Trading Secrets - Real Housewives of OC, Gina Kirschenheiter dives into her the business of relationships, TV, real estate, and the $ecrets behind branding!

Episode Date: October 16, 2023

This week, Jason is joined by entrepreneur, podcast host, and Real Housewife of Orange County fan favorite, Gina Kirschenheiter! Gina has been a part of Real Housewives of OC cast for the past five seasons and quickly acclimated to the California lifestyle after predominately living her life on the east coast in New York. In addition to being a major personality on Real Housewives of OC, Gina have never been shy about dipping her toes into entrepreneurial spirits and different pools by starting her own beauty product line, and most recently starting a podcast with Grammy winning country songwriter and producer Shane McNally. Gina has not held back on her personal struggles with mental health and sobriety and often shares ways she has overcome those types of struggles throughout her life.  Gina gives insight to how she was casted on Real Housewives of Orange County, why she thinks so many people are fighting to be on reality TV, how living in it for a couple of years can pay off in the long run, the importance of trusting your gut, and how your partner should be supportive of your opportunities. Gina also reveals her approach to negotiating, the value in authenticity and integrity, how reality TV stars are comparable to professional athletes, the need for protection for kids on reality TV, how she has learned from her mistakes, why meeting with a divorce attorney before you get married is a good idea, why she likes the idea of joint bank account and her venture into real estate and skincare. How many years did she have to wait until she could negotiate her Real Housewives contract? How many followers did she have going into reality TV? How did she come up with the name for her skin care?  Gina reveals all that and so much more in another episode you can’t afford to miss!  Host: Jason Tartick Co-Host: David Arduin Audio: Declan O’Connell Guests: Gina Kirschenheiter Stay connected with the Trading Secrets Podcast!  Instagram: @tradingsecretspodcast  Youtube: Trading Secrets Facebook: Join the Group All Access: Free 30-Day Trial 

Welcome back to another episode of Trade Secrets. I'm your host, Jason Tartick, and welcome to the pre-market trading segment where I tell you a little bit about our guest, something you should know going to this week and a little bit of an update from my personal life. First and foremost, please remember to give us five stars. Every episode, we give something away to those people. that give us five stars and give us their biggest takeaway and or a guest you think we should have. Stay tuned to the recap because we always do that. You can really help this show grow because we are growing. Thank you to you by subscribing. So on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, wherever you listen to your podcast, please just hit that subscribe button. Remember to join our Facebook group, watch our YouTube, join our Trading Secrets Instagram page, and thank you again for your loyalty.

I can't tell you how much it means. Now, we have a great guest on today. Gina Kaye from Real Housewives of Orange County. Now, if you've never seen the show, don't worry, you're in good shape. If you've seen the show, you're going to love this episode because we get into a lot of the weeds. But I think what I would tell you about Gina is that Gina was just like your everyday individual that in a weird way came across casting. And you're going to hear about how she came across casting. You're going to hear about how much she gets paid, how she negotiated. I think one of the biggest things you're going to hear is if you have a partner, you've ever had a relationship in which that individual hasn't supported your pursuits of your profession, your pursuit of

happiness, what makes you the best and had asked you to maybe self-sacrifice for their benefit, Gina had to deal with that with her husband. And then her husband and her ended up getting divorced, and he had an affair. And Gina had a lot of setbacks in her life. You're going to hear about professional, social, financial, so many different setbacks. I think what's encouraging is how she learned and how she used setbacks to literally propel her forward. We get into the cost of the DUI. We get into how the divorce was taken care of and settled. We get into learning lessons. It's a professional podcast, but this one's emotional. And so whether you know the show or you don't, you're going to have some really good takeaways. I'll tell you this much. You guys know I prepared

my ass off for these podcasts, and I research like hell before I step into the shark tank with whoever I have on. It felt like this was one of these podcasts where I could kind of just ditch my notes and have a deep discussion. So I think you're going to like this one. I really do. Gina Kay, this one, you're going to learn something from. Now, something I want to bring to your attention. I've said this before, I'm saying again, when interest rates were at 2 to 3%, and then your bank account was only paying 0%. There wasn't much difference there, right? So the lack of education and not knowing what to do and how to do it, it didn't cost you that much. Well, right now, it's costing you a shit ton. If you are sitting on cash at 0%, and then interest rates are at 8, 9%. Think about the difference

there. If you're not making money on your money and just keeping up with inflation right now, you are going to be in serious, serious trouble. So if you have money, you have to find ways to deploy that money. So example, I have a big cash position. I work with UBS. I work with a lot of different institutions, but I'm just giving you one example with UBS. And I have monies at UBS that is sitting in an overnight cash account. So I can liquid it at any point. It's through their institution, treasury, direct fund. And I'm right now getting 5.22% on that. So imagine people that are sitting on their cash earning 0% and then paying 9% interest rates, while I'm sitting on cash making 5.22%. My point is, is now more than ever that education gap has to be minimized because

if it's not, the repercussions are going to be huge. And they're going to be so huge I want to provide you this update. Lawmakers are like, whoa, this gap between the lower class, middle class, and upper class is going to continue to grow if we do not get educated and then execute on our financial education so lawmakers are jumping in they're taking an aim right now at credit card interest rates some lawmakers and regulators are calling for interest rate caps and lower fees on credit cards is debt levels march higher our debt levels are going up we got to be better as consumers total credit card debt topped one trillion dollars in the second quarter of 2023 that is the first time ever the average interest rate for all cardholders jump to more than 21 percent in august that is the highest on record

according to Federal Reserve data. Some cards, retail store cards, in particular, charge more than 30%. This is unbelievable, said Ted Roseman, industry analyst for credit cards.com. So I want to make sure you know that. The other thing I got is I sat next to such a wonderful VP of operations, and I don't want to give any more information because I'm going to give you a stat that I don't want to get her in trouble. But she works in the vet space.

We'll leave it at that. I hope to have her on the podcast one day because she is a very powerful woman in leadership, and I want to do a whole episode on that. But she gave me a little trading secret myself that I felt like I was compelled to share with you. If you have pets, most veterinarians are given a base salary and then they are given a bonus, which is around 20% of their performance.

Why do I tell you that? In general, my takeaway from this is that vets are very good people with huge hearts. But there are some people out there that are slinging. And so if you are going to get a quote for your animal, make sure to shop it around, know that you have negotiating power and know that whatever it is they're suggesting, you know, there is a 20% benefit to them on the profitability with it. So be aware of that.

