The Money Expert: How To BREAK The Poverty Cycle & Be A 9-5 Millionaire | Budgetnista

Tiffany Aliche 0:00 I always say if you can make 20, you can make 200. If you can make 200, you can make 2,000. If you can make 2,000, you can make 20,000 because it's cumulative learning. So if you don't start with that 20, you're not gonna get to that 20,000. If you're looking for a side hustle, then you're gonna look for the skillset that you can monetize as quickly as possible. I call it simple and soon. What can we get up and running, like, in 48 hours? If you're at your current job now, are you making yourself ultra valuable or are you complaining, "I hate this place"? Which I can understand. You can hate this place and still make yourself valuable so you can get paid more or get paid more someplace else. You know, we have a lot more power than we give ourselves credit for, and so many people leave so much power on the table. And when you leave power on the table, you leave money on the table.

Calum Johnson 0:39 69% of households have less than $1,000 in emergency savings. What do you see as, like, the main reason why people are underwater, or they feel such a pressure when it comes to their finances?

Tiffany Aliche 0:51 Well, one, I would say that-

Calum Johnson 0:53 Okay, one thing before we get into the show. I just want to say a huge thank you. Eight months ago, I said that I had this crazy goal of hitting 100,000 subs on this channel. At the time, I had 600, and I did not imagine that the show would take off in the way that it has. And let me tell you, this last year has been an absolute rollercoaster. There's been so many ups and downs, but here's been the one consistent thing. I want to keep making this show better for you, so here's the deal. Please subscribe to the channel, and in return we're gonna continue to scale the production, scale the guests, scale the marketing, every little aspect of what we do to make this a better show for you. So please subscribe. Help us hit that 100K dream. And back to the show.

Calum Johnson 1:44 In 2019, you signed a law, or you helped sign a law in New Jersey that made it mandatory for financial education to be integrated into all middle schools-

Tiffany Aliche 1:53 Mm-hmm

Calum Johnson 1:53 ... in New Jersey.

Tiffany Aliche 1:54 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 1:55 And so I wanted to start by just explaining to anyone that's listening-

Tiffany Aliche 2:00 Mm-hmm

Calum Johnson 2:01 ... what's the value in their life of being good with money?

Tiffany Aliche 2:06 So I was fortunate to grow up learning about money at home. So my mom kind of taught us the practical components of money, like, so both my parents are Nigerian. My mother's a master at, um, negotiating. Like, she's not paying full price, even if it's Macy's. [laughs] You know? Um, and then my dad was a CFO and an accountant and had his, um, bachelor's in, um, finance and his master's in economics. And so we just learned about money, my sisters and I. It just was a, a, like it wasn't something that we thought about. It was just something that always came up. You wanted to buy something, they would always be teaching a lesson about money. Um, and for me, what it did is that it built a foundation where I was not afraid of money. I was not afraid to learn. I was not afraid to navigate. Um, and it created a space where, like, the knowledge base started early. I knew how to budget. I knew how to save. I knew how to dig my way out when I made mistakes. And I thought, "Well, what if other kids could have what I had coming up?"

Calum Johnson 3:06 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 3:06 Like, how different would that be? Um, and so at the time, um, my friend, her name is Angela V. McKnight, she was an assemblywoman, and, uh, she had taken one of my financial education classes. Um, and then she got appointed, um, or elected assemblywoman, um, in Jersey City, and she said, "My first order of business, Tiffany, is I want some sort of financial law or bill. Can we talk about it?" And I said, "Sure." And so we started meeting and I told her, you know, as a former school teacher, this is what I think it ought to look like. And so we start to put together some of the words, meet with, um, other stakeholders, like superintendents and, and teachers and things. And it took, uh, just about three years, and the bill got presented and voted on, and it passed. It's, um, um, law A1414, the Budgetnista Law. And so it wasn't, honestly, um, Calum, it wasn't until ... 'Cause you know, you do a thing, but sometimes it doesn't absorb. It wasn't until my neighbor Rihanna, I was hanging out at her house. Um, she has a daughter, Olivia, who is in middle school, and she was doing her homework. And sometimes I would help Olivia with her homework. So Olivia was struggling, and Rihanna said, "Why don't you ask Ms. Tiffany to help you?" And so she go, "Sure, sure, sure. Tell, show me." I was on the couch. And I was like, "Wait, you, you have money homework? Why are you-- [gasps] You have money homework." Oh my God, that here, Olivia, who I love so much, this little girl, is a direct recipient of that work. She was doing financial education homework, and that's what I was helping her with directly because of the law I passed.

Calum Johnson 4:37 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 4:38 And so now Olivia gets to get what I got, and hopefully she will be able to be even better than I am now.

Calum Johnson 4:43 Mm. That's special. I love that you called it the Budgetnista Law as well.

Tiffany Aliche 4:46 Yeah. [laughs]

Calum Johnson 4:46 It's like paying it forward. You know, it's, it's interesting because I think financial literacy and people not feeling comfortable or, like, confident in their finances is such a huge problem.

Tiffany Aliche 4:59 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 5:00 There was some-- I wanted to read out some stats, actually.

Tiffany Aliche 5:03 Okay.

Calum Johnson 5:03 So a 2023 survey found that 78% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. Another stat: according to the Associated Press, 69% of households have less than $1,000 in emergency savings.

Tiffany Aliche 5:17 Mm.

Calum Johnson 5:17 A final stat: according to CNBC, 34% of all Americans have $0 in savings.

Tiffany Aliche 5:23 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 5:23 And so when I, even just when I read out a few of them, and there's more, like there's tons and tons of stats like this where when you read it, it's alarming.

Tiffany Aliche 5:31 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 5:32 And even for me personally, like I've, I've had so many moments where I'm like, "I don't know what to do with this financial situation." And so to me, it almost feels like a systemic problem.

Tiffany Aliche 5:41 Yes.

Calum Johnson 5:41 Like it, it feels like such a widespread problem. And I know from what you do with the book and your programs and the events that you go to, you speak with so many people-

Tiffany Aliche 5:53 Mm-hmm

Calum Johnson 5:53 ... that have these issues.

Tiffany Aliche 5:55 Yes.

Calum Johnson 5:55 That they're part of these statistics.

Tiffany Aliche 5:57 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 5:58 And so when you reflect What do you see as, like, the main reason, what stands out as the biggest reason why people are underwater or they feel such a pressure when it comes to their finances?

Tiffany Aliche 6:11 Well, one, there's just a lack of access to culturally aligned information. You know, because there's so many books out there, and try reading them. You're like, you have to have, like, a doctor degree in economics to understand many of these books, right? And so I started The Budgetnista, and why I wrote Ghetto with Money is, like, can I create a manual t- a money manual that you don't have to have, have graduated from Harvard, you know, summa cum laudes in order to understand. So one, it's like, is there access to education? And more and more it's become more accessible. Social media, with all its flaws, has created accessibility to financial education. Not all of it's good, but at least it's accessible. Um, and now if, if you were to ask me now, the truth of the matter is even with financial education, um, things are so expensive.

Calum Johnson 7:03 Hmm.

Tiffany Aliche 7:04 Things are so expensive. So for example, um, from 2000-- from 19, uh, 80 to 2020, college, the expense for college has gone up 180%. Now, wages have not gone up 180%, so how does one afford college? Imagine how much homes have gone up. They have not kept track with wages, so, so how do you afford a home? You will hear somebody's great-grandma say, "Well, when I was your age, I bought a hou-" Yeah, Grandma, it was $2. You know what I mean?

Calum Johnson 7:35 Yeah.

Tiffany Aliche 7:35 Like, compared to what you made. You were making 10 and it was $2. Like, I literally got a, an email from a woman yesterday that said, "I am a physician's assistant," and I don't know what her husband does, but she said, "I make 175," which is good money. "My husband makes 80." That's $255,000 a year. "I live at home with my mother-"

Calum Johnson 7:57 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 7:57 "... in California. Will I ever be able to move out?" In what world is $255,000 not able to move out? She lives in San Jose. She wants to be able to buy a home. I said, "What the hell?" Let me see. How much money, I Googled how much money do you have to make in San Jose, California, in the Bay Area, how much money do you have to make in order to afford a home? Do you know it said $454,000?

Calum Johnson 8:20 Wow.

Tiffany Aliche 8:20 What does that mean?

Calum Johnson 8:21 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 8:22 That your household income has to be that. The average home where she lives is $1.3 million. So I thought maybe she's being irresponsible. No. This woman is making good money, and good money is not good enough. And so I think that's the new issue, is that good money is not good enough, and that's a problem that has to be solved. To me, that's a social justice problem.

Calum Johnson 8:42 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 8:42 Because you do all the things, you go to school, you make all this money, and inflation, the economy has made it where it's just not good enough. So something has to be done that's beyond a budget and save.

Calum Johnson 8:54 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 8:54 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 8:55 You know what? I think when you explain that, you're exactly correct.

Tiffany Aliche 8:59 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 8:59 And it leads to this feeling of, like, hopelessness.

Tiffany Aliche 9:01 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 9:02 Because it's not even necessarily that I screwed up all of these things and I got all of these things wrong and, you know, my life just didn't turn out as it, as it should. It's like I actually got the things right.

Tiffany Aliche 9:12 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 9:12 I got the job. I got the degree.

Tiffany Aliche 9:14 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 9:14 Everything was correct, but it's like everything around me has changed, the economy, the environment, the housing market, the job market, inflation.

Tiffany Aliche 9:23 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 9:23 And I think people just feel like so many things are out of their control.

Tiffany Aliche 9:27 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 9:27 And so later we're gonna get into, uh, how can, how can someone be good with their money-

Tiffany Aliche 9:35 Mm-hmm

Calum Johnson 9:35 ... in, in today's age and what that means, even if they're starting from nothing. But to begin,

Calum Johnson 9:42 I wanted to kinda go into your story.

Tiffany Aliche 9:44 Okay.

Calum Johnson 9:44 And you spoke about, you know, you had these kinda early money lessons.

Tiffany Aliche 9:49 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 9:49 These are lessons that kids in middle school are now learning because of your law.

Tiffany Aliche 9:53 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 9:53 You had that built into your home.

Tiffany Aliche 9:55 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 9:56 And so can you kind of explain some of that? If I wanted to understand your early context with money and finances, what are some of the kinda key experiences I would need to know? Okay, quick break. One of the most annoying things when you watch business content is you hear these great ideas about how you can make more money or start this amazing side hustle, only to find out that in order to get started, you need to invest 10,000, 15,000, even $20,000 first. I remember I found it so frustrating because I didn't have that when I was getting started with my business, and that's why I'm so excited to introduce the sponsor of today's episode, our friends at the Premium Ghostwriting Academy. Now, the academy was founded by Dickie Bush and Nicholas Cole, two people that we've actually had on this show before, and they've built successful ghostwriting businesses to over three million dollars in revenue. And using what they learned, they've helped hundreds of other people build their own ghostwriting businesses. And now they're giving away a free five-day email course to help you build a profitable ghostwriting side hustle. And here's the key part: without any upfront investment or having to build an audience online first. You can get started right away. And it's gonna teach you how to find and land high-paying ghostwriting clients and charge premium prices, even if you've never ghostwritten for someone else before. And the thing that really I love about this program is that Dickie and Cole made it so easy to get started. And here's the key: when you get started, you build momentum, and when you build momentum, you achieve outcomes you never even dreamed of. So go to the link in my description, sign up for this free five-day email course. It's gonna get you started with ghostwriting. And thank me later. Now back to the show.

Tiffany Aliche 11:53 Probably, um, there's a few things that I remember, and some things I remember remembering because I was so young. So my first memory of money ... was, I probably was maybe four or five. Um, so I grew up in a household where there's five girls, so I'm one of five, and my parents, and so we didn't have much money. Even though my dad was an accountant and my mom was a nurse, with five kids, it, it doesn't go as far as you think. So we were probably lower middle class, maybe even lower than that if I'm thinking back on it. Um, and during the summertime, we, we-- I mean, every child that I know of loves ice cream. And so in order to mitigate the cost of ice cream, my dad would do an ice cream day, which meant that on your day, you could get a dollar. Everybody else had to come inside and get ice cream from the freezer. You know, but so he wanted us to feel special, like, "Oh, the ice cream truck is here. You know, I'll give you a dollar." Um, and so my day, I'm the second born, um, was Tuesday. And so we're playing outside, I hear the ice cream truck, I run inside 'cause I know if I don't know anything else, I know today is my day. Um, but I also had a water issue where I used to love the sound of running water. I was feng shui before feng shui was a thing-

Calum Johnson 13:03 Mm-hmm

Tiffany Aliche 13:03 ... apparently. Um, and so I used to literally turn on the water and, like, if you turned it off, I mean, I don't know if you're familiar with, like, toddlers. They-- I mean, you think you're tough, they're tougher. So if you turned off my water, it's gonna be a problem in this house. [laughs]

Calum Johnson 13:18 [laughs]

Tiffany Aliche 13:19 And so my parents were like, "What do we do? Tiffany, like, we cannot afford for Tiffany to have the water running, and then she has a meltdown every time we try to turn it off." Um, and so my dad figured out very quickly that he had to make what mattered to me matter to-- what mattered to him matter to me financially.

Calum Johnson 13:35 Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Aliche 13:35 I don't care about the water bill. What does that mean when I'm four or five? What I care about is my ice cream. So I go in for my dollar. He said, "Uh..." So my dad is Nigerian. My Nigerian Igbo name is Edochi, so this is what my parents call me. So he said, "Edochi, ah, you just missed the water man." And I was like-- I'm sure I was like, "Sir, I don't know what you're talking about. The ice cream man is about to leave. That's who I'm worried about." He said, "No, I had to give him one dollar because every time you run the water, we have to pay him." And I was like, "I'm sorry, what?" He said, "Yes, and I didn't have any money. I only had your ice cream day dollar." And I just remember being like, "I don't, I don't understand." And he's like, "Yes, every time you run the water, it costs money," what is important to him. And I didn't have money, but I had your dollar, what's important to me for ice cream.

Calum Johnson 14:25 Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Aliche 14:25 So now all of a sudden, guess who stopped running water?

Calum Johnson 14:27 Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Aliche 14:28 Because instead of, like, bullying me into it, I was like, I could self-police because I'm like, if running water means I can't have ice cream, child, turn the water off. So I had a meltdown, you know, cried myself to sleep, but I never ran the water unnecessarily again because I knew it meant that I might not get ice cream the next week.

Calum Johnson 14:45 Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Aliche 14:46 And so that was one of my earliest lessons, and, um, and it just stuck with me about that money does not care about, you know, like, what you choose. You just have to be more mindful of, like, what's actually important to you.

Calum Johnson 15:00 Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Aliche 15:00 You know? Like, are you gonna choose water or are you gonna choose ice cream? You know, so we all have these choices. So even in these really hard times, you know, we have choices that we can make when it comes to our money. What are we gonna choose? So I chose what was aligned to me, which was I wanted to be able to have ice cream, but in order to have that, I had to make another choice external, which is I have to be smarter with the way I run water.

Calum Johnson 15:22 Yeah.

Tiffany Aliche 15:22 And that's what it looks like to make financial choices and how you make wi-wise financial choices that align with you now.

Calum Johnson 15:28 Hmm. You know, it's interesting. It's such a, a relatable example. I have, uh, a number of siblings.

Tiffany Aliche 15:33 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 15:33 I know one of the things, um, in our household, and it, like, frustrates the hell out of my mom-

Tiffany Aliche 15:38 [laughs]

Calum Johnson 15:39 ... is leaving the lights on.

Tiffany Aliche 15:41 Yes.

Calum Johnson 15:41 Like, you leave the house and, like, the lights in the bedroom-

Tiffany Aliche 15:44 Uh-huh

Calum Johnson 15:44 ... the bathroom, everything's been left on.

Tiffany Aliche 15:46 Yes.

Calum Johnson 15:47 And it's like your dad did such a good job-

Tiffany Aliche 15:50 Yes

Calum Johnson 15:50 ... of making it relatable to you.

