So many of us are dealing with money shame and it is preventing us from building wealth. It’s time to break up with these limiting beliefs. Whether it’s rebelling against your parents’ idea of money or not spending because you’re afraid you won’t have money when you need it – these ideas hold us back and we need to heal from them. And this week’s guest is going to help us do just that. 

Gina Knox, founder of Gina Knox Coaching, empowers entrepreneurs to master cash flow management, accumulate $100K in savings, and build seven-figure wealth. Motivated by her own financial journey after securing her first job, Gina saved $100K by age 25, then started her financial coaching business at 26. Through her coaching, she’s facilitated clients in saving an impressive $6,328,982.94 within 3 years as of Dec. 2023. Passionate about helping entrepreneurs realize their dreams, Gina has assisted many in purchasing their dream homes, paying off debt, and setting up their children with million-dollar trusts. Gina is on a mission to reshape the entrepreneurial mindset around money, leaving a lasting impact on individuals and their legacies.

In this episode, Gina talks about her own shame around money and how she overcame it. It wasn’t easy, especially since her parents were extreme about money in opposite ways. But she learned to find a healthy middle ground and create new rules for her and her business. Tune in to hear how you can heal your money shame and build wealth!

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Connect with Gina:
Instagram @‌ginaknox
Website: http://www.ginaknox.co

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Website:
www.theerikacruz.com

Follow Erika on:
Instagram @‌theerikacruz
TikTok @‌theerikacruz
LinkedIn

How to work with Erika:
Join the waitlist for Courage Driven Latina here.

Podcast production for this episode was provided by CCST.

Episode Transcript:

Erika: Hello, hello. Welcome back to Ch*ngona Revolution podcast! This week I am interviewing a guest who is a money and wealth coach and is a wealth of knowledge, pun intended, when it comes to just overall mindset around money, how to overcome the shame that money brings up, as well as the disregulated nervous system, whenever you are an entrepreneur and you’re not making consistent money, we talk about so many things like talking about money with your partner, um, whether you need a budget or not, we talk about being on either extreme with your money of either spending a lot or not like wanting to hoard it all.

And it was just a very, very good conversation. So I’m so excited for you to listen to this podcast episode. with Gina Knox, who is the founder of Gina Knox coaching. And she empowers entrepreneurs to master cashflow management, accumulate a hundred K in savings and build seven figure wealth. She’s motivated by her own financial journey after securing her first job where she saved a hundred K by the age of 25, and then started her financial coaching business at 26.

Through her coaching, she has facilitated clients in saving an impressive $6,328,982 and 94 cents This all happened within three years as of December, 2023. She’s passionate about helping entrepreneurs realize their dreams.

And Gina has assisted many in purchasing their dream homes, paying off debt, setting up their children with million dollar trusts. And she is on a mission to reshape the entrepreneurial mindset around money, leaving a lasting impact on individuals and their legacies. Let’s get into this interview.

 Gina Knox, also known as Money’s Mom, welcome to Ch*ngona Revolution

Gina: podcast. Thank you, Erika Cruz. 

Erika: I am excited to have this conversation with you. Obviously, I feel like So many of our one off conversations could be a podcast. So I’m excited for, for 

Gina: this. 

Erika: Yes. I’m so excited for this conversation. So, I mean, obviously I am one of your clients and you’ve helped me face my money and I was on your podcast where we talked all about the courage to face your money, which, I mean, I got so many.

Comments on that episode as well. So people really people enjoy us together And we look at you or I look at you and the community looks at you as money’s mom Right and this like money expert and i’m curious a little bit about your journey So where did you start and how did you get to be known as money’s 

Gina: mom?

Yeah, so money’s mom is kind of funny i’ll talk about the name first and then i’ll talk about the journey Um, one of my good friends started calling me Money’s Mom, and it’s funny because I used to call, or I still do, call my mom Mexican Mom. She’s like, Mexican Mom, and I’m Money’s Mom. And Mexican Mom, it’s like, Mexican mom has casa, Mexican mom, like, is not taking, you have to share a soda with your sister, Mexican mom is budget queen, thrift queen, my mom was always such an amazing, Thrifty person.

And, um, so much of watching my parents together as I grew up, like, my dad was not as thrifty, but my mom was just so good at stretching a dollar. So I think I learned so much from her around, um, Really spending your money intentionally and stretching your money and saving so that you can get what you want.

And then my dad, who is not, he’s, super white, white attorney dad, was very much like talking to me about investing, talking to me about wealth building. So I feel like just from my parents alone, I got both sides. I got the Budget thrift queen side, and I got the grow your wealth side. and, and so I lovingly referred to my mom as Mexican mom.

