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Candy Valentino
Foreign this episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible financial geniuses, monetary magicians. These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds because Progressive offers discounts for paying in full, owning a home and more. Plus you can count on their great customer service to help you when you need it. So so your dollar goes a long way. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save on car insurance, Progressive Casualty Insurance company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states or situations. Welcome to the Candy Valentino show, the podcast for founders, investors and entreprene where we have honest conversations about what it.
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Progressive Insurance
Takes to grow your business, build more.
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Candy Valentino
Wealth and create financial freedom.
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Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of the Candy Valentino Show. Thanks for tuning in with me today as we dive in to part two of our series Master your Money where I'm breaking down the most powerful practical strategies that are proven backed by data of what you need to do to build wealth. So let's jump right into it. In order to understand how to master your money, we first need to know what is real and what is fake, what is myth and what is truth. And in a world of flashy TikTok crypto Bros and highlight reels, it is really easy to fall for money myths. And there are many. But there's a few I want to address because I hear it coming up over and over again. The first is that there's this overnight success and somehow that that is the goal. You know the viral success story where people just pop off and they make a ton of money or they dominate an industry. The truth is that those overnight successes, those stories, the reason that they're stories are because they're rare. They're the exception. They are not the rule. It's like the fact that less than 1% of day traders actually make consistent profits over a year. Meanwhile, long term investors use basic strategies to build wealth. They don't have a lottery ticket mindset and they're able to outperform day traders really all day, every day, but especially after month six six. Because behind every one of the viral success stories, what they don't talk about often enough are the 17 years, the three failed businesses and all the credit card debt maybe or foreclosure or a bankruptcy that they went through in order to get to that place. And that's another one. Another myth that you commonly see is completely different than the overnight success, but it's still in the same vein which is timing the market. Oh my gosh People try to time the market, they try to pick one stock and it's literally like walking into a casino and throwing money on 35 on the roulette wheel. There is not much better data that supports that you're going to do any better than playing in Vegas. The truth is, trying to time the market means that you will miss out. Missing just the best 10 days of the S&P 500 over a 20 year period can cut your returns in half. That's the cost of actually sitting on the sidelines and trying to wait for some perfect moment. Time in the market will always be timing the market. So stay invested even when it's boring, even when it's only 3, 4, 5, 6%. That is how you actually grow wealth. Schwab actually did this huge analysis that showed people who perfectly time the market only outperformed consistent annual investors 9% of the time. I mean, that's crazy to think about. And another study showed that individual investors typically underperform the market due to these emotional decisions and poor timing. They will often turn $1 million of investment into 800,000 versus the people that stay invested with that same million dollars. They will turn it into $2.67 million just by simply staying invested in the S&P 500 index. Long term investing consistently outperforms any timing strategy. And it's shown over and over again in studies, statistics and reports. The principle here is being invested matters far more than being right. So there's no overnight success, there's no timing the market. And that brings us to the third one. There's no one big win. Wealth really comes from small compounding decision done consistently with discipline over time. This is your spending habits, what you invest in, where you show up consistently. Look, it's boring to talk about sometimes, but man is it powerful when it's applied. And so I want to get into the one framework that actually works and is easy to duplicate. And that is my 10-10-10 rule. We're going to talk about it in personal finance and then I'm actually going to break it down. How to use it in your business. All right, here it is. 10, 10 10. Increase your income by 10%. Reduce your expenses by 10%. Invest the difference, that's additional 10%. Now, if you increase your income by 10% and you reduce your expenses by 10%, you should be bridging a gap that is more than 10%. But we want you to at least be investing 10% consistently. Sounds simple. Well, simple does not always mean easy for most people. But this rule works because it meets you right where you are. You don't have change everything overnight. You just have to shift one thing in order to create more margin. And that margin becomes power and that power becomes peace. That is the starting point to build real wealth. So let's talk about the first 10 increase 10% of your income. So if you're an entrepreneur or you're a service provider, look, let's get tactical. There are ways to increase your revenue by 10% within the next three, 30, 60, 90 days. And here's a few ways to do it. Number one, can you add something onto your service offerings? Is there something that you don't currently offer that you can offer to your existing clients in order to expand your offering portfolio, your services or your products in order to make more money from each one of those customers? That will always cost you less money than going and trying to acquire a brand new customer. Is there some maintenance plan that you can see sell? Is there a follow up session? Is there a tool or a template or something that you can sell that will increase your lifetime customer value which will take less effort than getting new leads? Many business owners and entrepreneurs leave tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars and maybe millions depending on where you are in your revenue benchmarks. They leave it on the table by never circling back to their clients to reconnect, to offer a limited time offer to see what el they need. And perhaps if it's not just one new service, an add on service or product, perhaps you package or bundle other products that you already have, reframing things that you've already got, but increasing that value by positioning it to that client. That could also increase your lifetime customer value.
