93. Kizzy Parks Move From Scarcity To Abundance Mindset

This week I speak to Kizzy Parks, president of KPC, a Florida-based consultancy team.

Since 2008, Kizzy’s consultancy firm has been at the forefront of customised services that meet the needs of Federal agencies in the US. But when Kizzy first embarked on her entrepreneurial journey, she had $600,000 of debt and a company just about hitting breakeven.

A superb interview from which a lot of inspiration can be drawn. You can connect with Kizzy here.

Episode Transcript

Jason Butler 0:05
Hello, and welcome to the real money stories podcast. I'm Jason Butler. And I invite you to join me as I have intimate money conversations with people from all walks of life. Whether you're just starting out on your money journey, or well down the track, there's bound to be something you can learn from these stories about taking more control of your money, so you worry less, and enjoy life more.

Real Money stories is sponsored by Vanguard, bringing value to 30 million investors worldwide. Visit Vanguard investor.co.uk for more details. And remember, the value of investments can go down, as well as up and you may get back less than you invest in. Hello, thanks for joining me again on another edition of the show. Before we get into this week's interview, which is with a very interesting lady from across the pond, something caught my eye on the BBC website. And it's part of their business love and money week. So if you go to the BBC website, go to business, you'll see it and they've we've interviewed three different couples to understand how they handle their finances. And they talk about awkward arguments and liars to what they do if they won the lottery. And it's quite interesting well worth well worth watching the interviews to get an idea of it. And it got me thinking that part of our relationship with money is how we relate to other people in relation to financial issues, earning spending, possessions, status, achievement, whatever it is, and many relationships, I think there's been different studies done but money is out there with you know, probably one of the if not the most important factor that causes relationship breakdown. And as you all probably know, if you know anyone who's got divorced, or if you've gone through a divorce or a big relationship breakdown, it can be financially devastating. I know one chap who's been married and divorced three times, and He's practically penniless now, because it's just sort of taking so much out of him along the way. Obviously, there were children involved, etc. So you can't walk away from your obligations, but nevertheless, failed relationships are expensive. And if most of the cause of that is because you're not on the same page, about money and the role of money in your life, then perhaps if we could speak and understand each other, and listen to each other, and understand what's important to each of us and the role of money, then we might be able to make a better, a better stab at it really. And that brings me on to a brilliant book that I think might help you because I'm always about practical solutions. Yes, it's very important, I think to to be able to sit down with your partner and just talk about money. And if you're finding it difficult to raise issues, then perhaps just have a non confrontational chat over a cup of tea or a glass of wine or whatever is your fancy. And just sort of ask your partner, you know what it was like growing up in their household when it came to money and finances, it's quite an interesting and gentle way of opening up the dialog, to understand where your partner is coming from. And then you can also talk about kind of priorities and where you want to go in life and what really matters to each of you and, and try and do it in a way where you're listening as opposed to listening to speak. And you have always listened to understand that's one of Stephen Covey's seven habits of highly successful people. I'm not saying I get it right all the time, but certainly is something which we all need to do more of. But this is a brilliant book, which might help you in those difficult conversations with your partner, or anyone else in your family or someone important to you when it comes to finances or in any anything else. In fact, it's called Crucial Conversations. It's called tools for take, sorry, tools for talking when stakes are high.

