Story of failure: Driving off with a gas pump handle in my car.

Rocky Lalvani officially retired from corporate America (hooray!), but he has plenty of hobbies that keep him busy. He loves traveling with his wife of 24 years and two kids, flipping and/or renting houses, coaching two high school robotics teams, and volunteering in his community.

Although he’s always been passionate about managing his own money, personal finance has recently become one of his main interests (#Fincon, anyone?). He started a podcast a couple of years ago called Richer Soul that talks about life beyond money.

So while he’s interested in money, he’s always seen it as a tool, as something that can open countless doors if managed well. Without understanding money, his dad wouldn’t have been able to sustain a family in America. Rocky wouldn’t be able to live out his dream of taking his family on a vacation across Italy.

Rocky has seen how much of a difference understanding money makes in his own life. And he’s now made it his goal to help others open doors, solve problems, and gain freedom through understanding the finances for their small business.

Rather than only making money off of telling other people what to do, he’s truly lived out the experiences of both working a corporate job, working independently, and managing a small business. Now, Rocky wants to take this knowledge and share it with other small business owners at a fraction of the cost that it would be to hire a dedicated full-time financial manager.

In today's episode Rocky talks about:

- looking backward and connecting the dots
- being an immigrant
- things you don’t appreciate until later
- living on the wrong side of the tracks at the beginning
- his parents getting together with friends and talking about money
- occurring conversations
- not ever being held back
- seeing people in different financial situations
- deciding he wanted to be rich as a kid
- learning how to do things himself
- selling products when he was young
- playing with spreadsheets as a kid and teaching accountants
- from paper ledgers to spreadsheets
- the skill of building spreadsheets
- good is the enemy of evil
- selling dictation equipment early on
- understanding working with contractors and what to look for in real estate
- finally taking action after twenty years
- why do people struggle with money so much?
- “I Will Teach You To Be Rich” - money mindsets
- wanting to help people with money
- nobody wants to get rich in ten years
- reading spreadsheets like stories
- why my brother loves spreadsheets
- assuming everyone knows how to do something
- running two podcasts
- an hour of free advice
- the benefits of podcasts
- Richer Soul and Profit Answer Man Podcasts
- growing up in the age of the Marlboro Man
- accepting advice and doing thing more quickly
- masterminds taking him a step further
- is this true and is it worth it?
- always being frugal
- “If you can get a book for $25, don’t even think about it. Just buy it.”
- reading through the mind of an author
- “The biggest failures I’ve had were in not starting.”
- being cautious in nature
- needing that first kick to get started
- the friction of starting
- story of failure: real estate rental story
- first mistake: buying rental properties he liked
- not screening a tenant
- taking note of red flags and doing something about them
- having a manager in real estate and not following up enough
- having a tenant trashing a place and having to evict
- getting the highest price on the street
- just keep showing up and understanding you can fix anything
- “Is my worrying going to fix anything?”
- taking ownership of a mistake
- 10x the attention
- how are you so calm throughout all of this?
- me not doing my part
- coming to the point where it’s ok if things go wrong
- an age and financial thing
- money isn’t going to make you happy, but it can solve problems
- Dave Ramsey principles
- not wanting to deal with broke people
- staying on message
- how do you buy a house with cash?
- with any luck, he’s a grandfather
- having the freedom to be close to his future grandkids
- why are more parents not having more fun?
- something to be grateful for
- taking over himself, not the world
- we all have that negative critic and conquering that voice
- how breath interrupts patterns
- High Performance Habits
- everyone’s on meditation and breathing
- heart rate variability monitor
- breathing being a tell
- business owners that need help beyond our capacity
- understanding how money flows through your business
- similarities with Marcus Lemonis