ANTHONY O’NEAL: “You never want to budget off of your best month; you want to budget off of the average of your month. And then it's simple. You know, once you go from there, budget your things that you have to have, whether that’s payroll, whether that’s your rent, whatever that is. You know what you need to list on the budget. But here's the thing: you don't want to skip over anything within that budget, Amy.
Oftentimes, people would, what they'll do is they'll put their rent, they'll put their insurance payment for the building or something there for the company car or something like that. But they won't put, okay, here's a bill for this particular software that I use for my business. No. You need to list all of your income that you know for sure you’re going to have coming in. You’re going to list all of your expenses for your business, all of them, you guys. And I'm going to say this one more time—every single one. If you’re using an app that's two dollars, list it. You want to know exactly where and what you're spending your money on.”
INTRO: I’m Amy Porterfield, ex-corporate girl turned CEO of a multi-seven-figure business. But it wasn't all that long ago that I lacked the confidence, the budget, and the time to focus on growing my small-but-mighty business. Fast forward past many failed attempts and lessons learned, and you'll see the business I have today, one that changes lives and gives me more freedom than I ever thought possible, one that used to only exist as a daydream. I created the Online Marketing Made Easy podcast to give you simple, actionable, step-by-step strategies to help you do the same. If you're an ambitious entrepreneur, or one in the making, who's looking to create a business that makes an impact and a life you love, you're in the right place, friend. Let's get started.
AMY PORTERFIELD: My latest podcast obsession is My First Million, hosted by Sam Parr and Shaan Puri. They discuss how companies made their first million and brainstorm new business ideas based on the hottest trends. They recently released an episode with my friend Nathan Barry from ConvertKit. It was called “How to Become a Billion-Dollar Creator.” And I loved when Nathan talked about some of his biggest failures and what he'd do if he had to start over. You know I'm a sucker for conversations like that. You can check out My First Million wherever you listen to your podcasts.
If I know one thing about you, I know that you like money. You like to talk about it, you like to make it, and you love hearing experts spill their knowledge around how to maximize it and be a smarter money manager. I also know that you're incredibly generous, and the more money you make, the more money you will give. So money is an important thing personally and professionally, which is why I'm so freaking excited to share today's episode with you.
But before I do, I have to say I'm just so glad you're here. It's been such an exciting year in my business and with Online Marketing Made Easy, and I know that it wouldn't be that amazing without you. So I can't wait to share some of the stuff that I have in store for this podcast.
So first of all, thanks for joining me here twice a week, every Tuesday and Thursday. I always feel like I'm just chatting with a good friend. And I want to also thank those of you who have shared my podcast with your friends, or someone I know just recently shared it in a grocery store with a clerk who said they wanted to start an online business. Bonus points for you. So every time you share an episode or just my podcast as a whole with someone else, you're helping to change the lives around you, and I'm so grateful for that. So thank you so much.
Okay. You’ve been so patient. Let’s get to it.
My guest on the podcast today is Anthony O’Neal, a number-one national bestselling author, speaker, financial expert, and host of the very popular YouTube series The Table with Anthony O’Neal. But what sets Anthony apart from other finance experts is that he's extremely passionate about reaching people in real, relatable, and relevant ways and helping them get a clear vision for their future so that they can win with their life and money. And that is such a refreshing angle.
In today's episode, we cover how to budget when you're a new entrepreneur and have no previous revenue reports to base your budget on and when to start paying yourself and how much you should pay yourself. And we also talk about money mindset, like, how you were raised affects how you spend money. And we also talk about the guilt of making a lot of money in your business when that's not necessarily how you were raised or how things were like just a few short years ago. And if you're not making a lot of money yet, please listen to this episode as well, because there are some things that I've done along the way that I would change and do differently, and so you can sidestep some of the mental roadblocks I've had by just listening to this episode. It's a really good one. I think you're going to love it. Plus, Anthony is so much fun. He's just hilarious. So I think you're going to love this conversation. So get ready to take some important notes, and let’s get to it.
Well, hey, there, Anthony. Welcome to the show.
ANTHONY: Hey, man. My favorite sister from another mother, Amy Porterfield, what’s up?
AMY: I have been looking forward to this all week, and every time—I know my cheeks are going to hurt by the end because every time I talk to you, I laugh so hard. We had that opportunity when we were with our friend Terry to have a dinner together, and, literally, I left thinking, “Oh, my gosh. That was the most-fun experience ever.” So I was just so excited to have you on the show.
ANTHONY: Oh, man, no. Thank you. I’ve been looking forward to this. When my team told me, “Hey, Amy Porterfield wants you on her show,” I was like “What? Cancel everything. Get me on the show.” So I'm looking forward to today's conversation.
AMY: Okay. Well, it's going to be a good conversation, for sure. And I actually have a question to start out with, that I don't know this about you, so I'm really interested. How did you first start getting interested in finances and end up dedicating your career to helping others with their finances as well? How did that even come about?
ANTHONY: Man, that’s such a good question. When I think about that answer, right, I get a little emotional because I grew up in a very strong Christian-faith home—four loving parents; two biological parents and two step parents from the legal term, but I hate that term step—
AMY: Amen.
ANTHONY: —because I have four great parents who love me equally and I love them equally. And so, you know, I grew up in a very strong home. There was no conversations about money, no conversations about entrepreneurship. The two important conversations I had was, “Hey, if you get pulled over by the police, call Mom and Dad,” and “Here’s how you get into heaven and you don’t go to you-know-what.” Those were the only two conversations.
