Special Guest Expert - Vera McCoy: Video automatically transcribed by Sonix

Special Guest Expert - Vera McCoy: this mp4 video file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Brian Kelly:
So here's the big question. How are entrepreneurs like us who have been hustling and struggling to make it to success, who seem to make it one step forward only to fall two steps back? Who are dedicated? And driven. How do we finally break through and win? That is the question. This podcast will give you the answers. My name is Brian Kelly. This is The Mind Body Business Show. Hello everyone and welcome, welcome, welcome to The Mind Body Business Show. We have a fantastic show lined up for you tonight. We have the one, the only Vera McCoy. Yes. And she is the real McCoy. Yeah. You'll find out why in just a minute. At least she was. She is definitely the real McCoy. And we have a fantastic show lined up for you because of her, not because of me. The Mind Body Business Show. It is a show that I had developed with you in mind. The entrepreneur, the business person, the individual looking to get just that next step, that next level in their business. And in this show, I interview highly successful entrepreneurs from all over the world who do amazing things via their various services, their expertise. And what I do is I extract the secrets from them. What is it that potentially made them so successful? And that is the beautiful thing about this show is exciting. The answers are wide and varied. They're no. Two people have achieved success because of the same exact steps. And so you can take what they say, like what Vera is going to say, apply what she does, her strategies, her tips, her techniques, her knowledge, her experience to get your business one step closer to that level of success that you you desire and that you deserve. The Mind Body Business Show is just that. It's a show about entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs, and it involves what I call the three pillars of success. And those are literally the the three words you see as part of the show's name, mind really means mindset. And that is that to a person. There were individuals that I had studied over the course of about a decade, and I studied only successful people.

Brian Kelly:
I wanted to find out what what was their secret sauce, what made them more successful than perhaps myself. And these three pillars, if you will, kept bubbling up to the top for each one of them, and mindset being pretty much the main pinnacle of everyone's reason for success, and that was their mindset to a person. They each had a very positive, powerful and most importantly, flexible mindset. And then body really literally represented the fact that they took care of themselves, both physically and nutritionally, through exercise and through what they ingested. And then business. Business is very multifaceted. And what these individuals had done was they had mastered a myriad of skill sets that are necessary to achieve a successful business, and not only to build one, but then to scale it and grow it and make it thrive even more so. They can serve even more people. Skill sets like marketing, sales, team building, systematizing, leadership. I mean, I could go on for quite some time, I won't, I promise. And the good news though, for you is, you know, being astute as you are as a listener and a viewer, is that to master any one thing, a skill set no less, can take a very, very long time. And I just rattled off, what, five, six of them? And can you imagine how long it would take to master just that little short subset of skill sets that are necessary? The good news is you personally don't have to master every single one of them. You can leverage them if you mastered just one. You start by mastering just one. And that one. Yes, I mentioned it as one of those 5 or 6, that one skill set. If you master it, even if you don't have anybody in your team yet, is the skill set of leadership. If you don't have anybody in your team, then you want to embellish leadership traits and skills as if you were the sole team member on your company. How would you like your culture to be developed? There are many books on this subject. We won't go into that in this intro right here. Maybe in the show with Vera, I don't know.

Brian Kelly:
We'll see how it goes. It goes pretty organically. I can't wait to see what she has to say regarding her rise to success and what she's up to these days as well. And another wonderful thing I found out about very successful people is that to a person, they are also very avid readers of books. And so with that, I want to segue into a very short segment I affectionately call bookmarks.

Announcer:
Bookmarks. Born to read. Bookmarks. Ready. Steady. Read. Bookmarks. Brought to you by reach your peak Library.com.

Brian Kelly:
Yes. There you see it. Reach your peak. Library.com. And one quick word of advice before I move on. And that is you're going to be hearing about a number of very valuable resources as we go through the show, mostly from Vera. Reach your peak. Library.com is also definitely one of them. And what you'll want to do is instead of succumbing to that urge to go click away and check it out while the show is going, I would implore upon you to instead write it down. Get a piece of paper, maybe one of those writing instruments. You remember those a pen and or you can do it on your computer, whatever works best, and then visit the resources after the show is over. Here's the reason why I spoke from stage for several years, for my mentor, and then for myself, and what I learned in the very, very beginning of that journey. There were times I'm on stage and I know I'm getting to the good part. That's the part that, you know, it's my presentation. I know the part that could potentially change lives for the better. And I get to that part. And I would notice on occasion someone would get up and leave the room, literally, like they got that all important text message. Maybe they just had to use the restroom. The key, though, is, is you want to be able to give yourself the opportunity to stay in the room. In other words, to stay focused. I know this is not a physical room. I would hate for you to take your focus elsewhere. Right at the very moment that Vera drops that one golden nugget that you yourself could use to catapult yourself to that next level in your business. So I implore upon you to take notes throughout this show, whether you're watching it live, which I hope you are, or you're listening to it on audio podcast, or you're watching the recorded video in any form or fashion, please take notes. Visit the resources after the show is over. That is my soapbox moment. Reach your peak library. It is a resource again that I had built with you in mind.

Brian Kelly:
And the reason is, is because I myself was not a voracious reader until about the age of 47 Yeah about 12 years ago. Dramatic pause. Because I know you're all doing the math right now, and that's cool. And yes, so I finally began reading at an older age and wow, what a life changing experience that has been. And because of that, I started assembling a list of the books that I have read and that I vet. And what does that mean? That means that the books that are in this list are books that had a profound impact on me, either in my personal life or my business life or both. And that's why they're here. So not every book I've ever read is in here. This site is not here for the purpose of making money. Every one of those buttons goes to Amazon and you can get them from any bookstore you want. Just go find the book that makes the most sense, that jumps off the page that talks to you first. Go buy it. Wherever you buy your own books. You can get it from right here or anywhere else. It doesn't matter. Just get it, read it, and then implement what you've learned. They are in no order whatsoever. You'll find that out. They're not alphabetic. You'll see a lot of Grant Cardone, uncle G, all at one place in one area. That's because I read all of his books back to back to back to back, because I loved them and I wanted to read them all at once. So definitely check that out. Reach your library.com, write it down and visit it later. And then the next thing you definitely want to check out is our guest expert, Vera McCoy. She's coming on. We're going to bring her on right now. Here we go.

