From Burnout to Bold: Redefining Wealth on Your Own Terms with Therese Nicklas

What does it actually mean to be wealthy?

Not just financially successful, but truly wealthy. In alignment. Living a life that matches your values, not just your bank balance.

That's the question at the center of this conversation. Lisa Marie sits down with Therese Nicklas, CFP™, Certified Money Coach (CMC)®, and Certified Success Principles™ Coach, and they talk all about what it really takes to build wealth that lasts. From Therese's grandmother stretching pennies in Sicily to a client who almost dropped $10,000 on a conference she didn't need, this episode is full of honest, practical wisdom that will make you stop and think before your next investment decision.

If you've ever bought a program out of fear, said yes to something you didn't have the time or energy for, or wondered whether your basket is already full, this one is for you.

What You'll Learn

• What "True Wealth" actually means, and why it has nothing to do with how much money you have
• The story of Therese's grandmother and her 95-year-old uncle that reframes everything about money and mindset
• The real reason entrepreneurs keep buying shiny objects (hint: it's not excitement, it's fear)
• How to do the soul-searching work before any investment decision, and why that conversation could save you tens of thousands of dollars
• The "basket" framework: why your knowledge base may already be full before you spend another dollar
• The $10,000 Alaska conference story, and the question that changed things
• Why time and energy are part of your ROI, and what happens when you ignore that
• How to build a money muscle through radical honesty with yourself

Guest Information

Therese Nicklas is a Certified Financial Planner™, Certified Money Coach (CMC)®, and Certified Success Principles™ Coach. She empowers executive and entrepreneurial women with smart strategies to build a new big, bold life, with certainty, clarity, and confidence.

Through her True Wealth coaching program, clients learn to say no to burnout, feeling empty, and working nonstop. They learn to say yes to designing a fulfilling life they love, one built with joy, purpose, and balance.

Connect with Therese

Website: wealthcoachforwomen.com/ 

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/theresernicklascfp

Facebook: facebook.com/theresernicklascfp

Free Resource: Financial Freedom Toolkit - https://wealthcoachforwomen.com/pod 

Resources

• The Seven Money Pitfalls email series
• Money Movz™ Voxer Coaching 
• Transcendent Wealth Co

Follow Lisa Marie on your favorite social platform:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn

Transcendent Wealth Co. LLC
https://www.transcendentwealthco.com   

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hi, my satsy friend. Welcome back to another episode of Cash and Zast Podcast. My name is Lisa Marie. I am the brains and the fractional CFO and wealth mentor behind this podcast and Transcendent Wealth Company. If this is your first time watching, welcome. You are in for a treat and we're going to talk about money. That's what we talk about. We click into the curb. We talk about my favorite subject. And I'm excited for today. We've been waiting a while to do this, and I'm excited to have her here. I have Teresa Nicholas. Nicholas. Nicholas Nicholas. I'm butchering that. I'm so sorry. She's a certified financial planner, a certified money coach, and a certified success principles coach empowers executive and entrepreneurial women with smart strategies to build a new big bold life with certainty, clarity, and confidence. And as a result of her true wealth coaching program, clients learn to say no to burnout, feeling empty, and doing nothing but work, work, work, work. They say yes to designing a fulfilling life they love, true wealth, a life filled with joy, purpose, and balance. And I adore that because I work with my clients on building wealth that's truly aligned with their values, their goals, their wants, and their desires, and it not being cookie cutter and it not being where they have to burn out and they feel like they're on this never-ending hamster wheel. And so this just spoke to me. So I'm so excited to have you here. We're in dive in. So I would love to just know a little bit of your journey around money. We all have it. So, you know, can you just tell us just a little bit of what started your journey and maybe what was the pivotal moment of realizing that you know you can have wealth, and then you went into the world of being able to teach other people the same thing?

