She's On The Money - FRIDAY DRINKS: Live On Tour - Brisbane

Episode Date: October 20, 2022

Happy Friday, we are celebrating the last stop on our book tour with a very live Friday Drinks from Brisbane! We had an absolute ball on tour for Victoria's new book Investing With She's On The Money and adored meeting all of you who were able to make it.As ever we chat what's been happening in the SOTM-sphere, share your money wins AND speak to a very special guest. Meet Sami Rose, a Registered Counsellor, weight-inclusive personal trainer, and body confidence coach from Brisbane. Her main areas of specialty are in binge eating and body image issues, but she also provides general counselling, helping her clients manage their stress and anxiety, navigate life's hurdles, align more with their values, and live a life that truly allows them to thrive. We know you'll love this chat as much as we did!Acknowledgement of Country By Natarsha Bamblett aka Queen Acknowledgements.The advice shared on She's On The Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's On The Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs. Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN - 321649 27708,AFSL - 451289.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hello, my name is Natasha Nabanunga-Bamblett. I'm a proud Yorta Yorta, Kernai, Wolperi and Awadjeri woman. And before we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land of which this podcast is recorded on Awadjeri country, acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming through. As this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and the storytelling of you to make a difference for today and lasting impact for tomorrow. Let's get into it. She's on the money. She's on the money.

Hello and welcome to She's On The Money, the podcast for millennials who want financial freedom. Welcome back to another one of our Friday drinks episodes where we get to celebrate the community, share our money wins and confessions and have a cheeky little beverage with our friends. Everyone in the audience seems to have a beverage as well, which I think is a 10 out of 10. We're going to have a chance to answer today some of our questions from our community, we're going to chat a little bit about my new book, She's On The Money. And in the second half of this episode slash live show, we are going to be inviting a very special guest, my friend, and also She's On The Money community member, Sammy Rose. But before we get there,

as always, it is time to catch up on the week that was. Miss Jessica Ricci, how are you? I'm really good. How are you? I'm all right. I'm very tired, actually. You know what? It's that default thing of when someone asks you, how are you doing? Like, oh yeah, I'm great. When sometimes you're not. And I am very excited, but I'm very tired. We actually did like a full-blown meditation slash half nap before we came today. It was like 3pm and we had to come to like do set up and pack all of your gorgeous gift bags. And Jess was like, let's go down to the pool. I'm so excited. Like we're staying at this beautiful hotel. We're in Queensland. We don't know what hot weather is. So she wanted

to experience it. And I was like laying on the bed waiting for her to change into her swimmers. And when she came out, she's like, what are you doing? I was like, just having a little power nap. And she's like, do you think we should just have a nap instead of going to the pool? And I was like, yeah, babe, I did a meditation and you took a nap. Okay. So we put a meditation on, it was meant to be 20 minutes of meditation. It was just like an app. I'm obviously not talented enough to run that myself. And the timer went off to be like, now it's time to get up. And I was like, extend, snooze. And Jess is like, get up. So she goes and has a shower and I'm still in bed when she comes back. And she just wasn't that impressed with me. And I get it. I get it. But

I am well rested and very excited for this show. Me too. I feel like we've got to catch up. But something else that's going on a lot and something that we both love talking about, and we had a few beautiful community members backstage with us earlier, and they were also very excited to talk about it was wedding planning. You're in the thick of that now. And I was going through our dms before and someone actually said when's the wedding template coming out and I was like it's coming but it's something that we've been having a lot of fun chatting about in the office and something that we're getting a lot of questions because I guess everybody's getting married not me James hint hint um but I'm gonna tell him to listen to this episode and just this one nothing

else I'll just send him the audio snippet to be honest it's much easier get the point across be real direct but you're in the thick of it right now VD how is it all going there's a reason wedding content hasn't come out yet. And that's because I'm embarrassed of the way I've been marinating my budget. It's really bad. Turns out managing a wedding budget is actually much harder than I had thought it might be. In my role as a financial advisor, I have helped clients through this process and I'm like, oh, it's fine. Just make sure you stick to the budget when they're like, oh, we're a little bit over on florals. I'm like, babe, it's time to get a new quote. Like you need to find somebody else, like sticking to the budget's really important.

and now I'm picking and I'm like no we're not going with any other florist that is the only one I want honey like I don't understand why it's so hard for you to comprehend um so yeah it's going well thanks for asking. Wedding content will be coming but we want to get it right and obviously turns out planning wedding takes up a lot of time and is very busy and then you actually have to get married then you actually go on a honeymoon so probably early 2023 is when that will all be coming out and we have a whole bunch of it planned but this is the last show of the tour should we talk a little bit about 2023 in general because we're we have so much coming up we have so much coming up and it's not like we didn't do enough this year but I genuinely feel

like we didn't do enough this year like we've got so much to go obviously we've got a whole bunch of wedding content coming up for the men in the room like you guys are so lucky and I know you can't wait um for your partners to ask for engagement rings yeah yeah I'm gonna be promoting that but wedding content what else Jess have we got we've got I don't know our beautiful events coordinator Rache is here and I don't know if I'm gonna get in trouble I'm trying to see if I can see her I can't see anybody so if she's angry I'm not gonna know but we are planning she's the one running around making sure everyone's doing their job yeah and she's doing a great job of keeping us in lines like herding cattle sometimes we're just really difficult but we are planning at the moment

for International Women's Day which is very exciting if you guys remember last year yeah No, they do because we didn't give them an event last year, Jessica. This is our first time in Brisbane. We didn't even mention that. Which is very exciting. Yeah, everyone's like, ah. Well, I get married, no one claps. I come to Brisbane, everyone's like, woohoo.

Like, all right, get your priorities straight. But you'll be happy to know that Brisbane is looking like it will be on the list. We are so excited to be out here for the first time. And I mean, if the crowd is anything like it's been so far, I don't see how we can't come. 10 out of 10. And it's much better because it's mainly not me talking at International Women's Day. You get actually good guests.

