[G.E.M] Ep 22 How to Have a Wealth Wisdom With Amanda Neely
[00:00:00] Blake: Welcome to the G.E.M series powered by rocket level. On this podcast, we empower entrepreneurs to succeed by setting big goals, executing like a pro, and having a fearless mindset. The G.E.M series is all about investing in yourself. We're here to share the path to getting what you want out of life. By sharing the stories of entrepreneurs who have.
[00:00:21] Themselves providing thorough research from our team on what careers and habits are yielding the best results and discussing the mindset it takes to overcome the obstacles that all future entrepreneurs will face investing in yourself, starts with putting in the work every single day. And this podcast is here to help you do exactly that.
[00:00:39] My name is Blake Chapman. I'm the vice president of the ambassador program here at the rocket level. And I am thrilled to be your host for the G.E.M.
[00:00:49] Hello and welcome to today's G.E.M series. I am thrilled to welcome today's guest Amanda Neely. Amanda, as an entrepreneur running both profits first and bank on yourself, professional and the co-host of grandma's wealth wisdom financial podcast with her husband, Brandon. It's great by the way everybody should check it out.
[00:01:11] They also founded and managed overflow coffee bar L three C from 2008 through 2018. Now they share experiential knowledge through podcasting and through developing personalized financial strategies for individuals in couples and profitability strategies for businesses and who doesn't that right now?
[00:01:32] Amanda. Welcome to the show. 
[00:01:33] Amanda: How are you doing? I'm doing great. Thanks for having me. It's great to be. 
[00:01:37] Blake: I'm thrilled to have you on. So Amanda, for those who don't know you, would you mind sharing a little bit about yourself with our, with our audience here? For 
[00:01:44] Amanda: sure. The thing you need to know about me is that I'm an activist at heart.
[00:01:49] From an early age. I forced my parents to start recycling. I watched save the whale documentaries. When I left college, I went into the nonprofit sector. My whole life has been about how do I make this world better. How do, how do we, you know, change the world? And I learned. Quickly after a couple of years in the nonprofit sector, there's some cool stuff happening in the business.
[00:02:12] That's making the world a better place all the time. And so Jovin head first and never looked back, still love the nonprofit world, just found my home and what's right for me in business. Absolutely. 
[00:02:24] Blake: And that is so cool and something that I feel. You know, people talk about it a lot. But it's not something that I, I get to see people inter you know, come into the business from that perspective very often.
[00:02:35] So that's, that's exciting. So I'd love to hear a little bit more of the beginning. I love always hearing childhood stories and things like that. So, yeah. When did you first start finding that? Cared about these things. 
[00:02:48] Amanda: Yeah. And I, I'm not exactly sure. I mean, I'm a millennial, so I think it was kind of always there right on totally.
[00:02:55] You know, the TV or in the classroom. Right. I think in elementary school we like bought an acre in the rainforest, you know, stuff like that. Just kind of always been there. But when I like thought about different professions, and what I wanna be when I grew up, they always had that. How do I make the future better?
[00:03:12] Even when I was thinking about archeology, right? I got my mom to get me a subscription to archeology magazine. Yes. I'm a nerd and, I love 
[00:03:21] Blake: arche archeology magazine too. It's great. 
[00:03:24] Amanda: And it was like, I wanted to learn about the past so that I could make the future better. Right. So we don't repeat those same mistakes and, you know, went through about journalism for a while, but it was all about how do we tell stories to impact how people live the day to day and make sure that the most vulnerable are getting their stories told and you know, things are changing for their betterment, all those kind of things.
[00:03:45] Maybe it's because my parents are in public assistance. When I was born, my mom went back to college in our thirties to provide for our family. And I just didn't want any family to be experiencing poverty as I had as a kid. Yeah. 
[00:03:58] Blake: Yeah. I mean, that's so powerful and I'm sure shaped like, yeah, your worldview.
[00:04:05] I mean, that, that, that makes a lot of sense. So going into, I guess, fast forwarding a little bit, what was your first goal? Whenever cuz you're an entrepreneur and I'm like, oh my gosh, Amanda, you're doing so many different. Do you remember whenever you first like set your sights on something that you wanted, to go out and do and what that might have been?
[00:04:25] Amanda: Oh, so many things, probably the main one was college. Right. I, I grew up in a family where I would be the first direct descendant. To go to college. And my mom, you know, had, had gone and gotten associates in her thirties, but no one had ever gotten a bachelor's. And I, you know, if you've looked at my dad's, you know, lineage, and so that was a really big goal for me.
[00:04:49] And I thought long and hard about it. I read how to pay for college, like a book about it. When I was in junior high school, I've always been the kind of person that has a goal and figured out how to get there. Doesn't think, that there is any kind of limits or limitations to what I could do. And so just kind of, you know, learned as much as I could and believed I could do it and made it happen.
[00:05:12] Ended up going to a university that cost more than what my parents made in terms of tuition. Wow. So, wow. 
[00:05:19] Blake: And. And then you went and started your own business. Yeah. like another big goal. Yeah. What, the kind brought you to that point? What was that season of life like for you whenever you were like, oh my gosh, I think we're gonna?