So, when I graduated high school, I graduated knowing God and knowing how to, you know, sat around a church, do all that kind of stuff. But when I walked into the college campus, no one taught me, what's a credit card? What's a debit card? How to budget, how to build wealth, how do you build wealth? What is a 401K? You know, no one taught me the basic stuff about finances.
So I racked up about thirty-five thousand dollars in debt before I even turned eighteen and a half. You know, I'm not even six, seven months out of high school, and I'm drowning in debt already—student-loan debt and credit-card debt and furniture debt from particular furniture places—because the culture taught me, “Hey, everyone is getting student loans. Hey, don't worry about budgeting. Just go get whatever you can get, enjoy life.” And then I woke up one day, and I found that I put myself into all this debt.
And to make a long story short, because I want to make sure that we can really help your people where they are and give them some practical tools and resources and wisdom and knowledge, because I didn't have that information, I racked up that amount of debt; made a bad decision in college and, unfortunately, I had to drop out of school. So when I dropped out of school from that bad decision, I lost my job; I lost my income; I lost my apartment. I thought I was going home, but my mom and dad was like, “No, since you think you're a grown man, you live with your consequences. You live with your choices.”
And so at the age of nineteen, I'm in debt, and I'm homeless, sleeping in the back of my car. And so for six months of my life, you know, I contemplated suicide. I contemplated, you know, I’m blaming everyone else. “Hey, they don't love me,” dah, dah, dah, dah. But I realized, Amy, that the caliber of my current present at that time was determined by the choices that I made in my past, and that if I was going to change my future, then I got to change my decisions. And so I did just that.
I connected with one of our good friends, Dave Ramsey. I joined the Financial Peace University course and really started changing my mindset around money. And that was when, Amy, I said, “You know, how come this information is not being taught to people, like, more people?” And specifically, what I said at that time, “People who look like me, you know, in the African-American world.” So I say, “Yo, let me go down this journey.” So just really written down this journey of just really learning, started learning Robert Kiyoaski stuff and Grant Cardone. But it was Dave's principles that taught me, you know, hey, have a debt-free life, have the true-ownership life.
And so, make a long story short, man, paid off all my debt, ended up working with Dave for about six and a half years of my life, and I was able to set up underneath his wisdom and his knowledge and learn a lot of things of what I know today. And so today I'm just out here teaching people on my own of really how to be financially free, how to avoid debt, and really how to live the life that you want to live within your means.
AMY: Ah, and you're doing an amazing job with it. You all need to follow Anthony on social—I'll give you all his details—because every single day you are either throwing out a question that always makes me ponder my own finances or, like, how I'm spending money or not spending. And my favorite is when you throw something out, like, here's the situation with a guy going out on a date, and then something about money, and what would you do? And I’m like, “Oh, my gosh! These are hard questions.” So I really love that, so keep those coming.
Okay. So, a lot of people that are listening right now, they are entrepreneurs, whether they be new entrepreneurs, just getting started, not making much money in their business; or they've been at it for a while, making great money; or maybe struggling to keep it all together. So we have so many people on different journeys of entrepreneurship on the show. And my question is, many of them don't have budgets, and I'm curious, whether it be budgets for their business or budgets for their personal lives, how do you create a budget when you're just starting out and you really have no idea what kind of revenue is going to come in? Because you know the life of an entrepreneur: one month we’re doing really, really well, especially if we’re just starting out; the next month, we have nothing. It's like feast or famine sometimes. So how do you create a budget with that kind of fluctuation?
ANTHONY: I mean, you know, here's a thing, too. I would even say, kind of upgrade that word from budget to vision. You know, what's the vision?
AMY: Oh, I like this. Okay.
ANTHONY: You know what I’m saying? Yeah. Upgrade the word to the vision. Where am I going with my money? Where do I see myself? Where do I desire to go, right? So I would encourage you to look at that as this is the vision for your money, vision for your life. And then when it comes to the vision for your money, right, I always tell myself, what I do is, I actually make a vision based upon the last quarter. So what was the lowest of lows? And then I add it all up. I’m like, all right. Cool. If I only averaged, let’s say for an example, five thousand dollars for that time, then what I'm going to do, I'm going to make a budget off of what I know bare minimum I'm going to bring in, okay? So moving forward, five thousand dollars was my average. Great. I'm making a budget off of the five thousand dollars. So let's say month one I'm going in to that, and let’s say month one I go into it, I make ten thousand dollars. I'm not spending ten thousand dollars. I'm going to add that extra money to the next month’s budget, so this way I'm being safe.
So, you never want to budget, when you have flexible income—like all of us. We’re all entrepreneurs—you never want to budget off of your best month—
AMY: Yes.
ANTHONY: —you want to budget off of the average of your month. And then it's simple. You know, once you go from there, budget your things that you have to have, whether that’s payroll, whether that’s your rent, whatever that is. You know what you need to list on the budget. But here's the thing: you don't want to skip over anything within that budget, Amy.
Oftentimes, people would, what they'll do is they'll put their rent, they'll put their insurance payment for the building or something there for the company car or something like that. But they won't put, okay, here's a bill for this particular software that I use for my business. No. You need to list all of your income that you know for sure you’re going to have coming in. You’re going to list all of your expenses for your business, all of them, you guys. And I'm going to say this one more time—every single one. If you’re using an app that's two dollars, list it. You want to know exactly where and what you're spending your money on. And then that way, you know how to really budget moving forward.
