Success Left a CLUE. Robert Raymond Riopel

[00:00:30] Bob Wheeler: Welcome to another episode of Money You Should Ask, where everyone has something they can teach you. I’m your host, Bob Wheeler. In this episode, we are going to explore why we do what we do when it comes to money. As a CPA for the past 30 years, wait, let me say 25, because that makes me sound younger. I have seen it all when it comes to money and emotions.

And if you think I’m talking about my clients, I’m not, I’m talking about myself. My relationship with money has been, and sometimes still is an emotional rollercoaster. Maybe that’s something you’re also familiar with. Good news. You and I are not the only ones. Our next guest is going to share their money beliefs, money blocks, and life challenges as well.

Buckle your seatbelt and enjoy the ride.

Our next guest is Robert Riopel. Now this guy is an international best-selling author, app designer, entrepreneur and trainer, who has spent the past 18 years traveling around the world, sharing his passion. He has also shared the stage with and trained many of the top trainers and thought leaders in the world today with this high energy and heartfelt style.

Robert draws on his journey from humble beginnings to financial freedom at the age of 32 to inspire individuals into tapping into their greatness. Realizing that he is not the only person that struggles, Robert’s clues open individuals up to the possibilities that lie within them, which allows him to connect with other.

And the book is sitting on top of his head right now, called, Success Left a Clue. So Robert welcome. Yeah.

[00:02:22] Robert Riopel: Thanks Bob. And that way it stays top of mind for me. You see? And that way I can’t forget about it.

[00:02:28] Bob Wheeler: Oh, there’s a book. There’s a book. That’s right. So how are you doing today?

[00:02:32] Robert Riopel: Oh, man, I am feeling blessed to be here because the moment I know that someone knows how to have fun. I am ready to rock and roll because one of my beliefs is there’s way too many serious people on this planet. And life’s too short. Not to have fun.

[00:02:46] Bob Wheeler: You got to have a little bit of fun, gotta have a little bit of fun. You know, one of the things Robert that I really liked about when I was reading your bio and just reading up on you, you made this observation that other people struggle too..

[00:02:57] Robert Riopel: Yes.

[00:02:58] Bob Wheeler: That it’s not just you. And so that led you somewhere. Can you talk a little bit about that? Because I think it’s so important for those people out there that are saying .

[00:03:08] Robert Riopel: Yeah. Yeah. And that’s why I’ve spent the last 18 plus years helping people understand, because one of the things our mind does the most to us,to try to isolate us to keep a separate is to say, no one else goes through the same thing.

And when you understand that there are other people going through the same things that brings community together, and it takes your mind and goes, “wrong answer.” I’m not the only one. And I realized that when my wife and I, as Domino’s pizza franchisees at a young age, 23, we buy our first stores.

We shouldn’t have been able to afford them. And even for the first two years, we knew how to run a store, but we didn’t know how to run a business. Two totally different things. Bob, you talk about money. Here was our financial idea of success. If there’s money in the bank, we must be doing okay. We couldn’t afford an accountant.

So we told herself we’re working 80 hours a week each in the store. And of course, we’re going to do our own bookkeeping. Wrong answer not happening. Right? So after two years, when the IRR, the CRA here in Canada is knocking on the door going, hello, you run a business, we need paperwork. And we finally hire an accountant and they do up the books and we get caught up and they look at us and they’re going, “how did you guys survive these last two years?

There’s no way you should have been able to make it.” And I’ll tell you, luckily, back then ignorance was bliss. Because we are too tenacious to give up. And when we got the numbers figured out, we started doing pretty good, but then all of a sudden we did something Bob, that probably you’ve never heard of anybody at doing.

I hope you don’t get shocked by this. I’m going to just try to give it to you as softly as I can. We started spending more money than we were earning, and I hope that doesn’t shock you too much? Because I know we’re probably the only ones that have ever done that.

[00:04:48] Bob Wheeler: That’s crazy. Nobody’s ever done that spend more than you make.

[00:04:54] Robert Riopel: Right?

[00:04:55] Bob Wheeler: Oh my goodness. One of the things that you talked about though, and I think this often works, ignorance is bliss. Right. If you don’t know that you can’t do this business and you just go out and do it, sometimes you can be really successful if you don’t know that you can’t do it.

[00:05:10] Robert Riopel: Absolutely. Because combined with our passion and our tenacity, both my wife and I, and you talk about mindset.

