#58: Wealth Circle Transformation Series: Meet Chantal S.
Episode Summary
Chantal is a serial entrepreneur who currently runs two businesses and is planning to launch a third. In this episode you'll hear: what led to the stratospheric growth of Chantal's clothing embroidery business, Read Receipts, in the last year; how Chantal used lessons from her Wealth Circle to capitalize on these gains as much as possible; and the valuable lessons she's learned as a businesswoman along the way. TLDR: side hustles are real, y'all.
Episode Notes
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Transcript
Today I'm interviewing Sean tall as a factory member who I'm so excited to talk to about the business asset class. She is a serial entrepreneur and has two companies and is launching a third, you definitely have to check out her company called read receipts. It's a custom embroidery business that basically exploded on Instagram, when the niece of vice president Kamala Harris, and Sophia Bush started wearing her shirts. We're going to dig into all the details of starting those two businesses and where they're at today, as well as talk through what her new business is about to be. One last thing before we dive in, on May 27, we are hosting an intro to investing workshop. If you're new to factoria new to personal finance, or just want to start dipping your toes into the world of investing. You have to come and you're welcome to bring your friends along. link to sign up will be in the show notes.
This is a leg up in the wet Brantley and you're listening to the coffee and coin podcast where women talk well, I'm the founder effect aura, a company on a mission to lead 1 million women to 1 million in net worth. On this podcast I sit down with factorial alum to share their financial stories, real numbers and how they've transformed their financial lives to prove that it's possible for anyone listening.
Welcome back to another episode of Coffee and coin. I have shantelle s on the pod with me. Welcome to the show. Hello. Thank you so much for having me. I'm a longtime listener. First time guest first time guest her better in my head, but really excited to be here. Let's kick it off with letting the audience know a little bit about who you are, where you're from, and where you're doing this podcast guesting from. Yeah, so I am from Austin, Texas. I am now back in Austin, Texas after a little bit of life experiences out in the world. I'm currently sitting in my parent's garage slash laundry room, which is also my studio. And yeah, I have two businesses to small businesses. One is called read receipts that's embroidery on shirts and sweatshirts, and the other is Shontelle ceramics where I do a mixture of pottery and sculpture. I wish and maybe in the future, you all will be able to see her background, it is so beautiful. It's got all sorts of ceramics and flowers and just vibes total vibe to you. You can't see the other half of the room that which is the laundry machines and lots of boxes. I didn't even know you were in a garage like I would have had.
By the way, garages is where all the best businesses get started from. It is true. And that will be the opening chapter of my book one day, I'm sure. Oh, I love it. Well, okay, first of all, it's very unusual to meet someone who's born. Are you born in Austin? Technically born in the beautiful town of Temple, Texas, which is outside Waco, but I grew up my whole life basically in Austin. Okay, well, that's very unusual. I feel like
it's from anywhere but Austin. So that's quite cool. And let's take it all the way back since you are calling in from your parent's garage, aka video for your small businesses. Talk to me about what your very first money memory was. Yeah, so my first money memory, I have the memory of a goldfish, mind you. So it was a bit hard for you to reach back there. But probably when I was maybe five or six, my sisters and I have three sisters, one older and two younger we would put on a market. And it was a market just for ourselves. It was just the four of us with this little market and we would take things of our personal belongings and we would sell them to each other. So I remember the thrill of kind of going around my room and shopping for my own knickknacks and souvenirs that I liked but not enough to not sell to my sisters. And we would lay them out on the carpet. I'd spend forever making the my shop sign I called it chanterelles. Bizarre, I think I just learned the word bizarre and was really excited about that. And I just it was so exciting that I this concept of taking an object that I owned and exchanging it for actual money. I mean, it was like dimes and nickels at the time. And it was probably me more just like scamming my younger sisters. But it was so exciting. And I I just remember that thrill of of getting money in exchange for things and I think if I had to kind of retro actively psychoanalyze myself, that was sort of the start of baby shondells entrepreneurial Lust for Life, if you will.
