PTBM - Rick Salmeron

Matt Edmundson: So welcome back to Push To Be More.

I'm your host Matt Edmundson with a croaky voice, but you know what? We are soldiering on. It's great to be with you. We are going to deep dive into another one of the story about what fuels this journey called life. And we are doing that with Rick Salmeron today from Salmeron Financial. We're going to be diving into his unique life experiences.

The things he's had to push through, the way he charges his, uh, batteries, what he does to be more basically, uh, and what growth looks like. So don't forget, you can get all of these things, all the detailed show notes, the complete transcript of our conversation on the website of pushtobemore. com. It's all there.

www. pushtobemore. com. So do come say, how's it on the website. Now, before we get into the conversation, let me give a kudos shout out to Podjunction that makes this show possible. Podjunction helps people like you, like me, business leaders, CEOs. You just want to do a podcast for whatever reason. We want to do podcasts.

I do it for marketing. I do it for reaching out to people. Whatever your reason is, Podjunction can make it happen because I get to do all this good stuff. Like, I just have great conversations. Like, I know Rick and I are going to have a great conversation today. Uh, and then they sort of take care of everything else, which is, well, I can't help but say it's a beautiful thing because it is a beautiful thing.

Uh, and it's just wonderful actually, because I get all the content I need for LinkedIn and all that sort of stuff to do what I'm supposed to do. As a business leader without all the headache and all the hassle. So if that sounds like something you'd be interested in, go check out podjunction. com. It's run by our wonderful co host here at Push called Sadaf.

She's a lovely lady, beautiful person. Reach out to her, go say how's it, go talk to her about the whole thing and she will help you, I have no doubt. Now let's talk about Rick, who is a Certified Financial Planner and the CEO of Salmeron Financial, which is based in. Dallas, Texas. And is it just me that wants to go da da, da da, da da.

Maybe I should just move on. Uh, since 1990, Rick has been helping individuals, families, and business owners take charge of their money, which just sounds like a beautiful thing, doesn't it? Uh, but on their terms. So they can truly focus on what matters most, like family, business growth, or even, dare I say it, early retirement.

He is a hot yoga enthusiast, a foodie, and proud cat dads. You may even hear one or two of them on the show. Rick brings passion, personality, and a no jogging approach to financial planning, making him the go to guy for growing both your wealth, And Your Life. Oh, yes. So it sounds like you're gonna be a great guest.

Rick, welcome to the show. Good to have you on, man. How are you doing today?

Rick Salmeron: It's an honor and a privilege to be here with you, Matt. I'm doing better than billions of other people.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah, I think that's such an interesting answer. I, um, whenever I get asked that question, you know, how are you doing? I used to say, Rick, well, you've got to be doing all right when you're this good looking, right?

And my wife corrected me about four months ago. After saying this for about 20 years, she said, no, no, no, you have to say, I've got to be doing all right when I've got such a hot wife. That's right. Yeah. You want to make sure you're saying that.

Rick Salmeron: And I also have a hot wife too.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Right. So just, it makes everybody, it just makes the world a better place, which is a beautiful thing.

So you are dialing in from Dallas, Texas. Is Dallas your birthplace or are you a sort of a, an import into Dallas? Dallas. Dallas.

Rick Salmeron: I'm an import. I was born in Oklahoma city, although I've been in Dallas now for 30 years. This is truly home. I have not lived anywhere longer than this. So Dallas is a great city, a center of the universe, so to speak.

My wife and I can get anywhere in the country, in the world pretty easily. And we take full advantage of that. I've got two grown children, so there's no kids in the house. We've got this flexibility and freedom being both of us self employed to have the ability and power to, in essence, dictate our own schedules.

That's really nice. It's

Matt Edmundson: a fascinating place for me, Dallas. I go at least once a year to Dallas. I speak in an event. In fact, I'll be there next year. That's sort of still getting confirmed at the moment. Um, it's an event called Sub Summit. Uh, if you're in eCommerce or subscription, go check it out. Quick plug there.

I've got some very good friends in Dallas, um, in a place called Trophy Club, which I think is probably one of the best names for a A sort of a town that I've ever come across. Where do you live? I live in Trophy Club. That's where I live.

Rick Salmeron: Yes. Yeah. Well, you have one more friend in Dallas and that's me. Wow.

