Building Wealth, Purpose, and Meaningful Generosity with Rocky Lalvani

Rocky Lalvani is the Founder of Profit Comes First, a company that helps business owners prioritize profitability and build sustainable wealth. He works with entrepreneurs to simplify their finances, improve cash flow, and ensure they are rewarded for the hard work they put into their businesses. As the host of the Profit Answer Man and The Richer Soul Podcast, he teaches that money is a tool for creating freedom, purpose, and generosity. An immigrant raised in a family that openly discussed money, Rocky dedicates himself to helping others define “enough” and use wealth to make a meaningful impact.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• [02:24] Rocky Lalvani shares why talking about money early leads to financial success  
• [04:49] Tips on launching kids into financial independence and adulthood  
• [11:57] Avoiding common pitfalls when giving by empowering, not enabling others  
• [16:39] Effective ways to make a real impact through local boards  
• [27:43] Why true wealth is about more than the bottom line  
• [35:07] The power of “just do it” in your generosity journey

In this episode:

Success is often measured in dollars, but fulfillment rarely is. So what does it really take to build wealth in a way that also creates purpose and meaningful generosity?

According to Rocky Lalvani, a profit strategist and lifelong student of wealth-building, it starts with seeing money as a tool rather than a trophy. Drawing from his upbringing in an immigrant family where money conversations happened around the dinner table, he believes wealth is built slowly, intentionally, and with clarity about what “enough” truly means. When profit is approached with discipline and purpose, it becomes fuel not just for security but for impact.

In this episode of You Can’t Take it With You, host Jim Dunlop is joined by Rocky Lalvani, Founder of Profit Comes First, to discuss building wealth with intention and generosity. They explore why profit is essential for business owners, how to avoid the trap of consumerism and “never enough,” and why giving should empower rather than create dependency. Rocky also shares practical advice on teaching kids to save, spend, and give wisely.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Jim Dunlop on LinkedIn
• Advent Partners
• Rocky Lalvani on LinkedIn
• Profit Comes First
• Profit Answer Man
• The Richer Soul Podcast
• “Mission, Microfinance, and Impact: A Guide to Sustainable Generosity With Peter Greer” on You Can’t Take it With You
• “How Personal Experiences Shape Philanthropic Impact With Jim Langley” on You Can’t Take it With You
• “Not All of Me Will Die: Leaving an Impact Beyond Wealth With Phil Cubeta” on You Can’t Take it With You
• Keystone Human Services
• Susquehanna Service Dogs
• United Way
• Project HOPE
• Heifer International
• Habitat for Humanity
• When Helping Hurts: Alleviating Poverty Without Hurting the Poor. . .and Yourself by Brian Fikkert and Steve Corbett

Quotable Moments

• Studies have shown that you get much more happiness in giving than you do in receiving.
• So how do we give in such a way that we empower them to take action?
• If they’re not profitable, don’t expect a paycheck Friday because they won’t have money to pay you.
• And I think that’s what it’s all about is get off the hamster wheel.
• So if you want to do something, you actually have to do it right.

Action Steps

1. Treat profit as a priority, not an afterthought: Consistently building profit creates stability for your business and fuels long-term generosity.
2. Define what “enough” means for you: Clarifying your financial finish line helps you escape the endless pursuit of more and focus on purpose.
3. Empower through giving, not dependency: Supporting initiatives that provide a hand up instead of a handout leads to sustainable, multiplying impact.
4. Involve your children in real money decisions: Giving kids hands-on experience with saving, spending, and donating builds lifelong financial wisdom and generosity.
5. Just take the first step: Moving from inaction to action builds momentum, confidence, and meaningful progress toward wealth and impact.

Sponsor for this episode:

This episode is brought to you by Advent Partners — a financial planning partner dedicated to helping you make informed decisions that simplify your financial journey. 

Our seasoned team of professionals is committed to guiding you toward your financial goals. We offer tailored solutions based on your specific needs, from standalone financial planning to integrated financial management.

Whether you are planning for the future, investing for growth, or navigating financial hurdles, Advent Partners is here to provide insights, recommendations, and a clear financial roadmap.

To learn more about Advent Partners and how we can guide your financial success, visit AdventPartnersFP.com.

Powered by Rise25 Podcast Production Company

Episode Transcript

Intro: 00:00  

Welcome to the You Can’t Take it With You show, where we feature stories around generosity designed to inspire and encourage others to do meaningful things in their communities. Now here’s your host, Jim Dunlop.

