159. Remember the Titans: Money Lessons on Teamwork, Budget “Playbooks,” and Tough Calls

 In this Movie Money Mashup, we use Remember the Titans to explore practical money and career lessons you can apply right now. Discover why your budget is a playbook, how finances are a team sport, and why small wins in budgeting create lasting momentum. Learn how to protect your family’s future with an emergency fund, insurance, and legacy planning—and what this powerful story can teach us about unity, leadership, and making tough calls with money. 

In this episode you’ll learn:

• Why “finances are a team sport” and how to build unity with shared goals, roles, and money meetings
• How to use your budget as a playbook (prep, run the right plays, review “game film,” adjust)
• The power of small wins to build momentum and shorten budget meetings over time
• What it means to “protect the team” with emergency funds, insurance, wills/trusts, and guardrails for each other’s weak spots
• When leadership requires tough short-term decisions to create long-term peace

 Want a playbook that fits your season? Join the Legacy Builders Facebook group for monthly money challenges and support or book a Budget Deep Dive to get your first five winning plays set for the next 90 days. 

Feeling stuck in financial stress? Celebrate your own Independence Day with a 1:1 Budget Deep Dive. Get clarity, ditch overwhelm, and build a simple, values-based plan that works. Just 7 spots available before rates increase in September. Book now at https://accelerateyourlegacy.com/budget-deep-dive

Learn more about working with Laura Sexton

. Join the Facebook group Legacy Builders Network.

· Become a master with your money. Learn more here!

· Checkout the resource library here!

Want to ask a question Laura can answer on the podcast? Connect with her here!

Want to receive a live money or career audit? Apply Here

Send an email to Laura@AccelerateYourLegacy.com or send a DM on Instagram @accelerateyourlegacy

Elevate your coaching with daily devotionals and prayers from 'Seasoned with Salt.' Get your copy HERE!

