Ladies Kickin' Ass

#122 - Breaking Financial Taboos: Women, Independence, and Financial Success with Nancy Greger

• Tanya Wilson, Nancy Greger • Episode 122

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Unlock the secrets to financial empowerment with Nancy Greger, a seasoned wealth coach from Connecticut, in this transformative episode of the Ladies Kickin' Ass podcast. Learn firsthand how Nancy transitioned from the often-stigmatized world of debt collection to shaping financial futures with empathy and insight, thanks to the pivotal guidance of her mentor, Vivian. Through honest discussions about financial challenges faced by individuals from all walks of life, Nancy shares practical strategies like maintaining operating funds, establishing overdraft protections, and fostering open communication with debtors to achieve financial stability.

Explore the nuances of financial responsibility within marriage, where Nancy emphasizes the importance of collaboration and communication between partners. Hear compelling anecdotes about balancing household finances and the necessity for women to establish their own credit and financial independence. Discover the critical role of financial literacy and family preparedness, drawing on personal stories and historical milestones to illustrate the ongoing journey toward financial empowerment for women.

Finally, gain priceless insights into identifying financial habits and changing mindsets for long-term success. Nancy discusses her approach to coaching readiness, the value of consistent financial check-ins, and the empowering journey of self-advocacy. Celebrate the resilience and tenacity of women through heartwarming family stories that inspire listeners to embrace their financial independence and navigate life's uncertainties with confidence. Join us for a motivating discussion that underscores the human connection at the heart of financial services.

Connect with Nancy Greger and learn more about her wealth coaching.
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Tanya Wilson:

Welcome to the Ladies Kickin' Ass podcast, where we help you ignite your inner badass and create the service business of your dreams. I'm your host, tanya Wilson, and together we'll dive into inspiring stories and expert coaching to set your journey on fire. Hey ladies, welcome back to the podcast. I'm super, super excited today to totally introduce you an amazing, fabulous woman that I have met through my Growth Day Ultra Mastermind group. We have just had such an awesome connection and she she is well versed in everything financial, from debt collections to now being a wealth coach herself. She's coming in on all different directions. She's been affiliated with financial industry for most of her life.

Tanya Wilson:

There's so many things within a small business that we all deal with, and things even in our personal business. I find that like I get one rocket and roll them really good and then you're like what the fuck happened to this other side, and then you're like losing your mind. This is the woman that you want to talk to. This is the woman I want to introduce to you, my friend Nancy Greger. She is here with us today from Connecticut and we're going to talk all things financial, whether that is from small business to personal financial things. Learning finances, especially as a woman is something I am super, super passionate about this year, and it's just been a pleasure to know Nancy and be able to see her journey, as she's starting to kind of take a shift in her life, so I'm super excited to bring everything that she brings to the table today. So, nancy, thank you for being on the show. Why don't you give us a little bit of your background and tell us why you love to do what?

Nancy Greger:

you do. Well, thank you very much. It's interesting when asked, why do you love what you do? I think I kind of fell into it and I wasn't aware I fell into it and, probably until I was in for like 20 years or at some point, got back into the working market and instantly gravitated to what I had been doing since oh gosh, since I was like 21 years old and I didn't really share what I did with people because I always felt that working as a collector has a very, sometimes bad vibe to it. People weren't very open and receptive to it. They would say, oh, you're one of those people and I used to get very, you know, I used to be very tongue tight. When someone said, what do you do, I would just say, oh, I work at a bank or I work for this finance company. I wouldn't go into specifics because, like I said, people had that negative undertone. But I kind of fell into it.

Nancy Greger:

I needed a job and this is one of my first jobs that I got out.

Nancy Greger:

I had an absolutely fabulous mentor.

Nancy Greger:

Her name was Vivian and Vivian had been doing this for a very long time and she took me under her wing and she vomited all of her experiences on me and helped me really navigate the industry really well, and I stayed there for a few years and then I moved on to different types of collecting and different types of, you know, lending institutions.

Nancy Greger:

But she started that whole idea that this was something I was good at and I really didn't know why I was good at it. I just had the tendency to not take things too personally. Be able to listen to what people are actually telling you is the problem, because you have to really listen and focus, because they'll give up everything and by the end of my time usually I know people really well sometimes too well but that's what made me good at what I did. That's what made me successful in this line of work that I wasn't just out to get the money, I was out to figure out why I had the why question. So for me that's kind of what started the path, and it probably was Vivian who installed or instilled so many things in my head that laid the groundwork as I went and moved around in my career and worked up the ladder, if you will, in this industry.

Tanya Wilson:

So cool. I feel like a lot of times, especially like the audience of this podcast many times maybe we find ourselves in a position where we're like we don't really want to tell people what we do. Like I remember when I started my septic business, I remember telling my ex husband I'm like what the hell do you want me to tell my girlfriends I do? Like that we own a shit business. Like it's so, so crazy and it's so funny to even listen to Jake, my husband, now talk about it. He's like, uh, we're in commercial wastewater and underground systems. I'm like we pump shit for a living. That's what we do. You know, like it's so funny, you can professionalize it any way that you want to. At the end of the day, many times we take that on ourselves and people don't even think that way. But it's kind of something that's like an insulation of protection of ourselves, of like I don't want to be associated with this.

Tanya Wilson:

You know negative idea of what this business is, but it's very neat. It's a service that's needed. You know it's a service that everybody has to deal with, especially even as business owners. You know, like small business owners, you get somebody that doesn't pay you. That can hurt big time or, you know, if it's a big enough job especially construction, wise stuff that can take your ass under.

Tanya Wilson:

So it is really, really important that we have professionals like you, that that are doing things like that, and I think something that's so beautiful about what you do, nancy, and I've heard you tell me stories in talking about different conversations you've had with different people, the why, like you saying that you wanted to know the why, and I think that's where you're putting the human aspect and the caring and the want to help into it, which I'm sure is contributing beautifully to your new wealth coaching program that you're putting together and what you're trying to do there. How are you taking your experiences from being in collections and the financial positions that you've had into this new wealth coaching business that you are now seeking?

Nancy Greger:

I think it's a combination of two things. Number one talking to a lot of people from all walks of life, from the very very wealthy to.

