Ep 185: I Am Money (A New Children's Book!) with Garrett Gunderson & Julia Cook

If we have purpose and we don't understand the four basic things about money, right, which is not just the spending and saving, right. But the earning, giving. And I find when I'm earning money doing things that I enjoy, it gives me a lot of, like, I just feel better.

Welcome to the Next Level Income show, where it's our goal to take your income, your investments, and your life to the next level. I'm your host, Chris Larson. If you haven't yet, get a copy of our book for free at our website, nextlevelincome.com. that's www.nextlevelincome.com. just click on the book link and I'll even send you a copy if you put your address in. On today's show, I'm excited to have Julia Cook and Garrett Gunderson. Julia is a former teacher and school counselor who writes children's books that let them laugh while learning to solve their own problems, use better behavior, and develop healthy relationships. Garrett Gunderson is an entrepreneur who became a multimillionaire by the age of 26. Garrett coaches elite business owners in the financial services industry. His book Killing Sacred Cows, which I've read, was a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller. And we're going to try to make their new book a bestseller as well. Julia and Garrett, welcome to the show.

Thank you. So glad to be here.

Yeah, I'm very excited. You know, some people, Garrett may know you from your books. I'm going to let you introduce yourself here in a moment. But Julia, you just read, you just read me some of your new book that we're going to be talking about today called I Am Money. We'd love to hear a little bit more about your background before we kind of get into the meat here. And then I'll let Garrett share a little bit about his as well.

Well, I was a elementary school counselor who couldn't figure out how to teach my kids not to tattle and found out really quickly that in order to get into a kid's head, you need to enter their worldview. And books are a great way. And I looked for a book on tattling some years ago and couldn't find one. Wrote a story called A Bad Case of Tattle Tongue, and that got published as did 125 other. I think there's about 3 million Julia books out there now. And they all do, you know, they, they have a issue and the kid does what the kid in the book does to solve the issue. And so this was, that's how I Started.

So I love it. I love it. My mother was a teacher. My grandmother, who's 95 now, just saw her last week, was a teacher as well. And, you know, it's. I found it's so challenging today with competing against electronics, video games, Instagram, all this kind of stuff. And I still think there's. There's magic in having, in having a book. So I'm super excited to be sharing this today.

If you write down the what to say and the how to say it in the story book and the parent reads the book to the child, then it's a win win because it models on both ends kind of what to do based on research and makes a real fun. You're. You're teaching a life lesson.

I love that. So say that one more time. So if. If it's in the book and the parent reads the book to the child.

Well, yeah, if you, if you base the book on research of how to talk to a child and what to say and you put that in the story. And I'm the parent and I really know how to address this topic, but if I read to my child, you know, it's a win, win for both of us because the kids kind of learn right. The parents learn right along. Kids. It gives the parents the what to say and the how to say it in a fun, entertaining way, which you're competing against video games and YouTube and lots of stuff. So you better bring it when you're doing a kids book these days.

Without a doubt. Yeah, it's. No with without a doubt. And it's. We started a financial literacy course here for local nonprofit and mostly high school kids. Some middle school kids were in there, and, you know, we had about a dozen kids. And the second week when we started it, what we found was that there were almost as many parents sitting in the back as the children. And it dawned on me. It's like, wow, you know, the parents need this education just as much because they don't know how to talk to these kids about it. So I think that's. I love to hear, you know, what you just said that seems to make so much sense.

Kids don't come with instructions, and they change all the time. And, you know, and money's a hard thing to talk about, so.

So it is. Well, yeah. Well, hopefully we can make it a little easier. If you're a parent, you're listening. Listen up. Or if, you know, if you know a child, this is. This is for you. Julia, how did you link up with Garrett?

Oh, this was a Fun, fun talk. I was in an airport, and Garrett has that amazing voice that when you hear it, you have to look at his face because you have to say, is that a real person? Because he just has that melting voice and looked over and saw this guy, and he was on the phone talking to a book agent. So I knew he was an author. And then, ironically, we sat next to each other on the plane and I told him what I did, and he said, well, I've always wanted to write a children's book, but I don't speak kid. And I said, well, I've always wanted to write money book, but I don't speak money. And so by the end of the flight, we had pretty much decided that we would, you know, give it a shot. So he sent me a list of all the stuff that need to be put in it, and I put it in the. The story. And that was a win. Win. We have had an amazing experience working with each other and respect each other highly.

