#78 Rachael Taylor | How to Make Your Money Work Harder Than You Do

Hi there. It’s Terry and I’m here to share the episode that we teased at the beginning of this series. Rachel Tyler story is a beautiful example of how your beliefs and behaviors can transform your financial reality. And righteous master the application of the concepts we’ve covered over the past seven episodes ideas like building an emotional connection to your goals by aligning them to your values. Adopting a wealth mentality. Using the power of focus to power your persistence and escaping the rat race. So you can run your own race and win it. 

And Rachel is a classic case of someone who was already doing a lot. Right. But had yet to put all the puzzle pieces together to really make her money work for her instead of her working for it. And watching her go through this period was truly a privilege. And in all seriousness, what’s, you’re about to listen to, could change your life. Now I realize that this is my sound extreme, but by the end of this episode, I think you’re gonna understand why I say that. Her example can inspire you to pursue a life of possibilities and build a new identity around money. 

But there is a caveat here. The story that you tell yourself about this will determine how you respond to it and that response, or that’s going to determine your own future results. So at the end of this episode, I’m going to share with you the last big idea in this series. And it might just be the most important concept that we’ll cover. This is going to help you avoid destructive narratives that will keep you stuck and use stories lock Rachels as rocket fuel to power the pursuit of your own success All right that’s enough said let’s get straight into it 

Terry: Rach, welcome to the podcast.

Rachel: Lovely to be here, Terry.

Terry: I am so pumped to have you on. Did you know Ryan and I were talking about you a week or so ago? And his comment to me was, nobody has nailed a mentorship quite like Raach has in terms of like the way you’ve applied yourself, the speed at which you’ve gone through it, and then what you’ve accomplished, which will cover later on.

So kudos to you.

Rachel: Yeah, like this program felt like you’d custom made it for me. Actually. It was exactly what I needed at the point in time that I found it and that, so I did. I just grabbed it with both hands and I have been running with it ever since and it’s been frigging awesome.

Terry: Yeah, you’ve done an amazing job. Let’s go back to the start. Tell us a bit more about where’d you grow.

Rachel: I grew up in Ballarat on a farm outside of Ballarat, actually. Country Victoria. Very pragmatic Irish Catholic farming background, and it was a good existence. I have two brothers and a sister and mom and dad. We all grew up together in the same house that my mom and dad had built, you know, when they got married with a few of their mates and it was a good, safe, secure, fun, free sort of upbringing.

Terry: So Ballarat, right? What’s the culture like down there? That’s real farm? Is that dairy?

Rachel: Potatoes, dairy. This was mostly potato country, so yeah, my dad taught agriculture at the local TAFE and later at the uni. So it’s very farming, very people are very down to earth and a really good place to grow up actually. It’s a good grounding.

Terry: That’s interesting, right? Cause your life’s been super adventurous, I would say.

Rachel: You know what though? The other thing about growing up in a town like Ballarat on a farm is you, I knew that that was never for me. And literally the day after my last year, 12 exam, I was out of there and I was just like, boom, like a bullet out of a gun. you kind of had a sense that this was a pretty quiet, pretty slow, low key existence and I knew that I was made for bigger things.

Terry: thought that was just me that did that. That’s exactly what I did.

Rachel: No. It’s such a theme and you’re either cutting the mold and you sort of stay there or you don’t. And if you don’t, you grab it with both hands and go. So I did

that. 

Terry: So where’d that 

take 

Rachel: Well, I got on a plane literally the day after my last year, 12 exam, and moved to Canberra, which felt like moving to, New York from Ballarat.

Terry: Yeah.

Rachel: And I started a scholarship at the Australian Institute of Sport, a junior rowing scholarship. So that was like my dream come true it was such a big deal. Cause you know, I was free at last. From Ballarat, from my family, from school, and I was just boom, straight into exactly where I wanted to be in life.

So that was awesome.

Terry: How did you get into row?

Rachel: Well, like I said, good Irish Catholic family went to a Catholic school, so I wasn’t in a sort of, you know, privileged hardcore school like a lot of my teammates came from. But there was a very East German style talent identification program that was run. This is back in the, you know, nineties.

I was basically picked and measured. Sized up for rowing. There’s a certain physiology and a certain size that they want for rowers and run through a series of tests. They, they basically, some sports scientists from the vis the Victorian Institute of Sport went around to all of the non rowing schools in Ballarat and just targeted tall kids like me.

And, um, cued it down to a group of, I think 14 in the end. And, Just some of them sitting down with our parents and all of us kids and just saying, you know, we think these children have the attributes to go on and be world and Olympic champions. And I got so high on that Kool-Aid. I was like, yep, that’s what I’m doing.

A hundred percent. That’s what I’m doing. And it worked. It worked.

Terry: What was that like at that age to have someone say, you’ve got this potential, we believe in you like this. What was that?

Rachel: I just believed them. I really did. I was sporty, you know, I was someone who had a natural athleticism about me, although I wasn’t doing much organized sport, so I latched on really hard to it, but I actually just believed them. Like I, as I said, I, I drank the Kool-Aid and got into it and started working frigging hard and realized it was gonna be really hard work.

But was very willing to do that. And it was also just so much fun. I was at an all girls school at the time and then I was just catapulted at 14 into this squad in the rowing club, going down to the rowing club every day after school with boys and girls and just fit and healthy and it was bloody awesome, you know?

So it was a really big opportunity and I ran with it, but I loved it mostly,

Terry: Having been in those environments, you know, I’ve seen a lot of people with the attributes, but don’t have the character traits. So do you feel like you developed those character traits through those experiences, or was it more coming from the farm? What were your parents instilled in you?

Rachel: Yeah, there’s definitely a bit of both. And I think I was outta that group of 14 kids. I was the only one that went on to international level success in rowing. But the rest of the group went pretty well at a sort of a state level and even a national level. The attributes physically, yeah, you need them.

In a sport like rowing, you do need that, like it’s a sport for big, strong people. Mentally. I’m from a long line of farmers on both sides and these people in my family. There’s this intergenerational hard work and pragmatism and. You can earn whatever you want by just rolling up your sleeves and freaking working hard, you know?

So there was no handouts, but just this, I guess, long line of just stoicism and hard work. And so it just felt very natural to me because rowing is very much like that. You just shut up, get on with it, have a good attitude, have a laugh, and work really hard.

Terry: And get really comfortable with.

Rachel: Yeah. Be comfortable being uncomfortable. That’s a hundred percent. I don’t even think of my, my dad, this is a good example of that stoicism. Once I started rowing and he’d been in the army and then he is, you know, farm guy. But I remember running around the lake in Ballarat with him, and it’s about six Ks and I’ve got a stitch and he said, just pick up a stone and put it under your tongue.

And I’m like, what? What? Dad? Pick up a stone and put it under your tongue. I’m like, why? He’s like, so then you don’t think about the stitch anymore. You’ll start thinking about the stone. And I’m just like, okay. This is crazy. That’s what he’s like. So it’s just like mind of matter. Just don’t complain. Get on with it.

If that’s hurting, think about something else. That’s tough. But that’s just what I was like as a young kid. It’s funny.

Terry: there’s a few dots lining up for me here in this background. This is interesting. Okay, so let’s fast forward. Where’d you take that in terms of the career with rowing and where’d you end up afterwards?