Why people handle money the way they do. We both came from poor families and when money was tight, I never went without my parents made it work. When times were good and money came in, we just spent it. Cause that’s what you do to enjoy life. And so when our stores were really tight, we made it work. It wasn’t like, well, how are you gonna pay for this?

Don’t know we’re going to make a work. Well, you guys have to renovate the store. And we’re like, well, we can’t afford contractors. Well, what are you going to do? While we’d closed the store at midnight or 1:00 AM, hop on ladders until 8:00 AM, 9:00 AM painting and redoing the stores ourselves. Put hot bags under our ovens, sleep for a few hours, get up and do it all over again until the renovations were done, because if we can’t afford to do it, we just need to get it done.

And so that tenacity was a big thing. So, of course, when we figured it out and started making some money, our mind goes, now it’s time to reward you. You’ve done the hard work. Spend, spend, spend. And that’s what got us into financial trouble. Here we are eight years into being franchisees, we’re now over $150,000 in personal debt and going down quickly and stressed out beyond belief because I’ve never experienced a stress like financials stress.

And I imagine some of your listeners can relate to that. Not wanting to answer the phone because it’s a debt collector. You’ll afraid for my staff to answer a phone, to take an order, fearing that it might be a debt collector calling the store, try to track us down. It’s a time of my life a whole lifetime ago. Learned a lot of lessons from that plain and simple.

[00:06:51] Bob Wheeler: Yeah. And I think it’s important that you named that, that it’s learning a lesson, not experiencing a failure, as some people say, oh my God, we failed. Or it was just the worst. Well, there was some silver lining in that worst experience. You mentioned that you and your wife both came from poor backgrounds, and I know you talk about humble beginning.

Do you think that it helped that you both came from similar backgrounds. And did scarcity play any role in this? Because poor is not the same as poverty.

[00:07:21] Robert Riopel: It’s hard to say how I’d answer that. Because even though we had similar backgrounds, we had totally different upbringings and ways of thinking about things.

See, I was taught here’s the box don’t question, the box. Don’t think outside the box. And for example, when it comes to work, whether you like the job or not, If it’s secure and provides an income, you do whatever it takes to support your family. So that was my upbringing, my wife, she was like, what box? Why are we being held in by a box?

Let’s just get rid of the damn thing. And so, because of that dichotomy between the two of us, a lot of similarities, but thank goodness enough differences that cause look left to my own devices. I would be still in a job miserable in that job, but I’d be comfortable because this is what you do, right. But thank goodness, my wife will not let me play smaller than I am.

It’s a gift she gives me even when I resist and it’s a gift, I give her back as well. Because here we are over $150,000 in debt. We’re stressed out and we get introduced to personal development. And to me, that was just way out there. Whatever we don’t need it, but because of the stress, it’s like someone gave us tickets to an event and we decide to go and from three hours it changed our life.

And we went to a three-day event, which taught us why we’re handling money the way we did and why we were in debt. But more importantly, it taught us to take responsibility. You see, I was good at playing. They lost my money in the investment. It’s not my fault. It’s their fault. No, you’re the one that gave them the money.

[00:08:53] Bob Wheeler: Right?

[00:08:53] Robert Riopel: You didn’t do your due diligence. And from that taking ownership, we are now able to start making changes. And that’s what allowed us to walk out of this training, put into action. What we’d actually learned, and next thing, you know, we’re going from $150,000 in personal debt to actually being retired completely financially free nine months later at the age of 32.

[00:09:13] Bob Wheeler: That’s awesome. And do you think in your mindset part about staying inside the box, do you think that was mostly family environment. Was it cultural? You’re from Canada. So they tend to be a little bit more collective of a society versus individual. So like, what are the flavors that had you in this mindset?

[00:09:35] Robert Riopel: I don’t know where you’re getting that idea of Canadians. Canadians, we are just like Americans in so many ways and there’s individuality and beliefs and- No, it came from family. Because my family was never entrepreneurial. Follow the rules. Get a job. And it’s interesting because if I trace it back, my dad, who’s a second oldest of 10 kids. He’s really the only one that didn’t become an entrepreneur.

Wow. Because for him, safety was in a job, but, where all his brothers and sisters are pretty much all entrepreneurs. Right. And it comes down to look. It’s the simplest little things. My dad Catholics. My mum, one of eight Protestant family. When they met and married, both families disowned them because they married outside their religion.

