Lara Schmoisman  0:05  

This is Coffee N5. I’m your host, Lara Schmoisman. Hi, everyone. Welcome back to Coffee N5. It is so good to have you here. And today, I want to talk about something serious, important money. Money can make it or break it can make or break marriages, relationships, partnerships. Money is such an important thing in our life, but also is important the relationship we have with it. I remember when I came to this country, I was really new in a completely foreign world. And that you actually need to add the tax over everything. In Argentina, you don’t do that the tax is included on the price. . And so sometimes I didn’t even have the full amount to buy something if I counted for tax. And that also was for me to have a switch in my mind, like I had to switch meters to feet, and etcetera, etcetera, you have to search in your mind, but also when it’s about your own finances, your own switch, and how to manage your money. There are a lot of people that get into debt. And that is not bad. That is okay, a little debt can help you actually to grow your score better, you’re then having a little business debt or getting a loan could be positive, each one can make their own decisions. But the most important thing to me is that you know how to manage your finances and you know where you are, and your relationship with money. I think a lot of people are afraid of money. And I think it’s time to renegotiate that relationship with money. So today, we invited Rita Boccuzzi. Did I say that Rita?

Rita Boccuzzi  2:08  

 Perfect. 

Lara Schmoisman  2:09  

Oh, good. So welcome to Coffee N5. Thank you so much for being here. And we were talking a little bit before the podcast about your relationship with money and how you started this career. So why don’t you give us a little bit of backstory, how all this started.

Rita Boccuzzi  2:29  

Thank you so much for having me, her. I’m glad to share a little bit about myself. My name is Rita Boccuzzi. And I’m also known as Mama Rita money. You know, wouldn’t it be great if all of us had a mama who knew about money and how to help guide us and direct us

Lara Schmoisman  2:48  

 That would be great if I knew what I was saying. My parents are great, but they were living in different countries. So I didn’t know where to go for advice.

Rita Boccuzzi  2:56  

Well, most of us our parents didn’t get taught. I’m gonna say for the average middle income American, our parents didn’t get taught. So how could they even teach us? So you know, if I go back, I really like the backstory of when I was a little girl. I was always curious about money. I would see people who had, you know, big mansions and cars and traveled a lot. And we weren’t quite doing that much of all of that. And I thought, Well, why was there the difference? And I’d be asking questions. And I would get responses like, those aren’t appropriate questions for young ladies. Right? Or you’re too young, you won’t understand well, how can we not understand if we never hear it. And I think about it is like when a mama reads to a baby in a womb, they get what’s called a vibrational familiarity. They don’t know the words, they aren’t seeing the book. It’s so that they feel the vibrations have familiarity. They hear their Mama’s voice, it builds confidence, it builds trust. Well, it’s the same thing with a relationship with money. And I’ve been in financial services since 2007. And what I found is that nobody talks about their relationship with money. So if we keep doing the same thing, and we keep being told what to do with our money, not taught, and we expect different results. Isn’t that the definition of insanity?

Lara Schmoisman  4:28  

Well, I think it’s also a parallel of like going to high school, oh, have a crush on the popular kid. And it’s all about having a crush on the mansion or having a crush on the people who do have money. But I mean, there are many circumstances people have money, but also they’re the circumstances that we can create ourselves to have money

