WEBVTT - Ep. 198 — How Tiffany Made Her First $1 Million as The Budgetnista 0:00:16.280 --> 0:00:24.440 Hey, hey, hey, we're back. We're black, We're brown. Ambison 0:00:25.520 --> 0:00:29.040 ambitson ambitsi ambisi. Yeah, I love something little sauce that. 0:00:30.640 --> 0:00:32.400 Hey, Mandy, Hey, how's it going. 0:00:33.440 --> 0:00:35.920 I was going good last night. I don't I don't 0:00:35.920 --> 0:00:37.440 know if it's the weather changed, but I was gonna 0:00:37.440 --> 0:00:40.519 die last night, sneezing, coughing, like I'm like, where did 0:00:40.560 --> 0:00:42.199 this come from? Out of the blue. And but I 0:00:42.200 --> 0:00:45.400 took benadoyl went to sleep and woke up my regular 0:00:45.479 --> 0:00:46.880 south So I'm feeling much better. 0:00:46.960 --> 0:00:49.480 Benandrilla, you say, interesting, it's this dry air. I feel 0:00:49.479 --> 0:00:52.680 like like the cold sucked all the humidity out of 0:00:52.720 --> 0:00:54.680 the air and it's left me. 0:00:57.240 --> 0:00:59.160 I wasn't sure. I like, is it allergies? Is it? 0:00:59.200 --> 0:01:01.800 Because I don't feel all sick and that's so typically 0:01:01.800 --> 0:01:03.600 how I know it's an allergy if it's like I 0:01:03.600 --> 0:01:05.800 don't feel sick, but my eyes and my nose are 0:01:05.800 --> 0:01:08.319 saying something different, like I'm not exhausted, I'm not like 0:01:08.400 --> 0:01:10.440 worn out, but I'm like my nose was running like 0:01:10.480 --> 0:01:14.360 I was three years old. I'm like, what's happening? Yeah, yeah, 0:01:14.440 --> 0:01:16.479 I think that's what it was. But that Bena Joe 0:01:16.600 --> 0:01:18.920 Boy Meanwhile, a superman was trying to convince me of 0:01:19.000 --> 0:01:21.559 muse and next. I'm like, Sir, can you read the label? 0:01:21.640 --> 0:01:24.119 It says coughing all the things that I didn't have. 0:01:24.680 --> 0:01:26.200 But he's just swear that musin next is a cure 0:01:26.200 --> 0:01:27.800 off and everything. I'm like, it doesn't. None of my 0:01:27.840 --> 0:01:29.600 symptoms are on the front. And he was like, you 0:01:29.680 --> 0:01:32.360 fight me on everything. He was saying, He's like, yo, 0:01:32.440 --> 0:01:34.560 every time I make a suggestion. But I'm like, but 0:01:34.640 --> 0:01:37.240 if your suggesting doesn't make sense, sir, I don't need 0:01:37.280 --> 0:01:39.679 If you said next, I'm not I'm not coughing up phlam. 0:01:39.720 --> 0:01:42.440 I don't like literally none of my things are on it. 0:01:42.520 --> 0:01:45.320 Like look at Benajo. It says sneezing, running eyes, running nose. 0:01:45.480 --> 0:01:45.959 That is me. 0:01:46.360 --> 0:01:49.240 I picture you guys in the Dwayne Read aisle having 0:01:49.280 --> 0:01:52.240 this conversation like so vividly because it's definitely been me 0:01:52.320 --> 0:01:55.000 and Husby. Is it weird that I feel like I'm 0:01:55.040 --> 0:01:58.120 talking to our listeners in the future because this show 0:01:58.320 --> 0:02:02.000 is airing after things skiff. Where will I be after 0:02:02.040 --> 0:02:04.680 Think I could be in the hospital, I could be 0:02:04.840 --> 0:02:07.720 bleary eyed, falling asleep in the recliner with like my 0:02:07.800 --> 0:02:11.560 boobs leaking, like with the Newborn. I don't know where 0:02:11.560 --> 0:02:12.959 I'm going to be in a week and a half 0:02:12.960 --> 0:02:17.760 when this show airs, but I wish myself well, hang 0:02:17.800 --> 0:02:19.320 in there, girl, hang in there. 0:02:20.760 --> 0:02:22.600 I just I wish myself well, that's hilarious. 0:02:23.000 --> 0:02:25.000 Good luck to Mandy in the future. 