[00:05:33] We're gonna go for it. Mm-hmm 
[00:05:34] Amanda: do this. So my, yeah, my husband, Brandon came up with the idea first and I was like, Nope, not doing it. Don't even think about it. But over time it started realizing the potential there. And I'll never forget the day that I was like, okay, we're doing this entrepreneurial thing.
[00:05:51] It was, I went, I was a grant writer at this nonprofit and I was taking the. The funders to go see within an under-resourced neighborhood in Chicago, what their money was doing in that neighborhood. And I arrive in my little, you know, suit and, you know, I'm, I'm there with the big wigs and we're looking around and I'm like, I'm on the wrong side.
[00:06:11] I need to be in this community, you know, booth on the ground, creating social change with these people, not arranging for some, somebody with resources to give them money and tell them what to do. And that's when I realized that I'm in the wrong role. And when I looked in that community, I saw the folks doing the most social change.
[00:06:32] There were the mom-and-pop small business owners. And then I started thinking, what kind of business would we start? And we love coffee. We had, you know, spent a lot of time in coffee shops. We thought, well, every coffee, you know, every community needs a third place, a place to rally around. And that's often the coffee shops historically it's been there.
[00:06:53] So we started writing a business plan of how we create. Business, that's doing good in the community, but also thinking about the sourcing and where things are coming from so that it's making a global impact at the same time, never looked back. So, 
[00:07:09] Blake: so cool. And I, I love what you touched on because I've Al I always been thinking like, how do we make the world a little bit better?
[00:07:18] And I feel like it always starts. Our immediate network and then absolutely going outward, you know, and, and impacting the people closest to us. It seems like at least the. The way that I can envision making a positive change. And it sounds like you did exactly that with, or that was sort of where your head was at whenever you were starting the coffee shop.
[00:07:37] Amanda: Yeah. And over time we found a great way, to think about that. That's a great visual And it actually, part partly was inspired by Martin Luther King, Jr. He said in justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. And we're like, what if we do the inverse of that? What if we say justice or positive things happening anywhere could result in positive things happening everywhere?
[00:08:01] And that starts with that image. There is a fountain at the top of the fountains. You. And the more positive things you experience can overflow into positive things for your friends, your family, your immediate surroundings, the more positive things you have can overflow to your neighborhood, your, you know, and then from there to your city, your state, your country.
[00:08:22] Yeah. And eventually to the whole world, but guess what? Things happening positively around the world, feedback up to you and make your life better, and to realize we're all part of this interconnected system. But it starts at the, you know, with us at the top of each of our fountains and we all interconnect it's, it's a fun way to think about it that I think shows us the impact of the decisions we.
[00:08:44] Daily. Absolutely, 
[00:08:46] Blake: Absolutely. Our output, you know, it does matter. And it's something that I, I love that idea. I'm gonna, I have that, like, I'm like etching it into my brain so I can remember it right now. , that's good. So tell me, you know, how are you all feeling? What was the preparation for getting ready, to pull off something like that?
[00:09:09] You know cuz I know a lot of our audience is in a similar boat where they. Oh, my gosh. Like I wanna make an impact somewhere and I wanna get started in some way. I don't know how to save money or I don't know how to do this or that, whatever it takes to, like, what was it like for you all? 
[00:09:24] Amanda: Yeah, so I I'd have to take you back.
[00:09:26] I was 25 then I think somewhere around in there and wow. Such a young star, still had student debt didn't have any assets to my name, you know, nothing. Yeah. Didn't even own a car. Right. We lived in a city, so we took public transit everywhere and it, that was big. The barrier at first was we thought we were never gonna be able to do this.
[00:09:47] How are we gonna get, you know, first the knowledge that we need, but then, especially the money? And there was that. You know, 25-year-old idealism in me as well. That's like, well, we'll figure it out, you know? Yeah. If, if we're meant to do this, we'll figure it out. And so we just started sharing the story, sharing the dream with people.
[00:10:07] We started bootstrapping, I connected with a coffee roaster. I take an empty suitcase on the L and pick up a bunch of bags of coffee and take them. Friends and family that wanted to buy coffee and support us and get help us get going. Mm-hmm we, we started, you know, just figuring it out, sharing as much as possible, and there would be these connections, these little, you know, things that would happen that would open up doors that we didn't even know existed.
[00:10:34] One of those examples. A mentor of mine told me she had met someone who wanted to start a coffee shop in the same neighborhood that we wanted to be in. And at first, I was like, well, I don't wanna meet them. They could be our competitor mm-hmm but then I thought, no, that's very limiting this.
[00:10:49] There could be multiple this and neighborhood big enough for all of us. And so I said, Hey, would you introduce me? Would love to hear what he's thinking about. If he's, you know, what locations just networking. And he ended up not wanting to start a coffee shop, but wanting to see one started. And he introduced me to someone who knew a location and that location was more of this partnership atmosphere where we didn't have to do everything ourselves.
[00:11:16] We could partner with other people. Not, you know, like they were gonna be redoing the floors in the ceilings. We could just pay for some upgrades to make it more our brand and more suitable for a coffee shop. Yeah. And that saved us a ton of money by partnering that way. And it was like that kind of doors opening and connections happening because we didn't know any better.
