Ep568: Amelia Sordell – Selfishly Invest in Yourself Before Everyone

Andrew Stotz 00:02
Hello fellow risk takers and welcome to my worst investment ever stories of loss to keep you winning. In our community. We know that to win in investing, you must take risk but to win big, you've got to reduce it. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm on a mission to help 1 million people reduce risk in their lives. To reduce risk in your life, go to my worst investment ever.com today and take the risk reduction assessment I created from the lessons I've learned from more than 500 guests. Fellow risk takers this is your words podcast host Andrew Stotz, from a Stotz Academy, and I'm here with featured guests, Amelia sordell. Amelia, are you ready to join the mission? Yeah, I am. I am excited to have you and I want to introduce you to the audience. Emilian sordell is a speaker content creator and founder of clout, the first of its kind personal brand marketing agency. Her desire to oversee her career and live by her own rules led to launching her first business a clothing brand. At the age of 21. After the business failed, Amelia is resilient attitude meant she pivoted her career to become a tech head owner, where she quickly discovered the reach and positive power that an individual personal brand can have on an overall company. It wasn't long before people outside the organization began to contact Amelia for help in building their brands online now 31 Amelia has built a six figure personal branding agency cloud with a team of seven, during the middle of a pandemic, all off the back of her own personal brand. Amelia, take a moment and tell us about the value that you bring to this wonderful world. Oh God, what

Amelia Sordell 01:46
big question. What value do I bring reason as well? I think number one positive vibes. Like I'm just like a very positive person. And it's interesting, actually, I was listening to your introduction there about reducing risk and stuff. And I'm the total opposite. I'm a risk taker. 100%. Like, you know, your fabulous introduction there. I should be blushing. But I'm inherently someone that always goes, screw it. What's the worst thing that can happen? Like, it's not me, like with the business? My first business failing? I was like, Yeah, you know, if failed, you know, whatever. My marriage failing, yep. Okay, I tried it, it didn't work like. And that's just kind of my attitude. But I guess like the tangible value I bring to the world already. So I'm hoping I'm hoping I bring to the world is teaching people how to leverage their personality to create opportunity. I think building, quote, unquote, the work, the kind of phrase personal branding, is grossly misunderstood. People believe it to be an ego driven activity, you know, it's all look at me, me, me, me, me. And actually, what they're missing out on what a lot of business people particularly and business owners are missing out on is your personality isn't about your ego, it's a strategic marketing imperative. And what personal branding does, and hopefully the value that I give to the world is through, you know, working with clients, but also in the content that I produce, I want as many people as possible to leverage their personal brand to create opportunities, I do that for free, you know, take it, that's my strategy, give 100% of your knowledge away for free. And hopefully, some people might pay you for it. But I really want people to use their story and their unique experiences and the unique value that they can bring, and to be honest, their personality to create a competitive advantage in a business situation. So yeah.

Andrew Stotz 03:31
Wow. I mean, what a challenge for, you know, for particularly, you know, analyst type of people like me and financial guys, and men and women out there. And they're like, no, no, it's facts and figures. And it's numbers. And it's evidence, and it's all that well. Yeah, I mean, those things are important. But I think that what I one of the things that I was thinking about when you said that was it? Yeah, I mean, the one thing about building a brand is that nobody can beat you, at you. So like, it is a unique competitive space. And I, I remember, I'll tell you a story about this. When I, I create some online courses, and I've been doing those for a long time. And I've been doing them about accounting, finance and valuation and all that. I don't really like accounting, it's kind of boring, but I know I had to do these. So I was trying to look at some way to make it interesting. So I was talking about inventory, what is inventory? And I went to my I happen to own a factory with my best friend has a coffee factory. And we I went to the factory and I got some green coffee beans, and I said, this is inventory. And then later I showed them like a picture of a machine. And I said that's a fixed asset. And one of the students said to me, one of the students left feedback, and they said I love the way Andrew talks about his business. And I thought, Oh, wow, that really is something competitive. But I know a lot of finance teachers don't necessarily have that and so on. I really weave stories of my own personal experience into all of my lectures. And I do it because, you know, a lot of people were making online courses that were Oh, what if somebody is going to steal my course? Well, if somebody steals my course it's going to start off. My name is Andrew Stotz and Baba, and here's my story. And nobody's going to be able to copy that. So it just made me think about that. And for the people out there who haven't done that kind of thing, and really put their name and their stamp on things. What would be your advice of kind of like, what's the best way to start them?

