Manage money as a creator with Treyton Devore

[00:00:00] Treyton: I just know how much pressure that like that financial like bind can put on the creative process. So I would definitely, definitely make sure that you have like at least a little bit of savings saved up before you take the leap.

[00:00:22] Akta: Treyton Devore is the creator behind Creator Bread. He helps self-employed creatives to become more financially independent. In today's episode of Creators and Air, trade in shares how creators can get on top of their finances and make decisions like taking the leap to be a full-time creator.

[00:00:39] Treyton: I think for a lot of creators, like especially if you're just getting started and you're not like, making a whole lot of money and it's not too consistent yet, um, I don't think there's really a need to set up a business because you can still like, accept payments from brands.

[00:00:52] Treyton: Um, you can do freelance work, like you can write off, um, certain expenses, like kind of do all the normal business stuff without having a business. Um, but then like once you know that you're gonna stick with it for a while or you have like pretty consistent income with it, um, then I think it makes sense to, um, like set up an LLC or just depending on like what country you're in, like an official business entity.

[00:01:16] Treyton: Um, because like with an llc, like one of the biggest things you can do is get a business bank. . Um, and then that lets you just like kind of be more professional. You can like separate all your business expenses and your personal stuff. Um, whenever you're doing freelance work, like you can provide the, the client with like your business social security number, which is instead of like giving your personal social out to like all your clients that you have to send those forms.

[00:01:44] Treyton: Um, and then just depending like how you set up the business, um, it can give you tax advantages. Like just a normal LLC isn't gonna be any different than if you didn't have a business. But if you choose to set up like an S Corp or something, um, then you could save money on like self-employed taxes. Um, but for people just getting started, like there's not really a need to do it.

[00:02:04] Treyton: Um, and it makes sense like once you know you're gonna be doing it for a while and you have pretty, pretty consistent income with.

[00:02:10] Akta: So you mentioned tax write offs and that you can actually write things off even if you don't have a limited company set up. So how does that work and what are some of the deductions that creators can make?

[00:02:22] Treyton: Yeah, so the idea of a tax write off is just like lowering your taxable income by writing off like eligible business expenses. And the IRS says that an expense must be like ordinary and necessary to the business, um, to be able to write it off. So like a very basic example for creators, like if you made a hundred dollars in a year and Adobe Creative Cloud, which is.

[00:02:49] Treyton: An expense that would be ordinary or necessary for your business, um, like let's just say that's $20, you'd be able to subtract or write off that $20 and then you'd only owe tax on the $80 instead of the full hundred dollars because. You had that business expense and you didn't receive it as income. So you can write it off and you only have to pay taxes on the money that you actually like received as income.

[00:03:13] Treyton: So like in that situation, um, let's just say like the tax rate was 25%. If you didn't write it off and you paid 25% tax on that whole a hundred dollars, you would owe $25 in tax. But if you wrote off that money or wrote off that, Then you only have $80 to be taxed. That same 25 percent's only $20. So like in that little scenario, you would be like saving $5 on tax by using that write off.

[00:03:39] Treyton: Um, and again, like anything that you wanna write off, it has to be ordinary and necessary for the business. Um, so like for creatives, that can be a lot of different things, like regular softwares that you're using, like your editor. Um, if you were like a part of a community that was like, specifically, specifically related to like your creative career, um, you could probably write off that expense.

[00:04:02] Treyton: Um, like courses, um, like any advertising that you. Um, equipment upgrades like a computer, um, just all that sort of stuff that's like directly related to your business. You can typically write off a hundred percent of those expenses. I,

[00:04:18] Akta: I think that's really interesting because I didn't know that you could write things off, even if you haven't set up as a company and I'm wondering if other creators maybe didn't know that as well. Have you seen any other kind of common mistakes that creators have made when it comes to managing their finances or misconceptions that they have about running a business? Um, in terms of the financial aspects,

[00:04:40] Treyton: Yeah. And I would say kind of to play off like the, the tax write off is one just kind of like not preparing for taxes or not being aware that, um, you kind of have a different tax responsibility than, um, when you work for an employer.

