EP 183: Clarity-Driven Wealth Building

In this inspiring episode of Money & You, host Michelle Perkins welcomes Monica Garcia Duggal, a financial strategist, entrepreneur, and transformational wealth coach, for an in-depth conversation on building true wealth with clarity, focus, and self-love. Monica brings decades of experience from Wall Street to entrepreneurship and shares powerful insights from her work with high-achieving founders and her Financial Bites Method. Together, they explore how mindset, meditation, and self-awareness are the foundational tools for wealth creation—not just financially, but in every area of life. Monica's energetic, no-nonsense approach busts money myths, challenges limiting beliefs, and reminds listeners that wealth begins with knowing and honoring what you truly want.

Highlights from this episode include:
06:18 – Monica’s early influences and her unconventional path from investment banking to entrepreneurship
13:45 – Building and selling a digital marketing business: lessons in systems and exit strategy
18:40 – The importance of being able to step away from your business in order to scale or sell
22:50 – Monica’s multi-pronged approach to building a family office and growing personal wealth
27:30 – Why negotiation education is crucial when exiting a company
34:10 – Breaking through money taboos: why taking care of yourself financially is not greedy
39:45 – Redefining money as neutral: the mindset shift that can change everything
44:00 – How to know what you really want—and how meditation helps clarify that
51:20 – Coaching as a tool for clarity, transformation, and execution
56:45 – Monica’s framework: Financial B.I.T.E.S. (Budgeting, Investing, Taxes, Exit Strategy, Systems)
1:02:10 – The power of focus: how narrowing down your ideas helps you build momentum
1:06:00 – Personal stories of resilience, emotional support, and investing in yourself
1:12:35 – Upcoming TEDx talk: “Breathwork Makes You Wealthy” and how self-regulation drives success

Key Takeaways:

• Your relationship with money must start from a place of unconditional self-love and self-trust.
• Wealth isn't one-size-fits-all—define it on your own terms, whether it's a beachfront mansion or a peaceful cabin in the woods.
• Mindset, breathwork, and emotional clarity are as important as strategy and planning.
• If you want to sell a business someday, you must build systems that let it run without you.
• Success isn’t about doing it alone—coaches, mentors, and community are essential.
• Don’t let limiting beliefs or old narratives hold you back—clarity and focus are game changers.

Resources Mentioned:

• Free financial planning resources and Monica’s Financial Bites Method: monicagarciaduggal.com
• Upcoming TEDx Talk: Breathwork Makes You Wealthy
• Book: The Promise: The Power of Breath and Self-Actualization Through Meditation

For more tools and conversations about money mindset, practical money tips, confidence, and financial empowerment… Subscribe to the Money & You Podcast: Apple Podcasts

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
And what would you say, Because there's that piece where
people don't feel right about money, and then there's but
there's also people who just don't think it can happen
for them.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
But that's but that's but that's because they haven't had
that conversation. They haven't had if you read my book, Oh,
actually that one, you guys, it's really really funny.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
Probably this great gift which is the power of breath,
the gift of self actualization through meditation, which is right
up my alley stone.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Yeah, but the reality, the whole book is about unconditional
self love. That's it. So you never ever ever leave
yourself ever for no reason. You're always supporting yourself, always
supporting yourself. There's no reason that you ever leave yourself.
So if it doesn't feel right, then you have to
figure out what you need and you really have to

(00:55):
take care of yourself.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Hey there, and welcome to Money and You. I'm Michelle Perkins,
your host. My search for more fulfilling work led me
to career in business coaching, where I stumbled upon a
game changing discovery. Money issues often start with our mindset
and habits. You see, our relationship with money is the
key to overcoming those frustrating financial obstacles. As an entrepreneur,

(01:19):
coach and problem solver, I'm passionate about helping you create
a great relationship with money, because turns out that's the
foundation for limit free life. Each week on Money in You,
I speak with amazing guests about all things money, mindset,
practical tips, and everything in between. We're here to give
you new insights, education, and empowerment, so money can be

(01:41):
one of your favorite relationships. So join us for some
lively conversations and let's transform your financial life together. Hello, Hello,
and welcome to today's episode of the Money and You Show.
And I just want to start this episode by saying
goodbye to this lovely studio and thank Tony Sweet and

(02:04):
the head of ubn go for hosting so many shows,
hundreds of shows both here and in the previous location.
And yeah, I've been so appreciative for Tony's guidance and
help and support and everything else the whole time I've
done my podcast. I started with you, Tony, however many
years ago, six or something. Yeah, and you kept encouraging me,

(02:29):
and you have been a fantastic podcast mentor and producer.
And I just really appreciate it. You're not going away,
and neither is UBN, but the space itself is moving,
so you'll see me somewhere else, and but Tony will
still be running everything. So yeah, but I did want
to take a minute just to let you know how

(02:50):
much I've appreciated the everything you've done for me in
the beautiful space you've provided. So anyway, and to to
celebrate the last show in the studio, we have an
in studio guest and that is also very exciting and
apropos for it being the last show. And our guest

(03:11):
today is a super fantastic woman who you're gonna be
amazed by. She just has done so many things that
I can't even you know, tell you right now, we're
gonna read her bio, we're going to talk to her
and you're going to see how just full of full
of ideas and you know everything, she's done it all.

(03:32):
So we're going to bring her on in just a minute,
and you're going to love this show. I'm very excited
that this is able to bring her to you. So
let me tell you a little about our guest today.
So from Wall Street strategists to transformational wealth coach, Monica
teaches founders how to build powerful businesses and rich lives.

(03:53):
Trusted by entrepreneurs, advisors, and visionaries. Monica Garcia Dugal is
a financial strategist, best selling author, and upcoming ted X
speaker with over thirty years of experience helping high achieving
entrepreneurs turn money into momentum and build wealth without burnout.
She's the creator of the Financial Bites Method, a practical

(04:13):
five step system for mastering business budgeting, investing, taxes, exit strategy,
and SOPs. And she is so much more than what
I just read, but we'll let her tell us in
right here, right now. So Monica, welcome. I'm so happy
to have you here. Hi, welcome. I'm so happy to
be here. Yeah, so very welcome. That's what I meant. Well,

(04:37):
we spoke on the phone, and you were so fascinating
and I just was a near local, so you were
able to come in and still a drive, still an effort.
I really appreciate it. And so there's a lot to
talk about. So I think we should just get started,
And why don't you tell us a little about your
background and how you've progressed to the point that you're at.