I love stories like that and, you know, you can call it fate, but I think that, you know, I think there's. There's a higher power coming from the universe in some way, shape or form. When I hear stories like that, I absolutely love it. Garrett, if you wouldn't mind, share a little bit the audience. I don't think you've written as many books as Julia, it sounds like, but.

I've written maybe 10. One hasn't come out yet, the other nine have. A lot of times I was a co, op, just like I did on this project where I team up with people that are gifted at writing, and I bring a lot of content to them. And like, I wrote this book, Portal to Genius, but I didn't really sit down and type it. This woman, Leslie Householder, did, because she had written a book called the Jackrabbit Factor, and it was a story about how to achieve. And she was going to wait 13 years to write the sequel. And then I started coaching her, and she's like, why don't we just do this together? And so I've had some really good collaboration, just like I have here with Julia. I have since my early books, started writing some books on my own because I really fell in love with that process. But as I to write a children's book, it was bad, it was atrocious, it was unreasonable, it wasn't my skill set. So I had to have the desire for 10 years. And when Julia, what she did, I texted my sister. The youngest sister is the teacher of the year. I said, julia, and she's like, yes, we have her books all through our classroom.

So, oh wow.

Really, really cool experience. And by the time we landed, we were, you know, I was trying not to be too forward and say, I'd love to do a book with you because I sold hundreds of thousands and she sold millions of books. But at the same time she's like, wait, you've hit New York Times? Why haven't I hit New York Times? So we're hoping with this book that we get her the she deserves with that title of New York Times because it's a book that deserves it. You know, I don't grow on trees for kids. There was a study by the Economist and in that study, in 2013, as they tried to teach kids money, years later they found out when they taught kids money in school, they were worse off not being taught. And part of that might be really, teachers are already bombarded, like I, I don't do well teaching what the teachers are supposed to teach. Math should be the same as it always was. It's different. I don't understand, you know, oh my goodness. I can imagine that a teacher now who's on YouTube salary who looks at money very different than maybe an entrepreneur or maybe different than someone that makes their money at a totally different way or a totally different. It might be hard for them to grasp the concept and they might bring their own beliefs and misperceptions into that situation. And if we make it really boring and which people around money tend to do, the kids can actually have a negative emotion around that. So when I look at if kids at a younger age take this fun that Julia brings. And here's the secret. If adults get the chance to read it, adults will learn from this book and they don't admit they didn't know it all. And I also just recognize like of all the books I've read, this book will get read over and over in the most by far. Because short books are actually harder to write in some ways. There's that adage saying, sorry for the long letter, I didn't have time to write a short one. So what you remove is what becomes the Michelangelo. It's what you remove. And she does a great job of removing the noise and getting at the heart of the matter, making it fun. And I think the message is so simple, yet profound, it truly has a chance to make a transformational difference in kids lives.

It really does. And look, we want to help you guys get on the bestseller list. We're going to have the link to the Book. It was just released here in the past week. We have the link to Amazon. Julia, what is the name of the book?

I Am Money and I Don't Grow on Trees.

I love it. And look, I was very fortunate to have Julia read me the book because as of this recording, it wasn't out yet. It's fantastic. The story's fantastic, Garrett. I know what you're talking about. I Woke up at 3 o' clock this morning because my son's taking like an entrance exam next weekend. And we were. We were trying to add fractions together last night. And I. Look, I have a math minor. Like, I'm not.

I'm.

I'm a pretty smart guy. I've done a lot of math and I couldn't get it right. And I Woke up at 3am Trying to figure this out. I'm like, what am I doing? Like, what am I doing wrong? What. What has changed in math since. Since. Since we learned it, you know, all these years ago? It's crazy. Yeah. So I was good at that. I know. I really was. Son, I can do this. I can do it. If the answer is negative three, it can't be a negative number. I'm like, oh, this is a problem. Dad's got to figure this one out. Yeah. So I've been up. I've been up since 3am this morning. But I love what you said, Garrett. And, And Julia, he is right. The. The message is simplified. And the thing is, we sometimes forget that money. It doesn't have to be complicated. You know, we see Wall street, we have to talk to our financial advisor. And Garrett, in Killing Sacred Cows, which I really enjoyed. You know, you talk a lot about, you know, the financial industry and how the financial industry has it backwards and isn't maybe doing what's in the best interest of its clients. And, you know. You know, Julia, you spent a lot of time in the public school system. We're not always doing what's in the best interest for, for our students every day. And if we can find a way to create a message that helps out, you know, parents that may be embarrassed to admit to their children. Like, I was last night telling, like, I don't. I don't know how to do this. Like, I had to tell my son, I can't figure this out. We're going to have to come back to it. Which is why I Woke up at 3am so what is a parent going to learn in the book, Julia? And how. How did you distill it so that it would, it would Be effective for both parents and children alike.

