Speaker 1: Hey ba fam, I am joined today by an incredible guest.
Speaker 1: She has been on the show before and after. Now
Speaker 1: that I've had the conversation with Denise, I just written
Speaker 1: I talk to her, I'm like, Oh, you're actually a
Speaker 1: human ray of sunshine and such a like a real
Speaker 1: down to earth, powerful, quietly powerful woman who just is
Speaker 1: really grounded in her impact. She's grounded in what she
Speaker 1: wants out of life and the value she brings to others.
Speaker 1: And I just feel better after spending time chatting with Denise,
Speaker 1: And I'm just so excited for her, and her book
Speaker 1: is coming out. You guys are going to hear all
Speaker 1: about it. But let me tell y'all for those who
Speaker 1: are not aware of Denise Torres, my one of my
Speaker 1: favorite people just in life. Right now, I'll tell you
Speaker 1: a little bit about her before we get into our chat.
Speaker 1: She is an award winning Latina money expert in entrepreneurship coach.
Speaker 1: She became an accidental entrepreneur after job loss led her
Speaker 1: to create a successful Latin food blog called Delish Delights.
Speaker 1: But as you'll hear in our conversation, that is just
Speaker 1: one of almost ten different business revenue streams that she
Speaker 1: has built for herself over the past decade and today,
Speaker 1: Janice helps clients and listeners build successful online businesses that
Speaker 1: allow them to pursue financial independence and freedom, not just
Speaker 1: from the nine to five grind, but the freedom to
Speaker 1: redefine what success means for you. And we'll talk about
Speaker 1: how Janice has redefined what success means for her even
Speaker 1: as an influencer and entrepreneur herself. Like there's things that
Speaker 1: she's been like, oh, hell no, I can make money
Speaker 1: from that, but no, I don't want to because I
Speaker 1: actually want some free time. So if we get into
Speaker 1: everything everything from her dating life after divorce to building,
Speaker 1: like we said, the multiple businesses that she has and
Speaker 1: sort of how the how building a business online can
Speaker 1: even make you feel disconnected from reality and from community,
Speaker 1: but how she's counterbalanced that so that she has created
Speaker 1: this incredible yokidto de Naro family. And Janice has always
Speaker 1: focused on her impact. She's on a mission to educate
Speaker 1: marginalized communities on entrepreneurship, investing and building generational wealth. And
Speaker 1: her podcast Jokito di Nero, you have to go check
Speaker 1: it out. And without further ado, let's just get on
Speaker 1: into our conversation with Denise. Oh and by the way,
Speaker 1: don't forget to go pick up her brand new, first
Speaker 1: ever book. You will be hard pressed to miss it
Speaker 1: on bookshelves because you just look for the sign that
Speaker 1: says financially lit with the gorgeous blonde and the hot
Speaker 1: pink power suit on the cover. It is everything. Please
Speaker 1: go pick up your copy. You can also head to
Speaker 1: financially litbook dot com. And Jenis is going on a booktory. Y'all,
Speaker 1: so join me. I'm going to be at her stop
Speaker 1: in New York City on May second, I believe, So
Speaker 1: join us celebrate this incredible woman and all she has
Speaker 1: to offer, and I will let I'll get out of
Speaker 1: my way. So y'all can hear my conversation with Jennie's
Speaker 1: right now? All right to be a fam? I almost
Speaker 1: said me hyn't they? But I guess totally can say mehn, Hello,
Speaker 1: v a fam. I am joined by friend of the show,
Speaker 1: friend of me, the beautiful, the talented, the incredible Janie Torres,
Speaker 1: who has a brand new, gorgeous book coming out. I
Speaker 1: know that it's full of facts and insights for anyone
Speaker 1: who wants to learn how to get their financial issue together. Jenise.
Speaker 1: But can I just say the cover, it's everything, Thank
Speaker 1: you Barbie. Before did you even know Barbarie was going
Speaker 1: to be a cultural phenomenon? I did not the memo. Okay,
Speaker 1: that the hot pink with the blonde that is serendipitous
Speaker 1: on another level. But your brand new book, financially Lit
Speaker 1: the mod I'm reading it from behind you The Modern
Speaker 1: Latina's Guide to level Up? Wait, read the whole thing.
Speaker 1: What's it called? I'm always bad at the subtitle?
Speaker 2: Yes, it's financially Lit. The Modern Latina's Guide to level
Speaker 2: Up your dinetto and become financially bodosa O.
Speaker 1: I love that. So, if you guys have not heard
Speaker 1: our show with Jeannie's in the past, give the folks
Speaker 1: a little tidbit. How would you describe yourself today? Sort
Speaker 1: of like what is the Jenese package people can expect.
Speaker 2: Yes, So, I am a personal finance podcaster, educator, business coach,
Speaker 2: and serial entrepreneur that helps women of color financially level up.
Speaker 2: And I do that in a lot of different ways.
Speaker 2: I love focusing on the areas of financial independence and
Speaker 2: entrepreneurship because that has been my path to breaking out
Speaker 2: of the corporate rat race, retiring from my engineering career
Speaker 2: in my mid thirties and now being able to pursue
Speaker 2: basically a life built around options and freedom. And it's
Speaker 2: all been thanks to learning about money.
Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely, and Denise, I was a fan before I
Speaker 1: was a friend. I think forget I went through this
Speaker 1: moment when I launched my business a few years ago.
Speaker 1: It'll be three years this June, my business adversary, and
Speaker 1: I remember I probably told the story before, but I
Speaker 1: remember kind of thinking, oh, I need new friends because
Speaker 1: I don't have a lot of friends. I mean, obviously
Speaker 1: I have Tiffany, but it had been the pandemic. It
Speaker 1: had I had been in a nine to five, more
Speaker 1: traditional career, and even like I said with the podcast,
Speaker 1: I really just knew Tiffany. I didn't go out of
Speaker 1: my way to form new connections because see also pandemic baby, right.
Speaker 1: I was in a little bit of a haze anyhow.
Speaker 1: But one of my the very first work trip I
Speaker 1: ever took was to finn Con. But prior to that,
Speaker 1: which is I got to meet you in person them,
Speaker 1: But prior to that, I was like, I need to
Speaker 1: reach out to people that I'm seeing, like really kill it?
