From $500 to Millions: Kiana Danial's Triple Compounding Investment Blueprint

Hey, thank you for being here. I've got some good news for you. I've been excited to share with you. The Unstoppable Success Summit is happening in Irving, Texas, April 30th, 2026. And I want to see you in the room because I know one room can change everything. I just feel like you're one room, one conversation, one connection, one collaboration away from everything shifting in your business, your mindset, and your future. And so get in the right room, join us in Irving, and learn insider knowledge from top business owners. We got 12 amazing speakers. You'll network with people who will elevate you and learn proven strategies to eliminate guesswork. You don't have to do it alone. So join us in Irving. And you know what? It's for a good cause because proceeds are going to be donated to Call to Freedom. So this won't just be impacting your lives. It will be helping so many women who have been survivors of human trafficking. So let's be unstoppable together. This isn't just another event. It's an opportunity to change everything and really have unstoppable success. So go to go.amberlylago.com/uss2026 and I will see you in the room. You can also find that link at Amberly Lago Motivation on Instagram. And in the show notes.

Okay.

I will see you in Irving. Welcome to the Amberly Lago Show, where grit, grace, and joy connect you to unstoppable success.

Thank you for tuning into the show. Oh my goodness. I have a treat for you today. If you want to master managing your money, especially, I know finances, Especially this time of year can be tough. So my next guest helps you build and invest and grow your investment portfolio, even if you aren't a math whiz, you don't have a ton of extra cash, and you're busy juggling just life and family. Today I have the amazing Deanna Danielle, and she is, oh my gosh, an award-winning entrepreneur.

Thank you.

She is the founder and CEO of Invest Diva, the creator of the Triple Compounding System. Y'all, I got the book. You gotta grab the book. It's gonna be your new Bible for finances. Oh my goodness. She's been featured on so many different things. I could go on and on. Like, she's been featured on Fox Business, CNBC, Yahoo, Forbes, Business Insider, you name it. And what I love the most is she has turned tragedy into triumph, trauma into a real story of success. So Kiana, thank you for being here and welcome to the show.

Thank you for having me. So good to meet you.

You too. Well, I have to tell you, I get— I started following you, you know, a while back on Instagram and TikTok, and I get sucked into your videos. Y'all got to follow her at Invest Diva. Because I'm telling you, you will be, well, if you've got some time, because you're going to want to get stuck. You're going to look at her page. You're so entertaining and you make learning about finances fun because I like kind of shut down when people start talking about investments and portfolios and Bitcoin and all that, but you actually make it so entertaining. So y'all head over there and go follow her now. You won't regret it. But what I love so much is the story of how you grew up and just with your dad was this entrepreneur, very successful, lost it all. And you turned what really you call like a trauma, you inherited trauma, but you turned that into triple compounding and you retired your rocket scientist hubby. So can you tell me a little bit about How you discovered triple compounding and what exactly that is so we can all take this and run with it and triple compound our lives.

Absolutely. And so here's the thing about portfolios and how Wall Street bros and finance gurus just make it so intimidating. Just a bit of a backstory on how I discovered investing is not as intimidating as they sound, as they make it to be. Because guess what? If you learn what I learned, what my members, my students have learned, guess who's gonna lose their job? The financial advisors, the money managers, because you're no longer intimidated. You're like, oh my gosh, I can actually do it myself. So they have come up with all of these words Bear, bull, like, I don't know, like they have all of these names that is just like insider vocabulary for things that are just normal. Like instead of saying, oh, market crash, bearish, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, we as women would call it a bargain sale.

I love it. I love how you simplify things because you know what? It is intimidating.

It is. They make it so intimidating. And I was so intimidated and I didn't know anything about money. My background is not finance. I actually suck at math, which is a little bit embarrassing because I did marry a rocket scientist and he does make fun. He did, at least he doesn't anymore because I retired him, but he used to make fun of my math. And it has nothing to do with math. Like, if you can, if you're good at finding deals on Black Friday, you're gonna be good at investing. That's the bottom line. And we're gonna get into that. But, um, I just wanted to address that cuz you're like, oh my gosh, my brain is gonna shut down. I'm like, no, this is actually fun and this is actually easy. Women crush it. We're actually good at this.

Well, you started out with $500 and used it to— now your portfolio I think is like $18 million. Is that right? Or is it even more now?

Well, the market is up today, so it's more. It goes up and down depending on the market. But I do want to specify something. When I say triple compounding, and I know triple compounding itself sounds intimidating, is by design. But when I say I grew a portfolio with just $500 or grew my net worth, if you will, with just $500, it wasn't by getting lucky in a stock. Or in Bitcoin. Is it okay if I just really dive into, and we'll get into my story because I know your story.

Oh, I, I love it.

Your story, my story, we should like build a team.

Yeah. Well, you know what? I need to put the link of you telling the story about your father and what, how you grew up with bombs going off and everything. I need to put a link for that.

