Here’s the truth - developing wealth is a slow and boring process most of the time. What do we do to make it fulfilling? This episode features Paul Halme, a best-selling author, international speaker, advisor, and BJJ world champion. Salim and Paul dive deep into the topic of smart investing through proper planning - utilizing automation tools, saving money to build up a reserve fund, moving money regularly into something outside the business, investing in stocks for passive income, and being wary of the dangers of getting caught up in hype and speculation. Learn why consistency and discipline are keys to building wealth, why it's important to have someone to push you to do better, and why you should celebrate your achievements along the way.
[00:01 - 06:41] Successful Businessman and Consultant Shares Secrets to Financial Freedom
[06:42 - 14:38] Buffett's Investment Strategy and Teaching Family About Money
[14:39 - 21:01] Communication and Transparency: Keys to Successful Relationships
Connect with Paul through his website https://paulhalme.com/ and Instagram @paul.halme
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Tweetable Quotes
“You have to have discipline and a system that you're following and listening to and not getting caught up in the hype. You got to weigh the risk to reward.” - Paul Halme
“We're constantly looking forward and striving… then we lose the road, the journey to that destination. It requires a certain level of mindfulness and just stopping and saying, we've got so much and being mindful to count our blessings.” - Salim Omar
[00:00:00] Intro
[00:00:30] Hello there. Salim Omar here from the Straight Talk about Small Business Success podcast. I am bringing to you another amazing episode with an amazing guest. His name is Paul Halme. Paul, welcome. Thanks. I'm glad to be here. That's awesome to entrepreneurs. Paul is a secret weapon they don't want their competitors knowing about.
[00:00:52] He's used his business acumen to build his business into one of the most successful gyms in the us. This wasn't enough for this former stock broker and he became creating high six figure offline businesses for its clients. That's resulted in him creating a consulting company, growing well into the seven figures by helping his clients all the while living a freedom lifestyle of his own design.
[00:01:19] So Paul, [00:01:20] former stock broker turned gym owner, turned consultant. Give us a little bit about your backstory. Yeah, it was pretty crazy. I guess it was the, you know, did the American dream, went to college, got a, the dream job, family, wife, two kids, dog house, everything, and just hit that ceiling.
[00:01:39] We all kind of hit in corporate America where you're like, is this it? I'm just gonna keep killing myself for three to 5% raise a year and kind of maxed out and realizing you're not that happy. And then luckily I started doing juujitsu with one of my best friends at the time when he was working his way into the ufc and I really fell in love with it.
[00:01:55] And I was like, man, this is a really cool thing. And I started hanging around the guys that had gyms. I'm like, man, they have a really. Way better lifestyle than I do. They do what they want to do when they want to do it, and they get to travel a bunch. I'm like, man, I kind of wanna do this. My wife was super supportive, so I made that leap in entrepreneurship, had the gym, and then built the gym up.
[00:02:12] And then that led into people keep asking like, Hey, how'd you do this? How'd you do that? And then a different friend and I. We said we should start a consulting company. Just help people, you know, cuz everybody knows when you give all free advice out, people don't listen. There's kinda like, oh yeah, cool.
[00:02:23] And then they don't do it when they're paying for it, membership or consulting. They're like, yeah, I better get this done. It's like, well yeah, you're paying me to get this result. And it was just a lot of fun. We really. Grew fast and of course, 2020 happens a pandemic hits and we're consulting for non-essential businesses and running non-essential businesses.
[00:02:39] So [00:02:40] 20 20, 20 21 were tough years, and then just had to persevere, you know, make a lot of pivots, push through it, and then, now things are finally kinda like, oh, maybe we're getting a little better now. So it's, it's been an interesting run. Mm. Got it. Yeah. So talk to us first about, and if an entrepreneur's struggling with their finances and, you know, it's past the pandemic and they're just trying to make things work and the pandemic was a struggle.