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Progressive Insurance
This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. You chose to hit play on this podcast today. Smart Choice. Progressive loves to help people make smart choices. That's why they offer a tool called Auto Quote Explorer that allows you to compare your Progressive Car Insurance quote with rates from other companies so you save time on the research and can enjoy savings when you choose the best rate for you. Give it a try after this episode@progressive.com Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates not available in all states or situations. Prices vary based on how you buy. You buy a pair of socks, that's two socks. You buy a pair of Bombas socks, that's four socks because one purchased is one donated socks are the number one most requested clothing item in homeless shelters. So when you buy a pair of super comfortable Bombas socks, you're also donating a pair Bombas customers have powered over 150 million donations. So Bombas would like to thank you 150 million times, but we only have like 30 seconds. Go to bombas.com and use code audio for 20% off your first purchase. That's B O M B A S.com and use code audio at checkout.
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Candy Valentino
Third is activating those customers and seeing if you can offer some sort of a referral incentive or an affiliate program. Look, you may not need a hundred new leads, maybe you just need five great ones. And maybe those clients, your best clients, already have a network of other people that could use your services or products. Reach out to them and see how you can incentivize them to bring you more business. Again, that will cost far less than trying to go run ads or do billboards or create some marketing program initiative in digital world in order to get new people into your ecosystem. It will also shorten your sales cycle which is going to bring you more money more quickly, creating more margin. And four, can you raise your prices? I know a lot of people say this because it's super click baity, oh, you need to be charging more. Charge what you're worth. And it's because they really don't understand business and they certainly don't understand your business model. If you haven't increased your prices in 12 months, perhaps you're overdue. But if you have too much churn, this would not be the thing that I would go to right out of the gate. Because you can price yourself right out of the market. You want to make sure that you're paying attention to that churn rate. If you're losing customers within those first 30 to 90 days, raising your prices would accelerate the problem. You want to make sure that you're identifying the benchmarks within your industry. For example, SaaS, a healthy churn is probably like 5% or less. If you have a membership or recurring revenue, it's going to be single digits under 9, 10%. If you're doing services, you're really wanting a 75 or 80% retention rate. So I often hear these online gurus who never actually built a business prior to building their personal brand and then selling you business information. I constantly hear them saying about raising your prices, not even asking what your retention or your churn rate is, because raising your prices can actually backfire. You'll get fewer buyers, more objections, likely a worse customer experience, and then you're going to lose more people. So how do you know when to raise your prices? Well, typically it's when you're booked or close to capacity when you have raving fans and case studies when your churn is really low, your retention is really high and your demand is steady or slightly increasing. And if you fit those parameters, then a 5, 7, 10% increase of raising your prices can translate significantly to not just your top line, but if you don't have to increase your expenses to service those new customers, it can drastically, drastically increase your profitability. So we talked the first 10%. Let's get into the second 10 which is cutting your expenses. Now how do you trim the fat? This is not just about cutting your lattes or suffering at life. It's about eliminating things that really don't serve the business that you're wanting to build or grow or even the life that you want to have. And there's a few places that are kind of easy to start looking at. I have reviewed thousands of P Ls and financial statements from not only my own companies, but other people's companies over the last 26, seven years. And I can tell you that there is a few culprits that can typically creep up without us even really realizing it. One of them is subscriptions software platform. So many times we are spending too much money with a lot of this different automation stuff, platforms, programs that we're running our business on. And we don't realize that maybe there's another alternative. And if is changing so drastically because of AI. So take a look and make sure that you don't have any duplicate programs that you're paying for. See if there's a way that you can downgrade so that you're not getting into some unnecessary tier that you need to be in. You will be shocked at how many tools you have and some of which you probably don't use. The second is food meals delivery. Oh my gosh. I know that everyone is so busy, so this is a quick thing that people try to do. But man, those convenient charges and fees really add up. Tips really add up. Going out to eat for all of these meals really add up. And so often I'll meet with a business owner and see thousands and thousands of dollars every single month going out in meals. But they don't have a diversified investment portfolio. Maybe they have their solo 401k or their SEP that they have with their employees at their own company, but they don't have anything extra. And so they're spending all of this amount of money on food and delivery. Meanwhile they could have an apartment building that is another asset. That's