A conversation with Dr. Annie Cole, Ed.D., money coach and financial educator, as she shares her journey from burnout to building a thriving business and achieving financial freedom.
Are you a woman in midlife seeking financial clarity and empowerment? Join us for an inspiring conversation with Dr. Annie Cole, Ed.D., money coach and financial educator, as she shares her journey from burnout to building a thriving business and achieving financial freedom. Annie's story offers practical advice and valuable insights for women navigating midlife transitions and seeking to master their finances.
Annie’s passion for empowering women stems from her own personal experiences with financial challenges and career transitions. In her twenties, she struggled with burnout as a social worker on a low salary. Determined to create a better future, she embarked on a journey of self-education and financial growth, eventually climbing the corporate ladder to a Vice President role while simultaneously building a substantial real estate portfolio and achieving early financial independence. Her personal transformation inspired her to launch Money Essentials for Women, where she now helps other women achieve their financial goals and live more fulfilling lives.
This episode explores the importance of financial planning for women in midlife, addressing topics such as budgeting, debt payoff, investing, and building wealth. Annie shares her personal experience of overcoming financial challenges early in her career and how she achieved significant financial milestones by her thirties. She emphasizes the importance of mindset shifts, value-based budgeting, and aligning spending with personal values.
Key Takeaways:
💡 Value-Based Budgeting: Discover the power of aligning your spending with your values and achieving financial freedom.
💡 Investing for the Future: Explore different investment strategies and how to make your money work for you.
💡 Finding Your Financial Team: Discover the importance of building a supportive network of financial professionals.
Connect with Annie:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/money-essentials-for-women
https://www.instagram.com/build.wealth.with.annie/
Website: Money Essentials For Women
Book: 101 Ways to Build Wealth
Stay connected with Laura:
Connect with Laura on LinkedIn
@Rotters5 on X
Connect with Laura on Facebook
Subscribe to my YouTube channel
Get your free copy of Unlock Your Money Blocks Workbook: Your step-by-step guide to unlocking your blocks to financial freedom.
Disclaimer: Please remember that the information shared on this podcast does not constitute accounting, legal, tax, investment or financial advice. It’s for informational purposes only. You should seek appropriate professional advice for your specific information.
Laura Rotter
Have you ever wondered what the real secret to financial success is? It's not just about saving every penny or investing in the latest hot stock, and it's not even about landing that dream job or winning the lottery. It's about something much deeper, something often overlooked. In the traditional world of personal finance, it's about understanding your relationship with money.
Think about it. How many of us have sabotaged our own financial goals because of deep-seated beliefs about money, beliefs we inherited from our families or absorbed from society? Maybe you believe that money is the root of all evil or that rich people are greedy or that you're simply not good with money and these beliefs.
Which are often operating below the surface can impact everything from how you create a budget to the investments you choose, and ultimately can derail your path to financial freedom. My guest today, Dr. Annie Cole, a money coach and financial educator, discovered the power of mindset after years of struggling to make ends meet despite growing up in a financially comfortable home.
Annie's journey led her to not only uncover the surprising truth about the value exchange, but also to develop practical, actionable strategies for budgeting and investing strategies. She used to retire 20 years early. Stay tuned to discover how Annie went from a burnt out social worker on a meager salary to a successful entrepreneur, and how you can rewrite your own money story.
Master your budget and make informed investment decisions to create a life of financial abundance.
Narrator
Welcome to Making Change With Your Money, a podcast that highlights the stories and strategies of women who experienced a big life transition and overcame challenges as they redefined financial success for themselves.
Now, here's your host, certified financial planner, Laura Rodder.
Laura Rotter
So welcome Annie to the Making Change with Your Money podcast. Thank you. It's so good to be here with you today. Looking forward to our conversation. I will start, as I always do with the question, Annie, what was money like in your family growing up?
Annie Cole
Ooh, that's such a good question. You know, it was, it was interesting because I grew up with. A pretty well off family. Um, although my mom was a hairdresser and my dad was a tugboat driver, but they got divorced when I was little. And then my stepdad was the superintendent at our school. Mm-hmm. And made pretty good money.
