Speaker 1: Episode four seventy four, we wrote a book.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Frugal Friends Podcast, where you'll learn to
Speaker 2: save money, embrace simplicity, and live a life here your
Speaker 2: hosts Jen and Jill.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen,
Speaker 1: my name is Jill, and today we are celebrating the
Speaker 1: release of our debut book, Buy What You Love Without
Speaker 1: Going Broke, and we are doing it with a behind
Speaker 1: the scenes episode, So you will not learn anything about
Speaker 1: how to buy what you love without going broke. If
Speaker 1: you want to do that, you should go back to
Speaker 1: episode four seventy two titled how to Buy what you
Speaker 1: Love that Going Broke. This one is for our frugal friends,
Speaker 1: and our old frugal friends and new frugal friends who
Speaker 1: want an inside peak behind the curtains what went down
Speaker 1: with writing the book.
Speaker 3: So sorry for yelling at you in the beginning, but
Speaker 3: we also know that if you even chose to listen
Speaker 3: to this episode.
Speaker 4: You the real deal.
Speaker 1: You know we yell and you.
Speaker 4: Were already prepared for.
Speaker 3: So yeah, this is not going to be an episode
Speaker 3: where we're giving a ton of tips.
Speaker 1: This is us hanging out. We are interviewing about the process.
Speaker 1: So if maybe if you are interested in publishing a book,
Speaker 1: even self publishing a book, you will be really interested
Speaker 1: in this episode. If you were just interested in Jill
Speaker 1: and I, you will really like this episode.
Speaker 3: But first, this episode is brought to you by the
Speaker 3: star her self.
Speaker 1: She is beauty. She is great.
Speaker 3: See one and only buy what you love without going broke.
Speaker 4: Book.
Speaker 3: She's what we're talking about today. She released to the
Speaker 3: public today. It is January seventh. If you're listening to
Speaker 3: pass her on the day it releases, it's how we're celebrating.
Speaker 3: Get her in your hands, Zee, don't already buy what
Speaker 3: you loovebook dot com. And here's the deal about this, folks,
Speaker 3: it's out into the world. You're not even pre ordering anymore,
Speaker 3: you're just ordering. But also, if you do order this
Speaker 3: book soon, like within the next couple of days, you
Speaker 3: would be able to join our final free live event
Speaker 3: where we are doing an entire spending plan together. We
Speaker 3: are creating a one year spending plan walking you through
Speaker 3: the how tos of how to do that. On January
Speaker 3: twenty ninth, so that's going to be available for all
Speaker 3: of you who do purchase this book before that date.
Speaker 3: Then you also have to fill out the form the
Speaker 3: same place you're going by what you loovebook dot com.
Speaker 3: That's where you can pre order the book and it's
Speaker 3: also where you can fill out this form to get
Speaker 3: access to that live class. So Jenna and I are
Speaker 3: going to be live with you all walking you through that.
Speaker 3: If that sounds like something that could really help you
Speaker 3: in the new year, you should do it. And for
Speaker 3: those of you who can't make it live, but you
Speaker 3: pre ordered the book and you filled out the form,
Speaker 3: you'll get access to the recording.
Speaker 1: Yeah, easy peasy. Okay. So we wrote by What you
Speaker 1: Love Without Going Broke a year ago essentially, and so
Speaker 1: we have since been promoting it, talking your ear off
Speaker 1: about it, talking about it in the front letter, and
Speaker 1: so we are going to interview each other about the
Speaker 1: process and what you may not have heard us talking
Speaker 1: about on the show or even on other people's shows.
Speaker 1: If you found Frugal Friends from listening to one of
Speaker 1: the fifty interviews we gave on podcasts, have heard the
Speaker 1: stuff there either, So we were very excited to share
Speaker 1: with you. Okay, my first question, Jill, why a book?
Speaker 1: Why do we need a book when we have a podcast?
Speaker 4: Great?
Speaker 3: Question, Jen, And I'm so glad that you're asking me
Speaker 3: specifically this question, because here's the real behind the scenes
Speaker 3: for you.
Speaker 4: This was never my dream, Jill. This is Jill talking.
Speaker 3: I have written things before. I am coming into enjoying
Speaker 3: reading more and more, but I never had this long
Speaker 3: term goal or vision of writing a book, but you did, Jen.
Speaker 3: And here's the thing. I am here to support other
Speaker 3: people's visions. If I'm just going to talk straight, you know,
Speaker 3: when people ask about why did you start the podcast?
Speaker 3: Truly my motivation couple of things, But it was to
Speaker 3: help you and to help my husband. He wanted to
Speaker 3: start a podcast from the ground up and more do
Speaker 3: the back end audio stuff and be able to get
Speaker 3: into the podcasting world. And you wanted a marketing arm
Speaker 3: for your business. And I just wanted to help y'all
Speaker 3: achieve your visions and your goals. And I was here
Speaker 3: for it. And I saw that it could benefit me
Speaker 3: and learning about a topic that I'm not typically interested in,
Speaker 3: and or I knew that there were large knowledge gaps
Speaker 3: for me and that I'd get better on the mic
Speaker 3: and I'd get better at interviewing people, and so specifically
Speaker 3: for me, part of it was to support this next
Speaker 3: goal that you had, and we thought this would probably
Speaker 3: be better together than a part. This could definitely be
Speaker 3: a really good launching point off of the podcast. But
Speaker 3: then beyond that, like why write a book in general? Yeah,
Speaker 3: you do have the podcast. I think one of the
Speaker 3: reasons for me was to solidify this knowledge a little more.