Rachel: That was awesome. So I spent quite a fair bit of time in Canberra. I think I made the junior Australian team that year rowing in one of my first overseas trips at the age of 18 and had the best time ever, but then continued on and on and on until made the 2000 Olympic. Team, which was amazing, Sydney. So I think that was announced when I was in year 12 at school.

That age like that. Sydney, you know, Sydney One. Thanks Sydney has the Olympics. And I, I just was like, oh my God, I’m doing that. I just did the math. And I’m like, I’ll be 24. That’s freaking perfect. So I just, That’s what I was gonna do. So yeah, went and rode at the Sydney Olympics, got a silver medal, which was cool, and then I did another year after that and then retired at about the age of 26 or just, just nearly 27.

Terry: I love how you just skipped over the silver medal like that was. That’s so Australian interview.

Rachel: Yeah. Yes. It’s very self-depreciating.

Terry: What was that like? Tell me more about that. Like that would be the absolute culmination, would it?

Rachel: Yeah, like it’s just such a buzz of a thing to have done. And if I think about all the people I’d worked with in the decade leading into that moment, most of them didn’t have anything to show for it. You know, there’s just such an enormous. Team component to all of it. You know, like physios, the doctors, the coaches, the sports scientists, your parents like everyone behind you for 10 years, but you’re the one that gets to sort of stand up there and to be able to stand up there on the dice in front of a home crowd with all my family, all my friends in the crowd, and just have that amazing.

One eyed Australian sports plan support coming down the track. You know, that’s not something you get to experience in rowing, like just deafening crowds, and it was just insane. Absolutely insane.

Terry: What was the biggest thing that it taught you? Winning that silver.

Rachel: The biggest thing it probably taught me is anything’s possible. If you back yourself, you can earn anything with hard work, which I guess had been modeled to me as a, as a child, it was more around just the mental side of things. It was such a tough thing to do. That journey was air pick and. You just harden yourself the rest of your life, like you’re hardened.

That’s, that’s it. And in a good way, like in, in a, in a really mentally strong way.

Terry: A lot of people are probably listening to this thinking, you retired at, what was it, 28, 29? And they’re probably thinking that’s early, but think about the decade beforehand. Like, it’s so much ro, it’s so, there’s so many repetitions in that. I get it.

Rachel: Yeah, the intensity in that decade, I think I remember, I mean, I got that silver medal at 24. That’s so young, but I, I felt so old at that time. I remember feeling like I’d lived three lives by the time I got to that dias, and my friends around me and back in Melbourne and whatever. Were just living the life of clowns by comparison.

You know, they’re all just at uni and out on the p and. I’d just been through this madly intense period of life, and I feel like I nearly had gray hair and was aging. You know, I was 24. I was just like, that was full on. It took another year to just decompress, you know, uh, best life experience you could possibly have.

Without a shadow of doubt and a gift. Now I’ve got kids, you know, this gift keeps giving. So they’re at an age now where they know that their mom’s got a silver medal and they just therefore think they can probably do that too. Or you know, the little cousins in our family, they all. Just have this assumption that maybe they could do that too, cuz obviously Auntie Rachel did or mom did it.

So as I tell my son Toten, who’s 13 to be better than me, all he is gotta do is win an Olympic gold medal and he’ll be, mate. That’s all you gotta do. You can say better than your

Terry: Oh, that’s great. Just win a go 

mate. You’ll be right. 

Rachel: How hard can it be?

Terry: So you and I had a chat a couple of weeks ago and we talked about the finish line mentality and that being such a strength, having such a, I guess, a, such a narrow focus to get you there. But it also being a, um, almost a bit of a liability as well. So can you talk to me a bit about that in terms of other areas of your life?

Was it just all rowing or was it, that was.

Rachel: It was so single-minded that it was disabling. I reflect back on that and I dunno that I would’ve been able to do it any other way because that’s what was required. That was, um, the job description was, um, single-minded determination and focus in one direction. Exactly. And I observed other athletes at the time who tried to split it and also tried to focus on, Career uni as well as rowing.

They put a couple of eggs in those baskets, whereas I just put all of mine in the sport basket, all of them with reckless abandon without even a thought for what the consequences of that might be. And I don’t regret that. But as we discussed, that certainly led to a certain mindset where, I didn’t even let myself think about what would happen past that, like beep over the finish line because it seemed like I was losing my focus if I even thought about it.

And I knew that all the eggs I had were in this basket here, this rowing basket, this sports basket. I wasn’t even prepared to worry about the other eggs or, or should I even put one over here? Just not even a question. And it was a big contributing factor to the ultimate retirement from sport was this sort of gradual realization after the Olympics that I was now, you know, 26, 27, whatever, and I’d only achieved this enormous thing in sport, but I’d achieved nothing else.

Laugh: You know,

Rachel: And I’m starting to feel like a bit more of an adult and just realizing I’m falling short in all other areas of my life. It’s just so unbalanced. You know, you best friend and your worst enemy at the same time, but.

Terry: You kind of mentioned earlier, right? When you were just locking in on the goal, you would see your friends having their clown, their fun lives, but then your friends moved through like a university, then they moved into prof. Was that what it was? When you’re starting to watch people build their lives around you?

Yeah.

Rachel: Yeah. So they’re then, you know, moving out into early career and more serious relationships, more established housing markers of young, young adulthood that you, you want to achieve. And I just remember. Driving a, you know, 1976 Corolla that was just breaking down all the time. Living off credit cards, living out of a suitcase most of the time, just traveling like a nomadic athlete, which is awesome.

I don’t wouldn’t trade any of this, but you have not got your shit together in any other aspect. Really see your family, you know, friends all over the world, but not really connected to people properly other than your teammates. And it’s an unbelievably great existence, but I couldn’t see myself continuing into my thirties on that track.

And it would’ve been different perhaps if I’d been one of those people, you know, like Rob Scott, who was on the same rowing team as me. He’s now the CEO of West Palm. Managed to take their books on the road with them and study and, you know, really did manage to kick both of the goals. But I, I wasn’t one of those people, I was kicking one goal at a time.

Terry: So I feel like life’s starting to come into focus. Just the lens is starting to broaden a little bit here. Um, at what point did money start to become, uh, something where you’re thinking, this is something I wanna get on top of?

Rachel: Yeah, so I, I finished up with rowing and all I wanted to do at that point was you need to start adulting properly in your whole life. And money was an element to that, but it was around the whole thing. But I also just wanted to have fun for a while. So I did spend about a year just cruising on the surf coast of Victoria, working in the surf industry, having a great time, and I think it was as 30 started near.

I was just like, you need to get your shit together that keep ignoring, you know that voice. You need to get your shit together. You need to keep your shit together. And a big part of that was financially I was just clowning around having fun, then doing what everyone else did in their early twenties. I.

Terry: Catching up.

Rachel: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I definitely recall in the year coming into sort of 30, I was like, you have to clear debt. I had needly crappy debt, not huge, but just debt that was stopping me, and you need to save up and you need to buy some property. Like I just had it in my head that I had to achieve that by the time I was 30, because that would seem like.

You know, a marker of adulthood that at least ticked one box. And I did. I white knuckled that for a while into the age of 30, and I managed to get myself outta debt and then save up, I think 10 grand. And that combined with the first homeowners grant at the time was enough to just nudge me into the property market.