Announcer:
It's time for the guest expert. Spotlight. Savvy. Skillful. Professional. Adept. Trained. Big league qualified.

Brian Kelly:
And there she is, ladies and gentlemen. Oh, she is not over there. Yes, now she is over there. She. There it is. She is the one. The only. The real McCoy. Vera McCoy. Welcome to the show. Vera. How are you doing this evening?

Vera McCoy:
I am doing great. Thank you so much for having me on, Brian. It's really an honor and a pleasure to be here with your audience. Oh, my.

Brian Kelly:
Goodness. The pleasure is all ours, not just mine. And so appreciative of you spending your valuable time with us, sharing your expertise, your experience, your wisdom. I cannot wait to extract it all. Maniacal handrub. So before we get rolling, I would like to introduce you professionally. And you know, I think you deserve to be introduced and have people understand a little bit about your background if that would be okay with you. And then we'll kick it off with some fun Q and A and have a good time. Does that sound good?

Vera McCoy:
Sounds like a plan. Love it. Right.

Brian Kelly:
Vera McCoy is an attorney investor, a serial entrepreneur, a student of life love that she obtained her BA from Rutgers University with honors. She has her Juris Doctor from Rutgers School of Law. And Vera began her entrepreneurial journey as co-owner of the Real McCoy Daycare Center. I love that name and nursery school with her mother, Lela McCoy, another real McCoy. She started her own law firm after her mother retired from the real McCoy, and the firm's primary focus is in the areas of real estate law and bankruptcy. Presently, she is transitioning to her new career as a real estate investor. I love that I'm doing that as well. Business consultant and entrepreneur motivator through Financial First Aid that is her company and cannot wait to dig in and see more and learn more about that as well. So welcome officially formally to the show. We're going to have a really good time, a really good time. And and everyone is going to get a ton of value. I just know it so very, you know, from being an entrepreneur that, you know, it's super simple. You know, it's easy every day you get up and because you've made it to the level of success you're at, it's just autopilot. You get up, you can just go hop in your hammock with that umbrella drink, and the money just rolls in. Of course, I'm being a little facetious, right? It's anything but easy. In fact, almost the definition of entrepreneur is problem solver, because that is why, you know, that's how we become successful is we we solve problems or issues that people have and get paid for that service. So for you, you know, knowing that every day when you get up, there are all these issues to deal with. There are arduous tasks that must be tackled. There are members of your team that may or may not understand your request, and you have to go through that again. There's so much. But knowing all of that, you know that that those speed bumps are heading your way every every morning when you wake up, what is going on in your beautiful brain when you wake up knowing that's in front of you? What keeps you driven? What keeps you just lit up to go and serve more people each and every day? What is that for you?

Vera McCoy:
Um, the idea and the hope that when I go out into the world to do whatever it is I'm doing that day, that I actually will be able to come to the end of the day and say, you know, I really did help someone, even if it's just one person. And sometimes, you know, you never know, what is that thing that's going to help someone, you know, for, for the most part, for most of my, you know, career, I've been working at solving people's legal issues, you know, trying to help them out when they're stuck in a situation. And for me, that's, you know, usually a bankruptcy situation. I'm trying to help them, you know, get to the other side of that. And so that kind of keeps me driven. Sometimes it keeps me up at night, too, you know, trying to figure out, okay, now what's the best strategy to use for this particular client? But, you know, just getting up and knowing that I can, can really have an impact on someone's life, that that really helps. That really keeps me motivated to do what I do.

Brian Kelly:
I absolutely love that and it's all about serving others. I hope everyone noticed that and caught on to that as well. Yep. It is. And that's one of the common themes I've seen with so many entrepreneurs. Just the common denominator is service. You know, they want to make sure that they are. Treating others well, but helping them to achieve the results that they came to you for. Yeah. So that is often a driving factor in getting folks motivated or that motivates folks like yourself. And that's a beautiful thing about entrepreneurship is that I found it's a very servant attitude like thing. Yes, I'm out of breath because I had some stuff going on in my studio here. It was crazy. Man, this is crazy. Yes, we get to have fun dealing. And that's another great thing because as entrepreneurs we are faced with things intra day that we weren't expecting. I can you think of one that came up with you recently that perhaps, you know, could have knocked other people over, but you found a way to be flexible, to figure out a solution and then move forward. Is there anything like that that's happened to you ever?

Vera McCoy:
Don't don't want to say every day. But many times, I'll put it that way. It's been several times when things have come up and you you learn to pivot, you learn to kind of go with the flow and, and just, you know, hope and pray that, okay, this is this is something that I didn't anticipate. But, you know, you can kind of expect some things, you know, if it's if it's a problem or something that carried over from the day before. So you, you know, you kind of know that okay. Didn't get that taken care of yesterday. So I know that that's going to be something that I have to deal with today. But then when they throw that curve ball in for something that you didn't expect at all, then you try to say, okay, wait a minute. The first thing you want to do is you don't want to get emotional because that's that's not good at all. So you don't, you know, you don't get emotional. You start thinking, okay, what am I going to do? Or how am I going to handle this situation? Not, you know, fall apart and say, oh my God, what is going to do now? That's not a good a good way to to handle the situation. So I'm loving it because now I'm seeing something different on the screen. But anyways.

Brian Kelly:
We're having fun over here. I'm telling you that you're talking.

Vera McCoy:
About, you know, suppose stuff goes wrong, but you know, you got to be flexible. You know, you have to you really do need to have a mindset of being adaptable, adaptable, adaptable and flexible, just like, you know, just what happened a couple of seconds ago. You know, didn't expect to see that on the screen.

Brian Kelly:
Yeah. I mean, if you've been you.

Vera McCoy:
Face it, you know, with an open mind and a real, a really positive attitude about let's not get let's not fall apart. Let's figure out what we're going to do to fix it or to to deal with the problem, whatever it might be. I think that is is a strong a strong skill set to have, especially if you're if you're an entrepreneur.

