Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Feeling overwhelmed by your family's daily grind and looking for a way out? Welcome to "Dig the Well," the podcast that empowers you to build the life you deserve. Your hosts Vikki and John are top earners at Neora. Vikki is a # 1 best-selling author and John is a retired Los Angeles Police Officer. Together they’ve navigated family challenges, raised successful kids, and achieved financial freedom.
In each episode of "Dig the Well," they dive deep into the strategies and mindsets that can help you break free from the constraints of the traditional 9-5 lifestyle. They understand the unique challenges faced by stay-at-home moms and families who are juggling multiple responsibilities and struggling to find balance. Their mission is to provide you with the tools and inspiration you need to create additional income, gain more family time, and ultimately, transform your life.
Throughout their journey, they’ve had the privilege of working with renowned figures like Jack Canfield and Jeff Olson, whose wisdom and insights have greatly influenced their path to success. They’ve also celebrated significant milestones, such as raising two valedictorian children and supporting their son, an Olympic weightlifter on Team USA. These experiences have equipped them with valuable knowledge and practical tips that they’re eager to share with you.
"Dig the Well" is more than just a podcast; it's a community of like-minded individuals who are committed to personal growth and financial independence. Whether you're worried about your family's financial security, longing for more quality time with your spouse, or simply seeking a way to reignite your passions, this podcast offers actionable insights and real-life stories that can help you achieve your goals.
Our mission is to inspire you with the belief that if we can do it, so can you. We want you to feel empowered, educated, and ready to take control of your future. By tuning in to "Dig the Well," you'll gain the confidence and knowledge needed to break free from the daily grind and create a life full of possibilities.
So, if you're ready to transform your family's future and discover the greatness within you, join us on this journey. Subscribe to "Dig the Well" and start building the life you deserve today!
This is the EWN podcast network.
John:Ever wondered how you could turn your side hustle into a full time gig and spend more time together?
Vikki:Hi. I'm Vikki, a number one best selling author.
John:And I'm John, a retired Los Angeles police officer. Welcome to Dig the Well, where we help couples navigate the world of business.
Vikki:We've been married for 35 years. And because we built a successful side business, John retired 9 years earlier than he originally planned from the Los Angeles police department after 25 years on the job. Now we spend more time together, and we want to help couples like you do the same.
John:Join us as we help you overcome common obstacles, and we show you how to make extra income without sacrificing family time.
Vikki:Ready to dig deep and build your well? Let's get started. Welcome, everyone. We are excited. I think I say that a lot.
Vikki:Yeah. Thank you. I say it every week, but I'm an excited person. And I am excited truly to have a really good friend of ours on this episode today, blown away by her massive success. I've watched her achieve it, and I can't wait for you all to hear her story today.
John:So Anna Camp is a multimillion dollar earner at Neora and a seasoned entrepreneur who transformed her life through grit and mindset. Raised in Southern California as one of 5, Anna faced major financial hardships as a single mom, including sleeping on the floor and eating top ramen. Despite owning a multimillion dollar business, she found herself $50,000 in debt and at risk of losing her home. Instead of giving up, Anna reinvented herself in network marketing, rising to become a sought after leader, speaker, and mentor to 1,000 in more than 12 countries. Her journey is proof that with the right mindset and hard work, anything is possible.
John:On a story of resilience, success, and empowering others makes her an incredible guest for our dig the well podcast. We are really excited to have you here, Anna, and thank you for joining us. Hi.
Aana Camp:I am so excited to be here. I love the title of this podcast, dig the well. Not everybody thinks to, create a backup plan, and I love the way and the connotation of what your your title means. So thanks for having me.
Vikki:Yeah. We're excited. We're excited. And, you know, we know so much about you, knowing you, gosh, for, I guess, it's now 12 and a half years. And, but not our listeners.
Vikki:Not every listener out there knows about the Anna Camp.
John:And you have a hell of a story.
Vikki:Yeah. So so take us back because I find your early years, you know, right out of high school, so interesting. So take us back on it and tell us a little bit about you.
Aana Camp:Oh my goodness. I think that after, in my high school years, I the only thing I knew was that I wanted to have my own money. I wanted to be able to have be able to make choices. Right? And growing up of 1 of 5, although we had a comfortable, upbringing, I always felt that there wasn't always extra money to do some of the things that each of us wanted to do, like ice skating lessons or whatever it was.
Aana Camp:And so the message in my head was always, well, you better go get it if you want it. And so I always had, small odd jobs as a kid. I think I was an entrepreneur right out of the womb, but some some good plans, some not so good plans. But from working from Jack in the Box to becoming a grocery checker to all kinds of of jobs like that. I I think I realized very early on I didn't really wanna work for a boss.
John:I wasn't
Aana Camp:Right. I wasn't so employable that way, but but learned a lot by working, in those kinds of jobs and working in corporate America. And, I actually, moved out at 17. I wasn't even 18 years old yet, but I had gone with a very close girlfriend and her family down to Orange County to Newport Beach and shared a beach home with their family for a week one summer, and that was it for me. I just knew I needed to live near the beach.
Aana Camp:So at 17 years old, I moved away about an hour and a half from where I lived to the coast, to Newport Beach, and I, talked a couple of my my sister and another girlfriend into renting a very small house, and we, sort of bumped up together. And, I got Lucky's grocery chain to transfer me to Orange County. I felt like I could live near the beach. So that was the beginning of my, living on my own and really never looking back. I have never had a parent give me a loan or give me any money.