So we had. Uh, decent money coming in. I lived a pretty good life, but I really didn't think about money to be honest. I just, it wasn't a thought in my mind, and it wasn't until I went off and started making my own money that I had that harsh reality of how hard I had to work to make money. Um, so I had it, I had it pretty easy and just didn't have to worry about it or think about it.
So it became something that I. It was outta sight outta mind until it hit me later in life.
Laura Rotter
Annie, I'm curious, where did you grow up? What area? The us?
Annie Cole
Yeah. I grew up in this teeny tiny town. Maybe some people will recognize it. It's Gold Beach, Oregon, and uh, the population is 2000 by, yeah, it's really tiny.
Um, but it's really beautiful. So I got to spend my summers mostly outside. We have some really beautiful rivers and creeks and we have the beach and so I definitely was. You know, enjoying the mountains, enjoying the outdoors, and had, I think my graduating class was either in their thirties or their sixties.
I can't remember if that was mine or my brother's, but yeah, small, super tiny. Yeah.
Laura Rotter
And you have, um, one brother. How many siblings? Yeah.
Annie Cole
Yep. I have one brother. He's one year younger than me, so we've been really tight all of our life. Yeah, we're in Washington state now and we live a couple hours from each other.
Laura Rotter
Oh, that's so nice. So, um, what I'm hearing you say is that you at least did not see. Either of your parents struggle financially, that was not a message. And so you then had the freedom to pursue whatever you wanted when you went to college. Is that true? Yes. The emotional freedom, if you will.
Annie Cole
Yep.
Emotional freedom for sure. I felt very blessed in the way that I did not have to struggle or perceive my parents worrying about money. It was definitely a gift. Um, surprisingly when I went off to college. My, um, my stepdad had passed. My mom did, decided that she didn't want to pay for college for me, but my dad had set aside somebody to help me pay for college.
So I did have a little bit of support there, but I remember going off. For my freshman year, and I went to a private school that costs a lot of money and they both said, you need to make a decision if you wanna take out loans on your own and if this is worth it to you. And so it helped me realize the responsibility of money and loans early on.
And I actually did decide to transfer to a state school partly for that reason because I, I thought, I don't wanna go into a lot of debt as a young person, so they helped me navigate that. Right away.
Laura Rotter
So as you reflect back, Annie, and we'll go on to discuss where you went from there, but was that sort of your first aha moment, like, oh, I have to think about money and make a decision on the basis of money.
Annie Cole
Uh, there were definitely, uh, other instances here and there. So, for example, when I was younger, my mom had a hair salon and she helped me buy a candy machine to put in her hair salon. And it was really fun because. Of course I got to fill it with candy and then I got to go open the back and pull all the quarters out every so often.
And she said, you can keep the money, but you have to buy the candy to refill it. So I did start to learn in that instance what it meant to make money, but then have to give a lot of money back to my little business. So that happened. And then, um, I also started working in high school. So during the summers I got a job as a hostess and learned what it meant to.
You know, be paid minimum wage and also what it meant to make tips at certain jobs and how valuable that was. So those started laying the foundation, of course, that I didn't have to pay my own rent at the time. So the cash was just kind of a bonus. But then, uh, yeah, moving outta my own, going to college, that's when I really started, it started to sink in a little bit more.
Laura Rotter
Thanks for sharing that story. I love that idea that your, your mother was encouraging entrepreneurship on your part and to Yeah. Think about how a little business runs, and I just want you to take that in, that not everyone grows up with this concept of how a little business would work and, and having.
There was clearly, again, you didn't say anything about stress, thankfully, but you felt like earning your own money. Either you felt personally or you were encouraged to, um, to work as a, as a hostess. So, um, not everyone has that kind of background, so yeah. You did start off by being a social worker before you became a burnt out social worker.
What was, what drew you to social?
Annie Cole
I, from a young age, I told my mom I want to grow up and have my own counseling practice. I wanna help people, I wanna be a therapist. I just. I loved it. I loved talking to people and helping them work through their thoughts. There's actually a video recording of me as a little girl with my friends doing therapy with them and having my own little talk show and things like that.
So yeah. I love How old were you when you were doing that? I'm just curious to, oh gosh. I honestly don't know, but I would say probably fourth or fifth grade.
