June 30, 2024 • 50 mins
Whitney and I met in person at a networking group event and I just liked her and her spirit right away. She has a fascinating story about making a major career change after 12 years as a very successful TV producer in New York City. She realized she was burnt out and wanted something that fed her soul and helped others. She found life coaching, and specifically money life coaching and focuses mostly on women who need to learn how to change their mindset about wealth in order to go for their dreams. She teaches us that we are enough. I attended her free webinar and loved the messaging and the women who attended. We are enough and there is enough. Whitney is spreading the word and helping us in the process!
To learn about Whitney, check out her website:
https://whitneyanneellis.com
and find her on Instagram:
www.instagram.com/@whitneyannellis
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Original music "Saturday Sway" by Brendan Talian (for all interviews before 2025)
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Unknown (00:25):
Hello and welcome to The Storied Human. I'm Lynne
Thompson, and today my guest isWhitney Ellis. She was a
successful producer before sherealized she could help women
realize their worth. She's now amoney life coach. Her story is
inspirational, and so is herwork. She found she was burnt
out by the demands of her job,but she realized that she did
(00:46):
enjoy part of it, asking peoplepowerful questions and having
hearing their stories, which Iloved, that she told me she
talked to all kinds of people,and she's done so many
interviews over the years, sherealized that those skills would
transfer. So let's hear moreabout how she did this, and it's
a really great story. And I wantto welcome you, Whitney, thank
(01:07):
you so much for coming.
Thank you, Lynne, thank you somuch for letting me be here and
share my story.
From the first moment you toldme that you used to be, you
know, that's a pretty cool job,like used to be a producer in
New York, and now you're, youknow, a money life coach. That's
a big switch. And I always wantto know how people do that.
(01:28):
Yeah, it's so interesting. Youknow, when people ask me what I
did for a living, and I said, TVproducer, people were always
like, Oh my gosh, that is socool. Yeah, yeah, you know, oh,
what showed? What shows youknow, did you work on? And I
always would find at least oneshow that they knew I worked on.
So I knew I wanted to be in filmand TV production at a young,
(01:53):
younger age. I did photography,and it ultimately led to
filmmaking. And then I foundwork in New York City, working
in TV. And, you know, I had a 12year career in television, and
it took me all over the world. Igot to interview all types of
people, from, you know, a gangbanger to a zookeeper to, you
(02:15):
know, an expert, you know, likea CIA agent or FBI agent. So it
gave me this incredible abilityto not only go experience the
world, but be able to have oneon one interviews with these
interesting people who hadincredible stories to share. And
that was the part I loved aboutmy job, was being able to ask
(02:37):
powerful questions and hearpeople's stories. And one thing
I found was that I often wasinterviewing people about
really, sometimes tragic thingsthat happened to them, and I
would notice that in our twohour interview they would like
have almost like this healingexperience by just having
(03:00):
somebody in front of themwilling to listen to their story
and actively listen and ask themquestions. And by the end of our
two hour interview, somethingwould shift in them, and I would
think, Oh my gosh, this is thisis something special. But the
thing was, we were doing it fortelevision, right? So my
objective was always okay, getthe good stuff so that can go on
(03:24):
TV. And you know, as I began towork more in my career, I
started realizing what actuallymotivated me was helping people
like in a really, real,practical way, and that wasn't
really what I was doing with myjob in a way that I would have
liked. And so I startedwondering, well, how can I
(03:44):
really help people? And I wantto look back on my life and be
proud of something that I did,and I enjoyed my career, but I
also it was a very it was a verytough job. I mean, I'm working
12 hour days. I you kind of likework life balance is a non
existent thing. I'm sure a lotof people can identify with
(04:04):
that. I was always traveling,and it wears on your body, and
ultimately, I just startedfeeling like there's gotta be
more than this, you know. Andwhat ended up happening was,
over the 12 year period, Iclimbed to the top. I went from,
(04:24):
you know, being a productionassistant, which is like getting
coffee for the big the big boysand girls up there, you know,
the executive producers, toactually becoming the executive
producer that somebody wasgetting coffee for. Wow. So,
yeah,that's a quick rise, actually,
right? That's pretty quick. Canyou, I can't resist, can you
tell us some of the shows thatyou worked on? I know people
(04:46):
want to know.
Yeah, sure. So I did a lot ofunscripted television, so things
like the one of my favoriteshows I worked on was called the
zoo. It was on Animal Planetwhere we filmed at the Bronx
Zoo. That was a super fun job.
Many people know of John Walsh,the guy who was on America's
Most Wanted who, you know, usedto be like, let's catch these
(05:08):
dirt bags. You know, after thecops back in the 90s. Well, him
and his son started a new showcalled in pursuit with John
Walsh. So I worked on thingslike that, a lot of true crime.
I also worked on this incredibleshow on the Travel Channel
called mysteries at the museum.
And I gotta go. I went over toover 100 museums all over the
(05:28):
country for that job. Wow. So itwas very cool. But I say this as
a caveat, production work is agrind. It is. Yeah, you know,
there's hustle culture. You haveto say, yes, if you have
boundaries, people are a littleput off. You know, as I grew in
(05:49):
my career, I began to start toput my foot down and say, you
know, I have boundaries. I'm notgoing to do this, I'm not going
to do that. But there's sort ofthis culture of hustle, hustle,
hustle, your your personal lifedoesn't matter. You give to this
show. You give to thisproduction. And
kind of you're lucky to be here,right? You're lucky to be here,
(06:11):
and it is a big deal. I mean,you were lucky to have such a
cool I mean, you worked hard,and you were lucky to have such
a great career. You're remindingme so much of my friend Sandy
Cohen. She worked as a celebrityjournalist for 12 years for the,
for LA, for, actually, just forthe, what do you call that? Just
the AP, and so she would getcalled in the middle of the
(06:32):
night, so and so's getting adivorce. Can you get on it like
that was a big deal, right? Youhad to, you had to document that
so and so was getting a divorce,and she got to go to the Oscars
every year. That was fun. Butover time, same thing, 12 years,
over time, it was like, this isnot enough. I think your heart
starts to call out for somethingdeeper. And I just love that you
(06:55):
noticed. I love that you startedto notice people are changing.
When I when I interview them,there's something that's
happening. And that's what Ilove about what you do. I knew
that the minute I met you, isthat you really listen to
people, which is rare. Evenpeople that interview don't
always listen. They have, like,a script, they follow up, right?
They're not really there in themoment. And I think you were
(07:17):
starting to notice that, youknow, you have more to give in
another way, 100% so cool thatyou started to notice that. And
I think we just kind of, youknow, mature and what we want in
our 20s is not what we want inour 30s. There's like, a really
cool change. I think when wecome out of our 20s, I noticed
most people, they kind of figureout who they are in their early
(07:38):
30s. They just sort of say, waita minute, you know? And that's
what happened to Sandy, andthat's what happened to
you? Yeah, I would say a realshift happened to me, like the
over the last couple years of mycareer. I remember specifically
that, well, one I had gone allthe way to the top and I was
(08:00):
making pretty good money, andpeople would be like, You're so
lucky. You're living your bestlife. You're living the dream.
And I I always thought, oh mygosh, I don't feel that way at
all. This is not this can't bemy dream. I know that I meant to
do so much more. This can't beit. And so I would almost feel
guilty when people would belike, well, Aren't you lucky,
you know. And I would so therewas some part of me deep inside
(08:23):
that knew I had a bigger purposethan just to produce hours of
television. Yeah. And then acouple things happened. One
thing that happened was I gotdiagnosed with an autoimmune
disease, you know, a coupleyears back, and I had this very
uncouth Doctor, this doctor whohad no table side manner, or
whatever you call that bedsidemanner, she actually left me a
(08:45):
voicemail to tell me that I hadbeen diagnosed with an
autoimmune disease, and I wasactually on set working a job,
and I remember listening to thevoicemail, and it said, you
know, you have this autoimmunedisease. It's called Hashimotos.
It's pretty much incurable, andyou have to live with
it. I have, oh, I have it too. Alot of us have it, yeah, yeah.
(09:06):
And I remember thinking, so notonly has my job making I
believe, made me sick, but hereI am working this job, finding
this out, you know. And I thinkthat was a real eye opener for
me, because I always feltoverworked, and I was constantly
living off of coffee and justnot taking care of myself in
(09:27):
that way. So I wasn't surprised.
So I felt like that was a bigmoment for me. Like, okay, your
health is being affected by howyou're working that hustle. And
then I, you know, started tothink about, well, what's my
mission? What do I want to leavebehind in this world? And I knew
that it wasn't making TV. Andthen I hit a rock bottom. I had
(09:50):
one of those moments where,like, the worst production day
of my life, where everythingwent wrong. And. And this guy
who I was supposed to interviewmade me cry. It was just like so
bad. It was just like the worstproduction day of my 12 year
career. I handled so much. Therewas a hurricane coming, like
sirens going. It was crazy. Itwas just like one of those days
(10:12):
where everything went wrong. AndI remember I was sitting in a
hotel room crying because I feltstuck in a career on a path that
I didn't know how to pivot. AndI was like, well, what's the
plan here? And I just, like,literally said to the universe,
God, Spirit, whatever you wantto call it. I said, I feel
stuck, and I don't want to feelthis way. How do I how do I
(10:36):
change? How do I get out ofthis. How do I shift careers?
How do I do something that feelsright for me? And that was the
moment there I was like, Okay,I'm going to change my life
right now. I don't, I don'tknow. I didn't know where I was
going yet, but I knew, and Iactually went and took a picture
(10:58):
of myself and I held up thenumber one, that this was day
number one of my my new life,whatever it was, I just didn't
want it to keep being TVproducing for 12 years, for 12
hours a day, making TV. I knew Iwanted it to be something
significant.
So I just love that you listento that, you know, because a lot
of people do keep going. But Ialso think sometimes, like the
(11:23):
worst day and the Hashimoto kindof wakes you up too. It's like
you're ready to change, but thenyou get pushed a little bit.
Yes, absolutely, you get pushedthe universe, funnily enough,
heard Mike cry. And thensomething extraordinary
happened. I not only did I quit,so I quit. Within two weeks, I
(11:43):
said, I'm not, I'm not doingthis anymore. Oh, I love that.
But and then a water pipe burstin our apartment and destroyed
everything. We woke up and itdestroyed everything. And so
suddenly, suddenly, I was like,not only did I just quit a 12
year career, but literally, ourlife had been like wiped away by
a single bursted water pipe inwinter, and everything went in
(12:09):
storage. We suddenly were movedout, not living in New York City
anymore. And it's so funny,because that was one of the
hardest that month was one ofthe hardest months of my life,
and it was like the universe waslike, Okay, I heard you. You
don't want to be stuck anymore.
