Hey, hey, hey, guys, I know you were expecting a different Hey, hey, hey, our beloved Tiffany fell Ill today. I think she's doing better. But I want to let you guys know that the show is going on and I am here. I have a remarkable guest, someone that I've admired for the past couple of years, The one, the only, Miss Marcia Barnes, the founder of the Finance Bar, which is a fabulous mobile personal finance suite which we're going to get to in a minute, based in Charlotte,
North Carolina. Marcia, thanks so much for coming on Brown Ambition.
Thank you for having me, Manny.
I'm glad to be here you guys. So two years ago, let me just tell you the background, the origin story of how I'm miss Marcia. So two years ago, I was at FINNCN and Charlotte and all of us, you know, the people, the Brown Personal finance folks. We have a little secret we may or may not have a secret group, and we kind of all gathered together at these financial conferences. Come on Strengthen numbers got together and everyone's like, you guys, you know that finance the school bus is down there.
Marcia with her finance bar school bus is down there. She's like going to show off the bus and giving tours, and I was like, say, what to who a school bus? And is this like for children?
What?
And no, let me tell you it was the most amazing, beautiful school bus. I didn't even know school buses could be that nice. That Marcia had outfitted and turned into the finance bar. Which, Marcia, you probably do a way better job than I do telling people what exactly the finance bar is and why a school bus.
Yeah, so the finance bar is.
I like to call it a mobile finance suite on whels. I use that word sweet because I feel like my bus is extremely savvy. I like to brag on it because I think that my designer did an amazing job with it. But in short, the finance bar is really centered around meeting people where they are on their finance journey. So I decided to take a bus and have it outfitted to be a mobile finance bus machine on whells to really meet people at different locations to talk about
their finances. So I would meet them on college campuses where we know that a lot of personal finances never mentioned. You know, we have kids that leave college and never know anything about money when they leave.
I knew that over.
Seventy five percent of people at their jobs are stressed about money every single day, So I wanted to visit corporations. I knew that all these organizations that really need to really touch people when it when it comes to economics and personal finances, I could meet them there. So I decided to outfit the bus to be like a mobile office. So the Finance Bar is really a personal finance suite in mobile hub that really meets people where they are on their finance journey.
You guys have to I'm going to post some pictures and a link to the Finance Bar on the Brand Ambition podcast website. But when I suite is an excellent way, but I don't I feel like it really doesn't do it justice. You've got to go see the pictures of this bus. It's actually it's actually beautiful, which I didn't think I would ever say. And you're still based in Charlotte, North Carolina, but you offer your services to people online, right,
you don't have to sort of be based. That's one of the best things I think about the finance bars. You don't have to sort of be you know, there in Charlotte to sort of get the same services.
Right, No, you don't have to be in show to get the same services because so in addition to the bus, Mandy, I also have a coaching suite in Charlotte that I had that I'm able to coach people whether they are in person or also do it virtual. And we even had my office to look very similar to the bus.
So you're getting somewhat of the same experience. But in addition to the coaching suite, for people that don't feel they need that direct coaching or maybe them feel like they can't afford coaching at this time, I have a virtual members club as well, where people are able to log in and learn tons, tons of things about personal finance from your money mindset, I feel like you're struggling there to budgeting, managing your debt, creating a plan, B
investing all that good stuff. So there are several different options of how you can work with the Finance bar So.
Let's back up just a bit, just a minute, because people are probably wondering how, why a school bus, what where did this all come from? So before you launch the Finance barre, you actually were working full time for a big bank, right.
Well, that's right, yep, I was working for a big bank.
I had both Wells Fargo for like right at twelve years, and before that I was still also in banking, So I spent a lot of time in the banking industry. But I think I really became to have a love for personal finance when I knew what money could really do for people, or really could do for families when you really prepare. I think when we first met Mandy, I told you the story of both of my parents
being laid off. They've never been like these really big spenders and took these elaborate, elaborate trips and just really kind of blew money. So they were always really money savvy, and for as long as I can remember, I think that I may have earned more money before I left the bank than that my mom ever earned at any job that she had, and she was laid off, and they still did really well financially when they both were
laid off. So for me, when I left the bank, that love for personal finance did not come from me working at the bank at all.
