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Ep. 013 | Curate Conversations With Pia Beck
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PODCAST SHOW NOTES
In this episode of the Curate Conversations Podcast, Pia talks with Shauna Armitage, the co-founder of Odo, a wealth growth platform bringing safe investing to the masses.
Odo is on a mission to make a huge dent in the wealth gap by helping the underinvested grow their wealth with loss-protected starter investment accounts. Shauna believes money shouldn’t be scary, but rather a fun experience that communities tackle together.
In our conversation, Shauna and Pia talk about what it means to be underinvested, what the wealth gap is, why we need to democratize wealth, and how Odo is fundamentally changing the way we, the financially semi-literate, invest.
Links mentioned in this episode:
- Join the Curate Community Membership (code PODCAST for 20% off)
- Follow Shauna on Instagram @shauna.armitage
- Follow Odo on Instagram @investwithodo
- Visit Odo’s site at www.odo.works
- Join Odo’s waitlist to get first access to a loss-protected investment account for up to $1,000
- Special thanks to our sponsors:
- Parker Clay (code CURATE15)
- SeaVees (code CURATE20).
- The Artist’s Lawyer (code CURATE)
Music created by Queentide.
PODCAST TRANSCRIPT
Odo is the wealth growth platform bringing safe investing to the masses. Co-founder Shauna is on a mission to make a huge dent in the wealth gap. By helping the underinvested grow their wealth with loss protected starter investment account. She believes that money shouldn’t be scary, but [00:01:00] rather a fun experience that communities tackle together. In our conversation shauna and I talk about what it means to be underinvested, what the wealth gap is, why we need to democratize wealth and how Odo is fundamentally changing the way we, the financially semi literate I’ll say, invest. I hope you enjoy.
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All right. Y’all we have Shauna here today. Uh, she’s the founder of Odo, Shauna. Thank you so much for being here. I’m so excited for this conversation.
Thank you so much for having me.
So the first question I always like to ask is in your own measure of success, tell us about your growth. So this could be the number of people that are currently on the waiting list for Odo.
It could be something you’ve accomplished in your career, a moment of integrity, or a certain impact that you’ve had in a certain situation. Really, whatever feels meaningful to.
Yeah. I mean, just the fact that I am co-founder of a startup feels like a big milestone. It feels like a big accomplishment for me. Um, I’m a military spouse. I have four [00:04:00] kids. I’m currently 35. I’ve been in marketing for most of my career working remotely. And a few years ago I started working with startup.
And I was always behind the scenes. So the fact that, you know, the timing was right, the moment was right. Uh, and, and my skillset was right. Um, and I had to work really hard to get to the point where I was qualified to, to start up a company of this magnitude. And I’m really excited about that.
Oh, such powerful language. I have goosebumps for you. And I’m excited to hear more about the, the magnitude of what you’re up to. How do you think your, um, identity has shifted or how’s your mindset shifted such that you feel like quote unquote, ready to be the co-founder of a startup.
That’s a great question. I mean, a lot of startup founders are young and ambitious and, and have a big idea. And I, I feel like I’ve always been ambitious and I’ve always been a hard worker. But I like the stability [00:05:00] of a nine to five. Uh, I like just doing my work, being the best at it and just getting that paycheck and then clocking out at the end of the day.
And there was a certain point in my career where I got fired from an agency, which is a whole other story. Um, I got fired from an agency and was kind of stuck with the hard choice of. Not working anymore or just going out there and doing it myself. And I decided to go out there and do it myself. And that was a big mindset shift from working for somebody else to being a solo entrepreneur, running the show.
And I’ve gotten to a point in my life where even with, you know, kids and family and all of that, That things are stable on the home front, where I can take a risk on the business front, if that makes sense. You know, I had, I had my first kid when I was 22, where a lot of people don’t have kids till later in life.
So [00:06:00] taking a risk of not getting paid for months or for a year and living in mom and dad’s basement is something that’s totally doable. It wasn’t doable for me when I was young. And, and now it is, it’s a big mindset.
Hmm, thanks for sharing with us. That’s awesome. I also sometimes miss the stability of being able to like clock out at the end of the day and have it be someone else’s problem from the hours of five to eight o’clock the next morning. So I’m right there with you on that. Um, okay. So for those of us who, um, may still be working on our financial literacy, which I would put myself in that category and probably a lot of our, our listeners too, in, in different respects, explain Odo to like what it is, how it works and then I’m gonna ask you some follow up questions.