Jim Dunlop: 00:16  

Hi, Jim Dunlop here, a wealth advisor and host of this show, where I sit down with people who get it when it comes to generosity. I’m excited to have guests who can give us stories on generosity to not only inspire our listeners, but to give practical ideas on ways we can give. Today’s guest is Rocky Lalvani. Past guests include Peter Greer, Jim Langley, and Phil Cubeta. But before we get to Rocky, I want to share that this episode is brought to you by Advent Partners.

Ready for good. Advent is a financial planning team dedicated to helping you make informed decisions that simplify your financial journey. At Advent Partners, we’re ready for good. Our bold, ten year vision is to help our clients donate $100 million to transform lives through generosity and planning. United by generosity. 

Relationship excellence, authenticity and fun. We empower meaningful lives and lasting community impact. To learn more about Advent Partners and how we can guide your financial success, visit readyforgood.com. Our guest today is an immigrant who came to America in search of opportunity and built a life that embodies the American Dream. After achieving financial success, he now dedicates his work to helping business owners grow profitably and align their businesses with purpose. 

His mission is to ensure that success doesn’t stop at the bottom line. It overflows into giving back and building stronger communities. Please welcome to the show, Rocky Lalvani.

Rocky Lalvani: 01:40  

Thank you so much for having me, Jim. Excited to be here with you today.

Jim Dunlop: 01:44  

I’m excited too. And there’s a couple reasons I’m excited, but one little thing is that you’re a much more experienced podcaster than I am. And at the end of the show, we’ll give our listeners where they can find you. And I know you have two different shows that you host and have done lots and lots of episodes. So I’m hoping I’ll get to learn from you that way today too.

Rocky Lalvani: 02:07  

Looking forward to it. Always fun.

Jim Dunlop: 02:09  

So why don’t we start off by a little bit of an autobiography? I hinted we hinted a little bit of your backstory here in the intro. So share with our listeners a little bit more about who you are.

Rocky Lalvani: 02:24  

So I’m originally from India. My parents immigrated here in the late 60s. So very different time to today, very different world. They came here to experience the American dream and for them, it was their second time starting over in life. So they’d kind of been through it once and ready to do it again, which I can’t imagine doing at their age, starting over that, you know, for me and for a lot of people, it’s like, that’s a big step to go on the other side of the world.

And of course, back then it was a very different type of story. The other thing is, money didn’t travel in those days, you know. You had to kind of hope that you had friends or a place to land and all of that. And so when my parents came here, one of the things they did was they did have a tight community of other people who would come over and they would all sit down and talk about how they were earning money, how they were spending money, how they were figuring out living in America and navigating all of that. And so as kids back then, we didn’t have, you know, iPhones. 

We had to sit and listen to our parents because that was just what happened, you know? I didn’t realize that most people didn’t talk about money. I didn’t realize that these were not normal conversations. And so we just learned how to build wealth, how to handle money, how to make those types of decisions, and also just hearing how different people were doing things in different ways. A lot of them, everyone was relatively well educated, so some started businesses, some were working in corporate America. 

They were doing all different types of things. Some of them got involved in real estate. So you just saw that, hey, there’s all this opportunity out there. Success was just an expectation. You know, like you graduate college and then they’re like, well, where are you getting your masters? 

Like it wasn’t like, oh, good job. Right. It was like pushing to the next step always. So that’s kind of my, my background of of growing up. And I grew up new Jersey. 

And then eventually I got transferred out here to Pennsylvania back in the early 90s and made this home in a great place to raise kids and do some wonderful things.

Jim Dunlop: 04:45  

And, and tell me a little bit about your family today.

Rocky Lalvani: 04:49  

So I we’ve been married for 30 years. My wife is is also in the money space. She’s a CPA, worked for a lot of the the big accounting firms out there. My kids are now grown and flown, so they are 25 and 23, and they’ve kind of left the area to start their life on their own. And I always say they’re off payroll, you know?

That’s the biggest thing. Can you launch your kids and get them off your payroll? And so that’s that’s always fun.

Jim Dunlop: 05:18  

Well, I appreciate you sharing that background. And I’m I think there’s something to be said about talking about money and, and the way you grew up. And it was just part of that conversation. And as you were saying all that, it struck me how poor a job many of us do at ignoring or or it’s something that that’s almost forbidden to talk about publicly. And so in, in the way that you saw as a kid and, and obviously your life is a testament to, to the health, the healthy Attitude that that is there.

