BiggerPockets Money Podcast - 263: Becoming Debt-Free and Generating $320,000/Year from Simple Side Hustles w/Jannese Torres-Rodriguez

Episode Date: January 3, 2022

Most people assume wealth is built from a singular source, but the most successful people have multiple streams of income. 2020 was the year of the side hustle. People started to find ways to monetize their hobbies, create services, and capitalize on their talents. While some people are just now catching on, today’s guest, Jannese Torres-Rodriguez, was ahead of the curve. It all began with a food blog she started for fun that has turned into passive income for her $320,000 salary composed solely from her various “side hustles”.    Before the start of her money journey, Jannese was on the traditional path to what most would consider the ideal type of success. She not only graduated from college but got her master's in pharmaceuticals and landed a job that led to her dream, a six-figure salary. Despite this, she was still unhappy and soon realized she was unaligned with the power of money. Over time, she made several lifestyle changes and started learning about financial independence. Using what she learned, Jannese finished paying off her $57,000 student loans and became debt-free in February of 2020.   After 5+ years of accruing income from her food blog, Jannese discovered she could make her side hustles a full-time business and finally be fulfilled by the work she was doing. She began a podcast about financial independence that aims to help people of color learn more about financial freedom. She also does virtual workshops, digital courses, and brand partnerships as well as several other services that contribute to her salary. Jannese is a perfect example that you don’t have to give up what you love to make money, you just have to capitalize on it.  In This Episode We Cover How to find financial independence, even if you’re in a lot of debt  How to minimize excessive spending while still enjoying your money  Becoming a full-time entrepreneur and managing the struggles of being self-employed  Outsourcing work and its importance especially when you’re stretched thin  Dealing with Imposter Syndrome and overcoming shyness   The value of diversifying your income and why it’s becoming more popular   Finding your niche target market, even if you don’t think you have one  And So Much More! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to the Bigger Pockets Money podcast show number 263, where we interviewed Janice Torres-Radriguez from the Yo-Kiro-Denero podcast and talk about side hustles. Around that time, I was making around $75,000, $80,000, which was really good, you know, considering the fact I was so young, had not a ton of experience in the industry. But, you know, it was just like, I felt like the more I pursued the money, the more I realized that that's not actually what I was pursuing. I actually wanted a lot more freedom, and I didn't understand how I could use the money that I was making to actually gain that freedom until I learn about financial independence. Hello, hello, hello. My name is Mindy Jensen. And from time to time, Scott's schedule is just too jam-packed to record with me. Rather than miss a week, I am bringing in some friends to help me out. Today's guest host is Doug Cunnington from the Mile High Five podcast, which he co-host with my husband. Doug, thanks for stepping in today to fill Scott's shoes. having me. I'm so excited to get into the episode today and talk to Janice. Doug and I are here to make

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If you're looking to turn everyday moments into real progress, Audible has been indispensable for me over over 10 years. Kickstart your well-being journey with your first audiobook free when you sign up for a free 30-day trial at audible.com slash BP money. Janice Torres-Rodriguez from Yochiero-Denaro podcast. Welcome to the Bigger Pockets Money Podcast. I'm so excited to talk to you today. Thank you so much for having me. This is such a dream. This is going to be such a good show because you have such an amazing story. We actually have a two-part episode today because first we're going to talk about your money story,

which is fabulous, and then we're going to talk about a little thing called side hustles. So let's jump right into it. Where does your job? journey with money begin. Oh, man. Okay. So my story with money or my journey with money really started in my late 20s. Up until then, I had really followed the prescription, if you will, that my parents had told me, you know, go to school, get a good job. Maybe you can be lucky enough to find a job with a pension, work there for 45 years, and then retire. So I definitely subscribed to that mentality. I went to school for originally I was a pre-med student. So I was intending to become a doctor. my junior year of college, I was like, oh, I'm so burnt out. I don't want to go to medical school.

So I decided instead to take my degree in molecular biology and chemistry and go into the pharmaceutical industry. So I was born and raised in New Jersey and the pharmaceutical industry is really big out here. So I was actually able to secure a job right out of college. Did that for a couple of years, got a master's degree, because again, I'm still, you know, subscribe to this idea, just get more education. You want to make more money. Keep getting the degrees. And I found myself around the age of 27 having a legit like quarter life crisis. I was very unsatisfied with my career. I just felt like I'm making all this money, but why am I not happy? And it really was the first inkling that I was unaligned with how I was understanding

the power of money and how it was pursuing money. And that for me is when everything shifted. I started listening to personal finance podcasts. I started realizing how much I actually didn't know about money and then I learned about financial independence. And from that point on, like, everything changed. And what year are we talking about here just for a little bit of reference? Yes. So I graduated college in 2007. I was 27 around the age of, it was around 2013. Yeah. So 2013, I was like full-blown quarter-life crisis, just got engaged to be married, just graduated with a master's degree. and I was more unhappy than you could imagine for somebody who, you know, superficially had checked off all of these things that are quote-unquote successes. And what was your financial position coming out of college for your degree, with your master's degree?

Did you have a lot of student loan debt or were you pretty set? So luckily, I did get a partial scholarship for my undergraduate degree. So I only ended up having to pay for the last year of it, but with room and board and everything that was still around $25,000. Then my master's degree I had to pay for in full, so that was another of 30 grand. So when it was all set in done, I was about $57,000 in student loan debt. And what sort of income were you generating at that time through the pharmaceutical industry job? Yeah. So I started off making about $42,000 a year.

And after getting promoted and switching jobs a couple of times, around that time, I was making around $75,000, $80,000, which was really good, you know, considering the fact I was so young, had not a ton of experience in the industry. But, you know, it was just like, I felt like the more I pursued the money, the more I realized that that's not actually what I was pursuing. Oh, that's good. I actually wanted a lot more freedom. And I didn't understand how I could use the money that I was making to actually gain that freedom until I learned about financial independence. Was there some like precipitating event where you realized, hey, I'm not happy even though, like you said, superficially, super successful. You followed the path, got a great job, excellent salary,

or was it sort of a gradual, oh, I'm not getting as much joy doing this work? Yeah. Well, the big wake-up call for me was a couple years later in 2016, I finally started making six figures in my career. So I was about 30 years old. I had made this goal in my head. Like, I need to be making six figures by the time I'm 30. I did it. My husband and I, then we proceeded to do the next thing that you do as an adult. You buy a house. And the combination of those two things was like the catalyst for, oh, my God, I have been operating an autopilot this entire time. I hate what I've just done because, you know, for me, learning about financial independence

and then realizing that I had just signed myself to like a $430,000 mortgage and was essentially forcing myself to continue working in this career that was going to have to happen for me to pay for this house, it was just like, oh, my God, I am making so many decisions that are not aligned with what I actually wanted to do. And as a result of buying the house, believe it or not, like, I had a legit, like, mental health crisis. I started spiraling down into depression and anxiety because just this realization of I am not operating in alignment with, like, what I actually envisioned for my life. That was a huge wake-up call. And that was when I really started to dive into personal finance, like, I needed to get my thoughts out of my head. So,

I replaced those thoughts with other people's words by listening to podcast. It was like my therapy. I'd be like laying in bed and just like learning about, you know, compound interest and this concept of like reducing your expenses and maybe you don't need to buy a house in order to build wealth, right? Because especially as a Latina, the only thing I was ever taught about building wealth was like you need to own property. We never talked about the stock market.

