Speaker 1: Hey, hey, hey, I'm back. We're black and Brown.
Speaker 2: It's Tiffany and Mandy. I feel like you want to
Speaker 2: make this low key like Mickey mouse Club intro. You're
Speaker 2: you're forcing me into it. I will not relent. I
Speaker 2: can't do it.
Speaker 1: I put my I don't know if what you call
Speaker 1: when you I guess when you butterfly your fingers, that's
Speaker 1: when you, like, you know, put the fingers between the
Speaker 1: creases of your other fingers. And I have like under
Speaker 1: my chin like it's Tiffany and I'm leaning in to
Speaker 1: the mic like you turn Mandy such a good visual.
Speaker 2: What's up, guys, It's Mandy brown Fish.
Speaker 1: Have you been.
Speaker 2: Oh, I've been good man. Have you read the news
Speaker 2: about so we all know, Amazon finally chose its location
Speaker 2: or two locations for its headquarters. Sorry to Newark, you
Speaker 2: were not the chosen one. But my old neighborhood in
Speaker 2: Queens Long Island City was chosen. And I read something
Speaker 2: about how already the rents in the real estate prices
Speaker 2: are going bananas, and I'm kind of happy in a
Speaker 2: way that it wasn't somewhere that I live now, because
Speaker 2: I don't know, I just feel like Amazon's going to
Speaker 2: come and everything's gonna be more expensive and the neighborhood's
Speaker 2: going to be ruined.
Speaker 1: Honestly, it's already crazy. Like a friend of mine was
Speaker 1: looking for an apartment in Newark and he was like, yo,
Speaker 1: the one bedrooms were twenty five, No twenty it was
Speaker 1: it a twenty two or twenty four hundred dollars and
Speaker 1: that did not include you had to pay electricity, heat,
Speaker 1: and hot water. And I'm like, when did nowick get
Speaker 1: to be twenty four hundred for a one bedroom?
Speaker 2: Wait? This is pre okay, So this is just imagine
Speaker 2: like if Amazon had come to town, Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1: Honestly, it would have been I mean, it would have
Speaker 1: been great for my property bound, but it would have
Speaker 1: been bad something. But it's new. I think people don't
Speaker 1: realize it's They think like, oh, let me get into
Speaker 1: before it's too late. I feel like it might be
Speaker 1: too late because I just saw a property like for
Speaker 1: sale in the fourth sol section where I live, on
Speaker 1: sale for seven hundred and ninety nine thousand dollars in Newark,
Speaker 1: New Jersey, and I'm like, yeah, it's it's property values
Speaker 1: are really Like I said, it's great that I already bought,
Speaker 1: but it's almost too late for folks who've lived here
Speaker 1: their whole lives to purchase something because it's getting to
Speaker 1: be so expensive.
Speaker 2: Get those auction homes like you did, or one of
Speaker 2: your homes, right, you got that ad auction?
Speaker 1: Well, way to do it. Yeah, Well both of them
Speaker 1: kind of like ad auction, but one was like directly
Speaker 1: from the bank, and one was from the city New York.
Speaker 2: Property. About New York and New Jersey, it's sucially like
Speaker 2: an extreme real estate environment. I know other parts of
Speaker 2: the country are not this crazy, but I do feel like,
Speaker 2: you know, one of the things that we consider before
Speaker 2: we purchased a house in the neighborhood that we chose
Speaker 2: was my husband did look at city council meeting for
Speaker 2: the town. Well, it's confusing and in the suburbs of
Speaker 2: New Yorkers like towns and villages and oh god, it
Speaker 2: like all these different ways of calling a community. But anyhow,
Speaker 2: he went to the old meetings and wanted to see
Speaker 2: what's being developed in the areas. And I feel like
Speaker 2: that's a good sign that there's prosperity coming to the
Speaker 2: area if you've gotten new things being developed. So that's
Speaker 2: one thing that we did. We saw they were building
Speaker 2: a shake shack and they were building a new shopping
Speaker 2: center and expanding things. So that was a good sign
Speaker 2: for us because our neighborhood, like it really was, it
Speaker 2: wasn't unscathed from the recession. I mean, no place was
Speaker 2: really unscathed, but our neighborhood did take a hit in
Speaker 2: home values pretty pretty severely during the recession. And even
Speaker 2: there's a couple of houses if you if you drive
Speaker 2: around our neighborhood that look like abandoned foreclosures, and if
Speaker 2: you look them up on Zillo or something like that,
Speaker 2: it shows that like the bank owns them.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So it's like this neighbors like this dichotomy of people
Speaker 2: selling who like rebounded from the recession, if you like,
Speaker 2: hang on for dear life. The property values did recover
Speaker 2: and you know, exceeded what they were like twenty eleven,
Speaker 2: twenty twelve, but some people didn't make it, and it's
Speaker 2: still like the remnants of the recession still a little bit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you could totally see it. I and that's the
Speaker 1: reason why I brought like my second house. It was
Speaker 1: because I knew that I'd heard that the train station
Speaker 1: was coming, and after asking around and going to a
Speaker 1: few meetings, there is going to be a direct train
Speaker 1: to the airport, New York Airport, and then direct train
Speaker 1: to It'll be a path train, so it'll also go
Speaker 1: to Midtown Manhattan. So I'm like, ooh, this is a
Speaker 1: great place to buy. But yeah, speaking of recessions, my
Speaker 1: did I mention that. I think my accountant said this,
Speaker 1: but also a friend of mine who really likes to
Speaker 1: study markets, he was like, Yo, another recession is coming.
Speaker 1: I mean, but I guess that's just it's cyclical. But
Speaker 1: he made it sound like impending doom. And I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna lie, I got it a little nervous.
Speaker 2: Oh, I mean, experts have been saying that they've been
Speaker 2: trying to you know how, like you keep guessing and
Speaker 2: hoping that you time it right. And oh, I'm going
Speaker 2: to predict that it's going to be a bear market
Speaker 2: is coming, so that tomorrow, when it actually comes, I
Speaker 2: can say that I was right. People have been like
Speaker 2: waiting for the other shoe to drop. I mean, what
Speaker 2: goes up has to come down, right, And the market's
Speaker 2: been super volatile, and even just this week with Trump
Speaker 2: making his comments, oh, we're we're calling a truce with
Speaker 2: China in the trade war. And oh now, Trump seemed
Speaker 2: to forget about the fact that he called the truce
Speaker 2: today and the markets were down three percent, Like he
Speaker 2: his tweets, his comments, his inanity, like he is that
Speaker 2: a word? Inanity? I just feel like I made that up.
Speaker 1: Inane.
Speaker 2: His stupidity. It really moves the markets. Yeah, and on
Speaker 2: top of that, Yeah, we had like double digit gains
Speaker 2: last year, like crazy gains in the market. So it's
Speaker 2: you know, that kind of growth is not sustainable always.
Speaker 2: So you will see. But it's important not to look
Speaker 2: at what's happening this week, this month, this year, but
Speaker 2: look back over the past ten twenty, the average returns
Speaker 2: over the last a handful of years, and even extend
Speaker 2: that to ten years or longer to see, Okay, what
Speaker 2: kind of return can you expect on average versus how
Speaker 2: are things doing day to day unless you're like day trading,
Speaker 2: then you know you're having a heart attack right now.
Speaker 1: Good because I mean just the fact that GM left,
Speaker 1: you know, let's go of fifteen thousand workers. That's crazy
Speaker 1: fifteen yeah, fifteen thousand.