Those are two things I want you to know going into this week. And lastly, a little update from my personal life. Let's go. I'm in Europe, baby. I am in Spain and France. I'm having the best time. My father turned 65. We are celebrating that. I turned 35. We're celebrating that. We have John Gurney, my mom, my dad, Evan, who you know, my business partner and manager, one of his best friends. And then, of course, we had to bring on Blake Horstman and Gianina Jebeli, two great people, two great friends of this show. And so we will be traveling through France and Spain for seven days. I feel like just what I need to just reset, get focused, take life in and just enjoy every single second of it. So I will be drinking wine somewhere in France and

Spain while you are listening to this. And the last thing I'll tell you before we ringing the bell, our Facebook group is picking up pretty good. I'm jumping in there on the day to day, just pop it in, checking how people are, getting conversation started. So if you want to have a little bit more of a conversation with me in our community with the Money Mafia, join that Facebook group, Trading Secrets Podcast. But enough of me. Gina Kay is in the house. Let's ring in the bell with the one and only Gina Kay. Welcome back to another episode of Trading Secrets. Today I am joined by entrepreneur, podcast hosts and Real Housewife of Orange County fan favorite Gina Kirshenheiter. Gina has been a part of Real Housewives of OC cast for the past five season and quickly acclimated

to the California lifestyle after predominantly living her life on the East Coast in New York. In addition to being a major personality on Real Housewives of O.C., Gina has never been shy about dipping her toes into entrepreneurial spirits in different pools by starting her own beauty product line and most recently starting a podcast with Grammy-winning country songwriter and producer Shane McAnally discussing pop culture, the ups and downs of parenting, and more. Gina has not held back on her personal struggles with mental health and sobriety and often shares the ways she has overcome those types of struggles throughout her life. With Gina, we're going to discuss life in the OC from New York to the OC, the struggles of balancing personal and

professional work life and advice she has for people who are looking to improve their help and wellness. Gina, thank you so much for being on sharing secrets. I am so excited to be here. Thanks for having me. Yes. All right. Here's my first question, because we've had some people from Real Housewives on, I've never asked this question, okay? For the Bachelor, there are certain qualifications you have to meet to go on the show, right? What are those qualifications? They want a certain age bracket. Now they have the Golden Bachelor, so that's a different age bracket that you obviously have to be single, which some people don't adhere to. And they have this, like, kind of profile that they're looking for. But for Real Housewives, how does it work? How do they determine,

do you think the qualification of that's it, she should be on the show? You know what? That is a really good question and the answer is I have no idea because honestly when it comes to me specifically to you I personally think that I break away from the standard mold of what you think of when you think of a housewife and obviously you would think a qualification would be being married but when I started the show my now ex-husband but my husband at the time was not able to film because of his job and they decided to go forward anyway so I actually never filmed with a husband or anything. Obviously, especially in Orange County, they're looking for the lifestyle element. But I really think that for me, it was like a stale time. I feel like in the show when I came in, it was actually

the fact that I was different from the mold that made me interesting in the show. So we had Carolyn Manzo on. She said something pretty similar to that, where they knocked on her door and she's, nope, this isn't for me. And they're like, actually, you're perfect. Do you remember when they approached you. Was there that it moment where they were like, oh, yeah, that's it or that you recall that you're like, oh, yeah, I'm going to be on this show? Actually, that's really funny. So they never approached me, like, in that way. Long story short of how I got on the show was my good friend Tatiana was auditioning for the show. I'd only lived in Orange County for like maybe a year and a half. And I'd never been to California prior to moving there. So I didn't know

anything about the entertainment industry, this world. Nothing. I grew up on Long Island. So close to the city, but not like where I was with stars or anything like that. And so she was auditioning. I was like, what's an audition? I thought it was so exciting. Like, I watched the show. This is so fun. And then she got through to the next round. There was an application. If you know anybody who was interested, she put my name and number. They called me and they just kept calling me. And that moment that you're referring to, I had it because it was like maybe the second or third round. They had me and my friend's hot coming together. They said they were looking for a dynamic duo. And I remember getting to the L.A. office, the production office, and they sat us down in this room, and they asked Tatiana to go in and meet with the producers first. And they came back. And I remember the casting director, Dawn, came in and she shut the door behind her. And she said, okay, now we can really talk. And in my head, I immediately was like, oh, this is. Yeah, something is happening. And now this is getting real. And she was like, look, this is what it is. Everybody loves you. So she was like, like, talk.

talking me up. She was like, just you're being yourself, you've been yourself, just keep being yourself when you go in there. And I'm like, okay, I never thought I was really going to get on this show. I was doing this for fun. I was like, a bored. Entertaining this is cool. Yeah. This is so cool. Who gets to have this experience? But I never lied about anything. You never pretended to be rich. I was very comfortable with who I was. Okay. That is the thing that I think resonated with them. Especially now, hindsight, it's so clear to me that it was like I was a diamond in the rough because then season after season, they keep casting. But now, I'm sure like this is with The Bachelor too. At the beginning, it's like an authentic experience and they're looking for real

people to just share their lives. But now it's a lot of like thirsty people that are just they'll do anything and they're trying so hard to get on this show. It does not work. So that's an interesting career dynamic. And I think that it goes for any industry. People hear about an industry that starts to drive a ton of success or clout or money and people will just do anything to get into it and to jump on it. What do you think it is about the real housewives or just the current dynamic landscape of like reality TV that everyone's scratching and clawing to get on? Why is it? What's your interpretation? I just think that fame is addicting and I think the limelight is bright and I think people are attracted to the limelight. And

They do want it. They see that we get on the show and we're popular and successful and they want it. I think a lot of these women, too, actually, I was very happy with the New York cast because they all seem to be like very independent, successful women outside of their husbands. But I think that a lot of the time when you look at the past and the history of housewives, it is like these women's life is about supporting the person that they married. And I think it's very attractive for them to think, oh, this could be mine. And I could step outside of maybe my husband's shadow and I could have my own thing.

So I think there's so many reasons why people want to be a part of it. But I just think that you can't fake your way through it. And that is very evident by all the one-hit wonders, I would say. Yes. I have a million questions just based on the conversation we're at now. But the one that just landed with me is when you said, this gives a lot of opportunity for a platform to become that independent person, to build your own brand, to not be living in that shadow. This is a dichotomy between professional life and personal life. Have you seen either from your season, your experience,

or other seasons, that when that shadow starts to become the equivalent, when, you know, you start to build your own thing or some of your peers and castmates do, that it creates personal issues at home? I think that for a lot of the women, it probably really does. For me, personally, my issues were already existed in my marriage. But I did recognize the fact that I knew my now ex-husband did not want me to do it because he didn't want all of his stuff coming out. And I knew in my heart that I was like, you know what? I didn't really, wasn't thinking about the opportunities or anything. It just felt good. It felt good to get noticed again and recognized, honestly. And I wasn't willing to walk away from an opportunity because of his mistakes, right? And I think a lot of the women do

Maybe it is for them in their head. This is my opportunity to do something myself to step away from that. Maybe there are problems already in their marriages, or it does create problems for sure. Obviously, a lot of these men that these women are married to, too, are very successful men. There's ego that comes with that, right? Success just causes problems in all aspects of your life. What's so counterproductive about that is it feels like it should. It feels like it should add.

If you have a unit where you're growing is one, the more success, the more in the pool, the more growth, the more you guys succeed as a unit. But more often than not, it's not the case. And I feel like we see it in real housewives all the time. I think that, though, it's just highlighting the fact that couple or that friendship, they were never a unit. It doesn't break up marriages. It just exposes issues and problems that are already there.

That's how I feel. And it also gives maybe these women the opportunity to walk away if they want to, right? And I don't want to make this about like women, men, or husbands are really. whatever. It's just the simple fact is this is an opportunity to not have to maybe stay stuck in something that you otherwise wouldn't have had another way out from. It gives you like independence and freedom, the opportunity to grow, the opportunity to discover yourself. There is a lot that happens throughout the process of the show. The end result is obviously it's a reality show and it's for drama and entertaining. But like I can tell you from my perspective

how many hours I've sat in that interview chair and had to be asked questions. and really take the time to think about things that I ordinarily wouldn't even think about really helped me to, it was very cathartic. You release a lot and you really start to discover who you are as a person. And then you get this confidence about who you are. And I think it's a really good idea, too, to just be in it at the beginning. I didn't do anything for years. Only now, there's been six years of my life.