Aana Camp:I've never had anybody give me anything. And, that was sort of a message I learned along the way. If you want it, you can work for it, and you can have anything you want. If you can visualize it, if you can see it in your mind, if you can put yourself out there for the hard work that's involved together, you can have it all. So Right.
Aana Camp:I think that was the best part of my upbringing was that messaging early on. Love that.
John:Yeah. That's really good.
Vikki:And, actually, Lucky remember Lucky Supermarkets? Yeah. Did did Alpha Beta take him over? No. Alberts.
Vikki:What who took Lucky over? Right? Wasn't it maybe Alberts?
Aana Camp:Remember who bought him along the way, but there were so many different
Vikki:Yeah.
Aana Camp:Purchase or chains back in the day that now have sort of been
Vikki:Yeah. All taken up. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting.
Vikki:And and from everyone I've talked to in the supermarket industry, from checkers to, you know, the produce to the meat people, it's it's hard work, and you talk about a good work ethic you're taught there too. So kinda interesting. Yeah. Definitely.
Aana Camp:Too because it was a higher wage. Yes. I mean, I looked at what kind of stuff like, where could you make the highest wage? So it's a higher weight higher wage because it was a union job.
Vikki:Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.
Aana Camp:Yeah. So and it was, like, double time on holidays and or double time on Sundays and triple time on holidays. So I worked all those because you could make a lot more money.
Vikki:Right. Yeah. Right. Absolutely.
Aana Camp:And, you
Vikki:know, it's funny you bring that up. You know, the higher wage, maybe that is something entrepreneurs look for if they're going to have a job. Because I remember John, when we had our traditional business, then we closed the doors and we're deciding John said, I need to provide for the family. You know, I was willing to work too, but, you know, he had that mindset as well. And he's like, what job can I have that it's gonna pay me the most?
Vikki:I remember discussing that. So maybe that's some mindset piece of entrepreneurs for sure.
Aana Camp:A lot of entrepreneurs don't necessarily start out looking at that, and I think that's a really important lesson for anyone that wants to be an entrepreneur is, yes, they say do what you love, the money will come, but make sure that you have a plan for how that entrepreneurial venture is going to make you money because in the end, that's what we're doing. You know? We're looking for the freedom, the ability to make different choices, to create something that's powerful and different and exciting for our lives. But in the end, it needs to make money. And so I see sometimes Exactly.
Aana Camp:I'll follow in dreams and I go, oh my goodness. How is that how are you gonna monetize that? I don't know. I know
Vikki:exactly. Yeah. Right? Give you the life that you want. Yeah.
Vikki:I I'm with you. 100%.
John:And it's funny because a lot of people who don't make a lot of money, they always use that that get that kind of, almost like an escape that where they say, oh, you're only concerned about it for the money. Well, that's how the world operates. It operates on money, right? And money gives you choices and options. But people who don't make good money, oftentimes, they put us down or put other people down.
John:Like, you guys are making great money. That's all you guys care about, and that's absolutely not it. And I think that's one of the things that drew us to network marketing, and I think you too. I've heard you speak so many times about helping other people.
Vikki:Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. Absolutely. Yeah.
Aana Camp:You can't have both. Right. You can't have you can't have the money too. Right? Yes.
Aana Camp:It's okay. It's and it's okay to want both.
Vikki:Mhmm. So good. You know? Period. Yeah.
Vikki:I would like drop the mic. Yeah. It's it's okay to want both. Yeah. I love it.
Vikki:Have it all. Yeah. Exactly.
Aana Camp:Don't feel them.
Vikki:Exactly. Alright. So let's transition to you having a baby oh, being married, having a baby. And what was your first business that you started, working, you know, or started?
Aana Camp:Well, let's so, I was married for about 10 years. I had, I was in the real estate business, and I actually got into the real estate business because I saw a potential for an unlimited amount of money, And I loved, personally, looking at homes. I loved being able to find something for somebody to really help them, you know, that that beautiful dream home that, you know, helping them realize their dreams through that. So I loved it, and I loved that it gave me freedom. Because as a newly married woman and a mom, I wanted to be able to have the freedom to do things with my husband and as a family and not be tied to a normal 8 to 5 job.
Aana Camp:So I was in the real estate business for about 10 years, until that marriage wasn't working anymore. And, unfortunately, I became a single mom after that. And one of the things I say so many times now about, real estate or the job that you're working or the residual income that you can earn through network marketing is that example. Right? Sell a house, get paid.
Aana Camp:Don't sell a house, don't get paid. Right? Work for someone else, punch a time clock, get paid. Don't punch a time clock, don't get paid. Right?
Aana Camp:And so so I, I I learned very quickly that there had to be you know, if I was gonna do something, it needed to be something that I the money would continue coming in and for stability because here I was in a marriage that didn't work anymore, going back into single life. And as a single mom, I didn't that wasn't enough really to be able to sustain me. So I I sort of, for the 2nd or 3rd time in my life, had to reinvent myself and come up with another plan because, that plan wasn't going to be stable enough income. Yeah. Especially after I actually forgot left this little part out, but I had made the decision to stay home with my son for a couple of years and just be able to be there.
Aana Camp:And so I had I had kind of given up that real estate business and wasn't feeling the funnel of new clients and, existing clients and really keeping my finger on the pulse there because I really thought I was gonna be a stay home mom.
Vikki:Right.
John:So
Aana Camp:I think that's another dig the well sort of tip. Yes.
Vikki:It is.
