Ep. 100/ From TV to Financial Wellness Education Founder: Bobbi Rebell

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Bobbi Rebell joins us to talk about launching her financial wellness education company Financial Wellness Strategies. She talks about what has been her best business investment, and her biggest regrets as a business owner. The difference between having a personal brand vs a general company.

Bobbi is the author of Launching Financial Grownups: Live Your Richest Life by Helping Your (Almost) Adult Kids Become Everyday Money Smart, as well as How to be a Financial Grownup: Proven Advice from High Achievers on How to Live Your Dreams and Have Financial Freedom. Bobbi was previously a global business news anchor and personal finance columnist at Thomson Reuters and held various journalist positions at top news outlets including CNBC, CNN and PBS. She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and received her Certificate in Financial Planning from New York University.

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In this episode you will learn:

How to handle financial peer pressure (6:20)
Managing and handling debt effectively (9:32)
Letting go of what’s not working (15:40)

Quotes from our guest:

“Cut your losses. If something’s not working, move on to something else.”
“Know what debt you have. Tell someone. If you bring someone else into the discussion, it creates a sense of accountability and you'll remove the shame and it kind of makes it real.”
“A lot of people have debt and they're ashamed of it and embarrassed.”

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BOBBI’S LINKS:

Financial Wellness Strategiesl

Bobbi’s Website - https://www.bobbirebell.com/

Kim (00:02):

Really excited for you to hear from Bobbi Rebel. She is the founder and CEO of Financial Wellness Strategies and she's a former business anchor at Reuters. We talk about her best investment in her own business, her biggest regret as a business owner, and all about what you should do for your own finances.

(00:20):

Welcome to the exit interview with Kim Rittberg. Do you work for yourself and want to supercharge your business while still having fun? Well, this is your go-to podcast part MBA Part Cheer Squad. Every week I'll be joined by top business owners who share the secrets to their success. After I found myself working during childbirth true story, I quit my executive media job to bet on myself fighting the fear and imposter syndrome to eventually earn six awards, an in-demand speaking career and features in Fast Company and Business Insider. Now I'm here to celebrate all you rock stars betting on yourself and I want to help you win Tune in every Wednesday to hear from remarkable founders and don't miss our Solo Friday episodes, a treasure trove of video and podcasting mini masterclasses with me. Exit the Grind, enter success on your own terms. Don't forget to subscribe today and grab my free video tips at my website, kimrittberg.com.

(01:21):

I am so excited to bring in Bobbi Rebell. She is a certified financial planner and the founder and CEO of Financial Wellness Strategy. She's the author of Launching Financial Grownups. Live Your Richest Life by helping your almost adult kids become everyday money smart as well as how to be a financial grownup proven advice from high achievers on how to live your dreams and have financial freedom. Bobbi was previously a global business news anchor and personal finance columnist at Thomson Reuters and she's helped various journalist positions at top news outlets including CNBC, CNN and PBS. She's a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, just like me go Quakers and received her certificate in financial planning from NYU. Bobbi, I am so excited to have you back.

Bobbi (02:02):

Thank you for having me. I am such a fan and I learned so much from this podcast. I am a avid listener, so so great to be back on.

Kim (02:11):

Yay. And so for anyone who doesn't know Bobbi was in New York City, she's moved to Florida. We had met because we both formerly worked in media and Bobbi's just an amazing person. She's extremely smart and is one of those super connectors. So I just love having Bobbi and she told me I had her on at the exit interview on her first pivot and now it's her second pivot and I'm so excited to hear more about it. So I want to dive right in. So Bobbi, talk to me about you were a business anchor, a journalist, you switched to working for yourself now what led you to your new venture, which is called Financial Wellness Strategies. Talk to me about what led you to do that and then I want to hear all about it.

Bobbi (02:49):

So I did. My first exit that we talked about before was from being a full-time journalist. My book had come out and presented different opportunities that were not necessarily compatible with being a full-time journalist at Thomson Reuters. And so when those opportunities outweighed sort of what I was already doing, I decided to exit on amazing terms with Reuters of course and with a long runway. And so I was sort of set up for success that way and I did that for a few years and I did come out with my second book and when my second book was coming out, I thought to myself, okay, what's going to happen after the next book? It was actually five years between books. And during that time I did a lot of work as a corporate spokesperson working with brands, also talking a lot about the book and doing a lot of speaking engagements.

(03:33):

I was moderating conferences and being on panels, all the stuff that you also do so well. But it was the pandemic and I thought, well, maybe I should also think of other things. I don't know when those things are coming back. And also candidly, it's really competitive. My background is in television and so I am used to smaller settings, believe it or not, I'm not always that comfortable doing a keynote on a big stage. I really like looking at cameras and talking to people virtually. So I thought about that as well. And of course, again, it was the pandemic I did, and this is something you advocate, I did bring in third party consultant and they kind of did this whole deep dive evaluation about my content, my platform, what I stood for, what I wanted to do now, and then how I could kind of pivot myself for the future and high level. One of the things we decided was that in order to scale, I needed to move away from being a personal brand business to being something that would have a wider appeal and wouldn't always be dependent on me showing up that I could grow it and have other people surrogates basically show up in my place that could also do the work.