Nancy Greger:

You know the, the ones that are struggling every day, every single day, because I've I've collected on all types of products, so mortgages, credit cards, cars that type of deal was my area that I did. But what I've learned is and I've had my own financial challenges and you had to kind of figure out, you know, you ever hear that saying there, by the grace of God, go I. That's, life there is if you live. And I used to say to people listen, if you live long enough, you're going to have this. You don't want the, the big pits, but you're going to have waves. Right, life is going to come to you in waves. There are going to be things. If we live long enough, it's bound to happen.

Nancy Greger:

Right, I've known guys that were multimillionaires and in one or two stupid moves, lost it all. And there's a difference between their mentality and somebody else's mentality in so much as that they've had it once. They knew how to get it back up again, yeah, but then there's the other. Then there's the other person who sits back and they're like living in their own little bubble. Uh, and they're like nobody will understand, nobody will know, nobody will be able to to help me. I got myself into this situation.

Nancy Greger:

I I'm going to figure out how to get myself out, and the problem with when you begin with that type of frame of work is that you don't realize it. You do need help and you do need some guidance and you do need sometimes. I would consider myself a mutual party, right, because I'm not invested. You're not, you're not, I don't know who you are, you're personally not attached to me. So I can give you some objective advice. You may not like it, but I can give you some objective advice as to what you need to do.

Nancy Greger:

And then it's whether or not you take it on upon yourself or not. So I, I, I know what it's like upon yourself or not. So I know what it's like from the aspect of trying to collect money from people, what their brinking point is, and I've helped them get themselves out. So now, going into more of the wealth coach, part of it is I'm going to sit back and apply those same attributes back and apply those same attributes. Let's talk about where you're at, why you're here, let's figure out a method by which we can go, but then let's continue to talk, because things are going on in your life and you need that help or that direction, to kind of guide you. That's really what, for me, the coaching element is about right. It's guiding you, it's helping you, it's giving you sometimes some feedback you don't like you don't want to hear.

Nancy Greger:

It's like when I would talk to small business owners and, just exactly how you said, one or two guys didn't pay them. And now what? Now they're scrambling right. Yep, so we would. We would discuss how we, how we, work through that particular problem. How do we get that? What solutions can we have? Is there something you could sell? Is there, you know? Do you have legal counsel? Are you calling them? Because it's's funny You're owed money, but yeah, you don't call the guy who owes you the money. I'm like y'all got to get on the phone, you got to have the conversation.

Tanya Wilson:

People aren't so scared of the phone anymore, aren't they? Yeah, honestly, I can't believe how many times I've had that issue, even inside of my stuff that I'm like did you call them? Well, I sent them a text and an email I'm like it's a cool thing.

Nancy Greger:

Get them on the phone and talk to them and then be forthright and honest. There's no deception here, right? There's. No, you don't owe me the money type of deal, right? This? It's there for you to see it. So face up to it and talk to the person. Come to a moment in time where you can figure out how you're going to get your money from this guy. Then, once you do get it, then I like to say to people all right now I need you to make sure that you don't get yourself into this place again. So let's figure out what your next plan is going to be, and that is you're going to have to have, whether it's operating, money set aside.

Nancy Greger:

Money doesn't get touched. Maybe you have to have some overdraft line protection set up by your bank that helps you swing. You know, a $2,000 shortage until you get that invoice, that receivable, to come in. But you have to. You have to communicate the minute that bill was due. Get on the phone, start calling, talk to people, because all we're looking for and I used to, and I tell people this all the time if you're honest with me and you tell me exactly what's going on, I'll work with you.

Nancy Greger:

But if you start to hide, or you dodge me or, um, you're, if you're angry, you're coming from a different place. But if you're, if you make intentions and you say I'm going to do something and then you don't do it, that's when things get a little, a little crazy. And and as a wealth coach, I want to say to people listen, if you're dodging collectors, don't. Don't dodge them. They may you don't like what they have to say. I get it, but don't take that approach because that just pisses people off along the way. So don't do that. Um, but I let's figure this out, let's figure out what the plan needs to be to get. So, where you don't get your telephone calls from people, um, you are making your, your, you are paying your bills and you're paying some of those bills off Cause. Really, that's ultimately what you want to do and you're paying some of those bills off, because really that's ultimately what you want to do yeah absolutely.

Tanya Wilson:

I find it very interesting too that sometimes people have this stigma or you know they've kind of classified like who the people would be that you're calling on collections. It's like people that are, you know, repetitious about running up credit cards and then you know, not paying them off. But there's like I'm sure you're probably visiting with people from all walks of life, just like you said, you know, from people that have got the money that are just like I'm just not going to pay the shit, like all the way down to people that are like I don't make enough money to cover my bills. Is that true?

Nancy Greger:

Yeah, you do, you do, and that's why I'm saying it is. There's no like one set of type of person. Whether you're super wealthy or you're not, you know, at the end of the day, I always say you put your pants on the same way.

Nancy Greger:

There is no difference, right? You put your pants on the same way. The same way. There is no difference, right? You put your pants on the same way. The only thing I do say that is a difference is that their mindset of a wealthy person is a little bit different, because if they've worked to get that wealth, if they've had some setbacks, they know how to work to get the wealth again.

Nancy Greger:

I would never not know, and I've collected from multimillionaires who back when I was working on exotic and vintage cars and they had Ferraris and Bentleys and Maseratis and all that great stuff they would get very upset. They would get very upset if I had to repossess the car. And I would say to them I said listen, you know what? Get very upset if I had to repossess the car. And I would say to them I said listen, you know what, give yourself a couple more years, you'll recover. This will just be a blip in your life and you're going to get the car again, but this time maybe don't finance it, maybe just try to buy it out, right, if that's really what you want to do, yeah, because you, just you, just you don't want to run that risk and sure you know you don't want to be there.

Nancy Greger:

But but for the other, for the moms and pops, it was kind of like okay, well, let's figure out how we got here and let's figure out how we're going to get out, because sometimes, when you're living paycheck by paycheck, um, you're not planning right and all it takes is one emergency and suddenly that kind of throws you, you know, into the loop. What I'm hoping to do and is to get people to the point where I get you through those emergencies. Yeah you don't have those emergencies yeah, you don't have those emergencies.

