Quote: “I came up with the concept of “Rich is a State of Mind” because it’s really not about the money; it’s about everything else.” Robert Gignac
How much thought do you put into your financial state and planning? How is your current money mindset? Are you comfortable with how things are in your world, or would you like to make some improvements? On this episode of The Wealthy Speaker Show, we are thrilled to welcome financial industry speaker Robert Gignac to share his unique insights and ideas on how to decide what you consider wealth and create your own world full of riches.
Robert is a highly sought-after speaker, who combines knowledge, passion and visuals to encourage people to take control of their personal finances to have a ‘Richly Imagined Future. ’His presentations aren’t just about money. By taking the intimidation and dryness out of financial planning, he illustrates the importance of perspective and horizons and challenges audiences to courageously paint their picture of what RICH really means.
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Jane Atkinson: Hey, welcome everyone to the wealthy speaker. Podcast we have. The author of Rich is a state of mind. Robert Gignac with us today. Welcome to the podcast, Robert. Thank you very much, Jane. I am thrilled to be here with you today. Oh, well, i'm like super excited to talk about this book, because, you know, I love talking about money, and I know that you help uh financial planners and their clients, and everybody uh
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Jane Atkinson: earn more money and and figure out what their dream lifestyle is all about. So we're going to get to your book here in a second. But just give everybody like a snapshot of what your business is today.
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Robert Gignac: My business today really has two components. I talk to financial services, companies and their professionals and advisors and teams about what it is like to be a client of their industry, despite the fact, they wrote a bestselling book on Personal Finance. I've never worked in the industry. I've never been an advisor, an insurance agent, a broker, a stock analyst, I've only ever been the client, as I call it, and I share with them
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Robert Gignac: what it is that we, their clients,
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Robert Gignac: don't understand about what they do, what keeps us awake at night, that we have no idea how to talk to them about, or even if we should, and struggling with everything in the media that's telling us as their client, you don't even need them. In the first place, you can do this all by yourself. The second part is,
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Robert Gignac: they like the message they bring me in to speak to their clients, which is what I did last week in Bc. For a couple of nights, where they brought their clients together. I'm the impartial third party to put in front of their clients, because i'm not a professional. I don't want their clients. What I want to encourage their clients to do is get a better handle on their money, the emotion around it, and build a better relationship with their financial professional, so that they can accomplish what they
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Jane Atkinson: I love that. And so the talk that you did was called last week. It was called your richly imagined future,
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Jane Atkinson: and that just like goes
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Jane Atkinson: for me, not only because of where I am in my life, but because I think it's really important, even if you're just like starting out day one and speaking. This conversation is, I hope, gonna lay out a plan for you that will allow you
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Jane Atkinson: to dream bigger, and to to dream and try to decide exactly what it is that you do want. So let's talk first about the title of the book, which is the state of mind. What do you mean by There you go, if you're if you're watching it on Youtube. You saw the cover there. Um! What do you mean by Rich? Is a state of mind.
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Robert Gignac: Well, back when I I started working on the book. And, to be honest, Jane, I never intended to write a book. What started out as a short story that was written for a financial advisor friend of mine for their quarterly Newsletter,
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Robert Gignac: and as their client, my advisor said, you, you should write a piece for me, so you're a very good writer. I was doing text. I was a tech weeny at the time. I was a software engineer, and I was writing things like, you know. Sql advanced search database strategies right? Everybody wants to read that. I just fell asleep when you said the title, and so he encouraged me to write it. I wrote this little piece,
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Robert Gignac: and then within about a week, I started getting emails from people I'd never met going. When is the book going to be ready? And I sent them back emails. I said, I have two questions for you. A. Who are you? What book?
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Robert Gignac: And they responded, saying,
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Robert Gignac: Mike sent me the synopsis of your book. I'm like No, there's no book. That was a finished, complete thought. There, there, there is no more. Well, about eighteen months later the first edition of the book came out, and I came up with the title, because when I was doing my research I sent out a note to about three hundred people. And I said, please answer this question for me. What is rich?
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Jane Atkinson: Oh, what is rich? And so what were some of the things that you got back.
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Robert Gignac: Everybody told me what their life would look like, who they'd be spending their time with what they'd be doing, how they would feel if they ever answered that question. Yes, there were only two responses. You said Rich is one comma seven, nine, two comma something.
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Robert Gignac: And so based upon the data I had in my own thoughts on it, and the characters conversation in the book, because it is a novel I came up with. The concept of rich is a state of mind
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Jane Atkinson: because it's really not about the money it's about everything else
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Jane Atkinson: we open just with uh the an exercise called the perfect day in your life five years from now, and it's all about.
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Jane Atkinson: Who are you spending your time with? How much money are you making? You know? What are you doing with it? Do you have a home here in a home here like? What? What are all the fun things that you would like to dream about having your life five years from now. So I know we're gonna dig into that a little bit more. But when let's walk through
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Jane Atkinson: the four steps that you shared out in Bc. This week with the financial um
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Jane Atkinson: Planners uh clients. Talk about what you think is step number one. If you really want to map this out for yourself.
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Robert Gignac: So step number One is becoming comfortable with what I call the current reality, and it's where you are as an individual. It's where all of we are collectively. Right. Now
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Robert Gignac: take a look at what's going on around us. The stock markets are in disarray on a global level. We've got inflation approaching double digits We've We've got wars in various parts of the world. There's a lot of stuff going on,
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Robert Gignac: and a lot of that stuff keeps people up at night worried about it. We're we're worried. We don't have enough money. We're worried. We're not doing well enough. And then every once in a while. We're worried that we're doing too well.
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Robert Gignac: And what happens if our friends start thinking? Well, I I I guess we don't need to hang out with them anymore, and
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Robert Gignac: that's where money becomes an emotional thing for people afraid we don't have enough if we have too much, we're we're free. Well, how did I get to be this successful, And will it change other People's opinions of me? If that is the case, because they're wondering Well, I wonder what they did to get that money? Was it illegal and moral or fattening in order to to accomplish that?
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Robert Gignac: You know they have a feeling about wealthy people exactly comes from their own issues. By the way, So please don't let that stop you
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Robert Gignac: to other people. Oh, you you you've got the least bmws in the drive where you've got the nice cars and you get the five bedroom house and big screen Tv is all over the place and gym memberships and golf memberships, and you're going on vacation.
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Robert Gignac: But those people are awake at four o'clock in the morning, hiding under the duvet, because their visa bill do on Friday, and they're seven thousand dollars short.
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Jane Atkinson: The current reality is taking an assessment of everything that you have going on. What do you all? What do you own. What do you have invested all that? Just kind of taking stock right? And and where you're at from an emotional level?
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Robert Gignac: Are Are you feeling okay about things, because things can be in disarray, and we feel okay, or or things can be going great, and we we feel horrible about it. It's understanding where we are at that given point, and once we come to grips with current reality the data, the numbers,
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Robert Gignac: then you just have to kind of take a deep breath. Let it go and move on to the next step.
