Total Health in Midlife BONUS Episode : The Fearless Money Mind Summit

Imagine waking up one day and realizing that you have no idea where your money is. How it’s being invested. Or if you’re on track for retirement. Now, imagine that day is today. For countless women, this isn’t just a bad dream. It is reality. But what if I told you that financial empowerment is within your reach? That you could go from feeling lost and overwhelmed to confident and in control.

In this episode, my guest and I are pulling back the curtain on the world of personal finance. We’re going to show you why so many women feel disconnected from their money, and more importantly, how to change that. You’ll learn practical steps to take control of your finances no matter your age or situation. And we’ll reveal the surprising link between financial health and your overall well-being.

Now, if you’ve ever felt intimidated by money talk, or if you’re ready to secure your financial future, you can’t afford to miss this episode. Your relationship with money is about to change forever. Stay tuned.

Welcome to Total Health and Midlife, the podcast for women embracing the pivotal transformation from the daily grind to the dawn of a new chapter. I’m Elizabeth, your host and fellow traveler on this journey.

As a Life and Health Coach, I am intimately familiar with the changes and challenges we face during this stage. Shifting careers, changing relationships, our new bodies, and redefining goals and needs as we start to look to the future and ask, what do I want?

In this podcast, we’ll explore physical, mental, and emotional wellness, offering insights and strategies to achieve optimal health through these transformative years.

Yes, it’s totally possible.

Join me in this amazing journey of body, mind, and spirit, where we’re not just improving our health, but transforming our entire lives.

Hey everyone, welcome to a Special Bonus episode of the Total Health in Midlife podcast. I am your host, Elizabeth Sherman, and I am so excited to have you here today. Today, I am diving into a conversation that could change your relationship with money forever. And who doesn’t love that?

My guest today is Elizabeth Rose, a powerhouse in the financial services industry. After witnessing countless women struggle with finances during divorce, Elizabeth wrote the book, ‘Sister, Own Your Finances,’ a guide to help women turn financial chaos into clarity.

In today’s episode, you will discover why so many women feel disconnected from their finances and how to change that. We’ll talk about practical steps to take control of your money no matter your age or situation. And how financial empowerment can boost your overall health and well-being.

Elizabeth Rose is on a mission to equip, encourage, and empower women to master their money and their lives. you do not want to miss what she has to share. So, are you ready to take charge of your financial future? Welcome, Elizabeth to the show.

All right, everyone, welcome Elizabeth Rose to the Total Health in Midlife podcast. Elizabeth, I am so excited that you’re here. We just had our interview for your summit that we’re going to be talking about today. And let’s start with introducing yourself, telling everyone who you are, like who you help, everything that you do.

Elizabeth Rose: Well, first of all, thank you for having me. I’m honored to be here, and I just appreciate this so much. I enjoyed our conversation the last time. So, a little bit about me, I have been in the financial industry for 40 years, which seems absolutely impossible. Because I feel like I’m still 40 years old. I’ve spent all my life in the financial industry. And the last 28 years, I’ve been in the mortgage side.

And if you back up to like 2002, 2003, I started seeing more and more women come walk into my doors. That’s when we used to do things face to face. And they were experiencing divorce. And so, I later got a certification in that space inside the lending space to work with divorcing people.

But what kept happening over and over is I’m seeing these women who are strong and they’re smart. And they’re very well able and they have all the stuff. But yet, they were clueless about what was going on because they had left all the financial decision making up to their husband. And I think so many of us grew up being taught that the man takes care of the money, and the income, and the assets, and all that. And we take care of the children in the house. And to them, it was natural to do that. But they were clueless. They didn’t know where to start.

And so, fast forward another 10 years or so, this was just becoming more and more predominant. And primarily because I’m meeting with more women in that situation. But what struck me is, and I don’t know when I had this light bulb moment, but I thought, you know. Remember the slogan, and I think it was like a cigarette commercial, but it was like he’d come along. Oh, yeah, it was Virginia Slims. You’ve come a long way, baby.

Elizabeth: You’re aging us.

Elizabeth Rose: I know. I know. We’ll just say it was our moms, right?

Elizabeth: Yes. Anyway, go ahead.

