Hey, hey, hey, I'm back.
I'm black today, I'm about myself, but I'm still black and brown ambition ambition and Bisha d ambition the ambition.
Hey hey, hey, ba fan, It's me Tiffany the Bundanista.
I'm here by myself and the stew today because our good friend Mandra has baby. Things are bruin. Depending on when you listen to this. She had the baby, is about to have the baby something something baby related. Actually, just came back from Mandy's baby shower yesterday. It was really cute she had in the park, so she's doing well. But she kind of had an impromptu thing she had to do baby related today, so y'all just get me in the stew.
So I was like, well, I'm gonna rogue.
No.
I figured we would talk about two different things. Thing one.
First half of podcast today, we're gonna talk about money and relationships.
Mmm.
I know y'all heard about the Ebony K. Williams and Ayaan La von Zant's interview. We gonna talk about it. I'm gonna give you what I think and I want to know what you think. Second half of today's podcast, we're going to talk business.
So many of you.
Guys ask me the same questions about business, you know, and how I've been able to grow my business, and so I figured, I give you a little peek behind the curtain. How does that sound cute?
Great?
So let's get started. It feels weird not to say, hey, man, jer your curls was pop it. I'm like, I have to just be pop it on my own today. Can we just get into if you're walking on YouTube, which you ought to this like hot pink sweater that I'm wearing, it's popp it.
It's not okay.
So unless you've been living under a rock or all social which is probably good for your mental health, you probably heard about this interview. I guess it was an interview with Ebony K. Williams, who's attorney. She also, I think is the first black woman on the Real Housewives of New York that you know, that franchise.
She also has, like I think she like hosts the show.
So Ebanie is very successful, beautiful black woman. And I don't know if she was interviewing I'm Leanla on her show, but they were talking about relationships and the gist I watched the interview.
The gist that I got that ebony, I believe who is forty?
But girl child, don't look a day over thirty two because black don't want correct. So Ebanie was talking about how she kind of told herself if by forty she was not married and didn't have children, that she would reconsider her dating criteria. And I don't know if every Ebony has ever been married or had children, you know,
but that's what she was talking about. And so Ayanla was like listening to her talk and share you know that you know, she does design your partnership like so many of us do, and there's nothing wrong with that, just like it's nothing wrong with not desiring partnership, but that she did desire partnership, and she wanted to kind of rethink how she thought about the type.
Of men that she would be open to relationship with.
And so Ayana listened, and Ayana asked her the now infamous question, would you date a bus driver? And Ebdey looked surprised, as you know, you know, I think that many people would be and Abdey said, she started stuttering a little bit and she said does he own the bus? And Ayana said, see that's the problem right there, that you would not be open to dating a bus driver, And basically the underlying sentiment is and that's why you ain't got nobody. That was the under like sentiment. And
so I wanted to talk about that. I wanted to talk about dating and money and finances and what you should consider or what you do you consider and what I think and just like the dynamic of what happened in that conversation and how it has divided the interwebs. You know, there's some girlies and men who are like, you know, hey, black women, you know, you should be open to dating whomever, whatever. And there's some girlies who
are like, I have my standards. I will not settle, even if that means being alone, you know, if that's my choice. And so I'm curious be a fan, you know, if you want to tweet us at the BA pod cast on Twitter or hit us up on you know, ig Brown a Vision podcast, or me the Budgetnista on
Instagram and Twitter. I'm curious on your thoughts about what you thought about one that question, because some of the pushback that I saw that the women were saying were like, why is it that black women get asked this question that I do not see specifically American black women. I do not see this question asked of Latino women. I do not to this question asked of white women. Why isn't that black women get asked this question? So and so I'm going to give you my take, and I'm
just interested in what your take is. And here's here, I'm one of the caveat here is you're grown, do what you want to do. It's your ooh, you know what, Mandy, girl about to go wrong?
Girl? You right here, I don't even have.
A person in the stew So we're about to just do all straight budgeties to sound.
It's my prerogative. You do what you want to do. It's my prerogative. And say what you want to say.
Name that artist. I'll give you two seconds. One two, Bobby Brown. Some of y'all not somebody y'all too young, y'all don't even know my prerogative prerogative meaning is your business right?
So this is this is my belief.
My belief is, girl, do what you want to do, with who you want to do it, as long as it's consenting. Now, do I kind of have issue with you know, like the question of would you date a bus driver? I mean I guess I was trying to see what Auntie Ianla was saying.
I don't know that I have issue with it.
