Episode 38: How to Bring Your Dreams to Life

Acquania Escarne 0:03

You are listening to the Purpose of Money Podcast, a podcast where we talk about ways to build wealth and create more freedom in your life today. I am your host Acquania Escarne.

Hey guys! Welcome back to the Purpose of Money Podcast. Today we have special guests Laura DiBenedetto, who is an amazing woman. Her story begins with bullying, abuse and bankruptcy and burnout. She overcame everything, building a successful business at the age of 19, and went out to retire at 37 years old. With a six figure passive income, she has learned the formula to build a life of joy, and now follows her passion to share this message with others. She's a TEDx speaker, number one best selling author of Six Habits and the Life of Mastery Coach, Laura teaches how to create the life of our dreams, without sacrificing what we love. As founder and CEO of The Vision Advertising, a company that she built at age 19, she has helped hundreds of entrepreneurs build and grow profitable enterprises entirely on their terms. Hi, Laura. Welcome to the show.

Laura DiBenedetto 1:18

Hey, I'm so excited to be on your show with you.

Acquania Escarne 1:23

Yeah, this is so dope. So one of my friends had you on her show. And then was very gracious enough to refer you to me, because she said your story was just so amazing. She thought it would resonate with my listeners. And I totally agree. What I've gotten to know about you is just awesome. And I can't wait to share more of your story with my listeners. So let's just dive right in. I mean, I'm a person who started saving for my retirement at 16. So I kind of get the desire to have a business and retire early. But I wasn't ready to start a business at 19. So let's try to figure out like what inspired you to do that?

Laura DiBenedetto 2:07

Um, well, being fired from a whole lot of jobs and then quitting a whole bunch of other jobs. I was like,"Ooh, I think I need to own the job." So that's what inspired me. It's not sexy. It's not glitzy. It's just a fact. I am not very employable. Because I'm a leader.

Acquania Escarne 2:28

I like that. So you saw your talents very early, and you didn't waste your time or anyone else's by working for someone else for too long, which I can I can definitely say most people don't do that. They will work for 20 or 30 years for someone else before they figure out.

Laura DiBenedetto 2:43

Yeah, I wouldn't even say it was recognizing talent. I mean, that took me many years to be able to do that. I think it was more of just recognizing it was a square peg in a round hole. It was like, "I don't belong here. I don't know why I don't belong here. But I do know that this is not for me."

Acquania Escarne 2:57

I got it.

Laura DiBenedetto 2:57

Just having the courage to do something about it.

Acquania Escarne 3:01

That's pretty dope. I'm glad that you took that step because it gave you a head start into what you've now created, which I consider a happiness empire. So...

Yeah,! That's, that's cool. I like that happiness empire.

Hppiness Empire. Let's spread the joy. So there is some obstacle in your past you mentioned or I mentioned in your bio, how bullying and abuse, bankruptcy and burnout was all a part of your story. How did all of that impact your life?

Laura DiBenedetto 3:33

Well, bullying, bankruptcy, burnout, all of it. I mean, you can lay down and die or you can come out swinging. And I always felt like laying down and dying, always felt like it, but I never did. And I don't know why. I think it's probably just my constitution and how I'm built. But, you know, I was bullied when I was a kid. And I was bullied when I was in high school. And then I was in an abusive relationship. And he's always like, "Oh, you're stupid. You're fat." Meanwhile, this was like 20 pounds ago. He must think I'm a hippopotamus now. But like, you know, I just was treated like crap so much. And I was just like, "Damn, this is awful." You know, and I made some financial mistakes early on and got into the real estate market right at the bubble. Remember that? That was really good time. Really good time. So yep, lost all shreds of whatever dignity i'd acquired at that point. I was like, "Cool. I have no money. I've been kicked around and I've got a company that I really don't even know what I'm doing with or at least I haven't been fired. Hmm." I think the only point that I mean, what are you gonna do? It's like, well, I gotta eat so it looks like I'm gonna keep going it's not like I was like all like altruistic and like, "Oh my goodness. I'm gonna I'm gonna keep going because I'm a fighter." No. It was like I'm gonna keep going because I enjoy having crazy things like a roof and food. And, you know, you remember that like, Lose Yourself from Eminem?

Acquania Escarne 4:59

Yes.

Laura DiBenedetto 4:59

Successes is my only bleep option failures not?That came out right around that time when I was going through this stuff. I was like, "Eminem, I feel you, brother. Okay."

