Hey, hey, hey, I'm back. We're black and Brown.
It's Tiffany and Mandy. I feel like you want to make this low key like Mickey mouse Club intro. You're you're forcing me into it. I will not relent. I can't do it.
I put my I don't know if what you call when you I guess when you butterfly your fingers, that's when you, like, you know, put the fingers between the creases of your other fingers. And I have like under my chin like it's Tiffany and I'm leaning in to the mic like you turn Mandy such a good visual.
What's up, guys, It's Mandy brown Fish.
Have you been.
Oh, I've been good man. Have you read the news about so we all know, Amazon finally chose its location or two locations for its headquarters. Sorry to Newark, you were not the chosen one. But my old neighborhood in
Queens Long Island City was chosen. And I read something about how already the rents in the real estate prices are going bananas, and I'm kind of happy in a way that it wasn't somewhere that I live now, because I don't know, I just feel like Amazon's going to come and everything's gonna be more expensive and the neighborhood's going to be ruined.
Honestly, it's already crazy. Like a friend of mine was looking for an apartment in Newark and he was like, yo, the one bedrooms were twenty five, No twenty it was it a twenty two or twenty four hundred dollars and that did not include you had to pay electricity, heat, and hot water. And I'm like, when did nowick get to be twenty four hundred for a one bedroom?
Wait? This is pre okay, So this is just imagine like if Amazon had come to town, Oh my goodness.
Honestly, it would have been I mean, it would have been great for my property bound, but it would have been bad something. But it's new. I think people don't realize it's They think like, oh, let me get into
before it's too late. I feel like it might be too late because I just saw a property like for sale in the fourth sol section where I live, on sale for seven hundred and ninety nine thousand dollars in Newark, New Jersey, and I'm like, yeah, it's it's property values are really Like I said, it's great that I already bought, but it's almost too late for folks who've lived here their whole lives to purchase something because it's getting to be so expensive.
Get those auction homes like you did, or one of your homes, right, you got that ad auction?
Well, way to do it. Yeah, Well both of them kind of like ad auction, but one was like directly from the bank, and one was from the city New York.
Property. About New York and New Jersey, it's sucially like an extreme real estate environment. I know other parts of the country are not this crazy, but I do feel like, you know, one of the things that we consider before we purchased a house in the neighborhood that we chose was my husband did look at city council meeting for the town. Well, it's confusing and in the suburbs of New Yorkers like towns and villages and oh god, it
like all these different ways of calling a community. But anyhow, he went to the old meetings and wanted to see what's being developed in the areas. And I feel like that's a good sign that there's prosperity coming to the area if you've gotten new things being developed. So that's one thing that we did. We saw they were building a shake shack and they were building a new shopping center and expanding things. So that was a good sign for us because our neighborhood, like it really was, it
wasn't unscathed from the recession. I mean, no place was really unscathed, but our neighborhood did take a hit in home values pretty pretty severely during the recession. And even there's a couple of houses if you if you drive around our neighborhood that look like abandoned foreclosures, and if you look them up on Zillo or something like that, it shows that like the bank owns them.
Yeah.
So it's like this neighbors like this dichotomy of people selling who like rebounded from the recession, if you like, hang on for dear life. The property values did recover and you know, exceeded what they were like twenty eleven, twenty twelve, but some people didn't make it, and it's still like the remnants of the recession still a little bit.
Yeah, you could totally see it. I and that's the reason why I brought like my second house. It was because I knew that I'd heard that the train station was coming, and after asking around and going to a few meetings, there is going to be a direct train to the airport, New York Airport, and then direct train to It'll be a path train, so it'll also go to Midtown Manhattan. So I'm like, ooh, this is a great place to buy. But yeah, speaking of recessions, my
did I mention that. I think my accountant said this, but also a friend of mine who really likes to study markets, he was like, Yo, another recession is coming. I mean, but I guess that's just it's cyclical. But he made it sound like impending doom. And I'm not gonna lie, I got it a little nervous.
Oh, I mean, experts have been saying that they've been trying to you know how, like you keep guessing and hoping that you time it right. And oh, I'm going to predict that it's going to be a bear market is coming, so that tomorrow, when it actually comes, I can say that I was right. People have been like
waiting for the other shoe to drop. I mean, what goes up has to come down, right, And the market's been super volatile, and even just this week with Trump making his comments, oh, we're we're calling a truce with China in the trade war. And oh now, Trump seemed to forget about the fact that he called the truce today and the markets were down three percent, Like he his tweets, his comments, his inanity, like he is that a word? Inanity? I just feel like I made that up.
Inane.
His stupidity. It really moves the markets. Yeah, and on top of that, Yeah, we had like double digit gains last year, like crazy gains in the market. So it's you know, that kind of growth is not sustainable always.
So you will see. But it's important not to look at what's happening this week, this month, this year, but look back over the past ten twenty, the average returns over the last a handful of years, and even extend that to ten years or longer to see, Okay, what kind of return can you expect on average versus how are things doing day to day unless you're like day trading, then you know you're having a heart attack right now.
Good because I mean just the fact that GM left, you know, let's go of fifteen thousand workers. That's crazy fifteen yeah, fifteen thousand.