Well, we'll get into that. So here, yeah. So I was growing, I'll give you a mini version of that. I was born and raised to a Jewish family in Iran after the Iranian Revolution of 1979. So Iran used to be a prosperous country. The revolution happened, everything went down, unfortunately, which I'm very, very scared about America right now. I'm hoping that is not going to happen here. However, what happened there is that my father, who was a self-built entrepreneur who was very young, who had got all of these gigs with the Iranian government, the Shah, the new Iranian regime came in and they're like, hey, you are rich and Jewish, let's take all of your money. And they were not, my dad was not the only person. They killed so many people, executed all the wealthy people, or anybody who had done anything with the previous government or had any money at all. They would execute them. My dad got lucky because the guy who was about to sign his execution letter turned out to be his buddy from military. They like, they served in the army cuz in Iran you have to do the draft. So they, they turned out, oh my gosh, like, I know you. And so he let him go and that gave my dad like some sort of balls somehow. So he stayed in Iran and like they tried to sue the government. It's crazy stuff. I was born—

I also love, I'm sorry, I love how You turn this story and you say, it's the power of networking. It's like who you know, like it really is though. That saved your dad's life.

It 100% did. And he was like a good person. And that guy also is like, like, you know, when you know people and beyond the surface level, it is insane. Like go out and like build relationships like that. If you have any takeaways from that. And I was born, uh, 5 years into the revolution when the Iran-Iraq War was going on during the bombardments. And I remember to this day, cuz that war went on for 8 years, and I remember just hearing the sirens rushing down to the basement because we knew a bomb could like just hit us. And, um, so that is how I grew up. And what really impacted me though was my mom. longing for the good old days. I had never seen that. All I had going for me was my mom just telling me the stories of how like they had this amazing life and they had chauffeurs and they had this and that, and then all of it got taken away from them. And she was basically mourning the loss.

Mm-hmm.

And I think that took me into a protector and I'm like, okay, I need to make my parents happy. It's like a lot of psychology that goes into that. So. That is when I decided I'm going to become rich. I'm going to become rich. So I knew from a very early age that I'm going to become wealthy. And it took a very long time. I'm 41 now. So finally, I finally made it. But it was through what I now call triple compounding. And it is not just about investing in stocks.

Mm-hmm.

Amberly, I don't know if you know, but you already are at least doing the first 2 compoundings of triple compounding from what I've seen.

Oh, well, let's get into it. You tell me.

You already are doing it. Isn't that good news?

Yes. Yes.

I want to do more.

I want to do more. I'm watching your videos. I'm like, this girl is doing it. She's getting it. All she has to do is the next, the 3rd extension if she's not already doing that.

Yeah, I want, well, tell us number one, and it might not be what people are expecting you to say.

It's not. So Amberly, the most important investment. So triple compounding is investing in 3 different asset classes. Compounding, the word compounding means to put together. So you have something and you put something on top of it, that's compounding. And then you put something else on top of it, that's Double compounding. Another thing on top of it is triple compounding. That's what triple compounding is. So when you invest in one asset and that asset makes money, then you compound it, investing in a different asset, and that asset grows money, and then you compound that income with a third asset. That is triple compounding, and you already know. What the most important and the most valuable asset you will ever encounter is you. You are the most valuable asset because no matter where the stock market is, no matter what economy you're at, no matter what is happening, no matter what bombs are dropping where. You will always have access to you.

Mm-hmm.

So the first investment in triple compounding is you. So when you went and said, hey, I have a 1% chance of getting my leg fixed, that was you going all in, in you, developing the mindset that will literally Do miracles. That is the first investment in triple compounding. And somebody would say, oh, okay, Kiana, this is not groundbreaking. Like, why are we saying that this is a mindset thing? I'll tell you, when we will get to investing in stocks, investing in cryptocurrencies, somebody who has taken the time to invest in themself, to learn the skills to become a confident investor, Even if I give you the same exact stock at the same exact price, the person who has done the first compounding will have different results than the person who's just here to get lucky. And you know what?

That's something that people don't talk about.

Oh yeah. Financial advisors don't talk about this. Investing is so psychological. It's all about psychology.

Mm-hmm. So how would somebody start to increase their confidence or bet on themselves if they are not feeling confident?

Learn. Actually do. So I would say learn, but learning, as you know, is not enough. You actually need to implement, and the best learnings come from making mistakes. It's so— so when I was just getting started, I actually was investing in something ridiculous. that my first book is actually is about, which is insane cuz I no longer even agree with my first book.

Really?

Yes. My first book was published by McGraw-Hill. I taught it in Baruch College in New York City as an adjunct professor. And I'm looking back now, like 14 years later, I'm like, oh my gosh, what was I thinking? This is insane. This is ridiculous. But through that, I learned, I compounded, I came up With the next levels. So actually doing it, learning, getting, putting yourself into environments that actually teach you about the skill they're about to, about to go into. So if it's investing in stocks, yes, learn about them. Like with ChatGPT, it's never been easier, right? Although be careful, it does hallucinate. So now follow me on Instagram and I'll show you how to do it. I mean, I can give you just Just the first 5 steps right here, if that's okay.