Every time I talked about like those funny little budgeting tips and my friends started calling me money’s mom. And it just stuck. I don’t, it just, you know, like sometimes those nicknames just really stick, which I feel like is so, um, perfect. Cause like, especially you’re Mexican too. And the Mexican culture, nicknames are so, such a big part of our, like.

Right. It’s such a big part of like the way we refer to each other in a loving way, but it’s also kind of like a, it can be like a jab sometimes. Um, and so yeah, money’s mom just stuck, stuck, but how I became money’s mom was really in watching my parents and learning from them and then going out as an adult and trying to figure out my money post college and just really struggling with.

Like, I saw them do it, but now it’s my turn to do it, and it’s not as easy as I thought it would be. post college for me, I was living in San Francisco with two roommates. My room cost 1, 500, and I made 3, 000. So like, half my money was just going to rent. Which is so common in the Bay Area. And so, I had to figure out how to manage the money I had left and save and build up something.

And it, it was definitely a struggle at the beginning. Like I remember I would constantly tell myself. I’m going to save 500 this month. I’m going to be good, right? I’m going to be so good. And then I would put 500 in my savings. And then by the end of the month, I’d have to take it out to pay off my credit card bill because I was shopping or I was doing other stuff or I was eating out where I was going to the bars and like 1, 500 just doesn’t go that far.

So, um, that’s kind of where it started. And now we’re here. Money’s mom. Did you 

Erika: ever feel, how, I didn’t know half of these things about you by the way, so I’m over here like, what? So how did, did you ever feel conflicted between tapping into, like, pretty much the money mindset that your mom had versus the one that your dad 

Gina: had?

That’s interesting. I don’t think I ever felt conflicted. I’m a Gemini. So I feel like there’s a lot of duality about me. This makes so much sense. It makes a lot of sense of the twin. So I’m like, okay, my mom is one side of my dad is one side. And I feel like half and half and I feel like I can dip in and out.

I will say since becoming an entrepreneur, I, I feel like I had a bit of a teenager rebellion against my mom’s budgeting mindset. especially because as entrepreneurs, we spend money to make money. And I don’t know if my mom, like, understands that. I’m in the process right now of helping my mom hire a household manager.

And it’s like pulling teeth to get her to pay someone to do anything for her. Let alone, like, getting the housekeeper to come. It’s impossible. She wants to do everything. And I’m like, Mom. You can spend the whatever 200 to get your house cleaned. You don’t have to be the one to do it. Like your time is valuable.

And I think like, so I’ve used as an entrepreneur, a lot more of my dad’s brain in, in like cost benefit analysis and figuring out what is my time worth? What is worth paying to outsource and what is actually worth. Being conservative and doing the extra work myself. So I feel like I, I lean in and out when I was a nine to fiver.

I definitely leaned more into my mom’s budgeting mentality. And I think that really helped me as an entrepreneur. I lean more into my dad’s like wealth building mentality. so I think that it’s not that like there’s a time and place for both. And knowing how to like slip in and out based on what you need right now.

Erika: Yeah, this is so fascinating to me. And I just think it’s amazing that you had access to like wealth building knowledge, but also the resourcefulness of your mom, right. Or like she was able to get by with so little and make it work. And I think those are just amazing skills to have. I’m curious because I actually don’t know this.

Do you, like, what are your thoughts on a budget? Do you feel like there’s a time and place for it? I feel like I should know this. I’m in your program, but that’s usually not the advice you’re giving me. So I’m just like wondering what you’re, 

Gina: what you’re, Erica, can you spend a little bit of money?

Yes. So here’s how I think about a budget. Um, and I’ll talk about it from a personal perspective and a business perspective from a business perspective. It’s funny. It’s the same word, but in my mind, it’s totally different when I think about a business budget. I think about like. I’m a CEO. I run a company that is growing and has revenue goals.

And as the CEO, it’s my job to decide how to spend the business’s money. And that’s what a budget is. It’s just a list of decisions. And I think that, you know, my business has a certain amount of money. In the business at any given time. And money is a resource that is finite. Not that I can’t go make more.

I can always go make more, but like currently my bank balance is what my bank balance is, right? So if money is a resource, I need to use that resource to the best of my ability. And a budget being just a list of decisions helps me decide how to use that resource to create an R. O. Y. to go make my revenue goal happen, right?

If I have 10, 000 to spend, I could waste 10, 000 on something that won’t generate an R. O. Y. or I could spend it on something that will generate a five X. R. O. Y. And as a CEO, it’s my job to figure out how to make those business decisions. So I think about it from a very much like R. O. Y. perspective in my business.

In my personal life, a budget is more like what I would consider a traditional version of a budget to be. It’s like, I have my owner’s pay, what do I want to do? Like, I have to pay rent, I have to pay my utilities. Maybe I have a goal like we’re gonna go to Greece this summer. So I want to save up for that.