Matt Edmundson: There you go. We should definitely hook up when I'm over. I, um, I, the first time I went over there, Rich, my friend to me, a friend, a really good friend of mine, I stayed with him and his wife, Michelle, beautiful people. And he said, what do you want to do when you're here in Dallas? I said, I want to go to South Fork Ranch because I'm a man of a certain age, you know, that remembers this from the sort of 1980s and I want to go to the, I want to go and dance on the lawn of South Fork to the Dallas theme.

And so there's a video of me dancing on the lawn to the South, uh, to the Dallas theme. So I fulfilled a lifelong dream, uh, Rick, I picked off my bucket list. That's nice. I'm proud of you. That's awesome. Yeah. Well, maybe I should just get better dreams. I don't know. I don't know. Rick, listen. Yeah, exactly. Uh, let me ask you the question I like to ask everybody at the start of the show, just to get the conversation going.

If you had your own podcast, bearing in mind we are sponsored by the beautiful Podjunction people, um, that, you know, makes podcasting possible. If you did have your own podcast, right, uh, and we're a big advocate of doing a podcast, go get a guest, go talk to the guest and see what happens. Um, and you could have a guest on the show.

Past or present, anybody in your life from the past or the present, they just have had to have had a big influence on your life. Who would be your go to person and why?

Rick Salmeron: If I had to choose one now that I'm, I turned 60 this year and I recognize With my personal growth journey over the past seven or eight years, how powerful breakthrough moments can be, right?

And I would, to answer your question, if I go back to my memory, to my childhood, who, where was the first breakthrough experience that I ever had? That was at my first rock concert at age 13. Oh wow. And the person that I would interview that made me feel such a wow, aha, I didn't know that this could happen.

That type of mindset was Keith Emerson. Okay. The keyboardist of Emerson, Lake and Palmer. When I, when I saw, when I attended this first rock concert, I thought, well, there will be people there playing music and songs that I've heard on the radio. I have a couple of albums. I didn't know what to expect with my first stadium rock concert, right?

And here was this man who, and they were all fantastic musicians, that the talent alone was amazing, but what he did to the instruments that he had, I don't know how familiar you might be with him, but he would take his Hammond organ and he would just. Throw it to the ground. He would jump on it. He would stab knives in it.

He would do such extreme things to his instruments that was, it was something that still is so etched in my memory. I'll never forget that moment. And it occurred to me, wow, this is something that is possible, something outside of the norm, outside of a comfort zone. He was demonstrating that on stage, and this is why he was on stage.

God rest his soul, he's no longer with us, but he has become, he is one of my largest heroes in my life for that reason. So with that, that was really a spark that I, I always am looking to fertilize. How can I be a better person? How can I be a better version of a 2. 0 of Rick, whatever that is today? I want to be a better person tomorrow.

That memory of seeing him do things out of the norm, out of the, the normal comfort zone was very enlightening. I'll never forget that. And it's sort of a torch that I hang on to throughout the rest of my life. And I'd ask him the question, what was the first moment in your life where you saw what is possible when you were able to see what was beyond your own comfort zone, what, what got you thinking and believing and acting and behaving down that path?

To find greater greatness in your life. That's what he, that's what he accomplished. And I, I personally want to pursue that in my profession and also in my personal life, I want to be greater than I was. I don't want to be perfect. I'm not going to be perfect. But I think I can speak for all of us that we want to pursue excellence, whatever excellence means to us,

Matt Edmundson: and

Rick Salmeron: to do that requires taking actions, doing behaviors that are above and beyond what our normal is.

It's getting through and overcoming fear because everything that we have that we want in life that's something that we don't currently have is found. On the other side of fear. Anyway, that's who I would ask. That's who I would have as a guest and that's what I would ask him. 'cause I'm eternally grateful for that moment in my life.

Matt Edmundson: Well, that's a phenomenal question that you would ask and I, I, I mean, it's a shame he isn't around because I would be genuinely curious to know. His answer, because I'm, if I'm putting my maths together correctly. Rick, um, this concert for you was in the late seventies.

Rick Salmeron: It was 1977, October 13th, 1977. I was 13 years old.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah. Yeah. So it's the late seventies. Um, there's, I mean, you know, it, depending on who's listening to the show, there was no social media, there's no internet. You know, you've. You've, you've, you've got vinyl LPs, um, uh, I'm not even sure if cassette tapes were out in the 70s or whether that was an early 80s thing.

