[00:00:04] Speaker A: Welcome to the Wealth Builders podcast. I'm Billy Epahard, and on this show you're going to hear from industry leaders in business, real estate and investing. Our wealth builder coaches and myself are excited to teach you how to make sense of making money for making a difference. Okay, let's get started.
[00:00:24] Speaker B: Welcome to this week's Wealth Builders podcast. I am so grateful that you joined us and I have got the most amazing treat for you today. Our founder, the CEO of Andrew Womack Ministries and cares Bible College and wealth builders, is Billy Epperhart. Billy, thank you so much for joining us today.
[00:00:48] Speaker A: Karen, I'm excited to be with you and I'm excited about all those that are listening today on the podcast, and I appreciate you. You've been a wonderful host for the Wealth Builders podcast.
[00:01:00] Speaker B: Thank you so much. Wow. We are so glad to have you as a part of know. Our wealth Builders family is so faithful to tune in, and the opportunity to hear from you today is going to be amazing. And so I just want to encourage all of you to get your notebook out, get your pen or your pencil out and take some notes because Billy is going to be talking about the Triple X factor. So any of you that have listened to wealth builders for a while, you definitely know about the Triple X Factor, but I believe there's a lot of people, Billy, that have never heard about it, and they probably don't know how special this is. This is something that God showed you. He revealed to you to help all of us to build wealth God's way. So we would love for you to just give us a 30,000 foot view of the triple X factor.
[00:01:54] Speaker A: Well, thank you. And really where that came from, Karen, was when, as a young person and a young man, even as I began in my early twenty s to really get an understanding of wealth, because it seemed as though I would talk to one person and they'd give me one definition, I'd talk to another person and they'd give me another approach, not just another definition, but almost another approach. And so I kind of ended up thinking as a young man, there's 17,000 different ways to build wealth. But what I learned was there's really not, there's 17,000 things you can do, but there's a specific approach in thinking that you have to have to be able to build wealth. So when deuteronomy chapter eight says, remember the Lord your God, for it's he who gives you the power to get wealth, one translation tells us he gives us the power to acquire wealth. Another translation says he gives us the power to make wealth. Another translation says he gives us the power or ability to, the ability to produce wealth. So really, the truth is, there's really two big Ways. And I'll talk about this in more detail, probably in another podcast. But here on this one, basically, there's two ways. You either create or you acquire. The best way to think about that is if you think about guys like Elon Musk, of course, he has several companies, as we're talking about this. But if you think about Tesla, which is the one most people think, he created that company literally from scratch. Right? And he started that company. And today, of course, it's worth billions and billions of dollars today. And he created it. If you think about somebody like Donald Trump, what he did was he acquired a lot of his WeAlth and that he bought real estate. And, for example, he did an office building in New York City, I remember. And when he bought that, I'm going back many years ago, back beyond what people in the modern day think about that he's done. If you go back many years ago, you'll see where he was buying rundown office buildings, and he'd buy them for about $0.10 on the dollar. He would invest about $0.50 on the dollar. So now he's got sixty cents in it. And then he would get it all leased up. He would get that building all leased up, and he would turn it and flip it, and he would make sometimes a dollar and a dollar, 25 a total on that. So he basically doubled his money on what he was doing. And so what he did was he created. He acquired it, and then he did something with it. And then meaning by creating it, making it better, and then he flipped it out. But he acquired his wealth, generally speaking. Whereas you see musk, he basically created it. And so the point is, you either acquire wealth or you create it. And so when you think about that, when we talk about the way the Lord showed me the triple x factor, it was allowing me to see that wealth building from a 30,000 foot view. It's like if you have ten people that see an accident and you ask them to tell what happened, they all kind of have a different version. I like to say, if somebody's touching the elephant, and they touch the trunk of the elephant, and you ask them, what's an elephant like? They'll tell you, it's like a hose. Somebody's holding the tail of the elephant, and you ask them, what's an elephant like? They'll say, it's like a rope. But really it's all of that. And so what happened was the Lord showed me this quite a few years ago now, going