[00:03:07] It took a strain. It was a strain on their finances. Are there any quick, easy fixes to an entrepreneur's finances? Yeah, the first thing is you got to look at where you're at and just accept it. I kinda call it like ripping the bandaid off. It's like you just got to be like, Hey, this is where you're at.
[00:03:22] Yeah, maybe you're not where you want to be. Maybe things have been messed up the last couple of years, but acknowledge where you're at. Like, we're here and I want to get to this next place, this next spot. Okay, well, how do we get there? We go in and we create some automation. So I tell people, the quickest win you can do.
[00:03:34] to Anybody that's listening to this is. Especially if you just have business. A lot of people I talk to, they're like, oh, I always have business checking, and then we use that and pay all the bills, et cetera, et cetera. I'm like, well just have a savings account set up a business one, and move money automatically.
[00:03:45] So at least you're starting to build up a reserve fund for the business. And then as you grow, you talk to your CPA and be like, Hey, how much I take as a distribution? Okay, cool. Take this much. Start putting it into something outside of your business. That's the thing we saw in 2020, is the people that had money outside of their [00:04:00] businesses were a lot less stressed than the people that had everything tied up in their business, especially in my industry.
[00:04:03] It was horrible. Mm. Yeah. Yeah. So savings account, be disciplined and pull money out on a regular basis. And the biggest thing is automation. Create an automation because our human mind we're like, oh, I'll do it later, I'll do it later. And you never do it. But if it's automatically done, you wake up in the morning, you check your accounts, you're like, oh, there's, where'd this money come from?
[00:04:24] They're like, oh yeah, it's been moving every three days or every five days. Mm. And then it becomes a game where you have fun. Like first thing you people do is I'll check it. They're like, okay, I got this much in savings now. And it starts to give you that breathing room that we all crave so much as entrepreneurs, cuz we're always reinvesting in our businesses.
[00:04:38] We're always pushing and trying to grow, but we gotta take care of us too. Right, right. And this was a concept that was popularized by, , profit First, right? Yes. Amazing book, setting up different bank accounts and then, you know, putting money aside, on a regular basis. Automation you mentioned that, so that you don't have to think about it, it just automatically goes in that account.
[00:04:59] Now, I know you are a big believer of passive income. Why is passive income important? How does one create it? Man, it is the most important thing. And older we get, the more we realize that you read anything on like Warren Buffet. And I wanna say it's, I think it was like, I don't have the exact number now, but.
[00:05:15] Just the dividends he makes off Coca-Cola is more than the CEO makes in their salary. You [00:05:20] know, it's like, and that's the most passive thing in the world, is dividends. Mm. But you know, if you're putting money away and you're saving and you're investing, because as we get older, you wanna have your money making money while you're sleeping, it's in the market.
[00:05:31] Obviously, as you're getting older, you have to talk to your. Financial person and be like, Hey, I wanna make sure I got my assets all balanced out so I'm not too aggressive when versus when you're younger, you're just trying to make a bunch of money. But it is crazy because it takes so much pressure off, you know, when you're creating that and passive income, it's a bad rap.
[00:05:46] Cause people are like, well, you know, it's. There's a lot of scams out there. Like, oh, buy this and you'll get passive income or do this real estate thing. You'll get passive income and, and you find out it's a lot of work actually, and there's nothing passive about it, you know? That's why I'm a huge fan of the stock market, although of course last year it's just been an anomaly where it was just like imploded.
[00:06:02] But, you know, we were due for it. We, I told people, you know, cuz we had the last recession was back in oh eight. And like in 2018, I did a talk about, the next recession, how to get ready for it. And obviously I didn't think it's gonna be a pandemic and that would lead to a recession, which has been the worst of the worst.
[00:06:16] But even in this situation, you look for things like, Hey, you know what? I believe in this company. It's gonna be a longer term investment. Obviously if you're older and you're retired, it's a whole different ballgame. But when you're accumulating assets and you're looking at it, we're in a great time right now, you know, most of the damage is done, hopefully.
