Links & Resources

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  • tonyarapley.com
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  • myfabfinance Podcast
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TRANSCRIPT

Yasmine  0:02  

Hello friends, and welcome to another episode of do business better 2022. I am so honored to introduce you to our guest today. Tanya roughly, is someone I consider a friend. And I don’t know, Tanya, that I have shared this with you, but you inspire me on a regular basis. I admire you so greatly as a business woman, as an entrepreneur, as an educator, as a mother, as a woman, as a friend, as a sister. I mean, it is, and I know your titles go on. And we’re gonna we’re gonna get into all of that. But thank you so much for being here today.

Tonya Rapley  0:40  

Thank you, thank you for those flowers I received that I really appreciate it. And I just love connecting and being connected with powerful moms. I feel like it’s especially powerful moms that business like we get it. And like that’s, I’m all about design of my life. And that also includes my relationships and having friendships that understand and honor where I am. And I can understand the honor where they are. So I value you, as I told you, girl, like I not too many people. I’d be here for tonight because I’m in the middle of production for my show, but I value and so thank you.

Yasmine  1:13  

She is the star of a show. Okay, let’s talk about that in just a moment. Tanya is also a best selling author, certified financial educator, a Millennial Money expert, you are the founder of multiple businesses. You are an advocate of maternal health, and education. And it’s so if you’re listening to this, if you’re watching this, you are in luck today, my friend, and I’m really looking forward to getting into our conversation today. Tanya, thank you, again, for being here. And for those that aren’t familiar with you, if you could give us a bit about your story, your background, where you were, where you are, where you’re going, what you’re all about.

Tonya Rapley  1:54  

Yeah, so I mean, I’m a commute a career change agent. I started my career back in 2004 when I moved to Miami, Florida, and that’s what I was an undergrad I actually transferred to college of Miami, Florida. I was in college and I was doing quartered, coordinating community outreach events throughout Miami for city planning purposes and understanding how city planning had impacted communities such as the overtime community such as Liberty City, Coconut Grove, and everything else and figuring out how to give those community residents of voice ended up moving to New York City decided to work in nonprofit when I was in New York, and worked at the YWCA of Brooklyn. And why did we say Brooklyn I created a I was a coordinator of community outreach, and did a finance workshop for low income women in Brooklyn and was sitting in that room and was like, wait a minute, you don’t get your finances together, you doing a workshop for other people. Let’s apply this knowledge. But let’s take it a step further and hold ourselves accountable. So in order to hold myself accountable, that was I created a blog called My fab finance. My fab finance today, as we know, it’s a platform that serves over a quarter million women. And our goal is to help at least 100,000 people make at least one financial decision they’re proud of. We do that by teaching. We don’t do deprivation as a financial freedom strategy. We prioritize what’s important to us and figure out how to make the money make sense. We also offer courses I have a book the Amazon Amazon bestseller, The Money manual, I do a boot camp with my ladies. We’re also big on mindsets, we have our line to abundance challenge, and that is allowed me to become a spokesperson for finance brands. I have my own personal brand tiny rapidly which I grew as I realized I wanted to move into motherhood. So I wanted to document that journey but understood everybody my finance audience in this way care about my motherhood journey, and things outside of finance. So now I have a separate brand, my for my personal brand, tiny wrapping rod do coaching and helping women honor themselves. And as they move in the direction of their goals and dreams. So that I purchased the E commerce company in 2018. With my ex husband, we were in the process of closing that company because operating I realized I was not operating in my zone of genius. And I founded a nonprofit called the maternal health and education project that came out of me experiencing a privileged pregnancy because I had access to the resources to education I needed to experience an intervention list, pregnancy and delivery and wanting more women to experience pregnancy and delivery on their own terms and didn’t want money to be a barrier. So that nonprofit kind of runs itself and we offer grants to birth workers as well as women who want to hire birth workers or pursue educational opportunities that would help them experience motherhood on their own terms. That is me y’all.

Yasmine  4:42  

And I hope you guys have a great day talk to you later. I mean, I like at this point. Yeah, well, let me say this. Wow. Incredible and I am such a fan and I so admire your work around lifestyle design and designing your life and designing a life that you get to live in a way that feels in alignment in a way that serves and supports you in a way that uplifts you and empowers you to be able to serve others and only the way you can and, you know, I think of it as your life should revolve around you and should be and should be able to be molded and shaped around you, as opposed to the other way around and molding yourself in shape, shape shifting yourself to fit around a life that was handed to you, or that was imposed on you, or that you are led to believe was the only option available to you.

