← So Money with Farnoosh Torabi
So Money with Farnoosh Torabi
1789: How One Listener Quit Her Job, Built Wealth, and Helped Her Mom Invest
00:37:03
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- [00:02]
Farnoosh Torabi
Ladies and gentlemen, we are now boarding Group A. Please have your boarding passes ready to scan. If your phone is cracked old or was chewed up by your Chihuahua Travel companion, please refrain from holding up the line and instead simply go to Verizon and trade in any phone in any condition from one of their top brands for the new Samsung Galaxy S25 plus with Galaxy AI on Unlimited ultimate and a watch or tab. Also on now. Service plan required for watch or tab. Trade in and additional terms apply. See verizon.com for details.
- [00:30]
Brittany Wilson
Are you still quoting 30 year old movies? Have you said cool beans in the past 90 days? Do you still think Discover isn't widely accepted? If this sounds like you, you're stuck in the past.
- [00:42]
Farnoosh Torabi
Discover is accepted at 99% of places.
- [00:45]
Brittany Wilson
That take credit cards nationwide and every time you make a purchase with your card, you automatically earn cash back.
- [00:51]
Farnoosh Torabi
Welcome to the now it pays to Discover.
- [00:54]
Brittany Wilson
Learn more@discover.com credit card based on the February 2024 Nielsen report.
- [01:02]
Farnoosh Torabi
So Money episode 1789 how one so Money listener quit her job, built wealth and helped her mom invest you're listening to so Money with award winning money guru Farnoosh Torabi. Each day get a 30 minute dose of financial inspiration from the world's top business minds, authors, influencers and from Farnoosh herself. Looking for ways to save on gas or D Double your double coupons. Sorry, you're in the wrong place. Seeking profound ways to live a richer, happier life. Welcome to so Money.
- [01:39]
Brittany Wilson
I went to Google shortly thereafter and looked up best financial podcasts for women to listen to and of course so Money was the first one to come to.
- [01:47]
Farnoosh Torabi
Oh my gosh.
- [01:48]
Brittany Wilson
What opened me up and from there I started really increasing my competence in financial literacy but then also increasing like the credible places that I went. So you're podcasts are certainly like the first credible place. But then I started going to like my 401k providers and taking the trainings that they offered and really figuring out from there more credible places to go to get financial advice.
- [02:13]
Farnoosh Torabi
Welcome to SEW Money everybody. I'm Farnoosh Tarabi. Today's episode is special. It's my birthday week so I wanted to just do what I wanted to do and my favorite thing to do is to pluck people from our audience and give them the stage to show everybody else how it gets done, how you can be so Money. Brittany Wilson is our guest today and she started listening to so money in 2020 at the start of the pandemic when she realized she needed to take charge of her finances. She admittedly grew up with little financial literacy. She took on high interest student loans without really knowing what she was signing up for. But she made a decision to educate herself and everything changed. Since 2020 and listening every episode of so Money, Britney has raised her salary by $42,000. She's fully funded her emergency savings, diversified her investments, started a side business, and probably most special, most importantly, she's helped her mother open up her first Roth IRA and become more financially secure. Last year, Britney took on one of the biggest leaps of her life, quitting her job to run her career coaching business career candor full time. So today we're going to talk about Britney's transformation, how she navigated job loss and use it as a catalyst for entrepreneurship. What's her top career advice for us, including how AI is changing the hiring process. We'll also get into the emotional side of money, the power of financial friendships, and why helping others, especially the women in our lives, can be one of the most rewarding financial moves. Here's Brittany Wilson. Brittany Wilson, welcome to SEW Money. This is gonna be a fun. We're going to talk about all the things you've been learning as a listener of this show. Welcome and thank you for volunteering to come and share your story.
- [04:10]
Brittany Wilson
No, of course. Thanks, Farnoosh, for the opportunity and just thank you for literally all the advice you've given me across the year. Oh my gosh. I look forward to talking more about it.
- [04:20]
Farnoosh Torabi
This puts me kind of in a weird place because I'm like, I obviously can't take all the credit, but I also, I'll let you just humble brag a little bit about me. I love all of it. And I mentioned a little bit in the introduction some of your accomplishments since listening to so Money. But I want to just start with taking us back to where you were when you started listening to the podcast. I believe that was in 2020. What were you struggling with at the time? Outside of just all the usual struggles of navigating the pandemic?