Right. And so they both went into, we’ll isolate, we’ll just put our noses down. We’ll take care of her family, had four kids work, work, work, work. And that’s what I learned. See, they were telling me with their words, Robert, you can do whatever you put your mind to. You can succeed at whatever it is you want to succeed at, but what they were modeling for us,

was, we were moving. I never spent more than six months in any one school until about grade four, because we were always having to move because mom and dad were having to find new jobs because the economy was terrible at that time. Wow. And so what they were modeling was different, what they were telling me.

And of course, what do kids do they follow more of? What’s being modeled. You may tell them don’t do this, but if you’re doing something they’re going to follow what you’re doing.

[00:11:04] Bob Wheeler: That’s right.

[00:11:05] Robert Riopel: And that’s what I learned. And that’s how I, I learned.

[00:11:07] Bob Wheeler: Yeah. I think that’s so important for people to realize that we often do more of what our parents did, not what they said, right.

Because that’s the unconscious part is, oh, do it in this way. If you think about childhood now, and you look at success now and all the work that you did to get where you are, are there any childhood vowel? Or beliefs that were hard to let go of like that belief of you can’t get outside the box or it’s not possible to get ahead.

Is there anything that you particularly remember saying, oh my gosh, I did not know that was in my unconscious.

[00:11:44] Robert Riopel: Oh, where do I start?

But yeah, like one of the big ones, when both my wife and I announced that we are going to become franchisees, because here we are, we’re working. By 21. I’ve been laid off from three different companies and my mind’s going, I’m doing what I was taught. Work hard, stay loyal, but yet, I keep getting laid off. And out of necessity,

I start delivering pizzas. From delivering, I become a manager because of my work ethic. My wife becomes my assistant and also in a year and a half later we’re qualified to be franchisees. And I don’t know how much you know about Domino’s pizza, Bob, but you cannot just buy a franchise. You actually have to successfully manage a store for at least a year, meet a bunch of criteria.

And if you do, you qualify.

[00:12:27] Bob Wheeler: Right.

[00:12:27] Robert Riopel: They will waive the upfront franchise fee, but you still have to be able to buy or build a store. And so a year and a half in we’re qualified now to be franchisees. And all of a sudden we get the news. My franchisee says, I’ve decided I’m getting out of dominoes. I’m selling the store.

And so my mind goes to, oh crap, here we go again. And my thinking is we have to phone the other franchisees and find a new store to manage because that’s my programming. Right? You work for someone else. And my wife looks at me and she goes, well, why would we do that? Why don’t we just buy the store? And I look at her, I’m like, cause we don’t have any money.

That’s why we don’t buy the store. But because of our passion and willingness to learn, we started making a lot of mistakes.. And look, I look back now, hindsight being 2020, there is no mistakes. There is no failure, only feedback, right? Some of the greatest lessons come from what did not work in your life. And so we made a lot of mistakes, but until we learned and had the confidence of what to say and what not to say, and while we’re doing this, we’re announcing to our families, we’re going to become franchisees.

And they’re looking at us like, we’re crazy because they’re like, no, you’ve got to have a job. What about the security? What if it doesn’t work out, then it doesn’t work out. But what are you going to do? I don’t know. Well, you can’t do that. Yeah, we can. And so we were battling against the whole family’s beliefs, so it was something we definitely had to let go of and own ourselves and believe in ourselves.

[00:13:52] Bob Wheeler: Yeah. I think that’s so important when you talk about that with family, because we do care about what they think. Most of us. And we do take on the whole energy. Well, I mean, some people are like, I could care less mom and dad, and that’s maybe healthy, but we carry that in and we don’t want to disappoint them or we might feed into their doubts.

Like, what if we, oh, what are people going to say? Right. Cause that’s a reflection on them. So, how did you push through that and say, yeah, we hear you. And here we are, because there has to be something in eight or something in you that says I’m going to trust this process even though nobody else does.

[00:14:32] Robert Riopel: Yeah. And that’s where I’m a big believer in surrounding yourself with growth minded. And there’s a difference between like-minded and growth minded. And I want to make that distinction because this is something I just, even in the last year, a mentor really put a new perspective on it, a growth minded person.

Like-minded if you’re surrounded by like-minded people that are complainer’s, you’re going to be complainer. And so if we just stayed around our family, that you have to get a job, we would’ve just kept in a job. But we had started to associate with growth minded people who are sitting there saying you can do it.

And here’s why. Here’s some things you can do. And a growth minded person is the person that’s going to be there to pick you up. If you fall, there’ll be your greatest cheerleader when you’re successful, but they’re also in the best part, they’re the ones that are willing to have the tough conversations with you when needed.

