Sharon Lechter on Building Relationships, Wealth & Business Legacy

SHARON LECHTER (00:00)
true success comes with a times a power of association. Who’s on your team? Are you have people on your team who are strong or are weak? Do you have new new mentors, mentors that help open doors for you and other advisors, ⁓ companies that can benefit from what you know, or people who have audiences who could benefit from what you know, that power of association.

Quentin (01:55)
Hello everyone, welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds, and I am excited to be here today. I have a fantastic guest, and this is what she said. Yo, she’s been in the real estate space since she was 10 years old. So I am so looking forward to being a sponge and soaking up all this knowledge and soaking up the experience and the lessons that we’re going to get today.

And so, you know, she teaches financial literacy. One of the things that she loves to do best is helping people, helping people grow, helping people succeed. She is a problem solver. And so I am so excited for all of us to get to learn from Ms. Lechter. Ms. Sharon, how are you doing today, ma’am?

SHARON LECHTER (02:43)
I’m fantastic. Thank you for having me, Quentin.

Quentin (02:45)
Absolutely. So glad that you’re here. And Ms. I am the type, I like to dive right in. So I would love for you to tell the people, what are your main focus these days? If you can give us a little bit of an origin story, kind of how you got into this space. We love origin stories. And then tell them where you are in the world. People love to know where you are geographically. so Ms. Sharon, you have the floor,

SHARON LECHTER (03:10)
Well, thank you, Quentin, yes. Well, I grew up in a very lower middle class home. We lived in old tiny house between my mom’s beauty shop and my dad’s used car lot. I looked at my friends whose parents were CEOs and military officers and I wanted to be that. So I was the first generation to go to college. But when I got to college, I was the only woman in my accounting classes and I got my degree and was one of the very first women in public accounting. I learned so much about how business succeeded.

and how, probably more importantly, how businesses failed. But I also came to a huge realization that I was raised by parents.

to talk about money, to understand assets, liabilities, cash flow. Because as I said, we had the very entrepreneurial, my mom’s really sharp, my dad’s used car lot, we owned rental properties that I had to scrub out bathrooms at the age of 10. That’s why I say I’ve been part of real estate since I was 10. My dad had orange groves and he said, Sharon, the oranges are my annual cash flow. The property is going to increase in value. And that property today is under SeaWorld in Orlando.

So all of those things came to fruition, but it was again, we talked about money and assets and appreciation and not spending things frivolously, knowing that every dollar you receive, you can either let it go or.

invested. And so when I got out into the real world, I was shocked that so few people understood assets, understood anything except exchanging time for money, chasing a paycheck. And it became just more more glaringly obvious that I had a knowledge that people needed to have. Now, I didn’t employ it right away. I was in the accounting and I ⁓

was at the point where I was very successful, but I was not in control of my own life. And so I had a client invite me to leave public accounting to go buy a company with him.

And so I did that. It was a bad mistake. But if I hadn’t done that, I wouldn’t have met my husband, Michael Lechter, and we’re celebrating 46 years of marriage. But that started my entrepreneurial journey. met the inventor of the first Talking Children’s book, the books that had the sound strips down the side. And we built that industry around the world. It didn’t exist. Kids did not have electronics. It’s hard to imagine, but back in 1987. So we did deals with little companies like Disney, Warner Brothers, Sesame

Street

and Marvel Comics and so we exploded around the globe in that industry. 1991 we sold that business we moved here to Arizona our oldest son in 1992 went off to college left in September came home in December in credit card debt. We didn’t even know he had a credit card.

He got to college and there was a table, free pizza, free money, free t-shirt, He had a really good time his first semester in college. And at Christmas, he realized that there wasn’t such free money. And so we wouldn’t bail him out, but that was December of 1992. And that’s when I dedicated the rest of my career to financial education, financial literacy. Started working with school systems. 96, my husband called me one day. He said, I met this guy that has what you’ve been looking

for so I always laugh when I share this from stage. I go ladies, your husband called you and said I met a man that has what you’ve been looking for hmm. I said okay that sounds kind of kinky tell me more. So I went to a beta test for a board game called cash flow which was drawn out on a piece of paper. Robert Kiyosaki had gone to see my husband to help with patent. My husband’s a well-known intellectual property and licensing attorney globally.

Quentin (07:20)
Mmm.