Aana Camp:Single mom from home, it's just so important to have something
Vikki:Yes.
Aana Camp:Something a little something on the side because I didn't. Yeah. And I found myself in a really, really tough position. And if you caught the beginning of my story, you probably noticed that I did not go to college, so I didn't have a fallback plan. But I think I think that is one of the biggest things that I've learned having a thriving network marketing business is, wow, how different would my life have been as a single mom had I had the freedom to work when I want, where I want, how I want around his life and still create a ridiculous amount of income.
Aana Camp:Right.
Vikki:Which is
Aana Camp:hard to do in other places.
Vikki:Definitely. Definite and on a previous episode, we chatted about just that. Like, we wished we had known sooner about network marketing. We had our traditional business and somebody approached us for a a network marketing company, and we ended up getting involved, but we were like, where has this been all our lives? Why didn't anybody educate us on this?
Vikki:We could have saved so much money on our, you know, instead of sinking it into our traditional business. Right?
John:Yeah. No. I agree. But I think also and I don't know if if you feel the same way, though. I think sometimes you have to go through those struggles.
John:You have to go through those conventional businesses and those jobs, in order to appreciate what the we have with network marketing now. And I wonder if we would have recognized it had we'd seen that first.
Vikki:Right. We might not have. You're right.
John:Not have.
Vikki:Yeah. Yeah.
Aana Camp:No. And I know I would not have. Right. Because I went on to build a traditional business much like you guys did, and you know if you're a business owner, you take all the risk.
John:Yeah.
Aana Camp:I mean, the amount of money that it costs to build that business, the overhead that you have, the employees, the cost of doing business, the inventory, all of the things that go into that. And you're the last one that gets paid. Yeah. Because
Vikki:if if you get paid. Yeah. If you pay yourself. Yeah.
John:And you
Vikki:There were times we didn't business.
John:Yeah. You cannot get away. I mean, every time we tried to go somewhere, we were constantly on the phone, constantly in contact. It was just Yeah. Not fun.
Vikki:Yeah. It's definitely something to look into. Alright. So let's dive into the pool business. Right?
Vikki:Your pool table, not pool. Pool table because
Aana Camp:Oh, the traditional business. Yeah.
John:Yeah.
Vikki:I cannot wait for the listeners to hear the and viewer and viewers on YouTube. You have got to hear this. This is magnificent, but, again, also a learning lesson for you. So let's dive into how that even started and what it it what it was.
Aana Camp:Okay. So, yeah. So I, I was a single mom. I was working. Working.
Aana Camp:I was trying to find my way, trying to figure out what to do. And by the way, I left that marriage with nothing. It was so important for me for our son not to have all the baggage of arguing parents and all of it. It was it's if anyone's out there who's been through divorce, you know how difficult that is and how, it's just heart wrenching. It's just heart wrenching for everybody.
Aana Camp:And so I didn't wanna fight the fight of you get this, and I get this, and I want all this money. I basically left with nothing. I said, you can have the home. You can you can have it all. I just want my clothes, some of our son's clothes, and our dishes.
Aana Camp:And, it was a very difficult time. I didn't have an income coming in. There were I had very little cash saved, and so I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do. And, I met, a gentleman who ended up becoming, a boyfriend for a period of time. And, during that time, he wanted a pool table.
Aana Camp:And I remember thinking to myself, like a lot of women out there, oh, I just wanna go get him a pool table until I realized how expensive they were. But, I got a really great education in pool tables. And through that process, met a gentleman in the penny saver. How many of you remember the penny saver? Right?
Aana Camp:That little publication that came around for free that we all bought things out of. And I found his ad in the penny saver, and his name was Carlos. I went and met him, and he was making I had enough of an education now on pool tables because I've been looking and learning about them because I was gonna somehow money was gonna materialize and I was gonna buy a pool table for my, at the time, boyfriend. And it turned out that he made a beautiful product, a very high end product at a very low price. And I speak limited Spanish, but my accent is really good.
Aana Camp:And so with a few words and a few sentences, we became fast friends, and I was able to, purchase a pool table through him, for my then boyfriend. And it wasn't it was a very short time after that that I remember going to my boyfriend at the time saying, you know, I think I'm gonna do something with that pool table business. And, I struck up a conversation with Carlos. I said, you know what? His English was limited.
Aana Camp:My Spanish was limited, but my sales ability, I thought, was probably better than his. So I made a deal with him. I said, I'm gonna I'm gonna write the ads. I'll pay for the ads in the Penny saver. I will take the phone calls.
Aana Camp:I will bring the people to you. You make the tables, and he didn't wanna pay me anything. He's like, but I'm not gonna pay you. That's alright. So I would mark up the cost of the pool table to the client when I was there with them.
Aana Camp:He would make the pool table. I would make the spread. So I was making some money on the side trying to figure out what I was gonna do next. I was always like, what am I gonna do next? Because this is paying some bills right now, but I just don't know if this is gonna gonna sustain, the business.
Aana Camp:What I realized was, I had I was on to something kinda good here. You know? More and more people were coming, and I thought, wait a minute. I'm going to, what if I invested in a little tiny, cheap, funky satellite showroom somewhere, and I could bring people to that little showroom. So I set up this showroom.
Aana Camp:I had Carlos make me a few tables, kind of dummy tables without the slate and all of that so that you could they looked, you know, like real tables, but they weren't you couldn't play on them. And and I went around to some of these, stores. Now I don't know if you guys remember this, but remember back when model homes used to have props in them? Like, the fake the company was called Props. Fake Computers and Yes.
