Welcome to the Adaptive Mindset. I'm Brett Gallant, cybersecurity thought leader and founder of Adaptive Office Solutions. Here, we don't just talk tech, we unlock the strategies, stories, and mindset shifts you need to stay secure, lead boldly, and thrive in a digital world. Let's get started. Welcome back to the Adaptive Mindset. I'm pleased to have Anna N’Jie-Konte with me today. Anna is the CEO of Poder Wealth Advisors, and she helps women navigate financial decisions. And there's so much more about Anna that we're going to dig into. She's a lady of many diverse talents, and we're all going to be impacted with her being with us today. And I'm really excited to have you, Anna. Such a pleasure.

Brett Gallant

I'm super excited to be here.

Anna N’Jie-Konte

Awesome. So Anna, can you tell us a little bit about yourself that you can share with the audience?

Brett Gallant

Sure. So I am born and raised New Yorker, moved to the Washington, D.C. area a couple of years ago, but I am a wealth management advisor. I feel really strongly about women having access to money, having knowledge of money, having control over money because of my own personal story where I saw a lot of the women in my life not necessarily have autonomy and they were really restricted and they had so much potential, so much drive, so much grit. Like I'm the daughter of immigrants. They had all of the right ingredients, but the thing that they were missing was the resources that could really help them have a life of ease, achieve financial stability, achieve autonomy. And, you know, through my own professional career, I've been able to build that. I've been the first person in my family to really achieve financial stability of a significant measure, financial abundance. And our mission to help more women be more financially independent, more financially confident, and to, even if, you know, whether they're single, whether they're married, like whatever their marital status is or however they're employed, to feel really financially fluent.

Anna N’Jie-Konte

Nice. So here in the podcast, we talk about mindset and overcoming limiting beliefs and being the 10X version of ourselves. And obviously, I know when we look back at people's stories, we can find out the why. And it'd be interesting to hear your story about what led you to get to where you are today, and where you may have had some mindset shifts and become stronger in your belief in helping others. Is that something you'd share with us, Anna?

I would love to, I would love to. You know, I think for the longest time, like many entrepreneurs, my why was really me running away from something. So I'll kind of split it into two, two things. You know, I grew up with a lot of financial instability. So you know, like I mentioned, my I grew up in New York City, lower middle income, my parents worked two or three jobs at a time when I was growing up. You know, most of my family was on some sort of government assistance, government benefits. And so there was a lot of financial insecurity and that was very normalized to me. I knew from a very young age though, because my parents really believed in education. And so despite the fact that they were struggling a lot financially, they actually put me in Catholic school growing up because they wanted me to have a higher quality education. So I was around a lot of kids who they might not have been wealthy, but they had more sort of economic resources, economic stability. And I saw the discrepancy between my life and then what a lot of them had happening. And that was, I guess, a fire for me to say, you know, I want to do a lot better. Like, I don't want to live with this level of financial stress and instability. And so I'm going to run away from that financial stress that I experienced growing up and insecurity and just Feeling like you're at the mercy of money. I think if I had to share like one sort of overarching sentiment is that we were not the type of people that had money and money was something that like was incongruent to who we were. So that was a huge limiting belief. But I, being the stubborn, determined person that I am, I said, absolutely not, it will not be me.

I can relate to that so much. I had a similar background. So, yeah.

