A Service Industry Worker's Road to Financial Freedom w/ Barbara Sloan

in terms of real estate, in terms of building the business, in terms of any of these things. And so I failed, and I failed a lot, and looking back now, I'm so grateful for those failures because they taught me so much. Yes, investing in yourself is super important, but when you let compounding do its magic and you're starting in your 20s or 30s, or even in your 18s 19s, that cannot be understated the value of that compound interest.

The journey to wealth is a long walk and some may walk quicker than others, but what good is sprinting to the finish line if you pass out when you cross it? On Walk to Wealth, we enlighten and empower young adults to build wealthy, abundant lives. They say the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step and your first step starts right now. This is Walk to Wealth with your host, john Mendez.

Hey everyone, Welcome to the Walk to Wealth podcast. If you're tuning in on YouTube or any of the podcast directories, make sure to do yourself a favor and give us a follow, because I don't want you guys to get FOMO from all the amazing guests we're bringing on this year. So let's get right into this interview. Barbara, for anyone who hasn't gotten the opportunity to get to know you, tell us your elevator pitch. You know who are you and what do you do.

Yeah. So most people who meet me today know me as someone who owns a woman-owned and operated high-end construction company in the heart of Manhattan. What they don't know is that I spent two decades working in the service industry, often in times in tandem with my other construction jobs, and that service industry work really impacted me. So I spent 20 years working all across the country. I was a waitress, I was a bartender, I was a stripper, I was a go-go dancer, I was a cater waiter, I was a flare bartender, I was a side show show girl, I was circus performer you name it. If it involved tips, I did it. And somewhere around the time of 2013, I moved to New York City with my wife $700 in my pocket and I got two jobs. And the first job I got was as a coyote working at Coyote Ugly, so I was singing and dancing on the bar. And then I got another job, working days on Wall Street, and it was for an unregulated firm that was part trading floor and part independent sales organization selling user-as-loan products Mone Sharky, some really gross stuff. So that gave me a really big education in the markets, in financial services, and after about six months I left that job. I was like this is way too toxic. Our third trader had gotten shipped off to rehab and I was like, oh my gosh, wall Street's way too toxic for me. I'm going back to bars and construction, and so I found myself working for a construction company that managed to offer a lot of benefits to employees, and it was in seeing those benefits that I realized that people who work in the service industry are left out of the wealth building world, and that prompted me to start my brand and write my book tip.

That's an amazing story and let's say I go back in the time machine a little bit further and take us back to a little Bible. What was it like growing up? What were you thinking as a child? Were you aspiring all these big dreams that you're, all the things you have going on now? What was the likes growing up in your childhood?

Yeah. So we grew up lower middle income in a little suburb outside of Detroit. My dad worked for an auto plant, he worked for a Ford Boater Company. My mom was disabled and she was a stay at home parent until the age of 12. At the age of 12, she moved out and I was left to care for myself and a father who mostly worked nights and whose substance use was growing worse and worse. And so that was a challenging time, my childhood. But it was peppered with me not knowing any better, because all of the kids around me had similar stories and similar backgrounds and so financially we weren't doing well. My parents modeled debt, the debt cycle was modeled, but at the same time they also modeled home ownership, which was a real gift to me. At the age of 19, I purchased the house that I grew up in after my dad passed away. It was 100% finance and I had ended up making an offer that was more than twice as more than twice the price that the previous owners had paid for. So it was a stupid decision to purchase this house. Then, to add to it, I spent the next year maxing out 10 credit cards to renovate the house myself as a way to honor my dad. So I put myself into a terrible financial situation early on, which is what led me to wanting to work in the service industry was I needed quick access to cash. I was being chased by creditors. I needed space and time to clean up the financial mess that I had made, because financial literacy was not a part of my journey. It wasn't a part of my upbringing. No one taught us anything about money.

We were taught hard work, yeah, so let me ask you. So you're 19,. You 100% finance at home, max out 10 credit cards. What was that like? What was it like during that time period, running up all these bills, knowing that these people are out to get their money back and get their payments back? What was it like navigating the world at that time, that young?

Yeah, so I was working as a receptionist at a general contractor's office, which is, I think, what kind of gave me the delusion that I could do some of this stuff myself. I was like, oh, I work for a GC, clearly I can do a lot of this work myself. They do it, and some of them are idiots and here's. So I thought at the time, and so I had this like false sense of delusional confidence at the age of 19. And this was before YouTube or Pinterest or anything. I was at the library looking up like how to mix concrete and how to repair fences and look at plumbing and all these things. So I think in my head I was just focused on I wanted to restore the house to what it was when my parents first met, kind of when I was a happy kid, and that was what was in my head was just like making this house the home that I wish it had been for the last 10 years or so, and so that's all I had on my mind was grief and focusing on trying to repair some of that, that heartache.

