EPISODE 1: Burn Your Eyebrows Off | Bob Goff

Bob Goff is a former attorney, turned bestselling author, turned keynote speaker, turned full-time grandpa and retreat host. 

On today’s episode, we’ll hear how Bob navigated all these changes and hear what he would tell a younger version of himself.

Have a question for Matt Waters?

Email him: Matt@cglainstitute.com 

www.CGLAinstitute.com

Connect with Matt on LinkedIn: 
www.linkedin.com/in/mattwaterscpa/

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Bob Goff is a former attorney, turned bestselling author, turned keynote speaker, turned full-time grandpa and retreat host. On today's episode, we'll hear how Bob navigated all these changes, and hear what he would tell a younger version of himself.

SPEAKER_00 0:24

Yeah, I would say it'll work, but you'll probably lose your eyebrows doing it. I just go like, you know what? In this brief period of time we have here, 27,383 days give or take, I just don't want to play it safe.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

Welcome to New Least Song, where we talk about the latest in least accounting and least administration and share stories of changes in perspective and new beginnings. I'm your host, Matt Waters. Let's dive in. Today's guest is New York Times bestselling author Bob Goff. And Bob started his professional life as an attorney, but his career has taken some interesting turns along the way. Bob, welcome to New Lisson.

SPEAKER_00 1:12

Yeah, thanks a million. Great to be with you.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

Well, so excited to talk with you today, Bob. And I just want to dive right in and talk about something from way back for you, I guess I would say. I think I understand from reading your books that you started your law practice and it involved construction law and real estate law. And I also know you owned an airline at one time. And so you must have run into some interesting leases along the way. Just thought I'd ask you, can you tell us a little bit about that chapter of your career?

SPEAKER_00 1:47

Yeah, I was a lawyer for gosh, 30 years or so before I decided to go straight. Uh I started writing books. And then along the way, these opportunities, like for everybody, these opportunities come up, but I usually try to pull on the thread, see what it's connected to. And so while I didn't set out to have a little airline, I ended up with a little airline up in BC, Canada. And we operated that for a bunch of years. It was a float plane company and had wheeled planes as well. But I just like that idea of being engaged. And I bet your listeners that you have uh have things that they do as a day job. And I never think of it as a career, but for each of us, a day job. It's just kind of like renting month to month. So that you're doing this thing for as long as you do it. But then at some point there was a pivot. And I said, you know what? Although I like being a lawyer, it's a pretty good way to make a living. I feel like there's something itching that I feel like I have more game than that. And it isn't up and to the right financially, but actually a little bit more down and to the left. And I started writing books, uh, which was an awfully great way to fundraise. Like if I made cupcakes, people would die. Not very good cook. But it turns out that I know how to spell cat. So I started writing books, and then uh from that came like speaking stuff. People said, Will you come and talk at our whatever it is? But then that ended up being 15 years of 120 cities a year, and so more recently I've just stopped doing that. Yeah, uh, so the whole idea of like using kind of the the riff on your podcast is that you get to the end of your lease each time, and you just say, Hey, there's an end of this term, and we get to decide, but we're done with that, and now it's time for something new.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

Oh, that's so cool. Yeah, I can relate a little bit, I think. I mean, I in my day job, I was constantly being asked to explain lease accounting concepts, right? And at some point I decided, all right, I'm gonna start an institute called the lease accounting institute, and I'm gonna record me explaining lease accounting concepts, so then anybody can listen to those at any time. And it's worked great. You know, people say, Oh, if we could clone Matt, we could get the training we need. But basically, now have been able to clone Matt, and that's the lease accounting institute now.

SPEAKER_00 4:19

Yeah, bear, bingo, and there'll be it might be another version of you that is itching, just like somebody that's listening, that says, I really enjoying having an expertise in leasing. What I want to do is develop another muscle group. And so I just love during this brief period of time that we're here on this marble that we would like explore a number of different things.

SPEAKER_01 4:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:42

So that's what I've been doing. Now I'm a grandpa and I got four grandkids, and I'm spending my time at swim practice.

SPEAKER_01 4:50

Yeah, cool. I know you're a grandpa, and I know you have a retreat center that you operate. Tell us a little bit about what you're passionate about doing now. And we're not going to hold you too. You might have another new lease on later, right? But but what are you doing right now that you're super passionate about?

