Speaker 1: Is it your financial scaries lurking in the closet. Is
Speaker 1: it the fear about those bills you know in your
Speaker 1: mailbox right now that you haven't opened. Whatever is scaring
Speaker 1: you financially, We're going to talk about it this Halloween.
Speaker 1: For the first time ever, we are doing a live
Speaker 1: Brown Ambition YouTube extravaganza where we're going to be talking
Speaker 1: about the spooky and scary financial topics that are keeping
Speaker 1: you awake at night. So come face your fears with us.
Speaker 1: I will be here your girl Mandy Money, along with
Speaker 1: two incredible guests, Delian Barros from Ask the Money Coach
Speaker 1: and Mark Russell. If y'all have not met Mark, you
Speaker 1: are in for a treat Mark Russell from Betterwallet. They
Speaker 1: are both joining me live in the Brown Ambition studio
Speaker 1: for a special Halloween episode. So if you want to
Speaker 1: tune in, join us Monday, October thirty, first Halloween Day,
Speaker 1: at one pm Eastern that's twelve pm Central live on YouTube.
Speaker 1: To follow along, go to YouTube dot com search Brown Ambition.
Speaker 1: That's where we will be showing up live. I will
Speaker 1: see y'all on Halloween.
Speaker 2: Time for the b a q a A. The b
Speaker 2: a q A which you say the b a q
Speaker 2: a with Mandai, the b a q a with Tiffin A,
Speaker 2: the b a q a with the guest. It is
Speaker 2: a question and answer. You have questions, we have answers.
Speaker 2: Ish because we're not your mama. We're not your financialdvisor.
Speaker 2: We're not your attorney, we're not your accountant. We are
Speaker 2: just two smart brown girls who know a little thing
Speaker 2: or two about personal finance, business, entrepreneurship, and some other
Speaker 2: things too.
Speaker 3: We have hot Seed.
Speaker 2: You guys have liked it so much, we said, let's
Speaker 2: in write some more Brada Vision guests.
Speaker 3: So we have Leah in studio.
Speaker 4: He.
Speaker 1: Alco b A.
Speaker 5: Thank you for having me.
Speaker 3: Where are you from? Tell us a little bit about you.
Speaker 4: So I'm from Dallas, Texas. Well, I'm from San Antonio.
Speaker 4: I live in Dallas for the last eight years. I
Speaker 4: am a registered nurse. I have a two year old
Speaker 4: little baby, so he was born right around the time
Speaker 4: that Rio was born. I do have two small businesses,
Speaker 4: baby businesses, very baby businesses. And I'm just out here living.
Speaker 4: So that's a little about me.
Speaker 1: Go ahead, ask you what's your question about yees?
Speaker 5: So I have so I guess a little bit extra background.
Speaker 4: I'm also in the Army Reserve and so I kind
Speaker 4: of have like a part time job. So I have
Speaker 4: my main registered nurse job organization I love. They provide
Speaker 4: great benefits, material leave, all that good stuff, and they
Speaker 4: actually are just rolling out like a new program to
Speaker 4: improve a lot of that stuff.
Speaker 5: So great benefits from my full time job that I
Speaker 5: do love.
Speaker 4: Monday through Friday, I'm a reservist that provides my benefits
Speaker 4: as far as medical health, all of that kind of stuff.
Speaker 4: So those two things are taking care of from there.
Speaker 4: And then I have my businesses. So I have a
Speaker 4: boys clothing line that's just like my hobby business. When
Speaker 4: I had a little boy, there's no clothes, I wanted
Speaker 4: to provide that for people. So that's just kind of
Speaker 4: like my fun business. But I do have another business
Speaker 4: solutions agency that I'm just starting, and that is the
Speaker 4: one that I would like to eventually make my full
Speaker 4: time career as far as entrepreneurship, and so I'm thinking out.
