Service Based Business Society Podcast

Welcome back listeners to another exciting episode of the Service Based Business Society podcast. Today, we're thrilled to have a very special return guest with us. Brie Sedano is back in the studio. For those who've been with us in season two, you may remember her from episode seven, and we're super excited to have her back on the show.

Tiffany-Ann: Brie is an innovative founder of Cash Confident, formerly known as Sheep To Shark. Starting her career as a conventional financial advisor, Brie quickly realized that the money problems most people face aren't about having too much to invest, but rather navigating the complexities of loans, credit cards, and what she calls the disappearing money syndrome.

A strong advocate for women in finance, Brie understands that smart, successful women often face unique financial challenges. She's not here to preach about cash envelopes or waiting for you to live your life until you're debt free. Instead, Brie offers practical, real world advice to help you take control of your finances.

Today, Brie is here to share her insights on how we can all break free from financial stress and live a life not dictated by our bank accounts. And really, who doesn't want that? Whether you're feeling overwhelmed by money matters or just looking for that next step towards financial freedom, You're in the right place.

So let's dive in and get ready to be inspired. Brie. Welcome back.

Brie Sodano: Oh, it is my delight to be here, Tiffany. I love it. Thank you.

Tiffany-Ann: Super excited to have you back. It was such a great episode when we had you on the podcast earlier, and I feel like life and business and everything has just carried on and fast forward since then. So I'd love to hear a little bit about what have you been up to, you know, life and business-wise since you were here.

Brie Sodano: Ah, alright, so life and business wise, so I mean, my daughter graduated high school, so that just happened a few months ago.

Tiffany-Ann: That's a life milestone and a half.

Brie Sodano: I know, it makes you really feel some kind of way actually, it's like, oh I have like a whole grown up. It's um, a little weird, cause they're not really like a grown up, you know, she's still a kid but,

Tiffany-Ann: Yeah.

Brie Sodano: She's at least got grown up status, you know, like voting rights and shit.

Tiffany-Ann: Right.

Brie Sodano: like, that's happening, my husband's business is doing well, and then in my business, I started a podcast in June which has been going really well and I've been so enjoying it and actually I will have guests soon. I didn't start with guests because it just didn't seem like the right thing to do for me.

Tiffany-Ann: And you have the gift of Gab, so you had plenty to chat about and I hear your podcast has been doing very, very well.

Brie Sodano: Yeah, it's going well. So when I'm ready for guests, which will be next year, I'll invite you on to talk about all the nerdy things. And then I have the book.

The book has been a very long time coming. And, uh, it's actually just with the publisher now in it. So I expect it to be out late next year.

Tiffany-Ann: Books, courses, anything like that. A lot of them, it's a journey. And we start out with these ideas and we've actually had a couple of different people, um, on the podcast. We've had some super successful ghostwriters. We've had some people who talk about entrepreneurs publishing a book. And it always sounds like, it's smooth sailing, but I feel like any of those to do it well to really pour yourself into, it's a journey.

Brie Sodano: Yeah.I didn't have an easy time with the book. I did not. The book was definitely a labor of love, and I, um, at least like 12 times during the process, I was like, you know what, this is stupid. I probably shouldn't even do it. And even, I still have like a couple of loose ends to tie up, like, as the publishing is starting. And still I find myself wanting to be like, fuck it. Nevermind. I don't even really want it that bad. Like that's the truth. I feel a little embarrassed to admit it, but you know, it's just like, like it drug up every one of my like insecurities to like be dealt with one at a time, you know? And so it was like, "Oh, who are you to write this book?" which was like, not that big of a deal, but then it was like, "well, your writing isn't really that great." Even though that's not even true. I'm a jazzy writer, you know, and then like, I'm not good at finishing things, which was actually fairly true. And like, there was just so much just like internal resistance around it. Even though I mean, I really didn't want to write the book. I really did do the thing. Like, I really did want to put these ideas all together, but sometimes I just nitpick myself to the point where, like, I've destroyed my own happiness in a thing. I don't know if anybody else does that. If anybody else here?

Tiffany-Ann: You know, I've never heard it phrased that way, but I think, yes, as you're saying it, I think, yes, it absolutely can happen.

