Achieve Financial Freedom with Candy Valentino

Thank you for tuning in to the True Grit and Grace podcast. I'm Amberly Lago, and I'll be sharing inspirational stories of resilience and empowering ideas to elevate your business and your life, ignite your passion, and fuel your purpose. Hey, y'all, thank you so much for tuning in to True Grit and Grace because I have one of my, like, most absolute favorite, most inspirational female entrepreneurs. And I say female, but I should just say entrepreneurs because seriously, she inspires me so much with all that she does. She's got a new book. It's called Wealth Habits. I have it right here. Candy Valentino is with us and she has seriously cracked The code of wealthy and breaking it down to share it with us today. So she's got so much to share, and she really shows you how the think to get rich philosophy will only get you so far. But you have to do to become wealthy. I had the honor of speaking at her event, the Self Made Summit. It was incredible, and I could just see her like tribe of people that love her and how she's changed their lives.

She.

She owns so many businesses, but she helps others with theirs to have a wealthy life and is doing so much good in the world. You guys have to check her book out. I'm actually buying her book for every single person in my mastermind. It's that incredible. So, Candy, thank you so much for being here on the podcast. I know you are in high demand, and for me to get to have you here and get to talk to you for a little bit, I do not take that lightly.

Thank you.

honored to have you. So thank you.

Oh, thank you, Amberly, for having me and for coming and speaking at the event. The feeling is mutual. I love you.

Oh my gosh, your event. Can we just talk about that for a minute? Your event was amazing. The attention to detail. But not just that, like, the people in the audience. Well, not just the people in the audience that love you, but every speaker that showed up to support you. It's because of who you are. You are such an incredible, phenomenal woman who is doing so much good out there and helping so many people. And at your event, there was laughter, there were tears, there was joy, there was hope, and there were so many tools and strategies that were learned. So before we get into the episode, is there a way for people to see the event? Can they go into your— where should they do that? Do you— and I can put it in the show notes. Sure.

Yeah. So normally we do the replays of the events. They're like $500 and some dollars, but because of the book, we want to get the information out there. So anyone that buys 4 copies of the book, which coming up on the Christmas season, they're great for gifts, they'll get free replay access. So they'll save $400 by buying the book. So they can go to candyvalentino.com, look under the event, and find all of that access there.

Okay, awesome. And Jamie Kern Lima was there. Amy Porterfield. I mean, you had some legends there, and I have to say, I was pinching myself that I got to be there. But I had so much fun. It was so incredible getting to connect with you and everybody. I love seeing all the big things that you're doing. But I have to say, I love the first chapter in your book so much. Thank you.

It's amazing.

Like the first chapter, like you skip to it and you get right to it. It's like how the BS you could hear Could be keeping you broke. Like, there's a lot of BS out there.

A lot. And I feel like since I exited my last company in 2019 and kind of came on in this world, you know, because I was behind the scenes, as you know, for 25 years building businesses, investing in real estate, you know, doing, not talking about doing. And so when I came online and I was like, what is this? Like, there's so much crap that's misinformation and BS out there. So I always say like, I'm the, the no fluff, no smoke and mirror person that's going to give you the honest truth, not my opinion. It's based on data and experience. So, um, we had to put that in there because there's a lot of things that people hear that's actually not true and it's keeping them broke.

What I love about you is that you have built from the ground up. I mean, you grew up in a trailer park. And being dropped off at your dad's mechanic shop after school. Most people were going to dance classes or soccer, and you were dropped off at his business. And you have this outlook on life where you make the best out of every circumstance. But so our audience can know, because there's a lot of people that might be listening that are like, oh well, it might be easy for her, or oh well, she grew up with a silver spoon, like all the things. But you didn't. You like came from nothing and you're like, you know what? I want to make something. I want something different. So can you share just a little bit about like how you grew up, what you learned from some of the hard times that you had as a child, and how it got you to where you are today? Because I want the listeners to know that no matter where you come from, whether you're thousands or even millions of dollars into debt, no matter where you start from, that you can Build some wealth habits and have a wealthy life. Can you share a little bit?