We never talked about entrepreneurship. We never talked about any of these other things that now have been the. thing that have allowed me that freedom that I was always looking for. Doing the things that I was told to do were actually keeping me stuck. Oh, that's good. Yeah, you're absolutely right. You are supposed to go to college. You are supposed to, you know, and if you have to go to college, you might as well take out student loans because that's what everybody does. And once you get a job, you are supposed to buy a new car and you're dressed for the part that you want. So you are supposed to go and get brand new clothes. And you are supposed to drive a nice car. And you are supposed to

buy a house because that's how you do it. And because this is bigger pockets, I have to say that real estate is a great investment, but not all real estate is an investment. And your primary residence is typically not an actual investment. People think it is. But just because something costs a lot of money doesn't make it an investment and it doesn't make it a good investment. So how did you find financial independence? You said on podcasts and things like that, like did you just Google it. I know my husband when he was like, how do I quit my job early? He had a horrible day at work and he's like so stressed out. How do I quit my job early? And Mr. Money Mustache popped up. What was the first thing that you found? Yeah, that's very much my same story. I was literally

searching. Like, how can I just stop working? How can I quit my job? How can I become a millionaire? All these things. And Mr. Money Mustash definitely came up. I found the, the FI Show podcast, choose FI. And then I started wondering, like, are women also having these conversations? Are women of color also having these conversations? So I found Jamila Sufran's journey to launch podcast. And that for me was definitely like the first time that I felt like this was something I could do, right?

Because I think representation in the personal finance community is like such an important thing for me. And that's why I do what I do. So seeing a black woman, right, a woman from New York City, from an urban environment, like so many things that I had in common with her. I was like, oh, wow. So this is not just for like, you know, some rich guys in like Silicon Valley that can do this because they're software engineers making, you know, $300,000 a year.

I can also do this as a first-gen Latina who, you know, happens to have a six-figure income and just really doesn't know what the hell I'm doing money. So that for me was the catalyst for sure. I just want to halt right there and say, Janice is saying at one point, she didn't know what the hell she was doing with money. I was there too. I'm sure Doug was there too. to everybody at one point doesn't know what they're doing, and that's okay.

I think there's a lot of shame around, you know, oh, I'm bad with money. Okay, that doesn't mean that you always have to be bad with money. You can get good with money. Is that the name of Tiffany Aliche's book, Get Good With Money? Yeah, I wasn't even trying to, you know, name drop, although Tiffany is a friend of the show. And we had Jamila on episode 39. She taught me new things. I'm not a public employee.

So I had no idea that the 457 plan existed. And she's talking about this. She's like, yeah, oh, we contribute 19,500 to our 457 plan and an additional $19,500 to the 401k or 403B or whatever it was. And I was like, wait, what? Tell me more about this. So she was, we love Jamila. She is an amazing fountain of information and so down to earth and easy to talk to.

Absolutely. Okay. So sorry. jumped in there and I halted your conversation. And now let's pick it back up again. So you discover financial independence. You're making a six-figure job. You have saddled yourself with a 30-year mortgage. What comes next? So first, I tell my husband, we are leaving the state of New Jersey because we were both born and raised here and the cost of living is just astronomical. We were both making, you know, very good income. And we just always felt like we were on a hamster wheel. So the first thing was we

need to lower our cost of living, and we're not going to be able to do that here. So we started strategizing, how can we get job transfers to move to Florida, keep our salaries, and really reduce our cost of living? So we were able to orchestrate that over like a 12-month period. I got a job transfer through my employer who also had offices based in Florida. He did as well. So that started for us in the fall of 2017. By the fall of 2018, we had moved. We put the house up for sale. even though he had owned it for less than three years. And we're like, you know what? This was an expensive lesson to learn,

but I am not equipped to be a property owner at this time. I definitely don't want to be a long-distance landlord. It's just not in my personality, you know, to be able to manage all of that. And, you know, with everything that happened with the pandemic, we're just like, oh, my God, thanks. Thank God we got rid of that potential stress, right? And then it was really getting serious about what my numbers were.

So I never had a budget growing up, you know, after I started making money, I always just felt like I made enough money to not need a budget. I was convinced that, oh, you make six figures, girl, you don't need a budget. Like, you just can out-earn your bad spending habits. And guess what? That's just actually not the case. I just kept finding really, really stupid ways of making money disappear. And so I had to get really serious with the fact that even if I was making a lot of money, I needed a plan for it.

I needed to start getting serious about knowing my interest rates on my student loans and my credit cards and all these things. And I really started just making a plan to pay that off. So at that point, it was, I had started my first side hustle about five years before that, which was a food blog. For a couple of years, it was very much just a hobby. But by 2018, it was earning about $3,000 a month. So instead of using, yeah. Yeah. Okay. What is the name of this food blog? Because I already know it and I want you to say it.

Yeah. So it's Delish Delights and it's d-L-I-T-E-S.com. It's a Latin food blog. Yeah. So it was, it was earning about $3,000 a month at that point. And instead of just, you know, buying stupid things and not knowing where that money was going, I started throwing all of that money towards my student loans and my credit cards. I said, this is money that I really don't need to live right now. This needs to go to paying off my debt. And I made a plan in 2018 that I wanted to be debt-free by the time I was 35, which would have been 2020, May of 2020. And I achieved that in February of 2020. So becoming debt-free right before the pandemic. Wow. Talk about divine timing.

I was super happy to put myself in that situation, given what we then experience, you know, the chaos of that whole time. I want to jump back and ask about getting your husband. on board? Was he immediately on board? Let's do this? Or was there some negotiation? Luckily, my husband is very much like you're in charge here.

So, you know, he indulges my crazy ideas and that's probably one of the reasons why I married him. He's just down for whatever. But, you know, we were both kind of feeling that rat race fatigue at that point. And we were both just feeling very, like we had accomplished everything

we could accomplish at this point in New Jersey, and it was just time for a fresh start for both of us. So, you know, when you entice someone with a way lower cost of living and palm trees and beaches 24-7, like, it's not a hard argument to have. Got it. And then maybe you have something to share here. If not, that's okay. Any silly purchases during that time before you discovered the value of personal finance, any big fun or maybe things you'll look back and you thought, well, maybe I shouldn't have bought that thing. You know, I think the worst habit I had was using vacations as a coping mechanism for the stress of life. So I would be the person that was booking like three or four vacations a year, even though

