Episode: # 18 The #1 Smart Money Move for Designing Your Dream Life

In this podcast episode, we elucidate the paramount importance of attaining financial freedom through the establishment of one's own business. I express my belief that to truly design and manifest the life of one's dreams, it is imperative to prioritize both a positive mindset and astute financial strategies. As I reflect on my recent vacations, I come to appreciate the profound impact of freedom on our well-being and aspirations. Through the exploration of smart money moves, I advocate for individuals to take ownership of their financial destiny, emphasizing that the ability to generate income independently is a skill that cannot be taken away. Ultimately, we aim to inspire our listeners to consider the myriad opportunities available for creating personal wealth and fulfillment, thus empowering them to forge their own paths toward a life of freedom and happiness.

The podcast episode commences with a welcoming tone as the host, Cara, introduces the listeners to the overarching theme of personal development and its applicability to enhancing various facets of life. Throughout the discourse, the host articulates the significance of cultivating deeper relationships, fostering a healthy relationship with money, and the necessity of self-love. As the episode progresses, the conversation shifts towards the host's personal reflections during her recent vacations. These experiences catalyze a discussion about the essential elements required to design one's dream life, primarily emphasizing mindset and strategic financial decisions. The notion of freedom emerges as a core value, advocating for the establishment of personal businesses as a means to achieve financial independence and personal fulfillment. The host eloquently conveys that ownership over one's financial trajectory is paramount, positing that true wealth stems from the ability to generate income autonomously. This episode serves as both an inspirational narrative and a practical guide, encouraging listeners to contemplate their financial goals and the steps necessary to attain a life of freedom and fulfillment.

Takeaways:

• In the pursuit of a dream life, it is essential to prioritize both mindset and financial acumen.

• Achieving true freedom necessitates the establishment of a personal business or entrepreneurial venture.

• One must continually reassess their passions and goals, adapting to changes in personal circumstances and desires.

• Mastering the skill of generating income independently is crucial for long-term financial stability and personal fulfillment.

• Engaging in personal development and practical strategies can significantly enhance one's quality of life and relationships.

• The journey toward realizing one's dream life is non-linear and requires resilience through challenges and setback.

TRANSCRIPT:

Hey there, I'm Cara and welcome to Design your Dream Life podcast where we dive in and explore how you can use practical personal development to up level your life.

Whether you are looking to have better or deeper relationships, fix your problems with money, learn to love yourself unconditionally, leave a dead end or high stress career, or just want more happiness in your life, my friend, you are in the right place. Are you ready?

Hello my friends and welcome to another episode of design your dream life. My name is Kara. I am your host. I'm so excited to be here.

It feels like I haven't talked to you guys in a bit because I batch my content so I usually take one day a month and I get all my podcasts for the month done and it feels like it's been a hot minute. And in that hot minute, I have been on not one but two vacations.

I've been to Belize with my hubby and and I've been to Florida with my husband and kids for reading week. And while it's amazing to travel, I can also say it is sometimes exhausting. But I am so happy to be home.

Adding in the mix of we have a puppy and puppy life. Oh my goodness. Wow. Forgetting how much work puppies are. And we actually took our puppy with us to Florida for the very first time.

Usually our old dog who we had for 19 years, always stayed with family or whatever. We never really traveled with him.

So there was a lot of new things happening in my life and I am just trying to get back into my routine and back into my little bubble. Today I wanted to talk to you about something because on vacation I was just thinking about so many things. I was reflecting.

I really had so much gratitude that I am able to have this freedom in my life. And I was thinking about design your dream life, what I want for it, my vision for it, the paths of it.

When I say in order to have your dream life, really I believe you need to focus on two things. Your mindset and smart money moves. And when I was on my vacation, I was like really trying to break down the smart money move section in my brain.

And I was like, wow.

So to have your dream life and you're looking at these smart money moves, really, what are all the things that come to my mind when I'm thinking about this?

And when I was thinking about it, I was like, okay, number one, I believe everyone who wants to have their dream life and wants to have freedom really should have a business. And it's now it's been easier than ever to have a freedom based business. And I firmly believe in freedom. I, I really do.