Like get your head out of your butt and step up and quit playing the victim and just take another step because anytime we’d get shut down, trying to find financing, I get really frustrated and want to quit. And my wife and other people in our lives, I would go, no, you’re not quitting. And that’s why I say left to my own devices.

Bob, I would have, but because I had these growth minded people around me kicking me in the ass when needed. And I’d be, of course I would take it so well when they kicked me in the ass, I’d be, oh yeah, not at, but they didn’t allow my resistance to deter them from really keeping us on track. So that is critical.

And that’s why ultimately we turned our lives around financially. My whole dream to be where I am today was if I can help one person, even just one person do what my wife and I had done go from being financially stressed out to financially free. It would make it all worth it. ’cause I’m a big believer you give back.

You don’t just take, take, take, and it’s allowed me to now live my passion and do what I love and personally train over half a million people. How to get the same kind of results. I’ve been blessed. Yeah,

[00:16:25] Bob Wheeler: Absolutely. So there’s two thoughts that I have. One is like, I got to talk to your wife. That’s the first thought that comes to me.

[00:16:33] Robert Riopel: I was like, what are you interviewing me?

[00:16:34] Bob Wheeler: You chose well. No, but the more important question, the serious question is why isn’t everybody out there just having the life they want. Why isn’t everybody just out there in nine months, turning things around, like you’re out there talking to people you’re out there doing workshops.

You’re out there, motivating people. It just, shouldn’t be so easy. We all know better.

[00:16:56] Robert Riopel: Yeah. But it’s called that comfort zone and let’s go back to family. When I first started learning on my wife and I were seeing change, we’d come back, like the happy little child, like, oh my God, you should see what just happened.

Frauds, you guys got to do the same thing. And because they’ve known us our whole lives, they’re like, get back. You’re the babies. What do you know? Right. Right. And we had to learn to only be sharing our dreams with people who have the power to bring them to reality, not the people that are only going to try and tear them down.

And the interesting turn is when we let go of trying to convince everybody to do it, because there’s just some people you’ll never, it’s not for them. And I’m okay with that. But when I was trying to get those people to do it, it was a tough journey. Talk about slogging through and fighting an uphill battle.

But the moment I changed my mindset, when you know what the people who are ready and looking for this. They’re the ones that are going to get my energy. All of a sudden it became much more easy, elegant, and fun. And because I let go of trying to convince people that their life could change all of a sudden, then the family starts coming to us going, Hey, I think one of my favorite times I’m at dinner with my in-laws because we family’s big.

And we have a lot of dinners together. We had tried to convince my mother and my father-in-law. You got to go to this preview I’m doing. And they’re like, no, no, no. For years. And one day we’re having dinner and all of a sudden out of the blue, my mother-in-law goes, do you still do that money thing? She knew we did. And I’m eating and I’m just, yeah, she goes, and here was her exact question.

Why don’t you ever invite us to it? And I’m like, so on the upside, I’m like, okay. And on the inside, I’m like, WHAT? Because she’s showing interest. So I’m trying to keep calm and eat, you know, just keep calm and keep eating on. And I’m like, would you like to go? And she’s and again, inside, I’m just like, wow, but I’ve tried to stay calm and cool.

Cause if I look excited, she’s going to change her mind.

[00:18:52] Bob Wheeler: She’s going to swim. She’s going to leave.

[00:18:54] Robert Riopel: And she goes, okay, do you think I could get a ticket? Now, here’s the funny thing, Bob, I’m running the darn event. I know she can get a ticket, but I decided to do the takeaway. I look at it and go. I don’t know.

I’ll have to see and get back to you.

See the moment it became her idea. And that’s what holds so many people back. If it’s someone else’s idea, the mind has been conditioned for most people to find every reason why it’s wrong, why it won’t work, you know, is it just get rich quick? What is it? But the moment it becomes their idea, then they’re investing.

That’s the difference right there. Yeah. That’s when people can make change. So until they decide that they want it, it doesn’t matter what I say or how great the information. They may need it, but until they want it, there’s no point in trying to,

[00:19:46] Bob Wheeler: Yeah. You know, when I work with people, one of the first things I say is, are you willing to feel uncomfortable? Are you willing to do the work? And some people actually say, no, I’m not. And we’re done exactly.

[00:19:56] Robert Riopel: Can’t you do it for me? No.

[00:19:59] Bob Wheeler: Can I read half the book and get half the success? I don’t need all of it. The other piece that I think that’s really important to name it, I’m sure I’ve said this before, but we can’t take everybody with us.

