Accountability: Julia & Caro Swap Creative Investment Ideas
Episode Summary
Today we’re offering a window into another Factora accountability partnership, which is between Caro and Julia. Together they chat (and laugh) about why they decided to become accountabili-buddies, how they've created a shared perspective on creative careers, and more.
Episode Notes
Today we’re offering a window into another Factora accountability partnership, which is between Caro and Julia. Together they chat (and laugh) about why they decided to become accountabili-buddies, how they've created a shared perspective on creative careers, and more.
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Transcript
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Hey guys, it's Caro Factora’s podcast editor. If you've been listening to our podcast for a while, then you might have heard a recent episode in which Allegra has a conversation with her accountability partner, Steph Douglas. Today we're offering a window into another Factora accountability Partnership, which is between me and Julia. Julia and I have been accountability partners for a few months. And it's honestly the highlight of my day when we hop online and talk to each other about our insane creative goals. I think it's pretty clear that we have a totally different style of accountability than Allegra and Steph. And I hope that by listening today, you get a feel for how varied these partnerships can truly be. A quick note, before we jump in, I decided to uphold the shall we say integrity of this conversation. By not getting rid of all of the silly parts and word mess ups in the conversation. I think these moments are pretty much essential to my relationship with Julia. And I hope you find them as hilarious and entertaining as I always do. Without further ado, let's get into it.
This is Allegra Moet Brantley and you're listening to the coffee and coin podcast where women talk well, I'm the founder and CEO effect Torah have company on a mission to lead 1 million women to 1 million in net worth. Because when women have more money, we'll have more power to be the change we want to see in the world. If you're ready to hear real women share their real numbers and investment journeys and have a sneaky feeling you should be doing a little more with your money, you are in the right place. Just sit back, relax and turn me up.
All opinions expressed by Team Factora and podcast guests are solely their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Factora Incorporated. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be used as the basis for investment decisions. Team Factora. And podcast guests may maintain positions in the securities or investments discussed in this podcast. So Session Six of the wealth circle, the final session happened last week, which means over 400 women joined our amazing wealth building community of women. And it's just graduation is such a fun session because we sort of review all of the timeless investment principles that we have taught you. And then we teach you about accountability and how to actually make your goals a reality. So that's why we also share accountability recordings on this podcast because they're so important to achieving your goals. Education is one piece of it. But the community piece and the accountability piece are the two other really important parts of the puzzle to continuing to build wealth. On average people who just kind of like decide on a goal, they are about 10% likely to actually achieve it. If you write your goal down, that brings your likelihood of achieving it up to 50%. If you just share it with a friend, share your goal with a friend that increases the probability that you'll achieve it to 65%. But if you meet regularly with an accountability partner, you increase your likelihood of achieving that goal to 95%, which is so close to a 100% success rate. So in fact, fun fact, Elon Musk bought Twitter after an accountability partner meeting here. Isn't that insane?
We I had no idea. See this the amazing things we can accomplish when we have accountability structures in place. It's so easy to do. And it's so fun to do, especially when you have an amazing and hilarious and fun and vibrant accountability partner like I do like within Keroh. But a lot of people don't do this. So we build accountability partners into the wealth circle, they're optional, but you can choose to participate in them. So we'll assign you an accountability partner, so you guys can share your goals and when you keep meeting to talk about those goals, you're 95% likely to achieve them. So today, Carol and I are going to share about our accountability partner meetings and how we structure them and then we're going to obviously share our real goals.
I have to say right now I can like you know when you're a little kid and you have these giggles and you're gonna get in trouble if you laugh and so you're I feel that right now because we haven't seen each other and and usually I feel like when we talk we have like a good 30 minute headway of just like just shooting the show shooting this shit bullshitter II small talk and so but I you're on a deadline,
it does kind of feel like we're like in a like you're wearing a conference room and like someone just like farted and but but everyone knows but we can't laugh but like yeah, we're gonna laugh but like not laughing makes it even more funny.