I will say I used to be hardcore budget queen in my personal life when I was a nine to fiver. And I used YNAB, which is you need a budget. It’s an app that does budgeting. A lot of people love that app. It’s a great app. I was hardcore. I was categorizing my expenses every single day. And now I’m like, I’m in a non budget era in my life, but in a pretty heavy budget era in my business.

So again, I’m like, I’m fluid. I move in and out depending on what I need. Um, I probably do need to go back to a budget in my personal life though. I’m probably, I’m getting to that point where I’m like, okay, we’ve spent freely enough. We need to kind of like rein it in a little bit and see like what are, as a family, what are our goals?

What do we want to put money towards? What do we want to spend money on? What do we want to spend less money on? So, I really do think about it differently in my business and my personal life. 

Erika: Yeah, that makes so much sense. I’m going to jump ahead and now I’m going to ask you, do you have like money dates or do you have like money meetings with your, I mean, your daughter’s too young for that, but with 

Gina: your partner.

We used to have them more religiously. We haven’t had, like, we don’t have a time on the calendar, but we do talk about it. Like, we just, we’ll talk about it at dinner. I think it’s more casual. It’s not like a, We need to sit down and do this together, but it’s more like at the dinner table, we’ll talk about what’s happening.

We’ll talk about what’s coming up. My husband had to make, uh, an emergency trip to Greece to see some family. And so that’s like an expense that just came up. Right. So we’ll talk about those things. Yeah. Um, and we will definitely set goals for the year. Like what are our savings or investing goals as a family?

And that’s where I. I find like my owner’s pay really comes in as a business. I pay myself a salary and my salary is part of my household income with my husband. And we talk about how to spend that money together. So we just kind of are always talking about it, but we don’t have a very specific like day on the calendar that we do that.

We used to though, again, I think it’s like, what is serving you right now and leaning into that. And then if you need to change it, change it. 

Erika: Yeah, no, it makes so much sense. You’d be surprised. I mean, you probably know this, you probably face this more than like I’ve seen it, but how many people do not talk about money?

Or like how many people don’t know what their like partner makes? And it’s, I mean, that’s fine if you want to like respect their privacy, but I feel like if you’re building a life together, it’s important to be transparent about this. But why do you think it’s such a hard and difficult topic 

Gina: for people to bring up?

because of shame, duh, is so hard because so many people have a lot of deep shame around money. and when you’re feeling shame, you want to hide. It’s a very natural response because when you’re feeling shame, you don’t want anyone else to see it. You don’t want anyone else to see your shame and then shame you on top of the shame you’re already shaming yourself.

So, I think shame is the number one wealth killer in America, period. Like by far. 

Erika: Wow, that is like a mic drop moment. That’s why I was like, let me just sit in this for a moment Yeah, I think you’re right. I 

Gina: think I am 

So if you think about it, if you have money, shame, you’re not going to want to look at your own money. You’re not going to want to make decisions about your money. You’re going to put your head in the sand. You’re not going to want to talk to your partner or anyone else in your life about it. Um, and then there are the natural consequences of avoidance that happen.

You’re going to miss a payment. Your credit score is going to drop. You’re going to overdraft your bank account, but you’re not going to be looking at it, so you’re not going to know. And it’s like, and then that’s going to make it worse. You can’t build wealth while avoiding your money. Just like I can’t get a six pack while avoiding trying to work out.

Right? Like that’s just, those things don’t equal each other. Yeah. Um, I want to share with you real quick, the definition of shame, cause it’s so good. I think every coach needs to know the definition of shame by like Google’s definition. Shame is the feeling of discomfort or humiliation, um, based on the consciousness of wrong or foolish action.

So if we separate that out, it’s like the feeling of humiliation or distress, I feel bad in my body. Because of the consciousness, because I am aware of wrong or foolish action. Which means like, you believe you did something wrong or foolish, so you feel that. But 99 percent of the time, you didn’t actually do anything wrong or foolish.

You’re just a human being. And in the 1 percent of the time where you did do something wrong or foolish, Yeah. Like we all do. We’re again, human. We get to like fix our problems. We all make mistakes. but it, when we’re in that shame spiral, it sometimes takes someone else to grab us and pull us out. It can be really hard to pull ourselves out.

That’s why coaching is so important. Literally coaching, having good friends who don’t lie to you or who like are open and honest with you, having a good therapist, like having honest people in your life. Yeah. Very, very important. 

Erika: Yes. Okay, so this leads me to one of the questions that I had written down that I wanted to ask you.

How much of money management and generating money is mindset versus 

Gina: strategy? Um, I’ll tell you something that my coach, Kirsten Roldan, says, which is mindset is strategy. Right. Mindset is strategy. and so I actually think they’re the same thing. If we think about though, like the things that we do to manage our money, you can do the same actions.