Transcript

Laura: 0:01

Welcome to the Money and Movie Mashup. Where your favorite nostalgic films meet real life money lessons. I'm Laura Sexton here with my friend, coach David Gibbs, and we're diving into the. Iconic movies of the nineties and two thousands to unpack what Hollywood accidentally taught us about money, mindset, and meaning. It's fun. It's a little nerdy, and we want you in on the conversation, so grab your popcorn and let's roll. Well, hey everyone, coach David here. Welcome to another movie, money Mashup, and today we're gonna be talking through the movie. Remember The Titans? It is, it's pretty heavy, early two thousands. If you haven't seen it, you should. I'm gonna be sharing a quick synopsis for those of you who haven't seen it, so you can kind of. Walk through with coach Laura and I as we discuss it. So remember the Titans. It's a powerful sports drama. It's based on the true story of TC Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia. During the early 1970s, there was racial tension and following the integration of black and white. Students. The school hires Herman Boone, a black coach to lead the newly merged football team and facing resistance, hostility, and prejudice. Coach Boone and assistant coach Bill Yost work together to unite the team and, through discipline, mutual respect, and shared goals, the titans overcome their differences, becoming a symbol of hope and change for their community. The film highlights themes of teamwork, leadership, and transformative power of unity in the face of adversity. Yeah, so that's, remember the Titans. That's what it's about. Here comes Laura, and then we will chat. There she is. Hello. Hi, how are you? Are you whispering? No. Can you not hear me? There we go. Now I can hear you. No. Hi. Hello? Oh man, this is a pretty heavy movie. I feel like it's 30 minutes. Enough time. I don't know. No, not to do it justice, but this is where we're at, so yeah, this is what we're gonna do. This movie. Woo. Did you cry? Solid. Solid. Top five. Favorite movie of all time. Oh, really? I don't know. I don't know. There are too many good movies to be thrown. Top fives, maybe talk. Oh, no, no, no. I probably watched remember The Titans Once a week? Once a week from the day it came out to the day I graduated from high school. Yeah. Was it all just about Ryan Gosling dancing? Absolutely. Yes. Yes it was. I was obsessed in love with Ryan Gosling and Denzel Washington, two of my celebrity crushes in the same movie. With so much heart and so much passion and football, like let's go. All of it. You're a football fan? Yes. I'm Texas. I am. I think it was required. Oh, really? Okay. I'm all baseball myself, so I only watch football and movies. Now, this was before the Notebook, right? Well before, yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But after Young Hercules, which is where I fell in love with him. What's what? The cartoon. No younger Hercules. The series where he was, it was on Fox Afternoons and he literally played Hercules, so he walked around the entire show with his shirt off. It was great. But he was like a little kid. He was a teenager. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I've never heard of that show at all. All right. We're finding out new things post post Mickey Mouse Club. Mickey Mouse Club, young Hercules. He did a show called Brecker High and then, oh, he was in the Mickey Mouse Club. I had no idea. With Justin and Christina and Brittany, yeah. Oh are you a fan of Fall Guy? I loved That was good. That was good. So funny. I love when Hollywood can make fun of itself and such a smart way. Yeah, and Gosling was perfect for that too. Oh yeah, he was. Oh yeah. And he's gonna be in the next Star Wars movie. Really? Did you know? Did you know that? No. Yeah. Well, not the next one, the one after that. Next one's Mandalorian, but he's gonna be in Star Wars, star Fighter, the movie. And he's a star fighter. I mean, I'm kind of excited. This sounds like a great, I mean, can't you imagine like him just like, I'm gonna shoot these guys, I'm gonna tell you. Oh yeah. Like, he's relaxed but stressed and he is okay. You know, he's, he's the new Han Solo. He could. Yeah, there you go. He's going to be Harrison Ford. This is great. Another one of my celebrity crushes. Let's go. Oh my gosh. Alright, so I'm gonna let you get started since you, I mean, I will say this is a great movie. I wouldn't say it's one of my most favorites. So I'm gonna let you go and I'll, I'll be your backup today. It is, it is really hard. I, I had to ask for help on the money lessons'cause I sat down to watch it, intent on money lessons. And I just sat and enjoyed the movie, so I had to, had to posthumously, Hey, that's good. It was, it was it was flowing over you, you know, so you can get connected better. So I, I had to really like. My brain because there's so many really good things in here. And I think that there's a lot of you know, there, there are a lot of pieces of our misconceptions of people and how their money is and how we look at our money there. There are a lot of those, but I didn't wanna go there. So one of the things I wanted to go with was, one of my favorite scenes is the first time the, the players meet Coach Boone, and, and he got Petey Jones standing there with his hand in the air and he's, yeah. I put your hand down. One of the things he talks about there, he is like he is talking about why are you, nobody's wearing a