Yeah, that'd be awesome.

All right. So if you're just getting started, the thing that is going to give you the most amount of confidence in your investments in external assets like stock is that knowing where you stand currently financially. Most people don't even know. How much income is coming in every month? How much income is going out? What is their net at the end of the year? If you are like a panicky person, you might be underestimating how financially well off you are. And if you're an overconfident person, you might be overestimating what your net worth is. And I've always, every time I do this, I do this once per year and I'm always off. I have a feeling that my finances are doing great, then I actually put in the numbers and I'm like, oh my gosh, I need to be actually a little bit more careful. And then sometimes like, oh my gosh, I don't have any money. And you're like, oh no, I'm actually doing well.

Yeah. That profit and loss, man, at the end of the year is always fun.

Yes. And being on top of it every single month will just give you that much more confidence because you know where you are.

Yeah.

Just like, you know, you want to use a GPS, you want to go from point A to point B, you need to know where you are right now. That is the first step you need to take. If you understand that, okay, I only have $50 per month to risk, then you're not going to worry about it once you actually go in. And maybe even if you lose it, it's not going to be as big of a deal because you know that you are standing on a safety net and that $50 didn't really make it difference in your financial situation. So you need to know where you are. The second thing you need to do is you need to be clear about where you wanna go and in what timeframe. Clear, clarity, measurably, exactly where you want to go and what timeframe. Again, you don't wanna stretch it, but you don't, you do wanna challenge yourself a little bit. This is like any other goal setting. Right? You need to know where you are, where you want to go, have that clarity, and then based on that, you can now go on and create a portfolio. All right, so here are the steps you do that if you don't already have a portfolio. If I were to start just, it was just starting and I had like $10,000 to invest, the first thing I would do, I would first set aside That safety net, that is 3 to 6 months of your essential expenses. That is your rent, mortgage, food, what have you. You put it aside in a, hopefully a high yield savings account. What's that? Is a, is a, is a savings account that actually pays you money. Now, with interest rates now going lower, you're gonna get paid less.

Mm-hmm.

But as long as it's not zero, Those high yield savings accounts, you wanna say, write this down. A high yield savings account is gonna pay you every single month for that safety net, which is great. So it's keeping up with inflation. And a high yield savings account, you can open it with Fidelity. Just call them up, say, hey, I want a high yield savings account. And they're so good. The customer support there is so good. Or Charles Schwab, they're both good. They'll help you out. That's the first thing. The second thing, if you have never invested before, Is you want to open a tax-free brokerage account. Again, you can do that in the US with Fidelity, Charles Schwab, and it is called a Roth IRA. So what this does is that you can now contribute to this account and all the money that you make in this, it is going to be tax-free and you can take out your principal, what you already put into that penalty-free if you ever need it. Now, hopefully you're not gonna need that. You're gonna let it grow, and by the time you're 59 and a half, you can even take out the growth amount without paying any taxes. So it's one of the best things you can do for yourself. And if your kids are minors and they have jobs, you can create a Roth IRA for kids as well.

Oh, I haven't thought of that.

Ooh, it's so cool.

Oh, wow.

So my daughter is 7. She's employed in my company.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

And because she has that income, she has a Roth IRA for kids. She's had it since she was zero because she was a model for my business. And now she's helping me out with other things. And her portfolio is, is on track to becoming, turning into a million dollars while she's in middle school.

That is so, so cool.

Yeah.

Well, I've actually just, uh, now my husband was, uh, he was retired and now he's employed by me.

Nice.

And so sometimes he forgets and I'm like, wait a minute, you forgot that you are on my team now. That means you need to drive me to the airport. But it is so important to know where you are, like really take an honest look at where you are in your finances and Um, I think I need to get in, I know I need to get in the habit of looking at that every single week, actually. I used to do that when I had my former business, and then I haven't been doing that lately. So I'm going to do that. You've motivated me to do that and be clear, like, where do I want to go? But my question for you about the high yield savings, because my husband and I go back and forth on this, he thinks I'm crazy for wanting a little more money in the bank. But to me, it's like, because I was without money, Mm-hmm. And didn't know, I was a single mom and I was like, okay, do I buy toilet paper or do I buy a can of food? Like, like what's, what should I do? We had a 99-cent store right down the street from this tiny little apartment that I rented. And I was like, I will never be in that position again. And so there's a part of me that makes me feel safe to have a little more money in the bank in case anything happened. I have money. I'm not going to be without a roof over my head. I'm not going to be without food. And I know that's like that psychological stuff I need to deal with, but how much more, you said 3 to 6 months, I think, to have it in the high-yield savings. Is it really just stupid to have more than that? Should—

Absolutely not. It really does depend on your risk tolerance. And when I say risk tolerance, we actually have a questionnaire. So when you, I have this masterclass that you can go and watch, it's like hours. The first thing I do is I give you this sheet, you answer a bunch of questions. It depends on your risk tolerance. Personal finance is personal.

