Win at the Money Game for Entrepreneurs with Brandon Neely

In this episode, I talk to Brandon Neely on:
✨  How he started his entrepreneurial journey
✨  Advice for newbie entrepreneurs
✨ Why it is important for you to focus on your financial journey
✨ How to use his signature 'STILL Method' framework to evaluate your financial standing
✨ How to use the Infinite Banking Concept

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About our guest:

Brandon Neely is a serial entrepreneur, Profit First and Bank On Yourself Professional, and the co-host of Wealth Wisdom Financial Podcast with his wife and business partner Amanda.

He and Amanda founded and managed Overflow Coffee Bar, L3C from 2008 through 2018. They learned a lot of what to do and NOT to do through that experience.  They have since sold that business.  Now, as financial allies, they share their experiential knowledge through podcasting and developing personalized financial strategies for individuals and profitability strategies for businesses.  They continue to help clients implement the Profit First system as well as How to Use Infinite Banking/Bank On Yourself  framework  to grow their businesses and future.


Links for Brandon Neely:

FB - https://www.facebook.com/Grandmaswealthwisdom/
IG - https://www.instagram.com/gmswealthwisdom/
YT - https://www.youtube.com/c/GrandmasWealthWisdom/
LI - https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandon-neely/

Transcript

Prithvi Madhukar: 0:02

What's up everyone? Welcome back to the marketing Nomad show. It's your favourite marketer, podcast hosts. My name is Prit. Today with me I have a very special guest Brandon Neely a little bit about him before we start talking to him today. Brandon Neely is a serial entrepreneur Profit First and bank on yourself professional and the co host of wealth wisdom financial podcast with his wife and business partner, Amanda, he and Amanda founded and manage overflow coffee bar L three C from 2008. Through 2018, they learned a lot of what to do and not to do through that experience. They have since sold that business. Now as Fenn financial allies, they share their experiential knowledge through podcasting, and developing personalised financial strategies for individuals and profitability strategies for businesses. They continue to help clients implement the Profit First system, which is something that we're gonna get into in this podcast episode, as well as the how to use in finite banking slash banking on yourself framework, which is also another thing that we're gonna get into in this podcast episode to grow their businesses and future. Brandon, how are we doing today?

Brandon Neely: 1:17

Oh, I'm doing good. It was a mouthful, right? And that was only I didn't put in my military background or music. Oh, wow, you're on there. So I could add that, but I'm not gonna do

Prithvi Madhukar: 1:31

that. Amazing. How did you go from a military background and music to the entrepreneur that you are today?

Brandon Neely: 1:40

Yeah, I was just talking to somebody about this today, I wanted to make a difference in the world. They pretty much told me in the before, when I was a kid, that I wouldn't be able to do health wise, I wouldn't be able to join the service, right? So of course me. I'm like, Well, you can't tell me what I can join. I joined the Marine Corps, I wish I would have joined a different service, like the Air Force or something. But I joined that, because I wanted to, you know, I didn't know what I was doing, actually, when I was a young kid. So did that got out because, you know, the military wasn't for me. After several years, I learned that. And I went into the music industry, because I still wanted to change the world still want to make a difference, because I believe both of those careers were making a difference. And so I was in the music industry, saw and met some of the biggest celebrities and saw and experienced some of the biggest scandals that I will not talk about on here. But I but I know that there's some things that I've seen that have been in the news that are true. And so that was interesting. Got out of that, because he's still wanting to change the world still wanted to make a difference. And a couple years later, we and my wife and I met and ended up saying, well, let's let's start a coffee shop. Right? And the reason we started a coffee shop is because coffee is the second most widely traded commodity in the world. Americans, the number one consumer get the poorest countries are often coffee growing countries. So how do we make a difference? How do we help people and so buy what you buy, actually makes impact. So so we started that, so all about ethical economics community building. But the problem was, is we were not not taking care of ourselves in the process, there was a lot of issues and things that happened. Where, you know, I almost had a heart attack, you know, in that because of just the stress and the no money going in. Because you know, when you are an entrepreneur and business owner, people will tell you, Oh, you love it. That's why you do it. And you're like, yes, but I still like to eat, and I don't like to eat ramen every day. That's actually not healthy to eat ramen, at least American ramen that in the packs, you know, with all the sodium. I'm a big fan of ramen. But that's a different style. So anyway, learned that some of the stuff not to do, we were also expecting a child had a flood in the business as well, that I was able to overcome. And we're like, Man, I cannot not have a child in this environment. It's just not going to work. It's actually illegal to have the baby behind the bar. So we sold the business because, you know, life is changing. We were caretakers of my mother in law at the time. And we got to have a newborn and we just couldn't take the sacrifices We were for the 10 years. So we sold it, we created an amazing business that could be sold.