Yeah. And I mean, you know, you just, even if you don't know the way, you also know that this is not it. Like where we are right now is not how I want to be operating in the future. And that was in many different ways. But I ended up, you know, getting a call from a recruiter. So I came into wealth management because I was recruited to be an assistant at a high net worth wealth management firm. And that was where I really, my, my eyes were so opened one as to the level of wealth that just exists out in the world that has nothing to do with people being basketball players or famous singers or famous actors. I think that's sort of what I thought people gave people a lot of money in my mind and my own mental kind of construct. I was exposed to this world where you could really just have a high paying job and save really diligently and invest really diligently and retire with millions of dollars. And so that set me on a mission to learn personally how to do that because that was miles away from kind of what I had grown up with. Now, I think the second kind of limiting belief that I really has been transformative to me in that was after I had worked in that business for about eight years. And I'd gained the skills, I'd gained the certifications, I'd gained the chops, and I was really rising in my career in corporate. And I worked with someone who was maybe two years older than me, and came from a very well-to-do family, had sort of the pedigree that you think of when you think of a financial advisor or a wealth manager, and he was making millions of dollars a year. And I was doing all of the work, and he was making literally millions of dollars a year. And it's not like he was way older than me. I think he was two or three years older than I was. And that was a light bulb moment for me too, and that was really my my foray into entrepreneurship because I said I already have the playbook and I have the good habits that I've built up for myself over the last couple of years and now I'm going to unlock the. the thing that was a limiting belief for me, which was also that I need to be an employee. I need to have stability. I should stay there for a really long time. So I wasn't the born entrepreneur. I sort of had my eyes opened. I was always a really hard worker, always was going to push myself to do better, get good grades, work hard, all of that. But that really unlocked the world of entrepreneurship to me. And here we are.

Awesome. Yeah. So you, you unlocked quite a bit there and it was like a journey, you know, looking back at your past where you had not that abundance from financially, but, but you knew that it was possible and you resolved to go beyond that. I can relate so much because when I was growing up, I remember us, you know, making use of the food bank. And when I lived with my father, buying pork chops and, and wrapping them up the family pack to stretch a dollar even further, like doing little hacks like that. So very formative for you. And now that you're here on this other side of it, what would you say to the younger version of you back then?

I mean, I think the thing I try to remind myself when I even have hard days now that I would tell myself back then is it's all gonna be worth it. it's hard in the moment. And I think, you know, we go through seasons in life. And especially when you're starting from a lower base, let's say an earlier starting point, like, you know, we know what a compounding curve looks like. And in different areas of our life, we're going to be at the beginning stages of that compounding curve. And it feels like it's not working. And it feels like It's just like, you are working and you're grinding and you're putting in the reps and you're putting in the effort and you're not seeing the result and it can be really disheartening and frustrating. And yet, if you keep it up and you keep learning and doing better, right? Continuing the activity, but there's also improvement. Then, you know, you see like really the takeoff. And I've experienced that in so many different periods of my life. And to be honest, I'm in a little bit of that I'm putting in the reps period for different things in my business right now. And so I'm reminded of probably how I felt at 24, felt really frustrated, but didn't, was committed to the action. And I knew that I needed to hit that kind of goal long term.

Yeah, that's true for so many things in life. When we look at the success of athletes and when we think of the story, I've heard this a few times in life, the story of the bamboo tree. We see it sprout up really fast, but we don't realize the roots were growing for seven years. And yes, it grows quickly, but it was all that work, all that development and execution You know, the hockey player, the baseball player, it was all those thousands of hours of practice. But here they're on the other side, they put the reps in and they're reaping that success. But it's because of that execution and dedication and commitment to working on themselves and realizing. and accomplishing their goals because of their commitment to doing it, the commitment to excellence and stretching yourself beyond you in ways that we don't even fathom that's possible sometimes. And you kind of almost pinch yourself, is this happening? So, yeah, awesome. So is there, Anything that you'd like to share with our audience about some of your experiences along the way that you can impact some? I know there's some people listening that I'm sure you want to help people with. What are some really actual great advice that you can share with our audience?

One of the things that I think I've realized in this journey, so, you know, my goal was not always just a financial goal, right? Like I had a couple goals at the outset of my career. And if I even think about now, they're still really constant, is I wanted to live a really good, like high quality life. I wanted to have experiences that would be memorable because once again, like most, I grew up hearing everybody in my family talk about, oh, they wanted to do this or they wanted to do that and they couldn't because of this and they couldn't because of that. And it's usually because of time or financial resources because they were working so much and were not earning enough to have all that time translate into the experiences that they wanted. I wanted to really have like a whole happy family life because I didn't have that growing up as well. And I wanted to like live life on my own terms and be really, you know, free and feel really like, hey, I don't have regrets. Those were those were the three things I wanted. And Funnily enough, I think that, you know, as humans, I'm like this. When I decide I want something, I want it. Yesterday, like, okay, I decide I want a six pack. Like, just that decision should mean that I have a six pack when I wake up in the morning, right? Like, isn't that how it works?

