How a CFP turned one principle into a global movement for young adults’ financial futures.
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Show Notes:
In this Mission Matters episode, Adam Torres interviews Dale Alexander, CFP, Author & Speaker at TheTalkAboutMoney.com, live from the Texas FFA Convention. Dale shares how his book is helping young people worldwide master the most important money principle before they enter the workforce—and why financial freedom begins with the heart, not the wallet.
About Dale Alexander, CFP
Dale Alexander has been blessed to pour inspiration and motivation into others for 30 years. As a well-known employee benefits broker and Certified Financial Planner, Dale also combines his passion for living with speaking opportunities to impact others’ lives and attitudes.
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Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to mission matters.com and click on Be Our Guest to Apply. All right, so today I am in.
Fort Worth, Texas at the Texas FFA convention. This is my fourth year coming out, one of my favorite conventions of the year. I do not miss it. It’s, and I’ll tell you it’s kind of hot outside. I’m gonna throw that out there, but I’m walking around in this suit. I’m getting better. I’m getting better. Next guest is a return.
So we had him on the show last year and I know we did a bunch of social media and just to, for the long term listeners on this show, you might recall I had Dale on and we were talking about the he gave away over 17,000 again, one seven 17,000 books last year to the tech. FFA members. It was quite a scene.
I’m talking about a huge pallet of books, like Unbelievable. If you wanna check it out, go to my Instagram, ask Adam Torres, and you’ll see a video and all kinds of other cool stuff with that. So first off, Dale, you had the longest intro of the day. Welcome back on the show. Thank you so much for having me.
Glad to be back. So a year since our last conversation, man, talk to me. How’s the book promo going? How’s the, like, what, what else has happened? I know this book has legs, so I know that that convention and that particular event was not the end. Talk to me. No, it’s kind of just starting it’s, it’s taken off worldwide now.
Wow. So I’ve spoken in Kenya, Uganda, Cambodia last week. So what virtually, at least to those, yeah. Now major universities, Ole Miss coming up, university of Tennessee. So it’s just gone crazy all over the place. Amazing. And it’s getting big. And let’s, let’s take a step back for a moment ’cause maybe our newer listeners don’t, they don’t, they’re not familiar with the book.
So let’s lay a little bit of a groundwork to name of the book, what inspired it, gimme, gimme some of that. So the book is called The Talk About Money. Mm-hmm. A young adults guide to the One Decision. It changes everything. Yeah. So I’ve, I’ve been a certified financial planner since the nineties, and I’m always talking to my kids about money.
One night, my middle son said, dad, you need to tell all of our friends this principal about money. Mm-hmm. And that was a few years ago. And now it’s gone to millions worldwide. It’s crazy. Wow. What, what a story and what do you, why do you think, I mean, a lot of people, and not, not putting anybody down obviously, but why do you think this particular work has taken off the way it has?
Like what? What have you seen? So, when most every adult that hears me tell this story to young adults mm-hmm. I wrote this book for young adults. 16 to 24 that have yet to get their first real job in their life. And most every adult that hears me tell this story, this principle comes up and says, where was this when I was 18?
Wow. And our parents never talked to us about money. There’s a reason they didn’t, by the way. Wow. So it just resonates with everybody. Mm-hmm. And many people don’t get money. Right. They don’t know even what to tell young adults about it, how to get it right. Yeah. And so. Came up with this lesson and that’s what the book is all about is the most important, I say life decision a young adult will make in their life.
Mm. And what how did you originally learn about money? Like, where did that come from on your end? Just because nobody’s born with it. That’s the thing. For those that are watching, they’re like, oh, my parents, since you this, that, I mean, nobody’s born with it. Where’d you learn? I would say 20, 21 years old when I was in college, I just had a love of.
Studying to do. I thought you were gonna say a love of money. I was gonna No, a love of and it’s important. I, I, I mean, which is okay. You never No, no, no. I, I just had a love of studying what to do with money. I remember being in college, I fell in love with mutual funds and then I went into financial planning, got my CFP and some other things, and followed the study of money of what to do with it.
And I’m studying money all my career. I love. Studying what to do with it and yeah. Came up with this lesson and now I get to go all over the world telling people what to, how to start off getting it right. It’s really not hard. There’s just a light trying to make it impossible. Yeah. And looking at as you’ve gone around the world, what’s interesting to me is that the principle, apparently, and I don’t wanna put words in your mouth, but if you’re.
Speaking internationally. Is the principal universal? It’s, this is an incredible question you asked me because the first time I did an internationally was to Ugandans. Mm. And after the session we were all talking casually. And I said, I have to be honest with you, I was, I was nervous that this wasn’t going to mean the same thing over here.
That’s it does in America. That’s, that’s what I’m thinking. And they said, Dale, it’s not a problem of of money, it’s a problem of the heart. Wow. And I, and in, in speaking, you know, we do a lot of work, my family, my wife and I in Kenya, and while it may, the numbers may not be the same as in America. It’s a problem of the heart.
Wow. You know, I could, we could base our currency on chickens and maybe I want more chickens than I have. I want as many chickens as you have. Yeah. But everything is, it’s just a problem of the heart. It’s really not. Most money problems are not problems about money. Mm. And that resonates worldwide. I mean, all nations have greed and envy and wanting more than we have.
It’s really been an amazing thing to watch worldwide news. Hmm. And I, I think that’s also interesting, like culturally. To be able to get to know, and you mentioned that you already do work in those areas, but to see how it translates culturally and how it can help people, it’s amazing that it a lesson about learning what to do with stuff.
