Podcast 60. The Four Currencies of Life with Robert Raymond Riopel

Average Joe Finances:
0:00

This is Average Joe Finances podcast, Episode 60. If you're watching this on YouTube, make sure you smash that like button and click subscribe. For those of you listening on a podcast platform, be sure to subscribe on whatever platform that is, and leave us a rating if you can. The more likes ratings and subscriptions that we get, the more we can spread the message and grow our community. So we also have a free Facebook group. It's called the Average Joe Finances network. Check us out, join the group, join the community ask questions, and to come up part of the team. All of our other social media accounts are listed in our flow page. And we have them in a video or podcast description below.

Robert Riopel:
0:41

We are holistic beings. And so if you're only working on financial, and you're ignoring the other ones, those are the ones that are sabotaging because it'll be like well, I emotionally wasn't taking care of myself. And also maybe you have a breakdown. Right? You start to start losing yourself. Yes, yeah, losing who you are. Without a doubt. Without a doubt.

Average Joe Finances:
1:00

Welcome to the Average Joe Finances podcast. Are you trying to get out of debt, invest or just not sure where to start? Then this is the place for you. We discussed different ways to get out of the rat race and build your wealth. Join us on this wild ride to financial freedom. Hey, how's it going, everybody? So today's guest is Robert Raymond Riopelle, and he's an international best selling author, App Designer, entrepreneur, and trainer who spent the last 18 plus years traveling around the world and sharing his passion. He's also shared the stage with and trade many of the top trainers and thought leaders of the world today. With his 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 own greatness, realizing that he is not the only person that struggles, Roberts quote, clues, open individuals up to possibilities that lie within them. And that is why he is a highly sought after presenter. Robert, I am absolutely thrilled to have you on the show. Thanks for joining me today.

Robert Riopel:
2:08

Oh, Mike, I'm so happy to be here. And, and even just our short conversation before record, I just feel a great connection and, and just loving that I have this opportunity.

Average Joe Finances:
2:17

Absolutely. And now you know, I normally wear like an Average Joe Finances shirt or anything like that. But today, I got a really bad sunburn when I was out hiking the other day, it's pretty bad. I've got my lighting setup and wearing my hat the way I am so that you can't see the raccoon lines on my face. But I'm really badly burnt, and I needed something comfortable, that wasn't going to like really press up on me. And I decided to go with my blue collared shirt. And what do you know, we're kind of matching a little bit. That was the start of our conversation off off recording. But anyway, I want to talk a little bit more in detail about your story. And so I shared a little bit about your background. I'm really excited to hear you know, where's where's Robert start, like what got you, you know, to where you are today?

Robert Riopel:
3:06

Well, you know, I grew up in a family. I'm the eldest of four. And in my family, very, let's just say my parents, we moved around a lot. Because just to supply and support the family, they had to work from job to job to job. So I never spent more than six months in any school up until I was in grade four. And so to me, that was normal. And also we moved from I live in Canada, we moved from British Columbia, where I was born to Alberta. Now the first place where we actually started to settle down, even though we were still moving around in the same city. We are still get some normalcy. And I was taught as a child, when it comes to work. You work hard, and you stay loyal. And I started working. And you know, Mike, it's interesting. One of my first jobs at 11 years old, I spent the summer babysitting three kids, eight hours a day, five days a week for people that lived in our little condo complex. And one of my first jobs at 11. And one was an infant, I'm changing diapers, I'm making lunch, I'm making dinner. But that was kind of normal for us, right? And I knew I wanted to have my own income. And in my family have two older brothers. And it's interesting, because of the conversation we've had. This is a kind of an insight I don't normally talk about when I'm when I'm sharing my story, but my oldest brother, he ended up getting his girlfriend pregnant at 18. So he decided to join the Navy as an income and get married. Then my other brother, he ended up getting his girlfriend pregnant at 18. And so he joined the armed forces from security and they got married. And so the running joke in our family is well whoever does that mean at 16 that's what you're gonna do. And I'm like, No, even though I was on track to become an author and maybe you know as I'm sharing with you a recording If you

Average Joe Finances:
5:01

were trending in the right direction, but you steered away,

Robert Riopel:
5:04

I did. I did. And it was because I got the opportunity spent three months in the Navy at the age of 16. on a tour of duty that taught me No, that's not the life I want. Because if I want a relationship, I wanted to be home. I absolutely want to be home. And so I went into the workforce itself. And by the time I was 21, though, I'd worked for three different companies. And my mind's going, if I'm working hard, I'm staying loyal. Why do all these companies keep laying me off? And I look back now Mike, and I go, thank goodness, I learned this at that age, because I realized, if I wanted any kind of success in my life, I had to take control of it. And where I live, when oil prices are good, everything's boom, lots of work. But when oil prices are low, then there's no work. And so here I am, I'm just been laid off from a factory. As you're closing, I knew using and I'm going, what am I going to do. And I knew I because of my upbringing, I was going to do something to supply a family. It doesn't matter. I don't care if I'm cleaning toilets, whatever it is, I'll do whatever it takes, whether you like it or not. And I ended up starting to deliver pizzas for a little company called Domino's Pizza, and started loving it and started making more money than I was making in my real jobs. Because I was always having fun getting paid to drive around, have fun and meet people they hope was better than that. And I was able to go from that to being a manager. My wife became my assistant manager because what do you do you work hard? seven days a week or so to spend time together, we were working full time. And all sudden, my franchisee a year and a half in I know qualified to be a franchisee. Now qualified means once you've successfully mastered store for a year, meeting all these criteria, you're qualified to be a franchisee It doesn't mean you can be because you all still have to have some money to do that. But we're qualified. When my franchisee announced that I'm following stops. I'm done with Domino's, I'm frustrated. And we knew that if a new owner came in, the first people Gone are the managers. And so out of necessity, we made the decision, we're gonna buy the store we're working in. And of course everybody's going like, how are you going to do that you have no money. And we're like, we don't know. But we're gonna make it work. And we made a lot of trial and a lot of error. But we learned and over the next four months, we figured out what to say how to say it, that we actually ended up getting 100% financing for both the stores yet for sale. And we became franchisees. And of course, at that point is like we're 23. And we're like, oh, we're franchisees we've made? Yeah, we knew how to manage a store, Mike, but we didn't know how to run a business, right and big difference right there. And so by the time we were franchisees for eight years, we're actually over $150,000 in debt and going down quickly. And that's when we were actually introduced to personal development out of necessity, we ended up getting tickets to an evening. And the only reason we showed up the evening is because each ticket was worth $39. And thank goodness, my mind would not let me waste that ticket price. Even though the tickets were given to us at no cost. We walked in three hours later, we're just blown away. We're finding themselves running to the back, paying $600 to go to weekend$600 that we can't afford. But something felt wrecked. That weekend was three months later, in March or sort of June 2001. We walked in $150,000 in debt stressed out beyond belief we learn that we can how we handle money and why we did what was going on how to manage it. Why are we struggling? And with a new mindset, we add new tools and new actions to take. We walked out put them into place. And we ended up retiring, going from $150,000 in debt to retiring actually completely financially free nine months later when we're 32