[00:04:53] Treyton: Because like, yeah, whenever you get paid from an employer, they're already withholding like. just about all the tax that needs to be withheld. Like you might owe a little at the end of the year, or you might even get some back if they hold too much. Mm-hmm. . Um, so it makes sense like when you get that money, you can just spend it and not really have to worry about the taxes, but then when you're self-employed, like no one's withholding those taxes for you.

[00:05:15] Treyton: Um, so then you kind of have to play the role of that employer. And I've just heard so many stories and just kind of seen firsthand from people that I've. , um, they just kind of spent like all the self-employed money that they get because that just feels like the natural thing to do . Um, but then the next year, then they find out they have a tax bill of like 7,000 or $10,000 just depending on how much they made.

[00:05:39] Treyton: Yeah. And then that kind of gets tough at that situation because, . If you didn't save or didn't set aside any of that money, then you're either gonna have to like, maybe take on credit card debt to pay that tax bill. Um, you might just have to pay yourself less for a few months to then just kind of like work backwards and get that savings back to catch up.

[00:05:59] Treyton: Or I've seen some people get on like a payment plan with the irs. Um, you'll probably have to pay penalties as. Um, so that's just one, one big thing is just to be aware of taxes and that potential tax liability, and then make sure you're just setting aside that money throughout the year. Um, and then also, I guess if you expect to owe more than a thousand dollars in taxes, at least in the us, um, you need to be making quarterly payments to the i r s because again, like an employer, they're withholding that every two weeks or every month whenever you're getting the paycheck and when you're self-employed.

[00:06:34] Treyton: The IRS just doesn't wanna wait a year to get all of that tax money. So then we have to pay it in quarterly. So if employers didn't withhold taxes, employees would have to do the, that exact same thing. Um, so I'd say that's probably the one of the biggest mistakes I see. And then second, I would say just like not regularly checking in and doing a quick review on just like the basics of your finances.

[00:06:56] Treyton: Like you don't have to dive deep into it. every month, but mm-hmm. , you should just always know like what's coming in and what's going out each month, which is also known as your cash flow. And when you're a creator, that gets a little more challenging because you're kind of balancing both the business and your personal finances.

[00:07:14] Treyton: Um, yeah. So I always recommend, like for the business you should have just like in accounting software, keeping track of like all the money that's coming in and going out. Like there's a lot of free options out there, like wave. , and then there's like FreshBooks, QuickBooks for like upgraded options. Um, but then like on the personal side, you should also know like how much you're getting paid from the business, how much you're spending each month.

[00:07:36] Treyton: And you don't necessarily have to like, do anything with that information right away. But just like knowing those numbers, um, at least for me, like makes me a lot more confident in what I'm doing and like the business decisions that I'm making. Um, so those are kind of like two of the biggest mistakes and.

[00:07:53] Treyton: Um, I guess another one would just be like, not investing and investing doesn't always have to be. Oh, I'm gonna put money in the stock market for retirement. Like when you're starting a business, you're technically investing in that business. And just depending on what your plans are and your growth goals, like that thing could kind of be like a retirement asset.

[00:08:10] Treyton: Like you might be able to sell it one day or it might just generate enough cash flow in the future that, that's kind of like a part of your retirement plan. Um, but then kind of like the second layer, like once you're, once you're paying yourself pretty regularly and you're covering your business expense.

[00:08:26] Treyton: um, you would wanna start like putting money towards, towards some sort of retirement. Like it might be more financial independence, um, and you might be trying to go for early retirement, but you definitely just wanna start setting aside money for savings at some point. Um, once your business kind of gets to that

[00:08:42] Akta: point.

[00:08:43] Akta: I feel like you mentioned quite a lot there, so I feel like there's quite a lot to dive into and I feel like for some people finances is quite an overwhelming thing or it's quite complicated. So for somebody who does find finances quite overwhelming, what do you think is like the very basics that people should be doing?

[00:09:03] Akta: Because I feel like investing retirement plans and things like that, does that come. Later when you're a little bit more comfortable with managing and tracking finances or you know, what would be the first steps to getting right on top of things? .

[00:09:18] Treyton: Mm-hmm. . Yeah. So I think it's first like super important to get an understanding of like where you're at financially, kind of like we just touched on.