Prithvi Madhukar: 5:07

That is amazing. And I think that I truly believe that entrepreneurs, we all of us combined, there are certain behavioural patterns that overlap. And that is why we are the way we are. And the fact that you said, when someone told you, you can join the military, and you said, Well, why not? I'm going to do it. I think that's such an entrepreneur thing to say, why not? That's such an instinct for us. And I absolutely love that. And I think it shows even through your entrepreneurial journey. So how did you go from selling your coffee business to where you are today? Today? You are a financial coach? How did how did that happen?

Brandon Neely: 5:48

Yeah. And I will say, in the music industry, how I did not have any background in the music industry. But I was like, how do you how do you get into that industry? And and so I looked in the white pages and called somebody and they said, well, intern, I was like, alright, well, I'll do that. So I did. And so So I got into this one, because because the financial tools that we created and used was what helped us overcome the obstacles because we had a flood in our business, literally, like, like the roof was off, and then that rained and flooded the business. And we had these tools that were able to overcome that transition thing that happened. They call it like a black swan event, right? Something that happens outside of your, what you were expecting. And we all have those. Rather it's a Coronavirus, crisis, economic crisis, or, you know, mother in law having a stroke, right? Those things happen. But we wanted to set up our foundation. And we did to be able to overcome the obstacles regardless of what happens. And I think that in our world right now, most people have built their financial pyramids upside down, right, they're risking more than they can afford. Right? And they're told to, right, and it's been in that position for a long time, and they have not built stability. And and that's, again, why we were using we call this thing at infinite banking policies. That was our investment in ourselves savings vehicle that we could leverage and use. But it was building a foundation, right? And so I tell people, a build a foundation. And that's kind of why I got into this is because I see too many horror stories, too many people going into business or entrepreneurship and the success rate isn't that high. Right? It is there's a lot of I would call blood on the streets when it comes to this. And you don't We don't even see it. And I'm like, Yeah, and it's hard. You know, I mean, you run a business. It's not easy.

Prithvi Madhukar: 8:08

It's not easy at all. And in fact, this is actually something that I touch upon in my upcoming book. And that is, especially during the initial stages of the entrepreneurial journey, it's hard, because the return on investment that you do put in is not really shown immediately to you, the return on investment is much, much later. So it's like you're putting all of this energy, you're putting all of this hard work, but you can't really see the return on investment, it's really hard to keep going during the initial stages. And of course, even the money monetary investment, the money that you put in, it doesn't really come back to you until a certain threshold point. And people give up before they reach that threshold point. That's a very common phenomenon that happens. And I mean, I don't quote me on this stat. But I did read somewhere, I'm not sure where it was. But they said that 95% of entrepreneurial journeys, they actually fail, and only 5% Make it. And that's such a big stat. That's, that's horrible. You know, I think that we need more of people succeeding in their entrepreneurial journey if we want to advance as a world and

Brandon Neely: 9:17

when it takes time, right? So my business is four years old, right? And my child is four years old. And so when you have a baby, right, you have to do a lot of stuff that you don't want to do, like wipe, wipe their butts, make them eat, no sleepless nights. I don't know if you have a kid or anything, but but at some level, it's very similar. And then they grow up and if you've dealt into that, and there's a lot of love involved in that, right. And so, I call my first business that the first child, right, that we had to learn and and do and then matures until you have a staff or a team. Right. And a lot of times people think that they're gonna get to a 10 year old business without going through the efforts of a one year old business, right? It's a very different thing. And you do not have the staff or the budget or anything to overcome that sometimes.

