Walk 2 Wealth Ep 61

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welcome everyone to the Walk 12 podcast. We'll be tuning in on YouTube or any of the podcast directories. Make sure to stick around to the end of this episode. We are in for a very special interview. Without further ado, Rocky, for anyone that may not know you tell us your elevator pitch. You know, who are you and what do you do?

Hey, thank you so much for having me on. John. John. I work with small business owners and I help them to have a growing and more profitable business. That's basically what I do. My background is I'm an immigrant to the United States. I came here at a very young age with parents with very little money, and we achieved the American dream, so we created success, and I just wanna see more people be able to do that as.

Amazing. Amazing. And rocky. And so, you know, tell us a little bit about your story. You said you immigrated here and you know, where does your walk to wealth begin? So it began in childhood that I didn't realize it well. Two, I mean, part of it it did. Part of it is my parents when they came here would get together with their friends and they would [00:01:00]talk about.

Which I don't think is normal in most cultures. Like nobody, it's money is a taboo subject. Yeah. In this case, it was not a taboo subject. It's like, Hey, how are you buying this? What kind of discounts are you getting? How are you investing? How are you, you able to, to do these different types of things? And so, As a kid, we didn't have TV back then like, like you do today with a million channels

You got stuck listening to your parents talk. So part of it I think, was that part of it is I did see a lot of of money as a kid from different people and I knew I wanted to be wealthy. So I was always willing to learn and listen and see what does it take to build wealth and how do I go about doing this?

So I think I learned that from a young age and always had a desire to have money in my pocket. So I, you know, even from 12, 13 years old, I went out and started hustling to make a buck. Yeah. [00:02:00] Amazing. And so, you know, tell us a little bit about what was it like immigrating here, right? Especially back in times where things weren't as accessible in terms of like information, right?

We didn't have, you know, the Googles, the podcasts, the YouTubes, everything. The TikTok, you know, with the information is. So how was that like, it was different because I think when I came and when I was a. It was pretty much a black and white world. Mm-hmm. , like you were either white or you were black.

There was no in between . There were not all of these other ethnic groups here as much. Yeah. And so it was like, well, where do you fit in? It's like, neither. And so I, I think that was part of Part of that issue now that's changed dramatically over the last, you know. Mm-hmm. , 40 plus years, but back then, that's kind of the way the world was.

And yeah, there, when I was a kid, information was gold. Today, information's everywhere. It's taking action and utilizing it. That's the goal. Yeah. In today's world, people don't seem to hustle as [00:03:00] much as they used. Yeah, no, definitely. I feel like with all the information so easily accessible, kind of took away, you know, cuz part of the pursuit was trying to get that information back then I feel like I was part of the hunt.

Now it's like, well we're kind of have over information overload now and it's like mm-hmm all right, now it's more so where's the good information? Right? Because not all, you know, not at all money's good money, right? And so there's some people out there giving out bad information. That sounds good. Cuz you know, they, they have a way with words, right?

And so let me ask you right about, Immigrating here. So were the conversation around money different in, in your culture growing up than they kind of were once you came here? Did the, did the conversations change or did they kind of stay the same? Like how was that like, I feel like a lot of times people who immigrate here tend to give you a little insecure about, you know, as you said, kind of where do I fit in?

Right. Where, you know, you know, am I supposed to act for help? And I had a way of living back in my old country. How was that kind of like, I don't think, because I was really young when, when I came here, so, okay. [00:04:00] I don't know the differentials between what happened there or here. But I saw people constantly having those conversations, the expectations of success.

Like even though we were immigrants, we were always expected to be successful. So I think that was always the case, almost to a fault of, you know, are you gonna be a doctor or an engineer? . Yeah. And I was neither but it, it was always that kind of level of expectation. And I think that is one of the things that.

drives every immigrant group. Mm-hmm. They, they, many of them have a tendency to focus more on education, more on success. And I think though you're self-selecting because if you're willing to pick up and leave your country and change your life, you probably got a little hustle in you. Yeah. Yeah. And so I think you create that self-selection group.

Yeah. So I just wanna touch a little bit more on this topic a little bit because not too often when we get like immigrants to come on the show. So moving here, right? [00:05:00] And You said around 12 to 13, right? You kind of started getting it going right? And you said you didn't really realize it, but looking back now, that's when it started.

In that younger year, what was that kind of like? You said you started hustling, trying to get a buck. Was it like newspaper routes? What were you doing early on to get it going? Yeah, so one of the first things I did was I had a newspaper route. Mm-hmm. . And you know, back then people were. Blunt , like they would tell you what they wanted as far as service, and if you did what they told you, they would tip you.

And so, you know, a 12 year old kid making 50 bucks a week. Now again, you talk about inflation. That's probably like today, a 12 year old kid making. I don't know, 2, 250 bucks a week. Geez. So it, it was decent coin. You know, I'm not a YouTube star like these, some of these kids, you know, , the world has changed to make it easier to make a buck.

But then the other thing I was doing, [00:06:00] was, I was the kind of like the five below. I would go into New York City, I would buy stuff wholesale. Mm-hmm. , I'd bring it back and sell it for double to all my friends in school. So I'd buy bigger packages, break 'em up and, and do those kinds of deals. So I was always making money doing that as well.

and then just getting a job and, and working and, and hustling. Mm-hmm. with that as well. So between all three of those, you, you brought in some some good amount of money, especially for that time. Yeah. So let me ask you Yeah. Before we get into today's conversation, one last question that kind of sparked my mind.