- [04:50]
Brittany Wilson
Yeah, outside the usual struggles of navigating the pandemic, of course, 2020, right. You had a lot of time on your hands and that was no different for me. So at that point in my life, I had just secured a full time job after taking a graduate internship and I was very fortunate to have that in 2020. But of course my income increased a lot. So that was, I thought to myself, okay, I have this money coming in that I wasn't anticipating for myself. What do I do now at the same time, I was living with my boyfriend in mixed income housing so we could save up for, for a house. And so I was trying to navigate how much money do we need and what are the closing costs and all this sort. At the same time, I was working two part time jobs on top of my full time job just to really save up all this money. And I thought, okay, let me start educating myself more about finances. I am making more money than I ever thought I would be. I am making more money than anyone in my history has been. And I was, it was, I think most people would be like, yay, like this is a celebration. I was terrified because I.
- [05:59]
Farnoosh Torabi
How much money were you making? How much of a jump was it?
- [06:02]
Brittany Wilson
Yeah, so good question. From my graduate internship into my full time job, it was 10,000. But a few years later I had a much larger increase as well. I was making about $75,000 as a full time employee, which was like more than.
- [06:15]
Farnoosh Torabi
And what was your job?
- [06:16]
Brittany Wilson
I was working in human resources. Yep. So it's, it was by no means. We're all striving for the good problem and stuff.
- [06:22]
Farnoosh Torabi
It's a good problem.
- [06:24]
Brittany Wilson
Yeah, it was a good problem to have. Right. But it was a terrifying problem because I, I didn't grow up with any financial literacy. Like the first time I ever heard of a 401k was at my first job and someone came in and said, I have a 401k and now I'm a millionaire. And that made me open up 401k.
- [06:42]
Farnoosh Torabi
So they might have been lying.
- [06:44]
Brittany Wilson
He might have been, but he encouraged me to open one up. And that, that, that's great.
- [06:49]
Farnoosh Torabi
That's great. So in 2020, you're making and you were afraid, what were you afraid of? Like just making the wrong moves. Blowing it all.
- [06:57]
Brittany Wilson
I was totally afraid of blowing it all. I was afraid of all the scams that are out there at that point. I had one credit card, so it was like an $80 in my area. We have Wawa. Right. So shout out to the greater Philadelphia.
- [07:10]
Farnoosh Torabi
Yeah, I love Wawa. Oh my God.
- [07:12]
Brittany Wilson
So I had a Wawa credit card with $800 limit that I was told.
- [07:16]
Farnoosh Torabi
Oh man. Oh we. Yeah, yeah. I'm so glad you found this podcast in 2020. So I love that you had the thought then to invest in your education and in your knowledge. What were you consuming at the time? What was really besides this podcast? What was helping you out?
- [07:34]
Brittany Wilson
Yeah, I would say at the time it was very introductory level information. So I, I kid you not. I think my first exposure was Pinterest. Like I went on Pinterest and looked for, of all the places to look for financial support, went to Pinterest, start pinning blogs and ideas to really help me out. And that's when I got introduced to a high yield savings account. And I was like, oh, what's this? And then, then I went to Google shortly thereafter and looked up best financial podcasts for women to listen to. And of course, so money was the first one to come to. Oh my gosh, what opened me up. And from there I started really increasing my competence in financial literacy but then also increasing like the credible places that I went. So your podcasts are certainly like the first credible place. But then I started going to like my 401k providers and taking the trainings that they offered and really figuring out from there more credible places to go to get financial advice.
- [08:34]
Farnoosh Torabi
Was there a piece of advice in the beginning that really shifted your mindset? You talked about early on learning about the high yield Savings and the 401k, but was there a mindset shift that happened, a light bulb moment if you will, like a financial enlightenment moment that you had that has helped you navigate your money like it's given you an interesting lens or a fresh lens to see your financial potential.