I guess it's a question that can be asked, and certainly Ebony could have said, I prefer I think that question is not one that I'm interested in answering. Certainly she could draw that boundary. But I will say this as someone who quote unquotem trying to figure out how to say it, because I want to be respectful of my late husband, Jerrelle Smith, as someone who married someone who made significantly less and would be quote unquote the bus driver in this situation.
I can see both sides.
I can understand why any woman, black or otherwise is looking for a partner that makes as much as she does and more. I can totally understand that because who you marry dictates so much about your life. You know, I can understand a woman wanting a man that's going to provide for her and the potential future family financially. I can understand, you know, the safety and the security that's desired from such a union.
I can understand all that you know.
And so I'm not saying that you should not have some criteria about I want my person to make a certain amount of money if that's what you need. So when I was looking for partnership, I had a long list, as many of us do. And first of all, I had a friend who was like, she's good, but she's an awesome friend. And I remember I was thirty four and the Budgetessa was just trying to take off a little bit.
I think it was making six figures a year. The business, not Tiffany.
And I kind of looked around my life and then said, the Budgetese has taken off, but I'm kind of coming home to myself.
By myself. I was dating, but nothing serious, you know.
And I just remember thinking, I desire partnership, like and by partnership, I want to get married.
I want to have some kids.
You know. Well I wasn't one hundred percent sure about the kids, but I knew I wanted to get married. I wanted to be at the very least in a committed, loving relationship, supportive relationship.
So I made this.
Long list, and I was telling one of my friends and she asked me what was on the list.
She was like a dating coach, and she said, Tiffany, you not half this stuff. I said, ooh, the shade.
But she was right that like some of the things I had on the list, I was not, and so I worked on those things. So some of the things like I wasn't all that patient, but I worked out being more patient. I wanted a good communicator, and Lord knows, child, I was not a good communicator. I came from a Nigerian background where the communication was you do what I say and you be quiet about it and put a smile on your face.
So I was not a good communicator.
And so there were things on my list that was like that good communication, kindness, integrity, thoughtfulness, supportiveness.
But I also had you know docs, the lawyer, you know, multiple six figures. I had all these things on my list.
Some of the things I were and some of the things I weren't, and some of the things that I wasn't I started to work on being. And most of those things that I wasn't were like internal work things.
You know. So I was like, okay, dually noted.
But then as I started to like really kind of look through some of the guys that you know, I dated in the past, one name kept coming up for the things that actually meant the most, like for me, you know, the things that made the most And because I'd dated Jerrell briefly in the past and at the time he really wanted to get serious. But I was literally just starting the budgeanista, and I was like, I can't do both. The budgetista is my baby, so I
couldn't do both. So it just didn't work out because I didn't have the capacity to start this, you know, budding relationship and then also this budding business and I chose the business. And I'm not sad about choosing the business, you know. So but as I was kind of thinking about moving forward about dating again, I thought like Jarrell kept coming up, like he was like super sweet, kind and funny and supportive. But Terrell worked for Newark Housing
Authority at the time. It's maintenance and I was like, I as a Nigerian girl with her masters and her bachelor's and you know, parents who like want of the world for me.
I felt like, I don't know none.
I said enough, I'm being candid, and so we dated, but I definitely had if I'm being candid, the first year year and a half of dating Darrell, I had one foot in, one foot out because I was waiting on my lawyer, doctor, engineer, accountant, physicists something. You know. I was kind of waiting on that, and Durell just kept getting better and better. Like he was already super kind, so supportive, but not just kind to me.
He was kind to everybody.
You know.
He used to feed the neighborhood.
Kids on Fridays with pizza Fridays, you know, like he would like fix them their bikes. I mean they would be knocking on our back door. After I eventually moved in with him, you know, mister Darell said I could get dinner, missus Darel said, y'all got cookies. Mister drama, Well, mister draw is giving us giving away everything in this house, but not just that, all the elderly people. He would make his rounds because we used to live like where
we were. He worked for housing and like it was this cute little like townhouse, and so he had to live on campus basically, and so he would make his rounds.
That had nothing to do with his job.
There were just elderly people who lived alone, and he would make his rounds. Make sure missus such and such eight today, mister such and such, you know, his garbage was taken down that was him, and I remember like the pivotal.
Moment when I was still one foot in, one foot.