And I think this was hard for me. I thought I had to bring everybody along so that I wouldn’t feel guilty about my success. I wouldn’t feel guilty in my choices. Cause look, I’m bringing everybody with me. Yeah. And I think for me, there’s a little bit of grief there. Just a little bit,

[00:20:26] Robert Riopel: just a little bit, a little bit.

[00:20:29] Bob Wheeler: Yeah. Right. It’s hard because we want to bring them and it’s our journey.

[00:20:34] Robert Riopel: It sounds like you and I have so much in common because that’s exactly what it was. You’re talking to since the Olympics just finished, you’re talking to, I’m actually a gold medalist in the people pleasing Olympics, gold medalist.

[00:20:49] Bob Wheeler: Gold medalist several times.

[00:20:51] Robert Riopel: Right. And I was like that last little puppy dog, especially if I wanted you to like me, it was like, please, please, please. Like me and people will be like, get away from me. You freak. Yeah, because I was trying so hard and it wasn’t until I realized this is my journey. Their journey is their journey. And I can only be me.

And when I’m me and I’m authentic, and this to me is the greatest gift anybody can be to give the world is be themselves because when you’re yourself, either people are going to like you or they don’t. And if they like you, that’s awesome. If they don’t. That’s awesome. Because then we quit wasting all our energy because I only want to be with people who like me for who I am, not who they want me to be, but yet I had always been attracted to the people who wanted me to be someone different.

So I tried to be that person and no wonder I was miserable. No wonder if things weren’t working out the moment I became. I’m always blown away by the people who are actually attracted to my energy and want to get to know me for who I am, not who they want me to be in. It’s that energy released off the shoulders, the weight off the shoulders, what a big difference that makes.

And so, yeah. Is it seemed like everybody could change. They can, but until they wanted enough, they’re not going, why am I taking on their burden?

[00:22:07] Bob Wheeler: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it’s all about the pain point. When is it painful enough to say I’m ready to move out of this position.

[00:22:16] Robert Riopel: Yep, absolutely.

[00:22:17] Bob Wheeler: I’m going to go back to your personal finances.

I’m going to bring that your wife back in do, do you and your wife have conversations about money? Do you have arguments about money? How do you handle conversations with your wife about family finance?

[00:22:34] Robert Riopel: Yes. Yes. And lots of. Because when we were in debt, I was trying to hide how bad things were. You know, I remember when it came to the, kind of the shifting point for us here, we are at this training and there’s more programs being offered.

And there’s a package that both of us could do in his 12 grand. And my wife is like, she’s running the back to sign up for it. And I’m like, we can’t afford it. We can’t afford it, stop it. We can’t afford it. And I’m getting frustrated as hell. And it’s the final day. And the big package has offered. That’s everything that we’d already registered by cheaper, not and, or put registration in, but hadn’t paid for.

And she’s like, we’re signing up for this. I’m like, no, we’re not. And I finally decided, because she knew we were in debt, but she didn’t know we were $150,000 in debt. And I finally made the realization. I have to be upfront with her how bad it is. So at the lunch break, we’re out having lunch. And I said, look, I need to tell you just how bad things are.

And I took a deep breath because I knew she can be very explosive. Hell hath, no fury like a woman’s scorned. So I took that deep breath in and I said, you know, we’re in debt, but I want you to understand we’re actually over $150,000 in debt. And then I braced first words out of her mouth. She said, thank you for telling.

Second words out of her mouth is,” I already knew.” Of course she knew, but see, in my mind she didn’t. And then the third thing she said is, do you want to sign up for the trainings? And I went, thought you went off her rocker, Bob. I said, I just told you how deep in debt we are and you still want to do these trainings.

And she said, what did we just learn? Instead of saying, I can’t afford it, which is lack mindset, ask ourselves, how can we afford it? And one of the reasons, you know, I’ll tell you, I am. We met when we were 13, started dating when we were 16, got married when we were 19 and we just celebrated our 32nd wedding anniversary.

Awesome. So don’t do my age. Don’t figure out how old I am. Okay. If there’s something my wife truly wants, I will move heaven and earth to make it a reality. So I pulled out and I don’t suggest this to people, but what I did is I had my five credit cards and I had them all on speed. Dial on my phone. And you being financial guy probably know why I had him on speed dial because I had to know how much I had on each card.

