Gratitude for 2021 with the Happy Hour Ladies
Hello Martinis and Your Money Listeners! Today is the last Friday of the month and my regular listeners know that on the last Friday of the month, I host the happy hour on the podcast where I gather great friends with me to drink cheap drinks and talk about money topics. For the month of November on the podcast, we’ve been talking about something we call Gym Magic at Financial Gym. Gym Magic happens when a client experiences a positive financial health result after joining the Gym and focusing on their finances. Helping clients find Gym Magic is probably one of the biggest reasons why I’ve committed everything I own to building Financial Gym. I love hearing success stories, especially with all of the crazy stories going on in the world right now, I thought we could all use a month of hearing about Magic and it continues to Happy Hour. The ladies share some of their stories of finding financial success and the surprising ways in which they found it.
What are we drinking?
Melanie from The Mental Health and Wealth Show - Pumpkin Spice Robious tea w/ Almond Milk
Kassandra from kassandradasent.com - Plain water
Joy, Level 2 Trainer at the Gym - Citizen Cider: Ginger Infused Hard Apple Cider
Shannon - Bota Box Nighthawk
HOW TO BELIEVE IN MAGIC
Internally, we call it Gym Magic, but it goes by many names. God, The Universe, The Secret, Manifestation etc..
The first step is having the belief that things are possible. Even if you haven’t seen it yet. It might take time to adjust your mindset, but having faith is hugely important.
Gym Magic is one of the core values of the gym and Shannon has seen countless examples of it in her ten years of doing this work. She sat down with a few of the trainers earlier this month and they shared some incredible stories about magic. Listen to that here!
If you’re skeptical, just stop being skeptical and try
When people say it’s impossible, HAVE YOU TRIED?
TAPPING INTO THE MAGIC & FLOWING WITH LIFE
It is so critical to put it out there, write it down. Look at it, believe in it. Even if it doesn’t happen right away.
Surround yourself around people who will raise your vibrations, people who dream big and challenge you to dream big for yourself.
If you feel stuck or are getting the same results, it might be time to step out of the comfort zone.
Even if you don’t reach your goal, remember taking steps helps you further yourself to success.
As you grow, people will react differently to you. Prepare yourself for that and know it’s part of the process.
Setbacks are actually part of the success, you have to look forward and say what’s next.
Life will happen. There will be high highs and low lows. It’s inevitable to oscillate between the two. It happens often, you hit one goal and it brings a whole new set of challenges.
MELANIE’S MAGIC
On January 3, 2013, Melanie released a blog post. She wrote about being in student loan debt and a goal to pay it off in four year. At the time, she was making $12 at a temp job and didn’t have an exact plan yet. (You can read that here)
Shortly after that, she landed a full time job and because of writing her blog, she realized there were ways other people were making money. Over a year later, I was able to become a self-employed writer because of the blog.
Even though she’s had success being self-employed, 2020 was her slowest year. Melanie decided to hire a business coach, even though it seemed like a lot of money to spend at the time. Even though the experience wasn’t what she expected, since then, she’s had her best year yet. She’s now working with better partnerships and at higher rates than ever.
JOY & SHANNON SEE IT WITH THEIR CLIENTS
Joy was the first trainer to work with a client who had negative dollars in the bank.
When clients show up for themselves, something happens. Trainers don’t have control of the timeline, so she’s released any timing expectations when working with clients. Sometimes the magic happens within the first quarter and sometimes it takes a few years.
Even when things take time or don’t go exactly as planned, there are little bits of magic along the way.
The gym sees clients surpass their goals constantly. Sometimes we sit down with clients and after running the numbers, tell them they need to be making $20k, $30k, or even $40k more than they are now. We don’t deliver that news and say ‘good luck,’ but work with clients to make it happen. This is the number to make the dreams and goals closer to reality, now how can we get there? And they DO IT!
It can be easier for them to negotiate when they have a goal number and really understand their worth.
Joy tells clients to write their number on a post it note. Any way to get that number to stick in your brain. The magic and manifestation works passively.