For sure, and I love that, that you guys had this market. How often did you have it? And did you include any other family members? Or this is just a sister market? That is a great question. I'm pretty sure it was just a sister market. I'm not even sure if my parents were like fully aware that we were upstairs like haggling prices with each other and like selling things that they had given us to each other. And I have a memory of doing it multiple times. I was trying to ask my sisters like, Do you guys know when we would do this? And my younger sister was actually the only one who was like, Yeah, we did that like a couple of times. And I kind of want to bring it back. I feel like they've got some things I could kind of sell to them. You know. I love that so much. And I definitely feel like that probably did mark the beginning of your entrepreneurial journey, which was laying wait for years to come. Talk to me a little bit about how you found factoria when you took a while circle and your financial strategy and mindset before you started your wall circle? Yeah. So I did the wealth circle and fall of 2020. So this past fall, I found it because last summer, I'd signed up for this online summit, I believe was was geared towards women and small businesses or entrepreneurs. And I saw you were doing a talk. I didn't know who you were at the time, but your talk was called six figure savings. And I was like, Yes, please sign me up for that. And I remember you came on the screen. And immediately I was just like, there is so much positive energy here and so much knowledge, I felt you had like the sense of urgency of like, Guys, I don't have a lot of time, I have to tell you as much as I can, in this 45 minutes, you also have this amazing painting behind you of the zebra and the Panther. And I'm not gonna lie, I think 10% of the reason I signed up back to I was I just loved that painting. And I was like, I want to be whatever this is going on. I have to just pause you and shout out to the walk the factory, a woman who painted this for me, her name is Lauren. And she's I actually commissioned her to do another one. It's going to be a rhino and a leopard. Because I really do think like this is the ultimate factoria look and feel like and I have loved this image which used to be on a woman named lc dewolf wall. It was a mural in her Los Angeles home. She basically is like so cool. I don't know if you've heard of her, but she kind of started the way that you charge for home interiors like to have an interior designer, because kings and ambassadors and all these people with symbols behind their name, I don't even know what you call them. I was like I was gonna say debutantes, but that's
intense, extreme, people love style. And so she was one who kind of figured out how to price because she just kept pricing higher and higher and higher, and everyone's still want her. But all of that to say she had a mural in her home that was very similar to that. And I'd always wanted that picture. And then when I met a woman in a factory wall circle, who was like, I can paint I was like, could you paint this?
She was like, I can try and it's so good. It's a better version of what LC had. And when I pulled it back up, because I love this image since I was a 12 year old girl was the first time that I realized that those were Okabe plants. I just didn't know what they were before. I just always thought it was pretty. And then I was like, Oh my god, I'm in Texas where it
is. And I need this a god a plant jungle scene. Yeah, you got to keep it front and center. It's a very good painting. So it's like this painting is amazing. Allegra seems amazing. And then in the course of this 45 minutes, I think like a drop in the bucket of knowledge that you were giving us was a high yield savings account. I had never heard of a high yield savings account. I quite frankly thought maybe you were getting your numbers wrong. Or like you were confused because I was like, This can't be a real thing. I googled them after your talk. They are a real thing. I cannot say what I was just like, Is there a conspiracy to keep these away from people? Because why are we not? Why are we not talking about how your savings account? And I just remember being like if if that is something mind blowing that I can learn from this short talk. There's got to be so much more information that I do not know. And I remember then immediately you know, going to coffee and coin podcast and bingeing every episode. The great thing about working with your hands, ceramics and embroidery is you have a lot of time to just listen to podcasts. So I listened to every episode of Coffee and coin and then you know that leads you into like the open house podcast and then you realize you're all friends with each other.
Think like the first episode of Coffee and coin you're sitting down with women from maybe the first wealth circle and you're all having so much fun talking about money. And that was just such a new concept to me. I didn't talk about it with my friends. And this idea of woman like laughing over wine and talking about finance and you know, investments and then hanging out later. I was like I want to be a part of this community. And knowing that there's really no the slack community you get to join I was like I need to have a kind of go to source of information where I can ask questions and I can learn from other people.
So it was really a no brainer to sign up for vector for me. I love that so much. And now you are a part of that community, which is so awesome to be growing all of these women in it. Also, I'm sitting here and I'm like, wow, I love that you can just intake knowledge with the type of role that you have working with your hands. I'm the odd. I haven't said to john tell before we started I was like, well, we have to keep this podcast about 3040 minutes because people don't have a commute now it's COVID but I forgot about you know, so many people who are doing creative work and can be just ingesting knowledge all day long. I really wish that was me. Unfortunately, I'm having to create text and content. I love that I get to kind of just yeah, imbibe information. I've gone through my phases of murder podcasts, and then I've done audio books I listened to like or dad Rich Dad, yes. on audiobook after getting the recommendation. And then for a long time, it was just NPR like leading up to the election. And then I burnt out of that. And now I haven't listened to NPR in ages cuz I'm like, I can't do anything right now. But no, it's a great way to just listen to lots of finance podcasts. So good. I love that. Okay, well, thanks for introducing us to how you found me In fact, Torah. Talk to me a little bit about your relationship with money and your finances before you took a while circle. My relationship with money was, it was kind of intangible. I didn't feel like I had a grasp on money. It was something that I knew could bring great things, my parents priorities when it came to money. We're spending it on travel and education. So traveling the world has been amazing. And I know that something you can do from money. And so it's always been something that I'm like, okay, it's a good thing to have, how can I get it, but I didn't have any strategies when it came to money. I lived in New York for five years after college, I went to college in St. Louis, wash you Go Bears, and then move to New York and save just absolutely nothing. I moved to New York for an unpaid internship, which should be criminal. And I could only do with with help from my parents. There's no other way to live in New York City and not have a paying job. And so I quit the internship after a while it was amazing. And you know, it was a magazine I really liked. But I just I needed money. And I knew I needed money. And it wasn't like my parents were threatening to cut me off that I had to go find a job. It was just me being like, that is something adults need to do, obviously. And so. But I got a job at anthropology, anthropology and Chelsea Market. I don't know if you're familiar with that one.