And end up just like the personal life, I call this a zero-base budget on a personal side, income minus your expenses should equal zero. Spend all of your money on paper before the month begins, on your business and personal side.
But I would definitely say this, Amy: make sure that your business vision/budget is not the same when it comes to your personal. It needs be to different budgets.
AMY: Ooh, good advice. Okay.
ANTHONY: Yeah. So you want to have a budget for your personal life, for your family life; and you want to have a budget for your business life only. You don't want to combine the two. So I have a budget, a vision for both, right? I pay myself that I live off of that on the personal side. But on the business side, me and my team, we have our own budget and we operate off of that. And they don't see the personal side, because that's none of their business.
AMY: Yes. Okay. So you just mentioned paying yourself. How soon should you pay yourself when you're an entrepreneur, when you're just getting started? And how the heck do you even know how much you can pay yourself? This is something that is very overwhelming to those who are listening.
ANTHONY: Woo, man, it’s very overwhelming because, you know, I literally just had that conversation with my CPA.
AMY: Yeah?
ANTHONY: Yeah. I was like, “Okay. Listen. Where we at? Okay. What are we doing?” And literally, you want to pay yourself something from the business. And really, I would suggest, before you even really process that, I would honestly sit down with a CPA, someone that can assess your business and they will tell you what's the proper things to pay. Because keep in mind, when you are a self-employed person, a lot of things you're going to be able to write off. So you can honestly keep a lot of things on the business side so you can legally and ethically write it off. But they say from a business perspective, the minimum you should be paying yourself is 20 to 30 percent of what you're collecting. So for me, I'm paying myself 25 percent of whatever the company is bringing in. That's what I pay Anthony O’Neal personally, right? And I literally just started doing that, so that way, one, I can have a W-2; and then, two, I’m paying myself something, but I’m also being wise and making sure that if I can legally and ethically write it off, oh, Amy, I’m going to legally and ethically write it off.
AMY: Heck, yeah. So important, so important.
So when you were talking earlier about your upbringing, it had me thinking, how much do you think our mindset around money is affected by how we were raised? Like, our mindset today?
ANTHONY: Yeah, yeah. It’s a lot. I grew up in a very strong, like I said, Christian-faith home, but not a home that comes from wealth. You know, I grew up watching my mom work three jobs. She worked in the school district during the day. After that, she went to a Christian-brand bookstore, there in California, to sell books. And then on the weekends, she worked for this company that’s no longer here, called Kmart.
AMY: That's a lot of jobs.
ANTHONY: Absolutely. Absolutely. And here's the thing, Amy: we still struggled, with my mom working three jobs, my father working two jobs, delivering newspapers early in the mornings and driving the busses throughout the day. So literally, we had five streams of income coming in, and we still didn't have enough to provide. And so growing up, I thought that it was normal to just survive. I didn't think that it was normal to have more than enough. I didn't think it was normal to be able to make fifty thousand, a hundred thousand dollars a month. I didn't think it was normal to be able to have two cars. We had one car for a family of five. And here’s the thing—I can say this now because I won’t get in trouble because I’m a grown man now—our van, Amy, we didn’t have any back seats.
AMY: What?
ANTHONY: Yes. You know, the vans that they used to deliver.
AMY: Oh, that is very uncomfortable.
ANTHONY: Very uncomfortable because the kids, we were sitting on metal because we couldn't afford a full van. Now, we eventually got—my daddy eventually put in backseats, eventually. But, like, for the first year, was having the first family van, oh, no. Me and my siblings were sitting in the backseat with no seats.
So, growing up, I thought that it was normal to just survive. I thought it was normal to just have a job. And there's nothing wrong with having a job. But I didn't think that I had the capabilities of being an entrepreneur. I didn't think I had the capability of launching a course and making six-figure-some a course. I didn't think that was something that I could do and that I should do, until I started exposing myself to people like yourself and Dave Ramsey and your Mark Cubans and really challenging myself to think differently from my upbringing, because my upbringing was good. I learned work ethic. I know how to work. I know how to get out there and grind. But now that I know how to work and grind, now I know how to put that in a right way to generate good income as an entrepreneur for me and my future family.
AMY: Okay. So I have two questions for you on that. The first one is, and this has to happen sometimes, do you ever find yourself, you're grinding along; things are going good; you're making good money; you are incredibly successful, so your life looks very different today than your upbringing; do you ever find something enters in your mind, you're like, “Whoa, that's old thinking”? You know? Like, something's come up, and you're like, “Whoa, that's not how I want to think.”
ANTHONY: Yeah.
AMY: Based on your upbringing, like, what comes up for you sometimes?
ANTHONY: Ooh, Amy, that’s an ooh, phooey. I remember the first time I went to a restaurant. And I went to this restaurant, Amy, and when I walked in and looked at the menu, I think the cheapest thing on the menu was, like, eighty bucks.
AMY: So it was an expensive restaurant.
ANTHONY: Expensive restaurant. Amy, I got up and left.
AMY: You did.
ANTHONY: Yeah. The very first time I went to this restaurant, I got up and left. I said, “There's no way in the world I'm spending eighty dollars on a meal.” Eighty dollars used to feed my whole family and maybe, like, two other people from another family, you know?
AMY: And the fact that you got up at that moment, you could afford it.
ANTHONY: Absolutely.
AMY: Yeah.
ANTHONY: Easy. But I was like, my mama would kill me if she found out that I spent eighty dollars—
AMY: Right.
