 Keena Nicely with Life of the Land is in its real estate on Pink Tech, Hawaii. I'm a real estate agent with Keller Williams and today my guest is Ron Salvador who is a global instructor for the cash flow game from Rich Dad Poor Dad. So welcome Ron. Aloha. Aloha. How are you guys doing? Hey, I'm so glad you're here with us. So today we are gonna talk about fear versus opportunity. But first why don't you tell people about what you do and I always think it's really exciting what you get to do. You know what's interesting that we're actually talking like the whole subject matter is called fear versus opportunity because how I got involved with this whole thing and I've been traveling around the world for the past 12 years teaching a board game basically. It's if you ever heard of the book Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. I actually teach the board game based off of that book and actually it's actually reversed. The book is based off of that board game and what it is is it's kind of like Monopoly but it teaches you in a way that Monopoly doesn't in it and it teaches you the fundamentals of how money works and I came across this concept and this philosophy by you know I was myself in a pretty dire situation. I was working for the largest newspaper company in the state of Hawaii and I thought I was set because you know hey can't go wrong with the biggest company right and that was what I was taught to do but this company actually went down and that's when a lot of fear went into. So my whole journey with this subject matter started with with tons of fear. We were all afraid. Everybody in my company were scrambling for the scraps whatever was left and and people were even willing to backstab each other just to to get what was left and then it wasn't until I came across this book and the concepts from this game that all of a sudden that fear didn't become my enemy. It actually became my friend and for the past 12 years I've been traveling around the world teaching these concepts. I started myself as a real estate investor. I my first investment property was a bedroom five bath house that cash flowed for me $1,200 a month and for me that was a big deal. It was a lot of money. It told me it just showed me that I could do something and it was actually something that I did here in Hawaii which people were saying you know can't be done and you know of course back then it was also a lot of fear just going into that because I had never invested in real estate before and I went from I think was like $30,000 in consumer debt to now over almost $400,000 because I had a mortgage now and I think so you know just taking on that that whole mindset was scary but it was good debt so it was something that I started to understand better and if you're an investor you're a real estate investor and things like that you start to under I mean you guys know this already that you want to actually take on more debt which most people don't do this think all debt is bad debt and they're afraid of it so just on that point alone I think it's an important aspect in this show as well. Great so let's let's go back a little further so did you grow up here in Oahu and I did I grew I a lot of my life I've lived here in Oahu um however I'm I'm a military brat my father was a US Marine and so we traveled in different places I grew up in Georgia in North Carolina I went to high school in Okinawa Japan I was actually born in the Philippines but 22 years out of my life I would say maybe 24 years now 24 or 25 years out of my life I've lived here in the islands so if there's any place I consider home it would be here in Hawaii. Alright so so great yeah so it shows that you know you didn't come from a background of real estate investors real estate minded investor minded and and you still used to take the leap so right now we are seeing a lot of fear in the market nobody quite knows where it's gonna go so what what do you think people should wait and see take the wait and see approach or what should they be doing? We know the interesting thing about being a real estate investor is that if you are investing and you're in anything actually not just real estate you're actually in a different mindset from the employee minded people and employee minded people and investors almost think opposite see employee minded people don't want to risk anything they want a safe secure job they want security whereas investors actually look to put themselves at risk you know they put money up at risk and they look for opportunity for reward by putting up some risks so it's a it's a completely opposite thinking so so you know if you just look at the context of that then what the majority of people are doing which are the employees out there and you know majority of people are employees we have a small population of investors and investor minded people then you're going to actually want to do the opposite of what everybody else is doing and what everybody else is doing is freezing they're fleeing and they're flying and they're you know going all over panicking and that's because that's what you know that world is about you know this you know it's a lot of fear just like I said when I was working for the newspaper company and they were laying off people left and right there was tons of fear and everybody started to shrink but in this time in these times it's actually as an investor-minded person or an entrepreneurial minded person this is a time to seek out the opportunities and expand this is actually for those people and for us it's the best time so what are some opportunities that that you think people you know you talk about all there's opportunities I don't think our viewers probably know what those opportunities are what what kind of things are opportunities that we look for as investors well see here's the thing is that as an investor you know and and really what I promote especially all over the world is an entrepreneurial mindset and an entrepreneurial mindset is a creative mindset this is a person that doesn't not doesn't necessarily need or want anyone to always tell them what to do and I'm not here to tell you actually what to do but one of the things that I can tell you that I was trained to do is to to educate myself and to seek out more knowledge as to what's available see here's the here's the thing that that I absolutely love about the game that I teach just like I said it's a simple board game and Tina you've played it with us the beautiful thing about the board game the casual game and