Prithvi Madhukar: 10:26

Absolutely. There's a lot of restrictions or limitations, resources that you have access to resources that you do not have access to, especially during the beginning stages where you're, I mean, yes, if you have financial backing is a whole different story. But we're talking about people who do not have financial backing or who have limited financial resources to begin with. And I guess that brings me to one of my question, and that is, especially when we're starting the entrepreneurial journey, it's very important to focus on the finance aspect of it. But I do want from an expert, I do want to understand why should we focus so much on our financial journey, as well as the entrepreneurial journey?

Brandon Neely: 11:09

Yeah, I think that it's very key to everything. You know, you could say I'm good at marketing, but if you don't know your numbers, that's, that's really important. I've had business owners say, I don't know, I don't know my numbers. I don't like numbers. I'm like, Well, you better get okay. Yeah, yes. When it comes to metrics and in marketing, right, you should know the numbers, right? When it comes to your finances, you should know your numbers. And what this is what's interesting, right? Now, we will want to return on investment, when we invest in Uber, or something like that. But yet, we don't want that or we feel slimy if we take a profit distribution, right. And I think that, and this was part of our problem is we were last to get paid, right? And I'm not saying that you pay yourself a lot. And some investors, they go in and they use seed funding and all this other stuff that I think is not necessarily a profitable business, it's just running a business on life support, dialysis, kind of Yes. And there's a lot of that, right. And some people who are super rich and saying, I'm gonna get rich relative to help me, I didn't have a rich relative to help. We did all kinds of things. And then the interesting thing in the US anyway, it's really funny that you can get money to go to college, great in a lot of loans to go to college. But as a business owner, you can't, it's really hard. And I'm like, Really, this is this is weird. This is not make sense. But that's the way it works. They're looking at risks. And so you have to figure out how do you begin with the end in mind, right? How do I build that? And having a system in place where you're making sure you're not feeding the beast of the business that's never going to help pay you or help you?

Prithvi Madhukar: 13:16

Absolutely. That's definitely one thing that I've learned in the last three years as well. I mean, despite having an MBA with a degree in marketing, I think that I too, struggled understanding the financial aspect of a business because what you study in your academy is there's a natural gap between what you study and what is actually happening in the business world, you know, there are different factors that you need to take into picture and all of those things. And you for me, it was tough to understand. So where can people start when to understand their finances? What are some of the tips that you can give my audience?

Brandon Neely: 13:55

Yeah, I think, again, it's academia versus the real world is very different. I mean, I've had people who are like, MBAs coming and giving me tips, and I'm like, Dude, I need I don't have that money to do what you're saying. Right? Absolutely. And I think that you have to start with where you're at, right? Yeah. And, and really look and say, okay, and there's three things that I tell every business owner that you want to know that you know that you know that you're called to this because it's going to be hard, right? You will have you know, when you start a business, you think your grandma and your mother and everybody else, all your friends are gonna love it. Most of the time, they don't even care. And so you need to know that, you know, know how to sell or build into that. Have a team, right that's not related to you that care about you versus just the business right? What do you To dues. And then my third thing is know your numbers, those three things are going to help you. And because there will be times that is super hard. So have a team know your numbers? And know that you know they are called. Because don't just do it because it sounds cool. Go get a job then or something I don't know. Right. And so is that that I answer your question? I don't? Like?

Prithvi Madhukar: 15:31

Absolutely. No. I mean, my question was, you know, how do people where do people start when it comes to? And you absolutely nailed it, you need to have a purpose, that is absolutely essential, because there are going to be more days than one where you're going to be asking yourself, Why am I doing what I'm doing? And you really need to have an answer at that point, because this is hard. And as much as there's so much hype, and you know, fascination with the entrepreneurial world, there is a sense of passion and mission that drives each one of us to get to the end point of whatever our mission is, and our mission, and I'm sure yours is almost the same as well. It's a higher purpose. Other than, you know, yes, we have our own financial, personal financial goals to achieve, but there is a mission beyond us. So that's, that's what the entrepreneurial journey is about. And I really loved that you touched upon that, because that is very important, especially for

Brandon Neely: 16:25

supporting supporting other small businesses. Because I feel like in our world, we say it with our words, but our dollars don't match our words. We said, well, I would support this until I need to go buy something on Amazon, and then I'm gonna go, you know, and I'm like, well, they can afford a lot more to buy 1000s of things in bulk and the entrepreneur, business owner can't right. So how do you support it and support other business owners? If you're one realise that? How are you empathetic on the other side of things?

