Get Shameless About Money

#236: How to invest in yourself without spending a dime.

August 21, 2020 Brunch & Budget
Get Shameless About Money
#236: How to invest in yourself without spending a dime.
Show Notes Transcript

We are talking about how to invest in yourself without spending money and what is investing in yourself vs. self care?  Where do we start with investing in ourselves and what does that even really mean?

Music Featured in This Episode:
In Yourself by Zo! + Asylum 7
Believe In Yourself by SisterSara featuring Awa Fall
Free Yourself (extrait) by NY.KO

Dyalekt :

Just like hot yoga after a walk through Minnesota justice is best served with the side of mimosa. This is brunch and budget. The show about personal finance and racial economic inclusion with your host, Pamela Capalad, a certified financial planner and accredited financial counselor here to take the bite out of your budget. I'm your sound provider Dyalekt. And here's your host, Pamela Capalad.

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

Thank you Dyalekt, and thank you all for tuning in.

Dyalekt :

I think that was a decent one right? Actually, I tied in the brunch thing right, mimosa. Just so you know, by the way. Yeah, I know the hot yoga person is a jerk. The cat who like coined it and made it a thing from Yeah, I didn't want to name him.

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

You're right. Okay, so today we're talking about how to invest in yourself without spending a dime. What does that mean though? When you invest in yourself even really mean? I think we have to start there. We came up with the show idea. We've done another Show episode 115 on what it really means to invest in yourself. And now I feel like that we're all cooped up in our home, maybe we're busier than ever, maybe we're not. And maybe we feel like we want to one up our skills a little bit.

Dyalekt :

I feel like we are supposed to one up our skills. That's what everybody's been saying. Get a degree. Yeah, get a whole new thing and get your business going. What was that hustle that you want to do? make it into a business?

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

Yeah, do it now. Do it now. Now's the time, right? The world has stopped. But it's weird because the world has is trying to figure out how to keep going. And are your skills still relevant in this new world that we're trying to put together? Right. I think that's the other thing that we're trying to kind of parse out here is like, what does that really mean?

Dyalekt :

Yeah, I mean, for people like educators and performers like myself, I've been adjusting to do things digitally, but everyone was like, this is a temporary thing and we're gonna get back on stage as in in class as soon but as we're seeing that's not really happening right now. And for a lot of folks, especially like younger folks coming up and this is going to be the norm.

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

Yeah, yeah, no, this is gonna be the norm. I mean, our baby. Speaking of which has spent half his life like in quarantine. You know, What does that mean? What if he's a quarantine baby? He's a covid baby.

Dyalekt :

I mean, that's definitely gonna be something like quarentine generation, that's going to be a thing. Oh, yeah. So for folks like that, and for folks like us who are trying to figure out what we're doing, let's talk about what are parameters? We're going to go through these guys best practices. And hopefully you guys can decide for yourselves, what are the things you can do to invest in yourself?

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

Yeah. So people seem to have very different definitions of what investing in yourself really means. And I think the ultimate thing that we came to is for you to figure out what that definition is for you. We've been talking it through between us and we even have different definitions of it for ourselves. I think one of the things that we've been trying to figure out is, is it only investing in yourself when there's a specific end goal in mind? Or can you be investing in yourself when you know you're doing XYZ? And also, what's the difference between investing in yourself and just self care? Right? And I think those are the things that we may be able to try and define and have some consensus about but also it may be something that you end up deciding, like you know what, because exercise shows for instance, on a lot of these investing in yourself lists and for me, I feel like exercise a self care, it's I need to exercise to maintain a certain level of whatever to maintain a certain level of mental health, physical health, whatever it is to be able to then invest in myself. But for some people, it feels like an investment in yourself because of how you define what that means. So I think that's something that we really need to think about.

Dyalekt :

Yeah, the easy metric that I've been coming up with is, what do you need? What do you want? And what will be nice?

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

Oh, wait, explain that. That's good. What do you need, what do you want, and what will be nice?

Dyalekt :

Yeah. So when you invest in anything, right, there's the big thing they talked about, like your return on investment, right? And I like to think about, you know, what you need, that's the like, guaranteed part that you want to make sure that that's definitely going to happen in your life what you want. That's like, the interest that's the little extra part that can grow on the side that's something like if you know that you're working out because you like you know, need to work out I need to be healthy, but also, you know, I've kind of always wanted to play this sport or I've always wanted to work on my body so that I could have something where I'm like, an instagram model to show myself off like that. If that's something that is like in the back of your head and wasn't something you're able to do until you're able to get started, that could count. And then what's the stuff that would be nice, that's the stuff where when I work with students a lot we talk about, what are the things that you've done, not for money that you enjoy doing that you could possibly work in the future? And I think exploring that does count. So the thing that would be nice, here's something that I did that I want to try stuff out without the pressure of having to become a job or career. But also, if it's working that way, we could do that.

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

So that could count as investing yourself,

Dyalekt :

Well, that's what I'm saying. Like, give yourself these three parameters, right? I think when we ask ourselves these questions, because the exact answers are going to be different for each of y'all. And I think when we ask ourselves these questions, if they don't fit in these three parameters, maybe that doesn't count

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

maybe it doesn't.

Dyalekt :

You know, what I love to do with this kind of stuff is give yourself an easy cut off, cut off those things. And then once you get into the meat after that, there's going to be nuance.

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

Yeah, let's get into the nuance. And here's this is one that came up a lot in Google 35 powerful ways to invest in yourself now that will change your life which is that's you know, that's a pretty intense headline. It's having a, there's a lot of promises in that headline or here the 35 of them to invest in yourself. And these are all generally free and you can find free things to do because the other thing about investing in yourself this episode is called investing in yourself without it costing a dime Is there a lot of ways to do that and to not spend money especially in a time like this and really just invest your time. So the first thing that they list is watch less TV and choose more positive shows. Is that investing in yourself?

