03 Maximize your 9-5: Become a Financially Independent Black Woman in Tech with Amanda Henry

SHOW NOTES

Join me as I hang out with the fabulous Amanda Henry of Living In The Abundance, who is a Tech Queen, senior learning & development pro by day, and financial freedom advocate by night! We’re spilling the tea on all things career growth, financial independence, and owning your worth as a Black woman in tech.

We dive into Amanda’s inspiring journey from Verizon to tech sales enablement, how she’s using her 9-to-5 to build wealth, and the power of self-advocacy in corporate spaces.

And sis, we had some good laughs about navigating toxic work environments with Basic Bob AND creating your FAFO fund (we said what we said!)

📖Get Amanda’s Book & Get Connected:

The Financial Abundance Blueprint: A Black Woman's Guide to Achieve Financial Literacy, Build a Successful Career, and Break Boundaries

Set to release April 8th 2025 (Pre-Orders are Available)

⁠Pre-Order Now⁠ 

To learn more about Amanda, visit ⁠www.AmandaJHenry.com⁠ or follow @LivingInTheAbundance on social media: ⁠TikTok⁠; ⁠Instagram⁠; ⁠Threads⁠, ⁠LinkedIn⁠.

🤎Ready to join the Career Love Community?

This safe, powerful space was created by and for Black women navigating big goals in career, life, and business. With coaching, training, and sisterhood built in, you’ll never walk this journey alone. Learn more & join us now: ⁠⁠https://www.mercedesswan.com/join⁠⁠

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Ready to step into your Black Woman Bliss Era by building a career or business you love? Reach out at ⁠⁠[email protected]⁠

TRANSCRIPTS

Mercedes Swan (00:00)
Hello, love. It's Mercedes, the Career Love Coach and host of the Career Love Podcast. This podcast is a love letter to the 9.8 million Black women in the workplace and a space for Black women who want to change the world to build a career, business and lifestyle they love.

Today we're talking about Black women in tech. Okay, this is so exciting. So this episode is for the current and aspiring tech queens who are ready to truly leverage their nine to five to create financial freedom. And I'm so excited to introduce Amanda Henry. She's fabulous. We met through, I get to say we met through a mutual on TikTok. You know that feels like a little flex. You know how the girlies sort of say they mutuals. We're mutuals on TikTok. Okay, so I did not.

Amanda Henry (00:36)
Wait, that wasn't usual!

Mercedes Swan (00:42)
I did not know Amanda before TikTok, we got introduced and she's just honestly fabulous, amazing. She definitely feels like part of this community. I'm always encouraged by her. I'm always inspired by all that she does. So I'm really excited to just one, like introduce her and you, but also just kind of talk about her background. Cause like it truly is inspiring all that she's been able to accomplish. But a little bit about Amanda. She is a senior learning and development professional by day and founder of Living in the Abundance by Night.

which is a platform that educates and elevates young professionals transitioning into adulthood on the art of navigating the corporate workplace with their personal finances. So we have so much to talk about, like so much. But we're gonna be, overall our topics today are just kind of learning a little bit more about Amanda's career path. So she's in sales enablement. I thought that's really just such a cool career path that a lot of people don't know about. And kind of, know there's a broader structure to that too about kind of where you sit in an organization, but.

really exciting. And then also building and leveraging your nine to five to build wealth. think a lot of us feel like that's not accessible to us. Like, you we really can't build that type of wealth, you know, going to clocking in, clocking out. We have to build a business. We have to do all these other things. We have to have a rich uncle, whatever that is. And so lastly, also, we're going to be talking about that in connection with financial literacy for Black women. So.

I'm really excited to introduce you to Amanda. She is so amazing. So I'm gonna let her share a little bit more about herself professionally and how living in the abundance became to be. Yeah, go for it.

Amanda Henry (02:17)
my goodness, first of all, I love you so much. Like just thank you for having me here and thank you for creating this much needed community because for us Black women in these corporate spaces, we go through a lot. And so honored to be here with you all today. Hello to everyone. My name is Amanda Henry and my journey to financial freedom and navigating career success has been wild.

but an intentional ride. I am a wife, a mom, an eldest daughter, an Aries if you're into all of that, and I am all of the stereotypes that come with that. But I'm also a proud first generation college grad. I went to the University of Pennsylvania, the Wharton School, and I'm a woman who just believes in not placing limits on what can be achieved. Professionally, I have a thriving corporate career and I've played into this role of being a Jill of all trades. So background in marketing, data analytics, sales, and now the sales enablement

and

learning development space. And during that journey, I paid off over $65,000 in debt and I'm now on my way to achieving financial independence in my 30s. I know Black doesn't crack, don't try to crack. Guess what?

Mercedes Swan (03:23)
It doesn't, and doesn't.

What? No way.

Amanda Henry (03:24)
started sitting I'm like how old am I and child my birthday is near to myself.

Y'all guessed how old we are but we are still going to achieve that and all that to say during the past 10 years and being a professional and navigating the workplace and the money that comes with it I've come to realize that you can still have an abundant life even as a nine-to-five corporate employee a nine-to-five baddie or what I call my community corporate queens kings and royals so so excited to be here with you all today.

Mercedes Swan (03:49)
Okay, yes, I

love that. That is so empowering, because I'm over here like, love me, you're like kings, queens. I love this collective energy. This is beautiful thing. Yes. Okay, so we're gonna, we have like a couple of segments, and so we're really gonna start off with that career element of this, because as much as I want this to be about like tips and.

Amanda Henry (03:57)
Yes.

Mercedes Swan (04:10)
and understanding and growth and learning. I really wanted to also be about discovery. So I want this to be able to be a space where Black women can kind of come and get exposure to other career paths that maybe they've never heard of, or they were like, that's a career path, which was totally why I was excited about talking about the sales enablement thing, because I just know Black women love training. We love education, okay? We do, we love a degree, okay? So maybe we don't need the degree, maybe we need some training in the workplace.

Amanda Henry (04:30)
Yeah.

How many seconds are we

be racking them up? We do. I have like two. But you know what? It's needed. Hello?

Mercedes Swan (04:38)
We do and it's okay, I love that for us. We're so educated. It

is, it really is. And it's like, you know, we're like, it is cool and it is amazing to be like so connected to development and growth. So yeah, let's get into it. So tell me a little bit about like what you do now, you know, and your path to becoming a senior learning and development professional. Yeah.

Amanda Henry (05:00)
Yeah, so as I said, I was fortunate to be a Jill of all trades. And so my first role was actually at place called Verizon. So you're welcome for your telephone services there. And I entered there in this team called Operational Excellence. I had no idea what that was, but essentially how do you make a business run more effective? And then when I returned full time, I basically got kind of thrown all the way around. I did marketing for a little bit. I learned project and program management, data analytics. And throughout this time, I always had a passion for giving back and helping folks.

I actually volunteered in the Women at Verizon Employee Resource Group and that was my first exposure to the power of coaching and mentorship and being very proactive with your professional development. So I've always had a passion of paying it forward and giving back, especially in that environment, which was the true personification of corporate America. Very old, very corporately, very male and white, so to speak. And so being me, the complete opposite of that young, fabulous Black woman, like you needed to find that safe space. And so I got involved.

involved in creating these different programs and trainings and then transition over into my current role in the tech space where I actually joined originally in sales. And so I got to see the frontline experience and I realized there was such a huge gap. We all have different styles and how we relate to humans. And I think with the day, no matter what you're selling, you are selling to another human, a human that represents the interests of that company. And so during that time, I actually became the mentor and volunteer to coach folks. throughout the pandemic, like so many people, you have that pandemic life crisis, what I want to do next.

Mercedes Swan (06:11)
you

Uh-huh.