- [09:01]
Brittany Wilson
So I think that moment came around last year. So I was working at a Fortune 500 tech company and I was part of the big tech layoffs. So that same company where I went from an intern to full time employee, a few years later I was laid off and I was devastated. It was the darkest time in my career and it was so hard because at the time I was doing some freelancing on the side. I had my full time job and then I had a part time job as well. And that's just what I learned growing up is financial stability was having multiple sources of income. It was having multiple jobs because that's just how you're going to do better. That's what my mom did. My mom had two, three, four jobs at any point in time. And so I learned that from her. And when I got laid off, my light bulb moment was I can't hang my hat on an employer as a steady source of income anymore. I need to take a bet on myself. And that's where my, I would say the spark came from. I didn't exactly act on it right away for out of like financial fear. And I know you love talking about fear and I've listened to so many of your episodes about fear. Fear and Scarcity mindset. I was totally going through that and listening to your episodes, trying to get through it to really learn how do I get back on my feet and how specifically focusing on the how do I get back on my feet? How do I do this without hanging my hat on someone else? Because I know I can't anymore.
- [10:27]
Farnoosh Torabi
I want to talk about your coaching business that you started out of that aha moment. It's called career candor. I have a lot of, I don't have time for all my employment questions for you, but I'm going to try to hit on some hot, the hot ones. But I want to go back to you climbing out of a little bit of your debt as well. So I understand that you had student.
- [10:50]
Brittany Wilson
Loans, private student loans and federal student loans. Yep.
- [10:55]
Farnoosh Torabi
And I read that you knocked down the monthly payments by 30%. What is the state of your student loans now and how have you best navigated that?
- [11:06]
Brittany Wilson
Yeah, so I'm still, I'm a little bit lower than that or a little bit higher than that 30% at this point. Of course, working the part time jobs helped me a lot. But I was, my biggest success is that I was able to close out that those private student loans because they were such a high interest rate compared to the federal ones. The big thing I really focused on is I, I was a total financial nerd. I kept a little financial journal with me that tracked all my expenses and like how much extra money I had coming in and great. Of every extra dollar that I get, this fraction is going to go to student loans this month, this fraction is going to go to the car payment this month or something of that sort. And that just being super conscious of my financial, my financial journey had really helped me figure out and be much more mindful about where I was spending my money. So really keeping track of every dollar and cent that I was using was helpful for me, not sustainable for many people and there were certainly times in my life that I'd skip a week or two. But that helped teach me some great habits and help me see where my money was really going.
- [12:10]
Farnoosh Torabi
What I'm learning from you is that step one, you just made a commitment to yourself. I have to learn more. I recognize that I have these shortcomings. I recognize that I might have some baggage from my growing up years and the exposure that I had to money. But I'm an adult now. I'm making significant money. I need to start being more. And really you just started paying more attention. I'm hearing along the way that you Set up certain accounts and you started making automations and contributions. But at the root of it, Brittany, it's really that you just decided that you are going to learn more and ask questions and get into it, really dig into it. So I love hearing that you, like compartmentalized your income. You gave every dollar an assignment, more or less. That's called mental accounting. It works. It's been like proven scientifically. Like, we can't just imagine where our money is going or hope that it's going to go to certain places. We have to actually filter it and giving it a name. Like, I used to have this job when I was in my 20s, a freelance job. I was a freelance writer for a local paper. And I just looked at that job as my pay, my credit card debt job. It wasn't enough to pay my rent or other things, but it was for me, like a way to very intentionally pay off an aspect of my financial life. And I think that was just. It was helpful because there are days when you don't want to do that job and you're like, what is this all for? What is this all for? I'm so tired. But then you realize that this has a very specific cause and it motivates you. You increase your salary by $42,000. Was this, tell me when this happened, how are you doing income wise today? What advice do you have? And this kind of now gets us into your career coaching maybe. Like, how did you negotiate for more money?
- [14:07]
Brittany Wilson
Yeah, when I was laid off, I wasn't making the most money that I'd made in my career. It wasn't until after I got laid off that I landed another job. I was very proud of myself. I landed a job quickly. I landed a job with a higher title and a higher pay raise. That's what I was looking for. And that's where I had made that 42,000 bump. And to be quite honest, that was not the original salary I had negotiated up. At the time. I was interviewing with two companies and one company offered me a full package, like, here's a big salary, here's a big bonus. But I was talking to this other company that I preferred more and they both happened to give me an offer at the same time. So I leveraged the larger offer and said, there's another organization. It happens to be same size, same industry, luckily enough. And I would really like to, I really want to take the job with you guys instead. But they're offering me this. Can you match me? And they did. Uh, so that really helped me negotiate My salary up. But eventually I. I was in that job for about a year. And the entire time I was there, I was thinking about opening up my own business. And so that's what led me more into this. I would say that by no means am I making the same money that I was in my last role, right? I am not. However, what I did during that year and previously is I was saving up, of course, a fully funded emergency account, but then also saving up a year's worth of savings, years worth of expenses, so that way I could go out on my entrepreneurial journey and try it out.