Speaker 4: It's not something that I'm obviously ready to just quit
Speaker 4: my job and leave right now, but I am kind
Speaker 4: of thinking about that transition period. I do take care
Speaker 4: of my son by myself, so It's very important to
Speaker 4: me that I have like the stability and everything, and
Speaker 4: I don't just up and leave. I know that with
Speaker 4: the Army Reserve that takes care of the medical benefits
Speaker 4: and stuff, which gives me that peace of mind. But
Speaker 4: I guess my question is just twofold kind of how
Speaker 4: do I come up with a good work plan as
Speaker 4: far as the entrepreneurship side of slowly being able to
Speaker 4: grow my business but effectively running it?
Speaker 5: Kind of do you.
Speaker 4: Organize yourself, organize your thoughts things like that. And then
Speaker 4: on the other hand, what things do I think about
Speaker 4: because I know in the future that I am going
Speaker 4: to want to transition. What other things am I missing
Speaker 4: while I'm thinking about benefits things like that?
Speaker 1: Okay, tell me what the business solutions business is?
Speaker 4: What is that? So we kind of provide just the
Speaker 4: goal of it is to provide different resources for small
Speaker 4: business owners, so kind of virtual assistance meets consulting. But
Speaker 4: I am not a business I don't have a business background,
Speaker 4: So my goal is just to really provide education and
Speaker 4: resources to people that are wanting to start their own businesses,
Speaker 4: specifically black and brown people because where I work, a
Speaker 4: lot of people a lot of our patients and things
Speaker 4: like that, they don't have access to these different resources
Speaker 4: in the communities. They may not be able to go
Speaker 4: to college, they may not know the entrepreneurship is an option,
Speaker 4: and they may not be able to go to business
Speaker 4: school to find out that information. But maybe some sort
Speaker 4: of resources that we can provide that. It's like, hey,
Speaker 4: here is what I'm working on now, is like a
Speaker 4: business startup checklist, Like these are things you don't need
Speaker 4: to learn in school. These are things that you can
Speaker 4: find resources for free to low cost resources and here
Speaker 4: you go, and then in starting that business. Hey, we
Speaker 4: also provide support for administrative services to small businesses that
Speaker 4: are just starting up. We provide social media management. I know,
Speaker 4: in this day and age, everybody wants like high ticket
Speaker 4: clients and they want to do these big, high ticket
Speaker 4: packages and things like that, and that's not really my goal.
Speaker 4: My goal is to provide as many cost effective resources
Speaker 4: to small business owners with the hopes that we can
Speaker 4: build businesses within our communities that offer jobs for other
Speaker 4: people that look like us.
Speaker 2: So you're like the support the support staff that you're
Speaker 2: the woman behind the woman.
Speaker 5: Yeah, basically, yes.
Speaker 3: I love that idea.
Speaker 1: Because you know, virtual assistance are I feel like one
Speaker 1: of the easiest not I mean, obviously it's not an
Speaker 1: easy job, but I mean in terms of the demand
Speaker 1: for it is so high because look at all these
Speaker 1: online entrepreneurs that have sprung up since the pandemic, and
Speaker 1: I mean I have had a couple of I already
Speaker 1: have two virtual assistants, and you know, it is one
Speaker 1: of the first lines of defense for new business owners
Speaker 1: to hire some administrative support, and I think one of
Speaker 1: the smartest first hires you can make. So I think
Speaker 1: that there's like tons of potential there, you know. And
Speaker 1: for anyone listening who's thinking about like I want to
Speaker 1: start like my own business, I'm like, hey, virtual assistance,
Speaker 1: like get some come on, like where we need y'all
Speaker 1: come find us.
Speaker 2: And honestly, it's probably the number one thing my entrepreneur
Speaker 2: friends high low in the middle just started been in
Speaker 2: business for a while. It's one of the first things
Speaker 2: asked me, girl, do you know I can find a
Speaker 2: virtual assistant? So when I got excited, Leah when you
Speaker 2: said that, because you are not going to have a
Speaker 2: lack of client. So a few things to consider, like,
Speaker 2: you know, because you have this job. So you're like,
Speaker 2: you know, one foot in, you know, one foot kind
Speaker 2: of like out considering one how much one you know,
Speaker 2: you got to get down to brass tax about like
Speaker 2: your budget, right, how much money do you need to.