Speaker 1: Who are fun and seem fun, and you're one of
Speaker 1: the first people I reached out to just to be like, Hi, Ah,
Speaker 1: I'd love to talk on the internet.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the pandemic was a really special time for like
Speaker 2: personal finance influencers. I think it was just like a
Speaker 2: boom and we got to meet so many interesting, incredible
Speaker 2: people thanks to the algorithm.
Speaker 1: Yeah, a shout out to those algos and we love them,
Speaker 1: but we also hate them. Yes, I actually wanted to
Speaker 1: talk to you. I know that I was texting just
Speaker 1: to kind of see what you wanted to touch on today.
Speaker 1: And I for sure want to chat about the personal
Speaker 1: and where that sort of intersects with the business side
Speaker 1: and the financial side for you. But Ai, I'm dying
Speaker 1: to talk to you about it because you know, a
Speaker 1: huge part of your entrepreneurial journey has been teaching people
Speaker 1: how to start side hustles with a blog, right. And
Speaker 1: I also I have had blogs over the years, but
Speaker 1: my backgrounds and journalism as a journalist for many years,
Speaker 1: I still kind of am like somewhat a journalist. I
Speaker 1: don't know, I hold myself accountable. But also I was
Speaker 1: in content marketing, which is SEO. It's search engine optimization.
Speaker 1: It's creating content that Google is the algorithm again, is
Speaker 1: gonna up on a silver platter on the search results page.
Speaker 1: And I just know, like before I left that, before
Speaker 1: I left that space content marketing in twenty twenty one,
Speaker 1: it was like AI was becoming a thing, and I
Speaker 1: remember feeling really uncomfortable about other sites competitors of ours
Speaker 1: that I heard who were using AI to create content.
Speaker 1: I don't want to go down that rabbit hole just yet,
Speaker 1: but I'm just like bookmarking it in my brain for later. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but let's bring it to the book. Okay, your book
Speaker 1: is coming out. If you guys have not gotten your copy,
Speaker 1: where can they go to grab one? Do you have?
Speaker 1: What's the main website? Is it?
Speaker 2: Financially litbook dot com? Super easy to remember, and you
Speaker 2: can order both the hard copy and the audiobook version.
Speaker 2: Which I was just informed that we were named one
Speaker 2: of Audible's most buzzworthy releases of twenty twenty four. WHOA,
Speaker 2: which is wild because you think about just like how
Speaker 2: many audiobooks come out in a single quarter. It's like,
Speaker 2: holy crap, somebody's listening to this and somebody likes it.
Speaker 1: Well, the thing is like if you love which you know,
Speaker 1: your podcast Yo Kioto Dinano, which everyone should check out,
Speaker 1: is wonderful, and I think you can listen to. I mean,
Speaker 1: how many hours is your audiobook?
Speaker 2: Oh, it's I think at least like eight hours.
Speaker 1: I hope that's like eight episodes of the show, you know,
Speaker 1: So I feel like if fans have been hearing you
Speaker 1: in that format, it's I think it's great. I love
Speaker 1: audio books myself. Yeah, me too, But let's take that off.
Speaker 1: You're going on your book tour, so you're gonna be
Speaker 1: hitting some big cities.
Speaker 2: You're coming to Yo, coming to New York, Dallas, La, Tampa, Miami, Orlando, and.
Speaker 1: More stops on the way.
Speaker 2: So I'm really excited to just see and hug real
Speaker 2: life people because, you know, just like you, my personal
Speaker 2: finance brand blew up during the pandemic, so I'm still
Speaker 2: like just getting a chance to get out there and
Speaker 2: be amongst the community. And I think that's honestly my
Speaker 2: favorite part of this whole thing. Do you feel, genuinely?
Speaker 1: Because I was just to like ticket some more real
Speaker 1: not that we haven't been real, but I was listening.
Speaker 1: I told you, I was blow drying my hair and
Speaker 1: I was listening to in between the blow drawing. You
Speaker 1: know you have downtimes resting my arm. I was listening
Speaker 1: to this incredible episode of I Love Estare Perell's podcast,
Speaker 1: Where Should We Begin? She's a relationship sex expert. You know,
Speaker 1: she's gone viral on multiple TED talks and anyway, her
Speaker 1: and Brene Brown got together at I think it was
Speaker 1: south By What happens in Texas? Was it south By? South?
Speaker 1: I think so, yeah, I think Austin, Yeah, something in
Speaker 1: Austin AnyWho, And they were talking about AI a little bit,
Speaker 1: but really they were talking about like the the level
Speaker 1: of loneliness even though we have so many friends online,
Speaker 1: which isn't necessarily a new topic, but something that they
Speaker 1: said really resonated with me. It was like the kind
Speaker 1: of content that does so well even though you know,
Speaker 1: being online is sort of like this. It's like a
Speaker 1: shield that we use to connect with people who but
Speaker 1: we're not really like you have a thousand friends, But
Speaker 1: who's going to feed your cat? Is the question that
Speaker 1: they pose. However, they do draw this connection to how
Speaker 1: the content that really goes viral and connects with people
Speaker 1: is often very personal, very like vulnerable, and I think
Speaker 1: of you in there, because you have been I think
Speaker 1: vulnerable and sharing a lot of your personal journey, not
Speaker 1: just from working nine to five and that toxic culture
Speaker 1: and engineering and all that, but even in your your
Speaker 1: personal life, personal personal life. You know, you talk about
Speaker 1: deciding how long has it been? Has it been a
Speaker 1: year yet? Two years? Yeah, it'll be two years in November.
Speaker 1: In November, okay, so here and a half ish since
Speaker 1: your since you separated from your then husband and you've
Speaker 1: been divorced, and you, you know, you share that, And
Speaker 1: I just wondered, as you're talking about getting to hug
Speaker 1: and like physically be present with your community, have you
Speaker 1: felt that human connection through the community that you've built
Speaker 1: to feel like authentic and real and how has that
Speaker 1: helped you during these like difficult times, not just personal
Speaker 1: but the pandemic on top of that. Yeah?
