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Even more so like taking this country music we're familiar with, but then just like turning it on its head a little bit. And we're, I'm not doing anything with my music that's crazy. I'm just like they're saying like it's a guy singing about a guy. I'm just not hiding it, you know what I mean? And, and that in and of itself is shocking to some people and healing to a lot of people, and that's cool.

Welcome to living not so fabulously. You know, one of the interesting experiences that we have as queer people is that oftentimes we're a part of multiple other communities, and one of the inspiring things that's happening right now for many of us is that we feel comfortable and safe occupying spaces that we didn't necessarily feel invited into up until recently.

And that's the story of today's guest Brian Faldudo. Brian is best known as Fancy Pants from School of Rock with.Jack Black, that's pretty cool. But Brian grew up navigating the spotlight while figuring out who he was, what his identity was. Now as an out and proud LGBTQ plus artist, activist, and certified life coach, he uses his platform to inspire others through his music, speaking, and life coaching.

Brianwas also named as one of 20 most influential and optimistic people on the planet by Pride Life magazine. And one of the things I really appreciate and love about Brian.The interview is how he talks about how he's creatively navigating his personal finances to build not only the life but also the career he actually loves, right?

Even though he started out his career as an actor, he didn't let that pigeonhole him. He used that as a springboard to get into his true love country music, and then he started a third career as a life coach to not only help other people, but to act as an investment in his dream of becoming a country music star, right? So

let's hear Brian's story.

Welcome, Brian Faldo to living not so fabulously.

Thank you. I'm so excited.

It's exciting to finally meet you in real life. I know because you're an actor, you're a musician, a country star, but you started out as a kid actor.

What was that like? Um, wonderful, also awful, a lot of, a lot of, a lot of both, you know, it was a really cool unparalleled experience to have at like age 10 or 11, but thenYou know, afterwards there was a lot of like backlash, and I've been very vocal about that and yeah, so it's a little bit of both, but I think nowadays I'm very grateful for it, you know, it's a nice little calling card and it's a good conversation piece and I think in the end it ended up being like a wonderful chapter of my life, but it was like difficult while I was in it, you know.

So you startedoff as Billy the Fancy Pants in School of Rock, right, with Jack Black. Wait, what was it like working with JackBlack?

Jack Black's amazing. He really is. There was like an article.That he was like one of the 10 most loved people in America and I was like, that's so accurate. He's so great. Everything that you see on TV and in interviews, that's who he is in real life. He's very nice.

Yeah for context for those of us who aren't familiar with, do you mind sharing what did you get paid for something like that?

Um, I don't, I don't remember the exact like dollar amount, but you know, I was doing pretty well for an 11 year old and um.Uh, definitely kind of like messed with my head financially, just like from like, you know, making that much at a young age, not thinking I would need to work maybe as hard like later in life or like whatever it might be, and then realizing that that money sort of like had an endpoint and but of course there's also like residuals and it's like a weird, it's like a weird sort of uhIncome element that I've been like dealing with over the years I feel like,

yeah, yeah. So I'm just wondering at that age, can you do you have any context of what that kind of money means and what it could possibly do? Like how did you work with that?

No, I think my parents did a good job at like, you know, helping me understand how to like invest it. They invested it really well for me and I still like sort of like have some of the money like available for like whatever I I might need it for or whatever it is, um.Yeah, and like blow it all up right away, which was really nice. They were, they were good about that.

You had some control,yeah, because my parents and our producer wants us to ask, any memorabilia that you happen to steal from rock or get to keep

steal not so much. They gave us like a bunch of stuff afterwards. They like, I remember I got like this huge box in the mail with like all this stuff, like some of the stuff was from the set. They were like, we think you might like this. And then some of it was like.Um, like the merch from the movie and like the albums and all those kind of things.

So I think childhood stars kind of it's good and bad, right, because you hear the stories about, you know, Judy Garland, Drew Bramore, and they had their definitely had their challenges. Can you kind of elaborate a little bit more for what it's like to have that.Kind of wealth at such a young age. What was that experience like a guttural feeling?

