← Built Online
Built Online
How Her $250K/Year Etsy POD Shop Helped Them Build A $1Million Dream Home | ft. Heather Marie
00:45:42
Loading summary
Transcript68 lines
- [00:00]
A
It's close to seven figures, so. And we just never thought we would spend even close to seven figures. Like we were expecting like half, like 500k. So that was kind of a surprise. We were like, well like this is going to be what we want as our forever home. And we kind of got like everything that we wanted. Since we both work from home, it just made sense like for us because we, we have like a seven bedroom home which is really cool and. Yeah.
- [00:31]
B
Hey there. I'm Cody McGuffey. I'm a husband, dad of three and the founder of Ever Be Everbee. Ever Be Everbee, where we serve over a million creators across the globe, helping them grow thriving online businesses. I believe every single human is a creator and I believe every single creator should own a business, a business that gives them the freedom to build the life that they dream of. Built online is where creators, entrepreneurs and leaders get real insights, real stories and the ed to build something that actually lasts. This is where the next generation builders get built. Heather, what's going on?
- [01:08]
A
You know, just doing, doing the YouTube thing, still doing Etsy and that's, that's kind of just life as it is right now really. I've. We've recently moved into our home that me and my husband, we built together in the past year.
- [01:29]
B
That's awesome. That's new.
- [01:30]
A
Yeah. Yeah. I think last time we spoke, I know we were just chatting just a little bit before this, but last time we spoke, you, your third child came since the last time, so that's really cool.
- [01:46]
B
Insane. Life moves quick. So giving everybody like a quick recap. I don't know if this was the last time you came on, but Heather, in a nutshell, you probably already know who Heather and Heather Studio is kind of known for, but $250,000 plus and a year on Etsy via Print on Demand was kind of like the, the last episode, I think that was episode three or maybe that was the first episode. So go back and listen to that and kind of give you the, the history, um, of, of Heather. But, but aside from that, I don't really want to cover too much of that. I want to cover more about interior inter. Interworkings of life and business today. But yeah, life is, life is always evolving. We have three kids now. Since we probably last talked, we had two. And it sounds like you built a house, which is insane.
- [02:38]
A
Yep. Yeah.
- [02:40]
B
Tell me about the house build. So what's new with that?
- [02:44]
A
Yeah, so we have been looking for a home I'd say the past two years. Ish. Now we initially, so I guess backtracking. I grew up in Indiana. I met my husband, he lived in Chicago and we met online. I ended up getting a job in Chicago at a hospital in downtown Chicago.
- [03:10]
B
X ray tech, is that correct? Correct.
- [03:13]
A
So I did go to school for X ray as well. So I, I got multiple certifications. So I have one for X ray, one for mri. So I worked as an MRI technician or technologist, I guess kind of people kind of say different ways for that career. But I got a job in downtown Chicago for that and I ended up moving in with my husband. We lived in Chicago and brother and my sister in law, they ended up moving to South Carolina and kind of on the border like near Charlotte. So we visited them a few times and we were like, we really like it down here. Or at least I really liked it. My husband, he is very just like, I like familiarity. Our family lives kind of in different places now, but he grew up in Illinois so he kind of wanted to just stay there for that purpose. For me, I've always been like a very like, I don't know, like I want to move somewhere totally new. So I convinced him to move down. So, and also like, you know, me and my sister in law, we've talked about like, oh yeah, like we want to have kids, we want to raise families. Like I knew that was going to happen in the next few years. So part of me in the back of my head was like, okay, how do I convince my husband because he's eventually going to be an uncle and like we want to be around future nieces and nephews. So I finally convinced him, long story short. And we rented in South Carolina for a little bit. We looked at homes the past two years. With the housing market, I know that's a whole other can of worms I won't get in into today. But we were looking at homes and the prices of like basically just, I don't know. It's kind of funny when you're, when you build a home like or when we were considering building, I kept calling them resale homes because I mean technically, you know, people are reselling their homes. So I was like, oh well, the resale homes are basically like we're going to spend so much and then we're going to put more money into fixing a home, which we were fine with. But the area we were looking at there was new home builds, construction sites, so we didn't do like a fully custom home. It was kind of just like you choose a, you choose your floor plan, you get to choose like wall colors and like features of your home and add ons and things like that process, huh? Yeah, yeah. So, and that was basically the same cost but with a builder we got like, I want to say 1% lower rate too. So that was like, okay, like we could buy a home that someone's already lived in that we are going to basically redo most things and that's going to cost us more probably in the long run than if we just build a new home. That, that's at least where we were at because I had a lot of things I really wanted in a home. And um. Yeah, so anyways, again, long story short, we ended up building and we got like a really good deal with the builder since we were looking in November and December. Just a tip for anyone who wants to build November and December, if you're going with like a builder, they, they run specials at the end of the year and I didn't know that. And we found that out because they told us they were like, oh, it's good that you're buying in December because we have to hit a quota and you know your land that you're buying, the lot that you're buying, you can get like a special deal. And so we got like, you know, thousands, like multiple five figures, like knocked off or lot. Yeah, super cool.
