#13 - 2024 Money Revolution with Mindie Kniss

Uncover the secrets to financial success with Mindie Smith as she delves into the power of challenging money beliefs, structuring your finances for freedom, and prioritizing purpose over passion. Explore the transformative journey of mindset and intentionality for lasting financial success and personal fulfillment. Join us as we journal our money beliefs, create structured financial systems, and align actions with our true purpose. Don't miss this episode packed with insights on achieving your financial goals and living a purpose-driven life.

Episode Highlights:
1. From rock bottom to success, Mindie shares her inspiring journey, emphasizing the importance of recognizing self-worth beyond financial measures.
2. Together they challenge traditional money beliefs, discussing the fallacies and dispelling common myths.
3. Highlighting money as a force for good, the discussion focuses on structuring finances for freedom, resilience, and adapting to varied income streams in 2023.
4. Practical insights as the duo explores crafting balanced financial structures for fulfillment, including the significance of having a structured approach to maintain financial balance.
5. Unpacking the difference between passion and purpose, the conversation underscores purpose as the anchor for resilience and motivation in the face of challenges.

Tune in now and embark on a journey of financial empowerment and intentional living!

Mindie Kniss, MFA, PhD, is a coach, speaker, and day trader. After leaving a cushy career at a Fortune 100 corporation, she lost everything during the Great Recession to foreclosure, eviction, and bankruptcy. She then went on a mission to understand how wealth works. Through her coaching and online courses at Lucra.com, Mindie helps thousands of entrepreneurs and traders around the world upgrade their money mindset and get strategic about financial growth through personal growth. Mindie hosts The Lucra® Podcast and is the author of two bestselling books. She was featured in the films The Abundance Factor and Impact.

Mindie's Links:
Mindie's Website
The Lucra Podcast
The Prison of Your Mind Ted Talk
Facebook
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LinkedIn
Twitter

Money is The Root of All Evil Episode
Rocket Money

Always and Never About Money Episode Links:
Video Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@MoneyMasteryWithChelsea
Socials: https://linktr.ee/the_money_whisper
Money Mastery Website: www.moneymastery.work
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/AlwaysandNeverMoney/

Transcript

Hey, they're financial explorers. Whether you're a seasoned money guru or just dipping your toes into the world of finance, I'm glad you're here. I'm Chelsea Williams, your money whisperer and founder of two companies that focus on helping business owners and individuals take control of their finances always and never about money is where we gather to dive deep into the fascinating intersection of money and human behavior. We're here to learn about our money story, uncover the driving forces behind financial habits, understand the impact of history on our wallets today, and give you all the knowledge and tools to change your money story.
Speaker 0 Hey, money whispers, welcome back. So I'm really excited about today's guest. I was, if I was first a guest on your podcast, Mindy Nist, Speaker 1 You were Lura podcast, we will definitely put the link to that. And I had so much fun and the things that I was able to like converse with you about it was just like a breath of fresh air. Like we totally had so many of the same views and we noticed some of the same things. So I'm really excited to have this conversation with you today. But first, tell our guest who you are. Who is Mindy Smith? Well, I have been a coach for the last 16 years and that started out as an adventure leaving corporate America. I was at a Fortune 100 company, decided that wasn't exactly my gig, and ventured out on my own. Had all these big, big, big massive dreams about like, I'm gonna be a millionaire by next year and I'm just gonna like change the world with so much goodness. And this is gonna be amazing. Two years into that situation, I found that my dream had turned into a nightmare because I was evicted from my apartment that I was living in my house that I still own. This was 2008. So housing crisis, great recession, my house was foreclosed. I ended up living in my office for a time being, and to top all that off, I filed for bankruptcy. So this dream started out like not so hot, crazy nightmare. And that point of hitting rock bottom really forced me, quite honestly to, to figure out like, I, is this really what I wanna do? Is this really what I wanna go for? Is this thing coaching like small business entrepreneurship? Is this for me? And the answer was very clearly yes, but I needed to find out how then to make a go of it. So I dove into marketing, sales, everything about business. 'cause I didn't know anything before. I'm like, I'm a pretty decent coach, but I had no idea how to run a business. So had to learn all of that. And then through the years, over time, lots of trial and error. People kept saying, well, okay, so how did you do this thing? And how did you do this thing? And if I wanna become a coach, how did you do that thing? And so what started as life coaching turned and like spiritual coaching turned into business coaching because I was just sharing what was working for me after having gone through all the chaos. And that turned into a pretty lucrative career then. Well, maybe I'll just stop there. That's what I've been up to for the last 16 years. Speaker 0 Yes. What I really appreciate about your story is it is one of like, I hit rock bottom, like had nowhere to go but up. And you did and you went up. And I think sometimes that's the hard truth. Like that's what it takes in life to hit something Speaker 1 Clearly for me, Right? I mean that like, that is the way that I did it. I, I don't wish that on anybody because it was a terrible situation to go through. But yeah, for me, like I had to really understand, and