Healing Your Relationship with Money: Tania Vasallo's Guide to Financial Empowerment

Welcome to another episode of The Sober Living Stories Podcast.  Join host Jessica Stipanovic as she sits down with Tania Vasallo, an international speaker, a Napoleon Hill certified coach, a business mentor, and a mom. She discusses an interesting topic that isn't covered much yet touches every part of our lives: how to have a healthy relationship with money. Tania has helped hundreds of people heal their money stories and break free from their limiting beliefs to live a life of abundance. 

In this episode, she challenges common beliefs about money and guides listeners to rethink their own. Tania then offers practical tips for building wealth and investing in personal growth. It's a call to action to scrutinize those early childhood lessons on hard work and gender-specific financial expectations. Tania guides us through a contemplative look at the roots of our money mindsets, inspiring a shift in how we perceive success and our worth.

Finally, Tania Vasallo maps out the strategies that attract wealth and prosperity, inviting listeners to put their financial growth first. She provides practical tips on saving, regardless of income, and to grasp the impact of investing in personal development. This episode isn't just about money management; it's about empowering oneself to rewire your relationship with it. Tune in for a narrative that doesn't just tell, but equips you to write your own story of financial empowerment.

To connect with Tania Vasallo, visit Home | TheCourageToBeHappy and check out her free guide on Women's Top Money Mistakes at Free Gifts | TheCourageToBeHappy and discover the book "Think and Grow Rich" for further inspiration.  

Tune in to learn how to take control of your finances and write your success story.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:06

Welcome to the Sober Living Stories podcast. This podcast is dedicated to sharing stories of sobriety. We shine a spotlight on individuals who have faced the challenges of alcoholism and addiction and are today living out their best lives sober. Each guest has experienced incredible transformation and are here to share their story with you. I'm Jessica Stapanovic, your host. Join me each week as guests from all walks of life share their stories to inspire and provide hope to those who need it most. Welcome to another episode of the Sober Living Stories podcast. My guest today is Tanya Visayo. She's the host of the Courage to Be podcast, which is a top 2% ranking podcast in the world. She's also an international speaker, a Napoleon Hill certified coach, money mindset expert, business mentor and mom. Tanya has helped hundreds of people to heal their money stories and break free from their limiting beliefs so that they can live a life of abundance. Welcome, Tanya.

Speaker 2: 1:26

Thank you, Jessica. I'm excited to be here and see where our conversations takes us.

Speaker 1: 1:32

Many of my listeners have overcome challenges and they're in the process of building their life. Would you share a part of your story that challenged you, yet also helped shape who you are today?

Speaker 2: 1:46

So many challenges. I think there's been many moments. I'll start with a little bit of my background. You know I was born and raised in Spain at the end of a dictatorship, at the Franco's dictatorship. I wouldn't say I had a bad childhood because I didn't, but there was a lot of unspoken things of just the patriarchy, and especially in my family my dad, seven brothers and one sister. So there was a lot of like the machismo and the patriarchal and men have it better, or boys have it better than women.

Speaker 2: 2:25

And I didn't start becoming aware of this until I got older, like in my teenage years, actually when I I'd say when I came to the States, when I was 15, I came to study in high school for my sophomore year in high school and I started realizing that there was a very different cultural way of doing things and being in the world. So the things that I've overcome, so many throughout my life, you know just from the moment that I became aware of that, you know like wow, and the States, like even just a silly example of how studying in high school here, what high school looked like in the US and Ohio versus Spain. Like you had freedom of choice of like what classes you wanted to take. You know, in Spain we didn't really have that. The grading system was different. You know, like just all these different things that just made me become aware, like, oh, there's different ways of doing things, you know. So how can I move through the world and fulfill my dreams? And what are those dreams For me? I don't have a story of you know, like I was an alcoholic and I became sober from it, or I was addicted to drugs or to shopping, or to porn or to sex or whatever it is, but I've had little spurts of it throughout my life and this is something that I haven't really shared publicly before and I feel comfortable talking about it because I understand that now.

Speaker 2: 4:09

My last years in high school, I went through bulimia. You know, because of my self image and the way I saw myself, because of comments that were said to me, because of comparison with other kids at school, I felt like I wasn't good enough, and that mostly trickled through my dad and I, if he got forbid ever, listens to this episode, it's totally fine. I love my dad, I love, I know he did the best he could with the knowledge and the tools he had at that time. But certain comments, you know, that I think triggered that, were like a little pad on the legs, like, oh, you need to strengthen those legs, you know, and you should do more swimming or something. So it all starts and this is an interpretation of a teenager or, if a young kid, you know, every time that you have a parent telling you that you should do this other thing and it's not good enough, it can lead to these other moments of difficulty and just beating yourself up or coping in certain ways. So I look back now and I'm like, wow, I interpreted is I'm not good enough for him. I need to be skinnier, which I thought.

