A hearty welcome to “Grandma’s Wealth Wisdom” with your neighborly hosts, Brandon and Amanda Neely. This is the only podcast that helps you take charge of your cash flow and leverage your assets, simply and sustainably, the way Grandma used to.
Brandon: Hey, I'm Brandon and 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.
Amanda: And, hey, I'm Amanda, and this is Episode No. 56 titled “Leverage Unrealized Assets.” If you've been following Grandma's Wealth Wisdom for a while, you know we've got two big ideas: manage cash flow and leverage assets.
We have talked a lot on this podcast about managing cash flow. Today we thought we should focus a little bit on leveraging assets and that whole side of things. So, we're going to be including both business and personal asset examples since there are powerful examples of unrealized assets for us as individuals and for businesses as well. [01:11.4]
Brandon: For the sake of time, we'll only be using examples from a few unrealized assets, but there are a lot more than what we're just going to use in our small examples. For example, you could leverage assets like your email list, your brand, your website, your processes and so forth. There's a ton.
Amanda: Yeah, and building your assets in a lot of different areas like Brandon was just mentioning can have a very direct impact on your monetary wealth as well. But we're getting ahead of ourselves a little there. We're talking about that.
Brandon: If you don't feel you have any assets, Pete, please keep listening. You might be surprised by what we include as NASA.
Amanda: Which is actually where we want to start today. Brandon, please share more about what is an asset that we could leverage. [02:05.8]
Brandon: The first premise for today's conversation about leveraging unrealized assets is this. Assets are not just monetary or physical. There are assets for your business. You won't find it on a balance sheet or on your shelves of inventory. There are assets in your life you won't find on a statement of net worth.
Amanda: So, I got a little nerdy and I pulled out the dictionary, actually the online dictionary, but still, and I looked up the definition of wealth and it says, quote, “an abundance of valuable possessions or money,” end quote. I was totally disappointed by that definition. So, I went to the other place that we do research, the Googles, and I found a pretty cool thing actually.
The United Nations, their own definition of wealth that I think was getting a little closer to Grandma's idea of wealth and what we think about when we're mentioning Grandma's wealth wisdom. [03:09.5]
The United nation defines “inclusive wealth” as what they call it and they define it as “a monetary measure which includes the sum of natural, human, and physical assets.” So, they've got natural assets, natural capital like land, forest, energy, resources and minerals. They have human assets like a population’s education and skills. And then they have physical or manufactured assets like machinery, buildings and infrastructure.
But we think, and maybe we're being a little full of ourselves here, but we think there needs to be a way more even inclusive definition of wealth, particularly on the human capital side. So, we came up with the Grandma's Wealth Wisdom definition of wealth and we're really excited about this. Here's what the Grandma's Wealth Wisdom definition of wealth is. [04:05.7]
Brandon: Drumroll, please.
Amanda: Quote, “the ability and opportunity to live life to its fullest,” end quote.
Brandon: Let's say that again and ponder it for a second or two. Wealth is the ability and opportunity to live life to its fullest.
Amanda: Yeah, so we want to hear from you as you contemplate that and think about it, wealth being the ability and opportunity to live life to its fullest. Let us know how that strikes you, what you think about it, what you'd add to it, things that.
Brandon: Email us. Text us. I'd love to hear.
Amanda: Yeah. One thing I love when you dig into this definition of wealth is that when we start to define wealth in this way, we start to realize that we can actually become more wealthy as we give others the opportunity to live their lives to the fullest as well. And as we go through the examples today, you're going to see what that actually looks like. [05:05.3]
Brandon: Let's start with some business examples of unrealized assets and how to leverage them. First, customers.
Customers can be pretty big unrealized assets in a lot of ways beyond just the money they pay for your goods and services that you are providing to them. For example, Steve P., he was one of our best and most frequent customers when we owned the café. We actually had a name for him. We called him Nutella Steve, because he loved our Nutella mochas, and years after we've closed, since we stepped away from that business, not closed the business, sold it, we still remember his order, a small skim Nutella mocha and he had it almost three to five times a week. [06:03.4]
Amanda: Along with a chocolate croissant.
Brandon: We called him Nutella Steve because of that, and we learned that he worked for a commercial restaurant equipment and manufacturing business as an engineer. He knew how all the equipment in our business worked. So, we had a couple problems. The refrigerator broke down. And instead of paying a repairman a huge amount to service our equipment, Steve was more than happy to take a look and tell us how to fix it and the parts to order, and then he actually fixed it for us.
