268 | Celebrating 5 Years of Business and Podcasting

And just like that, half a decade has passed!

Somehow I’ve been in business and recording this podcast for 5 years already.

In this episode, celebrate with me as I share what’s changed with the podcast, my business, and my life over the last 5 years.

• • what has changed in the last five years with the podcast
  • what has changed in my business
  • what has changed in my life

You’re listening to Personal Finance for Lawyers. I’m Rho Thomas, and as a busy wife, mom, and former Biglaw associate, I know all too well the tension between the culture of the legal profession and pretty much everything else you want to do in life. That’s why each week, I’m bringing you the information and tools you need to improve your money mindset and manage your money to create true wealth. Because ultimately, it’s not about the money. It’s about the freedom and flexibility the money affords.

Hey, friend. Welcome back.

Today we are celebrating the 5th anniversary of the podcast.

I released the first 3 episodes of this podcast on July 13th, 2020, which feels like a lifetime ago now, and this episode will be released on July 11th, so it’s not technically the 5th anniversary, but it is close enough.

I can’t believe that I’ve been doing this for five years already, and so much has changed over the last five years. So, I thought for this episode I would share with you what has changed with the podcast, and then a little about what’s changed with my life and my business over the last five years. So, let’s get to it.

First, starting with the podcast. So I still remember literally shaking as I was scheduling those first 3 episodes. I was so nervous because people were gonna hear my voice and my thoughts in a way that I had never shared them before, and I was speaking so softly. I didn’t realize it at that time, but when I go back and listen to some of those earlier episodes, I’m like, “speak up like what’s happening.”

But part of it was that initially I was still working full time and I would record the podcast early in the morning before my kids got up or at night after they went to bed. And I didn’t want to be too loud because the room that I record in, which is now my office, but at that time was kind of like a flex space, like there was a couch in here and the kids toys were in here and all of that.

But that room is directly below my son’s room, and so now I’m able to record while the boys are at school and all of that. So I don’t have to worry about it, but that is where I started and that’s how I got started.

So it might not have been perfect. It might not have been exactly what I would want now, looking back, but it got me started. And it got me to this point.

Speaking of being perfect, though, I remember early on like it felt so important to me that everything was “perfect.”

And I used to listen to a lot of podcasts and in my mind, podcast episodes had to be 20 minutes long because that was the typical length of the episodes that I listened to. So I would record an episode and if it didn’t hit around the 20-minute mark, I would literally go back in and add stuff to make it longer.

And shout out to my friend, my former colleague, my former coach, Jenn Deal, because she was the one who was like, “Why are you doing that? Stop it.”

And so one big thing that has changed is I stopped doing that, and I just let the episodes be whatever length they were going to be. So I said what I had to say on the topic, and when I was done, I published it, and that was it.

And funny enough, one of the big things that, when I talk to people who listen to the podcast, when I’m talking to you guys, like what you often tell me is that you like how short and to the point my episodes typically are. So there you go. I thought it was a problem, that it wasn’t long enough and it wasn’t the right length, but it turned out that when I just said what I had to say, you guys liked it more.

Another thing that has changed over the years are the topics of the podcast. So when I first started out I wanted to talk about money, but I also wanted to talk about life, things like life skills. I don’t know what the actual term would be, but basically things like setting boundaries or making sure that you are doing the things that you actually want to do and not what someone else wants you to do. Or saying “no” right, stuff like that.

The underlying thing for me has always been freedom, so that piece has always been reflected in the podcast. And I was calling it lifestyle freedom at first because I think freedom goes beyond finances.

Like we talk about financial freedom a lot, but there is a lot of freedom that we can have even beyond having a set amount in our bank account or stuff like that. I believe that many lawyers could have more freedom now, but they forget that they have agency in their lives, that they don’t have to do everything that a partner wants them to do, or a supervisor or their parents or whoever.

And so I wanted to speak to that, but I didn’t realize that I didn’t have a whole lot to say on that topic. Like I knew that being able to set boundaries and say no and that kind of stuff allows you to have more control over your time. And then on top of that, when you have the control of your money, as well, then you increase the freedom that’s available to you.

But I felt like I said everything that I wanted to say, like set your boundaries, say no, make sure your life aligns with what you want, and then that was that.

And so I stopped recording episodes on those topics because I didn’t have anything else to say, but the personal finance part remained interesting to me. Like that was the part that I was still learning about, still improving in my own life in real time, and I think it is the bigger driver of freedom in the long term. And so I just stopped talking about the other things and I made the show purely personal, finance focused, and that’s where it’s been ever since.

