Bye to Broke! Hello to Advice You Can Bank on from My Wealth Journey, LLC
Imagine if you could spend more time doing things that you love rather than spending time worrying about how much you’re spending!
For many of us, this isn't reality because we're held back by our own finances - but it doesn’t need to be that way!
Financial freedom is finally within your grasp.
With the right knowledge, tools, and support from Jay Stephens, founder and CEO of My Wealth Journey LLC, you can be on an exciting journey to financial independence!
What the F?
If the word financial makes you instantly want to scream a different F%$# word, then we swear that you’ll want to keep reading!
It doesn’t matter if you don’t know what a tax code is.
It doesn’t matter if you’re in tens of thousands of student loan debt.
It doesn’t matter if you’re pinching pennies instead of imagining what a life looks like where you must pinch yourself to check if it’s real.
The bottom line is that no matter how negative your current bottom line is, or what financial troubles you have today, with a good plan for tomorrow, you can be saved from not having savings.
That’s why we talked to Jay Stephens, CEO of My Wealth Journey, LLC, and got her two cents about how preparing for your future, financially, makes sense!
Her personal wealth journey includes paying off $50k of debt in 8 months, owning multiple investment properties, establishing a $100k endowment, and creating her company so that she can be an asset for people taking their first step in attaining assets on their wealth journey!
So, if you’re ready to change your life by changing how you manage your change, then start by reading Jay’s story, and then give yourself some credit by working with her, literally and figuratively!
Interview: She Makes You Laugh & Makes You Money
Be Helpful:
Take me back to August 2021. What was your first action? How did you figure out where to start?
Jay Stephens:
My first action was getting a logo. That seems so random that it was the thing I figured I needed at that moment, which is why I just paused before I said it! I was just thinking, years from now, do I really want this to be the soundbite that circulates- where people will say, ‘That’s all she did was create a logo and thought that was all she needed to get started?’
But allow me to add context to paint that picture.
In December 2020 and even before that, my job was really stressful! I kept thinking, ‘I gotta get out of here because I'm not trying to catch a case! I just know I'm gonna pop off on somebody because I don't like these people right now!’ I am intentional in praying and meditating and trying to hear what God has for me and so those were some of the things that were giving me peace during that stressful time.
“From meditating and praying, one of the things that just sat on me, and I knew I couldn't let go of, was that I needed to teach personal finance to other people and the fact that I can leave a job I don't like because I don't need the money that badly.”
So, that sat with me and in December, I started writing what that looks like out on paper. Some people do vision boards, some do manifestations. However you want to describe it, I started putting as much detail as I could to that; these are the people I'm going to reach out to, this will be my target demographic, these are the ways that I’m going to connect to them, this is what I will stand for, and this is what I will not do! I was also paying attention to what other people were doing.
From January to July, it was a lot of research. I figured at that point if this is what my mission is, if this is what I'm supposed to do in life, then I didn’t want to half-step. But I also wanted to have some kind of cut-off period because what I found for entrepreneurs is that they can get into analysis paralysis. They can overthink and never take action.
At that same time, I was also going to be relocating to Texas. I was in DC, and I was just trying to have a synchronous approach to it; this is when you can start the business, this is when you're moving, this is how you’re going to line things up! So, although my first action in August was to get a logo, there was a lot that went on before that with getting myself ready and knowing how I was going to approach things.
My sister and brother-in-law have a graphic design business and they said they wanted to support my business by creating my logo. So that's how it officially became a thing!
“I felt like once I had a logo, and once I had an IG handle, as small as that may seem, that was saying, I am here in the world! This is me! This is Jay and this is My Wealth Journey, LLC, and this is how I present myself.”
The identity that the logo gave me fueled a lot of my follow-up actions like registering for trademarks, creating my website, and putting myself out there to actually gain customers, not just simply have a logo and a handle!
Be Helpful:
When I think about personal finance, I think about the businesses that can exist in personal finance, like accountants or investment managers, and so many other types of businesses that can touch your money. How did you figure out where you were going to carve your own niche in the space? How did you figure out what you wanted your customer base to be?
