131: Krisstina Wise, Founder, CEO - Wealthy Wellthy: Taking Control of Your Financial Stress & Your Sleep

Welcome to the sleep as a skill podcast. My name is Mollie McGlocklin and I own a company that optimizes sleep through technology, accountability, and behavioral change. Each week I'll be interviewing world class experts, ranging from doctors, innovators, and thought leaders to give actionable tips and strategies that you can implement to become a more skillful sleeper.

Let's jump into your dose of practical sleep training

and welcome to the sleep This is the first episode of its kind where we are looking at the topic of finances and its impact on your sleep. The tricky ways that our money issues can work their way into your bedroom. We are going to address. All that and more on today's episode. And our guest is Krisstina Wise, who has made it her life's work to master money.

She is a self made multimillionaire with the equivalent of at least two PhDs of intense study with some of the business world's most sage and seasoned mentors. Her training and experience have built proven systems that work. In good and challenging times, after nearly losing her life in 2013 and spending almost half a million dollars to recover, her mission is now to inspire others to build extraordinary wealth and optimal health.

Named one of the 100 most influential real estate leaders in the country. She has been featured in USA Today and recognized by Apple and Evernote for her creative leadership with emerging technologies. Krisstina is an international speaker and award winning author of the Amazon bestseller, Falling for Money, a romance.

Novel for your bank account. She may wear athletic clothes and a baseball cap for almost any occasion, but don't let that fool you. Financial sovereignty means the freedom to choose. Christina chooses to show up in a baseball cap instead of a Lamborghini, even though she could choose the ladder. Learn more about her money school for micro business owners at www.

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Now invest in better sleep and in turn in a better, more energized life. And welcome to the sleep is a skill podcast. My guest today, Christina Wise, and her name is so aptly titled as she is quite the wise one on many topics, but certainly we're going to be zoning in on the topic of finances and how finances and your relationship to money can impact your sleep.

So thank you, Christina, for taking the time to be here. My pleasure. I'm so happy to be here. Oh, fantastic. Just for context, I had heard you speak at conference a while back, and I was just really impressed with, one, the value you gave in the time allotted, and two, your vulnerability in sharing your journey and where you've been, where you are now, and I think it just so helpful to help inspire people that no matter where you might be in relationship to your finances, that there's things that you can do to make a difference.

And if anyone's like, why are we talking about finances with sleep? Well, on a sleep podcast, well, it's a huge impactor of people's sleep and peace of mind. So it's absolutely crucial that we cover this topic. And you're one of the first people that we're going to dive in on this topic fully today. So very excited.

So first off, how did you get into this role? Tell us kind of the, the back story and then of course how it relates to sleep. Yeah, so, you know, just I have my own sleep story and my sleep story. Is based on being an entrepreneur that I think we can all relate to. And I know what the reason why I love you so much, Molly, we really have similar stories.

Like there's so much overlap that it's crazy. It's like, wow, we really lived, lived kind of the similar path. And, uh, so. But, you know, as an entrepreneur, I would, I would say I was like the poster child for the entrepreneur. The successful entrepreneur means sacrifice so much, including sleep, stressed out all the time.

And, you know, but was very ambitious, very motivated. And like I said, I could be the rags to riches, entrepreneurial success story, poster child based on my business success and even financial success. So there we go. Thank And the thing is, is that lifestyle that took for me to hit that, you know, to be on that poster came at a great cost because I sacrificed my health to, to make, to hit those achievements and results, not really knowing I was doing so, but really where it started from a health standpoint that.

You know, brought me to the journey that I'm doing today is that, I mean, it was traveling, but I, my mindset with sleep was sleep is for the weak. You can sleep later. You know, yeah, like, like, you know, sleep, we didn't talk about sleep then and, but yeah, just sleep was a waste of time. I, you know, it was so productive and I almost wore it like a badge of honor.

Like I could get by in five hours of sleep regularly and then I could go do my workouts and do my marathon training and be a mom and go do my office and, you know, it was just like sleep was, like I said, lack of sleep was that badge and it seemed to all work fine until I was actually giving this talk.

I was the keynote speaker. In New York City and was giving this talk and I mean, it was I got to stay in innovation. I just nailed it. It was a career changer. Like I was already great. And this just solidified everything for people in the room and but what happened, which is really interesting. What during my speech, I had this, I heard this little click in my brain.

And it took me off my game for a second and I got a little dizzy and a little off, but I just was so rehearsed. I finished the keynote, like I said, standing ovation. People are coming up to me like, Oh my God, you know, can I book you for this and cover that? So I kid you not, Molly, I was walking out the door of that conference room and that hotel room and I said, Christina, girlfriend, you started in a trailer home.

