Building Wealth and Community from the Ground Up

Welcome back. How's it going everyone? Happy session number four on day one of the people magic summit. I don't know if it's just me, but I actually really love the music that plays before the, before we go on. I was kind of jamming to it right beforehand, but can I get some fire emojis in the chat? If you are here, you are ready to learn from the one and only Tiffany Alicia. Before we jump into her, let me just introduce myself for a second here. My name is Toper Ravadia. I'm a senior community strategist at Mighty Networks. I have helped some of the biggest names in the online space building online profitable community based businesses. Now that you know who I am, I want to introduce to the stage and bring onto the stage the one and only Tiffany Alicia. She is known as the Budget Nista. She has a Netflix documentary, she has a New York Times bestselling book. She's a financial educator and coach and she has helped over 2 million, 2 million people achieve financial independence through the Live Richer Academy. Welcome, Tiffany.

Hi, Topher. How are you?

I'm doing well. How about yourself?

Good, good. I'm great.

You've got great skin, by the way. You've got this glow. It's so amazing.

Thank my parents.

Yeah, it runs in the genes. It runs in the jeans. Awesome. So I know a little bit about who you are. I know that you were a preschool teacher before this. I also know that your father was an accountant. Right. Taught you some financial kind of education basics at a very young age. But I'm not sure if everyone in the crowd is aware of who you are. So I want to give you a chance to introduce yourself and speak a little bit more about the journey of how Tiffany Alicia became the Budget Nista.

Sure. So I, 16 years ago, started the Budget Nista. I was still teaching preschool at the time. I went to school for business, hated corporate America and decided I think I want to teach. And I loved it so much. But it was in teaching that I realized a lot of my parents were struggling financially. A lot of the parents of my kids, um, and I was early 20s, but I grew up learning about money at home. My dad was a CFO of a small nonprofit and an accountant, a chief financial officer. So my four sisters and I learned about money since, I mean, I can't remember not talking about money. And so I just would, during that time I would put the kids down and parents would come and learn how to budget, learn how to do your. Their taxes. And it just grew, became like parent university at that time. But then the recession hit and my school closed because they lost their funding. And I thought, you know, I think I'll do this full time. It was really rough times. I made so many financial mistakes. But as I was fixing my financial mistakes, from credit card scams to losing my house to foreclosure because I lost my job during the recession, to everything you can think of, I just said, you know, I'm good at learning, I'm good at teaching. And so I started the budget NIST then. So 16 years, one New York Times bestseller, one law in New Jersey, the budget needs to law making financial education for middle school students and 2 million people plus later, we're here.

We're here. 16 years later. What a journey. Oh my gosh. I want to zoom into your journey a little bit more. You know, who we have here in the audience are people who are just getting started in their online business, online community journey. What happened to you was very interesting, right? You were, you were a teacher. You had this level of expertise, right? You're several steps ahead in kind of the financial journey compared to most people. How, what, what would you say was the first few steps in pursuing an online business and putting content out there?

So I started my business in a very interesting time. When I first first started, Facebook was still very much edu. Like you had to have an edu, you know. And so it was transitioning over. So I started by. By teaching in person. Like so many people, you know, you do your business in person because you there really wasn't like social media wasn't for that. It was like family, friends, or maybe you went to a specific school. And so I remember distinctly when this shift started to happen, like 2009, 2010, when I was teaching, I was working with the United Way Greater New Jersey. I had written their curriculum at my master's in education, their financial education curriculum. And I was teaching classes weekly for the community. They paid me and was free for the community. And then Facebook just came out with like Facebook groups and things. And folks kept emailing me individually about questions. And so I thought, well, what if I created this online community space where I said, you can ask me questions here so everyone gets the benefit. So I started on thinking, how do I take this in person community and make it online? And so I did. But then what I found was, is that as I started to build communities, that was my first one that people were coming in. Like I would post and say, hey, don't forget classes tonight. And someone would say, I live in Florida now. Meanwhile, I live in New Jersey. And I'm like, florida, what are you doing here? You're not in my class, like my physical class. And then I'd be like, well, I don't have anything for you. And then somebody else say, I live in Oklahoma, I want help too. I'm like, well, can you get to New Jersey on Tuesday? Like, I don't, I don't. And then my teacher brain clicked and said, well, if, what if you not just have this online community, what if you also put the, the knowledge on digitally too? Because you know, then that's really what built the community. If I, when people ask me like, what exploded the budget Nista we created a financial challenge that was free, our literature challenge. And we launched it in January because everybody wants to get on financial track. And it was totally digital. There was no in person anything. Although we had like an end of the challenge kind of in person party. But it was kind of the first time I realized like, wow. That there are three components that are necessary to create transformation. It's knowledge, access and community. And so it's like, okay, the knowledge is the book, the course, whatever. Some people think if I give the book, the course, whatever, digitally, that's enough. It's not if you're not seeing movement, it's because you're probably just doing that. Access to experts. Who is the guide? As I'm reading the book or taking the course, who can I ask questions of? Who knows more than me? And so at first it was just me, now I have other guides. And then the community piece was critical. I have built so many communities since then, upwards of 500,000 people to as little as 500 in communities. Because people might come for you, the expert, but they stay for each other. And so that community piece has been transformational. It is the reason why the budget NISA is an eight figure business today is because we are so good at building communities.

That is amazing. I love to hear that. And knowledge, access, community. And you're so right. Most creators kind of just focus on the knowledge and access part one or two out of the three buckets. Kind of neglecting that community aspect.

Yeah.

And there's this big focus in the industry about content. Right, Content. But you know, the narrative that we're trying to build here is that it's, it's also about community. It's also about the relate one to many relationships that you're building and that is actually what is unique to your brand. Right. There could be other financial educators, financial coaches, out there. But what makes you unique are the people that believe in the budget Nista mission. Right. It's your social capital within the brand and bringing those people together to connect and learn from each other while digesting your knowledge.