Oh, my God.
So that's something that saidsome Oh my god. So similar to
(12:31):
this. It's like, you can ask forsomething, but you don't know
how it's going to happen. Andthat's horrifying, really, when
you think about what you had togo through. But it got you out
of New York. That's when youlook back, you're like, that was
horrible, but it got me out ofNew York. And the thing that I
can't help but think is you wereflooded, and like, water and
(12:52):
rain and flooding is emotion.
It's like burst emotion, like,symbolically, like, that's so
intense that that happened toyou, and I can't even imagine
going through that. I mean, I'msure it wasn't easy going back
from that, but,oh, it was the hardest month,
one of the hardest months of mylife. And it's so funny, be
careful what you wish for,right? Because I felt like, now
I look back on it, and I'm like,telling the universe, please
(13:13):
help me be unstuck. And then aflood literally wiped my life
away. And then everything I ownwas so powerful. It was, yeah,
it was in storage. And then Istarted searching for, like,
okay, it's, it's wild, becauseit gave me permission to have a
clean slate,yeah, I can see that, right?
(13:33):
Like, you have no choice, right?
You got to just start over,yeah? And I cool. And I said,
Okay, what is it I want to do?
And I actually had a mentor whoreally helped guide me a little
bit, and she said he everthought about life coaching? And
I said, Well, what the heck islife coaching? That sounds
ridiculous. And as soon as Ilearned about it, I was like,
(13:54):
Oh, you ask people powerfulquestions and story, but
you're allowed to keep doing itright? You don't have to pick
the choice bits for TV.
Yeah, and you really help peoplewith their life and their
transitions. And it wasinteresting because I was going
through my own transition. Sowhat I really love doing is
helping people who are ready toshift careers, who maybe had a
(14:16):
catalytic event to happen tothem, maybe they got a divorce,
maybe, you know, something, theygot laid off, and they're ready
to go and do something amazing.
So it's cool, because I've usedmy experiences to help other
people transition through thatand to find their purpose. And
ultimately, I began to findclues the universe sort of left
me, little pieces of okay, gothis direction, and I've just
(14:38):
keep pivoting. And actually,that day that I was in the hotel
room crying and said, I'm, youknow, stuck, I think, was the
day that I said, from this pointforward, I'm going to listen to
my intuition and my innerknowing and make all my
decisions based on that and notmy fear anymore, because for
most of my life, I had madedecisions 100% based. On fear.
Fear was in the driver's seat.
(15:01):
It was driving my life. I wasafraid to not have enough money,
I was afraid to say no. I wasafraid of what could happen, and
yet I was miserable. So Idecided it was time to shift and
actually get quiet enough startlistening to my inner knowing
and literally make my decisionsbased on that even if I was
scared,that's so powerful. And I think
(15:21):
we can so relate to it, most ofus, right? Fear is always
driving a lot of us, and we haveto really become aware of it. I
mean, it's how it's why theysell deodorant, right? Yes,
you're so afraid you're gonnasmell bad. It's why they sell
makeup and deodorant. And youknow, just this fear of not
fitting in or not smelling goodor not looking good, and they
(15:42):
manipulate that. Advertisersknow how to manipulate that, and
so it's just woven in our ourworld, and women, especially, I
think, are fearful, you know,we're I felt like my, you know,
I was raised way back, and myparents were, like, always
protective, more protective ofme. And I feel like a lot of
(16:02):
women, they, you know,internalize that fear. It's
like, oh, well, I, I can't dostuff. I have to be safe, you
know. And so we don't really, wedon't step out into the world.
We don't do that. We holdourselves back, or, like, the
money thing too, is such a fearthing, right? Oh, I can't quit
my job. I need, you know, we wesettle for that mediocrity
(16:22):
because it's safe. So I justthink it's wonderful that you're
I love when people use whathappened to them to help others.
And that's part of why I do thepodcast. Because I remember
saying to people, you know, yougo through things, what's the
point if you can't share it, andpeople can't, you know, and have
people learn from it. So ourstories are so precious to me. I
(16:44):
everybody that tells me a story.
I learned something, and then Inever know who's going to hear
it and learn something too,like, really, what is the point?
Right? We're all here together,going through stuff. I just love
that you trusted your instincts,though, that you decided I'm
going to trust these, theseinstincts, my my heart. You
(17:06):
followed your heart, and youtrusted the the signs and the
clues that the universe wassending, which I believe in
wholeheartedly. Because peoplekeep telling me that, like,
that's what people keep tellingme is, is what happened in their
life, and it's so it's kind ofmagical. You know, 100%
I would say that, you know, alot of us let fear guide us, but
(17:28):
I think women, especially not todiscount men in this. But I
think we are given the gift ofsuperpower of intuition. And I
think for a lot of our lives,we're taught not to listen to it
or use it. And I have nowrealized that, and this is one
thing I teach as a coach, isthat your inner knowing, your
(17:49):
body inside of you, it knows theanswer you just simply it's your
compass. It's your North Star.
It is what's leading you in thedirection that you want to go.
You simply must listen to it andjust step into it and have faith
and trust it. But I'm not goingto lie to you even in trusting
my North Star or following myinner compass or, you know, my
intuition, it's still scary, andthings don't always go the way I
(18:13):
expect, but it feels moreempowering now to know that I am
going in towards my destiny. I'mmy own destiny. My destiny is
unfolding, and it was even withthe 12 year career it led me to
this point. So I'm notdiscounting my past. But, you
know, I think if I could tellany woman out there anything, it
(18:36):
would be trust your innerknowing it knows it knows what
to do and and trust it, havefaith and just step forward. And
that's lovely and so important,because we're not taught that
when we're young. We're nottaught that, I know I grew up
like, oh, you know, so and sostarted their own business, but
(18:56):
you know, now they're in thepoor house, or, you know, Oh,
it's too risky, or just allthese things about venturing
out, and so it kind of makes youafraid, and it makes you too
cautious. And we're not taughtto just say, Well, what? What is
your inner self saying? What?
What is your heart saying? Yeah,everyone's different, everyone.
And it's funny about theintuition too, because I never,
(19:17):
I always knew I was kind ofintuitive, but now that I'm
really looking at it, I'm Ithink a lot of us are very
intuitive, and we just don'teven realize it. Like sometimes
I was saying to someone, I'llsay something to a friend, I'll
ask a question, or I'll saysomething, and it's exactly what
they needed to bring up, whatthey need to bring up, and I
(19:38):
don't even know I'm doing it. SoI think a lot of times, if you
get in touch with thatintuition, you'll realize, oh,
it's there already. I'm justnot, you know, fully conscious
that I'm doing it. Yeah,I was gonna say, you know, as I
sort of started to listen to myintuition more and realize that
life coaching was a part of myfuture. And. Was such a
(19:58):
surprise. You know, actually, Ioriginally wanted to be a
psychologist, so I had allthese. I mean, I have almost
enough credits to be apsychologist, you know, from
college and so, so it was crazy.
It combined all these, likeelements of, you know, I asking
powerful questions from my TVjob and psychology and
supporting people and reallyhelping people. And so it's
(20:20):
exciting to watch people liketransform their lives and like
in front of me, and to be ableto support them. And one of the
things I recognized is that Iwanted to make my messes my
message, and so for me, I knewthat I wanted to specifically
coach on money, because I hadmade a lot of money mistakes
(20:41):
throughout my, you know, younglife, from my 20s into my 30s,
and I knew that I wanted tohelp, take what I learned and
help other women, because at theend of the day, you can listen
to your intuition, but if youcan't afford to support your
dreams, you know, or ask for themoney or get capital, or, you
(21:02):
know, then you'll you will havea challenge. So for me, it's I
love teaching, not only tolisten to your intuition, but
how do we get the means and thefunds to support you through
that journey?
I love the practicality of that,and we all need that. And I just
love that you combine thosethings. It's funny that you said
you wanted to be a psychologist,because when you were talking
about the changes you saw whenyou were a producer and
(21:25):
interviewing people, and howfrom the beginning to the end of
the interview, it was different.
And I see how you listen topeople, it's not a surprise,
like I thought, Oh, she's like atherapist. She's like, you know,
you really are. You have that.
It explains a lot about how youwant to help people, because
that's always been there. Youwant to help heal people. It's
your thing, you know, it's likeand so you're getting closer to
(21:45):
who you really are. But I alsolove that you're helping us with
money. Because who doesn't youknow money, we're all we're all
raised differently, and ourparents didn't really know what
they were doing. A lot of ourparents didn't know what they
were doing, and they imprintedus with these things about
money. You know, money is theroot of all evil and that kind
of thing. And very weird, yeah,I would say you're taking it all
(22:10):
on.
Yeah. I mean, we carry with us alot of thoughts about money that
originated from our parents andso, you know, part of what I do
as a money life coachspecifically, is I help with
mindset, because that is a youknow, 80% of it is your mindset,
what you're thinking, whatyou're believing about money,
(22:30):
about your ability to accessmoney, about your ability to
create money and handle money.
You know, a lot of women andsociety in general, you know the
belief that women or girls arebad at math, they're bad at
money, they're bad at numbers. Imean, I have literally people
come in and say, I'm bad atmoney. I'm I don't know. I'm not
even good at looking at numbers,right? So there's that, there's
a sort of societal belief thatif you're female, you're not as
(22:54):
good at finances. And the truthis, we get a lot of our
financial advice or insightsfrom men. You know, there needs
to be more women who arespeaking openly about money.
Also, you know, we have beliefslike I said, from our parents.
You know, part of my job as amoney Life Coach is to help you
heal some of that and recognizehow that is holding you back.
(23:15):
But I'm also somebody whosupports forward thinking. What
are some strategies you can do?
What are new thoughts you canthink? How can you rewire your
brain to see abundance aroundyou, to begin to bring wealth
into your life? And also justactual strategies like, money is
a skill. Anybody can learn it,so it's just a matter of
(23:37):
learning it. And so what I do isI use all my money, messes and
mistakes, and I have come upwith lessons and disciplines to
help people from the bottom allthe way up to the top. And
it's a skill. I love that yousaid that it's neutral, right?
