Most people don’t understand why I call my brand Broke on Purpose®. Typically the word “broke” carries a negative context when we use it in a conversation with our finances, but for me being Broke was the catalyst that propelled me towards the changing point of my entire life. For every action, there is a reaction, there is an outcome, a consequence, and we, as humans have the mighty power to make decisions. I had two choices, choose to be “broke” because I was mishandling my money, or choose to be “broke”  because I was diligently paying down my debt, saving, investing, and living a purposeful life until there was nothing left over.

I choose to live as if I’m broke, and by doing so, I was able to allow myself to attend the My Taught You Retreat, hosted by Curl Box’s founder and Cheif Experience Officer, Myleik Teele. The My Taught You Retreat is described as a “first of its kind luxury getaway designed to introduce you to your tribe. The tribe that understands what it feels like to be the first and the only.” (watch the recap video here). For me,  it was an amalgamation of sisterhood, joy, bonding, growth, and renewing. The things that I experienced and the people that I met revived my soul, and I walked away, feeling empowered and unstoppable.

The cost of the trip was no secret, and I’ll be honest, it almost deterred me from applying. You see when the application for the My Taught You Retreat opened, I was walking through a haze of depression and unemployed. I’d just recently left my job as a Medical Science Liaison for personal and mental health reasons, and I was newly navigating the world of self-employment. Luckily living Broke on Purpose for the previous three years made it so we could comfortably live on one income, yet this didn’t leave room for $4000 trips to Cancun.

Take the Leap

So why would someone with no job or stable income apply to go on a retreat that cost $4000? The answer is simple; I sincerely felt that I was supposed to be in the room and that if I did not apply, I would never get the opportunity. One exercise my husband would always encourage me to do was to ask myself, “What’s the worst that could happen?” In this instance, the worst that could happen was Myleik not choose my application, and I would only be out the $20 application fee. That was it, that was the absolute worst. One of the differences between people who succeed and people who fail is that the people who succeed never stop trying. So why would I let the fact that I was unemployed stop me from trying if I felt so profoundly that I was supposed to be there?

Purposefully Plan

When I received my invitation to the My Taught You Retreat, I was still very much unemployed and still very much trying to figure life out. Knowing this I faithfully paid the $200 deposit to reserve my spot. Now I just needed to come up with the remaining $3800. Since this was going to be a solo trip without my husband, it was agreed that I would pay for this on my own and not take away any funds that should be allocated to our family’s finances.

For this to work, I had to plan. I couldn’t just sit back and say, “well if I’m supposed to be there, God will make a way.” While this statement is true, an equally valid statement is “faith without works is dead.” The only way I could afford to be in that room was if I

1. trusted God, and

2. swallowed my pride and got to work.

We must remember that in all things, we do preparation is critical. It’s why we plan out our meals for the month, and it’s why we sit down and do a monthly budget (plan) for our money. A well-designed plan will increase your chance of success by over 75%.

Planning after being invited would have been too late and caused a level of undue stress. So even though my husband still wanted me to take time off, I was taking advantage of the upcoming summer season and had been applying to places for part-time and full-time jobs.Within a week after receiving my invitation, I had a part-time job at Home Depot working in Customer Service. A month after that, I secured my full-time position at a Medical Communications company.

Hustle and Sacrifice

I still remember the look on customer’s faces when in conversation they’d ask me if I was in school and I’d tell them that I had a Ph.D. The reason why many of us fail to reach our goals is that our ego is bigger than our drive.  You need the extra money but yet you’re not willing to do what it takes (legally) to get said money because of the fear that someone might see you for less than what you present yourself to be. Spoiler Alert! They don’t matter! We exist in a world where we allow ourselves to live based on the opinions of others, and we fail to realize that the God we serve is greater than those opinions.

For five months, I hustled. I worked both jobs three days out of the week and then worked all day at Home Depot on weekends. Through all of this, I was still working on my lifestyle brand and building Broke on Purpose. I hate owing money, and I wanted to pay off this trip ASAP, so I opened a designated sinking fund with Capital One 360 and put all my part-time income and any income from my lifestyle blog into savings so that I could make the monthly payment for the retreat. Even though I had a steady paycheck with my full-time job, we decided as a family to earmark that income towards other family financial goals.  By September I had enough money saved to pay for the My Taught You Retreat and was able to leave Home Depot.

Even though those five months felt like the longest months of my life in the grand scheme of things, it was a small sacrifice to be able to go on a trip of a lifetime. There were plenty of days when I wanted to give up. There were several days that I had to shake off the exhaustion. Some days I even resented the fact that I had to miss spending time with my husband and friends, but I would always remind myself that this wasn’t permanent, it was a means to an end, and God will make provision to put you where you’re supposed to be when you’re supposed to be there.