Brian Kelly:
I think it's a must have. Be honest. And I learned a great technique from my mentor. And it has everything to do with business as it does with speaking. And I'll never forget this. You know, when when things happen, like they're you know, a couple of things have happened already during the show. It's okay. It's okay to acknowledge them, but don't harp on them and make them the focus. And so one of the great things that my mentor did was I remember this. It was a live seminar and that's where I was. I was helping him. I ended up being his lead trainer and speaking on his stage a lot. One time he was up on stage and someone left the room and the tape had come off this door. It's in a hotel room. So then when it closed, it just it rattled the place. It was a big door and wham! And of course, everybody heard it. So what did he do? Without missing a beat, he goes. And as one door closes, many more doors open to opportunity. And then he just continued on and everyone just smiled and thought that was genius. That was.

Vera McCoy:
Genius.

Brian Kelly:
And so he addressed, you know, the elephant in the room. Everybody heard it. Everybody knew it happened. And you can't just think and go on like it didn't. Or now you seem a little false and inauthentic, but it was it was just genius. And that's what I learned going through all of business. You know, those things happen. Acknowledge that it happened. If it's your fault, you know, say, hey, I apologize, you know, get that out of the way and be authentic about it. And then just move on and then improve. You want to let those failures be failures quickly and be gone. Learn from them and move on. Does that ring true with you?

Vera McCoy:
And that's a great way to really segway into what financial first aid is all about. You know, the focus of financial first aid is helping entrepreneurs that have gone through the process of bankruptcy. So what we're looking to do is, as you said, you know, acknowledge, okay, I had a problem. My solution to the problem was bankruptcy. But now where do I go from there? Okay. Let's not dwell on it. And. And get stuck in it. And so the first part of the program for financial first aid, if you know, if you go through the program, is the whole mindset piece, you know, stop beating up on yourself, acknowledge that it happened, you know, and people file bankruptcy for so many different reasons. You know, as an entrepreneur, it could be a situation where, you know, maybe someone sued you and they got a judgment against you, and maybe it wasn't even your fault. You know, maybe something happened. And so you want to get that off of your, you know, of off of your debt, you know, your debt load. It's not something that you know, you're totally responsible for. And so you, you acknowledge that you, you know, you, you, you do the process and then you move on and don't get stuck there. You know, don't don't get stuck where, you know, you're just in that oh woe is me mindset, that victim mentality. You want to move on from that. You want to you want to be able to pick yourself up and let's figure out how to not fall back into that situation again.

Brian Kelly:
That's the whole key to failing is learning from it. You don't learn from your failure and don't want to call it like an absolute dead failure. It's just mistakes. Setbacks. They all, they all are in the same. I remember I used to be a certified personal trainer, and I would have people do very simple stuff like, okay, let's see you do ten push ups. And then they would do say 5 or 6 and they would stand up and their head is hanging and said, what's going on?

Vera McCoy:
Right.

Brian Kelly:
Why is your head hanging? Oh, I only did five push ups and the goal was ten and I didn't make it. And I said, hey, look, don't kick yourself in the butt for the reps you didn't do. I mean, let me ask you something. Did you give it all you had? Well, yeah. Well, did you try to do the sixth one? I mean, I could see them. I know they did. Yeah, I tried everything. I just couldn't do it. I said, great, then pat yourself on the back for the reps you did do because you gave it your all. Yep. You know, give yourself some leeway for crying out loud. And that's where all the same way aren't we there we are all our own worst critic you are once you give yourself permission to give yourself that pat on the back, I literally have them physically go raise your hand, turn it around, reach back behind you and pat your back. Make them do that.

Vera McCoy:
That's right, that's right. And you know.

Brian Kelly:
It's it kind of wakes them up and it breaks their state and it says, oh, you know what? You're right. I can give myself credit for what I did do. That's right. Even if you went through bankruptcy, guess what? How many people have ever been able to say they even tried to start a business?

Vera McCoy:
Exactly. Yep.

Brian Kelly:
I mean, give yourself credit. That's a huge, huge thing for many people. It's not. And it depends on what kind of business you get into. But it's still it doesn't matter how deep you go in, it still takes a lot of effort. Give yourself credit for that. I think that's right.

Vera McCoy:
Oh yeah. Definitely. Yep.

Brian Kelly:
So when folks come to you with bankruptcy issues, I mean. It's almost for those that aren't 100% in the know. It's almost like getting the doctor coming back and telling you you have cancer. It's like, oh, that's the end of my life, my financial life. I'm in ruin. I will never get out of this. I will always have this bad black mark over my head. So how do you how do you ease them into that and tell them, you know, there's hope? How do they get out of that? That horrible state of, oh, no, everything's I'm ruined.

Vera McCoy:
Yeah. Well, one of the first things that always impress upon my clients is that, you know, you are actually going to be.

Brian Kelly:
Wow, we are having. Some great fun here today. So we just lost Vera very temporarily. I hope it's temporarily. I will monitor it and see when she comes back. Oh, here she comes. She's coming back. She's back. Yeah. This is this is a fun show. I'm telling you, we've got it all.

Vera McCoy:
But what I was saying is that I really encouraged them to let them know that the bankruptcy actually is a fresh start, and that really helps. Kind of put them put their mind at ease that, yes, this happened. Yes. It's not the best thing in the world, but on the other side of it, you're actually going to be able to buy a house again, and you're going to be able to buy a car again, and you're going to be able to get credit again, because many creditors actually look at your situation and they say, oh, look, you filed bankruptcy. Well, you're discharged. Well, that means you don't have any more debts and now you're starting fresh. And so that is really encouraging to a lot of people. And they find themselves getting out of that woe is me kind of mindset and understanding that it is a fresh start.

Brian Kelly:
That's that's great because people get hope. And, you know, we don't want to teach or train anybody just to go do that, just to get rid of your debt. Because.

Vera McCoy:
Yeah, you don't. Mean you don't want to. You don't want to make that something you do every 3 or 4 years. That's not good at all. Even though people some people are serial filers. But, you know, that's not the objective. The objective is for you to get through this and start fresh and then, you know, have hope and confidence, start to build your confidence that you know what, you're not such a bad entrepreneur after all. You just made a couple of mistakes. Now let's figure out how to not do that again. And that's what financial first aid also helps them. Do, you know, figure out a way to either become an investor or become some type of entrepreneur, that they can build a hedge so that they have funds available for them, so that if they find that maybe they have a bad month, you know, something happened or something unexpected happened, but we got a little bit of a, you know, cushion somewhere that will enable you to continue to move forward.