I had not saved any money for them. I was always putting them on credit cards. And so then I would get that high of the vacation while I'm there escaping from the job that I hate. And then I'd come back and have like thousands of dollars of credit card debt. And I realized, you know, that I was using what felt externally like, oh, this is so much fun. Look at me treating myself. You know, I'm so successful. I can take all these trips. It was really a coping mechanism for wanting to escape life. And so it wasn't that it was fun, you know, in retrospect, but it felt fun at the time. Yeah, I love the point that you're making. Well, I made so much money. Why am I miserable? I made the, so much money, I don't need a budget. Yes, you need a budget. We're just going to drop all sorts of

names today. But you don't need a super strict budget when you're making $100,000 a year unless you have massive debt that you want to pay off, but you still need to be conscious of where your money is going no matter what your income level is. And I have actually started to stray away from this, you know, with life kind of going crazy. I work a full-time job. I have my real estate license and last year was crazy real estate. I was working every minute of every day and it was like, oh, it's so much easier to just go to Chipotle or go out to dinner or do whatever. And it actually takes the same amount of time to get in your car and drive over there and order and eat and then come all the way home. You could have already done it. And I had stuff in the house. I was just like

burnt out. So our lifestyle has started to creep up. And one of the things I want to do next year is be very open and transparent with my budget, even though I, you know, we have made it. We are financially independent. I still need to know where my money is going. And right now, I don't really know where it's going. And just because you have money doesn't mean that you can just throw it around wherever. You still need to know where it's going because there's a lot of dumb stuff that I'm buying and I want to rein that in. Yeah, absolutely. And for me, I realize that the reason why I didn't have a budget is because I always associated with dieting and this restrictiveness that, like, I don't want to do this.

I'm not a dieter. I'm not like a frigging gym rat. Like I don't practice extremes in any part of my life. And so budgeting felt like that because that's kind of the narrative that a lot of us get, right? Like deprive yourself, have some discipline. And it's just like that messaging is so toxic. It wasn't until I realized like, oh, wait, a budget is actually me setting up a plan for

my goals so that that thing of financial independence can actually become a reality because now I know exactly how much I need to invest. Now I know exactly how much I need to have in my emergency fund. It's actually me doing things that are going to help me get to my goals faster. It's not about me depriving myself and making this, you know, an excruciating process. And I think that's what a lot of people get wrong about budgeting. That is a brilliant quote. I'm just, I'm having a hard time keeping up with all of the quotes that you're giving me.

Okay. So you're in Florida. You have sold your house in New Jersey. And I want to say, I am a big thing. fan of real estate, but I am not a big fan of rental real estate in New Jersey. And if I'm talking about you, I'm sorry, email me, Mindy at BiggerPockets.com and tell me how great it is. But real estate in New Jersey, the laws are very, first of all, your taxes are insane. And then the laws are very restrictive. You can't not renew your lease. If Doug is renting from you and you're like,

ooh, Doug keeps the house kind of messy, tough. You have to renew Doug's lease. Doug can choose to leave at the end of his lease, but you can't say, Doug, I'm not going to renew your lease unless he stops paying. Doug, you should always pay your rent. I'm just kidding. Doug has a house. But I digress. So that was a good move to get rid of the house in New Jersey, especially because that isn't your passion. Like if you wanted to be a landlord and you would run the numbers and it worked as a rental, I'm guessing it probably didn't work as a rental because not all properties make good rental properties.

So you've sold your house in New Jersey. Did you make any money on the sale? Oh, God, no. I actually lost $10,000. I had to sell it for less than it was worth because it was actually a multifamily home. So I was living on the first floor with my husband and we were renting the second floor. But we paid so much for the house that we could only break even with the rent. And that's the thing.

Like, I didn't know anything about how to properly scout out rental properties, how to figure out what those profit margins are. I was just falling victim to the, you should buy a. house because renting is wasting money narrative. And so that's where I got myself into a toxic situation. Yeah. Okay. So we have sold our house. We lost $10,000. You had enough that you could afford to lose it. I hate to say that afford to lose it. But you did lose the money. That's okay. Move on. I lost $13,000 on the sale of a house and I was happy to lose it because I wanted to be done with that house. I'm out. I don't care. It was a disaster. So, but this is a That's exactly how I felt. Yeah, be done. So you moved to Florida. Did you buy another house in Florida, or are you renting?

No, so we've been renting since we got out here and I realized, you know, the fact is that for us, renting just makes a lot of sense. My husband and I, we are a flight risk. We just love to be able to, you know, change jobs or change what we're doing or just, you know, have that freedom and flexibility to say this is not where we want to live long term. And, you know, it's not to say that we'll never own property again, but it's just not aligned with what we want right now, which is just a lot of freedom and flexibility. and I just had to let go of the guilt that, you know, people will put on folks who want to rent because they just don't understand the motivations behind why some people do it. So I am going to, again, everybody knows that I love real estate, but I'm going to say, good for you.

The only person that this has to work for is you and your husband. And you're both in agreement, which is very important. But also, when you sell a house, it costs a lot of money. People don't think about that. When they think about, oh, I'm going to buy a house. Well, it costs you between two and four percent to purchase of the purchase price in closing costs. When you go to sell, that's more like 8 to 10 percent of the purchase price or the sales price when you go to sell. So that is 10 to 14 percent of the cost and the sale of the home that you are paying in extraneous random costs to other people.

So if you know you're not going to be there for at least five to seven years, renting makes a lot of There are very few times that you can jump in, buy a house, sell it, make a lot of money, and then move on to the next one. That's something that my husband and I do, but we buy really gross houses and make them beautiful. And then we sell them. And the appreciation that we have forced makes it worth it. But if we were not, like I just said, I lost $13,000 on that house. I had it back on the market four months later because I did not want to live in that house anymore.

There was nothing wrong with the house. It was the neighborhood. It was like the vibe of the city. We didn't do any research. We just like moved across country and bought a house. And, you know, if you're going to do that, I hope you have better success than I do. Okay. So you're renting.

And you mentioned freedom to change jobs. Let's talk about your job. You moved from New Jersey to Florida with a company. Yep. What happened with that company? So they, the reason why I was actually able to move is because around the time that we decided that we were going to move to Florida, they acquired a company that was based out in Florida. So I did a lateral transfer and was able to keep my salary and work in an equivalent

position based out of Florida. And my husband was actually able to do the same thing, too. So I was in the consumer manufacturing industry at that point, and my husband was in auto insurance as an adjuster. So we both had careers that were already work, remote work opportunities. So that was a big plus for us. And, you know, I think we also realized that we had the social capital in our careers to be able to have those conversations and make those things a reality. I would not advise, you know, just up and quitting and trying to find a job in a place, especially where the cost of living is lower just because if I had done that, I probably would have had to take like a $30,000 to $40,000 pay cut. And our lives probably wouldn't be as different

as they are. So I worked in that job after transferring for about three years. And as of May 2021, I actually went full-time entrepreneurship. Congrats. Thanks. And you are much happier because of it. Oh, absolutely. I consider myself to be fully unemployable at this point because it's just I can't see myself going back to a nine to five for any, any reason other than like an emergency situation. So let's talk about your side hustles, which are now, what do we call these now? Because in my opinion, a side hustle is something you do on the side, like Delish Delights, was for you, you had a full-time job. And then on the side, you were making $3,000 a month, which is awesome.