Speaker 2: Absolutely, I mean, I think the impact of what we
Speaker 2: do as financial educators. You can see metrics, right, you
Speaker 2: can look at your analytics and just how many downloads
Speaker 2: did the podcast get or how many likes did this
Speaker 2: post get. But when you meet actual people and they
Speaker 2: burst into tears meeting you, which has happened to me
Speaker 2: multiple times, or I get like spotted out in the
Speaker 2: world and they're like, oh my god, it's you.
Speaker 1: I listened to your show.
Speaker 2: You realize that, like these are whole ass humans that
Speaker 2: are listening to your content, that are taking in your information.
Speaker 2: And I think it's a good reminder for me to
Speaker 2: just like take the job seriously because you can have
Speaker 2: real impact, you know, and when people trust you, I
Speaker 2: think that's the most valuable form of currency that we
Speaker 2: can have as business owners. That is literally how brands
Speaker 2: are built on trust. And so I take that very
Speaker 2: seriously and I'm not afraid to, like, you know, put
Speaker 2: my flag in the sand and like this is where
Speaker 2: I draw the line. And I'm not just going to
Speaker 2: go hop on another trend because that's what people are doing.
Speaker 1: Like if I don't.
Speaker 2: Genuinely endorse something or just believe something, I'm just never
Speaker 2: going to be the type of creator that takes a
Speaker 2: big enough check to you know, look the other way.
Speaker 2: And yeah, I mean for me, as somebody who primarily
Speaker 2: obviously works from home, a lot of the work I
Speaker 2: do is virtual, it's great to just get out there
Speaker 2: and remember that these are actual people people that buy
Speaker 2: my courses and that review the show and that support
Speaker 2: the work that I'm doing.
Speaker 1: It's it's very humbling and I'm really grateful for it.
Speaker 1: I'm really excited for you to get that experience too,
Speaker 1: to be loved by your people. Thank you, you know,
Speaker 1: and I'll be there cheering you on as well. Yay,
Speaker 1: which I'm excited to squeeze you too, you little nugget.
Speaker 1: I remember meeting you for the first time being like, oh,
Speaker 1: everybody is such a peanut.
Speaker 2: Yes, everything so much taller on social media than they are.
Speaker 1: Those angles. We know how to make an angle. But
Speaker 1: uh yeah, and not only that, but well, I also
Speaker 1: I think about you and your love for Zoomba, which
Speaker 1: I was a diehard zoom for Freak as well. I
Speaker 1: kind of fell off because there's not a good class
Speaker 1: up here where I live in my goodness. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: very annoying. There's no flavor. That's not true. There's flavor,
Speaker 1: but not and there's not not you know, convenient to
Speaker 1: me and where I live, but Zoomba too. Like, I
Speaker 1: just wonder what are some of the ways as an
Speaker 1: online entrepreneur yourself that you have found to stay connected
Speaker 1: and to not get into that trap of working in
Speaker 1: a vacuum, and what is all this for. I don't
Speaker 1: have anybody like you've got. You have so much. You
Speaker 1: have a rich life, not just in business and finances,
Speaker 1: but how yeah, how what are the ways and strategies
Speaker 1: that you use just to keep grounded and to stay connected.
Speaker 2: I think it is having an entire life off of
Speaker 2: social media. You know. It's like this is just one
Speaker 2: small part of what people see. But you know, I
Speaker 2: have friends. Two of my best friends are people that
Speaker 2: I went to like grammar school with that we've known
Speaker 2: each other since we're eleven years old, you know, and
Speaker 2: they're just normal people.
Speaker 1: They're not out here like always jealous of stories like that.
Speaker 1: I ain't got nobody from my grammar school years. College
Speaker 1: is where I kind of pick up.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, I mean like there's just you know, my
Speaker 2: family is still just sees Janie.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: My partner didn't even know like what I did when
Speaker 2: we first met, and he's still like, Okay, that's cool,
Speaker 2: but like that's not why I'm with you, you know.
Speaker 2: So there's just like so many reminders that our identities
Speaker 2: as entrepreneurs and as creators.
Speaker 1: That's just like one small sliver.
Speaker 2: And I think the best way that I do or
Speaker 2: the best way that I can stay grounded, is just
Speaker 2: not letting that consume me and not letting that be
Speaker 2: the focus of all of my energy, because you know,
Speaker 2: at the end of the day, like they say, nobody
Speaker 2: writes your title on your tombstone. You know, that's not
Speaker 2: why people remember you. It's about the impact that you had,
Speaker 2: the time that you poured into the people that you
Speaker 2: care about. So that has to be the focus because
Speaker 2: what was it all for at the end of the day.
Speaker 1: So what is it that makes your life outside of
Speaker 1: like work and the online grind and this book tour?
Speaker 1: What are you doing that is feeding you back?
Speaker 2: Well, I'm definitely involving my family in like a big
Speaker 2: part of this journey. So my sister is actually going
Speaker 2: to moderate my talk in Tampa. My dad's going to
Speaker 2: be going with me to WNYC Studios to like watch
Speaker 2: me do an interview.
Speaker 1: My mom's going to be coming on the book tour.
Speaker 2: So just like the fact that I get to share
Speaker 2: what I'm doing with them in a way that you know,
Speaker 2: they say it online and stuff, but they don't get
Speaker 2: to experience it on that level. I'm really excited to
Speaker 2: just bring them into my world because they've been the
Speaker 2: biggest support.
Speaker 1: You know, even though they thought it.
Speaker 2: Was nuts, they also have just understood that, like I
Speaker 2: had a vision and to trust me with it. So
Speaker 2: I'm super excited about that. And also just like putting
Speaker 2: some downtime in, you know, like taking vacations. And I'm
Speaker 2: also not putting pressure on myself to like achieve some
Speaker 2: sort of metric when it comes to business. You know,
Speaker 2: I don't have this this like insatiable hunger to continuously
Speaker 2: scale and to get on the New York Times bestseller
Speaker 2: list and all these things. I'm just like whatever is
Speaker 2: meant to be will be. And just the fact that
Speaker 2: I get to do this incredible work, which is not
Speaker 2: even work. It's just like ridiculous that I even get
Speaker 2: to just talk about money and connect with people and
Speaker 2: call this a career. Like I'm so grateful for that
Speaker 2: that anything else that comes out of it, accolades, titles, opportunities,
Speaker 2: blah bla blah whatever, that's just bonus.