0:02:25.560 --> 0:02:27.760 So we we were going to tape something evergreen for 0:02:27.840 --> 0:02:31.120 y'all because I feel like when I started my business 0:02:31.120 --> 0:02:34.240 as an entrepreneur, I feel like I didn't know any 0:02:35.040 --> 0:02:36.880 entrepreneurs in real life. I mean, I knew people who 0:02:36.919 --> 0:02:39.320 were just starting like me, but I would always wonder, 0:02:39.400 --> 0:02:42.560 how did like my local small entrepreneur who wasn't like 0:02:42.600 --> 0:02:45.160 a bakery or like, you know, an accountant, how did 0:02:45.160 --> 0:02:47.519 they actually make money? And it was like this secret 0:02:47.600 --> 0:02:50.520 And I would ask people because I'm pretty transparent, and 0:02:50.919 --> 0:02:53.600 they would skirt around the question, and I'm like, so, 0:02:54.320 --> 0:02:56.200 because I'd be curious. How if I see someone online, 0:02:56.200 --> 0:02:59.720 I'm like, hmmm, she has a you know whatever, like 0:02:59.760 --> 0:03:02.240 a she's a travel influencer, but how does she actually 0:03:02.280 --> 0:03:04.600 make money? And I found that people didn't want to share. 0:03:04.639 --> 0:03:06.720 Maybe they weren't making money. I don't know. But we 0:03:06.760 --> 0:03:08.840 figured we do a show where I pulled back the 0:03:08.840 --> 0:03:12.280 curtain of ten years worth of work that I've done 0:03:12.280 --> 0:03:14.680 as the Budgetnista, and how I made money in the beginning, 0:03:14.720 --> 0:03:16.919 middle and where I am now and how we make money. 0:03:16.919 --> 0:03:19.880 And I'll share some numbers with you. I'm honestly super 0:03:19.880 --> 0:03:23.320 open about, you know, like how much I make and 0:03:23.360 --> 0:03:25.679 what makes a lot and you know what's different now 0:03:25.720 --> 0:03:29.480 than before. So man's going to be her journalist self. 0:03:29.520 --> 0:03:32.040 Ask me some questions and I'm excited to share. 0:03:32.200 --> 0:03:36.119 Yeah, Mandy Carrick in the house. I'm excited to get 0:03:36.120 --> 0:03:38.680 to grill you. Because also one of my biggest pet 0:03:38.680 --> 0:03:41.080 pieces as a writer all these years talking to like 0:03:41.080 --> 0:03:42.800 Tiffany and I met because I did a story on 0:03:42.840 --> 0:03:46.040 her when I was a reporter at Business Insider, you know, 0:03:46.280 --> 0:03:49.000 a long time ago, like twenty thirteen or twenty fourteen. 0:03:49.520 --> 0:03:52.000 I found her website, the budget Nista. I wanted to 0:03:52.000 --> 0:03:53.680 find at the time, I was writing about a lot 0:03:53.680 --> 0:03:57.160 of these personal finance personalities who had emerged after the recession, 0:03:57.560 --> 0:04:00.760 and we're offering guidance to people who were struggle to recover. 0:04:01.400 --> 0:04:04.760 And you know, I figured these people must be making 0:04:04.800 --> 0:04:06.840 money somehow. But one of my pet peeves is that 0:04:06.880 --> 0:04:10.160 you would have people kind of like positioning themselves as 0:04:10.200 --> 0:04:13.200 if they've mastered their finances and gotten out of debt 0:04:13.720 --> 0:04:16.599 and they're kind of turning around and making money off 0:04:16.640 --> 0:04:20.279 selling that story from like blog posts and stuff and anyway, 0:04:20.360 --> 0:04:23.120 sometimes people just wouldn't be very transparent and I and 0:04:23.160 --> 0:04:24.719 one of the things I liked about Tiffany is she 0:04:24.760 --> 0:04:27.320 was always sort of upfront, like, you know, here's my 0:04:27.400 --> 0:04:30.839 business model. And it wasn't just about selling people a dream. 0:04:31.279 --> 0:04:33.839 It was it was about you know, creating a like 0:04:33.880 --> 0:04:38.440 a lasting product or products, or diversifying income streams so 0:04:38.480 --> 0:04:41.280 that she's giving value to people but also building a 0:04:41.320 --> 0:04:43.520 business and sustaining it for herself, you know what I mean. 0:04:44.680 --> 0:04:50.039 So yeah, I mean obviously admire Tiffany a lot. And 0:04:48.080 --> 0:04:53.040 uh and I'm so yeah, thank you for opening up, 0:04:53.040 --> 0:04:56.200 because I feel like other people who want to How 0:04:56.240 --> 0:04:58.640 many people when we ask them for the wildest dreams 0:04:58.640 --> 0:05:00.600 responded