Tanya Wilson:

Yeah, um, is it that like a big thing too?

Tanya Wilson:

um, that I know they I hear dave ramsey talks about, talk about this a lot on things but like he stresses so much about having like a thousand dollar emergency fund for people, and it's yeah, there's so many people that can't even cover like a 400 emergency that that comes through the door. So you know, for something like that that it's like. I just Googled that really fast and it just popped up on Motley Fool's website and it said 63% of employees are unable to cover a $500 emergency expense. 76% of employees don't have enough savings to cover one month of their income. So it's like little, tiny things that you can start setting up so that you don't find yourself in that situation. You've got multiple areas to be able to pull from and it's not just the paycheck that's coming in. How do you?

Tanya Wilson:

think that people kind of get out of this mentality of. I've been in collections. I'm sure at this point, if you're 40 plus, everybody's pretty much ran into some kind of financial crisis of some kind along the way, whether it was 25 cents that you had to live on and you ate ramen noodles in college for four years, all the way up to like you had a business that fell apart. You know you got divorced, shit happened and you lost everything. You know it can take something so simple that you have to start all over again.

Tanya Wilson:

But I think sometimes there's like the people that you see with that, that kind of get down and then they're like, oh, everybody's after me. And it's this mindset, this lack mindset of like I can never have something good or I can never build wealth because I've never really seen that model before, and then there's this mindset of where you're like I won't stay poor because I grew up that way and I will never have to do that for my kids. What do you think is the differentiator between those two mindsets for people from your experiences?

Nancy Greger:

I think it's who they run into and where they get some support from. I have talked with women in my very early career. I'm going to date myself, but back in the early days women establishing credit on their own was not something you did. Everything was predicated by your husband. Right, it was under your husband's name you just got. Sometimes you got scooped underneath that, but for women to have obtained their own credit was was really, really difficult.

Nancy Greger:

It wasn't easy for, for women to do that. But I think they, I think you run into other people, whether you realize it or not, like I, vivian. For me, being my first job in in the collection industry, she was so much of a wealth of knowledge for me and it kind of set the tone for me about you know. You know, nancy, everybody is, is always going to be, in some type of financial strait. There is no way no one is in it. And if they're not in a financial strait, there's something else going on. Right, it could be some illness, it could be, it could be anything. It doesn't always have to be about money, but it can be about something. But it's the people that you meet, it's the people you surround yourself with.

Nancy Greger:

So for the woman who got divorced and suddenly felt as though she was off on her own and she had to figure things out, was it challenging? Yes, it is very challenging and it takes a lot of time. And it takes a lot of time. But those are the kind of people where, if they can just imagine where their life is going to be, and if I'm able to say to somebody and I have said this to somebody what you're going through right now is a very small part of your life. Yeah, you will get to where you need to get.

Nancy Greger:

I'm confident in that. You got to believe that I can't make that happen for you, but I can tell you my experiences. It's very, very small and if you can surround yourself with that a type of people that support you, and maybe you, maybe you have to go to a support group for newly divorced you know people, or maybe you you went to another you know, met up with some other people, other friends that understood where you were coming from. Because we're never, there's never a situation I don't think where you could say you've, honestly, nobody else has experienced what you've experiencing. You know it's like when you become a parent, right?

Nancy Greger:

And you say to yourself I think my kid's defective because something's not right. Right, he's, this is like stupid stuff going on. And then you're in a picnic or something and you see this other lady and you start chit chatting and next thing you know her son is just as defective as yours. And you're like oh my God, I had no idea.

Tanya Wilson:

That's why it's so important to share your story, because somebody could say something and you're like oh my God, that was my story, you know. It's so important and that's what I love about this podcast is being able to actually put that out there and allow people to do you know to, to be able to tell their stories, so that people don't feel alone. I think, as women, we try to carry a lot of that stuff on our shoulders too, of like I can do it, I can get through this, and many times you do that at your own demise and the other people that can be learning from you as well women are the hardest to collect on they're the really

Nancy Greger:

women will. They will challenge you like nobody's business. They would challenge you. I I had more success, uh, most of the time with CEOs and men than I would trying to collect money from women. Women get very, men get mad angry, spit it all out and then that's it. They'll call you up the next day. Hey, how things going Right. Women tend to like fuster, yeah, and if they hear something that they didn't like, they'll remember it and they'll and they'll ponder it and they'll keep it resonating in their head.

Nancy Greger:

So women are are tough. Women are tough, but the funny thing is is most of the women are. The women are controlling the money, not so much men. Even in large corporations and businesses. I have talked with many presidents and CEOs and you know what they'll say to me. I got to go talk to Becky, back in accounting, because I don't know who I owe or who owes me. Right, they're in the big picture moment, right, it's that accounting team that's behind them that knows the gritty, and so it's never that I would talk with him. I'd talk to Becky. Go get me, becky, on the phone. I'm not even gonna waste my time with you because you don't know nothing. I got to go talk to the lady who's writing out the checks for you because she's going to know when I'm going to get the payment.

Nancy Greger:

So women tend to be very much on the forefront of finances, very much on the ones that are controlling a lot of business accounts, personal accounts. It's the women. It's, you know, is no different from from me personally, right, when I first got married, my husband was like we're going to do the checkbook, blah, blah, blah, blah. And he had a certain way of doing it and I was just like, yeah, that's not my way. And we, we did it for a few years where I I did all the bookkeeping. And then something happened, I don't know what. We got into an argument and I just threw the book at him. I said, well then, here you do it, I'm out, you do it. And that lasted two months and he said he goes, I'm so. I says I'm so sorry, this is definitely in your wheelhouse.

Tanya Wilson:

And.

Nancy Greger:

I, just, we, just so we talk. We talk not all the time, but we talk because we, we don't want to put ourselves in a situation where you have to ask the other guy, hey, can I have 20 bucks or something? You don't want to be that person. You want to be able to communicate together and that's why, you know, I was on the phone recently with a I don't know a bank, and I had to. We were doing a transfer and for some reason there was a limit which I didn't understand.

