40: Mind Money Balance Answers Your Questions
How’d You Get on 44 Podcasts in 2020?
In 2020, I was a guest on 44 podcasts. My best guess is that I pitched myself to about 30 of them, and the remaining 14 were podcast where the host approached me. As an avid podcast listener myself, and knowing I’d be launching a podcast in March of 2020, I set out to pitch myself to as many podcasts as I could to help get the word out not just about me and my work, but also to help other podcast hosts get some unique insight to share with their audience. The tracking method I used is a free Trello board from Angie Trueblood. This Trello board acts as a scrum board of sorts: it’s got columns for shows you want to pitch, shows you’ve pitched, shows that have been accepted (or rejected), along with the scheduled recording date and when the interview goes live. I loved using this tracker to help me stay organized and on top of which podcast hosts I reached out to.
Expert Positioning
A key for landing so many of these podcasts? Making sure you know what the podcast is about, and positioning yourself to help fill a gap in content. As my work as a financial therapist exists at an intersection of mental health and personal finance, I’m in a unique position to pitch myself to two different professions. As a general rule of pitching, I’d keep my emails short and to the point, highlighting what I admired about their work, how their audience might benefit from learning from me, and offer 2-3 topic ideas. When pitching personal finance shows, I’d highlight how to cope with financial anxiety (based on my book “The Financial Anxiety Solution”), identifying financial shame and learn how to overcome it and talk about the four financial archetypes and how they impact our behavior with money. When pitching mental health shows, I’d pitch that I could talk about the intersection of mental health and money, the importance of including money in our therapeutic work, and again, the four financial archetypes.
What would you be if you weren't a social worker?
If you asked my younger self, as in my elementary school-aged self, I would have said I wanted to be a veterinarian. Later, in my late teens and early twenties, I’d have answered with “lawyer” or “journalist.” Prior to the pandemic, one of my favorite things to do was help others plan their trips. Yes, if I wasn’t a social worker, I’d probably have been a travel agent. And I know what you’re thinking, “a travel agent? Didn’t those disappear with the dawn of Expedia?” and you’d be semi-right, but SO many people don’t want to deal with the tediousness of itinerary planning, finding transportation, booking hotels, and getting the perfect flight. For me? I find the challenge of curating a perfect itinerary soothing.
When did you get into astrology?
I’d always been “astro-curious” and would read my horoscope but it wasn’t until I met Leslie Tagorda of New Moon Creative and had an Astro Brand reading with her that it really hit me how much I loved astrology. To me, astrology is a way of connecting with my spiritual self as I’m not religious. Leslie helped me to see that there is no such thing as an “ideal client avatar” based on income, where a person shops, and how many pairs of shoes they own, rather, it’s about their psychological-information. Leslie, being an astrologer for business-owners, calls these astro-graphics. For me, my ideal clients are on the cusp of Gemini and Taurus, meaning their struggles are about the overconsumption of information to try and find the “right” answer, and they struggle with implementing, trusting themselves, and iterating. Whether I’m envisioning my financial therapy clients or my private practice coaching clients, both fit the bill of struggling with overconsumption without iteration.
I’ve incorporated my interest in astrology with the luminary I’m most attached to: the moon! I use the new moon to set new intentions, and the full moon to say goodbye to the things that are no longer serving me. In my Full Moon Money Shame Release Parties, I guide attendees through verbalizing their money shame, then releasing it with the power of the full moon.
What are your New Year's Resolutions?
None! I don’t do New Year’s Resolutions because they remind me of my struggles when I was deep in my eating disorder. For a while, I could hide my ED under the guise of a New Year’s Resolution, then, later on, I could hide my ED behaviors in Lent. Now? I set professional and business goals that are based on the calendar year, and I set personal goals on my solar return (aka my birthday in September).
Why Did You Bake so Much Sourdough?
It started out as a challenge; a local bakery was doing a sourdough bake-along in the early days of the pandemic, walking viewers through how to cultivate yeast for a starter and bake bread. Well, my first nine loaves were essentially pretty hockey pucks so I committed to getting '“just one loaf” of good sourdough bread. From there, it became a version of meditation, a way to engage in mindfulness, and the practice of slowing down.
How much time do you spend on Instagram?
Short answer: way too much! I used to be more structured about my time on Instagram. I’d set a 20-minute timer in the morning and in the evening or around the time I posted and was fairly good at adhering to it. Once lockdown hit in March of 2020, my boundaries with the platform got out of hand. Now, I know it’s time to spend less time on Instagram if I find myself feeling anxious about being on the platform or feeling like I “need” to post, or when I find myself scrolling without a purpose.
How Do You Manage Your Energy Between Being A Therapist, Running Groups, and Managing Social Media and A Podcast?
I don’t! I got super sick this year and ran on anxiety and adrenaline. I counted my days off, and I only took eight days off, with five of them ending up being sick days (I had booked myself off for a week in September and ended up very sick, with a strange full-body rash).
Now, when I’m balanced, my schedule looks something like this:
Monday: Content creation, CEO/planning, and coaching day
Tuesday-Thursday: See financial therapy clients from 10 am-4 pm
Friday: See clients in the morning, and finish up loose ends in the afternoon so I can turn on my out-of-office message and enjoy the weekend!
What Bugs You About Private Practice?
The loneliness and sometimes the monotonous repetition of notes, emails, etc.
How Do You Create Content Consistently?
Pick ONE platform to show up on, and show up there for at least three months. Then, and only then, can you assess and decide whether or not it makes sense to continue your efforts there or to pivot to a new platform. When I first brought my brand online, I was guilty of trying a platform out for a few weeks, hearing about a new strategy on a different platform on a podcast, then shifting gears and throwing all my energy into a new platform. Instead, I’d have been better off committing to ONE platform for three months instead of splitting my energy up into a million different things.