Laura Rotter
Um, yeah. And nine, 10 years old. Interesting. Yeah.
Annie Cole
Yep. And so I thought, I'm gonna go off to school, study psychology and become a counselor, and then I.
In between, you know, for get your counseling degree, you have to get a master's. So I thought, I'm gonna finish my bachelor's, go work in the field and make sure this is a fit before I invest more money. And so I went off, I got my first job. Um, I had been interning at the sheriff's department, actually working with folks that had just gotten released from prison.
And then, yeah, I did that for about two years, maybe a year and a half during my. Final years of my bachelor's. Then I went and got a job as a domestic violence advocate and responded and helped. Yeah. Helped folks either in domestic violence situations, met people at the hospital who had experienced sexual assault, was responding to the crisis hotline, and so yeah, it really was direct social services and I would say it was therapy at the extreme level where it was people in extreme crisis.
So I did that for two years and then. At that point, it had been like four years total of kind of doing the social work and I just started to experience emotional and physical burnout and felt like I wanna help people, but I don't think this is the fit for my personality and for me. And so I decided to, to leave at that time.
Laura Rotter
Yeah, I mean, that, that is really, as you said, sort of on the margin social work. Um, yeah. Working with, um. Really hard population. So I could see how that would lead to burnout. So, um, so once you came to the realization that this wasn't the right fit, where did you go next?
Annie Cole
I, I thought a lot about what I had experienced when I was in college, and I remember I switched my major a couple times between psychology and education because the classes were very similar and there was this idea that maybe I could be more of a peer advisor or an academic advisor, and that kind of counseling experience was really interesting to me.
So. I purposefully took a bridge job. I actually took a job for I think a little over a year as a leasing agent, and I worked at the front office. Yeah, it was, it was very intentional because I knew I was burnt out. I wanted to kind of heal myself and reflect before moving on to something different, so I went to therapy.
I got this really nice apartment and just worked this job that was a good fit for the time. So I did that for a while and then finally moved into my education career. So I worked at a college, I worked in a, um, first year student center, so I helped first year college students and then became an academic advisor and then got into education research.
So it did a lot of different things on the college campus and absolutely loved it.
Laura Rotter
It's interesting, uh, first of all. I do hear Annie, as you described this, that I, I feel like you were very mature. At least maybe you're looking back and seeing it as, this is a bridge job. This is what I need to do. Um, and again, I just wanna point out to you that not everyone.
Will be that sort of thoughtful and methodical about a path that you take, is that always been that way?
Annie Cole
I really have always been my, that's definitely my personality. I'm such a planner. I am such a, yeah, I'm a planner for sure, but I also, I'm so glad I had that experience and I share it a lot on social media and with my clients that I work with because I hope people know, as you hear my story.
I have lots of career pivots. I didn't stick with one path, and bridge jobs are okay. It didn't ruin my resume. I went on to get, make much more money and land great roles. So it, it's not gonna ruin your life if you wanna pivot if you're hearing this. So, um, I hope that encourages other people that it's okay.
Laura Rotter
Oh, thank you so much. So you're now describing that you actually loved your work in education. So what shifted for you there?
Annie Cole
It actually was very a natural progression. So I was in school, I was getting my master's and my doctorate in education. The school had this amazing program where you could get almost all of your tuition paid as an employee to continue your education.
So. I took advantage of that. I was working full time and then doing my degree program in the evenings. And as I kept doing the degree program and working with students, I really fell in love with the data side of things and how the more we know about someone's situation and their data points, the more informed advising I could give them.
So, for example, if they came in with, um, lower grades in the sciences, but they wanted to become a pre-med. Student, then that person is probably gonna need the referrals to the resources in the sciences versus another student who's excelling in science but has really poor time management. They're gonna need different resources.
So I loved that data could help me do my job better. So I fell in love with data. Obviously in a doctorate program, you're learning how to do research, so I transitioned into becoming a research coordinator. For, uh, an education grant. So we were studying how do middle school students that experience trauma bounce back from trauma so that they can do well in school.
And that was so much fun. I got involved with that study. When I finished that study, I moved into a research analyst role with an ed tech company and then worked there for the last four years. So, um, yeah, the research side of things just became so fascinating to me.
