Taking the first steps to start investing is intimidating for most of us. We think investing is for the experts - and how do you know what expert is the right one for you? We couldn't possibly do it ourselves, right? But who has more interest in your financial future than you? You may also think that you need to be good at math to invest, but that just isn't true. In this episode, the Talk Wealth To Me crew sits down with the Invest Diva herself, Kiana Danial. This fascinating, Iran-born woman takes us on her journey of heading to Japan to study electrical engineering during the time of the 2008 recession. This period turned out to be an incredible learning experience that changed her professional course. Kiana headed to the Big Apple to work in the world of finance which turned out to be nothing like what she expected.
The founder of Invest Diva discusses how she began and how her passion for teaching has led her to great heights by lifting up individuals, especially women, to be successful at investing and creating wealth in ways they never imagined they could.
Taking the first steps to start investing is intimidating for most of us. We think investing is for the experts - and how do you know what expert is the right one for you? We couldn't possibly do it ourselves, right? But who has more interest in your financial future than you? You may also think that you need to be good at math to invest, but that just isn't true. In this episode, the Talk Wealth To Me crew sits down with the Invest Diva herself, Kiana Danial. This fascinating, Iran-born woman takes us on her journey of heading to Japan to study electrical engineering during the time of the 2008 recession. This period turned out to be an incredible learning experience that changed her professional course. Kiana headed to the Big Apple to work in the world of finance which turned out to be nothing like what she expected.
The founder of Invest Diva discusses how she began and how her passion for teaching has led her to great heights by lifting up individuals, especially women, to be successful at investing and creating wealth in ways they never imagined they could.
[ Intro] welcome to top wealth, to me, a safe space podcast, where we chat about anything and everything related to personal finance.
Felipe Arevalo:The information contained in this podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. It does not constitute as accounting, legal tax or other professional advice.
Chase Peckham:Hello, and welcome to another edition of talk wealth. To me, this week's guest is truly inspirational and the topic of investing, which to a lot of people is very scary. I can't understand it. I'm not good at math. Well Kiana, who is the founder of Invest Diva proves that all wrong. And the story behind the journey with which she took to get where she is today is truly remarkable.[inaudible]
Katie Utterback:Some of those questions, but I think, you know, just to give our audience a feeling for who you are and some of the obstacles that you've overcome in life, cause you're a very impressive person. Maybe just share a little bit about your story and how you've gotten to where you are now.
Kiana Danial:Thank you so much for having me. First of all, I'm super excited and thank you so much for the kind words. This has been a very long journey for me, of course. And a lot of people see the success and they don't understand how much work has gone under it. How much sleep, how many sleepless nights and how many people to overcome, who didn't believe in you, including your family members, which is normally the hardest part of it, the constant struggle of why didn't you, why don't you just get a normal job and why are you doing this? And nobody's going to take you seriously to finally being able to show that, Hey, look it's actually working, but, um, the biggest beauty of this after all this, because it is that is the reward that you get from being able to help and being able to make a difference and the impact that you have on people's lives. Because for, because first when you get started is all about, okay, I want to make money, but then once you get to that step, then you're like, okay, I made the money. So now what, then it becomes all about the influence and the impact and in passing on basically the torch to other people. So that's why I'm super excited to be a guest on your show today. And thank you for the opportunity.
Chase Peckham:Yeah, well, cause you're so multifaceted. I mean, if you, when you, when you look at invest diva and we will get into that and how that was created, but you, you hit on so many points of personal finances, even outside of Investing, even though that is where, you know, your bread and butter. Uh, and especially the idea that, you know, you, you did this after really. I mean, and I can't wait to hear it is, but the stress of being on wall street had to be off the charts.
