BIRD WILLIAMS: You're listening to Bird Means Business Episode 91. 

Hey there! Thank you so much for tuning into Bird Means Business podcast. I am your host, Bird Williams. And today we're talking about wealth building. Yes. And protecting your personal and business assets. Y'all, this is a topic that I believe is so very crucial, especially as an entrepreneur. And if you get this right, your future self will thank you. 

Let me tell you, you are in for a treat, because I have the fabulous Iffy Ibekwe on the show, and she's an expert in wealth building and estate planning. Iffy is such a joy. She and I were just catching up when I first got on, and I told her, "Man I wish that I would have already hit record" because our conversation was so good. 

Let me tell you a bit about my friend, Iffy. So she's an estate planning attorney. And she's an evangelist for intergenerational wealth transfer and legacy building with effective wills and trusts. She activates intentional women so that they can take agency over their lives and build impactful legacies. Can you just say yes, and yes, and yes? Okay, as a black businesswoman and attorney, she's not your garden variety estate planning attorney. She wishes to provide services to those who her area of the law has historically ignored. I won't make you wait any longer. Let's dive in. 

Iffy, thank you so much for being here. I'm excited to have you on the show. 

IFFY IBEKWE: Thank you so much for inviting me on. 

BIRD: This is gonna be so fun. We met years ago, and I'm glad that you're still in my circle. I'm so motivated and inspired by you. And I'm really interested in sharing with my listeners, who are entrepreneurs in kind of that zero to three-year phase, how to really think about wealth building, how to think about estate planning. It's so easy for entrepreneurs to be like blinders on, super focused on growing the business, don't think about their own health, right? Don't think about themselves at all. But that is super problematic. So to just get started, can you tell me a little bit about how you even got into this, why you help folks with estate planning and wealth building? Tell me a little bit about your journey. 

IFFY: I think I have always been an entrepreneur. So I spent a lot of my middle school to high school years in Sugarland, Texas. And I was the babysitter in my neighborhood. And I was just really good at babysitting kids. And these people would just have their kids in bed, like super early like at 630. And pay me like $80. And I thought, I came across the street, literally, sat down, put this child to bed. We ordered dinner and I watched their cable until their parents came home. And I'm like, I would do like the math because I knew how much minimum wage was and I thought this is the best way to make money tax free. And I'm like, chillin, doing nothing, being paid to like not be bothered by my brothers. And so I think that was the beginning of it. It's like you don't have to kill yourself. You don't have to stand up. There are ways that people are making money that doesn't involve everything being taken from you like your health and all the things you were talking about. And so that was my first taste of it because it really kept me away from getting a regular job because I'm like, it's just cheaper to be a babysitter on my street.

And so after that, I ended up going to law school, becoming a lawyer. I worked for 11 years in the non-corporate nonprofit space. And I did school law and I did business law and things like that working in house at an organization. While I was there, I started a little bakery called Iffy's Sweets and Treats. 

BIRD: I didn't know about this.

IFFY: So when you do monotonous legal work, and you start to kind of feel like it's soulless and you're just another part of the machine. It's not really just meaningful in the way that you'd want to feel like your job could give you meaning, you start looking for things. And for me, I'm a very creative person so I started baking. I had always been a baker ever since I was a little kid. And I'm a meticulous baker in that I can do detailed work. I can do detailed design so I decided to open up a cake shop specifically for mini-size baked treats. So I don't do wedding cakes because wedding cakes are a beast of another name with the groom, the bride, too many expectations of making sure that thing doesn't fall. Anything like cupcake size or smaller. I did French macrons. I did cupcakes, cake balls, cake pops. I would make little detailed animals out of chocolate and then put their eyes on. I could make sheep and pigs and birds. I mean it was insane. The site is still up. It's iffyssweetsandtreats.com I believe. I still pay for that. I don't know why that site is still up. We'll link to it in the show notes. 

BIRD: Yeah! 

