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Money Without the Panic: Building Financial Confidence for Women in Business · Serious Lady Business

• LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (00:03) Hey there, I'm Leslie Youngblood and this is Serious Lady Business, the podcast where we get real about what it takes to build a business as a woman today. From late night Google searches and client curveballs to the wins that make it all worth it, I'm talking about the stuff no one puts in the highlight reel. Each week, I'm bringing you honest conversations, lessons learned and stories from women who are out here doing the work. Messy, meaningful and unapologetically bold. Whether you're just dreaming about starting a business or deep in the grind, this podcast is your space to feel seen, supported, and fired up. Because let's be honest, this journey is hard, hilarious, and absolutely worth it. So let's dive in. Leslie Youngblood (00:52) Welcome back to Serious Lady Business. I'm Leslie Youngblood, your host, feminist and founder of Youngblood MMC, a marketing media and content agency. And with us today is Melissa Joy, the president and also a financial planner of Pearl Planning. And we are going to be diving into money without the panic, building financial confidence for women in business. Melissa, welcome to Serious Lady Business. Melissa Joy (01:16) I love the podcast. so excited to be here. Thanks, Leslie. Leslie Youngblood (01:19) we are so excited to have you here and to talk to you about this very important topic. know, finance is something that seems, gosh, scary or like a mystery, and we fear it. And so I really want to have a conversation with you that demystifies it and that moves women to more empowerment over money, whether it's in their personal lives or whether, you know, more importantly, it's with their business. So, you know, I know money is often an emotional topic, Melissa. Why do you think that is? Melissa Joy (01:47) It's just inherent in modern money, the reality of modern money. A, there's emotions because it requires understanding. often, often there's a lack of confidence. There's a... Leslie Youngblood (01:51) I mean. Melissa Joy (02:01) conversation that is often accompanied by money conversations. But when you get really down to it, know, money serves our human needs. And so with that comes emotions. ⁓ Leslie Youngblood (02:11) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Melissa Joy (02:14) There's so much to think about there because there's entire parts of psychology and finance that are devoted to financial behavior. So we're fortunate nowadays that there's much more information for us to have. There's much more knowledge that money is emotional, money is personal. But that just means we have a lot of land to cover in a conversation like this and ⁓ probably tease it up for more conversations in the future. Leslie Youngblood (02:23) sure. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And I think that's a really great segue because, we hear I'm not good with money. And I know I've even thought that, right? I'm not good with money. When you hear that with somebody, where do you even start? Melissa Joy (02:51) I mean, I hear that weekly. the first thing I start with is you probably feel like this is an isolating feeling, but if we all shared how we feel about money, you would recognize that you weren't alone. And that's something that I think is a baseline that kind of reduces the stigma about talking about where money feels uncomfortable for you. ⁓ And then we start to talk about how to Leslie Youngblood (03:14) Yeah. Melissa Joy (03:18) demystify, how to boost confidence, how to break things apart so it doesn't feel so overwhelming. And in that case, it's not different than setting your New Year's resolutions or committing to a wellness or diet commitment and things like that. Leslie Youngblood (03:30) heat. Right. Program. Yeah, definitely. It almost feels like money is another language or it's a whole other language. Right. But the great thing about that is you people learn different new languages all the time. Right. You can learn it at any age and stage and in once. And that can help to also and so to demystify it. But then that can also help you feel like, Melissa Joy (03:40) Okay. totally. Leslie Youngblood (03:54) Okay, I can do that. I took Spanish in high school, even I took French in college, and it's just learning the language. You don't even have to be super duper duper fluent in it to be better with it, right? Like every little bit counts. And so, you know, in your work, when it comes to financial planning with women, how have you seen learning just small bits along the way empower them and help improve their lives? Melissa Joy (04:17) Well, I've never heard that analogy of the language analogy, so thank you, Leslie, because I totally agree, but as you were saying it, I was also thinking, like, we're so fortunate because for reasonable costs, we have the opportunities nowadays to have an interpreter along, where you don't give up your ability to converse in that other language, but you have someone. Leslie Youngblood (04:36) No, no. and Melissa Joy (04:43) who can assist you in sorting through and translating and narrowing your decisions. And it's not just financial planners or financial advisors or investment advisors. It's also, you know, in the business realm, bookkeepers or CPAs or financial coaches. So there are so many opportunities to kind of address those deficiencies. But what I also tell people is there's access to so much. Leslie Youngblood (04:43) Yes. Yes. Thanks. Melissa Joy (05:10) information, whether it's a Google search conversation with chat or you know following reading books, following listening to YouTube videos, things like that. That's both a blessing and a curse though because there's so much you should do this, this is how I do it, you need to do it yourself, you need to hire this person. So it can be very still intimidating but there's a lot of great information out there if you can Leslie Youngblood (05:11) tonight. sure. Yeah. Melissa Joy (05:37) find the right sources for yourself. Leslie Youngblood (05:39) Yeah, definitely. That