How Financial Literacy Unlocks Financial Freedom and Generational Wealth with Sharon Lechter – EP 274

Justin Donald: Well, hey, Sharon. So good to have you on the show. This is quite the treat, and I'm excited to get into why that is, but welcome.

Sharon Lechter: Thank you so much, Justin. Delighted to be with you.

Justin Donald: Well, we had just a real, I think there were a few people that had talked about you to me, or maybe each of us to the other person. And I was thrilled when I had the opportunity to connect with you, and I felt like we had a call, I don't know, it was probably a few months ago at this point in time. And I just left that call so inspired, so impressed, so excited to interview you on the show here. And I learned so much about you and so much about your passion for financial education, financial literacy, what you've done. I actually didn't know the full story of all the projects that you have supported and initiated and stood behind. And so, I'm excited to dissect that here with you today.

Sharon Lechter: Love it. Just been around a long time, Justin, so I've been involved in a lot of different fun projects, so.

Justin Donald: Well, and because of the success you've had, it's very inspiring because you could just stop. You could just live a great life, and you do live a great life, but you're still giving back. You're still creating content. You're still pushing your passion and mission forward, which is so cool. And so, I mean, obviously, you've had a lot of accomplishments over the year being globally recognized as a financial literacy expert. You're a keynote speaker. You're a business mentor. You've had five New York Times bestselling books, which is really cool. And one of the things that, by the way, beyond that, like early days, you were a CPA and somehow transitioned out of that into the financial literacy space. And so, we'll walk through that.

But what I would say, I always tell people that there is one book, specifically, that has had a greater impact on me than anything else I have ever read. It's what got me my start. I mean, a lot of people, it's Rich Dad Poor Dad, and that kind of like opened things up for me. But Cashflow Quadrant was the book that literally changed the game for me. I mean, hard stop like that one was monumental in my career from a mindset shift. And it's so cool for me to know that you co-authored Rich Dad Poor Dad, along with 14 other books in the Rich Dad series, and I don't know that a lot of people know that, know the story of you behind it, the friendship you and Robert had, your husband, how integral he was. So, I'd love for you to share some of that.

Sharon Lechter: Well, certainly. Well, thank you, Justin. Yes. Well, I started long before that. I was raised by parents who talked about money at the dinner table. They talked about assets, liabilities. My dad had a car lot. My mom had a beauty shop. They had orange groves. They had rental properties. So, I grew up in the environment of entrepreneurship and understanding the value of cash flow, the value of assets, and what I started my career in accounting and got out and learned how businesses succeeded, and probably more importantly, learned how they failed. And so, once I was out in the real world, I realized how few people understood money. They're chasing the income, they're chasing a paycheck, and if they need more money, they want a second paycheck, or they want overtime.

Justin Donald: Earned income. More earned income.

Sharon Lechter: Yes. And it was just like, "Oh my gosh, why don't they understand assets?” And so, I started that journey really early on. My kids didn't like to read. I started talking to children book companies, always thinking about building royalty streams and assets. And then my oldest son went off to college here at ASU. And his first semester came home in debt. He'd gotten credit cards when he was on campus. And that was December of 1992. And that's when I dedicated the rest of my career to financial literacy, financial education. Started working with the school systems. My hair used to be red. If you ever worked in schools, that's why it's all white. I'm still working with them how many years later.

Justin Donald: Well, thank goodness you are. We need more people like you doing this. I was taken advantage of early days on campus, too, by some of these predatory credit card companies with crazy fees that…

Sharon Lechter: Oh, yeah. You get there, and there's a table that says, "Here's free pizza. Free money. Free t-shirts. Free money.” My son had a really good time his first semester in college until he realized that money wasn't so free. And so, that passion, that was in December of 1992, I dedicated the rest of my career to financial literacy, and I'm as passionate about it today as I was then. So, fast forward a few years, my husband called me, and Robert had gone in to see him because he had this idea for a board game drawn out on a piece of paper. And my husband was a well-known intellectual property attorney. And so, in that process, I met Robert at the first beta test of the cash flow game. I'm the only one that got out of the rat race.