Tiffany Aliche 15:52 Yes.

Calum Johnson 15:53 Of making you feel the pain of what that is.

Tiffany Aliche 15:55 Yes. Yes.

Calum Johnson 15:56 Um, I'm kinda curious, when you were, when you were younger growing up, because you even mentioned, um, one of five kids, there wasn't, like, a ton of money going around. How aware of that were you? Because I think when we're kids, it's kinda just our life. We, we don't think about, oh, I got money, and then the family down the road has more money, or we're rich, or we're poor and they're rich.

Tiffany Aliche 16:23 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 16:24 How aware of kind of your standing-

Tiffany Aliche 16:27 Mm

Calum Johnson 16:27 ... financial circumstance were you at an early age?

Tiffany Aliche 16:30 So I was, like, aware in a meta sense, but not aware externally because, I mean, you live in a neighborhood where everyone's house is the same size as your house. All the other kids-- I mean, I remember there's certain things that we didn't have. There was a girl down the street, Danielle, she was an only child. Well, she had an older brother, but he'd since moved on. Um, she was basically an only child, and so she always got the Barbie Dream House and things like that, and I remember thinking, "Hmm, we-- I don't-- we don't get those things here." So I was aware kind of of that, and Danielle always had really cute clothes. My mom was-- she also sewed. She was a nurse, but she knew how to sew. My grandmother was a seamstress. So sometimes she would make our clothes, and I noticed that Danielle didn't have that. But what I also love is that Danielle was generous, that when she outgrew them, I couldn't wait for her hand-me-downs.

Calum Johnson 17:14 [laughs]

Tiffany Aliche 17:14 I was like, "Don't mess that up because in two weeks that'll be mine." [laughs] So I was, like, aware that we didn't have, but I was also aware that there was still a way to have, if that makes sense.

Calum Johnson 17:23 Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Aliche 17:24 So it didn't make me feel bad not to have. Um, and I also remember because my dad would bring up money, so if you wanted something, again, he would always tie it to what, you know, what, um, what was important to him and to me. So for the lights, he would say, he would put the light bill on the dining room table, the one from the month before and the current one, and he would highlight, you know, like, it went up or it went down. And if it went down, he would put money into a jar for vacation.

Calum Johnson 17:52 Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Aliche 17:52 And so now we're all incentivized, turn off the daggone lights. I wanna go to Disney World. You see what I mean?

Calum Johnson 17:58 Yeah.

Tiffany Aliche 17:58 And so we, I was aware of money and how it related to my life as a kid. Like, if I want to have these things, these are some of the external choices that we have to make. So I was aware that way, but I also was aware that we didn't have as much, but it didn't mean that we didn't enjoy as much, if that makes sense.

Calum Johnson 18:14 Hmm.

Tiffany Aliche 18:15 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 18:15 There was still joy in the home.

Tiffany Aliche 18:16 So much joy. Like, I mean, you have four sisters. I mean, I had such a good time. I lived on a kid block. Like, for e- every sister, there was someone who was her age.

Calum Johnson 18:24 Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Aliche 18:24 And so everyone loved to play at our house 'cause there were so many kids there already, and it was a really safe, like, time. And so we would just be running up and down the block, going in and out of each other's homes. Like, my parents, you know, didn't, couldn't necessarily afford for us to have, like, a, a crab bake or, or crab boil, but I remember this girl, Dari, um, her parents could. And so when they had crabs, we'd all go over there and eat. But on Sundays, my mom made us pancakes, and I remember my friend Caroline and her brother, um, used to come over every Sunday because his mom didn't make pancakes. So he was this little boy who spoke no English from Colombia, so he would just say hola and just wait outside, and we would open the door, and Eddie would just be sitting, having pancakes with us.

Calum Johnson 19:04 Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Aliche 19:05 And so there was so much joy, and there was this communal sharing.

Calum Johnson 19:09 Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Aliche 19:09 And to me, that truly is become the answer to the question that you'll probably ask me about what, what does it look like?

Calum Johnson 19:16 Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Aliche 19:16 And community is one of them.

Calum Johnson 19:18 Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Aliche 19:18 You know? Like, how do we solve this issue? And so it just goes back to community. You cannot do this alone.

Calum Johnson 19:25 Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Aliche 19:25 You know?

Calum Johnson 19:26 I think that's so important, is that, you know, obviously we're gonna talk about money, and there, and there's a reality to the world.

Tiffany Aliche 19:31 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 19:31 Like, it's just, it's a bit nicer when you have money.

Tiffany Aliche 19:33 Yes.

Calum Johnson 19:34 But it's actually the things that a lot of the times we're already born with it, you know? Like-

Tiffany Aliche 19:39 Yeah

Calum Johnson 19:39 ... community, family, people that we love being around us-

Tiffany Aliche 19:42 Yes

Calum Johnson 19:42 ... is actually more important. It's more meaningful.

Tiffany Aliche 19:45 Yes.

Calum Johnson 19:46 Um, I'm curious to understand, like, what were some of your aspirations-

Tiffany Aliche 19:52 Mm-hmm

Calum Johnson 19:52 ... at that age? Because I, I know for me personally, when you're a

Calum Johnson 19:57 kid, you start to have, like, these dreams of, "I'm gonna be a singer when I grow up."

Tiffany Aliche 20:00 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 20:00 "I'm gonna be an entrepreneur," or something that you saw on TV.

Tiffany Aliche 20:03 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 20:03 You're like, "I wanna be that person." What was kind of some of the drive? Like, what was the motivation? What did you wanna be?

Tiffany Aliche 20:09 Um, I always wanted to be a teacher, which I became. You know? I wanted to be a teacher because I was bossy. I can't say I'm not bossy now.

Calum Johnson 20:17 [laughs]

Tiffany Aliche 20:17 I'm bossy everybody at my church. [laughs] I was bossy. Um, and plus too, I really loved to-- I was a chatterbox, so I loved that if I knew a thing, I loved sharing it. Like, I'm like, if I knew a thing, I wanted you to know a thing too. Um, and but I remember very early on, I got the sense that a lot of people would know my name. You know? I just remember literally, I had, I remember having kind of like these awakening moments when I'd be riding my bike, and I just would have these moments when I'd be like, "One day, a lot of people are gonna know your name, Tiffany." You know? I remember especially, like, maybe starting in middle school and in high school too, I had this weird m- um, series of years where every time I met someone's grandmother, you know, they'd be like, "Oh, this is your d-" You know, "Grandma, this is my friend Tiffany." And they'd be like, "Baby, you know you gonna be rich one day?"

Calum Johnson 21:04 Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Aliche 21:04 "You gonna be a rich lady one day." And that would happen again and again and again to the point where it freaked me out 'cause unrelated grandmas, un- you know, and I'd just be like, "Okay." You know? And so, um, I'm exactly the thing that I thought.

Calum Johnson 21:17 Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Aliche 21:17 Exactly the messages that I got. I am a teacher, and I am rich.

Calum Johnson 21:22 Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Aliche 21:22 Um, [laughs] so yeah, that, those are my aspirations. I knew very early on that I wanted to be of service, that I wanted to help.

Calum Johnson 21:29 Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Aliche 21:29 I grew up in a household watching my parents be of service to, like, our relatives back in Nigeria, sometimes sending money. Sometimes people lived with us, and I just grew up that life was about service and giving, um, and that, like, every, in every blessing, there's excess. And so you get to enjoy whatever blessings come your way, but from the excess, that that is for everyone else.

Calum Johnson 21:52 Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Aliche 21:52 You know? So I just always lived in this, like, state of that there is enough for me and other people around me, and so that has always carried me through, and I think it's one of the secret sauces of, like, the success of my business-

Calum Johnson 22:07 Mm-hmm

Tiffany Aliche 22:07 ... is that I always ask myself, not just for me, but who else too.

Calum Johnson 22:11 Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Aliche 22:12 You know? And so, yeah.

Calum Johnson 22:13 Yeah. You know what? It's so ... It's interesting that people, like, saw it in you from an early age.

Tiffany Aliche 22:19 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 22:20 And I'm, I'm curious, like, in hindsight, so in the, in the period that you're in now-

Tiffany Aliche 22:25 Yeah

Calum Johnson 22:25 ... in the time that you're in now, with everything that's happened, do you ever reflect on, like, what is it that they were seeing? 'Cause it's such an interesting thing-

Tiffany Aliche 22:35 Mm-hmm

Calum Johnson 22:35 ... right? Like, you could be, like, a young girl, and people just meet you, and there's something about you that they-

Tiffany Aliche 22:41 Yeah

Calum Johnson 22:41 ... see it 20, 30, 40 years into the future that you're gonna achieve something. Do you ever think about what it was?

Tiffany Aliche 22:48 Yeah, and I don't know. 'Cause even when-- So, I have a, um, a certified financial planner, Anjali. She's awesome. And I started working with her maybe, like, five, six years ago, and I remember at the time my business was doing okay. You know, I mean, it was doing great, but compared to now. So it was doing, uh, maybe like a million dollars, maybe 1.2, you know, which relative to where I am now, you know, at the time I was like, "Woo, we're big time." Um, but I remember meeting with Anjali. So, you know the difference between gross and net, so the business is making, like, 1.2 or whatever. I am not taking home 1.2. You know, maybe 200, 300,000. I don't know. Still good money. But I remember working with Anjali, and I was working with her because I got to a point where I said, "I know how to make money. I know how to save. I know how to budget, but I've never had access to this much money. I'm not, not really sure beyond that, like, beyond putting my money in a 401 [k] , in a Roth. Like, you know, I really wanna start to, like, maximize my potential to grow wealth." And after working with me for a few months, she said, "Tiffany, you know, in the next five to 10 years or so, you're gonna have a net worth between 50 to $100 million." And I said, "Show me the math." I was like, "But based upon the company, we're, we're making 1.2. I mean, maybe we might stay there, which is great, but that doesn't add up to 50 to 100 million." And she said, "Oh, no, no, no, no, not based upon the company, based upon you." And it was those grandmo- mo- mothers over again. I said, "I don't understand." She said, "Tiffany, I work with ultra-high-net-worth individuals who have net worth between 50 to 100 million, some of them, and what I see in them, I see in you. The way they navigate, the way they show up, the way they-- That's exactly how you navigate and show up." And I couldn't believe it. And I remember thinking, "She's just blowing smoke up my behind 'cause..." And now, like, there's this huge opportunity before me that will put me exactly in that, in that position.

Calum Johnson 24:36 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 24:37 And she's right, right within the timeframe of what she said.

Calum Johnson 24:39 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 24:40 And I just, I'm like, but to your point, you know, Calum, I don't know. I'm like, can you show me the mirror? Because I just see myself. It's crazy 'cause I just was, um, at this, at a studio earlier today, and, um, a gentleman asked me something like that, like, "Do you, does it just blow you away where you are now?" And I'm not gonna lie, it's hard for me to conceive of what's happening. Like, New York Times bestseller, a Netflix special, you know, like, a online school. We've graduated over 100,000 students. I mean, my business collectively in the last 15 years has probably made about $50 million, you know? Um, I don't see-- I still see myself as preschool teacher Tiffany, and that's The Budgetnista over there, if you will. I cannot wrap my mind around, because how does one go from that to this, you know?

Calum Johnson 25:24 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 25:24 Um, it's like a moonshot, and so yeah, it's so, yeah, when someone says that to me, maybe I need to, like, well, like I said, Angelie told me what she saw in me, but it still blows me away because if I'm being honest, I don't see that in myself.

Calum Johnson 25:38 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 25:39 You know? I see someone who has just decided that I'm gonna live a life of service. I'm gonna try to do good work, help good people, and make good money, and it's turned into this. And some of it feels beyond me, you know? And I'm just here, like, along for the ride in some ways.

Calum Johnson 25:53 Mm. No, it's, it's beautiful to see, and not just, like, the accomplishment. It's also that your mindset has stayed consistent-

Tiffany Aliche 26:01 Mm

Calum Johnson 26:02 ... of being of service to others. 'Cause I think sometimes when we start to achieve all of the things that we wanted-

Tiffany Aliche 26:07 Mm

Calum Johnson 26:07 ... we start to deviate away from the original mission.

Tiffany Aliche 26:10 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 26:11 And you know what? I wanna, I wanna go back to the original mission 'cause you, you mentioned one of your early aspirations was just to be a preschool teacher.

Tiffany Aliche 26:18 Or just a teacher in general.

Calum Johnson 26:19 Yeah.

Tiffany Aliche 26:19 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 26:20 And, and it's interesting reading the book because, uh, you get to a point pretty early in your career in your 20s where, like, you're pretty much living it out.

Tiffany Aliche 26:30 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 26:30 You're a teacher.

Tiffany Aliche 26:31 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 26:32 A lot of these kind of financial and money lessons that your dad had instilled in you was, like, playing out in your life. You had, like, a ton of savings.

Tiffany Aliche 26:39 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 26:40 So you know what? Just talk through that period of your life. Okay, quick break. I just wanted to say thank you to my friend Arlan Hamilton, and let me start by saying this. As you go on this journey of trying to grow your business or your passion, there are certain people that come on the journey, and they just help you succeed. There's no immediate gain for them. There's no payoff for them. They just want to be of service, and Arlan has been that to this channel. She came on the show back in January and recorded one of the most popular episodes that we've ever done. From there, I went to her incredible conference, Your First Million Live, in LA. She's helped us get guests on the show. She's helped me figure out things in my business. She has gone so far above and beyond to help this show reach its potential, and we could not have done it without her. And it's not just me that she helps. Arlan is a successful investor and author, and she is building a media channel where she breaks down learnings, concepts, and actionable advice that will help you make your first million. One of my favorite videos from her, she explains the actionable steps you can take right now to make your first $10,000, and even how you can make your first thousand dollars in the next seven days. It's so good. And so Arlan's been a huge help to this show, and I wanna pay it back. So go to the link in my description, check out her content, subscribe to her channel, and tell Arlan that we sent you. And without further ado, back to the show. Like, what would be a scene?

Tiffany Aliche 28:16 Yeah, so I was financially perfect if I do say so myself-

Calum Johnson 28:18 [laughs]

Tiffany Aliche 28:18 ... and I do say so myself. So, um, yeah, I, in the beginning, I just listened to what my dad told me to do. He said, you know, um, "Make sure you save. If you're gonna get a credit card, um, don't get one with an annual fee. Pay it off every month in full. Um, save your money after college and buy a, not a new car, but a previously owned car." So I did. I remember I saved, like, $5,000 and I got a car, no car note. It meant my car insurance was lower. And so I was already laying the foundation for, like, my overhead was low. He said, "If you wanna move out, take one of your sisters with you," [chuckles] basically, "so you can..." So and I did. I remember our rent was 1,200, so divided by two, that was 600 bucks a month.

Calum Johnson 28:58 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 28:59 Um, so these were the things. I just was doing what he told me to do. Um, and so by age 25, I had saved $30,000. I had my retirement account. That was o- external to my retirement account. Um, I was making, um, maybe like 40-something thousand dollars a year. I had been work, teaching maybe, uh, three years plus or so by then. And the extra money, the reason I was able to save the 30 is because I babysat and I tutored on the side. And so during the summertime when we had off, I would make an extra five, six, $7,000 and I would, like, stuff it away. Um, I was so cheap, at one point my parents thought I was struggling financially, and my dad, who's never done this, gave me his credit card and said, "Buy some clothes."

