When you're Childfree, disability insurance is essential. Bri Conn, CFP® and Scott Barnes, CFP®, TPCP®, CLTC make the case that your paycheck is the engine behind the entire life you've designed, and protecting it isn't the same as guarding against some freak accident. More than one in four of today's 20-year-olds will become disabled before retirement, and about 90 percent of claims come from ordinary illnesses like cancer, heart conditions, and long COVID, not the dramatic scenarios people picture. The throughline is the one that runs through everything on this show: your income is your freedom, and protecting it on purpose is how you keep the life you built.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

• Why disability is far more common than people assume, with more than one in four of today's 20-year-olds becoming disabled before retirement and about 90 percent of claims coming from everyday illnesses rather than accidents
• The real difference between short-term and long-term disability coverage, and why a solo earner with no partner to fall back on should treat long-term coverage as non-negotiable
• How the definition of disability in your policy changes everything, from the restrictive "any occupation" standard to the "own occupation" coverage that keeps paying even if you build a new career
• How occupational class, benefit caps, and riders like residual disability shape what you actually pay and what you actually collect, and why mental health claims are often limited to a set number of years
• The tax rule that catches people off guard, why a benefit paid for by your employer is taxable while one you fund yourself arrives tax-free, and how that math should shape the coverage you choose

Episode Hosts:

Bri Conn, CFP® is a Childfree Wealth Specialist® at Childfree Wealth® and Customer Experience Manager at Childfree Trust®. She specializes in financial management, life design, and estate planning, with particular focus on LGBTQ+ individuals and couples, drawing on her own early financial challenges and recovery to fuel her work in personal finance education.

Scott Barnes, CFP®, TPCP®, CLTC is an Associate Advisor at Childfree Wealth® and the go-to expert for long-term care strategies and tax planning questions.

About Childfree Insights:

Childfree Insights is the trusted education hub for people who are Childfree or permanently Childless. It provides guidance on finances, estate planning, relationships, and life decisions for adults without children. Home of Childfree Wealth® and Childfree Trust®, supporting long-term planning for people living without kids.

Connect with Us:

Ready to work on building better financial habits? Connect with our financial planning team at childfreewealth.com or learn more about estate planning at childfreetrust.com.

Follow Childfree Life by Design on your favorite podcast platform and join the conversation on social media:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/childfreeinsights
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChildfreeInsights/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/childfreeinsights
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChildfreeInsights

Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational & entertainment purposes. Please consult your advisor before implementing any ideas heard on this podcast.

Building real community as an adult is quietly one of the hardest things about modern life, and it gets harder when you're Childfree. The friends you assumed would always be around get busy, have kids, or move away, and one day you look up and realize the built-in social life adulthood promised never actually arrived. Maddy Roche sits down with four people who got tired of waiting and built the communities they couldn't find. Kari Cardinale of the Modern Elder Academy, Florence Wlodarski of Parallel Social Club, and Charlie and Ali Higgins of DINK Social each started from the same quiet ache, wanting people whose weekends were free and whose lives looked like theirs, and turned it into something thousands have now joined. Underneath it all sits a striking finding: the single biggest predictor of a long life is not diet or exercise, but the quality of the friendships you build in midlife.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

• Why finding your people gets harder in your 40s and beyond, the specific friction points that make adult friendship so difficult, and how these community builders designed around every one of them
• How three very different organizations approach the same need, from a midlife wisdom school to an in-person social club to an app built specifically for Childfree couples
• Why the first hangout is only the entry point, and how structured, smaller gatherings create the deeper "third vault" conversations that actually bond people together
• What it takes for an introvert to walk into a new community and get the most out of it, including why small, vetted, interest-based groups beat big networking-style events
• The 80-year Harvard finding that the quality of your midlife friendships predicts a long life more than diet or exercise, and why that reframes community as a health priority

Episode Guests:

Kari Cardinale is a partner and Chief Content Officer at MEA (Modern Elder Academy), a midlife wisdom school with campuses in Baja, Mexico, and Santa Fe, New Mexico, plus a digital campus and an alumni community of 8,000 people across 60 countries, all built around navigating midlife and building new friendships.