Speaker 1: But that's never my focus. Heyba fan, We're going to
Speaker 1: take a quick break and be right back with more
Speaker 1: with Denise Torres. I'm so happy, So I mean maybe
Speaker 1: I sort of knew I was going to be speaking
Speaker 1: to you, and I started thinking about we don't have
Speaker 1: guests at time on the show, but we have had
Speaker 1: some guests where and I'm always like, dang it, I
Speaker 1: don't know if that was the bright person, only because
Speaker 1: I really want to be careful with who we share
Speaker 1: our audience with, because I want people to be learning
Speaker 1: and engaging with people who have sort of their eye
Speaker 1: on the big picture, like people who can still go
Speaker 1: outside and appreciate the sunshine and appreciate the little things
Speaker 1: and human connection and are not chasing a huge goal
Speaker 1: and chasing numbers and accolades. Like you said. Those things
Speaker 1: are incredible and they will come. But I just love
Speaker 1: the mindset that you have. And I'm reminded again why
Speaker 1: I was like, Deanie, we must be from because you
Speaker 1: just are someone who gets it and at least gets
Speaker 1: it on a level that I also get it. Where
Speaker 1: for me, it's I love what we get to do.
Speaker 1: It's fun. It doesn't feel like work unless you start
Speaker 1: being tied to the algorithm and then it is a job.
Speaker 1: But getting to sort of show up authentically and share
Speaker 1: little nuggets has been working, and so and I was
Speaker 1: kind of talking to Tiffany this morning, and by the way,
Speaker 1: she's sorry, she's actually in Florida. Oh good for her,
Speaker 1: can't be with us today anyhow. But yeah, I was
Speaker 1: talking to her and I was like, yeah, I remember
Speaker 1: this guest, and they just felt like they felt like
Speaker 1: they weren't enjoying any of it. They were going on
Speaker 1: this book tour and they were talking about it as
Speaker 1: if it was like a huge drag. But then I'm
Speaker 1: hearing you and I was like, well, dang, I would
Speaker 1: love to be able to like get a crowd at
Speaker 1: a huge venue, you know, just to talk about your book.
Speaker 1: Are you kidding me? Like, that's that's the dream. But
Speaker 1: it wasn't, you know, for them, it wasn't where their
Speaker 1: goal posts were, which is which is fine and fair.
Speaker 1: But for me, what I'm craving is I feel like
Speaker 1: what you're craving. And especially as I am on the
Speaker 1: very beginning of my book journey, it feels like I've
Speaker 1: been on the very beginning for a long time. It's
Speaker 1: great to have an example to look at of, oh,
Speaker 1: you're actually not driving yourself that shit crazy, you know,
Speaker 1: and trying to get on the bestseller lists and all that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, like what's the point.
Speaker 2: And I think so many people fall victim to like
Speaker 2: wanting to live out somebody else's version of success because
Speaker 2: that's just what they think they should want. And that's
Speaker 2: something that I touch on in the book. Is just
Speaker 2: this idea of all those things that are on your checklist,
Speaker 2: like who put them on there? Is it your family,
Speaker 2: your community, your friends, Like who's influencing the decisions that
Speaker 2: you make when it comes to your career and how
Speaker 2: you spend your money and the things that you prioritize,
Speaker 2: you know. I know for me, I had a lot
Speaker 2: of these things on my checklist that now looking back,
Speaker 2: I'm like, I didn't even put this stuff on here.
Speaker 2: This was just projected onto me, like I need to
Speaker 2: go become an engineer because that's going to make me
Speaker 2: a lot of money. I never asked myself like, is
Speaker 2: that actually what you want to do? Is that going
Speaker 2: to make you happy? Are you going to feel fulfilled
Speaker 2: by this decision? The same thing with home ownership. It
Speaker 2: was the pressure of well, you're turning thirty, and this
Speaker 2: is just what responsible thirty something year olds do they
Speaker 2: buy homes. But then looking back, I realized I don't
Speaker 2: even like living in New Jersey at the time, Why
Speaker 2: the hell would I buy a house to and be
Speaker 2: stuck here, you know. And then it also represented me
Speaker 2: having to stay in a career because.
Speaker 1: I didn't want to do it. But now I have
Speaker 1: this mortgage. So it's like all these things.
Speaker 2: I had to dismantle this belief system about what success
Speaker 2: looked like for me financially and be okay with like
Speaker 2: disappointing a lot of people.
Speaker 1: And that's hard, especially when they are the people who
Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe before the Internet. I mean, I
Speaker 1: think we were around long enough before the Internet, Like
Speaker 1: we're the generation we built it, y'all. Okay, we really
Speaker 1: made we made Twitter what it was, all right, but
Speaker 1: still we remember a time without it, right, And you
Speaker 1: really did look outside for that validation from parents, and
Speaker 1: I mean from parents, from family, from friends and all
Speaker 1: of that. Just what they think of you really matters. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And now it's it's crazy because you can be so celebrated.
Speaker 1: I think so much of your story, my story that's
Speaker 1: like made for the Internet, like you know, came from
Speaker 1: the bottom. Now we're here. People love a success story
Speaker 1: and all of that pulled yourself up by your bootstraps,
Speaker 1: got this online business. But to family and friends, it
Speaker 1: may be like, what on earth is she? Like? What
Speaker 1: is they doing?
Speaker 2: Why are you putting their business out there?
Speaker 1: Oh? Yes, yes, the personal stuff? Or don't put me
Speaker 1: in there. I heard you talk about this on the podcast.
Speaker 1: Was that about me? You know? I don't know if
Speaker 1: I sometimes I cross the line just a little bit.
Speaker 2: Me too. It's fine. My mom already knows to expect
Speaker 2: you know, I have. I'm a loose can listening the
Speaker 2: way that she was listening, I'm like, really every Wednesday. Well, okay,
Speaker 2: So business wise, you mentioned at the beginning of the
Speaker 2: show that you said serial entrepreneur, which I think is
Speaker 2: such a sexy way to describe yourself, like cereal, and
Speaker 2: it's kind of like dangerous.