Like it's not just podcast content. I'm a good guest. Yeah. Like, but you're not really a guest, are you? Like you are half the show, aren't you? Well, I mean, I guess we need to put it like that. But no, so there's that coming up. We're planning a lot of really fun podcast content.

we're working on bringing back a show as well that a lot of people might remember and love called the property playbook which is very fun which to butt in here jess is obviously very excited about because she's now the entire host of that show like she has her own show guys that's worthy of celebration you guys are really nice to me um but yeah as someone who is literally trying and currently failing to buy a house, I'm very excited. We have some great guests for that season. It is such a good show and we have, I mean, not to just plug it all, but while I'm here, why not? We have a really good Facebook group. We have an Instagram and I know that a lot of people are on kind of the same journey that I am right now. So if you're having a hard time looking for a property

or if you just bought a property or if you're thinking about buying a property or if you don't even like property at all, but you like me, that's a good one. Come and join those groups and keep an out because that podcast will be coming back and I am super duper pumped about it. I'm super excited about that second half of the year. I think we're bringing back the business Bible, but I'm going to make no promises on that because that's not Jess's priority. She's like, no, I don't care about that. You work that one out. So that will be back. Obviously we are probably going to try and push a lot more book content. And when it comes to International Women's Day, I am, I'm just excited for that because it's such an engaging event. I know you guys didn't get to, you know, enjoy it

last year but to be able to bring it to a new state for us like I know that we're on a very shiny stage at the moment so it probably looks like we're a bigger business than we are but like we are a very small team like in the she's on the money team there is just five of us because to be honest that's all I can afford to have on payroll at this point in time and the idea of you know getting everybody up to Brisbane and doing the events like events are you know arguably very expensive but like I'm so proud of the team to get to a point where we're like okay we're probably going to do Brisbane. And there's a possibility of Perth if we can make it all work out. Like that to me is insane because even doing events a couple of years ago was an absolute pipe

dream. And now we get to see all of you. And as much as this podcast recording is so fun, my favorite part is after the recording when we get to all hang out and we're all sharing a drink and I get to potentially sign your books if you want me to sign your books. And all right, woo girl I get to sign your books but I also get to like talk to you about your money wins and confessions so please come up and tell me them like it makes my heart so insanely happy Jess should we get into money wins and confessions let's do it let's do it all right it's time for our budget direct money wins and confessions of the week Miss Jessica Ricci what have you got for us my first win is from Kieran who said I'd been looking at this fancy Pat McGrath makeup palette

at sephora for a few months and saved up then sephora had a sale so i got 20 off plus i used the money i had in my shop back account to buy a 40 sephora voucher so a 210 makeup palette came down to 128 which was the exact amount that i had in my splurge account and i feel like if that's not the universe saying buy the palette i don't know what it is the pat mcgrath palettes like nobody nobody else is going to care about the mcgrath did i say mcgrath i mean that's cute thank you yeah are you serious pat mcgrath is not in our audience are you joking what i was like are you shitting me i was like babe they're really expensive why are you at the back what is going on but they're really good and they're really expensive so that's actually a

money win anyway someone's excited not just pat mcgrath all right moving on i was like low-key like get get her talk to her sponsorship opportunity right there if anyone does know pat mcgrath deets right here like just slide on into my dms i will accept it in 0.2 seconds all right i have one not as exciting as a makeup palette but i feel like i picked this one because it was about the gold coast i don't know if anyone goes on holiday to the gold coast if you live here i feel like do we do that no that's where the tourists yeah but i've got a money win about the Gold Coast. Anyway, this is from our friend Melissa. She says, I went on holiday to the Gold Coast and I wanted theme park passes. I checked with my RAC membership and instead of paying $169

per ticket, we got to pay $145 per ticket, which meant that she got ice cream and drinks there basically in her books for free, which is an absolute money win. She also took packed lunches, which meant they didn't spend any more than they had originally budgeted. I really like that. is everybody ready for me to change your view of Victoria Devine forever? We obviously, yeah, I know because we came up, we're obviously so close to the Goldie. I personally haven't been up here since a family holiday like 15 years ago. And I was very excited because we were in really close proximity to the theme parks. And I said, oh my gosh, can we go to a theme park? Because that's what you do on a work trip. Jessica Ricci is a Disney adult. So that comment made a lot of

sense and Victoria said to me I don't really like theme parks and I was like what do you mean you don't like who I don't think I've ever in my life met somebody who said they didn't like theme parks theme parks suck like they they are I know we're talking probably to the wrong ground here but they are full of small children who are screeching people who don't know how to walk in a straight line and people who walk insanely slow overpriced cold chips ice creams that are melted and rides that make me nearly poop my pants like I just have no interest in this like sounds like a great day out to me sounds like a terrible day out we um just sidetracking this for a hot second we just got back from the US we went to FinCon which I was so excited about um the woo

I think came from the girls I went with from My Millennial Money because no one else in this room is excited about content like that but I was so excited to go and I said to Jess like let's go to FinCon she's like one what is FinCon explained it it's a finance content creators conference like so exciting and Jess is like oh so we're like you know let's just budget this properly so like maybe you go and then if it's good next year I'll go like she was trying to get out of it and I was like oh okay no worries well Disney World's there she's like oh my gosh I'll look at flights it's all good it's all good I'll come I'll come so yeah like you're through and through theme park person but I genuinely can't think of anything worse and when I have children I will

literally not tell them that theme parks exist like they'll be like oh my god Disney I'll be like yeah they're just movies like done done it's a make-believe place that doesn't exist oh my gosh maybe that's a future money win for you and a life loss for your children you know what I hope you're still around because you can take them. Auntie Jess will be the fun auntie. Let me tell you my next money win though. It comes from Laura and she said, money win. I've been waiting for Shopback to have an upsized cashback with the company I'm planning on getting my wedding invitations from. More wedding content, you're welcome. She said, so today I was checking and there was an upsized cashback and the website was having a sale. So I got all of my wedding

stationery ordered for under $100 plus I got 10.5% cash back. Am I insane for going $100 seems like a lot of money for letters, like to invite people? Everyone's like, girl, you've got no idea. I can hear it in the audience. You can tell that I'm not engaged or married. Yeah, no, no. So that was another thing that I didn't budget for properly. I thought stationery was going to be like office works prices like that's where you get stationery and I run a business so I buy stationery so I clearly know what stationery costs right no no no no wedding stationery is very expensive it's why half of my invitations became emails yeah yeah I was like you can have one thing and one thing only and it will be the RSVP card and it'll be in an extra small envelope and we are done and I will