It's not how it works.

Exactly, right? Like, yeah, and I hit the gym a lot and I don't have a bicep vein. So let's talk about that. We'll get there.

Yeah.

We'll get there. But so, so I'm, I'm no stranger to, um, you know, that kind of instant gratification. I think most human beings have that to varying degrees. The thing that I realized is. You can have it all, but a lot of things are cyclical. And when I look at, oh, I think the first couple of, I would say the first eight years after I decided, Hey, I'm going to become really wealthy. Like I'm going to have. financial abundance way more than the rest of my family did. It took probably eight years for me to pay down student debt, to buy property, to build significant investment portfolio while I was doing other things. I got married, I had kids, I started doing that, but it took a long time. And during that period, there were a lot of things that I didn't have. Right. So so I had the family life I wanted and I was building the stability that I wanted, but I didn't have it yet. And sitting without discomfort of like the gap between where you are and where you want to be is really important. And also recognizing that that's a phase. Right.

Yeah.

Anybody who's a parent, Brent.

Oh, yes. I'm a proud father of five children. My youngest just had his birthday yesterday and was reminding me every day. How old is he? He's six now.

Oh, yeah. You know, my youngest is going to be six in May. So they're about the same age. I have three daughters. So you know this, right? Like when the kids are little, you're just like drowning. You're drowning. Exhausted. They seemingly like try to unalive themselves every five minutes.

And that was the first thing when when my boys were young, my number one job was keeping them from killing themselves. They were. Yeah, exactly.

Because it's like they constantly want to do it. I mean, side note, we took my daughter to the grocery store two weeks ago, my youngest.

Yeah.

And she somehow decided, bolted, and decided she was gonna run up the escalator, fell, cut her mouth open, and ended up in the ER, at the grocery store, right? Like, there's just the most innocuous places in the world. The grocery store is not the place you think that they're really gonna hurt themselves, and yet. And so, you know, you're going through that phase, and it feels like it's never gonna end, and it feels like you're not really enjoying it, and it's hard, and you're tired, like, physically and emotionally drained. In many ways, because it's nonstop from morning tonight, sometimes, and yeah it's a phase, and it'll be over, and now our kids are bigger and we can chat with them and they're all toilet trained and. They sleep through the night and things are easier. Right. And I think that sometimes we get so caught up in the gap between where we are and where we want to be and the things that are hard about where we are right now and how we don't have the all the laundry list of other things that we want and we lose sight of that kind of

or the answers to every puzzle or issue and you want to do your best. And like you said, it's cyclical. So for you being a parent, you're well aware of the cycles of the ages and then you see it. I know I've been through this six-year-old phase before four different times. And you know, Okay, at nine things will be different and 13 things will be different. So, yeah.

Exactly. It's the same. And I think just anything that you have in life that you want, recognize that you're putting in the work now, as long as you're doing it in earnest, right? Like there's a difference between saying you want something and actually putting in the work and being thoughtful about the direction you're headed and what you're doing and minding and measuring and refining. and prioritizing it like there are differences between that but if you say you want it and you're putting in action and you're continuing to learn more and do better then it's only a matter of time and it may be you're in a season that you know that's not feasible for you or it may just be you're you're in the season where you're priming the pump.

Yeah, that's a really good analogy. And sometimes, like a lot of times, I think it's the habits and standards we set for ourself. And I'm very much in tune with that. So the standards I set for myself every day, the non-negotiables.

It's so important. And I've always been, you know, I've been really blessed to have a wonderful husband and he and I got married pretty young. He's been with me through this whole journey. And the thing that I'll say is he told me something, he was a college football player, like, you know, American college football. And said his coach told him you could only be good at max two things at a time. So if football is one of the things that you want to be good at, you need to really pick carefully what the other thing is. Because you can't say, I'm going to have the most active social life, I'm going to be the best football player and make the NFL, and I'm going to be a straight-A student, and I'm going to travel, and, and, and. And I think a lot of times we want to do that, and we don't recognize how hard it is to be really excellent and have the bandwidth at that if you're not incredibly mindful of where you spend your time. So personally, I have three priorities, my business, my health and wellness, and my family. Like, those are my priorities. And I'm incredibly ruthless about, like, I need to get, I'm gonna get up and I'm gonna pray because that helps my mental wellness. I'm gonna get up and when I hit the gym, that helps my physical wellness. I'm gonna eat good food because if I'm, you know, putting garbage in, I'm going to get garbage out, and I'm not going to think clearly, and I'm not going to have the right energy. I'm ruthless about that. Those first two hours of the day, don't try and get me to do anything else. It's non-negotiable. 5 to 7 a.m., that's my time, and that's when I'm doing those things.