Speaker 1: You know. I watch a lot of murdery kind of stuff,
Speaker 1: so that's where my mind goes a little bit. But
Speaker 1: talk to me about all the different things you have
Speaker 1: going on, because it is beyond your side hustle course
Speaker 1: and all of that. Now, talk to us about the
Speaker 1: evolution the financially lit Jocito Dineto universe. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So I have been doing this whole content creation thing
Speaker 2: for over a decade now, and I started in the
Speaker 2: blogging space. So my first foray into online content creation
Speaker 2: is a blog called delicolights dot com. It's still in
Speaker 2: existence today and it's actually the foundation of like me
Speaker 2: being able to walk away from corporate because now it's
Speaker 2: like a six figure business that just kind of runs
Speaker 2: itself and its content that I share primarily Latin recipes
Speaker 2: that are influenced by my cultural upbringing as a Puerto
Speaker 2: Rican woman. So after doing that for six years, I
Speaker 2: was ready to shift into a new medium, if you will.
Speaker 2: And by that point, I'd been listening to podcasts for
Speaker 2: a while, and I focused in on like financial dependence
Speaker 2: podcasts and was really inspired by the work that people
Speaker 2: were doing. But I felt like I couldn't find a
Speaker 2: podcast that was speaking primarily to latinas, and as a
Speaker 2: first gen Latina who had to navigate, you know, applying
Speaker 2: for student loan aid and going to college and doing
Speaker 2: all these like first, I wanted to hear, like, how
Speaker 2: do we achieve this American dream because there's been no
Speaker 2: blueprint given to us, And so.
Speaker 1: I quickly became reinvent that dream, yeah that too, or
Speaker 1: dismantle it and reassemble it into something that you actually want.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's actually what's happening. But so I
Speaker 2: became obsessed with personal finance and I continuously was the
Speaker 2: friend in my friends circle who people would ask money
Speaker 2: questions to because I was just always talking about it,
Speaker 2: and people would watch like the fact that I have
Speaker 2: this blog going on and I'm talking about side hustling
Speaker 2: and blah blah blah. So after, you know, having repeated
Speaker 2: conversations with friends, I decided maybe I should just start
Speaker 2: a podcast, because if they have these questions, like maybe
Speaker 2: other people on the internet have these questions. And so
Speaker 2: in twenty nineteen, I launched Joccierto Linetto. Didn't have any
Speaker 2: plans for like monetizing. It didn't even know how you
Speaker 2: monetize the podcast. It just was another passion project, just
Speaker 2: like the blog.
Speaker 1: And by the.
Speaker 2: End of twenty twenty it blown up to the point
Speaker 2: where I had to make a decision, am I going
Speaker 2: to go full time into this or am I going
Speaker 2: to keep like juggling a forty to fifty hour work
Speaker 2: week and building this on the side. And it got
Speaker 2: to the point where I was having to take PTO
Speaker 2: from my regular job to work on Yokero di Netto.
Speaker 2: I was getting speaking engagements in the middle of the
Speaker 2: day and like doing virtual workshops and all these types
Speaker 2: of things. And I was making partly like four times
Speaker 2: more than I was in corporate. So I'm like, well,
Speaker 2: what the hell am I still doing here for this?
Speaker 2: You know what am I doing this for? But then
Speaker 2: everything came to a head when a coworker notified my
Speaker 2: boss about like what was going on ooh, and I
Speaker 2: was confronted in a meeting that there were suspicions that
Speaker 2: I was going to quit because of you know, just
Speaker 2: how I was blowing up on social media blah blah blah.
Speaker 2: And I was asked by my manager like, straight up,
Speaker 2: are you going to quit your job? And I had
Speaker 2: not planned to do so at that very moment. I
Speaker 2: was actually going to like wait out the rest of
Speaker 2: the year to collect my bonus and.
Speaker 1: All that stuff.
Speaker 2: But I decided to just let her know, Yep, I'm quitting,
Speaker 2: and actually I'm going to tender my resignation letter as
Speaker 2: soon as we hop off with this call.
Speaker 1: And I did that.
Speaker 2: That was April thirtieth, twenty twenty one, and lo and
Speaker 2: behold my new book, which documents. My whole journey in
Speaker 2: this money world is coming out three years to the
Speaker 2: day that I walked away from corporate and said, I'm
Speaker 2: betting on myself.
Speaker 1: Wow, hey, be a fan. We're going to take a
Speaker 1: quick break and we'll be right back. Life is really
Speaker 1: crazy and as much as you can be, like you know,
Speaker 1: the universe and all that. But you did a lot
Speaker 1: in between then and now. Yeah, to make it so
Speaker 1: that your book has come out. I know we can't
Speaker 1: plan like publishing schedules, But what was it about the
Speaker 1: nine to Fox beause I want to go back to that.
Speaker 1: What was it about that job that made you want
Speaker 1: to keep one foot in even as you were building
Speaker 1: this like these new business lines. Well, I think I
Speaker 1: had a lot of it than the insurance. Yeah, well
Speaker 1: the benefits.
Speaker 2: I mean, they don't call them the golden handcuffs for
Speaker 2: no reason, right, I mean I was making a steady
Speaker 2: six figures a year, nice bonus. I had no legitimate
Speaker 2: reason to leave from the external perspective, you know, I
Speaker 2: had the dream job all that, but I just never
Speaker 2: felt a sense of security that I think I was
Speaker 2: sold as this is why we do this, And I
Speaker 2: think a big part of why I always felt like
Speaker 2: I needed to have my own way to make money
Speaker 2: was because I graduated into the Great Recession. I literally
Speaker 2: graduated six months before the entire economy tanked, and so
Speaker 2: here I am watching colleagues, friends getting laid off. In
Speaker 2: mass I'm seeing people who've been dedicating twenty thirty forty
Speaker 2: years of their lives to companies just tossed away with
Speaker 2: nothing more than you know, here's fifteen minutes to pack
Speaker 2: your stuff and be on your way. And I think
Speaker 2: for me, seeing that at twenty two, I'm like, oh,
Speaker 2: wait a minute. So this whole safe and stable job
Speaker 2: situation that people told me I would get when I
Speaker 2: went into corporate it's not so safe and stable. I'm
Speaker 2: going to need to have my own back. And so
Speaker 2: I think I always operated from the perspective that my
Speaker 2: paycheck was a means to an end. It was an
Speaker 2: opportunity for me to you know, save, invest start businesses.