Elizabeth Rose: But that slogan popped in my head one day. And it was like, here we are. And it’s 2000 and at the time was probably 2015’ish. And I’m like, and we really haven’t come a long way. I mean, we have in many ways. But yet, our thinking and our behaviors, the way we adapt to things, we had not changed, we had not started taking responsibility. And I’m speaking generally here. Obviously, there’s some women who are very sophisticated and very hands on in their finances.

But what I was seeing was the women who weren’t. And so, that just ate at me. And it was like, something’s got to change, something’s got to give. So, in 2021, I wrote a book that was a roadmap for women to just have a foundation. It’s not like high tech, high finance stuff. It’s just the absolute foundation with regards to understanding your income and what it looks like and the different types of income. Understanding, like balancing your checkbook, putting together a budget.

And then, start allocating that money into savings and investing, and a child’s college fund, and those sort of things, and ensuring your property. So, it was things like that I wrote about in the book. And then, of course, like many things in life that just kind of started the snowball effect, you might say as, ‘okay, well, now, I need a website. And now, I need to get a little bit more serious about this because I’ve got a book out there.’ And I started coaching women more from that point up ’till now.

And I feel like it’s my calling. I really do have a heart for this. If I look back and if anybody ever asked me like, ‘what is your superpower?’ I think that’s a buzzword now. I would say it’s solving problems. Even in the mortgage space, that’s really where I shined. You know, it’s like, I don’t want to say bring me the tough stuff because it’s tough stuff and it takes time.

But I’ve always been the person like, if nobody else can figure it out, give it to Elizabeth. If she can’t figure it out, then it’s not ‘figureoutable.’ So, I’ve always been in the problem solving groove, I guess you could say. And so, helping these women, it satisfies that in me. I think I’m pretty good at it. But it makes me feel like I’m actually making a difference. And that’s really kind of how the summit evolved. It just is one thing spinning off of another.

Elizabeth: Yeah. So, first of all, when you work with clients, are you a coach? Do you help them with investments? Let’s talk a little bit about that. Like your role, when you work one on one with clients, how do you do that?

Elizabeth Rose: Well, I do not have my securities license. So, I do not help them with investments. What I do is more of a teaching style, of teaching them what type of investments, or what it is to invest. And I talked to them about when you meet with a financial planner or advisor, they’re going to talk to you about risk tolerance. And what does that mean? And what does that look like? And what do you need to be thinking about? But I don’t actually help them with the investing. I would turn them over to somebody that can do that.

Elizabeth: Got it. Okay. So, I understand. I’ve heard stories about so many women whose financial investor or financial planners won’t look at them or ask them questions or get frustrated with their questions because they find them to be too pedantic or basic or whatever. And so, what I hear you saying is like for someone who’s really like, look, ‘I need to get this ‘shiz’ together and I don’t even really know where to start.’ They would come to you. Yeah?

Elizabeth Rose: Exactly. And so, I can help them. I have done everything from sifting through a stack of papers, just to help them figure out what they have because they never knew. And they didn’t even know what statements or accounts to look for. To people who are more organized and they kind of knew what they had. They just didn’t know what to do with it. Or they didn’t know how to set themselves up to go from where they are to maybe the next step or maybe even a couple of steps higher.

Elizabeth: Yeah. Okay. So, that makes perfect sense. I love that. Okay. So, you have a summit that is starting October 15th, is it?

Elizabeth Rose: 16th.

Elizabeth: 16th. Okay. Tell us the name of the summit and how did you come up with the idea?

Elizabeth Rose: Great question. The name of the summit is ‘Fearless Money Mind.’ And then, the tagline, if you will is ‘Evolve into Outstanding Confidence and Prosperity.’ And the way I came across it is I’m almost kind of embarrassed to say this, but I was scrolling Instagram one day. And I already had my channel, and I was really wanting to grow my audience. And I’m mindlessly scrolling because I’m tired.