to us. I want to be a I want 0:05:00.600 --> 0:05:02.800 to be an influencer. I want to do I want 0:05:02.839 --> 0:05:04.960 to have speak. I want to be a speaker. These 0:05:04.960 --> 0:05:07.680 are the types of jobs or types of businesses that 0:05:07.760 --> 0:05:10.320 are I think most difficult for people to figure out 0:05:10.360 --> 0:05:12.479 how do you make a living off of that? And 0:05:12.480 --> 0:05:15.200 how do you make it work? So let's get to 0:05:15.240 --> 0:05:17.600 at Tiffany. So take us back to when you first 0:05:17.600 --> 0:05:19.159 because I know it took you a while before Budget 0:05:19.200 --> 0:05:23.000 Needs to made money. Yes, while what was one of 0:05:23.000 --> 0:05:26.400 the first like aha moments for you where you're like, oh, 0:05:26.520 --> 0:05:28.719 I can make income off of this, and then you 0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:31.040 just were like you went for it with the business? 0:05:31.800 --> 0:05:33.599 I would say, so two thousand and eight, I actually 0:05:33.640 --> 0:05:36.520 registered the business, the Budget Needs Tom, because I my assumption, 0:05:36.600 --> 0:05:38.839 I was still teaching then and it wasn't to me 0:05:38.920 --> 0:05:41.000 it wasn't going to be a business. It was just 0:05:41.279 --> 0:05:44.000 going to be an avenue for me to volunteer. So 0:05:44.040 --> 0:05:46.000 the Budget Needs was meant to be a nonprofit because 0:05:46.000 --> 0:05:47.960 I really believe like living a life of service and 0:05:48.000 --> 0:05:50.599 I love teaching. So I was like, oh, and I 0:05:50.600 --> 0:05:54.080 found myself doing a lot of volunteer work with kids 0:05:54.160 --> 0:05:57.960 outside of you know, teaching day teaching, preschool. But I 0:05:57.960 --> 0:05:59.760 wanted a fun name, and so that's when my sister 0:05:59.839 --> 0:06:02.279 le So told me that I was not the Fashion Lissa, indeed, 0:06:02.279 --> 0:06:05.320 though I could be the Budget Lisa. And so that's 0:06:05.440 --> 0:06:07.920 how that name started, and that was the original intent 0:06:07.960 --> 0:06:10.680 behind the budget Lisa to be a nonprofit. Then two 0:06:10.680 --> 0:06:13.480 thousand and nine happened and I lost my job along 0:06:13.560 --> 0:06:15.919 a ton of other people. And even then I was 0:06:15.920 --> 0:06:17.599 trying to figure out, so what do I do with 0:06:17.640 --> 0:06:20.520 this thing that I was using to volunteer? So I 0:06:20.600 --> 0:06:23.160 told myself, I'm going to continue to volunteer, but ramp up. 0:06:23.520 --> 0:06:25.880 And in that year, I was trying to figure out 0:06:25.920 --> 0:06:27.280 what did I want to do with my life. I 0:06:27.920 --> 0:06:29.600 told myself I didn't want to be a teacher anymore. 0:06:30.320 --> 0:06:32.560 I was tired of the administration, not the kids, because 0:06:32.560 --> 0:06:34.560 they were awesome, And so I was trying I thought 0:06:34.600 --> 0:06:36.680 maybe I'd be an event planner. I was trying out 0:06:36.680 --> 0:06:40.720 all these different hats while still volunteering and teaching financial education. 0:06:41.160 --> 0:06:43.800 And everywhere that i'd volunteer in a different capacity, I 0:06:43.800 --> 0:06:47.240 would find myself teaching financial education anyway, like the janitor, 0:06:47.640 --> 0:06:50.480 the principal. Wherever I was, someone would ask me money 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:53.719 questions and I would light up and teach it. So 0:06:53.760 --> 0:06:56.080 all two thousand and nine I was just volunteering, and 0:06:56.120 --> 0:06:58.279 I was living off unemployment. I think by then I 0:06:58.279 --> 0:07:00.280 had moved back home with my parents. I mean I 0:07:00.360 --> 0:07:02.159 rented out my condo that I bought when I was 0:07:02.200 --> 0:07:04.599 twenty five, and then at the end of two thousand 0:07:04.640 --> 0:07:06.720 and nine, like I knew my unemployment wasn't going to 0:07:06.800 --> 0:07:10.360 last that much longer, and I think I helped a friend, 0:07:10.400 --> 0:07:12.960 then a friend of a friend, and then somehow a 0:07:13.000 --> 0:07:15.040 friend of a friend of a friend like messaged me 0:07:15.080 --> 0:07:17.160 and said could I help them? And how much did 0:07:17.200 --> 0:07:19.720 I cost? That was the aha moment, I would say, 0:07:19.760 --> 0:07:22.600 probably the beginning of twenty ten, and I was like, 0:07:22.760 --> 0:07:23.760 I don't cost anything. 