meet the host of HOW I BUILT MY SMALL BUSINESS and learn her “why” behind doing the podcast

Anne McGinty

Thank you for being here today. This has been the hardest episode to plan for because it's more of my story and background and I'll share why I am doing this podcast in the first place. This is my 22nd episode and this is a big deal because it's my understanding that 99 % of podcasts don't make it past episode 21. If you've listened to any of the episodes, thank you so much and please let me know with an honest rating and review.

I'm the daughter of Filipino immigrants and my parents were both doctors that came to America in the early 1970s with only $200 each. And by the time I was in high school, they had a dozen properties and took our family traveling around the world among many, many other privileges. And I'll touch back on that topic of privileges when I talk about why I'm doing this podcast later in the episode.

Anyway, in middle school and high school, I was a football cheerleader in Atlanta, Georgia. And I know depending on where you live in this country, sometimes people say that it isn't a real sport. And I'm not going to say that it is or it isn't, but what participating in this activity did was give me regular practice in spreading positivity and being happy and generally spirited. I love to see people do well, and it's part of who I am.

because someone else's success doesn't take away from my own potential. And I believe that wholeheartedly and always have. So if someone is doing well, then I want to support them and bolster them up even further to continue their success. And if someone isn't doing well, I believe support and knowledge can help them turn around. Ever since I was young,

I've been fascinated by people's stories and the insight they have to give. And so I'm kind of going back to what I've always loved doing, which is asking people questions and pulling out their incredible and unique stories. One of the first plane rides I took by myself was in high school when I went to visit friends in Rhode Island. And on the way, I was that teenage girl that if you prefer to have silence and earbuds in, then I'm sorry if you got seated next to me. Anyway, I was.

beaming a smile and introduced myself to the person I was sitting next to and continued to just pepper them with questions because I was truly interested in knowing about their stories. Most of the time, people would gladly talk and sometimes even share their investment know -how. It was so fun. And I just paid attention to their body language and whether or not the person was engaged. And as long as it seemed like they were, I kept on asking questions.

So I learned so much from these conversations about what people chose to do with their time, what they did for a living, their motivations. And oftentimes I would get the most fascinating insight from complete strangers. There was this one time at an airport that I sat next to a guy with a computer while waiting for the flight. And he showed me his computer and told me that he created his Apple laptop and that his name was Woz. I just smiled. I honestly, I didn't believe him.

But then I saw him sitting in first class and I wondered if there was any possibility that he was telling the truth. But at that moment I attached Steve Jobs name to Apple. So I didn't know the name was anyway, was if you're out there, I'm sorry. I didn't believe you. I Googled him and yeah, that was the guy. So anyway, I wish I had continued that conversation for longer because what a fascinating story that would have been.

The point of this is that there are so many people out there who have done what it is that you want to do or that you don't want to do. And if you just ask them, they'll probably share everything they know with you. People usually love to talk about themselves, plus it's free knowledge and a good practice and communication and connection. So the next time you see someone who is doing something that you want to do, whether it's

a business, a lifestyle, career choice, investment, and so on. Ask questions. What is the worst that could happen? I mean, the worst thing would be that they are so annoyed and they're just listening to as much. Right. So ask questions. When I went to college in Connecticut and had to decide at 18 what I wanted to major in, which by the way, how on earth is an 18 year old supposed to know what they want to do for the rest of their lives? Anyway, after being there for a month or so, I called home to let my parents know.

that I was going to major in art history. And I feel like the silence was deafening. My parents were a guest. I remember they were immigrants. And my dad didn't hold back. And he wasn't quite yelling, but he said, pretty matter of factly, what are you going to do with an art history degree? I was like, I don't know. I just like art and it sounds interesting.

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and he gave me an ultimatum. He wasn't going to pay for college unless I studied one of the four following options, pre -med, law, investment banking, or business. So I went back to the drawing board and my school is pretty small and didn't even have these very specific courses. So I relented and was like, okay, fine, I'll switch it. And I chose economics because it was the closest to a business degree option available.

and was the only option out of the four that he gave me that sounded even remotely interesting. And now I understand the value of his advice. You see, you can layer business on top of just about anything that you're interested in doing. I still think I probably could have majored in art history and taken business classes alongside, and who knows, maybe I would have owned an art gallery for emerging artists if I had gone that route. But as immigrants,

My parents wanted me to major in something that had a greater statistical chance of success. And I get that. And I'm honestly glad that I ended up doing econ instead because of how it taught me to think. One of the biggest takeaways from studying economics was understanding opportunity cost, which in a nutshell is the value of the option not taken when making a decision.

