Latest / Cash Confident with Brie Sodano / From Scarcity to Abundance with Mikki Paradis

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From Scarcity to Abundance with Mikki Paradis · Cash Confident with Brie Sodano

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Cash Confident podcast.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: I'm Brie Sedano, your fearless host, personal finance expert and the visionary behind the revolutionary Cash Confident community.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Get ready to embark on an electrifying journey where we redefine the rules of money and empower women to harness the immense power to craft a life they truly, truly desire.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: This podcast is the ultimate resource, meticulously crafted, for women who are ready to unleash their financial prowess and embrace a life of abundant success.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: We leave no stone unturned as we delve into the depths of money management, mindset mastery and the undeniable influence of emotions on your financial decisions.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Prepare to rise above the societal limitations and break free from the chains that have held you back, as we equip you with the tools and knowledge to make bold, confident choices with your cash.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: We believe that true financial power begins with knowledge, and that is exactly what we deliver.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: So buckle up, my fierce and ambitious friends, as we embark on this transformative journey to becoming Cash Confident together.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Today, I have a special guest for you and I am so excited.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: So you are here for the Cash Confident podcast.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: I'm Brie Sedano, and today I am here with the ever so delightful Mickey Fucking Paradise.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: Now Mickey Paradise is the owner and one of the original trailblazing badasses of women in construction, and she does fantastic, so much fun public speaking.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: So Mickey has been a client of mine for the last few years and has scaled her business to the moon and is a literal magic, and so today we get to talk to her about her journey, about some of the practical things that she did, about some of the management and all of the mindset and energetic work that she's done.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: I mean, you guys don't know her yet, but the way that she scaled her business was so smooth and so wonderful, and so that's what we're going to talk about today.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: So you are in for a real treat.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: Also, she's real funny, so we're going to have a good time.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: All right, so I said all the things.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: Mickey say hello, say hello to everybody.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: Hello, a fun time to be had for all.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: I'm very excited.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: Thank you for having me on your podcast.
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: Very excited, I can't even wait, all right.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: I was like, yes, you want to be on my podcast.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: I was like yes, so good, tell us a little bit about how you got into drywall in the first place, if you also want to just say, if you're not watching this, if you're seeing Mickey Paradise is this tiny little woman who's blonde and just 10 out of 10 super hot.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: So she just doesn't exactly fit the mold for what you would think about drywall.
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: I actually one time when I was, I mean, I've been doing this for almost 20 years.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: So when I was first in the business, I was standing around a job site table and this older gentleman which I mean, construction is just full of older gentlemen, but he at that time was older than Jesus, I think they might have been friends and he looks at me and he goes you're the drywaller.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: And I was like, yeah, and he was like oh honey, you're so pretty, you could sell makeup at the belt counter.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: I mean, why are you wasting your time with drywall?
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: And I was like well, honey, if I could make $100,000 a year selling makeup at the belt counter, then maybe I would.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: But we're here now, so can we get on with the meeting?
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: And he was shooketh, he was definitely, he was shocked.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: So I definitely don't look like I belong in any of the job site trailers.
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: And especially when I was 22, when I started my company.
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: So it was just like who's daughter are you?
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: I was like there was a lot of like are you a lost little girl?
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: And I was like but so I actually did an internship.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: So I went to NC State go wolf back.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: And I graduated with my political science degree, which is like AKA pre-law.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: So the intention was to go to law school, but you know how, like when you're in college, you don't get into the really meaty courses until the last real year.
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: So I'm in business law, family law, I'm taking all these law classes and I'm like, oh God, I just I realized that law, my idea of what law was, and like what law actually was were two very different things and I would absolutely hate it.
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: But I paid my way through college shows Like I'm not changing my major now, there's 0% chance.
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: Like I was burnt out.
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: So I had done an internship with a drywall company, a local drywall company.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: Here I didn't do summer internships and it was really funny because the owner just didn't.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: It like never occurred to him that women would go into drywall.
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: So he had a complete lack of understanding of technology but was obsessed with this idea of email, so he would bring me with him everywhere.
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: I went to like when he was negotiating contracts with vendors, contracts with clients, contracts with his subcontractors, I was in the room and I'm just like you're taking notes for him so he can send out an email, because the man loved an email and so I'm finished in college and I'm like, well, not going to be a good lawyer, but I could do drywall Because you know, like you're 22.