It's a skill, yeah, if you can,if you can get to that place
where you're just going to useit, you know, in a neutral,
(23:59):
clear way, instead of bringingall this garbage, I know we all
have some baggage that we bringto it. I love that. Yeah,
you know, before we we got onthis interview, you said that
money is neutral. And I thinkthat's one thing that we should
be sharing with whoever'slistening here, is to just
remind them that money isneutral. I know it sounds scary,
like when you look at your bankaccount, maybe you have $34 in
(24:20):
there, and you're like, oh mygosh, you know, right? You could
give yourself meaning to that.
Holy smokes, I only have $34 inhere. And you can be terrified.
You can feel a lot of things andhave a lot of thoughts. Somebody
else could look at it just seethe number 34 you know, right?
Or somebody else could look atit be like, Oh my gosh, I have
$34 that's a lot of money. Soit's really incredible that
we're the ones who bring meaningto money, and I actually am
(24:42):
somebody who doesn't believedebt is necessarily the worst
thing in the world. Now I, youknow, I believe that if you're
using debt to leverage yourbusiness or to help you bring
more income, that's amazing. Butagain, if you have debt, let's
say you're, you know, your networth is. Negative $80,000 at
the end of the day. That's justa number. What do you want to do
(25:03):
about it? You know what I mean?
And just reminding you like it'sjust a number, and it's not,
it's just your present moment.
It doesn't mean it's going to beyour future. Oh, I
love that. So you just sort ofdisentangle from the feeling,
because I know there's a lot ofshame when people carry debt,
it's like, I'm a failure. I havethis debt. So there's that shame
(25:24):
you don't want to I know Debbietalks about that. Debbie Weiss
talks about her financialdifficulties in her past, very
honestly in her book, and shesays the shame kept me from
revealing it. You know, it wassomething I carried and
something that was a secret. AndI think that just makes
everything worse when we'resecretive about it. Oh, 100% so
(25:44):
actually, how I started torealize I wanted to help with
money was the shame, actually,because I was carrying it with
me for so long, and then Istarted to write it down and in
a journal, and then I startedthinking, Well, what if I
actually shared my messes withpeople so they felt less alone.
So I began to start telling mystory like in public speaking,
(26:07):
Oh, good. And people would comeup to me and be like, Oh my
gosh, I know exactly what that'slike. And you know, you just
reminded me of a story where theshame the money shame, well,
where I became first aware ofthe impact of money. I think we
all have these moments in ourlife, money, moments where we
(26:27):
never where we never forget,like and it was my I was a
little kid, and it was my firsttime that I became really aware
of the power of money. So justto give you a little story, my
mother and my family when I wasgrowing up, we grew up in
Dallas, Texas, very nice and anice ranch house, you know,
(26:48):
three, four bedroom house. Wehad nice Christmases. It was
just like we just lived a normalmiddle class life. And then my
mother decided she wanted todivorce my dad and I was in like
fifth grade, and I'm not goingto go into all of it, but we
lived in a very dangeroushousehold, and so my mother was
(27:10):
essentially like trying to fleefrom my father to protect us,
children and herself, and Sheput money secretly in a separate
bank account savings. And shewas like, we have to get out of
here. We have to, like, secretlyleave. And that must have been
(27:32):
so hard. It was reallyterrifying and and you were so
young. I was young. I was infifth grade, and I remember
helping her pack the movers werethere, we're putting all our
stuff away, and she had savedenough money for us to be able
to to leave, and we did. And Iremember driving off, and I was
(27:53):
like, looked in the rear view,you know, back behind me at our
house. And little did I knowthat was going to be the end of
my secure middle classexistence. You know, it was
suddenly like we went from a twoincome family, right? My mom and
my dad, who were able tomaintain that lifestyle, and
(28:14):
then my mom leaves my dad, andshe becomes a single mother
who's supporting two kids. Andsuddenly we were, we were pro,
you know, poor, we were broke.
It was like it like it felt likeit happened overnight, really.
And my mother just reallystruggled. But see, the thing
was, I, now, I look back on it,she was willing to pay the
(28:35):
price, you know, like, for herfreedom for our freedom, for our
protection. And it was such abrave thing she did that day,
but it did cost her something,right? And I remember we lived
in this little rental house thathad, like, no furniture in it.
And, you know, people from thechurch would like have to bring
(28:56):
us food because we didn't haveenough food. And suddenly I was
like, Okay, so our life isreally suddenly shifted. And a
memory I have when I first feltmoney shame was, I remember we
went to the grocery store and wefilled up the cart full of food.
We pulled up, you know, thecashier runs it, and I don't
(29:17):
remember what form of payment itwas. All I know is it got
rejected. And they were like,Yeah, ma'am, I'm so sorry, but
your payment is no good here.
And then the manager came overto try to fix it. And
unfortunately, whatever thesituation was, it wasn't
(29:38):
working. She couldn't pay forthe groceries and and I remember
we had to walk away, like leavethe groceries behind, and a that
was the first time I knew Okay,so money can just not be there
for you.
Whoa. And there's some stuff tounpack. There too. That always
(30:01):
upsets me when I think about howdependent, even though your
mother worked, she was dependenton your father, and she had to
make that huge decision for allof you and pay the price.
Because, you know, we're raised,at least back then, women were
raised to, you know, you getmarried and you either stay at
home or you work. A lot of womenstayed at home and put their
(30:25):
eggs in that basket, and then ifthings don't work out, it's just
crazy, right? That that's builtinto our society. Even now, I
know I was just talking to myhusband. I know a few women who
had who had their lives blown upby divorces because they chose
to stay home and take care oftheir children, and it didn't
(30:47):
work out. So it's just sodifficult for me to hear this
story, and for you to learn thatlesson so young that it was so
hard for your mother that itshouldn't disturbing that the
structure's still there that weyou know, we're raised, it's
upsetting to see the price thatshe had to pay and that and that
you had to have that realizationso young. So
my mother actually was a careerwoman. She made more money than
(31:09):
my dad, but that wasn't theissue she I found out later she
was paying for two houses. Shehad to pay for the mortgage of
the other house while our rentalhouse. It was like it was a
nasty divorce, I don't know allthe nightmare. So I was very, I
was very shielded from, like,what was actually going on, but
so she was paying for two homes.
I still look back on that and,like, How did my mom do all
(31:31):
this?
Did she, yeah, and she, and sheshould have just kicked your dad
out, but I guess you wouldn'tgo,
yeah. I don't want to go too farinto that, but we had to leave
it. I'm so sorry, no, but that'shell. But your mother was
amazing. Is amazing? She Shereally did some amazing
(31:52):
superhero stuff. AndI look back at that and I
realize, and I've been thinkingmore about, like, Why do I like
what I do or love what I do? AndI thought, Oh, my mom had enough
savings to be able to leap anddo something. And I realized the
ability for women to have accessto money, to save money, to have
a safety net, to have the meansto fund their dreams or leave a
(32:16):
situation or make a shift thatis so vitally important, like
women feeling empowered withmoney and their ability to make
choices, it expands yourchoices. That's really where it
does modern day equality comeswith economic equality for
women, really. Sothat's so powerful that you look
(32:40):
back and understand that, thatyour mother was, you know, able
to to fund her ownshe changed our lives, you guys,
yeah, thatshe had the guts and the the
ability, that's pretty amazing.
And so, yeah, it's reallyimportant. I remember reading
some statistics, and I just, Ishould have known this, but I
(33:01):
was shocked. The sooner a womangets married and the sooner she
has a baby, the worse hereconomic outcomes are. And if
she just waits a little bit andgets an education, it's just
night and day, you know whereshe is, like 510, years down the
road. I wish we could teachyoung girls even, even more
(33:24):
strongly. You know, like, thisis worth doing. You know, don't
get all caught up in the youknow, I'm in love and I'm going
to get married, if you just waita little bit and take care of
yourself. You know, youreconomic future is so much
stronger. Like, duh. I rememberreading it and saying, there it
is in black and white. But myGod, I didn't realize it was
that drastic, right? You reallydid pay a price sometimes, as a
(33:49):
woman, for jumping intorelationships or having a baby
before you're really solvent.
Well, that, you know, it'sinteresting. I think no matter
what it whether you have a babyor get married early. It's just
learning the skill, going backto that, learning the skill of
money. You weren't taught it inschool. So I do feel this very
(34:09):
much, this need to raise women'sself worth and net worth and
make them aware of like this iswhat you do. These are the steps
you can change your lifefinancially. Most of us aren't
taught that. So whether or notyou have a kid or get married
early or do it later in life,those skills all can be learned,
and then the mindset of it, thatyou are worthy of wealth, that
(34:30):
you can bring money into yourlife, that is all within your
reach, no matter yourcircumstances. I
love that, yes, because we're wewere taught that it was for
other people, like, literally,my my aunt said the rich are
different from you and me, andit's not like we were poor. But
she just said, you know, therich, like fair, somewhere in
the stratosphere, are differentfrom you and me, meaning we
(34:53):
would never get there and wewouldn't understand, which is
absurd, but anyway, oh well, themoney doesn't grow on trees,
right? We get that a lot too,which
is so funny, because money isactually paper. So I just find
this so ironic. It's justprinted. But yeah, I just my
(35:15):
mother freed us, and moneyenabled her to take a leap. And
it's crazy. She had to hide themoney, though, that's the crazy
part, right?
It was still hard. I mean, myGod, because she had to pay for
two Oh, my God, so crazy. Yeah,she had to hide the money. But
going back to that story, I tellthat story not only to emphasize
my mother as being a superhero,which I now she's going to have
(35:38):
to listen to this podcast, butshe is. But the fact that that
was the moment I became awarethat money has it's complicated
and I and a belief that I still,you know, work through, is the
belief that it's not alwaysthere for you, right? Because
that, right? That was the momentit got wiped away. You know,
(36:01):
it's like I went from reallycomfortable to suddenly we can't
pay for groceries. And what wasinteresting is I kind of maybe
subconsciously embedded thisfeeling and that thought in my
head, and then as I grew up,what happened was that money
would be there for me, and Iwould make lots of it, and then
(36:21):
it would suddenly not be therefor me. And then I would have
these dips. So I call it thefeast or famine cycle of lots of
money coming my way and then nomoney, and then lots of money
coming my way and no money. Andso what ended up happening was I
would hit, you know, some, I hita couple Financial Rock bottoms,
and I, I remember one where itwas like, actually, right around
(36:45):
the pandemic time, and I hadmade all the most money I'd ever
made the year before. I mean, itwas six figures, and I had never
made that much before, and thensuddenly we were at zero, you
know. And I remember being like,okay, so I'm really sick of
being on this feast or faminecycle. And I didn't realize how
(37:09):
deep it went. It did go back tomy childhood, the feeling of
security, and then insecurity,security and insecurity. And I
had one of those, you know,moments again, where the I call
them, the i I'm done, momentswhere I was sitting on the
beach, um, the pandemic had juststarted. I was struggling
(37:30):
financially. I didn't see anyprospects in sight. And I, at
this point, I had been kind ofworn down by my career already.
