Getting Financially Naked with Hannah
Getting Financially Naked with Hannah
At the Financial Gym, we call the first meeting you have with a trainer the “financially naked session.” In this meeting, you share everything about yourself financially so the trainer knows where you’re starting and so he or she can make the plan for how you can get where you want to go. Above all other meetings, this one scares clients the most because they are afraid or ashamed of their financial situation. A few months back on this podcast, almost a year ago, I shared my financially naked session, and now it is a regular series on the podcast.
Getting in the hotseat today is our client, Hannah, Founder of HZ Organized and performer in New York City. She joins me today to discuss her road to financial health and share how much unexpected success she’s had in a short period of time.
Be aware that Hannah was very open about her struggles with an eating disorder, so if this type of conversation will have triggers for you, I recommend not listening to it.
What Are We Drinking?
Hannah — Vodka Soda with fresh squeezed lemon
Shannon — Tito’s with Black Cherry Schweppes
Podcast Notes
Shannon met Hannah on the day of her financially naked session six months ago. Hannah was really nervous, because she knew she wasn’t in a good place financially.
She improved her life in other ways, and she went into the meeting with a positive attitude. Hannah put on a song and she asked her trainer, Karishma, to dance with her.
Trainers go through intensive training when they are hired and there is ongoing education moving forward.
The Financial Gym recently hired 21 new people. On their last day of training, they had a fireside chat with Shannon, and she said her highest expectation of them is that they are good people (good to each other, good to their clients, and good to themselves). Specifically for trainers, they need to have compassion and empathy for their clients.
Karishma knew that Hannah needed to dance to be comfortable, so she danced with her.
The Gym hired 11 trainers out of 300 applicants. There is a specialness to the role. Shannon is the OG trainer and the role is based on her and her work. It is all about the way they treat their clients and each other.
Shannon wants clients to have a great experience and she wants it to be a place where they love to work.
Hannah’s first memory of money is a Bandaid box. That was her first savings account and she saved over $200 before she was ten years old. She finally spent it on something. She loved saving, but she also really loved spending.
Hannah has her own home organizing company, HZ Organized, based in New York City, and she is also an actor.
She decided to go into acting, because of Beauty and the Beast. When she was four, Hannah’s mom took her to see Beauty and the Beast on Broadway. Chip, the teacup, was played by a little boy. She thought it was magical.
Hannah would see a show and would re-create it with her Barbies.
Hannah grew really early and she was very tall. She was pushed into sports, but she didn’t care about them.
Her mom was a public school teacher and one of the teachers ran a musical theater program after school and invited Hannah. She loved the playfulness and storytelling.
Shannon fell in love with theater when she was 11 years old, but she decided not to pursue it when she was older.
Theater is just who Hannah is. She loves it and doesn’t know anything different.
For a number of years in her 20s, Hannah didn’t pursue acting, because of some mental health issues she was dealing with.
Hannah had an eating disorder since she was 10 years old. She put herself in a treatment program when she was 22. She devoted her early and mid twenties to getting mentally and physically well. She invested a ton of money into finding the right team of people to help her and setting herself up for the rest of her life.
She had an unhealthy relationships with the idea of what she needed to look like as an actor, and she needed to take some time away to change her mindset and decide if she still wanted to pursue acting.
It took time for her to stand in her integrity and own her self worth. It was hard and it still is hard.
She realizes may not get roles because she looks a certain way or doesn’t look a certain way, but acting is still important to her.
Being disorganized gives Hannah a lot of anxiety and it cost her a lot of money and time. She taught herself how to get organized and she realized she could help other people with it too.
If you love something, you aren’t focusing on how hard it is, you are focusing on how you can help other people.
If you can’t believe in you, how can you expect anyone else to believe in you. You have to have that belief in yourself in order to be successful.
After Shannon had Will, she manifested her unhappiness through eating and drinking. She was questioning her decision of being married and being a mom. Mental health manifests itself in different ways. Be kind to people every day, because you have no idea what they are carrying around.
Hannah wasn’t able to work through her eating disorder, until she was ready. She now focuses on having a healthy mindset, and that affects the decisions she makes.
Hannah now evaluates if her choices line up with her values and what she wants. She asks herself if she eating because she is stressed out or to nourish herself. She does the same with her spending.
Shannon has clients that spend out of control, because they are so unhappy in their job. They cannot afford to have that job.
Financially naked questions:
Birthdate: November 24
Employer: HZ Organized & various acting jobs
Annual Income: Between $75,000 and $100,000; primary source is organizing clients (was $42,000 when she started with the Gym)
Checking Account: $21,000 (six months ago, it was $7,400)
Savings Account: $1,300
Retirement Savings: Not yet
Student Loans: Paid off
Credit Card Debt: $2,500 (0% balance transfer)
Credit Score: 710
Monthly Rent: $2,350
Health Insurance: Still qualifies for state plan; preparing financially to pay a couple hundred dollars going forward
Business Insurance: $1,000 per year
Renter’s Insurance: $12.50 per month
Disability Insurance: Will be talking to Karishma soon
Children: No
Will: No; discuss with Karishma at the next quarterly review
Average Monthly Expenses: Between $1,500 and $2,500
1 - 3 Year Goals: Continue to get financially fit so she can feel really good about her finances. Hannah currently lives in a studio apartment and wants to move into a one-bedroom. She wants to get a puppy or two and travel more. Hannah is unsure about having kids, but she did freeze her eggs.
Sacred Cows: Eating healthy, making time to celebrate friends, where she lives. Her ultimate goal is financial freedom.
Hannah had success in other areas in her life, because she had a coach. Whatever financial health is to you, you are going to attract more of that.
There are many parts to the financial plan you get at the Gym. There is a lot of information. Half the battle is writing it down and it is critical.
The job of the trainer is to help clients connect where they need to connect and also break it down. You are not going to do it all in a day.
One goal in Hannah’s plan was to increase her salary to $90,000 from $42,000.
Hannah cried at her first session and her second session. When Hannah cries, then she can move through it. She didn’t like where she was and figured out what to do about it.
Just because you are making $42,000 doesn’t mean you can’t make $90,000. Everything is possible, you just haven’t done it yet.
There is not one right way to handle your finances. It needs to be right for you and that may not look like what other people are doing.
TAKEAWAY: My biggest takeaway is the importance of knowing your financial digits and what it will take for you to achieve your hopes and dreams. Many of us are really good about dreaming, but not good about putting the finances together, mostly out of fear that it won’t come together, but Hannah is a great example of exactly why you should be doing this.
Random Three Questions
What is a show you like to binge watch?
Where is someplace you would like to travel?
If you won $20,000, what would you do with it?
Connect with Hannah
Instagram: @hzorganized
If you’d like to get financially naked with my team, and drop any fear or shame you have around money, I hope you’ll reach out to us at the Financial Gym. My trainers have literally seen it all, so nothing will surprise us. We don’t care how you got here, we just care about getting you where you want to go. The great news is that Martinis and Your Money listeners get 15% off Financial Gym services. So if you’re ready to manifest your dreams, like Hannah in 2019, head over to or send friends to, financialgym.com to get signed up today.