is so true. It really has even like people and having the experts that you can ping and bring in top notch, right? Like that's like the best thing. But just like you said, with chat now with Google, like you can go to chat and ask, I have $10,000 in credit card debt. How do I you know, what do I need to do to pay it off fastest or like and it'll like create these financial plans for you. Like you said, like a wellness plan and like a ⁓ workout plan, it'll create like a financial plan for you. when you're ready for Melissa Joy (06:03) Okay. Leslie Youngblood (06:08) true success, right? Why do you hire a trainer? Right? Like, cause you get just a better outcome when you work with a professional like yourself or team at Pearl, right? And so, and especially when it comes to business finances, I mean, I think, I don't know an exact fact, but I am sure it maybe you do, Melissa, it's the majority of businesses that don't make it, it comes down to poor financial planning. So I would love for you to even just talk about in our personal lives. Melissa Joy (06:14) Right. Leslie Youngblood (06:34) Yes, it's important, right? If you're a professional, have a corporate job, nine to five, do all like those things. But as a business, I'm sure you've seen a lot of mistakes and have a lot of cautionary tales for our business owners who are listening as well. Melissa Joy (06:48) Yes, I mean, that's one of the reasons I'm so excited to have this discussion because we really are speaking woman to woman as business owners and to business owners, right? And if the money isn't math-ing, if the math isn't math-ing for your finances with your business, that is a major ragged flag, but it happens so often. a business is a life cycle that has so many decisions, so many risks. Leslie Youngblood (07:07) plan. Melissa Joy (07:13) get to a successful business without the opportunity to, you know. You have to take risks. You have to see the future, have a vision for the future. My personal business was bootstrapped and depending on the quarter or the year, we're fortunate to sit in a profitable moment in time today, but it hasn't been that way every single month, quarter or year. seeing, especially for women, I think I was thinking about as I prepared for this episode, Leslie Youngblood (07:23) Yeah. Melissa Joy (07:42) You know, we're taught to kind of put ourselves last sometimes, even from like a cultural perspective. Women are more likely to want to preserve community versus self-interest first. When you look at psychological studies about how women treat money specifically. And so I see some of those traits sometimes in a business where it's like, Hey, I know that like, you know, it's payroll is tough. I'm not paying myself at all and haven't been for quite a while. Leslie Youngblood (07:45) I'm not mad. Melissa Joy (08:11) or maybe I'm financing the business on credit cards that you're personally liable for, or loans that you're personally liable for. But it's like, there's an unwillingness to examine what has to be done for sustainability sometimes. Not every time, but those kind of personal, cultural reminders can get into how the business gets run. Leslie Youngblood (08:23) I'm not. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And what I think also too about that is I think as women to women business owners, when we fail or something doesn't go right, we are more likely to blame it on ourselves. Like, it's because I think it's because I failed. Whereas with men, they have the tendency to be like, well, it wasn't the right market time. All right. Right. Like they don't like take it as personally. And so and especially with something as emotionally loaded as finances to write and to then like put ourselves last and to not You know, you have like a perfect storm of a financial disaster that could potentially be at hand. And it doesn't mean that you don't have a great product or service or business. It's just that you didn't come armed to the fight, right? Like essentially, so you have to be able to do that and be willing to go there. Like you said, like be willing to get real honest. And that is not comfortable. Like that's a scary thing. Melissa Joy (09:14) Yeah. I agree, I had a year where just like decisions on how I was gonna run the business kind of in. conjunction with each other just made it more difficult. It looked really successful from the outside, but on the inside I was more vulnerable and I had to put on like a ⁓ mantra that was like this is the year of business adulting where I'm going to I have to take care of business. I have to have difficult conversations. have to things need to change. I need to examine everything and so using those external, you know kind of Leslie Youngblood (09:38) Mm-hmm. Yeah. and Melissa Joy (09:58) like, hey, I need to put on a new personality. always like, you know, the children's book, Miss Nelson is Missing, where the same person comes in as like, you know, kind of the bad guy, but ⁓ you know, things needed to change. Those types of things are kind of self-talk that I've used. And I've also used... Leslie Youngblood (10:05) Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Melissa Joy (10:17) consultants. ⁓ So even though I'm a financial planner, have, you know, accountants, have an outsourced CFO who can help me with KPIs. So a lot of, you know, kind of details that their expenses need to be examined, but have been additive for me and my team in terms of increasing the success and value of the company. Leslie Youngblood (10:37) Yeah, I love that so much because it's like even Sabrina Williams and Tom Brady head coaches. Like these are like the athletes or the, like I'm sure even, you know, the top business people in the world have advisors and have like, even though they're geniuses at finance or geniuses at business, they, or an athlete or sport, they still need an expert in their corner to help guide them. And they didn't get there. Melissa Joy (10:44) Okay. Leslie Youngblood (11:01) by taking one step. It was like a myriad of steps over time. And so to be able to understand even you as a certified professional that helps people do this all the time, you still have a professional that's going to