Extra: Funding the Future with Gooding

22:34I mean, I didn't have the show together at all. I just went, oh, I'm gonna go back to my old high school and play and see if I can tell them some of this stuff that I've been yelling about in the press or that John Hope Bryant talked about after I read some of his great books about this. One of the things was seeing that they were asking all financial literacy questions, not how do I get in a band or what's your favorite color? Because I know in high school and I've seen other programs, even when I was in high school. And you don't always have them only talking about the thing that you're talking about.

22:58The light that went on me for that is they're just like I was. Somebody comes through town, they go, I am in something that I've got to change. I got to break a chain here. I got to do something. And, you know, John O 'Brien says, if you show me a student who's lost hope, I'll show you a student who's going to jump the line. They're going to be violent. You know, you hang out with nine drug dealers, you're going to be the 10th drug dealer. You hang out with nine doctors, you're probably going to learn something about medicine. To see these students all ask financial literacy questions after those first few kind of test shows, I was like, okay, putting music and financial literacy together as hard as it is to explain, and that's why we're making a documentary trying to be able to show this.

23:30There may be a way that we can be that kind of squishy middle where somebody else can come in with the program, whether it's Junior Achievement or whoever, somebody can help. And we are trying to still do everything we can to work with these politicians, work with anybody that wants to support the charity to get that done. But if we can keep these bands out there doing this, we could reach a generation of kids. I'll tell you, for me, as far as the despair of being an entrepreneur. And frankly, let's talk about money. Back to the third one. You could have all the brains and the brawn, but yeah, you got to understand money.

23:58I was in a hotel. It was actually Monterey, California. We were playing a little club up there. I was probably losing money every day. I was playing out of the road. I mean, any entrepreneur, it's funny when you get hit with those taxes when you finally start making your money. It's like, hey, by the way, I lost money for about 10 years on these credit cards. But that's why you got to save some of everything you make, every dollar is a soldier. I was in this hotel and I wasn't making enough money out on the road, but I'd gotten my first opportunity to score a commercial. It was a car. I think it was for like Jeep or something like that.

24:31And I was lucky enough that, you know, laptops were getting good enough. You could take your studio basically on the road. And so I was playing every night, but I had to stay up all night to score this thing. It was due by like 5 PM the next day. So, you know, like anybody, boo hoo, you're working both jobs. But I remember that thing of, I am going to be so tired for the show tonight. I just need one thing to work. I got that commercial and not only was several thousand dollars, which was a lot more than I was making at any club at that time, but it also led me to some other things. Seeing that stable music start coming in, the mailbox money.

25:03When I started getting those royalties and while I'm out living on the road, every 90 days, a good check is coming in. That's what I want people to understand. You know, when they're investing themselves or working those extra hours, put your shoulder against the wheel. In rock and roll, punk, hip hop, everything's DIY, do it yourself. Work those extra hours and pay yourself first. That feeling of being able to get through a mess or get through a hard time or when the van is catching on fire and you can't pay for it because you haven't saved anything. Back to the students real quick. We want that for them because they don't have a band to fall back on.

25:37I at least had one parent always worrying about me. Some of them don't. And if they take out a loan where that interest is too high for them never to catch up, these things that I'm saying become platitudes. Gooding, we've done work with schools with a product we have at the foundation called the Freedometer. We're looking at bringing it in into high schools at scale for the very reasons you do. And one of my experiences with teachers and educators is they're so pressed on time, right? They're looking for a Advil or Tylenol to alleviate a specific pain point. And financial literacy is too often seen as a vitamin that's a nice to have.

26:16How do you enter schools and what's the pitch? And if any listeners have schools in their communities where they want to bring you in, how can they do that? You make such a great point. My mother was a teacher. She substitute taught and taught those piano lessons. And, you know, I saw it even growing up. I mean, the energy it takes to keep that going. And the great teachers do care about each one of those students. You know, it's it's there's a lot of empathy there. You know, I think for some places that they've had any financial literacy in the school, it's a it's an easy sell because it's a way to make the teachers look cool.