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: So you're like, yeah, I'll just try this out, so it happens.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: So that's really how it started it was.
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: I think there's also the fact that I was raised by a single mother and so there weren't.
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: It was my mom and my two sisters and me and so there was no man to do man jobs.
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: So I wasn't raised with this idea of like, oh, that's a job for a man.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: It was just like, oh, somebody needs to take the trash out.
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: They're like Mickey, take the trash out.
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: Something broke, Like, mickey, can you fix this?
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: So I kind of like was always fixing the things and doing the heavy lifting, and so it didn't occur to me that like, oh, this isn't a job for me.
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: It was just like, oh, this is a job.
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: So thanks to my single mom.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: Single moms out there represent yeah for sure, beautiful, all right well tell us about just like your journey, maybe like since 2020.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: I think that's really when it started, where everything started to kind of really like grow in, skyrocket real big for you.
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was kind of wild.
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: There was a my company was ebbing and flowing, is ebbing and flowing I was really hesitant to like hire people.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: I was really hesitant to invest in paying people to do certain things.
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: So when I was, you know, bidding jobs, we were doing great.
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: But then when we get the jobs I'd go out and run the jobs.
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: Then I'm not bidding jobs.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: So then the next year we wouldn't have any work and it was really so.
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: It was just this mindset of like I can't afford it.
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: I can't afford it.
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: So I started just taking that risk of like well, can I afford not to?
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: And so that's part of how I ended up in your inbox.
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: Was that idea of like managing the money, having a better understanding of my money, really wanting to feel comfortable dealing with money?
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: So I hired you I think it was so anti-coach and I hired you and joined the cash confident community and it really just started realizing that my mindset around money was really holding me back, like it was really keeping me in this like playing small mentality of like oh, I'll just do it myself.
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: Oh, you know, it's fine, I'll just, you know, sleep less, like the person that I am now versus the person that I am.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: Then I'm like, oh, I don't do anything.
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: If I don't want to, I will pay someone Like.
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: I'm like I don't fly in coach, okay, like to go from somebody who's like I will not hire a bookkeeper, I will do it myself.
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: To being like I only fly first class is like literal night and day.
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: So what I learned was like the more that I freed up my time to like do what it is that I do like to be, like be in my excellence, the more I not just like got contracts, but I got better contracts I could.
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: I made my business.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: I could focus on what my business is and like where it could be better.
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: And then I started attracting better clients and like really presenting myself in a completely different way instead of somebody who was like all in the business all the time.
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: I was the CEO of PDI Drywall and you know I was becoming that expert in my industry.
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: I was becoming that like very serious business person, and so people just kind of started looking at me differently.
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: They started taking me, seeing me in a different way, and a lot of what changed that was some of the work that we did of like you know I'd been in business In 2020, I'd been in business for almost, say, 2024 or 2025 will be 20 years, so 15 years.
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: So I'd been in business for 15 years.
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: I survived a recession.
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: I was working on large multifamily projects Like I was pretty much the expert in my industry.
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: But I would walk into every job Like I had to prove myself to everybody.
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: And I remember one of the conversations we had once where you were like Mickey, these people hired you because they believe in you.
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: Like why are you walking on the job?
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: Like expending this energy and trying to prove to them that you belong there?
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: Like you're the only one who doesn't think you belong there.
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: And so we really worked a lot on like that and the energy of like of course you belong here, like you belong in any room you walk into.
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: That's where you belong.
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: And so that kind of massively changed my business environment.
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: I mean I think that alone of just embodying the construction goddess that I am is walking in and being like more please, yes, oh, I have that $5 million contract.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: I would like that one too.
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: Thank you, it just changed the game.
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: It really changed how I was showing up and how other people were perceiving me.
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: It gave me like space, mental space, to look at how we did things and be like let's do things a little differently, and so that's.
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: It changed how we do business and that, really, I think, is how we scale.
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: So we scaled from like $2 to $3 million well, like one and a half to $2 million, to eight in a year.
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I got to witness it and it was like remarkably smooth, like the smoothest scaling I've ever even heard of Cause most of the time, people really scaling a business the way that I kind of think about it, it's like when you're growing a business and it's small and let's say, you have to put 40% of yourself into it and then, all of a sudden, you're so, you're rocking and rolling and you're putting in your professional self and then, all of a sudden, you want to grow it.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: It's like the 40% is not.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: Now, all of a sudden, you need to be putting in 80, 90% of yourself into making this work and it's like all of your bullshit, all your childhood stuff, all your patterns, all of your stuff, like all of your like everything that needs to essentially be let go of for you to really like grow to that level and become that person, all comes up to the surface and that can be super.