What do we call this now, your entrepreneurial endeavors? Well, you know, at this point, it's my full-time business, right? And I think, you know, the language around side hustles is what stop. a lot of people from realizing, like, hey, you are building a legit business, like, if you want to. For me, it took about five years to make that realization. It was when I had a five-figure tax bill because I wasn't doing my estimated tax payments. And I was just making such a substantial amount of extra income and wasn't accounting for it in my tax preparation time that, you know, my accountant did my taxes for 2018. And she was like, hey, guess what? You have like a $7,000

tax bill. Congratulations. You made a ton of money with your business. So at that point, I was like, oh, wow, maybe this is like a real thing. I got my LLC. I really started to like treat it more like a business. But it really was, you know, the language I think I had around it of just like this side hobby that I did. But it's a business. I mean, you know, at the end of the day, anybody's paying you to do something, sell a product,

sell a service. Like, you are a business owner. So own it because, you know, I think that's part of the transition for me, I think the biggest part of transitioning from, you know, W-2 job to now being self-employed is the mental aspect of it. It's just like acknowledging that it's a shift. It's a shift in how you think, how you operate, how you value time, how you value your skills. A lot of it is the mental game. And can you give us an idea of sort of the scope of what you were earning and feel free to share as much as you want to here? But just so people know sort of how successful you have,

then. Yeah. So when I first started the food blog, it was very much just a, you know, hobby. I didn't actually realize that you could monetize a blog. I just knew I was checking out a lot of blogs. I loved cooking. I mean, I've been in the kitchen with my mom since I was 11. So food has always been a big thing for me. And back in the quarter life crisis days, I was really thinking, like, can I just quit my job and go to culinary school and be like, you know, the next Gordon Ramsey? That would have been like, you know, the the dream. But then I realized, wait, I have to go get another degree, go spend $40,000 more on a culinary degree and then work 16-hour days in a restaurant for like $35,000 a year. That was not going to be it for me. So when I realized that people were taking their passion for food and

taking it online and basically creating like living cookbooks through these blogs, I decided I wanted to do the same thing. So I started that in May of 2013. In January of 2014, I actually got laid off from my job. And I actually had like three months to myself to pretend like this was my full-time gig. So I got a decent severance package. I didn't have to rush back to work. And I really started just pretending what it would be like to be a full-time blogger. I was studying everything I could on Google, on YouTube, really just spending every day learning, learning, learning, and putting those things into practice. By 2015, I had started monetizing the blog. It was like, you know, a couple hundred dollars a month. By 2016, I had hit my first, like, four figures in side hustle income. Then

2017, I hit $10,000. 2018, I made $26,000. 2019, $46,000. And 2020, I actually made $100,000. thousand dollars with side hustles. So 2020 was definitely the year where I realized, hey, if I keep scaling this the way that it's going, I might be able to quit my job this year. And that's exactly what happened in 2021. That's amazing. That's obviously a large amount of money. Can you break down some of the different income streams? Because I know that you have a lot of diversification, where money's coming in. Yeah, absolutely. So, um, I, in 2019 was when I started the podcast. So that became like the second business that I began to monetize, especially in the pandemic.

I feel like the pandemic definitely accelerated the growth of my podcast and the brand associated with that. But I have a ton of different income streams, affiliate marketing, my blog ad income. So I have two blogs now. I have one for the food blog and one for my podcast. I have brand partnerships that I do, coaching calls. digital courses and downloads, freelance writing, my podcast ads. I have commissions from financial professionals that I get for referring their services, sponsored content, and virtual workshops. And of course, I invest. So dividend income and then that type of thing.

And what sort of income are we talking about grand total here? Yeah. So 2021 gross income has been about $320,000 across my two businesses this year. $320,000? Yeah. Okay, so this is not such a bad idea. No, I, you know, I think January 2020, one was like the first inkling that this is going to be the year because I put out my first digital course in the beginning of January.

And by the end of that month, I had made about $25,000 in the month. So I was like, okay, if this is what's going to happen, I'm only earning like $10,000 a month in my nine to five. Like there's really no reason for me to keep doing this other than the benefits. And then I just start talking to my husband, hey, honey, here's my next crazy idea. I'm going to quit my job. I'm going to need to sign up for health benefits. How do you feel about that?

And he's like, look, you haven't seen her just wrong yet. So let's do this. Very awesome. And do you have a team, obviously, with all those plates spinning and perhaps even, some support that you have to do for the courses. Do you have a team that you're working with right now? Yeah. So I didn't have anyone until January.

I mean, I'm sorry, June of 2020. That's when I started realizing like, wow, there's a lot of moving parts here. I am definitely burnt out and exhausted. So the first thing that I outsourced was the social media for my blog, for my podcast. I'm sorry. For Yo Kiro Dinerro, it was just, you know, a constant. I mean, I was spending like 10, 12 hours a day on social media. you're just building the brand and that, you know, that's just not sustainable.

So that's the first thing that I outsourced. And then podcast editor, so I do have a podcast editor who handles all of that. And this year, I was actually able to bring on my little sister. She is now my executive assistant and she helps me manage my group coaching programs. She sends out invoices. She's like the master of all trades. So I have two contractors who work directly with me. And then my podcast editor is from Fiverr, so I found him on there.

And he manages all the editing and finalizations of my podcast. But the food blog stuff, I still manage all of that. So I create my own recipes. I shoot my own recipes, edit the pictures, write the blog posts, all those things. But that's not something that I've actually done actively since last year. Okay. Just because I don't have time for it. It just kind of does its own thing out there on the internet.

Let's talk about time for a moment, because this is, I think something, when somebody's deciding to do a side hustle, and I really hope that they are deciding to do a side hustle first, as opposed to you, I'm going to quit my job and jump in full time to be a food blogger. Well, you're not going to make $3,000 a month the very first day. And if you do, I'm so excited for you. I'm super happy for you, but that's not the reality of online content creation because I don't know if you know this, Janice, there's more than one food blog out there. Right. And can I just say thank you so much for not having the 400 word essay about how you and your mom were doing this since you were little. Click on the thing and there's the recipe.

Thank you, thank you. Thank you from every reader who has ever read of food blog. You're the best ever. Okay. Thank you. But this is a time commitment. When you were making $3,000 a month, which is $36,000 a year, which is way more than I was making it my first job, how much time? were you committing to this? And what did it cost you to do this job?

Well, I have never been great with work-life balance. I am a natural-born workaholic, so I'm going to put that out there. Anybody that says that they have balance is a liar because it doesn't exist. So I would come home from work and literally work from, you know, five to 10 o'clock at night on a blog post. And that would be like several times a week. I'd say at least three times a week. If I didn't have a time during the week, I would do it on the weekends. And I've never, you know, I think I've never put this pressure on myself to live that perfect entrepreneur life where, like, you know, you wake up at 5 a.m. You get a workout in. You drink your matcha tea at like 7 a.m. And by, you know, 7.30, you're like banging out blog posts and, you know, just living this

freaking fantasy. So that's never been my thing. Like when I tell people what it's like, like to build a side hustle, it's a grind. You know, there are sacrifices that need to be made. I stopped going to the gym as much. I probably wasn't cooking as healthy as I could because I just didn't have the time. And I said no to going out to certain events because it was going to take up time from what I needed to do. That is part of that, you know, scaling process when it comes to any business. There are going to be those long nights. They're going to be the sacrifices of your time, your sanity, your energy, whatever. But it's all with the goal in mind where, you know, eventually you get this to a place where it provides you with the time, the flexibility, the freedom, the income to then live the rest of your life the way that you want.

