Teri Ijeoma: Teacher turned investment expert you need to know

Investing for Your Freedom ft. Teri Ijeoma

Rich: What’s good. This is Rich, and you're listening to Paychecks and Balances, where we talk about navigating your finances and career. So you can achieve the freedom you want. If you're new to the podcast, this is a twice-a-month show. And you're listening in on season two, where one of the ongoing threads or themes is abundance.

Today's guest knows all about freedom and abundance. But before I tell you about her, I wanted to give you a few FYIs and friendly reminders. How's that for corporate speak?

So first, I recently had the chance to join Joel and Matt for an episode of the, How to Money podcast. Special thanks to them for having me on and allowing me to talk about the intersection of mental health and personal finance. So I definitely encourage you to go check that out.

Second, my audio course ‘Change Your Day Job’ is available now on the Himalaya learning platform. So if you're thinking about a career pivot in the new year, [00:01:00] I created this course with you in mind, and you can visit himalaya.com/dayjob and enter ‘dayjob’ at checkout and make that one word to get 14 days free access to my course and other content from great minds like Malcolm Gladwell, Seth Godin, and more.

And no, I'm not calling myself a great mind. All these other folks are, but if you think that I am, that's okay, too.

And third, after years of delay, the P&B merchandise store is finally live. So visit paybal.co/shop slash to get in on this goodness. And I've even got something special edition there that relates to an upcoming project. So again, I encourage you to visit the store, pay bal.co/shop.

All right, so for today's show, I'm joined by an awesome guest and P&B podcast alumni. She's helped over [00:02:00] 4,000 students learn how to trade in the stock market. She recently became an eight-figure earner, and this year, in the midst of all the craziness, bought her house in cash.

I'm talking to the founder and CEO of trade and travel. Teri Ijeoma and we talk a little bit about investing, but this episode is so much more and really represents the caliber and type of conversation I want to have on the podcast in 2021.

And Teri holds nothing back when it comes to talking about the challenges of success and how she's managed to get where she is today. So if you're into abundance and everything that comes along with it, this episode is for you. So here's my chat with Teri, and I hope you enjoy.

Teri, welcome back to the show.

Teri Ijeoma: [00:02:44] Hey Rich, it’s so great to be here.

Rich: [00:02:46] I feel like so much has happened since the last time you came on, and it's not even I feel like, a lot has happened since you last came on the podcast, which was back in October of [00:03:00] 2019. And I gave a little bit of a preview in the intro to this episode, but catch folks up in real-time, what's been going on for you because in October 2019 I know you had the course out there, but I don't think you were where you are today, which is pretty impressive.

Teri Ijeoma: [00:03:18] No. So let's see, where was I October 2019? So, as you know, my name is Teri Joma. I quit my job in 2018 to trade and travel full-time. And then in 2018, actually that was 2017, so in 2018 I started teaching others how to trade. So by the time that we spoke in 2019, I had just recently crossed a million dollars in revenue for the course.

I had about 300 or so students probably, and was super excited about that. I was completely blown away by the fact that I was officially a millionaire. Oh my God, what does that [00:04:00] look like? And I was completely, completely convinced that it wouldn’t happen again. Like it was just a fluke and the next year, the thing that wouldn’t happen.

Then coming into this year, we now have over 4,000 students in the course. So it went from 300 to 4,000. My trading has gotten even better this year. We had a market crash within. But the money came back in the stock market. It just reached all-time highs. And I became an eight-figure earner this year, which has been amazing. And it's just been really cool.

I bought a house in cash. I thought I would never get a house though. I was like, I'm going to travel. I don't want to be stuck, and tied down. I have a house now because we all are inside and we need a nice place to be during quarantine.

Rich: [00:04:53] Yes. Yes, we do. And did you buy that this year?

Teri Ijeoma: [00:04:56] I did. So I have a rental property in [00:05:00] Chicago that I've had since 2007, so wow 13 years. But I have a house here in Texas that I just bought this year and I was thankfully able to actually buy it in cash.

Rich: [00:05:12] Wow. That is a blessing. And I've told folks this season's theme is abundance. And so that is definitely it, being able to drop cash on a house. And I know you've talked about this on other shows, but I think you were initially going to go for a mortgage, but they were giving you a bit of a hard time about it. So you had to style on them real quick.

Teri Ijeoma: [00:05:32] I was! So this year the mortgage rates went down super low. So I was actually pretty excited about it. Let me get a million-dollar home with a super low mortgage and just pay 10,000 a month or less.

That was my thought process. And I was like, I could afford that. But then I got to the bank and they, they did all these stipulations. I think one, they probably didn't believe that I make as much as I make. And even though I've presented them with all the paperwork and the bank had, [00:06:00] my bank statement, they were my bank.

So they see the money coming into their account and they gave me all kinds of run-around. Then, because I'm an entrepreneur, you know, it's a little harder for us cause we don't have regular W2's to show. And then I haven't been doing this business very long. So there was all kinds of red tape.

And so I said, you know what, that's fine. I'm going to pull out all my money and just buy it in cash. And when I did that, then they also gave me a hard time - oh wait, but we need, three or four days to process this,

Rich: [00:06:28] Do you want the money? Do you want this money?

Teri Ijeoma: [00:06:31] I almost missed my closing, dealing with my bank. So, as you can probably tell next year, they will not be my bank.

Rich: [00:06:39] Yeah, I was wondering about that. I was wondering if you immediately just took a few suitcases and went elsewhere,

Teri Ijeoma: [00:06:45] You know, it's a little harder to do than that. I still have a lot of my business affairs going to that bank. So now I have to get new accounts and new business accounts, but yeah.

It's [00:07:00] interesting how as people of color and even as minorities and, it might be women and it may just be because, for whatever reason, it didn't work for me, but it's really weird how we're still going through this kind of situation. And I know that it's happening to other people of color out there.

They're having trouble getting mortgages. And when they do get mortgages, it's at a higher percentage than other people. And so that's just disappointing and something I hope to change in the world.

Rich: [00:07:29] Same. And I just wonder how can you literally have the receipts, and they understand all the things...and we're not going to spend too much time here, but it really does blow my mind that you could literally say my money is going in. It's legal. I'm not part of any cartel. This is all legit. And y'all are still giving me a hard time?

So it's just crazy for me to wrap my head around that. I mean, because I would almost, in some ways probably feel a little bit insulted. Like really...you're going to tell me that I can't use this money?

Teri Ijeoma: [00:07:59] Well, there were definitely times where I went into the bank and then the teller would look at my account, and then they would look at me, and then they would have to go talk to somebody else to see that this really was me. And then the person would be like, no, no, no, we know her.

Rich: [00:08:19] Yeah, that sounds like a phone video going viral on the internet. I think that actually did happen where somebody went into a bank and the teller actually went and called the police on him because they thought it wasn't their account. And that person ended up getting fired. Yeah, it was a whole crazy situation. And that was probably a couple of years back.

So I'm glad that everything ultimately worked out. You're able to get the house in cash, which is incredibly awesome. And for people who aren't familiar, they're probably hearing this and they're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait. We're talking about, you know, millions of dollars and eight figures and buying a house in cash. I'm just trying to pay off these student loans. She’s talking about how she stopped working in 2018. This sounds like so [00:09:00] many articles that I've seen on the internet where it's somebody who's under a certain age, has amazing success, but there was something behind the scenes. They didn't share with people.

They came from money, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So give people a little bit of the context of what was going on for you before you made that transition. So that folks have that background, that this wasn't just a situation where you inherited a ton of money and then started investing and then took off.

Teri Ijeoma: [00:09:26] So I definitely did not come from money. I came from single-parent household. It was me and my mom and then my grandmother, so three generations in the house and we made it work. My, my dad actually, and I know my dad's going to be like, well, how did I get into this podcast? Why did you? But in high school, he listened to all my stuff.

