The Money Expert: “If I Was Broke Today, This Is EXACTLY What I’d Do To Become Debt-Free” | Anthony O’Neal

My friend, welcome back. If you are looking to create abundance in your life, then you are in for a treat today. We have Anthony O'Neal, who is here to explore what it truly means to take control of your finances and live authentically. Through candid stories and practical advice, he's going to share with you why true wealth isn't about credit scores or appearances, but about creating a life of abundance on your own terms. Anthony provides a clear roadmap to reclaiming your power and building genuine wealth that can be passed down for generations. He's got to talk about all the mistakes that so many people make today around money, and it is going to blow you away. If you're enjoying this at any time, please share this with a friend that you want to see succeed in their abundance, in their mindset, and in their thinking around money so they can actually behave in new ways to support them in their financial growth. And speaking of financial growth and abundance, we have a new book coming out very soon, March 18th, it drops. You can pre-order it right now. It's called Make Money Easy: Create Financial Freedom and Live a Richer Life. This has been a 10-year journey of research and putting together some of the top millionaires and billionaires advice in the world to break down how to unlock financial freedom for your life, but more importantly, live a richer life because there are some people who have lots of money, but who are also not free because they haven't figured out how to create richness in their life with their money. And that's what this is all about, creating that inner richness so you can have a rich outer life. Go to lewishouse.com/tour. You can pre-order your copy and also see the cities that I'm going to on book tour and podcast tour. It's going to be a two for one in seven cities in 10 days. So go to lewishouse.com/tour to check out the book. Please pre-order your copy ASAP and get a ticket. Bring your friends to one of the cities where we are going to around the country. And I am so excited to see people. I'm going to be out on tour. I just got married. Me and Martha had a beautiful wedding. Been posting about it on social media, and I'm excited to get out there and promote this message and this book because for the most, for the first part of the year, I was planning a wedding. And now that that's complete, I can go out in the world and see all of you. So I'm very excited, very grateful, very blessed. I hope you are feeling blessed today as well. And without further ado, let's dive into this episode right now. Welcome back, everyone, School of Greatness. Very excited about our guest. We have the inspiring Anthony O'Neill in the house. My man.

What's up, man?

See you, brother.

It's going to be back, man. Listen, it's going to be back on the Lewis Howes show. But I mean, we're at the table.

So I'm really excited about that. We are at the table. You got a new book called Take youe Seat at the Table. Live an authentic life of abundance, wellness and freedom. Yes, sir. Most people are not free today. They are living in a lot of debt. They're living in a lot of stress and a lot of anxiety. And we all know that money problems are one of the main things that cause anxiety, stress, overwhelm, and a lack of freedom for people. Would you say that people being in debt and not knowing how to get out of debt is one of the biggest things that causes them stress around money? And if so, how do people start to get out of debt when they just feel overwhelmed by it?

I think people are in debt because of the lack of knowledge. People perish for the lack of knowledge and wisdom, right? And so I think we have programmed in our minds that the way to be successful in life is to have this amazing credit score, is to have all this amazing debt, right? Because we're using other people's money. But then when we wake up, we have this 800 credit score, we have this debt, but then we don't have any freedom. And we, we don't have freedom because we don't have ownership. So when I step back and I look at my life, if I'm going to take a seat at the head of my table, I have to have a level of ownership. And ownership means that particular banks, because we're on the School of Greatness, I won't name any banks, but if I'm with this bank, this bank gives me a personal loan. I have a credit card with this particular bank. I have a car loan with this particular bank. I have student loans over here. Now all of these institutions now sit at the head of my table and are telling me what to do. And I'm thinking, well, using other people's money so I can build wealth. Well, no. You were using other people's money and because you're using other people's money, now you're in bondage. So now when you went to those debtors, to those debtors, to those creditors. So think about it. I can't go to my son's basketball game because when I get off of work, I have to go get another job because I have to pay them back.

Interest.

Interest. And I'm over saturated with how much money I gotta get back. So I think with people, the reason why we're so stressed is because we really have to step back and ask ourselves like, wait a minute. Do I have ownership? To this day, I still believe in 100% being consumer debt free, right? Consumer debt free means that, you know, anything outside of my real estate, anything outside of an asset, I'm going to pay cash for it. Because I want to have ownership to where when I'm blessed to have a family, when I'm blessed to have kids, then I can wake up and decide what I want to do with my life, not what do I have to do because I owe everyone.

Mm.

That'S just the bottom line.

So, so debt is one of the big things that holds people back. What do you think is the number one thing that's stopping most people then from becoming debt free?

I think it's because they don't want to sit back and, and be honest and be different. You know, it's, it's easy to blend in with the world because everyone is doing this. Everyone is talking about an 800 credit score. Everyone is saying, you know, even like with me, you know, you're engaged to an amazing woman, getting married soon. I'm still single. Right? One of the top questions I get when I'm dating is, what's your credit score?

Really?

Yes. Come on.

Hey, man, listen.

People care about that that much?

What is your credit score? No way.

Yes, Louis. Women are asking you what's your credit score? Absolutely. Come on. Hey, Louis, I'm going to be real, you, my brother, I can say this, in my community and culture, yes. And I'm like, but the credit score doesn't mean that I'm successful with money. It simply means I'm good at paying back the people who I borrowed from. Right. Because I can have a 800 credit score and not have $800 inside my savings account.

Wow.