KASSANDRA’S LEAPS OF FAITH
Kassandra describes her journey as a series of leaps of faith and stepping out without having a concrete end result in mind. As a person of faith, Kassandra believes you should bring everything to God. Both when you need Him the most and when you feel you need Him the least.
In 2009 when Kassandra was deep in debt, she turned to God in prayer. When you start to take action, even if they feel like small steps, it creates a new energy. Signs of causation and confirmation start to appear. She began to see more and more of them.
She paid off her debt in 3.5 years instead of 5. At the time, Kassandra was preparing to get married and her goal was to not bring debt into the marriage.
Kassandra and Shannon talked about this on Episode 6 in November 2014. Listen to Dating and in Debt here .
Kassandra is the first person to create generational wealth in her family.
SHANNON’S THOUGHTS
Shannon has shared about her faith on the podcast before and you can listen to her talk about it more in depth on the episode: Forty and Faithful
Most of Shannon’s manifestations are tied to the gym. She wants everyone involved with the gym to be successful, from the clients, to the trainers, to the investors and everyone in between.
The journey isn’t linear, and there are times when things are tough. That’s when you really have to look for the small bits of magic, the signs, or ‘breadcrumbs’ as Shannon likes to call them.
Shannon has raised 10 million dollars for the gym. This is huge. Less than 2% of all FinTech founders are female and they receive less than 1% of the funding. In this space, less than 2% of female founders have ever raised $1 million in funding.
She calls the signs breadcrumbs. Sometimes they’re teeny tiny specks you have to look close for. If you look for them, they are there, the signs you are moving in the right direction.
FINAL THOUGHTS
MELANIE: Going to therapy every week for 3.5 years really helped tackle unconscious programming. A lot of us are on auto-pilot until something major happens and we are forced to reckon with it. Going to therapy helps uncover and get ahead of it. It’s been helpful to acknowledge negative thoughts and bad feelings simply exist. They are not the enemy or some awful thing. They are just there. Joy doesn’t last forever, but neither does pain.
KASSANDRA: What has been the most important is controlling inputs and outputs in my brain. Understanding that it is an amazing tool and it will react to what it is being fed. Analyze the information you’re taking in: is it helpful or harmful to your present life and future goals? There is a lot of limiting what is being consumed, how much time I’m spending, and where the content is coming from.
JOY: A therapist really taught Joy about the importance of self-care. Stepping back from workaholic tendencies. It is easy to slip into auto-pilot and become stuck in bad habits. It is so important to rest and find a mindfulness practice. Living in the world the last two years has been an uncomfortable experience on top of everyday stressors. Find the time for meaningful rest, practice mindfulness, and create space for new good habits.
SHANNON: Finding the magic isn’t literally crunching the numbers, it’s the actions you are taking. Get mindful. What would I want to do, what does that look like? Getting there helps you find the magic. Take all the steps, put action into place. Believe in the magic for yourself, your friends, and your family. Believe it is out there. Now is the perfect time to take these steps, get in that place, and lay the path for big things in 2022.
RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
Mindfulness, by Ellen J. Langer (Recommended by Melanie) - book
Palouse Mindfulness (Recommended by Melanie) - Free website / content
Attached, Amir Levine (Recommended by Melanie) - book
Designing the Mind (Recommended by Kassandra) - this one is very practical about how the brain works. It dives into the correlation between behaviors and emotions.
TAKEAWAY: My biggest takeaway is that I have seen Gym Magic enough to know that it’s real. You don’t have to be a member of the Gym to find it, but you do have to believe in accomplishing something big, even when you don’t feel like it can ever happen, remember how vast the universe is and know that it can deliver big things back to you, you just have to believe and put the plan in place to accomplish it.
If you have any topics you would like for me to cover on this podcast, I encourage you to email me to shannon@fingyms.com or join the private Martinis and Your Money facebook group and let me know what you want to hear.
We’re almost at the end of another year, have you accomplished big goals in 2021? Are you ready to level up in 2022? If you’d like someone to help you manifest and plan for financial goals of all shapes and sizes, I hope you’ll check out my team at The Financial Gym. And remember that Martinis and Your Money listeners get 15% off of your Financial Gym membership. We’d love to help you find your Gym Magic sooner than later!