We recently connected with Tunji Ajigbeda and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Tunji, thanks for joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
I remember having to deal with debt early in my professional life. I was making good money and feeling good about myself. I felt so good that I decided to take a huge risk, quit my well paying job, and write, produce, and record an album with me acting as the record company with deep pockets. As you might imagine, my pockets were not actually that deep and I eventually had to dip into the credit card company’s pockets to make the quality of record that I thought would be received well. Married with a child on the way and 6 figures in debt, wifey said something has to give. So I went back to work and began the long hard work of digging myself out of the debt hole that I had created. I took notes along the way and others started to notice. They would ask how I was making it possible that we could now go on vacations after dealing with such struggle. I would point them to educational resources that I used, tools that I found or created, and even the radio personalities who were preaching the wisdom of good financial health. But I would be disappointed when time would go by and they would not show improvement in their financial situation afterwards. That is when I tried an experiment to collaborate with them in order to essentially give them the cheat codes and gently hold them accountable to the goals that they expressed to be important to them. Voila! With collaboration and discipline comes success! But someone else’s collaboration and discipline takes time and time is money. And so the idea was born. Many people need the money coaching service that I provide and more and more people are living paycheck to paycheck by the day without that help. Adjusting someone’s behavioral relationship with money, their goals, and financial institutions is not addressed by financial advisors and only sometimes addressed through sessions with psychologists. Dealing with it in real time is required and, in the absence of schools and parents being able to give more than a little attention to the problem, few others are doing that much less doing so without triggering some level of shame. Through no shame money coaching, I help people break the financial chains that have sometimes been holding them down for years.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Tunji Ajigbeda, Financial Health Specialist & Certified ProAdvisor
Budget master, serial business daddy, real estate investor, and chief savings finder extraordinaire.
Before founding Moneycopilot, Tunji honed his professional savvy coming up through the ranks of multiple startups and a Fortune 500 company. He’s an accomplished executive and leader with broad experience managing individual and line of business budgets with over 20 years of experience with QuickBooks.
In his role as a Financial Health Specialist, Tunji is a money coaching champion with a deep awareness of how it feels to look like you have it all together, while under the surface, your finances tell a different story. Not willing to flirt with bankruptcy, one of his proudest achievements was facing down more than $100K of debt (with dire prospects) to rebuild his personal net worth and reclaim a much higher and more satisfying quality of life.
With over 20 years of expertise, passion, and empathy Tunji is uniquely qualified to help his clients learn how to manage their finances in smart, forward-thinking ways. And as a member of the exclusive 850 perfect FICO credit score club, he knows the secrets to improving credit scores organically. His clients love how his supportive nonjudgmental style puts them at ease almost as much as they love the spending and saving power they gain through his clear money-optimizing strategies.
Tunji Ajigbeda is a member of the American Association of Daily Money Managers—an organization representing businesses and individuals who nurture trust, lead with integrity, and act ethically.
Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?
Personal finance is such a sensitive subject for people. I’ve found that initial in person interaction yields the best results in terms of growing clientele. As such, networking within referral focused groups is a significant effort that both gets the word out as well as converts new connections into extensions of our sales team as they recognize who can benefit from our money coaching services. Collaboration with us can genuinely be life changing for someone who otherwise would let the cards fall where they may in their financial life.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
A reputation is such a valuable thing. It takes years of consistent behavior and execution to build it up, but it can be ruined in an instant. I’ve spent time educating others on what I do and how it is different from what financial advisors do. I’ve delivered for my clients when it counted to the point that they advocate for others to consider the program unsolicited. I show up for networking opportunities and exhibit integrity, mutual support, and positivity that helps to uplift the experience. Trust is paramount and I live my life in a way that engenders trust as much as humanly possible.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://moneycopilot.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moneycopilot/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/moneycopilot
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/moneycopilot
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/moneycopilotllc
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@moneycopilot
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@moneycopilot
Image Credits
Courtesy Yata Photography & Scott Self