Calum Johnson 29:38 [chuckles]

Tiffany Aliche 29:39 And I was like, "What?" He was like, "You look crazy." [laughs] 'Cause they thought I didn't have any money. I was so offended, but I took it and I bought-

Calum Johnson 29:46 [laughs]

Tiffany Aliche 29:46 ... I bought some clothes. Um, and so at 25 I said, "I, you know, I think I'm gonna buy a house. Like, I mean, what else can I do?" And so I bought a condo, and I put my down payment, and I was, I, every, I, everything was financially

Tiffany Aliche 30:00 perfect. My credit score was in the 800. Then I met someone who I call in the book Jake the Thief. Um, and he, I met him on spring break And he, um, I know he's really handsome, cool, um, but I thought rich 'cause he was driving a super fancy car, super fancy clothes. He wasn't that much older than me, probably his late 20s, and I was in my, you know, mid-20s. Um, and so we kept in contact, and we stayed cool for, like, a couple years. So I knew him, I, I... By the time I invested with him, I probably knew him by, like, three or four years. And I remember asking him, "Hey, Jake, you know, you're rich obviously. I've been to your beautiful penthouse in New York. I've seen your Ferrari," or whatever he was driving. You know, "Can you teach me how to invest? Because I feel like I'm like, I've got this condo, I'm saving, but I wanna take myself to the next level." And he was like, "All right, I'll teach you how to invest. The, um, the, the key is you wanna use other people's money." I didn't know he meant my money.

Calum Johnson 30:56 [chuckles]

Tiffany Aliche 30:57 But, and so w- we've, I-- he told me, "Do you have any credit cards?" I said, "Yes, I pay them off in full." He said, "How's your credit score?" I said, "Great." He said, "I want you to open up two additional card, credit cards and pull money off these cards." And I was like, "Sure, I'm stupid." So I did. Um, and it was to the tune of, I don't know, it was like 15 or $20,000 that I pulled off. I should've known. All the red flags were there, um, because one, I remember distinctly going to the bank, um, on my lunch break. And, um, this is when I was teaching preschool. And when, when-- At the time, our uniforms were nurse's uniforms because they wanted you to, like, play with the kids and not have to worry about getting dirty. So you would come in with your regular clothes, change into, like, you know, the scrubs basically. And so mine w- it was, like, teddy bear scrubs with, like, these pink pants. So I'm going into the bank saying, "Hey, I'd like to take $15,000 off this credit card." [both laughing] They thought I was being, like, trafficked.

Calum Johnson 31:48 [chuckles]

Tiffany Aliche 31:49 They brought every- "Are you okay?" I was like, "Yeah." You would think the red flags were like, "Tiffany, Tiffany." And they kept me in there beyond my lunch hour because they just kept asking me all these questions, "Are you okay? Are you being forced to do this? Is somebody around here?" I was like, meanwhile, just over my head, like, "Do, do-do, do." So I took the money out. We had a contract, and the contract was supposed to be, he lived in, uh, Paris, um, 'cause he was, uh, French. He was African French. He lived in Paris half the time, and he was like, "We're gonna buy commodities here and, and goods here in the United States that would sell well in, in France. I have stores in France. And we're gonna buy, like, Levi's and Chuck Taylors and things that, like, are very American that people really want out there." And I said, "Okay. That's what we're gonna use the money for. We're gonna ship it, put it in my store, and then I'm gonna send you money every week." And I was like, "Well, how much do you think this money will make me?" He said, "$2,000 a week," which where did he even come up with that number?

Calum Johnson 32:41 Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Aliche 32:41 So $2,000 a week, and this is a two-year contract with me. I was like, "What?" I'm doing the math like, "Ooh, I'm about to be rich." So I have these credit cards now that I didn't have before, and I said, "Well, since I'm gonna be rich, I might as well start using these credit cards." Forgot all the lessons that my dad gave me. And I didn't use the credit cards to buy, like, clothes or things like that, but I used it to buy, which is, turned out to basically be a scam, like a coaching program. You know how, like, everybody has them now? Um, but they were doing that back then too. And so I bought one for about, it was like a $10,000 coaching program.

Calum Johnson 33:14 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 33:14 So I went from owing nothing on credit cards, 'cause I paid them off every month, to $30,000 from the cash advance that I took out, you know, for Jake, and then this $10,000, uh, program. And I was happy as a clam 'cause I just knew, well, it doesn't matter 'cause I'm gonna be rich.

Calum Johnson 33:30 Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Aliche 33:31 Um, so he quickly stopped picking up the phone. Week one, I'm like, "Oh, maybe he's busy. I know he just got to Paris." Week two, week three, month one, month two, so I'm calling. I am calling everywhere I could find. I'm like, "What is happening?" Sometimes he was really terrible 'cause sometimes he would pick up and be like, "Oh, you didn't get the money? I sent it."

Calum Johnson 33:49 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 33:49 And I'd be checking, like, calling the bank. I would just wish he just would've stolen clean.

Calum Johnson 33:54 [chuckles]

Tiffany Aliche 33:54 Just go, sir. 'Cause he would pick up every once in a while to drop breadcrumbs, and then even ask for more money.

Calum Johnson 33:58 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 33:59 He's like, "You know what? It would be even better if you send me another 2,000, you know, w- uh, we could do even more." I'm like, "But you haven't given me anything so far. And if I give you that money, I won't be able to pay my mortgage." And he'd be like, "Hmm. Well, okay. Well, you'll get more money next week." And so I never got a penny. He disappeared. And I remember I met a friend of his who was also scammed, and that's when I realized it was a scam scam. 'Cause I met a friend of his, and he's like, "Have you seen Jake?" I said, "No." He's like, "He stole money from me." I'm like, "Me too."

Calum Johnson 34:25 Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Aliche 34:26 And that's when I realized, oh, this is what he does. This is how he got all the stuff that he had.

Calum Johnson 34:30 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 34:30 That he was just, like, a scammer. And I remember thinking, "What do I do now?" And I felt really s- it, I chased him down for about a year. And I wish in that year that I would have aggressively tried to pay down the debt, 'cause I was working. And if I, I probably could have, 'cause I probably could've just babysat within an inch of my life, tutored, and then, you know, because I was really good at saving. Um, and maybe within two years I could've paid it off. But I didn't 'cause during that year, I said, "This is not my problem. This is his problem." And I didn't wanna take responsibility for the role that I played. Um, so finally I said, "Tiffany, you have to pay this debt down." And that's when I found out that my job was being eliminated. I was like, "You got to be kidding me." You know? And it, so... And 'cause here's the thing, it was the recession. It was 2019, and all my friends were losing their job. And I was like, "Ooh, girl, sucks to be you 'cause teachers don't lose their job. We're essential workers." Apparently not. [both laughing] So the place where I worked was a nonprofit-based school, and they lost their funding. And I remember it was three days before the new school year, I got a phone call and said, "Um, you don't need to come in in three days." I was like, "Oh. Well, what, what day am I coming in?" They're like, "No, no days." I was like, "Am I being fired?" They're like, "No, the school is closing." I'm like, "Wait, schools, schools don't close 'cause kids have to go to school."

Calum Johnson 35:47 Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Aliche 35:48 So I couldn't even wrap my mind. I'm like... And what was worse was that I had the summer off. Remember in the summer, I don't get paid to teach, so I was already on my last leg in the summer. So I was like, "I can't wait to get my first check, you know, starting September," because I had not... You know, I was doing babysitting and teaching, but, um, and tutoring, but not enough to really cover. And so I was down to my last, like, you know, dollar, and now to find out I have no job. So now I owe $30,000. I find out I have no job. At the time, I was with my boyfriend from college for, like, six years. We broke up. And I was like, and I had this condo where I'm like, "Who's gonna pay this mortgage?" And it was probably the darkest, one of the darkest times. I won't say the darkest, but one of the darkest times because for the first time, I actually felt... I'm pretty, I'm pretty, I'm a pretty upbeat, hopeful person. I'm sure you could tell.

Calum Johnson 36:36 Yeah.

Tiffany Aliche 36:36 But for the first time, I was like, "I don't, I don't know what to do."

Calum Johnson 36:41 Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Aliche 36:41 "There is no hope here. Everything is gone. You know, my job, my money, I'm about to lose this place. Everything is gone." And I fell into a really dark depression. I didn't know it was depression then. Um, I was probably, like, 28, uh, 29. No, I remember in... Yeah, I was 28, and I fell into this dark depression where I wouldn't let anybody come see me. I would not pick up the phone. I just stayed in the dark the whole time. I was not washing dishes. I was not washing myself. Um, and I just thought, I was just basically waiting for them to come take the place from me, you know? Because I didn't know what to do, and I didn't wanna tell anyone because I felt shame, 'cause I was Tiffany Good With Her Money Tiffany, and all of a sudden, Tiffany Good With Her Money does not have any money. Um, and yeah, I stayed like that for some months until my best friend Linda, like, kind of, like, bull guarded her way in. She's like, "What is going on?" And I was like, "Everything's fine. Everything's fine," and then I burst into tears. And she was like, "What happened?" And I said, um, "I don't have any money." I told her everything. And she was like, "Girl, I thought you killed somebody. What, you're broke? Is that what you're saying?" I was like, "Yeah." She was like, "Everyone's broke." I was like, "What do you mean?" She was like, "Do you know what a recession is? We're in it."

Calum Johnson 37:49 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 37:49 And she, 'cause I had not looked up and looked around. She was like, "Girl, I lost my job. Our other friend lost their job, and this other friend lost their job." And I was like, "Wait, what?"

Calum Johnson 37:57 Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Aliche 37:58 And she was just like, "Girl, like, everyone's broke. So if that's what you're saying, like, if this is the big shame you're carrying that you're broke, welcome to the broke club." And I remember she said some joke, and I laughed, and she laughed, and I was like, "Wow, okay. Maybe this is not so bad that I'm not in this thing by myself." And I called my oldest sister, Karen, and I said, "What should I do?" And she said, "What's the worst case scenario?" I said, "Worst case scenario, they come and they foreclose on my condo." And she said, "Well, what do you do then?" I said, "I would just have to move back home with, with Mommy and Daddy, basically." And she was like, "Well, why wait for that? Why not just move back home now?" I was like, "Ugh." If anybody has African parents, you're like, "Should I just be homeless instead?" [both laughing] I mean, uh, don't get me wrong. I mean, let me not even say that because it's a blessing, 'cause everybody can't do that. But I remember moving home, like, I brought, like, a lamp. Then I brought, like, you know, like, my comforter. Then I brought my mattress. My dad said, "Are you home? What, what, what, what's going on?" And I told him, "Well, I lost..." I didn't tell him the rest of it. I just said, "Well, I lost my job, Daddy." He said, "Okay. Well, not too long." My mother, of course, was over the moon. "Ah, my baby is back. Oh." [both laughing] Um, and I remember, though, I, my s- my little sister, Lisa... She's not little, but she, you know, my youngest sister, Lisa, um, had my high school kind of, like, apartment, 'cause there was, like, a apartment in the basement. Um, and so she had that apartment, and she was like, "Just 'cause you're back, you can't sleep here." So I had to go back to my middle school room, the room that I slept in when I was in middle school. And I remember I was turning... It was my 30th birthday in the evening, and I was laying in the bed and looking up at the ceiling, in a twin bed, you know, that had, like, My Little Pony sheets or something on it from middle school. And I remember thinking, I was telling, calling myself everything but a child of God. Like, "You're a loser. Look at you."

Calum Johnson 39:43 Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Aliche 39:43 Like, "Oh, you, you got your degree and you got your master's and nothing. You have no man, no money, no home. Like, you had more money with the last time you laid in this bed when you were 12 years old babysitting. You had more money then than you have now as a grown 30-year-old woman. Look at you." You know, like, it's the worst. And I just remember tears streaming down my face thinking, like, it, I don't... This has gotta be rock bottom, I guess. Um, and you know, then I remember what Linda told me, that I was not the only one in this position. And I thought to myself, "Okay." You know, at the very least, when you're at your worst and you feel like you have nothing, I realized that I had to ask myself, "Is that true?" So now, I know now in therapy, like, 'cause I've been in therapy for, like, the last few years, but I learned this, this lesson in therapy that Dr. Green, my therapist, beautiful Black woman therapist, taught me, that when something is happening, it feels so overwhelming. She's like, "Let's acknowledge the feeling and say, 'Is it true?' Is it true this is the brokest you've ever been?" Yes. And then she'll say, "Okay. Is it the only truth available?" And the other truth was I'm not homeless. I am sleeping safely in my parents' house. What else is true? Well, I've got friends. Maybe they know s- a place where I can work. What else is true? Well, they haven't foreclosed on my p- on my property yet. Um, maybe I can rent it out in the meantime. 'Cause what I didn't know is that New Jersey was so backed up, 'cause of, because of the recession, they were so backed up on foreclosures, they didn't foreclose on my property for, like, four years.

Calum Johnson 41:10 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 41:10 So I said, "Maybe I can rent it out," and I did. And I remember telling the person renting it, like, "Look, you know, I can only guarantee you month to month 'cause I don't know what they gonna do down at the courthouse, but I'll significantly lower what the rent is gonna be." I was able to do that. So it was

Tiffany Aliche 41:25 like I had told myself, "I have nothing." Is that true? Do you have nothing, or do you not have enough of what you'd like? Because you've got this condo that you could rent out instead, instead of for my, my... I think I wanna say my mortgage was 1,660, but I was able to rent it out for 1,200. And the, the bank didn't want anything but 1,660, so I kept the 1,200 for myself. I'm like, "Well, now I've got unemployment and $1,200 a month to make my way."

Calum Johnson 41:50 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 41:50 What else do you have? Well, Tiffany, you're really good at teaching, and honestly, at the end of the day, you are really good at budgeting and saving. So I started to teach my friends how to do it, and they were like, "You know, I think people would pay you to teach them how to do this, Tiffany." And what else do you have? You know, so I started to stack, like, what I did have, even if it didn't seem like enough, and it made it, it, it made it enough. You know what I mean? I made it enough. Um, and it wasn't a quick turnaround. Like, I ended up moving out of my parents' house, and I s- like l- slept on my sister's couch, Tracy, um, she's the third born, for a year. Um, and while I did that, I started The Budgetnista. I said, you know, um, I was afraid to go back to teaching in the traditional sense because I saw it could be snatched away, 'cause I'm actually risk adverse. People think that entrepreneurs are so brave. It wasn't me being brave. I said, "If this-- That is the safest job in the world, and those people could take it, I don't wanna do that." The only person I could bet on is me. And so I said, you know, I'm really good at teaching. I am really good at budgeting and saving. I tried to do one-on-ones. That didn't work because everyone was broke, and I didn't feel good taking money from people who didn't have money. Um, and I had to ask myself the question like, "Dang, I don't have any contacts." I'm like, "Is that true? You did a lot of volunteer work, Tiffany. Why don't you hit them up and see if they want you to come and teach?" And the United Way, someone at the United Way hit me back, um, in Newark, and they were like, "Come on in." And I met with this woman, her name was Catherine. She had just started working there. She's like, "We're doing programming, and right now I'm teaching a financial education class and I hate it. Do you wanna teach it?" I said, "Yes." She said, "Well, how much do you charge?" I was like, "Uh, $300 a class?" She was like, "Sure." I was like, "Damn, I should've said more."

Calum Johnson 43:26 [laughs]

Tiffany Aliche 43:27 And I taught five classes, so that was $1,500 right there. You know, I went from there's-- I have nothing, and it's, is that true? Is that the only truth available? And it wasn't. So now I was, um, teaching at the United Way making about $1,500 a month, and I said, "Okay." I moved out of my sister's couch, and I found a room that I rented. A, a couple of my teacher friends who were struggling as well said, "We found this house. The lady is renting it out by the room." It was in a college part of Newark, 'cause that's very a college student thing to do, but she was like, "It's just all teachers here. We're all grown, in our late 20s, early 30s." So we each rented a room for $500. And I remember I had bought like a, this like 1999 Toyota Camry at the time that I'd paid off, and so it was just me and Betsy. That's what I used to call her. She was this like white car. Um, and so I'm like, "Well, at least I don't have, you know, I don't have, um, a car note for Betsy, and I can mostly walk everywhere." I was never fitter. Um, and I was in the heart of Newark, so I started to really build, um, a network to teach outside of the United Way, and I started to grow my business. Social media started to really pop. Facebook went from Facebook is only for college students to they opened it up to the broader audience, and I started to use my personal Facebook page, there was no business Facebook then, to promote myself. I changed my name from Tiffany Aliche to Tiffany The Budgetnista Aliche on Facebook and started just posting me volunteering and teaching financial education. Every time I posted, someone would hit me up and say, "Can you come do this here?"