Speaker 2: Telling you man, and this is the time of year
Speaker 2: when people do their layoffs.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then the fact too, like I was. I
Speaker 1: was at the bank the other day opening up another
Speaker 1: checking account for a business and we were talking to
Speaker 1: my business partner and I were talking to the banker
Speaker 1: and he was saying, you know, money is getting more
Speaker 1: and more expensive, like you know, interest rates are raising,
Speaker 1: and he was like, you know, he always watches or
Speaker 1: to see like maybe I don't even know. At one
Speaker 1: point the interest rate right after post recession had gotten
Speaker 1: down to two point five percent, and now they're steadily climbing.
Speaker 1: I think we're at like five or six percent. Like
Speaker 1: if you're going to buy a.
Speaker 2: House or whatever, my mortgage rates yeahm hm.
Speaker 1: And so he was like, you know, they you know,
Speaker 1: they might get as high as and they likely to
Speaker 1: get as high ast double digits. And that's when you know,
Speaker 1: you start.
Speaker 3: To to get into trouble because it peaks in double
Speaker 3: digits ten fifteen, twenty not twenty ten, you know, fifteen percent,
Speaker 3: and then something happens to bring them crashing on down.
Speaker 1: So I'm not gonna lie. Makes me nervous. I'm wondering
Speaker 1: should we wait to develop the second property because I
Speaker 1: want to borrow cheaply. I'm not going to pay out
Speaker 1: of pocket. So we had a decision to make, like
Speaker 1: if we're gonna do we get a construction loan, which
Speaker 1: is an unsecured loan, like the bank just says, hey,
Speaker 1: we'll give you money from like you know, the fact
Speaker 1: that you've got great credit or whatever. Or do we
Speaker 1: get a secured loan because we own our house cash
Speaker 1: we basically borrow against our house now and then then
Speaker 1: we all of a sudden have a mortgage for our
Speaker 1: home and then not a mortgage for the for the
Speaker 1: second home. So we've been like kind of like going
Speaker 1: back and forth and trying to figure out like or
Speaker 1: do we just wait because I don't. Every every month
Speaker 1: we wait, the interest rate goes up and makes money
Speaker 1: more and more expensive to borrow.
Speaker 2: So I'm like, uh, well, I think any secured debt
Speaker 2: is always going to be more affordable than an unsecured
Speaker 2: loan because you have something holding the asset, like you
Speaker 2: have you have not the asset, but you have an
Speaker 2: asset backing up the loan. So typically any mortgage, like
Speaker 2: a home equity loan, is always going to have or
Speaker 2: most likely going to have a lower rate than what
Speaker 2: you'd get from like an unsecured loan for the most part.
Speaker 2: So I mean, if you're just going on rates alone,
Speaker 2: it seems like a secured loan would get you a
Speaker 2: lower rate. But you're right, I mean, rates are rising,
Speaker 2: so if you're gonna, if you're sure, you're going to
Speaker 2: do it sooner rather than later. But at the same time, yes,
Speaker 2: mortgage rates are rising, and they're going up, you know,
Speaker 2: marginally each month. They're still very low historically, like back
Speaker 2: in the eighties they were double digits in the teens. Historically,
Speaker 2: rates are still pretty low in the baggage land. So
Speaker 2: if you're if you're worried about buying a house, like, yes,
Speaker 2: your rate is going to be higher than someone who
Speaker 2: bought a house a year ago, but not not terribly
Speaker 2: higher than or not definitely not like high enough to
Speaker 2: like harken back to those crazy days in the eighties.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yes, those are double digit that's crazy, Crank Cray.
Speaker 2: So I was reading we've talked about public service loan
Speaker 2: forgiveness before. This is kind of a I remember when
Speaker 2: I my husband works for the government, in like a
Speaker 2: couple of years ago, I was talking to my financial planner,
Speaker 2: Helen and I asked her, do you think it makes sense?
Speaker 2: Because we had like a lump sum of money and
Speaker 2: we wanted to know should we just pay off a
Speaker 2: student loan debt or should we just wait for him
Speaker 2: to get this public service loan forgiveness and just bide
Speaker 2: his time. He had, like, I forget how many years left,
Speaker 2: like seven or eight years left, and she was like, listen,
Speaker 2: do not rely on a government program that could easily,
Speaker 2: you know, change in the blink of an eye, depending
Speaker 2: on the administration or whatever. And we just went ahead
Speaker 2: and paid it off. And I'm feeling good about that
Speaker 2: decision because new data came out what a week or
Speaker 2: two ago that showed that only thirty fewer than thirty
Speaker 2: people actually have been approved for public service loan forgiveness
Speaker 2: out of thirty thousand who've applied for it. Yes, thirty
Speaker 2: people out of thirty thousand have actually applied and been
Speaker 2: granted public service loan forgiveness.
Speaker 1: And yes, that's honestly, that's just so crazy because it's like,
Speaker 1: what is going on in this country. I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker 1: I was sitting and thinking the other day, what is
Speaker 1: a solution? So, you know, like before it was like, well,
Speaker 1: you know, you get a job, and you know that
Speaker 1: it's going to be enough to pay your bills. But
Speaker 1: then also the job is also going to provide for
Speaker 1: your future because you're going to have you know, you're
Speaker 1: going to have a retirement account. With that job, you're
Speaker 1: going to have a you know, some sort of like pension.
Speaker 1: But now it's like a free for all. And what
Speaker 1: I don't like to look at myself as an example,
Speaker 1: because I like to look at myself as Tiffany the
Speaker 1: school teacher as an example. I didn't have a pension
Speaker 1: at school teacher, So like, what is what was Tiffany?