this will probably tie into things we'll talk about in this show today, but I had to understand worth as a, as a sovereign being as opposed to worth connected to my bank account or to my income or to any of those things, which you talk a lot about and we so resonate on. And I have to say, what was so cool about like where you have come from and what you're able, what you talk about now and where I've come from and what I talk about now is essentially we've come, like you've came through the, the financial route. I did not, I don't have any background in any of those things, but ended up at about the same place having come from like the personal development, self-improvement space. And now we're really saying the same thing. Speaker 0 Yes. I I love that. And that is so what I wanna help people see. I want to help people connect the dots and, and use money as a mirror and see it for what it is and what it has to offer them on so many different levels. So yes, yes, yes. So let's dig into it. Yes. The first topic on our list and what, what me and Mindy have decided to do for you guys because it's that time of the year, is we want this to really plant a seed for you in the next couple of months because we're going into a new year and that's when people start to think about, you know, how do you want to do different, how do you want to do better? And for me, the financial world lends itself to me in this way because we live in quarters, right? Right, right. And we're in fourth quarter. And so being in business for yourself, you probably live in quarters too. And so it's a really, really good opportunity to get ahead of things like what are you going to do different in 2024 with your money, with your business, with your life? So first up is one of my favorites, money beliefs. Speaker 1 Mm. What would you say, how would you describe what is a money belief? So a money belief is what your perspective deems to be true about the way that money works. Whether that's like, is money, the root of all money is the root of all evil, right? That's a belief that many people hold, even though may I say that's not even what it says in the Bible. They quote this all the time and I'm like, that's not even true. I was a theology major as an undergrad, so I studied this stuff. It, that's not what it says. Hmm. But that is a money belief. And to be clear, a belief does not mean that something is true because you and I, Chelsea might have different beliefs about different things in the world. And like both of us are not correct, both of us are not wrong. There is always this nuance of like, what, what is, you know, capital T truth. But I'll give you an example for your listeners. That was one that was huge, huge, huge issue for me. My belief about money was that the only way to get it or to get more of it was to work really, really hard. And I'll tell you where this came from. 'cause this is where this, all of this is just imprinted in our unconscious minds. It's running the show. We don't even recognize it most of the time until you say, hold on, what are my money beliefs? And actually go in, delve in, dig in, excavate oftentimes that crap and like see, see what's in there. So for me, I grew up in a middle class house. Like we, we didn't want for anything. We had everything we needed, but both of my parents worked more than one job. So they were constantly working. And my understanding as a child was, oh, okay, if you want to afford this lifestyle that we have, or if you want to get more money, you have to work harder or you have to work longer. Well, what I've found as an adult is that that's not even true at all. It's not even true. Like remotely, I'll give you like the opposite in my own experience. So more recently, I don't know if we talked about this, but more recently, like the last few years, I've been very active as a day trader. And at first I was like, oh, if I wanna get more money, I have to work harder. Now this was not conscious, I was not aware that these beliefs were running, but that was my belief. And really that's not true in day trading. If you make all the money you need to make like in two minutes, well that was fairly simple probably, and you're done for the day. But I was like, oh no, well I need to spend more time with this. I need to do more. And that actually like contributed to me trading worse. And I'm like, this is not working. So what is going on here? And I really had to do that work myself to excavate those beliefs and be like, yeah, okay, so this is a whole different game that I'm playing. But it's sa it's also true in entrepreneurialism. Like 10 x is actually sometimes easier than going two XI mean it's, it's crazy the way that you can compound time, money, energy to work on your behalf. So that's an example of a money belief that was not serving me. And there are so many more. Speaker 0 And I know that's, that's such a common one. I was raised with that idea too, that, you know, my mom and my dad both put in so much of their time and hustle to work, you know, like hard Speaker 1 Work. How do you think that that's like a very Midwest, 'cause I'm from the Midwest as well. I think it's like Midwestern values is like, we work hard and you know, we, we support our families and do whatever we're doing, but I'm like, yeah, I I don't need to participate in that same, and there's nothing wrong with that way of doing it. They're just easier ways out there. Speaker 0 Yes, yes. I and I think what that is is like perspective, right? Like have that perspective of where did you come from, like geographically, historically, what, you know, what, when you grew up, what little sliver of reality were you living? And put that into perspective so that we can now realize, you know, our options. What are some of the other common beliefs? I know that one is a huge one. What are some more money beliefs that you see? Speaker 1 I see this a lot with clients, that rich people are assholes. Yeah. Like, and, and here's here, I'll, I'll tell you a funny story about this one. So in some of my events, I actually have them do an exercise where it's like a sentence completion thing. So