And I was playing credit card roulette card. One would pay the minimum for two, two would pay the minimum for three. We were living off our credit cards and I phoned up each one to find out if I maxed them out, how much money I come up with. And I’m a big believer that everything happens the way it’s supposed to, and that reason’s there to serve me when I added it all up.

We had just enough that if I maxed all five. We could afford these courses because they had to be paid in full up. And I went back and I said, we need to have a conversation is doable right now. But here’s what it means. We won’t have money for food and gas. So we’ll be at the store, more eating at the store.

Lot of pizza trading pizza for other foods because the store has, you know, I’m very good at that. I had every restaurant in the area on trade. I could trade pizza for Chinese food. One day chicken, the next day burgers. The next day I had everybody on trade. I had it down to a fine art and I said, are we willing to do.

And we made the decision that we would, that we would do it at, by making that decision and taking that action changed our life. Because even though the next nine months was hard work and was making a lot of changes in our life, we ended up returning financially free. So it wasn’t a good investment on our time.

Yes. So from that point forward, my wife and I, we make sure we openly discuss finance. Where are we at? Because we manage our money. We make sure that we are going to be financially. Okay. No matter what economy we’re in, I’m a big believer. Create your own economy. Quit relying on the government’s. Quit relying on business and jobs to give you a pension, create your own damn economy, because then you can be fine no matter what’s going on.

And so, yes, lots of. Yeah,

[00:26:34] Bob Wheeler: Absolutely. And I think the thing that I want to reiterate here is you’re co-piloting right. You actually said, do you want to continue signing up for the course? It was an engaged, real conversation where two people are actually free to say yes or no, versus this is what we’re doing and you better listen to what I say.

Okay. I think, because it sounds like when you were able to share what you had been hiding, that there was enough space created that there was trust and a willingness to actually be in the moment about the situation, rather than just connect with her rage or her disappointment, but to really be engaged with you in, are we in this to win it?

Are we in this to like have our life be what it is? Or are we here to be right or wrong? Correct. Because I find a lot of couples love to be right or wrong.

[00:27:22] Robert Riopel: Yeah. You’ve hit it right on the head. Exactly. Yeah.

[00:27:25] Bob Wheeler: And it’s so important for people out there. If you’re in a relationship, whether it’s with another person, with your kids, with your parents, don’t hide information.

It’s going to come out. Yeah. And it’s harmful because it’s not a real give and take relationship when you’re hiding pieces of information that are critical. That the other person needs to know you’re not fully engaged.

[00:27:50] Robert Riopel: 100 %.

[00:27:52] Bob Wheeler: So I just heard the ding we are at our fast five is we’re going to change the energy just a second.

And I could talk for a couple more hours and I want to talk to your wife, but anyway, we’re going to jump into the fast. So Robert, what types of purchases do you think are worth going into debt?

[00:28:09] Robert Riopel: Oh, there’s good debt. Here’s my belief on investments. I don’t care if you’re making a 1% or a thousand percent return.

Every investment is risky. If you don’t know about it and you don’t do your due diligence to understand it. And so for me, I don’t mind going into debt. Like as an example, when mortgage rates went way down, we bought our one. And also mortgage rates dropped and our equity went up. I took out a loan at 2.2% because I was the second mortgage G for other people getting 13%.

So to me, that was a good debt.

[00:28:41] Bob Wheeler: Yeah, absolutely. And I do think it’s important to distinguish between good and bad debt. And then also. You did your research about the course and you had a sense, this was going to be a good investment, and then you decided to go for it, knowing what it would cost you emotionally, physically, mentally, and all that stuff.

Yes. If you don’t know that, if you just sign up for a course and go, wow, it sounded really good. And they’re selling you snake oil, may not have been such a good investment. If you had to describe your relationship with money using one emoji, what emoji would describe your relationship?

[00:29:13] Robert Riopel: Back then? Number two, we are number two. We’re number two. But now I would say the emoji I would use is one that not a lot of people know because it’s my emoji. It’s called a clue Moji, which we just got trademarked, which looks like me in an emoji stance.

[00:29:34] Bob Wheeler: He got a clue. I love it. I love it. Do you believe in the old adage, a penny saved is a penny earned?

[00:29:42] Robert Riopel: No.

[00:29:43] Bob Wheeler: And why not?

[00:29:44] Robert Riopel: Because too many people just save, save. They don’t invest and look, the Egyptians proved you can’t take it with you when you leave. Cause someone’s just going to dig it up later.

[00:29:55] Bob Wheeler: Exactly. Somebody else will take it from you when you leave. What’s your worst financial habit?

