Hey ba fam, I am joined today by an incredible guest. She has been on the show before and after. Now that I've had the conversation with Denise, I just written I talk to her, I'm like, Oh, you're actually a human ray of sunshine and such a like a real down to earth, powerful, quietly powerful woman who just is really grounded in her impact. She's grounded in what she wants out of life and the value she brings to others.
And I just feel better after spending time chatting with Denise, And I'm just so excited for her, and her book is coming out. You guys are going to hear all about it. But let me tell y'all for those who are not aware of Denise Torres, my one of my favorite people just in life. Right now, I'll tell you a little bit about her before we get into our chat. She is an award winning Latina money expert in entrepreneurship coach.
She became an accidental entrepreneur after job loss led her to create a successful Latin food blog called Delish Delights. But as you'll hear in our conversation, that is just one of almost ten different business revenue streams that she has built for herself over the past decade and today, Janice helps clients and listeners build successful online businesses that allow them to pursue financial independence and freedom, not just from the nine to five grind, but the freedom to
redefine what success means for you. And we'll talk about how Janice has redefined what success means for her even as an influencer and entrepreneur herself. Like there's things that she's been like, oh, hell no, I can make money from that, but no, I don't want to because I
actually want some free time. So if we get into everything everything from her dating life after divorce to building, like we said, the multiple businesses that she has and sort of how the how building a business online can even make you feel disconnected from reality and from community, but how she's counterbalanced that so that she has created this incredible yokidto de Naro family. And Janice has always focused on her impact. She's on a mission to educate
marginalized communities on entrepreneurship, investing and building generational wealth. And her podcast Jokito di Nero, you have to go check it out. And without further ado, let's just get on into our conversation with Denise. Oh and by the way, don't forget to go pick up her brand new, first ever book. You will be hard pressed to miss it on bookshelves because you just look for the sign that says financially lit with the gorgeous blonde and the hot
pink power suit on the cover. It is everything. Please go pick up your copy. You can also head to financially litbook dot com. And Jenis is going on a booktory. Y'all, so join me. I'm going to be at her stop in New York City on May second, I believe, So join us celebrate this incredible woman and all she has to offer, and I will let I'll get out of my way. So y'all can hear my conversation with Jennie's right now? All right to be a fam? I almost
said me hyn't they? But I guess totally can say mehn, Hello, v a fam. I am joined by friend of the show, friend of me, the beautiful, the talented, the incredible Janie Torres, who has a brand new, gorgeous book coming out. I know that it's full of facts and insights for anyone who wants to learn how to get their financial issue together. Jenise. But can I just say the cover, it's everything, Thank you Barbie. Before did you even know Barbarie was going
to be a cultural phenomenon? I did not the memo. Okay, that the hot pink with the blonde that is serendipitous on another level. But your brand new book, financially Lit the mod I'm reading it from behind you The Modern Latina's Guide to level Up? Wait, read the whole thing. What's it called? I'm always bad at the subtitle?
Yes, it's financially Lit. The Modern Latina's Guide to level Up your dinetto and become financially bodosa O.
I love that. So, if you guys have not heard our show with Jeannie's in the past, give the folks a little tidbit. How would you describe yourself today? Sort of like what is the Jenese package people can expect.
Yes, So, I am a personal finance podcaster, educator, business coach, and serial entrepreneur that helps women of color financially level up. And I do that in a lot of different ways. I love focusing on the areas of financial independence and entrepreneurship because that has been my path to breaking out of the corporate rat race, retiring from my engineering career in my mid thirties and now being able to pursue
basically a life built around options and freedom. And it's all been thanks to learning about money.
Yes, absolutely, and Denise, I was a fan before I was a friend. I think forget I went through this moment when I launched my business a few years ago. It'll be three years this June, my business adversary, and I remember I probably told the story before, but I remember kind of thinking, oh, I need new friends because I don't have a lot of friends. I mean, obviously
I have Tiffany, but it had been the pandemic. It had I had been in a nine to five, more traditional career, and even like I said with the podcast, I really just knew Tiffany. I didn't go out of my way to form new connections because see also pandemic baby, right. I was in a little bit of a haze anyhow. But one of my the very first work trip I
ever took was to finn Con. But prior to that, which is I got to meet you in person them, But prior to that, I was like, I need to reach out to people that I'm seeing, like really kill it? Who are fun and seem fun, and you're one of the first people I reached out to just to be like, Hi, Ah, I'd love to talk on the internet.
