Jeff Lerner Video: Sharon Lechter Exit Strategy Conversation

SHARON LECHTER: When people start a business, I always ask

them, "Did you, A, start the business to work until the day

you die? Or B, did you start it to build something that

would be successful, provide for you and your family, and

give you your time back eventually (B)?" Everybody

says B, but most people build A. There's a system that

people need to follow to build the foundation of their

business, so they can build a successful business that's

also sustainable, and scalable, which then makes it

saleable. So it becomes an economic engine for you that

gives you your time back.

Jeff Lerner: Can you talk a little bit about the idea of

building a business as a way... as kind of a hack to

create value and wealth in the world, even if you can't

afford to acquire assets?

Sharon Lechter: First, why a business? If you truly are

passionate about building an asset, and you have an issue

that you wa--... a problem you want to solve or a need you

want to serve, and you can build a business around it,

that is the quickest way to wealth. And it doesn't take a

lot of cash to get started if you do it right. But when

people start a business, I always ask them, "Did you, A,

start the business to work until the day you die? Or B,

did you start it to build something that would be

successful, provide for you and your family, and give you

your time back eventually (B)?" Everybody says B, but

most people build A. They build themselves a job, not a

business. And so, my many, many years of experience, of

seeing how companies do it right, and more importantly,

seeing how they do it wrong. And all the clients that I've

had, I said, there's a system that people need to follow to

build the foundation of their business, so they can build a

successful business that's also sustainable, and

scalable, which then makes it saleable. Doesn't mean you

have to sell it, but you've created it so it becomes an

economic engine for you that gives you your time back. And

so, we talk about the six Ps within the book, Exit Rich.

The first one is your people. Do you have people who are

strong where you areweak? Do you have the right advisors? Do you have the

right mentor? Do you have the right team that's going to

help you be able to grow? And sometimes, the people that

have gotten you to where you are today are not the right

people to get you to where you deserve to be. And you have to

make those tough decisions; but people, then products. You

have a product or a service, maybe it can be leveraged into

different industries and into different markets. We help

people identify that and do that. The third one is

processes. The systems; that's what makes your business

scalable, your operating system, right? How are you

doing your business? How are you making your product? How

are you delivering your service? How are you taking

orders? How are you delivering on those orders? Those

processes is what makes it a true business. And it's a lot

easier to manage a system than it is to manage personalities.

So, you have a system of how things go and somebody breaks

it. You'd say, okay, what did you not do according to the

system? Okay? It's all... makes it more business. And

the fourth P is proprietary. What is your competitive

advantage, your intellectual property? And these... This

has tremendous in today's world, very little of it is on

your balance sheet. It's the, what we call goodwill, your

intellectual property, your brand, your competitive

advantage. And this is my superpower. I help people

identify their intellectual property, protect it, and then

leverage it. And that's where the vast majority of value in

the business world today is, it is in these intangible

assets. And then the fifth one is your patrons. And in

today's world, it... Jeff, so many people get excited about

how many followers they have on Instagram, Facebook,

TikTok, but you don't own those names. Those are great

lead generation tools, but you want to invite them home into

your database. Your patrons, they become your best

marketing tool, but if you don't have access to them,

you're hurting yourself. And many companies sell based on

their database. So, it's really important to invite

those people home into your database. And then the sixth

one is profit. Obviously, we all want to make a profit, but

if your profit isn't where you want it to be, it's probably

because of one of those other five Ps. And so in the book,

Exit Rich, we talk about the things to go through, and how

you can solidify the foundation of your business

today. Not whether you want to sell it today, but let's

create your business so that it is a standalone entity, an

economic engine that generates revenue for you. And that that

will give you your time back, and it gives you the

opportunity to bring in other people to run it. It gives you

the opportunity to scale it, take it into different

industries. And that's the beauty

of understanding the power of building a business so that

you can Exit Rich. And you may still own the business, but

you've exited at your time and that business is still

generating the revenue for you.

Jeff Lerner: Yeah, and you've built something that is

actually of value to the people that, extensively,

you're building it for. Like, to take care of, right? If you

have to work till you die for your business, then your

business will die when you can't work.

Sharon Lechter: That's right.

Jeff Lerner: Right? No, that's rea--... This is so great. I

swear, anybody out there that can't afford consulting, start

a podcast because you get all the free consulting you could

ever possibly need. This is... I'm scaling a business right

now, and it's like, okay. Yeah, boom. This framework,

let me lean into this.

So I've got a couple of Rich Dad books on my shelf over

there, and I know you've done a lot since then. And... but

man, those purple books. They were and still are just

everywhere. Tell me, maybe that's I think a good place to

start. How'd you get into that? How and why'd you get

out of that, and do you ever feel like you have a big

purple shadow hanging over you?

Sharon Lechter: [laughter] That's the first time

anybody's asked that question. There was a time when I

thought Rich Dad was my legacy, and God decided to

make sure I knew that there was a whole lot more for me to

do. Let me... let me give you the Cliffs Notes version of

where I came, from because I grew up in a very humble home,

lower-middle-class. We lived in a small house between my

mom's beauty shop and my dad's used car lot. Neither one of

my parents had a high school diploma. My dad ended up

career Navy, ended up running the engineering school. So,

he's a pretty smart self-made man. But I used to clean out

rental properties between tenants when I was 10,

scrubbing out bathrooms. We had orange groves; we had cash

flow from the oranges every year. But my friends, their

parents were CEOs or military officers, and I thought we

were somehow less than. And I decided I wanted to get a

college degree. I wanted to become a sophisticated

professional. And so, that's what I did. First generation

to go to college, got my degree in accounting. It was

one of the very first women in public accounting. Moved to

Atlanta, loved it. Very quickly rising through the

ranks at Coopers & Lybrand, back then one of the big

eight. And about the ripe old age of 25, I realized that I

was not in control of my own life. And my parents started

looking a lot smarter at a client that offered me to go

with him. He was buying a company out of bankruptcy. And

so, I remember going back to my condo with the old yellow

legal pad, before PCs, before cell phones, pros and cons.