Out, like this is cute today, but girl, I don't even know that's a lawyer such figures because drum may never made over sixty thousand. I just remember that there was this pivotal moment when I forget what happened. I just remember the shift in me that there was something that I had done that wasn't the best, you know, like I can't remember or maybe I said something or whatever, and like Jarrell was accepting of me as I was in that moment, you know, like oh, you know what
it was. I think we had our first real argument, you know, and I wasn't a great communicator. I'm the type of that I'm gonna play some sad music, the song back to back to back, I'm gonna walk around mopen and I'm gonna ignore you, and I'm not going to talk about it like an adult. I'm just gonna be like, you should know how I'm feeling. And I remember him coming up to me and being like it's obviously you're upset. Do you want to talk about it?
And I was like no, and him walking me through what it looked like to communicate like a grown person. And I remember in that moment thinking, this man accepts you as you are, with all the stuff that you come with, bossiness, not able to communicate yet you know, not in a way that's healthy, you know, and that's helpful, you know, always working, just like I was acting like I came with everything to the table and that he was coming with nothing to the table, and that wasn't true.
And it was in that moment I thought, Wow, he accepts you as you are, Tiffany, as imperfectly as you are. And if you cannot accept him as he is, which is fine. If you're wanting doctor, lawyer, engineer, pharmacist, then you ought to go sist and get you one of them and let somebody else get this good man. I remember thinking that, like, if that's what you're wanting, go get that and let somebody else have this amazing man. Don't have him like you halfway in, halfway out. Either
be in or be out. I felt like a black mama when it comes to the summer time. Is you in or is you out? You let my cold air out right, And so I remember that I was like Tiffany.
I'm in.
I love him, and of all the things that are necessary for me, I was like, I wanted somebody who is intrinsically kind, kind because they're kind, not just kind of me because you love me, because one day I'm gonna get on your nerves how you're gonna treat me. I wanted somebody who is thoughtful and supportive because I
need to be one hundred percent myself. I was a worker hard that time, and I knew I needed somebody who was going to be supportive of the fact that, like, I have this big, big, big dream because I had boyfriends in the past that were not and I wanted somebody who was obviously like loyal and somebody who was able to communicate because I wasn't the greatest at that I had a list of things that meant the most, like need to have, and then I had some like
to have, and like to have was you know, six figures. Derreal did not have his college degree, but college degree there were certain things that if I really broke down that it was this. It wasn't things I did not want. These were things I'd like to have, but these need to have. He over indexed on those need to haves of how I needed my partner to show up for me. He over indexed on those things, and I thought, is
it settling or is it compromising? I mean, now, like fast forward now forty three years old, you know, with him like for like ten years, I know absolutely I did not settle. Was an amazing, amazing, amazing boyfriend and even better husband. I didn't think have to get better. After we got married, he turned it up a notch, you know. And so so I'm not here to say,
you know what you ought to choose. But what I am here to say is, if I'm being honest, a lot of those want to have doctor, lawyer, six figure plus whatever weren't really my choices. Is what the people gonna say, you know, the people, mama, daddy, sister, brother, cousin, social media, friend circle, church, What the people gonna say? And if I really looked at what Tiffany wanted and needed, like that's what I got in Jirell, And certainly the
people had things to say. My parents were not like, Yay, you're marrying somebody who doesn't have a college degree.
It's not as making as much as you. They weren't. They were not happy about it.
At first, and then they got to know Jerrealm and then like because if you just knew him, honestly, there are some people they're just too good for this earth. And I'm not just watching poetic because he's not here. Everybody like this is this is what if you meet anybody that knows him or knew him. This is just the like he wasn't just like he just was not like regular people. He just navigated from the space of like service and giving acts of service was like his.
Number one love language.
I can remember, like my parents, like I said, you know Nigerian, all of us have all my sisters and I have our college degrees, three of us have our masters. One of my sisters is married to a doctor, and so like I just they were just you know, they were disappointed quote unquote in me, and I can understand why. And when I first introduced him to Jirell, my parents were like, okay, you know, they were nice enough.
They called me back to the house the next day and we're like, what is going on.
He seemed like a nice guy, but girl, now plus two two, Jirell had a daughter, which I was like, oh my god.
My dad was like, what have we done wrong? Where do we go wrong? With Tiffany?