Kim (04:43):

Awesome. And then so talk to me about what's the structure of it? How can people hire you? How can they bring you on?

Bobbi (04:49):

Yeah, so it's really easy. I mean you just go to my website, financial wellness strategies.com to learn more about what I do. What I do is I do still offer the keynotes and those kinds of speaking engagements, but what I really love to do are workshops at a company. So I'll come in for half a day and work with people on a topic. For example, we have the financial wellness checklist where we have our 10 most popular topics. It can always be customized and we'll go through different ways to approach these challenging financial wellness topics that are really on people's mind. Everything from debt to budgeting to how do I handle philanthropy when I feel crunched myself, but I really want to give, how do I handle it when I'm just starting my career and I'm trying to, for example, let's say you're working in the office and trying to bring my lunch to work, but I know that the people one or two steps above me at the company, they're inviting me out for lunch and I can't really afford it, but I really need to make those relationships work, things like that, real every day things.

(05:45):

And we do that in a half day workshop. And now we're also moving into the virtual workshops more where we do office hours where companies can have their employees sign up, they can submit their questions anonymously in advance, and then we just have conversations and I say it's conversations and strategies, not lectures and solutions. We're not going to tell people what the solution is, but we are going to give them strategies to find the best solution for them.

Kim (06:11):

What are the most common questions you get? I feel like I and everybody else, most people are not financial experts. That's why I love what you're doing. What are the most common questions you get and what's your answer for them?

Bobbi (06:20):

I don't know anything about money, what do I do? Which is never true. What's the answer? But people just feel overwhelmed and they procrastinate and they just don't want to deal. I mean we have the classic scenario of the person handing a pile of receipts in a shoebox to their tax person at the end of the year. So that's the most common is I don't even know where to start. And that's why the flagship program is this checklist because we're telling them where to start. And the answer is it's different for everyone depending on what life stage you're in and what's going on in your life. Very common to talk about debt because a lot of people have debt and they're ashamed of it and embarrassed. That's why we like the anonymous nature of office hours because people can submit their questions in advance anonymously and then they can kind of gauge what their coworkers and peers are saying because people might chime in and say, I also have this problem.

(07:11):

Or sometimes it's asking for a friend that's always popular, but it's relatable and it creates a sense of community because we're all so embarrassed about money. There was a recent trend on social media, maybe not that recent, but it was called loud budgeting. Do you remember that? No. Okay, so it was a more clever term for what I've always said was basically reverse peer pressure. So a lot of times we'll say we're going out to dinner with friends and someone will step up and make a reservation. And how many times do you see the place and your stomach stinks because you love your friends, you want to go out with your friends and they picked one person, pick this really expensive place and you all don't know what to do. So you show up and you bust your budget. Instead of that, you could say, and I would say only to that person privately, you could say, could we pick a different place?

(07:58):

It doesn't fit in my budget. That's loud budgeting maybe quieter budgeting might be something like that sounds great, but how about this place and just suggest a different place. That's a different budget point and it's nice to do that. What I tell people is instead of being embarrassed, think of it as looking out for your friends. Because if you're a little bit in debt, I bet someone else is a lot in debt and you're protecting them, right? You're kind of standing up for them. And I've done this, it depends your relationship with your friends or the context of the event, but I've been at a dinner with a few girlfriends and one of my friends will be like, we're celebrating and they'll pick out a really expensive bottle of wine and I'll just say, Uhuh no less expensive. I'll just say it to them at this point, I'm at a point where I can say that to them.

(08:44):

And then the other people that truly did happen. And then the other two women said, thank you because we didn't need a $200 bottle of wine to celebrate. We could each order a glass of whatever we wanted and that's fine. So we need to be talking about money. And that's the whole idea of these community events, that it takes the pressure out. It makes everyone feel like they're not alone and then they're not so distracted at work because how many times are you not focusing on your work or you're having trouble focusing because stressed out about whatever bill is due or something you feel you need to buy or you need to pay for something for your kids, and how could it not be something that's kind of weighing on you and distracting from your work? So we want to help employers with that.

Kim (09:32):

Talk to me about debt. I feel like debt is always such a hot topic. What's some advice for, I know that debt, all debt is not created equal. I've heard that. I understand that. What's some advice on how people can start handling debt to think about it better, to not be afraid of it or to be smarter about debt?