Tonya Rapley  5:41  

Right. Right, um, lifestyle design. And so as I got further into my work with my fab finance, that was one of the things is like, okay, we’re improving our finances for what what am I? What is financial? Why is financial freedom important to me? And what are the goals I’m trying to achieve? And so one of those things was alright, we’re pursuing financial freedom, because we essentially want to live life on our own terms. And we want to design the life we want to live. And so there are a lot of people who aggressively pursue financial security, without having a clear understanding of what they ultimately want to get out of it, or what they want their life to look like, as a result of it. And that’s the gap. I’m filling with my personal brand, and really emphasizing the importance of lifestyle design. It’s like, yeah, you got all these goals, we’ll make sure they’re yours. And make sure they’re helping you live your ultimate life vision. And if there’s not, then let’s refocus on what the goals you should be working on are so that when you arrive at your destination, or get close to your destination, you’re not disappointed. And you’re like, This is what I’ve been doing this for.

Yasmine  6:42  

Yes, yeah. You talk about a midlife crisis that’s early on for us. Tell us about that.

Tonya Rapley  6:49  

Yeah, yeah. So I was talking to someone and they use the terminology that it wasn’t a midlife crisis of midlife awakening, they were awakened or woken, I always mess that up. But they basically became more aware of the ways in which they were living their life that did not serve them, and have been in service of everyone else. And so their midlife awareness was taking back control over what what they were passionate about, and focusing on that. And what happens in that sometimes is, have you been playing a role in everybody else’s story and not living your own story? People become like, what is happening? Why are you rocking the boat that you were just fine last year, and now suddenly, none of this works for you. And it’s because you’ve had an awareness that doesn’t serve them. And that’s understanding, but that can be an isolating and lonely place for people. So I want to encourage people to come into that process of midlife awareness quicker and strategically, and in a way that it doesn’t necessarily disrupt the harmony of what you’ve created, if possible, or like, how do we start replacing things with things that you value things that are most important to you? So yeah, we’re different from our parents generation. My mother and father, my parents worked for 20 years for one employer, both my parents were in the military for 20 years, my dad went on to work for the government for another, like 10 years, you know, and to the point where when he left his job, or when he retired, my dad went and got a job at Total Wine, stocking shelves. And it wasn’t about the money, because he has two retirements and Andreessen disability. For him, it was he had been so invested in these other companies, he didn’t know what to do with himself. And I don’t I want people to know what they’re passionate about. I want them to know what they enjoy. I want them to have more awareness over what adds color to their life sooner than later. So they can live fuller lives. It’s all about

Yasmine  8:53  

that journey of self discovery that we’re all on. We all just start that journey at different points. And maybe that is that that moment of awakening is when you

Tonya Rapley  9:03  

radical, yes, radical honesty with yourself. The radical honesty that made me decide, okay, this marriage isn’t working for me. And that’s important in the work that we do we honor ourselves, and we don’t allow others to dishonor us and allowing people to continuously dishonor you is not an honor to you. And so how do we position ourselves to where we are honoring ourselves, requiring those around us to honor us as well? And for some of that, from some of us, that means making decisions that are easy, or not easy, that are gonna make you uncomfortable, but

Yasmine  9:37  

get it done? Is it thinking? I’m thinking of two things as you’re saying, as you’re, as you’re saying, those words which are so powerful is that you need two things, self love, and self discipline. What is your experience been with self discipline?

Tonya Rapley  9:57  

self discipline is something that has always came easy to me. And I think that that’s something as far as entrepreneurs and becoming an aspiring entrepreneur, you need a certain level of discipline to do what needs to be done, even when you don’t want to do it. There. If you cannot require yourself to do that, then don’t get an entrepreneurship. Because there’s gonna be a lot of things. You know, I know social media makes it look cute, but there’s gonna be a lot of things that you don’t want to do, that you need to do to run this business. There’s gonna be ways that you have to show up. And the way I run my business now, the people who are just getting started, Candace, I run their business I have, at this point, I have almost 10 years in the game. As a financial educator, you can’t show up like I showed up because I’ve been grinding for seven years, seven, eight years. I’m just kind of like relaxing a little bit. And I think people need to understand like that discipline, especially when you’re getting started is so necessary. is so so necessary. Oh, it has to be unshakable. Yes.