Yeah, no, that is. I can only imagine how hard that must have been on you and when you were going through this process. What was it like navigating, having this weight kind of on your shoulders now that you kind of have to fend for yourselves? Yeah, after a lot of times when, even just in life and general, like entrepreneurship, a lot of times, we're embarking on this trip, we're heading on this track, this trajectory not a lot of people have trekked and not a lot of people will ever even attempt to trek or head down, and you end up kind of getting thrown into the wolves. You kind of end up having to fend for ourselves. What have you learned through your experience of you know, figuring it out, fending for yourself, going on this journey, this path that most people believe it's just at that point in time, it was hospitality and then the receptionist, but it's like what was it like having to just figure it out, just fend for yourself, going on this path that most people could only imagine? You know what it was like.

Yeah, I mean. I think what's interesting being, you know, on the other side of it now is that at the time I was like there's no way I will be successful having worked in the service industry. There's no way that I will be successful. Having failed at real estate, there's no way I will be successful. I wrote myself off and in a lot of ways I you know I just dropped everything and left because I couldn't handle the pressures of it at the age of 19. I didn't have the tools to navigate it. I didn't know anyone who had done similar things that I could reach out to and ask for advice. I didn't have any community in terms of real estate, in terms of building the business, in terms of any of these things, and so I failed, and I failed a lot and looking back now I'm so grateful for those failures because they taught me so much. I like to say everything I needed to know to own and run a multimillion-dollar business. I learned failing and working in the service industry. You know you learn so many skills and you don't really feel or understand the impact until a little bit of time passes.

Yeah, no, 100%. It's hard to kind of see the light at the end of the tunnel when all that you're currently walking through right now is darkness, and it can get really dark. So let me actually make our first segue into today's conversation the service industry. I'm still in there myself right now. I work at a restaurant. I'm a food runner. I've been there approached. By the time this comes out it'll be three years now. So a little bit of time now and hopefully as well by the time this comes out, I'm also gone from the service industry and this real estate, this entrepreneur stuff starts taking off. So you know what was it? What did you learn? I've just learned For me, for the most part, I was learning to be very social, very you know how to deal with people on a very wide spectrum of people. Like there's a lot of personalities that will come across in a restaurant especially. It's like my restaurant's also a pretty much a nightclub and on the weekend, so there's a bunch of people that you get to meet that are drunk as well. As that just adds a whole lot more personality and variables and ego. I also learned a lot about tipping and how important that is, and I used to be. I mean, I also wasn't raised growing up to restaurants going out to eat, so I never really understood how tipping worked. But what were some of the biggest takeaways that you learned from being in the you know service-hospitally industry? I've been able to take away a lot, so what have you specifically taken away?

Yeah, I think for people who do work in the service industry, they don't. You often aren't spoken to about the skills that you are learning. There's no you know forum or anyone who's talking about those. But you are slowly acquiring a lot of skills and you just mentioned the most important one, which is social and people skills. You learn to manage and navigate a lot of different types of personalities and you learn to manage them as a resource. Who can I use to my advantage? Who can I talk to? You learn the ability to network. You learn the ability to you know, maybe use your manager as a resource. You learn quality control. You are running. Oftentimes when you're in the service industry, you're running a lot of the back of the envelope math Like okay, this is how many tables I did, how many turns do I need to get over the course of these next five hours in order to make $100 so that I can pay my rent? How many bar seats do I need to rotate in order to make this amount or make that amount? How many dances do I need to dance? How many? How many shifts this week do I need to do in order to make what I need to make? And so you're constantly doing that back of the envelope math, and that's what entrepreneurs are doing. They're constantly doing back of the envelope math. They're constantly trying to navigate their resources. They're constantly managing different types of personalities. Additionally, when you're in the service industry, a lot of people who are in that sales position where they're upselling constantly whether it's beverages, whether it's food items, whether it's dances, whether it's haircuts or products or whatever else A lot of that is the sales side of it and you become good at selling and that is what you need as an entrepreneur. You need to know how to sell, you need to know how to close, and that's a skill set that you definitely learn. So I just like to remind people you're learning a lot of these skills. You're highly skilled. You're getting a real Harvard Business School education in those trenches.

