Rich Dad Poor Dad author Robert Kiyosaki shared what he called a “very important dollar lesson” with his followers. He framed it in the form of a question, answer, and real-life example, introducing the concept of “talking your book”, when people stop teaching and instead start selling.
‘Very important dollar lesson’
In the next few lines, he gave an example. “I often state I make millions from my real estate…using debt. When I state that I am teaching, not selling. I do not have any real estate or a mortgage to sell you.”
He then recalled an incident where he confronted a “colourful” real estate family on YouTube, who were inviting people to a conference under the guise of teaching, but were really pushing an investment opportunity. They were subtly telling people that if they attend their seminar, they will get access to a special investment deal that isn’t available to everyone.
“As some of you know, I have gone ‘toe-to-toe’ on YouTube with a ‘colourful family’ who are constantly ‘talking their book’. Not long ago, this real estate family was on YouTube, inviting listeners to attend their real estate conference to learn about a deal they were working on. And, ‘O BTW if you attend their real estate financial education conference, they might be able to get in before they sell out of this investment only for the chosen.’”
He admitted that the pitch left him disgusted: “I feel like I needed a shower as they ‘O BTW’ let you know they ‘might fit you in’. That’s a sleaze example of someone ‘talking their book’.”
Sales pitch behind ‘talking your book’
While Kiyosaki admitted that he, too, “talks his book”, he clarified that his pitch is different. It is for people to play the Cashflow Board game and teach it to 10 others. “If you teach 10 people, you may find your financial intelligence going up… by people teaching people,” he explained.
He emphasised that he discourages anyone from teaching his game merely as a way to promote themselves or make sales. “I do discourage people from teaching my game Cashflow, not to teach but to ‘talk their book’.”
Kiyosaki admitted that he is not against people “talking their book” but gets “upset” when teaching becomes a cover for sales.
“We all have something to sell and hopefully we all have something we want to teach, to make our world a better place to live,” he further stressed.
‘When education becomes secondary to moving product’
“The Cashflow Board Game is fantastic. I use it in my financial literacy course, and students love it. It’s one of the best ways to teach young people about passive income. Thank you for creating a high-quality and fun financial education resource,” one social media user admitted.
Another said, “Balancing teaching and selling makes all the difference in communication.”
“There’s nothing wrong with making money from education or selling products. The problem comes when you disguise sales as teaching, or when the education becomes secondary to moving product,” said a third.
A fourth commented, “Teaching builds trust; selling disguised as teaching destroys it.”