Speaker 2: But ultimately, I don't think I was ever going to
Speaker 2: be the type of person that said I could do
Speaker 2: this for the rest of my life. I just I
Speaker 2: was very disillusioned from the beginning.
Speaker 1: M M, yeah, And I what I love about your
Speaker 1: story is. It takes a real life It takes a
Speaker 1: huge amount of faith in yourself because a lot of us,
Speaker 1: you know, even when we started the podcast back in
Speaker 1: twenty fifteen, it was it wasn't clear. I remember someone saying, like,
Speaker 1: are you afraid you're going to alienate people by having
Speaker 1: brown in the title? That's the point we want to
Speaker 1: be specific. Yeah, and even like you know, we pitched it.
Speaker 1: I pitched it to my employer at the time. I
Speaker 1: was a writer at Yahoo Finance, and they were like, punk,
Speaker 1: is we can't make any money off those yet, so no,
Speaker 1: go figure. But then you just kind of do it anyway.
Speaker 1: And it takes a level of like having faith in yourself.
Speaker 1: And that's kind of after you know, I did the
Speaker 1: podcast for eight years, you know, had the career in
Speaker 1: journalism and marketing, but three years of doing Mandy money
Speaker 1: Makers and career coaching and the common thing that I'm
Speaker 1: actually coaching women through. Maybe you can identify with this
Speaker 1: as well in your work. But it's self trust, like
Speaker 1: having enough what do you need to make you trust
Speaker 1: yourself enough to take a chance. And so that's why
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask what was sort of keeping you
Speaker 1: It doesn't seem like it was like you didn't trust it.
Speaker 1: You could do it, but it was like this autopilot
Speaker 1: almost of like I just have a job. That's which
Speaker 1: you're you know you do and then yeah, wait a minute,
Speaker 1: I actually don't have logical, like super logical reasons, like
Speaker 1: I've taken those away. Mm hmm. Well it's your source
Speaker 1: of income. Well I got others now, yeah, well you know,
Speaker 1: and I just find that really amazing, and I I
Speaker 1: want that for everyone, just to try something different and
Speaker 1: then prove that you didn't well I wasn't say didn't die,
Speaker 1: but you might try something and you know, it depends
Speaker 1: on how risk it is. Yeah, I don't try like,
Speaker 1: you know, eating foraged plants. I always watched that Lady
Speaker 1: on because, like Kathie's nugging, don't die, you know, one
Speaker 1: of the things yourself.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, I think One of the things for me too,
Speaker 2: that I realized is that a lot of the reasons
Speaker 2: why we feel like we don't have the option to
Speaker 2: like make a career pivot or like start a business
Speaker 2: is because we have so many other obligations. And so
Speaker 2: one of the big things for me that was keeping
Speaker 2: me stuck. If you will was a bunch of student
Speaker 2: loan debt and a mortgage and just owing a lot
Speaker 2: of people a bunch of money, you know, credit card
Speaker 2: debt and the like. And once I discovered the financial
Speaker 2: independence movement, there was this recurring theme where it's like,
Speaker 2: if you want options to change your career, to work less,
Speaker 2: to live more, you got to stop owing people money.
Speaker 2: And so that was my primary focus in the beginning.
Speaker 2: Before I walked away from my job, I said, I
Speaker 2: need to be student loan debt free because at least
Speaker 2: with that, I know Uncle Sam's not going to be
Speaker 2: coming after me, like trying to garnish my checks and
Speaker 2: all that stuff. And so once I had that financial
Speaker 2: freedom that comes from being debt free, I felt way
Speaker 2: more comfortable to be able to manage the epps and
Speaker 2: flows that come with entrepreneurship.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So that is such a great testimony and to
Speaker 1: and so relatable when it comes to what I was
Speaker 1: talking about, like helping women define what is it that
Speaker 1: you need to feel free? And debt is one of
Speaker 1: the big issues debt and debt and healthcare. I would say,
Speaker 1: because man, the way Golden talk about sign on bonuses
Speaker 1: and all that, it's great but like just healthcare is
Speaker 1: so yeah, out of the marketplace. What do you do
Speaker 1: for healthcare now? I don't know if when you were
Speaker 1: previously married, was your partner carrying the insurance? Did you do? Yeah?
Speaker 1: So what do you do to post separation? How are
Speaker 1: you you on the Obamacare plan? What's going on?
Speaker 2: I am paying for my own I'm paying like five
Speaker 2: hundred dollars a month for medical coverage. But that's because
Speaker 2: I'm a single, you know, unmarried woman. But I do
Speaker 2: think about that, you know, in the future. I just
Speaker 2: signed up kids. I'm like, oh, this is gonna be
Speaker 2: a reason why I need to increase my prices, because
Speaker 2: these premiums are no jokes. And so, you know, entrepreneurs,
Speaker 2: make sure that you are factoring in those costs that
Speaker 2: you're giving up as a you know, career girly into
Speaker 2: your pricing because we got to make up for that.
Speaker 1: I'm saying. Yeah. I actually had a coaching session with
Speaker 1: a woman from the Manny Moneymakers who just got let go.
Speaker 1: She was anticipating it. She has her she has a
Speaker 1: new business like a course and all this that she's
Speaker 1: setting up, and she has a contract position lined up.
Speaker 1: So she's not in dire straits, which is I'm always
Speaker 1: preaching resilience, like create a soft landing for yourself. But
Speaker 1: one of the things she was trying to figure out
Speaker 1: her consulting rates. And I have a pretty simple calculator,
Speaker 1: and it's basically like, how much do you want to
Speaker 1: make is the first question, and a lot of people
Speaker 1: get stuck so they base it on what they were
Speaker 1: making before, like, oh, well, I was bringing home this
Speaker 1: net before from my other job. And I'm like, this
Speaker 1: is different. You're paying taxes on your own, you're paying
Speaker 1: for your healthcare now. She's also a single pringle when
Speaker 1: you're not single tax one according to the government, according
Speaker 1: to the government, gets single, which means, you know, having
Speaker 1: to carry her own insurance. And she and she was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I'll go on that site and figure out
Speaker 1: and then I'm like, no, let's go together healthcare dot gov.