suit. Like you're going to show up two camps in a suit. And he's like, and you can go find a bum on the street and trade him for his'cause. He's definitely gonna be dressed better than you. So, dress for the opportunity is where I was going with it. Okay. Mostly because I have a, I have a career client right now. We're talking about what he's wearing, what he was going to wear to his interview, and now what he's going to wear to his second interview. Ah, well there you go.'cause your appearance is gonna open doors for you, but also. You should go ahead and invest in professional clothing. You need at least one or two things that make you look like you're a grownup. Yeah. And it's okay to spend money, and this is, this is me being a girl here. It's okay to spend money on those core pieces that you're going to use as your baseline items. Yeah. So. David Gibbs is like, I know this is like your, your your goofy shirt, your Robin Hood shirt. Right? Like you some, some the important things Yeah. That are a baseline part of your usage, which I'm sure some people would laugh, but I spent a lot of money on that. That was actually a very nice, that was actually a very nice shirt, Uhhuh. I mean, and I like it and it's so you, and it's like the things that are gonna make you stand out as you, I think are worth investing in. So I don't know that that's necessarily, necessarily the best money lesson that we've learned than others. But I thought it was really there. There's something to it. There's a reason why he says you're gonna show up in a suit, not just in whatever clothes you're wearing. It's because when you dress up, you are showing that something is important to you and that you are going to treat it with respect, and that was what he was asking for. And so I think that those are things that we should all strive to do. Yeah. Well, hey, everybody out there watching Kat's out of the Bay? Hey, guess what? We're both career coaches as well. Oh yeah. So we, we do money and career and then, and, and I think it's perfectly relevant'cause guess what? Where does money come from your career. Absolutely. Yeah. And and then to jump onto that, you know, it's, it goes to preparedness, you know prep, preparing when you. Or looking at your budget preparing before you go to the store with a list, you know, so that you're not overspending. You know, it, it's, and then it's always said, you know, career wise, you know, dress for the job you want, not the job you're in. Right. And so, yeah, it's all connected in the great circle of money. Yes. Oh, yeah. Not work. Okay. Give me, gimme one of yours. All right. You know this just really made me think of my wife and I, you know. Finances and money. Anything that we want to do, especially when you're in a household and you're married, it's a team sport. Yep. And we have to have that togetherness. When I was actually just talking to some friends last night about how I started as a husband because I really wanted to make sure we got out of debt. So actually my wife, she moved into our future apartment a few months before we got married, and I was living at my best friend's house and, and because I was trying to already be a great leader and a great husband, I was like, okay, babe. Don't turn on the air conditioning. We have no money. And it's like, it's, it, it, it was July, Laura, it was July. That's, that's not gonna work out. And and my wife, you know, tells the funny story how she was in bed, just like spraying spritzing water into the air and having the fan like, oh, daughter player. Good for her. Well, and. She was very nice, you know, but after a while we had to, she pushed back and, and, and I had to realize that it's not just, you know, for me, all I needed was a folding chair and a tv, you know? Right. And she said we can have a pillow and still reach our goals. We can do all these things until, so she brings in what I'm not. I bring in what she's not, and we have to enjoy what each other is and what each other is not. And so it's team sport. Well, yeah. And you need to be able to have unity. If you don't have unity, you're never gonna win. You need shared goals. You need to open communication. If you call an audible, you need to hear the audible. Like this is otherwise sunshine's gonna get hurt when we gotta pay attention to what we're doing. It wasn't sunshine that got hurt when he called the audible. No, it was Jerry. It was Rev. Yeah. But anyway you gotta listen when the audible is called, you gotta be able to turn and do it together. And it's a team sport. We're doing this together. Your mother I love your mother. It's true. I remember mom. So yeah, I wrote that down too. A United Financial plan is gonna create a momentum that a solo effort number can, there's a reason why the team won and it's because they were the titans. They were together, they were unified, mostly through song. Once the songs came in, they were all good. My what, my favorite memory. My favorite memory of the whole thing is when Ryan Gosling stew and the dance to his folk music and his, his roommates. Like, does the term cruel and unusual punishment mean anything to you? Yep. But that's the beauty of it. You know, we need both of those guys on the team. Absolutely. You have to, you have to have both. And I, I love that you were saying that about your wife, my husband and I, we can both be spenders if we're not careful. That's kind of our natural bent is more to be. Okay. I am really stressed out. I