Yasmine  10:55  

It requires like you said yours. There are no shortcuts when it comes to getting your reps in.

Tonya Rapley  11:03  

Hmm. And really, I remember when I first started building my finance, I wasn’t going to brunch with friends. I didn’t travel internationally for two years. Yeah, when I when I decided I wanted to leave my job. There were sacrifices that were made. There. Definitely. And if I was traveling, you guys believe he was like a flight deal. On top of the flight deal. On top of this, on top of that, I was going places like Cartagena, Colombia for $400 for the entire week, as, like hotel, everything included. So if I wasn’t had to be very fun, I had to be very frugal. And so I think that it’s important for people to really understand the sacrifices that are required. And it does require discipline, you see people living their life, but maybe they’re living our life now. Because they work until 4am In the morning, like they’re disciplined enough to know that maybe the work doesn’t get done in the traditional work day. But the work gets done. Yeah. And you can’t escape the work.

Yasmine  11:54  

You cannot escape the work.

Tonya Rapley  11:57  

Yeah. So that’s the discipline is understanding, you can’t escape the work. So let me be disciplined enough or let me be accountable enough to get the work done.

Yasmine  12:06  

Absolutely. Absolutely. So much sacrifice involved in entrepreneurship. And I feel like that’s a cheesy meme that I’m sure exists out there. Like, you have to sacrifice so much for entrepreneurship, we hear that often. But to see the reality of it is it’s not all, you know, working from the beach, relaxing in a luxury hotel, you know, speaking to you mentioned, you know, you see people out here living their lives on vacation doing what they do, maybe they are working extra, or maybe they’re out there traveling on credit, you don’t know, or maybe they have a sponsorship, and this is part of a business, you just don’t know. So or

Tonya Rapley  12:47  

maybe they are somebody’s companion, because I know quite a few people like, maybe there are some guys aeroplane companion, and they literally only fly for the taxes. Yep, like they’re always out because it costs them $100 To fly anywhere. You know what I mean? So you never know what you never know what’s under somebody’s hood. And that’s why it’s really important to just go based on the facts that you know, which are your facts, like, the only thing you know, the complete picture about and know complete story about or you should know, is your situation. And so move accordingly.

Yasmine  13:17  

Yes. And that puts you in the best position to make decisions for your life to design your life to design your business. And you mentioned under the hood. So another one of your titles is we already knew you were a boss, but you are the boss. And over at my fab finance and within your personal brand. I know you have team members that you lead, that you instruct that you delegate to that you lean on for support, and that you support as their employer and as their leader. And so let’s talk about some of these mistakes that you yourself have made in business that you’ve seen others, some of your members of your community, your mentees, others that you’ve supported, and seen how they operate as entrepreneurs, what are you seeing? What are you seeing that the glorious entrepreneur do and how can we do better? And I know the first thing that you want to touch on has to do with team building?

Tonya Rapley  14:16  

Yeah, so I mean, you know, I’m mindful of overhead, you know, because one thing we don’t want to do is hire what we can’t afford. But the other thing is understanding how not hiring the right people is holding you back how when you reach your plateau of greatness, and you’re taking things in that area as far as you can go when you need to bring someone else in, maybe as a consultant, maybe as an hourly person or employee, maybe on a per project basis, or maybe as a member of your team. But when do you need to bring someone else in to fulfill that need in your business that is holding you back from growing? And so that requires us to be honest with ourselves and say, You know what, I might even like doing this but I’m not the best person who should be doing this and let me figure out how to move some things around if we have the cash flow available for me to hire and bring this person and on. So that that is the first thing is just understanding like, who can you afford to hire? Who do you need to hire, and but keeping it lean, I think one mistake that people also make is hiring too aggressively or hiring too quickly at one time, instead of just kind of backing into it like, Okay, we’re gonna hire this person, now we’re gonna hire that person, we’re gonna, like, slowly ease our way into this sort of thing. And I got to go on a hiring spree, because I was podcasts are telling you. So that is the first thing is like, understanding what you need the most, or what weaknesses you have weakness you have in your business, or what’s preventing you from going to your next level, and hiring that person to support you.