[00:09:25] Treyton: Yeah. And the best way to do that is really just to like lay everything out. And I recommend doing this with like, as simple as possible, like pen and paper or just like a Google Sheet or an Excel sheet or something. . But I think, I think doing it manually first helps because like if you try and set up like a budgeting app or something, I've just found that there's like a lot of friction with that.

[00:09:47] Treyton: Like it doesn't pull in transactions. Right. And it just makes it feel like harder than it should be. Um, yeah. So I recommend just like doing it super basic the first time. Um, so like, number one, I would, I would keep track of your income and expenses. So figure out what you're making each month and what you're spending each month for both the personal and the business.

[00:10:06] Treyton: Mm-hmm. . Um, and just like simply write those numbers down. Um, and you could even break it down, like kind of like by category, like a budget. Mm-hmm. . Um, so like how much you're spending on your rent, how much your insurance is, or how much all your other like regular expenses are, just so you have an understanding of like, okay, it costs me $2,200 each month.

[00:10:24] Treyton: To just survive, pay my bills, feed myself, and kind of take care of the bare necessities. Um, yeah, because then you can kind of use that to play back into your business and know like what you need to be doing, um, growth-wise to pay yourself. Um, but you just need to know income and expenses for both the personal and business.

[00:10:42] Treyton: Write those numbers down. Um, and then I, I like to like lay. , all my other sort of like assets and liability. So if I have any outstanding debt, you would wanna write that down. Um, so that could be like student loans, your mortgage, like a car note, anything like that. Um, and again, this is just so you know what's there, like you don't have to do anything with it yet.

[00:11:04] Treyton: Mm-hmm. . And I recommend like the monthly payment, like writing down the monthly payment towards each of the debts, the interest rate, and then like the total balance of that thing, just so you know, like what you're working towards. Um, and you can see like what the different interest rates are and like prioritize paying down like the higher interest role.

[00:11:20] Treyton: High, higher interest ones. Um, and then I would also lay out like what you have as far as like investments and savings go, so, mm-hmm. , just like write down like your savings accounts, their balances, your emergency fund, um, any investment accounts that you have. Just so all of this information's just in one place.

[00:11:39] Treyton: Yeah. Um. and that can kind of feel overwhelming just in itself. But like I created a whole notion dashboard for it, and I've been using it myself for the past couple years and I just created one that anyone can go download for free. Um, but then I think like the main things to track for it, um, especially like for newer creators on the business side is just like the income.

[00:12:02] Treyton: Um, and like once you have all those numbers down, you should kind of easily be able to see what's coming in each month. Um, and then that'll let you know, like what's working business-wise based on the actions you're taking. So then you can kind of double down on what's working and then start making more money and just grow in your business.

[00:12:19] Treyton: Um, and again, like I don't, I don't do anything fancy with that or use like any crazy tools. Um mm-hmm. . I just keep track of my income with a simple like Google Sheets document. Um, like every month I just write down, cuz I have like a couple different businesses and income sources, which I'm sure a lot of creators do.

[00:12:37] Treyton: Um, so I just keep track of every single payment that comes in each month, like label it, whatever business it belongs to. Um, so then like each month I can see like throughout the year how much I made, like, which business was bringing in the most money. , all that sort of stuff. And just like knowing that information for me at least, has like helped me feel a lot more confident just like managing my money and with clients.

[00:13:00] Treyton: Like I've just seen that as well. Like just the simple clarity of knowing the numbers helps so much when you've never like really taken that step before. Um, and then I guess kind of like on the, the personal finance side to keep track of things. Um, I like to keep, like, I like to think of things more as percentages because those are a lot more flexible.

[00:13:22] Treyton: Um, like different income levels. So like a standard benchmark in personal finance, um, for saving and investing is like try to hit like 20% of your income and you might not be able to do that right away, but that kind of gives you a goal to work towards. Like if you're only able to save like 2% of your income right now mm-hmm.

[00:13:40] Treyton: that would be tough to hit like your savings goals and your retirement goals because you're just not saving that much of your income. So your lifestyle would have to be a lot cheaper in the future. With a smaller savings rate, but the, just like knowing those numbers gives you something to work towards, it's like, okay, now I'm saving 10% of my income, I'm getting closer towards working towards that goal.