[00:11:37] And we kept just sharing the story and seeing what would, what would happen as more and more people learned about the vision and decided how they wanted to come alongside whether. Buying a bag of coffee or partnering with us to help us redo a building so that we could open thereat, at a lower cost.
[00:11:55] Yeah. 
[00:11:56] Blake: I, I think it's so amazing how powerful it is whenever you are driven by an outcome a little bit different than just making some money. Yeah. Do you know? Yeah. Because I think that bleeds through, into every conversation and people can get a real sense. You know how open-minded you are and, and what your you know, what your objective is with what you're trying to, trying to do and all kinds of really neat things happen.
[00:12:22] That's no, that's an amazing example, of that happening. Yeah. How would you say that your philosophy around taking risks has changed? Then versus now I always mm-hmm. , I'd be curious about that too. 
[00:12:34] Amanda: Yeah. So this is where we have to fast forward two years after we'd opened the coffee shop, we had put countless hours, you know, working for just the tips and the tip jar.
[00:12:46] We, we made it happen. And that's when we realized just how on the edge financially. We were just how much risk. Yeah. We had taken and. We thankfully met a financial planner. His name is marked who helped walk us back from that edge, build some nice foundations into our lives and into our business to make sure that we could make the world a better place, you know, achieve this vision of global and local impact, but not file bankruptcy in the process or, you know, kind of the mantra at that point became.
[00:13:24] We, won't solve poverty nearly as well from the edge of poverty ourselves. Absolutely. And so we started taking those small steps and building true foundational wealth that could not, we might not ever be rich, but we for sure would never be poor. And having that kind of mentality has driven us. Far, it helped us sell that business when we were starting our family, which we never thought we would do when we were first starting.
[00:13:51] But it made sense when we got to that point, which we can get into that if you want. And it's driven us into the new business that we're in now, we're, that's exactly what we're doing for other business owners. And entrepreneurs are creating that foundation that they know they can launch into riskier things from, without it being as risky as if they didn't have that foundation.
[00:14:12] Blake: Yeah, no, that's so essential. So what were the steps where you're like, oh my gosh? We gotta, like what, what was the realization moment? And then like, yeah, I guess what's, I I'd love to hear about that. Come to Jesus moment, so to speak you 
[00:14:28] Amanda: know. So, it was we were hosting these documentary screenings.
[00:14:33] Not everybody cares as much about coffee. Maybe they care about human trafficking or, you know, something else. And so we were doing some documentary screenings to just support another type of work and. We met this guy, mark, who he was like, I'd love to show a documentary about money because money drives so much of what happens in the world for so many people.
[00:14:52] And we're like, yeah, sure. Why not? We didn't know what he did or, you know, anything like that. We're just like, yeah, sounds good. We need a documentary to fill July of 2013 was the month. And you know, so I, we introduced the documentary. It's. It goes, I've never seen it before. So I'm in the audience watching it along with everybody else.
[00:15:10] And Mark's gonna lead a discussion afterward. And when the credits were rolling on that documentary, I was furious that I had never been told these things before I thought I knew about money. I'd started a business. I managed our budget. We had, you know, we were slowly paying off our debt.
[00:15:25] Like all the things. You know, I had my big Susie Orman book that I referred to anytime I needed to make a financial decision and I was super furious. And so I forced him to sit down with us and break down the concepts from this documentary and how we could implement them. And better improve our lives.
[00:15:43] the first step was honestly making our savings work smarter. We'd always kept a little bit of an emergency fund, but it, you know, this was 2013 interest rates were crazy low, like a little bit lower than they are now as the feds starting to interest raise interest rates. But also anytime we used it, we tapped into the emergency fund.
[00:16:04] We lost even that little bit of growth and you know, all those kinds of things. So that's the first thing we did was make our savings work smarter. And we actually, stopped paying action or student debt. We instead put it into savings into this savings vehicle. And within two and a half years, we're able to pay off our student debt.
[00:16:21] This balance that slowly had ticked down for wow. You know, the 10 years were now gone. Yeah. Right. And. It was amazing. And that was like, okay, we, we got this. Now we made that huge step two and a half years to pay off debt. Now let's go after some bigger dreams. Let's, you know, think about franchising. Let's think about starting a different business, expanding our revenue sources, all those kinds of things became possible.
[00:16:47] Now that we had this foundation and we'd seen success with that foundation. 
[00:16:52] Blake: Oh my goodness. That's, that's pretty amazing. And I think that's just such a crucial thing that I'm. Why is this not something that people are just like, I know it's everybody says this, but like, we should be taught this in schools?
[00:17:05] Right. And you know, everything, right? Like yeah. The fact that you could, you know, pay off incredible amounts of debt or, you know, even go into school with a game plan right out the gate of understanding how you're gonna get outta that debt. If people knew the same knowledge that, that you did. Mm-hmm cause I mean, PE some people might be paying that.
[00:17:25] 20 years or 30 years or the rest of their life, you know? Yeah. Yeah. 
[00:17:29] Amanda: Yeah. Although there, I do have this hesitation. If this were taught in schools, I'd know we'd be taught by whoever. Like we'd be taught the principals that whoever is the most money to decide those principals would decide that's what we're gonna be taught.