help you because the business is all sorts of things while you work on your clients, right? They know you understand that that business side and that finance side of the business is so inherently important that you need somebody to be on it and focus on it at all times in order to get you to where you wanna be. Were you always... Melissa Joy (11:14) Right. Leslie Youngblood (11:28) I guess, like I feel like I'm talking to like she's got to be amazing at finances. Melissa's got to have it all figured out. Were you always good at finances, Melissa? Tell us a little about your journey to get here today. Melissa Joy (11:39) Well, I mean, know so many of my friends are financial advisors, financial planners, and I think all of us have money personalities. And so my own money personality allows me to be... Leslie Youngblood (11:46) I don't know. Melissa Joy (11:49) more successful at some things and maybe more vulnerable at others. So I'll, you know, like full reveal kind of my own money personality. grew up in a family that was successful. And then ⁓ my parents got divorced when I was in my teens and my dad had a very successful financial life. And my mom really struggled because she'd been stay at home mom, you know, it was an age where there weren't divorced financial advisors and she just had a more challenging, you know, kind of outcome post divorce, which I feel Leslie Youngblood (11:53) Mm-hmm. Mm. Melissa Joy (12:19) gave me insight into a variety of financial realities. had a, you know, kind of stable household and then two divergent outcomes. And so many of us, if you're listening to this, have your own money story that kind of stays with you throughout your life. One of the things that I think I'm good at is I never had a lot of money. I had a family safety net, which not everyone is fortunate enough to have, but I didn't Leslie Youngblood (12:44) Mm-hmm. Melissa Joy (12:45) didn't have a lot of money in my 20s in college. I never went into debt. I didn't open credit cards. Debt has never been a big trap for me. But I also didn't have a lot, you know, kind of like what if something goes wrong money. ⁓ And I'm a spender. Like I'm someone who really loves shopping. That's one of my hobbies. look, like acknowledged. I would prefer to make more money and have a bigger budget for, you know, kind of discretion. So that might be one of Leslie Youngblood (12:54) me. word. Melissa Joy (13:12) my bigger vulnerabilities is that I'm not, some other financial planner friends, it might be the flip side where they're too austere, they are uncomfortable spending money and I'm decently comfortable in shopping and spending money. My spouse and partner, he's a balance in terms of his preferences for spending. So that might be a weakness, but a strength is that I'm pretty long-term focused. Leslie Youngblood (13:20) you Melissa Joy (13:36) I don't, it's very painful to go through difficult stock markets. I have a lot of empathy when clients are personally going through difficult personal circumstances, but I'm pretty even keeled when it comes to the length of time I'm thinking about and not overreacting, which is really important in money matters, especially when it comes to investing. So I have my vulnerabilities. I'm not perfect. Everybody has a money personality. When you can say where the origin story for that money personality is, I feel like Leslie Youngblood (13:40) Mmm. I'm here. Melissa Joy (14:06) Like, you know, in some cases I was somewhat restricted and limited in my childhood as well as in my 20s in terms of opportunities. didn't, you know, do the travel I wanted before I had kids and stuff like that. And so I feel more comfortable spending. But I also pay myself first, invest, you know, for myself so then the money I choose to spend is not from, you know, the buckets that need to be there for emergency reserves or for to be invested for long term. Leslie Youngblood (14:12) 7. Yeah, yeah. I would love to dig into that more because you mentioned, you are now a spouse. You have kids. There's your business. For women juggling both business and family obligations, what is the first financial system she should set up or that she should focus on, Melissa? Melissa Joy (14:48) Well, as a business owner, gosh, there's so much going on all at once, right? Like you need your proof of concept. I remember when I opened my business, because I'd been a partner and business owner, a second generation business owner before I founded Pearl Planning at another wealth management firm. When I founded the company, I was fortunate to start off with emergency reserves that I could use to invest in the business. And I chose to make a loan to the business right up front that would be used for operating capital. Leslie Youngblood (15:11) Mm-hmm. Melissa Joy (15:17) initially and I had the luxury too of saying I have a runway where ⁓ I think like having the knowledge of like what is your runway when do you need things to be successful also starting small and you may need to continue working in some cases at a former job or do some side hustles also like if you're in a family system where you have shared finances with your partner or have responsibility for your kids like making sure that Leslie Youngblood (15:22) Yeah. I'm just gonna be good. Mm-hmm. Melissa Joy (15:45) Everybody knows the game plan. Your personal business can absolutely expose your personal balance sheet, or your business can. So having full conversations of like, I took on this SBA loan that I would be personally liable for if I can't make the payments, things like that. ⁓ Leslie Youngblood (15:51) Okay. No. Melissa Joy (16:03) So starting with the cash, guess, would be one of the things I say. And knowing a runway that is realistic and hopefully a little bit longer than just, you know, I need to have money in the bank day one, because it is a little more expensive than you think to start. Leslie Youngblood (16:17) Yeah, and that's specifically like bootstrapping your business, right? So I'm going to start my business and I'm going to use my money to fund this business until I get clients and a revenue stream that can pay myself and pay. Melissa Joy (16:21) right. Leslie Youngblood (16:31) any