Yeah, I mean, the wealth was like one factor, but I think a lot of the trouble for me came with like a lot of the mixed messaging, you know, I had this 4 months where I was on set and then we had the press tour where I felt reallySpecial and unique and celebrated for who I was and like everything I was bringing to the table, but then I like went back to middle school after where like, you know, middle school boys are not as nice and I I felt like I had to go from standing out to fitting in, and it was just like hard to like navigate the different.A sort of messaging I was getting like, you're great for this, you're not great for this, and at a young age I didn't really know how to internalize that. Specifically, I was the gay kid in the movie and I got a lot of backlash for that, and that was kind of hard because I didn't even know what being gay meant at the time and all that kind of stuff, yeah,

and then whatAny reason for why it didn't necessarily translate being on stage and being in the movie into like middle school, I would think that like the high school and the middle schoolers would be like, Oh, you're the famous kid is next to me in math. Well,

it was tough because it wasn't the famous kid. They were like, it's the gay kid and I was 11 and I went back to school and I was like, I don't want to be in college.Gay because from all I knew at the time was it was a bad thing like back in the day, like in 2003, if you call someone gay in middle school, it was supposed to be like an insult essentially. So I was like, I don't want to be associated with that word. And I gave myself like a lot of internalized homophobia that I had to deal with at a later age and um yeah, it was little hard.

So when you were looking around at your peers, all the wealth that they were getting, you know, obviously dealing with the same movie, did you learn any lessons from them maybe to how to manage your money? Um,

I don't know. I, I think like those conversations came like we're all friends still. It came like later in life, like who's, you know, who's out of money, who still has their money, that kind of thing like I don't know, we've we've gotten more candid about it, but I think back, I was just a kid, you know, I didn't really.You know what I was doing with my money. I was just, I think I felt a certain sense of um spoiled, to be honest, because I was like, wow, I made all this money doing this movie and blah blah blah blah blah. And then, you know, later in life I learned like, oh, I still have to work and all these kinds of things.

Soyeah, you hope that it sets you up for life. You know, I think that that's what maybe one of the misconceptions that a lot of people have is that.That you're in a movie that's really, I mean, it was a really successful movie, right? So everybody's like, you're set for life.

No, I'm not that's not true. They made a sequel, I might be, but I'm still waiting for that check

20 years later,25. Let's add a couple

more, get back to the pen and paper.

You mentioned that your parents helped you.When you look at that whole idea of being a kid actor and making that kind of money, whatWhat did they, and what did you do that you would say other parents, other child actors, other actors under the age of 18 who don't have necessarily full control over their finances, what would you say that theyshould do?

Um, I mean, I guess we wish everyone, it's like different scenarios, right? Cause I know a lot of the kids going into the movie, like everyone had different backgrounds and some needed the money like more immediately for their family or whatever it might be, but I know in my case, I mostly didn't touch the money until I was like,Going to college and I use some of it to pay for college and then I, I, I still only kind of use it either in case of emergencies or like big investments in my, in my life. So I, I would say put it away, but um I don't know, I'm also not the best with the monetary advice.

So yeah, you know, John and I oftentimes would tell folks, uh, when they get a big lump sum of money, like whether it's a tax return or an inheritance or something like that, that it's a really good idea.To split it into two pieces. The piece that you won't, you won't touch for a long time that's set aside, but then you need to enjoy that money in the here and now that you've done something, you've earned it or you celebrate, you can celebrate what you, what you've gotten. And having that kind of helps satiate this desire tonot spend it all.

Yeah, no, absolutely. And I think that's pretty much what my parents did. Like, you know, like I have a retirement account that I personally have not worked too, too hard to like secure for myself, which is mostly because of the movie, right? So like I think that thereThere's like a lot of benefit that came from just like the way the money was invested, but then there's also some that's been available for me, which I was like, I'm going to go make some music with this or I'm going to go do this with that, you know what I mean?

What wasthe biggest splurge you did with your school of Rock Money for fun

like I invested it into my music, yeah, yeah.

And when did you realize you want to start investing into your music and making that a career?