[00:06:31] And it's now it's like, okay. What do I believe in? What do I wanna buy? Or you just do the Warren Buffet model and buy the s and p 500 and then just not be stressed out. [00:06:40] Hmm. Got it. Why is developing wealth too slow and boring from us people? Yeah, I stole that one from, Jeff Bezos. That was what he said the first time that Warren Buffet broke down his investment strategy.
[00:06:52] And it, it's such a, I couldn't imagine being, listening to that conversation of like, Bezos interviewing Buffett just, or just talked to him. He's like, Buffet laid out his investment plan, and Bezos was like, why don't more people do that in Buffet? Said, people don't want to get rich slow. I mean, I've been around the game for a while.
[00:07:06] I remember in 2001, they were all clowning on buffet. Like, oh, you're not following the.com. You're done. You're old. You're past your prime. 2008, oh, you're not doing this. Crypto came along and he's like, I don't even know what crypto is. I'm not gonna invest in it. I stick to my guns. Now he's outperform crypto.
[00:07:20] It's like, The average person, and it is, you know, you can see it when you go to the grocery store or the convenience store. People are in line buying lottery tickets and they're trying to win the power ball. And it's like, if you ask that person like, Hey, are you putting 200 bucks a month in an ira? And they'd be like, no, I can't afford that.
[00:07:34] I'm like, you spent $400 on lottery tickets and you got a better chance with a, an IRA than you do with that. But we're just a get rich quick, you know, instant fulfillment society. And it's takes discipline and time and just, it's super boring. When Buffett said that, I was like, man, that's like the.
[00:07:50] Greatest quote ever. It's like nobody wants to get rich slow, but he, yeah, really, if you look at the chart, he really didn't start making a lot of money until he was in his sixties. Hmm, [00:08:00] hmm, yeah. Yeah. There's a lot of wisdom there. Yeah. What's the secret to building wealth? I mean, you mentioned like, you know, discipline, consistently investing automation.
[00:08:11] tell us, more about, any other secrets in addition to that in terms of building wealth. Yeah, it's compounding interest. You know, he goes back to Einstein saying it's the eighth one of the world. When you compound things, you don't have to do anything. It does it for you. So by investing consistently, repeatedly, not worrying about not trying to time the market, not trying to be a trader, I mean, people can do it, but you know, we've all been there and done that.
[00:08:32] Think you can not, you can beat the market and it's super tough, but if you're just constantly investing, constantly putting money away, dollar cost averaging, which is like you're saying, Hey, I can afford to put. $300 a month away or $3,000 a month away, you're buying into your S&P 500 or whatever your advisor says.
[00:08:48] And you're doing that and it's compounding. And the returns are compounding. The interest is compounding. You start seeing it, and then you can put into any, growth calculator and you look at it. And that's when I tell people, like, man, plug some numbers in here. It's fun. to me, it's like the coolest thing.
[00:08:59] when You help people out and they're like, Hey, I had no money. Now I got 10,000. How do I get to a hundred thousand? Well you do this? Okay. And then the next jump obviously is a huge one. Everybody wants to get to the million. And then that's, that's the long slow process. Mm hmm. I was talking to one of my clients last weekend.
[00:09:17] He was very averse from investing in [00:09:20] the stock market. He's seen what's happened. He's like, man, my money has just half. Yep. What advice do you give to a, to someone that feels very negative about the stock market? That's the hardest thing too, is when the market's going great.
[00:09:36] Everybody loves it. And I, I use one, example, like I had friends that weren't buying Bitcoin, you know, they're like, oh, Bitcoin nothing. But then when it hit that all time high, everybody starts getting the, you know, fomo, fear of missing out. And I had friends that were like posting on Facebook, how do I buy Bitcoin?
[00:09:48] It's at 67,000, it's going to a million. And now when it goes down to like 15, they're like, I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole. I'm like, but you were gonna buy it. You bought it at 67, but you won't buy it at 15. What changed? It's our mindset is like, Yes, the market goes up, the market goes down. And a lot of times if you look at it, if you would stick to like the basics, the s and p 500, or a balanced portfolio, you didn't get crushed in the last year.