And I can under that, although I was mad because I felt like they weren't as warm to him as they were to like my doctor brother in law. And over time, Jarrell won them over. And I remember because he see it was on some old you better than me, That's what I told Drew. I said, we ain't got to go back to my parents' house. You better than me. They're not gonna treat me different. And when black people say you better than me, they indeed me and you
are not better than me here. But Jirell was determined to win them over. And I remember being like why and he said, Tiffany, I understand I have a daughter too, And I was like, wait what. I remember when he told me that, because I was like, I'm so sorry my parents are you're not you know, they're cordial, but they're not as nice to you. And he was like, Tiffany, I have a daughter too. I know what it looks like on the outside. I know what your dad sees
when he sees me, and I get it. I want my daughter to be with the best possible and I'm gonna show them that, like you know that. I am going to look after their daughter. I am going to be here and pour into her and love on her, you.
Know, and he did.
I remember the first time they kind of clicked to them, like one of my friends Linda, something happened in her house, like Jarrell's super.
Handy, that's what he did for work.
And Linda's mother, my Auntie Esther, is really good friends with my mother. They have like they're in the same prayer group, the same like friend group. And Linda used to call Jarell brother Darrell, and he would call her sister Linda. They just became really good friends because Linda's my best friend.
And she called him one day it was like brother drug, something happened in the house, can you fix it? So he came by.
Of course, once you get to fixing one thing, he ended up been there for hours fixing the whole damn house. And my Auntie Esther was like, because Jirell's just like he always is kind and generous with his time and you know, didn't charge them anything. She told my mother about like h Tiffany's quote unquote friend. It's so nice. He came here, he fixed all the see, he was so sweet. He was sold this so kind, so generous with his energy and time and knowledge. And then something
happened in my parents' house. They had a flood and the basement like it needed all new, like carpet had to be ripped out, and so Jirell came and did it himself and then repainted their basement. I still have pictures of us in the basement. He was like, we could just do it, Tiffany. I was like, we used to be French. But there I was in the basement, painting in the basement, and my mom was so thankful
for that. And that was kind of like the start when they realized that, like, yo, we are misjudging this person. And there would be times like, if I'm being candid, I didn't talk to my parents all.
The time on the phone, like it's just I don't know.
I mean, I called them every once in a while, but I would walk in the house and Jerred be laughing on the floor and I'm like, who are you talking to?
He was like your dad. I'm like my dad. He would call my dad and I'm regularly more than me and I'm like wait what.
And so I just say all that to say that had I not really looked at what the and I need, you know, versus what the people are gonna say, I would have missed out on this amazing, amazing, amazing human being. So I am not here to say that you ought not to need someone who makes a certain amount of money, because you might need that that's on your needs list.
You know.
I'm not here to say that you ought to date the bus driver or not. I don't know, girl, that's your business. But what I am here to say is to make sure those are your choices that you are deciding, not the people what the people gonna say, because the people gonna say, we'll keep you without an amazing partner, without an amazing life, without the babies that you seek so bad, Like what do you actually need in your partnership?
For me?
I knew that I was gonna over index on earning and I have, so I knew that although it would be nice, the truth of the matter is even now, like considering dating now, you know, like I'm considering like what that's going to look like now that Darrelle's not here. It's been almost two years since he passed away, and I've just been considering, like what do I need? What kind of you know, like because when Jerrol met met me, I was still teaching preschool and so that was a different dynamic.
So now I'm like, well, what kind of man.
I know, I don't necessarily need a man that's gonna make a ton of money because I already make a ton of money. I bring home seven figures a year, and not in business. I'm talking about Tiffany. So even if you make one hundred two hundred thousand, that don't move the needle for me. I could bring that home
in a month, if I'm being candid, you know. And so I don't, you know, I'm still wrapping my mind around you know, it's a different I'm a different person now in what I'm needing, and I have not wrapped in my mind around if I do want partnership again one and then two what I need in my partner, because what I needed then when I got with Jarell is not what I need now. And so I'm just considering what that is and not what the people gonna say,
you know. And so that's just that's my take on it, is that I don't think there's anything wrong with dating the bus driver, even if you're an attorney or doctor whatever. I don't think there's anything wrong with saying I want someone to make a certain amount of money, you know, I don't think it's wrong to say I don't need that, I need this instead. I think the only way that you can make a misstep is not deciding for yourself.
For yourself, what does that look like? You know? I would love your take, Sissy Pooh's Brianna mission family, you know, and the brothers here too, I'd love your take.
What do you think? You know?
I'm glad of the choices that I made. I would not have chosen anything else. Even if I knew that Jarrow was not going to be here, I would have still chosen him ten times over because to experience.
What it is to be love well.