Like we communicate. He's in Nigeria and we communicate through Facebook, but he is the first person to like everything on Facebook that I do. But, when I was in high school, [00:10:00] he actually got convicted of a felony and because he's Nigerian, he was deported. So I grew up with just me and my mom and my grandmother, and my dad was in Nigeria for most of my childhood. Or at least, you know, the formative high school, college years.

But I ended up going to MIT, which was really a good thing because I got a full ride there. And I knew about stocks and knew about investing, but I ended up going on this whole different route. But none of that is because I had any money or because I came from anything, it's literally, I just worked really hard and then was able to take advantage of the opportunities that came to me.

But before I actually started trading and traveling, I was in education. I was assistant principal of the elementary school and my salary was about $60,000 a year. So to talk now about these, you know, million-dollar months and - you didn't even ask me that, but now that's [00:11:00] kind of like the goals and what I'm seeing.

I never in my life would have imagined that this would be me. And especially not that it would happen this fast. I used to do real estate as a side hustle. And then I started doing investing as a side hustle, but I thought maybe one day I would be able to sell enough homes to get to that million dollar level. But I had no idea that investing would turn into what it is for me today.

Rich: [00:11:29] It's crazy. And what, it's been three years, it took you three years.

Teri Ijeoma: [00:11:33] Yep. Yep, I've been trading though for 10. So I've been trading since 2010 when the housing crashed or when the first housing crash happened, I've been trading since then, but then quitting my job and starting a big business and trading full time, that's been three years.

Rich: [00:11:50] And I love that distinction because it's never an overnight story. So I didn't actually know it was 10 years. I knew it was beyond three years, but I didn't know, [00:12:00] it was 10 years. That's bad on me. So, you quit your job - and then of course there was a lot of time before that, where you were trading and there's a lot of things that you were learning over the course of, probably those first seven years.

And so was there anything during that time or any moments where you felt like, maybe stocks weren’t the thing for you and where you thought about getting out of it? Or you're just like, this is fun. I'm staying in. This is going well. I just want to keep doing it.

Teri Ijeoma: [00:12:28] Oh, for sure. I lost so much money in the first six years of trading. I still sometimes lose money and I'm like, what in the world? I'm supposed to be the expert. How am I still? But investing, yeah it's hard. And especially when you don't have the right information.

So in that first six years, I was trying to figure it out by myself. And I thought, well, I'm smart, I'll create my own algorithm. But I was listening to all the old antics of the people that I saw on CNBC or the buy and hold investor that said - well, you just...even if it's falling, just [00:13:00] hold onto it. Eventually it'll come back up. But, when you don't have a lot in your account and it’s falling like crazy you don't know what to do.

So I would usually sell down there, lose a lot of money and then feel depressed. I had so many learning curves in that first six years, it really took me taking some classes to understand that - Oh, there's ways to protect yourself. Oh, you can make money on the way down. I didn't even know that those things were possible until I started taking classes.

Rich: [00:13:30] And what made you get into investing in the first place?

Teri Ijeoma: [00:13:33] So in high school I went to Northwestern University and got to visit the Chicago stock exchange. And that was also the year that Google had its IPO. And so I remember asking all my teachers asking my grandmother, can we get into this?

It was $83 a share. And so from high school, I knew that this stock thing was important. Like, this is serious. And then of [00:14:00] course in college, I'm seeing Google grow and I'm like, aw, man, I could have been in that.

I interned on Wall Street at Morgan Stanley in college. So that was my second introduction to Wall Street. So I always knew that I liked it. It was fun and I'm good at numbers. And you don't even have to be good at numbers to do investing, but it was always something I enjoyed, but I just decided to do education because I had gone into consulting and they were one of our clients. So it was a whole ‘nother life it seemed like.

Rich: [00:14:30] I love that. So it was essentially a series of sequential steps. You got that early exposure in high school that kept you with it, carried through college, and then into your work and career, I guess, for the first few years. So, you interned on Wall Street, but then you became a teacher?

Teri Ijeoma: [00:14:50] Yeah.

Rich: [00:14:52] Make it make sense

Teri Ijeoma: [00:14:55] I interned on Wall Street at Morgan Stanley, and I remember having a conversation with Carla Harris [00:15:00] and she probably does not even remember talking to me, but she's a big shot on Wall Street. She told me she's like, Terri, they like you, but they don't know if you really want to be here. So when you go into that interview, you got to convince them that you really want to be here.

And do you know, I thought about that for...we had about two more weeks left of the internship and the truth was, I didn't really want to be there. I didn't want to be at a desk all day. I didn't want to be working 24 hours. It just felt like I was giving up my life. Even back then I wanted my freedom.

I didn't know what that looked like, but I just wanted something different. So I ended up taking a job in management consulting at a place called Monitor Group. That's kind of similar to like Bain and McKinsey.

And that was cool because I thought, well, I'll be able to solve people's problems and fly all over the world. So, still that travel bug in me, I just wanted to fly everywhere. So that's kind of how I didn't go into Wall Street. But then one of our clients at Monitor Group was Teach for [00:16:00] America. So when I told them...hey, I want to do something different, they said, oh, well, we have a lot of staff working at Teach for America, why don't you go check them out? And that's how I got into the education world.

Rich: [00:16:11] Wow, and did you love teaching right away? Or was it one of those things where you got into it and you were like, did I make a mistake? I need to get back on Wall Street and put this suit back on.

Teri Ijeoma: [00:16:21] I've always been on the administrative side and not in the classroom. And I always said, I'm never going to teach. That seems too hard. And now look at me now I'm teaching 4,000 people how to invest. But I've always been on the administrative side. I worked on the conferences that trained the teachers how to teach, at Teach for America.

And then I went into a ministry and we were doing the strategic side of an afterschool program. And then at my elementary school, I was an assistant principal, but I worked on all the operations of the school. Like...how do you keep it running? How do you feed the kids? How do you do carpool lines? -All those things.

So I [00:17:00] wasn't actually in the classroom. It wasn't until I started doing this. Well, no, I will say I was a youth pastor for a little while, so that was kind of teaching too, but it wasn't until I started teaching people how to invest that I realized I'm really gifted at this.

Rich: [00:17:16] Wow. I love this story. And I'm also thinking about taking the leap. So, you know, you're leaving the teaching world. You're going out there for yourself, getting into the mix of things. What were you most worried or concerned about when you took that leap?

Teri Ijeoma: [00:17:34] When I took the leap to leave my job?

Rich: [00:17:37] Yes and go full-time into this teaching people how to invest world.

Teri Ijeoma: [00:17:40] Well, you know, when I left my job, I had no idea that I would start teaching people how to invest. It was literally just, I want to travel. I want to have my freedom, and I want to trade for myself.

And the things I was afraid of then was, oh man, I just left this secure job with insurance. [00:18:00] What if I fail? That was the big question. Well, what if I fail? What if I lose all my money what's going to happen then? And I realized when my friend told me, she's said, well, Teri, the worst thing that could happen is you just have to go live under a bridge. Cool. Thank you for that.

Rich: [00:18:16] I'm like, that's it? That's the worst? It couldn't just be, you got to go back and get another job? She got to go under a bridge?

Teri Ijeoma: [00:18:22] I got to go under a bridge. And then she said, but then once you get under the bridge, your mom probably won't let you stay there. So you just got to go live with your mom again. So, so that was the worst. And so when I figured that out...well, at the end of the day, I might just have to go live back home with my mom. Then I felt a little more secure. Let me just do this then. I can do this.

When I started teaching people, I think a little bit of imposter syndrome came in. You know - Am I really a good enough investor to teach all these people or what if they fail and blame it on me, what's going to happen?

Those kinds of questions came up, [00:19:00] but then I just have good friends. One of my friends said, but Teri, the truth is they need what you know. You have the education and you have knowledge that other people just don't know. So it's better for you to try to tell them the knowledge than to keep it to yourself and let them fail.