Yeah. Yeah. So I think the important thing to remember is people see us, like you said, as we are now, and they don't see the journey that we had to go through to become this version of ourselves. And the most important part to remember as I share this is I want you to rather think about my story. I want you to think about regardless of your background, regardless of your education, regardless of the parents you grew up in, regardless of the trauma or abuse that you faced, like, You too can create the life of your dreams. Like you too can create success and wealth. And so, you know, for me, I had teenage parents. My mom was 16. My dad was 19 when they found out they were going to have me. And so of course they didn't have money. Grew up in a trailer. My grandfather had a small little piece of property. My dad was able to like put the trailer on his little property. My dad had a, you know, 8th grade education. My mom dropped out to have me. Neither any side of the family had any amount of money or any college degrees, or I don't even think many of them graduated high school. My grandfather was a garbage man and took garbage and had a garbage route and worked really hard. And so that was my exposure, right? Small town, only child. And when you're in a place of survival and you're not really being led by parents, because we kind of all grew up together, it was an interesting family dynamic that's not a typical one. But you learn to figure things out because you have to. There's a lot of things that come along with that. You know, being, being abused as a child, sexually assaulted as a child, and so many other things happened that I basically had to figure my way out through. And so, you know, I only share that. It's something that's not easy to talk about, and it's something I didn't talk about for over 20 years. But I think it's important to, to do that now so that people know that regardless of whatever you've been through in your life, you know, it doesn't matter that circumstance that happened to you. The most powerful thing you get to do is choose what's next. And so I was about 15 when I heard the first time somebody say that you're not a product of your circumstances, you're a product of your decisions, I think is how I heard it in the moment. And I remember just feeling like this, this resonated so deep in my soul. And I think, hopefully, if there's anyone listening, there's times in life where you hear someone say something, you can't understand why, but it just hits you in your core. I want you to remember those moments. and hang on to that because that's an indication for you to lean in to what that means. And so when I was 15 and, you know, in a trailer flipping through channels— actually, I don't even know that I was flipping because I think at the time it was still the big dial channels.

Yeah.

I remember hearing that, um, on a 3 AM infomercial, and I just thought, I, I need to, to hear more of— like, that makes sense to me. And so I, I bought these cassette tapes It was— they were $600. It was Tony Robbins' first Personal Power.

You're kidding me.

When I was 15, I had no idea what it was.

You are kidding me.

I had a babysitting business and a golf ball business. So the trailer was parked next to a— like, it was on farmland, near farmland, and then the golf course was built around it. So on the weekends, golfers would try to get their golf balls. Well, I learned really quickly that they wanted them back. So I would take their golf balls, clean them up, sell them back.

Do you know my brother did the same thing?

No way.

I swear he used to go into the ponds and go and get the golf balls, clean them up, and sell them back.

Yeah, back. And it was like, it was a real life lesson because I was selling them back to the golfers and I didn't know anything about golf because we did. I never even watched like a football game in our whole life. Like, we were just trying to work and survive. And I was selling these golf balls and I noticed that every weekend my Callaways and Titleists would go, and I couldn't get rid of Wilson's. So it was like supply and demand. I'm like, well, let me take the prices up of the Titleist and reduce the price of Wilson's and see. So just my life's always just been about observing and paying attention and following patterns. So I had the money when I saw these cassette tapes to buy them, but I didn't have a credit card because I was 15. And so I said to my dad, I said, Dad, I have the money to buy these cassette tapes, but I need a credit card to buy them. And God love my dad, you know, it wasn't an ill intention, but I think the people that love us also try to protect us sometimes, right? And so my dad just said, you know, all you're going to do is give that guy your money and you're going to be exactly in the same place. He's just going to get richer. And I remember thinking, that's, that's not right. That doesn't feel the same way I felt when I heard that saying. And so.

Yeah.

I was at Sears and my dad was getting some parts for his tools for his garage. And I saw these Discover card applications because back in the day there was no internet, right? So I swiped the Discover card and filled it out. I do not recommend anybody doing this that's listening. It was a totally different time, but I filled it out and lo and behold, somehow I got a Discover card in the mail with the $660 limit.

Wow.

Just, and now talk about like a divine moment. It was just enough. My dad literally saw the application before I sent it in and he's like, she's never going to get this card. And then when it came, he literally brought it down. He's like, well, you got your card. And so I dialed the number, 800 number, called. I got those cassette tapes. I sat down, I listened to them one by one by one. And it was the very first time I ever knew about writing goals. And I wrote my first set of goals out when I was 15 of all the things I wanted to accomplish when I was 30, because that sounded so old when you're, when you're 15.

Yeah.

And I accomplished every one of them by the time I was 23, from the house, the car, the money, the job, everything that I had wanted. So when I had that clear path at 15 and starting a business at 19 within an industry that, you know, wasn't really even existent, I started wellness spas before they were a thing, you know, like now they're everywhere. But in 1999, they were really rare. Only big cities would have them like in a resort. And so the day spa concept was really what I kind of pioneered in our little small town in Pennsylvania, and it just took off from there. But the interesting thing is, for anyone listening, I just want you to remember that when you hear certain things, like when you hear life-giving words spoken to you and there's a part of you that resonates with it, don't ask questions. Don't rationalize why. Just take the next step, whatever that next step is for you. Because oftentimes I think what happens is we get these nudges and our brain kicks in, our conscious brain kicks in and talks about, oh, well, I don't know that I can do that, or this isn't going to work for me or whatever. But it's what happens. It's the one half of 1 second before our brains kick in. That's the soul. That's the nudge that we're getting. Follow that. Listen to that and watch your life radically change.

So there's so much I want to unpack about what you said, but I just have to know really quick, does Tony Robbins know? That you bought those cassette tapes? Because I could see you standing on his stage. Have you been on his stage yet?

No, there's, there's been talks, but no, I have not. There's, um, and I don't know that he fully knows the whole story, but we have exchanged some DMs on it. Um, I don't know that he knows fully the story. And so I think I've just shared the entire story just the last few times, and people were like, oh my gosh, he's got to know this story. So it's a really—

yeah. Well, you know, I know Tony Robbins listens to True Grit and Grace, so I'm sure he'll— I'll just make sure he listens to this one.