Bobbi (09:48):

Well, first of all, know what debt you have. A lot of us don't even want to look at the bills and we've all been there, so it's important to know it. It could be as simple as write down a list and then take away the shame. Tell someone that might be your partner that doesn't know. But if you bring someone else into the discussion, it creates a sense of accountability and we'll remove the shame and it kind of makes it real. Just like I advocate telling somebody about any goal. I remember getting up at one of my speaking engagements and they had asked me to share something personal and I shared that I was studying for the CFP exam and I was terrified that I would fail it. And because it has something like a 50% fail rates, don't quote me on that exactly, but a lot of people fail the ccfp exam.

(10:29):

And it made me accountable and I did pass it, but it was terrifying to tell people. But once I did, I had a wave of support. So if you tell people about your debt, you're going to have accountability, you're going to take away the shape and you're going to get support and probably some confessions from other people. Oh, I also have that. And then you've got support and accountability. Your point about not all debt is equal. I wouldn't be so dismissive about it. Kim, you said it in a dismissive way and I'm calling you out on that, but it's not all equal.

Kim (10:57):

No, I meant I agree. I meant when I was saying like, oh, tell me about debt. I know that student loan debt and credit card debt and mortgage are totally different. So I didn't mean to be like, tell me about how to handle debt. I know there's different types of debt. So I was like, don't just, yes, yes, no, no, no, I wasn't making fun. I really do understand that.

Bobbi (11:15):

So we agree. So that's step number two is understand your debt. Know how much debt you debt you have is number one. Number two, understand what debt is what. So as you know, Kim, and most of your listeners know, but we're going to talk about it anyway. The worst debt is generally consumer debt. That's going to be over 20% getting higher. We've got inflation, we want to knock that down first. But then there can be a balance. So if you have mortgage debt and let's say it is at 7%, but you can get a higher rate by investing your money over time, that's something to weigh right now it's a little bit of a tricky equation because rates are high, but if your mortgage rate is lower than what you can get investing in the market over time, then maybe it's okay to have a mortgage paying it always on time, et cetera. But that's okay. And remember, the interest on a mortgage in many cases is going to be tax deductible. So that's another advantage. And you also have to remember that student debt has different, I mean we're not going to go into a tangent about that, but it's different characteristics as well. You may be able to qualify for a student loan forgiveness program and so on. So understand each debt and tackle each kind of debt in the appropriate way.

Kim (12:23):

Amazing. Okay. Now I have some just general business questions. You're running your own business. What is the worst advice you've gotten about running your own business?

Bobbi (12:31):

I would say stick to your plan because I think it's important to always to the point of your whole premise, to always be ready to pivot and to exit when something isn't working. I think a lot of my prices were very, very high and insurmountable for some of my clients that were coming to me. And so it was really important to find ways to adjust my offerings to be much more affordable. For example, I also felt that for my lifestyle, I didn't want to always be in a personal brand business. That's part of why I pivoted to financial wellness strategies where I have more of a corporate structure. I went from an LLC to an S corp. I now have people that work for me. So when a call comes in or an inquiry, I can send my director of marketing to do that call.

(13:14):

And I'm not the one in front always. They get me when they're actual clients and I'm doing a program for them. But it's really important to be able to outsource a appropriately to people that you trust and again, to be able to pivot. And also I think some people say that you should only spend what you earn, but I do think that you sometimes do have to invest ahead of time in order to get those earnings. I remember Barbara Corcoran said to me that she always spent money before she had it. That could be a little bit too on the edge for me. I've never spent much more than my, I've been, so I haven't spent much more than I've brought in, but I absolutely do invest in some advertising and marketing and most importantly, in having good people do things that they are better at than I am.

(13:56):

So for example, you've talked about this on your podcasts. I am a listener. We talked about our websites. I love my financial wellness strategies website right now. I paid someone to put that together and I love the logo. And by the way, the logo, I have a lawyer trademarking logos and all those things and trademarking, I don't know, I don't know the lawyer stuff. That's the point. I have a lawyer doing the lawyer stuff and having terms and conditions and legal protections and all of those things. So it's important to have people that are better qualified than you doing the things that are appropriate and to pay for them. And that's something that I think is really important to all entrepreneurs. When I was actively doing my podcast, which is on pause because I'm focusing on other marketing right now, I had an editor. I absolutely know how to edit. I edited as a journalist, I could do that, but he could do it better, faster, more efficiently than I could, and it freed up my time to do other things. So I think it's really important for people to hire, and you're the perfect example, to hire people to do the things that a professional who does it day in day out can do. My headshots were absolutely professionally done. Of course.