Speaker 3: Make to support your current lifestyle?
Speaker 2: And so you know, we you know, hopefully we all
Speaker 2: understand net versus growth, net versus gross, meaning you might say,
Speaker 2: you know, although I make I'm just making up numbers
Speaker 2: for you seventy thousand as a nurse, I really take
Speaker 2: home fifty, So I would need to make at least fifty,
Speaker 2: And so that's not fifty gross business because after taxes,
Speaker 2: after paying expenses and operational things, maybe fifty really is
Speaker 2: twenty five.
Speaker 3: You know, so you would have to get clear on
Speaker 3: your numbers.
Speaker 2: How much do I need to actually take home in
Speaker 2: order to maintain my lifestyle for me and my son,
Speaker 2: And so you know, you set that as a goal
Speaker 2: for being able to say, Okay, when I get within
Speaker 2: range of this, this is when I can just consider
Speaker 2: taking a leap. That's one thing. It's like how much
Speaker 2: do I need to make? You know, too, are there
Speaker 2: things you can do to cut back on expenses? So
Speaker 2: normally I'm not a big old cut back person.
Speaker 3: I don't know. People think I'm the budgetista. I am no.
Speaker 2: But when you are starting a business, you know, it's
Speaker 2: really in your best interest to lean out a little
Speaker 2: bit because you want what you know, some runway, meaning
Speaker 2: that like you know, your business might take a little
Speaker 2: time to get up and running, and so you don't
Speaker 2: want to squander any money unnecessaries while you're figuring out
Speaker 2: your business. So let's just say your life is you
Speaker 2: live off of fifty, but you could live off of forty.
Speaker 2: So it's like, okay, you know, let's live off for
Speaker 2: forty for the next few months to see, like you know,
Speaker 2: you know, as I make this transition into having my
Speaker 2: own business full time, it gives me more runway.
Speaker 3: So if I don't have.
Speaker 2: A really great month or whatever, you know, there's some
Speaker 2: space there I would be joining like different like online communities.
Speaker 2: So the one that I like, I always talk about
Speaker 2: it is Yes, it's good. I was gonna say, that's
Speaker 2: a really great space because one you're gonna buyd people.
Speaker 2: There's gonna be so many entrepreneurs in there who need
Speaker 2: executive admins.
Speaker 3: But and also to just getting your feet wet about
Speaker 3: like what's normal, what's not normal? Whatever?
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: I have my mentor Tiffany dot com where I mentor
Speaker 2: black women and business for ten bucks a month. Matter
Speaker 2: of fact, I'm gonna I mean, by the time it's areas,
Speaker 2: it'll be too late. But just for your sake, I'm
Speaker 2: coming to Dallas actually on Wednesday. Okay, we're doing so
Speaker 2: I'll you at the meetup.
Speaker 5: No, I actually have a flight that day.
Speaker 3: Oh I know.
Speaker 2: Okay, so yeah, so like, because you want to normalize
Speaker 2: what business kind of like looks like by like, you know,
Speaker 2: getting in the mix with other women and business. The
Speaker 2: good thing is that after our meetup, our mentorship meetup,
Speaker 2: I'm going to create like a doc that you guys
Speaker 2: can put all your information so you can connect with
Speaker 2: each other.
Speaker 3: Because that's part it's going to be really important.
Speaker 6: We deserve a little breaky break, all right, let's take
Speaker 6: a break.
Speaker 2: But anything like Mandy, because you just made this transition, Like,
Speaker 2: what are some things you were like?
Speaker 3: Oh wish I would have known, you.
