Ever wondered how to unlock the secrets of financial success? Join me for an enlightening conversation with George Grombacher, a financial advisor with over 20 years of experience, as he shares his journey and the keys to achieving financial freedom. Discover how to create a vision for your future, set goals, and take small steps to get out of debt and find breathing room.
George also discusses the importance of financial coaching in overcoming limiting beliefs and how surrounding yourself with the right kind of people can make a significant impact on your financial success. Learn from his personal experiences with finances, the limiting beliefs he overcame, and how identifying and shifting those beliefs can transform your financial situation.
Lastly, we delve into the concept of personal growth and achievements. George believes that if we all focused on becoming the best versions of ourselves, many of the world's problems would self-correct. Don't miss this episode filled with insights and key takeaways to help you unlock your financial success!
If you liked this podcast
https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/contributors/thomas-r-verny-md
Ever wondered how to unlock the secrets of financial success? Join me for an enlightening conversation with George Grombacher, a financial advisor with over 20 years of experience, as he shares his journey and the keys to achieving financial freedom. Discover how to create a vision for your future, set goals, and take small steps to get out of debt and find breathing room.
George also discusses the importance of financial coaching in overcoming limiting beliefs and how surrounding yourself with the right kind of people can make a significant impact on your financial success. Learn from his personal experiences with finances, the limiting beliefs he overcame, and how identifying and shifting those beliefs can transform your financial situation.
Lastly, we delve into the concept of personal growth and achievements. George believes that if we all focused on becoming the best versions of ourselves, many of the world's problems would self-correct. Don't miss this episode filled with insights and key takeaways to help you unlock your financial success!
If you liked this podcast
https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/contributors/thomas-r-verny-md
Hello, this is Pushing Boundaries, a podcast about pioneering research, breakthrough discoveries and unconventional ideas. I'm your host, dr Thomas R Verny. My guest today is George Grombacher, who has been a financial advisor for over 20 years. He's the president of financial consulting professionals, founder and chief community officer of Money Alignment Academy, host of the Lifeblood podcast and professional speaker. He has been an Investopedia's List of Top 100 Financial Advisers in the United States for many years. George is the author of How to Get Good at Money the Keys to Financial Peace of Mind and Prosperity. Welcome, George. Thank you, Thomas. Thomas, in your book, you say that we all want financial peace of mind and prosperity, yet very few of us know how to achieve it. You promised that this book's goal and this is a quote, I hope is to help you find your key and attain your desired level of financial success. Have I got that right? Yes, sir, okay, well, tell me about that. How do we go about finding a key to our financial success?
George:So I've been doing the financial thing for a long time and I try and I try to help people to get better with money so they can focus on whatever is most interesting to them, because most people aren't necessarily interested in thinking about money all the time. Yet we're moving the opposite direction. So I'm working hard. yet more and more people are living paycheck to paycheck or struggling to get out of debt, and so I wanted to. I'm constantly trying to figure out why that is, and with most problems, there's now a one size fits all kind of a thing. And so I thought, okay, maybe I had something in my past. I have limiting beliefs because the way that I was raised that's keeping me from being good at money.
George:Maybe somebody else had a horrible accident and they've got all these medical bills, and the list goes on and on. And so I thought, okay, how can I create something? create a book, write a book that will give people lots of potential avenues or solutions, and, in this case, different keys that will open whatever lock is keeping them stuck, so whatever is holding them back, something is attaching that thing. And so that's the idea of the book, and try to be clever about it. Here's a lot of different keys. Let's see which one works for you.
Thomas:So the old saying is the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. What can you say to a person who, let's say, is a factory worker and has a wife and two children and doesn't have any extra money, let's say, to invest? So how can that person get richer?
George:It is a. It feels paradoxical a lot of the time and it feels like there's not a solution, and I empathize with that. And there may not be. It may not be possible, for, and certainly is not It seems possible for all people to get out of a situation like that. That being said, i would say that the starting point is figuring out what better is, and the obvious answer is I want to be able to pay my bills, i want to stop freaking out and being stressed about money all the time, and I appreciate that The initial steps, the first steps, are figuring out. Okay, this might not be possible for me, but if it were, what would that look like? How much money will it take to get myself out of debt? How much money would it take to get a little bit of breathing room, so that I'm not constantly stressed out? So okay, now is it possible? is there any way for me to earn additional money, to find that little bit of money? And if the answer is no, well then okay, is it possible to live on less or to figure out how to make any kind of changes so that we can get that little bit of breathing room? And then it's hopefully locking in that small gain and then taking one little step up. And one little step up And it's not obvious to The most.