Freedom is one of my core values.

And so I feel like in order to live your dream, you can't be under the thumb of a boss or somebody else and you really need to take ownership of that freedom. And I think there are a variety of ways that you can have your freedom. Look, I work with clients, so technically, do I have some bosses? Yes.

And I do have friends who also work from home and can have some freedom. I think you need to decide what freedom looks like for you. But when I'm trying to develop out, like, what do smart money moves look like?

I'm like, okay, I feel like, number one, you need to have freedom in your building of your own personal wealth and your income.

I believe that you need to make smart money moves when it comes to your own personal finances, your budgeting, your investing, your wealth building and all of that. And I also believe that everyone should have some kind of business. And you need to have smart money moves within that business.

You need to become a master at making smart money moves. And so today I just wanted to briefly touch upon why I think you should be working for yourself and no one else.

And because I think we've talked a lot about many different things and we've talked even about the fast freedom framework, we've talked about all kinds of stuff. But I think at the end of the day, true freedom and true wealth comes from people's ability to create income.

And I think once you have that skill, no one can ever take it away from you. A lot of people will say that.

They'll be like, if I lost everything, if I lost everything again, how would I recreate, what would I, how would I rebuild? And I think it is so true.

I think that when you learn to become a true entrepreneur, and I get that being an entrepreneur is not for everyone, But I do think you can teach yourself this skill of entrepreneurship. And I think that if you can truly master that, no matter where you are, you will be okay.

Because this skill of learning how to create money and learning how to create income is the most important skill you'll ever learn. And I think in our society, we're taught to make money for other people and not ourselves.

And I really want everyone who is listening today, whether you are an entrepreneur or not, I really want to encourage you to think of how can you master your own wealth, how can you make smart money moves for yourself? And I understand that it's scary. And I think being an Entrepreneur is one of the hardest and yet most rewarding paths that you could ever take.

I think if you want to truly live a life where you are living your dreams, no matter what those dreams are, you're going to have some kind of ownership in that, and that means ownership over the amount of money that you make.

And so for me, when I have developed this life and the results that I've created have truly been like, I could never do this if I was still a CEO or if I was a cmo. There's no way. There's no way that I would have the freedom and making the money that I make today. There's just absolutely no way.

And it's so fascinating because I was talking to a few people about this and we were having this discussion, and we're like, I think my friend was saying, like, oh, is it Deep D from Love is Blind or something like that. And she said she was listening to her on a podcast and she's podcasting all this and she's gone into the influencer world. She's, goodness gracious.

Making six figures would have been amazing. And now, you know, she can make three, four times that and working way less and all of that than. Than she. And it. It's.

Whoa, how do we even know that's possible? And that's why I wanted to talk about it today, because I wanted to reaffirm what is truly possible.

Because some of us, I believe, like, I just fell into this industry and I fell into it in 2008. And so I feel like I'm a bit of a grandma in it, but I feel like it almost feels like a secret society.

I'm this, this digital nomad or this digital, digital world that we live in, where there is just so much opportunity today, now than ever before for you to create income online. And yes, there are so many scams out there. I do want to say that I firmly believe that there's so many get.

No, it's get rich quick schemes out there that are just. And they're ick. They're so ick. But there are also true legitimate opportunities.

And what sucks is so many people, I think, get burned by some of these scams and then they write off the whole industry or the whole thing where there's literally so many ways that you can make an amazing living. And the path to freedom can be simple. I'm not saying it's easy, but it can be simple. If you're a teacher.

Example, if you're a teacher, you could be a social media manager. You could be a reading coach. If you loved fitness, you could be a fitness coach. There are all these ways.

And what's insane is that if you actually pull back and you look at it, if you're somebody who is currently working, how easy it is to replace your income. That's insane. Like, absolutely insane. And that's why I have the freedom calculator, right? So that you can get clear on your numbers.

Really, Numbers are the basis to everything.