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Jane Atkinson: You know, when I was in my early twenties. Actually, I must have been a little bit older. I went to this seminar call back to Black,
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Jane Atkinson: and it was all about getting the writing off of your all of your spreadsheet and paying down your highest interest rate credit cards first, and all of that information really stuck with me my entire life, and so mapping things out. But I do it on my ipad quite a bit, you know. Here's what we owe, and here's what we own, and bubbled a lot and a and and also I like that you're adding in that emotional factor. Um, we have an exercise in the new
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Jane Atkinson: You book which isn't in any other version of it called What's your money story?
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Jane Atkinson: Well, how did you grow up, Robert? I grew up with money. Doesn't grow on trees, as the phrase and what I think my brain made that me to mean? Was you have to work really, really, really hard to make a lot of money?
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Robert Gignac: What What did you grow up believing? Well, i'm. I'm sorry you didn't have a money tree in your backyard. Um! But I and don't worry. I didn't have one either. Uh grew up to decidedly blue caller Parents Windsor, Ontario, Uh. One, worked in the automotive industry one of the more part time in a variety of jobs. Uh But Mom stayed home until I went to school. Um, and then she worked at a variety of things until you know. Unfortunately, she couldn't do that anymore.
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Robert Gignac: Um, I was raised with the the rules that many of us were, you know, put away money for a raining day. Don't spend more money than you are. Credit is bad, and they are all lessons that I roundly ignored, uh, probably into my thirties
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Robert Gignac: before I actually figured it out. And I tell audiences all the time, just because I wrote this book doesn't mean I've got it all figured out. I still do the occasional dumb thing with my money Today I try to. I try to do less of them and of lower significance. But that didn't stop me from buying a juicer,
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Jane Atkinson: hey? Can I just say that I think Okay, So I have a thing about decisions being based in fear are typically wrong, right? So that's kind of one of my ideas. But I all i'm. I'm developing a second one.
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Jane Atkinson: Decisions based in greed are typically wrong. So example
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Jane Atkinson: my big fault, pa. This year was I was setting aside some money. I have a silly car, Tesla, on order.
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Jane Atkinson: Not that I love Elon Muskrit, but anyway, I have a Tesla on order, and so my company is buying it. So I had a chunk of money that I had sitting in an account since, like a year ago, and I said to myself,
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Jane Atkinson: like you, or actually with some Us. Money you need to get this into like some sort of investment. It was driving me crazy that it was in a savings account, just doing nothing, not adding up any interest.
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Jane Atkinson: And uh, so I talked to somebody, and they said, Well, we should put it in an investment, and I and I stress you know It's gonna be short term. I don't know when this Tesla is coming. I i'm gonna need the money out quickly. Well, that was a huge mistake, and and what I noticed it was based in greed.
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Jane Atkinson: I couldn't stand that I wasn't in on the market. I wasn't getting interest well, so I put the money in, and probably three months later
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Jane Atkinson: Russia invades the Ukraine boom the markets and the pooper. And now I have to take that money out at a massive loss in order to get this going so big big money mistake. And i'm going to say decisions based in fear
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Jane Atkinson: can typically be wrong. I'm also gonna say decisions based in greed. That was me being greedy, thinking I need to earn interest on this money when, in fact, I needed a short term situation. I should have just left the phone, and that was, you know, a five figure Mistake
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Robert Gignac: well, and and kudos to you for owning up and sharing that with your listeners, because it is a big deal and often decisions made in fear. But there's also the decisions not made because of fear
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Robert Gignac: when we're afraid of what's happening around us, and in consumed by the current reality, we become ostriches. We stick our head in the sand, hoping it will go away. You know It's It's kind of like the old joke right when you you get that,
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Robert Gignac: you know. Snail mail envelope usually red. It says final notice, and you look at go great! They're not going to bother me again. Toss it away. It's the final notice. Um! We sometimes, when we let fear dominate that part of our thinking,
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Robert Gignac: and sometimes it comes not just on the money side. Jane, I think, comes back to us as speakers as Well, we we go to send the proposal, and we're afraid they're gonna look at the proposal and go. My God, Robert thinks he's worth that. He's an idiot.
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Jane Atkinson: Yeah. So those are. Those are. Yeah, I love this because this is a lot of the mindset work I've been doing in the last few years, and I thought we'll get in your brain that has you not even sending the proposal at all, because we're we're afraid of how we're going to be. That was steeped in fear. Exactly. And and so I think that's really recognizing, you know, Are my thoughts driving actions that are going
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Jane Atkinson: to help me in the future or by me in the bomb. Right? Let's just let's just put it down there. Okay, let's go. So really assessing your current reality. Are there any specific
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Jane Atkinson: um markers that we should be measuring, or should we just say, just get it all down on paper?
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Robert Gignac: Certainly getting it all down on paper is good. It's hard to get a motion down on paper, because what what do you do with it? It's not a spreadsheetable item. You know it's something that's going on in your head.
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Robert Gignac: But once we've come to grips with those numbers, and it doesn't have to be anything super comprehensive, you know it can be an eight and a half by eleven sheet with a bunch of doodles on it. If that's what works for you.
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Robert Gignac: But once you're at that point going like. Okay, This is what my life. This is what our life looks like right now. It may be exactly where we want it to be. It may be part way there. It may be we're so far off. I'm never going to get there. Then we just need to come to grips with that and move to the next stage
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Jane Atkinson: is your richly imagined future.
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Robert Gignac: Yes, and I borrowed the phrase from a guy named Robert Burns. No, not the poet graphic communicator, Guy, because I think it's.
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Robert Gignac: I think it's awesome that that particular phrase can be used in order to shape where we want to go,
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Robert Gignac: and
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Robert Gignac: things that go into your richly imagined future. Are It's the vision. It's the blue sky. It's the whiteboard stuff when we're trying to create a picture of what we want our life to look like, and some people call them vision boards. Some people clip articles and pictures out of magazines. Or, say, you know, this is a real cool beach sunset. I'd like to do that sometimes. It's a picture we've taken ourselves that we go.
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Jane Atkinson: I would like to go back here. Yeah, I have a picture up on my bulletin board uh looking out at palm trees, and there's a pool or water below, and the feet up on the desk, and there's a laptop right there. So basically it's working in a warm southern climate.
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Jane Atkinson: I come back to that, and I will live that this winter and every winter here for um. I love having a vision about what's possible. And let me just say,
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Jane Atkinson: do not discount your ideas, because you never know. Could I have imagined this exact life for myself today? Say back when I was twenty, or even thirty years old? No, I, my my goals were much much smaller, guaranteed. And uh, it was only with time that I just started to add and grow and get some ideas. And now we're at some point here.
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Jane Atkinson: We may no longer live in London. We'll have a place up at the lake. We'll go to the you know the south in the winter time, and
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Robert Gignac: I i'm really starting to map out what's look what it looks like in our twilight years. And when I say that working and doing the work that I love. If I retire from anything, it's only going to be the things that really bug me.
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Robert Gignac: You want to have something to run to, not something to run from,
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Robert Gignac: because because getting getting back to the run from it, it's like i'm i'm tired of doing this. I don't like doing this anymore. This doesn't give me any pleasure. What What do you want to do? I don't know, but I just don't want to do this. That's That's where the concept.
