The Wealth Edit Podcast

Margaret Boyce and Jayme Gresham, founders of J. Lowery, join Lauren and Emily on the podcast to discuss how their lifelong friendship has turned into a flourishing business partnership when they started their luxury handbag brand, J. Lowery.

On this episode, we talk with Erin Moon, a Senior Creative at the Popcast Media Group, where she is the Resident Bible Scholar on The Bible Binge podcast and hosts her own called Faith Adjacent. She begins by discussing her shift from working in ministry to discovering her worth as a creative person and worker in media. She notes that a pivotal moment in her career arose when she realized that a man who had the same position and brought the same amount of expertise as her received a higher pay than she did. When she moved to PNG, she developed a strong sense of responsibility associated with her work because she feels trusted by others and deeply invested in her work. The group allowed her to recognize that her skills were valuable, and others appreciated her creative work.

In her podcast Faith Adjacent, she approaches theology with a more fluid perspective than the Southern Baptist religion in which she was raised. Rather than fixating on a single point and moving on with her life, she feels that there is still much more to be discussed. She compares theology to untangling jewelry to find a necklace. There are many knots to untie before reaching the necklace needed, in addition to there being some knots that may not matter as much in reaching the desired necklace. Studying the Bible is essential to her job, but she does not view this work as burdensome.

Erin Moon also specializes in working with others through storytelling. She assists in a program that takes people, who do not consider themselves creative, and pairs them with a “story coacher.” Erin works as one of the story coachers. In doing this, she listens to a person tell their story and teaches them how to tell it on stage to an audience. She enjoys teaching people how to tell their story because she believes storytelling reminds people that they are not alone. Even if a story does not resonate on a personal level, it helps people to connect on a human level and communicate with one another.

Erin offers advice for people who want to start a podcast. She cautions that podcasting is hard work, and people should discern who they take advice from and “get comfortable with uncomfortable feedback.” She finishes by retouching on how she wishes she would have had something like the Wealth Edit to teach her how to negotiate for herself and learn about finances when she was younger.

Find out more about Erin from her website erinhmoon.com.

To learn more about the Wealth Edit, visit the website and take the quiz. Find us on Instagram, @wealthedit, and Youtube to hear more about upcoming events and featured speakers like Erin!

On this episode, we talk with Courtney Duncan, the creator of Swavy Curly Courtney, a YouTube channel that provides viewers with tips on how to care for curly hair while learning to embrace their full, authentic selves. Courtney initially started documenting her hair journey on Instagram, where she gained followers interested in achieving S-waves or curls. Over time though, Courtney realized just how many people were interested in this journey, so she moved into making YouTube videos for her followers. She discusses how both of her platforms started as a documentation of her journey to taking care of her hair, but ultimately evolved into a channel where she shares messages of self-love.

Though Courtney was able to turn her passion into a monetized YouTube channel, where she is paid by many advertisers to show and include their products, she emphasizes staying true to her original mission throughout.

Courtney shared her insight on:

-  Turning her passion into a full-time career through monetizing on YouTube

-  Starting with one idea or platform, mastering it, and then moving forward

-  Never losing focus of her “Why,” in remembering why she started on her journey and how it helped her find self-love and acceptance

Courtney still posts one video per week on her YouTube channel, but she is now devoting more time to the creation of an online course for people who want to start on this journey to embracing their natural hair. She described the course as a “starter pack” for anyone feeling confused or overwhelmed on where to begin in their hair journey. Overall though, Courtney hopes that through teaching others to embrace their natural hair, she can share her message of self-love to as many people as possible.

Read more about Courtney through her Youtube channel, Swavy Curly Courtney, or her website, swavycurlycourtney.com.

To learn more about the Wealth Edit, visit our website and take our quiz!

We post fun updates and tips on our Instagram, @wealthedit, and YouTube, so make sure to come see us!

On this episode of the Wealth Edit Podcast, we chat with Katie Bee Marshall and Leila Shaw about their LLC called Marshall and Shaw. They are a personal and family financial management company and talk to us about book keeping, and the services that they can provide for their clients. To start, Leila explains that they provide personal book keeping services for high level and wealthy clients to choose from. In doing so, they provide their customers with robust reports to look at and show their other advisors to make financially sound decisions.

Marshall and Shaw is the type of company where all clients are complex, and in need of someone for their daily book keeping services. They are specifically the personal finance side only and do not handle any finances with their businesses or anything of that matter. They took Shaw’s mothers business model and decided to copy it to start their company as an introduction, and to get their ball rolling. Marshall and Shaw saw the need for an upgrade in the book keeping industry and decided they wanted to give their clients a better more overall comprehensive look of their finances compared to simply getting the bills paid. The importance of clients to being able to share their day to day finances with Marshall and Shaw is also another component that is key. Being able to enter their personal lives and know their finances is the best way for Marshall and Shaw to do what they do best.