Speaker 3: To me, I've kind of equated a book as similar
Speaker 3: to a musician creating an album, Like they have these songs,
Speaker 3: maybe you've heard them play their songs out, maybe they've
Speaker 3: put a song out, you know, on the internet for
Speaker 3: you to be able to listen to on Spotify. But
Speaker 3: an album brings cohesion to the musical concepts and is
Speaker 3: something that can live on It represents a kind of
Speaker 3: a point in time, but can go beyond you and
Speaker 3: can be meaningful to other people. So for me, a
Speaker 3: book has felt like that, like theal lessons of these ideas,
Speaker 3: the things that we've been talking about in a little
Speaker 3: bit more of a succinct manner that can benefit others
Speaker 3: and live beyond us a bit.
Speaker 1: And I'm so glad that you found your own inspiration
Speaker 1: and motivation for getting on board with the book, because
Speaker 1: so many have my ideas. You just you kind of
Speaker 1: you go along with yeah, And I never want to
Speaker 1: feel like I'm pulling you into something you don't want
Speaker 1: to be.
Speaker 4: In, because sometimes it happens, I know.
Speaker 1: But it really was like my dream to write a
Speaker 1: book that is traditionally published. I've self published several books,
Speaker 1: and I just didn't get the opportunity to take them
Speaker 1: as seriously as I should have, and I didn't value
Speaker 1: myself highly enough to value the work that I was
Speaker 1: putting out. And so for me, this book is the
Speaker 1: culmination of valuing myself, what I bring to the table,
Speaker 1: valuing us and the amazing community and product that we
Speaker 1: have created over the last seven years. So it was
Speaker 1: a celebration and also a chance to usher in a
Speaker 1: new voice in personal finance, because so much of it
Speaker 1: is about earning money or investing, and if anything is
Speaker 1: about saving money or spending it, it is a chapter
Speaker 1: in a book, and it is the ugly step sister
Speaker 1: to earning and investing. And I love spending money. I
Speaker 1: love it. I love what it gets me and that
Speaker 1: shouldn't be shamed. So the opportunity to reframe that and
Speaker 1: knowing that there are other voices in the community that
Speaker 1: are saying that, and if this book does well, then
Speaker 1: they will have the opportunity to say it again and
Speaker 1: again in their own voices.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Felt like a responsibility and a gift.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I think when we talk about contentment versus complacency, like
Speaker 3: we are content and what we're doing, but we also
Speaker 3: have goals of growth and things that we want to
Speaker 3: grow inside of ourselves as a business, more things we
Speaker 3: want to offer to our community.
Speaker 4: And this is a part.
Speaker 3: Of that expansion that you know, it can be for
Speaker 3: some people if they desire it, a natural next step.
Speaker 3: And you know, even though our podcasts are close to
Speaker 3: an hour long, it's still just a snippet. And I
Speaker 3: think a book allows you to really take a reader
Speaker 3: on a journey and expand upon concepts in a more
Speaker 3: kind of sit down time that you can really digest
Speaker 3: this information, make it your own, ask yourself questions, start
Speaker 3: to implement. I think that a book can solidify action steps,
Speaker 3: possibly for the more long term than potentially like a singular.
Speaker 1: Podcast episode could.
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, question for you, Jen, what was the writing process? Like?
Speaker 1: I loved the writing process. We had a year to
Speaker 1: write it, and we wrote it in three months at
Speaker 1: the very last three months, which every other writer I've
Speaker 1: ever talked to has done the same exact thing, And
Speaker 1: we wrote a good portion of it and then realized
Speaker 1: it needed to be different, so we rewrote it again.
Speaker 4: Like that was not my favorite.
Speaker 1: I felt super strongly about how it should make me feel.
Speaker 1: I run on vibes, and the vibes weren't it, and
Speaker 1: we just needed to rewrite it and reformat it until
Speaker 1: the vibes were it, and they are it now. It
Speaker 1: was worth it. And we butt heads on some of
Speaker 1: the ways that we wanted to say things, but like
Speaker 1: if you listen to the show, we come from different
Speaker 1: backgrounds say the same thing in different ways, and that's
Speaker 1: the magic. In a podcast, that's a lot easier to
Speaker 1: do than in a print book, So we had to
Speaker 1: navigate that. But like, this was a fantastic Like the
Speaker 1: writing process was fantastic for us because it solidified what
Speaker 1: we're doing and where we want to like, how we
Speaker 1: want to do it going forward.
Speaker 4: Can you remember specific portions where there was some of
Speaker 4: that rub and how we say things?
Speaker 1: Chapter three? Chapter three was the bane of our existence.
Speaker 3: Yeah, for both of us for sure. Yeah, Yeah, Chapter
Speaker 3: three was a rough one. We kind of knew what
Speaker 3: we wanted to say, but we also knew we needed
Speaker 3: to say more on it.
Speaker 4: And we didn't know how.
