The Investing Expert: How I Went From $0-$1M By 30 (Anyone Can Do THIS!) | Vivian Tu

32:55Yeah. And they, in their 29-year-old life, have not been able to do it. Yeah. They feel shortcomings. Mm-hmm. You know, it sounds like I wonder what your fiance, if you met now, right? As opposed to meeting six years ago when he had more money than you and then the dynamic has shifted. I wonder if it's harder for a guy to meet a woman who has more money than them in this moment versus, okay, we've kind of grown up in a sense. And now, oh, she's just crushing it now. That's exciting. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's probably a different dynamic, I would think, than if it's like, okay, you're making twice as much as me.

33:34Yeah. What is it going to take for a man to be emotionally, spiritually prepared to connect with a woman for the first time that's making a lot more than them? What do they need to do in order to be comfortable? Ooh. And is that dynamic something that you've seen work in relationships? That's such a good question because if I'm being honest, I don't know if my fiance and I, if we met now, would be together. Really? Yeah. Holy moly. I don't know if you're going to like that I said that. I think I'm taking into account a bunch of other things, right? Like how busy my schedule is, how I am living in a gazillion different places.

34:25I'm only in one place every single week. but you have history but if you were meeting now it would be different well I think about like I was talking to him because I was talking to some other creator friends I was like I don't know how I would date now like I don't know who would even possibly be cool with the lifestyle I have right we have history like you knew me back when I was swinging from the chandeliers in my early 20s like which probably makes him even more desirable for you because he knew you before you met because he liked me when I was exactly Just little old me with my roach-infested apartment.

34:59He was helping me move out. Right. He liked me then. Exactly. When, you know, I was at my worst. And now that, you know, I've struck it big, like, he's the first person I want to call when something good happens. That's cool. And when I go on vacation and we are just, you know, watching a movie on the iPad every night, like, that's my happy ever after. That's cool. Like, you get to have that moment. You're like, we did this together. That's cool. um i have seen relationships where the woman makes significantly more work i think for men you have to ascribe value in yourself that isn't tied to a dollar sign so what do you bring to the table right aside from just an income because for so long you know this traditional sense of like breadwinner you know back in our grandparents parents days it made sense because you could survive off of a single income right and you know your wife would be at home making you dinners now more and more people have to be in dual income homes and for some men when they see women who are making a ton of money like if they can't hold up their end of the bargain they feel lesser than but if a man can really do and you have to do a lot of soul searching to do this is like, I am able to bring to the table love and compassion and care.

36:27And I take care of the home. I have an incredible relationship with my children. I am able to support my wife in a way that, you know, if I was working full time, maybe I wouldn't. Or, you know, even if you are working full time, like I still support my wife. I am the person who does all of the planning, who manages xyz in the house like you have to find value in other places or yeah i think of like the little things that i value that my partner does like he knows how crazy busy i am so he'll be like i have picked the location of our next vacation i'm like all right tell me where we're going and he does all the research and he's like we're gonna take this flight to this thing we're gonna you know make this transfer this is the hotel we're gonna stay at and i'm like cool love it done.

37:15Like, I don't want to think about it twice, but he loves doing that. That's cool. And he's also contributing financially. It's not that he doesn't have any money. In any other reality, he would be the breadwinner. He makes a ton of money. I own my own company. Right. So it's a different ballgame. It's a different ballgame. Do you think women can truly respect men if they are making a lot more than them, meeting and kind of dating at that point when they're already making more, not kind of building up and making more eventually, but do you think women can truly respect the man they're with if they make a lot more than them?

37:52I'd like to think so. I hesitated for too long, didn't I? You'd like to think so, but I don't know. I'm just from the experience of like the research you've done, the industry you're in around money, the financial world, the people you know, do the women truly respect them? You know, can you, or is it always a little something underneath the surface that's like, okay, he adds value in lots of other ways, but I'm providing financially for this life. Do you feel like the woman can truly respect that man? I do because I've seen enough examples of it. I know quite a few women who make more than their significant other.