Yeah, anyways, that's if you hear a little bit of a tremor in my voice it's because I'm giddy Yeah, no, I actually I genuinely love this topic and Yeah, I mean, I think the hardest thing about this for most people is that you don't have a community of people who talk finance to begin with. And so I think that that is one of the best things that I have gained from Factora is just like having people who would even be open to this idea. I don't think I think even if I had read about this statistic about how much more likely you are to achieve your goals, I would have been like, Well, who am I going to? What friend am I going to tell about how much money I'm making and how much money Riley's making and what I want to do. And I think that this sets it up in such a safe environment, because like, the implicit thing with the Factora communities, they are already down for this. And so I think that that's really,
that's so true. It's already it's already built in to any woman that you meet. And slack is going to be down to, to talk about money with you. So I guess I want anyone listening to be able to find their own accountability partner and kind of have an idea of how to structure their own meetings. So I guess why did we become accountability partners? One, we're
in love with each other.
Obviously,
we have been working together for I guess a year now, which is actually crazy. And you are, as Allegra has mentioned, you are about to leave Factora. And I guess it was two months ago, maybe two and a half months ago that we kind of just talked in passing, about being accountability partners. And I actually think that started with us just saying like, we we think that the accountability partner partner conversations that Allegra and staff has, are so interesting. And I was saying we should get more of those for the podcast, because fascinating to hear how other people talk to one another. And then you and I were just kind of like, Wait, we should just do this in general, especially since we're both at such. We're both in such periods of flux. Like I think you and I have dynamic factors in our lives right now. Like you're seeing what's happening next. And I have like a pretty fluid lifestyle. And so I think that we thought that we would be compatible in that sense that you and I are both creatives who are really interested in alternative lifestyles and alternative investments. And so that was kind of how it started.
Yeah, that's so true. Like we have kind of similar career interests or skills. And similar like lifestyle goals. I feel like that's a really nice foundation for accountability. Because anytime that you do something, I'm like hell yes, absolutely. I guess we should start by kind of explaining your situation and then my situation. And then we can kind of go into our goals. And then we can talk about our notion board a little bit.
So by situations, you just mean my quick breakdown about how I'm earning money and what I'm saving? Yeah. Okay. So right now I'm in a bit of an interesting financial situation where I started this road trip for anyone who has been following I've been living in an Airstream with my husband. And we started this year in September in August, thinking that we were going to be totally freelance, just like taking a sabbatical. And we are now it's just, it's almost May, and he and I both got full time jobs. And our salaries have increased, I think like 200k. Like, I think last year, last year, I had like one part time job, I was launching the cover stories, and Riley was providing for both of us. And he had $120,000 salary. And this year, he has a $250,000 salary. And I am making, I think like 120,000 or 130,000. So it's just been like, yeah, it's been it's really exciting. And it's just been a huge jump of just like, Oh, now we have to figure out what to do about this. So that's something that it's about a lot. I am increasingly interested in hard assets. So I'm really interested in I've been thinking about investing in a laundromat investing in RV parks, you and I have talked about that I'm really interested in investing in like recession, proof assets, especially just because I feel very conflicted about the stock market and crypto and I don't feel like I have full understandings of of what's going on there to the point that I think I feel confident having that be my main strategy. Yeah. So that's something that we've talked about is like, I'm really interested in living a creative life. And that means creating financial streams so that I can get to a point where my writing and my main work. I don't have to worry about monetizing.
Yes, yes, 100% i Everyone in my life kind of makes fun of me because, like Caro mentioned, I'm leaving back to her at by the time of this podcast publishing, I, I won't be at Factora full time, but of course, I'm going to be around forever, like a spooky little ghost. I'm going to just haunt. I'm gonna. But I keep saying I keep saying that, like my dream. Everyone's like, what are you gonna do next? What are you gonna do next? And I have a rough sketch of a plan. But my dream is to like be able to create stuff with no feedback, which I feel like is the equivalent of what you just said. Like no one gets to chime in on any anything that I want to create, or there's just no feedback, there's no business objective behind like, creating in my ideal world, right. And that is one of the like, I think it's cool that we both share that in common for financial freedom. Like that's our definition is like creating for the sake of creating from a place of intuition and what brings us joy and not from Will someone buy this will this make money?
