With her 10 page spread in HGTV Magazine to designing celebrity homes, Amber Guyton is the audacious founder and interior designer behind Blessed Little Bungalow. Amber left a lucrative FinTech career, took a leap of faith and turned her passion for blogging, creating and interior design, into a full time career. This conversation is packed with stories from her career pivot, to life goals and accomplishments. Holding a candid conversation around fertility, Amber shares her choice to freeze her eggs at 36 and the financial and emotional implications of that journey. Tune is as Jessica and Brandon dive deep into this intriguing crossroads of passion, career, financial freedom and designing the life of your dreams.
If you’d like to leave us a question to be answered during future episodes, you can do so at Speakpipe.
You can email us at: thesugardaddypodcast@gmail.com
Be sure to connect with us on Instagram
Learn more about Brandon, and Oak City Financial
Schedule 30 minutes with Brandon
Please remember to subscribe, rate, and review.
Notes from the show:
Connect with Amber below:
website | email | facebook | twitter | instagram | pinterest | youtube | houzz
With her 10 page spread in HGTV Magazine to designing celebrity homes, Amber Guyton is the audacious founder and interior designer behind Blessed Little Bungalow. Amber left a lucrative FinTech career, took a leap of faith and turned her passion for blogging, creating and interior design, into a full time career. This conversation is packed with stories from her career pivot, to life goals and accomplishments. Holding a candid conversation around fertility, Amber shares her choice to freeze her eggs at 36 and the financial and emotional implications of that journey. Tune is as Jessica and Brandon dive deep into this intriguing crossroads of passion, career, financial freedom and designing the life of your dreams.
If you’d like to leave us a question to be answered during future episodes, you can do so at Speakpipe.
You can email us at: thesugardaddypodcast@gmail.com
Be sure to connect with us on Instagram
Learn more about Brandon, and Oak City Financial
Schedule 30 minutes with Brandon
Please remember to subscribe, rate, and review.
Notes from the show:
Connect with Amber below:
website | email | facebook | twitter | instagram | pinterest | youtube | houzz
Well, bungalow was a blog and a turn. It was a blog creative outlet hobby that turned into a side hustle. That turned into the brand it is now, and I was living two lives like trying to keep it up with it all and after five years it just I started to get the itch. Like you're not doing as much brand partnerships, client projects, like you're limiting yourself so much because you have this full-time job Now granted, it's super flexible. You're making great money with that. You don't need this blessful Bungalow money to live. But I just sat there and had a moment and was like, okay, is this which is your passion, which is the thing that really makes your heart flutter? And if you made a third of what you're making in tech doing this, working less, being happy, being able to go pick up your nephews from school, see your mom and dad anytime. You want travel because I've loved to travel. I've been to like 30 countries.
Speaker 1:Like to be able to do that on your own terms and be able to just do all of that, making far less. It was still a no-brainer. It's like I'm gonna choose this.
Speaker 3:Hey everyone, welcome to the Sugar Daddy podcast. I'm Jessica and I'm Brandon, and we're the Norwoods, a husband and wife team here to demystify the realm of dollars so it all makes sense while giving you a glimpse into our relationship with money and each other. We are so glad you're here. Let's get started.
Speaker 2:Our content is intended to be used, and must be used, for purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment based upon your own personal circumstances. You should take independent financial advice from a licensed professional in connection with or independently research and verify any information you find in our podcast and we should rely upon, whether for the purpose of making an investment decision or otherwise.
Speaker 4:Hey babe, what are we talking about today?
Speaker 3:I am so excited because if anybody asks me right now what my dream job would be, it has always been the same answer to be an interior designer. And even though that is not my current life, I still have visions and hopes and dreams and aspirations to make this happen. But today we have Amber Geithen with us from Bless Little Bungalow and, just in case you're out there living under a rock, she just had a 10 page spread in HGTV Magazine. So she is living out my dream and I cannot wait to talk to her. Amber, oh my gosh, thank you so much for being with us today. I am geeking out, ok.
Speaker 1:Thank you all so much for having me. I feel so honored and thank you for being a part of that celebration with me, because that still feels like a dream.
Speaker 3:Oh my god, list girl, I got the magazine right here we are celebrating, ok. I mean, oh my gosh, even when I showed the magazine to my daughter, she has an eye. Ok, she is five and a half. Listen, if I change a rug, if I change a curtain, if I change a bedspread, that is the first thing she notices, like she will come in from school book bag still on and she'll be like did we get a new rug? Yes, girl, she's got an eye OK.
Speaker 4:She looks like me, but she's 100% you personally.
Speaker 3:So if you need an apprentice, you just let me know and I will get you a little five and a half year old helper.
Speaker 1:Ok, on your payroll and so when you say that, it makes me think about myself, because I never. People are like, oh, did you always want to be in here? And I'm like, no. But then when I think back, I begged my mom to repaint my room when I was little. I always was moving around the furniture and fluffing pillows and arranging stuffed animals perfectly. It's always been something I've done, I guess, but just never really embraced it till a couple quarter of a life crisis is later.
Speaker 3:I love that and that gives me hope because I feel like she's very much like that in how she lines things up and how she organizes things and she's been really proud of herself lately because she's been making her bed in the mornings.
Speaker 4:And she wants to make her brother's bed too.
Speaker 3:And she wants to make her brother's bed. Now we have to work on how to properly make the bed. There's some wrinkles in the covers and things but the fact that she gets so excited about making her bed and having her room look a certain way is just like oh, it's a heart hug for me.
Speaker 1:So yeah, that's the adolescent. You're building a beautiful girl that has a good character. If she's like, this must be done, because I do believe I feel better and I have a more productive day when my bed is made, so she's starting her day off right.
Speaker 3:That's when I knew Brandon loved me because he couldn't care less if the bed is made, but he will make it on the mornings that I don't make it and that's the ultimate. Love language is like you made the bed when I didn't, and I know you don't care about this, but you know I care, you know, so it's just so special. Yes, it is.
Speaker 4:Happy spells, happy house.
Speaker 3:Ooh, look at you coming up with new phrase.
Speaker 4:I didn't come up with that. I saw it online, so it goes both ways Instead of it always just being about the woman.
Speaker 3:There we go. I like it. Ok, let's get into this bio y'all, so that you know who we're talking about Again, just in case you actually live under that rock that I've been mentioning. But we're going to get into it, we're going to get into the bio and then, of course, we're going to get into the first money memory.
Speaker 3:So in 2016, amber Geithen launched her interior design blog and business, bless Little Bungalow. As a former FinTech marketer, this personal finance and home decor enthusiast completes design projects across the country for clients and in her own humble abode at prices that fit in everyday consumers' budgets. With curated, millennial content and a keen eye for color and style, amber and Bless Little Bungalow have been featured by national retailers, brands and publications such as HGTV Magazine, house Beautiful, apartment Therapy, domino Forbes, hunker, ebony Magazine, atlanta Homes and Lifestyles, atlanta Magazine's Home, high Point Market, all Modern, one Room Challenge and more Y'all. Amber is staying busy and we are so excited that she is carving out some time to talk to Little Old Us today. So thank you again, amber, for being with us, really excited about this.
Speaker 1:Thank you. It's always weird, it's uncomfortable when you're hearing your bio, but then, when you hear things you're proud of, you're like, oh yeah, I did do that.
Speaker 3:You're like, yeah, hgtv 10-page spread. That was me Like little pinched yourself moments, celebrate all day. No, when you said Forbes.
Speaker 1:I was like, oh yeah, I was on Forbes, like that's the first one.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, your list is getting so long, you're forgetting.
Speaker 1:It's just kind of like. It just feels surreal, like this is year 7 and 1 half and full time 2 and 1 half, so it still feels like. It felt like almost like a reset becoming a full time entrepreneur, because before it was just for fun and it was a side hustle and it was extra money I was making to pay off debt, and now it's like full time job and it's like imposter syndrome and just fear of having a scarcity mindset being an entrepreneur and having your income fluctuate. It felt like starting over. So, yeah, sometimes you just got to pause and remember, hey, yeah, girl, you did that and you still doing the thing, so keep going.
