Business Mom Summit Day Two-Business Preview Episode

Business Mom Summit Day Two-Business Preview Episode

Welcome everyone. I am here with Stephanie Zenos from The Money Muse, and she is here to share with you an amazing topic. She will tell you all about investing in yourself, claiming your financial independence, and building true wealth. 

So tell us about your business and how you got started with money and the money, so it’s a funny story. I like to call myself a recovering rocket scientist. So, maybe about two years ago, I left the world of space. I worked at NASA and SpaceX and started a business helping women with money.

And my whole life, I’ve been interested in money. And I was always helping people in my life, my friends my family, on all different topics. And it dawned on me one day that I could help people I didn’t know. And that’s when Money Muse was born. That’s awesome. That’s a great, well, first, it’s a very, far reach from, you know, being at NASA to then help people with money.

What were you doing at NASA? I just wanted to ask you that. Well, I was an engineer, so I studied. I was doing engineering, and mission management is where you’re the face of the mission, interact with the customer, and manage high-level technical requirements. 

It’s still like in that technical kind of money is like a technical thing. I wonder if that’s true. Do you feel that way? I mean, it’s numbers all around. I love it, and I love that. And I love, you know, that you have found a passion for helping people with their money, especially women.

So what is the number one struggle you see women going through regarding finances and money? Women are great with numbers, but for some reason, we are brought up to think that talking about money is rude. So even when I was in college, you know, all of my guy friends were talking about money, talking about stocks, talking about their offers for jobs that they were getting.

And all of my girlfriends were not talking about their offers or salaries. And so the main thing holding women back right now is women and just maybe not feeling comfortable sharing. Our money success stories or our money questions and failures. And if we spoke more about money with our friends, there’s so much collective intelligence, things that we know and want to know that we would truly be uplifted and brought to a new level.

I never even thought about that. But you are a hundred percent right, like when I get together with any of my friends, even now as an adult, you know, like pushing 40, like I don’t have any friends I talk to about money or anything like that. So have you used these techniques to enhance your financial kind of perspective?

I also grew up in a household that never talked about money, so I was determined to be good at it. Growing up, I had a bad experience with a stepfather who wasn’t kind to my mom, and we didn’t have the money to leave him. So I was determined, like since I was 13 years old, to be good with money and self-taught, right?

I just slowly taught myself everything. And now, I always bring up money, and I love to see people’s reactions when I spit out a number. I’ll tell them how much my villa made this year in rental income, or I’ll let them know how much money I’m living on, and they’ll look at me, and I’ll be like, what?

I like to get the conversation going. That’s a great way to do it. It’s one of those you can see the recoil, like, whoa, you know? Because I’m sure that they’re wondering if you’re expecting them to do the same. They’re like, and I would love it if they did. And that’s great.

And what you’re trying to do is really get people to a place where not only do they have money to talk about but they feel comfortable talking about it and not making it a taboo. Is that right? And it’s kind of an ongoing struggle, even for me. I talk about money all the time now.

I’m financially independent, so I no longer need to make money. But I choose to work because I enjoy it. And even still, I still have a hard time sometimes, you know, charging what I’m worth or asking someone to pay me for my services. Like it is accurate, it’s that whole mindset and all those beliefs we’ve grown up with.

All of those, what are they? What is that internal programming? So how will you transform our beliefs about money, our system , and that kind of thing in your talk? I’m excited about this because I need help in this area. One thing I’m excited about talking to moms specifically is that I see all the time with my clients who are mothers.

There is this idea that somehow taking care of ourselves or our money is selfish. So often, I’ll have a client that says, shouldn’t I be, you know, saving for my kids’ college instead of. Investing in my retirement, or shouldn’t I be spending more time with my kids instead of getting my money straight?

But I truly believe, especially for moms, that to be fully present, able to support your children through their lives, and emotionally available, you need to have your own money and safety. Taken care of. So we have to like the airlines and put on our masks before we help others so that we can show up, provide value, and be there for our kids and other people in our lives.