And it's by for authors. Very, very interesting. And really what they talk about is understanding, you know, high stakes conversations. And I found this as being very, very helpful in the work that I do in generation next. And what they talk about is knowing what is a crucial conversation. So obviously, talking about money is crucial, but it can be more crucial than others. Sometimes mastering that crucial conversation, and how you've got to start with the right intent. And this concept of learn to look you know, understand when someone doesn't feel safe, and this is really important is you need to make the situation safe. You need to make the person you're talking to in a crucial conversation which money is a very key crucial conversation. You need to help them feel as safe as possible, to be able to talk about the situation and of course, stories are a great way of doing that. And if you talk about stories growing up what you've learned, people you know, that can help. And one of the ways that you have a crucial conversation is you you speak persuasively but not abrasively. So in other words you are painting a picture you are telling A narrative. But the other thing is learning to listen when others are getting upset or closing up, and then really been able to move on to action and having turning that crucial conversation into actions and results. Now, it is not easy to learn how to do this, none of us are taught it Some of us have, perhaps more intuitive and natural and others. And some of us learn quicker than others. But I certainly found this book was an eye opener. It's called crucial conversations, tools for talking when stakes are high. And the stakes are always high when it comes to money. So rather than let things fester become a problem, and then your relationship becomes, you know, tenuous and fractious and falls apart. Try master money conversations along with any other crucial conversations, and I think you're going to have a much more harmonious relationship with money and also with your partner. Good. Okay, that's, that's me done talking about relationships and money. Let's get on to this week's interview. And it's a very interesting lady who is from the US. And her business was all about helping government agencies in the US sort of achieve their goals and make most of their resources. And it's quite interesting one, and she's very, very active on LinkedIn. And she's got quite an interesting take on money. Because again, like many entrepreneurs, she didn't come from a family it was very affluent. And those those kind of what she thought were deficiencies have actually stood her in good stead in building her business. Now talking about because he parks.

Kizzy Parks 6:37
Thank you so much for having me on Jason. My name is Kizzy Murray parks. And I am a passionate entrepreneur who loves to make people's lives easier through different services that we provide per dominantly. To the federal government.

Jason Butler 6:58
Hmm. So So essentially, helping people help themselves be a better version of themselves and live a better life. Right? What's not tight? Yes, yes. What is not to like about that? So how did you get into that? How did that how did that that business develop?

Kizzy Parks 7:14
Yeah, that's a great question. It was through a Graduate Research Fellowship. While I was finishing my PhD, I ended up at now, Patrick spaceforce. And that's how it all began.

Jason Butler 7:30
Sounds very, very grand. Very exciting. So what did that involve them?

Kizzy Parks 7:36
Well, at the time, I was really interested because they offered a good hourly wage, I knew that there was there was going to be opportunities to analyze data. And I thought that it would be a great opportunity to kind of serve the country because many family members served in the military. And I thought, well, this would be really cool to serve in this research role.

Jason Butler 8:01
So was that was that easy to get going with to find your feet? Or did you Was it a real hard slog?

Kizzy Parks 8:09
It was a mixture, it was very different. Because it I it was a big introduction to the military culture, the civilian culture, the dynamics between the two, I'd never heard of government contractors. I didn't know anything about that, until that particular chapter in my life. So it was, it was there's a lot to navigate. And fortunately, I had mentors who helped me out along the way.

Jason Butler 8:39
So is it fair to say you were a data geek you'd like you'd like a spreadsheet, you'd like rows of stuff you like? You like detail?

Kizzy Parks 8:48
Yes. I love data. I still love data. I don't analyze data and my skills are very rusty. But I do love data a lot. Learning about it, conducting research, I mean, I have a research fellow right now in my company, who's a professor at Brown University. So it's, it's very dear to me to make sure we're always involved in research

Jason Butler 9:17
was interesting, because one of my heroes was Hans Rosling, you know, fact fulness. And it's really important to, as I say, money, as we know, which is show is really kind of centered around. We know, it's not logic, we know that we don't look at the numbers, really, it's about emotion, its habits and behaviors. So I'm interested to know if we take just to go back to that, you know, what was kind of what's about bringing Did you have, what sort of what sort of introduction to money and wealth and, and all that kind of stuff. Did you experience

Kizzy Parks 9:49
it was definitely a scarcity model. So it was this scarcity model. You work hard, if you should get a degree because then nobody can tell Take it away, and you can do more. But it was definitely scarcity. And like no kind of discussion on investing anything investing in stocks or index funds or real estate, there was really no discussion. However, I like always gravitated towards like the money in business sections and newspapers since I was like a little girl. And at one point in, in grad school, I joined like a stock club. So like, my interests were there. I just didn't have anyone around me. And I wasn't big into going online to find groups. So it took a long time to get to where I am, because as you can imagine that scarcity model, impact everything. So with the business, I had a scarcity model, I had this weird view about making a profit. It was his very twisted as I look back, because I wasn't, I was taught kind of like, Oh, that's over here. Like, no, you don't want to make too much and you don't talk about money that much. So now everything is changed. And I'm like, big into crypto and.