I was like, All right, I feelreally stuck. So I felt stuck in
a career. I didn't like I feltbroke and I felt broken all at
the same time. And I remembersitting on the beach, it was
winter time, and I just therewas a lighthouse in front, like
(37:51):
in the distance. And I just,again, I pray to the universe,
God, Spirit, whatever you wantto call it. And it was like I
was looking at the lighthouse,and I was like, Help Help me.
Help me stop going through thisfeast and famine cycle. Help me
stop being broke. Help me stopfeeling broken and stuck. Help I
(38:14):
need help. I don't ever want tofeel broke ever again. And of
course, God did not speak back.
I heard no I heard no voice. AndI realized, you know, nobody's
coming to save me. I was goingto have to, I was going to have
to take action and change mylife. It was either I was going
to keep doing what I was doingor I was going to change it. And
(38:37):
then that was the moment where Istood up. I literally stood up,
drew a line in the sand in frontof myself and said, Okay, I'm
done. This is me telling God theuniverse myself, that I am done
living like this, and that Iwill do everything in my power
to learn about money and changemy life. I want to be rich. I
(38:57):
want to be wealthy. And the nextthree years were really rough,
and I learned everything. Ilearned so much about money, and
now I went from somebody stuckon a beach feeling broken,
broken and stuck, to I'msomebody who is sharing my money
mistakes, my money messes, tohelp other women empower them,
(39:19):
and I'm building a seven figurebusiness, slowly but surely. I'm
somebody who definitely believesI'm worthy of wealth, that I can
build a wealthy business,helping women get wealthy, doing
what they love. It's perfect. Ilove
it. What could be better? Andthere's also that lovely idea
that we can all be wealthy,like, there's, there's there's
(39:41):
that that also weird shame, kindof you know, money's dirty. I
don't want to talk about money.
I don't want to. No, I don'twant money. Yeah, you do? You
want wealth? You want abundance.
It's okay, right? It's okay. Thepodcast class I took that
started all this, Kathy Hellerworked a lot with mindset, and
she said, I want all I know Iwant comp. Here the wealthy
(40:01):
woman club, you know, she goes,I want company. I want all women
to feel abundance in their life,not just money, right? Abundance
of all sorts, but it's okay towant money. It's okay to be
wealthy. It's okay to begenerous, you know, and be able
to give whoever you want to workto, to any charity you want to
be, you know, balanced and happyand wealthy and yay, you right,
(40:25):
like, and you're teaching otherpeople, like, it's okay, yeah,
I would say, you know, thedesire to want to be wealthy is
a human desire. Becauseultimately, what you're saying
is, I desire to have everythingI need and want to live up to my
fullest potential. That's reallyhow I interpret wealth. I
interpret that. And yes, youneed the funds to support
(40:49):
whatever that is, whether that'sstarting a podcast and being
able to buy a microphone or, youknow, being able to buy a
website so you can share whatyou do. You know, at the end of
the day, what I see wealthy asis just having access and
resources and having everythingyou need, everything you desire,
to just live your life the waythat you deeply believe you are
(41:12):
destined to live. And I knowthat most of us, deep down, know
we were destined for more thanmediocre, because I do believe
everybody has something, apurpose that they can fulfill.
And, you know, one thing I wantto say is, don't let your past
dictate your future. You know, Icould have been the kid or the
young woman who still believethat I'm stuck in a broken and
(41:34):
broken and I have to be paycheckto paycheck, and I have to stay
like this. I have to let fearkeep dictating my life. You can
decide I am actually worthy ofwealth, and I am willing to open
myself up to learn about money,to learn the skill and to change
my life one step at a time. Andyou know, that's what I'm doing,
like I help one of my clientspay off $27,000 in debt to get a
(41:59):
new home. She was living withher. She was living with her
parents, with $27,000 in debt,with so much fantastic and
feeling like a hot money mess.
She she had a little boy and ahusband, and she was just
struggling. And, you know, wegot to the heart of it, we got
to the mindset, we got to thestrategy. And I watched her have
her, I'm done moment right,where she drew the line in the
(42:21):
sand and she did the work. And,you know, I think, really, for
anybody out there, the firststep is the mindset. It is
believing you are worthy ofwealth. And for most of us,
we've heard so many messageslike you said, you know that
it's a root of all evil, or itdoesn't grow on trees, or what,
what? There are other people,right? The rich people are other
people. Well, it can be you, itcan be you. And, yeah, you know,
(42:44):
I, I lead a workshop calledworthy of wealth, and I want to
share with something with you,which is, I think the number one
thought that is holding mostpeople back. Oh, great. And it
is this. It is the belief thatyou are not enough and that
there is not enough, that is, Iwould say, the one thought, one
(43:08):
belief that affects your entirefinancial life,
that's so powerful in many, manyways. A lot of us are struggling
with that, not enough,100% think about, if you will,
deeply believed I'm enough, justas I am, how that changes
(43:29):
everything that changes how youspend your money, right?
Because, going back to what yousaid earlier about fear, right,
that you had mentioned Lynne.
You know that fear, that fearof, oh, we gotta wear deodorant.
We gotta, you know, women havethis fear, and I think that
ultimately comes from the beliefor not enough, just as we are
(43:53):
so right and not good enough.
That's one of the, I forgetwhere I saw it, but it was one
of the meditations, one of the,one of the affirmations that
were recommended for especiallyfor women. You know, every day,
just wake up and say, I amenough. I have enough. The
universe will provide. I'm finethe way I am. I'm enough. And it
was just sort of radical to me.
(44:16):
It's like, Yeah, we reallydon't, deep down, believe that
we are. That's so powerful.
Whitney, I think that really isthe crux
it is. I started to realize thatas the number one thought that
holds people back, becausecomes out of that you're so
right, so much comes out ofthat.
Because, okay, so the beliefthat you're not enough, right?
(44:38):
If you're walking aroundthinking you're not enough, then
what do you do? You spend yourmoney on things that'll
hopefully help you, make youfeel enough, right? So, fancy
perfume, the makeup, the hair, Idon't know, a car, a house, a
huge mansion, because you haveto let the whole entire universe
know that you're enough.
(44:59):
So. See, I'm enough, yeah, andalso for me, it was apologizing
very often, you know, sort ofalways being sorry and making up
to people and, you know, becauseI'm just not good enough, right?
When I was younger, I was sowimpy, I was it was just always,
you know, giving in to otherpeople and trying to, you know,
(45:20):
fit in, and apologizing way toomuch. I think a lot of women
apologize way too much. I agreewith stuff they didn't even
do. We're sorry for our evenourselves existing. I'm sorry,
you know, I'm sorry my legs areon the subway a little, you
know, they, they actually did astudy where men sit take up more
space, but we have to be small.
So I think that is part of liketeaching women that they are
(45:44):
worthy of wealth is saying I amenough. Like, if I if I could
teach one single thing to womeneverywhere, it's you are enough,
just as you are right now. Youhave enough to do whatever
you're wanting to do right now.
You There are resources in frontof you. Maybe you haven't
noticed them yet, because you'reso focused on the lack that you
(46:05):
begin this is true that when youbegin to shift to there is
enough. Everything I need isright in front of me. I'm
enough. You begin to seeopportunities and resources that
were always in front of youthat you didn't see before. And
I've also heard that theuniverse will give you whatever
you're focusing on. So if you'refocusing on lack, if you're
living in lack and focusing onlack and believing that's your
(46:26):
reality, you're going to getmore lack, because that's all
the universe knows how to do, orwhatever universe, or higher
self, or whatever. I even heardsomething recently that kind of
flipped me out the way this wassaid. It was somebody said, I
don't want. How did they say it?
I want, oh, I want more money. Iwant more money. And the person,
(46:50):
it was a channeled message, butit's a very fun Channeler, and
he said, if you say I want moremoney, the universe will always
keep you in that state, it willmake it true. You will always
want more money. You have tosay, I'm grateful for having
abundance. I'm grateful forhaving more money. You have to
be in that space like you said.
You have to get out of the stuckand start seeing more so if you
(47:14):
say you want more money, orsomeday or what you know you're
making that distance between youand the money. There's a
spiritual, like sort of piece tothis where you're going to just
continue that wanting, insteadof having, like, right now in
the present. And I was like,well, that's weird, but in on
(47:35):
some level, it just rang true tome. Oh,
absolutely. And I say the youknow, one thing that I do is
help people a lot with theirmindset, because you're carrying
just so many old beliefs andlimiting beliefs. And if you've
been broke and strugglingfinancially for a long time and
not necessarily broke, maybeyou're doing pretty all right.
(47:58):
But you know you could, you knowyou you have bigger dreams for
yourself, or it's just always astruggle, or, you know, it's
just hard, like, if money's justhard for you, there are some
thoughts that you are havingthat are causing you to feel
that way, and that's where themoney mindset part of it comes
into it's such a huge part ofit. What are you thinking? What
(48:19):
your thoughts have led you here.
So what are yourfaiths? Are you holding? Right?
That's so crucial. That's soimportant. So you're you get
down to the brass tax. And Ilove that. I love that about
what you do. So is thereanything else that you'd like to
share with us and make sure thatyou I'm going to put in the show
notes how to get in touch withyou. But can you tell us how to
get in touch with you, oranything you'd like our
(48:41):
listeners to know?
So I guess I The biggesttakeaway is, I hope that
whoever's listening can remindthemselves that they are enough,
exactly where they are, that Iam enough, and even just saying
that to yourself over and overagain as often as possible will
begin to shift something insideof you. So I would say that's
(49:03):
one of the biggest takeawaysthat I hope that people carry
with them. And yeah, they canfind me on my website, Whitney
and ellis.com and with an E, sow, H, I T, anyway, a N, N, E, L,
S, E, L, L, i s.com I'm also anon Instagram under the same
(49:23):
name, Whitney Ann Ellis, andyeah, I'm running a worthy of
wealth workshop. It'll always beavailable. If you miss the date
to join, there will be replayopportunities. And it's really
about upgrading your mindset,because that is the first step
in money transformation. Becauseeven when you do, like the good
money habits, and you work onit, and they don't stick, part
(49:45):
of the problem is your mindset.
So you got to get the mindset insync with the strategy and the
tactics of getting yourfinancial shift together, as I
like to say, so that you can soyou can find your dreams and
worry less and do whatever youcan dream up. Because, like.