Yes.

Your access.

Right.

And that's what really builds, that built this movement. So that's so amazing to hear. What would you say is, you know, digging on the. Digging in on the community aspect piece. What would you say is the important role of a host within a community? What is a. What are the characteristics of a good host within a community? How. And taking from your experience of building so many communities, what do you think that you did which. Which made you very successful at building communities?

Well, you have to create a movement within the community. Right. Because people just standing in a room are just people standing in the room. Now you have some music, now we have a party, you know. And so I realized, like, in the beginning it was like, okay, people are just in this community just kind of looking at each other. You have to give people something to do collectively. Think about like, you know, think about like, I don't know, camp or, you know, maybe you go to like you have a religion that you're a part of. Like, you're, you are actively, collectively doing something together and that builds connection, you know. So it's like, like for my financial challenges, it's like, hey, we're going to do these financial tasks together. Or maybe you have a community for exercising. Hey, every morning at 6am we're going to do this exercise together. So, so the number one thing about the host is they are there to guide and say, this is what we're doing collectively today. Oftentimes a host too. The beautiful part that I have learned over years of building community is that every host does not need to be an expert. You know, they just. So you have the experts who, like, I come in, I might say, hey, I'm teaching a class today. But then weekly I have hosts who are just like, so this wasn't that so great, what we learned from Tiffany? Let's practice together. They're just there to guide the movement. You have to have movement in order for your community to gel the moment. You don't give them something to do, then it kind of all falls apart. So you have to, there's a reason why, like, say, for example, you go to church. It's, it's every Sunday. Every Sunday there is a directive that like, you sing songs, you read this, you, you know, I mean, sometimes we forget when we're building something that, that what we're building, we can find examples of success in it, in our everyday lives. It's like you wouldn't go to a religious organization that you just kind of just sat there. It's like, well, how do I create this kind of movement? What can we do together? So yeah, so I would say that yes, the importance of a host is critical. They do not have to be experts, they just have to help move the movement along.

Move the movement along. Be facilitators.

Yes, right.

You don't necessarily need to know all of the things. You could be a couple steps ahead, it could be one step ahead. But also all of the value doesn't need to be on your back. Right. There are other people who have amazing stories who also have their own advice and expertise in their own little ways to share. And so as a host, a really great host, Ask polls, ask questions. And I love what you said about programming like the challenge as the lead into your business. There was intentionality. Each day of here's the one thing that we're mastering, here's the thing that we're doing day by day and what I think about. And we're actually going to go into this in the 14 day free trial. But I'll challenge, I'll talk about that later. The most successful communities have what we call it Monday networks, monthly themes and a weekly calendar. You have a reason to come back.

There you go. So to me, people need what I call Must see tv, right? So Must see tv I grew up like watching. You're like really young, sober. I'm 45, so don't let this get fool you. But I remember on Friday nights there used to be TGIF you would watch like Family Matters. Who remembers what else were the shows? It was like all these shows, it was like four or five shows that you could watch with your family every Friday night. So it was like it was fun times. Right? But that's Must see tv, meaning that in your community there has to be every Friday, every third Thursday, something that I can set my clock to, you know, So I like to have a mix of must, must see tv, meaning something they can set their clock to. And then you have to delight in awe. And so there's something where it's monthly or whatever, but you don't necessarily know the date or the time of what's going to be. So I like this kind of because after a while must see TV will become boring. So we have, every week we have the same kind of like things happening weekly so people can Kind of tune in. But then once a month I come in and shake stuff up where I'm like, hey, hey. You know, like, so they just know it's once a month, it might be Tuesday, it might be Saturday, it might be. So you see what I mean? So having that mix is such a great way to keep the excitement going, but then not overwhelmed because folks know. But every Tuesday I know that we have this check in with the host.

Yeah, it's like my favorite analogy is like way when I went to the YMCA a few months ago and I was signing up for a gym membership, the first question, and I didn't do this on, on purpose because I'm, you know, I build communities and I'm familiar with monthly themes and we. The calendar. But my, my first question as soon as I came in was, can I see your calendar of events? Can I see your programming? That way I can plan to be there and know what's happening when. And the really cool thing is that for communities that have this sense of intentionality when it comes to programming, we see retention go up the roof. Right. So could you share, you shared some, some nuggets around your favorite kind of weekly calendar items and monthly themes. Could you share a couple more ideas to kind of give to the audience as to what you've seen work in your own community?

So people need to be tapped on the shoulder. So when people sign into our communities, depending what community it is, we often have like, we have them sign up for like a text reminder. We get there, we get their name, we get their email. We get text no matter what. Because if I'm going to come on, how would you know when I'm going to come on? Because Must See TV is like, we know every Thursday this thing is dropping, you know, or every third Wednesday there's something. But I like to say, hey, in a few days I'm coming to Texas. Who's there? And we do that via text messaging and email. And so one of the things that you. One of the biggest mistakes I made when I first started building community is I did not use as an entry point to collect contact information. It was just like, come one, come all. Which is great. But then how do you talk to people? How do you say, I've got a thing I want to share? And so now you come in right away, we're like, what's your name? What's your email? What's your text? You know, what's your phone number? So. And we don't harass them via text and email, just so when important things come up, you might not be in the group, so we might tap you on the shoulder and say, you might want to go in the group today. Something important dropped and people come running to the group. So that was something that worked. Something else that I've learned after years of building a community is that I used to, I used to be the host, the expert. It was exhausting. And then what happened is that people inside the community would tap me on the shoulder and say, I'd love to, I want, I love what you're doing. Can I help? And I'm like, I don't even know how you know. And then I realized, wait. The best hosts are community members, really active community members. So like, I would be like. So usually the first, like if I'm building a new community the first month or two, I do the thing and then I kind of either let them self identify or identify people who are very active and say, I would love for you to be hosts inside my community. What do you think? And they're like, oh my gosh. So the host I have now, so one of my communities I have is, is a business mentorship community. And in exchange, the host, they. Every quarter we do, like I walk with snowing now, but. Or snowy, that I usually take a walk like almost every single day. And once a quarter they get a walk and talk with me. There's only like four or five hosts where we could talk up to two or three hours. They get to pick my brain for free. But in exchange, every other week they do check ins with the, with the mentees inside the group. I don't have to do those check ins. I come in once a month, they come in every other week in exchange. So, you know, you want to make sure that your hosts are getting value too. Like some people pay their hosts, some people, there's something special you do for them and for them they get access to me. And so yeah, so that hosting part is critical.

