1. Social Work to Wealth Podcast: Who We Are & Why We’re Here

Taylor (00:00)
Hi everyone, welcome to the Social Work to Wealth podcast. This is our first episode. It is seriously, I'm so excited. I have my good friend Faith here, who's gonna be our co -host.
Faith   (00:10)
Mm -hmm.
Yeah. Hi. I'm so excited to be here. This is a long time coming. We've worked so hard like planning and getting ready.
Taylor (00:20)
We have worked. my gosh. It's really surprising how I've learned a lot about podcasting in the past couple of months and it is seriously nuts how, how much work goes into this. So I'm like, okay, this is, this is intense, but we're here. We're excited. This episode, we really just want to talk about like who we are. why should you even listen to us? I mean, honestly, you really don't have to like.
Faith   (00:31)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mm -hmm.
Taylor (00:47)
We're just two regular regular regular social workers that are wanting to empower social workers, share our story, bring people on. So anyways, I'm getting ahead of myself. But what we're talking about today is who we are and what this podcast is even about.
Faith   (00:51)
That's valid. Yeah, I agree.
you
Mm
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Taylor (01:16)
Thank you for being here. I will start with just my, I don't know, social work story. How did I even get into social work? I was one of those people that thought social workers just worked in CPS when I was in undergrad. And I volunteered at this child advocacy center and I was a victim advocate. So I supported.
Faith   (01:29)
Hmm.
Taylor (01:41)
children and their families through forensic interview process when they've the children have been either, you know, emotionally sexually abused or witness domestic violence. So that was kind of like my first introduction into the work of like social services. And you know, that's so funny because right now aside, I'm listening to you are a bad.
Faith   (01:58)
AKA Taylor is a badass. That's what that means. in case you're wondering.
Taylor (02:10)
Have you heard of that? It's some self -help book that my friend Dora recommended. so it's just funny that you said that. So anyways, I'm there and we have a presentation from a social worker who provided therapy to the children who were in these situations. And the work
Faith   (02:11)
No, I haven't. I'm writing it down though.
You
Taylor (02:39)
that she just did. It was so inspiring. And I was like, wow. Afterwards, I went up to talk to her because she, the end of her presentation, was like, if you want to come work with me, if you want to intern with me, let's do it. And I was like, whoa, that sounds amazing. So I went and talked to her. And she said, yeah, it's through the social work program at Portland State University. And I was like, interesting, social work. OK. And at that point,
I was curious about grad school, starting to decide, I think I need to go and do something because I have a Bachelor's of Psychology. What am I going to do with that? I was worried that I wasn't going to get a job. So looking into social work, after that I was like, wow, I think this is kind of the path that would be good for me.
Faith   (03:22)
Right.
Taylor (03:38)
loved how there was just so many different avenues to that you could do with social work. You know, like looking at all these programs online where it's like, wow, I can be in medical, I can work in CPS, I can do macro policy, like all these different things. So it felt like the right next step because I wasn't sure exactly, I really resonated with the work that she did, but I was like, do I really want to do that forever? So it was awesome to, yeah,
stumble into social work in that way. So I was like, all right, I'm, doing it. So I, you know, applied to a handful of schools and then I got nervous that I wasn't going to get in. I don't know why, but I was like, my gosh, I need to beef up my resume. what if I don't get in? And so I found this volunteer position on Craigslist. Interesting.
Faith   (04:32)
Hey, we gotta be creative. gotta... That's so great.
Taylor (04:38)
and it was for a local hospice agency. And it said that I would be a patient volunteer and I would go and sit with someone who was receiving hospice and supporting their family. And I was like, hmm, this sounds interesting. I never really was like, this was my first kind of introduction to like the world of death and dying. And I didn't really know much about it, but
I remember my orientation afterwards, was like, holy crap, this is, this is what I'm supposed to be doing, I think, working, working with. I like, I remember it so vividly. And I also shadowed one of the social workers there. And I was just like, I want to do this work. So that was really impactful.
Faith   (05:20)
That's a cool moment.
Taylor (05:36)
I think honestly it changed the trajectory of my life, you know, because I've done that work since. So anyways, getting ahead of myself. I do get into grad school. I got into University of Wisconsin Madison, which is where I met Faith. We hit it off right away. I don't remember the first meet, but
Faith   (05:51)
And where did you get into? Yes. UW. Yeah. We did. We did. It was great. We did.
Taylor (06:06)
We did. And yeah, so in my grad program, my first internship was in a hospice agency. It was really important for me to try to get more exposure with that work. So I did that. also volunteered at the hospice agency that I interned at had a grief center. And so I volunteered there, providing grief support to children.
Faith   (06:29)
Hmm.
Taylor (06:34)
between like five and 12. yeah, that was great experience. And then my second year, I was an intern at the Veterans Hospital, which was another great experience. Also, one of the only paid internships for social workers, which is so ridiculous. We will get into that in a later episode, but I was super happy because money, you know, we needed it.
Faith   (06:52)
Mmm.
episode, yeah.
Yeah. yeah. yeah.
