Trading Secrets - 175. Micah Lussier: From making $130k in tech to reality TV star. BTS of Love is Blind & Perfect Match, landing brand deals, and finding her core audience revealed!

Episode Date: June 17, 2024

This week, Jason is joined by Love is Blind Season 4 and Perfect Match’s Micah Lussier!  Although Micah’s time on the show did not end in marriage, she most certainly got the full experience of the experiment, having split from her partner Paul on their wedding day. After her time on the show, Micah has leveraged her newly generated platform into various brand partnership opportunities. Micah gives insight to the two sides of her life in reality TV and previously working in tech, how the Love is Blind reunion was, what she thinks makes a season thrive or flop, a teaser about her time on Perfect Match, how she would describe her brand, how success can be defined in the tech space, and how she ended up on Love is Blind. Micah also reveals the behind the scenes of the timeline for Love is Blind, the departure process for her job in tech, how they talk about money on the show, and what she enjoys about going on reality shows. What other reality shows would she consider? When did she tell her job that she was on a hit reality TV show?  Micah reveals all that and so much more in another episode you can’t afford to miss!  Host: Jason Tartick Co-Host: David Arduin Audio: John Gurney Guests: Micah Lussier Stay connected with the Trading Secrets Podcast!  Instagram: @tradingsecretspodcast  Youtube: Trading Secrets Facebook: Join the Group All Access: Free 30-Day Trial  Trading Secrets Steals & Deals! Monarch Money: Unlike other personal finance apps, Monarch’s simple, intuitive design makes it so easy to set up, customize, and use. Monarch is the most customizable budgeting app. Change the layout of your dashboard, toggle between light and dark mode, create custom budgets and notifications, set up automatic rules for transactions and notifications, and more. For an extended thirty-day free trial when you go to monarchmoney.com/SECRETS ASPCA Pet Health Insurance: The ASPCA Pet Health Insurance program offers customizable accident & illness plans making it easier for pet parents like you to help your pet get the care they may need. They allow you to customize your plan, helping ensure that your pet’s plan is as unique as they are. To explore coverage, visit ASPCApetinsurance.com/TRADINGSECRETS  Bilt Rewards: With the Bilt Card, earn extra points on rent days and get exclusive travel and fitness rewards and the best part is that even if your landlord requires a check or a specific payment portal, Bilt can handle it all. The card is a no-brainer in my opinion. Earn points by paying rent right now when you go to joinbilt.com/TRADINGSECRETS *Terms apply. BetterHelp: If you’re thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It’s entirely online. Designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist, and switch therapists any time for no additional charge. Take a moment and visit BetterHelp.com/tradingsecrets today to get 10% off your first month  Trading Secrets is sponsored by BetterHelp

Welcome back to another episode of Trading Secrets. I'm your host, Jason Tardick, and welcome to the pre-market trading segment, where I'll tell you a little bit about our guest, a money market tip, and an update for my personal life. So this week, we have an unbelievable guest, Micah Lucien, from Love is Blind, and now she's on the perfect match. If you have seen either of those shows, you'll definitely know who Micah is. Perfect Match is airing now, and there are a lot of big storylines. Micah is part of those storylines. And of course, Harry Jousie and Jess are also part of that, which is taking up a lot of pop culture talk in a time where there aren't that many shows on. There's not a lot of action. So this is very, very relevant as today goes. Now, for this episode, we're going to hear a little bit about

perfect match, but also a lot about Love is Blind, what Micah was doing before, how she has navigated this territory and where she expects to go from here. And we'll also talk a little bit about home ownership. And so that is actually going to connect to my tip of this week. So my money tip of this week is that there is just an article that said home buyers are taking out a lot more than just a mortgage payment. And experts are saying that on average, there are hidden costs of $18,000 a year with home ownership. So it's just important to understand that you're buying a lot more than a mortgage payment. So the hidden cost of home ownership are adding up to $18,118 annually or $1,510 a month according to a new bank rate.com study. The national figure

includes the average cost of property taxes, home owners insurance, and electricity, internet, and cable bills. It also includes home maintenance, which is estimated to be about 2% of the value of your home. That's very fascinating to me. Home maintenance to be about 2% of the value of your home. So you got a million dollar house. That is going to lead to $20,000 in home maintenance. So the price tag of these hidden costs within a typical single family home in the US is roughly 26% higher compared than four years ago, which is why it connects to this whole stat that south there that first time home buyers today need to be making 80% more than first time home buyers did four years ago that's why money management is so so important in 2020 the same

expenses amounted to 14,428 annually or 12002 monthly so what's the big takeaway here there are more cash outflows than just your mortgage payment an update for my personal life well wow I mean like a really, really, really special update of sharing my current relationship. It is, it's such an exciting time in my life. And I'm just beyond thankful for all the love and support. Very, very sweet, very kind. Receive so many thoughtful messages, text messages, calls. And just, I honestly have no other words than peace, happiness, and just grateful. Just very, very, very, very grateful. So thank you. I really appreciate it. And it's a special, special weekend. This weekend, I'm in Charlotte. We're celebrating my mom's birthday, which was yesterday. So Sunday, it was my mom's birthday and

Father's Day. And my brother and his husband, Billy, are here. And then also Cadillian. is here, and my parents are here, and this is the first time that she's meeting everyone. So it's just a really, really special time, and I'm just beyond, beyond grateful for everything. And so thank you. I feel like I'm going to get emotional, so I'm going to stop. But thank you, thank you. All right, let's get back to business here. So let's ring in the bell with the one and only, Micah Lucier.