Speaker 2 (04:59):
Yeah, definitely so I actually started. I'm an entrepreneur and
I've been doing entrepreneurship since I was pretty much born
because my mom was an entrepreneur and all of her
friends were entrepreneurs. So I thought, well, that's what people do.
They start businesses, like that's all she would talk about.
And it was really funny because she would teach me

(05:21):
so much about, like, you know, businesses and customer service
and marketing and just even interest rates and investing, which
I thought was you know, I just I would listen
to her, but I was like, what's the point of
all of this, you know, you're a little kid. But anyway,

(05:42):
what ended up happening as I wanted to go to
law school, and so I went to UC Berkeley and
I did English and rhetoric and then I ended up
in invesment banking because my staffing agency said, oh, just
go and try it out, and I did. When I
went in, I just fell in love with it. There

(06:02):
was so much going on in the sales desk and
it was just absolutely amazing. And it was interesting because
everything she had taught me that I didn't really understand,
it just all kind of made sense. Your moms, Yeah, yeah,
and that was so bizarre, so I said, forget about
law school, I want to get my MBA. And then

(06:22):
I just started doing finance. So thirty years of studying finance.

Speaker 1 (06:26):
Yeah wow, that's great. And so how did you start
what did you You started with investment banking and did
you stay there for yah?

Speaker 2 (06:32):
Yeah, so yeah, I started in investment banking, but then
I wanted to get like you know, I wanted to
get more like a more vast background, so I also
went into like institutional investing, and I also went into
with like financial advisors, okay, with mutual funds, and it

(06:52):
was it was great. I really liked that because it
kind of gave me like the investment banking was exciting, right,
bringing companies public, and it was during the dot com era,
so you can imagine how exciting that was. And then
going to institutional investing that was really great because it
was all about risk management. So five percent is all

(07:15):
you want to earn on there, so you don't want
to go any higher and you don't want to go
any lower. So it's just almost like you're watching this line.
So it goes up, Okay, we better bring it down
and it goes down. We got to get it up interest.
And so doing a five percent actually you get the
three percent for inflation and then you get two percent

(07:35):
over that. So your dollar doesn't just you know, beat inflation,
but it makes a little bit of money. Right. So
usually really like pension funds, all the university endowments, they
all they all do that. Yeah, okay, yeah, So then
and then I and then when I did the mutual funds,
that one wasn't as exciting at all, but I did

(07:56):
love it because I did sales there and I and
they really they brought somebody in from New York to
San Francisco, and that was really cool because we learned
some top notch sales like grilla marketing, you know, like cool. Yeah,
and it's funny because you can use that that stuff
never goes away.

Speaker 1 (08:14):
Yeah. Yeah. It' reminded me of the grilla marketing book
I bought when I started my business that I have
yet to read. I need to go back fifteen years later. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:22):
So basically, it's just your basic You have to be
in front of people and at first they have no
idea who you are. Next time, you know, maybe by
the fifth time, like well I kind of know that person.
Maybe by the I think now somebody said twenty two times.
There used to be seven times you have to be
in front of somebody.

Speaker 1 (08:38):
I heard eleven to thirteen, but that's probably a few
years ago now. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:42):
Yeah, well you know, so then by the time you've
been in front of them for twenty two times, they're like, oh, yeah,
of course I know that person. It's funny.

Speaker 1 (08:49):
Yeah, that's a great point because they don't know you,
but I don't think they know.

Speaker 2 (08:53):
You because they've seen you so many times. It's like
you become a landmark or something.

Speaker 1 (08:58):
Yeah, that's really interesting. So and so where did you
go from there? So then I did that, and then
I went into then I got married, and or I
was going to get married, and then I went into
real estate, and I started and working with.

Speaker 2 (09:16):
Also for like retirement accounts, so people that already had
a property, I was helping them buy other properties for
their portfolios. So right then if they had a renter,
you know, at some point the three percent rule, right,
the inflation, you can't buy any more land, So even
if the building doesn't go up in value, the land

(09:38):
will still have it. So you know, in essence, real
estate goes up. Obviously it depends where you're at, because
I've seen some areas where it just it hasn't really
gotten up, but if you can buy in the right area.
So then I did that. That was a lot of fun.
I really really liked that. And then after that we

(09:59):
moved for from northern California to Seattle to start a business.
So then we did that and so we were there
for sixteen years, we pretty much raised our kids, and
then we sold the company and then we.

Speaker 1 (10:12):
Moved to La Okay warm. We wanted something warm. So
the company that you built, you obviously built it up
enough and scaled it so that you could sell it, right,
What did you What did you learn in that process?

Speaker 2 (10:27):
Yeah, yeah, definitely, so we learned. So it was a
digital marketing company. We had some we had some part
business partners in that, and so I don't know, we
just built it and then I know, we try to
sell it at one point. But this is a problem
that a lot of companies have, is that the founders

(10:49):
are so integral to the day to day that you
can't sell it. And so basically we had we did
a rebranding and we also we did a rebranding and
we also got it ready so so then now there
were the systems, and so then you could leave and
if you left, the company would still work, which means

(11:10):
now you can actually sell it because if you're not there,
then somebody else can can just run it.

Speaker 1 (11:15):
And so they such an important thing for entrepreneurs to
know that if they attach themselves too much to the
success of the business, then they're needed. Then what is
there to sell?

Speaker 2 (11:24):
I mean, yeah, that's a that's a great point. But
I think with anything, I think the more important question
is what do you want to do with it? Right,
If you want to keep it and you really just
want to work it until the end, then that's not
a problem. But if you do want to exit and
you do want to sell it, then you know, or

(11:45):
if you want to keep it but you want to
go on vacation, yeah, some systems, then you're not going
to make any money when you leave.

Speaker 1 (11:54):
So so you kind of learned about the system's piece, Yes,
the hard way a little bit. I mean or was it?
Yes to you, Yeah, it.