Huge. And, and that, I love that you brought this up because that is the fastest and easiest way to scale a community, right? If you're, do. If you're, if you've got a solid big purpose, you've got solid programming, which we're talking about. You're, you're facilitating community. Well, there are going to be natural leaders that come up in the community that are like, hey, I want to support, I want to help. How do I do that? And so that's so great that you were able to kind of create community leadership, you know, ascend people into a host level position to help kind of scale the knowledge and expertise and access. Right. So that's really beautiful. This is actually the really cool thing about building an online business. You know what I mean is, or, or specifically being in the infopreneur space, is that really what we're doing is we are transferring our beliefs and our knowledge onto others. And if someone has been following and helping you and supporting you for a long time, like a big fan of the budget Nista, they will get to a place where they have, they too have a solid foundation of your expertise, your brain. They've downloaded your brain. And so why not leverage these people.

Yes.

Who want to contribute and be part of the mission, the larger mission. Right. So I love that you brought that up.

I call it powder, powder donut, micro things, what I call it. So like I'm eating a powered powdered donut and it, I touch one host shoulder and she gets powdered donut on her. I don't have to touch every single person in the community because as she bumps into everyone else that powder donut hits the next and the neck that really good businesses know how to just. I only have to touch this periphery of people and then they go out and to do the work, you know, to like to bump into other people with goodwill and leave a little powder donut and then those people bump into neck people. I think not enough people really understand that like you have to make your messaging palatable. You want to make your group welcoming. Because when you do that, I mean I, I do good work for a living, literally. We provide financial education for those who might not otherwise have access. In the beginning folks told me you can't make money doing that. Well, almost $50 million later, I, I beg to differ, you know, and we've always stayed in alignment. You know, we don't deviate. I, for example, I don't believe I, I use credit cards, but I don't believe in selling credit cards. I'm like, you know that like, you know, I will tell you how your best practices but literally I could have made millions more because banks ask me every day to sell their credit cards. And I'm like, no. Because the people that come to me are financial diabetics and credit cards are sugar. Sugar in general is not necessarily bad, but not for what I do, you know. And so like, so I get to, I, well, you get to, I get to do good work for a living. But because of my ability to grow community, we are very successful. We're 47 profit, which is unheard of. We don't have. I don't have any. No one's invested in my business. I built it literally from scratch, you know, preschool teacher. I've only ever had two. Two jobs, preschool teacher and budget. Literally, there's been nothing in between, you know, and. And so one of the ways to monetize. I need to ask this question, but I just want people to understand that it took me a while to learn to monetize my community. Because I was just like, I felt guilty, if I'm being honest, because I'm like, well, we do good work. We shouldn't be making any money. I'm like, girl, do you want groceries? Right? Do you want a safe place to live? And so ways to monetize your community is that you offer resources to them. Like, we always have a baseline of free, because my rule is you don't have to spend money with me to get help. But then we have other resources that we're like, hey, there's a book that might be helpful to you that I wrote. Sure. Or we've got downloadables. We have some free ones, but these ones cost. And people are like, sure. But also too, we partner with organizations that I do align with and say, I really actually do like this organization. And they give me a dollar for every person that signs up. But I use this tool or resource. And so when people come into the group, one of the best things you can do, and I wish I would have started this sooner, is you get their name, you get their number, you get their email, but then you, they. They start with a starter kit. Welcome to the group. Here's what you can expect. It's me, Tiffany. Here's all the things, but also here are my favorite tools and resources and that some of these tools and resources, certainly they pay me if you sign up, but I share them with you because I use them and I like them. So as soon as people come in, you know, they. They might do enough activity for every person that comes in, generates 20, $30 for you. And so it really can be lucrative as well as really good, good soul work.

So, yeah. Yeah. That's the powerful, powerful thing about building a community is that it's fulfilling.

Yes.

And it's also lucrative as well. You're allowed. You're able to feed yourself. I think what you just broke down there with, like the free, the content, the book is the concept of a value journey. And it sounds like you've put a lot of. That was something that you really wish that you started earlier was having an intentional value journey where people kind of came in, there were some free resources. It's a way to prove authority and value. Then you know, there's, you got your low ticket membership and then you've got your mid ticket stuff. And, and having that journey allows you to increase what we call in the industry lifetime value. That means from a single member we can go from $20 a month or just purchasing a book to several thousands. Right.

And they literally some members have generated me hundreds of thousands. Here's how that almost, almost every time I'm in working with some huge company, like some big, big, big bank will say, Tiffany, we've heard so much about, we'd love to partner with you. And you know, I've gotten contracts that are multi six figure contracts. You know, there's almost always a woman in that room who had taken my free challenge and joined the community and has been singing my praises. I don't know her, I've never met her, but she's been like, she took the challenge, she community, all that stuff was free. And she has been telling her big, big bank. Tiffany's so amazing. You have to sign up with her, you have to join. And then I'm in here and they're like, oh my gosh, I've been talking about you for four years. I remember I, I work with Ford, the car company, they gave me a car and we, I work with them for like years and years and years because one woman. So you just don't know. You serve that community, people, workplaces, you know, they have access that you're not gonna have access to. My powder donut. She, she tapped it to the CEO of a billion dollar organization. You see. And so like.