But when I answered that question, I remember the first time a young lady asked me that question, Louis, and I told her the truth, that's like a 530 because I had just finished paying off all of my debt. So, you know when you pay off all your debt, they penalize you for that. Really? Yes, your credit score drops. They don't reward you because you're debt free, they penalize you. So, I'm like, well, I got a 530. she was turned completely off.

You could be like, well, I got 100 Grand in the bank still, but.

Never asked a question. Interesting, right? So the whole night, I saw how the move shifted because of my credit score.

She started looking for an out, texting her friends. Hey, come on, man. And what?

The truth of the fact is this was years ago. I mean, it was in my 20s then. I remember her telling her friend that. That she was like, yeah, he got a girl. He got a higher on credit score. He can't. he bad with his money. And I never responded because I wasn't financially mature then to respond in the correct way. But as I evolved, I said, man, wow. Like a credit score does not mean that I'm good with my money. I think a lot of people are stuck because they're trying to have this perfect three digit score, but you can't pass down the three digit score. You can't give your son or your daughter and build a legacy with that score. So I'm focused on, okay, how do I take the seat at the head of my table? How do I position my family who's at the side of my table, who's at the opposite side of my table, my wife? What is the best thing I need to do with my finances to make sure that when I am transitioning to heaven that I can leave them with something and I can't do that with the score. Really? Can't do it with the score. So, for me, it's all about what am I investing, how much debt do I have, how do I eliminate that, what's my insurance policies, and also to what wealth am I leaving behind? And when I say wealth, It's not just about the finances, it's about what wisdom and knowledge am I leaving behind? And this is something that we do not talk on social media, influencers don't talk about this. Louis, to this day, I started this about four years ago. Man, every mistake that I make and that I have made, I write it down and it's in a journal. So, when my kids get of age, when they're like I want to say if I'm blessed to have some right around freshman sophomore year, I'm giving them my journal. Your mistake journal. My mistake journal. Hey, these are the mistakes that I made while dating. This is the mistakes I've made within my Christianity walk. These are mistakes I've made with my money. These are mistakes that I've made in life in general. So they're going to see a letter of what here it is, a letter to them, a mistake that I made, the consequence of that mistake, what I.

Learned from that mistake, and then before is what did I do to make sure I didn't do this again? I was gonna ask you a question about the credit score thing. I thought this was interesting. I mean, maybe I, I don't know. No one's ever asked me, like, what's your credit score?

But that's interesting.

So your fiance has never asked you that question? No, 'cause I have money. It's like, Ah, Louis! But I've made money and I've saved my money. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I remember talking in like the first, maybe it's weird, but either the first night I met her or within the first couple days of like hanging out, I was just talking about money more openly. Not like, oh, I have all this money and let me spend it on all these things. But I was just speaking about it in a way where it wasn't taboo. I was speaking about it in a way where it was more open. I was just like, oh, you do products, you're an actor. Like, oh, that must be awesome. What are most actors making these days? Not like, what are you making directly? But like, how is the industry? What is it going on? Or here's what I'm doing in podcasting and here's why I was when I started out broke on my sister's couch.

So good.

Here's what I've kind of created over.

The last 15 years.

So it was more of an open conversation about it of where I was to where I am now. Not like, oh, open my bank account, here's my money. But I think because I came from that space, I don't know, maybe she's Mexican and that culture, they don't ask about credit score. I don't know. But I'm interested, when a woman asks someone about their credit score, and say it's an 800 credit score that the guy has, and the woman thinks to herself, oh, that's good. He's got a high credit score. What does she learn about the man with that high credit score or low credit score? And what does she not know about that man based on a higher low credit score?

Well, with me being a man, I can't specifically say what every woman will, will learn and know, because I think that's a great question for a woman. So, ladies, please answer that question inside the comments. But here's what I perceive. is, is that within you made a good call out that your fiance soon to be wife is Mexican. Well, within my particular Community, let's go back a little bit. We're taught within our culture that when you graduate high school, go to school, right? Keep your credit score good. Work 40 years. While you're working 40 years, get a good job. I'm not good at the job. Get a good home. And so that way that's the life. You got a good credit score, you got a real good job with benefits, you're a homeowner. That's the American dream within the black community. I was small to us at a younger age. So I think what ladies are looking for, okay, wait, if he has a good credit score, this means that he's doing good with his finances. Within our particular community, I would say within our particular community, I think within the world in general, we're not really taught money lessons. We're not really taught, Hey, do you budget? We're not really taught, Do you invest? We're not really taught, Are you an entrepreneur? We're taught, Hey, as long as you have a good 800 credit score, you can always get financed. And so I think when ladies hear a man has a good credit score, it's like, okay, so we can get a home, we can get a car, and we can get this. But for me, I'm like, yeah, but you're not really understanding what you're simply saying is we can get a lot of debt.

That's not good.

And that's not good.

If you're buying a consumer stuff, if you're not using it to invest in.