Average Joe Finances:
8:58

Wow, that's that's phenomenal. How did you go from 150,000 in debt to retiring nine months later?

Robert Riopel:
9:05

Well, so I'm gonna have some fun with you here. If you're ready to have some fun might

Average Joe Finances:
9:10

I'm always ready to have some fun.

Robert Riopel:
9:11

I knew that that's what I knew I could do this is when I said we went from$150,000 in debt to completely retired to financially free nine months later. What did your mind say to you? Besides Wow, what did you think? Did you think that that meant we did well we were wealthy we are millionaires. Where did you mind think of

Average Joe Finances:
9:30

so for me because I kind of think differently when it comes to finances. I think you changed your mindset on what your debt actually was. So like what, what was your debt? What was the$150,000 in debt was that you know, that that was in the real estate of the business stuff that you can you know, leverage for for the future? Or you know, was it like actual, you know, your your business is bleeding So, it makes it makes a difference as To what kind of debt that was,

Robert Riopel:
10:01

Wow, I've never actually had someone go that in depth. I like where your mind going. And it was a combination of all okay, what most people think, though is they think, Wow, you went from $150,000 in debt, completely got rid of it. And now you're millionaires in nine months. And I want to let people right away. No, that is absolutely not the truth. There's a definition that we've learned in the weekend of what financial freedom is financial freedom is simply nothing more than when passive income money working instead of you and you being a real estate investor, in that you understand passive income when your passive income is actually greater than your expenses, you are now financially free. Why? Because if you don't work, you still have enough money coming in to pay those day to day debt expenses. So a nine months, we ended up can we learn that we have way too many expenses, we had all the toys. One of the reasons we are in debt, we liked our instant gratification. One of our stores was in a resort community. So we had a boat. Now, boating season was our busy season. So the boat sat in our driveway, we never got to use it. But we had all the expenses. And so we took a hard look. And we really reduced our expenses, looking at what don't we need right now. And then we started learning about passive income. So we only took nine months before the two surpassed. So I want people to understand because I don't want him to think I'm any different or any better than anybody else. I'm the same. Look, if you're watching this video, you have aerodynamic if you're listening, I'm gonna tell you I'm aerodynamic. I feel it. So there's things that I don't have.

Average Joe Finances:
11:33

what he's talking about his hair people for those of you listening?

Robert Riopel:
11:36

That's right, that's right. Someone says you're bald. I'm like, No, I'm aerodynamic. I just walked 20% faster than other people.

Average Joe Finances:
11:42

I like it. I like it. So once I actually shave my head, I'm gonna, I'm gonna I'm gonna steal that line.

Robert Riopel:
11:48

Right, right. And the thing, the reason I want you to understand that the reason I take a little time explaining it is because my wife and I were, we didn't get rid of all of our debt. But we had enough passive income to service that debt. We got rid of a lot, but we still had debt. But what we gained was the fact that we went from now 4050 6070 or more hours a week, having to work in our business, to earn a living all that time was now freedom, because now we didn't have to work. And also we had time freedom. And I because I love to teach people and utilize universal principles. There's a saying that says what you focus on expands. So when also we went from stressed out and all this time being spent working in our stores, we now have all that time free. We said what are we going to use that time for. And one, we dove into learn, we started learning from as many people as we could, because we realized if a little bit of education gave us those results that we just got, what would more do. But then we also committed, we're gonna take 10 hours a week, 10 hours a week, to focus on creating wealth. And also now when we took that 10 hours a week, and our sole focus in that 10 hours each week was creating Well, it's amazing how quickly wealth comes. And so that's kind of how I kind of got to where I am. Because at the same time, I also realized my passion was to teach others because I realized if I could even help one person, one person do what my wife had done, go from stress to success in finances, it make it all worthwhile. And that's when I became trainer.

Average Joe Finances:
13:20

Yeah, no, I love that's, that's amazing, because that's exactly what I started this podcast for, is to have, you know, to be able to share stories like this, you know, where the show somebody that you can, you can be at this point where you feel like, you're constantly digging out of the hole, and you're constantly just trying to get up out of debt. And you feel like there's no way just to, but you have to just work harder and harder and harder and grind harder. When there are other ways. Yes, it still takes work to get that passive income to where you need it to be. But it doesn't have to be as stressful as you think it has to write. And being able to share a story like this is just absolutely awesome. Because, you know, there was a couple things that happened for you after that training that I'm seeing and the stuff that I'm taking down in my notes here is you had a complete mindset shift, right? You started looking at your situation 100% differently, you started looking at your debt differently started looking at Hey, okay, now the goal is how do I get my passive income to service the debt that we already have? Right? So you already know what your monthly payments are. So your passive income needs to match that or exceed it, and then you're good. Now you're working for yourself after that, at that point. You're you're essentially like you said financially independent. And now everything you do is for your own gain after that. So now you guys are doing things to benefit yourself. Taking that 10 hours a week to focus on wealth building. You know, that's what your focus is. You don't have to worry about the bills or anything like that. It's covered. Right. So that's that's, that's amazing. Yeah, Robert, that's that's, that's awesome. So I wanted to ask you so there's there's something I know that you talk about called the four currencies of life. You explain what that is?