You can take the same actions. You can make a budget, for example, but if your mindset is shit, You’re either not going to stick to the budget or you’re going to make a budget so restrictive that it’s impossible to follow, or you’re going to make a budget that’s so over budget that it puts you in the hole, right?

Like even if you take the same action, make a budget, your mindset will determine how you take that action and how you follow up on that action. So I feel like. Mindset. It depends. Everyone has a different level of mindset work they need to do, and everyone needs to do mindset. So it’s like, if, if we thought about it.

You could spend three hours making a budget with a shit mindset versus you could spend one hour coaching yourself or getting coached and then one hour making a budget and it would turn out better. Yeah. I think of them as one in the same. And I think that like. The thoughts you have about your money, the thoughts you have about yourself will dictate how you take strategic action and how you follow up on that action.

So either you can avoid your mindset and do all the actions and then have to go back and fix it, or you could just work on your mindset and do the actions one time. And I think it’s actually short, like it’s faster. Yeah. 

Erika: But people want to avoid the discomfort and the shame. So then they hide and that’s why they don’t do it.

So then they stay in this like shame cycle of avoiding 

Gina: and like, why doesn’t budgeting work for me? And it’s like, cause you’re in the shame spiral. 

Erika: Exactly. So, okay, take us back to when Gina was living in the room in San Francisco, barely making it like using 50 percent of, of the money. Well, you were making it right.

But like, it was hard to save. It was hard to get ahead. What happened? How did you end up being like this incredible profitable coach that you are today? 

Gina: I was, it was 2016, 2015, 2016. And I was in that spiral of like, put money in the savings, take it right out, put money in the savings, take it right out.

And it’s Christmas and I go to talk to my dad and I’m like, dad, I don’t know how I’m going to save more than a couple hundred dollars every month. Like, and I remember telling him that. Cause I was like, I have goals for my life. Like I want to travel. I want to get married. I want to have a kid. I want to have a house.

Like. None of that’s going to happen if I can’t even save 200, right? Like, and I felt so overwhelmed by my goals, like, how are these things ever going to happen? So I remember telling my dad, how am I ever going to save more than a couple hundred dollars a month? And he just looked at me so calm and he’s like, Gina, one day you’re going to be saving thousands of dollars a month.

And I was like, what? What? Like, what do you mean? How? And he’s like. One day you’re going to save thousands of dollars a month. And he kind of just left it at that. And I remember going home and thinking, my dad is one of the smartest people I know. If he believes that. There must be a reason why he believes that, and there must be a way for me to start.

So what I did, and I didn’t realize I was doing this at the time, but what I did was I borrowed his belief. I’m like, okay, if he believes there’s a way for me to save thousands of dollars a month, then that means there is a way to save thousands of dollars a month. So I printed out all my credit card statements, and I started highlighting all the things.

I started highlighting things I was wasting money on, or, and I define wasting money on as like I spent money and it didn’t. Actually bring me as much joy as it costs me. Right. So like that random door dash, I don’t think door dash was around that in 2015, but God, I’m old, but you know, those random things, like there are things that bring me a lot of joy and there’s things that weren’t.

So I was highlighting everything. I was looking at my spending patterns and I took about six months to start studying personal finance and studying myself, studying my patterns, studying my triggers, Oh, when I’m stressed at work, I tend to eat out more. like little things like that. And I started saving more and more and more.

And, then I got a higher paying job and all of a sudden I started saving thousands of dollars a month. And I’m like, how did we get like, Oh my God, it happened. It happened. And a big part of it was increasing my, my pay. Right. But even if I had increased my pay, if I hadn’t have done all those things beforehand, it wouldn’t have resulted in saving thousands of dollars.

Exactly. It’s only because I increased my pay after having figured out how to save with my current pay. And, um, and then I started taking advantage of my company’s 401k plan and my company’s ESPP plan, which stands for employee stock purchase plan. And I started saving thousands of dollars a month. And I’m like, like, we’re here.

So all this is to say. It’s so important when you don’t believe something is possible for you to go find someone who does believe it’s possible for you and then borrow their belief and then take actions out of their belief because then that will slowly grow your belief. And now I’m not just like, Oh, I could save a thousand dollars a month.

Now I’m like, if I wanted to, I could save 20, 30, 000 in a month. That’s possible. Like I’m there and soon I’m going to be at the place where I’m like, yeah, I could save a hundred grand in a month. I’m not there yet, but it’s coming. Um, so, so yeah, that’s like the, the baby Gina living in San Francisco journey.

And, um, And it’s amazing that, like, that’s, that’s what happened, right? Yeah. 

Erika: And I love that your dad could have just given you the answers. Like, he knew what to do, right? But, like, he just gave you, like, this is exactly what you were saying earlier about mindset is strategy, which we’re stealing from Kirsten.

