Money Ripples is celebrating its 10th birthday! In this episode, Chris Miles is taking you a bit deeper into how Money Ripples came to be, its purpose in YOUR life, and what they can mean for YOU in the next 10 years.
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The #1 Cause of All of Your Financial Problems
Welcome to the show. It is for those of you that work hard for your money. We will start working harder for you now. You want that freedom and cashflow now, not 30 or 40 years but right now so you can live that life as you love with those you love. Most importantly, it’s not about getting rich but creating a rich life because as you are blessed financially, you have a greater capacity to bless the lives of others. Thank you for allowing me to create that ripple effect through you. The show had been over eight years but it’s Money Ripples’ tenth birthday, which is technically in a few days. Thank you for allowing me to create a ripple effect in your lives for the last ten years.
As a reminder, if you haven’t done so already, join our Money Rippers page, especially if you’re on Facebook. Go to Facebook, find the Money Ripplers’ page and join. If you want to have updates, different things we talk about and conversations, it is a great group to be a part of. We are already, I don’t know how many hundred strong but it’s a great group. It’s one of the best groups like you. There are similar people like you in this group. I love to have you join us. Be sure to do that now.
Today is the tenth anniversary and it got me thinking about the origin story of Money Ripples. You probably have heard this story repeatedly that twenty years ago, as a financial advisor, I did that for several years. I quit when I realized it was crap and became financially independent in 2006. I came out of that retirement to then start a company.
At that time, I was in a company called Freedom Fast Track, which was started by a guy named Garrett Gunderson. If you have heard of him, he wrote the book Killing Sacred Cows and What Would The Rockefellers Do?. He wrote a book like that talking about infinite banking. I started to work with him and we launched a company together with several other people.
During the recession, when we were going through our crap, everybody else pretty much quit other than a few people. The cool thing was that because of what I was suffering through, I was able to get creative and resourceful in finding money. That is the cashflow process they were able to use. That even leads to what’s called Wealth Factory. They are using the ten-plus-year-old process that I gave them, which I knew I was going to evolve past anyways. That stuff that you’ve seen from them is my old original stuff.
The only reason it happened is that I’m a lone wolf. I have been known to do my thing and beat to my drum. There were a few times that Garrett even wanted to get rid of me. He was like, “Why is this guy even here?” The thing that shocked him was even when we went through hard times, the people that were his yes man quit where I didn’t. I stuck around primarily because I had a strong spiritual impression that I should.
Long story short, I had been there for several years and helped build up the company. We were prospering again but I was getting antsy. I felt like some more is coming. That’s the thing. I have this intuition where I feel something coming, like I have been warning you about the bear market last August of 2021. In December of 2021, I said, “The market is about to turn.” A few weeks later, it started turning South. Those are the feelings I get. I get these impressions.
Over ten years ago, I was out for a run. I was starting to feel the impression that I wanted to create something. I was trying to create another website. I wasn’t trying to compete with Freedom Fast Track or Wealth Factory. I was trying to create another brand or something I could do, something to get my creative juices going.
After that run, I started thinking, “What would be something that would embody it?” I remember looking at websites with cashflow in the name and they would be $10,000 for the website. As I was thinking about it, I thought, “Chris, go to your vision. What do you envision happening?” We had already helped hundreds of people at Freedom Fast Track. We helped those people create extra cashflow over a few years.
I started thinking about specific families, especially the chiropractors and the dentists that we worked with. I’m thinking about their families and how their lives have been blessed. It didn’t affect them but affected their children too. It created a whole new legacy of abundance where before it was scarcity. I started to think about that and what it did for their children. I thought, “If it doesn’t stop there, that’s a generational impact, plus a community impact because when those people prosper, they can bless the lives of those around them. There are other family members, extended family members, friends, neighbors and people like that.”
The vision caught me with this ripple effect going across the world. That’s when the name Money Ripples came to be. I was a few miles away from my house on that run. The Money Ripples stuck with me. I said, “I got to go back and see if there is a website for that to see if anybody has taken it. If not, I want it.” I ran back home probably much faster than I did that first part of that run. I looked it up and no one had it. Immediately, I’m like, “I’m getting it.” I bought it for $7.95 from GoDaddy and Money Ripples had begun. I didn’t know what to do with it.
On October 11th, 2012, as I was sitting in the office, I set up a meeting with Garrett Gunderson. We are sitting down and talking about the future and stuff. I wanted to talk about my role and what I was doing. I was already coaching all of his clients. I brought the whole cashflow process, even though cashflow banking process, with something that we had worked on.