[00:14:00] Treyton: Yeah. And I think just having goals makes, um, like saving money and stuff a lot easier. Like when I started my business, I had a goal because I knew like how much it would cost to start the business and I just started working backwards from there. Um, so it was like, okay, I need $20,000 for me to comfortably do this.

[00:14:19] Treyton: how much do I need to sa or how much can I save each month? And that number was like $800. So then I knew, I was like, okay, in about two years I'll have this savings goal. And then it was kind of just fun, like putting as much money as I could to hit that goal even faster. Um, so I think like creating like tangible goals that have like a real, like positive result at the end, um, also makes saving a lot easier as well.

[00:14:42] Treyton: Um, just from what I've noticed from my personal, personal situ. Yeah,

[00:14:47] Akta: I agree. I think goals does help. Um, and I think one of the goals that a lot of creators have is being able to lead their full-time stable job to pursue their side hustles or full-time. And I guess it's something that is quite a scary situation because you are leaving behind this stability and kind of jumping it into something that's more uncertain.

[00:15:09] Akta: Mm-hmm. , how can you use, you know, this. Visibility that you are introducing over your finances to help creators kind of have that security when they are making that leap from side hustle to full-time creator, is there anything they can do to make that runway a little bit more comforting to know, okay, I'm on track, to be able to go full-time as a creator.

[00:15:33] Treyton: Yeah. And this is kind of like one of my favorite things to like talk with people about because I went through like the same exercise and that same just like mindset and all those like limiting beliefs of taking that full-time, um, leap into it. Cause I just quit my job and started the business like in the middle of the pandemic.

[00:15:50] Treyton: So there was a lot of stuff going on and it was super, super stressful. Um, but from like the beginning of it, I would first think about. What you're trying to accomplish and like why you want to take the leap in the first place. Like is it something that you might be able to do on the side and you like having the security of that regular payment, but you want a little bit of a creative outlet, like you might not need to take the full-time leap, but you just wanna like go through that like mental exercise first to make sure it's like something that you truly want to do.

[00:16:20] Treyton: And for me it was like I was just like suffocating at my job and there was just like no way to like progress faster. Just do good work in the company. So it was just like I needed to get out of there and pursue something that I actually wanted to do. So that was like my, like, main driving factor behind it.

[00:16:37] Treyton: Um, and then once I, once I knew that, that was like the right decision for me at the time. . Then I just started thinking about like the business costs and my personal expenses. So this is gonna vary a lot depending on just the type of creative business that you want to go into. Like if you're more just kind of creating content, like there's probably not too many business costs.

[00:16:56] Treyton: Like it might just be like a new computer, a new camera, or something like that. Mm-hmm. . Um, but then you also want to think about the personal expenses. Like when I quit, um, I didn't have like a spouse or partner or anything to like provide any sort of income, so I needed to plan out. A year of the business expenses and then a few months of like my own personal expenses.

[00:17:15] Treyton: Um, so that I wasn't forced to take like shortcuts or do like anything I didn't want to do to try and make money right away. Yeah. Um, and that, I mean, that was huge because I just know how much, um, like financial or like how much pressure that. That financial, like bind can put on the creative process. Um, so I would definitely, definitely make sure that you have like, at least a little bit of savings saved up before you take the leap because you ju you just don't wanna be forced into like, taking shortcuts with, um, With your business.

[00:17:51] Treyton: Um, and then I guess kind of like more on the personal side, like if you have a spouse that can kind of support yourself, like I would just give yourself like a timeline for, okay, I'm gonna give myself a year, and if I'm not making money at this point, then I kind of need to reconsider what I'm doing.

[00:18:06] Treyton: Mm-hmm. . Um, and then just kind of like set little, little benchmarks like that. Um, but definitely the biggest thing is just having that savings there. Um, because you're probably not gonna make money right away unless you've already kind of built up something on the side first. And that can be a really good strategy is while you're preparing for this leap.

[00:18:25] Treyton: try and do stuff on the side. So then maybe you have a little bit of income before you even quit. Like maybe it's enough to pay your rent and you'll figure out how to piece together the next thousand dollars every month or whatever that could look like. Yeah. Um, but yeah, just, just kind of depending on your situation, I would a hundred percent make sure you have, have proper savings for it.

