Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:09] Speaker B: The podcast for those who find themselves immersed in adversity and choose to write their story instead of having others write it for them. I'm Drew Duraney and I'm your host. Today's guest is Joel Solomon. Joel Solomon is a prosperity coach who helps others overcome obstacles standing in the way of their financial freedom. In 2021, Joel published Personal money management bestseller Infinite Love and Money with Molly Singh. In 2019, Joel published the 9 Money Rules Millionaires Use Only the Unconventional Ones which was a bestseller in both self help and personal finance. In 2018, he published Mindful Money Management Memoirs of a Hedge Fund Manager which also was a bestseller. Joel is an award winning TEDx speaker and frequent podcast guest. He has led over 20 workshops teaching the concepts of how to overcome limiting beliefs. He has spoken at numerous Rotary and Lions Clubs in the New York metropolitan area and at Mercy College's MBA program as well as at Mike Dooley's Infinite Possibilities Training Conference in New Orleans in March of 2018 and again in 2021. He led workshops at the Girl Scouts of America Conference in Connecticut in 2019 and 2022 as well as the Boys and Girls Clubs in Stamford, Connecticut. In 2018 and 2019 he appeared on TV with CEO Money and Between the Covers. He also has been a guest on more than 100 podcasts including Talk Radio NYC, Westchester, Talk Radio, Voice America, Redesigning your Life with Sabrina Soto, Going Solo, Smashing the Plateau, the Matter of the Heart, Every Day is a New Day Show, Thrive Loud, the award winning Nice Guys Podcast, the Financial Survivor Network and Think Believe Manifest. Joel has also been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, Newsday, U.S. news & World Report and interviewed in Forbes and on Bloomberg Radio. In 2012, he achieved a decades long dream with the launch of his own hedge fund, Salor Moore Capital, named after his two daughters, Lauren and Morgan. Salomon's financial experience includes managing a $700 million long short equity and credit portfolio for Citi. Solomon generated positive returns every full year during his time at Citi, including 2008 when the market suffered 40% losses and financial stocks, the only ones he was managing, collapsed 57%.
In 2022, Joel created a nonprofit organization, Salam Moore Charitable Giving Incorporated, to teach financial literacy to kids under 18 in the United States. Solomon has been a Chartered financial analyst since 1995. In 1992 he was named a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries. He is also an Advanced Communicator, Gold Toastmaster, and a certified Infinite Possibilities Trainer and Trailblazer. Enjoy the show Joel. It's Great to see you.
[00:03:31] Speaker A: Great to be here. Drew. Thank you so much for having me. It's both an honor and a pleasure.
[00:03:36] Speaker B: It's an honor and pleasure for me too, my friend. You know, it's interesting. I always like to thank the people who introduce us.
And you and I have crossed paths in many different networking events and hadn't had a chance to connect one on one until I spoke with John Phelan. And so I want to thank John for the introduction. John and I both went to the same university, Fairfield University in Connecticut, and I never met him there. I was recently introduced to him from somebody I graduated with in the class of 91 from Fairfield. So it just. It says how important it is to connect. Connect and how there's a reason why it took this long for us to connect. And I also want to thank you publicly for supporting my son who's got autism and working with him with prosperity. You're a good man, so I want to thank you for that.
[00:04:29] Speaker A: My pleasure. It was a great pleasure to work with him.
He's a gift.
[00:04:34] Speaker B: Thank you. Thank you. And he speaks very highly of you, as do I.
So, Joel, there's many reasons why you're on. I know. Before we hit record, we talked about how I have a belief that there's three different men out there and we can be all three of those men in the same day, depending on our level of self awareness. You have man number one, who's loaded with blind spots about his life, doesn't do anything to change, and. And nothing ever, ever changes for him. And we have man number two, who notices the adversity, yet considers himself the victim, does nothing, and nothing changes. Then there's man number three, who you are. A man who has had the adversity and at some point in his life had a defining moment that got him to realize that some of the stuff, a lot of the stuff that happens to us is really happening for us, and it's more an opportunity rather than a barrier to become a stronger man, and we do something about it. Your man number three, Joel, one of the reasons why I wanted you on, if you could reach back as far as you need to to find that one or multiple defining moments that had you realize and you said to yourself, hey, Joel is a better way to live, man, and I'm doing it.