I mean maybe it did, I never think that it did.
I worked a lot with people that were in foreclosure or that had been through bankruptcy.
So that was that part of it.
And sometimes I would crane to say, like, maybe a people, if we talked about this more, maybe we could avoid it. If we talk more about layoffs that are taking place around our country and how to prepare for a layoff, maybe some of these things wouldn't happen. So, you know, at one point, that's just when I decided to leave the bank to really branch out on my own, to say that I wanted to do the finance bar full time Summertia.
Okay, let's get let's get to the numbers real quick, because this is one of my favorite things to sort of ask entrepreneurs about early on, is that first year. I mean, what were the startup costs involved with creating a mobile financial hub on a school bus? Nonetheless?
Okay, so my bus, Mandy was what was my busy? My bus wasn't really that expensive, maybe three thousand and thirty five hundred because when I realized, I felt like, well that's pretty cheap until I got it and then I realized that it needed a lot of repairs done to us. Let's just say that the bus was about thirty.
Five hundred dollars.
Mandy like mechanics and things that I had to get done to it upfront just to be able to have it safe and on the road was around like four thousand dollars. And then like the cosmetics, getting the bus wrapped, designed, getting the different stickers on it, and all that good stuff, website, all of that I was at at least twenty thousand dollars. And that's like getting insurance the bus, getting the bus repairs, the website, the inside, designed, the air conditioning, forward, everything
at least twenty thousand dollars. But since then, but since startup, it's been much more. Since then because of course I have monthly insurance and up like the mechanics.
Done each year to the bus to make sure that.
It's safe for the road and all that good stuff. So it's much more than that now. But in the beginning, about twenty thousand dollars total.
And what was that conversation Like when you have a great job, you're at Wells Fargo, you have your savings, you're a but your son's about to go to college and you sit down with your husband and you say, hey, babe, I would really love to spend to spend my savings on creating this this finance bar and getting a school bus and turning it into a personal finance hub.
Well, you know, Mandy, it wasn't It wasn't an immediate conversation like that, because when I first got the bus, like that was a big expense, But then the biggest expense after that I would have to say, like was the mechanics, and I would have to My husband was pretty upset about that because it was just like we're paying more to get the bus repaired than the bus
actually cost. But now after that, Mandy, you know, it was like this small stuff to get the bus painted inside, to pay for the contract, to get like furniture from Ikia. So it was like little small pieces of money in all these different spaces. So it's not like I had to sit down with them and say, you know what, I think this is going to cost about twenty thousand dollars. So it wasn't an abrupt conversation to like really freak him out. It was just money across different areas during
that period of time of my startup. But as I mentioned before, I was also still employed, so some of the money that I was earning from the bank, I was also using to put into the finance bar instead of having to take all of it and use it for my savings. It was kind of like, dip into my savings for this amount, go hear from my paycheck for this now to try to balance it out as much as I could.
So that's just pretty much how I had to make it work.
And when you're dipping into your savings, are those just regular savings or are you in your four one k?
No, it's just regular savings. Yeah, savings, Yeah, just regular savings.
Were you guys able to I mean as a family, I know you've probably had, you know, savings goals. Were you guys able to continue sort of saving for your future retirement long term stuff while you were starting the business?
Yeah?
I was because at the bank we still had I still had my forra one k, so I was still like investing into my for all one k.
None of that changed. And you know what, Manny, that.
Like, now that we talk, I want to go back and say this because I think that it's important for people to hear. Is that as an entrepreneur or just someone that's trying to do better with their finances when it comes to saving, I can truly say that I don't know what I was saving for Mandy. Like you know how you think about saving, It's like, okay, for emergencies, Okay, I get that, but this savings wasn't like an emergency savings.