Aana Camp:I met with Salvation Army, and I bought a desk and I bought some fake computers and people would come in. And so I would just say, you know, they would they would call and they'd say we're calling about that pool table and they said, well, actually, we're the manufacturer. We don't normally sell to the public. We sell to the retail stores because that's what Carlos was doing. But we have some extras, and we do allow the public to come in and buy them.
Aana Camp:And, if you wanna make an appointment and bring your husband with you, you know, that would be great. We can we can fit you in. So they would come to the little satellite showroom. So I wasn't really a retail store. I was actually like a wholesale manufacturer with extras to the public.
Aana Camp:And that was my story and my niche, and we sold a lot of pool tables. I was in there all the time, and this was always around my son and carpooling and taking him to do whatever he had to do. And so I was I was able to do those appointments around his life. And then I started to recognize that there was, like, a bigger niche in this. And so I thought, what if I did this in other towns?
Aana Camp:Because I was now putting ads in the penny saver from Santa Barbara to the Mexican border. So people were literally driving, and I thought, gosh, there's a need for this, but what if I could do this bigger? So I got a phone number, a 702 phone number, which is Las Vegas, thinking that Vegas was booming. There are a lot of building going on. This would be a great time to have, this, you know, same to do the same little format.
Aana Camp:Yeah. So I got a phone number in Vegas, forward the phone those phones to my cell phone. People would call and I'd say we're the manufacturer, you know, we don't have any extra pool tables right now, but I would be telling, you know, okay, there's a medical. Oh, there's another call. Oh, there's another call.
Aana Camp:Wow. There's a market in Vegas because they were calling all the time. I'm like, where are you calling from? And they weren't calling from Orange County or Santa Barbara or Los Angeles or anywhere near me. So I thought, wow.
Aana Camp:So I talked to Carlos into fronting me some tables to make another little funky satellite showroom in Vegas, and I thought, well, I don't know how I'm gonna do this, but I'm gonna figure it out. So I take phone calls and I would set up appointments in Vegas, prop computers, making it look like a real business, funky industrial area, and I would set up all these appointments, confirm the appointments. I would take my son to school in Laguna Beach, I would go to the airport, I would jump on a plane, I would fly to Las Vegas, I would take a cab to my little funky satellite showroom, I would see 5, 6, 7 appointments, I jump, you know, go back, fly home just in time to be able to pick him up, from school. So this went on for quite a while and it was and there would be, you know, a period of time where I'd have a few days where my ex husband would have him and so we would I would be able to spend a little bit more time in that showroom. And but this went back and forth for a very long period of time, and then I thought, well, wait a minute.
Aana Camp:Let's see about some other locations. So I would get a phone number in that specific area, and I would forward the phone calls to my phone. Where are you calling from? Oh, you know what? We don't have any extras right now, but when we do, I'll put you on our list.
Aana Camp:So this went on. So I duplicated that same idea in Denver, Dallas, Vegas, and Scottsdale. And when I didn't have my son, I would fly to those locations. I would take those appointments. Carlos would build those tables.
Aana Camp:He would install those tables for me, and it started to get where we couldn't I he couldn't keep up, and we couldn't handle what we were doing. And I couldn't physically do that because, you know, every time you leave, you open a plan and you leave your son at school, you're thinking, oh my gosh. What if something happens?
Vikki:Yeah.
Aana Camp:Yeah. So, every year, there was a show. It was a billiard show, and it's where all the billiard table businesses would go to see the new stuff. And I remember walking on into this one venue, and they came over and they looked at my name. And if you don't know me, you typically would not say my name right.
Aana Camp:You would say Anna instead of Anna. The gentleman that came over recognized my name right away, and he said, Anna, oh, are you Anna? You know, Anna Perkins was my name at the time, and I said I said, yeah. Who are you? As it turned out, I had put several of their stores out of business,
John:Uh-huh.
Aana Camp:And I didn't even know it. So they were selling to all the retail stores. Right? But I was I had a better price and a better product, and I was selling a lot of so they knew who I was. And so I made a deal with them because Carlos couldn't keep up at this point.
Aana Camp:So I made a deal with them that they would private label my tables. They would put, pool tables USA as the plaque on there. I designed the tables the way I wanted them. They would ship, the pool tables to my warehouse. From my warehouse, we would ship them out.
Aana Camp:Right about that same time, the Internet came became a thing.
John:Yeah.
Aana Camp:So, I, negotiated the exclusivity for the only person who could sell these tables on the Internet. Mhmm. So that took me sort of away from selling against their stores
Vikki:Mhmm.
Aana Camp:And now selling on the Internet. So that was a lot of work. That was a lot of hook and crook to be able to ship tables all over the US. 1 at a time, they have to go on a semi truck. They're very fragile, then they have to get on a lift truck with a forklift and the tailgate and all that kind of stuff, and they have to get into a residential area and a professional installer from that area would have to come out and sell them.
Aana Camp:So once I got all of that infrastructure figured out, which took about a year and a lot of heartache and a lot of financial loss and a lot of sleepless nights and, you know, getting that infrastructure figured out, we went after Costco. So, I flew I got on a plane with Costco, flew up to Washington, and, had a meeting and, through a lot of you know, they sold out of the stores for a short period of time till they realized that was not the way I wanted to do the business, and I was ready to walk away from all of that when I negotiated the exclusivity to be, on costco.com. So on the all of their, ecommerce. So if you're buying a pool table, lighting fixtures, a bar, bar tables, bar stools, anything for your game room through costco.com, you are actually buying it through me. So I'm delivering all of that.