Speaker 1: What would Tiffany the school teacher do in order to
Speaker 1: maintain life now? And then also make sure that I've
Speaker 1: taken care of my older self. Honestly, I don't. I
Speaker 1: don't even And even though I was really tight, I
Speaker 1: didn't really spend much. I don't know if I'd be
Speaker 1: able to make it, And that that part just is
Speaker 1: really disheartening to me, because you should be able to
Speaker 1: make it, you know what I mean, Like you should
Speaker 1: be able to say I've got a good job and
Speaker 1: I don't have to make you know, six figures a
Speaker 1: year in order to pay my bills and set aside
Speaker 1: for retirement, like and I don't know that that's true,
Speaker 1: Like does everyone have to make one hundred thousand plus
Speaker 1: in order to be okay and in their day to
Speaker 1: day life and when they are ready to retire, because
Speaker 1: it's just not a reality. Some jobs just don't go
Speaker 1: that high, you know.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's the real frustration is that, guess the
Speaker 2: economy is doing really well, but age growth hasn't quite
Speaker 2: been growing as fast as the cost of fixed price
Speaker 2: things are like housing, education, They've just been growing in price,
Speaker 2: getting more expensive faster than wages have been growing. So
Speaker 2: that's why so many people are like, I feel like
Speaker 2: I'm doing everything right and I still and you know,
Speaker 2: everyone's saying the economy is strong, but yet I feel
Speaker 2: like I, you know, between my student loan debt, saving
Speaker 2: paying for my essentials, trying to put a little money
Speaker 2: away in savings, like I am barely making ends meet,
Speaker 2: and what's wrong with me? And yeah, you know, it's
Speaker 2: it's sad, and that's the reality. And I mean politics
Speaker 2: plays into it too, right, So a lot of people
Speaker 2: if you think about the most expensive schools out there,
Speaker 2: in some cases there are for profit schools or private
Speaker 2: liberal arts schools, you know, especially run in the for
Speaker 2: profit business. Like conservative politicians notoriously always create policy that
Speaker 2: favors these institutions, these businesses that are running colleges your
Speaker 2: itt Textssities of Phoenix, you know, these colleges that cost
Speaker 2: so much money and don't really provide aid, and you know,
Speaker 2: you can end up with a ton of debt and
Speaker 2: not a high paying career. You also have states, like
Speaker 2: conservative states, and if you look at the availability of
Speaker 2: public aid in some conservative states or states that have
Speaker 2: conservative leadership, look at who the governor is. They usually
Speaker 2: control the purse strings going to universities, and you might
Speaker 2: see that funding for public universities in the state has decreased,
Speaker 2: and that in which case you if you're going, if
Speaker 2: you're a student going to those schools, you had to
Speaker 2: take out more student loan aid student loan debt in
Speaker 2: order to pay for your tuition there. So you know
Speaker 2: who you vote for matters too. And then of course,
Speaker 2: like when you're choosing the school that you know you
Speaker 2: have to choose wisely in terms of like what is
Speaker 2: it going to look like when I graduate with all
Speaker 2: this debt, which is fine for people now, but like
Speaker 2: those of us who graduate in the last you know,
Speaker 2: already graduated, like you just have to struggle and make
Speaker 2: do with what you've got and try to do I mean,
Speaker 2: you know, consolidate refinance, try and enroll in federal income
Speaker 2: driven repayment plan programs. It just sucks because like, public
Speaker 2: service loan forgiveness for a lot of people was like
Speaker 2: this beacon of hope. Yeah, you know, if I just
Speaker 2: do well, if I work in a nonprofit or I
Speaker 2: work for the government, I make my one hundred and
Speaker 2: twenty on time payments, I'll be taken care of. But
Speaker 2: there was what's happening with these people who applied and
Speaker 2: thought they would get approval is they found out they
Speaker 2: didn't have the right kind of federal student loan. They
Speaker 2: found out that they didn't fill out the right form
Speaker 2: to make sure that their on time payments were being accounted,
Speaker 2: or that their employer truly did qualify as a nonprofit
Speaker 2: or you know, government a public employer. So if you're
Speaker 2: one of those people who's thinking about applying for public
Speaker 2: service loan forgiveness, like call your loan service or now
Speaker 2: and see what you've got to do. To get on
Speaker 2: the right track to get approved.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just yeah, it's just like I said, I've
Speaker 1: been thinking about it a lot lately. Like, I know,
Speaker 1: I've created a space for myself and my family to
Speaker 1: be okay financially, but I don't know that could have
Speaker 1: done this without starting the budgetista And how realistic is that?
Speaker 1: You know, as I teach the Dreamcatchers, it doesn't make
Speaker 1: sense to say, well, then then you start a successful business,
Speaker 1: right you know, like you know you should be able to,
Speaker 1: like as a teacher, be okay. And I'm struggling with
Speaker 1: like before I could, you know, I had the advice
Speaker 1: where I'm like, Okay, you do this, you do this,
Speaker 1: you do this, and it can work. And now I'm like,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know that it's gonna work.
Speaker 1: You might have to figure out how do you start
Speaker 1: something small if you're in a position where like it's different,
Speaker 1: like so for what you do, you know, your income
Speaker 1: is not the same as somebody who's like I'm a teacher,
Speaker 1: a preschool teacher in Newark, or I'm a i don't know,
Speaker 1: like a maintenance man in in in Irvington. What do
Speaker 1: they do? You know? So yeah, and so that's what
Speaker 1: I've been kind of like kind of wrapped my head around,
Speaker 1: like what and trying to find figure out creating a
Speaker 1: plan for those who, you know, making a ton of
Speaker 1: income is likely not going to happen, but that doesn't
Speaker 1: mean you should be left out of the ability to
Speaker 1: take care of yourself. So now that we've been Debbie Downers,
Speaker 1: what do you have for the weekend? Oh?
Speaker 2: You know, I think we are we are we are
Speaker 2: in the final stages of the remodel, and we should
Speaker 2: be in the house in the next couple of weeks. Yeah,
Speaker 2: things are going what. Paint is going up, fixtures are
Speaker 2: going in. You know, it's like it's almost more nerve
Speaker 2: wracking now because I'm just I'm trying not to get
Speaker 2: too excited because anything could still happen. At the same time,
Speaker 2: I'm just like it's like counting down to Christmas. For me,
Speaker 2: I'm just like, what can I move in?
Speaker 1: What?
Speaker 2: But don't worry. I went to Home Goods, which was
Speaker 2: probably a mistake. Went to Home Goods with a with
Speaker 2: a with a girlfriend and oh shit, like filled my
Speaker 2: shopping cart to the brim. I was like, I'm gonna
Speaker 2: need now that I have a house, I'm gonna need
Speaker 2: a cake stand and ant chink lid, and I'm gonna
Speaker 2: need these cupcake tins. And I'm gonna need these labels
Speaker 2: for the gifts that I'm gonna wrap put under the tree.
Speaker 2: It's going to go in the house that I'm building
Speaker 2: right now. Yep, definitely gonna need all these accessories. Gonna
Speaker 2: need this apron, Gonna need this, oh, these set of
Speaker 2: this set of tongs, gotta have that I'm like turning
Speaker 2: in to my mother. I literally walked out with so
Speaker 2: much stuff, like so much stuff that when I was
Speaker 2: at the checkout, this poor girl checking me out, I
Speaker 2: had all these different colors of sprinkles because they have
Speaker 2: teal sprinkles, and you gotta have teal sprinkles for your
Speaker 2: cool cupcakes that you're and your cool you know, Cristmas cookies,
Speaker 2: and I'm gonna make in my house in my brain
Speaker 2: new kitchen.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: So, I was at the checkout and my giant I
Speaker 2: had these giant rolls of WELP, these giant rolls of
Speaker 2: wrapping paper, because you got to have that for the
Speaker 2: closet where you're gonna put the wrap and paper for
Speaker 2: the gifts. You're gonna put it in of the tree
Speaker 2: at your new house, right, okay, And that's the register
Speaker 2: And like I'm like trying to finangle these like huge
Speaker 2: rock and paper like tubes into my cart and I'm
Speaker 2: knocking sprinkles and like sprinkles go crashing on the floor
Speaker 2: and the jar breaks and there's just sprinkles everywhere, but
Speaker 2: I'm keeping my cool. It's fine. Took me probably like
Speaker 2: twenty minutes to check out.
Speaker 1: It was crazy. So it's from someone who was like, oh,
Speaker 1: I guess if we have to get a house now,
Speaker 1: look at you all into it.
Speaker 2: You don't realize the latent suburban mom inside of you
Speaker 2: until you get a house and go to home goods
Speaker 2: and then you're like, I gotta have these things. It's bad,
Speaker 2: it's bad, but hey, things are affordable there. So if
Speaker 2: you're gonna buy a ridiculous cake stand, you might as
Speaker 2: well get it for nine and a nine.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So I don't know, like, have you seen Sandy.
Speaker 1: You know, our friend, so, our financial friend Sandy, well
Speaker 1: just even just a real friend, but her brand is
Speaker 1: called Yes, I am cheap. You know Sandy. First of all,
Speaker 1: she is a g she's been doing her own Have
Speaker 1: you seen her? She's been doing like she and her
Speaker 1: husband have physically been doing like a lot of their
Speaker 1: own renovations. Like Sandy has a drill. Yes, and I
Speaker 1: love her, Like if you follow her, she she yes,
Speaker 1: I am cheap on Instagram. I've been following her stories.
Speaker 1: I can't remember her no, but I'll put a link
Speaker 1: to her.
Speaker 2: She's awesome.
