Codie A. Sanchez

Investing millions in Main St businesses & teaching you how to own the rest | HoldCo, VC fund, Founder

On a mission to create financially free and free-thinking humans.

I founded a advisory and investment company called Contrarian Thinking that helps owners buy and scale businesses.

Our newsletter has over 1M+ weekly readers, here → contrarianthinking.biz/li

Our community has taught 9,000+ members biz buying, biz growing, and doing deals. 

We value experience over degrees.
Betting on yourself over building someone else's dream.
Main Street over Wall Street.

My mission is less suits, more boots. Meaning: we the people holding the power… and the purse strings.

🔗Join 1M+ others who get our free newsletter: contrarianthinking.biz/li
🔗YouTube: @CodieSanchezCT
🔗Instagram: @codiesanchez
🔗Twitter: @Codie_Sanchez
🔗Weekly business-buying newsletter Main Street Minute: contrarianthinking.biz/minute-li

Founder

We help free minds and build bank accounts.

This is the real rich life. Don’t buy into the consumerism the world wants you to.

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Investing millions in Main St businesses & teaching you how to own the rest | HoldCo, VC, Founder | NYT best-selling author

The best advice that no one follows:

- Wake up at 5:45am.
- Marriage done well is a huge superpower.
- Trust God.
- Be careful what you read, it becomes the way you think.
- No going out on a school night.
- If you have to drink to hang out with someone, you probably shouldn't be buds.

Feel free to share if you agree ♻️

I have no energy for hate. Love you, wish you well, or hope you heal. That's it.

You will make 10x more money if you present ideas like this to your clients or leaders.

Harsh truth:

Running a company is simply a game of prioritizing problems.

Here’s how to become the Chief Problem Solver in your business:

Want to know Elon Musk's "secret" to running Tesla, SpaceX, and 3+ other billion-dollar companies?

According to Marc Andreessen, it's simple:

"He shows up every week, identifies the biggest problem, fixes it, and does that 52 weeks in a row."

Most companies hide from problems:

• They reframe them as "challenges"
• They create layers of abstraction
• They delegate them into oblivion

But problems aren't biohazards—they're your biggest opportunities.

Bigger the problem? Bigger the potential.

There’s a reason SpaceX is able to send a 400-foot skyscraper into the sky knowing it might explode.

Because they want to know exactly what breaks, when, and why.

Every failure incapacitates dozens of future problems.

This approach works because running a company is simply prioritizing problems.

Your earnings directly reflect what you solve...

Big problems pay better.

Another great example of this is Brad Jacobs.

He built 7 billion-dollar companies in logistics, waste, and warehousing - industries most people find boring until they see his bank account.

Here’s how he evaluates risk vs reward on different deal sizes:

• Small, low-risk deals: exist but limited reward
• Small, high-risk deals: limited reward with high risk (avoid)
• Big, low-risk deals: unicorns (don't exist)
• Big, high-risk deals with solvable problems: "the bingo quadrant"

One of my favorite lines from his book is:

"If you want to win, you have to rearrange your brain to lean into those big, hairy problems and figure out how to cut off the hair and de-risk."

This is exactly what your job is as a CEO.

It’s simple: hire the smartest people in the world... and solve the problems they can't figure out.

That's it. That's the whole job.

Not avoiding problems, but identifying and selecting the right ones to solve.

Becoming a Chief Problem Solver requires you to create your own weekly problem-solving loop:

1. Identify your single biggest constraint
2. Focus all resources on solving it
3. Measure the result
4. Repeat next week

1 problem. 1 solution. 52 weeks in a row.

The best entrepreneurs don't just "think differently" about problems. They actively build muscles for problem identification and execution.

Then they do it again and again.
Fair warning though, this isn't glamorous work. It means:

• Living inside friction
• Facing uncomfortable truths
• Fixing things no one else wants to touch

But it's where all the leverage is.

If your business is stuck, your unlock is often solving ONE big problem.

