Rich by Choice: Dr Nicholas E. Michels on Money, Marriage & Wealth That Lasts

Money is not a mystery; it’s a skill. 

Dr Nicholas E. Michels opens up his playbook for everyday founders who want to be rich in money, relationships, and purpose.

📌What’s Covered In This Episode:

• How to move from constant money anxiety to calm, intentional decisions as a founder
• How to talk about money with your spouse without every conversation turning into tension or avoidance
• How to start building a financial safety net outside your business, even if you’re used to reinvesting everything back into growth

Dr. Nicholas E. Michels is Amazon’s bestselling author, keynote speaker, and elite wealth strategist with nearly two decades of experience guiding thousands to financial happiness. As founder of Michels Family Financial and creator of the Rich by Choice movement, he combines advanced training in business, psychology, and finance to help families align their money with purpose, peace, and legacy. A former professional basketball player whose journey began in a trailer park, Dr. Michels is passionate about blending faith, behavioral science, and proven strategies to empower people to build lives of significance on their terms.

🌐Learn more at http://www.richbychoicebook.com 

🚀The Founder’s Voice Quiz is the foundation for a client attraction system that works with your strengths, not against them. 

💛Share with a friend who would enjoy this conversation.

Thank you for listening in! See you next week.

Transcript

[00:00:00] ever wondered if you can build real wealth without losing your peace, your marriage, or your soul in the process? Welcome back to The Entrepreneur's Kitchen. I'm Priscilla, and today we're pulling a chair up to the table with Dr. Nicholas e Michaels. Elite Wealth strategist, former pro basketball player and founder of the Rich By Choice Movement

and Michael's family Financial. He's helped thousands of families align their money with purpose, peace, and legacy. And what I love is that he doesn't just talk about getting rich. He talks about being rich in life, rich in faith, rich in marriage, rich in relationships, and yes, rich in money. In this conversation, you're gonna hear how a painful childhood story and his parents' divorce shaped his life's work.

The simple compounding lesson. A blue collar mentor taught him that any founder, any person, can apply the vision [00:01:00] exercise that he and his wife used to turn money conflict into unity, and how to build a golden parachute outside your business, outside of your career, so you're not trapped by it. This is a masterclass in money, marriage and mindset, but it's happening right here at the kitchen table with our Bibles open and our business and view.

So grab your tea or coffee, settle in, and let's step onto what it really means to be rich by choice with Dr. Nicholas e Michael's.

Priscilla: Welcome to The Entrepreneur's Kitchen. Today I've got a very exciting guest for you. Dr. Nicholas E. Michaels elite wealth strategist, the founder of the Movement, rich by Choice.

​ we're excited to have you here. You combine [00:02:00] training in business psychology and finance to help families align their money with purpose, peace, and legacy. Ah, . It sounds so good. So I can't wait to get in it with you. The fact that it's money followed by purpose, peace, and legacy.

I think it's perfect. Thank you so much. Dr. Nicholas, please tell me when someone says, Dr. Nicholas Michaels and Rich by choice. What comes to mind and what should people know about you and about this movement?

Dr Nicholas E. Michels: what they need to know about me and , this movement would really be my why. I mean, that's really where it all started. I get that question like, Nick, you're really passionate about helping people. Like why is that, where does that come from? And Priscilla, it really starts in my childhood.

, I was 10 years old. I'll take you back to the summer of 1996. I was one of four wild boys all a couple years apart. My dad was an entrepreneur. Uh, my mom was a stay at home mom. , We actually had a pretty good life. I mean, I didn't even realize what money was. I just knew that, hey, things were pretty good now.

We weren't rich by any means, but , we had a comfortable lifestyle. But then it changed, I mean, literally overnight. I mean, my mom, my dad. Got [00:03:00] divorced and my mom went from a stay-at-home mom with four boys to a single mom with four boys, , working three jobs just to survive. And so, as you can imagine Priscilla, I mean, I saw both sides of those railroad tracks.

I mean, from a pretty good life that's pretty comfortable to, oh my goodness, you know, we're barely scraping by. It was at a very young age where I realized, hey, this money thing. It's really important , it influences every aspect of our life. And we have a choice either for good or for bad. And so that lit a fire under me that, hey, when I was younger I mean, it was awful going through what we went through and , I wanted to learn everything that way I could understand everything that way I could build, I could grow, I could protect and that's what I'm deeply passionate about because we live through it.