You know, money, teaching kids about money causes parents anxiety, especially if they're not great with money.

Yeah.

But, you know, it teaches the messages that we, that Garrett is so profound at delivering in, in the content that he gave me was that you're your best asset and money follows value. So if you can figure out what you're really good at and what people need, then you create value for yourself and money will always chase that. So you're your very best asset. And another thing is, you know, our kids are in a take take society. And it really emphasizes at the end that if, you know, if you, you can become really good at what you love to do and then you can make more of me than you will ever need, you can do the most important thing of all. You can share. And, you know, we want to make sure that it talks kids about how to earn, how to save, spend, and, you know, how to give away.

Yeah.

And so it is very simple, but it's fun. It talks about how, you know, these are my credit card coats. Once in a while when wearing them, they like to try to convince me to buy stuff that I don't have money for. You know, this makes people nervous at first or happy at first, but when they get the bill, they get out, you know, and then he puts them in the drawer. And so there's so many little lead ins and, and funny shreky type messages throughout the story that parents can then go, oh yeah, this is how I could teach my child about this. Because if you want to teach a kid anything, you have to enter there of the world. And using simple examples and, you know, fun pictures, pictures of a picture book that's 75% of the meaning. Words only really give you 25% so you have to nail those words. And our artist, Josh Cleland, he did an amazing job at doing exactly what we wanted him to.

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Do you.

Mind holding the book up, Julia, for the audience that's watching so they can. They can see kind of some. Yeah, I love it. I love the money clip. Thank you, Garrett. You got the other one up there as well. Yeah. All the illustrations are fantastic. It made me laugh. It also, like you said, it made me think. I was like, oh, my goodness. I was like. I remember when I just bought something that I kind of wish I didn't buy. And I'm questioning it and thinking about that, and it wasn't. It wasn't with cash. And I think, you know, in today's world, I love how you have money is. Is actual cash. But you talk about it being dressed up in credit card clothes. You have it dressed up in.

These are my old school jackets. Sometimes I like to dress up in my crypto clothes. And.

Yeah.

And. And I. I. It's just a fun. It's a fun. It talks also about if you use me on things you really don't want or need, I feel worthless. So it gives money a Persona that kids can identify with. Money's gonna feel bad if you waste it. Well, then it taps into the human. You know, I don't wanna do that. So.

No, I. I couldn't agree more. I was just. Just having this discussion. I see money as a. It's. It's. It's energy. And we trade our time. We trade our energy for money. So money, in essence, is. Is our life. You know, it's a store of. Of. Of our life's work in a lot of ways. Garrett, you know, you've. You've written about, you know, life insurance and kind of the history with that. You also talk about. You have. What did. I'm sorry, Julia, what did you call it? You call it Garrett's. Garrett's.

Garrett's guru stuff.

Garrett's guru stuff. Do you mind sharing a little bit of. Yeah. Do you mind sharing a little bit?

Let me give you an example in the book, okay? Because some people, they save and they save and they save and they save, and they. And they never, ever do anything. You know, they don't go anywhere or do anything. And he said. One of the things in the books that's so important is he said, you know, if it's not rain, you know, saving rain for a rainy day is important. Sometimes things happen that we don't count on. P. S. If it's not raining, it's okay to use because we want people to enjoy their money. Yeah, just those little innuendos of, hey, it's okay to Go to a movie once in a while or go on a vacation or enjoy life. Money is used to add to your life, not take from it. And that is the whole purpose.

I love that. And, you know, you have the. You have the wagon of stuff in there, but really, you know, money, when it's used on things that you enjoy and also these experiences. And I think you know what you talked about, Julia, when you give your money, when you help people out, you're creating. You're creating an experience, you're creating a relationship, you're creating value for yourself.

