You may think that my economics degree from Smith College made me savvy with my business.
And that managing billions—with a capital B—of dollars of other people’s money during my twenty-one years managing investment portfolios with Goldman Sachs and the Bank of Israel would have taught me how to invest and manage my money.
Or, that looking at other businesses would teach me how to be an entrepreneur.
But you’d be wrong.
You’re not alone: I thought my experience inoculated me, too, and ensured I’d be successful at running my business.
In 2002, my husband was diagnosed with cancer, and his mother died suddenly shortly afterward. At the time, I had six children, the youngest only seven months old (at present I’m a grandmother of nine—and counting).
Fear set in as I scrambled to manage our household while caring for my husband and our young family—while growing a business.
I came to the shocking realization—despite all my experience and intelligence—my money was in disarray—and I was determined to change that.
My first step was looking—really looking—at our finances and my mindset.
Here’s what I discovered:
The Goldman Sachs pension I expected to be healthy was stagnant—and had hardly grown since I’d left the company.
Money invested via a money manager was significantly less than expected because of the massive fees generated by his churning of our investments. Our nest egg was more of a nest amoeba.
The “hot tip” I followed ended up losing two-thirds of our investment capital.
My self-worth took a huge hit.
I was an intelligent woman who had successfully managed billions of dollars for other people. I understood finances and investments and business.
How could I, the business professional, effectively flush my future financial security down the toilet?
I had to look at my money stories and those I inherited from my family.
And my beliefs about time and worthiness.
That’s when I had a BIG A-HA.
If I could mess up that badly, how were other women without my expertise and knowledge supposed to successfully manage or make smart choices with their money and create lives they love? Many women say that they “just don’t have a head” for numbers or know social media or technology. But I definitely did not have those excuses.
Unbeknownst to me, I had the following at a cellular level:
Fear of loss
Fear of being seen
Fear of being too successful
Fear of not being enough
I held tight to what I had, played small, and lived in a constant state of low-level anxiety.
Then, it hit me. I wasn’t alone. Women all over the world have absorbed the same fears (regardless of their family history).
We’re one or two generations from:
- The Great Depression
- World War II
- Gaining the right to vote
- Being permitted to own property, bank accounts, or credit cards in our names
It’s no wonder our relationship to money is all screwed up.
That’s how I discovered my
real mission
I never want other women to feel or experience what I had.
So many intelligent women entrepreneurs unconsciously stop themselves from achieving all they know they’re capable of.
They hustle, procrastinate, overspend, take on less-than-ideal clients, creating a cycle of boom-bust-stress.
Somewhere, deep inside, they believe they’re not good enough, they’re not made for success.
Here’s the truth: Success isn’t meant for only a select few.
YOU too can have success—and money. And you can create it all without sacrificing your integrity. No one’s shown you how—and that’s an easy fix.
I spent years studying the most effective business practices, self-worth, and our relationship to for me AND my clients. If you’re ready to genuinely thrive to exceed your goals, let’s chat.
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