Not a Financial Unicorn with Michelle Jackson

Michelle Jackson is not a financial unicorn. She paid off $60,000 in unsecured debt. She is empathetic about personal finance. She is an author, podcaster, passive income collector. She hails from Colorado.

https://michelleismoneyhungry.com/

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Transcript

Not a Financial Unicorn with Michelle Jackson

[00:00:00] You know, we're in this really interesting season, globally, where as humans, we can really start fresh relationships with friends, romances, careers, interests. It's not that anything goes, but it's like, A huge time of awakening and enlightenment. I know that's kind of woo-hoo if there is something that's really called to you, that you've been hesitant to do try it.

There's nothing to lose.

Welcome pack to star the out. I'm one of your own steered. And of course, joining me is Ms. Christine. Hi, miss Christina. Hello, I'm doing well. How are you? Alright, I'm behaving. And today's about Michelle Jackson who paid off $60,000 in unsecured debt. She's empathetic about personal finance. She's an author podcast, your passive income.

Colorado. She does a lot of things. She wears a lot of hats. Michelle, thank you [00:01:00] for joining us today. Thank you for having me. And I'm glad I didn't spontaneously combust and the heat on the way back to record this conversation in the seat in Colorado. Isn't that like the air conditioner? We don't no, no dude, no, no one grew up with air conditioning.

I don't know how it works. Interesting. I literally, I've never lived in a house of air conditioning and I literally do not know how it works in Florida

conditioning. We it's usually not hot enough for air conditioners. So this isn't. Okay, well, we're going to start out with some icebreakers and we've got a lot of them. So you're going to love this. I always like to find out what the best concert that you've been through. So have you been to the best concert or if not a performance of some type I've been to some good ones.

Yes. I hate to say there's a best, because they're all different tonight. I'm supposed to go to a concert, but it might rain. So I haven't decided if I'm going to go, but I love this group. I've [00:02:00] seen them several times and I think it would be pretty awesome. I'm still having to force myself to be around people.

Yeah. Because we, you know, remember we're in different states. So how we did the last year was a little more intense than what you guys went through. And so people get on my nerves a lot quicker. Now I have noticed, which is sad, cause I'm an extrovert. So it's like I'm having to relearn people. Okay, well, what's the band that you're potentially going to see pending thievery corporation.

So they're incredible. I love them. I have the ticket and I may or may not go, we'll see how it goes. All right. Well, I hope that you get to go. It sounds like that would be beneficial for you to be able to be around people. Well, see, I've been around people earlier today and I'm like, eh, we're good. It's too hard for this mess.

Okay. We got some off [00:03:00] finish the sentences for ya. When planning, when planning the cover of your own personal finance book, it is important to brush your teeth. You don't want to smile. I have speckles. Yeah. So you have decided to include your face on the cover of your own personal finance book. I hadn't told anyone that because I was still running a survey on it, but yes, I have decided to do that well, so you drop that on our show.

Christine, we should be proud.

Yeah, and I haven't make sure my new crown actually stays in too. So we'll see how that goes. I have a question that leads to that later. So just a heads up, more finished the sentence, the key to having online friends, order you a pizza online is to blank. Be sad. Yes. Sounds like a good story there.

Christine was inquiring mine. [00:04:00] Christy's like, whoa, that wasn't where I thought it would go. Well, it's hot and you don't want to be around people online pizza and your sadness. Great. Wonderful. Start to the interview. Thank you. Yeah, actually now I'm really, I've been in a pretty good mood today. So this is actually great.

The story there's gotta be more to this having friends or no, that's it.

Christine Christine dropped off on her behalf. She did, you know what? There's storms in Daytona right now because of the weather, the tropical, yeah, tropical weather. So let's see if she'll jump back. Okay. No, no, you're fine. So, Michelle, I don't know what happened, but we've lost Christine and I think it's due to weather.

So I'm just going to keep [00:05:00] going. And the spirit of Christine, maybe I could like change my voice and ask the questions. Like Christine's still here. Okay. Awkward, but hilarious. Okay, so I'll, I'll try to move it, Christine. I don't think I can like, okay. Finish this sentence. Yeah. Yeah. Just, just be yourself.

Just be yourself. Just be yourself. Okay. My favorite thing about Colorado is. The fact that I basically everything. I love it. Everything Colorado. I mean, there are things I hate, but I'm not going to share that with you guys trying to keep this positive. Yeah. That's why I'm only sharing that. I really do love my home state.