Speaker 4:I hear like a part of that never actually goes away, regardless of how successful you become.
Speaker 1:Ever, ever, especially when it's like oh, I didn't go to school for this, or you have peers, or you Well the people. The scariest thing is when the people you looked up to like all of a sudden are your peers and then it really feels like, oh, I don't belong here or I'm being judged, I'm being looked at. Girl, you just a blogger, you're just a hobbyist. So yeah, it intensifies. Nobody tells you that. So it's been an interesting journey.
Speaker 3:I don't think that Forbes and HGTV are giving away valuable real estate in their magazines 10-page spread. To little hobbyists. Ok, right, yes, Maybe like half a page, but a 10-page Maybe like a little corner, but I mean pages upon pages, upon pages, right? So, yeah, yeah, we have a lot to cover, because we want to get into all of that, right, the transition from fintech marketing to entrepreneurship, side hustle to full-time entrepreneurship. But we know you have a finance background as well. Tell us about your first money memory to kick us off.
Speaker 1:OK. So I put a lot of thought into this because I was like first money memory as far as spending money, receiving money, thinking about money, all of you have.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I have different memories, like there's a distinct memory when it comes to debt, there's a distinct memory when it comes to like receiving cash and paying my first bill, getting my first W2 for McDonald's, like there's all these things. But I would have to say my first money memory was definitely like just receiving like a dollar or $5 for my grandpa or his brother, my uncle, amos. As a child it just felt like I see you, I love you and I'm giving you this money. And, of course, my grandfather we called him Georgie. His name was George. No one called him Like it's almost like Joe Jackson, like nobody called him father, I just called him Georgie, his grandkids, everybody. So anyway, you'd always be like don't spend it all in one place, and so like if you have $5, you at least save $1. And so that's something that's been ingrained in me since elementary school, ever since receiving money from family members and holidays and all the things like you never spend your last. So I would say that's my first money memory for sure.
Speaker 4:So would you say as an adult now, that you're definitely a saver?
Speaker 1:Absolutely not. I thought she was going to say I was like, yeah, I don't spend so much, but I don't just spend my money, I spend clients money.
Speaker 3:But that is. I was just saying that like how fun must that be, right? You're like give me all the coins and then I get to pick out all the beautiful things with not my money. So you still get that satisfaction of like picking it, buying it, putting it from the cart into your car, Like that's the fun stuff, and then you get to put it on other people's walls and floors and shelves. But it wasn't your money.
Speaker 4:Yes, I don't even think I'd have fun spending other people's money.
Speaker 1:Oh, I totally would.
Speaker 1:Well, you're definitely there is a fear and consciousness and of course, there's like the occasional mistake or something like I picked the wrong shipping or it went to the wrong card or something like 1% of that, yeah, so there's still like this consciousness of let me double check this number and type and things.
Speaker 1:But that thought process of I'm not spending your last, like I never want my clients to feel like they're going over budget or they are going to have buyer's remorse or like like every dollar that is spent as well thought out. And then we always have like a little kind of like a little concession like of, okay, we need to buy, we need to get these drapes altered, we need to buy accessories and knickknacks, and you know there's always going to be like we know the wallpaper installation is going to cost this much and installing all the lighting, but let's leave like an extra thousand dollars in case there's any last minute installation or mounting or whatever that's needed, like there's always like a little sliver in there left, like I'm not going to. So that thought process is still not just personally but also for my clients like let's not spend the last dollar.
Speaker 3:I was thinking when you were saying that you like always reserve a little pot of your clients budget for those final things, right, like I've watched enough HDTV to know there's like a last something's always last minute that has to be done, that wasn't considered or something broke or, like you said, something needs to be altered. But that also brought me to like you know, like the show, say yes to the dress, where people would come in and they'd be like, well, my budget is $2,000 and then they walk out with a $10,000 dress and you're like, whoa, somebody did not set a boundary. And that sales rep was like looking at the commission, thinking, oh, we can just go $8,000 over budget, right. But I'm sure you're very conscientious of your clients, you know budget and their limits and you respect that and don't go over.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because at the end of the day, it's a reflection of you and like how much you care about that client and I feel like interior design is truly a luxury. I mean, no matter how much you're spending, whether it's the high end or the low end, e-design or full service interior design. So it's. There's a lot of people that just like hand you the credit card or say, okay, this is our construction budget, this is our furnishings and design budget, and then, depending on the client, depending on the interior designers business model, like they might just take a percentage of whatever you're gonna spend, or so they're, they're profiting more based on how much you spend. But then there's others that's like a flat fee, like myself. So it's like I don't, I don't benefit from you spending more. But I'm also going to keep you realistic and say, like your vision is 50, a $50,000 budget, and you're giving me five.
Speaker 1:Like so you know, you just have to be transparent about those conversations, but you're doing so in a way that's like I want to fulfill your dream. I want to help you create what you've been imagining, versus just going to the store and buying everything off the showroom. Like you can spend so much money on furniture and it's still not feel good, still not feel like a home or reflect you. So, yeah, there's a lot of things to keep in mind beyond the dollars, but definitely just making people conscious of, okay, if we're gonna spend this, we need to make sure that it's functional, it's meeting the needs of your family. If it needs to be performance, fabric, sofa, etc. But also, how does it make you feel? Do you love it, does it excite you, inspire you?
Speaker 4:all those things it's interesting because when I hear you say as far as, like you know, you have the interior designers that take a percentage of how much they spend on or in comparison to having a flat fee, it makes me think of financial advisors, because you have, you know, advisors that charge, like your 1% AUM asset under management, which is more kind of the older model in comparison to like how I charge, which is a flat fee, and a lot of younger advisors are tend to do that. So it doesn't necessarily matter how many, how much assets you have, it's a matter of what I'm doing for you exactly, exactly.
Speaker 1:And you, there's a level of trust that comes with that too. It's like they're they're giving me this, this advice, and they're not benefiting from this advice. You're telling me this because based on your knowledge and because it's truly best for me, not, yeah, same thing. And then even real estate agents, and there's a lot of you know percentages like, and you're just kind of like, okay, well, they don't mind if I go over budget. They don't think that actually helps them, benefits them if I buy a $600,000 house versus 400, which is in my budget. So, yeah, it just.
Speaker 1:There's just a level of trust that comes with that and it's easier to me because it's like okay, well, if you decide you're going to do four rooms instead of seven, then this is the price and there's no question. And then you can kind of decide, like what is in your budget, what you want to prioritize? Do you want to do this in phases?
Speaker 4:so it makes it much simpler okay, like, for example, like I was. So people, someone who has a million dollars to invest, and comparison to most two million dollars and, all honesty, the work is very much the same. It's not like I'm doing twice the work for the person is two million, but they're paying twice the amount of fees yes, yeah for sure.
Speaker 3:Well, I think, like you said, it goes back to a level of trust right. Are you picking this sofa for me or this investment for me because it's the best thing for what I told you my goals are, or are you picking it because it's going to line your pocket right? So I think, if you take that out, it gives the relationship an immediate boost of trust, which I think is so important in both right, because that's with me, with I'm the I'm the budget conscious person.
Speaker 4:When it comes to the decorating, I'm like how much is it, you know? And then like, obviously, you know, she's the one that does all nine hundred percent of the decorating. I'm just like how much is it?
Speaker 3:but I usually ask him, I usually show him options like we pretty much change out all the lighting in our home, right, like got rid of everything, builder grade, and so I would. With budget in mind, I would give him two options like do you like this for over the dining room or do you like this? And I didn't tell him the price because I want to know which one do you actually like better. Not, this one's a hundred dollars less, so you're going to like it better right, so I still have to like.
Speaker 3:I have to go through the process of seeing, like, if they were both the same price, which one would you pick?
Speaker 4:and then also nine times out of ten.
Speaker 3:I don't care which is helpful for me.
Speaker 4:I know what I'm good at, know what I'm not good at.
Speaker 1:In interior decorating, I am terrible at so yeah, well, you did an amazing job, based on just your backdrop, or just like oh, this just makes me feel cute, the whole the greenery. So, yeah, this is my office.