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: I mean, I'll tell you, in 2020 I doubled, I doubled, or did slightly more than double, my business and it was disorienting, like I had an incredibly hard time with it and I think I was being able to do it.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: So how'd you do that?
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: It felt like so smooth.
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: I think it has a lot to do with the amount of work that I put in leading up to it.
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: I think maybe it was just great timing on the growth, but we had worked together for a couple of years Really unearthing those limiting beliefs and those things that were holding me back, the things that were preventing me from being a little bit more risky and hiring an operations team, and all the things that I know women in business in general struggle with.
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: I think there's a percentage I don't know what the number is, but there's some statistics on how little women invest in the running of their business.
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: I think, working through the limiting beliefs, working through those childhood things that were just kind of you don't even know they're lingering in there until you come to the table and you're like I'm in a bad mood, we dig into it and it's like, oh, it's because when I was little this bad thing happened.
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's a real thing.
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: The one thing that I think is funny is that nobody talks about this in business.
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: Nobody talks about the need to kind of work through these things in business.
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: For example, on Wednesday's call that we had you talked about investing in scarcity and that blew my mind right out of my skull.
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: I was in a little bit of a funk because I had gone to some business thing and there are like predicting that my industry was going to be destroyed.
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: This guy was falling, the world was ending and I kind of was like what, as much as I was trying to not let that seep in, there was a little bit.
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: That was like oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap.
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: We talked on the call.
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: You talked about investing in scarcity, and when you start cutting service services and when you start letting go of things in your business that you actually need, that's investing in scarcity.
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: So yesterday I went to a meeting and this is a group that I'm involved with that has companies that are like $100 million companies, $200 million companies.
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: One of the companies has been in existence for literally they're celebrating their hundredth year.
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: I know and I'm like, okay, that's a lot.
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: And a couple of them that are like these massive companies, they've had a slow year and they're talking.
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: They're sitting there and they're just spinning and they're talking about all the things they're cutting and the layoffs and the this is, and I'm just like they're investing in scarcity and I wanted to just be like, hey guys, don't do that.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: It's like nobody talks about things, the energetic level of things.
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: Nobody talks about what we're attracting to ourselves, like what that our actions like not necessarily have consequences because they hate that concept, but in a way, like they kind of do, like what you invest in your mind is what you attract.
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: And so that mentality of like I don't have enough just brings more I don't have enough.
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: And so I was like, first of all, I just watching them.
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: I was like, oh no, I'm not, I'm not doing this.
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: So like I like proclaimed in that meeting, like I am a magnet for money, I am a magnet for contracts and contracts will find me and no matter what is happening in the economy, I'm going to be booming.
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: They're all looking at me like I'm nuts, but I'm like trust me.
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: Well, let's just put it out there.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: Like lots of fortunes are made during downturns, like you can, I mean.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: If you're, if you're investing in scarcity and you're, or are absolutely unaware, unprepared and the like, a wave of recession hits, it can be really tragic.
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: But, also there's.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: There's opportunities.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: They just don't look the same Like there's opportunities and there's opportunities for growth and all of these.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: You know like fortunes are made during downturns.
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: That's like a fact.
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: And I was like I wanted to say that's so bad to them.
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: But I was like these are all like they're not into the woo, so you're just like you're sitting there sipping your tea like, okay, let me know how that goes.
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so I love what you said about.
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: So you didn't say it exactly like this, but I'm going to just kind of recap for the listeners.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: So what I want to just kind of put out there is that surviving, like that survival mode, that scarcity where she was talking about at the beginning of her journey, like not not hiring people doing everything herself, like you can only get so far operating from survival mode.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: And then what happens is that once you, once you're surviving, once you're good you, what I noticed and this isn't necessarily true of Miki, but what I generally noticed is then we kind of step off the gas, we chill out for a second, and then or we get busy with the work that we have and we're not pursuing more, and so when we're in scarcity, it's like our revenue really does like a roller coaster movement of like up and down, up and down, because it's like, well, once you get to surviving and there's like a level of, oh cool, I could take a like a rest, and survival mode is so taxing on the mind, it's so taxing on the body that like, once you're back to surviving, you honestly need a rest because there's so much like scramble that happens and so that like a revenue roller coaster is also is like evidence of that scarcity mode thinking and behaving.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: But it's also so exhausting and it's it really is a hard place to get out of because it's like you need the money to hire the per, like you have to be so brave to get out of.