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Jane Atkinson: I like the idea of running towards freedom
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Robert Gignac: like freedom from like I I know now, like there's these kind of detaily little things that I absolutely want freedom from and uh, I like It's It's interesting. Um, and yes, i'm holding up the book for the Youtube Visitor reviewers. There's a white board discussion with the characters in the book, and they asked the mentor, Richard Jarvis, in the book, what is what is
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Robert Gignac: rich mean to you? And he went to the board. He wrote down the word freedom, and one of the characters said, Freedom from what? And and Richard, who is a lot wiser than me. People ask me all the time, are you, Richard? In the book? No, he's way smarter than I am. Send to the car their characters,
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Robert Gignac: not freedom from freedom to
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Robert Gignac: freedom, to create the life I want to create, share it with the people I want to share it with, and do the things I want to do that make me happy.
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Jane Atkinson: I've been lucky to have. Uh I've been going for over a decade to Dan Sullivan's strategic coach in Toronto, which I'm sure you know about. Well, um! It started with a lot of financial advisors, and has grown into lots of different uh types of people,
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Jane Atkinson: and that's what What I think I forget sometimes is that people don't talk about what we talk about there like all time all the time.
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Jane Atkinson: When I first got there the whole first year was all about all about figuring out how to manage your time and what was possible about how how you manage to time working three days a week
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Jane Atkinson: wasn't even on my radar when I first got there. And now it's just like, yeah, of course, I work three days a week like. That's no big deal. Um. So I think that it's,
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Jane Atkinson: you know. Never take for granted what it is that you know about something and freedom
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Jane Atkinson: freedom to do the work that I love versus freedom from the pains in my black, and when and when you can get both of them at the same time. Then that's just a bonus. Yahoo. Okay, so rich me richly imagined future.
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Jane Atkinson: It's. Are you imagining how much money you're going to make?
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Robert Gignac: Maybe because the The problem I have with that is is that if you try to boil it down to a number i'll, I'll be happy when I make X.
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Jane Atkinson: Well, does that mean? If you make eighty percent of x, you're only eighty percent happy, I And that answer is going to be different for every single listener to the podcast.
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Robert Gignac: Sure. So in in your richly imagined future, where I talk about the pictures and the images to the clients like I did last week,
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Robert Gignac: I said, the net Once you get one level below that, then you need to start planning the goals in order to make that happen. And this is where people get stuck because everyone says, Yeah, goals are important. I'm going to do goal, and it's like, So where's your list?
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Robert Gignac: Oh, well, I I keep them all right here in my head. That's not a list.
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Robert Gignac: What happens then is you In the middle of the night you walk into the door jam, trying to get to the bathroom at two thirty in the morning, and the goal list gets scrambled right. So you do need to write them down.
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Robert Gignac: You don't necessarily need to carry them with you on a laminated card in your wallet, which some people think you do.
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Robert Gignac: But you do need to create some for yourself in order to keep you focused on what that richly imagined future is in the book. Everybody talks with the concept of smart goals. You know You've been talking to speakers about this for a long time,
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Robert Gignac: and smart is good,
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Robert Gignac: but now is we're coming out of two years of
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Robert Gignac: turmoil and all kinds of other stuff. What I suggested to the folks I spoke with last week was that we turned smart into Smart her,
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Robert Gignac: and we had the er on the end which is evaluate
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Robert Gignac: and readjust.
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Robert Gignac: Many people have gone through this in the last eighteen to twenty-four months. They pushed their retirement out. They pulled a retirement in, they said, I'm only making half the income I was making before. Maybe I can do this kind of part time retirement thing.
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Jane Atkinson: Yeah, maybe That's what Covid did, for a lot of us is just allowed us to start envision and envisioning a different future, maybe sooner than intended. I think that's um A little bit of what's going on with me is that I just thought, Okay, I can.
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Jane Atkinson: I can make this work today. I don't have to. I. Originally I had a five year plan, and then I got mixed down to like a one to three, and now it's going down in size, and so i'm super excited about it. It's not like i'm going to um
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Jane Atkinson: stop any. The The big things that i'm doing in my life. My school, my masterminds um the coaching clients. It's all gonna continue, but i'm i'm just i'm just massaging everything so that it's a little bit more perfect, and it allows me a little bit more freedom,
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Robert Gignac: and I I think, what stops people from doing the goal work chain and it and it's obvious you're doing it an outstanding job at doing it
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Robert Gignac: is, we have this vision in our head about goals that if we set them it's like we're chiseling them into granite tablets that we have to drag them around, you know, forever, and I once I put if I write this goal down, i'm stuck with this goal. No, this this isn't the Middle Ages. If you write a goal down for yourself, and two years from now it doesn't resonate with you.
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Jane Atkinson: You take it off the list. And that's okay. I love that. You said that because I had two very competing ideas in my brain. One was to build our school up to a million dollars and two was to work less
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Jane Atkinson: engaged in the day to days. And uh, they they just didn't match, and so I've adjusted, and i'm totally good with that, and that was actually part of uh the third part to our four part strategy here.
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Robert Gignac: Uh, tell tell everybody what Number three is. So number three is, I refer to it as disruption. But when I talk to live audiences I say it's blowing stuff up. Yeah, Because in order to get past the current reality and the stuff that scares us, so that we can move towards that richly imagined future, many of us and yes, I'm. Including myself in this will need to change behaviors in order to make that happen.
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Robert Gignac: Things that I blown up myself is decided to
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Robert Gignac: pay off the house.
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Robert Gignac: It was something, and every every financial advisor you ever talked to will tell you. Why would you pay off your house in a low interest, rate, environment, bad financial move, but my wife and I made that decision
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Robert Gignac: after much thought and discussion about it, because here's something I learned a long time ago paying off houses never get foreclosed on, and so so we made the decision to do that
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Robert Gignac: in late two thousand and nineteen.
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Jane Atkinson: I I was afraid to answer the phone every time it rang in March of two thousand and twenty, because every time it rang another event disappeared.
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Robert Gignac: Now lots of them, you know. Some of them eventually went virtual. Some of them have held off till the fact. They said, We're not going to do this event to we can meet in person again, while i'm still waiting for some of them to meet in person again, and others just disappeared. It. It was a huge disruption to my speaking life and income. But guess what
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Robert Gignac: the biggest expense we had is a couple wasn't there anymore. So did we sleep better at night? You bet we did. Was it, you know mathematically. And this is the problem for many people. When it relates to finances, they think it's about the numbers they think it's about the math. It's not. It's about your emotion, about how you feel about the decisions that you're making. You know I I've been People tell me you know
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Robert Gignac: I i'm. I'm not smart enough to deal with money. I've only got a grade five education.
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Robert Gignac: That's awesome because you've learned everything by grade. Five that you need to know about money. You know how to add, you know, to subtract, you know, to multiply, and you know the divide. That's it,
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Robert Gignac: because it just comes down to adding, subtracting, and looking at numbers. It's not about calculus and limits, and all of you know geometry. All those other math things that scare people understand. The basics become comfortable with it, and then move forward.