Welcome back to another episode of Trading Secrets. Today, we are joined by Love is Blind, season four participant, Micah. Lucia. Did I say that? Lucia, the French. Although Micah's time on the show did not end in marriage, she most certainly got the full experience of the experiment, having split from her partner Paul on their wedding day. After her time on the show, Micah has leveraged her newly generated platform into various brand partnership opportunities, and as of last week's Love is Blind reunion, we found out that she was offered the opportunity to join the cast of season two of perfect match.

with other Love is Blind alum, Izzy Zabata and Jessica Vestal. We are going to chat with Micah on all things reality TV and how being cast onto Love is Blind compared to being cast on Perfect Match Goes. Micah, thank you so much for being on Traying Secrets. Yeah, thanks for having me. How's it feel when you hear reality TV star? I know you went to Washington State University

and, you know, I feel like your trajectory was a little bit different, but in Seattle, and now you are a reality TV star. How does that feel? I feel like star is a relative term, but I mean, it's an interesting thing to hear. I worked in tech before I did, like any sort of reality TV. So it's like two fully different worlds. Okay. Two fully different worlds, but they've merged to one. Now, people last saw you on the Love is Blind reunion. So I got a few questions about that. Okay. When Love is Blind reunion comes in, it seems like they pick cast from like different seasons and different couples. You know, what do you think like the methodology as to like who they're picking and why? Did you expect to be selected? Yeah, I mean, they told us that it was kind of based on people who have, like, life updates or something interesting happening with them. For some of the couples, you saw, like, they're having children. Matt and Colleen just bought a town home or moved in together, and Brent and Tiffany. And they're moving with Portland together, just legends.

So I was a little bit shocked, but I think it makes sense because I think they wanted to kind of announce that perfect match too is coming. Okay. How long, like when you guys are filming for like a reunion like that, how long is the filming for us? Oh my gosh, we're there for at least five hours. It was totally different than ours because ours was live. So we only had an hour to like spit out all of our thoughts and feelings. But they definitely had some more time to get into it. Would you rather prefer going live or would you prefer the like five hour taping session?

Yeah, I was recently talking to Chelsea about this actually. And she was kind of thinking that she preferred live and it was nice to just get over with. But I kind of wish I had more time to talk about things I wanted to talk about. And I didn't really get that time. sometimes there's things like I regret that I didn't get to say. Talk to me about this. After you go on Love is Blind, you now are considered talent. You're making money off social media. We'll get into that a little bit. But when they bring you back as talent, do you get a talent fee for coming back for a reunion? How's that way? Yeah, you do. You get like a fee. Everyone gets the same amount.

It's like the same amount. Yep. You can tell me warm, cold, or bang on. I'm going to say you're doing one session, one day. Let's say 5K. My clothes? What would be considered cold? That would be cold? What would be considered cold? So I would say if I'm within 2,500, I'm warm. You're warm.

I'm warm. There's the answer. All right. So anything else for the reunion behind the scenes? I mean, we saw a lot of Jessica just absolutely crushing it. We saw Jimmy and Chelsea. It seems like they picked their couples that they want to talk about and don't want to talk about that we should know that we didn't get to see.

I feel like we did get a little bit more closure on Jimmy and Chelsea behind the scenes they kind of said that they're friends now yada yada they were able to wrap up their story I'm so bad with the T I don't know they're a couple they got to talk a little bit about what happened with them and why their breakup looked

basically they said that you know they had to shoot the breakup after they'd already broken up so it's like that's why it looked so weird and maybe he seemed like a little dissociate on his own that stuff we don't get to see it's Kenneth yeah kennet this episode of sharing secrets is brought to you by better help I have to say

when I look at especially the last year. The number one thing that has impacted my mental health, my physical health, my personal growth through times of the greatest distress, and I know that's a fortune to say, but some of the greatest distress that I've ever had is from therapy. It's allowed me to understand myself, regulate when I feel deregulated, and respond versus react. and I have therapy to thank for that. And so if you're thinking about giving therapy a try,

I would urge you to do it. Truly from the bottom of my heart, do it, step into it. And if you're going to do it, there's so many options out there. And one of the best options out there is better help because it's entirely online. So it's designed to be convenient, flexible, and it can be suited to your schedule. You'll just fill out a brief questionnaire.

you'll get matched with a licensed therapist and you could switch therapists at any time for no charge so take a moment visit betterhelp.com slash trading secrets to get 10% off your first month that's better help help.com slash trading secrets okay why is it like we saw season six blow up your season did really well we know season five flop like from your standpoint What is it that makes a good season? Like, why are some seasons people gravitating to and some they're not? I think the season either needs to be really heavy in couples finding love and they're being genuine in connections or there needs to be a lot of drama.

And I think maybe on my season, there was a little bit of both. I think that's why it was a hit. But this season, there was a lot of drama, but there's also big stars born. So you can see with AD, she's absolutely taken off. Jess absolutely taken off. And so I feel like it's people that are just really genuinely interested in them. It's interesting, though, to see, like, why, I don't know, one season. I don't know what happened to the last season.

It feels, though, like, I don't know what your take on this. It does feel, like, lately, reality TV is popping off a little bit. Like, you're seeing Love is Blind popped off, traitors popped off, you're seeing Bachelor's back in action. Like, you're going on perfect match. Do you feel like reality TV is swinging in that direction? And is that part of your strategy and, like, going on more shows? Yeah, I think so.

I mean, I think people don't want to say it. But one of the things of staying relevant, like, as a reality TV person is continuing to go on shows or at least getting your face, like, in front of a camera. So that's something that I'm definitely trying to do. Okay. Because with perfect match, like, love is blind has a certain, let's just say, I would say credibility. People that go on love is blind do, like, really well and it's got great credibility. Perfect match is still TBD because it's a little wild. Does that impact at all your business decision to go on it, knowing it might get a little bit nicer?

Yeah, I mean, the vibe of perfect match is definitely very different than Love was blind was. It's more fun and more relaxed. But I think it's kind of a niche that I fit better in anyways. Perfect match is more my personality and more my speed and casual. And so it's kind of like a why not give it a shot kind of thing. Okay. Can you tease us a little bit? Like what can we expect from Michael?