Jay Stephens:
My process was a combination of seeing what was out there and seeing who gravitated toward me.
So, I'll break down both of those.
When it came to understanding who was out there, I looked to see what other people were doing in the finance space. And like you said, there are people who will manage your funds for you, there are people who will give you investment advice, there are people who will tell you how to flip homes, how to coupon hack, and all kinds of things that you can get into for ways to make your money.
“I paid attention to what I liked and didn’t like about all of that. I also paid attention to what I felt comfortable doing. Although I have a real estate investment background, and I know what I'm doing in that field, I didn't want to be a realtor. I didn't want to try to teach people how to flip homes, that's a lot! And when going back to what that vision was for me- what I really feel compelled and called to do- it is to simplify what seems to be a complicated topic for people and to make them excited about it!”
And so not everyone is going to own a home, and that's perfectly fine. That does not mean you have not achieved the American dream if you don’t own a home.
But in my dream world, I would create a space where people will feel comfortable saying, ‘I know what it's going to take me to comfortably retire. I'm not going to work until I hit the grave,’ or ‘My kids want to go to college, and this is how I’m going to be able to help them afford it,’ or ‘I need to have an important medical procedure done and I'm not going to go into debt.’ Medical debt is crazy in this country! And so, I wanted to teach (and I still do want to teach) people how to understand those basic, personal finance concepts for stuff like saving, paying off debt, and what it means to invest.
“When I started to talk to people, I realized how many people felt uncomfortable admitting, ‘I know nothing about this. I only know what my cousin taught me, or what my mom said.’ The advice people were getting were things like, ‘Just stuff your money under your mattress, never get a credit card, and never co-sign for a loan.’ And there is good that comes in that advice, but there's also real, practical textbook knowledge that needs to be transferred and I wanted to bridge that gap.”
Then, when it came to looking at who is doing this in this space, I had to determine how was my voice unique. And you might not be able to tell it right now, but I'm hilarious! I know it’s never funny when someone else says that they are actually funny. You are kind of like, ‘Are you though? Because if you were really funny, you wouldn’t have to tell me, you would just make me laugh!’ But one of my superlatives in school was ‘Most Likely to be on Saturday Night Live’ and that's because I was the class clown, but I got my work done! So being myself, I figured I can make people laugh, and I can show them ways to enjoy this topic.
The flip side of that was finding out who was attracted to me. I realized that naturally, Black women hold me down! And so that's what I leaned into.
“I've found that it's women that are- I think it's Gen Z now- so it’s 20 something to 40 something and sometimes 50 something. They find my content and my approach relatable. It might be because we speak the same language and it's not forced. So that's how I was able to kind of more narrowly define my niche. Now, to be clear, I'm here for everybody because personal finance does not care about your demographic! It's impacted by your demographic, unfortunately, again, another topic for another day. But just because you do not fit within that group doesn't mean that my information won’t resonate with you, and you can't learn from it.”
I've just found that is who gravitates towards me, who gives me the likes, who gives me the love, and who gives me the contracts!
Value Yourself by Valuing Your Financial Goals
You can do anything you want when your finances are in order!
When you can manage your money, it's like a freedom rush. You'll be able to make decisions based on things that feel priceless in life - not actual price tags.
You don’t need to be stressed about your current financial situation at your own expense anymore; you have to care about your finances, but you don’t have to manage them entirely on your own.
Jay Stephens is here to help you take control of the cash in your accounts by accounting for this; financial independence is a marathon, not a sprint.
If you’re willing to take the first steps of checking yourself on how you’re spending your checks and investing your energy into learning about the value of investing in yourself and your goals, then Jay puts her money where her mouth is by guaranteeing that your journey to financial freedom will be fruitful (and even fun!)
Besides learning more about Jay Stephens by listening to her full podcast interview here, what’s one other small change you can make to add some extra change to your finances today?
Share it in the comments below!
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