Rick Salmeron can simplify financial advising and even make it fun. He's big on relationships, and in this interview, you'll understand how working with him can help you make smart money decisions. Listen to this insightful interview and then reach out to see how Rick can help you in all areas of your financial life. Learn more about Rick at his website.
Experts Speak
Make Smart Money Decisions with Rick Salmeron
(upbeat music) - Welcome to the Experts Speak podcast with Michael Dolan. Each episode features a leading expert who shares helpful insights, practical tips, and memorable stories that will inspire you, educate you, and help you enjoy more success, freedom, and purpose in your life. For the next few minutes, enjoy listening to Experts Speak with Michael Dolan. - And welcome to another episode of Experts Speak. I'm Michael Dolan. Today, I am talking with Rick Salmaran. And Rick, first of all, thank you for taking some time and being my guest today. - Thank you for making this a special day for me. - Well, you are welcome. And it is going to be a great conversation because Rick runs the company. He's a financial advisor, wealth manager, runs his own company out of the Dallas area. And as I was doing some research and things, Rick, I just loved how you said financial advice doesn't have to be confusing, boring, or blah. And so many people may get that. So I know this conversation is not going to be that way. And I wanna dive into it. But as we get there, tell me, Rick, how in the world did you get doing what you're doing today? - Frankly, I started in this business, Michael, at a very young age, I was eight years old. - Wow. - Yeah, truth, truth. I was Saturday morning in Oklahoma City at the breakfast table in the kitchen. And my mother approaches me. She places her hand on my shoulder and she says, "Rick, today's gonna be a very special day for you." And I ask her, "Why, Mom?" Because, honey, we're going to take you to a place called a savings and loan. And we're going to open up a savings account for you. Now, I didn't really know what that meant. So I asked, "Does that mean, Mom?" She replied, "Well, see, honey, if you take your money "and give it to them, they will pay you money "for keeping your money." So as a young eight-year-old still didn't quite resonate. However, whatever was good for my mom was good enough for me. So I dropped my spoon in my fruit loops. We get to the car, we drive to the savings and loan. I empty my pockets full of chains. The coins are spinning on the counter. Maybe 10 weeks worth of allowance. I had $10 there, right? My mother matches that with another 10 bucks. And my first savings account was open with $20. Now, here was the kicker, Michael. About 90 days later, I get my first statement in the mail. And that $20 grew to $20 and 15 cents. Wow, that was a light bulb moment for me. One of these, right? And I still remember this as if this happened last weekend. So fast forward, graduate from college, first corporate America job. I'm tired of doing that. What can I do this entrepreneur? Something that I can do on my own, add value to the marketplace. And I go back to that one day and I notice this pattern of behavior, maxing out my retirement plan, saving a lot in the bank, buying my first house at age 22, my first stock at age 18. This was normal behavior that I had within my DNA and then it occurred to me. These aren't secrets for me, yet there's probably a lot of people out there who really don't know what to do. So I can share my wisdom that I'm already doing to others and start a business that way. And that's how I got in the business. And here I am 33 years later, doing as strong and even stronger every single day. - That's awesome. I love that story, man. That resonates with so many people. And I love the Froot Loops. I'm one of my favorite cereals. Yeah, it's, and you can tell just by listening to him, he's got a little bit of passion. He makes this fun. He tells stories. Let's talk a little bit, Rick, about this whole world of financial planning and wealth management. And yeah, it really is a rat maze for most of us because we're listening to so many voices. And we haven't had mom who walked us to the savings and loan. We've kind of done it on our own. And quite honestly, we're not really good at it, right? What are some challenges you see or some roadblocks that people just normally have that cause them not to just even get involved and work with somebody like you? Probably comes down to habits that we have, whether we develop those as young children or growing up as young adults and so on. Really, when you take a look at the results in your life, you're, say, your financial results. And if you take a look at your bank account, you take a look at your balance sheet, you take a look at your pot of gold, I'll call it, that you saved for retirement, okay? And if you're really happy with the results that you see, that means you're doing something really right. Although I would submit that if you're doing that on your own and you find yourself in those shoes of success, you're a very, very unique unicorn because there are not a lot of people that are able to pull that off single-handedly, although it's possible, it's not impossible, but it's just really can be very challenging. Like you said, there's voices. In fact, those voices are exponentially multiplying every single day with social media, right? And the news and so on and so forth. So to answer your original question, it really comes down to