And you're here on this stage with these people. They're begging to work with you. You made it, girlfriend. You made it. That was the last thing I thought, you know, proud moment to me going there too. But that thing, but again, that going, getting back to my hotel room and then getting back to Austin at the time, I just felt off, off and off.

And after that, things went totally awry. And when it happened, what we think that it happened, that what started this whole domino of body breakdown, perfect storm of everything broke at once. But I had like a TIA, like I had a stress stroke in my brain, but that stress stroke affected something, my sleep.

And I got caught in a cycle where my body couldn't sleep. And I think it kind of had a similar situation, but this wasn't insomnia. This wasn't just, I couldn't go to sleep. This was every time I tried to fall asleep, my body would wake me up out of some response of being afraid of death or something like just to the very biological level that my body would not allow me to go to sleep.

And I mean, I went months and months and months for one hour sleep, maybe two, if I got three hours, I'd be lucky. I'd be so tired about fall asleep and then I'd jerk and my body would wake me up again. It was horrific. Like anybody that's listening that's had sleep problems and can't sleep, I don't know if there's anything worse.

I feel like you're going crazy, you know, all the things it's, it's horrible. So anyway, that's my sleep thing. So sleep today is. That's my be all end all like it is more important than anything because I've experienced what life is like and what happens when you can't sleep. So that's my sleep story. But even that sleep story that went on to a lot of other body breakdowns and part of my sleep issue is I had heavy metals in my brain and all sorts of nasty stuff.

When I was going through that experience, what happened and what we'll talk about today, finance wise, is that publicly, I had a big identity in my space. I was very well known on a national level, like in my vertical, I was, I was, you know, an influencer and authority again, well known. And that's, that's what my career was.

And it was, it was in real estate, the real estate industry. I was even named like top 100 real estate leaders in the country type thing. And like, so at that level, and, but I was known for my success. So that's my public identity. So as entrepreneurs, we all have our public identity. And a part of our public identity is recognized for our success.

And many times we associate, you know, what we do when we associate with successful people, we also success their financial situation, the more successful they are, the more money they have. So as an entrepreneur, the bigger businesses and the bigger, the more well known we are because our business grows and is a certain size and we have a certain level of success and we show off how we spend our money based on where we live and what we drive and doing the different things.

People judge us based on how much money they think we make. You know, one way or another. And so that's, that's, uh, that's what was happening to me, but privately, because I'd started in a trailer home and because I had experienced being a single mom and couldn't feed my kids and going through some horrific financial situations, um, during that stage of my life.

I learned through this kind of existential financial crisis that, you know, being a winding up single mom, uh, don't have any money, have tax liens, have debt, have all the things we've heard all those types of stories. I was there too, but I scared to death and I'd asked this question at that time, like, how did I make all this money and I wound up and I'm in this financial place where I cannot.

I don't have enough money to put the deposit down to turn the electricity on and I have two babies to take care of, you know, and I confronted that question like I work so hard, you know, this was early on in my stage of my career, but in that stage of real estate. I made more money than I ever thought possible.

So how was it that I was dead broke and beyond broke? So at that stage I went on and I decided like, I'm going to study this thing called money. There's more to money than meets the eye because I couldn't figure out why I was dead broke and in debt when I'd made all that money. So that's where my journey started.

So privately while I was building my public identity and building my business and all the things everybody else could see, which is what I called. you know, business success privately, which is invisible. I was really studying money and studying it like a student. Like I was hell bent on learning this thing called financial freedom, figuring out what it was, never wanting to be in that position again where I couldn't feed my children.

I wanted wealth, you know, it just realized like that's what I wanted. And so I started studying, I did workbooks, I did, then I, you know, got spent more money and I went to, you know, I did like a business school and then I did a financial school and then I read more books and then did more workshops and then found, you know, millionaire mentors, multimillionaire mentors, billionaire mentors, you know, just kept growing that, that knowledge.

So I had like these two things going on. I had, What I was doing business wise that everybody could see, and then I had this private thing over here that nobody could see. And I was just doing that. So what happened when I got sick and this is where things really started to kind of the reality of life showed up that as an entrepreneur that, you know, I think most of us listening are what happened to my business that I worked so hard for to that moment where I thought I made it within two days, I couldn't get out of bed and I was like working to like save my life.

One, how much business was on my mind when I was trying to figure out what was wrong and I was deteriorating quickly and things were breaking down at home. I didn't think about my business at all. A hundred percent of my attention was trying to save my life and get to the bottom of what was going on.

Absolutely. Then my, my business, again, my business like owned me. I didn't own my business. It owned me and that drive for success and that drive for more and more is better and more and more and more and more and bigger, bigger, bigger. That constant drive that, that kind of. Cause the situation that bad situation, but then my business started breaking down because I didn't pay attention to it.