Amelia Sordell 05:32
God, I guess, the first place and you're absolutely right, by the way, I love that there's like proof in the pudding that you've kind of come back and gone. Yeah, I know, we're talking about because I did this. And this was the result that I had. I think the thing is, people inherently are worried about what other people are gonna think of them. Like, you know, it's not just an online thing, right? It's around the dinner table thing. It's, some people are too nervous to even tell their friends what they think about stuff, least of all a million people online. But I really, and by the way, this isn't for everyone. Not everyone needs to do this. And I'm not here to tell you that you must be building your personal brand. But I am here to tell you that if you don't, you're going to miss out on opportunity. So that's a choice that people need to make. But where to start with I think is a lot of inward work. You need to really understand who you are, and, and in this moment, what you want to be known for. And that's not something you need to be known for for the rest of your life. Like my personal brand has grown and evolved and your beautiful introduction at the beginning. I'm talking about me being a headhunter. That's where we're joining us, no branding started, right. It was in tech headhunting. My God has evolved since then. Because I'm not running a team, I'm in a completely different, you know, space. And, you know, I'm running an agency now as opposed to being a headhunter. It's a very different job, than my personal brand has evolved with me. So I think it's about understanding who you are now, what you want to be known for in this moment. And then building I guess, content, for lack of a better word. And what I mean by that is simply just chucking out some opinions and thoughts and experiences, some commentary, some, some, some data, even if it if it's relevant on those things that you want to be known for, on LinkedIn, on Tik Tok on Instagram, whichever platform is the most appropriate place for you to be and just start doing it consistently, consistently. I think a lot of people look at people like you and go, Wow, like, I wish I had a podcast like that. But what they don't know is you've had 600 hours of episode recording to get to this point, they look at somebody like me with 100,000 followers and go wow, like you've blown up overnight. And what they don't realize is I posted twice a day, every day for three years. And so it's this whole thing of you got to get clear on what your goal is the what is the end result that you want to achieve from this opportunity, right? How do I get those opportunities, I molded my reputation around these things? And then how you exactly cute that is you just start talking about it and you show up every single day. It's like going to the gym, right? You don't go, I want to lose loads of weight and go look in the mirror and go, Why haven't I like on day one and go, Why haven't I lost weight yet? You have to keep going to the gym probably for six months, we see any results. Keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going. Eventually, you're gonna look back at that beginning pitcher, and you're now pitch and go holy crap. I've done pretty well. Yeah.

Andrew Stotz 08:08
That's great. And I think for the listeners out there, and the viewers, you know, it's the idea of every day, you know, just keep doing it. and good things will come and have trust that when you do it, I know with the podcast, I've had my updates and down days, and I've had times where I thought my podcast isn't as good as another as and I don't really make money out of my podcast, I need to make more and all that. But I just think not just do it every day. It'll be fine. And yeah, great things have come, I've got to get known great people. And yeah, so I love them.

Amelia Sordell 08:41
My interest account, right, you put $1 in each day, at the end of two weeks, you have for $14 That's not a lot of money. But if you do it for 10 years, oh my god, you know, hire a pretty wealthy person so

Andrew Stotz 08:53
well. And to bring in the financial aspect. That's the contribution that you make, which is your money that you put in. But when you get to the end of a 30 year period, let's say about 70% of the money you'll have at the end is not coming from the money that you contributed. Only 30% will come from the money you contributed, the other 70 will come from interest and interest on interest. And that is just magic. So there's something that I think everybody can understand. So that's it, do it every day. Let me just ask you one question is, where's the best place for people to learn about your product, your services, what you're doing, and you know, follow you?

Amelia Sordell 09:36
Yeah, I mean, I am very lucky to be the only Emilia sordell in the world. So if you want to find me on any channel that you like to find your people on, you can just work my name and Google and all my channels pop up. But I'm very active on LinkedIn and very active on Tik Tok. I'm very active on Instagram, Twitter, we've just launched a YouTube channel and want to find out about what we do is an agency like I never do these things to talk about, you know, my business because I just enjoy having conversations with people like you. But you can go to cloud.com, which is the business, but I run my personal branding agency, and we get to work with awesome people building their personal brands.

Andrew Stotz 10:15
Great. And we'll have links to all that in the show notes. So feel free, ladies and gentlemen to go there. Well, now it's time to share your worst investment ever. And since no one goes into their worst investment thinking it will be. Tell us a bit about the circumstances leading up to it, then tell us your story.