Yeah. And I would add to that, I think a perfect example of that, that I give to people when I talk about this is that one of my, like, serious Pipe Dreams is writing and directing an indie film one day. And Riley and I talk about that all the time. Because the more I learned about it, the more I realized that a lot of my favorite films have been created by like a Kickstarter campaign, or by whatever. And I think I'm realizing more and more like, Oh, I could do that, if we like it. That is one of the goals is like, it's not just like creating so that I can be alone in a cabin one day, it's creating a situation where I am allowed to make all of the creative decisions I want. And I'm not beholden to anyone, or their decisions, yes, for financial reasons. So I can say like, no, I really want to make this and see it all the way through. And I am not beholden to you, because I don't need your, you know, influx of cash. And so I think that is like a really exciting idea
is and you can extrapolate that out to any person's version of financial freedom is essentially some version of not being beholden to anyone's opinions or anyone's money, right? Like, we all just want to be able to do exactly what we want to do, whatever that means to you. So that's I didn't know about this indie film thing. I can totally see you being like a Greta. Greta, what's her name? A little girl, a
lady. Thank you. Yeah, it's well, it's another example. It's like, it took me I don't know, like 10 years to say out loud that I wanted to be a novelist. And so I'm trying to increase my learning curve with that. And be like, Okay, if I've been thinking about this for a year, I'm going to start saying it out loud. Because we are getting to a point also where, you know, I'm earning more money and rallies earning more money. I'm getting, I feel more confident. And so it's like, alright, the 30s, which you and I are approaching, you're not 30 yet, are you? Yes. Well, I think we're both approaching the 30 days. And I'm really trying to look at this next decade as look at what I accomplished. Since I'm 20. So much time has passed. Holy shit, we have another full decade like, wow, how exciting to think about that much time. And I think that our role, indirectly, that we've never said this out loud is like setting each other up for this period of like, okay, we've learned so much about what we want, yeah, are more clear on what we need financially. And now it's like, go time, you know?
Yes, totally. It's, it's definitely a combo of like, number one, creating a safe space for you allowed me to be able to, like, share dreams like that. Because I know, I could be like, I want to, I don't know, I feel like I could tell you that I want to do anything. And you would be like, yeah, so it's that safe space of like, dream big. And then also, it's like, okay, well, how are we actually going to make it happen? So there's a really great example of this. I was in our last countability partner meeting, Carol and I were talking about how my, my physical space, it affects me a lot. And I want it, I want to be able to work in a space that feels really beautiful and feels really lovely. And I was like, but you know, we're not going to like do a bunch of renovations right now. And Carol was like, Okay, well pick five things to do to your office that make it feel like a better space. And I did. Yeah, I haven't done my artwork yet. But I haven't picked out, I rearranged the office, I did five things. And so that's awesome. Just like even small steps like that I think are really helpful to have someone be like, Okay, you're making a big deal out of nothing, just pick five small things to do and then just do them and it and that's such a tiny example, because that's not even a financial example. But that made such a difference for me. Yeah, I
think too, that it, it just gets you in the habit of action over contemplation, which I think is a really helpful thing for anyone, but especially for people who are prone to dreaming or to thinking about things. It's like, No, you can always be taking little steps and getting into like a different mindset of okay, I'm dreaming about this. Why don't I put that to paper and actually dream about it productively for an hour and then like, Okay, why don't I tell someone about this, so that you're just changing all of your habits so that it's not a daydream? It's an actionable thing that you're moving towards, which I think is it's exciting and it makes it more fun to Yeah,
and nobody wants to show up to our next accountability meeting, not having done anything. So I think that's like a really, that's really the power of accountability as it keeps you taking, like baby action steps like you were just saying, My worst
fear is being humiliated by Julia.