SPEAKER_00 2:01

Sure. So do you go Lisa Marie or just Lisa? Lisa Marie again. Okay. I had a sister Lisa Marie. So my journey started when I was a child, and I didn't realize that it started. I had a grandmother who was phenomenal with managing money, and she didn't have any. So she was just like a miracle worker when I came to her finances. And I watched her for until she passed, and I was in my 20s when she passed. But as a child, Lisa Marie, I had the privilege of being at her elbow by myself. And we came from a really big family. But I just happened to luck out that I would go over there on Sunday morning and spend the morning with her while she prepared Sunday dinner for herself and her extended family. And while I was there, she would tell me all these stories about her life when she grew up in abject poverty in Sicily. Not in a way that complained about it, like old before me. It was just a story. It was just who she where she came from. And she talked about how she and my grandfather came to this country because they felt like they would have a better opportunity, which they did. Now, they were never wealthy people from a financial point of view, but I would say they were very wealthy from an emotional point of view. They had what I call true wealth. And what I mean by that is when you have enough money so that your money, your financial position is in alignment with your values. And for her, the most important thing was being able to provide for her family in a way that she could have Sunday dinner and be surrounded by her extended family, being her children, her in-laws, and her grandchildren. And there were about 30 people at the table. And that was a big deal to her to be able to provide that, to be able to have that ability. What's so interesting to me, and as I was growing up and like thinking of her stories and how she did so much with so little, she had four children. Three of her children, all boys, all you know, her sons, they all went into the same field. They all had their own business in the exact same profession, and only one was financially successful. They all had great businesses, Lisa Marie, but what they didn't have was their mother's ability to manage money. And they didn't have that because of their mindset, because they made decisions that were counterproductive. One of her sons followed in her footsteps. He happens to still be alive, he's 95 years old, he's still living his lifestyle. And I try to see him as often as I can. He's the only uncle I have left. And we had a conversation a couple months ago about this subject, and he said to me, He said, You know, Terry, I really wish my brothers listened to me. They made fun of me, they joked, they'd say, Oh, Charlie, he has his the last dollar he ever had. And they would tease him because of his ability to handle money. But he lived within his means. He knew he had to save money for the future, and he never complained about it. It's just that's just how you did things. Where his brothers, one was um always looking for a get-rich quick scheme, and the other one, it was he no matter how much money he had, he was like the glutton at the all-you-can-eat buffet. So no matter how much he had, it was never enough. And I witnessed that, and as I grew up, and you know, my husband and I, when we were first married, we had financial struggles. We got married very young with nothing to our name. But we worked really hard, we worked together, and we were both on the same page as far as what we valued. So, because of that, we saved for our first home. I bought my first house when I was 23. And that was really the game changer for us was buying real estate, was owning that piece of real estate. We sold it six years later. That was not a smart move. We bought something else that was the problem, not selling the house, it was what we bought. Had we stayed put, we would have been better off, but you know, you learn the hard way. But when I look back on those days, it was my grandmother's lessons, the things I learned from her of how to do a lot with the little that got me through some very difficult times.

SPEAKER_01 6:42

Yeah, and I think it's important to understand that yeah, I I teach people that you don't have to save, save, save, save, save. Not just save, save, save. And there's two extremes. It's hoarding and never spending, and then also spending more than you have or faster than you get it in. And when I tell people, they're like, okay, well, then what can you do? Well, you can do both. You can live and enjoy your life and go on a vacation. Save for it, go on a vacation. But you can live and enjoy your life and save money for the future. It is possible to do both. And I think what needs to be said is that you have to be strategic, you have to be responsible, and you have to be willing to look at the money. You have to know what's going on, or have someone working with someone, especially if you're in business, working with someone to help you get those things, right? Because, you know, a lot of times what happens with entrepreneurs is we bury our head in the sand and we just say, Oh, well, I'll just go make more money. Well, that's where the hamster wheel and never-ending financial merry-go-round of chaos comes from, at least in my opinion. That's what I call it, the never-ending merry-go-round of financial chaos. And that's where that comes from, is from burying your head, you know, and not looking at those things. And it's really important to look at it. One of the things that I wanted to touch on and just ask is it sounds like you were able to have some saviness with the management because you paid attention and those kind of things. And how are you able to, or what is something that you recommend to an entrepreneur? Say, for example, they started their business and they're like, Okay, I'm how do I discern from time for me to sign up for a training or take something, or if I should weigh? Because a lot of times entrepreneurs have this habit of always like just spending, they see something, they think it's gonna give them results, and they'll go and they'll invest, and then they'll see something else, and then they'll go and invest. And then the next thing they know, they've invested in all these things, and all that's happened is they drained money, right? And they're not really, you know. I tell people all the time they need to be strategic, but I'd love to know honestly, how you take that power back to and what you suggest to your clients and to others. So my listeners have a way of going, oh, okay, I can do this easy depth of uh discernment and take power back to be able to tell if I should if it's time to invest in something. And I'm not even talking about if they have the money or not, they can have the money in the account. That's what I'm talking. I'm that you've got the money. It's not whether or not you got you've got the money, it's whether or not it's right to invest at that moment.