- [07:26]
B
Congratulations on that. It's, that's probably a surreal moment because if I remember, we all just got married like two years ago probably right? Like together for a while and you got married and now you're here, you are building, you moved to build your new home. All powered by like this thing on the background which is like your online business income, which is one of the podcast built online, but also just like that's, that's the story of your life that you're, you've kind of, you're creating and how. I'm curious of how does that feel because you still have this perspective of probably people in your family. You have friends, you'll have old friends. You used to be like working kind of like a normal quote unquote normal job, a great job, but also like a normal job. And here you are like self sufficient for yourself. How does that feel for you?
- [08:13]
A
Yeah, it feels really cool. It feels really like magical this place we're in as far as like owning a home. And I think also I like we really never thought we would spend as much as we ended up spending on a home.
- [08:31]
B
Engineering figures like a ballpark at least. Like how, how much did you guys spend? Like millions are we Talking like high 400s where we at?
- [08:41]
A
It's close to seven figures, so. And we just never thought we would spend even close to seven figures. Like we were expecting like half like 500k. So that was kind of a surprise. But like, yeah, yeah, we were like, well, like this is gonna be what we want as our forever home. And we kind of got like everything that we wanted. Since we both work from home, it just made sense like for us because we, we have like a seven bedroom home, which is really cool and. Yeah.
- [09:19]
B
All right, all right now because I love, I love homes. I love them. I like them all time. I like treat Redfin as like my, my social media. I literally don't have Instagram on my phone, but I have Redfin on my phone. I just like scroll it every day. Yeah, it's so fun. So like square footage wise, like, help me dream. Help people listening to this, help them dream a little bit. How, how big is this thing? Seven bedrooms?
- [09:39]
A
It's over 3,000, I think 400 square feet. So it's a very big home. Ridiculously big home, I will say. I know for some people it's like, who needs that amount of space?
- [09:53]
B
We're not talking about needs. Needs are not wants.
- [09:56]
A
Yeah, I know. Yeah. And it's, it's like, well, you know, me and my husband, we both work from home, we plan on having multiple children. So it's kind of like this is long term and given we're in like our 30s, early 30s, it's kind of like it sounds ridiculous right now, but I know I'm going to appreciate it later when, you know, we have kids running around. And it's like, we do need that size at times. I mean, we're grateful we're allowed or we're able to have that size of home. But that was kind of the thought process. But, you know, starting off like, I never thought we would own this type of home. I never thought we'd be living in North Carolina. But that's the world of print on demand, etsy being on YouTube, all of these things have allowed us to do this. And not even just my incomes, even my husband, he was very big on saving, investing. He's really invested and like having him kind of almost as a mentor for investing too, for myself in just saving from how much income I've been able to have through my businesses. And he was working full time, he was a consultant in Chicago. And they make pretty, well, pretty good, pretty good money. Like you can basically make as much as, you know, like on YouTube and selling on Etsy, like, we were basically both bringing in the same income. And we did that for a few years. We both really saved and now we're like, at a very, like, good point in our finances that buying this type of home, we feel very comfortable with it. And I just coming from a mindset of, like, working a 9 to 5 of like, I don't know, the scarcity mindset, you know, of like, oh, like, oh, what if YouTube goes away or Etsy goes away and what if, like, this happens or that happens? And I've. I've done a lot of, like, just like mental health work and therapy through the past few years, and I've gotten to a place of, like, we are more than fine. And I see the abundance in life, which is, like, really, really cool now that I'm at this place. But, like, having our home even, like, I know we're fine because we've saved for this. Like, we've really saved for financial freedom that we now have, which is really cool. So. But yeah, I digress. I feel like I went on.