And to not discount yourself or count yourself out just because your experience doesn't look like a traditional path that maybe other people take, yeah, and it's one of those things where I feel like a lot of people aren't appreciative of it and I think at the age of my listeners, maybe a little bit younger like high school as well, if you can get into a restaurant of some sort, by all means do it, because you'll get so much more money than getting paid minimum wage. And I try to tell my group chat a while ago, and I mean a couple of my guys that I grew up with and now, maybe years back I think it was my freshman year in college, which actually wasn't all that long ago, so not too many years back but I was trying to tell them hey, you guys are probably looking for the summer like a restaurant job. And it's like, eh, and it kind of just brushed it off and it's like, yeah, you make like $6 per hour, but in tips you make more than what some people would. You know actual degrees is from college making. It's like hard to kind of grasp that idea not looking because all they see is the per hour they guaranteed. And it just goes to show like that's probably when the reason why a lot of people also don't hop into entrepreneurship, because they only see disability. If you're going into entrepreneurship for this ability, well at home means get out, at least when you're starting, because it doesn't get stable till you get it rolling. And but the rest of our industry? $6 an hour, especially where I live in the Northeast you're not. You know you're not paying any, any bills or making any ends. Meet with that, even if you get overtime. Right, but with tips.

I was just going to say. I think it's it's important for us to also talk about the fact that, federally, the subminim wage for tipped workers is actually $2.13. You may live in a state where your your pay is a little bit better. Federally, this group of workers are still dealing with a $2.13 federal wage and so. But tips are on top of that and it's supposed to compensate for that, which is not always the case. But for me, when I worked in the industry, I never had an income problem. Right For me and that's not to say that people in this industry don't have an income problem. There's definitely people in the industry who are experiencing poverty and experiencing hardship. But for me, it was a money management problem, it was a mindset problem, it was an environmental boundary problem that was not getting my money moving in the right direction. So that's one thing I always like to talk about is like you're right, you're getting the lesson in entrepreneurship when you're working in the service industry. It's a great way to step your toe into it for the first time and to see like, oh, how will I deal with managing my money on a fluctuating income? How will I deal with all of these different variables?

And it's like stuff that you learn, as you said, like as you're experiencing it, which is always the best way to learn to learn and go and do it and figure it out while you're in it, and not often you know the back of a book or something like that. So let me ask you so now you're getting into hospitality and the restaurant industry and you still have all these bills. What was that tipping point for you where things started to turn around, like, take us back to that point in time where it's like, all right, you have all these loans, these bills, these credit cards, and now I'm, you know, doing picking up all these jobs. What, at what point did it go from? Hey, I just need to survive and make ends meet to okay, how do I actually get myself out of this and start catching my stride?

Yeah, I think it was a slow projection and you know, the first step was me kind of getting out of my environment. So I left Detroit and I moved to Los Angeles and I lived in a studio apartment with three other women. I responded to Craigslist ads for anything that paid cash, because I had creditors chasing me and I didn't want my wage garnish. So I was working those cash jobs, so many random jobs. But I think through, like that, living with multiple people, I saw the potential of keeping your expenses low, I saw the ability of increasing your income, and so that was kind of maybe like the first step. And then, you know, you sort of sprinkle in things slowly, like, oh, I started maybe saving a little bit. I was really good at, I was always really good at saving. I just never knew what long-term goals were. I didn't know to save for retirement, I didn't. I didn't even think about retirement. I was like, oh, I like what I do, I'll probably do it forever. But it was slowly building up that awareness of like, oh, I do have the capacity to save for this big trip or this big moot or this big thing and therefore I have the capacity to save. And so that was like it was slowly building me small awareness you know milestones and building on top of them over time.

Yeah, and actually in the money management department, well, how do you manage to figure that out? As I said so for me, I'm a food runner, which is why I make it a little bit more per hour. Our servers they make like two something. So it's like how? What are some money management tips for anyone that wants to get started, at least in the restaurant industry, while they figure out this entrepreneurship game? I think it's great because one I used for me the restaurant I work at. It's very flexible in terms of picking up ships, dropping ships and finding coverage. That's something where I get to set my schedule like, hey, I can only work weekends, or hey, I work one day through Friday. So I'm very fortunate that I'm at a restaurant that allows me to flexibly to do so so that I can figure out this entrepreneur game out. But for anyone that's getting in the restaurant industry, you know where are some tips you can give them on that money management side of things? Or even if they're not in the restaurant industry, what are some like just general, like money management tips that someone could use to start keeping their money in order?