give you a copy if you want it like I'll print one off my printer but otherwise here's this email see that's how you RSVP'd to my wedding right like you got you saved a date in the mail and you're like wow that's a nice email I thought it was really good guys environmentally friendly yeah exactly it was for the environment I have a money win it is from our friend Rachel and she says so I've been really trying hard to pay off my buy now pay later services because I know that they are so detrimental to my future financial freedom and I'm a bit of an impulse buyer but I'm really conscious with my spending now. Anyway, I finally paid off a buy now, pay later service with a big four bank. And as I went to close the account with the contact center, I was advised

that I'd actually overpaid by $306. So my money win was not only did I finally pay it all off and close the account for good, I mistakenly also saved or overpaid $306, which is now going straight into my savings. I love that. I think that's a good money win. My favorite part is when you said $306, like a few people like, oh, like I really, some people are enjoying that one. Girlfriend, 300 bucks, like you're halfway to buying some stationery for a wedding. Like that's a lot of money. That is a lot of money. It has been great celebrating some of your Budget Direct money wins. Budget Direct winner of CanStars Insurer of the Year Award 2022 Budget Direct Insurance Solve. I should put you on the commercial just for that finger gun

because I feel like if anything's going to sell insurance. I hope someone got that on camera because I'm going to send it to them. We're getting into talking all about the reason that everybody is here, which is investing, which is very fun. If you had said to me that I would be spending a Saturday night in a room full of people to talk about investing a couple of years ago, the response you got from me is something that I can't say on this podcast because we don't swear. no do you know why we don't swear it's not because we don't swear in person because we definitely do it's actually so that we can write our podcast as not explicit which means it'll be like rank higher so you can play it in the car with your children and not bite my head off it's really good it's

really good but we learned that early on and now I sound far more articulate than I actually am and people like wow you're so classy and I'm like that that's my editor he makes me sound so good we have a few questions that were asked here and I know that we're pushing our time so I might just pick the one that I think most people in this room probably can relate to or probably at some point have wondered if they've started their investment journey and that is once you have started investing it's a very exciting step what is the best way to track your progress because I know that for me sometimes I look at people you know when we talk to our money diarists for example and I hear people say one of our recent diarists was like I have two hundred thousand dollars in

super and somebody else has a $50,000 portfolio. And I'm like, my spaceship has some hundreds in it and that's okay. And it's kind of in the red right now. And it can be hard firstly to track my personal progress, but also I guess, comparing where I'm at personally to where people who started before me or after me or whatever that might look like where they are now. So how do we track that? So I guess both ourselves, but also from a handy admin point of view as well. so I think you hit the nail on the head accidentally when you said track my progress like you are tracking your own progress you're not looking at what your friend did you're not looking at what you know the guy down the road did or the influencer that is selling you bitcoin

on instagram is doing I think definitely don't look at them yeah don't look at them don't look at our instagram comments either I swear someone has a lot of money to be paying those bots to do what they do. Like if you know them, let me know. Cause I would love to have that type of promotion for she's on the money. Can you imagine like every single post someone else did? I invested with she's on the money. Like that would be sick. Anyway, I digress. So it's about tracking your own progress. It's not about tracking somebody else's. I think comparison is absolutely the thief of all joy, but it's about actually setting clear goals and remembering that progress is important, but it's not essential. Sometimes life happens and it doesn't mean that we have to be at a certain

point. And by consistently rechecking with that goal and going, does that actually still make sense to me? Like if you were saving for your first home and then you started listening to She's On The Money and The Property Playbook and you're like, wait, I don't even want to own property. And then you're comparing yourself to that goal in the future. Like that makes no sense because it's no longer aligned to your values. So I think we need to, one, have really clean, clear goals. Jess, in my first book, how wanky, I love it. In my first book, I talked about, you know, setting SMART goals and I summarized those down to the SOTM goals because SMART was just too long for me. Also, it was way more on brand. So we summarized it down, but having

trackable, clear, articulated goals that make sense, not just goals that are like, oh, I'd love to save for a house. And then I asked someone, what are you doing for that? They're like, oh, I've just got a savings account, putting my savings in there. Like how much, when, where, why, what's our goal? What's our goal date? How does that work? How do I help you track that progress? I think is really important, but it's also about not just hoping you get to the end. It's about celebrating the small successes and celebrating as we go along because small progress is progress and it's brilliant and it's beautiful. And I think even if you're not making progress, that is progress in itself if you're able to identify it and say all right like I'm probably

not saving what I thought I would let's go back to the drawing board let's redo our budget and our cash flow and actually sit down and work out what that means because just because you're not meeting that goal means you're failing at it it just means there's something else happening that you need to identify and that's cool we just need to work it out if it means that you're going out a little bit too often and blowing your savings like maybe you want to have a chat about maybe pushing that goal off because you really enjoyed that and didn't prioritize it enough at the start. So I think it's really about prioritizing you and your values and your goals and tracking only based on past you. Because if you start looking at what everybody else is going to do

or is doing, you're going to end up in a little bit of a pickle, but you're never going to feel good about yourself. You're never going to feel good about your goals if you're comparing like for like. Sounds pretty good to me. That'll edit upgrade. Let's go to a break because I think we just need to cut me off here. Don't go too far. And we'll be definitely grab a drink because we're going to be having a drink in the second half too. Hello, my friends, we are back and I am so excited for this. Jess, do you want to introduce who we're going to be hanging out with for the remainder of the evening? Oh my gosh. Yes. I feel like we're besties and a little fun inside scoop is you might have actually heard her on the podcast before without knowing, but tonight we have

the beautiful Sammy Rose, who is a registered counselor. She's a weight inclusive personal trainer and a body confidence coach from Brisbane. Her main areas of specialty are in binge eating and body image issues, but she also provides general counseling, helping her clients manage their stress, their anxiety, navigating life's hurdles, aligning more with their values and living a life that truly allows them to thrive. Let's give a really warm welcome to Sammy Rose. Hello, my love. Hi, I'm so excited. I've done many podcasts, but never a whole stage thing. So this is very exciting. You've got your own fancy chair. I got kicked off the fancy chair so she could have the fancy chair. I love it. Thanks. I tried to ask for it, but they kept

