Hi Team,
The Stupendous (busy!) Saturday has almost come to a close and I am all the worse in energy levels for it (ha ha). Between working out, studying scripts for the premium SoapQueen.TV episode filming tomorrow on Swirling Cold Process Soap, entertaining our enchanting out-of-town SQTV star and speaking at the MoneyWi$e Women’s conference, I am pretty delighted that my day is over (for the next 12 hours at least).
What a blessing the day was, though! The speakers at the MoneyWi$e Women’s Conference were all top notch. I heard Debbie Lacy talk about taming money fears. My two take aways from her talk were: (1) Is it your fear or is it your partner’s fear? If it’s your partner’s fear, drop it. There’s no use fretting about their fear. (2) If it is your fear, acknowledge it, name it and then re-frame it in a way that is a positive, celebratory way. You don’t need to keep owning negative fears around money.
Next, I attended Anny Havland’s (above) talk around creating long-term wealth through real estate. She had helpful tips around how to qualify for a home loan (good credit, not surprisingly, was key) as well as some common myths for home mortgages. Did you know that using one of those servicing companies to set up a bi-weekly mortgage payment can be done without a servicing company (and their fees?). What the bi-weekly companies do is just have you paying 13 months of payments per year (rather than 12). This is something you can do on your own, either by paying 1/12th extra per month to your mortgage principal or making one extra payment per year (with your servicing brokerage’s help). Learn more about this idea here and read Anny’s financial blog here.
I spoke on the importance of determining your own destiny and taking charge of your finances through goal setting. While I can’t say for certain what the take aways from the audience were, here are what I was hoping they would take away:
1. Baby steps equal greatness. Small incremental amounts of efforts over time creative mind-blowing results. Just put one foot in front of the other and do the same boring thing that’s working, day in and day out, and you’ll be happily shocked at where it takes you in 1, 3 or 10 years.
2. Plan, little mouse, plan! Having a hard time getting your friends and family to tell you that you have the best idea ever is more difficult if you don’t have a plan. My favorite book for helping out with business plans (and determining mission and values) is The Rockerfeller Habits.
3. Start small and start now. Use 99Designs.com for fast, inexpensive graphic design and Elance.com for affordable copy writing and webdesign. Succeed on your terms and on what you can afford. Go for the awesome branding package and website design package when you’re past start-up page.
Tonight, my husband and I took our special SoapQueen.TVguest and her husband out for dinner. She came all the way to Bellingham,WA from Terra Haute, Indiana. We are honored to have her as a guest and I am excited to introduce her to you tomorrow. Until then, happy soaping!