Just reach out. Yeah.

I went to my first Tony Robbins event, and I was like, oh my gosh. He stood right in front of me, his big old hands clapping. And you know what I have to say, Candy? Would you Came out on stage at the event, I made sure I was in the audience and I was videoing you. And I was like, I can't wait to capture this moment of her walking on stage. You reminded me of Tony Robbins. You came out and you were like clapping and you got everybody going. And it's just the way you speak and it's from your heart that really captivates people. And when you were sharing About being sexually abused and how it took like 20 years for you to start to talk about that. I got teary-eyed hearing that because I really resonate and understand that I was sexually abused too, and I wrote about it in my book. And I remember when we got the books in the mail, my husband like he got the back of the book and he's like, "Oh, did you know it says that you're a survivor? You've overcome sexual abuse." I'm like, "Yeah, it's in the book." Like I wrote about it, and it was hard because I was like, "Oh, all the." PTA moms are going to know. Like, all— everybody's going to know. But it has been the most liberating thing to, like, let go of the shame and talk to people about that. How did you first start to talk about that?

So I think it's important to know anyone that maybe had an issue like us and anyone that maybe has shame around that. That it's really important to remember that our secrets are what make us sick. And even when it's not something that we are keeping, but it's some— even an unconscious thing. Like, for me, it was completely compartmentalized. Like, I completely just had tucked that moment. I guess this is what happens with PTSD. Like, you just completely tuck that away and you just don't address it. So for me, it was just a safe place to kind of like tuck that away, pretend that it never happened, and just go on.

Put a lid on it. Let's just put it over here and keep a lid on it.

I literally always envisioned like this, like, you know, I think it's a mausoleum where you like put something in the wall, and then it's like cemented in, you know, that's what it always felt like, where it was just completely gone. And I just needed to move forward. Because I consciously chose to run from Me too. Everything that, right? Like, change my life, have this other life, build businesses, have wealth. Like, don't ever need anybody. Like, always only be dependent on yourself. Like, so it's— why is that? Like, when we're able to look back in hindsight, it's like, well, because you don't want anyone to ever be able to control you ever again. I don't ever want my voice silenced ever again. I don't ever want someone robbing from me ever again, right? So it's like you, you build this life so that— so it's self-sustaining in that way. And so I didn't realize in, in the thick of it that that's what I was doing, but it is. It's self-preservation is really what I was doing. And so about 28 years old, I was going to a therapist and it was like the first time in therapy that it just all came out. Like, and I don't even know why it wasn't something conscious, but it just like poured out of my soul, like uncontrollably crying. And it was the very first time that I'd ever talked about it. And, but I'd never talked about it like publicly. Like it was just something that I talked about and shared only with my therapist. And then, you know, fast forward to now, it's like when people are asking you real raw questions, how can I not share that, you know, with people, especially when I know that so many, so many times I have been honest about it, you know, on Ed Mylett's podcast was probably the first time I said it like publicly on a podcast like that. you wouldn't believe the people that just reached out and was like, oh my God, like my wife heard your podcast episode and she never shared with me, but she did tonight. Like, I mean, it wasn't just one story. And so then that's when it's like, that's when your pain, your trauma, the things that you've been through, not only can show you what you're capable of and what you can get through, but it helps other people that are struggling. And so for me, it was switching that shame and that You know, oh gosh, it's, you know, here I am, this version of myself. I don't want to be talking about these things. But when you realize the hope that it can actually give somebody else who's been through that and how it can change their life to realize what's possible, well, then it's worth going through it. Because otherwise, if we keep all of that in, it becomes selfish. It becomes that we're, we're hiding something. We're self-preserved. And I think that that's when it can really trip people up and manifest into different things, negative things into their life. So it was probably publicly, it was probably only one other time before the Ed podcast.

Really? And by the way, I heard that. That was such an incredible interview. You were incredible. I mean, how awesome is that?

Incredible interview. Interviewer too. But yeah, so he sets the stage, makes it easy. But thank you. Yeah, it was crazy how it took off. Like, we never thought— I never thought that it was going to take off like that. And it's— I think now it has like— it's like one of the top 3 of 2022 as far as like views on YouTube or something. That's crazy.

That's, that's incredible.

But I just think it's, it's a reminder that the things that we go through, we get to, we get to choose. We can choose if we want them to cripple us or if we want to take that rock that's thrown in our path and use it to stand a little higher, you know. And I think that that's Every adversity, every challenge, everything that you face, like, you get a choice. And it's not to say that you're, you know, minimizing it or even that you're getting over it, but it's just realizing that there's nothing you can do to control anything that's done to you. But we always get to control what's next. And I think that's where I really have taken the power out and given it back to me. And I think we all have it. We just, we give it away. We allow other people to have it.

Mm-hmm.

