When applying for a mortgage, small business owners often face extra challenges, as banks perceive their income as risky and volatile. Elizabeth Gore, President and Co-founder of Hello Alice, shares her experience of struggling to buy a home while starting her business. Despite the potential for wealth creation, small business owners—particularly those from marginalized groups (women, people of color, LGBTQ+, veterans, and those with disabilities)—often encounter barriers when seeking loans. Gore suggests solutions like using co-signers or demonstrating a history of on-time payments to improve chances. Her platform, Hello Alice, supports small business owners by providing resources to help them succeed both financially and professionally.

Hosts and husbands of Living Not So Fabulously, David & John Auten-Schneider, dive into real money stories with activists, allies, artists, tech-gurus, and trailblazers in the LGBTQ+ community to give you tangible takeaways to tackle your wallet woes.

Find this episode's transcripts and more episodes of Living Not So Fabulously at http://finance.yahoo.com/videos/series/living-fabulously/.

Have a money story of your own? Questions? Fan mail? Email us at [email protected].

00:00-Elizabeth Gore joins Living Not So Fabulously

01:25-The money stories that shape us

06:28-Budgeting is one key to success

10:24-Buying a home as a small business owner

16:12-Unique lives of LGBTQ+ business owners

18:58-Small business under Trump 2.0

Yahoo Finance's Living Not So Fabulously is hosted by David & John Auten-Schneider, and created and produced by Rachael Lewis-Krisky.

Elizabeth Gore is the President and Co-Founder of Hello Alice which helps small businesses start and grow by providing funding, education, and networking opportunities.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What does it take to succeed as a small business owner in today's economy? According to former Biden administration official Jonathan Lovitz, it's not just about surviving but ensuring everyone has an equal opportunity to thrive. As the director of public affairs & senior adviser at the US Economic Development Administration (within the US Department of Commerce), and the former senior vice president of the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce, Lovitz knows a thing or two about it. Lovitz advocates for policies that lift all boats, especially those of marginalized entrepreneurs.

In this episode of Living Not So Fabulously, Lovitz spoke with hosts David & John Auten-Schneider and explained how supporting diverse communities, particularly LGBTQ+ business owners, is key to building a stronger, more resilient economy for everyone.

Lovitz underscores the importance of access to capital, opportunity, and growth for small businesses, regardless of background. He emphasizes that inclusive, "place-based" economic strategies empower entrepreneurs to succeed within their own communities. “When one of us rises, we all rise,” he says, highlighting the collective power of diverse business owners who contribute nearly $2 trillion to the U.S. economy each year.

For Lovitz, it’s about opening doors and creating space for everyone to compete—not giving special treatment but ensuring equal opportunity for all.

Hosts and husbands of Living Not So Fabulously, David & John Auten-Schneider, dive into real money stories with activists, allies, artists, tech-gurus, and trailblazers in the LGBTQ+ community to give you tangible takeaways to tackle your wallet woes.

Find this episode's transcripts and more episodes of Living Not So Fabulously at http://finance.yahoo.com/videos/series/living-fabulously/.

Have a money story of your own? Questions? Fan mail? Email us at [email protected].

00:00-Jonathan Lovitz joins Living Not So Fabulously

02:20-What should small businesses focus on in Trump 2.0

07:30-Challenges for LGBTQ+ business owners

14:15-Behind the scenes of the Biden administration

19:30-Bridging gaps using...football?

Yahoo Finance's Living Not So Fabulously is hosted by David & John Auten-Schneider, and created and produced by Rachael Lewis-Krisky.

Jonathan Lovitz is dedicated to helping governments, corporations, and nonprofits build strong economies and communities. In February 2023, President Biden appointed Jonathan the US Department of Commerce to join the senior leadership team of the US Economic Development Administration (EDA). He recently served as Senior Vice President & Special Advisor to the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce, continuing a career spanning the worlds of business, public policy, media, and community advocacy.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Not every big business dream will come to life—it’s a hard pill to swallow. In fact, both the Small Business Administration and the Bureau of Labor Statistics report that 20% of small businesses fail within the first two years. Even more staggering is that that 45% of small businesses fail in their first five years, and 65% in their first ten years. So what’s an entrepreneur to do?

BKLYN LEAGUE Founder and NYU Adjunct Professor Phaon Spurlock is an entrepreneur who knows not everything about it is to love, nor is it the path for everyone. Spurlock joins Living Not So Fabulously hosts David & John Auten-Schneider to bring you those great tips (and warnings) for your business.