Kiana Danial:Oh yeah, absolutely. So it's interesting because I had to basically learn so many different things, uh, as I was founding invest diva, but wall street was one of the places that helped me realize that I'm actually not cut for the corporate job and that this whole investing thing that I was fascinated by can be done on a personal level. Like I don't have to be a part of a big hedge fund or a big corporation or a broker in order to be able to invest. So to backtrack a little bit, I am actually not even a, an economics degree or a finance degree. I'm an engineer. I have an engineering degree and I was fascinated by how much money can be made in the markets. Even though I didn't know anything about it in 2008 market crash, I got lucky. I made some money by just literally I would label it as gambling. Um, during the crash, when everybody was losing money, I made$10,000 and I was like, Oh my God, this is super cool. So I decided to discover what this whole investing world is all about. And that's why I went on wall street. Cause I thought, that's the way that you can do it. That's the only way that you can actually get a fraction or get your hands on this money making machine, that it is the markets. And they were able to prove me wrong. And, uh, that is how this whole thing started for me. It was to learn how to invest. But then when I decided to go on my own was also learn how to be an entrepreneur and run a business. So it was two things that were going on at the same time. And uh, I'm still learning, but I've gotten to a point that I can help others at least to get to where I am today. If there are starting out, just like when I was back in 2008,
Katie Utterback:you know what I, you didn't mention this K iana, but I, what I love about your story is that you say like right off, I'm not a finance person. And I think I was even reading something where you said, I don't even like math or used to say, like, I'm not even good at math.
Chase Peckham:I'll say that I'm not good either. I am. I'm not either. And yet here we are.
Kiana Danial:No, the thing is that's interesting. Cause I don't like actually math. It is very intimidating to me. The reason why I went to engineering is because my dad is an engineer and there was this pressure of my parents for me, just like, look, you got to become an engineer. I'm like, okay. So, um, and the funny thing is with the investing thing that people like, I'm not, I'm not good at math. The question that I asked them is like, okay, what math are you talking about? Because the math quote, unquote, that is required for investing is fourth grade. Math is two plus two is four kind of math that you don't even have to do it on your own. You have, we have phones now that have this amazing calculators can, that can do it for you. So like when we talk about math and people have this intimidating vision of math and investing was like, we're not trying to solve like quantum physics when it comes to this. And believe me, like, I don't know. I personally do not do any math. When it comes to investing, it comes down to being street smart, to understanding the assets they're investing. And you have to do a little bit of investigation into your own personal finances. I understand if you owe some money, like if you don't owe some money, what is your net worth? What is your risk tolerance? But that's about it when it, when it comes to actual investments, strategy development, I do not do any math at all at all. Like really at all. Like I know I can read the numbers of my account, that how much money I have if it's negative or positive, but that's about it, right? Like it's not like I'm doing some sort of crazy calculations and I want people to understand like this whole, Oh, you have to know math in order to invest. Things is just a myth.
Chase Peckham:So as you went through it, take us back a little bit. Uh, you, you went and got your engineering degree and what was it about where were you in the time of your life in 2008? When obviously, I mean, I remember right where I was when I hit that. And I was when that hit and I was running a conference with some very, very heavy hitters in the golf industry. And it, you could feel the air literally leave that place. When news started hitting people's phones, it was a very scary time. So where were you and what was it about that that made you so interested in it? Can you take us through that time period?
Kiana Danial:Absolutely. So I had just graduated and uh, wait, hold on 2008, I have to calculate. Now, what I remember about that time is that I was just running around looking for my passion. Cause I already knew that I do not want to be an engineer. I just completely hated it. I was in Tokyo. I didn't mention that I was in Japan. I was in Japan. I went to college in Japan, study electrical engineering in Japanese, which did not help. And when that hits, I did not know the meaning of a recession. I didn't know. Like I was that illiterate when it came to finance and economy, they're like, Oh, there's a reason. I'm like, what is a recession? Like, I didn't know this word in English and Japanese and Farsi, which is my mother. Like I had never heard of this term before. And people started explaining to me. And at that time I was actually teaching English to Japanese people as a part time job to just make some money. I was also, I had a TV show on Japanese national TV, as I said, it