Speaker 3:I wanted yeah, I wanted something that was like feminine and girly and all the things, because I'm on video calls a lot throughout the day, so, okay, but this podcast is not about me today. It's about you. What prompted you to leave your fintech marketing job, which I'm assuming came with again assumptions, right, good salary, good benefits, probably the perks I mean I'm in the tech space right, I'm thinking 401k and a match, and you also in San Francisco as well, so you know San Francisco at high cost of living so that's a bold step to be like I'm gonna leave this and go pursue my dream.
Speaker 3:So walk us through all the things that was that were going through your mind okay.
Speaker 1:So I would even go back a little further. So like when I so my mom was single parent, social worker, made less than 50,000 a year all my life like growing up, but we always had enough. We lived within our means and sometimes a little above, but we were always like I've never missed a meal. I always had back to school, clothes and shoes and so on, but I never had like as much as like some of my classmates and so on. And then going to college it was kind of the same thing, like, okay, I would love to go to Florida state, I would love to go to Howard, but I'm not even gonna apply because it's out of state tuition and that's not something my family can afford.
Speaker 1:So went to South Carolina University of South Carolina in state school, had great grades, life scholarship, all the things. Still had a little student loan debt from school. But then found myself graduating and my salary was $28,000 a year. Making that, selling advertising at a newspaper. Well, the base was $28,000 a year, so I'd say probably my highest like annual gross gross income from that job was probably like 40 or something like that, and then also being in sales when I moved to Atlanta the first time I was working for 11 alive, which is the NBC station. I was selling advertising on TV commercials digital, still probably capping like 60 at the most. So triple that is what I was making. So it was like girl, what are you doing? What are you, why are you quitting this job? But in between there I went back for my MBA University of Georgia. I worked at USAA in San Antonio for about five years. Okay, ralphie, sorry dog is like hey, now what are you talking about?
Speaker 1:and there is where I, you know, went like I felt like the American dream is like go to college, buy a house, get married, make six figures. You've made it. I was like, okay, here we are, we've made it. And so then tech was beyond that and it felt amazing to be making that much. But at some point I realized like I'm just here for the money, like I'm passionate about financial services, but both companies, it's like we're helping. We had a great mission at USAA.
Speaker 1:You know military families, military members and I have USAA finances yes, I, and so there's a lot of pride in being a member and serving those members, and when I was in mortgage it was very fulfilling. And then I was in like social and did a couple different things, but then once I got to in credit card it was just kind of felt icky. It was just like we just we just trying to get people in debt. I don't like this and that wasn't really like the point. But you know, a bank is a bank. That's how banks make money.
Speaker 1:But then I kind of got bored with the traditional banking and then ended up going into fintech, like working at one startup in San Francisco, then working at another in actually in the city, though the other one was in Palo Alto. But then I worked at a firm which by now pay later. You know you can cut it up in payments, like whether it's like your West Elm sofa or they have a relationship with Amazon, target, like you name it, like they work with a lot of retailers so that you can pay overtime. And so I was on the product marketing team there for a year and a half, went through the IPO with them amazing experience, right and you're making like 150 plus a year and, on top of that, unlimited time off. Well, unlimited, unlimited right air quotes.
Speaker 4:Air quotes the key question is did you have any equity prior to the IPO?
Speaker 1:yes, yes, I had equity and of course the stock price was all the way here, and then it was all the way here. I've benefited. I sold a good bit of shares and I moved to Atlanta to help me with things. And that's when the stock price was good and then it kind of tanked and it was just like, oh, why didn't you sell all like? You know, you're new to that process. So it's kind of like, and it's, you know, fintech was booming at the moment. So you just felt like, oh, it's only gonna go up, it's not gonna drop. That's a whole other conversation of it.
Speaker 4:But I mean, there's a history of IPOs, this basically it goes up right away and then it tanks yeah.
Speaker 1:So I still have a couple share well, couple I have. I have some shares left but in hopes that it'll revive. But at the end of the day it's like I look at it like it's monopoly money anyway. So it's just like it exists and it's real money. But you had an amazing opportunity and you're gonna drive yourself crazy and be like super upset if you think about it too much and like the sugarcane alattes. Just like my first house I sold. I bought it. It was a foreclosure for 134, 145, something like that. I sold it for two when I moved to Texas. Right now that townhouse is probably worth like four or something.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and I'm gonna buy it, but this housing boom was same for us. Housing boom was this? Housing boom was unforeseen Like it never happened in history that it jumped that much Like so.
Speaker 3:The townhouse I moved into when I moved to Raleigh. For him we should have kept, but we sold it. We thought we were making some money. Now those townhouses are $200,000 more and it's just like, oh, we should have just figured out how to keep it, rent it and just start the portfolio that way. But you don't know what you don't know, and you didn't know that the boom was gonna boom like this hard. You know.
Speaker 1:Exactly, and then also, like I hated my HOA, I did not wanna deal with them from a thousand miles away in Texas.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh yeah, I would have had to hire a property management company. So in my mind it's like oh, this mortgage is only like $800. It's okay to have that in your mortgage in San Antonio, but then another 500 on top of that for the HOA and the property management and still the headache of having to think about like tenants ruining your space. And I just at the time I just didn't wanna sign up for that. So I made the best decision I could for myself at that time. But yeah, looking back here just like, oh, Tying sites always 2020.
Speaker 1:Yes, the person I sold it to like she's a first time home buyer and full circle moment. Like I was so annoyed because they made me replace the well they didn't make me, but like they made me replace the hot order heater and all these things before I moved. I was so annoyed with that because it was an older town home so it probably needed a new one eventually, like in the next four years anyway. But I did like a throwback Thursday post on bless little bungalow, like last year sometime, and showed like my first house, my second house and my current house. And someone messaged me and it was the homeowner and she was like, oh my gosh, I've been following you for years. I did not know that this was your house and so there, and so that just made me feel like, oh, it's in good hands, she deserves that.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's not. I'm hoping her and her water heater are doing great. I'm not better.
Speaker 1:I'm not better. I'm not better.
Speaker 3:Everything's fine. Everything's fine. I promise Everything's fine.
Speaker 1:But but yeah, going back to like the tech job, it's like, okay, you're making 178 year, You're, you've got unlimited PTO, you have phenomenal benefits, Just benefits you haven't even used. But some benefits were like we had a electronics, what was it? It was like we had, like we had like a card that we can use for all things like employee related, like a cash card, I guess. Like we had like $200 a month for electronics, $250 for food, so we could. And it was during the pandemic. So it was like, okay, great, I haven't just Uber Eats every day for lunch. Like it was just ridiculous benefits and I had never even worked in the building because I had started there during the pandemic. And it was just like, girl, what do you mean? You're leaving. Like it was really. I'm not gonna say it was stupid, but it was crazy to just decide.
Speaker 1:So, anyway, the company I started the first day, the first Monday after the pandemic started. So I think the pandemic was like 316, 2020, something like that. Like I started that Monday following, I think, everything the world shut down like that Wednesday or Thursday prior, and so they're just like, okay, everybody's wanna work from home, come to the office, pick up your laptop. We'll see you in three months. Never happened. Never worked for the office.
Speaker 1:And so by the end of the year they were just like, okay, we're gonna become a remote first company, because a lot of my coworkers they were just like staying in Hawaii, they were like living wherever, just because they could, as everybody was working remote. So they changed the policy based on like what your salary is now, based on San Francisco cost of living, it'll change. So I think like if I was still working there today, I think my salary would have been like 20% less based on me living in Atlanta versus San Francisco. But even that, like giving that grace period of two years, like was so generous. So, yeah, when they announced that, I was like okay, san Francisco, russian Hill, $3,000 a month for a 450 square foot apartment, or move back to.
Speaker 1:Atlanta close to the family and spend that same amount for a three, four bedroom house Actually a big, actually less. I'm still spending less than that on a mortgage. Like mortgage is like 2,200 for a three bedroom house in Atlanta. Like it's a no brainer, like I'm just here for work, so let's, let's skedaddle. So February 2021, I moved back to Atlanta and bought the house.
