Build Wealth by Changing the Way You Think About Money with Anthony O’Neal

You don’t need a million dollars to have a millionaire mindset — and in this episode with bestselling author and financial educator Anthony O’Neal, we explore exactly what that means. 💭💸

We break down the difference between a broke mindset, a millionaire mindset, and a billionaire mindset — and how rewiring the way you think about money can completely change your business. If you’ve struggled with investing, delegating, or just feeling stuck financially, this conversation will give you a powerful new perspective (and a few laughs too 😉).

Click play to hear all of this and:

[01:08] Anthony explains how his mentors taught him to speak what he seeks before he sees it.

[02:11] The mindset shift from “doing the work” to “casting vision.”

[03:30] Anthony shares how hiring someone to build his email list helped him focus on what only he can do.

[04:13] Why your mindset shouldn’t be “I can’t” — it should be “how can I?”

[04:44] How to start where you are, do what you can, and grow with what you’ve got.

[06:35] A candid chat about redefining “awkwardness” and finding presence in social interactions.

[09:38] How entrepreneurs can show up fully — without burning out trying to be someone they’re not.

🎧 Listen to the full episode: Cultivate Wealth: Breaking the Broke Mindset with Anthony O’Neal, >>HERE<<

Connect With Anthony O’Neal:

Anthony O'Neal is a bestselling author, speaker, and financial educator who is passionate about helping people—especially young adults and entrepreneurs—take control of their money and build generational wealth. As the host of The Table podcast, Anthony shares practical strategies for living debt-free, creating a strong financial foundation, and developing a wealth-building mindset. With a background that includes working with renowned leaders like Dave Ramsey and reaching millions through his educational content, Anthony empowers others to rewrite their financial futures with confidence and clarity.

📧 Join my Newsletter for a weekly cocktail of insider business strategy, personal reflections, and the journey of being a thought leader: https://jasminestar.com/newsletter 📧

For full show notes, visit jasminestar.com/podcast/episode584

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Transcript

Katie Haahr 00:00:00  Hey there. Welcome to the Jasmine Star show. Today we're highlighting a powerful snippet from a past episode. And y'all, it's just too good to stay buried in the archives. So Jasmine sits down with Anthony O'Neil, a number one best selling author, speaker, financial educator, and host of The Table. Together, Jasmine and Anthony dig into something that holds far too many entrepreneurs back a baroque mindset. This isn't just about numbers, my friend. It's about financial confidence and rewiring the way you think about money in your business. Let's listen in.

Jasmine Star 00:00:32  The mindset is I can't afford it. We don't have money living paycheck to paycheck. Right? And then what you had said was like this money mindset. And I think you had said a millionaire mindset. Absolutely. And the millionaire mindset is I have money. I will not be a slave to debt. Right. Right. Okay. But what happened in between the two?

 Anthony O’Neal 00:00:54  So what happened in the in between the two? When you say in between the two, what do you mean?

Jasmine Star 00:00:57  Like somebody listening and be like, you know what? Wow.

Jasmine Star 00:00:59  I've been exposed, I feel seen. I do suffer from the I can't afford it. And then all of a sudden they hear you say, I can't afford it. I won't be in debt. Like what? What happened?

 Anthony O’Neal 00:01:08  You know, one of my mentors, Dave Ramsey. Right? He says you just made the choice and you just snapped and made the choice. So when you have a millionaire mindset, it doesn't mean that you are a millionaire. It's, you know, I'm walking and I'm believing that that's the route that I'm going. So I'm speaking what I seek until I see what I spoke. That's what my mentors taught me. Mignon Francois. And so for me, the millionaire mindset doesn't mean I have $1 million in my pocket. But I do have the mindset of a millionaire. I'm listening to people like your podcast who are making seven figures. How is she thinking? What is she doing? Let me think like that so I can start getting myself to that journey. You know, I believe I have a billionaire mindset.

 Anthony O’Neal 00:01:46  I'm gonna be honest with you.

Jasmine Star 00:01:47  Oh, okay. Wait, wait. Talk to me. The difference between a millionaire mindset and a billionaire mindset.

 Anthony O’Neal 00:01:51  I believe billionaires are very, very smart. I think millionaires are hard workers.

Jasmine Star 00:01:58  Oh, don't say that.

 Anthony O’Neal 00:02:00  Yes, because billionaires have learned, in my opinion, from the billionaires have been around. They work hard mentally. Millionaires have. I think they do. 5050. They work hard mentally and hard physically.

Jasmine Star 00:02:11  I feel like you're preaching me, I feel seen, I feel exposed. Stop the x ray. I'm actually getting very upset.

 Anthony O’Neal 00:02:17  I'm serious. It's like a seven figure. People were always thinking of. What are we going to do? What are we going to do? How are we going to do it? Billionaires are thinking, okay, how do I get my money now to make me more millions? And they sit down and they just think they read. They write, they process all day. Then they cast a vision out to the team, and then their team go do all the hard work while they're the billionaires.