MEA (Modern Elder Academy): meawisdom.com

Florence Wlodarski is the co-founder of Parallel Social Club, a social wellness community in Los Angeles built for DINKs, SINKs, Childfree, and childless adults. Parallel hosts around ten small, curated in-person events a month, designed to remove the friction from adult friendship and help busy professionals actually connect.

Parallel Social Club: parallelsocialclub.com 

Charlie and Ali Higgins are the co-founders of DINK Social, a social app built exclusively for Childfree couples to connect, discover events, and build real friendships. Launched in early 2026, the community-driven platform has already surpassed 2,500 couples.

DINK Social: dinksocial.com 

Episode Host:

Maddy Roche is the Chief Growth Officer at Childfree Trust®, where she leads all sales, marketing, and partnership initiatives and brings sharp insight to estate planning, LGBTQ+ legacy considerations, and Childfree financial decision making.

About Childfree Insights:

Childfree Insights delivers education for financial and estate planning without children. It supports people with no kids in making informed decisions about retirement, legacy planning, beneficiaries, and long-term care. Home of Childfree Wealth® and Childfree Trust®.

Connect with Us:

Ready to work on building better financial habits? Connect with our financial planning team at childfreewealth.com or learn more about estate planning at childfreetrust.com.

Follow Childfree Life by Design on your favorite podcast platform and join the conversation on social media:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/childfreeinsights
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChildfreeInsights/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/childfreeinsights
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChildfreeInsights

Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational & entertainment purposes. Please consult your advisor before implementing any ideas heard on this podcast.

Loneliness carries the same health toll as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, and for Childfree adults there is no built-in carpool lane to friendship. You build your crew on purpose. In this episode, Melissa Holcombe, DSW, LCSW, Maddy Roche, Bri Conn, CFP®, and Alli Gage trade honest stories about the moments that forced them to rebuild their circles, from divorce and sobriety to cross-country moves, and the practical ways they found their people again. They get into why intergenerational friendships are a quiet superpower when your life is not organized around school pickups and playgroups, how to take the pressure off by letting not every friend be a best friend, and the small, repeatable habits, showing up a second time, raising your hand to volunteer, casting a wide net, that turn strangers into a community that fits the life you designed.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

• Why friendship is a health requirement rather than a nice-to-have, and what the research on loneliness, the friendship recession, and the emotional-support deficit reveals about how common it is to feel disconnected
• How major life changes like divorce, sobriety, and moving can signal that your crew needs to change, and how to rebuild intentionally by getting clear on how you want to spend your time and who you want around you
• Why intergenerational friendships are a particular advantage for Childfree adults, and how connecting across age groups brings perspective, mentorship, and a richer life
• How to take the pressure off friendship by connecting over one shared thing, since not every friend has to be a best friend for the relationship to be deeply satisfying
• The practical, repeatable moves for finding your people, from hobbies, classes, volunteering, and faith communities to apps like Bumble BFF and Meetup, plus why going back a second time changes everything

Episode Hosts:

Melissa Holcombe, DSW, LCSW is a Senior Advisor at Childfree Trust® with three decades in social services across child welfare, public schools, and guardianship and probate. She is also one of the nation's first Certified Veterinary Social Workers, with deep expertise in the legal and emotional terrain that vulnerable individuals navigate.

Maddy Roche is the Chief Growth Officer at Childfree Trust®, where she leads all sales, marketing, and partnership initiatives and brings sharp insight to estate planning, LGBTQ+ legacy considerations, and Childfree financial decision making.

Bri Conn, CFP® is a Childfree Wealth Specialist at Childfree Wealth® and Customer Experience Manager at Childfree Trust®. She specializes in financial management, life design, and estate planning, with particular focus on LGBTQ+ individuals and couples, drawing on her own early financial challenges and recovery to fuel her work in personal finance education.