it'll, you know, I'll start the sentence and they'll have to fill in whatever their, you know, first thing that pops into their brain. I have a client who, who he himself is a very successful entrepreneur. He is got multiple different businesses, he's done very well for himself. And I gave them that thing rich people are and his fir and he was like, Mindy, this is crazy. But he goes, the first thing that came to my mind is that rich people are assholes. And I'm like, you're one of them. Like you're, I'm not saying that he's an asshole, but like he's a wealthy guy and he's like, this is bananas. That, that, that is still ingrained in me. And I'm like, well let's look at where that comes from. If you watch movies, if you listen to the media, if you read books more often than not the bad guy or the, you know, whoever is the villain is the problem, right? Whoever's like the bad person in the story is often like a wealthy person. And this is just inundated on us. And again, often unconsciously. So it's not like we're recognizing this, but if you start paying attention to how media speaks about wealthy people, it's often quite negative. Or, or they're talking about something that doesn't have anything to do with money regarding this person. And they'll be like, well this billionaire, blah, blah, blah. But it has nothing to do with the fact that grows in in there dollars. But it's like, just to like paint them as a, a negative character in our worldview. And so we are constantly, and unless you pay attention to that, unless you're like, hold on, do I even believe that that's true? Do I know any wealthy people that are awesome, amazing, kind-hearted lovely human beings? Well, yes I do. So it clearly isn't about the money, but that's another big one. Speaker 0 No, I agree. That is, so we've got, money is the root of all evil. I I love these myths. I really do. I actually have an episode on money is the root of all evil. So go back and listen to that one. Nice money is the root of all evil. You must work hard for it. Rich people are bad and rich people are bad. I think plays into another money belief that I see a lot, which is money is hard to make. Speaker 1 Mm, yuck Speaker 0 It, it almost repels us. Like they work together to really keep us in this space of financial scarcity in this like residual pattern. Speaker 1 Chelsea, I have a story about this. Like the, the concept of it's more noble to be poor or it's more noble to be middle class. So I grew up in going to church at a Presbyterian church and that was kind of like, not blatantly said, but it certainly was unspoken. So in my early twenties when I was first outta college and like entering the world of work and figuring out, you know, who am I gonna be in my life? What am I gonna do his Speaker 0 Life? Speaker 1 Yeah. I really struggled with that because what I, and I, here's how I, this is terrible how I navigated that because I didn't recognize, I didn't know about beliefs back then. I didn't know like how detrimental this could be to our own psyche. So I wasn't really aware of what I was doing, but what I found is that I was making some pretty decent money in corporate America and I was just giving it all away. I was giving it all away. I was giving it all away. And I had like on top of that then I like racked up debt, I had student loan debt, just all kinds of things. And really it was based on that idea that, well I can't hold onto this because it's more noble. I wanna be a good person, right? Like I wanna just be a great human and in order to do that I can't have a lot of money because that's not that me Speaker 0 A good person, right? Speaker 1 And so I put like ver looking back, I can say I put myself into some pretty crappy situations because I wasn't like using my money. Well I wasn't investing, I wasn't saving, I wasn't whatever it was like here, let me just give this away, give this away, give this away. And that was a disaster. So like, that's not even true either. You know, it's not more noble to be poor. It's actually like if you wanna do awesome things huge in the world, a lot of that takes money. Speaker 0 Yes, yes. Like nothing great ever happened without money either. Can you think of like what, what great, you know, Martin Luther King was, it really took money for him to make a difference. Like anybody of influence, there's a budget behind it. Mother Speaker 1 Teresa, like Mother Teresa I is to me like the queen of this because that woman, she raised a ton of money for her missions for her good works for her. You know, the Catholic church, all of these things like, but everybody looks at her, oh well she, you know, she's a saint and like yeah she was backed by a lot of dollars. Yeah. Speaker 0 Yes. She was a well-funded saint. Yes, absolutely. Yeah. And I think that's what, you know, we can encourage people to look at like there's proof out there for almost any belief that you have adapted or that you want to adapt. You know that money is not the root of all evil. It is the source of most good things and that, you know, everything requires money. That's good too. We don't have to work hard, especially in 2023. There are so many ways to make money in 2023. It's ridiculous. Like Speaker 1 It's so easy. I mean I can tell you even from the time that I've been in the entrepreneur space, it's way easier because back in the day I had to invest in all kinds of different software to do this and this, this a thousand different things, you know, like recording things, whatever it might be. And that all was pretty pricey back then. Today it's either free first of all, or it's like way less money than it used to be to do all the same stuff that we used to do. I'm like, man, this is easy these days. Speaker 0 Yes, it, it really is. And especially when you think about, you know, you don't have to have a ton of money. Maybe that's another myth here. Like you don't have to have a ton of money to be happy to like have the space in your life to create your own happy. You know, when we're talking about these things, I can see people listening like, oh yeah, you say money's hard to make. Tell me where to find $300,000 a year. Well maybe it doesn't take $300,000 a year. Maybe that's the other end of the belief. Like, do you know exactly how much you need to create the time? 