IFFY: So that's my real first foray because that business took off like gangbusters. I mean, I had orders for weddings, retirements, graduations, birthday parties, country club, Mother's Day, luncheons, every single weekend. And it was my second job. And I again, thought back of my entrepreneurial days as a babysitter and I thought, well, this is way too much labor for what they want to pay me, right? And so long story short, that's the origin story of entrepreneurship for me. It's like finding out how to make money in a way that felt very aligned and served my lifestyle. And then doing things that I really enjoyed, but was actually absolutely not profitable. And just, just like sucking all my health and my sleep away.  

BIRD: Yeah. Wow, that's so interesting you say that, because literally, right before we got on, I'm finishing up a reel, where I talk about fulfillment, and how important that is. And you talked about your corporate job not giving you that and you having to kind of find this outlet. So I just like that you pointed that out. I just want to say it looks different for different people. Because I get this question a lot. Am I supposed to just abandon all, leave corporate and jump into entrepreneurship? Or should I stay in my nine to five? I think it can look different, depending on the business, depending on the person, and where you are. And so I just, I just liked that you kind of brought that up. 

IFFY: Yeah, and I actually like the idea of building your business while somebody else is paying for your bills. I'm not saying to like abuse, not do your work at work. But there are certain inefficiencies in working in some corporate spaces that allow you to have the opportunity to build and that's something that people should take advantage of.

BIRD: Absolutely. I love that. And I say it depends on the business, because like, I know when we launched our gym business, I mean, we had to be all in, right? We couldn't have held a job and done that in those early days. So it just really kind of depends, but I love that you share that. 

So about entrepreneurship, it's a great way to build wealth, right? So what are some of the biggest wins you see here? 

IFFY: Gosh, you know, everyone thinks of wealth as money, the money will come. When you start sorting out your systems, that stuff that people are just grinding trying to do, when you sort a lot of that stuff out, the money will come. But the wealth that I find most in entrepreneurship is freedom, and choice, and opportunities. And so for me, I have four kids, my kids range from age seven to one. So seven, five, four, and one. They're about to be eight, six, four, and two, right. They're all about two years apart. And one of the beauties of my work with all that comes with entrepreneurship because it is a roller coaster. It's like climbing up peaks and down valleys, right? I still never desire to apply for a job working for someone else. I know, I can figure it out. And there's a value to that. And it's priceless to me. So that truly is wealth. It's having the opportunity, time, and freedom to make decisions that benefit your family. 

On the actual tangible wealth side, a lot of people enter businesses and they just think, alright, I got to sell X to pay this and build and I want to scale. And they watch things like Shark Tank, and it's just like quick and fast. But the foundations of the building, building your business are what actually help you to make the most money. So rather than just jumping all in and ignoring things like your systems and your processes, and putting your infrastructure in place, and stacking your tech, all these things I didn't even know about and strategically marketing. You just start going and that's the high of entrepreneurship is like going until oftentimes, most people hit a wall or they crash or they realize there is a hole here, whether it's personnel, or if you have an infrastructure or you're shipping something and in that system, there is a hole, right? And then you have to go back and you might be up here but you have to go back and do this step. And so I would say that in order to build wealth, lay your foundation. That could be your legal formation, getting your paperwork in order, your contracts in order, your non-disclosures, having confidentiality agreements, things like that, at the beginning so that when something bad happens, you're like, well, I cannot anticipate all the bad things. But if an employee leaves and steals your idea, and you're like well we just did it on a handshake. Or they come back and say well, they paid me as an independent contractor, but they controlled my hours and my time and now they owe me all of this like money for my payroll taxes, you're not screwed. A lot of people don't realize at the beginning what might happen later on down the way. And those are all ways to steal wealth. So I think instead of saying do this and put your money here, fundamentally, build the foundation of your business well. And trademark your name, you know, register those marks. Spend money doing things to make sure that you're good to go and set at the beginning. Don't just enter into agreements with people. Have a contract so you're not screwing yourself over because that's all the stuff that sucks up the money that builds the wealth. 

