Next Level Healing

In this episode of Next Level Healing, Dr. Tara Perry sits down with New York Times bestselling author, CPA, entrepreneur, and financial literacy advocate Sharon Lechter, co-author of Rich Dad Poor Dad and long-time partner of both the Rich Dad Company and the Napoleon Hill Foundation.
 
Sharon’s Origin Story: Money at the Dinner Table
  • Sharon grew up lower middle class in a family of entrepreneurs, living between her father’s used car lot and her mother’s beauty shop, and helping manage rental properties from the age of 10. [4:50] [5:00]
  • Her family also owned orange groves; her father taught her that the oranges were cashflow while the land itself would grow in value—land that later became part of SeaWorld in Orlando. [5:10]
  • Money, assets, and investing were regular dinner-table topics, shaping her understanding of wealth early on. [5:10] [5:24]
  • She became the first in her family to attend college, was the only woman in her accounting classes, and one of the first women in public accounting in the late 1970s, where she learned how companies succeed and fail. [5:24] [5:51]
From Talking Books to Rich Dad Poor Dad
  • Sharon helped build a global company around the first talking children’s books with sound strips, licensing with Disney, Warner Brothers, Sesame Street, and Marvel Comics to get kids excited about reading. [6:17] [6:35]
  • After selling that company and moving to Arizona, her oldest son went to college, was lured into credit card offers with “free pizza” and “free t-shirts,” and ended up in serious debt—an experience that took him seven years to repair and ignited Sharon’s lifelong commitment to financial literacy. [6:50] [7:12] [7:36]
  • In December 1992, she dedicated the rest of her career to financial education, initially working with school systems. [7:56]
    Meeting Robert Kiyosaki & Building a Global Brand
  • Sharon’s husband, an intellectual property attorney, introduced her to Robert Kiyosaki, who had created the board game CASHFLOW. [8:11] [8:33]
  • At the first beta test, Sharon was the only player to get out of the “rat race,” and she loved how the game aligned with her teachings on investing, assets, and the difference between active and passive income. [8:33] [8:46]
  • Drawing on her experience commercializing products, she helped Robert bring the game to market. When he wanted to price it at $200 in 1996, she suggested writing a brochure to explain his philosophy and justify the investment. [9:09] [9:21]
  • That “brochure” became Rich Dad Poor Dad, which they co-wrote and never expected to become a standalone phenomenon; their company was originally branded Cashflow Technologies. [9:38] [9:54]
  • Over a 10-year partnership, Sharon served as CEO, co-authored 15 books, created multiple games and infomercial products, and launched the Rich Dad Advisors series, helping build what became the world’s largest personal finance brand in 110 countries and 51 languages. [9:54] [10:09] [10:28]
Leaving Rich Dad & New Doors Opening
  • After a decade, Robert wanted to move into franchising, which Sharon felt was not a good model for franchisees; she chose to leave, emphasizing that sometimes you must close one door for others to open. [10:28] [10:41]
  • Shortly after, she was appointed by President George W. Bush to the first President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy, later serving under President Obama as well—an opportunity she believes she would not have had if she’d stayed at Rich Dad. [1:29] [10:52] [11:08]
  • In March 2008, the Napoleon Hill Foundation invited her to help reinvigorate Hill’s teachings, leading her into the world’s largest personal development brand. [11:08] [11:33]
    Napoleon Hill, Outwitting the Devil, and Timeless Principles
  • Sharon co-authored several works with the Napoleon Hill Foundation, including Three Feet from Gold, Think and Grow Rich for Women, Outwitting the Devil, and Success and Something Greater. [11:45]
  • Outwitting the Devil was written by Hill in 1938 after his frustration that people wouldn’t act on Think and Grow Rich; his wife, fearing backlash and job loss at a Presbyterian college, forbade its publication, and the manuscript was locked away for 73 years. [12:48] [13:00] [13:13] [13:29]