'cause that's what our money is. Buying is time, you know, to do the things that you want to do. Speaker 1 You're so, so right on. And you and I both hear from people that are in that exact situation, in that game. I, I used to have a program called Rich at Work, broke at heart because it was essentially the person who was successful on the outside had the money and yet they were pretty miserable. And like I've traveled all over the world. There are plenty of places in the world where people don't really have anything and they have a ton more joy. Yes. A ton more joy than most people I know. So it's like, okay, that's not the winning ticket. So many people, you know, they get to a point in their life and they're chasing, chasing, striving, striving. And then they get up that ladder and then they're like, ah, that ladder wasn't even on the right wall. Like that's not even where I wanted it to go. So then we have to rewire all that stuff, rework that stuff, figure out, well which place do you want to climb toward? And to your point, it's right, it's, it's completely true in that it doesn't take that much money. They've done scientific studies to show that from, and I don't remember the exact numbers, but it was like maybe you know them 70, Speaker 0 I think the updated one is like 75,000 a year, Speaker 1 Right? So like after that it doesn't increase people's happiness by much. So it's like okay, do you want all that extra struggle? Like let's say you are in a small business that is, it takes a lot of work, you know, there's a lot of things to do. Do you want that extra struggle and hassle and energetic output or do you wanna do something that maybe doesn't take as much time, maybe gives you less money but you're happier. Speaker 0 But like yeah, like two vacations is great, you don't have to take eight. You can find like, you know, find your balance right? Like find your balance between the time and the money requirements for that. Speaker 1 Yeah and I mean the key for me is like there isn't a right or wrong. There isn't like one thing that you or I could prescribe to everybody and say this is how it should be. I'm always like, well what do you person listening? What do you want? Okay, let's figure out how to do that and is that really what you want? Or is there something underlying, is it the dollar amount that you want? Probably not. It's probably the way that you're gonna feel having achieved these things. I heard a great quote the other day. Somebody said, I wanna make a million dollars to have become the type of person to be able to make a million dollars. And I'm like, I support that all day. Like that does take a lot of inner work belief checking potentially hard work on the outside depending on how they're, you know, what vehicle they're using to get to that million dollars. But I was like, yes, I love that you have to develop yourself to be able to develop that financially. Speaker 0 Yes. Because a million dollars is a whole journey and that journey requires that you change and evolve and grow and pivot and learn how to embrace the volatile thing that life is Speaker 1 A hundred percent. Yes. Speaker 0 I love that. I love that. So this is actually a really good segue into your point number two, which is structure serves freedom. So like we're talking about basically living within your means, but figuring out what is your means? What is your comfortable means, right? And when, when you say structure serves freedom, what, what does that mean to you? Speaker 1 Yeah, so I learned this first in the business capacity because when I was in corporate America, there were a lot of times where I would think, oh wow, okay, I understand like what the goal is in this project. Why don't we do it this way that's more efficient and cut out like 46 of the steps that we're doing. And the corporate response to my ideas like that were kind of like, mm, like that's not how we do it. And I'm like, wait, so you want me to waste 46 more steps with time, energy, et cetera just to do it the way that you wanna do it when I could get to the same result and like do it in two seconds? They were like, yeah, no. So I'm like okay, this is clearly not my place. So when I first became an entrepreneur, it was all about freedom. I was like, I'm gonna do it my way. I'm gonna do it the most efficient way. I'm gonna do it the smartest way I can do it. Freedom, freedom, freedom. And at first I didn't have any structure. I didn't have any schedule, I didn't have any anything. I didn't have any budget, no structure at all. 'cause I'm like freedom, like you know, I felt like Braveheart like screaming for freedom. It was just so like exciting at that time. Well then I realized, hold on a second, this isn't actually helping. It's not actually working to have no structure at all. And I, I work with a lot of people who come over from the corporate experience and at first like they're so against that that they don't want any structure, they don't want any schedule, they don't want any anything. And I'm like, or standard operating procedures, you know, I'm like, actually by the way, all those things are very helpful. So that's where I first learned this idea. Then applying it to money, oh my gosh, it changed everything. Because what I learned is, okay, money is a very emotional topic or it can be, it doesn't have to be, but for many people it's, it's quite emotional to think about their money or to think about their debt or to think about whatever. So if we can take some of the emotion out of it and just say, okay, any money that comes in, this is how I'm going to divvy it up. I'm gonna give a percentage to this, I'm gonna give a percentage to this, a percentage to this. Well then that's just a math equation. It's not an emotional decision. It's not something that we need to like navigate through each time. So I was very blessed to have gone to some training with T Harker. He wrote Secrets of a Millionaire Mind and he was the one who first taught me, I think