And then the money from the business broke down. And then, Oh, by the way, as famous as I thought I was at the time. And that I thought I was the, what came up is they replaced me really fast. They found the next Christina wise that could take my place. Cause the world went on just fine without me. Yeah, exactly.

So, you know, so in all of that, of this start breaking down. And the only thing that the reason why what saved me is aside from the business, I just been doing this money thing over here on the side, not for any other reason, just because I wanted to learn money and wanted, I was hell bent on creating this wealth thing and, you know, I wanted to have all this, but where it showed up the importance of it.

Is that it was that money that I had saved in form of cash and had some assets that I got one that paid the bills when my business was breaking down. So I didn't have that money to pay the bills. So how lucky was I like, think about the stress I find, I, you know, again, I work with so many entrepreneurs that have health issues.

And kind of similar situations, they're out of energy, they're tired, they've got some things going on. They're trying to work that out and they're trying to figure out how to make money in their business at the same time. Yeah. Right. When you're just dependent on that. So I was so lucky that I could just kind of let the business go because I had this other money.

That was passive income from these assets, and I wasn't trying to live off of it. It's just that was I was in that stage of growth. So that paid the bills. And then there was assets there. I mean, at the time, it cost me a quarter million dollars to try to find all the health and practitioners and all the stuff that was just to get me back to the place.

So I was able to sell some assets to pay for things and had the cash flow. So the whole moral of telling this very long story is that became this awareness of like, Oh, this is why we have wealth. This is why we have personal net worth and we build it alongside of building our business. Because there's a, the business, we might have a situation, mine's one example, where we wake up one day, we either don't want to build the business, we don't want to hustle this hard, we can't hustle this hard.

It's broken us one way or another, we're tired of the stress, but we don't have a choice because our only source of income and source of any money, if you will, is all tied up in the business. And that's what I see entrepreneurs make, is that we spend so much time focusing on growing and making more money in the business, that we, the fundamental, Um, what I find is the fundamental mistake that entrepreneurs make, and you know, that's what I do.

I work with thousands of entrepreneurs and I see this over, I mean, I'd say it's 90% of the time. It's, I mean, it's just, it's a majority, a large majority is entrepreneurs put all of their energy into trying to make more money and grow the business. And what they do is they, one, it shows, and then there's a few different things that happen.

And entrepreneurs don't pay themselves enough. Always banking that I'll pay myself more when the business gets to the next level. So you know, that's mistake number one is not paying themselves enough. Another mistake is paying themselves, but then keeping all the extra money, if you will, back into the business, trying to grow it to the next stage, the next stage, because every time we grow the business, the business needs more money.

That's the way it works. Always pre capitalize the next stage of growth. You have startup capital for the first phase of growth and you have to do the next stage of some type of capital. Even if we're the capital, which, you know, small businesses usually are. Every stage of growth requires the next level of capital.

So entrepreneurs, what they do is this is the entrepreneurial trap. They keep growing their business, which is great, which means they're making more money. They get to pay themselves more, but the more they pay themselves, the more that lifestyle creep goes up. So now they're living a nice fancy lifestyle that really, you know, is a mirror of the success in the business one way or another.

So it's like, Hey, I'm this successful in my business because look where I live, look what I drive, look where I'm having dinner, look where, you know. Look what's on social media and that's, there's nothing wrong with that. That's very natural, but that's what's happening. So that expense creep goes up in our lifestyle, the better that our business is doing.

And then, but the money we live over, we leave into, we leave in the business to keep growing the business, but then the business growth, we'd leave more money, the business to grow some more, and then that lifestyle goes up too. So what happened is this is the trap. Now we're trapped in is now as successful entrepreneurs.

We have an expensive lifestyle and that expensive lifestyle requires us to go hustle more in the business to keep making the same amount of money to pay for the cost of the lifestyle. And that will go on forever. And that's this trap that we always have to go to the business and hustle. And do all the things and take on all the stress and meet payroll.

And, you know, as business owners, it's, it's stressful. That's, you know, it's just the way it is. There's always the next business problem or, you know, something was working and making money. And then all of a sudden Facebook changes the algorithm and you're starting over from scratch. And, you know, that's just the way business is.

So the, what I'd like to share is that we want to break that. We don't want to be in the. In that cycle and be in that trap, and the only way out of that is the to, you know, have the money that to keep us out of that stress of what I call the month to month dilemma every month we have to go back to the job, which means back to the business to make.

To make this month's bills to pay month's bills, go back to the job to pay the next month's bills. And it's just, it's, that's the rotation. It's month to month. Like every month we have to go generate the same amount of money to be able to pay the same amount of bills. And you know, then we make more money in the business, the bills go up and that cycle stays forever.

