Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:13):
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(00:36):
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Speaker 2 (00:51):
Okay, let's get
everything started.
First of all, we want towelcome everybody to our Giving
Power to the Business Ownerwebinar series, and today we
have a special guest that willbe coming in to speak with us
about money.
But let's ask you this asbusiness owners, have you ever
felt like your business moneyand your personal money is
actually at tug of war and oneis winning and one is losing and
(01:12):
you're stuck in the middle?
Well, what if I tell you itdoesn't have to be that way.
Today we have a guest, we haveTeddy Nguyen that is coming in
as our money coach with the LionLamb Money, and we will have
him to break it down and show ushow we can deal with both of
them with less stress.
So, if you would, let's welcomeTeddy into our show today.
(01:35):
Teddy, thank you so much forshowing up on this fine Saturday
night.
We do appreciate having youhere.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Yeah, I appreciate
being here.
Thanks for having this dialogue, because this is something I'm
super passionate about, bothbusiness finance, personal
finance and where the stressintersects all that stuff.
So I'm happy to be here.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
And great.
And the reason we did that isbecause which you and I have
talked about this before we dealwith business owners, but
sometimes we get so much in ourbusiness that we actually forget
that it's a personal side thatwe still have to pay attention
to and we really kind of run offtrying to deal with the
problems of the business.
And that's why we all kind ofvoted to have you to come on so
(02:17):
you can hit that personal side,but you also know how to work a
little bit with the businessside.
So we want to start with that.
If you would start off, leteverybody know what you do as a
money coach and how you actuallygot into that.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Yeah, so as a money
coach, I help young
professionals and young businessowners get control of their
money, and particularly throughthe lens of behavior, psychology
, emotions and things like that.
So I started my business abouttwo, two and a half years ago
and it kind of birthed from acouple places.
So my background is in socialwork and mental health,
(02:54):
addiction recovery, that worldand I just had a passion for
that.
But I also had this passion forpersonal finance.
Like I bought my first house.
I didn't know anything likewhat the heck even is an escrow
account and all this stuff.
And it was, yeah, a coupleyears ago when I came across
this idea of like helping peopleavoid all the mistakes I did
(03:17):
with money, as well as like justunlearning toxic habits and
things like that.
So, yeah, getting started inbusiness, I had zero business
background outside of like onesemester of accounting.
That was it.
Like I didn't.
I've never run a business Ihave.
I was a social worker, justlike, let me get plugged into
(03:39):
this system, climb the ladderlike very W2 employee mindset
and as I kind of just likebasically fail forward over and
over again, learning business,learning how to like pay, like
charge for helping people andall this stuff Fast forward here
.
I am now two, two and a halfyears later.
(03:59):
I get to be on shows like thisand help people with their
personal and business finances.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
What to actually do,
and we can contribute to that as
well.
Not knowing what to do andthat's what we wanted to have
here, because I have heard youspeak, I have kind of seen some
of your videos and you just haveso much to give Just young
entrepreneurs.
It doesn't not necessarily age,but if you're just young,
getting started because youcould be 40 years old and
getting started, you know whatI'm saying, so that's helped.
(04:28):
So if you would, what is one ofthe money beliefs you had to
unlearn when you actually becamea business owner?
Speaker 3 (04:36):
So this was this was
heavily taught to me, um, just
in the environment I was growingup that like, um, if you make a
lot of money, it means you're abad person.
Or like if you have somethingthat's expensive or whatever,
where you know the high profitor whatever, it means that
you're scamming people.
And one of the things aboutthat that really like I was
(05:01):
conflicted with was like, if I'mreally in business to help
people, really like I wasconflicted with was like, if I'm
really in business to helppeople but I can't make money
from it, how?
One, how do I live?
And two, how does the businesslive?
Right, because I think themisconception with money is that
it has some kind of moral valueto it, but all it is is a tool.
Right, it's just something weuse, kind of like gas in a car.
(05:21):
We don't buy a car so that weget gas like we use.
We use gas to run the car, justlike we use money to run the
business and run our passion inour lives.
And I think framing money asjust a tool to use, like any
other tool, takes that moralaspect out of it.
And, um, where I really learnedthat, like making money, really,
(05:47):
I learned that making moneyalways is an exchange of value.
So if you're helping someone,then they pay you because you
added value to their life.
Right, and whatever the priceof that exchange is is dependent
on the value that's being added.
And so if I could help someonepay off $20,000 in debt, like
what is that worth to a personversus if I just help them cut
(06:09):
$30 in subscriptions?
Like you know different scalesof commodities, services,
products, whatever industry ofbusiness you may be in, you can
help people and charge whatyou're worth at the same time,
and it doesn't make you a badperson.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
So that sounds like
and I know we've talked about
this too it sounds like themoney mindset and I think let me
say this part from dealing withas a loan broker we have
business owners, right, but wehave so many people come in with
that money mindset that's nottotally correct in getting money
and that's what I think youknow.