Yasmine  15:36  

It’s all about that progress. It’s all about moving to that next level and figuring out what do I need to do in order for them to get from point A to point B? Or who do I need to get from point A to point it’s always who not how, huh,

Tonya Rapley  15:50  

yeah, cuz sometimes you need a salesperson, sometimes you need a virtual assistant. And when we think about it, you know, when you’re hiring for things you have, for two reasons, return on investment, or return on time, or return on investment is somebody who’s going to generate immediate income in your business, that’s like a salesperson who’s going to be at a close sales or someone who’s able to identify new business opportunities and bring those in. But then there’s also people who give you returning your time, your energy, returning your time, the goal of that is so that you can effectively think in the business. So you’re buying your time back not so you can go on these extravagant, extravagant vacations, you’re buying your time back. So you can think in the business and think about what the next steps are for the business and become the strategist that your business needs. Because as the leader, you are the visionary and the business follows your vision. So you need to be clear to articulate and execute and identify what that vision is.

Yasmine  16:39  

Absolutely, absolutely. So you mentioned something so briefly a moment ago, and I want to shine a spotlight on it in terms of working with people on a project basis. This was my lifesaver. I mean, I think a lot of our business growth in the first few years can be credited to managing of our capital, by working with these subject matter experts on a project basis. So I knew I needed a copywriter, I knew I needed a graphic designer, I knew I needed someone for social media, you might need a video editor or a podcast editor or whatever it is, that you’ve got going on, you probably don’t need to be on a monthly retainer with these service providers. And that’s a great way to manage that, though. That overhead the monthly expenses and budget for you know that either batching those services at once for the quarter for you know, the half the year, depending on what it is. What was your experience with that? And how does your team look today? Is it a mix of the two.

Tonya Rapley  17:45  

So I only have one full time employee and that’s my nanny. That’s the only full time employee I have. I have other people who have committed, you know, over 30 hours a month, my executive assistant has committed 30 hours to me a month. But we do a lot of contract work. We do a lot of per project basis. Because as you said, especially in the nature of our business, we might be doing a launch right now and I’m doing this launch, but I don’t need you outside that launch. Like I don’t I don’t need to keep you around beyond this launch. And so with that, how am I keeping myself as lean as possible. And because I can move it to ebbs and flows and maintain my cash flow even when things are slow like we are we have so many outstanding deliverable outstanding payables, our accounts receivables right now. But one of the things is we’ve been pretty lean. And so even though we like three months out from some payments that we should have received, because it’s still getting paid, because we’ve maintained that lean staff I haven’t brought on who we don’t need are over hired. So that is really important to think about. If things were slow, can I still afford to pay them? And for how long? That’s the question I always ask myself, and that for me, that is like bringing in people on a per project basis versus feeling like I need to add them to my team ongoing now we do have quite a few people like my content managers today on the mocap finance team, we have our Director of Operations, my content manager, my social media manager, my executive assistant, or the I should say de the executive assistant, graphic designer who we have on retainer, and a video editor who you have on retainer.

Yasmine  19:15  

Now you didn’t come out the gate with that team.

Tonya Rapley  19:17  

No, I started with an executive assistant and built from there. Exactly the system was my virtual assistant, not executive assistant, a virtual assistant was my first hire. My next hire was a social media manager doesn’t my first two hires because social media manager of social media is how I make money in the business, because we do a lot of brand partnerships. And then executives virtual assistant that just helped me manage my calendar because I also realized that I was not my communication wasn’t that good. And I felt overwhelmed by my inbox. I knew the inbox is something that needs to be handled. So I really said to somebody else and as well as a few other functions to keep me in order. Like as an entrepreneur, as a CEO, you’re always thinking about things for your business. And it’s important for you to like think about how do I keep things in order

Yasmine  20:01  

Oh, absolutely organization will totally transform a situation. And I hear you on getting your inbox under control. And that was my exact path of hiring someone to manage my calendar, my inbox because I was like, Listen, I’m not responding to these inquiries or customer service or tech tickets that we’ve got out like that. You know how and I can’t hold all of that in my mind and dedicate energy to that. It’s just do this. Yeah. It’s real. It’s real. Okay, excellent. What is the second mistake that we’re out here making?

Tonya Rapley  20:39  

So the second mistake that entrepreneurs make, and I have so many mistakes that people make? But the second, can you talk me into that one? Because, yeah, we’ve not sent you a list.