Thank you. Continuing on with fish distance, because we like it. I'm only willing to share a tiny table with someone. I have not,

I haven't today. So yeah, no, it's still the Corona at times. And, and if you have crazy eyes and you come up to me at a coffee shop, I want to share a seat with [00:06:00] me. It's not going to happen unless it's a community table. Not a problem that happened to me in that way. I was at a table just working and a guy sat next to me.

I had a table for two and I was like, oh, I'm just going to plug in right here. Don't worry. I'm worried. And that was what happened today. I'm like, this is a table. 1.5 and the 0.5 being my bag, backpack, my backpack. Look at my laptop. You are not to join me today. So people listening, I'm actually very, very friendly, but I'm skiddish because of the past year.

I'm sure I'll grow out of this in another year or two. I'm still skiddish. Okay. Yeah. So if you ever drink alcohol at a coworking space, I don't even know where to go with. Like have I, if I know I'm saying, if you ever drink alcohol at a coworking space blank, finish the sentence. [00:07:00] Only have one glass. Is that your rule of thumb?

Yes, because he always sloppy. Oh my goodness. What's the beverage of choice at the coworking. Anything free. So even if that's not the, uh, the optimal brands, you'll say yes. Is that what I'm hearing? Well, I mean, if it's free, if it's free. Okay. These are good. I have to say like, typically when I've had, when I've been served a tip.

At a coworking space. It's always been, there's a nice variety from non-alcoholic to alcoholic, from beer to wine. So it's always a good time. Continuing on reserving a hotel room out of state can likely lead to being rejected. So that happened to me. Your objection. Yes. Thought it was fraud. So, because I haven't been outside of my state since 2019 [00:08:00] fall of 2019.

And so I am excited to be joining you guys at podcast movement, going through the motions of trying to get this all taken care of. And visa was like, why is this charge originating out of Tennessee? We're not going to prove it. It's gotta be fraud. And I'm like, I really want to be there. So that's been an interesting experience and I'm a pretty good traveler, but this was something I hadn't really anticipated happening.

Normally I do let my bank know, Hey, this is what's going to happen, but clearly it's just been so long. I slipped up. I slipped up.

I will see, like I contacted them and they're like, well, I put a note on there. This is, I actually contacted them twice about this. So, so we'll see what happens. All right. I ended up in an Airbnb, sleeping in a rental car somewhere,

[00:09:00] trying to figure something out. If you wake up craving meat blank, that means you have fallen asleep to the American barbecue cook-off or whatever, the name of that show. And that happened to me this week. It was, that is such a wonderful show. It's on Netflix. And if I'm not even a big meat eater, but the pure joy that the contestants and the judges.

Have enjoying, you know, well-made meats is just, it's a sight to behold

when eating avocado toast, it is important to not break your temporary crown Storytime. I mean, and not much of a story, I'm getting a new crown. Um, haven't gone to the doctor, to the dentist for a year. Typically I go [00:10:00] every six months. So that was actually a big deal. Everyone goes to the dentist because when I went, they were like, oh, Hey, we have bad news.

And I'm like, oh. And so I go in, not only did I need my crown replaced, but I also needed fillings put in. So it was, it was a lot of fun. And then I had a temporary crown put in which basically it was like a fake tooth. Super exciting until you get the new one, the new one's being printed by a 3d printer, which is kind of exciting.

And so they, so I went to the mountains. I had a lovely piece of avocado toast and that. Bad boy, I E the crown, the temporary crown broke. I wasn't expecting that on avocado toast. I thought it would break on something a little more substantial, but it's okay. Because the new ones arriving the next week, so.

Okay. I'm thankful to hear that. Yeah, I am too. All right. This is the last [00:11:00] finish the sentence. I know. This is. The last one is my best ride share story. Was that one time when I don't use them anymore. Uh, okay. I'll tell you what you do lend out your car. So let's talk now. I don't, I use, I've never, I never did that.

I never did. That's over my best car share story. Was that one time when actually this did happen this week? I went to the mountains and, you know, I reserved the car share. So for those of you are like, what in the hell, heck excuse me. As a car share, Akasha basically is a really cool system where you rent, you have a membership to use a fleet of cars.