Mm. And instead of le letting, you know, money own you, you own money and let money work for you instead of you working for money, it really translates all over the world. It’s fascinating to study. Yeah. It really is. Now I I don’t want, I may, my memory may be off on this, but last year, was it your first year?
Here it was here. I mean, for this particular convention I’m talking about, which is why we’re back this year. Hold on. So now you’re a veteran here too. What? What? It’s unbelievable. I get to speak here and pour into young adults and I, and I wanna go take that a step further and I’ll tell you why I, I want to do that.
There’s, you know, a lot of business owners, a lot of entrepreneurs, a lot of executives that watch this show, and I, who, to anybody that will listen, I’m like, look, you need to sponsor this. You care about this country. You care about the next generation. I want more corporate leaders here. I want them sending their staff.
I want them getting boots. I want them pouring into these members because they are the future of our country and, and they’re. Food security, like if you care about anything that has to do with this country, like you need to have representation here. So you, year one maybe Aaron told you to come, maybe there was some other people, some other reasons.
You wanna give out some books. You’re into philanthropy obviously, but year two, you don’t have to come back if you don’t want tot have to, didn’t have to. So talk to me. It was, it was non-negotiable. We’re coming back and I was in FFA in high school, but knew nothing about. I mean, Texas, everything is bigger, but, but really when you think about food security and food insecurity, it’s one of the greatest and existential threats of the world Absolutely.
Is food insecurity. And you know, you never really, I never really understood the magnitude. When you come to Texas and you see mm-hmm. First of all, FFA is really not an agriculture as it is a leadership and leadership development. Mm-hmm. It’s unbelievable organization. But when you come to this place. And you are around you.
You see how serious food security Oh yeah. Or food insecurity is Oh yeah. It’s unbelievable. It really is could be an existential threat for the world, but it’s amazing to see all these young adults, so yeah, committed to agriculture and that, and that part shook me as well when I first came, is that at first I thought it was going to be all farm.
Like oriented in all food. But then as you mentioned, the leadership component and the skills they’re teaching, like by now, I’m four years in this year, and it’s a whole different, like my understanding of it is different. So maybe go further into that, like the leadership principles, the things that you’ve learned working with the ambassadors and otherwise, like, go a little bit further into like what the programs are, like, what you’ve seen at least.
Well, John Maxwell says leadership is influence. And you, you just walk around and you just see the servant. The servant leadership attitude that these young adults have. And I mean f the, the FFA organization is, I just think of how many corporate CEOs are coming, gonna come out of these halls in this building.
Oh my gosh. Yeah. It’s unbelievable. If you are a business and you hire, you want quality young employees as employees. This would be just an incredible place. Gold mine literally to It is. It really is. Yeah. I mean, it’s a breeding ground for leadership. Absolutely. And they’re unbelievable. And you know, you get an ambassador that takes you around and it’s really an incredible organization to watch.
These kids are, there’s great hope for the future. Anybody who’s down on the future of our country don’t come to a place like this and you’ll realizing. We’re gonna be in good hands. Yeah. It’s, we’re gonna be, I, I, I agree with that statement and I think it’s and it’s a testament seeing year after year now, and I can’t wait to continue to come back and Amen.
Continue to see this. And what’s funny is what you said about about our future CEOs, because I’ve been doing this long enough here to where I’ve, I’ve interviewed quite a few CEOs from some large organizations that are part of this Texas FFA catalog we’ve amassed and where did they start? It’s funny to see them talk about their early days.
And be like they were part of the Texas FFA and this, that, the other. And like, and over time they’re like, you know, that might’ve been 20, 30 years ago. That’s right. That they were part of it and now they’re running a, a, a financial institution or they’re running all these other companies or they’re in government.
The US Secretary of Agriculture there, you, the Texas FFA yesterday suspect. Unbelievable. There you go. And so that’s the quality that comes out of this. So That’s right. It’s not, it’s not an accident though. No, it’s not. It’s not an accident. It’s the program. It’s the people behind it. It’s the pedigree. The, it’s the buy-in at the state level, at the local level, at the school level.
At the family level. Like the, the lineage, the legacy of my dad was in it, my grandpa’s, whatever, the other individuals were in it. That’s right. I’m like, man, I’m jealous. Why wasn’t I out here? Like, I would, I wish they had too. I got to partic, I got to be a part of it. He’s incredible. Oh, so Dale last question, man.
What’s next on the agenda for you? What do you got going on the rest of the year? You know, I’ve, I’ve got some large, things happening with the book. Mm-hmm. Big things you’ll, you’ll hear about it coming up. Oh yeah. In Nashville. Spoiler. It whatcha talking about spoil this for my audience.
You don’t, you don’t. Come on my show and not gimme me. The inside scoop. Gimme a little, it’s so mean. If you’re out there and you just wonder what the answer to getting money right is. I mean, so many people want to hear that story, so. It’s, it’s it’s crazy. We’ve just been blessed, Lord has blessed us, and it’s just been unbelievable to where, who knows where this thing’s going.
Yeah. As long as I stay obedient and go after it and try and tell the story to young adults, it’ll keep going. Mm-hmm. Amen. People like you have me on shows and that’s what helps perpetuate. Amazing. Last thing, look into the camera. How do people follow up? How do they learn more? How do they follow you?
How do they get a book? So thank you. Everything can be found at the talk about money.com, the talk about money.com, everything. They’re. That you need to find out about it. Fantastic. And for everybody at home, just so you know, we’ll definitely put some links in the show notes so you can just click on the link and head right on over and speaking to the audience.
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Man. Good. Good to have you back on so much. Can’t wait to see you next year, man. It’s on. Thank you.