Telling you man, and this is the time of year when people do their layoffs.
Yeah, and then the fact too, like I was. I was at the bank the other day opening up another checking account for a business and we were talking to my business partner and I were talking to the banker and he was saying, you know, money is getting more and more expensive, like you know, interest rates are raising, and he was like, you know, he always watches or
to see like maybe I don't even know. At one point the interest rate right after post recession had gotten down to two point five percent, and now they're steadily climbing. I think we're at like five or six percent. Like if you're going to buy a.
House or whatever, my mortgage rates yeahm hm.
And so he was like, you know, they you know, they might get as high as and they likely to get as high ast double digits. And that's when you know, you start.
To to get into trouble because it peaks in double digits ten fifteen, twenty not twenty ten, you know, fifteen percent, and then something happens to bring them crashing on down.
So I'm not gonna lie. Makes me nervous. I'm wondering should we wait to develop the second property because I want to borrow cheaply. I'm not going to pay out of pocket. So we had a decision to make, like if we're gonna do we get a construction loan, which is an unsecured loan, like the bank just says, hey, we'll give you money from like you know, the fact
that you've got great credit or whatever. Or do we get a secured loan because we own our house cash we basically borrow against our house now and then then we all of a sudden have a mortgage for our home and then not a mortgage for the for the second home. So we've been like kind of like going back and forth and trying to figure out like or do we just wait because I don't. Every every month we wait, the interest rate goes up and makes money more and more expensive to borrow.
So I'm like, uh, well, I think any secured debt is always going to be more affordable than an unsecured loan because you have something holding the asset, like you have you have not the asset, but you have an asset backing up the loan. So typically any mortgage, like a home equity loan, is always going to have or most likely going to have a lower rate than what you'd get from like an unsecured loan for the most part.
So I mean, if you're just going on rates alone, it seems like a secured loan would get you a lower rate. But you're right, I mean, rates are rising, so if you're gonna, if you're sure, you're going to do it sooner rather than later. But at the same time, yes, mortgage rates are rising, and they're going up, you know, marginally each month. They're still very low historically, like back in the eighties they were double digits in the teens. Historically,
rates are still pretty low in the baggage land. So if you're if you're worried about buying a house, like, yes, your rate is going to be higher than someone who bought a house a year ago, but not not terribly higher than or not definitely not like high enough to like harken back to those crazy days in the eighties.
Yeah, yes, those are double digit that's crazy, Crank Cray.
So I was reading we've talked about public service loan forgiveness before. This is kind of a I remember when I my husband works for the government, in like a couple of years ago, I was talking to my financial planner, Helen and I asked her, do you think it makes sense? Because we had like a lump sum of money and we wanted to know should we just pay off a student loan debt or should we just wait for him to get this public service loan forgiveness and just bide
his time. He had, like, I forget how many years left, like seven or eight years left, and she was like, listen, do not rely on a government program that could easily, you know, change in the blink of an eye, depending on the administration or whatever. And we just went ahead and paid it off. And I'm feeling good about that decision because new data came out what a week or two ago that showed that only thirty fewer than thirty people actually have been approved for public service loan forgiveness
out of thirty thousand who've applied for it. Yes, thirty people out of thirty thousand have actually applied and been granted public service loan forgiveness.
And yes, that's honestly, that's just so crazy because it's like, what is going on in this country. I'm not gonna lie. I was sitting and thinking the other day, what is a solution? So, you know, like before it was like, well, you know, you get a job, and you know that it's going to be enough to pay your bills. But then also the job is also going to provide for your future because you're going to have you know, you're
going to have a retirement account. With that job, you're going to have a you know, some sort of like pension. But now it's like a free for all. And what I don't like to look at myself as an example, because I like to look at myself as Tiffany the school teacher as an example. I didn't have a pension at school teacher, So like, what is what was Tiffany? What would Tiffany the school teacher do in order to maintain life now? And then also make sure that I've
taken care of my older self. Honestly, I don't. I don't even And even though I was really tight, I
didn't really spend much. I don't know if I'd be able to make it, And that that part just is really disheartening to me, because you should be able to make it, you know what I mean, Like you should be able to say I've got a good job and I don't have to make you know, six figures a year in order to pay my bills and set aside for retirement, like and I don't know that that's true, Like does everyone have to make one hundred thousand plus in order to be okay and in their day to
day life and when they are ready to retire, because it's just not a reality. Some jobs just don't go that high, you know.