contractors or employees that you happen to bring on. And so that's always something I remember being like, what's bootstrapping? Like, I don't get it. It's essentially just using your own money, whether that's a savings account or whether that's a loan from a bank versus getting investor money. And it's it's funny to me because I feel like the investor money and that seed money has kind of been glamorized over the past like 10 plus years. And you hear like, they got 10 million in seed funding. And I would always be like, what the heck? Melissa Joy (16:54) Right. Leslie Youngblood (17:01) What is how what and then you know, and then you it's crazy But then like you see those people that get 10 million in seed funding like, know You're beholden to investors like there's strings that come along with that And so as when you bootstrap it and you use your own funds. Yes, it's risky I mean, there's no there's risk no matter what but you also have that independence to understand Okay, this is my money and this is my runway and here's what where I need to be in order to start, you know making it work and this is the timeframe I'm gonna work in versus, and I feel like investing sometimes is more of like tech, tech-focused either also, but versus getting an investment and being like, ⁓ now these people gave me lots of money to make this work. so it's like added. So, I mean, there's no easy way to do business, right? It's what is going to work best for you and what feels right for you. But I just think it's so fascinating. how it's changed like over the past 20 so years where we never heard about VC. I mean, obviously it's very tech like, right? Like when we grew up and maybe you had somebody invest in your business and you you do your uncle invested in your dad's business or, know, however that worked out and there are so many different ways to do it now and there are tools to help you succeed as well. What would you say to somebody when it comes to kind of feeling like, I don't know, like should I bootstrap? Do I? Melissa Joy (17:58) Is there? Leslie Youngblood (18:24) investors I want to make this work, I'm really dedicated. How do you deal with that, Melissa? Melissa Joy (18:29) Gosh, so many thoughts because you're right. I immediately went to the bootstrapped story because that's what I did. Depending on your origin, if you're from traditional business world or traditional small business world, bootstrapped is the reality. If you do have loans, it's from more traditional financing sources for small businesses. It has consequences if you can't pay it back. Lines of credit that have to be paid back and often you're guaranteeing those on your personal balance sheet. You also have more autonomy and control because there's stories of people who have been founders of companies who don't have control of their company because with taking other people's money comes often that's on your board roster, all sorts of things and implications. Leslie Youngblood (18:54) Mm-hmm. and Melissa Joy (19:17) There's also the challenge because we're speaking to female business owners that the statistics show that people who start businesses that want to raise capital in an angel or venture backed way who are female founders are kind of against the eight ball in terms of statistics relative to the general population. ⁓ And so there's so much to think about. I think what you need to think about is your personal circumstances. You need to think about what Leslie Youngblood (19:33) me. Melissa Joy (19:43) the story of where you want this company to be with, you have that autonomy and also potentially more immediate financial rewards with the bootstrap story, perhaps, and depending on the profession you're in. But the venture story has those unicorns that started small and really did so much. ⁓ And so there's so many different things to think about and there's no right or wrong answer. In the wealth management space, there traditionally have been very few Leslie Youngblood (19:53) and better. Melissa Joy (20:11) venture-backed firms, and now that's changing. Also, if you're listening and you haven't just started your company, but your mid-career or your company is more mature, there's the private equity angle where you can really receive a significant valuation bump if you're thinking that eventually your company would be sold to private equity instead of to... perhaps an employee or something like that. But then it also comes with implications, right? Like I often say in my own business, you can get the price that you want from Darth Vader, but then you may need to go and work on the Death Star where it's not the same culture as a small business and you're not in charge. So many interesting dynamics. What I would tell people first of all, is to be curious because... Leslie Youngblood (20:53) Yeah. Hmm. Melissa Joy (21:00) Again, we're getting into an area where everybody acts like they know everything and just makes assumptions and acts Leslie Youngblood (21:00) Okay. ⁓ Melissa Joy (21:06) really like, especially in the venture and private equity spaces, like really arrogant, really like, don't you know, this is the way blah, blah, blah. And you don't have to understand everything. You don't have to understand a cap table right off the bat, but be very curious, be thinking about both the pros and cons because depending on a party's point of view, they may have conflicts of interest when they're describing the way the world works based on what they want you to understand or know. Leslie Youngblood (21:33) Fascinating. Gosh, yeah. mean, stay curious. What a great bit of advice. Just ask questions. You don't have to know everything and don't even trust somebody that you think knows everything because they probably, they might not. And it's just to be like, you know, cautiously curious, I think is so great. So let's go back to where Melissa, you noted when you, said when you paid your, you pay yourself first. I think that can be something that can be very difficult to figure out as a business owner, especially when you're just starting out and like paying myself first, but I don't know, got to these bills and these bills and these bills. Like tell us more about that