So thinking about generosity. And please share with me a little bit of your generosity origin story.

Rocky Lalvani: 06:10  

So I think we’ve always kind of been giving back. I mean, that was just something that even with my parents coming here and immigrating and not having a lot of money, it was just kind of the culture. And I think part of that also came from the way that they lived back home in India with my grandfather was a doctor, and I would always hear stories about how he would treat people. And, you know, they didn’t necessarily have money, so they get paid in other ways or other things would happen. And so that was kind of always the culture that we had grown up in.

I don’t know where it came from necessarily, but it’s always like, hey, leave the place a little bit better than you found it. And and that’s just the bigger part as well. And, you know, it’s funny because I think my first job out of college, they were one of those companies that the United Way would have the donations through. And so I remember signing up at a very young age to do like payroll and giving back and all of that. So I think it’s just always been there through family culture, through just the way that we learned and doing it in a variety of different ways. 

I, I’ve kind of like giving where you’re putting your time and efforts in a lot more than just stroking a big check and forgetting about it. Everyone’s got their own reasons for giving, and you’ve got to decide what works for you and how you want to do it. I also did a ton of volunteer work. You know, as the kids are growing up, it’s a great way to kind of give back is to be involved. And that way your kids also see how you’re behaving. 

They’re learning. They’re they’re getting that back and forth. and you’re also in their world. So you see what’s going on in their world, and you can have far better conversations at home. And of course, we did the same as our parents. 

We talked about money in front of them from a very, very young age.

Jim Dunlop: 08:11  

What? So I think this is a good point to share. Tell me a little bit about the profession, your profession and what you’re doing now. And in a way probably giving back, but in a way that maybe most people wouldn’t think about.

Rocky Lalvani: 08:26  

Yeah. So I had actually always, always was in the kind of financial space, but not like you do. I was more one of always trying to learn about how do you build wealth and reading about personal finance. And I it always struck me as odd. You know, you live in America and you look at the number of millionaires, I’m like, this number is too low because we have so much.

How do you not have more wealth? And what I found, though, is most people, when it comes to personal wealth building, want to make money overnight. They don’t want to build money slowly over time. Slowly over time, you’re guaranteed to build wealth. It doesn’t matter what your income is, but everybody wants the overnight success. 

And then I got another. I realized that business owners weren’t looking at their financials. I’m like, wait, how do you run a business and not look at your financials? And it turned out that people went into business to do what they love. And accounting wasn’t on the list a lot of times. 

And so I was like, oh, this is I love finances. I know how to simplify them. I know how to look at spreadsheets. They tell me stories. Tax returns. 

They tell me stories. I can sit down and help business owners create a holistic plan to build wealth in their company, remove it from their company, give it to people like you to invest it so you know, if something happens in the business, they’re still safe and to be able to do all of those things. So that’s what we do now. We help business owners get rewarded for the hard work they put in, and they should be rewarded. They’re the ones creating all the jobs. 

They’re the ones taking the risk. They’re doing the hard work. The business owner deserves to be rewarded for that. So we try and do that for small business owners.

Jim Dunlop: 10:22  

I, I really, I really like that and I like that approach. And I think you’re right, too many self-employed people and I probably have fallen into this trap in the past myself a little bit, get into a profession that they’re passionate about or that they’re very good at. And hopefully it’s both of those things. They’re very good at it and passionate about it. But if it’s baking pies or fixing cars, the bottom line and the accounting part of this is secondary or even a necessary evil.

And so people don’t think about owning a business. And I’ve heard it said, if you if you don’t own a business, you simply just own a job. And so I like that you’re helping people get out of that.

Rocky Lalvani: 11:07  

Some people own a job. Some people have a hobby. They think they’re making money, but in reality, what they’re doing is a hobby because they’re not making any money. And that’s a shame. That that shouldn’t be the case.

Jim Dunlop: 11:22  

Absolutely. So I want to talk a little bit about generosity in action. And I think I know that you’re going to bring a little bit of a different perspective than some of our previous guests, which really is exciting to me. And I want to think about this idea. I think sometimes in generosity and in giving, there’s a harder truth that we struggle to or we don’t even I don’t even say we struggle.

We just don’t want to acknowledge and help us understand and think about generosity and some of the the less fortunate sides of it. And how do we think about solving for that in a more positive way?