a lot of people talk about this, but I learned this from him in that like dividing money up into jars, jars or envelopes and then saying, oh by the way there's also one called play. Like that's supposed to be fun. And oh you also have to spend that. You can't just hoard it and be like Scrooge and be like, I'm too scared to spend it. It's like no. And there's a great, great story that I heard. There was a woman who was like making almost no money and she's like really? How can I do this envelope thing or this jar system because I don't even have anything. And it's like really you don't have anything or it's just a small amount? Okay, the truth is it's a small amount. So she would literally take like coins and put like 10 cents into this one 10 cents or 25 cents or whatever. And then she was like, well I have to spend my play money. Like what am I gonna do with 10 cents or whatever. She literally took it to the store she bought, this was back in the day, so the bazooka gum, that was like 5 cents. It had a joke in the inside. And so she's like, okay, this is gonna be my fun. She bought a piece of gum, she chewed it, she read the joke, she laughed and she was like, this is how I'm starting. And she grew that then to be completely a different story, I did the same thing. 'cause there's been twice in my life now where I've had basically like no money and I'm like, okay, let's start again, let's try again. But being able to say, oh I, I know as an entrepreneur I need to put X number of percent away for taxes 'cause I'm gonna be able to pay those estimated taxes quarterly like we were talking about. So I know that I can just set that aside. It doesn't have to be an emotional thing anymore. I have my exact, I just use a spreadsheet. For me it's very, very simple and I've had clients now come back to me and say, Mindy, since I started using your spreadsheet, I've been able to like, you know, x my all the numbers in those things. And I'm like, yes, because it's actually the structure that serves the freedom. Speaker 0 Oh my gosh, I love all of that. And that's, that's exactly what I thought when I, when I saw this like structure serves as freedom and my first thought was, you know, 'cause I work with people on budgets and almost like our gut reaction when, when we even talk about budgets I feel like is like, ugh, it sounds like I gotta be restricted and how I spend my money and there's this like really ick feeling about it. But what you are saying and what you're sharing with us is actually a complete perspective shift to have financial boundaries with a structured system that preserves you not only your peace of mind but defines and holds you accountable to the joy that you deserve. Even if it's a piece of bazooka bubblegum. Speaker 1 Right. And there's one piece that I would add in that it, it does depend on the type of person. So after all the financial stuff that I have gone through, I'm like pretty darn conservative about these things. Now my husband on the other side of the equation was a big spender. He loved to spend money. Now he, he could make money fairly easily, but then he would just like spend everything. And I, that would freak me out, right? I would be like, okay, like this is not cool in that now we can't pay our rent. Like that's not a, that's this is not a good plan. Like I'm happy you got your new car but like come on. So what we did and, and he was very open to this 'cause he's like, I know that's me. Like I know I'm a spender. I know I want to like go and play with my money. We just set up a separate account for him. And I was like, okay, like I'm the one in charge of all the shifting of the monies here. So we would bring money in, I would do my little percentages and like put it all in the right places. And he had a fun account that was, he could spend every single dollar in that account. I even told the guy at the bank when we were signing up, I'm like, do not put that on overdraft because I'm not paying any of this. Like if it goes over, he just has to not get that thing or pay that thing. So no overdraft, but I'm like, okay babe, here's your card. You can always check your balance. Have at it. I don't care, I won't say it. You can, I don't care what you buy won't Speaker 0 Ask if you don't sell. It doesn't matter. Speaker 1 It doesn't matter to me. I don't, I do not care. This is all completely your money. And that it was the structure then of of having that separate bank account of having that percentage like put into his fund money that then he had complete. He even called it his freedom account and it was pure freedom. 'cause I'm like, I have no, no judgment. Whatever you wanna do with it, it is yours entirely. Go have fun. Speaker 0 Yeah, no I love that. And especially a system like you have because there is the flip side to having too much freedom, right? Like everything in balance, everything in moderation. We live in a day and age where I think the most important thing we should be protecting is our mind. Like we have option overload when it comes to totally everything. Everything and most things cost money, you know? And so it's really easy to have freedom and without that structure like it's almost like you can't measure what you can't see. Your structure is your measurement, it's your boundaries. Speaker 1 Totally. Bingo. Yes. And I mean same thing with these entrepreneurs that like just escaped out of corporate. They don't have any schedule or anything. And then they'll come to me and they'll be like, well I didn't get anything done. I had all day but I did not get anything done. Yeah. And to your point, too much freedom without those boundaries, without that structure it's not, it's not ultimately what we're seeking. We think we want that. It's not Speaker 0 Yes. It's like we're all little kids that just need structure and need. We, Speaker 1 We totally do. Speaker 0 We need a dinner time and It's true. So true. Okay, we have our third point then, which I think is gonna be my favorite. All right, we got, we got, we got time. So number three for, for you is purpose over passion. So what do you mean by this? What do you mean when you say