Dyalekt :

Throw out the whole list right now. No, get rid of a watch less TV doesn't have anything that's not really helpful for someone who's working on being a TV writer.

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

Well, I guess that's what it comes back to is you know, What is the goal? Right?

Dyalekt :

Yeah, I think investing yourself without spending a dime. The first thing we need to do is get rid of puritanical nonsense. So let's cut that list entirely and go to a different one. Because this is just telling you what to do with your life. I think that it's important and smart people read books and don't watch TV. That's old advice from old heads who didn't know what they're talking about in the first place. So let them fail by themselves.

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

Well this was gonna be like, 10 minutes of the show. Oh, this is interesting. epiphany skincare said, I found that when I watch less TV, I invest more in my business. Are we canning this or no?

Dyalekt :

Oh, am I wrong? Let's keep going. I'm open to be wrong.

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

All right. So number two is visit positive websites. I don't know what they mean by that. Okay. People waste time online with frivolous websites is shocking. I'm curious. I think that like I think they're talking about social media. I think that's what they mean when they're like positive websites. Like don't go on social media. I mean, we're on social media right now.

Dyalekt :

We're no no, but this is something To build up what he was saying, I know that when I go on social media sites, I will spend longer on things that bother me. You can even be annoyed when you see that you're like, these, like famous people, a blue checkmark, people are sitting there arguing with these jerks when they could be building to make it because you're doing the same thing. You're looking at the shocking thing and you're dealing with it. And I know that similarly would have been the same with the TV when I stopped doing that and allow my energy to go there unless I can work on my thing.

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

Interesting. So it and I feel like we need to strike a balance there. But in general, like it's not like you're saying you don't watch TV, right. And you don't go on social media or anything like that. It's just a matter of like, at what point you cross the line where it's not productive anymore. You're not getting anything out of it anymore. And you're just there because you need a distraction or because it's shock value or whatever it is. Right.

Dyalekt :

Right. So is it feeding you or is it healing you? I guess to give us another thing to choose from, right? It's not feeding you and it's not healing you then maybe it's time to step away. Yeah, even if it's just brainstorming. You're trying to write something and you're like, I don't know, just go ahead and do that.

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

Right, and then don't spend three hours on it, which is I definitely accidentally done that. Yeah, setting time limits Exactly. I love that I think that's a good self care thing is like, Don't deny yourself of watching TV or going on social media, but you know, don't go overboard on it. And actually, time box it. That's a term that I've been hearing a lot of my friends talk about is time boxing these things Number three,

Dyalekt :

even get to that I just want to talk about that's something that we talked about with pocket changes bunch of budget all the time. The spending values matrix, and how it's really important for you to make a budget for the things that you enjoy the things that you want in life when we say that you like going out to eat every now and then put that in your budget, don't say, I'm never gonna go out to eat because when you go out to eat because you know, you're going to do that, then it starts taking me out of the budget that you weren't ready for. So just like we budget with our dollars, right, and you make room for the things that are important to you giving yourself that time limit. It's not a restriction. It's giving you the space that says I'm going to go out and do.

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

Oh, I learned this in therapy. I love that you said that. My therapist because I've been talking to my therapist about being pretty tired and emotionally exhausted. And one of the things she said is that you have to have some kind of emotional savings fund as well as like a financial savings fund, right? And what does that mean? How do you build up your emotional savings fund, and that may mean like setting time limits on things like TV on things like social media and saying, like, I'm only going to do this for an hour a day, I'm only going to do this for like 10 minutes at a time and figuring out how to put that stuff away and figuring out how to really bank the emotional savings that you're going to need to be able to invest in yourself later. Right. So this may not be investing in yourself in the sense of like, I'm taking a class or I'm reading a book, it's investing in yourself in the sense of saying like, I'm going to not do this. So I have the time to do something else.

Dyalekt :

So what you're basically saying is having a designated driver for your relaxation,

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

Yeah. Like like myself as a designated

Dyalekt :

Yeah. Well you have to be your own designate driver for this kind of situation. Okay, there's no alcohol, but right because otherwise if you allow the devices that you're rocking with because usually you know we're collaborating with people and the people can check us right ask for accountability. But with your partner is a machine and all it asks you is are you still watching? Yeah, you're like, Look, yeah, sure. Yeah, I'm watching this cool Yeah.

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

Wacita, something you might not know, was that Wasita was our doula for the baby. So she was there through all of this. Talking about investments, definitely invest in a doula you're having a baby. Um, but yeah, no, I love that this idea of thinking about not looking at things that distract you as a way to contribute to your emotional state.

Dyalekt :

Well, I mean, I wouldn't say not looking at things that distract you but time boxing, distraction. Allow yourself to get in that thing. Because like it's gonna catch your body. Allow yourself to do your thing. Setting a time limit for there gives you that space. I think that while these things themselves might be self care. I think that if he wants to reach my pace, what we'll be investing in yourself is creating the space and time.

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

Yes, exactly. So that you have the space and time to do things like the things that are coming up on this list, reading books or ebooks, reading books in general that shows up on like everyone's invest in yourself list. I kind of want to break that down because it sounds so like one It sounds so like, Oh, of course reading a book that's investing in myself.

Dyalekt :

Also, the thing that I was out first thing about a minute ago, it sounds like some intellectual who are worried about, well, if you're going to be a smart person and a better person you read

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

now you don't watch TV you read instead.

Dyalekt :

But reading text actually reading text as long form really does give you something different than articles chat, and just like looking at things people talk, huh?