Brie Sodano: I mean, I'm not even a perfectionist. I would never identify as a perfectionist or with perfectionism. Like, I'm generally good enough is good enough and we'll, we'll just get it done. But this was like all of my work and I really wanted it to be something cohesive and you know, when you're reading the book, you don't get as much of, I don't know, I guess my personality. I feel like sometimes I probably just like get away with a little bit more than whatever because I'm like easy to like. You know, people like me. I'm easy to like, I make a lot of guesses. People are amused by me. And so in the book, I don't know if that comes across as much. And so then I'm like, "Oh, is this going to be, are people gonna be able to follow this? And is this going on the right order? And should I organize this a different way? And does this story demonstrate the point clearly enough?" And yeah, man, that was it. I mean, I just picked myself apart, uh, with it through most of the process. I mean, I'm excited about the book and I'm proud of the work that, that's done. I'm proud of the work that came about. And honestly, I think in writing the book, I'm going to be a better teacher. Like I can see where sometimes, I guess like I get off on a tangent or a little funny story or something like that and itmakes things hard to follow, you know what I mean? Like, so sometimes like just, just having to list things out in a way that was super succinct and really clear. I'm like, "Oh, oh, I bet actually this will help me improve" along with all of the like judging up the insecurities and having to really like look at them and walk with them. Like, I feel like I'm already a better entrepreneur because of this. And now I'm an author, which is kind of badass when you say it out loud. Um,

Tiffany-Ann: Super badass.

Brie Sodano: Yeah, but I didn't have the easiest time with the book. It wasn't a smooth sailing process for me. It was like a start and go, a stop and finish. Crying in the basement to my husband, who's like, what, why, just write the book, just what's happening? Why are you crying about this?

Tiffany-Ann: I think it's hard to do, you know, it's a marathon, not a sprint. For sure. And when you were talking about it being cohesive, I find that even in business, because we're learning and growing, and I talk a lot about how, you know, it's the information era and, you know, you can't go anywhere. You know, I go to my kids sporting games and parents are chitter chattering about, have you seen this? And this new thing and, and this is saving time and whatnot. You go on social media, you do this, you, and so there's all of these things and we grow. The problem is we're growing so fast that things aren't always getting finished and we haven't even given it a fair shot what we started with. And so you're like, you know, Oh, we were, we were down this path. And then even before we got to the end, we like jumped over here. And so we end up with kind of like all of these different things and it, keeping it cohesive, bringing it back together and actually hitting pause sometimes in our mind long enough to say, how does this fit in is hard.

Brie Sodano: I agree. I agree. Great point.

Tiffany-Ann: Yeah, it's, it's one of those things where it's sorting through you know, it might be amazing, but is it amazing for you and sorting out some of these things and bringing it back together? One of the things we do with the podcast transcripts is we use some AI to summarize some of the key points for social media topics and, uh, different blog posts and pull some ideas and, and whatnot. So we take the transcript and you know, pull out some different educational pieces. And one of my solo episodes that we didn't end up running, once we summarized it and saw it in points it went through, I was like, "Ooh, there's a couple stories that aren't super cohesive, cool stories and maybe they support a different point." and I had a plan. But when you look at it, when you stand back, it was like, "Hmm, that doesn't necessarily support that." And so we used it in a different way. But it's interesting. That keeping it cohesive on a long term project.

Brie Sodano: I actually think that was like the bulk of the issues. Cause I, I mean, I guess I will just admit this to all your listeners. So recently I was working with one of my coaches and I just found this like really big pattern of like insecurity that kind of runs through my life and what's so interesting is after I worked on that and I kind of cleaned that up for myself I was teaching one of my regular courses like I was you know, like I run my courses live inside of my community and I could like see all of these places where there was extra stuff in there that was basically all with the undertone of like, "Please think I'm smart enough to be able to help you," it's just interesting because the content for the book is the content that I've been teaching for a long time. So none of this was new creation. It was all fine tuning things that I've been teaching for the last decade. And just in bringing all of these things up and kind of going back through my work, like I could see all of these places that were just like, riddled with excess kind of off topic stories that were basically saying things like, "please like me and please think I'm smart enough." and like, that was like the energy underneath it. Even though, all of that work was fine, it's just like, "Oh, we're really jamming a lot into this. course here." And so in doing the book, I had to really like look at that and be like, "oh, like sometimes less is more."

Tiffany-Ann: Mm-Hmm .

Brie Sodano: And I think that's one of my really, really big takeaways from doing this book. And then even having to go back and like really reexamine all my coursework, you know, for things that I've created, it's like, "oh, some of this is just like unnecessarily cumbersome." Like, I'm just trying to do too many things at once. And I mean, that's the thing that I see with my clients. You know, it's like you see somebody's got an offer to make more money and then all of a sudden they're like bonuses and like here's how to fry a chicken the best way possible and you're like, huh,

Tiffany-Ann: Totally.

Brie Sodano: Although I do like to fry a chicken. Tell me more. Um, so that was the thing where it's like, sometimes when we are unaware of our insecurities, we just, make things so noisy. And in the process of writing the book, that was probably actually some of the, like, the mindset or just the resistance jam up was like, "Ew, now I have to do all of this extra work because I see what extra crap I have in all of these places."