BIRD: That is so on point. And it's something I talked so much about here on the podcast, and to my listeners about building that foundation. I talk a lot about having a business plan. And I know a lot of people push back sometimes against it, because it's like, well, I don't know what's gonna happen in the future. But it doesn't mean that you don't plan at all. So you want some kind of plan, some kind of vision, something you're working toward. And in that business plan, it's not just a checklist of things to do. It's making sure that you have your business formation set up, making sure you have your contracts in place, that you understand the team and how they're working. Are they independent contractors? Or are they employees? You gotta address questions that you could ask yourself. To your point, the example you brought up, I have a friend who had a business that was going very well was incorrectly identifying staff. They were actually employees, but he classified them as independent contractors. One of his employees amicably left, like there wasn't any beef. But he went and he filed for unemployment. And so it triggered an audit. And they went back to his business and realized for all these years, he had improperly classified all of these employees. 

IFFY: So he had to pay back money. 

BIRD: Yes, it killed his business, because he couldn't pay it, and it breaks my heart. And so those are the kinds of things that I'm trying to tell entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs-to-be about. Because when I left my job in New York, my director told me, no matter what, make sure you get a CPA and an attorney. You gotta get them and I call them your money team now. What did I do? I went and launched my business, and I looked at those rates, and I was like, ooh, I like reviewing contracts, I'm sure I can handle it, you know? It's fine. 

IFFY: No it's not. 

BIRD: It is not okay.

IFFY: It's so much more expensive. At least, if your attorney screws up, there's liability insurance there for you where you can get your money back, you can get damages if something goes wrong. When do you do it? Most businesses don't even have insurance for things like that and aren't even thinking about things like insurance or what they do. And that's something that they need to buy. And so you're absolutely right. I think at the beginning that zero to three years, when you're just like, man, every dollar feels hard to keep a hold on. If you can trust yourself and trust the process enough, and be disciplined with what you are able to afford so that you can foundationally establish all the components that you need, then you can really run, right? Say you build a million-dollar business, but you owe $700,000 in back taxes, because you were like, I just didn't want employees, I just wanted contractors. And you get audited. They want their money. There's no like, oh, my bad. They're like, did you give them the hours that they work? Did you give them access to your equipment and access to your passwords? And they're going to go through this checklist and see. That example happens to people and I hate when I hear entrepreneurs fail. But most businesses fail because foundationally they're not established well. It's a shaky structure, it won't last. 

BIRD: And I think it has a lot to do with really how you envision your business. I think sometimes we play small and we instead of kind of going all out and saying I'm going to do this, I'm going to make it real. It's like, oh, it's just a side hustle. I'll see what happens.

IFFY: It's just a little thing I do. Yeah.

BIRD: And because of that, you say, well, I don't need a lawyer. I don't need a CPA. It's just a side thing. But then when it takes off, it ends up screwing you, right? I can't tell you how many like you should have seen my face when I looked at those tax bills when we didn't understand the whole S-corp concept. 

IFFY: Oh, yeah. 

BIRD: Like we owe them what, you know? 

IFFY: Quarterly tax bills that you need to pay. Most people don't want to do that. You want that revenue to be in your bank. Right? I won't even start to talk about tax strategy, okay? Because I'm at a point now where I'm looking at a strategy for figuring out how to move. I feel like I'm becoming the older I get the more conservative like, don't take my cat down. Like I kind of get it. I hate to say it, but I'm like I'm doing the same thing to you. I see what y'all been doing. But that's another level. When you're at the beginning, you don't think you're going to be hiring a tax strategist CPA. But I'm thinking, oh, there's some things I can be doing with my kids to save me $12,000 a year. Oh, there's some things I can do to move around money so that it's not ending up in my W-2. Again, that's another level to it, right? I've gotten that tax bill where I'm like, what? I don't even feel like we made this much money to be paying this back.

BIRD: Right! 