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

Yeah. And I guess the question is like, how, how do you choose what to read, like what counts as investing in yourself is reading in general even if it's for pleasure part of investing in yourself Like, I don't know, I guess that's something that you

Dyalekt :

I want to I want to carry that through the stuff we were talking about before or your goal situation you need what is the stuff that you would like to have and when some stuff that's just nice because then I think about it like the people's battle between fiction and nonfiction books. I certainly will have a genuine need to just collect data sometimes, right? I just need to get these nonfiction books. I need to get these stories that other people are talking about these real things that happen so I can catalog and put them into the work that I do because it's like research. Yeah, other times you need inspiration and inspiration is straight up. I love talking about the real definition. Inspiration means to breathe in. You need to get something that is your breath. The thing that is your breath is often something that expresses the same thing is to either a it's in the medium that you understand or be it's outside the medium you understand, but expressing the same emotion. Yeah, and it's gonna be up to you which one of those works for you? So folks are just like, Yo, I'm a rock musician. I need to listen to a bunch of rock songs for me to get my stuff together. Before I write my next read. other books are like I need to have that same emotion that I need to gave to my wrist but I need everything other than rock songs I will need to read a fiction book that's telling you a story that reminds me of that time when I was doing my thing.

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

Interesting. I feel like this applies whether or not you're creative. You know, it was a big thing to

Dyalekt :

know. I'm just saying. I'm just saying.

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

I love it. I love Okay, so the next three are all to do with family and friends. Stay in touch with family and friends. Choose your friends wisely and get rid of toxic friends. Is this investing in yourself? Or is it self care? What is this?

Dyalekt :

Well, I think this will put this together. You know, I'm not gonna tell you about your friends. Love the people you love. Yeah, if you got to be with them, and they got problems and you need to get away then talk to your peoples and they gonna tell you when to get away. Maybe there's some experts who got a better podcast about that. But we that

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

Yeah, no, I want to talk about this next one, find a mentor. And I want to talk about it because I feel like I have tried to approach people to be a mentor. And I've been on the other end of it when I've had other people asked me to be their mentor. And more often than not, I've gotten nose and I've had to say no. And I think that that finding a mentor is a lot of also like blanket advice that we get a lot in terms of investing in yourself in terms of investing time. And one of the reasons especially being on the other side of it that I've said no, is because usually the person who asked me has no idea what they want to be mentored in, they just see me and they decided, like, Oh, I bet this person will be good to like have on speed dial, you know if that was the case. And I think that when it comes to finding a mentor, I think that what's important about if you're going to go down that route, where you feel like the thing that you're about to do...but when it comes to finding a mentor, and asking someone to be your mentor is recognizing what kind of an ask you're actually making Have someone? Yeah, I think that's the thing is like, if you feel like that's the route you need to go down, that could be a way to invest in yourself for free. But also understand that the mentor is investing in you and investing their own time in whatever it is you're asking them to mentor for.

Dyalekt :

Yeah, I guess it's like, rather than investing in you, what is the thing that they're investing their time in? Yeah. What is the shared goal that you have? I think if you're looking for a mentor, or someone is approaching us to be their mentee, what is the shared goal that you guys have? If it's just I find you impressive, and I want to learn things, and maybe it's not a good use of time. Straight up, just because if someone can't give a more specific reason than that, I don't think they know you like that.

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

Yeah, I don't think so. either. I think that whether you're choosing to find a mentor or you're choosing decide whether you're going to mentor someone, because that could also be a way to invest in yourself is to invest in someone else, right. And so either way, I think that understanding what the mutual benefit is for both of you both, you're going to get out of it. It's going to be huge. I have people who I do mentor, we're just kind of happened naturally and we just had good conversations and we connected in a way way that it made sense for me to say like, yeah, whenever you have an issue feel free to text me feel free to call me and we have that kind of relationship.

Dyalekt :

Yo. So just like with dating relationships are work but the work shouldn't be should be in a relationship.

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

Yeah, that's real. I love that.

Dyalekt :

Like talking about knowing about goals. You see the job here doesn't take every happy taking the hats and throwing them down this one. He's learning about it because it's one of the personalities. And he's like, Oh, I need to learn about my peoples.

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

I have a good question. Who was your mentor from Marge Mac? awesome question. Yeah, yeah. So I have a couple mentors and my mentors actually ended up being people who I've worked with, especially in financial planning. I had a lot of I had a couple mentors in wealth management. One of them was my first boss and one of them was my second boss. And I consider them my mentors. Not because like I reported to them or anything like that, but I still like talk to my old boss and ask him for advice about like, how I should think about this financial planning thing or this like complex financial planning situation. And I think that he didn't mentor everyone that was his direct report underneath. He had other associate planners who technically worked for him who he didn't actually mentor he took the time to mentor me. And the way that we develop that relationship looking back on it was something that happened organically but I talked to him about this. I was like, why don't you pick me and like not the other associate planners that you're working with? And one of the things he said was that I took initiative and I showed interest in the things that he knew would lead to being a good financial planner. And I think when it comes to mentorship is there's a lot of initiative that often needs to be taken by the mentee for the mentor to see something in them and say like whatever happens like whether or not I personally get anything out of this because he didn't need to get anything out of it really yet other associate planners and I had to work for him anyway, it was a he wanted to see me succeed in some way. And that's how I feel when I mentor people to is I see the initiative they take I see that they're really motivated to do something I see that they also follow through on a lot of the things that they're talking about, and a lot of things they asked advice about, and it's motivating for me to keep mentoring them and to keep seeing them succeed in that way.