[00:17:42] And so I'd much rather have it passed down from parents to their kids. That's the principals that have worked for them. But the thing is, is that a lot of parents don't even know yet they're in their forties and fifties and they haven't ever sought out financial literacy and beyond. So. 
[00:18:00] Blake: All this is pretty like tied into what you do now.
[00:18:03] Right? This is exactly what you're sharing with everybody. 
[00:18:06] Amanda: Exactly. Yeah. We, we sold that business. And when we thought what's next, we can't go back and work in a cubicle we're unemployable now. No, one's gonna hire us. What do we do? Yeah. And we thought about how that story with money had changed and how much we had learned.
[00:18:22] And we're like, we gotta start sharing this with other folks. So actually took a mark on us as a mentor and he taught us how to do what he did. For other people and we became bank on yourself professionals a little while later, we became profit first professionals because we were working with so many business owners and the cash flow of their business was so important.
[00:18:41] And that's what profit first is really about making your cash flow work for you. And for the business at the same time. And it's been such a joy to see businesses, not only survive the pandemic but get even better. right. Yeah. And, you know, per like actually that. March of 2020, we had just moved from Chicago to Cincinnati.
[00:19:05] our moving van arrived on Friday, March 13th, when everything was shutting down and I spent the next week calling clients, making videos for clients talking about, okay, this is exactly why we built a foundation. Here's what you need to, here's what you can use it for. If you need, you know, when your hours are being cut or your revenue's being lost.
[00:19:26] and it was a beautiful thing. And I, I know I'm gonna look back 20, 30 years from now and know like that's, when I knew that this wasn't just real, for me, it was real for, you know, so many of the people that I work with and it was the, you know, the case in point the proving of the why I do all of this and I'm super excited.
[00:19:47] I hope there's never a pandemic. I hope we never go through that kind of trial again. Sure, sure. But knowing that I'm helping people make sure they can withstand. Whatever personally might happen, cuz we all know we're gonna have, you know, life happens. Absolutely. We all know personally we're gonna enter times like that and to have that kind of foundation that we can know is there for us.
[00:20:09] It's some of the most rewarding work. It helps people be more generous, helps them give more to their nonprofits, tithe, you know, the full 10%, whatever they wanna be doing. And so I know I'm an, like live into their passion, fulfill their purpose. It's all that world-changing work that comes right back to it too.
[00:20:26] Blake: Wow. That's, that's so neat. Imagine looking 20, 30 years from now, and also being like, oh my gosh, that, that business is doing well, you know? Yep. And, knowing you had a hand in that that would be extremely fulfilling. I would imagine. So. You know, I would, I, I would imagine that you probably built up a, a little, you know, you started networking from your previous business, but what was the transition into doing what you do now?
[00:20:51] Like in terms of just getting out there and. Meeting people and getting that ball 
[00:20:56] Amanda: rolling. Yeah. And it, there was a lot of, you know relational equity that we had from the previous business that gave us a big boost. We didn't, we didn't sell it for that much. We sold it to a nonprofit.
[00:21:09] We, we didn't as we got back some of what we spent to get the business started. We didn't have a lot of funding to get going. So, but we had a ton of relational equity and that's really what we had focused on, cuz this was a community coffee shop. We built community. Sure. There are people there'd be people that would come to buy coffee?
[00:21:26] Cuz they wanted a conversation, not a cup of coffee. And so we leveraged that and that helped us. But then also about four months in, we had a little one and we took a little maternity leave and we had to start back up from there. Kind of lost some of the early momentum, but it was also. Super rewarding to be able to build a business and build a little one at the same time.
[00:21:52] You know, absolutely at work at home, a different way to live life and be a, an entrepreneur than what it was like starting the coffee shop. Right. As a family, You know, I was, I'd be working and breastfeeding at the same time, you know, stuff like that. 
[00:22:06] Yeah. 
[00:22:07] Blake: yeah. You're like, you're like, I'm no, that's that, that would be really that, that would be cool though.
[00:22:13] You know, getting to, to see like, oh, this is like a new chapter of life and figuring out how everything works and I don't just, it'd just be such a good, a good, a good new challenge for your, for your brain and exciting to add that to your story. Yeah. Yeah. Something. I was also kind of wondering about, so obviously it's, you know, doing this is not, is not easy.
[00:22:36] So I, I just wanna know, like, just generally your mindset about like, how do you guys stay so motivated? Cuz you, you ran a, you ran a coffee shop, you sold it, you had a child. And then while having a child, you also are running. Three different things in tandem, like going kind of nonstop. Like what do you, yeah.
[00:22:57] What, how do you do that? 
[00:22:59] Amanda: well, I'll be the first to acknowledge I hi, my name is Amanda. I'm a workaholic, a little bit of that. It's hard for me not to work. My, so my, my dad was part of the greatest generation or the silent generation. I call them. He grew up during the depression. We are in Appalachia.
[00:23:15] So we, we, he had the work ethic. He passed it down to me. I've not known what it was like, to be busy doing something. Yeah. It's hard for me to relax. So I'll put that out there first. And, but then also I have that optimism. My mom's a boomer. She was the one that, you know, everybody gets a trophy, you know, for the kids and taught me, you know, you can do whatever you put your mind to.