But I loved the messaging of the game because it was what I was teaching, the importance of buying, building, creating income, producing assets, and the importance of passive income over earned income. And so, because of my experience with the talk and children's book, we did games as well, I volunteered just as a friend to help him commercialize the game. And in that process, he said he wanted to charge $200 for it. It’s 1996. I said, "That's kind of pricey for a board game. Maybe you should write a brochure that explains the philosophy behind the game that will encourage people to invest that kind of money.” And that brochure was Rich Dad Poor Dad. Most people don't understand that because that's when he asked me to be his partner.

We were equal partners, and we thought we'd write Rich Dad Poor Dad, and then people wanted more. So, we said, "Okay, we'll do a trilogy. Rich Dad Poor Dad, Cashflow Quadrant, Rich Dad's Guide to Investing.” Oh, no. We ended up, in our 10-year working relationship, we wrote 15 books together. I launched the Rich Dad Advisor series with specific area, specific experts, and we did lots of games and audio products, and we exploded around the world, 110 countries, 51 languages. And I was CEO of the company as well as his partner. And because I had the experience, I knew how to do the licensing, I knew how to do distribution. I knew the power of association. And so, we were able to build the world's largest personal finance brand. But Cashflow Quadrant was actually my favorite book, too. So, I think it really is the one that really helps people understand the mindset shift they need to make.

Justin Donald: Yes. Well, and specifically from that book, there were a few key takeaways for me. One of them was the four quadrants, of course, right? Employee, self-employed, business owner, and investor. And at that point in time, I thought I was a business owner, but reading the book, the second distinction, so first it was like, "Oh, there are these quadrants, and if you're on the left side, you pay more in tax, and on the right side, you pay less in tax.” And so, that was eye-opening. And then I thought I was on the right side of the quadrant, but I remember there being a section in there that basically said, and for those of you that think you're a business owner, you would need to be able to leave your business for a years period of time where it maintains or grows over that period of time to really be running a business. Otherwise, you're just running a sole proprietorship. And like everything just clicked. It's like, "Oh yeah, I'm not a business owner.

Sharon Lechter: You own a job, not a business, right?

Justin Donald: Yes. And actually, moreover than that, my business owns me. So, I have a job that I call a business. It owns me. I certainly can't step away. If I step away, this thing is going to implode in probably a matter of weeks, not even months. Maybe I could eke out a couple of months. And it was just so eye-opening that I lived on a different part of the quadrant than I thought. I've been telling people I'm a business owner. Really, I wasn't. My business owned me, and I worked harder, more hours. Obviously, I was reaping some of the rewards of that, but I was working more than if I had a normal job.

And so, it was really just this moment of, number one, I need to move over to the business category fast. I need to build the systems. I need to hire the people. And I really need to create SOPs that this business can run on and not rely on me, not rely on my personality, not rely on my connections, my relationships. So, it was systematizing the business. And then number two distinction was I actually don't want to live in the business owner category. I actually want to be an investor. I want to move down to that final quadrant and kind of graduate. And so, I set a goal to do that. I achieved that goal. But without your work here, I don't even know that I would've realized I was in the rat race still thinking that I had gotten out. I was fooled.

Sharon Lechter: Well, thank you for that. Yeah. And when you look at the quadrant, we think about it the way we think about money, but the E and S on the left side is really all about you exchanging time for money. You referenced that. And that's what people don't understand. It's what school teaches us to be an employee or self-employed person. But there's only so many hours in the day and only so many days in the week. And so, my superpower is helping people move to the right side. Understand that to get to the right side of the quadrant, you get your time back because assets are working for you. My favorite word on earth, assets, right?

Justin Donald: Yes.