Alli Gage is the Chief of Staff at Childfree Insights, the behind-the-scenes coordinator who keeps all the organizations running in an orderly fashion across the board.

About Childfree Insights:

Childfree Insights focuses on planning for solo aging and later life without children. It offers trusted education on financial planning, estate planning, and building support systems for people aging independently. Home of Childfree Wealth® and Childfree Trust®.

Connect with Us:

Ready to work on building better financial habits? Connect with our financial planning team at childfreewealth.com or learn more about estate planning at childfreetrust.com.

Follow Childfree Life by Design on your favorite podcast platform and join the conversation on social media:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/childfreeinsights
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChildfreeInsights/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/childfreeinsights
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChildfreeInsights

Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational & entertainment purposes. Please consult your advisor before implementing any ideas heard on this podcast.

Being Childfree changes how you build a business, from the money you can pour back in, to the hours you keep to the question of who it's all for. Jena Gribble of Blush Cactus and Huzefa Kapadia of Scalar Learning join Bri Conn, CFP® to talk about what that has actually looked like for them, the runway that lets them weather a slow season, the boundaries they set by choice, and how they think about a business's future when handing it down was never part of the plan. They get into the real trade-offs and the freedom underneath them, including why success on your own terms beats scaling for the sake of scaling every time.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

• How being Childfree can create real financial flexibility for a business owner, from reinvesting profits to building the runway that carries you through slower seasons.
• Why flexibility and availability are not the same as having unlimited time, and how both founders set boundaries around work that they chose rather than work that was imposed on them.
• How to think about the future of a business when passing it to children isn’t the goal.
• Why defining what success actually looks like matters so much for Childfree founders, and how to avoid the trap of scaling for the sake of scaling.
• What experienced founders wish more people understood before starting out.

Episode Guests:

Jena Gribble is the founder and brand strategist at Blush Cactus, a branding and marketing agency in Gilbert, Arizona, that helps businesses clarify who they are, communicate their value, and build brands people trust. What began as a freelance graphic design business grew into a full agency with a team, with strategy at the heart of everything they do.

Connect with Jena: blushcactus.com

Huzefa Kapadia is the founder of Scalar Learning, a Los Angeles based education company focused on math education. A former software engineer and patent attorney, he launched Scalar Learning solo in 2013 and grew it through word of mouth and a successful YouTube channel into a team of tutors, while still tutoring more than anyone on his team.

Connect with Huzefa: scalarlearning.com 

Episode Host:

Bri Conn, CFP® is a Childfree Wealth Specialist at Childfree Wealth® and Customer Experience Manager at Childfree Trust®. She specializes in financial management, life design, and estate planning, with particular focus on LGBTQ+ individuals and couples, drawing on her own early financial challenges and recovery to fuel her work in personal finance education.

About Childfree Insights:

Childfree Insights is a trusted resource for life planning without children. It explores financial planning, estate planning, relationships, and long-term decisions for adults building a future without kids. Home of Childfree Wealth® and Childfree Trust®.

Connect with Us:

Ready to work on building better financial habits? Connect with our financial planning team at childfreewealth.com or learn more about estate planning at childfreetrust.com.

Follow Childfree Life by Design on your favorite podcast platform and join the conversation on social media:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/childfreeinsights
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChildfreeInsights/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/childfreeinsights
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChildfreeInsights

Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational & entertainment purposes. Please consult your advisor before implementing any ideas heard on this podcast.