So this is also somewhat connected to one of my favorite quotes by Henry David Thoreau, which says, the price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it. So when we make choices, those choices typically come with a cost. And I'm not talking about a monetary value. I mean, sometimes there is an actual money cost, but I'm referring more to the intrinsic value.

I'm not going to go into a huge econ lesson right now, but my point is that my degree has absolutely had an impact on my life and the way that I think. I value lifestyle over career. And when it comes to money, I believe in figuring out what the lifestyle is that you want to live, why you want to live that lifestyle, and then calculating how much that lifestyle costs with the lifestyle being the goal.

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Moving forward, when I graduated from college, I went backpacking overseas with my best friend from home, Sarah. And I remember talking with her on the phone and she was saying, you'll never get another opportunity to do this because once you start your career, it'll be so much harder to get away for this amount of time. And, you know, I used to joke that she was going to be the first woman president of the United States. And that is because I just trust her wholeheartedly and think she is so wise. So.

I took her advice and I got a work visa for Australia from the BUNAC program, which if you don't know about it, it's a program where Americans between the ages of 18 and 30 can get work visas for a handful of countries. And I highly recommend doing this if you can. That experience was phenomenal. And I learned so much about...

how to live off of very little and stretch money out as far as possible, how to manage my time, flexibility, and how to really enjoy life. I ended up working on a boat in the Whitsunday Islands in Australia and had free room and board, but only made about $50 a week. And I'll save the questionable ethics of the company I was working for for another time, but that's what it was.

Anyway, the experience was so rich and it reinforced in me what I had known all along anyway, that time to live is the goal and money supports that goal. As the cherry on top, when I left Australia and continued backpacking in New Zealand, I met my husband, Mark. So that's some major value right there. When I got back to America about a year later, I started my first full -time job.

selling toothpaste and I'm not kidding. It was killing my soul. And when I got my first paycheck, it felt impossible to save, even though I was making much more than the $50 a week on the boat. So Mark and I started exploring all other options for making extra income. And this is not gonna be new to most of you. I mean, side gigging is kind of like this, some people love it and some people hate it.

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Anyway, I picked up a side job working for a photographer on weekends, Eliot Holtzman in San Rafael, and put all of the money I earned from that into savings. And then I started making greeting cards out of my photographs. And actually, that one in the last year of that business probably pocketed about 10 to 15 thousand dollars in extra income, which also went into savings. But making and selling greeting cards is a total slog.

So I closed that business and I now have a lifetime supply of leftover greeting cards, which is awesome. But I started shooting photos for the San Mateo Daily Journal and getting a taste for photojournalism. I spent a year or two preparing my resume and applied to the journalism school at UC Berkeley and got in. And then during orientation, I spoke with my would -be mentor for the program about the business side of journalism.

And what he had to say was candid, but also pretty bleak. Did I want to cover stories at 2 a .m. if I was a mother? Would I be okay having a story I've reported on changed because the media outlet was owned by a giant corporation and I wouldn't be allowed to present the story the way that I wanted to? Long hours, low pay. So once again, I pivoted and wanted to apply to business school instead, but

Looking at the time and money investment required and the likelihood that Mark and I would be starting a family, going to get my MBA just didn't fit. So it still pains me a little bit because I really love education and that is still something that I just wonder about if I had gone. Anyway, I decided to learn on the fly instead. And in total, I've started four businesses.

One was the greeting card one. And then Mark and I started an importing business of LED lights. And this was back at the very beginning when LED lights were still very new in this country. And the importing business ended up turning into an absolute nightmare because we didn't know what we were doing and made many, many mistakes, which we learned from. So it's OK. We.

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absolutely nailed the sales and branding and had over $500 ,000 in orders that first year. But when half of your product is defective on arrival, it doesn't matter how good your sales and branding are. We quickly figured out which customers had purchased the defective product and reimbursed their money, took a hit on that. But because the margins were okay on the half of the product, that was perfectly fine.

We actually didn't lose any money, but we broke even. And it was still very painful though, because of the amount of time and dedication that we had put into it. But again, we learned and education sometimes costs money. So look for the lesson. Where we did all right was in our gourmet ice pop business, The Pop Nation, which is still in existence with its new owners.

and a Christmas lighting business, which we reminisced on in episode 11, if you're curious to hear more about that one. Both of those had successful exits. And I could talk about these experiences for much longer and you can check them out online. I'll include links in the episode's description, but I'm going to move on. So, okay, why am I doing this podcast? Many reasons. The first real fire under me was in...