Because, you know, I may be valuable, but, you know, you know, but having money has nothing to do with how much, you know, you are valued. So it just.

Yeah, I love that. Garrett, you mentioned you don't speak child or you didn't speak kid. You know, Julia just mentioned how this. This kids book is. Is fantastic for adults as well. Did you have an age range in mind when you all put this together?

What'd you think, gary?

Kindergarten through fifth grade was my thought.

Kindergarten through 80 years old.

Like, I mean, I knew. I knew that adults would read it and have aha without having to say they didn't understand. When they read a financial book, they've got to go through the process of, did I make a mistake? Does that mistake mean that I failed myself or my family? Does it mean that I'm stupid or bad or wrong? Like, this is kind of an. In dialogue that happens a lot of times. And so I find a lot of people defend their position because it's really sensitive when we make mistakes with money, because money's extension of, you know, like, how we store our value. And if all of a sudden we have less stored value, it can very easily collapse into our minds and say, well, I'm less valuable. And then we might not overtly say those words, but money has a charge to it. And it's. Even though we don't walk around with, like, a sign saying, here's my net worth, we walk around often with a mindset of what is our net worth? And most people are embarrassed about where they're at, and therefore they try to compensate or they try to not disclose and keep secret. So rather than have to read a book and be like, I should. This one says this is bad. That one said, this was good. Like, who's right, who's wrong? We're sticking to the basic principles that matter the most. And because it's the basic principles, it doesn't confront someone to be like, I'm bad, I'm wrong. It gives them permission to invest in themselves. It gives them permission to think of themselves as the greatest asset. It gives them permission to think about what skill sets they would like to truly develop. And not just because they look and go, this is good for kids. But they go, why wouldn't this be good for me? And if they could actually embrace that and take a leap of faith in that, they could be the very best example for their kids. Because most people are confused and think money's about spreadsheets. Spreadsheets and math may track aspects, but it's not the totality of money. Money's a philosophical construct. It's a man made tool of efficiency for us to exchange with one another. And it represents like stored value, but it doesn't reflect our potential or determine our destiny. And if we can have that context, because money teaches in the book and we're teaching our kids, we don't have to feel defensive. It lets the guard down. Same what happens with comedy. People laugh, their defenses are down, can learn three times more.

I love that. And it makes you think, right? When you go to a comedy show and you're like, I'm a little offended by that, but it's funny. Why is it funny? Why do I feel this way? Maybe, maybe I shouldn't be offended. Maybe I should listen up or maybe change my take. Julie, do you want to chime in on that?

Well, based on what he says, you know, when it comes to the basics, I can make you happy, but no matter how hard I try, I can make you happier. I may be valuable, but your value in life, nothing to do with how much you can buy. So that's the kind of concept, you know, that we want to get across after you have a house and clothes and a car and, you know, the basics. Truly, the only thing that really makes you happy when you have a lot of money is what you can do to help other people with it.

Yeah.

It makes me think of Coco Chanel. She has a quote where she says, you know, the best things in life are free, but the second best things are very, very expensive. And I just, you know, it's like, okay, I can make you happy when it comes to the basics. But beyond basics, your happiness dwells upon your love for yourself and the relationship you have with others and whether you're in a fulfilling career or engaged in life. Because I know I've been in a situation where I just had money coming in every month, whether I did work or not. And while I was trying to discover what I was going to Do. It was a really miserable time. And that sounds like, oh, feel so bad for me and how privileged you are, you jackass. But the bottom line is, if we don't have purpose and we don't understand the four basic things about money, right? Which is not just the spending and saving, right? But the earning, giving. And I find when I'm earning money doing things that I enjoy, it gives me a lot of, like, I just feel better, you know, it's just nice. It just is part of the.

We all need to matter, you know? I mean, that's the whole point. We want to make a positive difference.