Speaker 1:I'm sitting in another bungalow and, bless little bungalow was a blog and a turn. It was a blog, creative outlet hobby that turned into a side hustle, that turned into the brand it is now and I was living two lives like, trying to keep it up with it all and after five years, it just I started to get the itch. Like you're not doing as much brand partnerships, client projects. Like you're limiting yourself so much because you have this full-time job Now, granted, it's super flexible. You're making great money with that. You don't need this bless little bungalow money to live. But I just sat there and had a moment and was like, okay, is this which is your passion, which is the thing that really, like makes your heart flutter? And if you made a third of what you're making in tech doing this, working less, being happy, being able to go pick up your nephews from school, see your mom and dad anytime you want travel cause I've loved to travel.
Speaker 1:I've been to like 30 countries, like to be, able to do that on your own terms and make and be able to do all of that making far less, it was still a no brainer. It's like I'm gonna choose this. So I gave a one month notice, which was very generous because they posted my job before I left and that was my okay. These people don't care. I mean, they care about you, but it's like, at the end of the day, it's a business and they're giving them four week notice so you can wrap up your job, your work and stuff, whereas they're already posting the position. Like you could have gave them two weeks.
Speaker 3:You are replaceable Absolutely, even in the best situations, right and like. I'm very happy with work, I feel fulfilled, I love my team, I love my boss, all of the things. But you just have to remember like if you work for somebody else, you are replaceable. And I will post that job.
Speaker 4:And if I'm not replaceable, I should be making a lot more money.
Speaker 3:Also that part, which means that you're gonna continue to be replaceable, right, like you said, they'll post that job in a second.
Speaker 4:What I love about what you said is you looked at how you wanted your life to be, rather than basing it off of how much you necessarily wanted to make.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 4:Because I think too many people focus on how much money do I wanna make and they don't focus on how they want their life to actually look like and then base hey, do I already make enough money to have my life look like that, or do I need to make more money? So I think I like the way that you framed that as far as making your decision.
Speaker 1:For sure. And then not only that, but like my cap with my current position say, I was never promoted, I just stayed in that position I was in and then the deduction I would make and pay based on my move, like I still would have capped at like 200, probably right In the cost of living living in San Francisco. Even living here, it's like I would have spent a good bit of that. Versus being an entrepreneur. I'm paying myself a salary Could I pay myself more, absolutely but there is no ceiling. I have these client projects. I can take on more projects. Like there's a wait list, there's people that want to work with me. It's just about my capacity and my mental health and just like being kind to myself with how much I take on. But there's also brand partnerships. I'm getting into licensing now. There's TV opportunities and things on the horizon. So it's kind of like, yes, I'm taking this quote unquote pay cut, like voluntarily, but there is no limit to the amount of money I can make and that there's a freedom that comes with that. Like, okay, I decided to take a six month sabbatical, just hang out with my aunt and uncle in Pineville, south Carolina, for a month and a time Not Pineville, not Pineville, I'm not going to go to the US, yeah, I just. You know it's like I can do that and if I plan, you know, finances right and all of these things, like I can afford to do that too. Whereas, like one thing I will say the more money I made and this is that's a part of my debt journey, debt, financial freedom, paying off debt journey too is like the more money I made I realized it didn't matter how much money I made If I've got the same poor habits, if I'm still going to be living paycheck to paycheck, if I'm still going to be putting everything on a credit card and just pretending that it's not there, like whether you make $20,000 or $200,000, like you're still going to be poor, like you're still going to be.
Speaker 1:Like having that anxiety that comes with not having enough and having to exchange time for money in order for you to feel good about. Okay, I can pay for these bills, I can pay for my dog's expensive dog food with farmers, dogs like I can afford these things. But it's also like I think there's this realization after you make, like after you hit that, oh, I made it amount of money that it's like if I can just make enough. Not just enough, but if I could just be comfortable and live the life I want to live and be at peace. Yes, I could always make more, but I don't need. I don't need to sign up for that stress in order to have that, because if I manage what I have well, then I can live my best life.
Speaker 1:And so that's a constant like lesson that's happening for me and I think, being an entrepreneur, when you're not making the same amount each month, then you're you're kind of in the driver's seat, so like you're making as much as your discipline and you're a good habit to allow. Like, oh gosh, I'm my own boss, I'm a terrible boss, I'm like not good, you know, there's all those, there's all those things that can affect the dollar amount. But it just makes you even more conscious of, okay, I'm all of these, I'm in, I'm an escort now I'm on payroll, all of these things. There's not a lot that I spend money on outside of my personal account. There's no reason I can't hit this savings goal. There's no reason I can't afford to buy an investment property in the next five years. Like it just gives you a different perspective. So, but I'm still on the journey, so I don't even remember what the original question was well, the original question was when did you decide to go from corporate to entrepreneurship?
Speaker 3:and I think you took us through the journey of the different roles and jobs and then the impetus was I no longer feel fulfilled in this role and what could I be doing to wake up and be happy in my, my career every day?
Speaker 4:I think, ultimately, was you deciding how you want your life to look, yeah, and then making the changes so that you can live that life. But what I love that you said is that when you were talking about you know the habits with money, because I think one of the biggest misconceptions that people have is that you know, I've sat down with people that make $50,000 a year and I've sat down with people make $500,000 a year and both living paycheck to paycheck it, just that one person's paycheck is significantly larger yeah so it's very true what you said about the habits, that if you don't focus on the habits, no amount of money is going to change that.
Speaker 4:Then you know if you're, if you're overspending, just because you make more money is not gonna all of a sudden say, oh, I'm gonna start saving now.
Speaker 1:No, yeah, you know people that are doctors and lawyers, that you know they they took on $200,000 or whatever in student loan debt and it's like, oh well, now I can afford to make that payment, but I'm also getting a new Mercedes and a new house and I'm marrying kids and all these things. And then you look around and you're just like, okay, I'm making $300,000 a year, but I don't see any of it because it's going to all these things. So, yeah, it's, it's something that it's a, it's a big eye-opener. It's like, oh, I didn't realize until I made money that I'm, until I made great money, that I am a poor steward of that money and I have bad habits. And just being a spender versus a saver is not an excuse for that. Like, you can still be responsible and we're still figuring out this adulting thing. You know, we're still.
Speaker 4:It's so hard but the key part is that you had there, you had this self realization yeah and the problem is a lot of people don't have that self realization. So it's. You know, all of us in our younger years have spent more money than we probably should have like.
Speaker 4:If you say you haven't, then you are like the 1% we've all done or you're lying yeah, and it's just a matter of you know, growing and realizing, like I mean, like there's definitely things that I'm a financial advisor and those things that I 100% wish I could go back and do differently do you feel like you had that, that aha moment of like?
Speaker 3:okay, I need to chill out, I need to pull back, I need to be mindful of my money, because you left corporate and now you were your sole income and you were going to be the, you know, the provider of the bread on the table, so to speak. Is that when you had that moment of like? Something's got to change definitely I.
Speaker 1:Even before that, like at USA a, we had a 8% match.
Speaker 1:So from my mind I was well doing, investing that so I could get the match. And then, when I left that, when I left USA a and went into tech, there was no match. But right. So it was like, okay, well, I need to continue to invest this money, but the money that I was getting in the match now I'm getting, I guess, in the salary. So are you going to save more, are you going to invest more? Because you got to make up for that difference? And now, as a entrepreneur, it's like, okay, let's open this up account, do all these things that and you know there's things coming straight out of the business so it feels better. But there's always this feeling of, oh, I'm not doing enough. Or you know, as millennials, we're just like, oh my gosh, social security is gonna run out and maybe I could have retired like my parents could retire with a million dollars. I need ten million dollars, like it's definitely more than million it's gonna be.
Speaker 1:It's just constant fear that I'm not doing enough, I'm not saving enough. But then there's also this live your life like go to Bora Bora, do what you know. It's a constant struggle, but as an entrepreneur, you have no choice but to be more conscious of it and I just think with you know, first job out of college being in 2008, and I just remember sitting in that, at that newspaper, in each quarter we had this huge layoff, because not only was were we sitting in a recession, like print journalism and the newspaper industry was dying and there was all these things. So, like we've lived through this.