ANTHONY: —for one meal. Not for four meals, for one meal. And I literally got in my car—this is no lie—then I went to Ruby Tuesday’s and spent fourteen dollars on a meal. Then when I went home, I literally replayed the whole evening, and I was like, “Why did I do that?” And I was like, it's because I was never exposed to that. The most expensive thing we did growing up was Red Lobster, where you spent eighty to a hundred bucks to feed the whole family—
AMY: Yeah.
ANTHONY: —back in the early 2000s, you know.
AMY: Yeah.
ANTHONY: No. It was back in the ’90s, actually. And so I was like, man, what? Say, wait, what? So that was one. Even now, I sometimes still get that. Like, am I really about spend this amount of money on one meal?
AMY: I think that's normal. I think that comes up a lot.
ANTHONY: You think so?
AMY: I do. I really do. I think a lot of people, when they start making money in their business, and entrepreneurship is a whole different world, where you can make a whole lot of money fast.
ANTHONY: Fast.
AMY: And you’re like, “Oh, my gosh. How did that just happen?”
ANTHONY: Yes.
AMY: So my next question is, and then I'll tell my truth here first before I tell you, sometimes I feel guilty of the money that I've made. And I have to work on this. Yes? You, too?
ANTHONY: Yes.
AMY: And I hate it. But I feel guilty when I look at—and here's the truth. I've never talked about this. My sister's a school teacher, and my brother-in-law’s a firefighter. They are blue collar to the bone, doing amazing work. My brother-in-law, saving lives. And I am making hand over fist way more money than they are, and I feel bad sometimes.
ANTHONY: Oh, man.
AMY: How do you deal with that? I know how I deal with it, but I want to know how you deal with it.
ANTHONY: I think for me, one is I—to not replace the guilt, right, but to feel better at it, I give a lot. I am a giver.
AMY: Same. Yes.
ANTHONY: You know what I’m saying? I’m generous. I love giving, so I give to my local church, I give to my family, and I give to just a local community because I believe that it is best to give than it is to receive. And so I look at as if like, okay, I have the opportunity to be a blessing. I am blessed to be a blessing. I think I would feel miserable if I kept it all for myself and I didn't do nothing with that money to contribute to show others. You know, December of 2021, in one month, I made more money in that month than I've ever made in a year in my life.
AMY: Wow. So that was one of those moments where it's like, “Oh, my gosh.”
ANTHONY: Right.
AMY: Yeah.
ANTHONY: And I said, “Whoa. Whoa, whoa. Whoa.” I said, “Did this just happen?” And I said, “God, is this legal? Is this more—”
AMY: Right? That’s—
ANTHONY: Right.
AMY: —what my husband said to me one time. Like, “Is this all cool?”
ANTHONY: Right.
AMY: Yeah.
ANTHONY: And I said, “Okay.” And He said, “Yeah.” And I'm very big on the Christian faith. So I gave, that month I gave 20 percent to my local church, and then I gave another 5 percent to a homeless shelter that I've recently just partnered with because I really want to make sure that I'm giving it. And so it felt good, Amy, to be able to make that much money and, watch this, and be able to give a lot of money.
AMY: Yes. Amen.
ANTHONY: And so it feels good. So before I buy anything, so I don't feel as guilty—because sometimes even after I'll do all that, I still feel a little guilty. Not really guilty, but I’m like ugh, just ugh—but before I do anything for myself, I give. So I give to my church, I give to a nonprofit, and then I go, you know, splurge on myself and my team a little bit.
And that’s one thing, too, I’ve been doing as well, which I learned from my friend and mentor Dave Ramsey, is as I'm building my team, you know, splurge a little bit on them.
AMY: Yes.
ANTHONY: Show them that you're grateful for them, because the only reason why the company is making this kind of money is their excellent work and how they're contributing. And so for Christmas, I mean, I gave everyone a large Christmas bonus. I woke up and just said, “You know what? Let me just drop some money in their pockets.” And it felt so good to get the text messages saying, one of them, she called me crying. You know, it was, “Anthony, thank you. I wasn't expecting this at all, especially from you, because you're just now transitioning and stuff like that.” I was like, “Hey, we had great year, and that year would not have been great without you.” And so I've learned to be generous, show generosity. And I believe that attracts more money. When it attracts more money, it just says we have to be more of a blessing.
AMY: Oh, amen to that. I totally agree. And the thing is, I don't think we should feel guilty. I don't think—I know both of us well, and we work very, very hard and care deeply about the work we do, so I believe we deserve our blessings. But at the same time, it doesn't mean that those feelings don't come up. And so I have a good friend, Stu McLaren, that always says the more you make, the more you can give, and the opportunities for giving are so much bigger the more successful you are. So I love that that’s how you deal with it. Same with me, exactly the same.
But, also, there are some people that are listening that could even be like, “Geez, they're flaunting the fact that they make so much money, and they keep talking about that.” And I want to address it really quickly. The reason I want to talk about this is that sometimes it's not talked about. And there's a lot of people right now that they don't make as much money as we make yet.
ANTHONY: Yes.
AMY: But if they keep at it, they will be having these feelings and these conversations, and I want them to hear it before so that they might be able to navigate it maybe a little bit better than we have.
ANTHONY: And I agree with that. And here's a thing: your tribe or people who are in the entrepreneur space, you become an entrepreneur so you can make more money—
AMY: Yeah.