and how it can be done in reality. Melissa Joy (22:00) here. Well, so one of the things that I think is really important that you would assume everybody has, but probably a lot of us listening don't always have it, is have a budget, right? so in those early, early stage, know, bootstrapping times, if you're using my example, there wasn't, in the budget, there wasn't money to be like, hey, here's Melissa's guaranteed money. But, you know, if you're doing something five or 10 years and you're not, Leslie Youngblood (22:32) Hmm. Melissa Joy (22:35) ending up with profit that pays you and you're having to account for it with, you know, your partner's income or loans are really like significantly disrupting your family. I think that there's this narrative that if you start a business, that's the best way to find wealth. And there's a lot of people that could really be valued higher if they were being paid by another company. ⁓ So if you know, thinking about what you Leslie Youngblood (22:53) Yeah. Mmm, sure. Melissa Joy (23:04) would make in the open market and saying, how can we put that into the business? ⁓ And really, if you're in a small, small business where you're, you like you and I, Leslie, probably are the primary business developers of our business, providing a lot of the services. It's not like there's, you know, people that do everything and we just like, you know, rake in the money. What does that mean, Leslie Youngblood (23:09) and Mm. Wouldn't that be nice? One day. Melissa Joy (23:30) Then one of the things that people miss is that there should be both compensation for you, like what you would need to pay to hire somebody to do what you do, as well as profit. And like, I know that you can't immediately if you're listening to this and like, well, whatever's left at the end of the year, you know, I take 40 or I'm an S-Corp and I pay myself, you know, 60,000 a year and maybe there's another 40 left over. Leslie Youngblood (23:40) Mmm. Mmm. Yeah. Melissa Joy (23:57) But if you on the open market would be worth $150,000, you still need profit left at the end of the year for the business too, if the business is high functioning. And that's a difficult equation if you haven't done it yet, but it requires budgeting. It changes your perspective on what you can afford for when to hire, for example, for your overhead, for your costs and expenses. But if you're not working in that context where you're building and... Leslie Youngblood (24:06) Why? Right. Melissa Joy (24:24) the work that you're doing, what you would pay somebody else for that, and that should be hopefully an income to you, as well as a cushion or some margin where you're making money as a business after that, then I would rethink things and start a budgeting cycle. I do it annually every October for the following calendar year. Leslie Youngblood (24:42) Brilliant, I love that. October for 2020. You're working on it in 2026, in October of 2025. Melissa Joy (24:48) Yeah, and it takes some time because like, okay, software licenses, expenses go up. maybe we're gonna hire somebody at X point in time and I think it'll cost us this. when you hire somebody, it's not just what you're gonna pay them. If you have benefits, you're gonna pay that, you're gonna pay taxes. It's like one of my key mistakes has been hiring somebody is just like what you're gonna pay them, but it really piles up when you add software licenses and... their payroll taxes and if you're paying health insurance and benefits, cetera, that is not just the X dollar amount that's gonna be on their paycheck. ⁓ And so thinking through those things, thinking ahead, having a spreadsheet, and it's not like you can't adjust the budget during the year, things are gonna change, you're gonna need to pivot. But I do plan that budget not on like, Leslie Youngblood (25:24) Mm-hmm. Melissa Joy (25:37) the best, best case scenario. plan revenue in a world, in my own world, where investments go is where my revenue, it's a leading indicator for revenue. and I can't, you can't, you cannot predict the future of stock markets in spite of people telling you what's gonna happen next. They're usually wrong if you listen and pay attention and look back. And so I do a conservative estimate and I still have like reach goals for my KPIs, like I'm like. Leslie Youngblood (25:52) true. Mm-hmm. Melissa Joy (26:03) We want to increase revenue by X. And I make those more aspirational, but I like what if something goes wrong budget to make sure that we can be safe in any environment. Leslie Youngblood (26:14) sitting down, truly sitting down and making a point of going over all those things for yourself, for your business, looking ahead to the next year. That's like what a real business owner does. Like that's not like I'm having a good time and I'm getting work or I'm selling, right? Which is all. Melissa Joy (26:31) I'm doing PR and we look so fabulous from the outside, but at the end of the month, I'm literally, you know, wondering if I'm gonna need to eat cat food. That is what I wanna protect our listeners from. Leslie Youngblood (26:35) Wow! Right, right, right. Yes, and especially to like when you have a family and what, and because, and not just because kids are crazy expensive, but you you're gonna wanna do trips and and there's things that come up, you know, life happens. And so to, and I feel like we don't do that in our personal lives. And I feel like that's something really powerful to do in your personal life too, because you're gonna. Melissa Joy (26:50) they are. Leslie Youngblood (27:04) figure it out-ish, like the first time you sit down and do it for your business, but then to potentially even apply that to your personal life too. And I know we try to do those things, but you know, time gets away from us and we feel like we'll figure it out. But I just think anybody listening right now should, my gosh, like do that out of anything right now to be able to, you know, have that foresight and to just get serious and sitting down is going to put you in such a better position moving forward. And you know, like you said, We have this, I mean, it's not a myth because I do believe it's true, but I also, there's caveats. So