 Anthony O’Neal 00:02:37  And so and again, I'm not a billionaire, so I don't want to add like I have that expertise. But from being around the billionaires and the millionaires, I've been able to see, there's I'm going to work hard too, so I can make seven figures. But to get to that billionaire Mark, it's not hard work. It's more smart work. How do you be smart in what you're doing? So now I'm doing that with myself okay Anthony instead of for, you know, working hard. How do you delegate some stuff to create opportunities for you to be more of a thinker, more of a thought leader? And how do you cast vision?

Jasmine Star 00:03:09  Can you give us an example? Like like I said, I asked, well, I asked, I was just like, I want to give Anthony a cup of tea so that you could feel it because we are I want us to get like super granular, I got you, I got you. Give me an example.

 Anthony O’Neal 00:03:21  So for an example for me is like I just told you for an example, I am doing a email list, right? Yes.

 Anthony O’Neal 00:03:26  I don't have one okay.

Jasmine Star 00:03:28  Oh I love it. Okay. This is juicy.

 Anthony O’Neal 00:03:30  This I don't have one. So what I did was okay. Instead of me going out there doing all of the work, I said, you know, let me go hire someone to do all the work that is smart in that area. So I hire someone to do that. I work on the content, yes. Then I give her the content. She makes it happen. More than likely. Most people who are starting off like me, we're going to do everything. We are the photographer. We are the video person. We are, you know the sound person, we're the email person. But and we we try to keep the money. Well, for me, I might know. Okay? If I was a billionaire, what would I be doing? This is the vision. Hey, Jasmine, can you do this? Can I pay you to do this? Then what that does is it creates space for me to now put more effort into what really pulls in people, which is the content.

Jasmine Star 00:04:13  Now, for the person who's listening and says, look, okay, I want to do that, but I don't even have money right now to pay somebody to create my funnel. Is this for the point where you say, okay, if you had the mindset, you're not going to jump to a billionaire. You're saying right now a millionaire is finding, how can I afford it? Absolutely.

 Anthony O’Neal 00:04:30  Okay, a millionaire distinction.

Jasmine Star 00:04:32  I like that distinction.

 Anthony O’Neal 00:04:33  Yeah, yeah. Like, how can I do it? What is the best way to do it? What's within my means? And so you do the very best with what's in your means. How do you live below your means for one. I teach that on money. So if your company.

Jasmine Star 00:04:44  Is your teacher, I don't want to. I don't want to put it in there. You do teach that. And it's. I have to tell you like it's such a, it's a it's a rough point is it. I think and here's the thing.

Jasmine Star 00:04:55  So it's a rough wrap. I know, I know. I'm like, what am I doing? I'm like this. I just had a cup of coffee and I'm like, where is this going? Let me get.

 Anthony O’Neal 00:05:04  Some water here.

Jasmine Star 00:05:06  Okay. I'm okay. I believe it. I know to be true. Okay. And I practice it. Okay. So there's that.

 Anthony O’Neal 00:05:11  There's that.

Jasmine Star 00:05:11  All right. I just have a. It's just for a girl from the hood. Okay. Whoo! Like the church plate was passed for your family. Yeah. Like we got groceries on the porch. Christmas gifts. Right? I mean, when it was Easter, you shop in a thrift store. That's that's that's what. That's what life was. And so I kind of get to a point in my life to where I just want to be reckless. I just want to be like.

 Anthony O’Neal 00:05:33  But that comes from your life experiences so.

Jasmine Star 00:05:36  Well it's like it's like you know the next question. Right. Because okay actually let's go there.

Jasmine Star 00:05:40  Okay okay. So how can one tell the way that they were raised affects how we look at money. Like are there telltale signs?

 Anthony O’Neal 00:05:47  You literally just said it. So my life growing up wasn't to like your extreme right. But I grew up with four loving parents and four loving parents who are in the church, and we lived paycheck to paycheck. So my mom and stepfather in California had two other siblings, and growing up we had my elderly grandmother living with us. We're living in a 1200 square foot home, three bedrooms with six people. So me and my sister and my brother had to sleep in the same room. Grandmother had one room, parents had one room. We ate spaghetti and 99 cent Hamburger Helper at least twice a week.

Jasmine Star 00:06:21  Yes.

 Anthony O’Neal 00:06:22  Right. Yes. We had Pizza Hut, only one large 9.99 on Fridays, and then back then we could watch one hour of TV a week. So we would save that for Fridays for TGI Fridays.

Jasmine Star 00:06:34  That's right. Because like, if you did not shadow Urkel right now.

 Anthony O’Neal 00:06:36  I'm going to be so offended. I was like, no, come on.