Dyalekt :

Yeah, you know, my biggest longest term mentor was Claudia Alick, a great playwright. awesome person. And I remember we talked about the same kind of thing. I came up to the states to do hip hop and theater and and I stopped doing a lot of the theatering because I noticed theater and wasn't doing theater, but the hip hop was doing theater. So I was on stages doing poetry, doing rhyming and I came on stage one time, and Claudia walked up to me and said, Hey, have you ever heard of hip hop theater? I've got this show and I think you might be good. We did the show together where I acted in a play that she had written and I saw what she was doing and she was creating the path that I was already seeing I needed so I said, Hey, can I work for you? And I just starting out for free. I was doing all the grunt work. I was helping tape the receipts to the piece of paper for the taxes. Because that's how we used to do. I was going to bookstores and saying, Hey, can you take this handwritten chat book that we've made 10 copies up and sell it on consignment in your store and do all those pieces so I could learn one thing that she was figuring out that I also needed to figure out in real time,

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

yeah, no, that's very much investing in yourself that spending money you just said, I have time I have, you know, the knowledge that you have, I want and I need that I'm gonna help you figure out your stuff so I can get it. That's amazing. I love it. All right. I think we're done with this list because, you know,

Dyalekt :

Let's go to a song. So we're gonna talk about doing things in yourself with yourself to yourself. We're starting out in silver springs, Maryland, with Zo and Asylum Seven with In Yourself. We'll check you in a minute.

Song :

Want to take a walk inside of my shoes make sure you can fit on application run a traveling to a six miles diagnosis solution to fix whatever it takes by any means necessary like destiny beyond those dreams next phase awaken from the gym sleep and sustain the audience watch this synchronize with another second milliseconds my imperfection please be the promise to the number. Everything will get better be sources that connections only give certain parameters such as increased stamina not become the norm standing up for what you believe in solidify reasons to reach for the sauce and strive for high achievement. Say pride in yourself. Whatever Whatever you have in life you can attain on persevere don't stop anybody telling you that you can't get what you want out of life or they don't believe in themselves I don't we live in a crazy world that determines your worth by color shading. skin pigmentation mask is so much trying to represent but those who came before me meaning my ancestors who lost their civil rights who wanted the same benefits should be your wife you wonder why you got agreed this rapid second two steps back doing exactly what master tells you wake up acting like a slave dumping feces over the foundation a it's very disappointing rather than just like a rat because I won't join in that's cool. I rather be smart watch monkey wrap and put a black face claiming in the future, who's able to sustain themselves we got a record sales, robbing yourself. Black people have a responsibility to represent our culture and our ancestors that gave so much today is economical warfare, government surveillance to patriot. Freedom and rights are no more. Because we got the television right together, the syndication is taking over life they most can't be bothered. But what important subjects, the politicians they love us, give us an assignment to keep the Sabrina's telescopes on never cease to be famous, more relevant things with federal schemes. Americans don't want smart intelligent beings. I still believe they all call me conservative whatever was thrown in this report into services such as necessarily your host that we take pride in yourself. Yo real quick. So to make this clear, I'm not trying to force my beliefs on anybody when it comes to politics and things of that nature. But I don't believe for five seconds that the government has our best interests in mind. In this country as free individuals, I could talk about 911 I can talk about, I could talk about the current state of this economy. Certain things don't add up, you know, it just doesn't make sense. I'm not gonna be naive in the things that I see I just, I just ridiculous.

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

Yes, I actually want to go through some of the things on this list in terms of giving an idea of how to think about investing yourself we ended with find a mentor and other things on here, learn something new and take a class which is on every like invest in yourself list, engage in creative activities, learn a language that goals, a lot of these things. The reason why there's 35 is because it's like, Okay, I get it, you compiled a bunch of stuff. Plan your day in your week, measure results, practice gratitude, meditate, mindfulness, exercise, that's something I want to talk about really quick. is exercising and meditating investing in yourself, or is it self care? I don't know. What do you think Dyalekt? We've been aving a back and forth about this?

Dyalekt :

Yeah, I mean, I was talking about how that's again, something that's kind of a nice to have, and they can build you up for a lot of the skills that you need. I think, doing something like exercise. You know, I'm biased a bit. My dad was a bodybuilder. So we believe in exercise, that's been a whole thing. Exercise allows your brain to be able to do more, I'm able to have a better and longer day when I exercise. So I definitely think of that as an investment. There are a lot of folks who have a problem with things that will make you look better, because they think that is necessarily vanity, and I don't think exercise is necessarily a thing that we do look better.

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

Yeah, it's it's both I hear that. I hear that because it does take time to do it. I guess it goes back to that banking, your emotional savings, right? If something like exercise of something like meditating is something that not only is something that will allow you to do the other things you need to do, but also allow you to recharge, then you can think of it as an investment in yourself. This list is interesting. I want to keep going. Go for medical visits. Going to see the doctor which I know a lot of us it's hard to do regularly, especially now. A lot of us also shy away from it. And I think also a lot of people shy away from it, honestly.

Dyalekt :

I don't trust those Doctors. I've been brought up not trust Doctors.

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

Yeah. So how do you deal with something like that? Because I feel like that is going to the doctor invest in yourself. And that also goes back to his going saying you're investing In your health while caring for your overall well being Yes, I feel like that's the same for exercising, for meditating for going to the doctor. investing in yourself can be fun, but often it's like, it's things that you're doing to build yourself up and it can take time and it can take time and it can take a lot of energy that isn't fun

Dyalekt :

On the really real that all sounds very productive. All that stuff that you just discussed. It also sounds like stuff that it either it doesn't directly lead to something that it will create space for you to lead or something. So I think all of that counts.

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

Okay, I love it. No, and a lot of these lists, drink less alcohol, okay, practice healthy activities and hobbies

Dyalekt :

On like the judgy stuff, right, drink less alcohol, eat healthier, things like that. I don't think it's necessarily this thing to start digging into yourself and be like you're a bad person you've done wrong in this kind of stuff. It's just to be aware of where your hobbies are at, where your vices are at, where your points of relaxation are at just like we're saying, so you can budget these things so you can be aware of them. There's a lot of times you just sort of let it slip. It's I worked really hard from nine to five or really hard from eight until nine, and when it hits 9:30, yo I'm relaxing until I feel like I need to go to sleep. Yeah. And you're not paying attention what you're actually doing.