Speaker 2 (12:03):
Was, it was, you know, it was. It was not
a big deal because we were making such good money
and we were growing in and it was fun. We
had a really great we have great teams and stuff.
So a lot of the people that started with us
stood with us throughout, you know, so you know, they're
families and so it's more like a community. So it
was really really really nice that way. And then our

(12:24):
kids were young, so we were really we weren't really
interested in like selling right away, but then I think
at some point we were ready, like all the partners
wanted to sell as well, so then when that happened,
then we were just ready to move on. And yeah,
it was it was cool. It was cool. And I
had gotten to a venture capital class at UC Berkeley

(12:46):
because they do executive classes, okay, and I just remembered
they had institutional investors there, they had people that actually
had sold their businesses there, and then they had entrepreneurs
just other entrepreneurs there as well, which I was one
of those. But it was interesting to listen to the
people that had their sold their companies. And the reason

(13:08):
that it was so interesting was because you learned about
the negotiations. Let's say you're trying to sell your company, right,
and so I'm just taking you and taking you, and
then after a while I'm a buyer and I'm like, well,
I don't know, you know, we're now at this price
and sometimes you already sold it, right, like you mentally

(13:29):
already sold the company because you have the buyer, okay,
and so they can put you in a really precurious
situation where they where they can actually lower even the price.
And that's what happened to one of the somebody that
was in our in that class with us, and he
was just so tired. He's like, just take it. And
I was like, so when we sold our company, I

(13:51):
remembered then I was like, you know what, we may
not sell, you know, we will walk if it starts
going under, right, Like, we're going to take that. So
so let's understand that we're excited to sell. But if
they're gonna like just are going lower, like that's it.
We're just going to continue to grow it.

Speaker 1 (14:09):
Yeah. Yeah, that's so interesting because we kind of went
through something like that this year and we had a
price we didn't even want to sell it, but a
buyer came to us, and you know, it's kind of
a nice position to be in because you know, you
could it wasn't really even at that point about what
would the business appraise for? Yes, like this is the
amount that we would take to sell it because we're

(14:31):
not even interested in selling it right, right, But the
negotiations still went on for a long time. And even
if the price doesn't get lowered, which did a little,
you know, you can there's negotiations and how it's funded
and you know, any additional little things. You know, he
talked us into some working capital for a while, and
you know there were other things.

Speaker 2 (14:51):
Yeah, no, exactly, and I and I think and I
think that there is part of the negotiation right, and
there's so many ways to do it right, Like, there
is so many I was just reading a book or
listening to a podcast, but it was interesting because you can,
you can change things. So it's really important to really

(15:12):
be able to see the whole thing because sometimes you
think that you're doing really well and then there's all
this other stuff and it doesn't show so well or so.
So it just depends like on who you're negotiating with
and then just being very clear on when the terms
do change and like what does that mean to you
and your bottom line? Yeah, in terms of what you're
gonna be able to take out?

Speaker 1 (15:33):
Yeah, and why digital marketing was that something.

Speaker 2 (15:36):
My husband was into computers, and then our some of
the other business partners were into the computers. And then
my husband had been working a lot with like Microsoft
and some of the other uh some of the other
partners also deep right, so so it was a really

(15:56):
it was it was just the experience and and having
some of the bigger clients because then we had like Microsoft, Google,
you know, we had a lot of the really big clients,
and so they needed the They work with a lot
of digital marketing companies a lot because they're so big.
So you know, there's like room for a lot of
people to to work with them.

Speaker 1 (16:17):
Okay, interesting, and so so you sold the company and
then you moved here, and but you've you've done I
don't know if you were doing some of your writing
and you're an author and.

Speaker 2 (16:30):
Yeah, so basically I was doing also like consulting two entrepreneurs.
And then we we actually are we actually have a portfolio.
That's the way we work in our in our like
in our family office and so and so we don't

(16:53):
just do like one job, right, so we'll be doing
the real estate because we've we've had so many we
you've had so many properties, right, so we do the
real estate and then we do the you know, we
started like doing investing as well and for other people
or no, no, no, no.

Speaker 1 (17:14):
No no, it's just everything we do is pretty much
just so we grow our own financial platform.

Speaker 2 (17:21):
Yeah, pretty much, that's it. Okay, Yeah, but I think
you get to a certain point where you can now
right start offering services to other people that want to
be able to.

Speaker 1 (17:32):
Yeah, well, you've done so many things. I love the
career path. It's so you know, I mean, I'm fascinated
by that anyway, So I think it's really interesting. But
let's talk a little bit about your relationship with money,
because one of the things that struck me was how
great your relationship actually is. Usually on the show, we're
talking about people's problems with their money relationship, and so

(17:55):
I'm like you, I'm on the same kind of trajectory.

Speaker 2 (17:59):
I believe that.

Speaker 1 (18:02):
Personal finance should be taught in schools, and I have
a really big problem with all the narrative around money,
big big problem, because I just feel like it's it's
really controlling, and I think.

Speaker 2 (18:16):
That it's BS. Like I literally can say that, like
it's BS.

Speaker 1 (18:20):
Like, what's an example of that you're thinking?

Speaker 2 (18:22):
I was listening to one of your one of the
you were working with. You were talking to this other
person and she's writes children's books to try to help them,
and and I was listening to the conversation, and and
so some of the things that like like even though
you're on this mission to help, like, there's still some

(18:43):
taboos there, right, and I could hear them, like obviously,
and it's normal. It's normal. It's like we want to
get ahead of it, we want to help people, but
yet there's a whole bunch of stuff. So what I
do is I just neutralize it all. I just neutralize
it all.

Speaker 1 (18:59):
Like really, money, like a long time ago, you gave
me milk and I gave you eggs, right, and that's
what we did.

