, I've done this monthly, and a woman calls me Jordan. And what she said to me changed how I thought about my business. And she said, Derek,

We want you to be our financial advisor. And I would tell everybody listening, don't say what I'm about to say, what I said. And I said, why? I'm so young. Why do you want to work with me? I was just curious. She said, well, look, we know you're young, but we know you care. But here's why we want to have you as our advisor. Because you care about what we care about. You care about what we care about.

We like supporting young people in education. We like the fact that you do that. We want you to be our advisor. And that's when the light bulb went off. And I realized I didn't have to be the smartest or the best looking or have all this vast knowledge. I just needed to care about what the clients I wanted to work with cared about. And that's how I built the business. And that's how I wove in going back to the local high school. So much so that when we would have our yearly

Jordan Mendoza (17:31.865)
That's great.

Derrick (17:54.168)
client appreciation parties, I would bring the high school principal, invite some of the students to come talk to our clients because what I realized was all the work the most of us do listening, we're all sort of commoditized unless we add value by inviting people to be part of something bigger. They assume you're going to get good returns and we're going to call them back and return their emails. Those are the table stakes, you know?

But when clients feel like by working with me or working with your listeners, that they're part of a bigger cause, it endears them to you at a deep level and emotes your business. When the competitors come calling by email and cold calls and knocking on the door, whatever it be, they are insulated because they bought into your vision and your bigger purpose, not just what you do for them.

Jordan Mendoza (18:47.267)
I love it. Love it. Yeah. I love that. take on it. I love that's, you know, innovative, especially, you know, back then when those newspaper things existed, what are those, you know, now you're, know, I don't like the fact that you're dating me because that was my first job was signing people up for the newspaper door to door, the Oregonian newspaper. Yeah. So I knock on a hundred doors a day and yell that cussed at.

Derrick (18:47.554)
you.

Derrick (18:58.53)
I'll steer that way.

Derrick (19:05.164)
Wasn't really, think this was a while.

Derrick (19:11.918)
Yeah.

Jordan Mendoza (19:13.733)
stop waking up my baby, dogs chasing you. mean, you had to deal with the gamut. so, but you know, what kept me going back, Derek, was we got free Burger King, like a Whopper and a milkshake. And, you know, and if I got some sales, we got commission. So I was like, Hey, this is the best gig ever. You know, as a, as a 14 year old, you know. Um, all right. That, that's, that's awesome. So let's talk a little bit about, um, you know,

Derrick (19:29.57)
When more do you need?

Jordan Mendoza (19:40.025)
those some opportunities that have come about because I know you've been able to speak on some amazing stages on television. You've been able to do some some things that I know will inspire our listeners, especially looking back to where the journey started. You know, now that they have the context and they can see back now, let's kind of move forward and talk about, know, you decided to sell the business.

That must have been great. How was that experience and what was that able to bring and what kind of ideas did you have next? Because of course you're still out blazing your trail. didn't just sell the business and on a yacht somewhere in the South of France, just enjoying your life. Like you're still out creating impact and helping people. So I'd love to get your thoughts on these questions.

Derrick (20:26.306)
Yeah. So let me take you a bit into my private world, if I can, Jordan. Every year, and I've done this for the past almost 10 years now, I go on a yearly sabbatical. And this may sound kind of crazy, but I take about five days completely by myself, typically go somewhere by the water. And the whole purpose of this is I began to kind of self assess a problem that I had many years ago. And that is

I like to run really, really fast. I'm a type A personality, but if I don't have a specific plan I'm running toward, I realized I'm running really fast in a big circle. And I just keep circling, but I'm running fast and getting nowhere. So the purpose of my sabbatical is to pull back and work sort of on the business and not be in the business. And I always ask three questions. How can I be a better husband? How can I be a better father? And how can I be a better business owner?