And I bought a little unit on the Gold Coast for like $152,000. I’m sounding really old guys. I’m 

Laugh: God. 

Rachel: I know it’s not fair, is it? Cause, but that was such a big deal for me to get to that position where I had six months of consistent saving and could apply for the first homeowners and could buy a property.

And, um, around that time I met and fell in love with my ex. And, you know, he was in Queensland. I moved my job from the surf industry up to Queensland. I bought this apartment. So it was kind of like getting into adulting, you know, in a serious relationship.

Terry: Ticking some boxes here.

Rachel: Yeah, so it’s suddenly around 30. I was like, right, you’re starting to get your shit together. Financially, getting a little bit focused. Yeah.

Terry: Sport does that though. That’s exactly how I felt the same thing. It’s just like such a narrow, narrow focus for so long. Yeah. You look up and you’re like,

Rachel: Yeah. What happened when I was spending that decade doing that?

Terry: All right, so you’re up in Queensland at this point, and you mentioned it was your ex. So at some point you guys split up and was this when you started thinking more seriously about finances?

Rachel: Yeah, so I didn’t grow up in a household where there was financial education sessions around the kitchen table at all. Finances were not spoken of. I had no financial literacy. Yeah. Yeah. Not within the earshot of the kids, so. I had zero financial education at this point. I just white knocked myself outta debt in, into buying a little apartment.

My ex had a house on the Goldie and we started renovating, so we basically turned our lives into a episode of the block for an ongoing period of, I don’t know.

Laugh: Like.

Rachel: It went on for a very long time. But, um, again, it was just this idea that if you roll your sleeves up and start working your ass off, then you can get ahead.

So he was in the very early stages of building a business. I was working, you know, in just P A Y G job. But we both had this mindset of that’s not how we’re gonna get ahead. We’re gonna do it through property. And that sort of started a bit of a love affair with property and a bit of a love-hate relationship with renovating, and that’s the amount of the financial thinking there.

It was just around this property.

Terry: Yeah, that’s a business mindset.

Rachel: Yep, that is what we’re gonna do. It was entrepreneur. It was definitely thinking outside of the box of P A Y G, and I was well behind the eight ball on that as well. I think I’d only just started seriously studying whilst working because I’d, I’d not achieved that during rowing it.

So there I was as a mature age student, studying, working, renovating at all times outside of work and study.

Terry: You’re doing hr, then were.

Rachel: Yeah. Yeah, I was doing an arts degree back then. I did my master’s when I had tiny newborn babies in HR and yeah, managed to get the degrees later in life.

Terry: You’re always packing it all in. Always Aren.

Rachel: Ah, good. That was another box. I just knew I had to tick.

And when I was rowing, when I was an athlete, I, I knew at some stage I needed to tick that box, but I knew that. I could do it anytime, really. I could do it any, anytime. So then when I was in the, anytime I had to do it, so I did, I just managed to get it in.

Terry: So when you started to think about, I guess like financial independence and even that next layer of where you’re like, no, then what do I do to put the money to work beyond, you know, the rental stuff, but then. Obviously you’ve gone through education. Um, what was the catalyst for.

Rachel: Well, the catalyst for that, because that’s really only been recent years. I like everyone else listening. I had an existential crisis during Covid, and at the time I was working in one of the big four consulting firms, and I’m sure there’s many people listening who had a much worse time than I did during Covid bit.

I was trapped in WA sort of estranged from my family and friends on the East coast and just. Absolutely hammered at work in sort of 8,000 employees all over Australia, just in different states of disrepair and trauma and stress and angst, and hrs. It wasn’t fun. It wasn’t fun and just sort of at home, working from home, from the dining room table.

And I just started thinking, surely there’s a better way. You know, surely there is a better way. And surely this is not my life for the rest of the, the future, and being estranged from my family. And that really made me think about what’s important, what’s really important, like two and a half years locked in this.

Away from them. I was like, no, no, that’s not cool. So I guess it was a real values recheck and then I really started thinking about, okay, you’re in a good position, like you’ve worked hard with property and my ex and I had split up at this point, but. We developed a pretty serious asset pool. I was in a good position, but I still wasn’t thinking forward into the future.

All I knew as I had fuck all super, I was in this phase with my career where, you know, I was finally able to really put my head down and work, and I, I was seeing it as my years to earn, you know, to catch up, to make up lost ground, but, The maths weren’t adding up. You know, I was gonna be doing this for the rest of my life sort of thing.

If I didn’t change something or rejig, get clever, come up with a good plan. So I went deep down the wormhole of, I can’t even remember how, I think I might have been listening to like a Tim Ferris podcast or something, right back. Early Covid came across someone talking about this concept of fire, you know, financial 

Terry: Was that Mr. Money must. 

Rachel: Well, I definitely got down his wormhole pretty quickly, but I sort of started listening to a few people talking about this idea that, you know, you could retire early and the, the concepts of that. So I did. I went deep down the wormhole and listened to a lot of podcasts. I did a lot of reading and you know, I had time during Covid.

I was also renovating to properties just to like completely try and burn myself out a hundred percent. I was like, I’m not traveling anywhere. You’re gonna work. It was during that period of like disenfranchised with the corporate world and my career as a HR professional and just going, nah, I’ve gotta change this.

And I, I just started thinking very, very differently, very quickly.

Terry: Yeah. When you started kind of going down that wormhole and content wise, was there anything that really stood out to you in terms of, um, ideas where you’re like, wow, that’s grabbed me?

Rachel: Yeah. The book Your Money or Your Life, Vicky Robbins, which is very much this book around, Where is your enough? What’s your enough point? And just that concept of enough just going, where is my level of saying, well, that’s enough. I don’t need anything more than that. So the, the concept in that book about your time, trading your time as a resource, that one definitely loved reading.

Um, the Simple Path to Wealth. Shale Collins really similar. Motivated money, Peter Thornhill, where you know, you start learning about getting your money working for you. Just getting in my head about stuff I was already doing without a lot of thought in property around developing passive income streams, getting my money working for me rather than me working to earn these pigeons really on the side, like exponentially just capped those books really.

Changed the way I was thinking and aligned to, I guess those, you know, core simple values I’d had growing up around like frugality and not being flamboyant or excessive and using what you’ve got wisely and not wasting anything and just sort of going, if I could pull all of this in, I could perhaps have a crack at this, you know, of exiting the P A Y G rat race.

So that became a big focus. Yeah.

Terry: That your money or your Life book. I reckon that there’s a chapter in there on consumerism and like the origins of consumerism. And I remember reading that going, oh, that makes a shit ton of sense. Like the rise of marketing and the industrial age and, and then you’re just like, there’s this huge con, you know?

Um, and it made me be like, I don’t wanna be conned. I’m literally gonna have to stay on this mouse wheel if I keep believing the con.

Rachel: yeah. You’re like a. In a cage in some sort of weird warped science experiment.

Terry: I don’t think it means that you can’t have what you want. Right. But I think it’s the mindless spending, isn’t it?

Rachel: But also it’s, then it’s, and this is something we went through, you know, with you, you and I sat down and did that Life by design program. Like what do you want? The things I want, the things that I love are not things you buy, the things that make me fully happy and thriving and glowing inside. They’re not things you buy, they’re things that you do.

