Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin - Nicole Throws Listener Surprise Rich B*tch Zoom Party!

Episode Date: August 23, 2021

Remember Morgane, the listener who was struggling to afford her dream wedding? Today, Nicole invites her back for a big surprise. And you’re invited! Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Well, it doesn't. Charge for wasting our time. I will take a check. Like an old school check. You recognize her from anchoring on CNN, CNBC, and Bloomberg. The only financial expert you don't need a dictionary to understand. Nicole Lappin. A few weeks back, I told a listener to call off her wedding.

Seriously, not my proudest moment, but one of my more honest ones. And it wasn't because I didn't believe in her marriage or because I don't believe in love. I love love. But because she was not in proper financial shape to drop a couple G's on a wedding, she had some higher priorities on her financial to-do list, like finding a more lucrative job and getting her debt monkey off her back. Part of her difficulty in finding a full-time job came from the fact that her partner is in the military. In a job search, companies may consider military spouses a red flag because of the understanding that military

families have to pick up and move around often. So companies may reject an applicant that would be a great fit for a job because that company wants an applicant that can commit to being local for the foreseeable future. This bias has a big consequence. A recent report showed that the unemployment rate for military spouses is 38%. In contrast, the unemployment rate across the country is 5.4%. In other words, the unemployment rate for military spouses is six times higher than the average rate of unemployment across the country. As soon as I talked to Morgan, I knew exactly who could help her. I happen to know the incredible CEO and co-founder of Squared Away, Michelle Penzac. Michelle is a military wife who faced Morgan's hiring problem

many a time, and she started Squared Away to help match military spouses with remote jobs. So I wanted to bring Morgan back on the show and surprise her with a consulting session with Michelle. It was basically like a remote surprise party. And hello, you're invited. I want to tell you how it went down so you can follow along as you're listening. Michelle and I got on Zoom a little early. And then when Morgan hopped on, I scooted Michelle into the Zoom waiting room so that she could virtually hide. So I have been a client of Squared Away for three years, four years, but I don't actually think I ever got your origin story. So what was the impetus? What was the

inspiration for starting Squared Away? A bad country song, in all honesty. It was literally, I couldn't find a job. And I had this awesome professional background from working in DC. And nobody wanted to hire me in Jacksonville, North Carolina, where it should be pretty easy for me to get a job. So I applied, probably 100 places and literally got the boot every single time. And I finally found a job working online as a virtual assistant and did that very successfully for 2 years.

And this is where the bad country song portion comes into play. My husband deployed in 2015. And we were three months pregnant with our first little boy. And two weeks after he left, I woke up and had no job along with 400 other people at Zirtual. other people at Zirtual. So as you can imagine, I was a hormonal mess and was like, what am I going to do? I had clients that I was working with and I took those clients because they still wanted to work with me and branched out on my own. And that was literally the roots of Squared Away. And I worked until I had Sawyer, my now five-year-old. And through that time, we moved from North Carolina to Hawaii. So I took my clients six time zones away. And Squared Away was eventually formed in 2017 in Hawaii. I mean, I could think of worse places for anything to be

formed. But... Agreed. Can you tell me a little bit about the community of military wives that Squared Away has? I hear a lot that you're not supposed to call your business your family. But I think at Squared Away, that mantra is very much not true because we are predominantly military spouses. And as military spouses, you form your community and your support system however you can, because you don't always have family. You don't always have friends. You don't always have that built-in support because you are all over the world at any given time. because you are all over the world at any given time. And at Squared Away, we have that because we all kind of innately get it. We embrace the suck at times because there are moments where

it's not super fun to be a military spouse. But then there are times where we really need someone to say, Hey, you know what? You have got three months of this six-month deployment down and you are just rocking it. You are killing it being a mama and working full time. And you have someone who gets it because not everybody understands that mentality. And you kind of have your built-in cheerleading squad at Squared Away. And you can celebrate homecomings. You can cry

together during deployments. You celebrate new babies and PCSs or military moves to different places. And you can still take those people with you. And you never are without your support system. And that's something that you just don't get as a military spouse. I love that so much. I don't think we actually just covered what the company does. So you said it started in 2017. I'm sure it's changed since then. But what was the mission of the company? The mission of the company has always been to employ as many military spouses as possible. So we support clients like you and every other boss bitch out there that we can imagine and other clients in any capacity that they need. We handle personal tasks, professional tasks. We do everything except for taxes because not trying to get anybody out-componed. But literally anything that you can delegate, our team can handle. But literally anything that you can delegate, our team can handle.