Calum Johnson 44:56 Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Aliche 44:56 You know, is it true? Is it the only truth available? You have nothing. You got Facebook. You got a email. You see what I mean? You have, you know how to teach financial education. You're personable. So I started to stack those things in my favor, and now 16 years later, here I am, like living out things that I could never even a dream, dream of.

Calum Johnson 45:16 Hmm. You know what's, um, [lips smack] you know what's interesting even when I listen to you speak, that feeling of like there's nothing-

Tiffany Aliche 45:26 Mm-hmm

Calum Johnson 45:27 ... such a powerful-

Tiffany Aliche 45:28 Yeah

Calum Johnson 45:29 ... it can send you into such a negative cycle.

Tiffany Aliche 45:33 Mm-hmm. It's a dark place.

Calum Johnson 45:33 And so dark. And it's like, it's not even, um, [lips smack] I feel like typically it's when not just one thing has gone wrong-

Tiffany Aliche 45:44 Yeah

Calum Johnson 45:44 ... it's gone wrong in different areas.

Tiffany Aliche 45:47 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 45:48 And it reminds me, there's a, there's a quote that you have in your book where you say, "I was in a pretty dark financial and emotional place. In rapid succession, I had lost my job, my savings, the use of my condo, my retirement, and also my boyfriend. I really felt like I had nothing left to hold onto."

Tiffany Aliche 46:07 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 46:07 "I mean, I had my 1999 Toyota Camry."

Tiffany Aliche 46:10 [laughs]

Calum Johnson 46:11 "That was something, but it wasn't much. I just remember thinking, 'How do you build from a place of nothing?'" And so I know you mentioned it, but I wanted to, I wanted to speak about it because I think that moment, that realization of like looking around yourself and being like, "There's nothing here."

Tiffany Aliche 46:32 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 46:34 And I, and I love what you explained, which is like, is that really true?

Tiffany Aliche 46:38 Mm.

Calum Johnson 46:39 Because I think sometimes we get into this self-narrative which is so negative it sends us into a spiral-

Tiffany Aliche 46:45 Mm-hmm

Calum Johnson 46:45 ... and we end up compounding it-

Tiffany Aliche 46:47 Yes

Calum Johnson 46:47 ... 'cause we fall into depression-

Tiffany Aliche 46:49 Yeah

Calum Johnson 46:49 ... we stop taking care of ourselves. The few things that we do have, we like sabotage them as well.

Tiffany Aliche 46:55 Yes. Yes.

Calum Johnson 46:56 And so I'm just, I'm curious. I'm like, can, can you really even take us into that moment? What was the feeling for you? Like, what was the day when it really felt like it was truly rock bottom?

Tiffany Aliche 47:14 That was in the middle school bed on my 30th birthday, 'cause 30 represents full adulthood. Like, right? You're 30 years old, you're grown, grown, grown. You're not a kid anymore. There's no two in front of your number. So to be 30 sleeping in my middle school bed, having less money than I did when I was 12 was like I-- Not, like not-- Forget about competing against the world. I'm worse off than Tiffany. You know what I mean? And I just was like, "What is happening?" And I just felt ashamed of myself. That's really what the feeling was. It was deep, deep shame.

Calum Johnson 47:48 Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Aliche 47:49 You know? And I just remember thinking that like, like it just doesn't get lo-- I didn't see a way out. I was just like, "I guess I could teach again," but like it's too late for me to get a job now as a teacher because teachers, it's not like working like at a factory where you're packing boxes. Like, you can't start the school year without a teacher. So the school year, so my school closed, but like other schools, there's not kids sitting in a classroom waiting. They have to have teachers, so those, those jobs were already filled. So I was just like, "What do I even do?" You know? Like, it just felt like It just felt so shameful that I had

Tiffany Aliche 48:29 done all the things. I had checked all the boxes. You know, I'd gone to school, I'd gotten my master's, I bought a house, I did all the things. I did everything that they told me if you did it, it works out, and it was not working out. Um, yeah, and I just felt deep, dark shame. And I realized then that, um, to your point, g- that shame shields solutions. And so when you're in that shame, even though there might be other truths available, it's very difficult to see them, you know, because shame loves silence. It shields you from solutions, and shame is like, "Yeah, sit here with me, just me and you."

Calum Johnson 49:04 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 49:04 "There's nothing you can do." And the only way to shake shame is to give voice to it, and it's one of the hardest things to do 'cause you have to say the very thing you're ashamed of. I had to tell my best friend Linda, "I'm broke. I don't have this, I don't have that, I don't have this. I broke up with Mike," everything.

Calum Johnson 49:19 Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Aliche 49:19 Like, at the time, I had drained my, I d- drained my retirement account to save the condo, so I had, I had maybe, like, 50 or $60,000 in my retirement account. Took the, the tax hit, drained it, only to lose the condo. So now I'm like, "You don't have retirement, you don't have savings, you don't got your man, you don't have anything, and you still owe this credit card debt of $30,000." Like, what the entire hell, Tiffany? And I have student loan debt 'cause I had just got my master's thinking I was fancy. So now you owe the people 50,000, you owe 250, 220 on the condo, you owe 30,000 on your credit card debt, and you have no money whatsoever.

Calum Johnson 49:53 Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Aliche 49:54 Some of the people say they're broke, but you're like, "You got $2 in your pocket." No, not coins in the, in the cushions, nothing. And so to say that out loud is so hard, but it released me because shame hates it when you bring someone else in because someone else is gonna bring a mirror to say, "It's not that bad."

Calum Johnson 50:11 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 50:12 Linda was like, "You ain't kill nobody, right? Oh, girl, if you broke, just say you broke."

Calum Johnson 50:17 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 50:17 "Join the broke club. It's broke time." You know? And so that helped me to lift some of the shame and see some of the solutions that actually had been there all this time.

Calum Johnson 50:27 Mm. You know what? You make such a, I think it's actually such a good point. I love that quote of, like, shame loves silence.

Tiffany Aliche 50:34 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 50:35 And it's interesting. We had, we had a guest on a few, a couple weeks ago, Chris Do, and he said, he mentioned that, like, everyone's walking around with, like, a mask on.

Tiffany Aliche 50:44 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 50:45 We all have this, like, identity, this narrative for ourselves that we've built, and we portray that into the world.

Tiffany Aliche 50:52 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 50:52 When, when you were speaking, I think you said, "I was always Tiffany good with money."

Tiffany Aliche 50:56 Yes.

Calum Johnson 50:56 And so it's like the real heartbreak of the situation isn't just that everything's gone wrong, it's that the identity was broken.

Tiffany Aliche 51:05 Yes.

Calum Johnson 51:05 And I think we've all done this. I've done it. I've see a lot of people, um, just when I'm going around the world, that are doing it, which is like, it's almost like the mask falls down last.

Tiffany Aliche 51:18 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 51:18 Like, your life can be in complete shambles-

Tiffany Aliche 51:21 Mm.

Calum Johnson 51:22 ... but the neighbor still thinks that, you know-

Tiffany Aliche 51:24 Yes

Calum Johnson 51:24 ... you've got the good job, and your mom still thinks that you're good, and your best friend still-

Tiffany Aliche 51:28 Mm

Calum Johnson 51:28 ... you're still at all the parties. You're, the mask is still on.

Tiffany Aliche 51:31 Yes.

Calum Johnson 51:32 And I think the, I think the depression hits where it's like the r- the identity is broken.

Tiffany Aliche 51:38 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 51:39 And people find it so, so difficult to, like, shed that previous identity and be the new person that their situation is forcing them to be.

Tiffany Aliche 51:50 You're grieving.

Calum Johnson 51:51 Yeah.

Tiffany Aliche 51:52 It's a loss of yourself.

Calum Johnson 51:53 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 51:54 You know? 'Cause I had measured myself based upon how good I was with managing my money, and if I'm bad at managing money, then Tiffany's bad, you know? Instead of, "I made a mistake," it's, "I am a mistake."

Calum Johnson 52:06 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 52:07 You know? And that's not true, but at the time, that's what it feels like.

Calum Johnson 52:10 Mm. You know what's, you know what's interesting? And I think it, it's, it's funny in a way because the solution is so simple-

Tiffany Aliche 52:19 Mm

Calum Johnson 52:19 ... of, like, when you shared it with Linda or whatever, like, when you shared it, instantly, like, a burden was released.

Tiffany Aliche 52:27 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 52:27 But at the same time, even though I say

Calum Johnson 52:29 it's simple, I know that there's someone sitting there watching this, and for them to call their mom and let them know that they lost their job and, you know, they're losing their apartment feels like the most difficult thing in the world.

Tiffany Aliche 52:42 Yes.

Calum Johnson 52:43 Or for them to call their best friend, to call their sister, to call their brother is like, in a way, it almost feels like jumping off a ledge to let that-

Tiffany Aliche 52:51 Exactly

Calum Johnson 52:51 ... go.

Tiffany Aliche 52:51 Yes.

Calum Johnson 52:53 And so for, so for that person, I'm curious, like, is there, is there a piece of advice that you would give them of just, like, just take this one step-

Tiffany Aliche 53:05 Mm

Calum Johnson 53:05 ... and it will kinda get you back on that path of things are starting to move in that positive upward cycle again?

Tiffany Aliche 53:13 Well, I would ask yourself, is there someone in your life that you know that really loves you? You know, an adult, you know, that loves you, somebody that really cares about you, um, that you feel pretty sure that, like, you know, that they're in your corner. Um, because that's gonna be the first, that's gonna be the easiest person to unload some of that shame with. Because even though I knew Linda is, like, my best friend, we've been friends since we were literally kids, and I was still ashamed to tell her. Um, and one of the things I learned from Dr. Green, my therapist, is she said, you know, "It is the job of those who care about us to lovingly help. We just refuse to ask for it." And so I know you think, you're listening now, I know you think, "Everyone's busy. I don't wanna be a burden. I don't wanna..." The people that care about you want to lovingly help, I promise you. If you're like, "I'm looking for a sign," this is the sign that there is someone in your life that lovingly cares about you, and they're wanting to help, even if it's just to bear witness. Linda did not give me money. She did not say, "Sleep on my couch." She didn't... I needed someone to just bear witness to the thing that I was carrying around with me by myself. I needed help carrying the shame, and she did that. And that was enough for me to then find the next solution.

Calum Johnson 54:34 Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Aliche 54:34 You know? And so that's just what I can say is that it's going to require a little bit of a leap for you to say, "You know what? My neighbor, she and I have been talking, and I feel like I can trust her," or my sister or my best friend or my work husband or my actual husband, you know, or somebody. You know, sometimes people are not, not gonna lie, people slide into my DMs and they just make it me. If you don't have nobody else, you can make it me.

Calum Johnson 55:01 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 55:01 They slide in my DMs on IG or whatever, and they'll say, "I have this deep, dark secret that I'm struggling with." And I'm here to say, "Okay, I heard you. Like, here are some resources." But it's just to release it, like that person didn't say, "You terrible, terrible, terrible person. Away with you." I think, I don't know what we're expecting.

Calum Johnson 55:20 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 55:20 Um, but yeah, it's gonna take a little bit of courage, quite honestly. It's gonna take a little bit of courage for you to tell that one person so they can at least bear witness, you know? Because yes, you have to give voice to this fear and this shame. And because the thing about fear is that there's an African proverb that says, "Fear makes the wolf bigger than he is." Right? And so think about like on the other side of this door, you're hearing a wolf and you're just like, you're so afraid. You know that it's this full-grown gray wolf, snarling teeth, you know, like dripping drool, and you're like, "This wolf is gonna tear me up," only to find out when you finally open the door, it's a wolf cub.

Calum Johnson 55:58 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 55:59 That is not even, like you imagined that. You created that story. That's not true. Remember, is it true? Is it the only truth available?

Calum Johnson 56:08 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 56:08 You know? Um, and so like, yeah, I think getting up the courage, finding that one person, saying the scariest thing out loud, and giving yourself, um, the space to be helped by it.

Calum Johnson 56:20 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 56:20 Whether if it's just, like I said, a listening ear or maybe a helping hand.

Calum Johnson 56:23 Yeah. You know, it reminds me, what you described, it reminds me there's this video online where it's like this kid in water and he's like crying and he's like holding onto something. He thinks that he's like drowning or something.

Tiffany Aliche 56:33 Yes.

Calum Johnson 56:33 And then he just stands up and it's like-

Tiffany Aliche 56:35 [laughs]

Calum Johnson 56:35 ... there's nothing there.

Tiffany Aliche 56:37 Because we tell ourselves stories, like sometimes we are committed to harming ourselves. Because here's the thing, even like let's just say you have nothing, Tiffany. What, what, who benefits if that's true? You know what I mean? Like, do you want that to be true, Tiffany? That you have nothing? Absolutely nothing? Like, it's like you, you are committed to harming yourself because one, that's actually not true, and two, it's like it's not even the only truth available to you, and it does- it's not helpful. That narrative that you're carrying around, we become, we

Tiffany Aliche 57:09 become really good at ruminating in the muck of it all, rolling around in the mud. It almost starts to feel good, you know? Like, "Oh, my life is so terrible. Nothing is good. My life is so..." Is that really true? And why would you want that to be true? I'd rather be delusional.

Calum Johnson 57:24 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 57:25 You know? Like I'd rather be delusional. I, I have a niece, Amelia, who just turned seven, and she is delusional, as little kids are.

Calum Johnson 57:33 [laughs]

Tiffany Aliche 57:33 But so delusional she gets what she wants. She told me the other day, like, um, I'd been to the White House a number of times and, um, most recently I was invited to the Vice President's residence, and she said to me, "Auntie," um, 'cause I'd taken her to Washington, D.C. before, her and her brother Roman, and we were outside of the White House and she was upset 'cause she couldn't go in. And I was like, "Amelia, you just can't just go into the White House," 'cause she had her arm through the gate and the Secret Service actually had to come over and tell her, "Uh-uh, uh, little girl."

Calum Johnson 58:00 Yeah.

Tiffany Aliche 58:00 So she got upset, started crying. She said, "Why can't I go in?" I said, "You just can't go in the White House." She said, "You did." And I was like, "Damn, she's right," 'cause I showed her a picture.

Calum Johnson 58:09 [laughs]

Tiffany Aliche 58:09 "You did, and you met the President." And I said, "Ugh, but Amelia, everyone can't go." She said, "Why?" And I thought, why not? So the person that invited me to the State of the Union and the, the Vice President's residence, whatever, I said, "This is gonna sound crazy, but my niece really wants to go inside the White House," and I told her, "You just can't go." She said, "Oh, yeah, yeah, yep, mm, I can make that happen. When do you wanna come?" I said, "I'm sorry, what?"

Calum Johnson 58:31 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 58:32 The lady was like, "I just need a month out. You, 'cause I know if she's young, I'm sure she has summer camp. Do you... How- how's a Saturday?" We're going to the White House. The delusion of I expect great things and great things come to me. Amelia lives in that delusion. She'll just be like, um, the other day for her birthday, we sang her, um, the, the Stevie Wonder version of "Happy Birthday." I don't know if you're familiar with it.

Calum Johnson 58:55 Yeah, yeah.

Tiffany Aliche 58:56 Right? And she was like, " [gasps] Kids get that version?" She said, "I thought that was just for adults." She thought that, that, uh, the kids get the regular "Happy Birthday to You."

Calum Johnson 59:04 Yeah.

Tiffany Aliche 59:05 And so I was like, "No, this is by a man named Stevie Wonder." She said, "Show me him."

Calum Johnson 59:10 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 59:10 So I showed her on YouTube.

Calum Johnson 59:11 [laughs]

Tiffany Aliche 59:11 I said, "This is Mr. Stevie Wonder." And she's like, "Oh, I like his music." She said, "Can you look up his mommy so he can call my mommy so he can, so I can meet him?" And I was like, "Amelia, you're not gonna meet Stevie Wonder." She was like, "Please." I said, "Okay." So we looked up his mother.