But it's the hard things that differentiate the people who are successful and the people who give up before they get to that point. So you started the first blog in, I think 2014, 2015, is that about right? 2013. So in the beginning, were there any like inflection points or signs where you thought, hey, this is working? Or, yeah, I'll leave it open. Yeah. Did you ever have a point where you're like, wow. Well, you know, social media has changed so much in that time. And before the days of Facebook ads, it was so easy to go viral organically, especially on Facebook. So as I continue, to blog consistently and really figure out what my audience wanted because I didn't initially have a niche. I was just cooking and posting whatever it was I was having for dinner, right?

There was no rhyme or reason. I started to post my Puerto Rican recipes, like from my family. And I started having stuff go viral, like viral to the point where my site would crash because the hosting plan I had was just not equipped to deal with all the excess bandwidth. And that happened like three or four times in 2014. And at that point, I realized, oh, I need to keep doing this. This is exactly what people are looking for and somehow they're just not being served. I did a little bit more of market research and realized there's not a lot of Puerto Rican cookbooks.

There's not a lot of Puerto Rican bloggers. And so I had identified a niche by accident just by putting out what I knew best and what I could talk about really authentically. So that was the first indication that I don't need to just be posting random stuff on the internet. I need to be posting my Puerto Rican recipes and creating content for folks that are not being served. I love that.

I love that. Finding your niche. You want, you know, when you first start off, you're like, oh, I'm going to be everything to everybody. You can't be. I saw an amazing talk at FinCon several years ago by Emma. single rich mommy. Oh, I can't remember what her name is. Emma, something. She's like, you have to go small to grow big. And you need to focus on, like, identify who you're talking to and talk to that person. She's a single rich mommy. She talks to wealthy women who have wealthy single mommy, whatever. She talks to wealthy women who aren't married. So she's talking about child care issues. She's talking about, dating because she's single. She's talking about all these things. And women who maybe aren't

wealthy are listening to her because they want to someday be wealthy. Women who are maybe in a bad relationship are listening to her because they want the freedom of the lifestyle that she has. Women who don't quite have children yet are listening to her. But she's not talking to those people. She's talking to her one audience. And when you find something that works for you and your audience, focus on that. I love that. And I love your pigeon pea recipe. That's the same approach that I took for the podcast. There is, okay, so I hear from a lot of people, ooh, is there really any space for me in the personal finance world? Yeah, there is. Because your voice is going to speak to somebody in a way that my voice doesn't in a way that Doug's voice doesn't in a way that your voice doesn't.

Somebody else is going to be looking for the voice that you are sharing. And you speak to an audience that doesn't identify with me. And that's okay. We're all different. We can all find somebody to listen to and learn from. And I think it's fantastic. Tiffany Aliche,

I am like the president of her fan club. She is doing so much good work for women who have traditionally been underserved or not like underserved suggests that they were at all paid attention to. Not served at all. She's like, here, let me teach you about your money.

And with that success, She grew to another phase. Let me teach you about houses. Let me teach you about investing. Let me teach you about all these different things. There's an audience for your voice. Have your voice. Be out there and share what you know because somebody wants to hear from you.

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At Desjardin, our business is helping yours. We are here to support your business through every. stage of growth, from your first pitch to your first acquisition. Whether it's improving cash flow or exploring investment banking solutions with Desjardin business, it's all under one roof. So join the more than 400,000 Canadian entrepreneurs who already count on us and contact Desjardin today. We'd love to talk, business. So you have so many side hustle income streams. Let's talk about the value of diversifying income and how a person early in their journey should approach this. Because I think that, you know, you had a lot of success with delicious delights.

And then it could be really easy for you to be like, ooh, okay, now I have to start 57 other blogs. Well, maybe, but probably not the best choice. Yeah. If anything, I think 2020 definitely showed us that relying on a single income source, whether that is, you know, for your business or as a corporate employee is just the riskiest thing that you can do. I think I learned that lesson years ahead when I got laid off in 2014 because I didn't have a profitable income stream from delicious delights at that point. It was very much just a hobby.

But that, and that experience enough was for me, that experience for me was enough to realize, like, I never want to be in this position again where I have to be forced to take a job, maybe one that I don't even want to do because I'm just completely reliant on a single income source. So even when I was scaling Delish Delights, I never just relied on blog ad income to be the single income source. I started pitching myself for sponsored posts. I started looking into how I could incorporate affiliate marketing. And so this idea of having multiple income streams, it was a thing for me even before I realized that, you know, it was something that was very popular with people in the financial independence movement.

So now that I talk about it with my audience on the podcast, it's something that a lot of business owners still are not incorporating into their business models. And a lot of folks who rely on the brick and mortar stores are realizing, like, you need to have an online footprint because anything can happen, like a pandemic, right? And like if your entire business gets shut down because you have a physical location and you don't have any e-commerce component to things, guess what? The lights are getting shut off and you're having.

house and you know, you're not going to have food on the table. So I'm always looking for ways to organically weave income streams into what I do. So even as a podcaster, I monetize my podcast through affiliate marketing versus like, you know, traditional ad space that I'm selling. And it's just there's no right or wrong way to run a business. I think that's what people need to realize. Whatever works for you, works for you. And what works for me is having a bunch of income streams so that I can take to

months off of time in my business and not have to worry about how the bills are going to get paid, right? Just relying on completely active income sources is a way to also burn out as an entrepreneur. So I think you really do have to think about how you can incorporate passive income streams into your life, whether you are a W-2 worker or an entrepreneur. Because nobody wants to work forever. Let's be honest, even if you love what you do. And with the various income streams, which it sounds like some of them are pretty new, like the courses, does it sort of follow an 80-20 rule where a few of them really knock it out of the park? And then some of them don't really deliver, especially in terms of like how much time

you have to put into it. And this sort of leads into another idea of sort of cutting off some of the side hustles that aren't performing. So kind of a broad question, and I'll just send it over to you to talk about that. Yeah. So one thing that I started doing when I was first monetizing the podcast, I would do live virtual events. So I would be doing like a workshop teaching folks about investing or social media marketing or whatever it is. And instead of just having those be one off events, I would download the videos and make them an on demand digital video or a master class that you could buy. So it's like this idea of creating something once and then having it, you know, live in perpetuity and making money forever. I think that's a really easy. easy way for folks to start incorporating passive income into their businesses. So that's one thing that I did. My signature programs, I have two of them.

