Speaker 1: Hey, hey, hey, guys, I know you were expecting a
Speaker 1: different Hey, hey, hey, our beloved Tiffany fell Ill today.
Speaker 1: I think she's doing better. But I want to let
Speaker 1: you guys know that the show is going on and
Speaker 1: I am here. I have a remarkable guest, someone that
Speaker 1: I've admired for the past couple of years, The one,
Speaker 1: the only, Miss Marcia Barnes, the founder of the Finance Bar,
Speaker 1: which is a fabulous mobile personal finance suite which we're
Speaker 1: going to get to in a minute, based in Charlotte,
Speaker 1: North Carolina. Marcia, thanks so much for coming on Brown Ambition.
Speaker 2: Thank you for having me, Manny.
Speaker 1: I'm glad to be here you guys. So two years ago,
Speaker 1: let me just tell you the background, the origin story
Speaker 1: of how I'm miss Marcia. So two years ago, I
Speaker 1: was at FINNCN and Charlotte and all of us, you know,
Speaker 1: the people, the Brown Personal finance folks. We have a
Speaker 1: little secret we may or may not have a secret group,
Speaker 1: and we kind of all gathered together at these financial conferences.
Speaker 1: Come on Strengthen numbers got together and everyone's like, you guys,
Speaker 1: you know that finance the school bus is down there.
Speaker 1: Marcia with her finance bar school bus is down there.
Speaker 1: She's like going to show off the bus and giving tours,
Speaker 1: and I was like, say, what to who a school bus?
Speaker 1: And is this like for children?
Speaker 2: What?
Speaker 1: And no, let me tell you it was the most amazing,
Speaker 1: beautiful school bus. I didn't even know school buses could
Speaker 1: be that nice. That Marcia had outfitted and turned into
Speaker 1: the finance bar. Which, Marcia, you probably do a way
Speaker 1: better job than I do telling people what exactly the
Speaker 1: finance bar is and why a school bus.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so the finance bar is.
Speaker 3: I like to call it a mobile finance suite on whels.
Speaker 3: I use that word sweet because I feel like my
Speaker 3: bus is extremely savvy. I like to brag on it
Speaker 3: because I think that my designer did an amazing job
Speaker 3: with it. But in short, the finance bar is really
Speaker 3: centered around meeting people where they are on their finance journey.
Speaker 3: So I decided to take a bus and have it
Speaker 3: outfitted to be a mobile finance bus machine on whells
Speaker 3: to really meet people at different locations to talk about
Speaker 3: their finances. So I would meet them on college campuses
Speaker 3: where we know that a lot of personal finances never mentioned.
Speaker 3: You know, we have kids that leave college and never
Speaker 3: know anything about money when they leave.
Speaker 2: I knew that over.
Speaker 3: Seventy five percent of people at their jobs are stressed
Speaker 3: about money every single day, So I wanted to visit corporations.
Speaker 3: I knew that all these organizations that really need to
Speaker 3: really touch people when it when it comes to economics
Speaker 3: and personal finances, I could meet them there. So I
Speaker 3: decided to outfit the bus to be like a mobile office.
Speaker 3: So the Finance Bar is really a personal finance suite
Speaker 3: in mobile hub that really meets people where they are
Speaker 3: on their finance journey.
Speaker 1: You guys have to I'm going to post some pictures
Speaker 1: and a link to the Finance Bar on the Brand
Speaker 1: Ambition podcast website. But when I suite is an excellent way,
Speaker 1: but I don't I feel like it really doesn't do
Speaker 1: it justice. You've got to go see the pictures of
Speaker 1: this bus. It's actually it's actually beautiful, which I didn't
Speaker 1: think I would ever say. And you're still based in Charlotte,
Speaker 1: North Carolina, but you offer your services to people online, right,
Speaker 1: you don't have to sort of be based. That's one
Speaker 1: of the best things I think about the finance bars.
Speaker 1: You don't have to sort of be you know, there
Speaker 1: in Charlotte to sort of get the same services.
Speaker 3: Right, No, you don't have to be in show to
Speaker 3: get the same services because so in addition to the bus, Mandy,
Speaker 3: I also have a coaching suite in Charlotte that I
Speaker 3: had that I'm able to coach people whether they are
Speaker 3: in person or also do it virtual. And we even
Speaker 3: had my office to look very similar to the bus.
Speaker 3: So you're getting somewhat of the same experience. But in
Speaker 3: addition to the coaching suite, for people that don't feel
Speaker 3: they need that direct coaching or maybe them feel like
Speaker 3: they can't afford coaching at this time, I have a
Speaker 3: virtual members club as well, where people are able to
Speaker 3: log in and learn tons, tons of things about personal
Speaker 3: finance from your money mindset, I feel like you're struggling
Speaker 3: there to budgeting, managing your debt, creating a plan, B
Speaker 3: investing all that good stuff. So there are several different
Speaker 3: options of how you can work with the Finance bar So.