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Jane Atkinson: And if you want the deep dive we have a podcast with an economic futurist. Um, Andrew bush, you know. Go, take a look at that. If you're really interested in the details we're going to keep it pretty basic here, and I like that. You know
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Jane Atkinson: that anybody who feels like Oh, I'm just not really very good in this. I I like that. You just said you have everything that you need. Okay, disrupt blow stuff up definitely A mode that I have been in lately. Uh, let's talk about Number four.
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Robert Gignac: So number four is called choices, and there's a line I use whenever I bring up that slide as part of the presentation, and it's the choices you make. Determine the life you lead,
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Robert Gignac: and I let it sit with the audience for a bit, and I I said, some of you, aren't really sure what I said, or if you heard it properly, so i'll repeat it. The choices you make determine the life you lead, and every day we make choices we make choices at a personal level.
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Robert Gignac: Should I have the second coffee this morning for the third or the fourth answer from most of that is, yes, to stay well caffeinated,
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Robert Gignac: but we make choices at a business level. We make choices at a relationship level. We make choices as a consumer. Should I buy the new do that I saw on Amazon? Dot. Ca: Probably not um, And that's okay.
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Robert Gignac: But the hard part about choices is we're not sure if we should make the choice. We're not sure if we shouldn't make the choice. What if we make the choice in other people in my life? Don't like the choice I made?
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Robert Gignac: Will I have to justify it to people. But it's those choices that we make on a daily basis, and people ask me all the time what's the one big thing I can do. There's no big thing.
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Robert Gignac: I can tell you about seventy-five little things that each one, when they layer and add up together, create a big thing. But if you're looking for the big thing you're looking for the silver bullet or the the magic jelly being in there isn't one,
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Robert Gignac: so start small and start making better decisions across the board, and you'll find that as they compound and build up, you end up where you want to go,
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Robert Gignac: you know. But it It's the kind of thing you can't do it all at once.
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Jane Atkinson: I'm gonna uh put up a postcard here. If you're watching on Youtube, you cannot play small
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Jane Atkinson: in your decision making while expecting to play big in your income. Let me give you an example that I shared in the book. I had someone who'd kind of been circling me for years, Wanted to work with me, Wanted to on higher fees, but wouldn't spend the money,
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Jane Atkinson: and they told me during you know, a fifteen minute intro call one time that they wanted to charge ten thousand dollars here in Canada. That's pretty big deal. So they were Canadian and um,
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Jane Atkinson: And they were gonna do this new website. Oh, great! Who did you hire to do your website? I'm going to do it myself.
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Jane Atkinson: Okay? Well, that tells me all I need to know, because you're making your decisions from a three thousand dollar speaker place versus a ten thousand dollars. Speaker.
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Jane Atkinson: That really tells me where your mindset is at, and so I know It's not necessarily something that you're going to do every single day, but every once in a while I want you to remember this. You cannot play small in your decision making while expecting to play big
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Jane Atkinson: in your income. The people who I see out in the speaking field who are earning the highest amounts, at, you know. Obviously they have the talent there as well to back it. Up. They're earning thirty thirty-five thousand dollars per speech.
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Jane Atkinson: Those are people who have invested heavily into their business, and everything is kind of come along and I just think that that's no day.
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Robert Gignac: No, I it's It's an outstanding quote, and I know when I saw you hold it up here in the Youtube version of the podcast. Um, I I think it. It is great, and a reminder for all of us
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Robert Gignac: is we're thinking about. How do we plan for what we hope is our successful future, which comes in two parts, personal and financial,
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Robert Gignac: and
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Robert Gignac: you have to balance both of them. Because if you're if you're only successful in one and not the other.
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Robert Gignac: Then the question is, is that considered truly successful? You know I I know a lot of people who've chased money to the detriment of their personal relationships. They they they became successful, but but not worth it.
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Robert Gignac: And yet, at the same time, you you do need an income. You do need to create some sort of balance in your life.
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Robert Gignac: The one of the choices I shared with the audience in Bc. Which which did get a fair amount of of laughter from the audience which I enjoy is the decision to stop watching financial fantasy, television,
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Jane Atkinson: financial fantasy television. Tell me about that.
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Robert Gignac: It's Hgtv: uh it's the W network. It's the rent Reno Attic property. Brothers, you know. Uh monster garage pool teams. Now there's not. There's nothing wrong with them. If you look at them as entertainment television.
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Robert Gignac: But if you look at them from an aspirational viewpoint
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Robert Gignac: there can be a bit of a problem, and I shared with the audience. I said, So i'm here to tell you tonight that there's a bestselling Canadian author and the speaker that they brought in. I'm going to share with you something that some people in my family don't know.
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Robert Gignac: I live in a townhouse that doesn't have granite counter tops,
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Robert Gignac: and and the audience laughed. And I said, I know. So my life really sucks. And I said, I'm here to share with you. It's Okay, if your house doesn't have granite counter tops your life does not suck. But if you watch Hgtv
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Robert Gignac: every time they do this, you know. Well, we've got to get rid of all this and tear up the kitchen. Do this, I said. I, I watch people do, Renault on the show. They cost more money than the townhouse I live in, and if you've got the money to do that awesome, do it twice.
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Robert Gignac: But if you're doing that because you think it will impress the people in your life, and if you're going to be awake at night going Oh, my God! How are we ever going to pay this off,
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Robert Gignac: Then i'm asking you to rethink the choice.
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Jane Atkinson: I like it, and I like that. You're talking about making sure that people are happy in your richly imagined future, and I think good time for us to wrap Here, Robert, tell everybody. Where can they buy the book, and how can they get in touch with you? What's the best? Ah! Methodology of connecting. They can get in touch with me at two locations if they're interested in checking out the book reviews, video clips and stuff they can go to Www.
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Robert Gignac: Rich is a state of mind. Dot Com. It's really the only place you can buy the book. It's been pulled off Amazon, dot Ca: and and all of those things. Um. Or if they're interested in seeing what I do as a speaker and podcast host and my little Tv show, they can go to Ww. Robert Geniaccom,
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Jane Atkinson: and I know you'll put that up in the show notes
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Jane Atkinson: is how you said it. I said Guinac, and that's incorrect. Correct, I I answer to Guineaac gig neck. Hey you! I answer to just about anything, Jane. So that is a perfect pronunciation. Let's spell it. G Ig: nac, and I want to put in a plug for the wealthy speaker, Daily success, Planner and Journal. Because all of these things are something that you need to do every single day inside your journal and writing things down every day that you
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Jane Atkinson: I want uh is just so powerful and a part of your daily routine. So uh check out the wealthy speaker, Daily success, Planner and Journal. If you would like to explore that, we will put a link in the show notes. Robert. Thank you so much for being here with us today,
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Robert Gignac: Jane. I'm a regular listener to the podcast. It has been an honor to share some time with you today. Thank you for having me.
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Jane Atkinson: Hey, welcome everyone to the wealthy speaker. Podcast we have. The author of Rich is a state of mind. Robert Gignac with us today. Welcome to the podcast, Robert. Thank you very much, Jane. I am thrilled to be here with you today. Oh, well, i'm like super excited to talk about this book, because, you know, I love talking about money, and I know that you help uh financial planners and their clients, and everybody uh
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Jane Atkinson: earn more money and and figure out what their dream lifestyle is all about. So we're going to get to your book here in a second. But just give everybody like a snapshot of what your business is today.