So what we want to do is get out of that, you know, that circle, if you will, that loop that's never will never end. And we want to, while we build the business. We have business, the mindset is to think that my business is to generate income. It's one income stream to the household. So if I'm a single person in this case, or, you know, there's one income household, then I go to my business and my strategy in my business is to create enough profit in the business that allow, that allows me to pay myself to live my desired lifestyle in my household.

Thank you. So that's what we're doing, but it's just our business is one income stream. Now what we want to do while we're building the business, we want to create multiple streams of income and those other streams of income over time. Is, are going to match, I mean, you know, match or be more than the one income stream that comes from our business.

And that's what we're doing at the same time. And how that looks is we pay ourselves from our business. And we, the mindset is my business is not a wealth creation machine. My business is not about financial freedom. My business isn't about all these things that kind of I've been taught to believe is true.

My business is a source of income. my primary source of income. Now, I pay myself from my business. I pay my household. Now, I'm going to take a certain percentage off the top of what I pay myself to buy assets to build my personal net worth while I'm building my business. And we want these two to grow alongside one another.

As my business grows, I want my personal net worth to grow. And what happens then over time, when our net worth continues to grow, our net worth is made when we have net worth. Now we start to have additional revenue stream. So let's just say I took money personally. I bought a piece of real estate and let's just say.

I make 5, 000 a month from that real estate. Now we have two income streams. We have one stream for my business and one stream from this piece of real estate. And I'm going to use real estate, for example, now we have property two, property three, property four. And over time we add up those different income streams.

And you know, the, the multi, you know, multimillionaires, where you want to be, have an average of seven income streams. So, so wealthy people have seven income streams. They don't have one income stream. There's only like 1% of businesses that haven't, that make enough money or get to the place of being able to sell to be able to hit our net worth and say financial freedom targets.

So that's what we're doing. And then all those 5, 000 can add up until they replace that one income stream from our business. And that's what's financial freedom. In that our assets money grows much faster than our business will ever grow our business and the rule of 72 It can double Every, it can keep doubling over time, every few years or so, based on the interest rate.

It's not likely that our businesses can, can continue to double forever, but our money will. Hmm. So when we understand that money and compounding are like these miracles and it's money's so powerful and so amazing, but we are so ignorant when it comes to money. Few people. So I have this quiz and it's just what I say, test your financial IQ quiz.

And it's just to take the quiz and see how you stack up. And I'm talking, these were successful people and entrepreneurs that take the quiz. The quiz average score is 31%. If a hundred percent is a hundred percent score and 90% is an A, 80% is a B, 70% is a C, 31% is the average. You know, we're talking successful people with college degrees and multiple degrees are getting this.

So what we're What the reason why that is is because we're not taught money We're only taught to work hard and whether it's the traditional route like go to go to school get a job and you know Work the corporate ladder. It's still the same mindset It's like I just need to work harder and get that next promotion and if I keep doing that then Everything's going to be okay financially or as entrepreneurs, if I keep growing my business, everything's going to be okay financially.

And it's just not true. Wealth is different than income. And so we have to understand that income is on a profit and loss. Wealth is on a personal balance sheet. So we have to have a personal balance sheet. And what I encourage, you know, my clients and students to do is I want us to be equally or more focused and more passionate about growing our net worth.

As we are as our business And we have to learn how to do that. So like the quiz now I have thousands of people that have taken this quiz at first, you know, i'd be like, well these scores here But now I have a collection of so many numbers You know numbers of people that have taken this that it's like hey, it's just proof from my little sampling, you know of you know Thousands versus, you know, millions of people, but saying like, Hey, we as a society don't understand money.

And that if we did, I think a lot more of us would be sleeping at night because we wouldn't be staying up because. We're financially stressed, financially scared, gotten a financial conflict with our spouse. Our kids are having problems. You know, I see so much financial, um, just crises from successful people, you know, every day, like they're taking, trying to put their kids to school.

They're working really hard. They have a great business, but their parents didn't take care of the money. So now they have to figure out how to take care of the parents. They feel guilty and they've put them in the nursing homes. And I mean, money from a family standpoint is a shit show. And it's only a shit show because we don't understand it.

And I'll complete by saying that money is so easy to learn and it's so easy to put to place where it starts working for you versus the other way around. But we don't even know that we don't know how money, easy money is to, to study and learn and get it working. So it's just, it's not working at all. And we're just.

Wow. Okay. Well, first, I had so many insights in what you were just sharing. First off, I so appreciate you sharing how much this has part of your journey and what came about through even your own physical health kind of experiences and then how that relates and plays a role in what it. came about in your own life as your relationship to money.