- [12:38]
B
No, thank you. Thank you for sharing so transparently. I think what you just did now is just. You inspired me, of course, but you've also inspired so many people right now that want to be in shoes like that. They want to be in a position where they have a great life partner, of course. And you end up buying and building a house of your dreams, and you're creating the future that you want, the present and also the future that you want. And also you not feel like you're house poor at the same time. I know that's very important for you because, you know, I. I know that life, like, freedoms like time, freedom, location, freedom, financial freedom are all pillars of you personally, because they are for sure of me and most people listening to this. So when you buy and build a home maybe even bigger than what you probably were expecting to, and you still, like, have to go through the mental gymnastics a little bit of, like, massaging this thing and making sure that, like, do I still have these freedoms after I purchase this home, or am I just making the mistake that I've been afraid of making, like, somehow self sabotaging? Um, I don't know if that ever came into your mind. That's definitely coming to my mind. Anytime I make a big purchase, I'm always like, is this the thing that takes me down? You know, is this the thing that, like, screws up everything that I've been working so hard for? Um, and yeah, so anyway, I just Wanted to say congratulations. You've earned it. And you sound. You. You and your husband have totally deserve it.
- [14:05]
A
Yeah. Thank you. And so I know you kind of, like you said, you've went through similar. Have you had the same, like, thoughts as far as, like, I didn't think I'd be able to have the home that we do now or like, the life we do now with.
- [14:21]
B
Totally. Yeah. Thanks for asking that. It's so interesting sometimes I'm like, really clear on it. Like, I have a great perspective on it. About, like, man, look at all the things that we've able to achieve. I never expected any of this. And there's like, another side of my mind of, like, I've expected every single one of these things, and we've gotten every single thing that we've expected. So it's like this constant thing of this. This back and forth of. I didn't expect any of this and I expected all this all at the same time. Have you experienced that?
- [14:53]
A
Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I think, like, we've both. Or like, just as far as, like, me and my husband. I know my husband was like, whoa, I never, like, he never wanted to quit his job. I. I really had to convince him. He likes being a worker be. You know, and I'm, like, very business minded. Like, I don't, you know, I don't really want to work under someone. I'm very creative. Like, I want to be free creatively. And that's. Yeah. Yeah. And like, that's where it's just kind of funny that I think about my husband. But that's. That's, you know how some people are like. And I feel the same. Like, I used to be that for my 95 is like, tell me what to do, I'll do it. Tell me how high to jump. I'll jump that high. But now as a business owner, it's like, oh, my goodness. Like, I don't have that person telling me to jump as high. So I have to keep myself in check sometimes. But. But, yeah, yeah. Same with the expectations. Like, I knew it in the back of my head. My husband, I would say, didn't because I'm the one that's like, thinking, like, I don't know, just universes ahead. And he's like, heather, what are you talking about? And I'm like, I know we can do this. Like, yeah, I love that.
- [16:16]
B
I love how it sounds like you guys are just an incredible team. Um, because obviously you need both to have kind of keep you in check sometimes. Probably your visions and. And not that your husband is. He's. I know for sure.
- [16:27]
A
It's just.
- [16:27]
B
I could just tell that he's not pulling you back. It's more like he's double checking along the ways that you're like that you're maybe not thinking about certain details and you need both of those things in order to. My wife and I do the same thing. I tend to dream really, really big and then. And then she does with me, but she's the more practical. She'll kind of make sure that, like, hey, did you do this, though? And I'm like, oh, well, that's not important. Well, it actually kind of is important to make sure the dream becomes true, you know, so. Which. That's the beautiful thing about building a life and creating a life that. That you dreamt about?