Kim (15:02):

Yeah, a hundred percent. People are like, because I teach people how to make content on their own, but I'm like, there's plenty of times where you should be doing it yourself with your iPhone and just yourself. I'm like, I have a podcast editor, I have an assistant. I had my headshots taken, I had my website done by professional. Not only I do those things, but I could do in theory, but it's not going to look as good and I'm not going to attract the clients that I really deserve if I don't invest in myself. So I love your point about what you should be investing, not what you should be, but you should always invest in something and how you decide what you need to invest in. And it can

Bobbi (15:33):

Change

Kim (15:33):

And it can change a hundred percent. Oh my God, yes. Okay, so you gave me the worst advice. What is good advice you would give to another business owner?

Bobbi (15:40):

Cut your losses. If something's not working, move on to something else. And it's really hard because we can be emotionally attached to certain ideas and something might not even be costing us that much, but it's still a distraction. So my example for that, and people can probably Google this and see little breadcrumbs of my failure. I don't think I've taken it well. Maybe off my LinkedIn, I don't know. But I had a merch line called Grownup Gear. You may have some of the merch. Actually, I might

Kim (16:08):

Have it actually. Maybe

Bobbi (16:08):

You might have some of it. It was so cute and I still love it, but you know what, Kim? Making a dollar per sweatshirt is just not what I wanted to do. It was so cute, but I just couldn't scale it. I went through, I became an approved Amazon seller, but Amazon, as people know, and I'm not a full expert on this, it's very hard to be profitable as a small business on Amazon. It took a lot of work just to get on the platform, get approved, they do interviews with you. There's a lot of background checks and things like that and a lot of things that you have to adhere to. And then in order to be competitive, you really have to offer free shipping, which is very hard when you have small margins and you have to be offering. There's different criteria. I don't even remember all the specifics, but it was a lot. And then I had my own website to sell off of and it was just taking too much time. Even though it was drop shipping, I was making so little money on each sale and I just didn't see enough potential to invest marketing dollars, if that makes sense. Yeah. I kind of killed the brand. I would love to bring it back in some forum. I think my designs were so cute. I still have such adorable sweatshirts and mugs and all that stuff. Just not, the margins weren't good. The business wasn't a good business.

Kim (17:22):

Okay. Talk to me about what is the weirdest job you've ever had?

Bobbi (17:25):

What weird job. I was a gift trap girl. Is that weird? I dunno if that's weird. At Seal Fonts, it was a department store that went out of business now, but it was like they might've had a few locations. It was in Ridgewood, New Jersey. I grew up in New Jersey, and I did gift wrap behind the gift wrap counter.

Kim (17:40):

Did you get a lot of paper cuts?

Bobbi (17:42):

No, I was good at it. No, I did not get paper cuts. No memory of that. But I was good at tying. There's all kinds of tricks they do to make it look better. They're not just tying it up. There's different techniques to do it. So I was very good at gift wrap and I worked at a bakery.

Kim (17:59):

I would have gained a lot of weight working at a bakery. I

Bobbi (18:01):

Must. No, you wouldn't because you would see what goes on. Nothing bad went on behind the scenes, but you just see sheets of brownies and the smell of sugar actually it kind of starts to turn you off. So within two days, every time something would be slightly damaged, they would put it in the back and cut it up for us all to eat if we wanted it. And so it was constant food back there. But you just lose it after two days. You're just not, it is actually, you would lose weight there. Trust me, Kim. Okay.

Kim (18:29):

Maybe that'll be a good segue into me eating less sugar is like work at a bakery, eat less sugar, be healthier, Bobbi. Totally. This is awesome. How can people who are super excited about bringing you in and connecting you to people, how should people connect with you and get to know more about your business?

Bobbi (18:44):

Well, first of all, you can always email me. This is only for the VIP Kim's listeners, but you can always email me directly at Bobbi@financialwellnessstrategies.com. Our website is Financial Wellness Strategies. Get on our email list, which is just Bobbirebell.substack.com. Super easy. Yeah. Newsletter website. Yeah, that's it. LinkedIn. This

Kim (19:04):

Is great. I love all of the things that we've learned from you. I was taking notes. I'm like, yeah, that was a big regret. I've had regrets like that too.

Bobbi (19:11):

Oh my goodness.

Kim (19:12):

Thank you so much, Bobbi.

Bobbi (19:13):

Thank you. I'm such a fan. Thanks for having me back. It's

Kim (19:16):

Mutual.

(19:21):

Thank you for joining us. Don't forget to exit the grind and enter success on your own terms. This is the exit interview with Kim Rittberg. Don't forget to grab my free download, how to Grow Your Business with Amazing video at kimrittberg.com and linked out in the show notes. I love to hear your feedback. Make sure to submit to me what you learned from the show and how your are crushing it on your own terms. Connect with me on Instagram or LinkedIn at Kim rittberg, R-I-T-T-B-E-R-G. And this show is edited by Jillian Grover and produced by Henry Street Media. I'm your host and executive producer Kim Rittberg.

Kim RittbergMay 8, 2024Comment