Delyanne Barros
Jared::
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Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Kajabi Edge Podcast where we talk about real entrepreneurs to give you an edge on Kajabi. I'm your host, Jared Lohman, Vice President of Customer Experience, and today I’m joined by my friend Delyanne Barros, founder of Delyanne The Money Coach, LLC. How's it going Delyanne?
Delyanne:
It's going great. I'm really excited to be here. Thank you so much for having me.
Jared:
Well, I'd love to just kind of start off in usual fashion. What is the 15-second elevator pitch version of what it is that you do?
Delyanne:
Sure. So I am a money coach. And I basically teach new investors how to what I like to call slay the stock market, which is the name of my course. I teach new investors how to invest in long term so that they can one day quit their jobs and you know, enjoy their lives and on their own terms. And whether that means leaving a nine to five or even giving entrepreneurship a break at some point?
Jared:
Well, I'd love to...I'd love to kind of learn a little bit more about like - is there a particular area or I mean, stock market is pretty big, like I'm sure you know a lot more of...I'm not even going to talk, I'm gonna let you talk because I’ll sound silly, because all I know about the stock market is I push a button and someone else deals with it. So...
Delyanne:
That’s good! As long as you're investing, you're already doing exactly what you should be doing. But yeah, I mean, the idea here is that there's a lot of noise around the stock market, right? Which is why probably some people tune it out altogether. They're like, there's just too much going on. And I don't have time to deal with this, I have other things to do, especially entrepreneurs. So it may become something so overwhelming that people just ignore it altogether. And so I'm trying to bring it to a point where it's just more commonplace to talk about investing, it doesn't have to be as scary as people think it is.
It's not about stock picking, if you don't want it to be. I think that's probably the first thing that comes to people's mind is like, “Oh my god, I need to know which winning stock I need to choose.” And I'm like, you actually don't have to do any of that. So something that I talk about a lot on my page on Instagram, on Tik Tok, and through my course, is something called index funds or ETFs.
And so basically, instead of choosing what stocks you want to buy, you can buy the entire stock market. And it's very hands off, it's very passive, you can go live your life, you don't have to read stock charts. And so a lot of people are not familiar with this concept. And so just bringing that to people teaching them about that, helping them understand their 401ks, their IRAs, you know, those kind of accounts, and a little bit of how the taxes work around them. A little knowledge goes a long, long way, with investing.
And so and then finally, you know how you can put all of this together so that you can invest your way to wealth and stop working someday, right? Because maybe, you know, not everybody wants to work until their 70s and 80s. And someday maybe you want to take a break and maybe retire even sooner. So for me, I'm planning to retire by 45. So a lot of people get surprised knowing that that's a possibility through investing that you can retire early.
So, I talk about all of those things as well as my own personal journey with not only investing but also paying off debt. I paid off $150,000 in student loans. I'm an attorney. So you know, six figure debt is very common in my profession. So I talked about that as well. And on my page, I also share my own personal investing journey. So I share all my numbers, I'm very transparent, I tell people that my goal is to invest 1.5 million dollars and then retire. So you know, that's just a little glimpse into some of the content that I put out.
Jared:
That's awesome. And I think you kind of were alluding to this or moving into this because I was going to ask kind of what is the story? Maybe we can just dig into that in a little bit more detail.
Delyanne:
Yeah. I mean, my own personal story is that, you know, I am an immigrant. I was born in Brazil, I moved to the US when I was eight and my parents you know, hammered into me that you know, the way you get by in this country is get a good job put yourself through school and you know, make sure you have good credit. And those were the...that's all I was told pretty much for my financial education.
And I listened to that, you know. And I believed them and I think it did get me very far in life. Obviously, I put myself through college, I put myself through law school, but I also racked up a ton of debt. And turns out that I did not enjoy being an attorney at all. It was actually heartbreaking to realize six months into becoming an attorney, that my dream job - that I absolutely hated it. And I even feel like it's blasphemous saying it because you work so hard for something, you know, you dream of something for so long, you do it, you achieve it, and you pay so much money for it, and then to realize that you really hate it.