Honestly, pursuing acting got a little tiresome. I'm not like not pursuing acting. If like an opportunity were to come along, I would, I would entertain the idea, but um.I find that it's easier to sort of push yourself forward independently with music. I actually worked in country music radio for 4 years and I fell in love with the genre and then I was like, I think I can do this. And like, you know, just with the way music is formatted these days, you know, there's TikTok, there's streaming platforms, you can like put your music out and you can garner a fan base and you can like put shows together and you can like do it. Acting, I felt a lot like I was waiting for someone to be like, Here's an opportunity or here's something we want to see you in.I mean, I'm sure I could have written my own material, but I didn't really have like the desire to do that. I was more into like writing music and so I just decided to sort of like do that because it was more entertaining for me. It's more fulfilling.

What sort of risk was there with that kind of a career move for you? I mean, because my thought would be that maybe people would pigeonhole you as, well, you're an actor, so maybe you shouldn't, you know, stay in your lane.

Oh yeah, people have always wanted to pigeonhole and I just, I just, you know.School of Rock one Bible recently because two of the kids got married like from the movie and I posted about my music and one of there was a lot of wonderful comments, but there was one comment that was like, Why didn't you stay the band stylist or like whatever or something like that. So like people do want to like, this is the one thing you've done and that's what they want you to do your whole life. And I was like, well, because I grew up and I did other things with my life. I was like one thing that you saw me in.But yeah, I don't, I don't switching to music, I don't know. I, I find that if you follow what's authentic for you, people will follow as well, and my music has been a really exciting growth journey for me, and I think people are excited about that.

It, it is interesting actually. I think that the title of one of your albums is gay Country, and that doesn't seem like.Traditionally doesn't seem like a match. Why? Why that? Yeah,

yeah. Well, I mean, it's, you know, when I inceptualized the album, you know, that was even a more novel concept, but I feel like we have all this representation coming forward in country music, which is really exciting and I love to see it. But yeah, at the time when I came up with the idea for the album, it's just because I grew up listening to country music and I've always loved country music and I worked in country music, but I always felt a little bit like I didn't see myself quite in it. Like I was like.These lyrics are so relatable and they're so healing, especially like when you're going through a breakup or a loss or whatever it is, but I was like, there's like an element missing. I was like, I feel like it's not directly speaking to me. And so I wanted this album to just be permissive. Also, a lot of my work has been about emboldening my younger self, who was a gay kid from School of Rock and then really hid from that. So like I wanted my music to be unapologetically.Queer, you know, um, and it

is, it's interesting you share that. Um, when I came out, I was living before I came out, I was living in South Dakota, very uh country music listening area, and I moved back to Denver and the first gay bar I ever went to was a gay country westernbar

was

and what it wascalled Charlie's and watching toMen in cowboy hats and tight, tight, tight wrangler jeans dancing, and I was like, this is odd because this is not how I I had pictured cowboys, which is interesting because you for this album, you dropped a video for one of your songs that highlighted a scene similar to that at you and Dan Amor, who folks was also a guest here on Living Not So Fabulously.With his husband Eric Berger, you can find that episode on Yahoo Finance or YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcasts. So you dropped that and I just thought it was, it was a little surprising, and I appreciated it. It was something that we don't see veryoften.

Yeah, and that's a Dolly Parton cover that he's in, so it's even more so like taking this country music we're familiar with, but then it's like turning it on its head a little bit.And we're, I'm not doing anything with my music that's crazy. I'm just like they're saying like it's a guy singing about a guy. I'm just not hiding it, you know what I mean? And that in and of itself is shocking to some people and healing to a lot of people, and it's cool. Yeah.

What kind of pushback did you maybe get from that video? Is it similar to the pushback you might have gotten from the School of Rock?

Yeah, just, you know, the occasional hater on TikTok, which just means you're doing something right, right? Um but mostly like really positive support. I've had a few like nice viral moments.With my music or like streaming successes, and that's mostly just because people are like excited about queer representation in country music and yeah,

yeah, I think so many of us people just want, like you said earlier, they just want to pigeonhole us and they think that if you'reA gay person, you probably just like the divas and singing the house music, but they forget that we're in all different kind of demographics. We're in all different kinds of communities. We like all different kinds of arts and entertainment, you know, there's definitely a market out there for people who love gay cowboys.