And I don't want that to ever happen to you or anybody so yes, we talk about being rich with money, and yes, , you will be rich with money, but there's more to that. There's more to life than that because there's being rich in life, rich in marriage, rich in faith, rich in doing , more exciting things, , with the people that you love, but then also learning how to protect those [00:04:00] riches so that no matter what happens in this world, you're gonna be confident and excited about your future.

Priscilla: That's a lot to go through as a young person and to see , both sides of your parents. 'cause sometimes you only see one side of your parent. I'm glad that you're on this mission to help a lot of people who are in various circumstances, but who can really connect with that story of like either, money was always a topic, it not spoken topic, but it was dictating everything that was happening around them in that sense, and in a lot of situations, it's not talking about money, but it's like money's controlling everything and how people live and how people talk to each other and what they can do and what they cannot do.

What they think is okay, in terms of giving and things like that. I'm so grateful to have you here on the podcast. Dr. Nicholas, you talk about when you were a young man and you got your first job

Dr Nicholas E. Michels: Mm-hmm.

Priscilla: How that completely changed everything. I think that's a powerful moment. If you can talk to us [00:05:00]about , what you can remember of that time and what shifted for you.

Dr Nicholas E. Michels: Yeah, that's a really good question because that was a very pivotal point in my life. We all have those moments in our life where everything completely changes and some of us have more than one. And that was one of 'em. I worked at a golf course and I took out the trash.

I washed golf carts, I refilled the water, and I picked golf balls up off the driving range. It's 105 degrees in Texas and I was out there working. I think I was making $5 an hour, 16 years old. But I call it a god wink where God just winks at you. And some people say luck, but I say God wink.

And the owner of the golf course, his name was Rex, and he's not a typical golf course owner. This guy was a blue collar guy who actually bought a piece of land who was out there in a tractor who clearing out brush, helping build the course. And so that's the kind of man Rex was. And he brought me under his wing and he taught me about money.

, We used to play this game called Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? And he actually showed me. Didn't just teach me about compound interest, but showed me the numbers that, Hey, Nick, if you put a little bit back of your paycheck, this is how much will be there. In your [00:06:00] thirties, in your forties, in your fifties.

Priscilla, to be honest with you, I don't remember the exact number, but I remember being shocked oh my goodness, you're telling me this poor kid, single mom of four boys. I can realign my stars, that I could have the old life back that I wanted that comfort. And it empowered me. And it started a compound effect in my life where I wanted to learn more.

And so now when I go tell kids, you should see it. My wife and I, we have a nonprofit. We talk to kids about money. That's the first thing I'd say, Hey do you wanna see what Rex showed me? And you should see their eyes. Yeah. And I'll show them that if someone makes $50,000 a year, 75,000, a hundred thousand, I'll show different numbers.

If they just at their age when they're younger and I believe they started ages 20 and they just put back 10%. 10%, you would not believe the millions upon millions of dollars there. And these kids, their eyes just get this big. And so it just shows them that hey, anybody can do it.

It's just will you do it? And so that changed my life.

Priscilla: Oh, that's amazing. I think that meeting someone who showed you

Dr Nicholas E. Michels: Hmm.

Priscilla: That you could [00:07:00] see and that's what you're doing too for so many people. So that's amazing. When I hear your story Dr. Nicholas, I think to myself for that person , you hear, oh, maybe you should put away money.

You hear it, but you can't grasp onto it. And I'm thinking if you've come across those people, maybe there's some mindsets that people have. They hear money and they think, oh, I don't wanna even think about money. 

Dr Nicholas E. Michels: Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Priscilla: Yeah. If you could speak to that person. .

Dr Nicholas E. Michels: The first thing would, I would say to them is just, Hey, first, take a deep breath. Um, you know, I'm right here with you. What I mean by that is , I get it. And the book goes through this because it helps people understand their money psychology. And what I mean by that, if you think about that, Priscilla, all of us, myself included, we all grew up in a certain era raised by specific parents who grew up in a certain era in a certain time with sociological attributes what I'm saying is.

That all affects us and that all plays into how we perceive money, how we perceive the world. Not better or worse, it's just, hey, if we all grow up in a certain environment. [00:08:00] You don't think that's going to affect how we see the world and how we see money and so , it's very important to say, Hey, let's take a step back.

Let's talk about how you do perceive money. Do you think you deserve to be wealthy? Do you think you deserve to be happy? Do you think that you can be? And so to understand that , and also to going back to Rex with kind of. Leads into this question, Priscilla, it was great that he told me that, which was great advice, but he also lived it.

And you know how powerful that is that I got to see it and hear. And so I think that's why helped me, , buy into it so much. And so I've seen it. I've seen it with all walks of life. People that are. Classified as really, really poor to just a little bit poor to middle class, upper middle class to really wealthy.