Sharon Lechter: Assets are sexy. My favorite line on earth. And the older you get, the sexier they become. But on the right side, you either have your business systems. And when you talk about standard operating procedures, that's what allows you to scale, right? Because you're managing systems, not people. You're not managing personalities. You're managing systems, and allows you to cookie-cutter, allows you to expand. And then, as an investor, your money is working for you. And so, the more you can get on the right side of the quadrant, the more your time comes back to you.

Justin Donald: That's right. And so, I just had this realization, I need to divorce time for money. Time should not equal money. How do I do that? Well, I do that via assets. I do that via capital, right? And so, as a business owner, I'm building an asset now, unfortunately. Fortunately, and unfortunately, that single asset was a risky asset, right? I didn't realize it at the time, but 96% of businesses fail in the first five years. Luckily, mine did not. But if it did, I would've lost my entire net worth, right? And so, there was this great realization of, okay, that is an asset, but it probably shouldn't be the only asset. And as I earn capital, I need to be investing that in other assets.

Sharon Lechter: Yes, I talk about diversification of assets. Most financial planners, when they talk about diversification of assets, they talk about across paper assets, stocks, bonds, mutual funds. I teach diversification across asset categories, businesses, real estate, paper assets, stocks, bonds, and mutual funds, intellectual property, my favorite asset, and commodities as well as digital currencies. All of those are assets, and you want to be able to hedge one against the other because when one goes down, others go up. And so, that's true diversification of wealth.

Justin Donald: Totally. And what I love doing is I like to democratize what the billionaires are doing. So, they build these single-family offices that run their estates, run their investments. And so, I love gathering and synthesizing the data that I'm privy to. And you learn so much when you see all these, I mean, there are over a thousand, I think over 2,000 billionaires. And it's amazing how, just like over the course of all of them, how the data is so similar. It is like this whole notion of a 60/40 split being diversified, an asset allocation of 60% stocks, 40% bonds, that is so old school. I just went to an event where Rick Rieder, the CIO of BlackRock, the largest asset manager in the world, I think is $13 trillion under management, how he said 60/40 allocation is dead. And he, as an investor, invests heavily in alternative investments just like the family offices do.

So, when we talk alternative investments, we're talking real estate, private equity, so private businesses, private credit. And it's fascinating to see what most people do and the information that they're not privy to, and how far away it is having so much exposure to the stock market when the wealthiest people generally have 50% to 60% of their net worth in alternative investments.

Sharon Lechter: And you see more and more shifting that way because the stock market is getting overpriced and overvalued right now. So, you're seeing a shift away from it. Warren Buffett, they're shifting away from that, looking at those small-cap and those growing markets where they still have room and potential for the price to grow.

Justin Donald: Yeah, certainly. And so, what was it like being, I mean, I feel like this had to be a rocket ship. You launched the game, which, by the way, I love the game we bought. So, I played Cashflow Quadrant, and then we bought Cashflow Quadrant for kids when my daughter was younger. And then we used the other game, which I already had. And so, she's played a bunch of that, and it's so fun, like seeing the light bulbs, and we do a lot of Shark Tank in our family too, which has been just amazing for her growth and understanding. I mean, all of us, I mean, we all learn, but you can see her eyes twinkling as she's connecting the dots.

Sharon Lechter: That's great. Good for you.

Justin Donald: I just love it. But what was it like on this rocket ship of 15 books and two different games, and the speaker circuit and the advisors and the deals? You guys were doing deals and partnering with different people as well. I mean, it had to open up, you know, it's funny, like I've noticed this in my own life that the more I teach, the more I educate, the more I kind of share my philosophies and criteria, the more deals pour into me that fit that criteria, right? So, it's like my deal flow has gone through the roof. Now, that people are aware of what I look for and want to partner with me, and I can only imagine what that was like for you on 15 books.

Sharon Lechter: Well, you create the environment, which creates a safe space for people to come to you. And that was really our whole goal was to give people the tools that they could take control of their financial life without having millions of dollars. And the message that I wanted in Rich Dad Poor Dad for people to get was, when I met Robert, he had two small apartment complexes. He was making $100,000 a year in passive income. He lived in like a two-bedroom condo, cost him $36,000 a year. He was financially free on $100,000 worth of income. That was the message the world needed to hear.