Okay. Great. So I wanna preface this by saying that I am still working on my financial literacy, right? I’m not a financial guru. I don’t teach this as a topic. Um, my co-founder who is much more financial, literally financially literate [00:07:00] than I am, uh, came up with this idea. Helping people to invest in a way that was protected from loss so that they could start to dip their toes in and, and get comfortable with building wealth in this way.
Um, so when he came to me, I had all these red flags going off in my mind, like, Ooh, that’s me. Like I have that problem. Uh, so when it comes to financial literacy, one of the reasons that I wanted to start this company is because I saw myself and people like me in this position of, being underinvested, not understanding the stock market, not having a, a 401k or maybe only having the 401k and, and not doing anything to save retirement or to build wealth in general.
That leads perfectly into my follow up question, which is what does it mean to be under invested and you kind of hinted at this, right? Either not having a 401k or only having a 401k, [00:08:00] what else? How do we, how do we know if we’re under invested?
yeah, that’s a great question. I, I think that, honestly, that’s probably a question that people have to answer for themselves and maybe this comes back to the financial literacy piece, right? Like how do you know if you’re, if you’re under invested, well, what is your retirement goal? Or if you want to have.
If you wanna build generational wealth, if you wanna pass something onto your children, what are your goals for that? And, you know, I know that there’s some calculators out there. If I put away this much every month into, into my stock accounts or, you know, my mutual funds or whatever it is, it’ll take me 10, 10 years or 50 years or whatever it is to get there.
So I think probably, you know, you’re underinvested, if you. Talk about whatever that specific goal is. And then you do the, the math to work backwards and realize that you’re not gonna make it. I think most of us haven’t even gotten that far, which [00:09:00] probably means that we’re underinvested because we don’t have a goal for the future.
And just investing a little bit, even, even just a little bit, seems like it’s just totally not doable.
Yeah, I think that’s, um, I think that’s something that a lot of people can relate to for sure. And we’re gonna get much more into that. There’s another term that you use that, um, may or may not be related to this. Idea of being underinvested, which is the wealth gap. Tell me about that. What is wealth gap?
I mean the, so we use the wealth gap for, for a lot of different conversations. We talk about there being a wealth gap, um, between race. A lot of times I talk about it in terms of gender, being a woman, myself, And again, you, you look at who? My demographics, my personal demographics, right? I’m 35 year old white woman, um, married.
I’ve got four kids. And if you look at how I’m [00:10:00] invested compared to men my age, maybe in a similar situation. I’m probably very underinvested and, and there’s a lot of things that contribute to the wealth gap, right? Like women making less money than men. Um, also the fact that that women tend to be on average, more risk averse, where a man will be like, oh, I understand the stock market.
And, you know, put, puts his money in just being able to take that risk. Likely gets him put ahead. And if you think of, it’s kind of a funny situation because, uh, everybody right now, Understands inflation because at the time that we’re living in, we’re really, really feeling it, um, where women are much more likely to take their money and put it into a savings account.
That money is going to be worth less in a year or two than the value of what it was when it was put in because of inflation. So even something like that, women tend to, um, we, we see that [00:11:00] wealth gap between men and women because of where they put the money that they have, that they do have, um, because of, you know, How we feel about money sometimes, or the amount of money that we have in comparison to, to other genders.
Totally. Okay. So that’s great. Is there a generational wealth gap?
Yeah. I think that there is, and it’s kind of funny because. Millennials, we just got screwed, right? Like we just, we got screwed really hard. Like the, the BA baby boomers, um, generations that came before us, um, they were able to do more with their money and statistically, gen Z. Is more likely to, to take that risk and invest in things like that.
We were shaped by our circumstances. So we lived through the great recession. You know, a lot of us spent [00:12:00] extra years living in mom and dad’s basement, um, were not buying houses or, like pieces of real estate that that will increase in value over time, which, you know, helps build our wealth, into well into our thirties.
When our parents were doing this in their twenties, you know, 10 years of owning a home, the, the value is, can be really significant. So for, for us, We’re we’re shaped by the times that we’re living in. And, you know, we may make less money because of that. We may be more risk averse as a generation because of what we’ve experienced and how that’s kind of shaped our mindset around money.
Yeah, absolutely. And you know, on, on that note, there’s this big why behind what Odo is and, and what you stand for, which is that we’ve been made to feel like investing is something that only the 1%. Can for, can afford to do. and that’s not [00:13:00] necessarily true, right. Is what you are proving in, in building with your platform.
And
so
how, how did we get there? How did we get to this place where there’s a significant number of people who hold this fear of investing money and, and growing wealth?
