Does the term “financial knowledge” give you pause? Well, I have good news - today’s guest is going to break it down into something you can understand.
Megan Hale is a business strategist, FinTech founder, and former psychotherapist. She’s the CEO of Megan Hale Co where she guides her clients to combine their financial knowledge & their inner knowing into signature offers that create sustainable business growth.
In this very special 150th episode, we’re bringing you her DreamMoney™ Blueprint, a holistic financial system that helps entrepreneurs build financial confidence, master their money, and radically shift the way money feels. Discovering the correlation between money management and inner wisdom is her specialty, and we delve into the five pillars of Dream Money - Deliberate, Reliable, Easeful, Abundant, and Meaningful.
We tackle the emotional and systemic conditioning that often makes money discussions uncomfortable. But Megan provides practical tips on designing systems that bring freedom and clarity to your financial journey. Whether you're a budding entrepreneur or simply looking to foster a more intimate relationship with money, this episode is laden with nuggets of financial wisdom.
Learn more here: Get involved!
What Is Intentional Optimism?
Core Values Exercise
Core Values Course
Check us out on YouTube: https://youtu.be/NjJqDf11vGw
DM me on IG or LinkedIn = @theintentionaloptimist
Please leave us a rating and review!
Apple: just scroll to the bottom, choose a rating and write a review.
Podchaser (Android): you can go to this link here and leave a rating and review! https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/intentional-optimists-unconven-1406762
Skillshare: Spark your creativity.
Get 40% Off Annual Membership
Does the term “financial knowledge” give you pause? Well, I have good news - today’s guest is going to break it down into something you can understand.
Megan Hale is a business strategist, FinTech founder, and former psychotherapist. She’s the CEO of Megan Hale Co where she guides her clients to combine their financial knowledge & their inner knowing into signature offers that create sustainable business growth.
In this very special 150th episode, we’re bringing you her DreamMoney™ Blueprint, a holistic financial system that helps entrepreneurs build financial confidence, master their money, and radically shift the way money feels. Discovering the correlation between money management and inner wisdom is her specialty, and we delve into the five pillars of Dream Money - Deliberate, Reliable, Easeful, Abundant, and Meaningful.
We tackle the emotional and systemic conditioning that often makes money discussions uncomfortable. But Megan provides practical tips on designing systems that bring freedom and clarity to your financial journey. Whether you're a budding entrepreneur or simply looking to foster a more intimate relationship with money, this episode is laden with nuggets of financial wisdom.
Learn more here: Get involved!
What Is Intentional Optimism?
Core Values Exercise
Core Values Course
Check us out on YouTube: https://youtu.be/NjJqDf11vGw
DM me on IG or LinkedIn = @theintentionaloptimist
Please leave us a rating and review!
Apple: just scroll to the bottom, choose a rating and write a review.
Podchaser (Android): you can go to this link here and leave a rating and review! https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/intentional-optimists-unconven-1406762
Skillshare: Spark your creativity.
Get 40% Off Annual Membership
You're listening to Stand Tall and Own it, the podcast for high performing female leaders who are ready to make an impact by discovering the safety that comes from understanding their own value and exercising their own authority. I'm your host, andrea Johnson, and I'm here to tell you it is time to just truly be you, my strong friend. It's time to Stand Tall and Own it. Hi there, welcome back to another episode of Stand Tall and Own it. I'm Andrea Johnson, your host, and we are in November of 2023,. My friend, we are heading into the holiday season, the big dream season. I was one of those kids who got the dream book out. For us it was the Sears and Robot catalog, but for my son it was the big dream book from Toys R Us. But it's also for those of us who are adults, kind of heading into that oh my gosh, where did my money go? Season. But I have a special treat for you today. Here's a thing that you may not have noticed, because we don't actually include the episode numbers any longer. Apple has told us not to do that, so, according to the gurus, we don't. But today this is episode 150 of my podcast. Of course, that goes back through to intentional, optimist, unconventional leaders, but today in Stand Tall and Own it. I have a real treat.
Speaker 1:Megan Hale is a business strategist. She's a FinTech founder and a former psychotherapist, so you're going to hear some of that today in our conversation. But she's also the CEO of Megan Hale Co, where she guides her clients to combine their knowledge and their knowing into signature offers that create sustainable business growth. It all starts with we'll talk about this as well the dream money blueprint, which she's taught across the globe. It's a holistic financial system that helps entrepreneurs build financial confidence, master their money and radically shift the way money feels to them. Wouldn't we all like our money to feel way better than it already does?
Speaker 1:But this episode is not just for entrepreneurs. Please do not eject. Stick around. As a matter of fact, you're going to want to take notes because I've been following Megan for years and to this day, I share this with her in the conversation. I use her practical, actionable advice and her tools for both my business growth and my personal finances. So as we head into this oh my gosh, where did my money go? Season, let's do it with joy and with hope and some tools and tips that will make it truly a season for dreaming. This conversation is all about helping you step into a more financially confident space, so grab something to take notes with. Here is Megan Hale. Hey there, megan, welcome to the show. I am so excited you're here.
Speaker 2:I am so, so excited to be here with you.
Speaker 1:As we were discussing prior to hitting record. The main challenge for me I'm just going to say this out loud is because I have been following you for so long. The main challenge for me is to not fangirl here and to actually ask some really good questions. So what I'm going to do is let you go ahead and introduce yourself, because your bio has changed a lot in the last year and I'm very interested to see how everybody can actually follow along with you and learn more about you, because there's just too much.
Speaker 2:Yes, of course. Well, hello everyone. If I'm new to you, I'm so excited to be here with you. My name is Megan Hale. I'm a business strategist and FinTech founder that's my newest title, which I'm sure we'll talk about today and I'm also a former psychotherapist. So my work in the world is really supporting other brilliant therapists and gifted coaches and wise practitioners to blend what I call both your knowledge and your knowing to create a body of work that is really here to have a bigger impact in the world. And a lot of my work around that is also in sustainable offer design, sustainable business design, so we're really able to create the infrastructure that your body of work needs so it can have the impact that it's here to have.
Speaker 2:So that's one side of my business. That's Megan Hale Co. And this year I just started my second company, which is called Dream Money, and Dream Money is a financial education firm that really supports entrepreneurs in closing the knowledge gaps when it comes to finances, especially around understanding both your business and personal finance, because I have just found in my own journey really building more financial confidence and learning the language of money is really essential for you as a business owner, but also for us, as humans and individuals, really learning what it means to be independent and financially confident in creating financial wellness for ourselves. So Dream Money is brand new in the world, but I am so excited to talk more about both of these today.
Speaker 1:Well, where do I even start?
Speaker 1:Like I said, I know you from the finance aspect of you had the money map and tools that you provided, and I will say this Megan, you are one of the more generous entrepreneurs I know out there.
Speaker 1:There's never been anything that you didn't offer that was either not affordable or not free, or, you know, it's usually like lifetime access, and I was telling you earlier that I have just the way you said it I have used all of the tools, not just in my business, but also in my personal life, and so I'm going to tell you from a personal standpoint, your desire to help people have a more holistic understanding and to have courage and to be able to bridge that knowledge gap and to be able to make good, confident decisions. It's paying off for me, and so, yeah, now I also know that you have not did not mention it but you're also a profit first certified coach. Or is that still something that you deal with? Because that was one of the things. Because I read the book and then you got certified, I'm like, oh, this is even more perfect.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's definitely where I started with really understanding how to manage money and the concept of allocations right. I think one of the things that most of us don't understand, especially in our businesses or even our households, is the concept of margins and what it means to really have sustainable margins in both realms. So profit first really introduces a very simple, intuitive framework that helps you understand what are some starting places when it comes to percentages that can really take care of each of your financial needs, because, especially in business, if our margins are unsustainable, it's going to put a lot of financial pressure on us, as business owners to earn more and more and more money, when the more important piece is to really understand how to have more sustainable margins.
Speaker 2:which is going to relieve that pressure? So, that is definitely a concept, especially like allocations and really understanding all your percentages, that I weave into my work for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you, as a former psychologist, have a way of presenting some of these things that takes a lot of the fear out of them, that you talk about having a relationship with your money which honest to goodness when you talk about the productivity, environment and capitalism.
Speaker 1:Money is not a person. But the more I started saying I need to have a relationship, I need to, at minimum, need to get in here once a month at minimum. I need to get in here twice a month. Now I need to pay attention. Then it's amazing how familiarity doesn't breed contempt in this scenario. Familiarity breeds understanding and it really does make a relationship, doesn't it?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I mean, I think the familiarity that you're talking about what it does is it creates intimacy.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:I think so many of us want to have a sense of money mastery, but you cannot master something that you do not intimately know. So I think it's by having a framework to be interacting with your money more regularly. It creates that environment for you to start building more intimacy, where you know what's happening with your money. And that's the thing that allows us to feel a lot more connected to it and, eventually, a lot more confident too.
Speaker 1:And, like I said, that's not just for entrepreneurs. It's like I do this with my personal money and I've made my own in this little money map, Zoom I mean Excel spreadsheet or whatever it is, or Google sheet. I've now taught my husband this is where we keep, because he's a pastor, so we keep all of our housing allowance and everything in there. It's like now he knows how to get in there. So it's like building this ability for my husband and me to do our finances and then, because we're not rich, he's a pastor. Right, it's like you don't have to be rich to be able to manage your money. But now I have a son who's about to be 15. And so now I have a spreadsheet for him and he's making some money and I'm teaching him about. It's like just the very basics. We're not quite to margins yet, which, for anybody who may not understand that word, margins are basically where you allocate your funds right, and I had to learn that myself. If you want to give a better definition really quick, that would be great.
Speaker 2:I think like where most people I would say Dave Ramsey is probably a very familiar finance person and I definitely have lots of things that I don't necessarily agree with.
Speaker 2:We have different philosophies, of course, but the one thing that I think Dave Ramsey does a really good job of is he talks about what percentage of your total income should be spent on a house, for instance. Right, and I don't quote me on this, but I want to say he talks about 28% of your total income should be spent on your housing needs. So that's not only your mortgage or your rent, but lawn care, like any other thing that you're, your housing insurance, like all those things. So, if you think about that being one example of a margin, we can have all types of margins. So a percentage of your income should be spent on transportation or your car needs. A percent should be spent on your monthly necessities, like your groceries, your utilities, etc. Etc. So, when you understand what percentage of your money should be allocated for certain things, it not only allows you to make more values based decisions. Right, because some people, for instance, they might value cars more than a home. Right, they're your car people. Right, and there's no right or wrong. Like you're, just like your car person, I'm a car person. So for car people, you might want to be allocating a greater percentage of your income to your cars and a lesser percentage of income to your house, for instance.
Speaker 2:But really understanding how, how you're allocating your money, how you're spending your money basically, is really key and then making sure that's really aligned with your values. So the margins conversation is just like that's. I hope that gives a little bit of clarity. I'm kind of talking about here, but it's really really fascinating to understand what your margins are, because they become behavioral little windows into the things that you do value, or some of the fears that you might have around money, for instance, because if we have set into our spending plan that we're going to be allocating a certain percentage over here and then we have a lot of trouble stewarding money in that direction. It allows us to look at the behavior of saying, oh, that's interesting, I wonder why we're really struggling putting money in this area. Do we feel like that's maybe not okay or not?
Speaker 2:safe for us, or we shouldn't want this Like. It's just a fascinating thing to be able to watch the behavioral piece of money simply by understanding your margins.
Speaker 1:Well, and this kind of feeds into the work that I do with core values and understanding our communication in disk. You know, being able to say this is how I communicate. And when you pull that into either your business or your family and you start looking at multiple people and how those things overlap. I remember growing up as a kid I had a friend whose dad had an entire room filled with audio equipment. Now, this was back in the 80s, right the early 80s and I remember my mother saying well, that's stupid, why would you spend your money on that? You know, and I'm like I know, but he doesn't spend his money on purses, he doesn't spend his money. And I remember, even at that age of like 14 or 15, thinking all of our, the way we spend things is different based on who we are. And that's the thing I don't like about some of the financial frameworks out there is that they say this is the right way, exactly, and this is how you have to do it, whereas this is very flexible. It's based on who I am and if you listen to me at all, you know that knowing your core values and knowing who you are is the foundation for everything else. So I'd like to kind of morph into or kind of head into that direction a little bit.
Speaker 1:You talked about working in the world and blend knowledge and knowing, because we've just had a very tactical, practical piece of this conversation. If you didn't take notes, you should just rewind and go back and take some notes, because you just got like some really good tactical truth bombs dropped on you there as far as how to think about money, and this is where the psychologist piece comes out. But let's talk about blending the knowledge and the knowing because I think I know personally, being raised in the community and the culture that I was raised in, it was not necessarily my own inner knowing was not necessarily to be trusted, and I'm learning how that falls into my own belief system and how to work with that and how the way I was created is actually a really good way of understanding my inner knowing. But let's go ahead and go that direction. Like what does it mean to blend knowledge and knowing and what is the difference between the two?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think so much of our culture really tends to praise our knowledge, things that we learn in schools, the degrees that we receive, the certifications that we hold and those are absolutely important. However, it's really how we interpret the knowledge, we apply it to our own life experiences and we also blend in, like just some of the obstacles that we've walked through and the things that we've learned about life and living and who we are and our values and the world that we want to see and the world we want to be a part of, and all of those things, and we can actually innovate the knowledge that we have and elevate it to its next level. And so what I mean by that? You know a lot of the people that I work with. They are their visionaries, their change makers. They envision a world that where there's more justice, more equality, more equity, more connection, more awareness of who we are as humans, like really honoring our humanity, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And our world is one.
Speaker 2:It's coming a long way right.
Speaker 2:We've gone through a lot of different chapters together in the history of the world, but a lot of the traditional theories that a lot of us have been taught are missing a lot of voices, and they're missing a lot of faces, and they're also missing genders as well, you know, and so a lot of the people that I'm working with are taking traditional theories and they're asking themselves how can this be more inclusive? How can this be better? How can like? What is it, what's missing here that allows us to do a better job in this particular area, whatever that area is? You know what you know. Some of my clients are teaching others how to grieve in a different way, how to heal in different ways, how to communicate in different ways, and so it's really by giving yourself the permission to combine the knowledge and your own inner knowing that allows us to create something new, something better, something that can serve more people in a more humane way, and that's really what I want to help foster for my clients especially. But the only way we get there is really trusting the value of our own inner knowing and starting to value that just as much, if not more so than the traditional knowledge that we hold.
Speaker 1:Sorry, I'm taking furious notes here. If y'all are watching on YouTube, you see me like tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk. Well, because I want to make sure I don't miss a good question, because as you speak, it's like here's the things that come across to me. Number one, you are. These are your convictions.
Speaker 2:This is your passion.
Speaker 1:This comes out of you in a way that is so clear, and the work that you have done has made this so clear, so clearly, so clearly, but which tells me that you have done the work to help innovate your knowledge and elevate your knowledge into something I'm getting cold chills talking about it To making, to being able to then help other people do the same thing, and, as teachers and as guides and as coaches, this is our work, right? This is what we do. So let's take it a step back and talk about what you mean by inner knowing, and how can we understand what that is? Because I like to say wisdom and versus knowledge is.
Speaker 1:Knowledge is the stuff that you gather, just like you said. It's like all the outside stuff that we get. Wisdom is knowing what to do with it, right? Oh, I love that. Yeah, so that's my Sunday school teacher lesson for you today. Wisdom is knowing what to do with the knowledge that we have and to be able to. I think it sounds like we're saying some of the same things, so I would love to know how the language that you're using to talk about. What is our inner knowing?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I think our inner knowing does combine our wisdom. I use wisdom a lot in reference to this work, but I also think that your knowing is distinct in the sense that it's your intuition and depending on your frame of spirituality. I believe that this is like your connection with the divine, how divine downloads things that are inspired right that don't necessarily always come from us. It's a collaboration with something bigger than us, and I also think it combines our values and our view of the world. Our knowing has a very distinct value set of what is right and what is wrong, what is good, what is bad, what is inclusive, what is exos, like all of those things. And so when we start to listen to that aspect of self and, more importantly, trust because we can listen and not trust right.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:If you have ever been in that situation where you have not listened to your inner knowing, right, and it was telling you something's not right here, Maybe it was showed up in a relationship where you knew this person was not the right one for you, but you kept on staying, kept on staying Like you were not listening to that part. You're not trusting that part of yourself, right? And then eventually something happens that you can no longer ignore, right? You're knowing new all along and it was telling you all along, and I think that it's a skill set to be able to hone that connection with that aspect of ourselves, learn to listen to it, learn to seek its guidance and learn to trust it, even when things do not make logical sense.
Speaker 2:And there have been so many times in my entrepreneurial path where my knowing was telling me you need to go in this direction and literally colleagues around me would say the opposite. That doesn't make sense, this isn't gonna go well, whatever. That is right. But I knew like this is just, I have to follow. It's like an obedience, almost.
Speaker 2:It's like this is the inner knowing that I am being given and I need to follow that. And so when we're thinking about combining our knowing with our knowledge, in particular, when you see that there's something missing in a set of knowledge right, oh, why didn't they think about this? Or you're challenging that theorist's ideas, right, the thing that we forget is that knowledge is here to be debated and it's here to be improved. Okay, and a lot of us assume that this is like the end all be all, because somebody else created it and said that this is true. But I want to really encourage every single person who's listening to this to challenge the status quo. And if you think that something could be a little bit different or a little bit better, maybe it needs to be worded differently so it carries a different meaning. Whatever that is, but while that knowing that you have be a place of conviction that you can say this I honor the knowledge that is here and also is the way that we blend in our knowing to make something better.
Speaker 1:The words I have been using are being able to think critically, and I have been using the same language of challenge, the status quo, because the work of doing growth is by, I think, definition, or definition, yeah, it is by. It plays itself out practically in a sort of deconstruction and a reconstruction of any number of things and, depending on what kind of community you're in, that's gonna be a red flag for you or it's going to be a oh wait, let me see how this works. And so I love this whole honor, the knowledge that is there, but both and right, and yet or and this. So let's talk a little bit more about how this relates to your money and because you have two different businesses, but they're still both money oriented. Yes, yeah, so how do you use this in helping people figure out how to work with their money?
Speaker 2:Well, I think it depends on which side of the business I'm working on. I think we're on Megan Hale co-side. We're really gonna be thinking about the offers that we're creating and how, like our revenue streams and the business model, and, of course, we blend the money pieces into that, especially when we're talking about sustainable price points and understanding your margins and all of those things. It's a very important piece. But I think, when it comes to the dream money side, where we're really setting up these holistic financial systems, so you understand what's happening in your business and what's happening in your life and how you can really build a business that funds your life, right Funds your financial needs and also your dreams One, I think you know when I created the dream money blueprint, which used to be called the money map, what I needed was an intuitive way of starting to interact with my money.
Speaker 1:That wasn't overwhelming, and I also knew that that is a phrase right there that wasn't overwhelming Go ahead intuitive way to interact with your money. That wasn't overwhelming.
Speaker 2:Yes, and I also knew that there was a lot of pressure outside of myself around what a successful business meant. That was really all around certain revenue numbers Like you have to be earning six figures or seven figures or whatever that is, which isn't really a specific number, it's just a benchmark right and, because of the life that I've lived, I went through a very intense obstacle in 2017 where I was getting ready to have my second baby and my husband was deploying for six months just three weeks after we had him, and I was looking at what my business was gonna look like this next year. Everything had been starting to build and I knew my knowing said this is not the time to take the foot off the gas, but for us to move forward, this is gonna have to look different.
Speaker 2:You know it's gonna have to look different, and it did. So I started to ask myself very different questions that year around how much do I truly need in order to enjoy a maternity leave? How much does my family need in order for us to be financially supported? What is the business Like all of these questions and I started getting really specific and that specificity helps me create these calculators that allowed me for the first time to really create meaningful money goals that were mine, that were based on my needs, my dreams, and guess what? It wasn't just, it wasn't six figures, it was a very specific number.
Speaker 2:Like I think back then, I do a good, better basketball setting process and your good is just for your financial needs and your better and your best start to fund your dreams.
Speaker 2:But my best goal that year was like 96,781. Seeing that number for the first time was so mind blowing for me as paradigm shifting, because I had been pursuing this number that somebody else told me I needed, when that's not really what I needed, and I finally knew exactly what success meant for me from a numbers perspective. So I think that was one big piece of saying okay, here's what other people are saying, which that's knowledge, right, but what is my knowing saying? My knowing is saying let me actually look at what my values are, what my needs are, what my personal definition of success is right, which was building on all the enoughness work that I had done leading up to all this and then trusting myself to create something that has now gone on to help like hundreds of people, which never in a million years, I think would be the thing when I was sitting down creating these ugly spreadsheets. But here we are.
Speaker 1:Oh, and I will say this y'all if you haven't listened to Megan's podcast are these all in the same RSS feed or are they separate RSS feed All?
Speaker 2:separate. So we have the enoughness revolution. It's its own body work. We have a wild and holy radio which is conversation on spirituality and money. And now we have TBD, which stands for to be determined, because I launched this literally in a season of I don't know what's happening right now. I was going through a complete rebrand, and so we might end up renaming it Dream Money, but right now it's called TBD.
Speaker 1:So here's the thing that I one of the things I love as an entrepreneur and even just as a woman. I love the fact that you are out there real right now. And I think I started listening to you back in 2017, in the middle of all that garbage, and, as a, I had just lost my mom and I was getting ready. I was thinking about I had heard you. Maybe it was in 2018 when you were talking about it, but I had heard you as a guest on somebody else's podcast, and so I went to listen because I was like I think I might need to listen to that woman and being able to show that everybody else's paradigms are not exactly, not necessarily what I need that was kind of like the seed that got planted for me. That kind of helped me do that.
Speaker 1:And so what I'd love to do is walk through the Dream Money acronym, because I've listened to all the podcast episodes, what they all mean, and I know what it means, and I and y'all she's she. If you listen to her stuff. She is happy to share with intense joy everything that gets revealed to her, and it just you can't help but be excited about it. So, and then, as we walk through them. I'm gonna tell you which one impacted me the most. Oh, I love that. Okay, so let's talk about because Dream Money it's an acronym, correct? Yes, yes, okay. So tell us a little bit more about Dream Money.
Speaker 2:Of course, okay. So I want you to imagine that Dream D-R-E-A-M each stands for a different key pillar that we're looking to create with our money. So the D is all around money that is deliberate, and this is going to show up in a couple of different ways. One we wanna be deliberate around what we're designing our money to do, and when I'm working with an entrepreneur, this is going to directly think.
Speaker 2:I want you to think about sustainability, right, are you being deliberate and asking your money to honor your time and your energy? Because if you're not, capitalism is gonna say go hard, go fast, go forever, right, for the sake of money, and so we have to actually do the work of like deliberately saying no to that and designing our businesses so it supports our life and all of these other things. But there's also a deliberateness around being really intentional with how you're meeting with your money, taking care of your money, having a relationship with your money, stewarding your money, all of those things, and so there's a high level of intentionality that shows up in that D when we're really talking about being deliberate with your money, being deliberate with your spending, being deliberate about your investing, right, and it's not to say that we don't spend, we don't invest. It's just, there's a high level of intentionality behind the choices that we're making that are very values-based.
Speaker 1:So we start there and that is way in my wheelhouse as the intentional optimist who is a back core values coach, all of that, it's like that's not the one that impacted me the most. That's the one that seems most logical to me right To me the deliberate, that's like well, duh, that's where I am, but anyway. So okay, deliberate R.
Speaker 2:So the R is all around reliable money, and when we are talking about this in a business sense, this is really around structuring your business to create recurring revenue for yourself, so you always have money that is coming in right. I always think about designing a business where money is always on its way and we can intentionally create that. If we are talking to somebody who is not an entrepreneur, then we're most likely gonna be talking about our inner dynamics with money around. How can we reliably show up for our money and have those conversations and all of those things, but also how can we reliably ask for more money and negotiate our ways into more opportunity for ourselves?
Speaker 2:Hmm, then, when it comes to the E, we're really talking about easeful money, and I think a lot of times we confuse ease and easy, and these are two wildly, wildly different things. Leaning into ease is one of the hardest things I've ever done, but when we're talking about easeful money, this really comes down to having money systems so your money is clear, it's simple, you know what the plan is, and so I want you to think about, like most of us would say, that there's a lot of ease around driving a car right.
Speaker 2:Because we're very familiar with how this system works, what we're supposed to be doing. There's not a lot of gas work, there's not a lot of like mental load associated with it when we have a system that's doing the exact same thing for our money. That's one way that we can step into that. So everybody needs financial systems every single person but when we're talking to with an entrepreneur, there's also around ease for around earning. How can we create more ease there? And for me, that's one earning in a way that's aligned with your values. That's foundation. But also earning in a way that's aligned with your strengths, and that's gonna come down to the offers that you're creating and how you're working with people and the transformation that you're providing and all of those things, and so when we're building a business model based on those things, that's gonna create a lot more ease just as a result.
Speaker 1:Well, and this one is one that I feel like from the money map days has having a system has helped me become a little bit everything that. I mean it's very rare for any kind of bill to go out of my house or out of my business or payment to go out that is not systematized. Yes, and because I don't have to think about it and like if I look through and I know that I don't have enough money, right, it's like. I mean, I famously quit my job over two years ago and it was not in a way that I would recommend other people do it, because I did not have like six months of salary built up. I didn't have that kind of savings. We still had a little bit of debt, but at the same time I knew that I had kind of simplified my expenses down to a way that was going to make it more. It's gonna make it less stressful, and that difference between easy and easy is very important For sure.
Speaker 2:Okay. So we go from the E to the A, and A is all around abundant money. And so the thing about abundance is, if you look at the definition of abundance, it means more than enough. More than enough, that's it. So, in order for us to get there, we first have to define what enough means, okay? So if that's going to be our comparison, what does enough look like for you? And that's gonna be unique to every single individual, based on their financial needs and based on their dreams, right? And that's also gonna be greatly impacted by your cost of living, like where you live, like all of those things.
Speaker 2:So abundant money literally means stepping into more than enough money. You have extra money, there's spacious money, and we can intentionally design our money that way, which we do inside the Dream Money Blueprint, right? But this also comes down to an abundant mindset knowing that there is more than enough resources, more than enough possibilities, more than enough clients, more than enough options, more than enough support, whatever that looks like for you, right? So it works on both sides of the street. We have to intentionally design our money that way, but we also have to have that mindset and that perspective in the world, really, really key and then our no go ahead, go ahead with M, and then I'll tell you mine.
Speaker 2:Our last piece here is all around meaningful money, and this one this one's probably been the one that's been the most life-changing for me, and we work on meaningful money in a couple of different ways. One, having very clear money goals that are specific to who we are as people and the things that matter most to us. We're not pursuing other people's definitions of success. We're not shitting ourselves around what we should be doing with our money, because our great-grandmother told us that this was the way we're really honoring our own financial integrity. That's a key ingredient here. But I also think that meaningful money shows up through meaningful giving and seeing the larger ripple effect that your money can have in the world. That's really where the 2% pledge came from, which is a social initiative that just encourages people to donate a small percentage of their money. That's a sustainable for us to give consistently over time.
Speaker 2:I think when you have a give-back baked into either your business or personal finances whatever that looks like for you maybe it's both it allows your money to have a richer meaning, because it's not just about the impact that your money has for you, but about people that you might not ever meet, you might not ever know.
Speaker 2:You know, and there's power in that the last piece around meaningful money is really around having meaningful earning and meaningful marketing right. And so, coming back to that sense of how are we leveraging our gifts to have our most meaningful contribution and how are we being intentional with the way that we're marketing our businesses, that we're really disrupting some of these manipulative tactics that are out there that really leverage shame, they leverage fear, they leverage scarcity. We, as business owners, get to choose what we do with that and how we can do it differently. And even if you're not a business owner and you're simply a consumer, right you can choose to support organizations and companies who are marketing to you in a way that honors your humanity instead of kind of tears you apart.
Speaker 1:Okay, so here is the one that really got me and that surprised me. That got me was abundant. Oh yeah, I know, and some of that is on the very practical side of I don't have to say, you know like I need a 10K month or it's like I need to have consistent whatever's. Because if it's based on your what you need, if it's based on your good, better or best, then you know what you need. And I love your example of the best goal for you was not your good goal. Your good goal is much smaller than that, actually that year, and it was to pay bills and to make sure that you had what you needed and then to have that flexibility built in. But the biggest piece for me is this whole nebulous idea of what an abundant mindset is and to be able to say, it's not just that there's enough money. Right, it's like we can figure out how to get more money. I mean, that's just the reality. I can flip burgers with Burger King if I have to get more money. Of course, yes, but it's more than that, it's bigger than that. And to be able to say, oh, there's more than enough resources, clients, options, support, I'm starting to do. It's freed me up to be able to say, oh well, then I can just collaborate with this person and even if I'm only making 50% on the contract, I'm making more money. But this is working together with someone and there are plenty of resources out there. I just need to ask for them. And there are plenty of clients out there, even though there's a lot of people who are all of a sudden talking about core value work.
Speaker 1:That part has been the most impactful for me and it may not really have anything to do specifically with money. It has to do with this idea of what is more than enough and how can I incorporate that in a way that just really makes a difference? And it was a surprise to me Because, of course, I was just kind of waiting for you to tell me what all your acronym meant. I'm just listening to Megan and all of a sudden that one really hit me and I had your podcast where you explain that one. I had to listen to it twice Because it just hit me so hard to realize that I wasn't.
Speaker 1:I was living. I didn't know how to define the difference between the abundant or the scarcity mindset, but I realized the scarcity piece that affects us use the word holistically. It's systemic. Oh, 100%. Yeah, it affects us systemically. It's not just about money, it's about friendships, it's about time, it's about the intimacy in our relationships, it's about how many other coaches are in the area and it's just crazy. But it hits us constantly and it goes back to this idea of capitalism and the personal work ethic and all those things. So I wanted you to know Abundant hit me the hardest.
Speaker 2:I'm so glad, and I think the one thing that has probably shifted out the most I know I talk about on that podcast episode is the abundance of time, and I was telling myself for years that there's not enough time, there's never enough time, and I'm like, oh my gosh, of course I'm stressed out. How can I shift that dialogue that I'm having with myself and that's the thing that will stress me out the most? I tend to run a little anxious. So if you tell an anxious person that there's not enough resources or not enough time, that is going to increase your anxiety very, very fast, and so that is probably the relationship I've had to work on the most. That has been abridged to something into an abundance of everything, because if there can be an abundance of time, an abundance of really, there's literally an abundance of everything that you can get to in your mind.
Speaker 2:But yeah capitalism tells us there's not enough time, there's not enough resources, there's not enough space for you. That's the other thing, because it really is breathing on with this idea of competition versus collaboration. And if you are an entrepreneur, listening to this and you're starting a business, especially in those startup years, it's so easy for us to think, well, why should I add my voice to the mix? Because there's already nine people who have been doing this for years. Because you're knowing and your knowledge, that unique intersection, that combination, has never happened before.
Speaker 1:That's why and there is space for you here- yeah, and we hear people say that For those of us who are entrepreneurs, we hear people say but it's your voice, it's your unique contribution, but somehow defining it and taking it down to that, to helping us see that it really is this idea of scarcity and pointing out that it's the scarcity of space. I mean, this new podcast name is totally rebranded as Stantall and Own it, which means basically, take up the space you're supposed to take, share the convictions that you have, share the knowledge and the wisdom I use the word wisdom that you have, and I'm going to start thinking about some of that, even just a little bit differently. But I think what's beautiful is that this really doesn't have to be just for entrepreneurs, and it doesn't even have to be for somebody who, because you put it out there and this is a podcast you can follow. This is like I said you're generous, you're teaching constantly.
Speaker 1:So what about some practical tips? Because I know you have some offers open right now? I know you have and I'll let you share about those in just a second. But how about some practical tips for people who are just kind of starting this journey? They're listening to this thing. I'm so glad Andrew's finally got a financial person on here that I can listen to because I have all these money mindset issues. So what are some practical tips that maybe people just can start taking to start looking at things and differently?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I think the first thing that I'll say if you're starting to do money work, the concept of money mindset is probably one of the first terms that you're going to hear, and, as a former psychotherapist who came up in very traditional theory, psychotherapy, the field itself has a tendency of looking at things as individual issues instead of collective issues, and the even concept of mindset is something like. This is your responsibility to fix and to shift, and I want to be very clear. I'm not diminishing that responsibility. We all have our own responsibility of really looking at our beliefs and our mindset. However, when we are specifically addressing this about money, this is a systemic conditioning that we are all holding, and so if you are in that place of gosh, I have such a terrible money mindset, what's wrong with me? There is nothing wrong with you. You are holding onto beliefs and conditioning that was intentionally designed for you to not have safety around money, security around money, confidence around money. So if you're starting from this place and you're feeling overwhelmed and you feel like that is in some way saying something about you, I want you to challenge that right away, because money doesn't feel safe for us, for many of us, for a reason because it's been gate-keaped for generations and generations and generations. So the first is one know that money is emotional and if money, even just talking about money, makes you feel things, that's normal, it's expected.
Speaker 2:Money has traditionally been a very taboo topic. We don't talk about how much we earn, we don't talk about how much we make, we don't talk about what we do with our money, we don't talk about how we give our money. We don't talk about money at all. So even the fact that we're having this conversation around money and people might be feeling like their skin crawled, a little bit like oh my god. One of my goals in this world is to normalize money, because money is interacting with our whole lives in the background all the time, all the time. So we have to one create spaces where it's safe to have money conversations and we also have to be committed to our own journey of learning how to do money, how to do money.
Speaker 2:And if you can commit to that process of being willing to sit in the room, with the discomfort that is going to come up. I promise you it's going to come up right. Even years after doing money work, there are still times when I sit down. I'm like this is uncomfortable. I don't want to look at this right. The trick to money work is being willing to stay in the room. That's it. So if you can do that, you're already 10 stops ahead of the game Just being willing to stay in the room for you and your money okay, it doesn't make it any less uncomfortable.
Speaker 1:I'm just going to tell you all that it doesn't.
Speaker 2:And it gets more comfortable over time, right, especially as we start to figure out one little piece and then one little piece and we start connecting all of these dots and before you know it, I think the other thing that shows up for people is they think that it's going to take so long for money to change, but your money situation and the way that you feel about money can really start to shift pretty quickly when you have a consistent practice and that's really what my work invites you into.
Speaker 2:It's giving you an intuitive framework to have a consistent practice that doesn't feel overwhelming. It doesn't mean that you're going to sit down with your money and not feel overwhelmed from time to time, but it is going to give you a framework for helping you understand where that overwhelm is coming from. Why am I feeling overwhelmed right now? Is this something that's happening with my money, or is this something that's happening with my life? Or I had a conversation with my partner and now it's projecting onto money, right? So so many things start to show up. I think I forgot your question, though.
Speaker 1:No, that's perfect. This is like some really good tips for people to get started. And I will say from personal experience the most stress and the most uncomfortableness I feel around money is when I don't know the answers. So if I don't know what my bank balance is, or I don't know when this thing is due, or I don't know which card that's going to get charged to, then I'm uncomfortable. But when I know I can do something with it, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I think it's not just having the system, but it's also just being willing to acknowledge the fact that, like I'll like close my eyes and click open, you know, for the to go into my bank account and it's like, why did you do that? It has more money in there than you thought, because once you get systems in place, then it really it rarely is as bad as you think it's going to be. Now there's always exceptions to all of that right, but part of it is being able to do this work and get the stuff you know in place and I love that the systems really make it, make it better.
Speaker 2:I mean, I think I was doing another interview just recently and there was somebody that was asking like what if I don't want to look? Like what if I don't want to know?
Speaker 2:And this shows up a lot, especially when we have, like, an avoidant attachment style with money. We think that ignorance is bliss right, but what we're really trying to do is we're trying to regulate our emotions, or the fear and the anxiety that is associated with money, by not opening that door. That's not an empowered place to be right, oh no, no, it's an empowered place to have an anxious attachment style, where you are micromanaging everything and checking your accounts constantly and like you cannot feel safe with that. So and I tend to swing on both sides of the spectrum, which has been really fun to learn how to like, create self-regulation or all money. But I think the thing that I mentioned to her is, if you want to feel free with money, freedom is going to come from truth.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right, and so the truth is really knowing. It's the clarity piece, it's knowing what's really happening so you can make informed decisions and you can create a plan and all of those things, yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's really really good stuff. Okay, so, if somebody wants to work with you I know you've got a couple of things going on, both for entrepreneurs and maybe even non-entrepreneurs, depending on you know your app and that kind of stuff. So tell us some ways that people can work with you.
Speaker 2:Definitely Well right now. So I have taught. So the Dream Money Blueprint started off as the money map right, that's how you entered my world, just with the money map, and we had to rename it because of a trademark issue and that was a whole long journey. But then Dream Money came through and then the money map was renamed as the Dream Money Blueprint. So this tool has been taught to hundreds of entrepreneurs all over the world.
Speaker 2:At this point, and I know that I want this tool to reach even more people, so I am developing an app that eventually the Blueprint will become, and so right now, we are raising our capital to build this app. So my goal is to raise $350,000, which is a big, audacious, scary goal. We're just going for it. And in order to do that, you know, typically when people, when founders, are raising capital, they have an idea but no product, and I happen to be in a unique situation where I have the idea and the current product. So you can purchase the Dream Money Blueprint, which is the same tool that you have. That's a complete financial system, really designed mostly for entrepreneurs to really understand the revenue plan and their business and their margins and all of those things, and that's $9.97. And it comes with a 60-day live program that I'm leading in January and February. In 2024, where we will be doing the Blueprint is the more structured side of money, like the numbers, the margins, you know all of those things. But the group program I'll be leading, starting in January, is more of the inner side of money. So really understanding your money, conditioning your money stories, your transgenerational money story and all of those things, and then also starting to weave in a consistent money practice that starts to build more nervous system regulation, which is going to help you create that sense of safety around money. So all of that for $9.97, and you are going to become what I'm calling a funding dreamer, because you're helping fund this dream for me with me, and you will be listed in the app as a funding dreamer when it launches.
Speaker 2:The other option is if you just want to understand what meaningful money goals look like for you that are just based on your needs and your dreams, you can get access to the dream money calculator for just $247. And you also will be listed in the app as a founding dreamer because you're going to be a founding member of this community and a user of this system. So, for $247, you get the most important calculator in here that really helps you understand your money goals and your margins. You also get access to bi-weekly money calls that have just started leading again, because, again, I want to create a safe space for us to talk about money, to normalize money as part of your everyday, because it is part of your everyday. Everybody gets access to those calls, whether you are a funding or founding dreamer.
Speaker 2:But I really wanted to create accessibility with this, so you can get the calculator for $247, or, if you want to get the whole product plus the 60-day live program, for $9.97, there's two options to get access to this work. So I am on a mission to really make these money tools more accessible to people, because it's been so healing and shifting for me, and I see the same for people who have this framework up and rolling in their lives and businesses. And the thing that I love that you mentioned I've had many clients tell me that they use this with their partner because it helps to be this bridge of how to have money conversations. You're the first person, though, that has shared that. Now it's starting to extend to their children and that means the world to me.
Speaker 1:Well, megan, I know that you're all about helping us build legacy and positive legacy and changing conversations and changing the way we dream about things and hope about things and changing the future, and we would be remiss if we didn't pass that on to our kids, and I'm sure that yours when they're old enough, you will be doing this thing, and we're just starting off. Right now it's just like there's three categories that's it. That's great, and it's like the savings and the giving and the spending. But it's still there and he's got his own checkbook, which is nuts because children don't write in cursive anymore, so they don't teach that anymore, so he's just printing his name out, but he's writing the check. And I want to just pop back in really quickly to these bi-weekly calls.
Speaker 1:I've been in some of those. I wasn't able to be on the most recent one you had, but I've been in some. And when you talk about other people in the same room creating this safe space to talk about hard money stuff, this is the place to do it and it really is something that will make all the difference in the world. And when you talk about your margins, either personal or business, these give you some options that give you a really good idea of how you can make changes. And if the frameworks maybe for the listeners out there are not things that they've been able to say, I can get on board with all of this and you feel like you're always having to adjust somebody else's I don't know strategy or framework, I guess is a good way to say it Then maybe something like this, with a little bit more flexibility that's built on who you are, is a really good option for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think for people who have listened to maybe some financial gurus out there, I don't think of myself as a financial guru by any means, but what I will share is I think that I take a very abundant approach to money, so I'm not about limiting yourself around you. You can't have that. I'm more around. Let's get clear on the things that really really matter to you and what things need to look like for you to have it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I think that when we can approach money from that place, it allows us to not get caught in this binary of like well, that's good and that's bad, or that's right and that's wrong. It's like what's true for you? That's my biggest question is what is true for you? What is your own personal definition of joy and happiness and fulfillment and success, and how can your money start to intentionally support that?
Speaker 1:That's a fabulous way to wrap all of this up, because that is the goal of pretty much all of us. We want our lives to be joyful, we want our lives to be happy, we want to be able to have even our money fit into what we have been created and called to do, no matter what it is, and so I think that is a beautiful way to wrap this all up. Is there anything I've left out?
Speaker 2:I think we've covered it.
Speaker 1:Oh, so this has been fabulous. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2:Thank you for having me. That has been so good.