Man, I can't even tell you I was loved so well that even now, two years later after him not being here, I still feel his love. His love has reached into the future and it still holds me down. And so to be loved well, I don't want. I'm so glad I didn't miss out on that, because what the people are going to say, you know what I mean? Like, I was loved well. He taught me how to communicate. He taught me like how to like and in my own like, I was like not really good at setting boundaries,
Like I was loved so well. My sister lived with us for two years and she was like, to live with you. And Jerel was really a masterclass in relationships. She was like, you guys didn't even argue.
We didn't. Like in the beginning, we did, and then we used to.
We would sit down and talk about, like, let's create rules of disagreement.
No yelling, no cursing.
No, not that we cursed at each other, but like it was like, let's we decided early on and we created these a safe word that once the conversation went from helpful to harmful, you know, when you're in a disagreement all of a sudden, now you're like, well, we're talking crazy. Now. We had a safe word, which means go to your corner, didn't be quiet, whether you got
to take a drive, go upstairs, go downstairs. And the safe word for us was pineapples, and that just meant like one once my neck got to roll and I'm like, well, first of all, he would say pineapples, and I'm.
Like, oh, you got me.
With that damn bite apples, because it meant Tiffany, you're about to say something crazy, or you say something crazy that you have to apologize for, shut it, walk away.
Same thing with him.
If I felt like he was about to get angry and say something that I thought was hurtful, pineapples, and we had to respect pineapples. And so those are like because of that, we got so good. In the beginning, we would be saying pineapples all the time, and then we got so good at knowing when something was going
to go left that you would literally self pineapple. So like if I was gearing up in my head to like dig into his behind because he was wrong about something, I would literally hear pineapples in my own head before he said it, to.
Be like, Tiffany, you try to hurt your person, why so you could be right girl.
So after a while we didn't even get to the occasion of argument. It would just be like, you know what, Ben, I love you, so it's not even as serious.
Let's just drop it. You know.
We didn't raise voices like in the very very beginning. We had to learn because certainly they were yelling in the beginning of the first two months because I'm like, wait, this is not how I want this to go. You know, we talked about finances openly. Jirell's biggest thing was always I want to be able to pay the bills even
if you're not here. So I we sat down and looked at our finances in a way, like I said, I know, I want a nice house, but the money that you bring in can't necessarily afford a mortgage of the kind of house that I want.
And so we saved and saved and saved.
So our thing was his money paid the bills, and my money we saved it invested, you know, after we got married, that's what we did. And then so because we saved and invested the money that you know, the Budgetiza was making and he paid the regular bills, which meant I could save and invest even more, we were able to purchase the house that I'm in now as a foreclosure.
You know. It was I think it was at.
A time like three point fifty and we got it for one eighty. But I had to pay that cash, you know, and then we renovated a cash with us savings and investing. So as a result, there was no mortgage, which men that we can continue to afford the lifestyle that he could pay all the bills. And because it wasn't a mortgage to pay. Same thing with the cars that we drove, we saved up and purchased them cash.
You know.
They were certified pre owned cars. Use cars, girl, you know, but really nice, like two or three years old and same. So we didn't have a car note. So I was able to structure our life in a way that the money that he brought home could pay bills. Well, I could still live the life that I wanted. And so I'm just sharing all these things that like it's not easy, you know, like if you decide that you are going to navigate with someone who's mixed less than you, but
it's not impossible. And if you have your need to have, you could work around the want to have. That's just my perspective because when I tell you, I was as stressed out as business and stuff made me. I was wildly happy at home, wildly happy at home. He was just such a good man, And like the loss is so great because he was such a good man. I'm so glad I did not miss out on him. I don't care for how short of a period of time I had him, so glad I didn't miss out.
Well, hope that was helpful.
Gonna take a quick break, pay some bills, and when we come back, we're gonna talk about business, baby, because y'all can't be asking me about business and I'm like, child, let me answer some of your most most Well, I'm just gonna teach a quick business lesson. Okay, Gay, be back in a moment, and we're back and blacker.
Ah.
So hopefully you listened to the first part of this podcast when we talked about money and relationships.
Let's dig into some business. I don't know if you know, but I'm a man tool or whatever.
Like literally I have huh, I don't know, child, maybe like ten in person mentees that trek to Newark sometimes. Literally I have like a mentee walk that I do. There's there's this park like in another town where I have like this really great lake. It's maybe like a mile and a half or maybe two miles, like you could walk like the trail around the lake and it's really easy trail to walk and it's cute and then there's a really cute bat house restaurant next to it.