Speaker 1: Yes, And so she said she's done. I was like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh. So yeah, it's been amazing watching her
Speaker 1: like put up cabinetry herself. I'm like, Sandy, you are
Speaker 1: a boss, and she's like, you know, you just figure
Speaker 1: these things out. And so she because Sandy bought a
Speaker 1: home and she renovated her old home that she had
Speaker 1: because she was going to rent it out. So I
Speaker 1: believe what she was doing is renovating. What she's been
Speaker 1: showing is, folks, is her renovation of the old home.
Speaker 1: I think so that way she could rent it out
Speaker 1: and live in her new No, you know, because it
Speaker 1: is true because her new home is like brand new. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: so it doesn't need any renovate. I remember her taking
Speaker 1: us on a tour. It's beautiful. So yeah, her old
Speaker 1: home she was totally redoing it so she can rent it,
Speaker 1: and I'm just like, wow, Meanwhile, I'll be done in January.
Speaker 1: But whatever, we're getting.
Speaker 2: There, that's not that long, that's not that far away.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know, I know, but I'm just like, well,
Speaker 1: you know, I am excited because I can at least
Speaker 1: so I can see the end. But I'm also really
Speaker 1: nervous because we're picking up tile and tiles forever, and
Speaker 1: what do we choose the ugly thing? And what if
Speaker 1: we choose something that is so twenty eighteen and twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five, It's like, oh my god, you clearly brought
Speaker 1: your house at twenty eighteen.
Speaker 2: If you want to sleep at night, do something classic
Speaker 2: and sleek and chic and normal looking. We chose a pretty,
Speaker 2: like a really pretty uh patterned tile for our shower,
Speaker 2: and I love it, but I've literally been having like
Speaker 2: stressed nightmares about it of this tile the exact same question,
Speaker 2: like this is going to be ugly in ten years?
Speaker 2: Do I hate this tile? Is at the right tile.
Speaker 2: That's the problem with the home renovation, Like you make
Speaker 2: decisions today, doesn't get installed for like six to eight weeks,
Speaker 2: and then you're like, wait, I still make do I
Speaker 2: like that decision that I made. It's not good for
Speaker 2: indecisive people, I can tell you that.
Speaker 1: And I'm like the worst when it comes to decision.
Speaker 2: Just do white and live your life.
Speaker 1: And that's what I said. I think I'm gonna like
Speaker 1: fit the bathroom for the most part. We're gonna make
Speaker 1: it really clean and so like subway tile for like
Speaker 1: the the guest bathroom in a Supergirl's bathroom. And then
Speaker 1: like I don't know what the floors are going to
Speaker 1: look like, but I figure, like the bathrooms and then
Speaker 1: the master bathroom. I want some marble, not the whole thing,
Speaker 1: but I want like definitely some like marble access but
Speaker 1: even that, I'm going to choose a classic because there
Speaker 1: were definitely some funky towels and I'm like, oh, I
Speaker 1: love it. I'm like yeah to day, what about it? March? Yeah,
Speaker 1: So but I do I want to go classic. We
Speaker 1: have mostly hardwood floor not even mostly. We have hardwood
Speaker 1: floors throughout, so thankfully that's always classic. It's just a
Speaker 1: tile in the kitchen that's giving like me a stomach
Speaker 1: ache because I wanted to put wood in the kitchen
Speaker 1: because like no like on the floor have you ever
Speaker 1: seen that? Like when you was, I'm like, yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: but it's like our our kitchen floor is not naturally even,
Speaker 1: and so it was going to be really expensive to
Speaker 1: to level it. He said, but there's self leveling whatever
Speaker 1: that goes under tile, like you could pour it in
Speaker 1: its levels itself. And he was like that would be
Speaker 1: way less expressed our contractor way less expensive than literally
Speaker 1: rebuilding the floor for the kitchen, which would cost a lot.
Speaker 1: So even though I wanted wood through our kitchen is
Speaker 1: attached to our dining room and living room and I
Speaker 1: wanted wood throughout, I decided let's go for tile. But
Speaker 1: now picking the tiles like, yikes, I just what I
Speaker 1: don't know.
Speaker 2: I don't dam uh buss deep ruhs and good luck.
Speaker 1: This weekend, I'm gonna go see my I have a
Speaker 1: new niece. She's only a couple months old. My sister
Speaker 1: she had a baby and she moved. I'm like, are
Speaker 1: you crazy? So she's like, when are you guys eat?
Speaker 1: She just moved. She just moved last week. So I
Speaker 1: told her, like, so my sister Carol and I are
Speaker 1: going to go see her this weekend and help her
Speaker 1: unpack because she's like, because she's breastfeeding, and she was like, yo,
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't even belong to myself anymore. I
Speaker 1: belong to this baby. The baby's like, where are you going?
Speaker 1: Sit down? So she's like, like, my husband doesn't know
Speaker 1: where anything goes, you know, And so she's like and
Speaker 1: he's a doctor, so he's working a lot, and so
Speaker 1: she's just like, okay, so I need help. So I
Speaker 1: was like, sisters to the rescue. So I'm excited to
Speaker 1: see the baby Lily, but also help her unpack her house.
Speaker 1: She lives in Chicago. I was like, you should have
Speaker 1: stayed in john Z.
Speaker 2: Oh you're one in Chicago.
Speaker 1: Okay, So I'm like, Lord, the weather. But I don't
Speaker 1: think it's not like we're going to be like hanging
Speaker 1: out hanging out. We're just going for an extending weekend
Speaker 1: like Thursday to a Sunday and for the labor basically
Speaker 1: m to just help. What she was just like, we
Speaker 1: don't we don't even have mattresses. I was like, well,
Speaker 1: as long have hit, you're a mattress.
Speaker 2: This iss her second baby or first, this is her first.
Speaker 1: She was trying for a while. She has her beautiful baby.
Speaker 1: I was like, yay, she's the oldest of five of
Speaker 1: the five of us.
Speaker 2: I was just joking with the girlfriend who's having her second,
Speaker 2: and she was like, no one cares about your second baby.
Speaker 2: No one offers to help or gives you a baby shower.
Speaker 2: It's like, it's just as hard as having it, maybe
Speaker 2: even harder because you have a baby plus other baby.
Speaker 2: So then you know, my friend with the second baby,
Speaker 2: pay attention to them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's true because I look back and I'm like,
Speaker 1: I don't even have that many baby pictures. I was like,
Speaker 1: you guys didn't even care because I'm the second.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, you and my little brother just whining he
Speaker 2: was number four, number four, okay, so imagine.
Speaker 1: But I feel like I feel like the first and
Speaker 1: definitely the last. The last is always like, oh my goodness,
Speaker 1: you're the little princess of the world or prince of
Speaker 1: the world. But like, yeah, the second baby does not
Speaker 1: get any love. I was like, Mommy, Like my one day,
Speaker 1: my mom created like love. What are those things called, uh?
Speaker 1: Picture albums for all of us, Like she grabbed all
Speaker 1: our baby pictures from every corner of the world and
Speaker 1: gave us each our own individual like picture album like
Speaker 1: Karen the Oldest had like three, you know, everybody else
Speaker 1: had like I had like half a one. I was like, Mommy,
Speaker 1: got tired. I can't believe it. I was like, Mommy,
Speaker 1: what happened? And she's like, I know, we took more
Speaker 1: pictures than this. I want to like weep. I'm like,
Speaker 1: why is mine the skinniest?
Speaker 2: You look like the other one?
Speaker 1: So you know. Oh so I was like, yes, that's
Speaker 1: poor second baby. All right, these are my questions. I
Speaker 1: don't know the rest of the work, and I know
Speaker 1: the audience is gonna get annoyed. These are my questions.