Taylor (07:04)
Yeah, we need to pay the bills. So yeah, after grad school was over, I was, you know, my kind of track in grad school was working in the health field and I was really wanting to work in a hospital or wanting to be a hospice social worker, but I was just like not getting interviews and I got an interview with this community mental health center and
Faith   (07:20)
Mm -hmm.
Taylor (07:33)
I started as a mental health therapist and honestly in the interview I was just like, I don't, I've never done this. And then it was like, it's fine, we'll teach you. Come on. We need you. And I was just like, okay. I mean, this is like the only job offer that I have right now. So I also was interviewing for, to be like a 911 dispatcher, which I thought would have been kind of fascinating. Yeah.
Faith   (07:41)
We need you, come on in. right. Yeah.
I didn't know that.
Taylor (08:03)
so I did that for 13 months, then I moved, then I was a hospice social worker. My dream. That was amazing. Did that for about 14 ish months that I moved again, for my husband's grad school. And then I ended in a hospital, working on the medical surgical union, student discharge planning, and then in the emergency department, doing behavioral health, health assessments.
Faith   (08:11)
Yay.
Taylor (08:33)
And, know, we'll again get into this in another episode, but long story short, my coworkers and I tried to organize, got some not great feedback from my manager and I got a new job working in hospital. I was like, okay, bye. Working in hospital. I still work in hospitals, but I work in the donation field. So I've been doing that for, January, about three years.
Faith   (08:47)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Wow.
Taylor (09:00)
I love it. And it's been a great transition because working in the hospital and the med surge and in the emergency department, I just felt like I was missing kind of that grief support. That's just really where my heart is. I was volunteering at a grief center here, but I just wanted more. And so the job that I do now,
I really support people and their kind of journeys at end of life with their families or loved one who's in the hospital. And so I really love it. And it feels just like, yeah, good, good place to be. And yeah.
Faith   (09:46)
It's really cool to hear you go through your whole kind of history as a social worker. guess after grad school, I knew that you were working, you know, obviously as a social worker in mental health, but I didn't hear all these details. And so it's actually really cool to hear kind of what your work history is and what you've been able to do and how it's always come back to kind of this theme of end of life work, which you love, which is cool. That's really cool.
Taylor (10:01)
Mm -hmm.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, thanks. It is wild to just even run through it like that, you know, because it doesn't feel like we've been... And it doesn't feel like we've been out of school for that long, but we have. We graduated in 2018 and gosh, we do have some experience on our belts. Like, wow, this is kind of cool.
Faith   (10:21)
Yeah, you've done a lot. No.
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.
We do. Like, I have done some things. cool. Same. That's cool.
Taylor (10:39)
I have done some things. Sometimes I still feel like I don't know what I'm doing, but it's cool. Like we'll get through it. We'll get through it. Yeah. And all of that through that social work to wealth was born in July, 2022. Well, it was like December, 2021 that this kind of all started, but we'll get into that later.
Faith   (10:48)
Yeah.
Mm -hmm. So, yeah.
Taylor (11:09)
But I want to hear from Faith. We want to hear from Faith about her journey into social work.
Faith   (11:09)
Yeah.
Do you? don't know. Yeah, well first I just want to say again, like I'm super excited to be co -hosting this with you. Thank you for inviting me to do it. I love the whole concept of social work to wealth and what you're doing. So yeah, I'm excited to be a part of this journey with you. So a little bit about me. I grew up in the Chicagoland area and I
Originally was, I've totally evolved in my career over the years, but like a lot, I just totally have changed directions. I originally was, you know, very much open to working in the church and doing some sort of ministry. And I quickly learned that that was not for me as I got into that. But I think it just comes from this deeper motivation of wanting to help other people and wanting to kind of meet people in.
Taylor (11:48)
Yes you have. Glow up! Glow up!
Faith   (12:11)
places where they've experienced trauma. And so for me, the biggest kind of draw to social work was this other avenue where I felt I could actually help people who were suffering with trauma. And part of that connects with my own story, which we don't need to get into, but the point is it was this motivating factor of I just wanted to help people. And social work gave me a way to do that. And I also really loved
the diversity of options in social work. Obviously, it really is.
Taylor (12:40)
It's seriously so amazing. mean, obviously we're biased, but I know people have people have like reached out to me like, Hey, I'm considering like counseling or like going to get like my, an L become an LMFT. And I mean, if you, if you know, counseling is like what you want to do, like I get, and I'm no, no shade to like any of those other professions or, you know, tracks, but I just feel like social work is so versatile, you know, and
maybe sometime you might not want to always be doing therapy and you need a break and you know there's just so many options for us so.
Faith   (13:07)
Mm -hmm.
Yeah, so I was in the church working as a youth minister or as a children's ministry person. And I was like, I don't like this. This is not for me. There was a lot of issues in the church I didn't agree with. I ended up getting married, long story short, ended up getting married, moving to Wisconsin. And I started working actually for credit unions. So I worked for the credit union league, helping lobbyists who were helping with credit unions, which helped with
finances on my part, which we'll get into in the podcast, but I kind of had Wisconsin, Wisconsin Credit Union League and I just needed a job. Like I moved and I was like, I don't know what I want to do. Like I was very confused on what I wanted to do with my career and where I wanted to go. And I had just gotten married and I moved to Wisconsin when I, when I got married, cause my husband was finishing his PhD. so
Taylor (13:45)
I didn't realize you worked for the... Wait, what's this league?