In the world, and I love that. And look, I've experienced the same thing that you were talking about, you know, Garrett, and that you just underscored, Julia, when, When I was. When I was leaving my role in the medical device industry, I, you know, accountant looked at everything and said, okay, like, you're good. You have enough income coming in every month. You don't have to work anymore. It was so nerve wracking, Garrett, to think, wait a minute, like, what. What am I going to do tomorrow? We want to have purpose, as you said, Julia. We want to have significance, but we want to help people. That's why I try to encourage my boys, you know, as they, as they try to figure out, like, hey, I want to make money. How do I make money? Look for ways to help people, right? Isn't that what Zig Ziglar said? You know, if you. If you find a way to help other people, you know, you'll have. You have more. More money than you ever need. I don't know. Yeah, you know. You know, so you guys, you guys have some fantastic, basic tenants of money in there, but you, you drive deep into some of these more philosophical issues, like about, you know, overspending, as you said, Julia, you know, Garrett, you also mentioned one thing about, you know, some of the stuff that you have in. In some of your. More so we call them adult books, even though this is for both, you know, but like, yeah, we'll talk about that. Yeah. Grown up books. Yeah.

Adult books is a little rank. You could do. Grown ups is a little.

Yeah, I guess. Adult. There's adult books. There's a. There was a time when there are adult bookstores, right? I guess there still are if I drive in the middle of nowhere on my way to some different places. But. No, but, like, saving first. And I think these are some of the things, you know, some of these basic tenants weave into what you talk about, Julia, which is, you Know if we save, if we save first and we set aside money so we take care of those things and we're not seeking an emotional charge from spending on things that we can't do, maybe to replace.

This is Garrett's good stuff. He says, pay yourself first.

Okay. Yes.

And then he says, what was the other one that I dropped it? Earn, save and enjoy. Or excuse me, the save part, the spend part and the enjoy part and the enjoy give. But he calls it the enjoy jar instead of the give jar, which is brilliant. I like that you're going to get out of it. Is play.

Outstanding. So we've touched on a lot of different things. Maybe you all could share one thing that may surprise a reader as they read this book.

Oh, this is, you know, you can spam me on a lot of different things. Even guinea pig. There's a little guinea pig in the, in the, in the book. It says, you know, or super fat. I love it when you spend me on things you really want to buy, like bubblegum or a bicorn or a super fantabulous light up yo yo. And even guinea pig stuff. And then the guinea pig is reading a book that says how to win and influence guinea pigs.

Carnegie, right?

Love that extra touch right there.

You know it is. I laughed about four times in four minutes as you read it, Julia. So it's fantastic. So we'd love, we'd love, if you're listening today for you to go out and grab a copy of this book. Like I said, it's on Amazon on if Julia, could you share And Garrett, you don't mind holding it up again one more time.

It's called Is Beautiful. The hardback has like, it's just a beautiful book and it has like glittery kind of letters and stuff. It's just really neat. Nice little size too. So not huge or I don't know.

Yeah. So if you have, if you have a, a grown kid or a not grown kid in your household, check it out. I used to buy like the Motley fool books for my, my younger friends that were graduating college, that were going out in the real world and doing that. If you have a younger person in your life that you want to help encourage to learn about money or anybody in your family, a niece or a.

Smart ass kid who through your money like crazy.

That's right.

It just kind of is a gag, but it actually has some good stuff.

In it for, you know, or even a grown up kid. Take a look at this. I am Money. Would love to help you guys Spread this we have on our website nextlevelincome.com forward/kids. You can check out our five pro tips or five tips on how to teach your kids how to be money pros. And there's also a link to this book at the bottom of that as well that you can check out to go along with my partner Danny Randazzo's two children's books and also our book talking about raising kids as well. Or our parenting book where we wrote a chapter on how to raise your money pros and your kids. Any last words as we wrap up here?

Julian Garrett, enjoy the experience. You know, read a book, teach a life skill.

In the book where it says some people are afraid to admit they don't know a lot about money. Of course, nobody knows everything. Get to know people are good with money. Ask questions, always keep learning. I think you're out there doing that. So we thank you for that and thank you for letting us share a little bit of our passion and purpose here with the I Am Money children's book.

And yeah, thank you very much. We are just honored to be a.

Part of your show and I'm honored to have you here. We couldn't do it without without you and we couldn't do without you listening today. So check it out. I Am Money here in the show notes. Garrett. Julia, thank you so much.

Thank you.

Hey Chris, here again. I hope you found this episode valuable. Now I have one more thing to gift you. We have a page for my coaching clients where you can get a free copy of my book as well as much more from previous guests on the show. Just check out nextlevelincome.com coaching to get a free copy of my book, audiobook and much more. I'll send you a copy of my book and cover all the shipping costs as a thank you for listening to the podcast. Also, please like share and take just 90 seconds to give us a rating on Apple Podcasts.