Okay.

I happen to have a very low risk tolerance, even though I have an 8-figure portfolio, but because of my trauma, I'm like you. I need to have more than 6 months. I in fact have 12 months of safety net For my family and 12 months of safety net for my business. I have 2.

Okay. Okay. That makes sense.

Because my psychology, again, the whole point of financial literacy is a peace of mind and you and your husband have different risk tolerances and that's okay. The communication starts here and really it's like therapy. It's like money therapy. Okay. What is your risk tolerance? This is my risk tolerance. Let's find a happy medium so that we are both feeling Secure and safe.

Yes. And, you know, we did have that conversation and it was like, it really helped to have the conversation. And what helped me was he asked, he finally, we were in an argument and he was like, well, Amberly, how much money is going to make you feel safe? And I was like, I came up with that number. And it was like, that makes me feel good to know the number. That is going to make me feel safe. So I think it's important to know what is going to make you feel safe. Is it 6 months or is it a year? For me, it's more like I need a year. I need to know. I mean, after being in a coma in the hospital, my husband could not get the money out of my account to pay bills because we had separate accounts and he could not access the money to pay the bills. And so after that, we changed everything and now we have a joint account and we have a trust. And all of that, because God forbid, you know, we didn't think about, oh, I could die and be in a coma. And like, we didn't think about that. We, you know, but so we did do some drastic things that were kind of scary for me at first. When you have that trauma financially, either from a bad divorce or something that you've been through, it's like really important to talk about it. So there is a lot of psychology around doing that. Oh.

All finance is, is actually psychology. And we didn't even get into stocks investing right now, but even that is all about psychology. The markets go up and down because of market psychology. It's mostly finance bros' psychology. So we have to read their— it's basically therapy. Like literally investing is financial therapy and understanding what people are thinking, how you are feeling, being in control of your emotions. Being aware of your emotions and creating strategy based on your psychology.

Well, I saw the post that you did where you show the portfolio of when the market like went down and you lost like $4 million or something. And then the next slide, it's like, but it went up. Like where most people were freaking out, You stuck it through. And so talk to us about that. Like, if people are sitting there going, oh, I am scared to death of investing, I don't want to do that, where's someplace that they could start if they are super scared about doing anything with the stock market? Would you suggest them even investing in the stock market, or where should they go? What should they do?

100%. Stock market is the best thing after Bitcoin. I mean, I am I would say I'm low risk, but because I have done my research, I understand stocks and cryptocurrency, and I want you to understand it as well. But here's where you start. The best place to start really is what you already know, you know? So the first investment was in you. The second investment is something that you already know about. So that's why typically the second investment's actually your business, 'cause that's your expertise.

Mm-hmm.

And then when you get to other people's assets, AKA stocks, private equity, real estate, you wanna start with something that you already know.

Oh, yeah.

So what are some of these companies? And we live in America. There is an abundance of companies that are publicly traded that you are a customer of. So what's his name? I forgot. One of the biggest Wall Street investors of all time in his book that is like 900 pages says, A person who invests, like a mom who knows a business and invests in that stock, knows way better than a Wall Street bro who's sitting at his desk and has no idea about that particular business. You know more about, I don't know where you shop, Costco or Whole Foods, than that Wall Street bro. You know more about the stuff that you purchase. So The best, the first things that I typically invest in are the companies that I know about or my husband knows about. Now, my husband has a tech background, so we invested in NVIDIA before it was cool. For example, NVIDIA is one of these AI stocks that everybody's crazy. We invested in 2016, not because we knew it was gonna go into AI, but because he was a gamer, computer gamer, and he used to buy NVIDIA chips. And I'm like, oh my gosh, if you're spending this much money on NVIDIA chips, I'm gonna buy that. So that's how we invested in NVIDIA.

You are kidding. Yeah. Way back then you invested that before like AI was a big thing.

It had, and it had nothing to do with AI. It's not like I was Nostradamus. I just literally invested. I mean, this was a bit, a bit of an element of luck, but for example, my daughter, oh my gosh, she gets so addicted to Roblox that we have now blocked it from her iPad.

However, my daughter used to do that too. She was into that too.

Yeah. And I'm like, so, but like, as soon as I saw this is so addictive, I'm like, guess how many kids are going to be continuing to be addicted to it? And I saw my nephews, everybody's addicted to it. Guess what I purchased? Roblox. And it's up like 100%.

That's smart. Okay. So let me ask you about Tesla. What do you think about Tesla, investing in Tesla?

So that gets a little bit more technical. So there are 5 points that I look at when I invest in an asset. Tesla, we drive Teslas actually. So Tesla has been in my portfolio for a long time, but do you remember when I said that markets are very psychological?

Yeah.

And now, yeah, every stock has its own personality, just like human beings.

Okay.