And a couple things that popped out for me. One, yes, again, of the twin elements. I had so many similar experiences in my own life that I've loosely shared on the podcast and in our newsletters and courses and what have you. But certainly, you know, growing up in a trailer, having, you know, a relationship to money of Certainly often a lack of knowledge or disempowerment and the fact that you spearheaded this and made a difference in your own life and then took it upon yourself to study this.

So one of the things that I was struck by was the takeaway of, you know, really being responsible for this area of our lives that plagues so many of us. Because again, if anyone's listening and like, okay, well connected to sleep, well, you can not not divorce your money relationship to your results with your sleep period.

full stop. One of the kind of stats that just recently came out, according to the Financial Information Group bank rate, the survey found that 52% of respondents listed money as the thing that takes the biggest toll on their mental health. 52% of people. I mean, and to your point, it's like that's gonna trickle into your results with your sleep.

So I love your part of your story of that you decided to study this area. So even if so, for any listener, whether entrepreneur, if you're a stay at home mom or whatever, you know, wherever you might be in your money journey, that that takeaway of the fact that we can dive in and learn about this thing and.

To go to those to take the quiz, figure out where you're stacking up and then get that information to see what we need to dive in on just really, really valuable. So thank you so much for that. And with that, I'm wondering if you can share. Just for the listener to so they take the quiz, then what happens as they so if they land in that kind of lower percentile or wherever they might fall, what are some of the things that people can do to empower themselves from that point?

Awesome. Yeah, so to thank you for all that and to complete that way I'm do what I do today is after that journey. Yeah, I realized that, hey, there's a big wake up call and I want to share that wake up call with the world and say like everything we've been taught. Kind of about this entrepreneurial thing and money thing.

It's a big fat lie. It's bullshit. We've been tricked and in programmed. And I, my passion today is to teach money in a very simple way and approachable way that allows all of us to get control of our money because money is a factor of life and it's a big influence over the quality of our life. Hence, and you know, the quality of our sleep.

So anyway, to complete that, close that loop. Uh, so the quiz, the quiz is fun just for a little self test. So I would again encourage everybody to take the quiz. What to do after the quiz, which great question. So what I believe, again, this is kind of anecdotally just from my own personal life, but now also, uh, just a result of, you know, working with so many people over time, is that I believe, That the most important financial question and even life question for that matter is this that we can ask ourselves.

So I think this is one of the most important life questions, certainly the most important financial questions we can ask ourselves. And then we need to find the answer to. And that question is, is how much is enough money? So wise. And I mean, a number, because that's where money's elusive. We just, it's when I ask people, how much, do you have enough money?

And they're like, no. And I'm like, well, how much money is enough? I don't know, but more than I have now. So we live by this word of more and no matter where we are, if we're making 50, 000 a year, you know, straight out of college or something, well, this isn't enough money. I need more. Then we're making 100, 000.

Well, this isn't enough money. I need to make more. You're making 250, 000 a year. You can be in that. Well, this still doesn't feel like enough money. There's people that have a lot more money. I need more. And that can go on forever. And again, especially for the entrepreneurs listening, then we grind more. We sacrifice more.

We compare ourselves more. If somebody else, you know, a seven figure business isn't enough. Now it has to be an eight figure. Oh, an eight figure business isn't enough. Now it has to be a nine figure. And it goes forever because it's just, we've been tricked. Like more is better. So asking ourselves this question, how much money is enough is equally practical.

Like it's a number we need to know, but it's also very philosophical. That gives us a destination. It gives us a place where when we're in the money game, we know what we're working towards. We needed, we need a destination, you know, if we surpass it, great. But it's that it's. It's the direction, it's the destination, it's part of the motivation and the inspiration because we know what we're working towards versus just more and, you know, take just, we can get caught up in that forever.

So that's, uh, and the, and the question I like to ask everybody starting out is this to ask the question, how wealthy are you? And again, if I ask the question, how wealthy are you, it's not an easy question to answer. You're like, well, maybe it depends, maybe. It's if I make more money or maybe is it based on how much savings I have or, you know, it's, again, you could go a lot of different directions with it, but I think to ask ourselves is how wealthy are you is the way to look at that.

It means is if I said, if we play, if we had played a game and created a few little rules, and I said, Molly. You don't need to answer it, by the way, but just to set up the example. Yes. And I said, um, Molly, if I wove a magic wand and said, starting today, you cannot make any more income from your business.

You cannot go out and get another working job, and you can't take money from any other person. And assuming you wouldn't wanna change your lifestyle, you wanna exactly live exactly the way you're living. How many months could you live? Mm. So good. So it means like, you know, could you live one month? And again, the answer is, is most people to keep their current lifestyle, they would between one and three months, meaning they have enough money, they would pay for their bills for one to three months.