And they’re things that you experience. So that really changed my thinking. Like I’ve never been very materialistic, although I’m a tourist and I do like nice things. I’ve not liked that, but covid as well, you know, when you’re just locked in your house going, okay, pretty much stopped us all on the consumerism or made us stop and start thinking about it a little bit too.

Just that. More. More. I was traveling like in Lunatic before Covid. You know, I was just, I spent so much money on travel that I was able to renovate a whole house during Covid, just without, without spending money on travel. Like just living flamboyantly in a lot of ways. That got pulled into check and all of that thinking wound up, you know, into a big ball of impetus for me, which has been a great, thank you, COVID.

Yeah.

Terry: I remember that session too, that we did and you, that was your comment. It was like you were like, wow, that’s really interesting. Because I think so many people don’t, actually, I say this all the time, but don’t define wealth for themselves. They just let the world define it for them, and it’s always more, it’s just more.

Rachel: It’s external markers rather than internal markers.

Terry: Exactly, but the power of just doing that, you know, you just create priorities and once you have a priority, you know what to say. No.

Rachel: A hundred percent. All those books that I just spoke about, that’s the core of them. Like understanding what’s important to you, what do you value, what’s your definition of wealth? And one I’m reading at the moment, which is, um, die With Zero, awesome book. Well, you just think about what matters, what do you need to be doing, what do you need to be doing now at this age?

And then like it’s designing a life that’s gonna be fulfilling and positive and for good.

Terry: I think those two books together, your Money or Your Life stretches Your Brain in one direction and then Die with Zero, stretches it in the. In a and in a really positive way though. So I reckon if you wanna become more mindful with money, just read those two

Rachel: two a hundred percent. Yeah. And read them Young

Terry: As young as

possible. 

Rachel: is Children. Here go.

Terry: yeah,

Rachel: 15 now. That’s right.

Terry: So why did you join the program? You were pretty well educated, right? You’re pretty switched on here.

Rachel: I was getting my own PhD in personal finance alone solo, and I was, I’m a bit of a geek for it. I realized I really enjoyed learning about this stuff. I definitely would’ve had a very commercial mindset by this point, from work and from property and stuff. I, this was just the first foray into personal finance.

I can’t remember how I came across to you guys, but when I did, I was like, oh my God. Seems like something I, I really need right now. Cause I had all these ideas just floating around in my head. I’d had about a year of selling properties, like I’d sold this place I owned in ball where I grew up. I bought a place in Perth.

I’d renovated it. I’d just had like about a year of just no normal sort of financial life. Like it was always like, Big flamboyant freaking money moves, and then paying for renovations and doing just, there was no normality in any of it. But I had a sense that all this work I’d been doing, like running, running, running, was putting me in a really good position, but I had no way of measuring or understanding the position I was in.

There was still fuzziness about the next step and how I could bring this all together and all this thinking in my head. And turn it into a really solid plan of how I was gonna exit the P A Y G. That was so, I was like, I have to bring it all together. And that was the impetus. I was, my head was in a bit of chaos and my finances were in just chaos, like,

Terry: Yeah, so get a sense of stability and then start to build the awareness of what choices you actually had, what was it like for you coming in and, sort of getting started and going through the process.

Rachel: Straight away. I knew I was in the right spot. I remember I was down in Margaret River, I was on the phone to Ryan, and both you and Ryan are just very easygoing, very relatable people. It was also really good to work with you both straight away and. Like part of me was a bit like, oh God, this is gonna be full on.

I’d worked with a financial planner when I’d left my ex and that had been really uninspiring, um, you know, sensible. I didn’t know any better. Got me in a few things in order, like I set up a will and got some trauma insurance and did all the other things they get you to do, but, you know, uninspired. And so there’s part of me that’s a bit.

Okay, this is different. This is very, very different. But I could see that you were on my wavelength in the thinking about life and designing your own path and then getting your finance just to match that. So it was pretty exciting.

Terry: I think the model probably suited you too, right? Because it is a self-guided, but supported model basically.

Rachel: That’s right. And so there’s like through your app, so you sort of get access to that app and then there’s structured learning for each sort of bite size chunk that you move through in this program. And your, all of your presentations are very, very clear and very easy to understand. A lot of the stuff just bought together a lot of the thinking the ideas are had already and just put it in a doable chunks as well.

Yeah. So it gave me the focus. Made everything a bit more concise and just gave me the focus on the steps I needed to take to just bring it all together

Terry: The tools is probably an important part too, right? Where it’s like not just the learning, but also the doing.

Rachel: they’re doing. And, um, I was committed to it. Like I jumped in, I was like, I need this. And I could see that if I just followed the path that was put in front of me in trust process, then it, you know, it would work. So I did. I did.

Terry: Was there any moment, cause I know you had like all that stuff you said you had going on. Was there any moment where you were like, oh man, like I don’t even know if I can get this done or I can do this if this is worth.

Rachel: No, but I do remember that there was a lot of time put into it. Like I put a lot of time into it cuz there’s some real mess in my life with finances. Like I think, I can’t remember, remember the first call I had with Terry and he’s like, can you describe to me? The ecosystem of your finances and you know, how money comes in and where it goes out.

And I was just like, oh my God. Even trying to say it out loud was just hilarious. Like, I had so many bank accounts and like so many weird like Rachel systems of how things came in and went out, went here and went there and I was embarrassing, you know, like kind of worked in my brain, but no. So when it came to like setting up a new structure, That was so much work cuz I had, I had to like just, 

Terry: A lot of moving

Rachel: far out like the hours I put into doing that, oh my god.

That’s just been one of the biggest game changers in my life. I wish everyone could get that education piece that, that

Terry: the money mapping 

Rachel: the money mapping the banking structure and the money mapping changes your life.

Terry: And you know what? No one thinks they need it. No one. Everyone thinks I know how to save, and we’re like, that’s not the point. That’s not the point. How do you feel about your money?

Rachel: Being conscious about what you’re going to do with your money, like making a decision rather than being reactive about it. It’s all proactive. So that was hugely empowering, setting all of that up. But a lot of work. Yeah, was at times I was like, oh fuck, I can’t be bothered doing this, but you just gotta sit here and do it.

Like you gotta do the hard yards.

Terry: I think that’s where the rower came.

Rachel: Yeah, just grind out, you know, like, and life admins sucks, you know, the same way, you know, your second training session for the day in minus three degrees in Canberra. It sucks, but you just kind like gotta do it because,

Terry: that’s critical. And I say this all the time, there’s actually a part in that life by design. I’m not sure I was doing

Rachel: yeah. 

Terry: when you and I did it, but there’s a question that we ask at the end of it, which is, um, what’s driving you? And that’s an away from energy. It’s what you’re sick of, it’s what you’ve had enough of.

It’s what you never want to happen to you and. I really try to pull these statements out cause they’re usually dialogue that’s happening internally for somebody. And it’s something to do with, I feel like I’ve left my run too late and I’ve gotta catch up that kind of statement. Or it’s, I’ve got a window of opportunity in front of you right now and I will regret it if I don’t take the opportunity.

Pull those statements outta the end of that life by design. And I say, these statements are for you and they’re for me and they’re gonna be for. When the next couple of weeks, when you start doing some structuring and stuff like that, and there’s parts of this that you’re just not, not normal part of your routine, these are the statements I want you to come back to because they’re the ones that get you off your ass.

