Sharon Singh Sidhu

Today’s guest is Carolyn Law, Founder and Programme Planner for ARThaus a painting studio for enthusiasts from all walks of life. Carolyn’s also been my son’s art teacher for the past 5 years and Carolyn has been instrumental in guiding and nurturing his love and passion in art. 

I found out about Carolyn’s story as we met for coffee one day to chat about how she ended up doing what she’s doing now. It’s a great story of passion, grit, perseverance and resourcefulness to go for her dream and make it a reality. 

Inspired by her own different learning style and personality, Carolyn has had the dream since the age of 14, of one day running her very own unique art studio to teach art in a non-judgemental way that honors and respects all diverse learning styles, interests and personality.

That dream became a reality 11 years ago when ARThaus was born.

This was such a great chat. For anyone looking to hear firsthand from someone who literally took a childhood dream and turned it into a profitable business and turns the conventional notion of ‘starving artist’ on its head to becoming a thriving, inspirational, strong woman going after and living her dream every day, this is a MUST-LISTEN!

In this episode we talked about

• What’s needed to make your dream a reality besides just loving what you do
• What’s important to be able to make money from your passion
• What courage looks like when running your own business
• How serving others to the best of your ability is key to business survival 
• How Carolyn made the most money in the months during the COVID-19 lockdown than all the 11 years running ARThaus in a non-essential, enrichment service like Art!
• And so much more!

Connect with Carolyn or find out more about the programmes offered by ARThaus in the links below:

• ARThaus - Holiday Camps are available from now until the end of April ( Easter) 
• Contact Carolyn directly on her mobile: + 65 90230458
• Facebook 
• Instagram

If you liked what you heard, please

• Leave a review on Apple Podcast or anywhere you listened to this episode. Your review really helps the podcast get known and helps spread this very important message to more people that money doesn’t have to be a source of stress and anxiety. Money can be a source of joy, love, impact and inspiration. By using your talents and doing what you love, anyone can be financially free! Here’s how you can leave a review on Apple Podcast.
• Sign up to my mailing list to receive updates about new podcast episodes, free training and courses to learn how to master your relationship with money, have fun making money doing what you love, and be financially free!

I’m super excited to launch my RISE Programme. This is an online course to help you master your mindset and relationship with money so that you can take the right actions to be financially free! Register here to be notified when it’s released and to hear more about it!

#purpose #financialfreedom #financialindependence #money #personalfinance

I really enjoyed my chat with Siobhain Danaher, Business & Personal Strategist, Lean Practitioner, Travel Photographer, Blogger and most recently Online Course Creator.

Outside of her day job, Siobhain is building a business around her many passions.  In 2012 she launched her first blog ‘The Photographer’s Guide to Travel’  and in 2017, Siobhain launched her 2nd blog ‘The Art of Positive Change’. Siobhain has just launched her signature course 'Kickstart Your Personal Strategy' which supports people with personal, purposeful, positive change.

What’s Covered In This Episode

How Siobhain found her ‘why’ and what’s truly important to her, and how you too must figure out what’s important in your life if you want financial freedom.

• Know what’s preventing you from focusing what’s important in your life.
• Siobhain’s specific plan to transition towards doing work that she loves, including how she makes it work financially.

Resources

To get regular emails on all things Positive Change, download Siobhain's free ebook 'The A-Z of Effective Change'. 

 Find out more about Siobhain’s course, 'Kickstart Your Personal Strategy'. 

 Connect with Siobhain on any of her social media platforms - Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter,  or email and check out her website.

Other resources mentioned

• Money: Master The Game - 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom by Tony Robbins
• Money Grit - Tool to help you master your money and your relationship with money by Karen McCall

If you liked what you heard, please sign up to my mailing list to receive updates about new podcast episodes.

I’m super excited to launch my brand new programme, RISE. This is an online course to help you master your relationship with money so that you can stop stressing about money, do what you love and live a financially free life. Register here to be notified when it is released and to hear more about it!

#purpose #financialfreedom #financialindepedence #moneyrelationship #money #personalfinance

Happy Valentine’s Day!