I sat in this meeting and said, “Garrett, I like coaching but I want to do more. I want to get out, speak and do more things with you.” He was like, “That’s great but I don’t see that in the cards. I don’t see that as your role.” I was like, “I guess I can settle. Wait. I didn’t mean to say the word settle. I guess I can do coaching but I want to do that.” He was like, “I don’t know, Chris.” After a while, it got awkward and I said, “Garrett, are you firing me?” He was like, “I don’t know how it’s going.” I was like, “Garrett, level with me.” He sounds bold on stage. In person, he was having a hard time. Plus, we had a history. We have been working together up to that point for almost six years.
At that point, his COO came in and he slid a letter across the table. I saw a tear drip out of his eyes. I’m like, “What’s this?” He was like, “That is your noncompete and your termination letter saying that you’re done.” I’m like, “What? Are you kidding me? The whole reason this company had revitalized and even been successful is because of what I brought to it. Now you want to get rid of me? If anything, I should quit and dump you. Not the other way around.”
It affected me. I was shocked. I started hysterically crying. It’s rare in my life I have done that. I’m crying uncontrollably to the point where they were like, “Do you need a minute?” I said, “Yes.” I can’t even go out. For whatever reason, even though it was 5:00 in the evening, people stuck around. They were working late that night. I’m like, “I got to get my composure.” We started talking about what was going to happen. I said, “I got a company. I can start on my own. Don’t worry. I’m not going to touch the precious relationships that you guys have.” They were afraid I would take all their business away because the business was built around me. The coaching was built around my system.
I said, “Don’t worry, I’m going to do my thing. I’m going to stay out of your little sandbox. I will let you guys play there and I will play on my own. I’m still going to teach cashflow, infinite banking and do that stuff. Noncompetes don’t work in the state of Utah but I wanted to honor it.” With Money Ripples, I’m like, “I guess I’m starting it.”
I didn’t even pack up my stuff. I left the office quickly, shut my computer down and left. I’m driving home thinking, “What am I going to tell my wife? How am I going to break the news door her on what is going on?” I parked in a church parking lot. As I’m sitting in front of that church, I’m praying. I’m thinking, “Lord, what is this? Is this meant to be? I know that there are no accidents. What’s supposed to come of this? What am I to do now? What path should I be taking because the path was thrust upon me?”
At that moment, I got this huge overwhelming sense of peace. I felt through the spirit that he said, “This moment now in this parking lot is a turning point in your life. This is going to be part of your story. Move on, move forward with Money Ripples and I will help you out. I got your back.” I did. It was rough. I didn’t have a lot of money to start it up. I was paying off all those debts from everything that I had been doing. I was on a great track for paying off my debts and getting out of that debt hole that I had created over $1 million but I was still in the middle of it. I have to launch a new business with no planning and resources. I got a website up. I got things going.
Eight years ago, it was pretty rough. There’s me doing an intro video for my website, talking to people about the wealth empowerment intensive and event I’m doing. I didn’t have a beard back then. I was much chubbier, much more sick, believe it or not, even than I was eight years later but that’s how I was trying to make it work.
Granted, I hit six figures in my business within the first little bit but the truth is it was a rough go. I was trying to build it from scratch. I had to keep going back to that memory, sitting in that church parking lot, remembering that this was a turning point. This has meant to be. There have been several times, especially in those first 4 or 5 years of Money Ripples, where I wondered if I should quit and shut down Money Ripples on many occasions.
I was sitting down with some other business owners and they were talking about their worst nightmares. I had a nightmare where I put on an event and no one showed up except for the cameraman. I turned on the camera like I was doing now, talking to myself and doing an event all alone. I thought, “Is this worth it? Should I do this?” That was my dream. That was never a reality but it was scary. I felt alone.
There were times when I posted on Facebook eight years ago. I was right when you were seeing that guy all sick and tired. I almost quit my business at that moment when you saw that guy in that video. I said, “Maybe I should go get a job, go work for somebody else and let them do all the work.” On the outside doing great, making six figures with my business but I was wondering if I should shut it down. The good news is after divorce and all of those things that put my life in check and question, it came back to, “Why are we here? Why do Money Ripples exist?”
The reason I’m doing this show is for you. That’s the one thing I did. Even when I thought about quitting, I was still doing the show. 1) For my posterity and family but, 2) For you because I know that you’re reading this now, hoping to get some value, freedom and answers. I’m here to tell you that there is hope. Not only have we proven this with hundreds of our clients. We have given people some massive results in what we do.