And it didn't help me but I could argue both sides, but my

hand took off across the top of the page and said, why not?

Why not do something different? Why not solve a

problem or serve a need? Why not take that road less

traveled? And so, that was when I made the decision to

leave public accounting and really start my own

entrepreneurial career. Met my husband by that decision and

we've been married 41 years. Started a woman's magazine,

sold that. Started talking children's books, the books

that had the sound strips down the side. I met the inventor

of that and joined him, and helped him grow that around

the world. Learned so much.

Jeff Lerner: Wait, let me interrupt. Let me just make

sure we don't gloss over that. You start... because I have

these books in my home, because I have four kids. You

started or were part of the gestation of the talking

children's book, where they push the button, and it...

Okay.

Sharon Lechter: That's right. The inventor of that was a

good friend of mine. He started the company and then

he needed, wanted, to grow it. He'd had a... his company had

been into sheet music, he was a musician. He got into the

talking books. And so I came and helped him scale it, and

helped him build the systems and take that around the

world. And I learned so much about international

manufacturing and banking. And we also understood that we had

this electronic thing that kids had never had before. And

so we said, "How can we get parents to trust us?" And so,

we aligned with little companies like Disney, Warner

Brothers, Sesame Street. So, I understood the power of

association, the power of licensing, and that helped us

to explode that company around the world. And we started that

company in 1987, sold it in 1991. And that's when my

husband and I moved to Arizona. '92, our oldest son

went off to college. Came home in December in credit card

debt. I was so mad. Mad at him, but more mad at myself.

We didn't even know he had a credit card. He got to college

campus and there was a table; free pizza, free money, free

t-shirt, free money. And he had a really good time his

first semester in college. Came home in December and

asked us to bail him out. Haven't always made the right

parenting decisions, but that one was the correct

one. We wouldn't bail him out, and he's as passionate as I am

today about financial literacy. But that was

December of 1992, and that's when I dedicated the rest of

my career to financial literacy, financial education,

entrepreneurship education. Because I realized that very

few people had the benefit of learning what I learned as a

child, in a household where we understood the value of

buying, building, and creating income-producing assets.

Instead of chasing the money, chase the asset. And so, when

I realized that, I said, we... people need to understand the

value of assets in their lives. And so, that's when I

really started on that journey, started working with

school systems, hence the white hair. Fast forward a few

years, my husband was a very well-known intellectual

property attorney. He called me one day and said, "I met

this guy today that has what you've been looking for." So

when I'm in front of a audience of women, I go,

ladies, what would you do if your husband called you and

said, "I met a man that has what you've been looking for."

I still remember it. It was like, okay, this sounds kinky.

But it was Kiyosaki had gone to see him in his corner

mahogany office, in his flip-flops, t-shirt, and with

this idea for a board game drawn out on a piece of

butcher block paper. And so, I met him at the first beta

test. My husband helped him patent the

game, but I'm the only one that got out of the rat race.

And I said that this truly teaches what I'm teaching. And

so, what can I do to support you? Volunteered to help him

commercialize the game.

Jeff Lerner: And that was Cashflow, right?

Sharon Lechter: That was Cashflow.

Jeff Lerner: Yeah. I played the game many times. Love it.

Sharon Lechter: 1996. And as we continued to help him in

getting that game commercialized, he told me he

wanted to charge $200 for it. And I said, well, that's

pretty pricey. Maybe you should write a brochure that

explains the philosophy that would get people to want to

invest $200. And that's when he asked me to be his partner.

And that brochure for the game was a little book called "Rich

Dad Poor Dad".

Jeff Lerner: Heeey!

Sharon Lechter: Most people don't realize that this was

actually started and written as a brochure to sell the

Cashflow game. And so, this book came out in April of

1997. And so, next April will be the 25th anniversary of the

release of Rich Dad Poor Dad. And we only expected to write

one book, and the world said, no, we want you to write more.

So we said, okay, we'll do a trilogy, Rich Dad Poor Dad,

Cashflow Quadrant, Guide to Investing. And then, oh no,

they wanted more. So, we became a publishing company

that our brand, which we thought was Cashflow,

became... The world said, no your brand is Rich Dad. So in

our 10 years as equal partners and co-founders, we wrote 15

books together and grew the company and the purple storm

around the world. And, at the time, publisher said, "Oh,

your book needs to be red, or black, or green. It's a

finance book." And I said, no, that's why we want it to be

purple. And they said, no, it needs to be... I said, why

not? Well, why not? Why not make it purple? We want to

stand out. And so, you go into the bookstores today, the few

that are left, and you see a lot of purple books in the

business department because people emulated what we did

with Rich Dad. But it was an incredible journey building

the largest personal finance brand in the world, and having

the kind of success because we looked at it by sharing stories. We

weren't dictating what you do. And people immediately, when

they see Rich Dad Poor Dad, they immediately say, I had a

rich dad, or I had a poor dad, or I am a poor dad. So, you

immediately relate to the brand. And so, we had just an

incredible opportunity to impact people around the

world; over a hundred countries, over 50 languages.

And in 2007, we've been partners for 10 years and

Robert wanted to go into franchising, which was a great

model for us just not a very good model for franchisees.