On this day, I thought it might be appropriate to talk about our relationship with money, so that’s what this episode is all about.

I share how I discovered my own relationship with money was a complicated one.

It was only after realizing what kind of relationship I had with money that was preventing me from experiencing the financial freedom and security I was looking for that I set out to develop a healthier and happier one!

Since then, I’ve learned how, as with any relationship to be a strong and healthy one, it must be a two-way process of giving and receiving by both parties.

Listen to how I went about doing this and see if you can begin to learn what your own relationship with money is like, what it says about you, how that’s creating what you see in your financial life today, and what must change if you want to experience true financial freedom and security.

If you liked what you heard, please sign up to my mailing list to receive updates about new podcast episodes, free training and courses to learn more about your psychology and relationship with money, and how to implement practical, grounded actions to live a life you love and be financially free.

I’m super excited to launch my RISE Programme. This is an online course to help you master your mindset and relationship with money so that you can take the right actions to be financially free! Register here to be notified when it is released and to hear more about it!

Chinese New Year is a time where money really shows up everywhere for those of us celebrating it. As a race, we Chinese seem to have an obsession with money, prosperity and abundance. It’s literally what we say to each other during Chinese New Year when we wish each other ‘Gong Xi Fa Cai’!

So while money is something we talk a lot about and is quite central to our culture, the flip side is the shame and embarrassment that comes along with it when you don’t have it.

You’re almost always, even if behind your back, judged for how ‘prosperous’ you are. 

This is translated into the job you hold, the man you marry, the house you live in, the type of car you drive, the schools your kids go to, etc. I could go on.

With globalization and the influence of other cultures, ancient wisdom and traditions and people who demonstrated other pathways to success beyond success measured only in terms of money and wealth, we’ve become more receptive of alternative livelihoods besides the stereotypical doctor, lawyer or engineer to be regarded as successful.

As we approach Chinese New Year, I thought it’s timely to talk about money and more specifically money shame. What it is, how it shows up in our lives and how it can prevent us from living out our true purpose and be financially free.

What’s Covered on This Episode

• What’s money shame?
• How does money shame show up in your life?
• My 3-Step Approach to dealing with money shame so that you don’t let it prevent you from doing important things in your life.

Resources Mentioned on This Episode

• Episode 010 with Karen McCall about how to develop a healthy relationship with money.
• A Fearless Heart by Thupten Jinpa, PhD 
• Brene Brown TedTalk on Shame 
• Tammy Lally’s definition of money shame
• Download the worksheet to my 3-Steps to Cultivate an Abundant Mindset so that you can increase your own value and sense of self-worth to take the actions to get the outcomes you want. 

If you liked what you heard, please sign up to my mailing list to receive updates about new podcast episodes, free training and courses to learn more about your psychology and relationship with money, and how to implement practical, grounded actions to live a life you love and be financially free.

I’m super excited to launch my RISE Programme. This is an online course to help you master your mindset and relationship with money so that you can take the right actions to be financially free! Register here to be notified when it is released and to hear more about it!

In this episode, I talk about what doesn’t really get talked about as much when it comes to good money management and living a financially free life.

Conventional ideas about being good with money focuses on how to cut your spending or stick to a budget. These operate from what’s called a ‘scarcity’ approach - the idea that money will ‘run out’. Even investing and saving stems from this fear that if we don’t invest and save, we won’t have enough for later because we’ll run out.

While having healthy money habits such as not being reckless with our spending is important, what we can do more of is to also pay attention to how we can make more, because there’s only so much you can save and cut.

The first step to making more is to master ourselves, particularly our mindset about how we see our own value. Without recognizing your own value, how are you ever going to convince and demonstrate to others your value to them, so that they will pay you more?

Embracing a more abundant perspective to your life and yourself is how you can start to acknowledge your own inherent value and look at how you can continuously grow to increase your value to others and ultimately, make more.

What’s Covered on This Episode

• Ramit Sethi’s CEO approach to money.
• Why continuing in a scarcity way of life is limiting and unsustainable in the long run.
• My 3-Step Approach to Cultivating an Abundant Mindset to see the value in yourself - a critical first step before you can create value for others and therefore make more.