 Anthony O’Neal 00:06:40  It was like, we saved pizza and TJ in the hour of our TV time for that experience, right? But going to school, I remember having to put duct tape on the bottom of my shoes because we couldn't afford shoes, so I would have holes in the bottom of my shoes. Socks would be coming out. What are we getting into? The shoes when it was raining. So I understand where you're coming from. So when we fast forward today, what do I spend money on? Food. Because we grew up to where we didn't have access to all kinds of different foods. French toast. We always have bread. We always have water. We always had milk in the refrigerator. That's French toast, you know what I'm saying? Put a little bit on there.

Jasmine Star 00:07:16  Wait, wait. What am I saying?

 Anthony O’Neal 00:07:18  What? You put the egg inside of the milk. Okay?

Jasmine Star 00:07:20  You put.

 Anthony O’Neal 00:07:20  The.

Jasmine Star 00:07:21  Top down.

Jasmine Star 00:07:21  No, you didn't mention the egg because you said we got water, we got milk. And I was.

 Anthony O’Neal 00:07:24  Like, whoa, you got it. You got, you got you got you got your bread.

 Anthony O’Neal 00:07:30  So now it's like, okay, cool. Great. So now I like French toast, but I don't do it that way. I use vanilla creamer because my life experience like, well, that was a cheap way of doing it. Find out the old way of doing it. I think our life experience is growing up, have taught us things that are good and also have taught us things that we just don't want to do. My mom and dad never had a wedding. My mom didn't get her ring until she was about maybe 4 or 5 years into their marriage. She never went on a honeymoon until my siblings and I sent them on a honeymoon four years ago. They just purchased their home for the very first time in their 50s. Five years ago, my sister was the first one to have a home.

 Anthony O’Neal 00:08:09  I was the second one to have a home. And so watching them and going through my life experiences growing up, you know, I made some bad decisions growing. I was homeless for six months of my life, and when I got out of that season, Jasmine, I was like, yo, I don't want that. I don't want what my parents had and I don't want to go through that experience again. So I'm like, you. Rachel Cruise came out with a boat talking about your money, personalities and stuff like that. I am the spender. Okay, so I'm going to spend a lot of money on my car. I'm gonna spend a lot of money in my house. I'm gonna spend a lot of money on my food. Because growing up, we didn't have a nice car. We didn't have a nice house, and we didn't eat all that well. And so I spend my money there. But also I got to train myself and educate myself. Hey, just because you have the money to do the nice things.

 Anthony O’Neal 00:08:57  Wait. Still pay cash for it? So I just bought my dream car maybe about 4 or 5 months ago.

Jasmine Star 00:09:02  I mean, it's a shame this is just audio because we could do a car commercial. I'm just saying. I'm a car girl. I drive the same car. Are you serious? Yes, y'all, yes, I know. Here's the thing. Here's the thing you and I. I like that you said I'm the spender. I'm not. You're not zero. But my husband. Oh, he loves. I like your husband. He likes that stuff. Right? So then I'm able just to blame him. I was just like, I know. Separation of financial responsibilities. I'm just like, okay, it's for you, you know?

 Anthony O’Neal 00:09:33  So your husband is the saver. You're the.

Jasmine Star 00:09:35  Spender. No, no.

 Anthony O’Neal 00:09:37  So you're the saver.

Jasmine Star 00:09:37  I'm like, as a child, I would bring out, like, this thing called Domingo, which is Sunday in Spanish, but then you would get an allowance.

Jasmine Star 00:09:45  Well, my parents never gave us out, so we had an uncle that would give us a dollar. I would go home and I would iron my dollar and I would hide it in a band aid container. Yeah, yeah. And so I feel like I took those tendencies. To me, there is no good reason why I want to save every last penny, but I feel like it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. It's like I'm saving for a rainy day. Well, when you save for the thing that you don't want, you end up getting the thing that you don't want. Right. So I feel like I'm talking to you. I feel like I'm looking at you. And I'm like. You're saying things that are possible. You can afford it. You have to wait until you can pay cash for it. Absolutely. Amen.

 Anthony O’Neal 00:10:17  Everyone. Everyone can get. I truly do believe what they want. You just have to put a plan into place. Stick to the plan and just be patient for that plan to come first.

Jasmine Star 00:10:26  Okay, well, we know that that doesn't come to you. So you said, hey, I was homeless for six months, right? What happened there?

 Anthony O’Neal 00:10:31  Oh, man. I got kicked out of school and.

Jasmine Star 00:10:33  Kicked out of college.

 Anthony O’Neal 00:10:35  Okay, so I was 18 years old. Kicked out. Wow.

Jasmine Star 00:10:39  Are we going to spell that here or just say.