this? Speaker 1 So I feel like a lot of people kind of get stuck in hearing, oh just follow your passion, the money will follow. And I'm like maybe sometimes it didn't in my case. So people who just rely on passion, I think they're missing the bigger perspective of what we're here to do. Like why each of us is on this earth at this time. You know, in the place that we are with the talents and the skills that we have. Purpose I feel like is a bigger understanding of like what is the reason for my being? Why am I here? What am I here to do? And the distinction for me with passion versus purpose, passion is like something you love and it's oftentimes invigorating or energizing. And I don't necessarily recommend going into a purpose without passion. But there's a really great quote that I heard Joseph Campbell who was a famous mythologist, he's often quoted as saying Follow your bliss. Well that would be like following your passion, like what do you love to do? What brings you joy? Okay, like do more of that. Great. But before his death, he was quoted as saying, you know what I should have said is follow your blisters. Because I think that with purpose, there are a lot of times that it's freaking hard and you're gonna wanna give up and you're gonna hate everything about whatever it is that you're doing. But like if it was just passion, it'd be like, screw this, let me throw in the towel, let me go back to corporate America. I'm done. Because it was not fun to go through a lot of the both the bad financial things that I went through. And also just like some of the, the hard times in business where it's like not going as well as you wanted it to go. And all of us have that, but purpose is is this underlying foundation that you can come back to. And thankfully for me, I had people in my life that like held me to that. They were like, hold on, are you se you're, you're gonna tell me you're actually like gonna go get a job? Like when you fully 100% believe that this like coaching business is what you are here to do. I'm like, yeah, no, I'm not gonna go get a job. So purpose was able to like hold me up if you will, through those hard times through the blisters of like, this is very difficult and I don't like it and it's hard. But it's because of that that I, I understood that to be like part of my reason for being that is way stronger in my mind than just pure like passion. Follow your bliss. Speaker 0 Yeah, I can really appreciate that. And I've never heard anybody distinguish it that way, but I, I like that because you're right, we hear a lot of like follow your passion and you can make a living on your passion and it sounds so easy and so fun. But it's almost like that idea of too much freedom. Like there has to be some structure within that, right? There has to be something holding you and grounding you that serves as your compass because no matter what life you take or what route you take in life, it's going to be difficult. You have to choose your difficult and yes the passion helps fuel you through right those difficult times. But it's like, it's the purpose that really ties you to it. I love that. Speaker 1 Yeah. 'cause I would say this is, there are like, I speak with a lot of of newer coaches oftentimes and sometimes they're like, wow, like 16 years, like that's a long time you've been doing that. And I'm like, yeah, here's the only reason is that I kept at it because there are plenty, I mean and you know like the statistics for small business are abysmal. Most of them fail by far like within the first one year, first two years, first five years, first 10 years. Yeah. Most of them are not still doing that. So really the only thing that like worked in my favor was just sticking with it because I did believe that that was what I was here to do. I did believe that that was my purpose and that really having that resiliency through that like completely is why I can say to all these new coaches, yeah, keep going. Yeah, keep going. Yeah, it's hard right now. Okay, keep going. 'cause guess what? The only way through is through. So keep rocking. Speaker 0 Yes. It, it is that consistency, it's that action behind what you're trying to do. Even when you don't feel like doing it. It's like, you know, I think people get the wrong idea when we talk about manifesting and some people are just like, oh, you just sit there and you think about it and it's like, no you have to, you have to move the different pieces. It's not just like, hey universe, gimme this thing woo Speaker 1 El. Can I tell you? That is totally why, one of the reasons why I lost all of everything that I owned because I was all like back at that time, 2008, 2009, the secret was like really hot at that time everybody was talking about the law of attraction, manifesting abundance, et cetera. And I'm like, I got this. I'm, I'm an optimist. Like I'm already a positive person, let's go. And I was so hyped up on positive thinking and all of that stuff and like I said earlier, I didn't know anything about running a business. I didn't know anything about sales and marketing. That was a big problem that that truly was my biggest downfall. And then on top of that I had so much pride that I like wouldn't ask for help. I like didn't tell anybody my situation. So that sucked too. But yeah, it's not just that. It's about moving your feet and learning all the lessons you gotta learn. Speaker 0 Yes, yes. Wow. What I wanna do for you guys is me and Mindy give you some actual simple steps, things that you can do and we're planting it in your head now so that you have no excuse when January 1st rolls around, right? Of if any of these three points have hit you what you can do to start digging into your own. So let's start with money beliefs. What are some things, Mindy, that people can do in 2024 to address their money beliefs? Speaker 1 Yeah, I would say journaling is one of the key things in that. Because it's one thing to just say, oh well let me just try and think about my beliefs. It's a whole different thing to actually get that stuff out of your head and onto paper. So I say invest in a journal and write out what do I believe to