Help us. Help us with that.
[00:05:51] Speaker A: Well, great question, Drew. I've had a number of those moments throughout my life. I'll. I'll pick one, which was my second divorce back in December of 07. December 2007. And you know, I teach my clients that you create your life and to take full responsibility for all aspects of your life. And so I do that and I will tell you, and I told my former wife recently that she is my greatest teacher in this lifetime. And so again, I take full responsibility for every relationship I get into.
I unfortunately have had to get out of.
[00:06:42] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:06:42] Speaker A: And we had two young kids at the time. They were one and a half and three and a half. And I started worrying as we got closer to the separation date when we were literally going to move separate from each other physically.
[00:07:06] Speaker B: Right.
[00:07:07] Speaker A: And I started worrying and I teach my clients now that worry is negative future planning. Certainly is negative future planning. You're thinking about what you don't want to happen. So think about what you do want to happen.
And I was worried I was, I would, I went down this black hole of I'm not going to see my kids again.
And it's going to, you know, it was a. There was a night I used to run to my youngest daughter was. Had had an illness for her first year or two and I. She would wake up at 3, 3:30 in the morning and I would jump up and run to get her. Even though I had a. I was working as a hedge fund manager at the time and I had a full time job that I had to get into Manhattan and commute in and wake up at 6. I jumped up in order to spend some quote unquote quality time with her because I didn't know, I was worried and I was thinking, is this going to happen again? And so for months I was exhausted but enjoying that hour or two, getting, you know, playing with her and trying to get her back to sleep and. But thinking, not quite positively, thinking about, well, how much longer do I have to do this?
[00:08:29] Speaker B: Right.
[00:08:30] Speaker A: You know, we had an agreement so that when we got divorced I was, I got to see my kids every other weekend and twice a week.
And so that, that was a big defining moment for me to realize that you can, you can think some pretty negative thoughts and create some pretty negative scenarios or you can think some positive thoughts and create some positive scenarios. And I. The blessings that came from that included many. Which one was that I was so grateful for the time I had with my daughters. Yeah.
And I noticed that my married buddies weren't as present as I was with my daughters as they were growing up. I remember specifically one event where I had invited a married buddy and his wife and daughter over to our pool to hang out. This was probably My daughters were maybe 6 and 8, and his daughter was 4.
And I was in the pool playing with my daughters and his daughter and his wife while he was on the lounge chair reading some documents for some stock report that he was. You know, he was. He was a portfolio manager. Right. And so it was really stark.
[00:10:14] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:10:15] Speaker A: Me to see that because every other weekend I didn't have my kids, and I could do that.
[00:10:20] Speaker B: Right.
[00:10:21] Speaker A: With them. So I wasn't going to be doing that when I could be with them, and I didn't. And so treasuring that time with my daughters that I had with them growing up, because it was limited and being really present and. And enjoying that time, that was a gift.
[00:10:41] Speaker B: That was the thing, you know, you mentioned gratitude, and that is the one thing that really keeps us in that present moment. And when you are on that hamster wheel, like your friend who was married and reading the reports, there's a very strong chance he didn't practice gratitude during that time frame, because if he did, he wouldn't be reading that stock report. He would have been in the. You.
Can you teach gratitude? I mean, really believing and being grateful, feeling it when you say it. Can you teach that?
[00:11:21] Speaker A: Yes. It's actually rule number five and the nine money rules millionaires use. So thanks for bringing it up. Totally and absolutely.
I have a. A powerful story. Quick story I can tell about my youngest daughter, Morgan, and I. I mentioned, you know, she was a bit ill when she was quite young. So this was November 2006. She was not yet nine months old, and we were on the Upper east side. She was with my parents who were babysitting her, and I got a call from my mom telling me that they had given her the baby Tylenol and the cold compresses, and the temperature was still 105. Okay.
[00:12:08] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:12:09] Speaker A: And so we were like, okay, well, we're rushing home. And again, I didn't. I didn't know this concept back then, but that hour of driving back home, we were full of worry and fear and scared again. Worries, negative future planning.