Prithvi Madhukar: 17:04

I think that's beautiful advice. That's absolutely beautiful advice. And I, I definitely am very intentional, like ever since I became a business owner, I've been very intentional about choosing small businesses, highlighting them in my reels. You know, whenever I talk about any product, making sure that they get the exposure, I don't earn anything out of it. But it's just my way of giving back to the community. And I think that's a really important thing. And I guess, I think it's time for us to get into a little bit about the systems that you have created for your clients. And I would love to get to know it. And I know that it will help my listeners as well. So let's first talk about the Profit First system, what is it about? And how can we implement it for our business?

Brandon Neely: 17:47

Yeah, so I go back to a story whenever I was having a coffee shop, and I met with a lawyer, and he's like, you know, we said how awesome we are. We've paid off our debt, we've done this and he said, How much are you paying yourself? I was like, well, that doesn't matter. Let's not deal with that. And, and, you know, seriously, because if you're gonna sell a business, you need to make sure you're paying yourself fairly. And and we were not great. And so we didn't realise that we were starting to implement this profit first system, meaning you as you run a business and the Profit First framework is a really awesome framework. And I recommend everybody get the book by Mike McCalla wits on profit first. And what he says is, profit comes first. Right? If you run a business, and if you if you invest in the stock market or another things, we want to return on investment, right. But yeah, we don't want one in our own business and our own efforts, right. So we should have that and making sure you pay yourself first. Right? So and there's two camps in the entrepreneur world, I think there's the ones that overpaid themselves. And then there's the ones that don't pay themselves. Right. And so your numbers are, my numbers are going to tell me what my salary is going to be, rather than me telling me what my salaries gonna be. And if I'm running a good profitable business, what they call it target allocation percentages. 5% is profit. 50% is owners pay 30% is up X operational expense. 15% goes to taxes. I don't know what your taxes are there, but our taxes are high here. So building in the right system, so I make sure that I'm gonna I'm just a pass through entity on taxes, so I gotta make sure I pay for it. And so thinking through that, and my buckets, almost like the envelope system, is that and I will know, hey, I'm running a profitable Business instead of up x is 80%. Right? And it's a cash eating monster that we don't really look at and say, Well, how do I make it that 30? Or 20? Or whatever? Does that make sense?

Prithvi Madhukar: 20:14

Yes, absolutely. It does make sense. And I definitely agree with us. Because when I first started out, I wasn't paying myself. It didn't even occur to me to teach myself, to be very honest with you, as much as I was saving for my business. I was not paying myself. And it was only in my second year that I started saying, No, I gotta put my foot down, I've got to start paying myself to and then keeping a certain percentage of whatever I've made for that year or that month, or however it goes. Because for me as a digital entrepreneur, each month varies very drastically. So for me, it was more so not the percentage of the year, but percentage of what I earned that month. So it absolutely makes sense. I think it's very important that we need to learn that our needs matter, too. And we need to start putting in that that, I guess, put in that percentage for ourselves.

Brandon Neely: 21:06

You run an Etsy shop, right? So I do. Probably I bet you do you have more sales in November, and December than you do in January, right?

Prithvi Madhukar: 21:20

Oh, no, actually, it flows into February. If so for me, my. So every every business has seasons. And for me my Etsy shop, it's like November to February, because it's marketing. And people like end of the year or beginning of the year, they're kind of panicking about their marketing. That's when it absolutely sells for me. So yes, yeah, for me, that is a period.

Brandon Neely: 21:43

So that's something I think about a lot there as saying, Okay, what's the cycles of the business? Right? And for me, even I know I do. Commission, right? So I might have a big month that covers three months, right? But I get myself a salary, to keep me on point as then saying, oh, man, I made this amount of money, I'm gonna go buy a car now. Now, that's not the way it works, because I got three months. So thinking about that. And, again, the profit first system, and then we built within that system. The still method that's our kind of, I don't know if you'd call it proprietary system. But I was like, Man, this is a actually pretty simple system. And I don't know why anybody's never thought of it.