Faith   (14:07)
that's where we were and I didn't know what I wanted to do. And so was like, I just need a job. I need a job so I just applied places. And I was the government affairs assistant for the Wisconsin Credit Union League. Yeah.
Taylor (14:20)
I thought you worked for a credit union, but it was a credit union. Interesting.
Faith   (14:24)
Which is kind of like their lobbying group. And so I was, I supported two lobbyists as they worked at the Wisconsin State Capitol kind of trying to advocate for credit unions and credit unions, yeah, it was cool. I learned a lot, a lot of things. I was like, that's how politics works. There's like a little bit of feelings about that, but.
Taylor (14:34)
Holy crap.
Concerning. Mm -hmm.
Faith   (14:46)
I learned a lot and while I was working in that job, I still was like, this isn't the right fit. Like this isn't what I want to be doing. and so I started just looking at jobs that aligned more with like trauma kind of work and all of the requirements, like the job descriptions had masses of social work, masses of social work. And I was like, well, I think I need to go back to school. And so that was a really hard decision because I didn't want to.
Taylor (15:07)
Mm. Mm -hmm.
Mm -hmm.
Faith   (15:15)
get into more financial debt. And so I saved for about a year and I knew my husband had another, I don't know, PhDs take forever. So he had like another like three years. And so I was like, hey, I will apply to UW Madison and see if I get in. I did. I only applied to the one grad school. I was like, come on. Yeah, I just applied there. I did that.
Taylor (15:36)
Really? You're bold. I love it.
Faith   (15:42)
for undergrad too. only applied to one undergrad. was, my story's a bit tricky, but anyways, I applied. was like, I hope I get in, got in. And that's where we met, which is awesome. And I really just wanted the first year. I just wanted, again, like, I didn't really know what I want to do in social work. I just knew I wanted to help people in some way. So the first year I worked.
Taylor (15:46)
That's amazing.
Faith   (16:08)
with refugee resettlement. So I was really interested in doing that. Yeah, yeah. So I did refugee resettlement, which I loved. That was really cool, really dynamic. And then I ended up also interning at like doing family reunification. So children that were removed from the home because of abuse and neglect. And the whole goal was to eventually have the families reunified. And so I was supervising like family visitations and trying to help parents.
Taylor (16:10)
my gosh, I forgot about that.
Faith   (16:37)
reunify with their kids, which, yeah, that was an interesting experience. I learned a lot. And then the second year you pick a focus on what you wanna do. And I knew at that point that I wanted to do mental health. So I picked the mental health track and I worked in elementary schools doing in -school psychotherapy with kids that were anywhere from six to like 12 years old.
Taylor (16:44)
Hehehehehe
Faith   (17:07)
And that was really, really cool and really awesome. I fell in love with that. and I really feel like that was my way of helping people with traumatic events. It was like that one -on -one treatment. so yeah, then I graduated and my husband and I really wanted to live abroad. So we moved to Switzerland for four years and we can get into all, we can get, that was mostly cause yeah.
Taylor (17:26)
No big, no big deal. Just, you know, move to Switzerland.
Faith   (17:33)
like, I don't know what I want to do still. So I was like, hey, let's move abroad. And so he got a postdoc there. So we can get into that later, what that looks like. But I worked as a social worker for four years, running my own private practice and also working in international schools, providing in -school therapy. We moved back to the States in 2022 and I joined a clinic and worked as a psychotherapist, as a clinic in a
Taylor (17:39)
Yeah.
Faith   (18:01)
in a more established clinic. I just didn't know how to do insurance in that whole world and just had no idea what it would really look like to be a therapist in the United States. I had, cause I was like, I don't know what I'm doing. So I joined, I did know what, okay. I knew what I was doing, but I had never really, I have a little bit of imposter syndrome. I don't know. Yeah. Right. Right. So I,
Taylor (18:10)
because they never teach us that in school. What?
run the business, but also it's like the business side of it, right? Like, no one teaches us that.
Faith   (18:31)
was like, I need to just get my feet underneath me. And we were moving continents and yeah, so we're coming back to the US. I just need to get settled. And then that was an interesting ride. And we'll probably get into that another time. But anyways, I ended up just opening my own private practice in January of 2024 after working for a clinic for about a year -ish, a little over a year. So still doing therapy. I specialize in OCD and PTSD and that's what I do.
and I'm working in private practice.
Taylor (18:59)
Did you? You started that this year, January 2024? my gosh. I didn't realize it was like so that's pretty recent. It's a little baby. Although you're full and crushing it.
Faith   (19:03)
Mm -hmm. I've only so yeah, it's been nine months
Mm -hmm.
It's baby. It's a little baby business.