George:I think the most basic and most important things are thinking about setting goals, having that desired vision for what we want our future to look like. And it's so basic and it's so obvious, but nobody does it. And this was 100% true for me for a really, really long time. It took me until I was 35 years old to actually write down personal goals. I always had professional goals and stuff like that, but for my entire life, what I wanted that to look like. And so for those people who are struggling and that was me for a long time, maybe not as dire, certainly, as as lots of human beings on the earth, but I struggled for a really long time.
Thomas:So can you tell us how did you become a financial advisor? What was your journey like?
George:Yep, it's just pure happenstance. I grew up in Northern Minnesota single mom school teacher and we never had a lot of money. But what's important about that is I had no idea. I didn't have any mentors, i didn't have too many examples of folks that I could look to and just understand what an attorney did or what a CPA did or what a financial person did. I had no idea.
George:I figured I wanted to be a lawyer because I perceived that to be a respectable career where you could make money. And so went to college. I got a scholarship in sports for college and I studied political science because I was told that that's what you do to take the LSAT and then here in the United States get into law school. And so I did all that stuff and kind of realized that if I go to law school I'll be an attorney. And I had learned a little bit more and I realized maybe I didn't want to be an attorney because it wouldn't make me happy. And thank goodness that I realized that And moved to Arizona here in the United States, because my dad had been there for 40 years. So growing up I would visit, figured why not? And I met somebody. He said come talk to me about XYZ Financial Company, i said, sure, why not? Nothing else going on? And 23 years later, here I am Thomas.
Thomas:So how did you start, like 23 years ago? Talk to me about financial companies. you said Then what happened? So selling?
George:life insurance And it was really really wonderfully challenging. But as a person who is coming from an athletic background, i am used to even though I just talked about how I didn't really set personal goals I certainly understand what it takes to zero in on something and work towards it and accomplish it. So I could figure out this is how I sell life insurance. And I would go out and sell it, so did that for seven years, just put my nose down, put my head down, and did that, went into management, so it was recruiting and developing people who wanted to come into the world of financial services, and then I moved on from that and started doing the work that I'm doing today.
Thomas:So, in terms of the work that you are doing today, what type of person are you most successful with? What kind of a person do you look for where you can make a difference?
George:So I figured out that I enjoy doing education, i enjoy writing, i enjoy speaking, but I don't necessarily enjoy working one-on-one with individuals helping them with their financial situation, and I'm fascinated by why it is that people struggle with money. And so I gravitated towards working with 401K plans. So those are employers' sponsored retirement plans. So you go to work, you get a job, you could participate in the 401K, and that gives me the opportunity to message and work with hundreds and thousands of people without really doing it one-on-one. And so that's what got me on the path of creating courses and doing speaking and writing books.
Thomas:When you speak of courses like do you teach somewhere?
George:They are just online on the internet on my site.
Thomas:So it's not a university course.
George:It is not a university course.
Thomas:But my question was like I'm a psychiatrist, i have by now a fairly good idea about the kinds of patients that I'm successful with, as opposed to the kinds of patients that I'm not successful with, and I better send them to somebody else because they're just not the kind of people that I can work with, like alcoholics, for example, i'm not good with. So I'm wondering about you, like what are the type of people who have had difficulties with finances but, due to your influence and what you tell them, they start picking up? So what kinds of people are you looking for?
George:I work with the 80% of Americans that will never interact with a financial advisor. So 20% of people do have a relationship with a financial advisor professional that's helping them one-on-one or their family. I want to impact those 80% that will not. So that is the work I'm interested in doing. I think it's fine work. if you are a wealth manager or some kind of a financial advisor that works with high net worth people and you're working to save them 50 basis points or whatever it might be, that's great. That doesn't excite me.
Thomas:Right. So the 80%, this is very interesting, this really interests me. So the 80% that would never go and see a financial advisor, what makes them come to you?
George:Well, that's the opportunity is that I'm going to them because I have worked in creative relationship with the organization that they work for.