Speaker 1: Let's start here, what state you live in? Jersey? Okay, cool,
Speaker 1: Let's figure out how much it's going to cost. Because
Speaker 1: you you get you that's like the biggest expense. I
Speaker 1: feel like for if you want insurance, which I think
Speaker 1: most people should have it, right, just a little, just
Speaker 1: a little, you can tell them you learn that on
Speaker 1: brown ambition. I need health insurance.
Speaker 2: Literally, it's one of those things where you hate paying
Speaker 2: for it, but you're glad you have it when you
Speaker 2: need it.
Speaker 1: Pet insurance I don't know, not so much, but you know,
Speaker 1: travel insurance when you book a flight. I don't know
Speaker 1: about all that, but just regular, regular health insurance has
Speaker 1: been known to keep people out of the poorhouse sometimes. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so she needed to factor that in. And I'm like,
Speaker 1: you got to get down and look at the numbers
Speaker 1: and they may not be as scary, you know, even
Speaker 1: just hearing you five hundred bucks, I'm like, oh, you know,
Speaker 1: in the early days it was a lot more. It
Speaker 1: was kind of all over the place. So just a
Speaker 1: little un sexy entrepreneur.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's always a solution though, So I think that's
Speaker 2: what I want people to realize, Like you can set
Speaker 2: up your own four to one K, you can get
Speaker 2: your own insurance. Like, don't let that be the reason
Speaker 2: why you don't pursue this if you want to do it.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, it's like I know one hundred percent. It's the
Speaker 1: it's fighting the fears with facts, That's what I like
Speaker 1: to call it. So the fear is well my four
Speaker 1: one K, Well, here's a fuct you can get one
Speaker 1: of them yourself. All that. I mean, you know it's different,
Speaker 1: but it's not that different. Okay. So with the book
Speaker 1: coming out with your new relationship, twenty twenty three, twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four has been what would you call it, like
Speaker 1: a year of just shift in your you know life
Speaker 1: have How has it been showing up for you? Are
Speaker 1: you feeling just incredible? Are you feeling like, oh, it's
Speaker 1: just the start? How has it all felt?
Speaker 2: I think twenty twenty three was the year where I
Speaker 2: put myself first, like even in business, in my personal life,
Speaker 2: I just I allowed myself to enjoy the fruits of
Speaker 2: my labor because at that point, you know, I've been
Speaker 2: doing this for over a decade and you have to
Speaker 2: get off the freaking treadmill as an entrepreneur sometimes and
Speaker 2: just reassess, like, am I still doing work that excites me?
Speaker 2: Am I still enjoying this process? Are there areas where
Speaker 2: I need to you know, refocus attention or just not
Speaker 2: even bother? So I think twenty twenty three was a
Speaker 2: big year of optimizing my life to enjoy more and
Speaker 2: work less.
Speaker 1: It was about how are we doing that?
Speaker 2: So I think, Yeah, the biggest thing for me was
Speaker 2: asking myself like when is enough enough?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: And I think there's a lot of this pressure as
Speaker 2: an entrepreneur to like always scale to the next milestone.
Speaker 2: So you know, if you made one hundred K last year,
Speaker 2: well you got to make two fifty and then you
Speaker 2: got to make five hundred and then you got to
Speaker 2: go scale to seven figures and blah blah blah, And
Speaker 2: that's just never sat well with me. That whole mindset
Speaker 2: just feels like a self induced prison sentence.
Speaker 1: It feels kind of like a nine to five.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I'm just like, you know, for what, like
Speaker 2: is my quality of life at this moment going to
Speaker 2: change if I make another five hundred grand?
Speaker 1: Nope?
Speaker 2: Because I just don't need to be making seven figures
Speaker 2: to enjoy the life that I want. And so I
Speaker 2: think that's been my primary focus. It's like, when is
Speaker 2: enough enough? Do I need to do all of these
Speaker 2: other things that I see other people doing because quote
Speaker 2: unquote again, is that my version of success or is
Speaker 2: that somebody else's version of success? That now I'm putting
Speaker 2: my pressure on myself to like achieve.
Speaker 1: So I think that's been the biggest thing. It's just like,
Speaker 1: what have you said no to in the process, Like,
Speaker 1: what are some of those things on the note list
Speaker 1: that I'm like, You're like, I'm good for now.
Speaker 2: Memberships, you know, everybody keeps telling me I should start
Speaker 2: a membership and I'm like, no, I.
Speaker 1: Don't want to work more.
Speaker 2: Yeah, or just like a subscription model based thing where
Speaker 2: people pay, you know, for recurring revenue and things like that,
Speaker 2: And I'm just like, but then that means I have
Speaker 2: to continuously show up, I have to continuously create new content.
Speaker 2: I'm basically on another freaking hamster wheel for what. That
Speaker 2: is not my definition of like success as an entrepreneur.
Speaker 2: It's just feeling like, now you're doing all of these things,
Speaker 2: you've over committed and so you know, for me, it's
Speaker 2: been just saying, you know what, that might be nice
Speaker 2: to have, like recurring revenue, but does the business model
Speaker 2: suit what I want to prioritize, which is having more
Speaker 2: free time. No, so I'm not going to do it.
Speaker 2: And I think one of the reasons why I'm able
Speaker 2: to be like really flexible in my business is because
Speaker 2: I have a bunch of different ways that I make money,
Speaker 2: and so I can like.
Speaker 1: And off right, I like.
Speaker 2: Pull levers and push levers and focus attention in different
Speaker 2: areas so that I never have to feel like, oh
Speaker 2: my god, I'm never gonna be able to pay my
Speaker 2: bills because I'm just making money in one specific way.
Speaker 2: Mm hmm.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm so proud, Like I think this was the
Speaker 1: past couple of years have been the time when I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: you know the seeds that we planted it, even with
Speaker 1: brown ambition years ago, I'm like, oh, this is We
Speaker 1: didn't set out to make money. We didn't know how
Speaker 1: because there were weren't really any models. It was like
Speaker 1: Cereal was the huge podcast, you know. But anyway, but
Speaker 1: now it's like Tiffany and I are both like, oh,
Speaker 1: hey can take somebody. And it's become a quote unquote passive.