Amanda Henry (06:29)
and this

role opened up and it was a perfect fit. I actually thought it was too good to be true and put the job offer on hold for like two weeks and interviewed a few other places. And then I was like, God, okay, I'm supposed to get the desire in my heart. So I went for it and I've been in this role since and it's been amazing.

Mercedes Swan (06:43)
you

I love that that nugget. I'm supposed to get the desires of my heart Because that's that's all about like the career love brand and the message right of like we do get to do things that we love we're excited about and I know because we We deal with a lot. I'm not gonna minimize I'm not gonna gaslight we deal with a lot where it almost seems like if we have this really great thing Like is it real like is this real? You know, like is it? Yeah

Amanda Henry (06:52)
Yes.

Is real? Can this really be my role?

it's, and I say I'm fortunate to literally do a dream job if there ever was because this was something I was doing for years on the side for free. So, I feel blessed.

Mercedes Swan (07:20)
Yeah.

Yes,

it's that idea of like monetizing or getting paid for your gifts, right? And a lot of times we think that we can't, we can absolutely do that. Okay, so tell me, and I know we have so many questions, but I wanna hear, I wanna get a little bit into that because you went from this piece where you were in sales to kind of coaching others and training others to do that in your role. And so I hear a lot of times like Black women are just really,

Amanda Henry (07:30)
Exactly.

You

Mercedes Swan (07:49)
worried that they won't have the right skills or the abilities to make the pivot that they really want. They're just like, oh, well, I haven't done training before, so I can't make that shift. So what would you tell them? Tell us a little bit about how you built the confidence to make that move.

Amanda Henry (08:04)
my goodness, so I had a mentor who literally were having coffee and he just told me, like, Amanda, nobody knows what they're doing.

I was like, what do mean? You have the fancy title. I know you're making probably like 50K more than me here. You know what you're doing. Insert, I would say basic Bob. Fabulous, but basic Bob. It's like, no, we're all just figuring out as it goes. So lean into your own strengths. And I say self-awareness is key. It is the secret that allows anyone to succeed in life, but particularly us as Black women. Like I don't subscribe to imposter syndrome because we had to work too darn hard to get here. How dare you say, I don't know who I am.

Mercedes Swan (08:15)
Yes.

Yes.

Amanda Henry (08:41)
you had to recognize who I am and be glad that I'm giving this energy to you and your company, right? But all that to say, it's knowing your skills. So knowing the things that come natural to you that you can shine in, leaning into that.

Mercedes Swan (08:44)
Mm-hmm.

Amanda Henry (08:52)
Not being afraid though to take the risk to learn and grow elsewhere. So before I was empowering other people to learn more and develop themselves on the side, if I could, I'd take a course here or there or a random training or just listen to somebody's YouTube channel or a fabulous podcast to just ingest some more information. And then networking, that is key, right? I didn't know that this role existed. And the quick story I'll share is when I was actually interviewing for the final round, I had a director of mine from my previous sales role on the hiring committee. I had...

Mercedes Swan (09:22)
Nice.

Amanda Henry (09:22)
But once

I knew she was there, I said, this role is mine to lose at this point because she's going to see my phrases. We had. Yes, it was mine.

Mercedes Swan (09:26)
Uh-huh. that's not where I saw this going!

Amanda Henry (09:33)
It was my, like, again, what do we say? Like, it was for me, I deserve this. I'm like, this is my role. Y'all are just here just because, because I had this relationship with her. She got to be exposed to my work. And so it's having that network is really aligned to your net worth because at some point in your career, it's who you know, and more importantly, who knows you and speaks of you in rooms that unlocks that. So always be growing, always be networking, and own your narrative.

Right, you have to feel confident in what you put on the table and know that uniquely you are valued and you have something to give that nobody can duplicate. And even though sometimes we may look at somebody on like chapter 10 and think, my goodness, I want to be there one day. Boopoo, you're on chapter six and the girl on chapter two is looking up to you. So just own where you're at, look up, look down and work with everybody around you.

Mercedes Swan (10:02)
Yes.

Mm-hmm, and we often discount that we're like no, we're not nobody's nobody's looking at us. Nobody's inspired by us Nobody is and I don't want it not the envy is a good thing, but nobody's envy of us We can't be that girl right but then we are And a lot of times, you know, I talk about that too of like we don't spend enough time self advocating for ourselves Because it feels unnatural, but it's like really we do have to get comfortable with that because that self advocacy

Amanda Henry (10:29)
Thanks

You

Mercedes Swan (10:51)
allows other people to see you in a light that's different because you're communicating that to them. And we assume that people are gonna see that and it's like, no girl, we have to have these conversations. Bring it in, bring it in, look at me, let's talk. Exactly.

Amanda Henry (11:01)
You have to, you have to, for yourself, need to hype yourself up in the morning because you don't know what the road is going

to bring. And these workplaces, like your work does not speak for itself. Like even if you have the most visible project that the VP is sponsoring, you are probably doing a lot of things that make transformational impact. But if you don't package that up in front of the right people, you're wondering now.

Why is my raise only 2 % but Basic Bob, I always like Basic Bob, he's getting 10 % because Basic Bob is talking about the basic things he did and he's getting cheerleaders like go Bob! I'm like but Bob you did two things, I did three five. What's going on?

Mercedes Swan (11:25)
Mm-hmm.

Joe, need you to integrate basic bob into your videos. That's hilarious. I need more basic bob.

Amanda Henry (11:46)
I need to find a friend.

Like, can you play Basic Bob? I might take like a stuffed animal for my son. This is Basic Bob, okay? And look at you and look at Bob. Come on now, stay confident. You said his name is Basic and our name is Excellence in Magic. Come on now.

Mercedes Swan (11:50)
You can eat Basic Bob. That's part of the brand now. I've got Joe, you got Basic Bob.

yes, we got

this. Okay, so next question. I would love to know, I know you were sharing a little bit more about the journey and why it's important, but tell me a little bit about what your day-to-day looks like and what you feel comfortable sharing. What does it look like to be in sales enablement or in learning and development?

Amanda Henry (12:16)
Yes, of course. So it can look like different things depending on what sphere you're in. And what I've noticed is at different companies, some folks are literally doing everything. So you'll have somebody who is an instructional designer, who is creating the content, right, is creating the beautiful presentations. You have somebody who is more into the facilitation and the training part. So that's where I actually live in the most, which is facilitating those experiences, both virtually.

via like a Zoom or Google Meets, right? Or in person, which is my favorite part of my day, to be honest, because I get to be the cool person that you get to come see. You leave your job for a couple hours for the day. I feed you, you get swag, you feel good, you make connections, and then I send you back home. So that's where the facilitation delivery side. And then you'll also have a group that I'll say lies in like the business partnerships piece. And so their job is to actually talk to the sales teams and understand their needs. What's going on? What do they need help with? What skills could they develop further?

Mercedes Swan (13:01)
Mm.

Amanda Henry (13:09)
which then feeds into the instructional designer who creates that magical program that then lands on my plate to bring it to life. And sometimes you might jump in and help because who best knows how the content should look from the person who brings it to life? But also who best can say, what should the experience look like? Then the sellers are going to actually have to go through it. And so it's a wonderful experience, I will say. I get to feel like Oprah. Like I'm just on stage. You get some sales training and you get some sales training and here is a croissant with eggs.

Mercedes Swan (13:22)
Yeah.

Hmm.

Amanda Henry (13:38)
for breakfast for being here at nine in the morning. Thank you. It's all about that. I'm like, I'm sorry, tell me where? Yeah, I need breakfast waiting for me. Mm-hmm. Yes.

Mercedes Swan (13:41)
Everything's better when you have food at training. Okay? Everything's better.

Absolutely,

especially if it's in the morning training, if you don't have breakfast for me, I don't even know why we're doing this. Like I'm not here, you have to bring the croissant.