back, and I've been using it personally ever since. And then of course in the last 20 years, 25 years, we've used it to help people understand how to go from zero to hero. In other words, what is the path I need to get on to be able to build the journey that I have? And I want to say this, most people are never taught in America how to build wealth. In fact, I said in America, the truth is they're not in western nations. In western developed nations, we don't really teach people how to build wealth. And so today when we talk about these things, we kind of want to talk about it from the beginning to the end. So when we talk about the triple x factor, the term triple means there's actually three x's that you could actually see on a chart. Now it's very hard to communicate this chart verbally, but basically the way I did it when I was a young man, what I did was I took a white poster board that was, if I remember right, it was 3ft wide. It could have been as much as 40 inches wide and it was about 2ft little better tall, maybe 30 inches tall. And I remember I drew a line on the bottom that said I wanted to be able to reach wealth. And I did it from zero to five years. And then I marked every month of each year. So the first year I marked twelve months, twelveth month was on the line that the first year was on. And then I did the next twelve and the next twelve. So I marked twelve months. And then on the left line, what we would call the vertical line, the bottom one was a horizontal line going across the paper. And I did this with a regular number two pencil, graphite pencil. And I took an old three foot yard stick that I had and I used that for my ruler to draw that long line there. And then I drew a vertical line the same way and I used my number two regular pencil and I drew the vertical line. But over there what I did was I didn't have as many lines over there. I had zero down on the corner. So that zero is where I started on my months. But also zero was where I said from zero to $2,000. I marked that. And then I did it proportionately. Then I did 2000 to 4000. Then I did 4000 to 6000. Now this was quite a few years ago. So I mean, these all represented either your monthly income and your monthly outgo so whatever your monthly income was, on January of that first year I started, I marked what my monthly income was, and then I also did a second dot up there on the same month of what my monthly outgo was. And most people don't realize it, but in western nations, you can actually spend more than you make every month. It's called consumer credit. You can actually take your credit cards. Right.
And people today, they're facing that. The whole credit card thing is a big deal where people get behind. Matter of fact, I had somebody stop me last night coming out of the building I was in, and they knew who I was, and so they stopped me, and they said, can I ask you a financial question? And the person asking me this had gray hair. Okay.
[00:09:07] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:09:08] Speaker A: And they told me how far in debt they were and how much debt they had. I was reasonably astonished, so I just asked an honest question. How did you get in that kind of debt? I just wanted to know. And he looked at me, said, with credit cards.
The truth is, and this was an older person, most time we hear about it, with a younger 30 or under, has charged up a bunch of somebody graduates from college. A lot of the credit card companies just issue them a credit card, and.
[00:09:40] Speaker B: They shows up in the mail.
[00:09:42] Speaker A: Oh, no, it shows up in the mail. You get like five offers. Some of them don't know, but they take all five offers.
[00:09:49] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh.
[00:09:50] Speaker A: So the truth was, I wanted to know, and I had some really good mentors in my life at that time who were business people that were successful financially at the time I was doing this, and honestly, just watching what they had and what they did, I hadn't at this point when I was doing this on the poster, I hadn't learned a lot from them at that time. But later, meaning from that time, I began to put that poster on the wall. I actually began to meet with a couple of those guys, and they really had a major impact on my life. And I began to chart my life, and I had those five years on the bottom right. And I began to mark where I was. And sure enough, I was spending more money than I was bringing in because of my credit cards.
[00:10:40] Speaker B: And there it was. It was on the chart. So you couldn't deny it.
[00:10:44] Speaker A: Couldn't deny it. I can look at it when you understand it. By the way, Karen, those listening can go to wealthbuilders.org. And if they go to wealthbuilders.org on the website, they can do a free triple x chart.
[00:11:01] Speaker B: Absolutely. Yeah. Wealthbuilders.org. And then if you go in the search button and just type in triple x chart, it will come up and you can get a download of that. And that will really help you to put into context what Billy's talking about here.