I think I spent every dollar that didn't go towards my rent on candles on anthropology, candles, because the employee discount was so great, I was surrounded by beautiful things I was didn't understand finances. So I just bought a lot of candles. And thankfully, I wasn't there for very long until I got my first salaried position. But I would not recommend working in anthropology if you're trying to save money. But I just I had no sense of anything. Well, and not just anthropology, I thought about this a lot. I think it's very exploitive the retail industry because they give you such significant discounts on their products, because that's easy for them to do. So you get your paycheck, and you're like, oh, anywhere else, I'd have to pay full price. But here, I could have a 40% discount. So I'm going to buy everything here, which really just gets them more money. I don't like it very much like I do like that there is a benefit for employees. But I especially think with women who haven't been educated financially, well, none of us have, right, it's not in our school systems, and we don't necessarily get it at home, which is why I create a factory cuz I'm like this is unconscionable that 18 year olds sign off on student loans or get credit cards and don't understand the mechanics or the industry behind them. But regardless, I do think it's just interesting, those retail jobs and I had the same situation I worked for this person, Bad Company in college, and I just coveted their stuff because I was around it all day long. And literally bank a paycheck to buy a pair of high heels that I do not own today.
I rectum partying, and I don't know, it's interesting, how hard it is to make income and how easy it is to spend it. Oh, yeah. And I remember like, after my my first factor a session, I talked to my parents and I was like, Hello, why did you not explain any of this to me? Why am I learning at the age of 29 so many concepts about personal finance that I had no idea about? And my mother was like, excuse me, I gave you a Suzy Orman book for Christmas when you were 15 and you didn't read it? Well, what 15 year old wants to read a book about money you have to like think about your audience. So right it was not for lack of trying on their part. But I both I guess was lacking the interest as a young child, but also definitely like a formal education around what to do with money, for sure. And I would even say when I started learning about money and was reading those books, it still wasn't the same as being able to read and then talk through a concept or read and then do a spread
sheet that was related. So I could learn about the concept. That's my factor, we really tried to build a curriculum that's learn, and then take action right away. Otherwise, you can read these books all day. And you know, I read all these books, and I still didn't take action. And there's something so different, just like you were saying, with your mom, you got to understand your audience, like a 15 year old is probably not going to read something and definitely isn't going to apply it, especially if they don't have a credit card or bank account, account, or all of them to kind of make moves. So that was kind of my new york experience, definitely saving absolutely nothing. I had a 401k through my w two jobs, which I didn't understand the concept of a 401k. No one really kind of like sat me down and explained it to me, and I knew it had to do with your retirement. But I was like, that's so far away, and I was barely making any money anyway. And so I was contributing probably the absolute minimum. But then I moved back to Texas after a while. And that's where I kind of got read receipts and ceramics company going. And I still didn't have a strategy. But I was able to save a lot more purely because I was living at home, not paying rent to my parents. I don't have a car, I use their car, so really just purely mooching off of them. But I knew that I wanted to save money so that I could eventually leave my parents house. But I didn't have any strategy towards that I had gotten i'd received a really big lump sum of money from the sale of a family business, I received $180,000, which is a ton of money. And I got it, I didn't know what to do with it. So I put it into my bank of america saving account, which I thought was like a great job. I was like I did it, it's there. I'm not touching it, it's gonna grow. And my bank of america savings account was at the time point 06 interest, like I was losing money to inflation, I had no idea and I thought I was doing correctly, which was leading up to factor me being like, Okay, I have this huge chunk of money, which I'm so lucky to have. And I need to figure out how to actually do something with it, we've actually found that that's one of the big impetus for women to join, they might have a life event where they're like, okay, I really want to make sure I don't mess up with this amount of money. So let me go try and understand money a little bit better, so
that I'm being a good steward of this going forward. Let's get into numbers. What was your net worth before you joined? factoria. So my net worth before factoria was $206,926. So as I mentioned, I do feel a need to clarify 180,000 of that was given to me, I did not save for that, obviously, from New York. I had no money when I moved back to Texas. But about 26,000 of those was money I did work for in the beginning years of read receipts and ceramics. So that's what I had personally saved. Well, yes, it was, it was a very nice number. No, it's great. And and also, I was in the same boat with you. When it came to New York, I spent everything I made, I didn't even think there was another way to live. And it's funny to look back. Now. I started my career in New York making $40,000 I left making well over six figures, and I still spend everything I earned because every time I made more money, got nicer apartment, you know, went out to nicer dinners, whatever it was lifestyle creep.