I have a blogging boot camp where for six weeks I show students how to set up the framework for being able to monetize a blog. And then I have a side hustle course where I walk you like A through Z about how to set up a profitable side hustle. Those courses have a live component baked into them. So I'm doing like either biweekly or weekly coaching. So those things are heavy lifts for. me, right? Like, I have to show it for my students, making sure that I have the capacity to serve them.

So when I'm doing those programs, things like my food blog, which is earning now over $10,000 a month, that's just working in the background. So, you know, this year, I'm taking off the last six weeks of the month, I mean, the last six weeks of the year so that I can just rest and recover because this has been like a really crazy year. I've worked a lot. And knowing that I still have the $10,000 of income coming in from that passive source, that gives me the peace of mind to be able to say, you know what, I can do that. The other part of your question was like figuring out what is worth your effort and what is not when it comes to side hustles, right? I am just a firm believer in if it doesn't feel like something that I want to do, I'm just not going to do it.

So that comes into play very often when I'm pitched sponsored content or like brand partnership deals where like maybe I'm getting pitched like a $15,000 partnership, but it's for a product that honestly I wouldn't use and it's not for my audience and it just wouldn't feel like an authentic thing for me to weave into my business. As a content creator and as somebody who's like your whole reputation is based on that trust that you have with your audience, you can't pay me enough money. to pitch those types of things. And so I think it's just really being aligned with what authentically brings value to your audience,

doing as much of that as you want, and not doing anything that feels like, well, everybody else is doing it, so I should do it too. And I think digital courses is one of those things that a lot of people feel like, well, everybody's doing a digital course. Do I have to do one? No, if that's not how you think you can best serve your audience, then don't do it. Don't fall for the trap of like there's one right way or one, you know, the right way to do business.

It's a job that you get to create, and it gets to look like however you want it to look. I'm going to agree with absolutely everything you just said, except that very last piece when you said there's not one right way to do it. There is, and that's be authentic. You can 100% tell when somebody has written a blog post that they were paid to write, that they don't believe in the product,

it doesn't do anything for their brand. You can absolutely tell when that is coming through. And yeah, if, hey, Janice, you should really talk about this meat product. Well, I have a vegetarian blog, so no, I'm not going to. That's a really blatant example of what won't work. But also, the meat product isn't going to reach out to you either. But yeah, you're absolutely right. It's your thing.

You do what you want to do as long as you believe in it. because I'm not going to name names, but I know several blogs. I'm very involved in the personal finance space, just in general and the food blog, but as a consumer, I don't create any food blogs. But when somebody, let's see, what was I going to say?

Oh, there are several people, and you read their blog, and you're like, you were paid for that. I totally, this is just like, it's a throwaway article. And the tone is different. And it's, you know, if there's one in an otherwise amazing blog, whatever. But if I see on your blog over and over again, stuff that's just, you got paid to write that.

That doesn't feel authentic. It doesn't feel like you care. And if you don't care, why should I? So yeah, if you're going to create content online, believe in it. Have it be something that works for you. And, you know, $15,000 is nothing to sneeze at. but if it's not in alignment with your soul, you're just going to not do as good a job. Absolutely.

I equated to just not being paid adequately in a corporate job, right? Like when you know you're not being compensated for the work that you're doing, you don't care about it, you're not going to show up as your best self. So when it comes to showing up as my best self as an entrepreneur, I definitely need to be 100% aligned and, you know, believing in what I'm doing. And I also need to be compensated properly. for the work. Wow, does your time have value? Oh, God. There's nothing that costs more at this point. So as you've started to work for yourself, have you found any specific challenges where you don't know what to work on that day?

Or maybe you're taking on too much work, like you said, you're taking about six weeks off, which is fantastic. And I think, you know, people should do that if they could work it out. But yeah, any, specific challenges, making all the decisions yourself. Everything's on your shoulder, success, and the failures too. You know, it's funny because I was talking to my husband about this a couple of weeks ago. I felt almost this guilt because I had, when I decided I was going to quit my job, I said, I am not working on Fridays. I am going to have a 24-hour work week. We are only working Monday through Thursday. This is like I'm putting myself in freaking time management boot camp, right? And so I was trying to squeeze all the things that I needed to do into these very condensed

timeline. And I would get like random sparks of creativity on a Friday or a Saturday or a Sunday. And I would sit there and feel like you can't work. This was not the plan. We did not agree to this. You have to wait until Monday to work on this. And I told my husband, I'm like, I feel so guilty because we're sitting on the couch. It's like Saturday. And I'm like, they have this brilliant idea, but I'm not allowed to work on it because I said I was only going to work Monday through Thursday. And he looks at me and he's like, what is wrong with you?

Like, you wanted this career so that you could have the freedom to decide what your days look like. Why are you trying to make your business a corporate job that has a schedule that has this regimented, rigid outline of like who you. can be. This is completely opposite of what you preach. And I just looked at him. I was like, oh, my God, you're so right. Like, if I feel creative at 2 o'clock in the morning on a Saturday, what's wrong with just taking that time and, you know, carving out whatever that is and not feeling guilty about it. And I think I was just trying to put so much pressure on myself because, you know,

you see all these people that are like, oh, I'm an entrepreneur. I work like four hours a week. I, you know, anybody who needs to work more than that, you're failing. You're a loser. You're not, you know, And I just had to let go of the idea of what I had to force my business to be and just let it be and give myself that flexibility. And what sort of follow-up question to that? So what does maybe a perfect day or a perfect week look like? And maybe you could place it in, you know, work week and then maybe a vacation that is coming up at the end of this year. Yeah. So my ideal day looks spontaneous. I am not big on having a ton of structure. Now, one thing that I did do is, like, I did segment days for specific things. So on Mondays will be when I record podcast episodes and handle all of that stuff.

Tuesdays, I'll catch up on administrative things, answering emails. Wednesdays and Thursdays are usually the days that I save for group coaching programs or doing some social media outreach, things like that. But it's just really allowing myself to not feel pressured to get all the things done on my checklist. If I wake up one day and I'm like, you know what, I didn't get a great night to sleep. I'm not going to do anything today. And the world is not going to burn down.

Just letting go of that pressure of just, you know, having to be so perfect all the time. That's been a big part of it. One thing that I'm absolutely enjoying is just being able to pick up and go, you know, hop on a plane, visit family and friends whenever I want, not having to request time off. And that's what I intend to do at the end of this year. It really just is about letting go of the expectations, spending the time. with friends and family and just really enjoying the flexibility and the freedom that I've been able to build for myself without the pressure to always do. I love it.

Let's talk about imposter syndrome. How long you got? Okay. Before we talk about imposter syndrome, I want to highlight that Janice, who makes $300 and it's not even the end of the year yet, said, how much time do you got? That, I think, is really, really, really telling because I don't know. know anybody who doesn't have imposter syndrome, but we all feel bad like we don't belong. You, sorry, Janice, you can't call yourself a side hustler because it's not your side job,

or you can't call yourself a side hustler because you're only making $300,000 a year. And Tim Ferriss makes $500,000 a year with his four-hour work week or whatever. You're doing really good. I forbid you from having imposter syndrome anymore because you have made it and you are amazing. But how do you get over? I mean, there's the whole fake it until you make it. And I want to encourage somebody who's listening to this who's like, oh, I've had this idea. Do it.