And then I stuck with it for 14 years! Which is a long time to stick with something that you don't like, but I felt trapped. I'm like, what else can I do? Right? And so this idea of starting a business. I mean, I have a sister who's very entrepreneurial, and has her own business as well. But I always thought this was something other people did. Like this is what other people do. Other people start businesses. I'm a worker bee. I used to tell people, I'm a worker bee, I'm always going to be an employee.
But then the thought of being an attorney until I was, you know, 60 years old, because I was literally counting the days at this point. I'm like, “How much longer do I have to do this? Because this is brutal.” And so I just kept thinking, “God! There has to be another way.” Like, it can't be this way. I can't believe I worked so hard and put myself through school and did all this to like be so miserable! Like I can't, you know.
And I felt ungrateful even thinking that way because I felt lucky to have the job that I did and be making the kind of money that I was making, but I was undeniably unhappy. And so when the pandemic started, even a little before the pandemic started, 2019, I discovered investing. Like really the power of investing. I had a 401K but I kind of ignored it. But I started understanding that oh my gosh, there's people investing in a way that's not like, you know, the way you see in the movies like stock picking and day trading, just a very boring passive way of investing. If you just put the time in, and you can retire early someday. You can live off of your investments, basically, you're paying yourself a paycheck, right?
And this concept really blew my mind, but also angered me in a way that I'm like, how is it that I didn't know this? How is it that I lived in New York City for 15 years, the heart of the financial industry, literally like four subway stops from the stock market and I did not understand investing. So that frustration got me to a point where I started educating myself, I started talking about it online, and I realized that there was a need, like, there was a real hunger for this information. And so I turned to my sister, and I was like, I think I need to do this, like I need to turn this into a business like people will need to understand this concept. Because if I don't know it, then other people may not know it, either.
And I started, you know, developing that. And so I started coaching people. I started sharing information online, my platform started growing, and I decided to, you know, start a class, which I called Slay the Stock Market and 10 people showed up, you know, live for me to teach it. And I felt so lucky. I was like, “Oh my god, this is amazing! 10 people have shown up!” And this is based on my own personal experience and all the research that I was doing. And then I turned that, I packaged that into what's today my course.
And that was exactly what September 2020 was when I launched Slay the Stock Market. And now we're September 2021 and it's just hit a million dollars in revenue. Like we’re over a million dollars in revenue. So it's just been an incredible journey over a period of time that I never imagined that it was going to happen at all. I definitely didn't think it was going to happen within a year. So it's just been a wild wild ride.
Jared:
I've got to ask, and this is just kind of me being curious. But like 2020 in the stock market, there's gonna be a lot of I don't know, like, I don't know if it's resistance or just like fear associated with like the uncertainty of our world during this time. Did that play in at all?
Delyanne:
Yeah, it's funny, because people became more interested in the stock market in 2020. Because I think people saw, yes, the market crashed in March. But we also had the fastest recovery ever. So within two months, the market was back to normal and back on the rise. So we were hitting new highs in the middle of a pandemic in the middle of people losing their jobs, the economy being shut down. And so I think people started to see, “Hey, there's this contrast going on here with the stock market versus the economy.” And people started to see that those two things are not necessarily interlinked.
And I think what people don't realize is that the stock market is forward looking. It's almost like a...it's like looking into the future, right? And so people think that whatever's happening in the economy today is reflected in the stock market. But it's not like that. It's kind of baked in over time. And so when people started realizing “Wow, you can really build significant wealth in the stock market, even if the economy, you know, is not doing so great,” that's when people started paying more and more attention.