And when you can really realize that pain is not something that's preventing you from walking down your path, it's actually pointing you further towards your purpose. I think that's when life starts to really make sense and gets to be a very rich, well-lived life.

Oh my gosh. Can I just hear you talk all day long? You blow me away every time I hear you talk. I'm just like, yes. That's so amazing. Yes, I agree. Now I want to know though, like, so for me, I ran, I became an overachiever. I became like straight A student, honor roll, started working at 13, had 4 jobs, became a successful— everything I did, I was like, I'm blowing it up. Has there been a point in your life, and I promise we're going to get to Uh, more wealth-building stuff, but I just want to know selfishly, was there a point in, in your life where you were just like, okay, I am running and building and doing and doing all this, but for, for what? Like, what's the purpose of life? What, why am I here? Do, can I slow down a little bit? Can, like, what am I running from? Was there a point or a moment in your life that you were like, Oh my gosh, I didn't realize this whole time I have been running from something and I'm tired of running. Has there ever been that moment?

Oh yeah, there's been a few because it's interesting when, you know, when you are running from something so hard, you forget to pause and realize that you also get to choose what you want to run towards. It's like some— when we're in that survival mode and that survival, we're always running from build the thing, do the, become the person. But then at some point you have to pause and be able to look back and see all the things you overcame, all the things that were sent to destroy you, all the worst days that you thought were going to break you, and realize that you survived 100% of your worst days. Everything that you thought was going to destroy you didn't break you. It made you, it made you stronger. It made you more capable. It made you more confident. And so for me, I was running so hard for so long. I was about 25. For me, I started my business at 19. I accomplished everything by the time I was 23. And I felt like I, like, now what? Like I'd already, like, I kind of broke through the glass ceilings. I didn't know anybody else that maybe was like more successful, if you will, that ran in my circle. So it kind of had this like lid and I was. I was 25, investing in commercial real estate. I had just bought a property. I was leaving my business late at night and was driving around the block, and I had wanted to buy this whole entire street. I don't know if it was Monopoly when I was a kid or what, but something in my mind—

You're like, I just want the whole street. Maybe I'm going to get the whole town.

My dad used to say, oh, if my kid could, she would buy the whole town, tear it down, and start over. That's exactly what he always said. And I was on my way. I always wanted to buy this whole street, and I was rounding the corner. I bought the corner. of it. And I, cause I thought if I can have this corner and this corner, I had a couple pieces, I'll just connect in the middle, but at least secure the corners. So I bought this corner. It was sitting there for a year. I didn't do anything with it. I'm sitting at the red light waiting for it to turn green. And I remember driving home to, uh, at the time I was living with a guy and I remember looking at that building. I remember looking up the street. at the other buildings that I had owned. The bit— my, one of my businesses was in one of them. And I remember thinking in that moment, it was like the, the realization of everything I had and everything I didn't, all in one moment.

Really?

I remember, yeah, it was like the craziest thing. I remember looking up and seeing everything that I had built and bought and done and go into this great house and how everything looks so great from the outside. And I thought, Did I do all of this to feel like this? Like I climbed the mountain, I got out of poverty, I overcame abuse. Like, did I do all of that for this? Like, there's gotta be something more. It was just like a voice, like we're talking, Amberly said, put your animal shelter there. And I remember thinking, what do you mean an animal shelter? I don't want an ant. Like, I've always loved animals. I had dogs. I was always— I wanted to rescue always all the animals. But I was like, my animal shelter? Like, I— no, no, no, I gotta— like, I was, I was working with a franchise attorney and we were franchising 4 more locations. I had 4 more commercial buildings sought in 2 different counties that we were going to expand into. That building was going to be something completely different. I'm like, what do you mean animal shelter? And yet it was in that moment, it just something clicked. And I was like, oh my gosh, I'm gonna put an animal shelter there. Like, it made no logical sense mentally. But spiritually, something hit a little different. And I've known throughout my life that when you feel that, because that's been that, that voice, it's kind of guided me all along when I was a little girl and didn't have anyone to talk to about what was going on. When, you know, my parents were almost divorced several different times and all kinds of challenges in their lives that were going on, like, I always felt like I just had this internal guidance because I didn't have the external.

Me too. Yeah.

And so in that, in that moment, I just, I remember walking in the door to my then boyfriend and said, you know what, I'm going to put an animal shelter in that building that I owned down on the corner. And he's like, what? And it made absolutely no sense, but yet when I started doing it, Every door opened. Wow. Everything that I had done for the past 5, 6 years in my business, I was able to call favors in, get concrete done for free, get drywall.

You are kidding.