It was just kind of like money to have and at that moment, and I even share this with clients now, is that one day a moment will come and you'll say that, maybe I don't understand why I'm saving now, which is why a lot of people don't save, because they're like, you know, for what, I can't take my money with me when I leave here, so why do
I save? I feel like my moment for me was one day I woke up and I said, I want to leave my job to do something that I really love to wake up to do, wake up and do. That is why I was saving money all along. I just didn't realize it because it wasn't for all one K money. It wasn't from an emergency fund. It was other money. So my story now now that I think back, is that that's what I was saving for. I was
saving for my moment to save. Like I always tell people, saving money is not always about when a problem comes up or for an emergency, and it may not even be for a vacation. What if you just wake up one day and there's something different that you want to do in life.
Like, how do you pivot? I had to pivot.
So in order to pivot, I had to have savings to create this business. And that's just what I did, and I made it work. So I didn't stop, you know, putting money into my for a one K that's still saved, that that still happened. We didn't stop putting money into it twenty emergency savings, and then we had to send our son off. So now I'm thankful that everything just
kind of fell into place. And then once it did and I had that business going, it was just really working aggressively to make it work, because that was to go, just make it work. You can recoup the money, but just really work hard to make it work.
I think that's such an important statement you made, and it's so true, you know. I remember in my early twenties after I lost my very first job in New York and I was laid off, and I was like, oh God, I have nothing in the bank. And I after that, I've after that. I mean I was twenty two. I didn't know what I was needed money for. I just knew that I never wanted to be like feel trapped and like never having to take a job I
didn't want. That's why I love when people call savings accounts your freedom fund or your yeah, your FU fund for then the PG thirteen version the FU fund, cause it's like, yeah, you may not have a name for it now, but it's it's power.
It's power, yeah, I said, it's.
The ability to do what you want when you want to and sort of make that decision.
Yeah.
Because looking back, Mandy, I honestly I never would have thought I would have left the bank like now, even thinking about it, I never thought it because when I left, you know, what was trending, what was a big deal was like millennials working for the working for themselves.
I'm not a millennial. I'm not a millennial.
I'm not someone that's in their twenties that's fresh out of college either. So for me it was a huge deal because I was I was raised to know that, you know, you go to school, you go get a good job, and you stay at that job to retirement. So for me being an entrepreneur in itself was a huge deal. I don't come from a long line of entrepreneurs. I have a few uncles that they are. But I still pinch myself because I never ever, ever thought that I would leave the bank ever now, not one time ever.
I always did everything to elevate myself to the next level at the bank, and when I left bank, it was.
From a job that I loved.
So when I loved I was still in tears because I couldn't even believe I was going to walk away from it, and then I just decided to do it. So I think it's important that people know that a savings is not just for bad things in life. One day you wake up and I think that everyone, at some point or I think everyone has a gift, and to truly walk in that gift, you have to prepare yourself for that moment when you say that I can't let this dream or this vision that I have go
for my life. And the only way to do that is to somehow prepare for that moment and to be willing to work through the kings and everything that it takes to get there.
And that's just what I've decided to do.
I love it, and I feel like it's so important for people. And I was going to bring that up. Thank you for I know it's not polite to ask a woman's age, but I think it's important that people know that you don't have to be twenty one. You don't have to be you know, everyone tries to like glamorized sort of like entrepreneurs is like college kids and stuff. But you can do it when you're at a later stage in life and when you're established in your career. I mean, in my in my mind, I feel like
that takes even more balls. I'm sorry our guts to
to leave something so established behind. And one of the things I hope people heard when you were talking to is that you didn't really It's like a lot of people who create businesses or in Silicon Valley or something, they probably went to school with people who were starting businesses or knew, like, came from a long line of entrepreneurs, had a game for money, or you know, had examples or saw examples of what it takes and sort of and that's really valuable and to take that risk and
do it without, like you said, sort of having anyone you can look at and say, oh great, I'll just sort of ask Uncle Joe what it was like when he started a school busy multile science.
Like, or I'll just ask the food truck people, like how you did it?
Yeah, when you don't have a blueprint, Mandy, when you don't have a blueprint?
Is I joke about it now?
I wasn't laughing a few years ago, though, because I'm like, how am I going.
To make this thing work?
When you don't have a blueprint and you don't have like investors, It's like you're starting from zero, like ground, like under ground zero, at the bottom of nothing to try to figure everything out.
So it was it was a scary moment, but I was determined.