It’s not the nice, fluffy vision at that point. It’s the what’s driving 

Rachel: no. A hundred percent. I did refer back to that Life by Design document quite a bit, and it still drives me, like those statements still drive me. Like I think I had something in there about, you know, being excited by my life choices and life not being about work, but being about the choices I was making and being an inspiration for my children, like being someone that they’d look up to and go, man, my mom smashed it.

You know that she was living a great life. That stuff drives me.

Terry: Critical. When those things come up in sessions, you’d actually see the energy in those statements where you’re like, that matters. And, and I think that’s where we’re kind of saying, you know, connect money to what you value, and all of a sudden money becomes pretty damn interesting. It sort of takes off from there, doesn’t it?

Rachel: It’s true your program, like, you know, we started with Life by Design and that really excited me cuz like, yeah, I, I went, we went granular talking about what would a day look like in his future state. And it felt so tangible to me. Like I, I knew exactly what it felt like and what it was gonna look like so I could sense it, you know, I could.

It was real. And I knew that is, that was so what I wanted. Yeah. Again, that wasn’t a shiny car or a flashy house. That was a feeling I would have when I would wake up in the morning and go for a swim and have a coffee and you know, it was that sort of daily vibe that you get.

Terry: it’s so important to be able to see it, isn’t it? Once you can see it, you can achieve it, but if you can’t sentence, it’s funny, like getting those sessions sometimes I’m like, okay, and how would you know that’s happened? And people are like, do you mean? And I’m like, tell me what you would see.

And I always have to explain it. I’m like, I need you to be able to see this in your mind’s eye because if we stay at this vague level of one day, I’m free, financially free. I’m like, that does not motivate you at all.

Rachel: No, maybe it is an athlete in me, but my brain is geared like that. So you were preaching to the converter. I’m someone who always has. Plan A, B, and C in my head and I’ve got to, I’m into that sort of thing, like visualize as a future and because I know it works, that’s how I got to where I got to in sport.

You know, the amount of times I’ve visualized that Olympic final before I’d wrote it, you know, I knew exactly what was gonna happen. We just came around with the wrong color medal, then what we did in my visualizations,

Terry: You’ll be happy with silver.

Rachel: that’s alright, it was gonna be gone. But, um, I know that stuff works.

So I was, if anyone is listening, he’s thinking about doing. Get on board and trust the process and throw yourself into it. It works. That stuff works. It’s evidence-based.

Terry: I usually say the best mentality to take into that is just the what if mentality. What if, what if this could be the way things are, and if you can just leave that logical voice over to the side just for an hour or so. Then it’s amazing what you can actually come up with and then accomplish, so. So you talked about a couple of the changes that you’ve made.

We talked about money mapping, the structuring, that sort of stuff. Were there any other big changes that you made?

Rachel: I stopped drinking.

Terry: Really, I didn’t know

Rachel: Massive change. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because we had to do the whole integration with money. Brilliant. And there was the reflection point first before we went into the future state. And so we, Ron and I 

Terry: Oh, I see where this is going from.

Rachel: you know, what I’d been spending in the last three months, six months, whatever.

And I, I was toying with the idea of eliminating alcohol or having a big chunk of alcohol free time anyway, cuz like everyone else in Covid had turned into a wild piss head just drinking at home. The dining room table after work, you know, like to delineate the day, like just shit drinking. And um, when I saw the figures I was just like, oh my God, you are spending so much money on alcohol and to actually see it.

Cuz, and I’m going into this with a mindset of if you could pair these things back, I was actually starting to think about it in how many hours that was taking it at work. That was doing Vicky Robbins and myself. I was thinking, okay, if you are spending, you know, 200 or $250 a week on alcohol, how many hours of that is work, which you are hating

Terry: half a day at work that you’re having to pay.

Rachel: going, you’re working like several days a month just to drink and it’s not giving you anything apart from zapping your mojo. So I just went, fuck it, I’m out. I’m done. So that was one of the biggest things I changed. I stopped drinking. I haven’t drank for five months and I’m loving it. I think I’ll, it’s not because I can’t afford, it’s cuz I just don’t want to.

But it also was a real wake up, you know. Yeah, just the monthly process of money mapping is hugely empowering and really exciting cuz there’s some super cool things I’ve got in this year and next year that I’m saving up, up for and just to like put money in there each month just feels so good. It feels so good.

Terry: What would you say to people who say, I’ve got everything automated. I don’t need to do any of this stuff. Like it just, that just sounds like a lot of work.

Rachel: I would say. You’re kidding yourself. You dunno what you don’t know. Trust the process. This works. It’s very different from your barefoot investor style budgeting system that everyone in the world in Australia has looked at. You know, it’s very different. This is much more about design your life than get your finances to match it, to drive it, to enable it, I should say.

And so there’s a huge power in that cuz it’s always linked to this life that you are designing.

Terry: Yep. Draw a line between what this decision is now and the 

Rachel: that’s right. They’re not arbitrary buckets or whatever, so they’re constant dotted line to the future and knowing what you’re doing, it’s very empowering, but also just generally the structure of it that you’re just being very proactive decision making on a monthly basis, but so simple compared to what I was doing before.

Terry: It’s so simple.

Rachel: doing a life eye design on a daily basis, like just trying to work out what was going on. You know? It was chaotic.

Terry: How much mental accounting has it reduced for you, where you are like trying to stay across all this stuff and like move things?

Rachel: I feel like such a boss now. Like I just, I do like just have that spreadsheet in the background. I only look at it a few times a month. I tweak it. I know it’s coming up. You know, I put stuff in there that I. Like just the forward planning as well, going, okay, you red’s due there and knowing that you have to tweak this, tweet that that month, you know, like it’s so much more business-Like the mental time I was giving to chaotic administration and finances before, what a waste of time.

Terry: Do you know what’s interesting though? Like we’ve met a lot of people who are wedded to their way of doing it, even though it is like that, it’s just because it’s the only way they’ve ever known. Like, what was it about you that made it easier for you to let go of something that you know and sort of grasp something that you don’t know yet?

Rachel: I knew that what I did have going was not serving me. I knew that. I could see that and I couldn’t see clearly, like, so I, I inherently knew what I was doing wasn’t working, and it was through some added complexity. Like I’d added complexity with properties that I was putting on Airbnb, and I had all these weird and wonderful income streams starting to come in, but all into one messy bucket.

And I’d, I wasn’t able to separate like almost like a business, you know, what I was spending on these properties, but then the revenue that was coming, you know, I just didn’t have my head around any of that. So I knew it wasn’t working. But the new way of doing things, and it’s just been a total game changer.

It totally has.

Terry: Well, let’s talk about the moment of realization here for you around when you do get across it and you start. Aware of where you are actually at and what’s possible for you. Like when did that happen?

Rachel: It happened about three months in maybe like, you know, the third or fourth month of money mapping. So, you know, it started with reflection and working out where, where you’d been spending your money on and making tweaks and being more conscious and more mindful about the way I was spending money. So then in that next three months where I was being more conscious and mindful, and.

It was around the same time as Id just finished the little property I’d bought in Margaret River as it’s short term stay down there. I just finished renovating that. The borders opened in WA eighth at frigging long last. So Chairman McGowan let us out and so I started traveling to see my family and friends and do the big reuniting thing.