August of last year, so August 2023. And I was talking to my daughter about the Christmas lighting business. She's eight. And maybe we just haven't talked about it recently in the last three years. But she said to me, I don't know anything about that business, which, by the way, was a part of our lives for 13 years and a major part of why we are where we are today. And I was a bit dumbfounded. And then her

brother who is 10 said, you know, I barely remember anything about that. Maybe one time you guys took us somewhere to look at some lights. And then our oldest who is 12 said, I remember it a little bit, but not that much. And if you think about it, we sold our last business in 2020. So it's been three years and my daughter was five when we sold the business. So.

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really the last time we would have been installing would have been when she was four and a half. And I get it. It wasn't a core memory for her. So for all of our kids, I decided to do this in part so they can see me put my mind towards a creative outlet that inspires me and is challenging and fun and where I'm still learning. And if we rewind back to when I was in my twenties, remember, I really wanted to apply to business school.

I loved the topic of entrepreneurship, investing. Business seemed really interesting to me and it just didn't make any practical sense financially or with the time investment. So that got shelved and this is my version of business school. If you think about it, I'm researching and planning and interviewing and editing and then listening. And that is just like going to school. It's like studying. So I love the process.

I launched the week of January 25th, 2024, even though the podcast actually got uploaded to the directories a few days earlier than I expected. I plan to do it the week of January 25th. And that is in honor of my dad who died three years ago on that day. And he was so inspirational and challenged himself. Even when he was a doctor, he wasn't just a doctor.

He was investing in real estate or becoming a master gardener. And when he learned that American hospitals throw away their beds and machinery when they're done with them, but they're still in working condition, he sent seven containers over to the Philippines and received recognition from the Red Cross. So big shoes. And then there's my mom, who has been a constant moral supporter in any and all of my ideas.

I've lost count of the number of times that she has said that famous phrase, if you can dream it, you can do it. And she means this wholeheartedly when she says it. Having that unwavering support has helped me so much in what I've done. And I want to promote that message to all of you. Believe in yourself. And if you don't have that unconditional supportive friend or family member out there,

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branch out into new social circles and build new meaningful connections with others. If you don't know how to do this, there is some incredible insight from a guest I interviewed in episode seven. There are many, many reasons. So beyond this, I feel like it's usually the 100 million plus business owners and creatives that are interviewed about their journeys. Meanwhile, there is so much collective knowledge that smaller business owners that are making between

one in 20 million a year. And I believe that their stories can be so much more approachable and provide accessible insight to so many more people. On top of this, aspiring entrepreneurs come from a variety of privileges, backgrounds, social circles, experiences, and that can make pursuing small business so much harder for some individuals than others.

And I believe that knowledge that can help others is truly meant to be shared. Remember, another person's success is not going to take away from your own. So the aim of this podcast is to provide real insight and advice, no puff pieces, and to provide advice in a selfless way. Then the final reason, and there's probably even more that I'm not thinking about in this moment, but...

The final reason that I can think of right now is that I reached a point at 39 when my passive income exceeded my family's living expenses and entrepreneurship was a major part of getting there. And so this podcast is a way that I can help other people reach their goals in a way that I know how. I heard the other day, my niece told me that her friend who has a software engineering degree and just graduated,

applied to something like 85 jobs and didn't get one. So, you know, going the traditional route of getting an employer doesn't have to be what you do. And you don't need to think like an entrepreneur from the day you were born in order to be one. I mean, none of my business ideas were that mind blowing, but they worked and they were always motivated by creating the lifestyle that I wanted to live.

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So this podcast is really a labor of love as, you know, I think I was told the other day that all podcasts pretty much are. So this is one way that I can fulfill my want to be creative and have a project and to also do it in a way that could potentially help others. And that's my why. So when I first decided to do this, I told my family, I'm going to commit for a year.

and then reevaluate at the end of the first year. And if I'm still enjoying the process and the episodes are resonating with listeners, then I'll keep going. And you'll notice that some weeks more than one episode is dropping. And that's because I don't plan to release any new episodes during the holiday season. So that's from mid -November until the end of the year. I don't plan to release any episodes at that time. I'm doing my absolute best.

to put together engaging and insightful episodes so that you and I can learn something from every single one. And if you have ideas, comments, or you just want to get in touch, you can do that through my website, which is linked in the episode's description. Thank you so much for being here. Have a great day.