You mentioned that. You know, the, the doctor engineer, right. So my grandparents, they immigrated here as well. And for me, when I dropped outta college for them, that was like, you know, I was going against everything that they have dreamed of. Mm-hmm. , you said you didn't end up going to doctor, engineer Ralph.

Did you receive some kind of like backlash or like, what was that like? You know a, a road that is I guess not as, you know idolized, I guess or not as worshiped or. Well, I mean, I didn't get a lot, but [00:07:00] I got a business degree and you know, the first question on graduation wasn't like, congratulations.

They were like, what are you getting your master's in? So the pressure is still, still kind of there. Mm-hmm. . But I, I got a decent job and I, I started making good money. So from that standpoint, it was not, Yeah, I, I just don't think I realized how much was possible, and I think that's the bigger thing, not understanding how much opportunity there is and how much you truly could make if you took advantage of it today, it's a lot easier to see that.

But at the same point, I think a lot of what you see today is hype. A lot of those people who are claiming to make all that money, Aren't really keeping very much of it. You know, it's not hard to rent a Lambo in a house for the day and make your video. Yeah, no, definitely. You get a bunch of views from it too, as well.

Mm-hmm. , and then you use the money from the views to rent it again, . And it's just like, [00:08:00] it's a facade essentially, that people just keep on, you know? Playing, playing over and over and on, on a loop, and it's, it gets a lot of people. So I think this is a great place to hop into this today's conversation, right?

So compounding in every area of life, right? You've been from a very young age, kind of just getting after it, hustling working and slowly working on yourself, whether you realize it or not, early on. But at what point did you really start. Consciously do this right? Consciously, you know, compound and like, you know, of course we're always trying for better, just kind of natural, but like make an active decision.

Like, hey, yeah, let me build myself up. Let me work on these skills. Let me do the X, Y, Z so that I can get to this place or this goal. So I think the, the money side started at 21 after I graduated college. As soon as I got my first job, I literally automated all of my savings. So I had money coming outta my paycheck.

Mm-hmm. going into the 401k, going into the credit union. I had a, a brokerage account, so after the money came into my bank [00:09:00] account, the brokerage account would start swiping money. And again, when I first started, it was small percentages. . Mm-hmm. . But over time, I kept increasing the percentages that were going to savings.

And so every year you just did a little bit more, just a little bit more, and over time we got to a pretty high savings rate. And the money that you set aside starts growing over time. And people say, you know, your first thousand is the hardest, your second thousand's. Your first 10 thousands hard, your second 10 thousand's easy.

Yeah. Your first a hundred thousands hard. Your second a hundred thousand's easy. So every time you can hit that next plateau, it just, it literally propels you and multiplies you forward. Yeah. So let me ask you right, automat, automating your finances, right? That idea, right? People in general, Don't finance at all.

People don't budget at all. I have comments on YouTube where it's like people's like, oh, you know, it's so easy for, you know, you to [00:10:00] say you're, you're, you know, wealthy. Some people have it hard, some people are working. Some people are doing X, Y, Z. You know, for the people that have that, that, that scarcity mindset, that limiting belief that, you know, they don't make enough money to start saving and not for everyone's situation, but you know, of course there's just people that.

If they stopped, you know, spending their money on designer and stuff that didn't matter, they probably would have some money saved up. But what advice would you give there to some of these people so that they could start saving and automating? Well, so I think, you know, especially at a young age, what are your biggest expenses?

Housing. No at this stage? Not, not yet. Not yet. Not yet. So, oh, it's probably a car right now. Right now it's probably a car. Car, yeah. But if so, if you don't have housing yet, the longer you can live without a housing cost, the better off you are. I know it might suck to stay home, but the more you can do that, the better off you are.

The. Is the other thing that that sucks it in. And [00:11:00] then it's the mindless little stuff. Five bucks at Starbucks, five bucks at Dunking Donuts, five bucks at the pizza place, 20 bucks at the movies, 30 bucks. Like that. Stuff adds up faster than you can imagine. Money just disappears, like you would not imagine.

Yeah, and it doesn't matter how much you make. I, I can show you people making half a million bucks a year who are living paycheck to pay. Geez. It's scary to think of it, especially when you're making that much money. But as you know, money amplifies a lot of the stuff that we're currently going through.

It doesn't really change anything. So you know what, you know what advice could you give so we could start being aware of where our money goes and being aware of where each dollar is spent. So, honestly, at the end of the day, it doesn't matter. People make this too difficult. If you make a hundred bucks, right, take 20 and put it away and don't touch it.

I don't care how you spend your 80, but whatever you do with your 80, ask yourself a question. Did it bring me joy? Did it [00:12:00] add value to me, or did I spend it because I thought I should spend it? And, and you wasted your 80? That's a personal question to everybody. You know, spend the money on what you love and don't waste it on things you.

So don't be mindless with your spending. Mm-hmm. , but pull your excess off the top up front. Stash it away and hide it. That's your best way to do it. So when my kids were young, we taught them a saving system. We would give them their age and their allowance, but here were the rules. You got your money out of what you got, a dollar went to charity, and then whatever was left was split.

50 50. You could spend 50, you saved 50. And so my kids learned to save at a very young age, and that saving from like five, six years old till the time they were 18. At 18, they had thousands upon thousands of dollars just from that small allowance. So they built, they built up a [00:13:00] couple things. Number one, they learned delayed gratification.