That one to three months, that's what's called financial stress. That one to three months is the financial pressure. The one to three months is what keeps us up at night. The one to three months is what causes arguments between spouses. The one to three months keeps people in jobs that they hate the one to three months has people not go to the doctor or not have the money to be able to do the things to take care of themselves.

It's the one to three months and again, we don't know this. So what we want is, I have something that's called the wealth spectrum, and we, on the left is the red in the middle. Zero meaning kind of month to month. And on the right means the more wealth we have, the more months that we could live without running outta money.

And financial freedom means that, that the definition of financial freedom means I can, I can, from the money, from my assets, like the money that I have, net worth wise, without ever going to work again. My current lifestyle is completely covered. That's what financial freedom is, and that's to the right side of the spectrum.

So again, that comes with, we create that, it doesn't happen accidentally. And again, when we've been tricked and programmed the way we are, we're not building that wealth. We don't have it. So, I'll finish by saying again, um, that when you take the quiz, I have a workbook that's sent after you take the quiz.

You'll get a nice email that says, congrats, here's your score. Uh, you know, we make it really fun and, and cute. So again, just to, to have fun with it. But the real value there is it'll email you a workbook. I recommend to print it out. You can do it online too. But to actually take like an hour of time and sit down with this workbook.

And if you spend an hour time with this workbook, I promise it's going to... It might, I mean, it'd be a little dramatic to say it's going to change your life, but it's actually, it's going to cause you to think differently. And I'm going to be very surprised if you actually do the work or realize that it's, it's difficult, there's completely guided.

But if you try to answer the questions without the guide, you realize, Oh, this is a little bit harder than I thought it was. That is going to shift your thinking with money. So there's a, I'd really encourage anybody, everybody take the quiz, how you're doing and fill out the workbook. And if you get a 90% grade, at least there's 10% a few things there you might pick up on and still, cause there's always places for all of us to improve.

But that's just it is that, um, is to kind of the next step in anybody's journey is to figure out how much money is enough and then, you know, start from there. And we call reverse engineering. We reverse everything else. We reverse engineer all the rest of our financial life based on that number. But people say, Christina, where should I invest?

Or is there a financial planner? The financial planner will do all these things. A financial planner, a good one, they can't do you a service if you don't know how much money is enough. If you don't know what you're working towards. They can't, they can't guide. They're not, they're, they're, they'll. They do their job and think that they're giving good advice, but it's impossible for any financial advisor to give real advice if they don't know your numbers and how much money is enough.

And you have to do the work. They can't do the work for you. Well, the irony of such a wake up call on a sleep podcast is so great. Because we need this wake up call for such an area that can really truly disrupt our well being and certainly absolutely our sleep. So that is so wise in that question of how long could you go?

I mean, I think a lot of people listening are going to be surprised by that answer and hopefully inspired to take action. Wow. Okay. So highly recommend taking this quiz. This is fantastic. Shifting gears because for every person that we bring on the podcast, given their area of expertise, we want to learn from them and from you how you're managing your sleep in relation to all that wisdom that you have.

So we do ask everyone four key questions. And so the first one is, What does your nightly sleep routine look like right now, given that you've done all this work on your sleep? I'm sure you're not laying there awake thinking about your finances, but so what happens in your nightly routine? Yeah, you know, I mean, I think the biggest thing with routine is just being consistent these days, you know, usually there used to be not any consistency.

So, it's, it's getting to get bed to every night about the same time and, you know, my, the whole, my whole life, I'd say, is pretty routine. Go for do dinner, do a little dinner walk before after. Watch a Netflix show, get ready for bed, take a shower, and then just really get into bed and go to sleep. So, um, but no, you know, no screens, you know, things like that, just because I'm, I'm very much influenced by those personally, but you know.

I listen to a book that kind of just puts me into the zen zone and I'm out and I'm happy to say after all that sleep stuff. Like I I'm such a great sleeper It's such a great sleeper and I don't know if you had it but for a long time I had sleep anxiety that the physical piece Was but you know, I was past the physical piece like my body could sleep my brain would let my body sleep So I was past it but every night I would be like, what if I can't sleep tonight?

Yes. And I just absolutely by that anxiety then would keep me from falling asleep. So it's been, I've had a real journey with sleep. And I mean, now I just talk to myself and be like, I'm such a great sleeper, buddy. You're such a great sleeper because you know, just again, it's, it just feels great. Like, yes, I'm a great sleeper.