the habits and the actions that we take or that we don't take that add up to the success in our financial life or for other parts of our life too. And it can be very hard and frustrating to take a look at, gosh, I really wish I was more ahead of the game or that I was even further along. It does feel really hard to stop and put a pause button on life and now direct my attention and energies in this area. On my own, I'd prefer to have someone that I trust. That's looking over my shoulder, making sure that I'm doing the right things and avoiding the wrong things. So that those habits that I do, that maybe I developed really poor ones on my own, what can I do to change that and to shift that and who can give me a some kind of guidance on that direction. So that kind of sums it up right there. - No, I kind of like that because that really boils it down to the basics, which we are creatures of habit at the same time we do the same thing. And if I've not been investing in my 401k or whatever, or I'm probably not going to unless I get somebody like you in my life to go, okay, what are you trying to make happen? And I think one of the things that the people really push back against is they're like, yeah, he just wants my money 'cause he makes money from my money. That's all he wants. And it's like, we gotta get past that to go. Yeah, everybody makes money from somebody else, but that's not your driving force. You're after the peace of mind, the lifestyle that your clients receive because they don't have to get in the nuts and bolts of this silly stuff. Once they start working with you, you kind of understand where they're going and who they are, is that fair? Yeah, very, very fair. And it's okay to have that warning vibe inside you of this person just wanting to get my money. It's okay to have that attitude because that's your intuition talking to you. And if you're actually attempting to engage into someone who holds himself out as a financial advisor or a financial professional and you're getting that vibe, pay attention to that. Pay attention to that 'cause there are some that are out there. There are some that are out there. You want to avoid them, and you want to engage with those who are really seasoned, they're veterans at it. They know what they're doing and that you can feel that they have your best interests in mind. As a job myself, I wanna make sure that my client's money is in the right places. Doing the things that it should be doing that points that money into their future, not somebody else's future. That's very, very important. And many times people don't know is my money in the right places because we don't know the unknown. It's all a matter of bringing the unknown to the known as best as possible. And that can be accomplished easier when you have a very trusted person by your side. Two heads are better than one, especially if that other head, in addition to yours, is someone that's really solid and that you really believe and resonate with. - Yeah, very much so. And I think that you just hit on something, it's really the relationship that you have to cultivate with somebody. If I'm gonna sign my life over to you, my life savings and honestly take your counsel because you might say, well, okay, Michael, here's where your money needs to be based on what you've told me you guys wanna accomplish. And I may not know it at all, or maybe I've heard some bad things about it. That's where the relationship and the conversation comes to go, okay, you obviously know what you're talking about. I'm gonna believe you, I'm gonna follow you, I'm gonna trust you because I do believe you got my best interests at heart. So it really starts with that relationship, right? - That word that you said is the ultimate brick in the entire foundation and that's trust. Now, trust brick is the strongest and the largest as it should be with a relationship with a financial advisor. So really doesn't come down to, I mean, smarts is important, don't get me wrong. You want to have someone who's really sharp and knows the industry and knows what's going on. However, that really oddly enough is secondary to the actual relationship itself. You don't need to have someone who's got PhDs and entire alphabet soup of letters next to their name to say, "Hey, that person is the best. It helps to be educated and to be experienced totally." However, in the end, that type of business with a financial advisor is relationship oriented. It's someone that you really feel great about, not good, but great about and confident about, that you trust, that you're willing to be open and have communication with and be part of the process and engage as much as you want to be engaged. You want to make sure that that water is feeling very warm for you to go into. - Yeah, no, that's really it. One of the marketing philosophies that I have that I teach my clients is people buy who you are more than what you do. - Oh yeah, oh yeah. - You just explained that so well because it really is, I'm always looking for partners in life, whether it's financial or whatever. People I could go have lunch with. I could go and spend a weekend at a cabin and just hang out with. Because it's that level of trust that I can share my life and go, "Okay, I'm probably a dummy when it comes to this financial stuff, but here's who I am and here's the mistakes I've made and here's kind of what I'm wanting to do." And when you can be that transparent with somebody, it just opens up the floodgates to go, "Okay, I got it, I