ANTHONY: —so you can provide better for your family. And so I agree with you. We got to have the conversation, and the conversation should be, like, not just how to make more money, but how do we steward the money that we are given? And I think that's the most important conversation. If the person is not stewarding that money well, then, yeah. But I know Amy, and Amy is blessed. Her and her family are blessed, but she's stewarding that well, and that's why I'm on this podcast, because if she wasn’t, I’d be like, “Amy, I don’t want to be on here with you.”
AMY: Good. I’m glad. I’m glad that you believe that.
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Okay. So here's the thing: speaking about some people that aren't yet making the kind of money they want to make in their business—yet. That’s the key word here—so let's say they aren’t hitting their revenue goals. How can they shift their money mindset so that it doesn't keep them with that low vibe of, you know, “This isn't working? I can never hit my revenue goals.” How do you shift that money mindset that you could turn it around?
ANTHONY: I mean, that's a good one, and this one’s going to be really nothing about money, but it's everything about money, right?
AMY: Okay.
ANTHONY: And so for me, I would say, go deeper into your why. Here's my thing: why are you going after what you're doing? Okay? So get away from money. Okay, we didn't make ten thousand dollars this month, our goals. But what is it that you’re trying to really do? Are you trying to influence people? Are you trying to impact people? Are you trying to help people, serve people? Because my thing is if your why doesn’t make you cry, then the price of commitment to hit that goal will make you cry.
AMY: Okay. One more time. Repeat that. That was good.
ANTHONY: If your why doesn’t make you cry, then the price of commitment to hit that goal will make you cry. It will make you want to give up. But if your why makes you emotional, if it makes you, like, “Yo, okay, I know we didn’t hit it right now, but we’re going to get it next month,” that why has to be so powerful that if you don’t hit it this time, it keeps you going until you hit it. And then when you hit it, it keeps you going even more, until you, killing you, crush that goal.
And so, this is January. We didn’t hit my goal as far as my YouTube numbers, and I was, okay. Cool. Great. That’s one month. All right. So what do we do? My why is there. I didn’t give up. I told my team, “Hey, let's go back to the drawing board.” So we went back and said, “All right. What did not work?” We identified the things that did not work. “All right. Cool. How do we adjust those things to make them better?”
February. We already hit the goal. We've done it because we didn't give up because my why was deep, and then, two, I went and analyzed, okay. What systems do we have into place that we can change, fine tune—
AMY: Yes.
ANTHONY: —and make it better to where it can set us up to better hit our goals? And so those were the two main things is number one, spend enough time to really identify your why, because you need that fuel to keep you going. Then, two, reassess the systems that you have into place that may need to change a little bit. And then, three—this is what I’m going to say—man, I just took your systems course.
AMY: Aah.
ANTHONY: That was fire. You know what I’m saying? That was fire. So I would definitely say get around someone like Amy, who can help you really get your systems better and more effective to where, now, your systems are working for you. So get around someone who’s more influential and wise in the area that you’re in.
AMY: Oh, I'm so glad you brought up systems in general, so that was such a great, great advice to reassess what you're doing and what you might need to tweak to get there. So—
ANTHONY: Yeah.
AMY: —such great advice.
Okay. Before I ask you the next question, I'm just curious: what is your why?
ANTHONY: Man, my why is a little—it’s personal to me, but I trust you. I'm on the Amy Porterfield show, so I'm good. My why is I want to see people of color, minority people, get out of debt and build wealth and leave their children's children's children with wealth. The average African American dies and leaves their family—average African-American male—dies and leaves their family with bills and benefits. And the benefits are only enough to take care of the bills. But they're not leaving them with land, with wealth, with prosperity, with joy, with peace, with freedom. And so my why is to, one, be a great father; two is to be a great husband; and then three, to leave enough wealth, as in wisdom and knowledge, to where the people within my community can gain the wisdom and knowledge to get out of debt, have ownership, start businesses, and to leave their children's children with something.
AMY: Okay. I might cry over your why. That was beautiful, and you live that every single day. My friends, if you're listening right now and you start following Anthony on social, you will see his why in every single thing he posts. This man walks the talk. I didn’t know that was your why, and that is absolutely beautiful, so thank you for sharing.
ANTHONY: Thank you.
AMY: Okay. So here's a question that I get asked all the time, in a different way, so I'm going to—what I get asked all the time is, “Amy, if you were starting from scratch in your online business, what would you do first or how would you start?” So I'm going to flip that, and for you the question is, if you were starting from scratch, where would you put your money? What would it look like?
ANTHONY: Honestly, this may sound like an upsell, but it's not an upsell. I’m being honest. I would literally put my money into me and into building a course. I think—
AMY: Really? Okay, wait.
ANTHONY: Absolutely.
AMY: I was not expecting that. Talk to me.
ANTHONY: That's, I mean, I'm serious. I've learned, right, and I'm talking about from the beginning of my season now, right?
AMY: Okay.
ANTHONY: So it's okay. I put so much time and money into building my brand so I can travel around the world and speak on so many stages. But Amy, I wasn't making good money. I was working hard. I was putting wear and tear on my body. I'm like, wait a minute. I can put all this information—every single thing that I was talking on all these stages on—I can put it inside of a course, still influence and impact people, but I've learned now if I'm influencing and impacting people, that produces income. So I'm like, okay. Let me put money into putting all this knowledge that's inside my head into a course, go out there, serve the people, and that will produce income, and I never left my house.