Amanda Henry (13:54)
know what we're hearing right now.

and extra shots of espresso because also if you think about sales enablement, you're sellers. First of all, if you're somebody who doesn't want to be in sales, that's somebody who lives sales, I don't have anything to do that grind long term, but you want to be the closest you can be to the business. If we think about job security, which is not a thing, you create your own security, right? But being in a role that's close to where the company makes money.

Mercedes Swan (14:06)
Mmm... yes. Yeah.

Amanda Henry (14:22)
This is also a good thing for folks looking into. you're like, I might not want to be a seller, but I want to help be close to the money and help them be great, then sales and equipment might be good for you.

Mercedes Swan (14:31)
Yes,

I love it. Yeah, and also the like, like training, you like helping others be, improve, see something differently. And I love that, especially when you can kind of create the alignment for somebody who, like for instance, people are like, I would never be in sales. This isn't a long-term thing for me, but if you can kind of make it exciting or let them see a different element of like, why this is actually a cool thing for them to hone that skill.

Amanda Henry (14:53)
you

Mercedes Swan (14:55)
I feel like it's a fulfilling kind of thing too. And so that's important. I love, I love, love, love that you get to do what you love. I also love the elements of you being in tech and there's a lot of conversations that we have about representation and what different environments and cultures mean for Black women existing in those spaces.

And so of course you can share more about your journey and things like that, whatever kind of makes sense. But I would really love to know about your idea of pivoting to tech. was like, a little while ago, mean a little years ago where I was crashing out and like every Black woman who got on my phone call, I was like, I'm about passion here. Every Black woman who got on my phone call for maybe like a six month to one year period was like, I wanna get into tech, why? They don't know. It was just, they wanna get into tech. I know, but I'm like.

Oh, I know, but it's like.

Amanda Henry (15:49)
I playing.

Mercedes Swan (15:51)
Some did say it, okay? I get it, but it's like, actually, you can have a six-figure job outside of tech. So my point is, my point is like, but why tech? If you're go to interview, why tech? Have a real good reason for that, other than you just feel like it's a money thing. I feel like that's gonna hold you back because you're gonna have challenges moving into, it's a competitive space, so you really have to be committed to this and seeing what your brand looks like and seeing that all the way through.

Amanda Henry (16:13)
Mm-hmm.

Mercedes Swan (16:19)
So anyway, other than that being my pet peeve of like, please don't get on my call and talk about you just wanna move into something because that's what all the girlies are talking about. I get it. But if it's the girlies and they've inspired you, please tell me why they've expired. It's inspired you, But anyway, coming back from the rant, okay? For the girlies who are here and they're like, you know what, I've seen the trend, but I really do want this. Like I find this environment exciting. I find tech exciting. What would your advice be for them to help them become a corporate tech queen like you?

Amanda Henry (16:25)
Yeah

I mean, it's funny you say that, right? Because I have mentees who, when they enter into their tech companies, that might be their first job and they don't have experience outside of that. And then you have somebody like me who lived a corporate life beforehand at multiple companies, right? So I mentioned Verizon, I also interned at BET. So thinking about like the Black corporate experience, that was actually my first Big Curl internship. So imagine going from just Black girl and Black guy magic to everything else. It's like, whoa.

Disney too and so

All of that to say, working in tech, what's really differentiated and why I would encourage it is you do get to see the magic behind what we experience every single day. Like I grew up using Google to literally learn and like do things for my college papers, like Googling everything, Googling the reports, et cetera, right? Grow up, I don't know if we have Verizon in my house, but like we had one of the big four. Either way, I need my minutes after 9 p.m. and all of that. Growing up and then also in Scandal and like, know, TGIT, is it? TGIT, Shondaland.

Mercedes Swan (18:48)
Yeah. huh, exactly.

Amanda Henry (18:57)
and was on the air, that's I was interning at Disney ABC Television Group. I wanna say it's season two or three of Scandal. And so for me, it's about working with brands that I care about and that impacted my life in some way, which is a great hint, hint speaking point in your interviews of why you wanna work with them. They ate that, right? But if you wanna make, yes, number one, it's making the connection to you. Again, you're trying to get a human to buy into what you can bring to the table. But in edition to that,

Mercedes Swan (19:01)
my gosh, yes.

There you go. Tip number one.

Amanda Henry (19:27)
Getting very intentional on to your point where you want to work and why. So what is that story, that connection? Getting and building connections with folks who are already on the team, right? If you can have that connection. I mean...

I know for some folks, my extroverted queens out there, even looking at folks who graduated from the same school as you or maybe who grew up in the same neighborhood, like just some form of connection. I know in this technologically driven era, we think we're so connected, we're not. Okay, we have all these followers and things, but like who can you call to come through? And so put those connections, tailoring your resume, right? Don't let technology stop you from your next opportunity because you didn't learn how to work with it.

And lastly, again, your skill set, like it is a very competitive market. And I don't say that to make people feel discouraged on what's possible. Anything and everything is still possible because people are doing it each and every day. However, this is not the market we're just going to skate on by.

Mercedes Swan (20:15)
Mm-hmm.

Amanda Henry (20:22)
Right? Unfortunately, so many of my fellow tech brothers and sisters, like we saw what tens of thousands of people getting laid off, majority of which are probably really great, top talent. And so just hitting the bar is not enough. It's actually about exceeding it. But again, as Black women, we've always had to exceed the bar anyway. So we're just going to show up like it's a regular day. Okay. Um, but yes, make those connections, honing your skillset, get familiar with the tech, the team or the tech company and the tools that they utilize. And then just got to hit the ground.

running, but also to your point, know that there are other six-figure jobs out there and once you get in here you're going to be nap in a different type of corporate America.

Mercedes Swan (21:00)
So I wanna give us time to talk about the financial freedom stuff, but I feel like it would be a misstep for me to not ask you this. So maybe we get one so we don't go off, because there's like a lot of challenges, a lot of challenges. Oh, but maybe, no, no, no, no, I'm just kidding. Stop it.

Amanda Henry (21:11)
All the child which how many what's here 12

Dear diary, these people today, no.

Mercedes Swan (21:23)
And

we have about 15 diaries over here, okay? But give me maybe one challenge that you face in your career and maybe one thing that you did to overcome that. That's really not a fair question, but I believe so deeply in your ability to answer this.

Amanda Henry (21:38)
You said, me one, but knowing you, gonna fit three in there somehow, okay? Yeah, why am getting emotional? Because we go through so much. So, you can't always let them see that. I'm going to say owning my excellence.

Mercedes Swan (21:40)
Got it.

We do,

Mm.

Amanda Henry (21:56)
And the story

I'll share is early on, again, working at Verizon, very corporate, old white boys club, just what you think of when you think of the corporate America system, right? We're humans in the system. Myself and I had a male counterpart, twice my age, old white guy. He was amazing. And I will just say, for what I've noticed for a lot of Black women, white men seem to be like our biggest advocate in the workplace. So he was amazing. My partner in crime. We're doing a quarterly business review, like presentation to the stakeholders, the numbers, red, yellow, green, let's go, right? And the morning of, we just

I

decided to switch speaking roles. So I was gonna close and he was gonna open. We switched so I opened and he's closed. Same talk track, because we're gonna set ourselves up for success. I present my part and I am getting hammered with questions left and right, like just boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And I'm like, why are you so mad on a Tuesday? Where did this come from? My partner?

Mercedes Swan (22:48)
We

know, we might have some ideas.

Amanda Henry (22:50)
What happened?

My partner goes and he does the second half that I was supposed to do, Crickets, that was amazing. We're gonna use the name Basic Bop. my gosh, yes. And I'm just a type of someone I can't hide my face. It just shows. So I was like, what? Because again, as a Black woman in corporate spaces, we cannot afford to have...