You're not renting, it's a membership. So I pay a small, like $13 fee each month. And then I pick the car I'd like to use. And then I pay for the actual time that I use it. Pretty straightforward, but the thing is this time I accidentally reserved, or I scheduled to return the [00:12:00] car at 4:00 AM instead of 4:00 PM.

And so, yeah, that was kind of a like oopsie, but because I've been with them for so long, it was a very easy fix. No issues. I was a little embarrassed because the car kept locking because I wasn't technically supposed to be using the car. So like I got back into Denver and I went and picked up some food and then I couldn't get the car to drive.

And I'm like, you guys, I don't understand what's going on. And then finally at the third stop where it wouldn't work, I was like, something's up? And it was because technically the system thought I was supposed to return it at 4:00 AM. There's that if someone wants to car share, well, it depends on where you live.

So mine is a nonprofit based in Colorado. It's only in Denver, Boulder and Northern Colorado. So it's very unique to the state, but there are for profit systems as well. So you just have to Google it for your city and.

[00:13:00] Yeah. I don't know if you want me to tell you what happened or they totally, I totally want to know. Yeah. It's stormy fricking crazy. And I mentioned it to him here. I was like, I don't know if you, before, before you got in the call, this is starting here. I don't know if this mic is going to pick up the thunder and everything.

Right. So I see this flashing light in oh girl, computer monitors. They both go off. Flag. And I'm like, oh, snaps. And I'm trying to like text him and I'm like trying to tweet him. But the signal here is so bad. Like I get like two bars and that's at the window in my one room. And then it was still not going out because of the terrible weather.

So I'm like, oh my God. And then I get to almost come on and then there's a windows update and it's like 20%. I was like,

I was just like going crazy. I was like,

[00:14:00] what happens when Michelle was.

Oh, you know what, but see, this is what my, why my grandma always hangs up. I'm on the phone with her or my mom actually. And there's lightning coming in. They're like, we're done. We're out. See you later. Christine. I know you had a, kind of a hard stop or are you still able to hang with us or what are you going to do?

Oh yeah, the sixth. It is six o'clock. Yeah, I do have something. So are you going to finish it? And I'll just finish up

a Friday. Jesus. Oh, good. I hope your other thing. It goes better than this one. Cause they sent me a thing about an outage talking about the it's. The restoration is hoping for eight o'clock. Oh, back down. I'm like, I don't even know what's going on. [00:15:00] But yeah,

no, that was funny though. As long as you're okay. We're good. Yeah. Hopefully let the record reflect. Well, since you're still on for another minute, can you ask the next question? I will ask the next question, Michelle. Okay. We mentioned your personal finance book earlier. You've written a number of books in different times.

Such as the topics of money in Colorado, how did you get your mom's approval on your book? What can your readers expect from your upcoming book on personal finance? Well, my mom, I'm the only child. So basically whatever I want to do, she's like, okay. Um, to be honest, like she's just very easygoing about these things.

I think the big issue with the book is respecting her privacy because there are just certain things within my story that obviously, or for some people may not know, does overlap with hers. And so just really. Mindful about that [00:16:00] and just really sharing my story and, and respecting her privacy and the readers can expect what what's coming up in this book.

So the book is going to be released in January. I'm kind of finalizing all of the details, but the idea behind it. It's more of an emotion driven book versus this is how you budget because every book tells you how to budget. It's really boring. And I feel like right now, we keep hearing these stories about these financial unicorns.

You know, the person who's like, well, I paid off a hundred thousand dollars in three months or, you know, like people were like, well, I made, and I'm not Downing the story. I believe these stories are true. Okay. But the problem is we're getting a lot of these stories. Like I made a hundred thousand dollars in three months and then took care of everything.

And I feel like the problem with these financial unicorn stories is that it can be. It can be very appealing, but it can also be a [00:17:00] detriment to people who are like, you know what, I don't, I'm not there yet. Like, I'm not going to be this financial unicorn. I'm not going to be making money like this, and maybe it's not even worth trying.

And so my book not a financial unicorn is kind of to say it is worth trying. It is worth, you know, starting our financial journey. Most of us are not financial unicorn. And I want to highlight that conversation because I've gotten really frustrated with this idea with this trope that keeps being shared in media, because it's so sexy.

