A hearty welcome to Grandma’s Wealth Wisdom with your hospitable hosts, Brandon and Amanda Neely. This is the only podcast for strategies to grow your wealth simply and sustainably, like grandma used to. Without further ado here are your hosts.
Amanda: Hi, I'm Amanda. Welcome to Grandma's Wealth Wisdom, where we help you break through to a smart, stable financial future with the tried and true wisdom grandma used.
Brandon: Hey, and I'm Brandon and I just wanted to say Happy Holidays. It is the holiday season in 2019. If you're listening to this in the summer time, then hope you had a great holiday. If you're listening to this real time, then hope you have a great Christmas and New Year. I am super excited for today's episode. We titled it Too Many Cooks, in which we share the biggest lessons we have learned about money from running a business. [0:01:10.0]
But before we get into the number one lesson, I want to tell you guys about some really awesome stuff that I think is awesome, at least for us and for how we're serving our clients and all that stuff. So we developed a new website at Grandma's Wealth Wisdom. So if you go to Grandma's Wealth Wisdom, I'm pretty proud of it. I think Amanda's pretty proud of it. I think it looks…
Amanda: Oh, yeah.
Brandon: … looks awesome. We have an amazing developer. Got a copywriter to help us and get the stuff in our head into clear clarity and we also created a top tips, Grandma's Top Tips…
Amanda: It's Grandma's Top Tips for An Independent Financial Future. That's the full title.
Brandon: There you go. Her top tips for an independent financial future. And this is where we or she gives you the best advice on how to get to the best financial future, at least in her opinion and it's in an easy to read or view pdf - easy and scannable and all that fun stuff. [0:02:15.7]
So anyway, that was that little commercial. Check it out. Let us know what you think of the website. Send us a little message. Tell us if you hate it. Tell us if you love it. Love to hear.
Amanda: Yeah. So today's episode is Too Many Cooks. Obviously, with the holiday season, whether you just celebrated Thanksgiving or you're looking toward a holiday that's coming up, often around this time, way too many people from your family or friends gather in your kitchen when they're supposed to not be in your kitchen because you're trying to prepare the meal that they're about to eat and it can get really crazy. But if you are more of an independent cook and you get to cook on your own, maybe you get things done more effectively and efficiently, the meal happens more quickly or maybe you kind of enjoy the chaos that happens when you have friends and family over and they all crowd in your kitchen. [0:03:06.9]
I hope that you have some fun like that. I'm more of an independent cook. I want people to stay out of the kitchen unless I ask them to help me, but that's not what we're really talking about today with this episode, "Too Many Cooks." We're actually going to be sharing the #1 biggest, best lesson that we have learned from running a business and that's actually related to this idea of too many cooks. So as we start talking about it, have that picture in your head of like if you're in the kitchen, like what happens with your money. Right? If it.. as a metaphor.
Brandon: Yeah, I think it's a great visual
Amanda: In fact…
Brandon: It's a great visual.
Amanda: Yeah. But before we get to that, we want to just kind of give you a heads-up that in the past few episodes, if you've been tracking with us, we have actually already shared some of the biggest lessons we learned from running a business and you can go back and listen to those, to listen to like the other lessons. Right? And then we'll get to the number one in today's episode. [0:04:01.7]
Brandon: And Episode 41, Fountain Of Wealth, we talked about The Overflow Principle. This is a principle that we came up with through our business. It was actually the name of our business, Overflow Coffee Bar, and we talk about how you have to make sure good things are happening for you and those close to you in order to help make positive things happen in your community and throughout the world. That starts with you first. We discussed how you have to take care of your personal self, you know, your health, your finances - all that stuff personally and by doing that, your future is going to be taken care of as well in order to make even a bigger impact that you want in the world. By taking care of your present self, it's going to help further along and if you're taken care of personally, it's going to flow into the other things. But if you get stopped up, things don’t happen. Right? So that was Episode 41. [0:05:05.4]
Amanda: Yep. And then in Episode 42, Actions Speak Louder, we talked about the importance of taking action. You know, throughout our entrepreneurial journey, we saw so many people who want to be entrepreneurs, but never get out of the information gathering and business planning stages. We saw so many of them that we actually started calling them "Wantrepreneurs" instead of entrepreneurs…
Brandon: Yeah, there's a lot of wantrepreneurs out there…
Amanda: Right. So we discussed in that episode how you have to act in order to really change your financial future. That was Episode 42.
