Ep 315: Mark Your Calendars!

It's sold like one hundred and sixty five thousand copies, which is great, but the other week, so I've been averaging about eight hundred or so sales, seven to eight hundred or so sales a week for the last maybe like two months or so, and then I had this big spike because I'm a psycho, and I check my book sales every week because like most author like for example, if you signed with Penguin like I have, you get

something called the Author Portal. But almost every major publisher has some sort of portal where authors can log in and see their numbers. So I checked like every week and I saw that I had doubled in sales. It was like fifteen hundred sales. And I was like, why, poor quet, And because you know that's not nothing had happened. So I looked on my social to see that I did logan my content manager posts anything that really went crazy,

and I said, no, our usual. I had been on this podcast called Millennial Money with Grants Sabateur said Bader, I'm sorry, Grant, I always say your name wrong. But you know, like I was like, okay, but you know, like it's people anyway, keep going.

I'm like, well she knows about self care. So I didn't watch it. And then yesterday two people tagged me and say, oh my god, Tiffany, she did this woman, this young woman, d Asia, she did a view of a review of your book. And I was like, oh, that's the self care girl. Oh that's why she was tagging me on Twitter, like one person tagged me because I don't go on on TikTok. So she did this

review of my book on TikTok. And when I'm not gonna lie, Mandy say if you we're going, we're gonna give Daja a little shout out because if you won't do a review, this is the way you do a review. It was textbook perfect review. Her name is d Asia. Literally the number D the letter D than the word Asia A s I A and say so s a y s so so d A s A I A s a y sso so Deja say so. Go to Daja's say so and click on how she did that

book review. If you are an influencer, if you are you know, a content creator, and you wanted to work with brands or whatever, that is the perfect I had never literally it is so well done. Deja just for context, has about twenty thousand followers on TikTok. That review has one hundred and thirty thousand views, so, because that's how what she did it, it's got over two hundred or

something so comments and she's commenting. And then because Desa is a smarty pants, she made sure to put the link in her bio, so if you bought the book, you know, it was like an an Amazon affiliate link for her. So people purchased the book and they use her affiliate link right. So, but it was so well done. So, I mean, Desa, I didn't even get a chance because I message her on Instagram so we could connect because I think originally she's from Jersey, so I don't know

her personally. She just bought the book. She says something like, y'all, I have a roth Ira. Do you understand she holds the book. This book right here was so helpful, she explains how. Then she does a freeze frame of one of the pages in the book and says, read this passage right here. This is an example of how easy it is to read this book, I mean perfection. That sixty second video generated about seven or eight hundred book sales. Do you understand she sold eight hundred books with her video,

And so I just so I understand book talk. So I was just talking to my publisher at my public Well yeah, my publisher like at Penguin. Her name is Marnie, the big publisher over there, the big editor over there. And then my agent Heather, because I was talking about like potentially upcoming books and things, and I was telling them that, and she was. Marnie was telling me that, yes, book talk has been responsible for upwards of a fifty percent uptick in sales of books overall, especially for the

young adult market in girls. That there are books that were not no longer in print because they weren't selling anymore, that have sold millions of copies because some young girl thinks the book is amazing, talks about it on her Twitter, on her TikTok, and then it just blows up with sales.

And so I just share all that to say. So they're trying to figure out how do they how do they capitalize on that, because, like I said, it's not about finding like this creator with hundreds of thousands of followers, because that might not be it. Diasia has twenty thousand followers. It's not that, you know what I mean, It's not necessarily that you have to have a ton of followers. It's that something about the way you describe the book makes people want to get it, and so it clearly

was shared over and over. So one I want to shout to you, Daz y'all told her like when are you in Jersey next? How you lunch? And so she actually because she lives in like Boston and so she's actually coming to Jersey in a couple of weeks, so hopefully we can meet up. So I just want to thank that young sister because she that was just like so awesome and yeah, just like some I probably should have said that for brown Booth, but job, I just had to get her her shout out because I don't think,

you know, it wasn't intentional. She doesn't know me, she's not want to sell books for me.

of being an influencer, like a micro influencer and TikTok's algorithm. Baby, when it takes.