Okay, now what's the next step for me? What does this look like? Yeah. I think if you do things too early or you're super calculated, that doesn't work either. It really is a journey. And if you just are there to exist and then people connect with you and they like you, they become loyal. And then it takes you somewhere where you have other opportunities. That's good career advice, I think, in any industry, too, is that so many people are like,

how do I get ahead, how do I get ahead, how do I get ahead? But just like living in it for a few years. So if you're out there and you feel like you're stuck in what you're doing, give it a couple years and then it will come to fruition. I also think now more than ever, everything is so transparent now, right? You're not fooling anyone. Right. And if you do think you're fooling someone and you have fooled someone, I think that at the end of the day, the truth will always eventually surface. That I feel strongly about. It all comes out in the wash, right? You mentioned a couple things that we're going to talk about too. You said the opportunity for women to walk away and a little independence. I know that

you had gone through a divorce. We don't want to get into all the drama of that here, but some of the stuff I'm interested in is just like how you deal with the professional and financial side of that. But before we get there, we had Tracy Tudor on for a million dollar listing. She had a very similar experience to you in the fact that she knew she wanted to go a million dollar listing. Her husband did not want her to go on. There were some cracks in their foundation, but she had made the decision for myself and my pursuit of happiness, I have to go on.

Our listeners, we call them the Money Mafia, they had a lot of interest in that conversation she had and why she made the decision, even though it was against what her other significant other had wanted. I ask you the same question. Your husband didn't want to be on the show. He didn't want to be exposed, but you saw a light. What was that conversation like? And for anyone back home, that might be in a professional disagreement with their significant other, but wants to pursue it, what advice would you have? I think that as a woman, it's a natural thing to lose yourself. Yeah. You have kids and you're in a supportive role to someone else for so long. And it is very easy to simply lose yourself. I think that is never a

good thing. It's not good for you because you never know what's going to happen within a relationship. So obviously financially, it is not a good idea to ever be in a solely supportive role. I just, that's just what I believe. But also just for like your mental health too, right? It's good to stay active. It's good to want things. And I really feel like if you are a solid couple and you are truly connected in a unit, no opportunity could break that. If you're not with somebody who can support you and your decisions, then you're not the right person. That's how I feel. And it's okay that they would have hesitations. It's reasonable for a husband to be like, wait a minute. What is this going to, how is this going to impact our family and all that? But I would just tell people that at the

end of the day, you really have to just trust your gut, really. And if this is something that like you discuss and you decide together, everybody has to be on board. And everybody is not on board, it's going to be a problem. But I just think just because somebody isn't on board, it's not a reason and not do it. Yeah. What I'm hearing from this and what I'm taking away is that when these tough decisions come up and potentially your partner may not be supporting it for whatever reason that might be, it's probably a good idea to do some digging within your relationship to have a better understanding of why,

because it's likely not that decision that's actually creating it. There's probably some underlying issues that haven't been resolved in which they think, okay, you have this opportunity. That creates insecurity. They're insecure because of X, Y, and Z. And it could be used as an opportunity to, like, actually solve a foundational issue. And it might not actually be the fact that you wanted to pursue a career. And to your point, when you talk about what is a healthy relationship and when you're in a

healthy spot. It's the definition of supporting, caring and wanting to see your other person succeeds. And to your point, as this goes along, and you said you could solve a foundational issue in your relationship, you will solve that issue. And it will either be solved by you guys come together and you find resolve and you move on as a unit and you stay a couple and you lean into this opportunity together and support each other. Or you resolve it by figuring out you're not supposed to be together and this isn't what we're supposed to be doing together and you can't be supportive to me even though I've been supportive to you this whole time and I think that's just normal people grow and evolve right you should never try to I don't think stayful each other from

growing and evolving yeah um because you it shouldn't be threatening exactly and I feel like this is threatening to a lot of people I get it unless it's obviously they work for a company that nobody wants to lose their job of course yeah and honestly in my scenario. My ex-husband did lose his job, but it was because of his personal poor choices. But it did affect all of us. And now I feel even more responsible for getting myself up and continuing my success because I also have to provide for my family. Exactly. I was a banker before I went on the show. Then after the show had some things. We had the funny story that came out. There was nothing like malicious or bad about it. And I too got put in a position.

where I had to decide if I was going to quit media stuff or move in a different direction. So it's interesting how that happens. Let me ask you this, negotiations. Let's go back. You know they want you. They like you. You've been on the season for a while.

How and where do you start with what you should be paid to be on a show? And you've never been in entertainment. You don't understand this world. Did you call someone and say, how much do I get paid? Did you hire an entertainment lawyer? How did you start the negotiation process?

Okay. So that is an issue. So Housewives is pretty. standard because this isn't their first rodeo. So they have that pretty mapped out. So it's like for, it's almost a good thing though. It's like when you enter into it, the first three years is just simply it is what it is, right? It's mapped out for you. Paid episodic. Episodic. It's always episodic, but it's like you're going to make X amount this year, the second year this much, the third year this much. After that, you can go in and you have an opportunity to renegotiate, right? Fortunately, for me,

I feel like that process was pretty easy because I did voice a concern. I think it's, first of all, I would say, go to the top. Don't waste your time trying to figure out the path to get to the people who are the decision makers. Just go to the decision makers. Like you are, especially within this world, I know we're talent in some ways we're like the low man on the totem pole, but other ways, are the top tier. So it's like you have to ask for the things that you want and you have to,

there's nothing wrong with asking for what you think you deserve as long as you do it in like a respectful professional way. So I remember having conversations with the owner of my production company at the time after that third year. That is what I felt got me the most traction because it also took out that it made it clear. This is where we stand. This is what we're going to do. This is what I think. And that actually helped me navigate through, because there's a lot of levels with, because there's like your production company. Then there's like Bravo. Then there's like NBC. There's like a lot of levels like that. Right. So I worked with my production company to then help me strategically navigate with the higher ups at the network level because that was above my

pay grade at the time. I'm like, I don't want to go in on. I didn't even know who these executives were. Sure. Sure. So that was like a good route for me. But this year is going to be interesting for me after we wrap up this season because I am going to have to put my big girl pants on and go back in there and have hard discussions about what this looks like for me next year. And it's also, it's really hard because depending on what season you're on and what's discussed, like for me this year got real personal in a really negative way with people like meking up stuff about me and whatnot. And like I just got such a bad taste. It almost felt like going to work was just show up to be defamed. And I'm just not

in for that. And I'm like, and if that's what the job is, then you need to be cutting me a way bigger checks. Gotcha. I was going to ask you, what is the thought process of your renegotiation? Is it because financially you've done really well at this point? You're like time allocation, or are you thinking that the risk that you're starting to put on the table is becoming so big that the reward needs to start matching it? Yeah. And also, you know, you know, your own worth from an entertainment standpoint, from your likeability, from how popular you are, as you go on year after year. I can't walk around without people coming up to me. And so be aware. That's a good point. Yeah. I know there's a significant increase in just my, yeah, everything.

Did you have any followers before going on the show? No. I actually had a private, only Facebook account and I had like 200 followers. It was very, don't, don't talk to, whatever. And then I deleted that because I got so scared. And I started an Instagram right when I got on the show. And now over 750,000 followers on Instagram, 50,000 plus followers on TikTok. That has to play into your negotiation, too. Yeah.