In this episode, Bri Conn, CFP® sits down with Ilaria Rawlins, CEO of Fortuna Bank, to talk about why female entrepreneurs are denied business loans three times more often than their male counterparts, what it actually took to build one of only 15 women-owned banks in the country, and what every woman building a business needs to know about finding a banking partner who is genuinely in their corner. Fortuna Bank is only the second bank in U.S. history ever intentionally created to be women-owned, and Ilaria spent 30 years in banking before making it happen.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

• Why female entrepreneurs are denied commercial loans three times more often than men and what the network gap between male and female business owners actually looks like in practice
• What questions to ask when interviewing a banker, why community banks are often a better fit for startups than large national banks, and how to find a lender who will look at your business holistically rather than running your application through an AI underwriting system
• What it actually takes to start a bank from scratch, including raising $20 million in capital, navigating a 500-page regulatory application, and launching in the same month that SVB and First Republic failed
• Why Fortuna dropped its minimum shareholder investment from $50,000 to $10,000 and how 350 shareholders -- 75% of them women -- came together to build something that had almost no precedent in the industry
• Out of 4,300 banks in the United States, only 15 are women-owned -- and why that number tells you everything you need to know about where the gaps in capital access actually live

Resources Mentioned:

Building Your Bench with Maddy Roche and Bri Conn, CFP®
https://childfreeinsights.com/resources/podcast/episode-175/ 

Episode Guest:

Ilaria Rawlins is the CEO of Fortuna Bank, a newly launched women-owned de novo bank dedicated to expanding access to capital, fostering community impact, and supporting entrepreneurs who have historically faced capital barriers. With over 30 years of banking experience and recognition as 2025 CEO of the Year by Columbus CEO magazine, she is a leading advocate for women in business and financial empowerment.

Connect with Ilaria on her website: fortunabank.com

Episode Host:

Bri Conn, CFP® is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™, Childfree Wealth Specialist® at Childfree Wealth®, and Customer Experience Manager at Childfree Trust®.

About Childfree Insights:

Childfree Insights is a trusted resource for life planning without children. It explores financial planning, estate planning, relationships, and long-term decisions for adults building a future without kids. Home of Childfree Wealth® and Childfree Trust®.

Connect with Us:

Ready to work on building better financial habits? Connect with our financial planning team at childfreewealth.com or learn more about estate planning at childfreetrust.com.

Follow Childfree Life by Design on your favorite podcast platform and join the conversation on social media:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/childfreeinsights
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChildfreeInsights/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/childfreeinsights
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChildfreeInsights

Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational & entertainment purposes. Please consult your advisor before implementing any ideas heard on this podcast.

Carol Marak spent years as a family caregiver before a single, sharp realization changed the course of her life: her parents had three daughters looking out for them, and she was navigating the road ahead solo. Rather than let that fear sit, she turned it into a decade of research, a widely followed community, and a body of work on how to age safely and securely as a soloist, without a spouse or kids. In this episode, she joins Dr. Jay Zigmont, CFP® to talk about what it actually takes to build that kind of independent life on purpose.

Together they get into the three questions that surface the moment you land in a hospital bed, why finances sit at the center of a holistic aging plan, and how the soloists who end up with the most options are the ones who built their support system long before they needed it. The conversation reframes independence itself: not as doing everything alone, but as assembling the right people and structures around you while you still have the time and health to choose them.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

• Why finances sit at the center of a holistic aging plan, how they connect to health, housing, and social support, and why "I have my finances set" is the place people wrongly stop instead of start
• The three questions that surface the instant you end up in a hospital bed: who can speak to your physicians, who can access your finances, and who will physically show up to advocate for you, plus the fourth one most soloists forget
• Why being single can cost you between $400,000 and a million dollars over a lifetime, what the single tax actually adds up to, and why soloists tend to land in one of two financial buckets with very little in between
• How creative housing models, from naturally occurring retirement communities to dorm-style shared living, can build a support system right outside your door without sacrificing your private space
• Why true independence means building the right structures with the right people rather than doing everything yourself, and how to take the first small step before a crisis makes the decision for you

Resources:

The Purpose Code by Jordan Grumet, MD: https://jordangrumet.com/books 

Episode Guest: 

Carol Marak is an aging-alone advocate, author, and educator who has spent over a decade helping people plan to live safely and securely as soloists, without a spouse or kids. After a wake-up call at 55 following her years as a family caregiver, she built her work around the realities of solo aging and founded the Elder Orphan Facebook group, a carefully moderated community of more than 11,000 members. She coaches and teaches on designing an independent later life, with finances, health, housing, and social connection treated as one connected system.