Rita Boccuzzi  4:50  

100% I love that. Absolutely. We can create it and I’m going to say a little bit more about my history. That is as a young girl I did Listen, my parents did tell me about saving. So I did. And so from the age of 18, to 33, I had been saving. And then all of a sudden, a market correction happened. I didn’t know what that was. But I knew there was almost half of the money in my account. And in my head, I was thinking, Oh, my God, this is, you know, 15 years of my hard work disappeared overnight. And then I’m told by my financial person, Oh, sweetie, don’t worry, it’ll come back. And I’m thinking, well, when? And when it comes back? Is it going to go away again? And how do I? How do I protect what I’ve worked hard for? So that kind of started my quest of how do I create money, and then I went into some real estate investing. And in the year 2008, as many people experience, I had a big downfall. So another hit. So what I wasn’t learning was that Warren Buffett has tools. And I was always curious about them. His first role was never to lose money. Okay, never lose money. Rule number two, is remember rule number one. So I’m thinking to myself, how the heck am I going to figure this out? I’ve lost it. Once. I built it up. I lost it again. How do I protect my money? Well, this is an area that wealthy people know very well, because they protect their foundation. Right? It’s kind of like the foundation of your relationship. If you have a relationship, you are mindful of it, you are spending time in that relationship. Right? You’re being respectful to it, you have discipline for it. And I like to tell people, so if money were your partner wouldn’t want to keep dating you. Because if you’re not spending time with it, this is where we go south and things we don’t learn about the essential foundations of creating that relationship of protection of our money. And then I have a big big hit. So 2008 happened, and I’m building my wealth again, because you can take away the knowledge I started with learning from wealth, builders, multimillionaires, billionaires, inquiry, asking questions, because no one was teaching, they would tell. And also

Lara Schmoisman  7:31  

The interesting thing is that if you ask questions, most people don’t have a problem to answer.

Rita Boccuzzi  7:39  

They want to help you.

Lara Schmoisman  7:45  

 Oh, yeah. I think people there get that wall that, oh, they’re wealthy, they’re never gonna answer my question or exist jealousy or, Oh, they’re wealthy, because they did something.

Rita Boccuzzi  7:59  

 I find people who are wealthy really want to share and teach what they know. It’s just like anything else. It’s a resource. And they are the most philanthropic people who give back in the world. So if you’re asking questions, most of the time, I’m going to say it every time I’ve asked, I have been helped, right? So that I could course correct, do a new path. One of the things that I struggled with, though, after having one downfall, and another downfall was my own story with money, right? Maybe I wasn’t worth it. Maybe I didn’t deserve it. I’m too scared to ask because I might make another mistake. Again. How can I figure this out? So it really is about that relationship of building trust and confidence that you can learn around money, it actually can be very simple, and very repetitive. Once we learn I mean, the thing is, we just didn’t have that opportunity from kinder to college, to have the practice. Just like when you’re learning any new skill, a new job, you don’t know everything. You get familiar, you spend time, same thing here. So even though I was learning and I was implementing, and I was creating, I still didn’t get this piece about protection. And I ended up becoming a cancer survivor. And that flipped my world around. Because what ended up happening because I still, on the third time, had not learned about protection. So I had to deplete all of my resources that I had left that I had been growing for those few years growing back, I should say. And it’s not only you that gets what I call the financial cancer, it spreads out to Everybody and other people have to tap into their resources to support you. People lose their homes, their accounts. So there are ways for us to protect that. And all we get to do is learn about it and make our own decisions. So it’s the awareness, right? Knowing about it, then having the mindset of getting through the stories and on the mindset. Because money is really a formula, a word formula, it’s really about your behavior and your mindset, to the skill set that gets you to the results. And if you remove one component, most people they’ll do okay. And that’s why they falter. So sometimes people will have money coming to them, but flowing through them, and they don’t know why it keeps on disappearing.

Lara Schmoisman  10:50  

It’s the same people are not conscious I, I know, I’m going to talk about cases I know people’s eating out every day or ordering out your it starts in the small things, it starts in, okay, you, the fact that you can afford a expensive car doesn’t mean that you need to afford an expensive car, and then you will leave in a dump just because you prefer a car. So are those things that you start, it starts at home, it starts in every little thing that money awareness.

Rita Boccuzzi  11:27  

100%. So what you’re talking about in my world is a plan. But I very specifically want to tell you what the plan is, it is purposely leveraged action now. So when you said you had the money, right? Doesn’t mean you have to spend the money.