Small assets or something. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? So, I mean, if we're talking about, Hey, yes, we need the 800 credit score so we can get into the real estate game. I'm all for that. But if we're talking about we need an 800 credit score so we can buy the latest Mazda Ryder, the latest, you know, Bentley. Okay, wait a minute. We have a problem. I need to have this so I can go get me a credit card so I can get all these reward miles. But the truth of the fact is when I look at all of my millionaire friends, They're not bragging about their reward miles. They're bragging about the investments that they're buying and that's making them money and that's paying for their liabilities, that's paying for their toys. But when I hear them having this conversation, and this is what I really get excited about, it's like, wait, man, I just bought a duplex. I just bought, you know, a situation with 24 doors. I'm like, 24 doors? Wait, what? Like, yeah, I financed it, did this and did that. I'm like, okay, cool, great. And that's one of my philosophies that has changed over the years is that, wait a minute, if I can use other people's money to get into the real estate game the correct way, then I'm getting 24 doors and I'm getting inside of, you know, the real estate game, I'm get, I'm buying an asset that will then fund my toys, my wants and my desires. And so when I hear ladies say that, I'll be honest with you, man, it is somewhat of a turn off for me. But I also understand the lack of.

Education behind that question.

Yeah. Yeah. And so what I tend to do now is say, you know what? My credit score is good because I have real estate and that's the only thing that's on there and it's being paid for. So I am in the 800 bracket. I said, but, Arlen, girl, let me tell you something though. I mean, I make money and I invest a lot. Yeah. And my real estate, my, my credit score comes from real estate, which is assets. And I really start having that conversation. I love how, you know, I know we were talking about my book, but your book, you know, make money easy. I think we really do have to make money such an easy conversation. Yes. and just have it really, really, if it's an easy conversation, then I think we can make it easy. I haven't read your book completely yet, but by the time you come on my show, I will have it read. But it's like, I love the title of your book because I think we make it so difficult.

That's why I made the title. We make it so hard because it is hard if we're not educated.

Facts.

And it feels scary and overwhelming if we don't have the information, the education like you're talking about. And I think debt feels daunting for a lot of people. And if you were broke today and if you were in debt, let's say, let's say you made a bunch of challenging financial decisions, you made all, you know, your mistake journal is filled up to the brim.

Yeah.

And you're broke and in a lot of debt.

Yep.

What is the exact process you would take then from going from broken in debt to creating a financially free life?

Oh, I get excited about this. All right. Very first thing is I'm stepping back. and before I even look at my debt, I'm talking about, okay, where do I want to be within the next 12 months, after 12 months, next three years, five years. So, you think a game plan first? I'm getting the vision for the next five years of my life, right? So, if I say, hey, listen, I want to be in California, living in my dream home, debt free. Like, whatever that vision is, I'm casting that vision. Below that vision, I'm writing down the why. You know, one of my good friends, Pastor Darius Daniels mentioned something. He said, man, if your why doesn't make you cry, then the price of commitment for the next five years is going to make you cry. Let's go. And it's going to make you quit. And so for me, once I write down the vision, I'm going to write down a why. Why do I want to accomplish this vision? So, if I'm drowning in debt and I know I want to be out of debt, I want to be in my home. Why do I want the home? I don't want the home just because it's nice sitting on the beach. I want the home probably because you know what, man, growing up, me and my siblings had to share a room, right? You know what? We're a homeowner. Maybe I'm the first homeowner in my family. so I'm, I'm getting a deep enough why that when it gets hard, when I feel like giving up, it's going to make me cry and make me push through. So that I'm doing that. So that's number two. Then number three, I'm looking at, I'm pulling credit card, I'm pulling the last three months of my bank statements, and I'm getting on a very detailed budget. I'm writing down everything. And I call this a zero base budget. But for me, I know a lot of people get turned off by the word of budgeting. So I call it, what's the vision? now I have for my life, what's the vision for my money? So if I'm saying, okay, cool, I want to be debt free, but I gotta go look at my credit report. I gotta pull Equifax, TransUnion, Experian. I gotta pull the last three months of my bank statements. And this is something I do on a regular. Louis, I'll get five highlighters, different colors. And I'll go through and highlight, okay, food is one color. And I want to see how much money over the last three to six months have I spent on food. And if I'm saying, okay, dang, I was talking about Barber. He spent two grand on food in one month. Wow. Just eating out. I'm like, two grand. I'm like, bro, it's just you. What are you eating for 2, 000? Wow. And 20. I'm like, I know it's expensive out here in the streets, but it's not that expensive. So I'm like, two grand in one month. Okay, we need to cut that off by like three-fourths. You need to be down to 500 including groceries and eating out. Boom. When it's just you. So like, I'm highlighting everything and I'm a Assessing making sure that I know exactly where my money is going. Because here's the truth, you cannot manage your money if you're not measuring it. You can't really understand what you're doing and where you're going if you're not tracking what it's doing. And for the majority of the people who are watching this show, I'll say, I won't say the majority. Leave it with the school of greatness. We're going to say a majority of y'all should be winning. For those of us who are watching this show, a lot of us are probably saying, dang, I just got paid last week, but I don't know where the money went. And it's because you're not managing it well because you're not measuring where your money is going. So that's number three. I'm going to list out everything and watch this. Before I put it on the budget, I'm going to write it out. Yo, I owe this bank this, I owe that bank this. I'm going to list out all the debt. Out of all the debt, I'm going to list out all of my monthly expenses. then I'm gonna take that information and I'm gonna put it on this budget. And here's the truth. If we're gonna be honest, it is going to frustrate you. Yeah. It is going to make you feel depressed a little bit. You're going to feel discouraged a little bit because what's going to happen is you're gonna see you have more debt than you have income. That's going to be my number four. Once I see that I have all this debt, I'm going to measure, okay, what is the income strategy that I need to come up with? that is going to create margin to help me pay off my debt. And I tell everyone that's going to be a job. And except for getting a second job. Listen, man, the content creation space, I just think right now is a healthy place to get into. But I think a lot of us have a lot up here that people were paid to have. And so, like, for example, I had a school teacher come to me and she was like, man, Anthony, I'm in 238, 000 in debt. Oh, 140 of them are, is her student loans. because she has her doctorate. Then two of them are cars, her and her husband, then the others just credit cards and stuff from here. I said, okay, all right, let's write it down. And so as I was talking with her, I said, listen, she said, I'm gonna get another job working at Walmart part-time. I said, I think that's not a good use of your time. I said, why not? You're a school teacher. Why not go home? You're making good money over here. why not go home and create maybe a course or an academy that helps get kids ready for the SAT? And she's like, what do you mean? I said, why not use the skills that you're giving to the, the job, to the school system and build a side business that now parents can buy to help them get ready for the SAT? She was like, Anthony never thought about that. So she went home and she started dreaming with her husband. Well, she came back to me. Not only did she come up with the business that is going to help kids with the SAT, but she also came up with the business that helps school students in school to be a teacher to help them graduate in college. A year later, her side business is paying her more than what the school teaching is doing because she took her wisdom and her knowledge and turned it into a side business. So, not only is she creating more income, now she's able to use the tax benefits that the wealthy are using. And I said, okay, are you going to quit your job? She was like, no. Because my side business is funding this thing. I honestly love teaching students. So, what happened? Husband quit his job. He runs the business. He does all of the marketing, he does all of the stuff. And this is what I love. It puts them back. at the head of their table.