It all, yeah, because it's all marketing for them, right? So now you know your reach, and also if you have partnerships or things like that, your value more, and I think all of that you really, it is a business, right? You really have to be aware of it. Like my Instagram is like fun, but it's a business. It's work. It's my business. Yes. And that's all part of it. And you have to take all of these things seriously. That actually even played into part of why, because I'm getting focused, right, part of why I also stopped drinking because I want to get more serious about my career and the moves that I want to make and that was getting in my way. You also don't want to be, I cannot be that person, have fans come up to me and what I'm, like, drunk out.

Like, that to me is not a good look. And I think that really within this world, for me anyway, and what I would, I would give this advice to anyone who wants to become a heart of a reality television series, whatever, you know this lesson very well. Reality television, there's an automatic life expectancy on it. You could be on it for 12 years, yeah, or one year. The lifers usually they make sacrifices to be able to be lifers, and the sacrifices are usually like personal integrity, things like that. But at the end of the day, who you are is your brand, especially in the reality world. And if you want to have other professional opportunities outside of reality or after reality,

that should be the number one priority. maintain your integrity, who you are because brands will look at that. And if you are a hot mess or a sloppy mess, who's going to, you're not selling their product. And if you're not selling their product and you're not making them money, then you're not getting hired. So now your only opportunity is the show. And I'm very aware that is going to end. I've always been aware of that every day. I'm like, I don't even know how I'm still here, honestly. So when that ends, I'm concerned about what that looks like. Yeah. What have I, what, who am I at the beginning? Who am I at the end? Am I still that same person? That's really important to me. Yeah.

Authenticity is really important to me. That's everything. We have talked so much about that concept on this show and how to differentiate. Our second episode ever, we had the CEO of the largest social media agency in the world on. And he actually broke down rates based on what your behaviors like and how they will categorize, brands will categorize, and they now have software to categorize how you're rated like a movie. So are you an X rating movie? Are you an R rating movie? PG-G-rated movie. And he said, based on the rating scale, always the rate will be the highest, the lowest you are. So a G-rated influencer will get the highest rates with the best brands. And XR-rated influencer will get the worst rates at the worst brands.

And then he brought it all the way to make perfect sense to like a baby. Like babies that are like opening gifts on YouTube, they're getting paid more than anybody. They go, I see the deals. And it goes back to your point, integrity, character, and all those things. That aligns with brands, rates, not just in reality space, marketability. But I think that's in any, no matter what you are doing, how you're doing it, that's part of the equation. Let me ask you this. You can tell me, I'll give you options here.

We like to keep people comfortable at trading secrets, okay? Cold, warm, hot, or no comment. That's one of the answers. First three seasons, you said they give you a per season, I'm going to take a stab in the dark. I'm going to say per episode, $10,000. Oh, you're cold. Beyond cold.

Yeah, it's lower. I'll just be honest. I think my first year, I think the take home, like, after the bonuses and everything, it was under $100,000. Okay, got. And how many episodes is it again, person? Well, it depends because each franchise and each season is different. But my first season, they were, I think that with the reunion, there was at least 20. Okay, gotcha. Okay. Oh, so that, yeah, that breaks down. Right. And then the third year I was on, see, it was sketchy too, because COVID hit, right? So the third year I was on. where I was supposed to be making, because it roughly like doubles every year. So the third year,

I was like, oh, this is great. I'm going to really make some of my back. Now you're making a few bucks. We had 12, we hit the minimum, 12 episodes, I think, and one reunion. Okay. So that was like very sad. Yeah.

For me, I was like, this is my luck right here. And then the next year, it was good. I got a raise and it was good. But like all of this is, I always say I compare us. to, like, professional athletes, right? So even though we are paid well, we don't have job security. 100%.

I would rather... Yeah. One bad comment. One bad day, gone. 20 years of work is gone. An injury, you're done, right? And then pick you out as soon as you came. Like, it doesn't, no matter who you are or whatever, it's, and you're done.

So I just think that for me, it's always about, look, I'll cash my checks as long as as they want to sign them, right? Sure. But I'm really focused on a lot of eggs, a lot of baskets, projects I can do outside of the show. Right. And also, the show is hard mentally. And so to be able to work on other projects is also,

it's healthy for me mentally. So I like to do as many things as possible. It makes diversifying, finding other income sources, then you can leverage into social media. It's the name of the game. Do you have someone close and near to the franchise who's been very vocal about this, especially I'm thinking about you as you're going into this renegotiation period where you're like, it's better be a good day or I got to go do something else.

Bethany Frankel talking about this whole, the idea of a union behind reality TV and getting more representation. Do you have a particular stance on that? Or do you agree with her? Do you disagree? Especially someone that's being like in the heart of the negotiations now. I understand initially, I was like, oh, this is great because I, I, I think it's good.

I think a discussion needs to get started. Yeah. And I think that there is room for, there's a lot of room for improvement, right? And we could use some protection and some rules and some security. Some residuals would be nice, you know? Wouldn't that be great? That would be great. Yes.

Yes, a little control. Protection for my children is I'm very, that is something that I am very big on. And for me, I don't even, I'm not sure if Bethany has touched on this or not. But for me, it doesn't make sense, and it seems like a very obvious fix. And something that maybe we can start with, when children become child actors or whatever, they have to open up a bank account that's protected and the parents cannot spend that money. It's because of all the exploitation of these parents that stole from these child actors and whatever. And everybody came together and decided as a society, as a country, that's not right.

let's get them protection and they protected them. Reality children have to get a work release so they're working, but they don't get paid and they don't get protected. That doesn't make sense to me. When I'm like, why, so when my kids are, when my kids film, I put money away for them because I think that's fair. So every time, because to me, I'm like, they don't always want to do that.

But it's part of our mommy's job and their support. supporting me and they're helping. They're working. They do deserve that. And also this stuff that they put on TV, that could stay with them forever, too. I try not to really have them involved that much because I see some of the other stuff that has happened with the kids on Jersey or whatever and then they get older. And then they have to live with that stuff forever. So I don't know. That part I would be the most focused on. The other stuff I would love to see come. But also, I've always had a good experience with my personal employment and my interaction with my production company, my network. I've only always felt supported, and I can only really speak to my own experience.

I get it that there's probably a lot of people that get taken advantage of in this realm, right, reality TV. And if you have a good level head, and that can happen in any industry you're in, right? Right. Yeah, that's for sure. I'm sure everyone listening right now is probably, yeah, I've been taking advantage up in my industry or even as a consumer. Which that just even happened to me recently. I bought, I finally caved and I was like the click, the Instagram ad and I was like, I'm going to try this clothing brand. I just can't. I got to have this skirt because I've just seen it 45,000 times. And they never sent half the stuff I ordered. I can't get them out. So stuff like that happens to everybody, but that was a good learning lesson for me there. I've been fortunate. I think I've been able to navigate. through even the hiccups wall. Like, I'm not perfect. Yeah, of course.

I've always found if you take responsibility, if you just tell your story and you're authentic about it, people are very forgiving because that is human. Yeah, that's a good point. Stay tuned to the recap. We're going to talk a little bit about, I think the children protection thing is huge.