Yasmine  20:53  

Yeah, you’re good. You’re good. So so the second one, and we chatted a little about it before we started recording was not dedicating the time to really work on your mindset. Yeah, I

Tonya Rapley  21:05  

mean, entrepreneurship definitely is. It’s tough. It’s tough. There’s ebbs and flows. There are days when you feel like you are at a high and you’re untouchable. And there’s days you’re like, What am I even doing? Why am I still doing this, and maybe I need to go back and get a job. And that’s not to say that getting a job is the worst thing you know, for you. But there are so many ebbs and flows when it comes to entrepreneurship, that you want to be able to withstand the valleys because they’re going to occur, if you haven’t worked in your mindset, you’re going to have a hard time being optimistic, you’re going to have to have a hard time leading in moments where things aren’t going as planned. And you’re going to have a hard time showing up. When things aren’t going as planned. It’s very easy to show up when things are going great. But what about when things aren’t going as planned? How do you show up? Then how do you get up and get yourself together? And how do you maintain is much enthusiasm behind the vision when things aren’t panning out the way they thought you would? Or they’re taking a little longer. And a lot of that is mindset work. It’s mindset work on developing the discipline muscle. It’s also mindset work on expanding your thought process about what’s possible and what’s achievable. Because a lot of us have subscribed to a limited belief or limited perspective, some of us are coming from traditional, more traditional backgrounds where entrepreneurship wasn’t explored or necessarily celebrated. So how do we move into the mindset of a CEO? And see abundance in that and an abundance of opportunities? Versus how do we? How do we navigate you know, deciding, well, okay, I want to do this right now, but it doesn’t make the most sense, or I want to make the best decision for my business, even though it doesn’t feel good for myself. And how do I feel like I’m not losing a piece of myself by making this decision? Like, that’s mindset work to understanding that you’re tapping into your highest good at all time, and trusting yourself. Trust self trust is mindset as well. So it’s that vital work that I don’t think a lot of people do. And I know for me, it’s one of the things that’s kept me in business for seven years is the mindset. My mindset is strong. I think it’s one of those things that, you know, I thought about when I moved to New York, I remember I had a roommate, and she says she’s from South Dakota, and she’s arrived in New York all like three months. And when she’s like, I’m moving back home. And it’s the mindset, she never adapted to the mentality. It requires someone to exist and live in New York City. That’s the same thing as entrepreneur, you have to you have to adapt to the mindset that it requires you to sustain yourself as entrepreneur, flexibility, resilience, belief in vision, seeing, having faith that something’s gonna happen, or something’s gonna shake, when like, all sides are kind of like, these a little shaky, it’s like, no, no, no, it’s gonna happen. It’s gonna happen having that unshakable faith in yourself and your idea and your concept.

Yasmine  24:08  

That is it in a nutshell. That’s really it’s all about the mindset. So many of those low points in entrepreneurship, and quite frankly, life in general, but especially in entrepreneurship, what gets you through those low points at the end of the day is you and your mindset and deciding to push forward. And just deciding in that moment, everything’s gonna work out. This is a part of the plan. Even if it doesn’t look like it’s working right now. This is actually everything falling into place. Absolutely. And having complete conviction about that, even when everybody’s calling you crazy,

Tonya Rapley  24:49  

whenever I call you crazy, crazy.

Yasmine  24:53  

They’re gonna go You’re crazy.

Tonya Rapley  24:55  

Sometimes Listen, like why you’re calling me crazy. And I know everybody who has Have something negative to say doesn’t mean or mean harm to you. A lot of times people who have something negative to say, especially if people close to you and love you, they want the best for you. And they’re concerned that the path that you’re going on is not going to help you achieve the best. So one of the questions to ask is, if people around you are doubtful, as some what would give you more faith or confidence in my decision? What is it that you’re questioning, because usually is not against you. It’s about like something that they need to see out of you. They might need to see you become more consistent, they might need you to show up a little more, they might need you to come out of your shell, and you said you want to be an entrepreneur, but you don’t like introducing yourself to strangers. No, like so they might have legitimate concerns. And I think that if someone vocalize those concerns, and they you know that they mean well for your life, ask them what could I do? What do you think would make me a stronger entrepreneur? Will we give you more confidence in my entrepreneurship journey?

Yasmine  25:55  

That’s beautiful. That is an excellent point. Because I think this is a common experience amongst entrepreneurs is somebody in your life is doubting you doubting your ability, doubting your potential. And I’m already battling enough internally, trying to convince myself and remind myself that I do have this potential that it is possible for me that I can achieve this. And if there’s somebody externally, maybe it is someone dear to you, a parent, a sibling, a partner, a friend, don’t always assume the worst, they’re not always a hater, you know, sometimes, right? Normally concerned. And that’s an annually concern,

Tonya Rapley  26:31  

right?