And we have to be mindful of that, Anna, because I'm very much a project, you know, I'm a project in the making. We all are. And I can tell you my own personal experience. Back in 2023, I made a decision. I was speaking with my coach, and I said, Dave, I don't have time to get to the gym. He said, Brent, you mean to tell me you own your own business, you don't have time to get to the gym? And I can't really say what I said back to him. It was a four letter word. He laughed. We have a good relationship. And that's where I started on the journey for myself, putting me first, because a lot of times, like what you said there a minute ago is, you know, business, family and health. Well, oftentimes, and this is where my priority was mixed up a bit. My priority was my business first.

Yeah.

I turned it around, so it's my health, my family, my business. And when I put myself first, I have more energy for my family. And entrepreneurs, we're on this island sometimes and we're trapped and we're trying to do things, but we forget to treat ourselves as the best client. And result of that pivoting moment in my life, I've released over 110 pounds since then.

That's incredible. How, over how many years, how long did it take you to do that?

It's, well, a year, a little over a year and 14 months.

So that's incredible.

Yeah.

But the whole human being like an adult human.

Exactly. And so putting those priorities, like you were saying, it really connected with me because we, when we put ourselves first, It's like that analogy of the airplane. We put the oxygen mask on so we can serve. And I'm sure everything in your life, when you had those morning hour where you're connecting your spirit and doing that, it just makes everything in life flow better.

It really does. And I'll share, you know, you asked me about pivotal moments before, but I had a realization around that in particular.

Yeah, please.

Two of my girlfriends, two of my best girlfriends, like college friends, we've just been together through thick and thin, the three of us wanted to go on a yoga retreat. And I live in the DC area, this was upstate New York, so it was about an eight hour drive, seven, eight hour drive from my house to get there. So I rented a car, I was so excited, this was the first time. I had my oldest, who was about three, four at the time, and my middle daughter, who was about one at the time. And I was so excited, like, I get away for the weekend. This is great. I get to hang with my best friends. Like, this is great. I spent that whole car ride like in tears because I was so frustrated that this was the only time I was making for myself. And I was not living up to, in terms of how I was showing up energetically for my family, to the ideal that I had. Right? Because I remind you, I, like I said, one of my main North stars was to have a really healthy family and to have a lot of joy and fun with the family that I was building. And I recognize that I was really unhappy because I wasn't caring for myself. I was giving everything to work and just the busyness of day to day. And it wasn't working. And that was a moment where I said, something has to shift. So since 2018, I've shifted to, hey, it's a non-negotiable for me to be up in the morning, to have my quiet time with Creator, to prioritize my wellness and my workouts. And that's been to varying degrees over the last years, having baby, I had my third baby since then, so you know how that goes. It was a really pivotal moment for me because I said, something's got to give and you're better than this and you want better than this, which is why you're so upset about how things are working out.

That's so true. Sometimes when those moments of change come where you have that strong emotion where you say, this is it. I'm deciding now.

Yeah. Yeah. The buck stops here. Like, we're done. Yeah. There's a before and after this moment.

I'm unstoppable. No one's going to stop me because I've made the decision and I'm moving forward.

Yeah. And it's just really important. I've continued to make that a priority. But, you know, I think we as entrepreneurs, to your point, yes, we have a lot of burdens that folks who work at a company who have a salary job, don't necessarily have, but we also have so many opportunities. So for me, the way I've decided that I want to show up is I'm up early. I work while my kids are in school, but I pick those babies up from school every day. Like every day I pick them up from school. I make them dinner. I hang out with them. I hear about their day. And that's non-negotiable. And yeah, that means I work on the weekend when people don't work on Saturday and Sunday, but I do because that time has to come from somewhere. But I know that I'm living in according with my values because I'm taking care of myself. I have a really good relationship with my husband. I have a good relationship with my kids. And my business, you know, gets the rest of those hours, but I'm really focused and excited about that. So I get to work when I'm working.