Mm-hmm. number two, they were taught like my kids would watch TV commercials. I'm like, , you have that toy. Is it that cool? They're like, no, . I'm like, exactly. You see that thing? The only reason they're putting that commercial on is they want your money. Don't give it to 'em. So teaching against consumerism.

Mm-hmm. and because our kids were getting their allowances, we were giving it to in dollar bills. You know, you start. two or $300 in dollar bills. You got a big fat WA of cash, whether it's worth a lot or not. You start to see how things grow. And just learning that and seeing that over time is kind of a big thing.

That's the problem today. Everyone's swiping. When you swipe, you don't feel the money. Mm-hmm. , it's different emotionally, it's a lot easier to swipe for 20 bucks than it is to pull a 20 outta your. And spend it, [00:14:00] you know, so it, the more and more you can go to actually going to cash and actually, cuz then, then you're controlled.

You got three twenties in your pocket. You gotta give up one, you start to feel, oh, I only have two twenties left. Right? Yeah. You feel it? Yeah. So then let me ask you, cuz that's a, it brings up a pretty interesting points. I, myself personally I like the Points of Miles game. Right. And so what's your thoughts there around, you know, just credit cards in general, like, what's your advice there around credit cards or debit cards or either or.

I'm not a fan of debit cards cuz they'd offer no protection and no real value. Mm-hmm. ? I am a fan of credit cards, however, I don't think most people have the control to control their spending with credit cards. Agreed. And if you are not paying your bill in full every single month, and, and I mean the entire balance, you've got a.

Because interest rates and interest rates are going up again, [00:15:00] you know, credit cards can easily be 20 plus percent interest, which it does not take much for you to get into the hole and get crushed. And you know, it's funny cuz I remember one time I was sitting in a department store and I heard these two girls talking and the one girl's like, oh, I still have $300 more I can spend on my credit card.

And. do, do you not understand? You have to pay that back. Just cause you have a limit doesn't mean you should spend it. And everyone says, oh, the bank should. The bank should make sure that they're not giving me too much money. The bank doesn't give a crap about you. Right? They are gonna come after you in the future.

They, they only wanna make sure that you pay 'em back. But they're going to, they're gonna give you more than you should. Definitely. So let me ask you a pretty interesting point. Cause I know a couple of my friends personally have gone through this. And it's something that I probably was, wasn't aware of, but like, so they have credit cards, [00:16:00] right?

They got 'em out, you know to start building their credit are usually like a parent or something. And then the parent uses a credit card and now they're stuck in the hole. Their credit scores attached to it because they're sharing a card and. Now they're kind of in the, in, in the gutter a little bit because the, the parent used the card more than it was supposed to be used, and now they're kind of stuck paying it off and their credit score's going down.

What kind of advice would you give there? So, why'd the kid give the parent the credit card? The, the reason it, it, it, it varies honestly, partially some from one of my friends, it was kind of like a emergency situation. Another one of my friends, it's kind of like she still had access to the card and they kind of just, you know, used it.

And now they're kind of, you know, stuck a little bit. And so how do you, how do you bounce back from.

We all have parents. It doesn't mean we're given the best parents, right? , I, I think here's the reality of it. You should probably know at 16 or 17 or 18 how good your parents are with money, cuz you've [00:17:00] heard them argue about it for 18 years, right? So if your parents aren't already trustworthy with each other and their money and they're not good with money, I wouldn't give 'em a credit card.

At this point, lesson learned. Shut the credit card off, pay it down. It'll take you some time. Mm-hmm. . But it, it's a, it's a lesson learned now at a cheaper price than learning at 30. At a bigger price. . Yeah, definitely, definitely. All right. So we, we talked about a little bit about starting the process of compounding in financially, right?

What are the key areas, the key pillars in your life? Is it important to start growing? And especially at this early age, we're, we're so impressionable, we're so, you know we have so many opportunities still available to us because of our, you. Where should we next kind of focus on, I think the next one is health.

right. When you look around, you see a bunch of fat old people . Yeah. Today you see fat young people. Yeah. Which is right. Embarrassing to my butt. That's another conversation we can get into. [00:18:00] But, but that, how did that happen? A little bit at a time. Mm-hmm. . Right? You think about it, if you gained two pounds a year, over 20 years, you've gained 40 pounds.

That's a lot. It happened a little bit at a time. So health compounds both ways, right? Debt money compounds to to wealth and to debt. Your health compounds both ways and I think the biggest issue that happens, and this happens for both money and for health at a young age, you don't appreciate it. , right?

You don't worry about the calories, you don't worry about those types of things. Mm-hmm. . But what's happening is you're, you're, you're causing the damage that's not gonna show up for 20 years. And it's the same thing. If you don't start saving it 21, 22 and you wait 10 years, you'll never catch up to the person who did.

So you've heard that story, right? If you say from [00:19:00] 21 to. And somebody else saves from 30 to 65, the person who saved from 21 to 30 will have more money than the person who saved from 30 to 65, assuming they put the same amount away each year. Mm-hmm. . So the waiting really puts a much bigger strain on you.

So I think understanding what is good fuel for your. And learning to eat well, and to exercise and to lift and, and to do all of that and to stretch. Mm-hmm. , I'm amazed. Even at a young age, people are not flexible. Yeah, right. So learning how to do that. If you can maintain that from a young age, you'll grow old gracefully.