IFFY: You know, like, how are we living like kings to be owing like this? And so even with business, as you grow, there are new things that come with that money, that wealth. And trying to maintain it takes a lot of skill and strategy. And like you mentioned your lawyer, I have a lawyer, I have an attorney CPA, I have a financial coach, okay? I'm about to hire a tax strategy firm. And I'm like, looking at the amount they want monthly. And I'm like, surely it can't be saving. Are y'all going to save me this much so that this is like wiped clean? Like, are we going to revamp my whole life? I don't know why I'm even considering hiring you at this rate. But that's the kind of thing really being intentional about how you spend your money. Are you just frittering it away, because you want a nice, beautiful office, and you want to have like a cappuccino machine and a receptionist that's sitting there? But largely, you look at all those things and think the way that you choose to spend your money has to, you want to see that there is a return. You want to see that your investments have a return for you to be able to build wealth so that you have more capital to invest and to put in the trust, or whatever you set up to keep your money so that you can pass it on to whomever you want to and use it for whatever you want to use it for. 

BIRD: Yes. Oh, yes, girl. I'm loving this conversation because it's stuff that I'm thinking about too. Absolutely. So when it comes to estate planning, where do most people make mistakes? And how should entrepreneurs think about their business in terms of their estate planning if that makes sense?

IFFY: Yes, I think most people make the mistake of really trying to figure out why am I paying for all of this, when I don't feel like I have a lot of money, and I'm not sure? It's not like paying for a trip to Bali, right? If you drop thousands of dollars, you have photos for the gram, you have memories of the food and the hotel, and they floated your breakfast out to you on a tray, you remember the flight, remember how you were greeted, and you just, it's fun, it's like, that's the kind of investment that you have the return of just like that memory, the experience, right? 

Estate planning doesn't provide that. Estate planning is planning, which means that you are taking steps now to ensure positive outcomes in the future. And those positive outcomes don't necessarily stay with you. They can also be outcomes for your family. They can be outcomes for your parents, for if you're in a sorority, or your church, or a philanthropic organization, you want to see going a political cause you want to advance, right? So you make investments now for the future. 

Estate planning also can use money that is not going to come to you while you're alive. And so people are like, why would I care, I'm not going to be here. The reason you care is because there are certain things that you can couple with estate planning to benefit yourself. There are policies that will benefit you while you're alive, your children, your family, and whomever you want to leave money to. And so historically, estate planning was for land-owning Englishmen a thousand years ago. They are the ones who were able to say, I have this property, and I would like to pass it on to this next generation with tax benefits and shelters and all these tools so that I am not having to pay the government unnecessarily. And people don't need to know what I'm doing with my stuff when I die. Right? And so included in that enslaved people, all sorts of things, right? Women were not partaking in that system. So if you follow the ball and you can go down history, you arrive here where we are today in America. We're 70% of Americans and the numbers are worse for black people, Latin x community, Asian Americans worse than that 70% do not even have a will. Because they're like, we're not the Kardashians, we're not the Hilton's, we do not have estates. Why would we plan? 

And so everyone has an estate. If you're 18 and you can make decisions for yourself, you need to have legal documents to say what will happen to all your stuff, even if you're renting and you have a bunch of student loans and you only have debt to your name. There's still stuff that you have all-around your house that somebody has to do something with. So write down what you want done with that. You also have to say what you would want done healthcare-wise if you're ever in an accident, and you can't consent for yourself. Do you want the hospital to decide for you? Do you want their ethics board to choose whether or not you should be put on a ventilator or pull the plug? Or do you want your family to fight because your mom wants this, but your dad said no? Or your husband wants this and your mom says no. You have to write those things down. It has nothing to do with how much money is in your bank. Literally, your life is a stake, so that you can make money to put in the bank. But if you're not there, then all the tolling our bills and all that's happening is dissension. Or maybe you are not able to live the full life that you would have wanted to live because somebody else made a decision for you. That's estate planning. And that's why it matters to all of us. 