So anyway, whenever one of my mentees comes to see me, we do like a mentee walking session, and then we'll have like lunch at the boat house. And so I just have mentees, especially women, that I pour into when it comes to their finances, not their finances, when it comes to their businesses, and they ask me all manner
of questions. But I also also awesome mentor digitally because I cannot possibly mentor everybody who wants me to mentor them, and so one of the ways I mentor digitally is I have an online mentorship program via Patreon called my Mentor Tiffany dot com. Right now, it's ten bucks a month, and I teach a live lesson every single month, and then right now, weekly the mentees meet up and work on their goals together, and I teach a lesson every month, and then every Thursday, I give a resource or tool
to help you on your journey. So you get a live lesson a month for me. Right now, they're meeting weekly to work on their goals, and then every Thursday I give you a resource or tool. So it's good over the air for had bucks a month. Yeah, So if you're interested, My Mentor Tiffany dot com. All right, so let's get into like one of the biggest things, like.
Like what does it look like?
So one of the best things that you can do, for like, if you're thinking about starting a business, you have a business, not sure if you want a business, but one of the best things that you can do is to establish yourself as an expert. So whether it's you yourself personally or your brand, like you know, maybe you make cookies, you know, or maybe like, so, how do you position yourself as like the go to in the space? So what I mean expert? I mean the go to? So like, how are you the go to
chocolate chip cookie in the space? And maybe if it's a if it's a product, or how are you an expert on all things sneakers you know? Or how are you expert like me personal finance. Now, one of the reasons why establish yourself as an expert is so useful. It's such a great marketing tool because when you establish yourself as an expert, people listen, learn, love and trust you, and then they look to you for solution and guess what your solution.
Is my business?
You know. So there's a business that does this really well called BLACKI Lotti's I think it's called blackallttis right, it's just like super dope. I think her name is Casey Asian lady. Hey Casey, please forgive me Casey. Your name is not Casey. But I was introduced to block A Lottis because I got one of her sweatshirts and I love it. It's this cozy sweatshirt. And I got it because I saw her post on social media, like on YouTube, a YouTube clip where she talked about that.
It wasn't just here's my cute sweatshirt. She said, if you're anything like me, you're tired of these sweatshirts that I'm mostly made for guys, because she makes women's like exercise clothes, right, And this is like she showed like a video of like how a guy like a guy sweatshirt laid on the ground, how it's laid out, and she was like, the shoulders are up here, the waist is here, blah blah blah blah.
And I was like, I never thought about that coach who thinks about them?
And she said, I realized that, like women want something cozier, So I dropped the seam on the shoulders here. I cropped it here. I gave some extra room here, bigger pockets. So she was walking us through here's what you're used to, here's better expertise. Because if she just said, isn't this a cute sweatshirt? I wouldn't even know why it's cute. I'd be like, oh, okay. But once she showed the difference, I bought and then like the material that she used,
that's different. I bought the sweatshirt, and she was right, it is the coziest, Like it makes you look so cute. You look like what you think you look like when you were wearing your boyfriend'swet shirt. That's not how you look. This sweat sure looks like what you think you look like. It is so cute that, like I remember, I went to my sisters and I went to go see Usher in Vegas, and like I wore in the airport and my sisters were like, girl, Because you know, I'm not
the fashion niecea sister. They always playing me, talk about I can't dress whatever, hate us, right, But they were like, girl, this sweetshirt is hey, where do.
You get this from?
And as a result, like you know, my sister Tracy into buying herself one.
But I remember thinking how gus is that?
And if you follow block A Lottis, it is so genius because she will show you so now she has, like exercise pants, Here's how exercise pants are normally done. Here's what's wrong with this design. Here's how I've edited this design. Go ahead and get them pants. That is genius. And so if you are thinking to yourself, I want to you know, be an expert, you know, or I
want to start a business. I have a service or a product or whatever, Like, showing your expertise is one of the best ways to do so because in doing so you can you can sell anything on the background.
Right.
An expert, you know, just for clarity, is someone who has a comprehensive and authoritative knowledge or skill in a particular area.
Right. So it's important one that you know your stuff.
You have to identify like what you know more than most right, So that means you're gonna have to keep learning. And when it comes to expert I want you to think a tree business versus a bush business. Most people, you know, when they're trying to illustrate their expertise, they doing like I could cook, I could clean, I could do hair, I sew closed that's too much.
That's a busch business.