Oh, my gosh. I'm definitely a little bit of synth in the show. What does that even mean? I mean, I'm a Pisces. Like, I'm a lover girl. Like, I always like... Oh, so you fall hard. Yeah, maybe. We'll see. It's a chaotic season, and I feel like that's something normal

that you can expect from me anyways, but it's certainly there. Do you think you're going to get a good edit? I have no idea. I thought that I was going to get a good edit on Lovis Blind. Honestly, I'm not worried about the edit. I like who I was and how I presented myself on the show. If it shows, it shows. If it doesn't, I'm going through worse, so I don't really care. I don't want you to get into contract trouble, but can you contractually say what you were paid to go on this show or not? Probably not. I have no idea. I'm sure it'll be at maybe 10 episodes. 10 episodes?

I don't know how much. How long did you film for? We were there about a month. Okay, you've gone for a month. Netflix, second show. They put you out of reunion. I'm going to go 20 grand. Warm?

I'm warm. Okay. Maybe a little loft, but we're warm. Yeah. Okay. Are there any other shows that you think after perfect match you might be on or that are on your radar? I don't know. It's hard to say.

There's always talks and chats. So we'll kind of see what happens. There's not a ton of routes on Netflix to go. Does that mean you're in a relationship? Did you find someone on the Facebook side? You're a lot to see. All right. She's teasing us.

But, I mean, there's not a ton of different dating shows or routes either. I mean, it kind of is like love is blind, perfect match. Where do you go from there? I think a lot of people end up going to other networks. But we'll see. Like, do you have a dream show you'd want to be on? I think it's time to hang up the towel on the dating shows at this point for me. Interesting. So you want maybe a show?

Maybe something a little more, maybe something family-friendly. Like, let's change the image a bit. Family-friendly, all right. Let's talk about this. And brand plays big into your monetization. So if you had to define your brand, how would you define what your brand is? I think I have a lifestyle brand based around traveling. I think that's the majority of what I do. And then maybe a little bit of beauty.

I work sometimes with skincare companies, makeup, those kind of things. So I think that'd be the best way to kind of explain. Okay. I think that's a good one. Now, before Love is Blind, we're going to rewind all the way before your reality TV day's line. What were you doing for work? I was working in tech, actually.

So I did marketing for a large tech company. Okay. And in a role like that, if someone wants to do marketing for a tech company in Seattle, give us an idea of like what you can expect to give. Like, how does compensation work in a job like that? Usually it's just a yearly salary comp, maybe a bonus, depending on where you're working at. Okay, what determines success in a job like that?

You know, like if you get a bonus, how when you go for, especially now, because it's around annual review time for people, how would you know, like, if you did your job well and if you'll get a bonus in a job like that? There's different ways to probably measure success, but it depends what role you're working in, of course. The role I worked in was really project-based, so I guess it would be dependent on basically how many projects I got out the door,

probably a little more than how the projects performed because I was in more of an organizational role. Okay. How many years experienced did you have? Four, five. Did you ever move companies? Were you with them the whole time? I move companies. Okay, so when you move companies, I'm asking people, it's expensive here in Seattle. 95 grand base? Cold. Cold. Tire? Yeah. Really? Telling you guys, if you need to get paid, come to Seattle. They make you pick. You're not contracted up. I know I can't mess with your Netflix contract, is that your future. But you're not contractually obligated to not share your salary there. The last company I was working as a contractor, and my rate was a little bit lower due to the market. Before that, I was making 130K. Okay, so 130K. And then I bring in Seattle,

130K, like that is a really, really good place to be. And in tech, which is an area that's blowing up, how the hell does Love is Blind come to your door? What does it look like? Honestly, they knocked right on my door and I kind of answered, I'm someone who's always kind of taken any opportunity. I don't see myself as someone who is going to work a nine to five job. It's nothing I've ever really wanted. I kind of ended up there because the money was good and it was an easy place to pivot out of college because it's what I went to school for.

But I've always wanted to do something different or something like more. And it kind of just came to me. I think there's multiple reasons to go on love is blind. We kind of saw whatever he was going on for. fame. I think that people can agree that while you can invest in the experiment and be excited about getting married, you can also see that there's potential benefits. And I think that if you say that you don't see that you're lying. Yeah. Is it fair as can we both agree in 2024, at least, if you're going on on reality TV, there has to be some percentage of you that's going on for fame.

It has to be. It has to be. Because there's too much transparency. Like I would say like five, 10 years ago, like, people didn't know like what you could do with social media and stuff. But like now it's so, like, it's course of fame play. For sure. And whether it's just because you want to make more money or you've always wanted to be famous, there's going to be something that is there along with going for the point of the show. There is definitely another motive other than just the point of the show.

Maybe it's your own and non-for-profit and you have more exposure, which is great. But there's definitely ulterior motives, which is why people go on. But they find you, how they find you. Do they see you in the street? Do they email you? How they find you? I actually reached out to buy two separate producers. One reached out to me on IG, and the other one, my friend, who I actually worked at the tech company with, like, did an application for me as a joke.

Oh, interesting. So you came to call out. And I was about it. Do you think it was the application or do you think it was the Instagram DM that probably locked it in? I'm not sure, but I know that the call from the application came first. So I was already well into the process once I got a DM, which is weird. I guess they weren't chatting with each other. So you want to get on reality TV.

You're here to now. Go apply. Like, that is how you get on. Go apply. All right. So then in what year did they start filming? Oh my gosh. I don't know what years right now. So it's 2024.

I think probably 2022 then. Well, when did your season air? It aired last. Right? Yeah. So you guys only filmed one year before. One year before we filmed in March. Which is rare, though, because don't they have seasons banked right now? Oh, yeah.