Another change is I have started taking on guests, so initially I only did solo episodes for a year and a half. It was just me. And then one of my clients who has a podcast invited me on her show to talk about the work that we did together with her finances and she encouraged me to put the episode on my show, too.

Now before that point in my mind, I didn’t think anybody would want to share openly about their finances and the help that they got with their finances and all of that. Like I thought people kept that stuff really close to the vest, and, you know, I think that’s generally true, but here, you know, my client was sharing her journey freely on her podcast and then telling me to put it on my podcast. And so I started asking other clients if they would be willing to talk about our work together. And some still say no. Right? Some people don’t feel comfortable with it, but a lot of clients over the years have said yes. And that’s how I first started having guest episodes.

And I noticed that those episodes tend to be the more popular ones, and I think it’s because it’s helpful to hear a real person talking about the struggles that they had with money and how they’ve improved. And you can kind of see yourself in those stories.

So that was how I first got comfortable with having guests on, like, I got comfortable interviewing my clients and stuff like that, but I was still nervous to interview other people because I didn’t think I’d be good at it. And it felt easier to just do the episodes by myself.

But more recently, I have started challenging myself and I’ve been interviewing people who I think would be helpful for you to hear from. So hopefully you have enjoyed those interview episodes so far. There will be more to come, so stay tuned.

Now the only other things that I think have changed about the podcast are the cover or the artwork and the name.

So I’ve had three podcast covers to this point and that’s nothing major it was just a little refresh every couple of years, but I decided to change the podcast name last year.

Originally, the podcast was called Wealthyesque, and I chose that name because I wanted something distinctive that would be a strong trademark and more protectable because I am a trademark lawyer by training.

So the name itself was a combination of wealthy and the suffix esque, which means like or related to. And I wanted the name to reflect living like the wealthy, which for me meant having control of your time. And that goes back to that combination of topics between having control of your money and setting boundaries and all of that, like all of those things allow you to have control of your time.

However, people didn’t know how to say it when I was on other podcasts, or when I was doing presentations, and someone was introducing me, and it wasn’t easily searchable for the people that I wanted to reach.

And so I talked with a friend, Heather Hubbard, who hosts the Hustle and Flow podcast, and she’s a fellow trademark lawyer turned businesswoman and so I was explaining to her everything that I just said and that I was thinking about changing the name to something more direct, like personal finance for lawyers.

And in our conversation, she was like, well, most of the time the companies with those really strong marks also have really strong budgets to help people associate those marks with their company. And when you have a smaller company and you don’t have those same resources, sometimes having a mark like that can work against you.

And I was like, huh, that makes a lot of sense.

And so I decided that I wanted the podcast to be more findable and I decided to change the name to Personal Finance for Lawyers. Now, do not take this as legal advice or what you should do, right?

This was a conversation that Heather and I were having. We both have backgrounds in trademark law, and I made the decision to change the name considering our conversation, considering everything I know about trademark law, considering my personal circumstances.

If you are thinking about naming a product or a service or a podcast or something like that, your situation could be different. So don’t take this and decide that you should do the same thing that I did. Make sure that you talk with a lawyer who can help you.

So that is the last change I want to talk about with respect to the podcast, now let’s talk about some things that have changed personally and professionally for me over the last five years.

The first thing is my husband and I finished paying off all of our debt, but our mortgage.

So in the very first podcast episode, I talked about our debt journey and how that has impacted our lives and got us on this whole money journey in the first place. And how it was the catalyst to creating the podcast, starting my business, all of that stuff.

So we paid everything off in the fall of 2021, and a big part of that was the pause during COVID where we didn’t have to make payments. We continued making payments anyway because we weren’t accruing interest. And that was the thing that had really been getting us in that whole process, because if you remember, or if you didn’t know, my husband had almost $350,000, maybe over $350,000 once we got to his student loans. And so the interest on that was just massive. And so we were making payments, but we weren’t making as quick progress as we did during the pandemic when we didn’t have that interest accruing on it.

So getting rid of that debt and being free of the minimum payment, which at that point was $3500 a month, has completely changed things for our lives. So we’ve been able to take nicer vacations. We don’t worry about money things. It’s just been a nice experience.