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Robert Gignac: My business today really has two components. I talk to financial services, companies and their professionals and advisors and teams about what it is like to be a client of their industry, despite the fact, they wrote a bestselling book on Personal Finance. I've never worked in the industry. I've never been an advisor, an insurance agent, a broker, a stock analyst, I've only ever been the client, as I call it, and I share with them
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Robert Gignac: what it is that we, their clients,
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Robert Gignac: don't understand about what they do, what keeps us awake at night, that we have no idea how to talk to them about, or even if we should, and struggling with everything in the media that's telling us as their client, you don't even need them. In the first place, you can do this all by yourself. The second part is,
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Robert Gignac: they like the message they bring me in to speak to their clients, which is what I did last week in Bc. For a couple of nights, where they brought their clients together. I'm the impartial third party to put in front of their clients, because i'm not a professional. I don't want their clients. What I want to encourage their clients to do is get a better handle on their money, the emotion around it, and build a better relationship with their financial professional, so that they can accomplish what they
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Jane Atkinson: I love that. And so the talk that you did was called last week. It was called your richly imagined future,
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Jane Atkinson: and that just like goes
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Jane Atkinson: for me, not only because of where I am in my life, but because I think it's really important, even if you're just like starting out day one and speaking. This conversation is, I hope, gonna lay out a plan for you that will allow you
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Jane Atkinson: to dream bigger, and to to dream and try to decide exactly what it is that you do want. So let's talk first about the title of the book, which is the state of mind. What do you mean by There you go, if you're if you're watching it on Youtube. You saw the cover there. Um! What do you mean by Rich? Is a state of mind.
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Robert Gignac: Well, back when I I started working on the book. And, to be honest, Jane, I never intended to write a book. What started out as a short story that was written for a financial advisor friend of mine for their quarterly Newsletter,
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Robert Gignac: and as their client, my advisor said, you, you should write a piece for me, so you're a very good writer. I was doing text. I was a tech weeny at the time. I was a software engineer, and I was writing things like, you know. Sql advanced search database strategies right? Everybody wants to read that. I just fell asleep when you said the title, and so he encouraged me to write it. I wrote this little piece,
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Robert Gignac: and then within about a week, I started getting emails from people I'd never met going. When is the book going to be ready? And I sent them back emails. I said, I have two questions for you. A. Who are you? What book?
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Robert Gignac: And they responded, saying,
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Robert Gignac: Mike sent me the synopsis of your book. I'm like No, there's no book. That was a finished, complete thought. There, there, there is no more. Well, about eighteen months later the first edition of the book came out, and I came up with the title, because when I was doing my research I sent out a note to about three hundred people. And I said, please answer this question for me. What is rich?
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Jane Atkinson: Oh, what is rich? And so what were some of the things that you got back.
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Robert Gignac: Everybody told me what their life would look like, who they'd be spending their time with what they'd be doing, how they would feel if they ever answered that question. Yes, there were only two responses. You said Rich is one comma seven, nine, two comma something.
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Robert Gignac: And so based upon the data I had in my own thoughts on it, and the characters conversation in the book, because it is a novel I came up with. The concept of rich is a state of mind
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Jane Atkinson: because it's really not about the money it's about everything else
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Jane Atkinson: we open just with uh the an exercise called the perfect day in your life five years from now, and it's all about.
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Jane Atkinson: Who are you spending your time with? How much money are you making? You know? What are you doing with it? Do you have a home here in a home here like? What? What are all the fun things that you would like to dream about having your life five years from now. So I know we're gonna dig into that a little bit more. But when let's walk through
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Jane Atkinson: the four steps that you shared out in Bc. This week with the financial um
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Jane Atkinson: Planners uh clients. Talk about what you think is step number one. If you really want to map this out for yourself.
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Robert Gignac: So step number One is becoming comfortable with what I call the current reality, and it's where you are as an individual. It's where all of we are collectively. Right. Now
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Robert Gignac: take a look at what's going on around us. The stock markets are in disarray on a global level. We've got inflation approaching double digits We've We've got wars in various parts of the world. There's a lot of stuff going on,
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Robert Gignac: and a lot of that stuff keeps people up at night worried about it. We're we're worried. We don't have enough money. We're worried. We're not doing well enough. And then every once in a while. We're worried that we're doing too well.
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Robert Gignac: And what happens if our friends start thinking? Well, I I I guess we don't need to hang out with them anymore, and
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Robert Gignac: that's where money becomes an emotional thing for people afraid we don't have enough if we have too much, we're we're free. Well, how did I get to be this successful, And will it change other People's opinions of me? If that is the case, because they're wondering Well, I wonder what they did to get that money? Was it illegal and moral or fattening in order to to accomplish that?
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Robert Gignac: You know they have a feeling about wealthy people exactly comes from their own issues. By the way, So please don't let that stop you
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Robert Gignac: to other people. Oh, you you you've got the least bmws in the drive where you've got the nice cars and you get the five bedroom house and big screen Tv is all over the place and gym memberships and golf memberships, and you're going on vacation.
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Robert Gignac: But those people are awake at four o'clock in the morning, hiding under the duvet, because their visa bill do on Friday, and they're seven thousand dollars short.
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Jane Atkinson: The current reality is taking an assessment of everything that you have going on. What do you all? What do you own. What do you have invested all that? Just kind of taking stock right? And and where you're at from an emotional level?
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Robert Gignac: Are Are you feeling okay about things, because things can be in disarray, and we feel okay, or or things can be going great, and we we feel horrible about it. It's understanding where we are at that given point, and once we come to grips with current reality the data, the numbers,
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Robert Gignac: then you just have to kind of take a deep breath. Let it go and move on to the next step.
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Jane Atkinson: You know, when I was in my early twenties. Actually, I must have been a little bit older. I went to this seminar call back to Black,
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Jane Atkinson: and it was all about getting the writing off of your all of your spreadsheet and paying down your highest interest rate credit cards first, and all of that information really stuck with me my entire life, and so mapping things out. But I do it on my ipad quite a bit, you know. Here's what we owe, and here's what we own, and bubbled a lot and a and and also I like that you're adding in that emotional factor. Um, we have an exercise in the new
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Jane Atkinson: You book which isn't in any other version of it called What's your money story?
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Jane Atkinson: Well, how did you grow up, Robert? I grew up with money. Doesn't grow on trees, as the phrase and what I think my brain made that me to mean? Was you have to work really, really, really hard to make a lot of money?
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Robert Gignac: What What did you grow up believing? Well, i'm. I'm sorry you didn't have a money tree in your backyard. Um! But I and don't worry. I didn't have one either. Uh grew up to decidedly blue caller Parents Windsor, Ontario, Uh. One, worked in the automotive industry one of the more part time in a variety of jobs. Uh But Mom stayed home until I went to school. Um, and then she worked at a variety of things until you know. Unfortunately, she couldn't do that anymore.