They were, yeah. A little bit, they were sort of starting to come out then. So you've heard, heard this guy on albums, you've heard him on the radio, um, and here you are at the, the Rock. Who did you go to the concert with?

Rick Salmeron: I went with some good friends. of mine, there was probably a band of about six or seven of us, but we're just a group of friends that we have.

And one of them was my brother. One of them was my brother's best friend. They were the ones who turned me on to ELP in the first place.

Matt Edmundson: Right. Right. So here you are at your first concert and it's funny, isn't it? Yeah. I still remember my first concert like it was yesterday, you know, I can still picture most of the things going on, um, and, and, and seeing it and seeing what was happening and, uh, it's, it is the most extraordinary thing.

I'm, I'm curious in that moment when you saw this in real life, you, Did you not have any expectation or, um, that's the wrong question, did you kind of have an inkling of what was going to happen with the, you know, the hammer and organ being thrown down and stabbed with knives or was it just all a complete shock?

Rick Salmeron: It was a complete shock. The, my only preconceived notion was I was listening, I was going to listen to music that I'm familiar with, some that I wouldn't. I had no idea of what a light show could be. I had no idea of smoke bellowing out of a Moog synthesizer. I had no idea of Karl Palmer. Doing his drum solo with his trap set spinning around and his Chinese gongs lighting up as he was banging them back and forth.

I had no idea of what to expect. It was, it was an incredible experience for me, maybe perhaps similar to say this generation I've been around. I saw my first Taylor Swift concert and now I can see and understand what is possible.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah.

Rick Salmeron: That initial aha moments, especially when we're a child in childhood years, those, those you rarely forget.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah. They are super powerful, aren't they? And I think sometimes, and correct me if I'm wrong, maybe it was different for you, Rick, but I, I think of those moments for me and it's when I, I look back, I understand the power of them. I don't know if I fully understood them in the moment. I wouldn't have been able to articulate it.

100%. I agree with you. It's so this happens to you when you're, you're 13. Um, what, what would be, um, what would be something that directly then happened as a result of that? Can you remember?

Rick Salmeron: Well, I would say when I got into my business of financial advisory, One pivotal moment occurred when I was first in my initial years of my business and my practice.

I thought that the value that I added in the marketplace was one of being a walking, talking encyclopedia. Being able to recite rules and regulations and so on. I felt like the sharper that I could get being a lead brainer that I am, the sharper that I could get at doing that, the more clients would be attracted to me.

And I don't know how long it took me. It was, it was too long. Whatever it was, maybe three or four or five or six or seven, eight or nine, 10 years into it. I don't know. Yet I realized that that was not the key to success. The key to success would, would be to stand out. From that crowd, like Keith Emerson stands out from all the other amazing keyboardists that are still there.

He had his way of doing things that was standing out like a tall sunflower in an open cornfield. And I, I recognize that the more I can focus on being a remarkable relationship oriented Person, an advisor to my clients.

Matt Edmundson: Mm.

Rick Salmeron: That was the key. Not being able to recite codes and so on. Mm-hmm . And mind you, this is Prego and even more so today, people can google stuff all day long, but the more that I can be a magnificent person, the more I can work as on myself as a person.

And Shine, Radiating Light, I'll put it, into my clients lives, the more they not only stay with me, but the more they're attracted to me, even more so. And then they become, they're, they become my advocates. They're my marketing system. I take care of them, they take care of me, both directly as well as indirectly by, by bragging.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So it's, it's not so much about numbers, although that part is very important as my, as a business owner, I recognize, uh, not too late, not too late, but I wish I would've done it sooner to focus on the relationship. And that makes me stand out.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah, that's super powerful. It's a really interesting point, and I, you know, I, in the world of eCommerce, I'm often asked a whole bunch of various different things, Rick, about what's working, what's not working, and so on and so forth.

And there's a lot of talk about AI. You know, AI is making big waves at the moment. Everyone's talking about AI. AI can do this, AI can do that. And the thing that we've noticed whilst AI can analyze data and it can, uh, it can help you with things like that. A lot of people are using AI as like a content creation type thing.

You know, I'll get AI to write the blog post. I'll get AI to do this and so on and so forth. The problem with that. is it sounds like every other AI generated blog post, right? It's not standing out. It's very beige. It's very vanilla. And I think AI is a really interesting conundrum right now because people say, well, do you think AI is going to take people's jobs?