And because of that, I had both of my properties in wa, I had them on Airbnb. And so in this three month period I sort of, I was working, I was working remotely. I had these properties starting to pump and I was money mapping and I just was like, the process over three months of just going, oh my God, this is, I reckon this is gonna be enough.

Like Robins, this is gonna be enough.

Terry: You knew what 

Rachel: almost couldn’t believe it because this is the fuzziness I didn’t have before. It was just like a big Mr. Messy scribble, you know? I didn’t really trust it, but it, you know, month after month after month, I was like, nah, this is enough. And I’d already started pairing back work.

That’s something I’d been consciously doing from the start of the year. I’d been like, I’d moved into more of a consulting role and I was doing less and less. I was working more remotely, which was conscious. Told Ryan my goal by the end of the year. Get out of P A Y G. Then I knew I had the confidence, like after about three months, I had the confidence to go, this is enough.

And I was future mapping as well. Like I’ve done the forecasting and I’m like, what’s the worst thing that could happen here? The worst thing could happen is you might have to go back and do some more consulting or something. That’s not the worst thing. So I just. I remember I had a session set up with Ryan.

I can’t remember what we were doing. Maybe it was the forecasting thing. I think he’d given me the spreadsheets, like, go away and work on this forecasting. And I had, I’d gone away and worked on it and just gone, I’m gonna pull the trigger, like

Terry: Yeah.

Rachel: And this was about July. I was over in Victoria again with my family and you know, I’d been reuniting with people and feeling that, feeling like I’m free.

I’m able to be here and connect with what actually matters. And it was just filling my cup and I went, I’m just gonna do it. I’m just going to do it. I’m gonna go back to Perth and I’m gonna walk into work and I’m gonna tell them that I’m not playing anymore.

Terry: All right, so let’s just slow this moment down. What was it like coming into.

Rachel: It was incredibly empowering because it wasn’t like a normal resignation where you sort of like, oh, I’ve got a new job and I’m really excited and I’m going to this company, blah, blah, blah. Or it was very different. It was a very values-based decision, and it was a very, it was this feeling of j o Collins cause the fuck you money, like where you can just go, I don’t need your money anymore and I don’t like the water.

Terry: Hey, it’s a very different reaction, isn’t it? Cause I add the same thing.

Rachel: yeah.

Terry: I’ll be interested for you, but it was complete perplex like.

Rachel: Yes, yes. And I’d thought about it for months, so I’d really thought this through and it was such a nice thing to be able to say, like it was just such a nice moment and I just felt so light, but just so liberated and so empowered and so free. It was unreal. Give it 10 outta.

Terry: Did they sort of ask all these follow up questions like, what do you.

Rachel: I know that at the start of the year, I’d gone in and. Renegotiated into more of a consulting role. And I’d paired back hours and there was discussion at that point around the way I was thinking, and I’d sort of flag posted a little bit at that point. So I don’t think there was utter shock, but there was a bit of a, well, what are you gonna do?

Where are you going? What are you, what’s next? And so I knew I’d, I’d get asked that question. So I, I had to have an answer for what are you gonna do? What are, and. I think I did say something along the lines of, you know, I’ve been working really hard on a lot of investments and property and you know, you guys know, I’ve been like renovating my ass off for coming with paint on me most days.

And, um, everything’s just fallen into place. And I’ve sort of got to the point where I think, I think I’ve, I’ve got this, you know, but it’s an abstract thing to tell your employer. And this is in professional services where, you know, you don’t stop working ever.

Terry: Especially in those big four consulting firms, you, they, you are own.

Rachel: Yeah, you keep earning, you keep working.

So I felt like some, a fish that just jumped outta the water and started swimming upstream in a stream that was rushing rapids in the other direction. And I’ve gotta say it has felt quite like that ever since as well. I definitely still feel like the fish that’s not doing what the other fish are doing.

Terry: The other fish is doing. So what are you doing now? Let’s talk about the new focus, the new direction as well.

Rachel: Yeah, so now I’m, I’m just loving life. Like I, I’ve just got the autonomy over my day and my time and just self-direction. It’s just amazing, like to have that feeling of just like, what do I wanna work on and just sit down and work on it. And so, Juggling the Airbnbs. So I’ve got three Airbnbs generating good little revenue streams, so just sort of managing that and there, and I was always doing that at work, but God, it’s nice to do it without having to do it in between work.

And I have started fiddling around with digital investing and bought one website, and I’m just in the process of buying another website and I’m on a very, very steep learning curve in the digital economy and learning. How to invest in online businesses and monetize websites. And so that’s something that I just see as good fun challenge and a skill for the future.

And once you’ve got that skill, you’ve got it from someone like me who’s very been very real estate to this point. To just think about this is digital real estate and renovating digital real estate. That’s why I’m thinking about it. It’s so much easier than bricks and mortar real estate. I’m so over, I don’t ever wanna do that.

Terry: It’s a really good connection that because it’s actually true. It’s the same mindset, isn’t it? You’re actually buying something, you’re renovating it, you’re improving it.

Rachel: And the same way that those years and years and years of renovating, living through life as the block are hard. I’m in that now. I’ve got the L plates, so I’m trying to go, what the hell? But I’m learning and that’s cool. So that’s definitely part of the plan at the moment. And yeah, just spending a lot of time on things that are important to me, like.

Relationships. That’s been the biggest thing, like it makes you realize when you stop the P A Y G thing. Just the amount of time I’ve got to focus on the relationships in my life that matter, my children, um, my friends, my family, like I’m just there, you know, I’m able to be there and able to be present and much more day to day.

I, I’m present and that makes me realize how much I wasn’t and that. I knew that that was part of the driver behind all of this. Heaps more time to work on my own health and wellbeing, which I’d massively sacrificed for my career, and that’s a huge priority for me. So I’ve got time to do that. I’m actually at risk of doing too much at the moment.

Terry: You would,

Rachel: If you lessons, I’m doing yoga, I’m doing weights

Terry: you’re like doing four.

Rachel: I know, I know I’m doing all these sessions and then I’m, I’m like, oh, do I learn kite session or do I learn session or what am I, oh, I dunno which one. Like, I’ve just, like Rachel, just stop, focus on one thing, one thing. So, but just have the time to do that is unreal.

It’s so good for you. And doing a lot more reading, spending time, growing my brain in the direction I’d actually like it to grow in. And then ultimately what’s staggering is the absence of unhealthy. And that was something that if I just kept up living like that type A personality in a corporate world, I was going to definitely have some self health consequence.

Definitely. So I have healthy stress now, but that’s all. And it’s actually gonna take me a little while longer to just keep unwinding the coil.

Terry: really interesting. So how does that feeling change? Right? Because you don’t know you’re in it when you’re in it. Right. But you only know your

Rachel: The frog. That’s boiling.

Terry: Yeah.

Rachel: Yeah. When I was in it, I knew I, I intuitively knew. Especially in hiv, you spend half your day coaching people that are suffering chronic stress and burnout. And then you’re actually doing the same thing. You just never put the mirror back to yourself and goes, so are you, but you are.