  • The manuscript, typed with handwritten notes, eventually reached the Foundation and then Sharon, who felt it was profoundly relevant to modern times and insisted it be published. [13:39] [13:51] [14:07]
  • She often advises younger readers to start with Outwitting the Devil and then read Think and Grow Rich. [14:07]
  • Sharon highlights Hill’s constants: morality, the power of the human mind, definite purpose, learning from adversity, self-discipline, and the critical influence of environment and how we invest our time. [33:56] [34:11] [34:24] [34:33] [34:47]
Mindset vs. Strategy: The Inner Game of Money
  • Sharon agrees that mindset can be a dominant factor in financial success, noting that only about 2% of people truly control their own thought processes, echoing Napoleon Hill’s observation. [14:55]
  • She emphasizes that if you don’t control your thoughts, you can’t control your money; you’re either in control of your money or your money is in control of you. [15:10]
  • Traditional conditioning teaches people to exchange time for money—get a job, ask for overtime, or get a second job—creating a deeply ingrained habit rather than a conscious choice. [15:23] [15:33]
    The Cashflow Quadrant & “Assets Are Sexy”
  • Sharon teaches the Cashflow Quadrant (employees and self-employed on the left, business owners and investors on the right) as a framework for moving from trading time for money to building assets. [15:45]
  • She calls assets her favorite word, joking that “assets are sexy and the older you get, the sexier they become,” and defines financial freedom as when income from your assets exceeds your monthly expenses. [16:04] [16:18]
  • Every dollar is a decision: let it slip through your fingers or reinvest it in yourself and income-producing assets. [16:18]
    Scarcity vs. Abundance & the Power of Environment
  • Sharon explains how many people grow up with negative money messages—“pinch your pennies,” “we can’t afford it,” “money doesn’t grow on trees”—which create a scarcity mindset and fear around money. [2:33] [3:11] [3:20]
  • She notes that success and money amplify who you already are: more money makes generous people more generous and greedy people more greedy; the issue is the love of money, not money itself. [3:59] [4:10] [4:21]
  • She stresses that mindset reprogramming is heavily influenced by environment: if you’re surrounded by people stuck in negative, scarcity-based thinking, it’s much harder to shift to abundance. [16:18] [16:45] [17:09] [17:28]
  • Sharon encourages people to step out of their “comfort zone of discomfort,” seek associations with those who have an abundance mindset, and let those people challenge and support them. [16:45] [17:09] [17:28]
Drifting vs. Agency: Outwitting the Devil in Practice
  • Drawing from Outwitting the Devil, Sharon explains “drifting” as going with the flow, avoiding decisions, and lacking a mind of one’s own—people who answer “whatever” when asked what they want. [17:53]
  • Her mantra is “Why not?”—why not do something different, take the path less traveled, solve a problem, or serve a need—because that’s the path to discovery, business building, and abundance. [18:07] [18:15] [18:29]
    Language Shifts: From “I Can’t” to “How Can I?”
  • Sharon urges people to replace “I can’t afford it” with “How can I afford it?” to open the mind to possibility and engage the subconscious and entrepreneurial spirit. [18:35] [18:55]
    The Personal Success Equation: Turning Fear into Fuel
  • Sharon introduces the Personal Success Equation from Three Feet from Gold:
    • Passion (what you love or what angers you into action—her passion came from anger that kids weren’t taught about money). [19:45] [20:19]
    • Talent (your skills and experience; for her, years as a CPA and in publishing). [20:19]
    • Times the Power of Association (who’s on your team, mentors, people strong where you are weak). [20:33] [20:48]
    • Times Action (doing what you know you should do). [20:48] [21:05]
    • Plus Faith (in yourself, your mission, and your eventual success). [21:05] [21:15]
  • Fear often paralyzes 98% of people; Sharon helps clients recognize fear, then convert it into energy, fuel, and faith. [21:15] [21:32]
  • She stresses the importance of knowing your definite purpose—hers is to elevate the financial well-being of humanity—and using that purpose as a guiding asset to recalibrate when you get off track. [21:54] [22:07] [22:17] [22:32]