SPEAKER_00 5:08

Yeah, I uh decided that I wanted to be a little bit more famous with my family than with people that are in Orlando or far away from San Diego. So I bought a retreat center down here in San Diego. It used to be a young life camp, and then we fixed it up. We got rid of all the bunk beds and turned them into suites and put in a vineyard and horse stables, and it's about a really great place. There's almost 20,000 people a year that'll come through there, which is great fun. I like it there. I just always tell people that I have an agenda for me. I just don't have an agenda for you. So when people come, I want people to get what they need. So my agenda for me, I'd just be a good host. My agenda for them doesn't exist. And that might be a concept for people to think about when you're entering it, whether it's in the marketplace or your home, have an agenda for yourself, not an agenda for other people.

SPEAKER_01 6:04

Right. Now, this retreat center that you said is a young life camp, and it it kind of plays into your story with how you met your wife, too. Am I right about that?

SPEAKER_00 6:15

That's true. Yeah. Maria was uh there and helping out. And I found out that she was going to be there helping out. So I got up there. She was in charge of the girls' work crew, so I got in charge of the boys' work crew. And so that idea of getting adjacent to what it is that you want, if you think about that, uh, if somebody's listening to your podcast and they're stuck in traffic or stuck in a job that they've kind of outgrown, to say, how do I get adjacent? How do I get near the thing that I want? So if you want to play the saxophone, I would get nearer people who play the saxophone. If you want to find a more joy in your life, I'd find more joyful people in your life if you want to develop an expertise like the institute that you have, then I would just find people that enjoy the same expertise. So I got adjacent to Maria, and that began our courtship. And then 32 years and three kids later, that Young Life Camp came up for sale. So I bought it and I thought, let's fix this thing up. Yeah. So overarching idea is not to just jump for every opportunity in business, but to understand your high values. Have you ever done Matthew's high values exercise where you take a number of values and then you just figure out, just rank them? What are the highest 10 values? Have you ever tried that?

SPEAKER_01 7:39

I've done similar exercises. I don't know exactly in the same way.

SPEAKER_00 7:44

You can just go on Amazon and get a values cards. Yeah. And you'll get one. Typically, they'll have 70 or 75 cards on them, and that's a lot of values. Like, so for me, being on time is a high value. But I know my buddy Rick, that is his lowest value. It is beneath any value he has. There's nothing that matters to him less. And so, as we're still really good friends, we just don't share Uber rides to the airport because he's gonna be the last guy in the plane, and I'm gonna be the first guy in the plane.

SPEAKER_01 8:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:17

Doesn't mean that we don't like each other. I just know don't share an Uber ride with him because I wouldn't like him by the end of that ride. So it's a great exercise to do with the people that you work with, colleagues, with the people that you love, the people that you hate if you have kids, to just say, what are the so start separating these out. And then instead of saying I have 40 high values, that would be a lot to manage. Just pick 10 or three or five of your highest values, and then measure those values against what you're doing with yourself. Because if you have a high value as adventure and spontaneity and artistry, then probably like writing commercial leases is not for you.

unknown 9:03

Right.

SPEAKER_00 9:05

You're just like it's not gonna align with your highest values. Then if you want to go like pro on this, say, well, values have beliefs, they arise out of beliefs. One of the beliefs is that this is a high value. But if a value being having integrity is a high value for you, there's a belief that people in leadership ought to have high integrity. And underneath that is usually an experience. So if you want to go all pro, take your values, say what are the beliefs that are the basis, what undergirds that value, and then say what's a life experience that made that percolate up to the top. It was either a good experience or bad experience. But then all of a sudden you valued loyalty above every other value. And there's usually a story connected to that. So if you wanted to build a team, if you wanted to have more clarity on why you're doing what you're doing, I'd do a quick little values exercise. And you can make the cards up yourself or you could buy them for five bucks, but it'd be a really worthwhile thing to do.

SPEAKER_01 10:09

Yeah, that does sound like a great exercise. And it's an exercise in discovering more and more about yourself before you start pursuing what you talked about earlier about getting adjacent to something that you're interested in or pulling the thread, right? Because then you make sure you're getting adjacent to the right organization or the right people, and then you're pulling the right threads that ultimately align with your values, right?

SPEAKER_00 10:35

Yeah, I think the uh idea too, although in the marketplace the word audit is not a popular one, you could do your own internal audit and say, hey, are my values uh driving my decisions, or the decisions kind of clashing against my values?