Connect with Carol:

Website: carolmarak.com 
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/carolmarak

Independent Solo Peer Group for Independent Adults 60+
https://carolmarak.com/aging-solo-peer-group 

Life Plan Assessment:
https://carolmarak.com/life-plan-assessment 

Elder Orphans Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/elderorphans 

Episode Host:

Dr. Jay Zigmont, PhD, MBA, CFP® is the Founder of Childfree Wealth, a life and financial planning firm dedicated to helping people simplify their finances so they can live an amazing Childfree life. Dr. Jay is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER®, Childfree Wealth Specialist, and author of the book “The Childfree Guide to Life and Money.”

About Childfree Insights:

Childfree Insights is a trusted resource for life planning without children. It explores financial planning, estate planning, relationships, and long-term decisions for adults building a future without kids. Home of Childfree Wealth® and Childfree Trust®.

Connect with Us:

Ready to work on building better financial habits? Connect with our financial planning team at childfreewealth.com or learn more about estate planning at childfreetrust.com.

Follow Childfree Life by Design on your favorite podcast platform and join the conversation on social media:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/childfreeinsights
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChildfreeInsights/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/childfreeinsights
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChildfreeInsights

Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational & entertainment purposes. Please consult your advisor before implementing any ideas heard on this podcast.

For Childfree adults over 50, the next wave of AI-driven job displacement does not have to be a crisis. It can be the push that finally makes starting something of your own feel not just possible but necessary. In this episode, Dr. Jay Zigmont, CFP® and Alli Gage break down what it actually takes to launch a small business in the second half of life,  from the two questions every founder needs to answer first, to how AI can make you a more efficient and resilient solopreneur from day one.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

• Why the two most important questions before starting any business are who do you want to serve and how do you want to serve them -- and why the answers to those questions also happen to make your business more AI-resistant
• How to tell the difference between owning a job and building a business, why most people actually want the former, and why getting clear on that distinction early saves you from building the wrong thing
• Why Dr. Jay Zigmont, CFP® asks every client to double their prices before anything else, what happened when a dog walker raised her rates by 50%, and why setting boundaries around the clients you serve is the most important business decision you will make
• How to use AI as a thinking partner rather than a replacement for your own expertise, why the first draft AI gives you will always be terrible, and why fighting with it upfront is exactly how you get value out of it later
• Why the business has to help you rather than hurt you, what limits to set before you start, and how to know when it is time to walk away from something that is no longer adding joy

Episode Hosts:

Dr. Jay Zigmont, PhD, MBA, CFP® is the Founder of Childfree Wealth, a life and financial planning firm dedicated to helping people simplify their finances so they can live an amazing Childfree life. Dr. Jay is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER®, Childfree Wealth Specialist, and author of the book “The Childfree Guide to Life and Money.” 

Alli Gage is the Chief of Staff at Childfree Insights. Alli is the behind-the-scenes coordinator who ensures all organizations operate in an orderly fashion across the board.

About Childfree Insights:

Childfree Insights focuses on planning for solo aging and later life without children. It offers trusted education on financial planning, estate planning, and building support systems for people aging independently. Home of Childfree Wealth® and Childfree Trust®.

Connect with Us:

Ready to work on building better financial habits? Connect with our financial planning team at childfreewealth.com or learn more about estate planning at childfreetrust.com.

Follow Childfree Life by Design on your favorite podcast platform and join the conversation on social media:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/childfreeinsights
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChildfreeInsights/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/childfreeinsights
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChildfreeInsights

Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational & entertainment purposes. Please consult your advisor before implementing any ideas heard on this podcast.