Tiffany-Ann: Yeah, it's tough to examine. The longest piece of writing that I have done in, in any kind of structured format was my dissertation for my MBA. And I will be honest. It almost killed me. I've never been that overwhelmed with how far I had left to go with the deadline. I ended up finishing, I left corporate in April and then I, my dissertation was at the, due at the end of September. So in my mind, I'm like, "I quit my job. I'm not going to get started on my business. I'm not going to take it seriously until my dissertation is done." And I think I underestimated how leaving my partnership that I've been in for over a decade was going to affect my mind and I didn't just like go from corporate to dissertation. It took me a little bit of like, "I can't believe I actually left. Am I crazy? I might be crazy. What am I doing? I have a mortgage to pay." I mean, I got bought out of my partnership. I was financially fine, but in my mind, I'm like, "hold up. What did you just do?" And so, you know, it took, probably six weeks of like I don't even know what I did for that six weeks. I can't even remember. And then I was like, oh yeah, dissertation. My husband's like, "are you going to get started on that?" and I was like, "oh yeah, it's for sure. No problem." I never had to push for something that mattered so much on a specific deadline that I was like, oh, I mean, I, I've written a lot of papers. I've done a lot of different things, but that was. That was like nothing else.

Brie Sodano: Yeah, the deadline. I mean, I waited to really, really get the bulk of the work done until, uh, September when I had an October 1st publisher's deadline. So. I feel you there. Well, I do like a little time scarcity. I do enjoy a deadline. You know, some people like to work way ahead of their deadlines and I'm like, no, no, no, thank you. I want to wait till that deadline is nipping at my heels. That's the exciting part for me.

Tiffany-Ann: I feel like I used to be the person who liked to work ahead and it's funny I think that just like life and reality showed me that that wasn't always realistic and then you almost just get used to you know, it's the same thing. I used to be a zero notifications on the phone kind of person and now I'm like, yeah, I mean, it's fine.

Brie Sodano: I mean. I have my clients in one place that I check regularly, but I may be a person who's got hundreds of unread text messages, hundreds of whatsapps and I'm like, what does that even say about me? I'm probably bad at being a friend or some other things, but it's just like so much. It also doesn't take long for that to happen. Like if I leave my phone fully unattended for a day, I'm coming back to, to messages at least in the dozens, maybe not hundreds, maybe not in one day. Well, maybe I don't know I have some whatsapp chat groups like where there's a group of people and then then it's really easy for that to really get into the hundreds and then for you to feel like, " well, never mind. I'm not going back in there. I will just start again tomorrow."

Tiffany-Ann: Well, I think you know, as entrepreneurs, because we work with, you know, and as people have moved to more outsourcing and working with coaches and working with, you know, virtual support and all of these things, everybody's got like their own platform. Everybody's got a different way they communicate. And, you know, like some people are like, "Oh, our team works on Slack and some is Google Chat and stuff is here." And the problem is if you just say yes to everyone, "Oh yeah, I can like download that app." You end up collecting all of these things and, you know, you're supposed to be adding certain things, outsourcing and what not to simplify, to save you time. But when you end up with too many places for incoming messages and emails and this and that, you spend all day checking them. And so we have to find ways to say, "no, like my team operates on this platform or this task management system or what not," and start to say like, I'm decluttering. We've become very ineffective when we're just going in circles.

Brie Sodano: Yeah. No, I agree and I'm to some extent most of my business stuff is on Whatsapp. That's really where the vocal the communication happens.

Tiffany-Ann: Yeah.

Brie Sodano: And even to the place where I think about having an autoresponder like on my emails like listen, I hate emails. So I'm going to do my very best to answer you. It's probably going to take a couple of days because I'm avoiding your message. No, I wouldn't say it that way exactly. That's probably the truth. It's just like, I will read an email and it's not generally the place that I go into immediate response with. And so sometimes I just forget about them. And then there's so many that come in.

Tiffany-Ann: Yeah.

Brie Sodano: That I'm like, "oh. Uh, I think I had an email to respond to, but I know I lost it. I don't know where it is." Wow. I'm really sounding probably like a hot mess. I'm like effective. I run a successful business. I'll say.

Tiffany-Ann: I know. you do. So let's talk about the coaching programs and what you got going on. In this book, it's coming out next year. What are we learning all about?