[00:18:45] Treyton: And that kind of goes back to knowing your numbers and knowing like how much you can spend each month, um, to be able to like know that savings amount that you should.

[00:18:54] Akta: Yeah, I mean, do you have any advice for picking that savings amount? Because I remember reading once that you should have like three months worth of savings.

[00:19:03] Akta: Mm-hmm. plus an emergency fund. I mean, does it have to be as set in stone as that, or do you think it really does vary? Person

[00:19:11] Treyton: to person. Um, yeah, I think it varies person to person, but I mean, like the, the three to six months of your living expenses saved is kind of just like standard across the board.

[00:19:21] Treyton: Like whether you're trying to pursue, um, full-time creatorship or not, like, I think that's just a good rule of thumb. Um, but like for me personally, um, when I did it, I had three months of my personal expenses saved and then I went all the way to a year of the business expenses saved. Um, oh wow. Also because the business was really hard to start, like it's a financial planning business.

[00:19:44] Treyton: And when I started it, I was 24 years old and I had never been a financial planner before. Um, so I knew it was gonna be really challenging for me to get clients that first year because, One, I was just like learning business in the first place. Like I had never started a business before. And then the actual like service that I was selling I think is like one of the most difficult things to sell, like financial advice and investment management because it's just me, this 24, 24 year old kid that started this business and now I'm asking people to like invest with me and like trust me with like all the financial advice and everything.

[00:20:19] Treyton: So I knew that that would be challeng. . Mm-hmm. . Um, so that's why I went like a year of business expenses saved cuz I didn't know if I would even make money in the first year. And it turns out I didn't, like, I lost $4,000 the first year. Oh, wow. Um, so if I didn't have that savings, I, I don't think I would be here today.

[00:20:38] Treyton: Like, I probably would've had to go back and get like a full-time job. I mean, I had taken on like DoorDash roles and just like little stuff like that to pay the bills. Mm-hmm. . Um, but yeah, I think. I mean, for creator businesses, like there's probably not too many like big expenses to prepare for, um, as far as like needing to be there each month to keep the business going.

[00:21:00] Treyton: Um, and I, I like the three month, um, savings range because that gives you, A little bit of time to like, not really think about it. It's like, okay, I have all my expenses paid for the next three months. I can spend 60, 90 days focused only on my creative stuff and try and get it to work as quick as possible.

[00:21:19] Treyton: Um, but then I would also kind of have like a backup plan if you're not making money after you burn through that three months, like. Do you, do you want to take on a part-time role? Could you like go work in-house or like do creative work for another creator and just kind of like be a part-time person for them until it's working for you?

[00:21:37] Treyton: Um, but I, I would kind of think through the backup options as well. But, um, yeah, I, I like the three, the three month expense thing. Um, but again, depending on the person, like you might feel more comfortable with six months or 12 months, or if you have a spouse, you might not necessarily even need savings because, Their income can kind of cover you guys until, um, until you're making money from it.

[00:22:00] Akta: Yeah, that's definitely true. It's actually something that helped me when I was making the switch from dentistry to being a creator that I had my husband there for that support. Yeah. So that definitely does make a difference. Um, I guess I wanna ask about creators who. are kind of like further along the journey then, so they've set up their business, they're making, you know, really stable income as a creator, but now they want to scale and hire and start outsourcing again.

[00:22:26] Akta: From a financial perspective, how do you prepare for that? How do you know if you are ready to start hiring and scaling and whether that's gonna be a good return on investment?

[00:22:37] Treyton: Yeah, I think. W I mean, before you even like consider the first hire, you should be able to like easily cover your business expenses, like pay yourself a regular salary, um, before you like, bring on any sort of additional responsibility into the business.

[00:22:53] Treyton: Um, so that's kind of like just that first checkpoint like. , make sure the business, um, has like good financial foundations first. Um, and then it can also be like easier to bring on like a contractor or a freelancer first, um, so that you can kind of like test out what it's like managing someone else. And then you're not responsible for like a consistent payroll.