I was determined, and I still am, like, just to make it happen, and things have been working out just fine. I'm still shocked by it, but I know there's still a long journey ahead of me, and I'm really excited about that.
Well, let's go back to December of twenty sixteen. So at that point, you've been working on the finance bar for about a year, right, a little over a.
Year, yeah, a little over year.
Uh huh, And that was the moment you've been working on it for a year. The first year was tough. When did you decide, I think it's time for me to leave my job, my full time job, and really dedicate myself one hundred percent to this new mission.
I think what it was for me, Mandy, is I started to get like speaking engagements to speak for different companies that were somewhat competition for the bank. And I just had this yep, and I just had this good feeling that this won't go well like I have to I just won't go well, like I'm gonna have to try to juggle this. It's not going to happen. Like the finance Bar has started being in the media. It was his whole it was his whole ordeal, and I
know it no longer felt safe for me, Mandy. It didn't feel like I was doing the bank any justice by trying to like float between two different things. And I said, what is most important to me? And the finance Bar was most important to me, And I said, what's the worst that could happen? The worst that could happen is that I won't earn any money from this, and I won't have any money coming into my household. So how do I earn money, and once I knew
that I could do that, that was my decision. It was like either Wells it was Wells Fargo or the finance bar.
Which one are you willing to do?
And I felt like I had been at Wells Fargo for several years. So I did that, and I really left on a good note. There was no ill will. I did not like my job. I loved my job. I loved the person that I worked for. It was just time. It was time for the next journey in my life. And that's just when I made the decision. I was actually supposed to leave in November and chickened out and said, yeah, no, I don't think I'm ready.
I should just stay one more month. And then when December came out, I was like, well, maybe I should just stay until the beginning of next year. And I said, no, Marsha, don't do it. And I just left in December.
At that time, South went and let go, and what universe, I guess, God, that's right, whatever you believe, yeah, let go. At that time, were you bringing in money enough to replace your well Spargo salary?
Yeah? Yeah.
So at that time, Mandy, I had made my way with the members club with the virtual member with the virtual membership to almost to a place where I was bringing in almost what I've made at Wills Fargo. So if you if you think about it, Mandy, I wasn't you know, I was. In my mind, I thought I was giving the Finance Bar one hundred percent, but I couldn't because I was working a full time, eight to five job every single day.
So I knew that if I was.
Able to accomplish that in the hours that I was able to give to the Finance Bar, what would my potential be if I did it full time.
So that's just what I said to myself.
If I let it go, and I'm almost at that number that I need need to be at to replace that income or replace that salary, if.
I do this full time, I can easily do it. And I've been able to do it since then.
So it was kind of like, yeah, like I had the virtual membership, I was almost at that number, and then when I quit, I was able to hit that number when I really just gave it one hundred percent of myself.
I think that's sort of a trend I've seen, and especially in personal finance entrepreneurs or anyone who's sort of working with like consumer facing online businesses, is the importance of creating some sort of subscription monthly service, And do you feel like that was because you've tried a couple of other ways to sort of bring in revenue with
the finance barn. Can you talk about some things you tried that didn't work and how you found that the subscriptions, you know, monthly sort of membership ended up working best.
Yeah.
So I think in the beginning, Mandy, I tried coaching, but I didn't have a location for people to actually come to for coaching. So in the beginning, I felt like coaching wasn't a good idea because it just wasn't I didn't have the space, I didn't have the privacy.
So I tried that, but I.
Literally only tried that for a couple of months, and I was like, yeah, no, because that was just way too much for me and having to work full time. That just didn't work. I didn't have like a pricing strategy laid out at that time.
So I think that part.
Of the reason why the membership works so well is because it's something that people can log into any time during the day, and it was a very low cost for individuals ten dollars per month to join the membership to be able to connect with different finance experts that they may never see face to face, where some people never have no personal finance experts in the industry at all, and the cities where they live, Like I felt like it was the perfect result to it, like I could
pull in experts, have them answer questions for people, have live virtual sessions, and it just worked.
And it was at a low cost.