0:07:23.800 --> 0:07:27.080 And I remember she wanted you to like coach her 0:07:27.440 --> 0:07:30.320 personally like a person, like a money coach, and pay you. 0:07:30.480 --> 0:07:32.480 But I couldn't even Yeah, I couldn't even write my 0:07:32.480 --> 0:07:35.040 mind around it because I didn't I wasn't thinking of 0:07:35.040 --> 0:07:37.080 the budget lista that way. It was just an avenue 0:07:37.160 --> 0:07:39.559 for me to volunteer while I was trying to figure 0:07:39.560 --> 0:07:41.720 out in this stage in my life, what did I 0:07:41.760 --> 0:07:43.320 want to do now that I knew I didn't want 0:07:43.320 --> 0:07:44.880 to go back to the classroom. By then, I had 0:07:44.920 --> 0:07:46.880 my master's in education, and I'm like, I know, I 0:07:46.880 --> 0:07:48.840 don't want to be a principal. That was what that 0:07:48.880 --> 0:07:51.600 master's was for. But I was like, yeah, that sucks. 0:07:52.400 --> 0:07:54.600 And so when that happened, it was the first time 0:07:54.640 --> 0:07:57.200 I thought someone would pay me for that, because it 0:07:57.200 --> 0:07:59.400 didn't even cross my mind, honestly, Mandy, that someone would 0:07:59.440 --> 0:08:01.560 pay me to sit down, because by then I was 0:08:01.680 --> 0:08:03.760 just doing friends like, girl, your budget is a mess. 0:08:03.800 --> 0:08:07.160 Look at this, let's write this down. And so when 0:08:07.160 --> 0:08:10.000 she asked that, I remember I told Drina and I said, girl, 0:08:10.480 --> 0:08:12.920 you know such a such friend of a friend asked 0:08:12.920 --> 0:08:14.760 me how much did that cost to like help her 0:08:14.800 --> 0:08:16.840 with her budget? Look her, I don't do that. She's like, 0:08:16.840 --> 0:08:19.400 you do Tiferty every weekend, you're helping someone. I'm like, yeah, 0:08:19.400 --> 0:08:20.920 but I don't cost anything. And she's like, do you 0:08:20.960 --> 0:08:23.000 have money? I said no. She said, then you should 0:08:23.040 --> 0:08:27.640 cost something, and I remember not knowing what to charge 0:08:27.880 --> 0:08:30.160 because how do you know? And so I think I 0:08:30.160 --> 0:08:32.199 think at the time, I called my friend Veronica, who 0:08:32.320 --> 0:08:34.319 was doing like consulting work. She was like, the only 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:36.959 one I knew that was even remotely in that arena. 0:08:37.080 --> 0:08:39.600 She did consulting work, but for like marketing or something 0:08:39.640 --> 0:08:42.000 like that, and she was like, you should charge one 0:08:42.040 --> 0:08:44.000 hundred and fifty dollars an hour, and I was like, 0:08:44.040 --> 0:08:46.040 that seems like a lot of money, you know. But 0:08:46.200 --> 0:08:47.800 and so I think I was like, it'll be one 0:08:47.840 --> 0:08:49.240 hundred dollars for me to sit down with you, no 0:08:49.280 --> 0:08:52.880 matter how long it would take, and it would be 0:08:52.960 --> 0:08:55.400 like seventy five if we did it on the phone, 0:08:55.480 --> 0:08:57.880 versus like me coming to you. So the first time 0:08:57.920 --> 0:09:00.480 I went and sat down with someone, we it was 0:09:00.520 --> 0:09:03.959 like three hours. So and then at the end she 0:09:04.080 --> 0:09:05.640 was like me while her kids were in the house, 0:09:05.640 --> 0:09:06.520 she was a single mom. 0:09:07.080 --> 0:09:09.640 Andre calls, that's so funny. 