And I never really thought of that as far as being a mom and that kind of thing, but it’s so true. And I remember when I was pregnant with my first daughter, of course, everybody’s like, oh, how are you going to pay for college? Like, what? She’s not even born yet. 

Like that’s one of the first things that people say when you’re. Say that you’re pregnant. It’s like, oh, how are you? You know, are you starting to save for college? Like, what, what the heck? You know, like, I don’t know. That’s funny that you, you, you said that and tied it together because it is absolutely 100% something that people say, and it’s one of those things that like gets in your mind.

Before you even have your child, do you know anybody other than yourself, because we already know that you, you’re getting it right, but, that’s really getting it right as far as like finance and hitting it like right on the head with how they have organized things?

And can you tell us a little bit about what they’re? There are some women in my life who are getting it right. I wouldn’t use any of my direct family members as an example. But I have a pretty good group of friends now that I have spoken to about money and we have.

It builds a little circle of trust. So we talk about all of the money stuff that comes up. You know, we’re making a quote for a gig, or perhaps we’re trying to invest in some resource for our business and we’re like, is this going to be worth it? Is it really that valuable? How will like, See that value through?

I have close friends now that we can talk about all things related to money, which is so helpful when you’re an entrepreneur, to have someone kind of in your circle that is going through the same thing and who has opinions and will ultimately show up and say like, yes, you are worth it. So lucky for me, I do have a good circle of friends now that I can talk to about.

I’m glad to hear that. And I think that is something when they say like the five people that, that is closest to you, that you surround yourself with, you become, I think we all need to kind of look for those, that are either trying to do better or are doing better than we are.

What is one tip that you could give us about it right now before your talk, before your, you know, before your interview, that we can do to improve today? So, whenever you’re spending money, you tend to think about spending money like money in, money out.

But rather than thinking about money just going away, I want you to think about any spending as an investment today. You. So whether that’s your happiness or some resource that you need, or maybe it’s an investment in yourself, like a latte can be an investment in you and getting through your workday and staying driven and focused, right?

I want to change our mindset about spending and think about it more as an investment in us because we ultimately have needs, and spending does increase our happiness. Sometimes it increases it for five minutes, sometimes for months or years. I want people to bring awareness to their spending and consider its impacts on them.

I recently upgraded my office, and I like putting up wallpaper and curtains; the only thing I have left to get is the rug, but I’m trying to decide between a couple of them. But it makes such a difference. You’re right, it’s not even a huge investment, but it makes a difference in how you feel about it.

You know, your space and everything like that. So that might not be a great example, but it is an example.  I mean, there are so many things that, you know, sometimes I’m like, oh, do I want to spend money on going to this bar class? I’m like, but it’s good for my mind. I build a community like there are all these things.

Well definitely, you need to check, check out Stephanie’s talk. She is going to be on day two and she’s going to be in the business category, so make sure you check out her talk it is going to be amazing.   I have Jamie Vanke of Jamie be with me today, and she will talk to us.

You were overcoming delegation fears. So her topic at the summit will be all about overcoming those fears. So Jamie, let’s go ahead and get started. Could you tell us a little about your business and how you started? 

Growing teams and working my way up, I started the corporate company as a temp and left there when I was on the leadership team. I loved what I was doing. I loved my team and career path, but I always had this bug I want to start my own business. So finally the time hit shortly after I had my second daughter.

We were struggling to find a quality daycare to put her in, and I was like, all right, I am done searching. I am having trust issues with anyone I could find. I’m like, I’m going to start a business. I can do it at home with my daughter by my side. My husband and I had always talked about starting a software development company together, so that’s what we did.

I told my husband one day, I’m quitting my job. I’m learning how to program and we are going to get this company off the ground. Who lasted about six months in that and then realized I hated software. It wasn’t just so much that I didn’t want to code, I didn’t want to be in that industry, in that arena.

I knew I wanted to wait to return to corporate then. So I knew if I returned, I would never gain the courage to leave again. Cause I’d always have that bug in the back of my mind saying, well, last time you tried, And ended up not working out, so maybe you should just stick in corporate.