There is a part of Chiante’s story that resonates with me so much. That moment when she got a mediocre performance review that didn’t reflect the hard work that she’d done that year in her job. At the time that this episode is going “live” a recent report by the Journal of Applied Psychology highlighted how Black workers were penalized for advocating for themselves. This same report also showed how bias impacted the perception of how Black workers should behave or present themselves in professional spaces. I’ll never forget working so hard and knowing that I could never get an excellent review. Chiante shares how she helps high achieving women better their finances and I love how this mission has enhanced her life as well.
Welcome to Michelle is Money Hungry. I’m your host, Michelle Jackson, and I focus on holding financial conversations that lean into social equity policy and access with a splash of pop culture. My goal is to lead these conversations with empathy and help both my listeners and myself learn more about money.
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Show Notes
Chiante-Thanks for having me on the show. My name is Chiante Jones and I’m a financial coach and the founder of Dollars In Change. And so I work with a high achieving women who are ready to confidently manage their money and execute a realistic plan to eliminate their debt so they can have more flexibility in their lives.
And so I show them, give them the tools to help them have more fun and fulfillment while still creating a solid foundation to build wealth. And I do that through personalized coaching. So through my business. How did you get into this? So that’s a long story.
Michelle-Spill the Tea!
Chiante-It was a journey cuz I, I was never really entrepreneurial and it wasn’t until December of 2016 sitting across, across the desk from my boss, tears running down my face after getting a mediocre performance review. That did reflect the quality of the work I had done that year where I just was thinking to myself, this can’t.
Right. You know, you have that moment. Sometimes this can’t be it, right? It has to be more than this. That really is what opened my eyes, like in that moment, opened my eyes to new paths and possibilities. And, um, like I said, prior to that, had not thought of entrepreneurship. But in that moment I started thinking like, I don’t like this feeling of having.
Someone put limits on me and decide my value and have that type of power and control. So it just really started my journey and um, it wasn’t about a year later where I discovered financial coaching and I was like, okay. I knew immediately that’s what I wanted to do. That’s how I wanted to help and support people.
Having always been good at managing my own personal finances, but not really knowing that that was a thing that you could do with other people. That’s kind of how I initially found financial coaching and hit the ground running after that. This whole conversation that we’re gonna have today, we centered around the question of women wanting more, and as a financial coach, when your clients come to you, what are some of the things that you see as financial roadblocks to them designing their best?
So for my clients, really when they come to me, part of it is just knowing how to manage their money. Like just knowing where it’s going, knowing what’s happened with it. And, and a lot of my clients are, you know, well paid, so they’re, they’re making good money. It’s just that they’re not seeing that being reflected in their finances the way they want them to.
So it’s learning to really budget and manage money. And then debt is typically an issue where they need, they have more debt. One, and it’s taken up more of their monthly cash flow than they want it to take. They haven’t been able to figure out a, a plan to actually get it paid off, whether that’s, you know, credit card debt or even student loans or other types of consumer debt.
Another thing is that they typically don’t have the savings. They’re, they’re pretty much living in paycheck to paycheck. They’re overspending is leading to not being able to save. We’re like, again, they just don’t have a good handle on what’s happening with their money and so and so they might try to save, but then eventually, You know, something, you know, unexpected happens and they, they all their statements, it’s gone.
So it’s just like a back and forth of never really having that solid foundation that they would like to have and really, like I said, thrive with their finances. That’s normally the barriers that, the main problems that clients that come to me are having.
Michelle– I think digital entrepreneurs in particular can really struggle because they have so much flexibility that it’s easy to, to not prioritize the strategies or the really important things that bring in cash. Right, because there’s so many things you could be doing. I feel like there’s a heavy emphasis on the lifestyle design because like you very close to the time that you quit.
I burnt out spectacularly at my old job and I’d worked there for 10 years. I’d, I’d gotten. Solid reviews and things like that. However, you could never get exemplary reviews like it’s set up so that you could never, like, out of three, you could never ever get a three. That just doesn’t happen.