Finding Your Purpose & Curating Your Circle

  • Sharon recommends working with mentors as “mirrors” to distinguish between temporary passions and deep, soul-level purpose. [23:08] [23:18]
  • She shares the example of a billionaire friend whose cardboard box company wasn’t his passion but funded his true purpose of supporting nonprofits and travel. [23:31]
  • Through her Personal Success Equation workbook (personalsuccessequation.com), she helps people identify their purpose, evaluate who’s in their circle, and decide who to add or move “to the balcony” so the front row is filled with supportive, growth-oriented people. [23:48] [24:09] [24:48]
AI, Intellectual Property, and Guardrails
  • Sharon acknowledges that AI is here to stay and warns against resisting it blindly; instead, she urges understanding its security and ownership implications. [25:16]
  • As an expert in intellectual property, she notes that AI poses high risk: people are uploading content to create digital twins without protecting their rights, potentially losing copyrights. [25:29]
  • She cites a U.S. Copyright Office pronouncement that anything produced by AI is not copyrightable, cautioning against services that promise to “write your book in three days” using AI. [25:54]
  • Sharon uses AI for research and ideation but always rewrites in her own words to maintain ownership. [26:08]
  • She stresses the need for guardrails when deploying AI agents in companies, especially to protect sensitive information and comply with regulations like HIPAA in the medical field. [26:25] [26:47]
Raising Financially Confident Kids in a Digital Age
  • Sharon challenges parents to ask whether they are mentors or enablers, using the science fair example: when parents do projects for their kids, they unintentionally teach them they don’t have to do things themselves and may undermine their confidence. [27:39] [27:58] [28:09] [28:29] [28:41]
  • She recommends shifting from “we can’t afford that” to “How can you afford it?” and encouraging kids to creatively earn money, celebrating their efforts to build self-confidence. [28:55] [29:15]
  • Sharon’s game Thrive Time for Teens teaches that every decision has consequences, guiding kids through choices about spending, buying businesses, real estate, or stocks, and has won multiple awards. [29:36] [29:58]
  • The game also introduces the BFAB framework: Back straight, Firm handshake, Ask questions, Be bold—helping kids develop eye contact, confidence, and presence in a world dominated by screens. [30:12] [30:32]
  • She notes that today’s challenges include more single-parent households and constant access to information, which has shifted influence away from parents and increased the need for vigilant guidance and intentional family conversations. [32:19] [32:40] [33:10]
COVID, Media Diet, and Abundance Tips & Mentorship
  • Sharon underscores Hill’s focus on environment and asks: What are you feeding your mind? Are you spending time or investing it? [34:24] [34:33] [34:47]
  • During COVID, she saw many people sink into negativity and constant news consumption; frustrated, she launched ATM’s (Abundance Tips and Mentorship), a daily 2–3 minute positive message to counterbalance the negativity. [34:58] [35:10]
  • She advises turning off the news and seeking positive nourishment, reminding listeners that even if you’re not consciously listening, your subconscious is. [35:10] [35:30]
    Family Legacy & Generational Impact
  • Sharon shares that her daughter is a national expert in dementia care, her son is a top executive in a digital marketing company, and her grandson—now in college—is already on his fourth or fifth business, reflecting the entrepreneurial mindset she fostered at home. [31:23] [31:36] [31:48]
    Looking Forward, Not Back
  • When asked what she’d tell 10-year-old Sharon, she says she wouldn’t want to change her past because her successes and failures made her who she is, though she would change the loss of her child in 2012 if she could. [36:26] [36:45]
  • She encourages people to see themselves as CEOs of their own lives, with hands on the steering wheel and eyes on the large windshield (future) rather than the small rearview mirror (past), learning from but not being defined by past mistakes. [36:55] [37:05] [37:13]
  • Her father’s nightly question—“Have you added value to somebody’s life?”—still guides her; she asks herself the same question every day. [37:29] [37:40] [37:51]
Fear, Worry, and Turning Emotion into Action
  • Sharon defines worry as “praying for what you don’t want” and trains herself to shift focus from what she fears to what she desires, which she describes as “magical” in its effect. [40:28] [40:45]
  • She helps clients separate emotion from fact, reminding them that fear is an emotion, not a fact, and that high emotion equals low intelligence. [41:00] [41:19]
  • By clarifying the worst-case scenario, planning a response, and then refocusing on desired outcomes, she guides people to convert fear into energy, fuel, and focused action. [41:00] [41:19] [41:34]
  • She shares a client story: a woman in the fire prevention industry, fearful of state regulations, who avoided meetings and public speaking. Through Sharon’s coaching, she began attending regulatory meetings, found her voice, and ultimately joined the state board to help rewrite the rules, transforming her fear into leadership and advocacy. [42:14] [42:31] [42:54] [43:07]
Current Work & How to Connect
  • Sharon is currently focused on keynote speaking around the world and working closely with about 15 top-level mentoring clients to expand distribution, create new revenue streams, and strengthen their businesses for potential exits. [39:10] [39:29]
  • Her latest book, Old Wealth, New Wealth, True Wealth, aims to redefine how people think about wealth, much as Rich Dad Poor Dad redefined how people think about money. [11:56] [12:07] [39:29]
  • She invites listeners to connect via her website sharonlecter.com or email info@sharonlecter.com, and notes that she is active on social media under her name. [39:57] [43:41] [43:53]
Episode Wrap-Up & Next Steps
  • Dr. Tara encourages listeners to subscribe, share the episode with anyone who could benefit, and visit consultterra.com for a free customized “GPS map” to clarify where they are now and where they want to go, with clients often reporting faster, easier progress than expected. [7:22] [7:35] [44:07] [44:26] [44:36] [44:51]
  • The show closes with a reminder that listeners were “meant for more,” and a disclaimer that the podcast provides information, not professional advice or diagnosis. 
Work with Dr. Tara Perry

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What is Next Level Healing?

A podcast dedicated to Rapid Inner Transformation, hosted by Dr. Tara Perry. Featuring the work of those who help people resolve depression, stress, anxiety, phobias, and a broad assortment of physical, mental and emotional struggles.

For 25 years, Dr. Perry has successfully treated celebrities, olympic athletes, first responders, doctors, parents, children, and more. A Hypnotherapist & Doctor of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine, Dr. Perry shares a message of hope and healing in every episode.

Tune in for conversations with Dr. Tara Perry and her guests, as she works to end human suffering and share Next Level Healing with the world.