Brie Sodano: So that book is really a practical money management strat. Like it's really for practical money management. And the reason that I wrote it is because so much of the conventional wisdom around money is so scarcity based. And it's so, it's not expansive. It's not growth oriented. It's really smallness. It's like pinch your pennies and make your own. A lot of washing soap and you're like, what, like the other day I was on Pinterest and I read like 100 ways to save money on Pinterest and I'm like, this is 100 ways to waste your time. The article could have been written the exact same way. Also so much of the conventional wisdom around money is really psychologically incongruent to the way that humans actually make decisions. So the book kind of starts with like how to like look at our spending and how to get our spending under control and how to start to spend congruently. And so we walk through some techniques around how to like call spending back. Like, so if you're spending money in places that are not aligned, that don't feel good, where you maybe feel some buyer's remorse. You know, that sort of stuff. So I teachthe same stuff that I've done with my clients for years. And a lot of it is counterintuitive. Like a lot of it is like, well, don't go to two or three different grocery stores to buy the cheapest granola, buy whatever granola you want, but like at one store. Because then we spend less time, less energy, less money. And it's things that like, when you're really thinking about it in dollars and cents, they don't make sense. But when you're really thinking about it in terms of all of our lives resources, it makes way more sense. And I think that's a place to where it's like women today are literally doing the amount of work that it took two people to do 50 years ago. And I think that's not addressed in the money management space at all. Like women today are holding down careers while feeding the kids, while watering the plants, while drinking enough water, while being the sex goddess, while keeping their marriage reasonably happy, like while keeping the house clean. And it's just a tremendous amount of stuff. And so when we're trying to use all of those like 1950s adorable little money saving tips, it's like, yeah, those are money saving tips for somebody who's not also working eight hours a day. This is someone who's got the time to stretch into to like, you know, make her own curtains or whatever. Which, I mean like, if you know how to make curtains. Send me a message. I feel like I have some that could be upgraded, So that's a one piece and then the next bit of the book I mean, we walked through debt strategies and how to untangle like the habits that get us into debt and how to start shifting our, our habits into being somebody who could be permanently debt free and then we work through systems, like how to set up not just budgets because budgets are plans and plans are adorable and everybody loves an adorable little plan. But like, the thing is, is like, we don't need plans that need to be constantly updated and constantly checked on that need all of this work in the spreadsheet realm to make sure that we can stick with it. We need systems, something that like the system will support us when we had a hard week and the system is there for us and we can check in on our system and see where we are and be able to look at that and have clarity relatively easily. And for most of the people that I've worked with, budgets just don't do that. And that's not true. There are people who can manage their budgets really, really well. And I guess my book probably just isn't for them. I mean, if they've already got something effective, well, then carry on. Sometimes I get emails, people like, "I love my budget. You're the worst." And I'm like, "well, great. Okay. Just so you know, there's 96 other people that struggle with that, but really good for you. You should write your own book." Um,

Tiffany-Ann: Managing money and budgets and whatnot. I feel like, you know, there's a small percent of the population that does it very, very well. And then the rest of the people all want to be better. I don't know anyone that just is like, nah, like I don't care. But it's, it becomes a very daunting process because like you said, you know, you have the best of intentions. You lay out the plans, but then things start to fall apart when life gets busy or whatever. And then, you know, that, that typical kind of like, well, I know it's not what it's supposed to be, so I'm going to ignore it until I can fix it.

Brie Sodano: Yeah. And I think that a lot of the money conversations out there are really judgy and often really quite unkind. Like some of the big people in the space, like even say things like, "Oh, that was a stupid choice." Or Wow. You're being really stupid." Like I've heard these on major, major podcasts. And that is one fantastically unhelpful for helping people make change, but also what I've come to find out through all my like years of research is that most of the money advice is really simple on paper, but it's really psychologically incongruent to the way that humans actually make decisions. And so when something works really well on paper, but not an actual decision making there's this dissonance that happens that makes it daunting and really difficult and things where we try and we fail and we try again and we fail but like one of the things that's like that's a core important aspect of money management is trusting yourself and if you've tried and failed and blamed yourself for it 56 times. It's not helpful. It doesn't help with that. You know, and then we go through some of the money mindset stuff and I explained some of these more nuanced, see, like just understanding the way that like our subconscious mind works and when it comes to making decisions and how to stick with this stuff. I think also, I'm hoping that this is like one of the takeaways is that women have some permission to spend some money on like the supports that they actually require, like a conversation I have, especially, especially with entrepreneurs is like being like, "Hey, if you can, once you can afford it, get a housekeeper, get somebody to cook some of your meals or get a VA to answer your emails," because those kinds of things, like when we get those off of our plate, we're so much better, we're like supported, we're able to have a bigger impact. We're able to make more money. Like it frees us up to be able to do, the things that we're really like made to do. And also while simultaneously supporting somebody else's business, you know, like your housekeeper has a business or you know, the chef or food preparation company has a business. And so it helps to like really be in that flow. But that's a place where women really, really struggle because they like are like, "Oh, well, I could definitely do it myself." And I'm like, "well, yeah, like you're definitely capable of it. But you can make way more money and have more success if you didn't do it all on your own all the time, you know," and then this sort of stuff also plays out like in our marriages. Like there's a lot of women seething with resentment towards their men. And it's, it's a common thread. It's not something that you hear about and it's not something people are talking real loud about, but I'll tell you, it comes up in my meetings a lot where people are so resentful about working and also carrying the mental load of the entire financial picture, you know, and then not allowing themselves even a hundred dollars to get a housekeeper or whatever. It's just like your life could be so much better if you would just have a little bit more permission to use your money, supportively. Because then if they don't, they end up like buying takeout with the same money anyways, because they're so exhausted at the end of the day.