Resources

• Ramit Sethi’s website and New York Times bestselling book.
• Download the worksheet to my 3-Steps to Cultivate an Abundant Mindset so that you can increase your own value and sense of self-worth to take the actions to get the outcomes you want. 

If you liked what you heard, please sign up to my mailing list to receive updates about new podcast episodes, free training and courses to learn more about your psychology and relationship with money, and how to implement practical, grounded actions to live a life you love and be financially free.

I’m super excited to launch my RISE Programme. This is an online course to help you master your mindset and relationship with money so that you can take the right actions to be financially free! Register here to be notified when it is released and to hear more about it!

Sofie Hon is the founder of Hearty Mums. Sofie is a mother of 2 young girls, a certified coach, MAP practitioner and an advanced trainer at MAP Coaching Institute. Hearty Mums provides mindfulness coaching services  to empower Career Mums and Mums-To-Be to raise resilient, happy children, and to embrace an environment that nurtures happiness and success for their children by mastering their own emotional fitness. In other words, to become Hearty Mums!

In this episode, we talk about how Sofie made a career switch as an Engineer to become a mindset and mindfulness coach, what she wished she’d learned starting up her business and her practical tips on how you too, can find your purpose or ‘why’ to live a fulfilling life.

More fascinating is that mindfulness isn’t just sitting on your meditation cushion and learning how to think positive and feel good. Sofie explains the neuroscience behind what’s actually going on in our brains, how to rewire our neural networks to reprogram our brains and free us from beliefs holding us back so that we can take the steps necessary to live the life we want. 

What We Discuss on This Episode

• How and why Sofie started Hearty Mums.
• How her approach combines both the science-based research with softer aspects like mindfulness to get results you want.
• Potential partnership opportunities in Sofie’s focus to prioritize more time with her kids this year - anyone interested in partnering up with Sofie on technology, marketing or coaching should connect with Sofie!
• The 4 questions Sofie uses to help her clients discover their ‘why’. Knowing your why is important when working towards financial freedom.
• Why looking out for patterns that repeat in your life is an indication and clue to misalignment between what you know in your head and what’s in your heart. Such misalignment may lead you to wonder why despite doing all the ‘correct’ things by the book, you still aren’t getting the results you want.  

Connect with Sofie on:

• LinkedIn 
• Website
• Facebook page
• Facebook group

If you liked what you heard, please sign up to my mailing list to receive updates about new podcast episodes, free training and courses to learn more about your psychology and relationship with money, and how to implement practical, grounded actions to live a life you love and be financially free.

Barbara Fraile is an artist and author. She started her blog, Life with a Mug in 2019 where she shares her experiences of starting her life back after having to deal with PTSD in 2017 and depression.

In this episode, we look at how Barbara approaches life - all it’s highs and lows - to create a life being true to herself and doing what she loves.

What We Discuss on This Episode

• Why Barbara started Life with a Mug to help her get through one of the most difficult periods of her life.
• Her Wheel of Success that has helped her art business thrive despite the pandemic while taking care of her mental health
• We also talk about her new book, ‘Own Your Happiness’ which was a result of Barbara’s process of healing the loss of her sister and reconnecting with her inner self and establishing life priorities. Barbara shares the 5 pillars of her Wheels of Success in her book for anyone interested in living a balanced life from the inside out. Download your free copy here.

Connect with Barbara on:

• Instagram 
• Blog

If you liked what you heard, please sign up to my mailing list to receive updates about new podcast episodes, free training and courses to learn more about your psychology and relationship with money, and how to implement practical, grounded actions to live a life you love and be financially free.

As promised, this was the first interview I had with Deon back in the beginning of 2019. It wasn’t until last month that I got this podcast up and running and had Deon back as my official first guest on the podcast! In case you missed that, you can listen to it here. Life sometimes has other things planned for us! Apologies on the audio quality - this older interview was before I had a professional podcasting team helping with my podcast production.

In this interview, Deon shares 8 tips on how to achieve success as a working mother. I wrote an article summarising our conversation back in 2019. You can read that article here.