[00:30:01] Robert Riopel: Oh my goodness.

I like my toys. And so if there’s a toy I want, I will find a way to get it. If I truly want it. We love going back country quadding with family. And so I can have some very expensive tastes when it comes to what kind of side-by-side or quad,

[00:30:22] Bob Wheeler: But well worth it.

[00:30:23] Robert Riopel: Yes, of course.

[00:30:25] Bob Wheeler: What’s the last thing you felt guilty about purchasing?

[00:30:27] Robert Riopel: My last quad.

[00:30:32] Bob Wheeler: But you were able to ease the guilt after a little bit. I’m sure

[00:30:36] Robert Riopel: It only took one ride in the back country and cause it has tracks on it instead of tires. And when I’m pulling everybody else, that’s stuck in the mud out because they have tires. The guilt was gone.

[00:30:47] Bob Wheeler: Money well-spent money.

[00:30:49] Robert Riopel: Yes, that’s right.

[00:30:50] Bob Wheeler: So, let me ask you this. We’re at our M and M moment, our money and motivation sweet spot. Is there a practical, financial tip or a piece of wealth wisdom that you could give to our listeners that you’ve found to work for? You?

[00:31:03] Robert Riopel: Yeah, understand managing money. The old adage pay yourself first. That’s huge, but also learn how to fully manage your money and then just do it one step at a time.

One step in the right direction is worth a thousand years of thinking about. So don’t keep putting it off, trying to learn, learn, learn, learn, learn. I’ll use a good friend of mine, Phil Town, two time, New York times bestseller. He learned to invest the way Warren Buffet does. And he now impacts and inspires thousands of people all over the world on how to really do investing.

And I love what he said. He said, “When you start learning to invest, just get started, take a thousand dollars and actually get into the stock market game and learn.” Worst case scenario. You lose the $1000. But you’ve learned something and you can get another thousand dollars and go again. But if you just sit there and try to figure it out, figure it out, figure it out, but never actually invest. You’re never going to go anywhere.

[00:31:55] Bob Wheeler: Absolutely. I want to jump back to your practical tip and people talk about this paying yourself first. What do you say to the person who says, okay, great. I pay myself first. I put that money aside. I’ve paid me and else comes along. Oh, I’m going to borrow that money that I paid myself.

And then we sort of tell ourselves a story. Is there a way that we can stop the, oh wait, let me justify why I’m not paying myself. And can you just talk about that a little bit? I think this is really important for people out there. Yeah. Where, like they paid myself, but then I borrowed it back or I paid myself, but I just put it in savings so I could borrow it for something else.

[00:32:33] Robert Riopel: Here’s the thing with that. Cause you’re right on for that as well. For me, it takes discipline. And so if you don’t have the discipline that if you put it in, you’re going to take it out or you’re not sure if you’re going to put it in at all, get a financial advisors, someone that makes it almost a

forced monthly earning where you commit, like in Canada, one of the greatest tax shelters right now, especially for business, I can put my life insurance where a bigger premium in and down the road I’m be able to take it all back, tax free. And it takes a lot of learning in that. Right. And so I on purpose, make sure I committed and signed on the dotted line to contribute a larger amount.

Knowing that for 10 years, I’ve got to put this amount in every single month, no ifs, ands or buts, and I can’t touch it. And that now, right, 10, 15 years down the road, that’s when I get to benefit from it. So it’s having the people that with the knowledge in your life, That know how to get your money going for you and make it where you can’t just access it at any time.

Get outside of yourself, quit trying to do it on your own. Get the people that are the experts for financial advisor. One of my greatest advice, don’t get someone who’s worth less than you. So you got to do your due diligence. They can have the greatest knowledge, but if they don’t have your financial status net worth that you have, then you don’t want to bring them on, find someone who’s done better than you.

That has a proven track record. And it may be a little more expensive, but it will save you way more than it will ever cost you.

[00:34:05] Bob Wheeler: Absolutely. I think that’s such a critical advice. I had a client, her husband passed away, their financial advisor got replaced by a kid, fresh out of college, and he said to them, you don’t want to have debt.

So you need to sell your house and two rental properties and put it in an annuity because like debt is bad. And thankfully she called me in the midst of losing her husband and said, this feels like a bad idea. And I said, oh my gosh, I cannot believe somebody just told you to sell your house and your rental properties and put it in an annuity because debt is bad.

Right. And so he didn’t have the life experience.

[00:34:43] Robert Riopel: And how much was he going to make commission off of that annuity being purchased?