Tiffany-Ann: Totally. I've said to my husband, we're super, you know, I work way too much. I love what I do. Um, I absolutely love it. And that, that definitely drives it, but I do work way too much. And, my husband, you know, I, I always say it's not like, you know, in the old days where one person worked lots and one person was at home and everything was taken care of. My husband also, you know, he's super successful, amazing, does great things, also works crazy hours, but we have three kids. And so when I was in corporate, we had a full time nanny. She worked 11 hours a day, housekeeper, grocery delivery, someone cut the lawn and did all those things. Because I was at the office and so the shift when I, when I left there and went into the like, well, you're going to start a business and you're supposed to be thrifty and like I, I left my job and so you take back some of these things but then you think, "Oh, I can do it a little longer. I can do it a little longer." And then all of a sudden you're like, "Oh my goodness, I, I can't. I can't do all of these things." And it is a huge, a huge burden. My, my mom is not super domestic. My grandma is very domestic. And so I often say, hey grandma, like, how did you, how do you? And my grandma always says, she goes, dear, I didn't work. I took care of, like, I, you know, because she breaks bread and does these things. And I like doing those kinds of things, but like, I have no time for this. And so, and every time I always say, "Grandma, can you teach me how to do that?" She's like, "nope. She's like, but I'll bake you a loaf and I'll bring it over." I'm like, "oh, grandma," like it's nice because you know, like I, I just, I don't have time for that.

Brie Sodano: Well, and it's nice just to be seen for like the truth of the capacity that you have and somebody being like, I see what you're doing here and I'm not adding my apple to that cart. No, thanks.

Tiffany-Ann: Yeah.

Brie Sodano: I'll just bring you a snack over. That's like a sweet story.

Tiffany-Ann: Yeah. My grandma called not too long ago. My grandfather passed. It'll be two years at Christmas time. So she's lonely now. And so, she called the other day and she says, Hey, I've made dinner and, and I don't know when you're, or we have so many kids sports and stuff. I don't know if you guys will be home. I can just leave it. And I said, no, no. I said, we actually will be home. Why don't you eat with us? And it was so nice. I was almost in tears at dinner because it was just so nice to just have her be with us and, and have dinner and not have had to stress about what we're going to make and the mess and this and that. And I was like, grandma, this is just so special. And she was like, it's just dinner. And I was like, no, you don't understand.

Brie Sodano: Yeah, I feel that. I feel that. Yeah, my mother in law usually makes me dinner for my birthday and I'm always like, thank you so much.

Tiffany-Ann: It's so special. It is.

Brie Sodano: Like it's like a thing because usually I'm the one that takes care of that. So it's like a thing that like comes off my plate and is for me. So it like feels really good.

Tiffany-Ann: For sure. For sure. So when it comes to um, you know, managing the money, what would you say are a couple of the areas where you see people, you know, not making, as you say, you have people making their stupid mistakes, but where are you seeing people that, you know, are either holding the stick too tight, like they're just like trying so hard, but it's working against them, or they maybe just don't see the bigger picture. They're trying. It's not a lack of effort. It's just a lack of understanding.

Brie Sodano: So the thing that I see kind of a lot and I'm going to do my best to explain it, but it's more like when I'm trying to grow and be a person who's expanding, who's earning more money, who's personally growing, who's taking on more capacity, but I'm trying to manage my money in a way that's smaller and tighter and more constricted and more restricted.

Tiffany-Ann: Right.

Brie Sodano: It's just two opposites and it's like, so one, if you really restrict your cash flow and you really do a great job of saving, like you can get rich that way. I don't recommend it because even if you're rich, you'll still be tight, but you can do it. You can get there that way. And if you keep your focus on making more money and investing smartly into your business or into other investments or buying assets, and increasing your spending, you know, and I'm talking spending like staff, you know, supports, things like that, you end up with a bigger and bigger capacity to make more money, so one of the places where I see entrepreneurs kind of doing things that don't make sense is when they want to be in that growth place, but they want to be using their money like they're gonna be pinching pennies and it's like, well, if you want to grow and expand, then you've got to get your money to grow and expand. If you want to be tight and constricted. Well, then cool and great, but then you also have to be tight and constricted and you're not, you're going to have a real painful time growing and expanding if your money is wrapped up tight around you like a pair of super tight pants with a super tight belt, and it's not really like something that's super actionable, but I think it's really worth looking at and seeing because it comes up kind of a lot, where it's like, Oh, that realm of thinking of money management. It's actually not the money management that I need. It could work. It could work. It's not that it doesn't work. It's just that it doesn't work for growth and expansion. So if you want to be growing and expanding, you've got to have your money in that kind of trajectory and not in the, let me pinch my pennies and not hire a VA because I could do it myself. And like, not hire a bookkeeper. I'm like, when somebody says like, oh, and then not hire a bookkeeper, I'm like. Uh huh, huh. Like, that doesn't sound like a money saving endeavor there, friend, but that's kind of like the issue.