0:09:09.360 --> 0:09:12.240 I was. And then it turned out when we did 0:09:12.280 --> 0:09:14.640 her budget together, she was like negative five hundred bucks 0:09:14.679 --> 0:09:16.640 a month. So I'm looking at her, I'm looking at 0:09:16.640 --> 0:09:18.559 the kids. I'm like, this girl does not have a 0:09:18.640 --> 0:09:20.520 hundred dollars to pay me. And so she was getting 0:09:20.559 --> 0:09:22.760 ready to pay me, and in good conscience, I couldn't 0:09:22.760 --> 0:09:25.640 take it because I'd seen her money and it wasn't 0:09:25.720 --> 0:09:28.120 like she was like twenty five, she'll be fine. I'm 0:09:28.160 --> 0:09:30.640 looking like the kids. She's here by herself, she's trying 0:09:30.640 --> 0:09:32.880 to figure it out. I just couldn't stomach it. And 0:09:32.920 --> 0:09:34.840 I was like, oh, you know, I don't even worry 0:09:34.840 --> 0:09:37.520 about it. She's like, no, Tiffany, you helped so much. 0:09:37.920 --> 0:09:40.360 I'm like, here, girl, but your budget you don't have it, 0:09:40.440 --> 0:09:42.600 you know, I just you don't have it. And that 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:45.679 happened a number of times before I said okay this. 0:09:46.160 --> 0:09:48.480 I was still on un appoyment. But I knew that 0:09:48.520 --> 0:09:51.280 business model was not going to work because it wasn't 0:09:51.320 --> 0:09:53.800 in alignment with how I wanted to help people. Because 0:09:53.840 --> 0:09:55.440 I get it. I mean, people will tell you like, well, 0:09:55.520 --> 0:09:58.160 people will buy Jordans, they should pay you. Maybe so, 0:09:58.480 --> 0:10:00.800 but there's nothing like coming to I went home and 0:10:00.800 --> 0:10:03.120 meeting their family and looking at the numbers, and the 0:10:03.160 --> 0:10:05.760 numbers honestly say it's not there, and then you're taking 0:10:05.760 --> 0:10:08.400 from them anyway. I couldn't stomach it. So I said, 0:10:08.400 --> 0:10:10.880 I'm not going to do any more one on one, 0:10:10.960 --> 0:10:12.880 but there has to be a better way than this 0:10:13.040 --> 0:10:16.000 one on one thing. And I had a mentor at 0:10:16.040 --> 0:10:19.000 the time. Her name was Christine, and she had some 0:10:19.160 --> 0:10:21.520 million dollar company and I told her, you know, like, 0:10:21.559 --> 0:10:23.320 what do you think I should do? She said, well, 0:10:23.360 --> 0:10:26.080 you need to get contracts. And I was like, well, 0:10:26.160 --> 0:10:27.319 what does that mean. She was like, you have to 0:10:27.320 --> 0:10:28.880 get someone to pay you to do the thing you 0:10:28.880 --> 0:10:30.880 want to do. And I was like, okay, good, and 0:10:30.880 --> 0:10:33.480 she's like, well, I got to go. And I was like, wait, Christine, 0:10:33.640 --> 0:10:36.360 I need more. And that's what she That's literally all 0:10:36.400 --> 0:10:36.760 she said. 0:10:37.200 --> 0:10:39.160 You just have like a note card with contracts written 0:10:39.200 --> 0:10:41.200 on it, contracts exclamation for it. 0:10:41.760 --> 0:10:43.959 And I was like And by then I think I 0:10:44.360 --> 0:10:45.760 was like, you know, I didn't want to live with 0:10:45.760 --> 0:10:47.760 my parents anymore. I think by then I was sleeping 0:10:47.800 --> 0:10:50.760 on my sister Tracy's couch, so I would say by 0:10:50.800 --> 0:10:53.520 then I probably was a It was probably two thousand 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:55.360 and eleven, I guess, so I think I was like 0:10:55.400 --> 0:10:57.960 thirty or thirty one by then, so really living it 0:10:58.040 --> 0:11:01.120 up on my sister's couch. And I remember like writing 0:11:01.160 --> 0:11:03.760 down contracts and trying to figure out so who could 0:11:03.760 --> 0:11:06.960 I go to for contracts, and being so frustrated because 0:11:07.040 --> 0:11:10.000 I was like, yo, like it's been two years. I'm 0:11:10.000 --> 0:11:12.560 broker now at age thirty thirty one that I was 0:11:12.600 --> 