And I said, well, I guess that's right too. Oh, I don't want people to fail if I know how to do this. But investing to me came so second nature. I just felt like, well, everybody knows this, don't they? And they don't.

Rich: [00:19:29] A lot of people get stuck there...where they have something that people are telling them that they're good at. And we probably all had the conversations where we tell someone - hey, notice things where people come to you for them, or notice things where people are consistently saying that you're an expert at this. Or you give great advice about this topic and turn that into something. So a lot of times people will get that reinforcement, but they still can't get going. They kind of just get really stuck [00:20:00] in their head.

So how can people begin to overcome that? And maybe how did you even overcome it? Where you know, you're good at it because...So even myself, I'll give myself as an example. There are things that I know that I'm good at. And I sat on them for years, honestly, because I was just so in my head about it, despite the fact I knew that I was dope and I would see other stuff out there in the world and be like, my stuff would be doper than that if I actually did it. But these folks are out here actually doing it.

So how do you advise folks to begin to overcome that? And how did you overcome that yourself?

Teri Ijeoma: [00:20:34] Well, one thing that helped me was I did one class live and I think that not enough people actually take the chance to try teaching something. To see if the people that you're talking to actually really do know it.

So I did one class live when I first got started at my seminary. I was in grad school, seminary, and about 71 people came to hear the intro to the stock market. And at the [00:21:00] end of them, were saying they didn't know all this stuff and saying thank you so much for teaching us. And I even had two people purchase my online course, which I didn't even have at the time because they wanted to learn more.

So doing that live class, I think first showed me that there's interest in this. And then when I taught it, there was a thing of “we liked the way you teach it.” I gather there might be information out there that other people are teaching, but some people will resonate from just the way that you say something.

They liked me as a teacher. They can understand better than someone else that just throws numbers at them. They won't affect them the same way as I will. So I think once I saw it happen in person, then I knew, Oh, there's something to this. People need to know this information and they need to hear it from me.

Rich: [00:21:48] Got you. And what is the magic in the way that you teach?

Teri Ijeoma: [00:21:53] Well, people say that I make them feel like a kindergartner. I don't know if that's a good or bad thing, but they say it's a good [00:22:00] thing. They say I just know how to make really complex things really simple. And these are 30, 40-year-old men.

And they're saying, you know what? I just really like how I feel, I feel like I’m in first grade again, but it feels good.

Rich: [00:22:14] I wouldn't have thought kindergartener. If I heard that I probably would have been a little insulted. He trying to say, I make you feel dumb. Or I would have thought that I was insulting other people.

Are you saying that I make you feel like you're a child, but no, it's, it's the simplicity of the message and getting people to, to overcome some of that fear that they may have themselves and realize that this is something that they can actually do. And for you, you taught this class live and there was probably a light bulb, or, you know, you puff your chest out.

Like I can do this. So can you talk about that moment? And then what was the next step? Because I think a lot of us, we get to that point where we go out on stage or we get to that point where we have that moment of confidence. And then even then sometimes we still get caught by that fear and that imposter syndrome, even though we see the clear sign in front of us and we see that reinforcement.

So [00:23:00] you had that light bulb, you got that reinforcement and you were able to keep things going. So talk a little bit about what that looked like for you.

Teri Ijeoma: [00:23:06] I think the next step for me was, I had heard a webinar that said offer them a course. Tell them that you have a free course. And if somebody buys it, then you'll know have to make the course.

And so that's what I did at the end of it. I just sat in front of everyone and I said, you know what, if you want to learn more, I have this online course where I'll teach you everything I know about investing. And I charged a thousand dollars for it. It actually was $2000, but I said, I'll give it to you for 50% off.

I thought nobody was going to buy that course, but they actually did. So two people ended up buying the course and then that's when I said, Oh shoot, okay. I guess I got to go make this course. And I started putting together lessons and then I would go teach the two people who bought the course for me, and then they would give me feedback, and then I’d go make the lesson even better.

Then I'd put it into an online platform and make the next lesson, go teach it to them, teach it to them until they were [00:24:00] good at it. And then, okay, let me put this into the online course. So it was very much a tick by tick type of thing. Like, let me try this part then the next part, then the next part, instead of trying to be overwhelmed with the whole thing at one time.

Rich: [00:24:14] And before you started testing that chorus on, on a couple of folks, did you purchase anything yourself in terms of getting yourself up to speed on that?

Teri Ijeoma: [00:24:22] I did. So in the year that I was planning to leave the school, I took classes too, because I wanted to make sure I was good enough investor to actually quit my job.

So I took courses for about a year to prepare me, to be able to make $300 a day. That's how much I needed at the time. So, yes. And the thing is I paid $25,000 per class. So that's how invested I was into investing in myself. If I'm going to do this, I want to get the best knowledge. And I put it on debit cards because I didn't have it as an educator, but I wanted to make sure I knew how to do this.

Rich: [00:25:00] Now, your course is not free. And it's at a premium. And the classes that you took were also very much at a premium and where I see a lot of people get tripped up and not even just with investing, but with investing itself, generally as people try to do everything for the free.

I understand when you're first coming out, you want to try to save money. That's the more financially responsible thing to do, but what are your thoughts on the do it for free? Cause somebody will build their whole businesses that way to start. And I get it. Even as a podcast, I went for years where there were things where I skimped here and there.

I spent hours working on stuff that I probably should have just paid somebody to come in and do that particular task for me. So what are your thoughts on the free mentality, particularly when it comes to investing itself?

Teri Ijeoma: [00:25:45] So, you know, there's this show on Amazon that's called hot mess millionaire. And one of the things she said is that doing things for free is actually an act of self hate because you are not loving yourself when you're doing all these things for free and giving, giving, giving for free. And one of the things I actually thought about today - and this is going to sound like the weirdest analogy, but it makes sense. Stay with me.

My mom and I went and we bought these really cute frames for eyeglasses online. But they were really cheap, like $5, $3. And then she went to Walmart and she got the lenses, but her lenses are pretty strong cause she has to have bifocal lenses. So she has these really expensive lenses in these cheap frames. And lo and behold at Thanksgiving, we were doing something and the frame broke. Then I gave her my extra pair, my $3 frames and she put the lenses into that frame. We're putting up Christmas decorations, the frame broke, and I'm realizing she had a really expensive lens in a really cheap frame.

I think that's what happens with courses as well. A lot of people, especially [00:27:00] in investing, they're wanting to put a lot of money to work - expensive lenses - but they're putting it in these really cheap foundations because they don't want to spend the money on the course.

Which is the foundation. So that's like an expensive lens and a cheap frame. When you're trying to put a lot of money to work with no education or trying to pay real cheap educators to get information about how to invest. So it won't work. It's going to break on you and you won't be able to see. So that's how I feel about free stuff.

Rich: [00:27:32] Well, you made me think of something else because I'm not sure if you've experienced this actually. I'm going to say that you probably have experienced this or one of your team members has experienced it on your behalf, because a lot of what you talk about is helping people building community, but then they see that, you know, it's a $2,000 or a $5,000 investment and people question the accessibility of that.

And how can you say that? You're trying to help [00:28:00] people when you're charging that much and making it where some folks can't even afford to get in on this.

Teri Ijeoma: [00:28:05] Yeah. I think people have to start thinking about what is the result of what I'm teaching you. So if I'm able to teach someone how to make even $200 a day, that equals a thousand dollars a week, an extra $48,000 a year because you know, you don't trade every day, but it's $48,000 a year of income.

So I'm teaching you how to make $48,000 a year for the rest of your life. Then it's worth it to pay me $2,000. It's worth it to pay $5,000. And the true question is what is it worth to learn a skill set that will yield you $40,000 a year? What would you be willing to pay for that? And that's what people have to start thinking about, thinking about the outcome and what they can get out of it later, instead of just thinking about the upfront cost.