26:52It's a way to make any program that they're going to have after that maybe look cool. And the kids have seen it's not just about money. You know, George, forgive me. You know, you've already seen this on the materials as we chatted. But I mean, it's like, you know, it's not just about money. I mean, you're going to have better food to eat. You're going to have less violence in your community. You know, you're going to have that little bit of hope that maybe gets that momentum going in the right direction. You know, we try to explain to them, it isn't just about money. This is about self-reliance.

27:15This is about, again, betting on the future you. This is about having some feeling that you have some autonomy, some control in your life. And students that are doing really well, this is a great message for them because they have a chance to change the world already. They're on third base. That's great. Let's do something for others. Students that don't know where to even get a bat and get up, you know, to take a swing, This is really a lot of this is tailored specifically for them to get out of that mindset of getting famous on Instagram or TikTok is going to fix your problems. For me, it was MTV and never compare your inside to someone else's outside.

27:44We talk a little bit about social media. That's an issue for the teachers, too, because, you know, they're in the same spot. We are only we have music to get their phones turned around for the ones that haven't banned the phones. And I'm seeing that more and more, by the way. I just got off the road last weekend after a month out. And a lot, especially if I'm doing a smaller show in the gyms, they don't have phones there at all, which is great. But, you know, this is really about a lot of things besides money in it. I'm taking all the credit. We have a really great booking agent that's full time at the charities.

28:09One of the few things that we have, you know, staff payroll is the executive director and the booking agent, Cheryl Dunnigan and Alicia David. I got to give them a shout out because they're just they're in the engine room putting coal to keep the train on the track while I'm out there going, look at me. Let's talk. They're fantastic. We really try to explain to the teachers, you know, nothing else. I know they're like, oh, 75 minutes that everything is safe and taken care of because 800 shows we played, we've never had a problem. So I will say that to any schools that are listening. But I think it's a chance for them to maybe get a crash course all at once as to why they should listen to some of these numbers and as to why, frankly, they should listen to those teachers.

28:48And for the parents that do understand this, try to make it cool for them to listen to those parents too. Do you have a signature tune? Is there like a go-to that you have? And I'm going to ask two questions at once. So there may or may not be. I'm also curious, Have you had an experience where you didn't expect something to hit with the kids and it surprised you how well it hit with the kids? And then maybe the opposite. Did you have something where you're like, this is obviously what people need to hear. But for some reason, they didn't quite hear that the way you wanted them to. It's so good.

29:18These questions are so good. I wish every podcast was like this. Well, first of all, this won't age well, but don't say six or seven. I did that in the gym the other day and everybody stopped and did that. I said, all right, y 'all, come back to me now. And I have little tricks to get them back and say, you know, if you're not listening, trust me, anybody's listening, they could be asking you for a job in 10 years. Come back to me. But yes, don't say six to seven right now. What have I seen that works and doesn't work? Well, I learned this one the hard way and no disrespect to schools that are a little more buttoned up than other schools.

29:50But one of the things my man John Hope Bryant says, I think him and Quincy Jones came up with this. They were saying this in L.A. like 15 years ago. So, man, we got to make smart, sexy again. I was like, that's what I'm talking about. That's so much of what we're talking about. And, you know, I say to the students, I say, hey, look, if somebody is taking notes or they're asking me a question, you can be making fun of them. Man, the geeks will inherit it. Don't make fun of people for wanting to get better, for trying to learn. But I did say that line in some schools on a tour. I said, guys, we got to make smart sex again.

30:20I had a couple of teachers on there. He said sexy on stage. You cannot say the word sexy. Now, I pushed back a little bit, fellas, because I was like, I got to tell y 'all, if you make this thing so safe that I'm not other, if I can't have some lines that grab their attention and make sure I got them that full 20 minutes to get the right questions and get them learning, you're going to dilute this thing down to where it doesn't have any power. Well, you know how that goes. If they don't open the door to bring us into school, we don't have any power to help anyway. So I do not use the word sexy.