Prithvi Madhukar: 22:38

Oh, let's hear it. Let's hear it. Tell us a little bit about about it. Yeah.

Brandon Neely: 22:41

Yeah. So it's the still method. And the reason is, because everybody's moving so fast. We want to get I mean, we're in the, the world of microwaves, right? We get mad if we have to wait 20 minutes for anything. But yeah, any, again, a season of a business? You know, the first couple years, it's a little dicey, right. And a messy, right, so So the still method is a method we thought about doing almost like a spiritual practice, but with your money, or with other areas of your life. It's amazing how many people haven't actually thought of a strategy or, or roadmap of where they want to go, they're just kind of moving through life really fast, right. And so you have to have a goal or plan or exit strategy, almost like reverse engineering, where you want your business to go, and then build from there. So it's called the steal method, because we love acronyms. We love like putting those into words. And so it set your sights, right? These are from doing financial analysis with a bunch of people over and over again. I'm like, What's your dreams? What's your goals? You know, how many people don't have dreams and goals? Like they don't even know they're just kind of living through life? Without and I'm like, wait, you should have like, I can't tell you what you want to do. And, and, and then there's marketing, right? So if you don't have a set your sights, everyone else has a plan for your money. Right? That's what some marketing does, is say, Oh, well, you don't have a plan. Well, here's the plan. Yeah. And so you have to have a set your sights. So then you know, and you can say yes or no to something it doesn't fit in the planet, or does this, the next letter is track you're in and out. Right? What's going in what's going out, budgeting, whatever you want to call it, but it's not restrictive. It's just kind of setting an intention, right? So track you're in and out. Inspect your progress. That's the next letter. Right? Inspect where you want it Got to go? Or am I doing the things I said that I wanted to write looking at it right? And then that goes into the next style lit, look for 1% adjustments, make those micro adjustments in your business or in your personal life that are going to get you where you want to go. Not just saying it's going to happen. And I'm going to take over Mount Everest tomorrow, right? But you look for 1% adjustments, that's that's where the power happens. No one. Like when you look on Tik Tok, or any of those things, and on these big guys, they didn't just somehow get there overnight successes, they there was 1% adjustments probably that they made, right? That same in your business. And then then the next step was live deliberately. Right. And we have to be deliberate in our business, write a business plan and implement it. I know that there's a lot of people in the entrepreneurial world is, the word is is crazy. And there's a lot of them. But there's a lot of people I call entrepreneurs, they are just saying they want to be entrepreneurs, but they haven't actually done anything. And, and that's the live deliberately the ones that actually I mean, have the podcast and do it intentionally. That's very different than I want to start a podcast, right? Those kinds of things. So live deliberately, and then you you read go over that, right? It's not a a thing that you just say, I've done it once. But every month, set your sights on man breaching this track, inspect, look for 1% adjustments and live deliberately. That's the steal method, which is opposite of chaos. In the world that we live in right now. And what what we look at in Wall Street and taxes and everything. And that's tell me if you've felt this confusing, have hazard. Yes, anxious, overwhelming and stressful, right? And, and if you can go into any meeting, business with that focus, and still, you'll probably do better. But we're running around like crazy with this. And maybe that's good, or not so good.

Prithvi Madhukar: 27:22

So Brandon, when you said, you know, chaos and absolute overwhelm. I completely agreed with that. Because the last two years, it has been so unprecedented. And I think that, like you said it, there is some basis of spirituality that goes into the still method. And I and I highly resonate with that as well. I think in this world of chaos, it's important that we learn how to be still in real life as well, but also implement you're still method. And one question that I do want to ask is if people want to get to know more about the steal method, where can they find you?