Just literally go look around at a bunch of 40 or 50 year old people. and ask yourself, is that what I want to be when I'm 40 or 50? Go look around at people at 40 and 50 that look like you want them to, like you want to be and are in the [00:20:00] place you wanna be and ask them their secrets. They will actually tell you.

Yeah, no, definitely. I, I feel like now, so I'm 21, right? So, If I, I still see, I'm still home right. In where I grew up. I see a lot of people, and not everyone, but some people kind of let themselves go after high school. Mm-hmm. , and I always say it's a hot take, but a take that needs to be said nevertheless, because it's like, at, at this day, I feel like personally, at at least you shouldn't let yourself go till 30.

Right. We're in the, you know, this is supposed to be our prime physique years. We're supposed to be, you know, using our. Optimal athleticism and all this stuff. Like if you look in the NBA and basketball, football, right? All that the, the prime athletes are, it's 28 at least, right? Usually it's like when people hit their prime, their peak, depending on what position they play on, it could vary, right?

But and it's like people, it's like at 20 are already letting themselves going. It's like society now is normalizing it. And it's like we're heading into some [00:21:00] dangerous time, but you know, health because people aren't prioritizing it. And if you say anything against it, well then you're either some type of phobic or, you know, you're shaming somebody.

But I I, I wanted to ask a little bit what are some in terms of just nutrition advice? You mentioned flexibility already, which is a, a big one that no one really talks about a lot. Cause I, even me, so I still play basketball, but I, I'm tight cause I don't stretch like I used to. So at football practice you always used to stretch.

But playing pickup basketball now at LA Fitness, it is not the same thing anymore. I, I still can hoop, but it's like I'm a little tight now. So I, I, I'm gonna say this now and we can talk more. Everything you've been taught in school and in college is all false and bs. It's, it's all just wrong. Mm-hmm. , the stuff coming out from the government about health and nutrition all wrong.

Most of what you see is all wrong number. For food, sugar is bad for you. Mm-hmm. , so that means bread, carbs, [00:22:00] pasta candy bars, potato chip. Like anything with sugar is horrific for your health. The second thing that's horrible that nobody talks about is vegetable oils. Mm-hmm. , most processed food is made with vegetable oils.

The stuff is garbage. It ruins your. , right? Olive oil. Good. There's a lot of like good oils out there. Mm-hmm. , everyone's told, oh, you eat fat, you get fat. That is the fur thing from the truth, right? You, I've had guys on my podcast, the one guy just had on, he, I think he's around 48 5% body fat. Sheesh. Okay. Do you know what percent of fat his diet is a day.

If I, if I would say maybe, probably like 40%. I'm assuming 70 to 80% of his calories come from fat. Really? Yeah. Sheesh. So [00:23:00] again, all the information you've given is wrong. Like you can eat bacon and eggs, don't eat the toast and potatoes, right. steak and vegetables, and you will lean. , right. You will get stronger and you can eat a good amount of fat.

It's really hard to eat a ton of fat and protein. It's really easy to eat a ton of carbs cuz it's all processed crap. Yeah. And it's also this hypo of fat as well, right? Because we don't want to eat trans fats or saturated fat or trans saturated No. Or vegetable oils. Yeah. And that like if you go out to.

Everything is vegetable oil. If it's in a box, it's vegetable oil. It's not, people aren't making stuff with olive oil. They aren't making stuff with good oils. Yeah. Cause it's more expensive. Definitely. There's a study, I I, I've seen this a while ago that was done, I guess supposedly in like the seventies, which is like where I guess the, the food industry made a big switch where I think they did like a study with like yogurt or something like that, and they took the fat free out.

But [00:24:00] what they did is by taking out the, They replaced it with like, you know, carbs, extra carbs, right? And so near people eating fat free yogurts. And then, you know, now everyone was like, oh, see you take out the fats and you're eating healthier technically. And then next thing you know, now we're one of the highest obesity country.

And I think I seen a photo from like the seventies or something like that. It was like a beach photo. And it's like everyone that was in looked like a swimsuit model. And now you go to the beach and it's like, it, it, it's not the same site at all. No, we have grown considerably. Yeah. So then let me ask you, right, so we we're focused on our money a little bit.

Now we've started to focus on ourself. We started to get our, you know, physically right? What's the next pillar that we focus on so that we can keep compounding in this life and this walk to wealth. So the next is your mind and your knowledge, right? Most people stop reading after they leave. Which is a shame.

You know, you look at the richest people in the world, Warren Buffet, Charlie Munger, they read constantly. Bill Gates walks [00:25:00] around with 10 books in his book bag, , right? Rich people, successful people read and they read of a variety of stuff and they're not just reading. There's nothing wrong with reading fiction.

But at the same point, you really should be reading. self-develop, like, learn about money, learn about health. Mm-hmm. , learn about psychology, learn about human biases, learn about logic, learn about rhetoric, learn about, you know, how people behave. So it's learning all of those different skills that I think is, is super important.

So that's the next big part of it is just constantly learning, reading, whether it be podcasts or audio books. , all of that type of content constantly enrich your mind. That knowledge compounds over time. Yeah. I think like Warren Buffet reads, reads like six hours a day or something like that. He is been reading six hours a day of like [00:26:00] financial statements since like mm-hmm.

age 10 and he's like 90 now or something like that. So it's like he's 92. I think. Good luck catching us at him. Good luck . Right. But, but look at Warren. 90 plus percent of his money was made after the age of 65. Mm-hmm. , it continued to compound over time. Had he retired at 65, you wouldn't know who he was.