George:The reason I like working with organizations is that they theoretically already have a built-in community. So I call myself the chief community officer of Money Alignment Academy, and when we're trying to influence behavior, there's a handful of things that really need to be present. It's something called self-determination theory, and people need to feel like they can master something, so they need to have the ability to learn and get good at it. They need relatedness, which is a sense of community around them, and then they need autonomy. So I want to be able to feel like I can do my work how I see fit, and so when you have a company, you again have this community that's sort of built in, and then I can plug in the work that I am doing my courses, my workshops, my stuff into what the organization is already doing, as opposed to try and get one person at a time. So that's the reason So I go to when people are interacting with me. It's because 90% of the time I have a relationship with the company that they're working for.
Thomas:So the company becomes your client first, and then it's the people working for the company. How do you get companies interested in your work?
George:Well, fortunately, over time I built my business through referrals and introductions, but still the old fashioned way, Thomas. I'll identify an organization that has a thousand employees and I'll reach out to them. I'll send them a copy of the book and I'll offer to do a little bit of work for free, or whatever the case may be.
Thomas:Yeah, okay, that makes sense. So, in terms of your own development, can you think of any mistakes you have made in life this far?
George:Oh sure, Can you share one of those? That's a super long list.
Thomas:One of the mistakes that you have made that, in retrospect, you should have avoided.
George:Certainly, certainly throughout my 20s, i didn't pay attention to my finances at all, so I didn't track my cash flow, i never budgeted, i waited for the last minute to pay my bills and pay my taxes and just wasn't paying attention, even though I was working in personal finance, so in a credit card debt. But I think a lot of that was just because I had limiting beliefs around money that I was unaware of. And I also look back and I don't know that these were mistakes. I was a very social person. I wanted to get out there and party and meet girls and that was a priority for me in my 20s. What I changed? that part of me says I would, but then the other part of me says, well, it helped me to arrive where I am today, so maybe I wouldn't change those.
Thomas:And you had a good time And it was fun. Yeah, right, right, and that's where it's something. Are you married at the moment?
George:I am. I've married for 10 years. We have two beautiful boys six and three and a three week old little girl.
Thomas:Well, congratulations. And is your wife interested in your work that she supported 100%? I mean emotionally, supports it, she does, she does.
George:Well, is there anything 100% Thomas? No, it's certainly the, certainly the vast majority. She believes in me at least as much as I believe in me.
Thomas:You mentioned a moment ago limited beliefs about money, something like that. You said So. In your work now, I suppose by now, with hundreds of people, have you found certain beliefs that prevent people from being successful financially.
George:Yes, i think that there's a lot of people. I've encountered a lot of people that just don't think that they're ever going to be good at money. They feel like they lack the capacity or just for whatever reason, like, oh, I'm just not good at money, i'm just not good at money. Whenever I hear that I just cringe.
Thomas:Yes, Yes, yes. So really, one of the first things you need to do, i would imagine, is to change that core belief system.
George:And as I'm talking to it, an actual psychiatrist, I feel kind of silly. I feel kind of silly talking about that.
George:But, yes, i think that once you identify that my personal experience has been, i was curious as to where it could have come from, and so I sort of pulled a string and traced it back back to when I was just small, when my folks split up when I was five, and so it was my brother, who was three years older than I am, and I and my mom, and there was just never enough money to go around. I mentioned she was a schoolteacher, we had a great, a great life sheet and awesome job, but there was just never enough money to go around, and once a month she would pay bills and that meant she would literally spread out our bills and our big wooden dining room table And it was just super stressful. My brother and I knew to stay away because it was, you know, a lot of anxiety and not enough money.
George:I really looked to that and say, well, that's why I'm avoiding, or I avoided financial stuff, because of just the scarcity of it and the discomfort around money.
Thomas:Yes, yes. So do you do some psychological sort of counseling, so to speak, with some of your clients in terms of these limiting belief systems that they have?
George:I asked them to go through a very simple list of prompts. that it's like if I asked somebody what their goals were like, oh, and that could be anything. But if I give people prompts then it's easier for us to recall or to think about certain things. And so I'll give them a list of probably 20 different short statements that invites them to fill in the blank at the end. Like money makes people. my parents thought money was things like that, And I asked them just to write the first thing that comes to mind, not to kind of overthink it, And when they're triggered by something, that's potential evidence that there is some kind of a limiting belief around it.