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: You have to be so so brave to get out of survival mode because you have to basically face like you have to really come up to scarcity, like up a close and personal, and and it's when you do it it changes the relationship with scarcity, where most of the time when people interact with scarcity, the way that I have a picture of this in my mind is like a dog, like a mean barking dog, is like backing you into a corner, but if you can get on the other side of that, that same dog will chase you a little bit and nip at your heels.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: But that's so much more in service when you're going in the direction of where you want to be going, and so I love that you said that, because it shows that really you can move from survival to thrive it.
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: And I mean it.
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: I remember so.
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: So when we're I tried to do everything that I could because I knew we had these contracts.
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: I knew we were going to go from one and a half to $2 million to eight to 10, because we had that much in contracts but we weren't sure where they were going to fall.
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: I knew that was going to happen.
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: And so I'm trying to put things in place and like I hired a CFO and you know we're doing the things, and like I'm investing the money in because I'm like I know this is, this is all going to come to a point.
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: And I remember I I realized I'm like I need an operations team.
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: I need a team that just, like, is going to make all of the office and the backend stuff flow.
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: And so I interviewed a couple of people and the one guy was like yeah, I mean it's going to be like 10 grand a month.
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: And I was like dollars.
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: I was just offended.
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: I was just like how, how do you know?
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: Like it's going to cost that much.
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: I didn't end up going with him, but I went with the company and he wasn't wrong.
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: Like, like some months, it really is 10 grand a month just depending on, like, what's happening in the company and how much they have to be involved.
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: And like when I'm sure there are small business owners out there right now that just heard that and they're they're like but holes clenched, like they're like but that that function of the business me not having to deal with it, me not having to worry about it, it just being done means that I had the capacity in the time and the mental resources to work on an estimate for this incredibly complex job Just insane the it was, it was so detailed, and so the drywall package alone was $5 million and the paint package was like the four or $5 million.
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: So it was a having people spending that amount of money every every month gave me the capacity to, in one contract, do the amount of work that we scaled to this year or last year in one contract.
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: And so I'm like think it might it correlates.
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: it's uncomfortable, but if you do the work, the ROI is there, it pays for itself.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: I love that, so I'm going to just say this real clear for everybody.
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: So she made a scary investment $10,000 a month, let's call it 100 grand or 120 grand a year in an operations team and was able to have the time and mental resources to be able to bring in an extra $8 or $9 million in contracts because of that and with all of that.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: So obviously she's got expenses.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: She doesn't get to pocket the whole all that money, but it's like that allows her the opportunity to hire people and Miki Paradise pays her people well, like she takes good care of her contract, there's her employees and there's some things like where that abundance gets to like spread.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean.
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: Like there's something so juicy about that, like, but it's scary as shit when you have to write a check without making sure about Hulk Hocker.
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: Or like it's, it's funny.
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: I didn't, I hadn't even thought about it, but like there was something in your like hey, I'm going to debit your account.
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: And I was like hey, can you give me a day?
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: Because, like I just paid, my payroll this week was like $106,000.
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: And you were like your payroll in one week was $106,000.
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: And I was like, yeah, like I hadn't thought about it, I mean you were like holy shit, that's amazing.
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: It's like I was like oh, that kind of is amazing.
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: So in one week I had just in payroll $106,000.
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: So like I paid with money that I had.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: I know I was so I was so excited about that.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: To me that was such a worthy celebration thing to circulate that much.
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: I mean think about, like how many people and you kind of you kind of went into it a little bit more about like, think about like how all these kids that like like all of my, my people have kids, I have docs, I'm like all these kids that, like you're making sure there's food on the table.
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: Before and I was like, oh, I never thought about it like that.
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: But yeah, it's really cool when you think about, I mean, when you start to pay attention to, like the amount of like tax revenue that your company is, like you know, generating for just for your state.
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: Like it's like I, whoa, I looked at, like our sales tax that we paid this year and I was like that is several salaries, that's a lot of infrastructure, yeah, which I'm grateful for.
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: Like I grew up on food stamps.
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: Like a lot of people.
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: I'm pro welfare because, honestly, like my mom could not afford to like take care of three children on her own.