- [17:03]
A
Yep. Yeah. Yeah. And that's. I think that's what's really nice. And like, I don't know, like, I feel like the success I've had, I. I always have to mention my husband because I'm like, man, like, yeah, he just supported me a lot. And he's like the logical one between us. And that's a good thing to have when, you know, like, us, we're like ambitious, dreaming people. And then it's like, oh, wait, like, this is the real, the realistic side of what we're doing. And like, he'll pull me back a little bit, but that's a good thing, you know, and he's always supported me. So I feel like that's one thing that I have to note with just like buying a home. Yeah. Yeah. And just being in this place, it's. It's because of just having that strong partnership too. But. Yeah, that's. That's.
- [17:55]
B
How do you. How did you balance? Maybe not balance, but how did you think? Like, what kind of frame of thinking were you in to? Because there's people listening to this that are starting out, of course, who probably shouldn't be thinking about building a house yet because they need to build a business first. And. Of course. But let's say that people are listening to this right now that are. They've been building the business for, let's say, few years. They have cash reserves. They have money in the bank. They also have a great income that they can like, kind of rely on to or not kind of, they can rely on and they feel really good about. But those people also suffer from this thing. I know because from experience, from never really feeling like you have enough in order to, like, allow yourself to, like, do something you Know, like to buy something big like that because you're kind of. You've kind of gone into this scarcity mindset of, like, well. Cause you know how fragile things can be. And you've worked so hard to make sure that you're never fragile again. And when you make a big purchase, whether it's. Maybe it's a vehicle, maybe it's a house, you kind of have to battle the scarcity mindset again, which is very interesting. Uh, did you battle that at all? And then what was your. Like, how did you kind of get through that?
- [19:09]
A
I definitely battled with that for a while. And I think, just coming from, you know, I've tried to be more open about this on my channel, but sometimes I kind of pull back because, you know, people comment sometimes things that it's like, I don't need to necessarily hear your opinion. And I hate to say that in like, a mean way, but, like, there's certain things. It's kind of like if every co worker that you've ever worked with, you heard what they said behind your back. Like, there's certain things you don't need to hear because not everyone's correct. And I think I've learned that through just being on YouTube is there's people who have their opinions. That's their opinions, that's fine. But do you. Do I need to hear it? Sometimes not. And with my mental health, that's one of those things. So I went through, like, mental health battles with just anxiety and depression, and I've went through a lot of therapy and whatnot. And I've read a lot of books, and one of the books I read was the Gap in the Game. Yeah. Yeah. And I think I might have mentioned it. Last podcast.
- [20:20]
B
Author's name is.
- [20:24]
A
I feel like I. I should know the author's name. It's been a while since I read it.
- [20:30]
B
Oh, yeah, Dan Sullivan.
- [20:33]
A
Yeah, yeah. Dan Sullivan. Yeah. So I read that book and it really opened my eyes up to just where I'm at. And basically, like, if you always are in that mindset of, it's never enough for me to buy this thing, given I'm. I'm definitely like, you know, I should have emergency funds, like, always make sure you have emergency funds for anything. For anyone who owns their own business or even, you know, you're working nine to five and you're not sure, at least you have that, like, cushion that's been me and my husband's, you know, always. We always have an emergency fund. You know, they say I not say they Say but like I always hear a lot is always have like three to five years of payments for bills and whatnot. Luckily again, that's something like me and my husband have saved.
- [21:32]
B
Meaning. So like just to break that down for anybody that hasn't thought about this before, because I love this frame of thinking. So it's basically like if you're. Let's say your bills are five. Let's call it five. Let's call it 10,000amonth. Right. It's just easy, easy numbers. So 10,000 times 12 is, is 12,000 per year. It just payments that's just like you're including your mortgage, your all your bills, your groceries, utility. Like life. Right. And maybe this really like the luxury life. It's more like bare minimum like this is to survive like 10,000. Right. And so times 12. 12, that's. Gosh, was that 100? I said 12,000. It's 120,000. So three to five years would be anywhere from 360K to 500 something K of like just emergency funds after you make a big purchase. After you make the big purchase. Is that, is that, Am I in line with your thinking?
- [22:22]
A
Pretty much, yeah. And I know that's unattainable for some people in which it's probably like, okay Heather, where are you getting at with this? But I think that it's still good to have a little bit of a cushion even if it's one to two years. Because even if you buy a home, like you can always sell a home, you know, that's the plus you can rent. I don't know what your thoughts are on that though. I, I'd be curious to hear what, what you think about like the safety cushion should be for most like maybe business owners or for sure.