was just doing so many different things to just find my passion. So we were discussing this with my, you know, director of the Japanese TV with my students. And it was like, I go, what is this recession thing that has just hit hits? And they're like explaining like what, but there was one thing that I related to, and that was the fact that the U.S. dollar was getting cheaper compared to the Japanese yen. Right? So I was in Japan. I had some Japanese yen in my bank account cause I was doing all these kind of different works. And my family was in the U.S. I knew that at some point I want to go to the U S and it was like, Oh, if the U S dollar exchange rate is getting cheaper than maybe I can not go by U.S. Dollar exchange, my Japanese yen into U.S. Dollar. Now that it's cheap. And so being a very risk averse person that I am, and I continue to be is I went to the bank. I didn't exchange all of my Japanese yen all at once. I was like, Oh, let me just test it a little bit. I exchanged just a little bit of it that day. The next day I went to the bank, the U.S. Dollar was even cheaper. The next day was even cheaper. Like, Oh my God, how low is it going to go? Like, when is the best time? When is the optimal time for me to make this exchange of my Japanese into the U.S. Dollar? And again, I was talking about this out of nowhere with one of my friends. And she said, I was like, yeah, maybe I should like, write a program. Like, how can, I don't want to go to the bank every single day. I want to automate it. Like, can I write a program to like, what can I do? It's just like, well, like you don't, it's like, you don't have to create something from scratch. The are like institutions called brokers that do this for you. I'm like, what is a broker? So she was like, okay, now let me do it for you. So she's like, she created an account for me at an affects Forex broker for an exchange broker. And, uh, she was like, okay, do you want to take a risk? What is the risk? Yeah, sure. So it's just like, do you want to take leverage? I'm like, what's the leverage? I'm like, whatever. So she just created this thing for me. And, um, so now I know what happened is I showed her the dollar yen pair at a 14 time leverage. Like, I, I have no idea what that's, what happened. But the result was that I made$10,000 from August to September, 2008, when literally the banks around the world were going bankrupt. And I'm like, what just happened, I made money. whiel, everybody else is losing money. This is so cool. So that is introduction. And I'm like, this is so fascinating. And I wanted to learn all about it. And, uh, I started asking my English students who were corporate people, uh, to teach me about investing. And like, that was their lesson, like, okay, teach me about investing in English. So I was like getting something out of it. That was their English lesson.
Chase Peckham:That's great.
Kiana Danial:But it's a lesson in investing.
Felipe Arevalo:Great multitasking.
Kiana Danial:Multitasking super savvy, killing two birds with one word, two birds with one stone. That's the expression. And, um, so I was like, okay, this isn't just, I wasn't really learning anything. So I decided to hand off my money to a money manager to invest for me. Cause I already knew that this is the way to go. I was learning about inflation was learning about quantitative easing. The fed is printing money. That inflation is going to happen. You have to invest to keep up with it. And all these things. I'm like, I don't think I'm going to be able to learn this. Let me hand off my money to money manager. And um, long story short, I got scammed. They ran away with my money, so I lost money and I'm like, okay, this sucks. All right, let me now go learn this properly. Let me go to wall street. And that's how I decided to pack up. Go from Tokyo, came to New York, got a job on a Forex broker because now I had this quote unquote experience in the Forex trading. Uh, and, uh, that's how he got started with my actual journey of finance.
Chase Peckham:So here you are. And you've got, as you just mentioned, quote, unquote experience, and you now, what are you doing on wall street in New York? What is your job currently and how long does that last before you realize maybe this isn't where I'm supposed to be? Because where are you working for other people at that time now?
Kiana Danial:Yes. So I went to wall street having extremely high hopes. First of all, it was my first time in America too. And I knew America from Hollywood movies that all these executive women executives and charge and like this glamorous place,
Chase Peckham:The Devil Wears Prada?
Kiana Danial:The Devil Wears Prada and Sex in the City like that was my idea of New York. So I'd come to New York. I actually basically learned English by watching friends, the SOCOM. That's a different story. So I had the quick wits, I knew the English terms to like come back and all of the things. And I'm like, I'm going to New York. I'm going to, and that is when actually, um, concrete jungle song had hit the market. Um, Oh my God, what's her name? Oh, the.
Katie Utterback:Alicia keys?
Kiana Danial:Alisha Keys New York, I am gone concrete jungle. I'm going, I'm going to New York. And so I got a job is an entry level. That was my title was very weird. Financial public relations associate. So I'm in this, I'm an engineer,
Chase Peckham:a lot of things going on in there.