A bush business is when you have too many branches and they explode at the same time and your growth is stunted. A tree business or tree expertise is when you have one core trunk. I think Casey started with, like, yo, I make these sweatshirts, one core trunk that she got really good at, built trust that, and then once she did that, she started to branch out.
Now she has protein powder and target.
She's got equipment because she could do the branches now because the trunk of that one sweatshirt and she built it over years, that trust that, that loved, that connection with her audience that she was able to branch out. So just think tree business versus bush business. Don't be afraid to volunteer in order to practice your expertise too.
So let's just say for.
Me, when I did personal finance, you know, as a budgeanisa as, I was like honing my expertise. I did a lot of churches and things for free. I did a lot of one on ones with friends because I was honing my expertise skill to know does this actually work? Do I know how to articulate it? You know, admit that you don't know something and redirect when you do
when you're building your expertise. Right, So step in step one, we're talking about knowing your stuff, you know, because it is really important that, like I don't know all the things and that's okay. I might say, well, I'm not to invest in Lista, go to trade and travel with Terrium. Go to trade you're nine to five with Tila, you know, it's okay. You can also get a certificate or a degree that can be helpful, not always, but it can
be helpful. So we're talking about, like how do you establish yourself as an expert, which.
Is one of the best ways best foundations.
You can build when you're building your business because it's always comes down to why should we listen to you? So now, so step one is know your stuff. Step two really is show your stuff in order to be an expert. It's not enough for you to know a thing you know. I also want you to show people
that you know a thing get pressed. One of the things I used to do when I first started the Bunch Ofista before I had a publicist was visit this way website called help a Reporter Out, Help a reporter out harrow and all these reporters from all around the country are looking to quote people for articles New York Times, Wall Street Journal insiders, sometimes smaller blogs and things, and so help a reporter out is a great way so you can get your name in the press to say, look at me.
I am an expert. And so I like to go to help a reporter out.
Don't use your regular email because they're going to get sent you emails like three times a day, and you're gonna get annoyed. So use your junk email that you can look at. Help a reporter out daily. I like to answer emails first thing in the morning because reporters by midday have already been flooded with responses. So like I like to look in the morning, answer it before like ten am, Like, hey, my name is Tiffany.
Here's my quote.
You know, if you need more, share your phone number. I can't tell you how many times a reporter has called me, you know, like maybe the if it's called the query, the query says looking to interview a woman about why women don't save enough. And I'll say, hi, my name is Ti Cheryl, my name is Tiffany.
I believe women.
Don't save enough because you know they're tasked with being the caretakers of their family.
Blah blah blah blah. You know, hope this is helpful.
Please attribute me as this Tiffany Alice, founder of the Budganista, New York Times bestselling author Get Good with Money. Get your attribution how you want them to attribute, And then I might put a note. If this is a digital article, please link back to my site. You want that link back the Budganista dot com because that link back is going to grow your site's expertise in the i of Google.
And then you know, like live.
Rit erre, that's my sign off instead of sincerely the liveature Tiffany. And then I put my cell phone number underneath my name because sometimes they have a follow up question and they can easily.
You know, they're like, I have a deadline ten minutes. Real quick question, Tiffany. Okay, I just dropped some jewels on you right. Also to show your stuff to become.
An expert, get yourself on some podcasts. There's this great website chartable Chartable you can see some of the top one hundred podcasts in any area. Parenting, cooking, teaching, business finance. You can see those podcasts and pitch them. Podcasts are a great way to grow your expertise. Starting a blog is a great way to grow your expertise, so people see you as an expert. Certainly your social media obviously you want to show your expertise there, your post going live,
posting educational content. You want to be trustworthy and genuine. You want to protect your reputation as you're showing your stuff.
Right.
Something else that helps to build expertise is like share your origin story.
How did you get here? I used to be a preschool teacher.
And I learned financial education at home. Like that origin story helps people to see you as an expert.
Okay.
Step three is to just market market market market, always be marketing. Update your social media bios, considering, consider making sure that all your names on your social accounts are the same.
The budget needs to across the board. But also rename yourself.
So I call myself America's favorite financial educator.
Who's that? I made that up?
So when but when the people have you on their on their podcasts or on their television or whatever, they call me that people will call you what you call yourself, Like Muhammad Ali said greatest of all time. He made that up and so people started to call him that. So what you know, like, what is your America's favorite greatest of all time? Like earn your Leisure calls themselves the biggest ever. Who said earn your Leader is the
biggest ever. I don't know if that's true, but guess what they've tagged themselves that And when they went on today's show, guess what Holda said today, we have earned your Leisure the biggest ever in personal finance, girl, you know, so rename yourself. You know, plug your business in each interview, every time you're in an interview or podcast, whatever, a blog post. Plug your business every single time. Ideally your business and the link that people can go back to.