lifestyle creep in New York is so rough, because you spend your early days in New York and like, Oh, I can't wait to shop at that store. I can't wait to do this. I can't wait to go. And then when you can you prioritize that, especially if you don't have the education or the understanding of how to save and grow money for future you? Definitely. Okay, well, I want to get into the fact that you are a serial entrepreneur, you currently have multiple businesses, and another one on the horizon. So
after you explain the first two, so talk to us about read receipts, how that got started, and your ceramics company. Yeah, so reader seats kind of all started back in the winter of 2016. I needed to buy Christmas presents for my sisters, but I did not want to spend money on Christmas presents for my sisters. So I taught myself embroidery, really simple, pretty terrible embroidery, and embroidered text messages that they had recently sent me that were funny, you know, they felt like inside joke and bought some cheap sweaters to do it on. And I gave it to them and they loved it. And they're like, this is a great business idea, like love the idea of text messages, you should do something with this. And I was like, yeah, definitely been a full time job at the time. And I you know, put it on the back burner. But then a year later, I quit my job in New York and moved to London. It was for a pretty short term consulting gig for a branding agency. And I knew it would be short term but I wanted an excuse to move to London because I'd always wanted to move to England, my mother's British which is great because I have a passport so I didn't need a visa. I was living with family. So again back to like not having much in the way of living expenses otherwise I wouldn't have been able to move to London. But when the
When the consulting gig came to an end, I was kind of like, Alright, where am i going from here both personally and professionally, London was a bit expensive, even just buying food to just live there. So I moved to a small town outside of London called Winchester, which is where my grandmother lives and had a great time in Winchester, I was living with her, I had no social life. So I was truly not spending money just hanging out with my grandmother, going for long walks in the countryside, Kenya, like I was in Pride and Prejudice, all that and I was like, this is the time to start an embroidery business, like if there's ever a time to start a company. And it's when you are not paying any money, because you're living with family. So I started it, hence why my domain is.co.uk, which is very confusing to people, it started as just custom embroidery. And my whole shtick was like text messages, I was trying to get people kind of, you know, prompt to give me their custom messages because people kept being like, I want to get one, but I don't know what to put on it. So that's why it's called read receipts. It's kind of the idea of like, hey, like, I got your text, here's the receipt on a sweater read receipts.
And it's it's grown a lot since then. And two other things. But when I decided I want to get serious about read receipts, I realized I had to move back to the States because that's where my network was. That's where my customers all were in my shipping prices were so high shipping everything from the UK to the States. And I was like I need to just move back there. And also my boyfriend was still in New York at the time and long distance is terrible. So that was a big part of also why I moved back. So I moved back to Texas moved in with my parents for a short term kind of launching pad, there was no way I could pay rent and also kind of get read receipts to grow. Because it was it was a pretty slow growth. At the time it felt you know, one order feels like a ton when you're starting a business. But I knew I would have to just be at home and saving money. So I moved in. My boyfriend eventually followed and moved in with my parents. We are both still here. Thanks to the pandemic. It has been an adventure everyone has been wonderful. And it's been actually really great experience. But we had dinner my boyfriend I for the first time alone last week for the first time in over a year, which is just wow, it is something but anyway, that's all to say moved back home really started focusing on reader seats. I had enough time that I could start another brand reader seats was not taking all my time and sculpture and ceramics was my first love. So I started shawntel ceramics, I started at a studio downtown Austin. So fees for that were like $100 a month,
which is a much higher overhead than I had for read receipts. When I started read receipts, there's basically like no initial capital that I had to put into it. It's literally a needle and thread. I was doing everything by hand, I wouldn't buy the garments until someone bought one. So I was never kind of out money. And then I was paying even now my operating costs per month are about $100 It's my Squarespace I use shipstation for my for my shipping software, and my domain costs, but everything else, you know, is kind of as orders come in when I purchase things. It was a great company to get into because I didn't have to put a lot on the line for it. So you started the business in 2018. Is that correct? I started the very end of 2017. So basically the beginning of 2018. Okay, so can we get into how much you made in year one and year two? Yeah. So I was crunching the numbers. I do everything by revenue, since I am not taking a salary. Basically any money that comes in just kind of stays in my read receipts account. So my monthly revenue for my first two years, averaged about $1,000 a month. That's my revenue. So it was it was a slow burn. year three started picking up it was more like $5,000 a month in revenue. And then this past year, which we're obviously like halfway through is now over $18,000 a month in revenue, which is incredible.