You

SHARON LECHTER (07:40)
I love the game. It needed some work. I’ve just volunteered to help Robert because I knew all the distribution, all the cycles. And in that process, he told me it was going to charge $200. And I said, it’s kind of pricey, Robert. Maybe you should write a brochure that explains your philosophy that would encourage people to buy the game. And that’s when he asked me to be his partner. And we wrote that brochure together. And that brochure is called

Rich Dad, Poor Dad. We never expected it to take off on life of its own. you know, close to 40 million books later. And then, of course, people wanted more. So we said, OK, we’ll write a trilogy, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Cash Flow Quadrant, Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing. Oh, no. In our 10-year partnership, we were equal partners. I was the CEO of company, but wrote 15 books together. And in that 10 years, we expanded to 110 countries and over 51 countries.

languages.

We’ve built the world’s largest personal finance brand. In 2007, I made the decision to leave because he wanted to do a franchise and I didn’t believe it was a good model for the franchisees. And so I made the decision to leave thinking Rich Dad was my legacy. But somebody upstairs had something else in mind because I got a call from President Bush asking me to be on the first President’s Advisory Council for Financial Literacy. I served both President Bush and President Obama.

And then.

In March of 08, the Napoleon Hill Foundation called me and asked me to help reinvigorate his teachings during this time of economic collapse. So what an incredible honor having built the world’s largest personal finance brand, then being asked to step into the world’s largest personal development brand. And so I have an incredible relationship with the foundation. I wrote Three Feet from Gold, Thinking Garage for Women, Outwitting the Devil, and Success and Something Greater. And since then, I’ve continued writing. I wrote the book

at Rich with Ink Magazine, How Money Works for Women, and my most recent book, which is just out within the last couple of months, is Old Wealth, New Wealth, True Wealth. And I continue to speak all over the world. I’m a keynote speaker on the topic of financial empowerment, understanding financial literacy, and entrepreneurship and building businesses to scale and to sell.

My greatest desire today is I have high level mentoring clients and I help them apply those principles to their own business, step into their world and see how they can have new channels of distribution, new channels of revenue and take their seven figure business to eight, eight figure to nine, nine figure to 10. And we do that ⁓ really is it warms my heart to see them be able to have that kind of success. Cause I typically see more for them than

and

they see for themselves. And something that I pride myself in helping people get to that vision and expand their success, scale their business and even prepare it for sale. So that kind of tells the story. I’m a grandma. My husband and I, as I said, we’ve been married 46 years. We have a ranch here in Arizona called Cherry Creek Lodge. We host business mentoring retreats there, but it’s also open for families and for people to host their own retreats. It’s a little piece of heaven in the middle of

Quentin (11:10)
Yeah.

SHARON LECHTER (11:38)
Tonto National Forest. It’s kind of like combining city slicker and Yellowstone. that kind of brings you up. I’ve been around a long time.

Quentin (11:50)
So, actually as you’re talking, I’m actively listening. Like I’m writing, as you can see your page is just, I had to just stop. was like, I’m actively listening, but I was just like, okay, I just to stop. So I guess it’s safe to say you’ve done a little bit with your life. You’ve done a little bit of something.

⁓ thank you so much for taking me through the journey. I thoroughly enjoy listening to you tell us where you are.

in the origin story. And like I said, I wrote some things down and I’m going to regurgitate some things to you because I’m going to make a statement. want to ask you a question, but I just had to stop because this guy’s kept going and I just love it. So started off as an accountant, right? Wondering why businesses was failing. Raising a family that talked about money. You went on, you became a successful accountant and then you left that to start a company.

felt like it wasn’t the best decision, but you met your husband. So actually all things was working together, right? ⁓

SHARON LECHTER (12:52)
As

Napoleon Hill says, out of every adversity comes a seed of an equal or greater benefit. I not made that mistake, that bad decision, I wouldn’t have gotten my best life decision.

Quentin (13:05)
Oh, so, so eloquently said, oh, you sold the business in 1991, 1992, your son was in college, then they just set him up with a trap, free pizza, free this, free that. And so that kind of got you to dedicate your life to financial literacy. Then your husband says, I have someone that’s looking for what you had. Oh, I mean, what a line.

kudos to your husband. And I heard you when you said earlier that you wrote Rich Dad Poor Dad, but I thought I was hearing things. So I was like, I kind of let it go when you said earlier, but then you came back and said, yes, there’s this guy, this guy named Robbie Kiyosaki, that’s one that put together this brochure. So y’all put a brochure together that morphed into Rich Dad Poor Dad. Then you said y’all wrote 15 books together.

And then I had to stop writing after that. mean, you served Bush, you served Obama, all these different things. So I literally regurgitate these things back to you because Ms. Sharon, I have a saying where I say destiny has no wasted moments. Destiny has no wasted moments. The journey has no wasted moments. You are constantly building momentum to the person that you are now.