30:52I've never sworn on a stage in my life Now I swear plenty with the rock and roll musicians Because any of you who play blues and rock and funk Know that sometimes a musician will go Hey man, you are a mullet And that's a compliment But I have never said a swear word And apparently now I'm not saying the word sexy anymore Well you can say it on this podcast though Well that's as wild as I'm going to get I'll leave the rest of getting wild with loud guitars And as far as the song We play a song we open up a lot of the shows with Just because it's fast I actually love animals, but Bob Dylan said hurling horses over cliffs.

31:23We come out trying to just get things going. There's a song called Troublemaker that's a lot of fun. And that was inspired. You talk about rule breakers, man. I mean, and congrats on the new book. Good trouble. Good trouble. We want to cause good trouble out there. So, yeah. And I got a song called Mind to Save. It's a little ballad. I just played it at the Hyatt house at the fundraiser to get some money in Saturday night when I got off the road with our wonderful board and some banks that we're pitching and some things. And that mind to save, that'd be the other one. If there's any music fans out there, drop me a line on that stuff.

31:52Do you have any suggestions? I mean, this is something we're dealing with, too. I can imagine you go to a school, you do your thing, kids walk away super excited, wanting to learn more. What kind of follow up is there in some of the schools you've visited? Because we're encountering one of the challenges is when students get this, they want to learn. but teachers feel ill-equipped to teach financial literacy because oftentimes it's a topic they don't feel comfortable leaning into. A hundred percent. I feel like between the predominal, which looks awesome and what we're trying to do, what JA is trying to do, I heard of something, I haven't checked it out too deeply but I think there's something called communities in school.

32:35Somebody was just telling me about, I know you have some friends, George, that are working on this actively. Was it 2030? They want to make financial literacy requirement in every high school in America. That was my original missing statement. I opened it up a little wider so they understand we need other people to, you know, do some of this work while we're driving through the night. You know, we're building the plane while we're flying it, aren't we? We've got to get people to understand not only the students, but even the teachers, the parents. We've got to get everybody to get this message.

33:00I'm always very open to people that are doing that work that I mean our job is really just to I don't want to say shake them but just get them to lean in long enough that we can clear the decks for that other work to happen and I say to them I say you know one of the first things I say after I thank the band and the sponsors in the school for trying something different I say all right does everybody know what I'm here to talk about financial literacy and I just say straight up when I was your age somebody would come out here playing I would have been like dude play some more guitar. It sounds terrible.

33:26I won't say it doesn't sound very sexy, but I realize it sounds boring. We just really try to drive that home that you need to pretend for the next 20 minutes that what we're talking about is you. There's no test at the end of this. The test is your life. And teachers, it's the same. And look, as I talk about compound interest and the way that works, I see teachers all the time go, oh man, I talk about the IRA. They're like, I wish I would've known that. I'm like, you're telling me that's why I started it. But we just really try to drive home to them. Some of the teachers, especially if they're in their 20s and 30s, they probably haven't learned a lot of this too.

33:57So it really is for everybody. But if we can inspire not only just the students, but maybe some of those teachers or parents to keep this message rolling, that's how I can go to town three years later and they tell me. They cut a little too much. Y 'all can't see it. It's a little too much of my hair in Nebraska here a couple of weeks ago. Got to be careful. You only got the great clips, man. I'll go to the great clips. I got no pride. Man of the people here. But the woman that was cutting my hair, because we reached about 35 ,000 students in small towns in Nebraska. She said, I saw your show a few years ago.