38:33My mom made more than my dad. um and that wasn't that was after a period of time it wasn't like they met and she's making a lot more in the beginning right when they're like in their 20s you see what i'm saying it's like yeah they grew they grew up and that admittedly i'm not 100 sure i know that since immigrating to the u.s my mom had an easier time learning the language than my dad did so she's always made more money gotcha um i know you know all of my women creator friends all make more than their significant others. I mean, take Margot Robbie, for example. Her husband was, I think, like a producer or part of like the crew on one of her shoots.

39:11And they met, he ended up just being like someone she gelled with so hard. And now they're married. Right. And I think it works. I do think like you can, like I think society ties so much of human value and respect to the dollar value next to your name. And it doesn't have to be that way. That's great.

39:36I want to ask you about where you think the world is going with money over the next year or two. Oh, God. Okay. There's been a lot of changes over the last few years with the financial world, with interest rates, with real estate, with people losing jobs, with whoever knows what's happening. how can we be prepared for what's to come financially, whether it's incredible financially or it's a nightmare financially? What can we do today to start being better prepared so that we are not as affected as we could be? I think diversification is really important. So that's making sure that you have that emergency fund, making sure that there's money you are investing in the stock market through index funds that are all diversified you're not just buying like one stock and being like that's it like roll the dice yeah like it's not like that um you want to be really diversified you want to be buying some bonds you want to be buying you know equities you want to consider maybe investing in real estate maybe that's buying you know an actual physical property or just investing in funds or something like that um i also think that like there is a disconnect right now from like a mindset perspective of a lot of people and not to get on this like rah rah soapbox again but so many people now aspire to a life that frankly they will never be within their means wow and i say that and i i know it's harsh but keeping up with the joneses has become keeping up with the kardashians because you have it all on your phone you can see this immense amount of wealth that like in any other reality like before our you know our parents time our grandparents time you were never able to see it right like people have always had yachts but now you see a yacht like every other day like par for the course like this is great whatever like i should have a yacht too and so you've got people spending money like it's going out of style to keep up and it doesn't make sense I know people who only take black cars.

41:49I make seven figures a year and I am ready to get into the Toyota Camry that picks me up. Yeah. Like, it's crazy to me that there is just, again, this almost like desire to like fake it till you make it of like, you know, this this trend of like delulu, like delusional. Like, yes, in some ways, it's great because you want to apply for jobs that you're unqualified for. You want to do things that are outside of your comfort zone. But like that can also put you in a really precarious situation very quickly. Right. It seems like I see these clips on like TikTok and different places of, you know, an interviewer asking like random women in their 20s.

42:36Like, OK, what type of man do you want to be with and how much do you think he's supposed to have? And they're like, he should be making$400 ,000 a year and he should be six foot tall. Otherwise, I won't date him. And they're like, OK, the percentage of people who are 30 years old that are making$100 ,000 a year is so slim. And then you're talking about$300 ,000, a millionaire. It's so slim. And then they're like 6 '2". You're like, you got four people. I know, right. Like, I can list the four. And they're also like, what are you going to contribute to this relationship? Well, I'm just going to, you know, show up and just...

43:07I'm being hot. Yeah, I'm just going to be hot. And there's kind of this delusion, like you talk about, where I'm going to get the richest guy. They're going to give me everything I want at all times, whenever I want it. And they're going to like that. Like, in what world? Exactly. In what world? And it's just, it is a little delusional. What do you think is going to happen over these next few years as people's beliefs and philosophy around what they think they're deserving when they don't get it after a few years? What do you think is going to happen as the financial world continues to evolve and shift and break down or build up in certain ways?

43:43I think there's going to be a real painful, like, come to Jesus moment. Really? Yeah, because to your point, unfortunately, I'm saying this as a woman, I really have thought about this very deeply. Women who bring nothing more to the table than their good looks have a depreciating asset. Man, women don't want to hear that. I know they don't want to hear that. I don't want to say that, but it's true. It is true. you need to be able to bring something else whether that's your own money for you you made it you spend it it's yours you need to take care of yourself sure if if you want like let me tell you i'm a i'm a rich woman i'm gonna be marrying a very rich man we're gonna be rich together i love that great love that for me but i love that for me i love that for me but like you have a depreciating asset, right?