[00:23:39] And so I got that kind of combination. Inherited. Yeah, set me up and then add on to that, you know, finding a life partner that was as motivated as I was. I hope you get to meet Brandon one day. Hi, a quick story about him. When he was 18, he signed up for the Marine Corps just to prove that he could do it.
[00:24:00] Everyone. He had been sick as a kid, no one thought physically he would ever be able to, you know, do much. He had to like being taught. Walk and talk at like four or five years old. And so to like challenged himself to go after the Marine Corps. So maybe that's what attracted me to him was that drive that I recognized in myself too.
[00:24:17] So very fortunate there that I've had this team member along the way as well. And then really it's also seeing. those hints of where, Hey, this did make a difference. Hey, this person's life is different. You know, that I just figured out a couple of days ago. So I'm a, I'm about to turn 38 here next week.
[00:24:40] And when I look back to 
[00:24:42] Blake: congratulations, thank you. I, my birthday was Monday. Okay. So we're both 
[00:24:46] Amanda: in the same season here. Nice. Okay. When I looked back at those early years of the coffee shop and I was looking at what, what was my income than when I was living on a dollar, $2 tip tips in the tip jar.
[00:24:56] Yeah. I realized that this year I will tie the more than my total income back then. Oh, my gosh. Like how amazing is that in 13 years to see that kind of transformation? And I know the next 30 years I, the sky's limit still, right? My best years are still ahead of me. Absolutely. 
[00:25:21] Blake: Well, that would be extremely motivating.
[00:25:23] That's cool that you're able, to keep track of that. And, and think of that way. I found that breaking down micro goals and, and looking at things a little more creatively is really. Helpful. The ways that you can pay back yourself is it's like, you know, it is, it is those moments of realizing like, oh my gosh, I can give more than I could.
[00:25:43] You know, however many years ago, it's also like maybe I have the capacity. When I hear business owners saying they haven't taken a vacation in five years. I'm like, you know, maybe it's giving yourself the capacity. Take a, take a vacation too, or something like that. Yeah. So that's, that's super, super cool.
[00:26:01] So doing all of this. Has your family and your friends and everybody always kind of supported you as, as you've done something that's pretty unconventional, 
[00:26:10] Amanda: you know? No, we've had the naysayers and, you know, those that thought we were bananas to go after this and some that still do cuz I mean, honestly I've $0 in the stock market right now.
[00:26:21] And that's a choice that I've made very weird for a financial professional to say that especially like to the public on a podcast, most people would think. I'm bananas. I've lost my mind, but it aligns with my values, aligns with who I am and that's exactly what I want for all my clients to, do, to make sure they're clear like you mentioned those goals, they know where they're going.
[00:26:45] They've set their sites on their future that they won and that they're creating both tomorrow. A thousand tomorrows from now and 10,000 tomorrows from now. And then let's make sure that everything aligns with that, that they get the vacation, that the money's aligned all those things. Absolutely. And as long as folks are doing that, I don't think anybody's bananas.
[00:27:05] And so I've like permitted myself to do that, despite the naysayers, despite what others would say. And I wanna give every other person the ability to do that too. I 
[00:27:17] Blake: love your approach because. I, I think that everybody's looking for somebody else's set of rules and even listening to a podcast. I mean, you were talking about how what's the most profitable job in the world and you know, it's, it's bankers and me, I, I guess, I guess what I'm getting at is like the rules that are set in stone aren't necessarily what is the best thing for like yourself and what you get out of life?
[00:27:46] It seems like that's something that you all prioritize a lot 
[00:27:49] Amanda: over there. Yeah. Especially cuz a lot of those rules are from the 1980s and we accept them as if they've been true since the Dawn of time. And what we love, to do is bust some of those events. That's part of why our podcast is called the wealth wisdom financial podcast.
[00:28:07] Cuz then we can say, you know, what's the hundreds, thousands of year old wisdom. How have people been building wealth? Generations upon generations and it surprises a lot of people that they've never, that's the exact kind of thing that we were never told either. Yeah. When we first watched that documentary, that's the kind of thing that we're sharing and spreading information about.
[00:28:29] Yeah. What 
[00:28:29] Blake: are some other examples of some conventional wisdom that you've been like since you've dived in that you've been like, well, I think I might challenge that a little 
[00:28:36] bit. 
[00:28:37] Amanda: Yeah. Oh, there are so many that are coming to mind from recent episodes, or I'll give you a sneak peek. And the next episode that's about to come out.
[00:28:43] I'm not, Ooh, it might already be out by the time this like is public and airs. Awesome. But we're talking about adaptability and accessibility and so many people chase after a rate of return. If they are gonna get, you know, eight, 10, 12%, doesn't matter. They're gonna go after it where there are other values.
[00:29:02] We might want to consider how important they are to us and how we might prioritize those. So we go, we use the example of Charles Darwin. A lot of people, when they hear that name, they think exactly like survival, the fittest, you know, the strongest, the best that that's, who survives when his whole thing was it's those that can adapt are the ones that survive.
[00:29:27] And if we're chasing after a rate of return, we might not be able to adapt. and, and we can't, you know we can't adjust. So to use this in a business example, we're just going after what's the most profitable business, how can we make the most money? And then something like a pandemic hits, we might not switch to making PPE or hand sanitizer, you know, that kind of thing.