I mean, that's the real frustration is that, guess the economy is doing really well, but age growth hasn't quite been growing as fast as the cost of fixed price things are like housing, education, They've just been growing in price,
getting more expensive faster than wages have been growing. So that's why so many people are like, I feel like I'm doing everything right and I still and you know, everyone's saying the economy is strong, but yet I feel like I, you know, between my student loan debt, saving paying for my essentials, trying to put a little money away in savings, like I am barely making ends meet, and what's wrong with me? And yeah, you know, it's
it's sad, and that's the reality. And I mean politics plays into it too, right, So a lot of people if you think about the most expensive schools out there, in some cases there are for profit schools or private liberal arts schools, you know, especially run in the for
profit business. Like conservative politicians notoriously always create policy that favors these institutions, these businesses that are running colleges your itt Textssities of Phoenix, you know, these colleges that cost so much money and don't really provide aid, and you know, you can end up with a ton of debt and not a high paying career. You also have states, like conservative states, and if you look at the availability of public aid in some conservative states or states that have
conservative leadership, look at who the governor is. They usually control the purse strings going to universities, and you might see that funding for public universities in the state has decreased, and that in which case you if you're going, if you're a student going to those schools, you had to take out more student loan aid student loan debt in order to pay for your tuition there. So you know
who you vote for matters too. And then of course, like when you're choosing the school that you know you have to choose wisely in terms of like what is it going to look like when I graduate with all this debt, which is fine for people now, but like those of us who graduate in the last you know, already graduated, like you just have to struggle and make do with what you've got and try to do I mean, you know, consolidate refinance, try and enroll in federal income
driven repayment plan programs. It just sucks because like, public service loan forgiveness for a lot of people was like this beacon of hope. Yeah, you know, if I just do well, if I work in a nonprofit or I work for the government, I make my one hundred and twenty on time payments, I'll be taken care of. But there was what's happening with these people who applied and thought they would get approval is they found out they
didn't have the right kind of federal student loan. They found out that they didn't fill out the right form to make sure that their on time payments were being accounted, or that their employer truly did qualify as a nonprofit or you know, government a public employer. So if you're one of those people who's thinking about applying for public service loan forgiveness, like call your loan service or now and see what you've got to do. To get on the right track to get approved.
Yeah, it's just yeah, it's just like I said, I've been thinking about it a lot lately. Like, I know, I've created a space for myself and my family to be okay financially, but I don't know that could have done this without starting the budgetista And how realistic is that? You know, as I teach the Dreamcatchers, it doesn't make sense to say, well, then then you start a successful business, right you know, like you know you should be able to,
like as a teacher, be okay. And I'm struggling with like before I could, you know, I had the advice where I'm like, Okay, you do this, you do this, you do this, and it can work. And now I'm like, I don't know. I don't know that it's gonna work.
You might have to figure out how do you start something small if you're in a position where like it's different, like so for what you do, you know, your income is not the same as somebody who's like I'm a teacher, a preschool teacher in Newark, or I'm a i don't know, like a maintenance man in in in Irvington. What do
they do? You know? So yeah, and so that's what I've been kind of like kind of wrapped my head around, like what and trying to find figure out creating a plan for those who, you know, making a ton of income is likely not going to happen, but that doesn't mean you should be left out of the ability to take care of yourself. So now that we've been Debbie Downers, what do you have for the weekend? Oh?
You know, I think we are we are we are in the final stages of the remodel, and we should be in the house in the next couple of weeks. Yeah, things are going what. Paint is going up, fixtures are going in. You know, it's like it's almost more nerve wracking now because I'm just I'm trying not to get too excited because anything could still happen. At the same time, I'm just like it's like counting down to Christmas. For me, I'm just like, what can I move in?
What?
But don't worry. I went to Home Goods, which was probably a mistake. Went to Home Goods with a with a with a girlfriend and oh shit, like filled my shopping cart to the brim. I was like, I'm gonna need now that I have a house, I'm gonna need a cake stand and ant chink lid, and I'm gonna need these cupcake tins. And I'm gonna need these labels for the gifts that I'm gonna wrap put under the tree. It's going to go in the house that I'm building
right now. Yep, definitely gonna need all these accessories. Gonna need this apron, Gonna need this, oh, these set of this set of tongs, gotta have that I'm like turning
in to my mother. I literally walked out with so much stuff, like so much stuff that when I was at the checkout, this poor girl checking me out, I had all these different colors of sprinkles because they have teal sprinkles, and you gotta have teal sprinkles for your cool cupcakes that you're and your cool you know, Cristmas cookies, and I'm gonna make in my house in my brain new kitchen.
Right.
So, I was at the checkout and my giant I had these giant rolls of WELP, these giant rolls of wrapping paper, because you got to have that for the closet where you're gonna put the wrap and paper for
the gifts. You're gonna put it in of the tree at your new house, right, okay, And that's the register And like I'm like trying to finangle these like huge rock and paper like tubes into my cart and I'm knocking sprinkles and like sprinkles go crashing on the floor and the jar breaks and there's just sprinkles everywhere, but I'm keeping my cool. It's fine. Took me probably like twenty minutes to check out.
It was crazy. So it's from someone who was like, oh, I guess if we have to get a house now, look at you all into it.
You don't realize the latent suburban mom inside of you until you get a house and go to home goods and then you're like, I gotta have these things. It's bad, it's bad, but hey, things are affordable there. So if you're gonna buy a ridiculous cake stand, you might as well get it for nine and a nine.
Yeah, So I don't know, like, have you seen Sandy. You know, our friend, so, our financial friend Sandy, well just even just a real friend, but her brand is called Yes, I am cheap. You know Sandy. First of all, she is a g she's been doing her own Have you seen her? She's been doing like she and her husband have physically been doing like a lot of their own renovations. Like Sandy has a drill. Yes, and I love her, Like if you follow her, she she yes,
I am cheap on Instagram. I've been following her stories. I can't remember her no, but I'll put a link to her.