Yeah, the pandemic was a really special time for like personal finance influencers. I think it was just like a boom and we got to meet so many interesting, incredible people thanks to the algorithm.
Yeah, a shout out to those algos and we love them, but we also hate them. Yes, I actually wanted to talk to you. I know that I was texting just to kind of see what you wanted to touch on today. And I for sure want to chat about the personal and where that sort of intersects with the business side and the financial side for you. But Ai, I'm dying to talk to you about it because you know, a huge part of your entrepreneurial journey has been teaching people
how to start side hustles with a blog, right. And I also I have had blogs over the years, but my backgrounds and journalism as a journalist for many years, I still kind of am like somewhat a journalist. I don't know, I hold myself accountable. But also I was in content marketing, which is SEO. It's search engine optimization. It's creating content that Google is the algorithm again, is gonna up on a silver platter on the search results page.
And I just know, like before I left that, before I left that space content marketing in twenty twenty one, it was like AI was becoming a thing, and I remember feeling really uncomfortable about other sites competitors of ours that I heard who were using AI to create content. I don't want to go down that rabbit hole just yet, but I'm just like bookmarking it in my brain for later. Yeah, but let's bring it to the book. Okay, your book is coming out. If you guys have not gotten your copy,
where can they go to grab one? Do you have? What's the main website? Is it?
Financially litbook dot com? Super easy to remember, and you can order both the hard copy and the audiobook version. Which I was just informed that we were named one of Audible's most buzzworthy releases of twenty twenty four. WHOA, which is wild because you think about just like how many audiobooks come out in a single quarter. It's like, holy crap, somebody's listening to this and somebody likes it.
Well, the thing is like if you love which you know, your podcast Yo Kioto Dinano, which everyone should check out, is wonderful, and I think you can listen to. I mean, how many hours is your audiobook?
Oh, it's I think at least like eight hours.
I hope that's like eight episodes of the show, you know, So I feel like if fans have been hearing you in that format, it's I think it's great. I love audio books myself. Yeah, me too, But let's take that off. You're going on your book tour, so you're gonna be hitting some big cities.
You're coming to Yo, coming to New York, Dallas, La, Tampa, Miami, Orlando, and.
More stops on the way.
So I'm really excited to just see and hug real life people because, you know, just like you, my personal finance brand blew up during the pandemic, so I'm still like just getting a chance to get out there and be amongst the community. And I think that's honestly my favorite part of this whole thing. Do you feel, genuinely?
Because I was just to like ticket some more real not that we haven't been real, but I was listening. I told you, I was blow drying my hair and I was listening to in between the blow drawing. You know you have downtimes resting my arm. I was listening to this incredible episode of I Love Estare Perell's podcast, Where Should We Begin? She's a relationship sex expert. You know, she's gone viral on multiple TED talks and anyway, her and Brene Brown got together at I think it was
south By What happens in Texas? Was it south By? South? I think so, yeah, I think Austin, Yeah, something in Austin AnyWho, And they were talking about AI a little bit, but really they were talking about like the the level of loneliness even though we have so many friends online, which isn't necessarily a new topic, but something that they said really resonated with me. It was like the kind of content that does so well even though you know,
being online is sort of like this. It's like a shield that we use to connect with people who but we're not really like you have a thousand friends, But who's going to feed your cat? Is the question that
they pose. However, they do draw this connection to how the content that really goes viral and connects with people is often very personal, very like vulnerable, and I think of you in there, because you have been I think vulnerable and sharing a lot of your personal journey, not just from working nine to five and that toxic culture and engineering and all that, but even in your your personal life, personal personal life. You know, you talk about deciding how long has it been? Has it been a
year yet? Two years? Yeah, it'll be two years in November.
In November, okay, so here and a half ish since your since you separated from your then husband and you've been divorced, and you, you know, you share that, And I just wondered, as you're talking about getting to hug and like physically be present with your community, have you felt that human connection through the community that you've built to feel like authentic and real and how has that helped you during these like difficult times, not just personal but the pandemic on top of that. Yeah?