44:41Because you are the hottest you will ever be in your 20s, right? Maybe in your 30s because the 30s are the new 20. I'm telling myself that because I'm 29. 40 comes, 50 comes. There's a younger, hotter girl out there. There's always a younger, hotter girl. And that guy on that TikTok video who's making$400 ,000 a year who's over 6 '2", you know, whatever, and is 30 years old, he's going to date the best that he can in that dating pool. And eventually it won't be you anymore. Wow. You need to protect yourself. And I see this all the time because I get DMs from people who are like, I was married to my husband for 20 years.

45:26He just left me for some, you know, little young thing. I don't have a dollar to my name. I don't know the passwords to any of our accounts. What do I do? And that breaks my heart. It breaks my heart because

45:43you have to rebuild. You have to start from kind of scratch. Ideally, you know, you have to get divorced. You have to go through court, get money. But like, you got to start from scratch, which is why I always tell people, have your own money, especially for women. Wow. Sure. You can, you know, if you want to go after the richest guy, ask him to buy you everything under the sun great, you better still be working that job. You better keep your own money. You got to take care of yourself. Yeah. Because one day they may not be there, but you never wake up and your job doesn't love you back or your money doesn't love you back.

46:19It's important to take care of yourself. Yeah. And that's also why I'm a huge proponent of getting a prenup. I was just going to ask you this. Yeah. I was going to ask you this. Why should women want a prenup as much as men want a prenup? Because even if you don't sign one, you get one. But the government gets to write it. And I don't trust the government as far as I can throw them. Interesting. You have a prenup, whether you write it or not. And that is what everybody has to remember. Okay. Creating a prenup, I get it. It's not the sexiest thing. But it doesn't have to be a you know horror movie situation where when you get divorced one person is rich and one person is left destitute a prenup is truly just an agreement when you and your significant other are in a good place to hash out the details now like no one says the negative stuff that they say about prenups about car insurance why do you buy car insurance because you might get in a crash Right.

47:23But no one wants to get in a crash. And it may not be your fault. It may not be your fault. Yeah. But when 50 % of marriages are ending in divorce and you're not getting insurance, that's insane. That is insane. That's true. So I think getting a prenup, getting it in writing, like, hey, if I am a more traditional role, if I am in the home, you are the breadwinner. If we do get divorced, I need to be compensated for those 10 years that I was not working. Because that costs money and I need to be taken care of. That's okay to say. Yeah, wow. There's value in adding to the home. 100%. What do you think someone should say?

48:05How can someone start the conversation of, hey, I think we should get a prenup? Yeah. What should that conversation look like so it's the least amount of stress and can be actually enjoyable to address and talk about? Yeah. So I think it's very hard if your first financial conversation with your significant other is, I want a prenup. Because it's a little dicey. Yeah. It's a little hurtful. But if you are even in that vague stage of potentially proposing, potentially getting married to somebody, you should have already been talking about money. Because the very first document that you and your partner sign probably isn't a marriage license.

48:48It's her first leave. Wow. And you guys had to talk about how to split that rent, didn't you? Yep. You guys have to talk about who's paying for what on vacation. It's true. You guys talk about who pays for the groceries, who's paying the electric bill, who's paying the Wi-Fi, who's doing all that. You're living together probably. Most couples live together before they get more government involved. At least in America, yeah. In America, I would say. But you want to be having a financial check-in with your significant other pretty regularly. Wow. I would say how does that look like for you you know with your fiance what's we like check in like every couple days yeah um for different things so it's hey uh did we make sure to set aside that money because we're going on vacation um and we want to make sure that when the deposit hits we have it it's set great um and that's fun right talking about that money because you're excited to go on vacation and when you're having these conversations regularly they desensitize it's less scary it's less scary because you've already talked about it it's not anxious anymore exactly if we've already talked about how you have student debt and i'm still cool marrying you and we've talked about how i have credit card debt and you're still cool marrying me like cool it's it's less scary when you talk about money to get married what was the when did you first talk about prenup in your relationship or have you not talked about it yet no we have no yeah we already know what the exact terms of our prenup um was that early in the relationship was that after you got engaged before you got before the engagement you know i think it was really when your rich bff started to take off we had already been together for years so we both kind of you know the writing was on the wall like it wasn't so much of an if as so much of a when um and i was like hey can we like talk about something and he was like he was like uh okay what's up very ominous and i was like oh i just wanted to say like you know i'd like to get a prenup like when we get married and i will say i think he was a little taken aback interesting wow and i was like just hear me out okay this is actually in your benefit and he was like all right spin the lie go ahead and i was like no seriously because is he older or younger or he's like a year and a half older so we're roughly the same um the first five years of our relationship he made more money than me right and as such he has been incredibly good and incredibly fair to me in that generous and very generous he always paid more rent than I did.

