Financial Education & Practical Wisdom For Your Personal Brand
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Financial education with strong financial literacy isn't taught in school.
Bear market vs. bull. Financial planning, budgeting, figuring out how to make money online, passive income.
We live in a hustle culture and as a personal brand in this creator economy, navigating the basics of business management is overwhelming enough.
With inflation on the rise, having financial confidence that you'll be able to achieve financial independence or, better yet, fire and achieve financial independence retire early might feel way out of reach.
Finances and investing can be intimidating and confusing, but it doesn't have to be.
With practical wisdom and deciding to invest in yourself, you can confidently and smartly grow your money and your personal brand with ease.
Many people think they know what they're talking about, but most have no idea what they're doing when it comes to building wealth.
The only way for someone to become successful at something, especially when it comes to making money, is by being willing to learn from others who have done it before them - which is precisely why I'm making this episode for you.
In my early 20's I tortured myself by diligently studying to become a certified financial advisor. I successfully passed my series 7 and series 66 exams. I was then given the green light in Corporate America to advise others on leveraging mutual funds to manage and grow their money.
But embarrassingly enough, I was up to my eyeballs in credit card debt and student loan debt at the time.
I accepted the role of financial advisor because…
1. I wanted to do better financially
2. I genuinely wanted to help others build financial wealth
Now the job itself as a certified financial advisor was incredibly taxing.
I was tethered to my desk, forced to take call after call, with little additional finance training beyond passing my essential exams.
The stress of trying to help others build wealth while I was still secretly underwater made me physically ill.
Back then, I believed that if I worked hard and focused on making more money, picking up extra work hours, I'd become wealthy.
Well, that was until I spoke to this client.
Meet Kevin.
Kevin is a pediatrician married, homeowner making $258,750 annually. He had a $1.2M home, jet skis, Boxter Porsche; you name it.
Kevin was wealthy A.F. and living the American dream from the outside looking in.
Just minutes into our initial meeting, he broke down in tears and revealed to me how he and his wife eagerly wanted to start a family of their own but were drowning in Debt with no life raft in sight.
Now keep in mind that I was making $50,000 a year, advising professionals like Kevin who were making at least 5x the amount I was.
Who was also dangerously in Debt?
This was my wake-up call.
Yes, having an income is essential, but making more money isn't the answer to building wealth.
Frustrated and burnout I quit my job in pursuit of discovering the secret to building true and lasting wealth on all planes of life.
A few years later, I discovered the secret to building financial wealth by happenstance.
It was simple, practical wisdom, it was something I'd heard before, and at first, I didn't believe that it would work for me.
But once I put it into practice, the results were incredible!
Within a few months, my debts were paid off, I had a 6-month emergency fund, and I had started building real financial wealth.
Today my life is entirely different. My family and I are debt-free and well on our way to achieving financial independence.
This is what I want for you as well.
While back in the day, I understood investing on a higher level than most and was gainfully employed by a reputable Fortune 500 company.
Because I didn't implement the basics, I honestly knew jack squat. Knowing something and doing something are different.
The moral of the story, be mindful of who you're taking advice from. Even though someone might meet the credentials, it doesn't mean they're qualified.
My years as a certified financial advisor were nearly 15 years ago.
I've learned a lot since then.
And I'm hoping that you can learn from your mistakes and implement the practical advice I'm about to share with you. But with any advice you hear, have discernment, take the pieces that you believe will propel you forward, and leave the rest behind.
I'm no longer a certified financial advisor, just a woman who's figured a few things out, and I'm here to share with you what worked for me.
There are two ways to build financial wealth
Work for your money
Have your money work for you
The secret to building financial wealth can be broken down into three simple steps
Eradicate Debt
Create MSIs
Invest
Now I want to spend the next few minutes breaking each one of these down and sharing practical wisdom with you so that you can boost your financial confidence and begin building wealth with ease because the number one thing to squash your personal brand success is financial stress.
Eradicating Debt
Eradicating Debt needs to be your priority. I know it's not sexy or easy to live within your means, but it is necessary if you want to build lasting financial wealth and become financially independent.
You work hard for your money. Now it's time to give yourself the chance to have your money work hard for you.
Generating MSIs and investing is how you begin to take charge of your financial future, but you can't do that with peace of mind until you become debt-free.
Step 1 - on pen and paper, pull up your bank account statements and track every dollar that comes in versus that goes out in a month, your monthly lifestyle expenses.
Step 2 - list all outstanding debt balances from smallest to largest because when it comes time to pay them down, I want you to chop them off from top to bottom
Step 3 - put a plan in place to stop the leaks.