Unknown: 27:57

Yeah, so you can of course, go to our our YouTube channel or podcast, wealth, wisdom, financial. That's where we do a lot of videos, and YouTube and all of this and think about all that. So totally subscribe, watch bunch of videos, because that helps. So for more people to see, and then of course, go to steal method.com. You know, we, you know, we bought the the URL, of course. And if you go to steal method.com, you'll get a little playbook. That is our again, we just recently built this and this still method, framing. We're gonna write a book about it here shortly. We just haven't gotten there yet. But go to steal method.com Download the little playbook that asks a lot of questions and use that framework, right? It's not meant to just be a static thing. And the questions or answers may change questions may be the same, but your answers may change, right? As you know, like I have a four year old and you don't have kids yet. Right. But your answers may change 10 years from now, right? Same question may be different, right? So go to steal method.com. Check that out.

Prithvi Madhukar: 29:20

I really liked that you keep stressing throughout this episode that you have to keep revisiting. I think that is something that is so important because one of the mistakes that I see my clients making is they go through the entire process once and then they just dust their hands off it and then they're like, Oh, we're done. We're done. But I really liked the fact that you have continuously said no, you have to keep revisiting and how do we know the frequency that we need to put in to revisit our goals or this method? What are the signs that signals that we probably need to revisit what do you think?

Unknown: 29:54

Oh, I think at least monthly right and least on the finances right? And I do have a membership site if you go to wealth wisdom.mn.co We do this as a group, everyone in the community, right? So wealth wisdom that mn.co is like $10 a month. Us. But doing it monthly as a community is really helpful, right? But here's the thing, how often if you want to have a, a, a healthy body, right? Do you go to the gym? Yes. Right? Probably regular, right? Yes. And if you eat crappy food, there's going to be implications, right? And so how much do you want to reach those goals? It's all about consistency and making sure you're on track, whether it's monthly with that, or you might do this kind of framework with for me in a married we've been married for 16 years. It's at your site, what kind of marriage do I want to be? Track? Am I am I going on burglar dates, right. Inspect? Are we just dredging on TV? You know, same kind of thing. And I might be doing that? Regular because it's it's in my head. But being intentional about even setting the time is is important.

Prithvi Madhukar: 31:23

Oh, absolutely. What it's wonderful advice. And I think that more people need to hear that. So I'm really glad I read spoke on that one last question before we wrap this entire episode up. And that is about your infinite banking concept. Let's talk a little bit about that. We talked a little bit before this podcast recording, and I wanted my listeners, especially those of them who are in the US to hear a little bit about this from Brandon.

Unknown: 31:49

Yeah, we we got into the financial services, because it really it was reluctant financial advisors, I had no idea about this, I just knew I didn't want to be collateral damage. And I think that in our world right now, there's a lot of collateral damage happening with business owners, all kinds of stuff. Because they people are not realising their numbers, right. And so we we fell into this thing called Infinite Banking. It's purposely designed whole life insurance that is designed in the right way, not just your grandma's whole life. But how do we build life insurance that I can use and leverage for both the ups and downs of of what's happening, right. And so for us, specifically, in the US, building, this policy helped me to use my life insurance to overcome an obstacle of a flood, right, I was able to pull out the money, took a loan, lower interest, and what the Fed and all this other stuff is doing. Right, I was able to access my money at a low interest rate, and pay it back on my terms, no one was telling me when to or how, and then I was able to overcome the flood, then I was able to use it for buying a house, I did 20% down here in the US with my down payment on a house because then I had no PMI insurance. And it brought my rates down a little bit because of the 20% down. And then I paid that back, just again thinking through strategic using the still method. And now I'm using my policy again, to buy a commercial real estate building, same money that I've used over and over again. But I had to make sure that I'm saving first and building that foundation, not just going and chasing rate of return, I'm building a solid foundation that is going to impact generations. And I have to live beyond or not live beyond but but think about my generate the generations. Yes legacy. Right. And And my hope is I build a firm business that well goes beyond me. And this is what the rich do. And I tell people all the time, don't do what the rich tell you to do. Do what the rich do. Don't do what the banks tell you to do. Do what the banks do. They are the most profitable business in the world. Every business is in the banking business. Every person is in the banking business. And you know this even even if it's a different, different currency, there's a bank. I bet you right that you have right. Oh my interest?