She's awesome.
Yes, And so she said she's done. I was like, oh my gosh. So yeah, it's been amazing watching her like put up cabinetry herself. I'm like, Sandy, you are a boss, and she's like, you know, you just figure these things out. And so she because Sandy bought a home and she renovated her old home that she had because she was going to rent it out. So I believe what she was doing is renovating. What she's been showing is, folks, is her renovation of the old home.
I think so that way she could rent it out and live in her new No, you know, because it is true because her new home is like brand new. Yeah, yeah, so it doesn't need any renovate. I remember her taking us on a tour. It's beautiful. So yeah, her old home she was totally redoing it so she can rent it, and I'm just like, wow, Meanwhile, I'll be done in January. But whatever, we're getting.
There, that's not that long, that's not that far away.
Yeah, I know, I know, but I'm just like, well, you know, I am excited because I can at least so I can see the end. But I'm also really nervous because we're picking up tile and tiles forever, and what do we choose the ugly thing? And what if we choose something that is so twenty eighteen and twenty twenty five, It's like, oh my god, you clearly brought your house at twenty eighteen.
If you want to sleep at night, do something classic and sleek and chic and normal looking. We chose a pretty, like a really pretty uh patterned tile for our shower, and I love it, but I've literally been having like stressed nightmares about it of this tile the exact same question, like this is going to be ugly in ten years? Do I hate this tile? Is at the right tile.
That's the problem with the home renovation, Like you make decisions today, doesn't get installed for like six to eight weeks, and then you're like, wait, I still make do I like that decision that I made. It's not good for indecisive people, I can tell you that.
And I'm like the worst when it comes to decision.
Just do white and live your life.
And that's what I said. I think I'm gonna like fit the bathroom for the most part. We're gonna make it really clean and so like subway tile for like the the guest bathroom in a Supergirl's bathroom. And then like I don't know what the floors are going to look like, but I figure, like the bathrooms and then
the master bathroom. I want some marble, not the whole thing, but I want like definitely some like marble access but even that, I'm going to choose a classic because there were definitely some funky towels and I'm like, oh, I love it. I'm like yeah to day, what about it? March? Yeah, So but I do I want to go classic. We have mostly hardwood floor not even mostly. We have hardwood
floors throughout, so thankfully that's always classic. It's just a tile in the kitchen that's giving like me a stomach ache because I wanted to put wood in the kitchen because like no like on the floor have you ever seen that? Like when you was, I'm like, yeah, you know, but it's like our our kitchen floor is not naturally even, and so it was going to be really expensive to to level it. He said, but there's self leveling whatever that goes under tile, like you could pour it in
its levels itself. And he was like that would be way less expressed our contractor way less expensive than literally rebuilding the floor for the kitchen, which would cost a lot. So even though I wanted wood through our kitchen is attached to our dining room and living room and I wanted wood throughout, I decided let's go for tile. But now picking the tiles like, yikes, I just what I don't know.
I don't dam uh buss deep ruhs and good luck.
This weekend, I'm gonna go see my I have a new niece. She's only a couple months old. My sister she had a baby and she moved. I'm like, are you crazy? So she's like, when are you guys eat? She just moved. She just moved last week. So I told her, like, so my sister Carol and I are going to go see her this weekend and help her unpack because she's like, because she's breastfeeding, and she was like, yo, I mean, I don't even belong to myself anymore. I
belong to this baby. The baby's like, where are you going? Sit down? So she's like, like, my husband doesn't know where anything goes, you know, And so she's like and he's a doctor, so he's working a lot, and so she's just like, okay, so I need help. So I was like, sisters to the rescue. So I'm excited to see the baby Lily, but also help her unpack her house. She lives in Chicago. I was like, you should have stayed in john Z.
Oh you're one in Chicago.
Okay, So I'm like, Lord, the weather. But I don't think it's not like we're going to be like hanging out hanging out. We're just going for an extending weekend like Thursday to a Sunday and for the labor basically m to just help. What she was just like, we don't we don't even have mattresses. I was like, well, as long have hit, you're a mattress.
This iss her second baby or first, this is her first.
She was trying for a while. She has her beautiful baby. I was like, yay, she's the oldest of five of the five of us.
I was just joking with the girlfriend who's having her second, and she was like, no one cares about your second baby. No one offers to help or gives you a baby shower. It's like, it's just as hard as having it, maybe even harder because you have a baby plus other baby. So then you know, my friend with the second baby, pay attention to them.
Yeah, it's true because I look back and I'm like, I don't even have that many baby pictures. I was like, you guys didn't even care because I'm the second.
Oh yeah, you and my little brother just whining he was number four, number four, okay, so imagine.
But I feel like I feel like the first and definitely the last. The last is always like, oh my goodness, you're the little princess of the world or prince of the world. But like, yeah, the second baby does not get any love. I was like, Mommy, Like my one day, my mom created like love. What are those things called, uh?
Picture albums for all of us, Like she grabbed all our baby pictures from every corner of the world and gave us each our own individual like picture album like Karen the Oldest had like three, you know, everybody else had like I had like half a one. I was like, Mommy, got tired. I can't believe it. I was like, Mommy, what happened? And she's like, I know, we took more pictures than this. I want to like weep. I'm like, why is mine the skinniest?