Speaker 2 (19:07):
That's how we did, and that's how money is. It's neutral, right,
But we put all of this like, oh, it's this
or it's this or it's just at some point like
obviously there are some really awful players out there, Like
that's real, Like that's real. But for the most part,
more most people are just trying to like figure their
stuff out. Most people are just trying to like do

(19:28):
the best that they can, right, They're trying to get
their kids through school. They're trying to have a nice relationship,
they're trying to like enjoy themselves. And that's the stuff
that we mess when we're talking about all this crap
and all this BS. So I actually I'm starting a
talk show and I will have you on my talk show,
but my first my first, my first episode will be

(19:53):
about that. I think of money like your hygiene, like
literally like that, Oh, don't take care of your teeth. Oh,
don't take care of your eyesight? Oh right, Like seriously,
you need money to go to the dentist, you need
money to go buy food, you need money to pay
your rent or your mortgage. So why are you having
a problem with money like that? You can't talk about it? Yeah,

(20:16):
or greedy like that stuff pisses me off so much,
Like literally, it pisses me off. It's like, if somebody
is telling you not to take care of yourself, don't
you think that's a little bit of a problem there?

Speaker 1 (20:28):
Yeah, seriously, it's true, isn't isn't that like a babotage?
It's control, it's BS. It is it's complete BS. Like
for somebody to tell you no, don't go don't go
to the dentist. Don't go take care of your teeth. No, no,
don't go to the doctor.

Speaker 2 (20:44):
No, don't don't like go buy food or pay your rent.
Like that's basically when.

Speaker 1 (20:49):
They're talking about greed and all this bs right, like
you can't even talk about it, and there's even like
I mean, I don't want to get that, Okay, go ahead,
well you know, I want to be careful, and I
also want to be respectful, right, because people really do
think that they're doing things because it's the right.

Speaker 2 (21:10):
Thing, like really in their hearts. Because I really think
people would do better if they knew better. Like I literally,
like I think like ninety nine point nine percent of
the population what like really, because we all care about
the same things, we all want the same things, right,
we're humans. And the other part of it is like
it doesn't matter if you're the richest or the poorest

(21:32):
or whatever. The reality of it is if you're alive,
if you're breathing. You came into this world breathing, right,
and your last breath and then you're out. But guess what,
as you're breathing here in this world, you're gonna have challenges,
You're gonna have problems, things are gonna come up, because
that's part of being alive. So why can't.

Speaker 1 (21:52):
We try to make the best and try to enjoy
ourselves the best as we're here. So what you're kind
of referring to is that sense of guilt or shame
or whatever even wanting money, right.

Speaker 2 (22:03):
If that doesn't even make sense to me, that just
like is that's like who said that? Well who started that?
But that's but that's the point. I'm not going to
go into that. But come on, really, if you're religious
and you're telling your people, do not go get your teeth,
you know, go to the dentist, do not pay your rent,

(22:26):
do not do your like seriously, let's think about that.
Let's not even whoever whoever is telling you that, whoever
is telling you that that it is not the right
thing for you to take care of yourself. That's a problem.
That is a problem. And so that's the basic as
basic as you know, anything any need that you have,
right And so so the other problem with that is then,

(22:48):
like I mean, even if you're doing really like I said,
any everybody, whether you're the richest or of course, you know,
it's we're always trying to do our mess and so
if we're we're kind of oscillating back and forth like,
oh my gosh, this indecision. Yeah, it takes your time,
it takes your energy, and it takes your money.

Speaker 1 (23:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (23:08):
So even if you already didn't have money, like, how
much worse are you going to be? Right?

Speaker 1 (23:12):
Yeah, because you.

Speaker 2 (23:13):
Can't even make the decision that you need to take.

Speaker 1 (23:15):
Care of your stuff and the other part of it
it's not that complicated. Well that's a huge one, and
that one I blame the financial industry for trying to
make it.

Speaker 2 (23:23):
But you see why.

Speaker 1 (23:25):
But I mean, the blaming doesn't help anything.

Speaker 2 (23:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (23:27):
Yeah, So I think we get rid of the blame
and we just say, hey, look, what do you want?

Speaker 2 (23:33):
Why don't you think about what you want? Because guess what,
this guy here, he wants a beach house. This other
guy he just wants a little like place out in
the you know, Wildernet. And they're both going to be
completely fine, and they're both going to be rich in
their own own lives.

Speaker 1 (23:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (23:50):
Right, But you don't want to go ask your neighbor
or I said, the governor, or the president, or your
sister or your mother or your brother, Like you don't
have to ask anybody like, nobody's going to be able
to make you happy. You're the one that has to
do that self reflection. You're the one that's going to
have to have those conversations with yourself.

Speaker 1 (24:10):
That's hugely important because I do think people get caught
up in the you know too, I don't know, to
enjoy my wealth or whatever, to show that I'm a success,
you know, I've got to do But.

Speaker 2 (24:23):
Wait, but wait, but wait, but think about what you're
saying right now, right if you do that for the
external validation, think about it, are you really happy? No?
I mean, so then we have to go to the basic.
If you do that, because that's really going to make
you happy, then guess what when you get that, you're

(24:45):
going to be happy, right right, So, so so we
just have to reframe everything, like slow down. If you
want it, you don't have to explain it to anyone.
You don't have to u do anything for anyone. Just
do that for you, right. And if people are supporting you,

(25:06):
because this is really you thought about it, this is
your decision, then you need to keep those people in
your life. And if they're trying to like not support.

Speaker 1 (25:14):
You, why yeah, why I know because.

Speaker 2 (25:18):
People that are happy, people that are like, Okay, I've
worked on this, this is my goal and this is
what I want to do, and you're completely clear. You
have that clarity and you can move forward and you're
happy because you're even though life's challenging, right, So you
deal with the challenge is as busin as you can
and then you move on. So if you can do that,

(25:38):
you're going to be happier because at every point you're
going to try to make yourself happy because you're actually
doing what you want. So the challenge is it's going
to be easier to get back on track. Yeah?

Speaker 1 (25:50):
Absolutely, And what would you say, because there's that piece
where people don't feel right about money, and then there's
but there's also people who just don't think it can
happen for them.

Speaker 2 (26:05):
But that's but that's but that's because they haven't had
that conversation. They haven't had if you read my book, Oh,
actually that one, you guys. It's really really funny.

Speaker 1 (26:16):
Promise this great gift which is the power of breath,
the gift of self actualization through meditation, which is right
up my alley stone.

Speaker 2 (26:24):
Yeah, but the reality all the whole book is about
unconditional self love. That's it. So you never ever ever
leave yourself ever for no reason. You're always supporting yourself,
always supporting yourself. There's no reason that you ever leave yourself.
So if it doesn't feel right, then you have to
figure out what you need and you really have to

(26:45):
take care of yourself.