Speaker 1: Let's back up just a bit, just a minute, because
Speaker 1: people are probably wondering how, why a school bus, what
Speaker 1: where did this all come from? So before you launch
Speaker 1: the Finance barre, you actually were working full time for
Speaker 1: a big bank, right.
Speaker 2: Well, that's right, yep, I was working for a big bank.
Speaker 3: I had both Wells Fargo for like right at twelve years,
Speaker 3: and before that I was still also in banking, So
Speaker 3: I spent a lot of time in the banking industry.
Speaker 3: But I think I really became to have a love
Speaker 3: for personal finance when I knew what money could really
Speaker 3: do for people, or really could do for families when
Speaker 3: you really prepare. I think when we first met Mandy,
Speaker 3: I told you the story of both of my parents
Speaker 3: being laid off. They've never been like these really big
Speaker 3: spenders and took these elaborate, elaborate trips and just really
Speaker 3: kind of blew money. So they were always really money savvy,
Speaker 3: and for as long as I can remember, I think
Speaker 3: that I may have earned more money before I left
Speaker 3: the bank than that my mom ever earned at any
Speaker 3: job that she had, and she was laid off, and
Speaker 3: they still did really well financially when they both were
Speaker 3: laid off. So for me, when I left the bank,
Speaker 3: that love for personal finance did not come from me
Speaker 3: working at the bank at all.
Speaker 2: I mean maybe it did, I never think that it did.
Speaker 3: I worked a lot with people that were in foreclosure
Speaker 3: or that had been through bankruptcy.
Speaker 2: So that was that part of it.
Speaker 3: And sometimes I would crane to say, like, maybe a people,
Speaker 3: if we talked about this more, maybe we could avoid it.
Speaker 3: If we talk more about layoffs that are taking place
Speaker 3: around our country and how to prepare for a layoff,
Speaker 3: maybe some of these things wouldn't happen. So, you know,
Speaker 3: at one point, that's just when I decided to leave
Speaker 3: the bank to really branch out on my own, to
Speaker 3: say that I wanted to do the finance bar full
Speaker 3: time Summertia.
Speaker 1: Okay, let's get let's get to the numbers real quick,
Speaker 1: because this is one of my favorite things to sort
Speaker 1: of ask entrepreneurs about early on, is that first year.
Speaker 1: I mean, what were the startup costs involved with creating
Speaker 1: a mobile financial hub on a school bus? Nonetheless?
Speaker 3: Okay, so my bus, Mandy was what was my busy?
Speaker 3: My bus wasn't really that expensive, maybe three thousand and
Speaker 3: thirty five hundred because when I realized, I felt like,
Speaker 3: well that's pretty cheap until I got it and then
Speaker 3: I realized that it needed a lot of repairs done
Speaker 3: to us. Let's just say that the bus was about thirty.
Speaker 2: Five hundred dollars.
Speaker 3: Mandy like mechanics and things that I had to get
Speaker 3: done to it upfront just to be able to have
Speaker 3: it safe and on the road was around like four
Speaker 3: thousand dollars. And then like the cosmetics, getting the bus wrapped, designed,
Speaker 3: getting the different stickers on it, and all that good stuff, website,
Speaker 3: all of that I was at at least twenty thousand dollars.
Speaker 3: And that's like getting insurance the bus, getting the bus repairs,
Speaker 3: the website, the inside, designed, the air conditioning, forward, everything
Speaker 3: at least twenty thousand dollars. But since then, but since startup,
Speaker 3: it's been much more. Since then because of course I
Speaker 3: have monthly insurance and up like the mechanics.
Speaker 2: Done each year to the bus to make sure that.
Speaker 3: It's safe for the road and all that good stuff.
Speaker 3: So it's much more than that now. But in the beginning,
Speaker 3: about twenty thousand dollars total.
Speaker 1: And what was that conversation Like when you have a
Speaker 1: great job, you're at Wells Fargo, you have your savings,
Speaker 1: you're a but your son's about to go to college
Speaker 1: and you sit down with your husband and you say, hey, babe,
Speaker 1: I would really love to spend to spend my savings
Speaker 1: on creating this this finance bar and getting a school
Speaker 1: bus and turning it into a personal finance hub.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, Mandy, it wasn't It wasn't an immediate
Speaker 3: conversation like that, because when I first got the bus,
Speaker 3: like that was a big expense, But then the biggest
Speaker 3: expense after that I would have to say, like was
Speaker 3: the mechanics, and I would have to My husband was
Speaker 3: pretty upset about that because it was just like we're
Speaker 3: paying more to get the bus repaired than the bus
Speaker 3: actually cost. But now after that, Mandy, you know, it
Speaker 3: was like this small stuff to get the bus painted inside,
Speaker 3: to pay for the contract, to get like furniture from Ikia.