Speaker 3: I think one experience the most difficult parts for me
Speaker 3: was adhesion throughout. I think whenever people would ask me about, like,
Speaker 3: how's the writing process going, how's the book coming along,
Speaker 3: It's like I felt as though each chapter could stand
Speaker 3: on its own, and I actually still feel that way. Yeah,
Speaker 3: in some ways, we wrote each chapter as if we
Speaker 3: could pull that chapter out and do a whole podcast
Speaker 3: series on it. We have mm hm or you know,
Speaker 3: put it together. And that has been my biggest concern
Speaker 3: is how are these transitions going? What is the journey
Speaker 3: that the person's taking. Does it make sense that this
Speaker 3: is the order that they're going in? And Chapter three
Speaker 3: really felt like a pivotal chapter of taking you from
Speaker 3: how to identify what you love into how to say
Speaker 3: no to what you don't? But how do we help
Speaker 3: the reader get there? So super important chapter just really
Speaker 3: struggled with it. I made the joke along the way,
Speaker 3: I'm like, wouldn't it be so great if this became
Speaker 3: our favorite chapter? Because it had been just this total
Speaker 3: rub the whole time. I still don't I think it's
Speaker 3: either one of our not our favorite chapter, but it is.
Speaker 1: It's really so much better. Yeah it's good, it's good,
Speaker 1: but it's definitely like, you know, not our favorite one.
Speaker 3: What's a necessary chapter. Not every chapter is the best chapter,
Speaker 3: but they're all necessary.
Speaker 1: It's your favorite chapter.
Speaker 3: So this is different for both of us. There's so
Speaker 3: many good ones. I like snippets in each one. But
Speaker 3: I think I realized when we were reading the audio book,
Speaker 3: I think chapter nine is my favorite. You've got to
Speaker 3: get through most of the book to get there. But
Speaker 3: as I was reading aloud the concepts, it was almost
Speaker 3: counseling myself reading it back because we wrote this. We
Speaker 3: finished writing this back in May, and then we read
Speaker 3: the book aloud for the audiobook in November, so we
Speaker 3: really didn't look at it. You know, we kind of
Speaker 3: just like left it. I know, we have the editing team,
Speaker 3: you can't change anything else, so you just got to
Speaker 3: let it go. So it was kind of like coming
Speaker 3: back to it with a fresh perspective and reading it aloud,
Speaker 3: and I think that really drove home for me. And
Speaker 3: maybe it has to do with like the particular season
Speaker 3: that I'm in right now too, Chapter nine. So it's
Speaker 3: contentment over complacency. So it's a lot of kind of
Speaker 3: how we approach and think about money, the narrative that
Speaker 3: we tell ourselves, what we can do with some of
Speaker 3: the regrets that we might have, how we move forward,
Speaker 3: how we identify are enough, how we practice gratitude. So
Speaker 3: kind of more of these like cerebral concepts that just
Speaker 3: felt like balm to me currently.
Speaker 1: I would say for me ten. Yeah, So it's the
Speaker 1: final chap should be. If it's not for you, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna make it yours. It's outside. So we've got an
Speaker 1: intro and then the first three chapters are Part one.
Speaker 1: Then and we've got Part two and then Part three,
Speaker 1: and then chapter ten is outside of that, and it's
Speaker 1: definitely my favorite, though I think Part three, while it
Speaker 1: is the least sexy of the chapters, it has the
Speaker 1: fewest action steps, But I believe it will be the
Speaker 1: most life changing for people. I do believe that if
Speaker 1: you get to Part three and you apply it not
Speaker 1: just to spending, but everything else in your life, it
Speaker 1: will be transformative.
Speaker 3: It's funny because we did write the book in some
Speaker 3: parts assuming that people aren't going to read past the
Speaker 3: first chapter.
Speaker 4: We were like, we really.
Speaker 3: Need to make this good because many people don't continue
Speaker 3: reading it. But yeah, our favorites are the final two chapters,
Speaker 3: So make it through.
Speaker 4: Make it through.
Speaker 5: Thing.
Speaker 4: It's not a good It.
Speaker 1: Is not a long book. It's the thing. We didn't
Speaker 1: make it a novel because we wanted you to be
Speaker 1: able to get through it in a month. We want
Speaker 1: book clubs to do this book, and we want everyone
Speaker 1: to be able to get through it in one month
Speaker 1: so that you can talk about it with your group,
Speaker 1: and so it's paced well in order to do that.
Speaker 1: All right, what has been what's the promotion process been
Speaker 1: like in your words?
Speaker 4: Jill horrific.
Speaker 3: Wow, that's not what I wanted to hear. Hey, we're
Speaker 3: bere and all right. I'm being honest. I am not
Speaker 3: a marketer.
Speaker 4: You all know this.
Speaker 3: I don't care for marketing, just as an idea, a concept,
Speaker 3: and then to market yourself.
Speaker 4: It has felt very self.
Speaker 3: Promotion and while and I've had to shift some things
Speaker 3: in my thinking in that I truly do think this
Speaker 3: book is going to help people, and that helped me
Speaker 3: in promoting it. But still like the the tactics behind
Speaker 3: marketing and trying to get people to buy something and
Speaker 3: sell them on an idea. I just don't like it.
Speaker 3: I feel like people are smart, they know what they want.
Speaker 3: They want to buy something, they're going to buy it.
Speaker 3: They don't want to buy it, They're not going to
Speaker 3: buy it. Like I don't want to over influence people.
Speaker 3: It doesn't feel like congruent and in part maybe even ethical.
Speaker 3: So I just I'm not a fan of it. I
Speaker 3: don't care for marketing. But we have had to kind
Speaker 3: of get into the minds of people to be able
Speaker 3: to say yes to having us on their podcasts, and
Speaker 3: how would you know, TV stations and radio networks what
Speaker 3: would they want.