[00:29:51] Cause we've been chasing after this other thing, we're becoming so much efficient that we can't adapt. Same with, if we're putting all our money in the stock market. When the stock market goes down, we can adapt. We have to wait till it recovers before we can sell and not have killed a big loss, you know that kind of thing I just don't think is talked about enough.
[00:30:10] And yeah, so that's part of why we talk about it. You know, how can we make sure that we keep flexibility and adaptability within our financial strategies? No, and I think 
[00:30:21] Blake: that's essential. I mean, even, I think it's kind of like a commonly held business idea that. If demand isn't there, you probably should take a moment to pivot.
[00:30:34] But that applies to more than just your approach to what you're providing for a customer, 
[00:30:38] Amanda: right? Yeah. Yep. And also the pursuit of efficiency is how we often get to a rate of return. We're gonna produce exactly the amount of products we know we can sell not more, not less, but then if we've become so efficient, we can't adapt when circumstances change nearly as quickly as if we have a little bit of space, a little bit of margin.
[00:31:00] Blake: So. I love that by the way. But whenever you're thinking, cuz we've talked about, you know, running a business ethically and, and also managing your money ethically. And obviously, there are a lot of different lines for how that might work for somebody, but I'd love to hear. Yeah. And, and from what you've been doing, what are some of the ways that you feel that a business can?
[00:31:24] Start inching towards operating more ethically. Yeah. Based on some of the 
[00:31:28] Amanda: research that you've found. Yeah. The number one place to start is with your employees, including yourself, and making sure we're giving fair, not wages, not just a livable wage, but a wage that allows folks to live a good life to pursue their goals and passions.
[00:31:46] And that. Us as the owners, but also all of our staff, cuz it's member, we're starting with ourselves and then our immediate right. The employees. And then from there, you can think all kinds of things about sourcing, who you use to run your payroll, you know, all the different vendors. You can look at each one and say, do I believe in this company, do I believe in where these products are coming from?
[00:32:07] How much transparency is here? and that's great. And then the third thing I would add is, you know how we, how we. Use the money that flows through our hands. Yeah, sure. Support the local P you know, PTA your kids', you know, school support your faith organization, stuff like that, but also think about where you're storing your money, the bank.
[00:32:30] That has your checking and savings account, where what you're using for retirement savings. It's not just about how we give, but also about how we save and invest and who we owe money, who we're in debt. We have to think about those spheres of the flow of money as well. Yeah, 
[00:32:49] Blake: that makes, that makes a lot of sense, because I think that is something that is often overlooked is you.
[00:32:56] Hey, who, who are the people that are holding all of our money and our, you know, and there, you know, our future in their hands essentially. And what are they doing with that? Because, yeah, I, I remember like it was multi a long time ago. Whenever I ran into the epiphany I was like, wait a second.
[00:33:15] So all of my money that's in the bank can just be used to do like anything. That's so crazy. And that was something that I remember realizing a long time ago, that shifted my whole perspective on things, you know? Mm. 
[00:33:29] Amanda: It's not even 
[00:33:30] Blake: in the bank. No, it's just like a fake number. It's pretty, pretty wild.
[00:33:35] Mm-hmm too pretty wild to think about. You know, I, I just, I, I think it, that what you're doing is, is, you know, really, really great. What's been some of the kind of initial impacts that you've seen the podcast start making. Now that you've. Vocalizing some of these things and creating an audience. 
[00:33:50] Amanda: Yeah.
[00:33:50] And actually, so one of my good friends is an executive director of a nonprofit. And we did a podcast episode about ESG investing or impact investing where you're thinking about, you know, the companies that you invest in and the good they're doing in the world. And you try to, you know, buy stocks in those kind of companies and stuff.
[00:34:09] And we. Bust that open, break it apart. Is it really working those kind of things. And it was really super fun to hear her share that she took that podcast episode, shared it with this little group of other activists that she's a part of, and they had a whole discussion about it and it was super eyeopening to them.
[00:34:27] Now these are activists. I thought, well, there'd be nothing new here that I would've shared. And yet it was something that was. Unique and interesting enough that they needed to discuss it and say like, how does this hit us? What's different here from what we've understood before? And when they had already been thinking about impact investing and how they, you know, decide where to invest their dollars, it was something new.
[00:34:50] And I don't know that was the recent story. I don't know exactly what's gonna come from that, but that awareness. If you've been in the nonprofit sector, you know, it's all about awareness, awareness, awareness, awareness, you gotta spread the word, make sure more people know about it. That's really what the podcast helps us do.
[00:35:05] But then also changing that awareness into action. Cause if we just get aware, we never take action. We get jaded. When we turn it into action is when we start to see the optimism and the hope that we can make a difference. And so the, we invite people every show to, to reach out to us, to schedule an, an intro, see how we might work together.
[00:35:27] And sometimes we'll work together. Sometimes we don't, but we always try to leave them toward a better path than if we had, they had never met us. I, 
[00:35:38] Blake: yeah, I, I think that's great. Planting the seed is obviously great, but if you can't be there to water it. Yeah. So to speak, like, you know, nothing, nothing might, might ever come to fruition.