Robert Riopel:
15:12

Yeah, the first currency is what everybody thinks of money. And what people don't realize when you put money. They're too much money is something called affluenza. And affluenza is you know, you're having affluenza when you start doing crazy things with your money. So as an example, think of the prints or whoever on the other side of the world that he decided to spend a billion dollars to buy an A 380 jetliner for his party play, then he spent another 100 million renovating the two depth stories of it to make it the ultimate play for pretty, that's absolutely he started doing crazy stuff. For me too much money, too little money is called poverty. And I don't know about your listeners and your viewers. But to me, financial stress has got to be the worst stress I've ever gone through. When you're afraid to pick up the phone. Because it's a debt collector, you're like, it's just, it's stressful. And so what I've found, over the years, Mike working with a lot of very successful people, is I've noticed, one of the reasons people don't go for wealth themselves is because they think wealth changes people. And if I have too much money, it's going to change me. And what I want people to understand is, first of all, money doesn't change you you change money, it might just make you more of who you already are. So if you're a kind, caring person, you're gonna become more time carrying out more people, if you're jerky could become a bigger joke, plain and simple. But I've noticed that there's a comfort zone of where the ultimate number is for you. So as an example, for me, I didn't need to have millions and 10s of millions of dollars. If I know that I've got my software, I've got a great finances working, and I'm still bringing in a nice cat full 200 340,000 a year, I'm happy, I don't need to kill myself busting my butt trying to make millions. But some people they want to make money. That's what drives them. And for them, that's okay. And so once I understood where my zone was, if I was going over that I started doing stupid things with money. So I've been affluenza. Or if I was lower, I was stressed out. Also, when I realized where that nice comfort flow was, that made my life so much easier. Because now I could plan to say, this year, I'm going to do this and this to earn an income, my investments, I'm looking to do this, and I'm constantly watching and tracking to keep in that zone allows me and my wife to have an amazing life, if that makes sense. Right? So that's the first currency, that's the first 22nd currency is called the one turn two, everybody have the exact same amount of time, the currency of time, too much time on your hand, trades border, too little time is stress. And how many people it kind of blew me away. You know, March 10 2020. I land back in Canada from doing a three day training in India. And March 11, I got put into lockdown. All my live events around the world got canceled, my life changed. And so now, I went from traveling around the world to being at home all the time. And it was like, I got busy. Because two very important words, I want you audience to understand that whenever they get into a position and not sure what to do ask these two words. What's next, I had to go through a whole reinvention. Because all my kids have been live on stage in front of people. And so I was blown away. When I started hearing people gone. I'm bored. I'm bored. And I'm like, busier at home. around the world. So the currency of time is again, look for that bounce allows you to really have What do you want to do? A lot of people say, well, Robert, I'm so busy. I can't get success. Yeah, but there's a difference between busy and productive, right? Yes, right. And when you get productive, you'll be amazed at how much time you can free up for family, friends, yourself. That's a big one, giving yourself time. And so that's something I talk about all in what I call my four phases life, but taking care of yourself, you can't give what you don't have. So if you haven't taken care of yourself, how can you fully take care of other people. So that's the second currency. The third currency is called faith. And it's amazing how many people especially with social media, what they will do to try and get fame. And I loved listening to an interview that was done with Jennifer Lopez one time, because you know, too much fame can just it can ruin lives. We've seen that happen again. And yet. There you have no privacy. Exactly. And so someone said, Well, you know, Jennifer, yours so successful, how do you but you're also a great mom, great family person, how do you keep the two separate? And she said simple. When I'm on stage, or I'm doing a movie or I'm singing? I'm Jay. But when I'm at home with my family, I'm Jennifer Lopez, and that simple little distinction in her mind. I said I heard that I would. Wow. So when I'm on stage in front of 1000s of people on Robin Raymond, real But the moment I'm home, I'm just Robert or Ra. And my wife and I have a little running joke that when I get home from being around the world, and I've had, you know, staff taking care of every need, I have, I get home, she goes, honey, no more assistance, go take out the garbage. And that keeps me grounded. Because if I let the theme get to my head, that's where ego will do some pretty interesting things. So when it comes to fame, it's about finding your balance. What is it? You know, if you want to be known, then be known, but give yourself time to be you in your day to day life? If that makes sense?

Average Joe Finances:
20:32

Yeah, absolutely. Being able to remain humble.

Robert Riopel:
20:35

Yeah, yeah. The fourth currency is the one I spend my most is my main focus now, which is the currency of experience is experience. Are you truly experiencing your life? You know, someone? I'm a big believer in vision boards? Do you believe in vision boards? Like,

Average Joe Finances:
20:51

Oh, yes, we've got one up or down in my living room.

Robert Riopel:
20:54

Perfect. And do you? Is there a specific car you have on that vision board is an example that you'd love to have?

Average Joe Finances:
20:59

Well, I already got that car. Yes, it was on there.

Robert Riopel:
21:02

Nice. Okay. And so one of the reasons I use the cars example is because a coach taught me this lesson when he was telling me about one of his students, his his student had this picture on a vision board of a gorgeous Lamborghini absolutely stuck. That's what his ultimate car, that's what he wanted. And so my friend asked, and he said, Well, you know, why do you want a Lamborghini? He goes, Oh, my god, they're gorgeous card bought. Let's Rob all these reasons. He says, Have you ever wrote in what have you ever driven one? Well, no, he says, so here's what I want you to do for work on. Before our next call, I want you to go down to a dealership, test drive one, rent one, I don't care. But I want you go to experience it, and see if the experience matches what you think it will be. On the next call. He said to me, so how's it going with the Lamborghini? Because Yeah, I don't want one. He said, he's a limp six foot three, you know how hard it was getting in and out of that? He said, I wouldn't be able to do that very well. He said, exactly. So when it comes to experience, I'm all about experiencing life on a day to day basis. One of the probably the greatest gifts that has come from this time in the world with the Coronavirus is I've been able to experience brain connections with people than I have in years. Because now it's like, you know what I want to I'm not going to be sitting around, I'm busy, busy, busy. And well, things like this, like, have you ever talked to someone where they're there physically, but you know, mentally and emotionally they're somewhere else?