Calum Johnson 59:25 [laughs]

Tiffany Aliche 59:25 But his mother unfortunately passed away, so she got really sad about that.

Calum Johnson 59:28 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 59:28 And then she was just like, "Where's he from?" And so Stevie Wonder's from Detroit, Michigan, and she's very familiar with maps. She said, "That's not that far. We could go. On the map, I've seen it's not that far." And I was just like, "Amelia, that... Girl, like you're not gonna meet Stevie Wonder." And so just this past, like I said, last week, I was at the Vice President's residence for this Black, um, business leadership reception. This woman in a beautiful yellow dress comes up to me, says, "Oh my God, Tiffany, love you so much. I've been following you for the longest," you know, like, "I just love what you're doing for our community." Um, and my friend was with her, and my friend said, "Do you know who this is?" And I said, "No." So I was telling the woman, "I love your dress. I love your necklace." She said, "This is Stevie Wonder's wife." I said, "I'm sorry, what?"

Calum Johnson 1:00:10 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:00:10 I told her what my niece said, and she said, "Tiffany, why don't you make a video for Amelia to say thank you so much, and I'm gonna tell my husband what you said, and you never know, maybe he'll make a video or something for you." The delusion of Amelia is what we all need.

Calum Johnson 1:00:26 [laughs]

Tiffany Aliche 1:00:27 Not the White House and Stevie Wonder in the same su- summer. But that's what I mean. The expectation of good things and the expectation that they will happen to you. Because Amelia will ask for a thing that sounds crazy, and yet here we are, Stevie Wonder. The White House. And so I wanna be more like Mimi.

Calum Johnson 1:00:45 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:00:45 You know? That like, because it doesn't benefit me to believe in the darkness that nothing good happens, I don't have anything. It's all... I just, I don't wanna live in that space anymore, no matter what happens. You know, it, I'd much rather be, um, delusional about the good than delusional about the bad. And so that's what I'm wanting for everyone listening then. Someone's, s- I know right now someone say, "Yeah, but you don't understand. But no, I d- I... But 'cause m- uh, there's always this, but my situation is different. It is a lot more helpl- it all..." Everyone has to navigate something, and your situation, although different from mine, you are still human, and everyone has to navigate something hard, but not so hard that there can't be good that comes out of it, you know?

Calum Johnson 1:01:29 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:01:30 And so like, yeah. 'Cause when I said before, you'd asked me about what was the darkest time, and it, at that time it was that, but two and a half years ago, my husband suddenly passed away, like just out of the blue. He had, um, an aneurysm. So that's just like, you're here, literally he was here on Monday, "Babe, I got a headache. I'm gonna go to the hospital," gone on Thursday, 41 years old, 6'6", 190 pounds, like fit, like handsome m- You would never think. And even from that space, you know, I didn't think I was gonna be able to come back from that space, 'cause how do you come back from that? You know, we're not 80 years old and you're like, "Okay, this is an expectation, although sad," you know? Um, and yeah, I just, I had to lean on the lessons that I learned from saying, "I have nothing." 'Cause I went back to that place. Everything is gone. This is the worst thing that could have ever happened. That's what I told myself. I remember telling M- Dr. Green, "This is literally the worst thing that could've ever possibly happened to me." And she was just like... I remember she asked me, "Is it the worst thing?" And I wanted to jump through the Zoom and choke her, if I'm being honest. 'Cause what's worse than that? You lose your person. We had a great marriage.

Calum Johnson 1:02:44 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:02:44 He was kind, he was loving, he was supportive. I knew him since my 20s, so this is not somebody I just met. This is a 20-year, you know, friendship and partnership. And, um, and I remember her saying like, "Is it the worst thing?" 'Cause she was asking me the same thing. Is it true? It's the only truth available. I'm like, "Yes, it is the worst thing." Then I went on, a year after him passing, I went on this trip to Kenya, and we went to this like shelter for girls, um, for teenage moms, and it was this, a nurse and her husband that created this shelter. And many of the young girls in there, um, they were having children, but out of, out of being abused, you know? Some of them by their own family members, some by, by their own fathers, having babies.

Calum Johnson 1:03:28 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:03:29 And had been thrown out of the family as a result, as if it's this 13-year-old's or 12-year-old's fault. 12 years old and pregnant, and they're here. There's no mattresses. They're trying to figure out how they're gonna fund the place, how they're gonna feed these girls, how they're gonna... And I remember this voice came in and said, "Is it the worst thing that could've ever happened to you, Tiffany? Because you're l- is it this? Is it being taken advantage of and abused by a family member and being thrown out of your family, you and your baby, at 12? Is that what happened?"

Calum Johnson 1:04:00 Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:04:01 And I thought, "Okay. Is it true? Is it the only truth available?" And you know, I wrote them right then and there a $10,000 check 'cause I was just like, "What, how can I be of service here?" You know what I mean?

Calum Johnson 1:04:13 Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:04:13 And so that is what I mean about like you can ruminate in your stuff and acknowledge that like the loss of my husband is still traumatic for me, but it is not the worst thing that could've ever happened to me. I still have my family. I still have my friends. I still have my health. My husband and I were financially sound. I, I have a stepdaughter that I'm still very close with. She's actually at my condo right now, like helping me like unbox some things. I'm paying for college for her. She's harassing me to get her an Audi for her birthday. I'm like, "Girl, it's not happening" [chuckles]

Calum Johnson 1:04:43 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:04:43 You know? Like me and her mom, we always were cool. Like we, we co-parented very well, but me and her mom are still cool. My husband had a twin brother. I still get to see what he would've looked like, you know, because Terrell is still very much my brother and comes by and fix things for me when I need to. So is it the worst thing? You couldn't have told me that a few years ago, a couple years ago. But now, like I realize that like there's so much more that you have accessible to you if you're willing to see beyond what's actually happening.

Calum Johnson 1:05:12 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:05:12 You know? And that, so for those listening who are like, "Well, that's easy for you to say, Tiffany," it's like I've experienced loss in ways that most people might not ever experience, and I hope that they don't.

Calum Johnson 1:05:23 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:05:23 And so, and yet and still, you know, I know it's not the only truth available to me. I refuse to live in that dark place.

Calum Johnson 1:05:29 Mm. Yeah. You know what? First of all, like I'm just sorry to hear that.

Tiffany Aliche 1:05:34 Thank you.

Calum Johnson 1:05:35 Um, but I think one of the things, and it was even in watching, like even in the research process for this episode of watching other interviews you've done and then meeting you today, it's like you walk around with such a great energy-

Tiffany Aliche 1:05:47 Mm-hmm

Calum Johnson 1:05:47 ... and such a great enthusiasm and a humor and like a lightness.

Tiffany Aliche 1:05:52 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 1:05:52 And I think it is like one of those things that's so important, which is just letting go of the identity, and it's, it's so hard to do.

Tiffany Aliche 1:06:02 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 1:06:03 Because when these dramatic things happen in our lives, when things go wrong... You know what? It, it reminds me, the very first episode of this show that we released was with this entrepreneur, his name is Ruben Harris.

Tiffany Aliche 1:06:16 Mm.

Calum Johnson 1:06:16 And he says, he goes, uh, "Rejection, it's God's redirection."

Tiffany Aliche 1:06:21 Mm.

Calum Johnson 1:06:23 And I, and I, you know, it's, uh, it's a quote that's always kind of come back to me because there's certain times in life where you're like, "This is not the way it was meant to go for me."

Tiffany Aliche 1:06:31 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 1:06:32 When I w- when I was envisioning what my life would be-

Tiffany Aliche 1:06:35 Yeah

Calum Johnson 1:06:35 ... to not living in my mom's house-

Tiffany Aliche 1:06:37 Yes

Calum Johnson 1:06:38 ... at 25, in my case, or 30.

Tiffany Aliche 1:06:40 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 1:06:41 Like that was not how it was meant to be. Or I'm married and then my husband passes away. That is not how it was meant to go. And it's like, it's so easy to get stuck in that reality.

Tiffany Aliche 1:06:54 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 1:06:54 And every time someone tries to give you a solution, but it's, "Oh, no, but this, this happened," you go right back into it.

Tiffany Aliche 1:07:00 Yes. Yes.

Calum Johnson 1:07:01 And I think what you've demonstrated a remarkable ability to do, and I think it, I think it's inspirational, and I, I hope it resonates and it hits with someone. It's the most-- one of the most difficult things to do, which is to let that old reality go.

Tiffany Aliche 1:07:17 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 1:07:17 Because once you let it go, you can start to see everything that you do have.

Tiffany Aliche 1:07:23 Yes.

Calum Johnson 1:07:23 And then you can start to build again.

Tiffany Aliche 1:07:25 Yes.

Calum Johnson 1:07:26 And you know what? I wanna, I wanna talk about, I wanna talk about that building because even at the end of that quote that I read out from your book-

Tiffany Aliche 1:07:34 Mm-hmm

Calum Johnson 1:07:34 ... you said, "I really felt like I had nothing to hold onto."

Tiffany Aliche 1:07:37 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 1:07:38 "I mean, I had my 1999 Toyota Camry. That was something, but it wasn't much."

Tiffany Aliche 1:07:42 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 1:07:43 "I remember

Calum Johnson 1:07:44 thinking, 'How do you build from a place of nothing?'" And so the thing I wanna do is I wanna, for that person, and let's just assume that they f- they finally let it go.

Tiffany Aliche 1:07:57 Okay.

Calum Johnson 1:07:58 Whatever's happened to them, they've let it go, and they're now in the mental space where they're, they're ready to build again.

Tiffany Aliche 1:08:05 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 1:08:07 And they want the information. They want the practical information.

Tiffany Aliche 1:08:10 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 1:08:10 Like, "What do I need to do? How do I build?" And you're someone that's done it.

Tiffany Aliche 1:08:15 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 1:08:16 And you've done it multiple times at different parts of your life. But if-- Let's assume that someone's building from nothing, and they wanna get, they wanna get good with money.

Tiffany Aliche 1:08:24 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 1:08:27 What would you describe as step one? Because I think step one is so important. That's, like, where we start to build the momentum. So what would you describe as step one, where they should start?

Tiffany Aliche 1:08:36 Well, one, I would say that the, the, the, the lesson that I had to learn and they have to learn is that you're actually never building from a place of nothing. You know? Like, that was, that's the key. That it's not nothing.

Calum Johnson 1:08:48 Yeah.

Tiffany Aliche 1:08:48 'Cause you read this book, right? Oh, you can see. Oh, you can read. Is that nothing? You know what I mean? So one is that understanding that you're not actually building from a place of nothing, so let's gather the resources that we do have. You know? It might just be a '99 Toyota Camry. It might be a couch. It might be a rented room. But let's gather those resources and take a look at them 'cause it's important for you to see it's not nothing. It might not be enough, but it's something. Um, two, it is to forgive yourself because shame is there as a result of that you are angry with yourself typically because you haven't quite lived up to whatever that thing is, and now that your mask has slipped, you're angry typically with yourself. It's to forgive yourself and let yourself know, like, "I did the best that I could with the knowledge that I had. Here I am." And then three, once you start to look at your resources, it's like, okay, some of the resources are, do I have any income coming in? Do I have access to any income? If you don't have any income coming in, then we have to figure out how do we create income, you know, coming in. What am I really good at? Um, one of the things I look for when I'm trying to make any sort of money on the side is I ask myself, "Do I have anything that my education will allow me to be paid more? Or do I have experience where I don't have to learn a new skill?" 'Cause now is not the time for you to, you know, to, to figure out something new. It's like, okay, I used to be a teacher. Oh, I could babysit. Who doesn't want a, a former teacher babysitting? Oh, I could tutor. You know? So I'm like, I'm pulling out skillsets 'cause it's not nothing. We have something. I'm, you know, now that I've gathered all the resources that I do have access to, how can I, how can I, um, uh, monetize those things? Do I have a car? Am I able to Uber? You know? So I'll give you an example of a-- I remember I met this gentleman in Atlanta who was a Uber driver, and he had, like, a computer next to him. And when he was like-- He, he picked me up. He put something in the computer. When he dropped me off, I was like, "What are you doing?" He was like, "I lost my job. I'm a statis- a statistician, statistic-" Somebody who works with stats.

Calum Johnson 1:10:47 [chuckles]

Tiffany Aliche 1:10:47 A data person. And I said, "Oh, so you're doing, like, data stuff?" He said, "I realized that," like he said, "I've been... I was doing Uber for six months, and I just felt like I wasn't as efficient. So I said, 'What if I started to cr- collect data on my Uber rides?'" And I said, "Okay. Tell me more." He said, "So every Uber ride, I would collect data about where I picked the person up, where I dropped them off, what was the weather, how much I made per stop." And he said, "And I realized in this area on rainy days, I make four times the amount. I don't need to go out every day. If I work just these rainy days, it actually means I could be home more than half the time." He gathered his resources. I know data.

Calum Johnson 1:11:28 Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:11:29 And so that was one of the things. It's like, I have nothing. No, no, no. You have your data mind. He's using that. I couldn't believe. I said, "Well, how much did you make last year?" He said, "$70,000." I was like, "What?" And he said, "Now with the excess, I've started to invest." So you imagine the rich Uber driver because he recognized that, like, I lost something, but not everything.

Calum Johnson 1:11:50 Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:11:50 And so that's what I mean. What is your I know data? What is that thing that you could put to work and monetize that thing so you could have income starting to come in? Everyone has something. I don't care. Maybe you're just, maybe you're really good at cooking. You know, maybe you're like, "You know what? I was really pretty good at cutting hair." You know, maybe I have seen this, like, um, I remember I used to go to this local AutoZone where I live in Newark, and there were out-of-work mechanics in the parking lot that would, like, do ma- minor fixes for you. And I remember thinking, like, that was genius 'cause, I mean, I'm coming out. I don't know how to put the light bulb in my car. I don't know how to, you know, change my tire or whatever I was going to... And they would do it right there with their tools right there in the parking lot. I'm like, to find their perfect audience because I lost everything. Did you lose everything? 'Cause you still know how to fix cars, right? Well, I'm gonna go to AutoZone and do it right here.

Calum Johnson 1:12:36 Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:12:37 You see what I mean? And so that's where I would tell people who are feeling, like, financial rock bottom is they're gonna have to ask themselves, "What tools and resources do I still have available, and how can I start to monetize them in ways that are creative if the traditional ways are not available to me anymore?"

Calum Johnson 1:12:51 Yeah. You know what? So, um- In the book, you have the p- the section where you say, like, the do.

Tiffany Aliche 1:12:58 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 1:12:59 And for the, so for increase your income-

Tiffany Aliche 1:13:01 Mm-hmm

Calum Johnson 1:13:01 ... you have maximize your earning potential at work-

Tiffany Aliche 1:13:04 Mm-hmm

Calum Johnson 1:13:04 ... assess your skills, decide which of these skills you can monetize, put a number on it-

Tiffany Aliche 1:13:10 Mm-hmm

Calum Johnson 1:13:10 ... and decide what's your income potential.

Tiffany Aliche 1:13:13 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 1:13:13 And I love what you just described because I think it's something really practical that people can do, which is a lot of the time, and I think sometimes people get frustrated with, like, personal finance advice-

Tiffany Aliche 1:13:25 Mm-hmm

Calum Johnson 1:13:25 ... um, because they're like, "Really I just need more money."

Tiffany Aliche 1:13:28 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 1:13:29 Like, "I can save the heck out of this, but, like, I need more money."

Tiffany Aliche 1:13:32 Yes.

Calum Johnson 1:13:33 And it's almost this, I think the underlying feeling is I need something which I don't have right now.

Tiffany Aliche 1:13:39 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 1:13:40 And I like what you described because it's like, well, why don't you just pull out a sheet of paper and start to just observe your life?

Tiffany Aliche 1:13:46 Yes.

Calum Johnson 1:13:47 Like, what are you already doing? Because a lot of the times, and I've fallen into this cycle,

Calum Johnson 1:13:52 is we take for granted our own skills.