- [22:57]
B
I think for anyone W2 employee or, or our business owner, like it should be the same type of thinking. Meaning like you. I exactly. I agree with what you're thinking. That framework is, is important. Just like. And I don't think you need. Sometimes you spend more months because you feel more confident and you're just like, ah, let's, let's redo the backyard, let's redo the front yard. Like all this stuff. But those aren't like when things got, when things. If things ever got really, really tight, you wouldn't do that. And so it's like how do you make sure that your family and you are safe and you're with relatively safe emotionally, financially? It doesn't take you down because you make a mistake or you didn't Foresee something that happened in the market or your business. And that's the way, like, I put that filter through. And so for me, the only thing you can really do is is have cash or some sort of, like, liquid, like some sort of liqu. Thing to make sure that you feel safe. And I don't know if I have, like, a solid, like, numbers of years, but I do love, like, the three to five years. To me, the. The thinking is as long as possible. Like, if it's. If it's only six months, then get it to a year. If it's a year, then get it to two years. If it's two years, get it to five years. If it's five years, get it to infinity. Because eventually you can actually turn it into infinity years, um, which is the ultimate goal. And so that's. That's the way I would think about it. Everybody's in different stages, but always more the better. And if 30 days is not enough, you shouldn't be purchasing really anything that you don't absolutely need. Three months, again, same six months for kind of getting there. 12 months. All right, maybe you can start thinking about it, but just know that you need to make sure you're stacking more and more years on that thing. This is how you get that location in and location freedom, time freedom and financial freedom is when you're not feeling like, if I make one mistake, my life blows up. Not just my business, my life, meaning my kids, my marriage. Like, there's a lot of things at stake here. And so that's. And that takes discipline. That's not easy to do. That's. That would be my answer to that.
- [25:05]
A
Yeah, I really love that. And I feel like that's something that I know, like, a lot of people who probably listen to this podcast. It's like, man, I'm. I'm not even, like, at that stage. You know, I'm just saving for, like, a car right now or something. And. Or maybe people are, like, at our area too, or in between. But I know, like, it's. It's tough to save that amount. And I was just thinking, like, me and my husband, we had a conversation the other day about, like. Because I've heard about fire, which is. I don't even know what it. What the acronym. Something.
- [25:46]
B
Retire early.
- [25:47]
A
Like, yeah, yeah.
- [25:49]
B
Financial independence early or something like that.
- [25:51]
A
Yeah, yeah. And I heard about that concept when I first started all this, like, my business and everything. But I never, like, went with whatever. Like, I've never done a course or went through, like, A program or done anything for it. I've just heard about it. And then the other day I went on CHAT GPT and I'm like asking chat GPT, like, when can I effectively, like when can I retire? Because I watched this YouTube video about like 30 year olds retiring early through like fire and whatnot. And I watched the video and I was like, I was like, whoa. I was like, wait. I was like, wait, they have the same savings me and my husband have. I was like, I was like, wait. And then I looked on Chat GPT and it was like, oh yeah, you're already, already on the path for like. I guess there's different types of fire. Like there's like lean fire, there's fat fire. And me and my husband were pretty much, we're aggressive savers. That's just how I've always been. That's how he's always been. I, I like to say like all that I'm saying is like this like the, the stage that we're at came from compounding savings and owning a business. Like I truly believe it's been compounding savings and owning a business and saving like everything that we could when we first started. And I want to mention that because I know again, people listening are probably like, okay, like it's really cool where you're at, but like how did you get there? And that's like five years ago I, I was just looking at my like my stock, like my brokerage and I looked and even four years ago I have like doubled basically my savings every year in my just brokerage account. And yeah, and I just really attribute that to like aggressively saving everything. And I still spend like I spend on clothes, I spend on stuff I like. But for the first like two to three years of my business I saved, save, saved and I was working my 9 to 5 still at some points of that. And my husband, he's just been ultra saving for the longest time and he had no plans to retire early either because he likes to work. And I'm the same. I do like to work. I like what I do. I have like, I really love being on YouTube. I love talking about financial freedom and just how to get there. And I truly think like at sea and print on demand that is a viable option. That's how I saved and to the point where I'm comfortable now and I wouldn't have had that if not for owning a business. But it took a lot of saving. Like I, I saved and I saved and I saved and there were certain points where I Could have spent more. I could have bought a nice car. I could have bought like luxury things. Like I still to this day do not own a luxury bag. Like I still to this day don't own like really nice jewelry. I don't have like a super luxury car. Like I bought a used car. Like we bought a used car. I. There's certain things like. And not say like not to knock those things. Like I think that's amazing if you want to spend on those things. But like for. I've always been very lean in my spending me.