Yes.

Because now it's like, wait, we're now controlling our life. Now she went from having to be a school teacher to wanting to be a school teacher. She went from having to work to, you know what? I love what I do.

Yes.

And that's the freedom that you have when you're at the seat, at the head of your table, is that you get to decide what you want to do in a direction or wherever you want to go.

What would you say is the number one piece of financial advice you're seeing online that people should ignore.

You know, there is a lot. You know, it's not just one, I'm like, man, there's so many laws that I could say, but I think the number one financial advice that I would say, and I talk about this inside of the book that I would ignore, is that everyone has to be an entrepreneur.

Ignore that.

Ignore that. Yeah. Because that's not the case. I think everyone should have an entrepreneurial mindset, but not everyone should be entrepreneurial. Because if, if you want to be a, when they say be an entrepreneurship, what they're talking about is they're selling you, hey, man, I could work on the beach. Hey, man, I'm fine in the private Jets. Hey, man, you know, I'm able to go buy this G wagon and ride off 100 of it because it's over 6, 000 pounds. They're lying to you. I I've been doing this for four years and me and you don't have several conversations offline. This entrepreneurial world is not for everybody and it's frustrating and I have not to this day worked on the beach.

Because you worked at a career before and now you're an entrepreneur now.

Yes, and if I'm being honest, in the corporate America space, in the corporate space, man, I'm working harder today than I was then, of course. Right. So I'm not flying on private jets and just not working for a month or two. That's not happening. And so I think some of the worst advice is looking at these influencers and they're selling you on, hey, I can coach you to be a, a, a, your own boss, and you'll be working at the beach. And not saying it can't happen because have I gone on vacation and worked? Absolutely. But what I am saying is Out of 365 days a year, these people say you only got to work 20 of them, that's a lie. And so I think for me, it's really, we got to start teaching how to have the entrepreneurial mindset, but not everyone is called to be an entrepreneur, because I think I need a real good assistant if I'm going to be effective. And I think people are made, as a Christian, I do believe people are made to be the number two, the number three, the number four, to be the team player, because an effective business cannot run without effective team members. And you can be just as wealthy, you can be just as successful if you are living the authentic life of yourself. I think one of the greatest mistakes that I see in people, especially this younger generation, they want to rush to be their own boss, but they haven't really done anything to learn how to be an effective boss. And I'm so grateful that God put me through the seasons of serving in the church world, serving in a corporate America space because I would not be successful today if I didn't learn up on any different people. And I think for me, I think that is one of the dumbest mistakes that I've seen people make. And I think another mistake I saw online and it was so frustrating to me is take your student loans and go buy real estate with it. I was like, go borrow money. Take out a parent plus law.

Oh man. Have them sign on it.

Have them sign on it to go buy real estate. And the real estate was just a down payment on the whole. It's not the whole house. Yeah, exactly. So I gotta pay double interest now. High interest on the student loan, high interest on this. I'm like, wait a minute. Wait a minute. So there's so many different things, man, that I really adjust to. But I think one of the things I learned from you, man, I gotta give you credit for it. I think it was like a year and a half ago, Louis, because I'm always watching your shows and always growing from you, your advice and the people you had on. And man, because of you, I have an interchangeable seat at my table. I have an interchangeable seat between my therapist and my emotional coach. and you talked about that, like, a year and a half, I want to say. And what I learned was that my emotions, I was making Financial decisions based upon my emotions. When my emotions shouldn't be making decisions, I should be managing my emotions. Yes, but my emotions should not be managing me. And I've made bad Financial decisions because of how I felt off of my emotions. And if I'm being honest and vulnerable, I've lost out on great Relationships and friendships because I didn't manage my emotions. And I'm like, whoa, so when I heard you say that, like bro, I got convicted. I was like, look at Lewis over here preaching. I was like, Lewis, does he know he's a prophet? So I literally stepped back and started looking for emotional coaches because I realized, man, if I'm being honest, like Lewis, to this day, I still meet with, I still meet with him. and to this day, it is still a struggle for me to control and manage my emotions. Because when you have that feeling, you gotta be like, no, this, this, this is my emotions. I cannot make a decision in this state. Yeah. And I've made decisions in that state that has cost me a lot of money. That has. I've probably lost out on an amazing woman because of that. I probably lost business relationships and even friendships because of that. But I think I hear this often within the world. Hey, man, if you're feeling bad, man, just go to the mall and just do some window shopping. That's your emotions talking. You know what, man? We tend to go buy things when we're feeling a certain kind of way. That's your emotions talking. And so I would encourage people, man, to get that interchangeable seat between the therapist and emotional coach and they work together. My therapist helps me understand the practical reason of why I made the decision, my emotional coach is helping me understand why I'm feeling the way that I'm feeling and how to control that.