It's such a perfect name, too. I'm like, got that squared away, whatever it was. And it's truly like all of the things. Morgan, just join the waiting room. OK, Michelle, I am going to put you in the waiting room now so that Morgan doesn't see that you were here when I let you in. OK, after the break, we surprise Morgan. OK, now let's get back to the episode. Hi, Morgan. Hello. How's it going? Good. How are you? Yay. I'm great. I've been thinking so much about you. How have you been doing since we talked last? Good. Good. Trying to keep busy,

make some money, get ready for the wedding. Yes. And did you like listening to your episode? I did. It was kind of weird. I didn't realize I talked so slow. I was like, this is weird. But it was a good episode. And it was cool to hear one of the episodes, like a couple episodes after when they referenced it and like specifically said my name. Like that was so surreal to me. I was like, that's my episode they're talking about. So that was really cool. I love that.

Yeah. I mean, listen, listening to your own voice. I don't wish how much I listened to the sound of my own voice on anybody. It can be a weird thing. So I get that. So what has happened in your finances since then? Okay. So I've gotten my credit card down almost to 17,000. I had taken some of it from my savings, applied it towards my credit card. And then we also got some money from our guests, like as one of our registry gifts that we did was like a newlywed fund. And so we've applied some of that money towards the different costs and stuff for the wedding. So that's been going pretty well. That was really helpful. Amazing. And how has the job situation been?

It's been okay. So I got, I think I've probably mentioned this last time, but I was working on call for a firm in California, which is the same firm that I used to work for before I left. Like when I quit, it was from that firm. And just this past like week and a half, maybe they asked me if I wanted to work part time. So kind of like graduate from on call to part time. And then the rest of the time I'm working still part-time at the sporting goods store. I'm so proud of you. I'm so, so proud of you. Thank you. It was kind of just like weird timing and like perfect timing because now I'm able to take that amount and also apply it.

So I'm really exciting. I feel like it's kind of all coming together at the very last minute, but it is happening. So I'm excited. I'm excited, too. And I think it's all coming together as well. And I believe in magical timing, too, because I don't know if you remember when we chatted about it, I told you about a company that I've worked with for years now called Squared Away that actually hires all military wives all over the country. And the founder and CEO, Michelle, is amazing, a total boss bitch,

and totally gets it. So I wanted to invite her on to introduce you guys. Michelle. Hi. Hi, how are you? Morgan was working part time at a sporting goods store. And the last time we spoke, we were trying to get her finances together. And she didn't really think that making what she used to make before going to North Carolina was possible or that she could be as intellectually motivated or interested as she used to be in her old job. But since then, she's explored some online job prospects as well, it sounds like. I was in Jacksonville. So I am very familiar with Eastern North Carolina and that job market. So it was very challenging for sure. So when I was getting started, we were remote before remote was cool or it was way before the remote sector was

booming like it is now. So there were different things like Fiverr and all the virtual assistant companies that are exploding the way they are now. So I got very lucky with working with the company that I did. Because I think I put in 80 to 100 applications before I actually started looking for a job online. So it was... Everybody was like, Oh, you're trying to find a job online? And I was like, Yeah, because nobody wants to hire me here, apparently. So it was the next best thing for finding a job. Michelle, tell us about the unique challenges that you've seen with your own job prospects and some of the other squared away assistants and how that's changed really their lives and the different places that they've