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: So, like, thank God that somebody was paying their taxes and we were able to have access to that, because I wouldn't be where I am if it wasn't for, you know, the social services that we have.
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: So I am happy to pay those taxes.
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: I'm like please go and make little Mickey's.
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: We need some more little Mickey's in the world.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: Oh, that makes me so happy.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what's so funny is a thing that like, like a mindset that does trip entrepreneurs up, is like not wanting to pay taxes, and I'm like it's as like you can't, you can't get, like you can't get real far.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: If you have that kind of attitude, is it because it will just get in the way it's like, unless you're down for jail time?
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean?
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: Because like, unless you look good in orange.
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know what I mean, because as you, as you grow, those taxes are just part of the responsibility of circulating that much money.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: I think it's just part of the responsibility, and so, while I'm a big fan of tax efficiency and avoiding legal taxes.
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: You know to the extent of what the law allows and how it's written that I'm all for but then not wanting to contribute.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: You know, when you drive on the roads and people are using the public schools, I don't know.
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: It's just like.
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: And if you, that's like a mindset change in and of itself.
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: Like if you think of, like how many people are benefiting from you know what you're putting into the system and and how that is going to create because I am proof of it A business and entrepreneur that's going to grow up and it's going to reinvest the same amount of money, if not more, into the country and into the people and into you know it's kind of a cool way to look at it.
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: Instead of I have to pay how much in taxes.
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: I've had those moments around.
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: I'm like I just I'm to this point where I'm like everyone don't, I don't want to.
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: If you get a refund, I don't want to hear you talk about what happens to your tax dollars Because, like, I'm out here paying salaries.
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: So I've been in both spots.
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: But I can tell you that having the mindset of like I love that I'm able to invest back into my state and invest back into the into my country, is a way cooler vibe than like oh, taxes, it's much higher vibe.
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: I want to ask you another question, so this so I've been with Mickey and I have been working together for a while, and so I remember when you started to only take first class flights I mean you really started taking first class flights- I would just want you remember you were talking about how, when you used to sit in coach, every like in, you'd have to walk by all of the people in first class.
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: I just want to talk about that little shift because I think that's a that is a mindset that can really like like there's an element of injustice that's inherent to really doing well and I think for so many of us that are educated and are social minded and love other people and can see the inequities and can see all of that, it can feel really yuck yuck to be at the front of the airplane.
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: Or it can be really yuck yuck to be staying at $1,000 hotel rooms, like when you're walking by people or you know that people are struggling or whatever else, even though it's not like your success causes they're struggling in any way, shape or form, but that was.
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: I think that's the thing that can really keep people in survival mode.
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: So how did you navigate that?
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: Like the yeah, like.
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: How did you navigate that?
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: So that was funny because you know I traveled a lot, like I've always traveled a lot, but it was in it was during COVID that I I was like I have to travel on an airplane and risk the Rona, I'm paying, I'm operating, you know, like.
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: And then it was like the first time I did it.
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: And then it was like the first time I did it.
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: I was like, oh and like I am sitting in this chair to my kind of like, because I remember how I would walk past people will be like who are you?
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: Who are you?
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: What do you do?
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: You know like or like when a kid oh my God, when a kid was in first class and I'm walking fast seven to go to coach, it was going to come through there.
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: It would just make me mad and it was like I had, like that was part of the mindset that was honestly really holding me back in business.
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: And really holding me back and growing is I had this really negative perspective of people with money and wealthy people.
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: Like if you had money you were a bad person.
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: Like you did something that was wrong to get that money.
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: Like you're a bad person and or or it must be nice.
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: You know like that, like oh must be nice to be born with a silver spoon in your mouth.
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: As if I knew any of these people's stories, I'm just assigning them like oh must be nice.
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: So the first time and it was like the first time when, like the one of the flights was like one of those very small planes and it was like I was in the one so I couldn't even like hide in the corner like all the people are, like walking right past me and it honestly took a little bit of time to be like I'm sorry that not everybody can see the importance of really investing in themselves, Because that's what.
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: So for me it's like I'm a drywall contractor for a long time.
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: I physically did the work, writing in coach and being all like and like a course.
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: You're going to like be stuck next to somebody, you smelly, or like you're going to be in the middle like two really big guys, and it's uncomfortable and so like.
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: For me it's not just like this is a luxury experience.