Brandon: In other episodes, we have talked about the importance of paying yourself first and that's a big one, too. So I'm not sure what episode we talked about that through. You are just going to have to listen to all of them.
Amanda: Multiple episodes - yeah.
Brandon: Listen to all of them and then find those, but it's there somewhere. So go back and listen to every episode or relisten to those episodes for more of those great tips, but that's beside the point. [0:06:04.0]
Amanda: Yeah and today, we're going to be talking about the number one lesson we learned from running a business and here it is. Without further ado. Drum roll please. Everyone has a plan for your money. I'll say that again.
Brandon: What??
Amanda: Everyone has a plan for your money. Brandon, tell us how this lesson came about.
Brandon: Yeah. When we started our business, I mean, we, you know, you have an idea of where you want to go and we were selling coffee. Now, I want to just give you a list of some of the people, just a small list, of some of the people who had plans for the money flowing through our hands. So we were the business owners. We were starting the business. We had an idea of where we wanted to go, but everyone else had a plan or a resolution for us and they wanted a piece of the action. [0:07:03.0]
So we had vendors - so coffee roasters, every couple of weeks we'd have a new coffee roaster come in to pitch us their coffee brand - bakeries, I did like that when people would come and pitch us bakery items, I would always ask for samples and entertain that just for a few minutes to get free baked goods - paper products and supplies. Here's the thing about supplies - prices could change without notice or without us even realizing it. I mean, they could also change different prices - they could charge different prices to different coffee shops in the area based off of what we were buying and all that fun stuff. That was just interesting. Learned a lot in that.
Amanda: It wasn’t just potential vendors. It was our actual vendors. They were always coming to us with different things that we could do with our money - new products we could buy from them. [0:08:01.7]
We could increase products that we buy and then of course they would change the prices without notice and if we weren’t paying attention, we could totally miss it. So vendors are a big one. You might… that's one that's easy to picture. There's also credit card processors and almost every transaction that we did was a credit card transaction and those processors would take their cut off the top, even for like what someone would pay in sales taxes, we had to pay credit card processing on the sales tax that we were collecting too.
Brandon: Banks make a lot of money off of every business and then they get a bail out later, which is still weird to me, but…
Amanda: Brandon, we don’t need to get into that. Stay focused.
Brandon: Anyway… yeah, lots of transaction fees. And then, we live in the city of Chicago, great, great city but oh my gosh - there was so many things that we had to do. We had sales tax, licensing, permits and they charge the same permit fees no matter if you're a multinational chain or a mom and pop shop. I mean, outdoor seating, just the fee for that alone - if I sold alcohol for that outdoor seating permit, would be the same charge as a little café. So that was interesting. [0:09:17.5]
Amanda: Yep.
Brandon: So, City of Chicago.
Amanda: Brandon can talk about the City of Chicago and all their fees and things a lot but I'll go to the next one. Employees. You know, of course, yes employees have to be paid. They should be paid fairly. We were happy to do that, but it also seemed that employees were always having ideas for "improvements that we should make," and it seemed like all of the ideas that they have would cost a lot of money and we'd have to field those and they always had a plan for the money that was going through our hands to make "improvements." And of course, employees are not the only people wanting to make "improvements."