business ownership is a way to build wealth in a totally unique way. But not everybody should be a business owner. Not everybody is going to be a good business owner. And like you said, if you are a business owner and you are making 50 grand, when you're experienced, you could be making 200 grand or something like you got to start. Melissa Joy (27:41) Mm-hmm. Leslie Youngblood (27:55) having some deep conversations with yourself or right or have that sit down with your business and say, okay, how am I going to get to this next year and beyond to get there? Because that's where I know I need to be. Melissa Joy (27:57) Mm-hmm. Leslie Youngblood (28:05) in for my life right now. And so do you feel like have you seen this rise of the entrepreneur? Because I look upon it as a benefit, right? and I think it is a good thing for the most part, right? with those caveats, not for everybody. We don't want anybody to go bankrupt trying to be a business donor when they're not cut out for it. But I do think it can be especially for women to learn to navigate this entrepreneurship game and this financial game to build wealth and to Melissa Joy (28:16) Hmm. Leslie Youngblood (28:29) close the gender pay parity gap that we're not going to get to for 130 plus years. But I would just love to see from your perspective too, Melissa, how you've seen, you know, Gary, the Gary Vee's and everybody like being an entrepreneur and you can do it and and the, gosh, I can see his Hermosie, Alex Hermosie, right? And Bethany Frankel. And so we have this glamorized view of entrepreneurship for building this path to wealth, but that didn't happen overnight for any of those people. So I would Melissa Joy (28:53) Yeah. Leslie Youngblood (28:57) love to hear your take on that. Melissa Joy (28:59) I 100 % agree there's so much to unpack, but not every person should be a business owner. And yet I love entrepreneurship. I feel like I was born to be a business owner, at least in this point in my life. But also not every business is going to be successful, even if you're an extraordinary entrepreneur. So you can see with serial entrepreneurs, sometimes people have great ideas and it's not the right time or... you know, for a variety of reasons things don't work out. You have to know that going in. You have to build a safety net for yourself going in. Women are more likely to found businesses often because if you're like me, you go down the traditional pathway and then you hit a ceiling where maybe what was appreciated in the past is not appreciated anymore. Or you just have a vision that you can't get off your mind and... Leslie Youngblood (29:30) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Melissa Joy (29:51) And when I started my business, I knew I could be employed. I knew I might have to be employed if I didn't have the business development skills and things didn't kind of line up the right way. But I wanted to find out what it would be like to be an entrepreneur. But in today's day and age, there's, you you go on Instagram or YouTube and you get advice of like, everybody needs to do this. You can't build wealth unless you work for yourself. And I know plenty of... millionaires and people with an eight figure net worth who never had their own business. So that's not necessarily the case. So you just need to be discerning. You need to be introspective. I would ask for advice from mentors. ⁓ I would learn as much as you can in a variety. There's incubators for venture backed businesses. I know Ann Arbor Spark has some of them close to me. Leslie Youngblood (30:23) Good night. Mmm. Yes. Melissa Joy (30:43) There's places to take classes to start a business. Like Build Institute, was on the board of that nonprofit, which is based in Detroit. ⁓ So you need to really kind of go to school in a way of learning what possibilities may be. Finding peers. Some of my very, very best friends are other financial planners who own businesses. And I also have many friends who are in the same profession and who I think you should never... Leslie Youngblood (30:48) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Melissa Joy (31:11) own your own business without with full independence just by your personality fit it would be much better fit for you to either be employed by a corporation or in more of a kind of franchise contractor model where there's more boundaries but you still have the autonomy of kind of owning your your balance sheet and your profit and loss statement. Leslie Youngblood (31:19) Thank I'm gonna cry. It was good of me. Mm hmm. Yeah, that's so true. I bet I love that you just mentioned franchise you don't have to create your brand new thing. A franchise gives you a structure, but you still at the end of the day, like you said, own so much of it. So that's something to ⁓ for those listening to consider. And I love that you mentioned build and I love that you mentioned mentorship. Tell us about the role of community and mentorship plays in helping women gain financial confidence, specifically Melissa. Melissa Joy (31:33) Mm-hmm. Well, if I could use this for a slightly shameless plug, I do have a podcast called Women's Money Wisdom, which is all about that, what I can give to a broader community, knowing that my work is one-on-one and is kind of capacity limited in terms of the hours in the day. But I think, like, we grew up where many of our mothers could not have a checking account or a credit card in their own name. It was only marital or with your parents and things like that. There's a... cultural shift that I hope we can sustain that is giving women more and more autonomy with money and also there's just some demographic trends that mean that we are more likely to control money over time in our lifetimes than any generation prior to us, especially as women. And so conversation and community with each other like this conversation we're having Leslie or talking with friends about money or having a friend that you say, wanna get serious about money. Maybe we'll do a book club and every three months we talk about a different money book or something like that. We have at the Women's Money Wisdom podcast, a little independent bookstore linked to money books and a