saying no. Oh, now I feel bad. No, that is fine. Thank you so much for joining us for our live podcast recording. I am so excited. I asked for permission to share this backstage because in the very first season, has anybody listened to the first season or are we all just newbies? We've listened to the first season. So do we remember the money diary about the influencer? Yeah, it was Sammy. I was influencer 33. It was such a good money diary, but you have grown and changed and kicked all of these goals since then. And we're not only going to ask about that, but we're also going to ask about your job, your investing journey, and each and every single thing in between that fits within the half an hour allocated slot that I have been given. We can talk about it after,

but let's start. I'm very excited to have you. As always, when we have a guest on the show, we always ask them, do you have a money win or confession you want to share with us? I do. And I'm actually really excited to tell you this one. So I have been hustling for a really long time. I bought a house last year, which is a money win in itself, but I've been working really hard to get my little emergency fund up and going because I've been wanting to invest, but we know the rules. You've got to get your emergency fund in a good place first. And I literally hit my goal yesterday and I was like hey serendipitous thanks so I'm stoked so I'm like what great timing for the book because now I can get my shit together and I can actually invest

that's so exciting so it's all gonna happen yesterday and you saved that to literally share on stage I'm very excited I feel like that deserves another round of applause because emergency funds are the best now Sammy we obviously just read out your very impressive bio but I wanted you to kind of take us all through in your own words a little bit more about what you do because like you said you've changed and grown so much since you were on the podcast and you've been doing some amazing things so tell us all about it. Yeah my business has changed a lot I've been a sole trader since 2015 so working completely for myself which is crazy to me I never even thought I would be a business owner let alone a successful one kind

of doing my own thing for so long but I started in personal training and online coaching and over the last few years I've really changed away from the whole like eight-week challenges and all of those things into I'm now a registered counselor I'm focusing on more body image eating issues all of those kinds of things so my niche has changed a lot which means my sort of reach in terms of clients has also changed but it's really grown into a business that I'm so passionate about and I feel so fulfilled by it's something that is like such a personal passion to me as well as like I just you know when you have a job that you're like this is my job like I get paid to do something that makes me feel so great yeah I actually get it it's wild so it's such a blessing so yeah that's

what I do I kind of split my time between counseling and I still do some health and fitness coaching but from a quite a different perspective I guess to what I used to do it's much more about kind of balance and enjoying things and aligning with your values so yeah that's kind of that's what I do I love it I want to change back the gears straight back to money because I love it. And I want to know, can you describe to us what your current relationship with money looks like and maybe explain a little bit about how that's changed over the last three years since you were on our podcast? Yeah, I guess my relationship with money is ever-changing. I am anxious by nature and by diagnosis. But for me, I am someone who definitely I worry about the

inconsistency of running your own business in something that is not the exact same income every single week so I get very worried I have to make sure I have all this nest egg so I've always been that way I'm the eldest of six kids as well so I've been raised in a home that was very thrifty very careful with things you know we had what we needed but we didn't always have a lot of money to spare so I think I still live my life in that way a lot of the time as well so yeah running my own business is sometimes a little challenging from that mindset perspective of feeling stable but I do have my income kind of split across a few different income streams now which is really nice so I have one side of my business one hat that I wear is my counseling hat I have some

coaching clients as well so they're kind of 50 50 in terms of the main income for me in how I split my time but I also have some passive income I have some ebooks and things through my website do a little bit of influencing work but not not a lot of paid influencing work because I would rather advertise my own business and make more money that way but yeah it's kind of nice to have a few different little streams for me um that just helps keep things moving forward I guess how did you start with different income streams I feel like so many of us just have one and then we're like two where's two gonna come from and you're like I just have so many different income streams like that's not relatable content how do we do that I feel like I'm one of those you know

those jugglers on a unicycle that's like also juggling plates that's that's me at all times but um I guess yeah I started with the one I was doing the health and fitness coaching then I branched out service-wise so they're still technically under the same business I just kind of have two different sets of clients I guess throughout the week but yeah the passive income was something that was just I was just following the demand I was growing in terms of social media I was having a lot more client inquiries than what I could physically keep up with and I wanted to be able to help people and I couldn't do all of that work one-on-one so I guess it was a great problem to have in that I just wanted to find a way to help more people and put great content out there

and really help the people that couldn't access me either that I didn't have the time or they didn't have the money to invest in one-on-one with me so yeah that just kind of naturally happened I feel like that's kind of my life story a lot of the time that I just I work behind the scenes and then good things happen to fall in my lap and it's such a blessing and it's such a privilege to have that but I don't want to give it all to luck because I do work my butt off for it. How do you find navigating the health and wellness space because that's a space I think historically that has been a little bit challenging and a little bit capitalized on almost at times in a way that is maybe not putting people first and you know when we were talking earlier you're so

passionate about people and about them being looked after and about them being provided the right tools and the right resources, which isn't necessarily, unfortunately, always the case in that industry. What does that look like for you in terms of, you know, navigating, I guess, that responsibility that's on you alongside your own personal passion for people? That is a great question. And that's really why I've changed my business so much over the last few years. Like I said, I really started out doing the whole like eight week challenges, a lot of fat loss stuff and it was very very profitable for a good period of my business that I was making a lot of money and that was what I was personally into as well at the time but

I've kind of been on my own journey over the last few years and kind of found my own balance and sustainable approach and really incorporated a lot more mental health into the work that I do obviously now that I've got my you know counseling skills as well so I can see where there were kind of things that I was doing previously that I didn't really know necessarily were problematic at the time, but that are things that I just don't feel aligned with who I am and kind of how I want to influence people now. So I've really kind of redirected my business into making sure that I'm focusing on a whole person approach and what are people's values and what are the other things in their life that are really important that maybe previously they were, you know, foregoing things

like going out for dinner with friends and having a social life and all of those things in order to like chase their goals as quickly as possible. And now it's really about, well, what is important to you? And can we find a way to kind of juggle all of that and not just achieve your health and fitness goals or your mindset goals or whatever it is, but also enjoy the process and enjoy life while you're doing that. Yeah. Amazing. Back to money, because I can see you raring to talk about investing. Oh, I want to know more about that. You hinted at this before, but do you currently invest? And if so, how are you doing that? I don't yet, but now I'm in a good place where I guess yesterday. So I'm like cheering on the inside because this book is like perfect timing. I'm