Speaker 1:I've personally seen so much as far as like even these corporate jobs and steady jobs, like like nothing is, nothing is guaranteed. So you have to be, you have to be loyal to yourself, you have to. What is, what is 60 year old Amber going to need, and what are we doing right now to ensure that she has that? And it's scary to think about, but it's like that's kind of how I frame it. It's like, okay, girl, you could go to Target and spend $200, or or you can invest that $200 or save it. And oh, it's hard.
Speaker 1:I couldn't say less. I wanted to target. It's been less than $50, it's not it's not, oh, literally never.
Speaker 3:You go in for toothpaste and you come out 183 dollars poor you're like what? But I will say not. If you shop online and do the target pickup, you actually save money, because then you don't go up and down those aisles. The dollar section at the front doesn't get you. You know it's, it's, it's my little life hack you know, like my sister she does the pickup.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I just, I just it's a fun about it's a parent thing having kids.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because of the kids there is something therapeutic right, like you get yourself a Starbucks and you walk up and down and it's. I don't bring my kids, so it is like it's a little bit of me time. It's it's self-care.
Speaker 1:You know it's self-care and they know that, and they know that. That's why they put a start Starbucks in there and Ulta in there. The clothes listen every quarter.
Speaker 3:Okay everything's so cute yeah okay, I want to talk about hgTV. Is that the biggest thing that has happened to bless little bungalow?
Speaker 1:I think so. I so funny story hgTV magazine just started like in 2020, 2012, something like that. Yeah, cuz they just celebrated their 10 years last year. And there are pictures, the first pictures I took.
Speaker 1:When I started bless little bungalow the blog in 2016, I was thinking like what am I going to style this face with? What am I gonna do like props and things? And I didn't have like paint swatches, I didn't have like fabric samples, anything like that. But I had a stack of hgTV magazines cuz I just loved them. I just felt like Nothing against Arch Digest and Eldacore and Southern Living and all of that.
Speaker 1:But HUTV just felt like Millennial, price conscious, amber In a magazine with that burst that's bursting in color and pattern and who's a thing that I can buy on Wayfair? That will be X amount in my budget, that will look like a million bucks. And so I've always loved the magazine and my first photo shoot I have a picture of me like looking at it on my back porch, looking at an issue. So when my agency reached out and was like hey, we pitched your, your home, to HUTV magazine and they are interested in Doing a spread, a home tour, and they think they can try for a cover shot and I was just like, excuse me.
Speaker 3:Oh, what you're like. I'm sorry. Did you mean to call me yeah?
Speaker 1:so it's like 10 years later, from Seven years later, from me starting bless little bungalow and always like drooling over this magazine. Like that is like the bucket list thing for me is to be in and in in a magazine that I've always loved, but then to be on the cover as well, it was just like okay, I can quit this now because there's nothing, nothing. Cold rain we have, we have achieved the ultimate goal.
Speaker 1:So they came to my home in February. We had it was where the May issue, so they had to beautify the front yard and just did all. They did all that. Yeah, yeah, they came, they sent us and that was amazing and they went to like Farmers Market or Plant nurseries or whatever, bought like all these hydrangeas and fixated them on the front yard because it was winter time, still so Spring and then inside my house like everything pretty much was Everything in the spread is pretty much the same as my house now but it's like they brought like a u-haul truck full of Accessories, like little candlesticks here and there's a picture, there's a shot in there where I'm like making a salad and like. So the little.
Speaker 3:Here For anybody's gonna watch on YouTube. Yep, there she is, there. She is cute salad, all the things, yeah, but I got to take.
Speaker 1:I got to choose my own wardrobe and my makeup. Um artists. I had her come in that morning and but they did style and change a few things, just like for editorial reasons, like Print in print you bring the artwork down a little bit, so like there's just little things that they do to tweet to make it like Interior design photography friendly.
Speaker 1:So yeah, it was two days of that and it just felt surreal. It was, it was actually the most people that's ever been in my house. Um, at that point because you know Kobe and it was it just felt like a dream, so that was probably. And then to actually receive the magazine in the mail and have people buying it and going in Barnes and Noble and seeing my guest room on a cover of a magazine sitting on a shelf and learning that you know it's one of their most successful issues this year and just how kind and gracious the team was and how they were. Just like you know they're just pouring into me like girl, you, you got it going on Like, don't you know that? Um, it was, it was amazing. So, yes, by far best moment for BLB so far. Really, have a question.
Speaker 3:I know you're gonna ask something, but I need to ask something. Did you? Do you get paid to be in the magazine?
Speaker 1:No, you don't get paid to be in the magazine, but I think, like arch digest and Well, I don't know, I don't want to, I don't want to put false information out there, but I think, like, once you're at like a celebrity level, like doing certain, like all these home tours and stuff, I do believe they pay for that, but I could be wrong. But no, no, this is. I did not pay for the. I did not pay for the, the 10 pages, and nor did they pay me.
Speaker 3:Got it? Okay, got it. What were you gonna say? This is a good question.
Speaker 4:I was going to say because, um, the HGTV spread is how I came to know of About you. Because, as you may be able, I mean it might be a little bit surprising, but I'm not big into interior decorating, I know that's surprising. Yeah, but that.
Speaker 4:I because I saw your sister raven post about it and I was like, oh yes. I was like Because, for those that don't know, obviously I went to college with Amber's sister raven and I saw her post about it on social media and I was like, oh, just look at this. And she's like how do you know this? I was like, oh, I don't like I know her sister.
Speaker 3:Let me back up. Right, because we have a list of people that we want to talk to for the podcast, right, some people are like friends and family kind of group, right, like business owners, and you know like, okay, these are people that absolutely we can get on the podcast. And then we have Other people that we want on the podcast, right, like we have. I mean, there there's a tier right Like there are people on there that we will I'm gonna put it in the atmosphere that we will eventually get to talk to, right, but right now it's like, well, that that just would be just a crazy dream, right, but you were on my list because I love interior design and I've been following you on my, my personal page for forever.
Speaker 3:So then when I found out that Brandon went to school we both went to the College of Charleston, but went to school and knows your sister I felt like he was like gatekeeping, right, like how did you not put this together? Like Like I just asked Raven. I know like that's when you take the pillow at night and yeah, so, anyway. So that was like it was just like wait a minute, you're telling me that like we could just have Raven. Like send Amber a text message and be like hey, well, you'd be on this part literally every day.
Speaker 4:She was like, did you message Raven? Did you message Raven? Like I messaged her? I was like me and Raven, like know each other, was not like we're like best friends. I messaged her, but shout out to Raven for making the connection.
Speaker 3:Shout out we are here today. Okay, we are here today.
Speaker 1:Things, great things happened 40 last week and we want to see Beyonce to celebrate.
Speaker 3:Hey, who's? Well, I'm not seeing Beyonce, but it seems like literally the entire world is either seeing Beyonce or Taylor Swift right now.
Speaker 1:So yeah, it was my first Beyonce concert and when I tell people that they're just like outrage, like what do you mean? You've never seen Beyonce concert. So it was like one of those. Even Raven, she's seen her three times like I and I'm the younger.
Speaker 3:So when her ticket prices are a mortgage payment. You know, Are you have to that bad Depend? I guess it depends, but I know people who paid a mortgage payment. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, if you're paying to be. We weren't on the floor, we were on 100 level like club seats, but it was still like a good change. But I yeah, I would not be paying to be in club Renaissance VIP. No, that's.
Speaker 3:I'm not. Yes, those are. Yeah, those are expensive. Okay, so You're. Obviously the transition from corporate to being a full-time entrepreneur. Entrepreneur has served you well. You are clearly, you know, excelling and living your best life and setting your boundaries. You've got your wait list of people. I want to transition.
Speaker 1:What do you mean? The boundaries is some. It's a work in progress. I'm a little. I'm a little burnt out every summer. Last summer, I was burnt out too. I think I just need to do a better job of taking care of myself and like managing my pipeline better, picking better clients not not better clients, but clients that are more aligned with, like allowing me to just create versus micro managing and, you know, setting expectations. So, anyway, work in progress, but we're we're learning. We're learning as we go, learning every day.
Speaker 4:So where is it just you, or do you have some other people that are part of your team?