And all of a sudden, I came across a group that was promoting doing summits for your audience. And I thought, ‘huh,’ so I started chewing on it. And the more I thought about it, I thought, ‘this is really a great idea.’ If I’m experiencing situations with people who, you know, one of the things I was seeing at the time was friends and clients saying things to me like, ‘I’m tired, I’m overwhelmed, it’s not going to get any better.’ You’re just really stressed out. I think our current economy is not helping things at all.

That was going on in my mind and I thought, if I’m hearing that, then I would suspect other people in similar roles as me are hearing similar messages. How do we fix it? And those thoughts are going on at the same time that I see this promotion thing about doing summits. And I thought, well, what if there’s a bunch of us? Because one of the things I think happens to all of us, you don’t have to be a woman for this to happen to you. I think it’s not gender specific. It’s not age specific.

But I think we have this thought in our head that, if we don’t know something, we’re often afraid to ask about it because we don’t want to show up as stupid or appearing stupid. And we’re assuming that that’s what the other person’s going to think. Which I can tell you sitting on my side of the desk when people ask me questions and they preface it with, ‘hey, this is probably a stupid question, or hey, this is probably a silly question.’ And I always say to them, ‘look, none of them are stupid or silly.’ If you’ve never been down this road before, you should be asking questions. You should be asking all the questions.

Elizabeth: Yeah.

Elizabeth Rose: So, I thought, well, if people don’t want to get out of their own space, and I think we’re feeling very withdrawn lately, we’re lacking community, lacking connection. If you can hide behind your computer, hide in your house, not get dressed, and not do your hair and put on makeup, and go out into the world. Then, you surely don’t want to be asking questions. But what if we came to you?

What if we put on an event and it’s not just me talking. It’s not just my opinion, my experiences, my client situations, but it’s other people. And everyone has like a little different piece of the puzzle. And what if we could all share with that woman who’s afraid to step up and ask for help or ask how to, you know, ask all the questions. What if we can come into our home, just a whole panel of us. And just deliver. So, that’s really how it was born.

Elizabeth: That’s amazing. Yeah. One thing that I’ve noticed in working with folks is that, and I say this in all of my groups and presentations that; if you have a question, it’s more than likely that someone else has the exact same question. I don’t know how many times I’ve been in an audience where someone asked a question and I was like, ‘Oh yeah, what about that?’

You know, because so often we hear terms, especially when it comes to finance and money. That we hear these terms and we’re used to them, but we’re like, I don’t know that I could explain it, or I don’t know that I really understand it. And so, to have this opportunity to ask questions and just talk about the basics and invite people to the conversation is really well needed.

Elizabeth: I think so. And I think that the more we can equip women in this space, and empower them, obviously, they’re going to build confidence. And you’re going to start somewhere. You didn’t learn how to run before you learned how to crawl. So, you’ve got to crawl and then walk and stumble a little bit and run. I think if we can just start equipping women, they will be more empowered to take control.

And if they’re married and the husband is the one in charge, great. You should still be partners. You should still have conversations regularly, and you want to go into that conversation, feeling like you understand the things about your household, and where your money is, and what your goals are, and what your husband is doing to help you get to those goals. You should be very much a part of that. You know, none of us are promised a life that goes on to a hundred or whatever. We don’t know how long our time is.

And I’ve seen too many women whose husband passed away early or become incapacitated and they’re not prepared. So, I think having those conversations with your spouse is very important too. And if you could be feel more equipped having those conversations, then you’re going to feel more likely that you could pick up the torch and run with it if something were to happen, and you needed to.

Elizabeth: Yeah. As you were talking, I remembered back to, and this is actually probably a good analogy like, remember when Starbucks first came on the scene. And going into a Starbucks and being completely overwhelmed with how to order.

Elizabeth Rose: Yes.

Elizabeth: Well, the same thing happened to me when like Spin took off and Jamba Juice. And I remember like resisting doing spin class, or doing Jamba Juice, or going into Jamba Juice and ordering a juice. And like after a while, everyone had done it so much that I was embarrassed to be like, I don’t know what I’m doing.

And so, yeah, when we start off at the beginning, so like, if we were newly married and wanted to redo everything and like share in the finances again. Then, it would be a process where our partner was learning, and we were learning together. But because we haven’t been in it, we now feel self-conscious about jumping in. And like, we should know because everyone else seems to know.