Laura Rotter
You're a self-described, um. Well, maybe these are my words, but I'm gonna say you're a people person, right?
You talked about from the age of nine or 10. Yeah. So how does that fit with being someone who is a research analyst? Because at least in my mind, and I'm sure our listeners minds, that sounds like someone who's sitting in front of a screen and crunching data. So where's, where's the segue, if you will, or the fit?
Annie Cole
Well, it's funny because I'm definitely a people person, but I'm an extreme introvert. I, I could s I'm the person that could sit there. I get it. Yeah. I could stare at a wall for two hours and feel so much peace and probably be daydreaming the whole time. So yeah, the number crunching, I loved it because. I am so empathetic and love helping people.
So when I would spend hours crunching data from a survey, but I would see the survey and every single data point was a person, and so it was, how do I use, you know, 80% of people said that there was a problem with this aspect of the product. What does this mean for our product team? What does this mean for our organization as a whole if we wanna build our reputation and really make clients happy?
So it was the empathy that made the data real, and I think that that's important. 'cause it is easy to sit there and crunch numbers. And just write a report. But it's different when you're thinking about how to change lives with data.
Laura Rotter
Thank you for that description and answer. I, I feel moved to share, Annie, that this very much resonates with me from my previous career on Wall Street, which was a lot of, Hmm.
Number crunching. And the story to me was the interesting part. The company, the industry, the management team, the change that's going on culturally that's impacting the industry and the specific business. And now fast forward to what I do, working with individuals, which of course if you're going to give financial advice.
You are working with numbers. Yeah. And on the other hand, it's not all about just staring at the screen and crunching the numbers. It's about the people. It's about what moves them. It's about what values they hold and how you can then help them make decisions with the Absolutely. With those numbers. And I similar to you, can spend a lot of time alone looking, looking at numbers.
Yeah. Um, yeah. So how long was that career? Are you still doing it? What was the segue to what you're doing now?
Annie Cole
So I became a research analyst at this ed tech startup, and that was the last four years. So I just transitioned out of that work. This year I was the research analyst, and then within five months it was.
I was one of the, a handful of early on hires for the startup and then within five months became the director of research and then a year later became the vice president. So climbed the ladder pretty quickly. And then we grew out our team of, you know, evaluation team, the program team, the tech team underneath me.
And then just this year I decided to go part-time. So I do still work with that organization, um, which is a ton of fun 'cause I can stay connected to the research work and all the wonderful people there. I also have the chance to venture out into my own business, which I launched this year, and that's all about helping women with their finances.
And so I found that I loved the work I was doing number crunching and doing the data for this, uh, startup, but I also had been I this underlying current of all of this, all of my work was learning how. To make the most of my money. Learning how to budget, learning how to invest, learning how to climb the ladder and advocate for myself.
And I realized that a lot of women in my life, friends and family didn't know some of the things I was learning. And so I just thought, I wanna be a part of this movement. There's so many people who are sharing financial education to help change the world. I wanna do this too. So that's. That's what I started to do this year and it's, it's been wonderful.
Laura Rotter
So Annie, can you please share with us, um, what drew you to this work? Because we both know we deal with. Somewhat similar populations that plenty of people could have the same background as you and not pay any attention to their money in the same way that you described when you were younger, be on autopilot.
You did well professionally, so you have money, so you just spend it and, and there's no catalyst. So what was your catalyst to actually start to pay attention to your money? Because as you described yourself when you were earlier you, you may have even taken it for granted. So
Annie Cole
yeah, I think I did take it for granted for a long time.
Didn't have to think about it. I think there were a few different catalysts. One was getting that first job making $26,000 and realizing how far it didn't go, and just how. I wouldn't ever be able to probably have a family or buy a home and just some of the it, it was very practically real that if I crunched the numbers I couldn't do these things.
So that was a huge catalyst to try to think, how can I climb the ladder and make more money? The other moment was when I, later on I started making more money and that's when I started to think how can I really max out my retirement? And as I made more money. I remember getting a promotion, sorry, I'm
Laura Rotter
sorry to interrupt.