Speaker 3:Sorry, yeah, are you growing a team? Are you one-woman?
Speaker 1:show. Technically I'm a solopreneur. I'm I'm I'm a one-woman show, but I do have a virtual assistant that helps with a lot of the administrative things building my shopping list, managing my honey book, for example, like in replies to Increase, and managing my, my pipeline of work and projects. As far so I'm more of it, I'm an e-designer versus Well, it's like a hybrid, but e-designer meaning I designed the space on paper, virtually Mood boards, all the things, build the shopping list and then hand them to the clients to execute. So if you executed today, great, you executed six months, you know you can do that.
Speaker 1:But clients that are either have me come out to them if they're out of state, or Clients that are here in Atlanta, then you know I have an hourly rate as well where I can shop and stage and do all the things. So, as far as having like a team like I don't have receiving I'm not. I'm not receiving the clients furniture and then installing it like like you know what you see on hgTV, it's going straight in their house, yeah, but my team is like external, so it's like the handyman. I use the painters, the accent wall Installers, all of those things they're. They're independent contractors.
Speaker 1:But I work with them directly for the client and sometimes just give their information to the client and they do it on their own. So I have two people that have had helped me with installs and, like I had this episode on this Show called make it mine, where I had her like spend the day with me the eight hours to just kind of like be my design assistant. But it's not, it's kind of a sporadic thing. So Don't have any full-time employees yet, or even part-time, but it's in the works. I think I'm kind of in a place where I'm rethinking my business model and like the services I want to offer to give myself more time to work on other things. So once that is figured out, then I'll know like, okay, let's write this job description and how many hours that person will work. So it's a work in progress, but Short answer is just me.
Speaker 3:Okay, before we, before we pivot, you were open about your your fintech marketing salary. I'm assuming you have since exceeded that as a solo pre-noir right, yes and no.
Speaker 1:So Could I be making that yes, Exceeding that? Yes, but I'm paying myself a salary less than that so that I can have.
Speaker 3:Reserve yeah, got it.
Speaker 1:Okay, short answer yes.
Speaker 3:Yes, it's got it.
Speaker 1:Hey dog.
Speaker 3:Yes, perfect, okay, so you were. So you're so busy building your business. And Then you look up and you're like, oh, I thought I'd be married with kids by now. Oh, Mmm. Right yeah, that kind of what happened Um.
Speaker 1:I think I never thought I would be married in my 20s, or at least like maybe 29 or something. But I never thought I'd be like the first. I always kind of thought I'd be like the last of my friends to get married, but not so much me waking up and saying, oh my gosh, why am I not married yet? It was okay, let's go get this pap smear and and Talk to my doctor at my annual. And then she goes well, what do you think about family planning? I'm 36 at the time. No, I'm 35, about to turn 36, and I was just like oh well, I'm not, I just just broke up with my boyfriend. So you know I'm not getting married anytime soon, but you know, I have kids eventually, like that. And she says I don't want to misquote her, but basically she's just like well, you better freeze your eggs by 37 or it's gonna be a waste of money.
Speaker 3:Oh, she's like eventually is not that much time? Yes, and this is a-.
Speaker 4:Well, at least she gave you like the heads up of if you freeze them later, then it's not the same.
Speaker 1:Yeah, or you have less chances of being able to freeze, yeah. And so when she said that, something to that effect it wasn't, it was very blunt, but it wasn't maybe that like direct, because somebody might hear that and be like you know, but you know OBGYN I'm looking at her like, oh, she has my best interests, like in mind. She's telling me this because I need to hear this and she's from experiencing people wait and be heartbroken and go through struggles with that, and I too have friends that and people I know that got married late in life, like mid, like late thirties and whether it's infertility or cancer or any kind of, you know, medical struggle, and even on the male side, infertility and things like it's, it's hard, you know. So to me I looked at it as okay, here's an investment in something that is an investment in the future and it's insurance.
Speaker 1:I'll be 37 next month, so turning 36, I was like, okay, well, I guess I should look into this and talk to a specialist. Of course it's after I leave my tech job, which paid 20 K a year for anything baby related, so in IVF, adoption, all the things like no questions asked. And so now I'm working for myself and it's pretty much going to be out of pocket expense. So I was like, okay, I said I should have sell some of my shares and do this. I'm like, no, no, I'm just going to take on one extra project and that'll pay for it, yeah, so so, yeah, I thought about it and then went to like a consultation at Emory Hospital. Emory has a reproductive center. My gynecologist is through Emory too, which I only met her because I have a client who's gastrointologist, but black female doctor in Emory and I was like I need a black doctor now that I've moved back. Give me some names. And she sent me three people and I just called and here I am yeah, everything. We did it.
Speaker 1:We're talking about Atlanta, atlanta's amazing yes.
Speaker 4:We did the same thing. It's important for multiple reasons, especially when it comes to female health. As far as the advocacy part, but we also wanted our kids to see this as a norm. So, like our pediatricians black, our dentists is black. So optometrist. Optometrist is black yeah.
Speaker 3:Very intentional about making sure that our kids see black physicians whenever possible, because I mean we're not in Atlanta so it's much harder to seek out here. But when we were going through our process of conceiving and having kids, it was very important to me to have minority women and at least one black female doctor, because in most cases you go through that rotation right. But I was like I don't want a whole bunch of white men. I just I've never had a white, I've never had a male gynecologist. That's just not my. Thing.
Speaker 3:I don't, I just am like why do you want to be a gynecologist? I don't trust you. Like there's an instant level of like I don't understand you. No, thank you. I don't need you there, like I would never want to be a urologist, you know what I mean, so take it for what it is, if there's any, you know male gynecologists listening in. Sorry, not sorry, but it's just, I think it's. I'm like.
Speaker 1:I don't want this white man in my vagina. Who are you?
Speaker 3:I mean, it just doesn't. I don't need you telling me that my cramps feel a certain way because you've never had a cramp in your life, sir. No, I'm just a nobody with a uterus.
Speaker 1:Thank you, but, funny story though, my reproductive doctor is a white man and so, even though I was referred to by my black female gynecologist they have like eight people on the team, but he's, he was available I had to wait four months for the appointment and he was next. Oh, it was one of those things where it's like, okay, let's go to the consultation and he's a professor at Emory, he does a lot of like, he's. It felt like he just took the time to explain everything and just made everything just make sense. Because I went in kind of blind. I'm like I'm only going to do but so much research, because if I start watching YouTube videos and stuff, I'm going to psych myself out and I'm not going to do this. Yeah, um, yes, and he was just so amazing. But then the day of my retrieval, when I went to the hospital for the egg retrieval, my anesthesiologist was a black woman and it just made me like I was just like oh my God, it makes a difference.
Speaker 4:I think we should prep, I think we should also preface. For some people that maybe don't understand the background of why we're talking about that is that there is a significantly higher mortality rate when it comes to pregnancy and childbirth for black women women of color, but more specifically black women and often it's due to complications that could have been prevented, because when it's happening is that they for some reason, like from a psychological standpoint, they tend to think that black women can handle more pain and that they are. They don't really believe them when they're telling them hey, I'm feeling this, I'm feeling that, and you have these physicians that aren't listening to the patients, and they end up in complications, and so that's why it's really important for black women to have a black physician, more specifically, a black female physician that is going to listen to them.
Speaker 4:Yes, and this is not just opinion.
Speaker 1:Yes, exactly the father of gynecology. I'm not even going to say his name he there's a. There's a statue on the grounds of the state capital in South Carolina like in his honor, and there's a women's dorm female dorm on my alma mater's campus, university of South Carolina, named after him, and he is known for taking slaves and practicing gynecology on them and their whole thought. What his whole thought was oh, black women can't feel pain, so I'm not going to put them under, I'm not going to give them any anesthesia, I'm not going to give them any medication, I'm just going to toy with them and their body and and experiment with them.
Speaker 3:And it's very controversial, of course but yet even the father of Columbia to have a statue of him. All these years he's in.