Um, whom I work with as well and yeah, so I, I feel like this is such a perfect example of that. Like you adopted that belief and that belief then opened up the doors and the possibilities for you to find the answers that worked for you. So is this what you teach inside of your program, Six Figure Saver?

Gina: Well in Six Figure Saver, I specifically teach a cashflow management system for entrepreneurs because the problem is. As a, as a person working in tech, I was making the right, like 3, 000 a month. I knew exactly every month 3, 000 was going to come in and I knew my rent was 1500 and that’s what was going to go out.

So the systems that I made to save money then. Stopped working when I became an entrepreneur. Ah. ’cause now all of a sudden, I don’t know that $3,000 is gonna come in every month. I don’t have a guaranteed paycheck. And not only that, my expenses are variable too, right? So I have variable income and variable expenses.

So what I do is I, well, what I did was, I figured, I figured that out too, right? I’m like, okay, new set of circumstances. Um, and this is relevant. I went to design school and I spent seven years as a designer. So the way my brain works is in design problems. I’m like, Oh, that’s just a design problem. I’m just going to design a solution.

So when I got this new design problem of variable income, variable expenses, I just designed a solution and that’s my cashflow management system. So when you join Six Figure Saver, which is my 12 month group for entrepreneurs with variable income, I give you the way, the buckets. Most people implement it within like seven days and start saving within seven days.

Like the rate of saving is so fast in six figure saver, but then the rest of the 12 months, it’s all up here. It’s all up here, right? Because we have over the course of a year, we have different circumstances that come up and our brains go into shame spirals and how do we deal with debt and what like there’s so much mindset.

So yes, I have a strategy, but, um, so much of it is mindset. And you know, like I’ll, I’ll use a very, very small example in six figure saver. We say we save to spend because entrepreneurs spend money to make money. So if I just told you to cut expenses, I might accidentally cut your income. So we save to spend.

So part of that is in six figure saver. We don’t call it a savings account. We call it a working capital account. Oh, I love that reframe for you. And so that’s even like a small example of how mindset is embedded in the strategy, right? The way we name things is because we want you to think about it a certain way.

I love it. Continue to take action on it. I remember when I became 

Erika: an entrepreneur and I mean, it wasn’t, I did not have, I just had the mindset. I did not have the strategies, but. I did, I started Courage Driven Latina and I was working a tech job and I think I was making like 130, 000 in the tech job. So I, and mind you, this is like the middle of the pandemic.

I’m able to work from home. So my mom is like, Oh, you are set. Like this is so good. And I’m like, I’m going to leave my job. And my mom’s like, gay, you know, Mexican 

Gina: mom, like never leave that job. They’re so good. The benefits are so good. Exactly. 

Erika: About the benefits. Yeah. The PTO, like, 

Gina: oh my gosh, the stock, right?

It’s like little golden grandkids. When maternity leave, they were like, they’re so good to you. I’m like, yes, it’s not about them. They are good, but I’m better. 

Erika: Exactly. Exactly. And so I kind of went into it really with just a lot of belief because I launched a program, Courage Driven Latina, which at the time was called Purpose Driven Latina, first round sold out.

Second round sold out and I was like, okay, at this point, like I have validated that there’s demand and I made the jump because I had more demand than I could serve. Right? So I was actually losing money. So it wasn’t like, I remember the advice I got from people is like, wait until you make just as much money from like your side hustle as you do in your main job.

And I’m like, yeah. That makes no sense because I’ve been at my main job for freaking like I’ve been in this industry for eight years. I’m working 40 hours a week. This is a company that’s already established. Like it’s going to take a lot more effort and energy to like, yeah, to, to make that much money in my business.

And like at this point, so I chose once I was not able to take on more business because I was at my day job and that’s when I made that decision and I had been saving money to buy a house. I think I had saved up to like 80, 000. And I, in the way that I did it was 30 percent of my paycheck in tech went straight to my savings.

So I never even saw it. And I just kept my, I mean, I think I was being, I think you call it, um, like farsighted, right? I was being very farsighted and we’ll talk about that after this. But then. You know, like things are all great. My Tik TOK accounts blowing up, I’m getting all these clients and then reality freaking hit that I’m an entrepreneur now and I’m not going to get the same amount of money every month.

And I remember like there was months that I was negative and it just, so it was so dysregulating to my nervous system. So I’m sharing this to say that I think programs like six figure saver, which I’m, I’m in your mastermind, not in six figure saver, but. I think programs like that are so, valuable because when you are the only entrepreneur in your family, or maybe even in your friend group, and you’re suddenly seeing that your profit and loss statements, like your monthly statements that show you how much you’ve spent and how much you’ve made, sometimes are going to be negative.