[00:10:09] But if you got greedy like me, other people, sometimes you're like, Ooh, Coinbase is gonna go through the roof. And so you're buying it and you're looking at, you're like, should be paying $400 a share for this. And people were, I mean, obviously they were, and now it's run down to like 12 bucks, you know? So that's the hardest thing is you have to have a disciplined.
[00:10:26] System that you're following and listening to and not getting caught up in the hype. And that's one thing I tell people, like I still dabble. I'm still, I believe in crypto, I believe a little bit, but I never put more money into things that are super risky than I'm willing to just set on [00:10:40] fire in the backyard.
[00:10:40] That's like the best advice I got from one of my mentors. He was like, cause I'd asked him, this is back in the day, like, oh, I think I wanna buy gas or oil futures. And he's like, do you understand it? I'm like, well, no, but it's. You can make a lot of money. And he's like, well, so I'm gonna give you a piece of advice.
[00:10:52] If it's something speculative that you really don't understand, just take the amount of money you willing to take in the backyard and set on fire. And I'm like, well, it's not a lot of money. So he's like, well then just use that. Cuz that's the thing is, you might put, there were guys that put $2,000 in Bitcoin 10 years ago that had millions and then you got guys that put hundreds of thousands of dollars in it at the top and now they have nothing.
[00:11:11] So it's like you gotta weigh the risk. The risk to reward. Hmm, Hmm. That's great advice. You know, it's really believing, you know, it's, it's believing in what you, what you're gonna do, what you're investing in, believing in the company, their products, the services before. And it, I guess that takes a bit of due diligence to do that and being surrounded with the right people that can advise you as, as well.
[00:11:35] yeah, this is interesting and good. Let's shift gears, for those of us with kids. how do you give kids an unfitted advantage in life? Man, I learned this the hard way. I was, I still remember when I learned it. I grew up, only time my parents talked about money was how bad, rich people were and how evil money was, and how the, the rich get richer and the poor get poor.
[00:11:53] And so I was like, man, money sucks. I grew up with that mentality and then, You know, I started doing jiujitsu and you started hanging around with like doctors and [00:12:00] lawyers and surgeons and entrepreneurs, and you hear how they talking to their kids and I'm like, wait, this, that fair? It's like they're talking to their kid about their business or their investments and things like that.
[00:12:08] It's like, I didn't learn this until I was 26 years old and this kid's learning it at nine. So what I did, and I even did this at my, gym with the kids, is I teach the kids, especially my kids, you know, talking from the littlest age, talking about the stock market, talking about investing, talking about savings, talking about money all the time.
[00:12:23] Like at our house, we joke around like CNBC's on all day long and like when my family comes over, my wife's family comes over and they know not to turn the channel. Cuz we're a CNBC family. It's like, We know what's going on and I, I call it like subliminally teaching my family cuz you know your kids don't wanna listen all the time, but they watch what you're doing.
[00:12:38] They start picking things up. And if you start talking to your kids about money at a young age and let them realize money's not evil. It's like, yeah, you can amplify if you're a horrible person. We've seen, you know, scams and bad people, but the majority of people are good people that just don't understand what money can do.
[00:12:54] And the ones that do get it, they build up. So it's like if you can educate 'em and just talk about it, you know, it makes a huge difference. Hmm. Yeah. Yeah. So my next question, it's a bit unique and different, but I'm just gonna throw it at, at you. Yeah. Why are most people unhappy? No matter how much money they, they have, it is crazy.
[00:13:14] You see it, people, you know, with a lot of money just taking their own lives and doing stupid stuff and blowing their lives up. Yeah.[00:13:20] And one thing I learned and it, I learned it unfortunately, that my little sister passed away from complications of a brain aneurysm when she was 34. And she had never done anything.
[00:13:28] She's always one of those people like, oh, someday I'm going to New York, or someday I'm doing this. Someday I'm doing that. And I looked at, when she passed away, I looked at myself and I'm like, all I'm doing is trying to get to the next goal. And I got to the next goal. I never celebrate the next goal.