Rocky Lalvani: 11:57  

So I think a big part of it, what happens is that we give in our way to do the things we want, in the way we want to see them. And and I think there’s a book along the lines. It’s when giving hurts. What that means is you’re giving money to solve a problem. But actually what you’re doing is, is acerbate the problem.

And I think you could see it in some senses in the United States. You see a lot of conflict with people and saying, oh, they’re poor because they don’t try or this or that. And part of that comes to if you’re taking away their dignity by giving them money, or if you’re making them dependent on the money or the money comes with a whole lot of rules. I think you cause more problems than you solve. And a lot of that especially happens when people from the US go to other countries and they make investments in other countries, instead of talking to the local people and doing things at a small level, because I think, you know, they’re trying to turn these places into living standards of the US, and that’s impossible. 

You just can’t do that unless that country’s economy supports it. So how do we give in such a way that we empower them to take action? So it’s giving a hand up instead of a handout. And I think that’s the big part of it. And I know a lot of people have a lot of issues with different charities. 

And you do have to do your research to say, is the charity you’re giving to actually helping the people that it’s supposed to help? Is it following the mission that you think it’s supposed to to do? Or are they spending money in ways that are probably not appropriate.

Jim Dunlop: 13:55  

You know, one of our past guests, and I don’t know if you know him, is Peter Greer. And one of the things that his project Hope does is they do microfinance, which I like the idea very practical solution to to encourage and spur entrepreneurs around the globe as opposed to giving. It’s a it’s a lending and it’s an investment in that community so that those you can build an entrepreneurial class in, in other countries. And that’s just a place where I think of a really practical solution that very easily could go the other way, where it’s just here, I’m going to give you money to do this or start a business and, and not have the have the right intention but not the right output or impact.

Rocky Lalvani: 14:46  

And I think one of the advantages of something like that is you give once and it multiplies. Right. Because if you help the first person and they pay you back, then the money they pay you back with a little extra goes to help the next person, and it creates that flywheel of the money being reused constantly. Instead of the money goes to the one person, they don’t pay it back. Maybe they use it well, maybe they don’t.

But then the question comes now the charities coming back looking for more money. And the more and more money they need, the more and more they waste on advertising and marketing and this. And so you just get in this big hamster wheel of, do we need to do this much, or can we just be much more intentional with small, important gifts and we don’t? I think that’s another thing. Like sometimes we want to give, but we want to give luxury. 

And that’s not what people necessarily need. They need practical types of things for hands on of where they are because they can’t maintain the luxury, right? They need the things the water, the the things that work in their culture that they can maintain, keep. And it doesn’t require constant reinvestment to keep it moving.

Jim Dunlop: 16:05  

I think of and I think of things like Heifer International or Habitat where, you know, habitat for humanity. The family buys the house from habitat after they’ve helped build it. And the the mortgage payments help build the next house for the next family.

Rocky Lalvani: 16:22  

And that would be a classic example of doing it right, I think.

Jim Dunlop: 16:26  

What are some other ways that you personally have gotten involved organizations or causes that that are near and dear to you, that maybe you find an effective way to be generous?

Rocky Lalvani: 16:39  

So both my wife and I serve on a variety of different charitable boards locally. I tend to like helping where people can’t necessarily help themselves, meaning that they don’t have the ability to do it. And for whatever choice, they didn’t have the whatever to do it. So one of the ones that I serve on is Keystone Human Services, which helps people with intellectual disabilities. They also have Susquehanna service dogs.

So I know that’s a very big program locally and helping to get people productive and help people to be feel wanted and needed in the community. So for me, that’s a big part of it. We’ve also helped with, you know, with the kids stuff with Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. I talked about the United Way. We’re still involved in the United Way in helping them. 

And the United Way has evolved dramatically from what it used to be. Today, they’re kind of also taking that that thought pattern of we’re not going to do services that everybody else does. They’re kind of like the oil between the services. And so they’re helping to fill the gaps of what’s missing in the community so that you get that holistic wraparound for people. And so there’s tons of things that are out there. 

So I might go out on a limb and cause problems. But like right now there’s a whole lot of things that are going to support women and girls. And that’s wonderful. But at the same point, we’re now ignoring boys and the stuff. The studies are now coming out. 

Girls are going to college far more than boys are. Right. That whole shift has occurred. We gotta have some sort of harmony in that you can’t ignore one group and support another. You’ve got to. 