So, at that point in time, I decided... and we were at the

height of our success. I made the decision I had to leave

because it was no longer the right thing for me. And so I

left, not knowing what was ahead of me. And I tell

people, sometimes you have to close one door for other doors

of opportunity to open. And you're right, I thought Rich

Dad was my legacy at that point. We'd built it around

the globe. And then, a few months later, I got the call

from President Bush asking me to be on the very first

President's Advisory Council for Financial Literacy; an

incredible honor that I served President Bush and Obama. But

then a few months later, March of '08, I got a phone call

from the Napoleon Hill Foundation. Now I read "Think

and Grow Rich" when I was 19, when I was in college. And we know

what was happening to the economy in '08, and they

wanted to reinvigorate the teachings of Napoleon Hill,

and Don Green, who's the CEO, had just learned that I had

left Rich Dad, and he asked me to step in and help

reinvigorate the teachings of Napoleon Hill. And it's just

been an incredible journey. I've written four books in

relationship with the foundation, Three Feet From

Gold, Outwitting the Devil, Think and Grow Rich for Women,

and Success and Something Greater. And it's just been an

incredible journey. And so to answer your question again, I

did not know what my legacy would be, but the legacy

continues to grow. It continues to... gotta make

space. Sometimes you got to make room in your life for new

Opportunities.

Jeff Lerner: Well, yeah, and it's quite a legacy, and it's

all of it. I mean, I can certainly say you've impacted

one person tremendously. I actually happen to have Think

and Grow Rich on my desk, too. I'm like holding all your

legacy stuff within three feet; I'm "Three Feet From

Gold", you could say. Right? See what I did there? But no,

it's pretty incredible. And I mean, I just have to say as

someone that, yeah... 1996, I was 17 years old and I had

just dropped out of high school because I saw,

intuitively, I felt that school was this sort of

long-arc job training platform. Right? That was sort

of taking me from, it was like a flywheel that ultimately was

going to bring me to employment. And I knew I was

unemployable. I knew I didn't want to do that. And I dropped

out of school to become a musician. And I very quickly

found out that being free and broke isn't actually, really

being free. I played gigs and I literally... my first gigs I

played for food. I would literally trade a four-hour

set of piano for a dinner at a restaurant. And I remember

reading Rich Dad Poor Dad, probably '99. '98, '99 is when

I read it. Maybe my buddy... I remember my buddy, Jeremy,

like, dude, you gotta read this book, and then we're

going to play... It was... He knew it was a brochure. He's

like, you gotta read this

book, and then you're going to come over and we're going to

play this game. And he and I bought my very first rental

property together back in 2001 or something, on a credit...

cash advance on a credit card and some craziness. But yeah,

I'm just one story but I know there's millions like that.

So, that is a hell of a legacy. I'm sure I would be an

entrepreneur one way or another, but yeah, that's...

You shaped a whole generation of entrepreneurs, and by the

way, I just have to also acknowledge, you've written

four books with Napoleon Hill Foundation?

Sharon Lechter: Yes.

Jeff Lerner: And how many books did you have a hand in

writing with the Rich Dad Organization?

Sharon Lechter: We wrote, well, 15. I've written a total

of 26 books, so…

Jeff Lerner: And you actually have helped write or written

yourself 26 books?

Sharon Lechter: Mm hmm.

Jeff Lerner: Because I just finished writing a book and I

feel like it almost killed me. So I don't know how you pulled

that off. That's a whole other conversation we need to have,

but especially as an accountant. You've got both

sides of the brain firing. Maybe talk a little bit about

that. Because for me, I know what it took to write a book.

But I know to my audience, still, I've gotten feedback

when I posted about, hey guys, I just finished my book and I

showed a screenshot of the word count. I was like 96,000

words or something, and people are like, how do you write

that much? So, I got... I want to ask you, how do you have

that much to say? What's the secret to being so fecund and

fertile? And, I don't know, maybe you shouldn't ask a

woman about how to be so fertile, but you know what I'm

trying to ask. Anyway.

Sharon Lechter: It's all right. At my age, that's a

safe question. I love to talk about that because I do a lot

of training people on writing. I work with a lot of people on

getting their books done, and sometimes you look at writing

a book as this monumental task. It's just communicating.

And so, you want to write as you would speak. And at the

end of the day, overall, you have a book project. What is

the problem you want to solve, or the need you want to serve

in that book? Just like I talk about your business, your

business solves a problem or serves a need. When you focus

on the end in mind, and you know the journey to get there,

and then you just started breaking it down. You kind of

do the outline and then you start filling it in. What are

the five things that you want to hit towards... five topics

that you want to cover in that book? And then under each

topic, what are the three things within that topic? And

then, what's a story for each of those points? And so, when

you start doing it from that perspective, it doesn't seem

like such a monumental task. And you have the ability to

start pulling it together and realize that you're taking

somebody on a journey. Because when you write a book, think

about a textbook. You read it, it goes to your brain, and

hopefully, at test

time you can regurgitate it, right? Well, when you want a

book that is impactful, moves people, you want them to read

it and involve their heart. It touches their heart. And

that's what makes... that's what inspires them and

motivates them to make change. And you do that through being

vulnerable and telling stories that they can relate to, so

that it engages their emotions. And so, that's... I

take people through this journey all the time on really

understanding. And today, you can write a book that's 20,000

words; it doesn't have to be 50, 60,000 words. But you want

to be able to complete the process of getting that one

point across so that people understand that their life can

be better as a result of reading it.

Jeff Lerner: Yeah. I think that's one really interesting

thing, is that I learned... is I remember a few times kind of

stopping and being like, wait a minute. What is the point?

What is this? What is the one thing that this book is about?

If you think of the best books, like Rich Dad Poor Dad,

for example. For the rest of my life, it's like, poor

people invest in stuff, rich people invest in assets.

That's it. There's probably other takeaways but start with

why. What are the... even Think and Grow Rich, there's

these basic success principles. Everything has a

grounding in one point, at least the good books. And I

know that was really, really useful for me, was to keep

comi--... And every time I felt off or I felt

overwhelmed, that was because I had lost the threat.