[00:23:14] Treyton: Um, because like for me, that just feels very stressful, like being responsible for someone else's. Um, , like income in their living. Um, so I, I mean, like me personally, like, I'm still like very hesitant to like, bring on anyone or do anything like that. Um, but if you're trying to scale and like grow with employees, like you ju you just have to make sure like the financial foundations of the business are taken care of first.

[00:23:39] Treyton: Um, And then I think it's super, super important to like have a clear purpose for that hire. Like you should know what role they're gonna play, like how that hire's gonna benefit you in the business. Um, and then I'd like make sure that there's like, set, set certain goals for wanting to like outsource and hire.

[00:23:57] Treyton: Like if you wanna bring on an editor so you can spend more time getting brand deals, you should have a way to measure the success of that. Like maybe each quarter you do a checkpoint where you just look, it's like, Did I get more sponsorships or did I have more revenue than I was before I brought on this person?

[00:24:12] Treyton: Because mm-hmm. , I set my goal to be like, make more money and get more brand deals. So whatever your goal for hiring is, there should be, um, some sort of measurement to like actually make sure that it's making sense for you. Um, but then like there's also. , kind of just like the subjective roi. Like there doesn't necessarily have to be a dollar amount, um, to see the benefit from hiring because I mean like, just the fact of outsourcing a task that you don't like and just the fact of being able to afford it could be worth bringing on that higher, like it might not make the most financial sense.

[00:24:45] Treyton: There could be different hires, but it's like if you genuinely don't like editing or don't like writing or whatever it is. . Just being able to afford it, paying that person and getting it off your plate like that could just be worth it in itself. Kind of like freeing up that mental space. Um, those are just kind of like a few of the few of the things that I think about, like make one, just making sure that you can afford it business wise.

[00:25:07] Treyton: And again, that also goes back to the core basics of just like knowing your numbers, knowing what's coming in and out every month. Mm-hmm. . So then you can make a smart decision on whether you truly can afford that or. No,

[00:25:19] Akta: that makes a lot of sense. And I really like what you said about how the ROI doesn't have to be numbers based, but can just be about how you feel.

[00:25:27] Akta: Mm-hmm. , you've spoken about retirement and you've spoken about investing. I want to also ask about insurance. Is that something that creators need to be thinking about, especially if being a creator is their full-time job?

[00:25:39] Treyton: Yeah, and that's, I mean, that's definitely one of the most important things to think about and one of the most boring things to even deal with or plan for, um, because insurance is basically, you're just like, Covering the cost of a bad thing happening.

[00:25:54] Treyton: Um, yeah, so like making those premium payments every month just never feels good. Um, but especially like for someone who's full-time, like I would say the most important thing is health insurance. Um, and that definitely varies country to country. Um, but like in the US it's open enrollment right now when we're recording it.

[00:26:12] Treyton: Um, at the beginning of December. So a lot of people are out like searching for new health insurance plans and the different coverages, the different costs are all gonna vary depending on like your income levels, like your medical history, all that sort of stuff. Um, but health insurance, I would say is the most important one to have, especially in the US because our healthcare costs are just insane and it's very quick or it's very easy to get into like a quick situ or a.

[00:26:40] Treyton: Um, bad financial situation, just like with one medical bill. Mm-hmm. . Um, so health insurance can like, help cover the costs of, um, like medical care. Um, and then I would also say after, again, kinda like after you have the foundations and everything set up and you're paying yourself, um, I would consider like disability insurance or business overhead insurance.

[00:27:02] Treyton: Um, which is kind of just like if you're unable to work for any sort of thing. Um, The insurance would pay out like a portion of your salary to help cover that until you're able to start working again and again, that's, that's a very general overview. There's a lot of nuances with it. Um, but that's something that I would just kind of look up and just do a quick Google search and see if it applies to your situation.

[00:27:26] Treyton: And if so, like my dms are always open, like I'm happy to help answer like any sort of financial question. Um, but then like another one's life insurance and. . Um, again, this is all kind of like us specific stuff. Um, I don't know how much of this applies internationally. , but life insurance is pretty important if you have people who rely on you financially.

[00:27:49] Treyton: That's kind of like my, um, way to gauge if you should have it or not. Um, there's benefits to having it if you're single and you don't have like kids or anything like that. Um, but the general rule of thumb is like if someone depends on you financially, like a spouse, you guys have a mortgage, um, you have kids, um, you would want to have some sort of life insurance policy to like cover the cost of that stuff.