34:24And I'm not making this up. She said, I told my parents about the IRA. And I was like, she just got a tip of about 200 % from me because you just made my whole day. We do see people down the road telling us that the message is getting there. But I'm not going to lie. And we were just talking about it at our retreat this weekend with this incredible board. We've got to continue to find the right partners in this. We've got to continue to make sure that these schools keep doing this. This isn't a one time thing. Now, if I didn't believe that the bands weren't doing some real heavy lifting, getting it opened up and making kids want to listen, I wouldn't be doing this.

34:58I'd stay on all my other civilian tours and make some good money at film and TV. But I do think there's a blend of what we're doing and somebody out there that can do the back end on this. But as far as what you're doing, George, I mean, I'll put a pin in it. I just think that the heart I heard from you and some of the things you've done in this world. Was it Empatico? Am I saying that right? You know, I felt like I forgot I was trying to convince you of my charity. I was listening to you about the things you're doing. Every job is selling. And I tell musicians that all the time, say, look, I like being in a dark room, getting sad and saving money on therapy and writing these songs.

35:32But if you're going to get out there and anybody's going to hear it, every one of us is selling. And so you folks have the ability to get that message out there, too. And I think we just got to just remind them that whether we like it or not, money is going to touch every single facet of your life. And without a bedrock of that, I'd like to see some civics too, but that's not our job. That's not what we're doing. Without money being taught young, we're just going to see a lot, a lot of problems. And I think healthcare companies are starting to see this. I think a lot of people are starting to see, you said it earlier in the podcast, and I really will stop this long-winded answer.

36:03You said it earlier in the podcast, and I get it. If you got a woman's shelter or somebody needs food, this is an immediate need. We got to get the money out there. You had these guys doing FinLit, whatever. If we don't plant those seeds long term, we're going to be facing every one of these problems down the line. We're just kicking the can down the curb. And Gooding, I think last time we spoke, we talked about how these problems are too big for any single organization to solve. So it just it invites partnerships. I mean, I have a dream that you can come in and, you know, rock at schools and introduce FinLit.

36:36and we can come in and have the Freedometer in teachers' hands as a follow-up curriculum. You know, music and financial literacy partner together to sort of teach the next generation the power of personal finance. I love it. And I can see that. And I look forward to working with you and our team working with you to make that a reality. Sorry, you got all your listeners out there. And this sounds like we're putting some things together today. I'm excited because I trust what you're doing. And that's the great news. I think George may be starstruck, but George is also visionary and partnerships are absolutely the way to go.

37:09So thank you, George. Gooding, since you meet thousands and thousands of students every year and we've got listeners here who are passionate about personal finance, have seen the power of investing. What themes do you see or challenges do you see coming up again and again with the kids that you're touching? Maybe the top two or three. You know, I used to call back home. It was actually my grandfather who I would call who would who would say, you know, gutting. You got to get a real job and music business is crazy. You got to go slow and steady, slow and steady wins the race. And I was just like, again, I'll need to hear that.

37:48I'm watching MTV. I'm gonna get a record deal. I'm gonna fix it. You know, and I wasn't even that cocky. I was just cocky to him because I was just like, stop telling me the music business sucks. Oh, the music business is real hard. He wasn't lying to me. But anything you want to do that Matt Woods, Kingy Freeman, what's that great quote? He said, hopeless causes are the only ones we're fighting for, right? Telling them slow and steady that you do not have to win the lottery. You don't have to get the record deal, the sports contract. That's where the work starts. You know, telling them to stop this attitude of one day is going to fix all your problems.

38:18If you can just even get them to where they're not unbanked, get them to understand what a budget is, why it matters. Some of those basic things where they see the long term. I don't know who I stole this from. You can drive a car from New York City to Los Angeles in the dead of night with just a little bit of headlights. When they see on the screens up there after we play how these numbers work, we're trying to just turn that light on. The other thing is social media. And that really is getting in a place where we stop thinking. And that's the same problem. Sorry, folks, I'm holding up my phone as if you can see it.