And then when it comes to your business, it's very similar to that. A lot of people say I just want to leave it in my will to go to my wife, or to go to my husband or whatever. It doesn't work like that. There are other things to consider. Do you have a partner in the business? What does your operating agreement say about how you're going to wind up? Do you have a business succession plan? Do you have a buy-sell agreement in place to end your business should something happen to you? Do you have keyman insurance? Who is paying it out to? It's so much. But when you're at the beginning, you're like, okay, yeah yeah yeah, I'll get to that later. The problem is we don't always have later. And then you have these messes. And that's where lawyers make a lot of money because of litigation because some companies never get to later because they're like, we're still building, right? And they have hundreds of thousands and then seven-figure business multiple seven. And then there's something that happens. Someone gets sick, partners fall apart, but they've never had documents. So all they're doing now is like hearsay, he said, she said, and the only people winning are the lawyers. Because they're like, yeah, we'll figure it out for you at this rate. And so that's how estate planning ties with business succession planning. It's like estate planning is planning for yourself. We all have an estate. Business planning is planning for your business and figuring out where things are gonna go. Are you selling it? And are you selling it to your favorite employee? What about if you're part of a franchise? You know, these are all super technical questions. It's like you're not just doing it on LegalZoom. And you have to invest in order to get an attorney who can help you do it correctly. Don't go to a document mill, because that's where you really lose your wealth, because you don't know what you're getting.

BIRD: Right. And everyone's situation is so unique. So you need a unique approach to especially something like your estate planning to what you're saying. Whenever we launched The League, Terry and I, I remember drafting our operating agreement with our attorney and him straight up asking us what happens if y'all divorce? We were like newlyweds. So we're like, what do you mean, you know. And he's like, hey, it happens. And so things that you'd ever think could happen, you want to just make sure that you take care of yourself and your business so that it's in good hands. And I know you said I'm leaving my business to my mom or my husband, or, or I'm sorry to wife or husband. It's like, what if your wife or husband doesn't want to run the business?

IFFY: Or what if they don't want to be partners with your partner? Like if you have a spouse that does something completely different. They're like, now you've left me with this mess, and I don't even like your partner. It happens also because people don't follow up on that. 

Even with estate planning, I mostly represent couples and do their estate plans together. And I've had two occasions they have to jointly sign a release saying we consent to be represented and know that, should we divorce or stop agreeing that that's going to stop the project from moving forward. And I've actually had that happen twice. 

BIRD: Wow. 

IFFY: Where couples, when they start talking about how they want to distribute their property, they've never talked about it. When they talk about who's going to watch their kids if they're incapacitated or pass away, they're like, no, not your mom. And they're like, what do you mean that my mom, right? And then that ends the process. It's rare, but it happens because people don't go into these things thinking that there will ever be a strong disagreement. But they do happen. 

BIRD: Right. Such a great point to bring up. When it comes to wills and trusts, I know there's a lot of questions around which one you need. How do you decide if you should set up a will or a trust? 

IFFY: Yeah, and so it's not an either/or, right? Either way, you're going to need some sort of, again, asset distribution document. You can do that with a will, which will only go into effect when you're dead. Anything you put in a will only goes into effect upon death. Or you can put that into a trust and there's so many different types of trusts you can do. And there are trusts that you can put in wills, just to complicate it. 

So when people talk about trusts, it's like which type? Are we talking about an irrevocable life insurance trust? Are we talking about a revocable living trust? Are we talking about a testamentary trust for your minor child? Are we talking about the living trust? And so it just depends on the nature of your life. What do you own? What are you trying to pass on? Do you have life insurance? Are you working with retirement? Are you working with a brokerage account? 

An estate planning attorney is going to look at all of these components and be able to give you an idea of what you can do. Are you a real estate investor? Your plan might be different. It might involve you having an LLC to hold your properties and, and using that with a trust in a different way. It can get very complicated. And so when people say, oh, yeah, I need a trust, they usually don't know what they're talking about. Because there are so many different ways you can set up with a trust. 