And I don’t think that it’s something that you can fully grasp, or at least I didn’t fully grasp it until we were there, like it was this theoretical idea of not having debt, but being in the position of actually paying everything off and no longer owing all that money a month and having our overhead decreased so drastically, it was just a really nice change.
When we finished paying everything off then we ramped up our investing.

So we were just continuing to invest in the stock market and index funds. And more recently we have gotten into real estate investing, which has been a really interesting journey so far.

My husband actually doesn’t want to be involved, but he supports it. So really it’s kind of my thing and it’s weird being a beginner again, but I’m learning as I go and I am really enjoying it.

It’s something that I had heard about when we first started this money journey, but at that point, I was a new mom. We both were in these demanding professions. Like the kids were babies, and so it wasn’t really something that fit the season of life that we were in, but now we are in a different season, and so it is something that we have the capacity to do. So I am really enjoying learning about it, and looking forward to getting deeper into that.

Another piece, part of why we’re in a different season of life is around the fall of 2021, not only did we pay everything off, but I also left the practice of law.

So at that point I was already at about 50% because I dropped down during the pandemic. I had two young children at home. They were three and one when the pandemic started, and they were still very much dependent on me.

And it was tough to balance practicing law, this interest that I already had in personal finance that was growing, and caring for them. So I dropped down to 50% and now I have been in entrepreneurship full-time since then.

So I have been coaching on the side, like in the mornings and the evenings, that kind of stuff, and I wanted to try entrepreneurship full time.

So we were in a place with our finances where we didn’t need my income and I had the space to pursue this interest. So, overall it has been a wild ride. It has been a journey for sure.

I started off offering one-off budget sessions, and then I started offering a package of one-on-one coaching sessions. And then a couple of years ago I tried a membership which was not my favorite.

I found that having a low-cost membership meant people just didn’t really show up, so I had a handful of people who would come to calls and who would use the resources and stuff like that, but the majority of people were paying me and I just never saw them and that didn’t feel good to me, especially because the work I do is helping people manage their money better and get into a better financial position.

I don’t like the idea of just accepting money and you not get the return that you want.

I also tried different iterations of group programs which again was not my favorite because I found that in the group setting, when they weren’t on this low-cost membership model, they were showing up, but it was a lot easier for people to hide.

So if you didn’t do your numbers, if you didn’t look at this thing, if you didn’t do the things that I’m telling you to do, it’s a lot easier for you to kind of get away with that if you will, because there’s somebody else in the group who has done it, who has questions and that kind of thing.

So again, people were not getting the results that I felt like they should be able to get because that group setting kind of allowed them to hide and when you are one-on-one, like if you haven’t done the stuff, it’s just you, so we’re going to focus on why you haven’t done it and make sure that you get it done.

So I’ve gone back more recently to one-on-one coaching and I am enjoying that. I think that’s where I want to be. So I kind of took the detour, you know, tried out different things and came back to the thing that I really enjoyed in the first place.

One of the fun things about being in business is it’s really all one big experiment. So you can try new things. You can see what works for you, but I feel like it’s also a downside, especially because I am very good at following steps and following rules and stuff like that. And so there’s no one to say, like this is the way to do it. It’s all on you. Right? You get to decide what you want to do.

So, that’s something that I like but also don’t like about entrepreneurship.

Overall, in the course of my business, I have made a client impact of almost $700,000, which is the money that my clients have collectively saved and the debt that they have collectively paid off over the last five years. So I’m really proud of that number.

And that only includes what they were able to do during the time that they were working with me, because I don’t have a way to continue tracking them once we finish. So those numbers are actually higher, I just don’t have a way to track it.

So I’m really proud of the work that I’m doing, of the impact that I’m making in the legal profession and I look forward to continuing on this journey for another five years. So if you would like to be a part of that number of that collective client impact, please feel free to reach out to me. You can e-mail me at hello@rhothomas.com and we can talk about us working together.

Alright, so that is it for this week’s episode celebrating five years of podcasting, of business, of client impact. I am really excited to see what the future holds. I appreciate you for being here, for supporting me, and I hope that the information that I’m sharing is helpful for you.

If you haven’t done so already, please take a second and subscribe to the show and leave a review. All of that helps this information to get to more lawyers so that I can help more people achieve the financial goals that they have. I appreciate your support.

As we close out, friend, I pray that you take the information you learn here, apply it in your life, and open up to the realization that wealth is available to you.

As you do that consistently week after week, you’ll continue to take steps to take back control of your time, build wealth, and live the life of freedom and choice you deserve.

Talk to you later.