0:11:15.439 at age sixteen. Like unemployment's going to run out in 0:11:15.440 --> 0:11:17.240 another six months. I don't know what to do, Like 0:11:17.280 --> 0:11:20.760 I'm my condo, I'm losing it because although I'm getting 0:11:20.800 --> 0:11:23.080 rent for it, it wasn't covering my mortgage. My mortgage 0:11:23.120 --> 0:11:25.160 was sixteen sixteen, my rent was twelve hundred. I didn't 0:11:25.160 --> 0:11:27.640 have the four hundred bucks to cover it. Everything was 0:11:27.679 --> 0:11:30.280 falling apart, and I just remember thinking like, it doesn't 0:11:30.320 --> 0:11:34.000 literally get much worse than this, but it did so 0:11:34.000 --> 0:11:36.280 so I for a while long time I didn't know 0:11:36.360 --> 0:11:39.080 what to do about that contract situation, and I literally 0:11:39.440 --> 0:11:43.120 was just living off unemployment until finally I thought to myself, Okay, 0:11:43.360 --> 0:11:45.200 let me list all of the resources I do have 0:11:45.240 --> 0:11:48.360 available to me, and which were very minimal. But one 0:11:48.360 --> 0:11:51.080 thing I remember thinking was I do have emails, because 0:11:51.080 --> 0:11:53.400 when I would volunteer, you know typically you know, they 0:11:53.480 --> 0:11:55.400 contact you via email or you sign up for some 0:11:55.440 --> 0:11:57.280 email list. And I said, well, I'm going to email 0:11:57.360 --> 0:12:00.280 everyone that I've gotten their email from from the last year, 0:12:00.360 --> 0:12:02.760 and I'm gonna say, hey, it's me, Tiffany, that I 0:12:02.800 --> 0:12:05.600 did this volunteer work for you. I teach financial education 0:12:05.679 --> 0:12:07.600 and I would love to do that for your organization. 0:12:07.960 --> 0:12:09.880 So I emailed probably was like fifty emails that I 0:12:09.920 --> 0:12:14.520 had and one person email back. Catherine Wilson's community developer 0:12:14.600 --> 0:12:16.559 for the United Way. It was like her week, her 0:12:16.600 --> 0:12:19.840 first week in that position, and she was like, Amy, 0:12:19.880 --> 0:12:21.920 who you emailed or Brooke, who you email no longer 0:12:21.960 --> 0:12:26.440 works here, and I was like, uh, what can I 0:12:26.480 --> 0:12:28.480 meet you? I literally wrote that back, can I meet you? 0:12:29.040 --> 0:12:31.680 And she was like sure. So the next day or 0:12:31.679 --> 0:12:33.880 that week I went to meet Catherine and it was 0:12:33.960 --> 0:12:36.600 perfect timing because she had just gotten this role of 0:12:36.960 --> 0:12:42.480 her job was to get to grow. I guess, like 0:12:42.480 --> 0:12:44.880 like classes or whatever. The United Way wasn't really known 0:12:44.920 --> 0:12:46.680 for much in Newark, because she was trying to figure 0:12:46.679 --> 0:12:49.040 out how do we develop a better relationship with the 0:12:49.080 --> 0:12:52.199 community and how do we like what in what ways 0:12:52.200 --> 0:12:54.120 can we serve the community. So when I met her, 0:12:54.120 --> 0:12:56.040 we hit it. We're still I just had lunch with her, 0:12:56.120 --> 0:12:58.440 like a week ago, We're still like really good friends. 0:12:58.480 --> 0:13:00.640 This day we hit it off. She's the same age 0:13:00.640 --> 0:13:03.599 as me, and we were just like laughing and giggling 0:13:03.679 --> 0:13:06.000 and like, as I was running out of the house, 0:13:06.080 --> 0:13:07.679 I brought my book. I'd written this book, the one 0:13:07.679 --> 0:13:10.600 Week Budget, but I wrote it when I was teaching 0:13:10.600 --> 0:13:12.840 preschool because even then I was helping my friends and 0:13:13.120 --> 0:13:15.800 I actually wrote it like in an actual notebook. So 0:13:15.880 --> 0:13:18.040 my friends who would ask me to help them with 0:13:18.040 --> 0:13:19.959 their budget, I would bring this notebook with me and 0:13:20.040 --> 0:13:22.280 during my unemployment. I said, you know, I should, I 0:13:22.280 --> 0:13:24.520 should make this notebook into an actual book, and so 0:13:24.559 --> 0:13:27.360 I self published through what was then called create Space. 