What We Discuss on This Episode

• Earn Your Confidence And Credibility By Taking Action And Putting In The Work
• Be Open To New Opportunities And Step Out Of Your Comfort Zone
• Be Kind And Forgive Yourself When Things Don’t Go As Planned
• Discover What You’re Great At And Passionate About By Taking Action
• Be Flexible To Adjust For Seasons In Our Lives
• The Importance Of Financial Independence And Career As A Woman
• Integrate Your Work With Your Life
• Finding The Right Employer, Boss And Mentor Is Essential To Succeed

If what you heard helped you in some way, please let Deon know. Connect with Deon.

Find out more about CLIMB here.

If you liked what you heard, do sign up to my mailing list to receive updates about new podcast episodes, free training and courses to learn more about your psychology and relationship with money, and how to implement practical, grounded actions in your life right now, to experience true financial freedom.

Nerice Gietel is a certified coach and founder of The Career Lounge. Nerice set up her coaching practice with the aim of supporting experienced professionals to access meaningful job opportunities. 

In this episode, we look at how Nerice’s own career transitions have led her to the work she now does to help other people navigate transitions in their career or life events. We explore how it is usually in taking small actions that we gradually learn more about ourselves - our values, beliefs, motivations, and what’s important to us.

What We Discuss on This Episode

• Nerice’s career transition through social work, law, recruitment, human resources and now coaching.
• How Nerice confronted her own beliefs about earning, ‘failure’ and shifted her perspectives about money, business and changing paths.
• The importance of listening to your own intuition of what feels right when making career decisions rather than settling, to help you get to where you’re meant to be.
• Change doesn’t have to involve big transitions, you can make mini adjustments to meet your needs.
• Why protecting your energy is critical to your growth.
• How the pandemic has presented more opportunities and challenged Nerice to do things differently than before.
• Why you should invest in getting to know yourself because it’s with self-awareness that you can navigate your thoughts and what you do.
• Her relationship with money.

Here are the featured resources and links to find out more about The Career Lounge:

• Website 
• Courses

Connect with Nerice on:

• LinkedIn
• Instagram
• Facebook

If you liked what you heard, do sign up to my mailing list to receive updates about new podcast episodes and free training and courses to learn more about your psychology and relationship with money, and how to implement practical, grounded actions in your life right now, to experience true financial freedom.

Marie Kretz Di Meglio is the founder of Uplifters. Uplifters is a non-profit organisation registered in Hong Kong and their mission is to empower underprivileged communities, particularly domestic helpers in Hong Kong and Singapore with online education and peer support.

Listen to this entire episode to learn how Marie tapped into her experience both in the private and nonprofit sector to start and fuel this community movement that is transforming the lives and given the women she serves, hope and real, concrete actions to make their dreams come true.

What we discuss in this episode:

• How it’s actually the lack of self-belief, self-confidence, self-esteem and hope for a better future that makes it so difficult for people to adopt more positive financial behaviours rather than just the lack of financial education.
• Why community and connecting with people who understand you is more important to change than just teaching and telling them to do so.
• How adapting online education to make it relevant to underprivileged communities helped Uplifters grow by 400% in 1 year.
• The unique financial and emotional challenges that women who leave their families and kids back home to make a living overseas face and how these can be overcomed.
• How Uplifters combines social media and community leadership to meet the women exactly where they are, instead of more preaching about sound money management.
• How Marie constantly pushes herself out of her own comfort zone to overcome mis-steps, detours and challenges to gain self-mastery and do what she believes in as the Founder and CEO of Uplifters.
• What drives Marie to continue doing what she does and her vision for her life.
• We also talk about the Fogg Behaviour Model from Dr BJ Fogg’s book, ‘Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything’ that both of us subscribe to in making behaviour change stick.

Here are the featured resources and links to find out more about Uplifters and how you can support and get involved in their cause:

• Find out more about Uplifters, read inspiring stories, and support their cause on their website
• Check out the Uplifters Facebook community
• Connect with Marie on LinkedIn

If you liked what you heard, do sign up to my mailing list to receive updates about new podcast episodes, free training and courses to learn more about your psychology and relationship with money, and how to implement practical, grounded actions in your life right now, to experience true financial freedom.