So I knew, I knew, and I had a few, I, I think I had shingles at one point, and then I got a back injury, which was definitely related to stress. But as an ex-athlete, it’s pretty in touch with my body. I was starting to see the signals that this is not me normally. So I knew it was wrong, but to not have that, Just feels peaceful and calm.

It’s probably how we are designed to be as humans. Like if a tiger starts chasing me down the street, I’ll fucking run. And that stress is good, but the stress of just constant, relentless, someone else’s demands on me timelines, blah, blah. Yeah. That’s not healthy.

Terry: Another thing that we discussed early days in that first session, the life by design was, you touched on it. Here was time with.

Rachel: Yeah.

Terry: So what are the kind of things now that you are available and present for that were impossible for you?

Rachel: Yeah, so like if I think about all those years during Covid, I was here, like I was literally here. I’m at the dining room table, work, work, work, work, work, work, work. And working East coast time alone. You know, I was often on calls at six in the morning and they’re like, they’re running around getting ready for school and living, but I was not present.

I was just here physically, like a, a body in the room, but chaotic woman, like with about 50 million things in her head. I hate to think about that now because even like at the moment, my oldest son, you know, he’s just recovered from a fractured collarbone A week before he got the old clear, he’s just broken his wrist.

This is great. So like this morning, you know, without any stress, I was just able to, Take him to the hand therapist before school, get that checked. Like there’s just no stress in trying to make it to the orthopedic surgeon. Freaking appointments. And my other kids tried to dissect his BMX on the weekend and broke it.

And like he wants me to take his BMX to the shop today. And it’s like stuff like that, I just would not have even entertained before. But now I’m just engaged in their lives and I’m present every day. I’m here. I’m just around, but I’m actually able to engage and, and be there. And that’s a big difference from just being here physically in the room or rushing like a mad woman after work to pick them up from some sport and just being my head, just like going over what’s going on at work and yet I’m there with them in the car with me, but my head’s over here like that’s, those days are over.

That was taking a toll on everything. Of course it was.

Terry: Have they noticed?

Rachel: I reckon they would’ve, yeah, I reckon they would’ve. I definitely, um, sense an improvement in our relationship. It wasn’t bad before, but I, I sense a, a, a new closeness because I’m more involved and it’s in a good way. They’re sort of 13 and 12.

They’re at that age where they’re becoming independent, but I’m just around where it’s important and, um, that’s, that’s priceless. That’s the.

Terry: I was gonna say, what does it mean to you? But 

yeah, price. 

Rachel: everything. But then also like I’ve just set aside, next year I’m taking them to Africa to like go on this big adventure, which is a big part of

Terry: I’m not surprised.

Rachel: So like just to go, I’ve got, I’ve got time. I’ve got space.

Terry: That’s on the canvas. Isn.

Rachel: Yeah. It is on the canvas. Yep. Yep. But it’s just come forward. So that’s happening. So I’ve got time to do more stuff with them. Not just you guys, go and make yourselves busy in the school holidays. I’ll be working. It’s um, let’s go and do something together.

Something.

Terry: So what are the biggest lessons you’ve learned about yourself and or money throughout this whole journey?

Rachel: I guess, and there are a lot of these things, you know, I, I look back on the way I’ve lived and I have lived at Die with Zero sort of life, like I did a lot. I’ve bookended it early, but I’d just say start earlier. Like I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I had no mechanism of finding out because of that ridiculous, single-minded focus I had.

I didn’t come up for air financially till I was nearly 30. I just wish someone had have pulled me aside at some point there in my twenties and just shaken me and gone. If you just start ti so small, but start early and just take some responsibility for your finances because that’s actually the thing that’s gonna enable you to have the life that you want.

Like you, you’re actually someone who values adventures and independence and freedom and all these things. And unless you sort. Financial thing out, you will not have that life. So if someone could have told me that probably wouldn’t have believed him. But if someone could have told me that and just said, just start so small, but start early.

Ugh. This is what I’m trying to teach my kids now. As a female, definitely a few different lessons. One would’ve been around, you know, if I, and I don’t have any daughters, but if I did have a daughter now, I’d be probably telling her to get her ducks in a row before going into a relationship. And I just mean financially, career-wise, females are still in this day and age in Australia.

That’s right. People, they still compromise their career and their earning potential. And to just go into any serious relationship with your eyes wide open. This is for males and females like people. We just can’t educate people about this. And I think 50% of relationships fail, like, but you don’t go into it thinking about what that might look like.

So having a degree of financial literacy is your responsibility, your self responsibility as a young person, and the more financial literacy you’ve got going into career, going into. Relationships, whatever parenthood you’re gonna be so much better off. And that’s just not something that’s part of our cultural vernacular at all.

Is it?

Terry: No. What would you say to someone who says, yeah, but my partner won’t do this with me? What would you advise ’em to do there?

Rachel: I would say that’s a bit of a flag I’d, I’d be like, sit up and listen. With my ex and I, we were together for 14 years and it wasn’t until, interestingly, it wasn’t until we had babies that that shared sense of where we were going changed, and I think. Whilst we didn’t sit down and go into the level of you guys in your program, I wish we had had something like that.

We had a shared vision about this property game we were in and renovating and, and it wasn’t until babies arrived where the whole power dynamic changed and the whole financial dynamic changed and we fell into these more traditional roles that we probably had mirrored to us. As children, as you know, fa in our own families, and that changed a lot.

So I don’t know. It’s the more you can be on the same page with your partner, the better off you are at all times. And yeah, the dynamics of your relationship will change. Of course they will over the course of a, a long-term relationship. But you both need to have your eyes wide open at all times.

Terry: Yeah. What about someone who has always kind of said to themselves, I don’t think I’m capable of this. I don’t think this is possible for me, or deep down underneath that I don’t think I deserve it.

Rachel: I think I’ve suffered from all of those things at different times. A hundred percent. And so it’s in the doing that you. And motivation follows action, or your evidence of yourself follows actions. So to them, I would just say, just take action. Just take action. Even if it’s tiny, tiny, small steps, just take action.

And if you keep compounding action, it will lead to results. And that those results will debunk those silly little self-beliefs that you have that have founded on. Childhood experiences or something. I’m no psychotherapists, but you know what I mean? These are things we all have in our minds, and like that Olympic thing, you know, it’s just a little girl from Ballarat on a farm.

Like if you just believe that you can do it and then just keep. Putting together the steps, action, action, action, action. It leads to an outcome. And I think, um, I’m probably living proof of that. I could have never foresee any of this. The position I’m in now is freaking awesome, and it has brought together a lot of the learning that I had.

On in a boat with an awe in my hand,

Terry: I was 

about to 

Rachel: crazy, right? But all those life experiences add up. All of them. We all have them. It doesn’t have to be an Olympic field, like it can be anything that you’re doing in life. We all go through tough adversity and learn a lot. You bring it all together.

Terry: I was about to say that I think you absolutely proved the point that we’ve been making for years now, which is it doesn’t matter what you know, it matters what you do. And for us, it was such a privilege that and. It’s so cool to be able to work with someone who already had all the other sides sorted and it was just like the steps, right?

So from our perspective, it’s like we’re not like motivating you, I guess. You’ve got the sort of the sense that, you know, you can achieve this stuff and you are, um, a self-starter in that way and you stick to things until those things make sense. They work or you change or you keep evolving and it’s such great evidence, um, that that thesis is true because I think a lot of people.