So the stock market was about 16% in 2020, it's up 20% this year. Is it always going to go up? No, of course not. There's going to be times when it's going to go down, but that's when you buy more, right? So these are the kind of lessons that I tried to show through example, through my teachings that it's just something that I have not invented. This is like tried and true over time. So I always have been really careful to tell people that I'm like, I don't have any kind of proprietary formula or insight into the market. I'm showing people like, historically, this is just what it does. And so if you're patient and you give it time, you can benefit from it too, right. And it's not a get rich quick scheme, you're not going to make a million dollars in a week. It's not crypto, but it is like tested over time. So if you're someone who is interested in building long term wealth through investing, then this is a way to do it.
Jared:
Yes, that's great. Well, I'd love to kind of just, I guess, zoom in towards the beginning of your journey. Like you had your...was it just that one live training that you did? Or you're like, this is a course. Or how did that happen?
Delyanne:
Yeah. I mean, I was, you know, coaching from January 2020. I started my business January 2020, I wanted to get my hands dirty, like, work with clients one on one, see what the psychology was behind it, see what people are struggling with. So I worked a lot with people in the beginning, not just about investing, but mostly like how to pay off debt. A lot of people just struggle to create a budget to pay off debt to manage their money. So I wanted to, like, get a better understanding of that. And investing would come, you know, secondary to that.
And then after eight months of coaching people and posting online, I decided that I can't keep doing one-on-one coaching. It's extremely time consuming, you know, it's exhausting, it burns you out. And I couldn't serve the amount of people that I wanted to serve. Like, people kept asking me for more and more help. And I was turning people away, because I just couldn't keep up. And I'm doing this while I'm also working full time. So I'm working full time, my full time job as an attorney. And I'm also you know, coaching people in my spare time. And finally, I was like I've been doing this for 8 months, I think there's a way for me to have a, you know, a process here that works. And so I want to codify this, like turn it into a class. And I'm sure that I can replicate this with multiple people present.
And so when I did that, the class I taught it live, that became the core of what is Slay the Stock Market today. So once I got the feedback from everybody from that, and you know, I was able to tweak it and add things to it, that's it, that became the course. And so I put it on Kajabi. And that's where I host it to this day, and I have my community on Kajabi as well. And now we have over I think 2600 students have taken the course, which is incredible. And it's just been an amazing process.
And honestly, like Kajabi has been so great. because I'm allergic to technology. I've always told people I'm very, very allergic to technology. I've tried to create a website before and it has gone horribly, horribly wrong. And what I've quickly realized is that you don't actually need a website to have a successful business. In fact, I barely had a website at all up until a few months ago. So what you really need is a sales page, a landing page, a way to sell your product, a way to deliver your product to your customers and a way to communicate with them. And then when I found Kajabi, and I was like, “Oh! Check, check, check. I could do all those things on here and I don't have to know any technology? Fantastic! Done.” And that made it like one less hurdle for me to make my business a success because technology is 100% like my Achilles heel and not having to stress about that at all made it so much easier.
Jared:
Very cool. Well, you talked about, you know, you might not need a website, you might not need all of these things. Like how did you go about building your audience? Because I think in some way, shape or form like you needed at least those 10 people to show up to your first course, or your first first live training live coaching
Delyanne:
Sure! So I love social media. I actually already had about 15,000 followers on Instagram, because I had a fitness page. I just love fitness, I used to be a spinning instructor. So I would just for fun share my fitness routine. And people loved following that. And then one day when I, you know, when I got... became obsessed with finance, I was like, “Hey, I know this is a fitness page but I'm like, really into the money now. So I'm going to be talking about money. And you guys don't have to stick around if you don't want to. You can totally leave.” And I started posting more about that. And people are like, “Oh, this is actually really interesting too. So we're gonna stick around.”
And so I already had kind of an audience baked in, and some of them left. And you know, that's fine. But over time, I started rebuilding my audience on Instagram. And so the organic traffic was already there. So by the time that I pitched Slay the Stock Market to my audience, which you know, was eight months since my business, I had already like been, you know, talking to them about money for a solid eight months. And so I had already built that rapport, I built that relationship. And so the, you know, the audience was already there.