(06:46):
You were saying that we have torealize things have to change.
So, if you would, how does aperson know that they even have
a money mindset versus justneeding more income?
How do we do?
How do they know?
Speaker 3 (06:58):
So something that I
find really interesting is that
as I work with people on theirpersonal finances no matter
where they are in the spectrum,if they're making 30 to 50,000
or 300 to $500,000, moneyproblems exist and affect people
just the same.
I've seen plenty of couples wholive comfortably off of $50,000
(07:20):
a year and I see couples whoare making 200 and they're in
debt like negative self networth and like paycheck to
paycheck cycle, and the thing isthat more money doesn't mean
your problems will go awayReally.
It's just an amplifier forwhatever you have there.
So you're overspending on ahundred K, you're going to
(07:40):
overspend on 500k.
If you're really conservative on100k, you're just going to be
really conservative on 500k, andso the thing about having a
money mindset issue is like it'sreally hard to just like sit,
reflect and like discover, justlike pull it out of air, that
there's some kind of mindsetissue and I actually had people
(08:04):
in my life essentially call meout on it.
So when I started with thebusiness, I was like helping
people, whatever, but I wasn'tmaking any money and I was like
undercharging and things likethat and I'm just like I keep
doing this thing and it's notbringing in any income.
I have to help like 50 people aweek to even live off this
(08:24):
stuff.
And I had a mentor of minebasically say to me that like,
teddy, you're capping yourselfon this because you believe,
kind of going back to the firstpoint, you believe that charging
more money makes you a badperson or whatever, and really
had to reset my mind to like thevalue of the service or
(08:45):
transformation I'm helpingclients achieve is the value or
cost of the service instead ofwhat I think my hourly time is
worth.
And especially having thatemployee mindset of like trading
time for money directly.
It's like, okay, I work $30 anhour in my main job.
So in my business it shouldalso be $30 an hour.
(09:07):
But that doesn't account forall the other expenses in
business and all the other stuff.
And so really like, if younotice like patterns of like I
like to use the word bottlenecksbottlenecks in your business
when it comes to like earningincome, but you have this like
(09:29):
volume of clients already.
If you have all these clientsbut you're not making a livable
income either for your businessor personal, then there is some
kind of like pricing discrepancythat you're either
undercharging or just thatsupply demand right, Basically
economic stuff.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Right, right.
So now let me say this with youtoo the belief, and I know
we're talking mindset.
But I believe, and I think alot of us don't go back to, like
you said, what you were taughtand told about how to look at
money as business owners.
I don't think we take enoughtime or even take time, Teddy,
how to look at money as businessowners.
I don't think we take enoughtime or even take time, teddy,
(10:07):
to even look at what was myfirst relationship with money
how do I look at money?
Because if you a cheapskate,you know how I'm talking about
cheap person chances are you'regoing to bring that over into
business, which may notnecessarily be a good thing.
But I think we don't even haveanybody like you to tell us hey,
(10:28):
let's really think about howyou feel about this money.
You're not making money for acertain reason.
It's not because, oh, I'm notworking hard or I don't have a
good product.
A lot of times it's not that,it's the money mindset that you
put in place, which go ahead.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
you can say something
yeah, so I wanted to share a
story.
When I started the business, Ilike I love all things money.
My natural habits with money isbeing very like frugal, very
cheap, and so when I started thebusiness, I was like I need to
do this with like zero money,you know, not paying for any
courses, I'm not paying for anylike zoom, like subscriptions or
(11:03):
whatever, and the first class Iled of like a personal finance
class, it was supposed to go anhour but at the time zoom only
gives 40 minutes for free.
Um, classes.
And so I was like all right,we're going to start this class.
Just a heads up everyone.
Uh, zoom is going to time outat 40 minutes, so in the middle
of the class we're're all gonnaend up hopping off and hopping
(11:24):
back on.
It was like a logisticalnightmare and impacts the client
experience and all this stuff,and it wasn't until later on.
I'm like you know what this isnot like.
Paying for a subscription likethis or paying for a crm or
paying for coaching like thesearen't expenses, because it
helps the business run, it helpshelps the client experience.
(11:45):
And once I understood that, Istarted swinging to the other
side of the pendulum.
We're like I need to spend oneverything and so I was getting
a little bit of both Right, butkind of that.
Like you said, how we grow upwith money impacts how we treat
it Right.
If money was a point ofcontention with our parents,
they didn't talk about it rightperhaps, whenever you start your
(12:07):
business, you're like, likehorse binders.
Yeah, like we're just we're justdoing the business and we'll.
Whatever happens with thefinances, happens with the
finances, um, and that keepspeople from looking at their
books or even getting abookkeeper and things like that.
And I feel like those points tojust have your personal finance
(12:29):
I mean your business financesuper accessible and easy to
interact with makes thatexperience less scary.