0:13:27.440 --> 0:13:30.400 It was Amazon's self publishing arm. So I had this 0:13:30.400 --> 0:13:32.720 book that had written that no one bought except for 0:13:33.320 --> 0:13:35.600 my friends the first month and it was like languishing. 0:13:35.640 --> 0:13:37.240 So I had a bunch of copies in the house 0:13:37.240 --> 0:13:39.079 and I said, let me bring this with me. So 0:13:39.160 --> 0:13:43.359 as we were talking, she opened up about her financial struggles, 0:13:43.400 --> 0:13:45.760 and so I ended up giving her session because we 0:13:45.840 --> 0:13:47.040 just had such a good time and she was like, 0:13:47.080 --> 0:13:49.160 that was amazing. Do you think that you could do 0:13:49.160 --> 0:13:51.439 this for my staff? I was like, yeah, you think 0:13:51.440 --> 0:13:54.680 you could prepay? Kidding but not really kidding. Can you 0:13:54.720 --> 0:13:57.520 prepay it? And she was like sure? So she wrote 0:13:57.559 --> 0:13:58.800 me a check. I think it was I want to 0:13:58.800 --> 0:14:01.240 say she said three hundred or five hundred dollars something 0:14:01.280 --> 0:14:01.959 like that. Something within that. 0:14:02.120 --> 0:14:03.719 Did she ask you how much would you charge to 0:14:03.720 --> 0:14:04.480 teach the staff? 0:14:06.120 --> 0:14:08.040 No, she just said like with three or like I 0:14:08.040 --> 0:14:10.360 didn't even know. So she just said would whatever it was, 0:14:10.360 --> 0:14:12.000 like three or five hundred dollar? Would that be enough? 0:14:12.000 --> 0:14:13.720 And I said sure? Because I had no concept of 0:14:13.760 --> 0:14:15.160 what I should charge, and. 0:14:15.320 --> 0:14:18.400 You weren't like how many people, how long, how much time? 0:14:19.280 --> 0:14:21.040 But I was at the end of mine because I 0:14:21.040 --> 0:14:22.760 was like, unemployment runs down in like a month. I 0:14:22.760 --> 0:14:25.280 have no money. So whatever she could have said, fifty bucks, 0:14:25.320 --> 0:14:27.920 I'd be like, I'll be there. And so she just, 0:14:27.960 --> 0:14:29.840 you know, she offered up that amount. She likely probably 0:14:29.840 --> 0:14:31.880 did ask me and I probably said honestly, I don't know, 0:14:32.120 --> 0:14:34.040 and she probably you know, like I said, she said, 0:14:34.360 --> 0:14:36.360 I think it was like five hundred dollars, and I said, okay, 0:14:36.720 --> 0:14:39.280 and yes, it was around five hundred because a week before, 0:14:39.320 --> 0:14:42.400 a friend of mine, Dessa, was living in this room. 0:14:42.720 --> 0:14:45.400 She had a whole house downtown Newark, a woman who 0:14:45.440 --> 0:14:47.840 was renting out each room in this whole, big, beautiful house. 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:50.920 And I'd met Dessa while volunteering and she was really nice, 0:14:51.000 --> 0:14:53.840 and she told me, Hey, the house I'm living in 0:14:53.920 --> 0:14:55.600 is empty. I only rent a room, but I'm afraid 0:14:55.640 --> 0:14:57.360 that she's going to rent it out to random strangers 0:14:57.480 --> 0:14:59.320 if you're looking for a place to stay. Each room 0:14:59.360 --> 0:15:01.320 was five hundred buck, but I didn't really have five 0:15:01.400 --> 0:15:03.960 hundred bucks. But I remember with this contract with Katherine, 0:15:03.960 --> 0:15:06.320 I was like, oh, this is my five hundred bucks. 0:15:06.640 --> 0:15:09.520 So I came and I taught the lesson. Like one 0:15:09.520 --> 0:15:11.040 thing I am, like, I'm not good at a lot 0:15:11.080 --> 0:15:13.040 of stuff, but one thing I am really good at 0:15:13.080 --> 0:15:15.800 is teaching. And so I brought my A plus plus game. 0:15:15.880 --> 0:15:18.480 I went to t TV Bank and stole all those pens. 0:15:18.520 --> 0:15:21.920 When I stole just you know, took them all those pens. 0:15:21.960 --> 0:15:24.840 I went to the dollar store and got all these folders. 