I've seen the stair steps to wealth that anybody can do it. It's just making up your mind. And the first thing I would tell you is find out who's important to you. What's the exact life that you want? You know, start imagining that. Don't just say, Hey, I wanna be wealthy, but define what wealth is.

Define the life that you want and then you're building something. 'cause Priscilla, when I first started saving money when I was young, [00:09:00] um, I was really excited. But there was times where I wanted to go spend it. Saving money and investing money wasn't fun. I wanted to spend it, , but when I got really clear about, Hey, what's important to me?

What am I building? And then that's when you get really excited in who you're doing it for. , So those are the things I would tell people is that, yes, you can do it. You are worth it. Your loved ones are worth it. Just start taking small little baby steps and, each little step will build and you'll reach great heights down the road.

Priscilla: I love that our audience is early entrepreneurs and

Dr Nicholas E. Michels: Mm-hmm.

Priscilla: You know, you talk about. Just taking 10% and beginning to invest it. Because you're both entrepreneur and wealth strategist so you know that line and you know those people, , sometimes , we never get to the part of investing.

We're just in the business, running the

Dr Nicholas E. Michels: Yeah.

Priscilla: Meeting the needs of the business. And I wonder what you would say to that person.

Dr Nicholas E. Michels: Yeah and I get it. And again I emphasize, I sympathize 'cause I'm here. I'm right there with you. There's no judgment is that, Hey our greatest investment is ourselves. Our next greatest investment is our family. And then after that, down the road our business.

It's a [00:10:00] wonderful investment and if you're an entrepreneur, I commend you because being an entrepreneur, it's a difficult thing, but it's a wonderful thing. And the more you help people, the more you're gonna be rewarded. This is what I tell a lot of my business owners, and we deal with a lot with business owners and we help them, and we help them with taxes and making smart decisions with money and asset protection and all these things we help them with.

But I always remind them that, hey. What happens if you get to a certain point down the road where everything goes wrong? What's your golden parachute? What happens if you get down the road and you wake up one day and you say, man, I just don't wanna do it anymore. I can't do it anymore. What happens if there's a change in legislation?

To where that your industry is completely changed. And so all these different things that could happen. You wanna be putting money back to where, hey, it's kinda like your golden parachute. Now, my goal is for all my business owners, they build a business, they a hundred exit and they sell out and they make a ton of money, or their kids take over it and they grow it.

That's wonderful. But what happens if it doesn't, what's your safety net? And so by doing [00:11:00] that, investing in retirement accounts and putting money back, 'cause most people don't know your primary residence and certain retirement accounts, they're the greatest hedge of protection from liabilities that there is.

Most people don't realize that. And so there's certain things like that , A, protect you. B can be tax write offs, but C also, there's a golden parachute down the road that if everything, what you dream about doesn't happen. Because then I'd ask you, Priscilla, all these things, what happens if things go wrong

what's your plan B? And so that's what I try to tell people of, Hey, I hope it all turns out and you sell out for millions upon millions, or whatever it is that your goals are. But let's, hey, let's build this up over here as a, a backup option or safety net in case something happens.

And Priscilla, I don't have to tell you, you probably know this. Life throws you curve sometimes, and you just wanna be prepared for it.

Priscilla: Yeah. I think that's such an important conversation that sometimes is missing in a lot of social spaces. The worst thing is to work so hard as an entrepreneur, the statistics are the statistics. It is what it is.

But to prepare yourself for [00:12:00] what comes after. I like that you say having that golden parachute . you talk about going from pro athlete to wealth strategist,

Dr Nicholas E. Michels: Mm-hmm.

Priscilla: Then you write that money became a source of conflict in your marriage, and I wondered how I thought of a lot of founders who may relate to that, , I'll let you tell us.

Dr Nicholas E. Michels: Yeah. No and you bring up another good point because my life came full circle . It really did. Remember when I was younger and I was 10 years old and my parents got divorced. Remember? I really didn't even know what money was. I just knew that, hey, we had a pretty good life then. Boom. I saw the pain and the frustration and the worry anxiety that having money troubles puts on a family.

And so I saw both sides and I thought it was just money. I was like, oh, okay, if I have money, I'll get that, back and all worries will go away. And Priscilla, I was wrong because when I got older my wealth started to grow, but guess what? My happiness wasn't growing with it. So it money is important, but it's not everything because as all you have is money and that's it.

You're gonna be a very sad [00:13:00] person. And what I mean by that is when I was young and married is my wife and I. We were arguing about money not fighting. It wasn't terrible, but we just couldn't get on the same page and it seemed like we were having the same talks and disagreements over and over again.