Speaker 3: So it was like little small pieces of money in
Speaker 3: all these different spaces. So it's not like I had
Speaker 3: to sit down with them and say, you know what,
Speaker 3: I think this is going to cost about twenty thousand dollars.
Speaker 3: So it wasn't an abrupt conversation to like really freak
Speaker 3: him out. It was just money across different areas during
Speaker 3: that period of time of my startup. But as I
Speaker 3: mentioned before, I was also still employed, so some of
Speaker 3: the money that I was earning from the bank, I
Speaker 3: was also using to put into the finance bar instead
Speaker 3: of having to take all of it and use it
Speaker 3: for my savings. It was kind of like, dip into
Speaker 3: my savings for this amount, go hear from my paycheck
Speaker 3: for this now to try to balance it out as
Speaker 3: much as I could.
Speaker 2: So that's just pretty much how I had to make
Speaker 2: it work.
Speaker 1: And when you're dipping into your savings, are those just
Speaker 1: regular savings or are you in your four one k?
Speaker 2: No, it's just regular savings. Yeah, savings, Yeah, just regular savings.
Speaker 1: Were you guys able to I mean as a family,
Speaker 1: I know you've probably had, you know, savings goals. Were
Speaker 1: you guys able to continue sort of saving for your
Speaker 1: future retirement long term stuff while you were starting the business?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: I was because at the bank we still had I
Speaker 3: still had my forra one k, so I was still
Speaker 3: like investing into my for all one k.
Speaker 2: None of that changed. And you know what, Manny, that.
Speaker 3: Like, now that we talk, I want to go back
Speaker 3: and say this because I think that it's important for
Speaker 3: people to hear. Is that as an entrepreneur or just
Speaker 3: someone that's trying to do better with their finances when
Speaker 3: it comes to saving, I can truly say that I
Speaker 3: don't know what I was saving for Mandy. Like you
Speaker 3: know how you think about saving, It's like, okay, for emergencies, Okay,
Speaker 3: I get that, but this savings wasn't like an emergency savings.
Speaker 3: It was just kind of like money to have and
Speaker 3: at that moment, and I even share this with clients now,
Speaker 3: is that one day a moment will come and you'll
Speaker 3: say that, maybe I don't understand why I'm saving now,
Speaker 3: which is why a lot of people don't save, because
Speaker 3: they're like, you know, for what, I can't take my
Speaker 3: money with me when I leave here, so why do
Speaker 3: I save? I feel like my moment for me was
Speaker 3: one day I woke up and I said, I want
Speaker 3: to leave my job to do something that I really
Speaker 3: love to wake up to do, wake up and do.
Speaker 3: That is why I was saving money all along. I
Speaker 3: just didn't realize it because it wasn't for all one
Speaker 3: K money. It wasn't from an emergency fund. It was
Speaker 3: other money. So my story now now that I think back,
Speaker 3: is that that's what I was saving for. I was
Speaker 3: saving for my moment to save. Like I always tell people,
Speaker 3: saving money is not always about when a problem comes
Speaker 3: up or for an emergency, and it may not even
Speaker 3: be for a vacation. What if you just wake up
Speaker 3: one day and there's something different that you want to
Speaker 3: do in life.
Speaker 2: Like, how do you pivot? I had to pivot.
Speaker 3: So in order to pivot, I had to have savings
Speaker 3: to create this business. And that's just what I did,
Speaker 3: and I made it work. So I didn't stop, you know,
Speaker 3: putting money into my for a one K that's still saved,
Speaker 3: that that still happened. We didn't stop putting money into
Speaker 3: it twenty emergency savings, and then we had to send
Speaker 3: our son off. So now I'm thankful that everything just
Speaker 3: kind of fell into place. And then once it did
Speaker 3: and I had that business going, it was just really
Speaker 3: working aggressively to make it work, because that was to go,
Speaker 3: just make it work. You can recoup the money, but
Speaker 3: just really work hard to make it work.
Speaker 1: I think that's such an important statement you made, and
Speaker 1: it's so true, you know. I remember in my early
Speaker 1: twenties after I lost my very first job in New
Speaker 1: York and I was laid off, and I was like,
Speaker 1: oh God, I have nothing in the bank. And I
Speaker 1: after that, I've after that. I mean I was twenty two.