So if you're working with people that are already having challenges with money, it's kind of difficult for them to pay for finance related materials or resources when one they're not accustomed to even dealing with their own finances, so now to pay some one to really help them. I wanted to start out really low, so that worked really well, I think because of the costs, and I wanted to make the members club really good and extremely valuable for
my customers, so that that has really worked well. The coaching suite has now also worked well because I feel like I've kept my price point at something that that's affordable for most people. They're able to go online and schedule appointments with me based on the system that I use and all that good stuff. So, but I would have to say to answer your question very simply, is that I think the membership was definitely the best option for finance related material, right.
And so do you offer one on one coaching?
Yeah? Uh huh, I have a coaching suite now.
I offer one on one coaching as well for singles and couples.
And what are sort of the price points for that, because I know that's often people's biggest question is you know I couldn't yeah do that as too expensive?
Yep.
So for for individuals, for singles, it's fifty five dollars per week I mean per I mean per bi weekly I'm sorry, Mandy, fifty five dollars every two weeks.
So that's one hundred and ten dollars per month.
And I made it, broke broke that down into like a payment schedule. So fifty five dollars is just automatically drafted bi weekly, you know, to like lessen some of that calls us a little bit, it's not one hundred and ten dollars immediately each month. And then for couples, it is seventy five dollars bi weekly. First, because it's two people so it's seventy five dollars by weekly and then for singles it's fifty five dollars by weekly.
And is that for like one session or health two sessions, two.
Sessions per month to sixty sessions per month. They my clients also get actual workbook that's that's sent to them, they get a wall chart that's mailed to them, they get a tote bag that's sent to them. So everything for me, Mandy goes back to the experience of making it seem that even if you are a virtual client, that you're right there with me. So yeah, I definitely offer.
One on one coaching now and I love it. Yeah.
So you you mentioned that, you know, towards the end when you decided to sort of leave Wells Fargo, you had gotten to a place where you almost were replacing your your Wells Fargo income. What was it like sort of getting to that point the first year and how long did it take to you were like Okay, I can I can do this? And like what was the mental toll like on you know, taking your life savings and putting it into this business.
Well after after that was done, after I took my savings, Manny, and it was gone. I said, I can't get it back, So I let I let the piece go of if this doesn't work what happens because there was there was no There really was no plan B to get back. I mean, what was I going to do is like sell the bus, and who's gonna want like a finance bus. They'll have to like redo it and do it over again.
So mentally I let that part go. But I will say to get to the point of trying to replace that income, I put my monthly income in front of me and I looked at it every single day like I'm looking behind myself now to sit it's still there. But I had like this big post it note that would sit on a desk behind me Mandy, and I would tape it up there and I would look at it every single day when all to come from work and say, how am I going to get to this number?
Or more? So that was the mental state.
It was like how do I get more clients or more members to hit that number? So I didn't like, I know, I hear a lot of entrepreneurs say, you know, I want to make my goal is like make six figures a month.
Well, for me, my goal was.
Just make sure that I'm surviving, like as soon as I leave my job, like, can I just earn my check?
Because if I could earn my check, Mandy, like not ever being an entrepreneur.
I think that gives a beginner entrepreneur like a boost of confidence because at that point you're like, wait a minute, I can do this on my own, like without someone else paying me from a job. So that's the point that I wanted to get it at initially, Like the goal, Marsha is to earn your previous income. So that was it now before I left Wills Fargo, as I mentioned, I was probably about seventy five percent there anyway, Mandy. So it's like pick up the pace Marshall, like when
you leave. But then also not only only did I do that, I thought about things that I could reduce at home, like to like lessen the blow from money that we had to spend out, like do.
We keep the lights on all the time? Like what can we cut back on here?
Like do I take off my serious radio out my car and not have that expense? Like I was doing everything to make sure that we could like the bare bones minimum type of thing like cut out certain things like even if I don't make that extra income that I need, there are things from a personal expense standpoint that I could.
Really cut off.
And that's and that's really how I handle it. I cut out a lot of different stuff.
That's interesting. Yeah, we got a question from someone actually who is like, how do I start a business, getting married, quit my job, buy a house all within one year. I was like, this will be a very quick answer. Maybe don't try doing all that once, or something's got to give. You know, something's got to bend if you want sort of to gain something. So that's interesting. It's good to know that, you know, you have to make some sacrifices.