Acquania Escarne 5:12

I like that. So desperate times call for desperate measures, and you just wanted the simple things in life, you like you said food or roof, you realized you needed to sustain a livelihood. So you needed to keep going. So what was your breakthrough moment? How did you get to writing six habits?

Laura DiBenedetto 5:31

Well, I achieved a lot of success on my career, I mean, after the whole, like wanting to quit 500 times, and, you know, just deciding that having more than a roof would be cool. And maybe having not just a car, but a really nice one and getting better and better and better at my job and getting to be like bit of a ninja with sales and everything. I was just like, "Hmm, you know, if I just hustle a bit, maybe I can have the sun, moon, and stars." So I kept like, chasing happiness and, and chasing lots of things and awards and accolades and accomplishments. And, you know, like, I kept crushing every goal I set in front of myself, and I became like a professional Goal Crusher, unfortunately, I also became like a professional Soul Crusher, because I mean, even if you love it, you know, like working 18 hour days, for like, years on end, will burn you out. And especially when you swallow enough people's crap, and you let people walk on you when you shouldn't, and you don't have good boundaries, which I didn't, you get horrifically burned out. So, you know, skip ahead, skip ahead. You know, when I was in my 30s, I was like, "Well, I don't think I really want to do this anymore. But I'm not sure what I want to do next." And I wasn't even thinking about retirement, I was just like, What can I do for a new career? So I was like, "Well, do I want to sell my company? Do I want to just close it? What do I want to do?" And I was like, :Well, you know, it'd be really neat. What if I could find a way to get rid of the work, but not the money? That would be cool. " So I reflected on that question for a good number of months. And I was like, "Ooh, I got it. I will sell 49% of my company. And I will let this person earn their way in that way. They don't have to give me a bunch of cash. And I can still make money over and like 100% equity for a number of years." Working out really well. She's in your four, I love her. She's basically my business soulmate, which is really awesome. But um, I was able to find my way out. So then, you know, I retire, right? Most people are like, "Oh, you retired at 37? Yeah, we have nothing in common. You suck." And they don't want to listen to me. And then they realize that it's like, Yeah, actually, I basically like retirement for me was more like skidding on my face to the finish line. And by the time I got there, I was just all bloodied and beaten up. Miserable, didn't feel good about life, hated myself still comparing myself to others. And I wish I had achieved more and still felt like I wasn't enough. I wrote the book because I was so pissed off when I retired. That all I had ever done to chase happiness, all was just chasing emotional highs. And we what we know ask any drug user, what happens with highs, they wear off. Same thing with caffeine that wears off. So you need either more caffeine or more drugs or more happiness or something, right? You need...and I just got tired of the hamster wheel and I don't want to chase highs anymore. I got good and pissed off. And I decided to finally figure out what happiness really was, what the secret formula was, and how I could actually make it happen for myself. Did all the research found out all the things started experimenting like crazy. And I actually did find the formula I was looking for. It works so damn well. So well. I recovered my health. I fixed my relationships. My marriage that was already in the crapper, like started like feeling amazing again. I started sleeping really well. Anxiety was a thing of the past. My skin even cleared up because I wasn't like eating anxiety for breakfast, lunch and dinner and like binging on sugar late at night and like, I finally healed what was broken inside of me. I started being truly like, over the top obnoxiously joyful. I started going after my dreams and doing all this crazy stuff. I'm like, "You know, I feel like other people might like the recipe." So that's where the book came from.

Acquania Escarne 9:16

I love that! The energy I felt it. I was like, "Ooh, I want to know these six habits." So tell us what are the six habits?

Laura DiBenedetto 9:23

Sure. Hell of an intro, right? Here's the recipe, folks. Alright, so anytime I tell people what the habits are, I always have to preface it, okay? Like, I'm going to tell you these words. And you're going to be like,"Oh, well, I've heard these words before." And most people make the mistake of turning their ears and their brain off because you've heard these words before. Don't do that. Listen harder, because it's not the words themselves. It's the way the words show up in our lives. That's the game changer. And I'm going to explain so stay with me on the journey. You can do this. Alright, ready?