Yeah, no. And the reason that I wanted you to crunch those numbers and share those numbers, and also your startup costs is because I know there are so many women who come into factoria and get excited about the idea of starting side hustles or bringing in additional income. And like that might actually be separate from like their full time work. And I recognize this as your full time work. But we always talk about the business asset class as highest risk that is also correlated with the potential of a very high reward. And that is a slow burn to spend two years only making around $1,000 in revenue, that's not gross profit a month, and then get into the place where your company's paying about $20,000 a month. I mean, it's hard to have a salary that brings in $20,000 a month and I still get that that's revenue. But if your operating costs are still so low, you're starting to make an awesome profit. So yeah, I'm really excited and factorio really helped me kind of zero in on my goal is for you to see it was actually it was during my factoria circle that things like really kind of took a turn, I guess the beginning of 2020 kind of leading up to the 2020 election. I sort of think
My Nisha read receipts, I moved away a little bit from the custom embroidery and started doing more like internet memes and voting merch and those two concepts together. I think were kind of what helped me hit my stride. So leading up to the 2020 election, I had done a shirt that said, you know, Camila to pronounce the beep, which was a riff off of all the shirts I was saying that said comrades pronounced common law. And so I made the shirt. I don't know how but the lovely Nina Harris comos. Nice saw it and got it. And it was like this perfect storm of I don't know if you remember but senator Perdue of Georgia at a rally like grossly mispronounce commas name and it was terrible. And so Mina had my shirt that said, it's pronounced beep and posted it that day, and anyone posting your work is great, but someone with a big audience is better. So I got a lot of orders through that. And then I think from her post, like Sophia Bush saw, which is amazing, you know, One Tree Hill dreams and posted herself in it. And then I got a DM that kind of popped up on my phone was from someone I didn't know. And it was like, hey, like love your shop. And that's always the kind of message I'll get from, you know, an influencer being like, send me free stuff. So I was like, but I went to her profile. And she had, she had like a million plus followers. So I was like, I think we can make this work. I think I can send you something. So I sent her sweater. And the day that Biden was announced as the winner. She posted herself in it. She was an ex Bachelorette. I don't watch The Bachelor. So I didn't know she was
people who are listening might know what's her name, Becca kufrin. I think that's how you pronounce it. She's so lovely. And she posted it the day that Biden one. That day, I made $34,000 in sales. And that day, that 24 hour span $34,000 that is more than I made the first two years combined every receipts. So it was a very emotional day, for many reasons. The champagne was flowing, I was excited about Trump leaving, I had this like insane blow up on my phone. So that was incredible. And that week, I had my wealth circle, you know, yeah, and that was my high of The Week, obviously, everyone was like, because they had heard me saying how, you know, I'm struggling to get orders out. And so they were very excited for me. But I had to basically close my shop down because I had to focus on on these orders. And now I'm trying to focus on how to scale read receipts, which is something I did a lot of kind of thinking about during my factory assignments, when it's a lot of, you know, what, what are your dreams with your business? If you started a business, where do you want to go with it? And I was like, Well, I do have one? What am I doing here
and realizing that my interest and what I love about read receipts is is the creative side. Same with ceramics, I love making things, I love designing things, but I don't love necessarily producing them, I have at some point graduated to an embroidery machine. So I don't do as much stuff by hand. But I don't need once I have the file made, I don't need to hit the button on the machine, I don't need to be folding the shirts, I'm not bringing value to shipping logistics. So my boyfriend started helping a ton with just running to the post office cuz that's like a 40 minute round trip from us. That's not stuff I need to go to putting my time into when I could be making more designs to then sell more. So I am now focusing on talking to some local partners in Austin about you know, helping me produce them helping me ship and fulfill, which I'm really excited about so I can get back to just like putting out more designs. So it's been a wild ride. But I'm really excited for like what's coming next. Okay, first of all, I had chills from your story, because I remember when I was growing up, and you were getting reposted and everyone in the wall circle was so excited for you. But just to hear the whole lead up and how you kind of switched the business from custom to more of this internet meme, which is like you guys have to follow her on Instagram. It's at read underscore receipts, you will be delighted This is a beautiful page with such hilarious and playful designs. So I love that you kind of took the time to get really intentional and think about what of this business do I love? And can I provide the most value in and what can i automate so that this can be a revenue generating thing that also doesn't deplete my energy by doing all the different pieces of being a small business. So, so many props to you for like finding where are my strengths? I want to focus on that and where are the things that I can automate and move off my plate? Yeah, definitely. Thank you.
Um, one thing I was really exciting to kind of see in practices we talk a lot, in fact to her about your mission to you know, bring a million woman to a million dollars in net worth is that women who have more money than spread more money, and because I'm in a position where I have a lot of savings, I have almost a living expenses because I'm at home, I am able to kind of donate more of what I'm making. So when I have a political message, that is you know, to raise money for something I am able to take that space and give to organizations that I feel like are important.