It's been, yeah, we're definitely going to, you and I will talk about all the things, but it totally makes sense if you're an LCSW or LCP or whatever to, in my view, open a private practice. So it's worth it if you want to do that. So yeah, so that's me, but Taylor, I have a question because we've introduced ourselves, but like, what is this podcast about? Like what is.
Taylor (19:20)
Hehehehehe
Yeah.
Yeah, that's amazing. Wow.
Faith   (19:47)
social work to wealth podcast about how was it, how did it come, know, how did they get formed? Like, what are we going to be doing here?
Taylor (19:50)
Yeah. Yeah.
How did it, what's the origin story? So I think social work to wealth just in general started because I was learning a lot about money. So December, 2021, I'm to take us back a little bit. One of my friends, I just will never forget this, know, shout out Caroline because she told me and Dora about high yield savings accounts. We were at breakfast.
Faith   (20:22)
you
Taylor (20:23)
And I was like, wait, what is this? Did you know about high -old savings accounts from when you worked at the credit union?
Faith   (20:26)
You
No, do now but I don't think so at the time now
Taylor (20:32)
Okay, I was curious. Yeah.
So she told us about high yield savings accounts and was like, a high yield savings account is you can get, it's a higher interest. So you can get more money back every month. You know, like we all, I have this little rinky dink savings account where it's like, the credit dividend I got was one cent. I'm like, cool. What am I going do with that? Great. You know, right. But the high yield savings account.
Faith   (20:59)
Right. You're gonna do nothing with that.
Taylor (21:05)
literally they have 20 to 20 times times higher interest. So if this is the first time you're learning about this, check it out. My go -to high yield savings account is Ally. A -L -L -Y. Love it. We are not sponsored by Ally, although maybe someday. But I love, but there are so many other high yield savings accounts, but just check it out because it's a way for your,
Faith   (21:11)
Amazing.
Check it.
Maybe. Yeah.
Taylor (21:34)
your money to make you more money. she's telling us about these high yield savings accounts. And I was just like, how am I just learning about this at 28 years old? This is wild. Obviously it feels to me like a no brainer that I would open one of these and put my money into it. And so I just go down this rabbit hole of looking up stuff about money. what else do I not know about money?
Faith   (21:41)
Yeah.
Right.
Taylor (21:59)
Did I think I knew a lot about money before? Not really, but was I, I don't know why this just kind of like sparked something. And so I was just reading, watching videos, like literally anything I could get my hands on about personal finance. I was looking at, I bought this investing course from Delia and the money coach. Love it. Highly recommend. She got me to feel like a lot more comfortable with like managing my own investments and just understanding.
all of the lingo. And it was just like a revelation. I started like really looking at our money and our spending habits and, you know, trying to brainstorm on, you know, we were, we were in debt. We had student loans, we had some credit card debt and we, you know, just try to...
Faith   (22:35)
Hmm.
Taylor (22:47)
We wanted to change that. We wanted to pay off our debt. We wanted to start saving. We, you know, wanted to start investing for retirement and like potentially even retire early. There's people online that were talking about how they paid off their debt. They retired early and I was like, what? Wow. I was always under the impression that I was just going to have this student loan debt until I die. I was just going to pay it. And I was just going to be like a part of my life, which if that's where you're at, that's fine.
Faith   (22:51)
Yeah.
You
Right.
Taylor (23:15)
You know, like that's one way to handle it. But I just was seeing these people that were just, yeah, paying off their debt, living differently. And I was like, wow, I love this. And I really appreciated people online being vulnerable about how much debt do I have? What am I even doing? Like money is so taboo. And so it's hard to learn about it because it feels inaccessible.
Faith   (23:21)
Living differently, yeah. Living differently, yeah. Mm -hmm.
Taylor (23:44)
And then the people around us, we don't really talk about it. And so I felt really in the dark, but I really admired people online sharing their stories. And I was like, you know, we have all this debt that we're paying off. I think we're doing some cool things, some interesting things. Like I'm a social worker, my husband's in grad school. I want to share what we're doing. Other people are doing it. I want to help people in this way. And so I started my blog.
and it was called goodbye wine to five, which is W H I N E. because, you know, wine to five instead of like nine to five, kind of like play on words because I was like wanting to retire early and leave the nine to five or whatever. So really on there just started, you know, writing about what we're doing, Hidal Savings accounts, just like.
Faith   (24:14)
I didn't know that.
Mmm, wine to fight, -huh.
Love it.
Taylor (24:36)
starting to share debt numbers. started an Instagram. This was in July 2022. And I felt like me being a social worker was just like so, so a part of like the way that I view the world, the way they look at money. And I really wanted to kind of like infuse that into my writing too. So I just, felt like that was missing. And so was like, I really want this to
highlight my social work identity and also I want to talk to social workers because as we know, talking about money in this profession, so taboo. We're all in it. It's so taboo. I'm like, I want to talk to social workers. I want us to be better with our money. I want us to get the bag. I want us to be paid.
Faith   (25:15)
Don't do it Taylor. Are you gonna do it? my gosh, we can't do this. I mean, it's so taboo. It's so taboo.
Mm -hmm.