Yeah, the biggest thing I always hear from like coaching clients is like, yeah, but my, my income's so inconsistent I never know how much I'm going to make. And I'm like, yes, nor does any other company in the United States. No company knows what they're going to make, nor do they have the same amount of income two months in a row. So you are, you are in, you have examples all around you of companies with fluctuating incomes and you can mirror what they do. I'm so lucky to be married to a woman who does financial planning and analysis for a publicly traded company, so we get to talk about this and geek out and nerd out. And what she does for her Fortune 500 companies that she's worked for is they look for trends. Once they identify trends, they make guesses and then, after time passes, they look back and they see if those guesses were right and then they make adjustments. And that's exactly what people in the service industry or any entrepreneur or anyone working on a gig or consulting any variable income needs to stay focused on. You look for trends. There's always trends. Even if you're saying you're, even if you say there's no trends, there's trends. We're not talking about the difference between $7 a year and $7 million. It's closer than that when you really start to break it down, a lot closer. So, for people who work at a restaurant that maybe has a patio, you know that your summers are going to be busier. You're going to spot that trend and so, therefore, you're going to build up buffers in your summers to be able to take on those harder winters and maybe those slow periods. If you're a dancer, on the other hand, you're going to know that your club environments are going to be slower in the summer. Your sporting events are going to be slower. So you're going to start by looking for trends and then, once you identify those trends, then you're going to take guesses for what it's going to be like going forward and then you're going to look back track, see how you did on your guesses and make adjustments. A lot of people assume that they have to budget based off of your income, but you do not have to budget based off your income. You can budget based off your expenses. If your expenses are what's more fixed than your income, then you set your budget based on what your most predictable expenses are and then you crude a few buffers around that. So tailoring that and looking at the other side of the coin, your money is going to look a whole lot different than most nine to fivers who get that traditional paycheck. But that doesn't mean that it's impossible for you to budget. It just means it's just a little bit harder. But we can do hard things.

Yeah, and I love it and it goes so much into entrepreneurship because it's the same way. You're not going to have predictable income. You're not going to have predictable things. But you probably know how much your Zoom account cost or your video editing software cost per month or whatever it may be. It's like you can track those things and you know every month. It's like 15, 9 to 11, or it's another 20 bucks on the 14th, or it's like you have to pay five bucks for your little you know Amazon Prime book. You know what is it audible? There we go, I think it's about like 1199 a month on the whatever day of the month. It's like you could track those things and have that piled up and it's super actionable, super practical. So let me ask you so to go back to our timeline where you're at. So you started figuring this out. You started managing your money matter. You started saving your money better. You're now on LA. Where did this go from there? You started picking up a lot of jobs to gather cash. And what point? What was that? The day that you finally achieved zero net worth, like? What was the day where it was like I don't owe anybody anything anymore? What was that day like for you?

Oh, that's a very good question. I don't know that I was sad. I don't think I was financially literate enough at the time to attract it and to be aware of when that moment took place. It was just slowly, kind of like trying to get better in all these other areas and I moved around a ton. So I think the other thing about losing a parent at a young age is like I was panic with the notion that life was short and I wanted to experience as much of it as possible. So I was moving around, I was running dance troops, I was bartending, I was, I was. I was in Vegas, I was in New Orleans, I was in, you know, boston, I was in Detroit, I was in New York, like I was living all over the country, having the time of my life. I wasn't so focused on money at that point, but I was making small strides. It wasn't until I got to New York that I really had a big aha moment about like, oh, this is why I haven't been able to seriously build wealth, this is why my peers haven't been able to build wealth. I didn't understand the impact of the safety nets that most traditional nine to fiveers have. I didn't understand the impact of a 401k. I didn't understand the impact of health insurance. I didn't understand the impact of paid time off. People in the service industry don't have access to paid time off, even cash flow wise Like or even if, statewide, their state mandates it cash flow wise, it never happens because it's eaten away in taxes. So one of the things that I tell people who are working on tips is like let's look at your holiday season, when holidays are really busy and you get a lot of tips. Use that time to bucket to give yourself paid time off for the next year. Make an extra $1,000 in the month of December, spread that $1,000 into 10 envelopes of $100 each and pay yourself each time you want to take a day off. Because PTO is not real for a lot of people in the industry. 90% of restaurants, bars and clubs are owned by small independent operators who do not have access or resources to provide benefits. So you have to set up your own systems. And same thing Number one way that Americans build wealth is through their 401k. It's the number one way that Americans build wealth and when you work in an industry where it's not provided, you just think that's not an option for you. You think, oh, I don't have access to a 401k, therefore I can't have a 401k. So to me it's been really important to educate people in the industry like, nope, you can set up your own retirement account, you can set up your own brokerage accounts and even if it's not tax deferred, you can still use those accounts for retirement. You can still set yourself up, because this industry can be hurt on your body and you deserve a golden retirement.