[00:12:26] Speaker B: Right, Right.
[00:12:27] Speaker A: So we were thinking about all the things that could go wrong. We got home and took one look at Morgan and. And knew that we got to get the temperature down based on her history. And we gave her more cold compresses and more baby Tylenol. I even put her in a cold bath where I found out how strong she was for being nine months old.
And. But the temperature did go down. We did call the pediatrician who said, if it doesn't, then bring her to the hospital right morning. This was a Saturday night. So Monday morning, even though the temperature had gone down, we go to the pediatrician who took one look at Morgan, knew her history and said, get to the hospital.
[00:13:08] Speaker B: You knew? Yeah.
[00:13:09] Speaker A: We get to the hospital Monday morning. We talked to the surgeon who says, no, there's nothing else we can do. She needs surgery. Nine months old.
[00:13:17] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:13:18] Speaker A: So, you know, we, we got it. We prepped with her, with the surgeon.
[00:13:24] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:13:25] Speaker A: We're in the, the operating room and, and we held her down as they gave her the anesthesia and she, you know, it was just a terrible, terrible moment. Tears were screaming at our cheeks and you know, then they kicked us out of the operating room. Stay here. Even though we were all prepped and we left still balling. And a few hours later, the doctor came out, said the operation was a success, and out in a few hours or a few minutes. And she came out still with all the wires and her.
[00:14:02] Speaker B: Right.
[00:14:03] Speaker A: Eventually they took it out and, and she was smiling at herself again. And I tell this story because I am so grateful for having a 18 year old, loving, caring, beautiful, supportive, intelligent, courageous, and just amazing 18 year old daughter, Morgan. So I asked my clients, who can you be grateful for? What are you grateful for?
[00:14:33] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:14:34] Speaker A: And, and make it a practice. I have a gratitude journal I write in every morning. And in that chapter on gratitude, there's a comment from a Dr. Seligman who did a study I, I believe out of Princeton, who had his students.
They had electrodes connected to the student's brain at the beginning of the 30 days.
[00:15:00] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:15:01] Speaker A: The elasticity of the brain.
[00:15:05] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:15:05] Speaker A: They had every day for 30 days, they wrote down three things they were grateful for and why.
And then at the end of the days, they put the electrodes in and again connected to the brain and checked the brain synapses and they had expanded in those areas of happiness.
[00:15:26] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:26] Speaker A: So when you're more grateful, you create more happiness, which is rule number three in the nine money rules millionaires use. Can happiness buy you money?
And so it's a powerful technique. Now, writing down what you're grateful for and why is powerful. But like you commented. Yeah, the feeling is really important too.
[00:15:54] Speaker B: Right.
[00:15:55] Speaker A: But how can you get into that feeling of gratitude?
And I recommend closing your eyes and considering, not to compare, but to consider that you are living the dream life of billions of people on this planet. Billions of people that would love to train places with you even for just one day.
[00:16:18] Speaker B: One day. Yeah. That's so true. That's so true. Wow, there's so much here. So, so, yes, audience, Joel Solomon is a best selling author, has written the book the nine Money Rules Millionaires Use. And we are going to get to that. I, I want to talk about that journey to writing that book. Now. You are a certified IP trainer. What's IP stand for?
[00:16:41] Speaker A: IP stands for infinite possibilities. So it's a book that Mike Dooley wrote 20 years ago and I teach the core concepts from that book and I infuse it in all the coaching that I do in regards to prosperity and my money miracles membership in any course I teach. In fact, in the nine Money Rules, I have a nine week course that I teach and we infuse the concepts of infinite possibilities into every, into that course and everything I teach.
[00:17:12] Speaker B: I love it. And so, so I'm going to go back now knowing that you owned a hedge fund and I'm going to tie this all together. You're going to tie it together for us. You have a man who is in the financial industry, hedge fund, and you know there are stereotypes of men and women in the financial industry. And, and when you were, I want you to talk about the hedge fund and the fears you had and all that. And, and how you got to be the man you are now as a prosperity coach who ties now in money. And, and how you can have prosperity and money just by being. Can you just lead us through that circuitous route? Let's start with the hedge fund stuff and get us through.