In this episode, Bri Conn, CFP® and Melissa Holcombe, DSW, LCSW sit down with Jennifer Crowley, registered nurse, certified life care planner, and founder of The Life Care Experts, for a conversation about what it actually takes to plan for aging with intention. Jennifer has spent over 30 years walking alongside individuals through the most vulnerable chapters of their lives, and she brings a clear-eyed, practical framework for Childfree and solo aging adults who want to stay in the driver's seat of their own care -- even if their health or cognitive abilities change.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

• Why hope is not a care plan and what the difference between reactive crisis management and proactive life care planning actually looks like in practice
• How Jennifer's seven-step U DECIDE framework helps solo agers and Childfree adults build a structured, values-aligned aging roadmap without feeling overwhelmed by where to start
• Why sharing your financial and healthcare information with a trusted person is not about losing control -- it is about preserving it -- and what someone needs to know to step in on your behalf if you cannot
• What dementia-proofing your future actually means, why rural aging requires earlier and more intentional planning than most people realize, and how to start building your care ecosystem before you need it
• Why your power of attorney document is only as useful as the conversation you have had with the person you named, and what it costs when that conversation never happens

Episode Guest:

Jennifer Crowley is a registered nurse of 32 years, dual certified life care planner and care manager, and founder of The Life Care Experts in northwest Montana. She is the author of 7 Steps to Long-Term Care Planning, The Life Care Management Handbook, and The Ultimate Care Plan Guide, and co-founder of the Life Care Management Institute, which offers over 30 online courses and do-it-yourself resources for aging and life care planning.

Connect with Jennifer:

7 Steps to Long-Term Care Planning by Jennifer Crowley: available at https://thelifecareexperts.com  

Family Aging Life Care Planning online course: https://lifecareexperts.thrivecart.com/familyagingplan/

Instagram: @lifecaremanagementinstitute 
Facebook: @lifecaremanagementinstitute 
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/lifecaremanagementinstitute

Episode Hosts:

Bri Conn, CFP® is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™, Childfree Wealth Specialist® at Childfree Wealth®, and Customer Experience Manager at Childfree Trust®.

Melissa Holcombe, DSW, LCSW is a licensed clinical social worker and Doctor of Social Work with a background in probate court and guardianship. She brings a unique clinical perspective to the intersection of aging, legal planning, and intentional life design for Childfree adults.

About Childfree Insights:

Childfree Insights delivers education for financial and estate planning without children. It supports people with no kids in making informed decisions about retirement, legacy planning, beneficiaries, and long-term care. Home of Childfree Wealth® and Childfree Trust®.

Connect with Us:

Ready to work on building better financial habits? Connect with our financial planning team at childfreewealth.com or learn more about estate planning at childfreetrust.com.

Follow Childfree Life by Design on your favorite podcast platform and join the conversation on social media:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/childfreeinsights
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChildfreeInsights/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/childfreeinsights
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChildfreeInsights

Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational & entertainment purposes. Please consult your advisor before implementing any ideas heard on this podcast.

In this episode, Maddy Roche sits down with Sherrill Wayland, Senior Director of Special Initiatives and Partnerships at SAGE, the country's largest and oldest organization dedicated to improving the lives of LGBTQ+ older adults. Sherrill brings over two decades of advocacy experience, a deeply personal connection to the community she serves, and a clear-eyed understanding of what it means to age as an LGBTQ+ adult in a world that was not always built to support you -- particularly when you are doing it without children.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

• Why LGBTQ+ older adults face a unique set of aging challenges rooted in a lifetime of discrimination, family estrangement, and a legal system that was not designed with their relationships in mind -- and what SAGE is doing at the national level to change that
• What the Long-Term Care Equality Index is, how it helps LGBTQ+ older adults identify affirming housing and care communities, and what specific questions to ask when evaluating whether a provider is truly equipped to serve your community
• How SAGE Care's cultural competency training is equipping senior centers, assisted living facilities, and area agencies on aging across the country to serve LGBTQ+ older adults with dignity and respect
• What Sherrill's sabbatical to Antarctica with her mother taught her about the freedom that comes with being Childfree by choice, and why building a life on your own terms sometimes means spending it exactly the way you want

Episode Guest:

Sherrill Wayland (she/they) is the Senior Director of Special Initiatives and Partnerships at SAGE, the country's largest and oldest organization dedicated to improving the lives of LGBTQ+ older adults. With a career rooted in advocacy for marginalized communities, Sherrill oversees the National Resource Center on LGBTQ+ Aging, SAGE Care, SAGE Collab, and SAGE U, and has spent over two decades working to ensure LGBTQ+ elders have access to affirming, dignified care and community.