sure you guys are feeling the same. I'm not a huge risk taker. So I've always been really nervous. And I was like, I just need this nest egg. I just need this emergency fund. And then I can stop and breathe. And now I think I'll, I'll probably start with like, you know, micro investing, maybe a little app or something just to you know the little roundup of my coffee just to dip my toe in the water but it's one of those things that I think like I'm sure a lot of you guys feel the same if it's just really foreign a lot of the time and and the overwhelming information can feel like a lot but I think when you start small and just kind of get comfortable and work your way up that tends to be the easiest way to get into literally any kind of goal so at least you know I can keep

following along with your tips and hopefully get in there very soon. I feel like you've been really good at following our tips like since the last time we literally spoke on the pod you're like so yeah I bought a house and I have an emergency fund and I've done all this stuff and like that's epic I told you I'm an OG follower I've been listening for you I know because like I literally was like will you be on the fifth episode of my podcast and we don't even know if this is going to be any good but please be on it and you were like yes queen I love it but I want to ask more about I guess the investing side of things and you know your comfort levels because you've obviously got a best friend who's a financial advisor and you're just going to start with micro investing

but that's a whole other thing but you're in this circumstance where you're like I want to start investing but it still feels overwhelming like where do you think you're actually going to start like is there a monetary value that you're like oh I'm just going to do a couple of dollars a week or are you going to pick a platform and dump some cash on it like have you thought about strategy when it comes to investing? I haven't thought about it a lot because literally it's been one day. Give me a minute. It's all I think about. I have been thinking about it though. And I think I probably want to kind of set myself a number goal, maybe like a 500 to a thousand dollars. Cause I feel like if something went wrong, that's a money amount that I, I think I could afford to

lose and not die. But you know, that's probably the most that I'd probably want to jump into straight away. So, um, yeah, I'm not a hundred percent sure if I want to do what's that bucket thing, you know, the bucket ETFs. Yeah. I've been listening. I've been picking things up along the way, but I haven't locked anything in yet. So I think I just want to kind of get a feel for things like where I get lost is just, how do you know what's good? You know, how do you know what you actually choose when it is something that you're making that choice? That's what overwhelms me. And I'm like, what if I pick wrong? Anxiety, you know, I have to really have a think about it. And there's so many what ifs in my head. So I think, yeah, I just need to do a little bit, a little

bit more learning a little bit more reading the book I feel like you'll tell me in the book yeah I actually have a couple of book recommendations if you'd like yeah I think you might help I can help I want to know so you said that you haven't started have you invested historically I feel like you've invested in business you've invested in a number of things so I want to know about that history yeah I invest in myself definitely in my business and I I try and make sure that I am putting money aside to like reinvest in my business in terms of planning for future growth so that's really important I do have my super fund that you know I put a little bit into to make sure that that's kind of growing in the background but really like the last few years

have been so focused on buying my house and I figure that's a pretty good investment and hopefully that's going to make me some money in the long run because I'm putting my own little tweaks on things I don't know if you guys have seen I'm doing lots of I'm a big like DIY make things look really cute in my own house and not pay people to do it so I'm doing a lot of my own little kind of aesthetic renovations don't like I'm not knocking out walls or anything like that don't worry I want to know very aesthetic I was about to I just I don't know if you guys saw me like shoot around to Jess and I was like can we this is my time to show oh my gosh I love anyone who listens now I love a good DIY the DIY space what kind of projects have you tackled

because I feel like as we've kind of spoken about buying houses very expensive and something that a lot of us want to do getting projects done by yourself labor makes up such a significant part of the cost of changing a home or of renovating if you can do things yourself that's a really great place to save money what kind of projects have you done and do you have like a ballpark on like how much cash you've kind of saved by doing that my biggest project that I've done so far is my pool area I have a pool which feels very fancy this is a lot cheaper here compared to like Melbourne listeners if you're listening to the podcast it's not the same but the second she said out the back she was like yeah and the house has a pool do you want to see my pool area I was like

this is not relatable babe like that that's a pool she's like oh here's how much I paid and I was like what Jess do you want to move to Korean slant like I could afford I could afford way bigger house like at the moment the house I've bought is in a good area but when I have kids they're definitely getting like a triple stacker bunk bed like that's where we're at and I'm just not willing to compromise you'll have to move them up here at some point it's much more affordable better everything better more exciting people like what you're not wrong yeah so that's been my most recent project is like it was just like concrete right just pretty boring like I'm still cute but it was just like plain concrete and it kept getting really dirty from like the rain was

getting ingrained in the concrete it was really irked me and I was like oh I really want to get it tiled but that's so expensive and like you have to pay so I don't know how to do that like that's that's a whole thing you do though well so I DIY'd it and I got concrete paint and I got this like stencil thing and so it's like it looks tiled now from afar but I actually have painted it on in this really durable concrete paint I put this little like cinder block stack that I have like cactuses in now and it is a whole vibe and the whole thing cost me maybe $600 all up for everything but it was so fun as well to do it myself, to spend that time. It's not perfect. It's one of those like Monet situations. If you look too close, like the lines of the stencil are not perfect,

but it is like, I'm so obsessed with it. So little things like that, cosmetic, don't give me a power tool that I'll pay someone to do. But if it's cute, if it's paint, if it's just cosmetic, I like to do it myself. See, that's where you and Jessica Ricci are very different. She will take a power tool. She will do it. Sometimes I shouldn't have access to the power tool, but I'll give it crack anyway it's wild sometimes I'll say in the office like oh my gosh imagine if we had and just like I could do it I'm like baby you don't have a drop saw she's like I do though like I do that I'm like where do you keep this stuff she's like I'll just go home and I'll cut it up I'm like hell like she's honestly terrifying we've been talking wedding content in the office and I'm

like oh I'd really like this particular you know you know how like brides and like I'm gonna be one so this sounds really hypocritical have those aesthetic pajamas when they like get ready in the morning, right? They're really expensive just so I could make them. I'm like, what? I'm like, oh, I really want this particular like style. I don't think it exists just like I'll do it. Like I'll get it done. I'm like, what is this? I'm going to let you do it because weddings are really expensive. So that can be my wedding present. Jez's DIY labor. I love it. I love that though. I think it's so satisfying to do things yourself to take. I think that's one thing that I got from my mom. She was very, very savvy. You have to be when you have six