Average Joe Finances:
22:29

Oh, yeah, all the time, he has zoned out. And

Robert Riopel:
22:33

so now my goal is to experience being there present with everybody I do. And just because when you go for the currency of experience, that's what's going to make your life memorable. I one of my practices I'd love to do is every morning I do a success in gratitude journal. And it used to just be a success journal five successes from the day before. But then it started to morph into also things I was grateful for. And if someone's name came up to me like also, like, you normally they come to mind, because you remember an experience with them. And so what I started doing is instead of just writing their name down, which I do in my journal, I actually now will reach out to them and just, I used to start typing a message on messenger or whatever. But then I went, I will leave on my voice message. And I will just out of the blue say, Hey, I do my gratitude journal today. And you came to mind because of this time, I just want to let you know how grateful I am that you're in my life. Now when I do this, I do it with no attachment, that they get back to me that they ever even hear it. It's about me expressing that experience of gratitude. So I put that out more to the universe. And some people I never hear back from and that's totally okay. But it's also amazing how many people maybe I'm talking to him years, but because I've left him a message, also we reconnect and we re experience, we renew our friendship. It's pretty. I find I love it.

Average Joe Finances:
23:57

Yeah, that's, I mean, that's amazing. Because you're, you know, you're you're showing that you're not only, you know, investing in your own personal finances, and everything else that you doing to get financially free, but you're investing in yourself spiritually, you're investing in your friends and your family around you. And this is all part of that being you know, doing that daily gratitude so that you know, this, for me, it's an accountability thing. You were reminding me that I need to get better at journaling because I was doing it every night before I went to bed and every morning when I when I would wake up. And I have not been as I guess, adamant about it. So I'm going to make that a mission for myself to start doing that more. Okay, cool. Thank you for reminding me. Let's take a brief moment to hear from our show sponsors. What's going on everybody? So today I want to talk to you about the podcast editing service that we use for the Average Joe Finances podcast that is editpods.com and what I really like about them is it's a subscription based service. So the prices are fantastic. And not only do they do the podcast episodes for us, but they also make us videos, audiograms social media caption videos, they do our show notes thumbnails, it's just fantastic products. Go check them out at editpods.com what's going on average joes, we know that managing one account or your entire family's portfolio can be stressful and time consuming. From building and maintaining spreadsheets, calculating how many new shares and units you need to purchase with your contributions, finding the time to log into your brokerage and make those trades and annually rebalancing each account. Well, my friends over a passive came up with a tool that can help you manage all of this in a fraction of time without spreadsheets, and manual calculations. Passiv is a portfolio management tool that makes it easier for DIY investors to maintain a balanced portfolio and build a passive investment strategy at their online broker. It eliminates the need to use spreadsheets saves you from having to log into your broker to place trades, and helps you stick to your portfolio's target allocation. Elite users can save even more time by using the one click trades feature and having passive execute the required trades on your behalf. All of this can be done from the passive dashboard for all of your accounts. No more logging into multiple brokerage accounts. Passive is not a robo advisor, it won't tell you what you should invest in. So you'll need to decide that for yourself either through self education or alongside a financial advisor. To learn more about passive or to sign up, check out our link below. www.AverageJoefinances.com/passiv. That's p a s s i v with no e again, p a s s i v with no e, check them out. Let's get back to today's episode. You're listening to the Average Joe Finances podcast. Whether it's single or multifamily real estate, the stock market or side hustles we discuss it all strap in and enjoy the ride.

Robert Riopel:
27:06

Because I know you like to have fun. Can I take you on a little journey with that?

Average Joe Finances:
27:09

Let's go on a journey.

Robert Riopel:
27:11

Do you believe that words have power? Absolutely. So you I don't know if you realize it, but you just put a lot of pressure on yourself. By using one word I need to do this. Also not word need come with such a negative energy with it, that it now brings resentment or pressure overwhelm. So one little adjustment, I would I would say to maybe make is instead of I need to do this is I choose to do it. Because we're like, that gives you so much more empowerment. So that's just a little, little thought.

Average Joe Finances:
27:42

Need versus choose. Um, right. Yeah.

Robert Riopel:
27:45

Yeah. Because a lot of That's right,

Average Joe Finances:
27:47

I did, I did do I did just put a lot of pressure on myself. Because now it's like, my focus after I get off this interview now is, hey, let me go blow the dust off this journal, you know, and, you know, make sure I have it where I need to actually I have it on my nightstand. It's just sitting there. So but now I'm you know, I am putting pressure on myself to make sure I crack that thing open every night. So yeah, no, it needs to be a choice. Not a not that I'm forcing myself to do

Robert Riopel:
28:14

it exactly. For sure. Because what you mentioned earlier, is wealth. And I love that you do the Average Joe Finances because we people put so much pressure on themselves around money. And then they wonder that if they get it going, why do they sabotage themselves and what you said it brought it to light you. It's working on the mental, emotional, spiritual, physical and financial. We are holistic beings. And so if you're only working on financial, and you're ignoring the other ones, those are the ones that are sabotaging because it'll be like, well, I emotionally wasn't taking care of myself. And also maybe you have a breakdown. Right? You start to start losing yourself. Yes, yeah. Losing who you are. Without a doubt. Without a doubt.

Average Joe Finances:
28:51

Yeah. Awesome. You had mentioned something earlier. So we were just talking about the for currency for currencies in life. And you said that there's another thing he talked about called the four phases of life. I'm having a feeling that this all ties in together. And so I'd like to talk about that a little bit. What are the four phases of life that people go through,

Robert Riopel:
29:11

so that you can go through all four in a date, sometimes it takes longer and could be a month before we go through all four. I love acronyms. And I use the acronym open. And I will tell you, I'm not going to take credit for this amazing friend of mine. He I nicknamed him the quantum monk because not only was he actually a monk for eight years, over 15,000 hours of meditation, but then he also studies quantum physics, so he can tell you all about spirituality, and then back it up with the science behind it. He Wow, brilliant. He's absolutely brilliant. And he reads like a real life Doctor Strange. Yeah, you see that idea?