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

I want to pause because this is a list of 35 things, we'll share the link in the igtv only post it later. And I want to say. So everything he just learned how to crawl like two weeks ago, so we're like, oh, my god, you're mobile now. Um, but the thing about Oh, hello, and you learn how to stand a couple weeks ago. So the thing about this list is one thing to keep in mind is you don't have to do everything on this list. You don't have to do all 35 things. I feel like I was starting to get a little like anxious reading this list. I'm a completionist. I'm very much a completionist. I don't know if any of you have taken our money personality test. On our on our website, it's brunch and budget comm slash personality. But one of the things that it will tell you is not even how you deal with money and how money stresses you out money makes you anxious, but it can also spill over into other parts of your life. So for instance, I'm a complicated when it comes to money. I'm someone who is kind of a perfectionist, I need to be feeling total control of my money, I need to know where everything is at all times. I need to I check my bank account balances multiple times I check to make sure bills are paid. It took me years to feel comfortable doing auto pay, because I was like, I don't want someone taking money out of my account without me knowing. And part of this is a lot of the complicatedness spills into other aspects of my life. like looking at this list of 35 things. I'm like, how am I possibly going to do all 35 things and you don't have to you don't do all 35 things I think when it comes to investing in yourself and prioritizing. What that means for you is to look at lists like this and say you know what, this resonates with me it feels like something I can do now and feels like something pay off in the long run. Right?

Dyalekt :

Yeah, I just want to, I want to filter this thing through the stuff that is actually here to help you and stuff that's here to take advantage of you. And, you know, when you're talking about your money, personality, how it is easy for the moment, it's shakey cam, but it comes to that kind of stuff, just I want to know whether it's gonna be a thing that's built for me, or a thing that's built to take advantage of me doesn't want to take my time away. And my expertise away, was it here to build by time. And as a money monk, I often feel like a lot of the ones that are telling me to do something that's an industry they created, that they have an incentive to make money off of, feels like stuff that I don't want to mess with. I think it's just like you're singing about the venture. Yeah, I want to be able to take advantage of it and also share something with it. If it doesn't feel like it's reciprocal, then maybe it's not gonna work. By the way, that's the same old too good to be true stuff is what we're trying to say,

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

yeah, I mean, even the term investing in yourself is rife with like your own interpretation. And so a lot of people will use that phrase, invest in yourself as a way to try and get you to buy something that you may or may not need, right? Because it feels like the term invest has this has this connotation of like, oh, you're gonna put money down on something but you're gonna get something more out of it right? Or you're gonna put time into something or get something more out of it. And while that can be true for a lot of the things on this list, there are people who are going to take advantage of that phrase and there also are things that like while they're an investment in yourself or one person they're not invest in yourself or somebody else.

Dyalekt :

Well let's talk about your personality test right and money personalities, money personality test which is a two question test you go to brunchandbudget.com/personality or pocketschange.com/personality, you want to check out our education, to question test that tells you a little bit about yourself. But one thing that we saw in a lot of these lists is take a personality test and that's been really good. really popular these days? Theres the enneagram

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

Myers Briggs, the Strengths Finder test. Gretchen Reubens, tendencies,

Dyalekt :

your love languages, my therapist has told me to try to take that I took one of those. Okay,

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

Yeah, there's been a lot of focus around understanding your personality and understanding your personality traits and your tendencies. And I think that's something that is a great investment in yourself. Because whether it's a personal reason why you want to do it, where you want to understand why you do the things you do, or whether it's a professional reason, we are able to actually articulate your strengths and your weaknesses to a potential employer to a potential client, and to recognize how you work best with people, a personality test, investing the time and potentially the money that it will take to take one. And there's lots of free ways to take the Myers Briggs or the enneagram test or whatever it is, I know. Then, when you're able to understand and articulate why you do the things you do and what you're Actual strengths and weaknesses are when you get that question in job interview, when you're trying to think about what projects you want to work on your timing about what you want to say yes to, you can do that based on understanding more about yourself and your personality. Because even when something sounds awesome on paper looks awesome on paper, if it's not really a great fit for you, then it doesn't make sense to actually invest the time in that. And I think starting with a personality test and understanding what your strengths and weaknesses are, is a really great baseline for you to understand like, Oh, I shouldn't say yes to this or no, this is definitely a no brainer. This is a hell yeah. One of the things that we've been trying to live by these last couple years, if it's not, if it's not a hell, yes and no, right. But if you don't know what that means, and if you don't know, if you don't know what a hell yet is for you, starting with a personality test, maybe a great way to figure out what those hell yeahs for you

Dyalekt :

and basically, you can consider it a consultatin, you know, while a robo one because it's just some automated stuff, and just like any consultation you get if it doesn't work for you. If they bring you some are actually building up what you need. That's fine. You can keep it moving. Yeah, exactly. I think you know, you're going to take and you're like, Oh, my Myers Briggs Oh, it doesn't work for me. It's clearly not taking the Myers Briggs test. Yeah, what they're measuring.

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

Yes. Another thing there was this really great simple bank article actually on personality test was on their list. Another thing that they mentioned, that's a really kind of good, practical one is to update your online presence and whatever that means for you. I think that this is something that is definitely not going to cost you a dime. You may need to spend some time and introspection on figuring out how you want to present yourself online. I will tell you personally, that every person that I've hired, I looked for their LinkedIn profile, and I know that it's public, I know that it's like doesn't necessarily replace a resume, but it's a way for me to see how they present themselves online.

Dyalekt :

It can replace a resume if you just print out the PDF from your LinkedIn, it's pretty much the resume it's pretty resume looking. I'm not gonna fuck you When we've done well just to like talk to people who have young kids or work around kids who are entering age where they're going to need a resume, we've done some resume building workshops with kids. And it's been difficult considering how things are changing in terms of technology and lives to be like, type out this thing that you're just gonna have sitting in a folder and have copies of, but when we walked them through LinkedIn, they were able to understand it quicker. And while it doesn't look like exactly the pretty resume, the printed out version of LinkedIn is a great start. If you have no idea how to even begin with a resume,

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

it's actually not a bad format to submit, you know,

Dyalekt :

well, yeah, well, I'm saying you know, your mileage may vary with like, how professional that looks to post and submit. But I'm just saying just so you have more than nothing, it's a great place to go.