38:50This is that same mentality that, you know, one day is going to fix your life. You see everybody that's Instagram famous or TikTok famous or, you know, buy now, pay later. or let's be honest, AI, I can just say this thing and something magical is gonna happen. If we don't figure out who to become who we really are or have some resilience or resistance or go through the things that it means to become human. And again, I say it all the time and I'll say, I know I've already said it on this podcast, forgive me folks, never compare your inside to someone else's outside. I work in the most hype-y business in the world.

39:20If I truly believe that everything I saw on social media was what was happening to those other musicians, you would think no matter how much money or success you had that you were just yesterday's news and you were just garbage. And it's ridiculous. One of the best things that's happened to me was meeting some of my heroes, finding out, dang it, not only are we all going through the same things, but without financial literacy, those folks, it does not matter how many records they've sold or how many shows they've played. They're just, you know, right back to zero. So I would say some of the pitfalls of social media.

39:53Yeah. You mentioned being a visionary and I'm just curious to hear from you. What's your vision for funding the future going forward? I don't know if I'm a visionary. I fell into it, but what a lovely question because, you know, while you're fixing things, I think if you don't keep those very headlights we're talking about on, you can get really mired in stuff. The process is so important, but if you're not looking for that in-game results, it's funny, I always tell people enjoying the ride is way more important than what happens, but when you're trying to help people, getting more people to hear this message and getting more bands out there and playing more shows.

40:33A buddy of mine who's given us an amazing amount of help, actually he's who introduced me to Will at Corner to Corner, a guy named Mark Montgomery, he says it's bench pilot scale. and I think I had it on the bench just learning it the hard way and playing a bazillion shows and then the pilot was us going around all these years and reaching I think it's 315 ,000 students 36 states 800 shows we've done the pilot we're trying to scale and I was just talking to the board all day about this Saturday we're trying to just find the right partners to get that you know that back end piece and just you know like everybody I always say I said money isn't the only thing that drives things, but it sure doesn't hurt.

41:11I'll tell you a very quick story. COVID, of course, was, it's devastating for everybody. And it's much harder for people that didn't have the slipper checks I'm talking about. I'm the luckiest guy in the world. I had some stability there. I was absolutely fine. And so we're a lot of my friends at this point. But one thing that really let us know we were spending, what is it, 90-10 rule. You know, it takes the same amount of money to ask, you know, for$3 ,000 and it does, you know, 30 or 300 ,000. I mean, depending on if you've worked up the people you know and can talk to. We got a grant for$220 ,000 from the Save Our Stages Act.

41:44We had never gotten a grant like that, mostly for exactly what we're talking about today. Grants are tough because they don't see the long-term need for this sometimes. That allowed us to do unsponsored shows. I got a street up here in McGabbick in Nashville, Tennessee. Anybody's living here? I mean, we have 16 same-day lenders. You can't get an apple to eat, but these kids are taking these loans, paying two, 400, 700 % interest. We did a couple of Native American reservations. We were able to work our way up the East Coast and meet some of these politicians that wanted to help and play shows for free just to get the word out there, get the band stable.

42:15But it really, the light went on there because if you can get large amounts of money and it's the right organization, we've got great people. The 990s online, folks, go to fundingthefuturelife.org. We're an open book. It's completely transparent. We never had any problems. But if we could get a little more help and scale, that's the main thing for 2026. And Gooding, if I want to get you performing at my son's high school here, Brooklyn Prospect Charter, and I ask that question just because it's personal, it's in my neighborhood. Other listeners probably have kids or contacts at high schools in their communities.

42:51Who do I talk to and how do I get that going? George, let me start by saying, beautiful people listening today, I can't make this offer to all of you. But George, you know, I fell in love with you on that call when we were talking about empathy and these different things in the world. I'll play that show anytime. If it's unsponsored, I'm paying for it. Now, there's where the board stands up. It goes, you guys are losing money. Stop it. You know what? I'm going to go find some unsponsored show money. Wow. I'll be there anytime. Name it. My old manager's out there, too, and I love them to death.