got it." - The end results of being that authentic and genuine are fantastic versus being the other way around. I would add to that too, Michael. There are some things that it's okay, doing it on your own is fine. I mean, I'll go shop for bananas at the store. I don't need someone to help me out to do that, right? However, when it comes to relationships, as human beings, it is really my belief. And I think a lot of people would resonate with this that we as human beings, we depend on relationships in life. From day one, the day that we're born, we don't make it to day two without a great, solid, warm, loving relationship in our life, right? And we don't forget that as a child, as we grow up. And there are just some things in life where relationships are so vital and so critical and so needed and so desired and so wanted that it's important to find that rock-solid relationship with, right? That's my belief. - Yeah, no, I'm a hundred percent on board because once you have that, the rest really, it does take care of itself. - Yeah, well it does, yeah. - Because you know what, that opens up communication. It opens up that transparency to go, here's what's going on. Okay, great, let's talk about that. And the cool thing is that I love about how you've structured this and you're camping here, is you're able to take a client, I'm guessing, I'm speaking into your life now. But not only help them, but because of that relationship, you're gonna be able to pour that down into the next generations because I see a lot of people who are planning their financial future, but their kids don't have a clue what's going on. And because of that relationship, you can dive down into that next generation. Is that what you find? - Yeah, the more that I get to know, my clients, of course, I know about their family as future generations, et cetera. That's one part of the holistic approach that should not be ignored. And it's not something that most people think about day in and day out. However, if you're in the profession, which I am, these are the types of, I'll call them flashlights that I shine in that black box of the money that's very hard for us as individuals to see everything. We all have our blind spots. Yet if I'm able to shine areas of light in that black box that can be very meaningful to them, I'm going to do that. And I want to do that. That's part of my duty and my responsibility as an advisor to do that. So that's very important. You say that very, very well. - Thank you. Well, the other thing that I think people don't think about, and I've been around the financial world doing books for financial advisors for a long time. So I kind of got a privy into your world, but people don't like to talk about, you know, long-term care or wills in the States or anything like that. And they think, well, you're a financial advisor, you're going to help me, you know, raise my, you know, get my net worth up to this. And they don't think about all the other things. And I think then they go, oh, I'm going to need to go on term care. Oh, I've got to pay lots of money for that. When they're working with you, you have the expertise and the knowledge to go, you know what, we can move some things around so we can actually provide for that. And talk a little bit about the misconceptions that people have around a financial advisor versus this holistic view of things. - Well, there are some reputations of financial advisors that are less than desired, so I'll leave it at that. But that fixed me laugh. Now I've kind of forgotten the question, but that's okay. - A holistic approach of, you know, just raising money to giving up versus wills and estates. - Well, there are some topics in the financial world that are very sexy and very magnetic. And I, of course, I get that. I agree that there are. There are also the other boring aspects that must be addressed. Does action necessarily need to be taken? Not necessarily, however, just like you're going, if health is important for you, just like you're going for your annual exam, your annual checkups with your primary care physician, they're going to bring up certain aspects of your health that they can possibly foresee that you cannot. - Right. - Because you don't want to or your subconscious doesn't want to pay any attention to that, which is natural and normal. There's nothing wrong about that. But because you care about your health, you would like for your physician to bring to light areas that you're not able to. And the same can be said with your financial advisor. I will say that not does, should everyone be a money expert? No, absolutely not. No, however, it's my view and perhaps it's biased. However, money is such a core component of everyone's life. They support a joyful, happy, healthy relationship-filled life in so many ways that that is really, that's really an area that deserves. Everyone listening to this podcast deserves to pay the quality of attention that you do to this aspect of your life as you should your health, right? - Absolutely. And I think when you find somebody like you who you can connect with, you can have that relationship with, maybe the beginning process takes a little bit of time, gathering all the documents and things. But usually what happens is when you start down that pathway and you start working with you, the meetings, the annual reviews or quarterly reviews or whatever really aren't that painful because you're like, okay, I'm gonna go hang out with Rick for a little bit and we're gonna talk