It's too Hey, wait bitch
Okay, so what we did in order to keep track of all of our goals is we created a template and notion, it's really easy. Shout out to Jules Acree, who is like an influencer. In the Factora community. She's amazing. And she has a lot of notion content. So basically, we have a section for Caros goals, it's in a table format. So we have caros, 2022 goals, and there's a status column. So it's like not started in progress or complete, we have the name of the goal itself, then we have a type, whether it's like financial or professional or personal, and then the timeframe, so short, mid long term, and then like a due date. And then we have a section for me that has the same categories of goals. And then yeah, we'll update them as we continue to like complete them. And then at the bottom, we have a note section. So like notes for every meeting, and then a to Do section. So like if there are any to dues like last time I had to do was to send Carol this notion template, she mentioned like a video that I should watch. So like that was a to do for me. It's a really nice like hub, it's a way to keep track of all the things we talked about, because I think if we didn't keep track of the things we talked about, I feel like we could just spin out forever.
I agree. Yeah.
Yeah. Because we because I'm just like opening our notes from last time right now. And one of my goals is to Purchase an RV park by the end of the year. And so Keroh was because she has spent spent so much time living that fluid life as you say she had a lot of like great ideas and thoughts for opportunities for RV parks. And that was so fun to talk about. Okay, so do we want to walk through your 2022 goals?
Sure. So, my goals, what we talked about last time is that one of my big goals is that Riley and I live on my income and we save everything he makes. So right now I am making just under just under 8000 a month. But I have to put some of that away for taxes, because my Factora money isn't taxed. And that also includes our mortgage. So our mortgage is about 1900 a month, and no one is renting our house right now. So it's been okay, so far, Riley. And I actually only just started this so that the end of this week will be the first time we both get paid out of PayPal. So it hasn't technically started yet. But I'm very excited about it. And so we'll see how it goes.
Amazing. And it did Riley get a new job recently, too.
Yes, Riley got a new job. He is an Executive Director of Brand at a film company. And so I don't, it's very, very cool. I don't actually know what his paycheck is gonna look like, I think it's going to be around six or $7,000. So all things considered, we could be saving like $14,000 A month after taxes, which would be incredibly exciting. But I'm not sure how it's actually gonna go. But another goal we have. So what you and I talked about last time we spoke was that Riley is planning on going to grad school. So we're definitely putting away a lot of money there. But a new goal that I didn't talk to you about then because I didn't have it then is that I really want by the end of this year for Riley and I to have invested in a small business. So fun fact, which I'm really eager to learn more about and talk more about. But the baby boomer generation is by far, they comprise the majority of small business owners. And so there are tons of people who are retiring who have created these successful businesses who have no one to hand them over to. And so I've become kind of obsessed with that. And so I'm looking for, I want a laundromat or a storage facility, I want it to be between 305 $100,000 Which means we could put 10% down. And then we would acquire a small business loan. So we can talk more about that later. But I That's my more specific goal now because previously, we kind of had just set up a placeholder to save $1,000 By the end of the year. And I think that they want my new goal to be to to build a downpayment account for a small business and maybe try to get $50,000. And they're
so amazing, because I know that 100k was like it was a combo of your next asset plus, like family planning slash grad school, it was kind of like a big pot.
It was vague. And we still so right now we have about 35,000 saved for his tuition, which is nowhere near what we need. But we feel comfortable with it since he's going to work for the next year. And so I just have to figure out what the ratio is. But I've just become more and more interested in it. I think I was looking at houses but I don't feel comfortable with like the rental margins and all of that just because houses are becoming so expensive. It's becoming so competitive. And you have this other industry that is desperate for people to get involved. And so I'm really excited about it. I wish we could talk about it. forever. But that's kind of my my overview.
That's really exciting. Wait, so for the for the small business, you would hire like, would you run it or you're gonna hire someone to run it for you.
So that's part of what you look for a lot of these small businesses already have a hiring manager or an operating manager. So my goal would be to find either a laundromat or a storage facility that's already cash flowing. And that either has a manager who's already working there, or that has basically an employee payroll setup. So for a laundromat, if you have all the equipment paid off, you don't necessarily need a manager there all day long. You just need someone to check in on it. But it's very different from place to place. So right now, I'm just trying to scan all these different places and try to learn more.