Speaker 1: I didn't know what I was needed money for. I
Speaker 1: just knew that I never wanted to be like feel
Speaker 1: trapped and like never having to take a job I
Speaker 1: didn't want. That's why I love when people call savings
Speaker 1: accounts your freedom fund or your yeah, your FU fund
Speaker 1: for then the PG thirteen version the FU fund, cause
Speaker 1: it's like, yeah, you may not have a name for
Speaker 1: it now, but it's it's power.
Speaker 2: It's power, yeah, I said, it's.
Speaker 1: The ability to do what you want when you want
Speaker 1: to and sort of make that decision.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Because looking back, Mandy, I honestly I never would have
Speaker 3: thought I would have left the bank like now, even
Speaker 3: thinking about it, I never thought it because when I left,
Speaker 3: you know, what was trending, what was a big deal
Speaker 3: was like millennials working for the working for themselves.
Speaker 2: I'm not a millennial. I'm not a millennial.
Speaker 3: I'm not someone that's in their twenties that's fresh out
Speaker 3: of college either. So for me it was a huge
Speaker 3: deal because I was I was raised to know that,
Speaker 3: you know, you go to school, you go get a
Speaker 3: good job, and you stay at that job to retirement.
Speaker 3: So for me being an entrepreneur in itself was a
Speaker 3: huge deal. I don't come from a long line of entrepreneurs.
Speaker 3: I have a few uncles that they are. But I
Speaker 3: still pinch myself because I never ever, ever thought that
Speaker 3: I would leave the bank ever now, not one time ever.
Speaker 3: I always did everything to elevate myself to the next
Speaker 3: level at the bank, and when I left bank, it was.
Speaker 2: From a job that I loved.
Speaker 3: So when I loved I was still in tears because
Speaker 3: I couldn't even believe I was going to walk away
Speaker 3: from it, and then I just decided to do it.
Speaker 3: So I think it's important that people know that a
Speaker 3: savings is not just for bad things in life. One
Speaker 3: day you wake up and I think that everyone, at
Speaker 3: some point or I think everyone has a gift, and
Speaker 3: to truly walk in that gift, you have to prepare
Speaker 3: yourself for that moment when you say that I can't
Speaker 3: let this dream or this vision that I have go
Speaker 3: for my life. And the only way to do that
Speaker 3: is to somehow prepare for that moment and to be
Speaker 3: willing to work through the kings and everything that it
Speaker 3: takes to get there.
Speaker 2: And that's just what I've decided to do.
Speaker 1: I love it, and I feel like it's so important
Speaker 1: for people. And I was going to bring that up.
Speaker 1: Thank you for I know it's not polite to ask
Speaker 1: a woman's age, but I think it's important that people
Speaker 1: know that you don't have to be twenty one. You
Speaker 1: don't have to be you know, everyone tries to like
Speaker 1: glamorized sort of like entrepreneurs is like college kids and stuff.
Speaker 1: But you can do it when you're at a later
Speaker 1: stage in life and when you're established in your career.
Speaker 1: I mean, in my in my mind, I feel like
Speaker 1: that takes even more balls. I'm sorry our guts to
Speaker 1: to leave something so established behind. And one of the
Speaker 1: things I hope people heard when you were talking to
Speaker 1: is that you didn't really It's like a lot of
Speaker 1: people who create businesses or in Silicon Valley or something,
Speaker 1: they probably went to school with people who were starting
Speaker 1: businesses or knew, like, came from a long line of entrepreneurs,
Speaker 1: had a game for money, or you know, had examples
Speaker 1: or saw examples of what it takes and sort of
Speaker 1: and that's really valuable and to take that risk and
Speaker 1: do it without, like you said, sort of having anyone
Speaker 1: you can look at and say, oh great, I'll just
Speaker 1: sort of ask Uncle Joe what it was like when
Speaker 1: he started a school busy multile science.
Speaker 2: Like, or I'll just ask the food truck people, like
Speaker 2: how you did it?
Speaker 3: Yeah, when you don't have a blueprint, Mandy, when you
Speaker 3: don't have a blueprint?
Speaker 2: Is I joke about it now?
Speaker 3: I wasn't laughing a few years ago, though, because I'm like,
Speaker 3: how am I going.
Speaker 2: To make this thing work?
Speaker 3: When you don't have a blueprint and you don't have
Speaker 3: like investors, It's like you're starting from zero, like ground,
Speaker 3: like under ground zero, at the bottom of nothing to
Speaker 3: try to figure everything out.
Speaker 2: So it was it was a scary moment, but I
Speaker 2: was determined.
Speaker 3: I was determined, and I still am, like, just to
Speaker 3: make it happen, and things have been working out just fine.