Life, it can be amazing. And themoment you decide you're done
living it, if you're unhappywith your life, that is the
moment that you get to step intotransformation. So I think
(50:08):
you'regoing to inspire tons of people
when they hear this. I can'tthank you enough for sharing.
This is great info.
Thank you so much, Len forhaving me. It was a joy, and I'm
so glad we met in person. Metoo,
Hello and welcome to The Storied Human. I'm Lynne
Thompson, and today my guest isWhitney Ellis. She was a
successful producer before sherealized she could help women
realize their worth. She's now amoney life coach. Her story is
inspirational, and so is herwork. She found she was burnt
out by the demands of her job,but she realized that she did
(00:46):
enjoy part of it, asking peoplepowerful questions and having
hearing their stories, which Iloved, that she told me she
talked to all kinds of people,and she's done so many
interviews over the years, sherealized that those skills would
transfer. So let's hear moreabout how she did this, and it's
a really great story. And I wantto welcome you, Whitney, thank
(01:07):
you so much for coming.
Thank you, Lynne, thank you somuch for letting me be here and
share my story.
From the first moment you toldme that you used to be, you
know, that's a pretty cool job,like used to be a producer in
New York, and now you're, youknow, a money life coach. That's
a big switch. And I always wantto know how people do that.
(01:28):
Yeah, it's so interesting. Youknow, when people ask me what I
did for a living, and I said, TVproducer, people were always
like, Oh my gosh, that is socool. Yeah, yeah, you know, oh,
what showed? What shows youknow, did you work on? And I
always would find at least oneshow that they knew I worked on.
So I knew I wanted to be in filmand TV production at a young,
(01:53):
younger age. I did photography,and it ultimately led to
filmmaking. And then I foundwork in New York City, working
in TV. And, you know, I had a 12year career in television, and
it took me all over the world. Igot to interview all types of
people, from, you know, a gangbanger to a zookeeper to, you
(02:15):
know, an expert, you know, likea CIA agent or FBI agent. So it
gave me this incredible abilityto not only go experience the
world, but be able to have oneon one interviews with these
interesting people who hadincredible stories to share. And
that was the part I loved aboutmy job, was being able to ask
(02:37):
powerful questions and hearpeople's stories. And one thing
I found was that I often wasinterviewing people about
really, sometimes tragic thingsthat happened to them, and I
would notice that in our twohour interview they would like
have almost like this healingexperience by just having
(03:00):
somebody in front of themwilling to listen to their story
and actively listen and ask themquestions. And by the end of our
two hour interview, somethingwould shift in them, and I would
think, Oh my gosh, this is thisis something special. But the
thing was, we were doing it fortelevision, right? So my
objective was always okay, getthe good stuff so that can go on
(03:24):
TV. And you know, as I began towork more in my career, I
started realizing what actuallymotivated me was helping people
like in a really, real,practical way, and that wasn't
really what I was doing with myjob in a way that I would have
liked. And so I startedwondering, well, how can I
(03:44):
really help people? And I wantto look back on my life and be
proud of something that I did,and I enjoyed my career, but I
also it was a very it was a verytough job. I mean, I'm working
12 hour days. I you kind of likework life balance is a non
existent thing. I'm sure a lotof people can identify with
(04:04):
that. I was always traveling,and it wears on your body, and
ultimately, I just startedfeeling like there's gotta be
more than this, you know. Andwhat ended up happening was,
over the 12 year period, Iclimbed to the top. I went from,
(04:24):
you know, being a productionassistant, which is like getting
coffee for the big the big boysand girls up there, you know,
the executive producers, toactually becoming the executive
producer that somebody wasgetting coffee for. Wow. So,
yeah,that's a quick rise, actually,
right? That's pretty quick. Canyou, I can't resist, can you
tell us some of the shows thatyou worked on? I know people
(04:46):
want to know.
Yeah, sure. So I did a lot ofunscripted television, so things
like the one of my favoriteshows I worked on was called the
zoo. It was on Animal Planetwhere we filmed at the Bronx
Zoo. That was a super fun job.
Many people know of John Walsh,the guy who was on America's
Most Wanted who, you know, usedto be like, let's catch these
(05:08):
dirt bags. You know, after thecops back in the 90s. Well, him
and his son started a new showcalled in pursuit with John
Walsh. So I worked on thingslike that, a lot of true crime.
I also worked on this incredibleshow on the Travel Channel
called mysteries at the museum.
And I gotta go. I went over toover 100 museums all over the
(05:28):
country for that job. Wow. So itwas very cool. But I say this as
a caveat, production work is agrind. It is. Yeah, you know,
there's hustle culture. You haveto say, yes, if you have
boundaries, people are a littleput off. You know, as I grew in
(05:49):
my career, I began to start toput my foot down and say, you
know, I have boundaries. I'm notgoing to do this, I'm not going
to do that. But there's sort ofthis culture of hustle, hustle,
hustle, your your personal lifedoesn't matter. You give to this
show. You give to thisproduction. And
kind of you're lucky to be here,right? You're lucky to be here,
(06:11):
and it is a big deal. I mean,you were lucky to have such a
cool I mean, you worked hard,and you were lucky to have such
a great career. You're remindingme so much of my friend Sandy
Cohen. She worked as a celebrityjournalist for 12 years for the,
for LA, for, actually, just forthe, what do you call that? Just
the AP, and so she would getcalled in the middle of the
(06:32):
night, so and so's getting adivorce. Can you get on it like
that was a big deal, right? Youhad to, you had to document that
so and so was getting a divorce,and she got to go to the Oscars
every year. That was fun. Butover time, same thing, 12 years,
over time, it was like, this isnot enough. I think your heart
starts to call out for somethingdeeper. And I just love that you
(06:55):
noticed. I love that you startedto notice people are changing.
When I when I interview them,there's something that's
happening. And that's what Ilove about what you do. I knew
that the minute I met you, isthat you really listen to
people, which is rare. Evenpeople that interview don't
always listen. They have, like,a script, they follow up, right?
They're not really there in themoment. And I think you were
(07:17):
starting to notice that, youknow, you have more to give in
another way, 100% so cool thatyou started to notice that. And
I think we just kind of, youknow, mature and what we want in
our 20s is not what we want inour 30s. There's like, a really
cool change. I think when wecome out of our 20s, I noticed
most people, they kind of figureout who they are in their early
(07:38):
30s. They just sort of say, waita minute, you know? And that's
what happened to Sandy, andthat's what happened to
you? Yeah, I would say a realshift happened to me, like the
over the last couple years of mycareer. I remember specifically
that, well, one I had gone allthe way to the top and I was
(08:00):
making pretty good money, andpeople would be like, You're so
lucky. You're living your bestlife. You're living the dream.
And I I always thought, oh mygosh, I don't feel that way at
all. This is not this can't bemy dream. I know that I meant to
do so much more. This can't beit. And so I would almost feel
guilty when people would belike, well, Aren't you lucky,
you know. And I would so therewas some part of me deep inside
(08:23):
that knew I had a bigger purposethan just to produce hours of
television. Yeah. And then acouple things happened. One
thing that happened was I gotdiagnosed with an autoimmune
disease, you know, a coupleyears back, and I had this very
uncouth Doctor, this doctor whohad no table side manner, or
whatever you call that bedsidemanner, she actually left me a
(08:45):
voicemail to tell me that I hadbeen diagnosed with an
autoimmune disease, and I wasactually on set working a job,
and I remember listening to thevoicemail, and it said, you
know, you have this autoimmunedisease. It's called Hashimotos.
It's pretty much incurable, andyou have to live with
it. I have, oh, I have it too. Alot of us have it, yeah, yeah.
(09:06):
And I remember thinking, so notonly has my job making I
believe, made me sick, but hereI am working this job, finding
this out, you know. And I thinkthat was a real eye opener for
me, because I always feltoverworked, and I was constantly
living off of coffee and justnot taking care of myself in
(09:27):
that way. So I wasn't surprised.
So I felt like that was a bigmoment for me. Like, okay, your
health is being affected by howyou're working that hustle. And
then I, you know, started tothink about, well, what's my
mission? What do I want to leavebehind in this world? And I knew
that it wasn't making TV. Andthen I hit a rock bottom. I had
(09:50):
one of those moments where,like, the worst production day
of my life, where everythingwent wrong. And. And this guy
who I was supposed to interviewmade me cry. It was just like so
bad. It was just like the worstproduction day of my 12 year
career. I handled so much. Therewas a hurricane coming, like
sirens going. It was crazy. Itwas just like one of those days
(10:12):
where everything went wrong. AndI remember I was sitting in a
hotel room crying because I feltstuck in a career on a path that
I didn't know how to pivot. AndI was like, well, what's the
plan here? And I just, like,literally said to the universe,
God, Spirit, whatever you wantto call it. I said, I feel
stuck, and I don't want to feelthis way. How do I how do I
(10:36):
change? How do I get out ofthis. How do I shift careers?
How do I do something that feelsright for me? And that was the
moment there I was like, Okay,I'm going to change my life
right now. I don't, I don'tknow. I didn't know where I was
going yet, but I knew, and Iactually went and took a picture
(10:58):
of myself and I held up thenumber one, that this was day
number one of my my new life,whatever it was, I just didn't
want it to keep being TVproducing for 12 years, for 12
hours a day, making TV. I knew Iwanted it to be something
significant.
So I just love that you listento that, you know, because a lot
of people do keep going. But Ialso think sometimes, like the
(11:23):
worst day and the Hashimoto kindof wakes you up too. It's like
you're ready to change, but thenyou get pushed a little bit.
Yes, absolutely, you get pushedthe universe, funnily enough,
heard Mike cry. And thensomething extraordinary
happened. I not only did I quit,so I quit. Within two weeks, I
(11:43):
said, I'm not, I'm not doingthis anymore. Oh, I love that.
But and then a water pipe burstin our apartment and destroyed
everything. We woke up and itdestroyed everything. And so
suddenly, suddenly, I was like,not only did I just quit a 12
year career, but literally, ourlife had been like wiped away by
a single bursted water pipe inwinter, and everything went in
(12:09):
storage. We suddenly were movedout, not living in New York City
anymore. And it's so funny,because that was one of the
hardest that month was one ofthe hardest months of my life,
and it was like the universe waslike, Okay, I heard you. You
don't want to be stuck anymore.
Oh, my God.