Yeah. Oh, a hundred percent. And so common. We work with so many people and certainly that was absolutely a part of my story. Concept of sleep, anxiety, and then really needing in a lot of ways to restore our confidence in our sleep, and oftentimes evidence from long stretches of time where now, okay, I have the proof, but that can take that rebuilding after that stretch of time where it's suddenly not as a given, that will get a full night of sleep.

And so that can be. really a lot for our psyche if we are used to it working and then it doesn't work. So I really, really relate to that and congratulations on now having that confidence restored. That's fantastic. I mean, I love what you said too about the consistency because That cannot be underestimated as time and time again on a daily basis, I'm getting questions around, you know, supplements and gadgets and this and that, and those are all great, but they can never replace consistency, the fundamentals, and it's just so, so crucial.

So I love that. And then that also what I imagine. spill into your morning routine, which is our second question. And we say this as to why that relates to sleep is that how you start your day and how you manage your day can absolutely show up in your sleep results. So curious if there's anything noteworthy in your mornings.

You know, it's funny. I just, you know, I love the name of your podcast. Sleep is a skill and, you know, just getting, going through the journey for me. I had to become skillful at sleep. Like I, I had to go through a stage where I was very strict and, and getting, you know, these little baby steps to finally get it back to where I was a great sleeper.

But again, it was a long journey and it took a lot of discipline. But I wanted to become a good sleeper again, even when I didn't even know if it's ever going to be possible. So if there's anybody listening that has a story like mine or Molly's, it is absolutely positive. You can become a great sleeper again.

I, I am proof of it. So if that's any encourage or inspiration, I just want to say it's, it's 100% possible, but it did take, it did come after a lot of discipline to get to that place. I love that you said that because when I was struggling with my sleep, I was searching for success stories because I would also hear the other side of it of, you know, I'd find myself on forums and just places you probably don't want to be if you're not sleeping well.

And I would find, you know, all these cases of people, oh, I got insomnia, now I take sleeping pills, or all these things for decades, and just this particular path that some people found themselves on. And my, what I was looking for desperately was the examples that is going to work out. It is going to be okay.

And so I thank you for saying that because it's a big deal for our nervous system to know that this too shall pass. Just about every one of us is going to have some sort of period where our sleep is not working as well as we like it to. Now, for some of us, it might be a little bit more marked. And certainly I think in our cases, it certainly was and really pretty life changing.

But for all of us, that is likely to happen to some degree. So hearing that on the other side of that, it works out. It can work out. That's fantastic. So the morning routine, just a real quick. So I want to say with the nightly routine, I do take a little CBD sleep gummy that I sleep great without it, but it's just that nice little extra that I'm such a sound sleeper.

I hit all four stages. I mean, it's, I'm just, I dream all the stuff. It's just yummy, yummy sleep. Right. And every once in a while when I don't sleep well, it's like such a bummer. The morning routine, I'd say the only thing is I don't necessarily have a routine. But the difference is, is like back in the day, I mean, I live by alarm and to hit that alarm three times, but, you know, woke up before the sun came up and just again, didn't care about sleep right now, unless I'm traveling or something.

I don't have an alarm. I just allow my body to take the amount of sleep. It needs some days. It needs seven. Sometimes it needs eight, but it just wakes up when it wants to. And that's been one of the biggest changes for me is just let my body take. It knows what it needs and it takes what it needs. And, you know, and I guess that'd be as far, it's not necessarily routine, but it's a big, been a big change is not to own an alarm clock.

Wow. I love that. And I'm sure too, it's aided by the consistency of your nights too. Cause you're largely doing some, your body, the due diligence of kind of setting it up powerfully. So it's not as if like one night is. you know, 3 a. m. and the other night is 10 p. m. and all of that spills into all kinds of rollercoastering on your wake up time by guiding it that way, then you actually can successfully create a system where your body can have that intuitive sleeping.

So, love that. Amazing. And then the third question would be, what might we see on your nightstand or, you know, traveling, maybe ambiance, uh, gadgets, gizmos, supplements, anything around? Yeah, I really don't have anything. I mean, I, like I said, there's no alarm clock, although we use our phones now, but even, I mean, phone goes off every single night.

So, um, I mean, it goes airplane mode. So phone is airplane mode. There's a lamp. I have my gummies in my drawer. I mean, there's really, I mean, I owe a sleep mask. So I do have a sleep mask because I'm affected by the light. So other than that, that's, that's all the gadgets I have. It's pretty simple. I love that.

Yeah, it's so funny. Out of doing so many of these episodes, you can kind of get a sense often that some of the simple routines often, you know, can kind of yield those reliable results. Sometimes there's like so many things that people are rattling off and you can almost feel some of the excitement.