And I'm like, well, actually, I think it probably will. Um, but I think the jobs it will take will be people who are average, who are beige, who are vanilla. If you are media, if you're a mediocre graphic designer, you have got a really big problem, I think, with AI coming up. But if you're a really exceptional graphic designer who is constantly honing his craft and knows how to deal with people and has that ability just to be memorable with people, then You're going to do so well, because you'll be able to double, triple your rates, because people will come searching for you, because AI does all the mediocre stuff, they want the exceptional people, uh, coming in.

And I love this idea of what you're saying about standing out. Um, how did you, when you had that moment in your own business, what did you then do differently? So you stopped quoting figures and law and, and, and all that sort of stuff. What did you do differently?

Rick Salmeron: I examined other companies. I examined my own pocketbook.

I identified where am I spending my money? Where am I going shopping? Where am I buying coffee if that's what it is? Where am I doing this and that? And I gravitated to those places that I felt like I had a chemistry with and I felt like that they heard me and they listened to me as a human being. So, when I noticed my own buying patterns, who am I a client of, who am I a customer of, and what traits and characteristics are those businesses demonstrating that makes me gravitate to them, I need to be incorporating those.

In my own, so that involves many different things. I would say everyone has their own recipe. If this is a strategy that they want to pursue, although mine was, I want to feel seen. I want to Felt heard, I want to be felt, listened to. Mm-hmm . And paid attention to. So what do I need to do as a financial advisor towards my clients to make them feel those things?

Matt Edmundson: Mm.

Rick Salmeron: Because no one in my industry, and I'll speak just for my industry, no one in my industry has the market cornered on. Rates of return or

Matt Edmundson: Yeah. Or

Rick Salmeron: products or something like that. It's that there's not, there's no such thing as that. But what, what does make a person stand out? And what I still continue to focus on is how can I be such a, a great person to my clients that.

They, there's not even a chance of someone else that they would go to. There's not a stack of names. There's only one name, and that's me on the stack. And that's the position that I want to have.

Matt Edmundson: It's interesting, isn't it? Because I, I, I mean, financial planning, the sort of the industry that you're in, more than most industries, I would have thought, um, requires the trust of your client.

Because they are, they are talking to you about I think people are more willing to talk about their sex lives than they are to talk about how much money they earn or have. It's the most extraordinary thing. You know, it's like the bank statement is the most sacred text that we have, you know, beyond the Bible.

It's kind of like, this is under lock and key. No one needs to know this data. Um, and so to open that up to somebody. Requires fundamental trust, doesn't it? It requires that. So what have you learned about gaining people's trust?

Rick Salmeron: Working on yourself, working on yourself. When I discovered personal growth back in 2017, that was the key to leveling up to the place that I am now and I'm still climbing.

I'm still climbing. You've hit the nail on the head. Of all of the bricks in the foundation of my business and how I work with clients, the largest and the most powerful brick is trust. I can be the best whatever, I can be the best social media poster, I can be the wizard when it comes to money. None of that makes any difference if my clients don't trust me.

If there's not trust, I'm not going to do business with anyone. How do you get that trust, I've discovered, is by working on myself. Building my self esteem. When I work on myself and make myself a better version of myself every single day, when I show up in the world as authentic, dependable, trustworthy, responsible, people feel that.

It's not, it's not a feeling that people get in a snap. It's not like a light switch. It does take time to build that trust as it should, because it is such a core part. Like, One Sex Life. It's such a core part of one's livelihood that if you're going to work with someone, you want to make sure you're working with someone that you trust.

And I'm not going to gain trust by showcasing numbers and charts and, and, and so on. I'm going to gain trust by how I connect and express my thoughts and my genuine personality to the people that I want to work with. And the most effective way I've done that is by working through myself and becoming a better version of myself.

At the beginning of our podcast today, I'll, you know, how are you doing? I say, you know, better than billions of other people. Another common question that people ask is, how are you? 99 percent of the time people respond, fine, I'm good. Whatever. I love that question because I'll take that opportunity and respond in the manner that reminds me of my beingness.

So, a person asks me, how are you, Rick? I say, I'm honest, loving, courageous, outward focused, dependable, trustworthy, solution oriented. I start to examine my inside of my beingness because that helps remind me. And it tells people the type of person that I am, which also helps me stand out from the crowd.

That's how you get it going is work on yourself.

Matt Edmundson: If

Rick Salmeron: you want great clients, if you want a great business, if you want a great relationship. In your life, both professional or personal, then work on yourself being great. Greatness attracts greatness.