Justin Donald: Yes.

Sharon Lechter: It does not take millions of dollars to become financially free. It takes smart decisions, smart application, and smart investment. But if you focus on buying, building, and investing in income-producing assets, you are financially free when the income from your assets exceed your monthly expenses. There's no definition of paycheck in that. It's when the income from your assets exceed your monthly expenses, that means you have your time back, your assets are working for you, and you are maintaining a quality of life that you deserve, and that's the message people need to understand.

Justin Donald: Yeah, certainly. And I love that. And for me, one of my stories that I love sharing is that I, too, had financial freedom before I was ever a millionaire. Before I ever had a million dollars in the bank or a million dollars in assets, less the liabilities, I had financial freedom. And that is the message because you can scale it from there, but now you're scaling it on your terms. You own your time. You can do it differently. You can do it slowly. You can do it quickly, but yeah, I mean, it opens up the playbook for so many more options and such an enjoyable life along the way.

Sharon Lechter: Yes, it does. And that message is still people need to hear it today still because still too many people are living paycheck to paycheck. And the recent government shutdown, people couldn't survive one paycheck being gone. And just it breaks my heart because with every dollar you receive, you have the choice. Does it flow through your fingers, or do you invest it and keep it and have it work for you? Because it's not what you do for your paycheck that determines your financial future. It's what you do with your paycheck.

Justin Donald: Yes.

Sharon Lechter: And that's where people are making bad choices. They're spending it. They're going into debt. But with every dollar you receive, you have a choice to turn that dial and start investing in it for you.

Justin Donald: And I'm very grateful. Excuse me. I'm very grateful that I had parents who, even though they did not have a strong financial education in their background, and even themselves maybe didn't practice what they preached to me, they still always talked about giving 10% of everything I made, which I love that. I love that I have done that for so many years and have conditioned that muscle. And then secondly, to save and to have delayed gratification, but to put away 10% to 15%. And I remember over time I was like, "Well, what if I want to do this? What if I want to get ahead faster? What if I saved 15% to 20%?” And then I started doing that, and every time I earned more, I had a side gig or a side hustle, or I just had an extra bonus, I just said, “I'm going to put 100% that away because I'm not used to living on it anyway.

Sharon Lechter: It’s such a smart move. I tell people that all the time, every gift, every bonus, every raise, just sock it away.

Justin Donald: That's right. And so, I got to the point that I was saving 50% of everything I was making, putting that into a separate account that was earning interest and waiting for whatever. I wasn't going to rush the investment. I wanted to have it set aside. I wanted it to continue to build and accrue, and to earn a return, but it was a very small return until I could actually find a deal that would earn me what I wanted. And so, I was very judicious in those choices and found the right things and did a lot of due diligence. But I pulled the trigger, and it was super nerve-racking buying my first property, my first mobile home park. But that single transaction bought my wife's time back. We were able to retire her. And the rest is history.

We just kept buying more assets. We just kept on hitting our survival income, hitting our lifestyle income, hitting our earned income, and then having all this surplus income that we eventually needed to continue to invest. But, is this book, this series, your education, your desire to really encourage Robert to write this book with you, or these books with you? And I told you before off air, but I mean, I think I read every single -- I'm pretty sure I read every single book in the Rich Dad Poor Dad series, unless maybe I somehow missed one or two, but I'm pretty sure I read them all.

Sharon Lechter: Thank you.

Justin Donald: Yeah. And by the way, your financial education and your pedigree and your career didn't stop there because you then partnered with Napoleon Hill and his foundation, right? And you wrote several titles there. You co-authored Three Feet from Gold, Outwitting the Devil, and Think and Grow Rich for Women, which is incredible. And you have written your own books, as well, with no coauthor, just you, Exit Rich and How Money Works for Women, which I love that you're pioneering this for women and helping to equip those that I think often maybe are left behind in our current society or the way that the business world works today. And I love that you've got a passion for this.