I mean, look at what we’re experiencing right now with the stock market, going in a big downturn, um, you know, money that I’ve been putting away in my retirement. My retirement fund looks much smaller this year than it did last year. And that’s scary. Um, so if, if you are having trouble getting a job or, you know, you’re not making as much as before, uh, that can really.
affect again, your mindset. What you think you can do in terms of investing. And I think we think of. Up until companies like Robin Hood and public. I think there was this kind of general consciousness that investing was [00:14:00] for rich people until kind of the rise of the day trader in the past couple of years.
Now that is, that is, uh, an access question. I can talk a little bit about that, but. You know, until the rise of the day trader, it really didn’t feel accessible for the little guy to take five bucks, 10 bucks, 50 bucks, and invest use some of these accounts. Like you can’t, you can’t actually get started until you have a thousand dollars for somebody who is trying to put their kid through college or, you know, work some minimum wage job.
Getting a thousand dollars set aside before you can even become invested, feels like a hurdle that is just insurmountable.
Hmm. Totally. Yeah. It’s, it’s such a good point. And, um, and I, and I think that you’re totally right in that, you know, whether it’s perception, whether it’s fact, whether it’s both. Which I think it is some combination that, um, there is, there is, [00:15:00] has been an access problem, to building wealth in, you know, many different layers.
So talk to us about how Odo is solving that problem.
Yeah, so. I know one question that you you had for me is like, what does it mean to democratize wealth? Right? So there are a lot of platforms where you can invest. And I mentioned public.com and Robinhood, and, you know, they’ve talked, some of their taglines are about democratizing wealth and.
What they’ve really done is they’ve given people access and that’s the first step, right. They’ve really opened the doors for, for a company like mine. Uh, but in giving people access, they haven’t actually given them all the tools to invest smart. Um, and it can be like a game. Right. So if you don’t understand the ins and outs of the, the stock markets or the funds.
It it’s gamifying it. And there’s [00:16:00] some people that do really well with it. And there’s some people that try it and don’t understand it. And then they lose a lot. What we’re doing with Odo is fundamentally different. Because we’re actually taking the decision part of it out of the equation and focusing on protecting your investment.
So for up until the, the first thousand dollars, you will have your invest, your investment, protected your principal. Excuse me, uh, protected from loss. So basically whatever you put in, even if the stock market takes a dip, you can’t lose the amount that you’ve put in. So once you’ve kind of built that, that egg, that nest egg into our, our proven strategy with the investment bank that we’re partnering with, then.
You can go ahead and you can feel comfortable taking a little bit more risk. Which is inevitably going to build your, [00:17:00] your portfolio, um, is being able to take those bigger risks, and get a higher payout over time. But by allowing people to invest and not lose their principle, they don’t have to fear the lost part and they can just get started with small amounts of money.
Mm. So you use a lot of terms, like decision free investing, um, low volatility, reliability, loss, protected. These words are, you know, all over your website and, and you hinted at it now. And for anyone who, um, is, you know, jaded by the world, which at this point I think we all are a little bit and is like, okay, this sounds too good to be true.
Explain it. Like, if I’m a customer and telling you all of these things and I’m like, this sounds amazing. But like, I don’t know if I believe you, what do you like, how does it work? What would you say? Walk us through what that, you know, principle that protected principle looks like in the graduation into, you know, feeling more comfortable taking risks.
Okay. [00:18:00] So essentially what is happening is when you put your money into Odo, you money is going into an FDIC insured savings account. We’re investing on your behalf and you will see in your account, your share of the gains from that investment. Now we are taking the, the risk to protect your principle for, uh, that, you know, specified amount of time.
I think right now it’s six months up until, uh, a thousand. A thousand dollars at that point, like I said, you’ll will have enough built up where you can go into a low volatility account investment account. Um, that is being built by our partner now, low volatility again, I, I hear what you’re saying. It sounds like so [00:19:00] buzzwordy, but essentially it doesn’t have huge highs and huge lows.
Just like anything else in the stock market, it will go up and down, but the target amount is much lower. So you’ll grow slower, which is fine. But you’ll grow and then you don’t have to fear these huge dips and we can do that. And, you know, I’ll hark back to my, my whole spiel on, on day trading, cuz you’re not trying to figure it out, right.
Because we have experts at the investment bank who have built this portfolio specifically this way. And the truth is, is back to that one percent. The 1% use this strategy in their investing, but you have to be able to work with a, a qualified investor to do it. And most people can’t afford to do that. Right. They can’t afford those fees.