And then also, there are some different workarounds from an accounting standpoint of how you can actually pay your kid if you have a business and you could use that as a way to keep money in the business and there's some tax incentives. So stay tuned to the recap for that. But I do like your ideas, like, especially with some of the rules and protection, let's like start with the foundation that is everywhere else. And I think protecting children that are going to reality is a hell of a start. To me, that would be a really good starting point because I think that's

something that everybody can agree on. And it's something that everybody's already agreed on. And it's just something that's missing. I think that is all really good advice. We've talked a lot, you know, about your trajectory, the success you've had, the good behind it, all of us in our have setbacks. Now I'll talk about a little bit about how some of those setbacks have helped you learn to navigate forward and how you got through those like in a rock bottom moment. One thing you talked about was sobriety. And I think they showed it on the show, the whole situation with the DUI. I've always read if you get a DUI, you can assume all when it's going to cost you around $10,000 between attorneys and fees to fix. The numbers behind that,

is that somewhat accurate? Yeah, you're actually really on the nose there. Is it? Okay. Yeah. So it's about 10 grand. That's $10,000, right? So then I think when people are learning lessons, one, if you make that decision, at the minimum, you got $10K. What are some other professional setbacks that came with that? And then how'd you overcome those? It's a weird one because, you know, the world we're in. And I think personally, that was a hard hit for me to take because that was a really big mistake, right?

And that was like one of the worst decisions that I've made. And I feel very bad that I was, that I made that mistake. but it's almost like professionally you're in reality world. Yeah. So like that side of it is tough. But now what I see is what I did was I made a mistake and that was four and a half years ago. And now some of my current castmates are still bringing that up. I have worked so hard on Carragala, my skincare line and to get that company up and running.

And I just recently, within this past year, I got my real estate license and I'm starting to really get after the real estate. And so far, fortunately, because people can see who I am, I actually have the opportunity to show that through the show. It hasn't affected me negatively, but it bothers me because you don't want something like that to be a stain on you, be brought up. You want to be looked at like a professional and responsible. And I am all of those things. But this is what I always try to teach my children, and I fully believe this, that life is not about trying to not make mistakes. It's about how you pick yourself up from them, because you will make mistakes. You start a company, you will fuck up. That's a part of it. That is a part of the process.

In real life, you will mess up as well. It's unavoidable. We all do. But people will be forgiving, like allowing yourself to be human and make a mistake. Don't harp on it. Stand up, pick yourself up, learn from it. Don't make the same mistake twice. You make the same mistake twice, you're done. Because now that's who you are. You make it once and you change your behavior. That's personal growth. That elevates your brand. So I do think that depending on how you handle these mistakes, if you take responsibility and you stand up for yourself and you learn and you move on, you now have a learning lesson. It's another building block to step up, another rung in the ladder. Totally. And you use the word stain, and I think about if you make that decision twice or that mistake twice, that stain

can become a complete disaster, right? But if you learn from it, that stain could actually become a shining part of your life. About what happened in your situation. Now you have all these years to talk about sobriety, growth from it, how you can help other people that have undergone it, how one mistake doesn't define who you are and it could shape your path forward in so many directions. One thing I want to ask you about, and I do want to talk about your skincare company and your real estate transition, but I just wrote a book. It comes out, April. It's going to be called, thank you so much. Paying the ass for anyone out there. I wouldn't recommend. So it's called talk money to me. It's the eight questions that you have to

ask your significant other as it relates to money. So the answer isn't subjective. It's objective. It's a dollar amounts of the things that you should know about your partner and they should know about you and how you can grow as a unit financially. That is so smart. It's just so important today. It's talk about all of these things before you get married. Before you get married. And that's what I want to ask you about. My question for you is someone that has been married and then gone through a divorce and has had success, do you have any suggestions or opinions on pre-numps or things to think about before you get married as it relates to this given the fact you've had to go through it? Yeah, for sure. I think that, first of all, I think there's a huge, we are, it is like a

disservice to our young, our youth that we don't educate more on this topic. So like something like your book is really brilliant because kids need to hear this stuff, right? They're getting married young and they don't even know what they're really doing. It's a contract. It's a life contract. And when you get married, you're agreeing to split half your 401K. You're agreeing to split custody of children, like all this stuff that you don't really think about. And if you don't know if your views are in alignment with your partner before you go into it, then that's a huge red flag.

I think that there needs to be more education on it prior. I think that it's not the worst idea to sit down with a divorce attorney before you get married and learn what it looks like if it doesn't work out. Right. It is more than 50% odds that it's not going to work out. So shouldn't you know what the other side of that looks like, right? I think that is, but also I would encourage women, but not just women, men too. I think it's really important now hindsight and I will preach this to my children to have

your own financial independence and security before you are able to. to share your life with someone else. I just think it's really important. Then even if you're on that level and then you find your meat and it makes more sense for you as a couple that one person then works and the other person's with the kids or whatever your situation, you can grow and change out of that. But I think you need to know and understand what it is to be able to financially take care of yourself before you can agree to co-mingle and cohabitate and build a life with somebody for us. And I think if you don't do that, the opportunity, I'm sure you see this all the time, for leverage and weaponizing of wealth in a relationship beyond the dollars and cents becomes intense. Hey, I do this and this, so I'm expecting you to do this and this.

Like not having a system if you're dependent on someone for the resource of money could lead to a super, super toxic lifestyle. 100%. I think the best thing that you can do in a relationship is not have expectation. What does this look like for us? This is just us. This isn't, we have to replicate anybody else's thing. Who are we together?

What are you thinking going into this? What am I thinking going into this? What does this look like after we get married? Because that's really when life begins anyway, right? It's like after that party. I think it's really important to just be on the same page and be open about all of these things. A lot of the stuff we talk about in this show are the things that we should have been taught in school, that we weren't taught in school. and we had a big L.A. divorce attorney come on, actually, and she said, the one thing no one thinks about is there's a little naive with the idea of a pre-num, but guess what? Everyone has a pre-num. She goes, anyone that gets married is a pre-num, whether you have one or not. And I was like, what do you mean? She goes, every state has their own laws. That state is your pre-num. Do you want to negotiate that state law, or do you want to keep it what it is? And if you want to keep it what it is, that's fine. But at least talk to someone that could say, hey, just so you know in this state, when you get married, and if you have kids,

this happens and this happens. And if you get divorced, we could have tracking on your significant other. There could be tracking on your kids forever. You're going to have to be like intertwined. Know this stuff before you make that decision. Yeah. Especially if you get married later and you guys come to the table with what you come to the table with. It's just smart, right? Because you want it to work out. But if it doesn't, everybody knows what the end of a relationship looks like. It's emotional. And many and emotions should always be separate. So if you have that pre-nup in place, it just makes your breakup and your separation less toxic. So who would it want that?

It's like making, it's like saying, I love you enough to know right now that I hope we are together forever. But if we're not together forever, I love you enough to not make this as toxic and horrible as possible on our way out from each other. Let's not bring it on to our children. Let's not do any of that. Plus for me now, like honestly where I'm at, I would all. 100% get a pre-up, no matter who, I was with or whatever, because I have three children.

And for me, what I've worked for and built so far, that is for my kids. That's my legacy. That's what I'm leaving. And I want that to go to my children. Now, you meet someone and then you become on the same page, whatever you build and grow after that, you can do it together. Sure. But there has to be some separation.