- [15:38]
Farnoosh Torabi
It was hard though, right? That sounds incredible. But I'm also like, oh, man, that's aggressive.
- [15:43]
Brittany Wilson
Yeah, it was super aggressive. When I was laid off, it was the darkest part of my career. I loved my work like I would love a child. I loved it so much. And so to be separated from my friends, from people that I consider near family, to me, that really hurts, let alone the financial aspect of it. At the time when I was working there, I was working in HR and as a career coach, that was specifically my job, was to provide career coaching for our own employees. And so at the time, I had my own coworkers and some of my own clients who said, brittany, you, like, this is a sign you've been laid off. Like, this is your time to start your own business. Like, you got it, you have to do. This is what you were meant to do. And I was like, yeah, but money, like, I don't have the means to start my business full time. I don't have this ability. I just, I kept saying I don't. And I fortunately have a great circle of friends and clients and old colleagues who just kept pestering me and saying, you know, you really, this is what you were meant to do. And so I took that full time job, got my raise, was super proud of it. And the entire time, it just kept haunting me. Like, you should have started your business when you were laid off. Like, you should have done this. So I told myself, give it a year, right? See if after that year, if you still feel the same, that's when you submit your notice and move on. And that's exactly what happened. So that year I just started stashing money in the event that one year later I would want to open up a business. And that's what I've done. So immediately I just reached out to old clients, reached out to friends to say, I did it, like, and I want to thank you because you, and without you, and without honestly furnish all of your podcasts during that time I listened to so many of your podcasts.
- [17:30]
Farnoosh Torabi
About quitting on hopefully on high speed right like 1.2, 1.5 honest.
- [17:35]
Brittany Wilson
Seriously, furnish every commute to work. It was a farnoosh. It was a so money podcast.
- [17:40]
Farnoosh Torabi
Oh my gosh.
- [17:41]
Brittany Wilson
Entrepreneurship. What to do if you want to quit your job, how to pursue a side hustle all we should all be millionaires like things of this I was like I need the confidence to do this and I found it with so many so that you were with me first of all since 2020 but every commute in that pivotal year as I was thinking about I should have been my own business and so you were a lot of my research to be able to do that.
- [18:05]
Farnoosh Torabi
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- [22:40]
Brittany Wilson
Yeah. So I think one especially for me is We should all be millionaires with Rachel Rogers that you had. That was a. I talked about having a moment where the light sparked, but I didn't act on it. Right. People were telling me, you should do your own business, but I didn't act on it. That we should all be millionaires was like a second spark for me. It took a lot of sparks for the light bulb to finally go, for the fire to finally be lit and just simply out of fear. But that episode, I think it was so eye opening. It was life changing for me because it really, she convinced me. She said, we can all do it. And that just gave me the confidence to say, yeah, I didn't think I'd be making this much money in my life. I didn't think I'd be doing these things. And so now I. What's to stop me from doing, from becoming a millionaire? What's to stop me from doing from doing my own business? Like, it just opened up this aha moment for me. And yeah, it was that. That one really changed it for me.
- [23:35]
Farnoosh Torabi
How important is it to you to reach a certain number, a million? We talk a lot on this show about the pursuit of enough.
- [23:45]
Brittany Wilson
Yeah.
- [23:46]
Farnoosh Torabi
And I will be honest. When I was in my 30s, as I was earning more and I saw my potential and I saw what others were making, it became a competition in my head. I, I would just make these goals. Like this year I want to make a million dollars. I'm glad I did it. I knew, like, it was just like a personal goal. I was like, I want to be able to make a million dollars this year. And now it's not that important to me. It's more important for me to be able to have time and to do work that is fulfilling because I'll tell you, the road to making that million. I was doing jobs. I Didn't like, yeah, I was just trying to get to a number. And again, that's fine. Like, I think in some time sometimes in your life it's just about the numbers. But I do think that ultimately you need to have a better long term plan. What's your plan?