Average Joe Finances:
29:47

When they go on stuff like that's, that's what popped into my head. Would you say that like, Oh, he's the one.

Robert Riopel:
29:54

That's it. It's crazy. You know, when when you look at that, because there's I I admire so many people that have talents that that I don't have. And instead of being jealous or envious, I just I'm admire, I'm marveling in how they can do what they do is, you know, it's amazing. And so he had created through his study something called the chaos modules. But it wasn't his passion. He had just come across it, it was powerful. And I said to him, I said, Great, I said, this needs to get out to the world can I want to put in my upcoming book? And he said, Absolutely, Robert, use it. And so I spent hours interviewing him going in deep, I wanted to make sure I was on the right path, and I was gonna do it justice. And so through all of our interviews, and I was putting it into my own words, and I use the acronym open. He's just like, you got this deeper than I have that and he was amazed, and it just more. So the old it opens stands for observation phase. And so you've heard the saying, Mike, that we're human beings, not human doings. Well, in the observation phase, you're actually a human creating, this is a time when you're in this phase, you meditate, you dream, what is it I truly want in my life, this is where vision boards come into place, you create a vision board, you don't let your mind go, Well, how am I going to do it, you just create in this space, it's about being centered, being present, cre, and then from there, the P phase, it stands for pamper. And what's interesting about the pamper phase is probably especially entrepreneurs, people that self sabotage a lot. The reason is, they forget to do this, and what the camper phases is exactly what it sounds like, this is you taking care of you. This is where maybe it when you go into the pampered phase, you go on a vacation, or if you can't, then you plan a vacation, or you go and get your nails your hair, if you go get a massage, maybe during the pamper phase, this is where you read a book, if you love reading, take 20 minutes and read. People would always say, hey, Rob, why is it you fly overseas to do all your trainings, where you're on a plane 10 1216 or 18 hours? And I'm like, Well, I love to train all over the world. But one of the main reasons is, it's for me, see, the moment I want to play. I don't get to I find that's available. That's my time. I read, I love movies and love and all, you know, I see the Star Wars in your background. I love movies. So I read I watch movies, I enjoy good food. And I think that's how I take care of me. Because I know the moment I land for three to five days, the next few days, I'm on stage to 12 hours or more a day being a service to 100 to 6000 students at a time. And so if I don't take care of me, how can I take care of them? If that makes sense?

Average Joe Finances:
32:42

Right? Yeah. So you know, it's being able to take care of yourself, like, even on like a long plane ride like that, like, you know, it's not even something that I really think about too much. Because for me, I get on the plane and I'm focused on the destination and what what's going on when I'm going to get there and you know, and things like that. So, you know, you being able to disconnect and have yourself like a little me time is super important. I realized as you're explaining this pamper phase that it is it is definitely something that entrepreneurs like they self sabotage, but I do it myself. I'm kind of like, you know, you're helping open my eyes hear a little bit that a lot of times, you know, cuz I'm still active duty in the Navy, but I do you know, this podcast on the side. I'm also a realtor, associate, REALTOR Associate and an investor. And I find that a lot of times I do get too involved. And I I forget other things going on around me I don't take care of you know that the meantime. Right? So, yeah, this this is important, this is a, I have a feeling that the next two are going to be just as important. So I'm ready to to get there.

Robert Riopel:
33:52

And they do they all tie together because the east and for energy phase, this is the time when it's time to get stuff done. You know, when I'm in the energy phase, I can put in an 1820 hour day a have the energy to do it. Because I've taken care of myself, but be not feel guilty. Because in the pamper phases. Also when you make sure you have time with family, you make sure you have time for things that are important to nurture, so that when your energy time you can get down and get the work done. Because I have students all different time zones. It's not uncommon on an energy phase day for me to go from as early as five or 6am all the way till 1am or 2am. And it's okay because I've taken care of me. So the energy phase, that's when you do documents, interviews, you know, you get the work done it just that's energy, energy, energy, energy, that's the energy phase, and then the fourth phase now so even though I use the word open as an acronym, the N is not the first letter of the word. I had to get creative on this one because the word is on clutter unclogged in the unclutter phase. Another name for that is kids in a new state like this, Mike, have you ever noticed that to can be gone really, really well. And also, like this brick wall is sort of in front of you. And your life gets a huge detour that has that ever happened in you life?

Average Joe Finances:
35:09

It's happened quite often, actually.

Robert Riopel:
35:12

Mostly because I'm watching rigorously take notes. That's why I'm coming.

Average Joe Finances:
35:18

Yeah, I did, I'm, well, here's the thing. This, this little book right here is like, every interview I've done, I take notes from every guest. And it's like my little black book of knowledge. And, you know, I think it's super important to take notes, because, yeah, sure, I'll transcribe the episode, I'll have everything that was said. But at the same time, like this, this is, for me, this is my personal notes. And I am, I'll be taking more notes with stuff you're talking about than I have with anybody else. cuz I've got two pages already. Well, personal because a lot of this I identify with. So that's this interview is, I'm probably going to get more out of it than my listeners. Well, I don't know. We'll see. But I am getting a lot out of this. And I'm truly appreciative for sure.