That's amazing. I feel like there's so much to learn about, there's and this is the other cool thing about accountability partners is like, through Carol learning about this, I will also be learning about like business investing, because she's gonna be doing it. So I feel like, yeah, there's so much to learn, like, cap rate. And I'm just like throwing out terms that I know are important. But to operate in
small business loans in general, I've learned so much. And again, we'll talk about at our next accountability meeting, because I know, there'll be a little bit longer. But yeah, there's so much to learn, I already posted in Slack about it in the Factora channel, and I've gotten a bunch of resources there, which is awesome. And I'm really excited, I think it's going to be really interesting. And the last thing I'll say about it is that Riley and I have become like absolute students in like, the ways in which capitalism is failing. And I think it'll be really productive for us as humans and also as business people to actually get our hands dirty with it and be like, Alright, you're, you're coming up with all of these criticisms of how people run their businesses and how they pay employees, but you have no idea what that like, and so eager to buy a small business and pay employees great wages, and figure out how we can still profit from it and get creative so that we're not just talking out of our asses when it comes to the way that the world should be. We're actually like, No, we played we pay our employees 25 an hour, and we give them these days, and blah, blah, blah. And I think that that's going to be hopefully I know, it's probably going to be really scary and hard, but I hope that it will be like meaningful in addition to profitable.
Yeah, you know, it's like, I feel like, it's really cool. Just to think about wealth building, there's so many ways you can get creative. And I love that you're thinking about buying a business because it's such a diversification, like you kind of you do own a business yourself, like through your stories and through your writing. But I feel like having an actual business asset, that's like a boring business will be really great. That's what Cody Sanchez, yes, if you guys don't follow her on Instagram, she's like the newest obsession in the Factora our community, but she's all about buying boring businesses like laundromats or like mail rooms, storage facilities, that kind of thing. Okay, so my my goals that that Carol and I have talked about, I mean, the biggest one is Purchase an RV park by December 31. And to do that, we're looking to save 50k By September 1, and we're about halfway to that goal. So we have 25k saved for this RV park. My next financial goal was to have 55,000 in paper assets by December 1. I'm pretty close. I'm at 43 right now. So I want to put away, I guess I should I should round that up to 10.
And is that separate from Jeremy from your big boy.
That is that is separate from my big boy. So So I want to have 1010 more. Okay, I'm just gonna read receipt 1000s of 10 more $1,000. I would like to have 53,000 in paper assets by the end of the year. So that's 10,000 More than I currently have. And the so those are kind of like my big financial goals. And then kind of just as a fun, shorter term goal. For any other creatives out there, I need to redo my portfolio. And this is a big project. It's a big creative project. I'm going to turn it into a brand portfolio actually, because I want to do brand work. I don't I don't want to do copywriting work at all. So I need to like flip everything that's on there to be more focused on how I've I've helped to build brands in the past. And I also want to give it just a visual makeovers when you work with a designer. And that I want to accomplish by the end of q2, which is the end of June. So that's my due date.
So is your goal to prioritize that and then to do contract work, and that's how you save the money for your other goals.
Yeah, exactly. So I'm going to as I do these other things I'm going to my strategy is to get a contract job that is high pay low out or high pay low, low effort. Yeah, yeah.
Employers ever are like Nope.
Yeah, high pay low hours. That's like something that's easy and doesn't take up a lot of my brainspace, but we'll pay the bills. And then we'll have I'll use that extra time to work on things I really love. And I've employed this strategy before. Before I went full time at Factora. Actually, I was working, I was making six figures at a contract job. And I was doing an excellent job at my work. But just the work that they had, for me, didn't take up the full 40 hours, but they had 40 hours budgeted. So I would use the rest of that time to work on Factora. And I also launched a little vintage store. So I'm hoping to find a situation similar like that. I'm working on finding a situation similar like that, so that I can pay the bills and make good money, but then also work on my side projects, enough to build it up to where they become my main, my main projects.
