012: Five Steps to Profitable Growth in 2021 + How the "Lookback" Rule May Help You Qualify for a Larger Tax Refund with Thomas Michael Hogg and Leigh Phillips

In this episode of Saving With Steve, host Steve Sexton is joined by Leigh Phillips, President & CEO of SaverLife, a national nonprofit that helps working families achieve prosperity through savings, and Consultant and Mentor, Thomas Michael Hogg, who has more than 20 years of market and work experience in Germany, Mexico, Switzerland, and the USA and is Founder and Managing Director of TMH Consulting & Investment Group.

With more than 40% of Americans unable to handle a $400 emergency, SaverLife.org, and their CEO, Leigh Phillips, are looking to change that by showing you how to build financial security and achieve prosperity through savings. She also shares how there could be huge consequences for society as well as for the vulnerable, low-income families who may miss out on critical tax regards in the coming months because they may not know about the underreported “loopback” provision for Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC) in the recent stimulus package.

With all that is going on in the world right now, companies are struggling, and people all over the U.S. and the world are starting or reinventing their businesses. My second guest, Thomas Michael Hogg, author of Profitable Growth Strategies: 7 Proven Best Practices From German Companies, is talking with us today about the strategies and success formula of companies with high profitable growth that can help us transform our business mindset, overcome a current crisis, and grow our businesses.

Leigh Phillips is the President & CEO of SaverLife, a national nonprofit that helps working families achieve prosperity through savings. Since joining in 2015, Leigh has led SaverLife’s transformation from a local direct service organization to a leading financial technology nonprofit. SaverLife’s flagship program, SaverLife.org, now serves over 170,000 clients across all 50 states.

Prior to joining SaverLife, Leigh was the founding Director of the San Francisco Office of Financial Empowerment, spending over ten years in City Hall. Under Leigh’s leadership, the San Francisco Office of Financial Empowerment spearheaded several “first in the nation” programs to increase financial inclusion, such as Bank On San Francisco, the first municipally led effort to bank the unbanked and Kindergarten to College, the first universal and automatic college savings program for public school children.

On the national level, Leigh was instrumental in the creation of the Nonprofit Leaders in Financial Technology Coalition, of which she is an active member, and the Cities for Financial Empowerment Coalition, which advocates for greater financial opportunity and protection for all Americans in cities across the United States.

Kindergarten to College was named a finalist in the Harvard “Innovations in American Government” Awards in June 2015. Leigh received the James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award in 2008 and was named one of the Bay Area’s “Top Forty Under Forty” in 2013. Leigh’s work has been featured in publications such as the New York Times, the Economist, Time Magazine, and the San Francisco Chronicle, and on NPR and CNN.

Leigh currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund. She previously served as Chair of the Board of the Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA) for five years and on the Advisory Board of the start-up Level Money, which was acquired by Capital One.

Leigh is the author of two lifestyle books published by San Francisco’s Chronicle Books. She received both her Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and Social Sciences and a Masters of Economic and Social Sciences in Women’s Studies from the University of Manchester, in her native United Kingdom.

Thomas Michael Hogg is a Consultant and Mentor with more than 20 years of market and work experience in Germany, Mexico, Switzerland, and the USA.

He has been an advisor to global companies, such as PepsiCo, adidas, Campbell’s Soup, Johnson Controls, and Bulkmatic, among other multi-national companies, SMEs, and nonprofit organizations. 

Thomas is Founder and Managing Director of TMH Consulting & Investment Group.

He is a columnist at El Financiero, and has been featured in Bloomberg TV, CNN Expansión, Milenio, Reforma, Negocios en Imagen, Mexico Industry, and Cluster Industrial among others.

Thomas is the author of the book Profitable Growth Strategies: 7 Proven Best Practices From German Companies

He has helped 300+ businesses achieve 7-12 figures, with up to $8 million USD in Monthly Recurring Revenue.