So one thing that is so powerful is that we are actually taking this investment [00:20:00] strategy that the richest people in the world use. Um, you know, to, to cover themselves from loss and we’re making it available to the 99%.
Mm, I love. Thanks so much for explaining that to us. I think it’s, probably a common question that you are getting and will continue to get all of the time and you articulated it really well. You, you mentioned, um, fear a lot, right. As being kind of like the primary barrier, with, uh, a close second as like lack of confidence, right?
Trying to understand all the different ways that you can invest, um, picking stock, like all, all the things. And there’s one other barrier that I know is, is on your radar, which is this loneliness component. Like money is lonely. And I think that’s something that I can relate to a ton. And I think a lot of people can as well.
Right? Whether it’s like, you know, you don’t talk about it because of, you know, who has more money who has less money or there’s that, lack of confidence. And so we feel maybe shame or [00:21:00] guilt around money or inadequacy or confusion or anything else that kind of just makes us feel guard ourselves.
Right. And turn a little bit inwards. And you know, at least in, in the culture, in the US it’s, not something that’s talked about. Right. Like I grew up on my parents were like, cool, there’s this like short list of things that we like, don’t talk about with our friends and like money is one of them. Right.
And so, um, I wanna talk about this loneliness piece a little bit, because I, I do think that as it relates to things like access, um, and democratizing wealth, I think. The, the re the relational factor of money is, is something that we all need to overcome in order to, to truly get to this place. So tell us about what your approach looks like.
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think that there’s a few things at play here. Like first in order to, to grow our money, we actually have to [00:22:00] acknowledge it. And that can be really hard. Like how many times a week do you log into your bank account? Right? Uh, not, not even your investment accounts or your credit cards, like just your bank.
I can say that there’s been times where I have just not done it because I knew it wasn’t gonna be a number that I wanted to see. And I just didn’t wanna deal with that. Uh, right. Like that stresses you out, uh, and money is stressful for people. And like you said, everything that you said is spot on. Like we were taught not to talk about it.
Right. It’s rude. We don’t tell people how much we make. We don’t tell, you know, how much we’re worth or, any of those kinds of. I think again, people who are paving the way for a company like mine, we’re starting to have those conversations and we want to continue that with Odo, um, and make it a really supportive experience.
And we’re doing that a few ways. So the first thing is, is the gamification within the app. Where you’ll be [00:23:00] able to do little financial literacy modules or challenges, um, and, and get rewards for that, or, or Odo gold. Really making a fun experience, just like any other challenges. It’s more fun when you do it with your friends, right?
You have a leaderboard, you have a little bit of competition going. Um, and that way we can all kind of. Work on reaching our goals together. More than that, you know, there there’s this big thing. And one of our beta testers, I think said something really powerful that.
One of the things that you can do on Odo is that you can contribute to the goals of others. So, you know, my friend who I know works really hard, had a date night as one of the goals that she wanted for her husband. And I’m like, hell yeah, I’ll put 10 bucks into that. You know, just cuz that’s someone I care about and I wanna see her take care of herself and this, uh, beta tester had said, you.[00:24:00]
I’m getting married. We’ve been living together for years. We don’t need a gravy boat. You know, we, we don’t need like gift cards to, to Bed Bath and Beyond. Right. We’re really trying to do a save for a house, but like, how do I ask people? Like, that’s weird to ask people to like contribute to my house down payment.
That’s not like you said, we’re not there yet. In terms of making, talking about money culturally acceptable. The only time you contribute to money to someone. Is is some event, like a wedding or, or a graduation, or if something’s gone wrong, right? Like, like a GoFundMe kind of thing. So he said, I would love to set up a goal for my house down payment.
And then if anybody wants to give us money, it can go right to that place. And you. We had, we had envisioned people contributing to one of another’s goals, but it just kind of showed us how powerful this [00:25:00] is to be able to have those conversations and, and to support people in that meaningful way. Uh, and not to mention, you can high five people or say, you know, I see you reaching your goal. You know, way to go. Like, you know, the, the ability to chat back and forth in the app. Um, but for me, it’s really to be able to participate in these challenges together and to be able to see people’s goals and to contribute to them and cheer them on is, is really core to what we’re doing at Odo.
I love that. I, uh, at the time that we’re recording this conversation, I’m about 60 days out for my wedding and we put, on our website, under the like gifting section. Not as actually as, as anything you’ve created, but like a super like short blunt statement that was like, we’re not registered. We don’t need anything.