[00:11:19] Speaker A: No. Yeah, it really will. And so what happens is most people, not everyone listening, is actually spending more than they're bringing in. And so because of that, they're already to what we would call the center of that first x, where the two lines meet, because they're not actually spending more money than they're bringing in. So when we talk about building the first x, the whole idea is that we're bringing our debt down, right? We're bringing our expenses down, which includes our debt and how much we're spending on credit cards. And of course, there's a whole teaching in money mastery and also God's road to financial freedom, which is the nine steps to getting out of debt. And you can go to wealthbuilders.org, not only get the books, but you can also look on our blogs that we have there. And we have blogs on there that actually deal with the nine steps as well, just so people know that it's free if they want to go to wealthguilders.org.
[00:12:18] Speaker B: Yeah, that's, that's so good. We have so much free content out there that you and Miss Becky have. It's very, very helpful. Billy, I think a lot of people listening are thinking, I have a chance here, because if Billy started out where he was spending more than what he was bringing in, and you were able to use this process that God revealed to you, not only get out of debt, but then start moving into building wealth, my goodness, anybody can do it. And I think even going back to deuteronomy eight, where you're sharing the scriptures, I think that's very encouraging, too. Maybe you could just comment a little bit. Some people have been brought up where they think that building wealth is for other people, it's not for them. So maybe you could just share a little bit of insight that helps encourage us that, you know what, this is God's plan for everybody.
[00:13:15] Speaker A: No, actually it is. And I think because we started talking about the Triple X, the whole idea behind the first X is that you learn to get out of debt. And then you learn with those dots that we put on the triple X, you do, literally would do that today. You can do it digitally. Back in those days, I did it on a poster board, actually, with colored pencils, and I would draw the dots and I'd draw my monthly income, I'd draw with a black dot in my debt, in my monthly expenses, I would actually draw out with one of those red sharp pencils that you could buy, still can, that we use sometimes in elementary school and junior high to color things. And so I did it that way. And so my red dots started coming down because, and I give the whole nine steps of how to get out of debt, but my red dots and my expenses. So I began to reduce my debt, which then made my expenses come down. And finally my expenses got down to the point of where my income was. And that's when you reach the center of the first X, where you now have as much income coming in as you do going out. But most people do. You realize that 80% to 85% of all people in western nations around the world continue to stay on what we call, what I call the left side of the first x. In other words, they stay stuck where they're just barely bringing in enough money based and they're spending everything that they're bringing in. And so because of that, they just stay paralyzed financially about where they are. But the whole idea about, actually, I talk about, Karen, the four steps to the first X is one of the things that you have to realize is you not only have to get your expenses in line and get out of consumer debt, but you also have to understand that in addition to that, and by the way, getting out of debt, we teach you how to get out of debt in the nine steps, including your cars and your house payment. And you typically can do that in five to seven years. So most people, when they hear that, can't believe that they can pay everything off, plus their mortgage on their house, in five to seven years. But if you follow the plan that's in the money mastery book or God's road to financial freedom, you can do that. So most people get stuck, typically in western nations, on the left side of the first x, where they never have more income coming in every month than they do outgo. They kind of get stuck right there. But if you'll get to the middle, where you're actually kind of breaking even, then you can start, and I like to say this, people say, well, billy, how do I increase? How do I get better? One of the first things people have to realize is when you go to the marketplace, you as an individual or a person, you have to bring value to the marketplace. Most people think what happens is that they bring time to the marketplace. No, you don't just bring time to the marketplace. You get paid for the value that you put into that time, whether that is a business you own or a place you work, the compensation you receive depends on the value that you bring to the marketplace. So a lot of people on their black dots, like when I was first doing my black dots on the chart, my income, because I got the same salary every month, so my income was the same. But then those mentors began to have an impact on me, and they taught me that you get paid for value. And as I was listening to know, I'd ask the, you know, then what do I do? And they said, you have to learn how to become more valuable. And I was like, well, how do you do that? And so I began to work on that, and I realized there was three actions that people come up to me and they'll say, billy, I got $1,000 to invest. What should I invest in? I say, invest in yourself. I got $5,000 to invest. What should I invest in? You should invest in yourself. In other words, the idea is when you become more valuable, money will begin to be attracted to your life. And as born again christians who believe the Bible anytime, it's not. What's this now? Money is attracted, not pursued. The minute you start pursuing money, then there's a spirit of mammon that comes on you, and there's the wrong motive, the wrong attitude, the wrong heart. But the minute you start working on yourself, not only first of all in a scriptural, godly way, but not only in just getting out of debt, but also how do I increase my value? Then what happens is money will begin to be attracted to your life. And I hear people say, well, Billy, is it really that simple? Well, I like to talk about. I talk about three steps to investing in yourself to become more valuable. And the first one is you have to learn, these all start with L. That means you've got to read, follow. Matter of fact, you can listen because. And we'll talk about listening in a second. But right now we're doing this podcast. But what I like to talk about is learning. You have to be a learner.