So that's kind of crazy to me that you guys went filmed air. But right now, out in the world, there are people from Love is Blind that are married and we don't even know who they are. Yeah, that's crazy. Wild concept. I know. I feel like we enjoyed a full year, I was like, oh, my God. I do not want to have the anxiety of this coming, but you end up forgetting about it. But over a year, I'd be like, this is no.

Okay. When you left to go on Love is Blind, how long was that filming? So the first chunk is about 10 days in the pods. Then the vacation, which is literally a blur. Why do you say it's a blur? Oh, my gosh. The tequila was flowing. I was bombed.

Unlike that, in Bachelor, we have a drink minimum. You can only drink so much. Yeah, we don't have that. Okay. And then you go home and you spend like pretty much the next month living together and planning the wedding and getting back to your life schedule. So roughly around a month and a half a week. Did when you left your job and then you came back, did they allow you to come back or not? What did I do?

Did you work back? I was just accepted a new job and I told him I couldn't start until I got back. We were filming? No, I don't believe. No, I didn't tell them I was filming anything. And when I got back, we were still filming and I was trying to adjust to like. life with Paul and moving to these townhounds, and I had to start a new job. Yeah. So it was like extremely overwhelming.

At what point do you tell your job you're about to be on a hit reality TV dating show? I didn't tell them until it literally came out. In fact, I don't even know if I told them, but I remember I started getting slacks and I started getting messages from people being like, oh my God, oh my God. And due to the way that a lot of people were portraying me, I was actually really nervous. I felt like embarrassed getting into meetings. Yeah. I had that. like so much anxiety thinking like what do these people think of me yeah and so it's kind of rough and then but you know everyone was really excited about it I think we're just excited to have someone we trade secrets here so let me tell you a secret vet bills can add up significantly and

we all know our pet is part of our family that's why you should check out pet insurance and with ASPCA pet health insurance you can focus on the care that your pet deserves and cover what matters most. The ASPCA pet health insurance program, it's been around for over 18 years, and they've helped more than 600,000 pets during that time. They allow you to customize your plan, helping you ensure that your pets plan is as unique as they are, because we all know vet bills can easily add up, especially when you're not expecting it. To explore coverage, visit ASPCA pet insurance.com slash trading secrets. That's ASPCA pet insurance.com. That's ASPCA pet insurance.com slash trading secrets. Again, that's ASPCA pet insurance.com

slash trading secrets. This is a paid advertisement. Insurance is underwritten by either Independence American Insurance Company or United States Fire Insurance Company and produced by PTZ Insurance Agency Limited. The ASPCA is not an insurer and is not engaged in the business of insurance. Now, you don't work for this company. So what was the departure process? Look. So my contract was up with them, and I decided that I wasn't really going to force trying to find another one within the team or elsewhere. I didn't have any more time, really, because I was starting to take a lot of more brand deals and put more time into my social media. And it just wasn't possible for me to do both. I'm sure it's possible for some people, but for the ethic of work I have, which is very medium.

Yeah. It just wasn't there. Very medium. Okay. So you get off the show, you decide not to go back to tech. We know you're making $130K. Your talent, you're blowing up. Are you making more now off social media than you were in a role like marketing?

Yeah. I mean, I think at this point it's starting to get there. I mean, at the beginning, I wouldn't say I was making it, but now there's definitely been more. And I would say the trajectory for this year is definitely like well over that. What do you think has changed that is allowing you to monetize more now than is it content output? Is it brand? Is it the fact you've maybe escaped your first edit from Love is Blind? Tell me about the business.

I think it's a combination of all things. I mean, you naturally get better at making content as you do it. So, like, being in front of the camera and stuff. But, you know, I don't know. I think there is a separation of how people portrayed me when the show first came out versus now. I think that naturally, you know, I've lost some of the following or the supporters that were kind of there at the beginning. But now I've gained ones that are actually here for my content. So it kind of raises my engagement since like people that are here for me, like the ones that are sticking around.

That makes sense. Yeah. When we go back to Love is Blind and we see kind of how your relationship played out and the result of it. I feel like when you watched it back, it was a fair representation when you're thinking about your brand business and next steps in this entertainment space. I mean, I think that there's a lot of things that were like dramaticized to make a storyline. And, you know, everything doesn't happen how, you know, it seems to, of course. I mean, it's a TV show. And I think it was hard to kind of show people like who I actually am versus like who they think I'm on this,

like I am on the screen, like separating the character from the reality. But, you know, I feel like everything happens for a reason. Like, maybe there's some reason. I don't know if I've found it quite yet. But that was like the way that I started my, you know, journey and content creation, but it was. So, I mean, is what it is. That is what it is.

I want to go into the pods real quick. My new book, Talk Money to me. It's about this whole marriage of love and money. Like, did it ever come across your thought process in some of these conversations when you're literally about to get married to someone you haven't seen to, like, have these conversations? And if so, like, what did that look like? Yeah.

I mean, I don't know if people like know. this, but how the days and the pods are set up and, like, what people have seen, you're given, like, a set of topics to kind of start the conversations each day. Okay. And one of the days is financials. No way. Yeah. So you actually. A full day on it. Because we only see, like, small amounts, like here, like last season, we saw a little of that. We don't see it often. You don't talk. You know, you don't have to stick to the questions. It's just something, if it's not already flowing, there's, like, ways to get conversation going. And so it's something you talk about. I know me and the person that I, like, moved forward with.

We didn't really talk about money in the pods at all. But as we were getting closer to the marriage day, it was something that we, you know, we're put in the situation to talk about. And so we did. It was like the most uncomfortable conversation. Yeah. Neither of us, we weren't great communicators to begin with.

But talking about money, it was definitely interesting. Going into the wedding day, like in the back of my head, there was the fact that I hadn't done any sort of a pre-up in the back of my head. Yeah. I did already own my property and I have assets and I was like. Did you talk about that at all? I mean, he knew it, but we never got to the, the point of, like, signing a pre-nup.