Get hold of your finances by cutting back or eliminating the non-essentials and focus on paying off your debts.
For me, this meant cutting up my credit cards, saying no thank you to eating out with friends or taking last-minute trips, making do with the clothes I had in my closet vs. going to buy a new outfit for the latest event, and going D.I.Y. on mani-pedis.
Not fun.
It was an uncomfortable season of my life, but looking back and seeing where I was financially then compared to where I am financially now, it was worth it, and I wish I'd done it sooner.
Create a debt eradication plan and stick to it. Once you do, you can also give yourself permission to stop thinking about Debt and begin thinking about wealth.
Because what you think about is what you bring about.
And we're wealth builders, so let's think wealth.
2. Create MSIs
Having a steady 9-to-5 paycheck is excellent, even if you currently despise your gig. For many of us, necessary to keep the lights on and food in the fridge, especially when you're first getting your personal brand launched.
There is no shame in trading your time for money. I want you to also think about intelligent ways you can begin to create another stream of income or two.
For me, the answer came via creating digital courses and self-published books.
Over the years, I've used The P.I.P. Method, a strategy I've coined and taught others.
The P.I.P. Method stands for proving it's profitable. It is a strategy that allows you to pre-sell an idea to a prospect or group of prospects and get paid to turn that idea into multiple income streams.
Using the P.I.P. method, I've personally created eight streams of income for my household.
Some of which are a trickle of cash flow each month and others a steady stream and the occasional tidal wave.
Now, I focus my time on helping people like you turn your expertise into automated passive income streams inside the Legacy leaders Academy.
There are many, many ways to create MSIs. Digital courses and self-published books are what works for me, giving me the freedom to work from home.
3. Investing
Investing, simply put, is a way to grow your money over time by putting your money to use that eventually produces a return.
The ultimate goal is to diversify your money into various vehicles that will drive more money into your bank account.
Often investing is marketed as a way to save for retirement. That's all well and good, but let's be honest. Many of us have a hard time thinking about what's to come next week, let alone decades from now. Making retirement feel like a far-off dream doesn't motivate us to take action today.
At least it did for me. In my early 20s, as a newlywed, I knew the importance of investing but could not comprehend the tangible effects of not doing so and how that would impact my future children.
Today, as a mama of two, I see things much differently.
Instead of focusing on retirement, I'm focused on building my money machine so that if I so choose to retire (aka not work), I can.
Or if I wish to gift my children with financial assets to help them build their money machines so that fast forward they don't have to stress and struggle in a future 9to5 job they hate to make ends meet.
That's my current focus and why I choose to achieve financial independence.
How do you start investing?
Before investing in financial securities, you must do step #1 and eradicate Debt by taking inventory of your assets.
Part of the secret to growing your money isn't to make more of it but rather to hold onto more of what you have.
A wise person doesn't begin to invest their money until they are debt-free.
Otherwise, it's like trying to build a skyscraper on quicksand; the whole thing will sink faster than it can be made.
Once you've achieved a solid foundation. Ie. Debt-free and living below your means, now you can begin to invest in financial securities such as:
Mutual funds
stocks,
bonds,
Stock options
ETFs
These securities can be housed inside a regular brokerage account, trust, 401k, or Roth I.R.A. And typically, you want to shoot for investing at least 15% of every dollar you earn.
But don't let any of this is overwhelm or scare you.
If you're not ready to navigate the financial investing world, then THE BEST plan you can and should invest your money is in YOU.
You're higher education.
You can do this through reading books, tuning into podcasts or youtube videos like this one, working with a mentor, etc.
Investing in myself has been the NUMBER ONE way I've grown my money over the last decade.
Where in my early 20's, working as. Certified financial advisor, I was earning $50,000/year.
Today that's how much I earn from (1) V.I.P. client whom I speak to for 60 minutes 2-4 times a month. While simultaneously, I have my digital courses and self-published books earning me income on automatic pushing my annual making over the 6-figure mark working less than 20 hours per week.
And I wouldn't have been able to do it if I hadn't invested my time and money into mentors, books, and online programs.
On average, for every $1 I've invested into myself; I earned back $7 or more.
To recap, the secret to growing your money this year and beyond is by:
Eradicate Debt
Create MSIs
Invest In Yourself
None of which would have been possible for me to achieve if I hadn't worked with a mentor and surrounded myself with like-minded wealth builders.
The inspiration for me was to found the Legacy Leaders Academy and community.
If you're ready to build true wealth, then I'd like to invite you to do the same by joining us by becoming an official Legacy Leader, by visiting becomealegacyleader.com today.