You’ve got to have somewhat of a balance there. Otherwise, you know, in 20 years, we’re going to be like, the boys need all the money because, you know, it’s a shame.

Jim Dunlop: 18:49  

So rocky. Your kids, as you said, are grown and flown. Yes. And it sounds like you had pretty healthy conversations with them about money growing up. And and I, I’d like to think, personally, I’m the beneficiary of that.

If you ever met my dad, he was somebody that had very blunt conversations and very open conversations about money in our house. What would what advice would you give somebody when it comes to raising a kid to teach kids about generosity so that when they are grown and flown and and credit to you, your kids are in their 20s and they’re grown and flown and off the payroll. There’s not everybody with 20 something kids can say that. So what are what’s some what’s some thoughts you have around teaching kids generosity.

Rocky Lalvani: 19:40  

So if you want to do something, you actually have to do it right. All right. So in other words, if I wanted to learn golf and you gave me a book by Tiger Woods. I can guarantee you, after reading that book, that I’d probably be just about as bad as golf as I am already today. Right.

It’s not going to change anything. I could go to college and take a class in golf, but if I never swung a club, I’m not going to get better. If you’re not putting money in kids hands and letting them learn how to use money, then how are they going to do that? And so from the time our kids were extremely young, we gave them an allowance and we gave them an opportunity to earn money as well. But we also gave them rules. 

And one part of that rule was a portion of your money goes to charity to giving away. And then we let them choose how and where they want to do their charity. And so they become involved. Whether they do something through school, they do something through church. They do something through the community. 

It also got the kids out of my pocket because they’re like, well, we want this. I’m like, you have your own money, kid. Like you. You go learn how to use it. And so by by doing that, they got to make choices. 

They got to actually hold on to my and my kids used to have stacks of dollar bills, you know, because of that. But they learned how to save. They learned how to spend and they learned how to give. And so those are the conversations that happen. Plus they would see us doing it. 

So in the things that we got involved in, which is why a lot of times doing the work is better than just writing the check, because then the kids get to see what’s happening and they see you involved, and they can be involved depending on the types of activities. And that that’s what that makes that change. But you’ve got to bring them in. You’ve got to give them essentially the golf club and let them practice and swing and make mistakes. And honestly, if your kid’s making a mistake with $50 learning a lesson, it’s a lot better than making a mistake as a young adult with $20,000 or I mean colleges $200,000 mistake, depending on what they’re doing. 

Like, those are the choices that that have to come. So you’re not just teaching them philanthropy, you’re teaching them how to be money savvy, which means one day they’re also going to have the ability to give because they’ve learned how to use money as a tool. And they’re not just chasing it or fighting with it or have a bad relationship with it.

Jim Dunlop: 22:31  

You’re I’m smiling right now just because my daughter is 18, and when she was 14, we took her down. I took her down to the local credit union. She had had saved up a bunch of money. She had a she walked downstairs with a pile of $700 in her hand and said, what do I do with this? And I said, it’s time to open a bank account.

And we got a. And that day, the credit union pressed a visa debit card for her and gave it to her. And so for four years, she’s 18 now. This happened when she was 14. She’s had this debit card that and and a job that that puts money in. 

And and she has the ability it has been a sign of independence for her because she can do the things she wants to. She’s very good and disciplined with her saving. And I laugh because two weekends ago, the credit union shut her debit card down because they were worried about fraud. So on a Saturday, they froze her account and she couldn’t do anything about it for Monday. And that two days of not having access to her money was just she was beside herself and I realized it. 

Part of it was she had lost her independence in her mind, you know, that she had been able to establish and develop. So it your story made me think of that for for my daughter. Tell me just a little bit more. We’ve talked about your kids a few times. Tell me what they’re up to today and where they’re at. 

I think they they’ve flown in addition to being grown.

Rocky Lalvani: 24:01  

So my daughter is in Texas. She got married relatively young. And so they’re off building their life and and doing well down there. And we’re looking forward to going to visit them next month. My son is in Pennsylvania.

He’s out in Inwood. He’s a software engineer. So he got himself off to a good start, saving money and doing all the right things. And a lot of that was also learned through college, like we had conversations going into college about what is the value of college and picking the right college. That made sense not only what you liked, but what was the outcome? 

Post college? And was it fiscally a smart choice to make? And my son and I used to argue because I’m like, I’m not sending you to Ivy League. I go, it’s not worth the money. And so he would always complain to me, well, I could have gone to a better school. 