about that. - I would do that. - Talk about that because I think that's what stops people too, they don't have. - It's just too much. - I mean, I would add to that that you should, if you're wanting to work with an advisor, in my view, there are so many out there. There may be as many financial advisor offices as there are Starbucks in the world, perhaps. So you've got a choice, you've got a choice. So choose someone that not only, you don't mind spending time with, how about someone that you really are looking forward to spending time with? - Right. - I am the right personality for a lot of people, maybe not everyone, but for a lot of people. And if you're looking to work with and develop a relationship that is so core to your life, why not do it with a person that you really, really enjoy? - Yeah. - Very much so, dude, it's all welcome. - That doesn't happen, you can't find that right away in a snap, I get that, just like, if you're looking for that lifelong partner, right? You're not going to, you're not going to commit the rest of your life on the first date. - Right, now, it's funny, you're right there, because I was getting ready to go there, it's like, it's a lot of marriage and dating and-- - There is, mm-hmm, there is. - That's okay, but hopefully, once you find her, you stay with her, right? And that's really, I think that's the other thing that people, they change every two or three years. Well, my God, I didn't give me enough returns. I'm going to go somewhere else, it's like, would you stop it? It really has to have, you got to have this long-term view and perspective, but it is a relationship that says, you know what, yeah, there don't be ups and downs, but here's where we're going. And we got it, right? - Yeah, well, there can be something said to, let me change advisors, 'cause the person that I'm working with is just not doing it for me, whatever that is. That happens, that's understandable. However, if you look at, say, if there's a pattern. - Yes. - Hmm, I seem to be changing every, I don't know, one year, two years, three years. Is it the advisor's fault? - Yeah. - Or is it somebody else's fault? I don't know, I'm not here to say, I'm not here to pass any judgment, there's no right or wrong. However, that would be something interesting to look and come to perhaps a different conclusion, that maybe the answer can be found in one's behavior, not the advisor that they're with. - Yeah, absolutely, yeah. I heard a total, a total long time ago, if Susie has a problem with John and Susie has a problem with Judy and Susie has a problem with Sam, Susie's got a problem. I've always just remembered that to you. - That could be. - Look in the mirror, but let's talk about, okay, so you talk about not making finances like boring and blah and things. What are just some of the things, some of the ways you work with people to make it a little more interesting and help them live that life, because I think you're a lot about helping your clients really find joy in life, doing what they want to do, knowing that together you're working with the financial aspect of it to get them where they want to go. Talk a little bit about that component. There's something that I learned in my personal growth studies called the peace of mind square. Imagine a square four sides, just like a normal square. And on each side, there is a label that, in my view, represents what could be a great, incredible, fantastic life if those four sides are scoring a 10 out of a 10, okay? One side of the square is health, physical and mental health, right? The other side of the square is relationships, both personal and professional. We have that. We have those always in our life, correct? And on the other side of the square is contribution or giving back to the world or how we show up in the world, or how the world sees us as a person. And then finally, the fourth side is the money aspect of the square life. And not in any order of importance, but imagine that image of that square with those labels on those four sides. And if you are living a life where you're scoring a 10 out of a 10, on those four sides, you have true peace of mind, don't you? It doesn't really get any better than that. There's not a lot of people that are walking around that side, carrying that type of life. And even if they did, my question to them would be, okay, what's your next 10 on those sides? So you ask how to make this joyful and simple. Again, once again, my bias view, I believe that the money side of the square does the best supporting all of the sides. There could be a perhaps a debate for that, but it can really help tremendous wealth. It can help support fantastic relationships. It can allow you to give back to the causes and charities and places that are near and dear to your heart, right? So when you focus on having a strong money side, the great domino effect is tremendous. So I just paint that picture and recite that story. I didn't say anything about spreadsheets. I didn't say anything about rates of return on that or IRRs or what the next hot sector is going to be or this other financial jargon, mumbo jumbo, right? Which you hear a lot and that adds to the confusion and the clutter in our gray matter. So when you make it as crystal clear as possible, when people are able to understand it down to a simplistic level, then action can be taken. A confused mind does not take action. - Absolutely. - And my mind that understands and gets it and says, aha, that light bulb just occurred to