SPEAKER_01 10:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:52

High value of say financial security, if you're making decisions or you have somebody that's making pretty uh extravagant decisions, then you're a little on edge because your highest value is financial security, their highest value is adventure, and then they're running into each other. And just understanding why is that happening? Like, what's the backstory? Oh, I grew up where there wasn't a lot of resources available, and so you grab onto the ones you got and you're really pretty frugal about it. Somebody else is saying I had a really frugal existence and I decided then and there at seven years old, I'm not keeping one dime. I'm just gonna have all kinds of experiences. And so if you just go with the value, if you just say, Well, I value adventure and you value financial security, then you really don't know much about each other. But if you get to what are the beliefs, the belief that God is gonna provide more, or the belief that their four-leaf clovers have leprechauns that have pots of gold, but understand the belief and then find the story. Like I saw a leprechaun. And now you've got like some real team building stuff going on. So I think just in the workplace, if I was sitting down and I was gonna learn something about you and leasing and all that, what I'd also do is I'd get team members together to say, do a little exercise like that. It'd be a great idea. I've done it with my team.

SPEAKER_01 12:23

Cool. Well, that's great advice, Bob. What's one other piece of advice you would give to somebody who is looking to have a new lease on their career?

SPEAKER_00 12:34

Yes, I would ask people what's your experience rather than get their advice, because everybody has opinions, yeah, like ears, everybody except Van Gogh has a couple of them. But so I've sailed across the Pacific a couple of times and no idea why, because I just throw up the whole time. Yeah, I could drop 30 pounds.

SPEAKER_01 12:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:57

But there was a guy that heard that I was fixing to do it again, and he said, Oh, this is the kind of life raft to get, and this is the boat, and this is the GFPS plotter you need. And he had it right down to the life preservers. I said, Oh, are you a sailor? And he said, No, I've never left Ohio. So he had a lot of opinions, and you just didn't have any experience. So when people ask you about your opinion or want to give you their opinion, instead I pivot a little bit and to say, What's your experience? So if you really want to get at it with people, do that, like vet it a little bit. Because then you'll understand that. Well, my experience is if they're giving you financial advice, then you say, Well, my fourth bankruptcy, then you go like, Oh, I have a different context for this. I understand a little bit more about where you're coming from with that, both good or bad, no judgment in it, but understanding some context is uh really helpful. So that is what I pass along to people all the time. Because everyone just turn on the news, have a conversation with the mail carrier. They're gonna have opinions about everything and say, Oh, wait, tell me how that's worked out. Not like an accusation, but just like, tell me how that worked out for you. They go, Well, it didn't work out that great, but I learned a lot of lessons and be like, awesome. Here's somebody that's had some difficulties, they're really in touch with both their successes and their failures. I think I'll trust what they have to say. So it isn't like you're just looking for up into the right people, but people that are actually in touch enough with reality that you'd go, like, and your experience mirrors my highest values, so I'm gonna listen. Or the uh corollary to that, your experience emphasizes my lowest values, things I don't care about at all. And so I'm not gonna be mad at you, but I'm gonna divide what you have to say by the biggest number I can think of. And I can think it's the pretty big numbers, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:55

Bob, my next question. Uh I'm gonna pivot the question a little bit. I won't ask for your advice, but I will say, in your experience, you've had some big changes in your career, just drastic changes, and many of them led to great successes, right? Does it always have to be that you're shooting for some big drastic change, or did you just kind of adjust something a little bit and over time led to drastic change?