Okay, so the first habit is kindness to yourself, it's a thoughts, words and actions of love to yourself from yourself, right? Most people think of kindness as the way we treat others. While that's true, that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the things you're not even aware of what you say to yourself when you're going after the bigger sale that you've ever made in your whole life. That negative self talk, "I don't want to do that. Oh, you know, oh, they're not gonna buy. Ooh, you know, I better save that money for a rainy day, instead of spending it on myself, blah, blah, blah." It's all that negative self talk has got to go. Kindness to yourself. Huge, right. So again, kindness. Have we heard this word before? Of course we have. But the game changer is not even the word. It's the fact that it is a mental habit. It's how you respond to your life, and moments and challenges. Do you do it with kindness? Or do you do it with fear and self sabotage? That's the difference. That's the aha moment. All right. So let's look at these other habits through the same lens. Habit number two, acceptance. It is the unconditional love you have and the way you feel about yourself. Unconditional Love, right. So when we accept ourselves, we feel like we get to truly be ourselves. 100% live life fully on our terms, to hell with what other people think. Now, what does this mean? What's the impact? The impact is courage, like we've never known because it's like, "I don't care if you like what I'm doing. Oh, I don't care if you approve. I'm doing this anyway. Oh, you don't like my polka dotted pants? I don't care. You know, Oh, you don't like the fact that I actually am going to take a swing for the fences. And I'm going to ask for the huge six figure deal. I don't care. I'm doing it anyway." You get courage. And you get self belief like you've never known when you master this mental habit. Acceptance people are like, "Oh, yeah, you just accept what happens." No, no, no, no, no, that's so disempowering. Acceptance as a mental habit is how you look at who you are. You don't compare yourself to your friends. :Oh, she's got more money than me. Oh, she has more of a better career than me." I got so many friends. I feel like everybody has bigger boobs than me. I could get upset about that. But it's like, no, I accept that I am the president of the itty bitty titty committee. And I feel good about my presidential role, and I accept it. Okay, like, I mean, I make jokes, but like, the whole point is like, we have to regard this as a mental habit. And what's a habit? It's something you unconsciously do. Do you unconsciously accept yourself at every turn? Most people don't. So that's why we need to pay attention. Habit number three is gratitude. Again, easy to dismiss. Gratitude. People like oh no, I'm a master of gratitude. I wrote my little 10 pieces of gratitude every night before bed. Do you Good for you. It's a hell of a start. Now what happens when life goes sideways and Coronavirus takes your but your business and splits it in half? Still feeling grateful? Probably not. Now, that's the challenge. Can you take a look at the fact that you've been through hell? And you're still alive? And you came out swinging? Can you look at that with gratitude? Can you regard the sucky stuff in life? You know, like with gratitude, gratitude is the lens of appreciation through which we look at everything in our lives. And I mean, everything. The hard stuff, especially. Y'all, I had two miscarriages, and I'm grateful for them. I'm grateful for the way that I carried myself through that. And I'm grateful I can be there in sisterhood with other women that have been through that. I am grateful for that experience. Because even though I'm not a mom, I got to be a part of the club for like, two little minutes. But it was really cool, right? I choose to look at it with gratitude. Because what happens is, when we look at it, like "Oh, poor me, I can't believe that happened." We have a dismal crappy outlook on life. And we don't magnetize wealth and joy and good things. We don't we can't, because we're this negative lightning rod of crap. But when you are lightning rod for beauty and joy and things being given to you, because you are just so energetically aligned gifts are given to you freely and easily. Those are just three of the habits. Now, habits now can you imagine if you were to only master these three and forget the other three? Power, but there's more. So habit number four is presence, right? You've heard about mindfulness. Mindfulness is like, "You chew that almond and feel the almond. Feel the salt, taste the salt." I'm not talking about that. Although please do that because I like almonds they're good for you.What I'm talking about is presence in the way that you go through your life. Invest your time and your moments and your attention wisely, right? Presence in all that you do. When you're at work, are you wishing you were at home? When you're at home, are you wishing you were at work? And you're going through a really crappy situation and just wishing you weren't in it? Or can you just choose to be in the suck, choose it, choose to go through the pain instead of trying to go around it, circumnavigating, and having it take longer and run you through the wringer? Can you choose what's going on in your life in the moment? And here's a great example. I live on Maui. I see tourists desperately trying to get the perfect picture of the sunset. Meanwhile, I'm the only lady sitting on the beach, just appreciating the hell out of it. When you're present with things, you get to live them better. You get to actually put your damn smartphone down and live your own life instead of reading about how others live theirs, right? So you can quit being a voyeur. When you're present what do you get out of it? Your life is richer, has more texture, has more meaning the sucky moments, they wash over you faster. You're more resilient, right? So this is a habit. We all have habits. I enjoy Candy Crush, but I also limit myself because I don't want to miss my life. So habit number five is the habit of Goodness. Goodness is the active, proactive addition of good into our lives and the active subtraction of toxic from our lives. This means yes, you actually have to learn boundaries. And you know what? Anyone listening right now, if you haven't mastered boundaries, this is an invitation to do it. Because having the habit of goodness masters mastered it means "Oh, no, no, honey, you do not get to speak to me like that. Absolutely not." Okay? It also means that it's like, "Wow, I'm feeling super depleted right now. I need to do something for myself." And it's not just the pedicures and the wine, which I also love those things, highly recommend those two, big fan. But what I'm talking about more specifically, is recognizing and adding to yourself. I really miss my friends. I need five minutes of love with my girlfriends, okay. Or I really need to leave this meeting right now because it's stressing me out. I need to go collect myself in the ladies room, and even just sit on the toilet and just meditate for a minute. Because I need to add to myself because this is pulling a lot from me. Okay. It's you must add to yourself and be mindful of what subtracts from yourself. You got to do that as a default. That's a mental habit.