So that's something that saidsome Oh my god. So similar to
(12:31):
this. It's like, you can ask forsomething, but you don't know
how it's going to happen. Andthat's horrifying, really, when
you think about what you had togo through. But it got you out
of New York. That's when youlook back, you're like, that was
horrible, but it got me out ofNew York. And the thing that I
can't help but think is you wereflooded, and like, water and
(12:52):
rain and flooding is emotion.
It's like burst emotion, like,symbolically, like, that's so
intense that that happened toyou, and I can't even imagine
going through that. I mean, I'msure it wasn't easy going back
from that, but,oh, it was the hardest month,
one of the hardest months of mylife. And it's so funny, be
careful what you wish for,right? Because I felt like, now
I look back on it, and I'm like,telling the universe, please
(13:13):
help me be unstuck. And then aflood literally wiped my life
away. And then everything I ownwas so powerful. It was, yeah,
it was in storage. And then Istarted searching for, like,
okay, it's, it's wild, becauseit gave me permission to have a
clean slate,yeah, I can see that, right?
(13:33):
Like, you have no choice, right?
You got to just start over,yeah? And I cool. And I said,
Okay, what is it I want to do?
And I actually had a mentor whoreally helped guide me a little
bit, and she said he everthought about life coaching? And
I said, Well, what the heck islife coaching? That sounds
ridiculous. And as soon as Ilearned about it, I was like,
(13:54):
Oh, you ask people powerfulquestions and story, but
you're allowed to keep doing itright? You don't have to pick
the choice bits for TV.
Yeah, and you really help peoplewith their life and their
transitions. And it wasinteresting because I was going
through my own transition. Sowhat I really love doing is
helping people who are ready toshift careers, who maybe had a
(14:16):
catalytic event to happen tothem, maybe they got a divorce,
maybe, you know, something, theygot laid off, and they're ready
to go and do something amazing.
So it's cool, because I've usedmy experiences to help other
people transition through thatand to find their purpose. And
ultimately, I began to findclues the universe sort of left
me, little pieces of okay, gothis direction, and I've just
(14:38):
keep pivoting. And actually,that day that I was in the hotel
room crying and said, I'm, youknow, stuck, I think, was the
day that I said, from this pointforward, I'm going to listen to
my intuition and my innerknowing and make all my
decisions based on that and notmy fear anymore, because for
most of my life, I had madedecisions 100% based. On fear.
Fear was in the driver's seat.
(15:01):
It was driving my life. I wasafraid to not have enough money,
I was afraid to say no. I wasafraid of what could happen, and
yet I was miserable. So Idecided it was time to shift and
actually get quiet enough startlistening to my inner knowing
and literally make my decisionsbased on that even if I was
scared,that's so powerful. And I think
(15:21):
we can so relate to it, most ofus, right? Fear is always
driving a lot of us, and we haveto really become aware of it. I
mean, it's how it's why theysell deodorant, right? Yes,
you're so afraid you're gonnasmell bad. It's why they sell
makeup and deodorant. And youknow, just this fear of not
fitting in or not smelling goodor not looking good, and they
(15:42):
manipulate that. Advertisersknow how to manipulate that, and
so it's just woven in our ourworld, and women, especially, I
think, are fearful, you know,we're I felt like my, you know,
I was raised way back, and myparents were, like, always
protective, more protective ofme. And I feel like a lot of
(16:02):
women, they, you know,internalize that fear. It's
like, oh, well, I, I can't dostuff. I have to be safe, you
know. And so we don't really, wedon't step out into the world.
We don't do that. We holdourselves back, or, like, the
money thing too, is such a fearthing, right? Oh, I can't quit
my job. I need, you know, we wesettle for that mediocrity
(16:22):
because it's safe. So I justthink it's wonderful that you're
I love when people use whathappened to them to help others.
And that's part of why I do thepodcast. Because I remember
saying to people, you know, yougo through things, what's the
point if you can't share it, andpeople can't, you know, and have
people learn from it. So ourstories are so precious to me. I
(16:44):
everybody that tells me a story.
I learned something, and then Inever know who's going to hear
it and learn something too,like, really, what is the point?
Right? We're all here together,going through stuff. I just love
that you trusted your instincts,though, that you decided I'm
going to trust these, theseinstincts, my my heart. You
(17:06):
followed your heart, and youtrusted the the signs and the
clues that the universe wassending, which I believe in
wholeheartedly. Because peoplekeep telling me that, like,
that's what people keep tellingme is, is what happened in their
life, and it's so it's kind ofmagical. You know, 100%
I would say that, you know, alot of us let fear guide us, but
(17:28):
I think women, especially not todiscount men in this. But I
think we are given the gift ofsuperpower of intuition. And I
think for a lot of our lives,we're taught not to listen to it
or use it. And I have nowrealized that, and this is one
thing I teach as a coach, isthat your inner knowing, your
(17:49):
body inside of you, it knows theanswer you just simply it's your
compass. It's your North Star.
It is what's leading you in thedirection that you want to go.
You simply must listen to it andjust step into it and have faith
and trust it. But I'm not goingto lie to you even in trusting
my North Star or following myinner compass or, you know, my
intuition, it's still scary, andthings don't always go the way I
(18:13):
expect, but it feels moreempowering now to know that I am
going in towards my destiny. I'mmy own destiny. My destiny is
unfolding, and it was even withthe 12 year career it led me to
this point. So I'm notdiscounting my past. But, you
know, I think if I could tellany woman out there anything, it
(18:36):
would be trust your innerknowing it knows it knows what
to do and and trust it, havefaith and just step forward. And
that's lovely and so important,because we're not taught that
when we're young. We're nottaught that, I know I grew up
like, oh, you know, so and sostarted their own business, but
(18:56):
you know, now they're in thepoor house, or, you know, Oh,
it's too risky, or just allthese things about venturing
out, and so it kind of makes youafraid, and it makes you too
cautious. And we're not taughtto just say, Well, what? What is
your inner self saying? What?
What is your heart saying? Yeah,everyone's different, everyone.
And it's funny about theintuition too, because I never,
(19:17):
I always knew I was kind ofintuitive, but now that I'm
really looking at it, I'm Ithink a lot of us are very
intuitive, and we just don'teven realize it. Like sometimes
I was saying to someone, I'llsay something to a friend, I'll
ask a question, or I'll saysomething, and it's exactly what
they needed to bring up, whatthey need to bring up, and I
(19:38):
don't even know I'm doing it. SoI think a lot of times, if you
get in touch with thatintuition, you'll realize, oh,
it's there already. I'm justnot, you know, fully conscious
that I'm doing it. Yeah,I was gonna say, you know, as I
sort of started to listen to myintuition more and realize that
life coaching was a part of myfuture. And. Was such a
(19:58):
surprise. You know, actually, Ioriginally wanted to be a
psychologist, so I had allthese. I mean, I have almost
enough credits to be apsychologist, you know, from
college and so, so it was crazy.
It combined all these, likeelements of, you know, I asking
powerful questions from my TVjob and psychology and
supporting people and reallyhelping people. And so it's
(20:20):
exciting to watch people liketransform their lives and like
in front of me, and to be ableto support them. And one of the
things I recognized is that Iwanted to make my messes my
message, and so for me, I knewthat I wanted to specifically
coach on money, because I hadmade a lot of money mistakes
(20:41):
throughout my, you know, younglife, from my 20s into my 30s,
and I knew that I wanted tohelp, take what I learned and
help other women, because at theend of the day, you can listen
to your intuition, but if youcan't afford to support your
dreams, you know, or ask for themoney or get capital, or, you
(21:02):
know, then you'll you will havea challenge. So for me, it's I
love teaching, not only tolisten to your intuition, but
how do we get the means and thefunds to support you through
that journey?
I love the practicality of that,and we all need that. And I just
love that you combine thosethings. It's funny that you said
you wanted to be a psychologist,because when you were talking
about the changes you saw whenyou were a producer and
(21:25):
interviewing people, and howfrom the beginning to the end of
the interview, it was different.
And I see how you listen topeople, it's not a surprise,
like I thought, Oh, she's like atherapist. She's like, you know,
you really are. You have that.
It explains a lot about how youwant to help people, because
that's always been there. Youwant to help heal people. It's
your thing, you know, it's likeand so you're getting closer to
(21:45):
who you really are. But I alsolove that you're helping us with
money. Because who doesn't youknow money, we're all we're all
raised differently, and ourparents didn't really know what
they were doing. A lot of ourparents didn't know what they
were doing, and they imprintedus with these things about
money. You know, money is theroot of all evil and that kind
of thing. And very weird, yeah,I would say you're taking it all
(22:10):
on.
Yeah. I mean, we carry with us alot of thoughts about money that
originated from our parents andso, you know, part of what I do
as a money life coachspecifically, is I help with
mindset, because that is a youknow, 80% of it is your mindset,
what you're thinking, whatyou're believing about money,
(22:30):
about your ability to accessmoney, about your ability to
create money and handle money.
You know, a lot of women andsociety in general, you know the
belief that women or girls arebad at math, they're bad at
money, they're bad at numbers. Imean, I have literally people
come in and say, I'm bad atmoney. I'm I don't know. I'm not
even good at looking at numbers,right? So there's that, there's
a sort of societal belief thatif you're female, you're not as
(22:54):
good at finances. And the truthis, we get a lot of our
financial advice or insightsfrom men. You know, there needs
to be more women who arespeaking openly about money.
Also, you know, we have beliefslike I said, from our parents.
You know, part of my job as amoney Life Coach is to help you
heal some of that and recognizehow that is holding you back.
(23:15):
But I'm also somebody whosupports forward thinking. What
are some strategies you can do?
What are new thoughts you canthink? How can you rewire your
brain to see abundance aroundyou, to begin to bring wealth
into your life? And also justactual strategies like, money is
a skill. Anybody can learn it,so it's just a matter of
(23:37):
learning it. And so what I do isI use all my money, messes and
mistakes, and I have come upwith lessons and disciplines to
help people from the bottom allthe way up to the top. And
it's a skill. I love that yousaid that it's neutral, right?
It's a skill, yeah, if you can,if you can get to that place
where you're just going to useit, you know, in a neutral,
(23:59):
clear way, instead of bringingall this garbage, I know we all
have some baggage that we bringto it. I love that. Yeah,
you know, before we we got onthis interview, you said that
money is neutral. And I thinkthat's one thing that we should
be sharing with whoever'slistening here, is to just
remind them that money isneutral. I know it sounds scary,
like when you look at your bankaccount, maybe you have $34 in
(24:20):
there, and you're like, oh mygosh, you know, right? You could
give yourself meaning to that.
Holy smokes, I only have $34 inhere. And you can be terrified.