Also, certain states are community property states, which means that when you get married, there's a presumption that 50% of what you have built as a couple, unless you have a prenup or a postnup, that your spouse is going to get access to that, right? That's their share, because they built 50/50. It's like Jeff Bezos and his wife. He built Amazon in a community property state. And it was worth how many billions? And they built it from the garage, as these companies often start, never thinking they were going to be the corporate global behemoth. She gets half because she can trace back to when they were married and then they began. So everything that you have acquired, everyone kept calling it Jeff's money. And I'm like, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's not how it works. There was no prenup, right? He did not build that alone. She had to watch the kids or whatever she was doing and help encourage him and give ideas that ended up being billion-dollar ideas. 

So it depends. And so I hate to say that, but it's not a quick fix. This is another reason not to just go to a document mill and get the document because your actual situation needs to be assessed. Also, if you are somebody who has a child with special needs, right, or you have a relative who might inherit from you, that's a gambler, or has addiction or dependency issues, is an alcoholic, and there are reasons that you may not want to give them money outright. And even if you don't want to give them money outright, there are ways that they can just naturally get that money, because if you don't estate plan, the state already has a plan for you. And so you may not want your house to have to be sold to creditors, because it ended up with your brother, right? There's certain things you can do in order to safeguard and plan for some, they're not eventualities. But there's some scenarios that you wouldn't want whether or not you're dead. You're like I would rather that money have gone to my niece than to be spent on drugs or to be spent just frivolously because somebody just thought, oh, okay, I just came into even if it's $20,000, that's a lot of money. 

BIRD: Yeah.

IFFY: People fight over yearbooks, grandma's china. People clean up their parents' houses when they pass away before they can find a will. They will go and take everything that they feel is of value. They'll go in the safe. They'll take the car. You'd be horrified what people will do. And these are people who don't consider the day. My mom didn't really have money, right? But they never had any kind of plan. So there'll be like, dang, my brother lost his mind. He went in there and cleaned out the whole house. 

BIRD: Oh, my gosh, I can't imagine. 

IFFY: All that every day. Every day, and there's a cost to that. And it's not only financial, because if you have to hire a lawyer to close down your estate, it is expensive when there are no directions. And it's also expensive when your family is no longer in good terms because they had a falling out because they believe one thing and mom said that to them, like in 1997. And now they're seeing that this is actually what it is. So it's important. 

BIRD: Yeah. And is it true that your point about having to hire a lawyer like if you have a will, it has to go through the court. Whereas if you have a trust, it's simpler? Is that a simpler process? 

IFFY: It depends on the type of trust again. There are some trusts that are put within the will like a testamentary trust for people with minor children can't receive money outright without having some sort of custodian or trustee in charge of the money for their behalf. I'll also put a little note in here, a lot of people leave life insurance to a sibling, or they leave it to like their auntie for the benefit of their kids. What happens is in that case, is that you've given that gift to that person, not to your kids. So if they passed away, that money is not coming to your children. It's going to their estate. Or if they don't have kids, poof, it's gone. Right? And so there's no way to guarantee that except you set up mechanisms for that money to always stay with your children and have somebody to manage it on their behalf. So you can do that within your will and that would be called a testamentary trust. And so that kind of trust, anything in your will, is going through probate. If you do it outside of your will in a type of trust is a revocable living trust, depending on where you are. That sort of trust will keep you out of the probate system because everything is handled privately. You don't go to court. You don't have to post it in a newspaper. You don't have to have creditors have notice like you would with something in a will. A will is public, everyone can see it. A trust is private, but it's not a tax shelter. 

BIRD: Interesting. That's very helpful. 

IFFY: A standalone trust, I should say. 

BIRD: Yeah. So what I gather is, for those listening, it's important to think about the future. It's important to protect yourself, your wealth, what you're working so hard slaving every day to build. You want it to just poof, be gone, because something happened to you and you weren't able to say this is what I want to have done with this. And I also hear that it's very unique. All the situations are very unique. So instead of going to a Legal Zoom, which I could just see being a disaster for something like this. 

IFFY: It brings a lot of work to us. 

BIRD: I bet. 

IFFY: People don't sign that stuff. And I'm like, you don't have a will, you have a draft. Or they do it incorrectly and it's not witnessed correctly for the state they're in and they didn't have it notarized properly or whatever. It's ineffective. So now you're at the whim of whomever is in charge. 