Rich: [00:28:53] And for you, you were also thinking about traveling and creating this lifestyle for yourself, where you could do what you wanted. [00:29:00] Was there anything else that was in the back of your mind that you saw as making it worth it to make this investment?

Teri Ijeoma: [00:29:06] Oh, if I don't have to see another boss in my life, it's worth it.

It would be worth $50,000, $60,000 to me to never have to see a boss again. My freedom and not having to answer to someone is important. My peace of mind is important. When I was working the 10 years that I worked in education, I literally had at least one to probably 10 days of a month I was crying and really upset about where I was and trying to prove myself and not feeling good enough.

To me, it was - call it corporate abuse. I felt like I was just getting abused every day at work. So just having the peace of mind to not have to worry about that. Oh, that's worth everything in gold to me.

Rich: [00:29:55] I love that. And I still do have a day gig and because some people from [00:30:00] work, listen, I have to say that I enjoy working with said people. Now see, I have to say that, but I actually do enjoy the people that I work with.

So I want to be clear about that. I do enjoy the people that I work with, but work also knows that I have passions and things that I want to do outside. Like, you know, even the conversation that we're having now and yeah. The impact of helping people improve their lives financially and professionally, that brings about a feeling that I don't get from doing project/program management.

Even though I can do that and I can do it well, and I can get accolades for that at work that translate into a bonus. That's not the same as that feeling where you're essentially uplifting people and you're living within your values. Yes.

Teri Ijeoma: [00:30:48] That's why now we say trade and travel is really about investing for what's important to you because for some people they enjoy their job.

So quitting, their job is not important to them, but being able to have some [00:31:00] extra income to pay off their student loan, that important. Or being able to have some extra income to get their kid in a private school, that's important. Or I want to pay off my car or I want to start having a side income to travel me.

Those things, whatever is important to you. That's what I want to teach you how to actively invest for. I think that's the general theme more than just leave your job and quit today. It's more about what's important to you. And how do you afford that? Cause that's living your best life.

Rich: [00:31:32] We're gonna hit Hotmail millionaire. Cause I know before we recorded this episode, when we talked a few weeks ago, we talked about this show on Amazon following Dr. Venus Opal. But something else that we talked about that stuck with me from our conversation - and I talked about it on a recent episode of the podcast - is October for me was a month from hell, just with all of the things that were going on. And they were all positive things. I mean, aside from me [00:32:00] jacking up my back, but we're not going to talk about that. People don't want to hear me talk about that today, but I had so many positive things happening and it was a blessing, but I wasn't prepared to receive said blessing and said abundance.

And of course there were other things that were going on and yeah. Uh, long story short, it got to a point during the month of October where I almost cried because I tried to send something to my mom and it didn't get to where it was supposed to. A freakin quesadilla . I almost cried over a quesadilla and not getting to her via DoorDash, but it wasn't about the quesadilla.

It was about just how stressed out I was by all of the things that were going on, even though they were positive things. So work was going well, you know, and, and the things that I were doing, they were generating income. And so it felt good, but I didn't feel good. And, something that you said stuck with me. It made me think about this, because you talked about having a moment where you kind of wanted to run away and hide. And so can you talk a little bit about that side of things?

Because we're, we're talking about the success and we are talking about the tribulations as [00:33:00] well, but people hear these numbers and you're doing super well and super inspirational. But even with all of this and being financially secure and being able to never see a person in a suit telling you what to do again, there are still things that come with this level of success that have you feeling like a human and have you wanting to run away and potentially hide for a little bit.

So can you talk about that side of things?

Teri Ijeoma: [00:33:24] Oh, yes. I actually remember one day really vividly where my mom called me on the phone and she wanted to talk about my Instagram strategy because she was so excited about it. But mind you, this was 9:00 PM at night. So I put the phone on the bed and I just collapsed on the floor and I'm just like, I cannot do this and she's just talking, talking, talking, I have her on speaker phone and in my head, I'm just screaming.

Don't you see I don't want to talk about this right now? Why are you talking to [00:34:00] me about my Instagram strategy at 9 PM at night? Who is this? Why don't you just be my mom today?

I realized what was happening is that I literally was on all the time. I never had a break ever because I'd wake up at 7:30 in the morning and I'd be trading. And then from there, I'd go into meetings with my team. And then after that, I'd go into coaching calls with my students. And then after that, I'd get on the phone wanting to kind of have a debrief and actually not even wanting to talk at all.

And then my mom be talking about something that has to do with my company like Instagram and just, I just couldn't. I never had a moment. Then you go to sleep and you wake up and you do it all over again. And it turned into - this is what freedom looks like? Cause this is not what I thought I was signing up for.

Rich: [00:34:52] I love that you mentioned freedom and it not feeling like freedom because again to the outside world and anyone who's following the gram and I've been [00:35:00] following along. And I remember, I remember when we talked, I told you I had your name written down and I've been meaning to reach out. I'm just like, man I did have a moment even.

For as well as I've been doing I actually thought to myself, she probably doesn't have time to talk to me. She's probably got, so much stuff going on. Like she's out there, winning so much. And I kept kicking it down the road because I saw a level of success that you were having.

And I wasn't hating. I was just like, yo, she's blowing up. She’s going Nova on the Streeets right now, but even while all of that is outwardly happening, where people are seeing all of these positive things and they're feeling inspired. I think it's important that people see that while it may look like freedom, there are still some things that could be within your business or within your lifestyle that are actually holding you back and keeping you from feeling free.

So, my followup to that was going to be, what did you do [00:36:00] to start really taking care of yourself and to get yourself back into the freedom zone?

Teri Ijeoma: [00:36:04] Great question. And before I answer that, I want to touch on a couple points. One, you know, you can always call me. And I hope that my other friends know that too. They are the fun part of my day. I like talking to you. I like talking to my other friends because that brings some sanity back to this world. That's the fun part. Hanging out with people who you love, right?

And then another thing you just hit on there, there's a part in that Hot Mess Millionaire, where she talks about how she had built a beautiful cage in her home.

She had this beautiful home. She had these beautiful cars, but it felt like she had built a beautiful cage. And I felt like at times when you build this huge business - when I quit my job, I didn't quit my job to build a business. I didn't quit my job to build a Fortune 500 [00:37:00] company or to be the CEO I quit so that I could just trade stocks and travel the world and do my own thing.

So every time that I see myself now in the CEO seat, it feels a little bit like a cage. A little bit like dang, when do I get back to the beach? When do I get to be me? And what I realized, and, and I'm actually really glad that I got to see this show and we'll talk about it more.

I'm sure later, but I'm glad I got a chance to see the show because it gave me that freedom to say, even if you're doing super well there's times, or you may not feel happy and happy is a feeling it's fleeting, but at the same time, there's going to be times in this journey, no matter how much money you make.

Where you're not going to just wake up and be happy that day. It might, and it might be a season. This year has been, I've worked the hardest I've ever worked this year. And it shows in my, in my numbers. But at [00:38:00] the same time, if I were to write down what makes me happy, I like to trade stocks and travel.

And 2020 did not allow us to do traveling. I try to do a lot of trading, but I didn't get to travel, which is a big part of what makes me smile. So. I think for all of us, we have to kind of just take, take a step to realize, this really did happen and it's okay. I think what is getting me through now is I'm starting to realize that a lot of the things that I wasn't happy about, I was fighting against imaginary competitors.

Like for even me, even me, and it's surprising that you would say even me, because in my head, I still think that I'm not. And this is gonna sound really horrible, but in my head, I think I'm still not good enough. Like I'm at the back of the pack. All these people are going way ahead of me and I don't know who these imaginary people are, but in my head, they're there and they're looking back, like you're supposed to be [00:39:00] further along than this.

Then I realized that actually no Teri you're okay. You're actually at the front of the pack. And to be honest, it doesn't matter where you are in the pack. How are you in your own life? Do you feel good about yourself? And then I had to realize I didn't have a, “you made it” number in my head.