51:31It was not a 50-50 split. When we would go on vacation, it was not a 50-50 split. He would pay for all of our meals out. I rarely paid for stuff like that. Right. Activities, movies. Correct. You know, events. He paid for all of it because he made more money. Right. And all of the money that I did not spend, I had been saving and investing. And when we bought our home together, when we put in our down payment, I put in six figures more than he did. Wow. And I was like, in our prenup, I wanted to say that we are 50-50 partners in this house. We are 50-50 partners on every dollar both of us are taking into this relationship.

52:12And if anything were to happen, we would split every dollar in every account 50-50, except I want a full carve out of my business. You can't touch it. You can't make decisions on it. You get no equity.

52:30because if my ex-husband had an equity stake in my company, You could ruin it. there is not a single agent, there's not a single manager, not a single company that would touch it with a 10-foot pole. Do you know how hard it would be to make business decisions with someone who hates you? So hard. So when I explained it to him that way, he was like, okay, that actually makes a lot of sense. He was like, sure, I've helped you, you know, hold the phone to film a couple videos, but like you built this on your own. That's your thing. All the income that your business will have generated during the time that we're married, during the time before we were married, you know, it's 50-50.

53:09It's all 50-50. On both of your incomes. Both of our incomes. You know, any money that he brings in, I have 50 % of it. And it's great because it's almost a true up moment for all those years that he spent paying for dinner, that he spent paying for the locations. And, you know, I would like to think of when I put in more money to the house, that had kind of gotten us to even. But now we are continuing to be 50-50 partners. And I think about it this way. People ask me this all the time. They're like, but you make a lot more money. Like, that's not going to be 50-50. Like, you would have been better off had you kept several bank accounts.

53:43And I'm like, yeah, but if I didn't have this job, if I had continued with my regular job and I was making great money, he would still be making more than me and he would never, ever give me less than 50. So I don't want to give him less than 50. That's pretty cool. Yeah. And also it's for him, like if in five years he wants to go and take a risk and start a business and what if it takes off and he's making more? Yeah. Then you're both still contributing the income 50-50 and it sounds like you wouldn't have his business either then. Yeah. Or who knows? No, we'd have to get that carved. We'd have to get that part in.

54:17Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. So that's interesting. I like that. And he took it well. Yeah, he did. Do you think men take it better if a woman proposes a prenup than if a man proposes to a woman, hey, I want to have a prenup? How can a man approach it to their girlfriend or fiance of like, hey, I want to have a prenuptial agreement? Yeah. What do you think they can do to lessen the blow? Yeah. I think every prenup is unique because you get to dictate the terms. Yes. If a man is saying to someone who is also, you know, bringing a lot to the table or makes their own money or, you know, they've kind of decided they want a traditional relationship, whatever, like we want to have a prenup.

54:59I think there's a way to posture and position it and be like, we are doing this for the benefit of our marriage, not for the benefit of me. And it actually has to be the case. The terms can't be a crazy, you know, ridiculous, like, if we get divorced, I get 95, you get five. You get nothing. Yeah, it can't be that. Because in that case, they should be offended by their prenup. Right. I think what we see as outrage on a lot of reality TV is, frankly, let's just call a spade a spade, certain people dating other people for their money and nothing else being offended when asked for a prenup. Right.