Taylor (25:33)
and learn these things, you know? And I'm a social worker. I'm like, I want to share with other people who know that I get it. I get, I get, it's so unique, the work that we do, it's like, you're a social worker. you just, you get the day -to -day struggle and you don't need to explain it to me, you know, because I'm there with you. And so.
Faith   (25:43)
Yeah.
Mmm.
Taylor (25:59)
I was brainstorming a lot of different names, but social work to wealth really just, I don't know, it felt like it, yeah, really like I can compass what I'm trying to do with my life, which is I am a social worker, but I'm also using my salary and the skills that I've learned to become wealthy. And what does that mean? Become wealthy financially? Yes.
Faith   (26:06)
It worked.
Taylor (26:24)
that is what I want. What does that look like for other people? It's different for everyone of what financial wealth looks like, but also just the wealth of knowledge. I want to share this education with people, feeling like you just live a wealthy life, that you can do the things that you want to do, that you have the money to do it.
all those things. So Social Work 12 felt good and I just kind of, was just, you know, next day it was like, my new name is Social Work 12 and this is what we're doing. I started, you know, talking a little bit more specifically to social workers and sharing some specific resources for social workers. And it's just for now, it's just been a blog and an Instagram for a while. I've gone on a couple podcasts and
Faith   (27:11)
Nice.
Yeah.
Taylor (27:20)
There have been some people that are like, you started a podcast, you started a podcast. I'm like, eh, sounds like a lot of work. Sounds like a lot of work. Which it is, apparently.
Faith   (27:24)
So why, yeah. It is. But like, do you feel like the podcast is the way, the new step for what you're trying to accomplish with social work as well? Like why the podcast?
Taylor (27:36)
Mm -hmm.
A couple of months ago, I shared, so I have this forum on my blog or on my Instagram where people can submit their salaries and because I wanted some greater transparency, I want us to, we don't really talk about our salaries and I was like, you know what would be, I like, I really want to share some salaries on my Instagram and.
Faith   (27:56)
No, we don't.
Taylor (28:02)
So I need some salaries to share and I'm curious how many I can get. So I made this salary form and I mean, at this point it's like over, I don't know, 700 social workers have filled it out at this point, like from all over the world, which is amazing. Yeah, with their salaries, I will link the form and the salary page in the show notes. I...
Faith   (28:09)
Mm -hmm.
That is so amazing.
Taylor (28:31)
So I started sharing salaries and some of the salaries are kind of mind blowing. Like some social workers making over 100K and so people, know, in the comments, someone had said like, I would really love to know like how did that person get to where they are, you know? And I was like, hmm.
Faith   (28:36)
Right.
Mm
Taylor (28:52)
that would be kind of an interesting podcast episode, you know? And there've been like a couple things here and there, like my friends and I, we did some organizing at one of our previous jobs and we'd always talk about like, God, this would be such a great podcast episode. Like I love to share this story with the world. I do have it in a blog post form, but just little things, just like, wow, maybe a podcast is what could potentially you know, be next and...
Faith   (29:06)
Yeah.
Taylor (29:19)
One of the creators, of the personal finance creators I really like, Janice, I took her blogging course when I first started this blog. She had just released I'm starting up, you know, how to start a podcast course, my first one. And I saw her post and I was like, okay, I love this woman. Like this is my sign to do this, you know, because I think it's one thing.
Faith   (29:31)
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Taylor (29:45)
writing blog posts, like, you know, there's some people that like really like that kind of content, but I think also the audio, like, you know, I want this, I want this content to be accessible to people. And sometimes audio is just the way to go and what people prefer. And I think there's just kind of like an interesting, it's interesting conversations and like the dynamic through, you know, talking is so different. Like we can bring on guests and there's just things that I can do.
Faith   (30:00)
Yes. Yes.
Mm -hmm.
Taylor (30:14)
through a podcast that I can't really do through blogging and so, yeah.
Faith   (30:18)
Mm -hmm. I totally agree. And I think also it's making the information digestible in different forms. So like you can read it or you can do the Instagram thing or you can listen to a podcast while you're driving to work. And I think the more you can make information digestible, the more people will be able to hear it and understand it and maybe get some help or some resources. So that makes so much sense. And some of the topics are really complex and it's hard to like
Taylor (30:24)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.
Mm -hmm.
Faith   (30:47)
just get that all in a blog post. takes a little bit more and this gives you an opportunity to interview really interesting people. I guess my next question is like, what are you wanting to do with the podcast? What's the goal of the podcast? what's the hope with this podcast?
Taylor (30:48)
It totally is.
Yeah.
Mm hmm. I really want us to like one thing that kind of came out of getting all those salaries and people saying I really would love to know like how that social worker got there. That's one like I really want to talk to other social workers what they're doing. You make 120k like let's talk about that. Where do you live? let's get into the nitty gritty about actual social workers who
Faith   (31:14)
Mm -hmm.
Yes.
you
Taylor (31:30)
feel like they're doing well financially and just in their career. Maybe social workers who are doing some things that we were never taught were even possible. I think just kind of bridging the gap from grad school to now, there's just so much about social work that's just
Faith   (31:42)
Yeah.