Kiana Danial:Like I'm an engineering degree who has played around with Forex, working at a Forex worker. And my job title is financial public relations associate. And I was like, whatever, just give me whatever it is. I want to get into a broker. I want to get into wall street. And my goal was to become an analyst and investment analyst. So I was like, I'm going to learn everything of this entry level job. I'm going to go up the ladder. And so I decided I started studying and studying and I was just overworking and going. I had no idea about the corporate politics. It was just this naive girl coming again from Japan, from Iran and like not knowing what I was doing. I'd stepped on people's toes. When I went around my boss, my direct boss, and I told my big wall street boss that, you know, you should get more women involved, but I don't have any women on the team. Why don't you, why are you like scamming people? But That's the reason why they're not in, um, in business anymore. Uh, they make money when the traders lose money. And I'm like, yeah, why don't you do this? Why don't you do that? I was like coming up with all these ideas and I want to become an analyst. So the big wall street boss sent an email to my direct boss who did not like me and saying, Kiana is not an analyst. You will never be an analyst. And then I'm like, okay, whatever. So I'm going to do like other things. And then I did the public relations job. I thought I was doing like, I was kicking ass. And I was actually, I made a lot of good relationships, which eventually came handy with me. But, um, I, all of a sudden, without me knowing that this was coming, I got fired after a year. And, uh, so that was obviously it came out of nowhere. I thought I was kicking it. I thought I was being incredibly useful and I was learning all these things. And I thought there were eventually going to come around and see that I'm valuable for the company. But obviously it has stepped on, stepped on people's toes and they did not see me as an asset. And it was very hurtful because, you know, when you put your heart and soul in something and you think you're in the right direction and when it abruptly comes to an end like that, you don't want to tell people about it. Um, I didn't tell a lot of my friends that I got fired, I actually lied and say, I quit haha. It took me a while to be able to actually come out and say that I actually got fired. Um, but that was again, another blessing in disguise. Cause that did ignite a fire in me and was like, this is not right. Like why, why was I the only girl on my team? Why are they really like, why are they going after the retail traders who are coming in thinking they're going to make a bunch of money and then they get scammed by the broker. Why isn't the financial education out there for everybody so that they can do it on their own. And so that is how I became even more passionate. Now I was, I had been burned twice by my money manager who scammed me and then getting fired and then realizing that this whole thing, it always comes down back to this that I didn't mention actually I was the only girl in my class in electrical engineering as well when I was in Japan for six years. And then again on wall street, male dominated. And it was like, this, this is just not cool. And that's how I founded, Invest Diva with the goal of creating educational content for women so that they're not intimidated in getting in so that they don't get scammed and they start investing the right way so that they can actually take advantage of the markets.
Chase Peckham:So there's so many, I mean, most people I would guess. And we know just from what we do, working with people in personal finance, that so many people are intimidated as heck by wall street or the word invest, um, stock market. You, you know, all those technical financial terms that come up can be very intimidating. So how is it that you decided you were going to reach out to the public and make this simpler?
Kiana Danial:So that is when my entrepreneur side was born, right? So it was a journey for me on two levels. I was learning how to trade and invest. And I was learning how to get the message outside so that other people can come with me along my journey. So the first thing I did was I really wanted to write a book. I really want it to become a published author. And there was nobody in hell was going to publish me. I knew that. So I started making YouTube videos, basically making the trading concepts super fun and easy to understand to the point that it sounded silly. And I just posted it on YouTube I'm parents. And my older sister would look at them like, who on earth is going to take us seriously? Like dancing like that. This is pre tick-tock era because now I do it on tick-tock and it's just completely appropriate. But this is 10 years ago, nobody was dancing on YouTube while talking about finance. And I was laughing. I'm going to do it. And like, I remember my sister she's 11 years older than me. So super conservative. She's like yelling at me. She was like, what's wrong with just go get a job on like a proper job and like, just make money. What is wrong with me? No one is going to take you seriously. I'm not going to take you seriously. And I'm like, well, maybe you are not my target audience. And she was like, what's the target audience? This is this new term that I've learned and entrepreneurship target audience. Um, but it has been a very hard road in a sense that, yeah, I thought I was talking to my target audience, but I wasn't because when my weren't even looking for it. So even as much as I wanted to get the word out to women, I kept getting male students. And by the way, I did get published because of the YouTube videos, McGraw Hill, the biggest publisher in the U S found my YouTube videos and said, Hey, do you want to write a bookSp?