We have several incredibly sharp women in the Lifestyle Investor Mastermind and the Tribe of Investors Mastermind. I just love how hungry they are, and all the cool things that they're doing, and I like that this is a strong purpose for you, as I have a wife and a daughter who I'm trying to teach and equip and let them know they can earn just as much as anyone else. They can use the same tools, that it's a playbook, and you just need to learn it.

Sharon Lechter: Right. Women are great investors. They just have to get past the fear. Yeah.

Justin Donald: Yeah. That’s so great. And you have a new book coming out here any day now, and I’d love for you to be able to talk about that. And I have a bunch of other questions for you, but let’s talk about the new book.

Sharon Lechter: Sure. The new book is going to be out January 2026, so if you’re watching this before, keep an eye out for it or afterwards, it’s out there for you. It’s called Old Wealth, New Wealth, True Wealth. And old wealth is the slow and steady. All right, new wealth is about– there’s actually a parable about three brothers who got land left to them by their dad and they had been given a journey on how they could accumulate wealth. And the old wealth was the slow and steady. New wealth was Mr. Internet, whatever the shiny object syndrome was. And then true wealth is the brother that really understood the impact of old wealth and new wealth because they’re not wrong. They just aren’t necessarily the best way to develop long-term generational wealth.

And true wealth brings in the element of time and understanding that there are a lot of people that are really wealthy. You probably know a few of them, Justin, that have lost their family and their health along the way. So, true wealth is understand the importance of wealth in every aspect of your life and your relationship with your family and relationship with friends and your faith in your physical being, as well as a financial generational wealth. So, we really go through it and talk about the elements. And what we’ve talked a little bit about in this conversation is the power of association. How to make sure you have the right people on your team? How to make sure you have the right mentor that can open doors for you and help you? They’ve been where you want to go so they accelerate and speed your avenue to success.

And so, I’m really excited about it. My co-author is actually a 26-year-old. At 16, he was on the circuit ready to prepare to go to the Olympics as a cyclist, let all kinds of state records. And he was hit by a car going 60 miles an hour.

Justin Donald: Oh, my goodness.

Sharon Lechter: Pronounced dead at the scene. They brought him back. It took him a while to be able to walk and talk and eat again. But he took that same initiative, discipline, and drive and funneled it into the real estate world. And so, he at 26, is a multimillionaire in real estate and he’s very passionate about true wealth. He’s got a wife and two little boys, and he really wants to be a shining light for his generation. So, I’m always looking for those young lights that can come out and impact their peers. So, I’m pretty excited about this. Right now, I think we’re going to be releasing at the end of January, January 23rd, so excited.

Justin Donald: I love it. Well, I mean, and on this note of the power of financial education and kind of intertwining legacy thinking, why do you believe that financial literacy is the foundation of true freedom? And not just wealth, like, how can families start building that legacy mindset today?

Sharon Lechter: Well. So many people are fearful about money. That’s the number one problem. And we are raised with parents who say, save for rainy days, pinch your pennies, money doesn’t grow on trees, we can’t afford it. And that builds a negative mindset, scarcity mindset. So, you grow up hearing, money negative, money negative. And so, I’m trying to turn that dial to create, instead of saying I can’t afford, say how can I afford it? The trigger of your entrepreneurial spirit, your subconscious goes to work trying to figure out how you can afford it. And that we have to get more creative and curious, so important. That’s what keeps us stepping outside our comfort zone and discovering new opportunities. When I started this mission, no states required personal finance for high school graduation.

Justin Donald: Isn’t that crazy?

Sharon Lechter: Seven or eight years ago, we had six states. Today, we have 29.

Justin Donald: We’re moving in the right direction.

Sharon Lechter: Only 12 of them are actually instituted at this point, but 29 have passed that legislation. But I will retire when I get to 50. I’m not quite sure I’ll be able to make it, but– and it really comes down, it should be a bipartisan issue.

Justin Donald: Yes.