Yeah, yeah.

So I just want to encourage people because I think in a day and age where people think that they have to take in order to have that you can give and have too.

Yeah, exactly. Through community, through focusing on relationships and results. Right. The two R's. I love the term powdered donut effect. I'm so going to steal that. That's so amazing.

Go ahead.

Yeah, so there's a lot to kind of dissect there. I want to kind of bring it back to. So a lot of people in the audience, they're, they're again, they're getting started for the very first time. And what I see with a lot of new ventures is that there's a lot of resistance to. And you brought this up a little bit earlier. Monetization.

Yeah.

Money mindset stuff, which is your forte. Right. This is this is your thing. And so you know what we see at Mighty Networks the average price is $38 a month. And you know, if we even go more high ticket that could be $100 a month, you know, in the thousands of for a group coaching program. What is your advice for someone who is struggling with pricing, psychology and charging what they're worth? What do you have to say to those people?

Well, I want to like I'm reading this book now called Go Giver and which is amazing. You know, I don't have any relationship, they don't pay me no money. I just, it's a book that has just. I was already a go giver and I try to understand like okay, why are we successful? And this book breaks down five ways. But the number one thing you have to do is one, you have to create value. So it's not people are not paying for your thing, they're paying for their thing. So it's not like people don't say oh my gosh Tiffany, you know I want your book because it's yes, certainly there's a handful of people like oh we love you, we want to support but, but the average person that bought my book is because they're like girl, Tiffany Smithney, that's great. I need help. You know, will this book help me? Great. And so one, you want to make sure that you're actually adding value, you know before you're thinking about whether it should be a hundred dollars, two hundred dollars, is it valuable? You know, like is it actually going to create transformation? Are you sure about that? Have you done your testing? Are you over delivering? Like what does that look like? So that's one. But adding value is the first, the second thing that I've really learned that we were doing but I like I really pulled out from this book was that your income is going to be directly related to your impact. So impact is how many people do you to provide value. Preschool teacher Tiffany was a teacher. She provided value to 15 students a year. I made max. I started off at $39,000 a year and I capped at 50 by the time, $50,000. So that's what my value to 15 students a year generated. Me teacher Tiffany, I'm still a teacher. Budget Nista teacher Tiffany has provided value to 2 million people because I increased my impact. Same teacher, bigger impact. We're at 50 million. Do you see what I mean? 50,000, 50 million because more people got impact. So that's going to be really the key is that like what is the impact? And then how many people can you reach with that impact? And so when you're thinking about pricing, I always like people to feel like I'm getting way more than what I'm paying for, you know, so whatever that might look like to you. So I'm not asking myself, what am I worth? I'm asking myself, is it worth it to this person? Because what I want is that. So we spend like my marketing spend is higher than I'd like. It's 29% of our, of our, of the money we make goes to marketing. I'm trying to get down to like 15. Right. But the better the powdered donut, the less money I have to spend. You tell your friend I don't have to run an ad, and guess what happens? That's when people feel like, oh, what I purchased was so amazing that like I got it to my mother, my sister, my cousin. And, and so consider like, I want you to just holistically think of pricing. It's really not about you. Certainly. Yes. You want to look at how much do you need to make and what you're, you know, like what your business needs to make. But ultimately, if you provide value at a level of, of greater impact, you'll make more money. I, when I first started my literature Academy, it was $10 a month and we were making $2 million a year on a $10 a month product. Yes. And that was it. I remember, like, I just, I didn't know better, you know, like now I can't even imagine. And we were, we were, I want to say about 25 to 30% profitable. You know, I'm a ten dollar month product, so I don't concern myself as much with like, it's got to be $2,000, it's got to be $10,000. It's got to be, it has to provide over and above whatever that I think I'm charged for. I want that person to feel so good that they tell someone else. That's what I'm looking for.

Yeah, that's amazing. You know what, what comes up for me is the need to focus from being intrinsic, you know, focusing. And while that's all important. Right. Goal setting, what is my not survival number? What's my thrive number? You know, in terms of financial goals, but really focusing on the intrinsic part of this, which is the impact, the people, the value, the results. Right. And the more that I could take, take it more to an external focus as opposed to an internal.

Yes.

The money and the abundance.

Yes, yes, it will, you will price it and you know, and here's the thing, it's hard to say because ultimately the market's going to tell you what the market's going to tell you. So like, look at, you know, I don't know if you, you know, like there's this big debate over the Hermes bag. I don't know. They, they started like $15,000. These like really fancy handbags, right? Walmart came out with one that looks very close and it was also leather. $78, right? So, so what's the difference between a $78 leather bag and a $15,000 leather bag? The market will pay. So I can't tell you that an Hermes bag is not worth 15,000 people are paying it. It's worth whatever people are willing to pay. So it's your job as a business owner is to like I rolled out, like I said, the academy at 10 bucks a month and because at first I wanted it to be like 25. And when I presented it to the audience it was a big push, pushback. This was many, many, like about eight, nine years ago. And I said, okay, I'll put it on sale for 10 bucks a month. And first day out it was like, it was crazy how many people signed up, like 10,000 people signed up. And I said okay. And then slowly we inched it and inched it. So you will have to play with the market to see what the market will bear. Because I don't care what you think it's worth, if no one's buying it, it's not worth that, you know, if no one is buying your $0.01 product, guess what the market said is not worth $0.01, you know, and so ultimately, you know, like a car is a car. But why do people pay more for the Mercedes than they pay for a Toyota? Like let's be real, Toyota, Lexus, what's the real difference? It's the same company if you look inside. But people are paying for Lexus is more because they're just like there's a, they have, they have intrinsically created a value that makes people say this is worth significantly more. But is it truly? The market will kind of tell you. So I still struggle with pricing if I'm being honest, because I'm just like, you just never know. We do a lot of testing, you know that like you test and then you see what the market says and then you adjust. That's really the key.