kids right like I don't even know how she pulled that off she is like a superwoman but we always had you know at least the basics of what we needed and we did dancing and we had costumes and she would teach us how to sequin our own costumes and so from the get-go I've just I've learned those skills over time of of the things that we can do ourselves that we're not gonna kill anything like obviously like I'm not I'm not gonna do anything really important myself that I really don't know how to do but I want to borrow her drop saw you can come and help me if I ever need a wall knocked out I know who to call but I just I think there's such like pleasure and joy and like pride that comes from like creating a project being able to do it yourself even if it's not perfect like I

look at my little pool area and I'm like a proud that I even have a home to begin with b I have a pool like that is freaking sick but like the fact that I did that myself just feels like such a beautiful personal touch it's like I look at it and I'm like I see that labor of love and it took me probably like 20 to 25 hours all up over the course of a couple of like months worth of weekends but it just feels so good to know that I did that myself that I saved that money but also like it was just really fun that makes it like absolutely okay that you're like it's not perfect because it's mine and I love it and you know what you can do you can just hand all of the guests that come to your house to use the pool a glass of champagne before they go out they're not going to notice

they will not see it honestly it will be fine plus I'm setting myself up for success here next time I go to Sammy's house I'm going to get a champagne this is genius yeah this is genius you talk a lot about investing in yourself in the content that you create which I obviously adore and I think you've done a lot of especially in recent years you I feel like watching you online you've morphed into this person that I'm just like, I was proud of her before, but I now just want to be around you all the time. Can you give us some tips? Like we want to be more like you. How do we invest more in ourselves in a way that, you know, doesn't cost thousands of dollars? Because I was talking in Melbourne about Pilates and how much I want to do more of it, but I just can't justify how much

it costs. And I feel like sometimes influences turn around. They're like, so the best way to invest in yourself is to do a $60 Pilates class and then get a $12 green smoothie like it's just it's not a vibe like it's just not a vibe like as I said before I'm gonna put a free app on my phone and have a nap like that's my vibe what are you doing I do Pilates but straight under the bus I am an influencer it is a collaboration so I don't pay for it oh that's a money win you should have said that you should have said at the start saving my emergency fund free pilates also why haven't you hooked me up that is a blessing that is i'm not big enough guys it's one of my few collaborations that i take i'm like i will accept

that one because that's like you don't even have to pay me just keep giving me free stuff sign me up no i think like when it comes to investing in yourself honestly it really is the same as when you're investing money it's when you think about people that are trying to like go all out with their savings and I'm not going to buy any clothes and I'm not going to dinner for the next six months so I can save as much as possible and it's like yeah cool but how long can you really do that for and what do you have to sacrifice in order to do that are you going to be miserable in the process and if you're trying to save money in order to have a comfortable life and be happy well like why do you want to make yourself miserable for six plus months trying to do that

and not have any kind of joy in life so you know flip it make it really small do it like it's micro-investing. Do it like it's a little round up your coffee and just what are some small things that I can do that will help me look after my health, my wellbeing, my mindset, whatever it might be that you're trying to work towards. But don't try to go zero to a hundred and change everything all at once. Think about what am I doing and what can I just do 10% better this week? Is it that I just set a little water goal or if I don't have time to go to the gym five times a week, like what is realistic for me and the budget of my time that I have? is it better that I plan to do just you know two or three 20 minute workouts and be happy with that

because that's still going to get me a lot further along it's like saying oh sorry I'm not going to put aside ten dollars a week because that's not enough but that's ten dollars a week that you didn't have before so it's the exact same thing with your time figure out what you actually have to give what's realistic for you to do consistently without like throwing your entire life away in order to do it small sacrifices are worth it but big sacrifices that make you hate life I know about you guys but I don't sign myself up for that no not at all I want to talk about the free pilates for a second because the second you said that I could feel a few people in the room go oh and I think it's a really interesting thing because I also want free pilates not even because that you

guys heard us before do our budget direct money wins you know that we will work with sponsors occasionally who really align to our values and brands that we really love. And I want to get your thoughts as someone who does work in the influencing space. I feel like there is sometimes a really big stigma around sponsorship and around partnerships. And I think it's interesting because it seems like for people who work in the advertising world or people who've worked in marketing, I don't know if anyone here has ever worked in that space before, but I feel like sometimes we view it in a different way to the everyday person and I can totally see how when you have somebody who's promoting something different every day or promoting conflicting

things or you know doing things all the time and shoving it in your face I can understand I as a consumer find that frustrating as well but I feel like it's an interesting conversation to have around you know the internalized I don't want to say misogyny because it's not the right word but the internalized perception perception exactly of women working hard and getting that back basically because if you're working with a brand you just said you love pilates and it's so good for your mental health and it's something you're really passionate about why shouldn't you be working with them and producing great content because it takes a lot of time to do that like do you feel like there's a little bit of a barrier or a misunderstanding sometimes around that kind

of work yeah definitely I never introduced myself as an influencer I don't really consider myself one anyway because that's like the tiniest fraction of what I do when I majority of what I'm on social media for is to advertise my business you influence me so much you're an influencer bye thanks okay all right I'll take it um but you know I'm very picky with my collaborations because I like I said before I want to spend my time on social media talking about my business and generate you know leads that will help me actually profit more than just kind of lining someone else's pockets and I'm not someone that like I just want to kind of sell anything to anyone and and not be authentic so I'm like I know everyone says oh I only advertise things I know

and love but I really do like I'm very very picky I have only a small handful of like ongoing partnerships and when I have kind of once-off collabs and things like that it's would I actually pay for this and like will I show up and do this thing or use this product or whatever it is and if the answer is yes then I'll consider it but like the amount of things that I say no to are like 20 times the amount of things that I say yes to purely because a I don't want to spend the time advertising other things like I'm not so broke that I couldn't pay for things myself if someone offers me like I don't know some something that I don't care about I'm like I could pay for it myself if I really wanted it that badly. So, you know, Pilates kind of fell into my lap. I was like,

you know what? I actually really want to do Pilates. Yeah. It's really costly. I have to actually show up and do the classes. It's not a paid collaboration. It's like a gifted 10 pack or something. So I have to actually show up and use the passes in order to make this mutually beneficial. So if I'm not going to use it and I'm not going to enjoy it, then it wouldn't be worth it anyway. So those are the kind of partnerships that I take on. And I, like I said, I'm really choosy with it because I have built this really wonderful like community with my following they do trust me and I do have such a great back and forth with so many people that follow me and I answer every single DM that's in my inbox and I don't want to just be spruiking things that I