Absolutely, I mean, I think the impact of what we do as financial educators. You can see metrics, right, you can look at your analytics and just how many downloads did the podcast get or how many likes did this post get. But when you meet actual people and they burst into tears meeting you, which has happened to me multiple times, or I get like spotted out in the world and they're like, oh my god, it's you.
I listened to your show.
You realize that, like these are whole ass humans that are listening to your content, that are taking in your information. And I think it's a good reminder for me to just like take the job seriously because you can have real impact, you know, and when people trust you, I think that's the most valuable form of currency that we can have as business owners. That is literally how brands
are built on trust. And so I take that very seriously and I'm not afraid to, like, you know, put my flag in the sand and like this is where I draw the line. And I'm not just going to go hop on another trend because that's what people are doing.
Like if I don't.
Genuinely endorse something or just believe something, I'm just never going to be the type of creator that takes a big enough check to you know, look the other way. And yeah, I mean for me, as somebody who primarily obviously works from home, a lot of the work I do is virtual, it's great to just get out there and remember that these are actual people people that buy my courses and that review the show and that support the work that I'm doing.
It's it's very humbling and I'm really grateful for it. I'm really excited for you to get that experience too, to be loved by your people. Thank you, you know, and I'll be there cheering you on as well. Yay, which I'm excited to squeeze you too, you little nugget. I remember meeting you for the first time being like, oh, everybody is such a peanut.
Yes, everything so much taller on social media than they are.
Those angles. We know how to make an angle. But uh yeah, and not only that, but well, I also I think about you and your love for Zoomba, which I was a diehard zoom for Freak as well. I kind of fell off because there's not a good class up here where I live in my goodness. Yeah, it's very annoying. There's no flavor. That's not true. There's flavor, but not and there's not not you know, convenient to
me and where I live, but Zoomba too. Like, I just wonder what are some of the ways as an online entrepreneur yourself that you have found to stay connected and to not get into that trap of working in a vacuum, and what is all this for. I don't have anybody like you've got. You have so much. You have a rich life, not just in business and finances, but how yeah, how what are the ways and strategies that you use just to keep grounded and to stay connected.
I think it is having an entire life off of social media. You know. It's like this is just one small part of what people see. But you know, I have friends. Two of my best friends are people that I went to like grammar school with that we've known each other since we're eleven years old, you know, and they're just normal people.
They're not out here like always jealous of stories like that. I ain't got nobody from my grammar school years. College is where I kind of pick up.
Yeah yeah, I mean like there's just you know, my family is still just sees Janie.
You know.
My partner didn't even know like what I did when we first met, and he's still like, Okay, that's cool, but like that's not why I'm with you, you know. So there's just like so many reminders that our identities as entrepreneurs and as creators.
That's just like one small sliver.
And I think the best way that I do or the best way that I can stay grounded, is just not letting that consume me and not letting that be the focus of all of my energy, because you know, at the end of the day, like they say, nobody writes your title on your tombstone. You know, that's not why people remember you. It's about the impact that you had, the time that you poured into the people that you care about. So that has to be the focus because what was it all for at the end of the day.
So what is it that makes your life outside of like work and the online grind and this book tour? What are you doing that is feeding you back?
Well, I'm definitely involving my family in like a big part of this journey. So my sister is actually going to moderate my talk in Tampa. My dad's going to be going with me to WNYC Studios to like watch me do an interview.
My mom's going to be coming on the book tour.
So just like the fact that I get to share what I'm doing with them in a way that you know, they say it online and stuff, but they don't get to experience it on that level. I'm really excited to just bring them into my world because they've been the biggest support.
You know, even though they thought it.
Was nuts, they also have just understood that, like I had a vision and to trust me with it. So I'm super excited about that. And also just like putting some downtime in, you know, like taking vacations. And I'm also not putting pressure on myself to like achieve some sort of metric when it comes to business. You know, I don't have this this like insatiable hunger to continuously scale and to get on the New York Times bestseller list and all these things. I'm just like whatever is
meant to be will be. And just the fact that I get to do this incredible work, which is not even work. It's just like ridiculous that I even get to just talk about money and connect with people and call this a career. Like I'm so grateful for that that anything else that comes out of it, accolades, titles, opportunities, blah bla blah whatever, that's just bonus.