And it was all my fault. I was young and I was dumb. And I'll tell you why it was my fault. I was a financial advisor and so I thought that I was bringing value to our family by me being the financial advisor for our household, me managing the money and things like that. And so we were growing, but my wife really.

Didn't know what was going on. And it was my own fault until we finally had our last argument and I had to find something like it's not getting better and life's supposed to be better than this. And I went searching for answers and I called some mentors and they gave me some books to read.

And what I learned is, I was trying. But when I got married, based on my faith and my wife's faith, we leave, cleave, become one flesh. We were supposed to become one team, and I was trying to do that, but I didn't know really how to do that. And the other books we talked about they gave us what's called a vision statement.

And we did that together. And a vision statement is where you [00:14:00] take 10 pieces of paper and you go to separate rooms of the house and you go in there for about an hour and you write out everything that you want in life. Priscilla, not just, Hey, I want $10 million, or, Hey, I wanna retire. No. What does that life look like?

What are the relationships like with my kids look like it's Tuesday afternoon and I'm 60 years old. What am I doing? Where are we living? We have four kids. If one happens to live outta state. What's that relationship? Do we have a second house there? We get to be a real part of their lives? Or are we just flying in several times a year to see them?

And these are hard questions though, but when you start building all this, what's our faith look like? How involved are we in our community, our church? And then you come together and you learn a lot about each other. But then that's when you, like I talked about earlier, you get excited 'cause now you're building something together.

And then we started having Michel's family financial meetings, which are fun. But like once a week we get over and we go over the money. Big picture, short term, medium, long term. And it was a game. Change her because I learned a lot about my wife. There's something she had on her vision statement that I didn't even know she wanted, and vice versa a lot.

We had the same, but guess what? We built one vision statement [00:15:00] together then, and then everything started gearing towards that. And I can't tell you how. Lucky, blessed God wink that we were, because ever since then, does that mean we have a perfect marriage? No. Do I still mess up? Yes. I have to say sorry.

Yes. But we got on the same page. so that was one of the things that really changed and transformed our marriage because then we gotta say, okay, remember we need money for these things. But it's these things that are gonna bring us the most joy. And that's when you get things online.

That's what this book does, because it helps you understand who's important to you, what's important to you, what's the exact life that you wanna live, and then you start aligning your finances and your financial decisions with that. That's when real joy, peace, excitement come out 

Priscilla: sounds like a powerful exercise. I can see how sometimes the conflict it's just, that communication,

​even something as exciting as a family decides to buy a house. It can be a source of conflict. It's exciting. You can now afford to buy a house, but if you've never [00:16:00] had that discussion of what does a home look like?

What does a good home look like? And what does the life you want look like? Wow, 

Dr Nicholas E. Michels: Priscilla, I've realized this too, is most people they're trying to do the right thing. They wanna do the right thing. They just don't know how. Like most people say, okay, hey, , if you want advancement work, , become smarter, work harder, and that's great.

That's a solution. , But tell me how. And so that's why we're receiving so many success stories about the book is 'cause it not only just gives you a solution, but then it gives you a step by step simple process of, hey, do these things, you know, make these little tweaks. And what I love about it's, they're not huge, they're just small little baby steps that you can start implementing and the results are powerful.

Priscilla: Even when you were mentioning how you thought, okay, we didn't have money for me to solve what happened, I've got to make money, which I think a lot of people find themselves

Dr Nicholas E. Michels: Mm-hmm.

Priscilla: Category of, if I make enough money, then everything is gonna fall into place. And I like that you say that does not happen automatically.

You've got to go through that process of [00:17:00] defining what is important to you. Dr. Nicholas, talk to us about, the premise of the book and what led you to write the book.

Dr Nicholas E. Michels: bottom line was I started to see things not only with my own personal life, but with the, thousands of families that , I've spoken with, not only with research that I did on my own, looking at very successful individuals around the world.

And you start to see common themes. Things start to align , you know, it's like the secrets of success. Once I started to see that then to see it play out in my own life. You know, being wealthy, yes, in money, but also being wealthy in other areas, came to a point where it'd be selfish of me to keep it.

because like I said, remember that God wink, lucky. I've had so many people help me along the way, like so many, and been blessed along the way to where it would be selfish of me not to give this away because what I love about it, it's. Simple. And that was kind of my goal as I went through advanced education and elite level certifications in my field of wealth.