We don’t want anything. If you want to give us a gift outside of like your presence at our celebration, write us a cheque.
mm-hmm.
Because, [00:26:00] well, we’re gonna put it towards our shared life goals and like, that’s what we’re working towards right now. Um, and it’s so interesting how people have like, responded to that. Um, we’ve gotten the, the full suite of responses so far, and it gives me hope because the majority of people have said like, good for you.
Like no one needs a gravy boat. Like, no one needs more
Stuff.
Mm-hmm
what we need is, um, agency over what we do with our money, in my opinion. So, um, I think that’s great.
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I have a, an unrelated question that, I should have asked you at the beginning that I think a lot of our listeners are probably really curious about, which is, you don’t have a, uh, background in the finance machine.
Um, and you have a, a co-founder for this initiative. How did you meet your co-founder and how did you know that that was like the right relationship for y’all to develop.
Yeah, that’s a fantastic question. Um, I’ll try to do as many shout outs here as I can. So, uh, let’s see here in spring of 2021, um, I’m a Fractional Marketing Director, so I work with different startups on, on their marketing initiatives and their growth initiatives. And, um, I had an opening for a client. And [00:29:00] I was in the Dreamers Doers Facebook group, which I highly suggest for, for freelancers, for lots of different business owners to, to connect with one another.
It’s great for hiring. And someone said that she had, um, She had someone that was looking for a CMO and had kind of outlined what OTO was supposed to be about. And I was like, Ooh, like I love that, that that’s me. I, I wanna talk to this guy. So she connected us and probably like two days before we were supposed to meet, he emailed me and he said, listen, I had a super angel who was going to give us half a million dollars to get this started and he’s dropped.
There’s no money for this position. Uh, and if you don’t, you don’t wanna talk anymore. I totally understand. I said, no, this, I really believe in this. Like, I wanna hear more, but I really believe in this. I want to talk. And that was a big aha moment for him that maybe he had [00:30:00] found the right person.
We did essentially what a lot of people call, uh, co-founder speed dating. So he came up with the idea, he and I got connected. He was looking for a marketing co-founder because it’s a skill set that he lacks. Right. Um, he put a lot of this. He had the idea. He put a lot of the financial modeling together, um, you know, pulled together banking partners and he’s, he’s coding the damn thing.
He’s, he’s a brilliant technical founder. Um, but the marketing and, and the go to market was just not something that, that he was strong in. So. We quickly realized that, that I had the skillset that he was looking for. Um, and, and we talked a lot about, you know, where we were at in our careers and what we would want to do with this and what it was gonna look like to not take a paycheck for a year.
Well, well, we built this, and we were very much on the same page. So after many hours, of conversations. Uh, we decided that [00:31:00] we, we would go into this together and we negotiated over equity and, and all that fun stuff. Um, and then, and then we got to it, uh, at the end of the day, we’ve never met and it was certainly a leap of faith.
Um, but it’s definitely one that I think I would take over and over again.
I can’t believe you’ve never met.
We have never met. We do, uh, we have played, digital board games with our spouses online so we could hang out together. Um, you know, we meet on zoom every day, but no, we’ve never met. We’ve never met in person. I’m currently in Germany and he is in the Carolinas.
So it’s not an easy feat.
Wild. So wild. Where does the name Odo come?
so he will give you all of, uh, these, these bullshit answers about how Odo means all of these things, which it does. Uh, but his dog, his dog’s name is Oden [00:32:00] and he loves his dog. He’s very sweet. His name is Oden because he’s missing one of his eyes and, They, they had called him Odo and it just stuck.
And then he was looking into it and Odo in like old Germanic means possessor of wealth. And he was like, oh, well, it’s, it’s meant to be so, yeah. So, I mean, clearly there, you know, there there’s all these big reasons, but we really just named the company after the dog.
I love that dual, dual meaning. Um, so, okay. I wanna go back to something you said earlier, which is around the wealth gap, right? And one of the wealth gaps that exist is the gender wealth gap, which you can speak to. Um, from your perspective, as a woman identifying
person, there are a lot of women like me, like you at one point.
Who aren’t or weren’t necessarily being properly served by the current investor, current players in the investment space. Excuse
- Um, tell me a little bit more about that. [00:33:00] Like, what does that mean? What does that look like? And what does it look like to be properly served?
Yeah, I, I think, I think it’s kind of a fundamental shift in the way that, that we do investing, which is what we’re trying to tackle. Um, I saw this article, I think it was the wall street journal. Um, that was basically saying like, There are so many women who still are not investing. And, and Robin hood is like trying to scoop them up Robin hood and everybody else, like they can’t get.