Lara Schmoisman  11:43  

exactly. I love your plan. I love it. I’m gonna steal it from you. Absolutely. I know a lot of people that are not cautious about money. And I also found that there’s a little confusion, sometimes you’re investing, there is one thing that is spending, another thing is investing, there is money that is put to work. And I’m not talking about bank accounts. If you’re building something, you’re building a company, you’re building a business, you’re building your professional development, and that’s investing. But first of all, you need to be careful where you invest from because there are a lot of sources that they’re not going to give you what the return of investment that you expect. And second, building takes a long time. And you need to be prepared. I have a lot of clients that come to me that they have certain money. And they think that in six months, I can do miracles. I’m not a miracle worker, I do marketing. I know how to do marketing, and I am great at it. My team is amazing. I’m not great, because I’m just great because I have the most amazing team to support me. But I have. But things take time. Building Money takes time building awareness takes time creating a new relationship takes time. And you should be given that piece, you need to understand that you’re not in a rush. Nobody’s running behind you. You just and you can not compare yourself with other businesses. Like I Oh, this business is doing this. And I found on one hand that they are jealous or because they have money or because they’re popular. Okay, so why are you trying to be them? Just be, you

Rita Boccuzzi  13:48  

100%. Boy, this conversation has come up a lot this week. We do get to run our own race. And we get to give ourselves and I remind myself and it’s so funny when I find myself not doing that. And, you know, even working with my admins and staff or even my children. To me, are you giving yourself to words I always say, am I giving myself grace and space? Right? The grace to be human, the grace to be me, and space to grow. And so if we can pause, it makes a big difference. Because you’re right, you’re investing in you. Just like with the food that we feed ourselves or the time, right time and investing time and money. You can always make more money but you can’t get back the time. So we get to be really mindful of our time. And so it’s really thinking about it systematically. And actually, like I said, it gets to be simple. There’s a couple things that I like to share. One of the things is knowing our core values. Absolutely. 100% is what needs your money direction if you are in touch with it. Okay, so the money so what wealthy people do is they have what I call money accumulation pathway system maps, many accumulation pathway systems. And what it starts with is their intention, right? You’re seeing the angle, the month end goal in mind. That’s the vision of what they want. And then they are having the expectations, right. That’s the mission. Like my purpose. And my mission is to educate 1 million families in the next five years. Well, I can’t do that alone. You may, I could, but I get to have a team with me. So it’s about my commitment, that community, the connection, the collaboration, and then building that and we get to do that together. And that is also building wealth. Because in my world, wealth is spelled like the word health. So it’s WEALTH. If you are not healthy of mind, spirit or soul, you’re not going anywhere. And that’s why it’s really important to get really crystal clear with what your values are. So when somebody comes to you, marketing to you, well, I’m going to get your business to the next level. What’s your value system? If they don’t know their core values, then how do you know if you’re a match?

Lara Schmoisman  16:19  

Absolutely, absolutely. I also found that a lot of disaligment people are not aligned in what they believe and what they do. 

Rita Boccuzzi  16:33  

And I call it it’s so funny, because from the core value system, its alignment to abundance. So we start with our values, we get to figure out what is our current belief system? Is it being? Is it a belief system that’s indoctrinated, or formulated? So is somebody else governing your thoughts? Or are you focusing on what yours are? To get you to that next space, break through the stories and then learn about money step by step? No matter where you are, you get to transport every single one of us has a level of financial intelligence. We’re all financially intelligent. Did you know that?

Lara Schmoisman  17:13  

Yeah, I know that. But I mean, also, I found out that people don’t understand that they need to make decisions. Money significantly means that you need to sometimes make tough decisions, you need to make tough decisions, or you have to cut on your clothing, spending or eating out. You need to analyze what you have, and then see what you need to cut. Sometimes you need to make sacrifices. For example, in my company something is not working in my company, for I have a friend, a very successful friend who taught me something many years ago. And at the beginning, I think you’re tough. And now I embrace her, I know that she was right, as I can love you as a person, I can think the best of you. But if my company doesn’t love you, it doesn’t work. I mean, and this, I think is a very common mistake lately is that I value people and people, we’re culture a lot. We’re big at the culture, but at the same time, we have a job to do. And as a company owner, I need to make sure that I can pay everyone at the end of the day. 

Rita Boccuzzi  18:39  

we’re in such alignment. So a couple things, I want to get me to take a quick step back to, you know, when you said it doesn’t happen overnight. So when I got cancer, and I started taking all these courses, I started negotiating the fees of the courses, so that I could bring my kids for free. Because I wanted them to learn at the same time as me what I couldn’t teach them. And in one of the sessions, there was a whole panel of multimillionaires and billionaires. And they got to speak to my children. And when they were introduced, they were told to tell my children how many years it took them to become an overnight success. So you know, they, some, the first person would come up and say, wow, it took me six years to become an overnight success. And one person even said 38 years to become an overnight success, because it’s what people see as the overnight success, but they don’t see all the back work. And so to your point, we get to be disciplined. So there’s an old saying, Spare the rod and spoil the child. Well, I’m not thinking of a physical rod. I’m using the word as an acronym. There’s three things in business that we must have is respect, order and discipline, are looking at ourselves to the next level because when you spare the respect order and discipline, it all goes two ways it gets spoiled, because there has to be that respect order and discipline, I need me to

Lara Schmoisman  20:08  

there is always a need to be on both sides. For every relationship that you have in your life, I can, like, for example, you need to understand that there are relationships in your life. And I’m talking not only about can be relationship with a friend, with a partner even can be your relationship with food, or with money. And so if there are relationships, that they don’t work for you, you need to be able to stop them, you don’t want to be that nagging friend, that you’re always a color, that you have to be that friend that is both sides. That’s a real friendship.

Rita Boccuzzi  20:47  

Yes. And then with money, you know, in relationships, there are phases. And in money, there are phases to your money so that you can grow, be able to keep accountable, but also have joy and celebration in it, right? It’s not about self deprivation, right? Even though you and I are, I’m sure, like for me, I love to have fun in my work, you know, I share that it’s always a great time to feel good about money. Because that energy connection is very important. So if you’re doing what’s called a budget, you might want to change the name, some people just see that word, they have a story tied to it, you can look back and see what that story is. Or you can create a new, I call mine prosperity spending plan, because I’m spending my way to prosperity. But I know my numbers where they are. And in my prosperity spending plan is a line item for time to have massages, time to have fun. And there’s a bucket of resources of money that will engage that action of having joy and celebrating.

Lara Schmoisman  21:56  

Yeah, it’s money allocation. And also, you need to be smart to know that there are times you cannot allocate, and really need to restructure and redistribute Money.  and there are situations in life. And like, for example, COVID hit, nobody expected it. We thought it was science fiction, and then it hit us and nobody knew what to do. And I found, at least in a digital world, everyone was starting to go and try to sell online. And sell whatever online and I think that that mindset, even though the economy is not the same state, a lot of people invested in money. I know people that they’ve had businesses that fail, I met them that they have businesses that have nothing to do with it. But oh, no, no, I’m trying to make money by making an online course.

Rita Boccuzzi  22:53  

I hear a lot of that as well. With COVID, one of the good things, when bad things happen, or challenging things happen. We get to redirect and grow. And yes, maybe a lot of people went on and did you know  they’re taking on calling that baby step of reaching out and figuring it out, not realizing that it’s not going to happen exactly in the way that they plan because as you said earlier, it takes time to develop things we do hear about overnight successes. Those are, as far as I’ve seen, really rare as far as the sustainability of them.

Lara Schmoisman  23:33  

Absolutely. And that’s why I always call it to create the biggest strategies, we need to create sustainable strategies that do not hire a marketing company, because only you have six months of budget, because six months is not time. It’s not even time to start and then analyze.

Rita Boccuzzi  23:51  

Now most businesses fail within their first year, or three years, or even seven years because things just don’t keep running the way that they do. And in order to have success with it really, you know, I feel like the first phase is exploring. And then you’re learning to embrace what you’re learning, then you’re expanding, and you’re keeping the engagement going so that this way you can elevate to each level. So I use these five e words as a five pillar system with money with my work, so that this way I can see if any piece where am I missing? What do I need to plug in? So yes, it starts with curiosity, and then a vision. Discipline is essential. I think working with other professionals, like you said, not being in fear if you see somebody in your world that you admire that you want to be most life, talk to them. Ask questions, this is the biggest thing asking so that this way you can learn because you’ve come from a different perspective. So you may have a different We’re looking at the same piece of information that’s given to you, then somebody else who’s done it successfully.