Amelia Sordell 10:31
Yeah, my worst investment, gosh, I don't know if I can lead up to it. And then tell you the story. I think I've just got to start with my worst investment ever was investing in other people before I invested in myself. And I think, look, I think we've all been there, right? Like, I'm 31. So I'm, you know, I've got a lot of years left in me still. And you know, I think many people don't even have this kind of epiphany of you can call it that until probably they're in their 40s or their 50s. But I kind of got to 30 years old, and you know, in the middle of building this business and looked back on my 20s and thought, what have I been doing for so long? What Why have I been so worried about? People liking me when I don't even like them? Why am I so concerned with you know, whether someone likes my picture on Instagram or whether someone thinks my outfits cute, or my makeup looks nice? Or I look good today? Why do I care? Why do I care about these people's opinions, because actually, these people's opinions are irrelevant to the quality of my life. Like someone's saying, I look cute today isn't going to make me a better person, it's not going to allow me to execute the dreams and ambitions and, and the things that I want to do. It's actually just pushing me down this circle of external seeking validation, which is actually really impacting my mental health to a point where I now can't look in the mirror and go, I love myself, it's like, I have to have someone tell me that externally. Right. So my worst investment was investing in other people before investing in myself. And I guess my journey with that is, you know, I, as a young woman, you know, a 13 year old girl suffered a huge amount of trauma and an incident that happened in my life. And as a result, I then constantly seeked external validation from other people, particularly men, you know, in relationships, and friendships and online, you know, I'd be filtering my pictures and losing a lot of weight, I ended up with, you know, bulimia, quite a quite bad case of bulimia because I was so obsessed with how my appearance looked at other people. Because that was a way of controlling something. If I could control the external narrative that I was telling people, I didn't have to deal with the internal feelings of how I felt about it, because it's okay, people like me, right? Like, everyone's telling me, they like me. So I have to worry about all these feelings I have. And I got to a point where I was 30 years old, and I've been doing this throughout my whole 20s this whole external seeking validation, like, you know, people have to tell me that I'm pretty people have to tell me, I'm smart people. And I never thought any of these things about myself, because I needed other people to tell them tell me these things. And that affects my actions, my behaviors, the friendships and relationships, I had, you know, the jobs that I took, etc. And I got to 30 years old, the pandemic, because is just to hit I am in a marriage, I'm not happy in. I am in a job that I'm not happy in. I'm living in a house that I don't want to live in. And I'm now living in a world that by all intents and purposes, we don't know if we're ever going to get back to the world that we had previously. Right? We don't know, we're in this crazy situation that we've never been in before. And I had that moment that I think a lot of people else had in that lockdown period where you're sitting literally forced to do nothing like you can't see your family, you can't see your friends, you are sat at home with just purely the four walls around you and the people that you live with. And I had that moment where I kind of took a step back and sat still for a moment, which I've never had before in my life. And I'm sure you can relate. I don't think anyone's ever had that period as an adult anyway, where they could sit with themselves and sort of think about things. And I had that moment, kind of waiting for an epiphany is probably the right terminology. And one came around April 2020. And I just thought, like, for lack of a better word, fuck it. Like, what are you doing? What are you doing with your life? What are you actually doing in this moment that makes you happy? And I kind of did like a bit of a energy check of all the things I was spending my time on, and I didn't actually enjoy any of it. I loved my kids. I love spending time with my kids. But that was about it. There was nothing else in my life that was making me feel like I'm obsessed with that. That makes me really happy which as an adult is really sad. Yeah. It's a really sad state of affairs. If you take a sit back at your life and go I'm not that Not happy with it. So I had that moment. And then I had the moment of like feeling sorry for myself that I'd had this, you know, this existential crisis and realized that I hated my life or not hate is a strong word, but I didn't enjoy my life very much. And I had that period of depression and depressive states, overeating and binge drinking, and all those things, I think a lot of us have been locked down, because what else was there to do, but for me, it was about sort of trying to numb a feeling that I wasn't ready to deal with. So while I was just rewarding myself with, you know, food and all that kind of stuff, which again, goes back to my previous problem of seeking validation externally. And then I kind of pulled my big girl pants up in July. And so why the hell are you feeling sorry for yourself, like, have some accountability here, this is your life, you've created this life. If you're unhappy with it, that's on you. That's on no one else. So why are you feeling sorry for yourself? You did this to you, right? And so I had this really, actually what was a very painful time. I had this incredible moment where I was like, right, well, I'm going to file for divorce, quit my job and start a business. And literally, within about a month, or three of those things, I made that decision. And honestly, Andrew, like, it's been such a journey for me. And even if you went back and looked at who I was, in August 2020, when I found the clout to where I am now, since it's only been two years that I'm a completely different person. Not in a bad way. I think, you know, a lot of people use that. Use that sort of you've changed line as a negative. I think it's a great thing. I

Andrew Stotz 16:36
think you've changed. Thank you.

