On this week’s episode of Stocks, Bonds, and Cocktails, our podcast dedicated to helping women cultivate healthy financial habits, Marsha Barnes, our host and founder of The Finance Bar, sits down with Mandi Woodruff-Santos, award-winning Journalist and Co-host of the budgetnista platform, Brown Ambition.
Cocktail of the Week:
The reputable financial podcast is dedicated to helping Black women and Women of color succeed within the financial market, as well as providing the necessary tools needed to create healthy and enjoyable living habits in an effort to manifest the life of your dreams.
Established in 2014, Brown Ambition aims to create a sisterhood community that bonds over common financial strategies such as budgeting, building wealth, and establishing a successful road to the ins and outs of entrepreneurship and women empowerment.
“The Brown Ambition podcast really came from a space of my co-host Tiffany “The Budgetnista” Aliche. We got together, we met, we just hit it off. And we realized in the podcasting space, this was six years ago, that there were no black women talking about investing, building your career, and starting businesses at the same time,” said Woodruff-Santos in Stocks, Bonds, and Cocktails. “We just wanted to create a safe space to make it almost like you and I are talking right now. What does it sound like when two smart, talented, ambitious women get each other, and for us, it was about the title Brown Ambition.”
When asked about traditional career paths and building healthy financial structures, Mandi discussed the importance of building and sustaining wealth, as well as having the power to create our own career trajectories – a spectrum that has not been normalized within the financial industry, especially for Women of color.
“While I was working nine to five, one of the ways that I really approached my career was this is not my forever job. What I like to do is teach people how and when to quit. And I perfected the art of quitting jobs for higher earnings and better career opportunities so that I could build wealth through a career that I love and quitting has really been the secret sauce to my success in an amazing way,” said Woodruff-Santos.
Though Brown Ambition is all about creating a space to help women of color home in on their finances, they aren’t just focused on the financial field. The dynamic duo has made it their prerogative to discuss women empowerment that creates healthy self-worth dynamics within the workplace. Salary negotiations, recognizing toxic work environments, and people-pleasing tendencies are just a few key topics Woodruff-Santos touched on that were said to limit our path to our fullest potential.
“If you aren’t getting the investment in your career that you want, or if you’re not getting paid you’re worth, that is when you have two very good reasons to quit and move on. If it’s a toxic work environment, you have to be willing to put yourself first. That’s it. You have to be willing to leave and understand your value. Don’t feel loyal to your employer. They are not loyal to you.”
Woodruff-Santos continues, “Be willing to quit your way to higher earnings and better benefits, invest in yourself, but don’t be afraid to job hop. I think that there is this fear for women that we are afraid to make people mad. The truth of the matter is, and listen, I’ve been on both sides.”
Putting yourself first is one of the many mission statements Mandi Woodruff-Santos has not only adopted within her own life but within her financial teachings which further makes her a force to be reckoned with as a leading boss and an arbiter of the financial world.
Check out the full episode of Stocks, Bonds & Cocktails below.