me, just when you said that, now we're motivated. Now we've got momentum and we start taking steps in the direction that we should have taken a long time ago and that's when progress and great results happen in life. - Yeah, no, that's really good. I love that the peace of mind square because I was thinking health and wealth, my money, those tend to be what I would call low grade fevers for most people. They worry about and they concern, but it never gets to the 103 or 104 degree spike that I have to do something. It's just always there though and it diminishes. If you ever lived with a low grade fever for a week or two or three, it just kind of diminishes how you feel and you're not out of 10 on that square. And I think that's where Rick could help you just understand what's going on. How can you take that piece of mind square and start putting some things together to go, all right, well, maybe I'm out of four. How do I take it to a five this year? How do I go to a seven? What's the future look like? And then the vision that hit me is like, okay, if you're on a 10, let's take that square and make it a cube. Let's just do some other cool things, right? But let's not worry about the cube until we get to this. So how do, I mean, this is really fascinating. I love that analogy. I love the simplicity. I love the relationship aspect and I love how you didn't talk about spreadsheets and all that other stuff because it was like, that's where it gets boring and cloudy and confusing, because I don't understand the thing you just said. - Yep, yep. It's important to have those things, but let that be done like my doctor. I don't know how a EKG works. I don't know how to operate one of those things. I don't want to know. - That's right. - Yeah, that's what, good news. You don't need to know. - Exactly. Yeah, I just need to know this. So if you're looking for a simple way to really understand finances, a friend you can build, somebody who can just build that relationship of trust that can be with you for a while, I think Rick would be a good guy to at least reach out and talk with and have a conversation. Is that kind of the first step in the whole process? - I think that's a great first step. If you're working with someone now, great, that's wonderful. It never hurts to get a second opinion sometimes. If you feel like something might be missing, then maybe something is missing. Or if you've been doing it for a very long time, more power to you, however, is that the best use of your time? Especially if you're successful, your time is not only worth the waiting gold, it's worth the waiting platinum. - Absolutely. - If you ask me. So keep on carrying on and being the magnificent person that you are to your entire world, there's no need to put that on pause so that you can now suddenly become a money expert. - Right. - Not needed, not necessary. - Absolutely. - That's not something I would recommend. - That's right, yeah. It's not the highest and best use of your time of your life. You've got other things to do. And I always look at the guy who's doing it himself, which some people are really good at. You're right, probably very few. But I think there are a lot of opportunities that if you're doing it yourself, you don't even know they're out there because you're not in the industry. All they have to be like Rick is and he has such a broad spectrum of how this whole thing works. And my goodness, you've been doing this since you were eight. So come on. - Yeah, I know. - How Rick, how could, how do people take that next step with you? How do they connect with you, learn about you? What, where do they go? - They can certainly go to my website, which is salmaronfinancial.com. All one word. I can be found on social media. Look at my name, Rick Salmar on Instagram, LinkedIn, connect with me on those two areas, Facebook as well. I'm happy to connect with you and give you any kind of guidance if you're looking for it. - Awesome. Well, that speaks highly just of who Rick is. It's just relationship, right? He's not here to try to sell you anything. He wants to build a relationship of trust. And dare I say, this is gonna sound terrible, Rick. To sift, who's a good fit and who's a not? Because he's not right for everybody. We know that and you might not be right for Rick, but have the conversation because he's wise enough to understand how this whole thing works. He's been around the block a few times and he really understands the depths of relationship that is required, I think, for you to really live a life of peace and fulfillment with that box he talked about. Go back, rewind this thing a few minutes and re-listen that 'cause that box was really cool, the piece of mind box. Really a great concept. So, Rick, thank you. I'm gonna make sure those are in the show notes so that our audience can go back, listen, and dive into the show notes and reach out to Rick Salomon on social media. Go to his website, salomonfinancial.com. Again, that'll be in the show notes and start a relationship with somebody that is going to have your best interest in mind, but really build a relationship of trust. Somebody you can connect with and be transparent with 'cause it will make a difference, give you greater peace of mind and just help your whole family long term. So, Rick, thank you for what you do, how you do it. And for showing up on experts speak today, man. - Thank you, Michael. It's been my pleasure. - Wow, well done, Rick. Thank you. - Thank you. Thank you, I'm glad you're