Anything, right? Like we have to be prepared. And so I walk out the room and Basic Bob, well, he wasn't Basic, he was Fabulous. He comes in and we're walking down the hallway, Fabulous Bob. He comes in and he's like, Amanda, let's go for a walk. And we go. And at this point I'm trying to fight tears. Like I don't cry, I'm thug, okay? I'm crying unless it really gets deep. And he's like, Amanda, what just happened is not your fault. And I...

Mercedes Swan (23:15)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Fabulous Bob.

Amanda Henry (23:41)
But I will not forget, it was not your fault. He's not used to seeing somebody like you in that position. Because you have to imagine, I'm in a room with directors. I'm only two years out of college at this point. And this guy, this director, he was like, Latino, male, machismo, like, mm-mm-kay. And he just couldn't handle that, like, I was commanding the space. And little did he know, I was also taking the same presentation and presenting it to, like, VPs in the company.

Mercedes Swan (24:09)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Amanda Henry (24:11)
actually met the CM, we worked with the CMO a couple times, so it's like...

And so one, I learned the power of having your personal board directors, again, fabulous Bob here, having my back was everything to validate that I was not going crazy in that moment, but also reaffirmed that I need to still own my excellence regardless. If they can't handle it, that's their problem. Because at the end of the day, statistics already showed that when we have diversity in corporate spaces, we have better products, better services, right? Better outcomes, more revenue. They care about money so much, you need us there to help make you money.

Mercedes Swan (24:42)
Yes.

Amanda Henry (24:44)
because we drive the culture forward. Period. And that was a tough lesson to learn, but I never doubted myself since then.

Mercedes Swan (24:53)
Yeah, I love,

I mean, I love this story because, you know, I feel like for a lot of us and myself included, I had a fabulous Bob. I would take a bullet for my fabulous Bob. Like, I love that man. OK, I'm not telling him that, though. You have to watch the podcast. But no, I really do love my fabulous Bob in the beginning of my career, who very much stood in the gap for a lot of those things and like really defended me. But I feel like in that

Amanda Henry (25:03)
Yes.

Come on now. Yeah.

Mercedes Swan (25:23)
a lot of us, and even in that moment, a lot of us don't understand the dynamic, right? We actually internalize that and think that there's something that we did that was a misstep. And I feel like it's so sad because a lot of us will go five years, 10 years, 15 years in our career, and then I land on their For You page and they're like, wait, this is a universal experience? And...

So thankful for you. I think that's probably defined, right? Our careers, I mean, different ways, obviously, right? But like, because we were exposed and understood that a lot earlier, and I think more of us need.

that understanding and that space. You know how we talk, you know we have the Black talk, you know, be safe, you know, here's what you do, we need that for the career. We need that for people who through careers a little bit earlier because it does do a lot of trauma, right? Like if you didn't have that space to kind of have that conversation and not also be gaslit, right? It's like, oh well, only Black people are talking about this, right? So it must be really.

Amanda Henry (26:08)
Listen.

Mercedes Swan (26:24)
you know, it's just in the community, but to have somebody else outside your community recognize and validate that for you, that's really a powerful thing. So, wow, yeah.

Amanda Henry (26:32)
And so needed. Like, I

wish that for all of us because, like you said in that moment, if he didn't do that, I don't even know if I would be where I'm at now because that wish would have been so defeating. And to our allies out there, right? Like, stand with Black women. We will not steer you wrong. Most times we're trying to save you from yourself because we want everybody to make it and be okay and succeed. We know what it's like.

Mercedes Swan (26:37)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Yes. It's like a, it's a canon moment.

Yeah.

Amanda Henry (26:57)
to have to literally work not even two times, not like 10 times is hard, just to have a seat at the table to bring that table up to where y'all say y'all want it to be, but y'all aren't capable of getting it there without us. But y'all don't want us there. Make it make sense.

Mercedes Swan (27:05)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Make

it make sense. Yeah. It's like, you know, whatever. I don't care what has to happen, but I'm not going to see you advance. like, need it. Make may really make it make sense. But who? But that's a beautiful thing. I'm glad you shared that you did put more more more in there. But I got.

Amanda Henry (27:21)
Make it make sense.

I y'all I was gonna put some love in that. Okay, I'm a trainer,

we got to a lot in. Yes. Okay.

Mercedes Swan (27:32)
I had something to say. But

either way, we're going to focus in on the financial freedom now because I know you were all about financial freedom. We had a really good conversation a couple of weeks ago. It a week ago. It may have been a month, more than a month ago now. But life. But just talking about our journeys. I like I said at the beginning, I'm just so inspired by all that you do and all that you teach and like you're you're just have an amazing lens and perspective because I feel like a lot of the times there's

Amanda Henry (27:48)
That was funny.

Mercedes Swan (28:02)
financial training that's really around guilt, right? I'm like, you can't do that. And that's the coffee and da da. You can't have the Starbucks, I know, right? I have Starbucks at home because you know where the nearest Starbucks is is forever away. But I do got some cute little local coffee shops I'll go to. Anyway, I will buy my coffee and I will still be on my financial freedom journey. And I just love how you have like such a.

Amanda Henry (28:08)
can't have your Starbucks well.

Bye!

Mercedes Swan (28:25)
a down-to-earth, like make it manageable, do what you are where you are, see the big picture, but it's not like, I love that it's not out of this standpoint of guilt, you know I'm saying? And so yeah, can you share? Because people on the call might not know what financial independence or financial freedom is, so break that down about what it means, and we'll yeah, launch the conversation that way.

Amanda Henry (28:48)
I love talking about money. So my like tagline mission, however you want to call it, is maximizing your nine to five experience to unlock financial freedom. To your point, there's so much conversation nowadays around like, if you work a nine to five, you're just like slaving to the man. I'm like, I'm sorry, what? Because the majority of people work some sort of nine to five. Everybody should be an entrepreneur. First of all, entrepreneurship is fabulous. I respect what entrepreneurs like yourself are doing, but we're not going to

act like that is an easy journey. I would even say it's probably harder to be an entrepreneur because you are dependent on you. Whereas me, I get the clock out at five and my paycheck is coming every other Friday regardless. So all that to say though, if we're going to work in these corporate spaces, how do we take that money that we're getting? To give ourselves freedom and options, particularly to actually not have to go back to that job if you don't want to, right? And so financial independence is simply, simplify it, say that you have enough money invested.

to cover your living expenses without you actually having to put in that work again. So what you do is acknowledge what is your average monthly expenses, right? You multiply that by 12, you get your annual expenses. Then you multiply that by 25 and that is your goal, like your nest egg. Like that's how much you want to have set aside invested. And the idea here is that you could then, once you reach that, withdraw safely around 4 % of that per year. And you wouldn't run out of money because the remaining balance in there would still be invested in

in

the stock market and long-term we could just continue to grow, right? And so for me though, that can look a few different ways. Like the life I'm living today in California, paying California cost of living, that is what I modeled my financial independence number off of. But I know that by the time I actually choose to retire, however that may look like for me, I probably won't be living in expensive California.

Mercedes Swan (30:30)
Yes.

Hmm.

Amanda Henry (30:39)
So

the nest egg that I think I need is probably a little bit smaller than what I'm aiming for, which is great. That's why I'm going to be able to hit it early in my 30s. But then you some folks who are like, the life I'm living today is great, but I want to live more famous and lavishly earlier. And I love that for you.

Mercedes Swan (30:46)
Mm.

Amanda Henry (30:53)
We call that fat fire. So it's this idea of like, whatever your expenses are today, you might increase that a little bit more and have a higher goal. And then you have some people who might actually enjoy their job or might, let's say, have a passion for teaching yoga classes that will maybe pay their actual expenses. So they're gonna go for something called lean fire, where they have a smaller goal of what they need to hit because they actually plan to still work a little bit part-time.