Sharon Lechter: Because if you want every child to succeed, you can only level the playing field by what they’re learning in school.

Justin Donald: That’s right.

Sharon Lechter: And so, you heard the phrase, the rich get rich or the poor get poor. That’s because they learn about money at home. And so, if you want every child to have equal opportunity, equal opportunity for success and education, we need to be teaching them about money in school. And it’s not greed, it’s about being in control of your money because you’re either in control of your money or it’s in control of you. And I would say 98% of people are controlled by their money.

Employees are not as effective at work because they’re worried about their car getting repossessed. They’re losing precious time. Employers need to educate their employees to be more effective at work because if they give them financial education, they’re going to be more loyal, they’re going to be less stressed, and they’re going to be more productive.

Justin Donald: Yeah, I couldn’t agree more. And I do think it’s tough to be financially free or have financial success if you’re afraid of money or if money’s controlling you or you’re making decisions out of a fearful mindset of what could happen. What if I lose this versus a more powerful mindset of like, what can I create with this? And even just on the personal success side of things, you talk a lot about the personal success equation, which is basically turning potential into prosperity. So, can you break down what that personal success equation is and explain how entrepreneurs can use it to create both financial and personal success?

Sharon Lechter: Certainly. You can go to PersonalSuccessEquation.com and get a workbook that I provide for people to create their own. But Personal Success Equation is P plus T, your passion and your talent. Now, passion, love what you do, do what you love. My passion was actually from anger. I was mad. We weren’t teaching kids about money in school. Talent, I was years in CPA, years in publishing, and I combined those. And most of us stopped there because we’re taught to do everything on our own. And that’s why we don’t receive the success that we deserve.

You combine passion plus talent, times A, which is power of association. Having the right people on your team, having people who are strong, where you are weak, finding the right partners to help you amplify your message and your reach. So, when I started the Children’s talking book industry back in the late 80s, kids didn’t have electronics. I know it’s hard to imagine, dinosaur days, but– and so, we said, how can we get parents to trust us? So, we partnered with Disney, Warner Brothers, Sesame Street because they trusted those brands, allowed us to explode that brand around the world.

Same thing with Rich Dad, as we started to launch Rich Dad, I partnered with Warner Books, with Time Life, with other companies that were already established over 51 languages. We’re in 50 different countries, 110 different countries through powers of association. So, passion plus talent times the right associations, the right mentors that’s not power of association, and then times A, taking the right actions. How many times do we know what we’re supposed to do? We just don’t do it.

Justin Donald: That’s right.

Sharon Lechter: Yeah. And so, all of that, in fact, we almost went to press with that. This is in my book, Three Feet from Gold. But then we took all of it and I said, plus F. And that F is for faith. Faith in yourself, faith in what you’re doing, faith that is needed and necessary, and faith that you will succeed. The problem lies in the fact that that F, for most people, is fear. And fear paralyzes us or motivates us, and the vast majority of us, fear paralyzes us. So, we don’t take the action that we need to take with the right association, and so, we’re left not having the success we deserve. Turn that fear into focus and that focus into energy to take the action you need to, and you will develop the faith to keep going.

Justin Donald: I love it. Well, one of my closest friends, Hal Elrod, who wrote The Miracle Morning and followed that up with a bunch of different books in the series, but also, eventually wrote The Miracle Equation. And one of his letters in that is Unwavering Faith, right? And so, it’s exactly what you’re talking about, which I love. But when I think about it, like, so the equation is pretty simple to understand. That doesn’t mean it’s easy to implement. It’s funny because at the end of my podcast, every single time we do it, I’ll do it today, I really challenge our audience to take action in one area because that action is so important. But if you were to sum it up and say, like, what are the most common missing pieces you see in holding people back from reaching full potential? And then how can they overcome them?