And honestly, after paying off this debt and just the experiences I've had, it's not sexy. Right. But it's really changed my life. And change the lives of others because I've shared my story. And I think it's just so important to highlight you don't have to be a financial unicorn. I'm not a financial unicorn and my story matters and it's changed my life, taking these steps.

And if you're at the beginning, [00:18:00] especially now with the fallout from COVID at the financial fallout, I don't want people list, you know, thinking why should I bother you should bother. And it might be slow. Your financial journey, but it's going to be worth it. And that's why I'm putting the book out. Yeah.

And I love the title. That's great. So I've heard some of your personal finance story. I know Christine's not familiar with it. Can you just share a little bit about what compelled you to pay off your debt and then start being more intentional with your finances? Well, I think there's more of the story.

It's not that it wasn't intentional about my finances. It was that I had a lot of things, kind of come together into a big bottle. Just hell. And I'm going to say it that way, because it was basically a hot, crazy mess. And so, um, it was, it's not that hot, but so basically when I was younger, one of the things that.

I was taught about money was just to work [00:19:00] hard. I think this is something that a lot of Americans are taught, work hard. Be ethical, show up. Your word is your bond. These are very, very important life. I didn't get the other part of the conversation about financial management savings investing. And quite honestly, I'm a natural spender.

I'm like one of those people. And so that lack of information and education kind of also collided with lack of money in general, because I wasn't from a wealthy family and like many people, I wanted things like basic. I want it nice clothes. I want it some nice experiences. I wanted to go to college. Like there's, you know, I wanted to go on little trips abroad, just like most people, but I really didn't have a lot of resources to facilitate that.

And I didn't have financial education. And so I just would mess. I would work really hard, but my money was always constantly [00:20:00] a mess because I didn't have financial management skills. And so it's just, you know, a life long learning over and over again, because I would make these mistakes and I never really had feedback about, well, okay, you've made these mistakes.

Maybe you should avoid doing this. Like that didn't really like happen. And then what also happened was my mom's finances impacted mine because there was a point where she lost her job. It was in the airline industry. I was, I had a financial mess. She didn't have a job. And I had to take care of both of us on Starbucks money and student loans.

I am very thankful that I was able to do it. And that's part of the reason why I lead my, my platform with empathy, because I feel like a lot of people, when they talk about, I can just kind of tell their financial story based on the comments that they've made. I'm like, you've never been so. Like [00:21:00] tight for money that you're scrounging for change.

So you can take the bus and you're going to walk home after you get done with work. You've never been that person. Yeah. And so when you had experiences like that, it really changes how you think about money. And then finally it just one day I was just tired. I was just tired. I was, I was just always tired.

I was tired of having people call me because I had bill collectors. I was tired of all the mail. I was tired of the text messages. I was just tired, but one of the issues was I had a really complicated. Financial mess. And this is something that in personal finance circles, I think that they, they don't talk about enough.

I think it's a huge disservice to our communities that we, we are trying to educate or just share our stories. They don't share the conversation about how financial complexity can really impact your financial journey. And for me, I had a really complicated debt, [00:22:00] even though it was, you know, a little over 60,000 for the unsecured debt, that's 60,000 unsecured debt.

That was a lot of different people that I was dealing with. That was a lot of different annual percentage rates. That was a lot of different levels of. Bills that were either in good or bad standing. Most of them bad, like there was just a lot. And I feel like there's a very different conversation to be had when you owe say 30 plus bills, regardless of how large or small they are versus one $60,000.

Right. Do you know what I mean? Because you're only, you're only negotiating and dealing with one organization, one entity versus 30 plus, and the brain energy that it takes to do that is very different. And I can say that because I've gone through the complicated part and now I'm about to deal with my student loans and they're in good standing, but they're a little larger than I would want, but they're the [00:23:00] only thing I have to pay.

And that's super easy. Like after dealing with this other mess, they're so easy because I don't, I like the way that my finances and what I do and how much I earn has changed. It's just, it's such a different ball game, a different mindset, a different mental and energy. And I think that's the other thing that we don't talk about enough, which is financial skills.

Aren't just you budget. They're budgeting debt payoff is a financial skill. Protecting your assets. Like all the different insurances that you need to have is a financial skill. Growing your income as a financial skill, managing your income as a financial skill, taking care of your kids. If you have kids and the finances that impact them, securing your legacy.

And so when people sit there and they're like, well, I don't get why you don't get it. I'm like, well, the last. I wrote down 21 different financial skills [00:24:00] that we have to know in the U S in particular, because we don't have social services that may mitigate the need to know about certain other skills.