lot of them are by women. Cause one of my pet peeves is like so much financial writing is by well-intended guys, but there's not a lot of female voices in the room. And when there are, Leslie Youngblood (33:09) Mmm. Melissa Joy (33:15) They're like pigeonholed to this is like the little money conversation for women. They're not broader where this is great advice for everybody and she happens to be a woman. ⁓ So I think like our conversations, our commitments to our own success, our commitments to our children's success, to talking with our sons and daughters about what it's like to be financial feminist. ⁓ All of these are, I think, opportunities and sparks of hope. Leslie Youngblood (33:24) huh. Mm-hmm. Melissa Joy (33:42) ways for us to be better as a community. Leslie Youngblood (33:45) I agree. I think I have financial feminists right back there. Melissa Joy (33:47) I saw that in the background. I love it. Leslie Youngblood (33:50) Great book for anybody listening, Financial Feminist. No, I think that is so on point and I love the idea of a financial book club. my goodness, that is so brilliant. And I love again with your podcast, so incredible, so important to like you said, how do we amplify the impact? How do I reach more women that need this knowledge? Because, you know, we feel like you look at these successful men and women too, and you think they must have a secret. They must have it all figured out and they start We do not have it all figured out and probably their books are probably a hot mess and you just think that they're rolling in it because they're driving their fancy cars and wearing their fancy clothes and listen it could be just a shell game on the inside right but and so to just really get serious and to give that part of your business life and life focus and intention can just change the game. And I love that you said too that you know individuals with a worth of over eight figures that never had a business, right? Like that, you know, invested or diversified and did all the boring thing. Melissa Joy (34:52) Stock options are huge too. If you work for a company that's pre-IPO and they have incentivized stock options or you receive restricted stock units are more frequent for corporations that are publicly traded, that is a game changer when you're looking for a source of wealth because you get paid in the company's stock and typically your salary is also competitive. So it can be a huge deal. I love working with those types of people. Leslie Youngblood (34:59) Mm. ⁓ Melissa Joy (35:20) And sometimes it's, you know, one person has the stock options and one person's the business owner in the family. I work with a lot of double breadwinners. Leslie Youngblood (35:26) Mmm. Yeah, that's I mean, I will always say one of the gifts and one of the reasons why I was able to start my own business is because my husband has I mean, he has a pension, which is kind of crazy. As of now, he has a right, which is very unique to him. But, know, a very steady job. has a pension. we set ourselves up like, OK, we keep doing this. We look good. So what if we could even do better if I did this or we got this straight, that's all good. We can afford to take a risk. Right. Melissa Joy (35:39) Amazing. Yeah. Leslie Youngblood (35:55) And not many people aren't able to do that. Not everybody's able to do that. So I understand what a privilege that is, but I also feel like it is, anybody can get set in that. Boring you know investing way and to take advantage of all the things if you are a professional in a corporate Environment or working for a business my god Please take advantage of all the things that they do for you for free like you're just sitting like because you are missing out on that compound interest right now and I will always say Every 20 year old that I talked to that's going into the profession. I'm like, my god, please open your 401k my god, please my god, do it invest in your retirement now and you know, they all look at you like okay Melissa Joy (36:21) Mm, absolutely. Yes! Leslie Youngblood (36:34) millennial, you know, and it's like, you don't understand it. There's one thing I could tell you. I don't know very much about the financial world, but I know about compound interest, friends, and you're gonna wanna get in on that right this minute. Melissa Joy (36:46) Yes, and if I can share what I think about financial advice, financial planning, that is the compounding return of better financial decisions. So, and those returns are also huge because it's not like you're gonna be 100 % on everything. Nobody has a crystal ball on what the future offers. But when you talk with someone who helps you prepare for risks that you may or may not see, Leslie Youngblood (36:51) Yes. Melissa Joy (37:11) as well as you have information. And if you're in a relationship, you have shared information because so many times, just because of the challenges of managing a household, one of you pays the bills and one of you like looks at the investment accounts and neither talks to the other because there's no time and there's not a safe space. Not safe, but like there's not a like formal space to have those discussions. And for so many women, they kind of like handle the household, even if they're Leslie Youngblood (37:29) Thank you. Melissa Joy (37:39) you know, managing a seven figure budget work. They manage the household and then, you know, they're like, he knows everything on finances and I don't. And in fact, maybe he's super confident, but doesn't have as much knowledge or has narrow knowledge that works for some parts, but not for others. And so that's not like talking down to the guys, but that's just like, it could be flipped, but that's what I see. And so knowledge is power when it comes to money. Leslie Youngblood (37:51) Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Melissa Joy (38:05) And so I hope this conversation helps people seek more knowledge. Leslie Youngblood (38:05) Yes. my goodness. Heck yeah. And that is crazy. that is so true. There could be a partner that's working and they're managing these giant budgets for their job and then they come home they're not involved in their day-to-day finances. And it's