Jason Butler 11:14
Okay, yes. So so let's just explore that a little bit. So the stories we get from our parents, I mean, it's not that there's any bad intonation towards their parents, they are what they are that, you know, some of these messages go multigenerational, don't they go on for hundreds of years, right. And they just can't handle it on a bit like the baton. So so your your folks were there in the zone that the messages you were so we pick up these messages, right? You picked up the scarcity message? You How did you how did you evolve from scarcity to abundance? And for those that aren't aware, who are listening? You know, scarcity means, you know, it's much more limiting thoughts, whereas abundance means that there's, there's just, it's just all out there, you just got organized, bringing it to you.

Kizzy Parks 11:55
It's really been these different, like pebbles throughout my life. And there was no like, Whoa, I woke up, yes, everything is perfectly for

Jason Butler 12:07
me, no big epiphany,

Kizzy Parks 12:09
epiphany. It was like little pebbles. So one was a friend. I had an undergrad where I mean, I don't know, they seem to be very wealthy, and her father was entrepreneurial. And I loved learning from him. And I thought, oh, wow, like, he owns shopping plazas and washing machines. And this is I didn't even realize that was the thing. I was like, that's pretty cool. You know, and then later on, I would come across other entrepreneurs in my space, that would have revenues of over $20 million. And I thought, well, they're no different than me. They're an average everyday person, there's nothing spectacular, maybe their revenue, or their profit isn't the best, but still, okay. And so then that kind of helped. And then the thing that really, like set things off I was I had, I had this experience with a client. And as a result of that, we had to dramatically change the way we paid the team. So right around that time, I it was right around that time, I was in the middle of paying off like $600,000 in debt. So yeah, I know. Yeah. 600,000. us. Who knows what that was worth at that time. But yeah, a lot, right. I know. A lot.

Jason Butler 13:33
How was you getting for the night? How are you sleeping? Yeah, it was horrible. I mean, what did you do just sort of compartmentalize and thought, yeah, 600,000 bit need to deal with all we've got to go shopping, pick the kids up from school, you know, just another thing

Kizzy Parks 13:47
on the list was it it was I had a huge list in my living area slash office and this other area that reminded me of it. And I worked really hard to overcome it. And so the two kind of came together where I was on the tail end of like, paying everything off. And then this dramatic change happened with this client and then it was like, Okay, now is the time to continue to restructure so that the firm is profitable, I'm paid the right amount, I need to start looking into what I want to do financially for my future. And so that really changed the course of everything. So then since then, I bought it invest another investment property got really big into crypto, you know, opened up corporate investing accounts. And so those, those are the two kind of main things that helped but it's just been throughout and then lastly, I'll add it's been really helpful to connect with people like on discord and other places like that where You kind of pick up by the way they type or, or if you talk to them, that they really do have some kind of financial savvy or they are investing because, you know, I don't have a ton of friends that do that or talk about it. Or if they do, you know, they're similar kind of position where they don't feel comfortable talking about it.

Jason Butler 15:22
So just before we move on, cuz he's from that, how did the 600,000 come about? What was that?

Kizzy Parks 15:27
Oh, it's a bunch of it was a bunch of debt, it was student loan debt. There were just silly things of just taking on decks, I wasn't profitable. And overpaying people I shouldn't have overpaid, but just just just just stop them.

Jason Butler 15:45
I just want to unpack that this is a really important point, I think I'm picking up, you started a business, okay. And like most of us, we don't come out with the packaging, of how to be a proper business owner, right. So we think being busy, and money coming in equals a business, but we get busy. We don't know if we're making money. And we don't know if we're burning cash. And you accumulated quite a lot of that debt as a result of your business not being able to afford you and all the people with it. Is that is that what we're saying? Before we go on just to make sure we're clear,

Kizzy Parks 16:12
it was a combination of that and paying people too much because remember, this scarcity model ran through all of me. So if someone so I paid a couple of people, amounts, they should never have been paid? And did things I never should have done

Jason Butler 16:31
that because you just couldn't believe they were working with you didn't think they were gonna stick around or Yes, you know, if I don't pay them enough, they will leave me.