Speaker 3: I'm still shocked by it, but I know there's still
Speaker 3: a long journey ahead of me, and I'm really excited
Speaker 3: about that.
Speaker 1: Well, let's go back to December of twenty sixteen. So
Speaker 1: at that point, you've been working on the finance bar
Speaker 1: for about a year, right, a little over a.
Speaker 2: Year, yeah, a little over year.
Speaker 1: Uh huh, And that was the moment you've been working
Speaker 1: on it for a year. The first year was tough.
Speaker 1: When did you decide, I think it's time for me
Speaker 1: to leave my job, my full time job, and really
Speaker 1: dedicate myself one hundred percent to this new mission.
Speaker 3: I think what it was for me, Mandy, is I
Speaker 3: started to get like speaking engagements to speak for different
Speaker 3: companies that were somewhat competition for the bank. And I
Speaker 3: just had this yep, and I just had this good
Speaker 3: feeling that this won't go well like I have to
Speaker 3: I just won't go well, like I'm gonna have to
Speaker 3: try to juggle this. It's not going to happen. Like
Speaker 3: the finance Bar has started being in the media. It
Speaker 3: was his whole it was his whole ordeal, and I
Speaker 3: know it no longer felt safe for me, Mandy. It
Speaker 3: didn't feel like I was doing the bank any justice
Speaker 3: by trying to like float between two different things. And
Speaker 3: I said, what is most important to me? And the
Speaker 3: finance Bar was most important to me, And I said,
Speaker 3: what's the worst that could happen? The worst that could
Speaker 3: happen is that I won't earn any money from this,
Speaker 3: and I won't have any money coming into my household.
Speaker 3: So how do I earn money, and once I knew
Speaker 3: that I could do that, that was my decision. It
Speaker 3: was like either Wells it was Wells Fargo or the
Speaker 3: finance bar.
Speaker 2: Which one are you willing to do?
Speaker 3: And I felt like I had been at Wells Fargo
Speaker 3: for several years. So I did that, and I really
Speaker 3: left on a good note. There was no ill will.
Speaker 3: I did not like my job. I loved my job.
Speaker 3: I loved the person that I worked for. It was
Speaker 3: just time. It was time for the next journey in
Speaker 3: my life. And that's just when I made the decision.
Speaker 3: I was actually supposed to leave in November and chickened
Speaker 3: out and said, yeah, no, I don't think I'm ready.
Speaker 3: I should just stay one more month. And then when
Speaker 3: December came out, I was like, well, maybe I should
Speaker 3: just stay until the beginning of next year. And I said, no, Marsha,
Speaker 3: don't do it. And I just left in December.
Speaker 1: At that time, South went and let go, and what universe,
Speaker 1: I guess, God, that's right, whatever you believe, yeah, let go.
Speaker 1: At that time, were you bringing in money enough to
Speaker 1: replace your well Spargo salary?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah.
Speaker 3: So at that time, Mandy, I had made my way
Speaker 3: with the members club with the virtual member with the
Speaker 3: virtual membership to almost to a place where I was
Speaker 3: bringing in almost what I've made at Wills Fargo. So
Speaker 3: if you if you think about it, Mandy, I wasn't
Speaker 3: you know, I was. In my mind, I thought I
Speaker 3: was giving the Finance Bar one hundred percent, but I
Speaker 3: couldn't because I was working a full time, eight to
Speaker 3: five job every single day.
Speaker 2: So I knew that if I was.
Speaker 3: Able to accomplish that in the hours that I was
Speaker 3: able to give to the Finance Bar, what would my
Speaker 3: potential be if I did it full time.
Speaker 2: So that's just what I said to myself.
Speaker 3: If I let it go, and I'm almost at that
Speaker 3: number that I need need to be at to replace
Speaker 3: that income or replace that salary, if.
Speaker 2: I do this full time, I can easily do it.
Speaker 2: And I've been able to do it since then.
Speaker 3: So it was kind of like, yeah, like I had
Speaker 3: the virtual membership, I was almost at that number, and
Speaker 3: then when I quit, I was able to hit that
Speaker 3: number when I really just gave it one hundred percent
Speaker 3: of myself.
Speaker 1: I think that's sort of a trend I've seen, and
Speaker 1: especially in personal finance entrepreneurs or anyone who's sort of
Speaker 1: working with like consumer facing online businesses, is the importance
Speaker 1: of creating some sort of subscription monthly service, And do
Speaker 1: you feel like that was because you've tried a couple
Speaker 1: of other ways to sort of bring in revenue with
Speaker 1: the finance barn. Can you talk about some things you
Speaker 1: tried that didn't work and how you found that the subscriptions,
Speaker 1: you know, monthly sort of membership ended up working best.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So I think in the beginning, Mandy, I tried coaching,
Speaker 3: but I didn't have a location for people to actually
Speaker 3: come to for coaching. So in the beginning, I felt
Speaker 3: like coaching wasn't a good idea because it just wasn't
Speaker 3: I didn't have the space, I didn't have the privacy.