it's a it's a simulation of real life and it actually absolutely applies to real life is that everything that you need to win the game to be financially free to to get out of the rat race however you want to call it is available to you it's right in front of your face the problem is is that most people don't see it most people don't understand it and and a lot of times and I've seen you do this as well playing the game you know and this is okay you know a lot of a lot of the greatest opportunities you look at it and you almost don't know what to do it and you just put it put it down and see the beautiful thing about you know the progression of doing something like playing the game or actually doing the game in real life is that the more action the more you do it the more you talk about it the more you study it the more you play it the more mistakes you make on it the more you'll get better at it and the more you'll see so you know even you like for example well if you don't mind you know use your example as a casual player you're pretty horrible cash for it was I was pretty amazed at how horrible you are but you know what's great about that though because you know it it actually it actually does reflect real life is that things that you don't understand things you know opportunities that you don't understand and that you you may not see because you don't understand you put it put down or you you pass up or you don't see but the more you stay with it the more you stay in the mix the more it makes you understand I'll give you a clear example of my first investment property I didn't understand I took a real one of those three-day real estate courses in Waikiki I remember I was so excited I was like oh man we're all gonna be like Donald Trump and you know I got you know this is how low my real estate investing experience was I got excited being the for sale sign across the street of my house in here in Kailua because just because it was for sale I thought oh man this is gonna be my first property not understanding the numbers not understanding how it works and then of course you know you know of course I was like well it's just right across the street of my house let me go ahead and make an offer offer on it when I finally broke down the numbers especially here in Kailua especially in my neighborhood yeah the numbers didn't work at all they were horrible as matter of fact I would have lost a ton of money if I if I pursued this particular property and made me realize that there was still so much for me to understand but that the more that I did it and I'm not the fastest student I'm actually pretty slow student I'm I'm pretty horrible at this game in real life although the one thing about me is I'm pretty tenacious and I don't stop I kept at it and it took about two years I was just in it all the time I was in masterminds I was out there looking at properties and finally I started it started to make sense to me what properties were good and which ones were for my my taste for my abilities and for my my reach that I could do and see here's the thing about about opportunities is that they're right in front of your face and literally money and opportunity is flying right in front of your face the problem just like in the game is that most people don't see it I mean when it comes to opportunity first of all number one you have to see it and number two you have to be prepared to be able to take it and and my advice if I were to give any advice because I'm not a financial advisor is that if right now you're feeling fear then it's because there's an unknown out there it's kind of like the fear of the dark you know you don't know what it's not necessarily what's in the dark that scares most people it's what they think is in the dark but the minute you turn on the lights the room all of a sudden you see every obstacle in the room and then you're able to traverse the room and so you know what I would say for everybody who's feeling a lot of fear and it's understandable that you feel fear this time is to turn on the lights and the best way to turn on the lights is to take action and at minimum stay connected stay connected to the sources of information find out what's going on the reason why most people fail at the casual game not only the board but the casual game in real life is because they don't know under they don't understand the rules they don't understand the strategies by which to play the game and to win a lot of people are you know playing this game of you know cash flow and they think that it's baseball but it's actually football and you can you know in baseball you're to you know score a home run and everything like that but if the whole goal is to score a touchdown with a team with pads and all that kind of stuff and you show up to a game with a bat you're gonna get clobbered you know so learn the rules of the game get the proper equipment make sure that you're on the proper team and and then play the game properly so for people with fear again it's because the their lights aren't turned on on enough you know I've been in this for about you know maybe 15 years working with Robert Kiyosaki he's been talking about this moment and if you if you research like look him up on YouTube and look at some of his videos he's still talking about it he's been talking about it for a long time so you know during this time actually that hasn't been very scary for me I understand it is for a lot of people but we've been preparing for these moments we've been preparing for this time and I can honestly say that I didn't realize that what that actually meant I've been here inside the house you know we have our rental properties too we're actually renovating one right now getting it ready to rent but this has been such an exciting time I didn't realize how exciting it could be just being stuck at home but I've been doing my research been doing my due diligence I've actually come across a lot more money these days then when I was actively out there traveling around the world and and talking to a whole bunch of people it's just amazing to me so for you guys out there I would say stay connected find out from from you know the people that you know your resources you'll be surprised what you see there's a lot of opportunity and and the traditional things that you were thinking of ways to invest may still be there they but they may be in other ways and other angles and other you know resources you might have to do some lateral thinking because the opportunities are presenting