Matt Edmundson: I'm curious, uh, Rick, I did listening to you talk, what happened in 2017?

Why, what was, what was the pivotal point there?

Rick Salmeron: So, 2017, at that time, I was divorced. I was dating this lovely lady. And my life was not bad. My business was fine. The relationship that I had with, have with my children was, was solid. My health was okay. I didn't notice anything wrong with me. Then my girlfriend said, you know what, Rick, I took this three day class one time ago and it was really transformational.

Maybe you should consider taking it yourself. And I, I sort of took offense to that inside of me. My mouth said, yes, I'll do this, honey. But inside I said, no, I mean, what was the matter with me, right? What do I need to change in my life? And I was a person that was not getting married again. It was marriage's fault.

It wasn't my fault. Why should I get married again? Because that's just another dead end road, right? Anyway, I told her yes, I attended, my idea was I'll attend this three day class, I'll come back home, and I'll give her my report card, and we'll be off on our merry way. Well, I took the Friday, Saturday, Sunday class, Matt, have you ever had one of those moments where this bag of bricks just comes crashing down from the sky and hits you on the head?

That's what happened to me on that weekend class. It was that pivotal moment that I realized all of the life results that I had, which were not horrible, but I recognized what could be, what is possible. I was, I was showing up in the world in a way that I was missing out on so many things in so many areas.

And that's what, that's what occurred. The life trajectory went from here to here in an instant. And many, many life results have, have blossomed since that weekend back in 2017. But there was one life result that did change instantaneously. And that was that girlfriend that told me about that class. She's now my wife.

Right,

Matt Edmundson: for the man you'll never get married to, getting married again. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Rick Salmeron: And we now have a 12 out of a 10 marriage and I'm, I'm happy and proud to say that, but if it wasn't for her, if it wasn't for that weekend, I wouldn't be, I don't even know what my life would be like. Now that I know what's possible, this just goes back to the Keith Emerson moment.

Yeah. I discovered and I saw what was possible for someone on stage with music and I'm, I apply that moment to my life today. What else is possible? Where can I get a better version of Excellence for Rick? Where's that next version 2. 0? In my personal life, in my professional life, with my children, with my neighbors, with my clients.

With my parents, with my siblings and so on. So it sounds like,

Matt Edmundson: I mean, this was quite a, uh, a revelation to you. I did. I'm listening to you talk. It's like, you know, this, this sort of big aha moment in life. You called them breakthrough moments earlier, didn't you? Um, Your then girlfriend, your now wife suggests you go on this course, you're like, sure, but on the inside you're like, hang on a minute, why would you suggest that, what's wrong with me?

Um, what did you discover was wrong with you? Because obviously something changed.

Rick Salmeron: What did I discover that was wrong with me? Being a pessimist, being a pessimist, I'm an optimist today, but I was a pessimist then. I would look at how things could go wrong versus how they could go right. And with, I recognize that with any event in life, all life events are neutral, whatever that is. It's up to me to decide.

Is this event something that will help me or will it hurt me? And so many, so many times I would see things as, Oh, I don't want to do that because I don't know, fill in the blank, but I foresaw the wrong end result. Just like I would never get married again.

Matt Edmundson: That was

Rick Salmeron: a dead end road. If I were to get married again, well, surely.

It would be a divorce because that's what happens with marriages. So that kind of attitude doesn't help fertilize a prosperous life. And in fact, it does the opposite. So as an example, I noticed that my subconscious and all of us are driven by our subconscious. It's behind the wheel. It influences every single decision that we make, every action that we take or don't take.

I noticed that the actions that I were taking, I was taking was meant to avoid. Uh, a danger or avoid a, a wrong, I mean a, a dead end road. That was my subconscious protecting me versus seeing it as what's possible.

Matt Edmundson: Mm-hmm. Now, mind

Rick Salmeron: you, there are some things I don't want to do. I don't wanna cross the. The highway with cars buzzing back and forth.

Otherwise I'll die. And our, our subconscious is there for a protection purpose. And that's good. But other things, taking risks, uh, acting in the face of fear, doing things outside of our normal, that's where opportunities are. And I would always ignore those. I would always want to stay in my comfort zone, wrapped up in a blanket.