When you get married, so obviously you get married, it's TV marriage, but, like, is it legit, like, license married? Yeah. So before you go into, like, the week before your wedding day, you apply for a marriage license. I was just wondering if that was a TV thing or not. Like, no, we had a full marriage license. Love is blind producers. You need, you need to throw in a pre-nump attorney to see if people will imagine the TV that would be.

Yeah, talk about, well, do you want to do it? Do you not? Like, what are your assets? What aren't your assets? That is really interesting. That they give you those topics. I talk about it in my book, but did you know that money issues are a main leading cause a divorce? Well, Monarch, the top rated finance app, has a built-in collaboration feature so that you can invite your partner at no extra cost.

So Monarch is the top-rated all-in-one personal finance app. It gives you a comprehensive view of all your accounts, investments, transactions, and more. And you could create custom budgets to track progress. towards financial goals and collaborate with your partner. And now you can get an extended 30-day free trial when you go to monarchmoney.com slash secrets. After trying out monarch for myself, I see why it is the top-rated personal finance app.

And right now, listeners of this show can get an extended 30-day free trial when you go to monarchmoney.com slash secrets. That's M-O-N-A-R-C-H-M-O-N-E-Y.com. slash secrets for your extended 30-day free trial. Go to monarchmoney.com slash secrets for an extended 30-day free trial. I have a question for you. I think about the last season and the season, I think it was the best season for virality moments

on social media. Being someone who's been in reality TV and seen the production of reality TV, I feel like, and I could be wrong, the Chelsea situation, the Megan Fox, here's my take. My take where producers was like, okay, Jess is this beautiful, beautiful person. They're both beautiful inside and now, but Jess is like this rocket, and then, you know, we're going to set this up to be like something. And they might have even pushed Chelsea, be like, hey, like, you know, maybe you should suggest, like, do you have a celebrity lookalike? I know what happens in there. And basically, you're sitting in, like, some dates are literally seven hours long.

Like, you're just, like, dinking around in there. Yeah, at some point. It sounds like, boring, honestly. No, it was really boring. Like, you're, like, people are lying if they say there wasn't moments of it being boring. Like, I was coloring the whole time. That's a whole thing. But you naturally say lookalikes.

Like, everyone was saying who, like, lookalikes and stuff. Like, there were so many that people were saying. Like, Paul was the guy from you. Like, what's that guy's name? Um, I know who you're talking. In Gossip Girl. Okay, whatever. What's his name?

It's going to bug me on that. Dan, but that was his name in Gossip Girl. No, in the recap, we'll talk about it. And so I refuse to say anything because I just knew in the back of my head, I was like, no. I don't want to get dragged for this. I also don't want to give, like, an unrealistic expectation. Like, I'd rather under-promise, over-deliver. And so I was not going to say anything.

Let me ask you this. You've been in the pods. You've been on perfect match. We'll see it soon. to go back to the pots, to love is blind, what's the dollar amount it would cost? What is the offer it would take for you to go back in the pots? I don't know.

I think I would just do it for sport at this point. So you're just down. I'm just down. So like when it comes to TV, because I know other shows we had talked about offline, other shows have reached out to you. Do you, you're just like, I don't care if I get paid. Like, let's roll.

I'm going to have to get paid. Let's do roll. I'm not going to waste my time. Like time is money. so I need to get paid, but I want to take that much. I mean, as long as it's a reasonable amount, like something on par for what other shows, you know, are paying, then I'd probably do it.

So many people, like, skirt around it. I love the honesty. So you would do a show for the plot, for the TV time. What's the business thought behind it? I think just more exposure. And honestly, it's fun. Like, it's an opportunity. It's exciting.

You get to meet new people. But more exposure equals what to you? I feel like more money? Yeah, I think it's about cultivating, like, a bigger brand and, like, more following in the sense of people that actually like like you for you. Okay. I think it's maybe just getting in front of the people that you might be able to connect with. Okay. Since love is blind ended, what is one business thing you would have done different, either managing money, monetization, anything, knowing what you know now?

So that was like a year ago. So what is one thing you would have done different? I think that when the show. When things first came out, I spent a lot of time kind of, like, cowering from the Internet because I was upset or scared or definitely, like, getting attacked. But I think I would have been more proactive with starting my journey of making content. I think that's kind of something that sets me behind a little bit, some of the other cast, is that I was silent during those important weeks.

And I think maybe if I was a little bit more active, that would have shown in my engagement. Like, I think that's a good takeaway for people. I think the idea is when you were getting hate from haters or criticized, you were dealing with the mental changes that come with that. Hindsight, would you have stepped into that more? I think it would have been more empowering for me to kind of like step into it and take it with a grain of salt. But I think as someone who's never experienced anything like this, it wasn't expecting that kind of reaction, it's like a natural shock. You know, hindsight's 2020. I mean, I've talked to some of the people in the most recent seasons and kind of given them this like piece of information and they've seen to take it and run with it.

which I think is the best thing to do. And sometimes I wish someone would have told me that. We got to wrap up with your trading secret. What's one trade secret? People can only get from your experience. What can you leave us with? I'd say like life is short. Like don't wait for tomorrow.

Like jump on whatever opportunity, you know, you can get. If you're scared or not, just take the jump. And usually it'll end up well. I like that. Take the jump. Take the risk. I think my biggest trading secret I learned from you is the one about just scrapping.

Like, you wanted a house. So, go do it. There's a million reasons in this world to not do things. There's a million reasons why not to buy real estate. There's a million reasons why you should stay in your marketing job. There's a million reasons why you shouldn't have done perfect match, right? Like, there's a million. But there's that one that's like, hey, life's short.

Let's go. Let's roll. And sometimes it's those directions that get you ahead. So this was a hell of an episode of trading secrets with the one and only, Micah, Lucia, there you go. You nailed it. All right, Micah. Where can everyone find you?