I wanted to simplify 'em to give 'em away. And then I, like I said, I started to see these common themes and that's where and how it aligns with life as [00:18:00] well. 'cause it's not just money, but , it's the life, the things that are important, , the people that you love, that positive ripple effect you wanna have on your loved ones and the world.

And so it's very powerful. And a lot of people in the book, you'll see this, there's several strategies in the book. A lot of people do one or two. But it's when you combine them all together, I mean, that's when the magic happens, and what I love about it, it's simple. So simple.

Priscilla: looking forward to that. We love simple and we love building towards having a wealthy life. You say that mindset is more important than the math. Can you explain that?

Dr Nicholas E. Michels: Yeah. When you talk about mindset, I mean, just think about our brain and we go into this, in the book we elaborate on how powerful. The human brain is, I mean, we haven't even started scratching the surface on how powerful our mind is. I mean, if you compared it to technology today, there's not a piece of technology out there that's more powerful than our brain.

, It's amazing. What I mean by that is called cognitive behavior therapy. It's one thing, CBT. And what that means is what starts in the mind processes through the body and allows you to. Feel , and [00:19:00] get excited. And then gives you the zest , to take action. And so essentially even from there, what you started out in your mind is a mirror out into the world and it becomes true down the road.

So it's cognitive behavior. Therapy starts in the mind, goes to the body, creates action, and then the results. And what I mean by that is if you get your mindset right. On all the different elements when it comes to wealth, when we go through them, it has to start there because you can do all the actions like budgeting, things like that.

But if you wake up every day and tell yourself, I don't deserve to be wealthy. I'll never be wealthy, being wealthy is only for these people or that, or whatever it might be. It's not gonna happen. And that breaks my heart. And so

we give you simple strategies to get your mind right.

It says, Hey. It can happen, it will happen. And it lets you know all the different mindsets you need to have, and then that spills over into budgeting because then you're like, Hey, I, can do this. And we give you, little budgeting tips that. Talk about freeing up cash free up cash to create breathing room.

And we've had single moms and single parents send us, emails , and reviews saying, Hey, because of your budgeting strategies, we can breathe at night. Finally get a good [00:20:00] night's sleep. Other people are taking , that money, they're saving their budget and investing it to where , they're gonna have significant wealth down the road.

It. Does start with the mindset . We give a lot of success stories too, of people of all different shapes, sizes, places around the world that it's working to where you go, oh, this can happen. and so your mindset how you view things what you believe, it has a ripple effect on every area of your life.

Priscilla: situations where people feel like you're poor, that saying that it's passing over opportunity repeatedly,

​it all starts with your thinking. If you change the thinking, everything changes, you think you need to change the situation and yet it snow it's, the thinking.

It's like counterintuitive that you are waiting for your situation to change, but what you need to actually change is.

Dr Nicholas E. Michels: , the way you're thinking, and I'm a huge fan of success and I read a lot of, autobiographies, , and you start to see these common things. And one of 'em is , the way they all think on how they're grateful for things and how they're all a positive outlook. How , , they take serious visualization exercises and meditation exercises.

So when you see all [00:21:00] the very successful people around the world doing this, you have to stop and ask yourself. Maybe there's something to it. And then it talks about that in the Bible too. And so then that's what a lot of , my book talks about as well, is it's not just me saying it's not just really successful people.

I link everything back to it and this is my faith. , In the Bible as well, I always tell people, if someone doesn't believe what I believe in my faith, that's okay. I still love you. I still wanna help you. It's still really good advice. , the Bible was the greatest money success book ever written. Uh, so it's fascinating.

Priscilla: Oh, it is I went on your website, rich by Choice book.com, and it was a rabbit hole. I have to tell you, Dr. Nicholas, I went on there, I just wanted to see what was there, and hours later I was still there and it was, I said, you set me up.

Dr Nicholas E. Michels: no, it's wonderful because it has a little something for everyone and there's even , a free money education course on there. So there's a lot. There's a, , 2000 different bible verses have to do with money, so it can take you wherever you wanna go. There's fun quiz and assessments, so I appreciate you saying that.

, We know when it comes to money. We're all a little bit [00:22:00] different and , the world thinks now the word different's bad, but it's not. , We're all wonderfully different. We're different ages, different life stages, different, you know, where we're at, different, , the life that we want.

Wonderful. You need to have the right advice and skills for those things because what could be good advice for Bob and Susie up the road could be terrible advice for Steve and Jan on the other side. , You want enough information out there and teach people how to, get things aligned.

Priscilla: I like that you said advice and skills because sometimes you don't think about money as a skill. We just think, somehow someone got rich or somehow someone's business got, you know, we never think that there's a skill , and if it's a skill, it means you can learn it

Dr Nicholas E. Michels: Mm-hmm.