I hear the statement that most leaders are readers, right? So a real leader becomes a reader. The truth is that you have to get information.
And in many cases, when you're building wealth and begin your journey, it's not just information that changes your life, but it's the revelation that you get from that information that ends up changing your life. And so there's that learning curve that you go on that causes you to be a magnet. Then the second thing you learn to do is not just learn, but you learn to listen. And this is where I believe if you find a coach or a know someone you can listen to that can understand where you are, and then at the same time, listen to the things they're saying. And I remember, Karen, when I started this journey, some of the things I heard the two mentors say to me when I was first getting started, I'm telling you, I just honestly thought they didn't know what they were talking about because I had never heard stuff like that. It's almost like, you know what? I'm so new, and it's just the grace of God. I started really listening to them. And in that process, I began to learn. And the thing that I learned is that whenever I was listening, I began to start taking notes. And then I'd go back and in my journal, I had a journal even then as a young person, and I'd take my notes down and then I'd go back and meditate in them. I'd go look up scriptures. I would just do different things. And, boy, I began to get my mind renewed to the place. Romans, chapter twelve. Right. Verse two, don't be conformed to this world. One translation says, don't let the world squeeze you into its mold. In other words, the world will squeeze you into its way of thinking.
[00:20:28] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:20:29] Speaker A: And so you have to break out of that. And one way to do that is learning to listen to the right know. I make this statement. I think I heard Jim Rohn say it many years ago. He said, most poor people ought to take a rich person out to dinner.
[00:20:44] Speaker B: Yes.
Which means opposite, right?
[00:20:48] Speaker A: Oh, it's totally opposite. Take dinner and buy them a six course meal and keep them talking. Right. Keep them talking. Same time.
[00:20:57] Speaker B: I think we did that to you one night.
[00:20:59] Speaker A: You did. Actually, we need to tell that story.
[00:21:04] Speaker B: You do kind of trick you in a way. I didn't mean to trick you, but it just kind of happened that way.
[00:21:12] Speaker A: So Karen and her husband Dave took me out to a nice dinner in Florida, and we're talking about this learning and listening. And so before they had taken me out to dinner, I was telling Karen, there's a certain way you do things in real estate, especially with, if you're in business and you need to get a loan, there's a certain way you have to do things.
One of those is the way you save taxes is not the best way you can take an approach to be able to qualify with your income.
[00:21:45] Speaker B: Lesson learned.
[00:21:47] Speaker A: You learned that we go back to their house after this beautiful steak dinner, seafood dinner.
They paid for it, God bless them. And then I didn't realize they were setting me up, but back to the house. And they wanted to ask me, well, Billy, what do we do about. And so they asked me if I would be willing to buy the house for them and. Or loan them the money to buy the house. And I said, absolutely not. You didn't listen to a thing I told you a year ago and looked at me like a deer in the headlights.
[00:22:21] Speaker B: You're right.
[00:22:22] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. So I explained to her what it was again, and I said, if you'll take this different approach, you go back in, then you'll be able to get what you're looking for. And sure enough, they did. And they were able to get it. And so the point of that is you have to learn to listen, right?
A lot of times, as they say, the old cliche, right. That when the student ready, the teacher shows up. And so I think that happened. And then the third thing, that's a funny story.
[00:22:52] Speaker B: It is a funny story.