Those three questions guide that time together, but it's a great time for me personally to think and to pray in the journal and just even walk along the beach and just be with myself and just think about stuff, really put my brain on the payroll and let my brain think and really process and figure out and help me with the tools God has given me, my subconscious mind, my brain. want to use all these tools to figure out what is it that I want. So this was July of 2019.

I'm in the W Hotel in Boston overlooking the wharf. And I began to write out a list of what are the things I would enjoy doing. And I wrote out, write a bestselling book, launch a podcast, recreate at least a million dollars of recurring revenue, which would have been half of what I had in my previous business, coach, speak, consult, even write a bestselling book for teenagers. And what shocked me, Jordan, was on the list was not

being a financial advisor. That's when I knew I'd been a financial advisor for 25 years. I loved it, but I began to realize I was sort of going through the motions the past couple of years. And you know those athletes that you like and they're they're really superstars, but they hang around about a year or two too long. And you say to yourself, I wish they would have retired back then. I didn't want to be that guy.

Derrick (22:47.052)
I don't want to be that guy for my clients or for my team who I love dearly or my family. And what precipitated this was two years earlier. And even earlier than that, when I first started in the business, my strategy was I look so young, but how can I build credibility? So I began to, of course, invest back in schools and students. But also I realized that TV could give me a really good opportunity.

So I would actually send faxes again back in the paper days. I'd get to the office super early and I'd send a fax to the local TV producers once a month that basically said, hey, when you need someone to talk about complex financial topics in an easy to understand way, call me. And I would give them a couple of examples of, three ways to say for your kids education, four strategies to cut debt, four simple steps to say for retirement. You always want to put numbers in there so it quantifies.

about six months of doing this, I get a call from the local CBS affiliate here in the Dallas, Fort Worth. They say, Hey, we got your faxes. We know you like to be on TV. Could you do an interview next week? And I said, of course I love doing TV. Having never ever been on TV before. Okay. But the goal was I knew that when the opportunity came, then I would be ready. I knew it didn't make sense to be ready before the opportunity, just create it and then figure out how to fulfill it.

So I practiced and practiced interviewing with myself in the mirror, had my wife ask me questions. But Jordan, as plain as day, I visualized that when I finished that interview, the producer would say, Derek, you are made for television. Would you come on on a regular basis? And I just held onto that vision. I could see it plain as day. And the interview went great. And at the end of it, she said, hey,

And you're really good on TV. Could you be a regular on our show? And I said, well, of course, I'd be happy to. And that was the moment. That's the moment when when TV lit up for me. And what happened was producers sort of move around. so at one point on the NBC affiliate, I was on five times a week. And that really helped blow up the business because people would come in and they'd watch me when they're getting ready in the morning. One woman told me a little bit too much information.

Jordan Mendoza (24:46.456)
That's awesome.

Derrick (25:07.308)
I watch you when I'm in the shower. You did not need to tell me that. But the point was is people feel like they already know you, just like today. Jordan, I'm sure your followers feel about you. They hear your voice. They feel like, Jordan's a nice guy and they've never met you before. But it's just the tonality and the personality and that's what TV did for me. So all of that said, what happened was then Fox News offered me my own show.

Jordan Mendoza (25:09.214)
Hmm.

Derrick (25:36.15)
And I was like, dude, this is like the pinnacle. I want to do this. Well, within the advisor branch I was in, the compliance department said, no. They said, no, you can't do that because it's a compliance risk. We can't have you talking about money and representing the company. The answer is no. And if we're being honest, it was devastating. That was, that was like putting a knife right into my heart and just twisting it incessantly.

And I knew if I'm going to go to the next level based on my goals and my dreams and my aspirations for doing something bigger, I'm going to have to leave. As a person of integrity, as I know you are, I would have to bet on myself. And so there are many advisors that just kind of work part time. They've got one foot in, one foot out. on the golf course half the week. I didn't want to be that guy. I'm either all in or all out. And so I said, I'm going to sell my business and I'm going to back myself against the wall.