Speaker 1: It's a question.
Speaker 2: Like I said, there's not enough syllables to match that
Speaker 2: song usher, Usher, But we'll let it pass. We'll let
Speaker 2: it pass. It's the holidays, okay, guys, So we're going
Speaker 2: to go through the reader mailbox right now. Hit us
Speaker 2: up at brannabisionpodcast dot com with your questions. You can
Speaker 2: hit the ask us anything to believe a question, or
Speaker 2: email us directly at Briannambission Podcast at gmail dot com.
Speaker 1: So we have a.
Speaker 2: Couple of good questions. First questions from listener Jessica, a
Speaker 2: repeat questioner. She says I wrote a while back about
Speaker 2: being passed up for promotion with my company and having
Speaker 2: people that I trained be promoted above me. I remember
Speaker 2: this question, so I ended up talking to my supervisor.
Speaker 2: When I asked why I wasn't considered for the position,
Speaker 2: he stated that we didn't think this was something you'd
Speaker 2: want to do. Since then, I've decided to start pursuing
Speaker 2: my dream of becoming an entrepreneur. Is there any advice
Speaker 2: that you can offer me? I got so far and
Speaker 2: then I kind of get stuck on what to do next.
Speaker 2: I've created a name, I've applied for my business license,
Speaker 2: and started a website. But now I'm kind of confused
Speaker 2: on what's next. So turned down from for promotion and
Speaker 2: then now wants to get out of the corporate world
Speaker 2: and start her own business.
Speaker 1: Okay, so well, starting your own business, I mean it's
Speaker 1: it's always an adventure. What's next is really to figure
Speaker 1: out what are your what I would say, you want
Speaker 1: to start a tree business versus a bush business. So
Speaker 1: a bush business is like and this is what most
Speaker 1: people do it in the beginning because they're nervous. They're like, oh,
Speaker 1: so I teach you how to budget, I fix your
Speaker 1: credit I help you with sudent loans, I help you
Speaker 1: with debt, I sell goal chains, I do hair, and so.
Speaker 2: Sounds like a black bush business specifically.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So, like think about a bush. It's sprouted, It
Speaker 1: has a whole bunch of little like whatever, those twigs
Speaker 1: or whatever, and it sprouts, but it stunts its own
Speaker 1: growth because it does too many things. And so you're
Speaker 1: wanting to develop a tree business. And so an example
Speaker 1: if I'm going to use the budgetista was literally I
Speaker 1: called myself the budgetista because that's all I did. I
Speaker 1: had that core deliverable. I will help you create a budget.
Speaker 1: I talked about budgeting, I posted about budgeting, I sat
Speaker 1: one on one with people doing budgeting, and that was
Speaker 1: my tree trunk. And once you build a really strong
Speaker 1: tree trunk, you find and you find the folks who
Speaker 1: are wanting to purchase from you, your customers. You develop
Speaker 1: like your expertise, because when you're starting a business, even
Speaker 1: if you're really good at baking cakes, you still can
Speaker 1: always be better. And so all about that one core thing,
Speaker 1: and then you can branch off, like you know, once
Speaker 1: trees get you know, nice and tall or whatever, then
Speaker 1: they can branch off into other things.
Speaker 2: So I through with this analogy right now, because that's amazing.
Speaker 2: I love the analogy, right's.
Speaker 1: I always said, you want a tree bit this is
Speaker 1: versus a bush business. So that's one. So but you
Speaker 1: have to figure out what is your tree trunk, you know,
Speaker 1: And it's harder than you think because so for example,
Speaker 1: you might say, I bake. My tree trunk is baking,
Speaker 1: but are you cupcakes? Are you cookies? Are you muffin tops?
Speaker 1: So it's not as easy as I just bake. So
Speaker 1: you like, and the reason why you want to get
Speaker 1: really clear is that you want to build trust. The
Speaker 1: awesome thing about trust is that it can be transferred.
Speaker 1: So once I got really good at budgeting for like
Speaker 1: a year or two, everybody knew tivity is the budgeting
Speaker 1: to all of my my potential customers and clients, and
Speaker 1: then I was able to say, I can also help
Speaker 1: you with and so I would focus on that first.
Speaker 1: And to me, one of the best ways to hone
Speaker 1: your craft is to volunteer. So I'm not sure specifically
Speaker 1: what you're you know, like, let's just say you're doing
Speaker 1: a service business, so I would you know, be you know,
Speaker 1: like kind of like recruiting for clients. But then on
Speaker 1: the side, I would volunce here at like the Boys
Speaker 1: and Girls Club or you know, homeless shelter or or
Speaker 1: domestic violence shelter for women to hone my skill set
Speaker 1: on the side. And you'll see comedians will do this too,
Speaker 1: like Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle. Dyan notorious for like
Speaker 1: playing really really small clubs on knights that no one
Speaker 1: knows that they're coming and practicing new material, and then
Speaker 1: once they get it good, then they'll bring it to
Speaker 1: the HBO stage. So don't be afraid. On the side,
Speaker 1: people tell you don't do stuff for free. I think
Speaker 1: that's foolish. Of course you should do stuff for free,
Speaker 1: but like you know, donating to organizations and people that
Speaker 1: might not otherwise be able to afford you to hone
Speaker 1: your craft and use social media to your advantage. Because
Speaker 1: social media I call social media the pre resume. So
Speaker 1: before someone gets to know you, they get to know
Speaker 1: the social media you. So what do you want people
Speaker 1: to know about you? And so I knew I wanted
Speaker 1: to teach in person classes, so every time I did one,
Speaker 1: even if it was volunteer, I used to post it
Speaker 1: the social media and have a clear description of like
Speaker 1: had a great time speaking at the United Way today,
Speaker 1: taught the you know talk women whatever how to budget
Speaker 1: for the holidays, So that way I was what I
Speaker 1: was doing was putting out my pre resumes so people
Speaker 1: knew exactly what to hire me for. And I realized
Speaker 1: that it was working. When let's just say, I remember
Speaker 1: one time I volunteered. I helped the Girl Scout Troop
Speaker 1: get their student their their financial literacy badges, and I
Speaker 1: thought it was so cute, so I posted it. If
Speaker 1: I tell you how many Girl Scout Troops reached out
Speaker 1: to me, and I realized that I have to be
Speaker 1: mindful to post what I want to get hired for,
Speaker 1: because if I didn't want to do more and Girls
Speaker 1: Scout Troops, whause I didn't, I mean I did it
Speaker 1: for a friend of mine. It was fun. If I
Speaker 1: didn't want to do that, then it's okay not to
Speaker 1: post that. So posting also what you want to get
Speaker 1: hired for. Some tools that will be helpful if you're
Speaker 1: going to build a site. I really like WordPress because
Speaker 1: it's almost every website designer knows how to do the
Speaker 1: back end, Like if you're using a site like a
Speaker 1: Wix or or some other sites. Sometimes not everyone's familiar
Speaker 1: with WordPress is pretty much the standard. Woolfo wu Foo
Speaker 1: is an awesome free contact form. I think it's up
Speaker 1: up to one hundred free messages a month. I believe
Speaker 1: that you can get with woofu. So what I love
Speaker 1: about woofoo is that you can embed it on your site.
Speaker 1: But even better is that you can create the contactform
Speaker 1: on woofoo dot com and they can give you a link.