Robert Riopel:
36:05

Well, and that's why I'm loving having fun with you. Because right now, you're actually in a bit of a pamper phase, because you know how important those notes are, to allow you to really be who you are. So that's why I'm having fun with it, which is cool. Awesome. So in the end, quote, phase, this is what happens for most people is chaos enters their life, and they get frustrated, and they resist cables. And so a little bit of a mind, set shift I want to do with your audience is understand that you want to embrace chaos. And one thing you want to embrace chaos. So because as human beings, we were meant to evolve, and chaos is what comes into our life to gently help us evolve. But if we're not embracing it, it'll come in and it'll really make us evolve, because we end up resisting. Now the reason I call it the unclutter phase is because you can absolutely volunteer for caves. And what that means is, is you look in you unplug something, maybe I walk my office, I go You know what? Today I'm going to organize my office, I'm going to unclutter it because I've just let it get junky. Or you open the refrigerator and you go wow, there's probably some food in here that probably could be cleaned out. So you'll uncover the fridge. And what that does is universe if you're volunteering to unclutter things, it doesn't have to give you the lesson as hard. And so when when what the unclutter phase, this is the one where because it is key, you've got to really, it takes courage, you've got to be willing to courageously volunteer. So in the chaos of unpleasant faith isn't time to destroy. Now, here's what I mean by that maybe there's a business or personal relationship that just isn't working anymore, that a person has been hanging on to too long. In this phase, it's time to let that relationship go in the phase, maybe you've wanted a new car, but you could you're tired of the clunker and the expenses of maintaining your old car. Well, until you let go of the old car, you're not going to get the new car. So you've got to really be and here's the way I love how my friend said instead of being willing to live life, courageously allow life to live you. Because if you think about everything that goes on in your life, there's that thing that said, Everything happened for a reason. And you've probably heard that saying before, like a lot of your audience, but very few of them have actually heard the whole statement, because it's not just everything happened for a reason. The statement is everything happened for a reason. And that reason is there to serve me. And if you look at it like that, now you get curious. Now the Curiosity comes in. So why did that happen, and I'll use the example, Mike um in 2004 was the first time I did a training on my own, I wasn't co training with my mentor, I didn't have as assistance. I did my own first train three days problems students in Los Angeles. And from that moment to mid 2008, I ended up doing over 200, multi day trainings around North America plus then into Asia. And I got burnt up, I've overlooked my passion, absolutely overloading it. And I knew I had to take a year off. Now when I decided to take a year off, because I was burnt out, I ended up taking over three and a half years. And one of the reasons was a I went from over living my passion, which was bad to be not living it at all, which is just as bad. Some of the old negative non supportive habits circling back on my life. But also when I was over living and not taking care of me. While I was on the stage, I had actually not taken care of my body and I herniated a disc. And in that time if I went through two back surgeries, so I needed to recuperate in time. And it's interesting how universe God whatever higher power person wants to go by. If you ever noticed, you're always getting set lessons. Would you agree with me that you're always getting less than sent to you? Oh, yes. Yeah. And if you don't listen to the lesson and you don't utilize it, what normally happens,

Average Joe Finances:
39:57

not good things, that's for sure.

Robert Riopel:
39:59

Yeah. You get it again more intensely. And see I put up the intention to

Average Joe Finances:
40:03

get it until you learn it.

Robert Riopel:
40:05

That's right. I put up the intention. I'm taking one year off. So one year all the sudden turned into a year and a half the universe is sending me messages. Robert, you said you're gonna train again, Yang. I wasn't listening. It turned up the energy. And it was two years into my brain. When the universe sent me a message I couldn't ignore. I my mother in law, who at the time lived across the street from us. She'd asked me to help her out August 10 2010. I walked across the street, beautiful, sunny day, there was a playground across the street from my house. There's 130 kids playing. I walk up, help her out with the TV. I'm walking back. And just before I cross the street to my driveway a couple of times walking out with a bowl of dog. And I love out. I love out. So I'm standing on the sidewalk. They're standing in front of my driveway, and I said, Is she friendly? And they're like, No, No, she's not. We just rescued her were rehabilitated. So I escaped where I was. They stayed where they were. And we talked for a while. And eventually I knelt down, and they slowly brought her over, I let her smell my hand, I petted her head, petted her neck, no problem. But the moment I went to stand up, she lunged for my throat. And it happened so fast. I didn't know what hit me. And because from standing motion, I dropped my head down. Instead of getting my throat, you got my chin. And she now proceeded to try and drag me to the ground. I'm instantly in shock. And the only thing in my head is if she gets me to the ground, I'm dead. So I stood up, and she's now hanging on my jaw. And the guy actually had to physically private draws off of me. And then it was taken him and his wife, both, both of them on a leash to hold her back because she's lunging back at me. Now there's blood all over the place. And my only thought is, there's 30 children behind me. I said, I live right there, get her out of here. So they drag the dog up the street and I'm walking to my house, and there's blood dripping all over. And I'm just booked to go in the door and my mind goes, if I get blood in the house, my wife's gonna kill me. If crazy what goes through your head, right? You're in shock, right? I opened the door. I think I say it calmly. I'm like Roxanne. Of course, it was so calm. She came running. She sees the blood. She's like, what's going on? I got attacked by a dog. And so she gets a towel stuffed into my chin. And now I'm safe that fight or flight. I'm safe. All sudden, I start to feel lightheaded. I'm about to pass out. My wife sees me starting to wobble. She knows if I drop. There's no way she's getting me to the hospital. So she goes into what we call her warrior Mo. She sees me starting to wobble and she looks at me. Don't you fit yet to that far. And now it took

Average Joe Finances:
42:35

She reenabled your fight or flight? Right?