And that's why I was experiencing frankly, a mediocre life. And it's hard to see that.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah, it's

Rick Salmeron: hard to see that, right? We're walking around with blinders on all the time, right? It's it helps to have a force or somebody from the outside in remove, remove those because they can see things that That we cannot see on our own.

That was a huge revelation for me.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah, it's really powerful, isn't it? It's like a Damascus road type experience, isn't it? It's like the scales are lifted off your eyes and you see things that you've never seen before. Um, and it, it's, it's super, super powerful.

Rick Salmeron: And I didn't believe I was valuable. I didn't believe I was a valuable person.

Where did that come from? Childhood. Childhood limiting beliefs. All of our limiting beliefs are established, 95 percent of them, by the age 18. And most of them are established by age 7 or 9. And it all comes down to just very, it could be very subtle, childhood moments that we interpret as children, as creating our own belief system.

And many of us, I'll raise my hand and maybe I speak for other people, but the questions of, am I good enough, right? Am I worthy of this? Do I deserve this? Many, many, many times I would answer those questions, no, because I didn't feel like I was worthy or deserving of greatness. It all goes back to childhood experiences that create and formulate our beliefs about ourselves as people.

Matt Edmundson: So what, how did you overcome that? Because I mean, there are quite significant limiting beliefs and there are. They are deeply rooted in us, um, it's not like you can just switch them on and off. So I'm curious, how did you overcome those?

Rick Salmeron: Just as we develop those over time, over a long period of time, that doesn't mean they're in cement.

We can change them, although it does take time. It was that 2017 moment where I realized, wow, I've got these limiting beliefs about myself. If I want my life to be better, great, or something different in my life, I need to work on these limiting beliefs and slowly melt those ice glaciers inside of me, slowly but surely, so I can be saying yes to, I deserve this, and yes, I am good enough for this.

And yes, I'm a valuable person, but it requires more than, and I love this conversation on the podcast. And that's an ingredient to the entire recipe, but be mindful of what you hear in between your ears. Be mindful of what you say, listen to in the car, what you consume on the radio or news or whatever.

Those are all influences to either, either fostering those limiting beliefs or relieving yourself of those limiting beliefs, but it is a constant, it's been a constant journey and it's a bucket of personal development that I've worked in deep as well as on surface and everything in between for the past seven years, eight years, and it will be a journey that will never end.

Because that, that bucket does evaporate. If you don't fill it up, it will go away.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah. Yeah. That's, I, you're right, it's, it's the consistency, isn't it? It's working. It's the daily decisions to make it make different choices. Mm-hmm. Um, I've always found, actually for me, the people I surround myself with have, have a massive influence on my life.

Huge. Like my wife is amazing because she. She will always challenge me to think bigger and better and more differently. Um, and, and I, I love being around people like that. You know, the, the possibility people.

Rick Salmeron: We should start an amazing wives club somewhere.

Matt Edmundson: Absolutely. If you'd like to join, just go to amazingwives.

com. In fact, don't go to amazingwives. com. You have no idea what that's going to. Let me just reverse that. I'm curious, Rick, you talked earlier about Rick 2. 0, creating Rick 2. 0. What does that look like?

Rick Salmeron: It looks like me being a better person tomorrow than I am today. It's as simple as that. And that's my definition of success.

It is not, Oh, I want to reach this particular income goal or this particular client goal or, or this particular health goal. Although those parts are, are, are very important. I can control only the best how I will be as a person tomorrow versus I am today. When I take a look at myself today and I compare myself to yesterday.

I feel like I succeeded. Now I want to succeed tomorrow. And if, if I continue on the, just the simple day to day path of that, am I a better person? Is there a version 2. 0 Rick tomorrow versus today? Then I have, I have one, I've won today. And now my next task is the following day. So if I can control that, Now, I'm not going to get it right every single time, but I can do that, and I'm winning the week, or I'm winning the month, I'm, I'm on target to win the month.

I'm going to win the year and all those other life results will come. I'm just planting seeds right now that some will germinate right away and some will not over time. But I just want to plant those potent, wonderful, magnificent seeds as best I can today.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah, it's, it's, it's, for me, life is all about the decisions you make for the day.

Like you say, if you win today, you'll win the day. You do that enough, you win the week, you win enough weeks, you win the month, you win enough months, you win the year. Um, and it's, it's breaking that down, isn't it, into the daily. And I find, I, I don't know if you find this, Rick, I'm curious to know, for me, a lot of that actually comes down to disciplines.