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Robert Gignac: Um, I was raised with the the rules that many of us were, you know, put away money for a raining day. Don't spend more money than you are. Credit is bad, and they are all lessons that I roundly ignored, uh, probably into my thirties
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Robert Gignac: before I actually figured it out. And I tell audiences all the time, just because I wrote this book doesn't mean I've got it all figured out. I still do the occasional dumb thing with my money Today I try to. I try to do less of them and of lower significance. But that didn't stop me from buying a juicer,
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Jane Atkinson: hey? Can I just say that I think Okay, So I have a thing about decisions being based in fear are typically wrong, right? So that's kind of one of my ideas. But I all i'm. I'm developing a second one.
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Jane Atkinson: Decisions based in greed are typically wrong. So example
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Jane Atkinson: my big fault, pa. This year was I was setting aside some money. I have a silly car, Tesla, on order.
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Jane Atkinson: Not that I love Elon Muskrit, but anyway, I have a Tesla on order, and so my company is buying it. So I had a chunk of money that I had sitting in an account since, like a year ago, and I said to myself,
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Jane Atkinson: like you, or actually with some Us. Money you need to get this into like some sort of investment. It was driving me crazy that it was in a savings account, just doing nothing, not adding up any interest.
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Jane Atkinson: And uh, so I talked to somebody, and they said, Well, we should put it in an investment, and I and I stress you know It's gonna be short term. I don't know when this Tesla is coming. I i'm gonna need the money out quickly. Well, that was a huge mistake, and and what I noticed it was based in greed.
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Jane Atkinson: I couldn't stand that I wasn't in on the market. I wasn't getting interest well, so I put the money in, and probably three months later
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Jane Atkinson: Russia invades the Ukraine boom the markets and the pooper. And now I have to take that money out at a massive loss in order to get this going so big big money mistake. And i'm going to say decisions based in fear
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Jane Atkinson: can typically be wrong. I'm also gonna say decisions based in greed. That was me being greedy, thinking I need to earn interest on this money when, in fact, I needed a short term situation. I should have just left the phone, and that was, you know, a five figure Mistake
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Robert Gignac: well, and and kudos to you for owning up and sharing that with your listeners, because it is a big deal and often decisions made in fear. But there's also the decisions not made because of fear
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Robert Gignac: when we're afraid of what's happening around us, and in consumed by the current reality, we become ostriches. We stick our head in the sand, hoping it will go away. You know It's It's kind of like the old joke right when you you get that,
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Robert Gignac: you know. Snail mail envelope usually red. It says final notice, and you look at go great! They're not going to bother me again. Toss it away. It's the final notice. Um! We sometimes, when we let fear dominate that part of our thinking,
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Robert Gignac: and sometimes it comes not just on the money side. Jane, I think, comes back to us as speakers as Well, we we go to send the proposal, and we're afraid they're gonna look at the proposal and go. My God, Robert thinks he's worth that. He's an idiot.
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Jane Atkinson: Yeah. So those are. Those are. Yeah, I love this because this is a lot of the mindset work I've been doing in the last few years, and I thought we'll get in your brain that has you not even sending the proposal at all, because we're we're afraid of how we're going to be. That was steeped in fear. Exactly. And and so I think that's really recognizing, you know, Are my thoughts driving actions that are going
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Jane Atkinson: to help me in the future or by me in the bomb. Right? Let's just let's just put it down there. Okay, let's go. So really assessing your current reality. Are there any specific
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Jane Atkinson: um markers that we should be measuring, or should we just say, just get it all down on paper?
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Robert Gignac: Certainly getting it all down on paper is good. It's hard to get a motion down on paper, because what what do you do with it? It's not a spreadsheetable item. You know it's something that's going on in your head.
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Robert Gignac: But once we've come to grips with those numbers, and it doesn't have to be anything super comprehensive, you know it can be an eight and a half by eleven sheet with a bunch of doodles on it. If that's what works for you.
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Robert Gignac: But once you're at that point going like. Okay, This is what my life. This is what our life looks like right now. It may be exactly where we want it to be. It may be part way there. It may be we're so far off. I'm never going to get there. Then we just need to come to grips with that and move to the next stage
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Jane Atkinson: is your richly imagined future.
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Robert Gignac: Yes, and I borrowed the phrase from a guy named Robert Burns. No, not the poet graphic communicator, Guy, because I think it's.
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Robert Gignac: I think it's awesome that that particular phrase can be used in order to shape where we want to go,
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Robert Gignac: and
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Robert Gignac: things that go into your richly imagined future. Are It's the vision. It's the blue sky. It's the whiteboard stuff when we're trying to create a picture of what we want our life to look like, and some people call them vision boards. Some people clip articles and pictures out of magazines. Or, say, you know, this is a real cool beach sunset. I'd like to do that sometimes. It's a picture we've taken ourselves that we go.
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Jane Atkinson: I would like to go back here. Yeah, I have a picture up on my bulletin board uh looking out at palm trees, and there's a pool or water below, and the feet up on the desk, and there's a laptop right there. So basically it's working in a warm southern climate.
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Jane Atkinson: I come back to that, and I will live that this winter and every winter here for um. I love having a vision about what's possible. And let me just say,
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Jane Atkinson: do not discount your ideas, because you never know. Could I have imagined this exact life for myself today? Say back when I was twenty, or even thirty years old? No, I, my my goals were much much smaller, guaranteed. And uh, it was only with time that I just started to add and grow and get some ideas. And now we're at some point here.
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Jane Atkinson: We may no longer live in London. We'll have a place up at the lake. We'll go to the you know the south in the winter time, and
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Robert Gignac: I i'm really starting to map out what's look what it looks like in our twilight years. And when I say that working and doing the work that I love. If I retire from anything, it's only going to be the things that really bug me.
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Robert Gignac: You want to have something to run to, not something to run from,
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Robert Gignac: because because getting getting back to the run from it, it's like i'm i'm tired of doing this. I don't like doing this anymore. This doesn't give me any pleasure. What What do you want to do? I don't know, but I just don't want to do this. That's That's where the concept.
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Jane Atkinson: I like the idea of running towards freedom
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Robert Gignac: like freedom from like I I know now, like there's these kind of detaily little things that I absolutely want freedom from and uh, I like It's It's interesting. Um, and yes, i'm holding up the book for the Youtube Visitor reviewers. There's a white board discussion with the characters in the book, and they asked the mentor, Richard Jarvis, in the book, what is what is
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Robert Gignac: rich mean to you? And he went to the board. He wrote down the word freedom, and one of the characters said, Freedom from what? And and Richard, who is a lot wiser than me. People ask me all the time, are you, Richard? In the book? No, he's way smarter than I am. Send to the car their characters,
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Robert Gignac: not freedom from freedom to
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Robert Gignac: freedom, to create the life I want to create, share it with the people I want to share it with, and do the things I want to do that make me happy.
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Jane Atkinson: I've been lucky to have. Uh I've been going for over a decade to Dan Sullivan's strategic coach in Toronto, which I'm sure you know about. Well, um! It started with a lot of financial advisors, and has grown into lots of different uh types of people,
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Jane Atkinson: and that's what What I think I forget sometimes is that people don't talk about what we talk about there like all time all the time.