And what's awesome about what you built is what I'm assuming is that before you test it externally with your audience, right, Bring it out to your audience, you have a safe community that you could test.

There you go.

Right? So bringing it back to the benefits of community, you have a very forgiving and loyal segment of customers who can honestly give you the feedback around pricing, you know, client success, all of that stuff.

Grace and space. That's what I say communities give you. Because when I tell you all the mess ups we had, I mean we should have been canceled a long time ago. Not canceled just because, you know, we were like, oh, we sent it out, the link doesn't work that this is it. But we tested out in our safe community. I'm like, hey community, we're going to test this thing out. I'm not really sure would love your feedback because we built this safe community. Then as a result of that, yeah, we get so much grace and space and then we could take it off to the broader world and then we bring them back in to the community. And what happens is that as you start to build community, they will take care of the new people that come in. Welcome, welcome. It's great. Here, sit here, do this. Me as teacher Tiffany, I don't even have to say as much because the students do that for me. And so you should all just be asking yourself, how can I build more? Communities are supposed to be safe spaces, right? For transformation. Like if I could describe like what is a community as it relates to your business? A safe space to achieve transformation. That's it. Right amongst other people. And so how can I create that? So I like to have communities for different things. Like we have, you know, with, with mighty networks. We have communities for, for people who want to invest. We have a business community. We have people who are really struggling financially. We have people who are, you know, make good money but they're not really sure what to do with it. So even now I'm experime with segmenting the community so people find their people and they can be on the journey similar to each other. That's how you keep people going, you know, because imagine like if you had like they had the one room schoolhouse back in the day where you're like in first grade and 12th grade in the same room. It's really hard. But it's like, okay, let's separate the 12th graders from the 11th graders, from the, from the 10th graders. So everybody, you, you're more aligned with being on the same trajectory. So that's really important. Hey Jackie. My cousin said hey. I'm like, oh. She said hey girl.

That's amazing. My mom's probably in the audience hey, Topper's mom. So to take it back to, you know, the different segments of community members that you just mentioned, you know, Hadar earlier talked about the importance of having different member success paths. Right. Per different ideal members because they all kind of want different things or there's different stages to the journey of financial education. You talked about there being a segment in your, in your audience or in your community focusing on business.

Yeah.

As a financial educator and coach, what is your opinion of. So there's investing in the S&P 500, budgeting, all that kind of stuff, lowering down expenses. Then there's also starting a business. What is your opinion of starting an online business as the pathway to financial independence, success and fulfillment?

I think it's one of the ways. So I think that the only, like, one of the most people's goal is to grow wealth. And there are multiple ways to grow wealth. And so we have the communities that diverge. Once you pass the financial fundamentals community, then we offer you, do you want to grow wealth through investing or do you want to grow wealth through starting a business? So we, we have those two because we've identified that those are the core two ways that it's probably going to be, I don't want to say the fastest, but most efficient ways to growing wealth. And so for me, I mean, it's made me a business, has made me a millionaire. You know, literally from a preschool teacher to a millionaire. And I want to say that it took. I, I stopped teaching in 2009, and by the time I was like 37, so I don't know, like less than 10 years, I became legitimately, like, not a millionaire. Like, if you add up all my things. No, like, I could see million dollars in a bank. Shorty.

What you think that's after all the expenses. That's like money in the bank.

There's seven figures in my investment account that kind of millionaire.

Right. That is amazing.

So I know for a fact that that is an avenue. So I. And it's not for everybody. That's the thing. Like, you know, entrepreneurship will beat you up. If you want to see yourself and hold a mirror to yourself. Entrepreneurship is going to show you who you are. It's going to require therapy. It's going to require self reflection because you, you are, your business is never going to be better than who you are.

Yeah.

You know, and so you have to literally grow up and be a better person. The better person that you become, the better business that you get to run and experience because you can make a Lot of money. But I know people who make a lot of money and lose the rest of life, you know, and so, like, to me, having a good business is not just, what, what's your revenue? What's your profit margin? No, it's also, how are you living? You know, do people like working with you and working for you? And so, yeah, I think to me, starting a business, you know, if you have the stomach for it, is a great way to, to grow sustainable wealth. I mean, you know, I'm always amazed at like, the opportunities I get to have. But also with business too, you get to meet other people in the space that you'll be surprised. Like, I, I do like a lot of tv, like Good Morning America Today show and things. And so sometimes you're in the green room with like, really famous people, you know, and I'm just sitting there like, oh, my God, is that such and such? And they're like, I'm like. And so business also opens up. So it enriches your life financially, but also too just like personally, I mean, opportunities, yes, so many opportunities. I mean, I've been to the White House so many times, but the White House so many times. And just like, I mean, just so many opportunities. I would not have chosen anything else. But yes, it certainly can be a path to growing wealth, but not just for you, but for your family.

So let's, let's zoom in on the entrepreneurship is hard piece. So there's this life. Have you heard of the entrepreneurial life cycle? I can walk through it, but basically it's the journey that all entrepreneurs go through. So when you first have an idea for something, it's called the honeymoon phase, right? It's kind of like a brand new relationship. You're super excited at starting it. You're like full of motivation and inspiration. And then you move from the honeymoon phase to what we call the grind phase, right? It's where you actually go into what it takes to build an online business, right? Yeah, the setting up stripe account, setting up, you know, all the logistical things. And it's like, this is actually a little bit hard. And then what happens is that people then end to what we call the valley of despair. And unfortunately, this is where 99% of entrepreneurs stop their businesses. It's. It's the business graveyard. But the thing is, is that if you just give it more time, more energy, try, you know, have the guidance, you know, do the right things, you can then move to what we call the upward spiral. Right? So it's moving from a place of Moment from. From a valley of despair to momentum, and then after the upward spiral is success and fulfillment. So for you, you're in the success and fulfillment stage, and you've gone through the ups and downs of a business. What was the mental frame that you embodied throughout the grind and valley of despair phases? Can you walk me through? What would you say to your younger self?