I'm on IG, mica.orgia. And TikTok's the same thing. All right. There you go. Thanks for having me. Ding, ding, ding. We are closing in the bell to the Micah episode. Micah's a friend.

She's on Love is Blind. She's now on perfect match right now. So there's so many moving parts with Netflix, with Micah, and just learning a little bit about her career track and where it goes from here. We got the Curious Canadian with us. Not only do we have the Curious Canadian, but you just celebrated your five-year wedding anniversary this past week, too. So congratulations on that.

David, how are we feeling? What do we think of the mic episode? First off, thanks for the five years. Sometimes I swear COVID had us in like a time vacuum because I don't know where the time has gone. Five years flew by. And before we get into the episode, you know, I appreciate your congratulations on my relationship. Let's give a little golf clap. Congratulations to you, a little hard launch on Instagram.

Very happy for you. I like to take credit for that one, a little matchmaker seat on. when the cat was on the podcast so congratulations you seem happy you look happy and it was nice to see that out there in the universe I appreciate it my man thank you so much that's sweetie

now you're a kind man well you're a kind soul too so I'm just you know we just cheer for love around here just a bunch of softies on the ones and twos but when it comes to Micah Jay it put me speaking of a time vacuum hearing her talk about Seattle hearing about her job pre-show it brought me back to you

in Seattle pre-show. Is there any, do you find that there's a little bit of, you know, connection there between you and Micah because your situations before you guys got put in this space is so similar? Did you find yourself while you're interviewing, flashing back to your life issues explaining those things? Yeah, I mean, I did. Like, you know, we were looking out in Seattle when we were doing that interview and it

brought me right back because that's right when I got picked up by the Bachelorette to go on. And so it brought me a lot, especially when she's, talked about the cost of living and stuff there too and just kind of the dynamic of living there and i even remember when i was dating there it was just tough to date there like it was just a tough place to date because socially it's not a nightlife city like it's not a place that people like go to work and then go out like a new york or chicago um so yeah brought me right back man it brought me right back i remember when we visited you hawk and i we were all excited to come out there it was about a month before you left for the show we were all excited to you know we would go

grab dinner and then it would be like ghost town it'd be like friday night 7 p.m we're walking around downtown seattle it's like there's it's like tumbleweeds going through the city so i was really shocked by that when you say cost of living for for people who may not have been to seattle or maybe even familiar with with the west coast what is the main differences in the cost of living do you think like i know micah said she was making 135k and a tech job at 25 that's really really good money what are some differences in the cost of living yeah i mean i remember remember, David, when I forgot the exact number, but when I was moving from Rochester, New York, which is where you live, to Seattle, I believe the cost of living adjustment was like, it was like

80% high. Wow. That's a lot. So I looked it up in preparation for this. And so the national average when it comes to housing utilities and groceries and transportation, the four main sectors, Seattle is a hundred and eleven percent higher than the national average in housing. 6% higher in utilities, 25% higher in groceries, 23% higher in transportation. And in general, the cost of living in Seattle versus the national average is 50% higher for overall. So it is in a very, very expensive city as it connects to the cost of the national averages in the United States. 23% higher in groceries because every single person there eats like organic, vegan, vegetarian.

It's like a healthy city, right? like every like oh it's so yeah it's like health central well it's health a lot of granola rolling around in Seattle um are you uh when when you say it's higher than national average or 80% higher than Rochester is there a website is there somewhere that you can research this stuff so maybe if people are transitioning jobs they can go and as they're negotiating maybe a really relocation fee is there a place that people can go and be like you know use this yeah I mean that's exactly what I did I brought the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics sheet. So it's a government sheet to my negotiation and said,

this is where we need to start. So I took my salary, multiplied at times the increase in living and saying, like, obviously that was a huge increase from what I was making. But I was like, negotiations start here. Like, this is the flat point. So you can go to BLS.gov. So that's where you'll be able to get the U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics. And then you can also go to like pay scale or, you know, they have, you know, wallet hub. And they could also give it to you. But if you are ever moving, ever, ever, ever moving for a job, you must know the cost of living adjustment and then use that as a factor to understand the baseline of where you start for negotiation because my gosh, imagine if you took a promotion, you took an opportunity, you went to a

city that's way more expensive, you got an increase in salary of, let's say, $20,000, but technically with the cost of living adjustment, you're actually making less. That would be pretty tough. Well, it's always good for our listeners to be able to come on the recap and get a little advice, a little bit of something that they can apply, and we love to apply advice that ends up saving them money. A little advice, too, which seems like common sense, but I just love when people do it, is you asked Micah, do you have any financial advice for anybody who may be listening in the same situation?

Her reaction was, I think you have the wrong person on the show. She didn't take any credit, didn't feel like she had any value to add. And then you're like, wait a minute, you bought your first house at 25. You made it happen. like you don't take no for an answer for these things i just loved like again it seems so simpleton but like the little things that she did i think she said as she scraped like she scraped like she scraped the bottom of the barrel sold her old clothes sold handbags sold shoes carter's ripping it in the background uh god extra shifts as a waitress um i just like is that just common sense

should we all be doing that i mean i just like her honesty with it all and i think in general we all feel like we're not doing enough when it comes to money or to career or to anything of that nature. But the thing is, is like, give yourself some grace. That's where I was like checking her. I'm like, look what you've done. You have a great paying job. You've bought a rental property. You've gone on reality TV. You've built this brand. Like, I think in general, the biggest piece of advice I could give anyone is stop putting yourself in a bucket of any form of shame when it comes to money management or what you're doing or what you're accomplishing. Shame is a lie you tell yourself that's not true. I think about our last episode with Joey and