Brian Kelly:
I love. That advice. Yeah. Over the years, I've created several income streams. I've got a fiduciary now that manages our money and wow, what a godsend to have that peace of mind in case one does fall. There are others to keep you going at least long enough to, you know, pull up your your bootstraps again and and get back in the game. But that's very sound advice. As soon as you can do that is to find some way to have a fallback. And I know I get it. A lot of people are saying, but jeez, man, I can't even get my one business going successfully enough. How can I have another stream of income or some other? But yeah, just start. I mean, what would you say? Would you say any income you don't absolutely have to put toward the essentials like, you know, food and gas and the things you need every day, maybe invest it slowly, but at least you start that nest egg and you'll have something. And over the years it'll grow. Is that one of the things you teach, or is it completely different?

Vera McCoy:
No, that's exactly right. Matter of fact, we just was with another group. It's a kind of a mastermind group. And we had a gentleman that just kind of really does the whole financial piece, and that was one of the things that he advocated, which was, hey, you know what? Pay yourself first. And then after you pay yourself, begin to understand how vitally important it is to start saving some money, but also using your money to make more money. So, you know, it does seem like it's a catch 22 at times because, you know, by the time a lot of people pay their essentials, they look at their paycheck and there's nothing left. However, if you begin to develop a discipline about that, you'll be surprised at, you know, how five, six, $10 here and there, you know, can really start to add up. Another person that I was talking with and he's also a financial person, Chris Felton, um, you know, his his thing was put yourself on a financial diet and I'm like, okay, that's a different way of looking at it, but it certainly is a way to look at it in terms of, now, do you really need to go to Starbucks every day to get that $5 or $6 or a cup of coffee, you know, do you really need that?

Brian Kelly:
Yeah, all. Of those things add up for sure, and they add up quickly. I mean, they have apps out there now for your phone that will help identify all the things you don't need, and you can take them off of your subscription. I thought that was genius.

Vera McCoy:
Exactly. So yeah. And then. There is the. Technology. Thing.

Brian Kelly:
And then there's the mindset of the truly wealthy, the truly successful, where any time they purchase something that's not something for just them to have fun with, but it's an asset. A perfect case in point was we just moved into Florida. We're on a channel with ocean water right outside of us. There are boats everywhere. Next door to us is a houseboat. It's kind of an abandoned, nice older, but it could be nice houseboat. And I had a friend over. We were making friends fast. It's pretty cool. And he looked at it. He goes, hey. We should get that from them, you know, fix it up and turn it into an Airbnb. And I'm like, I was just.

Vera McCoy:
Thinking that when you said that, I was like, yeah, that would be a great Airbnb. Yeah.

Brian Kelly:
And so you could use it for yourself for fun while it's not in use as an Airbnb, but while it's not in use by you, it can be paying for itself. And that's how yachts people, you know, the very wealthy buy yachts and then they they lease it out and sublet it out, whatever their term is. Same with airplanes, all kinds of great things. So think of everything as you go and you buy things and you acquire things. How can you turn that into an asset? If there's a way to do it, then I mean, cars, my gosh, you can literally it's like Uber. I forgot the name of it, but you can lend your car to somebody for a fee.

Vera McCoy:
Yeah, I forget the name. Of it too, but I've heard of that. Yeah, exactly. And I think some people, a lot of people well don't know about a lot of people, but I know the people that I've spoken to that do that. A lot of them are New Yorkers. And guess it's because when you're in New York, you can always get a cab, or you can always get the subway or whatever. There's lots of public transportation. So really buying a car could be totally an asset where, you know, whoever's using it is paying for the gas, the insurance, the maintenance, everything. So, yeah, it's there's all kinds of different ways to really make some an additional stream of income coming in.

Brian Kelly:
Yeah. I got a buddy that lives in San Diego, California that did that, and he got a little bitty, those tiny little Fiats cars. And he got it less, you know, he didn't buy it brand new, but it wasn't old either. And he started doing that. And then as the income grew, he bought another car and expanded into two of them and thought, man, that's I mean, that's one great way to get that extra padding. Like, you were talking about that fallback position so that if your primary business does take a hit, hopefully it doesn't put you completely in a place of demise, you know, financial demise. Exactly. Yep. And a lot of people. Don't think about that. You know, they're thinking about I just want to make a lot of money and have fun. And yeah, we all do. All of us do. But then when, when and if that one time it does happen, you're going to wish, oh, crud, I should have set things up a little better. And for those of you that are going down that path that haven't done it yet, don't sweat it. Just start now.

Vera McCoy:
Mhm. Exactly right. And and really you know um. Intentionally kind of create a plan, you know, don't just kind of be willy nilly about it. Think about, okay, so what is my goal here? You know, is my goal to have a bunch of money and just have it sit, or is my goal to take the money that I'm using, that I'm, you know, that I'm making every day and use it towards growing it into something bigger and so that you can always have it moving. You always want to have it moving and and creating more opportunities to make more money.

Brian Kelly:
Yeah, I would say you don't want to just get a wad of cash and stuff it under your bed mattress, because that's not working for you.

Vera McCoy:
No, not at all.

Brian Kelly:
It's not growing at all. You want to put it in some kind of vehicle. And there are so many, so many. I mean, my gosh, there just an I have cryptocurrency I'm looking to invest into blockchain, but not I'm not going to put everything I own into it. I'm going to put enough that I know I can risk, like I don't gamble. But if I were to go to Las Vegas, it would be like that. I would take how much I can afford to lose and put that out there. And then, you know, I want to put the most I possibly can, but without it, you know, hurting.

Vera McCoy:
Right? Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Brian Kelly:
And that's just one example. And then you have get a money manager when you get to the point that you know, where it's gosh, what a godsend. We have a great one. He invests for us in many different areas, things we never knew existed because.