Yeah, it's interesting. I can definitely relate to that. And for me, I've learned that regulating the emotions, like allowing yourself to feel it but not act on them necessarily until you regulate and understand them, gives you more sense of freedom, gives you more sense of power and peace in the decision. It doesn't mean you're always gonna feel good. and you're gonna have to go through uncomfortable situations, but when you can learn to regulate them, you can have more peace in the decisions you make after you feel the emotions. And one of the challenges, you know, some people spend their money on things when they feel overwhelmed or excited or stressed.

Yeah.

I was more of an emotional eater where it was like, I would just go eat food. I didn't need things. I wasn't like, let me go buy this shiny thing to feel good or window shop or go on Amazon. That was never my thing, but it was like, Let me get the ice cream, let me get the pizza to comfort me. So whatever your vice is of comfort, luckily I wasn't a spender on things to go into debt, which takes years to get out of, right?

Is this my water?

Yeah, but I was a spender of food that created physical debt. It created physical weight that I then had to carry with me constantly. So whatever the weight is you're carrying or whatever the thing that you're spending to add more weight into your financial pocket or to your physical bucket, whatever it might be, or your weight might be like, oh, I'm gonna go sleep with a bunch of women because I want to just feel good because I don't feel good right now. You're picking up that relational baggage, whatever it might be, or spiritual baggage from being in all those relationships. It's just learning how to regulate it better so we can have more abundance, wellness and freedom like you talk about in your book, Take youe Seat at the Table. And I think that's a big challenge for people. When you talk about, you know, if you're in debt 100 grand, 100-200 grand from student loans and other two cars, it might seem daunting. You talked about this, okay, get clear on a 12-month, three-year, five-year vision.

Yeah.

And understand why you want that vision in these 12 months, three years and five years. Some people might say, oh man, I have to cut all of my fun out of my life for the next five years. I have to live so below my means and cut all the food I go on out, all the fun, all the activities and trips. I have to cut it all out because of the financial baggage and debt that I'm in in order to in five, seven years be debt free. And that seems exhausting. Most people don't have the discipline emotinally, mentally or financially to go so below their means when they've gone into debt for years and they've created an identity of debt and spending. How does someone wrap their head around that complete death of an identity on who they have been to say, oh, in order to be debt free, I'm going to take five years of my life to be so below my means, cut out everything, and then I can finally be free.

This is school of greatness, huh? I would ask them, how are you feeling right now? Yeah, probably trapped, probably stressed, anxious, avoidant.

They probably even know how much debt they're in because they don't want to keep looking at it because it doesn't feel good. It's like when you gain weight, you don't even look, jump on the scale because you're like, ah, I don't want to look at that.

But, well, I gotta say this respectfully, I don't have to jump on the scale to know that I'm in a bad situation. I need to change my life. The scale is just gonna confirm what I already know. Yes. And I think what I, when I hear people say, oh man, I gotta do all this, I said, okay, cool, don't do that. Live this for the rest of your life, then.

Yeah, yeah.

Live the life scared to look at your checking account. Live the life for the rest of your life scared to go to the mailbox. I was there, bro. I was there to where I would drive by the mailbox knowing that the mail is probably packed because I knew there were bills in there that I didn't want to see. But I still knew the bills were there. But the thing was going to the mailbox was just confirmation of what I already knew. And man, I'm telling you, I felt the heaviness of I know my money is not good. I felt the heaviness of I know I'm not free. I can't live this free life because I know it and I was just scared to face reality of I have to change. And so here's what I teach within my world at the table with Anthony O'Neal, and even with this book, is that, man, if you can give me 18 to 24 months, we can change your life. I can't change it, I'm not the hero, you are the hero. I'm going to guide you through the process. But if you do not change anything, you're going to sacrifice the rest of your life, living in misery, living with no freedom, with no ownership, because you're fearful to be uncomfortable for 12 to 24 months. And so, if I'm uncomfortable a little bit for 12 to 24 months to get the rest of my life to live a life of abundance, wellness, and freedom, I'm taking 12 to 24 months. Because what I'm doing is I've got adjusted, oh, that is so good right there. I've got adjusted to being uncomfortable. Like, I feel I've made this messy life of mine Comfortable. And I'm like, man, like I deserve a home, but because my life style right now, I only warrant a an apartment. But I can get a house, but I cannot, ah, no, no, no. You know what Anthony, I'm gonna change 2025. I'm gonna get on a plan and I'm being realistic with it. You know what? It's gonna probably take me to the end of 2026 to get out of debt. But here's the thing, 2026 comes, two years flies by quick. Boom. It flies by crazy quick.

It seems like forever, but when you're there, it's like, man, what happened the last two years? Just the first month of this year.

Just flew by, man. I've been out on my own for four years. You cannot ask me. Like, it doesn't feel like four years. Now, because we wake up every single day and we start over, it's okay, but wait, but before you know it, Two years have gone by. And I ask people to imagine themselves, yes, I'm gonna be honest with you. I'm not gonna sit here and sell you a bunch of, you know, oh, no, no, listen, you're right. You're in $150,000 in debt. I know you feel that stress. How do we, what is a system and what is a process to get out of that? I have this method that I teach, it's called ER, and I teach people how to earn their freedom, how to earn A different level of finances and the E stands for, listen, you got to evaluate where you currently are in life and with your finances. As we talked about earlier, like, Hey, pull your credit report, pull how much debt that you have. And watch this, debt is not just on paper, but do you owe family and friends money, right? If you told them, Hey, I'm gonna pay you back, get all of that on a sheet of paper and evaluate where you are. The A stands for now you got arrange the vision. We talked about the vision, okay? Now, now that we know how much we are, what is the vision, where are we going? Right? And our stance for render the strategy, this is where people fail at. We do not get a proven strategy on how to make money easy. We don't get a proven strategy on how to get out of debt. We don't get a strategy on how do we change our life within the 12 to 24 months. What we'll do is, okay, I know I got some debt. I know I want to be debt free. Let me go on TikTok. That's not a strategy to go on TikTok. that's not a strategy to go on YouTube and just follow your favorite YouTuber. But you got to get with someone who has done it, who has the fruit of their labor, who has put together a proven strategy that you can follow and you may have to adjust for yourself. But here's the key where I think a lot of people fell at, and that is the end. They don't act. So the end is now act. So you can get the vision, you know where you are with all your money, you know that you need to change. You got a proven system and a proven strategy, a proven book. that will work. But now you don't want to do nothing. Because it's been easy to sit there and just swipe the credit card. It's been easy to sit there and just go spend all this money and you've gotten so used to this, I call it a horrible life because a horrible life has just become so normal to you to where you can't even imagine what it feels like to be debt free. And you got the money, man. We both have been living this life, man. It feels so good to wake up, Louis. And you know what? I think I'm gonna go there, man. You don't get dressed. You don't go to Mexico.

Right.

It just feels good to know that I can do that. It feels good to know that, I mean, I got the call, when you test the others do the show, I was like, all right, bet, I fly out there a couple weeks, boom. I didn't have to worry about, okay, wait, how'm I gonna do this money? It's like, It feels good to know that on the first of the month, I pay my mortgage payments and I pay my utility bills. That's it. And all the rest of the money comes in and it feels good that I can give to my local church. I can give to this area and it feels good that when I do meet my wife, I can look at her and say, you know what, baby? You know, I feel like going to Ghana today. Let's go to Ghana next week. What are kids doing? They out of school? Take them with us. It feels Good to do that. But if I don't evaluate where I am in life and with my finances, if I don't arrange the vision of where I see myself and my family going, and if I don't render a strategy, and I think that's key, you gotta find a strategy that works. Because if you don't find the strategy, you're going to be stressed, continue stressed about the situation that you're in. And you gotta act. Because if you don't act, now it's just a dream.

I love that earned principle.

Yeah.

What's the biggest financial mistake you made in the last year?

In the last year, that's a good question. He's asking the money guy. Within the last year, money mistake. Oh, yeah. That's a good one. How do I say this the right way, Louis? I wanted a, I've been saving up to, if you know anything about me, man, I'm very big on landscaping in my home.

Yeah, I see you put up the pool and the whole thing.

Yeah, the social media. Yeah, yeah. So I'm very big on landscaping. So I saved for a couple of years to do the pool and to do a golf thing. I think the biggest mistake that I made is I had the opportunity to do a golf thing. I interviewed a particular person who quoted me, I would say about 15,000 to do the pool. And be honest, he was a white guy. A black guy comes in and quotes me 7,500. Says that he's never done it before, but he says he can do it. Well, as I chose him because I wanted to support a minority owned company, and he was half the price, but he's never done it before. this guy has done it and does it well.

Yeah. And he. He knows his worth. He knows his worth for his experience and his product. Yeah.

He told me it will take me two weeks. He told me I have it done in three days.

Oh, my God. The guy for 75 hours at three days.

Lewis. Oh, man. So I'm like, in my head, oh, it's a black guy. I'm a small. I'm a supported black owned company. And to the day I die, I'm I was always going to figure out how can I support and support my community right where I can. Yeah.

You're thinking also, I'm gonna be swimming in six days.

Exactly.

I've not been waiting a month.

Exactly. So I'm like, okay, cool. I do it, man. I could send you pictures. Oh. And I was so hurt because the Monday mistake, it wasn't selecting an African-American company. It was selecting a company that doesn't know what to do. and because I went with that route, I had to call the guy back. Yeah, I called the other guy back. He wouldn't touch it.

Really?

No, because it's a man. You already has someone else. It's gonna cost you even more money. So I had to find another company that could come in and do it right. And thankfully, because they were fans and they knew of me, they came in and so to do my whole situation cost me about twenty two thousand dollars.

Man.

When it could have been only about 14.