themselves they just might not be presenting themselves in the way the conventional way that you're thinking so what are some ways that you are are turning your light on education where are you finding ways to get that light and get that clarity well see here's the here's the here's the the the the beautiful thing about the the age that we live in I mean the even this zoom call in itself when we for we're just trying to set this up my computer was glitching it for some reason it was freezing I couldn't get on it but the beautiful thing is that my smartphone still works and so you know just set it up turn it on plug it in and here we are on the zoom car we're ready to go yeah that that's the beautiful thing about about the age we live in the technology that we have is that your reach is as far as you want to take it you know the internet and everything all that information is out there you don't even need to leave your house it's all available I mean just going on YouTube taking in multiple sources and stuff like that staying connected with the local market like with Pina and and and the people that you know with your network I can't stress that enough that you have to stay connected because you can't see it all by yourself and you think if you can if you think you can then you know try try thinking again because absolutely it's not possible to see everything just by staying connected to your network and then other sources of information it will lead you to to a whole world of ideas of what you could do for me positive you know I I'm I'm mastermining with several groups right now just picking people's brain okay what did you see today what's going on because the rules if you guys aren't paying attention if you're not watching the news or you're not plugging in just pay attention the rules are changing every single day and that's a you know that's a scary thing for a lot of people but it's a beautiful thing if you really understand that these rule change rules changes are actually beneficial to people like myself to investors and entrepreneurs and and the like and the especially for people who are coming up with problems to give solutions to because there's a ton of problems coming up and this is the time for entrepreneurial minded people because what we do is we come up with solutions so if you think you know just in the world of real estate you can tell that all kinds of problems are coming out that means that there's all kinds of opportunities for problem solvers and solutions yeah so and we do here even here on island there's a lot of different meetups still going on virtually a lot of masterminds still meeting up I mean they're almost competing on nights it's it's it's hard you gotta find pick what you want to do so there is all that so and I do want to I do want to put a little footnote on that because there's a ton of information there's almost too much information out there and I'm what I'm saying is that that you know taking a lot of the information but then be grounded enough in yourself to know what is good for you see the definition of intelligence is taking in multiple sources of information but still being able to function okay so you know you know what I was taught is there's always three sides to every coin there's a heads there's a tails and there's the edge so with all the information that you're taking in it can be confusing it can be scary to go which one's the right information which was good but that the more you do it then just start to see okay well this side has this these are pros and cons about this is the pros and cons about this this is where I stand you know in in reference to those things so don't don't necessarily I mean don't even take my advice just you know 100% make sure that you take in all the all the information and then determine what's the best for you which way you want to go don't you know you know in my opinion I wouldn't even follow Robert Kiyosaki 100% in everything he says because you know working alongside of him he's not 100% you know perfect on everything he's he's failed he's made mistakes and that's just part of the game you know so understand that there is no one foolproof way to go and that you can take in multiple sources of information to find out what's the best for your particular situation yeah so he does have a great podcast that is another another way to get educated there's several really good podcasts I enjoy Robert Kiyosaki's which is that poor dad radio so let's go back to cash flow if if you wanted to get involved in that and and like me who just kind of walked in a coffee shop one day and said yeah I'll try because you can try things you normally wouldn't try in in real life I'd never buy a car dealership that's just not me but I did it well the look on Ron say I went into debt but so if they wanted to get involved in something like that can they do that now can they do it maybe when our stay-at-home restrictions are lifted how can they get involved well you know you could actually play cash flow at rich dad calm you could you could play it virtually online that they have an electronic version you just set up an account and then you're good to go you can start playing the game I really love the fact that you know people can do that because right now with the lockdown and the social distancing it's kind of a challenge to you get together a physical live game which you know when if and when those eventually come out like this year or whenever we can get into groups I highly recommend those are brilliant ways to learn but even beyond just playing the game you know always educate yourself and find out you know what else you can learn you know especially like even myself you know some of the things that I've been doing is just you know increasing my cash flow by by you know taking care of some of my my you know the debts that I don't need to have and to hold to free up some cash flow so that I can use it to to to invest into further things so even little tweaks into the things that you're doing right now you know by playing cash flow or by you know conferencing with people and meeting with people understanding your situation better could improve your personal cash flow and reassessing like where you're at and again going back to the whole fear thing if you don't do anything that to me would be the scariest thing especially right now with so much opportunity out there I think one of the biggest tragedies would to would be not to do anything I you know there is this one square in the cash flow game is called downsized and and and what basically that means is that you you lost your job meaning that you don't have a paycheck anymore and you're out of the game for you know for for two turns and the thing about it is I noticed that people who don't understand the game they they tend to do this and they'll stand up from the game and they'll go to the bathroom or do something like that but you know what's crazy is that you're downsized you're not dead there's actually things that you can still do and I've actually seen people become financially free on the game through the downside square while they were there and and that's the thing I want people to understand and to think about that you know in this time where there's a lot of you know downsizing that people are losing their jobs and you know it seems like the money is tightening up just understand that there's a lot of opportunity and there's actually a lot more money being becoming available you know you know trillions you know there's literally trillions of dollars becoming more available readily available for people to to have access to and if you understand the rules of money the rules of the game then then you'll these opportunities will become available to you as well and visible to you just right now it may not be visible okay so you also run a group called founders you want to share a little bit about what that is in case there are people that want to you know grab that opportunity and share absolutely wealth I thank you for promoting the group the founders is actually a group of students of mine that do that form games and their job was actually to form cash flow games around the island right now none of the games are going on obviously but you know if you are interested in a cash flow game a live cash flow game eventually we do hold the cash flow games around the island Kena actually has been part of the whole endeavor and had cash flow games at her office so you know we're looking forward to eventually having another game over there as well so stay in contact definitely you know contact Kena to stay in touch with the founders and and the the things and events that we're doing here on island so all right and guy you did tell us that you've been to several different countries I always think it's so exciting where where do you go next when this is lifted you guys have anything planned you know the beautiful thing about living the cash flow game in real life is that you have your time and your decision making back in your control so you know I I haven't had a boss in you know more than 12 years and and so I get to determine where I want to go I have been thinking about that I you know just before this whole actually when when it started to pop off in China I was actually in Thailand at the time and I was it's funny because during my event we were playing cash flow in Thailand it was the first time I was over there we were making plans for me to go back there and I was having such a great time then I even asked if I said you know are you guys worried about this whole virus thing coming over here to Thailand and they said no Chinese people don't like to come here because it was really just in China at the time and this was mid-January but yeah I mean I I I would love to go back over there you know obviously I still fly out to Peru and Central America I have I have choices to go out to Europe as well but you know interestingly enough I've I've really been enjoying just staying home and and you know it's just given me an opportunity to rethink like my whole travel situation and and strategy you know even myself because a lot of my business was based on you know connecting with international people and doing business internationally this virus has gotten me to rethink my strategy of how how else am I going to continue and keep on going and the beautiful thing of that I learned from this was because the rules are always changing when the rules change can you change you know a lot of people are so stuck in the way they were doing things and the way that they they ran that they don't have that flexibility to change and that's something that I would love to promote through the show if that's the concept that you can understand that you know the rules are always changing so you and yourself especially as an investor as an entrepreneur you must change and by change I don't mean freezing or fleeing I actually mean by taking more action and and and seeking out more information and doing more things and and don't be afraid to make mistakes I'm not saying going going out there and fail big financially but don't let the fear of the mistakes that you make stop you because those are some of the best learning lessons all right well thank you so much is there any thing you want to add yeah absolutely you know Tina I think this is a wonderful thing that you're doing this podcast please you know stay tuned to to information like this these kind of podcasts these kind of things that that entrepreneurs like Tina are are doing are so valuable you know these these are the times that for the majority of people it's really really scary and and it's true that these economic times these financial times will hurt the majority of people and the reason why it will hurt the majority of people is because those people are are panicking they're freezing they're fleeing and they're not doing anything but for the people in the know this is actually this can be you know some of the best times and that's why you know I highly encourage everybody who's listening to this to continue to educate yourself continue to to seek out knowledge and to learn and at least be open to what information what opportunities what deals are out there because it's you know the get the cash flow game in itself is not just about cash flow it's about deal flow how many deals can you be looking at how many deals can you be in how many deals can you be you know accessing at the time so just by constantly looking at deals that's how you can stay active and and you know productive in this whole situation yeah all right thank you very much and we're gonna go ahead and close I will see all of yours again in two weeks we have a master at syndication for multi-family homes it's gonna come talk to us about how things are going in that side of the business if you are thinking of investing in multi-families he's got quite a few doors and he's gonna share with us where where they're at all of that so again thank you so much and I will see everyone in a couple weeks