actually don't care about because that just doesn't feel good to me so I only talk about things that I really love and I've always been that way there's probably been things here and there that in hindsight, I'm like, I probably could have gone without doing that. But the last few years in particular, I've really cut back. And if you see anything that is like gifted, collaboration, paid sponsorship, anything like that on my socials, it's because I would like scream from the rooftop how much I love that brand or that they align with my values or whatever it is. I'm very, very similar. I get the ick when I see content that I'm like, you don't use that. I recently just did a collaboration. This is so sick, right? With Bumble. But I was like, yes,

because I love dating apps. I think this is sick. I think healthy relationship conversations should be had. Let's talk about money and dating. Like this makes sense to me. But the amount of people that approach you and you're like, what? How did you even get my profile? This makes no sense for either of us. It gives me the ick, but I think it's, I think it's important to support it as well because, you know, you hear us doing our budget direct money wins and conversions. And at the end of the day, that's what's paying to get my team to you guys. That's what's putting the content on board. Like we're not, you know, as she's on the money and I'm sure you're exactly the same, like that's the content that is keeping my entire team employed, not just employed,

but employed at wages that I'm really proud of as a small business. And I get to look after them and enjoy their company but also they get to invest in my business like this is so much bigger than what I think people think it is and do you know what's most disappointing complete sidetrack is like you do this content and I'll post like a picture of my dog and it gets 50 billion likes and then I like post my sponsored content and like I get one like and I'm like please just support my stuff like that's what's paying for the dog guys no you're so right though and I think the one thing that makes me feel okay with doing any kind of collaborations is that I give so much free content I do Instagram captions and I do stories all the time and I do TikToks that take a really long time

to film and I have a newsletter and a blog and I have all this stuff that I give for free and that takes time and that takes time away from where I could be spending that one-on-one time with clients that would be paying me money so that's kind of how I guess like I've made peace with that if I do you know a collaboration or a paid partnership here and there that really helps me kind of transactionally justify the time that I'm putting into social media which yes helps me with lead generation anyway but I would probably say I do maybe eight to ten hours a week at least specifically on social media stuff so doing my you know infographics in Canva posting drafting captions replying to every single DM doing stories all of the time it's a lot of time and that's I'm

not even an actual influencer in terms of like, that's my, you know, business or a valid income stream. The people that do this full time, like it's not as easy as like, look, there's a whole thing going on at the moment. I don't know if you guys have seen the TikTok drama. You're going to get cancelled. Someone's going to take a snippet from this and be like, do you know how hard it is to be an influencer? There are far harder jobs. Absolutely. But I think people have this impression that you know influencing or being a content creator is like easy and it's just you just get given all this stuff and you have to take a quick photo like there there actually is a lot more time behind it especially you know in accounts like ours where we are very community-based it's not

just post the photo and leave and someone does it for you it's you have to create that trust you have to have those conversations you do have to reply to all of the dms you have to be thoughtful about your captions and you know for me like this is a way that i can reach a broader amount of people and genuinely make a difference and that makes me feel really good and really proud that I have a platform that people care what I have to say like that just blows my mind that I wake up and I post my silly little Instagram caption and like people tell me like oh wow that's like blown my mind or my life is better because of this one thing that you said and that like gets me so emotional sometimes. I find it so interesting because if you go back like five or six years

obviously I did not have any kind of profile and nobody would have paid me to make content like no chance like my old Instagram there's a reason it's blocked and deleted like it was it was embarrassing I was using those like inbuilt filters and stuff just one out of ten will not recommend I was also using like smiley faces and being like hanging out with the gals like ew anyway I feel like it's real pervy because obviously most people don't experience that side of it it's not to say it's hard but Jess this is a question for you what does a brand like you know if we're doing one sponsored Instagram post what's that process look like because I feel like people want to know oh well actually I was going to say before when you said people don't realize

how much time it takes my full-time job revolves around content like you pay me to do that every day I think there's a lot involved behind the scenes that you you know sometimes you're oh it's like a peach thing with some text on it like how much time could that actually take you but I mean for us personally you start conceptualizing it and you go okay what are we talking about what's sometimes it's responsive to something in the media we get a lot of people dming us saying can you talk about this thing that I've seen can you talk about this new product can you talk about the implications of these changes and we view that as a kind of a big part of what we do is to educate and to help people understand those things so we go okay concept what is it and then

you go, how complicated is that concept? Because the whole point is that we want people to be able to understand things easily, right? So then you're taking time, I guess, breaking that concept down and making it a bit more digestible, hopefully making it a bit fun and interesting. So then you have this concept that's become this kind of more simplistic version of itself. And from there you go, okay, well, how do I represent that in a way that's visually engaging? And that's the design. and you have to put that together, whether it's shooting a photo, which involves, you know, getting props or setting it up and doing lighting. And it's a whole thing, or it's a text post or something that you design and then it's graphics and text and making sure that the contrast is

right and making sure that it's appealing and making sure that it fits in. And there are all of these, I guess, little working parts in the background that go into it. And then once that's done, there's the copy and it's, you know, what are the actual words? How are we communicating? What are we saying? And right now I feel like I'm just spewing words out. And sometimes when I'm writing captions, that's how I feel. So you write the caption, you go, oh my God, no one's going to read that. So you have to go back and you have to like edit it all down and you take out all the extra exclamation marks because I overuse exclamation marks. I get in trouble for it. And so it's like paring it back. So sometimes you do all of this work and you go, oh shit,

like I've got to like take half of that work out to make it digestible, to make it interesting, to make it consumable because everybody moves so quickly. You know, videos can be seven seconds and people go, that's too long. But seven seconds is not a lot of time to be able to explain this big overarching concept that we started with and broke down and then wrote. And so the whole time that you're doing all of these things, you're thinking about, is this doing its job? Is this piece of content helping somebody? Is this piece of content making somebody feel good? Is this piece of content leaving the world? I guess it's very dramatic, but like making an impression or leaving my page or my follower in a better position than they were before they saw that