It doesn't matter that somebody else is doing it better. They've been doing it longer. If you aren't doing it and they are, they've been doing it longer. They have more experience. They're probably going to do it better. That doesn't mean that you can't surpass them. That means that right now they have more experience. That doesn't make you a bad person.

So what do you feel imposter syndrome about and how do you push through it? Well, I think for me, imposter syndrome has manifested itself in a lot of different ways. When I was a side hustler, I was convinced, like, there's no way I can actually earn enough to replace my nine to five. Like, this is a fantasy, you know, I'm just living in la la land. Who the hell am I to even be imagining that this is something that I can do? And, you know, I think a lot of that has to come down. to representation, especially in the entrepreneurship space. Like, I don't know any people in my family who are doing this, my friend's circle, right?

Like, all the people that I know that are doing this are online. They're not necessarily people that I know personally. And financial independence was the same thing. Just this idea that I could retire in my 40s. Like, what? There's nobody in my family who's doing this. There's no way I can possibly do this. And again, that comes down to representation.

When I decided to quit my job this year, I started having major imposter syndrome about, can I replicate what I did in 2020? Can I make another $100,000? And it wasn't until I really just stopped putting the pressure on myself and comparing myself to all these other people, you know, these like internet millionaires. Like I'd made a million dollars this month. And just you almost have to put blinders on at some point. You have to put the horse blinders on.

on and really just focus on what you're doing. An imposter syndrome is something that never goes away. I want people to know that. Every time you are asked to level up in your business, you're asked to do something you've never done, it's going to happen. The first time I was ever contracted to do a speaking engagement, I hate public speaking. Like, it was a nightmare proposition for me. And so this idea like, oh, my God, people are going to pay me to show up and talk.

Like, who the hell wants to listen to that? It was a huge thing to get. over the first time I was asked to write a media article. I'm like, what the heck thinks I can write anything? Right? So you're just always going to be confronted with imposter syndrome when you're asked to do something you've never done before. And I have a friend who talks about this idea of like, you know, building your confidence and being able to get past imposter syndrome feels like crap. Because you're always going to be confronted with your insecurities. You're always going to be forced to do the scary things that nobody wants to do. But that's the only thing. But that's the only thing.

way that you can prove to yourself that, you know what, I'm probably capable of a lot more than I give myself credit for, but it just feels ugly in the moment. And you got to get comfortable with the ugliness because there's, there's really cool stuff on the other side. In researching for this interview, I ran across one of your podcast episodes where you mentioned how shy you are. So hearing you overcome like, right? The public speaking. And then just in general, like starting a blog and putting yourself out there is really tough. So how did you overcome that? And any tips for people that have some shyness or maybe they identify as introverted or something like that? Yeah, this is the thing that blows people's minds. I'm just like, dude, if you knew what kind of introvert, I was like,

I need a break from peopling very often. Like, you know, I get very overwhelmed with too much human interaction. And so the fact that I'm here on the internet, like doing all this stuff is just nuts. But, you know, it was, I think back to the first speaking engagement I had, and I talked about this on, like, an Instagram live where I would get like hives when I was a kid, like talking in front of people. I'd be like breaking out and sweat, like getting all patchy and red and crazy. And so knowing that, you know, I was already preparing for that to happen during my speaking engagement. So I went and turned the air conditioner on full blast. Like I made my house like 60 degrees because I'm like, there's no way I can sweat if it's like a freaking refrigerator in the house, right? I'm like wearing shorts. I have fans blowing. I'm just doing everything I can to like, okay, just don't get all sweaty and become a hot mess. And we made it.

We made it, right? Like, you just have to get, I'm very much like, let me figure out how to tackle all of the potential things that could go wrong here. And that's how we did it. And it was the scariest time the first time I did it. And as I kept doing it, it just got less scary, less scary. And it's just like that psychological principle of repeated exposure. At some point, it's just like, okay, this is just a normal thing. Like, we didn't die.

You're fine. We can do this again. What are the lessons we learned? What could we do differently? And you keep doing it. Very good. Yeah, I wouldn't guess you were shy. No.

So one other area that I think, I think maybe you can give some people great advice on is taking skills maybe from their day job and trying to figure out what side hustles they can do. So I'm curious, did you bring any skills from your day job or professionally that helped you with specific things and then how people might be able to identify those for themselves? Yeah. So, you know, when I'm advising folks on where they should look for inspiration for a side hustle, I definitely say, like, you know, take a look at the skills you learn throughout your corporate

career. A lot of things like sales and marketing and, you know, finance, all of those things can be turned into a side hustle. So if those are things that you're already passionate about and you want to be able to turn them into a business, go for it. But that doesn't have to be your only source of inspiration. For me, I went completely opposite. I'm like, I hate my career. What do I like doing outside of the nine to five? How can I turn that into a business? Right. So I identified, okay, I love food. I love talking to people. Okay, so I'm going to start a blog. I'm going to start a podcast. I'm going to do all these things that I do for fun, I'm going to try to turn them into a business. So those are the two kind of pillars of skill sets that I would say, you know, you need to start with as far as, like,

inspiration. Some of the things that I realized were that my corporate career definitely prepared me for the things that I do now. So as an engineer, I was always teaching folks how to break down really complex topics and to understandable bite-sized nuggets of information. And so I'm doing that now with personal finance, right? Like, I know how to present it. I know how to teach folks because that was my career, just literally taking really hard problems to solve and finding solutions for them. Also, this idea of standard operating procedures, when I started scaling my business, I realized if I'm ever going to get to a place where I can hire people and outsource things, I need to be able to explain to them exactly how I do things.

And how can I do that if I don't have anything written down? So I took the concept of standard operating procedures, which I had been writing for years in my career, and I created. created standard operating procedures for how I do things in my business. So how do we release an episode? Where are all the social media channels that this needs to be posted on? What time do we do this? What kind of content needs to be included here? How do we onboard a new member of the team? Where do they find all the login information for the systems that we use? All of those things I proceduralized that and that made, I basically created like an onboarding kit for my business. So I took some inspiration from things I saw in HR. And you'd be surprised. A lot of the things that we

learn in our careers are soft skills. So the ability to network and reach out to people and collaborate, those are all things that are going to serve you regardless of what you do. And so, you know, don't try to discount like, oh, well, I hate my career. There's nothing I could possibly translate here. At the bare minimum, your job can be the angel investor in your business venture. And I always treated it that way. I always said, you know what, I'm going to use the income I'm earning here to build my ladder to freedom. And I'm going to use all the things that I can get from here. I'm going to do all the trainings.

I'm going to ask for extra assignments. I'm going to learn all the things that I know could possibly benefit me when I make that transition. And so I encourage folks to do that as well. I just, I'm sorry for the awkward pauses. I'm just blown away by everything you're saying. And more especially the whole I'm shy. I used to be very shy, but I moved around a lot as a kid.

and I really like to talk. So I had to overcome my shyness so I could make new friends. So not everything with regards to side hustles is all unicorns and rainbows. It doesn't always work out. And your best intentions can be not enough. When is it time to call it quits on one side hustle and pivot in a different direction? I would say don't waste any more than six months on something if you're not seeing any kind of progress. So a couple of things that I tried that were just an epic failure were like a drop shipping store.