Priscilla: Like other people learned it and

if you apply yourself, you can get better at it. And, appreciate you using that language. It reframed it.

Dr Nicholas E. Michels: Oh, Priscilla, you're exactly right. And people don't understand it is like, so you mentioned earlier, I played basketball as a professional basketball player in Europe and in the basketball world. Yes, if someone's taller and faster, [00:23:00] that's a competitive advantage. They absolutely have a competitive advantage, but in the world of money and business.

It's an equal playing field. It's a skill that anybody can develop, and the more time and effort and focus you put on it, it will help. And, that is exciting that it's all a level playing field, that if you're listening now, , you start applying yourself, you know, 15 minutes a day, 10 minutes a day.

We have videos on our site that if you watch one video a day how much more are you gonna be a month from now? Three months from now, a year from now, how much better are you gonna be able to grow your wealth and your life just by, you know, right before your lunch break? We're getting to work 15 minutes early, whatever.

It's staying after work, 10 minutes or whatever. Find a place , in your calendar every day where you can do this. Just think about it. It's gonna be little, small bits of time with huge results. And it is a skill, but it's exciting because anybody can grow it.

Priscilla: that's exciting. Especially now we're going towards the end of the year and people are setting those goals. Those resolutions. Getting the money skills, that is, something that we all can improve and get better on. You mentioned that you enjoy reading biographies.

What's your favorite [00:24:00] biography?

Dr Nicholas E. Michels: that's gonna be the gospels. I mean, that really is Jesus' life. , I know that's a simple church answer, but it's so true. , That really changed my life. I love Ecclesiastes, I love Proverbs. But I also read a lot. , I started reading probably 10 years ago and I've probably read a thousand books since then.

All the great ones, , starting out, you know, rich Dad, poor Dad, and then it led me from there read a lot. People ask me like say, Hey, if I wanna start reading, what do I read? For me, this is how I got excited about reading. I found someone that I really looked up to, aspired to be like Warren Buffet.

Very big name in the investment space. There's these things out there you can Google and search and you'll say, Hey, what are Warren Buffett's favorite books? And so, I look up to Warren Buffett. I wanted , to grow like Warren Buffet. So then you'll see Benjamin Grahams , the intelligent investor, , you'll start to see, , certain books.

And then those books will lead you to other books. You talked about a rabbit hole earlier. 'cause those books will give reference to other books and then , you're on your journey. It's amazing. I mean, I don't even have enough time to read all the books I want to, but I make it an effort to where, hey, I read the Bible every morning for 15 minutes and I read a good [00:25:00] chapter of a. a really good book every day, 15 minutes, and I've done it now for 10 years. I wouldn't say it's the number one thing, but it's up there. Like I have a buddy of mine, he's about to sell his business for $30 million. $30 million. Priscilla, the, and he's not the sharpest crayon in the box. I tell him that all the time.

But what he did do is he committed to lifelong learning. He reads a good chapter of a good book every day, and then once or twice a year, he'll go to a weekend seminar of self-improvement, , growing in that, and he's done it for. 15, 20 years, and he'll tell you between that and his faith, and obviously , the support and love of his wife that has taken him to heights that he never thought it imaginable.

And so it's not hard anybody can do that. It's just, here's the thing, most people don't, but they can.

Priscilla: that's a good challenge for us there, Dr. Nicholas. I like that you said you love the gospel. 'cause I love the gospel as well. That's why when I went on your website and I started reading the verses, it just went on and on.

The truth of the gospel is just. It gives life, and I love that you curated the verses towards wealth and finance and [00:26:00] money. That's important because that's a topic that for some reason, it gets s muddy in culture and in the society

so having that truth of the gospel. Cut through all that. muddy-ness please go to his website. I'll link it in the description. It's so good. I'm interested to know for you if you can share you and your wife some of the rules that you live by in terms of creating wealth and the ways you think about money that so far entrepreneurs can begin to think about.

Dr Nicholas E. Michels: Yeah. One of the rules that we live by, and I can't, I probably don't have time to go into all of 'em, but I'm gonna list some highlight ones. One is giving. A giving is so powerful, that law of attraction. It's in the Bible, it's real shaken and pressed down. , And you gotta have a giving strategy, and I hope Priscilla people are starting to see a common theme here that everything we want to do, we have a action strategy along with it.

Saying that, Hey, I wanna do this, that's wonderful. But you need to have an action, strategy needs to be on the calendar. That way It happens. 'cause life gets busy. So one of the things that we do we give we give a lot, we give to things , that God puts on our heart. We give our time to educate, like we said to kids.