There has to be some system. there has to be discussions, even if you're going into the first relationship, the next relationship, this stuff is tricky. Me and my boyfriend, we talk about these things. What does that look like for us? And because I want to be clear about where I stand and what I'm thinking this looks like as we live our life together. I don't even care if we get married or not, but I still want to be clear about our financial

situation. Do you have a certain rule that you prescribe to or that you follow or that you've talked to about, for example, my ex-fiance and we had a joint account and then we decided how much we'd put in there a month, we'd put in it, and then we used it for 50-50 stuff, everything else we did on our own. Yeah. Do you have a rule that you would suggest to someone or a thought about that as you're navigating this currently? I do think that's a good idea. We do not have a joint account. I'm the homeowner. Like, it's my home. So then, but then, like, Travis, my boyfriend, he'll just, he just contributes, like, obviously for all our bills and stuff. But then I pay

everything. But I do think that is a really good idea to have a joint account. I think it was the family feud. Steve Harvey, I think I saw him say something about that that was like really interesting to me that he was like, you should always have three bank accounts, I think he said. There was like one that you join and that's like for your bills and everything. And then like you should each have your own play money. And it takes out that like you're not always constantly looking at each other spending or be, yeah, because it's like that, you're allowed to do whatever you want with that money. You've agreed upon it. You want to go buy the purse? Go buy the purse. Right. You want to go blow it on. I don't know, you want to bet on football all day, whatever you want to do. Go do it. And then nobody's like getting at each other. And then you still know that you have the bills paid. I think obviously one of the smartest things you can do is you always need to be focused on retirement and focus on the college funds for the kids. Yeah. Those are two massive funds. So those are like, if you're not doing that.

Yeah. The beginning and the end. The beginning and the end. Those are huge. Those are huge. Am I taking the book on joint accounts? I understand some people make a million and their significant other makes 30. Like you have to create a system that works for you. You could even create a system where like whatever percentage of your gross revenue is compared to your significant other, you guys decide, let's say, it's $2,000 a month you put in. The person who makes, let's say, 20% of what the other person makes, the one person puts 20% of the 2000, the other person puts 80%, and then you just use that to split up finances. So there's a lot of systems out there.

I think the overarching theme here, be proactive, don't be reactive. And then I got to transition because one thing you've been proactive about is now real estate. It's the hot place to be. You're from reality TV. Every selling sunset, we've already said, the millionaire listing, Ryan, Sourhan, all of them are absolutely crushing it in that space. One thing you had said is that people now want to be on real housewives. People now also want to be on the reality real estate shows.

Is that kind of part of the reason you're thinking about it? made you make this decision? In all honesty, so I have Carragala, right? So that's a startup. So startups are difficult. It's a grind. All the money that I make, I put right back into my company. I wanted to ask you about that. Have you taken, are you profitable with that yet? I don't take anything. No, I put it all back in because I want that to be successful and it takes money to make money. That is a long-term play and I'm comfortable with that. But then I wanted something additional to be able to make money now. I wanted to feel like two things. If I was fired tomorrow, I need a plan B. I need to be able to support myself, pay my bills, take care of my

kids. And also, it was important for me to also start something where I had enough financial independence that if I wanted to leave the show, I could. Got it. And that was just really important to me. And so for me, that is real estate. And listen, There's always, you know, if there is a show in their entertainment value, I'm here for it, you know, but that was not like my initial catalyst. Well, Jason Oppenheim has been on the show. Jason, get Gina Kaye on your show. Let's go. Here's the shout-out. Let me ask you this. From a dollars and cents perspective, you've started real estate, you're starting to do new home buyers to celebrities. You want to

be able to supplement income? Have you made good money doing it? So I got my license within the last six months. So I'm brand new, but I'll tell you this month. Yeah. I actually did get my housemate into a new house, Jen. So that was like really exciting and I did cash my check from that. So that was pretty cool. But this month in particular is the first month that I'm actually going to see. I actually have houses in escrow and I'm actually moving forward on deals. Okay. So within the next few months, yeah, it's lucrative, right? It's definitely like a very good industry to be in. Plus, just from the standpoint of also my own personal investments, you get, to see deals before everybody else does. And so you get to see behind the curtain. And then if I buy or sell anything, just simply saving that on that commission. Yeah.

It's huge. And it's 6%, 5% usually? We're like a 2% situation down there, but two, three, three percent. But because it's the buyers and the sellers. Yeah, both. Yeah. Together six. But it's still, but the house value.

Yeah, too. I mean, I'm selling an Orange County. You have a $10 million a house. It's amazing. It's amazing. Yes. like very, very significant. I need to get a $10 million house. I got to sell, I got to get Heather DeBraw. I got to get her. I got to get on that. Get Heather going. That's a $300,000 check

right there. Yeah, totally. I love it. I'll cash it. I'll cash that to bro money. Let's go, Gina. All right. As we're wrapping up, I have a few other questions. Carragala, it's your skincare line, startup investment. You started it. It's going well. You've invested all the money back. How much give people an idea you want to start a skincare line? How much would someone have to save up to invest into a skincare line if they want to do something similar to what you did. Way more than I thought originally. I thought going into it, I was like, okay, but I do have a financial partner. Okay. So that is the first. So you raise capital with them. Yeah, they, yeah, they, I didn't have to raise capital. They had, they came with the capital.

Okay. Which was very helpful, right? In an exchange, they got, just for people back home that might get confused about, they got equity or what? We're just, we're 50% partners. Sometimes people get very caught up on that, right? That, especially like maybe like reality stories or whatever, they think they're going to get these deals where they're going to be like, to have 50% in a company and not come with any money is huge. Huge. Yeah. So I'm like very sad. I'm like, this is an amazing deal. And it's an amazing brand. Now, I put my blood sweat and tears into it. It is me all in there. But I also didn't have to take that financial risk. So that was pretty incredible. It's going well. I would say when we started, we thought it was going to be about 50 grand. But then to really get it up and running with

legs. It was more like 200,000. It was a big investment. But it is, but skincare is, first of all, you have to be passionate about the thing that you're doing. And so for me, I really had issues with my skin, like pretty bad. And I wanted to do something about it. It was during COVID. And so I was able to go out and find like these, they're just incredible products and they work. And then you're able to brand them and put your mark on them. The name, Carragalla actually, the whole company just reeks of me really. It's a gala. So Kara Kara is a type of orange and gala is a type of apple. So for me, it represents Orange County in New York because I'm from New York. And that's like the two halves of my heart. Just like crashed together. Plus it just sounds pretty and nobody would know.

Like I like a good undertone there where you don't really know. I like that. I like that. And where can people find? At caragala.com. We're all e-commerce right now. I actually did just move into some smaller local retail spots. And actually I'm in Cryo House. Oh, nice. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So we are are moving into some smaller retail opportunities, but mostly online. I love it. Go find it there. Last question about Carragala is you said about, you expected 50,000, you put in 200,000. Have you broke even yet? And if so, how long did it take the break even? We are not, I have not broken even yet.

See, I love that. People know out there, it is hard to start a business. It is so hard. Sweat, tears, investment. It's really hard. So it's just, there's so much more than when people just see one headline, exited a company for $10 million. does, and that's why I love about this show. I'm very aware, too, because it's one egg, right?