43:19So I got my sisters out there. We'll make it work. We're mostly focused in the southeast right now. We got another band, Carter Halsey, full-time, incredible friend of mine. He's out there. He's going to hit Iowa and Nebraska. He's going to hit the Great Plains where I came up out of Wichita there, but I'll get up to you. I promise. We played the Brooklyn High School of Performing Arts, I think two or three times now up there, just great kids. So, no, if there's anybody out there that you got a school that you think would like this, let me finally answer the question for crying out loud. Her name is Cheryl Dunnegan.

43:49Look, hit us up online. I'm at Gooding at fundingthefuturelive.org if you want to drop me a note. But Cheryl does the booking. She's incredible. Again, the executive director is Alicia David. They're 24-7. We never close. We never sleep. If there's an opportunity, you let us know and we'll get a band there. And George, I want to be the band that comes to you, brother. I'll tell you that. Gooding, I want to say that you brought up COVID and you lifted up your phone. Listeners couldn't see that. But I do think there is a hunger for human-to-human connection and empathy And I loved our first conversation where I felt like we connected as human beings.

44:25And I think listeners who meet you and see you in a show will equally connect and see the passion that you bring to the performances. So I'm going to hand it over to David for any closing remarks. But David, before doing that, I have one more quick question. if you had one simple step, just one, you hope listeners take away from hearing your message today, what would that be? Well, on a human level, just be kind, life's too short. I know some people with a lot of money, they're real unhappy in this because they don't have other people around them loving them. And I know some people that, you know, they're just stable.

45:02They're just getting by, but they're building. They got some hope for it. They're saving a little bit of money. On the financial literacy front, I'll just say, again, let's teach young people about this. time is your greatest asset. Just save a little bit of everything you make. It may not seem cool, but I tell the kids, you might not buy it today, but you're going to be able to buy everything you want down the road. Just get them started as young as possible. You two have been such a pleasure to talk to it. It really does mean a lot. You built an incredible reach over the years, David and George.

45:30I just think the things you're doing are just absolutely outstanding. I really do appreciate you taking the time to let me talk about this thing that has become my life's work and that I believe in. Again, I got a great group of people. I'm lucky to get to do this work. Well, thank you so much for sharing yourself, your story, and your important work with a lot of fools this weekend. Gooding, that was a real delight. And George, I want to thank you as well for the connection. And we want to thank Will Acuff, who I think was a mutual connection. And I want to even thank my daughter, Kate Gardner, because I think she connected George with...

46:03It all started with her. So it was a connection of a connection to a connection that led to this conversation. And I hope those connections continue. So the website is fundingthefuturelive.org. And Gooding has already said, at the generosity of his heart, George's son, Gavin's going to get a free performance at some point in the future. He'll be super excited. And they're not all free. And by the way, they shouldn't be. This is important work. I've always said a really good financial book, a really good financial podcast. And now I can add a really good financial concert. Yes. When you really think about it, they actually create more than they cost, right?

46:42When you really think about it, you realize the work that's being done spreads in a beautiful way. So I want to thank Gooding. I want to thank George for leading such a meaningful conversation. And dear listener, if today sparked something for you, maybe a lesson to share, maybe a young person to encourage, maybe a school to connect, I hope you'll take that next small step. Again, the website, fundingthefuturelive.org. You can even bring this work into your own community. Of course, so many listening to us guys this weekend are doing something at their kid's school. They're teaching a course, maybe meeting with the kids, having a conversation about saving, which is where it really starts, becoming a net saver, and then investing, of course.

47:23So anyway, Gooding, George, thank you both. Friends, fool on. As always, people on this program may have interest in the stocks they talk about. and The Motley Fool may have formal recommendations for or against. So don't buy or sell stocks based solely on what you hear. Learn more about Rule Breaker Investing at rbi.fool.com.