Brandon: Yeah. Of course, you have customers. Right. Customers are the lifeblood of a business, but they always had ideas or a list of ideas of demands or would simply be wasteful. You know, like those customers that would use 100 packs of sugar and I would ask … one of them, I actually asked, "Do you really need that much sugar in your coffee?" And he said, "No, but I like it," and then he changed his habits a little bit, which is…[0:10:25.0]
Amanda: Yeah, and Brandon even got to the point where he created a jar - if you've ever heard of like a swear jar, you know like that someone might create to get people to stop swearing in their workplace or something - Brandon created a you know what you should do jar so that anytime someone said those word, "You know what you should do," he tried to say, "You want to give me money to make that happen? Put a dollar in the jar or a quarter or whatever it is." And he actually got like a couple of bucks in the jar over time with people that were like, "You know what? You're right. That idea I just told you would cost money. I'll give you some money to help do that idea." And of course, a dollar is not going to go very far for some big grand idea, but they were like, "You're right, like if I'm telling you what you should do, I should be willing to help you to do it in some way, shape or form." So employees, customers - they were always telling us, "You know what you should do?" And of course, that thing would cost money. [0:11:17.4]
Brandon: And then I think - this is a big one - sales people who would stop in all the time or call us like a lot, we would get calls every 20, 30 minutes I felt like that they would call us on the phone or stop by to give us their latest marketing idea or equipment or whatever thing that they wanted us to do that's going to solve our big problem. They're going to solve the problem and so there's always sales people trying to get us to do something.
Amanda: Right. To buy from them. Yep. And so when it was all said and done, after all those things, you know, we paid our vendors. The credit card processors got their cut. The City of Chicago got their cut, our employees and customers were making all their demands, we would you know filter out the sales people…when it was all said and done, of course, the Internal Revenue Service took their cut too, and we had to pay taxes on whatever profit that we made. [0:12:16.3]
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Brandon: So, what this all boiled down to was that we needed goals and things we wanted our money to do for us. Once we had those down, it was easier to say "no" to all the other demands and "yes" to only a select few that were aligned with our goals and strategies for our money. So we knew what to say "no" to, which was a lot more, and we said "yes" to things too, but we just knew that it would fit. [0:13:21.3]
Amanda: Yeah, and of course, some demands are required. You know, we still have to get licenses. We had to get certain permits. We aren’t going to avoid the credit card processing fees. We still have to pay our taxes. You know, those kind of things, but we could determine our own path for the rest and that path we could determine, we would make sure was good for us, was good for the business, was good for the business' most loyal customers and was going to get us to where we wanted to go as a business and that was one of the most critical things that we did is review that path, set our goals and the things we wanted our money to do for us and for the business, and then act accordingly. Like go down that path and not say "yes" to any diverging paths that we could have gone down without a lot of careful, careful thought. [0:14:09.9]
Brandon: So, the question then is how do you apply this to your personal financial story and honestly, this is super easy. You might have noticed already some of the people who have plans for your money and as we were listing off this, our list in the business, there's similar people that are there. You have banks. You have credit card companies. You have advertisers. You have grocery stores, friends, and the good old Internal Revenue Service. They all have plans for your money, not to mention, I mean tons more.
Amanda: Yeah, especially if you have kids, you know this all too well. You know, our son, he's only 19 months old right now, but already, when we go to the store, he's trying to grab for things off the shelves and in fact, Brandon's strategy is you give him one toy to play with in the whole trip and then you put it back before we leave and say it will be there for him next time. Right? [0:15:06.4]
Brandon: Yep.
Amanda: But I totally dread the day when my son starts saying the words, "Mom, can I have $5?"
Brandon: Or more.
Amanda: Kids will definitely have plans for your money.
Brandon: And the truth is, if you don’t have a plan for your money, someone else does and lots of people do. Right? And they'll do everything they can to get your money from you. They'll do everything they can to get their money from you. We just went through Black Friday. Of course, there are a lot of plans for your money.
Amanda: Right. And Cyber Monday. You know, just imagine if you gave money to everyone who asked you for it, you know, with the amount of ads that the average person sees in a day, especially during the holiday season, all of your hard-earned cash might be gone just by watching a little TV, you know, and seeing the commercials or driving down the interstate and seeing all the billboards. But let's just say we take ads out of the picture. Forget all the advertisers that want to get your money. There's still lots of demands on your money. Some demands are pretty much required. Right? [0:16:10.9]
Brandon: Yeah. I mean, you have your mortgage and your rent. I mean, we all have to eat, so groceries is important. We like to have the lights on, so electric is important. You know, we got to get to work, so traveling, however we get there; we have to pay for it. And of course, the taxes. We have to pay those things. And then, some demands, though, are optional. Right? What are those optional demands, Amanda?