Potential dependence or needing of all of those things, it's not to discount, you know, certainly some people have some good systems, but I do think there is something to be said for minimalism and then just the reliance on ourselves. One of the things that we'll talk to you is, um. the desert island approach.

Could you find yourself landing on a desert island and trust that you could get great sleep with really nothing but, you know, the clothes on your back without needing all the accoutrements? And I think for some of us with sleep anxiety, that's really a great place to know ourselves as is not relying on all these external things that we ourselves can create, you know, the results that we want.

So that's really great. And then the last one would be What would you say in your life today, what's made kind of the biggest change to your sleep game or said another way, biggest aha moment in managing your sleep? I mean, my biggest, probably a few. One is just learning through my personal experience, how important sleep is, you know, just, um, you know, the rare time there's a bad night's sleep.

I mean, we all know this. Productions are like everything is off, you know, how I feel my relationship. I'm more cranky. I'm not productive. So, I mean, we all know that, but so, but for me, it's just like sleep really is the most important thing I put used to put exercise and work and money and. Like everything came before it and now it's like, no, sleep is first, sleep is first, sleep is first.

And I mean, I, I can't even emphasize how, how important that is, you know, and it, it seems so silly, but yeah, with, I mean, I'm like everybody, I'm really busy and very athletic and have a lot going on, but sleep is the one thing that stays consistent. It's the one thing I stay loyal to. And. The mindset, it's like versus the mindset change from it's a badge of honor not to sleep.

Yes. Now it's the opposite. Now it's the badge of honors like sleep is my rock. Sleep is my number one and as long as I have a great relationship with sleep, the rest of my life just works better. Oh, I love that preach. 100%. I mean, again, same journey. So related to this concept that like, you know, sleep when I'm dead or, you know, I'm a short sleeper, not a big deal, or just sleep in later.

What's the problem? All of those kind of relationships to sleep and to be on the other side of that. And I think it really works into what you're sharing too, about the importance of, you know, our financial well being is this. area of sleep, I often call it kind of can stand as the barometer of the workability of your life.

And so when sleep is out, it's likely something in our life is not working as well as it could be. And finances were part of my stressors when I had my sleep breakdown. And it really, in order to restore the workability with my sleep, One of the things that I had to restore was financial integrity, integrity in areas of my life, workability, consistency, discipline, you know, all the things that then had to come into play to, you know, kind of bring that, all that, those puzzle pieces back together.

So I love that kind of. connection and almost makes me think to finances. We say sleep is a skill and you know money is a skill and you demonstrated that beautifully with really just taking this area on and learning and getting curious and we encourage people to do that with sleep and certainly I get that message as well for you both with sleep and money.

So really appreciate you taking the time and so for anyone listening now I hope that they're going to be taking this quiz. Where can they go to take this quiz? How can they follow you? All the things. So the quiz is wise money method.com/quiz wise money method.com/quiz and wise money method. That's the financial method that I teach wise.

This a place on my name, plus I think it's a smart method. So yes, blend those two together. And that's what I do for a living. I really teach people how to become financially powerful, not just mindset, but like you said, the skill set of money. And what I can promise most everybody listening is what you think to be true about money is categorically false.

And so we're working on intuitions and beliefs and kind of common sense has been handed down. And probably the truth is on the exact opposite side. So, you know, I just encourage anybody to do some money work. If it's not with me, read some books, do some things. If money feels a little bit out of control and just because learning, it really is a skill.

It's not going to change by accident. It just isn't, you know, maybe you'll win the lottery. But probably not. So, uh, so anyway, that's, that's what I do. That's what wise money method is. com. Otherwise I have a podcast just called wealthy, wealthy, and, um, you know, can Google my name. It's pretty easy to find me, but.

Either way, take the quiz and then let me know and you'll get an email with the workbook. Take the quiz, do the workbook and let me know how you did. You can, you'll get my personal email from, um, from taking the quiz, you know, or my, the inbox that that'll come to that I read all this. And so tell me how you did.

I'll be really curious and I'm always around to, you know, answer any questions. Oh, I love that. And I love what you said too. Just take the quiz because one of the things that comes about from that is just that energy of just taking that first action, that first step, especially in something that often can be scary or unknown or, you know, confusing or whatever it might occur to, to many of us in the area of money, taking that step can make all the difference.

So, so appreciate that. So appreciate you taking the time and sharing your story. It means a lot. Really, really grateful. Well, thanks, Molly. It was so fun to be here with you. Awesome. You've been listening to the sleep as a skill podcast, the number one podcast for people who want to take their sleep skills to the next level.

Every Monday, I send out something that I call Molly's Monday obsessions containing everything that I'm obsessing over in the world of sleep. Head on over to sleep as a skill. com to sign up.

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