gone with their husbands. So I'm sure you kind of had the same thing, Morgan, in your experience of applying for jobs is people see that you're a military spouse or they learn that you're a military spouse and they go, oh, you're a military spouse. You're only going to be here for 2 to 4 years or something like that. It's automatically the face they make, even though they try to hide it sometimes. But it's always the elephant in the room. And they always say, Well, we're looking for someone long term. I don't know if this is going to be a good fit for you. I always recommend addressing the elephant in the room. So calling it out immediately and saying, I know I'm a military spouse. And I know that's probably going to be a turnoff. But let me tell you why you should hire me. Yes, I know that I

could potentially only be here for 2 to 4 years. but this is how I can make an amazing impact on your company for the next two to four years. So outlining your skill sets and how you can be an advantage to them, even though you're probably not going to retire with that company, probably. I think what we've seen here too, Morgan, last time we spoke, you felt like the prospects were really bleak and that being a military spouse was a weakness. But, you know, I hope that meeting Michelle shows you that what you perceive as your biggest weakness can actually be your biggest superpower. And there are opportunities and communities that exist for basically everyone and including military spouses. Yeah, absolutely. And if you're ever curious about what applying to work at Squared Away

kind of looks like, it's very straightforward. We ask for a resume and cover letter and ask a few questions about you. And then we do some task-based challenge questions of how you would handle it. And then you would chat with our Director of Operations. Her name is Kelsey. She's my right-hand woman. She's been with me the last 4 years. And then if you make it through chatting with her, then you get a chance to chat one-on-one with me. Morgan, this all started because you raised your hand and you said, hey, I need some help. I need some help with my finances.

And then you and I sort of peeled back the onion. I found out about your very expensive wedding. I found out about these job challenges. But I think, you know, Michelle, has it been your experience that it's easy to stay reclusive and not reach out when you're in this lifestyle? Oh, yeah. I totally wrote the ebook on that one. I am the world's worst for asking for help. But I've also met people that know me enough now to say, okay, Michelle, so I'm going to ask for help. But I've also met people that know me enough now to say, okay, Michelle's not going to ask for help.

So we're just going to do this. Always, always, like I said, reach out to those people around you who know the lifestyle, know what's going on and say, hey, I need help right now. I know it is craziness, but can you help me with X, Y, and Z?

And if you present it to them like that, like nine times out of 10, everybody's going to say, absolutely, girlfriend, I got you. Like I've never been refused help from anybody if I've asked for it and been completely open to needing it. I met one of my best friends because I was literally like, hey, can you help me? And I literally never met her before in my life. And now she's one of my best friends. So don't hesitate to ask for help ever. This makes my heart so happy. I know. Thank you for organizing this. This is really awesome. I know it's been such a pleasure meeting you. I always love meeting new spouses and giving advice because I did not have anybody give me two cents of anything when I met my

husband. So it's always nice. I kind of come from, my dad was in the Marine Corps. So he did 20 years. And so I'm sort of familiar with it um just from what I remember from my childhood and my mom and um growing up I was like I'm never marrying anyone in the military it's not gonna happen and here we are um but I said the exact same thing so yeah here we are it's one of those things that, I mean, I think it all happens for a reason and, um, and it'll all work out in the end. You just kind of have to find your way and find your groove and, um, yeah, it'll, it'll all work out. For today's tip, you can take straight to the bank. If you feel like you're in a similar position to Morgan

and something about your circumstance is making it difficult to get hired, think outside the box. If you are like Morgan and you foresee yourself moving around a lot, research jobs you could do remotely. Or if you're working through another challenge, like dyslexia, for example, research jobs where communication is mostly verbal. If you need a little help brainstorming, see if there's an online community that shares your circumstance and see what job recommendations they have. But remember, like I always say, whatever you consider your biggest

weakness can actually become your biggest strength. Money Rehab is a production of iHeartMedia. I'm your host, Nicole Lappin. Our producers are Morgan Lavoie and Catherine Law. Money Rehab is edited and engineered by Brandon Dickert with help from Josh Fisher. Executive producers are Mangesh Hatikader and Will Pearson. Huge thanks to the OG Money Rehab supervising producer, Michelle Lanz, for her pre-production and development work. And as always, thanks to you for finally investing in yourself so that you can get it together and get it all. money