Hi, I'm Stef.

Your time is the most expensive thing you'll ever sell.

In corporate I worked from home and traveled all the time, so on paper I had freedom. Girl, I had golden handcuffs. I was crushing it and still had to ask permission to take a day off. If your income stops the second you stop, you're not free. Period.

Making money and keeping money are two different skills.

We went from millions to $15K to our name in one crash. Nobody taught us how to protect it and we didn't plan for it. Learn both. Trust me, the market will teach you the expensive way if you don't.

Burn the boats.

A Plan B is just permission to quit Plan A. When I put $11K on the line with $10K in bills due that month, quitting wasn't an option. So I didn't. When there's no back door, you find a way through the front one.

Learn sales. You'll never be broke again.

The crash took our money but it couldn't touch my skills. Accounts can disappear overnight. A high income skill goes wherever you go. And sales is the #1 skill on the planet, I will die on that hill. Nothing in business happens until somebody sells something. Learn to sell and you can always make money again.

Your income will never outgrow your mindset.

If your mindset is broke, your bank account is gonna follow. I've watched so many people cap their own income with the stuff they think and the words they say out loud. Every time my income leveled up, it was right after I leveled up. My discipline, my habits, who I was becoming. So I never stop learning. Books, coaches, rooms that make me uncomfortable. Grow you first. The money follows.

Everything is figureoutable.

Nobody starts with all the answers. Sara Blakely started Spanx with $5,000 and zero fashion experience. I'm building a SaaS company and couldn't write a line of code if you paid me. You don't need the whole map. You need the feeling, the idea and the guts to start. Jasmine Star, who I've had the pleasure of working closely with and have looked up to for years, says it best: you wouldn't have been given the idea if you didn't already have the capacity to build it.

Don't reinvent the wheel. Model what works.

Nobody buys a Chick-fil-A and decides to redesign the chicken sandwich. They run the system that already works. That's literally why it works. Most people try to build a business from a blank page and then wonder why it's so hard. I didn't invent anything. I plugged into a proven model, got coached and did the basics over and over until they were boring. Boring is where the money is, babe.

Money isn't the root of all evil.

That's a misquote, btw. It says the love of money. And that's not the only money myth we got handed as little girls:

• •Money doesn't grow on trees.
• •Don't talk about money. It's rude.
• •Wanting more is greedy.
• •Rich people are selfish.
• •Some people are just good with money.

I had to unlearn every single one of these. Money is just a tool. It won't change who you are. It just makes you more of you. Talking about money is how women stop getting underpaid. Wanting more is how you get to give more. And being good with money is a skill. You can learn it.

I want more female millionaires, period. Men, we love you, keep doing your thing. But when women have money, we take care of everybody. Our families, our communities, other women. Some of my proudest numbers are paychecks I've helped other women earn.

Every hard thing is tuition.

Ghana. The surgery. The crash. At the time? Awful. I cried, I questioned everything, I wanted a refund. Looking back, every single one was teaching me something I'd need for the next level. So whatever you're walking through right now, the layoff, the breakup, the business that didn't work, the account that hit zero, it's not wasted. You already paid for the lesson. Make sure you take it with you.

It'll take longer than you think. It'll be worth more than you can imagine.

Nobody tells you this part. It's going to take longer than you expect. It's going to be harder than you imagined. There will be days you want to quit and nobody is clapping. And it will be worth it beyond your wildest dreams. I wouldn't trade one hard day for the life we have now. Stay in it long enough to find out.