Speaker 4: To hear in order to say yes to us? So
Speaker 4: it feels like I have to.
Speaker 3: Tap into a part of me that I don't want
Speaker 3: to like. I don't want to learn how to do that.
Speaker 3: I just either want people to be interested in the
Speaker 3: message or not. So it's not been I've not loved it,
Speaker 3: but there's an end insight.
Speaker 4: How about you.
Speaker 1: I've loved it.
Speaker 4: You are very good at marketing.
Speaker 1: Well, because I believe so strongly in the message, and
Speaker 1: we don't market products like we don't sell a lot
Speaker 1: of things. We talk about some things that we use
Speaker 1: that we love, and we have a lot of affiliate
Speaker 1: links for those things, but we don't heavily market anything.
Speaker 1: And I think I just love the message in this
Speaker 1: book and to have somebody And I think the book
Speaker 1: almost the title sell it sells itself, which I love.
Speaker 1: I think if you can do a few things right
Speaker 1: in marketing, it's eighty twenty role. You do twenty percent
Speaker 1: of things right, eighty percent of your marketing is done
Speaker 1: for you. And I have enjoyed talking to my friends.
Speaker 1: I have so many podcaster like host friends, so it's
Speaker 1: felt like I get a almost a coffee date with
Speaker 1: a friend and then also get the added bonus of
Speaker 1: having them talk about my book, and my book gets
Speaker 1: to help their audience. So I have loved marketing this book.
Speaker 1: Coming up with ideas, innovating, getting creative is really where
Speaker 1: I find like my fulfilling work because I want to
Speaker 1: use the marketer's game against them. I wrote the chapter
Speaker 1: on marketing and how the how Edward Burnet's and manufactured
Speaker 1: desire like all that that was me. That was my chapter,
Speaker 1: and it makes me so happy to use their game
Speaker 1: against them to not manipulate, but educate and use an
Speaker 1: ethical form of marketing and kind of reframe marketing to
Speaker 1: be ethical. So I have loved it.
Speaker 3: And we're two different people. Okay, Jen, you have written
Speaker 3: other books before, but you've self published. This is the
Speaker 3: first time that you have traditionally published a book and
Speaker 3: it's this one, the one that we've done together. What
Speaker 3: have you found to be the difference between this traditionally
Speaker 3: publishing and self publishing.
Speaker 1: So it's a lot slower process. When I self published,
Speaker 1: I was able to get Idea to Amazon in three months,
Speaker 1: So it has been a slower process and I'm actually
Speaker 1: thankful for that. I've enjoyed this process ninety percent of
Speaker 1: the time. Yeah, it's been great to have a lot
Speaker 1: of other eyes on the book, so an editor, a
Speaker 1: copy editor, proofreaders. It's been great to have somebody else
Speaker 1: in pr to do their to make a quasi effort
Speaker 1: in promoting our book, even though we did ninety percent
Speaker 1: of it. And it's been great to have distribution. It's
Speaker 1: costing us money, but actually in the long run, I
Speaker 1: think it will be more. It'll make us more money
Speaker 1: with like other things, other doors that it opens up
Speaker 1: that self publishing just doesn't give you the credibility I
Speaker 1: guess in there's so many pros and cons as a
Speaker 1: content creator, traditional publishing really can establish us in these
Speaker 1: traditional outlets. I think if we came from a more
Speaker 1: traditional corporate background, we would need the legitimacy that traditional
Speaker 1: publishing might offer us. But I think it is again,
Speaker 1: I kind of did this to validate to myself that
Speaker 1: what we've built is bigger than ourselves, and so that
Speaker 1: has been it. But I still believe in self publishing
Speaker 1: and would take I'd love to help people who are
Speaker 1: self publishing and traditionally publish it published market their books
Speaker 1: better because there's so much gap with people who are
Speaker 1: very successful but did not market their books well and
Speaker 1: people who have self published and done really well or
Speaker 1: could do really well but are just missing like some
Speaker 1: marketing pieces. So if you're interested in that, reach out
Speaker 1: to me, because I'm thinking about it. Nice Jill, what
Speaker 1: has been your favorite part of this whole experience.
Speaker 4: I'm going to say two things. Okay, okay, of thanks.
Speaker 3: So the first is it was so fun to have
Speaker 3: publishers fight over us with money. Had was my favorite part.
Speaker 3: I think we talked about this on a recent episode.
Speaker 3: Actually you've heard me say this already, but we so
Speaker 3: with a traditional publishing route. We wrote a proposal first,
Speaker 3: so it included some sample chapters of the book. It
Speaker 3: included kind of an overview of what it's about, who
Speaker 3: it's for, a marketing plan, our platform, how we're going.
Speaker 1: To talk, how much. It was like eighty pages.
Speaker 3: It was dense, it was long, and so we did
Speaker 3: hire an agent and that agent helped get us in
Speaker 3: front of some of these publishers, and we had three
Speaker 3: traditional publish four.