The final mental habit is the habit of intention. This is how we process our desires. What's your habit now? Is it "Oh, I don't know how to do this." Or "Ooh, that's overwhelming." Or "Ooh, I'm not really clear. I don't even know what I want. What's my purpose?" Or is is you know, or or maybe is it like, "Oh my god, I'm so scared. I Nope, not gonna do that." Or is your habit? "Mmm.. No, I have no idea what I'm doing. But I'm gonna figure it out. "Or "Wow, I'm really scared. That's interesting. I wonder why I'm scared, huh? Well, let's pick that apart and find out why, right?" You become curious about your desires curious about pathways you, you take tiny incremental movement forward, even if it's wicked small, because it's something and it keeps you moving. It's momentum. It's passion. It's all of these things, right? So I just took like, 10 minutes to like, really, like explain these for you, right? And these words are not just words, these words are mental habits and how you respond to everything that you encounter in your life. And it's not just a knee jerk reaction of like, "Oh, no, I'm scared. That's terrible. I'm not doing it." It's the gradual reprogramming of like, "Yeah, I'm scared. That's interesting, huh? You know what, I'm scared. But I actually believe in myself. And you know what, it doesn't matter to me that so and so has achieved more than me. I don't care cuz I'm so great. Oh, and you're 50 pounds lighter than me. That's cool. Good for you. Look at all this badonkadonk." It's like, it's like feeling the love for your life, the goods and Bad's you're on this roller coaster ride anyway, you might as well enjoy it. Instead of screaming and holding on for dear life put your arms up and have some fun. Like, the mental habits inform how our lives go. You could easily be Person A who looks at life "Oh I'm a victim and everything over you know, always works out badly for me and nothing I ever try works and why does this always go this way?" And ah, God, victim victim, wow. You could do that. Or you could easily be the person that's like, "Oh, hell no. Life is here for me, baby. Life happens for me, not to me. And I am here on this incredible ride. And I am alive. Look at all the great stuff I'm doing. I'm going to pursue the things that light my soul on fire, right?" And all of these things are also a life that you can build through your habits and you can easily choose or you personally In a or Person B, the only difference is the habits you have. And most people live in the negative habits, but they've got like a teeny little taste of the good habits. They get a teeny little taste, everybody's slightly good at all of them now. But it's what happens when we can actually crank up the dial on every single one and get really really good at every single one? That's when we can be the person that looks at life like "Hell, yeah, I got this, right?" And don't we all want that?

Absolutely. And I just want to say there's so much that you just went into, and I want to unpack it a little bit. But the main point is the mindset and the habits to continuously reminding yourself, how to feed into yourself, how to remove the things that are not good for you how to refocus, right, because I still do feel we're all human right. And in a moment, if we're not conscious, we might go back to the bad habits and thinking, "Oh, my God, I should run. This is when I would normally run from this situation." But then when you get a little bit of time to process, you get back into the mindset and you're like, "Wait, no, I can handle this. This is something that I know that I can do. And this is something that I want to do, I want to prove that I can do it. And then that gives you the confidence to move forward." Because I do think a lot of what we do as women is confidence driven. You feeling like you can do it, your hat, you know what they say? Once you believe that you can do it, you're halfway there, right? No matter what the goal is.