[00:28:12] Treyton: And then last, I would just kind of say like, business liability insurance. Um, for someone who is like full-time like that, um, if anything were to happen, like if you were to get sued for the business, um, just anything that falls into that range, um, business liability would help cover. Um, but again, I would just kind of like write down these different types of insurances that we've hit on.

[00:28:33] Treyton: Um, do a quick Google search and just like see if those apply to you. And again, I'm, I'm happy to like dive deeper into, into these. Um, but there's just a lot of nuances that's, it's hard to just like talk about it generally. Um, but health, health insurance, disability, life insurance, um, business overhead and business liability are kind of like the key ones that I would definitely look.

[00:28:56] Akta: No, thank you so much for giving some examples there. And obviously we'll have all of your social media platforms linked from the show notes, so if anyone does wanna contact you, they'll know where to go. Yeah,

[00:29:05] Treyton: and I was just gonna say, like, one thing to add on to that is like if you do have a spouse or partner that's like working a full-time job and they have benefits, um, you'd also wanna make sure, like you might be able to join their health insurance plan or just like their different stuff to help reduce the cost of that.

[00:29:20] Treyton: Um, so again, that's just, just another little thing to think about with insurance as.

[00:29:25] Akta: No thanks for that tip. Is there, um, anything that you feel like you give advice to quite often? Like so one piece of financial advice that you feel like you're giving to quite a lot of people because they don't really know it?

[00:29:38] Akta: Yeah.

[00:29:39] Treyton: Um, I would say like we've hit on a lot of the things that I just like commonly give to people. Like the tax thing is huge, like, I mean, that just saves a lot of people, a lot of headache, um, in the future. And then just like knowing your income and expenses. Um, but I wish, I just, I wish more people knew that like, once you get a good understanding of the basics and you set up a good system that.

[00:30:01] Treyton: Managing money really isn't as bad as you think it is because, I mean, I just know that mental barrier of addressing it in the first place, like I go through it myself. Like even with the business stuff, like submitting applications to the state or whatever, like, I typically always push it off to the last minute until I have to do it.

[00:30:18] Treyton: And when there's no like deadline or anything for your personal finances, it's easy to just kind of keep pushing it back and never really taking, um, taking control of it. But, I, I, I know that you don't want to see like what you're spending each month, and I know like you don't wanna set up an investment account because you have to pick a company and then you have to submit all this information.

[00:30:39] Treyton: Then you have to pick investments and you like have to trust that you're doing it right. Like it can be a lot. But once you get everything laid out, kind of like we talked about, like laying out your income, your expenses, your savings, your debts, your investments, all that sort of stuff. It just gets way less stressful when you can see it broken down by category because like even if you're in a, what you think is like a less than ideal situation, knowing the numbers is way better in my opinion, because then you at least know where you're at.

[00:31:08] Treyton: Yeah. And then you can start creating a plan and working towards where you want to be. And I know like there's, there's a lot of like information and advice out there, like regarding money. Um, and that's like why I started Creator Bread, because everything that I write and talk about is specifically from the lens of a self-employed creative.

[00:31:27] Treyton: So like all that sort of stuff applies directly to like our sort of people. And it doesn't necessarily apply to just anyone. Um, yeah. . That that's, that's another thing is just like when you're looking stuff up, it's all just so general and it's hard to like really learn anything, um, just by doing like a quick Google search.

[00:31:47] Treyton: Um, so I'm kind of building creative bread to hopefully be like a little, little bit of a good trustworthy financial resource that applies to the people who are like actually looking for that sort of stuff. Um, but yeah, I, I just, I just think that like, once you, once you get a good understanding of the stuff and you get it all laid out, then it's just so much easier to start, like making the right decisions.

[00:32:07] Treyton: And it is just way less stressful when you, when you like, truly, truly know the numbers and have it all out there. . Yeah, definitely.

[00:32:14] Akta: And I feel like you do make it a lot less overwhelming, so I definitely appreciate creator Brad, appreciate pride. It really does help me for sure. Um, I'm gonna end this call with a quick fire round, so I'm gonna ask you five quick questions and just answer the first thing that comes to mind.