Hosts and husbands of Living Not So Fabulously, David & John Auten-Schneider, dive into real money stories with activists, allies, artists, tech-gurus, and trailblazers in the LGBTQ+ community to give you tangible takeaways to tackle your wallet woes.

Find this episode's transcripts and more episodes of Living Not So Fabulously at http://finance.yahoo.com/videos/series/living-fabulously/.

Have a money story of your own? Questions? Fan mail? Email us at [email protected].

00:00-Phaon Spurlock joins Living Not So Fabulously

01:20-Three tips for entrepreneurs

04:30-Tricky entrepreneurship

07:53-How the pandemic impacted businesses

11:12-Algorithms: the bane of our existence

14:40-Building a self-sustaining business

18:00-Top warning for entrepreneurs

Yahoo Finance's Living Not So Fabulously is hosted by David & John Auten-Schneider, and created and produced by Rachael Lewis-Krisky.

What hasn't Phaon Spurlock done? Entrepreneur. Marketer. Speaker. Writer. Philanthropist. Ex-Googler. MBA Graduate. Adjunct Professor. His passion focuses on marketing and entrepreneurship led me to start several successful businesses, including BKLYN LEAGUE apparel company, LuxuriousPROTOTYPE Online Magazine, and Prototype MKTG. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As most entrepreneurs can attest, the journey to success is not linear. It's a path where failures sometimes teach greater lessons than wins, one where failing forward might just offer the key to prosperity. Motivo Scar Care founder and CEO Jadis Montijo learned first-hand how to be a better businessman from his mistakes in his first venture, The Kind Pen. Though he and his team saw much success at the company, overspending in his personal life and a failed acquisition experience taught Montijo the skills he needed to turn his dream project, Motivo Scar Care, a thriving business.

"There's no industry crossover between what I did and what I'm doing now. But a lot of the failures that I had at my time during Kind Pen molded me and shaped me into who I am and made me more prepared for Motivo," he explained to Living Not So Fabulously hosts David & John Auten-Schneider. "A lot of startups fail. Even just trying to raise capital as an LGBTQ founder, less than 1% of VC dollars go to LGBTQ founders, right? Yet we create more successful businesses."

Montijo's best advice for entrepreneurs facing the endless, uphill, and oftentimes not-fun battle—as Montijo explained frankly—of starting a small business: be yourself. "If I didn't take the time to step back and authentically go through my transition to become myself, Motivo wouldn't be a thing. Maybe it would be a thing that someone else created. But taking the time to be myself and learn myself—it really put me on my path."

Hosts and husbands of Living Not So Fabulously, David & John Auten-Schneider, dive into real money stories with activists, allies, artists, tech-gurus, and trailblazers in the LGBTQ+ community to give you tangible takeaways to tackle your wallet woes.

Find this episode's transcripts and more episodes of Living Not So Fabulously at http://finance.yahoo.com/videos/series/living-fabulously/.

Have a money story of your own? Questions? Fan mail? Email us at [email protected].

00:00-Jadis Montijo joins Living Not So Fabulously

03:08-Failed business acquisition led to some hard learned lessons

05:54-Don't mix personal and professional...finances

08:32-Making space for business growth

13:13-Motivo Scar Care elevator pitch

19:03-Small business tips to prepare

Yahoo Finance's Living Not So Fabulously is hosted by David & John Auten-Schneider, and created and produced by Rachael Lewis-Krisky.

Jadis Montijo is the founder & CEO of Motivo Scar Care, a company focused on "developing premium scar care products, to not only improve the appearance of scars, but to help rewrite the standards of healing."

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Since most people know a teacher, it's no surprise that an episode of Living Not So Fabulously about teacher salaries will address the invariable underpayment of educators. "Teachers don't make very much money," education director and advocate Cam Lieberson told hosts David & John Auten-Schneider, frankly. Though 2024 has seen the largest year-over-year teacher pay increase in over a decade, when adjusted for inflation, teachers actually make 5% less than they did 10 years ago on average, according to the National Education Association.

But after switching to public from private school teaching — because people recommended the better benefits and pay — Lieberson "felt that there was a major trade-off," in mental and physical health. "I was a theater teacher and so I would see multiple classes a day. I saw almost 800 students."

Lieberson further explained that salaries in public schools will be dictated by unions, while in private schools, they will be determined based on what's in the budget and what's negotiated. Meanwhile, the benefits of private schools are that they will have smaller classrooms and strict hours, whereas public schools have pensions and bigger class sizes.