Mercedes Swan (31:11)
you

Amanda Henry (31:16)
The point here is understand for you, what I say, what is your abundant dream life? Like, what do you want to spend your day doing? How much will that cost you to live again? Keyword, what you actually care about. Putting a value behind that and then you strive to actually get to that number and then you go and freaking enjoy it.

Right? And again, the key piece is what you care about because society has put so much on us, especially in the age of social media. Like when my parents are growing up, they didn't have to compare to so-and-so because they literally couldn't see. And thus they went in person on their street. I didn't go visit because I was in so-and-so. I wouldn't know that they had the latest and the greatest X, Y, and Z. But we have so much coming at us between social media and just all of this that we start to think we're not doing enough because of what somebody else is doing.

Mercedes Swan (31:46)
Down the street, yeah, exactly. Exactly.

Amanda Henry (32:02)
And to quote, I don't know who it says, but people do not care about you and are not thinking about you as much as you think. So let it go into you. And so for me, that means creating the life that I can, first of all, someone who enjoys my job. I probably won't necessarily retire even when I hit my number, whenever that may or may not have already happened or be. But knowing that I have the option to do so as a corporate queen means that when I show up to work, I'm actually happy to be here because I'm choosing to spend my time with y'all. OK?

Mercedes Swan (32:30)
Yes.

Amanda Henry (32:32)
So I'll pause. Yeah.

Mercedes Swan (32:33)
And that's so, my God, no, beautiful.

Because I was like, you know, the rant might, we might just rant for the rest of this episode. No, we'll try our hardest. But it is really the most powerful thing. And like I said, I've experienced that where I actually was like, I could like exit. I'm here because at this point I want to be here, right? I could take it or leave it. There's just something really powerful, especially as Black women, right? Where...

Amanda Henry (32:41)
I want to be financially free! I have options!

Mercedes Swan (33:00)
you know, we have a supervisor that we feel like is discriminating against us, or we have a supervisor, well, just a nasty person, maybe there's two. Maybe they're just nasty to everybody equally, whatever it is. Or maybe there's shifts and changes in the organization that you don't like. Maybe it doesn't align with your values. Like, all of the above, the power to be able to say it like it is, say what you mean, take it or leave it, is a very empowering place to be. And I feel like the more Black women that are in that space means that we are.

Amanda Henry (33:09)
You

Mercedes Swan (33:28)
we are absolutely creating a better space for the Black women that come next. So it is about, yes, in this moment centering ourselves and what we desire, but just as much it is about creating or changing the dynamic of how people feel like they can or should, whether or not they should or shouldn't is another story, but treat Black women, right? I just, anyway, that type of freedom, I need more of y'all to taste it. It's a beautiful thing. It's a very powerful thing.

Amanda Henry (33:52)
But y'all are not

gonna talk to me crazy.

Mercedes Swan (33:58)
No.

No, I have too much. I have too much say for you to talk to me crazy. Bye. Yes, exactly. Yep.

Amanda Henry (34:05)
What they call it, F-U money? We don't want to up with

I got options money. I got, don't need to deal with y'all craziness money, okay?

Mercedes Swan (34:11)
Mm-hmm. Yep, I've called

it my FAFO fund. That's what I call it online.

Amanda Henry (34:18)
What? You're FAFO FUND Oh, girl. I'm going to have to borrow that. I love that. I'm going to quote it from you. Y'all heard it here first. FAFO FUND You about to find out. Goodbye. Y'all heard it here first, the FAFO FUND Oh my gosh. If I would have, if we would have I would put that in the book and I quoted you. What? Oh my goodness.

Mercedes Swan (34:20)
FAFO FUND It's a FAFO FUND for me. Borrow it! Take it! Run with it! It is my FAFO FUND. Y'all wanted to mess around so you're about to find out. Goodbye!

FAFO FUND

Edition edition edition two. edition two. You know what, I have been, because you know every time I say something that somebody's like, girl you need to put that on a shirt, I'm like, I'm gonna have 50 shirts in here. There was another one and I was like, I'm gonna get canceled in this D &I space, because I said, I said to my client once, was like, girl there's too many white men in this boardroom. They can't make any decisions, too many white men in this boardroom. I'll put this on the podcast. And I was like, I need to put that on a shirt. And I was like, am I gonna go outside with that shirt?

Amanda Henry (34:46)
Get that on a t-shirt too. That needs to be in the career love list store, okay?

That's cool. We shopping anyways.

Yeah. And matter of fact, put it in red too, just to be petty. Red shirt.

Mercedes Swan (35:15)
Maybe!

That's not

on brand. Okay, we got soft pinks neutrals. I'll put it in maroon. That's loud. That's still loud

Amanda Henry (35:27)
I'm sorry.

Mercedes Swan (35:30)
We got a FAFO FUND

too many white men in the boardroom. You know, let's talk about it. Let's talk about it.

Amanda Henry (35:37)
Bring it in, bring it in, okay.

Mercedes Swan (35:37)
Okay, let's bring it back. Let's bring it back. Okay.

So you talked about your journey, right? And like I said, it's so inspiring. you said, hey, I've really used my nine to five to leverage this journey or leverage those funds in this journey to create that FAFO fund. so strategically, what were some of the things that you were looking at for how you accomplish that? And I know so much of those is to maximize kind of those earnings, like you said, for investing.

Amanda Henry (35:44)
Yes.

Mercedes Swan (36:06)
and generating assets I would assume too. So yeah, go for it. Tell me a little bit more.

Amanda Henry (36:09)
Oh my goodness,

yeah. So let's just do like a little quick timeline. So I graduated from college, you get first and everything, which means student loans in 2014. And I did what we all usually do, which is you just pay the minimum because that's probably all you can afford and you're just trying to figure out how to be a grownup adult at this point, right? So I was paying my student loans and my car payment and I'm like, I'm giving you this money, where is it going? The principal was not adjusting at all. And I got introduced to hashtag the debt free community on Instagram.

So this was back in 2017 at this point when Instagram was still a cool place. You just show up as a real person and connect. So you had regular everyday folks, no celebrities, no rich tech bros, just like regular schmigler people just sharing, this is what I'm doing with my personal finances. I'm 40K in debt and here's how much I'm paying each month. I'm this and that. It was just so inspiring to see one, I was not alone. Two, I was also not crazy for wanting to actually prioritize and get rid of my debt because so many folks feel like they're helpless.

and they're just gonna be stuck with it and they're gonna die with it. And I'm like, first of all, that helps nobody who might have to take that on after you depending on your debt situation. And two, that sounds really sad and depressing. And so because I got to see that there were other regular people like me who were involved in this, I got inspired. And so actually that's how Living in the Abundance started in 2017. Me joining in like, hey, I'm on the struggle bus with y'all. Let's go down and pay off these loans. And then I began to realize like, hey, yes, I'm gonna prioritize the

that I'm having and use it in the right way, but also while I'm in this corporate space, how do I increase my income? Right? And one of the regrets, I don't live with regrets, but I do have wisdom now looking back. I stayed at my first employer for three years and that was probably a year and a half too long, simply because when you are an early career person, that first role you're probably not getting paid a lot because you're just like, get me a job after I graduate so I can start to pay bills. And because of that, my income went from like $54K where I started

it

to maybe 62, 63,000 by the time I left three years later. No, no, no, that was not going to work. I will say I gained a lot of experience and skill sets which paid off now, but had I known that what I know now, I probably wouldn't have made the jump from monetary purposes.

Once I made that move to the next place, I realized how do I actually get promoted? How do I shine authentically? But also how do I set boundaries? And I sell that to say, also how do I maximize the benefits in there? And so a lot of places, just as one example, might have some sort of peer-to-peer recognition program where either you can self-nominate or you can tap your friend to say, hey, you and I worked on this great project together. Can you throw our hat in the ring? And depending on the company, there's probably some monetary benefits that come with that. I kid you not.