[00:35:51] So that's a that's that would be really exciting to me to get to see that. And I can see how that would be something that I you know, I, I, I think even with doing this podcast, I experience a little bit of that too. Mm-hmm where I've had people reach out to me and. Hey, you know, you shared a little bit of something that really, really, you know, stood out to me or the guests that I meet.
[00:36:10] It's just really exciting how just being naturally curious and sharing that with others can, can develop into 
[00:36:16] Amanda: something like that. Yeah. You never know what door's gonna open from the air, what path that's gonna lead you down the connection, the next connection, or those kind of things. 
[00:36:24] Blake: Yeah. Yeah, totally.
[00:36:27] So, what are, you know, some of the basics that you think people need to know about for finding financial freedom? 
[00:36:35] Amanda: Yeah, the Mo the biggest thing that I see is that people kind of overcomplicate it. They pick up the strategy here, they listen to that piece of advice. There, they end up with a totally chaotic.
[00:36:52] Financial portfolio. They don't remember why they have this thing or that thing. I, I liken it to a bucket of rocks. They're just carrying around spending money here, investing money there, you know, all these things. And what I really love to encourage people is that it doesn't have to be that complicated.
[00:37:09] And to picture. You know, how throughout history in all civilizations around the world, people have put rocks on top of rocks. It's called a corn, right. And you have a big rock at the bottom and you kind of stack it up. Maybe you have a bigger rock yeah. Over on top of the smaller rock, but you have, you start with a foundation that it could really be that simple.
[00:37:28] You could have four or five rocks. Four or five financial products that are your whole financial world, way less to complicate and think about sure. You'll diversify within those rocks. They won't all be, you know, gold. Some of them might have a little bit of, you know, other mat materials in them, stuff like that.
[00:37:46] Yeah, but it, that we really can simplify it and it starts with the foundation. And so many are building their financial portfolios upside down. They're taking way more risk than they realize. And so I love to. Come and kind of open our, our minds to, well, do we have to take that much risk? The world tells us we have to the financial advisors out there tell us we have to, but do we really need to?
[00:38:12] And what would it look like if we had a foundation to build on top of, from there such another, 
[00:38:19] Blake: Another good way to look at it because I feel. The bucket of rocks analogy is something that I can definitely imagine. I hear people who have a little bit of something everywhere. Yeah. And they probably forget about a lot of it, you know, mm-hmm too, which is kind of funny.
[00:38:34] So yeah, doing that would be. I mean, I like, gosh, that would be so much, so much more simple. So I know our audience is gonna get a lot of, out of getting to hear about that. Another thing I was kind of curious about before we were chatting, was, are there any myths that you hear about money management that you think would be good for anybody to know just for the record or are either not true or maybe could be dispelled 
[00:38:56] Amanda: a little bit?
[00:38:57] Oh, there are so many of them. So I know shoot, right? Oh,
[00:39:05] Let's I, so I'm talking to people that are not they're planning on not being dependent on a W2, they're building a business, they got a side hustle, something like that. And I think they've woken up to a lot of those myths that you can depend on your employer. You can depend on your 401k. So maybe the biggest one I would jump into is.
[00:39:29] That investing is saving. And when people talk about their savings in their 401k or their Roth IRA or their saving in their brokerage account, That investing and savings is different than investing. That's something that you know, the people that would have been our grandparents, the greatest generation, they talked about that all the time that you have your savings, you save and your saving money that you cannot afford to lose, and you only invest money you can afford to lose.
[00:40:02] And we've kind of flip-flopped that back in 1952, I read this the other day. Only like 5.4% of Americans invest in the stock market today. It's over 50%. Wow. Wow. And yet people think that the only way you can build wealth is in the stock market. Yet, like our grandparents, they had some, they built some wealth, and they lived good lives.
[00:40:26] They made great choices. They might not have done it perfectly. We can, you know, build on top of that, you know, stand on their shoulders, so to speak. But there's a lot we can learn about how they live their lives, simply sustainably how they saved first and then invested in things like that. 
[00:40:46] Blake: Yeah. I think that's.
[00:40:48] cool. The way that you have studied previous generations and some of the trends that have happened around them even at the beginning of the podcast, you mentioned studying the past so that you can prepare for the future. Yep. And gosh, I can't remember who was saying this, but I was, I was reading that a true historian, or like the way that this person defines a historian, isn't somebody that only looks at the past, but also studies the future.
[00:41:14] And you. Considers what's gonna happen. So it seems like, yeah, you you've, you've everything you've been saying has kind of added or in my mind has shown that you, you do a little bit of that. And yeah, it's given me some great things, to think about. Great. It's cool.
[00:41:29] Cool. 
[00:41:30] Amanda: Yeah. Here's a little tidbit for you. Do you know when our dollar was created? No. When what's your guess? I don't mean to put you on the spot. 
[00:41:40] Blake: No, no I, no, I'm happy to be put on the spot. Let me think. 18. I'm not gonna Google it either. I wanna say on the 18. 
[00:41:48] Amanda: Fifties. Okay. Yeah, it was, it was after the civil war.
[00:41:51] Well, after the civil war in the late 18 hundreds before then we used the Spanish dollar and you, it was this coin, right? You had to carry a lot of it yeah. To different place to place. And so few cities states they'd have their currency. Even like a bank would have its bank notes, which would wow.