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Jane Atkinson: When I first got there the whole first year was all about all about figuring out how to manage your time and what was possible about how how you manage to time working three days a week
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Jane Atkinson: wasn't even on my radar when I first got there. And now it's just like, yeah, of course, I work three days a week like. That's no big deal. Um. So I think that it's,
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Jane Atkinson: you know. Never take for granted what it is that you know about something and freedom
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Jane Atkinson: freedom to do the work that I love versus freedom from the pains in my black, and when and when you can get both of them at the same time. Then that's just a bonus. Yahoo. Okay, so rich me richly imagined future.
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Jane Atkinson: It's. Are you imagining how much money you're going to make?
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Robert Gignac: Maybe because the The problem I have with that is is that if you try to boil it down to a number i'll, I'll be happy when I make X.
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Jane Atkinson: Well, does that mean? If you make eighty percent of x, you're only eighty percent happy, I And that answer is going to be different for every single listener to the podcast.
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Robert Gignac: Sure. So in in your richly imagined future, where I talk about the pictures and the images to the clients like I did last week,
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Robert Gignac: I said, the net Once you get one level below that, then you need to start planning the goals in order to make that happen. And this is where people get stuck because everyone says, Yeah, goals are important. I'm going to do goal, and it's like, So where's your list?
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Robert Gignac: Oh, well, I I keep them all right here in my head. That's not a list.
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Robert Gignac: What happens then is you In the middle of the night you walk into the door jam, trying to get to the bathroom at two thirty in the morning, and the goal list gets scrambled right. So you do need to write them down.
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Robert Gignac: You don't necessarily need to carry them with you on a laminated card in your wallet, which some people think you do.
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Robert Gignac: But you do need to create some for yourself in order to keep you focused on what that richly imagined future is in the book. Everybody talks with the concept of smart goals. You know You've been talking to speakers about this for a long time,
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Robert Gignac: and smart is good,
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Robert Gignac: but now is we're coming out of two years of
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Robert Gignac: turmoil and all kinds of other stuff. What I suggested to the folks I spoke with last week was that we turned smart into Smart her,
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Robert Gignac: and we had the er on the end which is evaluate
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Robert Gignac: and readjust.
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Robert Gignac: Many people have gone through this in the last eighteen to twenty-four months. They pushed their retirement out. They pulled a retirement in, they said, I'm only making half the income I was making before. Maybe I can do this kind of part time retirement thing.
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Jane Atkinson: Yeah, maybe That's what Covid did, for a lot of us is just allowed us to start envision and envisioning a different future, maybe sooner than intended. I think that's um A little bit of what's going on with me is that I just thought, Okay, I can.
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Jane Atkinson: I can make this work today. I don't have to. I. Originally I had a five year plan, and then I got mixed down to like a one to three, and now it's going down in size, and so i'm super excited about it. It's not like i'm going to um
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Jane Atkinson: stop any. The The big things that i'm doing in my life. My school, my masterminds um the coaching clients. It's all gonna continue, but i'm i'm just i'm just massaging everything so that it's a little bit more perfect, and it allows me a little bit more freedom,
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Robert Gignac: and I I think, what stops people from doing the goal work chain and it and it's obvious you're doing it an outstanding job at doing it
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Robert Gignac: is, we have this vision in our head about goals that if we set them it's like we're chiseling them into granite tablets that we have to drag them around, you know, forever, and I once I put if I write this goal down, i'm stuck with this goal. No, this this isn't the Middle Ages. If you write a goal down for yourself, and two years from now it doesn't resonate with you.
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Jane Atkinson: You take it off the list. And that's okay. I love that. You said that because I had two very competing ideas in my brain. One was to build our school up to a million dollars and two was to work less
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Jane Atkinson: engaged in the day to days. And uh, they they just didn't match, and so I've adjusted, and i'm totally good with that, and that was actually part of uh the third part to our four part strategy here.
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Robert Gignac: Uh, tell tell everybody what Number three is. So number three is, I refer to it as disruption. But when I talk to live audiences I say it's blowing stuff up. Yeah, Because in order to get past the current reality and the stuff that scares us, so that we can move towards that richly imagined future, many of us and yes, I'm. Including myself in this will need to change behaviors in order to make that happen.
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Robert Gignac: Things that I blown up myself is decided to
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Robert Gignac: pay off the house.
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Robert Gignac: It was something, and every every financial advisor you ever talked to will tell you. Why would you pay off your house in a low interest, rate, environment, bad financial move, but my wife and I made that decision
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Robert Gignac: after much thought and discussion about it, because here's something I learned a long time ago paying off houses never get foreclosed on, and so so we made the decision to do that
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Robert Gignac: in late two thousand and nineteen.
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Jane Atkinson: I I was afraid to answer the phone every time it rang in March of two thousand and twenty, because every time it rang another event disappeared.
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Robert Gignac: Now lots of them, you know. Some of them eventually went virtual. Some of them have held off till the fact. They said, We're not going to do this event to we can meet in person again, while i'm still waiting for some of them to meet in person again, and others just disappeared. It. It was a huge disruption to my speaking life and income. But guess what
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Robert Gignac: the biggest expense we had is a couple wasn't there anymore. So did we sleep better at night? You bet we did. Was it, you know mathematically. And this is the problem for many people. When it relates to finances, they think it's about the numbers they think it's about the math. It's not. It's about your emotion, about how you feel about the decisions that you're making. You know I I've been People tell me you know
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Robert Gignac: I i'm. I'm not smart enough to deal with money. I've only got a grade five education.
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Robert Gignac: That's awesome because you've learned everything by grade. Five that you need to know about money. You know how to add, you know, to subtract, you know, to multiply, and you know the divide. That's it,
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Robert Gignac: because it just comes down to adding, subtracting, and looking at numbers. It's not about calculus and limits, and all of you know geometry. All those other math things that scare people understand. The basics become comfortable with it, and then move forward.
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Jane Atkinson: And if you want the deep dive we have a podcast with an economic futurist. Um, Andrew bush, you know. Go, take a look at that. If you're really interested in the details we're going to keep it pretty basic here, and I like that. You know
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Jane Atkinson: that anybody who feels like Oh, I'm just not really very good in this. I I like that. You just said you have everything that you need. Okay, disrupt blow stuff up definitely A mode that I have been in lately. Uh, let's talk about Number four.
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Robert Gignac: So number four is called choices, and there's a line I use whenever I bring up that slide as part of the presentation, and it's the choices you make. Determine the life you lead,
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Robert Gignac: and I let it sit with the audience for a bit, and I I said, some of you, aren't really sure what I said, or if you heard it properly, so i'll repeat it. The choices you make determine the life you lead, and every day we make choices we make choices at a personal level.
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Robert Gignac: Should I have the second coffee this morning for the third or the fourth answer from most of that is, yes, to stay well caffeinated,
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Robert Gignac: but we make choices at a business level. We make choices at a relationship level. We make choices as a consumer. Should I buy the new do that I saw on Amazon? Dot. Ca: Probably not um, And that's okay.