You can feel a lot of things andhave a lot of thoughts. Somebody
else could look at it just seethe number 34 you know, right?
Or somebody else could look atit be like, Oh my gosh, I have
$34 that's a lot of money. Soit's really incredible that
we're the ones who bring meaningto money, and I actually am
(24:42):
somebody who doesn't believedebt is necessarily the worst
thing in the world. Now I, youknow, I believe that if you're
using debt to leverage yourbusiness or to help you bring
more income, that's amazing. Butagain, if you have debt, let's
say you're, you know, your networth is. Negative $80,000 at
the end of the day. That's justa number. What do you want to do
(25:03):
about it? You know what I mean?
And just reminding you like it'sjust a number, and it's not,
it's just your present moment.
It doesn't mean it's going to beyour future. Oh, I
love that. So you just sort ofdisentangle from the feeling,
because I know there's a lot ofshame when people carry debt,
it's like, I'm a failure. I havethis debt. So there's that shame
(25:24):
you don't want to I know Debbietalks about that. Debbie Weiss
talks about her financialdifficulties in her past, very
honestly in her book, and shesays the shame kept me from
revealing it. You know, it wassomething I carried and
something that was a secret. AndI think that just makes
everything worse when we'resecretive about it. Oh, 100% so
(25:44):
actually, how I started torealize I wanted to help with
money was the shame, actually,because I was carrying it with
me for so long, and then Istarted to write it down and in
a journal, and then I startedthinking, Well, what if I
actually shared my messes withpeople so they felt less alone.
So I began to start telling mystory like in public speaking,
(26:07):
Oh, good. And people would comeup to me and be like, Oh my
gosh, I know exactly what that'slike. And you know, you just
reminded me of a story where theshame the money shame, well,
where I became first aware ofthe impact of money. I think we
all have these moments in ourlife, money, moments where we
(26:27):
never where we never forget,like and it was my I was a
little kid, and it was my firsttime that I became really aware
of the power of money. So justto give you a little story, my
mother and my family when I wasgrowing up, we grew up in
Dallas, Texas, very nice and anice ranch house, you know,
(26:48):
three, four bedroom house. Wehad nice Christmases. It was
just like we just lived a normalmiddle class life. And then my
mother decided she wanted todivorce my dad and I was in like
fifth grade, and I'm not goingto go into all of it, but we
lived in a very dangeroushousehold, and so my mother was
(27:10):
essentially like trying to fleefrom my father to protect us,
children and herself, and Sheput money secretly in a separate
bank account savings. And shewas like, we have to get out of
here. We have to, like, secretlyleave. And that must have been
(27:32):
so hard. It was reallyterrifying and and you were so
young. I was young. I was infifth grade, and I remember
helping her pack the movers werethere, we're putting all our
stuff away, and she had savedenough money for us to be able
to to leave, and we did. And Iremember driving off, and I was
(27:53):
like, looked in the rear view,you know, back behind me at our
house. And little did I knowthat was going to be the end of
my secure middle classexistence. You know, it was
suddenly like we went from a twoincome family, right? My mom and
my dad, who were able tomaintain that lifestyle, and
(28:14):
then my mom leaves my dad, andshe becomes a single mother
who's supporting two kids. Andsuddenly we were, we were pro,
you know, poor, we were broke.
It was like it like it felt likeit happened overnight, really.
And my mother just reallystruggled. But see, the thing
was, I, now, I look back on it,she was willing to pay the
(28:35):
price, you know, like, for herfreedom for our freedom, for our
protection. And it was such abrave thing she did that day,
but it did cost her something,right? And I remember we lived
in this little rental house thathad, like, no furniture in it.
And, you know, people from thechurch would like have to bring
(28:56):
us food because we didn't haveenough food. And suddenly I was
like, Okay, so our life isreally suddenly shifted. And a
memory I have when I first feltmoney shame was, I remember we
went to the grocery store and wefilled up the cart full of food.
We pulled up, you know, thecashier runs it, and I don't
(29:17):
remember what form of payment itwas. All I know is it got
rejected. And they were like,Yeah, ma'am, I'm so sorry, but
your payment is no good here.
And then the manager came overto try to fix it. And
unfortunately, whatever thesituation was, it wasn't
(29:38):
working. She couldn't pay forthe groceries and and I remember
we had to walk away, like leavethe groceries behind, and a that
was the first time I knew Okay,so money can just not be there
for you.
Whoa. And there's some stuff tounpack. There too. That always
(30:01):
upsets me when I think about howdependent, even though your
mother worked, she was dependenton your father, and she had to
make that huge decision for allof you and pay the price.
Because, you know, we're raised,at least back then, women were
raised to, you know, you getmarried and you either stay at
home or you work. A lot of womenstayed at home and put their
(30:25):
eggs in that basket, and then ifthings don't work out, it's just
crazy, right? That that's builtinto our society. Even now, I
know I was just talking to myhusband. I know a few women who
had who had their lives blown upby divorces because they chose
to stay home and take care oftheir children, and it didn't
(30:47):
work out. So it's just sodifficult for me to hear this
story, and for you to learn thatlesson so young that it was so
hard for your mother that itshouldn't disturbing that the
structure's still there that weyou know, we're raised, it's
upsetting to see the price thatshe had to pay and that and that
you had to have that realizationso young. So
my mother actually was a careerwoman. She made more money than
(31:09):
my dad, but that wasn't theissue she I found out later she
was paying for two houses. Shehad to pay for the mortgage of
the other house while our rentalhouse. It was like it was a
nasty divorce, I don't know allthe nightmare. So I was very, I
was very shielded from, like,what was actually going on, but
so she was paying for two homes.
I still look back on that and,like, How did my mom do all
(31:31):
this?
Did she, yeah, and she, and sheshould have just kicked your dad
out, but I guess you wouldn'tgo,
yeah. I don't want to go too farinto that, but we had to leave
it. I'm so sorry, no, but that'shell. But your mother was
amazing. Is amazing? She Shereally did some amazing
(31:52):
superhero stuff. AndI look back at that and I
realize, and I've been thinkingmore about, like, Why do I like
what I do or love what I do? AndI thought, Oh, my mom had enough
savings to be able to leap anddo something. And I realized the
ability for women to have accessto money, to save money, to have
a safety net, to have the meansto fund their dreams or leave a
(32:16):
situation or make a shift thatis so vitally important, like
women feeling empowered withmoney and their ability to make
choices, it expands yourchoices. That's really where it
does modern day equality comeswith economic equality for
women, really. Sothat's so powerful that you look
(32:40):
back and understand that, thatyour mother was, you know, able
to to fund her ownshe changed our lives, you guys,
yeah, thatshe had the guts and the the
ability, that's pretty amazing.
And so, yeah, it's reallyimportant. I remember reading
some statistics, and I just, Ishould have known this, but I
(33:01):
was shocked. The sooner a womangets married and the sooner she
has a baby, the worse hereconomic outcomes are. And if
she just waits a little bit andgets an education, it's just
night and day, you know whereshe is, like 510, years down the
road. I wish we could teachyoung girls even, even more
(33:24):
strongly. You know, like, thisis worth doing. You know, don't
get all caught up in the youknow, I'm in love and I'm going
to get married, if you just waita little bit and take care of
yourself. You know, youreconomic future is so much
stronger. Like, duh. I rememberreading it and saying, there it
is in black and white. But myGod, I didn't realize it was
that drastic, right? You reallydid pay a price sometimes, as a
(33:49):
woman, for jumping intorelationships or having a baby
before you're really solvent.
Well, that, you know, it'sinteresting. I think no matter
what it whether you have a babyor get married early. It's just
learning the skill, going backto that, learning the skill of
money. You weren't taught it inschool. So I do feel this very
(34:09):
much, this need to raise women'sself worth and net worth and
make them aware of like this iswhat you do. These are the steps
you can change your lifefinancially. Most of us aren't
taught that. So whether or notyou have a kid or get married
early or do it later in life,those skills all can be learned,
and then the mindset of it, thatyou are worthy of wealth, that
(34:30):
you can bring money into yourlife, that is all within your
reach, no matter yourcircumstances. I
love that, yes, because we're wewere taught that it was for
other people, like, literally,my my aunt said the rich are
different from you and me, andit's not like we were poor. But
she just said, you know, therich, like fair, somewhere in
the stratosphere, are differentfrom you and me, meaning we
(34:53):
would never get there and wewouldn't understand, which is
absurd, but anyway, oh well, themoney doesn't grow on trees,
right? We get that a lot too,which
is so funny, because money isactually paper. So I just find
this so ironic. It's justprinted. But yeah, I just my
(35:15):
mother freed us, and moneyenabled her to take a leap. And
it's crazy. She had to hide themoney, though, that's the crazy
part, right?
It was still hard. I mean, myGod, because she had to pay for
two Oh, my God, so crazy. Yeah,she had to hide the money. But
going back to that story, I tellthat story not only to emphasize
my mother as being a superhero,which I now she's going to have
(35:38):
to listen to this podcast, butshe is. But the fact that that
was the moment I became awarethat money has it's complicated
and I and a belief that I still,you know, work through, is the
belief that it's not alwaysthere for you, right? Because
that, right? That was the momentit got wiped away. You know,
(36:01):
it's like I went from reallycomfortable to suddenly we can't
pay for groceries. And what wasinteresting is I kind of maybe
subconsciously embedded thisfeeling and that thought in my
head, and then as I grew up,what happened was that money
would be there for me, and Iwould make lots of it, and then
(36:21):
it would suddenly not be therefor me. And then I would have
these dips. So I call it thefeast or famine cycle of lots of
money coming my way and then nomoney, and then lots of money
coming my way and no money. Andso what ended up happening was I
would hit, you know, some, I hita couple Financial Rock bottoms,
and I, I remember one where itwas like, actually, right around
(36:45):
the pandemic time, and I hadmade all the most money I'd ever
made the year before. I mean, itwas six figures, and I had never
made that much before, and thensuddenly we were at zero, you
know. And I remember being like,okay, so I'm really sick of
being on this feast or faminecycle. And I didn't realize how
(37:09):
deep it went. It did go back tomy childhood, the feeling of
security, and then insecurity,security and insecurity. And I
had one of those, you know,moments again, where the I call
them, the i I'm done, momentswhere I was sitting on the
beach, um, the pandemic had juststarted. I was struggling
(37:30):
financially. I didn't see anyprospects in sight. And I, at
this point, I had been kind ofworn down by my career already.