Money education. 'cause someone's done it for [00:27:00] us. Giving is powerful because the law of attraction is real. Whatever you send out in the world, it's coming back to you. If you want more money, give more money. If you want more love and respect, give more love and respect. And if you don't believe me, I challenge you on your way to work.

Just bless everyone. Say I bless and bless you and all God's goodness that is in you as you drive to work. Do that. See the benefits in your life. They really are. You can just do little things, but make it a habit. And so those are some of the rules, quote unquote that we live by, is that we're always talking about giving, who can we help?

We send kids to camp. And that's really important to us. 'cause we go to camp, we go to family camp, which is like church camp , kids go to, but a bunch of families go. You know, Great. It is. We can do that with our kids. And so we help send kids to campus. We think it's a wonderful, fun environment to learn about Jesus's love.

And so, we do it because you do feel good about helping. But Jesus calls us to do it. But there's so many benefits along with it. There is, so giving is definitely one of 'em. And then you talk about the word communication.

Huge. We continue, even though we've had great success and been very [00:28:00] blessed, we don't change. We continue to have, maybe not every week, but just about every week or every other week, we still have these Michael's family financial meetings. We're going over the business we're going over goals for the business, goals for our life.

We're very cognizant of doing things together to where if it ain't broke, don't fix it. That it is worked, so we want to continue to do it. And those are really big. But also too, Priscilla I'll say this is another role that we've adopted that I read in a book and most people don't talk about this.

Most people say, Priscilla, what are your goals? And you'll be like, Hey, these are my goals. Big picture. One question people don't do, and they should on their goal list is put out the things you're not willing to do. And it's being cognizant thinking about, okay, these are my goals on the way to achieving these goals.

What don't I want to happen, like divorce? Very important word , a lot of people can become very wealthy and their marriage is gonna suffer along the way. Because they're not prioritizing it and being intentional with it. So put on there too I don't want to be a distant father, a [00:29:00] absent father to my kids.

Yeah. I want these goals and I have business goals, I have wealth goals, I have other goals, but what I'm not gonna do is let the very important things suffer along the way that I'm gonna put time. And then you can go in into just like your goals, you have action plans to reach these goals. What action plans do you have to make sure the things that you don't want to happen.

And that would completely wreck your world. , There's a quote all these, a lot of individuals sacrifice their health to receive, wealth and then all of a sudden they have to spend all their wealth , to help with their health because they destroyed themselves along the way.

again, I'm not coming from a place of judgment. I'm just happy that I learned these things that, hey, I've got action items for the goals I want, but also have action items for the things that I don't. Want to happen. I'm not prepared that they're important to me. I don't wanna lose along the way.

And so just being mindful of that, and I don't know yet about you, Priscilla, has anybody ever told you that about having the things you don't want to have happen as well? , That's new to me and, I think it's genius. ,

Priscilla: I just thought of the Bible verse that the weeds grow together with the good things.

​if we don't be [00:30:00] mindful that the weeds are growing to, you're growing the business, but all of a sudden you are taking away time from your family.

If you don't have that list of the things that you don't want. And I think for founders especially, knowing that. You don't wanna build a business at the expense of the people you love

Dr Nicholas E. Michels: Oh, you're exactly right. And I love that you bring that up because I'm part of , a dad group , and this dad group is a bunch of entrepreneurs , and they give this analogy and our, and the whole thing is to say, Hey, you know, we're dads first before business owners. And if you picture two balls underneath my arms, one says business on it, the other says, family, this business ball, I can drop it from time to time and pick it back up and it's gonna bounce down the road and we're gonna keep on going.

But this family ball over here, I can only drop it so many times before it breaks. And again, an action item idea is join this group to always be mindful of, Hey, I can have all the money in the world, but if I don't have my family, what does it matter? And it talks about in the Bible, , you can gain the whole world, but lose your soul.

And so again, I'm not coming from a place of judgment. I'm not perfect. I still make mistakes, but I'm trying to be mindful of, Hey, these are the [00:31:00] things that I want to happen. These are things I don't want to happen. What action things? Daily activities, weekly, monthly activities, kinda put on the calendar to make sure that priorities stay a priority.

And here's the next thing I'll tell you, Priscilla. If you're listening to this right now and you're trying to make progress in different areas of your life, whether it be your marriage, whether it be business, whether it be wealth, get ready. Because in each little stair step, there's gonna be barriers at the top.