Just think, I’m gonna listen to another podcast, I’m gonna read another book, and I’m just gonna keep doing that. But not collecting that evidence, not changing that story through action, that gets harder with time, I think.

Rachel: I’m suffering the same plight now with this website thing. You know, like I’ve just had to coach myself into a position where you get overwhelmed and you think, oh God, I can’t do this. How? Why? Why do I think I’m some sort of tech entrepreneur now? What the fuck? And then I’m just like, Rachel, just consistent action.

Just do a little bit every day. And you’ll get there. It will build, you know. But I remember even when I was at the ais S and I had this thing on my wall, and it said, successful Olympic performance depends on doing many things right, on a consistent basis and in an integrated fashion. And it was just that, don’t get overwhelmed by the whole thing, just keep.

Biting one piece of the elephant and chew it properly, and then bite the next piece and just keep being consistent and make sure it’s all integrated and just keep moving. And I think that’s all it is. Like don’t get overwhelmed by the elephant. Just bite one piece at a time, but just it’s a consistency.

Right. Action, action, action. That’s sometimes the hardest thing, isn’t it? Getting off your ass and getting into action. I suffer that still all the time. We 

Terry: Superhuman. Superhuman. But humans like you overcome that all the time.

Rachel: Yeah, just do something. If you’re sitting there worrying about it, just do something. One thing.

Terry: That’s good. That’s a great place to finish up. Thank you so much for coming on this show. Is there anything that you want to leave us with before we wrap?

Rachel: Well, thanks for having me. It’s been a pleasure and I was a bit, feeling a bit funny about doing it, but it is nice to share my story and hopefully, like I have gotten a lot out of many of the interviews I’ve listened to over the years. Hopefully someone’s listening to this and gets a little firecracker, but, um, also the work that you and Ryan do is absolutely awesome.

So congratulations on building such a unique and high impact model. And I’d fully encourage anyone who’s sitting there with a Mr. Messy style financial map in their head to get on board and then just trust the process. And then if you get to the end and it didn’t work for you, well that’s just strange.

But I guarantee, I guarantee it. So yeah, I’d just encourage anyone to get on board. I’d love to make everyone go through it. You should be running this stuff in.

Terry: Look, thank you for saying that. You didn’t have to say that, and I have absolutely zero doubt that there’s at least one person whose life is gonna be changed from just hearing that story. So thank you so much.

Rachel: It was a pleasure.

All right. I hope you enjoyed that as much as I did. And as I mentioned in the beginning, we’ve shared a lot of tools for hacking your money habits in an effort to catalyze powerful, personal change. We’ve talked about using your values to get inspired and connect emotionally with your goals. 

We’ve explored, designing your environment to make wind states easier and improve the quality of your decisions. We’ve talked about how to use your inbuilt drives to make your efforts more enjoyable and even addictive the impact of groups on our motivation and how to use the power of perception to become persistent when pursuing our goals. And I wanted to use Rachel story as a means for showing you what’s possible for using these tools, but also share one more. 

Language, you see the words that you use to describe things has a profound impact on your results. And there’s a famous quote from Desmond Tutu that explains this absolutely perfectly. Language doesn’t describe reality. It creates the reality. It describes. Our minds are associative storytelling machines, and the meaning that we make from events, we encounter shapes our response to them. And that response is what seeds are future results. . 

So the language you’re using your head right now to make sense of what you just heard is pivotal to what happens next for you. It’s crucial to be very deliberate and intentional about the words you’re using. So let’s make sure we tell a story that improves our lives. 

The first thing I want you to do is notice the words yet, but. As you were listening to this episode, you might’ve been thinking to yourself. Yeah, but Rachel is an Olympic medalist. Yeah. But Rachel is just insert any other character trait that you don’t think you are, 

your mind will come up with a whole bunch of things that you’re not, and you’ll tell yourself I’m not like that. So now this relates to me. If this is the narrative, your brain will effortlessly find evidence to support that position and you’ll feel right, because in a sense you are. 

But you’re also wrong and I’m going to prove it to you. I want you to finish that sentence for me. Yeah, that’s great. And all, but Rachel is, and then just make a quick list of the traits, the things that you don’t think you are that come up in your mind. 

Now decide which of those traits you least identify with. It could be something like disciplined. Once you have that trait. I want you to consider wearing your life. You demonstrate this trait. To the same degrees, Rachel. It might be that you’re a runner and you’re excellent at getting up every morning and heading out to pound the pavement. . 

It could be that you’re incredibly consistent at making sure the kids have all they need for school every single day, . Well, maybe you’re a teacher and you’re committed to making sure your lessons are always planned, very methodically so that the kids get the absolute most out of every minute they spend with you. Wherever it might be, find that area of your life and then come up with a list of at least 20. The real world instances where when, and with whom you’ve demonstrated this exact same trait that you don’t think you are. 

 We want to cut through that illusion that your ego is created to Shelty from the feeling that comes from comparison. So stop this episode for a couple of minutes now and do this little exercise with me. 

 Alrighty, we’re back. Now. The next thing we need to do is to figure out. What we can do with this information. To do that. We need to challenge another destructive narrative. Again, this narrative is designed to protect your ego from feelings of inadequacy that come from unhealthy comparison. And if you let it, this language will immobilize you when instead Rachel story should energize you. If you notice yourself using the words, at least. Then you’ve created another seductive story to Sue that ego. 

It might be that you say something like, at least I have a good sense of balance over the years. I’ve never come close to burnout. Or at least I’m not doing nothing. Whatever the story it’s going to be something along those lines. And it’s not that these ideas are wrong. It’s just that using this way. They’re not really serving you. So use this language pattern instead. If only. 

Now filling the blanks with the actions, you know, deep down you could have been doing to achieve your longer-term ambitions, but haven’t been doing. And this might take a little time since the ego won. I don’t want to assume responsibility. But sit with it until the answers come, then write them down and see if you can see any patterns. I’ll wait. 

 Alrighty once you’ve done that choose one thing you can act on first to start building momentum, and you can chunk it down by using language again, ask this question. How do I do that and ask how do I do that as many times as you need until you uncover the next action. The next action is the one simple action you can do right now in the next two minutes to get started. 

We know that a body that is in motion tends to stay in motion. So you’ll likely find that the act of starting instantly eliminate stress and anxiety that Bruce from inaction. And that feeling’s really good. Right? So you want to string the next action to the next until before you know it you’re moving in the direction of your dreams and you’re feeling like you’re getting somewhere. 

If you can do this, you can use this information to actually get moving and actually start doing the things that Rachel was doing and get similar results. So there you have it. Language is a final tool of transformation in our toolkit. And this is how you can use it to sidestep that self-sabotage and supercharge your progress on route to success. 

Now, if you listen this far and they’re as energized as I was when I first got the edit back from our producer marrow, I’d love you to share this episode with someone who, you know, would be interested and get massive value from it. I want righteous story to reach as many people as possible because I believe it has the potential to challenge convention and catalyze powerful, personal change. 

Okay that brings us to the end of this episode If you’re a part of the community hit me up in the comments if you’re not a part of the community jump into the community and hit me up in the comments there as well Let me know what you thought of this episode and where they found it useful to kind of talk through how to think about rachel and rachel story after we did that i’ll see you in the next one