“There are a lot of boys who are older, and there are a lot of men who are young.”~ Brandon NeelyGuest Bio: Brandon Neely, an entrepreneur, Profit First and Bank On Yourself Professional, and the co-host of Wealth Wisdom Financial Podcast with his wife Amanda Neely. They founded and managed Overflow Coffee Bar, L3C from 2008 through 2018. Now, they share their experiential knowledge through podcasting and through developing personalized financial strategies for individuals and couples and profitability strategies for businesses.LISTEN TO THE PODCAST 🎧WATCH THE PODCAST 📺3 Things Every Business Owner Should Know, Your Financial Freedom Number, & 5 Smooth Stones with Brandon Neely SHOW NOTES: WEBSITE: https://www.wealthwisdomfp.com/PODCAST: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wealth-wisdom-financial-podcast/id1430092759INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/wealthwisdomfp/- MARK WILLIS EPISODE: Banking on Yourself, Uninterrupted Compound Growth, & Kickstarting Your Financial Future REMARKABLE LISTENER SPECIAL OFFER(S):- N/A CORE THEMES, KEYWORDS, & MENTIONS:Showing up, being disciplined, wisdom, born unhealthy, Marine Corp, boy in the bubble, bubble baby, child abuse, unforgiveness, Marines, boys, men, becoming a man, music, Christianity, Bible, Christian, coffee shop, life insurance, entrepreneurship, miscarriage, teams, team work, balance, invest, savings, cash flow management specialist, five smooth stones, story brand, chaos, confusion, haphazard, anxiety, overwhelming, stressful, still method, financial freedom number For more Remarkable Episodes, Inspiration, and Motivation, please visit https://davidpasqualone.com/remarkable-people-podcast/. Enjoy!3 Things Every Business Owner Should Know, Your Financial Freedom Number, & 5 Smooth Stones with Brandon NeelyHello, friends. Welcome to this week's episode of the Remarkable People Podcast, the Brandon Neely story. This week, Brandon's going to take us through his journey of growing up in a quote unquote Christian home, but it fell apart. He's going to talk about how he was told from birth he was sickly and he couldn't do anything and he might die, and then he ends up joining the Marines.He talks about his journey. throughout life and how he's growing as a man and as a follower of Christ. But we also talk about business and principles that apply to everyone, whether you're a believer or not. We talk about personal life tips that apply to everyone. And then we talk about financial freedom and five smooth stones, which you're going to Probably know what that is from the Bible, and if you don't, you're going to learn more today about it.Overall, though, the bottom line message is to keep our eyes focused on the vision, God, and what really matters. We reverse engineer our life and take the steps and persevere through each and every stage. And you're going to see that Brandon and his life hasn't been necessarily easy. But he exemplifies that forward motion, that keep moving forward, admitting your mistakes, learning, growing, and being the best son or daughter of God you can possibly be.Before we jump into the episode, I just want to remind you, we have the privilege to meet men and women all over the world like Mark, and to bring you these episodes that hopefully not only encourage you, but give you practical steps that you can take and apply to your life. and succeed and thrive from, right?So, whatever culture you're from, whatever country you're from, whatever classification you're from, right? If you're in a caste system, here we love God and we love you and we're just trying to make everybody's life better. So, we are thankful to be here and we're also thankful to our sponsors who help support us so we can continue to bring you great content.If you have the ability, Check out this season's sponsor, MyPillow. When you go to MyPillow. com or even call in and use promo code Remarkable, that gets you up to 80 percent off all of your orders, all of them up to 80%. It's amazing. I personally use MyPillow before they were a sponsor. They have over 250 products.They literally have everything from pillows and sheets and slippers. To full blown beds and household items. So check out MyPillow. com. Look at all the great stuff they have. Type in promo code, Remarkable, and you're going to see massive savings. So this Christmas for birthdays, for holidays, even just for yourself, for leisure and fun, check out the great products at MyPillow and I'm, you know what, I'm such a believer this was not planned, but right now on my feet, as I record this episode.MySlipper. Telling you guys and gals, I love MyPillow, not just because they're a sponsor, because they're a great quality product, American owned and operated by the employees, and they are trying to make a difference in your life and your home and in America. So check out and support MyPillow. Now, at this time, Let's get into this episode with Brandon.Get your pens and papers ready to take notes. When you're done, reach out to Brandon and myself, if you have any questions, but we want to see you apply this knowledge and have a better life. So let's get going. INTERVIEW RPP S9 Brandon Neely 4 Dec 23-1: Hey, Brandon. How are you today, brother? I'm good, David.I'm excited to be here. Oh, me and the listeners are excited to have you here. Welcome to our community. And on this show, like we discussed in the past and like our listeners know, but for our first time listeners, what we're going to do is we're going to hear what makes you remarkable and not an egotistical way.But what God was able to use and do in your life through you, and then we're going to kind of reverse engineer what you're able to overcome and achieve into the practical steps of how you did it. So me and the listeners can too. And then at the end, we'll transition to where you are today and where you're headed.So hopefully now we can help you get there. Sound good? Sounds perfect. Awesome, man. So if you were to summarize, you know, in this show, people are going to get tons of life tips and gold nuggets that they can apply and benefit from. But if our listeners stay with this episode, listen to it in its entirety, what's one