Sharon Lechter: You had gone down a rabbit hole.

Jeff Lerner: Yeah. Exactly.

Sharon Lechter: And that happens all the time. People

get into a... they get off onto a tangent. And sometimes

it's okay to do that because you need to get it out of you.

Right? And then you look at that and go, okay, this is

something, this is a perfect bonus. Let's pull this out of

the book. This is a bonus chapter. Right?

Jeff Lerner: Right.

Sharon Lechter: You have to allow... you want to allow

your imagination to just be able to share, and not try and

restrict it too much. Because when I write, I always go over

to the ocean, turn off the phone. I'm by myself looking

at the ocean. It's food for my soul, but then I immerse

myself in what I want to communicate, and it just

Flows.

Jeff Lerner: Yeah. That was... There were elements of that in

my experience. It was a little more hodgepodge because I was

also running a business, and also... Yeah, next time I do

it, I'm going to be really organized about how I do it.

But anyway, yeah. What a wonderful experience. I'm so

impressed. Like I said, you've written 26 books that... I

love it.

Sharon Lechter: So what's good, and I want everybody to

hear this. You just said next time. And so you understand

the success of the project, the pain that you went

through. Now you can streamline it, and the next

one won't be nearly as stressful.

Jeff Lerner: Yeah, and that was another thing somebody

told me early on, is like, Jeff, first of all, get over

this idea that you're writing the greatest non-fiction book

in the history of America, that's going to be your

seminal life's work, and by which you'll be forever

defined. You're just writing a book. Walk into a bookstore

and look around and see how many there are. It's not that

big a deal, you'll probably do it again. Just quit putting so

much pressure on yourself and just write it. And also, the

realizat--... I remember at a certain point going, wait a

minute, this is my book! There's no right or wrong.

There might be more or less effective, and I....

ultimately, I get to be the judge of that and maybe I'll

enlist some professional help, but I can't do it wrong. The

only way to do it wrong is to just stop and not get it done.

So anyway, that was liberating.

Speaking of books, you have a new book, Exit Rich, which I would love to

talk about partly because it's your new book, and I assume

you'd love the world to know you have a new book out. But

also because I really, really believe for the average

person, and this is at the core of why I do what I do

with ENTRE, my education company, that there are a lot

of people who are not in a position necessarily to invest

significantly in the acquisition of cashflow-producing assets.

There's things different people can do depending on

different circumstances, but if you're struggling to find

two nickels to rub together to go buy some Taco Bell, you're

probably not out there acquiring a lot of assets, but

you can build assets. Entrepreneurship is the hack

to create what you cannot afford. And so, I think if

people really understand how you can take value, which

every human has intrinsic value, and the ability to

deliver that value and create the potential energy to create

a transaction through an exchange of that value. We can

all do that. And when you understand that when you...

There's a formula, there's a process, an art, and a science

to doing that in a sequential and structured way, that can

ultimately lead to what you're talking about; an exit. It's

like Bill Gates said, it's not your fault if you were born

poor, but if you die poor, that's on you. This is how

everybody can do it. It's not through a job.

Hey, sorry for the interruption. I just wanted to

let you know you can get a free copy of my book, The

Millionaire Shortcut, which will show you the fastest way

to become a millionaire in the new economy. And there’s a

special ink just for this episode in the description.

Thanks for tuning in, and I hope you enjoy the rest of the

Episode.

A lot of people, and I hear this all the time. There is a

bias, I think a negative bias in the world around

entrepreneurship and business ownership. In terms of, I

guess the word people use is risky. Oh, it's risky. Most

businesses fail and yah dah da. What do you say to that?

What are your thoughts on business risk?

Sharon Lechter: Well, the risk I think in the last couple of

years, has been proven that the risk is much higher when

you have a job. Because you are at the mercy of the

government, your employer, and you're not in control of your

own life. And so, as a business owner, you are the

CEO of your own life. Yes, you're taking a risk, but if

you're doing it correctly, if you're really solving a

problem, you're building something that's adding value

to the world. You're not just exchanging time for money.

Employees exchange time for money. As a business owner,

you're investing your time in buying, and building, and

creating that asset. And so, that is something that will

give you infinite returns. When you're exchanging time

for money, there's only so much income you can make

because there's only so many hours in the day, and only so

many days in the week. So ask yourself, do you want to spend

your time, or do you want to invest your time? And it's not

what you do for your paycheck. If you're employed, there's

nothing wrong with being an employee. It's not what you do

for your paycheck that determines your future, it's

what you do with your paycheck. And everybody can

find five to ten hours a week to invest in starting a

business on the side. Don't quit your day job if you're

dependent on it, but start something on the side that can

build into an income-producing asset.

Jeff Lerner: Amen to that. I love that you answered it

where it's not to say, oh, well yeah, you have to own a

business, it's, you have to own assets. And if you can't

afford to acquire passive assets, then you probably need

to build an active one, right? i.e., start a business. I

just... Yeah, it's crazy to me. And the reality too, that

they just released inflation numbers, and 6.8% is what

they'll admit to right now. Let's say it's between 4 and

8% a year. I think it's technically higher, depending

on how you look... what basket of goods you compare. But the

bottom line is if you're not getting at least a 5% or 6% a

year raise, you're getting poorer every year in terms of

real buying power. So, I think people that think that the

security is in the job, if you were... If inflation wasn't

happening, but they told you every year you work here,

we're going to cut your pay, you would not feel very

secure. But if every year you're not getting a raise at

least equal to inflation, effectively, you're getting a

pay cut every year. How the hell do we sell ourselves that

that's security?

Sharon Lechter: That's right.