Step four, Be consistent. Someone is always watching, so consistently bringing value to your audience, whether you're know you collect their emails and you send them like a weekly or a monthly newsletter, you're posting regularly on social You want to be consistent and you want to offer timely solutions like earlier in the podcast today and you know, we talked about something that just hit social media. You know, people like to see when something happens that they can
rely on you. I don't care if it's cookies, you know, like you know, if you're like if I was going to offer a timely solution to cookies and people are all about Keto. Now, how do you make keto cookies? All these kids have nut allergies? Right, how do you make cookies safe for the classroom?
You see what I mean? So you want to bring value.
Educational value, ideally to your audience and make them timely.
And that's but not least. You want to build an audience.
People want to ask, how did I build my business to an eight figure business? Right? Because we've made over approaching forty million dollars in the last fifteen years of business, right, and how how Hell? One of the ways is that we have an amazing community. You have to build an audience, you know, like start with an email list, Like I like to give away free resources in exchange for people's emails so I can keep in contact with you.
Like there are apps not apps?
Yeah, I guess it's an app like that you can collect phone numbers called smartphone. It's a smartphone. Don't get me the line superphone. That's what I use. Because what I like about phone is that although it's a little more expensive than email to navigate, the open rate meaning the amount of people that open your text is about eighty percent to email, maybe sixty percent if you're lucky. You know, so collect phone numbers, create appointments for connection.
So if I was just starting out now, then I would be going live every Wednesday at four. So people just know, like you have kind of like this must see TV build an audience. It is probably one of the most important things you can do to establish your expertise,
right so speaking teaching. You know what's so great about once you create your expertise is that you can really start to monetize it by speaking, by teaching, by selling your products through affiliates, through joint ventures, like you partner with someone else. You can create products and services related to your community's problems because you connect with them regularly.
You know, you could be a spokesperson, do a brand ambassador work okay, and so, like I'm just saying, like, right now, help a reporter out, me, help a putter out. Creating expertise before you start business or why you're starting your business, or even if you're well into it is one of the best ways to ensure that you will
be here. It's been fifteen years for me, and one of the reasons why I'm still here is because I'm constantly, constantly working on being an expert in my space, establishing that expertise and just asserting that over and over and over, and so it's allowed me to pivot in business. I mean, I've written children's book of a children's book. I've sell published books. You know, y'all know I got gegger of money, two hundred and fifty thousand copies sold. I have an online school,
the Literature Academy. Because of my expertise, I can do the budget these to ten different ways. We have the possible podcast Brian Ambition. Do you see what expertise allows you to do? It allows you to spread beyond your initial offering and to offer different things to the same people, and they're grateful for it because they want your expertise in multiple ways. So hopefully that was helpful that, Like you know, some of you guys are always asking me, how do I start?
How do I start?
That's a free way to start, because you don't have to pay any money to start establishing your expertise.
You know, with those five ways that.
I showed you if you found value in that, which I know you did, and you're like, I want you to mentor me, miss Tiffany, Miss Stefany, Miss Tiffany. I cannot take on any more walking mentees. But you are welcome to join our Patreon. There's like, I don't know, fifteen hundred people in there. You're welcome to join us there at my mentor tiffany dot com. Like I said, it's just ten bucks a month, although I think next month is going up to twenty, but we grandfather the
people in. I'll let you know when it goes up before it goes up. But yeah, and so hopefully that was helpful today. We talked about money, we talked about business talk, a little relationship talk.
It was cute today. How do you like it?
You know, because we're gonna be having guests. You know, Mandy's having her baby and she's gonna be out for a while. So I will certainly have guests in the studio many days, but.
Some days it'll just be us chatting bout.
So if you liked it, you know, send me a tweet, send me a message on ig the Budgetista on both places and let me know how you felt about today, You have any questions until next time, ba Fam. Oh on Friday, We're gonna see you on baq Wad. That's gonna be me too, Me too, all right, love y'all.
Bye, hey, ba Fam. We could not do this show without your support or the support of our team behind the scenes. The brown Envision podcast is produced by Imani Crosby and Dennis and Plinsky is our in house tech guru. I am your co host Mandy Woodrif Santos, and we will see y'all next week, ba Fam.