Speaker 1 (26:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (26:47):
Yeah, but that's the whole book is about. That is
for you to go in and say what do I need?
What do I need? Because a lot of us we've
never even had that chance. Right, Like when I started
at UC Berkeley.

Speaker 1 (26:58):
I remember I got I was like, first of all,
I want to go to Berkeley because I went and
I looked at the.

Speaker 2 (27:04):
I'm like, how am I gonna study here? You know,
there's so much going on. But then I did go there.
But I remember one class that I went to. It
was it was amazing. Uh actually and and and that's
how I started the book too or breathing because I
was getting migrant headaches at Berkeley was so hard. I
was like, no, but I'm going to finish this program.

(27:25):
But but anyway, so I went into this one one
class and uh and and the instructor was like, Okay,
what do you think like, Okay, well why do you
think that? Right? And so all of us, you know,
these college students were like, what what are you talking about?
Because my mom and because my dad and that's my
culture or that's but no, but why right? And so

(27:45):
everybody and people were actually crying in the class and
I was like, oh my god, I knew I shouldn't
up come there. I was like, this is so much.
Nobody was like the best it was Transformation. It was
an amazing, amazing program in school. But but but but
that was it then? Right, Like, because that's what we
go through life, and we never asked, well, why do
I think of that? Is that really my thought? Right?

(28:08):
And so when you're asking that question, then that's just
because you haven't really given yourself the space. And sometimes,
you know, we just really have to go out and
we have to look for people that give us that
opportunity and allow us to ask these questions. And so
for example, your show, right this helps people because it's

(28:30):
helping people say, yeah, yeah, my money, I get to
talk about it now, or I get to listen even
you know, if I have to do it hiding because
we're not supposed to be talking about right, but that,
but then it starts, it starts giving those seeds that hey,
you know what, you're not wrong for caring about this
very important subject.

Speaker 1 (28:49):
And once you get that kind of engineer or head,
you can't really get it out again. I mean, you
start just traveling down that.

Speaker 2 (28:57):
Path exactly right. But that's it. But that's sad too,
because then that is you deciding that right, and so
you start changing the neurons. I think I'm not sure
if you guys talked about like you start changing the
neurons or the habits, right right. Anthony Robbins talks about this, Like.
I remember I was in I graduated from my EMBA
and I went on a really long, uh trip to Europe.

(29:20):
My husband did an amazing job. I always tell him,
if you're not gonna work anymore, you can be a
you can be a travel planner exactly. It was amazing.
But I just remembered I was walking around Prague and
I'm reading Anthony Robbins book. Yeah, and then I just
remember it was something about like a record player and
the same things in the record and then he's like,

(29:43):
just get something and scratch that that record and throw
it out.

Speaker 1 (29:48):
Yeah, yeah, I love that analogy that the grooves and
the record you have to you know, I mean that
becomes just an automatic. Well yeah, like the neurons right
in your breath and they just boo boop and you
have to interrupt them.

Speaker 2 (30:01):
You really have to. And it's not easy.

Speaker 1 (30:03):
It's not it'sy.

Speaker 2 (30:04):
You don't even know they're playing.

Speaker 1 (30:05):
Yeah, And honestly, meditation is one of the fastest paths
to that. But thinking about what you want, like you're saying,
you have to get very clear on what you want,
which I personally I think is difficulty. We haven't, like
you said, we haven't spent enough time thinking about what
we want. When we go there, we get tripped up.
We're like, oh, I shouldn't want that, that's too much
or you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (30:25):
See, that is a problem.

Speaker 1 (30:27):
Coaches work with coaches, because I know there's therapists, but
work with coaches. Coaches will save you, like for a
whole year.

Speaker 2 (30:35):
And you do coaching too, you'll get stuff done in
like three months because they make you do the work right.
But it's transformational. I mean, they save you time, energy, money.
I'm all about always saving time, energy, and money, I.

Speaker 1 (30:48):
Know, And I love that because I consider those three
forms of currency. They all work the same.

Speaker 2 (30:53):
And they're great. They make your dreams come true? How
about true? They make you dreams and you can't separate them.

Speaker 1 (30:58):
Really, I mean, if you're I don't know the way
that you might mess up with money, you know, for example,
if you're always giving money away to the you know,
the brother that can't get the job, and he's on
your couch and you're giving him money and you're giving
him a place to stay, and you're also giving your
time and energy.

Speaker 2 (31:15):
But Joan Nay bullying him.

Speaker 1 (31:17):
Oh absolutely, But I'm just saying. But you know, I
mean there are people who are less inclined to do
to help out and more inclined.

Speaker 2 (31:26):
To Yeah, yeah, I I am, you know. And this
is this is where where it gets fuzzy for me,
because because I think that, you know, if people could
really just do what they need to do and they
could feel like like they do want to work and stuff,
because I think people are happier that way. But I

(31:46):
think sometimes like the money, right, oh my god, you know,
I try to do this and that was shameful or
whatever the thing is, and then and then we just
don't end up doing anything. Then that's that I think
that's harder because I think I think everybody would like
to participate.

Speaker 1 (32:06):
I think everybody would like to do something, you know,
whatever they're good ex right, everybody has a gift, for sure.
Everybody has a gift. I couldn't agree more multiple gifts
and everybody. You know. That's how I started my company,
Limit Free Life, because I wanted to help people to
use those gifts to find work they loved. And then
I realized that the money piece is either, you know,

(32:27):
depending on where you're at, helping or hurting that process.
And if people don't understand money at all, you know,
and just keep making money mistakes or having you know,
having money stress, it's very hard to go do what
you love and use your talents because you're kind of
consumed by you know, your money problems. Yeah yeah, yeah,
yeah people, Yeah, no, definitely, And so for me, it's

(32:48):
in that like, for example, once I decided I loved finance,
I just started learning about it.

Speaker 2 (32:54):
And that's what I try to tell a lot of people.
It's like, just start learning about it, start listening to podcast,
start reading books. You know, even if it's excuse me,
even if it's in the background. But that will start
your your neurons and that will start getting you to
pay attention to these very important things.