You look like the other one?
So you know. Oh so I was like, yes, that's poor second baby. All right, these are my questions. I don't know the rest of the work, and I know the audience is gonna get annoyed. These are my questions. It's a question.
Like I said, there's not enough syllables to match that song usher, Usher, But we'll let it pass. We'll let it pass. It's the holidays, okay, guys, So we're going to go through the reader mailbox right now. Hit us up at brannabisionpodcast dot com with your questions. You can hit the ask us anything to believe a question, or email us directly at Briannambission Podcast at gmail dot com.
So we have a.
Couple of good questions. First questions from listener Jessica, a repeat questioner. She says I wrote a while back about being passed up for promotion with my company and having people that I trained be promoted above me. I remember this question, so I ended up talking to my supervisor. When I asked why I wasn't considered for the position, he stated that we didn't think this was something you'd want to do. Since then, I've decided to start pursuing
my dream of becoming an entrepreneur. Is there any advice that you can offer me? I got so far and then I kind of get stuck on what to do next. I've created a name, I've applied for my business license, and started a website. But now I'm kind of confused on what's next. So turned down from for promotion and then now wants to get out of the corporate world and start her own business.
Okay, so well, starting your own business, I mean it's it's always an adventure. What's next is really to figure out what are your what I would say, you want to start a tree business versus a bush business. So a bush business is like and this is what most people do it in the beginning because they're nervous. They're like, oh, so I teach you how to budget, I fix your credit I help you with sudent loans, I help you with debt, I sell goal chains, I do hair, and so.
Sounds like a black bush business specifically.
Yeah, So, like think about a bush. It's sprouted, It has a whole bunch of little like whatever, those twigs or whatever, and it sprouts, but it stunts its own growth because it does too many things. And so you're wanting to develop a tree business. And so an example if I'm going to use the budgetista was literally I called myself the budgetista because that's all I did. I had that core deliverable. I will help you create a budget.
I talked about budgeting, I posted about budgeting, I sat one on one with people doing budgeting, and that was my tree trunk. And once you build a really strong tree trunk, you find and you find the folks who are wanting to purchase from you, your customers. You develop like your expertise, because when you're starting a business, even if you're really good at baking cakes, you still can
always be better. And so all about that one core thing, and then you can branch off, like you know, once trees get you know, nice and tall or whatever, then they can branch off into other things.
So I through with this analogy right now, because that's amazing. I love the analogy, right's.
I always said, you want a tree bit this is versus a bush business. So that's one. So but you have to figure out what is your tree trunk, you know, And it's harder than you think because so for example, you might say, I bake. My tree trunk is baking, but are you cupcakes? Are you cookies? Are you muffin tops? So it's not as easy as I just bake. So you like, and the reason why you want to get really clear is that you want to build trust. The awesome thing about trust is that it can be transferred.
So once I got really good at budgeting for like a year or two, everybody knew tivity is the budgeting to all of my my potential customers and clients, and then I was able to say, I can also help you with and so I would focus on that first. And to me, one of the best ways to hone your craft is to volunteer. So I'm not sure specifically what you're you know, like, let's just say you're doing a service business, so I would you know, be you know,
like kind of like recruiting for clients. But then on the side, I would volunce here at like the Boys and Girls Club or you know, homeless shelter or or domestic violence shelter for women to hone my skill set on the side. And you'll see comedians will do this too, like Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle. Dyan notorious for like playing really really small clubs on knights that no one knows that they're coming and practicing new material, and then once they get it good, then they'll bring it to
the HBO stage. So don't be afraid. On the side, people tell you don't do stuff for free. I think that's foolish. Of course you should do stuff for free, but like you know, donating to organizations and people that might not otherwise be able to afford you to hone your craft and use social media to your advantage. Because social media I call social media the pre resume. So before someone gets to know you, they get to know the social media you. So what do you want people
to know about you? And so I knew I wanted to teach in person classes, so every time I did one, even if it was volunteer, I used to post it the social media and have a clear description of like had a great time speaking at the United Way today, taught the you know talk women whatever how to budget for the holidays, So that way I was what I was doing was putting out my pre resumes so people knew exactly what to hire me for. And I realized that it was working. When let's just say, I remember
one time I volunteered. I helped the Girl Scout Troop get their student their their financial literacy badges, and I thought it was so cute, so I posted it. If I tell you how many Girl Scout Troops reached out to me, and I realized that I have to be mindful to post what I want to get hired for, because if I didn't want to do more and Girls Scout Troops, whause I didn't, I mean I did it for a friend of mine. It was fun. If I didn't want to do that, then it's okay not to
post that. So posting also what you want to get hired for. Some tools that will be helpful if you're going to build a site. I really like WordPress because it's almost every website designer knows how to do the back end, Like if you're using a site like a Wix or or some other sites. Sometimes not everyone's familiar with WordPress is pretty much the standard. Woolfo wu Foo is an awesome free contact form. I think it's up up to one hundred free messages a month. I believe
that you can get with woofu. So what I love about woofoo is that you can embed it on your site. But even better is that you can create the contactform on woofoo dot com and they can give you a link. So whenever I would speak like say like I said like the United Way had it awesome times speaking at the United Way teaching women how to budget. If you would like me to budget at your company or help your women to budget, contact me here and here would
not be my email. It would be my woofu form and the former pop up and it would say name, email, subject and you know what do you need or whatever, And when they filled it out, they would it would go to my email directly. Because people are inherently lazy, and so if you say email, if they're at a red light or they're at McDonald's eating, for them to stop, go to their email. Remember your email email you is.