Tiffany Aliche 1:13:54 Yes.

Calum Johnson 1:13:55 And we just, we think that, like, everyone can do that.

Tiffany Aliche 1:13:57 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 1:13:58 No, everyone can't. I don't do light bulbs in cars.

Tiffany Aliche 1:14:01 Yes. [laughs]

Calum Johnson 1:14:02 That does not go well.

Tiffany Aliche 1:14:03 I mean, you look at kids. Kids are, like, the best place to learn, right? You will see, like, a 14-year-old who has his dad's lawnmower walking up and down the street to ask to mow lawns. They're not hung up on, oh, and they're like, "No, I got a lawnmower and the, and I got a strong arm. That's it. I made $100 today." Or you see kids with their, with their, um, lemonade stand, you know? "I've got $10 of lemonade mix and, and water," whatever. That's it. Sometimes we overcomplicate.

Calum Johnson 1:14:28 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:14:28 Of like, oh, well, n- no. What do you have? Put those two things together, put it to work. Will it-- I remember I had a friend who was, like, out of work, and they're like, "Oh, it's only gonna make me $200." It's 200 more than you had.

Calum Johnson 1:14:39 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:14:39 It's 200 more than you had. Sometimes we get hung up on that, too, like it's not enough. Well, it's way more than you have now. You start with two... If, I always say, if you can make 20, you can make 200. If you can make 200, you can make 2,000. If you can make 2,000, you can make 20,000. Because it's cumulative learning.

Calum Johnson 1:14:55 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:14:55 So if you don't start with that 20, you're not gonna get to that 20,000.

Calum Johnson 1:14:59 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:14:59 You know? So it's like maximize the skill set that you currently have. And if you do have a job, like, how do you make yourself so invaluable they find the money for you, you know? And if they don't find the money for you, that you're so invaluable that you can go someplace else. I have a woman on my team. Her name is Ikisha, and when she first started, I think she was doing, like, customer support or something like that. Ikisha is, like, I don't even know. She's like a savant because sh- anything you put in front of her, she gonna figure it out. So, like, Ikisha started off, like, um, um, doing, like I said, customer support, and then I heard that she really wanted to do some project management. And I said, "Well, help me manage the launch of Get Good With Money." She's like, "Well, I've never done that before." I was like, "Well, we'll learn together." She slayed it 'cause New York Times, eight weeks on the New York Times bestsellers list. Um, then Ikisha started managing other projects for me, and I rem- so we hired this tech team. Something was wrong with the, the website, but it was the weekend, and nobody was available. And so Ikisha said, "I could take a look." She figured it out. I was like, "How?" She's like, "I don't know." She's like, "I was watching a YouTube video, and I was playing around with it." And so [chuckles] every time I turn around, Ikisha is collecting a new skill set that makes me say, "Please, God, don't let Ikisha leave me."

Calum Johnson 1:16:08 Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:16:08 You know? So 'cause here's the thing. Even if I didn't have the money to pay Ikisha what she wanted, she now has the skill set where she can now go someplace else and get paid what she wants. You know what I mean? And so, like, if you're at your current job now, are you making yourself ul- ultra, uh, ultra valuable, or are you complaining, "I hate this place"?

Calum Johnson 1:16:24 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:16:25 Which I can understand. You can hate this place and still make yourself valuable so you can get paid more or get paid more someplace else.

Calum Johnson 1:16:30 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:16:30 You know, we have a lot more power than we give ourselves credit for.

Calum Johnson 1:16:34 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:16:34 And so many people leave so much power on the table, and when you leave power on the table, you leave money on the table.

Calum Johnson 1:16:39 Mm. You know, I think, I think it's such good advice, which is, like, um, I remember someone told me this when I was working. They were like, "You just wanna make your manager's life easy."

Tiffany Aliche 1:16:48 Yes.

Calum Johnson 1:16:49 "So just pay attention." I think a lot of things actually in life can be solved by just paying attention.

Tiffany Aliche 1:16:53 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 1:16:54 Like, what are the, what are the pain points? What are, like, the consistent things that are difficult for them? You master how to do it.

Tiffany Aliche 1:17:00 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 1:17:00 You keep acquiring those skills.

Tiffany Aliche 1:17:02 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 1:17:03 I'm curious to get your, because I know that there's someone that's listening that, like, they've been in that process-

Tiffany Aliche 1:17:08 Mm-hmm

Calum Johnson 1:17:08 ... of they've acquired the skills. They've become invaluable, but their pay has not budged at all, and they don't think... I've, I've had moments like

Calum Johnson 1:17:17 that-

Tiffany Aliche 1:17:17 Mm

Calum Johnson 1:17:17 ... where months and months and months and performance reviews and all of this stuff, and maybe they were even getting the credit, but it's not showing up in that final salary. You're not getting paid what you think you should be paid. How should people kind of navigate that conversation where, of getting what they feel like is fair for them from, like, a payment salary perspective?

Tiffany Aliche 1:17:41 Well, one, you wanna make sure that you connect with people in your industry so you know what is fair pay, you know? Like, if fair pay is 100,000, you're getting 200, then, you know, you wanna make sure you even understand what are you asking.

Calum Johnson 1:17:54 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:17:54 You know? So that's important. Uh, two, sometimes people don't pay because either they don't have the money, or they, um, basically they're taking advantage of you, you know? And so if you find that they don't have the money or they're taking advantage of you, because you have those skillsets, you don't have to stay there. You should always be networking. You know? Like, it's in, it's important that, I call it illustrate your Oprah, right? Call 'em. So, like, let's just say Oprah, phone rings, ring, ring, ring. She says, "If you guys can get together $100,000, um, in the next 24 hours, I will open up my Rolodex to you and make you an introduction to whoever, whatever business, whatever that you want. $100,000, you got 24 hours. Go." You and I would find that $100,000 because we know that access to who Oprah knows and her making a connection is worth way more than $100,000. It might be an asset management firm. It might be a foundation, you know, that wants to, like, donate. It might be, we don't know what it could be, you know? And so for, for, for that, we know that Oprah's value is so obvious that we'd be willing to find the money. And so the problem is people have value, but they have not illustrated it.

Calum Johnson 1:19:07 Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:19:08 You know, have you illustrated your Oprah? Oprah's not behind the scenes secret with her value. We know it, so much so that if she said that, I'm like, "What?" Here, there are some people, I, I wanna, I, I wrote a children's book. I, I want for my children's book to have a TV show. I'm sure she knows somebody over there at, at PBS or, or Nickelodeon or whatever. Make a phone call. "Oh, you should meet Tiffany. She's so great." What? They're gonna take that call, you know? I know O- Oprah's not everyone's favorite these days, but she still has tremendous power and access.

Calum Johnson 1:19:36 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:19:36 And so that's the thing I think a lot of people, that you have to ask yourself, in what ways are you illustrating your Oprah? When you're meeting with your manager, are you showing definitive ways that you have added value to this company? Or are you, like so many people, especially women, will hope they'll just see it.

Calum Johnson 1:19:52 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:19:52 You know? Are you, like I-- my sister calls it a go me file, where literally every time she does something for the company where she works, she says, "Go me," and will write it down. I helped on this day to close this deal which added this amount of money. Quantify it. This is a thing that added $50,000 to the down, you know, to the bottom line. This saved the company $100,000. So that way when you meet with your manager, you can say, "In the last six months, I have added $600,000 worth of business," or, "I have saved the company $300,000 as a result of my, my tasks." Quantify it as much as possible.

Calum Johnson 1:20:26 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:20:26 You know? Because then you're not even asking for a raise. We're just asking for a price adjustment.

Calum Johnson 1:20:30 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:20:31 Right? 'Cause like, 'cause what it sa- what, what it says to the manager is, if this person leaves, they take $600,000 with them for the next six months.

Calum Johnson 1:20:39 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:20:39 Or we might be overpaying another $200,000 for the next six months.

Calum Johnson 1:20:43 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:20:43 So you're gonna have your manager really thinking like, "I don't know." And even if they say no, now you have a skill set that you could take with you, and you should be networking, so people should already be knowing the value that you bring to the table, so you can find someplace else that does have the money, the means, and the desire to pay you fairly.

Calum Johnson 1:20:59 Mm. You know, I love that, the, the go me file.

Tiffany Aliche 1:21:02 [chuckles]

Calum Johnson 1:21:03 And 'cause I, 'cause I think sometimes it's like if you just input these like small habits-

Tiffany Aliche 1:21:08 Mm-hmm

Calum Johnson 1:21:08 ... and it feels kind of annoying when you're working, like you achieve something and then you instantly note it down.

Tiffany Aliche 1:21:12 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 1:21:13 But in the long run, it's so valuable for the reason that you described, which is you take something that is subjective-

Tiffany Aliche 1:21:20 Mm-hmm

Calum Johnson 1:21:20 ... like what's your value or-

Tiffany Aliche 1:21:22 Yeah

Calum Johnson 1:21:22 ... how much do I feel like I should get paid, and you just make it objective.

Tiffany Aliche 1:21:26 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 1:21:26 It's just math. It's just numbers.

Tiffany Aliche 1:21:28 Yes.

Calum Johnson 1:21:29 And if the value that you're bringing is higher than the pay rise, then they're probably gonna give you that pay rise 'cause it's, it's detrimental for them to lose you.

Tiffany Aliche 1:21:38 It ha- people don't ask. Like I was so impressed with our producer, right? I know he's like sitting there. So I was so impressed with him because you were sitting here and you said, "Can you take some pictures?"

Calum Johnson 1:21:47 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:21:48 And he said, "Sure. Should I invoice you now or later?" I was like, "That's what I'm talking about." Because so many people are like, "Sure, I guess," but in the back of their mind, "Well, this is really additional fee," and I... No, I love that. You know, people don't ask, so they don't receive.

Calum Johnson 1:22:02 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:22:03 That cost instantly. It wasn't big. It wasn't like, "Sure." It's like, and you were like, "Mm, no, yeah, I do wanna do it. How much would it..." Like you got to make the decision. You could've been like, "Oh, I didn't realize there's an extra cost. You know what? Never mind. We'll just take some cell phone pictures." But instantly he let you know there's a value that I bring to the table. It's gonna cost. Do you still wanna move forward?

Calum Johnson 1:22:21 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:22:21 I thought that was genius. Most people never ask despite how much value they bring to the table. Why should we work for free? Not on Harriet Tubman's internet.

Calum Johnson 1:22:29 [chuckles]

Tiffany Aliche 1:22:30 Why? What the hell? Why? W- so I just thought that that was so impressive, and I think just the practicing of asking. So, and so, um, uh, Akisha on my team and Logan on my team, there's so many valuable people on my team. But I remember I, I thought to myself like, "I wanna be able to pay people more, my full-time workers more." And so I couldn't afford the raises. 2023 was a really hard financial year. And so people were asking for raises left and right, and I was like, "I don't have it. I don't have it." So that was an instance where it was like, Tiffany, you might lose good people, not because you don't wanna pay, but 'cause you just don't have. And so I did two things. I sh- I opened up the books so everyone could see this is where we are financially. Me not-- I took a pay cut. Me not paying you is more, is not because I don't want to, and not because I don't see your value. We just don't have it. I'm taking a pay cut just to maintain salary. And then two, what if we created a payro- um, a bonus pool that paid out quarterly? What if you got paid like me? And they're like, "What does that mean?" I said, "Well, I get a base salary, and then I get an owner's draw," which if there's excess after paying all the bills, after the savings and taxes, if there's excess money, I get to draw that money out of the company. There's been some years my owner's draw's been seven figures, and some years my owner's draw's been nothing. It's based upon the company, like how it's doing. And I said, "What if that's you?" And so they said, "Okay." So I said, "This way you get paid based upon how the company's doing, that excess money you're asking for. But it never puts us in jeopardy because it's after everything's been taken care of." So for the first six months there was nothing. But then they started to get really like, "We wanna put money in that payroll pool." And so this last six months they did so well that the owner's draw-- I mean, the payroll, um, the bonus pool looks like this, that whatever we make for the quarter, um, minus all of our bills and, and, and payroll and everything else, I put 20% of what I would draw as an owner. So if I was gonna draw $100,000 because we had a really good quarter whatever, I put 20,000 of my 100,000 into this bucket. And now you full-time employees get to have this bucket. The percentage of the bucket is the percentage of the payroll that you get.

Calum Johnson 1:24:36 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:24:37 So if you're, you know, you get paid $100,000 a year and that's 20% of payroll, then 20% of that bonus bucket is yours.

Calum Johnson 1:24:45 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:24:45 And so the first time they got their bonus from the bonus bucket last quarter, it was, I don't wanna put their business out there, but it was like a few thousand dollars. And they were like, "Okay." You know, like, "That's cute." No, this time around it was like $20,000. And they were like, "Wait, what?" Each.

Calum Johnson 1:24:59 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:25:00 And so I can only imagine the next one. So by the end they, by the end of this year maybe they'll have made $50,000, and that's way more-- I was not gonna give you a $50,000 raise. But now I figured out a way to link ... their value to the work that they do without sinking the company. But I only did that because they illustrate their Oprah so much, I said, "I cannot lose them. I will find the money." And that's what happens when you illustrate your Oprah and you're at the right place. They will find the money for you.

Calum Johnson 1:25:28 Hmm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:25:28 You know? And if not, you take your skills and talents someplace else where they will find the money for you.

Calum Johnson 1:25:34 Hmm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:25:34 You know?

Calum Johnson 1:25:35 I love that. That's actually great. Um, you know, I could, I quickly wanna get into side hustles.

Tiffany Aliche 1:25:40 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 1:25:41 And one of the things that you mentioned, you mentioned having that kinda list of skills or things that you can do, and one of the things even in the book, which is the third bullet point, decide which of these skills you can monetize.

Tiffany Aliche 1:25:54 Yes.

Calum Johnson 1:25:54 And I know there's people that are listening, maybe they have their list with their skills.

Tiffany Aliche 1:25:58 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 1:25:59 And a lot of the times we have, like, skills in different areas, right? And so maybe I'm good at marketing, but I also know a bit of PowerPoint and I also do, I dunno, a bit of stats and data. And so how should someone make the decision of, okay, this is one of the skills that could then be a side hustle for me?

Tiffany Aliche 1:26:20 Well, one, if you're looking for a side hustle, not you're starting a small business, but a side hustle, then you're gonna look for the, the skill set that you can monetize as quickly as possible. I call it simple and soon. What can we get up and running, like, in 48 hours? So if your skill is like, "Oh, I'm really good at, um, data analytics, but I'm also really good at cooking," which one is gonna make you money quicker? You already have five people that said, "If you ever make dinners, let me know" start making dinners tonight. You know? Like, where can you have the least, like, um, investment with the biggest return. You know, you like, people give you the money for the dinners, I make them, "Here's my, here's your $200. Thank you so much." You know? So we're not looking for, like, what makes your heart beat faster, you know? It's like, what can I monetize quickly now? You got a camera. I remember a friend of mine was struggling financially. His kid is, um, was in a, um ... played baseball. And he said, um, "I, I make baseball cards for kids," 'cause his kid's like in middle school or something like that. So he took his camera to the field, took pictures of kids, showed parents, 'cause he created the baseball cards, like, on his computer there, and said, "Hey, would you like, you know, would you like these baseball cards? It's w- X amount of dollars." He lives in, um, DC, where there are, like ... I remember it was graduation time. He took his camera and was basically like, "Hey, I take pictures. Would you like me to take pictures of you?" And was making money right then and there because he had a camera. Does that make sense?

Calum Johnson 1:27:45 Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:27:45 Like, we're not here to make it complicated, just simple and soon it. Ask yourself of all the things, ways I can make money, how quickly. If you're not sure, Google some of those things and see how are people making money in that, in that space.

Calum Johnson 1:27:58 Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:27:58 You know what I mean? I would like, let's, let's just say you're a cake maker. How much are they charging? Let me go to a cake site. Oh, they don't have the price listed, call them. "Hi, I wanted a cake made, you know. How much would that be? And how quickly can you deliver it?" So now you have your price point and your delivery model.