Aana Camp:And so I had closed all those little satellite showrooms, and I just had my one, main location in Orange County, and then, of course, the Internet was Wow. Which was crazy. So, yeah, built it from sleeping on the floor, eating top ramen, and going through all those crazy, you know I mean, I didn't even know how to do, you know, Excel. So it's like, okay. Wait.
Aana Camp:There's another one. And just sort of, you know, so bootstrapping it all the way up. And then, so in the end of that business, we were selling, oh gosh, anywhere from 8, 800 to a 1000 tables a month. Holy cow. Selling them all and, sold the company for 8,000,000.
Vikki:Wow. Amazing. And I was gonna pause you right there because one of the things John has always said to me is find a way. In fact, we almost named the podcast find a way. And I loved what you said in the middle of all of that, and what an amazing story, by the way.
John:Yeah. That you just had to find a way.
Vikki:You figured it
Aana Camp:out a little Figured it.
Vikki:Way. That's another thing entrepreneurs make a mistake. Right? They're like, well, I have to have it all figured out. Actually, no.
Vikki:You don't. You don't at all. You have to have a great idea and drive and determination and a good work ethic, and you'll figure it out. Right? So, anyway, I just wanted to bring that up.
Vikki:Did you have any other thoughts on the business? I'm sure.
John:I was just I was just listening to everything because it was I hadn't heard all that. I just knew that you had your pool table business, and that was the end of it. I didn't know all this other stuff went on. Yeah. That is crazy.
Vikki:Yeah. Entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart. Right? That is the perfect mix. I mean, to be flying when Skyler's in school.
Vikki:Yeah. And you're right. As a mom worried that, wait. What if the flight's late? What if I don't get back?
Vikki:What if they cancel the flight? Who's gonna pick him up from school? You know, all the things on top.
Aana Camp:I always I always thought this thing like, you know, what's the worst thing that could happen? Well, he gets sick and somebody has to pick him up. Okay. Well, my sister's on call then for that.
Vikki:Right. Right.
Aana Camp:And I think, you know, I've always kinda gone, well, what's the worst that can happen? Well, what's the worst that can happen is, you know, it doesn't work out and I have to find a different way to get through that obstacle. What what what's the worst that can happen? Like, I'm not gonna die. I'm just gonna
Vikki:keep going. You always say that too. I'm not a vet. You they can't eat
Aana Camp:me. Yeah.
Vikki:That's so funny. So yeah. Okay. So you make this $8,000,000 windfall. I'm sure you didn't keep it all.
Vikki:I'm sure you the you had to pay people, but maybe not. But, yeah.
Aana Camp:Well, it was it was an earn out, so I had to stay. I had to stay and prove that the company would do what I said it was gonna do the following year and so forth. The projections were there. It was it was a really complicated sale, and so there was a portion of the money that was up front and then I chose to take it over time. I didn't want to chunk all at once and pay taxes on it, but I I chose to take big quarterly payments.
Aana Camp:Smart. So I was really excited because, wow, I bought a beautiful home overlooking the ocean, and I called it my champion bachelorette pad. I mean, for the first time in my life, and it had been my dream for many years, that my son could see me as a mom Yeah. And not just to bust in a businesswoman and go go go and, you know, he was the last little kid to get picked up in the dark, sitting on the curb after, you know, daycare after school. And
John:Yeah.
Aana Camp:As a single mom and any mom, that's just heart wrenching to see that. You know, you sell your soul to go build a business to put a roof over their head. You know, kids are not your excuse. They're your reason.
Vikki:Yeah.
Aana Camp:They are your reason. But it doesn't mean it doesn't pull at your heartstrings and it isn't hard.
Vikki:Right.
Aana Camp:So I was really excited to finally be in that position. I thought, you know, I can retire. I can, you know, if I invest the money right, I can retire. I can be home with my son. There's so many fun things I wanna do.
Aana Camp:I feel like I had lost all of my creativity because I was so busy, you know, focusing every single day and just wanted to get back to life. And Yeah. Yeah. That's And
Vikki:so you bought that dream worked. Yeah. And you bought that dream house, and it was spectacular. I remember you showing me photos. Right?
Vikki:So how did that feel knowing that was your all your hard work from that business that, wow, now I'm here. I'm in this dream home. How did that make you feel?
Aana Camp:It, you know, it's, it's kind of surreal, you know, buying your first home as a single woman. It was actually not my first home, but even that very first home, it was very small and very modest, but incredibly empowering.
Vikki:Mhmm.
Aana Camp:You know, the love of money is the root of all evil, but there is nothing wrong with having the desire to have money. It's the love of money that's the problem. And I would encourage any woman listening to this, and and you men too, you know, I think men are more geared toward making money because you're typically the head of the household, but I think sometimes women feel guilty making money or they feel like they, you know, shouldn't make more than their husband or they shouldn't, you know, they there they should just be home and not have the option of making a little extra money, but it's it's power, and money for me gives me choices. The choice to send my son to a better school, the choice to buy organic groceries, the choice to help people whenever and what however I can potentially to give to great charities, right, to surprise somebody with a gift they never would have been able to buy themselves, you know, to give a family in need over Christmas, you know, of some wonderful Christmas basket, whatever it is, you know, it gives you so so many choices. So, I I recognized very, probably only in the last few years, that my highest value really is freedom.