Kizzy Parks 16:38
Yes. And then they played me too. Oh, I talked to my former employer, you know, like, they literally played me. And so at the time, I didn't see it. Now I see the con,

Jason Butler 16:50
that they were running there. So understanding where you get that debt from, and there's no shame in understanding that that's really important for people. So the two takeaways there is the scarcity model. And or not understanding business can lead you to not having a business, you've actually you've got a job, really, that's not even paying the minimum wage, and you end up with all the liabilities, right? So fine. Okay, so we learned from that. So then you had to read, you have to change or pivot or change or move on from that business. And you have to chip away at the data. Tell us about that.

Kizzy Parks 17:18
So thankfully, I had contracts at the time that allow for it, and it was probably all paid off in a couple of years. Really? Yeah, it didn't take that long at all, because I put all my energy toward it. And I literally had a list. I had a list of my debt, and then the list of the company debt and I just went through it literally went from smallest to largest.

Jason Butler 17:44
And how did you feel as you work your way through the day? Did you feel a sense of momentum defensive achievement, confidence building?

Kizzy Parks 17:50
It felt really good. And I'm never going back? Yeah, yeah. Like never, never, never, never again, never going back like the the only kind of debt that we have now. Sue's me credit cards, because my team travels. That's it. We pay that off, and then a line of credit. That's it. That's it. Like that's too There's no car, there's no office, there's no equipment, there's no, whatever debt I had before, there's none of that I don't I pay cash for things.

Jason Butler 18:24
A major change in your philosophy, whereas before it would creep into your life and sidle up to you and put its lovely arm around you and say, Come on, come with me. Whereas now you just say I know what you're about. I know what you're often.

Kizzy Parks 18:37
Right. Like, for instance, with the investment condo I put down well over 20%. Yeah. And so and that was during the, you know, kind of in the height of COVID rise able to do that. It's just a whole complete mind shift. And I've also been, I've also come to terms with debt, where some debt can be used as a tool for maybe real estate or certain things. However, comma, especially as a business over owner, everyone here wants you to get into debt. I get text messages and phone calls and emails, take out this line of credit take out this loan. I mean, it's ridiculous. Take out this credit card.

Jason Butler 19:22
They're not your friends. They're not your friends. No, they're not. They're not I see. Okay, so so that's an amazing achievement well done. And also thanks for sharing that because I'd love to hear where it didn't go right. Because we can also were wonderful. Then what happened with the business? What did you do after that? Did you completely change the business or did you move into something else?

Kizzy Parks 19:39
Yeah, definitely changed where I made big changes where everyone is paid monthly.

Jason Butler 19:46
employees and let's be clear, this is the same business model but you completely recalibrated. It

Kizzy Parks 19:51
recalibrated, so everybody's paid monthly. For the most part. I pay people ahead of time for Service, because then that way, there's no surprises over what they're owed. We definitely leverage purchase orders, we have a beautiful budget that we use the budgets beautiful, or is

Jason Butler 20:15
it or is iconic Casey spending plan, right? I don't like this. Because a lot of people hate the idea of think as a stranger they

Kizzy Parks 20:21
do. Yeah, spending plan is beautiful, we have a beautiful spending plan, monthly spending plan. We also I made, I also made this change where if someone on the team wants to buy something, they have to fill out a purchase request form. And that cut down on a lot of weird expenses. And so now it's not just simply, hey, I need a subscription, or I need a new computer, you have to like, it's almost like an essay, you have to really explain why you need this thing or service that has really helped. And then also, we have more profitable contracts. And I'm very cautious when it comes to the contracts that we go after. And then the other thing is the other big changes, we don't travel as much, not just because of everything with a pandemic, but just I personally shifted. So we don't have that unnecessary, non billable travel expense, like we used to be for

Jason Butler 21:31
your third time, and it does suck the life out of you. I know because I speak for a living. And you know, I've been busier than I've ever been in the last 18 months. But it's all virtual, right? Obviously, it's a different experience. But like being on being a TV actor versus a Broadway actor, you know, you do need to see the audience now and again. But nevertheless, if you know you could share the lab how we can. So that's good. So their business? And how long did it take you to get that business recalibrated. So you paid the debt off after a couple of years? And how long did it take you to do the recalibration of the business?

Kizzy Parks 21:58
Not too long. I mean, it, it was pretty instant. It took a while I would say several months for the team to because they were used to getting anything that they asked for.