Speaker 2: So I tried that, but I.
Speaker 3: Literally only tried that for a couple of months, and
Speaker 3: I was like, yeah, no, because that was just way
Speaker 3: too much for me and having to work full time.
Speaker 3: That just didn't work. I didn't have like a pricing
Speaker 3: strategy laid out at that time.
Speaker 2: So I think that part.
Speaker 3: Of the reason why the membership works so well is
Speaker 3: because it's something that people can log into any time
Speaker 3: during the day, and it was a very low cost
Speaker 3: for individuals ten dollars per month to join the membership
Speaker 3: to be able to connect with different finance experts that
Speaker 3: they may never see face to face, where some people
Speaker 3: never have no personal finance experts in the industry at all,
Speaker 3: and the cities where they live, Like I felt like
Speaker 3: it was the perfect result to it, like I could
Speaker 3: pull in experts, have them answer questions for people, have
Speaker 3: live virtual sessions, and it just worked.
Speaker 2: And it was at a low cost.
Speaker 3: So if you're working with people that are already having
Speaker 3: challenges with money, it's kind of difficult for them to
Speaker 3: pay for finance related materials or resources when one they're
Speaker 3: not accustomed to even dealing with their own finances, so
Speaker 3: now to pay some one to really help them. I
Speaker 3: wanted to start out really low, so that worked really well,
Speaker 3: I think because of the costs, and I wanted to
Speaker 3: make the members club really good and extremely valuable for
Speaker 3: my customers, so that that has really worked well. The
Speaker 3: coaching suite has now also worked well because I feel
Speaker 3: like I've kept my price point at something that that's
Speaker 3: affordable for most people. They're able to go online and
Speaker 3: schedule appointments with me based on the system that I
Speaker 3: use and all that good stuff. So, but I would
Speaker 3: have to say to answer your question very simply, is
Speaker 3: that I think the membership was definitely the best option
Speaker 3: for finance related material, right.
Speaker 1: And so do you offer one on one coaching?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Uh huh, I have a coaching suite now.
Speaker 3: I offer one on one coaching as well for singles
Speaker 3: and couples.
Speaker 1: And what are sort of the price points for that,
Speaker 1: because I know that's often people's biggest question is you
Speaker 1: know I couldn't yeah do that as too expensive?
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 3: So for for individuals, for singles, it's fifty five dollars
Speaker 3: per week I mean per I mean per bi weekly
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, Mandy, fifty five dollars every two weeks.
Speaker 2: So that's one hundred and ten dollars per month.
Speaker 3: And I made it, broke broke that down into like
Speaker 3: a payment schedule. So fifty five dollars is just automatically
Speaker 3: drafted bi weekly, you know, to like lessen some of
Speaker 3: that calls us a little bit, it's not one hundred
Speaker 3: and ten dollars immediately each month. And then for couples,
Speaker 3: it is seventy five dollars bi weekly. First, because it's
Speaker 3: two people so it's seventy five dollars by weekly and
Speaker 3: then for singles it's fifty five dollars by weekly.
Speaker 1: And is that for like one session or health two sessions, two.
Speaker 3: Sessions per month to sixty sessions per month. They my
Speaker 3: clients also get actual workbook that's that's sent to them,
Speaker 3: they get a wall chart that's mailed to them, they
Speaker 3: get a tote bag that's sent to them. So everything
Speaker 3: for me, Mandy goes back to the experience of making
Speaker 3: it seem that even if you are a virtual client,
Speaker 3: that you're right there with me. So yeah, I definitely offer.
Speaker 2: One on one coaching now and I love it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So you you mentioned that, you know, towards the end
Speaker 1: when you decided to sort of leave Wells Fargo, you
Speaker 1: had gotten to a place where you almost were replacing
Speaker 1: your your Wells Fargo income. What was it like sort
Speaker 1: of getting to that point the first year and how
Speaker 1: long did it take to you were like Okay, I
Speaker 1: can I can do this? And like what was the
Speaker 1: mental toll like on you know, taking your life savings
Speaker 1: and putting it into this business.
Speaker 3: Well after after that was done, after I took my savings, Manny,
Speaker 3: and it was gone. I said, I can't get it back,
Speaker 3: So I let I let the piece go of if
Speaker 3: this doesn't work what happens because there was there was
Speaker 3: no There really was no plan B to get back.