And it took more time, more energy, more stress.

Man, listen, and it was just, it was a, I felt real bad at myself because facts on table was, you've never done it before. You told me that. He was a contractor, he did landscaping, but he's never done that particular thing before. And I was like, okay, I'm gonna give you a shot. And the biggest money lesson that I've learned is, yes, support minority owned companies, but make sure that they are qualified to do the job.

Sure, sure.

And that was a huge money mistake because I ended up wasting another seven, eight thousand dollars. Oh, man. And that just wasn't good stewardship by it.

Curious about two-part question.

Okay.

What is your definition of abundance and what is blocking you and most people from abundance?

Oh, man. So good, man. My definition of abundance, and I'll break it down a little bit shorter, but I give a real, real, real good definition this side of the book. Abundance for me is just that, man, I have so much that it's an overflow that it's not just for me. Abundance is that, that, that man, I, there's an overflow of Life, of Love, of resources, of money that is, it is, I can't, if this was the water, like it has to be some other things down here to catch it. So when I feel is that from my spiritual perspective, when God is pouring into me, it's overflowing into my kids, it's overflowing into my community. it's overflowing into my wife, it's overflowing into my family, into my friends. And to me, that's abundance. When I have so much that I can't keep it all, that I gotta give it to everybody. And so I think what's blocking people from that is that we're not positioning ourselves to receive abundance. How do we position ourselves to receive abundance?

That's easy.

That's an easy question that I think, that's an easy, not easy question, but that's an easy conversation. I think a lot of people will want a deep answer for it. Just wake up and say, I'm ready. Just wake up and say, you know what? I'm changing my life today. And I'm gonna position myself to where I can do it. But if you're drowning in debt, if you don't have an emotional coach, a therapist that can get your mind fixed, you're never gonna receive abundance. I was sitting down with a couple, and this particular couple, Louis, made me cry emotionally on the inside. Cause the guy said, yeah, man, no. He said, when I get my paycheck, I gotta go buy soup. I gotta go buy something. He's in his 60s and it was like, man, yeah, growing up, it was like, man, it was just so tight that, you know, I couldn't enjoy my money. So now when I get my money, as long as I got a roof over my head, clothes on my back, shoes on my feet, food at my table, I'm gonna enjoy and have my money. I don't need this. I don't need all, we don't need all I'm like, yeah, you don't have an abundance mindset. You just have very shallow minds. And that meant every check, you gotta spend it on material things. And I understand that because of the season that he grew up in was that, man, we couldn't, we couldn't really enjoy our money. Like, he had to give his money to his parents growing up to help them live, to help the family survive. Now that he has his money, he's like, yo, I have to buy something for me. I'm like, yeah, man, I can teach you how to invest, let your investments buy real nice things for you. But for his mindset was, I don't need all of that. And I don't need to, he literally said this, my kids ain't getting none of my money 'cause I worked for it.

Wow.

And I'm like, yeah, that's the irony of the bun, that's why I said, my kids will reap the fruit of my hard work. My community will reap the fruit of my family, my nephews, my niece will reap the fruit of me sitting at the head of my table. And I got in the abundance position. Not just abundance, but keep in mind authentic is super important because when you are authentic to who you are, it opens up way more doors. And I think a lot of people are fearful to be authentically them. And for a while, I was fearful to be the authentic Anthony O'Neal because I allowed, and shut me up, this is your show, but I allowed social media to tell me how to think and how to talk. I allowed friends and peers to tell me what I should wear, what I should do. I allowed previous bosses and companies to tell me what I should read and how I should talk. and how I should present. It wasn't until I said, okay, I'm going to be the authentic version of me. And if you can't handle me, then you're just not welcome at my table. Doesn't mean you're a bad person. Doesn't mean you're a bad company. Doesn't mean you're a bad organization. Doesn't mean you're a bad girlfriend or a bad boyfriend. It just simply means that, no, in order for me to fulfill and really feel that level of Freedom, I got to be the authentic Anthony O'Neal. And so for me, the authentic Anthony O'Neal talks like this, thinks like this, acts like this. Man, like you listen to me in my show and y'all probably heard me like, my grammar is not the perfect thing. But man, I used to be like, okay, wait, let me talk like this. But I've learned, no, not everyone's gonna like me. So if everyone's not gonna like me, why am I trying to please everyone? There's so much freedom and there's so many, you can do so much more with your resources, get the job that you really desire, get the career that you really want to get, and even build the business that you really want to build when you are your authentic self. And the truth of the fact is, Louis, I've made more money being the authentic me than when I wasn't the authentic me. I made good money. I didn't make this much money.

Powerful. Speaking of authentic money, and we might have time for one or two more questions, then we got to get you to the airport. I'm curious your thoughts or beliefs around the spiritual path to being able to steward money and your beliefs around or what you've been taught around what you think God or the universe wants us to become in order to be good stewards of money so we can receive an abundance and overflow of it.

Amen. You know, I think that money answers all things. Right? And so for me, when I think of the spiritual connection of stewardship, stewardship has been on my heart a lot lately and I'm really excited about this word stewardship because I'll tell you the truth now that I really want to get back into serving in a local church and becoming a stewardship pastor. Because I think within the body of Christ, we've kind of taken the word of stewardship that it only means money, but that's not the case. Stewardship means I steward, I manage what God has given. So stewardship is not just money. Stewardship, if you're going to be successful with money, you gotta be a good steward in other areas as well. Stewardship means I manage what's not mine. So the time that I have on this earth as a Christian, it's not my time. It's God's time. These clothes that I have on, these are not my clothes. They're God's clothes. I'm stewarding that. Watch this. The wife that I have, that I will get, that's not my That's my wife, but it's his daughter. I'm called to steward her and protect her. The kids that I have, it's not mine. It's from a biblical perspective. I'm just stewarding them for 21 hours.