Oh my gosh. Like, and I just researched just like a business, like, and I literally started thinking, well, okay, it's a nonprofit, so it's just like a business. We need all the same things. It's just that nobody's going to make any money. All the money goes back to the, to the nonprofit. Like, okay, I can figure this out. So contact an attorney. How do I do a 501? Okay, great. Let's fill that out. You know, what do you want the name to be? up. Let's make it this. Like, and we just started taking just bold action and just trying to figure it out and stepping out in faith. And everything started moving. Like, I would literally put up a post when Facebook came around and was like, hey, we're doing a work party, bring boots and tools. And like, we're going to work on this building and start saving animals. And people would show up. Like, they would show up to paint and the trade schools would come to help. And And so I always say that, like, my greatest, quote, mistake, if you will, in business, when you look at the growth and the scale and what we could have done from just a national level, had I not done the nonprofit, would have been immense. Like, the exit that I would have had would have been 10x. I mean, there's so much that by having the distraction of doing a nonprofit cost a lot. I obviously ended up donating that building to the charity. You know, it took all my time and attention. I did massive rescues across the state. But what it cost me— again, this is what's interesting— our brains can only measure what it can cost, you know, what, what we're going to lose. It doesn't measure what we can gain. And what I gained in that process, which was healing, which was actually healing from abuse, which was actually finding out what life is really about, like that happiness is not— is what we think we're after, this cheap dopamine hit from, you know, the followers on some or the likes on some post or the car that we buy or the vacation that we take. Those are all dopamine happiness hits and it's cheap and it's quick. And people think that, oh, when I have more money, it'll be— no, no, no. What you're actually after is fulfillment.

Yes.

It's fulfillment. And fulfillment can only be found when you are contributing to something greater than yourself. And so for me, it was at that 26 mark, 25, 26, when I had that moment And then took that bold blind faith forward and did that nonprofit and did it anyways, even when people said it wasn't going to work and you don't have any— I heard that when I was 19. So, by this point, I was like, ah, this is nothing. Like, I had the proof. Like, that's the interesting thing. When we take steps in bold blind faith and we do it scared, we do it anyways, we figure it out. It's like going into the gym and upleveling your weight because you build more confidence in the process. It's the same thing with habits. why it's Wealth Habits, because it's a habit. It's like I had already from 19 to 25 developed the habits of when I feared something, rather than turning from it, I went towards it. When I didn't have an answer, rather than walking away, I found one. Rather than like saying, oh, this is a huge problem, what's the solution and who do I know that can solve it? And it radically shifts the way that you think, and that will make you and save you and get you so much in life that you can't even measure. So I think that that's, you know, a long, long answer to your question of when I really felt like it was in that process that I finally healed. And I realized that I was ready to run towards a life that I wanted to create. And, you know, obviously, life takes many twists and turns. I ended up in a not so great relationship, I ended up getting divorced, you know, there was a moment there too, where I was like, like, no more. And that was a huge pivotal moment in my life, um, because life takes a lot of time, unfortunately, to learn certain things and to realize what we're bringing in from our past into the future decisions we're making. That's why it's so important. Even in the book, I know we're kind of mixing and melding a bunch of topics, but the first few chapters of the book, I talk about like, I can give you all the strategies that'll make you a bunch of wealth, make you a bunch of money, but if we don't fix a few things first, we're going to be swimming upstream because we got to fix the beliefs, the junk, the things that we're carrying into this next chapter so that we can leave them at the door so that we don't get the same result that you have right now. So that's why fixing that first is really key before we start to do the next step.

If I had, like, if I could drop this mic right now and just do, like, a mic drop, like, I need some mics to throw around while you're talking. Oh, my Gosh, everything you share, I am just like, oh, I could just—I hang on your every word, and I just resonate so much with what you what you share. And you know what? I have been wanting to start a nonprofit for the nerve disease that I have, and so you've totally inspired me. I'm gonna figure it out. I'm gonna do it because there's a lot of people out there that can't afford medication or treatment, physical therapy, and I would love to do. something like that. So, yeah, I was looking on your LinkedIn profile, by the way, and I'm like, how many businesses does she own? Like, how many businesses do you own?

Well, it depends. I have like a parent company with other holding companies underneath and multiple things. So actually, technically, there's one enterprise holding company with about 5 different companies, rental properties underneath and stuff like that. And then the nonprofit, nobody owns it. People always say like, oh, you own a nonprofit? A nonprofit is owned by the community. Like, nobody actually owns it because there's no assets to own. Um, so I'm just— I'm in a founder's role with the nonprofit. And I, and I will share this just because I know people hear this and they get inspired about nonprofit work, which is amazing. But I just want to remind people that there are so many ways that you can give back. If you don't have money, you have time.

Mm-hmm.

If you don't have time, You have money, and if you don't have either, you don't have priorities. So if you don't have money to contribute to a nonprofit, you can volunteer two four hours of your time and skill set that you have. If you don't have time, you've got money. Donate ten percent of what you're earning and watch how it contributes back to you, and make sure that you have priorities so you have one or the other. That's really important. But there's a lot of ways you can get involved in a charity that is close to you. I mean, it took. A ton of money, a ton of focus, and was obviously a huge distraction to me, and I wouldn't change it. But there's a lot of other easier ways I could have done it. I could have started a DAF, which is a donor advised fund. I could have started it like a local community foundation and had a fund that people could donate into. You get the tax deduction and then you're able to distribute it out to other nonprofits. You can align with a nonprofit. That's a really great GuideStar highly rated nonprofit.

I think aligning with a nonprofit is a great Idea. It's finding the right nonprofit to align with.