Taylor (31:50)
Yeah, that we just hadn't talked about. I want to get into like the business side of like running the private practice, really digging into that with you and you know how that's worked. Like we don't talk about business stuff in school. We know how to be, we learn how to be clinicians, but we don't, you know, talk about like the nitty gritty on how do you start a business? where do even go? You know, like basic stuff like that. We don't know. I want to talk to finance professionals and
Faith   (32:09)
Mm -hmm, mm -hmm, mm -hmm, yeah.
Taylor (32:16)
really get into the weeds about taxes and paying off your student loans and budgeting and just, I want social workers to be wealthy. that means to you, make it accessible. Yeah, I just want this to be like a great resource for social workers, career and personally, financially,
Faith   (32:23)
Hmm.
Mm -hmm. Make it accessible. Yeah.
And
Taylor (32:43)
just a place where you can learn about things like No BS, we're not sugarcoating it, we're talking about the hard things because we deserve it, you know? And then I remember you, Faith, I'm like, I don't even know, I can't even remember exactly. So Faith and I, we have kept in contact. I feel like we've talked like once a year, we've done like a video call since grad school.
Faith   (32:47)
Yeah.
Mm
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Taylor (33:10)
And then I think I remember you messaged me on Instagram and you were like, well, this is really cool. I love what you're doing. Like, let me know if I could ever help you. Awesome. I was like, that's so cool. And then I think we I was on Janice's podcast and I think you listened to that. You know, you what's the story? I can't even remember. How did you what was your.
Faith   (33:10)
Mm
Yeah.
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm. Yeah.
Yo, I know. I'm like, what is the story? I really think, well, I've been watching you from afar for some time. And then I was like, she's so cool. She's doing such cool things. And I really, I just loved the transparency and the vulnerability and the willingness to be so honest about your kind of debt story. And also just about the dynamics of social workers being told that
Taylor (33:36)
You
Faith   (34:00)
and we'll get into this in another podcast too, but just being told that they shouldn't be in it for the money, that you feel bad about making money or you feel it's unethical in some way and just that dynamic. And then there's just no transparency about it. And your vulnerability was so attractive. I was like, this is so cool. I love this. And so when I saw you on the podcast or I saw some of the things you were posting, I just was like, hey,
Taylor (34:22)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.
Faith   (34:30)
I'd love to talk to you about this, mostly because my experience coming back to the United States was rough when it came to making a livable wage in the clinic I was working for. And so I wanted to mostly just vent to a friend about that, who like got it a little bit. And then we just kept talking and I ended up opening my own business and you were like, Hey, tell me about that. And so we just kept.
Taylor (34:37)
Mmm.
Faith   (34:57)
chatting about it and then yeah you asked me.
Taylor (34:59)
my gosh, I forgot about that. I forgot, okay, that's when it was okay. Cause I was like, I remember we talked first because yeah, people had been asking me about private practice stuff. I see it online always how do you even, you know, we, like I said before, we know how to be a clinician, but like getting into the nitty gritty of like, how do you start your private practice? So I do remember reaching out to you. I interviewed Faith about all the details of like her opening up a practice. Where do you go? How do you?
Faith   (35:09)
Mm -hmm.
Mm -hmm.
Taylor (35:27)
LLC, like all those insurance, how it's all working for her. And after that, I remember being like, I love this girl. I knew it. I knew I knew I did. But I was like, our banter is so good. we just got good chemistry. it's there. Right. And then so that's OK. I was trying to remember the timeline. So then after that, then I saw that then I saw that post from Janice and
Faith   (35:27)
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
We're doing it.
Taylor (35:54)
starting her podcast course and I was like, I'm doing it and I want to co -host and I know who I'm going to ask. It's Faith.
Faith   (36:04)
No, and it's funny because we had had a lot of talks about just, we got to keep this conversation going. We want to get resources out of people. And then when you, was, I like had this thought about it too, but I was like, you're not going to do it. Don't say that, Faith. Like that's not, and then when you asked me, I was like, what? Yeah, of course. So.
Taylor (36:10)
Mm -hmm, yep.
Yep, I - Yes!
You're like, my God, are you just saying that? I'm like, no, seriously, I've been thinking about it. this is amazing. you're, bring just so much just energy and wisdom and just like realistic, no BS, all the things that we need. Right? No.
Faith   (36:37)
Yeah. Let's go. Let's go. But like, I think I really believe in what you're doing. And so if I can support that in any way, I'm down. Right? So I'm excited when you were like, let's do this podcast. I'm like, let's do it. And I'm really excited about the goals of the podcast, right? Which are to bring resources to social workers to talk about the real issues, to reduce stigma about.
making salary a good livable wage to actually talk about how the level like wages are too low for social workers and how we potentially might lose social workers if we don't pay them more and the whole dynamics around why are social workers paid lower? Why is that? Why is that socially acceptable? Why is that seen as
Taylor (37:12)
Mm -hmm.
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.
Mm -hmm.