Calum Johnson 1:28:13 Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:28:13 Does that make sense?

Calum Johnson 1:28:14 Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:28:14 And so that's what I would do, is that, like, right away I would say I'm not trying to get fancy, I'm just trying to ask myself, "Well, what can I quickly start within ... If I can't start it within 48 to 72 hours, at least get the ball rolling, then it's probably too complicated."

Calum Johnson 1:28:27 Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:28:27 You know? And I, I wanna start to make money now because money begets money. As you get good at it, you know, then you can expand to say, "Okay, now I can add something else or maybe I can pivot, but in this moment I need to show myself I know how to make money."

Calum Johnson 1:28:42 Hmm. You know, I love that way of thinking about it because I know, I know there's so many people that feel, like, underwater. Like, when they come to their finances, they're constantly feeling that squeeze.

Tiffany Aliche 1:28:52 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 1:28:52 And so it's like the first thing you need to do is actually just create space for yourself.

Tiffany Aliche 1:28:56 Yes.

Calum Johnson 1:28:56 You need to create a bit of cushion, which is like, well, if I had an extra $500, $1,000 a month, that would be meaningful to me.

Tiffany Aliche 1:29:05 Yes.

Calum Johnson 1:29:05 Like, that would, that would make me feel a lot better.

Tiffany Aliche 1:29:08 Yes.

Calum Johnson 1:29:09 And so you start with that. What's the skill that will, will give me that extra 500-

Tiffany Aliche 1:29:13 Yes

Calum Johnson 1:29:13 ... $1,000 cushion? And even in your story, it's like you always had this skill of teaching and you had the financial literacy and that education from a kid-

Tiffany Aliche 1:29:23 Mm-hmm

Calum Johnson 1:29:23 ... basically. And it started off quite small, like, well, definitely small in terms of what you're doing now. Um, but then it kept going and going.

Tiffany Aliche 1:29:32 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 1:29:32 And so that's the second thing that I love that you said, which is like money begets money.

Tiffany Aliche 1:29:35 Yes.

Calum Johnson 1:29:36 That it's actually the thing that was making you $1,000 a month can start making you 5,000 a month.

Tiffany Aliche 1:29:40 Yes.

Calum Johnson 1:29:41 10,000 a month. What have you found, I'm curious even of people that you coach or speak with-

Tiffany Aliche 1:29:47 Mm-hmm

Calum Johnson 1:29:47 ... what is that difference

Calum Johnson 1:29:49 in someone going from, "Okay, my side hustle's making $1,000, but I'm actually kinda loving doing it and it's giving me a lot of flexibility."

Tiffany Aliche 1:29:56 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 1:29:57 "How do I turn it from $1,000 into 5,000, 10,000, and start thinking even about leaving my job if I wanted to potentially?"

Tiffany Aliche 1:30:05 Well, one, you have to set the financial goal. So 500 was my, um, like, initial goal. You know, like, if I could just make 500 'cause my room that I'm renting costs 500. So you have to set the financial goal 'cause you'll meet your goal. You know, like, the aim is, like, if I can make 500, but I realized that was too small of a goal because I get, got to 500, I'm like, "Well, I need to move beyond this." So one, set financial goals that are, like, slightly beyond what you feel is possible so you know what to reach for, and then you start to do the math backwards. I remember when I said, "Okay, instead of 500," you know, um, which I was trying to do one-on-ones, and I was like, "If I can pay, charge $100 per person, if I could do five people a month, that seems realistic." I said, "Okay, well, what if you would did 1,500?" I'm like, "Well, I can't do 1,500 people. Like, 1,500 people is 1,500-- 15 people a month, that might be too much." I said, "Well, maybe you're thinking about it wrong," because when you set a bigger goal, it forces you not to think about brute strength, but mind strength. It goes from, "I could do five people" to, "I don't wanna do 15 people in a month. That's too much." So who said you had to do 15 people in a month? Can you do 15 people in one sitting? I was like, "Ah-ha. What would that look like? Who would pay me for 15 people in one sitting?" Well, who pays people to speak? Girl, you're not re- you're not inventing speaking. I'm like ... And I remember it was, like, um My, um, my college friend, his brother had just became, like, the sophomore class president, and we were celebrating at his house. He's like, "Oh my God, I'm sophomore class president." We're like, "Woo-hoo." I was like, "Well, what does that even mean?" He's like, "We could hire speakers." I said, "You can hire speakers? What does that mean?" He was like, "Yeah, we can have speakers to speak." I said, "Well, how much do you guys usually hire speakers for?" He said, "$1,500 is what they can hire" 'cause they gave the kids a budget, and he was like, "If anything above that, I'd have to go ask, like, the advisor for more money." I said, "Well, I speak." [laughs] And you know, he hired me, my first $1,500 to speak, and that's when the light bulb opened to like, okay, because I'm not gonna do 15 people for the month. One sitting, it was maybe 200 kids, $1,500. I said, "Well, how do I get to 15,000?"

Calum Johnson 1:32:06 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:32:07 Do you see? And so it forces you to think beyond what you can physically do. It forces you to become more strategic, to ask yourself that question. It forces you to actually ask for help because the only way that I went from six figures, 'cause six figures was brute strength. I just grinded every day, every day, every day, every day. Unsustainable. And to get to seven figures, I had to bring on help. And took me five years to get to six figures. It took me two years, two or three years to get to seven figures. It took me a year and a half to get to eight figures in a year 'cause I finally learned that it's not about me. And now the opportunities that bef- are before me now, it, um, potentially nine figures bec- and the lift for me is barely anything. I realized that in order for you to really make more, you have to pull yourself out of the working, you know? That, uh, you really have to be the strategic planner and thinker. But the truth is, it-- you can't just jump there. You actually have to work at first.

Calum Johnson 1:33:08 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:33:08 Like, if I was not hands in the muck working, I would not be prepared for the mindset things that I have to do now, if that makes sense, because can't nobody get over on me. When someone says, "Well, that's gonna be $30,000," I'm like, "Sis, I did that six years ago. That don't take six hours, and if it takes you six hours, you're not competent."

Calum Johnson 1:33:24 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:33:24 "Oh, you thought I didn't know?" You know, because I built my website six years ago.

Calum Johnson 1:33:28 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:33:29 I, you know, I did my email list. I did my social media. So like, it's okay. You shouldn't despise humble beginnings. And so learning to work the business with your hands is a good start, but you should always be planning of, "How do I pull myself out?" Um, because you won't be able to get to, like, the next, next, next level if it's always you doing the manual work.

Calum Johnson 1:33:51 Mm. You know, I love that advice of someone just pulling out a piece of paper, and whatever the goal is-

Tiffany Aliche 1:33:57 Mm-hmm

Calum Johnson 1:33:57 ... wherever that money number, that income potential, net worth, whatever it is, just writing it down.

Tiffany Aliche 1:34:04 Yep.

Calum Johnson 1:34:04 Because in the second that you do that, you make it more real.

Tiffany Aliche 1:34:09 Yes.

Calum Johnson 1:34:09 And it's like you also start this process, and this is what I've seen with myself, is that it's like you always have these kind of new targets, and how many people, even if you went up to them on the street or your friends or peers at work, could you go to and ask, like, what's their target for the next quarter-

Tiffany Aliche 1:34:26 Mm

Calum Johnson 1:34:26 ... or the next year, and they could straight away tell you?

Tiffany Aliche 1:34:28 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 1:34:29 Most, I think, I feel like most of the time we have no idea even what we're aiming for.

Tiffany Aliche 1:34:33 Yes.

Calum Johnson 1:34:34 And so we, we were speaking earlier about, like, the importance of your mind being open.

Tiffany Aliche 1:34:40 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 1:34:41 And it was like when you were getting into those conversations or you're asking people about how much they charge for speaking-

Tiffany Aliche 1:34:46 Mm-hmm

Calum Johnson 1:34:46 ... it was like you knew what the goal was.

Tiffany Aliche 1:34:49 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 1:34:49 You knew the number, and so you were always in your environment looking for opportunities-

Tiffany Aliche 1:34:54 Yes

Calum Johnson 1:34:54 ... to hit that number.

Tiffany Aliche 1:34:55 Exactly.

Calum Johnson 1:34:56 And I think that that's why it's, like, just that practical step of, like-

Tiffany Aliche 1:34:59 Yes

Calum Johnson 1:35:00 ... taking the time to consider it and writing it down. I'm actually gonna do that after this.

Tiffany Aliche 1:35:05 Yes.

Calum Johnson 1:35:06 I'm like, "I need to be clearer."

Tiffany Aliche 1:35:07 There is this, um, I think Princeton had done a study where people writing down their goals, and it made your goals, like, 60 to 80% more likely to happen, just the act of writing them down. They did, like, a 10-year study of, like, high school students that wrote down their goals versus those who didn't and then tracking them 10 years later, and you, they were, like, 60 to 80% more likely to happen because writing them down makes you see them. Like, h- honestly, almost everything that I'm living now I have written down. Like, in my-- I don't know if it's in this wallet. I used to carry this laminated check that, like, I remember it was said, like, "From a very happy c- client," and I remember the check said $10,000, and then I made 10,000. And then it was $50,000, and I made 50. Then it was, um, uh, whatever, $1 million, and I made a million. And so I keep upping it because I'm writing down. I'd heard Jim Carrey did that. Like, I'm trying to make the thing real for myself. I, I keep journals, so I look. I do vision boards. I was just looking at a vision board that I'd lost that I found it in my closet from five, six years ago, and I would say more than half the stuff on that board I had lived and experienced. I was like, "Oh my God, I wrote on here I wanted to go to Egypt." I did. And sometimes things like Charlotte, North Carolina was on there. I just came back from there. I forgot that it was on my vision board.

Calum Johnson 1:36:17 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:36:17 I have on there New York Times bestseller. That was six years ago. I didn't even have a book deal.

Calum Johnson 1:36:23 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:36:23 I didn't even have a book deal. I wrote New York Times bestseller. I said 100,000 copies sold. I sold 100,000 in my first year. We're up to 300,000 sold. That was on there without even a book deal.

Calum Johnson 1:36:34 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:36:34 And there were some things on there that I was just like, "Wow." So whatever writing down looks like for you, whether it's a vision board, whether it's voice notes, whether it's, like, you know, actual pen and paper, get your dreams out of your head, into your hand, and onto something physical so you can check in and, and check on them frequently.

Calum Johnson 1:36:53 Yeah. You know what? I lo- I love that. You know, even in the, [lips smack] in the beginning of the episode, I read out some of those statistics. So 78% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck.

Tiffany Aliche 1:37:03 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 1:37:04 69% of households have less than $1,000 in emergency savings. 34% of all Americans have zero, $0 in savings.

Tiffany Aliche 1:37:11 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 1:37:12 And so I'm kinda curious for you, like, I think we hear so much personal finance advice, and we hear things about budgeting and saving and credit and debt and, and all of these things. Is there anything that in your mind when you have something

Calum Johnson 1:37:31 that it would have such a large impact for people in terms of their personal finances, but it's largely being ignored?

Tiffany Aliche 1:37:41 Mm.

Calum Johnson 1:37:42 Like, we-- people never think about it. It's the thing that's never discussed. What, what kinda comes to mind for you on that?

Tiffany Aliche 1:37:50 I think the intentional building of community around you. I think that we hear it, but the-- I have a nine-figure opportunity that came to me because of someone in my community who I met at an event. She was super nice. We stayed in contact via text message. I saw her recently. She invited me to go out to eat with her. There was a bunch of other people there, and this opportunity is now before me, a nine-figure opportunity potentially. That's community. There's certain doors that you cannot open. There's no knob for you. Someone on the inside has to open and bring you in and then let everyone know, "She's here," you know? Like, "This is what you should know about her. This is what you..." And so I think people, um, think that, like, this, like, rugged individualism that we like to tout in America is BS, that anyone who's made it to any level of grand success has done so within community. Someone has put them forward. You have to constantly be networking, and not networking from a place of what can I get, but what can I give? Like, I like to connect for connecting sake, you know? 'Cause g- what will happen is you connect with someone, they're really cool. You met them at an event. Five years later, 10 years later, something comes up. My first six-figure contract with a brand, it was a woman who took, took-- I have an online challenge I used to do every year called The Literature Challenge. It was free, and she worked for, um, this car brand, and she'd been telling them about me, telling them about, um, telling, like, they were, she was telling them, telling-- Let me... [laughs] She was telling them about me for, like, two years, "You should work with Tiffany. You should work with Tiffany. You should work..." I did not know this. Just because we connected and I met, she's like, "She's so nice," and she followed what I was doing. She told them. Finally, after two years, they said okay. It was a $100,000 contract. That, that, that was the check that I'd written for myself. I'm like, "No one's gonna pay you $100,000." They paid me $100,000.

Calum Johnson 1:39:48 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:39:48 I couldn't believe it, and I mean, since now, that's, you know, that's not even nearly my, my biggest contract. But at the time it was like, "Oh my goodness," and that was as a result of community. And I think everyone wants to talk about, like, um, certainly, you know, there's investing, we all know that, to grow wealth. You know, there's saving, there's budgeting, there's getting your credit together. There's all these other things, but access to people who have access is paramount because you can invest and do all these other things and then be shut out of whatever the next level of stake because it takes a person.

Calum Johnson 1:40:25 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:40:25 Are you actively working on connecting with people? And like I said, connecting for connecting sake. Almost every opportunity I've ever had. Like, I met you because Arlan text me, right? She text me, "Oh my God, I was on this amazing podcast. You should be on," da da da. I was like, I mean, I love Arlan. I said, "Okay." [both laughing] I didn't even know anything about you. And I looked, I'm like, "Wow, this is major podcast." She's like, "Yes, girl." And I'm here as a result of community.

Calum Johnson 1:40:49 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:40:49 And so to me, that is the secret sauce to success is are you c- like, are you not only developing your community? Are you maintaining it? Are you taking care of it? Are you checking in? You know, like, I take walks with friends in business. Like, one of my favorite things to do. Like, I was like, "Let's take a walk at a park, and we'll talk about business." I check up, up on them, their kids. "Are you good? Let's go for lunch." You know, like, building those communities. There's a great book called "Delivering Happiness" by Tony Hsieh. He's the man who, um, he's passed away, but he p- um, he wrote the book, um, the "Delivering Happiness," um, what was that? Zappos.

Calum Johnson 1:41:25 He, he built Zappos, yeah.

Tiffany Aliche 1:41:26 Mm-hmm. And so-

Calum Johnson 1:41:27 Like billion dollar company.

Tiffany Aliche 1:41:28 Yes.

Calum Johnson 1:41:28 Sold to Amazon.

Tiffany Aliche 1:41:29 Amazon, yes, and brilliant man. Sad, but brilliant. And that's one of the things he said. He said, "I just would connect with people, and we would become really cool, and then 10 years later, it's, like, a multimillion dollar contract." I wouldn't have known that. You know? Like, are you actively working on getting to know people? Like, I'm really personable. I'm a girl's girl, and, like, I, I have four sisters, so I'm really like, "So what's going on with you? And those are really cute shoes, and th-" And before you know it, you're in another room, and you're like, "Oh," and then they introduce you like their bestie. Like, "Hey, vice president, um, this is Tiffany." And I'm like, "I didn't know you knew the vice president. You were just the girl in the bathroom who had cute shoes." You see what I mean?

Calum Johnson 1:42:07 Yeah.

Tiffany Aliche 1:42:07 And so yeah, community, community, community.

Calum Johnson 1:42:09 Yeah. You know what, you know what's interesting? I think especially, like, people from, um, our community, I think so often it's difficult because in a lot of ways we're products of our environment.

Tiffany Aliche 1:42:21 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 1:42:22 Right? There's that quote, that old adage, you're like the average of the five people you hang around the most or you spend the most time with.