Absolutely, yeah, I've always, I've been, I feel like I've always been a quieter gay in some respects or just like more into like reading or whatever it is. I liked Hannah Gatsby in her comedy sketch when she was like.Where do all the quiet gays go because she like looked at the Pride Festival and she's like, that doesn't feel like me. And I was like, I'm a little bit of both. I love to perform and be out there, but then I go home and I just retreat and domy thing.

So in hindsight, when you consider your role in School of Rock and your and your art in in as a gay country music artist, do you think like you're inspired by sort of challenging those norms?

Ithink so, yeah, even like a couple of years ago, I released a song that was about my journey growing up gay in church.which was like really impactful for a lot of people, and I still get people messaging me to this day like, thank you for this song. And it's just because it's taking these tropes and like turning them on their head, and I like to do that. I kind of just did that with a Christmas single I put out too. It's a song for single people at Christmas time because Christmas music is always about having someone or meeting someone or whatever it is. And I was like, Well, what if we wrote a Christmas song that's just about being by yourself and not being OK? And umYeah, I like to take these little things and twist them around a little bit. So hold

that thought, Brian, we'll be right back after this break.

Welcome back to Living Not So Fabulously. We're sitting with Brian Faldudo. So Brian, so I'm curious, as you're trying to blaze these sort of unique trails, um, what kind of a financial risk? I mean, it's not like it's a guaranteed recipe for success because you have other people whose footsteps you can follow. What kind of a financial challenge have you had trying to get your career totake off?

Yeah, I mean, it's, it's the independent artist journey is, you know, it's just I've I've learned how to budget for.and just make it something that's possible for myself, but it's not easy. It's all about consistency because like I've had songs do really well and I'm like, wow, this is like paying off and it's like worth my like it's worth all the money I invested and the time and energy and then I have songs that don't do as well and then it's like that's OK because these are doing well. It's just about of likeKind of like consistency of output, I guess. Yeah, yeah.

So for those other folks who are in some sort of arts or entertainment field where they're trying to blaze trails, what's maybe one mistake that in hindsight you wish you wouldn't have made? What's one thing that you're pretty sure that you did right?

Yeah, well, I love Brene Brown's research.On hope. I don't know if you guys are into Renee Brown at all, but I was listening to her podcast once and I had this like big aha that I've carried with me for like 4 or 5 years now because like a couple of years ago I was feeling pretty hopeless about like the artist thing, you know, it can feel a bit like you're just moving towards these goals and not getting anywhere.And then it turns out hope is something that's like achievable. Like it's it's not just like an emotion, it's it's it's a mind process and it can be achieved by proving to yourself that you can do small goals that you set up for yourself. And I learned that my artistic goals were not like specific or small or substantial enough. I just had this goal of being a successful country music singer, but like what does that mean? How much money do I want to be making? How often do I want to be on tour? How often do I want to be releasing music? And so when I got really specific about all of that.I realize it's all achievable. Like if I if I focus on this goal, I can do it, and then now I can focus on this goal and I can do it. And that's like really changed the game for me and I would tell people to just get really specific like what does success mean to you and how often do you want to be doing this, etc.

I appreciate you saying this that.It's, it is often, and I'm not sure if this is theI like to use the word the term success porn or this this idea of that we we kind of glorify success and you have to be this level or have this or do this and so many of us when we think about where we want to get in life, we're kind of putting these really lofty goals out there thatIn the down moments we look at it and say that I'm just never ever going to get there. If we pull back a little bit, you're saying it's achievable, yeah, and then we kind of see our path tothat.

And then you're also operating from this like place of abundance too. Like I just did a full tour this past summer. I traveled the country doing my music. I have people following my songs. Like it's not like success like maybe like younger me dreamed of like performing at Madison Square Garden or whatever it is, but maybeI'll get there, but like I'm doing the music thing, you know what I mean, and I'm proving to myself I can do it and I'm making money doing it and it feels good.