He'd probably be dead and he wouldn't have much money. Yeah, definitely. And so when it comes to compounding our mind you mentioned a bunch of different skills and areas we should kind of focus on in general. Where specifically should we start? Right? Because I feel like when, when it comes to reading, when it comes to books, like even just look at your library right behind you.

Like there's, you know, if you were to put me in front of there, I wouldn't know where to start, right? I see profit first in 12 week, year. Haven't read those yet, but I heard, I heard Prophet Fir prophet. But you know, it's where to begin. Like, I'm at a point where my reading list now is, is is growing at a faster rate than I can keep up with.

But for some people who haven't even started reading at all, it's like, you know, it, it [00:27:00] could be overwhelming a little bit. It can be ju you don't what, just start, pick up a book that looks interesting, a title that looks interesting, and just start reading, start learning and, and go from there. You know, it's funny because.

Some of the, the influencers out there mm-hmm. , what they do is they, they learn you have to give people what they want so you can give them what they need. Mm-hmm. . And that's why a lot of the influencers go after young guys by, you know, fancy cars and, and girls and fancy houses to hook 'em in so that they can give them what they really need, which is the knowledge.

So yeah, find a book that's interest. And just even if you're reading five pages a day, yeah. Just start and make a habit and continue to grow. I think the biggest area that people should read or two is one is human psychology and two is money. Mm-hmm. . Yeah, no, definitely. I, [00:28:00] I, I agree to say it's like first before I talk about the human psychology and money part, it's the idea of the chocolate covered carrot, right?

You, you gotta give 'em what they need, but you gotta give them something something to attract them. So they, they, they go in and bite it. But back to your, you were saying, so I took a psychology class back in college and hated it. It was Psych 1100 I. It was just a bunch of like, you know, stuff. Stupidity.

Yeah. Just like, I, I was in there, I was excited cause I thought I signed up, I thought I was gonna understand people. I thought I was gonna be able to, you know, dissect your mind and all these other, you know, psych stuff that I, I thought about and it was like a bunch of like, here's the prefrontal cortex, here's where this part is.

And then it's like, oh my goodness, I didn't care about all of this stuff. I'm trying to understand people. And so What kind of books would you recommend for psychology in terms of like if you have any authors in mind. I know Simon Sinek is a, a good one when it comes to like the brain and psychology and stuff like that.

Anyone in particular that you kind of read that helped you out with psychology? Yeah. I mean, Daniel Pink has some good [00:29:00] stuff. I'm trying to think. Cuz some of it is sales psychology. Oh. So first, I don't know if you all know this. Every single person listening to this is a salesperson. Correct? A hundred percent.

Right? So you better know that cuz you're selling yourself for a date. You're selling yourself to get your parents to give you money. You're gonna sell yourself for a job or a business. You're all in sales. Understand. Sales psychology Robert Aldini. Mm-hmm. phenomenal for sales psychology. Daniel Pink, which we talked about.

He does a lot of stuff. Oh, you know what? Honestly, you know, for the young guys, Tim Ferris. Yeah. Go listen to Tim Ferris. Tim Tim's got great. He's got the four hour body, so that will teach you how to maintain your body. The four hour work week as well. I read that one. Four hour work week. So stuff, and, and even listening to Tim Ferris's podcast will introduce you to new people and new ideas and send you down rabbit holes.

Yeah. Okay. Trust but verify. [00:30:00] Mm-hmm. , not everything he says is right. But verify . Yeah, definitely. So let me ask you, so we talked about books a little bit, you know how important has you know, courses or maybe conferences played a co in your life and or maybe even coaching, you know, when did you starting to get in into, in tho those area, and how did they impact you and your journey?

So courses? Yes. Usually most of what you get in most courses you can get out of a book. Mm-hmm. the courses go a little bit deeper. It really depends. It depends on the subject area. Yeah. So there are times where courses are appropriate. Here's the honest to God truth. I know a lot of course creators. 97 people, 97% of people who buy a course don't finish it.

Mm-hmm. . So you better show up and finish it. Buying it is only the first step. Doing the work is the hard part. Coaches help you get places [00:31:00] faster, but you gotta make sure you have a good coach, right? If you played sports, some of you have good coaches, some of you have sucky coaches, right? You're gonna get a coach.

Make sure you've got a good coach. The other thing is mastermind groups. So, you know, I'm assuming most of you all don't have a ton of money to spend. Find a group of five or 10 people. That have a similar mindset, goals and desires as you, I don't care if you just meet on Zoom or what you do, but come together in once a week, spend an hour talking about your struggles.

Be open and honest. Give each other feedback. Share a good book you read, share something new you learned. Discuss things that you're hearing and seeing. Talk about these concepts. If you just get together with that group of your peers and if you can get, you know, maybe an older person or two to sit in on those or join you once in a while to give you their wisdom.[00:32:00]

You can do this all for free. You don't have to spend a ton of. Yeah. Amazing. So now we, we spent some time learning about money. We spent some time learning about, you know keeping ourselves in shape, and now we kind of went to the mine. Is there any other pillars that, you know, you really wanna focus on and you know, share some advice on?

So, yeah, we've, we've talked about everything kind of on the outside. Yeah. The real thing is the inner game. Mm. Right. Your mindset. Everyone's got a voice in their. giving 'em all kinds of crap. Yeah, you wouldn't take that crap from anybody else, . Why do you take it from you? And that's the honest to God truth.