Prithvi Madhukar: 34:42

Yes, yes. Well, my bank is in the US because my company is in the US. So all of my transactions, all of my taxes, legal stuff. Everything happens in the US but I do have to pay taxes in the US for my company and in India for myself because I'm right here. So it's more like Got my services are being conducted in India, even though my

Unknown: 35:04

but even then we don't even if your business was not in the US, you still probably have banks there. Yes. And it's everywhere. Yeah. Whether it's regional there or whatever. So, for me, I think, even if maybe you can't do infinite banking, because it's it's more US thing. But think like a banker, not like, they want you to think because they want you to put money and not give you any money, right for that. But they'll charge you a lot of money. So how do you think like a bank? And think like a business owner?

Prithvi Madhukar: 35:45

Oh, I absolutely love that advice. I think that's the first time I've ever heard it. Don't do what the rich do. I mean, don't think I mean, don't do what the rich say, but do what they do. And then don't do what the banks tell you and then do what the banks do. I think that's amazing. That's the first time I've heard of it. And I absolutely, that's advice that I will be taking from this podcast episode. Brandon, thank you so much.

Brandon Neely: 36:10

I think to like looking at the big businesses. I mean, it's amazing. I'm sure your stuff is on Google, right? How much money do they take? Right? It's just insane how much money they take for you. And I'm like, wait, 30% For real? Like, it isn't crazy. The risk? And how do we get more control? They control everything? So how do we take back control? That's, yeah, that

Prithvi Madhukar: 36:40

definitely. It's important because I think as business owners, we get so wrapped up in the excitement of starting a business and all of that we don't realise when we are losing control. And I think it's important. And I think that you're still method really taps into taking the time to figure out whether you are in control of your business or not. And I think that's such valuable advice. Such a great method, I highly recommend all of your listeners to check out Brandon's website, I'm gonna put the links in the description box below as well. Brandon, thank you so much for joining us. Any last words for my audience?

Brandon Neely: 37:18

Now, just my biggest words is take ownership of, of this, really, don't don't delegate this to me, you might have a CFP or a bookkeeper. But don't just say, Well, my bookkeeper is going to take care of us, like, understand this whole thing. And you don't have to be in charge but understand how to read a p&l statements. Profit and Loss Statement. That's probably a good thing.

Prithvi Madhukar: 37:47

I think that's life skills. More than anything, I think that's life skills. That's very nice. And

Brandon Neely: 37:53

they the school will not teach you that School doesn't teach you how to budget. Any that you gotta learn this on your own. Because, and to watch YouTube videos, I don't know, do something to learn.

Prithvi Madhukar: 38:06

There are so many courses out there, their courses, they're free, they're paid courses. There are YouTube channels, there are podcasts. Brandon has his own podcast. Brandon, do you want to tell us a little bit about your podcast as well?

Brandon Neely: 38:18

Yeah. So if you go to wealth, wisdom, financial, that's our podcast, my wife and I do this together, she is really good at communicating. She also does a lot of writing in our community site. So if you go to wealth, wisdom, that mn.co It's new. But we're trying to build and help people find their still centre so they can go farther, right? So that's the thing people were like, wow. But it's not it's not doing it fast. I'm like, Yeah, but if you slow down, it's almost like the tortoise and the hare, right? Slow down, you're actually go further. But our world is told we'll keep going, keep going. And I think that's, that's crazy. And I'm reading a book, How to thrive in a world that's been so much busy. And I'm not promoting the book. I still haven't finished the book. But the the the craziness is we're told to be busy. We're told to be on this hamster wheel. So how do we slow down to build the life we want? So that's, anyway, go to these things. And

Prithvi Madhukar: 39:29

I think what Brandon is trying to tell us is that it's important for you to take ownership. There are so many resources out there. Brandon has his own podcast, do check it out. All of the links that we've spoken about the books as well that were mentioned in this episode will be listed below as well. Thank you, Brandon, for coming on my podcast and sharing all of your wisdom, your methods with as your frameworks that it has been absolutely valuable. There's so many advice that I'm taking personally from my own business as well. So thank you for that. To the listeners who have been listening Oh, All the way up until here thank you so much for listening I will catch you guys in my next podcast episode buh bye