We'd fix the equipment and give him his Nutella mocha for that day for free. He actually didn't want the Nutella mocha, but I felt like, Man, he just fixed our fridge that was 500 bucks at least for the cost. He fixed it. I'm going to give them a Nutella mocha for this. [07:02.9]
And he did this not just on one piece of equipment, but he did it on multiple times. We loved using his skills. I mean, he loved. I loved using his skills, too, but he loved using his skills to help us and the Nutella mocha was just an added bonus. Right, Amanda?
Amanda: Yeah, he was a great guy. We would offer to actually pay him real money, all this stuff, and he was like, No, no, no, I get so much joy out of doing this. Thank you for letting me help you in this way.
Brandon: So, if you have customers and your customers have skills that they love to use, there's no doubt about that. The trick is that they want to use them, right? And you might have a use for them. The trick is learning what skills your customers have, so that you can brainstorm creative ways to give them the opportunity to use those skills. This helps them live fuller lives and helps you leverage an unrealized asset for your business. [08:08.2]
Amanda: The second unrealized asset that can be very powerful for your business is your team. Yes, they work for you. You pay them for their time. But their potential for your business can go way beyond them just fulfilling their basic job description.
For example, we had a barista, David, and David thought that maybe in the future he would become a coffee shop owner himself one day, and he was also a college student that needed an internship toward his business degree. So, we were able to set up through that internship program and give him a business management type internship that he got a larger sneak peek of how we managed our business, and was able to help us with a critical pricing update and an inventory management system that we continued to use through the life of that business, and that he could also replicate and use if and when he starts his own place. And he got a college credit for it all at the same time. That was a great way that we were able to leverage his way of living life to the fullest to help our business as well. [09:18.4]
If you have a team, your team has the ways they want to learn and grow, and they also have unique super powers that can be leveraged to help grow your business and help them live their life to the full through being employed by you and being able to go beyond just what's on their job description.
When you realize this unrealized asset, you can give them outlets to share their unique abilities, and resources to grow those and make them even bigger super powers for them. And you benefit; they benefit; it's a win-win all around.
Brandon: That was a huge win for us because that took a lot of time to build that whole thing, and he got to do it and learn stuff, and our prices got better. [10:06.3]
Grandma always said, “Eat your vegetables. Look both ways before crossing the road. And never risk your financial future on elements of the market you can’t control.” That Grandma, always good for some tried-and-true advice. And although some of her wisdom seems to have skipped a generation, you don't have to be left behind.
Download “Grandma's Top Tips for an Independent Financial Future” absolutely free, when you visit Grandma’sWealthWisdom.com. Don't wait. Get Grandma's best tips today.
Brandon: The third and final business example we want to share today is you. You are your greatest asset. Yet so many business owners aren't leveraging their full potential because of so many other factors. It's often when the business owners starts to prioritize leveraging their greatest skills in their business that their business can really soar and give them the most life again, when they leverage their own unique superpowers. [11:15.0]
What happens when a business owner prioritizes their best skills is that they gain more enjoyment from the business. When they enjoy their business more, they are healthier and happier. Then when business gets hard, and trust me, it does get hard sooner or later, they are able to leverage that health and happiness alongside their unique skills to bring the business through hardship. We've seen this happen time and time again, and lead to some of the best pivots that make the business sustainable for the.
We'll leave you with this question on the topic: what would it look to leverage my own assets better? How could I spend more of my time and energy with my unique skills? [12:07.6]
Amanda: Those are some really powerful questions to ask and to keep searching for the answers for, but for now we'll move on to some personal examples of unrealized assets.
First, one of my favorites is your network. You've probably heard that cliché, your network is your net worth. Your network, all of the people you know or acquainted with, it's often an underutilized asset.
Now, I want you to pay close attention here. If your mind just drifted off and you're focused on something else, come back one. I want to be very clear. Not everyone in your network is going to be a direct asset for you and you can make them feel used if you look at them as simply assets to help you live life to the full. The real power of a network as an asset is in leveraging them for the benefit of others in your network. [13:01.1]
For example, when I'm building personal connections, I'm almost exclusively looking out for ways that are opportunities to connect people I know with other people I know, so that they can help each other. Just this week I participated in a really awesome virtual networking event with 80+ other women by Zoom. It was beautiful, glorious, one of the best groups of women that I've ever been a part of.