Speaker 1 (33:14):
I know, and you know, whatever you focus on kind
of grows. And so if you if you start learning
about money, even you know, at whatever level, however much
you know it, that that's where your focus is going,
and it starts to kind of grow your interest in it,
your education in it. Yeah, and I think that helps
with your mindset, because I think part of the mindset
and your relationship with money can't be very good if

(33:36):
you just don't understand it, you know, if you so
part of it's just getting to know money, whether it's
your money or you know, the world of money.

Speaker 2 (33:44):
I love that you're saying that. And actually, my book
is is kind of like meditation for the rest of us,
because before I thought meditation like oh my gosh, I
have to go find a creek, or I have to
go find this beautiful tree, or I would go to
yoga classes, and then I'd be so upset, like, oh
my god, they didn't do the breathing far, Like what

(34:06):
a waste of my time? Right, And really, at the
end of the day, it's just breathing it's just breathing.
So what you're saying right now, it's like you just
have to start gently sprinkling a little bit of subject
matter there with money.

Speaker 1 (34:23):
Yeah, yeah, because that's another place I think people get
paralyzed where because there's so much information out there, My gosh,
you could lose your mind. God, yes, so, and people
different people to listen to you with different opinions. It's
one of those things, you know, how do you sift
through and know what's right? But to your earlier point,
I think you know what's right because you feel.

Speaker 2 (34:40):
Oh my gosh. And that's where the meditation comes in.
That's where the meditation comes in because if you give
yourself the downtime, then you can actually listen to that
and you write everybody anything you need to do in
this world, you already have all the answers, like any
like the best coaches, the best there best, the best,

(35:00):
anyone will always say you got it.

Speaker 1 (35:03):
Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (35:04):
That reminds me. I was in a nine year relationship
and then it didn't work out and it was so hard,
and my Mom's like, come back home, back, and I'm like,
I don't want to go back. I had I was
in my investment banking company, and you know, I had
my own place and I had everything, and I'm like,
why would I go back? And so my.

Speaker 1 (35:23):
Mom's religious, she's Catholic, so she's like, well, you gotta
go talk to a priest status if you're not going
to come back.

Speaker 2 (35:31):
So I'm like, okay, okay, whatever. That don't make me
feel better, So I go.

Speaker 1 (35:34):
And I didn't even go to church, but I just
waited for the priests and everybody left, and then I
came and I said to him, I said, is yeah,
my mom wants me to come.

Speaker 2 (35:45):
Talk to you because I'm going through some mart stuff.

Speaker 1 (35:48):
And he's like, okay, first of all, don't listen to
your mom, oh my god.

Speaker 2 (35:53):
Second of all, you have all the answers. So she
was right, she was right. It's pretty cool he said
that I have all the answer So she was right. Right.
So rather than me trying to think like, oh my gosh,
somebody's gonna save me, it's like figure it out.

Speaker 1 (36:07):
Yeah, you got it, you got yeah. And I think
we're still trying to figure it out logically that we
forget to you know, hear our into intuitive voice and
all of that stuff, and it's it's all hard. It's
not you have to and the breathing, the meditation that
does teach you how to. You know, hear that in
her voice because you got the quiet and the you

(36:28):
know to. We do have the answers, but they get
locked up in there if we don't find But I think.

Speaker 2 (36:34):
You're right with the meditation. I'll tell you what. I'll
tell you what I am. I'm really successful because I
don't mess around with Like if somebody's successful, just do that,
like what are you going to reinvent the wheel? Like seriously, right,
and I'll copy that person, or what are you no?
Like for example, I learned that most successful people meditate.

(36:57):
Oh interesting, So I'm like, well, I'm going to write
a book on it because I got to remember a
meta day and I literally like it reminds me of
medidate because because seriously that those are the things. I
have seven coaches, well probably I don't know how many,
but Oprah Winfrey had seven coaches. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (37:14):
Yeah, I have multiple coaches too, and I love my coaches.

Speaker 2 (37:17):
Oh no, I'm so talented and I'm so successful because
think about it. If I get a coach, I get
thirty years of like experience, I know, and the top
stuff and I get to like leverage them.

Speaker 1 (37:34):
I know.

Speaker 2 (37:34):
So can you imagine how much wealth I have? Like
each coach that I worked with, they just have to
give me like one nugget, like amazing something that there
there that was their aha moment and now I have it.

Speaker 1 (37:47):
I know ive that with coaches and you know people
who now, everybody's gonna go work with the coach.

Speaker 2 (37:53):
Good for you, We're going to be a success.

Speaker 1 (37:55):
Would be a very smart thing. And all my coaches
have coaches like yeah, but I do you have people
in the coaching space too who are like, oh, why
are you still with that coach? You know you're getting
the ROI. That's all the ways the question sure.

Speaker 2 (38:09):
You need it, you need it, and that ROI.

Speaker 1 (38:11):
It comes in so many different forms, like even if
it's not a direct correlation with income, well let's be.

Speaker 2 (38:18):
Careful with correlation and this and that. I just went
to a Chicago Booth class CFO class. And this was
the second time I went, and I went with my
husband and so I do these Chicago Booth They have
some amazing executive classes. So I went there and it
was the best thing because my husband is a correlations, logical,

(38:42):
And it was amazing because during the marketing part they
had four different quadrants and on the first one tinker bell,
So where we're gonna be logical and where's the correlation?
All those scientific It's all the way at the end.
So first we have to go to a tinker bell.
We have to just throw tons of ideas out there, okay,

(39:02):
and then we start cleaning it up a little bit
with the second phase, and then a little bit more
with the third phase. Right, these definitely are not gonna work.
And then finally you go to your fourth phase and
that's for all the correlation because then at that point,
now you're going to do your systems right. Yeah, but
you get some amazing stuff because if you start just
down here, yeah, you've messed like a whole yeah, a

(39:25):
whole wealth of like ideas and stuff that right could
possibly you know, just do absolutely amazing.

Speaker 1 (39:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (39:32):
Yeah, that was great. I love my husband to be
there for that. He's awesome. He's in operations, guys. Yeah,
really really great.