And I got mad because I was like, I, I’m doing all this work. I’m getting a 2.374 and having the sign offs on this bull. and I worked, so like I’m all mad, right? And then I’m like, I’ve been working on my online stuff and I’m like, you know what? I’m gonna just, I’m burnt out, like physically I’m worried. And so I quit and it was good and bad. It was good in the sense that I took a risk, but it was really bad because I don’t think it was very clear to me until years later. Really, it took a while to really catch onto this because no one sat down and was like, so, Are you like pitching every week , right? Even for clients or for people to buy your product?
Like we need to have conversations and I feel like in digital entrepreneurship it’s very attractive because you can wake up naturally, you can do all these things. You have like such, so much flexibility. And I guess what I, I am getting at is what are the things that people. Attracted to an entrepreneurship in particular online entrepreneurship that really could be harmful to their wallet if they’re not careful?
Chiante-Yeah, that’s such a good question because I, I, I do think that especially over the last couple years that entrepreneurship has been like sensationalized, be location, independent work from anywhere, all this time freedom. Those things are possible. Right? But there is the flip side of entrepreneurship that is, is not necessarily easy out in these entrepreneurial streets, right?
I mean, so like looking at just online, we’ll have you thinking that when you think about like leaving, if you haven’t financially prepared and you just kind of like on the whim, make that decision to. No, quit. Your job can put you in a tough spot and then it could, and in business it could lead you to doing things or going in directions that you really don’t wanna go because you’re chasing money.
I say use your job as a bridge. I, I get, if you’re in a toxic work environment, something may need to change. Absolutely. But just taking that leap out, if you can avoid doing that, I think. You know, one, you’ll feel better prepared, , um, which I don’t think you’re ever all the way prepared, but like, you know, you’ll feel better prepared, at least to where money is not a primary issue for you.
And you get that space to figure things out and, you know, sometimes make mistakes and, and everything like that. And be able to really build your business the way you wanna build it. because like you said in, and there’s a lot of noise out there in the space of like what you should be doing and how you supposed to do this, and you just need time to figure out how to navigate that.
To figure out your own path too. To figure out your own path to income, to revenue. Right. Which again, impacts your finances once you’re out there in business. So how was that journey for you? You got that review and you were trying to figure out what’s the next thing You figured out what the next thing was, but what did it look like for you to establish your business?
Really get in front of people who would spend and that you could serve. Yeah, it’s been a journey. So I started my business in July of 2018, and so I was doing it on the side of my full-time job and I left my full-time job in January of this year, so January of 2022. So it was about three and a half years doing it on the side and, and really just like you were saying during that time, because I wasn’t like relying on the income or the revenue from the business, I still had my full-time job and was fine with.
I did focus on a lot of the behind the scenes things, you know, processes and systems and those type of things where it’s like, who are you creating a system or a process for when there ain’t no clients right now. Right? And so instead of focusing on those things where, where I could have been getting, like I would do things here and there, but.
Really when you’re starting out business, the most important thing is to be getting like doing these rep, you know, what they call revenue generating activities and trying to get clients and generate revenue, right? So I think part of that was, you know, just being in a new space and you know, never having been an entrepreneur and having to put myself out there in a different way.
There’s a lot that comes up with that, like stuff that you didn’t even know was there until you, and as far as confidence and everything. So just, you know, kind of hiding behind the scenes really. Like those are the things that need to be, be done. So like on my own journey, like I said, now that I’m full-time, it has been a, so even though I was doing it for years before this, it has been a new experience now that I am full-time in my business because it’s one thing to kind of do it on the side, dabbling it here and there.
Not really be relying on that revenue to support your life, you know, cover your living expenses versus now really trying to build as a full-time, you know, business owner, entrepreneur to, to create that, that level of revenue that does support my life. What has been the biggest mindset shift for you? Like what or the biggest mental challenge, if you will, in.