A lot of women on this platform. And I just think that it fundamentally comes down to, you know, we, we function differently like we’re risk averse. So taking our hard earned money and putting it into a platform that feels like a gamble or, or game is really hard. One thing that that article pointed out, is that.
I think, I wanna say it’s seven and I don’t have my notes in front of me. So forgive me. I, I’m gonna try to remember these numbers the best I can. Um, it’s [00:34:00] something. Only 28% of women want to self-direct their own investing. And that was me. So like we’re talking 70 to 72% of women want to be like, you know, here’s my money.
Like, make it work for me. And there could be a lot of reasons for that. Like, I’m a military spouse, I’m a mother of four, I’m running a business. Like I don’t want to be researching stocks and bonds and mutual funds and how to do all of these things. Like at the end of the day, I wanna watch Netflix. L ike there has to be, there has to be some balance.
So I, I think that’s huge. That, that this huge group doesn’t want to direct their own investments. And there’s not something that’s really built to, to meet them in that regard. Being risk averse, the, the fear of loss, the fact that they don’t want to, to direct their own investments. Um, and I think that women also really value [00:35:00] community.
And, you know, we were speaking to that before where a lot of these financial apps. They’re stiff for lack of a better word. Like you look in like, oh my number’s green or my number’s red and I can contribute more or, you know, I could do this financial literacy module, but we’re not interacting. We’re not having conversations around money.
We’re not sharing our, our goals, our hopes and our dreams. And I think that, aspirational part of finance, um, Is important to a lot of us. And a lot of the other companies just aren’t hitting the mark because they’re they’re not treating kind of the mindset part of finance as well.
Totally. Yeah, I have, I have so many thoughts around. All of that. Um, and I’m, I’m totally in that 70 some percent too, right. I don’t necessarily wanna be directing my own investment because yeah, I’ve got a lot going on. Right. [00:36:00] I like, you know, have a house and a partner and a wedding and a business and another business and like all of this stuff.
And at the end of the day, I just wanna watch Netflix. So, I totally agree with you on that. And also there’s this layer of. Not feeling qualified, right? I’m like, not only do I like not really want to do this, but like, I feel pretty confident in saying that like, I’m not the right person to do this. like, if I wanted to be successful, if I wanted to make money, like there are people who are far more qualified at this than I am, who probably should be in charge of that for me.
Um, And so I, I really relate to that and I can’t help, but think that, you know, like you’re saying kind of fundamentally there’s this like relatability and, or like relational component to this right. Where, you know, I’ll have meetings with the financial advisors in my life. And, um, they’re like, so what do you do again? they’re like, what, what’s your business? Is it like, is it right? And, you know, we are a consulting firm and, an [00:37:00] agency and a few other things as well. And, and it’s just like every time having to explain it to them. Right. And there’s that like fundamental, uh, like I don’t necessarily want to be directing my investment, but also there’s these people who are kind of directing it for me and like, we still don’t speak the same language.
Right. So not only is there learning the language of investing your money and the acronyms and the options, and like navigating that whole space, like we talked about earlier. But then there’s also this kind of industry standard of it. Not really being explained in helpful ways, right? There’s a lack of education.
There’s a lack of making it tangible and, and relatable for someone who doesn’t do it as their career. And I think that by kind of putting the choice and the sense of security back in the hands of your users and making it community driven, where you’re not only talking about this with someone who you don’t speak the same language to, but you’re pursuing your goals alongside other people who potentially you have a, a more common, [00:38:00] you know, dialogue with.
it’s a game changer. Yeah. And I mean, sometimes it’s about, it’s about the, those goals too, rather than like, I need X amount for retirement. Like, like investing can do other things. I mean, I love that you shared that story. It always brings me back. It brings me back to this thing that my co-founder always brings up where you, you open some of these apps.
And one of the first questions is like, okay, what’s your risk profile? Like, what the hell do you mean? I don’t wanna risk shit. Like here’s my money. Make more money with it. Like. Like I don’t, I don’t wanna take high risks. What are you talking about? And like starting out with that as like the, the first point of the conversation, I feel like just shows how out of touch we are with like the everyday person who does want to invest and who does want to grow their wealth [00:39:00] because.
You could, maybe you’re fine. You know, being more risky, but I think most of us would look at that and be like, I don’t even understand the question.