Right. And I've, I think Jim Rohn said this, you know, when you're, when you work, work, when you play, play, don't mix the two together.

A hundred percent. Brett, have you been like making dinner for your kids or whatever you're doing? And before you start to realize that you're stressed. And you're snapping at the kids and you're, you know, and I recognize yesterday I broke this rule a little bit in that on the drive home from picking up the kids, I was listening to a call that was under no control of mine. Like I couldn't reschedule it. It wasn't mine, but I really wanted to participate. And I found myself with that tension. And I was like, this is exactly why you are maniacal about your schedule stopping at a certain time. Yeah, it's not conducive.

No, because I carry that you carry that and and and then when you guard your time. and guard it with a vengeance, then you allow yourself. I love serving my clients and it's a privilege, but there are times now because in my journey, I've decided that there's certain things that are non-negotiable and there's a certain level of what we do that we don't do anymore. And I remember, Anna, we used to have subcontracts about seven or eight years ago where we would get a call to replace a debit machine. We were doing subcontract work and we'd have to respond in 15 minutes and get there within four hours. So I remember leaving at 6 p.m. my house with leaving my littles and my wife to go do something that was not the high best value. But guess what? Who was it? I was it. And now I choose to say, I don't really need to do that type of work anymore. And it's somebody that else can value from it. But for us, our values are being able to be home for our family and be present. So now I don't have that anxiety of, oh, am I going to get called to go to this place?

100%.

And you didn't take that call. So now you can choose not to take that call.

Oh yeah, I totally can. And the thing about it was, it was such, it was a call that was so aligned and I knew would be so valuable for my clients that I just really wanted to, like, I was genuinely very excited about it. But really, you know, I think we all as entrepreneurs go through the journey where we have lots of unaligned clients and we'll do anything and we'll take anybody's money who will give us money. And it's only until I think we realize what we're giving up when we continue to accept that or when we don't draw boundaries and when we don't just have clarity about the value that we bring and have boundaries with everybody in our life around what's acceptable and what's not. We all have that journey, but it's really important that we graduate from that. Because I think also that that's part of That initial stage where things are messy and people are demanding and it's really hard is what I think most people have as a perception of entrepreneurship. And I think that's like the immature entrepreneur that we all have to go through. I've done calls at 7 p.m. on a Sunday night because a client said that was the only time they could meet, right? Like I've done stupid things like that. I won't do it anymore though. My calls are from nine to three. If you wanna talk to me, you have nine to three. Outside of nine to three, I'm sorry. Find me another day between nine and three, right?

Yeah. Other people can do it. And sometimes we feel, oh, that's the only way. And if that doesn't work, then sometimes you need to part friends respectfully and just say, hey, and I've done that a few times over the last few years. And I used to take that very personally that I was responsible. But now I realize the superpower is recognizing what is the best value for that client to have the type of relationship they want, but also honoring what is best for my business, my family. And, and being aligned with that and being true to what you want and making sure that they have what they need, because sometimes things change, like any relationship, every relationship has expectations. And sometimes if they're not being met and in a business, you, you just say, okay, it's time to reevaluate that.

Yeah, absolutely. I agree wholeheartedly. And I think it's so nice when you can realize that you don't have to take all the money. and some things are not worth the money that they're paying you. And, you know, you can choose to say no and, you know, amicably, no hard feelings, but just, hey, this isn't working for me. Or your expectations don't work. And I feel really fortunate that I've been able to build a business with people who, you know, I think like attracts like. So I have boundaries and I have very clear values. And so my clients have really strong boundaries. They respect my boundaries. and they have really clear forward-facing values that they use in their decision-making in their lives.

Yeah. And I can, I relate to that because I'm a recovering people pleaser.

Yeah.