I want Carragala to be successful. I believe in it, and I know that the products are phenomenal and they work. I truly do. But that does not mean that it's going to be successful. I know now what I have to do for Carragala is focus in on my marketing. Like, I know the part that I'm not hitting. I'm also stretched very thin at the moment. But that's why I'm okay with how it is, we're getting sales, we get sales, we're getting good sales, but I could be hitting it a lot harder and a business is what you put into it. And so this, the next year upcoming, that's going to be part of my, I'm going to hit that harder and that's going to be part of my focus. All right, guys, go to Carragala.com, invest in yourself, find sources of revenue that are driven by your brand

and then go find sources of revenue that are driven by brands that you don't have to be there face to face. That's the story of Gina Kay. You've done it in so many different ways. We're going to have to have you back on trading secrets when you're on selling sunset and you go to the real estate. Let's go. All right, but we've got to end with one trading secret. It's something that people can't learn from a professor in a classroom, textbook, Google, YouTube tutorials. They can only hear it from you. One trading secret about career, money, life, relationships, whatever you think is best. What can you leave us with? I truly believe that authenticity is your biggest asset. I think that authenticity is the one thing that cannot be replicated, who you are as a person. that is what you should lead with because that's one thing that nobody else can do. You are who you are and you are different from any other person on this planet. So if you can just showcase that and show people why you're different, I would say try to showcase the good stuff, not the bad stuff, but be honest and open even about the bad stuff, right? And if you walk through this life and at the end of it, you say, you know what, I did it,

I live my life and I did it authentically, that is honestly more valuable than any money you could ever put in the bank. But I also believe it'll help you put money in the bank. Ooh, I love that. That's a hell of a trading secret. I'm listening. I look at everyone that's in this room. We all have our own story. How do I differentiate from all the talented people are here? My story is my story. It's different. Highlight it. Tell your story. And inevitably, it might put money in the bank. Gina, where can everyone find more of you, your products, everything going on. They want more Gina K. Where can they get it? Oh, yeah. I wish it was Gina K. I tried to do a rebrand. But all of my social handles are at Gina Kirshenheiter. Try saying that

times fast. I had to practice it for. Hopefully they flash it up on the screen. We'll put it up there. Let's go. Follow ad. And I'm on Insta, TikTok, Twitter, all that, although I try to stay out Twitter because it's a toilet. Team Threads. And Carragala, don't forget about that. Gina, thank you so much for me on this episode of Trading Secrets. It was great to hear from you and learn all about your little secrets you got going on. Thank you so much. This was so fun. Ding, ding, ding.

We are closing in the bell to the Gina Kay episode. It was jam packed. It was deep. It was emotional. We talked about all things, career navigation, side hustle, even the cost of a DUI. David, there was a whole lot of action. I know you're a deep guy. So right out of the gate, what do you think?

I'm thinking a lot. One of those guests were, to be honest, I didn't know much about her. I didn't even know what she looked like. So I'm listening to it. I'm just taking it all in. I'm absorbing it all. I thought you guys could have gone on forever, but really touched a lot of things. But, you know, with her, I felt like she was pretty wise.

I thought she had some really good advice. So I think I want to just, you know, I don't really have any definitions. I don't have any of that. I think I want to go the route of, you know, sharing some of what I picked up on her wisdom. How do you feel about that? I love it. Because I think one of the big things we've learned with a lot of these guests that we

have on is that everyone fucks up big time. Everyone makes mistakes. But it does feel like the majority of people that come on this show have a really good job of being self-aware to look at those mistakes, grow from those stakes, and move on. And for me, I felt like we learned so much about her mistakes and then how specifically in all these different areas she has pivoted and changed. To build off that one quote she had is, if you make a mistake and grow from it, that actually elevates your brand, you can use that to your advantage, you can market that, you can say,

look how much I've grown, look at the personal growth, look at the reflection I have. But if you make the same mistake twice, that's now who you are, right? You're stained from that. So I thought that was just a really interesting takeaway that can be as drastic as like a DUI from her. It could also be that second mistake that you made to your boss on like, you know, not responding to an email correctly or not following up with the client. Like you just don't want to get labeled that way.

And it was really interesting to hear her talk about her time on reality TV. And I'm sure this resonated with you, how she talked about if you want to have a career in reality TV, you know, what standards do you want to say it for yourself so you don't have to self-sacrifice for being on TV? And the big takeaway I got from that, Jay, was the term investable. Like I think whether you're on TV or you're in your job, you have to be investable. And I thought in my own shoes, as a coach, I just learned, I just had a Zoom call actually with a pretty high ranking coach. And he said, but the way things are changing now, he goes, you have to look yourself in the mirror

and ask yourself if you would want to be coached by you. And that kind of hit me. And I think for anybody in business and work, like, you want to get that promotion. We talk about negotiations all the time. You don't just get them by floating by. Like, how investable do you think you need to be conscious of in your everyday life, no matter what your job is? I think it applies to every industry. And if I even apply it to my industry, I love the idea of this. Especially in this space, there's so many ways to, for lack of a better word, sell out, right? Like you can sell out your body, you can sell out private information, you could sell out so much. And good for whoever does whatever. I'm not here to judge. I just think for myself, when I start questioning like, oh, maybe I should

do more of this or more of this, asking myself, especially with some of these big one-year type deals I have with collaboration, if I was the hiring manager, is that the person I would hire? So what I'm thinking about things, I'm thinking about sharing information, I'm thinking about a real, I will say to myself often, is that the person I would hire if I was in charge of that company for that one year deal at six figures? And I think thinking about that's really important because it applies to all the and you have a staff too. Like I think same thing applies when you're, you know, take yourself and put yourself in the, you know, authoritative position. You got to be looking at that too. Like if you're going to keep someone on and give them a promotion, like they have to be investable. They have to be

investable and the mistake thing is huge. Everyone makes mistakes. I've probably made a hundred today. If you keep repeating the same mistakes over and over as someone that is like in a more of a manager type level, I will bookmark that. And when raise time comes, promotion time comes, when people are asking for more, it's like my overall value that I am putting on you is decreasing as you're continuing to make the same mistakes. So you're expendable. And I think to, I'm starting to realize even as we're talking about it, it was really like the reflection pieces in this interview and podcast that like really resonated with me one thing that she did reflect on is talking about having your own sense of financial security and i like the way that she talked

about it because it wasn't just like having the experience of being financially secure in terms of dollars and cents it was the knowledge around it so she said like going into a relationship or a lifelong partnership having that knowledge and experience and my takeaway from that was like to be in a successful relationship when it comes to finances and insecurity, understanding all that goes into it. My thing is this, is that the more question marks there are in life, the more anxiety that becomes part of like the energy I carry. And the less question marks I have, the less anxiety and stress I'm carrying. And we've talked about it before, stress kills. When you talk

about being in a relationship and then getting married, the more question marks you have around like, well, what if this happens, or what if this happens, or how do I support myself? Or well, I still have the same lifestyle if we're not together. Am I protected? Why live in a world where you have to walk on eggshells wondering what those answers are. Those are answers that literally change every single thing of your life, how you live, what you do, what you eat, what you drive, where you go, everything. And so I just wonder to myself, if as a society, we can eliminate question marks. If we can do our best to understand exactly what the answers are, I think we'll carry less anxiety, we'll have higher energy and will be better as we try to navigate what's next because

we're not guessing 100% I think you hit the nail on the head there that's that really I'm liking the way that you approach that Jay I'm liking that answer I'm just going to throw this one out there because I watch it this weekend we're talking about financial security we're talking about relationships Gina Kay talked a lot about support and supporting your partner professionally and what they're doing have you by chance seen the Beckham documentary that's on Netflix huge Beckham guy oh no I have not seen oh it's too much it's too much the guy has more looks And he's like Brad Pitt mixed with Johnny Depp. I mean, he's just, he's got that edgy, those, dude, his tattoo game, 12 out of 10th.