Totally. And why is that the first question you’re asking me? Like, isn’t there a whole lot of other information where like, you should tell me how, what my risk profile should look like on
My income. Yeah.
Yeah.
totally. Yeah. It’s so interesting. It’s due for. A new approach for sure.
Which I think is, is one of the things that’s so cool about what you’re doing. So, okay. So on that note, I know that integrity and impact are two really big values that, that drive everything you do in your business and your career. How do you define each of those things first? And then second, how are they showing up in what you’re building right now?
Yeah, that’s a great question. I think impact, you know, back in the day where, where I had the nine to five, [00:40:00] um, I, I always liked being the best at, at what I did. And I think that translates even deeper now going out into my own in business. Um, because it’s just so important that I create change and I do something meaningful and that I’m helping companies move forward and not just like executing on things, if, if that makes sense, you know, having an impact. A lot of times when companies are hiring a marketer to work with them, they it’s like their last sliver of, of budget. And they need to see things get done. And that for me is kind of where we’re impact comes into play. Is, is that we need to see things progressing and moving forward. And, and I like to be that person for others.
well, and the same is, is true of your users for, for Odo, right? Like if [00:41:00] they’re investing, it’s probably their last sliver of personal budget that they can spare and they’re expecting to see a return on that. So it’s the same, it’s the same thing.
Yeah, absolutely. And then integrity. I, I don’t think. I don’t think until I got fired, I realized how important it was to me. And to make a long story, very short, I was working at a marketing agency, where my clients weren’t very happy and I was the go between between the clients and the management.
And I couldn’t get the management to get things done and brought it up and brought it up. And eventually they just told me I wasn’t a culture fit anymore. And they fired me. And you know, that was a hard moment, but it kind of opened this whole new chapter in my life. Not because I, I moved on a, a different path career wise.
Uh, but because it showed me what was so important to me. Is that we’re just showing up in a meaningful [00:42:00] way and an impactful way, for the people that we worked with and not just getting an invoice paid every month. And I think, you know, that translates into everything I do. And it’s one reason why Odo is so important to me because we have lots of ways that you can invest. You can invest with a traditional advisor. You can do day trading options. There’s robo advisors. There’s lots of ways to do this, but I wanted to this to be done in a way that felt good to me and served people that are in a similar situation like me. And I don’t think that’s being done right now.
So that’s something that I wanted to see changed.
I love that. Thanks for sharing.
course
Okay, so I’m gonna switch gears just a little bit. Um, so most of our listeners are, uh, business
owners, um, like you like me and, [00:43:00] you know, I think that. At least something that, that I grapple with is, um, having more than one, like set of monies to manage, right? Like I, we have, you know, our business finances and I have my personal finances.
And I think it can also be especially lonely for business owners because we, in some context, talk about it all the time, because money and business are intertwined at varying levels depending on the company you work for. And also, you know, we’re that much closer to it, I think. And there’s a extra layer of, of complication.
We’ve invested so much into our businesses and there’s this kind of second layer to everything you’re talking about here. Right. Which is like as a business owner, we’re, you know, not only concerned with our, you know, personal investing, but we’re also kind of counteracting.
Against the, you know, financial stability and success of our business, especially when we’re in growth mode, right? Like you, for example, um, you know, decided not to, to be paid for a year because you wanna grow this thing and you’re in a [00:44:00] position where you’re able to do that. And, and I’m sure that you have thought about an ideal exit strategy for when Odo reaches that point.
Um, and so, you know, I think that my, my thought that I would love to kind of hear your perspective on is. How would you, how would you comment on this idea of breaking down like this, this barrier or fear to building
Mm.
wealth for business owners specifically?
Okay. So for Odo, it’s it’s fear of loss. Right. And that is one of the big problems that we’re trying to address with Odo. But when it comes to your personal finances and you running a business, you can’t really take away that fear, unfortunately. So I think that, so sometimes you need to just make space for it.
And it, it, it’s okay [00:45:00] to fear. Fear the loss. And you have to acknowledge it and, and push back on it a little bit. I think making sure that you’re stable, that you’re investing properly into your business is important, but I also think that we need to understand. That it’s important to take our care of ourselves at the end of the day.
So making sure that you’re not investing everything back into the business, whether you’re taking just a hundred dollars out a month and maybe for some people that sounds like a crazy amount, because they don’t have that much leftover after investing back into the business, whatever that number is for you, you.
You shouldn’t be like me and wait until you’re 34 until you start investing into your retirement because you’ve lost all those years of compounding. Right. Which is another investment term that goes back into financial literacy. And, and I won’t try to explain right now, [00:46:00] but time is really important when it comes to making money.