Nancy Greger:

So I'm on the phone, I'm talking to this lady, I'm trying to get this through. My husband's sitting there in the corner and we're going through all these freaking security questions. And then, and then I said, okay, and then you know, my husband husband's here, we're going to do the same thing. And she says you know, is he going to need it? And I said, I said to her I go, yes, he's going to need to have the same transfer that I'm doing. You're going to need to do for him. I said, if we're going to go down, she said, is it coming out of the same account? I said, there's only one account. If we're going to go down the ship, we we're going down together. And so she started laughing because she was like she says I've never heard it that way and I said, no, lots of people do things differently. I do believe that I will say to you that I have my own credit, he has his own credit, we have our credit, yeah. So I think that's very, very important.

Nancy Greger:

I think it's something maybe that was what I learned early on is that you have to have your own credit. You have to have your own self. Don't rely upon your husband or partner or whatever. Figure it out and get something on your own. It doesn't have to be, you know, big, but it has to be on your own. Big stuff like your mortgage, yeah, you'll, you'll, you'll, do that together, but get your own credit card.

Tanya Wilson:

Yeah, equally important on that, too, is the conversations around what that individual credit looks like if you're married also, because when you go to buy shit and somebody's clear up here and somebody's down here, that's not a good place to be at either. So that's, that's something that, yeah, I totally relate to that, and I think we were talking about this before too. I was like we have to sit down and we made that like mandatory right after we have our ultra meetings with you guys.

Tanya Wilson:

That we have our finance and get our shit together. Week meeting just to even run over things of like what do we have coming up? Where are things at?

Tanya Wilson:

And it's not the oh, you can only have this money or we have all of this crazy stuff going on. We're both really pretty good about that, but it's a matter of just understanding where it's at, Because I have so much stuff set up with my business and then stuff at home with the kids. I have things set up with the kids. If something happened to me, I'm like all this would be for nothing because nobody knows where to find any of this stuff. So if you're a woman listening to this and you're like, yeah, my husband takes care of that. You don't know where your stuff is at.

Tanya Wilson:

Have a meeting, you have to figure this out, and sitting down and revisiting that every single year so that you know where you're at with things is so important. My friend Tess, who has also been on the podcast before I'm going to connect you guys, but she talks about that a lot she's super passionate about financial literacy for women, because she's seen women that are 20, you know, 20s, 30s, that are like I don't give a shit and it's like so far away and you know, like really getting people to understand the importance of investing and start doing things young and what a difference that makes all the way up to older women that have lost their husbands and they're like I have no idea about anything, and so there's this huge gap in there, which is really cool.

Tanya Wilson:

Sarah Blakely had posted on her Instagram this picture and it was like women who work. It was like a board game and it had like five different positions that you could be like a flight attendant, a nurse, a teacher. You know like the, the stereotypical, you know like working, working women, jobs of like the fifties. But she was talking about how she has this framed in her office and it reminds her that just in 1988 was the first time when Ronald Reagan what was that? A Women's Business Ownership Act was signed into place where women could get financial support from the US government as far as loans and it eliminated the need for a male to co-sign on a woman to get a business loan. That was only 36 years ago. Like the difference between a 20 year old and like an 80 year old woman now in what has been possible financially for them blows my mind blows my mind and that's why and that's why for me, you know, I look at couples because I think I can relate to couples.

Nancy Greger:

But I also sit back and I have grown children. I don't have babies anymore. I have grown children and I remember when they all turned 16, we made them go through Financial Peace University, which was Dave Ramsey's program, and they just like would roll their eyes up in their head and they would go crazy. And my youngest owns his own business. He owns a, um, um, he's a, he owns his own repair shop and he's a dealer, car dealer.

Nancy Greger:

And I had said to him as a and I side note, I'm his mother, I do his bookkeeping. I was really hoping at some point he would hire somebody to do that. But he refuses because he says you're my mom and I'm like okay, but so we're in the shop and I'm doing the books and I say to him I go, you know, I think you need to look at maybe getting a line of credit or something like that overdraft protection. And he looks at me. He says you just jinxed me with the overdraft protection. He says I'm, I'm, I'm always going to make the bills and I'm like take it easy. I, I didn't mean to offend and he goes. What would Dave Ramsey say with what you just told?

Tanya Wilson:

me mom.

Nancy Greger:

And I said oh, so you remembered the conversation, you remember the videos that we did and and the things like that. And I looked at him and I said you know you're right. I said you're right, noah, you, you are managing it. I I'm. I'm not saying you're not, you are managing it. I said to him I go, but as a business owner, I always look at where's the, where's the security, where's the cushion, even if you never use it.

Nancy Greger:

Where's the cushion? You got to have the cushion, I said, especially when you got payroll and you've got definite things you need to pay, regardless of whether or not another car comes in to get repaired or not. You have operational costs that don't budge right. It's the same thing with us at home. You have fundamentally, an operational budget that will never change. It's pretty much always the same your mortgage, your electricity, your phone, you can pull back on food, but you've got utility, you've got a car insurance. Those things are fixed. They're going to stay at a certain point and you're going to want to make sure you can cover that. That, if something should happen, you can cover. Even if it's just a month, you can cover that. Uh, and that's what I was trying to tell him, but he, he threw it back at me. When, when I, when, when I told him, let's, let's go get you a line of credit or an overdraft protection, just in case, and he just went, he got on top of me and said mom, that's not the way to do it.

Nancy Greger:

And I sat back and I was like, oh, you're right, that's not the way to do it. You know, let's put more money away in the money market account and let's just leave it in there and know that we can just make money off of it, get a higher yield on it, and then this way you don't need to get a loan. Yeah, but it's those kind of things and I think for me, I want to be able to know that I can work with couples, I can work with individuals. I am very passionate about making sure women know their stuff get their stuff together and prepare, like for me right now.

Nancy Greger:

you know how you talked about the older generation. My mother's 80, and I'm going down to Florida to see her this weekend and I said to her I go, we're going to sit down and I want to know what you pay, who you pay, what you bring in, what are your expenses, what do you need help with? We're going to need to sit down and talk about it. And she's like well, I've got it all under control. I said it's not a matter of you having it under control, it's a matter of me knowing where things are in the house. God forbid, something should happen. What am I going to do? Start scrambling around looking for passcodes and passwords and all that kind of nonsense? Because talk about old school. It's probably on a piece of paper that says passwords on it, sitting right there on the desk. She might even have it taped to the desk, but but I'll be like, okay, we gotta figure a few things out, but yeah.