Jason Butler 22:11
But that that point you made there, whether it's a business entrepreneur, you're running your own business, or whether you're running department, or whether it during finances, the idea of having a spending plan, or to go on a budget, whatever. And having putting some friction in between the decision to buy something, and the approval to do it. And if you're the one than the same person, you should take that time Shouldn't you to actually not necessary write a purchase order but take those when we say take that breath, wait a day, write it down, write down in that week, what it is you want to be on the spending, plan it and why you want to buy it. That's a great idea. And so as you say, Be your own sort of financial controller. Yeah. Okay, so did you I do run this business? One? I mean, have you run this on your own? Or have you got a business partner because it's a tough, lonely old world running a firm sometimes, isn't it?

Kizzy Parks 22:59
It is it is I'm the sole owner, I'm not involved much in it. Nowadays, I'm involved in like business development. And there are certain contracts that we work on, because I'm very, very, very particular about the kind of work that we take on. But I have an amazing team that makes sure that our clients are being served that our big thing is making sure that we maintain our clients, grow our clients, and then pick up new work that's profitable, because especially with the federal government, because it's often they're using taxpayer dollars, you just have to be very mindful of the costs. And there's a lot of companies out there that have no problem winning work and taking a loss on the work, or just yeah, or no profit at all. And so we don't do that. So that's why I'm just very, very mindful of the kind of work that we bid on.

Jason Butler 23:56
But the ability to the ability to know what you need to price your jobs and also pricing a level where you're not winning everything. This is what some small business owners or even big business owners don't always know. I used to say to people when I was a financial advisor, and we used to take on big families average fee was 25,000, a year, right? flat fee. And I used to say if we are winning everyone who walks through the door, the fee is not high enough. And I don't mean that in a ripping people off way. What I mean is, we didn't want everyone right, we need to control it a bit. And also we wanted if people were Penny pinching about the price, they were going to be trouble down the line. And that's been proven beyond doubt. And always remember, when we put a minimum in, and this was years ago, I mean, like 20 years ago, got a minimum of 10,000 pounds. So that's what $14,000 which was unheard of. And my business partners fought me and said no, no, because we're gonna I said no, and we're gonna have to get rid of all these clients here and hat or either hand them over to a firm, it's more suitable for them. And I'll tell you what, we doubled our profitability in 12 months. And the clients we had were happier the clients that we passed on to someone else were happier as well. So everyone's a winner. And I think we're all guilty. Aren't we have putting off whether it's reviewing our spending plan putting our prices up or making some hard choices about how we arrange our, our business so, so Kizzy, what what is the? What's the ultimate aim? Is it world domination? Where do you take the business next? Or does it do its own thing and you just sit there and watch your crypto balance.

Kizzy Parks 25:17
I know my for crypto lemonade, but I'm like it's a long term play. So I'm with the businesses. So I started this other business called Gov con winners, where I work with small business owners so that they can take on and find and win profitable federal government contracts. So I have a client and I started doing that, I'm going to expand that and do more. So I can further automate that. So that's the goal over here is to run with Gov con winners. But currently, it's the end of the federal government's fiscal year. So I'm in the middle of responding to RFPs. And pursuing things and things of that nature. Because the one thing about us is we don't bid on a ton of work, we only been on literally a few projects a year, because of what I said and that, you know, I'm very, very particular about what we pursue and things of that nature. So just finishing up the fiscal year and then really going hard with Gov con winners at the end of the fiscal year.

Jason Butler 26:28
And in your personal life. I mean, do you have a family? Or are you just doing your own thing? Or what was the situation there? Because I'm interested to know kind of how you feel your non work time because work is almost like a child, right? It's very demanding, or it can be even if you've got other people running it, it's always there, isn't it? It's like a child has left home. That never quite leaves.

Kizzy Parks 26:46
Yeah, yeah, definitely. Well, I mean, I, I love volunteering this really important. And philanthropy. So a lot of philanthropy. I mentor different people. I there's a organization here, I'm going to start volunteering in person. I work out I said again, his world record on May 1. So yeah, have the plaque is back here. So I so that was really exciting. I like to just I love learning and getting into crypto. I've never been on discord so much in my life. And I love traveling and spending time with my family. So I do a lot of that in Michigan. So I keep myself busy with just enjoying all that's here and Miami Beach.