I don’t know too many coaching-type programs, especially in the financial space, where it’s more like financial strategy and coaching. It’s not like, “Here is how to create a new real estate investing business.” It’s an actual financial help. I’m creating some strategies and connections for you to be able to get out of the rat race with passive income, which I brought in closer to 2016 after I got myself out of the rat race and I started teaching you that.
All those things that have happened, I’m glad I didn’t quit. I’m glad I listened to that whisper and continued on the path with Money Ripples. I’m glad I was on that run and decided to get the name Money Ripples because it doesn’t embody what we’re about, which is to provide you hope and create a ripple effect through your life.
As you have more cashflow and passive income coming, it’s the point where you create more freedom for yourself. It’s time for you, time for your family and time to create something more. If you’re in business, create a greater megaphone that will allow you to create that freedom to make something bigger and greater to serve and bless more lives.
As you have more cash flow and more passive income coming in, you can create more freedom for yourself and time for you, time for your family, and time to create something more. Click To TweetEven if you work a job, it is the same thing. How can you bless and serve more people? Not just create comfort for your family or get rich but create that rich life that we talk about. That’s what we are. We embody that. This is the only reason we’re here. This is the only reason we want to be here. This is the only reason why I’m still doing this, even though I don’t have to.
I could easily do things much simpler than what I’m doing now. If you would have gone back to five years ago, I was working 5 or 10 hours a week, doing this show, coaching a few people and doing a little bit of infinite banking. That was it. It’s a part-time, casual business, running with myself, not even having a team like we’re starting to have where we have this core team already keeping this business going and growing but it comes back to the same thing. Why am I reinvesting my money back in this business? It’s because I want more of you to have hope and freedom that I have enjoyed myself and many of our clients have enjoyed too.
That 2030 goal that we talk about all the time, have 1,000 people plus, even more than that, 1,000 families of financially independent, free to work optional and work because you want to, not because you have to, is all part of that. This ten-year celebration is not even about me and not about me not quitting. It’s about you. Some of you have already taken action and are already on that journey. Some of you have already accomplished what you wanted to accomplish. There are many more of you that have yet to accomplish what we have been talking about. This doesn’t seem like a reality yet.
That’s why we’re here. The purpose of what we are trying to do here is to help you create. We want you to live the best abundant life possible. That can only happen if you take this information, apply it and put it into your life and practice. It becomes a part of you. It’s not just a strategy. It’s about whom you become in the process. You can become an abundant person, not just a rich person. If you’re rich, you’re rich. If you’re abundant, you’re prosperous and wealthy. That is the goal we have for you.
I don’t want to use much more words but I’ll tell you, over the last ten years, it has been an amazing journey. I appreciate those of you who have been along for the ride. Some of you have been reading this show since the beginning. Some of you have listened to 600-plus episodes. Congratulations. I can’t even believe you did it. I don’t even want to read the blog that much but you have done it.
I appreciate you. You have been binging and sharing with others. If this means anything to you, I ask you deep down to share this with other people. Get this message across. This is the ripple effect we want to create. It cannot happen if you are doing the traditional mainstream junk as I taught twenty years ago. Financial advising is broken.
Today someone reached out to me and said, “Look what my financial advisor said because she is looking to get her money away from the market.” She knows, especially after we have talked. I said, “This is not the bottom of the bear market. There’s more to go. I can’t tell you to sell your mutual funds or stocks but you may want to protect whatever you have left now.” She had already lost a lot of money.
I talked to somebody else who lost $140,000 in her 401(k) because she hadn’t moved her money out. She was like, “It shouldn’t go down much more.” That is the trap everybody gets caught into. I have seen it as a financial advisor and a stock coach. I’ve seen it happen over and over. It’s affecting people’s lives and it’s going to affect more people’s lives. When the FED says that the average American and small business owner is going to feel some pain, believe that it is going to be worse than what they say.
You can’t control what is going on in the markets, what the FEDs are going to do and the stock markets. That is why we don’t invest in them. You can control what actions you take today and what education you get. What you do with that education will make all the difference in life, whether you will have a legacy of prosperity, abundance and freedom or a legacy of the average Joe American that’s living paycheck to paycheck, hoping and praying that something might change, although it’s not. The choice is up to you. I’m super excited for these last ten years. I’m even more excited to see what these ten years will become. It is going to be an awesome ride. You hang in and we’ll start seeing what the next decade will bring. Make it a wonderful and prosperous week. We’ll see you later.
Important Links
- Facebook – Money Ripplers
- Killing Sacred Cows
- What Would The Rockefellers Do?
- Wealth Factory