SPEAKER_00 9:40

Okay, so if if I were looking at a training, for example, we'll we'll use that. And I do, I agree with you a thousand percent, Lisa Marie. There are many entrepreneurs, especially if they're less than five years into their business, and they look for every shiny object to make running their business easy.

SPEAKER_01 10:02

Well, and that's because all so many entrepreneur coaches, and I I mean, used to, they don't do it no more, but well, some do, but so many of them have said, Oh, you bought his program, and and and yeah, they make it sound like overnight you're gonna be uh six-figure success or a seven-figure success, and you're gonna follow my stops, and the fact that Well, discernment number one, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

SPEAKER_00 10:26

So that's discernment number one. Amen to that one. If they are hyperbole all over the place, just use your head. What are the chances of you being able to turn yourself into a six-figure rock star overnight? What have you done up to this point to get you from wherever you are to where you want to be? So let's say you're we'll use the scenario, you're less than five years into your business. What have you done to perfect your skills? Do you even know what your offer is? What are you presenting to the public and how are you presenting it to get them to buy from you? If you don't have the answers to those questions, those are the first things you need to address, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_01 11:18

And if you do have the answers to those, in my opinion, it would be the next question is and will this investment help me further help me to go to the next level? Like, you know, I went from two stamps to six figures in three years. Okay, there are other entrepreneurs who've gone six figures in a year or two years. There's some take a little bit longer than that. There it's not a rate, and that's one thing that I tell people. And when you're looking at something, and you know, even if you're at multiple six figures or high five figures or right at six figures, if you're looking at something and you know the answers to I tell them it's like stop and look and say, will this help me go from this number to this number and reach that goal? Is it or if it's to help you get to a new ideal client, or if it's to help you create a program, whatever it is, will it help? And then if you say yes right now, then the next question I tell people to my clients and I tell other people to ask, is how? And I want you to actually write down how. And then in realizing that part of that is okay, and what will be required of me? And I would say we miss that piece, we miss that piece so often, right? And if you can't, y'all, I added a program and I didn't do I did not ask these questions, and if I asked these questions, I would not have invested in that program because at the time I couldn't add three calls a month to my schedule. So it was well, it was actually more than that. Like two calls a week to my schedule. So that meant I wasn't gonna be able to, especially the time they were doing them. I couldn't add them. I I wasn't going to be able to be present. And those are things that we need to take into consideration when we're making an investment. Because one, you just making the investment and then saying they're gonna provide these things, you gotta realize you're gonna have to do some work. Something's gonna be required of you, and you need to ask yourself what's gonna be required. Write it down, write it down so you see it, and then say, okay, is this something I can do right that right now? Can I fit this into my schedule? Can I commit to doing this right now? The answer is no, pretty sure Trey's gonna agree with me. Please don't invest in it.

SPEAKER_00 13:43

And and I would like to add to that, Lisa Marie, that it's not even just your time commitment, but what I would like to look at.

SPEAKER_01 13:49

Oh, your energy, your time, your energy, the the whole, the whole, the whole thing.

SPEAKER_00 13:55

But even but even beyond that, if let's say you're at five figures and you've been in business for 12 months and you got yourself from zero to five figures in 12 months, that's pretty darn good. Okay. So now you think this new shiny object is going to get you to six figures. Let's say you're at, we'll call the five figures 50,000. So you want to double your revenue to 100,000. We'll just use clean numbers for this exercise. Look at what you've already done and just ask yourself, what do I need to do to double my revenue? What can I do twice as much? Or what can I do better? Because I've already done this piece by myself with no thanks or help from anyone. Do I need to spend X number of dollars and will I 10x that investment? Because if let's say you're spending $10,000 or $25,000 on a program, which isn't hard to do, and they're promising that you're going to double your revenue, well, you're at $50 now. Doubling it brings you to $100. So that means that you're adding $50K. You're spending $50K, so really you're only netting out $25K, right? So what do I have to do? If I did nothing with, I don't sign up for this program, I want to net $75,000 by the end of the year. What can I look at that I've already done? What can I either improve or do more frequently? Maybe you're somebody who um you're running webinars. And whenever you run a webinar, you bring on 10 new clients, you know, just for the argument. All right, and you've run that webinar twice a year. Well, why don't you run it four times a year? Doing that might double your revenue. Maybe you buy ads, you know, maybe instead invest in some ads. Um, you know, improve your copy on your landing page. It could be little tweaks that could make all the difference. So before you go out and invest, look at what's already in your basket. That's how I like to explain it to people. Think of your knowledge base, your investments as being in a great big basket. Your basket might already be full. You probably have everything or pretty close to everything that you need already. And I've seen this mistake, especially with with entrepreneurs that are in the healing world, like they're Reiki practitioners, are they yoga instructors, or they're things like that. They want to get every certification known to me.