Last night I opened up and I got this bonus. It is worth $500 because of a volunteer event I did with a couple of stakeholders last month. Now, when I say using your Maximize Zero Nine to Five to unlock financial freedom, that is $500 that I now don't have to come out of my personal bi-weekly paycheck to take my hubby to a nice little staycation this month for his birthday. Now, you don't care how we get there who pays for it. He's like, go ahead, mommy, make that money, okay? But...

Mercedes Swan (39:02)
Okay.

Okay. Okay. Okay. That's what I'm talking about.

talking about.

Amanda Henry (39:21)
Right, and again, $500 to some folks like, it's just $500. Okay, but if, what is it, 40 % of Americans could not come up with $1,000 to cover an emergency without coming into an even greater financial deficit, well, there's half of that emergency 1,000 that got come from my job just because some appear recognize my work. so little things like that adds up. And I have things like that happen to me at least like 10 times a year. So just just one example, but.

Mercedes Swan (39:31)
Yeah.

Mm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Amanda Henry (39:50)
to get back on the track of like how we leverage our paycheck to build wealth. It's one, getting paid with your worth. So making sure if you need to, that you're advocating for yourself, that you're getting those raises, your promotions, that you're job hopping to see that bigger jump, especially if you're early in your career, that is really where you should job hop. You're gonna see the biggest growth. Once you get to mid and senior level like me, now you're looking at the full picture of the company and the role and not just the money. So that's one. Two is something I call creating your prosperity plan, which is my way of saying your budget.

inspired

by the queen herself, Missy Elliott, and her song, Work It. Is it worth it? Let me work it. I put my thing down, flip it, and reverse it. And what that stands for is one, what are you working with, which is what is your income, getting clear on all the sources of income. Two, where do you want and need to work it, which just means what are your lifestyle expenses? So what are the bills you have to pay and what are the things that you desire to bring in that just give you joy?

How do you want to work it, twerk it, which is what we call your abundance accelerator? And so this is the gap between the income and everything you want to pay for in your lifestyle. What's there left over or that you're to carve out in the beginning to go towards your goals? When do you want to work it? Which is all about establishing smart financial goals, whether it's saving for your emergency fund, your FIFO fund, investing, et cetera. And then the last one is how are you going to keep working it because it's worth it, which basically means what is your investing plan to actually achieve financial

Mercedes Swan (40:54)
Hmm.

Amanda Henry (41:16)
financial freedom. What accounts are you going to contribute money to? And then when that money goes in those accounts, what assets such as stocks, those individual companies or index funds or ETF, a collection of companies that have a very specific theme, are you going to put that money in to then build that wealth for you and literally work it for you? So doing all that together for the last, oh my gosh, it's 2025. So seven plus years, we're working it and it's been worth it.

Mercedes Swan (41:35)
Yes.

Mm-hmm.

Okay, Ms. Framework. I love it. We love to see it. It's a process.

Amanda Henry (41:50)
You gotta keep it

simple, it shouldn't be complicated. I said that building wealth and investing should be as simple as building your favorite playlist. That's how I teach investing,

Mercedes Swan (42:00)
I have another episode on the same topic that I had talked with my mom and I talked about, you know, like a lot of times it really is that simple thing. We think that if we don't have this whole major investment or we can't set aside $500 or $1,000 for a paycheck that we're not gonna do anything. And one of the things that was so helpful for me was just having away that prosperity plan, to your point, right?

figure out where my money's going, what am I doing with it? Right now my face, my gosh, you know what it's like to go from being in a standpoint, it's not even that exciting. I get excited about it, but it's really not, I know, I get excited about it, but like it's really not that big of a deal. But I honestly get so excited when I get into my you need a budget, like every single week. And I say that because I used to be in a standpoint, it's so exciting to me because I used to get just terrified anytime I had to log into my bank account, anytime I had a budget.

Amanda Henry (42:35)
I'm gonna hype you up, regardless.

yeah.

Mercedes Swan (42:56)
Like it was truly a very triggering thing for me to where I am today. I just saying, my God, I get to log into you need a button. I get to see the money sitting there. my God. Yes. Come on. Yes. And I really do. That excitement is very authentic. Like I really do. Cause you're like, I'm about to say this big thing. It's like, no, like that, even that little piece of freedom of like not having the dread or the anxiety because you're making moves and you're making changes is really so important.

Amanda Henry (43:07)
to what you want to achieve.

Mercedes Swan (43:25)
But the last thing I was gonna say in response to that is I loved how you said I stayed somewhere too long. And that's one of the things I have really loved my growth and my progression in my career. But I honestly think that there were a lot of places I definitely stayed a year, year and a half too long. And when you think about it, and even in those spaces, I was getting pretty good raises for like early career. But in those spaces, I hear a lot of Black women just get really, like, I can't job hop, I can't be in another job every year. And I was like.

okay, but there's people who job hop every year, they're getting more pay, da da. People are only upset about job hopping when they don't feel compelled by your background and experience. And so if you're moving and you're building this amazing portfolio and you're earning and you're high yield, high results, highly ambitious, go for it. This is gonna change, job hopping can change your life, yeah.

Amanda Henry (44:09)
Yeah.

And I've had, I'll

say mixed thoughts around it because to your point, I'm you see this yourself as a career coach, is there's a lot of discourse of like, job hop, job hop, job hop. And I'll even see people say, my client got a 40K raise from job hopping. And I'm the first to say, so where was their starting point? Was it a company, chef? Because there's always more nuance of the story. Like at my grown age, will I job hop? Potentially. But I also have other things that I'm balancing where I...

Mercedes Swan (44:37)
Yeah.

Amanda Henry (44:40)
I can get an offer tomorrow. I said that confidently in this job market because even though I've gotten job offers, I can see what's out there. However, even in places where I would've gotten 50K more, I'm like, okay, 50K is, that's a lot of money. But relative to my current position, how much work are they gonna require of me? In my life as a wife and a mommy who really just wants to do, get paid the most to work the least so I can be on vacation on somebody's beach. Put that on a t-shirt.

Mercedes Swan (44:44)
guess.

You have an amazing background, of course.

Mm-hmm. And

to love what you do.

Amanda Henry (45:11)
And to love what I do and

to actually have a non-micromanagy, supportive, fabulous Bob as a manager and great peers, I'm like, when you get more senior in your career, when you job hop, the whole package has to make sense. And for me, where I'm at, and I say this not as a bragging piece, I'm not moving anywhere for less than half a million at this point in my career, based off of what I'm currently making and everything else. Because if you're going to stress me out, them coins need to be coining, OK? But.

Mercedes Swan (45:23)
Yes.

They need to be very coiny.

Amanda Henry (45:38)
So what I have noticed, guess that's the trend, that for career coaches that do push more of it, and if I look at their track record, they're more early to mid-career, and that's fine for their audience, because that's who they need to be job-hopping.

Mercedes Swan (45:44)
Hmm.

So true.

Hmm.

Amanda Henry (45:52)
But when you get to a certain point, you should be making your decisions less about money and more about what complements your freaking life. Because unless you plan to be a CEO one day, you're not working this job to be here forever. But that is why, again, the financial freedom piece and knowing your financial independence goal and number is so key, because you'll likely realize...

Mercedes Swan (46:01)
Mmm.

Amanda Henry (46:12)
I don't even need to do all this extra, if I'm hitting my, I see my abundance accelerator number, I'm investing X amount. I finished my financial goals by, what's it, March 10th? I'm done by my birthday in April typically, which means the other rest of the year, I'm just turning up because I've gotten all of my stuff out of the way and I give myself permission to live and be free.

Mercedes Swan (46:22)
Yeah. Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Yeah,

in abundance, in the abundance. Yes. Yes. Enjoy that beach. Yes. And I love what you were saying, right? Because, you know, a lot of times people are like, there's so much advice online, there's so much this, there's so many coaches, there's so many whatever. And it's like, you know, part of it, yes, is discernment about, like, you know, what you're seeing.

Amanda Henry (46:35)
in abundance. I'm off somebody's beach three times a year preferably four, okay?

Mercedes Swan (46:54)
But I think the other part of it is like, does this actually align with you, right? Like does this advice like align with who you are, who you wanna be, the life that you wanna live, which is why I very much talk about this podcast as like this career business and lifestyle in a way that allows you to enter your Black Woman Bliss era, like be who you are, live your best life, however you wanna define that, right? Black Woman Bliss is unique to all of us, but like what does it look like and how are the moves that you're making financially in your career?

all in alignment and that very much makes a difference

Amanda Henry (47:26)
we encourage people to make these moves. We don't prepare them for actually having to do the job when they get there. And that's why I say for me, the land that I run in is not the before. Like, I can do a mean resume and we can get your interview skills together, but there's enough people doing that, more power to them.

Mercedes Swan (47:38)
Mm-hmm.

Amanda Henry (47:43)
I am your big corporate sis to help you once you're in the role, how do you navigate it with ease, right? Because you have folks, I would say there's a difference between being busy and productive. And a lot of folks think they're top performers, but they're just really busy doing grunt work that nobody cares about or is checking for. And then you're burnt out and now you think you're in a toxic environment. And sometimes you are, but sometimes you might be creating your own toxicity. You have to take accountability. And so how do you actually, while you're in that job, before you job up to the next one.

Mercedes Swan (47:53)
you

Mm-hmm. Yep.

Yeah.

Amanda Henry (48:10)
make a big enough impact that you have something to say because eventually when you get to my space...

Rest in peace to my space. When you get to my space, I'm sorry, I was like, oh my space, how much we love you and need you right now. When you get to this point in your career, again, people need to want to work with you. And if you haven't actually proven your impact, which usually takes probably at least 18 months to get to mastery, at some point the job hopping is gonna run out. And that's the part that I you need to recognize. Both sides.

Mercedes Swan (48:30)
Mm.

Mm-hmm.

Amanda Henry (48:42)
you need relationships and you need to actually own complex projects and things if you aspire to keep growing up the ladder. Again, the choice is what's in alignment with your goals.

Mercedes Swan (48:47)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Yes,

I love that. if you don't know why this is important, if you don't know why, how your role connects, right? We often kind of go through this cycle. And so I don't even remember which client this is, but I was having a conversation and I was like, well, did anybody ask you to do that?

Amanda Henry (49:07)
Yeah, is anybody checking on it? so loud.

Mercedes Swan (49:09)
And she was like, no. I was like, well,

you're doing stuff that nobody asked you for. Like that's why it's causing friction. And I get that you think this is important, but if you talk about your trajectory, like from a strategic direction, this isn't what the organization needs. Now I think one of the things that has made my career be successful and why I have such a strong personal brand is being able to say like,

I really am good at identifying needs of like, what does my leader need? What does the department need? Not from what I think they need, but what has been understood or communicated about those goals and able to like align those things. And I think that's absolutely relevant to what you were saying, right? Because those are the types of things, identifying that kind of need is what's going to get you that promotion. Identifying other kinds of needs because you see all the issues, that is not going to get you promotion.

Amanda Henry (49:53)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Mercedes Swan (49:59)
That is just going to unfortunately have you be the angry Black woman, the difficult to work with, the blah, blah, blah. Which at the end of the day, could be either way, because I, you know, whatever, right? I've been both, but life. So let's talk, let's bring it in. One of our final questions about kind of this journey, we talk about the discernment, right? So take what you need from this podcast, right? But don't nobody be blowing me up talking about, y'all be out there being wild on the internet. Don't nobody come for me, okay?

Amanda Henry (50:08)
labels yes

It is.

Mercedes Swan (50:29)
But advice Amanda, for somebody just starting based on your journey, whether that's to financial freedom, which of course is a little bit different than abundance, Sorry, independence, excuse me. Abundance is a part of all of it. But that being said, what would your advice be to somebody just kind of starting their journey to both of those or either?

Amanda Henry (50:29)
bless.

man, okay,

I tried to narrow this, know, bringing it in. The first, ooh, why do always ask me emotional questions? Okay.

Mercedes Swan (50:53)
It's challenge.

Get,

you could cry, it's a safe space.

Amanda Henry (51:02)
The first one, we do have

to acknowledge that our money beliefs and mindset and attitudes do stem from what we experienced growing up. So whether you grew up in a household where like all of your needs were met, or if you grew up in a place of poverty or somewhere in between, how the representation of how your parents or guardians dealt with money properly or were a hot mess with it, all of that will feed into your baseline. And so one, give yourself grace for wherever you're starting from.

and know that where you start is not where you have to finish if you don't like that story as is, right? So that's one. The second piece is getting clear on your numbers. Again, working your prosperity plan. If you don't like how much income you're making, and we all want more money. Like we all want to that million dollars a year. Yes to everybody, but realistically, okay. So wherever you're at though, taking a look at how much you're bringing in and how much you need for the life you want. And I would say there's tiers to my abundant life. Like right now I'm in like tier 2.53.

Endgame for me is tier five. So we almost there. That's very stupid. Because here's the thing, right? So for me, when I, for one example, my student loan, like debt snowball was almost in the thick of it. My minimum payments were like $818 a month between my loans and my car. And so back then I said, when I get free,

Mercedes Swan (51:58)
Wait, wait, wait, wait, that's very specific. No, I it.

Amanda Henry (52:17)
500 of that dollars is going to be my new travel fund, right? Hence the connection earlier with hubby's birthday. Oh, but jobs gonna give me 500? That's back in my pocket now. So that was tier two, like, know, tier five is like, I got an extra 2K a month to be on somebody's beach in Aruba, okay? So acknowledging where you are today, right?

Mercedes Swan (52:21)
Hmm.

Okay.

Amanda Henry (52:38)
What is the next level of it? But also we have to go backwards. If stuff hits the fan, which life can happen, how much do you need? Like your bare bones budget. Getting that just gives you space to breathe. And then if you say, okay, based on my income and my expenses, I'm not gonna tell you to cut out your Starbucks. You spend your money on what gives you alignment, on what gives you fulfillment. But if you recognize maybe there's a disconnect, you're spending more on something you really don't care about.

give yourself permission to not spend there and redirect that money into the areas that you care about. And if that's not enough for this stage of inflation, it might not be, then how do you grow your income? How do you look at, your company's benefits and if there's anything you're leaving on the table? And I just mean things like, my family, we love going to the movies. We can get discounted movie tickets. First of all, the movies are expensive. Popcorn is like $40. So if I can save some money, to what?

Mercedes Swan (53:25)
Why I Spent like $10 on a bottle of water

when I went to go see um one of them days that was really good by the way if you haven't seen it It was so good anyway, but oh what?

Amanda Henry (53:30)
Ooh, that was so good. Oh my gosh, so good. Yes. But

all I have to say, that money adds up. People are like, oh, it's just $20. It's just $40. Okay, 40 times four gets you to 160, and you do that four times. Now you've got an extra 500 plus 600 in your pocket. The math is mathing and that adds up over time. And so, there are lot of ways to increase your income.

Mercedes Swan (53:38)
Done!

Amanda Henry (53:54)
your skill sets, et cetera, and all that. And then just making a plan and being consistent and know that small steps truly do add up over time. For every $100, there were 10 $10 bills. And for every $10 bill, there were 10 singles to get there. It all adds up. And for me, if you need that encouragement, there are free FI investing calculators. So you can see, if I were to just aside $1,000 a year, what would that look like in 25 years?