Like Amy, if we were on a podcast—I don’t know if you can show this, but look. I have on sweats. You know what I’m saying? They don't even match my shirt. I'm sitting here, having a podcast, with a shirt on. It looks good, but my sweats don't match—
AMY: Same.
ANTHONY: —but I’m still influencing and impacting people—
AMY: Yes.
ANTHONY: —and I can make money doing that.
AMY: It’s pretty good. And so actually, you have a few different courses in the works coming out, but one is coming out very soon. Actually, Anthony, by the time I think this episode goes live, your course will officially be out.
ANTHONY: Cool.
AMY: It's exciting, huh? He's very nervous.
ANTHONY: I’m nervous.
AMY: He's actually one week out from when we're recording this. But tell everybody, your course, the topic might surprise people. It's a little bit different than they might expect. So tell people what your course is about because it's really cool.
ANTHONY: Well, for one, I want to thank Amy Porterfield, y'all. Listen, if y’all listen to Amy and y'all have not taken her course, man, listen. This woman has given me so much wisdom to where I owe her, like, a hundred thousand dollars.
AMY: I’m going to put you in my back pocket and take you everywhere. You're my best hype man I have.
ANTHONY: Seriously, she didn't pay me for this. And Amy, actually, y’all, when I say she's a giver, she literally gave me her course for free and her knowledge. So again, I thank you.
But, you know, my first course is coming out. It's called Single's Blueprint: Eight Pillars to Maximize Your Single Season, and to gain clarity on your vision and really start building legacy for your children. And so this course is really about teaching single people how to maximize a single season. One of the top questions I'm always asked as a single person is, why are you not married? And I get tired of married people asking me that question, because I want to ask them, well, why are you still married? Everyone pushes single people towards the ring and towards marriage and towards kids. But no one's really pushing single people towards bettering themselves, chasing their vision, building their knowledge base. And so this course has nothing to do with money, right? It has nothing to do, like, with get out of debt. This is a “let's build a solid foundation and teach you how to maximize your single season.”
Just recently, you and I both were inside of SUCCESS magazine's top 125.
AMY: Yeah.
ANTHONY: And everyone’s like, “Well, Anthony, how are you doing it?” I'm just maximizing my single season. I’m connecting with people like Amy Porterfield, Jasmine Star, Anthony Trucks, your Dave Ramseys. I'm learning from all these people, and I'm building a solid foundation, so whenever I do build this multimillion-dollar business, it's on a solid foundation. And so I'm really excited about the course because this course is not about how to get a man or how to get a woman. This course isn’t about how to make a lot of money. But check this out. This course is about all that because it starts with you internally. And so I'm excited about that one coming out. I mean, not coming out; it’s already out, probably.
AMY: I am so excited. Actually, give a plug for it. So, if people want to go check it out, where do they go?
ANTHONY: I mean, just go to anthonyoneal.com/blueprint. And if it is closed by the time this course comes out, I would definitely say just sign up for the waiting list because we are going to be accepting about twenty people in. Amy, I'm giving people my cell-phone number. I’m giving people my email address. And we’re going to be honestly walking through this journey. And I'm going to say it on your podcast, Amy. I’m going to reach out to your people and ask you to come and talk to our students about, hey, here's how you start thinking about business and stuff.
AMY: Oh, yeah.
ANTHONY: You may say no, and that’s cool. I put you on the spot today.
AMY: I’m not saying no. I love everything you do. So, guys, if this episode, I don't remember when this episode airs, but if it comes out and his enrollment is closed, get on the waitlist if you're interested, because this man knows how to teach. And he, like I said, walks the talk. He knows how to optimize the single season. I think it's so unique. I wish so very much I had a course like this when I was still single. I would've made many better decisions. So yes, I'm so excited for it. And I love that it's a departure from what you typically talk about, which is fun as an entrepreneur to shake it up and do something different. So, I love it.
Okay. So, I’m bringing you back. I’m bringing you back to talking about money. And here's a question that I get asked all the time from different entrepreneurs, do I need a financial advisor?
ANTHONY: I think everyone eventually needs a financial advisor, yes—
AMY: Okay.
ANTHONY: —even if you're making forty thousand dollars.
AMY: Forty thousand dollars. Is that, like, if you had to throw out a benchmark?
ANTHONY: Yeah. So I had to throw out a benchmark as far as, I mean, I think there are seasons. So get a financial advisor even if it's just to sit down with you to help you understand how to invest into your 401(k). But as your income grows, so will the responsibility and the wisdom and the knowledge your financial advisor will give you. So when you start making six-plus figures, then it's going to grow. The wisdom that he gives you or she gives you will grow.
Now, if you start making a half million to a million dollars within your business, then, yeah. Now we can start talking about different things within that, because now you're not just investing into, let's say, a mutual fund and 401(k); now you're looking into the S&P; you're looking into whole different things of how to really properly invest your income.
And so I would say start with a financial advisor as soon as you can afford it because you want to grow with that person so they can properly advise you.
One of my good friends makes about, she's a schoolteacher, and she makes forty-one thousand dollars. She's like, “Oh, do I need a financial advisor?” Yes. But she only talks to her financial advisor once a year. You know, she just comes in there and says, hey, do this; do that. I like this. Okay. Do this. Boom. Great. See you next year.”
Someone like myself, I see my advisor, like, maybe two or three times a year because I just want to make sure that I'm properly doing things correctly as a self-employed individual.
And so I believe everyone should have one and just grow with them as you grow and evolve.