[00:17:58] Speaker A: So if you had asked me my dream back in 1993.
[00:18:03] Speaker B: Right.
[00:18:04] Speaker A: What's your dream?
I, I would have said money manager. I, I really enjoyed analyzing and investing in stocks. I still do to this day. And I, I do teach that. Continue today.
[00:18:17] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:18:19] Speaker A: And I had no experience, I had no background. I was coding at an insurance company at the time.
[00:18:25] Speaker B: Right.
[00:18:26] Speaker A: And I reached out to money managers who gave me doubt, a ton of doubt, a lot of rejection. And they said, you can't do it. You have no background. You need to, you need 20 years experience. You need to have an MBA in finance. I'm like, I finally found one guy who told me his route which didn't include either of those.
So I eventually got there 15 years later in 2008 and I started managing a portfolio of $300 million in stocks for Citi Group at the time.
And I achieved my dream.
[00:19:07] Speaker B: There you go.
[00:19:08] Speaker A: Not the best year to achieve it though. 2008 was 8. We know market, we've had absolutely.
[00:19:15] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:19:15] Speaker A: But I did manage to make a little bit of money. For, for Citigroup shareholders that year. And I made a lot more money the next year. And the next year I might still be there today, but there was a law that said banks can't own hedge funds. And everyone at every bank who was managing a hedge fund was let go. Me. Which actually gave me the kick in the butt to achieve my true dream, which was to have my own hedge fund.
[00:19:41] Speaker B: I love that. I love dream versus true dream. Because sometimes we're living other people's belief systems. So tell us about your true dream and how that led to where you are now.
[00:19:51] Speaker A: So that. So that was my true dream, was to have my own hedge fund. I achieved that dream. And in December 2015, after about two and a half years of managing other people's money and whistling on the way to work for two and a half years, I went to a personal development course and there was a guy there who was a one hour guest speaker. It was a three day course. Okay, it's a one hour guest speaker. And he was lying to 200 people about telling them that there's only one way to get rich and it's stock options. And I was sick to my stomach. It was day two of the course and people knew I was the hedge fund manager. So happen me on the shoulder. Joel, does this make sense?
[00:20:38] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:20:39] Speaker A: So I went home that night, couldn't sleep, and it hit me, I think around 4:30, I jumped out of bed. I quickly got dressed and I was in midtown Manhattan before the sun rose. I sent an email to my investors telling them I'm giving them their money back, I'm shutting down my fund. I figured out my true purpose in life. And so my lawyer wasn't too happy, My CFO was less happy.
But it was. I figured out what I'm supposed to be doing with my life. A little bit late, but I finally figured it out.
[00:21:11] Speaker B: Okay, and what is that? What's your true purpose?
[00:21:14] Speaker A: My true purpose is to help people become financially free, to teach them the truth about money and to educate them that it's not about the process and the strategies only, but it's about the mindset as well.
[00:21:28] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:21:30] Speaker A: So that's why. That's what this book is about. The nine money rules millionaires use and being prosperous, as you mentioned, being abundant. So it's be do have most of us, yeah, that it's due and then have. But I say it's the first step in every single day for the last eight years of my life has been to be.
[00:21:53] Speaker B: Just to be. To be who you are. Yeah. Because what you're saying is the, the, the true way of manifestation is be, do have. Most of us think we need to have, let's say it's money, have the money in order to do certain things, in order to be happy. And it's the opposite. It's. You need to be who you are at your core because then you start to do things that are aligned with who you are and then that money starts to follow and most of us don't have the patience for that. So I want you to get into how do we get the, how do we have. Learn the patience to be, do, have and, and get a little into the nine money rules of millionair use and how that ties together.
[00:22:41] Speaker A: Patience is a mindset. And what I teach is if rule number one is belief, when you believe, so what do you believe? Do you believe you can be patient? Do you believe that it can be easy to manifest money? Do you believe that it can be easy to have what you want, to do what you want?
And so belief is so critical.