And so understanding that now, and I get to, I have the great privilege of speaking with other business owners in my industry and beyond. And I see people struggling sometimes where they feel like they have to be the hero for everybody. I say like, please, please. I was talking to one gentleman in San Diego. I said, please make sure you come to our mastermind on Thursday. Would love to have you. He said, I can't escape. I said, yes, you can. It's one hour. Give yourself that one hour. Yeah.

There's so much time in the day. And I think that we just have to recognize that the more things we say yes to. One of the things that I walk my clients through, because it's the same with money and time, I find that it's a very similar exercise where, yeah, there's not enough time and there's not enough money when you want it to do everything. When your hour is just a free-for-all, your time is just a free-for-all, and your money is just a free-for-all, then I don't care how much money you have, it's going to be a finite resource. and you're gonna feel pinched. And I think the first thing we always have to do is like, what are those priorities? And what are those values? And be really clear on those. And from there, then you can come up with a plan for your time or a plan for your wealth and your money.

Yes, your cash flow.

Yeah, that is an alignment with those but but a lot of times people want to, I think they do it backwards where they just accept all the requests and the demands on their time, or you know money that get spent here and there and, you know, without a real purpose or intention. And that's why we feel so stressed is because we're not really grounded in what those priorities are for ourselves. And I would just say, listening, like, take some time and think about what really matters to you.

And you can't want it more than somebody else wants it. I learned that from counseling. And the biggest yes, what I realized, is what you say no to. That's the biggest yes. 100%. So, Anna, I want to ask you something. I like asking this to all of our guests. If there's one book or one book that has really impacted you, is there a book that has helped you on your journey or books that you'd like to share with our audience?

There's a couple.

There's two.

So I'll share two. One is It's called Loving What Is by Byron Katie. Have you ever read it?

No, no.

Oh, it's a good one. So basically it teaches you about how our thoughts are not always true and how a lot of times we have mental thoughts, programming, ways of viewing things that are charged with emotion and we're not able to look at things in a emotionally neutral place. And that causes us a lot of pain as individuals.

Oh, that's so my book.

Oh, it's so good. And she has a set of four questions, which I'll tell you quickly.

Yeah.

The first is like, let's say there's a thought that's bothering you. I don't have enough money.

Yes.

Is it true? That's the 1st question.

Yes.

2nd question is, is if you say yes, is can you absolutely be sure it's true? The 3rd is who are you when you have that thought? And how do you show it? Like, how do you show up when you have that thought? And how do you who would you be without that thought? And I use that on all kinds of things. And I find whenever I'm in a funk about something, I will sit and I'll think about like, what are the thoughts, just write out the thoughts that are in my head or how I'm feeling about something. And I'll usually find one or two thoughts in there that are really not helping me and are causing me frustration, anxiety, sadness, whatever. And I'll do that on that. And that skill is so profound and has helped me be a lot more emotionally regulated and a lot less emotionally ensnared by things. And I think that that helps with entrepreneurship. Anybody who's an entrepreneur, just buckle up and get ready. Every level has new things that trigger us. The second is a book called Die With Zero. So I'm a financial advisor, I have to talk about money, right? Book is Die With Zero. And one of the things that I don't, I've always seen with my clients and I've seen personally. So I had an aunt, the one person in my whole life who had financial stability, she died in 2015. And she lived so frugally and she died suddenly with all of these things that she wanted to do. She would tell me she wanted to add a sunroom, she wanted to take the train across the country and see Fall Folia, she wanted to get a facelift. She had all these things she wanted to do and she never did any of it. She died really suddenly in her early 70s, no known health issues. Just had a massive heart attack and boom, she was gone. She had all of this money and I found her notebooks and notebooks and notebooks of her obsessing over, I spent $2 here, I spent $4 here, I spent $37 here. She had hundreds of thousands in the bank. And I thought, what a shame to have come from literal poverty, right? Like my mom said, family came from very actual poverty. And to have built this level of success and stability for yourself, and she never enjoyed it, really.

She never allowed herself to because she was living from a scarcity mindset.

She was 100%, 100%. What world do you need to track $1.50 you spent at the supermarket when you have $400,000 and a paid off house and guaranteed income that covers all your expenses? Those three things don't make too much sense, right?