Speaker 1 (39:40):
Well, and I love that you explained it that way
because I know that I'm getting, you know, what I
need from the coaching. Can I translate it directly to dollars.
Not always. Sometimes it's the support, the emotional supports. But
that is dollars. I know, it is dollars, and I'll
tell you why it's dollars, because that's real, you see.
And that's where we have to be careful with the

(40:01):
correlation because that whether we like it or not, yourselves,
your brain, your emotional health, even spiritual. I'm not religious,
but you know, at some point we all pass and
go somewhere, something happens, so so so yeah, that is
your you know, that's like your wealth, Like that is

(40:22):
your holistic wealth.

Speaker 2 (40:24):
And so it's like that that bike. Right, you have
spokes and if one of them's off, then you're kind
of you're kind of going like a little bit, you
know all.

Speaker 1 (40:34):
And I really love that you brought up well because wealth,
to me is such a personal thing, Like you have
to define that for yourself. Wealth is health, wealth is relationships,
it's money, it's so many things. And that's the other
thing with getting that clarity on what you want, you know.
I just I think wealth is a much bigger picture.

Speaker 2 (40:54):
Yeah, but I love that you that you said it's
like personal because I think I think with everything it's
so good for like whatever it works for you, whatever
you want, just be okay with that, right, Just be
okay with that and do that right. So, like like
I said, right the ocean front or the little cabin,

(41:15):
like just do you? And I actually read that in.

Speaker 1 (41:18):
A book a long time ago, oh my gosh, probably
like almost thirty years ago, and it was that that's.

Speaker 2 (41:24):
What the person said. She's like, you know what, somebody
could want this and somebody wants that, Like, right, fomo,
what's his fear? I'm missing out? Like, yeah, why do
you have fomo? If you had that conversation with yourself
if you're meditating and you're doing what you want or
are you gonna have homo?

Speaker 1 (41:38):
But hey, maybe you want this, so guess what do
the work go for that? Yeah, Like there's nothing wrong
with that, Like there's nothing wrong with that, I know,
And I love what you're saying. When Noo I started coaching,
doing career coaching, I would get so bothered because I
see so many people offering entrepreneurial coaching, which was you know,

(41:59):
I was also of doing, but but they would make
it seem like that's the only path for anybody, like,
you know, get.

Speaker 2 (42:05):
Out of that that's almost a sales pitch to me.
It is, it's good sales, right, they will you got
to be a little bit bigger than that you do.

Speaker 1 (42:11):
And for some people a job is the right thing,
you know, they don't want to run a business.

Speaker 2 (42:16):
I love that you're saying that. I love, love, love,
love love that you're saying that because I was asked
that question. I did. I did an interview and that
was exactly what they said. They're like, well, you know,
can anybody be an entrepreneur and all of this, and
the reality of it is like, look, if it's in
your heart and you want to do it, of course
you can do it. But there's some people like, hey,

(42:38):
you know what, I like to garden, or I like
to go play softball, or I like to go hiking, right,
and that's where I want to spend most of my time.
So yeah, they want the nine to five. Hey, I
don't want to worry about all of the numbers of pay,
the role and exactly I don't care about that stuff.
So I love that you said that because I think that,
you know, if you want to, right, you can do

(43:00):
whatever you want, right, but just make just decide what
is it you want. But I love that. I love,
love love that.

Speaker 1 (43:06):
Yeah, I think the whole concept of doing what you
want is really I just resonate so much with that,
whether it's you know, in any area, and to be
good with that, to be you know, and that comes
from knowing yourself.

Speaker 2 (43:18):
Yeah. And I think you said something earlier that was
so important and that was like, sometimes you can't see that,
And I think that's where I think we do get stuck,
because it's kind of like if you look at your
life in three years, five years, ten years, right out
in the future and then work back right. But sometimes
it's hard for us to do that. But I have

(43:38):
worked with the coaches like who cares? Who cares? I
was doing a vision board. She's like, who cares? You
put everything on there, there's no sensory here. And I
did that and I came up with some amazing stuff.
And it was weird because I had been working with
coaches already for about ten years, so you thought I
would have handled that. But this is a new coach

(43:58):
that I worked with, and she just added a new
ingredient in there. And that's why you never know.

Speaker 1 (44:05):
That's the best example, because it's it's it's not you,
it's all of us. But the fact that you were
like censoring yourself on a vision board, like that's how
we operate. We are so like, you know, what are
the parameters? I what should I do? And it's like
we can't even feel free when we put a vision
board together, So how we're going to feel free with
our investments and our money?

Speaker 2 (44:26):
And you know, no, I love that you're saying that
because because and I really really like that, and I
think people really like to see that, like, wow, you're
so successful. How are you Like people think like, ohcause
you're so successful, you must have it all figured out.
But it's like, no, we have the same problems. You
and I have the same problems. We all have the
same problems, right. It's it's it's almost like you just
have to have the courage to try it again tomorrow,

(44:49):
to find somebody else and work with, to try to
go for whatever it is that you want.

Speaker 1 (44:55):
Some of it's perseverance and sticking with her, and some
of it's knowing whether when to cut bait too. It's
you know, I mean, wait, wait, wait, when do you quit?

Speaker 2 (45:03):
Never?

Speaker 1 (45:04):
Never?

Speaker 2 (45:05):
Never? Wasn't that like somebody said that President it's interesting thing.
You're like, Okay, well you go ahead. I'm not but
I think it's personal too, right.

Speaker 1 (45:16):
Yeah, it's all personal. But and we're gonna run out
of time, which was bumming me out right now. But
no one thing I wanted to just I wanted you
to explain to the audience because you said something really
crucial and we were talking about how much you've done
and how much you've accomplished. And you know, I myself
have a distraction problem where I can I have ideas galore,

(45:37):
but then I chase too many ideas.

Speaker 2 (45:38):
I can tell you what exactly happened to me, Okay.
I there was one hundred thousand dollars coach that I
would not pay one hundred thousand for at that time
because I just it wouldn't work. So I offered him
three thousand dollars for half an hour, oh my goodness,
and he gave it to me. But man, I was like,
he's like, look, you have ten ideas, ten businesses, ten ideas,

(45:59):
because that's pretty much what I had. And he's like, Okay,
if you can explain those ten to like a grade
schooler or a kindergartener.

Speaker 1 (46:09):
Keep them, go for it.