And I know there's this discourse, 100K is not a lot anymore. Okay, but if somebody hands me a check for 100K, boo boo, I'm taking it. Tell me it's not a lot. I will allocate. Now, I might turn down $10, because it's like, it's okay, bless somebody else with that, but 100K, no, no, no, thank you, let the Lord use you and put it in my bank account. So just, you know, start small, go in and just keep growing. And again, block out the noise. The last piece I will share is early in my journey, when I got very into...

Mercedes Swan (54:30)
We're good. I will allocate.

Amen.

Amanda Henry (54:52)
paying off my debt in my early 20s. Single slash hubby then boyfriend, you know, going through young love stuff. But I wasn't spending my money on the way that lot of folks my age. I wasn't like out at the club. I was actually getting my master's degree, so was at home studying. But I remember I had one of my mom's friends literally like kind of came at me for not living it up in my 20s. And I get it because she's like, if I was young again, I'd be in the big city. And I'm like, but sis, I'm on a mission.

I'm trying to be debt free and because I stayed true to myself and blocked out that noise, I'm in a position that people her age and all them can only dream of. And now they struggle it. And so it's like, yeah, it's short-term sacrifice for long-term stability, it's not even abundance is like, yes, but I just want people to be stable. I don't want people to be two paychecks away from homelessness. And that's the part that

Mercedes Swan (55:30)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Amanda Henry (55:48)
is the passion for me of like, just putting this information out here. I want you to have options to breathe. Life is going to happen as long as you keep living. You might have to make some decisions in the short term to give yourself the ability to breathe for when that happens. But we're so focused on trying to keep up an image or thinking we need certain things. I'm like, if we were all honest with ourselves, there was just certain things we would not spend money on. Like there's things we just buy just because.

Mercedes Swan (55:55)
you

Mm-hmm.

Amanda Henry (56:16)
We're told that we should do that. And I just want us all to reclaim our own identity and our own joy and our own like desires. Like let's live life the way that we live it because that's what we truly want for ourselves. And we deserve that. Again, as we open, like we deserve to live fulfilling abundant lives exceedingly and abundantly, but it's also on us to receive that and then make it happen.

Mercedes Swan (56:30)
Mm-hmm.

Amazing if it was a room, I would be like I don't want to I just don't want it I don't want to bust our besties, know, I'd be back here in the in the church pews. Amen Okay, okay. That's what I'm talking about So, amen that was beautiful I have nothing else to say because you cleared that You cleared it. That's a beautiful thing. my god

Amanda Henry (56:47)
Rafa! Rafa!

I'm a daughter of a deacon. I'll start preaching some time. Duh-buh-duh-buh-duh-buh-duh, okay? All right.

Okay, if the people want it, let's come back and keep this conversation going. It's so needed.

Thank you for having me, sincerely.

Mercedes Swan (57:11)
Thank you. Oh my gosh, thank

you. This is such important messages. I think it's a message that not a lot of us as Black women growing up, especially as for me, right, daughter of immigrants, all of that, those things weren't taught, right? And so it's just something that the more that we can get this type of information out there, elevated, understood, accessible, a lower barrier to entry, whatever you want to call it, just to kind of just help more of us move along on this journey.

Amanda Henry (57:36)
you

Mercedes Swan (57:41)
Thank you, this was amazing. As we wrap up, I know that there's just some exciting things that you are working on for living in the abundance. So girl, give us the tea let us know what you got going on, because I'm excited about it. I mean, I know, I know, but I wanna know. No, no, you're good, take your time, yeah.

Amanda Henry (57:53)
I gotta do like 10 second tea at this point. No,

but so much is happening. one, we have a book coming out in April actually. My birthday week, it's my birthday book week. Which was crazy because who signs a book deal when they have newborn child and all that fun stuff. Why not add another child to your book?

Mercedes Swan (58:20)
It makes sense.

Amanda Henry (58:22)
Yes, but the book is called The Financial Abundance Blueprint, A Black Woman's Guide to Achieve Financial Literacy, Build a Successful Career, and Break Boundaries. And it is my love letter to Black women, to women of color, to first generation folks, to immigrants, to the LGBTQ community, to anyone who has just felt like.

they had to work so hard just to be seen to show up and to just create options for themselves. And so it is structured like a deluxe album from the 90s. Because if you know me, I'm always listening to some Keith Sweat. I just, that's my man, my man, my man.

Mercedes Swan (58:57)
Okay, good people. We got

people here.

Amanda Henry (58:59)
Right, the 90s, the 2000s, that's when music still had some feeling to it. And so there's a side A, which is all about navigating the corporate workplace. So the things we talked about earlier, like personal branding and mastering your performance and managing up across and beyond. And then side B is all about the money because once you know how to show up in corporate spaces with ease, right? You're getting eight hours of work done maybe in three, that's your business. How do you take that money and put it to work for you to unlock financial freedom so you're giving yourself the option to exit the

workforce early if you want to or to make sure you have a sizable nest egg so you can live your most fabulous life when you do decide to retire. And so it is the only book from what I found on the market that combines both the financial and the career side of things. And again, ultimately to help you maximize your nine to five experience while you're working that job to help you unlock financial freedom because it is still possible. There are millionaires next door all around us.

and that information should be accessible. I've learned things the hard way. I don't believe that everybody else should get out the mud just because I had to struggle. Like, no, I got the chapter 20. You can start at chapter 10 to help move society forward for the next generation.

Mercedes Swan (1:01:47)
Yes, I love it. So for those of you who are listening, this information will be in the show notes. I need you to go get the, I mean, if you don't know this already, Amanda is just a wealth of knowledge. So I know that book is going to have so much goodness. It is, it does have so much goodness in there. I haven't got my hands on it, but you know, I'm gonna go ahead and get that pre-order. I'm gonna get that pre-order in, okay? I don't know where to go, but I know you're gonna tell me. So I'll make sure to put that there. So yes, me and me.

Amanda Henry (1:02:05)
And I'll come out to April. You'll get it. Thank you, ma'am. You're going for mommy too, okay? You're going for mommy.

Mercedes Swan (1:02:16)
Me my mom, okay, we all be on TikTok vibing. Okay, so as we wrap up, just share like, know, if people wanna connect with you, learn more about you, where to go, how they find you.

Amanda Henry (1:02:25)
Yes, so

you can follow me at living in the abundance on all channels, TikTok for the career stuff, Instagram for the money talk, YouTube for the vibes. You can also follow me on LinkedIn, AmandaJHenry and my website, www.amandajhenry.com.

Mercedes Swan (1:02:36)
Yeah.

Yes, well thank you Amanda. This is so fabulous. I'm so excited for this episode. I'm so glad that we were able to do this. I know it was kind of like we were just like, yeah, maybe we should do this. It'll be great because you are the vibe. And so I'm glad that we got to do this. So to our listeners out there, I hope that this podcast has inspired you to take a little bit of action, right? Pursue the career path that lights you up. Take, even if it's small steps right now.

Amanda Henry (1:02:54)
It was fun.

Mercedes Swan (1:03:11)
to financial freedom or financial independence. I hope that you go ahead and just do just something, just anything to kind of get you on that path. And like I said, more information for all of the things that we've talked about will be in the show notes. So of course, I hope you leave this podcast to begin and to move forward in entering your Black woman bliss era. I encourage you to subscribe and share this with another professional sister in love. And of course, I would love for you to leave a review or to support the podcast on Spotify.

All right, love, until next time, we both wish you much success in building a career, business, and lifestyle that you love and securing the bag wherever that may be. Okay, queens, kings, and sisters. All right, okay, woo!