SPEAKER_00 15:20

Let's see, I think what you do, like everything in life, you kind of have an experience, you put a toe in the water. I think about viability. I don't think just is it a great idea because there's a lot of things that are great ideas that aren't viable. Dippin' dots is one of them. Like, I love those things. I wouldn't walk across broken glass to dip and dots, but they cost more than drugs. I'm like, there's no way, they're just not viable. So that's why they've gone bankrupt a couple of times. So, what I want to think about is this at a first level. It sounds like a great idea. Does it line up with my values? Uh-huh. Next, is it viable? Is there a way to get there? And like proving the concept with something that's a little bit lower stakes rather than putting the house on red and spinning the roulette wheel to say, let me try it here and then ramp up. And then if it works to scale, so we do that with our schools overseas. But I think we started with nine kids uh 25 years ago. And we thought that was great because we had a soccer team. Uh, but there's like 19 and 900, and uh so we've proven the concept with 2100 kids living on campus, and the total cost is zero. So I've balanced found the sweet spot, so it's viable if I get hit by the ice cream truck, which it wouldn't be a bad outcome. Um, that that school will continue on. And so now we've started a 40 million dollar university, and I don't have 40 million bucks, but like that wouldn't be the first thing I do. I'd start with nine kids, yeah. Refine the idea with 900. I'd prove the idea, make it viable at 2100 before I would start something immense. And sometimes, people, I get that it makes for a great movie, you know. Rudy, who against all odds, does this thing. But if you're familiar with the movie, I wouldn't do all that work for four or five years just to get sent in for two plays. Just the over and under wouldn't work for me. I think it's a great movie. I cry every time, but I also on reflection, while it's a moving story, I wouldn't do that. I write books and I've spoken to so many people that say, you know, if this book just changes one person's life, it would be worth it. I'm like, heck no, you know how much time I spend in spell check. Uh I spelled of UV. I'm like, of sound right. So I wouldn't do it for just one person. So I'm not just saying viability in the marketplace, I'd say it's a viable, worthwhile idea. In other words, it lines up with my highest values.

SPEAKER_01 18:04

Yeah, cool. Well, Bob, thank you so much for joining us today.

SPEAKER_00 18:09

Oh, this is a treat. Thank you, and thanks for what you're doing. And how how would people get a hold of you if they want to sign up like me for your leasing school?

SPEAKER_01 18:18

Well, yeah, I have one more question for you, but I I want to tell you that first, of course. The lease accounting institute is cglainstitute.com, and that stands for certified global lease accountant, cglainstitute.com. But Bob, I want to give you the last word, and I just wanted to frame it up with this question, though. Would you just close us out with if you could go back and tell younger Bob anything, what would you tell younger Bob?

SPEAKER_00 18:48

Yeah, I would say it'll work, but you'll probably lose your eyebrows doing it. And that's what I mean. Like the idea, it'll work, but a couple things along the way are gonna blow up in your face and you won't end up with eyebrows. They'll like burn off in the explosion. And so it's gonna be costly to do the loving people involves sacrificing commitment. It isn't yard sale prices, it's not a bargain. It's actually gonna be costly to do what you do, particularly if you're trying to align high values, because there's a bunch of second best that's available for people if you're willing to do that. But eyebrows will be intact, but I just go, like, you know what? In this brief period of time we have here, 27,383 days, give or take. I just don't want to play it safe. So each person comes from the factory a little bit differently, and it's a function of their values. And to say, like uh sweet Maria Goff, pretty conservative, not a big risk taker, although she does do some risky stuff. But then that has some beliefs behind it, and then the underlying that is some experiences. So I would just take a little time to audit and to say, okay, so why am I doing what I'm doing? I would summarize all of that, I would distill it down, and that's what I'd tell uh to this younger version of me. I'd say, go be that guy, go be that gal. Like because you've been around the sun a couple of times, you have some life experiences, you've connected with your belief systems, you've connected those to values, and I would trust that.

SPEAKER_01 20:25

Yeah, yeah, that's great. You made me think with the eyebrow thing. I have never burned off my eyebrows. I have done a lot of cooking on a big green egg, you know, there's just this Komodo style grill. And they tell you before you open it, when it's been at a high temperature, you're supposed to burp it, you know, which is like open it at like a half inch and let it let some heat. But when I first bought it, I I just went ahead and opened it and did singe the uh the hair off my arms.

SPEAKER_00 20:52

So oh, that nasty smell of burning hair follicles. Oh man. Well, great being with you. Thanks for making a little time and I hope everybody will not just hear the things you're talking about and agree, but they'll actually do something about it. So take something that's been said today and then just say, This is what I'm gonna do. People make stuff happen. That's how movements happen. People make moves. Absolutely. Thank you, Bob.

SPEAKER_01 21:20

All right, happy day. Thank you for joining us. I'd be grateful if you would like and subscribe wherever you listen. Perhaps today is your day to get a new lease on. Would you like to learn more about lease accounting? Check out the CGLA program. That's Certified Global Lease Accountant. You can earn 16 hours of CPE credit, study at your own pace, and earn the CGLA professional designation. Find out more at CGLA Institute.com.