Jeff Lerner: Anyhow, I know I'm preaching to the converted

here, but okay. So, Exit Rich. I am really excited to

actually look at that book. Can you maybe talk a little

bit about... because again, we have a big audience out there.

I have an urg--... I would say if I was going to pick one

person out of my audience and say you represent my audience,

it would be an early-stage entrepreneur. A lot of the

people that listen to the show are kind of, I think they're

starting to buy into this rationale, that, hey, business

ownership is, for a lot of people, the best vehicle to

wealth. But there's so much conditioning and inherited

reasoning to overcome for the average person. And so, help

me continue to enroll people in this idea of, when you talk

about if you do it the right way, it's actually much less

risky than throwing your chips in with the employment system.

What do you mean by the right way to start a business?

Sharon Lechter: Well, we don't know what we don't know. And

people that are just starting a business, there's so many

pitfalls. There's so many mistakes to make. And would

you rather learn by making a mistake and losing money, or

would you rather learn by studying successful

businesses? And that's why I wrote Exit Rich. You could

hire me as a mentor, I'm very expensive, but I help people

steer. I steer them around the pitfalls and I accelerate

their speed to success. So, if you don't have a mentor, I

suggest you get one because you need to invest in

yourself. But if you can't afford a mentor today, at

least buy a book, all right? And start reading it, and

understand what really strong businesses look like from the

inside out. And as you educate yourself, Good to Great by Jim

Collins, another great book, Exit Rich; it gives you the

tools to understand things that you need to do from the

beginning, to build that structure into your business

so that you have the greatest and best chance to succeed.

Steve Forbes, a friend of mine, he says, Exit Rich is a

gold mine for entrepreneurs. It is a textbook on how to

build and structure your business so that you have the

highest likelihood of success.

Jeff Lerner: So, I think the stats are something like, I

don't know, 50% of all businesses close in the first

three years or something. You probably know the stat. What's

the big macro stat that everybody doom and glooms

about? If you happen to know.

Sharon Lechter: Well, pretty much 85% of businesses don't

get past the seventh or eighth year. But those stats have

actually changed, and it's even scarier. Businesses that

have been in business for 10 years are failing right and

left. And that's because they have not paid attention to

what's... the dynamics changing in the economy, and

they haven't stayed current. And so, whether you were a

long-term business owner or a new business owner, you need

to pay attention to what's happening in the world. And so

for instance, 40 years ago, the Fortune 500 companies were

85% bricks and mortar, 15% intangible. Today, that's more

than flipped. Close to 90% of the valuation of fortune 500

is intangible, with less than 10% bricks and mortar. Okay,

so the world continues to change. You think of the

Amazon, a lot of intangible assets. Uber, one of the

largest transportation companies, they own no cars.

Airbnb, one of the largest hospitality, they own no

towels. And so, what are you doing to stay up with the

times in creating more intangible value and assets

within your business? And if you don't understand it, then

you need to bring in the right people to help you, the right

mentors. Read the right books, staying on the cutting edge of

business will help you stay on the front of the wave so that

you are in business in 10 years, instead of being

capsized by it.

Jeff Lerner: And I think it's important for people to know,

when we talk about intangible assets, we're not only talking

about software, or apps, or stuff that's technologically

intensive. A service business has a ton of intangible assets

with their good faith, their know-how, their customer

Relationships.

Sharon Lechter: Their brand, their logo, those things like

That.

Jeff Lerner: So, I think that's import--...

Sharon Lechter: Your patents, your copyrights, your

trademarks, your goodwill out there in the world, your

reputation, your competitive advantage has... can come from

every aspect of your business.

Jeff Lerner: Yeah. Even your social media, for example,

intangible assets. So, it's... I think it's interesting. A

lot of people... the concept of entrepreneurship I think is

really... And I know this because I talked to a lot of

young people, right? I have four kids, two teenagers,

about a dozen of their friends at my house at any given time.

And I think I have... my wife is like the cool mom. I have a

decent finger on the pulse of how young people think, and I

think there's a lot of thinking that entrepreneurship

now is all about technological innovation. Right? Because

those are... It's almost like the term has kind of been

hijacked by Fast Company magazine, right? And it's

like, that's all we think of as an entrepreneur, is some

Silicon Valley guy with a second home in Malibu. And

it's like, no, entr--... Just about any traditional business

that we might have thought of from the last hundred years,

there's a way to do it effectively in the modern

world that's leaner, and smarter, and more modernized.

What would you say to people that think that

entrepreneurship is daunting or out of reach, because it

involves kind of this narrow set of technology skills that

most people don't have?

Sharon Lechter: Well, it's true. It's never been easier

to start a business because of the technological advancements

that we have, the ability to have the internet, to have the

ability to market online. But in starting a business, it's

all about providing a solution to someone who they're looking

at. And it could be local, it could be global. And that's

what allows us to compete with the big boys because we have

the internet, so we can compete on a global basis. But

I talk to people that are just trying to get started and I

go, let's take a baby step, okay? If there are companies

out there that you really love and support, join their

affiliate program. Start marketing for them so you get

some cash flow, right? And through that affiliate

program, you start learning the process of internet

marketing with an established brand. And then that cash

flow, you can use that as your seed money to start your own

thing. And now, there's so many platforms that you can

use their systems. That's where I talk about your

systems, your processes. You don't have to create all those

systems yourself. You can have online programs, and you're

using Kajabi or other e-learning programs. They give

you the ability, they have the funnels, they have the ability

for you to tie into that. And so, yes, a lot of online

technology is part of starting a new business, but it's not

the end-all. It's what you do and how you apply it that generates the ability. You can have the greatest product on the world, but if you don't

have the marketing that goes with it, nobody's going to be

able to find you. So, at the end of the day, it's not about

just the profit. It's what is it... what are you doing

that's unique to you that can help someone that they're

going to want to use it, and then tell their friends about

It?