Since the day you were, since you was 10 years old, you’ve been building momentum and the journey has built you to where you are now. So Ms. Sharon, I would love to know what has the journey taught you about yourself? What has it revealed to you? Has it revealed discipline, innovation, stick-to-itiveness? What has the journey revealed to you about you, Ms. Sharon?

SHARON LECHTER (15:35)
my father talked to me about…

that there was nothing I couldn’t do if I didn’t work hard enough, if I worked hard enough. And so he also would ask me each night, Sharon, have you added value to somebody’s life today? And he’s been gone 20 years, but I still ask myself that. And so those core principles of faith, family, and discipline, but also service, really a huge piece of what I do is service to others and making sure I’m adding value to other people’s lives. It’s not about the money, it’s about the impact. And it’s really

important. know, if we are a world of takers, it’s pretty negative. We need more givers in the world and the more you give, the more you receive. I truly believe that that’s a spiritual concept, not a financial concept. The more you give of yourself, the more you give to other people, the more you’ll receive in return. And so those are the core principles that I live by, the contribution, faith.

Quentin (16:22)
Come on.

SHARON LECHTER (16:34)
family and ⁓ really adding value to the world.

Quentin (16:39)
Thank you so eloquently said, and I’m so glad it’s coming from you, because I echo these sentiments probably every episode when I’m talking to someone. I often say, I believe, at the foundation of any sustainable business is servitude. And matter of fact, I go as far to quote a proverb. it says, if you refresh others, you in return will be refreshed.

proverbs 1125, I think it is. like you just said, like you reap what you sow, you throw the service to you, it comes back to you. It’s a kingdom principle. It has to work. Isn’t the DNA of this great universe that we live in is that when you sow a seed, you gotta reap the harvest. You gotta reap on the seed that you sow. And so I’m so glad you said it.

SHARON LECHTER (17:21)
Yeah,

I teach people all the time. I ask them, do you sell or do you serve? When you sell, it’s a transaction. It’s a transaction. So you sell something, you gotta go find somebody else to sell to. But when you serve your customers, when you serve your clients, you create a relationship. Instead of a transaction, you have a relationship. And that relationship gives you a lifetime of sales.

Quentin (17:42)
So we are gonna end on that word relationship. So we’re gonna come back to that. Cause what you just said, I’m so glad you’re saying this someone as steamed as you are, because these are the same things I kind of regurgitate almost every episode. So I’m so glad you’re saying it. do, before we get to that, I do want to ask you, what is your next real goal? What are you looking to solve a scale next?

SHARON LECHTER (18:04)
Well.

I am looking to help other people scale their businesses. I’d have, I keep probably 10 to 15 high level clients every year and help them get their business to the next level. And it’s something that I have a lot of passion about because I step into your world. step into, and a lot of times it’s not your business that needs to be elevated. It’s you as an individual. So I help people establish their authority, get their foundation, and then the business comes up with them. And that’s something that’s really very important. And I love what

I do. This is very important and I think

The focus that I have is on additional clients and additional opportunities to share with audiences. As a speaker, I travel all over the world. So I’m always looking for new audiences that I haven’t spoken to before because, you know, I’m 72. So I have a shorter runway in front of me than behind me. And I always challenge my audiences. When was the last time you did something for the first time? Think about it. And so I challenge myself all the time.

When was the last time I did something for the first time? So I get energized when I have a new audience. In a week, I’m going to Puerto Rico to speak to a group I haven’t spoken to before. A group of family offices, high net worth individuals, those that serve as the billionaires. Looking forward to getting to know those people and being able to speak to them about high level financial literacy. And then the following week, I’m going to be at the event Freedom Fest.

in Vegas, which is a whole new organization for me as well. So I’m constantly looking for doing something for the first time.

Quentin (19:51)
I love it. I love it. Again, I’m so glad you’re saying everything you’re saying. I always say talk about relationships, but then I also bring in the word community.

because I believe healing happens in community. I believe that’s what it teaches in James 5.16. If you confess your faults one to another, you’ll be healed. It’s so meaning that it happens through conversation. It happens through dialogue, but also what happens through proximity, that you talk to each other. And when you build a community, that community supports you if it’s healthy enough. And then everything starts to fall into place. The mindset, the finances, even physically, things start to fall into place.

So I would love to know from you when it comes to relationship and community, how important is that in business?