That can really throw you down in a spiral. Um, 

Gina: and I just want to normalize, too, that, like, There’s no escaping the negative months. Yeah. The negative months aren’t actually a problem to solve. I made 525K last year and I had four negative months. That’s not a problem. I was still profitable at the end of the year.

I think people get really though, to the point of like transitioning from full time, uh, like tech or any full time, like corporate America job to entrepreneurship. That is not a circumstance we’ve ever encountered before. Yeah. We’ve never had a negative month before. What do you mean? That is a huge like alarm bells.

Hello, red flags. So we have to like really switch our brains and train ourselves to feel. I talk about unbothered energy, feel unbothered in the face of the variability. Because if you see a negative month and then spend. Six weeks freaking out about it, you’re going to lose money. You need to like have skin of steel to be like, yep, negative month.

That’s normal. Let’s move on. Right. Otherwise you’re going to start spiraling. And it’s like, I, I, I thank you for bringing that up. I just want to normalize that inconsistent income, negative months, all of that is normal and it’s not a problem to be solved, but we do have to learn how to manage our cashflow with that circumstance.

Erika: Yeah, definitely. Oh, thank you for saying that in normal language. 

Gina: What’s that? It can feel really heavy. 

Erika: Yeah. Yeah. Now, now it’s no big deal. Um, at this point that I, but when I first started, I remember I was like, Oh my gosh, should I just go back to get a 

Gina: job? No. And that’s what can happen is like, Oh, this must not be working.

Exactly. Everything’s going according to plan. Yes. So, 

Erika: um, we brought this up earlier about being nearsighted and farsighted. And when I was in Austin for the live event for The Mastermind, you talked to us about nearsightedness and farsightedness. Can you tell us what that 

Gina: is? Yes. So I love this metaphor.

Um, and this happens with our money and we can be both at the same time. It’s, it’s very fun. So nearsightedness. Is when think about like you are nearsighted, you’re looking at what is near, what is close when we’re nearsighted with our money, we over index on spending our money today, right? We’re like, I don’t know if I’m going to live.

So I’m going to enjoy my it’s very FOMO YOLO mentality. I’m going to enjoy my money now. I don’t know what tomorrow has in store. A lot of that can also be a trauma response to previous like circumstances in your life. I have had a lot of clients who grew up in financially unstable homes who now veer towards spending a lot of money now because of what they didn’t get in childhood.

so I want to name that like, this isn’t, none of this is your fault. It’s just like how humans act sometimes. Spending money now in business, it can look like investing all your money back into your business, right? Like I’m going to invest everything back in my business because it’s going to make me more money.

so nearsighted is very much like, I’m not going to save, I’m not going to invest for retirement. I’m not going to invest at all. I’m like focusing on today. Farsightedness is the opposite. I’m not going to spend any money now. I’m going to put everything into my investment accounts. I’m going to like a lot of people who are in the like retire early camp do this.

They’re like, I’m trying to retire early. So I’m going to throw every extra cent to my investment portfolio. I’m going to ride a bicycle everywhere. Cause I don’t want to pay for gas, like heavy, heavy frugal. And both have pros and both have cons. It’s not that one is right. And one is wrong. It’s just that when we are on the extreme end of either, it’s usually on, it’s unbalanced, it’s unbalanced and it’s unhealthy for our lives.

If you’re constantly focused on the future and not at all enjoying your life today, you’re going to burn out. That’s unhealthy for your life. If you’re constantly focused on what’s right in front of you and spending all your money and you have no money saved for anything. And then something happens, it’s unhealthy for your life.

We have to have a balanced approach. and like I said, a lot of times I actually have a client who is very nearsighted, she grew up in a really financially unstable home, so she spent, she loves spending money. She invests everything back in her business. She’s very nearsighted and her sister is very farsighted, very conservative.

So like, it’s like the same sisters grew up in the same circumstance and they swung opposite ways because they’re both. Dealing with the trauma of their childhood in different ways. It’s a coping mechanism. That 

Erika: is so fascinating, right? That like two people can go through the same experience and have a different like defense 

Gina: to what occurred.

Exactly. It’s the one sister who’s saving money. She’s like, I never am going to be poor again. I’m always going to have money. But meanwhile, she’s living like she’s poor. She doesn’t enjoy her money at all. The other sister is like. I never want to feel poor again. I’m going to spend all my money. Right. And it’s like the same thought is causing different actions.

We really want to make sure that it’s, it’s absolutely, I think there’s a time and place to be nearsighted. There’s a time and place to be farsighted, but it’s like, are you intentionally swinging into one or the other versus like. being forced into one or the other because of a trauma response or a coping skill that you have.

Erika: Yeah, this is good. What are some questions people can ask themselves to, like, know if they are nearsighted 

Gina: or farsighted? I would just look at like, how do you spend money? Are you reluctant to spend money? If you’re reluctant to spend money, you’re probably farsighted. Do you tell yourself, I love spending money?