- [24:32]
Brittany Wilson
Yeah, good question. I would say money isn't part of the plan right now, which is a nice spot to be, I think, partially because again, I've opened up my own business, I've created stability for myself. I still have those savings to really land on for me, but that wasn't always the case. Similar to you, when I was working full time, of course, my goal was, oh, now I made more money than ever made. Now let's make six figures. And I made six figures. I was like, okay, great, now let's make this. And it just, it kept increasing. And I would say as I created more financial stability for myself, money became less of a concern. So right now, today, I am making probably around or less what I was making in my first corporate job, like out of college. It's not lucrative for me right now. But that, it's silly. But this doesn't, that doesn't matter to me right now because I know I've created the financial ground for myself. I know I've created stability for myself. I can still afford the bills that I have, I can still afford the lifestyle. Am I toning it down? Sure, absolutely. I'm the first year into full time business. Right. But I, I would, I have money goals, but they're not the first goals for me. Right. It's more about the scope and support that I have just because I feel stable right now and that, that is what I think makes money not be the first priority for me.
- [25:55]
Farnoosh Torabi
Do you have a financial advisor? Are you paying or investing in certain financial resources? I think what's so remarkable is that you're someone who just started listening to a podcast and five years later your life has changed. Again, not taking all the credit, but I think it's a wonderful message for anyone listening that these days especially, I can't say this was true when I was starting out, but the accessibility to financial knowledge, we're in a golden age of that. There's definitely a lot of junk out there too. Like to your point, like, you had to start with one trusted source and make your way to the other trusted sources because there's a lot of noise and crap out there. But I think it's just so inspiring. But I'm curious also if you're investing in other tools or resources because people are always curious about to go to an app or should I get a financial advisor?
- [26:44]
Brittany Wilson
Yeah, this is a very good question for new so I don't particularly have a specific app that I utilize. I used to have a financial advisor as part of an IRA portfolio that I had. Like they managed it for me but this was pretty early in my career. Like I didn't know what it meant when someone said they managed it for me and I didn't understand the fees and I had someone talk me into it. You left your last job. You should roll your 401k over to me. And I'm like oh that's a great idea. Not realizing all of the ins and outs of it. And I just wasn't super happy with the service and I realized I don't like you don't need to touch this. Like I just want it to grow. I I can do this my own. So I would say since then and that's I probably closed that account and rolled it over to another 401k or IRA probably in 2021, 2022 I would say. So right now it's all self managed. I don' trading it's the the long term but I've got the IRA, the Roth IRA, the I'm taking my 401ks rolling them over. Thanks to your podcast, I'm starting to do a lot of deep research into the solo 401ks versus a SEP IRA and things of this sort because I have money, I want to invest. But I would say no, I don't have any fancy tools right now. It's I'm a bit old school still with my journal. That is my bible to keep on tabs with me, keep me in check. I do have a financial goal to get an advisor when I reach a certain amount of business revenue and then I say OK at that point, that's when I want to bring in a financial advisor.
- [28:10]
Farnoosh Torabi
I love that you're also helping your mom with her retirement. I get a lot of questions from women in the audience who feel like they're getting a late start. What have you helped her with? And any advice like anything that's helped your mom, especially as in her life stage with her finances.
- [28:26]
Brittany Wilson
This has been the really powerful moment for me. I I this is when I heard your call out asking for people to join your podcast. This was the first thing that came to my mind was helping my mom. As I mentioned earlier, like I did not grow up with literacy and to be quite forward, I don't Think my mom did either. And so that's. She didn't have the knowledge to pass it on to me. And that's okay. Money was always a taboo topic, so we just didn't discuss it. And so when I went out into cold adulthood, I had to figure it out on my own. And even since then, talking about money with my mom has been a challenge one way or the other, of us not wanting to offend the other or us not wanting to, like, accidentally brag or of this sort. Like, it was just something you did not talk about. And last year my mom came to me and said, brittany, I have a pension at my old employer that I. She worked there, I kid you not, for new 10, 15 years ago. So she still had the old pension there. And they sent her a letter saying, we're closing out the pension. You can either take a cash out or roll it into an investment account. And she said, I don't even know what this letter means. What do I do? And so I set up a zoom with her to walk her through. Here's. Here's how you open up an investment account. Do you want a Roth IRA or do you want an ira? And she said, I don't know which one I want. And so I had to talk her through, okay, here are your options. Like, what seems to be a better fit for you? And then ultimately helped her transition that money over. And that was so big because again, for her to even share her screen, like, I. I ran away from the computer still, like, anytime the number showed up on the screen to make sure I didn't see it for her. But. But just to even talk with her and help her out in a topic as sensitive as I don't know what a Roth IRA versus an IRA is, and I don't know which one I should open. For me, that was really great to be able to educate her and support her through that. And then we got to the conversation of, you had an employer most recently. What about that? Oh, it's sitting in their 401k. Okay, mom, maybe what we do is we consolidate that as well and talk through these options. So it was a really. It sounds so such a functional conversation when I explain it to. But it was really powerful for me because that was the first time I think we'd ever talked about money, and especially to that level of detail. So it was just really a really powerful moment with me that I'll hold on forever.