But that's never my focus. Heyba fan, We're going to take a quick break and be right back with more
with Denise Torres. I'm so happy, So I mean maybe I sort of knew I was going to be speaking to you, and I started thinking about we don't have guests at time on the show, but we have had some guests where and I'm always like, dang it, I don't know if that was the bright person, only because I really want to be careful with who we share our audience with, because I want people to be learning and engaging with people who have sort of their eye on the big picture, like people who can still go
outside and appreciate the sunshine and appreciate the little things and human connection and are not chasing a huge goal and chasing numbers and accolades. Like you said. Those things are incredible and they will come. But I just love the mindset that you have. And I'm reminded again why I was like, Deanie, we must be from because you just are someone who gets it and at least gets it on a level that I also get it. Where for me, it's I love what we get to do.
It's fun. It doesn't feel like work unless you start being tied to the algorithm and then it is a job. But getting to sort of show up authentically and share little nuggets has been working, and so and I was kind of talking to Tiffany this morning, and by the way, she's sorry, she's actually in Florida. Oh good for her, can't be with us today anyhow. But yeah, I was talking to her and I was like, yeah, I remember this guest, and they just felt like they felt like
they weren't enjoying any of it. They were going on this book tour and they were talking about it as if it was like a huge drag. But then I'm hearing you and I was like, well, dang, I would love to be able to like get a crowd at a huge venue, you know, just to talk about your book. Are you kidding me? Like, that's that's the dream. But it wasn't, you know, for them, it wasn't where their goal posts were, which is which is fine and fair. But for me, what I'm craving is I feel like
what you're craving. And especially as I am on the very beginning of my book journey, it feels like I've been on the very beginning for a long time. It's great to have an example to look at of, oh, you're actually not driving yourself that shit crazy, you know, and trying to get on the bestseller lists and all that. Yeah, I mean, like what's the point.
And I think so many people fall victim to like wanting to live out somebody else's version of success because that's just what they think they should want. And that's something that I touch on in the book. Is just this idea of all those things that are on your checklist, like who put them on there? Is it your family, your community, your friends, Like who's influencing the decisions that you make when it comes to your career and how you spend your money and the things that you prioritize,
you know. I know for me, I had a lot of these things on my checklist that now looking back, I'm like, I didn't even put this stuff on here. This was just projected onto me, like I need to go become an engineer because that's going to make me a lot of money. I never asked myself like, is that actually what you want to do? Is that going to make you happy? Are you going to feel fulfilled
by this decision? The same thing with home ownership. It was the pressure of well, you're turning thirty, and this is just what responsible thirty something year olds do they buy homes. But then looking back, I realized I don't even like living in New Jersey at the time, Why the hell would I buy a house to and be stuck here, you know. And then it also represented me having to stay in a career because.
I didn't want to do it. But now I have this mortgage. So it's like all these things.
I had to dismantle this belief system about what success looked like for me financially and be okay with like disappointing a lot of people.
And that's hard, especially when they are the people who I don't know, maybe before the Internet. I mean, I think we were around long enough before the Internet, Like we're the generation we built it, y'all. Okay, we really made we made Twitter what it was, all right, but still we remember a time without it, right, And you really did look outside for that validation from parents, and I mean from parents, from family, from friends and all
of that. Just what they think of you really matters. Yeah, And now it's it's crazy because you can be so celebrated. I think so much of your story, my story that's like made for the Internet, like you know, came from the bottom. Now we're here. People love a success story and all of that pulled yourself up by your bootstraps, got this online business. But to family and friends, it may be like, what on earth is she? Like? What is they doing?
Why are you putting their business out there?
Oh? Yes, yes, the personal stuff? Or don't put me in there. I heard you talk about this on the podcast. Was that about me? You know? I don't know if I sometimes I cross the line just a little bit.
Me too. It's fine. My mom already knows to expect you know, I have. I'm a loose can listening the way that she was listening, I'm like, really every Wednesday. Well, okay, So business wise, you mentioned at the beginning of the show that you said serial entrepreneur, which I think is such a sexy way to describe yourself, like cereal, and it's kind of like dangerous.