Tiffany Aliche 1:42:28 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 1:42:29 And it's like I can almost hear the frustration from people. I felt it in my life as well, which is, well,

Calum Johnson 1:42:37 if everyone around me also is living paycheck to paycheck-

Tiffany Aliche 1:42:41 Mm-hmm

Calum Johnson 1:42:41 ... or everyone around me, they also don't have savings, or they also kinda struggling to pay rent, um, it's like a lot of the times we don't have access to the people that have access. And so there's, like, this frustration of, like, "Well, how do I get into those circles? Like, those people aren't like me." And I guess the, the underlying mindset is it's almost like there's, like, the haves and the have-nots, and there's this group, this stratosphere that I can't access, and I'll never be able to access it. And so-

Tiffany Aliche 1:43:15 Well, I'm gonna challenge you on that. I wanna say, is that true?

Calum Johnson 1:43:18 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:43:18 Is that the only truth? So you don't have social media?

Calum Johnson 1:43:20 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:43:21 You can't get in the Reddit forum?

Calum Johnson 1:43:23 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:43:23 You can't get in a Facebook group? I know it's old school, but there's a lot of really g- great Facebook groups. You know? Like, I know people who met their business partner on Clubhouse.

Calum Johnson 1:43:30 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:43:33 I know that you live in Timbuktu, wherever, in, in Illinois, and there's one cow and a donkey and a farm, and that's it. And yet somehow you're on social media.

Calum Johnson 1:43:43 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:43:44 Where people who literally, you can meet someone in China who is interested in learning English, and you exchange. You teach, they teach you Chinese, you learn English. Like, that's the thing. That's what I mean. That's the narrative. Because who wins with that narrative when you tell yourself like, "I don't have... I hear you. I know the person 'cause I can feel them, too. Oh, oh" No. Social media is the great connector.

Calum Johnson 1:44:04 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:44:05 Like, you know how many people... I mean, I'm not a gamer, but I've heard people say that they are closer with some of their gamer friends who they've never met. People been gaming with the same people since high school, and they're in their 30s. I remember this one, like, there was this cute video of this guy who had never met his gamer friend, asked him to be his best man because they had been playing together for 15 years, in his wedding. So you can make connection. It doesn't have to be you sitting right next to me in Newark, New Jersey.

Calum Johnson 1:44:29 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:44:29 You can make connection right online if you are willing.

Calum Johnson 1:44:32 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:44:32 You know? And so, yeah.

Calum Johnson 1:44:34 Y- y- you know what? Can you... I, I think it's so good what you're saying, and I, I want people to be able to take it home and, and do something with it. Like, I want no excuses for anyone. Can you give an example of how you reach out? Because I think sometimes, you

Calum Johnson 1:44:48 know, someone might be listening and they might see you, for example, and they're like, "She runs, like, this really successful company. She has so much going on. She's a New York Times bestseller. She does speaking. She's at the vice president's residence. Like, she's never gonna respond to my email." And there's like, they don't even know how to reach out. They've put you on such a pedestal. They don't even know how to be personable, how to be, like, just a human that you'd even wanna have just an initial conversation with.

Tiffany Aliche 1:45:12 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 1:45:13 And so can you give some advice on that? Like, how should someone, that person that I'm seeing online, or maybe I don't even know, wherever I'm seeing them, I just wanna reach out and do it in a way that, you know, they're gonna be receptive.

Tiffany Aliche 1:45:28 So one, you take it, take, um... I don't know if you ever see little kids when they learn to play at the park, right? So a kid is watching other kids play. First thing they do is they bring their toys over. "You wanna play with me?" Not empty-handed, 'cause some people reach out to take. I don't even know you. "Hey, Tiffany, I'd love to partner. Can you do this, this, this, this, this?" You sound crazy. I don't respond to those because it tell, it shows me that you're actually not interested in partnership. You are interested in extracting value and keeping it moving. And 90% of the people that reach out, that is the energy. So it's not very hard to find the 10% that I actually respond to. The 10% that I respond to is one, "Oh my gosh, I just want you to tell you, I just wanted to tell you thank you so much for what you did. This changed my life in this way. Thank you." And they keep it moving. Oh, that was nice. Not asking for anything, just here to share kindness.

Calum Johnson 1:46:17 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:46:18 That's huge. You start to build a relationship from kindness. "Hey, girl, I see you out there. I saw you at the VP's residence." That was it. And before you know it, you could have a rapport for six months of someone just checking in. "I noticed you haven't been online in a while. You all right?" Now I'm writing back and forth. There are people who I've never met who that's how we converse online, you know? And then they might be like, "Well, you know, my, my company is having a thing. Would love if you could speak." I would at least consider it from my internet friend who I've never met but has always been kind, has not asked me for anything.

Calum Johnson 1:46:44 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:46:44 That's one. Two, be like the little kid. Bring your toy to play with. "Hey, Tiffany. I noticed that your, your videos are really great, but honest, I'm even better at making Reels. Here's an example. Would love to make a Reel for you." I'm looking for someone to make Reels right now. All of a sudden, I'm like, "Girl, let's get on the phone." It went from I can never connect with Tiffany to I'm on the phone with Tiffany, and I'm gonna make Reels for her. People come with no toys to play with.

Calum Johnson 1:47:07 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:47:07 And you wonder why you don't have any part- friends at the park.

Calum Johnson 1:47:09 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:47:10 You know what I mean? Bring something to the table. Don't let, make me ask for it. You're wanting to take and extract. You're not gonna.

Calum Johnson 1:47:17 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:47:17 You know what I mean? And so that is, like, literally, that's what I do. You think I don't slide in people's DMs? "Hey, sis. Congratulations on your book deal. I don't know if you know, but my new, my book hit a New York Times bestsellers list, and I have this class that I taught for my mentees. It's a two-hour class, eight pages of notes, time-stamped. I could, I would love to share with you and your team. Here's the link."

Calum Johnson 1:47:39 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:47:40 Everybody's my best friend. You know how many other New York Time bestsellers that, that, that, that, that spawned? No, I'm not asking for anything, just building relationships. I always come with gifts.

Calum Johnson 1:47:50 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:47:50 "Hey, I see that, you know, you're going to go speak at such and such event. I spoke there last year. If you ever wanna jump on a call, I can share what I wish I would've known. Here's some things." And then people are like, "Oh my God." I've been on the phone with some of the, I call it the blue check brigade. You know, like, some of the biggest names you could ever imagine, just because I've just been like, "I don't want anything. Just sharing this thing with you."

Calum Johnson 1:48:10 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:48:10 A year, two years, three years. People are not patient either. Five years from now, they hit me up. "I was just telling such and such about you. You should come to this fancy-shmancy event where you're gonna meet this investor, da, da, da, da, da" All because I slid into your DMs and I shared something positive with you. That's how you do that.

Calum Johnson 1:48:26 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:48:26 Either slide in to share just straight positivity or reach out with, with a toy in your hand and say, "Can we play?" But bring the toy.

Calum Johnson 1:48:34 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:48:34 'Cause I'm already playing. I'm already at the park. So whether you come or not, I get to play. So if you're gonna p- play, bring value to the table already.

Calum Johnson 1:48:42 Mm. You know what I, I love about this conversation, and obviously you, you have an amazing story, and I knew that, I knew that coming in. But, um, it's what you mentioned in the beginning about living a life of service.

Tiffany Aliche 1:48:52 Yes.

Calum Johnson 1:48:53 And it's even, even the way that you described the outreach.

Tiffany Aliche 1:48:56 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 1:48:56 It's like so often we're thinking about what can I take?

Tiffany Aliche 1:48:59 Yes.

Calum Johnson 1:48:59 What do I need? And a lot of the times we've built up to the point where we're, like, desperate, and now it's like, okay, I need the sponsorship thing, and I need this, and I need this, and I need this. And it's like you're just living a life of service.

Tiffany Aliche 1:49:09 Yes.

Calum Johnson 1:49:10 And every now and then you're just dropping these little hooks-

Tiffany Aliche 1:49:13 Yeah

Calum Johnson 1:49:13 ... these little things to everyone. And eventually, you don't know when it's gonna happen.

Tiffany Aliche 1:49:17 Yes.

Calum Johnson 1:49:18 And you don't put the pressure, but some point it's gonna pay dividends.

Tiffany Aliche 1:49:21 Yep.

Calum Johnson 1:49:21 But it's not even that you're necessarily trying for it to pay dividends.

Tiffany Aliche 1:49:24 Just kind of-

Calum Johnson 1:49:24 But that's why it works

Tiffany Aliche 1:49:25 ... 'cause if you do that enough, let's just say I reach out to 20 people in a year. Eventually, one of those fish are gonna bite, and I'm like... Sometimes people will come up to me, and they'll give me an, an opportunity. I'm like, "I don't even remember. Remember that time you jumped on the phone with me, da, da, da?" "No." "Well, anyway, I work for this big old company. We have a $50,000 contract." I'm like, "Oh Okay.

Calum Johnson 1:49:45 Mm-hmm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:49:45 I can't tell you how many times, because I'm not dropping them and looking at the fish lines and... No, I'm just dropping off kindness, and then sometimes a fish bites and you're just like, "Wow, I don't even remember having that call with you." It sound like something I would've said. Usually that's what I say. I'm like, "What did I say?" That sound like me. [laughs]

Calum Johnson 1:50:01 Yeah.

Tiffany Aliche 1:50:01 But I cannot tell you how many doors that's opened, and I'm just like, wow, kindness goes a long, long, long, long, long way. Kindness for kindness sake, not kindness for getting sake.

Calum Johnson 1:50:11 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:50:12 'Cause people can tell that, too. You know, you, if you connect with somebody who's really successful, believe me, they can smell that from a l- a mile away. You don't ever wanna do that. You wanna be, you wanna be helpful for helpful sake. But yeah, I, that's simple as that 'cause it's like the, it's not true that you can't have access to people. You absolutely can.

Calum Johnson 1:50:28 Yeah.

Tiffany Aliche 1:50:28 It's just that most people just go about it the wrong way. They're looking to take and not to give, and truly, like, service is the great door opener.

Calum Johnson 1:50:36 Yeah.

Tiffany Aliche 1:50:37 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 1:50:37 You know what? And, um, it's funny because usually, um, and, and, and we need to get out of here, but-

Tiffany Aliche 1:50:43 [laughs]

Calum Johnson 1:50:44 ... usually, I feel like we could talk for, like, hours probably.

Tiffany Aliche 1:50:46 [laughs]

Calum Johnson 1:50:47 Um, but usually right at the end of the conversation I'm like, "What's that final question that I wanna, that I wanna ask?" And this episode's a bit different for me. I actually don't have a final question I wanna ask. I think it's just, um, I have so much respect, so much admiration, and it's funny because I, I watched some of your other interviews, and I've heard you even speak about what happened with your husband.

Tiffany Aliche 1:51:14 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 1:51:14 And I can tell it's something that's still so personal and still so real for you, and I think I just admire the fact that you step into this room and you live out what you preach-

Tiffany Aliche 1:51:27 Yeah

Calum Johnson 1:51:27 ... which is being of service, which is even sharing that story and all of its vulnerability and everything that comes with it. And so I don't have a final question to ask. I just wanna say thank you so much for coming on. Thank you so much for sharing what you did with everyone, and just keep being you 'cause it's special.

Tiffany Aliche 1:51:48 Thank you.

Calum Johnson 1:51:49 Special. Thank you.

Tiffany Aliche 1:51:50 Thank you. Can I ask you a question?

Calum Johnson 1:51:52 Go for it.

Tiffany Aliche 1:51:53 So you asked me before, what do I think that those, the grandmothers, the CFO, all those people saw in me to, like, speak that life over me. What do you see? 'Cause I'm al- like, you know? Like, what do you think?

Calum Johnson 1:52:05 Hmm. You know what I think? It's there's a core humanity to you.

Tiffany Aliche 1:52:11 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 1:52:12 There's like a, there's a spirit which you can't really put your finger on it, but there's, there's a humor. There's a way in the way even you laugh.

Tiffany Aliche 1:52:22 [laughs]

Calum Johnson 1:52:22 The way that you speak, there's an energy to it, and I think even despite everything that you've achieved and the millions of dollars and the law being signed and all of these things, there's something of, like, she's just here with me. She's present.

Tiffany Aliche 1:52:38 Mm-hmm.

Calum Johnson 1:52:38 She's where her feet are.

Tiffany Aliche 1:52:40 Mm.

Calum Johnson 1:52:41 And I think people can, people can feel that. People that have that ability, they tend to really resonate with people and have that connection. And if you can do that and you can figure out all of the other business stuff and the marketing, and it's what we're trying to do right now with the show, right?

Tiffany Aliche 1:52:57 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 1:52:57 Like, you figure out all the things around that, but at the core of it is that human connection, and if you can do that, then, you know, everything's on the table. The world's your oyster.

Tiffany Aliche 1:53:08 Mm.

Calum Johnson 1:53:09 And I think that's kind of what I felt, just d- the whole conversation I felt it. It's the way that you even share the stories and the way that you speak. There's like, "She's here with me."

Tiffany Aliche 1:53:18 Mm.

Calum Johnson 1:53:19 That's powerful.

Tiffany Aliche 1:53:21 Thank you. I really appreciate that. Can I sh- I meant to share, like, a tool, a resource with, with your viewers.

Calum Johnson 1:53:25 Yeah, yeah. Go for it.

Tiffany Aliche 1:53:26 So, you know, we have Good Give With Money, and so to your point of writing things down, if, uh, to me, that's really powerful obviously, and, um, if you're wanting to write down, um, what your goals are, if you DM me on IG the word goals, I will send you my goal sheet. That's, it's my Get Good With Money goal sheet. So you can start writing down what your financial goals are because we're already more than halfway through with the year, but it's not too late to turn those things around. And if you wanna confess your financial soul, you can do that, too.

Calum Johnson 1:53:55 [laughs]

Tiffany Aliche 1:53:55 No judgment. But yeah, you just type goals in the DMs, and I will instantly just send you this free goal sheet, where you can start the process of writing down, because it's not true that you have nothing.

Calum Johnson 1:54:06 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:54:06 You have something. It is not the only truth available to you, so-

Calum Johnson 1:54:09 Mm

Tiffany Aliche 1:54:09 ... I can't wait to see everybody on the other side.

Calum Johnson 1:54:11 I, I hope you're ready. People are gonna be in your DMs confessing-

Tiffany Aliche 1:54:13 [laughs] That's okay

Calum Johnson 1:54:14 ... all sorts of things to you. [laughs]

Tiffany Aliche 1:54:16 It won't be the first time. It will not be the first or the la- I mean, people confess everything from, "I'm homeless. I don't know what to do" to, "I just inherited $3 million from my grandmother."

Calum Johnson 1:54:24 Mm.

Tiffany Aliche 1:54:25 I mean, I remember one lady, I was like, "Girl, do not tell people this." She said, "I'm not telling people. I'm telling you."

Calum Johnson 1:54:28 [laughs] Yeah.

Tiffany Aliche 1:54:30 You know? Like, people tell me all... It's the preschool teacher energy 'cause little kids used to tell me all their business-

Calum Johnson 1:54:36 [laughs]

Tiffany Aliche 1:54:36 ... 'cause they know that I'm not gonna judge and I'm gonna love them anyway. So yes, I do not mind that, honestly. It does not bother me. If you don't have a safe space, I don't mind being a safe space.

Calum Johnson 1:54:44 Yeah.

Tiffany Aliche 1:54:44 Yeah.

Calum Johnson 1:54:44 No, special conversation. Tiffany Aliche, thank you so much.

Tiffany Aliche 1:54:47 Thank you so much.

Calum Johnson 1:54:48 Thank you so much for watching this episode. I hope you enjoyed it. It's really a dream for me that I get to do this. It's surreal that this is what I do full time and every week. So if you enjoy the content, if you enjoyed the conversation, the stories, please hit that subscribe button. It helps us immeasurably with growing the channel, with getting guests, all of those things. So please hit that subscribe button, and I'll see you next time.