I was like, All right, I feelreally stuck. So I felt stuck in
a career. I didn't like I feltbroke and I felt broken all at
the same time. And I remembersitting on the beach, it was
winter time, and I just therewas a lighthouse in front, like
(37:51):
in the distance. And I just,again, I pray to the universe,
God, Spirit, whatever you wantto call it. And it was like I
was looking at the lighthouse,and I was like, Help Help me.
Help me stop going through thisfeast and famine cycle. Help me
stop being broke. Help me stopfeeling broken and stuck. Help I
(38:14):
need help. I don't ever want tofeel broke ever again. And of
course, God did not speak back.
I heard no I heard no voice. AndI realized, you know, nobody's
coming to save me. I was goingto have to, I was going to have
to take action and change mylife. It was either I was going
to keep doing what I was doingor I was going to change it. And
(38:37):
then that was the moment where Istood up. I literally stood up,
drew a line in the sand in frontof myself and said, Okay, I'm
done. This is me telling God theuniverse myself, that I am done
living like this, and that Iwill do everything in my power
to learn about money and changemy life. I want to be rich. I
(38:57):
want to be wealthy. And the nextthree years were really rough,
and I learned everything. Ilearned so much about money, and
now I went from somebody stuckon a beach feeling broken,
broken and stuck, to I'msomebody who is sharing my money
mistakes, my money messes, tohelp other women empower them,
(39:19):
and I'm building a seven figurebusiness, slowly but surely. I'm
somebody who definitely believesI'm worthy of wealth, that I can
build a wealthy business,helping women get wealthy, doing
what they love. It's perfect. Ilove
it. What could be better? Andthere's also that lovely idea
that we can all be wealthy,like, there's, there's there's
(39:41):
that that also weird shame, kindof you know, money's dirty. I
don't want to talk about money.
I don't want to. No, I don'twant money. Yeah, you do? You
want wealth? You want abundance.
It's okay, right? It's okay. Thepodcast class I took that
started all this, Kathy Hellerworked a lot with mindset, and
she said, I want all I know Iwant comp. Here the wealthy
(40:01):
woman club, you know, she goes,I want company. I want all women
to feel abundance in their life,not just money, right? Abundance
of all sorts, but it's okay towant money. It's okay to be
wealthy. It's okay to begenerous, you know, and be able
to give whoever you want to workto, to any charity you want to
be, you know, balanced and happyand wealthy and yay, you right,
(40:25):
like, and you're teaching otherpeople, like, it's okay, yeah,
I would say, you know, thedesire to want to be wealthy is
a human desire. Becauseultimately, what you're saying
is, I desire to have everythingI need and want to live up to my
fullest potential. That's reallyhow I interpret wealth. I
interpret that. And yes, youneed the funds to support
(40:49):
whatever that is, whether that'sstarting a podcast and being
able to buy a microphone or, youknow, being able to buy a
website so you can share whatyou do. You know, at the end of
the day, what I see wealthy asis just having access and
resources and having everythingyou need, everything you desire,
to just live your life the waythat you deeply believe you are
(41:12):
destined to live. And I knowthat most of us, deep down, know
we were destined for more thanmediocre, because I do believe
everybody has something, apurpose that they can fulfill.
And, you know, one thing I wantto say is, don't let your past
dictate your future. You know, Icould have been the kid or the
young woman who still believethat I'm stuck in a broken and
(41:34):
broken and I have to be paycheckto paycheck, and I have to stay
like this. I have to let fearkeep dictating my life. You can
decide I am actually worthy ofwealth, and I am willing to open
myself up to learn about money,to learn the skill and to change
my life one step at a time. Andyou know, that's what I'm doing,
like I help one of my clientspay off $27,000 in debt to get a
(41:59):
new home. She was living withher. She was living with her
parents, with $27,000 in debt,with so much fantastic and
feeling like a hot money mess.
She she had a little boy and ahusband, and she was just
struggling. And, you know, wegot to the heart of it, we got
to the mindset, we got to thestrategy. And I watched her have
her, I'm done moment right,where she drew the line in the
(42:21):
sand and she did the work. And,you know, I think, really, for
anybody out there, the firststep is the mindset. It is
believing you are worthy ofwealth. And for most of us,
we've heard so many messageslike you said, you know that
it's a root of all evil, or itdoesn't grow on trees, or what,
what? There are other people,right? The rich people are other
people. Well, it can be you, itcan be you. And, yeah, you know,
(42:44):
I, I lead a workshop calledworthy of wealth, and I want to
share with something with you,which is, I think the number one
thought that is holding mostpeople back. Oh, great. And it
is this. It is the belief thatyou are not enough and that
there is not enough, that is, Iwould say, the one thought, one
(43:08):
belief that affects your entirefinancial life,
that's so powerful in many, manyways. A lot of us are struggling
with that, not enough,100% think about, if you will,
deeply believed I'm enough, justas I am, how that changes
(43:29):
everything that changes how youspend your money, right?
Because, going back to what yousaid earlier about fear, right,
that you had mentioned Lynne.
You know that fear, that fearof, oh, we gotta wear deodorant.
We gotta, you know, women havethis fear, and I think that
ultimately comes from the beliefor not enough, just as we are
(43:53):
so right and not good enough.
That's one of the, I forgetwhere I saw it, but it was one
of the meditations, one of the,one of the affirmations that
were recommended for especiallyfor women. You know, every day,
just wake up and say, I amenough. I have enough. The
universe will provide. I'm finethe way I am. I'm enough. And it
was just sort of radical to me.
(44:16):
It's like, Yeah, we reallydon't, deep down, believe that
we are. That's so powerful.
Whitney, I think that really isthe crux
it is. I started to realize thatas the number one thought that
holds people back, becausecomes out of that you're so
right, so much comes out ofthat.
Because, okay, so the beliefthat you're not enough, right?
(44:38):
If you're walking aroundthinking you're not enough, then
what do you do? You spend yourmoney on things that'll
hopefully help you, make youfeel enough, right? So, fancy
perfume, the makeup, the hair, Idon't know, a car, a house, a
huge mansion, because you haveto let the whole entire universe
know that you're enough.
(44:59):
So. See, I'm enough, yeah, andalso for me, it was apologizing
very often, you know, sort ofalways being sorry and making up
to people and, you know, becauseI'm just not good enough, right?
When I was younger, I was sowimpy, I was it was just always,
you know, giving in to otherpeople and trying to, you know,
(45:20):
fit in, and apologizing way toomuch. I think a lot of women
apologize way too much. I agreewith stuff they didn't even
do. We're sorry for our evenourselves existing. I'm sorry,
you know, I'm sorry my legs areon the subway a little, you
know, they, they actually did astudy where men sit take up more
space, but we have to be small.
So I think that is part of liketeaching women that they are
(45:44):
worthy of wealth is saying I amenough. Like, if I if I could
teach one single thing to womeneverywhere, it's you are enough,
just as you are right now. Youhave enough to do whatever
you're wanting to do right now.
You There are resources in frontof you. Maybe you haven't
noticed them yet, because you'reso focused on the lack that you
(46:05):
begin this is true that when youbegin to shift to there is
enough. Everything I need isright in front of me. I'm
enough. You begin to seeopportunities and resources that
were always in front of youthat you didn't see before. And
I've also heard that theuniverse will give you whatever
you're focusing on. So if you'refocusing on lack, if you're
living in lack and focusing onlack and believing that's your
(46:26):
reality, you're going to getmore lack, because that's all
the universe knows how to do, orwhatever universe, or higher
self, or whatever. I even heardsomething recently that kind of
flipped me out the way this wassaid. It was somebody said, I
don't want. How did they say it?
I want, oh, I want more money. Iwant more money. And the person,
(46:50):
it was a channeled message, butit's a very fun Channeler, and
he said, if you say I want moremoney, the universe will always
keep you in that state, it willmake it true. You will always
want more money. You have tosay, I'm grateful for having
abundance. I'm grateful forhaving more money. You have to
be in that space like you said.
You have to get out of the stuckand start seeing more so if you
(47:14):
say you want more money, orsomeday or what you know you're
making that distance between youand the money. There's a
spiritual, like sort of piece tothis where you're going to just
continue that wanting, insteadof having, like, right now in
the present. And I was like,well, that's weird, but in on
(47:35):
some level, it just rang true tome. Oh,
absolutely. And I say the youknow, one thing that I do is
help people a lot with theirmindset, because you're carrying
just so many old beliefs andlimiting beliefs. And if you've
been broke and strugglingfinancially for a long time and
not necessarily broke, maybeyou're doing pretty all right.
(47:58):
But you know you could, you knowyou you have bigger dreams for
yourself, or it's just always astruggle, or, you know, it's
just hard, like, if money's justhard for you, there are some
thoughts that you are havingthat are causing you to feel
that way, and that's where themoney mindset part of it comes
into it's such a huge part ofit. What are you thinking? What
(48:19):
your thoughts have led you here.
So what are yourfaiths? Are you holding? Right?
That's so crucial. That's soimportant. So you're you get
down to the brass tax. And Ilove that. I love that about
what you do. So is thereanything else that you'd like to
share with us and make sure thatyou I'm going to put in the show
notes how to get in touch withyou. But can you tell us how to
get in touch with you, oranything you'd like our
(48:41):
listeners to know?
So I guess I The biggesttakeaway is, I hope that
whoever's listening can remindthemselves that they are enough,
exactly where they are, that Iam enough, and even just saying
that to yourself over and overagain as often as possible will
begin to shift something insideof you. So I would say that's
(49:03):
one of the biggest takeawaysthat I hope that people carry
with them. And yeah, they canfind me on my website, Whitney
and ellis.com and with an E, sow, H, I T, anyway, a N, N, E, L,
S, E, L, L, i s.com I'm also anon Instagram under the same
(49:23):
name, Whitney Ann Ellis, andyeah, I'm running a worthy of
wealth workshop. It'll always beavailable. If you miss the date
to join, there will be replayopportunities. And it's really
about upgrading your mindset,because that is the first step
in money transformation. Becauseeven when you do, like the good
money habits, and you work onit, and they don't stick, part
(49:45):
of the problem is your mindset.
So you got to get the mindset insync with the strategy and the
tactics of getting yourfinancial shift together, as I
like to say, so that you can soyou can find your dreams and
worry less and do whatever youcan dream up. Because, like.
Life, it can be amazing. And themoment you decide you're done
living it, if you're unhappywith your life, that is the
moment that you get to step intotransformation. So I think
(50:08):
you'regoing to inspire tons of people
when they hear this. I can'tthank you enough for sharing.
This is great info.
Thank you so much, Len forhaving me. It was a joy, and I'm
so glad we met in person. Metoo,
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