So I think understanding your inner game. The other thing that's really hard that I don't think people realize you have, you have unique strengths that are yours that you don't even realize. And so doing different kinds of personality tests, whether it's Myers-Brigg [00:33:00] disc is another good one. Disc is another one.

There's Colby, and then the other one is Enneagram. Those are your four biggest ones. I would do all four. , they're gonna start to tell you a story about you and then start asking people, Hey, what am I really good at that you see? Because what you are really good at, you don't value mm-hmm. , but the rest of the world does.

So it's figuring out what are your skill sets, where do you bring value, and then how do you take that and mesh it into who you are as a person and who, what you. To, to earn money and what you pursue, that's where you're going to find true happiness. True growth. Too many people are chasing the dollars.

Yeah. Instead of chasing their good skills and what they enjoy and love. If, if there's something that you're gonna go a hundred times harder than anybody else because you love it, [00:34:00] find a way to turn that into an opportunity to turn it into. Yeah, definitely. I was just, the past, like couple weeks from the day we're recording this.

Right. I've been bothering my friend a lot because he's one of the podcast listeners and when I think of my, you know, my ideal avatar, he's the first person to come to mind. And so it's like, I've been bugging him a whole lot recently. Like, Hey, you know, I. What do you like about this show? You know what, you know, how could I help you?

Where are you at right now in life? If I were to do some type of like, subscription, you know, what would you find value in it? I was on the phone with him for like, almost like 45 minutes, just throwing ideas at him. Like, Hey, just tell me hit or miss, right? Hit or miss. Is this a good idea? Is this not idea?

I was like, you know, should I do like, ask me anything? Calls? Like should I do like a little bonus episodes, bonus content? Like what would you find value in? And I, I find myself asking, A lot of people I feel like ask, you know, how can I get a raise? My question is like, how can I provide more value?

Right? Yep. That's exactly it. [00:35:00] And, and that's kind of what I've been doing recently because I, as I said, I've been trying to, to just figure out, you know, who was it that I want that I'm, I'm called to help when I kind of narrowing down now and what's the best way that I can help them, rather than asking.

Because people don't tell you the truth. Do it. Do do a bunch of each of those things. Mm-hmm. , and then look at the stats. They'll tell you. They'll tell you what people really value and what they don't. They'll tell you what, what sells and what doesn't. Yeah, and I think another thing, I don't even know if you tried to touch on it, but one of the points you kind of reminded me is like the, I think it's a Japanese have a thing called

Yes, yes. Which one of the, my other podcasts that has kind of enlightened me on, in one of our interviews and he was talking about, it's like, I think it's like four circles. What the world needs, what you love to do. I forget the other two, but essentially where you meet in the middle is essentially what you're talking about.

correct? Yeah. It's, it's what? What you are good at that you [00:36:00] enjoy doing that the world needs and is willing to pay for. Mm-hmm. , because that last part is the key. People need a lot of stuff, but if they're not willing to pay for it, it doesn't matter. Right? It's not your good ideas. It's what? If you just follow what people want.

That's how you make the money. Make it simple, make it easy. Give them what they want and they'll give you their money. Yeah. So let me ask you, right, because. As you kind of already mentioned, people don't tell you how it is, right? Don't they? They don't tell you straight and they, they could say they want one thing.

For example, if you're out with your girlfriend, it's like you know, do you want McDonald's or do you want, you know, whatever it could be, throw in x. And it's like, eh, in all reality, that's what exactly what it is that they want. Right. And so then let me ask you how do you find that that gap in the industry, that gap or whatever the industry may be, so that you could feel, so that you could start, you [00:37:00] know, finding somebody?

Because it's hard sometimes I just say people throw you curve balls. People aren't always as, you know, as clear as to explain the things that they want themselves. So what advice would we kind of give? So the biggest thing is a ask them what they ask them what their biggest struggles are. Mm-hmm. ask them, they'll tell you what their struggles are or what, or like literally, one of the ways to do it is if you pick a topic and you go to Amazon and you look up products, look at all the one star reviews and see what everyone's bitching about.

Everyone's gonna say, this is the thing, I wish it was better. And now all you have to do is make that one thing. , right? You can take a whole bunch of books about money. What are they all bitching about? Oh, they're bitching about this thing not being in the book. Let me meet that need. Mm-hmm . And you can take any topic and do that and, and that's basically what it is.

It's just basic market research and then test and see what happens and things that go [00:38:00] well. We'll pick up on their own. You'll see people throw money at you. That's the big, honestly, money is the number one. Are they handing you money? If you say, is that a problem? You go, oh, I have a solution for that. Do they whip out their wallet and go, here's a hundred dollars, give it to me, or don't they?

If they don't, you know it's bs and don't ask your mother, mother gonna tell you everything's perfect. Definitely you're, so this is something, and I think you all need to realize this. Your parents don't want you to be great. Your parents want you to be safe. They don't want you to be happy. They want you to be safe.

They want you to take the safe, steady path. They don't want you to have to worry about things, but that's not gonna make you great and happy. Yeah. I'm definitely a hundred percent right. It's it is the, the risk, right? A life worth living for or any life worth Wow. Is you are gonna have to go through some, some hardships, some, some obstacles, some curve balls.

And [00:39:00] it's only, it's I think Jim Rome said, don't ask for more problems. Ask for more. , don't ask for less stress, learn how to manage it better, or something along those lines. Jim Rome got a lot of those quick, like quirky one liners. He does that. He does that. He, you could just throw off the top. I, I kind of wanted to spin it back a little bit.