Speaker 2: 5:37

Maybe I had a couple pounds overweight, you know, but I was not by no means. Like if I would have gone to the doctor, they would have never even said that I was overweight or anything. And so it's like, well, how can I cope with this? I don't think I would ever become anorexic, you know, because just I love food, and so it was easier to go the route of let me eat and let me purge, you know, let me eat all these things that I love, and it's an emotional addiction to food, and still to this day in age, you know, whatever.

Speaker 2: 6:08

25 years later, 20 years later, I have to check in with myself. Sometimes you know like, oh, am I going to food to cope emotionally right now or not? But as you evolve, as you get older and hopefully, you're on the path of self development, self growth. You're wanting to learn who you are and wanting to understand why you do the things you do and you want to pursue certain dreams and you start valuing yourself more and not listening to the voices of the people that raised you, meaning parents, teachers, your religious place of worship, you know culture, media, all these other things, because all these things contributed. It wasn't just my dad, it's the media, it's the culture, it's the, it's just everything around you, and this is all part of reprogramming our beliefs and the beliefs that we have of ourselves. So I've coped and I've grown and gone through a lot of challenges and tribulations, but that's just one of them that I can pinpoint that might be more relevant to your audience and to your listeners. Throughout my, throughout my path and my journey.

Speaker 1: 7:33

Yeah, well, thank you so much for sharing that, for having the courage to share that. We have had people on previously that have talked about food as a coping mechanism and it it absolutely is and can be, and I think something that you know you had spoken about it in in high school and something that kids probably children today are up against that perhaps I was not was as much as the online communities are incredible assets to us growing businesses and such they could be some defects to to children who are comparing to what is, and so I think your words were very powerful and I appreciate you sharing that. So, currently, what do you do? And kind of Just walk us through what you do now and some of the belief systems that you have in place as a result of your history would be wonderful, thank you.

Speaker 2: 8:38

Yeah, I work mostly, but not exclusively, with women entrepreneurs and helping them grow their business and make more money. And one of the foundational things with that is how can we change our belief systems? So I come from a place from I'm not a financial advisor, I'm not, you know, like I don't go into the nitty gritty of like, oh you have to budget, you have to do this. I come from a perspective of mindset. I'm fascinated with our mindset, I'm fascinated with the way we think, and so I would consider myself a success and money mindset mentor, you know, and just helping people fulfill their dreams, whether it's in a personal or professional perspective. And it all starts.

Speaker 2: 9:30

I've become, I've transitioned into the world of money. If you would have told me this five years ago, I would have laughed at you. I'd be like I'm not talking about money. That's such a taboo subject, you know, like that's we don't talk about, that, we don't go there. And my own journey and healing my relationship with money is where I love shining light on that and seeing what people's relationship is with money and help them overcome and start overcome their limiting beliefs so that they can fulfill their dreams, their desires, and without burning out along the way, because many of us are like oh well, you just have to work harder. You know, just put in more hours and then you can achieve success. There's there's formulas and there's ways of doing this. You know, that doesn't have to be the way that we were taught.

Speaker 1: 10:18

Yeah, so what are some of the most common stories that people tell themselves incorrectly about money that you come across, do you?

Speaker 2: 10:26

have any. Oh my God, yes, there's so many. Yes, the limiting money beliefs, the stories we've told ourselves. And I'll start this by explaining first where these beliefs come from. You know so, from the age from zero to seven, the conscious part of our mind is not fully developed yet, so there is no conscious like. You cannot filter, you cannot rationalize. Everything's going into the subconscious. That's why they say that kids are like sponges.

Speaker 2: 10:58

You know, because from age zero, from the moment they're born until around age seven, you're just absorbing everything from all of your senses. You know from what you see, from what you hear, from what you touch, from what you experience. You know, and so you're getting all this information. It's getting dumped on your subconscious mind. There is no filter to say, oh yeah, I want to believe that or I don't want to believe that. You know, and whether that's coming from your parents saying something all the time like you're not good enough or you're not, you know you're not as well behaved as your kid or you're not this, so that's what the parents are. So that's what the parents are. Then it comes from our teachers, our caregivers, our, our culture, the media you know, social media, like you're saying right now our places of worship, and so all these things are just getting dumped into our subconscious mind from zero to seven and we're giving it meaning. You know, if we're seeing our parents fighting all the time over money and you're five years old, you're correlating, you're saying money is not good, you know, because my parents ended up fighting all the time and I ended up getting. You know they ended up getting divorced and so I don't like money. You know that's the meaning you gave it at age three or at age five, and then, as you get older and you can start rationalizing and the logic part of our of our mind starts developing, and so we start looking for evidence to back up that initial meaning that we gave to these things that were dumped in our subconscious mind. So, if you think about it, most likely your five year old is running your financial life or the meaning that you're giving to that.

Speaker 2: 12:42

And so the invitation for everyone, before I go into, like the major things that I've seen, you know of our limiting beliefs with money it's not just with money like I invite everyone that's listening to what meaning that you give to money, what meaning that you give to religion, what meaning that you give to your health, what meaning that you give to like it's all these big questions that we don't teach our children. No one taught us to make our own decisions. You know, yes, you grew up in a lineage. You know that everyone was Catholic my case, you know but did you ever question that? Is that the belief you want to have? Is that the belief that you want to follow? You know, and maybe it is an alignment and that's what you want to continue. Maybe not, you know, maybe you're just like at a point that you're like that doesn't even make sense to me. No, I don't want to believe that.

Speaker 2: 13:37

You know about, like I said, money, health, religion. You know it's like all the big questions that no one teaches us because they just put us through this educational system. You know, like, just listen to what we have to say. We know the truth, this is the truth, this is how it goes, and then we all agree to that. So, going back to the question about money and this is how my journey started and that's why I invite everyone that's listening to is to ask yourself the question of like, what did I start believing about? Money, going as far back as you can in your memory of the experiences you had with money. You know, what did you hear, what did you see, what did you experience with it? And so, for me, one of the biggest ones in this I've seen in so many clients, as you have to work hard for money, that was just a given in our family, you know. And so the second step with this is also not only realize what's your limiting belief. I'll throw a couple others out that are very typical that you might identify with, but it's. Can we start finding evidence of the opposite of this? So, in my case, I grew up with you have to work hard for money, and I just I heard it over and over.

Speaker 2: 15:01

You know like I could give when my, when my dad achieved success, you know, when I was in my teenage years. You know he ran, he was the general manager, ceo for Disney in Spain and their office kept on. You know getting accolades year after year and they were like in the top office worldwide and stuff, and I'm like, oh, congratulations that. You know like you're wanting to celebrate. Yes, but you know I had to work hard for this. This didn't come easy, you know.

Speaker 2: 15:31

And then there's also the examples. You know, you learn it. You see it, they're getting home late. They're the breadwinners. They're you know, when I say they, it's my dad, it's my, my uncles.

Speaker 2: 15:42

Again, I grew up in a patriarchal society. It was all about the men. So what messages are we sending? You know to me the unspoken message. This was never said to me directly, but the unspoken message was the men are the breadwinners. The men. A man is your financial plan and if you can find the right man to marry, you know that'll take care of you. You will be the wife that takes care of the kids and you know gets does that part. But if you can't find a man to marry, then don't worry, because your brother, if you have a brother, it'll take care of you, and if you don't have a brother, it'll be your uncle or it'll be your dad. You know it was all the people that were supposed to be successful were the men.

Speaker 2: 16:25

And so it's all these messages that we've acquired that we have to look for evidence of the opposite. It's not true. It's in, and it's been many years that I've had to detangle this, you know, and heal my relationship with money and heal this limiting belief that you have to work hard for money. And so what did I do? I started looking for evidence of the opposite. I'm like, okay, let me look for women that have been successful, women that have made their own money, women that haven't worked hard for money. Maybe because they were smart, they became investors. And so that started my journey of healing and wanting and becoming fascinated with money and the money subject, because it's such a taboo subject we don't talk about it, we don't talk about our limiting beliefs, we don't talk about how much we earn, we don't talk about how we can invest our money, you know, and grow our money. And so that's one that working hard for money.

Speaker 2: 17:21

The second one that I see a lot that shows up is I'm not deserving. And so go back into childhood where you told you're not good enough. You're, you know you. You have to earn your love, you know, in order to be deserving. That was another limiting belief I had, you know, and especially growing up as a female, I wanted to be a boy, and so I was like, look at these mechanisms, self defense mechanisms that you create. I already at age three, three and a half, when my sister was born, they thought she was going to be a boy. I saw that this I interpreted the disappointment and my dad's face of you know they wanted a boy and so I was like, oh, okay, and this is obviously years after, it's not like at three. Like I said, you can't rationalize these things, you just give it meaning. But from age three to like 13, I just wanted to be a boy because I saw that they had it better off and so that that would maybe make me more deserving, like maybe I'd get more of this money, maybe I'd get more love, maybe I'd get more attention. So we start putting ways of being in place to make up for the meaning that we give to things. And so that was another example like not feeling deserving enough.

Speaker 2: 18:42

Working hard for money. Another big one that I see and this comes a lot from religious background to not necessarily, but it does, I've seen it Money is a root of all evil, people with money are corrupt. That all comes into the same. It gets filtered into the same place. You know, because the Bible said that people with money, that money is a root of all evil. But the Bible didn't even say that. You know, by. The Bible says the love for money. You know it's like don't love money, like if you want money in your life, think about what you want to do with it. I love money and I have no problem stating it because I have a good relationship with money. Bring it my way, because money gives me freedom. Money gives me the things that I want. Money gives me happiness. Money gives me a lot of things. It's not the only thing that gives me happiness. It's not the only thing that gives me freedom, because that's from a state of mind.

Speaker 2: 19:37

But we have to interpret this, and I had a little bit of this limiting belief too. I had an uncle that became really wealthy in our family, but he never really shared how he made that wealth. So there was always this question of is he doing illegal things? Is he into drugs? Is he into di-di-di? And so now you start interpreting it, because you hear the adults mentioning things. Are you hear the adults in your family saying, oh, look at that neighbor, they're driving a Mercedes. They must be making a lot of money. Like, what are they doing? That seems a little bit shady.

Speaker 2: 20:14

Again, I didn't have the filter at that age to question it and be like oh well, maybe they made it through royalties of movies, which was the case for my uncle, or maybe they made it through this or that, and so you really wanna question your beliefs that were passed down to you. Again, it's not your fault. Anyone that's listening to this don't feel bad. It is not your fault. It's the fault of our society, our parents, our caregivers, our teachers, everyone else because no one knew, but they didn't know better. So now that we know better, like Oprah says, once you know, you can't unknow. So you have to move forward. So I'll give you I'm trying to think some more, but those are the top ones. You have to work hard for money. I'm not deserving Money is corrupt, or people with money are corrupt, or money is the root of all evil.

Speaker 2: 21:07

Along that side there's also another one that shows up a lot too. Well, I'm spiritual, I don't need money. Or I'm an artist, I don't need money. Like, I don't focus on that. That's too shallow type of commentary. So you can fill in the blank. You know, I'm too spiritual, I'm an artist, I'm fill in the blank and I don't need to concern myself with money.

Speaker 2: 21:33

But that's a limiting belief too, because guess what? Money touches everything in our life. So, unless you're living in the Amazon and you're hunting and gathering and have built your own home and you don't need money, which is maybe 0.5% of the global population. Money touches everything. You do need money for your life, and so it's like health. It's like saying, well, I'm too spiritual, I don't need to concern myself with health. Well, no, you do need to concern yourself with health because you have a body and you have to take care of that body and that's your vessel. Money is the same thing. We need money as a form of exchange, exchange of services, of goods, of, you know, having an impact on the world with our money. So you do have a relationship with money, like you have a relationship with health. So it doesn't matter.

Speaker 2: 22:23

If you're spiritual, then great, be spiritual and learn how to make a lot of money so that you can become more and, like you know, one of the biggest people, mother Teresa, knew the secrets of how to make money. She couldn't, she didn't use it for herself, but she understood that she needed money and she could manifest millions of dollars to be able to help the poor and to help her causes. So for anyone that's thinking, oh, I'm too spiritual, I don't need money, or I'm an artist and I don't need money. Well, think about if your needs were all taken care of, spiritually, as an artist or whatever it is couldn't you give like 10 times more to the world and have a bigger impact because you're understanding the game of money and you're understanding how to use money? So those are some of the initial wants that I can think of, jessica, as we're healing our relationship with money and understanding our relationship with money.

Speaker 1: 23:24

I think those, even the first two, I could relate to 100% and just the fact of putting an emotion on a dollar is maybe like new information for listeners and anyone, because often I think of money, I think of it's something over there, something we go earn, but, like you said, it touches everything and I love how you say there's like this emotional attachment or belief system that is, of course, learned, and so to challenge that and to say what is mine and then to do the opposite, you know, I could think as you're speaking, I can think of myself like I'm very frugal and I kind of hold tightly to my friend jokes and says you need to get off your wallet, you start spending some money, and I just don't operate that way, like I'm very not able to do that. So I know after this podcast episode I'm going to be listening and thinking what is my, where did I get my belief? And challenging that Because there would be freedom there. So hopefully listeners can identify what theirs is and then apply some of these principles to it.

Speaker 2: 24:37

That's awesome. I'm glad that you got that too, that that came to you, jessica. And then it all starts with introspection and awareness. And then I invite you to journal about it, you know, and ask yourself those questions, you know, like, what does money mean to me? Where did this belief? What did it mean to my mom? What did it mean to my dad? What did it mean to my grandparents? You know, and go do that exercise.

Speaker 2: 24:59

And just the fact that you became aware right there, like, oh my God, I'm kind of tighter, I'm frugal. Hey, I even go through some of those things too, because there was a period of our life that we didn't have all the money that we wanted. You know, like we did have to be tight with certain things. And to this day, I find a bargain. I'm like yes, you know, like, and instead of just coming with this abundance mindset, I'm just like holding onto it instead of circulating it. But when I catch myself, I'm like no release, release, circulate, circulate. It comes back.

Speaker 2: 25:36

And for anyone else, just as you're saying this, jessica, think of it as what do you hold onto a breath? I look at money as air. And for those of us that like to hold onto it. You know, and I'm like, oh, I'm not gonna release it. You can take in a breath, but you're gonna have to release it at some point. You know and think about why are you holding onto it? Is there a fear underneath, like am I not gonna be able to generate as much money again? You know, like if I release it, so it's the same as the fear. Like you don't walk around with a fear of like, oh, there's not gonna be enough air, or there's like 10 people in this room. Let me hold onto it and just go in with the inhale. You wouldn't be able to operate. So that was a great awareness. Thank you for sharing that. On Jessica.

Speaker 1: 26:31

Yeah, and what would you say to somebody who had the belief that, oh, I don't really care about money that much, you know? Cause I think I've said that, well, it doesn't really, I don't really care about money in the sense where here you're talking about. It's so in touch and it does touch everything and it does matter and it is important. So where does that come in? I would imagine there's a belief behind that that has to do with worthiness or something like what Cause? The biggest lie I think I told myself when I was in active alcoholism was when I was in the desperation of that I would say, well, I don't care, you know, I don't care that I didn't show up here, I don't care about them, or I don't care that things aren't going well. And when I got better that, I identified that as one of the biggest lies that I told myself, because in every situation I absolutely did care, you know, but for some reason I had to tell myself that I didn't, you know because, for whatever reason. So I wonder what it touched.

Speaker 2: 27:28

I think it's a coping. It's a great question because I think it's a coping mechanism, like you're saying. You know, like with the alcoholism it's like that way I don't have to look towards it. You know it's like I don't look at it. You know I don't care. But you do care about money. And if I say, if I gave you the example that one of your kids just got kidnapped and you need to come up with $100,000, or a million dollars and make it even higher, buy next week, are you gonna care about money or not?

Speaker 1: 28:06

Care.

Speaker 2: 28:06

Yes, I think he said quickly and if you're wanting to send your kids to a good school, a good private school or education, and you're wanting to give them a good education, you care about money or not? Sure, if you're with your business and you're wanting to grow your business right now and you wanna reach as many people as possible, you wanna get on the New York Times bestseller, you want your podcast to be, you know, top podcast ranking in the world, you care about money? Sure, because you're gonna have to. You're gonna have to do exchanges. There's gonna be exchanges. You know, like, if you write an article or if you write a book, people are gonna have to pay money for your book. So you will care about money.

Speaker 2: 28:57

And so to me, anyone that says I don't care about money or here's another one that you hear a lot too well, money's not everything you know like, I'd rather be happy than focus on money. You know, that's a little bit in the same line. If I don't care about money, well, you don't. No one has to choose. That's like me saying you have to choose between your right arm or your left foot. Well, I want both of them. You know why do I need to choose? You know I need both of them to move around in this world and to operate, and I don't want you to cut off either one of them. You know I want happiness and I want money. You know, like that's it helps me have all the. It gives me the freedom that I want in my life. It gives me, you, the security I can do.

Speaker 2: 29:50

Think about what you can do with money. I mean, if you're, if your essentials are covered, you know, like your food, your home, your, you know, just your essentials are covered, then everything else is surplus that you can give back. You know, like for whatever luxuries you want, maybe it's you want to continue traveling, you want to go out to some restaurants. You want to pay for private school for your kids, whatever it is. You want to be able to take care of your health. You know, especially in this country, in the US, you know where there's no social health care. You know, if you run into a cancer or you have some type of treatment that you have to do, I've seen many people go bankrupt because they don't have the money to be able to pay for their health.

Speaker 2: 30:36

So you do want to pay attention to money, and I see money as a it doesn't have. It's not good or bad. You know so many people see it as good or bad and money is neutral to me and money is energy, so it's just an exchange of energy. You know you, you you're exchanging energy with someone else. It's neutral. I almost see it as as water in a garden. You know it amplifies your character. If you're someone that's a giver and you pour more money into you or you have access to more money, you're going to give more. If you are someone that's already corrupt and character and you come into more money, it'll just amplify it. It'll just. It's like the weeds in the garden are the actual flowers. Money's like the water that you're pouring onto it. Is it going to amplify the growth of the weeds or is it going to amplify the growth of your, of your flowers in it?

Speaker 1: 31:34

Yeah, and I think when you talk about it like energy, it's it like transcends, whether you have $10 or whether you have 10,000. A lot of people who are listening may be just rebuilding their life. So there's different components to that. Like you said, it's attached to wellness, it's attached to this, so this could be like a whole section that they can start to pay attention to within. Recovery is like well, let me not just look at my relationship with alcohol or my relationship with my immediate family, but let me now take a look at my relationship with money and see how I can take that and flip it and make it work for me instead of against me, cause I could see my beliefs right now, like I could see two working against me that I'm going to definitely look at.

Speaker 1: 32:20

And another thing, too, if you can talk about um, you had mentioned that you talked about investing and in the last couple of years me being as frugal as I am, I did make a significant investment in myself and my business, and what I learned from that was because I invested in it, I paid attention to it. I didn't walk away from it, cause I don't know if I'd be sitting here if I didn't make that initial investment. So that was new for me to show me like you pay for it. You're going to pay attention to it, you know, and so can you talk a little bit about how people can, even from a small amount, how they can do things? One, if they're working from the beginning, how they can start to build, and two, eventually, when they even out, how can you invest in your future with your relationship with money?

Speaker 2: 33:19

Yeah, this is a great question, jessica, and there's so many layers tid. I love that. You said you invested in yourself. I think the biggest return on investment, the biggest ROI you're ever going to get with any type of investment I don't care if it's real estate, stock market, cryptocurrencies, you know, royalty, whatever you want to think of, whatever asset class the biggest investment you can ever get is investing in yourself and in your education. I think that's the starting point for everyone.

Speaker 2: 33:52

Just in education, it doesn't have to be paid initially, like you could be listening to a podcast like Jessica's right now and you're like, oh, okay, I'm investing my time. It might not be an investment of money per se at that particular moment, but it's an investment of time because I want to educate myself, I want to learn something new. So I just want to reflect back to you that that's huge that you said, that you made that decision. I'm going to invest in myself and in my business and I'm sure that it wasn't just an investment of time. It's an investment of energy. It's an investment of money, you know, because you have to hire mentors and coaches. I can't even tell you how many thousands and thousands over $100,000 that I've invested in these last maybe five, six years since I started as an entrepreneur, and it doesn't mean that you can't make it on your own, but one of the biggest investments that I would suggest to anyone is invest in a coach, invest in a mentor, invest in a teacher Of whatever specialized knowledge you need to acquire. If you're starting a business, then you're going to have to invest in learning about how to start a business. If you're starting a podcast, I need to invest on how to start a podcast. And even if you're coming out in recovery, you know, like from any, any type of recovery, you're investing time and educating yourself and getting that help because you can't do it on your own. Or if you can do it on your own, because there might be cases out there, it's just going to take so much longer. That's why I'm a big believer. If you want to fast track things and and we don't know how much time we have on this planet, so you might as well do that I can tell you that it comes to you 10 fold. You know, everything that I've learned in these last years, you know, with my mentors, with my teachers, has come back to me 10 fold. So that's the first thing that I want to say about investments.

Speaker 2: 35:54

And then and I wanted to compare it with the money saving. You know like you could save money and just put it into a little bank account and you're saving. You're going little by little, doing it yourself and getting. What do banks give nowadays? I don't know 0.05%, you know like. So you're making 50 cents for every $100 that you put in your savings account in the bank. That's not gonna get you very far. So you wanna be able to learn how to invest in other assets that are gonna give you a lot more money. And that's where I'm saying you know like, whatever floats your boat maybe you wanna learn about real estate, maybe you wanna learn about stocks, maybe you wanna learn how to invest in businesses, acquire businesses and get a return from businesses. Maybe it's royalties, maybe it's cryptos. You know like, whatever gets you excited and I share with you. I'll share with you a story.

Speaker 2: 36:58

When I first left corporate America, I had to roll over my 401K and 10 IRA, because when you work for yourself or you're a freelancer, you can't have a 401K. Well, let's, for simplicity of it, you can as a business owner. But at that time I didn't know better. I just did what HR told me you need to have it roll it over and 10 IRA. I went into Citibank, opened up on account because I didn't know anything and I felt very ignorant. I didn't know what questions to ask. The guy that was at Citibank and me thinking like, oh, I have, you know, master's degree, I have college, you know I'm an intelligent woman, but I feel very stupid right now so I'm not gonna. I don't know what questions to ask. And he just said we're gonna put it into these mutual funds, this type of risk. Yadda, yadda, yadda.

Speaker 2: 37:47

I moved back to Spain for four years and it was right at 2007, 2008,. And they were in like some construction mutual funds. You know, like I just lost a lot of money when I came back and I was so pissed off and I was putting the blame on him when the blame should have been on me because I didn't know any better and I should have learned about it. And so I'm hussing and puffing and puffing and I'm telling my husband about it. I'm like I can't believe I lost all this money. You know, this guy didn't know what he was doing and yadda, yadda, yadda.

Speaker 2: 38:19

You know, because I advocated my power. I gave my power away and he looked at me and he said why don't you call up our guy? You know our financial advisor, meaning from his family. You know we were married already but he had been investing in stocks for a while and he's like call him up and ask him to. You get to choose your stocks and you pick stocks with dividends. I didn't even know what a dividend was Like. This was my lack of knowledge, you know, and I'm like but what's a dividend, you know? Like I almost didn't want to call the guy. Luckily I felt comfortable enough asking my husband. He explains that a dividend, you know, is like they give you a little percentage of what they've made in that quarter and that you know in that year and then you can reinvest it. And I'm like, okay, I could do that. So I did that and I felt empowered.

Speaker 2: 39:10

I called the financial advisor, asked him for a list of companies with dividends. He sends them to me because I had worked in advertising for many years for big companies. There were some of those big company names on that list and I was like never, I will never invest in. I'm not gonna say names, but they were just not aligned with my values, and so I'm like, no, I don't want to put money into that company. And so I picked four or five companies that I believe in that were aligned with my values, different sectors and what they say.

Speaker 2: 39:41

It takes approximately seven years to double your money and invest it in the stock market. You know of just seeing getting a good return In 10 years, not in seven. I 10Xed it, I added a zero to my initial investment, and so that's what started me on my path of one feeling empowered because I got to choose instead of another person choosing what they're investing in. I'm like, no, I don't want to put my money into that company. And then two you know like I'm a very intuitive person and so with certain things, I would listen to the advisor and then just see if it was in alignment with me, intuitive, wise.

Speaker 2: 40:20

And then I started learning about investing in the stock market and I did pay. I invested in myself and in education with people that were doing research and that were specialized in this. I wasn't gonna go get specialized in becoming, you know like, what are the best companies to invest, but they would kind of dissect everything and send it to you in a newsletter a paid newsletter and I'm like, oh yeah, that company seems interesting. Like with the summary of what they had learned. I didn't invest in all the companies they recommended. Again, I would get in tune with my intuition and I think that's part of what gave me that success and that took me from wanting to learn about the stock market and seeing like, oh my God, I barely touched that money, I've just reinvested the dividends. It's, you know, like going up much faster. You know like I'm recuperating it much faster from what I had lost.

Speaker 2: 41:15

And then it got me excited to learn about cryptocurrencies in 2017. And so I've been invested and it was speculative and I knew about it. You know, it's not like I took all my money that I had and put it in there, but I've stuck with it. I don't understand it 100%. Again, it's more intuitive and I've chosen the people to follow and the programs to follow with that and it's giving me some good returns. There's been it's a lot. It's very volatile, you know. So, for people that can't deal with the emotions of the volatility and I'm in it for the long run it's just been incredible.

Speaker 2: 41:54

And so my next thing is I want to learn about real estate. You know, as soon as I have time and want to learn about real estate investment, that'll be my next venture from here in the next five years. So it's an invitation for everyone to the wealthy become wealthy. And if you want to create wealth in your life, not just earn money, my recommendation and I'm still on the path and I'm still learning myself.

Speaker 2: 42:20

Like I said from the beginning, I'm not a financial advisor. I work with the mindset and what kind of thinking can we do? How can we learn to become investors and to have money work for us? Yeah, that one thing. They say that the wealthy have at least seven streams of income. So I want you to think about, if you're listening to this, what are your streams of income? Is it just a job? Because that's just one stream of income. Maybe if you're married, if you're lucky that you share your income with your spouse or with your partner, then maybe that's too, you could consider that two streams of income if both of you have a job. But what are your other streams of income?

Speaker 1: 43:02

I hear that as well. Could you give a couple of examples of what other streams of income would?

Speaker 2: 43:06

be yes, yes, it's very important. So you want to think, okay, I have a job, or, if you have your business, it's either you have your job, you have your business, what other streams of income can I generate? And so it can come from so many multiple places. It could come from royalties. It could come from affiliate marketing, like you could promote other people's products and get a commission from that. It could come from your own products. That becomes royalties, like intellectual property, like you were saying about a book. You write a book. It becomes a best seller or something. It could be from a side hustle. It's like, okay, I have my job and I have a side hustle. It could be from the stock market. It could be from real estate. It could be from crypto, it could be from royalties, it can be from affiliate marketing.

Speaker 2: 43:58

So you want to ask yourself that question, and again, not from a point of view of like, oh my God, I have nothing. It's like I only have one stream of income. It's awareness. Don't judge yourself.

Speaker 2: 44:12

Just be like okay, well, how many more streams of income do I want by when, like I said, I wanna learn about real estate investment?

Speaker 2: 44:20

I haven't been able to carve out the time, because I've been learning about business in these last couple of years and I've been learning about the stock market investments and I've been learning about crypto. So there's been a lot of balls juggling right now. So just ask yourself that question of like, what other streams of income do I wanna add to my lifestyle so that if one goes dry, I lose my job? Guess what? I have three others to pull from. Or if the stock market is going berserk and everyone's losing money in the stock market this particular year because we're in a bear market, no problem, I have my real estate income or I have an Airbnb that I'm renting out that's bringing me income on a regular basis. So we wanna start thinking from that perspective of how do I invest, where do I wanna learn, where do I wanna get educated, and how can I start having money work for me instead of just me working for money, which is the majority of the people on this planet?

Speaker 1: 45:27

That I was gonna say it's probably a really high percentage that just work for money instead of have it work for them. So you can start small, even if you have a bit, and you can grow that just by changing your perception on money, it sounds like from what you're saying, which will, in turn, change your relationship with money, and so maybe that investment in yourself is the next step.

Speaker 2: 45:51

It's a really great insight there.

Speaker 2: 45:54

I wanna add to another trick that I give my clients. I have a signature program. It's called Money Magic Miracles, and one of the steps in that class is to start paying yourself first. And when I say paying yourself first is opening up a. You can call it a wealth account, you can call it a golden goose, that's what one of my mentors used to call it. It's an account. It's not your emergency account. It's not your account for I wanna go traveling or whatever. It's an account that you are not gonna touch that money. There's an emergency in the house. You are not touching that money. You wanna go on a trip? You're not touching that money. That's a separate account.

Speaker 2: 46:37

But in this account and here's the key thing, because many people say like oh well, I'm not making an offer, my money is very up and down because I'm an entrepreneur and so I don't have a steady paycheck. Or if you do have a paycheck, you're like I don't have a steady paycheck and I'm living paycheck to paycheck. Here's an invitation. It's not the amount, it's the habit. And if you take 5%, if you're an entrepreneur, you know, and your money's up and down, take 5% every time you receive money. I don't care if it's a gift, I don't care. If it's a client, I don't care. If, whoever, however, that money came to you, the government send you a check, take 5%, then bump it up to 10% and you put it in this wealth account that you're not gonna touch. But have a conversation with yourself that when it reaches a certain number, you're gonna go and invest it. You're gonna go either to invest it in real estate, for a down payment of a home, or you're gonna go invest it in the stock market, or you're gonna invest it somewhere. And here's the trick even if it's a dollar a week or $5 a month because you're living paycheck to paycheck, you know or you're doing whatever it is, wherever your situation is, like Jessica's saying right now, start wherever you're at. To me, it's more important that you create that habit and if you can leave with this conversation if you've been with us this far, you know and you've been interested in the conversation of money, just do me that favor Like this is the most important thing that you can walk away with. It'll be life changing for you the moment you start seeing, like I had a client, that she was like well, I, you know, like my, it's very inconsistent. I don't have the money.

Speaker 2: 48:27

She started her wealth account. By year one she had over $5,000. By year three it was over $811,000. And she started investing in the stock market. She's like well, where do I put it? I'm like, well, let's look at it. What companies do you believe in? You know, and I'm not again, I'm not a financial advisor.

Speaker 2: 48:45

The next step would be like what Jessica did go get together with a financial advisor, maybe interview two or three to see who you're in alignment with, and see and have someone help you out with that process. You know, if you don't have the like, I have the curiosity, my financial advisor. I consider him more transactional, you know cause I tend to tell him like invest here, sell there, put this into the Roth, do that. So it's not. But because I have curiosity and I have that hunger.

Speaker 2: 49:15

If you don't have that hunger and curiosity or the time to do it, just start by paying yourself first Before you pay any other company the cell phone company, your mortgage and all these other things.

Speaker 2: 49:27

You earn that money. That money came to you pay yourself first and again, it's building the habit, not the amount. I don't care about that amount. You'll build the amount as you go, because guess what, where energy goes, where attention goes, energy flows. So if your attention isn't to this wealth account and you're like like this client that said at the beginning, I don't know, I can't put, I'm like, just start with $20 a month, I don't care. By the third month she's like I'm doing house sitting and I'm just putting all my house sitting money into that account. Then she was doing some other thing and so it was starting to come because her attention was focused on that and her energy was going in there and money's energy, and boom, suddenly she never would have thought at the beginning of that exercise that a year later she would have $5,000 in that account. So that's, it starts shifting your mindset.

Speaker 1: 50:18

My husband and I, about 10 years ago, when we were starting out, we did the same thing and it was suggested to us and we thought, well, we couldn't possibly do that because it's too sporadic and it's too. And it was told to us to do something similar to that and we couldn't believe the results by just committing to that certain percentage, no matter what. And it was absolutely. It changed us. It changed us because we thought, well, surely no, and it absolutely changed us and we had savings in no time at all.

Speaker 1: 50:54

So that's great advice and I love the second part, where you take that. Once you hit a certain amount, you take that and invest it. So you've shared with us so many wonderful things. Where could my listeners find you if they wanted to go further?

Speaker 2: 51:08

I have a free guide that's called Women's Top Money Mistakes and how to Fix them. If you go to womenstopmoneymistakescom, you'll be able to find it there. But I also wanna share something that's changed my life. It's the Book Think and Grow Rich. I'm a coach at the Napoleon Hill Institute and Napoleon Hill if you've never heard of him he's the author of the book Think and Grow Rich and you can get this book for free, the PDF version of it. It's TAGR book, so think and grow rich book, but the acronym for it. And the reason why I wanted I'm feeling inspired of sharing that is because he, his book, Think and Grow Rich, is the most sold book in the history of books after the Bible. So it's the first sold book that's not a religious book and he is known.

Speaker 2: 52:04

That book has been known to make many, many millionaires. And it all starts with there is a formula in there. It's called you just have to go through it and just read the book because it's all about thinking. And I think it's very pertinent too for anyone that has gone through addiction, has overcome it, because you'll feel very relatable with the principles of success and how to become rich. And it all starts with a decision like, okay, this is. That's how recovery starts, too right, jessica? It's. You make a decision and I wanna switch it, and so it's with. Think and Grow Rich. Go to TAGRB, tagrbookcom, thinkandgrowrichbookcom, or go to womenstopmoneymistakescom, and you'll be able to get either both, get both or get one or the other. You know, whatever you resonate with more and start your journey and share with us. Share with Jessica, share with me. You know you can find me on my podcast too. I have the Courage to Be podcast and share with us. If this made a difference or if it resonated with you in any way, yeah, thank you so much for being here today.

Speaker 1: 53:22

Really, a lot of insights, a lot of different ways to look at just another component of who we are. That is just so important. So thank you, thank you Jessica ["Summer's Day"]. Thank you for tuning into the Sober Living Stories podcast. If you have been inspired, consider subscribing and sharing with anyone who could use hope in their lives. Remember to stay tuned for more inspiring stories in the episodes to come. To view our featured author of the month or to become a guest yourself, visit wwwjesuspanavikcom. ["summer's Day"].