So I kept reaching for this imaginary. You made it. And it was like this unattainable space. You're at a million. Okay, good. Now we're going for 10 million. Okay, good. Now we're going for it. You know, like there was just never a stop that said this is good. So now I've come to terms with, okay, I have a number in my head.

This is good. And you can literally live the rest of your life and not do anything else in the world and you would be fine. And that has given me some peace. I know that sounds so jaded, but that's what gave me some peace,

Rich: [00:39:58] That's real though. [00:40:00] And, being able to take a moment and appreciate it, I think that's something that a lot of us, especially people who are achievers, really struggle with.

Because for me, I get very anxious about things and I'm also someone who's always constantly chasing the next level. What's the next thing? What's the next thing I've talked about on the podcast? Being able to stop and appreciate all of the good things that are happening and I've gotten better at that, but there's still a long way to go.

And I've found that for folks who are achievers, that it's. It's almost a gift and a curse, right? Where what makes you super successful is also the thing that can be super debilitating. What do you think about that?

Teri Ijeoma: [00:40:44] I think that's very true, very true. There's no off switch, which is a bad thing.

I've even said that about investing. It's really hard for type A overachievers to do well in investing. And that sounds crazy because you'd think that we would be the best [00:41:00] ones, but what happens is you get a system. I gave them seven steps. They'll take my system, but then they feel like, oh, well I gotta figure out something on my own.

So they're not good just sitting with the seven steps. Now they're trying to figure out step 15 through 13, which is unnecessary. Sometimes if you get a blueprint, just follow the blueprint or they see a stock and they're like, I gotta chase it. I got to find the next best thing. I can't just go with this one.

We struggle with being okay, with just going with what someone has done or told us to do.

Rich: [00:41:41] So I totally agree with you and you just triggered another thought. And then I promise we actually go on and talk about this hot mess millionaire in more detail. But as you're talking, the word control came to mind and it had me reflecting on myself and I'm not going to start shrinking you, but I did start shrinking myself as I was thinking about this.

And I was thinking about one of the [00:42:00] differences between my experience in corporate America and what I've experienced side hustling over the course of the years and the difference in the frustration and why I'm able to do well at my day, job in and get to where I am today. And with the day job situation, you play the game in the office.

Basically. You, I know that if I do a and I do B, I'm going to get. See outcome, whereas, and it may not always look the same and it might not always happen right on schedule. But if I perform at this level, I'm going to get this performance rating. I'm going to get a bonus. And this amount, if I prepare this much for an interview, then I'm probably going to do well and I'm going to get the job.

Whereas with your own business, It's not automatic like that. And I've noticed that there's something about that, that lack of control, that it is really difficult to handle as an entrepreneur, or even as a side hustler where, cause I've had moments where or days. Where I go to work and, and the day ends and I'm like, well, that day wasn't crazy.

[00:43:00] I did everything I was supposed to, I got good feedback, but then I started doing the entrepreneurial side hustle stuff. I'm looking at numbers and metrics and all yo there's this episode is really going to hit him and then it goes double lead. So, you know, There are things like that. So, I wonder what the experience has been like for you.

And if that's something that's come to mind like that control factor, does that factor into the way that you look at achievement?

Teri Ijeoma: [00:43:25] You know, the control has come in a lot this year in terms of building a team. I've had to let go of control, as I actually delegate different parts of the company to different people.

And I still struggle. Like they bring me something to look at or approve, and I ended up trained in the whole thing instead of just going with what they sent me. And that's a little bit just because it's hard to let go of that control. But what I'm learning is I'm never going to increase. I'm never going to improve or get bigger if I don't let go, because we can't, I can't do this by myself.

It's going to lead to me, laying on the floor, crying that my mom is talking to [00:44:00] me about business stuff. Like if I don't give up control and actually let more people help me, we won't grow. And so that sentiment has now helped me to say, you know what? It doesn't have to be perfect. It doesn't have to be just the way that I would do it. As long as it's done, let's get it out there. And it's better for the people that have the information and not to have it at all. And, and I'm getting over that. But I won't say that I'm an expert at it. It's, it's tough.

Rich: [00:44:27] And you basically just said, if you don't give up control, you won't grow and you were talking about business, but I think that's a personal message too

Teri Ijeoma: [00:44:35] True. Oh yeah. Like even the small stuff, sometimes you get so upset because someone comes a couple minutes late. Well, do you have control over that?

No. And then you think of even bigger issues like now. A lot of my friends are talking about having kids and how hard it is and IVs and all these things where you think that your body will act a certain way, but it [00:45:00] doesn't. And until you're able to kind of give up the control of that, you're just going to be in your feelings for a long time until you realize I just really don't have control of this.

Rich: [00:45:09] And, the sooner you can let go of it the better. And, it's all a lifelong journey. We'll never be perfect at it. And I know when we have different levels of stress, we sometimes default back to whatever our instinctive responses, which a lot of times, if we're out of control and we get anxious, we then want to gather control.

And that's where we may not take advice, even though it's the right advice. We may not take it because somebody else is telling us to do it, versus that feeling of us. Figuring it out itself. And this is a topic because now we're in the personal development zone and this is something that I could talk a lot about, but I said, we were going to talk about hotness millionaire, which, uh, booboo Ken's and I sat and watched the pilot on Amazon.

And you can find the rest of the season available on YouTube. And you actually put me onto this. So how did you come about this show in the first place?

Teri Ijeoma: [00:45:56] You know, I was just scrolling through and I saw it and it said, Hot [00:46:00] Mss Millionaire. And I said, you know what? I keep seeing this come up, let me actually play it.

And I played it. And what was crazy is it was 3:00 AM in the morning. I had my laptop on my lap and then she starts talking about how overworking is an act of self hate. And I was like, uh, and I immediately stopped everything. I closed my laptop. I tried to pretend I wasn't just working at 3:00 AM.

And then after that, I just wanted to talk to anybody else who would watch the show because, I mean, it's, it was so true to me. I got caught red handed. Yeah.

Rich: [00:46:36] And there's a level of realness to it, for sure. And I think it's kind of like in documentary reality show ish type of territory, and for those who aren't familiar, essentially this woman, she ultimately became a doctor because she got her PhD from Stanford.

She's from Baltimore and she endured a lot growing up and throughout her life. And I won't go into all of the details. You all got to go and [00:47:00] watch at least that pilot on Amazon, if you have it otherwise catch the full series. Available on YouTube and she is not paying me to say anything about this, or for us to talk about this at all.

But it's super interesting because some of the concepts that she raised and I wrote down a couple of notes about the show, but I know that you wrote down like a manuscript about them.

Teri Ijeoma: [00:47:21] I won't even lie. I did.

Rich: [00:47:22] We'll start with you because you do have a lot of notes. So what really kind of jumped out to you and, and, and we've already talked about one aspect of it with the self hate and there was something else there that you mentioned earlier, but what else really jumped out to you?

What did you underline? Four or five times?

Teri Ijeoma: [00:47:41] Okay, I'm going to tell you, okay, we're going to play a game. I'm going to tell you four quotes, and then you can tell me which one you liked the best, but here's some of the ones that I really loved. She said it didn't occur to me that I had a right to say, I'm not happy.

It didn't occur to me that I had a right to say, I'm not [00:48:00] happy in the winning. I lost me. And I thought, Oh wow, that's powerful in the winning. I lost me. And then she was talking about kind of some of the things that she had to do with her business. And she's like, that's not joy.

That's duty, obligation, pressure, stress. And I wrote that down and I was like, ooh, that's good. Two more and I'll stop. This is the next one. Give and give. And most don't say thank you. It becomes an expectation and obligation and an entitlement they're entitled to me.