AMY: One of my most favorite ways to find a financial advisor is ask your friends that you admire who have success. They're doing big things. That's how I have, my last two that I got were from people that I'm like, “Who do you use?”—
ANTHONY: Yeah.
AMY: —because I watch them, and they're making great, smart decisions.
ANTHONY: Absolutely.
AMY: Yeah.
ANTHONY: And then, I mean, not just—got to ask them, like, “Hey, have they made you money?”
AMY: Yeah. That’s another great question.
ANTHONY: You know what I’m saying? Like, “Have they made you money, or have they lost you money?” That's a question you need to ask.
AMY: It’s so true. And don't be afraid to move away from a financial advisor that's not a good fit. I got to tell you. When I was just starting out, I think I was maybe second year into my business, so I started to make some money, maybe first year because I wasn't making more than, like, 200K. And I had this financial advisor, and he looks at me, and I had made a bunch of money with a promotion, affiliate promotion. I made, like, sixty thousand dollars. I thought literally I was the richest woman in the whole world. I’m like, “Oh, my gosh.” So I told him I made this money. And he's like, “Whoa, whoa. That's a lot of money.” And then he says, “I never want to make—” this was in California, where we have crazy taxes—and he said, “I never want to make more than two hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year because I'm going to have to pay a lot of taxes.” I thought I cannot continue to use him as a financial advisor. I planned to make a lot more of that in my future. But that was—he never wanted to make more.
ANTHONY: A financial adviser said that?
AMY: Yes!
ANTHONY: Oh!
AMY: To this day I cannot believe it.
ANTHONY: No.
AMY: Yeah. So I thought, okay. We're going to move on, which it's always hard for me to move on from really nice people, so I had to put my big-girl pants on and say, “I think that this working relationship isn't going to work out.” So, yeah.
Okay. So, getting us back on track. Tell me—I bet you know this right away—what's the number one mistake you see most people make with their money.
ANTHONY: Oh, they don’t have a vision or a budget for it.
AMY: I knew you’d know this. They don’t have a vision or a budget for it. Since we talked about vision, tell me the second biggest mistake that you’ve seen.
ANTHONY: I mean, we just said it. They don't invest it. Well, no. Let me go—I got number two. I got number two. Number three, they don't invest. So here's number two: they live above their means. They don't live within their means.
AMY: Okay. This is something you talk about a lot, so break this down a little bit.
ANTHONY: You know, I think a lot of people understand, like, okay, I made ten thousand, so they spend ten thousand. No. You know, it's if you make ten thousand, you should be living off of, like, seven, six thousand.
One of the greatest tools and habits in building true and lasting wealth is margin, okay? So if you're maxing out every single month, that just simply means you're living paycheck to paycheck, gig to gig, month to month. And you need to create a margin to where, hey, every month you're adding to your investment portfolio; you're adding to your savings account; you're adding to your future-legacy portfolio.
And so that comes on both personal and business side. Your business should not be spending every single dime, every single month. No, no, no. Your business should have a savings account. Your business should have an emergency fund. Your business should even have an investment-type portfolio. Like, how are you investing back into the company to produce income for yourself?
And so one of the things that I tell people, especially starting off, is, like, hey, let's say for an example, you’re starting off in the entrepreneur world, and you may make five thousand dollars this month. Okay. Cool, great. Do a budget off of thirty-five hundred, four thousand. Maybe not go all the way low, but maybe four thousand dollars. How do you put that thousand dollars to the side and then live off of and invest and do the things off that four thousand for your business?
So, that's one thing that I really see a huge mistake is they see all this money. But then wait a minute. You made five thousand dollars. Did you set money aside for taxes? Did you set money aside to go back into your business so you can flourish the next month? Did you pay yourself a little bit? Most, more than likely what I see with entrepreneurs is they make five thousand; they spend five thousand. And then when it comes to tax season, they're just in trouble, and they're frustrated.
So, that’s the second mistake that I see, especially within the entrepreneur space, mistake that I have, which goes back to the budget and the vision. If they had a clear budget, that second mistake will be avoided.
AMY: Yes. Yes. I love how you tie it back.
Okay. So, tell me this: what’s the best piece of money advice you have ever received?
ANTHONY: The best piece of money advice that I've ever received—this is going to be, you know, spiritual, but the best—
AMY: Okay. I like it. Bring it on.
ANTHONY: Yeah, this is spiritual. For every one dollar, give God back ten cents.
AMY: Mm.
ANTHONY: So for every one hundred dollars, give God back ten dollars. And a lot of people say, “Well, how's that the best piece of money advice?” It’s because, again, it goes back to just me being a good steward and me being generous, because if I—the best investment I can do is just be obedient to what I believe to be the number-one money generator. That's just giving it back to the Person who gave it to me, you know. And if I want to make ten million dollars this year, I need to show Him that He can trust me with two million, with one million. If I want to make a hundred thousand dollars, well, I need to show Him I can be a good steward with twenty-five thousand, thirty thousand.
That’s the best advice that someone has given me when it comes to, like, just be obedient, just really be generous with your money, because selfishness does not get you anywhere. And I was like, okay.
AMY: So true. I love that I asked you that question, and that was your answer. I think that is a beautiful answer. And it's actually a perfect way to tie everything up. But before we do, I do this thing on this show. It's the rapid-fire questions—
ANTHONY: Okay.
AMY: —and I've got five of them. When people do this to me on their shows, I’m always a little nervous, like, “Oh, no. What if I don’t know the answer?” But I think we’re going to kill it with these. So are you ready?