And you'll actually make more impact more quickly because it's just, even if you started right now to start a nonprofit, you're at least 2 years out from getting a 501 and starting to raise money. You can have a DAF.

That's why I haven't started.

Right, right. But you can do a DAF. You can align with another nonprofit before the end of this year. I mean, there's a lot of ways that you can do it. So if somebody has it on their heart, don't use the excuse of that. To start, you can start donating 10% of your time or 10% of your money today. And that should be a goal that everyone should have, especially coming in towards the holidays and the end of the year.

Oh yeah. Because especially we're right at Thanksgiving and that you're like here talking to me right before Thanksgiving. Um, but you talked about founders. I heard the word founders and it always meant every time I hear the word founders, I think of you. Tell me about your Founders Organization.

Yeah. So, you know, again, of all the businesses I have, this is the least profitable or, you know, anything. I don't do it for that. I do it for entrepreneur education and business development. I do it to really give people to kind of find the missing gaps, the missing links, because a lot of people talk about business in theory. They talk about ideation. They talk about all this flashy marketing, but very few people are talking about the real core of business fundamentals. And business is actually quite simple when you strip away all of the crap that people say and you get down to business. It's actually really, really simple. So, we talk about revenue growth, profitability. We do talk about obviously sales and marketing because that's a whole piece, but it's not all of it. We also talk about once you start making money, how should you actually be investing your money and building wealth? Because building a business is only one wealth habit. How you invest your money, how you reduce your taxes, how you pay less to the IRS, like those are all really key pieces that are important to building wealth that most people don't talk about. So we, we share all of that. We also, you know, talk about investors and how you get investors and just how to set your business up to ever exit. Because a lot of times people get into business thinking that they're an entrepreneur, but they actually are self-employed. They actually didn't create a business, they created a job. And then a job—

That is such a great distinction. Like, Yeah. What you said just there, sometimes you've created a job and you feel like you're in prison.

Yes. Because if you're— well, if you're not intentionally building a business, and a business is a machine that eventually you create systems and processes for it to run on its own, if you're not building a business, then you will accidentally build a job, and that job will end up being a cage. Because rather than having one job that you go to every day, 9 to 5, put in your hours, As a self-employed person, you're showing up for the webinar, you're doing all the things. Now you have to do marketing. Now you have to pay your bills. Now you have to run with the team. You have to manage these things. You have to make sure, like, make sure you're dealing with the admin tasks. And then you're so distracted, you get really diluted results and you can't penetrate into any industry or vertical. So we really break down what does it mean to build a business? How do you hire? How do you replace yourself? How do you scale. You know, I've heard people say like, oh, the number one hire you should have is an assistant. That's not true. Like, you may be in an industry where the very next person you hire is an income-producing staff. Maybe it is a support staff. Maybe it's somebody that actually runs your billing. Maybe you don't have a bookkeeper. Like, there's a million things, and people that speak in these platitudes and don't actually give context is what's costing entrepreneurs a lot of money. So the very first step is really dialing back to, are you even the entrepreneur? Or are you the talent? Or are you a manager? Like, there are very key distinct roles that you can have a business, but you're either playing in one of those 3 lanes. Like, most people think they're an entrepreneur because somehow they want to glorify that word, but it's actually the worst of all 3 roles to be.

Yeah, like, just distinguish the difference you mean with those 3 roles.

Yeah, so the entrepreneur is truly the one That not only just has the vision, it's not just vision, it's the vision and the direction of how to lead the company to maximum growth. It's who has the decision to set the company up to exit, who's actually going to look for a viable buyer, who's going to be managing the bottom line. Like, those are all the key roles probably of a business that's doing $3 million or less is like an entrepreneur in that range. The manager is the person that's actually working kind of like an integrator, working with the people, hiring, working with the team. Leading people, managing the projects, making sure all the i's are dotted and the t's are crossed. And then you have the talent that could be a celebrity, right? When we always use like a celebrity brand, it's the celebrity that's managed, right? Celebrities have a talent manager. And then typically that talent manager has— is owned by a business, if you will. The celebrity is the person who shows up to do the podcast, speaks on the stage. That's the talent. Tony's a great example of the talent, right? So I'm actually much better. This is my least favorite thing to do. I'm much better behind the scenes. I prefer to be behind the scenes. I like running the business, growing the objectives, deciding what we're gonna do as a company, and then having all those other people around me. We can certainly play in certain roles, different roles like you see me here, but we always have one that is the strongest. And when we remove our ego from the business, And we just go with what we actually are great at and what lights us up, we become more successful and we can hire the right people to support us in that role. You can have a big business and create a great business and still be the talent. You just have to make sure that you're hiring the CEO role, a CFO role, a COO role, because that's not you. So there's a lot of people that can play in that, but you've got to define what you want to be because life's short, as we know, and things can change in a minute. Like, don't set up your business so that you end up in a cage with golden handcuffs and now you can't actually walk away from the business because you built a cage around yourself that you have to show up for every day. And that's what I want entrepreneurs to break free from, is realizing that one is not better than the other, but we got to get clear on what role we're in and build it accordingly.