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

Right. And so if you know that people look at LinkedIn, because you know, everybody was everybody, especially if you're about to interview or hire someone and spend time on them is What kinds of things do you actually want to highlight on your LinkedIn, I feel like a lot of people tend to leave their LinkedIn dormant and not realize that LinkedIn also has really insane SEO and if your name pops up, At the top of a search, LinkedIn is probably going to be one of the top links on there.

Dyalekt :

If you don't have another business or thing going on that you spend a lot of time and effort getting clicks and links on, then it's going to be your LinkedIn.

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

I mean, when I first started brunch and budget, LinkedIn was the top search result for my name for like years, until branching, but it started getting some traction. So that's something to think about too, even after it had it was still like there on the first page. Oh, it's definitely like on the first page, so for sure. So What kinds of things do you want to highlight on your LinkedIn? Right? What kinds of things you want to highlight online period? We were talking about, you know, being a consumer of social media earlier in the show. But as someone who may want to beef up your online presence, what does it look like to be a creator of social media? What kinds of things do you want to put out there that don't just be like distractions or noise, right?

Dyalekt :

Things like that. When you're like, Oh, you know, maybe you should be updated on your LinkedIn. I think, you know, part of my brain starts to gloss over because I'm like, as a creative, I'm like, oh man LinkedIn.

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

There's nothing going on. There's nothing going on.

Dyalekt :

Yeah, even when I go and I click there, most of the emails I get are people who are like, hey, I can help you with your business that I'm not sure what it is you're gonna do actually, it's a lot of spam. I've listened to your podcast, and I will promote your yada yada. So I'm like, whatever with that. But something I've learned that even my theory referee creative behind when I've gone for grants. When I've asked for opportunities for collaboration, I have noticed an uptick in people who and looking at my LinkedIn, they check it out, even if it's just going to be an archive, let it archive that thing that you want folks to see about you. One thing that's messed me up is I've gone to look up people haven't been able to find any presence except for their LinkedIn. And they're like, their music producer, and they want to collaborate with me, right? And I go to their LinkedIn, and I look at their manager at this store. And then there were a server this other place, and it's like all the jobs that they've had, which, like, I guess, is honest, but it's not anything that's relevant to the work that I'm going to do with them.

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

Right. Like why did they put there also music producer?

Dyalekt :

Yeah, at least having both because like, maybe you do need to have that resume there too, because you're looking for those kind of jobs as well. But if the thing that's gonna be relevant to you is not up there, then people can't rock with it.

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

I love that you made that point because I think the thing about LinkedIn that we don't think about is that you don't just need to put like your job listings. It's more than a resume. It's not just the places that have made. It's not just a place that you've made money at or that you've worked, you've been employee for. But what are the what are the things that you do on the side, creatively, whatever it is that you want people to find out that you do, and to know that you do.

Dyalekt :

On the side I mean, like,this is your cover letter. What do you do? Right? What do you do? 360? Right. Yeah. Yeah, don't worry about it, whether it's on the side or not, it's the circle is what they're looking for.

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

Oh, can you talk a bit more about personal branding? Yes.

Dyalekt :

I bristle at the term because, you know, branding, branding, branding, that's how it came from, you know, it is all language right. But yeah, so what does it mean to have a personal brand, it's something that we've been dealing with over the years because that I said, You know, I still stand by that and I think it is weird and can be intrusive to have like a brand versus having an identity.

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

Oh, wait. So let's talk about the difference between a brand and identity first, then how do you distinguish the two?

Dyalekt :

Yeah, so like, for me, I think it's really simple. Like, I have a simple line of demarcation. That is, if you are selling the thing before you make it, then this is a brand, you're making the thing, then you're selling, that's just part of your identity. And if other people want to make that what they consider their, their idea of your brand, that's fine, too, if people can still use that word, but I think that you should have an understanding and a bit of control over where you're at. Because otherwise we end up following where the money is.

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

Oh, yeah. So before you even start branding yourself, it's to understand what your identity is.

Dyalekt :

I know I like to talk about via doing music stuff. I know I started making music where it was a lot of like, battle rap going on at the time, a lot like angry, violent deaths and stuff. And I was like, I want to make music that's uplifting and does that kind of thing for people. I told stories and stuff like that. And I went back and listen to my music and I realized I had this weird brand of kind of you fallibility. It's like being a good guy. Okay, wasn't actually the thing that I wanted to put out and sell. I was just reacting to the stimuli around me. And it was making something that wasn't totally authentic for me. And that was something to just talk about money and work though. He that it wasn't totally up to me whether people had liked it. I didn't understand how to sell it because I didn't get it.

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

Right. Right. When I feel like the word brand also has this like limiting idea of how you need to present yourself. I feel like that a lot of the advice when it comes to personal branding is to kind of pick the thing or the gimmick that someone can easily remember you for. Yeah, I think that's the tricky thing about personal branding too, and why it can feel like branding yourself and doing some personal branding doesn't actually show the entirety of who you are your identity.

Dyalekt :

I got you a good one on this on how it doesn't work, right. I had a dope producer over at Tommy Boy Records hit me I was like, yo, Dee, let's make a song together. I got a great idea. Let's do a song like cool. Let's do a song. He's like, yo, you always have lots of hats. Why don't you do a song about hats? Right? And I was like, okay, and I wrote a song It was definitely not my best song cuz I was like I wasn't really inspired. I don't know you just you know that I have hats but we didn't have that connection. He didn't even say like, I love hats or something like hats a lot was like thats my brand. And it didn't work out without putting out the song because it wasn't something that really meant something to me. Yeah. So I wasn't able to authentically put something together and do do my best work with it know

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

for sure. I love that. So I think when you're thinking about your personal brand, and this is like a great thing to think around when you're building your online presence, whether it's on LinkedIn or anything else, is to make sure that your personal brand still reflects Enough of your identity.