But I was also building my email list during that time, which I think is a step that a lot of entrepreneurs skip. Because they think, “Oh, I'm just gonna sell direct on Instagram and I don't have to do anything else. And email marketing is dead.” And I'm like, email marketing is definitely not dead. We definitely need to be building email lists. So I was you know, having my lead magnet and creating an email list. And so by the time I made that announcement, like, here's this big product, I already had all the pieces in place, you know. Which I think was paramount to why it's taken off the way it has.
Jared:
You gave me an AHA moment there. Like, which I didn't even think this was the point. But like, when I heard you say this, I was like, wow, because this is something that's been on my mind. And I'm sure this is on other entrepreneurs' minds, or people who are aspiring to be entrepreneurs. You talked about a pivot. And maybe even a non-starter for some people, because they don't want to commit for example. Like you are an attorney. So like, maybe the most logical path for you to proceed would be like, here's how to get a job as an attorney. Here's, you know, what defense, defense law looks like, here's what divorce law looks like. Was there any nerves associated with making such a stance or that change?
Delyanne:
No. I think I was so ready for it because I was so burned out from my legal career. And to this day, people are like, “Why don't you talk more about employment law?” Because that's my specialty, is employment law. And there's a lot that I can fold in with finance and employment law, right? Because obviously, your job, there's a lot tied to how you make money and like how you invest through your 401K, and things like that. And I do sprinkle it in here and there. But the truth is that, like, I was just so burned out on law. And I'm like, and when I found something else that sparks such a passion in me the way that finance did and investing did, there was almost no doubt in my mind that I'm like, I need to pursue this.
And at the heart of it, what it is, is I was always meant to be a teacher, that's the thing. I could have picked anything, honestly. And it would have worked out because I am at my core, I'm a teacher. And that's like, this is just a vehicle for that. I honestly believe I could have picked any subject and it would have worked out.
But yeah, so when the time came for me to leave my legal career, which was only what March of 2021 was when I quit. You know, my business was already exceeding what I made at my full time job. In fact, in two months, I made what took an entire year to make it in my job. So I was, you know, the question of money, it wasn't a question of money anymore. It was a question of walking away from the identity of being an attorney.
Because something that I really worked hard for, something that I identified myself as for 14 years...and you know, in this country, in America, we're very tied to our titles, right? It's like a big deal. Like, what do you do is one of the first questions we ask each other when we meet - what do you do? And so to be… to give away that, that title of like, I'm not an attorney anymore. It was heartbreaking. But it was also time, you know, to move on and do what I actually loved. And, yeah, to let go of that.
And I always tell people, like I rather people launch their businesses while they're working full time, it's much easier to do that than to start from a place of scratch where you're like, “How am I going to pay the rent this month? How am I going to pay the mortgage this month?” And you know, when you're struggling to make a sale, that's a much harder place to like, launch a successful business than from “Hey, I already have my paycheck coming from this other source. And I can like nurture my business,” you know, from a place of, you know...you can take it slow, you're not like desperate, right? Because people can feel when you're desperate. When you're desperate to make a sale, it comes through and not in a positive way. So you don't want to give off that energy if possible.
Jared:
Yeah. Well, I'm also really curious, like, I guess for...maybe you have some background that you haven't expressed yet. But like, as an attorney, I can't imagine that like law school, they're teaching you a lot about investing in finance.
Delyanne:
No. Zero.
Jared:
Yeah. So like, you're talking a lot about identity, which, it very, very much resonates. How did you approach this? Like, did you see yourself... did you come into play as an expert? Did you like, how did you start? Did you say like, I'm learning about finance too. Like, join me along, join me for this ride. Like what did that look like?
Delyanne:
Yeah! It's definitely...and I think what helped with that is that I was so transparent about it. I'm like, “Hey, this is how much I owe in student loans. This is my plan. I'm gonna pay it off by this time.” So I was sharing my numbers as I went paying off the student loans. But then I also said, I just you know, learned about investing, this is my goal. I'm pursuing what's called FIRE. I don't know if you're familiar, but it stands for Financial Independence Retire Early. But I like to say Relax Ealy, because I don't want anybody panicking about the word retire. It's just about you know, relaxing early.