SPEAKER_01 16:28

And they don't feel and they don't feel like they've already got their expertise.

SPEAKER_00 16:32

They don't need to they feel like if I get this one more expertise, then that's gonna make me more attractive.

SPEAKER_01 16:40

And a lot of times the only thing that needs to be changed is one, how they manage their money, and two, it's normally taking something off of their plate so that they can tweak what they were doing. So, like you said, instead of two webinars, having four webinars, right? And they're like, Yeah, but I'm having to do this. Okay, well, we could hire somebody from Upworks, or you can hire a VA part-time out of the US and pay them, say, $300 or $500 a month, which does not come out to $25,000, $50,000, by the way. And they're gonna do that, and now you freed up, which by the way, will take them less time to do than what taking you, because that's one of the reasons why it's so sweet to have one. Especially a good one.

SPEAKER_00 17:28

Well, you have to have a good one. I I've had a lot that I can do. Especially a good one.

SPEAKER_01 17:32

I've had some bad ones. I have a really good one right now. So if you want some uh saying, hey, Lisa, I need to know some good ones. I've got some that are on my referral list, and I have one that I work with, and she's mine, and she's very, very good, and I know for a bike, she's too amazing. But the point is sometimes it's taking, I'm gonna say this for someone who loves to give, like me, it's it's difficult to give control over to someone for them to take the lead on some part of your baby, and yet when you do that, it frees up the stress and allows you to focus on something that you could create. So, like TikTok reels or Instagram reels, right? Because they need to be you, and you could create those, and then they can go and create the strategy and say and do the audit and say, Hey, this Instagram, this is the reason why it's not working because they're they're phenomenal. Instagram is a VA to that's their thing, and then they can help create a strategy for it to make you to make it to where you can reach more people and grow your ideal client. So now you've just tweaked that little thing, took it off your page, and now you're able to go and do a couple TikTok reels and have another webinar, which now just brought in even more. So that's the the the whole point of that. I am not going to tell you never to invest in a program or a coach. That is not what I'm gonna say. I will say that right now because that's not the answer. I have two coaches myself. I have a tax advisor, I have a financial planner that I work with, I have all of these things, okay? I have an accounting background, okay? I'm a I am a fractional CFO, and I have people who are in a different zone of genius than me that I hire, right? Coaches. I've had my set coach, I've had um, oh, I can't think of the word, but I had a different type of uh trauma coach to help me do a lot of healing. And again, there's different pieces. The point is is not to go and just sign up for every program you see. Do your due diligence, make sure it's going to be something that like 3C, it's not something that you could actually already do, right? Or hire someone to help you do to get you to a little bit here, make sure it's going to it's going to be a true ROI and it's going to be something that you can fit time and energy into. And I because again, if you can't have your time and energy in it, for the love of God, please don't invest in it. Right. I we all have made made that. And if it's something you really want to do, but you can't give the time and energy, it's okay to wait. It's okay to wait until you do have the divine energy. Right. And I just think it's really, really important that we understand part of becoming wealthy, part of staying wealthy, part of retaining and expanding that wealth, is using your due diligence on when to invest in something, when not to invest in something, and when to hire somebody and when not to hire somebody, right? I just think that that is just so, so important. What is something, and I love the way you because you gave them some steps, and that's what I love about this, is that you gave them some awesome steps that they can actually look at and say, okay, does this help me now? Will it help with the business? Or is it something that I can do? I can look at my basket and I can do. And then when you find out, I think that I'd love that sometimes it'll be something you could do, right? And then later there'll be a better investment that actually will get you to, oh, okay, I've done this, so I'm at this point, so now I can invest in this because now this is going to take me even further than what I thought. And I love that. I really, really do. Is there any other advice that you would give them when they are looking at whether or not to make an investment or whether or not to hire somebody, right? You know, I talked about how the ROI is not always money. Sometimes the ROI is time and energy. And by the way, if you've been watching my podcast before, you know that I created the five wealth codes because I think being wealthy is. More than just money. It's your spiritual, your energetic, your mental, your physical, and your financial. And you know, all of those things are affected. And so your time and your energy, I just sometimes those things are your ROI. What's one more tidbit you would share that they can walk, like a step or something they can do when they're looking?