 Anthony O’Neal 00:10:41  Oh, man. It was. It was embarrassing y. Okay. Very embarrassing. I just made a bad decision. Put it like that. Great. Trying to impress people. And when I got kicked out, my parents in California were very disappointed in me. And so my father said, since you think and you want to act like a grown man, go be one. Ooh, you can't come home. Okay? You know, because the only grown man in this house is the one paying the bills in this house. And so me and my father got into a huge argument. My mom thought I was going to go move in with my girlfriend.

 Anthony O’Neal 00:11:09  I mean, I wasn't I was actually sleeping in the back of my car. And because of that, I had racked up $35,000 in debt before then. And then also, I lost my job, so I didn't have a job, and then I lost my apartment. So then now I have that money I need to pay back. And so for those six months, you know, Jasmine, to keep it real, I contemplated suicide. I questioned my relationship with God. I even questioned all of my friends because all of my friends who I got in trouble for trying to impress them, I spent all this money on. Not one of them offered me a place to live. Not one of them offered me a place to lay my head temporarily. They didn't offer me a place to shower, get something to eat. And so I really woke up around that season saying, you know what? I've learned so much. I've watched my parents struggle. I remember my mom and dad telling me, no, you can't even get a $5 note book for school because we didn't have the $5.

 Anthony O’Neal 00:12:00  I remember I would get in trouble if I said this like 20 years ago. So thank God I'm a grown man now. But when my parents bought our first car, it was a van. Well, the van only had two seats, the front two seats. We didn't have seats in the back. So me and my siblings had to sit on the metal piece of the car because think of like one of those delivery vans. It was one of those. And we're putting our whole family in there. And I said, I don't want that. I don't I don't want that for myself or for my kids. And so I literally got on the plane, got out of debt. Today's financial piece university course got out of debt.

Jasmine Star 00:12:34  So you're 18. But like I like to get the details. You're 18. You have like this wake up call. And then you say I take a financial planning course.

 Anthony O’Neal 00:12:43  No no no no no no no no I didn't get that course until like I was like 20, 21.

 Anthony O’Neal 00:12:47  I went back home and my dad gave me a Dave Ramsey budget for him and said, you need to get a job too at that and you need to get out of debt. You need to honestly sit down. And this is the thing that I love about my parents. They apologize for not teaching me financial literacy. Growing up, everything. The only conversation we had about money was tithe. If you get $100, give.

Jasmine Star 00:13:08  10%.

 Anthony O’Neal 00:13:09  To the Lord. That's it. The other 90%. Hey, just do well with it. You know, make it do what it do, you know. And then their thing was, get a job. Get a good 41K benefits. Keep your your credit score at a good score, retire well and live off of your Social Security and your 401 K benefits. They never they never talked about wealth. They never talked about starting a business. I saw them back in those days of balancing the checkbook, but they never taught us how to budget because they they weren't taught right.

 Anthony O’Neal 00:13:38  And so I got out of the car, went back home, apologized to my parents and my parents like, yo, come back home. So I got on the budget for him, and I had three jobs working for a collection agency, 8 to 5. and then I will go and wash cars up until about 630 sundown. And then I will get up at 2:00 in the morning and I'll go deliver newspapers. And I did that so I can get out of debt so I can get my own apartment, because everyone was declining me at the time when I wanted to get my own place.

Jasmine Star 00:14:05  How long did it take for you to get out of debt?

 Anthony O’Neal 00:14:07  It took me a while because I took I did two years and then I transferred over to Florida, and then I got back into debt and bought a crazy BMW car trying to impress ladies again. And so I would definitely say it took me about a good eight years to get out of debt because I went out, get out, go right back in, get out, go right back in.

 Anthony O’Neal 00:14:25  And then a local pastor in Florida said, hey, you need to take Financial Peace University. And then that's when my true journey started to really start pursuing the route of living the debt free life that I teach today.

Jasmine Star 00:14:39  That is so juicy. Okay okay okay okay. So yeah I'm not.

 Anthony O’Neal 00:14:43  Sure she gets into details I like.

Jasmine Star 00:14:45  Okay. It's just I love these conversations because I feel like you're teaching me. Oh, man. And by the way. And I always like to be. I think that you're a vessel. So you sit here and then you speak the truth that somebody needs to hear. Because I do think that maybe while somebody's not on their last bottom dollar sleeping in the back of their car, I do know that they may not have had parents to speak about wealth, to speak about what it looks like, and I actually think it was like, so if I think that when I'm maybe 70 or 80, I'll look back and I'll think that I was courageous for having conversations around wealth.

Katie Haahr 00:15:16  Okay, okay, okay. That conversation with Anthony, it's the money mindset reset every entrepreneur needs. Here's your reminder. You don't have to be defined by how you were raised or what you didn't know about money when you started your business. What matters right now is the action you take today and the mindset you build along the way. If this episode sparked something in you, would you share it with a fellow business owner? We'd love to help all of you who are working to build wealth from the inside out.