Chase Peckham:So they came to you?
Kiana Danial:They came me and I'm like, are you kidding me? Like, I've been emailing you. You're like divisions for six months. Nobody's even responding to me. And then this other division that I never knew that I like, they, this other person, her name was Jennifer. Like she literally set my, the trajectory of my career on the right path. She's like, yeah, I saw your YouTube videos. Do you want to publish whatever? are you kidding? Yes! Where do I sign? So, um, that is when really things started to come together. And now when, once I had the book out, it took me a year to write it. And I was, I continued to create the YouTube videos based on the books that they came 10 in hand. And now I had a course ready. And I had a Book out. This was 2013 in July that my first book came out. And, uh, that is when I can say that the whole thing was finally launched. It's been a very tough road. Um, because as I said, there were all these guys, students, men who were looking for this education would find me and they will find, find it useful and they would become my students. And I wouldn't tell them no, like, I didn't want to say, Hey, like, like it's just, it's not a cool thing to do. Um, but it wasn't gaining the momentum that I wanted it with. The women focused thing. And I had no idea, no idea what to do. And it was like jumping from this place at that place. And it is interesting that I feel like every recession and new step comes forward in my career or personal life during COVID, it takes me, took me this long to finally make the movement. Really women oriented COVID happened. The markets took a hit people, lost their jobs. And I suddenly saw this pouring numbers of women showing interest in my course. Uh, and it's interesting because I feel like my story of back in 2008 now resonated with them because I started out in a previous recession and I came along this way and now I have proof that I actually have made money using my strategies. And now they can say, ah, if she can do it, I can do it. Now we can start by just doing this recession. So I feel like, I think that is my theory. At least I don't know what's going on in their brains. That's how.
Chase Peckham:You're probably not far off.
Kiana Danial:Yeah. But I mean, all of a sudden, since March, it's been just amazing how the movement actually became a movement. So now I call it the the invest diva of a movement. And, uh, it's just been so rewarding to watch.
Katie Utterback:Yeah. I've seen some of your Tik Tock videos and just kind of circling back to what you were talking about and, and moms, um, I've seen article after article talking about how women are stepping down from their jobs, more so than men right now, because it's just, there's a lot going on, homeschooling the kids or, you know, just all of the chaos of just everything kind of being within the walls of your household. Um, I can really see the value that you're, you're talking about, you know, and just like bringing women involved. I wonder if you could talk a little bit more about what that was like for you when here you were the person that was saying, Hey, we need to get more women involved. And then you were walking the walk. What was that like to kind of prove all these people wrong? Like I can do all of this.
Kiana Danial:I have an amazing story. And that, first of all, let's circle back to my wall street boss who fired me. U m, this was pre COVID, obviously, but, u m, so years later I was actually a speaker at the New York money show that I actually, u h, c ontinue to attend every single year. And I was, you know, I go on the stage, people applause, me and I talk about my strategy and my analysis. I remember he said, Kiana is not an analyst. And she will never will be. And, uh, at the end of the speech, I looked down at the audience and guess who's in the audience.
Katie Utterback:Oh, wow.
Kiana Danial:My boss, I actually found the courage to walk up to him after my segment was over. And I was like, Hey, he was like, Hey, what's up? And I'm like, yeah. Do you remember that email that you sent to my boss? He said, Kiana is not an analyst. And he's like, yeah, you sure did prove me wrong. Those words, those words, were just the thing to create a movie about it, I guess he was like.
Chase Peckham:Yeah I was just think about that.