Tiffany-Ann: So, now, what happens when you have people, whether that's a business partnership or a personal partnership? where you have misalignment. So maybe you have one person who's like, hey, we're expanding, we're going, this is great. And they have a counterpart that's like, whoa, we are saving, we can't spend like this, what are we doing? It causes friction. So how can people work through that?

Brie Sodano: So what I generally suggest is getting on the same page about life goals, business goals, before we even have the conversation about the money, because we can have that conversation in a relatively clean headspace where we're going to be like, all right, let's look at our vision. Let's see where we're going and that can be relatively clean. And then once we start bringing the conversation to the money. You know, all of our junk comes up, right? Like all of our upbringing comes up. And if you have a spouse or business partner who has a different upbringing than you, different philosophies, different investment experience, all of those things, that's all coming to the table with them, right? So it's like them and their little bag of crap. And so then we can start looking at the bag of crap and being like, all right, well, does this little piece of bag of crap help us move in this direction? So let's just say you're going and expanding your business and we can tell. All right. And in growing and expanding our business, we're going to need a team of 10. All right. Well, then that means we're going to have to hire somebody. So, and then somebody is like, oh, well I could do it myself and save a dollar. And then I'd be like, Hmm, but that doesn't match our vision, you know? And it becomes a little bit more like having a real North star. That's not financially related. Cause it also just puts the money in the place of being a resource and not being the goal, like one of the worst things that we do in business is have money be the North Star, money be the goal. And it's really just because you could get there so many ways.

Tiffany-Ann: Yeah.

Brie Sodano: Right. This is like if I'm on it if somebody was like, "Great, make me a list of a hundred ways I can make a million dollars next year." It wouldn't take me long. I could come up with a ton of ideas for how to do this. And so then it's like, well, which one is the best? Well, how would I know? And that's the place where if money's the North Star, so many paths open up that we lose a lot of clarity on what we actually want. And it's always like, you're always going to have the easiest time in business, doing the thing that you want to be doing, doing the thing that brings you energy, doing the thing that brings you joy, doing the thing where you can feel a sense of fulfillment, because then there's an emotional nourishment that comes with your work in addition to like the real life, you know, paper, money coming in, which is also important. So when we get super, super clear. The vision and what we're creating in the life that we want to have first, and then we start looking at the money as the resource for how to do that, it puts, the discussion in the right order.

Tiffany-Ann: Right. Well, I mean, it kind of comes back to our beginning conversation about there's so many options out there and you almost get lost in the options and it ends up preventing moving forward in any one direction.

Brie Sodano: Oh, yeah, you guys missed this because we were gabbing before we hit record, but I was talking about marketing and I've done a ton of classes and masterminds and I've been trained by like really fantastic marketers, like people who are brilliant people charging $50,000 a day for one on one consulting. And what it comes down to is like, they're so brilliant and they make these recipes and these recipes work, but I hate their recipes. Like when I actually try them in my business and I hate them, but it's like, you know, this is a launch recipe, and I'm like, ew, writing 20 emails makes me want to stay in bed forever. You know, or like, doing 56 lives. I'm like, I don't want to. I want to, I want to do a live, so it's just funny, like, some of the things that like everybody's looking for like, Oh, how do you do this? And how would it work? And it's like, if you just pick all the things that you really, really want to do and you just stick with them, it works. And then you have your recipe that you can sell on the internet that other people can buy and then figure out how to tweak it so it fits their life. But it was like, I tried bouncing around from so many, like strategy to strategy to sales page recipe to sales, and I was like, I hate all of this. And then I figured out how to do it on my, like my way. I like my way and my ways are reasonably effective to my audience and it feels better and it feels like less work, even though I'm pretty sure it's the same amount of work, but it doesn't feel as hard.