Transitioning into full-time entrepreneurship and what that looks like for your money. For me, on the money side, I did create like a, a savings runway. Unfortunately, transparency, when I left my job, I was not generating enough in my business to fully cover my living expenses, but I, I knew that, so I compensated for that by creating a longer.
Savings runway to be able to, to live off of. But I would say the, the biggest mindset shift has, it was just like a huge shift in identity. There was like multiple identity shifts happening at the same time. So one was going from employee to entrepreneur, which, you know, there’s, that in itself is just being able to think differently about how you earn, about how you work and everything.
So having that shift, and some of that has started even when I was at my job, you know, just on that, being on that entrepreneurial journey, you start to, you know, shift your mindset about the way you think about things. But what happened in what really didn’t impact me until I was actually happening with me leaving was the shift.
Cause you’re living off of your savings. Another shift that happened was, The shift from being somebody who was experiencing their jobs. And so going from being experienced, really knowing I have an expertise and knowing my craft there to being new, right?
Although I had been financial coaching for a while, I was still a new full-time entrepreneur, now I’m a newly self-employed. So being a beginner again, like really learning how do I grow this and how do I make more, more money? When you made this shift, how did you think about creating your best life and using entrepreneurship as a way to do that?
Michelle-What was it in your old job and experiences that weren’t serving you well and what were you hoping for by making this shift? So one thing that I will say, I believe I mentioned this already, is that my job wasn’t like a toxic environment. I just no longer felt aligned to what I was doing. Like, and this was a multi-year journey.
Chiante-Like I said, that initial eye-opening experience was December of 2016. I didn’t leave my job until January, 2022. So it was like over the course of years that I was one financially preparing and also just, you know, shifting the mindset about taking a different path from the traditional path that I thought I was gonna take.
One, have just more freedom and create a business that supported my lifestyle. And so that gave me the space to do different things. Gave me the freedom to manage my own time and to also be able to do something that I do work that I felt was more fulfilling to me and, and be in service to others.
My job wasn’t bad. It just was just time for me to move on. Like, you know, you just kind of can sense that in yourself. Maybe this season is done and that’s what I started feeling. I just started feeling more and more out of alignment even after switching to a different position that gave more, that actually gave more flexibility.
It still didn’t take away that yearning to like give myself a go and try on my own. And so I really got to a place where like the fear of my fear of regret of never having tried and giving. Like better on myself and give myself a chance. Outweighed any fear of uncertainty of how, how things would turn out.
Michelle-Is there anything you that you would’ve done differently? I really believe that everything happens the way it’s supposed to. So I’m really not a person that. Like sits in the shoulds or, or those type of things. So I feel like every, you know, no experience is wasted and it all builds and everything on your journey brings you to where you are.
But one thing that like, you know, looking back that I could have done differently for, you know, and I would advise others, is to really have been more intentional about what I was doing with my money. I’ve asked a couple people this question and it’s, it’s been interesting kind of hearing the answers, but what did you do to create your benefits package? Now that you’re your boss.
Chiante-Yeah, so that one, that was a big thing for me. And I know for a lot of people who are thinking about entrepreneurship, that is something that keeps them from taking the leap is like, you know, the benefits. For me, having been a federal government employee, that was definitely a concern. I had always had, you know, good benefits. So for medical, after looking into various different options, including like the marketplace and everything, we decided to go with a health share. And so we went with that. It was an affordable option, and that one was more for.
Something more catastrophic or, or happen. It would, it would kind of protect us from having like a really large medical loss or something like some of the other, um, smaller things we’ll still have to cover, but they have like some other benefits to go along with the health share. So that’s what we did as far as healthcare.
Well the other part of that was vision and dental. We’re just paying out of pocket for those. What I did beforehand was figure out what, you know, got estimates on the. Of what that would required, and we created a medical savings fund. So we just tap into that to cover some of those expenses. So for example, for vision.
It’s probably about be like about one 50 a piece to go get our annual, you know, um, you know, eye exams for dental, like preventive dental care, you know, get, get cleanings a couple times a year from my husband and I. That’s, that’s about $600. So we just created funds for those things. And actually through the health share you have a preventive, like when you go for like your annual physical, that office visit is covered as part of the health share.
And then you go in there as a cash. You know, uh, patient and that does reduce the costs as well. So, so far it hasn’t been a huge thing. Um, one thing that I had to think about, I had a mindset shift about the whole benefits and everything too though, is that, um, it was, I think it is important to compare as far as just as part of your analysis, just to see the difference of, you know, being employed versus being self-employed.
Like what does that look like? But I also just had to shift the, shift my mindset about, around the fact. I, I’m in a different place now, so like I can stay stuck in comparing, oh, when I, when I worked at the job, I had this or that or the other, or I can accept the fact that I decided to make this decision and this is where I’m at now, so let’s do what we need to do to make it work right now.
And so that was part of it too, was just shifting to how, how I thought about it and like, you know, it was a choice. And so this is part of what goes along with this choice. I talk a lot about financial policy in this show, and I’m curious about what policies that are or are not in place that would’ve bettered your entrepreneurial journey.
I don’t have a specific, something specific that comes to mind for the entrepreneurial journey per per se, but one policy. That I think about for like women that would definitely be supportive of women is like a federal policy on maternity leave. Cause I know some women end up going into entrepreneurship, you know, cause they wanna be home with their kids or, um, you know, stay-at-home mom and those type of things.
And, um, I think having like a federal policy on maternity leave would be beneficial for women’s career and help advance women’s careers because women. Careers are definitely significantly more impacted by being caregivers. I mean, at the time outta work, not being able to maybe do certain positions or take certain promotions that, you know, you know, cuz they have to care for their children or they can’t travel the same way.
Um, which then impacts their income, which then impacts their ability to build wealth over time. And of course, you know, there’s the gender pay gap and so that, that’s, you add that on top to the inequality and. That’s already, you know, impacting how much they make to begin with. I think having a federal mandate on, you know, uh, you know, paid maternity leave would definitely be helpful in advancing women’s, uh, careers and even me, even potentially the impact on entrepreneurship.
So, I mean, even me with working with the federal government, it wasn’t until like, I think it was maybe early 2020, it might have been late 2019, they didn’t start offering paid maternity leave until. And so, you know, prior to that you had to use your own, you know, annual leave or sick leave is what they called it.
So I’m sure women were definitely disproportionately impacted by their leave was disproportionately impacted by having to do that. By not having, even for what a, for federal government job, having like paid maternity leave as part of their benefits package. But I feel like there’s definitely policy that could be enacted to improve your experience as an entrepreneur.
Michelle-So in the state of Colorado, and I feel like no one remembers because so much of stuff has happened , but they recent, we, I feel like we voted on it, but it’s all a blur. But we have a new policy that’s coming. Which is a, uh, paid mater, paid, uh, family leave. But within that leave, it’s also included for solo entrepreneurs.
Yeah, so that’ll be awesome. So I’m very excited because it’s going, it, it’ll be available in 2024 and we just pay a percentage into it and, and then we can have paid leave. They’re, I think, working on the final details, but that’s why I was kind of like, these conversations are interesting cuz I’m initially speaking with American women because there’s a lot of policy that I’ve experienced in other countries that we just don’t have here.
But it’s also by a state by state basis. I’m trying to figure out what your states, and what my show guest states are doing or not doing, because I do think that where we live does influence like some of the, what we have available to us as our, yeah. Yeah. I think that’s awesome. What, you know, what you were just describing for Colorado’s policy, I’m, I’m in North Carolina.
I haven’t heard anything about that specifically. But at the same time, honestly I haven’t really looked right. I haven’t like looked into it. That is the thing though. Like everything is state by state. Right. And that’s why I’m saying like at the federal level, what can be done like, like a federal policy, like here’s the minimum, here’s the mandate that gets, I think something like that would be helpful.
Chiante-Like you said, in other countries, I know there’s more, definitely more like leave and and time off around. You know, maternity and everything like that, it’s not uncommon to take, you know, months off or even a year off. So I, I think, yeah, state by state is definitely moving in the right direction. But then if we could do something at a higher level, Where it creates that, you know, the quality across states and kind of the minimum across states.
I think that would be even better. And so look, you have me curious. Now I need to look at North Carolina to see if there’s anything like that for solopreneurs here. , you need to look. I mean, I know , I feel like it’s state by state, it depends. But there are a lot of people really looking at what can make entrepreneurship more attractive to entrepreneurs and what are some of the things that are lacking.
Michelle-I’m switching back to passive income. But that’s a lot of work, right? And it takes a while for that to build up. And so having policy in place where I’ve paid into it and I know I’m sick, I can take leave and not stress out. That’s a big deal.
Chiante-Yeah, I agree. I mean, so one of the things I did to prepare for, you know, leaving my job and going into entrepreneurship was I did get, actually, it was long-term disability, so that, you know, I was short-term, I was like, okay. You know, I have some savings to be able to cover that. But if something, like I said, Going a lot longer takes me out for a lot longer. That’s gonna be a really big concern. So that was one way that I did prepare. It’s going ahead and getting that long-term disability set up just to have some protection there if something were to happen.
Michelle-But I wonder if North Carolina has the government marketplace or a state marketplace, cuz I think that that’s also a thing that not enough people, Talk about is how the government one, I think is not as ideal. As the state ones, because basically if your state has a state exchange, that means that they weren’t trying to circumvent the law.
You think I’m lying? I’m serious. . Well, from, from what I found, I have not seen like a separate one for just North Carolina. I think it’s just the, the healthcare.gov and so, And I did a lot of searching. So like I’m not, you know, you, if it’s the government exchange, that’s all I need to know. It means that North Carolina had no interest in implementing the law when, yeah.
So when you have a state that has a state exchange, they, they were actively working to implement the law. Yeah. And that’s, that’s why that is so like my, I’ll even say how much my, so I pay four 30 a month, four, $430. And um, my deductible I think is 2000. And Kaiser’s great. I just got my eyes checked the other week.
It was $80 or $60 bucks I think, and that was including, it was including something, but I have an astigmatism, so it was, it was. in and out and it was great, but, but you guys have B better barbecues, so there’s that
My mom and I were talking about the barbecue in the airport there, last night.
Chiante-We do have, have good barbecue here!
Michelle-No lies detected. A lot of African American women in particular are going into entrepreneurship. Could you talk about what you’ve observed in terms of why we are so attracted to entrepreneur entrepreneurship and what are some of the mistakes you see us making that you, that you want us to be aware of so that we don’t harm ourselves in the long term for short term happiness?
Chiante-So as far as why a lot of black women, I think are attracted to entrepreneurship, I think a lot of us are tired of trying to operate in a space that wasn’t created for us. I think we are feeling overworked, undervalued, and maybe unfulfilled. And so I think we’re recognizing that our skills are valuable.
You know, we are a highly educated group, , right? So like I know a lot of, I think the last time I checked on like black women were the one of the highest growing segments or demographics as far as you know, higher education and entrepreneurship. And I think we’re also realizing that there’s another way, right?
Besides the American dream that we were sold, and so we’re like hanging out our shingles and betting on ourselves more. But some of the mistakes that I see, I, I think with pricing, I think there’s still some lack of confidence. There are still not all the way value in our service, like what our services are, the value that they’re bringing.
And so we don’t necessarily price appropriately all the time, which then like you can’t stay in business if you aren’t pricing. And I think also just being able to put ourselves out there more, like really sell ourselves or sell our services and the value of what we have to offer. Like sharing it. And I know that’s something that I’ve struggled with that times of like just really sharing it.