And once he graduated, he went for his master’s and he went he’s graduated from Georgia Tech with his master’s. I’m like, well, why didn’t you go to CMU, Carnegie Mellon? Like it was right next to where he went to school. He’s like, well, it was a lot of money. I go, yeah, welcome to my world. 

But he also has learned that the the piece of paper isn’t what gets you ahead. And learning to make choices and to say, does it make sense or does it not make sense? And is there a return on that investment? And we had nothing to do with his masters. That was his choice, his thing on his own. 

You know. But but he knew how to make those choices and have that confidence. So I think that’s a big part of it. You’ve got to empower people. Kind of going back to what we talked about when giving Hertz, are you empowering people to make better choices? 

And I think that’s one of the bigger problems we have with poverty in the US. A lot of the programs that are from the government all have hard cutoffs and cliffs. And so if you try to climb your way out, it’s very difficult to do that. And we’re essentially trapping people by helping people and that that’s not what we should be doing. We should show people a ramp forward that they can own. 

And, and, you know, take steps towards in the same way schools should teach about money. I mean, you go to school for 13 years to get a job to make money. But school doesn’t teach about money. Only now are they starting to put some basic curriculums in. But even then, what’s the purpose of of doing all these things? 

Those are the areas, I think, that we really should be making our investments in our philanthropy, because those are going to multiply dramatically, and it doesn’t take a lot to be able to do that either. And IT people can give back, you know, nothing like bringing seniors and kids together to perk up the seniors and bring them to life.

Jim Dunlop: 27:21  

So, you know, I want to talk a little bit more about your work, because one of the things you have, one of your podcasts is Richer Soul. And I think in your words, you’re helping. It’s it’s profit isn’t just about the bottom line. So tell me a little bit when you say profit isn’t just about the bottom line, what do you mean?

Rocky Lalvani: 27:43  

So the tagline for Richer Soul is always been you got rich, now what? And it’s because the people thought the money was going to give him the happiness. And it doesn’t. I mean, you probably see a lot of very wealthy people who are unhappy, and yet you see a lot of people who don’t have a ton of money, who are very happy. And one of the things I had mentioned to you before, you know, if you look at how we live today, the average person lives better than a king.

Did you know a hundred and something years ago? I mean, if you think about it, we have indoor plumbing, right? I have, you know, my nicest thing that I love most every morning is I have a hot shower. And when you don’t have a hot shower, I assure you, you, you. That is a major enough problem that you’re going to go do something about it, right? 

But we take all this stuff for granted, and and that’s the big thing. So it’s not it’s not about the money per se. It’s about the things that it brings about. And when you’re talking about philanthropy, studies have shown that you get much more happiness in giving than you do in receiving. And and it’s a proven fact. 

And so those are the types of things we talk about. Money’s just a tool. And yet we put all these emotions and feelings and thoughts and negativity about people who have money or don’t have money. And we put all of this baggage on, on this. That is it doesn’t need to be there. 

And I don’t know why we don’t have better conversations around money because it it is nothing but a tool. It’s a way to get ahead. And I know right. Like nowadays people are like oh it’s so hard to get ahead for young people. Young people are coming out and getting some pretty decent salaries out there. 

The other thing, though, is I don’t know about you, but, you know, when we used to come out and we were young, we didn’t live in the nicest of places. Right. You learned how to to start at the bottom and how to build and repair and and do those things and become self-reliant. You don’t move into the the fancy apartment like you should see the place my kid lived in when they were in college. She I have a picture of her on the 25th floor on the balcony in in New York High, you know, skyscraper overlooking the Statue of Liberty. 

That was like her college apartment. Like, I felt bad for these kids. I’m like, the moment they leave college, they’re going to drop, like, 30. How do they live like that when they leave? You know, if their parents aren’t paying the bill, it’s almost impossible. 

So I think we’re setting them up for too high of that. But yes.

Jim Dunlop: 30:38  

We need more austere dorm rooms in colleges.

Rocky Lalvani: 30:43  

We didn’t have air conditioning and and private baths and granite, you know, I mean, but colleges learned, hey, if you make it look nice, you suck them in and and that’s that whole consumerism game that you really have when you can let go of the consumerism game and just be happy with the basics in life. I think things change. And that also goes back to being much more giving instead of having that tightness around money.