- [29:24]
B
You're paying for freedom first and then.
- [29:27]
A
Yes.
- [29:28]
B
And I guess my question is, I'm assuming I know the answer, but will you ever allow yourself to, to buy those things?
- [29:37]
A
Yeah, yeah, I think I am. I'm getting, I'm opening my head up to it because in my mind up to it I have been recently like looking at stuff and again like not to knock it but now that I like we have compounded like it's compounded savings. Like when I first started I compounded my savings in a high yield interest savings account. For the longest time I was scared to do anything with stocks. And then I met my husband and he got me into the world of like investing. And then I started investing because he was like oh well the market can make you more return on investment over time if you just, just like instead of doing compound interest savings like put it into the market. And I've always been a cash person. Like I'm like I want cash on hand because it scares me still with stocks. But he was like no, like you can do both. Like I understand. And that's where I started really saving and my returns compounding over time have really like that's where to me like.
- [30:47]
B
It seems like your, your business was you and you and your husband are great partners. Um, one I'm trying to think of like what are the, what are the things that are true? You guys have a great partnership that are aligned in your guys goals. And if you probably weren't always aligned but you naturally got aligned somehow you guys work together and got aligned and you always realign the next thing. That's also true is like you own a business that's, that's, that's an important aspect here. You can do this stuff by being in a W2 job. You can. It's typically harder and it takes longer. Sometimes not even possible depends on the job. So business ownership is still the best way to build wealth in my opinion. Especially when you're optimizing for financial Freedom time, freedom and location. Freedom. Online entrepreneurship is the best vehicle to do this. Did I say the easiest? No, not, not nothing is the easiest. So get easy out of your head if you're listening to this, but worth it. And then you guys obviously like stay disciplined. For you, discipline means savings. And you guys, you mentioned savings like a million times, right? Because that's your form of discipline. And you guys kept stacking cash also. And then you obviously kept investing in your business and you kept working on your business and all that stuff too. And you also invested. But, but you didn't start investing until you probably had more cash. What I'm hearing.
- [32:11]
A
Yeah.
- [32:12]
B
You didn't like take your $100 in your savings and started putting that in the market. Like that's what a lot of people do that when they're first starting out. Like, oh, Heather said to start investing, I'm gonna put 500 in the market. It's like, well, you're better off just investing in your business and yourself than putting it in the market and taking it outta your control. So there's stages that Heather's done this in and she sequenced them in a way that, that's, that's maximized potential for her. Follow what Heather has kind of done, she's sequencing things. She didn't do these things before. The other thing, she didn't buy the million dollar home before she had the, the you know, million dollar business, so on. So I want to be, I wanted to make sure I hammer on that for, for anyone that was confused.
- [32:55]
A
Yeah, yeah, no, I'm really happy you said that. And I feel like I should have started by saying that because I feel like I really jumped ahead.
- [33:03]
B
That's my job is to make sure I'm piecing it all together. I want you to share it authentically just like you are because that's, it's very valuable for people to listen to this. They've never heard stuff like this before. A lot of times, yeah.