like, What? Yeah. Melissa Joy (38:19) all the time. They don't have time. They're exhausted. A financial planner creates a space and a bridge between your two invisible backpacks of your financial, the way you were raised. also it's just like, hey, why is this that? And it's like, I thought it should be. It's like, hey, here's a few decisions we could tweak that would help you have a better financial life over time. Leslie Youngblood (38:39) Mm-hmm. Melissa Joy (38:43) hey, FYI, some of those decisions might actually be spend more money on this or save a little less to retirement because you're ahead on retirement but we're behind on education savings and education costs are through the roof right now. like all of these are possibilities and that is more difficult to plug into chat GPT and get an answer on. Leslie Youngblood (38:47) Hmm? And then... Yes, right. And not to get dark, but you need to know what's going on, whatever your spouse is doing, because that spouse could, anything could happen tomorrow. you are not involved in what's going on and suddenly you're without your spouse and then you are like, what? They were doing this and that was not the right decision and why wasn't I more present and involved? And so I just feel like not, you know, it just makes sense. in all the areas and all the facets and to I know it feels difficult to make that time and I totally get that. But the thing is, I'm so guilty, right? But I think like you said, with anything to tie it kind of back to a workout plan, you follow off that workout plan, you have a weekend where it's a cheat day and then you just get right back up and try again. in any business, we say, Melissa Joy (39:31) I do too, I do too. Leslie Youngblood (39:45) this has a great year, then you have a bad year, then you have an even better year, then you have two mediocre years. you gotta keep going and you have to keep coming back to it and that's truly when you win in the end is because you never stopped trying to keep on the right course as best as you can over the years. Yes. Melissa Joy (39:50) Yeah. Progress over perfection. You're never going to do everything right. There's always going to be a reason for regret. And so many people come in and they're like, 10 years ago I did this wrong and like everything since then has been, you know, trash or whatever. And it's like, just get back on the horse. Just like, don't wait for everything to be perfect for you to have every answer. Just incrementally do a few things. If the only thing you do is like schedule an appointment or you didn't have an estate plan, like get that drafted or you don't have life insurance. Leslie Youngblood (40:28) I don't know. Melissa Joy (40:33) And if what you and a spouse or a spouse passed away, it would be a disaster for the family. Like just do the one thing and then take another step and give yourself space and also give yourself grace to say, I'm proud of myself for getting that done or even just scheduling the appointment or making the commitment to do it in the next 60 days. Leslie Youngblood (40:44) Yeah. Yeah. 100 % I completely agree. That is fantastic advice. Is there any other big piece of advice or small piece of advice Melissa that you have for anybody listening right now to, be more money savvy or proactive with their money? Melissa Joy (41:04) I, there's so many little things, but I do think there's, there's so much that's just like, be confident, be comfortable. Do not compare yourself to others. there's so, it's so easy to go on Instagram or Facebook or Tik Tok and think everybody else has it figured out. But just like you were describing, you have no idea what's going on. Leslie Youngblood (41:21) Yeah. Melissa Joy (41:28) under the hood and if I can also just share a little bit for business owners to use KPIs if you're not perfect where you're at, which none of us are and for you know, a few of us Gen X women who are super aspirational is like, I just climbed that mountain. What is the next mountain? And if I don't know what it is, I'm not comfortable. You know, use your KPIs to see if you're improving over time. So if you need to turn around profit, it's not going to happen. in a second, but if last quarter's profits were lower than this quarter's and they've grown this quarter and you can see the future and you've got your run rate, like those are really encouraging and helpful and can also diagnose weaknesses. Leslie Youngblood (42:08) Yes, 100%. I love it. As we wrap up, Melissa, I would love for you to share where our listeners can follow up with you and listen to you on your podcast because we have merely covered the tip of the financial iceberg today. And I know you share so much important, insightful information with your listeners every week as well. Melissa Joy (42:26) Well, Leslie, I'm so glad to have you in my cohort of female podcasters who are doing amazing things. As I mentioned, Women's Money Wisdom is on all the main channels as well as we have a YouTube channel. so womensmoneywisdom.com can get you to the audio version and on YouTube, we're Pearl Planning Financial. And then my company, Pearl Planning, is located in Dexter, Michigan, but we work with clients in more than 30 states all around the country. and you can find us at pearlplan.com. Leslie Youngblood (42:53) Perfect. And we will also drop those links in the show notes for everybody listening right now. So you can follow up with Melissa, listen in with Melissa and continue to progress, not perfection your way to financial health. Thank you, Melissa. Cheers. Melissa Joy (43:06) I love it. Thank you so much for having me. Leslie Youngblood (43:11) Thanks for tuning in to Serious Lady Business. If you loved this episode, be sure to follow or subscribe so you never miss a moment of the real, raw, and really wonderful sides of female entrepreneurship. And hey, please leave a review if you're feeling generous. It helps more amazing women find us and join the conversation. You can also connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube at at Serious Lady Business and get all of the updates at SeriousLadyBusiness.com. Until next time, keep showing up, keep building, and keep being your seriously amazing self.