55:41When it's like, why would you be entitled to that money? Can I fully trust you? Yeah. I don't think they should be getting married anyway, frankly. So I think, you know, if a prenup is coming from the right place, it's cool. If it's coming from the wrong place, in a place that you're like, I need to protect myself. I'm really scared about this person. Why are you marrying them? Yeah. It's something that, you know, especially because you guys met when you were in your young 20s, it sounds like. You know, I just turned 40 this year. You don't look a day over 25. Yeah, right. My girlfriend, she's, you know, same age.

56:17And she's had a very successful career on her own for the last 20 years. I've had my business. Which, by the way, that doesn't surprise me. Why? That you would choose someone like that. I felt like I needed a true partner. You know, that was. That's what I said, right? Yeah, I felt like I needed a true partner that was resourceful on her own. You know? And if she ends up making more than me, I'm like, cool, make it. Sick. Make it. Please. You know, that's, we're doing well then. Retire me. And I want her to thrive. I want her to make as much money as she can. So it's like the fact that she's been resourceful for 20 years of building her career.

56:52She really started her career when she was like 16 in the acting world. So I'm like, awesome. And I remember saying like, listen, you know, early in dating, I was like, you know, how do you feel about money in a relationship? and we were talking about like what marriage would look like early on as our as us dating like okay do you want to be married do you want to have kids we're having those questions and i go listen like what's your thoughts on like you know what if we didn't work out and we were married she's like listen your money is yours she said this to me early on she was like your business your money is yours i'm not dating you or wanting or wanting to be in a committed relationship with you long term or married because if it doesn't work out i want your business and it gave me a lot of peace like emotional mental peace being like oh my money is mine so and her money is hers like i'm not trying to like take her ip for the last 20 years it's like i don't want your you know your life's work yeah if we don't work out and so gave me a lot of peace early on in the relationship to talk about those things you know we didn't say okay we're gonna have a prenup and all these things but we were just talking about money early on which makes it a little less stressful yeah i think that's helpful to have these conversations.

58:05I love this approach to prenup. I've got about 10, 15 more minutes I want to talk to you to be mindful of time. I feel like I could talk another two hours on this stuff. But I wanted to ask you about the job market right now. And it seems like a lot of people are getting laid off, these mass layoffs at big companies. And there's uncertainty financially with where the economy is going, what we already talked about. what do you think people can do to set themselves up for success or protect themselves at their current company to ensure that they're not one of those mass layoffs, either in the near future or sometime in the future afterwards?

58:48And how can they start to predict if they might be someone who is going to get laid off? Yeah. So you want to make yourself essentially irreplaceable. and the way to do that is to make yourself a key point of failure so this is something that like like big consulting firms go and find really key points of failure it's something like um the one it guy who has all the passwords or the one social media manager who is the only person who knows where the analytics folder is. Like you want to be that, right? You want to make sure that this business cannot operate without you. So... What if a business is already smart enough?

59:34They're like, okay, we have backups for everything. We have processes in order. What if they've already got that process? Most businesses are. So I think it's finding a way to make yourself indispensable by still being a key point of failure in that like, oh, I am on the sales team. I'm the number one gal. I'm the number one guy. If they lost me, they would lose 25 % of the year's revenue. Because guess what? You're not gone. You're never going to be gone. They will hold on to you until the very end. If you're bringing in money and revenue and gross, you are hard to replace. Hard to replace. Hard to replace.

1:00:10Then there's other people who have jobs that are considered cost center. So like you cost the business money. And in some situations, it's very much necessary, right? Like maybe the person who fixes everybody's computers does not create revenue for the business. But if the one IT guy gets fired, like - We're screwed. Like my laptop blows up. How do I get a new laptop? I don't know. You know, top sales - You can't get on the wifi. Yeah. The top salesperson cannot log in. What happens? Like it completely creates a point of failure. So you want to make sure that you can be that person, be the go-to guy, be the go-to gal.