So for example, Apple stock, just like your iPhone, is neat. You know exactly, it goes up like 150% and then it drops 25% and then it goes up on another. So it's like Very neat, the patterns.

Tesla, not so much.

Tesla is as crazy as its founder, and it's great because again, when you read the patterns, history doesn't repeat, but it rhymes. So you look at every stock's patterns, and Tesla has created so much opportunity for me and my members because the patterns, even though chaotic, For the past 10 years, rhyme.

Yeah.

Elon Musk says something crazy, it drops. And this is back in the when, this is like before he even got political.

Uh-huh.

It was a time that he would like go and smoke weed.

Yeah.

Oh yeah. The stock drops and then we knew, hey, this is the impact of the CEO. Let's go on buy, sale. Awesome. But because we knew the company itself has value, we wouldn't budge in. We would actually buy more when the stocks drop. And then it also has a pattern. It's not as clean, but it has a pattern. So I also take a profit after every year or so. I go half out and then I buy more when it drops again.

And it's— That's exactly what we do with, with Tesla as well. Yeah. Okay, well, I'm glad to hear that, that I'm on the right track with that.

You're on the right track.

Okay, so you need to know, like, kind of— I'm sure too, whatever you're going to invest in, you need to, like you said, know it, but also be compatible with its personality and just know that, like, okay, Tesla might be a little crazy, but it's going to rhyme, so I'm going to stick to it. Um, so I like that. What else should someone think about when investing?

Right. So we are just right now talking about the 3rd phase of triple compounding, which is investing in external assets. And in that, do you see this diamond behind me? Which side is it? This diamond?

Yeah.

I have this diamond analysis system that gives you a 5-step analysis. We just talked about 4 of them. The first point is we call it Capital analysis, which is your capital, knowing where you are.

Okay.

The second point of that diamond is called intentional, which is where, where you wanna go. What is your intention? The third point, we just briefly talked about it. It's fundamental, knowing about that asset. If you're already a customer of it, great. If you don't, if you aren't a customer of it, there are ways to learn more about it. And I'm not talking about like their financial reports. Those are finance bro jargon. When I talk about fundamental analysis, I'm looking at this asset as an entrepreneur. I'm like, okay, is their marketing on point? What is the CEO? What is the talent? Who is working in there? Where, what category is this? Is this category going to be relevant in the next 10 years? That is what I call, that is what I mean by fundamental analysis. So we've so far had 3 points of the diamond. The 4th point was the psychology and the rhyming. We call it technical analysis. There is an, it's an art. So chart art. So you go and learn what has it done in the past? What is its past trauma? What psychological issues has it had? So you can just see it all in the chart, on the chart. And the 5th point. It is sentimental analysis. Sentimental analysis is basically what Wall Street bros, the market sentiment, what are they feeling about it? And typically, if they're going super panicky, that is when we actually become greedy. So sentimental analysis is reading now the finance bros' emotions and going against it. Technical analysis was reading the stocks. Psychology. So it's all about psychology, as you saw, right? So psychology overload. So the stock psychology and the market sentiment, what is the finance or the market psychology? And based on all of that, you create a strategy that is suitable again to you and your risk tolerance, because everybody's different.

I love that. So with this Diamond, you have the club. So is that part of like a group that you teach and people get their diamond and get to put it on?

Oh yeah. Yeah. We actually just celebrated. So we just took over NASDAQ. We rented out NASDAQ for my book launch. I saw that.

But you know what I love, Kiana, is that you had video on the NASDAQ. I'd never seen that before. I've only seen a picture.

I literally had that vision. And that's funny because that video, we had so many takes with so many different photographers, cuz I had this vision that I'm like, just You know, walking on Times Square. So I needed it to be like me, like a cape, and I'm like walking and I'm showing my book. So that video was the vision and it came exactly true. But yeah, so that was on the billboard. Then we went inside NASDAQ and we celebrated our members who— so this one, ah, this one is the $500K Club. My members who started with nothing got to $500,000 in their portfolio using the same Diamond Strategy that we just talked about. And we celebrated so many of our 7-figure members, people who reached $1 million and more in their portfolios using these strategies, majority of them within 18 months. So, I mean, right now the markets are great, but even without that, it is just amazing how when you apply the principles, things just work.

Yeah. And, oh, one more thing before we move on, because I have a few more questions. So you guys, yeah, this book, I'm telling you, apply it to your finances. Reach out to Kiana, follow her because you're gonna, if you want to really learn how to, um, take a hold of your finances. I loved your video of the NASDAQ when you had the whole crowd of people there with you and it looked like so much fun. Because usually, you know, and it just gave me an idea because I'm going to be going to New York in February to be on the NASDAQ. And I think of like taking a picture of me holding a book. But when I saw yours, I was like, no, I want this to be a party.

I want it to be.