What are your beliefs around money? What are your beliefs around abundance and prosperity? You were taught growing up that you need to work really, really hard to be successful. That's what I was taught. And it hit me in 2008 when I was working 75 hours a week for Citi, that I could continue doing this and I might not see my kids become teenagers.
[00:23:37] Speaker B: There you go.
[00:23:39] Speaker A: And I realized I needed to work smarter and different mindset.
[00:23:43] Speaker B: Right.
[00:23:44] Speaker A: Have fun. And that's how actually how the nine money rules millionaires use came about. Because in the end of 2008 into 2009, I started changing my mindset and acting differently and realized that when I was happier and having more fun and more grateful that money flowed, abundance load, prosperity flowed. And when I can visualize what I want to happen, which is rule number four, then I can have what I want to happen.
[00:24:18] Speaker B: I love it.
[00:24:19] Speaker A: And so it's really, it comes back to your belief.
[00:24:22] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:24:23] Speaker A: And, and most people believe it's really, really hard to be rich. You have to work hard. Yeah, it's hard. It's, you know, you got to make a lot of effort, you got to move matter to create matter. And, and that's, that's linear thinking as we talked about right before we got on here.
And there's, there's non linear, this quantum physics going on.
[00:24:47] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:24:48] Speaker A: We can't see that it's actually creating a lot of what's going on in the physical world.
And so rule in, in Mike D'S. Infinite Possibilities book. He. His first chapter is Thoughts Become Things.
[00:25:04] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:25:06] Speaker A: Now, not every thought's going to become a thing, because you may have a thought and you may have another thought that completely contradicts.
[00:25:11] Speaker B: Contradicts it. Right? Right.
[00:25:13] Speaker A: So you got this going on, but if you keep on thinking abundance and prosperity and believing, by the way, a belief is just a thought. You keep on thinking.
[00:25:23] Speaker B: Absolutely. Yep. But it's interesting you mentioned Mr. Dooley, because, you know, on average, we. Each individual is about 70,000 thoughts per day. And I think we only can recall about 2% of those, like maybe 1400 of those. And our brain activity is 95% subconscious. So we've got 5% of our brain activity that's conscious.
And so to work on being conscious of those 2% of the thoughts.
And most of them are elute. They're all illusions. Right. We make. We. The more we're in our head, the more we make stuff up. Once we can negate those negative thoughts and think positive, like you say, it does do wonders.
We can read. We can change the way our brain thinks.
[00:26:08] Speaker A: Absolutely. And so I will challenge anyone who's listening or watching this to watch their actions for the next day. Because your actions are really good. Tell on what your beliefs are.
[00:26:26] Speaker B: Very true.
[00:26:27] Speaker A: So if you're working from home and you're in your office space, and you eat lunch in your kitchen, and every time. And you're back in your office space 20 or 30 minutes later, and every time you leave your office space, you turn off the lights, what is the action saying? Is that. Is that prosperity consciousness or poverty consciousness?
[00:27:01] Speaker B: Very interesting.
[00:27:02] Speaker A: Check your actions are. I. I had a client two years ago when gas prices doubled.
[00:27:08] Speaker B: Right.
[00:27:09] Speaker A: Instead of continuing to fill up his tank, he put in $20.
[00:27:16] Speaker B: Oh, wow.
[00:27:17] Speaker A: Then he'd have to go to the gas station again the next day or two days later.
[00:27:21] Speaker B: Interesting.
[00:27:22] Speaker A: Was he acting out of prosperity consciousness?
[00:27:26] Speaker B: That's certainly poverty. That's very interesting. And you're right, Joel. There's always that question. There has been that question. What comes first, the thoughts or the feelings? I believe the thoughts come first.
And like you said, it really even matters.
[00:27:41] Speaker A: Like.
[00:27:42] Speaker B: Right, right.
[00:27:43] Speaker A: It doesn't really matter if the thoughts or feelings, but.
[00:27:46] Speaker B: But it's the behavior piece. Well, you know why I'm saying that is because there's a. There's a quote by Gandhi out there that says if you keep your thoughts positive, then your words become positive, the words become positive, your behaviors become positive, and so forth. So, I mean, if we. If we do watch how we behave and, and ask ourselves, why did I do that?