Speaker 2 (46:11):
And that was like the main point of that. So
after that call, I said, wow, like really, I don't
want to do that, So I just picked three and
everything else and that was such a live changer. That's
why coaching is so amazing, and people get coaches. Seriously,
you need to get coaches. They will like transform your life.

(46:33):
They will like that was so transformational. And I think
after that, like again, that's where we started working and
you know, like it's going amazing. But that's how you
do it. That's how you do it. If you have
all of those ideas, go for it. But if make
sure you can explain to an elementary or a kindergartener,
and if you can keep them all, you're on the

(46:55):
right track. But if you can't or you're like forget it,
I don't want to do that, then they let it go.

Speaker 1 (47:01):
Well, and what about the execution piece, because you mentioned
focus early on is one of.

Speaker 2 (47:05):
The well, Jay, I'll tell you what. I'll tell you
what do. If you do the kindergarten thing or the
or the great schooler thing, you're going to be pretty
damn focused. And if you can do that for however
many you're gonna be, you're going to just hit it
out of the ballpark. Okay, like seriously, but but be
honest with that, if you really want to put that
much time and effort, you can do it. You can
do whatever you.

Speaker 1 (47:26):
Want well, and if you want to accomplish the level
of things that you've done, focus is key, and I
think today in today's world, Yeah, no, for sure, I
tip on that one. Yeah, I think I think you
really just have to like just just decide do you.

Speaker 2 (47:45):
Want to hit a home run? Then put in the
time and the effort you can. You literally can do
whatever you want. Like that's reality. But you also have
to find the people around you to help you because,
like the way you said, you're like, like, what's all right?

Speaker 1 (48:02):
You need that?

Speaker 2 (48:03):
You need that because guess what, you're not going to
be successful if you don't have somebody there like hey,
all right, it's hard, all right, let me help you
with this. It's coaching, right. It's like if you're playing
a baseball game or or running an iron man, which right,
half iron man. I just took a couple of half
iron man.

Speaker 1 (48:21):
Yikes.

Speaker 2 (48:22):
Well, did you know Gordon Ramsey does full iron Man's?

Speaker 1 (48:25):
No?

Speaker 2 (48:25):
But yeah, he said, he said he has to because
that's the only way he can stay like competitive really. Yeah,
otherwise he will just be.

Speaker 1 (48:32):
Like, that's impressive.

Speaker 2 (48:34):
Yeah it is.

Speaker 1 (48:34):
So he's like when he's biking like one hundred miles,
like he's writing recipes or whatever, he's doing something.

Speaker 2 (48:39):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (48:40):
Wow, that's impressive that you just did the half.

Speaker 2 (48:43):
Oh I started twenty nineteen, so it was like a
seven year I started with the really tiny one and
it's great. Yeah, but that's it. But that's the point, right,
Whatever you want, you just start it, put a timeline,
put some time and effort into it. You'll figure it out.
You have all the answers, you know, you know yourself
better than anybody else. And good doctors will also help

(49:05):
you that way. Yeah, they will say, okay, tell me
what you need, tell me.

Speaker 1 (49:12):
What Well, thank you so much. This has been so amazing.
Your energy is fantastic. And oh my god, I like,
I started doing podcasts and I get to talk about fighting.
I'm like, what I was like, I was running for
ten years and then I joined team and training to
run my first marathon, and I was real a lot
of people and I'm like.

Speaker 2 (49:31):
What it gets room with all these people.

Speaker 1 (49:34):
Oh, that's great.

Speaker 2 (49:35):
Yeah, well, how can people Do you want people to
get in touch with you? Yeah, so I have I
have some actual stuff for personal finance, and people want
to I.

Speaker 1 (49:45):
Wanted to bring up financial bites.

Speaker 2 (49:47):
Yeah. Yeah, financial bites.

Speaker 1 (49:48):
That's business budgeted, investing, taxes, yeah, exit strategy and and systems.

Speaker 2 (50:01):
You're if you go to Monica Www. Monica Garcia, Google
dot com, you can actually download a free copy, okay, yeah.

Speaker 1 (50:10):
Right, okay, yeah yeah, and people can find your books you're, yeah,
on my website at the same website www.

Speaker 2 (50:18):
Dot Monica Garcia Doogle dot com.

Speaker 1 (50:21):
Okay, and can they access your TED talk.

Speaker 2 (50:23):
The Oh yeah, yeah, so I'm I'm in three to
five months, I'm doing my TEDx. Oh oh okay, yeah, yeah, no,
that's okay, but I want people to know so, so
the title will be, uh, breath work makes you Wealthy.
Oh isn't that what we were just talking about.

Speaker 1 (50:41):
Fantastic? Oh look forward to that. That's great. All right, well, Monica,
thank you, Thank you so much gracing us with your
presence as well.

Speaker 2 (50:52):
I just I love what you're doing.

Speaker 1 (50:53):
I love what you're doing.

Speaker 2 (50:55):
Yeah, no, I I really like I really appreciate that.
You know, people are trying to help other people with
something that's so so important.

Speaker 1 (51:04):
Well, and you're such a good example too of the
relationship with money. And I don't feel like it's because
you've reached some pinnacle point. I feel like it's the
relationship with money you had that took you on this
helped you a sister, you on this journey. So I
think that's what people should take away is it's not
your relationship with money doesn't magically transform because you make

(51:24):
a lot of money or because you get to be
you know, it's fun when you reach that point, but
you have to have that good relationship with money to
get to that point, right, exactly.

Speaker 2 (51:34):
So well, but thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (51:36):
Thank you so much. I loved having you and we'll.

Speaker 2 (51:40):
Have to do it again. You'll have to come on
my talk show.

Speaker 1 (51:42):
That would be amazing.

Speaker 2 (51:43):
I love that.

Speaker 1 (51:44):
So thank you audience for listening to the Money and
You show. We love it when you listen. We would
love it. Also if you would rate and review the show,
that would help us greatly to have incredible guests like
Monica on the show. And yeah, thank you so much
for being here. I hope you got a lot out
of it. I hope you'll share it with your friends
and family if you think that they could help them.
That's always kind of a gift for other people. And

(52:06):
you can reach me at Michelle at limitfreelife dot com
and please sign up for my blog at limit free
life dot com. So thank you so much. We'll see
you next week.