You know. I watch a lot of murdery kind of stuff, so that's where my mind goes a little bit. But talk to me about all the different things you have going on, because it is beyond your side hustle course and all of that. Now, talk to us about the evolution the financially lit Jocito Dineto universe. Yeah.
So I have been doing this whole content creation thing for over a decade now, and I started in the blogging space. So my first foray into online content creation is a blog called delicolights dot com. It's still in existence today and it's actually the foundation of like me being able to walk away from corporate because now it's like a six figure business that just kind of runs itself and its content that I share primarily Latin recipes that are influenced by my cultural upbringing as a Puerto
Rican woman. So after doing that for six years, I was ready to shift into a new medium, if you will. And by that point, I'd been listening to podcasts for a while, and I focused in on like financial dependence podcasts and was really inspired by the work that people
were doing. But I felt like I couldn't find a podcast that was speaking primarily to latinas, and as a first gen Latina who had to navigate, you know, applying for student loan aid and going to college and doing all these like first, I wanted to hear, like, how do we achieve this American dream because there's been no blueprint given to us, And so.
I quickly became reinvent that dream, yeah that too, or dismantle it and reassemble it into something that you actually want.
Yeah, I think that's actually what's happening. But so I became obsessed with personal finance and I continuously was the friend in my friends circle who people would ask money questions to because I was just always talking about it, and people would watch like the fact that I have this blog going on and I'm talking about side hustling
and blah blah blah. So after, you know, having repeated conversations with friends, I decided maybe I should just start a podcast, because if they have these questions, like maybe other people on the internet have these questions. And so in twenty nineteen, I launched Joccierto Linetto. Didn't have any plans for like monetizing. It didn't even know how you monetize the podcast. It just was another passion project, just like the blog.
And by the.
End of twenty twenty it blown up to the point where I had to make a decision, am I going to go full time into this or am I going to keep like juggling a forty to fifty hour work week and building this on the side. And it got to the point where I was having to take PTO from my regular job to work on Yokero di Netto. I was getting speaking engagements in the middle of the day and like doing virtual workshops and all these types of things. And I was making partly like four times
more than I was in corporate. So I'm like, well, what the hell am I still doing here for this? You know what am I doing this for? But then everything came to a head when a coworker notified my boss about like what was going on ooh, and I was confronted in a meeting that there were suspicions that I was going to quit because of you know, just how I was blowing up on social media blah blah blah. And I was asked by my manager like, straight up, are you going to quit your job? And I had
not planned to do so at that very moment. I was actually going to like wait out the rest of the year to collect my bonus and.
All that stuff.
But I decided to just let her know, Yep, I'm quitting, and actually I'm going to tender my resignation letter as soon as we hop off with this call.
And I did that.
That was April thirtieth, twenty twenty one, and lo and behold my new book, which documents. My whole journey in this money world is coming out three years to the day that I walked away from corporate and said, I'm betting on myself.
Wow, hey, be a fan. We're going to take a quick break and we'll be right back. Life is really crazy and as much as you can be, like you know, the universe and all that. But you did a lot in between then and now. Yeah, to make it so that your book has come out. I know we can't plan like publishing schedules, But what was it about the nine to Fox beause I want to go back to that. What was it about that job that made you want to keep one foot in even as you were building
this like these new business lines. Well, I think I had a lot of it than the insurance. Yeah, well the benefits.
I mean, they don't call them the golden handcuffs for no reason, right, I mean I was making a steady six figures a year, nice bonus. I had no legitimate reason to leave from the external perspective, you know, I had the dream job all that, but I just never felt a sense of security that I think I was sold as this is why we do this, And I think a big part of why I always felt like I needed to have my own way to make money
was because I graduated into the Great Recession. I literally graduated six months before the entire economy tanked, and so here I am watching colleagues, friends getting laid off. In mass I'm seeing people who've been dedicating twenty thirty forty years of their lives to companies just tossed away with nothing more than you know, here's fifteen minutes to pack your stuff and be on your way. And I think for me, seeing that at twenty two, I'm like, oh,
wait a minute. So this whole safe and stable job situation that people told me I would get when I went into corporate it's not so safe and stable. I'm going to need to have my own back. And so I think I always operated from the perspective that my paycheck was a means to an end. It was an opportunity for me to you know, save, invest start businesses. But ultimately, I don't think I was ever going to be the type of person that said I could do
this for the rest of my life. I just I was very disillusioned from the beginning.