Jason Butler 27:38
Yeah, absolutely. And it's interesting you mention about volunteering, because in fact, I've got a new book coming out at the end of this year called conscious money. And one of the chapters I talk all about the role of time and horizon and stuff. But here's the thing is that when people think they don't have time, or they think their time is so valuable, money wise and so focused on it, their happiness gets to a certain level, but But actually, they found that people who do volunteering and getting awards give their time away for free not not through dodgy contracts that aren't priced properly. And you're working for peanuts, I mean, where you consciously make the effort to give your time away and make a difference to others. they've proven that that helps people assume they have enough money to you know, keep the lights on and feed themselves. they've proven that that makes people's happiness and wellbeing much higher. Because I think what he does is he develops empathy for other people. And it makes you realize that there's more than just you. What's your thoughts on that? I mean, is that your experience and also interested to know how you think and feel about philanthropy? What because that means different things to different people, isn't it? Yeah.

Kizzy Parks 28:40
I see philanthropy as being able to help financially, regardless of the the dollar amount. So we've given there's some Sigma Nu fraternity that we've supported in Rhode Island, and we funded their student mentoring their summer mentoring program. So we funded that we've given them money for other endeavors, we funded a lot of different kinds of events or sponsored them. So one way that we get back as a company and I give back personally is through donations through you know, in kind donations, the second is through my time. So there may be there are people that will reach out through LinkedIn or maybe more formal, or it may be somebody who's connected to me through somebody else. And then they have a variety of questions. It could be about getting a PhD or being in a Ph. D program, or my recent mentor was so awesome. I worked with her to get a new job. She's in the training field. I've helped people when it comes to being an entrepreneur, or I've helped people who are transitioning from the federal government or being in uniform and they don't really know what they want to do. So there's a lot that I Dude behind the scenes of giving my time and then in person doing that, it's just what I have found is it's the first and foremost, so many people have given to me over the years, and they still do. There's people that still helped me. And they're always, you know, it's always reciprocal. You know, there's never a point where you're like, oh, I've learned everything. And so people always have been helpful. And so I look at it as I always want to be able to give back and I love being able to do that, especially where the company is, because I'm not involved in the day to day efforts. It's just happens to be things are a little busier because of where we are the fiscal year. So I have a very blessed flexible day of doing whatever I want to do. And so if someone is like, Hey, I would love to learn more about what it means to be an entrepreneur, I would love to talk to them, and at least give them my take on it. So that's just what I think is really important. And then lastly, I plan on starting a foundation, everything is possible. So once I have some things, I gotta, I gotta get my updated passport. So once I get my updated passport, so I can take care of the legal side of everything I plan on starting everything is possible foundation. So therefore, it can our philanthropy and giving of time can be more organized. Hmm.

Jason Butler 31:22
Yeah, absolutely. So just an interesting one, I'm interested to know, obviously, being a woman, you know, there is sometimes a gender or there is a gender gap, but but some, I think it's changing, I just wonder what your thoughts are on women in business and how you can encourage, you know, there's no, there's no glass ceilings, and you can run a business from your kitchen sink, if you want, you know, you can still be a great mother or partner or whatever. Just interesting, your thoughts on that. And also, you know, getting in the UK, you know, making sure that the ethnic minorities realized that the Hang on, they do not need to be a victim, you can take part in anything you want to do. Okay, we're not saying it's, it's easy. But there's lots of people who come from tough backgrounds who turn it around, we're not saying it's not the right barriers, I just wonder what your thoughts on that on how we can get people to, to change that mindset that they can't do? What do I need to do to

Kizzy Parks 32:13
you, it's something that each of us have to face? You know, there's always reasons why you can't like, you know, I was given up for adoption. And I mean, you know, I could go on and on and on. But what does that really do for us? It just gives you an excuse. That's all it does? And are there extra challenges in my life, for example, because of how I look or how I talk or my gender potentially, I'm not saying there haven't been I'm not saying there are, I'm saying that I have gone through different experiences in life. So the way that I approach it is, especially if I'm a psychologist, I know, I know what research says, I know this. So I just realize it and I push it aside, and I push forward. So what I do is, I focus on our core areas, I focus on things that align with who I am. And I focus on making sure that we're inclusive. So like, for instance, I have a business development guy who doesn't look like me at all, and doesn't sound like me at all. And I purposely wanted him to have to call people, because I knew that there would be a lot of people who would connect with him because he's a man, where they're not going to connect with me, right? So I'm methodical about stuff, where I have another team member who I have intentionally attend certain events, because I know people will connect with her because she grew up in the DC area. So she really understands people from Virginia, Maryland, etc, etc, from different