Amanda: Yeah. So, going out with friends on the weekend, doing some fun activities with your kids, traveling, you know summer vacation, you know going to Disney World or whatever people do, charitable giving. That is optional. Holiday presents - those are absolutely optional. Even your 401K match at work - that's optional. I mean, there's so many optional things that are out there and what this all boils down to is deciding what you want your money to do for you. [0:17:08.4]
You have to take a good hard look at your priorities and shift your wallet so that it aligns with your priorities, and then when new things come up, you can say "no" to what does not align and "yes" to what does. Having that kind of clarity makes it a lot easier to say "no" and to say "yes" when it matters.
Brandon: Now, we can't emphasize enough how much realizing that everyone has a plan for our money has shaped our journey. I mean, we kind of went into this thinking, oh we, you know, we have a decent plan, but then, we learned over time that again, this really shaped us and learning that everyone has a plan. It allowed us to give ourselves permission to prioritize what really mattered to us. Then, we had permission to save and spend accordingly. Now, my question to you is what if you gave yourself similar permissions? What if you could give yourself permission to decide what's important to you and you spend money there, and how might life change as you make those decisions and build those permissions in? [0:18:25.8]
Amanda: Yeah. So if you need to, we give you permission, right, you just have to give yourself permission to do that, and here's a small experiment to try - just if you want to test this out, dip your toes in the water, see how it feels, maybe pick one optional demand that someone else has on your money and decide to say "no." Maybe this weekend you choose not to go to the bar with your friends or maybe you decide holiday presents are optional or maybe they have to fit within a certain budget. You know, you say to your family, we're only going to spend, you know, this much per person, you know, and everybody's going to do that. [0:19:02.1]
Whatever it is, pick one thing and just say "no." Say, "I'm choosing to not let someone else control my money in this way, so I'm just not going to spend my money that way," and then just see how it feels like. We're not asking you to shift that money and spend it on something else. Just don’t spend the money. That's like the one, you know, small experiment to try. Just say "No, I'm not going to do what this person is asking me to do" or these people are asking me to do or I'm going to, you know, make it more aligned with my priorities in this way, shape or form. So.
Brandon: And if you decide you want to plunge headfirst into creating your own financial journey, rather than going on someone else's adventure, we're here to help. So, go to GrandmasWealthWisdom.com and schedule a call with us. We'd love to help you out there.
Amanda: Yeah. We actually have an exercise, a fun, you know, series of questions that we can ask you that will help you discover what you want your money to do for you and then find tools that match up, that can help you do that. So please, go to GrandmasWealthWisdom.com. Request a complimentary consultation. [0:20:10.0]
We'd love to talk that through with you, and then of course, be sure to subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss the next episode and I'm really super excited about it. We're closing out the year with this episode and we're going to reveal how the work we do actually gives women an advantage and why that's actually particularly important to me, as a woman, as a financial professional that I get to help women in a more advantageous way. So that's your teaser for the next episode. Go hit "subscribe" so you don’t miss it.
Brandon: And while you're hitting the "subscribe" button, please leave a review for us, a rating and review. It really means a lot to us that we get those and all that stuff really adds up. So, here's a recent one from Liv and she says…[0:21:00.8]
Amanda: It's actually Leev, Brandon, Leev.
Brandon: Leev. She said, the title is "learned so much. Really enjoying learning from Grandma via Amanda and Brandon. The episodes on different ways to pay for healthcare was especially helpful this week and I look forward to working one-on-one with Amanda. Thanks for the great content."
Amanda: Yeah. Thanks, Leev, for that great review. Thanks, again, to Keith for his work on our website. Be sure to check that out. And thanks to Natalie and her team for their help with the new Grandma's Top Tips For An Independent Financial Future. We have got lots to be thankful for as we're wrapping up the year here. Be sure to join us next time and until next time, keep building your wealth simply and sustainably so you can break through to a smart, stable financial future.
The topics presented in this podcast are the general information only and not for the purposes of providing legal, accounting, or investment advice. On such matters place consult a professional who knows your specific situation.
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