Um, so, you know, uh, Did I win in my diet? Did I win with exercise? Did I win with being grateful? Did I win with, um, giving my wife and my kids the attention they deserve? You know, that's discipline, right? A lot of that is discipline, uh, on me. And so a lot of the stuff that you face daily comes down to personal disciplines.

I don't know if you found the same thing.

Rick Salmeron: A hundred percent, a hundred percent. I heard this, uh, described it in this way a few days ago. It's, it's in a, in other ways, put it's deal making with myself. So, for example, if I have the opportunity, got a Hershey bar in this hand and an apple in another, my, my gut may want the Hershey bar because it tastes good and it feels good, but what do they say about an apple?

An apple a day does what? Keeps the doctor away. So, my deal making that I must do within myself, aka discipline, is make the right choice. What's, what choice am I going to, what, what hard choice am I going to make between these two and be happy and comfortable living with the result? Am I going to choose the Hershey bar and feel really bad about myself about 15 minutes later?

Or am I going to make the hard choice of having the apple foregoing the sweetness and the dopamine hit the Hershey bar gives me, knowing that I'll feel better about myself. 15 minutes after that.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah, it's really powerful questions, isn't it? And I think in that you have to know what it is that you're looking for.

That you are trying to achieve you. And this is the thing, isn't it? I think when it comes to, um, whether you lie to yourself about your diet, for example, diet I think is a big one because we all have these sort of vague wishes to eat healthier. But I find the more specific I am in my diet, the easier it is to make those decisions as to whether I'm doing the right thing or not.

Yeah. If I'm very vague in that concept or that understanding, it's easy to talk myself around, if that makes sense.

Rick Salmeron: You're right.

Matt Edmundson: And so understanding what my decision is, what that decision of quality is all about. Um, if you can define a problem, it's half solved, right? It's that given definition to things and you, um, I think there's some real, uh, wisdom in that, so yeah.

Super powerful.

Rick Salmeron: Yeah, for sure. For sure. What, what gets measured gets managed. Yeah. So you do want to have a focus and you do want to have a, a plan in motion. I, I do this with my health. I actually track what I eat and I work with a health coach and so on. So had I not done that, that involves discipline.

Matt Edmundson: Mm-hmm .

Rick Salmeron: Is it something that I would prefer not to do? Well, I'd prefer to go. You know, to the movies or something and eat popcorn, but I'm choosing not to do that. I'm choosing to, to work with a coach because health is a top value of mine. So what I, what I want to say is that whatever life results we have, it's not right or wrong.

Our actions are not right or wrong. It's just, are those the results that we want? Are you really, really happy with those results? And I would say most people may say, well, my results are okay, but I can see what's possible and I prefer to be up here versus where I'm at. So to myself, when I noticed that about myself, that triggers me to change actions.

And we'll see you in the next video.

Matt Edmundson: Bye. Yeah, I think the, and you've got to be able to take responsibility for that. Right. So you've got to look at where you are in life and go, I have to take responsibility for it. Um, I think it's easy to blame every man and his dog for everything that's going on at the moment.

We live in this sort of victimhood blame culture, right or wrong. We do. Um, but I think looking at your life. Looking at where you think it could be, looking at what's possible, you have to take responsibility for where you are. And then you can move forward.

Rick Salmeron: Agreed. A hundred percent. Uh, if it's two B, it's up to me.

Matt Edmundson: Love it. Love

Rick Salmeron: it.

Matt Edmundson: Rick, listen. Um, I'm aware of time this conversation. These I love these conversations. 'cause you blink and they, they're sort of Yeah, the time has gone. Yeah. Great comment. Um, lemme do the question box thing. 'cause I do, I I like the question box thing. You like spontaneity? So this is where I flick through the questions.

You tell me where to stop. Wherever we stop. That's the question we gonna ask. Okay, so I asked you earlier who you would have on your podcast and why he's been a good influence. The question you stopped on is who has been a bad influence on you? Who has been a bad influence?

Rick Salmeron: So I will be as specific as I am prepared to be.

Matt Edmundson: Sure.

Rick Salmeron: There was, there was a person in my life who was a bad influence because that person Added significant amount of weight on the pessimistic side of my life. Like you said earlier, and this is how I put it, who you hang out with is who you become. So if I am in a circle of 5 millionaires, I will be the 6th millionaire.