And in my notes I have the ladies’ names and a little bit about what they do to refresh my memory, and as I'm listening to them describe, I'll write next to their name, someone that I could connect them with that I know that could be interested in what they are going to do or know people that would be interested in what they do.
And it's really fun to see what happens when I actually do that follow-up and introduce people to one another. I've heard about some really great doors opening up for people this way in both their personal and their professional lives. Can you imagine if we were all leveraging our network asset in this way? That could be really pretty powerful. [14:07.9]
Brandon: Another unrealized personal asset is your team of close friends and family, also known as your tribe. These are the top people in your life that you can't imagine life without. So often we take these people for granted. It's actually times like a worldwide pandemic that reminds us how critical a tribe is.
Some people in our personal tribe have been dramatically impacted by the virus. One of our friends or our people in our tribe, her mom was in the ICU for days. Another person's relative passed away. Others are furloughed or unemployed. We've been fortunate to be able to be there for them, even with just a text message and a prayer during this time. [15:05.4]
To really leverage your tribe as an asset requires a commitment to regular communication. Yes, you'll be there for each other when things get hard, but couldn't you be there for each other better if you were staying in touch between the hard times? How often are we asking our tribe, What does living life to the full look for you right now? How can I support you in living life more fully? Can you imagine if we were all leveraging our tribes this way? That could change the world.
Amanda: Finally, our third personal example of an unrealized asset is you. I mean without you, your life doesn't even exist. Of course, right? But, really, if you want to live life to its fullest, we need to be our own biggest champions for giving ourselves the opportunity and finding ways to increase our ability to live our lives to the fullest. [16:11.6]
And we don't have to make it too overly complicated. We could simply say living life to the fullest right now means that I need to figure out a way to start a gym habit or I need to make sure that I'm always learning, or I want to find new ways to recharge when I'm feeling stretched and thin, and want to make sure that I'm always having a recharging thing in my life in order to live my life to the fullest, and so on and so forth.
So, I'll just ask you this question by way of this leveraging yourself as a personal asset: what would it look like for you to be your biggest champion for living life to its fullest?
Brandon: As we wrap up today, we want to share where the most powerful part of this comes in. As you seek to build true wealth and seek out ways to have more and more ability and opportunity to live life to its fullest, you'll start to be inspired to align your monetary and physical assets with how you uniquely define living life to its fullest. [17:19.5]
Don't leave money out of the definition of wealth. Instead, allow your monetary wealth to follow the lead of your true wealth, your fullest life. If you really take the time to define and pursue life to the full, you'll likely realize that material things matter less than most actually care to admit. Yeah, you’ll also realize what you want your material things, including your valuable possessions and money to do for you in order to live life, the best life you can.
Amanda: Yeah, so for me, what this looks is that in order to live my life to the fullest, I don't need to put makeup on my face. That's just something that I've chosen is not a value for me. [18:06.4]
Maybe as I get older and more wrinkly, I'll change my mind, but for now I believe that I need to take care of my skin, right? It's part of who I am. It's a physical asset, but it's also a part of how I present myself to other people and stuff. So, I'm willing to spend extra money to get vegan skincare products that protect my face, help me feel confident and good, and are good for the planet and support someone in my tribe, so that she can live her best life. That's the one small way that I align my monetary wealth with living my life to the full.
Brandon: And for me, I don't need to drink beer a lot, but I'm willing to spend extra money to get beer brewed blocks from my house to support a local business. And that's also supporting my community and it saves oil used for shipping beer from faraway places. That's one small way I align my monetary wealth with living my life too this full. [19:09.6]
Amanda: So, what about you? What would it look to align your monetary wealth with your unrealized assets and leverage both of them to live life to its fullest and give others the opportunity to do the same?
Brandon: So, next time we're going to dig into that more in the next episode. Next, we're turning towards the monetary and giving you tangible ideas for leveraging your monetary assets to build wealth that aligns with your values and helps you obtain financial freedom to live life to its absolute fullest.
Hit subscribe, so you don't miss more on defining wealth beyond the physical and living your fullest life possible.
Amanda: Until next time, keep building your wealth simply and sustainably so you can break through to a smart, stable financial future. [20:05.9]
The topics presented in this podcast are for general information only and not for the purposes of providing legal, accounting or investment advice. On such matters, please consult a professional who knows your specific situation.
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