Sharon Lechter: I think it’s a lack of the right associations. I mean, you get your circle of friends and you get comfortable with that circle of friends. So, in Outwitting the Devil, we talk about how to overcome the fear, and one of the things is controlling your environment, right? Are you hanging out with people who challenge you? Are you the smartest person in the room? Problem. Get in a room that challenge you, people that you can learn from. They trigger your curiosity and your creativity. But too often, we get comfortable. We get comfortable in our little comfort zone. And so, I teach people all the time, Justin, with kids, little kids are building forts and castles with pillows and blankets when they’re little, right? They’re very curious. They’re very creative. And they go to school, they’re taught conformity. In society, you have to have a little conformity.

Then they get their career and they go start their career and they get comfortable. And that comfort turns into complacency and that you drive to work and you don’t remember driving it because you do it every single day. And then there’s a crisis in your life. And your life, you find yourself in chaos. And how do you get out of chaos? By becoming curious and creative again. And so, keep yourself always curious and creative. Keep your children curious and creative. So, I always challenge people. When was the last time you did something for the first time?

Justin Donald: That’s good.

Sharon Lechter: And I challenge myself with this all the time. It keeps you young, it keeps you experiencing new things, it keeps you forcing yourself out of your comfort zone. So, when was the last time you did something for the first time?

Justin Donald: Oh, it’s powerful. I love it. Yeah, and really, like a challenge to everyone, myself included, like, can we do something new this month, this week? And ideally, can we do that new thing with our spouse, with our kids, and help them live that? I think that’s great. You mentioned this earlier, and I’ve heard you mention this in the past, but you say assets are sexy, and I love that. I couldn’t agree more. But what does that mean in practical terms for investors and business owners that you can hear it, you can conceptually get it, but how do we make it click? Like, how do we create some sort of action around that?

Sharon Lechter: Well, assets are sexy means that they give you the gift of your time back. And when you get the gift of your time back, then you can make the world a better place. You have time to give back your time and talents, and so, that’s why I talk about assets are sexy. And then also, comically, I also say the older you get, the sexier they become. Assets are sexy because that’s how you create generational wealth. Your paycheck isn’t going to go to your kids when you die, right? Your assets and your estate will create the generational wealth that will continue supporting your family and your future when you can no longer work. And part of it is just getting people to wake up and say assets are sexy. What? Yeah, they are, because that is what helps create your quality of life.

Justin Donald: Well, and that’s why I think it’s tough. It’s getting people to wake up. Let’s talk about entrepreneurs. You and I are both entrepreneurs. We’ve woken up at some point. I think we probably know way more entrepreneurs that have not woken up. And when I think about many of my good friends, they are so focused on their business. It’s like they don’t have time for anything else, which means they’re focused on active income, building income, building their business. I mean, maybe in a sense, they’re building an asset, and hopefully, there’s an exit at some point in time. The odds are actually pretty good. There isn’t going to be an exit.

But it’s interesting to me that this focus on building, it’s really like an earned income trap instead of income-producing assets that support lifestyle and freedom and more options and an extraordinary life, and I’m just wondering how we shift their focus from being so single minded and really help them diversify, at least a little bit away from the business for a rainy day or in case the business doesn’t work. Do you experience this?

Sharon Lechter: I would say the vast majority of business owners own a job, not a business, because they’re too integral in it. And that’s why I wrote Exit Rich. Exit Rich, you don’t have to exit your business, but you want to exit your time from your business. And Exit Rich talks about how to create systematize, how to create take your successful business, make it sustainable, scalable, and saleable, how to make sure you have the intellectual property identified and protected, how you have tight agreements to make sure what you really own, what you think you own. Documenting those standard operating procedures, right? That is intellectual property for your business that allows you to scale. And that’s so important.

I tell people all the time, McDonald’s, the owner’s not here because it’s systematized. High school kids run the McDonald’s. And so, it’s really important when you have a business to understand how to build the foundation of that business so that it’s strong because a building with a weak foundation is going to get hit in a hurricane or a tornado. It’s going to be gone. Your business is not going to sustain an attack if you don’t have the foundation, elements established and protected.