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Robert Gignac: But the hard part about choices is we're not sure if we should make the choice. We're not sure if we shouldn't make the choice. What if we make the choice in other people in my life? Don't like the choice I made?
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Robert Gignac: Will I have to justify it to people. But it's those choices that we make on a daily basis, and people ask me all the time what's the one big thing I can do. There's no big thing.
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Robert Gignac: I can tell you about seventy-five little things that each one, when they layer and add up together, create a big thing. But if you're looking for the big thing you're looking for the silver bullet or the the magic jelly being in there isn't one,
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Robert Gignac: so start small and start making better decisions across the board, and you'll find that as they compound and build up, you end up where you want to go,
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Robert Gignac: you know. But it It's the kind of thing you can't do it all at once.
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Jane Atkinson: I'm gonna uh put up a postcard here. If you're watching on Youtube, you cannot play small
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Jane Atkinson: in your decision making while expecting to play big in your income. Let me give you an example that I shared in the book. I had someone who'd kind of been circling me for years, Wanted to work with me, Wanted to on higher fees, but wouldn't spend the money,
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Jane Atkinson: and they told me during you know, a fifteen minute intro call one time that they wanted to charge ten thousand dollars here in Canada. That's pretty big deal. So they were Canadian and um,
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Jane Atkinson: And they were gonna do this new website. Oh, great! Who did you hire to do your website? I'm going to do it myself.
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Jane Atkinson: Okay? Well, that tells me all I need to know, because you're making your decisions from a three thousand dollar speaker place versus a ten thousand dollars. Speaker.
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Jane Atkinson: That really tells me where your mindset is at, and so I know It's not necessarily something that you're going to do every single day, but every once in a while I want you to remember this. You cannot play small in your decision making while expecting to play big
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Jane Atkinson: in your income. The people who I see out in the speaking field who are earning the highest amounts, at, you know. Obviously they have the talent there as well to back it. Up. They're earning thirty thirty-five thousand dollars per speech.
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Jane Atkinson: Those are people who have invested heavily into their business, and everything is kind of come along and I just think that that's no day.
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Robert Gignac: No, I it's It's an outstanding quote, and I know when I saw you hold it up here in the Youtube version of the podcast. Um, I I think it. It is great, and a reminder for all of us
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Robert Gignac: is we're thinking about. How do we plan for what we hope is our successful future, which comes in two parts, personal and financial,
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Robert Gignac: and
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Robert Gignac: you have to balance both of them. Because if you're if you're only successful in one and not the other.
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Robert Gignac: Then the question is, is that considered truly successful? You know I I know a lot of people who've chased money to the detriment of their personal relationships. They they they became successful, but but not worth it.
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Robert Gignac: And yet, at the same time, you you do need an income. You do need to create some sort of balance in your life.
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Robert Gignac: The one of the choices I shared with the audience in Bc. Which which did get a fair amount of of laughter from the audience which I enjoy is the decision to stop watching financial fantasy, television,
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Jane Atkinson: financial fantasy television. Tell me about that.
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Robert Gignac: It's Hgtv: uh it's the W network. It's the rent Reno Attic property. Brothers, you know. Uh monster garage pool teams. Now there's not. There's nothing wrong with them. If you look at them as entertainment television.
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Robert Gignac: But if you look at them from an aspirational viewpoint
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Robert Gignac: there can be a bit of a problem, and I shared with the audience. I said, So i'm here to tell you tonight that there's a bestselling Canadian author and the speaker that they brought in. I'm going to share with you something that some people in my family don't know.
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Robert Gignac: I live in a townhouse that doesn't have granite counter tops,
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Robert Gignac: and and the audience laughed. And I said, I know. So my life really sucks. And I said, I'm here to share with you. It's Okay, if your house doesn't have granite counter tops your life does not suck. But if you watch Hgtv
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Robert Gignac: every time they do this, you know. Well, we've got to get rid of all this and tear up the kitchen. Do this, I said. I, I watch people do, Renault on the show. They cost more money than the townhouse I live in, and if you've got the money to do that awesome, do it twice.
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Robert Gignac: But if you're doing that because you think it will impress the people in your life, and if you're going to be awake at night going Oh, my God! How are we ever going to pay this off,
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Robert Gignac: Then i'm asking you to rethink the choice.
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Jane Atkinson: I like it, and I like that. You're talking about making sure that people are happy in your richly imagined future, and I think good time for us to wrap Here, Robert, tell everybody. Where can they buy the book, and how can they get in touch with you? What's the best? Ah! Methodology of connecting. They can get in touch with me at two locations if they're interested in checking out the book reviews, video clips and stuff they can go to Www.
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Robert Gignac: Rich is a state of mind. Dot Com. It's really the only place you can buy the book. It's been pulled off Amazon, dot Ca: and and all of those things. Um. Or if they're interested in seeing what I do as a speaker and podcast host and my little Tv show, they can go to Ww. Robert Geniaccom,
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Jane Atkinson: and I know you'll put that up in the show notes
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Jane Atkinson: is how you said it. I said Guinac, and that's incorrect. Correct, I I answer to Guineaac gig neck. Hey you! I answer to just about anything, Jane. So that is a perfect pronunciation. Let's spell it. G Ig: nac, and I want to put in a plug for the wealthy speaker, Daily success, Planner and Journal. Because all of these things are something that you need to do every single day inside your journal and writing things down every day that you
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Jane Atkinson: I want uh is just so powerful and a part of your daily routine. So uh check out the wealthy speaker, Daily success, Planner and Journal. If you would like to explore that, we will put a link in the show notes. Robert. Thank you so much for being here with us today,
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Robert Gignac: Jane. I'm a regular listener to the podcast. It has been an honor to share some time with you today. Thank you for having me.
Highlights you won’t want to miss:
- The Unintended book. [3:00]
- How is your current reality? [6:30]
- What’s your money story? [10:00]
- Your richly imagined future. [16:30]
- Plan S.M.A.R.T.E.R. [21:30]
- It’s not all about the numbers. [26:30]
- The choices you make…[30:00]
Robert’s presentations share laughs, honest reflections and clearly address the misunderstandings and ignorance around financial planning. He delivers dynamic keynote speeches and interactive workshop programs to international organizations, financial industry conferences and private clients such as London Life, Freedom 55, Investors Group, Mutual of Omaha, Desjardins Financial, and Sun Life Financial. Robert has also presented at events for Million Dollar Roundtable, NAIFA and FPA and is the author of the Canadian bestseller Rich is a State of Mind and a U.S. edition by the same title. Written from Robert’s experience as a client and student of the financial planning process, the novel humanizes personal and financial development as experienced by a slightly dysfunctional family.
If you would like some great ideas on how to see the full picture of your wealth, whether financial or otherwise, you simply can’t afford to miss this episode!
I hope you’ll download and learn.
Links:
Robert’s websites:
Robert Gignac
Rich is a State of Mind
Andrew Busch podcast
Robert’s LinkedIn profile
Jane’s LinkedIn profile
The Wealthy Speaker 3.0
The Wealthy Speaker Daily Success Planner & Journal