SHARON LECHTER (20:41)
Well, absolutely. Well, in my book, Three Feet from Gold, I released the personal success equation. You can go to Personalsuccessequation.com and get a workbook that I created for you to create your own. But really the formula is your P plus T, passion plus talent. Passion, do what you love, love what you do. In my case, my passion comes from being mad about something. I’m mad, know I teach kids about money in school. Every time I get mad about something, I start another company.

Quentin (21:11)
You

SHARON LECHTER (21:11)
plus

me, your talent, all right? So yours is a CPA, yours in publishing. And so I combine those and most of us stop there thinking we have to do it by ourselves.

But true success comes with a times a power of association. Who’s on your team? Are you have people on your team who are strong or are weak? Do you have new new mentors, mentors that help open doors for you and other advisors, ⁓ companies that can benefit from what you know, or people who have audiences who could benefit from what you know, that power of association.

And that’s the community piece you’re talking about. And in times a taking action, how many times do we know

supposed to do, we just don’t do it. And so all of that P plus T times A times A wrapped around with a plus F and that F is for faith. Faith in yourself, faith in what you’re doing, faith that is needed and necessary, and faith that you will succeed. And that’s the personal success equation. The problem is for most of us that F is fear, not faith. And that fear holds us back. Impostor syndrome.

or fear of success, fear of failure, and that fear keeps us from realizing what’s possible for us. We say, it probably won’t work. Well, we need to probable with what’s possible.

take that step out into the unknown. That’s why I say, when was the last time you did something for the first time? Because I’m constantly getting people to step outside their comfort zone. Because new opportunities are outside your comfort zone. New associations outside your comfort zone. So that first step is always the hardest, but you do that and you’re going to discover new opportunities, new individuals that can open doors for you in new ways to scale your business.

Quentin (23:09)
P plus T times A times A wrapped around F. Passion, talent, association, action, and faith.

That’s what I call my dear the mic drop mom. Listen, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, collaborate with you, learn more about what you’re doing, how can they get in contact with you now?

SHARON LECHTER (23:24)
You

Absolutely. Well, thank you, Quentin. Yes, my website is SharonLechter.com, S-H-A-R-O-N-L-E-C-H-T-E-R.com. And in the website, you can find out more about me. You can see about my products, my online programs, and my mentoring programs. Would love to hear from each and every one of you. You can email me, [email protected]. You can find me on Facebook, Instagram. ⁓

X all of them just LinkedIn Sharon Lechter and I just challenge all of you to reach out to me because so many times we don’t take that action and so how many of you will be action takers and connect with me I look forward to it.

Quentin (24:19)
Sharon, let me say three things to you sincerely. So first, thank you for your time. ⁓ I know you can get paid a pretty penny for your time. So thank you for your time. I greatly appreciate that. Please don’t send us an invoice, Ms. Sharon. I don’t think I can afford it. thank you for your time. Secondly, thank you for your story. ⁓ I often say Jesus taught in parables. So I believe that there is power in stories. Thank you for sharing your story.

I know you planted some seeds in people and we may not see the growth right now, but eventually somebody watered that seed, that seed will spring forth and it all started with you plant the seed in them. So thank you for your story. Lastly, thank you for your mindset, the way you think you have paid for your mindset, probably in money, but definitely in years and experience. So thank you for bringing that mindset to this platform. I greatly, greatly appreciate you. So many people that’s watching this.

have benefited from that brochure that turned into a book, that turned into a movement. I cannot tell you, and I’m not trying to be hyperbolic, but I think probably 97 % of the podcasts is that I do, somebody is mentioning.

Rich Dad Poor Dad. So thank you for your contribution. Thank you for your mindset. Thank you for just bringing all of that to this platform and really to the world. You are a gift to the world. And so I really appreciate you being here today.

SHARON LECHTER (25:50)
Well, you’re very welcome, Quentin. Thank you so much for having me. And I do just appreciate the opportunity to share with your audience. And I look forward to for them taking action and reaching out to me.

Quentin (26:01)
Y’all heard it? Listen, y’all heard it. Take the first step. Listen, her information is in the show notes. Connect with her. Take the step. Replace fear with faith. Trust yourself. Trust what’s inside of you. Trust what you’ve been building. Take the step. Get in contact with her. And definitely make sure you are subscribed here because I keep telling you, I keep saying this, we are going to continue to bring up amazing people.

And today was one of those amazing experiences. So thank you so much, Ms. Sharon I greatly appreciate you. And everyone else, listen, you all have a fantastic day.

SHARON LECHTER (26:38)
Thank you.