Do you find that you struggle when you see other artists who are successful, especially people that you might have grown up with in the Hollywood in the New York scene? Do you find, do you compare yourself at all and do you struggle with that? And if so, how do you deal with that?

I do. Im the mom.

I do.

I love them. I have nothing against them, but I get a little triggered when I see them and I start comparing. It's just, it just brings up a voice in me that's not really doesn't feel like my voice. I think it's a past voice. It's or like we all have that comparing voice, right? And I just, I don't like to make art from that place because it's never good. So I would just try and likeI just mute them and if I want to go see what they're up to, I'll go find their profile and I'll be like, oh, they're doing great, you know, but I don't want to open Instagram and see this person is doing the exact same thing you're doing, but better like whatever it is, you know what I mean? Yeah,

100%.

And I absolutely love this idea of umThere are times when we're on social media that it is triggering and it's a 100% OK to say I'm not going to follow that account anymore or I'm going to turn them on mute or I'm going to block them because I just don't need that in that energy in my life and especially I think that when it comes to our finances, the worse we feel about ourselves, the first.Further and further we are away from actually achieving any sort of financial success, let alone the the the feelings of aspiration and achievement in our lives.

Yeah, I mean, and social media, social media also is not real, you know what I mean? Like it's not an accurate depiction of what everyone's doing. They're posting their highlights and everyone else is also having low moments orFeeling like they can't do the things that they think they want to do or whatever it is. I know from a coaching standpoint, like when we first I first came on your podcast, I was really marketing like my coaching business. Um and a lot of coaches are like talking about how great their business is. But then when you get them one on one off a mic or something, it turns out not everyone's doing quite as well as they say they're doing. I mean? So it's like, yeah, it's a lot of marketing, you know what I mean?

SoActingAlthough it doesn't sound like that's happening as much anymore, but you still get some income from that, right? Um, your music and your coaching, you have multiple income streams, butNone of them are 100% consistent, right? So how do you balance that? How do you balance that that idea that I'm doing what I love to do and I'm making money and I have to figure out a way to make that my my financial life work around that.

Yeah, I mean, to be honest, I'm never like, I'm never just like sitting around being like I've got it made. I'm

always like,you know, makes you grow,you know,

I've got to like I got to keep track of it all and I'm very diligent about my budget documents andAll the things and the coaching income is pretty consistent right now. So that's um that's nice and helpful. So it is helpful to have one area that I'm like, OK, we're good. I have to check back on it, of course, but like, youknow,

yeah, no doubt. So how do you financially, how do you manage that? Do you use any particular tools? Do you use an Excel spreadsheet? Like how do you know where the money is coming from and where it's going? Because there are a lot of people who watch the show have inconsistent income streams. Yeah,

I do an Excel doc and I do my budgeting month to month and I umUm, I think I did use the app you guys suggested to me for a while. It was like, I forget what it was called, but I, I ended up just switching to an Excel document and that's just how I keep track of things and um I, I always overestimate in case I end up like running under or whatever it might be, um.But I also have in the months where I'm like, OK, money's a little tight this month and that's OK.

I think one of the important things to remember from this episode is to define success and get crystal clear on what it means to you and also celebrate those wins, no matter how big or small they might be.It's also important to remember that comparison can be a thief of joy and it can also steal from your financial well-being too,

and that's what the show is all about living a fabulous life that you've designed for yourself on your own terms, not those that are being imposed on you. So use Brian's story as an inspiration to regularly check in with yourself to make sure that you're designing the life that you want and not those of some.Else, right,

so thanks again for joining us for another episode of Living Not So Fabulously. Remember to catch us every Wednesday at noon Eastern on Yahoo Finance.com, YouTube or wherever you catch your favorite podcasts.

Don't forget to set those notifications, like and subscribe where available, because the gay agenda will not promote itself. No, it won't.

And until next time, stay fabulous.

This content was not intended to be financial advice and should not be used as a substitute for professional financial services.