So, no matter where you are onthe spectrum, there are
absolutely tools and strategiesyou can use so that personal
finance becomes less stressfuland just easier.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Right and see, this
is why I think people should
look at getting a money coachbecause of that.
Because, look at it, you don'tknow what my upbringing is, you
don't know how I think or whatare my thoughts.
Are You're going to look at howdo I make this person
successful?
That's why I encourage peopleget consultants, get coaches.
Now you can vet them, butthey're good and like, say in
case, with you being a moneycoach, you could actually bring
(13:07):
attention to someone and letthem know that, ok, you're just
being cheap, you know, and itneeds to be someone to say that.
And I love the fact that youput process in place to help
them to build based where theyare.
Because everybody, I guess,looks at money differently and I
guess it's our background andwhat we go through, but all of
(13:28):
us start a business.
That's one thing we have incommon.
We all start a business, but wedon't deal with that part.
So I'm really like you being onour show, but we also, which we
promote and encourage people toreach out to you, because of
that, of that said, it actuallystops them from growing.
I mean, that's what webasically see.
So let me go on to the nextquestion because we got a lot of
(13:49):
questions.
They got lined up for you Ifyou could tell me what's the
biggest money mistake you seenew entrepreneurs make and how
can they avoid it.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
So I was kind of
alluding to this For me.
I had no business experience.
I was actually very reluctantto spend money on myself, and so
that showed when I started thebusiness.
I didn't want to spend onupgraded Zoom, I didn't want to
pay money for a website.
I was just using a free websiteand free everything with
(14:22):
watermarks and all that stuff.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
You're the poster
child for this.
That's why you so adamant likedo not be like me, do not be
like me.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
And so same thing
with, like maybe the most I
would spend is like on a couplebooks or something, or an audio
book or YouTube videos orwhatever.
And I just thought, like I needto be able to run this business
spending as little cash aspossible.
But I didn't realize that therewas really a difference between
an expense and an investment.
And so the biggest moneymistake is, like I was so
(14:52):
hesitant to invest in myself andinvest in the business that I
kept it from growth for a whole,you know, year or whatever.
Right, I was just trying to doeverything the freeway and I
didn't realize that when you'reinvesting whether like for I'll
just take coaching, for exampleum, I was super hesitant to even
commit to any kind of coachingprogram and then, once I was in
(15:14):
it, I realized the value thatcoaching gave me wasn't
knowledge necessarily, but it'sall the time that these coaches
spent making mistakes.
They crunch that into the toplessons and essentially bring
that time forward.
So if I like me investingbasically, uh, like a time skip,
right, I'm getting wisdom andknowledge from people who've
(15:36):
already made the mistakes, andthat's that's what I do with
money, right, like I made a heckton of money mistakes when I
bought a house, when I'veinvested in things or when I've
got debt on like depreciatingassets and things like that.
And I'm like, hey, here are allthe barriers you're probably
facing or about to face.
Let's avoid that so you don'twaste to 1015 years of your life
(16:00):
.
And same thing with thebusiness.
Like I'm, I can't even say howmuch time I wasted, but if like,
let's just, for example, let'ssay a year, like if I could have
missed out on a year ofmistakes or just being cheap, I
didn't spend money, I spent timeRight.
(16:20):
And so if you're spending moneyto save you time, which is more
valuable and I think it'spretty clear, especially as we
get older and as we get busierour time is so, so valuable, and
so whatever investment you canmake in your business to crunch
that time forward, to acceleratethat process, is like it's what
(16:40):
you got to do, right?
Speaker 2 (16:41):
That's what I say I
mean it's worth it and and think
and I love this because you'retalking to a lot of new business
because and this is what I wantto say even I experienced when
you have to understand we mentorcause I mentor a group as well
too, and I do business coach.
You're right that that partyou're saying a lot of beginning
people have those issues andthey don't even know how to deal
(17:02):
with it.
So I think that's really great.
And what you're saying is thatyou're paying for 26 years of
experience in a week course or atwo day course and it's worth
it.
And you're right, for all themistakes and stuff that you make
, that's something a lot ofincluding you consultants do we
show you.
If we have a proven record ofactually being in business so
(17:23):
many years, it is so much stuffwe can save you that you don't
even have to begin to hit if youknow about it.
I hadn't thought about howcheap we may be starting out,
that we might not think to getthat, but you brought a good
point and I think we all need topay attention to that and kind
of do a check with ourselves andsee where we're at.
Let's go with our next questionwhat does it look like when
(17:50):
someone brings their employee oh, I really want to hear you talk
about this what does it looklike when someone brings their
employee money mindset intotheir business?
How do you shift out of that?
Speaker 3 (17:59):
Yeah, I love this
question because this was me
right.
Like I grew up, like in typicalAsian American household, you
just go to.
You go to school to get adegree, to get a really good job
nine to five, whatever, rightRight and get you a stable
income so you can take care ofyour life.
This employee mindset is sobased on security and like
(18:23):
consistency, which is not a badthing.