- [30:58]
Farnoosh Torabi
So I am not crying, I promise you. That story is so, so special. And it reminds me of One of my favorite sayings, which is that when women make more, the world becomes a better place.
- [31:13]
Brittany Wilson
Yes. I was literally thinking of that saying earlier and I said, oh my, go mention that later. I don't know who said that saying, no, I don't know.
- [31:19]
Farnoosh Torabi
To credit, I will take credit for that. I'm sure that others have said it before me, but I, I love it dearly and I see so many examples of that in my life daily. It's just once women have more financial literacy, more money, and I can't speak for all women, but I think I'm going to put money on it. That women's instinct is to think about how can I be helpful, how can I pay back? And it's a wonderful characteristic that we have and it just makes my job that much more meaningful and important to know that I teach you. But then you then help your mom and your mom's probably going to help somebody at her job. Like you've also armed her with knowledge that she will probably give to someone else. Let's talk about work and career.
- [32:04]
Brittany Wilson
Yeah.
- [32:05]
Farnoosh Torabi
Tell me first a little bit about your practice and what it's all about. Give us the elevator pitch for career candor.
- [32:11]
Brittany Wilson
So at career Candor, right, I provide career coaching and I say employer paid career coaching as well. So, so if you or someone has been laid off or unexpectedly terminated, we can probably go back to your employer and say, hey, it's part of their severance package or as part of the agreement, why don't you pay for career coaching? The HR professionals and business owners in your listening group would know this is outplacement services. So I really focus on the smaller and mid sized businesses to support them because I know when I got laid off, I found out the amount of money that my employer paid for outplacement services and I was absolutely flabbergasted.
- [32:48]
Farnoosh Torabi
How much are we talking about?
- [32:49]
Brittany Wilson
So when I did the calculations online, they laid off about 3,000 employees in North America. And according to the vendor's website, that means they would have spent $130 million in out placement services.
- [33:02]
Farnoosh Torabi
Laying people off is expensive.
- [33:04]
Brittany Wilson
It's expensive. And while I'm thankful for the services, it just, it didn't hit the mark for me. I was disappointed with the service I got. And I just remember I thought to myself, I can so much better for so much less, so much less cost. And that's when my friend, I told that to my friend and she said, you should. And that was the first moment that it ever planted in my head. That I could do this. So that's what I do now at Career Candor is I'm helping people who have been laid off. I've been through a layoff. I can empathize with them. I can walk them through those scenarios and then also help organizations who are laying people off and they want to pay for outplacement, but. But they just can't afford it. No. How. How many people can. How many Companies can afford $130 million to let people go? It's unfeasible. I charge much less than $130 million to support people with the same service.
- [33:55]
Farnoosh Torabi
What's your specialty? Resumes, negotiation, career transitions? What do you love to help people with?
- [34:02]
Brittany Wilson
Yeah, I especially love that layoff audience. Like I said, like really helping them through that situation. There's so many people that I get that are they've worked at their company for 10, 20 years, they were laid off or unexpected or the early talents. Right. This is my first layoff. This is devastating. And really helping them build that confidence to get back on their feet. I particularly love helping people exceed their expectations. There's so many people that I get that say, I used to make this much money. I don't think I could ever make that again. That's a lie I tell my clients all the time. I'm like, there's enough money in this world for you to have money more. There is enough money in this world for you to have more than enough. More than enough. And so that's a motto I've carried with me into my business. Probably something that came from your podcast or even yourself.