Whereas if I was like struggling to make rent or you know, putting food on the table, I think I would not be able to be as as generous with with my revenue, my profit. And that is something that I really hope to be able to increase upon as I make more money or as I am able to kind of bring in more profit is how can I share that more. So that was something that I also realized was important to me kind of going over my values during factory. So it was an exciting kind of realization. I love that so much. Women are so generous. So when women have more money, we're just going to be more generous, because we are naturally inclined to do so. You know, I think sometimes it may rub people the wrong way. When I'm like, I want to help women become millionaires. It's not so women are going to be gluttonous, like, well, if you want to jet jets that by all means, but it's because I know the spillover effect because I watch it always like women take this well circle, and then they go back and talk to their sisters and their families. And like even Hawking is helping because we weren't doing that before. But absolutely, when you get your business from making $1,000 a month to around $20,000 a month, you have so much more flexibility in your budget to say, hey, I want to get back to a community or to something that is important to me. And I have the means to do it. And that I want everyone to have more. It's not a zero sum game. You know, we all win. Women have more money. Right? Okay, so talk to me about ceramics. We understand how read receipts got started. How did ceramics come into the mix? Yeah, so ceramics, I started it. Oh, gosh, I think maybe a year and a half ago now. And as I said, When I started, I had all the time in the world to kind of you know, make sculptures and try out different mug candle designs. And then I would do like a drop once a month where I would try and sell everything. And it did really well because I wasn't producing a lot and a lot of my friends are very supportive. But then as things picked up with read receipts, it was harder to continue doing ceramics. So I mostly do some wholesale orders or or bigger projects. I did some mugs for sweet green when they opened up on South Congress, which was really awesome. That was a very cool experience. And I just did some mugs for CSA foods, which is really cool. But the ceramics overhead definitely higher. I mean, the biggest ticket item I've ever purchased in my life was my kiln is about $4,000. And I was like, so scared to spend it. But I knew that I needed to kill them. If I wanted to actually get serious about ceramics, which I did. And thankfully, the timing worked out because I decided to be self sufficient for a studio and in my parents house right before the pandemic. So I just gotten my kill. And I just gotten a slab roller, I just gotten work tables and the pandemic kit. So I was able to continue working on ceramics to the pandemic, which has, you know, been a lifesaver. I think I took a lot of what I learned from reader seats, and I applied it to starting ceramics, I don't think I would have had the guts to start something that had a higher overhead if I hadn't had that initial experience of like, taking a little bit of money and making it a bit more. And now it's like I can take a bit more money and figure out how to make that even more money. So my goal now is to figure out how to balance the two and be able to do both, but I don't think that will come until I kind of figure out how to automate reverse seats a bit more. Well, first of all, I just love the idea that investing in one business allowed you to grow enough capital to create a second. I mean, you are a total business investor. So should we go on to your newest concept? And what you're thinking?
Hard to balance. Talk to me about how you get the third. Oh, my family's always like shovel are you? Are you sure you want don't want to just kind of keep focusing on the one that you are barely keeping up with? And I'm like, Nope, I need more.
So yeah, so I specifically remember sitting on my backyard journaling as a factor assignment I was journaling about, about what I was doing with read receipts and what I wanted my life to be in what was important to me. And I realized that you know, what I was talking about earlier about a lot of read receipts work being something that doesn't either give me joy, but also I don't think I need to be doing and I was like how can I start another brand where I put those into action where I just from the get go, don't need to be doing everything myself. The idea of passive income, you know, making money in your sleep is the dream for anyone. And so I am starting a brand I'm working I'm still working on launching it right now. It's called send moods. I was gonna call it send nudes, but I figured it would always be in everyone's spam folders. And basically it is another apparel company, so it's shirts and sweatshirts. And I'm using a print on demand company to make them so a print on demand company for those who aren't familiar, is a company that you don't have to have any minimums. They make everything as an order comes in and they produce they make this shirt to the sweatshirts and they fulfill them so they ship them they they do everything. So once your design is up, you're done. Like you obviously have to mark it and you have to advertise it but you don't have to do any of the production for
Filming. So I'm really excited to try this out, it's scary because you definitely lose some of your quality control, you lose, you know, control over what you're sending out to your customers because you don't see it. So I'm very nervous about that. But I think that as a growing pain I need to come to terms with also like a big part of read receipts. This is how I package them. I love you know, getting themed washi tapes that goes with the design that I'm packaging, and my twine and my handwritten notes, and that it's going to probably, you know, with some moods, it'll arrive in like a black plastic plastic bag. So that is unfortunate. But I'm really excited because I mean, it's funny to me, because it is purely like an outcome of taking factorio was me realizing what I wanted to do and what I needed to do. And I'm really excited. I mean, the basically just shirts that are going to be featuring like open access paintings that I love from art history that say various phrases that rhyme with certain moods. So if it's like a guy in a Renaissance painting will say send dudes or if it's like someone playing a lute, it'll say send lutes It's very, it's a little bit nice. I think it's funny, and I'm really excited to do it. And I I'm also very much seeing as an experiment, I'm realizing that I got pretty lucky that I'm continuing with read receipts, and it's and it's lasted this long, but I'm very aware that a lot of companies don't, and that this could very easily fail. And because I'm okay with that, I'm open to that. It's not holding me back from just starting it. So yeah, so stay tuned for a sun moon.