And so I learned about this, you know, concept, I'm applying it in my life. I'm also strategically learning everything I can about it, self taught. But then after a while, because I'm also an attorney and I believe in like, traditional education, I also enrolled in a course. So it's the course that certified financial planners take to become certified financial planners. I'm not planning to like pursue that designation, but I wanted the knowledge. I was like, if I'm going to talk on this topic, I want the knowledge that goes with it. So I enrolled in that course as well. I went back to school, and I enrolled myself into that course and I'm actually in the middle of it. I've completed half of it. But you know, that's all just to supplement the education that I had already given myself.
So as I shared my personal experience, as I shared, you know, my numbers and what I'm doing, you do start you know, positioning yourself as an expert in the field, because you know, the knowledge that you're sharing is...was being like supported. I had other people, other financial planners reaching out to me. I had people from Vanguard, Fidelity or a bunch of other places, tax professionals saying, “Yeah, everything that you posted is accurate. I second this, I support this. She's correct.” And you know, I'm in the press all the time talking about money talking about investing. So if I didn't actually know what the heck I was talking about, I would have been called out a long time ago. Because my name and my face is everywhere. So it's, you know, when you put yourself out in the public sphere, if you don't know what you're talking about, that's going to become very obvious very quickly, you know. Especially in this era of social media.
Jared:
Sure.
Delyanne:
So I, you know...Thankfully, I haven't had this issue. I take what I teach very seriously, because we're talking about people's finances, and also as an attorney, like I know, I don't know, maybe it's me bringing that over from my career, I, you know, I think it's important to present yourself, honestly, and, you know, give people every caveat, and every disclaimer. And I'm very honest with people that I'm like, I'm not a tax professional, I am not a certified financial planner, you should talk to a professional, if you'd like, I'm here to educate. I'm here to educate you as much as possible, and then you can decide what's best for you.
Jared:
It sounds like you just really took an authentic approach, as you continue to do like, you know. “I'm not...I didn't go to finance school.” In fact, you're in training for, you know, to get the financial like, I guess the accreditation or certification. So that authenticity is really cool. And it's also inspiring! I think, you know, I'm feeling this. I'm sure our listeners would be feeling this as well. This is something that you as you mentioned earlier, it could have been fitness, but I'm sure it's something that's also one of those non starters for people out there. They're going “Look, I want to talk about finance, but I don't have you know, the financial certification or I want to talk about baseball, but I didn't play in MLB.” I guess like for you how did you rationalize that? Like in the early stages?
Delyanne:
Yeah, I think I've rationalized it. It’s because the people who are professionals in these topics who do have those certifications are gatekeeping. They’re gatekeeping. Like they are not sharing the information with the rest of us. Like I said, like I you know, I'm turning 39 this year, I learned all this stuff when I was 36. The fact that it took until I was 36 years old to learn what I think should be basic knowledge for most people, if not all people, I thought it was ridiculous. I'm like, why isn't this being shared?
Because unfortunately, what the financial industry wants us to do is to believe that this information is too complicated for us to teach ourselves, for us to learn ourselves, that we should hire them instead. And that we should pay thousands and hundreds of thousands of dollars to have them handle our money instead and just let them be you know. And just outsource the situation, like outsource your money and don't worry about it. Which I think is completely false. Not true. And there has been a lot of abuse in the financial industry, especially with minorities and people of color. So there's a huge distrust in the financial industry between certain communities.
So the idea of handing over your hard earned money to a stranger, which by the way, 9 times out of 10 is going to be an older white man. Somebody who you don't have anything in common with doesn't know anything about you and won't even explain to you the very basic minimum of like, what is the stock market? How does it work? What do you mean, you're investing my money? Where is it going? They don't sit there and explain those things to you. They just go “Don't worry about it. We'll handle it,” right?