[00:13:39] We've all been there. Entrepreneurs are like, oh, when we get to, when I get to a hundred K a year, I'm gonna be set. And you get to a hundred, what happens? You're like, okay, 1 52. It's like, I realized one day I'm like, I'm not having fun. It's like I'm doing well. Mm-hmm. I'm doing these things and I'm, I'm like telling my wife like, Hey, we're gonna go on this trip someday.
[00:13:56] So after that I started like, you know what, when we hit an achievement, I celebrate, I plan trips, we do stuff as a family. It's like, Hey, we hit this goal. You know, and just try to really enjoy the journey. Cuz you know, it is like that quote, you always hear that, you know, the journey's the best part, the destination.
[00:14:10] As you get there and you're like, everybody's probably everybody listen to is probably planned. Like your dream vacation, you planned it, it's on in your head. It's like, could be amazing. And you get there and you're like, okay, now I got sand in my shorts and I'm dirty and I'm hot, and I'm, my kids are driving me crazy.
[00:14:24] This vacation is not fun, but the journey. And then you realize, oh my God, the journey was the best part. Like planning it, taking the family, doing next. When you get there, you're like, huh, okay, there's a beach and water. Mm, so true. So true. We're [00:14:40] constantly looking forward and striving, and then, That becomes the focus and then we lose the bat, the road.
[00:14:50] The journey to that destination. And so, yeah, that's the funnest part when, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I think it requires a certain level of mindfulness and just stopping and saying, man, you know, we've got so much, and really, I mean, we really, being mindful to counter our blessings, right?
[00:15:06] And cuz we do have so much that we all have going for us, even though we may be striving for a goal and we may be feeling like, man, I'm so far from reaching that goal or I'm not gonna reach that goal, but yet we have so much as well, so yeah, we're so lucky. It's like you, I tell people if they ever feel down, go travel to a third world country and spend a week there, and it's like, you just like, wow, we have running water and you know, like when you go to country, they're like, you can't drink the water.
[00:15:33] It's like, Uh, okay. This is not good. Right, right. Yeah. Yeah. No, I came back recently, just last week from, from a few weeks being aware, traveled international, I mean, Lao, Asia, India, different parts of India as well. And it's very eyeopening. It's a great reminder of, how much we have, and you know, And people aren't happy.
[00:15:53] They don't have much. That's the crazy part I tell people. Yeah. Like you said, the same thing that I tell people. It's like you go to some of these places and they [00:16:00] don't have very much and they're like the happiest people and they'll share like you, oh, come on for dinner. And you're like, you don't have it.
[00:16:05] Right? Do I pay, what do I do? And you feel bad and they're, you almost insult them. Cause like, well no, I want to give this to you. And you're like, right, okay. It's an honor and they're so happy. Yeah, yeah, they wanna share and celebrate what they have and so yeah, it's very different and very unique and a great reminder for us that live in North America that, you know, we do have, for the most part, we have a lot, you know, we've got a lot going for us.
[00:16:31] Wow. This has been great. Paul, really appreciate it. We are coming to the end. I wanna ask you a question. relating to finances in a family, when a husband and a wife, they're not on the same page financially, they've got different, they wage different priorities that they're looking at.
[00:16:50] You know, how to spend money, how to save money, how do you get your spouse on the same page financially? I love that question. Yeah, that's what I've gone through. It's, I've been married for 22 years now. It's like, I don't know how, and I think one of the reasons I've made it, you know, a lot of my friends haven't, is just being transparent and talking about money.
[00:17:08] You know, like I said, take with the kids, with like my wife, when we first started out, you know, we were broke, we talked about money, we didn't have any money. Then as you start making more money, you're like, You if you're not on the same page. It's really tough. I have friends that hide stuff from their wives and it blows up on 'em later [00:17:20] on because they weren't being, you know, like, oh, hey, I did this thing.