Kiana Danial:But so that he was one of the people, my family, of course, um, ah, my sister finally last year came around and she was doing real estate and she was just, you know, always constantly stressed and like, you know, with the real estate deals and falling through and the tenants and this and that and that. And I'm like, why don't you just give me your money? I'll manage it for you. Finally, after four books later, I've been published four times now. She finally gave in his, ah, maybe, you know what, you're talking about four books. It took her four books. So it's amazing. It's amazing to walk the talk. It's amazing to show people that this is actually possible. And it's possible with me being a mom and not sending my kid to school because of COVID and having my husband 24 seven at home. And with all the things that come with staying at home 24 seven and you know, like I'm very transparent. My husband and I have arguments, my daughter doesn't sleep well at night. Like you have all these things going on, but I don't have to worry about my investment account. I don't have to worry about it going wrong or what's going to happen. This is one less worry that I, that keeps me up at night because I have the strategies that are suitable to my risk tolerance. I know where I'm going. I know how much risk I'm taking. So nothing kind of comes as a surprise and it's awesome. My money is growing and people can see it. And I can see that people are empowered by it because they're like, okay, if this little woman who's just, just came to the U S and started doing this, and she's like, I'm like, just like, you can see how, I don't know if your audience can see. I hope not. But like, I'm just like, you know, in my room, my play pen, isn't behind me. And like, I don't have makeup on my hair is all over the place. It's a mom life, but my investment account is working for me.
Chase Peckham:We're all in that same boat. We have bad lighting. We're all on that. So I want you hit on something. That's very interesting to me. And I want to go back because of the, the beginning of YouTube, what were some of the ideas that you were putting on YouTube? Like what were some of those strategies?
Kiana Danial:So I started out with Forex because that was the only thing that I knew I was working at a Forex brokers. So I came to actual understand Forex trading pretty well.
Chase Peckham:Explain that pretty quick, because I'm sure there are a lot of our listeners that don't understand what Forex is.
Kiana Danial:Absolutely. So Forex is a combination of the term four and ex. It has nothing to do with you doing anything for your ex husband or ex boyfriend. It's a combination of foreign exchange. You remember that U S dollar and the Japanese yen or Euro whenever you travel abroad. So Forex trading foreign exchange trading is the practice, uh, exchanging the U S dollar for other national, uh, national currencies and then exchange it again when the price kind of changes. So what happened is based on its cause I actually started trading and I started understanding what's happening. And I realize that it is pretty intimidating. Like people get into Forex trading and it was one of the things I had become like a fad like Bitcoin back in 2016, that was Forex. When I started working at this broker, people just thought they can get in and become a millionaire. There was this kind of marketing hype thing going on. And I saw firsthand how damaging that can be and how much money can people lose in it. So my YouTube videos were about education. It was first, it was about explaining what Forex is. I had like a whole series about what Forex. And I try to make it as funny as possible with my sense of humor that I had learned from friends and Sex in the City. And so, you know, so it started from there and then bringing them, showing them how brokers work. And then I had, I created the strategy development approach process that I still to this day use, I call it the invest diva diamond analysis, where I analyze the markets at the time it was foreign exchange market, but I still take the same exact process for the stock market. And even the cryptocurrency market, I analyze the market from the fundamental point of view, t hen the price action t han the market sentiment, then the risk assessment, how it fits with your own portfolio and overall, if this is t he right fit for you. And I started teaching that process, what is a chart? How to look at the price action of the assets. Technical analysis sounds very technical. So I would, I was having all these goofy analogies of, u h, for example, a term head and shoulder as a technical chart pattern like people like, what are you talking about? So i t was like, I would put the head on t wo shoulders on. It's just very goofy. I think some of them are still on, on YouTube, but, u m, it's now the main part of my course, by the way I sell it now. U h, whatever it's exactly what I, u h, filmed back in 2013. And, u m, it's t he process is the investment strategy d evelopment process made easy. Any c lient a pply to any asset.
Chase Peckham:That's fantastic. Um, and I guess the next question, which, where do you go from here? Um, it sounds like you're growing and, and more and more people are taking your course. Um, it you're making it so it's less. And so are you saying that people, if they follow your course, they can earn a living that can replace their jobs?
Kiana Danial:No.
Chase Peckham:Okay. That's what I wanted to get clear.