Tiffany-Ann: You know, it's interesting because I mean, my business exists in the online space and you know, I was in a very like, let's go to lunch, corporate space, very different. And so you get into the online space and I am not, um, you know, you talk about being super likable and outgoing and like when I started, I was like, "I will never go live. I would never have done a podcast. I will never do any of these things." You grow and you develop and you learn and you do all these things. But that definitely is not where I came from. And so, you know, I, I started with King to learn these pieces and learn this and learn that and all of these things. And ultimately I put so much weight into the fact that, you know, being online and sharing all these things and how to share and all of these things and a few months ago when we, we got hit with this scammer and basically anything that was online, they would attack immediately. And I was wasting so much time trying to like block and delete and report block and delete like ridiculous. And so I said to the team, lock it down. Don't delete anything, but like, basically we want to be an online ghost. And my team is like, but we're an online business. We can't be an online ghost. And I said, I don't have time for this right now. I am done. We're going to, you know, just hit pause. We're going to hide everything. And the following month, we actually tripled our sales. We were so busy, calendar booked out and it was interesting. Obviously, you know, we are going back to doing some, but I didn't feel pressure to immediately turn it back on because I was like, hey, we're still actually super busy. And this was not as important as, in my mind, I had made it out to be.

Brie Sodano: Yes. Yes.

Tiffany-Ann: The spammer said, "We will destroy you online until you don't have a business unless you pay us." They're literally posting online and emailing me at the same time. "We will stop and delete it if you pay us. Here is the link. You need to pay us. We will stop." And I'm like, I mean, I'm Canadian, but I, every American movie tells me that we say we do not negotiate with terrorists. And I'm like, I am not paying you any money because you'll just be like, okay, well now you need to pay us more. And I'm like, if I pay you once, this is game over. Like sometimes I could just pay to make a problem go away. I was like, I'm wasting time. I need it to stop. But I was like, I don't think that paying is actually going to make this problem go away. It's going to make it worse. And so I was like, no, and they were like, you will not have an online business. And I was like, okay, but guess what? We're still here. We're doing great. And

Brie Sodano: What happened Tiffany-Ann? When you made yourself a ghost, did they just go away? Did they just like get bored and move on to somebody else?

Tiffany-Ann: So every once in a while they email and say like last chance. And I'm like, okay.

Brie Sodano: Oh my goodness. Um, not that we should bust the chops of digital terrorists, but I just feel like you should just see if they have a Black Friday sale coming up. Maybe don't do it. That's not financial advice. That was just me being a jerk.

Tiffany-Ann: It's crazy. You know what, the first day it happened where all of these things, so they had taken like pictures, like snapshots of our profile, put like X's on them and been like, you're a scammer and anywhere I had commented on someone else's post online, they would like go and like put that picture there and be like, "she's a scammer. Don't talk to her. Don't deal with her." And people who I had, like, never met, or I had, like, talked to online a few times, or, like, had been following, or, like, whatever, so many of them are like, "Hey, I don't know what's going on here, but this is, like, not an appropriate place for this, and, like, I don't know anything, but you seem like you're maybe not someone I would ever deal with," but about them, and I was like, "Oh, thank you!" Because it was, it was very stressful in that moment.

Brie Sodano: Yeah, that is super stressful. I'm with you, that is hard. That's hard.

Tiffany-Ann: But it's funny, you know, in our minds, we put these weights to certain things. And it's often in the mind more than anywhere else.

Brie Sodano: Oh yeah, I like to call it when I'm working with my clients, a logic trap when we're like, all right, well, if I'm going to make this much money this month, that means I'd have to sell this many of this programs. And that means that I would need that number times a hundred to get onto my sales page. And that means that I would need this many people in my audience and I don't have this many people in my audience. So then what? Then what? I can't meet my goals and blah, blah, blah, blah. Sometimes the mental space can just be like a really, really hard place, especially if you're like coming into things like, "Oh, I need to do it this way, or I need to follow this recipe." That's like, well, maybe you could just take the major ingredients of the recipe and make it your own. That's like a mark of a successful business owner. When I see people being like, Hmm, how do I want to do this? And not just always like taking the next course or listening to the next guru or, you know, even though like we should get help when we need it. And like when we really don't know how to do something, but I think at certain points in business, all of those extra techniques become really heavy and cumbersome. And I don't know, not really lucrative either.

Tiffany-Ann: It's important to take the parts that work for you and just take the rest and don't even give it mind space. There are some very talented people out there. And I agree with. Like, like, passionately agree with and support and use like a handful of their things. And then there are other things that I'm like, yeah, definitely that wouldn't work for me. Because there's these pieces, you know, especially in marketing, certain things like being able to convey, sell and attract in a 59 second video clip is an art form. And as the space has gotten more and more crowded. It's like to be very successful at that. You have to be very good at it. The average person, even if you use the exact same words, the exact same camera, it doesn't land the same way. And so, you know, you have to know what works for you and realize like, these are the personality attributes I have. These are the, you know, talents I have. These are the tech, this is the team. And, and how can I use some of these strategies and things with what I have and combine them together to move forward?