However, Lieberson pointed out that, on average, private school teachers will make less than public school teachers, surprising Living Not So Fabulously hosts. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, private school teachers earn an average of $15,000 less than their public school counterparts.

So as future educators weigh the pros and cons of different institutions, Lieberson has some advise: "For someone entering education, I would say they probably should check out public schools; teaching somewhere where there's a union and there's protection of what your salary is.... I think know what you're worth."

Hosts and husbands of Living Not So Fabulously, David & John Auten-Schneider, dive into real money stories with activists, allies, artists, tech-gurus, and trailblazers in the LGBTQ+ community to give you tangible takeaways to tackle your wallet woes.

Find this episode's transcripts and more episodes of Living Not So Fabulously at http://finance.yahoo.com/videos/series/living-fabulously/.

Have a money story of your own? Questions? Fan mail? Email us at [email protected].

00:00-Cam Lieberson joins Living Not So Fabulously

01:30-Why teachers struggle to make ends meet

06:20-How being underpaid drains teachers

13:00-Focus on benefits and savings

18:15-Advice for new teachers

Yahoo Finance's Living Not So Fabulously is hosted by David & John Auten-Schneider, and created and produced by Rachael Lewis-Krisky.

Cam Lieberson is an education director and advocate focusing on early childhood education and arts.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sitting in his home on a lazy Saturday morning, listening to an economics program, UBS Wealth Management Chief Economist Paul Donovan found himself absolutely appalled at the coverage he was hearing on the economics of marriage equality. "I was choking on my cup of tea. It was that bad a set of arguments," he told husbands and hosts David & John Auten-Schneider on Living Not So Fabulously. "It was all about, 'we'll make more money doing gay marriages—think of the lavish ceremonies that'll be held.' And I was like, no, that's not it. It's all about equality and rights and people feeling valued."

It's a shame that justifying equality to the world's power-holders and policy brokers has to be rooted in why prejudice is good or bad for economies rather than achieving equality for one's fellow human beings serving as enough of a reason in itself. However, Donovan's research and work focus on translating the data and economics of equality to cultivate chance and make a difference for the LGBTQ+ community.

"As somebody who is gay and is in a position of some responsibility in a large organization, I have a role as a role model," he explained of his efforts. "I think there's a duty for those of us who have some kind of platform to try and make sure that we can educate and improve the understanding overall."

Throughout the episode, the conversation also addressed why LGBTQ+ investors are different. Donovan shared some helpful guidance for the community on the nuances they should consider as they build their wealth.

Hosts and husbands of Living Not So Fabulously, David & John Auten-Schneider, dive into real money stories with activists, allies, artists, tech-gurus, and trailblazers in the LGBTQ+ community to give you tangible takeaways to tackle your wallet woes.

Find this episode's transcripts and more episodes of Living Not So Fabulously at http://finance.yahoo.com/videos/series/living-fabulously/.

Have a money story of your own? Questions? Fan mail? Email us at [email protected].

00:00-Paul Donovan joins Living Not So Fabulously

01:55-Why finances are unique for theLGBTQ+ community

05:00-LGBTQ+ exclusion can hurt economies

07:30-For leaders: why prejudice is bad for business

09:18-For investors and financial advisors: consider global discrimination's impact on investments

13:23 responsibility for those in power to make a difference

16:00-Trumponomics around the world

18:30-3 things LGBTQ+ investors can prepare for Trump 2.0

20:30-global upheaval around the world for LGBTQ+ people

Yahoo Finance's Living Not So Fabulously is hosted by David & John Auten-Schneider, and created and produced by Rachael Lewis-Krisky.

Paul Donovan is the Chief Economist of UBS Wealth Management, and self-describes his focus as 'economics without jargon, but with sarcasm.'

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Legendary musician Shira Yevin solidified her place in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame when her band Shiragirl crashed their hot pink bus into Vans Warped Tour in 2004. With no money in the bank and a lot of spirit, the bus was a DIY mobile stage built to offer a literal platform for women-fronted bands at—what was then—a de facto men-only-fronted-bands tour.

"I was working on the tour the summer before, and I noticed no female musicians on stage. And coming from New York and the whole Riot Girl scene, I just didn't understand it. 'cause I knew a lot of women in music. And so we just decided to crash the tour in our pink RV that we were traveling in, which was literally color-matched to a Barbie doll box," Yevin described. "I was feeling nervous. I was feeling excited, and I was ready to start a revolution."

Yevin didn’t stop there; she shared with hosts David & John Auten-Schneider on Living Not So Fabulously. She’s continued her career fighting for equality and equity in the industry as the founder and CEO of Gritty In Pink. The company, with their INPINK marketplace, is a community of diverse female creators working in the music industry providing connections, access and opportunities through an inclusive network.