Yeah, 100%. So now you're in New York, you get this epiphany. It's like all right, where does it go from there? When does Barbara go from working in all these different jobs to the personal brand, the author, the entrepreneur, the business owner that you got going on everything now? When did that shift happen?

Still working multiple jobs. My wife's like Jesus Christ, you have multiple properties, you own a multimillion-dollar business. What do you do? I think that work ethic was instilled at me at such a young age. Yeah, I think probably. 2013,. 2014 was when I really started to get serious about my own money and start to really stack paper for myself. And then in 2016, the political climate in the US was a little bit of a mess and I just could not stomach the news cycle. So I turned everything off and I was like I'm just going to listen to personal finance content because that's all I could stomach at the time. And I started getting introduced to the fire community and all these other ideas. And that's just when I was like, oh, there's this whole umbrella of personal finance out there and no one is talking to these people who work in the service industry. And so that's when I was just like this book is very mission-based for me. My coaching practice is very mission-based for me. I charge $30 for a half-hour coaching call. That does not even cover my website costs. You know what I mean. So for me, it was just about helping people that need it. I wrote the book that I wished that I had had when I was 20 because I'd be retired by now. I would have easily retired by now.

Yeah. So let me ask you. One of the quotes that I left by comes from Plato's Allegory of the Cave, and those who listen probably heard me say it a trillion times. But to tell you, the duty of the enlightened is to enlighten the unenlightened, and you could have very well just figured the game out, played the game, got yours and then just relax, you know, go off with your wife and enjoy life, travel, whatever it is that you guys like to do, and just live to yourselves. But you took it upon yourself. It's like no, this issue is bigger to me. I got to help not just myself. I got to help everyone else that's out there that's struggling and doesn't know about their stuff. What does it look like to kind of shoulder the world? Almost essentially, because, as I said, this is bigger than you. Now, this is not just hey, I want to help a couple of people nearby to get their money right. It's like no, you want to help these people in this industry, level up, evolve, so they can get this gold retirement that you mentioned, so that they can increase their wealth, so that they have a shot at this American dream, or whatever you'd like to call it right, and just play this game at a bigger level. What was that like? When did you make the decision to and what kind of sparked the decision to like, hey, let me take this upon myself to turn this into something bigger and to turn this into a mission.

Yeah, I mean, that took a little bit longer, right? So I 2016, had that epiphany of like no one is talking to these people, and so I started researching our community. There's over 5.5 million people working on TIFs in the United States. It's the second largest employment sector in the United States. They age into those economically disadvantaged in our population. I'm looking at this wealth industry, I'm looking at the personal finance space and I'm seeing it's really broken up into the haves and the have nots and I'm honestly just I'm not here for that. Like, if I can DIY this by listening to podcasts and reading books and doing all of this, then I'm going to make it a hell of a lot easier for other people to get there, and they don't have to do listen to the 10,000 hours of stuff that I listened to in order to distill it down. But it took a while because I had a lot of imposter syndrome. I didn't graduate from college, I don't have any financial credentials. Who am I to write a personal finance book? Well, when I realized that no one was talking to these people, I'm like well, I'm one person that can be talking to these people, and I remember listening to a podcast and somebody had said write the book you wish you had had. And I was like I can at least do that. I can at least be one voice, one person talking to this group of people. I may not be the best or the most qualified, but I can keep it real and someone's going to need that.

Yeah, I love that, keeping it real and having that authenticity and the vulnerability to share your journey. And it's like, hey, I screwed up a ton, I learned a ton, I figured it out. Here's what I got for you guys so that you guys don't have to go through everything that I've gone through. And it's something one of the most honorable things most people could do, because a lot of times I mean, of course there's some people out there like JK Rowling and people like that they have a lot of money from selling books, but for the majority of people, I think the top 10 books have the majority of all book sales ever. So it's like most people that are writing books. It's something that really drives them. So let me ask you, now that you've kind of made it to the other side of the journey, of course you're still on it. What are some of the biggest tips? Of course, without giving away your entire book, what are some of the things that you would actually tell yourself if you could have gone back in time to help you move further along in your journey? My connection my goodness, what happened to my connection? My internet for whatever reason, it's flared out of control. Did you hear anything I said. If not, I'll just pick up and edit this part out.