SPEAKER_00 22:21

Okay, I'd like to share a step and also an example. Okay. So the step that I would strongly urge you to take is asking yourself why this is important, and there's a reason I'm saying that. Because I've seen over and over again when someone is constantly buying that shiny object, it's out of fear. It's fear of taking the steps that they know they have to take. So if it's you are you're running one or two workshops a year, doubling that, there's fear. What if people don't show up? What if it's a flop? So, because of that fear, you you figure, oh, I'll I'll spend money over here and I'm investing in myself. We kind of convince ourselves that we're investing in ourselves. So that's a good thing. So we talk ourselves into it. We go into this program. Most of the time when we're in that state of mind, we're only going in it halfway. So, like Lisa Marie said, making sure you have the energy and the time. If you haven't done that background search on yourself and you're jumping into this new program, I really strongly urge you to ask yourself and be honest with yourself, why do I think this program is going to solve my problem? And if you come back and after doing some soul searching, and I if you can't do it yourself, find a friend, call your mom, talk to somebody, hash that out because it could save you tens of thousands of dollars if you just have that conversation. And I'm going to give you one example of what I'm talking about. I was working with this woman who wants to start a business. Now she's telling me on the phone, I want to start a business. And she was literally all over the place. She really did not know what kind of a business she wanted to start. She had like 50 different ideas of what she could do. And I was trying to get her to hone down to one. Let's look at your basket of skills and let's look at what is viable. Well, then she goes off on this diatribe and said, Well, you know what? I have an opportunity to go to this conference in Alaska. We live on the East Coast, so going to Alaska is very expensive. So she's looking at investing $10,000 between the cost of the conference, travel, food, etc., rather than just spending some time and doing a deep dive into her skill set and what would be a promising business. So I asked her point blank, and I was pretty tough on her because $10,000 is a lot of money when you haven't even started yet. And I said to her, what is the outcome you expect to get from this conference? What are you going to gain? How is this going to 10x your investment of time, energy, and money? And what do you think you're going to come out with at the end of the day that you couldn't get just by sitting down and just quieting your mind and figuring out what you can do to start a business or even hiring somebody for a couple of hours just to help you hash through that? Right. And she could not answer that question. Her response to me was, I haven't had a vacation in years. I said, Well, that's a totally different conversation. If you want to take a vacation, take a vacation, but don't do this with the auspice that you're improving yourself and you're building a business when really all you need is a vacation. You could take a weekend down the Cape and spend $500 and have a vacation. You don't need to spend $10,000 that you don't have. So do that soul searching. Get help if you need to. And it doesn't even have to be paid help. Somebody that you trust, that you trust their advice, and walk through and just be brutally honest because that honesty and getting into the habit of being that honest with yourself, having that mindset of honesty is going to help you create true wealth. It's like building a money muscle. And I strongly encourage you to take that step.

SPEAKER_01 26:34

I love that. I love that. Um, you have a free offer for my listeners. Can you tell them about that?

SPEAKER_00 26:40

Yes, I do. I'd love to. Um, if you go to my website and it's wealthcoach for women, that's f-o-r-w-o-n- dot com. Backslash back. Forward slash. The backslash. Back slash.

SPEAKER_01 26:58

Forward slash. P a line that goes like this. It will also, it will also be in the show notes. But yeah, it'll it'll be in the show notes. Go to her website. It's one of those slashes.

SPEAKER_00 27:10

It's one of them slashes, and it's P-O-D, P as and Paul, O is an ostrich, D as in David. And there is a toolkit there for building wealth that is free to you. Also sign up for my email list, and you will get on my list for upcoming free workshops and any other goodies that I have coming out. I also have a free kit. It's right on my website. You don't have to, you can just scroll to the bottom of the website or the first page. And that is a transition checklist. So if you're in the process of thinking like you want to make a big change in your life, if you want to change jobs, you're thinking of launching a business, you think you might like to retire, but you don't know if you have enough money for it, download the checklist. It will at least get you started. It will give you a framework for where your mindset is right now, what you might need to create in order to make whatever your goal is happening.

SPEAKER_01 28:10

I love it. And if today's episode gave you that loving kick in the assets and you know it's time to get your money truly aligned, I don't want you to just listen and leave. I want you to book your wealth alignment call and let's me and you map out your next bold move together. You don't have to do it alone. The wealth alignment call is free. I again, this is what I do. And I just go ahead and just book it and let's map it out. Let's give you some steps that you can take to really truly build wealth that's aligned with your values and your goals and your desires and your wants. And until next time, remember confidence and cash are the ultimate power duo. And so go check in with your money. Please don't check in with your money. And as always, have a fantastic and wealthy day. And until next time.