Oh, that is so good. And I know you say that you're like this, I, I'm better behind the scenes. I'm like, girl, you're freaking amazing right up here as the, the celebrity right now. Like, seriously, I love everything you say. What does somebody do if they're like, okay, I know I, I'm not good at these different roles, but I don't have the money? to hire someone to help me with that role, what would you do in that? What would you suggest for them to do as far as like, I want to scale, I want to build, but I don't have the money to hire someone to help me. What would you say to them?

Well, one, I would look and see if that's true because a lot of times our feelings are not facts. We say something like that, like, oh, I just don't have the money. But is it actually that case or just haven't you prioritized the income that you are making? Because you may very well be monetizing something and you just don't realize, again, what we can't measure in our brains, only what we lose. We think, oh, if I'm going to pay this person X amount of dollars, I'm not going to get that money. But what it's going to free you up to do, like my whole brain works completely different. I want to hire someone to do every single thing I possibly can from picking up groceries to doing laundry to household things. Like, I make no bones about that. I don't do any of those things. I have amazing, amazing people that do those for me so that I can show up and do this. I can work with clients, I can do income, I can work with the team, I can grow. Like, that's where my time is best utilized. And then I give an opportunity to somebody else to do the things that they love. So you want to do a cost analysis. All— if you ever are struggling with something in your mind, let's remove the feelings and get to the facts. That's the way we always do that. Your emotions are not factual most of the time. 2 totally different sides of the brain. So I like to say, look at what you're actually making. Look at what you bring in by hour. And if you're a business owner, you're going to take your NOI, your net operating income, try to figure out what you're actually making an hour. And be real. If you're only doing 20 hours a week and you're consuming 10 hours a week of social media because you're posting every once in a while, and then you stuck in the scroll? Be honest where you are with that. Find out what your hourly rate is and can you hire somebody else to do that role for less? Because obviously it's just simple math. If you are making even, we'll just use numbers, $50 an hour and you can hire someone $25 or $35 an hour to do that role, then you'll be able to pick up more income-producing activity to make more money. We hold on to all of these things, not only just in business, but in life. It's like the analogy, I think I used it on stage where it's like the little golf ball. We're holding on to this money, we're holding on to this, we're trying to do the work with the clients and handle the emails and do, and our hands get so full holding on to all these little things that we got to be able to release them to other people in order to grab something bigger. If your hands are constantly full with little tiny golf balls and ping pong balls, you can't grab the basketball that life is trying to bring you. So, business, you can only expand by either eliminating, delegating, or automating. That's it. So, take a look at what you're doing. Take 5 days. You want to change your business life forever? Don't listen to me say this. Actually do it when we end this podcast. Take out a sheet of paper and every day for 5 days, Write down every single thing that you do in the business, whether it's returning an email, doing a podcast, doing your show notes, like whatever business that you're in. And at the end of those 5 days, I want you to go through all of them and go through the DEA. Think Drug Enforcement Agency, but instead it stands for delegate, eliminate, automate. And I want you to go through all the things. What can you delegate? What can you automate by putting in a process or system? And what can you just eliminate from your schedule because it's time and it's sucking the life out of you and your business. Oftentimes we think that by consuming more information it's going to help us, but what it does is prevents us from creating. So what can you stop consuming so that you can create more? And by running the DEA strategy, you'll start to see the things— anything that you put a D by I want you to take a new sheet of paper and write all of those things out on a separate sheet. And I guarantee you, you're going to have probably 1 or 2 job descriptions because there's going to be a lot of things that are like each other that you can then delegate together and hire someone part-time so that you can do more to make more money for the business. The only way you build a business is you make more income or you save expenses. That's it. Every single thing we talk about is through that line. Make more revenue, save expenses. So when you look to see what you can eliminate, it's obviously going to increase your expenses. But what you don't see is it's also going to increase your top line revenue because now you're going to be more intentional about what you use your time on. So that's one way. If somebody is like, I can't afford to do it, do that first and then tell me you can't do it. And rather than focus on the problem of I don't have the money, how about we flip that and we focus on a solution and say, what would I have to do in order to afford this person so that I could grow the business? And then you sit and you write all of that stuff down. We are focused on problems the way our brain is wired, that if we don't consciously, and this is in the book, if we don't consciously choose to focus on solutions, we will never get the result we want in our life, in our health, in our business, or in our wealth. So it's super be intentional about the way you look at things.

Oh my goodness. And you guys, seriously, this book, 6 Ordinary Steps to Achieve Extraordinary Financial Freedom. But what I love is that you make it easy to read for me because I'm a little— well, I just actually got diagnosed with ADHD. Who knew? Well, I kind of knew, but—

Most entrepreneurs are.