And so that is a very scary situation. And there has been a lot of abuse that has come out of those situations. So I'm not trying to say like, there shouldn't be any financial planners at all, or people should never use them. But even if you are going to hire one, you should be having an educated conversation with this person. You should be on some level where you're sharing a vocabulary, right? Because this is your money. This is your hard earned money. Nobody, nobody cares about your money more than you do.
And so the idea of just handing it over, you know, and not to like, I don't want to be one of those people who blows things out of proportion. And like I don't like to teach through fear or inspire through fear. But if we think of like the Bernie Madoffs, if we think about the Lehman brothers, if we think about, you know, the 2008 crisis, like these people were uninformed, they were unprepared for these situations. I want my students to be prepared. I want them to be informed and I don't want people getting, you know, bamboozled.
So that's basically my goal is not to completely cut out certain, you know, access to certain industries, but to supplement. Because there is a lack of education out there. So I'm just trying to supplement. I'm trying to bridge the gap. Because there isn't enough... there aren't enough financial planners to educate everybody anyway. So yeah, money coaches like me are just here to supplement the education.
Jared:
And it kind of I think it maybe eliminates a little bit of the potential bias too. Because when you walk in the doors of a traditional financial investment firm, like any any logical person has got to be going like “What are they...where do they make their money?” Like, how are they going to mess with the money that I'm giving?
Delyanne:
Exactly! Because I mean, listen, and there are different, you know, structures of payment for different financial planners. Some of them take a percentage of your portfolio, some of them are fee only financial planners. And that's really what you want. If you are going to hire one, you want to ask them, “Hey, what are you a fiduciary, fiduciary?” And two, “Are you a fee only financial planner?”
And so you want to go in there with these kind of questions. And people don't even...It's one of those things where you don't know what you don't know. You don't even know where to... what to ask. And so I know, that's where I feel like I come in. I come in to that point where I teach you about, you know, this language, because investing is basically a language. A lot of people think it's Math. It's actually vocabulary. So I'm teaching you this language so that you can decide how to operate in this world. And who you decide to interact with in this world is totally up to you.
Jared:
Earlier, you touched on a little bit...I guess we touched on not heritage specifically, but like, that is kind of of note right now. Here at Kajabi, we're celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month. As mentioned on our last episode, I'm of Hispanic heritage. I know you're of Hispanic heritage. So I'd love to just kind of get an idea of how your Hispanic heritage has impacted your entrepreneurial journey.
Delyanne:
Yeah. And it's so funny because, you know, this is the thing about being Latino, it's like Hispanic Latino, right? There's always like, important to distinguish those terms, too. So I'm Brazilian, so technically, I'm not Hispanic because I don't speak Spanish. And that's what Hispanic means, right? But I do speak Spanish because I grew up in Miami, but I am not a Spanish speaking country. So I usually refer to myself as Latina. But I have checked that Hispanic box plenty of times, and I have no problems with it. It's just that sometimes there's no other box for us. Brazilians are kind of left out.
But I am proud to be a Spanish speaker. I love that I grew up in Miami. I used to be embarrassed of my Spanish but now I'm like, I love it. And it's so important for me to connect with this community. Because like I said, again, Latinos are amazing at saving money. Hard workers, we start businesses, right? Like we start businesses at a pace faster than most other groups. And we're great at homeownership. I just read a statistic the other day that said, we actually account for over 50% of the growth in homeownership in the past 10 years. One place where we've lagged is investing. So because again, I think it's that distrust and that lack of education.
So for me to come in as somebody who is lucky enough, who you know, is... has come, you know... is an immigrant, comes from that background, and I'm able to talk to people at a level that we understand, right? I'm a person who's also building generational wealth, not necessarily for children, but for my mother. I take care of my mother. I'm going to be retiring her, buying her a home. This is a story that not a lot of people can relate outside of our community. So I think it's important to bring that facet in as well.