- [33:14]
A
And I think that, like, I really love that you mentioned that because I have had layers of my life. Like when I was working a 9 to 5 at the hospital, I mean a lot of people know like hospital jobs. They don't like even working in a major city, I still was not getting paid enough to live on my own. I still was basically like, you know, just getting by, scraping by. I mean the most I could save at times was like 25, $50 a month. Over time that turned into thousands a month. I will say from like once my print on demand business Took off. Like, I was just like, okay, I'm gonna save. Like I'm just gonna start saving. Gonna start putting this in my first. I put it into my high yield interest savings account. But I remember when I. What really unlocked everything for me. So first and foremost I, when I started my business, even before my business, so first like level of my savings was working my 9 to 5, saving what I could, which was like you know, $50 here and there, 100 some months, 200 if I got a bonus or like anything and then paying my bills. And that's what I did. And then once I got my business, I was investing that money. I kind of slowed down on my savings because instead I was investing into the business, paying for mockup images, paying for any fees for softwares that I was using. With Printify, I did Printify Premium if I paid for like font packs and like other things like that. Which it's funny because now there's subscription services, there's design software you can just pay for and get all the fonts inherently in the softwares. But I started reinvesting in my business and that was like, you know, I would say what I was saving monthly was just going into my business. I started swapping my lunch because I would go to Chipotle for lunch. I started swapping that for. And luckily I was grateful I could afford a Chipotle for lunch at work. Like, I would walk on my lunch breaks down to Chipotle, get my lunch. And I stopped doing that. I ended up just making like PB and J sandwiches. And instead I, yeah, I took that $10, put it in the business.
- [35:41]
B
It's exactly what we do.
- [35:42]
A
It's exactly that.
- [35:44]
B
For years we, we, my, my wife and I, I look back on that time and I really enjoyed that time of like us making each other lunches and, and we like pack it up and it's like we look at like, look how much we saved here. Received like three, four dollars today. You know, and like I remember one, at one point when we were first starting out, we would save. We had jobs. This is purely on jobs. I think it was $20 a week. We, and that's, that was our savings. So we could like. And then, so that, that foundation, the, the fundamentals like that discipline carries you forward as you start to earn more. You, you can it. Those principles, you, you continue to live by those things. And it really compounds into this something that's could be very big and life changing. And I love what you said about you started to flip your savings into investing in yourself and investing your business. I think a lot of people, especially when they start, if someone's new listening to this, a lot of times people are pretty confused about. Sometimes the expectations are just wrong when they come in. They're like, ah, like, I only have like 50 bucks to start a business online. You know, it's like cool, but like, probably not the best time to start a business. You can, but it's just, you have to have an income too, something. So go get the job also and start the business at the same time because you need, you're gonna need, you're gonna make mistakes, you're gonna need subscriptions, you're gonna need like this stuff in order to just, just play the game. And a lot of times people will give up because they ran out of money. Month two, they're like, oh, it cost me more than 40 bucks. It's like, well, dude, it's only been a month. You know, it's gonna, it's gonna take you. Maybe it takes you a year, maybe it takes you five years. It's worth it. But you have to be able to play the game for long enough. You know, you gotta give yourself a chance. And so I'm curious what your message is to, to those people.
- [37:37]
A
Yeah, yeah, I think that it is a sacrifice and. But it's a sacrifice for your future self that you have to think of your future family, maybe your family and friends now that you really want to help. I can't say enough how much the window of taking those sacrifices and not to even say like it was that big of sacrifices. Like, I've always had a great support system through my husband and my family and I'm again very grateful. I have that. I have those privileges that were kind of built in for me that I want to also note here. But I will say, like sacrificing that lunch or like going to get coffee, maybe making it once a week coffee instead of every day. I know I did that like, because I was like, this makes me feel good every day to just get coffee. But I sacrifice that just for the short term to see something in long term. And that's essentially what I did, was doing that. And then I eventually saw that repeat action and like the investment start to pay itself back over time. I really attribute this mindset though, to just reading some books. Like in the mornings I would, before work, I'd go to work like an hour early at the hospital and I would, I would bring my coffee to work and I would read a book and I read Two books that I'd recommend anyone listening to this podcast, the compound effect by Darren Hardy that really opened my eyes up to compounding actions over time create a just gigantic ripple effect in your life and whether you know it or not. I remember there was a line in the book and I'm gonna botch this. I do apologize in it in advance, but he said in the book, whether you know it or not, you are compounding actions right now. So you have to think of that and think, okay, like what am I doing? That you could be compounding negatively or you can be compounding out of balance or you can be compounding positively in your life and that affects everything. So the second book that I read was it's. It's a really funny titled book, but I think it was I will get you rich or something like that. I don't know if you read that book or I forget what the title was, but trying to think of it.