ANTHONY: All right. I’m ready.
AMY: Okay.
ANTHONY: I can do it.
AMY: First question is, who is someone that's inspiring you at the moment, and why?
ANTHONY: My friend Dharius Daniels, Pastor Dharius Daniels. He is a pastor but also an entrepreneur, and I never really understood, or I never really thought that entrepreneurship can be tied to a pastor. I thought you had to be a pastor and kind of just live miserable a little bit. But he's really showing me that, yo, you can be a multimillionaire, making millions on the entrepreneurship side while still serving God and serving people and helping people.
AMY: Ooh, I think there’s some people on the show that needed to hear that, or are listening to the show. So, yeah, I’m glad you shared that.
Okay. Are there any favorite resources or apps that you love that help you to manage your money? Resources or apps.
ANTHONY: Yeah. The number-one thing for me is EveryDollar. I love that app because I check that app, which is a budgeting tool for your personal life and your business life to really keep you in line with your vision. So I check EveryDollar before I even check my bank account.
AMY: Nice. I don’t even know that app, so I’m going to look into that. EveryDollar, okay.
ANTHONY: Yeah. EveryDollar.
AMY: What is your definition of financial freedom and success?
ANTHONY: Ooh, that’s easy. That's so easy. My definition is this: I can do whatever I want when I want with who I want how I want it.
AMY: Ooh. That’s so good! Yes! I echo that 100 percent.
Okay. What is one thing you regret spending your money on?
ANTHONY: Ooh, girlfriends in the past.
AMY: I hope they're not listening right now.
ANTHONY: I hope they are, Amy.
AMY: Okay.
ANTHONY: You know how much interest I've paid on those people? Like, Lord Jesus.
AMY: Okay. That is the best answer ever.
And what is the last thing you splurged on that you didn't regret?
ANTHONY: I just bought a brand-new car.
AMY: Did you really?
ANTHONY: You know what? Let me say this again because I teach against “brand new.” It's brand new to me, but it is a quality used.
AMY: What is it?
ANTHONY: Oh, Jesus, save me.
AMY: Come on. Just tell us. You guys, if you can't see it, he seems a little nervous right now. He’s a little nervous. I’m going to guess. I’m going to guess. Is it a Tesla?
ANTHONY: No.
AMY: Is it a BMW?
ANTHONY: No, no, no.
AMY: Is it a VW van?
ANTHONY: A VW van? No, no, no, no, no. I just bought—you know, I’m in the snow, so I just bought a Range Rover Sport SVR.
AMY: Okay. I have a Range Rover. My favorite. My favorite.
ANTHONY: Yes, yes, yes, yes.
AMY: Yes. Okay. Good for you.
ANTHONY: So I bought that so that way I can have a four wheel. And it felt good to be able to pay cash for it, you know?
AMY: Oh, so fantastic. I bet that felt good. Good for you.
ANTHONY: It felt great.
AMY: I like that.
ANTHONY: Yeah.
AMY: Oh, my friend, Anthony, this has been one of my most favorite conversations. I knew that you would bring it, and I knew it'd be a lot of fun. I knew I would laugh a lot and my cheeks would hurt, which is always the best feeling ever. So thank you so much for being here. And tell everybody, where can they find you, on social and your website, podcast, all that good stuff.
ANTHONY: Man, listen. I would love for y’all to join me over there at my show, The Table with Anthony O’Neal. You can find that on YouTube. Instagram, it’s @anthonyoneal. But if you really want to find everything, all things about me, go to anthonyoneal.com. All my social, YouTube shows, courses, free resources is right there at anthonyoneal.com.
AMY: Perfection.
Thank you, my friend. I'm so very glad that you've come on the show.
ANTHONY: Oh, man, thank you for having me on it.
AMY: The thing I love about these conversations around money and finance is that there's always something new to learn. Honestly, even thirteen years into being an entrepreneur, I gained so much knowledge and insight when I get to learn from people like Anthony. I also love that we can share some of our deepest—I don't know—challenges or mindset blocks or things we've dealt with in the past, because I think you just start to feel less alone. I can only imagine how beneficial it would have been for me to know these things that Anthony talked about today when I was just getting started. So for those of you who are just getting started, I hope you found that really valuable.
So, here's what I want you to do. I want you to take just one thing that you learned here today—just one thing—and implement by the end of the week. So maybe you’re going to get clear on your vision, or maybe you're going to explore some of those feelings that are coming up for you around not making the kind of revenue you think you should be making or dealing with some of that guilt that you've dealt with because you are making some money. I mean, there's just a lot of stuff that we talked about in this episode that something I know stood out for you more than other things. I want you to run with that, whether you need to explore it more, journal about it, or actually take some kind of tangible action, whatever would work for you. What I want you to avoid is listening to this podcast, getting great ideas, and then just moving on to the next thing. I find that if you don't take action right away, it's harder to act at all.
So, here's my tough love for you today. Get into action with some of these strategies right away. You'll thank yourself down the road, trust me.
And again, if you'd be so kind to share this episode with someone you know would find it valuable, I would greatly appreciate it. You can leave a review or a rating, which you can now do on Spotify, too, by the way. So if you use Spotify, please leave us a rating and a review. We would greatly appreciate it. But Anthony is an amazing guy, and I want more and more people to learn from him, so I would greatly appreciate if you would share this episode.
All right, my friends, I'll see you next time, same time, same place. Bye for now.