Aana Camp:Mhmm. It's not the stuff. It's the freedom. The freedom to buy something you want or do something you want or go somewhere you want. And, I just remember dreaming as a kid.
Aana Camp:I thought, wow. It'd be so cool to go to the airport and go with just, you know, your purse in your wallet and nothing else. And you can actually buy your toothbrush and you can actually buy whatever you needed when you got on the other side, and you could stay in any hotel you wanted to, and you could go anywhere you wanted to when you got there. And, you know, that would just need the ultimate freedom. It's
Vikki:true. And I
Aana Camp:That's the thing. But I was like, what if you could just go to any airport and then just go, wait. I'll go to I'll go there. And you just go. And you just go.
Aana Camp:Exactly. Anyway. I knew it. Not as long before there was Uber and all that stuff. Like, I didn't know what I was gonna do when I got there.
Vikki:In my eyes, you made your dream come true. Part of that pool table business, you were flying, you know, you basically probably just had a briefcase, you know, and jumped on a plane. So you were kinda doing it. You're kinda doing it. Yeah.
Vikki:And so that's awesome. And then I know there was a time, a downturn, right, because you've had to reinvent yourself where a cup of coffee changed your life, you've told me. So tell us about that. Yeah.
Aana Camp:Yeah. Well, from from being in that place, you know, the new house and being able to take a breath and feeling like I could relax and, wow, how nice is this, I really felt like at some point I would want to do something else. I just enjoyed being in a place where I didn't have to Mhmm. Until I had to. And what happened was the company, it was a $1,000,000,000 asset management company that bought my pool table company, ran it into the ground and filed bankruptcy.
Aana Camp:So those big quarterly payments that were going to enable my lifestyle and allow me to continue to save and invest for my future all dried up.
John:K.
Aana Camp:And it was really it was rough. And I had been you know, I'm very much a woman of God. I'm very much a God's girl, and I had been, you know, really praying. I've been praying for the exit strategy for the business, but I had been really praying, you know, in in the next set of my prayer time was, you know, for something big and fabulous and amazing. And, you know, lord, I have the resources to do something different, but I want this phase of my life to to be something that I'm choosing, not something I'm sort of falling into, but something that I'm choosing because I think that in the beginning of our life, we have, the learning journey, the earning journey, and the serving journey.
Aana Camp:So the learning journey, you're going to school, you're learning all about what you wanna do. The earning journey, you're putting the roof over your head. You're earning earning earning, you're going to work, you're doing all that. And the last part of my life I wanted to be about the serving journey. How can I serve people?
Aana Camp:How can I change people's lives? I want it to be something that mattered. I felt like it didn't the money didn't matter because I was okay financially, but I wanted there to be something else. And I remember just, you know, the day I realized that I wasn't getting any more quarterly payments. And the day I realized, like, oh my goodness, do I spend the cash?
Aana Camp:Do I go into credit card debt? Do I invest? Do I not invest? And and I wasn't far enough ahead financially where I could rest. Mhmm.
Aana Camp:And I've I really pressed in, and I remember praying 6 months every day, all day. Lord, I know you have something for me. I know you know how you made me. I know that it's gonna be big. I am gonna live and pray in faith that you are gonna bring it.
Aana Camp:And, but I never thought that it would come in the hands of a 6 foot 5 man over a cup of coffee. There it was. So, yeah. So a very astute businessman, really an acquaintance. He was married.
Aana Camp:I was now in another relationship, who's became my husband. And, I was he called me numerous times, you know, hey. Come let's go have a cup of coffee. Let's catch up. I'm thinking to myself, catch up.
Aana Camp:I hardly know you. What are you gonna catch up about? Right? And, it was, it was pretty powerful, meeting. I finally went and met him over a cup of coffee at Starbucks, and I'll just never forget the moment he was, pitching me on this accidental discovery.
Aana Camp:Oh my goodness. There's been this accidental discovery. This is gonna deliver results the world's never seen before in antiaging, and we're sitting on a gold mine, and all I could think was, oh, no. We are not sitting on anything. And what you know, you know, is that I had I had started sort of a little health and wellness business that because I thought if I'm gonna recreate myself, I wanna do something that I'm passionate about.
Aana Camp:Well, I wanna stay healthy. I wanna stay well. So if I do something in that area, I will always stay healthy and well, and this will be a great last segment of career wise, hoping it would be a little. How would you work hard when you recreate yourself? But, so I was I was really putting a lot of hours into that.
Aana Camp:So I didn't feel like I had time. I wasn't really interested until I saw the before and after pictures. And, of course, that caught my attention. It was a night cream that was extraordinary. And Yeah.
Aana Camp:It was, a peek into, a way to make money that I never thought, never dreamed of, and didn't believe was a viable way to make an extraordinary amount of money
Vikki:Right.
Aana Camp:While having tons of freedom and helping other people do the same. A powerful I had no idea. I had no idea.
Vikki:Right. Same with us. Yeah. Yeah. Because listeners you don't know or maybe we alluded to it, we are both in the company Neora.
Vikki:We make no bones about it. That's not what the show is about. It's about entrepreneurship, but we also came a friend shared it with John and I, and so we are together with Anna at Neora. So, yeah, we might as well talk a little bit more about Neora. So how has it changed your life?
Vikki:I know it is now you've gone on to you had to leave that first dream home overlooking the water, but now you've built your true dream home or you've re renovated. Right? Yeah. How's that transition for you?