So many things in there, one, just the like vibration sness. And the velocity at which you're willing to go into a new business and also come at it from the mindset of this is an experiment. And even though it's an experiment, it's coming with all the learnings from your other two companies, which means Sure, it's an experiment, but it's not a first time experiment, right? Like it's an iteration of everything you've learned. And I think that that's so cool. And, and such a reason for any listener who might have an idea to just get started, like you just you started something. And now you have less fear and more ability to start something else because you learn and you grow. And I mean, what is life? If not that just constant learning, create and grow? Yes, agree and applying what you've learned and how you've grown forward. So I love that so much. I'm very excited for said moods. I also I we need to collaborate somehow we need to do like some fact Torah. Like,
let's do it. Yes. We don't have we have one hat. And I have to say like, we were so excited about these hats, their baseball caps, which I thought would be fine and cool. But they're like short forehead. I don't know. We all look like cats are hard. I try to get into hats and there are too many shapes and brands. And yes, that's that's a hard we look like, what's the baseball guy that sits at the back and he does the catching? We look like catchers that
are not going to be sports references.
I really say they look like penis caps. But I don't know if I should say I'm trying to think of what the guy's name is. They're short and they're funky. And so we don't obviously want to sell them so we're like, Alright, we're done with hats. We need to bond. So let's definitely do a collaboration. Yes, I would love Yes. Okay. Okay, so that's that's happening. So be be aware audience whether you are or aren't a fact or a woman we're gonna have merge coming to you soon. Get your wallets. I know, right. I've also loved the idea of doing like little money. pouches. Like you obviously don't have to keep money in there because a lot of people don't care on cash, but you need somewhere to put your EarPods right so like I still think
versus love that idea. Yes. Okay. Well, financial changes. Talk to me about the money moves you've made since joining factoria and yeah, we'll start with that and then we'll hear the big networth reveal. Yeah, so my money moves were very exciting. My first step was to open the high yield savings account that I learned about might well my first step was to tell everyone I know about it I tell my sisters down and I was like guys, I need to open this immediately. And so anything I learned I just send it their way so like why not share the wealth you know, to open a high yield savings account I basically put every dollar I had that I didn't need to keep in my checking to make sure I was covering my bills I put that into the the account I opened with ally you pronounce it ally or Alli? I've not talked to them but enough women have been calling an ally so we call it ally ally is great for women. Yeah, it's my ally. It looks after my money so yeah, okay, so but it with ally, and then I opened after a little bit of indecision paralysis, I opened two brokerage accounts to robo advisors. Really great advice I got from someone on slack was to just open to if you can't decide between two open
them both, you don't have to have the very best one out there because there probably is not one that is, you know, officially the best. And I couldn't decide. And they're like, just open them both give them both a year. And then at the end of the year, you can see which user interface you like better, which one you just enjoy using more. So I opened one with betterment and one with wealthfront. haven't made my decision. Yeah, how's it going? Good. I like both of them. I feel like I get more excited to opening my betterman account. But I think it's because I have more money in that one. So that probably is the the reason. But yeah, I really am really enjoying them. I'm trying to I have a Google Calendar, I have not automated because I'm trying to every month when I move money from my high yield savings into my robo advisor accounts, try and do as much as I can, but keep it around 2000, because I am doing dollar cost averaging, which is something I learned so that I'm not putting a ton of money into the stock market at once. But that has been really exciting. And then having an emergency fund, I obviously had the money in my account. But now I have like a specific bucket and my ally account and my ally account that is for emergencies. And it's $20,000, I never would have thought to make sure that I have you know a specific amount that is definitely not to be touched unless I have an emergency. And knowing that I have that makes me a feel like an adult and be feel really good knowing that if anything were to happen. I have something that is kind of tucked away, I used to just kind of keep dollar bills hidden around my room. And now I feel like an adult because it's now online. So yeah, so those are all really significant moves. For me, my next to do list is to figure out my 401k and open up probably Roth IRA, I've been dragging my feet on that. So that is something I will be doing, hopefully next week. But I haven't I haven't left over. And I haven't really been doing much with it. And it now it's time to get serious about retirement, I think and planning for my future.
So yeah, so many things, I learned many things.