Brie Sodano: Yeah, yeah, actually I'll share this. Sales pages were a spot that was like super pinchy in my business because I was using this very like Russell Brunson, and listen, Russell Brunson is a great marketer. Brilliant. Brilliant. Brilliant. But, um, I was using his recipes of like breaking down these belief structures and like mentally arguing with people in my sales pages. And then I was like, this is so exhausting and I hate every second of it. So I started just writing a sales page. That's like, this is the name of my offer. This is what my offer is. This is who my offers for. This is why anybody would give a crap. This is the kind of results that you would expect. This is the level of transformation that you could expect from doing this work. And there's no belief breaking. There's no objection overcoming. I'm like, here's what it is. If you want it, buy it. If it's not for you, if it doesn't feel right, don't buy it. You could still be my friend. There's no like mental manipulation and it's so clean and it makes my sales pages go from like, 12, 15 pages to like one or two pages and it works better. Our conversions like skyrocketed when we started doing it that way. And I'm not suggesting that anybody else do it that way, but it was just a thing where I was like, Oh, I just don't like this anymore. I've done this before and I just don't want to do it this way. And so then in doing it, it's like, I make more money, but it costs less work and it's happier and it helps me get super, super clear on exactly what my offer is and exactly like why anybody should do it. And it's just so much more joyful of a way to sell.

Tiffany-Ann: That lesson can be applied to everything, whether it's you know what you choose to outsource, the way you write your sales pages, whether or not you have a pattern on your Instagram feed, or you don't. Whether you share certain things, whether you share three times a day or three times a week, it has to be in alignment with you and bring you joy because if you aren't happy and enjoying what you're doing, that is conveyed you know, and to go the other way and have it all done based on a formula and whatnot. I think the only way to do that very successfully is to have enough money to actually have paid the people that are so talented at those pieces to do that, but when we try to like do things that aren't really in alignment with who we are, you can tell.

Brie Sodano: Yeah, 100%. So I hope that at least gives your audience some ideas. And I will tell you, Iprobably needed permission to do that. Like somebody needed to be like, well, listen. These recipes are like really great ways, but like you could just take the major ingredients and go with that. Like I, for the longest time, I just really rate myself over the coals being like, well, my mentor gave me this recipe and then she had this kind of launch with this recipe and she wrote the 28 emails and I felt like when I think about writing 28 emails, I. I do not wanna write 20 emails. What's that? Is that a book about 20 emails?

Tiffany-Ann: So I got this as a thank you at an event I did. It was a Dan Lok event, super successful online space. The book is called Multi Million Dollar Campaign. The top 100 emails and Instagram posts that built a global empire. He shared them all here, step by step, what it is, what it isn't. A couple of years ago, I was like, Oh my gosh, I can take this. I can just doctor these up to be me and hit go. I mean, the guy's like raking it and I started and I was like, Oh, but that doesn't really, I would never say anything like that.

Brie Sodano: It's real brassy. Right? It's like a more brassy tone.

Tiffany-Ann: I enjoy his content, but I, from me to speak it, it would be out of alignment. People would be like, I don't know what's going on here, but this doesn't feel right. And so it's interesting. I look through it every so often when I'm stuck. I'm like, maybe there's something in the blue book. And I'm like, no, no, it doesn't, it doesn't do it for me. If everyone did it the same way, it wouldn't be fun. So.

Brie Sodano: No, it would be weird. Super weird.

Tiffany-Ann: Where can people find you, Brie? You talked about being in the community. Where's the community? Where will the book be available when it comes out? I can't wait. Waiting for my copy.

Brie Sodano: So I'm Cash Confident Community on Facebook and Instagram, in YouTube. So if you were to look at Cash Confident Community, and then I also have a community that's called the Cash Confident Community. So you go to cashconfidentcommunity.com. That is a paid community and it's not open all the time. So depending on when this airs, it may or may not be open, but you can sign up for the wait list if you want it to be inside of the community. And then the book will be in all of the places that one would be able to buy books, all the bookstores and online book retailers, so when the book comes out, I mean, we'll do a whole big fiasco and you will certainly, we'll certainly get you a copy, Tiffany.

Tiffany-Ann: I'm super excited. I, I honestly can't wait. It's one of the things I enjoy doing. Like a good actual book, like reading the book is one of my passions. So, and the podcast. The amazing podcast. I'll drop it, I'll share the link, but say the name one more time just so people can find you.

Brie Sodano: It's the Cash Confident Podcast with Brie Sodano. I think it's on all the places. It's on Apple and Spotify and several others.

Tiffany-Ann: It's incredible how many podcast platforms, I had no idea until we created, like did the podcast that I was like, I've never even heard of some of these places, but there's a lot of them. So thank you so much for being here, Brie. It was an amazing chat and can't wait for the book and all the best in the book journey.

Brie Sodano: Thanks. Yeah. It's my pleasure. I love being here with you. Thank you.

Tiffany-Ann: Thank you.