Yeah, maybe just repeat your last question for me.

Yeah. So now that you're on the other side of this journey and, of course, you're always on your journey what does it look like now? What's changing the restaurant industry? What are some of the biggest tips that you could help young, inspiring entrepreneurs slash restaurant industry workers that are trying to make their ends meet, while also figure out the sale of entrepreneurship.

Yeah, I think the first thing I always tell people in this industry is that an emergency fund is essential and I think most people figure that out during COVID that they needed to have a bigger amount of savings in case. But maybe we shouldn't be planning all of our financial decisions around the global pandemic. But when you work in service, you need to have that emergency fund more because the dynamic there's a power imbalance. You're waiting on someone else, You're serving somebody else, you have a new boss every hour, half hour, 45 minutes, and that power imbalance can mean that you lose autonomy to be able to make decisions and advocate for yourself. Because if you are reliant on somebody's tip in order to meet your basic needs or essentials, then you're in a really vulnerable position. But that emergency fund, when you're able to save up money, it gives you a little bit of that power back in that dynamic so that you can say no to maybe situations that are unsafe, walk out of environments that are maybe a toxic boss or a toxic manager or even just a toxic workshop. So giving yourself an emergency fund is one of the biggest gifts I think people in the industry can do for themselves. It really changes the dynamic of how you show up in your work, how you advocate for yourself and how well you take care of yourself. So that's step number one. I always like to tell people you have to.

I was going to say to add on to that point, because, before you go on to the next one, because that's exactly why I'm not underwater right now the only reason is saving. For me, right before I got my real estate license, I was doing like 70 hours a week, 35 and 35, at K Jewelers and at the restaurant and I was making I still have my grandparents so I was making a lot more money than I needed and know what to do with I mean, I know what to do with it, but a lot more money than what I needed. Because at that point in time I don't think I have forgotten, yeah, I didn't have my car yet and I didn't. I think that my cat was like only a few weeks old, I think like two months or three months old, so he wasn't eating as much food as he eats now. So there was that. So I was saving a ton and all that money went straight into index funds, all of it, all of it, and I was saving. I got to the point where I was almost saving like 4,000 a month, almost, I think, my best month. I think I saved like 6,000. I was I mean, I was getting after that. I was working a ton Like every day, felt like the same day, almost, especially weekends because they're in a pandemic. My restaurant specifically, you could, because it was a nightclub at least the way the rules work where I was at you couldn't just have a bar and only serve drink. You have to serve food and so you have to pretty much keep the kitchen open for as long as you wanted the bar to be open. So the kitchen will be open. I will come in clock in on a let's say I was doing a double on a Friday or Saturday come in clock in around 10, 30, 11. And then I'll work around four, four, 30, take like a 30 minute break and then from five almost to like two in the morning, be working two, 30 in the morning and then have to get up for Saturday and then do it again for Sunday and then Monday. I had to be ready for nine to get the K Jewelers work till four, go home each and change to then be at the restaurant on Monday. It's like my whole life that summer I don't really remember anything. It was just like every day was the same day K Jewelers go home, eat, change restaurant, go home, showers, sleep, and it's like Prince watch repeat but that excess money allowed me to build that savings and, honestly, if I hadn't built that up, I probably wouldn't have been here today. And it wasn't like game changing life you know, life changing money but it allowed me to stay afloat while I'm figuring out this entrepreneurship stuff. So I love that you mentioned that as the very first step, but that's something that was like would have changed the entire course of all this stuff, had I not saved any money, and it would have caused me to probably have to continue working like those insane hours to figure something out. I forgot what I was going with the second point, but I just wanted to mention that there because, oh, the second point, sorry. One another thing I hate when so like, so many people that work at my job at the restaurant are so unappreciative, and of course it's like the restaurant industry and of course there's a lot of BS you got to put up with, but it's like I mean I'm grateful for it, I'm super grateful for it Because it gave me one opportunity to make more money than I would have made at a regular job, more flexibility, more fun, you know, free food, like sometimes I mean I don't drink anymore but free drinks. It's like you know it's what more can you ask for? And if you come in like 20 minutes late, no one's going to fire you. Of course, we're a little bit more. As you said, we're not like super like, like super tight knit, so it goes also as a downfall as well, but it's like it allowed me to have so much opportunity and grow so much, so it's like I'm super grateful for it. So sorry for interrupting, but yeah, no, I think you're making that was definitely helped me a lot.