That's a lot of steps and so if you could reduce the steps by them just clicking your contact form link that's in the bio of your IG or just a link inside your your your Facebook post or whatever, or your Twitter posts, then you can you can cut down the steps and they just click and they don't have to go to their email. They could just fill out your form. So I think those are good places for you to start. And I wish you well, I need to write a book, my friend.
I feel like you can keep going and going. I mean, it's also you're in the privileged position of having a job even while you start a business, so you know, use that to your advantage. Let them pay you and use that money to you know, use that stability while you're trying to launch your business. But I understand that I think that what I identify with this a frustration. And I feel like if you're passed up for promotion, you know, it seems like you're ready to kind of
just quit and move on. But you're what I would say, as your manager said, we didn't think this is something that you'd want to do, So I would ask yourself, I mean, maybe this isn't the job that you want long term or you're just not happy there. That's why you want to leave. But if you're at a job and someone says that to you, I mean you have to don't let them. Don't wait to be tapped on the shoulder and given a golden staircase to the next opportunity.
Sometimes you have to ask for it, and sometimes you have to not demand, but be upfront and be assertive with what you want out of your job. And if you're ready for a promotion, don't let them even use this as an excuse that we didn't think that's what you wanted to do. Don't let it be a secret. You know, not all managers pay attention, and not all managers may think that you're ready if you don't raise your hand and say that you're ready. So that's my
two cents. And everything Tiffany said was fantastic. You should write a book, tiff On.
Al I'll think, like, what, I don't know anything about business, and I'm like out of year, could you not?
You're just in the middle of it. But like reflecting on it. You have to reflect on what you've done and what's worked and what hasn't worked, and then you have so much to offer people when they ask you.
Yeah, it's not until that happens. That's why, you know, teaching is such a great tool. And this is why, I mean I tell people all the time volunteering. One it's good for your soul, it just is. And then two it's so good for you, like developmentally, because when you teach, you learn twice. So when when you're sharing your service or product with like a vulnerable population that otherwise could not invest in it, you know that you
what you're really doing is you're honing your craft. And so the more I love teaching because it makes me better. It means that it forces me to learn new things, but it also forces that what I do know to be true, I prove it like that truth over and over and over. And so, I mean, I do a lot of volunteering on the side, and sometimes it's just like talking to mentees or helping out friends because you just there's so much to learn in business. I mean
every day I'm making stuff up. I mean, I don't know. Sometimes, like someone asked me just something earlier before we started taping one of my team members, and they know I'm the queen of like girl, I don't know, Well, we're gonna figure it out, though, I mean one way or the other, it's either right or wrong. Let's try this. So and then some things I do know because we did the wrong thing two years ago, we figured out what the right thing is. And business is both terrifying
and amazing. I don't know that I could do anything else now because I've been doing it so long. But it's there are days when I'm like, I quit. I just want to be timpany to the preschool teacher. I hate everybody.
And there are days and instance there are days I'm like, I love it. This is amazing and yeah, and literally that could happen all one day, that could happen all in one hour.
Thing prepare for that major shift? And what would you say to her process? So she says she's created a name, applied for her business license, and started a website. To me, that sounds like the trappings of a business. But I feel like what she should really do is focus on what is the business? And she doesn't act. They share this in her message. Maybe she has done the work, but actually taking time to figure out what your business is first, before you get the bells and the whistles.
I always say you can look at a business, or you could be a business. There's a little girl who lives in our complex. She has to be like fourteen or fifteen, and on the weekend she braids hair. She has like a little line of other little girls that come. She sits on her little steps. Right, Chante has a business because she has a product or service that people want and they purchase that part that and they purchase
is critical. Right now. I know people who are grown with pens and websites and cards and all the trappings of business, but no one has bought anything. Chantai has a business. You know, websites and pens and all this stuff do not make business. The biggest mistake I see new business owners make is that they invest in things that don't bring a direct return on investment. ROI so you don't like now, I'm further removed, so I can
purchase things that the return comes later. But in the beginning, you cannot afford to spend money on things that that's not a direct return. Example, you are a baker. You know you wanna bake cakes. Your money should be going to a flour, eggs, sugar, whatever else, cake mix or whatever you know, because what you can do is literally you purchase those things. You make the cake, you sell
the cake. If you purchase all of these other like secondary things like a website and business cards whatever, you cannot sell a website, like if you're like a baker, that's not the point. You cannot sell business cards. So those things don't matter as much you think that they do. But ultimately people just want cake. And so until your cakes make enough money so that way you don't you're
not living hand to mouth in your business. You should really just be investing in things that it's a quick return on investment, meaning that you purchase them and they lead to a direct sale. And so that's probably, like I said, the biggest mistake. I mean, I just cleaned out my closet because since we're moving on like a month moving into our new house, I cleaned up my closet. Mandy,
I can't tell you. There were thousands of business cards flyers that never got passed out, and I'm like, oh my gosh, with like my old phone number on them, old website, and that thought how much money. There's probably hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of dollars worth of things that could have been used to grow my business when I first started, but I invested in things that looked like a business. But we're not a business.