No, no.

And this book, Die With Zero, really talks about how every extra dollar that you have when you die, that was an hour of your time, a year of your time that you spent working when you could have been living more. And I think that that's so profound. And as a wealth advisor, and I think entrepreneurs also are trained towards this continue to grow, continue to scale, continue to grow, bring in more revenue, bring in more revenue with no end in sight, right? Like bigger is better. And while I have aspirations to make a built business, it's for a reason. And I think we need to stop the sort of accumulate and hoard money. that does not have an aim.

So- How can we empower our community and our team? Yeah, exactly.

You have to have a target, like how much is enough for me personally? What are the things that I actually wanna spend money on? Most people don't even know what their own goals are. because they never take time to stop and think about that. Like, what are your goals? What does that cost? When do you want to do it? And the book really walks you through that. And it says like, literally go calculate how much of a portfolio do you need by whatever age it is, so that you can stop at some point and give yourself the freedom to actually live your life.

Or if you decide to keep going, make sure you're doing like smelling the roses and having those experiences. I've tied for me, I hope my children don't listen to this, but I've tied an MRR goal, a financial goal for the company. And when I hit it and I will, we're going to go on an epic vacation to Disneyland.

It's amazing.

And we're going to have that. It's going to be a gift and we're going to, I could hold off and not spend it, but no, these are precious times and they're experiences that we're here on this earth to share and make an impact. So like, I'm very fortunate that we have a few causes that we donate to and we make an impact in the community. But you can make an impact in all sorts of ways.

Absolutely. And I think it's just, it's just really important to have the clarity on like, what are the memories that you want to have in your life, whether you have children or not? What are the experiences you want to have in your life? And just recognize that you don't know how long you have. And you don't know how long the other people that you want to have those experiences have. And you don't know Like nothing's guaranteed. So it's really important for us to have those experiences and plan our life as if we're going to have an end date, because we all have an expiration date.

I heard this recently, uh, live like every day, like it was your last day.

Yeah.

And this is such a pivotal time. And I'm thinking about that. I met with a former employee and I told him the story of Adaptive. And I got to thinking about an employee that used to work with me. And Mike was such an incredible man. We didn't know that his last day was going to be January 16th, though, over seven years ago. And we never, like, you never know when your last day is and how much of an impact you have. We take for granted how much, how we show up in this world, how much of an impact we have. And so whether that's financial or who we are, like, you know, that book, that's a must read by the sounds of it. So for sure.

It's called Die With Zero by Bill Perkins.

Thank you, I'm gonna write that down. So how do people find you, Anna? I would encourage people to connect with Anna and reach out. She's full of knowledge and in all sorts of ways. So I'm sure there's ways to find you on the world wide web, Instagram and LinkedIn.

For sure, exactly. So Instagram and LinkedIn are my two main social media channels. LinkedIn, you can just search my name. on Instagram is at A-N-N-A-N-J-I-E-K-O-N-T-E. Well, I'm sure you'll link to it.

In the show notes for sure.

Exactly, exactly. So just link to check out the show notes. I'd love to connect with you. I love connecting with other entrepreneurs and just talking about life and business and how we can be as impactful and intentional as possible.

It was such a pleasure to have you, Anna. Do you have any final thoughts you want to share with people to your stage?

I would just say that if you can live with intention and not just live by default, then you're winning, whatever that looks like for you. So, you know, instead of doing the things that your family told you to do, or your culture tells you to do, or your spouse wants you to do, or your clients want you to do, or what you think is expected of someone with your identity or whatever your profile is, I would just encourage you to actively choose what kind of life you want, what kind of memories you want, what kind of impact you want to have, what kind of legacy you want, and take the steps to do that now. And remember that every day you have an opportunity to just add a little pebble towards that mountain that you're building for that. And I don't think that you can ever do that and live with regrets.

That's so beautiful. Thank you so much. It was a real privilege to have you today and to get to meet you. Thank you.

Nice meeting you too. Thanks for having me on.

Thank you. Thanks for tuning in to The Adaptive Mindset. If you found value in today's episode, don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who's ready to thrive in the digital age. Stay secure, stay adaptable, and I'll see you next time.