Lara Schmoisman  25:05  

But then I think the key factor here is to listen, learn from them, but don’t you don’t have to copy them, you need to adapt whatever information to you and how it’s going to work for you.

Rita Boccuzzi  25:19  

Just like I just like, our personalities are different, our DNA different, our money, DNA is different. Our businesses are different people have been doing, I’m gonna say, doing Money talks and money coaching. But one of the things that I noticed that I had an advantage on was the mindset teaching, and the skill set teaching so that I could combine the two because that’s what I knew. So we get to create, we get to create what’s personally ours, because that actually helps teach more people that connect to us, right? Other people might connect to someone else for whatever the nuances are of how they share the information. And just like there’s different coffee houses on the streets, right? There’s a coffee bean, and there’s a Starbucks, and some people like one versus the other. But they’re both doing coffee.

Lara Schmoisman  26:16  

And I mean that business is for everyone, but you need to be solid, you need to be solid, and be smart, and how you put your business together.

Rita Boccuzzi  26:25  

And how you do that is getting connected with the experts. Listening, like you said, learning, right? Because in order to learn, you have two ears, you get to listen, one mouth, to speak and share and ask and then develop yourself. And it’s the same way with money as well. Is it really got to be looking right? And having the conversation with yourself before and asking questions of yourself of what you want, before you get in front of the financial professional. Otherwise, this is how people get talked into schemes, or other products that they say, oh my god, I never wanted that. And then they feel like they failed. Well, it starts at the beginning of learning and listening and knowing. I call it a financial positioning system and fps. And just learning what questions based on your core values, your personality, your relationship, because some people like a risky relationship, and some people like a really safe, secure relationship.

Lara Schmoisman  27:33  

That’s great advice. That’s fabulous advice. for that. Before we go, I want to ask you the same question. We asked every guest at Coffee number five. And it’s what mistake you made that you said, Oh my God, what did I do, but I learned a lot about us. And that mistake that can save someone else from your advice.

Rita Boccuzzi  27:58  

Oh my gosh, okay. So this one touches my heart. It’s why I started doing what I was doing. So in April of 2010, I was doing my research around money and how to protect it. I was trying to figure out that piece very specifically. And someone that came and shared with me some information called living benefits. I started to research it and look into it. And six months passed, you know, 43 Soccer Mom, I’m busy starting my business. And I was working for a company at the same time. So a corporate company, and I had all my benefits. And I thought, well, I’m going to save a little bit of money if I implement this living benefits plan in January. Remember how Warren Buffett was talking about protection. So it had protections that I didn’t currently have. But I didn’t connect how important it would be because I thought I was young, healthy, and nothing’s going to happen to me in November when I got sick with cancer, and I wasn’t able to implement that plan. So saving a couple $100 ended up costing me hundreds of 1000s of dollars. And that’s why I share this message about really getting people out there to learn about the sustainability, the protection phase of our money so that we can persevere with it, just like wealthy people do. And smart money people know this information and implement. That was my biggest mistake. If I may elaborate and share the blessing. The blessing from it is that I got to teach it I didn’t not do nothing and wallow in misery and that I screwed up and that it caused my family a lot of pain. I said I’m going to change this because no other family is going to experience what my family experienced. and to this day, I have two clients that ended up getting cancer within the past three years. One of them was only 27 years old. And when she said to me, you changed my life, and I could focus on my health. I knew I was on the right path. So it was from my biggest mistake to the greatest glory of what I get to do every day.

Lara Schmoisman  30:16  

Oh my god, thank you so much for sharing that. That’s a great piece of advice. A good lesson to learn. And I will see everyone you have your next week on Coffee N5. Thank you for being here. Thank you.

Rita Boccuzzi  30:32  

 Thank you for having me. 

Lara Schmoisman  30:34  

it was so good to have you here today. See you next time. Catch you on the flip side. Ciao, ciao.