I wanted to just elaborate on two things you said, One, the emergency fund, the feeling of security and the sense of ease that you get when you say I have money, this amount that I've determined this is the right number for me at this life stage and say this goes into an emergency fund away from all the other buckets and goals is just the most satisfying thing ever, because it means when anything bad happens. And unfortunately, this is life, it will when it happens, you don't even have to blink, there's no financial stress. It's like oh, that's what I have that money there for. So I love that emergency funds, figuring out that number. And getting those set up is a huge win that a lot of women experience in in factorio. And then the other thing I wanted to talk about is when you opened up your brokerage accounts, and you decided to start doing dollar cost averaging just for listeners in case they don't know what that is, it's basically taking the approach that the stock market is going to go up and down. And if you put in an amount every month, then you don't have to worry too much about trying to time the market because that's a fool's errand, you can't do it. So this way you might be buying in at months where some things are, are down in value and other months where they're up. And then that short term volatility kind of washes away. And you're just constantly going in thinking, in general, I'm bullish on the stock market, making me money in the long run. So I'm just going to add to it continuously. So love that you're doing that. And now, what is your net worth post factoria. So my net worth post factoria is $314,780, which is a 52% increase. So the thing that's exciting about that number to me is that is all money that I have, I have made and I have saved, that is like $107,000 that I've been getting from read receipts and ceramics and my freelance gigs, and saving it, which is incredibly exciting. I'm very aware that I have those saved because of the situation I'm in. And you know, the privilege, I have to just be living at home and have parents that are supporting, helping, you know, support me and pay my rent for me, essentially, since I'm living here. But I'm also very aware that I'm making the most of that until I have to start doing all those fun things myself, which will hopefully be soon. But yeah, that I mean, I used to when I would listen to coffee and coin podcast before I did factoria and women would share how you know factoria is an investment in yourself. But you always make your money back and you say if you don't if you don't feel like you're making your money back, we will refund you and I never understood what that meant. I was like what do you mean that you're you're learning something so you're getting money I didn't like compute in my head. And now I'm like, I get it like the money that I have invested in saved in an account that has a higher interest rate has given me that money back. And so now I understand how it works. And it's incredible that with education, you truly can build your wealth. And I know it just sounds like I'm just you know putting an ad out perfect for now but it's true and it's something that is really frustrating when you think about how many women don't have that and won't have that when all it is is just learning things that are out there that other people
Well, no and our gatekeeping. And so thankfully, people like you are sharing that and getting women to understand what they should be doing with their money to make it go further. So thank you.
Don't get me teary at the end of this. We're like, right?
Thank you. I mean, obviously, I'm extremely passionate about this. And I agree that there needs to be better education around it. And that's why we do what we do. Because we don't think that that education that exists is very good. Like, sure this is all online, but you have to go online, find the sources that you trust and understand. And it's all siloed. And it's like, when people are talking about savings, they might not be thoughtful about your goals, or your resources or investments or your you know, retirement plans. And so you kind of have to look at it holistically. And that's what we try and do. I factoria. But anyways, Okay, last thing I want to know. So you have a incredible $314,000 net worth, how much of that is now saved versus invested? And that's really, you know, we'll wrap up on anything, any last things you would want women to know about getting started on their personal finance journey? Yeah. So I currently have 157,000 of that is in my high yield savings account, I kind of have them split up into like the personal savings, which was the money I got from the family business sale, and then the business savings, but that's the total and then I have 152,000 in my brokerage accounts. And then I'm slowly moving them into the brokerage account. But trying to keep it all in those two realms. And how much did you have invested before factor? Zero, okay, that's what I wanted to get to, because that is so huge, that half of your net worth is invested and working on growing your wealth for you. And it's going to just keep being little money soldiers all day all night for you, as you focus on what you can do for your business to generate more wealth and like, enhance with your energy, what's already happening in your investment accounts. Yeah, the fact that I used to view $1 bill, as you know, you work you get your dollar bill, and then, and then that's the end. That's like the end of the dollar bills like life cycle. And now I see this, I see dollar bills as a totally different thing. Now they go on to do so much more for you like I was stunting their growth, and they're like, No, we want to make ourselves more for you. And so the fact that like, the idea, the very concept of money has changed. rowing is is pretty radical. It's pretty crazy. I love that. And so if someone is listening to this podcast, and they're like, just at the beginning of their personal finance journey, any words for them, oh, I have a million words. But I would say, find a community of people that you can talk to. I mean, I specifically love a community of women. I really like factoria. But I think that hearing other people's experiences make things more real for you, following people's journeys, that one woman who is in my group in my wealth circle, wanted to buy a house but wasn't quite there yet. And she was saving. And I think last week, she bought a house. And it's so odd to Whitney. But it's so exciting that, you know, I see these other woman making real money moves. And it's not just, it's not just, you know, this kind of idea, or this theory, it's real actions that other women are taking that you can ask them about and find out more more information about so I think both being more transparent yourself and trying to communicate more around where you are, will help other people also learn. So it's definitely this kind of wealth of knowledge that we need to just be sharing with each other. But yeah, find a community of woman that you can talk to about this stuff that is going to make all the difference. I love that. So listeners talk about money today, with either the next person you see or someone that you feel like you're able to do that with start small, but just do it. Just Just take that little action. Well shantelle thank you so much for coming on the podcast and thank you. I'm excited for our collaboration.
I'm really excited. I'll start drawing up some ideas. Okay, can't wait. Talk to you soon. Bye.