Aana Camp:Oh, amazing. It's, you know, it's created such a a life I never could have dreamed of honestly. I always wanted to live large and I really always thought because I was just raised that way my mom always said, you know, you can have whatever you want if you if you have it. But I remember early on in my New York career, one of the things we got is Jeff Olson's book, The Slight Edge. And that is the most powerful book.
Aana Camp:It's not about network marketing. It's just about making those slight edge decisions throughout life that change your life. Making the slight edge in the wrong direction or in the right direction. And, toward the end of his book, I thought, okay. I had a defining moment where I thought, I'm gonna do this.
Aana Camp:I am really gonna do this. And in the beginning, I thought I'm just gonna get my product for free and I'm gonna use these great skincare product and it's gonna be really great until I realized that I wasn't the only woman in my shoes. I mean, I'm not the only single mom. I wasn't the only woman who had debt. I wasn't the only woman who wanted choices for her family and for herself.
Aana Camp:I wasn't the only person who wanted to help kids be off college debt or send kids to a better school. I wasn't the only person who wanted to take care of aging parents. I wasn't the only person just keep on going, fill in the blank.
Vikki:I know.
Aana Camp:And I thought what if this really was a way to empower other people to do that? And I never focused on the money. I didn't focus on any of that. I focused on providing a solution for people to look better and providing a solution for people to to live better, to take care of that debt, to do all of those things. Right.
Aana Camp:And in, Jeff Olson's book, there was a a part at the end of there's part toward the end of the book and it talks about, you know, you you've gotta put your dream to paper. You've gotta put what you want to paper. You've got to do you know, that comes with building a vision board and all those other things surrounding it, But you've gotta put it down there, like, what do you want? How do you envision your life 5 years from today? Like, what does it look like?
Aana Camp:What does the house where where are you living? Where are you waking up? What do you want your health to look like? What do you want your family to look like? What do you want your business to look like?
Aana Camp:What do you want? You know, all of those different segments. And and I and I thought, you know what? If I'm really gonna do this and I'm really gonna make a difference in people's lives and I really am gonna empower other people to greatness, and I had no idea how the heck I was gonna do that. It wasn't like I had invested anything like this before.
Aana Camp:I had no idea. I just had this dream and this vision, and I thought, why not? Right. Why not me? Why not?
Aana Camp:Mhmm. And if I'm gonna do that, then I'm gonna follow the instructions of the book, from the biggest millionaire maker in the world. Like, why would you reinvent the wheel if you could just read what the millionaire maker said to do? So I read that in total faith and in Technicolor. I mean, to this day when I read it, it brings, I read it to the team recently on a training.
Aana Camp:I'm gonna give you, I was just in terrors.
Vikki:Yeah.
Aana Camp:Because what was mind blowing about it is all those things had come true and they had come true within a couple, 2, 3 years to the point where I had to rewrite all of it. You know? We we live in this home and we live we live in a beautiful home. We completely renovated the entire thing. We're able to pay cash for that.
Aana Camp:You know, I've now Miura's taken me all over the world. I've been able to travel to 12 countries and empower people, and it was funny. In that very first vision that I wrote, one of the things I said was, my husband's name is David, love of my life. I just am so grateful to be aligned with the most perfect human being for me, but he one of the things I said was David and I will have great friends in at least 5 countries. Love it.
Aana Camp:This was before I even I mean, I'm just getting started in this business, and all I'm thinking I'm gonna do is make a couple bucks
Vikki:and, you know, that's
Aana Camp:all I was thinking I was gonna do until I started to really put my pen to paper and really started following this little blueprint for what do you want for your future. And, it was it was I'll just it's so surreal when I think about it because I remember the moment when I realized, oh my gosh. We have more than 5 friends. I mean, more we have a lot of friends in more than 5 countries. Like, wow.
Aana Camp:How did that happen?
Vikki:Yeah.
Aana Camp:But that is a big tip for anybody who's entrepreneurial journey. Put your pen to paper. Put your dreams on paper. Be fearless about it. See it.
Aana Camp:You know? 5 years from now, it's put down the date and say, I wake up this morning and I can hear the ocean and the, I smell the, you know, the salty air and, you know, I hear the seagulls outside or whatever that looks like to you, but do it because so many of those things have come true. It's it's just such a powerful and it's not just for me. It's for every every person that I've coached that's done it all see these dreams come true. I can't tell you how it happens.
Aana Camp:I just can tell you that it does.
Vikki:Yes. Absolutely.
Aana Camp:And I know you guys too. You guys have such similar stories around the same thing.
John:Yeah. For sure. You're absolutely right. There's, like, magic happens when you put pen to paper and write write it down.
Vikki:And we just did that in Hawaii. We just went to Hawaii. Yeah. And it's we do it every year, not Hawaii. We pick a place, and we talk about our 5 year vision statement, and we write it down and read it to each other.
Vikki:So it's smart to do it once a year. Wouldn't you agree? Like, rewrite it. Right?
Aana Camp:Yeah. I love that you guys do that. It's such a great example for everybody that knows you, and I love that you're loud and proud about it because, you know, success leaves clues. And I think that part of one of our you know, to whom much is given, much is required. And so part of, what's so so important for us and our legacy and changing the lives of other people is to be loud and proud and inspiring in all that you do.
Aana Camp:You don't just say go do it, you say let's go do it, right? You bring people with you in an empowering way, and so I love that you guys do that as such an example to your team and to your family and to all of your friends. And I know it is in a great example to us too, so I I appreciate that you guys do that.