Honestly, it took a while that. So one of the things that I had to learn. I remember I had read some articles some years back about how do people go from millionaire to billionaire? Like, what's the mindset shift? And it said something like, the way they embrace failure. Like, what does that actually mean? Like that. That they did the study, and billionaires actually welcomed it. Oh, yes. So glad. Because it gave you the opportunity for growth. And I remember thinking, like, I think I read this in, like, high school or. Or. Or college. I remember thinking that I wanted to be a person, not necessarily a billionaire, but I wanted to be a person that I was not. Failure didn't kick me in the stomach. I welcome knowing when something was wrong because that meant I could fix it. You know, that I'm like. So we did our. Our annual challenge. We made six figures in profit. It was great. My team was so stressed out because so many things went wrong with the tech, whatever. And I was like, duh, it was supposed to. And they're like, oh, I don't get it. I'm like, first of all, it's January. I want to know what doesn't work. I want you to think of every new idea you have. Like, you're building a boat. You chose the tree. You cut the tree down, you hollowed it out. You. You waterproofed it eventually. How do I know if this boat is okay? You have to put it in the water. So this is essentially. We put this new boat into the lake, and guess what? There's a leak here. There's things here. This thing. That's the intention. I was so happy we found those things, because better that now than when we go for a cruise and we're in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Like, now we're just finding the leaks. But do you see that shift in mindset from oh, my gosh, things are wrong to oh, my gosh, yes, we found the things that are wrong. So that was the shift, because I definitely wasn't the despair. Like, girl, just get a job. Just get a job. Just get a job. And I was like, no, no, no. I think I just do it. I mean, I was renting a room in my 30s, I had to move back home with my parents. I was struggling so bad. I was negative 300,000. I was $300,000 in debt because I lost my condo. I had credit card debt, student loan debt. I slept on my sister's couch for a year. At that age, I was like, 33, 34. So I was grown, you know? And then I was like, by like, 34, I was renting a room for $500 a month, and I was struggling to pay that. And it was like, go get a job. The budget niece is not working. I was like, just one more year, you know? And then that's when it clicked to me where I just was like, are you, like, what things are going wrong? How do you embrace being happy about those things so you can fix it? The thing you should be afraid of is when you can't figure out what's wrong. Meaning that, like, everything seems so perfect and I'm not moving. If year by year, there is no growth, something's wrong. That's what's wrong. Like, something should be shifting year by year. Now I embrace the mistakes. I want to know, because I realize now that 500 mistakes saved me 5,000. That $5,000 saved me for 50,000. I think about that. That's what I tell myself. Like, I'm like, oh, you just made a $50,000 mistake. Oh, that means that in the future, it's going to save you from a $500,000 mistake thing. Okay, $50,000 is so bad. Then that's what I.

Yes, gladly.

You have to, because if not, you will do this, which is so unhealthy. And I've been there. Blood, blood pressure up 30 pounds. Up unhealthy. And I just was like, so, because the business is not going to get easier. You have to get better. So that's the thing. Like, I. The budget is not easier to run. I'm just less stressed about it because I also understand the ups and downs are part of it. When I was a kid, Topra, I grew really fast in high school, so much so that my joints couldn't catch up with my growth. And I had the legal. Like, not the legal, but the medical terminology. I've had growing pains. I didn't know that was, like, a real thing. Like, I literally had crutches. And so until I could. My joints could catch up. And so now I think to myself, oh, growing pains are an indicator of. Of growth. So if this is happening, we're in a painful. I actually get excited when we're in A painful, painful position. 2023 was a very hard year business for us, and I was. I definitely was down in the dumps about it. But then I was like, wait, wait, wait, there must be growth on the other side of it. Okay, well, I'll take this temporary pain because we're taller, Tiffany. As a result, on the other side. And sure enough, 2024 was much better. In 2025, we are seeing astronomical growth. I just taped a special for PBS and they told me it's going to go to 50 million households. But guess who's ready? Because in 2023, the things that we were struggling with are what we had to get together. Then I'm like, oh, that's why. Because I'm about to be in 50 million households. Had that struggle not happen, I wouldn't have fixed it and we would not be ready for 50 million people to come. See, when my Netflix special came out, I did not fully understand how many people were going to come and we were not ready. But this time around, we had our growing pains. And now when those 50 million people come to our site and our tools, they will be joining community, they'll be getting my digital courses. We are ready for them. But it did not happen without that friction before. So welcome that friction.

Reframing friction to feedback in order to fuel the next evolution of the business.

Alliteration. Reframing feedback. Okay.

Bar.

That is a bar.

But, you know, when, when we reach different levels of business, right, like your, your first six figures, what got you there isn't going to get to the next million. There's different. First six figures is the hardest.

Yes.

So walk me through that actually for you. So you mentioned, you know, you did a $10 membership. It got to $2 million in revenue. But let's even go a little further down that. Yeah, walk me through the process of reaching your first six figures. And what was the vehicle to that? What was the product? What was the pathway?