Amelia Sordell 16:39
Yeah, no, it's interesting. Actually, I had to digress slightly. I had a very good friend of me say that to me recently, you know, as I'm sure you can write, when you run a business, you have very little time for social life. But because I'm choosing my business. I'm obsessed with my business. And a friend of mine said to me, You've changed so much like as in like, How dare you? And I was like, thanks. And she looked at me really surprised. That was the answer that I gave her. And I was like, No, thank you. I'm glad I've changed. I do not, I have not worked this hard to be the same. Like joining me. And I don't want to stay the same. I'm working hard because I want to change. But route back a little bit. I had this moment where I was like, I need to change something. I need to take accountability for my life. Because guess what, I'm the most important person in my life. So I need to be investing in me before everyone, and selfishly, that's above my kids. Because guess what if I'm not happy, and if Mommy's not providing for the household, and if Mommy's not in a good place, kids are not going to be in a good place. Because they feel that they absorbed that by osmosis when you're stressed when you're happy when you're depressed. So Mommy needs to be good first before kids can be good. And now I'm really selfish, like in the best possible way, I, you know, I go, and if I want to go on to go horseback riding, I go and do it. If I want to go and go on a course I go do it. If I want to say no to that social engagement, because I don't feel like that day. I say no, I've created this, I guess framework of, I call it my ROI framework. So I always ask the question of what is the ROI on that? And everyone, I say that they go, Oh, well, so you're already doing things for money. I say no. Roi doesn't need to be cash. It could be happiness, it could be fitness, it could be health, it could be overall sense of well being. So when I wake up in the morning, I get up at 555. Every morning, I do 10 minutes of guided meditation every day. And the ROI on that activity is infinite for me. I can wake up in the morning and feel crap, because I've had a crappy night's sleep. I do that 10 minute guided meditation and instantly I feel better instantly. And I know I feel better. Even if I don't tangibly recognize that because I have to do a check in before I do the guided meditation I do a check in after and it's always better than things like a non negotiable for me would be going to the gym a couple of times a week because the ROI on that is infinite. Yes, I could save that hour and a half time and spend it making money for the business which might tangibly make the business more money might tangibly make my income more lucrative, the ROI or doing that activity is infinitely better than trying to make money during that time. You know, the ROI on having this conversation for me is infinite because I want to speak to you. You're an interesting guy, right? I'd much rather be doing this than doing something that's making money for business. So when I got to that stage of like, what is the ROI on this, I really started investing in myself, I really started doing things that make me a better person. Because I think you invest in yourself. You make everything else better. You can't serve people in the way that you're meant to serve them. If you're not first looking after yourself. And that's not woowoo fluffy, you know, bullshit. That is reality mine. It's reality. There is a reason why Usain Bolt was the number one runner in the world and it's not because he had long legs and it's not because he was the fastest because he was strongest up here. He's not the number one tennis player in the world because he's the best tennis power in the world because he's, you know, hits it the fastest. It's because mentally he wins if you want to, there's a fantastic quote, which sums this up really nicely by Will Smith. And he says, If you want to win the war against the world, you first have to win the war against your mind. investing in wind, is the best investment I've made investing other people was the worst,

Andrew Stotz 20:21
beautiful, and I would, I would just, maybe I'll share a little takeaway from this. But I was a young guy, and I got addicted to drugs and alcohol when I was very young. And I went through a few different rehabs and it eventually worked on me. And in the rehab, they had a something called the 12 promises, it says you're going to know a new freedom and a new happiness, you're not going to regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. And it went through a whole series of like freedoms and achievements that I could get. And when I heard those 12 promises, I just thought I want all of them. And so I think what I'm hearing from you, and what I think a good takeaway for the audience is, you have a right, and you have an ability to have everything in this life. But you've got to make the choice in what you're talking about, is you got to the point where you decided, I've got to make this choice, it's my choice to make, and I'm making it and you made it, and you got out of that trouble. So that's, you know, I guess my kind of summary, and relating a little bit to my life. And I really have a lot of respect for that. So now, let me ask you, based upon what you learned from this story, and what you've continued to learn, think about somebody who is in that state, they're in that situation, what one action would you recommend that they take to avoid suffering the same thing,