But the thing with owning abusiness and being an
entrepreneur, you realize likethere is so much risk that you
have to take, like you're tryingnew things, you're testing
products, you're testing pricingand all these things, and like
part of being a business ownerand where you can get that
outsized return is the risk youtake.
(18:46):
And with that, like from abusiness owner perspective, we
really have to weigh like whichrisks are worth taking Right,
which opportunities should wepursue, which streams of income
would really make sense for ourbusiness.
And so we have to do thisongoing prioritization of like
(19:08):
where should our money go?
Because our money can go to 10different areas.
Like for my money coachingbusiness, I could have like
launched a course and went allin on that, or YouTube channel
and do sponsorships instead, orworkshops, or all these, like 10
different things I could havedone.
But the real value that, thereal opportunity we have as
(19:31):
business owners, is weighing allthose options and taking the
risk, and that's where you canget a lot of growth that you
wouldn't otherwise get in anemployee mindset where it's just
like I'm trading my time formoney, that's all it is.
But as just like I'm trading mytime for money, that's all it
is.
But as business owners we'replanting seeds in different
areas and we don't know if thoseseeds will sprout for sure.
And so finding whatever bestseed, best soil, and optimizing
(19:59):
those opportunities so thathopefully, that tree or that
vine will give all the fruit,that's where we can experience
the positive side of that.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Okay, and I think
you're right on that.
So it's just again, like you'resaying, we have to realize
business and personal isdifferent, even though we have
to take the time to find thatout.
So the next question I havewould be how can a business
owner balance reinvest?
So the question next question Ihave would be how can a
business owner balancereinvesting in the business but
then, at the same time, stillpaying themselves?
(20:31):
How would we do that?
Speaker 3 (20:33):
So I guess it depends
on the situation, right, we
have some business owners thatare full in on the business it's
their main thing and we alsohave our like side hustle, like
entrepreneurs, where we got ourmain jobs and we're building the
business on the side.
And now, in order to even knowhow much to pay yourself from
the business, you got to knowwhat you're spending each month.
Right, I've seen people who arepaying themselves $5,000 a
(20:58):
month for personal finance stuffand they live in way excess of
of that and it's like, well,your personal finances are
taking a hit even though yourbusiness finances aren't.
And then vice versa, um, where,like, you're overpaying
yourself from the business butthen there's nothing left in the
business, and so, um, thedelicate balance is like once
(21:18):
you know your, the delicatebalance is like once you know
your expenses, then getting theincome from your business to
your personal finance stuff willbe a lot clearer.
So if you're earning 15K inyour business after taxes or
whatever, and you can live offof $3,000 a month, cool, I mean,
(21:40):
I'm a huge advocate for earlybusiness owners.
If you can reinvest in yourbusiness as much as possible,
then do that, because that thosefirst three to four years of
business are like a big upfrontinvestment, both time and money.
Yeah, and so if you canreinvest sooner so that you can
experience the growth sooner,then maybe your personal finance
(22:02):
will just have to not be sowhat's the word?
So much Like you're not likespending so much and you're not
like living the life and takingall the trips.
So, yeah, and really when youreinvest in the business, it's
got to be top priority stuff,like what are the things I
(22:22):
reinvest that will actually giveme money?
So, for example, I spent a heckton of time, spent some money
on developing a website and Irealized that, like nowadays,
like a website is important tohave as, like, a presence, but
it doesn't always equatedirectly to money, right, the
thing for me that equated tomoney is getting someone on the
(22:43):
screen to have a conversationwith me and so that looks like
you know, doing outreaches,creating content to engage with
people and things like that.
And so identifying those toppriority areas, just like how
the ROI right Return on ourinvestment.
Can we get money into thebusiness with this investment or
(23:05):
is it a nice to have, like alogo redesign, you know?
Speaker 2 (23:08):
may not be the first
thing you should put money into
right starting off with yourbusiness, and so you're giving
good points and I'm a and itmade me think about when I
started, because I've been inbusiness for over like 27 years.
My first years of business wasexactly like you said uh, how
yours were.
I was basing it on myperception of money value and I
also ran into the problem whereI was having a business.
(23:32):
I wasn't working anywhere elseat the point because the
business kind of took off, butthen it's paying myself and then
I didn't know how to beconsistent in paying myself.
That's why I think it's reallyimportant to have a money coach
like you.
I don't know if they were backthen or not, they probably were.
But I think the fact thatyou're here and I know I
recommend to some of my clientsI've already recommended you to
(23:52):
them, they've reached out to youthat you're going to help them
with the mindset of where are wesupposed to be with money,
because all we have, teddy, asbusiness owners, is what we've
heard from somebody else.
Honestly, and I think moneycoach is what you need to have
if you're going to start anybusiness.
If you haven't started onebefore, I say you need a money
(24:13):
coach so they can tell you thedifference, where you can learn
the difference.