So you. If we kind of let the fear take over, we lose a lot of the time while we’re playing it safe. So we have to be able to give to ourselves a little bit and really think about what the time cost is. You know, what will be losing out if we give to the fear and don’t allow ourselves to take some of those risk.
Hmm. I love that. Yeah. I think it’s a good reminder, right? That we’re, you know, pouring a lot of our resources, time, effort, energy, attention, money. All the things into nurturing this, this thing. And that can result in, I think, entrepreneurs specifically being underinvested, right? Depending on you. Where you come from and what your career trajectory has looked like. So a good reminder for sure. So I know that, separate [00:47:00] from that, uh, one of the things that we we’re gonna talk about as it relates to one of your expertise in the, the marketing realm is the pyramid of profitability. So for all of our, our business owner listeners, maybe you can walk us through that.
Sure. So, you know, every marketer has their own version of the funnel. Right. And I always take the funnel kind of to that next step. And this is what I call the, the pyramid of profitability. So essentially what happens after a sale? Most of us are really concerned about that top of funnel.
Right? We’ve got to get traffic, we’ve got to get leads. We’ve got to get sales. A and the sales are very important, but where profit profitability really happens is when you can sell to the same person over and over again. So whether that’s a membership, a subscription, or you have a product that comes in five different colors or leads [00:48:00] to another product, right.
Um, that is where brand advocacy comes in, where people are. A return customer. So they’re increasing their customer lifetime value for you and B they’re sharing you out to others. And now they’re filling the top of your funnel free of charge. So at, you know, very quick overview at the core, that’s what the pyramid of profitability is.
We have the funnel that leads down to the sale, but what happens after the sale. And have we built a business model that is conducive to being able to sell to the same person over and over again.
Hmm. Yeah, totally. That’s exactly what we’ve seen in, in our business too, is building long term relationships, um, and really honing in on our client experience, building brand advocates, and either seeing a lot of repeat business and, or a lot of referrals has totally been a key part of, of our growth, for sure.
So, [00:49:00] um, thank you for explaining that. I love that term pyramid of profitability. So if you were gonna give a piece of advice to, uh, leaders, business owners, entrepreneurs looking to build wealth, what would it be?
It would be starting now. I mean, we always. Look back and wish that we had started sooner. Right. Like if I had started my business a year earlier than I did, I feel like I would’ve been so much farther ahead right now. If I had believed in myself the way that my clients believed in me or that my husband believed in me, I would’ve gone farther, faster.
So, whether it’s building wealth or, getting to that next level of business, I think, you know, my, my biggest piece of advice is to you can’t start yesterday, so start it today.
I love that. It’s so true. I mean, thinking back to pretty much everything that that’s happened on, on my journey and[00:50:00] specifically in the area of, saving money, investing money. I, I would a hundred percent agree. I think that the bit, the things that, that, that have been most transformational in my life are the things that I say I wish I had done this 10 years ago,
yeah.
ago.
Yeah. I wanna hand you the microphone and You can choose how we wrap up our conversation today. What didn’t I ask you about that you wanna make sure
Oh, my gosh. I don’t even know. You asked me so many good questions. I mean, I, I shared all about me. I think the fact that I’ve gotten to where I am as a, you know, military spouse that, that moves all over the place. I’ve got four kids. When people say that they’re like, you did what? Like, yes, I, I have four kids and, and I still am a business owner and all that fun stuff that, you know, that’s a really important part of, of who I am.
But. It’s all kind of [00:51:00] gone into to where I’m at today and gotten me to this place where I could take a risk on a business that I cared about enough to take a risk, to bring into the world. And I, I want that business to, to create an impact on a lot of people. So that’s why, why I’m working on Odo right now.
Thanks so much for being here with us today. This was an awesome conversation. Um, I think that, uh, our world of finances is due for a lot of new options. And I think we’re seeing that right in, in all different formats. And I think this is one of them. So thanks so much for, for telling us about Odo and for sharing your story with us.
Thank you so much for anyone who, who wants to try Odo out, you can get on the wait list for, for when we start rolling out at www.odo.works.
This conversation with Shauna, so successfully identified the barriers to investing in my opinion [00:52:00] and how Odo is solving them. Even though this wasn’t the main topic of our conversation, I loved her insight on how she found vetted and partnered with the other co-founder of Odo. So that was a bonus you can join Odo’s wait list to get first access to a loss protected investment account at www.odo.works/waitlist.