And then the last one does this idea of socially acceptable acts of self-hate. She said working hard, self-sacrificing, over-giving, doing everything for free, doing more than what you were paid for, undercharging are all socially acceptable, acts of self-hate. [00:49:00] She said you are rewarded for treating yourself like shit.

So I was like, wow.

Rich: [00:49:07] Yeah. Yeah. And we're going to talk about that a bit more, but that self-hate and then also the entitlement one that I think that was right before it, the entitlement that comes from other people, I think why that really resonates now. And you've probably experienced this too, actually.

I'm certain of it just because as you grow and especially when you're, you're on video, you're on a podcast. People feel like they know you, like they can reach out, especially when, when you're warm in, in your, in your energetic people feel that they can reach out to you and ask for whatever they want.

I've found that over time that I sometimes have to actually check myself a little bit on the other side, because someone will reach out and just kind of ask for something. And I'm like why are you? Like you didn't get no opening. I'll actually get frustrated by that - the way that someone reaches out to me to, to make an ask and I [00:50:00] respond respectfully, but the other side of it is there have been times where someone will ask for my time, they'll ask, you know, can I jump on a call? And I'm not just sitting around waiting to jump on calls with people.

I don't think you're doing that either, but, but people feel comfortable reaching out and making that ask because we've built that level of rapport with people through these various channels that we're on. And so I think that speaks positively about their relationship that we're able to build with people without being with them in person. But the downsides of that and what I've experienced sometimes is that when you tell people, no, I feel like people get really upset, like, oh, you said you was about the people.

And I'm like, well,

Teri Ijeoma: [00:50:39] still about the people.

Rich: [00:50:42] I am about the people, but like, I'm not just sitting around waiting to jump on these calls because I didn't say no enough. And there was a stretch where I was saying yes to all of those calls and it got to a point where the stuff that I really enjoyed helping people, that's one of my top values.

I found myself [00:51:00] actually not liking it. And I think. There was that element of control and freedom. It didn't feel like freedom to me having to jump on these calls after work and having to respond to people, being kind of like nasty and mean, because they felt you owed something to them because you know, they've been listening or following.

And so now they're entitled to you. It's a really weird dynamic sometimes.

Teri Ijeoma: [00:51:20] Yeah. I was listening to a singer the other day and he was talking about how people don't understand. When you comment on something like your comedy on a real person, this is a real human being and they're seeing your comments and you don't get it, you don't get a chance.

To have an opinion about who they are, because you don't really know them. You might think, you know them because you see their pictures and you follow their page, but you don't know them as a person. So you don't get to keep calling or keep them accountable. Cause you don't know who they are. I really have seen that too.

Especially with this enlightened or entitlement piece. Oh, and don't sell [00:52:00] something because then people think, well, I gave you money. So I'm supposed to have all of your time. There's just this thought that you have to be their slave. And one of the things that I've realized is anytime that you're working really hard for someone for free.

And they feel entitled to it. That's almost the same thing as you being like a slave for a slave master, because they're expecting you to do really hard work for free. We were freed what, a hundred years ago, 200 years ago, we've been free. Like I'm not working for any slave masters.No. Iit really does happen a lot. And people do feel entitled to you, but that can't be the narrative. People have to realize that we're humans.

Rich: [00:52:50] I just had someone reach out and say something that wasn't very nice. And I [00:53:00] stood on it more than I probably should have. I mean, it happens, you know, it's like you can see all the positive feedback and you see that one negative item. And then tha’s the thing that sticks. I was telling my girl that I wanted to reply and be like, there's a human behind this because it just kind of felt like, and I think the other side of it is people feel that because you reach a certain level that it just comes with the territory.

Like oh you're doing well, you're a public figure you deserve, or I'm entitled to critique you, or I'm entitled to say what I want because this comes with the territory and every now and then I do have this feeling and I didn't say it in that case, but there will be times where I actually do respond because, uh, I've had other situations where I say I understand that, like, you know, I've got this brand and I understand that, you know, I, I've gotta be, you know, that other brands are watching what I'm saying and what I'm doing, but I'm a human first, this whole brand thing and [00:54:00] sponsors, like my values are more important than that.

And I am not going to be dismissed well, what's whatever it is. But I've had times where I've had to say, yeah, I understand that you probably think I'm not going to respond because. You know, I've got this brand and you know, I've got these other things going on, but I'm a human at the end of the day.

Teri Ijeoma: [00:54:17] Yes. Yes. And people have to understand too, that we're doing this out of the kindness of our heart. We don't have to do what we do. You don't have to do the podcast. You, you have a full-time job. You could easily stop doing this, but you enjoy it. And you want to serve the people that you're serving. Same thing for me, I don't have to teach, but I enjoy it.

And I think it's really important for people to learn how to invest better. But at any moment, we can decide to go do something else. So when people are putting negative comments or saying that they don't like something or complaining? Well, they don't realize is that they're planting seeds for us to be able to quit and not teach them anything at all.

It's like, it was you rather us have something [00:55:00] or you want nothing at all, but people are crazy.

Rich: [00:55:05] I was laughing to myself because I was thinking I got like a two star review or a one-star review on the podcast. And I remember thinking, Oh yeah, well, how about I just shut the whole show down? Like I was one star, but then I had to realize on the other side, that doesn't help.

The other, you know, thousands or however many people who are listening and enjoying and who have positive things to say about the show. And I want to be clear that we're not talking about this right now to rag and the people who do say negative things. It's more so the reminder that one, I, that there are humans on the other side of this, these aren't just personalities and successful people who don't have feelings and don't have emotions.

We very much have these things. And we're very much just like the everyday person who's walking around, despite what. Stories we may be in and what headlines that we're capturing. But then also there is some, I think, accountability on our side to control how we respond to people, I [00:56:00] guess, going back to that word control again, and even being able to roll with some of those punches and understand that while it may not be right, people are going to say things and people are going to do things because that's also human as well.

Teri Ijeoma: [00:56:13] Yes. Yes. And I've also learned that a lot of the times I get upset at bots and that they're literally bots that are going on all the Instagram posts and going on YouTube. And I'm spending all my time being mad at something that's not even real or will never really impact my life. And even if the person is not a bot, most likely they don't have the things that I consider success anyway, or it won't impact me is what I'm trying to say. And when I think about that, then I like, you know what? You've given too much effort to them. Bots are computer generated, so leave it alone.

Rich: [00:56:50] Yeah. Yeah. I've, I've had to fight that a few times where I look and I'm like, eh, a hundred they're following [00:57:00] 185 people, but, uh, zero we're following them and they're cursing at me, probably a bot.

I'm going to walk away from that now. There was another quote that jumped out. And I mean, we've talked about it a bit, but this, this self hate, and what it made me think of was the rise and grind mentality, because there was a stretch where I felt like it was a badge of honor to be awake at 5:00 AM.

Doing work and it wasn't that I was up being efficient. I mean, I was, but that's not what I was thinking about. I'm working hard, you know, it's the end of the day and working hard grinding all day, you know, there was a song about it. I'm not going to try to sing it because I can't hit that note.

But there's a lot of talk about the hustle. I mean, the side hustle, everything is about the, the hustle, the hustle, the hustle. And I got to a point and probably even particularly over these last few weeks where I've said, yo, the hustle can wait sometimes and I'm even willing to miss out on some money.

And I think I can [00:58:00] say that because I come from the fortunate place of, of having a job where. You know, well compensated, I have benefits and things like that, so I can afford to leave money on the table, but I think it's hard to say if I wasn't in this situation, how I would handle it, but I would hope given what I've learned, that if I found myself in a situation where I was burning myself out, that I would actually.

Be willing to leave some money or potentially leave something on the table because I prioritize my health and wellbeing more because I've had the stretches where I haven't done that, where I've been projecting, rising and grinding, burning myself out, coming home and putting down a bottle of whiskey or putting down a bottle of whatever, which I've.

