Happy Birthday, My Gold Standard!

I can't believe My Gold Standard is two years old. The journey it has been to get here is unreal and I honestly had moments if I ever would get here!

Entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart. While I believe that anyone can be an entrepreneur, not everyone wants to be and that's okay.

I get it.

Everything is on you when you run your own business. There is no boss to complain about, no company or CEO, no corporate whatever to be angry at.

It's just YOU.

This was and has been very empowering for me to learn.

To learn that I do, have agency.

When you realize this, you take responsibility for your own life, your own business, and your own shit.

So in year two of My Gold Standard, here is what I have taken responsibility for:

💸 gone are the times of hustle culture. I went into starting my own company because I wanted to be a well rested entrepreneur. So, when I began to experience burn out I realized I didn't have a boss to complain about - it was me, myself, and I for not keeping to my boundaries and implementing a nourishing schedule for me to avoid burn out. This is where Nature Fridays came in and I began a four day work week! (the hype is real - a four day work week is where it's at!)

💸 I was not making an income to support myself, but I was doing so much free work, donating my time, and/or having a sliding scale when I was absolutely not in the position to do ANY thing for free or less than my full price. This was really hard for me to accept. As I have always told the clients I work with, “you can't pour from an empty cup” I realized that I had to embody that myself. I stopped my sliding scale and gave myself a boundary that once a quarter, I will donate my time and expertise. I will not be implementing any sort of sliding scale services or take on pro-bono work until I can stand on my own two feet within my business.

💸 Now calling myself out on my shit - entrepreneurs….we just LOVE to have control and do everyyyyyyyyything ourselves. Yet, we complain about being lonely, isolated, and overwhelmed by doing everything ourselves! Can anyone relate? 😅 I decided to stop complaining about this because I was the culprit. I was also making mistakes, losing money and time by doing everything myself, and became overwhelmed. I decided to make my first hire and have someone take over admin + operations and support me with social media. Surrendering control of your business has also been a humbling experience, and I'm excited to lean into that more as My Gold Standard heads into its third year!

💸 This one is hilarious, because I have been known for pricing and salary negotiation magic and here I was, undercharging myself. Undercharging = undervaluing. Now, I can't just say fuck it - i'm leaving to find a job that will SEE my value and pay me accordingly because this is a place where that ain't happening. LOL. It was ME!!! I AM THE BOSS. I had to have a real reckoning with myself and raise my prices when I saw what other financial educators were charging. (psssst. It was double my pricing) I felt salty about it, not towards them or towards my clients, but towards ME. I got over myself and raised my rates. And guess what happened when I did? I received a swarm of love letters from my clients affirming me and my decision. If y'all are reading this - you best know you made an enby ugly cry that day.

💸 This is last, and certainly not least. I have done a shitton of work when it comes to scarcity mindset and building a relationship with money. When I had a solid paycheck - I was feeling all kinds of abundant and really making strides on my own financial wellbeing. That solid paycheck and the nourishing behaviors I embodied around my finances is what enabled me to take the leap and start My Gold Standard! Entrepreneurship is a whole other level of being in relationship with money. It has exposed me to other limiting beliefs I thought I had already alchemized. I was surely wrong - especially when I was panicking about not having enough money to hire someone for support. Do you know what also happened as I was complaining? I was invited to apply for a grant. They informed me that I qualified for it and all I had to do was set aside four hours to do the application. Here I was, having a scarcity meltdown of “why is making money so hard” when I was invited to apply for a $5,000 grant. “But four hours is soooooo long!!! I have no time!!!” is what my brain told me. Well guess what? MAKE TIME. So I did. And double guess what?!?!?! They invited me to the next phase of the grant approval process. I am on track to receive the $5,000 grant. On a separate note, I also learned that to make money, you have to SELL. I had to get over that limiting belief quickly, too and find ways to sell that felt authentic and in alignment for my business. There is nothing that icks me more when someone is selling from a place of scarcity.

Reflecting on all of this has me more proud than ever of My Gold Standard. Proud of me. Proud of my clients. Proud of the work that we do together.

What I love about being alive is that we are in a constant state of learning and growing.

I have learned so much this two years and I have taken responsibility of the knowledge and wisdom I have received.

I have also learned so much from my clients, who have taught me just how valuable the work we do is. I sure as hell know that financial liberation is everyone's birthright.

But what my clients taught me is that I am worthy of financial liberation, too.

We all are. YOU, my friend, are certainly worthy of financial liberation.

I am not just talking about the numbers, or FI/RE, or having millions of dollars. To me, that is not what financial liberation is.

Financial liberation, in my opinion….the MY GOLD STANDARD definition, if I may:

to know that under any circumstances, abundance is all around us and it is within us. Money is no longer a weight nor has any power over us. It is recognizing the power that we have as individuals and as a collective, and using money as an abundant tool to nourish, heal, and provide. Financial liberation is ancestral liberation. It is an ecosystem of peace, prosperity, power, love, pleasure, and resiliency. Financial liberation is not only having your needs abundantly met, but your DREAMS.

THAT is what financial liberation means to me.

As children, we've all had big dreams.

There was a time I dreamed of being a painter. a poet. a songwriter. hell, I dreamt of being Britney Spears at one point in my life. I dreamt of being a pro surfer. I dreamt of being a politician that actually makes an impact. I dreamt of being a filmmaker.

I dreamt of being so many things…

When you dream big, especially as a child….you are met with resistance from those around you. You are told, “that's a nice hobby to have!” or “that's cute, but what about a real career path?” and my favorite, “that's really sweet but not very realistic."

I am here to tell you that dreams do come true.

A dream is defined as a cherished aspiration, ambition, or ideal.

I have seen within my business that dreams come true. Dreaming to quit a toxic job. To start a business. To travel the world. Pay for a wedding. Have a family. To have a place they can call home. To pay for graduate school without student loans. To pay off debt, invest, and redistribute the rest. To log into their bank accounts, face the numbers, and for the first time ever, feel at ease. To communicate about money in ways that feel liberating in their relationship instead of the thing that tears them apart. There are so many dreams I have seen, come true.

Well, here is My Gold Standard's dream. A birthday wish to share before I end this money love letter and blow out the candles. ;)

My Gold Standard is a multimillion dollar business, having given folks from all over the United States abundantly paid jobs with incredible benefits. As a company, we have impacted millions of humans. Every single human that walks through our door leaves forever changed and in complete embodiment of financial liberation. We have redistributed as a collective, hundreds of thousands of dollars to organizations, mutual aid funds, and causes we stand by and believe in. We host annual dinner events where we hold space for necessary conversations around money and wealth, and dream up together what our economic world could be like. As the CEO of My Gold Standard, I am holistically wealthy, well rested, and living a peaceful slow life in a beautiful home immersed in nature where I can hear the birds singing every morning while I indulge in a cup of coffee.

That's the dream, friends.

Happy Birthday, My Gold Standard. 🥳 I love you. I love my business. I love the work.

I love what My Gold Standard stands for. Financial liberation for all.

Thank you all for being here, celebrating with me this joyous milestone. Witnessing all my learnings and unlearnings. The evolution and growth. The wisdom. The dreams.

Now tell me, what are YOUR dreams?

As a birthday gift to My Gold Standard, I'd be honored to witness and affirm it.

Slide into my inbox with your dreams, hello@mygoldstandard.co.

I'll be waiting. <3