Elizabeth Rose: And I think that’s being self-conscious is a trait that as women, we just were really good at lacking self-confidence and feeling foolish.

Elizabeth: Yeah.

Elizabeth Rose: And I’m not sure why we take that on the way we do. Because when I think about it, and this is just my perception, but I think if the shoe was on the other foot, if it was the man who lacked experience, or knowledge about an area. He’s just going to go in there like a bull in the China cabinet and go, ‘all right, here I am. What do I need to know? What do I do?’

Elizabeth: Yeah.

Elizabeth Rose: Where we are so much more insecure about not knowing.

Elizabeth: Right. Yeah. Well, I don’t want to get into that. But anyway. Okay. So, I love the idea for the summit. Who are you targeting? What woman would be perfect to attend the summit.

Elizabeth Rose: Great question. And of course, it’s open to any female that wants to come. And there might even be some guys that show up, I don’t know. But I would say, ideally, it is for the woman in, we’ll call it ‘midlife.’ I don’t know if midlife still is 40. I don’t know if they’ve moved that target. But I’m thinking, ages 40 to 65, 70. That group of women who are in the middle part of their life.

They’ve already started a career if they were. They’re maybe finished or close to finish raising children. They’re entering into that season of what, I’m not going to put this on anybody else. But when I turned 40, I felt like I had grown up. I felt like it was like my birthday of being an adult. And that’s not to say that I was super childish the years before, because I had 2 children, and they were teenagers. But I just felt like a grown up for the 1st time.

So, I think there’s something about the 40s where we are moving into a different season of life. And so, just catching those women and the women in the 50s and 60s. And speaking to them, I think a lot of us, feel like we’re nowhere near where we should be, financially. And I think for some women that can be very scary, especially if they’re in their 60s. And so, I just want to come around them and equip them. We’ve got some great speakers and great topics.

I have had so much fun recording these so far to the point where it’s like, I feel like I’ve got all these new best friends. You know, I want everybody to move in my neighborhood so we can all live next to each other. But of course, you are on there and we’re talking about health and wellness and that connection. I’ve got someone coming in to talk about faith in your identity. And its connection to everything that we do in life cause obviously, the way we look at ourselves, the way we think of ourselves, gets portrayed in the way we behave.

I’ve got someone talking about the relationship side of money, which is really cool too because I think that’s another thing that we tend to not recognize. We’re going to be talking about some retirement planning, some infinite banking. I’ve got two ladies in different ways in the real estate investing field. So, they go about it differently, different approaches. But both great success stories.

So, for anybody that is thinking, ‘hey, I keep hearing that this is something I should do.’ They’ll get some great nuggets on how to get started. I’ve got somebody that’s going to talk about the Infinite Banking System, which is another very cool concept and it’s not new, but it’s just not widely known. It’s been around, I think since, the 80s.

So, it has just been so much fun. I’ve got somebody that is going to talk about pivoting in your midlife. Like, if you’re thinking about or making a career change. And I can imagine how overwhelming, and stressful, and maybe a little bit nerve wracking that could be. So, that’s going to be interesting. We haven’t recorded her session yet, but just so many different areas and a lot of things keep coming back to our thoughts.

And I’m just finding that thread in so many of these conversations. In fact, one that I was doing yesterday, I asked her a question and I preff or after I asked the question, I said, no, I don’t want anybody to think we’re talking about woo-woo stuff. There’s really like scientific evidence on this.

But we’re getting into a lot of the thought patterns that we tend to pick up throughout our life and then how we just stick to those and believe them as truth when really it was just an event. It was just an experience. But now we’ve internalized it into a truth and we’re living it out. So, belief system. Just a lot of fun conversation. And I think that’s one of the things too. I want people to anticipate is that this isn’t like your father’s financial conference. You know, it’s not a boring stuffy deal. It is fun. It is interesting. I think every speaker they’re going to enjoy listening to. It’s exciting for me. I found it fun.

So, don’t let the fact that it’s about money or finance intimidate you at all because it’s going to be fun.

Elizabeth: Okay, perfect. I love it. How do they register? First of all, it’s free, yeah?

Elizabeth Rose: Yes, it’s free.