[00:32:29] Akta: So what's your favorite thing about being a creator?

[00:32:33] Treyton: Um, I would say creative independence to just like, make whatever I want and put it out on the internet for people to find like, that's so, so enjoyable. ,

[00:32:42] Akta: definitely. Um, what's one thing that gives you the most inspiration?

[00:32:47] Treyton: Um, I would say honestly just like watching, watching other creators, like going through, because I have like my whole list of people I subscribe to on YouTube, and I just, yeah.

[00:32:58] Treyton: Get so, so many ideas and just different things from, from all the people, all the people's content that I consume.

[00:33:05] Akta: Definitely. And what's your favorite.

[00:33:09] Treyton: Um, I would say probably, oh, that's a really good question. , there's so many that I just bounce in and out of all day long. I would, I think I would have to say Canva because I don't know how I would make all the sort of stuff yes.

[00:33:27] Treyton: That I have to make without it, like Photoshop is not user friendly whatsoever, and so true. I hate. . I hate when like actual designers are like, oh, like Canva's not real, or whatever. Like you have to use Figma. Like I love Figma, but Canva's just so easy to put things together. Like I, I don't think I could live without it,

[00:33:45] Akta: honestly.

[00:33:45] Akta: Yeah, I'm the same. I'm always on camera as well. It's so great. It's so underrated, honestly. Um, it is. . What's one thing that helps with your work life balance?

[00:33:54] Treyton: Oh, that's . I struggle. I struggle a lot with that. . I would say like the one thing that helps the most is just like time blocking. Like I, I still struggle to follow it once in a while, but I've started to just set like specific times where I'm working on one thing.

[00:34:13] Treyton: If I don't finish it in that time, that's fine. I'll move on to the next thing that I have time blocked. Um, but like, I still struggle, like at the end of the day to stop doing or stop thinking about like my creative work or whatever I'm doing at the time because. I, I just, I just don't know how to turn that off and I think a lot of people struggle with that.

[00:34:32] Treyton: So unfortunately I don't have, don't have a good answer on, on that one

[00:34:37] Akta: yet. Yeah, no, I'm exactly the same. I find it hard to turn off as well. I think it's because with creating, there's always more you can do and it Exactly, yes. It's hard to just have that hard stop, isn't it? Um, what's one piece of advice that you'd give to other creators?

[00:34:51] Akta: So this can be general, not just financial.

[00:34:54] Treyton: Um, I would say, , I would say like, don't be afraid to just try things. Like nothing that I'm doing at the moment was what I started doing two, two and a half years ago when I first started. Hmm. Um, and just kind of like follow, follow whatever your interests are at the time.

[00:35:13] Treyton: Like last year at this time, I had, I had built one website and now. 12 months later I've built 15. And it's like the favorite, my favorite thing that I'm doing at the time. Um, and then like from a creative standpoint, like I started with like these weekly videos that were just quick, like two, three minutes talking about financial news and I'm not doing those anymore.

[00:35:34] Treyton: but just like getting those, that repetition out there. And it was just something that I wanted to do. It led to like getting a brand deal with a company to like make financial education videos for them. And then that took me in kind of a different route and then that little situation took me in a different route figuring out what I wanted to do, like video content wise.

[00:35:52] Treyton: Um, so I, I would just say like follow, follow whatever your interests are and don't be afraid to like change [00:36:00] directions and. , keep trying to figure out what works.

[00:36:03] Akta: Yeah, I love that. I love that because things don't always go to plan as well. So I think that also protects you against uncertainty. So that's great advice.

[00:36:11] Akta: Thank you so much Treyton for coming along. Um, it's been such an amazing conversation. I feel like I've learned a lot about finances too. So thank you so much. Love to hear that. I appreciate you having me on. This is fun.

[00:36:21] Akta: This conversation has definitely encouraged me to check in with my finances more regular.

[00:36:27] Akta: If you want more financial advice for creators, check out Creator Bread or message Treyton on Twitter and be sure to check out Passion Fruits. You can do sponsorships without the hassle. We manage sponsorships, bookings, and payments all in one place.