1:00:49And creating that indispensable nature is how you provide yourself job security. Being the best at what you do, really. Like, I think we also need to just be honest. I ask everybody to ask for a raise every single year, but you need to lean back and really ask yourself, do I deserve this? Am I actually working hard? Am I actually producing good work? because a lot of people aren't they're not they're not yeah like they're coasting if you're cutting out of work at 3 p.m every day and you were doing the bare minimum like you're gonna be on the chopping block you should know that and why do people expect to get big raises or big you know pay increases by just doing the bare minimum why do you think people think they deserve a 10 % raise for just doing the job minimum?

1:01:43Well, in recent years, because of how the job market's been, it's been a employee's market, meaning there was always another company that was willing to hire. There was this massive COVID boom, actually, where it was the great resignation. People were leaving jobs left, right, and center because they could get paid more somewhere else. and now you think it's gonna go back to the way right now it's doing this it's coming it's coming back in and you have to be good at your job let me be clear again those A plus A plus employees they're still leaving jobs they're still going to new places they're still getting paid and they always will be because if you're really good there will always be some somewhere and somebody who wants you but for people who are doing the bare minimum it's harder to hide now because when things at the top and you know the bottom line revenue is not so frothy they have to trim fat and if you're doing the bare minimum you're going to be the first on the chopping block yeah so i think it's important about making yourself indispensable and actually doing good work right but in terms of like prepping for a layoff again i think it's important to have that emergency fund.

1:02:58I've made content about this, but just, you know, check those WARN notices every so often. Basically, if you just Google your state and WARN notice. WARN? W-A-R-N. WARN notice. WARN notice, WARN act. It is basically any corporation with over a certain number of employees needs to give notice when they're doing a mass layoff. Lots of companies try and skirt this by getting rid of like a slightly odd number below the threshold or, you know, giving just enough time, whatever. But just check. I think it's important just to have an eye out and be like, oh, wow. Okay. Like a lot of companies in the hotel and hospitality space are laying off a bunch of employees.

1:03:45My employer's not on this list, but I might be soon. Who knows? Yeah. What skills should employees be developing throughout the year or years at a career or multiple careers, what can they develop to make themselves more indispensable? Besides just like, okay, I'm doing the job and I'm showing up and doing it, but should I be taking classes? Should I be learning public speaking? Should I be some other skills learning to make myself more desirable at the current job or on another place? Yeah. I think every job, being good at your technical skills is great, but you want to have transferable skills.

1:04:22And these are the soft skills. Bring it. What is it? Tell me. Just again, it goes back to those fork and knife skills. You want to be able to have a conversation with just about anyone. You want to be able to make someone feel special. And I feel so lucky because after my stint on Wall Street, I went and worked at a media company in strategy sales. and let me tell you sales that is another beast because you eat what you kill yeah and i got some sales training that you know my company obviously paid thousands and thousands of dollars for and i don't remember any of it except for one thing w-i-i-f-m so you guess what that means w-i-f-m-f-m

1:05:18I was thinking what if something but I'm not sure okay so you got the w what what's in it for me ah yeah so we always know what we want what's in it for us but what's in it for me for for the other person? Why do they need to help you do that thing? And this is how I always get what I want. I, no, no, think about it. I always think at the other end of the table, what's in it for that person? Yeah. Like, it's like the prenup. It's the prenup. What's in it for your fiance? What's in it for, you know, I'll talk about you. I know that you have, you know, a very, very successful podcast, but what's in it for you interviewing me?

1:06:02You want a lot of people to listen to this. you want to get those you know chartable numbers up you want to be up the ranks you want a big social splash you want all of these things and i position myself in a certain way to make those things happen if i go to the car dealership i'm like okay it's the end of the month it's the end of october i'm gonna go i'm gonna ask for the floor mats i'm gonna do all these things but i'm like but what's in it for that guy that guy's getting a commission because it's the end of the month and they need to make their number they want to hit their quota they want to get the kicker and they get paid upon delivery.