I knew that my experience wasn't too far fetched from what other entrepreneurs deal with or they have dealt with in the past. So that's what really kept me going to know that while this doesn't seem normal, it is normal. Like, you know, entrepreneurship can be glamorized, and because I think that many people just don't share that part of their story. But having books, having people that I could call that
were also entrepreneurs to say, no, this is normal. And even as I just mentioned, like for many business owners, it takes like at least five years to really buying their footing. I know that me now still playing the way that I feel that's normal. So it's not like you are losing your mind, Marshall, Like this should not be this difficult for you, and it's not difficult.
It's just making sure.
That I don't feel like I've arrived at a place that I know I haven't and there's still work to be done and still a ton that I need to learn before I just say, you know what, take your foot off the pedal just a little bit, Marsha, and.
Just let this go for a smooth ride.
So what really helped me, Mandy is just knowing that this is normal, staying, you know, keeping my head plug into books, reading and hearing about different entrepreneurs and just knowing how they started the challenges and saying, you know, this was that was normal for them, This is normal for me, and this is just part of the journey.
The emotional strain of it all, that that pressure. You know, you put your money on the line. Your husband wasn't even one hundred percent sort of supportive. I mean, I'm sure he was because he loves you, he's your husband, but you know he was sort of I'm sure you felt that pressure of people looking at you like is this gonna work? Is she gonna make this happen? What was what was that like? And how did you take care of like the emotional strain of all that.
Well, one I try to when I even do this now, Mandy, is to block myself out, to say like who's watching, to like who's watching to see if this fails? And I took my place to I tak my mind to a place of all that matters is or who matters is the people that are in your household. And at that time it was my husband and my son, and now it's just my husband because our son.
Is in college.
But my goal was to make sure that our household was still taken care of. And I would say that that would be helpful for any entrepreneur, because entrepreneurship, Mandy, can be very similar Like if you're looking around and you're trying to compare up, it could be very similar to now you're just trying to live like the Joneses. So if you see one entrepreneur doing one thing, you're like, oh my goodness, I want to do that too, because I feel like it makes.
Them a lot of money.
So for me mentally, I would put myself in a mind frame of all that matters is that my house hold is taken care of. It wasn't like who will think this will fail? Or like what does that stress look like? But then again, I don't think that to have that type of mind frame wasn't just the finance part. I've been like that the majority of my life, Like it's like it doesn't work, who cares?
Like? I blow it off because I'm just a.
Very focused centered what truly matters to my life? Who really matters in my life? And that's just how and that's how I handled it then, and that's kind of how I handle it now. And I think for a lot of entrepreneurs that's just really something to remember, is that when we're trying to compare up or we're trying to do what other people are trying to do, you have to go back and sign yourself to say, like why did I even do this in the first place, Like, yeah, I want to help people, but I also.
Wanted more time with my son. That was leading for college.
I wanted to be the mom that says, like if I want to go see him on a random Tuesday and visit him at his college.
I can do that.
My husband was also preparing to retire from the military at the time, so I wanted our life to be a little bit different. Well, if he's leaping like the army, now I'm also leaving something. So it was kind of like both of us were in a transition of something
that would lend us more time with one another. So that's my point of saying that a lot of things I blocked out because it didn't matter to me because I knew what was at my core, and that's that's really how I handled it and I still to do to this day because.
I know at the end of the day, that's all that truly matters.
Anyway, Yeah, help me tell the people where they can find the Finance Bar and.
Connect with you and uh get the get the Finance Bar treatment.
Yeah. So the website is the Finance Bar. That's b a r.
The Financebar dot com, the Finance Bar on social media across all platforms, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, all.
That good stuff. But if you go to the website, you will find.
All the information about the members club, about the coaching suite, about the mobile Hub, about the mobile app, everything that I've mentioned here with Mandy, you can find all that information on the website.
Thank you've been an amazing guest, and thank you so much for for filling in for Miss Tiffany. Tiffany, we love you.
Hope you feel we love you. I love myself, so.
She's gonna be so jealous when she finds out. I guts to talk to you all night.
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