Whether she’s busting down fences or shattering glass ceilings, Yevin’s success as an entrepreneur and musician is not without hurdles. There’s still work to be done, she says, explaining that women bands are "only one in five artists played on the radio, which it doesn't seem that way because you have Taylor Swift and Beyoncé and these big act playing, right. Like touring at stadiums. But you know, even these women talk about these challenges. So if Taylor and Beyoncé are having these issues, like what does that say for the rest of us?"

Hosts and husbands of Living Not So Fabulously, David & John Auten-Schneider, dive into real money stories with activists, allies, artists, tech-gurus, and trailblazers in the LGBTQ+ community to give you tangible takeaways to tackle your wallet woes.

Find this episode's transcripts and more episodes of Living Not So Fabulously at http://finance.yahoo.com/videos/series/living-fabulously/.

Have a money story of your own? Questions? Fan mail? Email us at [email protected].

00:00-Shira Yevin joins Living Not So Fabulously

02:00-Busting barriers (literally and figuratively)

08:00-Meeting the demand for women in music

11:30-Inequity in gig economies

15:20-Role of confidence in the wealth gap

19:00-Start your rock star journey

Yahoo Finance's Living Not So Fabulously is hosted by David & John Auten-Schneider, and created and produced by Rachael Lewis-Krisky.

Shira Yevin is an entrepreneur, artist, activist, and founder of Gritty In Pink. After forming her all-female band Shiragirl, Shira became known for advocating for women in male-dominated spaces; Shira and her band crashed the Vans Warped Tour and created the Shiragirl Stage for female artists, which hosted 300+ artists including rock icons Joan Jett and Paramore. In January 2020, Yevin launched a new female-led platform to empower women within the music industry, called Gritty In Pink. With the mission to achieve gender equality in the music industry

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Engaging with money on a regular basis can be tricky, even for those who are well-versed in the nuances of personal finance, let alone for folks who have the added struggle of growing up in poverty. For NBC News and MSNBC correspondent Steven Romo, the money trauma that came from climbing out of childhood poverty stayed with him in life, he explained to Living Not So Fabulously hosts David & John Auten-Schneider. "[My parents] did not hide their money problems from my siblings and me; that we had two homes foreclosed on. We got kicked out of rental homes. And we were always very aware of what was happening like that we couldn't afford this. We couldn't pay for this. So that's one of the reasons why it's been hard for me to engage with money and learn about money," he said.

As Romo climbed out of poverty, he developed new money skills—with immense help from his husband, he added—and he held on to a green rule of thumb, per se. "Sometimes life is short, but sometimes it's not," he said, which means you have to prioritize financial decisions. Otherwise, "you're gonna look back at your 28-year-old self and be pretty upset about the decisions you made."

For queer people especially, he added, the community struggles with over-consumerism as a way to feel secure. "So many of us have to suppress who we are, and we don't get to fully live these lives where we're our authentic selves. So once we really do come out and start having friend groups, we go maybe a little too far... Maybe we're putting trips on credit cards and not really fully planning it out."

Hosts and husbands of Living Not So Fabulously, David & John Auten-Schneider, dive into real money stories with activists, allies, artists, tech-gurus, and trailblazers in the LGBTQ+ community to give you tangible takeaways to tackle your wallet woes.

Find this episode's transcripts and more episodes of Living Not So Fabulously at http://finance.yahoo.com/videos/series/living-fabulously/.

Have a money story of your own? Questions? Fan mail? Email us at [email protected].

00:00-Steven Romo joins Living Not So Fabulously

03:00-Unlearning childhood money trauma

05:30-Climbing out of of poverty is about your whole family

08:00-Marrying into a family that deals with money in a healthy way

12:30-Double edge sword of credit card points

16:00-LGBTQ+ people struggle with using capitalism as success symbol, even if it means taking on debt

20:00-Life is shor; focus money on priorities that matter

Yahoo Finance's Living Not So Fabulously is hosted by David & John Auten-Schneider, and created and produced by Rachael Lewis-Krisky.

Steven Romo is a news anchor, correspondent and writer, currently New York City-based, for NBC News and MSNBC. He also works as a contributor for HuffPost.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For those of us who have practically lived on LinkedIn, Indeed, and the like as we've hunted for our next career opportunity, it might be a little deflating to discover that we could have been doing more, specifically with a mentor.