[00:17:22] And they're like, why didn't you talk to me? And then they get the huge fight. So I like to do, I call it a money date. I forget where I stole it from. It was someone else's idea. I'm sure I read somewhere, but, go dinner and just talk about money and be like, Hey, this is where we're at. This is where I want to get to.
[00:17:33] What do you want? And then in the beginning, my wife was super like, I don't have any goal financial goals. I just wanna, you know, raise kids and do that. I'm like, well, so that's great, but someday we're gonna have to do other things. And then, The more we talked about, the more open she got, and then I would make mistakes.
[00:17:47] So I'm thinking like, like during the pandemic I was like, okay, you know, our business is non essential. Subways are essential. Let's go open a subway and blah, blah, blah, and sandwich. And she's like, Well, what are you gonna do if somebody calls in sick and we gotta go make sandwiches? Do you wanna be a sandwich person?
[00:17:59] And I'm like, no, that sounds horrible. She's like, I'm like, oh my God, you just saved me so much money and headache because, cause if I would've came home and been like, Hey honey, guess what? We bought a subway, she would've murdered me. And I have friends that do stuff like that. Or it's like soon as you can, same with kids and your spouse, just talk about money and take that off the plate.
[00:18:14] So it's not even a thing that where you're trying to hide stuff cause the closer you can get to the same page, and obviously we're never gonna be hundred percent on the same page, but. The closer you get, the better it is. Cuz then, you know, you don't have to stress out about like, oh, I hid this from my wife, or, oh, she, you know, has this shopping problem.
[00:18:28] It's like, well, let's a talk about it. Mm. Communication. Right? It's communication and then it's transparency. It's being, uh, you know, speaking from the [00:18:40] heart, it's, you know, sharing, right. Share, sharing how we feel, what we value so the other person knows. Yeah. And she keeps me, you know, in line where it's like, it pushes me to, to do better.
[00:18:50] Cause it's like we talk about it and I'm like, I'm, I wanna do this. And, you know, we were joking around like the day I was like, I wanna get into Airbnbs. And she's like, You said BnBs, you didn't say Airbnb. And I'm like, oh, you caught that. I didn't even catch that. Cuz in my head I'm an entrepreneur, I'm like, why would I buy one when I can go get four?
[00:19:05] And she's like, well how about you start with one and go from there? Don't use Airbnbs. Use Airbnb. And I was like, okay, that's why I love you. It's like you keep, you keep me grounded cause. Entrepreneurs. We do some crazy stuff. It's like, yeah, buy one or buy four. Maybe I should buy one and see if I like it, right?
[00:19:21] But I'm just looking at cashflow and the numbers are running. I'm like, oh, if we did this and this, she goes, what if we hate it? And I was like, write again. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's come there. Well, this has been amazing. What's the best way for listeners to reach out to you?
[00:19:35] Yeah, you can go to my website, paul homey.com and on social media. I love Instagram. It's my favorite. It's the happier place. I call it the happier social media. Paul Dot or Paul Period, homey, uh, on Instagram. And if there's only bad thing about Instagram is the scam bot things on there. So like, I've never asked for crypto.
[00:19:52] Don't ever send me crypto. Cause it's not me. Yeah. That's the only thing I hate on Instagram. But other than that, Instagram's my favorite place. Great. [00:20:00] Awesome, great. Final words of wisdom before we finish off? Just enjoy the journey. I mean, we're so lucky. It's like, I have friends all the time, you know, complain about their jobs, about their boss, and I'm like, man, I, I basically plan my day and I do what I, I want to do and I get to do it.
[00:20:13] And yeah, I can, if I want more, I gotta do more, but at the end of the day, it's like I'm building this life where I'm an entrepreneur, I get to do what I want and enjoy it. So just really enjoy the journey and just have fun with it. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, man. This was amazing. Really enjoyed it.
[00:20:30] Thank you. I had great time. That was awesome. That went by fast. Yeah, it does. You take care. Thanks, you too.
[00:20:36] Outro