Speaker 1: So whenever I would speak like say like I said
Speaker 1: like the United Way had it awesome times speaking at
Speaker 1: the United Way teaching women how to budget. If you
Speaker 1: would like me to budget at your company or help
Speaker 1: your women to budget, contact me here and here would
Speaker 1: not be my email. It would be my woofu form
Speaker 1: and the former pop up and it would say name, email,
Speaker 1: subject and you know what do you need or whatever,
Speaker 1: And when they filled it out, they would it would
Speaker 1: go to my email directly. Because people are inherently lazy,
Speaker 1: and so if you say email, if they're at a
Speaker 1: red light or they're at McDonald's eating, for them to stop,
Speaker 1: go to their email. Remember your email email you is.
Speaker 1: That's a lot of steps and so if you could
Speaker 1: reduce the steps by them just clicking your contact form
Speaker 1: link that's in the bio of your IG or just
Speaker 1: a link inside your your your Facebook post or whatever,
Speaker 1: or your Twitter posts, then you can you can cut
Speaker 1: down the steps and they just click and they don't
Speaker 1: have to go to their email. They could just fill
Speaker 1: out your form. So I think those are good places
Speaker 1: for you to start. And I wish you well, I
Speaker 1: need to write a book, my friend.
Speaker 2: I feel like you can keep going and going. I mean,
Speaker 2: it's also you're in the privileged position of having a
Speaker 2: job even while you start a business, so you know,
Speaker 2: use that to your advantage. Let them pay you and
Speaker 2: use that money to you know, use that stability while
Speaker 2: you're trying to launch your business. But I understand that
Speaker 2: I think that what I identify with this a frustration.
Speaker 2: And I feel like if you're passed up for promotion,
Speaker 2: you know, it seems like you're ready to kind of
Speaker 2: just quit and move on. But you're what I would say,
Speaker 2: as your manager said, we didn't think this is something
Speaker 2: that you'd want to do, So I would ask yourself,
Speaker 2: I mean, maybe this isn't the job that you want
Speaker 2: long term or you're just not happy there. That's why
Speaker 2: you want to leave. But if you're at a job
Speaker 2: and someone says that to you, I mean you have
Speaker 2: to don't let them. Don't wait to be tapped on
Speaker 2: the shoulder and given a golden staircase to the next opportunity.
Speaker 2: Sometimes you have to ask for it, and sometimes you
Speaker 2: have to not demand, but be upfront and be assertive
Speaker 2: with what you want out of your job. And if
Speaker 2: you're ready for a promotion, don't let them even use
Speaker 2: this as an excuse that we didn't think that's what
Speaker 2: you wanted to do. Don't let it be a secret.
Speaker 2: You know, not all managers pay attention, and not all
Speaker 2: managers may think that you're ready if you don't raise
Speaker 2: your hand and say that you're ready. So that's my
Speaker 2: two cents. And everything Tiffany said was fantastic. You should
Speaker 2: write a book, tiff On.
Speaker 1: Al I'll think, like, what, I don't know anything about business,
Speaker 1: and I'm like out of year, could you not?
Speaker 2: You're just in the middle of it. But like reflecting
Speaker 2: on it. You have to reflect on what you've done
Speaker 2: and what's worked and what hasn't worked, and then you
Speaker 2: have so much to offer people when they ask you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's not until that happens. That's why, you know,
Speaker 1: teaching is such a great tool. And this is why,
Speaker 1: I mean I tell people all the time volunteering. One
Speaker 1: it's good for your soul, it just is. And then
Speaker 1: two it's so good for you, like developmentally, because when
Speaker 1: you teach, you learn twice. So when when you're sharing
Speaker 1: your service or product with like a vulnerable population that
Speaker 1: otherwise could not invest in it, you know that you
Speaker 1: what you're really doing is you're honing your craft. And
Speaker 1: so the more I love teaching because it makes me better.
Speaker 1: It means that it forces me to learn new things,
Speaker 1: but it also forces that what I do know to
Speaker 1: be true, I prove it like that truth over and
Speaker 1: over and over. And so, I mean, I do a
Speaker 1: lot of volunteering on the side, and sometimes it's just
Speaker 1: like talking to mentees or helping out friends because you
Speaker 1: just there's so much to learn in business. I mean
Speaker 1: every day I'm making stuff up. I mean, I don't know. Sometimes,
Speaker 1: like someone asked me just something earlier before we started
Speaker 1: taping one of my team members, and they know I'm
Speaker 1: the queen of like girl, I don't know, Well, we're
Speaker 1: gonna figure it out, though, I mean one way or
Speaker 1: the other, it's either right or wrong. Let's try this.
Speaker 1: So and then some things I do know because we
Speaker 1: did the wrong thing two years ago, we figured out
Speaker 1: what the right thing is. And business is both terrifying
Speaker 1: and amazing. I don't know that I could do anything
Speaker 1: else now because I've been doing it so long. But
Speaker 1: it's there are days when I'm like, I quit. I
Speaker 1: just want to be timpany to the preschool teacher. I
Speaker 1: hate everybody.
Speaker 4: And there are days and instance there are days I'm like,
Speaker 4: I love it. This is amazing and yeah, and literally
Speaker 4: that could happen all one day, that could happen all
Speaker 4: in one hour.
Speaker 2: Thing prepare for that major shift? And what would you
Speaker 2: say to her process? So she says she's created a name,
Speaker 2: applied for her business license, and started a website. To me,
Speaker 2: that sounds like the trappings of a business. But I
Speaker 2: feel like what she should really do is focus on
Speaker 2: what is the business? And she doesn't act. They share
Speaker 2: this in her message. Maybe she has done the work,
Speaker 2: but actually taking time to figure out what your business
Speaker 2: is first, before you get the bells and the whistles.
Speaker 1: I always say you can look at a business, or
Speaker 1: you could be a business. There's a little girl who
Speaker 1: lives in our complex. She has to be like fourteen
Speaker 1: or fifteen, and on the weekend she braids hair. She
Speaker 1: has like a little line of other little girls that come.
Speaker 1: She sits on her little steps. Right, Chante has a
Speaker 1: business because she has a product or service that people
Speaker 1: want and they purchase that part that and they purchase
Speaker 1: is critical. Right now. I know people who are grown
Speaker 1: with pens and websites and cards and all the trappings
Speaker 1: of business, but no one has bought anything. Chantai has
Speaker 1: a business. You know, websites and pens and all this
Speaker 1: stuff do not make business. The biggest mistake I see
Speaker 1: new business owners make is that they invest in things
Speaker 1: that don't bring a direct return on investment. ROI so
Speaker 1: you don't like now, I'm further removed, so I can
Speaker 1: purchase things that the return comes later. But in the beginning,
Speaker 1: you cannot afford to spend money on things that that's
Speaker 1: not a direct return. Example, you are a baker. You
Speaker 1: know you wanna bake cakes. Your money should be going
Speaker 1: to a flour, eggs, sugar, whatever else, cake mix or
Speaker 1: whatever you know, because what you can do is literally
Speaker 1: you purchase those things. You make the cake, you sell
Speaker 1: the cake. If you purchase all of these other like
Speaker 1: secondary things like a website and business cards whatever, you
Speaker 1: cannot sell a website, like if you're like a baker,
Speaker 1: that's not the point. You cannot sell business cards. So
Speaker 1: those things don't matter as much you think that they do.