Speaker 1: Know, well, I think the first thing that you said
Speaker 1: was the first thing that I did, which was talk
Speaker 1: with my financial planner and she gave me my monthly
Speaker 1: income number. It was ten thousand, and I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: bet Now I started off with a big cash fund
Speaker 1: like I had been saving for so long throughout my
Speaker 1: career that I had about twelve months worth of income
Speaker 1: set aside, and I felt so I had some comfort
Speaker 1: in that. And I'm wondering, and now I'm not saying
Speaker 1: every entrepreneur needs that. It just happened to have had it,
Speaker 1: And believe me, it ain't there anymore because it's been
Speaker 1: two years and life is expensive. But anyway, so is
Speaker 1: there Like Tiffany said, as you're cutting back. If you're
Speaker 1: cutting back, you know, can you start stockpiling and beefing
Speaker 1: up your savings because you know you are going to
Speaker 1: be your own your own boss in that way, your
Speaker 1: own employer. And then for me, my concern or my
Speaker 1: question is, as you're scaling the business and starting the business,
Speaker 1: it sounds like you're going to be more than just
Speaker 1: yourself because I as you know, great the virtual assistant
Speaker 1: spaces and how much we need it. It's like high touch.
Speaker 1: You know you're going to be in the weeds with entrepreneurs.
Speaker 1: So I'm wondering, how can you structure it so that
Speaker 1: you have the support that you need. You can take
Speaker 1: on more clients, but not you. I can't imagine what
Speaker 1: it would be like for you to be trying to
Speaker 1: juggle as many clients that you would need to juggle
Speaker 1: to get to that. You know that over that big
Speaker 1: number that you would need. You know your monthly income number,
Speaker 1: so maybe you create that monthly income number and then
Speaker 1: you back into it. Okay, so how much could I
Speaker 1: charge an hour or how many packages could I create?
Speaker 1: If I I'm not going to say if I would
Speaker 1: go back, I would do it this way because I
Speaker 1: think I like that. I started out my business offering
Speaker 1: free coaching and then paid coaching. It was a focus
Speaker 1: group for me. It was learning the market. It was
Speaker 1: understanding what my clients needed, what women needed, what they
Speaker 1: were asking for. So then I could build the mandy
Speaker 1: money makers into the thing that they all wanted to
Speaker 1: solve all their pain points. But now I spent that
Speaker 1: like a year and a half doing that, and now
Speaker 1: I'm creating prepackaged things on demand, things like products and
Speaker 1: services that don't require me to be there live. So
Speaker 1: as you're thinking of moving forward, what are some what
Speaker 1: are some solutions that you can provide business owners that
Speaker 1: don't require your time. You can do it once and
Speaker 1: then package and sell it, you know, so that that
Speaker 1: can be one of your income streams other than having
Speaker 1: like one on one client work, because that of course
Speaker 1: can become really demanding.
Speaker 4: Yeah, right now, my biggest I guess my biggest project
Speaker 4: is really out like some sort of a book, booklet, ebook,
Speaker 4: kind of the thing resource guide.
Speaker 5: Whereas when I make it little lead magnet, yes, but something.
Speaker 4: Well, right now I have the checklist that's kind of
Speaker 4: the lead magnet, and then the book is going to
Speaker 4: be kind of more in depth from the checklist, and
Speaker 4: so that will be for a low cost like maybe
Speaker 4: like twenty books or something, but kind of get that
Speaker 4: income going and then also be able to still help
Speaker 4: for a good not super expensive costs. But once I
Speaker 4: write it once, I don't need to continue to write it.
Speaker 4: And some people just want to guide, and so those
Speaker 4: people can just have a guide and they don't need
Speaker 4: me to do that.
Speaker 2: As you like, you know, don't be afraid to really
Speaker 2: lean in a niche into what your.
Speaker 3: Specific expertise is.