[00:28:07] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:28:08] Speaker B: It gets you back to that, what your thought is. And then in that 5% conscious state, if we can eliminate the bad habits and create positive habits that then become our subconscious.
It's, it's, it's all it is a process.
[00:28:24] Speaker A: Absolutely. A process. And it's back to just what you started the, the podcast with, which is being self aware.
[00:28:32] Speaker B: Right.
[00:28:33] Speaker A: And the more you can be aware of your thoughts and feelings and emotions.
[00:28:38] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:28:38] Speaker A: The more you can shift and change and become more prosperous and abundant.
[00:28:45] Speaker B: Oh, absolutely. Well, Joel, the audience certainly has captured the essence of Joel Solomon and they're going to want to get in touch with you, my friend. So, audience, Joel's offering a 30 minute free prosperity coaching call. All right. And I will put this link in the show notes, but you can book a 30 minute free prosperity coaching call with him at app.acuity a c u I t y scheduling.com s c h e d u e l slash f a 93ee09 I'm gonna. That's why I'm gonna put this in the show notes because there's an easy way too.
[00:29:31] Speaker A: You can just go to.
[00:29:33] Speaker B: Well, there you go.
I'm glad you mentioned that. His website is S A L A U R M O r dot com.
And if you're wondering how he got the name of his company, I'm going to guess that sa is the first two letters of his last name. LA U R is one. His oldest daughter, Lauren.
[00:30:00] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:30:00] Speaker B: And mor is his youngest daughter, Morgan. So you talk about a family man and he practices what he preaches. Joel Solomon does.
So, Joel, before we wrap up, two questions for you, my friend. I'm going to give you the opportunity to use your imagination. You're sitting down with 7 to 10 year old Joel, 7 to 10, and you want to give him advice about life.
What are you going to tell them?
[00:30:27] Speaker A: Hashtag doubt the doubt.
Have.
Why are you doubting yourself?
And why do you have faith in your doubts?
Have faith in your dreams because I know that you will achieve many of them.
And if you continue to think your positive thoughts, dream your dreams, take those baby steps, so much of what you want to happen will happen. And there are people out there that will doubt you and they will get in your head and you have the opportunity to not listen.
[00:31:15] Speaker B: I love that. Doubt the doubt. I love that, Joel. All right, switch hats. You're now sitting down with young Joel, the young businessman, young entrepreneur, and want to give him advice about Business. What are you going to tell him?
[00:31:29] Speaker A: I don't think it's any different. Doubt the doubt you got. You have. You're in your business.
You're going to have times when you know you're flowing and there's high times when you're flowing even more. When you're not flowing as much as the high flowing, your mind's going to play tricks on you. It's going to give you doubts.
You don't have to listen to that ego. Listen to your soul. Because you're doing this for your purpose. You're doing this because there are people out there who need your help.
And by you not getting visible, by you not living that purpose, by new, by you not putting yourself out there, there are people who won't be served.
And there are so many people who need your service.
So stop doubting yourself without the doubt. Have faith in the dream and know that there are millions, if not billions of people that are waiting for you to get out there and do what you're supposed to be doing.
[00:32:44] Speaker B: Love that, Joe. Love that, Joe. We gotta start all start telling our story because somebody needs to hear it. Yeah. Well, Joe, I want to thank you for coming on. Thank you for being my friend coming into my life. There's a reason this happened. Please keep doing what you're doing. You're a wonderful human being and you are helping so many people live their dreams.
[00:33:03] Speaker A: Thank you so much. I appreciate you. Thanks. Thanks for having me.
[00:33:07] Speaker B: Absolutely. All right, everybody, take care of yourselves.
Thanks so much for listening. If you enjoyed the episode, please subscribe and give us a review to help others find it.
I'd like you to answer this question. Are you living the life you want to live or are you living the life others want you to live? I'd like you to think about that for a second because I struggle strongly. Suggest you live the life you want to live. If you want to learn more about what I stand for and my services and how I'm able to help many men get out of their own way, please go to my website at www.prophetcompassion.com.
feel free to also email me at drewrophetcompassion.com I'd love to have a conversation with you. Take care of yourself and choose to write your own story instead of letting others write it. For.