Since cut that a hundred. And I think 53 days strong, uh, as of this recording of have zero alcohol and appreciate it. And that rise and grind mentally it's it's pervasive and it makes people feel bad because you see people talking about hustling and they're doing well. [00:59:00] Even some of the stuff you hear people say about the day job when they call it the rat race.

Like that sounds awful. You know, you got to hustle and get your way out of there. If you're not building your own business, you're losing. And, uh, I think a lot of times when people make those comments, they're trying to inspire, but it's actually quite uninspiring. You know what I mean?

Teri Ijeoma: [00:59:19] It is like at Thanksgiving, my cousin told me that he doesn't want to work for anybody else.

He wants to start his own business. And he said, I don't want a nine to five. And in my head, I was like, If you start your own business, do you know this is like a seven to 12, like you're going to give up your nice cushy nine to five, where you get to leave work and not think about work to come to this job.

This entrepreneurship thing where you're going to be working like nine to nine and then have your computer out because you still working. And I think that, [01:00:00] that some people don't realize that that's what they're actually saying. When they're saying I want to be an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship is hard and it takes a lot to really be successful at it.

And if you're thinking you're going to go to the four hour work week, which you can, I don't want to say you can't. It's about a shift in mentality, not so much a shift in money. Like your mindset has to change what you think is important changes when you're going to a four-hour work week at four hour work week.

You're thinking that my peace of mind, my happiness, my enjoyment of my life, those are the things that are more important than me scaling the next tax bracket or me scaling the next ladder. Yeah. Like they say, all money ain't good money. There's times where we got to leave money on the table so that we can enjoy our life and actually get to enjoy the money we did make.

Rich: [01:00:52] Yes. And also you can't have a four hour work week if you don't have hired help. You know, I you've, [01:01:00] you've got to be making those investments. You've got, you've got to have the processes, the, the, the systems. So some of the stuff I am applying and learning at the day gig is coming in handy in my business and vice versa.

But you can't have that type of freedom. Yeah. Everyone wants that four hour work week, but there's a lot of stuff that you need to do to even get to that point in terms of building the infrastructure, which is where I think people often cut a lot of corners.

Teri Ijeoma: [01:01:28] Yeah, I think the four hour work week comes after the 80 hour work week.

And people want to just jump over the 80 hour work week and go straight to the four hour. And that doesn't happen. You got to grind and maybe someone on this call is going to be, well, ah, that's not my story, Teri. I didn't have to do that. Well, I am so happy for you because every other entrepreneur I've seen, we, we are grinding and the truth is it's not always fun.

At some point during, during this [01:02:00] year, most of the people that I know that are friends have gone through about a depression, about a burnout, a little bit of just rethinking what's important in their life. And when they really did stop and really think about it, it wasn't that, that next coaching call or that next thing that they had to do for the business that was important.

It was sleep. It was quality time with family. Those things were important. That peace of mind to say, I can actually take this hour off and not feel bad about it.

Rich: [01:02:30] Yo sleep. The bane of my existence. I've been trying to work on getting this good sleep for, for years now. Even my therapist was talking about it earlier and we've been talking about it, the impact that sleep has. And I think it's finally getting to the point where I legitimately can't neglect it anymore.

And even how I'm feeling today, I'm not sure if you've ever had this happen [01:03:00] or, if you've had a hangover before you might know this feeling, but the way that I feel today, it feels like the third day of a hangover because I slept poorly last night, but I didn't actually drink anything.

It's just this general fatigue, like cloudy mindedness. Getting through the day, but it's almost like when you're going through the day and you get stuff done and you, look back and you're like, ah, that really wasn't my best. I just got through. That's sorta what it feels like.

And I think I'm getting to that point where this three or four hours a night, I'm getting, I got to get it up to at least six hour. Because now it feels that it’s not even just shortchanging myself it's also, I'm shortchanging the people that I want to serve because there's things that I'm not getting done because I'm not getting the adequate rest.

Yeah. Even though I am addressing a lot of the other self care type of areas, sleep just continues to be the bane of my existence. And I see you nodding on this.

Teri Ijeoma: [01:03:54] Oh, for sure. I'm the worst. And then lately I've been doing this thing where I [01:04:00] think it goes back to that act of self hate. I've been working so much that at 11:00 PM, I decide, well, I deserve to watch TV now because, because I worked all day and then I ended up watching TV till like 3:00 AM and then I'm like, Oh shoot, I got to get up at 7:30 to trade.

And so I just, I don't get any sleep. And then I'm trying to lead a team and I'm happy. Draggy and can't think correctly and then get on a coaching call and can't speak. Right. So, no, I totally agree with you in any event, the act of drinking water, like my cousin. So on my staff, I have three family members on my staff, so it's really nice because they're helping with the company, but then also they think about me.

And so today I walked in my office cause we, my house is like headquarters. Everybody works from here. So I walked in...

Rich: [01:04:50] Murray compound. I love that.

Teri Ijeoma: [01:04:53] ...into my office just now. And I see this huge thing of water on my desk and [01:05:00] my cousin's already left, but I know what he's telling me is you went all day and you didn't eat and didn't drink any water.

That's not healthy. So you've got to start taking care of yourself. But we'll just work ourselves to death sometimes.

Rich: [01:05:14] Yeah. It's very easy to do. And especially when you're an achiever and you just got your head down and you focus, focus, focus, and we are rounding toward the end of the episode.

But one thing I did want to talk about before we wrap up and, and it's, uh, it's something I've heard you mentioned on another show is kind of this building community and. Contributing back into the community. And I'm thinking about the range of, uh, entrepreneurs that you're working with, who I'm in that batch like full disclosure.

You know, if you go to paybal.com/tradeandtravel folks can learn a lot more about both of your program options that are available right now and purchase and in full disclosure, if people do purchase, I do get [01:06:00] a commission. That's the way affiliate relationships work. But I think what's been really cool as I've seen you work with so many people of color in particular, and it's kind of, wow. You're winning and everyone else is winning right along with you.

So we're all lifting each other up in the process. And I mean, I've seen people just on Facebook, randomly talking about the income that they've generated just from promoting your course and people saying, I don't know where the link is, but people are still clicking it. And I've had some of that feeling myself.

And I wanted to talk about what that means for you because. It's really cool to see. And I'm trying to think about other examples because we talk a lot about investing back into the black community in you're actually doing it. I'm seeing the impact of you continuing to go on podcasts, be yourself, bring new students in, and then the folks who are referring people your way.

They're winning. And then the [01:07:00] students who are enrolling in the course and going through the course, they're winning as well. So you're creating a nice little legacy for yourself. So I just wanted to ask how you feel about that and how your thoughts have evolved as your business has grown.

Teri Ijeoma: [01:07:14] Yes. And just to clarify, because some people may listen to that and say, Oh, this is a, you know, email live marketing type of thing.

And it's like, no, no, no, I have an online course, but we have a referral program. So when you just like AT&T, Verizon, anything where you refer someone, then you get a referral fee. So that's what, that's what Rich is talking about.

Rich: [01:07:36] But we clarify. This is not one of those fake Sousas where someone's coming to you and saying, I have an amazing opportunity.

That's not this, this is no different than when you go into an app and they give you a link. And if you share that link and people click your link and sign up for that service, you know, you get your $5. It's just like that except it’s way more than $5.

[01:08:00] Teri Ijeoma: [01:08:00] Yes. Well, the coolest thing. So I actually love this part about my company this year.

We've poured over a million dollars back into other, well, actually in the past two years, we've poured over a million dollars back into other small businesses. And I love it. I've gotten phone calls of like, Teri. I just want you to know that during COVID I lost my job, but your course is still paying me a salary.

And even with I had my plaque, so this year we've been helping a thousand students to make a thousand dollars in a day trading stocks. And whenever they make that thousand dollars in a day, Then we give them a plaque to show them their, their achievement. Well, the company who makes the plaques this year during COVID, we had to order another huge load of, of $5,000.