Vera McCoy:
Yeah.

Brian Kelly:
They are the experts. I'm not, you know, outsource. That's what I say to everything. I know you're you've got your own Vas working. I've got Vas working. And it's a godsend to have help once. Once you go there, you'll never go back. I mean, no, I won't. Yeah. Everything by myself is like, wow, burnout.

Vera McCoy:
Yeah. And that's one of the things I think a lot of it's hard for a lot of entrepreneurs, especially when they're starting out to understand, like you need to be sure that you know what your strong suit is. You know, like your area of expertise, what you know you're good at. Some people are just good at collaborating. And collaboration is a great thing because as an entrepreneur, you need to understand that you can't do everything you know you need to become. There's there's 2 or 3 things that you need, you really need for you to be a really good entrepreneur. And one of them is learning how to delegate. Number two is understanding that you can't do it all. And number three is, you know, find out what your your biggest, your strongest suit is and play towards that and then get people around you to you can either call them, you know, employees or you can call them your collaborators however you want to designate it, because, you know, everybody doesn't want to actually have employees. So with that being said, okay, that's fine. But get a get a, get another person that's an expert at something and work with that person. And maybe, you know, you can barter with that person. You know, I know that I do barter with some people because I'm an attorney. That's what I do. I'm learning how to become a better investor. I'm learning how to become a better entrepreneur. I'm learning how to do different things that aren't necessarily my skill set. And I'm okay with that.

Brian Kelly:
And it's good to learn other things to the point where you just know enough how to direct someone else to do what you want to have done. Yep.

Vera McCoy:
That's perfect. Yep, that's perfectly said. I love the way you said that.

Brian Kelly:
And there will be those things that you are expert at, and usually those are the things you love doing. I mean, otherwise you would never become an expert. That means you spent thousands of hours doing something. If you spent thousands of hours doing something, you probably liked it. Unless it was at a job where they made you do it and you just got really good at it. There are those, but typically if it's something you're really good at and you like doing it, that's where you should keep your lane. And like Vera is so adeptly saying, is for those that you shouldn't be doing, you know, look, can you do it? Probably. You could probably educate yourself. Every one of us, we're all intelligent enough. We could do it. And that's just where that three letter word comes in to smack us around. It's called ego. Yeah. And it comes up there and says, oh yeah, you can. You got this, you can do this. That little devil that sits on your shoulder. And the biggest skill set I learned, probably above all, was to knock that ego, that devil off my shoulder. And never, you know, it would try to creep back up my back and try to stand back over my shoulder and pop it back off, because I can tell when it's coming back. Anytime an ego is involved in a business, it's like a cancer to your business, and it can bring it down single handedly. And the moment you are willing to be open and accept the fact that you need help, yes, that around to say you just want help instead of need and then it gives it a little less pain as far as saying, you know, now that I'm getting help, I can't wait to ask the next person for help. It's like.

Vera McCoy:
Yeah, because understand? Like how? That is to have other people, you know, invest in what it is you do because you just can't do everything.

Brian Kelly:
And I love how you differentiate between employee and collaborator, because I have a philosophy, too, where no one ever works for me. They work with me, right? And I try to keep that philosophy going through. I mean, someone, yes, ultimately has to be in charge, and someone has to be the one to dole out the task, and someone has to be the one to say, okay, that wasn't done exactly the way I had planned. Let's try it this way. But that being said, if you do it from a point of a dictatorship or from a team leader where you are all on a team instead of a dictator running it, I just found over the years that that has been a very powerful, positive way to go forward about building a business, and they seem to be more enjoyable in their positions. Have you dealt with any of that in your experience?

Vera McCoy:
Absolutely. I find that people are more eager to help you, even if they are an employee, but they're more eager to help you if they know that you're working with them alongside them and they're working with you. That's a big I think that's a big factor in how you can run your business in terms of, you know, the group theory kind of thing. You know, like we're all in this together and really mean that don't just, you know, say that because it sounds good, but actually treat, you know, your the person that you're working with as a person that you're working with because you know, without them there'd be certain things that wouldn't get done. So you definitely need them.

Brian Kelly:
What would you say or probably have said to another entrepreneur that comes to you and says, yeah, but Vera, nobody can do it the way I do it.

Vera McCoy:
Well, and that's what I was saying earlier, play to your strong suits so, you know, stop and think, okay, nobody can do X the way that you do it. But there certainly is someone who can do A, the way that you do it and do it better. So you know, kind of part of being an entrepreneur is, is knowing yourself and being, as you said earlier, the whole ego thing. And it's and it's not that, you know, you're not capable, but it's more so that you understand that I can do that. But if I find somebody that can do it better, then that's actually moving my business forward better. You know, to. Learn to understand that.

Brian Kelly:
And. Even that, that you're really good at. There are a lot of usually moving parts to just doing X, and there could be several of those that you could outsource that might be repetitive, but if you could train somebody. Yeah. And it just oh my gosh, I'll never forget when I first brought, when I brought my very first VA. And I would get questions all the time because I'm, I'm very technical, I love automation and my focus is in one area and it involves automation. But my focus for helping clients is not automation per se. And I had a client come to me and say, hey, Brian, would you would you be open to doing this for me? And if I had no help at all, which I just recently didn't have that at this time that I'm talking to her, it would have been an instant. Well, no, I don't have the bandwidth. I can't do that. That's not down my path. And then it hit me that moment when she asked, I said, I said, oh my gosh, I have an entire team. I know I have the talent to do this. I said, so what are you looking for? I wrote it down, sent it to my team. How long will it take you? Now I know how much it's going to cost me to pay them. It came back to her with a slightly increased price for profit. She said yes, and I thought, and I didn't have to do a thing except pass off her off to them. And the information. I thought, oh my freaking goodness, this is liberation and don't use it that way. But it was an option I had that I previously wouldn't have had because of just lack of bandwidth. I just couldn't do it at the time. Yeah, and so that was just one boom realization moment. And then it's days where I have family issues that come up and I cannot, you know, be present for every aspect of everything, every single day. And I have this team that just picks it up and runs with it. I'm like, oh, this is so wonderful.

Vera McCoy:
Yes, yes.