So first six figures is just you basically. You know, I didn't have anyone. It was just me. And you have. It's, it's. You can brute strength your way to first six figures. But it took me almost five years to get to six figures. And it was just like I was doing speaking engagements, I was doing curriculum, I was doing, you know, and so it was like, I just was. I didn't have my online school yet. It was a lot of Tiffany having to put the work in. And I remember thinking, how can I possibly get to a million? Because how many more Tiffany's Do I need to be? Because, you know, I want to say year five, I hit $150,000 gross. I took home 50. I was making 50 as a preschool teacher, you know, So I was like, I'm just not getting to the preschool teacher, you know, Like, I was like, I don't know if this is. I what worth it. That was the valley of despair. I was like, I don't know if this is worth it. I'm killing myself. And so then I had said, so the first, I wouldn't say your first six figures is just are you willing to put in the work? That's the test. You, you, you talk about a topra you, you bout this life. That's what that first six figures is to te is really to get you prepared to. If you're not about this life, it's okay. There's a job is great, you know, and then to get to seven figures, the shift that I had to make was I had to shift and allow. I had to build team because I had to learn that like, you cannot do this all yourself. So it took me, it's funny, five years to get to six. Two years to get to seven figures.

Yeah.

You know, and I was like, because I had a team and I said, okay, Tiffany, but I still was working my behind off. And I was like, okay, you have a team, you get to seven. But I'm like, how do you get to eight figures in a year? So I was like, if we get to a year and a half later, we got to our first $10 million. And that shift was I had to learn to let the team do their work. I said to move out of the way and to be more efficient with my team. And so that was. I had to actually learn that at that 10 million dollar a year mark, I actually had to learn to work less to go deep versus wide because I was chasing every lead. Every could do this, we could do that. And we were exhausted.

Yes.

So it's like you have to learn to work hard. And I thought that working hard part in the beginning for six figures, I had to. It had to look like that always. It was like, no, no, no. Are you about this life, working hard? Then can you bring other people on board and learn to lead them? Then can you actually work smarter, more strategic? That is that eight figure. I haven't gotten to nine figures yet. I mean, I don't know, maybe one day, but you know, and so like, it's okay.

We'll do a part two of this interview.

Right? But those were the lessons that, like, it was. Truthfully, it wasn't. It was certainly, yes, tactical things. But I have to honestly say, the way I went from six to seven to eight figures was a mental shift. That was all it was. I had to shift mentally. One of my favorite. His name is Jim Rohn. I'm sure so many of you guys have heard of him. He's passed a long time ago. He's like. He was like the Tony Robbins before Tony Robbins. So he's got a bunch of YouTube videos where you can watch him talk. He's. He's a. Basically like an inspirational speaker, right. And coach and stuff. So I love to watch his videos. When he was a young man, his mentor told him, jim, I want you to try to become a millionaire. Not for the money, but for the man it will make you. And so what he knew was, is that in order for Jim to become a millionaire, that there was going to have to be mental shifts along the way that you cannot get to here without changing here. And that your success is locked inside your head and your heart. So whatever is holding you back, I promise you, it's not externally. It's not the political system, it's not the law. It's not that. Nope. It's literally, it is locked inside your head and heart. And the better you get to know yourself, the better you get to figure out whatever it is. I always think of my life as like playing a video game. I'm stuck on this board. What is it that I'm missing? You know, like, oh, you don't know how to ask for help. Okay, I gotta learn that. Oh, you don't know how to lead. Okay. You don't know how to set boundaries. Okay, you don't know how to rest. Okay. If I get stuck on a board for too long, I'm asking myself, oh, you're stuck on this board, Tiffany. What is. What's happening here? Because we haven't moved. And so it's me, you know, like, how do I get to know myself better? And then. But you're always. You're never. There's no such thing. The boards are never ending. Like at, you know, at eight figures now. It's like, so what I'm asking myself even now, why am I stuck? I won't say stuck. I mean, who's mad at 10 million? You know? But what is the. You know? But, like, what is it? If I want to ascend to the next level, I'm realizing that for me, one of the things was I need to share in leadership. So I actually brought on bringing on a co CEO, because there are things I'm really, really, really, really good at. And I'm realizing that I actually need to chop off even more of the work for myself and to only do what Tiffany's good at, which is this. Like, I could do this all day long. I'm like, I want to look at the damn numbers. Like, if I got to, though, I'm like, okay, after this, I'm like, all right, let's look at the marketing meeting, and let's look at the financial. But do you see if, like, I see the comments. Y' all are loving it. Right? Because this is what I do. Like, what I. I call the razzle dazzle. Right. I'm like, leave me to razzle dazzle. I will bring all of the. The things home, but then someone else has to organize the strategic plan behind. I've been doing it, but it's not something that I do as well as somebody else.

Yeah, you. You have to focus on being the. The powdered donut bakery.

Yeah. Yeah.

You know what I mean? You've got to. You know, you are the CEO. You're the visionary. You're the. You're the original source of the mission.

Yeah.

And so you have the. You know, the next opportunity for me. For you, going from seven to eight, is learning to kind of actually remove yourself from parts of the business that you could be good at.

Yeah.

But also, there might be other people who are better at that, and you could focus on that one. So. And that requires a lot of trust.

You know, I'm. I'm a nervous Sally. I'm like, what you doing? What's going on? People think I'm so. Because I'm so, like, likable that I'm easy breezy. I'm anxious. I'm like, what. What's happening? What you say, what you do, what you. And so my team is like, all right, girl, you. You got it. And I'm like, you're never gonna grow. Let them people make the. Make the choices. So, yes, I. I'm recognizing what I'm really good at, carving out the rest. So. Because if I'm free to fly, imagine what I'll bring back. How many PBS specials? How many Netflix specials? How many, you know, like, if I could just focus on that and just say, bring it home. And then everybody else chops it up and prepares the meal, then we're cooking with grease, you know?

Mm. Zooming into the first six figures part where, you know, the focus is on you getting Your name out there being visible.

Right.

A lot for a lot of people. That's. You know, you said it yourself, the first six figures are the hardest.

Yes.