Amelia Sordell 21:50
the most powerful thing I did, one of the most powerful things I did, and I actually did this quite recently, I really do it quite often, but I did it quite recently is write down a list of your triggers, what are the things that trigger you to feel unhappy, depressed, trapped, all the things right, and it could be alcohol, it could be drugs, it could be your mom, it could like whatever it is, but what are your triggers. And then underneath that you write down what makes you feel calm, what makes you feel happy, it could be that your house is tidy, it could be that you get outside once a day, it could be spending time with your dog, it could be working on your business, it could be working on your career, it could be volunteer, whatever makes you feel good. And then underneath that, write down a routine that is built specifically around the things that make you feel good. And completely ignores the things that trigger you. Because if you build a routine and look, someday, some days work is shit. Some people have to work don't have the privilege to choose where they can work. And I'm very aware of that, that you will have children, you know, to feed mortgages to pay and simply they are just trying to get by. But if you can take accountability for the things that you can control in your life, like what makes you happy, and build a routine around that, that will create so much more opportunities for you. And I'm not promising that's going to allow you to get out of a situation that you don't feel good in. But it's gonna give you the roadmap. And so you, you can take the steps to get out of it. So triggers commas, and then build your routine around your commas.

Andrew Stotz 23:26
Beautiful. And I like your meditation also, I think, you know, I've always wanted to incorporate that I'm never have and I've heard so much great stuff. And I've read so much great stuff. So you're you're you're motivating me. Well, last question. What is your number one goal for the next 12 months?

Amelia Sordell 23:46
Well, donation what is my goal? My goal for the next 12 months is first of all, to be the best mom I can be. Again, sounds really fluffy. And actually, we knew me better you would understand. But like that's a very unfamiliar thing to say, because I'm like business, like where do I work, but I really feel like my kids have been through a lot. And they've been through this journey with me. And I just want them to have the best childhood I can possibly give them especially as their parents aren't together. So that's the number one goal for me the number, the number two goal for me is to grow my business to where I want it to be, which is, so I have this vision for the business. And I will do it like there is no doubt about it. It's just a matter of time. I want the business to be known in synonymously with personal branding. So you think of smartphones, you think of Apple, you think of soda, you think of Coca Cola, I want Klout to be known as really not the personal branding agency in the world. And so that might have happened in 12 months, it might not have been 10 years, but it's going to happen and every decision I'm making at the minute is working towards that vision. So the clients that we work with, I say no to 90% of the leads that come in, because they don't serve the vision of where I want the business to be. I say no to 90% of the opportunities speaking the podcast, not because I'm arrogant, but because they don't serve where I want the business to be. The amazing thing about kind of investing in yourself, and maybe this, this episode should be called your best investment. But the amazing thing about investing as yourself is you get razor clear on where you want to go. And where you need to go in order to achieve that. And hey, I might not ever achieve that. But if I believe I can, you best believe I'm going to have a crack and great time on the way. And I want to say to people live your life to the plot, not the ending, day that I get to this euphoria of We are the agency in the world is going to be the best and worst day of my life because nothing else.

Andrew Stotz 25:52
Well, I think we're all looking forward to following your journey. And maybe we check in 12 months from now and see you know how great of a mother you're going to be, but also how great of a business you're going to continue to build. So listeners, there you have it another story of loss to keep you winning. If you haven't yet taken the risk reduction assessment, I challenge you to go to my worst investment ever.com right now and start building wealth, the easy way by reducing risk. As we conclude, Amelia, I want to thank you again for joining our mission and on behalf of a stocks Academy I hereby award you alumni status for turning your worst investment ever into your best teaching moment. Do you have any parting words for the audience?

Amelia Sordell 26:35
The only thing I would leave the audience with and it's I think a very simple idea but hopefully quite a powerful one is you are the only person in your life that will be there for you unconditionally. So protect yourself at all costs.

Andrew Stotz 26:52
Well, that's a wrap on another great story to help us create, grow and protect our wealth and our health. Fellow risk takers let's celebrate that today. We added one more person to our mission. Now 1 million people reduce risk in their lives. This is your worst podcast host Andrew Stotz saying. I'll see you on the upside.