Tanya Wilson:

And that's a great thing to talk about too. Like if you've got older parents, have that conversation with them, and some of them may have very much grown up in that generation of like we don't talk about money, we don't do this, we've got our shit handled, we've got our stuff. But it's the gentle approach. Just like you were talking about Nancy. That was like I care about you and I want to be able to continue to take care of you should something happen to the point that you cannot. You cannot have one person that, like you're just taking care of finances. If you're a single mom and you're doing this all by yourself, there is somebody that you know, trust, love and like whatever, or hire someone if you have to that somebody knows what is going on. Like, as a single mom, that has scared me to death of like what if something happens to me, what happens to my kids? Like you have to have that stuff in place because we never want to think about that shit, but it's a true reality that it could happen at any moment's notice.

Tanya Wilson:

So you just make sure that everybody that you love is taken care of.

Tanya Wilson:

Money doesn't have to be this taboo word either, and I'd love to talk to you about this for a minute, because I know that there are many people that grew up like I did and I've shared a lot of my history on this podcast but like I grew up in a little tiny town in Wyoming. Everybody was poor there everybody and it was a matter of like there's never going to be enough money. If we get the money, we have to keep the money because we can't pay anything with it. Because what if we don't have any money again? And I never realized how much that impacted me until I started my businesses.

Tanya Wilson:

And I can have tens of thousands of dollars sitting in a bank account and I'm like great, I need to go pay my bills, I need to do this, and the whole time like it gives me so much anxiety to even check my bank account. This is something I'm working through too, because I'm like there's money in there. Why do you feel this way? Like even to myself, like I have to say out loud like it's just information, like that's the thing for me, like I have such an emotional tie to that of like I got it so like I have to hold onto it forever, and it's like the old adage of like the sand in the hand situation where it's like you squeeze too hard, it's going to go away and then you're not going to be able to get anything. You know like it's harder for you have that mentality that it's hard for me to make money or have to work really hard to make money, and I think in this blue collar industry of many people that listen to this podcast.

Tanya Wilson:

They grew up that way podcast. They grew up that way or they still are dealing with those kinds of money problems, like money, you know, you hear money is the root of all evil, or money is bad, or money's taboo. We don't talk about it. You know, whatever it was that that money story that you were told or absorbed by your parents growing up what is some ways that you would encourage women that if they are struggling with something like this, what places would you direct them to or things to work on to kind of get over that hump and understand, like you're a brilliant human being, you've gotten to this point. Have you ever really always run out of money? No, like, how do you get over that hump of being so damn really scared of?

Nancy Greger:

money. I think in this day and age it's a it's a little bit easier because you have so much social media media out there. I follow several women. Uh, I follow the budget Nista. I think she's hilarious. Uh, I follow some serious, some not so serious people, and the thing about it is is that now you have so much information at your fingertips, I find it difficult for someone to say I don't know how to change something when I'd say have you Googled it? Yeah, please, stop Everybody Google. Please don't tell me you've never Googled it. Yeah, please, don't Everybody Google. Please don't tell me you've never Googled, because you do. You will Google. Whatever your problem is, from a medical problem, a money problem to a kid problem, you're going to Google it. So that is probably the one big, huge advantage that this generation coming in didn't have, like for my mom, you know and even for me in the very beginning.

Nancy Greger:

But they didn't have that right. So you had to really figure it out and sometimes it took you a good slap in the face or an epic problem to have occurred before you kind of figure out how you're going to get yourself out of it, problem to have occurred before you kind of figure out how you're going to get yourself out of it. But helping you get out of it now is somewhat easier because you have the internet, you have social media, you have all these things available to you that you can get all this type of information on to figure it out, to help you figure it out. So, so, but the the mindset that's probably even to this day still takes me some time because, um, growing up, the same thing you didn't talk about money. You never asked someone what they made. You never came out and say, hey, how much money do you make? Right, you weren't going to ask those types of questions because that considered like personal information, which now I kind of sit back and, and you know, to this day, even when you're in a working environment, an employee environment, right, it's still a taboo Don't ask the guy next to you what his salary is because he shouldn't share that information. I almost bet that if we all sat around and shared the information, the reality of women and men getting paid differently would be a huge, huge thing.

Nancy Greger:

And when companies say to you that they're into equality, they're into, you know, making sure that everybody gets treated equal, gets paid equally. Disclose what everybody makes. Yep, disclose what everybody makes. That's how you truly build that type of equality and knowledge. But it's still a taboo. Companies don't disclose that information. It's still a taboo. Then they will make a point hey, don't tell this other guy, don't tell this guy you got a 5% raise because this guy only got three.

Nancy Greger:

But you don't know that. You know you have to go through and you have to remember why. You know I recently went through a weight loss change and I had to figure out my health and I did this one particular program where you systematically remove lots of stuff from your diet. But the objective is, not only are you systematically removing these things from your diet, but then you're kind of saying to yourself why do you want to have that particular item?

Nancy Greger:

Like for me, I noticed that I had a really bad sweet tooth and after dinner, lunch, even breakfast, I required a snack. It could have been a cupcake, it could have been a muffin, it could have been a cookie usually cakes and pastries, never candy. I want to know why I wasn't big on candy, but in any case, that's how I grew up. I grew up from my parents telling me if you finish everything on your plate, you'll get that piece of chocolate, you'll get that cake, you'll get that cookie Right, and so I had to. I realized that I was like, wow, I was doing what I was doing because it was a way to award myself, well, the same thing is with money right.

Tanya Wilson:

Yeah.

Nancy Greger:

Same thing with money. You do so good, you do so well. And then you say to yourself I'm going to treat myself to that handbag, I'm going to treat myself to those pairs of shoes which I'm guilty of 100%. My husband always says to me I don't know how many pairs of black shoes a person can have. And I said, but they're not all the same, Just because, they're black doesn't mean they're the same.

Nancy Greger:

But you treat yourself right. You say to yourself oh no, no, I've been really really good. But you treat yourself right. You say to yourself oh no, no'm going to have that damn piece of pizza, or I'm going to have that cocktail. I'm not going to hold back Right. So it can't always be an all for nothing. You have to really figure out the balance, but you have to. You have to know deep down inside in yourself why you do what you do why it?