Thomas:Right, that's very impressive. Yeah, i like that. That's very good, and I guess you just learned that by experience, right, like nobody taught you this.
George:You know you pick things up along the way. You were a guest on my podcast and I've had on so many wonderful people that have taught me so many wonderful things about it. And I read and I'm trying to just as I try to get better at things I'm trying to pass along whatever I learned. So it's kind of a elamination, amalgamation of all that stuff.
Thomas:Right, right Right And do you consider yourself lucky?
George:I consider myself fortunate.
George:In what way, in every way, i'm fortunate for the circumstances of my creation. You know I was born where I was born, to people that loved me, and I am physically strong and have wonderful God-given attributes. I was given the ability to work hard and the drive to do so and the ability to focus and to think of average to above average intelligence. So I'm fortunate in all those things. So luck I think that luck is the residue of design, so I try to put myself in a position to be successful and I do that every day.
Thomas:So you are what in your mid-30s now?
George:I'm in my mid-40s, i'm 40 before. Really, i look very boyish, thomas.
Thomas:Yes, you do. So what lies ahead? What sort of plans do you have for the next five years?
George:Well, it's my desire to be some version of the next day of Ramsey. I think if you're familiar with Dave Ramsey, he's become very, very famous for helping people to get out of debt, and I have so much respect because he's effective at it And I'd rather be useful than brilliant. So my work is not designed to wow people. It's designed to move people to action, and so, through my writing and speaking and course creation and all this stuff and podcasting, i'm just hoping to continue to expand my impact and to continue to get better and learn and just keep doing a better job.
Thomas:Is there another book in your future? 100%.
George:I've got three that I'm working on. The next one will be out probably the next month or so. And then I've got a journal that I'm working on that'll come out in September. And then I've got a very, very big book on personal leadership that will come out at the end of the year. So I've got a lot going on. I try to write every day, and when I say try, i write Monday through Friday for at least an hour every morning.
Thomas:So when do you get up 420.
George:Say it again 420 in the morning?
Thomas:Yes, and when do? you go to sleep, try to be in bed by eight o'clock or 820.
George:Try to be in bed for eight hours.
Thomas:So you don't have a lot of evening entertainments? I guess I don't.
George:Anyhow, at the six and the three year old, there's plenty of. And now baby?
Thomas:Yeah, there's plenty of it, there's enough excitement in my life, so yeah, So when the baby cries in the middle of the night, who gets up?
George:Well, both of us do right now. So my wife has the most important part of everything when it comes to the kids. But I'm up with her just from a physical necessity standpoint. Due to the circumstances of birth, she's not supposed to pick anybody up for a little bit. So I'm up picking up and handing and transferring and cleaning diapers and all that stuff.
Thomas:You live a very busy life, I would imagine.
George:Oh, for sure, For sure.
Thomas:So what do you do to…. Very rich, very rich and busy life Yes, rich. Rich is good In your profession, rich is good. Rich and busy life Yes. What do you do to relax? How do you relax?
George:I have a meditation practice. I work out, i run, i lift weights, i… So those are the primary things.
Thomas:If you could have dinner with any three people, dead or alive, who would it be?
George:That's a great question And one I should give more thought to. I would have to. I would include Jesus Christ, and I love Jordan Peterson, so I think I'd like to have him at dinner with me And Jesus. Uh-huh, uh-huh, let's see who is the third person.
Thomas:I wonder how those two would get along, but that's another question.
George:Yeah, for sure. Yeah, i think that that's right. That'd probably make it even more interesting. And who would be the third?
Thomas:person.
George:Well, let's throw Bruce Springsteen, because he's my favorite, so… Okay, okay, okay.
Thomas:And is there anything that you would want to ask any of those three?
George:I would ask just a million things. What would I ask? I'm not going to have a good answer for you about that, right on the spot, thomas.
Thomas:That's okay, any answer?
George:But if we've got dinner, you know, I've got, you know, hopefully enough time to be able to be able to ask and have a pretty robust conversation.
Thomas:Right, okay, okay. So nothing comes to your mind right now what you would ask any of those three.
George:No, uh-uh.
Thomas:Okay, that's fine. So just exploring your personality a little bit more. What is the nicest compliment you ever received?