[00:42:09] Be the form of cash. And it wasn't until the late 18 hundreds when we decided to create our currency, but, in the constitution, the government's not allowed to create it. It says that the constitution says that we can, the government can mint coins, but it doesn't mention printing money.
[00:42:29] So the constitutional purists said, well if you wanna create bank notes, you can't do that federal government. You gotta figure out something else to do. And so they authorized the creation of the federal reserve bank, which is not a part of our us government. And it's not a bank either, but that's who could create our currency.
[00:42:47] Blake: Wow. That's pretty amazing. 
[00:42:50] Amanda: And it it's like pulling a dollar out of your wallet. You'll see. It says right there at the top federal reserve note, mm-hmm, it's just like the bank notes that would've been from a small, you know, bank. I can go to the museum here in Cincinnati and I can see the Cincinnati bank notes there from back in the day.
[00:43:08] And it's the same thing just on a national. 
[00:43:12] Blake: Oh my gosh that I, yeah, I had no idea. That's so, so 
[00:43:16] Amanda: interesting. Yeah. But transforms how you think about money. 
[00:43:20] Blake: Absolutely. No, absolutely. Cause it's so like yeah, it's, it's just like, I'm sociology made major, you know? So I'm always looking at things like, oh yeah.
[00:43:30] That's just another example of something that. Fabricated by society. Yeah. You know, and, it's funny how we just operate under these like, rules that we've just spurred up. Mm-hmm not even that long ago. Yep. So pretty 
[00:43:45] Amanda: fascinating. So much good stuff I could go on and on. 
[00:43:49] Blake: Absolutely. No, that's so cool. That's so cool.
[00:43:52] So. In wrapping up towards the end of this, I always like to ask the same two questions. One, what is the favorite part of what you do, and then two, are there, is there anything that you tell somebody curious about becoming? An entrepreneur 
[00:44:08] Amanda: like you. Yeah. These are gonna tie together for me.
[00:44:12] I ended up studying psychology in college. I went to liberal arts school, but I loved social sciences. I chose psychology cuz of the few requirements I could take all the soci sociology and social science classes that I wanted. And that love of people has driven everything that I do.
[00:44:29] And I just love getting to know people. Meeting with them starting to build a relationship and then walking through that relationship for years. You know, some of my first clients we've been meeting every six months for four and a half years now. And just to see that, you know, the trajectory of their lives and know I'm gonna be here for the next 20 or 30 years is I'm just so much looking forward to it.
[00:44:50] And hopefully beyond right. Building relationships, absolutely going deep with people. And at least every six months, sometimes we talk more often and it's more of like a friendship kind of thing, not just talking about yeah. How their portfolio's doing or whatnot. And that's exactly what I love to tell entrepreneurs.
[00:45:05] One of the best of a piece of advice is a piece of pieces of advice that I was given is to never do anything alone, as much as possible include someone else. Even if you're just going to pick up supplies at the store, have somebody in the passenger seat of the car, or, you know, figure out a way to, if.
[00:45:22] Making brochures. You gotta fold a bunch of pieces of vapor, sit there and have a conversation with someone while you're doing it. Or, you know, be part of masterminds built. That's really about the relational network, more than anything else. And so pour into that, keep that in a place of priority and it'll take you way further than it could go if you're a just student by yourself.
[00:45:44] So 
[00:45:44] Blake: powerful. I you know, I, I, sometimes I feel. The biggest meaning of life in general, which is I'm not gonna be like, tell you, I'm thinking about the meaning of life on this podcast or anything like that right now. Everybody has their own, but at the end of the day, it's all about people and relationships and that's you know, I, I, I love to hear that.
[00:46:05] That's what drives you and, and what you do. So, yeah, totally agree with that advice. That's some, amazing insights and yeah, you've given incredible insights throughout the entire podcast. I thank you for your time on this. It was an absolute pleasure to meet you, Amanda. 
[00:46:20] Amanda: Great to meet you too, Blake.
[00:46:21] I hope we get to build a relationship from here and do more and more 
[00:46:25] Blake: together. Absolutely. Absolutely. So where can everybody find you and look for all of your things? 
[00:46:30] Amanda: at? Yeah. And so if you loved the insights and the bits of wisdom that we shared here, all you gotta do is look wherever you listen to podcasts, or if you love watching YouTube look for wealth, wisdom, and finances, and you'll find us.
[00:46:42] And then our main website is grandma's wealth, wisdom.com. That's where we invite you to reach out to us, schedule an intro call, and see if we're a good fit to work together. And if we wanna build a relationship that helps you break through to a smart, stable, financial future. Wonderful. 
[00:46:59] Blake: Well, thank you again, Amanda and everybody.
[00:47:02] This has been the G.E.M series. I hope you have a wonderful day. Bye.
[00:47:11] Thank you for joining us on this episode of the G.E.M series, the podcast for anybody dedicated to investing in themselves. If you'd like to see the resources mentioned in this episode, learn more about what we are up to at a rocket level, or come over and join our team. Just click on the links below until next time.
[00:47:27] This is Blake Chapman, and remember to be awesome and do awesome things.