Nancy Greger:

is that you're in that place and it does. A lot of it come from how we were raised and what our backgrounds were. You know what our family life was like. You know my parents, these they worked hard. They were blue collared workers. They worked all the time. Every time they hustled they did that nine to five job. Sometimes they would do some side jobs, but most of the time they just did that job. You know, and figured out. There were bad times and good times, but they always managed to figure it out. But they never told me about it.

Nancy Greger:

Like if they had just kind of sat down in the beginning and that's why I've probably the one thing I felt was important that we don't teach our children. We don't teach our children the money. We don't, you know, we don't help them figure out what the money is all about. You know, we're, we're, we're not giving them the lessons that they need to learn when it comes to that, and my parents certainly didn't do that for me. So, yeah, when I went got my first job, first paycheck all gone, it was gone like in two days. It was like, you know, you just went crazy. You didn't really think back and figured that out, really think back and and figured that out. You know, but nowadays I find it really hard for you to have the excuse of not knowing when there is so much information out there for you. You can know, you can, you can figure it out, you could do it, you could do it yeah, I think a lot with financial stuff too, there's so many patterns.

Tanya Wilson:

When you go back and look over history of spending and you will see patterns, because I've been doing this with my business big time this year and I'm like, oh my God, there it is. But when you're looking at it just on a day basis of things you did I didn't really realize I'd be like, oh my God, we made all this money. Where the hell is it? And then you sit down and you look through all the stuff and you're like $25, $25, $25 times 25. And you're like, holy shit, there it goes. It's the little things going out the door that you're not paying attention to. That just makes such a massive difference with things. So if you find yourself at all in a situation where you're like I don't know what's going on, or, like I was, we made all this money. Where the hell is all this money? Like, sit down and take time.

Tanya Wilson:

You have to spend time on it and look back and look at four patterns and look for where you're doing stuff. If you have to write down like I literally went through and wrote down every expense that was paid for the last four months, what exactly was it for and then ranked it in importance of one through five was my scale rank. How much do we need this to operate this business Like? It's like I need a truck payment, I need my lease payments for my truck. Those are moneymakers. That's very important. Got to pay those bills. But if you literally sit down and look through just subscription shit that you pay for softwares that you use in your business we've been looking at this service software for a while and it is a little more on the expensive side but it does everything. And then we've hodgepodge together like seven different softwares trying to get it to all do what this one does. And then when?

Tanya Wilson:

you sit down and you actually put the numbers together. I'm like, holy shit, we'll be saving $525 every month from the hodgepodge to this, where we actually have it all in one big screen and we can see everything that's going on in our business.

Nancy Greger:

So it's a matter of like.

Tanya Wilson:

If I would have sat down and just looked at it, for what it was like, I'd be like well, I'm only paying 200 here and you know this is 1200. But then you're like but look at what this does and look at what this does inside. A too Like, are you using the full functionality of each one of your softwares or are you actually like using kind of this one, kind of this one?

Tanya Wilson:

And then you really sit down and learn the software and you're like shit, that could have done the same thing that I just signed up for three one year subscriptions for really sit down and spend some time and analyze that those types of things, even with your own, like at home stuff, like we signed up for rocket money a few months back and just going through stuff, when it alerts you like bills are coming up or you know, it learns your spending habits, it learns like the cycles of stuff, it alerts you to all the subscriptions that you have and you're like I had literally been paying for a gym membership at this gym. That was like it was stupid cheap. It was like $12 a month because they had just opened the gym when we signed up for it. So we got like the founder and people stuff and I had went into the gym and canceled this membership when we moved to a different one and I was like I was done. I canceled that. Whatever, I wasn't really paying attention to the $12 things going through, and when we sat down and started going through stuff, I'd been paying for that gym membership for 15 months and hadn't even realized value out of that whatsoever.

Tanya Wilson:

How many times are we just paying for stupid shit that you don't need to have just because we're not paying attention to what is going on? And it was at that point too. That was crystal clear. Same thing with our finances, with our family. Jake has a checking account. I have two different checkings account. Personally, we have a joint account. We have all the shit.

Tanya Wilson:

It's impossible with my businesses that I take care of, and then all this stuff at home and trying to do everything Like I didn't have time to go through them all. I was like, okay, yep, the big ones came out and I didn't pay attention to the little ones. But the little ones even just going through after signing up for rocket money and going through that, like I'm saving over $200 a month and just stupid stuff we were paying for or found cheaper alternatives to what we were paying for because we were paying attention. So paying attention is a big thing to avoid paying out so much extra money too. And it's just the more knowledgeable you get about where your money is going, the more conscious you are about spending. Too Many times we're like, well, this is how much money we have, it's in the bank account. Same thing with running a business. That way. You cannot run your finances based upon. This is how much is left in the bank account. That's that paycheck to paycheck mentality that we just really have to break.

Tanya Wilson:

I am so passionate about women never feeling like they're stuck and that comes with you deciding to have a level of your own financial independence that you never find yourself in that place. I grew up with a mother that very much was in that situation her entire life, like I could never do anything different because I'm stuck here. You know she was. It was that like can I have money to go to the grocery store situation? You know, I just, and a lot of us have grown up with that. And then we take it to the complete opposite extreme of like no one will have control over my money which was really fun when I got remarried again, my husband's like why do you think I'm a psycho?

Tanya Wilson:

I'm like I don't. I realized that I was being the psycho with that. You know there's some volatility that has happened with all of us in our lives at one point in another with money. But it really is a lot about it's not necessarily like I. Like I love when you hear people say I know Brendan talks about this a lot too that it's not that you have money problems, and Mel Abraham says it too. It's symptoms, money symptoms. It's telling you that something is not going on right. Either you're overspending for what you're making or you've got $12 gym memberships you're paying for that you don't know you're paying for. Like it's not money problems because so many people think if I make more money then my money problems will go away. But if you don't understand the habits around that you've created around money, you're just going to be creating bigger, bigger problems for yourself down the road.