So that's amazing that you went inside too. So, um, I have a lot of influencers that listen to the show, a lot of moms, a lot of entrepreneurs. And I want to know, like, how important is influence in the triple compounding system? Like, what is your advice to people that have— and I say influencer now, there are people that you might have 2,000 followers, but you have an engaged audience. Therefore, you are influencing those people and it's up to you to influence them in a positive way. So how, what is your advice for someone, let's say, who has 2,000 followers? That they want to, you know, really increase their reach and their presence online. What advice, and because you do it beautifully, I mean, your stuff goes viral on every platform. It's unbelievable. What can you tell us? What are your secrets, uh, that we can apply so we can increase our influence and impact?

Yes. So influence is absolutely a part of Triple Compounding System. That is the second phase when you invest in your extensions in your business. Especially with AI now, influence is becoming even more important because people understand that AI is so generic. Everybody's just getting spammed by all of these generic things that AI is just spitting out. And right now it's kind of fun, but in 2, 3 years, people are going to crave for that genuine connection.

Mm-hmm.

So even if you have 10 followers, even if you have 50 followers, as long as it is an engaged audience and you have that connection with them, that is all that matters. And like, I'm actually relatively, like, there are competitors, if you will, in the finance industry who has millions of, who have millions of followers, but I make a lot more money than them in my business because I have focused. Now, having a small niche is one of the scariest and the most impactful things that you can do to grow your business. I'm not just talking about having views or followers because views and followers are not going to turn into real impact, are not going to turn into real money. I'll tell you, I started my business 13 years ago and for 8 years I was going nowhere. And I had this thing in my mind that, okay, investing is for men. So I'm gonna talk to men and I'm gonna try to like compete with all the men's club. And I had this limiting belief that moms are not interested in investing.

Wow.

2020, when COVID hit, I made this radical decision and I had just become a mom to maybe try it out. Let me talk to moms. And it wasn't like in my video that I said, when I said, hey moms, I was just holding my baby talking about investing.

I love it.

That is when I started to go viral.

Wow.

Now, right now, every time a video flops, I know it was because I went too broad. I wasn't talking to one person and each and every one of my videos that are going viral. is when I'm speaking to one person. So the story that you saw about me and my dad, that I was specifically, specifically talking to immigrants. Now, you are not an immigrant. You're as Texan as it gets, but because I was speaking to one person, it drew other people in. It's insane that when you speak to just one person, it actually has a bigger impact.

It does. And that's with even in newsletters, if you're saying, hey everyone, versus Talking to the one person. And also on solocasts and podcasts, I imagine myself talking to one person. So whether you're writing a caption for a post, doing a newsletter, or doing a solocast, it's so important to talk to the one. Actually, when I was reading my book for the audio version of my book, I was reading it going, oh man, I should have changed that. Oh, and I don't like to I don't want to say should. I guess should is a shame word, but I was like, man, I wish I could go back and change that and just said you instead of, you know, plural or just talk about one person. So that is so awesome that you specifically focus on that one. Now I have to ask, did you just get so good at these videos? Because I'm like, man, you could be like an actress. I mean, they're authentic, but you're so good and you're so entertaining or a comedian because did you have like—

Thank you for saying that. No, I literally decided this past April that I'm going to be funny.

You are though. You are so—

I wasn't before. I just decided I'm going to be funny and it's suddenly—

It's so good because you're such a great storyteller. Like seriously so funny. And that's why, like, um, when I was introduced to you, I start— I like started like stalking your page basically because I was like, oh my gosh, I like— like I immediately was like, I like her. She's funny. She— and, and y'all, if you're not watching this on YouTube and you're listening, she's like gorgeous too.

Oh, thank you.

So you gotta Like, go check her out on Instagram or watch this on YouTube because gorgeous. So yeah, I, I could see why you offer so much value when you're sharing, but you make it so entertaining too. So that's such good advice to do that too. And also, like, did you ever have any fear about posting or, or standing up there holding the mic, talking into the camera?

Boy, did I have any fear. So I started posting. It's been a long time coming. I started posting back in 2012 before I was married, and I come from a very, very conservative family. My sister, she's 11 years older than me, and her goal in life for me was to get married to a rich surgeon. And—

And you lived in Japan also, where everything is very quiet.

Very conservative. And so when I decided that I'm going to start hosting, this is 2012. My sister, I remember her, she was pregnant with my nephew and she was going around in the kitchen and she's like, you are making a fool out of yourself. No one's ever going to marry you. Like, this is embarrassing. And I'm like, oh my gosh. So it was very nerve-wracking. I was literally humiliating my family. Now they were proud, but they couldn't see the vision. And so, and if you Go and watch my videos from like 12 or 10 years ago. It's embarrassing, but I mean, that's the thing. Like anything is like riding a bike. The more you do it, the better you become at it. My first attempts of becoming funny were not that funny. The videos that you're seeing right now is my third, fourth attempt, and I finally, I'm like getting it. Okay, if I say it like this, people are gonna laugh. So just like anything else, I was not born funny at all. It is just something that I'm now experimenting with and it's fun.