Yes. There are definitely takeaways. I love that you have quotes highlighted in your book. You have actual steps that you can take. To build your business, and so this book—it's life-changing for people, like truly life-changing—and it's made me look at my business too. And so there's ways how to recession-proof your life. There's so much in it. So y'all have to check the book out. I have one last question. I know we're running close on time, so I wanted to ask you. So if you have, and this is. I could talk to you for hours about this, and you guys have to check her out, how to get involved with her Founders organization to learn from her more. If you are investing in a property, okay, so like, let's say we have a house in California and my husband was like, oh, we're going to sell the house. We're going to buy our house in Texas. And I'm like, I'm not selling that house. I want that house. That's our little gold mine. I'm going to rent that sucker out. You know? We don't make a ton of money at all on it. How much should you make? Is there something that you could tell me? Like if you have a property like we have, is there an amount that we should be making that's like, okay, it's worth it to keep it? Like, I don't know. Cause I'm not, I, this is the first time I've ever really started doing real estate.

Yeah. So real estate Like, all— there's multiple ways that you make money in real estate. What you're referring to is cash flow. So, that's only one vehicle, right? You also get to open yourself up with appreciation. So, the property appreciates depending on how you bought it, what you bought it for, and where it is. The property is going to appreciate. So, your money is going to make money just by sitting in the property if you bought it right over time. That's a long-term play. It's just basically if I'm going to own this property for 20 to 40 years, even if the market dips down, dips up, I'm playing the long game because I know over time my money's going to make money in the property. Aside from that, your money cash flows, which is what I think what you're talking about, like what you actually make a month or your NOI annually. So you would be looking at that too. The other thing it does is it opens up for passive income. So you're actually able to take some of your earned money and put it into that property. So now you're opening yourself up to a lower tax basis than what you are doing earned income. So that's the hat trick. It also opens you up to amortization and, you know, leverage and all sorts of other things. But those are the 3 main ones. If you read the book, there's a couple things I talk about. The cap rate, you're going to look at certain ratios that I have in the book that's going to talk about— this typically is done before you buy it. You run these numbers and you do an analysis to see what's the cap rate going to be, what's the 50% rule going to look like. Like some of them depend on whether you did a renovation, whether you didn't, if it's a long-term hold, a short-term hold, Airbnb. So there's all these different variables, but typically the 1% rule is just basically talking about what your purchase price was and what you're actually going to get payments for monthly or annually. And there's a little ratio that you can follow to see if that actually works for you. But always remember, that's only one piece of the puzzle. You're also looking at ways that you can use tax diversification tax deductions so that you can diversify your income. And you're also looking at the property appraisal. There are a lot of properties that I had in the beginning, I didn't make anything. They were just basically a net wash, or I was making a little bit, but I knew that if I had X amount of doors over so long, that eventually those properties are all going to be worth this much more in 10 years, 20 years, and then I'll be able to sell that property. So, every person's different of why they want real estate. Some people don't necessarily want more money now because it actually might take up your total taxable income and throw you into a higher tax bracket, which costs you more money. Some people want to just leverage the long game and sell those properties later for retirement. So you need to know why you're building the equity in the property. You need to know why you want it for, if it's just, you know, positive cash flow, or if you're okay to wait for appreciation. And then I would always say just run the 1% rule to see if that works. And that's all laid out super specific.

Oh, that's so good. Well, I was like, I want to keep that house in case we want to move back to California, but it's been great because it has allowed us to have some cash flow. So it's been awesome.

Normally, if you have a house that's positively cash flowing, like, that's a good way to have your money unless you need to leverage it in something else. But real estate's always a nice way to get the hat trick. So that we talk about that a lot.

Yeah. And I love that you have all of this. In your book, so tell everyone, and I'll have it in the show notes too. Tell everyone where they can find your book, and it's beautiful, by the way. This is a good-looking book published by Wiley. I mean, seriously.

I don't know if you heard me talk. I was like, "I don't want my picture on it, and I want it to be black." And it's gorgeous, and it's white, and my picture's on it.

And as your picture should be, because you are. Stunning. I'm so glad that it's on there. But tell people where they can get your book, where they can find out more about you. And also, we will have in the show notes how they can catch the replay of the Self Made Summit.

Yeah. So I'm Candy Valentino on Instagram, TikTok, candyvalentino.com. And the book is anywhere books are sold— Amazon, Barnes Noble. We're at Walmart and target.com. So they can pick it up anywhere. And then that That 4-pack, that special promo is on candyvalentino.com, or they can go to wealthhabitsbook.com also.

Oh, Candy, you are amazing. This has seriously been one of my favorite conversations, not just on the podcast, but ever. I learned so much from you. Thank you so much for being on the show and sharing your wisdom. And y'all, please, if you got— like, I got so much out of this. I'm like, oh my gosh, I got so much out of this. But if you're listening Take a screenshot and tag us. If I see you tag this and just at Amberly Lago Motivation and Candy Valentino on Instagram, I always share that. So let's show Candy some love. Tag this, share it in your story, share it with somebody who needs to really learn some wealth habits and go grab this book. Seriously, I'm not kidding. This is, well, people that are listening, In my mastermind, the no surprise you're getting the book for Christmas. But anyway, thank you, Candy, for being on the show, and thanks everybody for tuning in. I appreciate you being here, and we'll see you next week.