At this world and this world is a paradox. It can be tough. Sometimes this world's gonna push back a little bit that just 'cause you start wanting to do the right thing and trying to do the right thing. Don't think it's gonna be perfect. Expect resilience, but just be prepared that the things , that are important to you, the people that are important to you, it's worth it to fight through those barriers and continue to move up.

I can't explain how it happens or why it happens, but just know this world, it's gonna make it tough on you from time to time, but it's worth it to keep pushing through.

Priscilla: Oh, thank you for sharing that. Dr. Nicholas, when you were talking about the dad group, you know how important that is to find that community [00:32:00] of people who value what you value because you. You may have this goal to protect your family, but if you're constantly around people who think, family doesn't matter or they don't understand why you want to go and see your child's soccer thing and instead not go and do this business thing, your environment, it influences you.

Being intentional about creating that environment.

Dr Nicholas E. Michels: . I'll share this. have you noticed everything I say? I get lucky. A God wink. , And this is another one that I was lucky. I was part of a men's. Bible study and it ranged from ages 25 all the way up to 85. But , in there, there were six weeks there where six different men got up there and shared their testimony and they went pretty deep.

I mean, they shared about real things that they struggled with. And what you understand is all of us human beings, there's so many things that we struggle with and we all struggle with something , and, and most of it's probably seven or eight things that are , very common. What I learned , is. , When I struggle with something, it's okay to ask for help.

I'm not the only person going through it, whether it be my wife and I getting on the same page, whether it be I have a [00:33:00] teenage son and trying to, you know, connect with him is where I can help him. , Having a youngster , and all those different, 'cause there's different. Obstacles or challenges with every stage of life.

Every area of life. Don't be afraid to ask for help. 'cause I promise you more people are going through it than you know. And when you ask for help, you're gonna get great advice, especially from what you just described. Priscilla was a key group of very successful individuals who are like-minded like you and have found success and they're willing to give it to you.

Because just like myself, we have received so much help along the way. You have no option but to pay it forward.

Priscilla: thank you so much for that, Dr. I know we've gone over time please if I can give you rapid fire quick five questions. , Okay. One word that describes your relationship with money today.

Dr Nicholas E. Michels: Grateful.

Priscilla: Biggest money lie that entrepreneurs and founders believe.

Dr Nicholas E. Michels: Ooh, the love or the lust of money is the, the root of all evil. Money's not evil

Priscilla: Most underrated wealth habit that an everyday person can grasp [00:34:00] onto and get started.

Dr Nicholas E. Michels: Giving the power of giving.

Priscilla: A money rule that you and your wife live by the number one. I'll say that

Dr Nicholas E. Michels: No, I mean communication, talking about money being on the same page, United I don't know if that's number one, but it had a great, powerful, positive impact on our life. So it's hard not to talk about that all the time. And most marriages are in the same boat we were.

Priscilla: If you had to describe in one sentence, being rich by choice means what?

Dr Nicholas E. Michels: Being rich in money and being rich in all areas of life, and it can happen.

Priscilla: Thank you so much Dr. Nicholas Michaels. You can go to his website, ww.rich by choice book.com. 

Dr Nicholas E. Michels: If you're listening, I got a free gift for you , go to the website, rich by choice book.com, www at Rich by choice book.com. Right there, it'll say free gift in a green box. Click the Compounding by Choice type in your email. We're gonna send you the chapter.

What I love about, it's kinda what we talked about. Now, we have seen thousands upon [00:35:00] thousands of success stories from this one chapter, and it's one of my favorite because we talk about compounding. Everyone thinks compounding interest, right? But what most people don't realize is

your marriage, relationships, health, wealth, , happiness. Every area is either compounding and it's compounding either for good or for bad. And so it gives you small little action items for all the different areas, your faith, intelligence, wellbeing, growth. And it gives you small little things you can start doing that are important to you, that you're going to continue to grow and compound in a positive way.

That's why Warren Buffet said, Hey, grow 1% a day. Can you imagine about that? People think that's nothing. That's huge. So again, rich by Choice book.com, put in an email address, compounding by choice. You're gonna get an email that's yours. It's absolutely free. I hope it blesses you as much as it's blessed us.

And so just thank you so much for having us. You know, God bless.

Priscilla: Thank you so much for that gift to the audience. Please take advantage of that. If you can think about looking back 10, 15 years from now, I hope this conversation, you take action on it and you can look back and know that. [00:36:00] It made an impact on you and you can share it with someone else so that you can have people growing together with you.

I think that's key. Thank you so much, Dr. Nicholas. I appreciate you.

Dr Nicholas E. Michels: Hey, thank you Priscilla . I love what you're doing. God bless.

Priscilla: Thank you.