BIRD: Oh, my goodness. 

IFFY: It's more than just paperwork. If I could leave with that message. It's more than just filling out forms. If it was filling out forms, you should just do it. But you know, when you're like, I don't really know what I'm doing. Or when you're filling out forms, like when I tried to do taxes by myself and they said it's at a fourth grade level. I'm like, I have an advanced degree. And I was like, am I supposed to deduct this? Is this for me? You know, you don't know what you're doing. So don't do that to yourself,

BIRD: Right. And I say this so often. The goal of entrepreneurship is to focus on your core competencies. Focus on your core competencies. You don't want to be distracted by all the things that you have going on in your business, if you have the resources to hire, right? When we first launched The League, we were doing all the things. But then we hired a front desk person. We hired more instructors so that we could focus on what we're actually really good at. So that we could again, have that freedom that we really want. And so when it comes to something like this, I don't want to read tax law about the state and what I'm supposed to be doing. I'm going to entrust that to someone else, I'm going to outsource that. 

I've just really loved this conversation with you, Iffy. It's been so helpful. And I've learned a lot and I want to make sure that you get to share with the listeners some of your services and how they can connect with you online. 

IFFY: Yes, so I am an estate planning attorney based in Texas, but also licensed in Arkansas, which is where I now live. And so if you are someone who is looking to protect yourself, stop losing sleep over whether your kids are going to be okay, and really get your plan together and you're in those states, I can definitely help you. If you are just wanting to dip your toe into estate planning, I'm writing a book on estate planning. I'm going to make an announcement soon when I sign my contract. I'm signing with a major publisher to write an estate planning book for the rest of us, basically.

BIRD: Iffy, that's amazing! I'm so excited about that. 

IFFY: I'm so excited. I don't even talk about it much. But that's a primmer. I really want to make it known to people that estate planning is for you. And if we can even make that switch in this generation, so our kids grow up thinking that, and the next generation comes up thinking, oh yeah, I gotta do my will. I got to keep that updated. Want to make sure my directives are correct. And that I set up my trust and fund it and do all the things I'm supposed to do. It could change so many people's lives in the next coming generations. And so that's something I'm doing for those who are just interested in the topic. I have a lot of information on my website willsintexas.com. And I write weekly blogs just on various topics. And I strongly recommend for those of you who are truly wanting to build your business and wanting to get out of working in your business to working on your business, include estate planning as part of that working on your business. That's that adulting, real grown up stuff that you don't really want to do, but you've got to do and invest in it. It is an investment. It is not going to come cheap, but that's why it's an investment because you're paying money now to save so much more money later. 

BIRD: Yes! Ooh, yes. So good! 

IFFY: I want to make sure that I link. I'll link willsintexas in the show notes. Are there any other ways that folks could connect with you online that you want me to link as well?

BIRD: Iffy, you are such a gem. 

IFFY: Yes, you can connect with me @iffyibekweesq. That's my Instagram, my personal Instagram. I'll be talking about my book on there. And then my law firm is ibekwelawpllc on Instagram. And then if you Google me, I just come up. I've been talking a lot, so I'm out there. And you should be able to find me LinkedIn, Facebook, whatever. Just send a friend request. I'm happy to, to connect. 

IFFY: Thank you!

BIRD: You are such a light and I really, really appreciate you for being on the show. I know that what you've shared will help so many entrepreneurs start to really think about this and hopefully take steps toward making this a priority in their lives and in their business. 

IFFY: Absolutely! Thank you for inviting me on and it was such a pleasure. 

BIRD: So good, right. I'll be sure to link all of the ways you can connect with Iffy in the show notes. As always, thank you so much for tuning into Bird Means Business podcast, for subscribing on Apple Podcasts, and for following us on Spotify. Make sure you tell every entrepreneur you know about this episode, so that they can think about their wealth building and estate planning too. 

Alright, I'll talk to y'all next week.