0:15:25.440 --> 0:15:27.760 I brought my book, the one week budget for each person, 0:15:28.760 --> 0:15:30.400 and like I printed out. I had my friends who 0:15:30.480 --> 0:15:32.960 worked in corporate to print out all my handouts, and 0:15:33.000 --> 0:15:35.000 I taught my little heart out during their lunch and 0:15:35.040 --> 0:15:38.000 learn and it went really well, so much so that 0:15:38.560 --> 0:15:40.560 people in the company that were not there that day 0:15:41.040 --> 0:15:42.960 told Katherine that's not fair, we missed out. Can you 0:15:42.960 --> 0:15:44.560 bring her back? So she called me and said can 0:15:44.600 --> 0:15:47.200 you come back next week? And I was like, yes, oh, 0:15:47.360 --> 0:15:48.360 now I have two months rent. 0:15:48.680 --> 0:15:51.280 So were you depositing this check into Tiffany's budget like 0:15:51.280 --> 0:15:53.480 you're checking account or did you have the business set 0:15:53.520 --> 0:15:54.000 up already? 0:15:54.040 --> 0:15:55.680 I did not have business set It was just Tiffany, 0:15:55.840 --> 0:15:57.520 like it wasn't. It took me like four years to 0:15:57.520 --> 0:15:59.720 have like any sort of real business. So this was 0:15:59.800 --> 0:16:02.440 just mouth. I was like, woo, fata do The first 0:16:02.440 --> 0:16:05.000 two years I didn't even pay taxes, and so Carlos 0:16:05.040 --> 0:16:06.520 was like, do you want to go to jail? Carlos's 0:16:06.520 --> 0:16:08.680 my accountant. He caught me at shop right because I 0:16:08.680 --> 0:16:12.960 was avoiding him, and so like, honestly it was hand 0:16:13.000 --> 0:16:14.240 of mouth. I was like, as soon as I got 0:16:14.240 --> 0:16:16.880 a check, it paid for something, and it was just tiffany. 0:16:16.880 --> 0:16:18.840 Everyone just paid Tiffany. I would say, for the first 0:16:18.840 --> 0:16:21.400 three or four years of business, I was not conducting 0:16:21.440 --> 0:16:24.160 business like a business owner. I was conducting business as 0:16:24.240 --> 0:16:27.880 just myself. Even though I had like my business registered, 0:16:27.960 --> 0:16:30.600 I wasn't, you know, like I didn't know anything about 0:16:30.640 --> 0:16:34.280 really running a business. So I did that. I you know, 0:16:34.320 --> 0:16:36.720 I talked there. I did the second round, and she 0:16:36.760 --> 0:16:38.240 was like, that's so good. Can you do this for 0:16:38.280 --> 0:16:42.720 the community that we have a financial education program called 0:16:42.760 --> 0:16:45.960 the IDA program, the Individual Development Account Program. A bank 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:49.440 gives us money and people have to take classes and 0:16:49.480 --> 0:16:52.960 then we give them money for a house, education or 0:16:53.880 --> 0:16:55.960 a health or a business. And it was like a 0:16:56.000 --> 0:16:58.040 four to one match up to two thousand dollars. But 0:16:58.080 --> 0:16:59.800 she's like, people are not coming to take the class 0:16:59.800 --> 0:17:02.200 because they're boring, but you're fun. So if you taught 0:17:02.200 --> 0:17:03.720 the class, we could give away this money the bank 0:17:03.760 --> 0:17:06.080 has given us to people. And I said, okay, so 0:17:06.160 --> 0:17:09.240 the first class, she said, well, how long is your series? 0:17:09.280 --> 0:17:10.520 And when I tell you I made it up. I 0:17:10.560 --> 0:17:13.720 said six weeks. But you know, like she wanted to know, 0:17:13.800 --> 0:17:18.560 like the series of classes that I magically supposedly taught prior. 0:17:19.040 --> 0:17:20.480 But she kind of knew because she gave me like 0:17:20.520 --> 0:17:23.199 this booklet. Was like, okay, here's a book of like 0:17:23.280 --> 0:17:25.719 a real class, just mirror it to this. But one 0:17:25.760 --> 0:17:27.760 thing I am good at is writing curriculum, and like 0:17:27.760 --> 0:17:29.959