I mean, would you agree that'ssomething that you run into,
where they might not know thedifference between the personal
and business, like you said?
Speaker 3 (24:28):
take it and just use
it.
If the in there, I just can useit, right, yeah.
So, oh my goodness, some of myvery first clients, um, he
didn't realize he was a business, like he was working for
himself um buying and sellingcar parts or whatever.
But he didn't treat it like abusiness.
It was all enmeshed um personalfinances coming out of the same
account as business finances.
No bookkeeping, not payingtaxes and it's like no, just
(24:50):
because you don't have an LLC orwhatever, you're earning income
as a business, right.
And so in order for your taxes,you got to know what's a
business expense and what's apersonal.
And yeah, and this is didn'tmean to jump forward, but like
one of the I know the nextquestion is like one of those
(25:10):
must do tasks for businesses islike having those things
separate so that you know youkeep your, keep it all organized
Right.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
Okay, so that's the.
That's the one where you writemy question is what are the two
and threes must do money tasksfor someone who just launched a
business?
So that's the one where youwrite.
My question is what are the twoand threes must do money tasks
for someone who just launched abusiness?
So that's what you're talking.
So go ahead and lean into thatso we can know what that is.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
Yeah, so kind of
elaborate on like separating,
even though all of it like, forexample, your new business owner
, your by yourself solopreneur,whatever it is like, it'll feel
like they're, they're both youraccounts, personal and business.
But the value of separatingthat one like you legally kind
of have to in order to like fileyour taxes right um but two
(25:52):
like it organizes.
All right, here's the income I'mgetting from my business and
whatever net profit I could paymyself out.
Now you're like, here is mypersonal income and I'll budget
that this way, I'll budget thebusiness finances this way, and
so having that separationmentally has helped me so much
to not like continue pouringpersonal money into the business
(26:13):
as opposed to like like usingbusiness money to run business.
You know what I mean right,right and um, just also knowing
that, like I don't, I don't, Ican't just like pull out
whenever, and you know, call ita tax deduction, right, right
right, and that's the way thisshould be right yeah this is
like I mean scott, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
I'm sorry I won't
break your.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
Go ahead oh yeah, I
mean yeah, really.
I'm just saying, yeah, thebiggest, the biggest thing is
separating the personal andbusiness finances, um, but at
the same time, like they end uphaving separate budgets and
separate plans and so knowingthose plans, even if it's not
down to like a dollar or cents,I would say the two money tasks
(27:05):
and you know them too, that wework with that, have worked with
that.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
They are stressing so
bad about their business money
and their personal money thatthey don't even know how to
begin to separate it.
They don't even know a lot ofthat.
It is a separation, you know.
So I guess my question is thathow do you because that's
emotional, you know, when yougot rent and all this stuff
doing, then you have this comingin, then you got payroll and
all it's just emotional.
You know, when you got rent andall this stuff doing, then you
have this coming in, then yougot payroll and all that.
(27:27):
It's just emotional thing.
So how do you talk?
I know you talked aboutemotional spending, but how does
that show up in business sopeople can know that's emotional
spending?
Speaker 3 (27:35):
Yeah.
So what I find this is mysocial work background coming
into the play.
We can respond a few ways tostress, no matter what kind of
stress.
It is relational business, justangry, whatever.
So the fight or flight I thinkmost people are aware of is that
(27:59):
like run and fight mentality oflike I just am really going to
take control and get angry, orwhatever.
Flight is just avoid problems.
Freezing is just thatexperience of feeling like you
don't know what to do next, andfawning is like people pleasing
and just like catering to otherpeople.
Like people pleasing and justlike catering to other people.
(28:22):
And so when it comes to any ofthese responses, like we all
kind of lean one way or theother.
But emotional spending is oftenused as a coping skill for
stress.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
So, the.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
The four kind of
emotions that I call out for
people for opportunities.
Where they are more likely toemotionally spend are if they're
hungry, angry, lonely or tired,and so when it comes up, and
only and when it comes up inbusiness, like it, we've all
experienced it.
(28:57):
When we have low revenue orwhatever like, we have that like
or whatever Like, we have thatlike desperation, like I just
need something now.
Like I, whatever opportunitycomes up, that thought process
in our prefrontal cortex doesn'tfunction as well when we're
stressed, and so if we're ableto have a process to like a
tangible process to thinkthrough money decisions, it
(29:19):
takes a lot of the emotion outof it.
And so, for example, one of thethings I really do to avoid
emotional spending is like isthis investment or purchase for
the business going to havedirect outcomes in revenue?
Or like whatever the goal isrevenue, brand building, like
engagement, whatever it is, andif not, I have to hit pause on
(29:43):
it.
And this is kind of like anaside or kind of like a plug
where I made an impulsivepurchase decision maker tool.
It's like seven questions andit gives you kind of an idea of
like is this purchase reallyneeded?
And I've actually used thatmyself after I developed it a
couple times.