Kelsey, Joey talked about where his credit got hit a little bit. That is not a bad thing. I know a lot of people that have terrible credit that are extremely successful and wealthy. But what we think, credit gets hit, shame on you. We create this narrative of shame with money and careers. And anyone out there that's feeling that, take a pause, take a break. Stop being so hard on yourself. All shame is is a lie you are telling yourself. And don't tell yourself that lie. Don't put that energy in your circle when it comes to your professional and financial navigation. You know what's funny is I just saw this quote too. It's a very simpleton quote as well. I think it was on TikTok or Instagram. It was definitely on TikTok. And someone was saying like a

money strategy it came across and it said if you spend all your money, you'll never save money. So if you want something to change, something has to change. And I think like it hit me because I'm so guilty. Like my expenses, my income is like I spent all my money and I'm not saving any money. And it stresses me out, but in the back of my head, I'm like, it'll change. It'll change. Guess what, David? It ain't changing. So I'm going to have to, I don't know what I'm going to have to do, scrape some money or find some way to cut some things out. But it's just so funny, like the simplest advice and strategy sometimes are what make the biggest differences. I mean, when it comes to money management, if you really want to break it down and make it as simple as possible, it's literally two

things. You either increase what comes in or you decrease what goes out. Yeah. It's what, what comes in versus what goes out. And that's what's left. Period. End the story. It's almost like you talk about nutrition. You talk about working out. None of these things are easy to do. But if you don't do them, you can't just snap your fingers and have them done. The only difference in advice that give to anybody is that money management, it's actually you're going to see the quickest results. Like with working out and nutrition and breaking habits, you know, they think they say atomic habits, 66 days of doing something before it's broken. With money management, you could start doing something within seven days,

within five days, sometimes within three, and instantly you'll see a lift. So that's a little piece of advice I have for you. But the other thing I got to transition to, because David, I know you're a big perfect match guy. I have not watched an episode yet of perfect match. So, Michael, how is, like, we talked a lot about her brand and her profession and what's next for her. How, what's going on with her? Like, is this where is perfect match working out well for her? Is the edit working out? What do you think of the show? Give me the perfect match breakdown from the curious Canadian. I'll put a little disclaimer out there. I don't know if I'm a big perfect match guy yet. Do I watch it? Yes. Do I consume it? Yes. Do I know what's going on. Yes.

I don't know if I'm the biggest, it's kind of like the Wild Wild West Jay. It's kind of like intense, but it has all these people who've already been on reality TV shows on Netflix reality TV shows. They go in this, this island, think of like Bachelor in Paradise, a bunch of guys, bunch of girls. Premise of the show for people who don't know, you have to couple up with someone every night. When you couple up, you end up spending the night with them in one of these rooms on the resort. And then there's a compatibility challenge of the next day. The team who wins the compatibility challenge, they go in this thing called the border room.

They look at the four other couples that are existing. They have the opportunity to split two of them up to bring two new guys or two new girls in. They match them up. They go on dates. They come back. Rinse her repeat. If you don't get coupled up with it,

at the end of the night, you get off the show. So that's the premise of it. Micah, you could tell, first time back on TV, I think she was a little bit like timid, a little bit. As she said, she was a simp. And I love that you didn't know what a sim means. You go, what does that mean?

A sim is someone who basically, like, falls really easily, doesn't see necessarily any red flags and just is like, yep, this is my person. I got it. So the newest episodes just released on Friday. I haven't watched them yet, but I will. How many episodes in are they? Well, they released three last Friday, three this Friday, and then I think they're doing the rest next Friday or maybe the Lute 2 and 2.

So we're just at the start of it. So she's doing, she's doing good, though. She's doing good. Another love was blind castmate, Izzy, had a quote saying if they can make a dream girl out of the Netflix universe, it would be Micah. And then he got really drunk one night and hit on her and tried to spit some game on her. And it failed miserably. I saw him make fun himself in a TikTok the other day. So she battled that.

She staged that off pretty good. But she's doing pretty good. I think brand wise, I think it's helping her. Like you said, she's back on TV. She's not making a fool of herself. She's not drinking too much. She's not doing any of that. Just a little timid, but I'm curious to see how our journey goes.

Now, what about Harry Jousy? I know he's been on the podcast. I've known Harry for a while now. Jess and just came off, the love is blind. There's a little Harry Jousy, Jess action going on. Oh, yeah. I mean, they've taken over the season as far as I'm concerned. Harry was on, was with someone.

Jess came through the doors. Harry basically was like, his whole thing is that he's dating to marry now. That's his, has been his whole quote. and he's he's telling just all the things she wants to hear he's getting cried he's emotional because people are labeling them as an f boy and all these things so we'll see I don't know see I was wondering to this about perfect match because season one perfect match I watched but the whole thing was

ruined and spoiled and people on the show were what I thought breaking and spoiled because people on the show were talking about their indie talking about what happened on the show before it aired because I think it's one of those like love is blind where it airs a long time before it airs a long time after it's filmed so it was like i knew like francesca fargo went on there she was already with her new partner openly publicly on social media and then it was like oh she's on perfect match it's like where i already know she's out with any of these people uh so but it's interesting because i think i i don't know i think jess and harry are doing the same but maybe

like reversing it like harry started a podcast called boyfriend material and he went on I basically, after the first three episodes, he dropped his first episode saying how, like, he thought he was this and he that, but he wasn't. But now the new episodes are launching, and now his social media is changing. We're like, no, I actually am. We actually are.

So I got to watch it. I got to see it. It's interesting TV. And before I ramble anymore, Blake Horsman was watching it. And he put out a story saying, he wishes if Bachelor in Paradise came back, they would take some of these same formats

from perfect match, mostly in the realm of, let's not pretend these people don't know who they are. Let's celebrate that. It makes for better TV. Yeah. So his take, again, obviously, I know Paradise Well, but I haven't seen perfect match.

His take kind of is like, is he saying that Bachelor in Paradise, it's too, he feels as though it's like too scripted in the fact like, people are walking down the beach. They're like, oh, who's that? Yeah. In reality, they know. And he's saying, like, just let it like the realness play out. Yeah. Blake is saying, right?