If I am in the circle of 5 pessimists, I will be the 6th pessimist. This person was very pessimistic and this person's health behavior was awful, awful, and specifically alcohol. And I, I imbibed, I partied with this person at the same level and looking back, whoa, gosh, I, I shouldn't have done that. I shouldn't have done that.

I'm grateful that I recognize this today, but that person's influence drug me down, and I don't, I, I don't want anti helium in my life now. I want helium in my life.

Matt Edmundson: That's a good idea. I get

Rick Salmeron: the helium from the people that I spend time with. So that one person I'm, I'm grateful for that experience in that the silver lining is I recognized.

Why it was bad.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah.

Rick Salmeron: So that I can recognize how my life can be much, much, much, much better. And I've changed my behaviors as a result of that.

Matt Edmundson: Great. Well, I mean, that's, that's the, that's the thing, isn't it? You go through these things, you determine, I think, how you deal with them, how you respond to them.

Um, to quote Stephen Covey, you know, that responsibility is choosing your response, how you respond to things. Um, and when these things happen, choosing how you respond and how you come out of them is half the battle. I, if you were to ask me this question, actually, I think it's, I, I don't know if I'd go a bit more, uh, what's the word I'm looking for?

A bit, a bit more surreal, but um, who has been a bad influence on me? I'd probably say I'm the worst influence on me. Uh, in, in, for reasons that we talked about, um, in many ways, I, I, I can look at people and say, well, they were a bad influence on me and, and they weren't. It's an obvious thing. Um, but how many times have I, have I lied to myself?

How many times have I deceived myself? How many times have I made false promises to myself? Um, I think that's, that's a really interesting question to get into, uh, because when you, when you really get down to it, I don't think you like the answers. Um, and this is what I think what drives you to make RICK 2.

0 or MATT 2. 0, or, you know, to become that better person is actually, it means I've I've got to stop being a bad influence on my life.

Rick Salmeron: I love that response. Your response was better than mine.

Matt Edmundson: No, I don't know if I'd go that far, but I think it's a powerful question. I'm going to steal that. Yeah, go for it.

Rick, listen, fascinating chatting to you, man. I really appreciate you coming on. If people want to reach out, if they want to connect with you, maybe find out more about what you do, what's the best way to do that?

Rick Salmeron: Go to my website, salmeronfinancial. com. If you would like to follow me on social media, I can tell you my intent with all my posts is nothing boring, mundane, and unsexy.

On the, on the contrary, I like to shine a light of wisdom, money through a lens that you may have not considered, wisdom that you've not considered that hopefully will make a difference in your life and maybe move the needle a little bit. But that's one of my ways of giving, giving to others is showcasing areas of my expertise that you may not have considered that can be a positive impact on your life.

Matt Edmundson: Fantastic. We will of course link to that website in the show notes, uh, which you can get along for free with the transcript on the website, pushtobemore. com or they'll be on your podcast app. Just scroll down. It'll be there. Or if you're on YouTube, just look in the description and click it and go and say, how's it to Rick?

But Rick, thank you so much for your time. Thank you for coming onto the show. Love the conversation. It's made me think. Um, super encouraging, uh, super, super encouraging. So thank you for doing that, my friend.

Rick Salmeron: Thank you, Matt. I appreciate you very much.

Matt Edmundson: Well, wonderful. That's a wrap on another phenomenal conversation.

A massive, yes, we can do this, actually. Yes, a massive round of applause. That's why I'm swinging you at the sound desk. A massive round of applause for Rick for joining us today. Uh, huge thanks also to the show sponsor PodJunction. Like I said, if you want to know how to do your own podcast. Just have some fun with it.

Why not? Go check out Podjunction. Go talk to Sadaf at podjunction. com. She'll be more than helpful. Now remember, keep pushing to be more. Don't forget to follow the show wherever you get your podcast from because we've got some more great conversations coming up. And of course, I don't want you to miss any of them.

Why would I? And in case no one has told you yet today, let me be the first. You are awesome. Yes, you are. Created awesome. It's just a burden you have to bear. Rick's got to bear it. I've got to bear it. You've got to bear it as well. Now, Push To Be More, like I said, is brought to life by PodJunction.

Everything's on the website at pushtobemore. com. Big kudos to the PodJunction, BogJunction? I don't know, the PodJunction team that makes this show possible. But that's it from me. That's it from Rick. Thank you so much for joining us. Have an awesome week wherever you are. I'll catch you on the flip side, but until then, keep pushing and bye for now.