I'm laughing. For those of you who are only listening to this, your retirement, I'm assuming you're in your thirties as you're describing this, right? Or…
Annie Cole
Yes. I was in my thirties. Again, I, it's the number crunch in me because I, I think, okay, I got a promotion. How can I make the most of this money? And so I opened up this retirement calculator and I started plugging in the numbers and I realized.
You know, I'm a huge fan of the fire approach. Financial independence retire early. I know it's not a fit for everyone, but. I had been hearing about that and seeing it on social media, so I thought, how much would it take for me to put this new income into my investments instead of spending it? And I realized that if I did that I would be able to retire quite a few years early, I think it was in my fifties.
And then as I kept getting more promotions with that information, knowing, okay, if I invest, I can reach financial freedom faster. It just motivated me. It lit a fire under me to think, well, why not? I'm already, I don't need extra money. I live this really great life. I had created this value-based budget. I really spend in aligned with the things that.
Means something to me. So the extra cash just became this financial freedom vehicle. It was like, why not put it in this investment account? But I, I think that's what fired me up to wanna do this work because there's so many people who either aren't investing at all or don't understand how powerful it is to help you reach financial freedom.
And so. I, I wanna do this work until every single person in the world knows what's possible. And if they decide that's not a fit for me, that's fine, but I don't want it to be because they didn't have the information.
Laura Rotter
And how did you get the information? I mean, you did notice, you did note. Hearing about the fire movement on social media, but even as you just pointed to investments, where did you get that knowledge from that now you're, you're sharing
Annie Cole
It was a journey of a lot of resources, so it's a lot of it started with books.
There are so many fantastic books out there. I think the first one I read was Rich Dad, poor Dad. And it was a, a referral from a friend. And once I started reading that one, I loved it so much. It changed the way I thought about money. So then I started buying more books and I would say I have a stack of many that I recommend now, but those books definitely changed the way I thought about money.
And then I also followed a lot of financial influencers on Instagram and would just. See them when I would scroll every now and then and see different financial tips about taxes or investing, and that was really helpful. It was just low key, you know, once a week, if I'm scrolling, I see something here or there and inspires me to Google it and it.
It just kept it top of mind.
Laura Rotter
You, you said several times it changed the way, or several books changed the way you thought about money. Can you give us an example or two of, of what those changes were?
Annie Cole
Absolutely. So the biggest one that I also share with my coaching clients now. Is this idea that we are raised to think that we have to work for money and that we can only make money through an exchange of our time and our energy.
And most of the time that just means a full-time job. And so I was that person. You know, I graduated from college, got a job. I thought the only way to make money was to. Get a job and have someone else pay you. And the more I learned about money nowadays, I realized that money is a value exchange. So even me creating a business.
I am creating money out of thin air by giving someone value, and they in turn are giving me money for sharing my insights, my brain, my tips, things that are gonna change their life. And I feel like I'm not even doing it justice with the words I'm using it, but this experience of learning just where money comes from and that, you know, even your employer had to start as someone starting a business one day and creating value, it really is this.
This value exchange. And so understanding that changed what I thought was possible with money and how I thought money was made and my ability to make it. So, yeah.
Laura Rotter
So I, I feel like what you're describing is relatively subtle, that it's not an exchange of money for time, but money for value. Yes. If I'm understanding you correctly.
Annie Cole
Yep.
Laura Rotter
And how did that then impact your behavior?
Annie Cole
Yeah, I think it definitely impacted my behavior this year and thinking about starting a business because I think you think about starting a business, I'm not, I'm very type A, I like to do the safe thing. And so thinking, starting a business. What do you even do?
I mean, you're sitting here and you say, I wanna start a business. Do you build a website? Do you reach out to someone? How do you sell to them? It just seems like this huge black hole that I didn't even understand. But once I understood that it's really a value exchange, then I started working with coaches to understand, okay, how do you put value into.
A practical business product. So how do you build a product? How do you market that product? How do you package it? How do you encourage people to understand the value you're offering? How do you price it? And all of that started with value though, because if you just start a business and think, I'm gonna create a website, I'm gonna create a product.