Speaker 3: I mean, what was I going to do is like
Speaker 3: sell the bus, and who's gonna want like a finance bus.
Speaker 3: They'll have to like redo it and do it over again.
Speaker 3: So mentally I let that part go. But I will
Speaker 3: say to get to the point of trying to replace
Speaker 3: that income, I put my monthly income in front of
Speaker 3: me and I looked at it every single day like
Speaker 3: I'm looking behind myself now to sit it's still there.
Speaker 3: But I had like this big post it note that
Speaker 3: would sit on a desk behind me Mandy, and I
Speaker 3: would tape it up there and I would look at
Speaker 3: it every single day when all to come from work
Speaker 3: and say, how am I going to get to this number?
Speaker 2: Or more? So that was the mental state.
Speaker 3: It was like how do I get more clients or
Speaker 3: more members to hit that number? So I didn't like,
Speaker 3: I know, I hear a lot of entrepreneurs say, you know,
Speaker 3: I want to make my goal is like make six
Speaker 3: figures a month.
Speaker 2: Well, for me, my goal was.
Speaker 3: Just make sure that I'm surviving, like as soon as
Speaker 3: I leave my job, like, can I just earn my check?
Speaker 2: Because if I could earn my check, Mandy, like not
Speaker 2: ever being an entrepreneur.
Speaker 3: I think that gives a beginner entrepreneur like a boost
Speaker 3: of confidence because at that point you're like, wait a minute,
Speaker 3: I can do this on my own, like without someone
Speaker 3: else paying me from a job. So that's the point
Speaker 3: that I wanted to get it at initially, Like the goal,
Speaker 3: Marsha is to earn your previous income. So that was
Speaker 3: it now before I left Wills Fargo, as I mentioned,
Speaker 3: I was probably about seventy five percent there anyway, Mandy.
Speaker 3: So it's like pick up the pace Marshall, like when
Speaker 3: you leave. But then also not only only did I
Speaker 3: do that, I thought about things that I could reduce
Speaker 3: at home, like to like lessen the blow from money
Speaker 3: that we had to spend out, like do.
Speaker 2: We keep the lights on all the time? Like what
Speaker 2: can we cut back on here?
Speaker 3: Like do I take off my serious radio out my
Speaker 3: car and not have that expense? Like I was doing
Speaker 3: everything to make sure that we could like the bare
Speaker 3: bones minimum type of thing like cut out certain things
Speaker 3: like even if I don't make that extra income that
Speaker 3: I need, there are things from a personal expense standpoint
Speaker 3: that I could.
Speaker 2: Really cut off.
Speaker 3: And that's and that's really how I handle it. I
Speaker 3: cut out a lot of different stuff.
Speaker 1: That's interesting. Yeah, we got a question from someone actually
Speaker 1: who is like, how do I start a business, getting married,
Speaker 1: quit my job, buy a house all within one year.
Speaker 1: I was like, this will be a very quick answer.
Speaker 1: Maybe don't try doing all that once, or something's got
Speaker 1: to give. You know, something's got to bend if you
Speaker 1: want sort of to gain something. So that's interesting. It's
Speaker 1: good to know that, you know, you have to make
Speaker 1: some sacrifices.
Speaker 3: I knew that my experience wasn't too far fetched from
Speaker 3: what other entrepreneurs deal with or they have dealt with
Speaker 3: in the past. So that's what really kept me going
Speaker 3: to know that while this doesn't seem normal, it is normal. Like,
Speaker 3: you know, entrepreneurship can be glamorized, and because I think
Speaker 3: that many people just don't share that part of their story.
Speaker 3: But having books, having people that I could call that
Speaker 3: were also entrepreneurs to say, no, this is normal. And
Speaker 3: even as I just mentioned, like for many business owners,
Speaker 3: it takes like at least five years to really buying
Speaker 3: their footing. I know that me now still playing the
Speaker 3: way that I feel that's normal. So it's not like
Speaker 3: you are losing your mind, Marshall, Like this should not
Speaker 3: be this difficult for you, and it's not difficult.
Speaker 2: It's just making sure.
Speaker 3: That I don't feel like I've arrived at a place
Speaker 3: that I know I haven't and there's still work to
Speaker 3: be done and still a ton that I need to
Speaker 3: learn before I just say, you know what, take your
Speaker 3: foot off the pedal just a little bit, Marsha, and.
Speaker 2: Just let this go for a smooth ride.
Speaker 3: So what really helped me, Mandy is just knowing that
Speaker 3: this is normal, staying, you know, keeping my head plug
Speaker 3: into books, reading and hearing about different entrepreneurs and just
Speaker 3: knowing how they started the challenges and saying, you know,
Speaker 3: this was that was normal for them, This is normal
Speaker 3: for me, and this is just part of the journey.
Speaker 1: The emotional strain of it all, that that pressure. You know,
Speaker 1: you put your money on the line. Your husband wasn't
Speaker 1: even one hundred percent sort of supportive. I mean, I'm
Speaker 1: sure he was because he loves you, he's your husband,
Speaker 1: but you know he was sort of I'm sure you
Speaker 1: felt that pressure of people looking at you like is
Speaker 1: this gonna work? Is she gonna make this happen? What
Speaker 1: was what was that like? And how did you take
Speaker 1: care of like the emotional strain of all that.
Speaker 3: Well, one I try to when I even do this now, Mandy,
Speaker 3: is to block myself out, to say like who's watching,
Speaker 3: to like who's watching to see if this fails? And
Speaker 3: I took my place to I tak my mind to
Speaker 3: a place of all that matters is or who matters
Speaker 3: is the people that are in your household. And at
Speaker 3: that time it was my husband and my son, and
Speaker 3: now it's just my husband because our son.
Speaker 2: Is in college.
Speaker 3: But my goal was to make sure that our household
Speaker 3: was still taken care of. And I would say that
Speaker 3: that would be helpful for any entrepreneur, because entrepreneurship, Mandy,
Speaker 3: can be very similar Like if you're looking around and
Speaker 3: you're trying to compare up, it could be very similar
Speaker 3: to now you're just trying to live like the Joneses.
Speaker 3: So if you see one entrepreneur doing one thing, you're like,
Speaker 3: oh my goodness, I want to do that too, because
Speaker 3: I feel like it makes.
Speaker 2: Them a lot of money.
Speaker 3: So for me mentally, I would put myself in a
Speaker 3: mind frame of all that matters is that my house
Speaker 3: hold is taken care of. It wasn't like who will
Speaker 3: think this will fail? Or like what does that stress
Speaker 3: look like? But then again, I don't think that to
Speaker 3: have that type of mind frame wasn't just the finance part.
Speaker 3: I've been like that the majority of my life, Like
Speaker 3: it's like it doesn't work, who cares?
Speaker 2: Like? I blow it off because I'm just a.
Speaker 3: Very focused centered what truly matters to my life? Who
Speaker 3: really matters in my life? And that's just how and
Speaker 3: that's how I handled it then, and that's kind of
Speaker 3: how I handle it now. And I think for a
Speaker 3: lot of entrepreneurs that's just really something to remember, is
Speaker 3: that when we're trying to compare up or we're trying
Speaker 3: to do what other people are trying to do, you
Speaker 3: have to go back and sign yourself to say, like
Speaker 3: why did I even do this in the first place, Like, yeah,
Speaker 3: I want to help people, but I also.
Speaker 2: Wanted more time with my son. That was leading for college.
Speaker 3: I wanted to be the mom that says, like if
Speaker 3: I want to go see him on a random Tuesday
Speaker 3: and visit him at his college.
Speaker 2: I can do that.
Speaker 3: My husband was also preparing to retire from the military
Speaker 3: at the time, so I wanted our life to be
Speaker 3: a little bit different. Well, if he's leaping like the army,
Speaker 3: now I'm also leaving something. So it was kind of
Speaker 3: like both of us were in a transition of something
Speaker 3: that would lend us more time with one another. So
Speaker 3: that's my point of saying that a lot of things
Speaker 3: I blocked out because it didn't matter to me because
Speaker 3: I knew what was at my core, and that's that's
Speaker 3: really how I handled it and I still to do
Speaker 3: to this day because.
Speaker 2: I know at the end of the day, that's all
Speaker 2: that truly matters.
Speaker 4: Anyway, Yeah, help me tell the people where they can
Speaker 4: find the Finance Bar and.
Speaker 1: Connect with you and uh get the get the Finance
Speaker 1: Bar treatment.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So the website is the Finance Bar. That's b
Speaker 2: a r.
Speaker 3: The Financebar dot com, the Finance Bar on social media
Speaker 3: across all platforms, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, all.
Speaker 2: That good stuff. But if you go to the website,
Speaker 2: you will find.
Speaker 3: All the information about the members club, about the coaching suite,
Speaker 3: about the mobile Hub, about the mobile app, everything that
Speaker 3: I've mentioned here with Mandy, you can find all that
Speaker 3: information on the website.
Speaker 1: Thank you've been an amazing guest, and thank you so
Speaker 1: much for for filling in for Miss Tiffany. Tiffany, we
Speaker 1: love you.
Speaker 2: Hope you feel we love you. I love myself, so.
Speaker 1: She's gonna be so jealous when she finds out. I
Speaker 1: guts to talk to you all night.
Speaker 2: U