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: It's like this is an experience that I'm giving myself, so that I'm comfortable, because that matters to me.
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: But I will say like saying it out loud, that I only take first class flights and like the the, I mean I catch some major shade.
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: Like people will look at me like what I'm like yeah, well, I do.
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: But it took me a while to like be okay with the level of judgment, because you're just like oh, that's not about me, that's about you and honestly, you should really experience this with me because it's.
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: It's kind of luxurious.
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: The hot towel is kind of next level guys like get on board, like join me in the first class experience.
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: It's, it's a, it's a good thing.
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: But it was really like feeling the judgment that I had been doling out to other people for God knows how many years and he had like they're making eye contact with me and it's like nasty eye contact and I'm just like you know I can check it on my glass drink but it was like one of those like full circle moments where you're like, actually people who can afford to fly first class, that they didn't necessarily have to do something bad to get there.
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: Like that it's just drywall, there's nothing else to it.
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: And I really changing that mindset of like people who are wealthy are like shitty people, because I think that was one of the first things that we talked about was like really just breaking up that judgment Like, yeah, the judgment of like people with money are bad and the agrib.
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: You have this whole process where you go through exact same.
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: You do it a couple of times and it's just like so, does this mean this?
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: And you're like no.
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: You're like, well, does this mean this?
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: And you're like no.
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: And then eventually you get to the point where you're like oh yeah, there's a lot of interesting, a lot of interesting things that happen with money, because money really does separate people by class in this world it really does so there is some assumptions about unkindness or about greed or about sketchy things that get associated with money, but it's like people at all income levels can be cruel or kind, right, can be honest or can be shady, or can be one thing or another thing, but when we have these judgments, so what this, how this plays out for people is?
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: when we have a judgment against wealthy people, for example, and we think that rich people are bad, well then, that's a, that's a separation between you and what's possible for you, because you would have to be on the wrong side of your own judgment and our brains hate to be on the wrong side of our own judgment.
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: So she had to really take that judgment down to be able to do that, and I think that's a that is also a thing that can really really keep people in and survive on is like the subconscious loyalty to not getting too big for your riches or not.
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: What's the other thing?
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: That's like not getting better than your raisin.
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: That's a very southern one not getting better, not, not not getting better than your raisin, like how you're raised, like don't.
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: Which is funny because, like most people, like I remember as a kid, you know, growing up in, like they were like affordable housing wasn't a thing back then, but like my mom was just smart and she's like all right, well, we're all the drug dealers are.
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: That's where the rents going to be cheap, so that's where we're going to live.
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: So like not living in the best neighborhood, like, of course.
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: As, like a nine year old child, I was like my life is going to be better than this is not going to be what my life is going to be like.
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: So it was like it was acceptable then.
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: But then all of a sudden, when I got grow, grew up, it was like all of a sudden, lee, oh no, we can Don't overshoot, don't shoot higher than your reach, kind of thing.
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: And that limited my reach.
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: So this idea like don't shoot higher than it was like okay, well then, that's as high as I can go.
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: And it was like I want to fly in first class.
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: Okay, I'm working my way to the private jet.
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: I'm like how do we get on that?
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: Like who's got one, how do I get one?
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: Or like I'm like maybe my next step is air Emirates.
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: I don't know Like I'm trying to get on that like pod situation.
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: So I got goals and they're all about first class.
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: I love how not apologetic you are and I'm sure listen if you're listening right now and you're cringing and your butt hole is tight you're going to have to look at your judgments.
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: You're going to have to look at your judgments because chances are you're keeping yourself out of thriving and you're keeping yourself and surviving.
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: So just if you're having a visceral reaction to this, just know that there's nothing wrong with you?
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: I was right there with you.
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: I was right there with you and it was one of the things that really helped me not only just like actually purchase the ticket, but be fine with talking about it was I'm taking care of myself.
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: There are reasons why a lot of people will be like, oh, first class is a scam and I'm like, have you sat in the first class?
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: It's because they're real nice.
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: But I'm taking care of myself.
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: This is a comfort to me.
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: If I have to travel, I get a little bit of anxiety, like I don't know anybody who doesn't.
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: It is comforting to me that I get to get on the plane first.
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: It's comforting to me that I get to get off the plane first.
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: Like that adds so much comfort and like eases my anxiety so much that it's worth it to me to buy that ticket.
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: And so it's like, if maybe you don't have those anxieties, maybe you have Xanax, I don't have any of that.