Yasmine  26:34  

Like, hold on, you’re risking a lot here. Hi. And they just need that reassurance and they need maybe they need to look into that vision that you have that’s taking shape, and they’re not clear on what that vision is. So sometimes sharing some of that vision can also help I think that’s an excellent point of asking them what would what would help you feel more confident? What would provide what clarity do you need? And getting that feedback? I love that thank you for that. As Do you have a a mindset practice that you currently implement? How do you work on those muscles on a regular basis? How are you pouring positivity into your into your mind each day and once you

Tonya Rapley  27:20  

tell them I listened to a lot of like, I listened a lot of affirmation artists and so like music I’m really mindful what I’m consuming. Sometimes I sleep to binaural beats to kind of reprogram my mind my subconscious. So the a BB neural beats meditating and listening to affirmation, affirmation on music. So my friend Tony Jones, is a fantastic affirmation artists is a guy named B. Cole, who was wonderful by Hayes is another one of my favorite affirmation artists and my girl Lucy job. So you know what entertains you trains you and so I’m also very mindful of what I’m consuming, and just hoping it just allowing it to reinforce those beliefs I have myself or reinforce my vision towards the intended outcome that I want to have.

Yasmine  28:03  

Absolutely, I’m gonna look into all of those artists. I have never I’ve never heard of affirmation artists. How is this possible?

Tonya Rapley  28:12  

It’s a thing. It’s a whole category. It’s all

Yasmine  28:16  

I’m about to my as suggested on my Apple Music is about to be all of Africa, and I’m not mad at it. I think that’s great. I’m looking forward to it. All right, Tanya,

Tonya Rapley  28:27  

artists, you gonna be hitting me up? Hey, girl, I found this new.

Yasmine  28:32  

Drop in the link. It’s gonna be good. If you have a playlist. I’m definitely interested in that. Okay, you sharing that? Yeah. All right. So let’s get to number three. I feel like we could definitely talk all day. But I know your time is valuable time. Yeah. And your insights and experiences are much appreciated. So number three, I know you have been featured in numerous publications, your work with my thought finance you as a Millennial Money expert, and a certified financial educator. You have worked with brands, you’ve been featured in these publications, magazines, news stations. But, you know, it’s not all it’s not all the glitz and glam. And my understanding is that press doesn’t always equal success. And I understand that that’s something that you see a lot of entrepreneurs, perhaps they are just striving solely for that as an accolade as a milestone as a sign that they’re doing something right. But how should we really be approaching? PR and how should we be integrating that into our business model?

Tonya Rapley  29:44  

Yes, because press doesn’t always equal money. There’s a thing there’s understanding of social proof and social proof gives you more credibility with your audience. It gives you credibility with brand partners. And so social proof is basically saying, hey, this outlet allowed me to come on their platform because they respect me By insight enough to value me as a contributor or an expert, and so because they trust me, you should as well, that social proof that is great for brand building, but it doesn’t necessarily convert to dollars, because we think about the friction in the sale process. And if you’re on the news, so me and my friends, we were talking about this, like what actually converts highest and direct paid ads converts the highest. Like, that’s, that’s what’s going to pay you that’s what’s going to convert, because you think about people are right there on their phone, a lot of people I don’t know the exact number, but people make purchases from their phone, I was on the plane yesterday buying things from Zara on the phone, oh, my phone, you know. And so people make up do people buy a lot of things on their phone. So it’s literally it reduces the friction because they see your ad pop up, they decide to go buy your product or your course, versus someone sees you in the news. Now they got to remember the URL, or they gotta go find a piece of paper, they gotta go find something. So they can write it down, they gotta get themselves in a place of where they can sit down and purchase what you have to offer. Most time they forgotten. They forgotten your name, they forgotten the website, and everything is made easy for them. And so when we think about PR a lot of people approached me about how do I get on this? How do I get on that? How do I get on this? And my first question is always like, what is your intended outcome? What do you want to happen as a result of you being on this, because that might not be the best way for you to accomplish this? Yes, social proof is great, especially depending on where you want to take your career. But you need to understand that a lot of these PR agents out here are charging a pretty penny for something that’s not going to get you a return on your investment, it might not even get your return on your energy, it might give you social proof that you might not be able to cash in on for years to come or the chance to continue amassing. So when we think about what your intended outcome is, if your intended outcomes make more money get directly in their face. And it’s not getting directly in their face being on the news, while they’re sitting there getting their hair done the hair salon, or they sit in their vacuum in their floor and they can’t even hear you and they just see you gonna talk it on TV, that’s not getting their face, interrupt their flow, and get in there get in their timeline that’s gonna convert for you.