Tips and tricks for personal bookkeeping by yourself:

-  Auto pay is not your friend. Its ok to auto pay utilities, car payment, etc. However, it shouldn’t mean that you are not looking at the bill.

-  Logging into your bank to pay bills online works… sometimes. When paying someone that is not an institution or established business, if the payment is lost in the mail, its your word against theirs because your bank has debited the check.

-  Keep schedule of annual payments.

-  Make a personal balance sheet annually

-  Recurring subscriptions can add up

-  Be aware of security (change passwords/make them unique) Two factor authorization for passwords as well.

-  Don’t mix business and personal book keeping

-  Call bank and ask for reimbursements and they will work with you.

To learn more about the Wealth Edit, visit our website and take our quiz!

We post fun updates and tips on our Instagram, @wealthedit, and YouTube, so make sure to come see us!

On this episode, we sit down to talk all things business, managing work with family time, and partnership with Janie Jones and Elizabeth Miles. In 2017, the pair started up their Birmingham based interior design company, Hundley Hilton. The two began this discussion touching primarily on how their own unique skills sets and experiences mesh well to facilitate a successful business venture. Both moms with backgrounds in business and design, Jones and Miles organically created Hundley Hilton as a small company rooted in their commitment to beautifully share their artistic designs while also effectively running the business side.

Together, Janie and Elizabeth mention many tips and tricks they’ve learned as business partners navigating a self-run company for the first time. Some of the most impactful points include:

-  Work with someone who will balance you out; use the strengths of one to make up for the weaknesses of the other.

-  Do not force anything to work. With a passion for the project and dedication to hard work, the project will naturally form to be successful.

-  Leave room for collaboration as well as time apart to explore separately as partners who can later share one another’s findings and merge them into one cohesive idea.

-  Set yourself up in an environment to succeed. Both Janie and Elizabeth feel supported to create in their Birmingham community, something that greatly contributes to a prosperous business.

-  Learn the balance between work life, home life, and personal life as the owner of a small business. Though this can be hard, finding a balanced routine is key in success.

The Hundley Hilton pair demonstrate what it means to effectively work as business partners in carrying out a vision. Far more than just an interior design company, Hundley Hilton represents two powerful women coming together to form a labor of love rooted in hard work, commitment to their clients, and most of all faith in the project.

More information on Hundley Hilton can be found at www.hundleyhiltoninteriors.com as well as on the Instagram account, @hundleyhilton.

As for the Wealth Edit, visit www.wealthedit.com for more company information and follow Instagram account @wealthedit and YouTube channel @wealthedit for all the latest updates, tips, and available podcasts like this one!

In this episode, we talk with Mignon Francois, founder of The Cupcake Collection, a nationally ranked cupcake and cake bakery located in Nashville, TN, and New Orleans, LA. Mignon originally moved to Nashville from New Orleans to foster a better life for her family. However, her plans fell through, and the move costed her family to struggle with debt, credit, and money issues. Mignon bought a dilapidated house because it was what she could afford at the time and lived in it with her husband and six children.

Mignon was living day-by-day, with only dollars to spend on food and bills. When she was poised with a choice to either spend the $5 she currently had in her pocket to make a large order of cupcakes or feed her family that night: she chose to create her legacy. Using the $5, Mignon bought ingredients and began to bake.  This order of 600 cupcakes was a pivotal moment for Mignon and was what made her continue to pursue her newfound dream of founding a cupcake company.

Mignon walks us through several processes that lead to her success:

-  Learning how to bake and perfect her homemade recipes

-  Building a thriving company from her living room

-  Continuing to take small steps and aim for steady growth

Despite owning a multimillion-dollar cupcake shop, Mignon didn’t know how to bake when she was younger. She learned that it was all about balancing ingredients and broke her homemade recipes down to a science, calling herself “a scientist, not a baker.” Also, Mignon speaks on how she created a successful cupcake business by starting with one Kitchen Aid mixer and one dorm-sized refrigerator. The mantra she worked and lived by was “speak what you seek until you see what you say.”

To this day, The Cupcake Collection has sold over 5 million cupcakes and continues to thrive. Mignon’s family helps her in the business, and she passes down her self-taught business lessons to her children and grandchildren. You can order cupcakes or read more about her and the creation of The Cupcake Collection through her website, https://www.thecupcakecollection.com. Also, check out her Instagram or Facebook (@thecupcakecollection) to learn more.

Join us in our interview with Melanie Bridgeforth, the president and CEO of The Women’s Fund of Greater Birmingham, an organization that connects women and their families to resources for economic opportunity. She begins with a great quote from Justice Ginsberg: “Women belong in all places where decisions are being made.”