Jeff Lerner: So, yeah, exactly, and a lot... and this

idea. There's plenty of technology out there to grow a

business. You don't need to create technology to have a

business. So, let me ask you this. I like to kind of peel

back the human layers with my guests, and really understand.

You've obviously been pretty fabulously successful, and

it's not just since everybody heard of you. Even before

that, like you said, one of the first female CPAs. You

were rising through those ranks. You've obviously got

some sort of an X-factor. Maybe it's a drive, maybe it's

just incognitive brilliance. It's probably some combination

of things, but can you talk a little bit about where you

think your success was sourced? How did Sharon get

primed to go out into the world and crush it, when,

frankly, most people don't?

Sharon Lechter: Well, thanks for that question, Jeff. And

if I had an answer and could bottle it, I'd be a

billionaire. But I think every night my Dad would ask me,

Sharon, have you added value to someone's life today? He's

been gone 16 years, but I still ask myself that every

night. Have I added value to someone's life today? My

eigh--... I was destined to be a fourth-grade math teacher.

That was my dream, my goal. And my eighth-grade English

teacher told me, Sharon, you're going to be a famous

writer. I thought she was crazy. I was in college in

accounting, and double track, and science, and genetics, and

my housemother said, you're going to be speaking on stage.

And I thought she was crazy. But people that... it's really

important to let young people know that you believe in them.

And I think that's not happening a lot in today's

world. And my parents told me you could be and do anything

you want. And I lived in a world where I was the only

girl in my classes half the time. I was definitely having

to find my way to create success in a man's world, but

I didn't look at it as sexual discrimination. I just said,

okay, I accept the challenge. If I want to succeed, I'm

going to have to work a little harder. And I think it's

really important for each of us to know that today, the

level... the playing field

is level. If you apply yourself and you start finding

those resources to support you, you have the ability to

create success. We are all created uniquely perfect. And

when we start trying to compare ourselves to other

people, we get into trouble. My book, Outwitting the Devil,

that was my second book with the Napoleon Hill Foundation.

It was written by Napoleon Hill in 1938. He intended it

to be the sequel to Think and Grow Rich. His wife was scared

by the title. She forbid it to be published, and it was

locked away for 73 years. And when we released Three Feet

From Gold, Don Green said, I have this manuscript I need

you to see, that he had just gotten delivered by the

family. That's probably the only the fourth or fifth

person to read it. And it was typed on a manual typewriter,

had handwritten notes by Napoleon Hill in the margins.

It was like I was having a conversation with him.

Jeff Lerner: Wow.

Sharon Lechter: And this book changed me. And I said, this

has to get out in the world. And it is just going like

gangbusters around the world. Perfect for the younger

generation because it's in your face, but it talks about

how fear holds us back and keeps us from creating the

success we deserve. Now in Three Feet From Gold, the

first book that I did with the Napoleon Hill Foundation, I

released the personal success equation, and that's combining

your passion and your talent. And that really is all about

us, and most of us stop there, but true success comes from,

times A, power of association. Who's on your team? Who's

around you? Who's your mentor? Do you have the right people

propelling you forward? Times A, taking action. Are you

taking action? How many times do we know what we're supposed

to do, we just don't do it? And then, plus F for faith.

Faith in yourself, faith in what you're doing, faith that

is needed and necessary, and faith that you will succeed.

That personal success equation, and you can go to

personalsuccessequation.com and get a free workbook that I

created. I use with every single one of my clients, with

every talk that I give, because that is the essence.

When I start with working with somebody, it's usually the

power of association that needs the most work, and that

faith and confidence because at F is really fear in their

lives. They're holding themselves

back. And that's what Outwitting the Devil flies in

the face of where that fear came from. The fear of

criticism, a very big one in today. Fear of poverty, fear

of old age, fear of death, and how fear keeps us from

creating the potential that we have, and how to unlock that

potential. To use your phrase, to... He shares the steps to

go through, that definition of purpose. What is your purpose

in life? What is it you want to do? Mastery over self,

having that self-discipline. Learning from adversity. And

then the big one in today's world, controlling your

environment. What are you allowing into your head, into

your space? Who are you listening to? Who are you

hanging out with? Are you allowing that negativity to

burrow into your subconscious? And then controlling your

time. Are you spending your time or are you investing your

time? And our only precious resource; we can make money,

lose it and make it back, but when our time is gone, it's

gone. And so, we go through this process of finding your

ability to determine what your purpose is, and controlling,

and creating, and reaching for the success that you serve

richly deserve. And that fear is so debilitating. And people

have these thoughts in their brain that say, I'm not good

enough. Easy for her to say, some of you may have already

thought that during this interview. Easier for her to

say, or I'm too old, which is now one of my favorite ones. And that's that

negativity, that man-made devil that's in your brain,

keeping you from realizing your potential.

Jeff Lerner: I am... If you notice me looking down, it's

because I'm downloading the audiobook, Outwitting the

Devil right now!

Sharon Lechter: Oh, you will love it. I made them get two

different actors because Outwitting the Devil is like

an interrogation of the Devil. And he's got to show how he

keeps us from creating success.

Jeff Lerner: Oh, so it's kind of like ScrewTape. Have you

read Screwtape Letters?

Sharon Lechter: Yes. Yeah, and I made them get two different

actors. And the Devil's got this gravelly, old voice, and

it's magical. It's like a radio drama, you'll love it.

You'll have to let me know when you hear the story.

Jeff Lerner: Oh, I very much will. Yeah, that's why I seem

distracted. This is so good. I have such bad... If I don't

write it down or do it right now, I'll forget. 15 minutes

when we're done, I would forget to get it. So, I had to

get it right now, which I actually think is one of the

reasons I've been relatively successful in my life, is kind

of the whole the whole Mel Robbins…

Sharon Lechter: It's because you're an action taker.