So here's another story.
(30:04):
I had an opportunity to investin the business and like $1,500
to get some interns like connectwith interns who could help me
with digital marketing andwhatever.
I'm like, ooh, this $1,500 aday, it's like a real steal.
Essentially, I'm paying like $3an hour for someone to help me
with my business and all thatstuff.
I put it through the impulsivepurchase decision maker and it
(30:27):
basically told me you know,teddy, you should probably think
a little more on this.
You can't just drop, you know,1.5 G's on on this opportunity,
even though it's like superexciting and whatever.
And so I kind of like I rolledit back and I was talking to my
business coach and he was like,yeah, teddy, I mean it's a great
deal, but like they don't tellyou about all the hidden costs
(30:50):
that are there, such as liketraining and developing these
interns, the cost of liketransitioning to new interns and
all this stuff.
I'm like you know what manyou're right, right, I've
thought about it and that's whatwe need.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
That's awesome that
you have that type of tool.
Now, is that something you usewith your clients as well?
You offer that to them to useit as well?
Speaker 3 (31:13):
Yeah, so I have the
tool on my website, but it's
also easily accessible in ouronline community.
But, yeah, use it for anybusiness or personal decision,
because, at the end of the day,you make decisions the same way
because you're a person, right,we all have emotions, we all
have all that stuff, and so,yeah, it's a free tool to use
(31:35):
and it's helped me with like, Iput it together about two weeks
ago and I've used it for about10 different purchases already.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Right and it works
with what we'll do.
And just in the middle of justsaying this, we will definitely
have you on our website, guys,we definitely want to check them
out.
We're going to continue with afew more questions, but I do
want to break in to say thatTeddy will be on our site at
wwwtdjequityllcnet.
He's be one of our partners, sodefinitely you guys can go
(32:03):
there, click on it and you cango to his site and schedule
appointment and you can kind ofget with them.
So I want to throw that inthere real quick, teddy.
So let's continue with the nextquestion.
So the next one is this oh, mygoodness and I've heard it so
many times when someone says I'mnot good with money or in
business, I don't want to knowmy goodness.
And I've heard it so many times.
When someone says I'm not goodwith money or in business, I
don't want to know my numbers.
(32:24):
I don't know numbers.
What do you wish they knewinstead?
Speaker 3 (32:31):
I think the idea of
being good with money looks a
certain like it.
It's historically been painteda certain way that the person
who's best at saving moneyequally like it means that
they're good with money.
But we know a bunch of cheappeople who are not great with
money.
Um, I have a family member.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
Daddy's supposed to
say frugal, but they cheat.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
I'm with you like
even people who have a heck ton
of financial knowledge, itdoesn't mean they're good with
money.
Like good with money is allabout like, how do you actually
behave with your money when,like, responding to stress
spending decisions and thingslike that.
And so I'll tell you a storyabout, um, we'll just say a
family member or a friend or theserious person in my life, um,
(33:16):
where, like he's an accountant,he does business finances all
the time Super frugal, likeunhealthy frugal, but at the
same time, like waste a lot ofmoney.
Day trading.
Like you know it's like you saveall this money and like get the
cheapest deals on food andwhatever, and then blow 500K in
(33:36):
the stock market.
Like would you say, just becausethey know a lot of things about
money and they spend money well, like for personal finance
stuff, spend very little, doesthat make them good with money?
I would debate, not necessarily.
And so where I see the value inbeing good with money is
knowing how to prioritizecertain areas of your life and
(33:57):
putting money towards thoseareas and not wasting money in
other places like unusedsubscriptions, just like
convenient spending, even ifit's not adding value.
And so the practice of beinggood with either personal or
business finances is knowinglike where is the most effective
place I can put this moneyRight.
(34:18):
So for new business owners,sometimes that most effective
place is further development inyou as a business owner or
marketing, because no one knowsabout your business Right.
You think that you post all thetime People know, but they don't
.
And so putting it in thoseareas to really drive the
business would be likepriorities.
And same thing with personal Ifyou're spending money in your
(34:42):
relationships, in your health,in your wellness, with the
conveniences of life that youreally recognize.
If they're not there, thengreat, but you still have to
make sure to save in the areasthat don't matter.
So for me it's like if I'moverpaying for insurance or if
I'm, um, like buying name brandstuff when I don't really need
(35:06):
to, like cutting back in thoseareas don't affect my life or
affect it a lot less.
And so, yeah, like I said,being able to prioritize those
personal values, those businessvalues and putting money more
towards that is just an ongoingpractice of prioritization and
that I feel like that's whatbeing good with money looks like
(35:26):
.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
Right, you're right,
and that makes a lot of sense
compared to us just thinking wehear people good on some things,
but then, you're right, youlook at how they spend it on
other things.
It doesn't mean it has money,it's all about priority.
So I like that.
I hadn't thought of that, butyou're right, that's exactly how
that is.