Jordan Mendoza (26:06.373)
Yeah.

Derrick (26:36.184)
to force myself to recreate something new. And so what that led to was then more frequent appearances on Fox and CNBC and some other things that I love to do on regular basis. But what I love is taking complex financial topics and making them easy to understand. And look at money as a game. Everybody works hard, but money is very easy to manage if you know the simple rules to do it.

And I want to make sure that people don't feel like all the secrets are locked in this vault that only a few people have access to. I really want to fight against that and give everybody the opportunity now to be financially free.

Jordan Mendoza (27:16.121)
Yeah. And man, I love the strategy that you, you integrated because it was way ahead of its time because I, I, these strategies that you did are now what people are doing, but, it's a lot, it's a lot different, right? In the online space, you know, there's media buys and there's all this things and trying to get appearances and all of this, but you did it organically. You did cold outreach and you didn't give up and you.

kept sending it for six months and you prepared and you got ready, you know, and that's what I, that's what trailblazing is all about is you got to be about it before you're actually doing it, you know, and you have to, you know, train your mind and it's all about mindset. You know, the inner game controls the outer game. So for our mindsets, right. And we're focused and we're locked in and you were literally visualizing what was going to happen and making it happen, you know, and I love the fact that you did that because those are

Derrick (27:49.698)
Yes.

Jordan Mendoza (28:12.067)
those are intangibles, you know, that's the resilience and the determination that we've seen, you know, throughout your story. And that's, you know, one of the reasons why I was so excited to get you on the show. And what I'm really excited about is getting the audience some tips on how they can have a good money revolution. For those of that are going to see the audio version of this, you'll see that Derek's got the book. Of course, he is the author of the Good Money Revolution.

And this is all about how to make more money to do more good. And so before we jump into context around the book and where people can grab a copy, I know this is going to impact and help so many of our listeners. I'd love for you just to share, cause you've just talked about how money has been, it's a, it's a game. have to understand the rules. And so I'd love for you to maybe share some of these rules or share, you know, one or two or three tips for.

folks that are listening that say, know what, I'm just sick and tired of being in the same place that I'm at and having the same thing year after year, nothing to show for and savings. mean, the credit cards are, I'm just, I need a better system, you know, and I'm sure that you talk to a lot of those folks and those are a lot of people that you enjoy helping. So what would you say would be a few strategies that people could institute today or at least start to

Move in the right direction.

Derrick (29:39.566)
You know, one of the things I would tell you is set a goal for what it is that you want. I want to tell you a quick story. I had a doctor come in my office and his wife a couple of years ago and the problem they had was they said, Derek, we're making a good income, but we're not able to save anything. Can you help us? Well, as we dug into their situation, he was making $1 million a year, but he was spending over a million dollars a year.

And so I said, this is going to be easy. We'll just find some great ways to do this. So what I asked them was, Hey, would you be open to selling the second home to free up some cashflow? And they said, no. Would you be open to selling the second Mercedes? And they said, no. Would you be open to canceling the country club membership? They said, no. And I said, well, if you want my help, you're not willing to do any of these things. She said, Derek, you don't understand. If we sell these things and it looks to our clients that he is struggling as a doctor.

then they won't come to work with him. And for whatever reason, I said, how many of your clients see your house or see what he drives? Well, we just don't want to look like we're not doing well financially. And so they actually left the office taking no action at all. And the point of that was they were living their life based on how people thought they were looking at them. And what I would tell people right now is screw them.

It doesn't matter what anybody else thinks. It doesn't matter what anybody else's goal plan is. All that you need to think about is what do you want for yourself and your family? What is the vision? And so I would encourage people to write down three personal and three financial goals and write those down with the passion of what it is that you truly want. It doesn't mean it's realistic at all. Just write that down.