Not to get too off, kilter there. But I had no idea. First off, you'd see celebrity, really high, high profile, celebrity relationships sometimes not make it. Posh Spice, Victoria Beckham and David Beckham, Ironclad. I couldn't believe the level of support that they had as a couple. It like fired me up. That's got to be a contributor to why they're the. probably one of the most powerful couples of all time in pop culture.

Let me ask you this is someone who hasn't seen it. Your biggest takeaway is a watcher. How much those two love each other? Like I'm telling you, he would drive four hours just if he could see her for seven minutes and then you would turn around and drive back and his teammates are seeing this and he never questioned it. Whether she was going on tour, he was like, I didn't realize how many football teams he played on. I didn't realize that he played for A.C. Milan and that he went over to PSG and then he obviously went over to LA and Victoria Beckham biggest pop star in the world as part of the Spice Girls

but with him by his side supporting everyone who questioned it sure but she got up she supported it and they did it themselves you have to everyone here has to go see it um actually watch it too she's not obviously a soccer fan or a Beckham fan she was like fixated on it we crushed all four episodes in one night um and I got to say as an observer uh listening to it I felt like the supporting of the partner professionally in the relationship was something that you wanted to go a little bit deeper into detail. Is there, is there any, you have any experience that you want to talk about, comments that you want to make in your experiences and that? Look at the curious Canadian. Just throw a little dingers out there. Couple zingers. Um, oh, whenever I say, um,

that always means I don't want to talk about anything. Um, I will say this. It's been, there's been a lot of guests that we have had on who have made comments about, relationships. Blake and Gianina, Joe and Serena, Gina K, Tracy Tudor, that have really, really hit home with me lately. And so I'll leave it at that. I think what we said, David, is exactly bang on. Yeah, I think, you know, you need someone in your corner. You need someone that's moving full speed with you but it's a two-way street like a Victoria David like that sounds like a dream and I think no matter what level you are if you're Victoria David or you are you know working in an hourly rate full time right now and you're married you still need to be unison because two

is always better than one but if two aren't working is one or someone within the two aren't working is one you can tear each other down it can just tear each other down so yeah and you And it also, last recap, we talked about weaponizing, weaponizing finances and relationship too, and that gets brought into the full when you talk about supporting. What this really is pointed towards Jay is just, I'm excited for your new book because I think this is, we've had kind of like not by design, a lot of people come in and kind of naturally talk about this. So it seems like obviously something that hits home with everybody and everyone's got a little

different take on it. So I'm curious to see what those eight questions you have in that book, not to keep bringing it out, but I'm getting excited for it. Those questions are coming. And David, one of the lines that she said based on this topic of conversation was when she said, like, you have to, you're going to grow and so is your partner. And your partner is going to change and you're going to change. And you're going to have to work with that person to grow and let them achieve what makes them happy. Right. Like she grew as an individual. She had this shot. She wanted to go on. And while it wasn't good for his career, she said, okay, you don't have to come, but I need to go because I've grown to

someone who wants this. And so I just thought that was really interesting. And I've actually had conversations like this in therapy before that the idea of absolutes in relationships or business partnerships are really, really challenging because if you create an absolute of you can't do this or you shouldn't do this or I won't do this, assuming it's something that's like, you know, not a character breaching thing, you're really limiting the growth of that person. And that's what I heard from Gina. No, I think you hit the nail on the head there. One thing I do want to touch on before we wrap this up, which I thought was really interesting. No one has really ever brought it to our attention.

And we've had a lot of reality TV people on. And she was talking about how kids who are on reality TV as part of, you know, their mom or their dad, you know, being on contract with for doing show X, Y, Z. They don't, they aren't protected in terms of like having protected accounts and obviously they don't get a portion of the salaries. I just thought that that was really, really, really interesting. I want your take on that, and then also you talked about maybe some accounting workarounds by paying kids to keep money in the business, et cetera, et cetera.

So a little kid focused here, if you can touch on those two things for me. Yeah, so one thing, I have a buddy who is an oral surgeon, and he is allowed to pay his wife who doesn't work and his kids when they do any type of, like, marketing or admin. So he can literally pay them. So that money is being deducted from his practice. It's being paid to them. So it's a tax strategy for expenses to be reduced, but then you're keeping in the account. So if you have someone in your family that's doing work for you and you're trying to reduce your

overall taxable income, that's something you could do. Talk to a CPA. I am not one. I do have an MBA accounting, but I am not one. The one thing I'll say about the whole kids in acting and in reality TV is I really think there should be, we've talked about this. There's standardized compliance for everything, right? You want to be a nurse. You got to go through this test. We had our boy, Craig Conover on, we talked about the bar. There should be an organization like that with anybody that is in child acting, music, entertainment. You think about what happens these kids at such a young age.

It should be a third party compliance that has no win or loss based on what the kids do. They should be evaluated by a psychologist. They should be talked to through a coach, like very credible people to understand if that's what's in the best interest of these kids. Because if you can't drive a car, how can you make some of these. decisions that will impact your life and your mental state possibly forever. That's very, very good point. Very well thought out. I don't think that's the first time you've ever thought about that. So kudos to you. Something just popped in my head as you're

talking about, you know, workarounds to save money or put money in your business to give them to your kids and your family. Do you think if you're, let's say, a regular Joe out there, that you'd be able to save or find more money by hiring a investment professional and investing money or hiring the best accountant ever to basically show you all the tips and tricks because I feel like every episode we're talking of a tax strategy to save you money. So that's just a really random question that I had. I would say the most important professional out there is going to be your accountant, right? Your accountant's not going to tell you where you put your money to make money on it, but your accountant is going to really help you strategize where the funds should go.

So think about like, again, I like to give basic examples. Think about, your day, you have to deploy your energy towards so many different things, and you could certainly do it more efficiently. All of us could. I can too. Imagine you have this person that's like, okay, today, David, if you spent two hours this and one hour on this and three hours over here and one hour and you reduce this one by a half hour, that's going to be the most efficient for your overall performance in life today. You'd be like, great. Now that person's not going to say when you go to the gym for the hour, exactly the workouts you should do, right? They're not going to break it down, but they're helping you deploy what you should do and how and where you should

spend your time. When they say, okay, spend this 45 minutes taking your wife out to dinner, they're not going to say, go to this restaurant and here's why. They're just telling you where you should go. That's like what the accountant will do. And I think it's the most important piece. I just feel like an accountant out there will be able to say, hey, you should write off this. You should do this. You should deploy this towards that person. That's going to save me more money or get me more money than any investment that I can make with my Joe Blow investment account. So anyway, just want to throw that out there. Well, David, it was a great way to finish the episode because I think we just came up with a great idea. Tax season is around the corner. We might have to have a full

episode dedicated from an accountant. So that is coming. We have a retirement specialist. That episode's coming very, very shortly. Whole lot of action right here, right now. We have to give something away from the influencer closet. Remember, when you subscribe to this podcast, you give us five stars and you give us a review of your biggest takeaway or guests we should have on. You are entered to win something. And every recap following the week you entered, we give one person a gift away. So we are giving this away to BC Rogers. I started listening to the podcast a few months ago and I look forward to listening to each and every episode. I started my own side hustle back in May and would really love to have someone on that started a side business and has turned it into a

career. Okay, we could do that. I think David and I are actually two examples of that. businesses another full-time career. Thanks for the great content, Jason, and The Curious Canadian. So thank you for that review. Send us your address to trading secrets at jasontardick.com, and we will send you something from an influencer closet. Great episode. Thank you for tuning into another episode of Trading Secrets. One, you can't afford to miss. Making that money Living the dream