I think we had to order 500 more plaques and she came and personally dropped them off to my house. And she said, Teri, during COVID we had to lay off three staff members, but your order kept us [01:09:00] afloat. And it's things like that, knowing that our business is doing well, but we're able to help other businesses stay in business.

Like that's huge where we're keeping people like food on the table for people. So that has been such a blessing. That piece alone is what gives me motivation every day. I'm pouring money, not only teaching people how to invest for themselves so that they can, they can build their families and build legacies, but I'm also pouring money back into our communities and building other small businesses.

So that's been really cool. And then just like our thousand dollars. So the thousand people making a thousand dollars in a day is a million dollars. A day that's being put back into the community. And like, I know where that, that money is going. I'm seeing people give it to others so that they can still be in their houses.

It's like, one of my students is going through chemo right now, but she's able to go through chemo and be okay because she's learning to invest. So. [01:10:00] It's, this is a lot of really cool life changing stuff happening in the realm of trade and travel. It's been, it's

Rich: [01:10:06] been really cool. I got that. I know people would be like, I got the goosebumps, but like I legit, I don't know if you can, you can almost knock my microphone over.

You probably can't really see me. Yeah. I got the legit goosebumps from that. That is awesome. So we are around it toward the end here. So give folks a heads up of what's coming up for you in 2021.

Teri Ijeoma: [01:10:26] 2021 is going to be amazing. Just absolutely amazing because I think I'm coming into my own as a CEO. So we have trade and travel and more and more people are going to continue to learn how to invest our VIP's now have a $10,000 in a day club.

So they're all striving to their trading options now. So they're striving to trade options in order to make $10,000 in a day. And so our investing is going to go to a whole nother level. And then just me as a person, you're probably see a lot more of just different sides of me. So I'm working [01:11:00] on, uh, uh, the Bible's money, secrets project, and being able to share what the Bible says about money.

And then I'm working on a couple of conferences with other people. This is going to be a really cool year to just see what the Lord has in store for, for everyone. So it'll be really

Rich: [01:11:17] fun. I love that. And I haven't asked anyone this before. What is self care going to look like in 2021?

Teri Ijeoma: [01:11:24] I, Oh man. I hope we can travel somewhere, but even if we can't, I'm going to get the most beautiful Villa in Greece and it's going to overlook the water and I'm going to be there for a good, at least a month and I'm going to enjoy my life.

That's what it's going to look like for me. How about

Rich: [01:11:41] for you? Uh, self care in 2021. Uh, well, one the sleep to the working out. So yeah, I got a Peloton bike at the cribs or getting back into a regular riding rhythm with that. I was going good until I Jack my backup and then I got all discouraged and I haven't been back [01:12:00] on it except for one time.

And the other thing for me is just generally creating more space. I have not done a good job of creating space for myself. And I have not said no as much as I should have, and I'm not going to shoot myself to death or, or should on myself as, as people say, I'm glad you asked me that. I think one thing that I'm noticing now and.

This will be particularly poignant for people who've been following along for a while and kind of following my journey, which is also insane when there are people who've been following you for like a decade or have been even following you for years, or you meet them in real life and you go to tell them something.

They're like, Oh yeah, I know. I remember when that thing happened and they've just been following. I mentioned that because you know, up until now, There has been a lot of the comparison and getting to the next level and all, man, I see this person shine in an Oh man, she got two mil in that portfolio and I just got my day job.

And now I'm starting to see some of [01:13:00] those returns and some of those blessings come in. Okay. Uh, and I'm realizing that there's going to be a lot more of that. And I think because I wasn't used to the speed at which things were coming in, I was just like, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. It was almost like a reverse version of, of the fixed mindset where I was like, Oh, opportunities.

Ah, I can't turn down these opportunities. I got to take them all. I got to catch them all like a Pokemon. And that put me in a position where like, I, I, I almost got burnt out and I was feeling like really down. And I've decided that for 2021, if that means hiring more help. If that means taking less projects, I told you when we had a conversation offline that even working with a podcast sponsors, like I put that on the back burner, just because it wasn't worth the effort and, and the headaches to, to work with some of these companies while I'm going to be doing more in 2021.

Also going to be a lot more strategic about how I create space for myself and the way that I complete task. And I'll talk more about this on a future episode, but even we're working on, on creating a [01:14:00] YouTube channel. So I'm letting that cat out the bag. I won't, I won't say what it's on, on this, on the show, but let net out the bag.

I'm not going to do that thing where it's Sunday night and the episodes got to go up or the clips got to go up on Monday and it's Sunday night at 2:00 AM and I'm up editing, knowing that I got to go to my day job at 8:00 AM, and then it's just as vicious cycle and I'm scrambling and scrambling and scrambling.

This month, December, like this is all setting me at this point. I'm doing all my recording is setting all of my stuff up so that when I go into January, February, yet, there's stuff that I'm working on, but I've got breathing room and it's not just deadline on top of deadline on top of deadline. That's like super top of mind for me right

Teri Ijeoma: [01:14:39] now.

That sounds good. I can't even top that. I think that's dropped the mic. That's good.

Rich: [01:14:45] It's man, being in Greece in Eaton, I was gonna say, eat in Greek salad. I'm like that's so cliche, like go to Greece and they probably only eat Greek salad there, but

Teri Ijeoma: [01:14:56] I don't think I would resell well, I went [01:15:00] last year and.

You know what? I can't even think about the food in Greece. I'm thinking about like the food in Israel, the hummus they're like legit was the best hummus I've ever had. So

Rich: [01:15:13] one day Santorini will be for me and hopefully those who, uh, join the course and start making a thousand dollars a day so they can live that lifestyle that they want.

And Teri, it's been fantastic having you on the podcast and I'll say. In particular talking about some of the things aside from investing, because you've been on a lot of different podcasts. I encourage people to go check out both of the episodes that you've done with Jameela, from journey to launch both fantastic episodes.

Uh, I've really enjoyed having a chance to chat with you about some of the mental and, and some of the other things that come up with being a business owner is succeeding. The angsty achievement, the. Uh, self-hate that we, we don't even realize that we're participating in. And, uh, where can people find you around the web?

If they want to learn more,

[01:16:00] Teri Ijeoma: [01:16:00] find me on all platforms at trade and travel. So YouTube, we have Austin trade and travel, Instagram trade and travel, Facebook trade and travel. And now on Instagram, I also have a Terri Joma Instagram, where you can just check me out and what I'm doing.

Rich: [01:16:16] I love it. I love it. And I don't think, ah, am I following that?

Teri Ijeoma: [01:16:19] I don't know. Yeah, you might following it. It used to be, I'm an investor. We used to be, I'm

Rich: [01:16:24] an investor

Teri Ijeoma: [01:16:27] and we do have a free webinar. If they go to I trade and travel.com, there's a free webinar as well.

Rich: [01:16:33] Folks, go get on that. And if you're ready to get moving on the courses and look more into that specifically, again, pay bow pay bal.co/trade and travel.

Check that out, Teri. Thank you so much. I really hope you enjoyed that conversation with Teri. She's doing a lot of dope things and we'll be doing even more in 2021. So I encourage you to check out trade and travel by visiting [01:17:00] paybal.co/tradeandtravel. And if you did enjoy this episode, be sure to share with your networks so they can get in on this goodness too.

And if you haven't already subscribed to the podcast. So, you know, when the latest episode is out in the Streeets and if you want to take it a step. Further joined the private and free email community by going to paybal.co/email again, that’s paybal.co/email. You'll get the bi-weekly newsletter with actionable tips, interesting reads and more, and last visit paybal.com/shop to check out the merge and support paychecks and balances.

I know I had a lot of plugs today, but that's what happens when I go to twice a month format. So thank you for bearing with me. Thank you for listening. One more episode to go for 2020, and I'll talk to you soon until then. Bye I'm out. Peace. [01:18:00]