Faith   (37:28)
okay and that we don't feel like we can talk about money when we really should. That's how you bring awareness to an issue. That's how you get change. And so I think when you're like, let's do a podcast. I'm like, yes, let's do it. Cause we want to bring out that. So yeah.
Taylor (37:37)
Yeah. Yes, this is awesome. Mm -hmm. Yeah. And I would love, I'm like, I'm thinking about like the vision, the future. I would love for this podcast to get big enough to where we can have some really, I don't know, national world visibility of like bringing this conversation.
Faith   (37:50)
Hmm.
Taylor (38:04)
to those places where we are advocating and really bringing awareness. mean, it's like, I don't know, bring awareness. Pretty much everyone knows that we're not paid well, we're trying to bring the conversation of like, why are we not and what can we do about it? And also just like empowering social workers to feel like it's okay for you to want to make more money. It's okay.
Faith   (38:04)
Mm -hmm.
Yeah. Yeah.
Mm
Taylor (38:30)
for you to feel the need to leave a job because you need to make more money and that's the only reason, like period. You have to pay your bills, you need to be, you you need to live, you need to be healthy. And some of the ways that we can do that is if we feel financially secure. So I would love for this to, you know, this is...
Faith   (38:38)
Mm -hmm.
Mm
Mm
Mm -hmm.
Taylor (38:53)
This is part of our advocacy within social work, this podcast, you know? And I feel really strongly about that. So I'm excited to just see where it goes.
Faith   (38:57)
Yeah, yeah.
I'm stoked. Yeah. Yeah. we're, you we're just the, you always like, we've talked about this before. Just send that cold email. Just make that phone call. Just start, just start and see what happens and like put yourself out there and you never know. And I think you've mentioned that before, like in the last conversation we had, you mentioned like, you just, just email the person or just start or just put yourself out there. And I feel like this podcast is we're just going to start and see, you know, like,
Taylor (39:17)
Mm -hmm.
This is us, this is us putting ourself out there and yeah.
Faith   (39:32)
This is us, we're starting, putting yourself out there. the goal is to advocate and to give real practical resources, not just like talk about the resource and never provide the resource. That really bothers me when people are like, so this is the new concept we're going to talk about. And then they like, don't actually talk about it or give a resource. You're like, really? That was a waste of my time. So like real practical resources.
Taylor (39:42)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.
Hehehehehe
Faith   (39:56)
Okay, so the other thing we talked about doing is every podcast having a money moment of the week, right? Should we do it? Okay, do you have something?
Taylor (39:56)
Yeah.
-huh. Yes. Let's do it.
Faith   (40:11)
I thought a little bit about it, but I'm like...
Taylor (40:14)
God, that's hilarious. I actually do. So, yeah.
Faith   (40:16)
the money moment of the week is like some moment during your week where you, you know, learn something new about money or you chose to do something interesting with your money or you learned something new about how to invest your money or just something money kind of focused or struggle. Right. Right.
Taylor (40:31)
Yeah, something money related or struggle or anything really. Yeah, my money moment. I feel like the money moment, it sounds like it's like a positive thing, but it doesn't have to be because two things that I'm about to share, these are my two money moments for this week. And I shared this in my newsletter with newsletter subscribers. Also side note, I'm to plug my newsletter. It's pretty awesome.
Faith   (40:58)
Heck yes.
Taylor (41:00)
I share every three to four months, I share a newsletter, give you three money resources, two things I'm loving, and a blog post or podcast to listen to. So I will put again in the show notes a link to subscribe. I'm not blowing up your email. No spam. Every couple of months, ain't nobody got time for a weekly email.
Faith   (41:11)
Mm -hmm.
No, no. Yeah.
Taylor (41:24)
It's helpful, I think, just to get some money resources in your inbox. So I'll put that in the show notes. Back to my money moment. I overdrafted my account two days ago because I was making a transfer out of the account and I clicked the wrong account to make the transfer. And so it overdrafted. I got charged $30 for the overdraft fee.
Faith   (41:38)
no!
Taylor (41:52)
And I called up my bank and was like, I did this on accident. Can I have that money back? Can I have the, can I have the feedback? And they were like, okay. So they refunded me. was $33. That's a fee. I know I was like $33. Like I can, I can do a lot of things with $33. So yeah, that.
Faith   (42:04)
Wow.
Mm -hmm. That's a big fee.
Yeah.
Taylor (42:18)
Did that, I've done that over the time that I've been managing my own money, which has been what? Since I was like 18, it's happened a few times and every time that I've called, I've gotten my money back. just give them a call. So that happened. That was a positive thing. I got the money back. The other thing that happened was those pesky subscriptions. I got this.
Faith   (42:30)
Hmm.
There you go. Give the bank a
Ugh.
Taylor (42:48)
Brett signed up for this food delivery service. Well, we do Blue Apron on the side, which love Blue Apron, but it's called Full Circle and they'll send you like fresh produce, which is like really awesome. But some of the things are kind of random. You can select what you want, but I just, when we would get the box, I would find myself like not really like using it all and not feeling like it just.
Faith   (42:52)
Yeah.
Mm. Mm.