Jim Dunlop: 31:15  

Yeah, I think and you know, I know you have a good answer for it. But it gets to this my final question a little bit, I’ll ask you. But you know, this naturally is how much is enough. And I think we get. So, you know, early in my life I would have said, oh, if I just make this much, I’ll be happy, I’ll be comfortable.

And then and then when you get there and you think, oh, let’s, you know, we as a society have set ourselves up for it’s never enough. And, and so stepping away from that and understanding that is is so critical.

Rocky Lalvani: 31:57  

And that’s a big part of what, what I kind of talk about. How much is enough. And I think everyone thinks it has to be more. And and I tell people, you know, just even bringing it down to more of a regular level, the guy living across the street from me, if he’s making 100 grand, you know, there’s somebody next to him making 80 grand. And I bet you if you looked at the two of them, the person making 80 grand is probably just about as happy as the guy making 100 grand, right?

So why doesn’t the guy making 100 grand save 20 of it be just as happy? And now you have access from which you can give, which we talked about giving actually makes you even happier. So you’re spending less and being happier and being content in in what you do. And I think that’s what it’s all about is get off the hamster wheel.

Jim Dunlop: 32:54  

So the last thing I want to ask you is your other podcast is Profit Comes First. Tell. Tell me what you mean by that.

Rocky Lalvani: 33:03  

And so here’s what I found. Okay. If you’re drowning, what do you think my chances of me selling you swimming lessons are probably not too good. Drowning zero. So what we did was we created a podcast.

That’s. Hey, you’re a business owner. That’s drowning. Let’s at least show you how to get to break even. How to make a little bit money. 

It’s very tactical around. How do we make the money? And then once we show them and once people start to make money, then we’re like, okay, here’s the other half of it with the other podcast to say, now that you’re making money, it’s time to learn how to swim. It’s time to learn how to do the things that kind of come. So it’s like the yin and the yang go together. 

You have to meet people where they are, right? And that’s what we try and do. And part of the other reason is a lot of times when you say the word profit, there’s a lot of people who think it’s bad to be profitable. And I will say this, you know, if you work for a company and you think it’s bad for them to be profitable if they’re not profitable, don’t expect a paycheck Friday because they won’t have money to pay you. And then you’ll understand why they need to have a little profit and a little extra cash. 

So when payroll comes, they actually have the money to do it. And I think for a lot of people, there’s that disconnect. They don’t realize that this is how it works.

Jim Dunlop: 34:37  

Amen. Amen. Well, I have one final question for you, Rocky. But before I do that, I want to point our listeners to your websites richersoul.com we talked about that podcast first and then Profit Comes First. We’ve just talked about that. profitcomesfirst.com and you can also find Rocky on LinkedIn. So the last question that I have for you is if you could share some advice or wisdom on a billboard where you have a lot of reach and get a lot of eyeballs, what would your message be?

Rocky Lalvani: 35:07  

Can I can I go with the Nike one? Just do it?

Jim Dunlop: 35:10  

Sure.

Rocky Lalvani: 35:11  

And I say that, you know what? Because I know in my life, starting like going from 0 to 1 was one of the hardest things. Going to 1 to 100 is so easy is once you start trying something or doing something, it just becomes easier. But we spend so much time fretting the first step that we should just take it and know that we’re going to fail and do it wrong and then learn from there. Once we’re moving, we’ll figure it out.

Jim Dunlop: 35:46  

I love it. Just do it.

Rocky Lalvani: 35:48  

Just do it.

Jim Dunlop: 35:49  

Take the.

Rocky Lalvani: 35:50  

Step.

Jim Dunlop: 35:51  

All right. Well, Rocky, this has been a real joy. I want to thank you for taking some time with us and giving us some things to think about, and also a different perspective, but a really important perspective on generosity. Thank you so much.

Rocky Lalvani: 36:03  

Thank you so much for having me. Oh, by the way, this is a podcast, right? Yes. For all of you listening, I don’t know if you realize this. Jim’s world in the world of podcasting is a little lonely.

And the way you show him love is there’s this, like, button somewhere. You hit the like button, you comment, and then Jim knows you’re listening and that you like him. Be nice. Say thank you.

Jim Dunlop: 36:26  

Oh thank you Rocky.

Outro: 36:28  

Thanks for joining us to hear stories of generosity that remind us that you can’t take it with you. Visit our site at canttakeitwithyou.com for more details on today’s episode and to subscribe to future shows.

Disclosure: 36:46

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