Oh, you make it fun. But also, I have to ask you, are you— do you find motivation when people tell you that you can't do something? Because you had a former boss that was like, you will never be a financial analyst. And then you had your sister like, you are never gonna find a husband. Like, do you find motivation?

And then I had my husband saying, you are not funny. So yes.

I find that I get motivated by that too. I'm like, oh really? I can't do that? Well, watch me. I'm going to do it.

So it's the best blessing. I'm like, ah, it's like, and when nobody's like challenging me, I'm like, okay, so what? So there are 2 things that I find motivation in. Somebody telling me I can't do it. And another thing that I, the reason why I keep going, because people keep asking me, okay, you have all of this money. Like, why, why, like, just go relax. And I'm like, Oh my gosh, I never thought I'm actually changing people's lives. So we had this event that you saw with all those people. Those are all my students. And they were like giving me cards, like gifts and everything. I'm like, why are you giving me gifts? And they're, in their cards are like, thank you for changing my life. And I changed your life. And like that, I'm like, I'm never gonna I'm not, never gonna sleep ever again. Like, I'm just gonna keep going because this was something that I wasn't really anticipating. I initially just wanted to make money.

Wow.

And now the ripple effect of that is that people are actually, actually getting influenced and actually changing their lives for the better, which to me, sometimes it just, I can't even wrap my head around. I'm like, really? I changed your, what? Like, how? Like, I, and Like you can't sometimes even see it. And of course you with your book too, like we don't see every person who reads our book, who watches our videos. Like I was watching your video this morning and I'm like, oh my gosh, like this woman is unbelievably strong.

Aw.

And that inspired me. And so we, but in the digital world and as authors, we don't all always see the reactions. But when we do, I don't know, that gives me a lot of motivation. And I'm hoping that it gives you too, because I hope you never stop telling your story because it's just so freaking amazing.

Thank you. It is so fulfilling, right? When somebody reaches out to you, it's like, it's what gives me that fire to keep moving forward and keep going. Because, you know, people, my, I remember one time my husband told me, Amberly, you don't have to work so hard. And to me, it doesn't feel like working hard. It feels like I get to do what my passion is, but I do have to put on the brakes sometimes because I like the grit. I like going fast and I have to learn to give myself grace. So, um, I, speaking of grind, that's my next question. Most people think the way to wealth is to work harder and become a grinder.

Mm-hmm.

Um, and I know I had that mentality for a while. Like you just work hard, work harder, work harder. Is that true for triple compounders?

Right. So we talked about the 3 investments in triple compounding, which was yourself, your extensions, and external assets. There are 3 actions at each investment level. We call them generate, automate, accelerate. Generate is the first phase. Yes, you do have to put in. The work. It is not just, oh, let me wish it to come true. Manifesting works if you actually take action.

Mm-hmm.

So the generate part, which could come in different forms. So if you are generating income in your business, that means you're actually grinding, you're actually putting the work, you're actually becoming a master at your craft. When we talk about investing in yourself, The generating phase of it is actually generating that new identity. So when you decided that you're going to give that 1% a chance and get your foot back, that wasn't the identity of a person who has 2 legs, no matter what happened. So generating that identity, generating that income when you're starting with your investments in stock market, creating, building up that portfolio, creating the accounts, figuring out what to do. Those are all the generate phase. Now, most people get stuck. Most people don't do the next step, which is automate. Now, when you invest in yourself, the automate phase is when it becomes a habit. Nothing is ever gonna turn Break me down. That is your habit. That is your identity that is now automated. When you are investing in external assets in your business, yes, you can continue growing by just grinding and you can accelerate it if you put in automations, if you employ people who are experts at things that you don't know how to do. If you do, like I have so many automations. In my business, we make a minimum of half a million dollars per month completely on auto.

Wow.

Writing a book is setting up an automation because you write it once and then it sells forever on auto. Okay. So anything like having a podcast, we record this once and then people are going to download it forever on auto, YouTube videos, all of these are automations. And then the third action is accelerate. You take it to the next step. So grinding, yes. I don't want anybody to think that working hard doesn't pay off. Once you figure out and you're a master at that level, automate it. And that is how we accelerate.

Oh, that's so good. That's so good. And just the automating part, you know, I've learned to hire my weaknesses and work on my strengths. Like when I first started my podcast, for instance, I was like, Oh, I'll edit it. I'll do this. I'll do that. I sat there trying to figure out GarageBand and edit this. I was like, oh my gosh, this is, I mean, I didn't even own a computer like 7 years ago. I bought my first computer. So to even be sitting here recording with you is like a miracle because I never was sitting behind a desk. I was on the dance floor or the gym floor my whole life. So I've learned to automate things that really suck the life out of me. Like, I just don't like doing that kind of stuff. So nowadays there are also, we talked about AI earlier, there's AI that can help with so much. It's unbelievable. Some of it's a little scary. I have to admit, last week I took a picture and I downloaded some new AI and I did, I'm doing this podcast guest in person and I said, make a video of this. And I thought it would make Like a video of, I don't know what it would make, but we're standing there in his gym and it made me, the AI made it look like I turned around and like wrapped my arms around like I was almost making out with him. And I'm like, that, I didn't do that. That's scary. Like that was wild that AI could create that. But so yes, uh, automating is good and just be careful with AI.