Maybe you know exactly what it is, but don't know how to solve it. Or maybe you're not sure what the problem is yet...

P.S. If you want to see how we think about solving these problems for our own businesses, you might want to check this out: https://lnkd.in/enaBvipE

Underrated quality of awful leaders:

They try to please everyone & lead by committee.

The hardest parts about leadership:

• Telling truths people don’t want to hear
• Watching decisions people will regret
• But you can’t force mentorship
• No one cares about your business as much as you do
• Micromanaging means YOU hired wrong

Doesn't mean you have to be a jerk.

But often trying to please everyone is the worst thing you can do for your people.

What do you think?

A reminder to myself and you this Saturday...

It’s really just you against the mirror. You vs you. No one else can win at a game of one. I know it’s hard not to get distracted, race horses wear blinders for a reason. Your lane you’re game. LFG.

Codie Sanchez

How to be unrecognizable in 90 days:

1. Be obsessed

Every outsized outcome I’ve seen came from people who genuinely enjoy the pressure. Not motivated people. Obsessed people. It’s almost impossible to compete with someone who treats the thing you dread as fun.

2. Clean out your closet

Get rid of anything that doesn’t fit the person you’re becoming. Cluttered space creates cluttered thinking, and cluttered thinkers don’t make money. Changing how you show up physically is one of the fastest ways to change how you behave.

3. Clarify your ONE thing

Not five ideas. One. Put a number on it and give yourself 90 days to get there. You have to prove to yourself that you keep your word.

4. Tell a better story about yourself

Not a vision board. Write down the words. If your life were a book, what’s supposed to happen next? What goes wrong and how do you react to it? When challenges show up, it’s much easier to keep going if you already decided they were part of the plot.

5. Start a not-to-do list

Becoming elite means cutting distractions aggressively and doing fewer things better.

6. Eliminate distractions

Most distraction is optional so make it harder to waste time and easier to focus. Small changes here create outsized results.

7. Outwork people

If you wake up earlier, protect the first part of your day, and eliminate distractions, you will get ahead faster than you think. Because most people just aren’t willing to work hard.

8. Move in silence

When you’re actually changing your life, you don’t need an audience. Do cool shit. Then talk after the result.

Do this for 90 days and your life will look different.

Because you WILL be different.

Is talking about vanity superficial? Maybe.

Is it effective? Absolutely.

Being well-dressed and well-groomed is a massive edge in any negotiation. It’s hard to push back on someone who looks like they’ve already won. Own your 2026 look.

Harsh truth on scaling businesses: 

Your goal as CEO is to build a team that runs your entire company better than you.

5 other lessons I’ve learned the hard way from 15+ years of being an owner:

1. Operating Systems Win

The difference between McDonald's and your local burger joint isn't the food.

It's that any 16-year-old can run McDonald's because of their systems.

If your business needs you to be the hero every day, you own a job, not a business.

No systems = Everything breaks when you aren’t there

The most effective systems I’ve seen all had the same four features.

I call it the PEIC framework:

1. Proven (battle tested)
2. Explicit Processes
3. Implementation
4. Continuous Improvement

Apply them across your core functions and your business will pretty much run on autopilot:

2. Your Revenue Is A Reflection Of Your Vision Distributed

Every time you say your employees don’t care about your business, you're admitting you failed at distributing your vision.

When your team can't see where you're going, they can't help you get there.

Your business needs two guiding metrics. 

At Contrarian Thinking, we call them “Oars.”

One needs to be quantitative and one qualitative. These act as our north stars to drive prioritization and resource allocation. 

Our left oar? Revenue. Our right? Followers. 

Everything flows downstream from those two numbers. 

3. Successful People Make Quick Decisions

Not only that but they move fast, in the right direction.

It always sounds simple but it comes down to knowing exactly what you want and having systems to execute on it.

That’s where planning in layers comes in:

Annual → Quarterly → Monthly → Weekly

Once you're clear on direction, decisions become obvious.

All that’s left is to track:

- What team
- What goal
- Who
- Percentage Done
- Status

 Keep an eye on all five and you’ll always have a pulse on what’s going on in your biz.

4. Successful People Hang Out With Other Successful People

Your success as an owner is determined by who you surround yourself with.

If you're the smartest person in your business, you're doing something wrong.

Your goal should be to build a team that runs your company better than you do.

5. Find 1-1 Mentors To Hold Your Hands

I used to turn my nose at masterminds.

But then I realized my only other option was to figure sh*t out with years of expensive mistakes.

That’s why I have coaches for everything now.

Most wealthy people got rich by paying for shortcuts whenever they saw one.

There’s no shame in stealing someone else’s 10,000 hours.

Time is the only thing you can't buy more of.

Get in rooms with people who've already solved what you're facing.

↓↓↓

I'm running a masterclass this week on how to grow any business faster. 

Sign up here to reserve your seat: https://lnkd.in/eJcGFHnN

Why most people get married – & divorced.

Petri Dish Effect:

The main reason most people get married is they start out as two petri dishes with the same inputs going into them. School, geography, career. Like likes like.

Then as you grow, your husband joins new clubs, you start a business he doesn’t, your hobbies split and before you know it... what you each have grown in your petri dish is completely different.

You’ve lost compatibility.

That’s why my husband and I do work together, are in the same groups together, read and share what is inspiring us, try to never be apart more than 1 week at a time.

Easier to grow together than apart.

That's just us, you do you.

Only 6% of Americans own a business.

And of that, less than 1% ever hit $1,000,000 in revenue.

After investing in businesses for 15 years, here are three reasons why 99% of businesses never scale past 7-figures: 

1. Organizational Challenges

There are a ton of sub-catagories here but today we’re going to unpack “Executive Vision.”

Most owners think their problems stem from poor strategy, when it’s typically poor execution.

You can have the best plan in the world, but if your team can’t understand it... you're not going anywhere. 

You need to have a clear vision that every person in your business believes in and wants to fight for.

The best CEOs think in years, then translate this vision in plain english to their team.

Make it stupid simple: everybody needs to know where the biz is going, what their contribution is, and why they are important.

When done right, it creates a flywheel:

• Executive vision gets translated into specific quarterly goals
• Goals become daily/weekly metrics on dashboards
• Dashboards drive structured team communication
• Communication reinforces the culture you're building 
(…which makes scaling almost inevitable).

When you nail this sequence, your team starts executing your vision without you having to micromanage every decision. 

2. Finances & Future Casting

The worst thing you can do is manage your business like a personal checking account.

Sadly, that’s what 99% of owners do.

They look at what's in the bank today and make decisions based on that number.

There’s a reason why that never ends well… 

Because revenue is vanity and cash flow is sanity. That’s not just to make a cute rhyme.

If your business lost all revenue tomorrow, how long would you survive?

You need to know this number.

That’s why we tell all our owners to have a rolling 90-day view of expected cash inflows & outflows.

With this data, you know:

• When to hire
• When to invest
• When to hold back on a big purchase

Scaling a business is hard enough, keep a little sanity in your life by keeping a pulse on collections, obligations, and cash reserves. 

3. Avatar Defintion

When owners say people can’t afford their product…

99% of the time, it's not a pricing problem. It's an avatar problem.

Most businesses chase anyone with a pulse and a credit card.

As a result, they end up selling snow to Eskimos instead of hot chocolate to skiers. 

Compare that with owners who get obsessed with ONE specific customer type.

And I’m not just talking about demographics…I mean knowing their pain points, what podcast they listen to, where they go on vacation…

I have yet to find a business that can’t scale to $10M focusing on one person.

↓ ↓ ↓

Come to my masterclass to learn how to scale your business farther than you may think you can push it.

More info here: https://lnkd.in/eJcGFHnN

I asked my mom & dad for advice recently from raising me and my brother...

This is what they told me, maybe you’ll find it useful too:

1. Your kids are not your friends. They’re yours to safeguard and support, but set rules. Biggest problem with most kids in our generation, their parents wanted to be liked not respected.

2. Psy ops are underrated. My mom had this line for whenever I got into trouble. She’d say, “When I ask you a question like this, I already know the answer. I am giving you a chance to come clean...” At which point I’d sing like a canary because I’m a scaredy cat. I found out today she rarely knew the answers. Brilliant and maniacal.

3. Always on the same page. My mom and dad rarely fought in front of my brother and I. They would never go back on the word of the other. United front to deal with us mini terrorists.

4. Make time. My dad had this silly line that is actually not silly: “You can make money, you can make a cake, but you can’t make time.” So they made allllll the time for us.

5. Four chairs. We have these four chairs in our living room, no tv. Growing up, we’d sit and debate and talk for hours. Politics. Opinions. Our days. Only thing not allowed was an opinion you couldn’t defend unemotionally. We still do this today.

6. Mi Sangre mi siempre. They’d always say, blood comes first. They meant it. I hired my brother, my dad, my mom, my cousin at times. We stick together and we may fight like hell but never in front of others.

7. Once you decide, you don’t quit. We could play any sport or instrument BUT if we committed we had to play the full year all out. No 3 lessons and quit. Taught us to choose thoughtfully and keep going even when it hurt.

8. Always call. They still pick up the phone nearly every time it’s family. My dad in a meeting will pause to answer my mom. My husband taught me this too, and I try to do the same. If they’re your first priority this is an easy way to prove it.

9. You’re not a princess, you’re a president. My dad always used to say that line. He told me this week that I lived up to it. Gutted me. He taught us we didn’t need to be saved, instead we could save ourselves and help others.

10. Hug often and seriously. If you’ve ever hugged my parents, they mean it when they do it. Such a simple, free gesture. My mom always gives you a hug and says vaya con dios… go with God. How can you not do big things with parents that hold you like that?

Just some Lessons from the Road from parents I happen to think are some of the best in the world.

Moms and dads everywhere, I’m in awe of you.

Hardest job I’ve ever seen.

*This is one of my favorite pics of me and my dad. Doesn’t get old.

The #1 killer of businesses is bad cashflow.

15 other harsh business truths for you:

1. The greatest muscle you can build is urgency. Bureaucracy is business poison.

2. Decrease the time between having an idea and getting it done. Everything changes.

3. Never sacrifice reputation in the name of business. You can always start another company. You can never create a new reputation.

4. Long-term games and long-term people compound. Resist shiny objects.

5. Hire smart people, pay them well, set them up for success... Then leave them the hell alone.

6. “There’s nothing worse than being sick, fat, tired and trying to run your business.” - Dana White

7. The highest ROI investment founders & owners can make is in themselves. Health shapes mindset. Mindset shapes action.

8. You're better off learning negotiation than financial modeling. Business is less spreadsheets than words.

9. The best business of all time has only you, a computer, and the send button.

10. Every additional employee increases complexity. Hiring is a last resort.

11. The best advice comes from those just a couple steps ahead of you. These people still vividly remember the problems you're facing today.

12. Sell painkillers, not vitamins. There's more money in needs than wants.

13. No discounts. Compete on value, not price. Any biz with $$$ can enter your market and bleed you out. Differentiate beyond commodity.

14. A happy customer is the most powerful marketing. Prioritize reviews. Humans are social animals.

15. If no one thinks you’re crazy, you’re too late. If everyone thinks your idea is good? Even worse. Outsized returns lie in non-conformism.

↓ ↓ ↓

Come to my masterclass tomorrow to learn how to grow your revenue & profit. 

It's 90 minutes + fully remote. 

Details here: https://lnkd.in/eJcGFHnN

Everyone should be obsessed with chasing their first $500k.

Capitalism has pulled more people out of poverty than any system ever created.

Stop pretending it’s evil.

↓↓↓

And one of the most important skills to learn to hit your first $500k? 

Sales. 

Read this to learn why now is the perfect time to get great at sales: https://lnkd.in/eqESyABe

The surprising truth about stocks and getting seriously wealthy:

99% of people will not get wealthy from it... you need money first. 

Let me break down an unsexy but effective path to wealth that I call Evolutionary Wealth Theory.

There are 4 levels to the theory:

Level 1: FEEL

Your money mindset is programmed early.

Most of us inherit beliefs that become self-fulfilling prophecies:

- Finances are stressful
- Money is always scarce
- Never enough to go around
- Hold onto every penny
- Don't spend too much 

If you hate money, you'll never attract it.

If you never feel that you COULD be wealthy, you never will be.

Get your money beliefs right first.

Level 2: WALK

Performance is contagious.

To build wealth, you must:

- Go where the game is played
- Be ruthless about who surrounds you
- Level up your environment as you grow

Hard truth: Your current friends might hold you back. They love the old you. They fear the new you. 

Level 3: SPEAK

This is the next plateau people hit.

They do their affirmations, they level up the people around them... But then they never truly learn the game.

You must learn the language of money. 

The real game is understanding:

- Business fundamentals
- Deal structures
- Contracts

But most people never learn these because they're too busy gambling. 

The correct order:

1. Earn first - negotiate a higher salary
2. Learn the mechanics - how to invest
3. Invest intelligently - now that you have the $$$ and the knowledge

Level 4: MASTERY

The wealthy have a different goal than most:

Ownership.

Look at the world's quietest billionaires:
- Bernard Arnault (LVMH) worth $171B
- Charles Koch worth $67B
- Carlos Slim worth $81B

All worth that much because of the businesses they own.

The final step of wealth-building isn't a trick or a hack. It’s simply, owning.

That’s what the entire framework is about:

The slow, uphill grind until you can intelligently own assets. Then you let those assets gain value over time.

Most people rent their whole lives:

- Rent their time to employers
- Rent their apartments
- Never own real assets

This is your sign to stop trading time for money and start gaining ownership...

Come to my masterclass this week to learn how to get started: https://lnkd.in/g3V6NrTZ

What no one tells you about being a CEO:

1. If you want to be the boss, first be the top performer where you are.

2. At the start, CEO is Chief Salesperson. Your entire job is cashflow.

3. Your goal is to build a company that runs better without you.

4. If you’re growing fast, your number one job as CEO is to replace yourself every 3 months.

5. You can usually tell if a startup will win or lose by one thing... Do they ship product fast? The best CEOs push for action.

6. You are no longer paid to "do things." You're paid to hire smarter doers, while creating a dream so big it overwhelms theirs..

7. Get over the title of CEO. How do you own your business instead of it owning you? Let your specialists run the show.

8. You really just become a recruiter for a living.

9. Understand your employees. A CEO is a psychologist. It's all about carrots and sticks.

10. Big vision = top talent. Can you get smarter people than you to believe YOU are a bet worth taking?

11. Being able to actively look for a sale is the greatest sign of health for your biz.

12. Your fastest way to millions is hiring the right people.

13. Your fastest way to misery is hiring the wrong people.

14. Pick a goal, and repeat it constantly. You must be comfortable repeating yourself over & over.

15. As a CEO you have to be a surgeon. Cancers will pop up... bad workers, terrible deals... Cut them out, fast..

16. Do what is required, not what is desired. "You can't show me a task that is beneath me."

17. Working harder always leads to money is a beautiful lie.

18. You will have to work irrationally hard and ALSO learn what to work on before you make real money.

19. It's all a who problem past your first $1 million.

20. You win in business doing the boring things: hiring well, spending little, selling often, and obsessing on customers.

21. You are always one hire away from a better, happier, more stress-free life.

↓↓↓

If you own a business and want to grow your profit this year...clear your schedule March 11th @ 10 am CT. 

I'm hosting a masterclass on how to grow any business faster (using my "Profit Multiplier" method).

Grab your spot here: https://lnkd.in/eJcGFHnN

We put a lot of pressure on interviews.

Here's what to ask to get more out of them:

↓ ↓ ↓

Want my full hiring method?

Download the system + matrix template here: → https://lnkd.in/euywp8w7

Job Interview Questions

The average person thinks having a job is safer than starting a company.

They're wrong:

Having a job vs Starting a compamy

Financial Wellbeing Keynote Speaker on the emotions of money, International #1Amazon Author of ‘It’s Not About The Money,’ Financial Coach Trainer & Top 0.5% Global Podcaster Its not about the money. Financial therapist

I left the financial advice world because I saw a problem.

People wanted help with money, but they ended up just being a number to banks to sell more products to.

I knew everything there was to know about money from my qualifications, and I was not good with money myself.

I was living in debt shame cycles.

Because the relationship we. have with money is really just a mirror of the relationshi we have with ourselves. 

Money for me = greed, manipulation and power. It was not safe for a woman to earn more than a man. 

So of course I did not want to hold onto money. I would spend it as fast as it came in

Because of the meaning I attached to money. 

So what did I do?

I left, studied in multiple modalities including trauma of money, money psychology, financial coaching and I now teach others how to help others with the emotional relationship we have with money.

I believe all men and women should have a voice to be heard seen and celebrated. 

Dive deeper with me by listening to my Top 0.5% Global Podcast 'It's not about the money.' - 500k downloads.

WHAT CAN I DO FOR YOU ▶ 

I specialise in:

- Financial coaching. The emotions of money. 
- Helping you feel safe with money. To make it. To hold it. 
- I excel in combining practical and emotional support 

I help people to feel safe to make and hold more money. 

HOW YOU CAN WORK WITH ME ▶ 

1. Train to become a Certified Financial Coach 

I train professionals through our proven Money Narrative Clearing™️ Method to be a Certified Financial Coach, so that they can help their clients improve their emotional relationship with money and differentiate their service offerings. 

www.themoneypanel.co.uk

2. Study Through My Online Courses

www.catherinemorgan.com/shop

I help you navigate feeling safe to make and hold money. 

HOW CAN I GET FREE VALUABLE CONTENT?

▶ Listen to my global top 0.5% Podcast on iTunes, Spotify & YouTube. “It’s not about the money.” (Formerly 'In Her Financial Shoes')

600,000 Downloads 

▶ Grab me for a FREE paperback copy of my Amazon best selling book 📕 

www.itsnotaboutthemoney.co.uk 

CONTACT ▶ 

Book me as a Financial Wellbeing speaker: hello@catherinemorgan.com 

I’ve spoken in companies such as Amazon, Adobe and Meta. 

MY EXPERTISE ▶ The emotions of money. Financial Coaching, Money Psychology, Changing financial behaviours and habits. Keynote Speaker, Financial Advice. Money Management. Personal Finance. Investing for women. Budgeting. Financial Education. Financial Abuse. ADHD Money Management.

Catherine Morgan

The meningitis outbreak in Kent has me thinking about Thomas.

He was five weeks old. 1st October 2013.

That morning he wouldn’t feed. 

Was making grunting noises as he slept. 

Wouldn’t be held. 

When I lifted him from his Moses basket he lay completely still, staring up at the ceiling — as if each blink was agony. 

His hands and feet were ice cold. 

And then he began to scream.

We were at A&E within the hour. 

His skin had begun to mottle. 

A dozen medical staff surrounded us. 

3 days later we were told it was bacterial meningitis.

I didn’t know what sepsis was. I didn’t know those were the signs.

I just knew something was wrong.

Two young people have died in Kent this week. 

Two families who will never be the same. My heart is with them.

So if this post does one thing, let it be this.

👉🏻In babies and young children, look for:

Cold hands and feet — even with a fever
Grunting during sleep or noisy breathing
Refusing to feed or be comforted — even after their temperature comes down
A high-pitched or unusual cry
Skin that is pale, mottled, or blotchy
A bulging fontanelle (the soft spot on a baby’s head)
Blank, glazed expression — as though looking through you
Stiffness when you try to pick them up

👉🏻In older children, teenagers and adults:
Severe headache
Stiff neck
Sensitivity to light
Vomiting
Confusion or drowsiness
Muscle and joint pain
Fever with cold hands and feet
Seizures

And the rash — red or purple spots that do not fade when you press a glass against them. But do not wait for a rash to appear before seeking help. 

Thomas didn’t develop a rash until later that day. If we had waited for the rash he wouldn’t be here today. 

It can be a late sign. 

Symptoms can appear in any order, and some may not appear at all.  Early symptoms can easily be mistaken for a cold, flu, or even a hangover — and deterioration can be extremely rapid. 

If something feels wrong, don’t wait. A&E or call 999.

Trust your gut. I did. And Thomas is 12 years old today.
💜

—-

♻️Please share this post to help parents understand the symptoms 
➕Follow Meningitis Now for more resources & advice

👛Founder of The Money Panel® Financial Coaching Trainer 📚Best Selling Author🎓DipFA Financial Wellbeing Keynote Speaker| Top 0.5% Podcast ➡️ Follow for daily posts about Money Psychology & Financial Coaching

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What am I doing on Mothers Day?

Messaging friends who don’t have their mothers on this Mother Earth 🌎 and holding space for them. 

Feeling incredibly grateful to my own mum and all she’s taught me in life ❤️ Marian Guest

Celebrating all of you mums reading this. Nobody gave us a dummy’s guide on how to navigate motherhood. You’re all bloody amazing!! 🤩 

Decorating my son’s bedroom. Energetically creating new spaces for growth and clarity. 

Watching my other son play football ⚽️ seeing him in his happy zone makes my heart sing. 

Celebrating my wonderful husband’s birthday! 🎉 Gareth Morgan

And I’ve done a thing!…I’ve joined an opera chorus group and we’re performing a show on the Jersey Opera House at the end of this month. 

I realised recently that music 🎶 being in people’s company  and doing something completely unrelated to work brings me so much joy. 

I’ve had to learn Jersey Jèrriais (the traditional language of Jersey) and navigate a peri-menopause brain to remember a script. But loving the process!! 

Feeling grateful for life ❤️ 

What are you up to today?

25 years working with people and money.
Here are 20 things I've learnt about money beliefs

1. The way you treat money is a mirror of the relationship you have with yourself.
2. Your money beliefs were formed before you were old enough to question them.
3. "Money is the root of all evil" is the most expensive belief a person can carry.
4. Your nervous system decides how you feel about money long before your logical brain gets involved.
5. The people who believe money is dangerous tend to have the least of it.
6. Inherited money patterns are survival strategies that once kept someone you love safe. Honour them — then choose whether they still serve you.
7. You cannot think your way out of a money block. The body has to feel safe first.
8. The words people use about money — "it slips through my fingers," "it burns a hole" — are not random. They're clues to the deeper story running underneath.
9. Your brain doesn't search for truth about money. It searches for proof of what it already believes. And it always finds it.
10. The headlines you're reading this week — war, oil, greed — are not creating your money fears. They're activating ones that were already there.
11. Undercharging is not humility. It's an inherited story about what you're allowed to receive.
12. A regulated nervous system makes better financial decisions than a brilliant mind in a dysregulated body.
13. Fear of wealth and fear of poverty come from the same place.
14. The question is never "how do I get better with money?" The question is "what do I make money mean?"
15. When a client says "I'm just not good with money" — that is a borrowed belief speaking. Every single time.
16. The old money paradigm was built on accumulation and control. It's breaking apart. Good.
17. You will struggle to help your clients transform their relationship with money until you've been willing to transform your own.
18. Information alone doesn't create change. If it did, every financial adviser would be wealthy and every doctor would be healthy.
19. The beliefs you carry can always find their evidence. But so can the opposite.
20. Every money pattern you transform in yourself is one less pattern you pass on to the people you love.

Which number resonated with you the most?

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Money is dangerous. Money corrupts. 
This has been in my mind over and over this week. 

Oil prices surging past $100 a barrel. Billions flowing toward conflict. Profits being made from destruction.

And whilst the headlines amplify fear, something has been happening for me this week. 

A tightness in my chest every time I look at the news. 

Then the familiar cascade 👉🏻money is dangerous, money corrupts, why would I want more of something connected to so much suffering?

As a former qualified Financial Adviser, I've watched clients make devastating financial decisions from exactly this place. 

Not because they lacked information but because they  were in a stress response they couldn't name.

A study published in Current Psychology found that people don't only consume more negative news: they amplify it when they share it. 

We add more negativity than was present in the original story. 

We become active participants in the fear loop.

There's a well-documented psychological phenomenon at work here. 

Confirmation bias: our brain's tendency to seek out, notice, and give greater weight to information that aligns with beliefs we already hold, whilst overlooking or dismissing anything that contradicts them.

So when your client says they want to invest but can't bring themselves to do it, they may not have a knowledge problem. 

They may have an emotional money response problem. 

Beliefs drive financial behaviours. 

The beliefs you carry can always find their evidence.

But (and this is the invitation) so can the opposite.

🩶Money funds the charities doing extraordinary work. 
🩶Money supports the coaches and therapists and healers changing lives. 
🩶Money rebuilds communities. 
🩶Money, in the hands of regulated, heart-led people, is one of the most powerful forces for good we have.

The question isn't whether money is good or bad. It's which story your nervous system is reinforcing and whether that story is still serving you.

My hope for the future is as we witness the old paradigm of money, built on scarcity, control, and competition breaking down we invite a new emergence. 

Requiring professionals who can hold both the technical AND the human emotion of money. 

➡️ This week, try a Media Belief Audit. It takes three minutes and it can shift everything.

The next time you read a headline about money that triggers a physical response: a tightening, a contraction, a wave of anxiety…pause.

Place your hand on your heart. Take three slow breaths — in through the nose, out through the mouth.

Then ask yourself:

"What belief is this headline activating in me?"
"Is this belief mine, or is it borrowed?"
"What evidence exists for the opposite being true?"

You can use this with your clients too. When they arrive at a session carrying the weight of the world's financial news, help them separate what's happening externally from the story their nervous system is telling. That distinction alone is profoundly powerful.

…are you feeling this too?

AI can now generate a personalised financial plan in less than 30 seconds. 
So the question many of you are asking right now is…

If AI can do all of that, where does that leave financial advisers?

AI can analyse spending patterns and answer technical money questions faster than any human adviser.

After sitting in thousands of client meetings as a former financial adviser, I can tell you something with complete certainty.

It has never really been about the advice.

In this week’s episode in my 4-part Financial Coaching series on my YouTube channel and on the It’s Not About the Money podcast, I explore what AI can do, and what it never will.

If you’ve ever sat across from a client, given them a clear financial plan, and watched them still struggle to implement it, you already know that the numbers are only part of the story.

What really drives financial decisions is something much deeper.

Here’s what I explore in this episode:

- Why AI can handle the mechanics of money, but not the meaning behind it
- The hidden emotional patterns that shape how clients save, spend and invest
- Why the most valuable financial professionals of the future will be the ones with the strongest human skills

THOUGHTS? Do you think people will start using AI for financial advice? 
----
+Comment YOUTUBE below for the link to the full episode
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