Speaker 1:South Carolina. Yes, he's like the father of gynecology but, like all of these years later, it's like it's crazy how it's the same thought, like oh, she's just complaining, but she's fine, like I. I personally know people, people I've went to school with, that have given birth and like minutes later or hours later like are gone because whatever they shared was not was not taken seriously. So yeah, it's a real thing. It's scary.
Speaker 4:That's the one thing that I said. I was like you do what you got to do, as all the person does all the birthing. I had nothing to do with that. I was like I'm going to advocate. If you need something and they're not getting it, you're going to get it.
Speaker 3:We had a plan going in and again, luckily, we had a team of women. Most of them were minority women. Um anyways, we had a plan of like. If I say that I'm feeling this way and we feel like I'm being dismissed, here's what we are going to do in the scenario. You have to like, you have to have a plan, you have to talk about it, and with my first, I ended up with postpartum preeclampsia which was extremely scary.
Speaker 3:My blood pressure was through the roof. I was having like these. Just I thought my head was going to explode headaches. I was so dizzy. I mean it was. You know, preeclampsia can kill you and I had it after delivery. And again, luckily, I had a great team that listened. That's always been my big thing. Like I'm not going to go to any doctor, I don't care if it's a dentist, I don't care who you are.
Speaker 3:If I'm telling you something and I feel like you're rushing me out of the office. You're not answering my questions, you're not giving me time, you're not. You're just not going to be my doctor you know and I think we have to really advocate for ourselves, but we are getting very off track. The first thing I heard is I was just going to say my sister, my sister.
Speaker 1:I didn't know what a doula was until my sister got one. I was like, what is that Black female doula in Charlotte? That, because she wanted to do a home birth for all the kids, only the second one decided, yeah, I'm going to be a, I'm going to swim out in this pool, I'm going to be. That was the one water baby. Everybody else did something different.
Speaker 1:But having that female, black female advocate and having those months of preparation with that person and that relationship, so if somebody's in this, if somebody's going to be in the room like of course she has her husband as well, but it's like another advocate that's trained and knowledgeable and is going to like, in some ways, be objective but also be like I'm advocating for this person as a patient, because I mean a lot of these hospitals. They're just like baby factories, right, they're like okay, in and out, like they're, they're less conscious and not to knock doctors and nurses, but, like you said, it's a fact, these are stats Like we are less likely to survive something that should not be a death sentence, and so, anyway, Well, so what I did hear you say is if you're at a company that has a benefit and you are thinking about freezing your eggs, your timing is everything and maybe you should look into it while somebody else is going to pay for it.
Speaker 4:I didn't mean to interrupt you.
Speaker 3:I was going to say, so what is it costing you?
Speaker 4:Before you answer that, though, okay, so what I want to say is that you can also think about it when you're possibly applying to a new job, as far as benefits do you want. Yes, If you want to have. If this is something that's maybe you've been thinking about, then hey, maybe it might be appealing that maybe you didn't quite get the salary that you wanted to get from a negotiation standpoint, but this could be an added benefit that you could look at Absolutely.
Speaker 3:Yeah, A lot of tech companies. I will say have that benefit now the amount will vary, but adoption, ivf, egg freezing, I mean even right if you're. You've had your child, you're nursing. Now you're at a conference pumping and shipping your milk back to your home so that you're not having to pump and dump and waste all of that precious milk. There's all sorts of benefits out there now, which is fantastic.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's amazing.
Speaker 1:And I would also say you see these benefits on paper and you don't really think about it because you're not in that season or you're not doing it in the moment.
Speaker 1:When I the company I worked for which was awful, but anyway worked for them like double four, I worked before I knew they were awful and before I work for them, I saw that they paid like for tuition, for anything that you wish, as long as you, you know, pass the classes and so on, like they will pay 100% tuition. So I thought about that because I was like, okay, I know I want to get my MBA and so this is a great place to work because that's already have student loan debt from undergrad. I definitely don't want any student loan debt from grad school. So I wish I had that same kind of like mindset going into the tech job. But, you know, being single and not being, you know, trying and all of those things, I just didn't think about it and, honestly, I was a little naive and just wasn't aware of all of the 21st century like opportunities and ways to. I mean, nobody tells you, or at least nobody told me, that you're born with all the eggs you'll ever have Like, I didn't know that until.
Speaker 1:I was like, oh, like yeah, I didn't learn that.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So I only knew that because I saw a crazy meme one time that was like if you have a daughter, she's already carrying the next generation of children because of the eggs, yeah, and I was like, oh, that's like think about, like Aston right, like she has her eggs which, if she has children, would be the next generation of our family.
Speaker 4:Well, I also think this too, is that I, at least as a male I can only speak from my perspective that I always, I never once, thought, hey, maybe I'll have, we'll have issues conceiving. Yeah, I always thought that childbirth is a much easier thing and that it's the minority people that experience issues or, you know, miscarriages, whatever it may be, when, in reality and now that we have two kids and we have friends who kids, it's the majority, I would say it's the majority of people have some form of experience and you know, luckily we never had any issues conceiving and I think we're the minority.
Speaker 1:And the cost, then like to freeze my eggs, like if I had done it in my twenties. I didn't afford that. I could, I didn't have the money for it. And then, once I got the money for it, it just wasn't a priority. It wasn't something I was thinking about because I'm just like oh, my sister's got three kids, Maybe I'll be just as far like like you, just don't think about like you don't have the potential issues with that. So, um, so yeah.
Speaker 4:So I never talked about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah for sure. So I ended up spending I got to go back and see, based on the medication, but I would say between 10 and $12,000 out of pocket for the between the drugs, the treatments, the procedure and storage will be ongoing, but the first year of storage is included in that.
Speaker 4:So your health insurance covered a portion of it.
Speaker 1:No, it didn't really. I want to say, if it did, it was minimal, it was like a percentage of, like, my visits.
Speaker 1:But the drugs I paid completely out of pocket. That was probably like four to $6,000 for the drugs alone. And then the procedure everything at Emory and Emory is not for profit, which people don't really like. Guess, look at hospitals in that way, like, oh, this hospital is not for profit versus this one is, or a lot of these reproductive centers like the ones that like really tout, like their success rates and stuff, like they're charging based on that right, so you might be paying twice as much there based on their reputation. And oh, by the way, that's just for the first round, say, you have to have several rounds. And then, of course, egg freezing versus embryo freezing there's a cost difference. But the cost to Emory alone was like $7,000. So because I only had to go maybe like 14 days on the drugs, maybe 12, something like that, I didn't spend as much as I anticipated. So, yeah, I'd say it was about 12k. It's yeah, pay for it of Amber, candice, guy and the cow.
Speaker 3:Do you have a sense of relief now that that's done, like you have your backup plan?
Speaker 1:Yes and no, I think. So I have friends that were very much like Okay, now I can just date without any pressure. I can just. You know, there's no like timetable of I mean, there's still a timetable. I'm not 21 anymore, like I'm not going to be dating you for seven years, but at the same time I don't have to be like I must have a child by 39, and in order to do that we have to get married in 18 months and like. There's none of that, or at least not for me. I think some people think that way, but I'm just like you know. So there's some room. But then there's also like, because it isn't, it's a, it's a very hormonal like experience. So I think there was like this onset of oh, I don't have a boyfriend, I don't have a fiance yet.
Speaker 3:Girl, but you got HGTV.
Speaker 4:Are you saying you would trade me for HGTV?
Speaker 3:I mean, I'm not going to trade you, but I feel like you know this magazine, you know it's a big deal.
Speaker 1:It just it made it made me reflect more on like what I didn't have yet and it's just like you know, you just have these bouts of like whoa is me, you know, but it's just a part of the process and the hormones and things.
Speaker 1:But so, yes, there has been some relief with it, but I think I'm still like super conscious of I actually want to have children. Like I think there was a question before of, well, if God doesn't want to, you know, if I don't get married and or if I don't have children, you know that's just God's will. And I've got my niece and nephews and my Goddaughter and those are my kids and it's fine. But I think hearing that from the gynecologist and then going through this process, it made me realize like no, I do really want children. And if that isn't a dream that's fulfilled, it would be like hard for me to accept and you're not.