You miss the value piece, then you might not get clients because you're not really trying to do something that's valuable to their lives. The rest of it is just technical. You know, you can learn how to do marketing, you can learn how to create a course, but it starts with value. And implicit
Laura Rotter
to that, which I, I'm sort of reading into it as someone who also started a business, is understanding the value.
Um. That you are providing, the knowledge that you have that you wanna provide adds the energy, perhaps even sometimes creates the energy to then take what are, as you just described, physical steps that may or may not lead to a flourishing business. Like, all right, I'll have a website. All right. I'll have, uh, an offer.
But if you just do it without the sense that you actually are providing something valuable to the people that need it, um, yeah. It's hard to have the energy always to do what is not an easy thing to do to create a business from scratch. Is that resonate with you?
Annie Cole
Absolutely. That is such a good point because it influences everything you do in your business.
And I think especially when it comes to when you own a business, you, your job is to sell, you have to make money. And if you are selling something you don't believe in and you don't think it's valuable. You're gonna feel uncomfortable versus, you know, I truly believe that what I'm offering is gonna transform your life and your finances.
I believe that at my core. So it's not even selling, it's more, is this a fit for you? Are you ready for this? I would love to help you have this transformation. That's a different energy. So I like the, your focus on the energy about it. It's so true.
Laura Rotter
So Annie, please share about your business. Um, how exactly do you help women transform their relationship with money and then therefore their lives?
Annie Cole
So we have a couple of ways that we do that. So, money essentials for women. It started off as just myself, my own coaching, one-on-one with clients, but it actually has grown even in the six months we have been around. So. Yeah, we're, we're growing fast. Um, so I personally do one-on-one coaching with clients.
So I either do a deep dive into your finances where we create a financial plan and work in one session. Um, or I do, I have a 30 day program where I help people go through my five step wealth framework and create a, a in-depth financial plan for their goals. So those are the two things I do. But on top of that.
On my website, we have a lot of free resources. So we have a blog, we do free virtual events, we have a lot of workshops, um, and then we have a lot of free resources, so links to guides, calculators, all kinds of stuff. So we hope that people, no matter if you want to spend a lot of money or just come get some free resources, you can benefit.
And then the last thing we do is we actually have a coach directory. Mm-hmm. So this is a group of coaches, I think we have about. Maybe 25 to 30 right now. And so the idea is I hope that people that come to the website can find the person they wanna work with in the finance, the career, and the business realm, because all of those things impact your money.
So for example, we have a CPA in the directory. I think we have two. If you wanna just have a one hour session to ask tax professional your tax questions, you can set up a one hour meeting with them. Pay them for that one hour and get the answers you need, rather than having to pay someone for year long services.
If you want to have someone review your resume, we have a career coach. If you wanna have someone talk about your business taxes, we have someone who can talk about that. So it's just this group of people that are kind of offering all la carte services. And then almost all of them offer free consultations as well, so you can get to know them, see if they're a fit.
Um, and my vision is that people would be able to build their financial team. In all of these different areas right there, and that it would be very holistic support.
Laura Rotter
Annie, do you have sort of, um, I guess right, people talk about an avatar, but do you have. Um, a sense of who you enjoy working with, um, a description, if you will.
Annie Cole
Yeah, I would say I, I love working with women who are mid-career. I think what, who we tend to attract the most is women who are somewhere between, you know, late twenties, uh, late forties. They have some pieces of the financial puzzle figured out, but they wanna do more. And a lot of these women are high achieving.
They want to make the most of their money. They either wanna invest more, they wanna pay off debt, they wanna invest in real estate, they want to climb the career ladder, they wanna launch a business. They just, they're hungry to do really exciting things with their money. And so they come into our world and we're able to give them all of these supports and really help them accelerate the process because we have the resources, we have the answers, we make it easier for people.
And so I definitely think those mid-career professionals are the folks that are gonna find, find what they want at Money Essentials.
Laura Rotter
I mean, what I'm hearing is you enjoy working with people who are motivated to do this work. It sort of works that way. That is hopefully the people who are going to reach out.
That being said, um, I. I certainly have found sometimes that people pay, they say, okay, we wanna move forward, we wanna work with you. And then I feel like this isn't a gym membership, right? Like people, it's like, yeah, they ghost. It's like, yeah, you're paying, we actually, you know, you need to provide information.