LinkedIn Career Expert Andrew McCaskill joins Living Not So Fabulously hosts David & John Auten-Schneider to shed light on how jobseeker's can approach finding the right mentor and how your wallet might suffer without one.

"I think that one of the things that mentorship has taught me is that I don't think about my compensation as just like the cash," McCaskill explains, suggesting people look at bonuses, salary, and equity on top of total compensation; as well as, what he called, "off the offer letter benefits." This includes financial benefits like your employer paying off student loan repayment, funding continued education like certificates, and even fertility care. And it's mentorship that can help you get there.

"So many of those things are when we can, when we leave money on the table, if you have a mentor inside of the machine, inside of your organization... if they've been there longer, they will tell you about it," McCaskill says.

McCaskill further emphasizes that mentors add value to your life in a multitude of ways, and that, at the end of the day, "the number one rule of mentorship is this person rooting for me to win."

Hosts and husbands of Living Not So Fabulously, David & John Auten-Schneider, dive into real money stories with activists, allies, artists, tech-gurus, and trailblazers in the LGBTQ+ community to give you tangible takeaways to tackle your wallet woes.

Find this episode's transcripts and more episodes of Living Not So Fabulously at http://finance.yahoo.com/videos/series/living-fabulously/.

Have a money story of your own? Questions? Fan mail? Email us at [email protected].

00:00-Andrew McCaskill joins Living Not So Fabulously

02:00-The pros and cons of having a mentor that looks like you

06:00-What are the benefits of a mentor?

10:00-How a mentor affects your wallet

14:36-Finding the right mentor for you

18:00-Corporate culture's impact on you

Yahoo Finance's Living Not So Fabulously is hosted by David & John Auten-Schneider, and created and produced by Rachael Lewis-Krisky.

Andrew McCaskill is an accredited marketing, communications and crisis management executive with 20 years of experience delivering award-winning communications and brand campaigns at Fortune 500 companies and highly successful technology startups.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Though the legendary Project Runway mentor Tim Gunn needs little introduction, his story does. Gunn wasn't always the celebrity we know him to be today; he was a career educator for 29 years. Gunn shared with Living Not So Fabulously hosts David & John Auten-Schneider that teaching is more of a calling than a job. He identified as a ‘pauper educator,’ with more of a focus on serving students than his own personal finances. Though that is surely noble, it left him living paycheck to paycheck. “I really did think if I lose my job, what am I going to do? Move in with my sister?” he said.

Then came the ground-breaking Project Runway, where this ‘pauper educator’ mindset stayed with him. Gunn wasn’t paid for the show's first two seasons; he loved mentoring the designers. Gunn didn’t even realize that wasn’t typical, with his first agent describing saying upon reviewing his TV contracts, “‘These are the worst contracts I have ever seen in my entire professional career. Wow. You just sign these things?’” to which Tim said, “what am I supposed to do? I don't know. I assumed that they're boilerplates, what people sign.”

At the end of the day, it wasn’t about the money for Gunn. “It didn't bother me not to be paid.” Learning from his financial faux pas, Gunn recommends to his students that they seek help, as Gunn received from his lawyer, “because there may be someone who says this whole thing is completely out of whack and just unsustainable.” You simply don't know what you don't know. Read Gunn's story in his latest book, "Tim Gunn: The Natty Professor: A Master Class on Mentoring, Motivating, and Making It Work."

Hosts and husbands of Living Not So Fabulously, David & John Auten-Schneider, dive into real money stories with activists, allies, artists, tech-gurus, and trailblazers in the LGBTQ+ community to give you tangible takeaways to tackle your wallet woes.

Find this episode's transcripts and more episodes of Living Not So Fabulously at http://finance.yahoo.com/videos/series/living-fabulously/.

Have a money story of your own? Questions? Fan mail? Email us at [email protected].

00:00-Tim Gunn joins Living Not So Fabulously

01:00-A pauper educator

04:00-Being a teacher is like being in the clergy; it's a calling

05:30-How he got involved with Project Runway; unpaid

14:25-Origin story of 'make it work'

16:57-Biggest mistake of many young designers: happy hands

19:45-Financial advice for young designers at the start of their career

21:34-Finance advice for everyone else

Yahoo Finance's Living Not So Fabulously is hosted by David & John Auten-Schneider, and created and produced by Rachael Lewis-Krisky.

Beloved pop culture icon and New York Times bestselling author Tim Gunn is best known as the Emmy Award–winning host of Project Runway. He also hosted two seasons of his own Bravo makeover series, Tim Gunn’s Guide to Style, and was the host of the reality TV series Under the Gunn.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices