The Game On Girlfriend Podcast Sarah Walton

What can I afford? How much is enough? What is now possible? Now, these are big questions you want to be able to answer.
Mikelann Valterra’s mission is to help all of us heal our relationship with money and really understand how to use it in today's world. What I hope you listen for today as we talk about her new book, Rise Above the Money Fog, is how we talk about money with our loved ones.
(Check out her book here: https://www.riseabovethemoneyfog.com)
Mikelann says people feel stress and anxiety over being financially vague. The money fog is this combination of the feelings we feel as a result of not being clear about our money. Fog stands for stands for when we're in fear about our money, when we're in overwhelm, or when we feel guilty around our money.
“There's just all of this secrecy around money that we all carry because we have this message from childhood that says, don't talk about money,” says Mikelann.
In her book, Mikelann describes three different types of families. (Listen in for their challenges!)
As parents, normalize talking about money. For many, the first time they talk about money is college funding – that’s a bit late. Mikelann recommends helping children look at what they need versus what they want.
List making with kids – what they want as gifts, or what they need for school – is a good way to talk about money. Then, over time, you bring your kids into family meetings. Some things cost a lot of money, and that's okay. Look at where we want to choose to put our money as a family.
Mikelann says she has all her clients create needs and wants lists. 
“Many of us are suppressed in our needs and wants and our desires,” says Mikelann. “We have been trained to keep our needs small, and this has an impact on our relationship to money. Guilt starts to settle in of like either ‘I'm selfish for wanting it’, or ‘I should feel guilty for wanting it’ as opposed to ‘how could we make this happen?’ ”
As people rise out of the money fog, they come to the place in their life where they know the answers to what they can afford, how much is enough and what's possible in their life. 
The problem is when transition happens, the answers to those three questions tend to change. That can catch us by surprise. And while some transitions are not voluntary (inflation, the pandemic, the economy), we still have to ask the questions. When people aren't clear about their money, it leads some people to overspend or underspend. They don't know how much is enough. They don't know what the goal is around earning. They know something's not quite working, but there's no clarity there. That's why the money fog creates so much anxiety.
Mikelann says the answer to knowing how much is enough for you is to create an annual income and spending plan. 
“What's exciting is it's about vision,” says Mikelann. “What do you want your year to look like? And now let's put numbers in it.”
She says most of the fear lies in getting to the number. But a lot of times, the number is different or lower than the what’s in her client’s heads. It’s powerful and empowering.
Take the money fog quiz: https://seattle-money-coach.mykajabi.com/money-fog-quiz-ebook 
Connect with guest Mikelann Valterra: https://www.seattlemoneycoach.com 
Other GoG episodes you might want to check out:
Do You Know Your Financial Personality: https://youtu.be/LCqgmcXJotM?si=ixf9XKkZ-AUuTzE4 
What Women Need to Know to Manage Their Money: https://sarahwalton.com/money-management-women/ 
3 Money Myths Keeping You Broke: https://youtu.be/za8Lvortnr0?si=qBroGpJDEUUXn506 
You can check out our podcast interviews on YouTube, too! http://bit.ly/YouTubeSWalton  
Thank you so much for listening. I’m so honored that you’re here and would be so grateful if you could leave a quick review on Apple Podcasts by clicking here, scrolling to the bottom, and clicking “Write a review.” Then we’ll get to inspire even

The stories that pull at us, that keep us anxious and upset, that we tell ourselves over and over -- I'm not good enough. This isn't going to work. I've already tried this. – they all come from what we haven't healed.
Anat Peri has dedicated her life to teaching people how to heal, specifically when it comes to generational trauma. In this episode, Anat walks us through the five stages of healing and gives us a timeline for how long it takes to truly heal.
Anat says self-improvement found her at 25. She did her first self-development program and instantly felt at home. She loved witnessing people having breakthroughs and discovering who they really are. 
But her business wouldn’t come for another 10 years. She says she felt like an imposter at the time. But she has no regrets, she herself, was healing and seeking the tools she needed.
 “It's messy, it's uncomfortable, it's scary, it's painful,” says Anat. “It's all the fields. It's the full spectrum of our feelings and our emotions.”
Whether you're listening in and you are on your own healing journey, or you're a practitioner and you have clients understanding the five stages is going to show you either what stages you've skipped or what the stages are to guide you.
Stage 1: Awareness. Everyone comes with some step of awareness, but there is so much depth and exploration, even just in that stage of learning what safety strategies you use that keep you stuck. What limiting beliefs are running the show?
If you’re on your own healing journey, use a journal to dump everything unfiltered that is showing up and triggering you. Then go back and connect the dots by circling anywhere that you wrote “I feel … I am …” which will connect you back to your inner child. Your inner child is your emotion – it’s the part of you that feels and is holding your limiting beliefs. 
Stage 2: Acceptance. This is the hardest stage for people to get past; it's the stage where people need the most support, says Anat. Acceptance means letting go that there's anything to fix or change, and most of the time there's still this programing in us who judges and wants it to change.
For some people, it's normal for them to live in chaos and anxiety. But then, being in peace and harmony, suddenly they're hypervigilant and self-sabotage it because it's unfamiliar.
In this stage, it's learning to observe what is happening at the level of sensation. We label things as “good or bad,” which becomes now I feel this way, how do I fix it? Instead, ask yourself where do you feel it in your body? Describe the sensation. When you speak in sensation, there is no good or bad – there just is. 
“I want you to think about acceptance like you're in the ocean … and there's waves,” says Anat. “Your role in acceptance is you're learning to ride the wave instead of being afraid of it and dunking your head under or just breathing. You're riding it. You're learning to ride the wave of your emotion.”
Listen in for the last three stages of healing. Remember, healing takes time. It might be 18 months later and then you're good, and you don't even remember what it was like to be that other person.
Connect with guest Anat Peri: https://www.trainingcampforthesoul.com 
Other GoG episodes you might want to check out:
Committing Until It Takes with Kimberly Spencer
https://sarahwalton.com/business-commitment/ 
Sick of People Pleasing? Childhood Trauma Might Be The Source with Kalpa Gupta
https://sarahwalton.com/people-pleasing-trauma-response/ 
You can check out our podcast interviews on YouTube, too! http://bit.ly/YouTubeSWalton  
Thank you so much for listening. I’m so honored that you’re here and would be so grateful if you could leave a quick review on Apple Podcasts by clicking here, scrolling to the bottom, and clicking “Write a review.” Then we’ll get to inspire even more people!
(If you’re not sure how to leave a review, you can watch this quick tuto

Only you can compromise your self-worth. No one else can. This isn’t about your compensation or competence; we're talking about your intrinsic belief in yourself that you are worthy and valuable as a human being.
Self-worth is often used incorrectly in the entrepreneurial world; we say things like “charge what you're worth.” (I’ve done it, too!) But you are a human being. Your worth is invaluable.
As an executive and leadership coach and entrepreneur, Tiffany Houser knows firsthand about the rollercoaster ride of self-worth. As the founder of EVOLVE, Tiffany coaches senior leaders who are ready to experience powerful breakthroughs around their self-worth, authentic leadership style, vision, and purpose.
“What gets a lot of us, if not all of us through change, is our worth and our value to know what has us resist change and what has us embrace change,” Tiffany says. “But then when we really looked at the behavior, the habits and all of the research that was going into this, we started to see it was our self-worth. It was how we valued our self, what we thought about ourself, how we treated ourselves.”
Tiffany says compassion is rarely talked about in the workplace. It is an advantage to understand your own experience with self-worth. Those feelings of being an imposter, insecure, self-doubt or fear are nuanced for the individual.
Her team looks at first is language and how we are speaking, writing, reading and even listening. These words are what is poking holes and having us compromise our own self-worth.
What Tiffany tends to hear is, “Oh, I've been treated this way, or I have been passed over for this and no one has hired me for that, or I can't get my team to do XYZ.” That has nothing to do with your self-worth, your value or your impact, your contribution.
You're either compromising your self-worth or you're grounded in your self-worth – there is no positive or negative. Tiffany helps to support people with neutralizing their language and their words.
The number one word is “hard”. It’s too hard. Hard is a throwaway word. Your subconscious is using that without even really being descriptive about what is going on. The way Tiffany supports leaders or teams is to have them get specific. What exactly is hard? Tell me more.
Think about all the teams and all the entrepreneurs that have thrown the baby out with the bathwater because of hard. They walk away from investments. They walk away from people. They walk away from clients. They walk away from opportunities. Because one aspect of that was not easy. Or maybe you just didn't have all the context around what that was. 
This is a lifelong journey of transformation, leadership and knowing your worth and value because the biggest things that evoke and provoke your imposter feelings and your insecurities are change and new.
The world is constantly evolving around us and that's where that compassion piece comes back into play. So rather than beating yourself up, you get compassionate. And when you are compassionate with yourself and other people, that births curiosity rather than judgment or pressure.
Mentioned: Self Worth Advantage® Online Course: https://www.selfworthadvantage.com/offers/29LBSesk/checkout 
Connect with guest Tiffany Houser: https://www.selfworthadvantage.com  
Other GoG episodes you might want to check out:
Coaching the Unconscious Mind: Unlock Your Genius: https://sarahwalton.com/coaching-unconscious-mind/ 
Why You Shouldn't Under-Price Your Work: https://www.youtube.com/live/Hm0DhT4Lo88?si=5HFXzsMNCCJ616SV 
You can check out our podcast interviews on YouTube, too! http://bit.ly/YouTubeSWalton  
Thank you so much for listening. I’m so honored that you’re here and would be so grateful if you could leave a quick review on Apple Podcasts by clicking here, scrolling to the bottom, and clicking “Write a review.” Then we’ll get to inspire even more people!
(If you’re not sure how to leave a revie

If you start a small business, you're the one doing everything and it takes a lot of courage and a lot of trust to start to turn things over to someone else. Today’s guest will share three steps to help you delegate and hire the right people.
Jamie Van Cuyk, the owner and lead strategist of Growing Your Team, helps women who own small businesses become confident leaders who hire right every single time.
Drawing from over 15 years of leadership experience, Jamie teaches her clients how to master the art of hiring. By learning the dynamics of each company and their specific needs, she helps them find their perfect-fit, long-lasting team members and avoid the hiring and firing cycle.
Jamie’s journey to entrepreneurship wasn’t a straight line. She learned everything she could about running a business while still in corporate. She went into management to learn how to manage people and took on special projects to gain insight into other departments.
When Jamie quit her job, she chose to try to start a software development company on the side while she cared for her young daughter. She did not know how to program, but her husband did. 
She lasted six months learning to program before she realized it wasn’t for her.
“I realized I loved consulting,” says Jamie. “The main projects that I ended up working on were all around leadership development. One was a big training program for some of their leaders, and another one was helping a first-time manager really come fully into their role.”
She had a Chamber of Commerce membership, and she started networking with small business owners attending those events.
“I kept hearing over and over again that hiring was their number one problem,” says Jamie. Her plan was to help corporate clients, but she heard again and again the need for hiring solutions at a small business level. 
Her business now focuses on hiring, education and really focusing on narrowing down to that ideal candidate and making sure the business owner has what they need to find that candidate.
Even with this service offering, Jamie had to change her mindset and realize that she too could delegate tasks and enhance her offerings.
Jamie outlines three steps to build trust when hiring a candidate to delegate your tasks to.
Be clear on who you’re going to hire. How are they going to fit into your organization? What is the expected communication style? Who are you as a manager? What does it mean for someone to be successful in this role?
Set up a hiring process that brings you directly to your ideal candidate. You need to be specific. It's okay with your job posting to turn people off. 
Onboarding takes time. The onboarding path and timeframe will look different for every position, but you have to train on all your expectations. Keep that in mind is even if someone is an expert at what they do and they're bringing their expertise to your business, you have to teach them how to do it inside your organization.
It's that constant feedback loop and being able to let them do small things incrementally until they figure out how to do it the way you want it done. 
Connect with Jamie Van Cuyk: https://growingyourteam.com
Jamie’s hiring checklist: https://growingyourteam.com/hiring-checklist/ 
Other GoG episodes you might want to check out:
What Workplace Culture Really Means
https://sarahwalton.com/workplace-culture/ 
Do You Know Who Your Team Is?
https://youtu.be/9ax9hDZQZ3I?si=iSkNYpmZeXxwA9dB 

You can check out our podcast interviews on YouTube, too! http://bit.ly/YouTubeSWalton  
Thank you so much for listening. I’m so honored that you’re here and would be so grateful if you could leave a quick review on Apple Podcasts by clicking here, scrolling to the bottom, and clicking “Write a review.” Then we’ll get to inspire even more people!
(If you’re not sure how to leave a review, you can watch this quick tutorial.)
#HowToHire #BuildATeam #HRPartyOfOne #HireTheBest

With stress management and spiritual wellness techniques, Harmony Slater is focused on supporting spiritually curious entrepreneurs with science backed Wu to eliminate burnout. 
If you're running a business and you're feeling the day-to-day stress Harmony gives us tangible, workable tips in this episode that you can start using right away for free.
Harmony is a National Board-Certified Health Coach, trained in Quantum Coaching and in the Mastery Method. She's also Certified Ashtanga Yoga Teacher, one of less than 20 women in the world to hold this honor, after training in India for 15 years.
Harmony says she has always felt a deep spiritual connection. She recalls her mother taking her to various churches, teaching her how to meditate and about yoga. 
“It felt like for me that this idea of God, a higher power, was very much just normal and something that was real. … But also there was a keen understanding that that doesn’t always show up in one way,” says Harmony.
Her journey took her to China to study Buddhism and India where she learned about Indian philosophy, culture and practicing yoga. 
“I think that you can connect to something that really feels like it's from your heart, and it doesn't have to be the same as someone else, but that the principles are the same, right?” says Harmony.
There are heart-centered emotions and values such as love, peace, goodwill, generosity, courage and compassion that every religion talks about.
Harmony says the idea of going it alone – that you have to do everything yourself and work hard feeds into the myth that the harder you work, the more you’re going to get and the more successful you will be.
But this creates a disconnect. It keeps us in a constant state of fight or flight. You start to see division and sides and it creates all kinds of chaos, physically in our bodies and mentally and emotionally in our experience of the world and with each other.
For example, if you’re in a fight or flight state because you’re stressed out at work and then you get cut off in traffic, your response might be over the top. 
Overstimulation, hypervigilance, fear of the future and the desire to change the past can have a direct effect on our nervous system. It can reinforce the idea that you’re not safe and affect your trust in yourself, your decisions and can ramp up stress.
Breathwork is powerful. It's in control of our heart rate, our digestion, reproduction activities, and hormones.
Our breath is the one function we have control over, explains Harmony. Our inhale is connected more to a sympathetic state. It's leading, it's expansive, it's energizing. The exhale is connected to that surrender, that resting, that relaxation, the parasympathetic state.
People reflect and mirror each other because we have this awareness of what someone else's energy is like, says Harmony. We co-regulate. If you're someone who is in that beautiful state feeling relaxed and calm -- you're automatically more attractive to everyone around you. They want to be near you because they just feel better by being in your presence.
Download Harmony’s guided audio for a two-minute breathwork exercise and check our her course on Ancient Breathing: https://harmonyslater.com/ancient-breathing-2-0 
Connect with Harmony Slater: https://harmonyslater.com/ 
Other GoG episodes you might want to check out:
Curious About the World of Spiritual Energy?
https://sarahwalton.com/karen-foote/ 
World Events, Stress & Your Ambition — How They Go Together
https://sarahwalton.com/stress-ambition/ 
You can check out our podcast interviews on YouTube, too! http://bit.ly/YouTubeSWalton  
Thank you so much for listening. I’m so honored that you’re here and would be so grateful if you could leave a quick review on Apple Podcasts by clicking here, scrolling to the bottom, and clicking “Write a review.” Then we’ll get to inspire even more people!
(If you’re not sure how to leave a revi

It’s time to take back the word networking so it doesn't freak us out. Connecting with other entrepreneurs should be something you enjoy doing because you care about people -- that is what’s at the heart of networking. 
Cara Steinmann is the founder of the Ravel Collective. She helps purpose driven women who are service providers build strategic networks that lead to referrals, collaboration, visibility and fun.
If you've ever thought, I don't like this part of my life, or I'd like to pivot around this area, and yet you felt guilty about it, this conversation is going to be really helpful for you. It was very honest. It was very gentle. But it was also kind of unusual in its vulnerability.
Cara was working in marketing for 15 years, and when Covid hit she realized she hated her business and she was miserable. She was scared because she knew she didn’t want to work someone else, but she also couldn’t picture what she wanted to do. It was like her imagination went out the window.
She acknowledged that feeling miserable in her business was a hard thing to admit to herself. Otherwise, she has a great family and loves her life; she didn’t want to seem ungrateful.
Cara fired her clients and blew through her savings trying to figure out who she was. She earned a coaching certification, and while it wasn’t her next step, Cara says she learned so much about self-limiting beliefs.
“It really kind of set me on this path of, ‘well, I must not believe that I can have it all, that I can be happy,’” says Cara. “There's something here that's preventing me from making the changes that I want, or having the kind of happiness that I want. I have to figure out what it is. But we have this idea that we're supposed to just figure out what we're supposed to do.”
Cara used personality tests, StrengthsFinder and Kolbe to help her find where she was most consistent. She also figured out her core values, which she found to be most valuable of all including when it came to networking.
Money comes into your business through people, so be intentional about who you decide to network with. Cara says you can have friends who are in a position to refer you that might be all you need. It's really easy to find those people if you look at how they act and what they say. 
“When you like people, you want them to win and you send them business, and you buy things from them,” says Cara. “It’s not that complicated; just work with people you like.”
The level of confidence it takes to just put content out there and not be a perfectionist about it is a challenge. There is a big deficit in women especially when it comes to creative confidence.
There is an opportunity there to build reciprocity by sending the person a message saying how it resonated with you, or telling them they did a great job. People want to be praised for the content they create. Eventually you might get to a deeper level with someone who is in a position to refer you or help you get visibility.
Mentioned in this episode: 
Dare to Lead by Brené Brown: https://amzn.to/3Vt49jq 
WOLFPACK by Abby Wambach: https://amzn.to/3TryiwS     
Connect with Cara Steinmann: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carasteinmann and https://www.ravelcollective.com/ 
Other GoG episodes you might want to check out:
Never Ask, “So What Do You Do?” Again
https://sarahwalton.com/colleen/ 
How Values Make You Money
https://sarahwalton.com/jennifer-kem/ 
Building Community Online with Elizabeth Henson
https://sarahwalton.com/building-community-online/  
You can check out our podcast interviews on YouTube, too! http://bit.ly/YouTubeSWalton  
Thank you so much for listening. I’m so honored that you’re here and would be so grateful if you could leave a quick review on Apple Podcasts by clicking here, scrolling to the bottom, and clicking “Write a review.” Then we’ll get to inspire even more people!
(If you’re not sure how to leave a review, you can