You're making a lot of great points, like there's a lot of unique opportunities and unique hazards to this industry, and those hazards and opportunities are not talked about nearly enough. People are not. You know, people don't often think of these positions as career paths, which they absolutely can be, and they can also be amazing stepping stones that serve you where you need to be, when you need to be. The great thing about the industry is that ability to enter and exit as you need. There's not a lot of industries where you can work more to make more, where you can get back into it if you need to get back out of it when you need to, and I think that's one of the greatest features that it has for people who are willing to utilize it is that flexibility flexibility of schedule, flexibility of being in it when you wanna be in it and that access to cash If you're a real estate investor, I mean the access that you can get to cash to be able to put a down payment on something is. I mean, there's no other industry that's handing you that type of cash all the time. So I think it's a great place for people who are trying to get serious about entrepreneurship or real estate or trying to build wealth. But you have to be diligent in those systems, and so savings is the first step in that system. The second step is investing. You have to be able to put money away. You have to put yourself first. When you're in a serving position, whether you're running food or bartending or waitressing or dancing or whatever, you're almost taught to put others' needs before your own. And you have to work on that mindset piece of like, putting yourself first. Again, I remember so many ships where I didn't even go to the bathroom because I was running around crazy. I didn't take a sip of water, right, like I was just hopped up on coffee or cocktails or whatever, running a ship, not taking care of myself, taking care of everyone else, and that was just such a dangerous mindset to be in. You know, like you've got to invest in yourself first and you do a beautiful job of this. Like you're taking your money and putting it into courses for yourself and not just like out there drinking drinks and having cocktails. And I think that that's an important mindset ship, because in this industry we often give ourselves the wrong trade-offs. We often ask ourselves the wrong questions. We're like would I rather go out or would I rather not go out? If that's the question you're asking yourself, then you're always gonna rather go out. But if you ask yourself bigger questions, like would I rather not go out and give myself a maxed out Roth, ira, a trip to Mexico and be able to go out once a week, or would I rather go out three or four times a week, when you start asking yourself bigger, more strategic questions, you get to be more intentional.

Yeah, and you know our brains, the way they work is they'll look for the answers even if we don't have it in front of us. And as you look for the answers, more answers to show, which is kind of like weird, how it works, and it's something that I had to get used to. But it's like if there's no answers available now, you have to start looking and as you start looking, the answers will start to almost like appear magically onto your test sheet, right, and I love that you mentioned investing yourself, and not just like Roth, but also like courses, as you said. Like that's something that's super important, I feel, and a lot of times, like I made to this realization. I think index funds, me personally, were the best parking spot that I could have put my money, because for me it was growing and I've done pretty well on index funds. But, like just this past February, I sold a bunch of it to get into an accelerated course, because I need to grow myself, because the money I'm making now, yeah, I can invest it, in 60 years I'll be a millionaire, but it's like right for now, I'm investing it just as a parking spot so that when I find a good opportunity to invest in myself and grow personally, because right now my highest ROIs in myself, the sooner I can figure out those entrepreneurship stuff, the sooner I can get it going, get more income and then, when I get more income, then what I could invest per month, what I currently have entirely in my index fund portfolio and so it's like but if I had I now had it there, honestly I would have been screwed for a lot of. Yeah, I would have never been able to go to any conferences. I would never have been able to go any courses I want to have been able to get my. I might have been able to get my well-to-say license. I said I said that expensive, but a lot of the conferences I've gone to I probably would have been able to go to any of them, because conferences I literally price there great and best me. Yeah, they can add up if you soak onto multiple it's like. But none of that would have been possible.

I definitely like the. I definitely like the dual approach of investing in yourself and investing in future. You because compound growth, when you get to real investments, like it, just investing in yourself is super important, but when, when you let compounding do its magic and you're starting in your 20s or 30s, or even in your 18s, 19s, teens, it's like you have a younger audience. That cannot be understated the value of that compound interest, and so I think it's people really need to take a dual approach of like yes, absolutely, now is the time to invest in yourself, because your income is going to be the biggest, it's the biggest thing that will contribute to you being able to build well, but also let some of that magic happen behind the scenes for you too, because that's really gonna that's really gonna take off and it's gonna be quite easy. I love that you talk about index and index investing, because that's also my favorite approach to investing. I think for a lot of people in the service industry, a lot of them don't grow up with financial literacy and they don't grow up with a lot of education around money and so in I have a chapter on investing in my book. It's my favorite chapter, but in it I like to talk about wine because people, people can get so deep into wine. You can get really, really deep into wine. You can talk about age and body and tannins and regions and notes and mouth feel and the glass type and all of the things. You can get Super, super, super into wine. But you don't need to get that into wine in order to have a great wine experience. You need to know a little bit about your tolerance, about what you want, and you can have a great wine experience without getting into the weeds. And the same is true for investing. You can get so deep into investing. You can talk about bell curves and P ratios and 4x. I mean, there's so much to get into with investing. But you don't need to get that deep into investing in order to have a great investing experience. And that is the index funds. Index funds are you getting in and out with minimum? You don't need, you don't need to worry about it. Buy the whole market, ride the ride with the market and you'll, you'll be fine.

Yeah, and just wait and be patient. Mm-hmm, you know that over a long enough time horizon You're literally never lose. Unless the US goes completely like bankrupt bonkers, the whole countries and up.

You know uproar and a variety and revolution starts but then we're not gonna be worried about our money, will we?

Yeah, exactly at that point. And even if we were, what good would it do? Because it's like, hey, the whole country in the revolution, you know, hey, I hand you five bucks for a sandwich is probably not worried about. You know, protect your family and most people who have business are gonna abandon all of them. So, yeah, it's one of those things, barbara I and genuinely enjoyed our conversation today. Not many people that you know kind of grew up in the restaurant industry and you know the service-based industry and Made it out to do something. That's bigger. From what I've experienced and of course, everyone has their aspiration, new dreams but from my personal experience and the people I've worked with in this industry, it's like very, almost like middle of the road. A lot of these people's aspirations like, yeah, I'm just doing this for right now, and then you know, and I say this is a bad thing, but you've been able to take this on such a bigger level, you've been able to do so much more, which is like truly inspiring. Because not, you know, and you have one step in your journey. You were literally where I am right now, you know working at restaurants Picking. You know doing these double shifts and you know working all these extra hours and you so like. For me personally is super inspiring To know that you made it out that you see another end, that now you're on the end of like, hey, I'm giving back your book, your everything that's got going on. So from one person in the street in this industry, it's another. I genuinely appreciate you know your journey and what you got going on. Thank you so much. I appreciate you. So where can we connect with you? Where can we find you? Yeah, if we wanted to learn more about your book, any more of your coaching that you offer, any of the stuff you have going on.

Yeah, thank you. The books available on Amazon you can just Google or search in the bar tipped or tipped book and you'll find it. The subtitle is the life-changing guide to financial freedom for waitresses, bartender, strippers and all other service industry professionals. It's a mouthful, but tipped should get you there. You can find me on my website at wwwtippedfinancecom, where I do do one-on-one coaching. I also do some speaking engagements. You can find me for that. I'll come to your bar club restaurant, do a money talk for your staff. So yeah, and then you can also find me on the socials under at tipped finance. I'm mostly hanging out on Instagram. I try to make financial Literacy fun. I like to do memes. I do some stand-up here in New York City, so I post some nice stand-up lifts about personal finance and, yeah, I'd love to connect.

That's amazing. So now it's time for our famous five questions. Question number one what is the most impactful lesson you've learned in life?

Most impactful lesson I've learned in life learning is a life-long Obligation. You have to keep learning.

What is the most admirable trait a person can have? Great if you had to change someone's life with one book, which book would you recommend?

outside of my own. I'm reading a book right now called the perfectionist guide to losing control, and For entrepreneurs who are really maybe that a type personality, I think this is a good one. It's a good one.

All right, I have to add that to the list. I haven't heard. That's the first one. First time heard that one before. Alrighty, what is the legacy that you're trying to leave behind?

Yeah, I mean for me. I'm trying to be an advocate for people who are lower and middle income, and the biggest policy change I'd love to see is doing away with that sub minimum wage. It's one thing I'm really trying to to work on and Make connections to be able to do, but I'd like to be an advocate for people to say, like it doesn't matter if you're low income or middle income, retirement is something that is possible for you, and you know you don't have to save and invest what a person who makes a hundred thousand dollars saves and invest Because you don't live that lifestyle, and so retirement is just as possible for you and it's something that you can absolutely achieve.

So I like to give people hope and if someone wanted to embark on their walk to us today, what is the first step that you recommend they take?

It's got to be the emergency fund. Invest in yourself.

You've now finished taking the first step. Now Let us help you take the next one. Subscribe to our newsletter at walk to wealthcom. That's, walk the number to wealthcom, so we can keep you moving on your journey. We'll see you on the next episode of walk to wealth with John Mendez.