Brian Kelly:
It's a godsend. So for anybody out there that's even considering bringing on a VA or a team member, just do it. It may cost money. Yes, it will cost money, but the amount of money you'll save, the amount of anguish you'll save is going to greatly overcome anything it's costing very quickly.

Vera McCoy:
Yeah, absolutely.

Brian Kelly:
For you, how long does it take you to kind of get a rhythm with a new person? When you bring them on board with your company, like a VA employee?

Vera McCoy:
Um. I don't know, I would. Well, guess it kind of varies because it depends on the activity that I'm giving them to do. I know when I first started training, some of the people that I use for my, um, my bankruptcy filings, you know, I had been doing them, so I knew what it was I had to do, and it might have taken me maybe a day. And then as I'm training this person, they're not kind of getting it. And I'm getting frustrated and I'm starting to think, wait a minute, the whole idea is so that you don't do this, you're getting someone else to do it. So, you know, take your time, relax about it, and just understand that they're not going to understand it because it's all new to them. So, you know, for me, I would say anywhere from 2 to 3 weeks, sometimes a month, you know, depending on it really depends on how difficult the activity is. And it also kind of comes back to me like, did I give them the right amount of instruction for them to learn how to do it properly? So, you know, you can't really blame it on the other person. You got to always kind of look at yourself, okay, so now what's the easiest way? And usually what I try to do is kind of have a list of things of, okay, this is what I need you to do, and I can show you how to do this or train you how to do it. And then, you know, give them time to, to get comfortable with it. They, they need time too because we're both kind of growing with this situation.

Brian Kelly:
You hit the nail on the head. I mean, first of all, it's it requires patience if you're not used to doing it. I have a VA now who I've been massaging into a manager, and she and I made sure she was okay with doing that before asking it. It was an option. I said I would like to, I would like to train you into becoming a manager, because then I want to add more team members who you can then manage. Is that something you'd be interested in? She said yes. Perfect. And so what she has learned now that she is managing other VA's, she's like, oh my gosh, I can see how patient you are now. She goes, oh, I had to learn patience. I said, yeah, it's it's it's actually a learnable skill and you must learn it if you're going to be a leader. And once you get it though, it's really to me it's autopilot. Now I understand it, but you just said something so phenomenally valuable. You said you ask yourself, did I give that person the right amount of instruction? And we have a term for that. And that's being at cause, right. So when there's a communication breakdown, there's two people talking. You'd say, well which one made the mistake. Well, if we were to take and be at cause and always say, well I, I miss something, I am not communicating properly. So I need to figure out a way to communicate better so they understand what I'm trying to get across.

Vera McCoy:
Absolutely.

Brian Kelly:
Whenever you do that, you're you're empowers you. You don't point a finger, you don't get upset and you just solve the issue. And it works every single time. And you just epitomize that in that one sentence a little earlier. Vera.

Vera McCoy:
You know, it's funny because every as an entrepreneur, you should look at every experience as something that helps to grow you and teach you something. And from having the nursery school, I learned we had we had a curriculum for them. So, you know, I had kids from like 2 to 5 that I actually had a curriculum for it because I had to teach them. And then you first of all, you learn a lot of patience dealing with kids, which is a cool thing. But then the second thing you also learn is how to make things very simple. And if you can keep it simple, you'd be surprised how receptive you know, the people that you're working with are because they're like, oh, okay, I get that. You just need to keep it simple. And sometimes I get I have to kind of catch myself because I'm thinking, you know, when you're talking legalese stuff, you're thinking, well, they understand what you're talking about, and then you stop and think, no, that's kind of some legal stuff. Why don't you stop and put it in like layman terms so they can understand what the heck you're talking about?

Brian Kelly:
Yeah, that was like. A knucklehead, me asking you what? What does Juris mean?

Vera McCoy:
Oh, that's right. It's you know, it's like I said, it's a Latin term and it means Juris doctor, a doctor of of laws.

Brian Kelly:
And. Yeah. So a perfect example is I would be one of those that would need it in layman's terms first. And then.

Vera McCoy:
That's okay. It's all good. And, you know, and I'm.

Brian Kelly:
Learning to be a real estate and going through that to learn to be a wholesaler, an investor that way. And yeah, the lingo, the terminology, all the, the financing terminology. We just sold a house and bought another house outside of this venture. I'm going down now. And there was all that terminology was flying back and forth and in the loan docs and I'm like, oh my God, I've never had writer's cramp. I signed so many docs, I could not believe it. It had been 27 years since we last went through this, so I've forgotten all of this. But we never sold one and bought one. We only bought one in the first time, so it's just wow. And so yeah, it takes training, takes learning. And so as a leader, it requires immense amount of patience. And like you so astutely do, is some forethought to go, oh, you know what? They may not understand that because that's got jargon that they may not be familiar with.

Vera McCoy:
Exactly.

Brian Kelly:
And that's, that's one of the great qualities of being a great leader, which you've already figured that out. So I can imagine that folks are very eager to work with you, happy to work with you. I can tell that you don't get down on them for not getting it right because like you're at cause you're like, okay, how did I miss communicate the instructions to you? Let's look at this again.

Vera McCoy:
So figure it out.

Brian Kelly:
That's that's all in one big, beautiful ball of how to cultivate a wonderful culture within your business is how is your leadership style, what is your philosophy behind leadership? And it's very important. I've seen Micromanagers tear their companies down to the ground because nobody wants to work for a micromanager. Hey there, this is what you're going to do today and you're going to do it in this amount of time. And also here's how you're going to do it step by step. Like you want a robot then. Okay.

Vera McCoy:
Yeah.

Brian Kelly:
Um, yeah. And then if you don't do it exactly the way they want it, even though they don't communicate it right, then they get on you and it. Oh, boy. I've seen it all through my career. I used to be in corporate too. And so yeah, there's a lot of great stuff with leadership. So your company with financial first aid and helping people with bankruptcy, it sounds like you give a lot of advice. You could and maybe you do. You can help people. That are not even in a bankruptcy situation. Do you offer that?