- [34:49]
Farnoosh Torabi
It's aligns with the saying that the world is abundant. As you were telling me that you found out there, this company had spent $130 million on outplacement. I thought to myself, the good news is their money is out there.
- [35:02]
Brittany Wilson
Yes.
- [35:03]
Farnoosh Torabi
Like, it's frustrating that they spent that on that when they hired certain. It went to one outplacement firm.
- [35:10]
Brittany Wilson
Exactly.
- [35:11]
Farnoosh Torabi
Yeah.
- [35:11]
Brittany Wilson
And I can't confirm that was the exact price. Right. They're never going to tell, like little me. But when I did just some financial calculations, I was like, oh my God, that's what. At least that's what close to the range, I assume, based on the website. Yeah, exactly.
- [35:26]
Farnoosh Torabi
What are you making with AI right now? How is that coming up in your conversations, especially as you're talking to people about transitioning? Because. Because we've done episodes about how especially for the, you know, first year, second year graduates, college graduates, depending on their degree they're running up against, they're not running up against competition from other graduates. It's AI.
- [35:48]
Brittany Wilson
I try to tell my clients regularly, AI doesn't work without humans. Like humans need to be there to utilize it. And so you have to be able to know how to use AI to support your job. And there's just so many people that don't use it. Pretty much most of my clients, clients have never touched AI. They don't. And so I use my. Like they're afraid or they don't know the use case scenarios or they think, oh, it's going to steal all my information. I'm like, it's not pulling into your passwords, it's not going to your financial account, anything of this sort. But let's learn how to use it. Let's learn some use cases. So even in my coaching sessions, if I have a client who's, I don't know what career path to go down, I said, great, we can talk about that in several coaching sessions. And I want you to use utilize AI. Paste your resume into ChatGPT or Claude AI, whichever you prefer and say, hey, based on my resume and my experience, what do you think are good career paths for me? Next? What are some additional things? These are the types of things I'm looking for my next job. I want to make this amount of money and I want to travel this amount or I would like this type of seniority. What do you think? Just to really open up from there. We then use it to write resumes, we use it to write cover letters. So I really try to make my coaching practices a safe space for my clients to practice AI. So when they do get on the job, it's a little bit easier and they're much more familiar with it.
- [37:10]
Farnoosh Torabi
That's really great. I never thought to ask AI a question like that.
- [37:16]
Brittany Wilson
Yeah, but I will.
- [37:18]
Farnoosh Torabi
I'm gonna do it. I'm like, so based on everything I've accomplished, where should I go next? Someone asked me that yesterday on a media interview. The host was like, you've done all these things, you've written books and you have your podcast, like, what's next next? And I was like, I'm just gonna, I wanna keep on keeping on. Is that allowed?
- [37:35]
Brittany Wilson
Absolutely.
- [37:37]
Farnoosh Torabi
I'm sorry, I'm still like decompressing from my last book launch. I appreciate that you have such ambition for me. That's great. So before we go, I, I'd love for you to talk to your self. Five years ago, the piece of advice you'd Give someone who is where you were at the beginning of 2020. A lot of people are getting laid off as we speak still. It's a very tough job market in certain industries. You're pep talk for that person who wants to be you. You're the North Star. Like, I want to be where Britney's at. I want to get there. I just. I need a little pep talk.
- [38:13]
Brittany Wilson
Yeah. I would say first things first is like, you can create your own financial ground. You create your own financial stability. Don't hang your hat on another employer. Right. I thought forever I'd be at corporate. I never thought I'd be an entrepreneur because I never saw someone be an entrepreneur close to me. I thought you needed all this money learned. That's totally not the case. Case. But I think the big thing to recognize for yourself is you can create that financial ground. So at that point five years ago, I did not have the financial literacy to know how to roll over 401ks. Know what an Roth IRA was, know what a high yield savings account was. The information is out there. I would say certainly start with Farnoosh's podcast. Very first episodes are the ones like, I had to scroll down real far apart.
- [39:00]
Farnoosh Torabi
Did you go. Go back to 001?
- [39:02]
Brittany Wilson
I went back to zero. That's where I started.
- [39:05]
Farnoosh Torabi
My voice has probably changed all those years, right?