I love that. And I also think so right now we're basically just talking about, like we're telling, we're talking about our goals, but I think for anyone listening, it's also we're trying to explain what our relationship is. And so I think I hope that when we next to do our accountability meeting, we should record that too, because it's really fun to hear people challenge one another to say, like the thing that we talked about all the time, which is okay, but how. And I think that's been the thing that's been so interesting is it's not that you and I have these goals, it's like the small little ways that you can prod someone to make it like a practical reality. Yes, yes. Because you have so many creative things that you want to do in addition to this work. And I think one of the things we both talked about is how we are aligning our financial goals with the things that basically nourish us. So hopefully, we can do more of this in the future. And if people love this and want to hear more,
come on in. Stick around, we'll be back. Yeah. Yeah, I feel like it's so fun. When accountability is like, it's like, I genuinely look forward to it, because it's like a friend hang that's just nourishing to the soul regardless. And I know that that's how it's definitely gonna feel. And that's how a lot of other accountability partners in the vector community feel. But it's so fun when it's also a very productive conversation. And I feel like you have shown me what is possible in terms of creative lifestyle and in terms of earning money as a creative, and I think it's just, it's the best. There's this quote that we have in Session Six, that accountability is the glue that ties commitment to the result. And I think that's really true.
And enjoy. What's the quote, we have in our accountability notion.
Okay, so the banner of our accountability notion board is a bunch of mushrooms, because I don't even remember you were like, I'm really sure we say
this publicly. I'm interested in psilocybin.
Yeah, you just landed on some kind of like, FBI alert list.
Everyone's like laundromat and psilocybin, she's laundering money
for some kind of drug drug operation, but also it was like psilocybin, but it was also like wine. So like you're just trying to get
I just, I mean, if we want to get serious about it, I'm just pretty certain that a lot of things are about to start crumbling. And I'm interested in those hard assets, baby. All roads,
honestly lead back to doomsday prepping. So that needs to be that needs to be the centerpiece. But okay, so that's the banner of our notion board is a bunch of mushrooms because hashtag psilocybin hashtag, everything is crumbling. And our quote is, you don't have to be good at something to enjoy it, which I think was set in the context of trying to find more joy in our daily lives and not necessarily be driven so much by I don't know, career, or I think, yeah, career is something that's really important to both of us. But I think we're also very, when we're trying to say, we want to feel fulfilled, and we want to feel happy. We want to feel like we're enjoying what we're doing, even if it's hard, even if it's a lot of work.
Absolutely. And I think that you and I are clearly both attracted to things that challenge us. Like, I think a lot of people who would just want to make money would just say, Alright, I'm going to dump it into the stock market, and I'm going to dump it into Bitcoin. And that's gonna be my diversification,
which is nothing wrong with that. Right, exactly. If that's your vibe, do that. That's amazing.
Exactly. And I think that you and I are really interested in being more stimulated in some ways buy like a challenge, and I'm not trying to sound annoying about it. I just genuinely think like, investing in an RV park is quite literally like an intellectual challenge. And I think that there's just something really nice to that quote about creativity, where it's like, you don't have to just pursue the things that you're already good at. You can pursue things just for the sake of pursuing them. And if you create a lifestyle where that's your strategy, then good things will
follow. Totally. We have so much to talk about in our next in our next accountability call. Remind me
to such a tease, like foreplay.
I need to talk about stimulation, low stimulation, we need I need to, I'm going to write an agenda. I'm going to write my thoughts in our little note section for next time because I've been taking this class all about reinvention. It's amazing. I'll have to share it on the podcast also, but, but part of that class is about talking about life purpose. And like what has been your life's purpose? And I feel like we would just have really interesting things to say. So, not to leave this on a cliff hanging note.
But that's what we do. That's what we
do. If you are looking to to find your own accountability partner, you don't feel like you have someone you can talk to about money. Join the wild circle. That's how I met Carol is through Factora
literally found Factora through Julian Yeah, it's it has been such a it's such a game changer. And if you're talking with women in Slack or whatever, you already know, she's pre vetted like she's she self selected into the well circle, which means she's interested in finances and she's interested in getting vulnerable. So there's no better thing that you can do then apply to the wealth circle. The link will be in the show notes. And we'll see you guys in the next one. Bye. I
miss you already.
If you enjoyed this episode, come join us in a while circle. It's our live online 12 week course and community where we teach you how to create a personalized financial plan alongside hundreds of other women building wealth. It will change your life and your money for good. You can apply at factorawealth.com forward slash wealth circle. That's factorawealth.com forward slash wealth circle. See you in the next episode.