M M, yeah, And I what I love about your story is. It takes a real life It takes a huge amount of faith in yourself because a lot of us, you know, even when we started the podcast back in twenty fifteen, it was it wasn't clear. I remember someone saying, like, are you afraid you're going to alienate people by having brown in the title? That's the point we want to be specific. Yeah, and even like you know, we pitched it.
I pitched it to my employer at the time. I was a writer at Yahoo Finance, and they were like, punk, is we can't make any money off those yet, so no, go figure. But then you just kind of do it anyway. And it takes a level of like having faith in yourself. And that's kind of after you know, I did the podcast for eight years, you know, had the career in journalism and marketing, but three years of doing Mandy money Makers and career coaching and the common thing that I'm
actually coaching women through. Maybe you can identify with this as well in your work. But it's self trust, like having enough what do you need to make you trust yourself enough to take a chance. And so that's why I wanted to ask what was sort of keeping you It doesn't seem like it was like you didn't trust it. You could do it, but it was like this autopilot
almost of like I just have a job. That's which you're you know you do and then yeah, wait a minute, I actually don't have logical, like super logical reasons, like I've taken those away. Mm hmm. Well it's your source of income. Well I got others now, yeah, well you know, and I just find that really amazing, and I I want that for everyone, just to try something different and then prove that you didn't well I wasn't say didn't die, but you might try something and you know, it depends
on how risk it is. Yeah, I don't try like, you know, eating foraged plants. I always watched that Lady on because, like Kathie's nugging, don't die, you know, one of the things yourself.
Yes, yeah, I think One of the things for me too, that I realized is that a lot of the reasons why we feel like we don't have the option to like make a career pivot or like start a business is because we have so many other obligations. And so one of the big things for me that was keeping me stuck. If you will was a bunch of student loan debt and a mortgage and just owing a lot of people a bunch of money, you know, credit card
debt and the like. And once I discovered the financial independence movement, there was this recurring theme where it's like, if you want options to change your career, to work less, to live more, you got to stop owing people money. And so that was my primary focus in the beginning. Before I walked away from my job, I said, I need to be student loan debt free because at least with that, I know Uncle Sam's not going to be coming after me, like trying to garnish my checks and
all that stuff. And so once I had that financial freedom that comes from being debt free, I felt way more comfortable to be able to manage the epps and flows that come with entrepreneurship.
Yeah. So that is such a great testimony and to and so relatable when it comes to what I was talking about, like helping women define what is it that you need to feel free? And debt is one of the big issues debt and debt and healthcare. I would say, because man, the way Golden talk about sign on bonuses and all that, it's great but like just healthcare is so yeah, out of the marketplace. What do you do for healthcare now? I don't know if when you were
previously married, was your partner carrying the insurance? Did you do? Yeah? So what do you do to post separation? How are you you on the Obamacare plan? What's going on?
I am paying for my own I'm paying like five hundred dollars a month for medical coverage. But that's because I'm a single, you know, unmarried woman. But I do think about that, you know, in the future. I just signed up kids. I'm like, oh, this is gonna be a reason why I need to increase my prices, because
these premiums are no jokes. And so, you know, entrepreneurs, make sure that you are factoring in those costs that you're giving up as a you know, career girly into your pricing because we got to make up for that.
I'm saying. Yeah. I actually had a coaching session with a woman from the Manny Moneymakers who just got let go. She was anticipating it. She has her she has a new business like a course and all this that she's setting up, and she has a contract position lined up. So she's not in dire straits, which is I'm always preaching resilience, like create a soft landing for yourself. But one of the things she was trying to figure out
her consulting rates. And I have a pretty simple calculator, and it's basically like, how much do you want to make is the first question, and a lot of people get stuck so they base it on what they were making before, like, oh, well, I was bringing home this net before from my other job. And I'm like, this is different. You're paying taxes on your own, you're paying
for your healthcare now. She's also a single pringle when you're not single tax one according to the government, according to the government, gets single, which means, you know, having to carry her own insurance. And she and she was like, yeah, I mean I'll go on that site and figure out and then I'm like, no, let's go together healthcare dot gov. Let's start here, what state you live in? Jersey? Okay, cool, Let's figure out how much it's going to cost. Because
you you get you that's like the biggest expense. I feel like for if you want insurance, which I think most people should have it, right, just a little, just a little, you can tell them you learn that on brown ambition. I need health insurance.