I had no idea like, you know, what kind of products to pick for these things. The only person who ended up buying something for me was my mom. And that's because I sent her the link to go and buy it, right? Like, I didn't know anything about that. So I did that for like six months. I'm like, all right, this is the thing for me. I also thought I was going to be a travel blogger, right? because I see all these people taking, like, luxurious vacations for free.

And then I realized very quickly, like, oh, I don't have money to actually be booking thousands of dollars worth of flights and traveling. I only have two weeks of PTO, so like, how am I going to do this? So that was a short-lived dream as well. You know, try everything once, but don't try to force something. Like, I feel like if something is too difficult, it's probably just because this is just not the right thing for you. everything that has worked out for me has felt very much aligned.

I've felt very little resistance. And I pay attention to those things now. Like when something feels like it's pulling teeth, I'm like, eh, this isn't the time, this isn't the place. Maybe we can revisit this later, but this is not what I need to be doing right now. So just being able to say, you know what, I made that investment. It wasn't a good one. We learned some lessons.

We can move on and I'll feel guilty about it. I think that's a big important thing for folks to do because they just get so caught up I'm like, my God, what if I lose money? What if I do this? What if this doesn't work? All right, you're not going to die. You'll be fine. Let's learn the lessons and let's move on and start working on something else.

Oh, I love that. I absolutely love that. That's such great advice. Yeah, there are people who are making a lot of money as drop shipping, whatever, and it's like no time at all. But if it's not for you, cut your losses and move on. Don't just try and force it. I love that advice, Janice.

You're just the best. Thank you. Is there, this has been a super fun episode and we're not done yet, but is there anything else we should be talking about before we move on to our famous four? Well, I will just say, you know, the landscape of personal finance is changing so rapidly. And I think that it's important for folks to know that like these conversations are for everyone. So regardless of where you grew up, what your background is, what kind of knowledge you have or you don't have, find a place that is going to inspire you to get good with money.

And we will pay the royalty checks to Tiffany for shouting her out continuously. But it's really, it's really important to know that getting good with money is a journey. It's not like you're going to read one book. It's not like you're going to read one podcast. It's not like you're going to follow one person on social media and you're going to be, you know, you're going to have all your financial is together. That's just now how it works. Committing to the journey is how I have been able to,

accomplish what I have been able to do. And I think it's just understanding that this is going to be a lifelong educational process. Get ready to keep learning because you're always going to be a student when it comes with money. Denise, this has been just one of my favorite episodes of all times. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your time today. But like I said, we're not done yet. We still have our famous for. Are you ready? Let's do it. Yes. Okay. What is your favorite finance book? The Simple Path to Wealth by J.L. Collins. Oh, that's a good one. That's a really good book.

He just explains everything so easily. Yes. What was your biggest money mistake? God. I mean, how do I pick one? There's just so many. I think it really was just thinking that I could out-earn my bad spending habits by making six figures. You need a budget, y'all.

No matter what kind of money you're making, don't be like me. Love it, love it, love it. What is your best piece of advice for people who are just starting out? Get comfortable being uncomfortable. Knowing your numbers, knowing how much debt you have, all those things feel very itchy. It feels like you're behind the eight ball, like everybody else has things figured out. But just know that by knowing you will actually be in a better position than like most

people who just pretend like nothing's happening around them. So just get comfortable with being uncomfortable because that's where we grow. What is your favorite joke to tell at parties? You know, I was thinking about this, and I'm just not. I feel like I'm a comedian in the sense like I respond to people's stuff, but I'm just not one to come out with like random jokes. I don't know. Well, that's okay. I have some food jokes for you.

Where did the broccoli go to have a few drinks? The salad bar. They're terrible. Do you want to hear a joke about pizza? Go for it. Never mind, it's too cheesy. That is an honor of God. I couldn't have done better than that.

Okay, Janice, you have a lot of things going on. Where can people find out more about you? So for all things, food blog, you can go to delishdelights.com. That's D-E-L-I-S-D-L-E-S dot com. And for the podcast, it's Yo-Quiero Dino, and it's available wherever you listen to podcast and at yo-Gi-DenorPodcast.com. That is fantastic. We will include a link to all of those in our show notes, which can be found at BiggerPockets.com slash Money Show 263.

Janice, this was one of the favorite episodes that I have ever recorded. You are amazing, and I thank you so much for your time today. This was absolutely fantastic and clear out your inbox because I know our listeners are going to be flooding it with questions and requests. Thank you so much for the invitation. This was great. Okay, Doug, thank you for your time today as well, and we will talk to you soon. Okay, that was Janice Torres Rodriguez from the Yokeero De Niro De Niro podcast. Doug, what did you think of the show? It was fantastic. Like you said, Janice really brought a lot of energy. And I think the fact that she started in 2013 and didn't really think she was going to be earning much money with a side hustle.

It was just a hobby blog. And she's grown it into this, you know, huge asset. And then she's slowly leveled up in these different areas. Just amazing to hear the story. Yeah, I love that she has, she's taken her time to grow these. And she's decided when something didn't work, she was going to pivot. But something that she took as just a hobby,

a passion project, and was able to grow through intelligent choices and, you know, partnerships that make sense to her audience. She's grown this. that one thing has replaced her income. And then she has another street, well, another 14 streams of income that have doubled her income. I mean, she's making three times what she was making at her W-2 job, working less and enjoying life more. And that's just what this is all about. I'm so excited for her story. I just fell in love with her today. This was such a fun episode. And, you know, one thing that

actually I sort of identified really closely with is externally she had such a successful academic career. And then she got a great job, was earning money, living the quote American dream, purchasing a big house, and then realizing, oh, this is not what I thought it was going to be. And then her and her husband took action to figure out what they enjoy more, the kind of work they enjoy. And she mentioned, you know, basically being a workaholic. And now she's doing work that she loves, which is so cool to hear. Yeah, I just love her story. I would like to ask our listeners a favor. This is a brand new year. It's January 2022. Happy New Year. I hope you enjoyed this show today. If you did, we would love it if you could go to wherever you're getting your podcast and leave us a rating

in a review. Ratings and reviews help other people and other podcast listeners find our show. And with a show like this, I really want people to know how much information is being shared on these episodes. Also, we are going to open this up in our Facebook groups for discussion. Do you have a side hustle? Do you have a question for the group about side hustles? We would love to have you talking about this in the Facebook group, which is facebook.com slash groups slash BP money. And do you know somebody who needs this information? If you've got a friend who may be struggling with money, who might be thinking about

starting a side hustle, share Janice's episode with them, have them listen to it and get all the amazing information she just shared with us. Okay, Doug, should we get out of here? Let's go. Okay, from episode 263 of the Bigger Pockets Money podcast, he is Doug Cunnington and I am Indy Jensen saying don't pet Georgie.