George:Well, as a new writer, I've somebody who has always enjoyed writing, but I wrote the first book last year at the end of last year and now the How to Get Good at Money book came out pretty recently But I've received good feedback and compliments on that And I've been doing the podcast for six years and you get feedback on that. But the book is just a little bit different And you're nervous. I was nervous putting it out into the world and everything that sort of goes along with. although it's the access or the ability to be an author is a lot lower. the bar is a lot lower than it certainly used to be, but nevertheless it was. I don't know if nervous it's called nervous sort of nervous releasing out into the world. So getting good feedback and complimenting praise about the book and how it's been helpful has been wonderful.
Thomas:Yes, yes. So, speaking of wonderful, can you think of a peak experience in your life when you were like really, really, really happy, like really on top of the world? Can you think of one such experience?
George:I could think of a lot. I could think of times from my tennis career where I won big tournaments or I came out and had a top ranking when I got news about getting my scholarship Just achievements that I've somebody who has a deep appreciation for human excellence and for watching people do what they really are excellent at. It almost brings me to tears. Whether it's being at seeing a play or seeing a live musical performance or seeing an athletic achievement or seeing somebody give a great talk, I just love it, And so when I'm able to do that personally, I enjoy that. But just seeing other people do it as well is very, very moving. It makes me very, very emotional.
George:Having my kids, I didn't used to cry And now I cry all the time. It's crazy. Like literally when we had a religious ceremony for my son when he was born my oldest I was giving a speech or just a little talk or whatever, And I just broke down. I was crying. I just couldn't even understand it, And so I think having a family and being able to just have a loving family is also something I'm very proud of.
Thomas:Yeah, No, i can. I can see that I can certainly identify with that. So what? what does what does being human mean to you then?
George:This is something I spend a lot of time thinking about, as of late, i hear a lot about. have you ever heard that saying I'm a human being, not a human doing? Well, i think I am a human doing. right now, i am such a driven human being that I'm wired to do things. I can certainly sit back, but I love my work. What does it mean to be human? I believe that my prime directive, number one objective in my life is to get better and to realize my full potential. I also recognize that that's not what everybody else thinks or believes, but it's true of me. My experience as a human being or human doing is waking up every day and working to become the best possible version of me.
Thomas:Well, that sounds good. That sounds good. Do you miss the competitiveness of the tennis games?
George:No, no, i don't. If I did, then I would just start well, i don't know if that's true or not, because I don't have necessarily the time to be playing in competitive sports right now, but there are plenty of aspects of my life that I'm competing at, numerous. So I identify as an athlete, i identify as a competitor. I'm just doing it in different arenas or different mediums today than on a tennis court.
Thomas:Right, right, right. Well, thank you. Was there anything else, perhaps, that you would like to say about yourself or your book?
George:My work is. I'm focused on helping people to get better at money so they can live how they want, and that takes lots of different forms. So that is where my heart is and that is why I wake up every day. I recognize during the pandemic that I needed to be stronger. I needed to be physically stronger, mentally stronger, emotionally stronger all these things And I also realized that I need to be an example of all of those things to myself and my kids and my wife and my community. And if I can expand that out through the different platforms I have, then I'm going to do that. So that is what I'm trying to do. I close my podcast by saying you do your part by doing your best. I think that if we all focused on minding our own business a little bit more and focused on strengthening ourselves and becoming the best possible versions of us, that many of the problems that we're seeing, that we're not happy with in the world, would self-correct. That starts with us.
Thomas:Amen to that. Well, thank you, George. That was really most enjoyable, most instructive. I wish you continued success. I think we both are interested in really the same thing you know making leaving this world behind a little bit better than when we found it right. And if we can do that, then our life has not been totally meaningless. My next guest on this program I just want to tell you very briefly will be Wayne Altman. He's the founder of Melody Clouds. Wayne suffers from tinnitus or tinnitus, i'm not quite sure. I think tinnitus, and was looking for a relief when he noticed that the only way he could stop experiencing extreme ringing in both ears was when he listened to binaural beats or specific tones of music, and that's when he realized he could create something for people not limited to this one condition, but to share the healing and beneficial effects of this technology with everyone who wants it. I hope you will join me and George. Thanks again. Thank you, Thomas, take care, bye, bye.