Can you, you mentioned the, the inner critic, right? The, whether you call it the drunken monkey or the, the chimney, cricket, whatever you may call it. Right. With so much going on in life right now how do people slow down and, and, and get the opportunity to listen to the voice before they can actually start, even start trying to combat the voice and change the narrative that they have, you know, within the.

So I think one of the things that we don't know how to do in general and we don't think about is breathing and the you're, if you look at people, like you can look at someone, you can tell if they're depressed. You can tell if they're anxious. You can tell if they're angry, right? Your body is sensing all these things [00:40:00] and you're projecting it regardless of what your mind is saying or your words are saying.

So if you can control the body, you can control what's kind of going on. And, and a big part of that is using your breath to do that. So taking a bunch of quick breaths, calms the monkey mind. , right? And then focusing on your breath. Long, slow. And for everyone, it's a different rhythm. You gotta figure out your rhythm.

What works for your friend doesn't work for you. Remember that right? What looks good on your friend doesn't look good on you, . So don't try and copy them. Be you figure out with, with, you know, the breathing helps cuz it, it's like it gets rid of that fight or flight. And that's what happens when you get excited.

You start breathing quickly, you know, but when you can calm the breath down, your body calms down. When your body calms down, your mind calms down. It's all connected and I don't think [00:41:00] people realize all those connections. Yeah. And there's plenty of books on that. Yeah. So I was gonna ask, that was what was gonna be my next question is where did we start?

Cause that, as you said in, you know, I think our pretrial call, we kind of talked about it like at school and you mentioned earlier in an interview A lot of this stuff isn't talked about, right? So like part of the big problem is where on earth do I even find these things, right? Where do I, what do I search in?

What do I look up? Cause it's like one of those things, it's like you don't know what you don't know, right? Mm-hmm. . And so it's like how are you gonna search up something you don't know if you're not aware that even exists, right? So like, where do we begin with some of these things that aren't really talked about at all?

So a, I think finding good podcasts, because that's where these conversations are happening, right? Mm-hmm. , whether it's Tim Ferris, and you listen to all of Tim's guests, go follow a guest to his, mm-hmm. , see what they're doing, and then see who they're connected to. It's literally a rabbit hole. , right? Yeah.

You're constantly going from one to the next to the next. You'll start hearing people talk about certain books. So learning, you know, Hey, what are the hot [00:42:00] books? Read it. Is it true? Is it not? I think some of the books that are bs, rich Dad, poor Dad, right? That's a hot take. That's let, let's stop. Let's act share.

Shut some light on that. So, rich Dad, poor Dad, and Napoleon Hill. Yeah. Both of those books come out of the same producer. Her name is Sharon Lecter. She's actually the one who does all the promoting behind it. Mm-hmm. , she did a lot of the writing behind it. They are those books that, that kind of do that.

Here's the deal. Nowhere in Rich Dad, poor Dad, does he actually tell you how to do what he's talking about. Right. He doesn't really show you a path or give you that. He, he opens your I eyes. Yeah, but he doesn't show you a path. Same thing with Napoleon Hill, opens your eyes, but doesn't show you a path. You gotta go find the path and, and most of that is actually thinking time.[00:43:00]

It's taking the time to turn everything off and sit down with a patent paper because there is a certain thing, just like we talked about, swiping a credit card versus cash. Pen and paper. A handful of questions. You know, what do I want? Answer that every week. Sit down and air. What can I do to improve this week?

Sit down and write out and think out answers. It doesn't even matter if you go back and read it, but just that process of asking yourself, thinking through, having the quiet time. Most people are too busy swiping left and right and up and down on whatever social media. They're not thinking they're being influenced.

Never has a, never as people have, we had so much marketing. Sent to words us, it's, it's unbelievably ridiculous. It's like 14,000 messages a day of marketing messages a day, , if not more. Yeah. Plus the billions [00:44:00] upon billions of dollars that these social media platforms spend on learning psychology to target us.

Correct. And even your textbooks, they're, they're actually marketing, right? Public school was marketing. It's a good thing. I didn't read too many textbooks. I just, I had a great memory, so I was able to pass by pretty easily. It's cool. Without reading a textbook, a lot of them were pretty dull, but rocky, you know we, we mentioned, you know, talking about three kind of.

Core, I guess, exterior pillars, right? You the financial side of things, right? The mindset. Right. The physical health. Then we kind of touched upon your, your inner pillar, right? Which is getting that, that, you know, cricket or that drunken monkey in your shoulder trying to fix that. What are some like practical advice that you would give to listeners, like after this episode, they put their phone down and they can just get right into doing and start making some, you know, some shifts in their.

So the, the number one thing that you've gotta do is you've gotta define what you want, or at least the direction you want to go, and [00:45:00] then explore and see if that's really true. . So somebody says, I wanna be a doctor. Do you know what it's like to be a doctor? Have you ever spent the day with a doctor? When you see blood, do you faint?

Like there's people who who you know. So make sure that being the doctor is what you think it is and what it it is. Mm-hmm. create your, your target life plan. So you know, you can say to yourself, okay, do I wanna get married? Do I not want to get married? How many kids do I think I. Yeah, what, what area of work would I like to be involved in?

What does it look like? Where do I wanna live? Right? What does that look like? How much does that life cost? When you define a target, you don't get turned away, right? So if we say, Hey, we're going on vacation right now, everyone's giving you vacation ideas. You are overwhelmed. You don't know what to do.