Wow.

It is my responsibility to raise them and train them in a way that they should go to fulfill the assignment on their life. So I think if we're going to be good stewards with money so we can receive abundance, we have to understand that everything that we have in life, It's not ours. Wow. And it's just called for us to steward. So the time that I have with you, I didn't do a whole bunch of podcasts on this book because I was like, I think that's bad stewardship for me to go over there. But it's good stewardship for me to come to Louis house because that's my brother. I know we're gonna have an intellectual conversation. That's good. Leave here, go over here and do that. But it's like now in the season of my life, I'm stewarding every hour of my day. Wow. because I want to make sure that I'm not wasting that time on something that doesn't get me closer to the assignment that I need to fulfill. Right? And so if we're going to be good with money, if we're going to receive all the abundance, we cannot solely focus on the money. We got to focus on everything that God is giving us in our life and we get stores over every single thing. One of the prayers I'm really praying for right now is like, God, and I'm practicing it. God, when I'm blessed to have a family, God let me steward that family well. Well, Anthony, how are you gonna do that? And I told you this before the show, I was like, Man, I lost out on a good woman because I didn't make her a priority. I wasn't being intentional. I didn't steward that season well with her. So now what I'm doing is, Man, I don't work on Fridays. I'm positioning myself to when that comes, I can steward that relationship well. And I believe that if we can steward that well, right, and get the right partner, Man, like you, I mean, your wife is amazing and I've seen her work. I mean, y'all just gonna make more money together because of the true partnership, right? So the Lewis house we see today, this time next year, it's gonna be a different Lewis house because now you're married, you have a true partnership, y'all are stewarding that well, and I just believe God is just gonna bless it, man. That's my thought, so that's beautiful, man.

And when your next book comes out around money, we'll have to do a whole thing about how engaged couples should be, how they should merge spiritually and financially their asset together. So that'll be the next conversation we have. We gotta do it. But for now, I want people to get a copy of your book, Take youe Seat at the Table, Live an Authentic Life of Abundance, Wellness and Freedom by Anthony O'Neil. Also on social media, YouTube, Anthony O'Neil. Make sure to check out his channel, his show and all the good things. Any final thing on your heart or mind that you would like to finish Before we gotta jump you out of here.

Amen. Listen, number one, thank you so much, Louis, for always opening the door for me to come on, man. It's always an honor. And y'all, I gotta say this. I know we're promoting my book, but I will be remissed to not encourage you all to pre-order my brother's book, Make Money Easy. Come over my show. We'll dive deep into it at the table, 'cause I can't wait to have this conversation. But I would definitely like to end with this. that if you're going to take a seat at the head of your table in 2025, there's a key thing that you got to do that I believe that a lot of people skip over. We tell everyone to mind your business. Like, hey, get out of my business, just mind your business. But I think the key thing for 2025 is 2025 is you have to mind your business because our mind is your number one business. And so I want to encourage people that if you're gonna take a seat at the head of your table, the only way you can honestly build a successful future is to grow your number one asset, which is your mind. Read the right books, get my book, take your seat at the table, get Louis new book, make money easy, get other books, listen to podcasts that's going to grow your mind. Because what we put in here goes into our heart. What comes into our heart is going to naturally flow out of our pores. And when that naturally flows out, it's going to be good stuff flowing out that is going to produce abundance, wellness, Freedom. But if we're always filling ourselves up with what the shade room says, what this says, what gossip bloggers, then we're just, we're gonna pour that out and we're not gonna see our life progressing forward. And so if you wanna take a seat at the head of your table.

Mind your business and come check me out.

My man.

Thank you, brother. Love you, brother. Appreciate you, man. Yes, sir. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. If you enjoyed this and if you found value, make sure to share this with one friend. Just copy and paste the link and text a friend where you feel would be truly inspired by this episode as well. And also, make sure to click the follow button on Apple or Spotify wherever you're listening to this episode because we have a massive episode coming up next that I do not want you to miss. So make sure to follow this and be on the lookout for the next episode coming with some massive content and guests. Also, I have a brand new book called Make Money Easy. And if you're looking to create more financial freedom in your life, you want abundance in your life, and you want to stop making money hard in your life, but you want to make it easier, you want to make it flow, you want to feel abundant, then make sure to go to makemoneyeasybook.com right now and get yourself a copy. I really think this is going to help you transform your relationship with money this moment moving forward. we have some big guests and content coming up. Make sure you're following and stay tuned to the next episode on the School of Greatness. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and it inspired you on your journey towards greatness. Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a full rundown of today's episode with all the important links. And if you want weekly exclusive bonus episodes with me personally, as well as ad free listening, then make sure to subscribe to our Greatness Plus channel exclusively on Apple Podcasts. Share this with a friend on social media and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts as well. Let me know what you enjoyed about this episode in that review. I really love hearing feedback from you and it helps us figure out how we can support and serve you moving forward. And I want to remind you of no one has told you lately that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And now it's time to go out there and do something great.