[00:34:47] Bob Wheeler: Absolutely. Right. So that’s such great advice about really finding people that have lived and experienced a better experience maybe in where you want to put your money so that they can take you there.

Yeah, that’s fantastic. So, Robert, when we talk about what you shared today, one of the things that you didn’t share is blame. What I didn’t hear was a lot of it’s their fault, or then this happened and you talked about it briefly about this victim mindset. I don’t hear that going on. And I think it’s important for people to hear that piece about.

Not wasting the time and energy about what everybody else did to me, or coming from this place, “Oh, poor me. Let me have a pity party.” But really saying with what I have, what can I do? How can I show up? And the other piece that you talked about that I think is so critical. And I talk about this is giving back.

Yes. If we’re just doing this to get $5 million in our bank, it’s unfulfilling when you actually get there, because it’s just money in the bank is not actually a interact with you or do anything, right. It’s about relationships. It’s about experiences. It’s about connection. And for me, it’s about giving back.

Yes. And being of service really, that’s the two takeaways that I heard as well. A lot of things didn’t go so well learned a lot from them. And there was a commitment to be in communication to be in dialogue, to be uncomfortable and to still keep moving forward, regardless of whether family’s on board or not, where their friends are on board or not.

And at the end of the day, if we like ourselves, that’s probably really the only person we need to like us.

[00:36:31] Robert Riopel: So you didn’t even have to interview me. You actually were listening and you got it all down. Dude. I love it. Yeah. That’s exactly it.

[00:36:41] Bob Wheeler: This has been. Where can people find you online and social media?

[00:36:45] Robert Riopel: I have a fan page on Facebook. Just put my name in Robert Riopel. You’ll find me. My assistant now tells me I’m on LinkedIn and Instagram because I hadn’t figured that out. Thank goodness she did. So I’m there as well. So I am on social media and you can definitely follow up.

[00:37:00] Bob Wheeler: And where can people hear you speak?

Are you doing workshops? I know with all that’s going on in the world right now, it’s a little bit harder to get out there and connect with people live.

[00:37:09] Robert Riopel: Yeah. One of the things I’d love to do because you were so gracious, Bob, to invite me on your podcast is my international best-selling book, Success Left a Clue, I’d love to because your audience took their precious, precious.

To listen to this interview. And two guys just having fun laughing while we inspire knowledge, is I’d love for them to be able to download actually the full digital copy of it as our gift to them is not just a couple of chapters. It’s the actual full copy. And they just do that by going to robert riopel.com my website, but I will tell your listeners, it does come witha caveat.

See the caveat is this. Okay, I did not write this book for people to read it, put it on the shelf and make it shelf help. That’s not why I wrote it because step number three in here is to take action. And so I wrote it as a workbook and there’s action steps all the way through. I even put in the book because it’s my warped sense of humor.

I’ll even say, did you do the last action? If not stop reading right now, go back. Do the action before you continue reading. Because I know people are creatures of habit. And so I promise you if you read the book and do the action steps, your life, your financial life, and I’m big believer, wealth is mental, emotional, spiritual, physical, and financial.

You’ve got to have wealth in all areas or the area you don’t is going to be there. It takes you out. So if you do the work in the world, You will see your life become more wealthy on all fronts.

[00:38:37] Bob Wheeler: That is awesome. We will make sure that that link is posted so people can have access to that information. And yes, you got to do the work.

Yes, you can read it, but then you got to implement it. You got to integrate it and then take it out in the world. So I appreciate that so much. So I want to say to our listeners also, please, don’t forget to share the love, like following share on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram search for Money You Should Ask. All one word.q Follow this podcast on your favorite podcast player, search for Money You Should Ask or click on the link in the description.

If you’re watching this episode on YouTube, don’t forget to like comment and subscribe for more tips, tools, and how to learn, how to healthy relationship with money, visit themoneynerve.com. That’s nerve, not nerd, but check us out. Robert. It’s been so awesome having you on. I so appreciate what you bring.

And one day I’m going to meet your wife. It’s been absolutely a pleasure. Thank you so much.

[00:39:29] Robert Riopel: Oh, my pleasure, Bob. And, and it must be something in the name. Robert and Bob. I’m just going to say no pressure to other people, but maybe that’s what it is when you get two awesome guys together. And look, I love staying connected. If there’s ever I can be of assistance just to ask. I’d love to be here. I had so much fun with you.

[00:39:44] Bob Wheeler: Absolutely. .