Vikki:That's so awesome. Yeah. Well, thanks. And yeah. Were you gonna say something?
Vikki:No. Go ahead.
John:No. I was just gonna say going back to something you said earlier when you were talking about your flying around the country in the in your little pop up, showrooms and how much time you were spending away from your son, and how he was the last one to be picked up. But, you know, you think about it. You set such a great example for him for hard work. And, and he didn't, you know, he didn't miss that.
John:He saw that. Yeah. He saw his mom going out there, making it work, working hard for
Vikki:for the 2 of you. Right? Yeah. And he's an entrepreneur now. Right?
Aana Camp:Yes. He is an entrepreneur, and, actually, he got started in, our new business. Early on, you know, he, he was only in his early twenties. He's like, mom, I'm trying to look older, not younger. No one's gonna buy this.
Aana Camp:You know? It's like all of that, but we figured out a way, and he was able to get that checkup to about 14,000 a month. Wow. Under 25 years old. Under 25 years old.
Aana Camp:And many times, I have to be transparent, many times I thought, man, am I doing him a disservice? Should I be, you know, really encouraging him to go the route of just regular, you know, work for someone else. Right? That's right. Your w two employee.
Aana Camp:Should I be kind of pushing him through corporate America and so forth? And, I really struggled with it until the day he had to write a a resume to work, for he called it a real job, and he said I wanna try something else alongside this, and, he started, he wrote a resume, and when he wrote down all the things like leading a team and speaking in front of people, and you know, all the leadership skills that he had learned and the entrepreneurial skills he had learned. And, you know, I mean, you have to be motivated to work for yourself because no one's over your shoulder Yes. With what we do. That's the good and the bad.
Aana Camp:Right? Right. But then, you know, he's gone on. I'm so proud of him. He's gone on to be a very successful entrepreneurial in a whole another field, but he still gets a residual check here.
Aana Camp:Wow. And, you know, how how great is that? You know? How great? Yeah.
Vikki:Yeah. So So cool. And ours too, we on a previous episode, we interviewed our daughter, Misa, and our son is still coming up. But she Anna, she was hired on by her it it's she it's she's 1099. She's a medical device still still with Neora as well.
Vikki:You're right. She's got her residual check coming in, and she plans to do more when she has a baby with Neora and grow that. But, her the guy that owns, the medical device sales, company, would you call it company?
John:It's a distributorship. Distributorship Yeah.
Vikki:Hired her because she was raised by entrepreneurs. Because I guess in her speech, she had said my parents are both business owners, and so he said that was the number one reason that stood out there.
John:Because there's it was a pretty competitive it was highly competitive, the position she ended up getting. So he had to choose from many, many, many people, and he showed he said that was the thing that put Misa, our daughter Misa, over the top was that you come from an entrepreneurial family, and that's what I want. And now she's teaching you a lot of things.
Vikki:Yeah. She's got the highest sales over there. Yeah. I was just being an entrepreneur just does so much for you. And I think you become unemployable.
Vikki:Wouldn't you agree on I'm an unemployable.
Aana Camp:That many times. I am completely unemployable. It is, you know, it is the most empowering, most freeing, most fun. I always say building the greatest business, traveling the world with my friends because that's what we're doing. Yes.
Aana Camp:Like, who knew you could make money like this? And, oh my gosh, if everybody knew, nobody would have a real job.
Vikki:Seriously. Seriously.
Aana Camp:It is a lot of fun. It is a it's a bit of a roller coaster, but, you know, it's like anything. Life is life is a roller coaster and, you know, get out there and live every single minute of every single day because life is short. Absolutely. We only get one stab at
Vikki:it. That's right. So well, wow. I think we're gonna wrap it up. You have dropped so many great nuggets.
Vikki:I wanna have you back on again because we can we can do, like, Joe Rogan and go for 3 hours. We guys, we didn't even get to any of the questions that we were gonna ask Anna, so we'll definitely have to have you back. This was just so enlightening for
John:our listeners.
Vikki:Yeah. Inspiring, enlightening, huge learning nuggets. I hope you listen to this again. Give us a review, you know, we'll
Aana Camp:still that card.
Vikki:Yeah. We'd love to have you.
Aana Camp:Out there for everyone who's wondering. Yeah. Absolutely. Talk about my whole story. Very few people even know it, but I know you did, Vic.
Vikki:And Yeah.
Aana Camp:I just love what you guys are doing here. It's so important, and, you bring great nuggets. I've I've watched all your interviews, and I'll continue to be one of your biggest fans. So thanks for having me on. Well, thank you.
John:Thank you, Anna.
Vikki:Thank you. And thank you all, everybody watching on YouTube or listening on your favorite platform. Give us a review. Share this with a friend. If you know some maybe a young mom who's struggling, doesn't even realize that this could be in her blind spot that, wow, you know, I could start a business.
Vikki:Really, I didn't even know, about that. Share it with with that person, and we look forward to seeing you on the next episode. Thanks, everybody. Thanks, Anna. Goodbye.
Vikki:Bye. Thanks for joining us on Dig the Well.
John:We hope you feel empowered and ready to take on new challenges. Remember,
Vikki:if we can do it, so can you. Keep learning, keep believing, and going after your dreams.
John:And if you enjoyed this episode, share it with someone who needs a little inspiration or maybe a nudge in the right direction.
Vikki:Help us grow this community of go getters. Together, we can achieve greatness and get back to family.
John:Thanks for listening, and let's keep digging the way.