Kiana Danial:No. So I'm obviously in the wealth creation industry, but that is the biggest misconception that people have about investing. Oh, I want to quit my job. So I want to start investing. And that's when I go back to what Katie actually mentioned at the beginning of the interview, I'm an entrepreneur first and I'm an investor second. Cause I get this question a lot too. I'm like, Oh, if you make so much money investing, why do you have to teach it? So here's this circle of wealth that I have for myself. And I'm going to get into where I'm going to go from here as well. But you cannot start investing if you don't have sufficient cash flow. Right? You cannot start investing. If you don't have an emergency fund, what's an emergency fund. If you don't have eight months of your essential expenses in a bank account being ha being able to like liquidate it immediately when COVID happened, this was very obvious that you cannot just live on a paycheck to paycheck. So while I don't teach how to become an entrepreneur, I can point you to my coaches who helped me become an entrepreneur. But that is not what I teach. Once you have an income and potentially even better, if you have two streams of income, then you can start investing. Now, this doesn't mean that you can't start investing with a little amount. Yes, you can start investing with as low as, as little as 50 bucks and I encourage you to do so, but that is not what is going to take place of your job. I don't make my investments as my steady income. Even Warren buffet, his main source of income is not, he has Berkshire Hathaway. He is also an entrepreneur and then he makes investments. So you have to keep that in mind, investment comes on the second level. Once you have a steady income, your emergency fund, then you can get into investing so that this can be your additional stream of income.
Chase Peckham:And you can look towards whatever, whatever it is that you're trying to do, whether it's retirement early or, you know, we talk about FIRE, right? There's a lot of people that live very, um, Katie loves, loves the term FIRE and, but at the same time, whatever it is that you're looking to accomplish, this can be a very good Avenue for you to go secondarily in, in your plan.
Kiana Danial:Yes, absolutely. So depending on how old you are and what your financial goals are, obviously your strategy is going to be different. If you're my dad's age, who's 80 and he doesn't have an income. You just have a bunch of savings in the bank account and he wants to live on it. Yes, I'm investing his money, but it's a different strategy. It's more fixed income. It's not as risk-taking like growth oriented, but it gives him a tiny bit of stream of income that he can see in his bank account. And his money is just not, not back in his brokerage account. It's much better than sitting in the bank. And, uh, it's, his money is growing, but if you're younger and you're just starting out, there are different strategies. So the main thing that you will take out of Invest Diva education is that no, one's invest no one investment strategy suitable for everybody because everybody has their own unique situation. So when I say, Hey, I'm going to buy Tesla. Like, I don't know at this price, that doesn't mean that you should, because it says on may not even be the right, uh, assets for your portfolio. Uh, so you have to figure that out. And that's what I do. I help you figure out what kind of assets are right for you. What kind of strategies do I for you? And then I help you learn how to create the strategies on your own. So you can't, you don't have to depend on a money manager or a guru, or even me on the internet because let's face it nobody's cared. Nobody cares about your money more than you. Like, I care about my mind and you care about your money. So it's better that you are in charge. So I try to teach people how to be in charge.
Chase Peckham:Yeah. I think that that's a very smart thing. Anytime you are leaving something completely to somebody else, you're taking a very big chance that, uh, it's going to be handled the way you would really want it to be handled. So, uh, you, you want to only give somebody so much power outside of yourself, uh, unless of course their family. And even that can be, you know, unless you really trust them. Uh, that could be,
Kiana Danial:It's scary. I'll tell you, like, I would much prefer that my sister and my dad manage their own portfolio. Cause it's becomes very stressful, especially with family. Like it's such a huge responsibility. If something like one of the market of, of course when COVID hit, my sister is calling me like,what are you going to do? Oh my God. Don't buy don't buy I'm like, no, I think it's going to go back up. No! So I have to deal with all this stress as much, b ut I would love for her to go and just take my course and do it on her own. But unfortunately s he w ould've b een s o
Chase Peckham:Only imagine. So where do you go from here?
Kiana Danial:So from here, um, my next step that I've been, I have on my vision board is once COVID is over. I want to be at a position that I have at least 1000 women in the Invest Diva movement altogether at a convention center everybody's wearing the invest diva t-shirt that they got because we, we sent everybody an Invest Diva a T-shirt when they make their first dollar investing. So I want 1000 women, me being on the stage, everybody's cheering, everybody's happy. And, uh, I just had that on my vision board. So I'm working towards that to make that happen.
Chase Peckham:I love the fact that you said a vision board,
Kiana Danial:It's all the entrepreneurship education that's kicking in again. I'm a student of, uh, entrepreneurship and I'm a coach for investing.
Katie Utterback:For our audience members who want to learn more about you or maybe become part of Invest Diva, where can they do that?