Speaker 1:And of course, when I was 25, when I was 35, I didn't think about it, I didn't think enough to realize that. So, yeah, it's, even if you say, oh, I don't, I don't want to have children. Like to be able to freeze your eggs and like have the ability to change your mind, like that's an amazing feeling to just be able to know that this is possible and, even more so, possible with science. You don't just have to depend on the universe and faith and your faith and like I am still. I'm still depending on all of those things. But you know, here here is the technology and the resources to make this more of a possibility.
Speaker 4:I think that's so hard too, for you know females, because obviously it's men. That is not something that we have to worry about.
Speaker 3:You know you have to worry about nothing.
Speaker 4:You have a uh Al Pacino and Robert Nenero popping out kids like in their 70s and 80s.
Speaker 3:Disgusted, so like it's really not fair to that child. Very true.
Speaker 4:But it's also just. It's just one of those things you have to think about, like you know, for like a man could be, you know, focusing on their career, building on everything like this, and then like, oh, I'll marry someone younger when I'm in my fifties and pop out a child, where that's not the same for a woman. So you have, you know, if you want to have kids and you want to have a family and also you want to have a career, you have to think about all those things in a timeframe period too.
Speaker 3:Being a woman is hard.
Speaker 4:Oh no, it's a thousand times harder than being a man. Don't just got it so, so much easier being a guy.
Speaker 3:I think it's good that you had that aha moment, um, because we have friends right that have come to the realization, where they're like my. My life is great the way it is, and if I have children I will be thankful, but if it doesn't happen, I'm at peace. And it sounds like you knew after kind of initiating that process that if it didn't happen you wouldn't be at peace. So you needed to give yourself a little bit of a security blanket to hopefully, you know, make that happen. So I think it's great that you, you know, are taking the science and the resources and the means from your, you know, from your booming business to set yourself up for something that you did realize is really important.
Speaker 4:I would say this too as a guy you don't, you don't necessarily put a guy on a timeframe, but you should put them on a timeframe.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 4:So, like for example, when I started dating her, I already knew like. She didn't say like oh, you have this amount of time. But you could tell from the way that she was going about things that like oh, we're not going to be dating for five years. Like this is not going to like no sir. So, inadvertently, give them a timeframe.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. And it's like some people are like oh, when you know, you know, like. But I feel like when you're dating in your thirties, it feels even weird to say late thirties. I'll be 37 next month. I'm like oh God, I'm in my late thirties.
Speaker 4:But, but you know, you do know, you know, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it's like it sounds cliche, but it's true. Yeah, I'm very much so, like I'm not going to waste anyone's time, I'm not going to like you can be a great person and just not be my person, like it's okay. Like this Exactly 100%. Free love first go.
Speaker 3:Go fly to somebody else's branch. Thank you, free up my branch again. I love it.
Speaker 1:I love it so all those things and I think, oh, I just lost it. I had a thought it'll come back, but, um, oh gosh, what was it? Okay? No worries it was something about all the lines of like oh I know, I remember. So, like some men, like they do have some infertility issues, or they have to, like, stop drinking, or there's weight loss and there's there's other things. But yes, though the weight is more so on the woman, I agree.
Speaker 3:It always is Like we know that we have it harder in life than any man on the planet.
Speaker 4:So I 100% agree.
Speaker 3:What is next for Amber Geithen and bless little bungalow?
Speaker 1:Oh, I wish I could tell you Um well, in some ways I know some things, but then I can't share them. But then there's other things that I'm just like it's gonna be an HGTV show.
Speaker 1:Well, from your lips to God's ears. I would love that. So, yes, I am signed with a production company and they've been working on a pile. Well, they've been working on a re. This the processes. They create the sizzle reel, then they pitch it to networks, then it becomes a pilot, then it becomes a show. There's, like it's been a path.
Speaker 1:I've been on for like about a year now, but I feel like I've received inquiries and things from production companies for at least the last three years. So, anyway, tvs and the works, I'm hoping honestly, I I what. I would love for that to happen. But at the same time, I know people that have been on TV and they're like TV is ghetto, it's all an illusion, it's not, it doesn't pay as much as you want you think it will. So there's all these things, but I would love to experience it. I don't know if it's for me, but that is in the works and we'll see. I just feel like it has to be the right show, the right like. I want it to be authentic and true to me and my brand. So it has to feel right. So that's, that's a possibility. I have licensing things that are happening and I can't talk about yet but it should release by the end of this year. And then I have I currently have art like in an art collab in home goods.
Speaker 3:I haven't seen it yet. I always look, I always look for it.
Speaker 1:I haven't seen it yet. People are like 10. Where is?
Speaker 3:it hiding when is?
Speaker 1:it. Yeah, somebody just bought them all, I guess. But but there's another release at home goods TJ Maxx, world Market and now Ross that's going to be in stores this fall. So it's another wave coming. So hopefully we'll see it in September, october. So that's super exciting and I really want to do more like passive income type opportunities. So I to have you know licensing like you know you're just receiving those royalty checks is like awesome because it makes me feel better about you know, exchanging time for money.
Speaker 1:Yes, I do that with my client work To an extent. I do that with brand partnerships and so on. But to be able to free up my time, like not feel like I have to take on 12 clients a month or whatever like something crazy in order to meet a certain goal. So, yeah, more licensing or brand partnerships and I would love to start. I really want to flip a house. I want a little pet project, something like down the block, something I can watch, and I'm kind of waiting for that opportunity. I feel like real estate and interest rates and everything are kind of crazy right now, especially in Atlanta, but that's something I would just kind of like to do, like a little pet project, see what happens, learn, you know, work with whatever contractors and maybe that will turn into a thing, I don't know but continuing to work with mainly residential clients, have some commercial projects. But I think the more I work, the more I realize I don't want to work.
Speaker 1:I know that sounds like I know that sounds weird, but it's like no, you signed up to be an entrepreneur.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you signed up to be an entrepreneur to really own your time and be like. You know, we're in the age now where our parents are aging and you just want to. You just want to spend time with your loved ones and see the world and all the things, and I've never worked harder or longer hours until I worked for myself. So I got to figure out how to how that pendulum will swing so that I have more time for those things, those things that equal freedom to me and the priceless moments that aren't worth the dollar amount of, you know, revenue or whatever. Like it's, like, okay, it's, we can work and we can make X amount to be comfortable. But you know, just because I can make half a million a year doesn't mean I want to, right, I want to be able to live, and so Amber is figuring out better ways to live and it's been a journey and I just have to.
Speaker 1:Someone gave me the advice, I don't know if it was my therapist or another entrepreneur, but they're basically like Amber is at the center and the business and everything else is around. Like the way you're operating now is like BLB and its clients are at the center and you're operating your life around that and that is not the way to go. So I'm still trying to figure out what that looks like for me. But yeah, it's been a. It's been a cool ride, it's been fun.
Speaker 3:Well, we cannot wait to see what the rest of the year brings. Sounds like some exciting news is coming, so we will stay tuned and patiently wait on that with bated breath. But we will be rooting for you from the sidelines and we hope that you continue to figure out what the balance looks like for you, with all of the opportunities and exciting news coming, potential new journeys and unknowns along the way. But regardless, we know you're super busy, so we are so grateful that you decided to spend some time with us today, so thank you for being on the Sugar Daddy podcast with us.
Speaker 1:Yes, Thank you for having me. It's been so fun talking to y'all and just kind of sharing my journey and laughs and different perspectives and things that have shifted, and I hope that your listeners you know had fun learning a little bit more about me and will follow me and it's been an honor to be here. So thank you so much, yes absolutely.
Speaker 3:And we will make sure to link all of your links so that people can connect and follow and see all of the gorgeous work that you're doing all over the country. Yay, thank you, amber. Thank you guys. Don't forget Benjamin Franklin said an investment in knowledge pays the best interest. You just got paid Until next time. Thanks for listening to today's episode. We are so glad to have you as part of our Sugar Daddy community. If you learned something today, please remember to subscribe, rate, review and share this episode with your friends, family and extended network. Don't forget to connect with us on social media at the Sugar Daddy podcast. You can also email us your questions you want us to answer for our past the sugar segments at the sugar daddy podcast at gmailcom, or leave us a voicemail through our Instagram.