Codie Sanchez is an entrepreneur, investor, Latina millennial, writer & speaker
Codie Sanchez believes that boring businesses are the way to financial freedom
Investor, business owner, and social media star known for her educational and entertaining content about investing, financial freedom, and owning "boring" businesses that build wealth. She is the founder of Contrarian Thinking and calls herself the "Boring Biz" Lady. She posts vlogs, business, and investing advice on her realcodiesanchez TikTok where she has over 1.3 million followers.
What does success mean to you? What does it mean to “be successful”? Can it ever be fully achieved or is it something that comes and goes?
I continue to search for the answer to this. Currently I believe success is finding your why, or your unique skill and reason for being on this planet, and having the courage to share it with the world. What a beautiful world it would be if we all shared ourselves fully, with zero complacency, and relentless drive, went about applying our why. The humans that do that everyday are the ones that sing to me like a sirens song. That is success.
What are some ways of motivating yourself in times of doubt? Do you ever feel like giving up? Why do you keep going?
I go to the written word. Words have such power. I surround myself with motivation by reading the greats. I love Walden, Ego Is the Enemy, Awaken the Giant Within, Mans Search for Himself. Whenever fear starts whispering in my ear it's toxically seductive words, I drown it with uplifting words that remind me of my why. My why is that I believe each day we have the privilege of drawing another breath, is an opportunity and a responsibility to find what fuels us, and spend ourselves in the pursuit of it. No doubt can overcome that.
Is it important to have mentors and mentor other people? Why?
You have two options you can go out and recreate the wheel continuously, or you can find someone who has done it before and borrow their blueprint. I prefer the latter. That is mentorship. I have my own Codie Sanchez board... Brian Gallary is my go to guru on how to sell anything and aligning my brand, Robert Miller is my health and fitness expert, Catherine Amend and Amy Brothers are my soul sisters who champion me and help me deal with inevitable challenges and my husband Jeff Baker is my sounding board for all my crazy ideas. These are just a few of the Titans in business I've rallied to my cause. If you can't name three people now who do this for you, go find one today.
What part of your personality helped you the most with your entrepreneurial journey.
Pure grit. I fail hard, fail fast and fail forward. And I like it. I've taught myself to like the pain associated with growth, and to grin and bear it. If you can learn to think of the pain that comes with the ever present change in building your own businesses you'll go far. I think of it like the glorious torture you get from a great workout. Now you know that soreness means you are bettering yourself. Do you give up because it hurts? No. You push through. Same with business. Pure grit.
Did you look for funding in the past?
No but I have been on the other side of the coin, funding businesses and raising funds for companies.
Why do you think that female owned businesses are a VERY small percentage (that has not been growing) of businesses that get funded by venture capital? What can we do to change that?
This issue is critical. My friend the CEO of @farmgirlflowers and I were discussing this as she's a self funded business in Silicon Valley where funding is crucial. She's hugely successful despite being largely ignored in funding circles early on. I don't think there is a deliberate scheme to not fund women however, we are human. It's proven we hire and gravitate towards those that are similar to us. Thus when PE and VC firms are run by largely men, it makes sense that they tend to finance companies run by similar humans. They understand the companies these people are proposing because they are like minded and they communicate better with the founders due to this as well. I truly think it is largely subconscious bias. The change will come when more women are heading the firms where the money flows from. That is a first step, more women in power positions. What else can we each do to change this? Every one of us can make an impact immediately. Each time you buy a product be thoughtful. I buy as much as humanely possible from startups, from minority owned and operated companies, and from American companies. Why? Because I like supporting my fellow US entrepreneurs. I just bought a phone cover and charger from shop wooden, it blows apple products away, so just take that small step to localize. Second we rise by lifting others. As we achieve power positions be thoughtful about who you hire and promote. My team is 80% female. And guess what they fucking dominate. So wouldn't you know now people ask me where I find my people? They want my team on projects, they notice my ladies, and suddenly we aren't just pretty in pearls.
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