Speaker 2: You know, I think that the the temptation for many
Speaker 2: new entrepreneurs, so like so many of us, is that
Speaker 2: we do all the things right, I don't do this
Speaker 2: or do this, I do this, or even if you're
Speaker 2: good at a lot of things, because me and Mandy
Speaker 2: right man, we had this chat the other day and
Speaker 2: when you're like, I'm really good at this, this, this
Speaker 2: and this, and I was just like, Okay, well these
Speaker 2: are all things. I'm not saying you won't get to
Speaker 2: those things, but what's the core thing you can focus
Speaker 2: on right right right now that's really going to connect
Speaker 2: with your audience. And so making sure to you know,
Speaker 2: don't be afraid to niche down and say, you know
Speaker 2: what I'm although I have this bigger, broader idea, I'm
Speaker 2: going to lean into getting people admins and executive assistance,
Speaker 2: you know, because that's something that, like I told you, like,
Speaker 2: if you type an admin or executive assistant into the
Speaker 2: arcist group, you're going to see that over and over
Speaker 2: and over and over. And so there's nothing wrong with saying,
Speaker 2: what's the fastest way to get my business up and
Speaker 2: running by leaning into this core thing and then expanding
Speaker 2: later because oftentimes people.
Speaker 3: Are like, no, but I'm good at so many things.
Speaker 2: There are still some things that you know, I know
Speaker 2: that I'm good at that haven't even gotten to yet,
Speaker 2: you know, you know, through my business, and I'm just like,
Speaker 2: you know, maybe in two years I'll roll that other
Speaker 2: thing out. And you know, so don't be afraid to like,
Speaker 2: you know, to get really granular and be like, Okay,
Speaker 2: this is this is my opening, because you don't want
Speaker 2: to be what I call buffet business. You know, you
Speaker 2: really want to be focused on a specific thing that
Speaker 2: you're going to deliver and to build trust with that thing.
Speaker 2: First and foremost. The best way to get better at
Speaker 2: business is just to do it. To acknowledge you're going
Speaker 2: to make a bunch of mistakes, to ask questions, to
Speaker 2: get back up and do it again, and so like,
Speaker 2: you know, the fact that you're asking these questions, that's great.
Speaker 2: Put one foot out there and you know, and just
Speaker 2: you know, get to the business of doing and then
Speaker 2: learn the lessons and then do it again, and then
Speaker 2: learn the lessons and do it again.
Speaker 3: Anything else? Many one? Any last parting words for Leah?
Speaker 1: Yes, my last parting word is even if, like let's say,
Speaker 1: the worst I think your worst case scenario is that
Speaker 1: you launch your own business, you end up walking away
Speaker 1: from your stable job, and healthcare and all of that.
Speaker 1: And let's say the business goes belly up and you're bankrupt.
Speaker 1: You still have all the skills. You can't take away
Speaker 1: your nursing knowledge. You can go back and find nine
Speaker 1: to five work. I think that's the fear. And I
Speaker 1: just want to say, like Tiffany reminds me, She's like,
Speaker 1: you're going to be okay, you what do you What's.
Speaker 3: The thing you always tell me to like you talk?
Speaker 2: Is smart, You work with integrity, work with Yes, you
Speaker 2: work hard, You're going to make money.
Speaker 3: You're gonna make money.
Speaker 2: That you are that will like that might take a
Speaker 2: look time, but you will. I promise You're smart, you
Speaker 2: work hard, you're consistent, you work with integrity.
Speaker 3: You will make money. You know, maybe not right away,
Speaker 3: but you will.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: So we wish you luckilyah luck. We would congratulate to
Speaker 2: in advance. If you want to be in the hot
Speaker 2: seat and ask Mandy and I questions about business, entrepreneurship,
Speaker 2: personal finance, and otherwise, we invite you into our Instagram dms,
Speaker 2: leave us a voice note with your question and maybe
Speaker 2: we'll have you virtually in the studio in the stew.
Speaker 6: Hey Ba Fam We could not do this show without
Speaker 6: your support or the support of our team behind the scenes.
Speaker 6: The Brown Emission Podcast is produced by Cumulus Podcast Network.
Speaker 6: It's edited by the wonderful Emani Crosby and produced by
Speaker 6: Tanya Bustos. Dennis Stimplinsky is our in house tech guru,
Speaker 6: and I am Bandy Woodard Santos, your co host, and
Speaker 6: I will see y'all next week.