piece of content and it's a lot of moving parts and I can totally see how you go oh someone just like picks up a phone and goes product but it's really not that simple particularly in spaces like ours where the passion lies in educating and helping people and I mean I don't know if we've exactly got it right if you've ever seen our Instagram and you have feedback I'm all here for it. Um, be kind. I am soft. I will cry. But yeah, there are a lot of working parts to that. And I guess, especially as a small business, there are a lot of things that you have to consider about that. Yeah. It just, it takes a lot more time than I ever envisioned. And look, I would love to not have to do it. And that's one thing that I've really kind of over the last few years,

tried to pull back slowly and not be so content heavy and not like, I feel like I have to take selfies for a living you know because I I don't really consider myself an influencer while I do that a little bit tiny little bit like I'm a counselor I'm a coach that's what I do that's what I'm passionate about putting content out there helps reach people that will either potentially become clients for me or I will just help them and I really love the ability to do that so I think like it's a blessing and a curse the whole social media thing I think you know it's been so wonderful for me it's helped me build a community as you guys would know like even with your Facebook group and things you can you can connect to all these people like I have more interstate clients than

clients in Brisbane which is so crazy to me that I'm like how do these people find me and people from other countries and I'm like this is so cool that these people find me and want to work with me and they wouldn't they wouldn't have seen me if it wasn't for social media but also sometimes it is really tiring and sometimes I wish I didn't have to do it and I should probably think about investing in things like maybe Google ads and Facebook ads and not have to get all my leads through socials maybe but for now you know it's one of those things that it's a means to an end and it helps me do what I really love and it helps me genuinely help people so even though the avenue is kind of a fluffy little like hey here's me in my little seven second tiktok video like I know

that the things that that come from that and the clients that I garner from that that I can genuinely help one-on-one like I I'm really helping them and I I just feel so blessed that I even have the ability to do that. I have one last question before we go. Cause I can see that we're running very close to overtime. Can chat. Yeah. I want to, I want to add to that though. Do you know what my favorite part about all of that stuff that you explained was, is that when you then include a client and Jess sends the content to the client, they're like, no, we don't like it, but we can't put our finger on it. Like what, what do you mean? They're like, yeah, if you could just remake that entire video where you baked a cake and then

smashed the cake and then like customized the whole thing to our brand. Yeah. We're just not sure about it. And then Jess does another one and then they're like, maybe just go with the first one. Yeah. It sucks. It sucks. And then did you, have you guys seen a video on Jess's social media? Um, it's a vast set of smash room. Yeah. It was after that happened, Jess was like, I think I need to break something. I was like, babe, let's go break something. All right. The last question I have before we let you go is, you know, you said you're wearing two hats, the influencer hat and the small business owner hat. And we know that a lot of people in our community are small business owners. I don't know if anybody out there tonight is a small business owner. Yes,

there we go. But sometimes I think it can be hard for small business owners. And this is something that we struggle with as well. That level of, I guess, self-promotion or confidence in yourself or producing that video or taking that photo and putting yourself out there, especially when you're starting out and it's you logging into your other account to comment on your own content. So it looks like someone enjoyed it. That doesn't exist anymore because my partner told me I had to delete it because it was creepy. But how should small businesses deal with those feelings? Because sometimes it can be really hard to show up and to put something out there when you feel like people aren't enjoying it or aren't receiving it. Is there any last piece of advice that you can give

to people who might be going through that struggle? That was a big question. Look, I think any small business owners or really anyone that you have to put yourself out there would would know there's so much I guess imposter syndrome that sometimes comes with these things that it's like why would anyone invest in me why would anyone want to work with me when there are so many other people doing this and you know there are so many other counselors and there are so many other coaches out there and I've really tried to make sure that I am trying my very hardest to offer something that is unique but you know sometimes you can't have something perfectly unique and you are offering something that other people do so really try and sit with

yourself as to like why would I want people to invest in me or my business or my service or my product whatever it is that you're trying to kind of get people into and is it something that I'm proud of would I do this anyway even if I you know only had five clients and for me the answer is absolutely yes this is you know a job especially now that in the last few years I've gotten more into the counseling space. And I'm, I've worked really hard to curate the nature and the niche of my business into body image and eating issues, which is something I used to struggle with a lot myself. And the biggest thing for me is that I am now the person that I really needed five years ago that wasn't around at the time. And that makes me so proud to think of like me five years ago,

my past self like I can now do that for other people and I know that that's like such a blessing and maybe not totally transferable to what every single other business owner does but are you solving a problem that can help someone and if you help one person or five people that is still so worth it yes obviously profitability comes into it and you need to support yourself but if you're passionate about what you do if you believe in yourself and if you can back yourself and say like, I am passionate about this, this aligns with my values, this represents the person I want to be. Whether you succeed or whether you fail, I think you'll still have something to be proud of. So, you know, it just keeps you moving forward. So for me, when I have quiet weeks or I

don't have a lot of clients, there are definitely lulls in the year where things quieten down. I always come back to this is a job that makes me so proud to do what I do and I genuinely touch lives and like you know I'm not perfect I'm not the very best counselor or you know the most experienced in the whole world but I know that what I do is really impactful and at the end of the day I sleep well knowing like I've worked my butt off for this and that I know I'm doing something good in the world that just makes me so happy so like there will always be moments of doubt there will always be times that you question yourself or your skills or your abilities or whatever it might be but if you're doing something that you really really care about it's worth

failing it's worth risking it because at least you tried and you tried with something that you really care about and it's not like so much better than just like doing a boring job that you just don't give a crap about I could not agree more we have one woo girl who also agrees Sammy I have adored talking to you as always but unfortunately I do think that that is all we have time for so a round of applause for sammy and a thank you for joining us i also want to say a really good thank you this is our very last show so first big thank you is to my team they are so incredibly supportive if i look at her i'll cry and they have followed me literally around the country this week to make sure that the she's on the money community has been looked after

and everything is smooth sailing. They have bent over backwards for me. So shout out to them and a round of applause for the She's On The Money team. A very, very special thank you to our guest, Sammy. You are an angel and an absolute inspiration. And also a very big thank you to our gorgeous interpreters, Bella and Sarah.

all right we're gonna go because it's really late thank you everybody for sticking around thank you brisbane you have been amazing and we'll see you all out there somewhere the advice shared on she's on the money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's on the Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs. Victoria Devine and She's on the Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN 321 649 27708 AFSL 451 289.