Learn more about SAGE on their website: https://www.sageusa.org/

And follow along on social media:
https://www.instagram.com/sageusa
https://www.facebook.com/SAGEUSA 

Episode Host:

Maddy Roche (she/her) is Chief Growth Officer at Childfree Trust®. She understands the challenges of being Childfree as it relates to estate planning and is passionate about educating her community about ways to prepare.

About Childfree Insights:

Childfree Insights is the trusted education hub for people who are Childfree or permanently Childless. It provides guidance on finances, estate planning, relationships, and life decisions for adults without children. Home of Childfree Wealth® and Childfree Trust®, supporting long-term planning for people living without kids.

Connect with Us:

Ready to work on building better financial habits? Connect with our financial planning team at childfreewealth.com or learn more about estate planning at childfreetrust.com.

Follow Childfree Life by Design on your favorite podcast platform and join the conversation on social media:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/childfreeinsights
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChildfreeInsights/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/childfreeinsights
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChildfreeInsights

Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational & entertainment purposes. Please consult your advisor before implementing any ideas heard on this podcast.

In this episode, Bri Conn, CFP® sits down with Nikolai Blinow for a conversation about wise mind decision-making, the real definition of rest, and what calm hustle actually looks like when you are building a business on your own terms. Nikolai Blinow built her entire practice around one idea, that you should not have to burn your life down to build a successful business. As a licensed mental health counselor, life coach, and TEDx speaker specializing in professional burnout and adult ADHD, she brings both the clinical framework and the lived experience to back it up.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

• What the wise mind concept from Dialectical Behavior Therapy actually means and how applying it to business decisions helps you stop swinging between guilt-driven overwork and avoidance of the hard stuff.
• Why being entirely rational in business is just as problematic as being entirely emotional, and how finding the overlap between the two leads to more grounded, effective decisions.
• How to use a values inventory to identify whether you are building a business around what you actually care about or unconsciously chasing someone else's definition of success.
• Why the idea that productivity means being at your desk for 40 hours a week is a byproduct of technology, not human biology.

Resources Mentioned:

Stolen Focus by Johann Hari: https://stolenfocusbook.com/   

Burnout by Emily and Amelia Nagoski: https://www.burnoutbook.net/ 

Episode Guest:

Nikolai Blinow is a licensed mental health counselor, life coach, and TEDx speaker. Her clinical specialties include professional burnout, adult ADHD, and the science of stress. She integrates mindfulness and holistic living with behavioral science in her virtual therapy and coaching practice, and her TEDx talk Yoga and Its Connection to Mental Health has over 300,000 views.

Connect with Nikolai on her website: ompowermentpsych.com

Request her Free burnout checklist: ompowermentpsych.com/checklist 

 And request the values inventory by emailing: [email protected] 

Episode Host:

Bri Conn, CFP® is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™, Childfree Wealth Specialist® at Childfree Wealth®, and Customer Experience Manager at Childfree Trust®.

About Childfree Insights:

Childfree Insights is a trusted resource for life planning without children. It explores financial planning, estate planning, relationships, and long-term decisions for adults building a future without kids. Home of Childfree Wealth® and Childfree Trust®.

Connect with Us:

Ready to work on building better financial habits? Connect with our financial planning team at childfreewealth.com or learn more about estate planning at childfreetrust.com.

Follow Childfree Life by Design on your favorite podcast platform and join the conversation on social media:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/childfreeinsights
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChildfreeInsights/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/childfreeinsights
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChildfreeInsights

Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational & entertainment purposes. Please consult your advisor before implementing any ideas heard on this podcast.