Speaker 1: It feels passive because it's so damn fun, but in
Speaker 1: terms of like, you know, we show up and we
Speaker 1: kind of have this like well oiled machine and it
Speaker 1: supplements everything else. And even as I'm working on my
Speaker 1: book Journey, you know, I had to really pull push
Speaker 1: down the lever of my my high touch community that
Speaker 1: I have. I have the community that I all the
Speaker 1: women who've joined. I still we still I do my
Speaker 1: bi weekly coaching, which I just love, genuinely, just love talking.
Speaker 1: They're like my friends now. But I'm like, oh, I
Speaker 1: could I get to give myself space for the book
Speaker 1: because I have, you know, this other income stream and
Speaker 1: then you have the sprinkle type stuff I call like
Speaker 1: the speaking engagement you can't plan for. Yeah, it's it's
Speaker 1: not shabby. Have the income fluxtuat Well, are you in
Speaker 1: a place now where you don't have these like income
Speaker 1: fluctuations that are so drastic that they cause stress? Because
Speaker 1: I think that for a lot of entrepreneurs. Tiffany talked
Speaker 1: about this, like last year was tough year, you know
Speaker 1: for partnerships and things like that, which is a lot
Speaker 1: of ways that influencers make money. But can you speak
Speaker 1: candidly about that? Why is my screen giving me a thought?
Speaker 1: Oh that's so funny. Yeah I saw that. What's hilarious.
Speaker 1: Thank you? Anyway, Yes, have you have you gotten to
Speaker 1: a place where there's it seems to be like, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm going to be okay, you know, yeah, Okay, I
Speaker 1: don't think I have one hundred percent, but I'm curious
Speaker 1: to hear what.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think So for me, because I have I think,
Speaker 2: at this point, like eight different income streams, I can
Speaker 2: always anticipate like meeting a specific baseline that I have
Speaker 2: in my head, right so I know, like every month
Speaker 2: at least as much is going to come in and
Speaker 2: it's enough to cover expenses and payroll and whatever. And
Speaker 2: so I also like plan ahead, you know, kind of
Speaker 2: what's the thing I want to launch next month, or
Speaker 2: what's the area of income that I want to focus
Speaker 2: in on, just depending on whatever everything else that's going on.
Speaker 2: So for me, I've gotten good at creating money consistently,
Speaker 2: but I'm also like really financially conservative in general, Like
Speaker 2: I do not have a big, luxurious, you know, multimillion
Speaker 2: dollar home. I still rent, and I think that shocks
Speaker 2: a lot of people because again it's this narrative of like,
Speaker 2: once you're a certain level financially, like buying a house
Speaker 2: is always going to make sense. And for me, I'm
Speaker 2: just like, no, I don't really feel like working over
Speaker 2: twenty k for a new roof right now. Like I'd
Speaker 2: rather be able to pour that into my business if
Speaker 2: I want to, you know, scale or create some new
Speaker 2: process or whatever. I also keep a lot of cash
Speaker 2: on hand as an entrepreneur. So I have like close
Speaker 2: to a year's worth of operating expenses just sitting in
Speaker 2: a high heal savings account, so that I know, like,
Speaker 2: even if we have a consecutive number of like crappy months,
Speaker 2: I'm good, Like nothing's going to derail that. And one
Speaker 2: of the big things that gives me a lot of
Speaker 2: peace of mind is that, again, before quick my job,
Speaker 2: I wanted to get to a place where, let's say
Speaker 2: I had to take an extended break from investing for retirement,
Speaker 2: that that was going to be okay, and my retirement
Speaker 2: was still going to be secured. So I focused a
Speaker 2: lot while I was still in corporate of maxing out
Speaker 2: my four oh one K and I took like my
Speaker 2: bonuses and invested all of that stuff. So I am
Speaker 2: at a place where if I never invest another dollar,
Speaker 2: I'm going to have probably four or five million dollars
Speaker 2: waiting for me when I'm sixty five years old. So
Speaker 2: just having all these different things kind of working in
Speaker 2: the background, and you know the fact that I have
Speaker 2: the blog, I have podcast ads, I have affiliate marketing,
Speaker 2: I do speaking, I have an airbnb so there's like
Speaker 2: a lot of different ways that I can earn money,
Speaker 2: and it just has given me a lot more consistency
Speaker 2: than again, just like relying on the single income source,
Speaker 2: it's given me.
Speaker 1: Power agency pull that ouside just like that, right, Ahijanise,
Speaker 1: It has been such a pleasure to have you on
Speaker 1: the show. Congratulations on just all the incredible just I
Speaker 1: hope that this book tour, this moment of getting to
Speaker 1: embrace the people who love you and adore you and
Speaker 1: your community that you've built is everything that you deserve
Speaker 1: it to be. I'm so happy that that gorgeous face
Speaker 1: is gonna be on bookshelves. I can't wait to go
Speaker 1: see it out in the wild.
Speaker 2: Please make sure to cover up Dave Ramsey's face with
Speaker 2: my book when you're in your local bookstore.
Speaker 1: Listen. I do it every time I'm at Target. And like,
Speaker 1: Tiffany is one of the only women of color who
Speaker 1: got a finance book, and I'm just like scooped over, sir,
Speaker 1: You'll be fine. But even without that, it's just like,
Speaker 1: you know, there's a there's space for Dave Ramsey. It's
Speaker 1: always won't be a space for him, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. But there's also a space for you and
Speaker 1: all that you had to offer. So y'all go get
Speaker 1: her book financially litbook dot com. I got it, and
Speaker 1: please go check out her podcast. Yo kyoto to Nato Janie,
Speaker 1: my darling, my love, my little nugget. Thank you for
Speaker 1: joining the show again and I can't wait to see
Speaker 1: you on your New York City book tour stop.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much and shout out to you and
Speaker 2: Tiffany for being one of the OG's in this space
Speaker 2: giving permission to women of color to talk about money unapologetically,
Speaker 2: because honestly, none of us that get to do this
Speaker 2: now would be where we are without your paving the
Speaker 2: path for us.
Speaker 1: So thank you. Wow, that is really generous and I
Speaker 1: will try to receive it even though it made me
Speaker 1: sweat a little bit a little prickle. Thanks Denise,