But also I love being transparent with my numbers, because how many Latinas do we see out there talking about, “Hey, I'm a soon to be millionaire,” right? Like, here are my numbers. I'm a soon to be millionaire, I built this business from scratch. Here's how I did it from day one. I've literally...people have watched me launch this business, like from scratch live online, you know. And so that has shown a lot of people that it's possible. That Latino women are just as capable of being entrepreneurs, that were capable of being millionaires. And that's like a really empowering message that I think is important to show people. I don't share to like, brag about it. I share because I want people to see that it's possible.
Jared:
Yes. Well, on to the numbers. Care to share? Like I know, you kind of... I think you touched on this briefly earlier, but l wanna bring it up again. Because I think it's a celebratory number, like where you're at here with us on Kajabi.
Delyanne:
Yeah! I mean, I just hit that million dollar mark in September, which was incredible. I got my...where is it?
Jared:
Hey, that's awesome!
Delyanne:
I got my pin, which is amazing. I'm actually over a million now. And I would say 90% of the revenue came from the course and 10% came from coaching and other affiliate or like collaboration type income, but most of it came from that course. And it's just been a humongous milestone. I never expected to hit it this quickly. But it also goes to show like, you know, and also the retention of my program is extremely high. I love the platform, they love it, the usability of it is super easy. It's easy for me to modify it, update it.
So it's just been an incredible journey and a lot less tech headaches than I expected, which is major because I think that would have slowed things down considerably, for me. The fact that I've been able to pretty much do this on my own. I'm a one woman show like I have one virtual assistant that I hired a few months ago, I have somebody else who helps me post some things on social media. I create all my content though, like all they do is literally just like hit post, but it's basically me running the show here. So that's been pretty wild to think that you can reach this level with a really small team.
Jared:
Yeah. I was going to ask. You kind of touched on it anyway. But that $1 million pin, like when you held that thing up here, I know this is an audio podcast. So people aren't necessarily seeing this. But like, like, that's one of those things like to me like the inspirational element, and it almost gives you goosebumps, like, what did you feel like? I mean, you didn't expect to necessarily hit it this soon. Were you like, was that the target? Where did you think you'd be at this point?
Delyanne:
No, honestly, I'll tell you what the target was. The target was I wanted to quit my job. That's where the target was. And like, I want to quit my job, how quickly do I think I can get there. So my goal was to match what I was bringing in from my full time job, right? So I was making almost $200,000 a year at my legal career. And mind you, that's after 14 years of putting time in, and I didn't start at $200,000. I started like at 85. And I was living in New York City at the time. Remember, I had six figures of student debt. So the numbers are like skewed, right? So finally, I'm at that six figure mark. And why do I want to keep it? I wanted to keep it because again, I'm investing for financial independence. I have this goal to retire by 45. So I'm like, okay, I want to quit my job. But it would be awesome if I could get as close to matching my income as possible. But I was willing to walk away with less.
But within like, a few months, I was already exceeding what I brought in at work. And so it got to a point where I quit my job three years earlier than I expected to quit, I thought it was gonna be a three year time period. And it happened much, much faster to everyone's surprise. And in fact, last month, in one month, I brought in $170,000, which is almost what I brought in for an entire year, on my full time job. The numbers are just crazy!
And so I had to give myself permission to walk away from my job, not just because the financial side, like I said, it was an emotional thing. And also, it's my first time being an entrepreneur. So like, is this a fluke, and maybe I'll just maybe I'll make some money, but I won't, it won't happen anymore. It won't happen again, right? It's like all the normal fears that you get as an entrepreneur. And at some point, you just have to believe and go with it.
Jared:
I love that. And I think kind of the beauty of this is you're still so close to that starting point to where like, I think there's probably going to be a meaningful answer to this - what for you has changed in your life? Like had you not taken this course had you not taken that leap. Or what's different for you, as a result of this decision that you've made?
Delyanne:
Everything! Honestly! Because like I told you before this business, the goal was to you know, keep working for the next 7 to 10 years so that I can save and invest and maybe retire by 45, maybe 50. And the new dream that materialized was moving abroad. So I'm planning to move to Portugal in the next two years, not only for myself, but I'm also planning to bring my mom. I'm going to be buying myself a home there. I'm gonna be buying her a home. Like those...that's all new components of my life that were not even in the picture before I started this business. Like I was keeping things very simple.
