Money is a tough subject to talk about for many people, which is why I was excited to have Pamela George join me on the podcast to dig into money and all the juicy stuff that comes with those conversations. Pamela is a financial literacy coach and credit counsellor. She helps women, particularly women business owners, figure out their money situation, including how to pay themselves, and how to pay off debt.

Pamela and I have had a lot of opportunities to talk about money from a lot of different angles. Money is one of those things that feels heavy for people and it's not actually something people should feel heavy about.

We have to deal with money in every aspect of our lives. Money is something that has to happen and we need to treat it like that. It's something we have to earn and we have to spend. We just need to learn how to do that properly. You learn how to cook a meal so you can eat well, and likewise you need to learn how to manage your money so you can spend well and save for the future.

Money Mistakes

When I hit my 10-year mark as an entrepreneur, I wrote a blog post all about the money mistakes I made. Money is one of those things where I thought if I just keep working, it'll get better as opposed to thinking I should figure out how to make sure it gets better. Figuring out your money situation often feels like a thing you don't want to do because it sounds like it's going to be hard.

Money makes people scared. It makes them have to sit and think about where their money is going, why they don’t have any, and why they have so much debt. But, the worst thing anyone can do is nothing at all because debt only gets worse.

Money is not going to go away

People tend to try to bury their heads in the sand and pretend the problems aren't happening. Meanwhile, it gets worse and worse. And one of the stories that they're telling themselves is that they're not good at money and so they can't do it.

Getting in control of your money is all about believing in yourself and empowering yourself on what you know and don't know about money. It’s about educating yourself. If money is a problem, you fix it by educating yourself.

In Pamela’s coaching programs, she walks through how to figure out how to understand money and learn the skills needed to control your money situation. There is so much shame around money that many people don't want to look at it, but when you don't know how to do a thing, you don't know how to do a thing. So you need to learn how to do a thing!

Learning money

Sometimes you just need somebody to tell you the things you need to do to make something you think you're bad at, something you're good at. For example, Pamela would never post selfies on Facebook because she felt she was not good at it – that’s what she told herself. So, she posted a bad selfie on Facebook and I talked to her for a couple of minutes and gave her some simple tips, which Pamela then implemented. Her next selfie was beautiful.

Pamela was able to take a beautiful selfie because of what she learned and that’s how she feels about money. You feel you're not good with it, but then you get a little bit of counselling, a little bit of coaching, and you go on the other side of it and find out, wow, “I'm paying myself!”

Money doesn’t have to be hard

It’s important to recognize that not every step is going to be hard. Some of it is going to be hard, but it's just a matter of knowing what to do.

The very worst part of taking control of your money and going on that journey is all the stress and anxiety you put on yourself before you actually commit to making the change. But as soon as you make that commitment, it starts to happen.

We often have all these stories running through their heads, including this belief that making money and being good at money isn't something we can do. And that’s not true. We need to reframe and reposition our money mindset so that all business women can say, “You know what? I can absolutely do this. I'm going to take control now.”

We need to stop spending time feeling shameful and get to the other side.

Investing in your money is not a luxury

Some people think investing in their finances is a luxury. In Pamela’s program, her clients do a lot of goal setting. They figure out what they want to do, where they want to go, and they put that in. If you work with Pamela, you pay the money, you work on yourself for six months, and then you realize it was worth it - you now know how to control your money. It was a necessity because now you know where you want to be. Investing in yourself is so important yet so many people hesitate to do it, even though it is beneficial.

Part of this problem is that many business owners, women, in particular, leave themselves to last. They’ll take money for hockey for the kids, for their husband, their spouse, the kids, etc. And then there’s no money left for them. Women often feel they have to do everything else before they take care of themselves. And this is proven in fact that they’re not investing in themselves. They’re not investing in learning how to manage their money, but instead, they’re managing their family's money, which seems upside down. If you are the one responsible for managing your family's finances, you need to know what you're doing.

Pamela has heard many money stories over the years, including from women who have been led into debt because their husband was in charge of the finances and they had no idea what they were doing.

Anyone can get in control of their money and make it feel good. You just have to commit to working on it and realize that money is not something to be afraid of.

To find out more about Pamela and her financial literacy programs and coaching, email her visit her website at https://www.pamelageorgefinancialliteracy.com/ or follow her on Facebook or Instagram.