thing you promise and guarantee they'll get by the end?I mean, I think the wisdom to just show up and just be disciplined. If you're disciplined and you show up and you don't give no for an answer. You will go places. Beautiful. And that's so true on a biblical level and a life experience level. So let's go through this. Go back from your childhood through today.Where did you grow up? What was your upbringing like? How did it all start for you, my friend? So, do you have like how many hours we got? Because we can go for a long time. So, I grew up in Southeast Texas when people ask, where are you from? You know, I lived in Chicago for a few years, 20. I lived in Southern California.I lived in. North Carolina. I'm here in Cincinnati right now, but where it all originated, was in the great state of Texas. And I was born there in the Gulf, Gulf Coast raised, well, my mom and dad, but then they got divorced. I was one of the first, parents that got a divorce back in the, Southern Baptist days, right?And also I was born unhealthy, very sick. So I was told I wasn't gonna live very long that I was gonna not be able to run and do all those things. And well, long story short, I, I defied the doctors, joined the Marine Corps. And joined the music industry, done all kinds of crazy things since then.And yeah, I just keep going. So that's where I started in the great state of Texas. And then I lived in New Orleans for several years too. Yeah, and that's why we kind of go through the past of our guests, because everything that happens to us, good, bad, or ugly, ultimately happens for us. You know, all things work together for good to them that love God.So, whether we perceive it as good or bad at the time, or even still today, it makes us the men and women we are. So, going back to your childhood, you said you were born unhealthy. Like, did they give you two months to live, two years to live? What did they, what was the, what did you have as a prognosis? So, I don't know if you ever lived in Texas.The refinery area is, is very, I don't know. There's a lot of not good air around there. And I had pneumonia three times before I was a year old. I was told I was, you know, one of the baby, what are those called? Bubble babies. So I was in one of those places and just, you know, very, very sick. And they just said, you're not gonna, he's not gonna make it.He's, he's gonna just be, what do you call that? Not, just not a runner, not, not going to be able to do those kinds of things. So that's kind of why I joined the Marine Corps, because they said I couldn't. So the doctors said, he's not going to run. He's not going to do this. This is what I grew up on telling me, telling me what I cannot do.And you know, I'm not, I'm not one, I'm a business owner. Don't, don't tell me I can't do something. I'll prove you wrong. So you're going through, and were you an only child, brothers, sisters? So I did have my, after I was born and my, my mom got a divorce. My, she, she married, my white mom married, my sister's father.So then I had a sister. So it was half sister, but she's pretty much a full sister. And then afterwards my mom, Was divorced a few times that, that affected a lot of things, but I just, you know, kept moving forward. You know, I was a latchkey kid is me and her, my sister and my single mom.So all these things, the illness, the, your mom and the divorces and the instability in that area that just shows you, you just keep moving forward. You keep going. So from an early age, you, you saw, like you just go now was the, a lot of times people in that. When you're young, it's learned behavior. So you learn from your parents or those around you, but you can learn one or two ways you learn through their successes or through their failures.So when you were learning to, Hey, no matter what happens, no matter what this doctor tells me, he's not God, I'm going to do this, you know, no matter what happens financially, we can be poor. My mom got divorced again, I'm going to make it. Was it something that your mom was a real positive person or were you learning through her failures and the failures of those around you?I think it's a both. You know, I, I don't have a strong relationship with her now if any, because of some of the other conditions that she has. There was a lot of abuse that happened in her life that was generational and, and she still harbors those. I believe that a lot of times unforgiveness brings in.Unhealthiness in other areas of our life. I'm not saying that, you know, health conditions are because you didn't forgive somebody. But I think sometimes there is a lot of that that happens. And, you know, for me, I wanted it to be a different, different place. What I've learned in even our financial services world that we live in now.A lot of times it's unforgiveness that affects people's, emotional, psychological, spiritual, all kinds of stuff. And it's, it was a very hard thing to go through, you know, seeing, you know, my mom, multiple, multiple married and just learning, I don't want that for my family, I don't want that for my future family or the people that are coming, my kids or kid along the way.Yeah, that makes total sense. And there's science, you know, just because we don't understand it doesn't mean it's not true, but more and more scientific data is coming out every day that more diseases are caused by emotions and spiritual conditions than anything physiological. And they're even tying it directly, like, you know, this type of cancer is directly related to this trauma.So I think you're spot on, man. All right, so now you're going through all this, you're in school you're, you know, you're growing up, you decide to become a Marine. Did you join as soon as high school was over? Did you go to college first? What was your path? Yeah, I had no dad, right? So I was like, well, let's, how am I going to learn this guy's stuff?So I was like, well let's join the Marine Corps. Cause you know, that's the, those are manly guys. They Alpha of Alpha, right? Yeah, that was like, and they told me I couldn't run. Might as well join that one. I didn't realize I should have watched Full Metal Jacket and I would have chosen a different path maybe.But, but did it overcame that, you know, it was four years of hell. It was not the easiest thing, but I overcome it and learned that I could accomplish more than I thought I could. Now, would I ever go back into it and do it? No, never again. And you're, I don't want to, I don't know if you care about age, but I'm 46.And are you around the same age? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So when we were younger, there was commercials. For the Marines, I mean, it was we do more before 5am than most people do all day and it was real. And so that was the challenge you went through. It wasn't like, you know, a health club. Yeah. And it was, it was a great experience.You know, I learned a lot. I did a lot of things that probably shouldn't have done there, but you know. I did learn I could accomplish more, but there was a lot of so I go to a church called Crossroads here in Cincinnati and the pastor Brian told me, he says, there's a lot of, boys who are older and there's a lot of men who are young, you know, 18 year old men.And, and, you know, I think that there's a lot of, Even in the military, you know, there's still a lot of boys, even though they might be gunnery sergeants. Right. And, and I think that that's the difference, you know, and I'm also have a background in, in, church planting and all of that. And I feel like I've matured back then I was a boy and a lot of people, you know, big guns and do all kinds of crazy stuff.Now there's difference, you know, wisdom over time. So, I don't know. Yeah, no, so now that's interesting. We're kind of jumping, but when you were younger, you mentioned you were part of the church and it was a divorce, which was taboo. And then your dad, did he pop smoke and leave? He wasn't even part of your life or because I know you said your mom.Yeah, he was supposed to get married to my wife, my mom. I keep saying the different words, right? Get married to her. She was supposed to get her MRS degree. That's what they said back then. And he was going to be a priest, right? Or, or a Baptist pastor, I mean. But then that happened and now everybody in.in the south is divorced now at least four times over, right? But back then it was not a thing you do. Yeah. So now you're seeing a bunch of people say they're Christians, but I don't want to use the term live like the devil, but they're not living like Christ. So how, as you develop and you go in the Marines and now you're becoming a man, how does it transition with the relationship with Christ work in?Yeah. I don't know if I was becoming a man yet. Not then. You know, cause again, you could have all the muscles and do all the stuff and not be a real man. So, so that's something I, I also left from there. I wanted to make a difference. That's why I joined the Marine Corps. Then I joined, the music industry.I was in the music industry after that and said, all right, let's make a difference in the world. I still want to do it. And so I worked for. Some of the biggest celebrities in the world. And I saw some of the craziest stuff that, you know, you shouldn't see, that is illegal actually. And I had really had to get out of it because I would probably be dead.You know, with addiction, you know. All of that stuff. Cause I was not, I would say mature at all, but I still wanted to make a difference in the world. Still is what I do now, but I was in the music you know, I worked for R. Kelly for a few years ministry, which is a hardcore industrial brand, not Christian.Don't, don't Google them unless you really want to. But they were, heroin addicts, right? And it was just crazy the amount of things that we saw. And this is our influence. These are all like the musicians that we look up to. And I was like, man, if I want to make a difference, I got to be in this. But I left it after a while.I was like, man, this is, this is crappy. Yeah, this sucks. And that's where I actually, I think came. Maybe that's when I started going back to, to churches around that time. If I remember. So it was like, you were just seeing such a depravity of humanity that somehow you're, I mean, I don't want to put words in your mouth, but you were like, God, what's, what's out there?There's gotta be hope. What, what motivated you to go back to God? And again, me and you, I want to make sure, we have listeners from all over the world. Church doesn't save you. Church is a place where we can hopefully honor God together and glorify God and grow. But our relationship with God saves us. Yes.Through faith. So I want to make sure that, you know, Brandon and I are taking stuff for granted. But if you're listening from anywhere in the world, we're talking from a biblical worldview. The Bible is truth and salvation through God's grace and through faith. That's it. So when we say go back to church, it's just to kind of get kick started and to start thinking and seeing more of the balance of life.Yeah, whenever people ask me are you a Christian? I'm like, well, I'm a follower of Jesus. I say that a lot because I don't think that the word Christian means very much in our culture today. A follower of Jesus is, you know, practicing the ways and, truths of Him, right? And then I'm also been thinking a lot about this idea of, a repentance, a movement towards Jesus.And instead of a, I'm either a Christian or I'm not, it's a, a centered set. I'm moving towards that. And that's what I continue to do is move towards that. Even, I've been like a follower of Jesus for 20 plus years, right? But it's still movement in that direction. Cause there's a lot of Christians who might not be moving towards that.And that's the hard part. Love your neighbor as yourself, you know, anyway. So for me, you know, my, I ended up living with my dad here in Chicago. Made some connections here cause I was going to be homeless in California after the military. My mom actually ended up living with us, which was. Not the best move.And she had found this church. Your mom and his sister or just your mom? Just my mom, just my mom. And, and she was living with there because she was going to be homeless. And they were like, well ask my dad you mind if your ex wife moves in? And you know, that was just weird.