100%. Actually, so talking about that, uh, I know you told your audience to go and follow me. I have so many impersonators. Like the moment you follow me, you're going to get followed by a billion impersonators. And now they're using AI, putting words in my freaking mouth.

Oh.

It's insane. So please, if you're following me, only like my only accounts have a checkmark. If it doesn't have a checkmark, it's not me. I'm not going to ask for Bitcoin wallet address. Like, yes, I invest in Bitcoin, but I'm never going to ask you to pay me in Bitcoin. Like, just have your walls up because it is— like, I don't know where we're going on this because I saw in the video they put ads behind it, ad money with my video that is built on AI saying something that I never said.

Wow. Well, I mean, I believe it. I mean, it's crazy. I had, people reaching out to me because on TikTok there were, there was an impersonator and they were asking them to invest in Bitcoin. And I had people reaching out to me and saying, Amberly, I know this isn't you because they know I would never be asking for money and I don't know anything about Bitcoin. Unfortunately, I don't know about Bitcoin, but it's wild. And then I looked and I had like 3 different accounts that I could see that they, I mean, they had my profile picture, they had video. It was wild to me. And the same thing on Instagram. I have like 2 or 3 accounts on Instagram and they've blocked my main account, but I went on my daughter's account and I could see that they were there and I was like, oh my gosh. It's wild.

Yeah.

So we'll make sure we're following the real Now we talked about your diamond people that learn and they do this strategy and they got to go to the NASDAQ and, and celebrate. How does somebody get involved as far as like being in your community or working with you? I don't know if you do one-on-one or it's all the community, but how would somebody go about getting to learn from you in person or online?

Online. Yeah. So, I mean, obviously you can, uh, pick up one of my books. I have a free masterclass on The stock investing portion of this that we talked about, it is called Triple Compounding Masterclass, and it is linked in my profile on Instagram or triplecompounding.com. You can just go to triplecompounding.com. And every once in a while we actually do a live event, which is 4 days, Triple Compounding Live, we call it. It is again all online. And that is where—

Oh, that's online? That's online.

Yeah, I do majority of the things online and then Twice per year we do in person just with my inner circle and people who are in my inner community. But just to get involved and start understanding what I even mean by triple combining and start implementing it so that you can see results, these online versions are going to give you that kickstart that you need. And then if you want to get more involved, you'll learn more about it. But at the beginning, I think it's important to get the basics and fundamentals down. And, uh, yeah, my one-on-ones are super expensive, so you probably don't wanna start there.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I just appreciate your time here and tell us the best place for people. I mean, this is what, your 8th or 9th book?

This is the 8th one. Yes. I mean, I've co-authored 2 other books and this is the 8th one. I also wrote Cryptocurrency Investing for Dummies. So if you wanna get started in that, again, how to do it without taking too much risk, But Triple Compounding for Dummies is the one that I'm the most proud about because it's the most recent one and it really reflects on my whole life.

So, oh, I love it. I love that you have the life experience. You're not somebody who just stepped into it. Like you truly like had this goal, had this vision, made it happen. And one of the things I love the most about you is how much you care about people. And that you are helping so many other people and changing their lives. And so thank you for sharing your wisdom. What's the best place for people to get your book?

Amazon.

Your newest one.

Wherever they sell books. I think Barnes Noble, Amazon.

Yeah.

Amazon.

And I mean, they could go to invest Diva, or is that—

Well, I, no, no, no, I'm not selling it personally. No, it's just Wiley just distributing it. So I think Amazon is the best way.

Yeah, probably Amazon that way. Right. You can write a review as well.

Oh yes, please do that. 'Cause we have a lot of trolls just like before the book was even out, they were like giving 1 stars. I'm like, the book isn't even out yet. Like, I haven't even read it. Like, what? It's like on preorder and it already has 1 stars. I'm like, nobody's read it. Oh my goodness. Anyways, we get haters are great, but also please do write a review if you like it.

Yes, write a review. Those help so much. And I don't understand why, like, people think it's so hard to write a review. It's literally not that hard. Like, go click on it, scroll down, give it a 5-star, then write a review. Okay. And by the way, if you found, you know, Uh, value in this episode, take a screenshot, whether you're listening on Spotify, Apple, or watching on YouTube, and please tag me @AmberlyLagoMotivation and tag Kiana @InvestDiva. Um, I love when I see that you're listening. It makes me feel so good that you found value out of the episode. And Kiana, thank you so much. Congratulations on your book, and thank you for being on the show.

Thank you so much for having me. You're awesome.

Oh, thank you. And thank y'all so much for tuning in. It's because of you, seriously, it is because of you listening and downloading and sharing the podcast that you have made it a top 1% podcast. So thank you so much for tuning in and we will see you next week.