So true.

Acquania Escarne 21:34

I love that. And I love that you're constantly reminding us that it is a behavior that we repeat, we repeat, we repeat, and we make a part of our lives so that we are living these truths. It's not just yesterday, or the first month of the year, because everyone has new year's resolutions. But it's every single day. Like yeah, let me conquer this. Let me be me, let me be my greatest self.

Laura DiBenedetto 22:03

Absolutely. You know, the other part of this is that, you know, life is going to show up. I started this research in 2018, long before anybody heard of Corona, anything and only thought it was a beer. Okay, so then 2020 showed up and punched a lot of people squarely in the face. And myself, my company, absolutely. I was on the list. And these are habits I had mastered before Coronavirus showed up. And, and everything happened, my successor at my company in Massachusetts got cancer, right? And I was forced to contend with all these new things that I had not planned for, right? But when you have these habits, right, it doesn't mean that your brain isn't going to always try to pull you back. So when you get to a new baseline, it's like, "Okay, well I can handle the life I'm used to. And I can master these habits here." But then a new thing comes along. And you eventually when you're in the throes of mastering the habits which I outline how to do in the book, you have an opportunity to redirect yourself as a habit and just be like, "Oh, no, I used to do that. I'm not doing that. No." Or, "Wow, I'm spiraling right now. And this is not serving me." Like you become so self aware through this mastery journey. Like you know, the the thing that happens is a lot of people make the mistake of thinking they're happy when they're not. What you are is chasing a bunch of highs. And and really just on a hamster wheel, you've got momentum for the sake of momentum, right? But when you actually stop and take a look, am I really happy? Truly happy? And like when I take all the achievements away? When I take all the money away? When I take all my success away? What's left? All the toys are gone, and you're just sitting there by yourself. Can you live with yourself? Do you like yourself? Do you enjoy time with yourself? Can you just appreciate going outside and enjoy what is? Or do you constantly need stimulation? You constantly need new things? Like we're not as happy as we think we are. So I built a quiz that people can take on my websites free and you can get information to find out like how happy are you really?

Acquania Escarne 24:18

I like that I'll definitely in the show notes, guys, I'll leave that information so you can take the quiz. I think you're right though we have so many distractions. And a lot of it is some of it is genuine like because phones and internet are so accessible. You want to always be in the know and notifications make you want to look at your phone and see who wrote what next and who tagged me in a picture. All of that could very well distract you for the whole day. I know people who spend hours on their phones, trying to continuously keep up with whatever's new and totally...

Laura DiBenedetto 24:55

...get that new dopamine hit.

Acquania Escarne 24:56

Exactly! And totally missing like the sky just turned purple and the song of the birds and all these different things. But I want to ask you, because this all sounds great, and I know that people can do it. But do you ever sometimes feel like you can't live without something? Like, is there something in your life that you've besides Candy Crush because I used to have that problem too. But is there anything where you're like, you know, I do need this, but it's okay? Like, is there anything that someone could actually justify is that is something that genuinely makes them happy? And it should be a part of their life?

Laura DiBenedetto 25:42

Well, yeah, I mean, I think there's, there's always a fine line between whether you know, like, whatever it is, it could be Candy Crush, it could be wine, it could be smoking pot, it could be food, anything in excess is not good for you. Anything, doesn't matter. Like, if you want to smoke pot once in a while. And that's something that you can handle, and it adds to your life, but doesn't take anything from your life. Then it sounds like that might be something you can handle. If you play Candy Crush for three hours every day, oooh maybe you're not living your life, you know, but maybe if you just sit down once in a while and just want to play a couple rounds, because you just need some quiet like brain duh time because you're just tired? Maybe that's actually doing something for you. Because you get to have some mental downtime. You know, for me, I love. I love all sorts of stuff. Like I told you, I like wine, but I go for weeks at a time without drinking any you know, and when I have it, sometimes I have a bit too much because I am a lightweight and by too much I mean a glass and a half. Oh, it's embarrassing. I'm the cheapest date on the planet. Like I have a glass and a half. And I'm like, swinging my bra around on the bar. No, I'm not. But like, oh, it's embarrassingly, like, bad. But like, you know, because I know this about myself, I have one glass, you know? And if I happen to be out, it'll be like, "Oh, I can handle it." No, no, no, no, I can't. You know, we just have to be really self aware. And it's like, is this habit? Or this thing that I enjoy? Is this adding to my life? Or is it subtracting? Social media does not add to my life. News does not add to my life. It adds headaches, that's about it. And I just have to be super hyper vigilant and safeguarding my energy. And I am very mindful of excess anything. Excess work. I actually have, I don't have any addictions except one. I am addicted to working. It's easy for me, I love it. I love making money. I love helping people. I love conversations. Like, literally, I could sit down and record like 12 podcasts in one day. I just love it that much. But I also know, my body does not respond well. Even though my brain is having a ball, my shoulders hurt, my back hurts. I don't sleep as well, because my brains still going. I must honor and listen to my body. So at the end of the day, I just need to be in tune with myself and just make a good decision about what's good for me.