1:06:36So I'm going to go four days before the end of the month. I'm going to have to buy, you know, an Aziz car on the lot. But I think about what's in it for them. That's cool. When I'm at a gate and my flight's been delayed and I'm mad and I'm angry, I'm like, this gate agent wants to kill me. She does not like me. She doesn't want to help me. What can I say that is going to make her want to help me? So maybe it's, hey, I know you've got a crazy crowd. control thing happening going on when do you think we are going to have an answer if not i would like to just rebook my flight that way i can get out of your hair and then they're like oh okay this person has already thought through solutions yeah i can just abc pick one for them whichever one that i think is going to make the most sense based on when i think the plane's going to arrive to the gate right versus what's going on no gate agent wants to answer that question because it's always bad news.

1:07:33You're always going to be mad. So think about what's in it for me. What's in it for them? Man, I'm excited about this. Rich AF, the winning money mindset that will change your life. Make sure you guys get a few copies of this. Give them to your friends. If you want to learn how to really maximize your earnings to get more out of your current job, your career, if you want to understand the difference between savings, accounts, investing, all these different things, the technical side of things here as well. If you want to learn more tax strategies, legal loopholes, it's all in here. Make sure to check it out.

1:08:07You've also got an amazing podcast that I want people to check out as well. We'll have all these things linked up. That's called Net Worth and Chill. Net Worth and Chill. You've got your rich BFF. You've got so many different things. Your social media is great. I love seeing your content online or TikTok or Instagram. We'll have all that linked up. What else can we do to be of service to you today? Besides get a copy of the book, check out your content, all the things. Yeah. So you can get a pre-order copy of Rich AF at richaf.me. Yes, I made the URL a manifestation. And you can find me on social as yourrichbff.

1:08:48But if there is one favor that you can do for me that I would so, so appreciate, is just talk to your friends about money. I love that. Because we've been told for so long that it's taboo and tacky and you are doing nobody any favors except for big old corporations when you keep that information hidden. When you hold that shame, let me tell you, when you talk to your friend about money and they make more than you, they don't suddenly make less for having told you. But you now know and you can go and ask your boss for more. So please, please talk to your friends about money. That's beautiful. I think the earlier you can speak about money and make it more of a common practice of just having a conversation over coffee and just relaxing.

1:09:27It will be less stressful in the future. It doesn't have to be an icky topic. It doesn't have to be. I love that. Vivian, this is powerful. I've got two final questions for you. This is a question I ask everyone towards the end. It's called the three truths. Hypothetical question and scenario. Imagine you get to live as long as you want, but it's your last day. So you live as long as you want in this life. okay but we're at the last day of your your life okay it can be a hundred something years old 200 okay but has my body deteriorated you're still in perfect health okay great you know yeah you still look great okay great you're filthy rich you've accomplished everything you want to accomplish you've got a beautiful life family everything you want it's happened but it's the last day and you've got to take all of your work with you to the next place so the book is gone this interview is gone everything you've ever created for whatever reason it's gone but you You get to leave behind three lesses in the world.

1:10:23And this is all we have to remember you by. I call it three truths. What would be that for you? Wow. Okay. Wasn't prepared for that one. That is an excellent question. I would say the first, always buy them the chicken parm. And this has to, you know, there's a little bit of an explanation behind this. I love chicken parm. It's incredible. okay so the first amazing chicken barm here in la oh really amazing chicken barm yeah um the first guy i worked for on wall street my boss's boss was this super italian guy like just the most italian italian man you've ever seen and he told me one day he was like viv you know he's got to buy them the chicken parm and i'm like sir i'm lactose intolerant what are you talking about i'm like i don't even eat cheese um but what he meant by that was every so often out of just the random kindness of his heart he would buy a bunch of chicken parms and he would dish him out to the people on our team and then you know the guys on it the guys in the back office the guys in the office and you know he must be sending like almost a thousand dollars on chicken parm and And he meant by like just treat people with kindness, not because, you know, you have to, but because you want to.