wanna go spend money. Yeah. So it's only okay for one of us to be stressed out at a time. Somebody's gotta pick up the slack and be like, okay, no, no, no. I got this. I'm gonna, I'm gonna hold it down over here while you be stressed out and then we'll do this together. And connected to all that, and even preparation as well is, and that we've seen in the movie is small wins build momentum. Oh yeah. They were completely divided and, and it was sometimes challenging and difficult where we'd have a little fight. We'd be kind of friendly. We're learning one thing about each other. We have to, you know, keep pushing and getting together on these things. And and that's where, you know, just going back to the marriage relationship as well, is that I had to, it wasn't, it's, it wasn't perfect. It took years, you know, now it takes us like 15 minutes to do our budget. It was an hour and a half to do our budget when we started, you know, and, and, and there was conversations and figuring out, getting on the same page. And so just like in the movie. You know, it's not racial tension, but it's just challenges. There's tension. Yeah. You know, and it's learning to work together and, you know, going to the movie, it's those little moments, you know, like Coach Boone, he is, he is saying dress properly, get in the right mindset. I love that they themselves brought in the dancing. You know, it's all those little things that help them to relax, work together, be on the same page. And get going. So is, is finance a team sport? Is it, it seems like it's, it, it's definitely a sport there. There's some heavy, heavy breathing that comes along with like, I mean, to get your mind right and play the, play the long game. Right? You have to plan for your future. You have to plan for what's to come. I do, I do like the idea of the, the budgets kind of like the playbook, right? Mm-hmm. Oh yeah. I only run seven plays split v. Like, like no, can just give it Time always works. But it's the, it's, there's so much about this movie that I just love, I'm sorry. Go ahead. And I, and I'm just thinking, for example one thing that I, you know, I always have to say is the rich ask how much in the poor ass, how much a month? Yeah. And, and having that mindset, it took me. A long time to slowly build my life around that mindset. Right. You know, because I didn't have chunks of money to pay things off quickly when I first started, and now it's become part of the rhythm. So, so I just wanna encourage everybody, just do, what's the little thing you can do to move you forward today towards the life you want? Well, and this, and this is similar on, on the note that you just said, has nothing to do with the movie. My husband and I just bought a new car. There it is an accident. It got totaled. And it was funny because we walked in, told the guy, Hey, we're going to pay cash for the car. And so you're not supposed to tell them that you're supposed to trick'em? No, no, no, no. It is a no haggle lot, so. Oh, okay. We were like, look, look, we're paying cash, so let's, let's do this thing. This is what we want. This is what we don't want. And the car that we ended up buying was$2,000 more than we were planning on buying. We watch on a lot'cause that car wasn't available, but we had the money. It was fine, but I had to stop and go, okay, this is money that's coming out of our House fund now this is not, this is not, we don't have a, use a new car fund because that wasn't something we were planning on having to do anytime soon. And it was, it was very much a. We have to actually think about it. We have to be thoughtful and methodical. What are we gonna do? And before I went into the car lot, it's kind of like watching game film, right? Where I went over, this is what went wrong last time. Last time we bought a card. This is what we did wrong last time we bought a card. This is what we did, right? Let's do more of what we did right and less of what we did wrong. But at the same time, we have to be in agreement on the line of scrimmage. You can't, you can't be on the line of scrimmage and one of you's playing, you know, doing one play and the other one's doing the other.'cause you're gonna go in totally different directions. Nobody's gonna win anything. So for me, it was very much walking in here, okay, we're gonna pay cash. And the guy at one point goes, well we can get you this other car. It's just a little bit more, your monthly payment's not gonna go up much at all. I was like, oh, my monthly payment's not going up at all. Because I don't have those, it means nothing to me, buddy. It's like okay, pay in cash. Got it. I was like, no, no, I'm not. I'm not playing around. I'm not those up. And you had already, you had already told them you were paying in cash at that point, right? Yeah, he's not listening. He is still trying to be a salesman. Well, yeah, of course he is. He's trying to make more money like I get. I get it. And he was, he was a nice kid. He was a nice kid. So no shade to him. But his default, his default is monthly payments. He's like, his default is, oh, you're gonna have, I can keep your monthly payments low. That's default. He's just used to speaking that way. Yeah, absolutely. And I said, and then he looked at me or I said, oh no, we're not gonna have monthly payments. And he goes, oh, right, you told me you're paying cash. Yeah. Okay. And like he had to reset his brain. It was very interesting. Yeah. So I have another