Acquania Escarne 28:05

I love that, especially with a part where you said safeguarding your energy. And you know, using it for you and your well being and recognizing being very self aware of what you need. I love all of that. So now I just want to ask you, for anyone listening who's like, "Oh my god, Laura is amazing. I totally want to connect with her." Like, how would I know that I am in need of a coach? Or this is a time where I need to reflect and figure out my true happiness? What are some of the things that most people are either dealing with or processing at the time in which they contact you for your coaching services or anything you offer?

Laura DiBenedetto 28:47

So there well there's a couple different things. Um, so I only coach five people a year. That's it. And I have a very very limited practice for a reason I only take on the people that can A-Really go hard with everything I asked them to do. And they're gonna get the fullest commitment from me. I don't have that many spots left. So it's very far and few between you have to like actually apply and interview for it. But for the other things, there's different things like for for someone that's like, "Huh, you know what this habit stuff? You might be onto something." Get the book, it's cheap on Amazon, I think even this week, it's like 10 bucks. I mean, that's cool. Go grab it. It's 10 bucks, like read the book, get the wisdom, it comes with like loads of workbooks that can actually help you take action, because knowing about something is not enough. You need to apply the wisdom, right and all the workbook stuff is free. So for the person who's even mildly curious or like "No, you know what? You make sense crazy lady, I'm gonna go read your book." Cool. That's a great place to start. After you read the book, if you're like, "Yep, I'm totally doing these exercises." You do them and you're like,"I am so freakin ready to change my life." In that moment, that person, they don't even need to be coached, I have a 90 day program that I built for me initially. And if I could get my stubborn self to actually get through this thing, and come out the other side, the happiest, most epic version of myself I've ever been my husband too who may be more stubborn than me, maybe? That's a big deal. So it really kind of depends on where you are. But I always recommend people start with the book. Because if you really resonate with the messages in there, and you are like, "Oh, hell yeah, I want that." You'll do the work. And it's free to get all the workbooks. And then if you do that, you're actually eligible to do that 90 day program, and you will change your life. It's pretty awesome.

Acquania Escarne 30:44

I love it. Guys, you heard that. So make sure to take heed of all of this advice. And again, I will share links to everything in the show notes. So now that you're retired in Hawaii, I always ask my guests this, what is your purpose for money?

Laura DiBenedetto 31:01

That's, that's an interesting question. So the thing that I like to think about with money is like, the whole thing that I worked for before was to have enough. I have enough. I just want to keep the enough train going. That's good. You know, and for me, my I don't have children. And so it's not like I need to leave a legacy. I don't need to do other big things. At this point, my life might think of something awesome in the next 10 years. I don't know maybe I'll build a school in like, the middle of some remote village somewhere and be the next Oprah. That would be cool. But for now, the only thing that I'm really like, purposefully like working on with money is making sure that I can take care of my aging parents and giving them the absolute most wonderful last years of their lives. I'm buying a home in Jacksonville, Florida. We move there at the very start of the new year. Little scary, I'm going to get one of those old people stair chairs that like elevates them up the stairs. Big investment y'all. I'm so excited. And you know what? When I have my glass and a half of wine do not be surprised if you see me on the little chair elevator riding up my own staircase. Do not be surprised. I will have legs crossed with my fancy foreign stilettos. I can't do the stairs. I'm sorry. I can't not in these heels. No.

Acquania Escarne 32:26

I love that. I can't wait. You should totally. Even if you want to be a little disconnected, take out your phone for that. It's worth the video.

Laura DiBenedetto 32:35

Yeah, my dad will be at the bottom he'll be like aiming the thing at himself "Dad, no! Flip the camera." And then he'll go like this, turn it upside down. "No, flip the camera." And then my mom will be in the background "Bill. You're gotta do it this way!" Listen to me, my friends. If you have not experienced senior citizens in technology, I encourage you to never check it out. It's awful. They're so bad.