Right. And I'm like, it's hardly surprising that a lot of us are struggling to understand certain concepts. And now you have to add crypto, that's a whole nother ball of wax. If you're into emerging financial markets and technology and something that you want to learn. So, and by the way, I'm not endorsing crypto.

I'm just saying that's a whole nother story. Yeah, right. So for me, I get very frustrated with people because I feel like we have so many conversations about money that are kind of incomplete. And so that was a big part of me thinking about, you know, I want to write this book. I don't feel like there are enough books written about money in this way.

I don't think there are enough books written by women of color. [00:25:00] I have the right to share my story because it's 20, 21 and we have the technology to do so. And I feel like it might be of service to others and it might be impactful. And so that is something that I've decided to do. It's like, why not?

yeah. So you said this wouldn't even be there January, is that what I'm hearing? Right. So the book will not be released until January and what I'm looking to do. So I'm in the preliminary stages. Building this out, but I'd like to have a two day financial summit prior to the book release state. My goal is to have that be free for the attendees, because I I'm, honestly, I can't express how concerned I am about people right now.

And. I live in a very nice town. I love where I live, but I've visited 45 of the [00:26:00] United States in my life. And every time I've visited, I've always seen poverty in every state. I don't care where you're from. I don't care what state you're in. I've seen it in every state. One of the most disturbing things that I've seen, especially in the last five years is the acceleration of poverty in my town, which really didn't, it didn't exist like this.

We didn't have homeless. We didn't that none of this existed in the way that it does now. And so if I'm able to provide a high quality free, impactful resource that does a couple of things, serves people who really need the help, whether that's. Lower upper or, or middle-class, or they were very wealthy and maybe they lost their job or maybe they were, you know, just scraping by.

And then they were able to get an incredible opportunity, but then they're like, I have never made so much money in my life now, what, and I feel like [00:27:00] too much to whom much is given much is expected. And so that's the other piece too. It's like, I may not be satisfied with everything that's going on in my life.

But when I look at it as, as a whole, I've been very blessed. And so I want to kind of combine these two things. So I'll share a more as I get things planned out. And as I, you know, as you know, it costs a lot of money to do these things. Well, it could be that I do a very small event, but I want to make sure that everyone's paid.

That it runs smoothly and that I'm respectful of the time of the, you know, the people who are attending. And so that's a big project that I'm working on this fall. Wow. Okay. So, because of time, I'm going to start to wrap this up. Cause I had a lot of other questions, but I don't want to. [00:28:00] No, no, I have the time, like whatever you want to do.

All right. So I'll, I'll just pick out cherry pick. How about that? Okay. So, so I've seen on Twitter, how you talk about grants. So I'm curious, how can a small business, so one of the things that I really wish most business owners, whether they're online or bricks and mortar. Would realize, especially right now at the time we're recording this episode, we're coming out of COVID, but we're also coming out of several massive stimulus packages.

And within the stimulus packages, there's a crazy amount of stimulus money's being distributed via grants via third party grant, district distributors, be it via the government. That kind of thing right now is a really good time. To apply for grants in order to use for your [00:29:00] business in order to do marketing or to hire people or whatever it is you need to do.

I feel like a lot of people are losing out on opportunities by not exploring grants as an additional way to fund their business. And one of the ways I'm doing that is I'm just creating a massive master sheet. And the way that this looks is I just. Every week or so I do the research on it. I now have a virtual assistant who literally is onboarding this week and next, so brand new to me.

And one of her tasks is to really help me find opportunities, whether it is sponsorships, which is a whole different conversation or grants. So that I can put it in a spreadsheet. Now, one of the things that I'm finding is some of these grants have already been distributed. That's totally fine. I plan on being in business next year.

And so if I know that an [00:30:00] organization has already closed their call for submissions, I still add them to my list because now I know that sometime next year to double circle back and check on that organization. So that I can see when their new call for submissions will open. And then I can prepare, I can, I can be proactive about the application process, because I already know that these are organizations likely to sponsor a grant again, because typically they don't do it.

Just one. Yeah. Okay. And if somebody is just wanting to learn more about that, or are you just Googling, like, how are you finding out about stuff? Yep. Go to Twitter. Do hashtag grants. You might have to do a lot of research, but it could be grants. And when you're Googling grants and the type of business space that you're in.

So if you are a parent. And you run a business focused on children. The [00:31:00] grants would be tagged in a different way than rants for entertainment. So just be mindful of that when you're doing research. Okay. You and I first kind of met because of podcasting and then events like VidCon. You recently changed the music on your podcast.

So why did you do that? And then I want to hear what you love about podcasts. Well, I changed it because my old podcast or my old laptop. And, and actually, but it was way overdue to be honest. And it's never a bad thing to freshen up the vibe of your show. So my old laptop died. I, I did find one of the WAV files for one of my shows.

And then I was like, you know what? Let's just find new, new music for the shows. Like why not? So I did, and I forgot the other question. What was that? What are some things you love about your podcast? I love and real talk. I have more than one podcast. I love [00:32:00] having deep conversations with people. About the specific topics that I do for my different shows.

One of the threads that's consistent within amongst all four shows is that I'm very interested in having conversations with POC and allied voices in the spaces that I'm I'm focused in. So for example, in my personal finance content, I am very interested in conversations about financial equity and what are things that people are doing to open up opportunities to others.

And so that is something that I, I care about. For my Colorado show, same thing, but it's a little more nuanced in that. These are specifically people here in Colorado. So I do have a thread that's consistent amongst all of the shows and it just podcasting allows me to ask the questions that I would ask [00:33:00] anyway, that I'm asking anyway, but that I can put somewhere and share with other people.

And it's, it's just, I love it. I love it. Oh, well, that's obvious then. Yes, you do have multiple podcasts. So one is about personal finance. One's about Colorado. Yeah. One's about online entrepreneurship. So that one is new. Basically. I decided that I did not want entrepreneur focused content on my personal finance site.

And the reason why was because I felt like it wasn't serving the right audience and it was maybe. Distracting to people who really just need support with money conversations. And so it does obviously create a little more work for me, but I actually really like having it and its own that content in its own designated place.

It's I think a lot clearer to people. What is going on? So that's been good. And then I also have one [00:34:00] for, I write romances. I have a lot of fun with that. It's not something actually that I talk about that often, because I don't like how people react to it. It kind of gets on my nerves. But same thing with that show, what I do is I speak with authors of color writing stories that have at least one person of color as a lead, because they don't often get the kind of publicity that other mainstream books.

Or I talked to why authors who have written books, highlighting POC characters and just the nuances around that. They're really fun conversations. It's a great way for people to also learn about how to make money writing fiction. So, and again, I am a lifelong reader, so it's really a deep passion of mine, both fiction and nonfiction works.

So all your Liberty to say the name of that. No. I mean, I I've decided that that's, it's a, it's a pen name, so I'm not going to do it. So yeah, [00:35:00] very secretive about that. I don't know why, so the lack of respect and also to pen name for a reason. So, um, you know what I mean? Like you have pin names for a reason, you know?

And so that's my fun project that, you know, if people are into that kind of thing, they know if not. Alrighty. I've asked you before and same answer. And I'm like, well, you're not my avatar, so it's okay. You know, inquiring minds want to see you succeed or like, Hey, I want to know what you're up to.

So you receive a number of pictures. For your podcast, your brand. I know you have some good stories about that. How do you determine who's someone that that might be a good fit to work with? If you are listening to this episode and you are [00:36:00] either a person who is pitching on behalf of someone to get them on a podcast.

Or you're a brand and you're pitching because you want to work with someone or what have you, or, or you are a podcaster and you're pitching someone else, please. For the love of all. That's holy, a couple of things. Be familiar with the person that you're pitching. I cannot tell you how often it is that I get paid.

A pitch where I can tell that they're pitching everyone the same way. Like they have no idea who I am. They have no idea who I talked to. They have no idea what I'm passionate about. They could care less who I am. So why in the heck would I care about who they are? Like, why would I say yes to it? And in fact, I ignore those because it's so obvious.

It's obvious that they don't know who I'm talking to, who is speaking to on my shows. So do your research. Do your research before you pitch people do not lead with what they can do for, [00:37:00] or don't lead with how amazing the person is lead with how they can serve the audience of the show that you're pitching.

Right? So especially PR people, they're the worst pitches. They're the worst. I don't know why people pay PR companies to pitch without training them to do it. Well, those are the worst pitches I get are from PR. And what they'll do is they'll send a blanket pitch like so-and-so is a best-selling author and blah, blah, blah.

And I'm like, I don't care. Why are they wanting to pitch me to be on my show and how are they going to serve my audience? And why am I wasting my time with you? And so part of that is just again, doing your research. Are you even pitching the right host or show for your client? And anyone who follows me knows that I prefer three and most people.

I want you to tell me how you're going to be of service, how this conversation is going to be a service to the eye. They're taking time out of their day, people are still [00:38:00] working from home. People still have kids at their house. People have still have a lot of things on their mind. So they're going to spend 40 minutes listening to me, jibber Jabber.

It needs to make sense as to why or your guests or whoever it is. You're pitching to other people. So I need for people to think, be really thoughtful about, about that. And then the other thing is don't make me have to like research super hard to figure out who you are. So I might be looking for guests, but you might be making it very difficult to be a guest, like for me to invite you to be via Augusta my show.

And that could be because of a lack of audio stuff. No simple website or landing page that highlights who you are and what you do. No links to previous shows that you've been on. It could even be a Facebook live or Instagram lives, but you need to make it easy for us to identify why you're a compelling person to speak with.

That's very fair. [00:39:00] We'll start to wrap this up. So I like to ask a, who's doing something right now. There were a couple people. There is a girl out of, I think south America named Andrea running a project all about snacks like the marketing. No, it's the coolest thing. It's all about the marketing of snacks, the actual snack itself.

And so she's really cool. And I'll try to figure out what snapshot it's S N a X S H O T. The real Joshua O'Neill is one of the funniest people I've ever seen in life. And he does all of these, you know, Tik, TOK videos. Where they're just insane. They're so good. He is someone that actually, I believe will be a real star he'll he'll transition and go into Hollywood.

There's no doubt in my mind. I love what Danielle does Zara is doing. And the podcasting [00:40:00] stays. She's launched the woke podcasting community. I'm a member of that. I also love what Tangier Renee and Marty bell. I always forget muddy bells. Cause Dada's Smith. They've created a community called the BiPAP podcast, creators community.

I love what they're doing with that. And that's kind of like a 2.0 and beyond community where there's additional resources and just conversation around podcasts. But on another level. So I'm loving what they're doing in terms of the podcast and space. There's a whole bunch of other people out there, but those are the four that I think are kind of all over the place, but that holds my interest.

Quite a bit. Yeah, no, I appreciate that. Checking them out, especially snapshot. That sounds fun. That was cool. Working listeners connect with you. They want to listen to your podcasts. They want to buy your books. Courses, the [00:41:00] tender retreats, cheer a small table for two with you.

Michelle is money hungry.com. That's also the same name of my podcast. Michelle is money hungry. I'll I'll direct you to where you need to go from there. And then also I'm on Twitter quite a bit. For some reason, I still really enjoy Twitter and that's at Mitch loves money. I'm not greedy. I just hate being broke.

Alrighty. And last question. Do you have any final thoughts? I think, you know, we're in this really interesting season, globally, where as humans, we can really start fresh relationships with friends, romances, careers, interests, anything. It's not that anything goes, but it's like this. A huge time of awakening and enlightenment.

I know that's kind of woo-hoo if there is [00:42:00] something that's really called to you, that you've been hesitant to do try it. There's nothing to lose. Don't spend a whole bunch of money doing it. Don't like reach out to Jared and be like, well, Michelle said to try it and I spent $5,000. No, I didn't tell you to do that.

But what I mean is if there's something that you want to try, that's been at the back of your mind forever. And you can do it for free. Cause I like to start free. Make sure I even like it. Why not? This is that moment. Why not? So if it's a podcast or writing a book or teaching something that you're passionate about or whatever it is, this is that moment.

No, one's going to be shocked that shocked if you do something new right now, but that window of opportunity to try without judgment or too much judgment, it is going to. And so that's just something to think about now. Well said, Michelle, I appreciate your time. Appreciate you just being so vulnerable and honest and [00:43:00] upfront.

And you're always been that way. You have that gift and I definitely am excited about your book coming up in January, and hopefully I can bring you back on. We can do more to promote that, but, uh, yeah. Thanks and best wishes to everything and hope you'd go to the concert tonight. Thank you for having me.

I'm still deciding I'll let, I'll let you guys know on Twitter. Have a great weekend. .