So what role do systems, habitsand environment play in
(35:48):
managing your business financeas well?
Speaker 3 (35:52):
So a lot of my
perspective on this comes from
my background in social work andaddiction recovery, and some of
the most important things welearn in social work school, in
like mental health and addictionrecovery, is that we draw a lot
from our environment and thepeople we're around.
And so, for example, like withme, I like to eat chips.
(36:15):
Like give me a family size bagof chips and I'll eat it in one
sitting, but knowing me like nothaving that bag of chip there,
then I won't eat it.
And so really, what that is outlike illustrating is that if we
can construct our environmentphysically, emotionally,
mentally, in our relationshipsthen we can better promote
(36:41):
healthy habits when it comes tomoney.
So automating savings is anexample of changing your
environment, so that you're nothaving to proactively think I
need to move money here, I needto move money here, it just
happens.
Or cutting up excess creditcards where it's like do you
really need five credit cards?
Cutting up excess credit cardswhere it's like do you really
(37:31):
need five credit cards?
Maybe not.
Speaker 2 (37:32):
Maybe you can do just
one business focus that in your
systems and all that stuff.
So like that minimalism typeaspect to things, right, you
know and so.
But you, you can come in andhelp a business owner, even
somebody personally, because Ithink we talked about it if you
need help personally, you canhelp them with that.
But you can also help abusiness owner kind of get the
money coach for us gettingeverything laid out, where they
will simplify, because we don't,we don't simplify anything and
(37:52):
that's the problem.
So I think that means, butthat's where you can come in and
help with that as well.
They book time with you, right?
Speaker 3 (37:59):
Right, yeah, like one
of the biggest things I see is
just that we have a whole bunch.
We're juggling a lot as abusiness owner in our personal
life and we're like jugglingrelationships, personal
relationships, professionalrelationships, accounts and all
these things, and if we're ableto streamline that or have
someone help us streamline that,it relieves so much anxiety.
(38:21):
For example, for me a changethat I literally made in the
business these past couplemonths was just streamlining the
client journey from likemeeting me to possibly signing
one-to-one coaching, and for meI had like all these service
options and directing themdifferent places and that was
chaotic for me and I'm like I'mstressed out about business,
(38:43):
then I'm stressing about thismoney, structure, stuff and once
I kind of simplified thatprocess of client goes from
knowing me to either followingme or joining my group and then
from there they have a series ofsteps to funnel down to the
part of informed buyer orwhatever, and so like that's
helped me relieve a series ofsteps to funnel down to the part
of informed buyer or whatever.
And so like that's helped merelieve a lot of stress.
(39:04):
Same thing with my personallife finding areas to make it
simpler has, you know, got a lotof that stress off my shoulders
so that I could think clearer,so I can react better.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
Right, and that's
what we need.
So simplicity is definitelythat.
So let's look at this and mylast little question, even
though we don't keep talking,but my last question is what's
one small action someone couldtake today to feel more in
control of their money as abusiness owner?
Speaker 3 (39:34):
So I would say the
small action that we really need
to consider is setting the goal, like three to six month goal,
so that we know whatopportunities to say yes to and
what opportunities to say no to.
And the reason why I say thatis because, kind of like I was
saying before, we can go down 10different paths with our
(39:56):
business and it's easy to sayyes to all of them and then,
before we know, we're spreadthin on both our time and our
money.
But if we have a goal, like forme, for example, is to grow
this online community, I knowthat all the other opportunities
that don't grow that onlinecommunity are not the best use
of my money.
And same thing with thepersonal finance.
(40:17):
If my goal is to pay off debt,then let me focus all the things
to pay off debt where, like,sell things, I'm not using side
income, go straight to the debtinstead of being like, let me do
5% towards this debt, 5%towards my kids savings, 2% here
, and then, like, scattershot itand it's like then we don't
(40:38):
feel any progress and we justfeel like all this is for
nothing.
But one of the psychology tricksor psychology frameworks that I
really focus on are positivefeedback loops and so, as we're
experiencing wins andexperiencing progress, then
we'll want to keep doing itright.
So those small actions towardsthose one or two goals will
(41:01):
really help reinforce like oh,this is working, I actually can
do this.
And a parallel that I draw allthe time is with the weight loss
world.
So most people, if they can atleast see that they lose the
weight in the first like week ortwo weeks, lose five pounds
(41:21):
even if it's just water, likejust seeing that progress
motivates them and it's thispositive feedback loop if I can
do this, I can do this.
And so, um yeah, having theright direction, taking
strategic small steps in thatdirection to see the progress,
is what builds a snowball forfinancial success financial
stuff.
Speaker 2 (41:41):
Okay, well, that
sounds pretty good.
So what all your before we getout of here, what everything you
kind of dealt with, um, anddealing with the business owners
.
Now you gave us like some smallum, some some actions that they
can take.
But what would you like to giveme a couple of things you would
like business owners to knowwhen it comes to actually
(42:01):
seeking money, coaching, gettingone, and why.