And instead of like a random person that the producers choose to walk down the stairs, it's like, what if a. strong couple on the beach what if joe and serena on the beach because they were laid they were voted strongest couple or they won a competition was like oh um this person's coming down i know that this guy likes her or that's his type or like he's talked about her a lot or we were at a party together once in san die and like they they had some good chemistry let's set them up to go on a date so instead of the girl coming down with a date card she already gets set up with this person they go on a date and then after she's free to explore whoever she wants to.

But it's like, we're not pretending we don't know who that person is. We know who they are. We actually know who they might like. And now you're getting like peers putting the couples together. A hundred percent. Yeah. I think Paradise is going to come back and it's going to be great because they're going to have a huge group to pick from. And I think if they make some of these small adjustments, it could absolutely blow up.

Like break down the whole, the idea of like, I think I'm saying this right, the fourth wall. Right? Like break it down to just like let them act exactly like they would act if it was just a party. Because there's a million bachelor parties. Like we all see each other all the time. And they and and you could imagine you can imagine the conversations that are happening at these parties, right? Yeah. Oh, I know. And they and they batch and Paradise tried to pivot to be like Love Island last in their last season of Bachelor of Paradise because they did the whole Casso Moore thing where they took the girl.

Remember they took the girls out of. And then they brought new girls in and the poor girls had to, but then they brought them guys. That's exactly the premise of Love Island is this Casamore, which is like this temptation house. So they did that, but it was like such a carbon copy. It's like it almost brought people the wrong way.

But interesting. It's going to be a little first year that Paradise hasn't happened on our TV screens in a long time. And they're replacing it with the golden bachelorette. So we'll see how it pivot's there. But Micah's holding her own. She's holding her own. And I did see that she moved to LA with and moved in with someone from the show from Perfect Match.

So she talked about really leaning into this contact, really wanted to take it head on, really get more comfortable in front of the camera. She said her trajectory for her brand deals is more than ever because she's trying to do this consistent approach. So she's doing it. She's doing her best. All right. Well, Michael, we'll have to do a follow up with you. I'll keep while. I'm going to have to start watching Perfect Match.

and let's see what happens here let's see what happens it's always good to have someone on that has come from such a corporate world to then take the wildest of turns to not only go into love is blind which is just a wild show but to then go into perfect match and move to LA this is exciting I'm excited for her love is blind is wild but when you when you think about it it's kind of my favorite it really is like I think it always always always Overall, it's kind of my favorite because it just has the most interesting intrigue to it because of like the mystique of taking the visual out of it, but then at and falling in love, but then adding it back in. So she said she'd go on love as blind again for free, for sport, she said, which kind of aligns into what you talked about. If you were to be named the bachelor, you would do it for free.

I think she would do it because she knows what it would bring. Don, David, David. Yes, would have. Get your vernacular right now. I said what have. I said when you used to talk about it, when you used to talk. When I was asked about it, when I was asked about it. Exactly.

So it was interesting to see her take on that. You know, she said this was going to be her last dating show. Does that mean she ends up with someone? Maybe. Does that mean that she's just done with dating shows in general? We'll see. So I'm going to tune in. I'm going to watch it through and through to the end.

Of course I am. That's what I do. Netflix is coming in hot. They got all these shows. They're popping off. They're bringing the old talent like Harry Jousy, back in the mix. Love is blind has taken over in a big way in the unscripted television space. I think you see Love is blind and The Bachelor going toe to toe here, which is always interesting

to see. But we're talking pop culture meets money. That's what we do on trading secrets. David, anything before we wrap? The only thing I got is she said you were really warm at 20K to go on perfect match. What do you think they're paying Harry Jousie? oh man i mean 75 to 100 gotta be more gotta be 150k you think yeah i mean this guy's resume he's the reason he was on season one too hot to handle of francesca

i think their popularity is the reason too hot to handle was even able to keep going he was on dancing with the stars he's blew up on that he's i think it's i think it's over six figs and i think harry's got enough deals since then that he knows his worth and i think that he knows that he moves the needle so that's my only question on that we'll have to have him on part two we will have to have him on all right and also next week i'm going to be in new york city david i got lacy you know i got lasic right six months later i've noticed my left eye i'm like i don't know something's wrong i go back in my right eye it's perfect well it's it's actually better than perfect it's 20

19. My left eye is 2027 and they didn't get the full stigmatism out. So I have to go back under the laser on Monday. So I'll tell you how that goes. But also that's going to give us one more week. We're going to take next week. And we'll have, of course, this episode and more than money. And then the following Monday we're shooting right now to have Howie Mendel episode out. But then it's going to be that week that we reach out regarding the focus group. So if you have interest in being in that focus group, just shoot us an email at trading secrets at jasontarek.com. We will only have 50 people, and we are going to rely on those 50 people to really help us shape the show and add new things and new segments as we continue to grow. With that being said, please make sure to subscribe, follow us on YouTube, on Instagram. Give us five stars. David, a huge, huge week for both you and I, happy five years. And also for you, happy Father's Day. Thank you.

Thank you very much. And to cap off all this exciting news, I get to see you this weekend. Yeah. In Orlando. Sunday. There we go. A little Sunday, fun day. I'll be in Tampa for a little bit.

And me and Kat and MK are coming up to hang out with David and Ashley in Orlando. Orlando's what? About an hour from together. But an hour and change. So we're going to craft up a nice whole day for you guys. I cannot wait. So I will see you, Sunday. So I will see you Sunday.

Happy Father's Day. Happy fathers to all of those in the Money Mafia that listen, that are a father. And thank you for tuning in to another episode of Trading Secrets, one you couldn't afford to miss. Making that money, money, rain on me. Making that money and money. Living that dream. Making that money, money, money.

It's making that money, money. and they're green.