Or I have a client who says, spending money healed my money trauma. I’m like, no, it didn’t. No, it didn’t. She loves, she’s like. Spending money is my healing. I’m like, no, you healed your money trauma, but you’re telling yourself this. But if you’re saying that you’re probably nearsighted, if you’re a business owner and you’re reinvesting every single dollar back into your business, you’re probably nearsighted if you’re, um, like a business owner and you are not investing in your business at all.

And it probably hasn’t grown in a couple of years and you’re taking every extra bit of profit and putting it towards your retirement, you’re probably farsighted. So it really is like looking at your actions. Yeah. And then asking yourself, did I decide consciously to do this, or is this just what happened if you decided consciously, and I’ll tell you, like I swing back and forth in Q4, I decided to be farsighted.

I’m like, I am going to put a hundred thousand dollars into my investment portfolio. I’m going to go hard on getting my investment portfolio up to what I wanted to be. Yeah. And then when that was done, I was like, I’m going to, and then I swung the other way. Now I’m going to invest 25, 000 in my business in this thing, but I’m the one swinging myself on purpose.

And it’s intentional. It’s a hundred percent intentional. Yeah. And so it feels like it’s in my control. Yeah. 

Erika: Well, when we were in Austin and you took us through this, um, I learned that I was very nearsighted in my business. I was like, yep, we can charge whatever is a business expense on the company card.

Let’s spend it. No problem. But then when it came to my personal stuff, I was extremely farsighted. I was like, I don’t know if I want to spend money on, on rent than I’m spending now. Like literally wasn’t buying myself any nice things, but I would invest in a coaching program. That was 10, 000, 15, 000, 25, 000.

So that was a huge realization. And I feel like I’m finding more of a balance now, but. Yeah. Like those are really good questions 

Gina: that you had us ask. And it’s, I think even just having that awareness, it’s like, okay, now I know in my business, I need to work a little bit to swing it, like bring it, bring it in, but in my personal life, I need to like work on feeling safe spending a little more.

Yeah. And it’s just like, it shows you where your next work is. I think too, like we’re always going to have something. Money is real complex. Money touches every single aspect of our lives. It does. Every aspect of our lives. So there’s always going to be some next thing you want to work on. If you have any kind of money goal, whether it’s a personal savings goal or investing goal or a business revenue goal, you’re.

If you want to keep growing your money, you’re going to have to keep working on your mindset. That’s it. It’s okay. We all do. I do too. I constantly have to work on my money mindset. Yeah. Cause it’s not something that goes away. Yeah. 

Erika: And you know, being in your program and just like being around and also just having conversations with, with friends, like you just brought this up, but money can bring up so much.

And as much as like, you’re a money coach, I’m like, She’s going to be coaching on all kinds of stuff. Like you’re a relationship coach, a mindset coach. Like, so what are, yeah, you really are. So what are some of the things like common things that come up while like, yeah, this is a money program, but like, what are some of the common things that you end up coaching on?

Gina: Oh my God. So, okay. There’s some big emotions that I coach on very often. Shame being a big one, also disappointment and frustration and impatience. Impatience is a big one. I just want it now. I want to have it now. I want it now or never. Like, I had a friend who was like, I want to pay for a trip and furnish my house and da, da, da, da, da, all in Q1, or I don’t want it at all.

Right? Impatience is a All or nothing thinking. All or nothing. And it’s so human, right? Like, it’s a little bit of like our inner child. Like, we want what we want. Yes. So I coach a lot on emotions around money. but I also coach on like, I get this question a lot, actually, which I think is interesting. How much do you tell your husband about your business decisions?

So I think they’re asking, cause they want to know how they should act in their relationship. Um, and I coach on relationships and money. Um, my husband is very conservative, but I’m, it’s actually, this is interesting. I noticed that business owners. Are often nearsighted and their husbands are often farsighted.

And so like they have to deal with that in their family. And I say their husbands because I mostly coach, like, I guess, heterosexual women, although that’s not always true. Um, and. We coach on like a lot of relationships, a lot of just like goals, right. That have to do with life. Like I have a client right now who really just wants to furnish her house.

She, she feels like I have this house and it’s empty. I have clients who have goals to set up, you know, their kids with college funds. I have clients who have goals to buy houses. I have clients who have goals to invest in a certain mastermind in their business. And. All of the feelings that come up when we don’t have our goal yet, it’s, it’s a lot.

I also coach on like a lot of grief, right? I can’t tell you how many clients cry on my calls because money is just attached to so many overwhelming feelings. Right. And when you have never had a, uh, like a venue to talk about that. It can feel like it’s all coming up at once. It’s just like, finally, I have a place to talk about this.