1:11:46And then when he ever had an issue, those people came running to his desk. If multiple people were having issues, they only ran to his desk because he had genuinely treated them with kindness when it didn't serve him. When it was just a random Wednesday, he would be like, oh, how's your kids like Little League game going? and like took a genuine interest in people. And to your point of being interesting and asking questions, just being kind. I think that's really important. That's cool. Okay, that's the first one. That's a good one. I would say if you are a woman, just know yourself and know your worth.

1:12:27I think we compete a lot with other women because we have that scarcity mindset it and we think that another person's success is our downfall and that you know if you're number one on the podcast charts it means i'm not number one okay but there's always room for more people to succeed like there's enough white space for all of us to get there for all of us to have what we want and get what we need and i think it took me a very long time to learn that i would always be like if that girl has xyz i can't have it like i need to do this it was just like so unhealthy so i think it's more of like knowing yourself knowing your worth and not being unnecessarily competitive i think there's a little healthy competition in everything but don't let it be to the detriment of you know your mental health or like anything in your life and then you know just i think the third one is don't kill the golden goose um you have that on your shoes oh my god no don't have people kind of shoes i'm wearing no it says golden goose yeah it does so not sponsored by the golden goose shoe brand but um i would like to be uh the the old fable is that and i'm sure you've heard it right go ahead okay um a farmer's wife they have this goose and every single day this goose lays a golden egg and they're like oh my gosh like a little nugget of gold they're like this so weird all the other geese are doing this but like this gold is amazing like we now have this little pellet of gold i wish we had more and so every day they get a little egg of gold and they're like well it's not you know happening fast enough we should kill the goose and that way the inside of the goose will be entirely gold we'll be able to get it all at once and we'll sell it so they slaughter this goose and the inside of the goose is a regular goose body and there's not a single piece of gold and i think this is a bigger metaphor of like life of us always wanting the next big thing wanting more but like i am a big big like This is a problem I have.

1:14:50I currently have the life that I prayed for a couple months ago. And sometimes I don't get to enjoy it. Sometimes I'm not even enjoying it. And that's sad. I think we need to not kill the golden goose. Enjoy those little nuggets of gold that we get every single day. And it's okay to want to work for more and strive for more. But don't ruin a good thing just because you're always trying to hit the next milestone. They'll come. but you could, you know, completely lose this entire journey if you don't take a second to stop them roses and stop and smell the roses. Yeah. That's beautiful. I love it.

1:15:28Those are probably the most unique three truths I've heard. I like that. Before I ask the final question, Vivian, I want to acknowledge you for your realness. I love this conversation. I love connecting with you. Was I too honest? I hope. I love it. I think it's amazing. So I'm, you know, So I'm excited to connect with you and to share this message and hopefully connect more and have you back on and learn more about your stuff. So I acknowledge you for sharing this in your authentic way. I think seeing people like you, you know, with the history and the background you have, be as honest and real as you are is really inspiring.

1:16:03So I really acknowledge it for showing up authentic to you and not trying to fit in some mold of, I don't know, some type of financial expert that you might think of. So I'm really glad that you're doing it your way and teaching it your way. And I think it's really inspiring. Final question, what's your definition of greatness? I would say greatness is being so in your own lane, so far ahead, you don't even know you're running a race. And I think that comes with having your own value system, understanding your own definition of success, not being worried about what other people think and say of you doing what you love and really striving every single day to live in a way that little you would be proud of.

1:16:59I hope today's episode inspired you on your journey towards greatness. Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a rundown of today's show with all the important links. And if you want weekly exclusive bonus episodes with me as well as ad-free listening experience, Make sure to subscribe to our Greatness Plus channel on Apple Podcast. If you enjoyed this, please share it with a friend over on social media or text a friend. Leave us a review over on Apple Podcast and let me know what you learned over on our social media channels at Lewis Howes. I really love hearing the feedback from you and it helps us continue to make the show better.

1:17:34And if you want more inspiration from our world-class guests and content to learn how to improve the quality of your life, then make sure to sign up for the Greatness newsletter and get it delivered right to your inbox over at greatness.com slash newsletter. And if no one has told you today, I wanna remind you that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And now it's time to go out there and do something great.