- [40:15]
B
Is it one is I will get you rich or how to be rich.
- [40:18]
A
I think it might be I will make you rich or something.
- [40:21]
B
Actually looking up right now, is it I will teach you to be rich. Ramit Sethi.
- [40:28]
A
Yes. Yes, I.
- [40:31]
B
Read a year ago. Yeah, it was a good book.
- [40:33]
A
Yeah. That really opened my eyes up to like, okay, like he said in the book, something about like the only way to save more money is or the ways to save more money is to make more money. And I was like, wow, that is like so obvious. But just reading that woke me up. So I asked my. I when I was working in five, I asked my manager for raise. I was like, can I get a raise? I started asking my friends how much they make at their jobs at competing hospitals. And I brought that to my manager because that's what the book recommended. If you want to make, if you want to save more money, make more money, you have to ask for raises. Like all you have to do is ask. If they say no, then you can always apply for another job. And that's exactly what I did.
- [41:25]
B
I think you're. I agree with you. I think the and that's an abundance mindset versus scarcity mindset, which is what I have now and how much I need to like penny pinch. And reality is that's part of that is true, but the reality is also is that your biggest lever is your income. That's your biggest lever for so much of this. Like it unlocks. Imagine if you just like 10x your income from today. Anybody listening to this? Just 10x to your income, maybe 100 extra income, you'd be saving a lot more, you'd be investing a lot more. You'd be like unlocking a lot more other things. So that means the income is your biggest lever. And so how to increase your income is the name of the game. Until your income is high enough to where you should be saving and should be investing more. That's. That is the name of the game. And so it's like everything should be aligned with just how do I make more income? Okay, cool. If I have a business. Okay, cool. What kind of mindsets do I need to. Okay. What kind of skills I need to learn? Which courses do I need to buy, what kind of YouTube videos I need to watch? All that stuff should be maximizing your skills to increase your income. And that's how you achieve like those three pillars of freedom.
- [42:31]
A
Yeah, yeah, totally agree. And I think just having those like, almost unlocks to, okay, there is maybe a wall or a ceiling separating you from your next level of income. And I think sometimes books or even podcasts like this can unlock that new ceiling, new level. That I think a lot of people just need to hear at times. Because even for me, like, I've always dealt with like self con, self confidence issues and just like, oh, you're not good enough for this. You're not smart enough, you're not, you know, experienced enough. I've said those things to myself multiple times. And every, yeah, like every time I'm, I'm shocked when someone tells me like, oh my gosh, you're doing this well, or you're doing this to a new level I've never heard of before. And I'm like, I've never thought that about myself, but it's, it's really helpful and to hear that and just hear new things that are going to unlock that new version of yourself. And I think that financial freedom is available to a lot of people. It's just you have to keep leveling up. And sometimes that starts with just asking for a raise. That raise can allow you to invest in your business. You investing in your business can unlock a whole nother world of income for you. And then from there you can save, save, save, and get to a point where it's optional. If you want to work at one day, at one point, which is really cool. And that's kind of like we're, me and my husband, we're building towards that now of having that. And that's really amazing. Like, we kind of already have it in a way. If we really wanted to be lean right now, but I, you know, we're. We're prepping for kids and everything, so it's kind of like if we're. We're not there. But yeah, that's essentially.
- [44:39]
B
I love that. Heather, you're so inspiring and I speak for everyone listening to this. Thank you for your time. I want to leave with Heather. Where can people find you, connect more with you and yeah, just be kind of follow your content more.
- [44:57]
A
Yeah, so I'm at Heather Studio on YouTube. I am on Instagram at its Heather Studio, but I will be quite honest, I have not been doing Instagram as often recently. But my YouTube is where I have free tutorials, free content and everything there. So highly recommend checking me out there, watching tutorials on how to start a print on demand and Etsy business if that's something that interests you as well. And yeah, thank you so much, Cody, for having me on. Because this podcast and your channel, it's always fun.
- [45:33]
B
Yeah, thank you, Heather. Talk to you soon.
- [45:35]
A
Yeah, talk to you soon. Bye.
- [45:37]
B
Bye.