Jeff Lerner: Yeah, the whole Mel Robbins "Five Second

Rule", I don't give myself five seconds because I'll

forget, or I'll talk myself out of it. Even if I have to

be rude and look off-camera while I'm talking to the great

Sharon Lechter, I will do it now if I need to do it! So, I

also pulled up personalsuccessequation.com.

Very cool. And you just kind of explain the equation.

What... Tell me a little more. So, if I download this guide,

what is this going to help me do?

Sharon Lechter: Well, it's going to help you start

looking at the elements that you have in your life. And

it's going to help you identify areas where you might

need to focus on working on. So, you have your passion,

your talent. Your passion is, what do you care about? My

passion came from anger, we weren't teaching kids about

money in school. My talent, CPA, accounting, and lots of

publishing. And most of us stopped there because we

really... we've been taught to do things on our own. But when

you start thinking about the power of association, and this

one; go deep in, in that workbook. Who do you have

around you? Who are you listening to? Who's supporting

you? Do you have a mentor? Who are your advisors? Who's on

your team? Do you have people on your team who are strong,

where you are weak? And then times action, taking action.

How you do... Are you one that says, I'll do it tomorrow? Or,

you have tons of paper on your desk because you're taking

furious notes, but you never look at them again. Right?

Taking action. And then, plus faith, having that confidence

in yourself and how can you build that faith? And so, in

this workbook, I help. I go through each one of these, so

that you can dial in on what you need to do to create the

next best chapter.

Jeff Lerner: Yeah, that's really interesting. I love

frameworks, frameworks are just so great. So, I'm going

to write this down. You had passion, talent, action,

Association…

Sharon Lechter: And faith.

Jeff Lerner: ...and faith. Okay. So, I'm going to grade

myself real quick. My passion. I... My passion came from

being bullied as a kid. And this sense that in the school

system, if you don't fit in, you feel like there's no path

or no future for you. It's the most isolating feeling in the

world. We wonder why suicides are on the rise, why kids'

emotional and psychological health is deteriorating. I see

how social media, in many ways, has made it worse.

Although, I don't think it's as bad as some people do. But

yeah, my fight is, hey, there's gotta be a place for

all the misfits in this world, because it... we're the crazy

ones, right? We're the ones Steve Jobs was talking about.

So, stop making us feel like we're a problem, or that we're

baggage that you'd be better off without, Mr. Society.

Right? Talent, I think I bounced around to a lot of

things. I had musical talent that didn't necessarily pay

very well, but when I figured out my... kind of what my

certain core talents are now, and I've really gone hard into

them, businesses has really taken off. I'm a massive

action taker, pretty high self-belief. Faith is the

substance of what is hoped for in the certainty of what is

not seen, is one of my favorite verses that I repeat

to myself endlessly. But association, it's interesting

you say that. I can say that my business stock has risen

more in the last two years, than in 20 years previously.

I've been a full-time entrepreneur since I was 16

because I started putting myself out there, and I

started reaching out and networking, and doing things

like this. I started a podcast. I started shopping

the idea of a book, and I started building

relationships. And now when you Google me, you see me and

it's crazy. People think it's rocket science, but you see me

interviewing Grant Cardone, or you see me interviewing James

Altucher, or you see me interviewing Sharon Lechter.

And it's like, yeah, well, you never get what you don't ask

for. Have you asked Sharon for an interview? Have you asked

Grant for an interview? Have you asked whoever for an

interview? Well, it's... but that association, you... You

just kind of really, really made me realize, okay, I can

go through this list. Passion, talent, action, association,

and faith, and say, where can I sprinkle the most fairy dust

to create the most multiplication? And for some

people, if it's not working, it's probably because one of

those five things is broken. Is that a true statement?

Sharon Lechter: Absolutely. Always. I use that as my

standard guide when I'm working with my clients.

Figure out, how can we get you to the next level? And…

Jeff Lerner: So, if you take that and you map it over the

six Ps, then it's like, whatever you're missing... One

thing I've really learned is you can cover a lot of gaps

with people in a way that association, it's not all...

It's not just, oh, well was my... did I share a stage with

Les Brown and got my picture taken, or something? It can

be, do I have people in my organization that I'm

associated with, who maybe are better at firing up the troops

than I am? Or maybe they have different talents than I do.

Or maybe they, frankly, are better action takers; or

they're more organized action takers. They're better

integrators than I am. A lot of association can be

internal, too.

Sharon Lechter: Absolutely. Power of association is who's

on your team inside and out. And it's really important as

you build your business to understand the people that

will be there to get you to the next level. All of my

success from talking books, from Rich Dad, came through

the power of association. Instead of trying to build

something myself, when I wanted to do Rich Dad

coaching, I found the best coaching company out there. I

did a deal with them where we use their people, their

systems, their phone systems, but it was all Rich Dad

themed, and Rich Dad quality control. And so, things... how

can you get into speed to market is a big deal today.

And so, it's important to understand the power of

association, the power of licensing, the power of

quality control.

Jeff Lerner: So, can I shift gears?

Sharon Lechter: Sure.

Jeff Lerner: We've got about seven, eight minutes left. The

time in your life when you felt the most in crisis, and

how you overcame it.