Acquania Escarne 32:58

It's been a challenge. I have to do a zoom group call with my mom on Saturday. And I'm like praying, please help me please help me hoping that her husband will help her too. Because it's it's painful. I've tried to get my parents on social media. And it's been a challenge. But now they're on it. And they're my most frequent commentators, and likers and shares but...

Laura DiBenedetto 33:25

They're your biggest fans and they always will be.

Acquania Escarne 33:26

They are my biggest fans. Yes. I love that.

Laura DiBenedetto 33:28

They made you.

Acquania Escarne 33:29

I love what you're doing for your parents. So does this mean you're leaving Hawaii? Or will you just have two places you call home?

Laura DiBenedetto 33:36

No we're going to leave Hawaii for now. We'll be back. I mean, I am actually quite happy to make Florida my permanent residence. It's very like you don't really appreciate how geographically remote this place is. I can't just be like oh, just hop on a plane and just go somewhere quickly. The shortest flight anywhere is six hours just for the West Coast. So like, you know, the, you know, I was all excited. I'm going to go to Japan. I'm going to go to here and there Coronavirus happened, it didn't happen. But I get to explore the hell out of this island when the whole world wasn't invited. And that is an irreplaceable gift. So that's pretty cool. But like I'm trading one dream for another. I've always been close with my parents and being able to create this like nice family life. Dude, I'm like, so excited about this because they're like really funny. And they're really cool like old people. Like, I don't know, if I have a fight with my husband or something. My mom would be like, "Oh, no, he didn't." I'll be like, Mom, "you know?" she's like," oh,

how could he?" "I know!" And we just sit there in our in our indignance. And then my dad can't remember a damn thing. He'll be like, "Hi, Bug! How you doing?" He calls me bug. It's short, short for Lovebug. I'd be like, "Good. Hey, remember that thing I told you yesterday now? Cool. Let me tell you again." "Nope. Not gonna remember that either." "Okey doke." I mean, it's just funny.

Dad: "Hey, this thing's broken." "Cool." "I'm going to show you how to fix it." "Dad I really don't care." "Sure you do. Come here." "Dad,I don't have time." "Come here." "Uh huh."

Acquania Escarne 35:09

I love it. Oh, you know what I have to admit, my friends are my friends. My parents became really cool once I was an adult. When we could sit down and have wine together and travel together, they just became so much more interesting. And now I love you know, like when we're together, we're having a good time. And my parents are divorced. But they get along well, in the same room, which is amazing. So we could actually travel as a family. So we've done a couple of family trips with my kids, my husband and both sets of grandparents.

Laura DiBenedetto 35:45

Damn, really?

Acquania Escarne 35:47

It's priceless. And they're all hilarious, because my mother is a character in herself, she should have been an actress. She's funny as well, and talks to strangers frequently. So you never know what's going to come out of her mouth, who she's going to bring home, or what she's going to end up revealing to the world. And then my dad is like, a man of few words, but really tall stands out in the crowd, and he will explore anywhere. So you're always constantly wondering, is he gonna get lost? Are we gonna find him? I have stories like one time in Greece, he almost got left on one of the ferries because we were all exiting the ferry and he was taking pictures on his iPad, and talking to strangers and roaming around. And I was like, "This is our style." And so this is my life. So I totally get it. Oh, this has been really really fun.

Laura, thank you so much for being on the show. Before I let you go, I want you to please share with my guests how we can find you website social media, where are you?

Laura DiBenedetto 36:55

So the best place to find me as is at TheSixHabits.com. TheSixHabits.com. Find the book, the program, everything you're looking for TheSixHabits.com.

Acquania Escarne 37:09

Excellent. I'll make sure to include that in the show notes. Guys, I want you to check out her book. Remember, she told you it's on Amazon. It's on her website, TheSixHabits.com make sure that you check it out, apply the knowledge and create your best life.

Laura DiBenedetto 37:27

I support that. Thank you so much.

Acquania Escarne 37:29

Thank you.

Thank you for listening to the Purpose of Money Podcast. For more resources and information, check out my website, ThePurposeofMoney.com and while you're there, please sign up for our newsletter so you have the latest information on new episodes and blog posts. Until next time, keep creating freedom in your life today.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai