Erika Wasserman, Your Financial Therapist - Certified Financial Therapist (CFT)

0:00 The topics and opinions express in the following show are solely those of the hosts and their guests, and not those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services, or products mentioned on air or on our web. No liability explicitor implies shall be extended to W four CY Radio or it's employees are affiliates. Any questions or comments should be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing W FOURCY Radio. Churchill said, those who failed to learn from history are condemned to repeat it. Kevin Helen n believes that certainly applies to business. Welcome to Winning Business Radio here at W four CY Radio. That's W four cy dot com and now your host, Kevin Helenn.

0:52 Thank you everybody for joining in today. I am Kevin Hallan and welcome back to Winning Business TV and Radio on W four C dot com. We're streaming live on talkfour TV dot com. That's the number four, and of course we'ru on Facebook live at Winning Business Radio and absolutely we're available after the show and podcast form on YouTube, I Heart Radio, Spotify, Apprile pretty much wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. It's hard to even count how many outlets. We're on the mission of winning business radio and TV. As regular viewers and listeners know is to offer insights and advice to help those Yeah, I'll try that again, to help avoid the mistakes of others, to learn best practices. Those are the how tos, the what not tos, the what too's, to be challenged and hopefully to be inspired by the successes of others. Those others are consultants, coaches, advisors, authors, founders and owners, entrepreneurs, people with expertise. But you know, every virtually I can't read today, Erica, We'll get there. Virtually every successful person I've ever had a chance to talk to has had some form of failure in their lives and careers. So while we all have to get our knee skin once in a while, I'm driven to keep those scrapes from needing major surgery.

2:08 Let's endeavor to learn from history, just like we do every week, so we don't repeat it. I've spent the better part of my career equipping businesses to grow, and that's from solopreneurs to small and medium sized companies, all the way up to the Fortune fifty. And I've seen some of those companies win, and to varying degrees, i've seen some of them fail. I've had the opportunity to rub elbows with some of the highest performing people around and with some who probably should have found other professions. So in my own businesses, I've had lots of success, but some failures too, And I like to think I've learned a lot from those experiences. So, yeah, you'll hear a little bit from me, but mostly you're going to hear from guests, and today is no exception. My returning guest is Erica Wasserman, and here's her bio. Erica Wasserman is considered the go to financial empowerment expert. She's a dynamic force in the world of financial transformation, armed with a finance degree from the Universe to You of Florida and a decade long career at IBM. She's also made waves in the organic food industry, bringing a unique mix of corporate savvy and innovating innovative thinking to financial wellness.

3:11 Newly published author with Wiley Conversations with your Financial Therapist, Stories and Scripts to Grow your Financial Mindset reflects Erica's passion for making money talk both accessible. Money talk both accessible and transformative. Her own journey reads like an adventure novel. Marriage, relocating to Asia, raising kids, divorce, dating, and the loss of a parent, experiences that have shaped her empathetic, holistic approach to financial well being. Erica is just one of one hundred certified financial therapists in the country, and she holds a graduate certificate in financial therapy from Kansas State University. She also created Let's Talk Finances conversation cards igniting meaningful dialogue at every stage of life, and those are available on Amazon. She's been quoted in national media including The New New York Time, New York Times, US News and Report, NERD Wallet, and Yahoo Money, and of course, now Winning Business Radio. She's based in Sunny South Florida, Florida. She's a devoted single mom to three teenages wow teenage girls, and an avid traveler who explored forty nine countries and counting.

4:18 We'll talk about that whether through her engaging one on one sessions, impactful speaking engagements, or innovative tools. She's all about guiding her clients on a path to financial clarity and confidence. Erica welcome to Winning Business Radio. Excellent. Thank you so much. I feel like I need to keep you everywhere with me with that interest. Let's go, let's go take me. I've been to Asia. It was not a great trip because it was two days to get there, two days there and two days home. It was a work trip in and out. Use stayed there for much longer. But and I will try to be less tongue tied today. I don't know what's going on. I'm making you nervous. Oh, I'm so nervous. I don't get nervous. That's funny.

5:01 But let's before we get started, tell me about your girls. Yes, so we just had prom this past weekend. Nice. So I have three teenage shutters that are all in high school. Yep. Uh huh, yeah, that gets a yikes from me. Father of two and two two ghost boys. Yeah. And so the joke around here is I live in a sorority house. So there's always noise music, somebody's hungry, somebody's crying, somebody's shopping. Amazon loves our house. I don't even know anymore. But but it's fun. That's you have the right attitude. It's fun. It absolutely was is Yep. But Yeah, we just had prom. This past weekend. My mom was in the hospital with back surgery. You know, we talked about work life balance, and last week was really about life.

5:46 Right. I got to spend some time with my mom in the hospital, A couple spent a couple of nights there with her, and then get my daughter ready for prom, and then today alone. I've been on a webinar, a podcast, and now a radio show. Right, we're locked into work this week. I gotta love it. How you work life balance. It's never on the same day, is what I've experienced. That's okay, that's okay, as long as you make it work. Did you grow up in southern Florida? You know what I did? I am a Florida name, which is rare. And when I worked for and I ended up overseas, So I ended up living two years in Tokyo, have my oldest daughter there, and then Shanghai, and then back to the US.

6:26 Had two more kids, so I had three kids under the age of four when I was told I was getting a divorce. So in that the way, by the way, news flash. Right, like the banner coming underneath us, right, newsplash, This is what's happening. How is your day? By the way, By the way. Go to Florida. Your parents will be more helpful. And so the girls and I packed up and we did. We came down here fourteen years ago, you know, the next town over that I grew up in, and it's been really nice because of the community. You can't replace community when you're raising children, so it's been a really good place for us. All right, let's wind the way back machine high school ish, What were your early interests.

7:07 What were you into. I mean, my first thing is dance, so I was, you know, a competitive dancer and then all of that. So for me, that's where my outlet was, my creative outlet. But my passion was math. I always loved math. I know, cool kid, right. No, that's good, me too. Actually my dad saw that. In me, and he didn't have sons, so who knows genetically, you know, if our family dynamic was different, and he saw that I liked math, and so we would always be talking about math, you know, either going to the grocery store, paying the register back when cash was king, Yeah, and you know, he would say how much change do we get back? And over the years he showed me the binder. But then we started going into the end of life binder talking about.

7:56 Insurance, you know, do not do that. Yeah, I didn't know that though. This was my upbringing and his best friend was an accountant, so talking about taxes was normal at lunch if I went to lunch with them, you know. And it was when my dad passed away that the shock really hit. Not only did I lose my accountability partner, but my mom of fifty years had lost her accountability partner. But it's not like she was probably well prepared for the non emotional part, you know, the business part. The business part was all in place. The binder was there, she had seen it but never been in it. And then I spent the next year really coaching her, supporting her as best as mother and daughter can do on some days, you know, on the understanding, the comprehension and building the confidence and without thinking. She actually became my first client in financial therapy. And then I went and got a graduate certificate in financial therapy and then get certified in the field because my passion is really helping me people and this is something that I can do.

9:02 There are a lot of things in life I cannot do. Can't replace my roof. That's you know, decided to get readone. Right, These are not my skill sets, but we talk about decision making of when to replace versus patch. I will brainstorm and structure brainstorm with you all day long. But the actual physical work, I don't know how to build a roof. So you've got a finance degree versus a math degree. Did you know you were going to go into financial That's a dumb question. Did you know you were going into finance? There we go, because you ended up in marketing. Well, well that was. Part of my luberdy loop of roller coaster life. Okay, so yes, I got a finance degree and I went into consulting, and so that's what I did for a decade with IBM when I was living in China. At that point, I had a four month old and I was on the search for organic baby food, very very hard to find. This is eighteen years ago hard to find kind of period forget about hard to find in you at the time, and there was a British mom that was using the pouch baby food. Now you see it as apple sauce in everywhere.

10:11 Now my grandkids eat it, yep, but it. Wasn't back in the day. So Ella's Kitchen was a British brand. Paul Linley. Ella's dad created Pouch Baby Food, and so I was importing it from Hong Kong. And then when I moved to the US, I had friends from London shipping it to me. There was nothing in the market in the US, and so I emailed the company being who I am, like, when are you coming to the US? This is crazy, and they said, we're coming. We just got to deal with that with my babies are us. And I was living in Connecticut at the time, and so I met the CEO and a Dunkin Donuts and the Lower East Side and he hired me on the spot.

10:54 Very cool, and in that. Moment I then pivoted careers started growing brands in the organic food space. Not only did I in the marketing, but also the sales side, because nobody had seen the pouch baby food trade shows with the sales team who were older men right who didn't have babies at home, and I had to have pictures of my kids eating the food and showing people how you could eat the food because it hadn't been Now it's everywhere, but at the time nobody had seen it, and it was really fun working with an international brand culturally, not only that, but breaking into new category, into the shelves and a grocery.

11:38 What was into it is mind boggling. Yeah, for those that don't know, that is a very difficult space to get. It is impossible. It's not impossible. It just costs a lot of money. So that's where it comes into money mindset. Which stores are you going to pay? So Babies are Us was their initial store, but it was nationwide. Coming from the UK was a good plague. We're all over the country. As you know, in the US, the country's big. How do you decide marketing budgets? How do you decide target clients? Nebraska and New York City have different moms that you're talking to on different platforms, and so we had to restrategize.

12:20 A company that size probably didn't have deep pockets either or endless pockets. I was packing up marketing boxes PR boxes from my garage, right, I mean, your startup. That's the fun of it. Also is that you're in every piece of the business because there's only a few of you and making a difference every day. It was fun. So were you in Japan also, I did, so I was. Two years in Japan. I was working in Asia leadership and skills development of going from a generalist mindset to specialized mindsets and skills for the sales teams is what I was restructuring. And I also had my first daughter while I was over there, so there was a lot of cultural things culture exchange happening in that time, not just from a business standpoint, but also from being a new mom for the first time.

13:15 Over you know, I think a lot about the Eastern cultures and they're they're really well. This is kind of an unfair statement. It's a broad brush, but it seems to me that mindset means more there than it does. Here in so many ways. And I'll just so when I first child, also hospital stay in natural childbirth was five days. You want to make sure the baby's okay. The one she was okay. It was just a very different feel. And eighteen months later I had my next kid in the US and it was like, get you out. You're on your own right, have no family, you know, you know friends, but I'll make sure you know you know how to bathe the baby.

13:55 Just you got to get out of the hospital, and so it was just again culture was was very different. I'm glad I got to experience both. And the cool thing was we just went back for my daughter's eighteenth birthday. Oh, very cool the two of us. And I'm big into experiences over things, and so the two of us got to go back and I got to show her, you know, where I got to bring her home to and the culture that she was born into. It was a very sweet moment. So what would be your key takeaways from being in Asia? And you can even break those into China and Japan. Two different environments. Everything's in it. So that's a really good I love that question.

14:37 Yeah, because I get excited about exploring new things. And so when you live overseas and this is before smartphones, right, this is eighteen years ago, So everything was an adventure. The grocery store is an adventure. You got lost on every corner, Like it was fun for me, Like I enjoyed that ex exploring the world and exploring people and you had to stop and ask for help and you know, and I really had to learn the language enough to get by, but also charades helps and the connections that you would just make on the street or in the grocery store. Was really left the lasting impact for me, which is why I think I love my business so much, because I can help people all over the world. It money is like music, Yeah right, it doesn't matter the currency.

15:26 We all have a relationship with it. And because of my curiosity, I think it's helpful for me. Money is like music. I like that a lot. All right, hold that next thought, we're going to take our first commercial. We'll be right back with Erica Wasserman, Certified Financial Therapist. You're listening to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helenet on W four CY Radio. That's W four cy dot com. Don't go away. More helpful information is coming right up right here on Winning Business Radio. Best in Wealth Management is family owned for two generations.

16:09 They take pride in thoughtful financial planning and wealth management with a family feel for your closely held family business. Best in Wealth Management focuses on deep planning. Integrating your business planning with personal tay will help put your money to work and your mind at ease. Go to Bestinwealthmanagement dot com for more information. Advisory service is offered through. Commonwealth Financial Network, a registered investment advisor. Join the best and family and let our family advise your family. That's Bestinwealthmanagement dot com for your complementary initial consultation. Have you ever dreamt of being on the radio, Well, now is your chance. Be a radio show guest on the number one ranked Internet radio station and promote you and your business for free. Yes, you heard it, free business advertising right here on W four CYD dot com.

17:01 Call five six one five zero six four zero three one now to get booked on one of our shows. That's five six one five zero six four zero three one. Get your free advertising now. And now back to winning Business Radio with Kevin Helene, presenting exciting topics and expert guests with one goal in mind to help you succeed in business. Here once again is Kevin Helena. We're back with Erica Wasserman, certified Financial Therapist. Did you feel safe in China? Yes, because we think of as communist country and you know, well.

17:48 I mean so, like again, I was there eighteen years ago, and you know there was protection on social media even back then, and social media wasn't as big as it is today. I had read where we were living you had to do a health inspection when you got there. You know there are certain precautions that we're done, but especially being a young single woman walking the streets, are out and about or to completely save absolutely. We're in the city where I was in Shanghai, Yeah city. Yeah, I got to live in the city. The cool thing was my daughter was blonde hair and blue eyes, and so she was like a superstar over there. Yeah.

18:28 Yeah, So to go out was fun and not fun. Right, It was fun because you got she got a lot of interactions. It wasn't fun when I was just trying to get to the grocery store. Yeah, yeah, no pictures. Let's see, we're bouncing around here here a little bit. What was the Tell tell me about you stayed in food for a while, and you use the word disruptive, So let's talk about explore cuisine. You were you were either with them or got it careful here, so you're with them, Okay. You were an employee VP of marketing about six years. Yeah, tell us about that role. You know you talked about in your intro right business failures and business accesses and things like that, and we've all had them. I mean that's part of our journey and sometimes we learned the most. So interesting enough, the founder was a food scientist, was exploring Asia when found Tofu noodles. Soybee noodles came up the idea, this is the alternative pasta space. And again at this point, now it's ten years ago at least, right, so before Bonza and some of we.

19:30 Actually they came out right, So I'm all about that now these days? Yes, yes, And so the gluten free was coming up, the high protein pasta, so that didn't exist on shelves in the grocery store. So now again I'm cutting a new space in the in the category on. A new aisle. And what happened was the initial brand was called Explore Asia and Black Packaging. And you know, because he was exploring Asia when you know, you have these noodles, and all of a sudden then created black being at Amammee Noodles. And it was great. But you know what happened to our emails? Yeah, that's stand blocked, right. They would get blocked because they were thought they were porn oh wow, right, or other things that should not be in a business inbox. So we were trying to contact companies and couldn't get our emails through and having problems when you're doing marketing adding you know, keywords and all that kind of stuff. We did a complete rebrand to Explore Cuisine and change the packaging and did you know, had to do a lot of case studies and focus groups to find the right feel for it. But that's a that's a great way of learning when your marketing is right and when you have to pivot, and at that moment, we needed to pivot.

20:50 What was your best takeaway from that role in that company? There was a lot of conflict in that company because the different investors and different cultures. So we had Swiss investors, we had Israeli investors. You had a team in the US, production was in China and Thailand, so we had a lot of different voices and problems that were coming across and so often it was trying to find that common thread between everybody to the success line. And it's challenging when you're dealing with different time zones and different culture experiences. All right, you started Washerman Consulting seven years in counting, right?

21:31 Yes? What was behind that that move? Yeah? So I left Explore Cuisine and I thought, well, I'm just going to be doing consulting for different businesses and along that align you, probably the dates in front of you better than I do. But along the same time is when I found out about financial therapy. I thought I'd be doing consulting and slowly grow my financial therapy piece of life. This was twenty nineteen, twenty twenty at the Traveler, I went to Saint Lucia at a wellness resort. I talked to everybody. I like to explore and learn people and what they do, and made a connection with now a very good friend who did learning and development for Fortune five hundred companies. Long story short, that was January twenty twenty come May of twenty twenty. She couldn't sell in learning and development, but together we could sell in financial wellness. Nobody was hiring for marketing, consulting or consulting the food business at that point, right, and so my first client was Warner Music. I went in and did corporate wellness on the topic of emotional stress around finances.

22:47 And our second client was Discovery channeled globally. Wow, so six figure deal across the world working with their client with their employees because while they had a job, family members are losing jobs. You know. The uncertainty was what was weighing on people, and so we went in with the two part series on emotions and money and what to do Today and what to Do in the future was the two part series to safeguard your mental space and to create boundaries around others when the topic of money came up, because we don't talk about boundaries. We're great at spending money, but we're not good at saying I'm protecting this, I'm putting the oxygen mask on me first. When it comes to money, people haven't heard those things before, and that's what we empowered and corporate wellness.

23:36 So I know you said you had a moment where with your mom right helping her. Then come kind of your first client, When did you realize this could be a thing? Great question. I probably learned that that could be a thing when I was getting divorced. Okay, firsthand, right when I was thirty five, three kids under the age of four, and the rug was pulled out from under me. That I knew the metrics, and so my confidence well, I had a lot of questions. I had the confidence to ask them, and later on, when I started seeing people go through divorce, I was one of the first of my friends the questions were there, but they weren't asking them, and they didn't know their financials. And then when my dad passed, I saw it for the next generation.

24:30 I was going to say, they didn't have a whatever the equivalent is of a binder. No, no, And nowadays everything is digital anyway, so they didn't have passwords or anything. And so it's like, oh, all of a sudden, I'm getting divorced or my husband died. Because often it's the woman that doesn't have the information. It's flipped. But what I was seeing with my friends was they weren't aware of it, and nor were they taught. Right, if you go back to school, you're not taught about taxes, you're not taught about investment accounts, you know, beneficiaries, and so how are you supposed to learn this when you're not supposed to talk about money? And so that's when it all clicked for me, is like this is something I can talk about on repeat all day long. And it really clicked for me again during that COVID timeframe when we're trying to get outside more. I attempted to run, So don't ask me to run a marathon.

25:24 Not my thing. And so I'm running to the end of the street and my head's down and I'm like, this stinks. This is awful. Right physically, could I run? Absolutely? Mentally I was like And then I look up and across the way on the sidewalk on the other side of the street is a gazelle. This woman was in the matching outfit. She had the visor, the ponytail was swishink back and forth, and she just looked like a gazelle. Effortless, effortless. I looked like a sweaty puffing and can make it to the corner with my head down. And that's when I had the Aha moment. This, I pointed to myself, Right, is how people feel looking at their bank account. Right where I had had these conversations. I'd done the training, I'd run in the rain, like everything she had to put in to look like a gazelle. I did all that work for the financial conversations.

26:26 That's great analogy. We also do a lot of speaking, right, Yes, what kind of organizations would have you in in case somebody from one of them is listening and watching? Yes, everybody. I hate to say that, because you know everybody wants to give you a niche, but the reality is we all have relationships with money. So I do a lot of work in the real estate industry right fluctuating incomes. I work a lot with doctors and lawyers who are alpha in their fields, but nowhere in there is financial education, and I work with a lot of financial advisors and rias and financial planning associations and different associations as well to help on the conversation side. So you have the people who the CPAs and the attorneys that are doing all the dollars cents for us, but they're not looking in the eye and taking a smile and just drop your shoulders right to listen to you as a human because this isn't just about dollars and cents, it's about all the other senses.

27:34 Yeah, it's good. There's a lot of emotion there right. In everything from buying a house to getting divorce to you know, probate to business. I've worked with business owners that don't see eye to eye. Right, you get into business with somebody, but your financial values are different. You don't talk about them, nor do you realize it until you start trying to hire people or spend on marketing, and you know, into all of a sudden instead of respect, you're just clashing all that time. And so I go in and help people understand the why behind it. Why is it so important to you? And why is it so important to you? Is there a thread between these two?

28:14 And if not, how can we just build respect? If not, it sounds like some mediation there. Is it? Companies that often hire you on behalf of their people, or do people hire you as well? Both, So companies will go in. I do workshops and webinars, which I love because then it hits all income levels. You get your new college hire when we're talking about fifty percent needs, thirty percent wants, twenty percent savings. Forget about how to call the cable company, right, we get like the very intro stuff all the way through to your C level executives that are talking about private school and college. You know what are they going to pay?

28:57 They're ungrateful kids, you know values they want to pass on. So when I work with corporate I love that I get the whole range. And then I also work with individuals that want to grow their financial confidence. So we dig a little deeper on the one and one. Like you could imagine, Yeah, you get to do you have more time and you have more Well, it's just that one person, so you're focused on them versus the whole. All right, we're going to take our second commercial right here. We'll be back in about sixty seconds with Erica Washerman. You're listening to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helene on W four CY Radio. That's W four cy dot com.

29:40 Don't go away. More helpful information is coming right up right here on Winning Business Radio. Best in Wealth Management is family owned for two generations. They take pride in thoughtful financial planning and wealth management with a family feel for your closely held family business uestion. Wealth Management focuses on deep planning, integrating your business planning with personal They will help put your money to work and your mind at ease. Go to Bestanwealthmanagement dot com for more information. Advisory services offered. Through Commonwealth Financial Network, a registered investment advisor. Join the Best Family and let our family advise your family. That's Bestwealthmanagement dot com for your complementary initial consultation.

30:27 The yp dot com website is your local search engine. If you're looking for a good restaurant, it can help you find the right one nearby with ratings and reviews, or if your car breaks down, you can use the YP app to find the closest repair shop. Or maybe you're just looking for something to do on a Friday night. While it has great local coupons for all sorts of things in your area, no matter what, when or where. If you're looking for something, YP Local Search can help you find it. So go to yp dot com or download the app to search local, to find local and save local. And now back to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helene presenting exciting topics and expert guests with one goal in mind to help you succeed in business. Here once again is Kevin Helenett.

31:21 We're back with Erica Wasserman and she is one of only a hundred or so certified financial therapists in the country. There's a good thing for you. Why is it so undernown Perhaps. Yeah, it was so. Financial therapy was created in two thousand and eight when the crash happened. Okay, and so a bunch of financial people got in a room with a bunch of psychologists in a room up in Kansas and Kansas State, and they started to talk about how the mental impact was weighing on people. Right when the crisis happened, and so financial therapy was created in that room, and then the Financial Therapy Association was born out of that idea, and so it created in two thousand and eight.

32:04 So we're really in our infancy if you think about careers, which always makes it fun when I walk into a cocktail party and people ask me what I do you know? One day, I can't wait to walk in and say I'm a dentist and get the recognition that like, oh yeah, I got one of those. Right. When I walk in and I say financial therapists, They're like, what you know? My kids just look at me, And I was like, do you want to tell them? They've probably heard it? So what do you mean when you say financial behavior? Tell the audience what you mean by that. Yeah, So let's take a cup of coffee. So, Kevin, do you normally make your coffee at home in the morning or you the guy that likes to go to the coffee shop. I do it here now. If I'm out, I'll get one either Dunkin Donuts or a Starbucks. But when I'm home, I always make it, and it depends on the temperature out right.

32:52 Now, it's all ice coffees. Oh interesting, okay, very cool okay. So our financial behaviors are decisions that we make all day long around money. We really do only check in on ourselves on the big ones, right, like buying a house, or you go out to a family dinner and everybody looks at you to pay the bill, right, that's when we get that gulp feeling. But we make financial decisions all day long, every day, and it's often on autopilot because we don't talk about it. So how can you get better at something if you're not working on it or even aware of it. So we get our money mindset from three ways?

33:36 Shall I tell you please? All right? So the first one is our background, how your parents talked about money or didn't talk about money, or argued over money. So I'll ask you normally I'll do this question Cambridge to just study you get your money minds at the age of seven. So in the US, seven is first grade. Think about your lunch table and first grade what were you eating? Did mom packed you a homemade lunch? Were you eating the free okay? Was she eating the free lunch at school? Were you not eating?

34:16 And it's a good like clip in time for you to start thinking. When I did this in a group workshop, you said, mom made you lunch early on. She was a teacher, so after a while we all were so busy, and as we got a little bit older, she'd just give us lunch money. Right, So when you're smaller that first grade, having had a group workshop, and one woman said, we didn't have a lot of money. It was store brand stuff and it was full of crap, right, lots of carbs, but like there was enough in there just to call it quote unquote lunch, but no protein. And she was envious of the people who got the hot lunch, the woman who got hot lunch, that I was getting free lunch.

34:57 And I was embarrassed to go through the line because I didn't have money to buy lunch. And I was envious of the person that got to trade the snacks at. The lunch team. Yeah, isn't that interesting? So you minds dynamic, You make judgments. We make judgments at that age. And it sticks with us. Yeah, and it shows up today in your business and in your personal life, which is wild. So background first, one second is religion and culture. Often money is greed. Money doesn't buy you happiness. Culturally, men are decision makers and in fact, fifty years ago, women couldn't even open up their own bank account. Well, when my mom graduated college and got her first job, my grandfather had to be the co signer on her bank account.

35:52 Wow. Right, So empowering women with money is a relatively new skill to a lot of people. Well, and the third one is experiences. We'll go back to marketing. You have a great experience with a flyer sending out flyers to people's homes. You're going to be doing that for the next thirty years. Times have change. Flyers don't work as well flyers. You know, flyers might be Instagram ads, but your experience is that it was great. You might not be ready to look at change. And the flip side is if that did nothing for me and I did it once, I'm not touching it again. And that comes into our money mindset for everything that we do, from travel, buying a house, building a business, getting married, how we're raising our kids. All of these decisions come in to our financial psyche.

36:49 We find with salespeople. I think we chatted about this a couple of weeks ago. Mindsets around money determine some impact selling sess we identify and you do too. I'm sure whether you call the same things or not, it doesn't matter. Abundance versus scarcity, Right, somebody has a scarce mindset, they're going to hang on to a prospect for too long, like the organization we referenced, Right, somebody else might hang onto that for too long because it's a good opportunity versus being willing to take hands off because it's not real. Today, somebody with abundance realizes, oh, there's another potential customer down the street or around the corner, or in my rolodex or my database.

37:33 The conversation I had earlier real estate agents, Yeah, one woman was like, the houses I sell around four hundred thousand dollars range. Why that's pretty limiting, isn't it. I Mean there's somebody selling in the ten million dollar range, and there's somebody selling in one hundred thousand dollars range, right, Like, that's where you're comfortable, And we know growth happens in the uncomfortable. And so what's holding you back or what's living rent free in your head telling you that you can't do it? And that's the work that I get into, is identifying that message that we have on repeat, so that way you can blow your goals out of the water.

38:17 Right. But with that being said, I'm going to shift gears for a second, because your goal could be I want to make a million dollars. Have you heard that before? Sure? Yep. What happens when they make a million dollars? They don't have it? Why not? Because they've nobody makes Well, this is my take on at least nobody makes a million dollars in one time. At one time, it's cumulative. Right when you hit a million, some people can't believe it. Some people kind of coast at that point, and others realize I can do it and go forward. Even more so, it depends, I think, on their mindset. Is that where you're going.

39:01 Yes, oftentimes we'll see I make a million, they move, they move the goalpost. Okay, okay, so I. Make I'm going to make a million. Well, now a million is not enough. I want to make two million. Okay. Yeah, And I did this with a bond trades trader years ago, not married, they're in his early thirties. How much is enough for you? I can't give you an number, Erica, give give me a number. Let's play you know, give me a number, and he goes fifty million, and I said, okay, you need fifty million, and then he goes, but wait then, I'm going to have a boat, and my boat's going to be next to this guy, and he's going to have a bigger boat. And now I need one hundred million, right because he's chasing a number, which brings me back to three words, rich, wealthy, and happiness. As we're building our businesses, I want you to keep these three words in mind. So I'm going to ask you the definition to give me. Kevin, what's their definition of rich?

40:06 I know we're going to distinguish this from wealthy, so I got to start with that premise. Rich is. Rich to me, sounds like new money. I could be way off base, but it sounds to me like new money. I have a bunch of money. I don't have to worry about what I spent Wealthy, wealthy to me sounds like I'm used to it. I'm probably in a better place with it, even though I still don't have to care what I spend or what I spend it on. And happiness, it doesn't matter how much money you have for happiness. Okay, So the. Way that we define it is rich is the exterior winds.

40:46 You're nice clothes, okay. Rich is what other people see. They see your car, they see your sign outside your office building, right, that's rich. Your vacations on Instagram. You know, exterior winds is rich. Interior winds are as wealthy. So when I ask people what's a wealthy life for you, They're going to say my health. They're going to say sipping my coffee wherever I want, in my favorite spot, time with my loved ones. A dollar amount is on there to achieve everything, but it's normally four or five on the list to live a wealthy life. And happiness is a mindset.

41:35 That is true. I believe that you how. Many people have you met her? Rich but unhappy. I can tell you a story about that. A guy that one of the two people I fired in my in my business. And I've seen him since and he's much better, But at the time, he was not coachable, he wasn't doing what I asked him to do, and he was trying to save his job. He was a financial advisor for a large branded company. They were paying him literally zero, and he was trying to stop from getting fired from a position that didn't cost the employer any money. And so I said, you know what's going on.

42:15 I'll call him Charlie. Charlie, what's going on? He said, Kevin, I lied to you. Uh oh, I'm thinking what happened? He said, I'm I don't ever have to worry about money. I have a trust fund. This is not what I want to do. I thought it was, and I gave you money and here I am, and so yeah, you should fire me. But I did see him later and he had put it together, he had figured it out. Yeah. I just wasn't the guy that was going to help him at that time. Yeah, And that's okay too, Right, is knowing what does work and doesn't work in pivoting. And I see it often when people sell a business. They've been so busy in the business. Yeah, on the business that wealthy that we just talked about the relationships, the health piece isn't there.

43:02 And so it's important as we grow to be putting things in each of the buckets. And again back to my travels, I've gone to a lot of third world countries that people are really happy, not rich, but they're wealthy. Sitting on a beach watching a beautiful sunset, having a picnic with you know, with their loved ones. And so as we grow as individuals, as owners, it's really important to be investing in your wealth however you define it, and that the happiness is the mindset every day that you choose what to do with the rich as well. Right, Like, it's not just about what other people say. So take us into a couple of conversations, of course anonymously, but how do you get people to change their mindsets?

43:50 Interesting? So I was recently working with a woman in her mid fifties working for government in Canada and has a pension for the rest of her life, right perks of outside the US. And for her, her dad was an entrepreneur and they lost their home twice in her childhood. Wow, seven and fourteen, Remember I told you about seven mind age your money and then again fourteen as a teenager. So very was impactful for her. So she went with the job at that government job that she could get paid every week, every month, whatever it was. Stability, her house is paid off, you know, just just really responsible from that standpoint. But when she met me, she said, I'm horrible with money.

44:42 What do you mean you're horrible with money. Your house is paid off, you're in your fifties. Most people can't say that. I mean, that's amazing. And as we started digging through the work from her childhood, her dad had income, he was an entrepreneur, would have income and then no income, and when he had money, he would spend it off, and then when he he ran out of money, he would go to her and ask for money. Fourteen fifteen sixteen, right, so we need to pay the electric bill, and she would save her money. So she learned at a very young age not to save any money. Wow, I thought you were going with that. If you had it, it was somebody else's. So let's just spend. Let's buy let's buy things for others, let's treat for dinner, because otherwise, come up three months from now, when dad runs out of money, I'm not going to have it anymore. Married. Her husband at certain point realized this.

45:36 He took over the savings part of their finances, but any money in her account was going out the door. And so recognizing that pattern and then shifting it to be like, your money's safe. Now you're the one who's in control. And because the patterns that we have keep showing up because nobody's talking about it. We're not evaluating it, we're. Not doing a second right, we're not aware. But yeah, no, she had no idea. Well, so you've got to ask a lot of questions. You've got to really spend time with somebody. It's questions and it's a lot of open ended questions. I'll give you another example of client that I worked with. The company identified him to come work with me. He was now a partner in the business, and they're like, he could use some conversations. You know, I want his family set up for success. And as we started talking trust issues around money, who to trust and hadn't filed taxes in over a decade, because once you miss one, you're embarrassed, shameful, You get busy, life happens, you forget about it the next year. Oh I didn't file last year, I'm not going to file this year again. Patterns emerge.

46:52 Now you're at an age where you want to buy a house maybe, or you're going to sell a business. I mean you can't. You got to go back and fix it up. But there wasn't trust with people that could do it for him, and so by working through me, and through others, and we were able to find him with a support team of people. An accountant, a financial. A tax attorney right and then soon an financial advisor once we get the money situated in, a realtor and everybody else that's going to be part of the next stage of life, because what he was doing was just ignoring his relationship and you and I know if you ignore something long enough, it's going to blow up on you.

47:34 This is incredible, This is better than I thought it would be. And I knew you were going to be a fun guest. So a couple of ask questions, who in the viewing and listening audiences should reach out to you and why. We'll get to the how in a second. Anybody. Let's take motivated clients, So that's number one, got it? And somebody who's ready to work on their mindset around money, somebody who's ready to grow and make a difference in their life, not just from the money standpoint, but it also impacts your health, your relationships with others, your spouse, your boss, your parents, your siblings, you know, depending on what's going on in. Your life, and your employees.

48:15 So if you're looking to bring in workshops and webinars and conversations to help your employees not just get the paycheck, but what happens once they get home. This is a skill that's with you to the day you die and actually afterwards because of state planning. So the better you get at having conversations, the better you're going to be in so many different aspects. Which is why I wrote the book Conversations with Your Financial Therapist is to give people a five step approach, a mindset, a framework to go through any money conversation. If you're in HR with your boss, all the way to with your aging parents, like how do you sit down and have that productive conversation?

48:56 And the money mindset method helps you through that? All right, plug the book more time and where can they get it? Yes, so you can get it on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, all the great places. Conversations with your Financial Therapists, stories and scripts to grow your mindset. I also do book studies for continuing education on that as well. So there's the website and the crawl right there, there's your LinkedIn profile. Best way for people to reach you is the site. The site Absolutely your Financial Therapist dot com, drop me an email, hit me up, on Instagram or LinkedIn, and I'm happy to be in touch with you. Absolutely, start a conversation today. That's your one takeaway. Start the conversation you've I'm putting off. This is great. Thank you so much. I appreciated time flies.

49:39 It's already four fifty eastern. We got to get off, but thank you so much, and I appreciate your time absolutely. Thanks for having me on. All right, you bet so, you soon, and thank you audience for being here. This is all about you. This is about business and business challenges. Often finance in this case is tied to business a lot. If you've got concerns, reach out to Erica. If you've got concerns about the sales effectiveness of your company, whether it's you are the sales team, or it's small or large, feel free to reach out to me on Facebook or LinkedIn at Winning Business Radio or drop me a note Kevin at Winning Business Radio dot com. We are Winning Incorporated part of Sandler Training. We develop sales teams into high achievers and sales leaders into true coaches and mentors. Listen, We're not a fit for everybody, but maybe we should have a conversation. Thank you once again to one, our engineer and producer for another job well done. Please join us next week Monday May eleventh, My guest will be Jonathan Bellow, founder and owner of One eight Solutions. Until then, this is Kevin Hallanian.

50:42 You've been listening to Winning Business Radio with your host, Kevin Helena. If you missed any part of this episode, the podcast is available on Talk for Podcasting and iHeartRadio. For more information and questions, go to Winning Business Radio dot com or check us out on social media. Tune in again next week and every Monday at four pm Eastern Time to listen live to Winning Business Radio on W four CY Radio W four cy dot com. Until then, let's succeed where others have failed and win in business with Kevin Helenan and Winning Business Radio