Dyalekt :

Well, and on that epiphany brought up I don't know how to have a LinkedIn as a business owner and community partner. Hmm, it's really interesting.

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

That is really interesting. So I have a LinkedIn if you check out my LinkedIn for brunch and budget, I spend a lot of my LinkedIn page promoting my business. And I think that's one way to think about it is you are the owner, people are going to look up your name, they're going to see it on LinkedIn, I think it's going to be really important for you to think of your LinkedIn page, not as like you trying to get a job. But as you're trying to get people to understand who you are as a business owner, what your past experiences, so like for people to see that I did wealth management in the past that I was in wealth management for a certain number of years, what job positions I held there, what kind of designations that I have, whatever is relevant to your business and whatever experience you have in the past that leads to people. Feeling like your business has authority that other businesses don't is a great way to present your LinkedIn page and not for your business for your personal so like I don't really have much going on. I'm running budgets LinkedIn business page, but my personal LinkedIn has a lot of stuff that promotes brunch and budget and talks about brunch and budget in a way that I think leads to people understanding who we are and also leads to clients.

Dyalekt :

Yeah, I use my LinkedIn totally as a, a sitting resume page. And I remember when I was talking to you guys about Claudia Alec earlier, there was a long time probably like a five plus year period where it was just that that was the only thing like I used to work for Tony is I think it said, like the president like I was still working for. So like, if she needed to throw me some hours at that point, she had a right to Yeah. And as soon as I took that, and updated it to all of the things I done post that that were in the same field, I saw not only taking people looking at it, but people reaching out to me on my email, not on my LinkedIn, because I knew that I was gonna answer there,

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

huh, that's interesting. So people just like knowing more about you. And I think this goes back to personal branding versus identity too. And how you want people to think of you in a lot of ways, especially when you're just trying to figure out your personal brand is or like what your online presence is. You have a lot of freedom machines, and you have a lot of room and time to experiment. I would say with brunch and budget. It started off as a gimmick, right? It started off as like, Oh, I meet people for brunch and talk about their finances. And what it ended up being was this identity as a financial planning firm that was friendly and accessible and approachable where you like broke bread with someone and you found common ground together. And we're still able to do that virtually. We're not meeting people for rent right now because COVID right? But we're still able to have that identity as a business to say like, we're the people you can come to if you really need help, and you want some really honest, really accessible advice from someone who's not going to judge you. And I think understanding that aspect of your identity will allow you to brand yourself for people who are just looking for that like quick thing, and I guess that's the big difference is when you think about your identity first, then you can have that like quick elevator pitchy thing to be your personal brand. But your identity is something that exists throughout your online presence Well,

Dyalekt :

it makes it concrete and it makes it last beyond The elevator pitch. It's the thing that makes it works. It's the thing that makes it sustainable. It's the thing that allows people to give you leeway. Even up like Milli Vanilli one of the quotes you get out willy nilly. They're like these artists who like they were brought in three models and they didn't really sing their songs. And the thing that messed me up the most about it is years later, when they were trying to I forget what it was the reason but they were in court, something about like the rights to songs and things like that. And over the years, one calf a Milli Vanilli the other one passed away, but the one cat famille is really learned how to sing and learn how to sing the song perfectly. And he second the court, nailing it, nailing it like he was in the studio. And it was the most heartbreaking thing because it was like, if this cat had just internalized it made that part of the work and I know a lot of that was a studio not giving them time and things like that, but they've had the opportunity then, given leeway. They want to really have a career as a singer, but now they never can, even though they've still got that skill,

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

right because they get their brand before their identity.

Dyalekt :

It's the thing I always say if you fake it till you make it But even after you made it you still fake and what you're gonna do with that?

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

Oh man Okay, let's go to a song after that.

Dyalekt :

Making it we got some real cats feel that we went from last time we were in silver spring Maryland we're going all the way across coasts, Oakland, California where these two artist Sarah who got and our fall they are Sister Sarah and they gotta a joint Believe In Yourself first you know you gotta get yourself there you gotta believe in yourself and you'll see what you do itself.

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

We're talking about investing yourself without spending a dime, we went through, you know, most of a long list we went through a long list of things. We went through a long list of things at the beginning about you know, things that things like exercise and meditating, going to the doctor, you know, spending time with family and friends, things like that, and we kind of moved into updating your online presence, we moved into taking personality tests, understanding your strengths, and we This is more. And the final thing in terms of investing in yourself that I think is really good and concrete and powerful in terms of like building up what you want to do with your career, your business, your job, whatever it is, is to organize your work into a portfolio

Dyalekt :

And or organize your portfolio if you've already got one you got a sprawling thank you for talking. Yeah, still have some flicker sitting there messing around.

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

Right exactly. And this is something that's gonna be pretty time intensive. So when it comes to organizing your work into a portfolio, I feel like that's an easy thing for creatives to think of, right? You're like, oh, here are the websites that I've designed. Here's the pictures that I've taken. Here's the artwork that I've done all of this kind of stuff. And like having a portfolio is something that has been ingrained in you since you were in college or high school or whatever it was. I think that when it comes to organizing your work into a portfolio for people who don't have a direct connection to the arts in that way is like what does that mean?

Dyalekt :

And I think in terms of like everybody yelling at you to hustle right now. And right away, I think what it can mean is what is the stuff that you already have that can get you the things that you want?

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

Oh,

Dyalekt :

have you do you have a background in graphic design and you made flyers, and you made album covers, and you made posters and things like that. But you haven't done that in a little while because it hasn't been the most profitable. But now online, people are asking you, hey, since you got some time, can you do a couple of designs for us? I remember used to do that. Do you have anything that you can share? No, you don't have it online, because that hasn't been something you've been working on.