Numbers are for your own personal use of trying to figure out the lifestyle you want, how much money you need to survive, how much money you need to make. The same with. When you're running a business and you're trying to figure out how much revenue your business needs, how much profit you need.

Like, all of the themes, it's so funny. It all comes down to numbers. And so I just.

I feel like if you are in a business or maybe you have been somebody who has tried a few different businesses, and you have been like, oh, my gosh, this is a nightmare. Like, I. This is a nightmare. I don't like this. I feel like that is a normal part of the process. And I want you to feel like you're not alone.

There are so many things that I have tried that I have not had success with, or even I've had success, but I haven't been happy with. And I think that's okay, too.

When we're trying to figure out our dream life, and we're trying to figure out what it is that we really want to do with our life, what is our passion, what lights us up. It's not like it's this linear approach, right? It's like up and down and all around, and there's pivots and twists and turns and all of the things.

And I feel like, too, as. As you are a human, you continue to grow and you continue to change, and your passions change, you change as a person.

I think of even my relationship with my husband. I think of I've been with him since I was 17. I am definitely a different human now than I was when we first got together.

And how many times have I even reinvented of who I am in our relationship? And even him and him growing and evolving, we both are. And so I think that is part of the human experience, is that we grow, we change, we evolve.

And that doesn't mean that you have to stay on one path.

If you've changed and you're different, or if you went down a path and maybe you started a business and you no longer enjoy that business anymore or you find it now soul sucking and before it brought so much passion to you. I think one of the greatest errors we can do in life is continue down a path solely for the purpose of money. And I think that just.

And there are a lot of people who do that and they'll disagree with me and that's okay. That's you. In my opinion. I just want to be happy.

And I believe that in order to be happy and have good energy and just be an amazing light to myself and to my family and to my friends, like, I have to show up and feel fulfilled. And if I don't, then I know the ripple effect that has on my immediate family.

And I think it's so important that if you're growing and evolving, that you should consider to keep pushing yourself to keep growing. And even if it's scary, even if it means there are things like when you walk away from a certain life or a certain amount of money or whatever it is.

And yeah, you're right, there are no guarantees. It could go to shit. It could be one of the biggest mistakes, or it could be one of the biggest gifts or the biggest blessings of your life.

And I think that there isn't ever a time where we're going to wake up and just be like, hey, today's the day. I'm just gonna live my dreams and everything's gonna magically fall in place and there's.

I'm gonna walk outside and there's gonna be unicorns and rainbows and everyone's gonna be happy and singing wonderful songs. That's just not how it happens. I've gotten to this dream life and again, I wanna be clear when I talk about a dream life. I'm living my dream life.

That doesn't mean that everything is unicorn and rainbows. There are still bad days.

There are days where I don't get along with my husband or my kids are driving me insane or I am annoyed with somebody I'm working with. Like, that stuff still happens, but overall you're still living your dream.

You're having the freedom, the flexibility and all the things that you want in your life you either have or you're working towards. And maybe like me, I'm now next leveling. Like, I got the first round. I finally made it. I feel like it's yay.

I went up the first hill and then I evolved to the next. And it's a natural and you don't have to right away. I've been in this world for five years now.

Just living comfortably, living my dream life, not sharing my experience with anybody, nothing other than close family and friends. But then I decide to go to my next chapter, because now I feel like I'm ready and I want to, and it's something else that lights me up.

And so what I'm saying is, too, is, like, you don't have to consistently climb, climb. Like, you get to decide.

Like, you go, you hang out, you figure out what it is that you want to do and how you want to do it, and then you get to decide where you go next. You have the power for your own journey. You get to keep deciding.

My point is that you're in charge and you will always be in charge, and things will change. There is never just a straight path. And I want you to know that's okay. But I firmly believe, like I said, I'll bring it back in.

If you want to have true freedom in your life, you need freedom over your finances. Part of that is having your own business.

And if you don't have one, I want you to start thinking of what are some streams of income that you could start creating to start making that dream life possible. All right, my friends, that's it for today's episode. I hope you have enjoyed it. Have an amazing week, my friends. I will see you on the next one.