You need to schedule a meeting. I mean, do you find that to be the case sometimes? Yourself.
Annie Cole
I definitely have had that happen. I am thankful that I haven't had it happen often. Um, most people have been engaged and um, but yeah, there's definitely been some people who aren't ready and I think that's totally okay if you don't feel motivated and ready.
You don't have to step in, but also, at least the way I do it for my, um, my 90 minute deep dives, I'm giving you homework from day one. So the moment you sign up, I'm giving you the spreadsheet and asking you to fill it in. And honestly, I think it helps jumpstarts people's motivation because they see the spreadsheet, they have directions, they get excited, and it's easy because you're just following directions to fill something in rather than having to.
Do something from scratch or think up something. So you never know what might actually motivate someone and get them excited.
Laura Rotter
Now, the resources that you mentioned on your website, they're free, or is there some membership that people pay? Um. Yeah,
Annie Cole
there's, there's a, there's a range. So we, we do have, um, some courses and some products that we sell at cost.
There's also a lot of free guides, so it, it kind of depends on what you're interested in. Um, for the coaching, like I said, everyone offers free consultations, so you can test that out for free. Mm-hmm. And then, um, pay either for, for a one hour session or you can have ongoing coaching.
Laura Rotter
Thank you. So if you know that you wanna ask questions of a CPA or someone, you could go to your website, find that CPA, and then reach out to them directly and see exactly for free time.
Yep. So we're getting closer to the end of our conversation. I do like to ask the question, and I know it's early in your business, and the question is. Over time, how has your definition of success shifted? Right. We talked about earlier it was get good grades and get a good job and get Yes. Um, and now.
Would you say it's a different definition of success and perhaps even address your definition of financial success?
Annie Cole
I think success, first of all, I think it's very personal. I don't think there's one definition. I think everyone defines what success is for them, and to me, success is doing what I think. I can do in the world and kind of leaving it all on the court, just doing my best, using my strengths, using my abilities, using my energy.
And if I've done that, then I think I've been successful because I, I hesitate to use external validation as the, the verifier of success because I think. I could do something that was really meaningful to me and not many people liked it, enjoyed it, bought it, but it changed my life because I took a chance and did it.
So I think it more comes down to. What you feel like you want to do and then having the courage to go do it…
Laura Rotter
which to me brings up the question, what practices do you have, Annie, that help you be in touch with and trust the voice that gives you the internal validation? Because so many of us don't even hear that voice, like there's nothing other than external validation.
So how do you keep in touch? With that inner voice.
Annie Cole
A lot of times I will process with my husband. Um, he's an entrepreneur as well. Ah, and yeah, we talk all the time. I mean, I had, yeah, I had something come up recently in my business. And I honestly, I can't even think of what the situation was, but things are always popping up.
And I remember I was taking a shower and I was processing in the shower, and then we went on a walk. A lot of times we'll end up going on walks or going out to dinner and we'll chat through things. So yeah, talking, just talking out loud, like, you know, I feel this, but I feel like I'm only feeling this because of this thing and this is bias and this is from my past.
And just processing out loud is really, really helpful for me.
Laura Rotter
That's great. So with another person as opposed to journaling as an example, that it's,
Annie Cole
I do love journaling though. I, I mean, as an introvert I'll sit with my journal all the time, but yeah, the most powerful has been processing with another person.
That's wonderful.
Laura Rotter
So is there anything else you wanna make sure that you share with our listeners, Annie? I am certainly gonna put among other things, your, your website with the, um, with the resources in the show notes.
Annie Cole
I would just say, just know that you are capable of such incredible things and probably more than you even know.
I. I never would have thought I would be where I am today. And some of it has been taking leaps of faith or taking risks. Some of it has been amazing opportunities that got handed to me. So you just, I don't know, keep thinking big and push yourself to take a little bit of risk because you really can do great things.
Laura Rotter
Thank you so much. I love that. Final words of inspiration, Annie. So nice to have met you and be interviewing you.
Annie Cole
Yeah. Thank you so much. Thanks for listening to Making Change with your Money Certified Financial planner, Laura Rodder specializes in helping people just like you organized, clarify, and invest their money.
Narrator
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