Literally, it's one of those things where you hate paying for it, but you're glad you have it when you need it.
Pet insurance I don't know, not so much, but you know, travel insurance when you book a flight. I don't know about all that, but just regular, regular health insurance has been known to keep people out of the poorhouse sometimes. Yeah, so she needed to factor that in. And I'm like, you got to get down and look at the numbers and they may not be as scary, you know, even just hearing you five hundred bucks, I'm like, oh, you know, in the early days it was a lot more. It
was kind of all over the place. So just a little un sexy entrepreneur.
Yeah, there's always a solution though, So I think that's what I want people to realize, Like you can set up your own four to one K, you can get your own insurance. Like, don't let that be the reason why you don't pursue this if you want to do it.
Absolutely, it's like I know one hundred percent. It's the it's fighting the fears with facts, That's what I like to call it. So the fear is well my four one K, Well, here's a fuct you can get one of them yourself. All that. I mean, you know it's different, but it's not that different. Okay. So with the book coming out with your new relationship, twenty twenty three, twenty twenty four has been what would you call it, like a year of just shift in your you know life
have How has it been showing up for you? Are you feeling just incredible? Are you feeling like, oh, it's just the start? How has it all felt?
I think twenty twenty three was the year where I put myself first, like even in business, in my personal life, I just I allowed myself to enjoy the fruits of my labor because at that point, you know, I've been doing this for over a decade and you have to get off the freaking treadmill as an entrepreneur sometimes and just reassess, like, am I still doing work that excites me? Am I still enjoying this process? Are there areas where I need to you know, refocus attention or just not
even bother? So I think twenty twenty three was a big year of optimizing my life to enjoy more and work less.
It was about how are we doing that?
So I think, Yeah, the biggest thing for me was asking myself like when is enough enough?
Right?
And I think there's a lot of this pressure as an entrepreneur to like always scale to the next milestone. So you know, if you made one hundred K last year, well you got to make two fifty and then you got to make five hundred and then you got to go scale to seven figures and blah blah blah, And that's just never sat well with me. That whole mindset just feels like a self induced prison sentence.
It feels kind of like a nine to five.
Yeah, And I'm just like, you know, for what, like is my quality of life at this moment going to change if I make another five hundred grand?
Nope?
Because I just don't need to be making seven figures to enjoy the life that I want. And so I think that's been my primary focus. It's like, when is enough enough? Do I need to do all of these other things that I see other people doing because quote unquote again, is that my version of success or is that somebody else's version of success? That now I'm putting my pressure on myself to like achieve.
So I think that's been the biggest thing. It's just like, what have you said no to in the process, Like, what are some of those things on the note list that I'm like, You're like, I'm good for now.
Memberships, you know, everybody keeps telling me I should start a membership and I'm like, no, I.
Don't want to work more.
Yeah, or just like a subscription model based thing where people pay, you know, for recurring revenue and things like that, And I'm just like, but then that means I have to continuously show up, I have to continuously create new content. I'm basically on another freaking hamster wheel for what. That is not my definition of like success as an entrepreneur.
It's just feeling like, now you're doing all of these things, you've over committed and so you know, for me, it's been just saying, you know what, that might be nice to have, like recurring revenue, but does the business model suit what I want to prioritize, which is having more free time. No, so I'm not going to do it. And I think one of the reasons why I'm able to be like really flexible in my business is because I have a bunch of different ways that I make money, and so I can like.
And off right, I like.
Pull levers and push levers and focus attention in different areas so that I never have to feel like, oh my god, I'm never gonna be able to pay my bills because I'm just making money in one specific way. Mm hmm.
Yeah, I'm so proud, Like I think this was the past couple of years have been the time when I'm like, oh, you know the seeds that we planted it, even with brown ambition years ago, I'm like, oh, this is We didn't set out to make money. We didn't know how because there were weren't really any models. It was like Cereal was the huge podcast, you know. But anyway, but now it's like Tiffany and I are both like, oh, hey can take somebody. And it's become a quote unquote passive.