be true about money. And for those anybody who might struggle in finding an answer to that question, here's a really cool journaling activity that you can do. So in your journal, write out the question with your dominant hand. So like for me, I'm right-handed, I would say, what do I believe to be true about money? I would actually write that and then I'm gonna swap hands and I'm gonna answer it with my non-dominant hand. Now it might take me a minute to write the letters 'cause and I might not even be able to read it that well 'cause I like I'm not left-handed. And here's the thing though, it wires into different areas of our brain than the normal. Just like, like I know the answer to this blah. And it's fine. We actually have to like think about how to create the letter with our non-dominant hand unless people happen to be ambidextrous. But it takes longer to write it out. But I promise you some gold will show up if you do that. Speaker 0 That is so now I'm so cute, now I have to do this. Speaker 1 Now I have to, you should do it Chelsea and let me know how it goes. What comes up because it just gets us out of like our norm and then allows for other things to unlock from our brain to be like, wait a minute, do I also think this about money? Well let me write that down. Oh and really important in this journaling exercise, write down everything. There's not like, like don't edit yourself in the while you're doing it to be like, well that's dumb that put it on the page then go back later. Right? Write it all down, then go back and be like, okay let me actually go through these like one by one by one and ask myself, is that serving me? Is that belief helping me? Like is that getting me toward my goals that I have? If not, and probably a lot of it you might find that it's not like a lot of them might not be serving you. What would you like to believe instead? Because a belief is simply a thought that you've continued to think it's on repeat. And that repetition has imprinted it in our brains so strongly that that has become true for us. Even though I could say something's true, you could say something true and like it's just our perspective. Speaker 0 Yes, yes. And you said that in the very beginning you're like belief is, belief is not a fact. It is a belief it is not a fact. Right? Which means that you have the power to change your beliefs and I think that journaling is such a great way to do that. One of the exercises that, that I have my group groups go through that somebody might be interested in take a look and there's so many apps out there today where you can like Rocket money is one that I love. You can download the app and plug in your bank accounts, credit cards, loans, it'll compile your net worth in 10 minutes. It's amazing. But a really cool exercise to think about doing is get one of those apps, plug in all of your banks and credit cards, have it categorize everything for you and look back at where your money went that year. Right? And you can see one of many things. So for example, if you saw that you accumulated a lot of debt, sit back and think about that. Like how did, how did that come to play? What am I believing? Is it that I can't make enough money, that I can't make more money that you know, we're not asking for raises or there's just so much that you can get when you go back and you look at what have you spent your money on in the past year? Because I had another guest on the podcast and she said, you are always only ever buying a feeling. Speaker 1 Yeah. Like Look at your statements. What are the feelings that you are buying? And, and just to be clear, this doesn't always have to be a negative thing. Like I look, I do this every month and I, I write down like how much money am I spending on food? I myself, I spend a lot of money on food. Like it's kind of ridiculous 'cause it's just me. But I say this because I really love, like I love food, I love food experiences. It's one of like my great delights in life. And so to me, yeah, it's like probably higher than maybe even some small families, which is a little crazy. But I'm also like, is that bringing me joy? Like do I absolutely love this? Yes. And oh my gosh, how grateful am I that I have the money to be able to do that. You can like shift it into some positive thing as opposed to being like, oh damn, I probably shouldn't spend that much money on food. If it's something that brings you joy, go for it. Great. Speaker 0 Yes. Yeah, like with that belief of making too much money, is that such a thing? Well I bought a car last year. You know what? Great. You still funded your savings accounts and your retirements. Everybody's taken care of. You can do that. It's still okay. Speaker 1 Enjoy it. Right? Yes. Love that. Okay. What about for structure serves freedom, what are some things that people can plan to do in 2024 to really embrace that perspective and that idea? Yeah, I mean this is one of the easiest ones is simply just get a spreadsheet and start like putting money in different areas. Some people actually do it with different accounts. I don't 'cause I like convenience. It's just like that's more complex than I need it to be. So mine is literally just a spreadsheet on Apple numbers and every time money comes in I just divvy it up and it's all by percent. So again, it's not emotional, it's just a math equation and I highly recommend you do that. Now it might depend on, you know, are you an entrepreneur, do you have a regular job? All these things. But you can still have like a freedom account, long-term savings. You can still have a fun or play account. You can still have like your regular expenses, life necessities account. You can divvy up. What's gonna be most important to you. A lot of people like to put in give, for me, I donate a lot of money. So like I like to have that as a portion that is just, again, it's just math. Like I'm a member of 1% for the planet, 1% goes to that automatically, 9% goes to some other things, you know, charity things. And I like doing that. So it just depends kind of on the situation. But you absolutely can do it. Just make sure it totals 100%. And then whether