Well, cause I think as women, not just black women, just women in particular, like we’ve kind of been told to. Have that, like be seen and not heard type of thing. And so like really l learning how to advocate for yourself, talk, you know, talk about yourself, promote yourself, promote your services. Say what you’re able to bring to the table, share the results that you get.
It’s almost like you have to like break through any conditioning that was there to be able to do that more. And that’s something that is required as an entrepreneur, you know? So like, yeah, those are some of the big ones. And like, and. You said as far as like having like a long-term impact of like making sure that you do have some type of plan in place that you aren’t taking that leap too soon, um, that you are preparing, like having some good, healthy habits along the way of, you know, paying off that credit card debt, not getting caught up, trying to keep up with the Jones and really put your money behind what’s most important to you, uh, so that you can give yourself this space to do, you know, design the life that you want and like put the money behind that.
Not all this other stuff that really doesn’t matter at the end of the day. Not saying that anything’s wrong with wanting nice things, that’s totally fine. But like, I think a lot of times we get caught up getting stuff that we really, if we thought about it and took a step back, like, we don’t really care about that.
We care more about our business or the freedom that comes with the business or doing those type of things. Um, and also like investing early. I mean, that’s really what helps your wealth to grow over time. Like so one, being able to save that foundation there, but then even having that access to be able to invest, that’ll help serve you in the long run.
Later on in, in life, you know, preparing for that, how has your life become better since you’ve taken this risk on yourself? Yeah. I would say that I definitely feel more in alignment with how I’m living. Like, I feel like this is more the path that I’m supposed to be on. Um, like I said, uh, in my prior job, not, like I said, again, not that it was bad, but I just feel, just felt.
I’m supposed to be doing something different. I’m supposed, I felt like, called and compelled to do something else. Um, and I just didn’t wanna ignore that anymore. So I feel like now I feel like more on a path of alignment. I don’t have it all figured out, but I feel like this is the way, right? Like this is, this is moving in the right direction.
Um, and I also definitely appreciate the. The time freedom, which can be a gift and a curse sometimes. I, I’m still learning to, to manage myself better. I had to fire myself from time to time. But having that freedom to be able to do more of the things, like just kind of to have my day to be able to do it the way I wanna do it, to be able to like schedule my work around when I feel most productive rather than, You know, so if I need to take the, like sometimes I’ll have a load in the afternoon, like where I’m just like not feeling it.
I could take that, take that time and pick up some work later on that evening or something. Like to be able to just have the freedom to do that and not have to worry about, oh, I gotta get to this meeting anyway because that’s what was scheduled or just, so just having more time to do that. It was just, I think it was just last week, my husband and I decided just to have a cookout in the middle of the day cuz it was a nice day that day.
Right. So like just being like, Hey, you wanna throw something on the grill real quick? And like just being able to have the freedom to do. Uh, felt really good. So those are the kind of things like just kind of having to be able to slow down more, have more space, and not feel like the rush all the time. Um, and just kind of learn how to do it my way.
And some of that is the unlearning and de-conditioning, like, cuz you can easily create that for yourself again, right? Because that’s what you’re used to. So you have to be really mindful and intentional not to recreate the same thing that you were trying to. Ooh. Okay. Well, on that note, , um, uh, I, I feel like that’s a really good way to end this conversation.
Why would you recreate what you, what you were running from, um, how can we follow what you’re doing? Get in touch with you if, if we’d like coaching, tell us all the things. So my central hub is my website, dollarandchange.com. On there, there are the links to my social media, um, Facebook and Instagram. I’m at dollars in Change Coach.
There’s also a link on there to schedule a free consultation with me. If you’re interested in private financial coaching, one-on-one financial coaching, we could talk about what your financial goals are and see if my financial coaching services are a good fit.
Michelle-Thank you so much for, your time, your wisdom. I’m excited to see what 2023 brings to you and I also took some notes, too!
Chiante-Thank you for having me all, Michelle. I appreciate it.
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