Then what I want you to then do is write down what is at stake if you don't achieve that goal. What terrible, no good, very bad thing could you miss out on? Will you not enjoy the feeling of the sand, the kernels of sand between your toes, walking on the beach with your spouse? Will you miss crawling on the floor, chasing your grandkids because your kids live somewhere else in the country?

Derrick (32:00.184)
Will you miss traveling and seeing the things you've always wanted to do and heard about? And is that pain so great that it will cause you to take action? And then what I encourage people to do even further is, this is going to sound even crazier, Jordan, but it's highly effective, is on a simple note card, write out your ideal year as though it's already happened in vivid detail.

This was my best year ever financially and personally. And here's what happened. I got the raise I deserved and the promotion I fought so hard for. My kids love me. My spouse and I talk about money on a regular basis. You just want to vividly write this out as though it's already happened. And the key there is now you're locking into what is your goal path and your goal path alone. Everything else is pushed to the side. Okay.

Then the second thing I would tell people is don't settle for your current income as the cap of what you're going to earn. You can bang on your boss's door and you can beg for the raise and well, my expenses have gone up. I need you to pay me more. All your boss cares about besides this great podcast is this one radio station. W II FM. What's in it for me?

And how you play to that station is answering three questions in your current job. How can you help the company make more money? How can you help the company save more money? And how can you help the company be more productive? When you answer those questions in your current role, now you can go back to your boss and say, look, I love working here, but I want to make more money. But let's be honest, if I help you make more money, then you'll feel better about paying me more money. Right. And the boss is going to have a big grin on his or her face.

Well, now they get the fact that you're an entrepreneur in a corporate setting. That's how you set the stage for getting the money that you deserve. Now, not everybody is in a job where you can get a pay raise. You might be the best teacher in the world, but unless every other teacher in your district gets a raise, you're not getting paid more. And that's just the cold, hard truth. And keep in mind, by you agreeing to cash your paycheck every Friday, you are telling the company that you agree

Derrick (34:18.606)
with the dollar amount on that paycheck unless you decide to change it. So this is where you have to start the side hustle, the side gig, but set an income goal in 2025, I want to be at this level and then begin to craft a plan to help the company make more money. Do those two things and then simply drop that on a regular basis into an index fund, the S &P 500, something where your money's working as hard for you as you did for it. You'll be dramatically shocked by the progress you can make.

in one year.

Jordan Mendoza (34:50.597)
Love it. Love there's a tangible number attached to it, right? You're setting a one-year goal and you're riding it out as it already happened. mean, such great tips and advice. And I know our listeners are going to be taking action and blazing trails. And I want them to be able to reach out to you for sure, to give you their feedback, you know, for the ones that are willing to blaze a trail in 25 and you want to take on this challenge. Derek, where's a good place that they can reach out to you?

Derrick (35:20.792)
Two places, Instagram, where we post daily content and the goal is how do we educate people and help them make smarter financial moves at Derek T. Kinney. Also, you can go to our website, is anyonecanbecomeamillionaire.com. Anyonecanbecomeamillionaire.com. There's also a download I would make available too, which is gettheraysyouwant.com. Gettheraysyouwant.com, a free template to get the raise and start earning what you deserve.

Jordan Mendoza (35:51.587)
Love it, love it. Well folks, also we're gonna make sure in the show notes, we put the link to the Good Money Revolution. If you wanna learn how to make more money to do more good, make sure you guys grab a copy. I was so appreciative, Derek, that you sent me a signed copy and getting you on the show has been fantastic. Learning about your story and journey. You are a true trailblazer, my friend, and I know you're gonna continue to.

not only blaze your own trail, but you're helping other people blaze trails that they never thought were possible in the financial realm. So thanks so much for taking the time out of your schedule to come on the show and I hope you have an amazing day.

Derrick (36:31.01)
Thank you, Jordan. This was a real pleasure and an honor to be with you. Thanks for having me.

Jordan Mendoza (36:34.681)
My pleasure.