Speaker 3 (42:07):
It really depends on
the aspect of money coaching
that they're looking for.
So, for example, there areplenty of people who have great
businesses Financially they'regreat but their home finances
are a wreck, whether it'sbecause of spousal problems,
divorce or whatever.
I think knowing, kind of havingan idea of like picking that
(42:29):
problem that you're trying tofix, is really important to know
like which money coach evenreach out to.
For example, on the businessside, I had someone reach out to
me and really they didn't needa money coach, they needed an
attorney, like a tax attorney oran accountant or you know
someone else, and really like, Ithink the value we also have as
(42:51):
money coaches.
We're kind of like a broker ofservices or like a referral
network.
It's like, oh, you don'tactually need me, you need this
other person, you need abookkeeper, you need a daily
money manager, and so, um, Ithink a first start just having
a conversation with someone toknow that next step, if you
don't already know it.
Speaker 2 (43:10):
I think that's where
money coaching, not to break you
off, so you can.
Can you help us with the nextstep, like if we call you to
kind of work with us and you seeit going somewhere else, can
you refer us out?
You know, if you see thatsomething can go out.
Speaker 3 (43:23):
Yeah.
So typically I have my ownnetwork of people that I trust.
So financial advisors,accountants and things like that
where I'm like, hey, I'm notthe best fit for you, I know.
So like here's someone Iactually trust with, like my
either personal stuff or otherclients have got good results
from them.
And then we kind of just makethat transition so that the
(43:45):
experience for the client ispretty smooth.
But if it does come tosomething like for me, for
example, I do a lot of moneymindset and spending behavior
stuff and like, hey, we'remaking great money, we have no
idea where it's going.
That's my expertise.
And then I also have like someother money coaches who really
specialize in student loans orwho specialize in money and
(44:09):
marriage or retirement, and so,yeah, I think a good money coach
will know when to say no andwhen to say yes.
Because when I first started Iwas like, let me just help
everyone.
Let me help everyone from the18-year-old graduating high
school to the 75-year-old livingon social security.
Speaker 2 (44:30):
You're going to do it
all.
Speaker 3 (44:32):
And so, yeah, a money
coach isn't the right like a
specific money coach isn't theright fit for every person.
The right like a specific moneycoach isn't the right fit for
every person.
But just having an honestconversation to know, like all
right, what do these coacheshelp with?
What do I need help with?
Is that aligned Great?
If it's not, then hopefully getyou connected with someone
(44:53):
who's a better fit.
Speaker 2 (44:54):
Right there to do it.
Okay, well, that is so great.
Well, first of all, I want todefinitely thank you for coming
out.
You did so well and thank youfor the information, so we love
having you here.
Is there anything you want tosay to the audience for the last
before we end the show fortoday?
Speaker 3 (45:11):
Well, I just
appreciate this time I know I
was rambling in some partsbecause I myself am, like you
know, getting all this stuff tooLike we're all growing in our
business, no matter what stagewe're in, and so I think that's
also hopefully a reassuringthing that, no matter if you're
one year in or five years in,it's okay to keep adjusting and
(45:33):
keep learning and keep adapting.
Really, my key takeaway withthis that I hope, um the
listener or the viewer if you'rewatching on youtube gets, is
that, um, you're, you'rebuilding a business not to make
money.
You're, you're building yourdream with it.
Like what's, what's the thingafter the money that you're
(45:55):
really working towards?
Is it truly a passion with thebusiness, or is it freedom from
a nine to five cycle?
Whatever it is, and just don'tlose sight of that and just look
at numbers right.
Like for me with this business,I would do this if I didn't get
paid for it.
I love doing collaborations likethis I love helping people with
(46:16):
personal finances and like thisis the thing that I want to
keep focusing on Obviously, Ineed money to run personal
finances and like this is thething that I want to keep
focusing on.
Obviously, I need money to runthis thing, and so that's what
it's for.
So just stay focused to yourvalues, your priorities, and be
strategic with what you say yesto but, even more so important,
what to say no to to get thatlife that you're really after.
Speaker 2 (46:38):
Right, all right,
well said, mr Teddy, thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for beinghere and I'd like to thank you
all for joining us as well.
Like this and other ones thatwe do at Giving Power to the
Business Owner.
It will be on our TDJ EquityFunding Insiders channel and we
invite you all to go.
Please like, share, comment andlet us know what you really
(47:03):
think about this type of show.
But until next time, we willsee you the next time.
Y'all have a good day and agreat, great evening.
Rest of the week.
Thank you, bye-bye.
Speaker 1 (47:15):
We hope you enjoyed
this episode of TDJ Equity
Funding Insiders Podcast.
If you'd like to be a guest orget in touch with us, please
visit our website attdjequityllcnet.
Forward slash podcast or emailus at podcast at
tdjequityfundinginsidersnet.
Until next time, take care.