Nancy Greger:

Bigger problems I think you get yourself into. Like I set myself that every Monday I go in and I look at my accounts. I go in and I have a running budget all the time. Every month is a running budget. Like I said, certain things are fixed, I know what they're going to be right, but I have a running budget. Like I said, certain things are fixed, I know what they're going to be right, but I have a running budget and I keep and I look every single Monday. Every single Monday, sometimes on Fridays, depending upon what's coming up. I might look again on Fridays. Look, you got to be in there. But you also have to take what's in your checking account and you have to put it into a budget scenario Because, like you said, you can't use that checking account for a long time.

Nancy Greger:

My son would always overdraft his checking account. I said I don't understand, how are you overdrafting your account? And he would say to me well, I'd look at the bank. It said I'd have $200. So I went and spent $200. I said, yeah, but you just, you just went somewhere else and spend 150. So you really only had 50 bucks, not 200. And getting that concept it was, it was difficult and I said you can't. Don't use that number because it's a fake number.

Nancy Greger:

If you have a budget set up, you set it up so that you know what you bring in. Have a budget set up, you set it up so that you know what you bring in, you know what you're going to pay out and you allocate everything else that's fluctuating. You allocate a certain amount to it. When you've exceeded that amount, well then, that's when you have to look back and say what did I buy? What's? Yeah, why couldn't I maintain you know, the 1200 budget that I have for groceries? Why? Why couldn't I maintain that? What happened in that month? It's funny because I do the same thing with my son and his business. I go in, and every once a week I go in. Sometimes I'll double check during the week just to see where things are at. Where I catch him is when he uses his credit card, and there are things on the credit card that I'll say to him this isn't business related.

Tanya Wilson:

You know.

Nancy Greger:

I said you went out to dinner. Did you invite the whole tribe from the office to dinner, or is it just you and your girlfriend? Because then that's not a business expense, that's a personal expense, you know. But you had to be able.

Nancy Greger:

When I, when, when you identify it and you sit back and and and at the end of the year, I would sit with his accountant, he would sit with his accountant, we would sit together and we would say, okay, let's look, how did you spend your money? Where did it go? We know where certain things are going to go, but where is the rest? And the thing about it is is you need to be aware of that, you need to know, you need to see it. So now, every time I go in 15 minutes, he's sitting right here. Show me where I'm at, tell me what I I need, tell me what, what went wrong or where something went, ask me the questions. And we go through it, cause I said to him it's not that I need to know, you need to know, it's not about me, it's about you. So you have to take the initiative to control your own finances. And that means you got to look and you can't be afraid to look. You got to look, you got to look, you got to write it down and you got to just make it a conscious effort that that's what you do. Forget about. You know, whatever it is, one day a week, you pick that day and you do it. You don't wait for the end of the month.

Nancy Greger:

I hate waiting for the end of the month because that for me is kind of like you wasted time, right, you couldn't course correct yourself if you waited to the end.

Nancy Greger:

Don't wait to the end Every single week. Open your account, go online, access it, open up your budget, look to see where you've been spending your money and then know what you have to course, correct yourself when you've been spending your money and then know what you have to, of course, correct yourself when you've gone too far over. Here you need to pull yourself back in again so that you can stay in line, so that you can make those budgets, so that you can make the goals that you need to set out. And money is no different than any other type of goal you set. It really is no other the type of goal you set. It really is no other. It's a different topic, but the principles, I think, are similar.

Nancy Greger:

Right, what you set, what you established. You want to lose weight. How much do you want to lose? How do you want to lose it? How long is it going to take you to get there? Right? Same thing with money. You want to save this much money. How long is it going to take? What are you going to have to do to make it so that you have the savings at the end of wherever you want to be? But you got to set it up, so can't be afraid about it, don't worry about it and treat it as though it's the same situation of every other aspect of your life, that you have a goal or that you set a goal.

Tanya Wilson:

Yes, so good. Oh my gosh, Such good information. I know there's so many things inside of this, this episode, that so many people can relate to on a on a business and a personal you know relation. Sometimes you take some great personal lessons from that. You hear that's going on inside of businesses too. You're like, oh, I should probably check that on my other side too. So thank you so much for all of the info.

Tanya Wilson:

Nancy, why don't you go ahead and tell us about what you're doing as far as offering a free 30-minute consultation for those who are interested in taking the first steps of getting their money in order?

Nancy Greger:

Yep. So I've put together like just a really quick little form that kind of just goes over general ideas as to where you're at, where you want to go. What is it that you're trying to achieve? Because talking about finances is personal and it has to be a situation where it's gauged by both parties, both me as your coach, and you, as you know, the coachee. How do you, what is it that you're trying to do? So I put together this little form, we sit down, we, we discuss, we talk, we determine whether or not there is something there that you want to go on to the next step, that you're looking for some additional support, because I believe that for me, coaching is about supporting an individual's desires to achieve their ultimate goals, and that could be anything it could be out of debt, it could be saving $1,000. It could be saving to go on vacation, it could be figuring out something.

Nancy Greger:

So it's just a little brief kind of get to know each other and figure out whether or not this is something that I know I can help you with and you're ready for, because you got to meet those three criterias, because if you're not, it's not going to work and I don't believe in, you know, forcing anybody to do anything when you're ready, you're going to do it, and so this is just kind of me getting together with some people and saying hey, what is that you're looking at? What questions do you have? Sometimes people will say to me well, you know, I was curious. I'm looking at getting a mortgage and they'll give me a mortgage question. Okay, I'll answer the question. And if I don't know the answer, you know, I know some really great mortgage brokers that you can talk to. And it's free. It's not like you know you're going to be paying for it.

Tanya Wilson:

It's free, yes, so that's kind of what I put together Awesome, excellent. Well, I can tell you from firsthand that, first of all, nancy's incredible to talk to. She's super knowledgeable in all of this stuff obviously from this conversation but she cares and that is one of the biggest things. Having worked with many coaches over the years, I can't stress enough how important it is to have a money coach that can help you with that stuff Because, if anything, it's the accountability that you have with another human being to continue to keep showing up for yourself and that is so incredibly important. So if it's health something that you're doing with, get a nutritionist, get somebody that can help you with that, get somebody that will meet you at the gym. I can't tell you how many trainers I've had just because I know that if I hire this trainer, I have to be at the gym at this time, because I'm never going to let them down and stand them up. So literally just for that like I just need you to, then they kick my ass.