Elizabeth: Okay.

Elizabeth Rose: It is free. It is a virtual and you do not have to sit down at your computer for a whole 24 hours to consume it. We’re going to drip it out a couple of interviews a day over the period of several days so that you can watch it at your own pace, or you can watch it with us in a private group. And you’ll be able to catch it later if you’re working, or you have, I don’t know, kids soccer or whatever. So, you can catch it later on too.

Elizabeth: And what I really liked is that all of the interviews are really short. So, they’re like 15, 20 minutes. Yeah?

Elizabeth Rose: I would say probably about 20, 25 minutes.

Elizabeth: Okay.

Elizabeth Rose: That was intentional too while you can’t go quite as deep on something that short. I know people’s attention spans today, even mine. You know, it’s like, ‘okay, come on, hurry up. I’m ready to be done. Get to the end.’ So, I wanted to make sure that we could just pack them full of some good information, but not make them feel like, gosh, this was good, but when is it going to be over because I got things to do.

Elizabeth: Yeah.

Elizabeth Rose: So, 25 minutes ‘ish. There’s a couple that are just a tiny bit longer, but they’re good.

Elizabeth: Yeah. Well, and what I love about that is that you also get a sampling of different people. And so, when you meet someone through this summit, you can dig deeper into their stuff. Because I’m sure that they have other resources that are going to be available for people to absorb and allow them to explore that person a little bit more. Yeah?

Elizabeth Rose: Exactly. Yes. Every speaker has something that they’re offering that is a free gift. That does like you said, allow them to get to know that speaker and what that speaker does, what they have to offer in a more private offline way, I guess you could say, in your private time. All sorts of goodies that are going to be dripped out during the period of the summit. So, lots of good stuff.

Elizabeth: Yeah. Fantastic. I’m really excited about this. Alright. So, where do they go to sign up? We’ll have the link in the show notes of the podcast, this episode. But if they’re at their computer right now, where would they go?

Elizabeth Rose: They would go to my website, which is ownyourfinances.net not .com, but .net ownyourfinances.net/fearlessmoneymind. And that’ll take them to the registration page.

Elizabeth: Fantastic. Is there anything else that we missed, Elizabeth?

Elizabeth Rose: I don’t think so. I think we covered it all. I would say, be there, show up, come because I think it’s going to be fun.

Elizabeth: Yeah. I’m excited. Okay, perfect.

Elizabeth Rose: Me too.

Elizabeth: Thank you for being here. And thank you for hosting this, Summit. And yeah, this is going to be fun.

Elizabeth Rose: Thank you.

Elizabeth: Alright, everyone. That was so good. That’s all I have for you today in the Total Health for Midlife podcast. I want to thank you for tuning in and spending time with us. So let me recap what we learned.

First, financial empowerment is crucial for women, especially women in midlife. Understanding your finances doesn’t have to be intimidating. There are simple steps that you can take right now to gain control. And your financial health is deeply connected to your overall well-being.

Now, if you know someone who’s struggling with their finances and wants to reclaim control so that money doesn’t get in the way of their future plans, please share this episode with her. It could be the first step towards her financial empowerment. And remember, just as financial health is crucial, so is your physical, mental, and emotional health. If you’re feeling overwhelmed about your health and want to get it under control, I am here to help.

Coaching can be a powerful tool to help you achieve your health goals. If you’re interested in learning more about how coaching can support you in your health journey, reach out to me. Let’s talk about how we can work together to ensure your health doesn’t hold you back from living the life that you want.

Thank you again for listening. Until next time. Have an amazing day, everyone. I will talk to you next time. Bye-bye

Thanks for staying with us till the end of this episode. If you’re looking to deepen your understanding of the ‘8 Basic Habits that Healthy People Do’ and want to connect with a community of like-minded women, I warmly invite you to join our free Facebook group, ‘8 Basic Habits that Women in Midlife Do’. In this group, we expand on the habits discussed today, sharing experiences, offering support, and celebrating our health journeys together. It’s a space where you can feel understood and encouraged. To join, simply click the link in our show notes. Let’s support and inspire each other in our quest for better health. See you in the group!