thought, Uhhuh. This is, this is a big part of the movie. Don't let outside pressure derail what you're doing. Yeah. So, I mean, there's pressure through the entire movie, of course. I'm so glad the girlfriend came around, but actually side note, isn't it so sad? Poor Jerry. You know, he gets hit by the car once and then they had him have another that ended up killing him, you know? Yes. He was a drunk driver. So it's this poor guy just off the street. That's, it's funny. I just wish he died from something. Yeah, I wish he died from something else. You know, it's like we have to hit him again. But. Throughout the entire movie. You know, it, it's pressure, it's challenging. It's those that racial conflict of people with signs and they're trying to be together. And that's the same way, you know, when we're trying to accomplish anything. There's the people who kind of, you know, want to bring us down to their level. Who, why are you doing that? Why are you being weird? Why are, why are you making that decision? Just do what we're doing. What, what? You're better than me. You know, all that crap. And so. So that's something to remember too. You know, we have to run our race, have it written down, have our plan, and stick to it no matter what people are saying or doing. Have you, have you ever had go with pressure? Yeah. Have you ever been pressured? Have you ever been, had anybody say you're weird with your money or not? Hmm. With my money, I was gonna say I was a teenage girl, of course. I felt peer pressure. With my money? No, because I'm so stinking stubborn that once I make up my mind, that's kind of what it is. Yeah. Yeah, I wouldn't say that, and I think I've shared this story before, so I, I wouldn't say pressure per se, but but there were just kinda like a little bit of expectations in my family growing up. So when my wife and I were getting out of debt, all of a sudden it was, okay, we're having a family birthday party this weekend, four presents go, and it wasn't in the budget, it wasn't our plan, you know, and we made some cookies, you know, and so, so I always think about that. It was like. That was weird. Some people might have stressed out and been like, oh, I have to go get presents. I have to do this. You don't have to do anything but die and pay taxes. Right. You don't have to do anything. That's it. And so that's what we all have to remember. I guess technically you don't have to do anything except die and file taxes. We don't have debt. S but if you don't file, they'll come after you. Yeah, they, they'll garnish your wages though eventually you have to pay. Okay. So going back to the movie. And our, our money lessons. In the movie Left side Strong side, you have to protect your team. You have to protect the team. And that means emergency funds, that means life insurance, that, that means a long-term plans, right? Health insurance, trust will, things like that. We have to make sure that the people that we care for are protected, not just when we are in their presence, but long term. Making sure that they, because stuff happens, life happens, injuries happens. Car, car accidents happen. Like he probably should have been paying attention to what he was doing and not just revving the engine, but at the same time it, it could have been anything for any reason and people can lose their life. Yeah. We have to make sure that our loved ones are covered. Yeah. And in, in, in that way, you know, in the line of protecting the team. I have a question for you. Okay. We have those, you know, those big things, those life insurance things. Yeah. But how do you and your husband. Protect each other from, because you know, after a while we get to know, you know, like you said, you know, you both can be spenders at times. So what do you do to protect each other when you see those situations or you find yourself in those situations? Hmm. That's an interesting question. So this last week with the car and everything else going on, my husband had already spent all of his fun money. We have certain amount of fun money that we get every two weeks. Yeah. And he had already spent his, and he went out with his guy friends. And that amount of money was the same amount of money I had left in my fun money. So I just transferred envelopes and was like, okay, you're covered. So I do, I do that a lot because he, he is. More likely to spend all of his money than I am. So that is protecting both of us. It's, and it doesn't hurt me, and it's one of those things where I get to do something nice for him and that makes me feel like I'm serving him in some way. I think there's a lot of grace in those moments for either of us. I went shopping for clothes for enrichment, which David and I are gonna be at in two weeks, and I wanted all new clothes. And there's so much grace, there's so much grace given to me in those moments where he's like, okay, that's more than we were talking about. But it's still within the budget, so, okay. But I think also we're very good at calling each other out. So when we've hit the limit, the other person's going to say something, Hey, we, we've, we've hit it and we need to just watch out with the rest of our spending. Usually that's enough to keep us from going over, to keep us from having a problem. Mm-hmm. Sometimes it's not, and we have to like rethink some things that we're doing and we have to have those tough conversations. I love a good dream meeting. Oh yeah. I love, I love a good date night to