pleased. - Yes, absolutely. You come at this from a totally different way, which I love, and I got that from the video. I was like, okay, this guy's a little different. And it's fun, I like talking that way. Do you do a lot of podcast interviews? - I do a lot of podcast interviews, yeah. - Thank you, thank you. Probably didn't come across as a beginner, so everyone is a good practice. - Absolutely. - I love contributing and giving back, and this is another opportunity to do that. - Yeah, well, without question. Okay, let me see what I have. I'm gonna do the show notes and all of that. I have your very handsome author image. Thank you so much for that. I have the website, I've got your LinkedIn, so I've got those links. I did not, in all my research, I did not see a link to your book. - I don't have a book. - Okay. - I do not have a book. - You thought about writing a book, Rick? - I've thought about it in the past, but it's always just turned me off. - Uh-huh, why so? I'm just curious, 'cause obviously that's what we did. - I'd say just the amount of time involved in just thinking up with something. It's just not been something that's been of interest to me. That's part of my visibility. May that change in the future? Perhaps, but not right now. It's never been a high priority of mine. - Yeah, well, I think that-- - You do a lot of that for people and clients, I understand, though. - Yeah, that's what we do is we got a whole process. We've been doing it since 2013, that we get your book in under 24 hours of your time, takes us a few months, but we walk you through an entire process and I've got professional writers who interview you and then take your words and craft them into the manuscript and then you review it and make sure it's writing. Then we publish you and then we teach you how do you use your book to educate, to make an impact to gain clients, to get it down into the hands of that next generation as well, 'cause they're gonna need you as well. How do you do all those things? 'Cause a book is a great, it's a great marketing tool when you know how to use it. And so we teach business owners, hey, how to get the book done fast and easy. That's our process. And then, what do you do with it? And yeah, that's what I get. - Okay, okay. - So I would, I mean, I'd love to have a conversation if you're interested, if you're not interested, that's okay too, but. - I'll keep that in mind for now, but thank you for that offer. - You're welcome, it's, you've got an approach and a style and everything that is refreshing. And I think it would be, I think you need to think about a TED talk. - A TED talk, okay. - A TEDx talk, yeah, I don't do those, but I know there are lots of people who do. And I don't know if you can use that box thing or I don't know if that's trademarked or whatever. - I don't know if it is or not. - But you could take that, you can model it or something, but if you could take that and do a 12 minute TED talk on it, that would be really, really wicked cool, I think. - Okay, all right. - That concept of all the things you talked about today, I'm gonna leave it here and I'm gonna remember that box. - That was the most memorable one. - It was for me. So I think if you can. - Good. - Good. - All right, this will air in about five weeks or so. So when it gets through, my team will send you the video and the audio and all that stuff. So you can do whatever you want with it. - Do they have, would you be able to send me, I don't know, graphics or something that I can promote it on my social media as well? - Whatever my team creates, and I say that, and I'm sorry, I don't know exactly what they do, but I think they create, I think they create an image and they give you the audio and the video, I think. - Okay, perfect. - And then you can do whatever you want with that and promote it and that would be-- - I guess you're looking for other guests too, right? - I am, I'm always looking for guests, yeah. - Do they have to have a book or not necessarily? - Primarily they don't have a book. - Primarily they don't, yeah. - They have a book, I can still interview them 'cause they're experts, but I normally look for people who are experts in what they do who don't have a book, because obviously that's what I do, right? - Right, yeah, right. - But is that your primary line of work is helping people publish their book or do you other things than that? - Yeah, no, our primary thing is helping you create a book without writing a book and then teaching you how to use your book to grow your business and we do it in a variety of industry, we do financial advisors, we do attorneys and CB real estate, it's all over the place, 'cause business owners are experts at what they do, this struggle at marketing and positioning and all of that and so we help them with that. So we've just, we've brought publishing and marketing together into one beautiful little system that it's kind of fun, so. - Okay, that's good. - So, all right, that's all I needed, sir. Thank you again, it really was good, you added value and I appreciate that. - Thank you, Michael, I appreciate the time and the opportunity, I hope I'm glad that I was able to add value to your show. - Absolutely, all right, take care Rick, bye bye. - Yeah, bye. (upbeat music) - Thanks for listening to Experts Speak with Michael DeLong. If what you've heard today was helpful to you, reach out to our expert guest and see how they can serve you to bring you more success, freedom and purpose in your life. [MUSIC PLAYING]