Robert Riopel:
42:38

She would go? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Look, Mike, in 32 years of marriage, I've learned them two most important words in a relationship. Yes. She gets me to the hospital. And if you know, dog bites, they don't like to close up any dog wounds, they want any bacteria to be able to flush out. So there's three puncture wounds, basically where my goatee is. But on my chin, the dog had ripped through my chin. And so it took nine stitches to close that up. Now in that moment, I had a choice coming back to that word choose, you know, you're talking about earlier. See, I could have looked at the situation. I'm like, why did that happen to me? Or I could say, why did that happen to me? And the moment I got that curiosity, everything out for reason. And that reasons that have served me. I went into curiosity mode said Why did this happen. And all of a sudden, Principal came to my mind that I would teach my students. It's a universal principle that says that which is not utilized, is eliminated. See, my gift is to teach one inch further, the dog would have got my juggler and me and my gift would have been gone. And in that moment, I realized I had to start training again. I didn't have to because financially, I hadn't had to do anything for years. But I had to because it's my purpose. It's my passion. It's my gift. I believe everybody on this planet has a gift to give this world if they didn't, they would not be breathing anymore. And so I realized how quickly my gift could have been gone. And in that moment, I made the decision that I had to come out of retirement. And because of my back surgeries it still took a year and a half to fully come out of retirement. But I'll tell you this, I will train for the rest of my life there I will never I don't care how well i'm doing i will never quit teaching if that wasn't a message that was being sent to you I don't know what other way it could have you know manifested itself because the fact that you know you're going back to your house and the first thought that came to your mind was if I get blood in the house my wife's gonna kill me. Just reminds me that no matter how you know famous you are popular was popular, popular. You are anything else like that. If you're married, you become very you become humbled very quick when you have a spouse, yeah. Especially when it comes to, you know, your own home and your own domicile and everything like that. So, and I also find it pretty amazing that you know, the first thought you had in your head too when you were walking back or you know when you had the dog hanging from your face was like hey, there's kids back there that can see this. And you know, you're thinking to yourself, how that could impact them. And you're telling them, Hey, get out of here, you know, I mean, you weren't even thinking about self preservation. It sounds like at any that any of this point, you know, besides when you put your head down, so the dog didn't get your neck, which thankfully, you did that, right. That's also a testament, you know, to to your mentality about thinking about others and being able to share your gift with others. So, you know, the fact that your mind quickly went to that is also like another self realization of where your mind really is, and what what your passion really is. Right? So I think that's, that's pretty amazing. For sure. I agree. And I've never thought of it like that. And, like, right now, I'm lit up, I've got goosebumps, I had never thought of it that way. But I heard it on one of your episodes I was listening to. And it's something that I think you find in common with a lot of guests is that there's the call it servant leadership, the people that truly are here to help others and and be of service that you know, because when you serve others, your life is gonna be not. It may not be easy, but I guarantee it'll be phenomenal. And that's that's the way I look

Average Joe Finances:
46:07

at life. Yeah, absolutely. And I love that. Yeah, it's, it's it's servant leadership. It's when you're when you're living a life to help others. I mean, you get so much more out of that, you know, you can sit here like, like you said, people that make more money, right? It defines more of who you are, like, the truer you comes out when you have more money, right? whether whether, you know, if you're a jerk, you just become more jerky. And if you're a good person that that's trying to help others, you will continue to help others in more ways than you were able to before because now you have the, the the money to do so. So I think that's absolutely amazing. Because money doesn't change who you are, like you said, it just it just reiterates who you are.

Robert Riopel:
46:48

Yeah, and, and when people understand that money is nothing more than a tool. Yes, but yet we get so emotionally attached to it. And money is important where money is important. But it's not important where it's not important. And so it's just a simple tool. And if you understand that, you get that, then it's like going into your garage to your toolbox and say, What tool Do I need right now? Right? And then grabbing that tool until you're like, well, I can use more money? Well, then how do I enhance that tool? To be able to have that?

Average Joe Finances:
47:18

Absolutely. So I think the biggest thing is like, especially for my listeners here is that you can hear it in this conversation, just like many of the other interviews that I've had on here, the biggest thing that you should focus on when it comes to building yourself up financially is your mentality and how you go about doing it. And one of the things that, you know, are some of the things that we touched about, you know, was it's not just your financial health, it's your mental health, your physical health, like all of this ties into it. You can't just be focused on one thing, otherwise, not only are you inviting that chaos in, but you're inviting it in, you know, without any regulation. So there's no problem. There's no problem with inviting chaos. And like you alluded to earlier, right? It's how you handle that chaos. And what it does to you how it changes you. Because I could tell you, you know, being in the military for going on 19 years this July, that I've lived in chaos, on a day in and day out basis on a lot of times, especially on deployment, it's having the mental strength and mental fortitude to be able to overcome the chaos and learn from it. Right. The Chaos is there to teach you a lesson. Yeah, which is huge, which is huge.

Robert Riopel:
48:31

And if I could give you a visual because one of the things I want people to understand when they talk about the four phases, is that once you go through the unclutter phase, it takes you right back into the observation phase. So they're constantly revolving around. And I want people to picture in their mind a straight line, a straight line that's going horizontally, and picture a wave that starts with that where the line and the wave interact. That's one at the peak of that as a two. As you start going down you see three, four or five, the bottom is six, and coming back up is seven, right before it hits the straight line again, and picture that week, in at any point in your time and your life. You can sit there and choose an area of your life and say, if I'm looking at this 1234567 Where would I say I am at that moment. And so as an example, if you look at Google, well, things are just amazing. Right now, I'm feeling awesome. I feel like I met the two of them at the peak right at the top. Well, if you're feeling yet you're out of two, you were in the pamper face. So this is the time to enjoy to reap the benefits to enjoy what you've created. Because one and seven, that's observation phase, you're on the client, right? Two is the pamper phase. That's the time to take care of you the 345 that's the energy phase. That's the time to be you're building up momentum as you're slowly going down and then pick up momentum. Six is the unclutter phase. And so you can naturally check in with yourself on any arugula Because your relationship might, might be at a three, but maybe your finances are at a six at the moment. And so different parts you like can be in different parts of the faith. And when you have an understanding, then it allows you to embrace them better. And ask yourself, okay, yeah, wow, no wonder I'm in the ensemble phase in this. Great. What can you courageously destroyed in that part of your love? To allow you then go back and do variations?

Average Joe Finances:
50:27

Yeah, absolutely. So just, you know, I just drew a picture of a wave, and wrote all those numbers down and it makes it makes perfect sense when you look at it, like, physically in front of you. So maybe in the show notes, I have a picture of that on there. So people can see that get a visual. But you know, it's, it's funny. I'm gonna make my kids listen to this, especially the part about the unclutter phase, because we're kind of, you know, doing this right now, literally and figuratively, with with their bedrooms. They're in unclutter phase, and they have invited chaos into their room via their mother, because they have not done what they're supposed to do with, you know, choosing things to get rid of. So now, you know, their mother is making that choice for them. So they've invited that chaos in their life. So this, you know, it's it's funny some time this back in my personal life, and just watching what's going on. In that situation, I could tie it into what's going on with my kids. Right? And, you know, I'm gonna have them listen to this particular section. So they understand like how it got to this point, if you know because this Yeah, this, I really liked. I really like the point

Robert Riopel:
51:30

Mr. Officer, Navy, Dad officer Navy adthe key is going to be no attachment to it. Right? Because now, if you're bringing kids, this is the way it should be. You're putting your perspective on them. But if you allow them to listen to it, with no time for what they get, or do not get out of it, you may just see more miracles happen, then you could kind of realize