Justin Donald: And how do you, like, in your current ventures, we haven’t talked about IQ Hall. That could be one example. You have a lot of things you’re currently doing, but how do you in these current ventures reflect your mission to empower others to play big and to make lasting impact?

Sharon Lechter: Well, I share what I’m doing and why I’m doing it. You mentioned IQ Hall. You have to stay relevant. You have to stay innovative. And so, with AI as prevalent as it is, one of the biggest problems with AI is maintaining your ownership and your intellectual property. You put something on open ChatGPT, you no longer have the ability to protect it. AI-generated content is not copyrightable. And even though there are people out there saying, I’ll write you a book and you own it, you may own it, but you can’t protect it, you cannot copyright it. The copyright office has been very clear. A copyright is only given to human expression. And so, it’s important for me to make sure people know that. So, I’m sharing that.

IQ Hall is a company that works with UNESCO, the United Nations and the White House, and we are developing a digital Sharon on a closed learning language model. So, my content is protected, but you still have the advantage of AI. I can tell that it can check with the IRS.gov, but I won’t let it go into open chat. And it’s very important. And we want to protect your content of information. So, people who have a body of work that are writers, coaches, you want to protect your work. And so, you want to look at something like IQ Hall to be able to stay relevant and help your students research what they know. You can go on my IQ Hall, digital Sharon, and talk to me. All right?

Justin Donald: That’s awesome.

Sharon Lechter: And it’s been trained with all my information, all my talk, and our second stage is it’ll be a video as well. So, again, staying on the cutting edge, stepping outside my comfort zone, but again, providing it while also showing a road map for people to protect their intellectual property while doing so.

Justin Donald: See, I love that. And we’ve done something similar where anything that is public facing, we’ve got a public-facing Justin AI. And then we’ve got an internal facing for anyone that is part of the mastermind group, where they have, what, probably close to 800 hours of content now. So, it’s privately-facing AI for anyone that is a member that has that access. And I just think it’s amazing what can be built, like this Lifestyle Investor AI that can synthesize all this info, this data, hours and hours, hundreds of hours of content. And you’re right, this is cutting-edge stuff. This is cool.

And that is the ability to have your influence and education scale without you taking all the calls, right? So, it is brilliant. Where can people learn more about you, Sharon? If they want to pick up the book, if they want to join some of your courses and products, I would love to know and learn more.

Sharon Lechter: Thank you, Justin. Yeah, my website, SharonLechter.com, S-H-A-R-O-N, last name L-E-C-H-T-E-R dot-com. I’m Sharon Lechter on Instagram. I’m Sharon Lechter on LinkedIn. Author Sharon Lechter on Facebook is my professional page. All of those, please reach out to me. My email, info@sharonlechter.com. My products are all available on the website, SharonLechter.com. If you order books, I will autograph them for you. So, just put your information in when you order books from us and know that we’re here to support you every step of the way. I have a lot of different online digital programs from Money Mastery to Essential Components of a Successful Business, Investing in Uncertain Times, Refire. I said, there’s no word retire, just refire, right? Change your life and get the next step. So, we have a real estate investing course. So, a lot of information available through SharonLechter.com. And then I also have mentoring retreats at our ranch here in Arizona and I do high-level one-on-one mentoring, and you can find out more about that at the website too.

Justin Donald: I love that. Well, I just want to endorse Sharon for the impact that you’ve had and I just hope that if you’re watching this or listening to this, that you take the chance, you take some steps to really dive into Sharon’s content, pick up her new book, check out some of her courses or coaching, just different products to help you take things to the next level. I told you earlier, Sharon, I was going to do this. And at the end of every episode I do, I love asking our audience one simple question and that’s this. What is one step you can take today to move towards financial freedom and really living life as you truly desire on your terms? So not a life by default, but a life by design. And to make it more specific, what’s one thing you can do today that you learn from Sharon that you can take action on and move forward? So, thanks for tuning in this week. Thank you, Sharon, for joining us, and we’ll catch you next week.

Sharon Lechter: Thank you so much.