Mental Health and Wellness with Melanie Lockert

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Mental Health and Wealth with Melanie Lockert

If you’ve been listening to the show for a while, you’re going to be very familiar with my guest today, Melanie Lockert, who is a regular on our monthly happy hour episodes and a long time business bestie of mine.

Over the past six years, Melanie and I have been part of a mini-mastermind group each encouraging and helping the other navigate the crazy world of running a business. Melanie joins me today to talk about her latest business endeavor, Mental Health and Wealth dot com and the Mental Health and Wealth Show. She is literally tackling two of the most taboo subjects out there and doing it in my opinion, amazingly. She joins me today to share more about this important business she is building and why two topics that seem very scary can actually be fun and empowering to dive into.

What are we drinking?

Melanie - Limeade Jalapeño Juice from Trader Joe’s

Shannon - Black Cherry Schweppes

Podcast Notes

  • Melanie managed deardebt.com consistently from 2013 to 2016. She paid off her debt and the blog turned into a book. After that, she lost some steam.

  • She then started Lola Retreat. Before starting mentalhealthandwealth.com, she would get so many emails from people who said their debt made them want to kill themselves.

  • Melanie became associated organically with mental health and money. She knew there was something else she wanted to do next and she decided to lean into this topic.

  • The mentalhealthandwealth.com URL was available, so she bought it. Melanie can talk about these two topics endlessly, so she decided to start a podcast in 2020.

  • These two topics are intertwined. Mental health can affect your spending and saving habits and money can affect your mental health. There are so many feelings associated with money.

  • People don’t realize how much we are impacted by our finances and our mental state. However, you have to be in the right time and place to be willing to face these topics.

  • The podcast is meant for people who are dealing with these issues directly and it is meant for someone who is on the sidelines and listens to be a better friend or parent.

  • Melanie was frightened in 2013 and 2014 to write about her debt and depression. People emailed her their life secrets, because there is so much shame around money and debt and depression. Many are hiding it from their friends and families.

  • When we can’t share this with our friends and family, it takes a toll on your mental health. The scariest thing is living with this and avoiding addressing it.

  • When you are living in dysfunction and that is all you know, it seems normal. You don’t realize there is something better on the other side. Melanie didn’t know that.

  • If they are both hard, don’t you want to do the one that will feel better in the long run?

  • At the end of Melanie’s nine-year relationship, she didn’t know who she was without her boyfriend. The year after the breakup she rebounded a lot and that blew up. The second year, she went on a man ban and didn’t date or talk to men, so she could find out who she was without a man.

  • Melanie discovered boxing, mindfulness, and meditating and she spent time with her friends. She took that time and she is now in another relationship, but it is a healthy one.

  • Melanie has been in therapy every week for three years. Starting is the scariest part. Your partner affects your money and mental health a lot.

  • Both mental health and wealth are fixable. You can change your mindset and get to a positive place. It is hard, but there are resources out there, like The Financial Gym and apps.

  • Melanie found her therapist on openpathcollective.org. They offer lower cost options for counseling. Melanie is also on medication and it helps her live in a more normalized state.

  • Scientists used to think you had a happiness set point. If your happiness set point is always on the sad side, it is really difficult. In the past couple of decades scientists have realized that the brain is neuroplastic, which means with new changes and new behaviors, you can rewire your brain to have a different happiness set point.

  • Learning a new language or a physical language helps you rewire your brain, because it is a positive habit. Find different ways to change your happiness set point. Depression and anxiety are not life sentences. If you do the work and create positive habits, you can change your set point.

  • In the last year, Melanie can tell a difference. She doesn’t get as low as she did previously.

  • On the podcast, Melanie talks to therapists. It is an easy way to get free therapy.

  • Melanie recently started Mental Health and Wealth hangouts. The people that attended like them so much, the asked to do them more frequently. These are free and held every other week. It is a way to connect with people face to face on Zoom.

Takeaway: My biggest takeaway is that tackling the things that scare us the most head on is actually the most liberating and least scary thing you can do for yourself. I promise that nothing is really as scary as the fear you may currently be living in.

Random Three Questions

  1. What are you binge watching?

  2. When was the last time you cried?

  3. Once you can travel again, where do you want to go?

Connect with Melanie

Podcast: The Mental Health and Wealth Show

Website: mentalhealthandwealth.com

Twitter: @melanielockert

Instagram: @melanielockert and @mentalhealthandwealth

If you have any topics you would like me to cover on this podcast, or If you’d like to get in the financially naked hot seat, 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.

If you’d like to talk to my team at the Financial Gym to help you overcome any fear or anxiety you have around your finances so you can become more empowered by them, I hope you’ll be brave enough to reach out to us. My trainers have literally seen it all and we don’t care how you got here, we just care about getting you where you want to go. So head over to, or send friends to, financialgym.com to get set up today.

Shannon McLayComment