- [39:08]
Brittany Wilson
It has changed for sure. But I think what was beautiful is in the beginning, like, you really talked about the super foundational pot, like, foundational topics like what is a Roth versus what is an ira? And things that's. That really helped me. And I listened to some of those episodes on repeat just to really drill it into my head. And I would say that. That the other thing to really think about is, you know, like you had said, when women have money, the world is better. So to all the women out there, like, when you make more money, the world is better. And to add to that, find your financial group. Right? Find your financial friends. One thing that has really supported me is I have two other women who were all extraordinarily transparent about finances. We talk about salaries. We literally will send text messages to cheer each other on or something. And we're there for all of the big financial moments with one another. And we even set up calls to discuss. Oh, okay. I have a question about a SEP ira. Is anybody available? What can we talk about? And that just having that community has been extraordinarily helpful. Having them to be there to support me along the way has been more powerful than anything I could imagine. And I take a lot of the topics that you and I said, you and I as if you've been in there, the car with me all these years, take all these topics from. From so money and say, hey, I heard about this podcast. Why don't you listen to this and let's talk about it later. Maybe this will help you.
- [40:35]
Farnoosh Torabi
Brittany, thank you so much for all of it, for listening, for coming on, for your advice, for paying it forward as I know you are and you will continue to. I love that you have a squad. Oh yeah, I love it. That's. I do. I have one. I definitely have one for work. I have definitely. Yeah, I would say so for sure.
- [40:59]
Brittany Wilson
Sure.
- [40:59]
Farnoosh Torabi
Congratulations on all of your achievements. Tell us how we can get in touch with you.
- [41:03]
Brittany Wilson
Yeah, so the easiest way I would say is to head over to my website, careercander Co. So definitely check that out. I have all of my socials, my emails, things of the sort that you can either follow me or reach out to me. I'm always here for career questions. So if you have a question, I'm happy to help with it, even quickly via email. So yeah, thank you. Just seriously, Farnoosh, thank you for being there for me all these years. I look forward to you being in my car every time I commute to it instead of to work to a client site now. And I'm just very appreciative of the opportunity to talk to you today.
- [41:36]
Farnoosh Torabi
Thank you. Thanks for making my day. And this is airing my birthday week.
- [41:41]
Brittany Wilson
Wow. I feel so special. Congrats. Happy birthday.
- [41:45]
Farnoosh Torabi
Thank you. Thank you. You've been a gift to me and I'm hopefully others listening will also be inspired. Thanks so much Brittany. We'll put Career Candor in our show notes. Don't be a stranger.
- [41:55]
Brittany Wilson
Thank you Furnish.
- [41:58]
Farnoosh Torabi
Thanks so much to Brittany for joining us. Check out her work at careercander Co and if you have a so money story to tell me, let me know. I'd love to spotlight you on this podcast. You can email me Farnish@sodcast.com you can direct message me on Instagram. I look forward to connecting and I hope your day is so money. If you're a facilities manager at a.
- [42:34]
Brittany Wilson
University, you know students rely on the.
- [42:36]
Farnoosh Torabi
Cafeteria for breakfast, lunch, dinner and the.
- [42:39]
Brittany Wilson
Occasional late night snack.
- [42:40]
Farnoosh Torabi
So when a dishwasher breaks down and dirty plates pile up, the mess hall.
- [42:44]
Brittany Wilson
Can turn messy in the blink of an eye. Enter Grainger.
- [42:47]
Farnoosh Torabi
With over a million industrial grade products and fast delivery, the product you need.
- [42:52]
Brittany Wilson
Now is never far away. So you can turn that dishwasher back.
- [42:55]
Farnoosh Torabi
Into a lean, clean washing machine. Call clickranger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done.
- [43:03]
Brittany Wilson
My dad works in B2B marketing. He came by my school for Career Day and said he was a big roas man. Then he told everyone how much he loved calculating his return on ad spend. My friends still laugh at me to this day.
- [43:17]
Farnoosh Torabi
Not everyone gets beat up, but with.
- [43:19]
Brittany Wilson
LinkedIn you'll be able to reach people who do.
- [43:21]
Farnoosh Torabi
Get $100 credit on your next ad campaign. Go to LinkedIn.com results to claim your credit. That's LinkedIn.com results. Terms and conditions apply. LinkedIn the place to be to be.