I have a release. and that can, that can be multiple, like there can be multiple things that we might be talking about that might cause someone to just have that emotional response. So I really am a life coach for your money. Or another way I’ve talked about it is like money is a window into your life and I am a life coach, but I just say I’m a money coach and I’m using money as like a little window in.

Love that. 

Erika: Gina, is there anything that I did not ask you that you would like to share with the listeners? 

Gina: Ooh. Oh, well we had talked about in the green room. What happens when you finally face your money? Oh yeah. Which was good. Because I think that this is like the flip side of shame. It’s like, okay, I’ve.

Process some of the shame or I’m ready to start. How do you go from I’m ready to start to like, actually looking at it? The flip side of shame 

Erika: is courage. 

Gina: Exactly. And it’s like, okay, I mustered up the courage, but now I’m on the precipice of like, logging into my bank account or looking at my credit card or whatever it is.

And I think that it’s, um, really important to Realize that if you’re feeling a lot of fear or emotions in that moment, that that’s normal and that you might, when you first face your money again, after avoiding it for a long time, there may be disappointment. We don’t have to sugarcoat that. There may be something that you’re like, damn, I really wish I would have started this earlier.

So many of my clients have that thought that like, I’m behind. I should have done this earlier. Know that that thought. Is so normal and natural. And where can you, when you’re finally mustering up the courage, where can you have so much grace for yourself that you are here and we can start now. And like, it’s almost like, um.

Um, compare, you know, the, the, the saying comparison is a thief of joy. Yes. I think a lot of times when people finally muster up the courage to look at their money and face their money, they then compare themselves to the idealized version of themselves. Yes. They’re like, I, if I would have just done this, then I would have been here.

And it’s like that comparison is going to rob you of your joy. And like, it’s normal. It’s natural. A lot of people go through it. but. You don’t have to go down the route of like, if I would have done this and if I would have done this and if I would have done this, you could just say, here I am. I’m, I’ve been so brave.

I’ve been a brave girl today. I looked at my money and now where do I want to go? Um, and if that means that you need to get support, go get support, whether it’s a money coach, a life coach, a therapist, a loved one, But everyone goes through these big, big emotions with their money. It’s very normal. I love that you 

Erika: said that we compare ourselves to like this idealized version of us.

Cause I mean, I find myself doing that and my clients do that with, Oh my gosh, I should have started on my courage project. Like, you know, X ago. But me with the stock market, obviously that’s been one of the big things that we’ve worked on, on like getting my investment portfolio set up where like, I was like, I’m waiting and you’re like, what are you waiting for?

Cause I, and then I like invest the money and then the like S& P 500 goes up and I was like, damn, that could have been a lot. But now I’m just like, I am where I am. And like the best thing I could do is like, do what I know right now. Like I can’t change what’s already happened, but I can change what I do now and 

Gina: going forward.

My favorite question is what is your best next step? So good. We don’t have to have a whole five year plan. Just what’s the best next step. And then go do that. And then the next best step after that. So tell us 

Erika: where can people connect with you and find you, you have a podcast, obviously you’re on Instagram.

So like, where do you hang out? Where should people follow you? 

Gina: Yeah. I have a podcast where I talk a lot in depth about money, about investing, about saving, about debt, entrepreneurship, all of it. It’s called save six figures with Gina Knox. You can find it on all the podcast places. and then if you want to learn more about my work, I would say, go to www.

ginaknox. co. and then you can see. Stuff about my program, stuff about me. You can find my Instagram from there. That’s kind of like the hub of all of my online presence that you can find me at. Um, and I would love to hear from you. Yeah, so 

Erika: we will go ahead and put all the links down below, but Gina has two awesome programs, the 12 month program that she talked about, as well as the mastermind.

And who are these programs for? 

Gina: Yeah, so Six Figure Saver is a 12 month program where we’re really focused on building up your business savings. So that is for entrepreneurs. With variable income that being said it’s like any kind of entrepreneur with variable income. We have side hustlers We have people who’ve made their first 3, 000 on the side and then we have people who are seven figure entrepreneurs who are like fully in it So there’s no income requirement to joining that so if like a perfect example is if your freedom if your courage project Was to start a business and you have started it you’re ready for six figure saver Seven figure wealth is a six month wealth mastermind for first generation wealth building entrepreneurs Meaning like you’re the first in your family to ever do this shit, right?

And we really focus on building wealth outside of your business and building passive income outside of your business so that you can just, it’s almost like be as wealthy as your business. We should be as wealthy as our businesses. So that’s what that program is about. Um, and it’s a six month program.

Erika: Amazing. Okay, great. We will link all of that down below. Thank you, Gina. This was such a, I knew this was going to be a fun conversation. I love how we came into it without, I had like one question prepared. 

Gina: Thank you so much for having me. I will see you on our next 

Erika: call.