There's a lot of imposter syndrome that might come up. Right. You know, fear of failure, which you said you had to change your relationship with failure. Right. What else do you do? What other advice do you have for people who are stepping into kind of their own limelight and overcoming their imposter syndrome to then make their first six figures in their online community?

Well, I'll say this, is that you have to just. You get to decide. Everyone doesn't have to be like, I'm a razzle dazzler. That's just. I mean, this is not just me putting on. Everybody knows. Second grade, third grade, I always said, Tiffany talks too much. Like, now I get to talk too much for a living. But that is. But the, The. The third. Remember I said the Go Giver book that, like, the third component is authenticity. If you are quiet and measured and be that, like, it'll be a group that is attracted to your quiet, measured ways. Do not try to be what you're not. You know, I remember, like, if you look back at my old, old, old YouTube videos, oh, man, I was really putting on because I was like, hello, my name is Tiffany. Knowing me now, it's like, that is not Tiffany. But I thought this is what. How I had to show up, you know? And so I remember what happened once, like, that I slipped up one day because. So my stepdaughter's name is Alyssa, but Alexa used to always think, like, you know, the, the whatever. That Alexa. That listening device in your dag on house. Like, so I was telling Alyssa, Alyssa, close the door. Because I was doing a live. And Alexa was like, what do you need? And I mean, while I'm live, I'm like, not you, Alexa. Alyssa. Alexa was like, yes, what do you need? And I was, like, talking to you. Then I looked, I realized I'm still alive. I sold my real stuff and the comments blew up and, oh, my God, you're so hilarious. And it was like this, like, mental shift. Like, why have you been hiding yourself? You know, like, if you actually. My. My. One of my mentors told me that greatness is polarizing you. I actually, I want someone to watch me and say, she's not for me. Great. I want to push that person away, because then you are actively pulling the exact type of person that's going to love you towards you, and that is a person that's Going to support your book and your digital course and your. And your. And your. And your. I. I want a. A community full of raving Tiffany fans. I don't want anybody who's there who was like, oh, Tiffany's too much. Yes, you're right. Bye. We wish you well, you know, and that's okay. So you don't, don't, don't mind being polarizing, but the only way you can do that is to truly just be yourself.

Own your authenticity.

Own your authenticity. That is one of the core things that you can do, you know, aside from building value, creating impact. How many people can you serve? How can you be authentically you? Because we all, as human beings, have this unique ability to feel when people are being themselves. It's like, I am human. Nothing human is alien to me. I know when you're not yourself, you're not you. Have you ever get secondhand embarrassment when someone is doing a speech? You're like, oh, my gosh, this person. Person is bombing because.

Right.

You can feel it. You're like. You feel the anxiousness and you try to smile. I'm the one who's, like, trying to smile in the audience. Like, you're doing good, you know? Right. So when someone is not authentic, you feel like, what are they hiding? Something is wrong. So own that. It's. Oh, you don't have to be big and bubbly. Whatever you are, be that, and people will find you.

So. Right. People will find you. And typically, in this business of being a creator, being a coach, being an, you know, community host, it's is that we are typically attracting a previous version of ourselves. So the more that we can align our messaging, the way that we show up on camera, the way that we are to who we truly are, authentically, the more that we build a business that has the foundation of the right alignment.

Right.

So really beautiful. Awesome. Cool.

I feel like, look at Tabitha Brown, right? Super country. Super. I mean, Ms. Tabitha is just like, hey, baby, that's not for everybody, but the people who love her, love her, and she is slaying it, you know, like, yeah. I just want you to just know. And also, too, if I would end with this, I just want you to remind yourself that, you know, because you're human. Ask yourself, how would I want to be treated? What.

What.

What communities am I a part of? Why do I like them so much? What is it that's drawing me here? Not the surface. Like, oh, she's nice. No, no, Dig deeper. How do you know she's nice? How does she illustrate that. What does that mean? You know, because you get to pull out those lessons and say, how do I show up in that way? You know, Because I promise you, you don't have to. You know, I read a lot, you know, but oftentimes the answer is already here because you are experiencing the world as a consumer, as a community member. You know, bring that goodness back to your people. If you put your people first, people purpose, then profit. If you do that, you will do well.

Wow.

Wow.

Amazing. Well, thank you so much for being vulnerable, for sharing your journey, sharing your experience, having amazing sound advice for all of the people who are getting started. I want to give you a chance to share any additional last second kind of feedback or where can people find you as well. What would you like to share with the audience here?

I'm the budget Nista everywhere. I don't TikTok much, but I am on Instagram, so go ahead and follow me there. Yeah. And if you're wanting, like, I have, like, so, like, if you really do want to get good with money, I'm like, I'm doing my ban of black. If you do want to get good with money, it's available at get good with money dot com. But honestly, yeah, just. Just start now. You know, like, whatever you think, whatever you're holding back for, it's. It's never going to be the. The. The perfect time was yesterday. The second perfect time is today. Okay. You know, lure your community in, give them something to do. And. And don't despair in humble beginnings that if there are five people, treat it like it's 505 people. Don't want to feel like. Like, you know, don't want to feel like, oh, it's only us. So she's not giving her best? No. When I first started speaking, I remember I used to do libraries. Sometimes it'd be me and the security guard, and I'm like, whatever, I'm gonna pop out, you know, and so, you know, give your best to the people that you serve best. And so I can't wait to see what your communities develop into. And Mighty Networks is such a great tool we've been using. We just keep expanding to add more and more communities. So you're in really good hands here.

Amazing. Well, thank you so much, Tiffany. Thank you again for your time, for your energy, for your enthusiasm. It's been such a pleasure. I could see the chat blowing up. Everyone loved your session. If everyone can drop a fire emoji and send their waves over to Tiffany, thank you so much.

Now. You're welcome. Topher, it was great meeting you.