Vera McCoy:
Yes. And that's the other thing that I like about the whole financial first aid piece. If you, you know, listen to some of my podcasts. There are people that are just entrepreneurs that are, you know, telling their story about, okay, this is how I started, this is what I did. And that's a great way to help people, you know. Our tagline at Financial First Aid, especially the podcast, is we educate, we inspire. And we motivate and that's what it is. We look to do because, you know, everybody that is an entrepreneur doesn't always have everything together in terms of their finances, but they're not on any, you know, road towards bankruptcy either. You know, so we really work to help any type of entrepreneur that would come to us and say, you know, listen, how can I kind of tweak? I'm doing good, but how can I tweak it so that I can do it even better? Or how can I get this other stream of income going on? Because, I mean, I'll be totally honest with you. I don't know about cryptocurrency, so I'm always I'll refer somebody to that. My kind of my shtick, so to speak, is more, you know, doing the real estate stuff. So for me that that's kind of like my comfort zone. But then we have, you know, uh, I want to give people the opportunity to, if they want to learn about cryptocurrency, have someone who I know that does that, then I have some people who do day trading, you know, they don't mind taking the risk of, you know, getting involved, doing what is it doing puts and calls and all that kind of stuff. You know, I know a little bit about that. But give that, you know, hand that off to them because that's what they do. You know, there's all these different kinds of ways to invest. And we really encourage people to do that, not just stay in one thing because any, any given time, you know, anything could collapse. I mean, I'm sure the people in 2008, when, you know, the whole real estate debacle happened and that was the the Great Recession, they called it, you know, those people were, you know, kind of just gliding by and doing really well with their real estate investments.

Vera McCoy:
Who knew that that was going to happen? You know, everything was going to fall apart. So, you know, it's all about being able to adjust and learn about different things and maybe try them. But like you said earlier, I'm not going to put all my money in cryptocurrency because I don't know enough about it. And I don't want to find myself, you know, two months from now, five months from now saying, oh my gosh, why did I put all that money in that? And it's falling apart. So yeah, it's all about doing different things. But in the meantime, you know, just kind of getting at a place where you know that you're going to have a little bit of a hedge against, you know, your financial disaster, so to speak.

Brian Kelly:
And you kind of touched on it. It's not just go after and go invest in another place, but find somebody who has the expertise in that area. That's what I did. I didn't do.

Vera McCoy:
This. Yeah.

Brian Kelly:
I honestly don't know that much about cryptocurrency either. I just had I talked to I've made a lot of relationships over the years, and I make sure it's with somebody I trust. And this person told me about it and they were deeply into it. They understood it inside and out, gave me the ins and outs and said, okay, I want to do this. As long as I know I can go to that person and say, what do I do now? Or, you know, they're telling me proactively all the time. So it's like, you know, you want to have somebody in your in your corner everywhere you go. That's what it is. You want to spend the time to learn a whole new trade or craft which don't have that time. I mean, I can't believe I'm even doing the wholesale market on real estate right now because it's I need to find a way to clone myself. I mean, there's so many things I like to do. Um, my goodness, speaking of things I like to do, I like doing these shows with amazing people like Vera McCoy, by the way, everyone that's watching and listening, she does have a gift for everyone once the show is over, so do not or not. Once the show is over right near the end. So don't go anywhere. And then also let's see if this will actually work. I've had some technical issues here. There it. Is. For those of you watching live and you stay with us till the end, which is only about eight minutes from now. You don't have to stick around much longer.

Vera McCoy:
Yeah, you.

Brian Kelly:
Can enter to win. I know it goes fast.

Vera McCoy:
It does. I didn't even realize it was almost over. Wow. I've been I've really enjoyed it. I'm so thankful that, you know, you had me on.

Brian Kelly:
Yeah, that's. And it's the. It's all the joy is mine as well. I get I get the most out of this. I am so blessed to be able to talk to amazing people like you, Vera.

Vera McCoy:
I appreciate it.

Brian Kelly:
For those of you that stay on to the end that you know, in a few minutes I will reveal how you can win a five night stay at a five star luxury resort. And these aren't just, you know, we're not going to send you someplace where they take you down to the basement, strap you on a chair, water drip, torture you to buy a timeshare. It's not that. Not that. No, it is an actual vacation stay. It is an amazing thing. And you can pick resorts from all over the world. So we pick one winner every show. I hope it's you if you're not watching live. Well, the first question I have is why not? Well. Maybe you don't know where to go and I can understand that. So go to TheMindBodyBusinessShow.com and there are buttons all over there saying where and how to watch. Just click one of those buttons, fill in your information. We don't do anything but give you a hotel discount card for doing that. And we announce when we go live the next time and give you the link. Through email. You just click it and you can be with us live, and you could be the next winner of this amazing prize. As well as interact, engage, ask questions directly of people like great people like Vera McCoy, the real McCoy. Yes, you could do that. And so we are almost there. So, Vera, my gosh, it did fly by unbelievably fast. Um, one of the things I love to do to end every show is ask one special question.

Vera McCoy:
Okay.

Brian Kelly:
And it started some time ago. I've been doing this show nearly five years now.

Vera McCoy:
Okay.

Brian Kelly:
And this question I would ask on occasion and it just the answers were just so profound. It really it really stuck with me. Like what is going on with this question? So then I decided I'm going to close every show with this. Okay. And it's a pretty amazing, powerful it's not the question that's powerful. It's the answers that my previous guests have given. Yours will be no different. I know that, I'm guarantee it because I've done this long enough to know and love doing it. So yeah, we're five minutes out, so it's time to actually start giving away these prizes so that I will then at the end of that, ask you that one final, profound, amazing question. And so real quick, let's do your gift first. Ladies first. And I'll put it up on the screen. And you can describe what it is and how folks can reach out to you and get it. There it is up on the screen.

Vera McCoy:
Okay. Thank you. It's an e-book. And it's if you could just reach out to me at McCoy Esq at financial. And the number one, there you go. First aid-a.com. I'd be more than happy to send it to you. It's just a real short description of the five success steps after bankruptcy. Okay, so even if you're not, even if you haven't filed bankruptcy and you just want to have some information about how you can improve what you do in your business, I think it could be very helpful for that.