It feels passive because it's so damn fun, but in terms of like, you know, we show up and we kind of have this like well oiled machine and it supplements everything else. And even as I'm working on my book Journey, you know, I had to really pull push down the lever of my my high touch community that I have. I have the community that I all the women who've joined. I still we still I do my bi weekly coaching, which I just love, genuinely, just love talking.
They're like my friends now. But I'm like, oh, I could I get to give myself space for the book because I have, you know, this other income stream and then you have the sprinkle type stuff I call like the speaking engagement you can't plan for. Yeah, it's it's not shabby. Have the income fluxtuat Well, are you in a place now where you don't have these like income fluctuations that are so drastic that they cause stress? Because
I think that for a lot of entrepreneurs. Tiffany talked about this, like last year was tough year, you know for partnerships and things like that, which is a lot of ways that influencers make money. But can you speak candidly about that? Why is my screen giving me a thought? Oh that's so funny. Yeah I saw that. What's hilarious.
Thank you? Anyway, Yes, have you have you gotten to a place where there's it seems to be like, oh, I'm going to be okay, you know, yeah, Okay, I don't think I have one hundred percent, but I'm curious to hear what.
Yeah, I think So for me, because I have I think, at this point, like eight different income streams, I can always anticipate like meeting a specific baseline that I have in my head, right so I know, like every month at least as much is going to come in and
it's enough to cover expenses and payroll and whatever. And so I also like plan ahead, you know, kind of what's the thing I want to launch next month, or what's the area of income that I want to focus in on, just depending on whatever everything else that's going on. So for me, I've gotten good at creating money consistently, but I'm also like really financially conservative in general, Like I do not have a big, luxurious, you know, multimillion
dollar home. I still rent, and I think that shocks a lot of people because again it's this narrative of like, once you're a certain level financially, like buying a house is always going to make sense. And for me, I'm just like, no, I don't really feel like working over twenty k for a new roof right now. Like I'd rather be able to pour that into my business if I want to, you know, scale or create some new process or whatever. I also keep a lot of cash
on hand as an entrepreneur. So I have like close to a year's worth of operating expenses just sitting in a high heal savings account, so that I know, like, even if we have a consecutive number of like crappy months,
I'm good, Like nothing's going to derail that. And one of the big things that gives me a lot of peace of mind is that, again, before quick my job, I wanted to get to a place where, let's say I had to take an extended break from investing for retirement, that that was going to be okay, and my retirement was still going to be secured. So I focused a lot while I was still in corporate of maxing out my four oh one K and I took like my
bonuses and invested all of that stuff. So I am at a place where if I never invest another dollar, I'm going to have probably four or five million dollars
waiting for me when I'm sixty five years old. So just having all these different things kind of working in the background, and you know the fact that I have the blog, I have podcast ads, I have affiliate marketing, I do speaking, I have an airbnb so there's like a lot of different ways that I can earn money, and it just has given me a lot more consistency than again, just like relying on the single income source, it's given me.
Power agency pull that ouside just like that, right, Ahijanise, It has been such a pleasure to have you on the show. Congratulations on just all the incredible just I hope that this book tour, this moment of getting to embrace the people who love you and adore you and your community that you've built is everything that you deserve it to be. I'm so happy that that gorgeous face is gonna be on bookshelves. I can't wait to go see it out in the wild.
Please make sure to cover up Dave Ramsey's face with my book when you're in your local bookstore.
Listen. I do it every time I'm at Target. And like, Tiffany is one of the only women of color who got a finance book, and I'm just like scooped over, sir, You'll be fine. But even without that, it's just like, you know, there's a there's space for Dave Ramsey. It's always won't be a space for him, you know what I'm saying. But there's also a space for you and all that you had to offer. So y'all go get her book financially litbook dot com. I got it, and
please go check out her podcast. Yo kyoto to Nato Janie, my darling, my love, my little nugget. Thank you for joining the show again and I can't wait to see you on your New York City book tour stop.
Thank you so much and shout out to you and Tiffany for being one of the OG's in this space giving permission to women of color to talk about money unapologetically, because honestly, none of us that get to do this now would be where we are without your paving the path for us.
So thank you. Wow, that is really generous and I will try to receive it even though it made me sweat a little bit a little prickle. Thanks Denise,