talk about these things. It's a good excuse to connect and recalibrate. Mm-hmm. Yeah, because it's you know, it's a good reminder that. A lot of the times it's those, those little slices, those little cuts that get you, you know, that a lot of, you know, our clients deal with all the time. On, on my side of things one of my biggest issues is my wife loves. To forget to update the budget. Yep. She loves it. It's her favorite thing in the world to forget to update it. And then I don't know what's going on. And so we have to, we have to work on that. You're getting better babe. If you, you watch this, you're getting better. But we have to work on that. Her and I, we both have never had much of a spending issue. I mean, I would say, you know, myself, if anything, I want that big thing every once in a while. Like I'll never forget when I wanted the PS five. I saw kind of like a spot in our budget and I really wanted to, PS five. So I actually went in to our bedroom. I got down on my knees and I was like, Hey babe, I haven't gotten anything in a while. Can I get a PS five? So I guess I should have those but. What she said. Yes. Oh yeah, yeah. She said yes. Yeah. Yeah. But but the biggest thing that we that she has learned that I need protection from is myself, because since I am kind of, you know. As she sees me as more the financial guru, sometimes she allows a little bit too much weight on me because she just assumes I've got it. Yep. Yeah, yeah, yeah, so, so we've had to put things in place that she is part of it. She's making the decision, she's there, and I don't feel that all on me because then I get upset and cranky. So that's how we have to protect our team in that way. Yeah, my husband. Lets me make the budget and I require him to change something. So that is, that is one way that we have, yeah. That together. And it works out really well. And kind of following this, my last point that I had is that sometimes leadership requires really tough decisions. Oh, are you talking about kicking Ray off the team? That jerk? No, but that is a good, I was gonna say, when Coach Boone pulls PD out and the other, oh, shoot. What is, what is the other coach's name? Yost. Thank you. Oh, wow. That really was not there. And Coach Yost like pulls him aside and he's like, you know, he's like, oh, it's gonna be okay. I am gonna make sure that you're fine. And, and it's like, you can't always coddle them. It can't be, it can't, it doesn't always get to be a comfortable decision that's made. Sometimes we have to make something hard and, and it sucks. Sometimes it sucks. Like let's just be completely honest. This is not all sunshine and rainbows. We don't always get to make the fun decisions. Sometimes we have to make hard ones, and so I think just remembering that no one, it's a full sentence, but two, it's a short term most of the time. It's a short term thing, right? We're saying no to short-term pleasures. We're saying no to short-term, you know? Yes to short-term pains so that we can have a more comfortable future. So sometimes. The hardest financial decisions. They're hard in the moment, but they definitely make life easier in the long run. So those hard decisions, leadership is hard but if your attitude reflects leadership, lead in a positive way. That's all I have to say. Boom. Are you having fun? Football's not fun now. I'm kidding. I was like, football's really fun. Yeah. No. 0, 0, 0. Fun, sir. Sir. Zero. And, and he is like laughing. Thanks on. He is always been one of my favorite guys. He is hilarious. I was no, nevermind. I'm gonna take it back. Oh, it was so funny. I was ready. I was excited. No, I was, you can take it back. That's okay. His name is Donald Faison, but when he said Faison, I immediately popped to Faison Love who was in couples retreat, and that's where my brain went and I was like, how did I get there? It's fine. I was talking about Donald Peon. Yeah, I know you are. You're right. Alright everybody, well thank you so much for watching. Oh my gosh. We have to figure out how we're gonna do it next time. Next time's gonna be a little different. There's gonna be a special guest and, and we can tell you right now, usually we have to figure it out and do some voting, but next time is what Laura Twilight. Yeah. What special guest? Our special guest is Edward Colen. Edward Colen is going to be on the show and if you don't know who I'm talking about, one, you need to watch Twilight and two, you need to show up for our video. Yeah. And, and, and it's not actually like the character Edward. We do like try and dress him up in so. Shh. Don't spoil it. Well, I mean, I don't want them to be, I didn't say Robert Pattinson was coming. I said, Edward Colen is coming. Okay. We should have him just like lighten up and put some powder on him. But but that'll be August 8th. And as far, I mean, we will let everybody know if it happens to be a different time. All right, everybody. Well, thank you so much for watching, and if you want to see some older episodes and catch them, you can do it in two spots. Yeah. You can go to my YouTube coach, David Gibbs on YouTube, and then they're starting to come out on your podcast, right? They are every other week, just right along our cadence here this week. You've got mail or you've got mail. Episode just aired on my podcast. Money and Career Mastery Anywhere podcasts are given away for free. Oh, that sounds so cool. All right, everybody, have a good day. All right, bye bye.