Brian Kelly:
All right. For our listeners, we'll spell that out. It's v m c c o y e ask for Esquire at Financial. And then the word the it's a number first one street. There are no spaces financial first. So it's financial one street hyphen or-aid.com. So it's V McCoy Esquire or V McCoy esq financial first hyphen aid.com. So email her there. And not only is she going to provide you with that book, but she might give you some time to have a chat either about it or maybe your financial situation. Is that true? Yep.

Vera McCoy:
That's perfect. Yep. Would love to be able to. You know, as we said when we started the show, you know, serving is the real cornerstone. Think of being an entrepreneur. You know, whether whether you're serving cookies or you're serving advice, it doesn't matter.

Brian Kelly:
Totally agree. And love helping people as well. So everyone that does take advantage of this, please don't take advantage of Vera. By that I mean treat it with professionalism as if you paid $100 an hour equivalent. That would be $50. It's worth more than that, I'm sure. But treat Vera with respect. Treat the call with respect, get the book read through it, and that'll give you some questions. I'm sure that will come to mind that you can use to have a chat, but you can tell Vera is a lovely person. She is so approachable. Look at that smile, this beautiful inside and out and you know she will. She's there to help you. And that's what I love about Vera. And that's what I love about entrepreneurs in general. It's just I love what I get to do. All right. And then there is one other prize that we have to give away. I just mentioned a second ago. Let's see if we can get this to work. Vera. Here we go. Yes, it came up good. So for those of you watching live, you will go to this URL. So first write this down. Don't go there now. We're not done yet. So write it down. It's report forward slash vacation. Report forward slash vacation. You must be watching live to enter. And what you do is right after the show is over and we close it off, we sign off. Then you go to that URL and enter it. We are monitoring it and we know if you've been watching live or not, we have our ways. It's funny, Vera, because just yesterday someone entered a win from a recording because we don't we don't go live on Wednesdays. We go live on Thursdays. I thought, oh, that's nice. Nice try. Buddy. Yeah.

Vera McCoy:
And unfortunately I can't enter to win because I'm the guest.

Brian Kelly:
You know what? Actually, I mentioned it. I didn't mention it tonight, but I almost do it every night. But guests are allowed to win. Enter. And I've had guests win. So. Yeah, if you want to write that down, I'll put it back up on the screen real quick for you. Vera. Report forward slash vacation. I have had guests win. I mean, come on, you are here providing massive value for a good hour. Plus, because we had a pre-show get together. And I would love to see you win, especially you. But whoever enters, it's a random draw. And we get one person that gets this vacation stay. And it's an amazing thing and I hope I can't wait to see who wins. I can't, I can't say I hope Vera wins even though I really mean it. And I think that. But you know, it's a random draw. So I'm not actually going.

Vera McCoy:
To just. Just so your listeners know. You know, I also do, you know, contracts and those kinds of things. And, and so if they're, you know, having some problems or have some questions about a contract that they're working on, either for a real estate deal or for their business, you know, I'm more than happy to look it over and review it and see if I can give them any advice about how they might want to revise it or just be helpful, you know, for them in terms of moving their business forward.

Brian Kelly:
Fantastic. Yeah. So take advantage of that half hour and see what else she can offer. I'm sure there's something that will help you in your business. Yeah. Definitely discretion. All right. It does come down to it. Vera, that final question.

Vera McCoy:
I'm scared because. I don't know what it's going to be.

Brian Kelly:
Well, here's the good news about this question, Vera. And that is, there is no such thing as a wrong answer.

Vera McCoy:
Okay, that sounds good.

Brian Kelly:
It's not.

Vera McCoy:
I can't get it wrong.

Brian Kelly:
Right. It's not a test. It's not a quiz. In fact, the opposite is the case. And that is the only correct answer is yours because it's unique to you. And the other cool thing is, it doesn't matter how long it takes you to come up with the answer, you can have it instantly. Some get it instantly. You could wait seconds, even over a minute by thinking about it. Whatever it is, it's absolutely 100% perfect because it's yours. So there's no failure. And I know it's a lot of build up and you're still going, what the heck is this question? So. Are you ready?

Vera McCoy:
Yes.

Brian Kelly:
All right, here we go. Vera McCoy. Yes, sir. How do you define. Success.

Vera McCoy:
Oh, okay. Wow. That's a good that's a good question. Because you're right. That is so unique to each person. Um, my kind of answer for success is having the opportunity to work with great people. And everybody that you run, that you run into isn't going to be a great person, but having the opportunity to work with people and serve them and, um, you know, just kind of hopefully guide them in a direction that increases their success. So, you know, you're not so focused on yourself. And if you can do that and get paid to do it, um, and get yourself in the situation where you're actually having some passive income take care of you and your lifestyle, then I think that's success. You know, you're you're able to serve people and get paid for serving people and just enjoy your life, you know, a little bit, um, for me, I just I work hard at working, but I also like to work hard at enjoying my life. Um, and that's to me, that's success. You got to enjoy your life. You only get one. You only get one.

Brian Kelly:
I absolutely love that answer. And true to form is another amazing, powerful answer. Oh my goodness. We have Juanita McRae from LinkedIn saying great show and informative. So yes, yes, kudos to you, Vera McCoy. My goodness, you are so amazing. I am so blessed to be able to have you on this show, Vera, to be able to talk to you, to spend time with you.

Vera McCoy:
I feel. The same. It's been a blessing. Yes it has.

Brian Kelly:
And the worst part about it is that separation anxiety that happens when the show is over, which is coming right about now. That's too bad. But that is it. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the great, the magnificent, the one and only real Vera McCoy. And I am Brian Kelly, the host of The Mind Body Business Show. I cannot wait to see you again next time on the next edition live. And please, everyone, please do two things. Just two is all I ask. One is go out and crush it in your business so you can serve more people. And number two, above everything else, please be blessed. That is it.

Vera McCoy:
Thank you.

Brian Kelly:
Here on tThe Mind Body Business Show. Have a great, great evening everyone. So long.

Vera McCoy:
Thank you. Bye bye.

Brian Kelly:
Thank you for tuning in to The Mind Body Business Show podcast at www.TheMindBodyBusinessShow.com. My name is Brian Kelly.

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