you get $5, $500, $5,000 just divvy it up. Good to go. Speaker 0 I love that Money is simple math. Just create a structure. Speaker 1 Yes. Not sort of structure. And even if you're starting from scratch, maybe the structure is start by looking at it and measuring it. Right. And there, there are so many apps. I heard why NAB is a really good app for people that use that kind of multi bucket approach, but they don't want multiple accounts. So there's plenty of technology out there. Lots of it. Yes, yes. So many. And I just wanna, you said something very important just a second ago and I need to highlight it, look at it. So when I was in my worst, worst of my financial like downfall, I stopped looking at all of it. Why? Because it was painful to look at. I did. I ultimately didn't want to know how bad it was because it was bad. Like it was terrible. Creditors were on my case, like negative account balances. Just awful situation. And what I learned is that I had to become a truth teller first to myself to be like, okay ness, really what's going on? Let me open all these letters, let me look at the details and it's gonna suck. Yes. And it did. But that was the, the start of the shift. And so now like when I work with clients, I'm like, you need to become a truth teller. And again, they don't even need to tell me first they need to be truthful to themselves. Then maybe to me then maybe to like more people. You know, I was running events and it took me years to tell my story about bankruptcy. I didn't wanna talk about it. I didn't want anyone to know. And the first time I told it I was like bawling, I was a mess. But then every time after that, you know what happened, people were like, me too. Speaker 0 Ugh, Me too Mindy. I filed for bankruptcy too. Thank you so much for sharing your story because it makes me feel like less of a loser. So then it became something gorgeous but gosh it was hard to get there. So to your point, yes, look, see, tell the truth about what's going on. I need to echo what you said, like you are not like me too, right? This, this is a, a financial movement right now. The me too. 'cause I speak with so many business owners and individuals who really feel alone in that. Yeah. Like not facing their fear of the numbers. Like literally not looking at it because of like you said, the fear. And so to everybody listening, I need you to hear, I need you to hear the me too. Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah. I mean if you look at like the most successful people out there, some of those folks are the ones who've also had like the biggest downfalls. So Oh yeah. Many of us have all had quote unquote failure challenges, whatever. And okay, you pick yourself back up and you keep going. But you have to start with that, with being a truth teller about where you're at. 'cause otherwise you're not gonna be able to get where you want to go. Speaker 0 Yes, absolutely. There's always another way back up. There's always a rebound somewhere. All right. And our last one, purpose over passion. How in 2024 can we really become aware of this and take action? Speaker 1 Yeah, I think just doing a a big overall life perspective. Check. Am I working in a place that I enjoy? Am I, do I have people in my life that lift me up or are they just negative and they crap on my dreams? You know, it might be time to make some changes because as you mentioned earlier, Chelsea time is our greatest asset. We don't, we have a a, a limited amount of it. My, my husband passed away a number of years ago and like that constantly reminds me he had X amount of time and he lived it up. I mean he had a great time till the very end. And I wanna be able to do the same thing. And I encourage everyone listening to like really check in. 'cause you don't know how long you have any of us, you know, we could get hit by a bus tomorrow. We could go out next year from something who knows. Or we could live, you know, until elderly age. Great. But you don't know. So with that understanding of, we don't know how long we get, how do you want to be using your time? Maybe you don't need as much money as we also talked about earlier. Maybe you wanna be doing something else. Maybe there is something that is like a passion for you that might be connected into your purpose that you're like, gosh, like if I don't write that book, if I don't start that business, if I don't do that thing, I will sit on my deathbed and kind of be annoyed about that. I will regret not doing that. So I'm like, start, how can you start? You don't have to like climb Everest next year, but maybe you start getting in shape to do something like that. You know, you don't have to make a million dollars next year, but maybe you start creating a structure so that the million dollars can flow more effortlessly in to that structure. I mean, there's so many like little ways to start and that would be what I would recommend. Speaker 0 Yes. Yeah. Like and I would, I, and I, I love, I know a lot of people don't like the writing out and the journaling, but I love those annual planners and I, I love what you said because it's not just about the money. We've been talking about balance this entire episode. And so, you know, figuring out where are you now and really defining what is it that you even want and what are just the small little things that you can do to get there. So I so appreciate that. And you were talking about your husband, so I was, you know, Googling you of course before our podcast to see your story. And I happened upon his TED Talk, which was so amazing by the way. So I'm gonna put that link in the show notes too. You guys should definitely go tech check out his TED Talk. It's very powerful and inspiring. Speaker 1 Yeah. Well thank you. Yes. Well this has been amazing. Thank you so much for all of your insight and the conversation and I think this is going to be really valuable for our listeners. And look guys, you're welcome. We just gave you a whole headstart on your New Year's Eve resolutions, so no excuses. Thanks so much Chelsea. It's always awesome to chat with you.
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