Taylor (43:13)
I could really plan meals. just wasn't working. So you can skip weeks. So kept forgetting to skip. Well, so I would skip weeks and then this last time I didn't skip far enough and I haven't canceled it. And so I get this box to the door with this fresh produce and I was like, my gosh, I need to cancel this subscription. Why is it so hard to cancel subscriptions sometimes? That's the thing.
Faith   (43:14)
Mm. Right.
Hahaha!
That's part of it though. That's why they push so hard for it, because you forget about it. It's automatic withdrawal, and then you're like, that hit again, that hit again. And they're like, cha -ching, cha -ching, cha -ching, making all this money. we're like, because we, yeah.
Taylor (43:43)
Mm -hmm. Exactly. then... Mm -hmm. Yeah. Yeah, so I was like, okay, today I am canceling this subscription. It's happening. So I did that yesterday. So, yeah, I think sometimes there's this mental hurdle of like...
Faith   (43:59)
Yeah.
love it. Get rid of it.
Taylor (44:11)
you know, doing things. And I think that like extra step of like calling the bank or actually, you know, canceling the subscription. To be honest, like sometimes we just don't have the energy for just like that little thing. It's like, ugh, I got to call this person. Like I totally, I'm totally guilty of that.
Faith   (44:28)
They don't make it easy. Sometimes it's not easy either, you know? So it's a call or a rate and hold or whatever it is, you know? So.
Taylor (44:33)
No.
No, no. Yeah. And I was sharing with my newsletter. I know I'm sharing money stuff online. I'm sharing what I'm learning. I'm sharing my struggles. even though I am sharing like publicly, I don't have my shit together. I don't have my shit together all the time. I still mess up. I'm not perfect, you know. I overdrafted my bank account. I have a subscription. I've been meaning to cancel for months. It's like we all are still, we're trying our best.
Faith   (44:50)
Right. Yeah. Right. Right.
Taylor (45:02)
So could have...
Faith   (45:03)
That's how we learn though, right? We learn through making mistakes or we learn the best through sometimes not doing it correctly the first few times. That's how we learn the quickest and the most effectively. So yeah, it's part of the, it's part of learning and living and change, right? Okay. Mine's not as good as those, but
Taylor (45:11)
Mm -hmm.
Yeah, mm -hmm. Your money moment. Let's hear it.
Faith   (45:24)
Okay, so my money moment is that you should never give money or I shouldn't use the word should. If you're gonna bless somebody with money, just bless them with money and don't make it alone. Just give them the gift, like give them the gift and don't expect anything back because it just complicates things. makes people, especially in families, it makes
Taylor (45:39)
Mmmmm
Faith   (45:45)
people get upset or confused or they don't pay back or there's guilt around like needing to borrow money or shame around that. So if you're going to give someone money, just make it a gift. Don't see it as anything. Don't expect it back. Otherwise don't give the money. Don't give the money. If you're not willing to just let it go, don't give the money to the person because it just creates problems.
Taylor (46:05)
Yeah.
I've seen that a lot. I've seen that a lot. Yeah. Yeah. I can create a lot of problems and just having that, having that tension between you and that person, it can really mess up, mess up stuff like we've, yeah.
Faith   (46:14)
So.
Yeah. And I guess like, don't expect to thank you. Don't expect like, do you know what I mean? if you're going to actually give someone money, don't expect anything back. And cause I think sometimes even when we give a gift of money, we expect a little bit more gratitude or something, something back, you know, some sort of appreciation for it, which would be nice, of course. But when you, I don't know,
Taylor (46:29)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.
Mm Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.
Faith   (46:47)
Yeah, I don't know. Just, it makes it easier if you just give it as a gift. That's my only moment. Learn. I mean, I'm not going to tell how, I'm not going to get too personal and tell you how I learned, how I learned that this week, but that was something I was dealing with this week. It's like, okay, give it as a gift.
Taylor (46:51)
Mm -hmm. Yeah. Yeah, I love that. Hmm. Interesting. Interesting. Okay. Mm -hmm. Give it as a gift and let it go. Yeah. That's great. I love it. And this was a great first episode. I'm really proud of us. Thanks for listening. Next.
Faith   (47:08)
Otherwise, just don't do it.
Cool.
Taylor (47:20)
episodes, so we're gonna put out two episodes a month on the first and the 15th. So our next episode, we're gonna get vulnerable and we're gonna really talk about what are we making? What were we making our salary progression, our debt numbers, if we have debt, what's going on, we, we want people to be vulnerable with us on this podcast. And so we feel like it's important for us to,
be vulnerable first and set a good example.
Faith   (47:47)
Don't judge us. Yeah, there's no judgment.
Taylor (47:50)
Yeah, there's no judgment. That's one of the rules. I don't have many rules, but that's one of the rules in this space, in this community for all of us is we're not judging each other. We're not shaming each other about our past money, know, past money anything. This is a place where we want people to feel safe that they can learn about money free from guilt or shame. And so...
Faith   (47:58)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Love that.
Taylor (48:17)
We, yeah, no room for that here. So thanks for listening and we'll talk to you then.
Faith   (48:19)
Mm -hmm. Awesome.