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: So I get a first class ticket, like that's what helps me.
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: And I have.
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: No, I'm not apologetic about taking care of myself and making sure that, like when I get to a destination, I'm ready to go have fun, no matter if it's for business or if it's for work or whatever.
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: It is Like I'm not all like stressed out about getting where I needed to go.
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: I'm like I got on first, I sat and relaxed, had a drink while I waited for everybody to get on the plane and then I got off.
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: It's not a bad way to live, but I do understand the.
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: I catch a lot of judgment.
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: I catch a lot of for my friends.
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: Like I'll be sitting at dinner and be like oh yeah, I only have five first class and they're like I could give you my reasons if you want them, but like that's just how I roll.
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: Well, and the capacity to metabolize other people's disapproval or other people's judgment is also like a required skill set for thriving it is.
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: It is, and that really because, like you know, so Facebook I have a lot of people that I grew up with so knew me.
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: You know, as Drake would say, when I was at the bottom, and now I'm here and I'll catch a lot of judgment like, like, listen, there's a lot of things that I like to do and there's a lot of things that I don't, and I don't like to clean and I don't like to cook, but I can make money.
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: So I pay people to do those things for me so that I have more time to enjoy my life and make money.
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: And you say that out loud and people are like this bit, but it is what it is Like.
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: It's like this is how I take care of myself.
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: This is how I open up space in my like energetic field to be able to go out and attract better clients, do get, produce a better product for our clients, which ends up growing our business and which also circulates wealth to.
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: I mean, most housekeepers are independent business owners, like right, and so there's also the support of other, very likely women owned businesses in your area Very likely.
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: And so it's not like a charity give back, but it's a, it's a recirculation of wealth, you know, and that's like the point.
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, that is the point, so, but you do it.
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: There is definitely like a like okay.
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: You have to just be like okay with like there's going to be some judgment there.
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: There's going to be some some like some.
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: It's funny because, like you would think that the people sitting in first class are tipping their nose up to you, but I get a lot of the people walking by me and I'm just like sorry, would you like to sit next to me?
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: All right, well, I think we will, yeah, just start to wrap up for today, but I love this conversation because I think what it shows people is that the ability to basically go from eating on food stamps and being raised by a single mom and really stuck in survival mode for, you know, an extended period of your life, is something that can really be changed within a couple of years if you're, if you're dedicated to it.
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: You know, like Mickey's dedicated was, is was whatever over this period of time, highly dedicated to really shifting out of that and really shifting into thriving.
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: And I just want to put this out there because I think, when we're in survival mode and I definitely lived in survival mode for a long time too, and I definitely hated rich people and I definitely turned my nose up to people at the front of the airplane when I was, you know, sitting in the literal last seat next to the toilet, you know, because I booked, you know, the discounting, the discounted of the discounted seats, and also I'm really grateful for that Like I traveled I traveled a lot before I had really money to travel like luxuriously, and I'm so grateful for those experiences and grateful for the seats that were in the back that I could afford, because otherwise I wouldn't have been able to go, and so there's that too.
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: But that shift from like limitation being stuck, you know, and kind of just being being stuck in like literal, like we're surviving, is the goal where we're always setting our goals to like, well, how much money do I need to make the rest of this month?
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: Or what do I need to get through this quarter, what do I need to to make ends meet this year, to really go moving into the realm of what's unlimited, and then you can start to value yourself differently.
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: And so I love that she shared her story about this, because being able to shift and it was really only a couple of years- and that's the point is that you can be running your own business and still be in scarcity and not realize that it's a.
• 41:57
  Speaker 2: It's a matter of how you're looking at things and how you're, how you're internalizing things, how you're showing up and how these little shifts in this, you know, that kind of excavating of the things that are kind of secretly driving you and secretly motivating you, and kind of changing the face of them.
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: I think that really is what shifted my whole business.
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: So when I showed up to work as the expert in my industry as I, when I showed up as I'm no longer proving to you that I belong here, I know that I belong here it changed the entire way that my business ran and function.
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: I know your favorite story is I went to a job site and I was gonna just reel this.
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: This guy was looking for a fight and I was gonna give it to him.
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: I was like that's it, I'm out of this guy.
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: And I'm driving over there and as I'm driving I think to myself I'm like this guy's just having a really bad day and so instead of going and just handing him his rear end, I stopped and got a whole bag of like Chick-fil-A sandwiches.