Right? Yeah. But [00:46:00] what if we say, I want to go on vacation to London. Now we've defined our target. Yeah. Now someone says, Hey, I got a trip to Alaska. What do you say? Not interesting. Yeah. Not going there. Yeah. Yo, how do I get to London? How do I get there? Maybe it's the cheapest, the fastest. Where should I stay in Li like, now that you've defined what you want, it becomes easy to start answering the questions.

What do you want for your life? What do you want you, you can write your eulogy out. Go ahead and write your eulogy and say, how do I live the life that that's my eulogy. You begin with the end in mind and you work backwards until you define what you want, you will follow everybody else's noise. Yeah, definitely.

Now, here's the other secret. What you want at 20 is not what you want at 30 is not what you want. At 40 is not what you want. At 50, it's okay to set the big target and [00:47:00] realize that 10 years from now you may change your mind. This isn't written in stone tablets. You get to rewrite it whenever you need to rewrite it, but if you haven't written it, you're just.

Running around in a maze. Yeah, definitely not. I, I was literally just talking to my girlfriend today and I was like, you know, for, cause I'm also a licensed realtor, right? And so, and I was just, I've been getting a lot more clarity around myself like the past couple months. And this is like, no matter what I do, it's like this podcast just keeps on coming back and it's like, it's getting more and more evident that this is where, you know, This is what I really wanna get going and because that's gonna eventually lead to the public speaking space, which is where I never, like, I never even wanna be.

And now I'm in the opportunity where it's like the podcast is growing. I'm starting to get another podcast. And I was like, I thought I'd have to be, you know, some top dog, sell a whole bunch of houses. So for my voice that even matter, and whole time, my voice actually does matter now and I'm getting opportunities now.

So it's like, [00:48:00] well if I can just skip this part out of it, it's, I, I might as well skip it now because this is what I really wanna do. Right. And it's just shifting though. And, and it was a little difficult at, at first cause I had to put my ego aside cuz I'm very competitive and it's like when I set out to do something, I, I, I always wanted do it.

But it's like also realizing like, hey, , like it's okay to shift as well. And going with, you know, being, getting in that flow state. Some people talk about, and it's like, when I, when I do this stuff, it's like, I, I'm, I'm hot. Like I can just let it go. I'm in my, in my zone. So, and, and being able to have that awareness to make that shift was kind of pretty difficult for me.

But eventually inevitably I ended up getting it done and now it's like I'm more focused on this than ever. And as part of that defining, define. Who you want to be Your wife. Yeah. What are their traits? What do they like doing? How do you want them? So it, because then it's much easier to judge. Yeah.

Right. Too often young people go for beauty. I can tell you it ain't gonna last long. . We got a few good years there, and then [00:49:00] after about 35 or 40 or so, it starts going downhill. A little bit , but yeah, no, I say that jokingly. But Rocky, you dropped a lot of gems this episode from start to end and I just wanna know where can we connect with you?

Where can we find you at so that we can kind of keep hearing more? You kind of mentioned your podcast a little bit, but where can we find you at so we can keep hearing similar information and go further on on it? Before we talk about me, if you guys like John and what he's doing here, man, give him a, like, give him a thumbs up.

Give him a comment. Share this with somebody else who might love it. Give him, give him a little bit of love back to him. Podcasters live in the lonely world. We're, we're talking to each other. We don't know what you're thinking, so yeah. Be nice to John. All right, , if you'd like to learn more about this. So what I do, I have a podcast called Richard Soul.

And on that podcast what we do is we talk about all of these areas. I bring in the best experts and go deep into these subjects. And so we'll open your eyes to different areas and different [00:50:00] concepts and we'll bring in people to, to share with you kind of more at the level. You can actually take action.

It's not like, oh, this is for somebody 20 years ahead of me. Yeah. Amazing. And so Rocky, now it's time for the final four question, the way we end every single podcast episode. Without further ado, question number one is what is the most impactful lesson you've learned in life? The power of compounding.

Figured, yeah. Literally. I mean, it, it works in every area. Just understand it. It, it's a natural universal. When you have natural universal laws, just use them to your advantage. What is the most admirable trait a person can have? Humility. Like that desire to, to say, I don't know. And continue to learn the opposite of ego, not saying you have all the answers, just the humility to, to constantly learn and explore and try new things out.

If you had to [00:51:00] change someone's life with one book, which book would recommend? One book? One book. That's it. That's a hard question for one book, right? I, I think you know, at your age, cuz we talked about this, there's a book called Living Forward. It's, it's a proven plan to stop drifting and get the life you. I, I think that would be a good book because it would allow you to define who you want to be and now it becomes easy to achieve it.

Amazing. And what is the legacy that you're trying to leave behind? So my legacy is my kids, right? My kids are your target market, , and they, they are young and success. Right. They know how to network. They've, they've been to events, they've, they've seen and they've done well for their lives. So that's basically what I'm working on.

And these types of things leave a legacy [00:52:00] for me to leave for them too. Right? Yeah. They get to, to hear me in the future. The old man was, was a cool guy back in his day. Right. . Exactly. All right. All righty, Rocky. Well, I genuinely enjoyed this conversation. I genuinely took away a lot of things myself personally.

So I know the audience is definitely gonna take away a lot from it. And I, you know, I appreciate you coming on and just, you know sharing some advice and you know, some of your experiences and your stories as well. So I genuinely appreciate it. Well, thank you so much for having me. All righty. And.