cash flow. So you want to make sure that when you look at these expenses, you want to also identify not just what it's costing you, but what it's preventing you from having. So food and delivery is a big culprit. Insurance, Internet, phone, that's another one. Pick up the phone, renegotiate. So many people get stuck in one plant or on autopay and they never even question the increase. Number four Contractor inefficiencies Vendors. If you're running a business, make sure that your team and your contractors are providing an roi. And if any of those fees start to creep, creep up, make sure to pick up the phone and have a conversation. Perhaps there's another vendor that can offer a similar experience and service or product for a little bit less. And number five, impulse purchases. Use my 24 hour rule. If it is not essential, wait, leave the store, walk away from the salesperson. Chances are that desire will fade and you will save yourself some money and some regret. And if it's a big one, go 48 hours. And if it's a car, go have your car detailed and see if that changes your mind. I know it kind of sounds funny, but I can't tell you how many times I go out and I want to buy a new car and I wait, I get my car detailed or I do some sort of little customization on it and it just scratches the itch. And I really don't need another vehicle. So those are some tips of how to save. Now let's get in. How to invest the Gap. We've increased your income. We've lowered the expenses. Now we've got some margin. Don't spend it. Don't reward yourself. Use it. If you have high interest rate debt, Bad debt Using the rule of seven. Generally speaking, anything over 7% interest is typically bad debt. Car loan, boat loan, personal loan, credit card debt, this is what you want to tackle first. Make sure that you are tackling the highest interest rates first and then making sure that you go down that list. Using the rule of seven. Obviously if you bought a home or you have a business loan anywhere that's been recent, that interest rate is probably over seven. But that could still be potentially appreciating asset good debt. So you always want to tackle the bad debt first. Now if you are debt free and in control of your money, congrats. Amazing. I love it. So what do you do with the gap? Well, you are going to invest it. If you're eligible for Roth ira, you're investing it there. If you are self employed and you have a sep or a solo 401k, you're maxing that out. If you have a job and you're working for someone else, you are never going to step over free money and you're always going to take the match. Beyond that, what do you do next? If you've already done all of that? Well, now this is where it gets fun. Because you can have your own mutual funds, your own index Funds, your own ETFs. You can do your own diversified portfolio. You can invest in real estate or another business. And if you get to a place where you're investing 25, 35, 50% of the money that you're earning, well, now you can also get some tools or some systems that'll help you buy back your time. Because margin is your freedom. Fund structure is freedom. Discipline is freedom. Increasing your income a little more, saving and not having those impulse purchases, that is freedom that increases that margin that you can invest into your life. And look, guys, you don't need to do it perfect. You don't have to have a fancy degree. You don't have to come from some prestigious background. You just need a system and the discipline to follow it. The 10-10-10 rule works because it's realistic. You're not making massive shifts. You're just making better decisions. And those decisions create better habits. And those habits create a better life. So here's your homework. List your current income. Where is this 10%? Where can this growth come from? Audit your business. Audit your revenue verticals. Where can you increase 10% of revenue? Number two, audit the last 30 days of your expenses. How can you start to cut 10%? This is what my State of the union meeting does every single month. And step three, open up whatever investment vehicle you don't have. If you have a job, you're starting with making that match. If you can qualify for a Roth ira, you're. That's your second step. If you've done all of that, if you have your own business and you have a sep, you're maximizing that. If you've done all of that, the next step. Do you want to have your own brokerage account? Etf, Mutual funds, investment property? Start to look at where you can redirect and compound that margin. And if you want help making the next 90 days your wealthiest year yet, you can grab my 9% edge planner anywhere that they're sold so that you can find more margin, fix the leaks, and start to get your money to work for you. Next week, we've got part three of Master your Money. And I'M diving into one of the most, most understood principles of money. We're going to break it all down. If you love this episode, please share it with someone who needs a real plan and not some BS money advice they heard on TikTok. Thanks again for tuning in and spending this time with me today. We'll see you next time. Hey guys, thanks for tuning in to this episode and if there was something that you loved or you had a specific takeaway, share it and tag me at the end. Candy Valentino and if you haven't already, grab a copy of my latest book, the 9% Edge Life Changing Secrets to create more revenue for your business and more freedom for yourself. You can pick it up anywhere books are sold, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or your local independent store. And once you do, head over to 9% edge.com and claim $1500 in pre order bonuses, including a chance to chance to join me on this very show. Thanks so much for tuning in and spending this time with me today guys. We'll see you next time.
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Progressive Insurance
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