Average Joe Finances:
51:52

Absolutely, absolutely. Love it. Love it. Robert Yeah. So this, this has been an absolutely amazing conversation. I, you know, I've really gotten more out of this than I think I have from many other interviews, just what I've personally attached to myself, with talking with you. I mean, I truly, truly appreciate it. I mean, you know, when we talk about the four currencies of life, the four phases of life that people go through, I mean, all of this stuff is critical things that if you, you know, if it's not something that you know, about, you're not really thinking about it, but it's always happening, you know, in the background, and you just don't realize it, you don't know what you don't know. Right? And, exactly. And I'm glad that I know it now. So it's funny, because I can tie all this into, you know, what I'm doing, you know, myself both, you know, in the Navy as an entrepreneur, and you know, what I plan to do when I retire from the Navy? And this is this is one of those things that can be a lifetime lesson for for those that are listening, for sure.

Robert Riopel:
52:52

Yeah, I totally agree.

Average Joe Finances:
52:55

Yeah, that's what I was gonna ask you like? So, you know, with everything that we've talked about, you know, this, this is all super amazing. Is there like any last tips or tricks that you would recommend for somebody that that is just getting started out? And they're looking to get to that point of financial independence? Or they're looking to start their own business and become an entrepreneur? What is it that you would recommend for the person that's starting out right now? Let's say they're starting out with $150,000 in debt, and they don't know what to do? What would you recommend to them?

Robert Riopel:
53:25

wanting to become an entrepreneur? Get Michael Gerber's book the E myth, because I wish I would have had that as Domino's Pizza franchisee I gotta tell you, I'm rereading it right now, as we speak. And I'm going I'm getting the one handed claps more and more, as I had read it years ago, and now rereading it, I'm in a different space, I'm getting on a deep level. So I, I would definitely read that book. But to is one of the reasons most people get overwhelmed. And overwhelmed is probably one of the biggest obstacles in people's lives. And what I've discovered in in just my observation, traveling around the world, and being with a lot of people, it's, there's you, and then there's your goal, your dream where you think you should be. And the reason people get overwhelmed as Gods instead of being present in the moment where they are, they're 1000 feet ahead of themselves, trying to figure out every step of how do I get to where I need to go. And so what I encourage people to do is take a deep breath, and come back to the present and take one step. See, this is why I love vision board. My vision board is things I want to see in the next three to five years, however, and is why like in my book success left a clue. I teach people to dream big, but then I give them the practical steps of how to achieve it is once you put your vision out there three to five years. Oh, walk yourself back to where what can I do today in the present to take one step towards that? I don't have to know everything. I don't have to know every detail. But what can I do today? That is an action that moves me towards that. And then once you take that step, check in with yourself. How am I doing? I'm doing good. Okay, what's one more step and if you take that success one step at a time, you're going to find You have less stress. I'm never gonna tell people that success is easy, Mike, because it's not you have to put the work in. However, it is simple. It's simple. If you follow find a system that's working, follow the system, you can have the success, but do it one step at a time instead of trying to be 1000. There's a saying I love that says the jet journey of 1000 miles begins with the first step. And so when you take that doorstep

Average Joe Finances:
55:27

money, I literally just put that quote in my facebook group like two or three weeks ago, I had I had my graphics designer Make me like a little quote, Average Joe Finances quote board with that exact thing on there. Lou Tsao, right, I think as you said, Yeah, yeah, amazing.

Robert Riopel:
55:44

Awesome. And so come back to the one step. And then the final thing is, I believe that the greatest gift, the greatest gift that anybody can give this world is to be themselves. The EU has some people are gonna like you, some people aren't. And whoever likes you for who you are great, whoever doesn't. billion people on this planet, you never gonna get off like you. But I'm, I'm a people pleaser, I came from being a huge people pleaser. And I tried to please everybody, and moms are tiring. But now when I show up, as me, I'm always blown away with who shows up in my life that lights me for who I am, not who they think I should be. And so be you. That's the greatest gift you can give the world?

Average Joe Finances:
56:26

Absolutely, yeah. 100% agree with that. Be yourself. Don't try to be anyone else. You know, we are our own individuals. And that's important to recognize, you know who you are, because you're important, and you matter no matter what. awesome, amazing. Thank you for that. So, you know, based on this interview, and with all the fantastic information that we talked about, I know there's so much more, right? So for those that want to know a little bit more about you or want to know a little bit more about what you're doing, or want to know more about the things that we talked about? Do you have a website and like social media and stuff that you can share with with our listeners?

Robert Riopel:
57:04

Yeah, my main website is the title of my book, my first book, because I'm working on my second one now, but it's successleftaclue.com. And Facebook is probably the I've got now that I've got virtual assistants working on getting my social media out up to date more, but I've got my Facebook fan page. So just Robert, Riopel, you'll find the Robert Riopel found page on Facebook, Follow me, I'm always doing stuff on there. And then what I love to do for your listeners, my gift is for anybody who's interested if they go to SLAC, which is success left a clue. So SLAC.rocks, ROCKS/book, they can get a copy the ebook version of my book success left a clue as our gift to them for being your listeners.

Average Joe Finances:
57:49

Oh, that's awesome. Thank you so much for that, I'm gonna make sure I have all these links in the show notes. So for those of you listening, don't miss out on that chance to get the get the E book get a PDF copy. Because I can tell you just in this short interaction, the short interview that I've had with Robert, between what we recorded here that you're listening to right now, plus what we talked about before I even hit the record button, that he is legitimately doing some amazing things and changing people's lives, you know, in helping people realize their own potential. And, you know, that's one of the beautiful things about successful coaches like him is what they do the impact that they make. So, again, Robert, I am truly humbled and I'm so appreciative that you took some time to talk with me today. Oh, my absolute pleasure. Thank you so much. Aloha. Thanks for listening to the Average Joe Finances podcast, your source for beating debt, saving money and investing Learn more at AverageJoefinances.com. The Average Joe Finances podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. Do not use this for any real estate or investment making decisions.