The Women’s Fund is focused on funding for gender equity, where their mission is informed through research and rooted in philanthropy. Listen to the astounding numbers she gives us on the statistics of women in the workforce. She explains that there would be an increase of $1.6 billion in wages if women in Alabama met the national average in the workforce. The Women’s Fund is dedicated to investing in the state to improve conditions for women in all areas, but with special consideration for women and infant mortality rates during birth. Here are some noteworthy points:

-  Political, civil, and philanthropic engagement: Our power as women rests in these pillars.

-  We have to invest through our voice, giving, and votes to narrow the gap of the burden we face and what reward we get in return

Something she wants women to remember: You don’t have to be a millionaire to be a philanthropist. She gives the analogy of a car that is barreling down the street and hitting people. The natural inclination is to go check on the people… but who is stopping the car? That is the role of the Women’s Fund, to help mobilize the community and provide resources to make a difference.

To learn more about The Women’s Fund, visit here!

To learn more about the Wealth Edit, visit our website and take our quiz!

We post fun updates and tips on our Instagram, @wealthedit, and YouTube, so make sure to come see us!

Check out the podcast on Spotify!

On this episode, we interview Cristina Lynch, founder of Mi Golondrina. She got the concept for this business from her brother who said she should start a luxury embroidery line from Mexico. The company later flourished into an amazing clothing brand. Her family has always been pushing the limits and wanting the best for each other. Her brother started a company that helps build financial models called A Simple Model.

Cristina has close to 600 women from Mexico helping her with her brand, and their lives have completely been changed from Mi Golondrina. The company’s mission is focused on community, collaboration, and tradition. Cristina gives us some advice on how to build a team:

-  Focus on talent

-  Find a great work-life balance – offer flexibility

Listen in to hear about how the shift to all online retail has been a big adjustment to her team but has had a lot of perks once they figured everything out. One tip she has with staying virtual is for every Zoom call you have, make three phone calls to ensure that you maintain a connection and flow of information. She prides herself on creating a healthy, successful business herself without any outside investors. Be sure to stay tuned towards the end as to why she suggests creating a board of advisors.

Visit her website here!

To learn more about the Wealth Edit, visit our website and take our quiz!

We post fun updates and tips on our Instagram, @wealthedit, and YouTube, so make sure to come see us!

Check out the podcast on Spotify!

On this episode we speak to Riley Sheehey, a freelance artist and illustrator, and she shares her story about making a career out of her passion. Riley has always loved art, and she used to be an elementary school art teacher. In 2014, she started painting Mason Jars and selling things on Etsy. It started to pick up, and in 2016, she began spending more time on growing her business. Riley speaks about growing in confidence as she built her business. Some advice Riley gave:

· When making a change in your career path, make sure to have six months of money saved before taking action.

· Your hobby can grow and become your main source of income!

· You don’t have to have a strong background in finance to start a business. You are never too old to learn.

· You need to be specific in contracts. You will learn from your mistakes.

· Business doesn’t have to be personal. Don’t worry about being “pushy” or “difficult”.

Riley speaks about her journey starting her business and shares valuable tips for other entrepreneurs. From contracts to pricing, Riley covers many topics to help anyone looking to turn their passion into their full-time job!

Visit Riley’s website here!

To learn more about the Wealth Edit, visit our website and take our quiz!

We post fun updates and tips on our Instagram, @wealthedit, and YouTube, so make sure to come see us!

Check out the podcast on Spotify!

On this episode, we talk with Danielle Rollins of Danielle Rollins Designs about how understanding business has helped her in building her own. She was a stay-at-home mom for a long time. After being faced with a brutal divorce that completely flip turned her life, she found a vision for where she wanted to go with her life and what was important. Following her divorce, she opened up her own design company and learned so much in the early stages of the brand.

Here are some tips to remember when starting up a business:

-  Going to bed thinking this is a failure will not work—keep that drive up!!

-  There’s a lot of backhand work that goes into a business to make it profitable

-  Take failure and don’t be afraid of it because you will take it and learn/grow from it

-  Bring in a full-time bookkeeper

-  Find a way to feel good about what you are doing and that you are enough

-  Embrace your weakness

-  Know your value (especially for the business) and stand by it

Danielle emphasizes an idea that is so wonderful to remember in all aspects of life. Sometimes it is the best thing in life to let something go if it isn’t working right (both personally and professionally). Listen in to hear about her view on starting your wealth and power early on in life!

Visit her website here!

To learn more about the Wealth Edit, visit our website and take our quiz!

We post fun updates and tips on our Instagram, @wealthedit, and YouTube so make sure to come see us!

Check out the podcast on Spotify!