But yeah, I just thought that that was really awesome and just like and honestly, what I love is that in general, what we're seeing is that the powers really in the hand of the people. So like the powers that be don't get to decide what's good or bad. We get to decide. And so that's just an example of that that like if you have a book in you or whatever product or service that if you can get it in the hands of actual people and make sure that it's helpful and useful, then you know you

can do well. Even if someone says, you know, we don't want you, It's like, yeah, you might not want me gatekeeper, but the people want me yeah.

like passionate nerds. And I say that with so much love. Yes, And my favorite ones are when they have they're like at a bookstore and it's all and it's usually women working at the bookstores and they're like, and it's just someone who's saying, you know, go grab me the last book that made you have a good cry, Go grab me the book that made you want to call a friend immediately, and like the joy that they have and sharing books and considering the fact that isn't the phone

supposed to be killing you know, the industry.

these pieces of data they found really disturbed me. And I think, of course, I feel like you had to have them living under a rock if you didn't get any kind of crypto content as a black person in America over the past couple of years. And I knew it was increasingly popular in all of that, but black investors are more likely to have crypto than stocks or each funds. When did we get to that level of what happened? And I'm like, damn it, we missed some

steps in between, y'all. We missed some very important building blocks in between. And it sucks because it's almost like it's not like crypto's meant to be a predatory and you know, financial product. But no, I feel like it just shows when knowledge what knowledge? The difference between knowledge and education. For in my mind, you know, we learned a thing about a thing, learned a crypto and how it existed, but like the holistic.

few years. In like the black community, it has exploded to talk about investing has exploded, and I have been trying to caution people that you ought to invest, but it is you don't neglect the foundational financial steps, you know. It's one of the reasons, honestly why I wrote gig it was money because I was like, you know, do you have your budget? I know it's not sexy. Are you saving saving?

think that that's what we saw. Like one of my one of my go to folks that I listened to, Ian Dunlap of the Masterstor. He's on one of our other podcasts, favorite podcasts that we'd like to listen to, Earn your Leisure. Well they have too. They have Earn your Leisure and they have Earn your Leisure Market Mondays,

So he does market Mondays. He's just like super smart and intelligent when it comes to the market, and you would think, you know, he's a young brother, and he would always say he was like, you know, light on crypto because he was like ultimately, he was like, you're seeing all these people talk about it because it's sexy. I'm here to talk about the investing fundamentals, and I'm not convinced that crypto is not it's not still wildly swinging yet. This was this was before when crypto was

doing really well. He was like, yeah, but the market has over one hundred years in the game, so you know, and so but folks, you know, we're listening to the pop up new financial educators who just came to market, who you know, just learned crypto, and it just.

foods of financial advice. We deserve that, you know, like there should be the fun sprinkles, but there also should be the substance, you know, like you have the good quality stuff. And for me, that's that basic, you know, core investing information so that you're not over indexing on that junk. You know.

I think people were drawn to it. It's like, oh, it's and there's that lack of fundamental trust in the banking sector. I think it just black households in general, and crypto felt like that alternative. It felt like something that could be ours and didn't have like you know that like that that that baggage that came with it.

But the fact that some people are treating crypto like a like a like a savings account, like it's supposed to be safe, yeah, from the effects of stock market crashes and a recession, like recession proof investment.

crypto is a hedge against around recessions. So as the traditional money goes down in value, and well really not over hedge against recession, more sure, a hedge against inflation. That like, as traditional money loses its value, crypto, because it's not tied to like a country or a place or government, crypto should remain solid. But what we see is that like you know, like that's not true that all things are linked. So the dollar bill is you know,

like what is our inflation right now? Like eight point something percent. Crypto has lost about fifty percent of its value, if not more, for some cost.

going through a crazy time right now. Anyway that there's an initial drop even after the stock split, and then like you know, you hope it starts to climb up. I mean, Google's kind of a goliath, so you know, I mean, I still think it's a solid investment. I'm not giveing you investment advice, but it's a solid investment.

But I don't know I would buy right after the initial stocksplit just because they're usually a dip and then you know, they get to make the stallion needs to come back up eventually, so you might want to start buying on the rise that selling. That's July eighteenth, marker calendars. July twenty fifth, earning season starts, so for those who don't know, earning season is when the like folks, who

I mean people will start to report their earning. So big companies, like big you know, companies that are you know, publicly traded will start to report their earnings. And especially if you get dividends, meaning like if you are invested in a company that per stock will yield you know, a dollar per stock fifty cents or whatever, you'll start to know what that is. So earning seasons will that will they'll start to report out so people either get

excited or depressed or buy more or less. But that's you will get like that will start to be reported out July twenty fifth, So that's huge, So you want to mark your calendars.

And one of the key key if you break it down that the main definition is a couple of two quarters in a row of a decline in gross domestic product, so a decline in what the US is producing and how much money we're making as a country. And July twenty eighth is when the agency National Bureau of Economic what is it and NYBER Economic Research when they basically come out and they'll say, okay, based on these earnings that we're seeing the GDP of the country, you know,

has it been two quarters of a decline? Okay? Ring the alarm it's recession time maybe, so it's you know, I would argue that whether or not they ring any bell when there's a recession coming, like, you should still be taking steps now, like every day I think throughout our you know, just basic and financial good practices are to you know, keep your debt low, keep a plan for paying down your debt, keep a plan for saving and investing, you know, keep your emergency funds on the side,

so you're always ready for a recession. But yeah, we'll see what happens. It's like winter is coming, I.

from all that growth. And so yeah, so Gurja Loins, you know, we might be in for kind of like a bumpy you know, kind of a bumpy ride. You know, we've lived through it before, and that's recessions are quite are quite cyclical, so you know, they come and they go. And I think a depression is I believe it's it's is it six months of I think that's what a depression is. Like, I think it's like six months like of GDP, like you know, on the decline, and you know,

the last depression was the Great Depression. Something else that Kevin shared that I thought that was like, Oh, you're right. In the comments is July thirteenth, we'll get the latest inflation numbers. So before all the shenanigans, I remember, inflation for the longest time hovered around three percent. Now we're over eight percent, so we'll see where we are now now. Something actually, my mentee Eacy just texts me today that I thought was really interesting. She said that she's like,

can you take a look at this? So a financial person that she like follows was like, here's the thing that we are as a country. Are we losing our top world world status status? You know, meaning typically after one hundred years this happened where you know, at one point it was Germany, that France, you know, Rome, and so like, are we really just seeing like this is like the beginning of the decline of US being like

the number one world power. Maybe maybe China is up next, maybe Japan is up next, and maybe so because you know, if we look at what history tells us, you know that we're in the final stages of that they call thee hundred year Empire, So like every hundred years a

new empire becomes becomes like the number one empire. Like obviously, like look at Europe, they're still here, you know, look at those countries that I mentioned before, they're still here, but they're not you know, the United States for a long time has been number one people. We were at the gold standard as far as like money and the dollar, and so maybe you were at the we're slowly but

surely at the end of that. And I don't know, but you know, if that's so, you know, maybe you know it might be in another you know, twenty or ten years before that actually happens. But no one stays up forever, you know. So yeah, like you know.

I think we're seeing that things are not fine. So hopefully that will like drive people to actually do something. But this month, like if the let's do worst case scenario, because sometimes it makes me feel better just to look at the scary thing worst case scenario. We are gonna officially be considered a recession at the end of July, and then what happens, markets will probably go a little haywarm, as they already have done. I think we can absolutely

expect more layoffs to come. We've seen some layoffs here and there. I mean, layoffs are always happening, but of course during times like this there's extra scrutiny. But I think we'll definitely see more layoffs. What I think happens too is there's a there's an important psychological impact of

being told okay, it's a recession. Yeah, And not just that, but for other for business leaders to see other business leaders choosing to cut costs and reduce you know, labor, then maybe they're more likely to make a similar decision themselves.

But I have to say I was at it. I was at a wedding this weekend with an old buddy of mine who is just a brilliant, a brilliant sort of investing analyst, and he was saying, how, you know, in some of the trends that he's seeing, some companies are choosing rather maybe they would cut, maybe they would

reduce costs. Obviously they would if they if they cut some jobs now, but that there's still this feeling that when they want to rehire it's going to be so damn hard to find people because the labor it is still pretty tight, that they'd rather just waste, not waste, but rather lose the money by keeping staff on and crite it out than having to put the put the

resources into like recruiting down the line. And for him to say that, I was just like, yes, and there's not always black and white, and especially for folks who are you know, concerned, what does this mean for my career prospects and all of that. I still think there will be opportunities for you know that top talent and top talent within companies now. But you know it's not all in our control at the end of the day.

kind of startup anyway. So went with this one particular bank. And it's been a year and it's such a pain in the butt to switch banks, but I had to do it because I think it's so important. Obviously to have digital only experiences is wonderful because they tend to give you as a bank will give you higher returns, like higher rates on your savings and checking, and they don't charge those fees. You know. I was a new

business owner. I didn't know how much money I was going to have on my account, so I didn't want to immediately get an account that was like, you know, twenty five dollars a month unless you have this minimum deposit or this many you know, transaction actions a month or whatnot. So I chose this bank, and the online

experience is so shite, so horrible. I was sick of it, like always had and like having to change my password every couple of months, and then not only that, but I was supposed to be given a relationship manager, someone who had a name who I could reach out to. Shout out to Chris, who I don't even know if you exist or not, never took my phone calls, like and I got locked out of my account and I wasn't able to pay a vendor or sorry pay it, like yeah, pay someone that was helping me on a project.

And it was just such a hot mess. So I swallowed my pride because I thought I made the right decision. And I was like, let me go find a better bank account and let me be really specific and actually see if I can get like a preview of their system and like see the back end. And I am excited. I found a different bank. I'm only a weekend, so I'm not about to endorse any new bank. But the way that I had to the list of things that I had to update, I went on my Trello. Do you use Trello?

a really terrible experience. So yeah, break to bad customer support and a boost to the ones who were doing it right, and shut it to my new bank. I'll let you guys know another year whether or not I made the right choice.

unheard of even I'm like, damn, did I body's not. Oh, but I'm just like that's crazy. Only sixteen of the four thousand are not a five star. Yeah, it really is, And I just have to say, like I have like a I don't know if I can say so, but we have something coming up for Gegor. That's why I was meeting with my publisher and my agent today to help extend and beyond what I've done already. So I'm excited for what that looks like. But yeah, it just you know what it does. It makes me feel really

good because this is what I intended. So you know, like you know, May's writing a book, but this is for anybody doing anything that, like you know, there's like the initial intent and certainly you want to do well, you want to sell YadA, YadA, YadA, whatever, the initial thing you're one to do when you're launching something new.

But I like to also fast forward two years, five years, ten years, twenty years, and what I wanted was, what, like the four hour work we had, I will teach you to be rich that I wanted it to be a resource that people can lean into years and years and years from now. So I wrote it with the intention of, yes, I want to do well now, but even more importantly, I want to be there for you later.

Now that we're entering into this recession, I'm like, this is an awesome tool I know, I wrote something solid and good and useful, and so I'm just really proud that what I intended and what I work toward, you know, besides, like you know, the good sales and all that kind of stuff, it's like happening because this is beyond dreamcatchers. This is beyond people who know me, Like I have like white dudes coming up to me and saying like,

oh my god, I love your book. I'm like, what, because I wrote the book first and foremost this is like the inner circle word for black women, and then the circle beyond that was for women of color, and then the circle beyond that was for all ways women and then men of color and then white men. Because y'all get everything for the one or two that might be listening, right, So I always like, you know, that was the intention. And so if you do, if you do,

I don't want to say, do a good job. If you do the job that you intended, then you do hit your core group. But it does indeed spread outward. And to have people come up to me to read review from people who are not part of like the inner circle, then the circle, then the cir it just really like it just blows my mind, and I'm just

really proud of like just really proud of it. So if you're working on something, you're working on your book, you're considering putting something out there, like just keep in mind, like what is it that you're wanting, like you know, five years, ten years, twenty years from now, because you know, just like like I said, I'm just really proud of it, Like I was like four thousands refuse wow, because you know,

like I'm not famous. I mean, I know y'all know me, but you know, in the real life, real streets, don't nobody really know me except for some out there at hole Foods, right, But so it's just it feels really good that that means it's really helping because people are not getting it because they're like, that's that budgeonist, the girl Like people are just like I don't even know her, but I've heard good things. That's my boosty, my extra blackie brown boostie.

on top. And then the other places were like you can get it from targeting a yeah yeah, yeah, but you want to help a sister out, not me sister, but that sister, then you could get it directly from her as well.

really try to you know, round it out. So that may because these small bookstores, that's how they stay alive, you know, and so like, you know, if you don't mind spending because typically I'm not gonna lie if Amazon always has a sale, but if you don't mind spending extra two or three dollars whatever, you know, it makes sure that you know, these bookstores see some sales as well. So we try to make sure that I think you're going to do.

I did do this amazing black bookstore called Mahogany Books in DC. I think they have one in Maryland and one in DC. Ramanda and her husband are amazing. I mean, their bookstore is so beautiful. So that was the only in person one that I did, and we were still masked up then, so you know, I would, honestly, I would enjoy that because I like getting down hugging dream catchers and like, you know, holding babies and you know, and all of that.