Before I was just like, “Oh, if I just save and invest enough, I can quit my job. I can live off of like 40 to $50,000 a year, I can like, you know, really cut down my costs. And I was just like, things were so small, right. And then when I launched this business, like my entire world opened up. I was like “Holy crap!” Like, I'm going to retire abroad, I'm going to bring my mom.
I flew first class for the first time this year. I never thought that that's something that I was going to be... a luxury that I could really...It's not that I couldn't afford it. I just felt like I wouldn't allow it. You know, like something you don't allow yourself to have certain things. And this business has shown me that like, give yourself some breathing room and allow yourself to spend a little bit more, you know. Like, I've always been a little bit of a hoarder with my money. I'm like, give yourself some some fun. And so all of that has changed. My life has changed my perspective, you know, changed, the dreams that I have for me and my family. So it's been massive.
Jared:
Well, I guess what is? Well, first, actually, before I go there, what is next for you on the horizon?
Delyanne:
Well, business wise, I'm going to keep plugging away. You know, like I said, it's not that long ago that I started this business. So sometimes I feel like because of this massive number that I hit, people are like, “Yeah, what's the next level?” And I'm like, the next level is just to repeat exactly what I did again. Right? Like that's, that's the next level, I'm not looking to like have a monster business with like 100 employees, I'm not looking to you know, have something like that. I actually like the business model that I have, I want to keep things really small. I might hire an assistant. That’s probably about as far as it will go. I don't see myself as like a big, you know, CEO of a massive corporation. I like how things are operating right now.
So like I said, I want to keep servicing my students. I want to keep servicing my community. I love creating content. I love being the face of my business. So I want to keep doing those things right and then hopefully start doing it from Europe. And we'll see where it goes. I think that there's definitely potential in the future for a book. I would love to write a book, maybe one day also start a podcast. I'm taking my time.
I think sometimes entrepreneurs, we feel like we have to launch all of the things immediately, like the opportunities are going to evaporate. And I had a book deal offered to me earlier this year and actually turned it down because I'm like, I don't... it's not the right time. The opportunity will come again. It will be fine, right? So I don't want to burn myself out of my business. So I think right now my biggest concern is to like keeping a good momentum, a good pace where I can keep this going for a good amount of time, you know. I don't want to peak too soon and then burn out.
Jared:
Sounds wise, that sounds wise. Well, for anyone who wants to kind of get a hold of you, has interest in the topic you're talking about, like, what's the best way? Should they find you on Instagram? Should they show up to your website? Where's the best way to find you?
Delyanne:
I live on Instagram, way more than I should. So you can find me on Instagram @delyannethemoneycoach. Or on Tik Tok. Same thing @delyannethemoneycoach or you can go to my website, delyannethemoneycoach.com.
Jared:
Awesome! Yeah, we will definitely have this in the show notes as always, but like just just for brevity, like spell it out.
Delyanne:
Yeah, it's D as in David, E-L-Y-A-N-N-E the money coach.com
Jared:
Awesome! Well, thank you so much for taking some time out of your day to share with us. super exciting. Lots of, I know, not that there's a scale, but like the number of AHA moments I had during this conversation was really cool. I think you touched on some really, really neat aspects of the entrepreneurial journey. So thank you again, for taking the time to chat with us.
Delyanne:
Yeah! No, thank you for inviting me. And it's been a pleasure. Anytime. Hopefully, I'll be back, you know, when I hit 2 million.
Jared:
Yes, yes, yes! Well, with that said, that's all we have for today. A big thank you and shout out to all of our listeners. We appreciate you. We appreciate you sharing this with your friends. The goal is always to get more and more inspiring stories just like this one in front of other entrepreneurs or aspiring entrepreneurs as much as possible. So thanks again for listening and we will look forward to seeing everyone next time on the Kajabi Edge Podcast.