Tanya Wilson:

So it's a win-win on both sides. But whatever you need to continue to keep showing up for yourself. Make that investment. It is not one of those things that you're just looking at it and you're like, oh my God, this is another expense. It truly is an investment in your future when you invest in a really good coach that can help you get to the places where you want to go, and Nancy is someone that I would highly highly recommend to anybody. So thank you so much for all of your knowledge today Nancy At the end of the podcast.

Tanya Wilson:

I always ask everybody this question because it is my favorite and I can't wait to see how you will relate to this because we've had so many conversations about it already. When I at the event that Nancy and I did not meet at this event but we ended up meeting through a couples group through ultra later. But when we were at the event in Austin where we all became synced up with Brendan and ultra, um, I remember standing there and you remember that they had to come up with three words. Do you remember that that made you um, that was like defining yourself or that you saw your future self as, and it was one of those things was, um, being grateful, grace for me, like you know, like grace and being grateful, giving yourself some grace, being very grateful for what you're at, grit and badass and if, like it was so cool, like how many people that I have met through that ultra group, that was like gritty and badass and you know, give yourself some grace and doing these things.

Tanya Wilson:

And and this is like I feel like the people that we met in that ultra group was very much the epitome of those words that I just kept saying to myself for so long after I left there, like the people I've connected with have really been that definition of you know being. I'm so grateful that I've met these people. They're just full of grace and understanding where everybody's coming from. They're just there's a lot of gritty people and Nancy is definitely one of those ladies in my tribe now and just complete badasses, which is everything that this community is about. So that was like my manifestation of Nancy coming into my life at that point that I'm just so thankful for. But when you hear the phrase Nancy, ladies kicking ass, what does that mean to you in your life?

Nancy Greger:

I thought about it, because I know you always ask this question and I said, oh, she's going to ask me this question. What am I going to say? So I will too. I don't remember all the three words, but I do remember the one word that I identified myself with, and that was that I was. If I remember correctly, I probably said spicy, and I also said bad-ass. Um, because I know I can do it.

Nancy Greger:

I know I can do it, and I think the definition of you know what a badass to me is is just somebody who is unapologetic as to what they want, stands up for what they want and is okay with the one door closing, knowing that another one's going to open. I can tell you how many situations that I've been in where people have said but if I let this go, everything's going to go downhill, and I'm like no, I I many instances in my life I have can tell you that somehow, some way, some inclination, I just made it work and I made it happen and I pushed myself, and then I sit back and I would say you know, you say to yourself gee, could there have been an easier way? Probably, but at the moment in time that you're in it. That's what you're going to do and you're just going to push it through. And I have always known women in my family because, as a matter of fact, the dominant species in my family have always been women growing up, it's been women.

Nancy Greger:

My grandmother came to this country with nothing and ended up, when she died, being a multimillionaire. Never, never, maybe, said three words in English. Everything else, the woman managed, she hustled and she figured out a way, and that philosophy, I think, instilled in a lot of us as we went down, we could be kicked, we could be pushed down, but we, we got back up and it's because we believe the door is going to open. Another door will open. You got to trust that and believe that that will happen and it will happen. It will happen, and then that it'll be a better opportunity for you, it'll be something better. And I say that to business owners all the time when they say, well, if I let this guy go, I'll lose that business. Well, you lost the business already, you've lost it already, so let it go, walk away, let it go.

Tanya Wilson:

That, to me, is what that is. That is so good, oh my gosh so good. That is so good, oh my gosh so good. Sometimes you need somebody to slam that bitch shut so that you can move on to the next one, because many of us just keep the door a little because we're too scared to go on to the next one.

Tanya Wilson:

you know, sometimes it's those people that you're like you. You really don't like in the moment that lit the match and poured the gas on the building to set it on fire, but in the long run it makes you who you are.

Nancy Greger:

It makes you who you are. It makes you who you are. I say to women all the time don't be afraid to ask for the raise, don't be afraid to stand up for yourself, don't be afraid to tell people what it is that you bring to the table, because nobody else is going to champion you but you. The only time we champion others is our family members. You, as a mom, you champion your kids, right you?

Tanya Wilson:

are a mama bear.

Nancy Greger:

Anything comes between you and those kids, you will do whatever needs to have done. And and, by the way, that would even count for your spouse, because if a situation occurred and you didn't like what was going on, you would stop it.

Nancy Greger:

If that was between you and your kid, you're going to stop it, um, and that doesn't change, no matter how old they are, it doesn't, um. But you gotta you gotta trust in yourself. You just gotta say you know what I got to be for me and you got to really figure that out. But let the door slam, shut, close it, walk away and never look back, and you'll be that much better off for it in the long run.

Tanya Wilson:

Yes, oh yes. Oh my gosh, this was so good and you know you like go through podcasts and you're like that will be a good clip, that will be a good thing to talk about. Oh my gosh, I can't wait to edit this.

Nancy Greger:

I was so nervous about this whole thing I was like okay, okay, okay, I could do this, I could do this because this is a big jump for me. So I'm like I could do this, I could do this. And it was really your abilities, your constant telling me no, nancy, you could do this. No, nancy, you're going to be great, you're going to be great. That really helped me get to this point. It was you, tanya, that really helped me get to this point and I was just like I'm very grateful, I'm so glad we did meet. I'm so glad that we're still doing this adventure together, because it is an adventure, it is a life altering event. It has been for me and it's been great truly.

Tanya Wilson:

Yes, oh yes, and I was right because you were great, so thank you so much. And I was right because you were great, so thank you so much. Thanks for being part of the ladies kick and ask community Cheers to all you bad-ass women out there. Keep rocking your power, igniting your fire and making waves in the service industry. If you love today's episode, please do me a quick favor, take a screenshot, post it and tag us at Ladies Kicking Ass. Be sure to include the link to your favorite episode. Your support in spreading the word means the world to us as we aim to empower even more women. Hit that subscribe button to stay tuned for more Kick-Ass episodes. And don't forget a five-star review is the ultimate high five. Connect with us on social media. All the links are in the show notes. Thank you for being part of our tribe. Now go kick some serious ass, lady.

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