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

Interesting. So I think from what you're saying, too, it sounds like that. It's not about like putting all of your work in one place and organizing it. It's about curating the work that you want to show off.

Dyalekt :

I mean, I think we keep talking about having goals in relation to this,

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

right? And this also goes back to branding and identity and your online presence is like really understanding what it's not about what you can do. It's what you want people to pay you to do.

Dyalekt :

Right? Like what what you can do is what you want people pay you to do. This sounds really simple, but it's really hard.

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

It's really hard because what you just said is like, Oh, I can do graphic design. I have design flyers for people, you design flyers for people. You're not telling people that you're a graphic designer, you can technically do it. But like, that's not something that you want people to pay you. Well, and this

Dyalekt :

is the thing I'm cautioning folks about. It's like if you have it, and you can do it, but you're not interested in doing it. Don't use that as part of your thing. I think that's where you end up getting in. So hair that turns to busy work, is when you start feeding these other things. Again, selling it before it's too

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

late. Let's unpack what you just said there because you're like self care, which turns into what

Dyalekt :

we should Well, it turns into busy work, busy

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

work, which turns into a distraction. So even something that feels like it should be productive. Like putting together your graphic design portfolio, could end up just being busy work that leads to a distraction that leads to gigs that you don't want to take, even if someone's paying you Oh, hold on. We don't What are we gonna do?

Dyalekt :

We're gonna be transparent here. Shout out to hire black with the radical transparency within the desktop. It's a mess. It's a mess. It's a mess. Dogs, it's a mess on the desktop. I have definitely had a deadline the next day and been like, I'm gonna take two and a half hours to clean up my desktop. Ah, got it. You done it. You done it. You cleaned up your desk.

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

your portfolio. Right,

Dyalekt :

right, exactly. It's putting together your portfolio. It's adding all those extraneous things. It's all the shoulds that you think other people are going to worry about, that you're going to lead to something. You know,

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

What's interesting what you say there because I think when it comes to something like organizing your portfolio, it sounds really simple because there's a lot of pressure behind, right? There's a lot of pressure when it comes to cars. It's going to be something that you're going to show people that you're going to use as a way to get people to either hire you as a client or to hire you as an employee. And I think that we put a lot of weight on organizing our portfolio to the point where we do end up just making it busywork instead of something that's going to be meaningful. So I think before you even start figuring out how to organize your portfolio, you probably do need to do the other two things first, right? You need to potentially take some personality tests, learn more about your strengths and weaknesses. And you need to figure out what you want your online presence to be, because that will inform what your portfolio is going to have in it. I think that starting with organizing your portfolio first, can feel really overwhelming. If you're not clear on the other two things. I think, I want to emphasize this because when it comes to something like investing in yourself, and when it comes to even the weight of that phrase, right, investing in yourself implies you're putting a lot of time and energy into something because you're hoping to get something more out of it. And when it comes to that I think that there needs to be is understanding that it does Eyes, it does take a different kind of energy and a different kind of effort than things like self care or things that you do to make room to invest in yourself.

Dyalekt :

Well, and just like with the energy in the mentor mentee relationship is going to be worth but it's going to be natural your return on your investment comes through the rhythm of your intent.

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

Yeah, no, I love that. I love that. And I think all of the all of the feedback that we got on like things like exercise and meditating and taking care of your health and things like that as an investment in yourself, that's like one category of investing yourself. It is incredibly important to be able to do the other things right to be able to do the building to be able to say like, okay, I've invested myself on a main on a regular basis to be able to emotionally bank some savings, right? And then now I'm able to actually do the work of figuring out my strengths and weaknesses of building my personal brand and finding my online presence. Yeah. And also building your online portfolio and really understanding what you're asking people. I think that for people who don't have sort of the direct arts link to it, what we had our salary expert on last week, shout out to Advisory Ave and MJ, who talked about documenting all the accomplishments that you've had and all the work that you've been doing, I'm at your current job. But if you're in a position where you're in between jobs, or you want to switch jobs, creating a portfolio of your work that you've done in past jobs that you feel proud of that you'd want to share is also something you should just have in your arsenal because even if you don't end up ever showing it to anyone, you're able to talk about it in a more meaningful way in interviews online when you're networking with people and you're trying to make connections with people in a meaningful way.

Dyalekt :

So like the final word on the brand thing is like make the you that's online look like the you that's supposed to be the you thats you.

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

I love it. I love it.

Dyalekt :

Yeah, that's something that I feel like we've been doing a lot of work on. I know I've personally been doing a lot of work on that. With the stuff that we've been doing with, with the creative projects that we've been doing that we've been moving online, I feel like I'm personally trying to get myself to December having an online me that looks like me.

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

Yeah, I love it. Beautiful. That's beautiful. And that leads us to my final question today is that the show is about investing yourself without spending a dime. But when do you need to spend money? When is the point where you're like, Alright, I've done everything I can for free. Now I actually have to spend money to invest myself. That's a good question. Yeah,

Dyalekt :

That's also gonna be something that we answer for ourselves. I think when it comes to the point where we're going to spend money with what we're doing, I think that's when the ROI stops being stuff that's emotional.

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

When it is actually like, I'm putting money into this and I'm expecting it to monetize in this way by doing that.

Dyalekt :

It's not an investment. That's a really easy one. When it's free, it's kind of hard to figure out what's self care what's an investment when it costs money, it needs to make money or else it self care.

Pamela Capalad, CFP, AFC :

Hmm, I love it. I love it. And I

Dyalekt :

know that you will play another song and get out of your hair just like my hat has done. We're gonna go all the way to France to knock so if I can pronounce it correctly, I'm always messing up with French or French will come and do more better. This is a song from NYKO called free yourself. Because after we get in ourselves and believe in ourselves, we got to free ourselves so we can be ourselves and we'll check y'all next time. Thanks so much.