Yasmine  32:10  

So it’s all about the intended outcome, what your intended outcome, if your goal is to make money if your goal is to make sales, if your goal is to drive revenue right now, you’d be investing the capital you have available to invest in PR and working with an agent.

Tonya Rapley  32:28  

And the agents gonna hate me for saying that because you should be investing that money and direct ads or a marketing person to help you get in front of as many eyes with as little friction as possible.

Yasmine  32:39  

Yeah, yeah. At what point should accompany be pursuing PR actively.

Tonya Rapley  32:47  

If you’re doing your job, right PR is gonna come to you. And that’s the thing as a finance and my career, I have, the only PR I’ve ever had is if I’m working with a brand partner, and they hire a PR agency to handle it for them. But I haven’t had pure representation myself. And I myself because of doing the work because it’s showing up because of growing my community and being consistent in how I show up and establishing myself as a thought leader have been featured on outlets. I’ve been featured in Vogue, I’ve been featured in Forbes I’ve been featured, in essence numerous times, and future revenue universe times Business Insider, Yahoo Finance, go banking rates, Bloomberg, like the list goes on and on Good Morning America, the today show without any PR, because I do the work. That’s what we did at the beginning. You can’t avoid doing the work. And when you do the work, people start to pay attention. And there are some people who are like, Well, I’ve been doing the work and don’t nobody see me and everything. Okay, then you it’s also about working smart. Are you doing the work so that the right people will see you paying someone doesn’t paying a PR agency doesn’t mean the right people will see you. It’s all about strategy. And so it’s like you can do to work in a way that’s strategic, such as optimizing your SEO on your website, optimizing your social media bio. So when people go to look for things showing up consistently so that you’re unforgettable and undeniable when someone is looking for a finance person or looking for someone who’s a subject matter, they’re gonna think of you taking three speaking engagements. A lot of my early things came from taking free speaking engagements and people speaking to people’s audiences. And there were key decision makers within those audiences. That booked me and brought me in for other projects. But I spoke for free I was doing the work I was broadening my reach, but I was also growing as an expert and solidifying myself as an expert in their eyes. So that’s a way that I actually was able to get quite a few of opportunities, SEO, putting myself in the rooms where the key stakeholders were at and leveraging opportunities for other opportunities, building solid relationships so that when someone else it leaves Conde elite when someone leaves Red Book, the publication or for Conde Nast publication and goes to glamour, they’re gonna remember they reference you for article I read a book and now they’re gonna reach out to you about an article for glamour because they enjoyed working with you because you built that relationship. That’s the work. That’s the work that people don’t like to talk about, like the work is like maintaining and building relationships and keeping your integrity and doing things that you that you don’t want to do when you don’t want to do it. Or doing things that you might not want to do. But you know, they need to get done. And that’s also that discipline that we were talking about. Yeah. You don’t have to be disciplined and doing things you enjoy. You got to be do be disciplined and doing things you don’t enjoy.

Yasmine  35:29  

Yeah. That’s because you said you’re going to, because it’s the right thing to do. Because you made a commitment. Oh, absolutely. And this

Tonya Rapley  35:40  

is the most productive thing for you to do. And yes, it’ll best for you to do

Yasmine  35:43  

it will help you move the needle, it will help you push the business forward and make that progress that you’re looking for. And that’s what it’s all about. I want to hear about your show.

Tonya Rapley  35:57  

Oh, yeah. My show going from broke. So this is our second season. I’m in New York right now, taping it? No, I’m sorry. This is our third season I was brought in as a host in the second season. They wanted some different energy. And it’s worked out really well. It’s exactly I Ashton Kutcher, Ashton has selected me to be the co host of the show. So it’s been wonderful that I built a relationship with him and my other co hosts as a result of this, but we help people understand the best way out of their debt. We help people make better financial decisions. And we understand like, Okay, this debt is suffocating you right now, we are outside eyes, and we’re giving, we’re helping you understand the path forward. And we’re having those difficult conversations that you might not be receptive to from anybody else. But you’re receptive to us because we’re both experts in this space. And so it’s been a blessing the families that we’ve impacted. Last year, we had six families, we’ve been keeping in touch with them. Some of them are doing exceptionally well, this year, we have 10 families, 10 families and individuals. And they have all kinds of interesting and compelling stories. But they’re also very representative of the United States as a whole and a lot of families that navigate the pandemic. And they’re dealing with inflation now. And the prospect prospect of a recession. And they’re walking in navigate through all these things. And so we’re, it’s such a great show. And I don’t say that just because I’m the co host, I watched it because I normally don’t watch things that I’ve been a part of, or listen to podcasts, and I’m on. But I actually sat down and watched. I was like, wow, this is a good show, like I’m very proud to be a part of this isn’t really good show.

Yasmine  37:40  

That’s amazing. Well, congratulations on season three, congratulations on all the things that are blossoming in your life. And I wish you all the best, you deserve all the best. And I want to thank you again, for being here. So your show going from broke? How can people watch it? And where can people find you?

Tonya Rapley  38:01  

Yes. So you find me on social media, Tonya, that rapidly does @tonya.rapley and and that bio, my Instagram bio, you’ll also find links to maternal a nonprofit organization as well as my fab finance, which is my financial education platform that we’ve been building since 2013. And the show going for broke is on crackle. And so you don’t need to have a subscription to watch it, you can watch it free. It is such a good show. It’s such a solid show. And so I encourage anyone who’s interested in that or changing their financial situation to watch that on a personal tip on my personal brand. We’re in the process of we’ll be launching our 30 day shift program pretty soon. So for someone who’s listening and saying, you know, I’m ready to I’m ready to do something that scares me and shift my life in the direction of my dreams. We are getting ready to launch our program that supports people doing that. But it’s so many so much work to be done. And you know, maybe not now, but we’re gonna have a few cohorts down the line too. For someone who’s like, you know what, let me just follow her and see what she’s about. Yeah, but I get results My people are winning. So

Yasmine  39:06  

don’t delay of blessings your

Tonya Rapley  39:11  

day and I was like girl, and you know, I just want to say this for people who are listening to this. And Yasmine has impacted your life. Let her know if any coaches impacted your life, let them know because there’s a lot of things we could be doing. And we take this work very seriously. A lot of times we wake up thinking about how we can impact you and how we can operate our programs with integrity so that we can improve outcomes and there is no better repayment for us than for you to let us know that something we did helped you change your life in a way that we intended to impact it. So give your coaches their flowers, shoot somebody a DM leave them a comment something love on them the same way they loved on important and you because it matters to us, it matters and it keeps us going and the days because we sometimes we want to quit. And it really keeps us going on the days that we want to quit too.

Yasmine  40:09  

Oh, absolutely. Just this morning I was I was blessed enough to receive a message from someone in our community sharing, sharing similar sentiments the other day, my sister was telling me about her receive being on the receiving end of gratitude. And we were having a conversation about exactly that, how lovely it is to be a recipient, and how important it is for us to put that same energy out there and give gratitude when we can while we can, while our loved ones are around to receive that. And it’s just, there’s no downside. It’s a win all around. Everyone feels good. Everyone loves to feel appreciated, it feels good to share gratitude. And in my opinion, and in my experience, it’s only opening you up to receive more, more goodness. So

Tonya Rapley  41:00  

thank God I change your life.

Yasmine  41:02  

It will absolutely so 30 day shift is your program that’s launching in August, yep.

Tonya Rapley  41:06  

30 shift, where it’s gonna be application based. Because I really, uh, you know, one thing about me is I want to make sure people are ready to work with me,

Yasmine  41:13  

I’m not gonna take your money just for the sake of take your money. I want to make sure people are willing to work with me so they can submit application, and then decide if you’re gonna hit. Yes. All right. So that’s an August. So apply if you’re if you’re feeling led to don’t block your blessings and try to delay. You know, it’s it’s all in good timing. It’s all in good timing. You can watch seasons one and two of going from broke on crap. Alright, now when does season three premiere?

Tonya Rapley  41:41  

I don’t know what our release date is. I know that we’re aggressively taping through August so I can imagine we’re rolling out probably in late September, October. Okay.

Yasmine  41:49  

Okay. I love it. Thank you so much, Tonya, for joining us.

Tonya Rapley  41:53  

Thank you so much for having me. May your community be blessed and all the work they intend to do and all the work that they are doing.

Yasmine  42:01  

Greatly appreciate you. We’ll talk soon