Speaker 1: But ultimately people just want cake. And so until your
Speaker 1: cakes make enough money so that way you don't you're
Speaker 1: not living hand to mouth in your business. You should
Speaker 1: really just be investing in things that it's a quick
Speaker 1: return on investment, meaning that you purchase them and they
Speaker 1: lead to a direct sale. And so that's probably, like
Speaker 1: I said, the biggest mistake. I mean, I just cleaned
Speaker 1: out my closet because since we're moving on like a
Speaker 1: month moving into our new house, I cleaned up my closet. Mandy,
Speaker 1: I can't tell you. There were thousands of business cards
Speaker 1: flyers that never got passed out, and I'm like, oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, with like my old phone number on them,
Speaker 1: old website, and that thought how much money. There's probably
Speaker 1: hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of dollars worth of things
Speaker 1: that could have been used to grow my business when
Speaker 1: I first started, but I invested in things that looked
Speaker 1: like a business. But we're not a business.
Speaker 2: Don't cut your day job just yet. Keep that job
Speaker 2: a little bit longer.
Speaker 1: I feel like, yeah, have your exit plant. How much
Speaker 1: money do you need? What's your baseline? Your baseline, Well,
Speaker 1: this is what I call my baseline is like without
Speaker 1: the bells and whistles, how much money do you need
Speaker 1: monthly to support your life? And if you can get
Speaker 1: up to six months, if not longer. So you want
Speaker 1: your baseline about six months if you're able to save
Speaker 1: that much, and then you have to consider what I
Speaker 1: call a waitressing job. I was just telling my sister
Speaker 1: this because she doesn't like her job and she's ready
Speaker 1: to take the leap, and I said, if you reduce
Speaker 1: your reduce your your living expenses and you find a
Speaker 1: less expensive place, then you can your baseline will lower,
Speaker 1: so the money you have saved will last longer, and
Speaker 1: then you could get a waitressing job, which I just
Speaker 1: call that like a job that is a low lift
Speaker 1: mentally and it's flexible with hours. So like she's wanting
Speaker 1: to enter into like into a specific kind of like
Speaker 1: career and it needs her to be available at a
Speaker 1: moment's notice. So she needs a job that it's not
Speaker 1: going to take up a lot of space in her brain.
Speaker 1: She can kind of just do it. But also she
Speaker 1: can just be like, oh, I can't come in on Thursday.
Speaker 1: Can I come in on Friday instead? And so it's
Speaker 1: okay to have like a little side job that can
Speaker 1: pay your baseline because now you're living way cheaper, but
Speaker 1: will allow you to pursue your dream. So it's not
Speaker 1: taking up too much of your time, not taking up
Speaker 1: too much of your of your of your mental and
Speaker 1: emotional space. And so consider those two things. And I
Speaker 1: don't care how grown you are. It's okay to say,
Speaker 1: can I move back home with my parents? Can I
Speaker 1: move with my best friend or my sister or whatever
Speaker 1: in order to pursue this, because you're you're gonna need
Speaker 1: You're going to need to reduce your personal spending if
Speaker 1: you're going to have the leeway. What is that? The runway?
Speaker 1: Is that? What the is that what it's called? When
Speaker 1: you know, like with the plane before it takes off
Speaker 1: that they have to like go down taxing. Yeah, well
Speaker 1: you know that that is the runway, right? Yeah? So yeah,
Speaker 1: so the plenty of runway and before they take off.
Speaker 1: If the runway is too short, a plane cannot take
Speaker 1: off and you're not gonna be able to take off
Speaker 1: unless you have a long enough runway and your runway
Speaker 1: is fund to support you while you're waiting for your
Speaker 1: business to make you money.
Speaker 2: You're literally the Confucius of business strategy. Like you're like
Speaker 2: amazing analogy after amazing analogy. You guys writing this doll
Speaker 2: making a T shirt for us?
Speaker 1: Please at the Africa. It in me Honestly, my dad,
Speaker 1: I just like daddy can go outside and play and
Speaker 1: he'll be like, well, one day there was an ant walking.
Speaker 1: I'm like, wait, so is that a yes? I should
Speaker 1: I should have like the African Playbook for starting a business.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, listen, I'm gonna edit this out so
Speaker 2: no one takes your idea. Yes, go run Well, thank you.
Speaker 2: I feel like I just got school too, Jessica, thanks
Speaker 2: for your question. If you guys have questions again, hit
Speaker 2: us up at Briananbission podcast dot com.
Speaker 1: And it's time for a boost, a breaking, a booster
Speaker 1: and a break in, a boost and a break. Are
Speaker 1: you gonna boost or are you going to break.
Speaker 2: I mean, I can't do Michelle Obama for a second
Speaker 2: week in a row, can I? Even though it's like
Speaker 2: for something different, you could do it. I literally spent
Speaker 2: like two hours just watching every interview she's given because
Speaker 2: I love that she's on them. She's out there again.
Speaker 2: She's like doing her book tour, she's being interviewed, She's
Speaker 2: dropping gems everywhere she goes, every appearance more gems. So
Speaker 2: she was doing her first of all, I haven't seen
Speaker 2: her live because those tickets are way too damn expensive.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna go ahead and say it. I will just
Speaker 2: you know, read my huff Post summary afterward. But she
Speaker 2: was at Barclays Center last night in New York and
Speaker 2: she called out the whole lean in philosophy. I put
Speaker 2: the quote on Instagram basically saying that sometimes in life,
Speaker 2: the whole lean in philosophy doesn't work, or in her words,
Speaker 2: that shit don't always work.
Speaker 1: Well. Job.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I just I feel like we just all need
Speaker 2: to hear from Michelle more often. So another plea for
Speaker 2: you guys to go read her book or just read
Speaker 2: her watch her interview. She's been amazing. But I won't,
Speaker 2: you know, cheat and make that my boost again entirely.
Speaker 2: I have another boost. I'm going to do a quick
Speaker 2: shout out for one of the task management tools that
Speaker 2: we use maybe too much at my office here. It's
Speaker 2: called Trello.
Speaker 1: I i'men looking for a new task management and I
Speaker 1: heard about Trelo.
Speaker 2: Do tael Trello is great. It's a productivity tool and
Speaker 2: it's a task management tool where if you're a group
Speaker 2: collaborating on a bunch of the same task or the
Speaker 2: same assignment or the same project, it's excellent. You can
Speaker 2: tag people, you can create different stages, different lists. You
Speaker 2: can move they call them boards where you keep everything organized,
Speaker 2: and you can move things from the HR board to
Speaker 2: the financial board to the attorney's board. I don't know,
Speaker 2: I'm making stuff up. It's really fantastic and we've we've
Speaker 2: we use it for a team of about fifty people
Speaker 2: or more at my office. It's been cool. It's been
Speaker 2: super useful. So if you're looking for something in your life,
Speaker 2: I think I've talked to someone who uses it for
Speaker 2: planning her family's vacation, So it's not just for business.
Speaker 2: This is my shameless plug for Trello.
Speaker 1: It's so funny that you said that because we're using
Speaker 1: this system called Zoho Projects, which Zoho Projects is like
Speaker 1: using a machine gun to kill a mosquito. Okay, it
Speaker 1: is so robust, Mandy, I mean it it actually makes
Speaker 1: you it's it is so russ. It's inefficient, like it's
Speaker 1: so granular and you have to do so much just
Speaker 1: to get to like what you need to do that
Speaker 1: like it's yeah, it is. I mean so I just
Speaker 1: was telling my team today, like, yo, I know, I said,
Speaker 1: I wanted all of these things, but this this is
Speaker 1: sometimes paper and pencil is best. So we already use
Speaker 1: Slack and we've been like struggling to find a project
Speaker 1: management tool. The team's been amazing and that they get
Speaker 1: their things done without it, but as we grow, it's
Speaker 1: just not gonna be possible to just use Slack. And
Speaker 1: for those of you who don't know, Slack.
Speaker 2: Is like as aol.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just a chat exactly. So we are having
Speaker 1: a and we're using like Google Docs and it's just inefficient.