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: And I just showed up and he's ready to fight, like I got there and he was waiting for me.
• 43:07
  Speaker 2: He was like let's go.
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: And I was like can we first have a sandwich?
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: There are a lot of problems that can be solved with a snack or a nap or go with your vibrator.
• 43:18
  Speaker 2: just saying that's so true, and it was funny because he got so mad that he wouldn't eat the sandwich.
• 43:25
  Speaker 2: He wanted to fight and I was like I'm not gonna fight with you, man, but like I will share a meal with you and that guy I am still extremely like we do things outside of work, me and his wife and my husband, Like we go like do outside activities, Like we are still such good friends.
• 43:42
  Speaker 2: And it was big.
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: It's because I showed up as like my authentic self.
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: But I first had to find my authentic self because she was in there, just like covered in all of this story and judgment and stuff that wasn't really mine.
• 43:58
  Speaker 2: And so once I could ex exibate her and just like bring her to the surface and be like actually I don't wanna fight with you, here's a sandwich.
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: I do love that story.
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: Change the whole game, Mm you do love that story.
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: You do love that story Beautiful, so listen if you want to more Mickey Paradise in your life, you can go to MickeyParadisecom and we'll put a link in the show notes and you could follow her blog and follow her speaking.
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: And I mean PDI Drywall is not exactly a thing that you can follow is it.
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: Is it a thing that?
• 44:26
  Speaker 2: people can follow.
• 44:26
  Speaker 2: Not really.
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: I mean we've tried, but it's like, listen, we do multifamily construction, Like, unless you're a, if your own apartment complexes or you're a big general contractor, like please reach out.
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: But more so.
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: I do a lot of public speaking just about being about my life, about being a woman in business, about the things that it takes to go from being on food stamps to running a multi-million dollar company, About a lot of times talking about being the only woman in the room, and I love it.
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: I love public speaking.
• 45:01
  Speaker 2: So MickeyParadisecom is a great way to reach out if you're interested in that.
• 45:06
  Speaker 2: But if you need some drywall work, I mean PDIDrywallcom.
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: PDIDrywallcom, MickeyParadisecom.
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: Check it out Comic-y for all your speaking and if and also I'll just shoot my own horn.
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: This is my podcast.
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: If you're looking, you know, to grow your business and to do some of this deeper work that really helps to permanently move you out of survival mode and into thriving.
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: You know, book a discovery call with me.
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: I'll throw my calendar link in the show notes also.
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: But limitless wealth is my mastermind and that's where Mickey and I have done the bulk of our work, although we did do some private work together too.
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: But the bulk of our work has been in that mastermind and that's where a lot of the mindset shifts that helped her move and do this in just a couple of years.
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean and I love working with Mickey because she really digs in and really does the work.
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: But anyways if you have a business and you're making at least six figures and you're looking to be in multiple six figures, seven figures, book a call.
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: And let's talk about it.
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: Do it Cause seriously.
• 46:11
  Speaker 2: I can attest.
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: I can attest she's got the magic sauce Like she's.
• 46:17
  Speaker 2: If you're looking for some magic sauce, she's got it.
• 46:19
  Speaker 2: She's the queen maker.
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: Oh yes, mickey Paradise, we were talking about identity in one of our calls last week and she called me the queen maker.
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: I wrote it down.
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: I love it.
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: It's one of my faves.
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: All right, she makes queen.
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: All right, so follow, mickey, book a call with me if it's appropriate.
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: I love you, I appreciate you, thank you so much and we will see you on next week's episode.
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: It was my pleasure and joy to talk with you today.
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: Thank you for listening.
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: If you found value in our conversation, I kindly ask you to share the show with a friend who deserves to unleash her financial power.
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: Your feedback is so, so valuable to me, so please take a moment to leave a review.
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: Together, we can amplify the message and bring more money into the hands of good women.
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: For ongoing guidance and unwavering support on your financial journey, I invite you to join the Cash Confident community.
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: Visit wwwcashconfidentcom slash.
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: Join to become part of our powerful community of women, where we uplift and inspire one another to reach new heights of financial success.
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: Remember, you possess the power to shape your financial destiny and, with the Cash Confident podcast and the support of our remarkable community, you are unstoppable.
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: Embrace your financial power, create the life you desire and let's ignite a movement of Cash Confident women who are transforming the world.
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: $1, one decision at a time.