Sharon Lechter: Well, that was nine years ago; we lost our

youngest son. And I was about to go on stage to speak in Las

Vegas, and I got the phone call, and it was the worst

six-hour drive home in ever. And it threw me into what I

call neutral. I played big my entire life, and when...

you're not supposed to outlive your children, and I went into

a world of numb for several years. Still working but

playing very small. Still speaking, but I really had

kind of withdrawn inside myself. Talk about power of

association, it's about the only thing that reasonably I

survived because people wouldn't let me go away. And

about five years ago, I thought about just retiring,

saying, I just... this... I hadn't... I was not able to

get past the grief. And when I started talking about it, I

got a lot of pushback from family and friends. And I

think I even heard my son in my ear, saying, "Get over it,

Mom, there's more for you to do." And I realized when I was

started being honest about it and being vulnerable, I

impacted many more people. People were coming out of the

woodwork, saying, "My gosh, I can't believe you've been

through that. I have too, I need help." And it's something

that... I launched a private Facebook group called "The

Play Big Movement with Sharon Lechter". And I did that

because I made the decision to play big again.

And when I did that, amazing things happened. The

get-motivated stage came to me. I was asked to be in the

Think and Grow Rich legacy movie. I was highlighted in

the World's Greatest Motivators television series.

I was just in Dave Meltzer's TV program. All of it because

I made myself open to the possibilities again. And

that's what I want people to understand, to really unlock

your potential, right? The whole Play Big Movement is

about being number one in your field. Living your legacy

because your legacy is created every single day with every

heart you touch and creating maximum impact. And so, it's

totally organic. There's not a sales pitch, it's free to

join, but it's people helping each other see that bigger

vision. Because if you're here, we to go around this

world once in this embodiment. Let's make the greatest

impact. Let's add the greatest value. And so, yeah, it's real

easy for me to answer that question. And things that used

to worry about me, that'd keep me up at night. Once you had

something like that happen, it does... it redefines what

stress is. But in the last couple of years, a lot of

people have had things that stopped them in their tracks.

It's been death, divorce, financial setback, and

illness. And I'm here to tell you, you're still here for a

reason. And whatever you've been through, you have

survived, and you now have the ability to share and help

other people that are going through the same thing. And

so, I want to support you in turning that mess into your

message, into your miracle, because you have the ability

to help people. And you're stronger for it, and there's

more for you to do.

Jeff Lerner: Well, I'm so glad I asked. Obviously, I'm not so

glad to hear what the answer was, but man, if I've learned

anything, it's that ours is not to reason why. We don't

know how it all works, and all the good that may have come

from that, I... I'm glad I asked, like I said, and thank

you for doing that work. And this is a time when people...

And it's messed up out there. We shouldn't go down that

rabbit hole for sure, but the world needs this kind of

united center of growth and disrupt, belief in the

disruptive power of human beings. But also, as a

galvanizing and unifying force to bring people together

because what... It's weird. It's like, what makes us

different is also what brings... what should bring us

together. And it seems like we're trying to come together

around sameness when we should be coming together around

Differentness.

Sharon Lechter: Around uniqueness. Uniqueness, yeah.

So, when COVID hit, I just... I was so upset with all the

negativity, and all the fear and all the people scared to

death. And so, I actually launched something called ATM,

which is a daily message of abundance, tips, and

mentorship. And you can go to atm.sharonlechter.com. There's

a minimal charge, but it's somebody every single day. I

wanted to give people a message of positivity, a

message of, you are fabulous. And that I, and every single

one of them, having you say, I am fabulous, because we need

to invest in each other. We need to lift each other up.

And I wholeheartedly agree with you, Jeff, there's way

too much mental health issues. There's way too many children

out there that feel less than. They don't feel... they don't

stand in their own power. We've got to give them the

opportunity to understand how beautiful they are, just the

way they are, and get them to understand that they need to

stand in their own power. And it is an epidemic, and we have

to take the bull by the horn and start focusing on adding

value, and supporting each other, and supporting our

children to learn that self-confidence. To understand

that they are beautiful and perfect just the way they are.

And they have the opportunity to create the future that they

want, and not judge themselves by someone else.

Jeff Lerner: Yeah. And I think it's really important for...

I'd like to add to what you just said. That's not just a

feel-good p--... call it a personal-development message.

There is a commercial, a tangible commercial value in

understanding that your differences are your unique

assets. And that if you... Overcoming fear is not just a

way to feel better, it actually is a way to make more

money. It really is. I want to boil the water out of that pan

and have people understand; we are not just talking about

some feel-good message. A lot of my listeners are like, how

do I make more money? How do I get ahead in life? How do I

solve practical problems? Overcoming fear, and limiting

beliefs, and self-doubt and low self-worth is a... It's

almost like a line-item on your balance sheet, or it's a

line-item on your liabilities; your fear, and self-doubt.

It's costing you money every day. So, anyway, I just kind

of wanted to echo that. I know, Sharon, we're

unfortunately out of time. I want to make sure... you

mentioned personalsuccessequation.com.

Obviously, your website is sharonlechter.com. You

mentioned your new book, Exit Rich, which is available

everywhere books are sold, I'm sure. Is there anything else

that you'd like to invite people to come check out?

Sharon Lechter: Well, reach out to me,

info@sharonlechter.com. I'd love to hear from everybody.

We're involved in all kinds of different things, whether it

be real estate, or time management programs, but reach

out, info@sharonlechter. I'd love to hear from all of you.

And I mentioned the daily messaging, you can go to

atm.sharonlechter.com to learn more about that. But at the

end of the day, I still do what I do because I care, and

I want to support people. I don't do it... I've been

financially free since I was 38, and that was a long time

ago. But I love what I do. I am fed every single day by the

letters, and the emails, and texts that I get from people

who have found that one thing that can help them take

themselves to the next level. And that's what I want to do

for each and every one of you.

Jeff Lerner: If you loved that episode, then you’re

definitely going to love this one. Check it out.

Jenn Lim: Pretty much every company has a mission

statement, purpose statement. But how much are they really

living by them? How much are every employee, every

individual actually aligning their own personal value and

purpose to that of the company? Because that’s when

the magic happens.

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