Speaker 2: So you need Trello. There's a Google Doc attachment function,
Speaker 2: you can link it all. You guys definitely need Trello.
Speaker 2: But Trelo is like one of I think They're owned
Speaker 2: by Jira, which is another kind of task management tool
Speaker 2: that you hear about a lot j I R A.
Speaker 2: And then we also use an app. We also use
Speaker 2: a task management tool called good Day, like have a
Speaker 2: good day with our team who works remote in a
Speaker 2: different country. But Trello is probably my favorite. It's the
Speaker 2: most simple to use, and I mean it definitely works
Speaker 2: for us, and you can really customize it to work
Speaker 2: for what you need. Hey, Trellollo, Hello, you're trying to advertise, how.
Speaker 4: Well?
Speaker 1: I am just going to do a nice little boost.
Speaker 1: Just this past weekend, I was in Texas to do
Speaker 1: this event called My City four Ways, And when I
Speaker 1: went to Essence, that was part of this contest for
Speaker 1: ten women entrepreneurs who presented and they pitched me their
Speaker 1: content there like business kind of.
Speaker 2: Like talked about that before, like the like their business pitch,
Speaker 2: their elevator pitch exactly.
Speaker 1: And so the the winner was to win a car,
Speaker 1: a two year lease for a car. And so justice uh, Saturday,
Speaker 1: when I was in Houston, this was kind of like
Speaker 1: the end event and three of the finalists came to Houston,
Speaker 1: and you know, it was just a really nice event.
Speaker 1: It was just like a woman's kind of like empowerment event.
Speaker 1: It was. It was. It was really cute, and a
Speaker 1: lot of dreamcatchers in Houston came, hey, miss CNM. And
Speaker 1: so the winner her name is Melissa Mitchell of a
Speaker 1: Belle Creations, and I just love Melissa. She is so positive.
Speaker 1: If you see her, so her artwork is so bold
Speaker 1: and beautiful. She started off by making head wraps and
Speaker 1: she well, she started off by painting and then making
Speaker 1: head wraps, and if you just see her paintings, they're
Speaker 1: just really bold and full of life and joy. And
Speaker 1: so Melissa has been having an amazing year. So she's
Speaker 1: an IT tech and if you were to see her,
Speaker 1: you're like, there's no wit. This woman is an IT.
Speaker 1: She looks like a like a walking like light of sunshine,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 2: Like, hey, I know a lot of nice IT people.
Speaker 1: No, but meaning like she's just so everything she rech
Speaker 1: is just so bright. I just can't see her sitting
Speaker 1: behind a computer. So yeah, so she's she's amazing. So
Speaker 1: her pitch was awesome, her people voted for her, and
Speaker 1: she ended up winning. She was crying. I just it
Speaker 1: just was such an awesome event, and I just want
Speaker 1: to recognize Melissa because she is a So this is
Speaker 1: for who was it who was a young woman that
Speaker 1: wrote about starting her business while she was working. Her
Speaker 1: name's Jessica, So Jessica Melissa still works in it, so
Speaker 1: she still has her even though she's been doing well.
Speaker 1: She she actually Spanks had a contest about who was
Speaker 1: going to like be their new print on whatever new
Speaker 1: Spanks theory coming out was. She won that earlier this year.
Speaker 1: She also won something else. I mean she's been having
Speaker 1: Oh Macy's. She partnered with a woman who like mixed
Speaker 1: clothing and her prints were on the clothing and they
Speaker 1: sold out at Macy's. She's just been having an amazing
Speaker 1: and amazing year. Despite that though she said that you know,
Speaker 1: she kept her job. She's just now at a point
Speaker 1: where her her side business, her A Belle Creations, has
Speaker 1: it's making and it's a bell for those who want
Speaker 1: to follow her A B E I L L E
Speaker 1: A Bell Creations and so.
Speaker 2: Like b and spend in French.
Speaker 1: Yes and so she she she said, like her business
Speaker 1: is now making as much as her regular job. But
Speaker 1: she wanted to put herself on a strong financial space
Speaker 1: before she took the leap, and so that's some If
Speaker 1: you have the opportunity to do that, that's another option.
Speaker 1: But yeah, just I just want to give a shout
Speaker 1: out to Melissa because she was just awesome. She was
Speaker 1: so appreciative and she was just crying and and and
Speaker 1: she said, it's just so funny because someone hit her
Speaker 1: card the other day and knocked off the window the
Speaker 1: sideview mirror. She was like, a sister could use this car.
Speaker 1: So yeah, that was my that was my brown beast
Speaker 1: to Melissa.
Speaker 2: Oh shoot me like gonna put her in the show notes?
Speaker 1: Okay, I will? Will you though, well, you know what,
Speaker 1: this is what I'm gonna do. I'm actually gonna.
Speaker 2: Send it because I feel like I end the show
Speaker 2: like that sometimes and I don't get anything, you.
Speaker 1: Know what my I mean, I have the word. I
Speaker 1: don't know. I would think that I have me Why
Speaker 1: I can't evemember the name of her? What's that thing
Speaker 1: when you have dementia? Is that what.
Speaker 2: Cymer's don't make fun of dementia. That's a serious illness tip.
Speaker 1: No, No, I would think that I would have like
Speaker 1: but I've when I say I have always been like this,
Speaker 1: I have always had a terrible memory. It's not. It's
Speaker 1: not gotten worse. It's just been the same.
Speaker 2: I just love how cheery you're like, uh huh, sure will.
Speaker 1: I just like it. So I've just learned to like
Speaker 1: navigate around it. One thing I've learned because I used
Speaker 1: to really go ham with people who are like no
Speaker 1: to me, you did say, and I'm like, that's not true.
Speaker 1: And now when someone says that I did say or
Speaker 1: I promise or I said, I'm like, you know what,
Speaker 1: it's likely, So my bad.
Speaker 2: Magic apall, it is likely. I'm just teasing you. I
Speaker 2: love you, even with your forgetfulness.
Speaker 1: Thank you. I just sent it to you on IG
Speaker 1: so that way you have it. See.
Speaker 2: Thanks man.
Speaker 1: Well that's awesome as per usual.
Speaker 2: Yeah, let you guys hit us up with your questions
Speaker 2: again at Brannambisson podcast dot com. What's happening the holidays
Speaker 2: are coming up? We talked about task management tools. If
Speaker 2: you guys have tools that you love, or you have
Speaker 2: fun holiday plans, or hell, you're stressed out about your
Speaker 2: holiday finances, let us know, hit us up in our inbox.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I know, we'd love to hear that because I'd
Speaker 1: like to see what you guys are up to are
Speaker 1: you exchanging Well, we'll leave on this. Are you exchanging gifts?
Speaker 1: I've seen the trend among the Dreamcatchers that there's significant
Speaker 1: others and themselves they're not exchanging gifts this year, that
Speaker 1: instead they're putting it toward either like a joint experience
Speaker 1: or maybe a home. So I'd love to know. Tweet us,
Speaker 1: send us a message on an install or Facebook. Are
Speaker 1: you going to exchange gifts this year? And if not,
Speaker 1: what are you going to do instead? With your moulah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm just ignoring my husband's gift requests. He thinks
Speaker 2: for doing gifts, but we're not.
Speaker 1: I mean, you guys bought the house you just renovated.
Speaker 2: Am I right? Tell him that. He's like, can I
Speaker 2: have this four hundred dollars toolkit? I'm like, cool, keep
Speaker 2: sending me links. You're not getting this.
Speaker 1: This is insane.
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, cool. We'll have a good week. See
Speaker 2: you guys next Wednesday.