[00:22:54] Speaker A: The first one is learning, the second one is listening. And really the third one is looking. In other words, three actions. We're talking about three actions to invest in yourself.
And those three are really important because when you're looking, what you're looking for really is somebody's recipe. And I remember my wife, Becky. Miss Becky, her mother. We call her grandma. Excuse me, her grandmother. I'm sorry, her grandmother. We call her Grandma Dixie. And at the time, I think Grandma Dixie, that this story happens, was in her early eighty s. And she made, I guess you would call it a light dessert is what it would be. And she made it every Christmas for breakfast, this light dessert for people to have. And it was called tea cakes. And so it actually is more of an english version of a Christmas treat. And what it was is I love tea cakes because you can eat them with coffee or you eat them with tea, hot tea, but they weren't too sweet. They had this unusual, really good flavor. And so I remember Becky went in to look to watch her make the tea cakes. And she always called everybody darling. So she'd say, darlin you just take a pinch of this and a little bit of this in your palm and you put it in. So what Becky did, she went in to watch it. And every time grandma would reach, she said, okay, reach in. I'm going to measure it. So she would measure everything that Grandma Dixie did to put in to make the tea cakes and in measuring it. And of course, knowing the ingredients she learned because she discovered the recipe that she was using. And so what happens is when we're looking, it's important that we learn to discover the recipe that people are using to be able to make themselves more valuable that they use, when they bring value to the marketplace. So all of those things are important in our life when we talk about learning to become more valuable. Now, that's the first step. I have four steps, but I think on this first step, Karen, I just think it's really important that people learn this. Proverbs 27 and verse 17 says, as iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another. And that's what we're talking about here when we're talking about the looking part of this, that you learn that iron sharpens iron. And people can help you if you discover the recipes for what they're doing, discover the recipe for how they think, discover the recipe for why they think like they do. So as we renew our minds to the word of God, it allows us in our life to actually become more valuable. So I think for this podcast, that's probably a good one. We can follow up in another one on some of the other steps, but just learn to become more valuable. I'll leave it with this statement on this. To have an above average income, you have to learn to become an above average person.
So really building wealth starts with you. It really starts you and how you work on yourself.
[00:26:13] Speaker B: That is so good. So just to kind of recap the three l's, it's learn, listen and look. Keep looking.
[00:26:22] Speaker A: That's correct.
[00:26:24] Speaker B: Wow, Billy, that's so good. And that really brings a lot of context. Know, how do I invest in myself? And we do get that question a lot. People want to know where to start and you have really unpacked that amazingly well. So I would just want to thank you, Billy, for being on this and sharing this with us. And we're going to do a follow up to get to those other three steps. But I also wanted to let everybody know, Billy's got a brand new product, we call it his legacy product that is launching this month, actually. It's called the Triple X Factor and it includes all the laws of wealth. It's 14 video sessions. But something that we're doing is we're going to do a boot camp, a five day wealth builders boot camp for you online. It's completely free. And so if you want to dive in deeper into this subject and really get on that path of building wealth, I encourage you to register again. It's completely free. You can go to bootcamp, and we're going to have five days of sessions where we're going to teach on this. We're going to give you a little bit of homework, and by the end of that week, you are definitely going to have a great understanding of what Billy has been sharing with us here. So, Billy, thank you so much. It's just such a joy and a privilege to have you on the podcast. I know everybody's so excited to hear from you.
[00:27:51] Speaker A: Well, thank you, Karen. I'm excited about wealth builders and I'm excited about all you're doing to give leadership to wealth builders. And I just want to encourage those that are listening today to make it a priority to become more valuable and make it a priority to learn to invest in yourself and your life will be changed for the better.
[00:28:14] Speaker B: Awesome. Thank you, Billy. And thanks all of you, part of our wealth Builders family, for listening to this podcast every week. God bless you and make it a great rest of the day.
[00:28:25] Speaker A: Thanks for listening to the Wealth Builders podcast. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please rate and review the show. You want to learn more about who we are, visit our
[email protected] and check us out on Facebook. We'll see you next time.