Don't cut your day job just yet. Keep that job a little bit longer.
I feel like, yeah, have your exit plant. How much money do you need? What's your baseline? Your baseline, Well, this is what I call my baseline is like without the bells and whistles, how much money do you need monthly to support your life? And if you can get up to six months, if not longer. So you want your baseline about six months if you're able to save that much, and then you have to consider what I
call a waitressing job. I was just telling my sister this because she doesn't like her job and she's ready to take the leap, and I said, if you reduce your reduce your your living expenses and you find a less expensive place, then you can your baseline will lower, so the money you have saved will last longer, and then you could get a waitressing job, which I just call that like a job that is a low lift
mentally and it's flexible with hours. So like she's wanting to enter into like into a specific kind of like career and it needs her to be available at a moment's notice. So she needs a job that it's not going to take up a lot of space in her brain. She can kind of just do it. But also she can just be like, oh, I can't come in on Thursday. Can I come in on Friday instead? And so it's okay to have like a little side job that can pay your baseline because now you're living way cheaper, but
will allow you to pursue your dream. So it's not taking up too much of your time, not taking up too much of your of your of your mental and emotional space. And so consider those two things. And I don't care how grown you are. It's okay to say, can I move back home with my parents? Can I move with my best friend or my sister or whatever in order to pursue this, because you're you're gonna need You're going to need to reduce your personal spending if
you're going to have the leeway. What is that? The runway? Is that? What the is that what it's called? When you know, like with the plane before it takes off that they have to like go down taxing. Yeah, well you know that that is the runway, right? Yeah? So yeah, so the plenty of runway and before they take off.
If the runway is too short, a plane cannot take off and you're not gonna be able to take off unless you have a long enough runway and your runway is fund to support you while you're waiting for your business to make you money.
You're literally the Confucius of business strategy. Like you're like amazing analogy after amazing analogy. You guys writing this doll making a T shirt for us?
Please at the Africa. It in me Honestly, my dad, I just like daddy can go outside and play and he'll be like, well, one day there was an ant walking. I'm like, wait, so is that a yes? I should I should have like the African Playbook for starting a business.
Oh my god, listen, I'm gonna edit this out so no one takes your idea. Yes, go run Well, thank you. I feel like I just got school too, Jessica, thanks for your question. If you guys have questions again, hit us up at Briananbission podcast dot com.
And it's time for a boost, a breaking, a booster and a break in, a boost and a break. Are you gonna boost or are you going to break.
I mean, I can't do Michelle Obama for a second week in a row, can I? Even though it's like for something different, you could do it. I literally spent like two hours just watching every interview she's given because I love that she's on them. She's out there again. She's like doing her book tour, she's being interviewed, She's dropping gems everywhere she goes, every appearance more gems. So she was doing her first of all, I haven't seen her live because those tickets are way too damn expensive.
I'm gonna go ahead and say it. I will just you know, read my huff Post summary afterward. But she was at Barclays Center last night in New York and she called out the whole lean in philosophy. I put the quote on Instagram basically saying that sometimes in life, the whole lean in philosophy doesn't work, or in her words, that shit don't always work.
Well. Job.
Yeah, I just I feel like we just all need to hear from Michelle more often. So another plea for you guys to go read her book or just read her watch her interview. She's been amazing. But I won't, you know, cheat and make that my boost again entirely. I have another boost. I'm going to do a quick shout out for one of the task management tools that we use maybe too much at my office here. It's called Trello.
I i'men looking for a new task management and I heard about Trelo.
Do tael Trello is great. It's a productivity tool and it's a task management tool where if you're a group collaborating on a bunch of the same task or the same assignment or the same project, it's excellent. You can tag people, you can create different stages, different lists. You can move they call them boards where you keep everything organized, and you can move things from the HR board to the financial board to the attorney's board. I don't know,
I'm making stuff up. It's really fantastic and we've we've we use it for a team of about fifty people or more at my office. It's been cool. It's been super useful. So if you're looking for something in your life, I think I've talked to someone who uses it for planning her family's vacation, So it's not just for business. This is my shameless plug for Trello.
It's so funny that you said that because we're using this system called Zoho Projects, which Zoho Projects is like using a machine gun to kill a mosquito. Okay, it is so robust, Mandy, I mean it it actually makes you it's it is so russ. It's inefficient, like it's so granular and you have to do so much just to get to like what you need to do that like it's yeah, it is. I mean so I just was telling my team today, like, yo, I know, I said, I wanted all of these things, but this this is
sometimes paper and pencil is best. So we already use Slack and we've been like struggling to find a project management tool. The team's been amazing and that they get their things done without it, but as we grow, it's just not gonna be possible to just use Slack. And for those of you who don't know, Slack.
Is like as aol.
Yeah, it's just a chat exactly. So we are having a and we're using like Google Docs and it's just inefficient.
So you need Trello. There's a Google Doc attachment function, you can link it all. You guys definitely need Trello. But Trelo is like one of I think They're owned by Jira, which is another kind of task management tool that you hear about a lot j I R A. And then we also use an app. We also use a task management tool called good Day, like have a good day with our team who works remote in a
different country. But Trello is probably my favorite. It's the most simple to use, and I mean it definitely works for us, and you can really customize it to work for what you need. Hey, Trellollo, Hello, you're trying to advertise, how.
Well?
I am just going to do a nice little boost. Just this past weekend, I was in Texas to do this event called My City four Ways, And when I went to Essence, that was part of this contest for ten women entrepreneurs who presented and they pitched me their content there like business kind of.
Like talked about that before, like the like their business pitch, their elevator pitch exactly.
And so the the winner was to win a car, a two year lease for a car. And so justice uh, Saturday, when I was in Houston, this was kind of like the end event and three of the finalists came to Houston, and you know, it was just a really nice event. It was just like a woman's kind of like empowerment event. It was. It was. It was really cute, and a lot of dreamcatchers in Houston came, hey, miss CNM. And so the winner her name is Melissa Mitchell of a
Belle Creations, and I just love Melissa. She is so positive. If you see her, so her artwork is so bold and beautiful. She started off by making head wraps and she well, she started off by painting and then making head wraps, and if you just see her paintings, they're just really bold and full of life and joy. And so Melissa has been having an amazing year. So she's an IT tech and if you were to see her, you're like, there's no wit. This woman is an IT.
She looks like a like a walking like light of sunshine, you know.
Like, hey, I know a lot of nice IT people.
No, but meaning like she's just so everything she rech is just so bright. I just can't see her sitting behind a computer. So yeah, so she's she's amazing. So her pitch was awesome, her people voted for her, and she ended up winning. She was crying. I just it just was such an awesome event, and I just want to recognize Melissa because she is a So this is for who was it who was a young woman that
wrote about starting her business while she was working. Her name's Jessica, So Jessica Melissa still works in it, so she still has her even though she's been doing well. She she actually Spanks had a contest about who was going to like be their new print on whatever new Spanks theory coming out was. She won that earlier this year. She also won something else. I mean she's been having Oh Macy's. She partnered with a woman who like mixed clothing and her prints were on the clothing and they
sold out at Macy's. She's just been having an amazing and amazing year. Despite that though she said that you know, she kept her job. She's just now at a point where her her side business, her A Belle Creations, has it's making and it's a bell for those who want to follow her A B E I L L E A Bell Creations and so.
Like b and spend in French.
Yes and so she she she said, like her business is now making as much as her regular job. But she wanted to put herself on a strong financial space before she took the leap, and so that's some If you have the opportunity to do that, that's another option. But yeah, just I just want to give a shout
out to Melissa because she was just awesome. She was so appreciative and she was just crying and and and she said, it's just so funny because someone hit her card the other day and knocked off the window the sideview mirror. She was like, a sister could use this car. So yeah, that was my that was my brown beast to Melissa.
Oh shoot me like gonna put her in the show notes?
Okay, I will? Will you though, well, you know what, this is what I'm gonna do. I'm actually gonna.
Send it because I feel like I end the show like that sometimes and I don't get anything, you.
Know what my I mean, I have the word. I don't know. I would think that I have me Why I can't evemember the name of her? What's that thing when you have dementia? Is that what.
Cymer's don't make fun of dementia. That's a serious illness tip.
No, No, I would think that I would have like but I've when I say I have always been like this, I have always had a terrible memory. It's not. It's not gotten worse. It's just been the same.
I just love how cheery you're like, uh huh, sure will.
I just like it. So I've just learned to like navigate around it. One thing I've learned because I used to really go ham with people who are like no to me, you did say, and I'm like, that's not true. And now when someone says that I did say or I promise or I said, I'm like, you know what, it's likely, So my bad.
Magic apall, it is likely. I'm just teasing you. I love you, even with your forgetfulness.
Thank you. I just sent it to you on IG so that way you have it. See.
Thanks man.
Well that's awesome as per usual.
Yeah, let you guys hit us up with your questions again at Brannambisson podcast dot com. What's happening the holidays are coming up? We talked about task management tools. If you guys have tools that you love, or you have fun holiday plans, or hell, you're stressed out about your holiday finances, let us know, hit us up in our inbox.
Yeah. I know, we'd love to hear that because I'd like to see what you guys are up to are you exchanging Well, we'll leave on this. Are you exchanging gifts? I've seen the trend among the Dreamcatchers that there's significant others and themselves they're not exchanging gifts this year, that instead they're putting it toward either like a joint experience or maybe a home. So I'd love to know. Tweet us, send us a message on an install or Facebook. Are
you going to exchange gifts this year? And if not, what are you going to do instead? With your moulah?
Yeah, I'm just ignoring my husband's gift requests. He thinks for doing gifts, but we're not.
I mean, you guys bought the house you just renovated.
Am I right? Tell him that. He's like, can I have this four hundred dollars toolkit? I'm like, cool, keep sending me links. You're not getting this.
This is insane.
Yeah, all right, cool. We'll have a good week. See you guys next Wednesday.