Kiana Danial:So the best place would be to go to the website, uh, the exact URL as learn.investdiva.com/yes, but if you just go to invest diva.com, you can just see the button and click on it too. I'm all over the social media. There are a lot of impersonators. So just make sure that you don't follow the, the fake Kiana follow the right Kiana. Um, yeah.
Chase Peckham:You know you made it when you were getting, uh, when people are trying to impersonate, you,
Kiana Danial:Everyone keeps saying that, but it's just so annoying. Cause I get literally at least 10 emails or messages per day from people saying, Hey, is this you I'm like, no, did you just add me on Facebook? No. Is this one? You no, she doesn't no. So it's just, it's becoming very, very overwhelming. Um, so, but yeah, some on social media I'm either invest diva or Kiana Danielle, no dots, no numbers, no nothing, no matter how much these other impersonators say, Oh, my other account got hacked. This is my new personal account. It's not, no, I have very, very strong passwords on my
Chase Peckham:That's a good lesson for anybody who's listening as well. If you get those from banks or you get that from others that that never happens.
Kiana Danial:Ever, I'm never going to go like add random people, just say, Hey, would you like, I don't do that. I pay Facebook to run my ads. I don't go and personally add other people.
Chase Peckham:Yeah. That's very good. Well, your story has, is really inspirational. It just goes to show you that anyone can do this and it doesn't have to be that intimidating. It's just like anything else that we teach a on a much lower level when we're talking about personal finances and budgeting and creating goals and building credit, paying back debt and all those kinds of things, there are, there are ways to do it and it's just really coming. It just comes down to educating yourself planning. Um, and you can do it. It's just getting the right education and obviously invest diva is a great place for, um, for, I mean, even you want women, but I mean, I'm interested in taking a look.
Kiana Danial:So that's an interesting thing. Uh, people come to the master class and like, Hey, is this only for women? Can I join? And so obviously education is super important. I don't want to be like the other side of the spectrum. Like, look, this is just for women. I want to educate as many people as possible. So yes, men are welcome. We have so many amazing men, men in our community, but there is a clause. So you can only join if you're supportive of the Invest Diva movement. And what that means is that you're not going to come into the community and start showing off your trades. And like, it's a different kind of feeling when there is a male dominated room and like the trades are going well, it's a little bit more masculine. So as long as you're okay with the femininities that the word femininity of our community that is super supportive, like we try to help each other out, uh, as long as you're okay with that, then you're more than welcome. We would love, love, love to have your support, your education. If you're coming in with your spouse or with your daughter, we have a lot of those, uh, families as well. So yeah, definitely come join us,
Katie Utterback:Chase your a girl dad, you can do that
Chase Peckham:I am a girl, dad, I can do that. And why not? Why not start at 10 years old? We talk about teaching money to kids all the time, and it's not just about saving giving and, and um, uh, you know, spending it's it's about learning what all the different financial tools that are available to all of us, uh, and, and that you're going to run into in your life anyway. Um, so you might as well learn it before you learn it the hard way.
Kiana Danial:No, 100%. So this is what we're advocating in their group right now is actually getting your children. And because imagine your 10 year old, if she starts investing right now, Oh my gosh, she's going to be able to pay off for her college by that, like in eight years time. So I've been encouraging. And so that's the beauty of the course is that is just so goofy. And it's so not intimidating that even high schoolers and middle schoolers can understand. So, um, we have families actually joined together and go through the course together. And that leads to the it's just so interesting. Cause money talk like talking about money is something that is missing in a lot of families is taboo to talk about money. You don't even know how to start, how to approach it. So having something that you can all, I dunno, binge-watch together and then discuss it. Uh, I've been seeing a lot of those in the group, which is just super awesome. I never saw that aspect of it when I started out. Cause I wasn't even married back then, but, uh, I'm now seeing it. This is like a byproduct of what I set out to, to produce, which is amazing. And I totally totally recommend that.
Chase Peckham:That's phenomenal. I'm so excited for where you're going. And I'm so glad that you joined us today. Cause I know that even, you know, Phil, Katie and I, we do this, you know, sometimes two or three times weekly and we learn so much and today was just super eye opening and it was a pleasure to have you.
Kiana Danial:Thank you so much for having me it was a pleasure.[inaudible].