Speaker 1: We had four publishers interested who wanted to back it
Speaker 1: up with money. Yeah, So what happens in that circumstance
Speaker 1: when there's multiple people, multiple publishers interested in a book,
Speaker 1: in buying a book is what they're doing even though
Speaker 1: the book isn't written yet. They it goes to auction,
Speaker 1: so they have a certain amount of time to give
Speaker 1: their bid on the book, and it includes money, it
Speaker 1: includes other terms as well, kind of other benefits that
Speaker 1: you might receive in the process. And so thankfully we
Speaker 1: were able to go with the highest bid because we
Speaker 1: also loved that editor and publisher the most too. It
Speaker 1: was our favorite kind of conversation and meeting that we had,
Speaker 1: we felt like our editor really understood the book. She
Speaker 1: is kind of our target demographic, which has been really
Speaker 1: fun to also get fresh eyes on the content and
Speaker 1: be able to say like, yes, this makes sense, No,
Speaker 1: this doesn't give more examples, say more more stories.
Speaker 4: Yeah's a big thing. Yeah.
Speaker 3: So that was really fun and I think one of
Speaker 3: those kind of core validation moments for me throughout the
Speaker 3: span of how this business and doing this together, that
Speaker 3: felt like WHOA Outside of you and I, there's people
Speaker 3: who are seeing this message, wanting it, believing in it
Speaker 3: so much that they're willing to invest in it. And
Speaker 3: then beyond that, I have had a lot of fun
Speaker 3: in this stage of the book as well. I think
Speaker 3: while I don't care for the marketing, what I'm talking
Speaker 3: about is the reaching, like the cold pitching that to
Speaker 3: me has been the worst. But talking about the book
Speaker 3: to our Frugal Friends community and in being on interviews
Speaker 3: about it and you know, explaining it more through our
Speaker 3: own podcast has meant spending more time together, like you
Speaker 3: and I have been in person a lot, more on
Speaker 3: a lot more podcasts, and that engagement in interaction and
Speaker 3: finding new ways to talk about these concepts and seeing
Speaker 3: how it's connecting with people. You know, those moments when
Speaker 3: you're talking with someone and a concept just kind of
Speaker 3: like clicks and it sparks more ideas. That's been happening
Speaker 3: a ton as the result of this content, and so
Speaker 3: I think, yeah, I've really enjoyed more time with you,
Speaker 3: like I've been noticing, I feel like more alive recently.
Speaker 3: I feel like not as kind of just like ho hum,
Speaker 3: I feel a bit rejuvenated. I feel kind of like inspired.
Speaker 3: And I think it's because we're kind of out of
Speaker 3: that like dark, quiet phase of the book and into
Speaker 3: now we can talk about it. It makes sense to
Speaker 3: talk about it, and we can be having these really
Speaker 3: crucial conversations with people and be helping others with the book,
Speaker 3: and we're starting to see what it's creating and what
Speaker 3: it's doing.
Speaker 4: And that's been very fun.
Speaker 1: Yes, okay, so yeah, the auction happened on my birthday
Speaker 1: and that was also my favorite thing. And then we
Speaker 1: went out to a Mexican restaurant and got a picture
Speaker 1: of Margarita's and chips and salsa and queso and guac,
Speaker 1: and that was sure.
Speaker 4: Did the Margarita was your favorite part?
Speaker 1: The Margarita was my favorite part. Yeah. The multi six
Speaker 1: figure book deal was fantastic, but the marg did it.
Speaker 3: And to be clear that that money is paying over
Speaker 3: the span of like two.
Speaker 1: Three years, three years, yeah, and split between two people
Speaker 1: and our agent. Yes, it goes quick. Split between three people,
Speaker 1: spread over three years. So that's that's fun.
Speaker 4: That's why we really need you to buy it.
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, so yeah, I would say my favorite part
Speaker 1: has been the interviews as well. Again just like being
Speaker 1: able to catch up with people and talk about the
Speaker 1: thing that I love most is so life giving. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like this has felt so purposeful. Oh yeah, I love it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Okay, what's next?
Speaker 1: Ooh Margarita? Probably I know truly.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the book just came out today, like we can
Speaker 3: we can celebrate that a little bit.
Speaker 1: Picture. So I would love to do more speaking, like
Speaker 1: public speaking. Yes, probably do a little bit more writing,
Speaker 1: like on the internet now that I am, you know,
Speaker 1: like I can write about this more than I talk
Speaker 1: about it, but I still love talking about it. And
Speaker 1: instead of doing podcasts, I would love to do public
Speaker 1: speaking whatever that looks like in person or virtual. But yeah,
Speaker 1: so if you have any conferences where you think I
Speaker 1: would like to hear Jen speak at the conference I
Speaker 1: go to, then send me, send me that way.
Speaker 4: We are speaking tonight actually, yeah.
Speaker 1: The night when we're recording this, we're speaking tonight at
Speaker 1: NERD Night, which is like a nerdy ted Talk style event.
Speaker 4: I'm excited for it. Same yeah for me.
Speaker 3: I when we've been talking about this a lot, like, Okay,
Speaker 3: where do we go from here? This feels like such
Speaker 3: a big milestone and how do we continue to make
Speaker 3: meaning out of this milestone? And how do we build
Speaker 3: upon the foundation that we're we continue to builder. How
Speaker 3: do we keep building? I guess? And one of the
Speaker 3: things that I keep coming back to is how life
Speaker 3: giving the podcast is. I really love doing this. Unfortunately,
Speaker 3: or fortunately however you want to look at it, it
Speaker 3: in and of itself doesn't generate, you know, the revenue
Speaker 3: that we would need to keep going.
Speaker 1: We appreciate you listening to the advertisers on the show.
Speaker 1: That is what funds the show.
Speaker 3: It's the only thing that fund the show. And we
Speaker 3: don't want to hawk products to you and we don't
Speaker 3: want you to have to pay for content like I am.
Speaker 4: I'm the same, I'm the same as you. I don't.
Speaker 3: I'm not a subscription person, like I have a couple,
Speaker 3: but you know, I'm not going to pay for every
Speaker 3: podcast that I listened to for better or worse. It's
Speaker 3: just kind of like how we have the system we've
Speaker 3: all created that we do expect to get this content
Speaker 3: for free. And you know what, I love helping people
Speaker 3: like truly it fuels me. So I want to keep
Speaker 3: doing this, but also recognizing it's good to have goals
Speaker 3: beyond that, it's good to also be able to like
Speaker 3: find ways to monetize so that you can keep doing
Speaker 3: the thing that you love. So all that to say, though,
Speaker 3: what's next is continuation, Like I don't want to stop
Speaker 3: the podcast. If anything, we might even be considering a
Speaker 3: third We.
Speaker 1: Have talked about maybe doing like like a Sunday episode
Speaker 1: that's more personal.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like a Sunday reset kind of thing. Yeah, I have.
Speaker 3: I'm also considering recently doing like providing like financial therapy,
Speaker 3: so being able to blend, because I've found a lot
Speaker 3: of enjoyment in that being able to blend both now
Speaker 3: my gained personal finance knowledge with my mental health background.
Speaker 1: I love that.
Speaker 3: Blend, but it's it's curious to me too. I mean,
Speaker 3: of course, if you're listening we are, assuming you're like
Speaker 3: the top one percent fans of the show, I would
Speaker 3: be so curious to hear from you all, what do
Speaker 3: you want from us next? I know you haven't read
Speaker 3: the book yet, so that'll probably be helpful, you know,
Speaker 3: read the book and then maybe respond. But even what
Speaker 3: you know of us so far, what more would you
Speaker 3: want from us?
Speaker 1: I know, Jenny, you would be willing to pay money
Speaker 1: for that's the big Yeah, well, or support in the
Speaker 1: monetization of.
Speaker 3: That is part of it. But I also think that
Speaker 3: there are things people could want that could generate money
Speaker 3: in and of themselves that like isn't costing them money
Speaker 3: all the time, So I mean it could even if
Speaker 3: it means like more video or content about this or yeah,
Speaker 3: I do actually want help in this area, and you're
Speaker 3: the people that I would want that help from. But yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean, if you are a person who pays for subscriptions, like, yeah,
Speaker 3: let us know that too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but maybe we're wrong, right yeah right, so yeah,
Speaker 1: but I think, yeah, the reason I want to do
Speaker 1: more speaking is I'd like to take money from people
Speaker 1: with large budgets that's who I would like to pay me.
Speaker 3: So yeah, but i'd be curious, what do you guys
Speaker 3: want to see from us next year? You have any
Speaker 3: ideas after hearing about kind of where we've come from,
Speaker 3: where we currently are, where we're thinking we want to go,
Speaker 3: let us know your thoughts.
Speaker 1: So you are the ones that told us how where
Speaker 1: to take the book. So this is a story that
Speaker 1: I don't think we've shared on the podcast. But we
Speaker 1: spent five thousand dollars on a book coach to help
Speaker 1: us write the proposal. And when we got back, I
Speaker 1: had about one hundred note cards with notes on them,
Speaker 1: and I put them all up and I was like,
Speaker 1: this isn't the book. Like it just I mean, this
Speaker 1: isn't the book. She's worked with, you know, best selling authors,
Speaker 1: she knows what sells. But this ain't it for us.
Speaker 1: This isn't the vibe.
Speaker 3: So I'm like having flashbacks to all those note cards up.
Speaker 3: I know your closet doors and I and we asked you, yeah,
Speaker 3: what's the thing.
Speaker 1: That we've talked about that has changed your life the most?
Speaker 1: And one hundred percent of you said values based spending.
Speaker 1: It wasn't a contest and that's how we can That's
Speaker 1: that's how we came up with the book. So we
Speaker 1: value your opinions.
Speaker 3: Well, you know something that we came up with entirely
Speaker 3: on our own, before we even have people's opinions to ask.
Speaker 1: Y'all didn't helped this at all.
Speaker 3: We've kept it the the bill of the week.
Speaker 2: That's right, it's time for the best minute of your
Speaker 2: entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name
Speaker 2: is William.
Speaker 3: Maybe you paid off your.
Speaker 2: Mortgage, maybe your car died and you're happy to not
Speaker 2: have to pay that bill anymore.
Speaker 1: Dust bills, Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton, this.
Speaker 3: Is the bill of the week.
Speaker 5: Hey, Jen and Jill, this is Jill my bill of
Speaker 5: the week. Last week, I received al insurance bill that
Speaker 5: was thirty dollars lower than I was expecting, and I
Speaker 5: was over the moon because of the savings. So for
Speaker 5: those folks out there that are kind of self sufficient,
Speaker 5: like I never thought I would do any kind of
Speaker 5: charity or any kind of benefit, any kind of that stuff.
Speaker 5: I did apply for help with health insurance premiums and
Speaker 5: it came through, and for some reason they have actually
Speaker 5: increased the benefit. So please don't be a shamed ask
Speaker 5: for that kind of help because nobody expected health insurance
Speaker 5: to get as crazy as it has. I enjoyed the
Speaker 5: show so much. Thank you guys so much for sharing this,
Speaker 5: and thanks a lot by bye Jill, Jill.
Speaker 3: It's fun to meet a fellow Jill. I don't meet
Speaker 3: many in my life, so I feel connected.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, I saw this and I was like,
Speaker 1: I wonder if Jill recording. I was like, I have
Speaker 1: expected you to be the one to be this.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's funny.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is a great one, not only to have
Speaker 3: a lowered bill, but also this encouragement that you're giving
Speaker 3: us to look into the different benefits, apply to see
Speaker 3: if you know, maybe you're eligible to receive some of
Speaker 3: these discounts. If the discounts exist and you qualify for them,
Speaker 3: then they're there for you. And I think you know
Speaker 3: you're right in a time when some of our costs
Speaker 3: are just astronomical and feel untenable. Absolutely, we've got to
Speaker 3: take advantage of all of the resources available to us.
Speaker 3: So well done even taking the time to look into
Speaker 3: these benefits, educate yourself on them, apply for them. You know,
Speaker 3: we're not always guaranteed, but I am celebrating with you
Speaker 3: that you got this lowered. Sometimes just maintaining our costs
Speaker 3: can be all that we can hope for.
Speaker 4: You know, many are.
Speaker 3: Increasing, so to even experience a decrease is such a win.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I was talking to a business owner the other
Speaker 1: day who was very into tax loopholes and tax strategies
Speaker 1: to lower their tax taxable income, and I was like,
Speaker 1: does it kind of like feel cool but wrong because
Speaker 1: people with W two incomes cannot? And I won't share
Speaker 1: her opinion because I don't. I didn't really agree, but
Speaker 1: it got me thinking, like for the middle class, like
Speaker 1: we feel some shame trying to like ask for help
Speaker 1: and lower you know, stuff like that, like you know,
Speaker 1: health insurance. But I mean everybody else out there is
Speaker 1: trying to lower their premiums, their taxes, all that, not
Speaker 1: feeling any shame. And so this is this is what
Speaker 1: we have available to us. Not all of us are
Speaker 1: business owners who can you know, use tax loopholes to
Speaker 1: lower stuff. But you can do what you can, and
Speaker 1: if you don't know what you can do, you can try.
Speaker 1: So well done, Jill.
Speaker 4: Yeah, thank you so much.
Speaker 3: If you all are listening, you have a bill that
Speaker 3: you want to submit, if it's an encouraging bill, if
Speaker 3: it's a bill about utilizing resources or lowering bills or
Speaker 3: bills you don't mind paying for bills. Who are out
Speaker 3: here paying their bills for agal friendspodcast dot com slash bill.
Speaker 3: We can't wait to hear it. And now it's time
Speaker 3: for the lightning around you.
Speaker 1: All right? If you told your twelve year old self
Speaker 1: that you wrote a book, what would they think it
Speaker 1: was about?
Speaker 4: Oh, I don't know, what were you into at twelve.
Speaker 1: Youth group? Yeah, so I probably would have thank some
Speaker 1: kind of like Christian nonfiction, which this is not by
Speaker 1: an East much of the means. Uh so that's probably it.
Speaker 1: It's not that. Nope, not at all. There are no
Speaker 1: curse words in it. I will say that. Huh yeah,
Speaker 1: so that's about That's what I will give it. I'll
Speaker 1: give it that.
Speaker 3: What do you think your reaction would be if you
Speaker 3: told your twelve year old self you wrote a personal
Speaker 3: finance book.
Speaker 1: I think I would be not shocked. Okay, yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't think I would be shocked. I would definitely always
Speaker 1: in the non fiction genre. I think that is where
Speaker 1: I was always meant to be. I am you will
Speaker 1: not see me writing any fairy and dragon smut. Nope,
Speaker 1: not there. I love it, I love reading it, but like,
Speaker 1: that's too much outside of what I know.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, that didn't even occur to me. Would it?
Speaker 3: Would I have assumed it was fiction or nonfiction. I
Speaker 3: think my mind immediately went to nonfiction.
Speaker 4: But my twelve year old self.
Speaker 3: The world I was living in, probably either like, yeah,
Speaker 3: I wrote I wrote a mystery novel, or I thought
Speaker 3: I would have thought that I wrote a like how
Speaker 3: to Become an Actress book.
Speaker 1: Oh wow.
Speaker 3: As a young child, that was a goal of mine,
Speaker 3: like I want to become an actor by the time
Speaker 3: I'm thirteen.
Speaker 1: Wow, gave yourself a goal.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And then the closer I got to thirteen, I
Speaker 3: kept being like, it hasn't happened yet.
Speaker 4: Ever going to happen?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I was like big into drama and theater
Speaker 3: and such. So probably either of those two genres would
Speaker 3: have been my thought. If he would have said it's
Speaker 3: about money, i'veably have been like, oh, I become too.
Speaker 4: I also would have been wrong.
Speaker 1: Yes, Well, thank you so much for listening. I hope
Speaker 1: that you enjoyed this. Behind the scenes of writing by
Speaker 1: what you love without going broke, And I also hope
Speaker 1: that if you enjoy our show, if you support us,
Speaker 1: that you would take twenty five dollars out of your
Speaker 1: budget to buy a copy of the book. It would
Speaker 1: support us so greatly. Whether you keep it for yourself
Speaker 1: or give it as a gift, it just supports us
Speaker 1: so much. If we have any chance of making a
Speaker 1: bestseller list, it's all comes down to the purchases made
Speaker 1: within the next few days, and we would love to
Speaker 1: see what kind of doors that would open for us.
Speaker 1: So thank you and thank you so much. If you
Speaker 1: have purchased or for listening. We would love if you
Speaker 1: would leave us a review of the book, if you
Speaker 1: have pre ordered it, or if you already have left
Speaker 1: a review of the book, maybe a review of the podcast,
Speaker 1: like this one from Georgie cam that says life changing.
Speaker 1: It's five stars, and they say this year has been
Speaker 1: financially challenging for me based on changes in my commission
Speaker 1: based retail job. It's caused me to feel very helpless
Speaker 1: and frustrated. I recently was introduced to the podcast through
Speaker 1: another favorite farmhouse on Boone and I have I've been
Speaker 1: burning through these episodes ever since I've learned so much
Speaker 1: behind the psychology of spending and I feel so empowered.
Speaker 1: I've struggled in the past to spend less than I
Speaker 1: earned because my income fluctuates months a month, but I
Speaker 1: am now headed in the right direction. I do, however,
Speaker 1: take personal offense when they make jobs at the Ninja
Speaker 1: Creamy and its lack of importance in the kitchen, as
Speaker 1: it is one of my most prized possessions. But I
Speaker 1: know now that with values based spending, that was a
Speaker 1: gadget well worth it to me. Thanks Jen and Jill.
Speaker 1: Love listening to you guys. This is so great.
Speaker 3: Georgie can thank you for you know, calling us out
Speaker 3: on Yeah, I'm Georgie, I will tell I the other
Speaker 3: day thought about getting a Ninja creamy, and I was like,
Speaker 3: oh my god, I've made so many ninja creamy jokes.
Speaker 1: I can't possibly but I was thinking about it because
Speaker 1: I saw some pretty good recipes. But like, maybe over
Speaker 1: the summer I'll just get one on Facebook marketplace and
Speaker 1: try it out. Maybe it too will become one of
Speaker 1: my most prized possessions.
Speaker 3: Again, I love it when I hear where people have
Speaker 3: come from, like how they heard about us. And then
Speaker 3: we've been having so many reviews lately that are giving
Speaker 3: such tangible examples of the way that the podcast has
Speaker 3: helped them, which tells me that maybe we're coming into
Speaker 3: like our era, like truly, truly, we've found our voice,
Speaker 3: and I think.
Speaker 1: The book helped us get there.
Speaker 3: I know it to really solidify kind of our current
Speaker 3: messaging and how we want to say it. And then
Speaker 3: to hear it's just so heartwarming. Isn't quite the right word.
Speaker 3: I don't know what it is, but it gratify were
Speaker 3: meaningful to realize, Oh man, you've actually made some big
Speaker 3: beneficial strides in your lifestyle and actions and decision making
Speaker 3: around money which will benefit you for the long term.
Speaker 3: You did that, well done. We are just so floored
Speaker 3: to get to be a part of that. So anyways,
Speaker 3: thank you for that in depth review, and if you
Speaker 3: all haven't reviewed the show yet, we would be so
Speaker 3: grateful if you did. You don't have to be as wordy.
Speaker 3: You don't have to tell us all of the things,
Speaker 3: but if you've got kind of specific examples, we love that.
Speaker 1: Or be wordier. Yeah, you do.
Speaker 3: You all wherever you're listening to the podcast, review the
Speaker 3: book all of it helps us.
Speaker 4: We appreciate you.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Siria. Okay,
Speaker 1: what are we doing to celebrate tonight or tomorrow? Because
Speaker 1: I know we're going over the next few days, we're
Speaker 1: going to go to all the Barnes and Nobles and
Speaker 1: the Tampa Bay area and sign books. So if you're
Speaker 1: in the Tampa Bay area and have not purchased a
Speaker 1: book yet, or you just want a signed copy and
Speaker 1: you want to return your book that you bought and
Speaker 1: buy one aside the companies, I don't know, I not
Speaker 1: the gal I don't know if you could do that,
Speaker 1: but we're going to go sign in Tampa, Panels and Sarasota,
Speaker 1: all the books at every Barnes and Noble and Books
Speaker 1: a million.
Speaker 3: We'll keep that updated on Instagram like where we are.
Speaker 3: But also feel free to reach out to us and
Speaker 3: let us know where you want us to show up. Yeah,
Speaker 3: if you're in the area, we could see if we
Speaker 3: could make it there.
Speaker 1: So we're going to do that. We've got our event
Speaker 1: event at Tumbolo Books in Saint Petersburg on January fourteenth.
Speaker 1: That's going to be fun Q and a reading high fiving.
Speaker 4: We're having a party on the eighteenth at my house.
Speaker 1: That's in private though.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I know.
Speaker 3: I'm just saying, Okay, we're doing how we're celebrating. Hopefully
Speaker 3: there's going to be event, an event in Pennsylvania. We
Speaker 3: don't have a date solidified. Again, we'll keep our Instagram.
Speaker 1: By the time this comes out, we will have fun
Speaker 1: for sure.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's just our Instagram will.
Speaker 1: Tell you so. But I really do think we need
Speaker 1: to get Margs. Yeah, a picture of Margs, A whole picture,
Speaker 1: a whole picture, lots of salt. Yeah, I love that salt. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm loving the salt life and I am consuming sodium.
Speaker 4: Perfect