Jason Butler 33:54
countries, aren't they like different countries,

Kizzy Parks 33:57
like different countries. And so it's very important that I'm very mindful of how things are situated. And I just go from there, because it's, there's, there's always again, there's always going to be something and so what I do as I focus on the positive, I focus on the contracts we have the clients that we have the stellar work that we do, I focus on everything is possible, like I legit believe and feel everything is possible. I just go from there. There. There's women's groups I'm like involved in I'm kind of phasing myself out of that one. But what I have found personally for anyone listening watching that helps me is you just have to find those that are like you but they inspire you to be better. And so I have found that there are other entrepreneurs, maybe females and it was just, it's just too much complaining. I don't need that I need those who inspire me. So there are women, you Then I'm connected to who aren't a little bit of a different space, but they inspire me because they're constantly adapting, they probably, you know, their profit margin is humongous in comparison to government. And I'm really inspired by them and how they leverage social media. So again, as an entrepreneur, you have to find a person, person, your tribe, where you're inspired, and not necessarily about what they look like, or how they sound. Because the thing is, people are people, no matter what they look like, no matter where they live, no matter how educated they are, there are bad people, there are people that are just bad. And that's just how it is. And there are people who are good. So you got to find the people that you want to align yourself with, to help you with your goals, and you have to realize it is possible. But Lastly, you have to be an entrepreneur, and you have to have that mindset. If you just go in thinking, Well, I have this idea or this product, and people should just buy it in the world sucks because of how people view me. Well, then I don't know what to tell you. Maybe you should just have a YouTube channel or something.

Jason Butler 36:01
I don't know. Yeah, as you say. Just to finish that one. I grew up poor. I didn't speak very posh. I didn't have a great education. I had the imposter syndrome for a long time. And then do you know what? In my writing, am I speaking when I talk to groups of people now, I mean, you know, the biggest one I've ever done is a couple of 1000. And I say to you, I know what it's like to be in debt. I know it's like to come from a I, you know, my mom told me that the the gas meter where we put money, and she told me it was a money box. But of course never get any money out of it. So the guy comes to him to it. So but the point, the point is, is that we all have something in our background that we could could be a negative, right? Some of us have more positive so not that it's a case of not playing to your weaknesses, but trying to play to your strengths and to say no, now I use those stories, those deep stories that no one else has got their mind and their gold dust. So as you say, Good. Jersey, been lovely to talk to you. I mean, you You sound like a real interesting person. You've got lots going on, we'll make sure this show notes to all the different things you're doing. But what's the best way for people to contact you? Is it social media? Is it for your websites? What's the best way for people to find out what you're up to and all your content and your thought leadership?

Kizzy Parks 37:09
The best way is really on LinkedIn, if you find Kizzy parks, because the other websites, you're going to be bored. So just go on LinkedIn kizi parts, you're gonna see like kizi like ballparks just me on LinkedIn. That'll be beautiful. I'd love to connect

Jason Butler 37:28
down that would be perfect, great stuff. Of course, when I connect, get back over to the states because I go over every quarter I have done pre COVID Well, I'll have to connect with you. And when I'll come over to Michigan and and you can tell me wherever the best places are for, you know, food and drinks and good times though the perfect guy stuff. Is he great to talk to you. Thanks for your time being here. Thanks for listening to real money stories with me Jason Butler. If you like what you hear, please do tell your friends. And more importantly, please rate us on your preferred podcast app, because it really does help us get the message out there. So until next time, good luck with your money journey. Real Money stories is sponsored by Vanguard bringing value to 30 million investors worldwide. Visit Vanguard investor.co.uk for more details. The value of investments can go down as well as up and you may get back less than you invested

Transcribed by https://otter.ai