281: Making Wealth and Money Easy (with Patrice Washington)

You’re listening to the Vibrant Happy Women podcast. I’m Jen and today we’re talking about things you need to do before achieving wealth that will make wealth quite easy. And it’s not just about the nuts and bolts of finances anymore. Stay tuned.

Hi, I'm Jen Riday. This podcast is for women who want to feel more vibrant, happy, aligned, and alive. You'll gain the emotional, physical, and spiritual tools you need to get your sparkle back and ensure that depression, anxiety, and struggle don't rule your life. Welcome to the Vibrant Happy Women Podcast.

Hey everyone, I’m talking with Patrice Washington in this episode. And she is committed to restoring people’s financial help. So many of you listening hate the word ‘budget’, consider it a swear word, or looking up your credit reports or all the things associated with it, it can cause a visceral reaction in your body. Well, Patrice is going to share in this episode what we need to do first to get rid of that visceral reaction in the body, the things that actually attract wealth to us and make it very easy.

She shares six pillars in this interview and they are big. I heard Patrice talking on another podcast a while ago and I knew I had to have her come on here because you need to hear what she has to say. Money doesn’t have to be hard where you strive and struggle, and don’t sleep and hustle. Money and wealth can be easy and I really believe they are.

For me personally, the more aligned I live with what is true, what feels right for me, the easier, money, wealth and all kinds of abundance, including abundance in relationships, and abundance in my free time, it all happens as I get more aligned.

So you’re going to love this one, this is a don’t miss episode and let’s go ahead and jump in.

Jen: I am talking with Patrice Washington today who got her start as America’s Money Maven and is a widely known favorite personal finance expert, but has since expanded her mission to encourage people to chase purpose, not money. Patrice uses her certification in financial psychology to help the masses get beyond budgets and credit reports and dive into the heart of why we behave the way we do with money.

Patrice is an author, transformational speaker, coach and host of the award winning Redefining Wealth Podcast and she also just wrote a book called Redefine Wealth for Yourself. Now, we were laughing before we started, Patrice, go ahead and tell us a little bit about where you live, who you live with. And they’ll get a good laugh out of this too I think.

Patrice: Yes. So I’m Belizean American but I was raised in Los Angeles. And I currently live in Atlanta with my husband of nearly 14 years, my 13 year old daughter Reagan and my five year old granddaughter, Chloe. And I think that’s the thing that threw you for the loop. It was the 13 year old child plus the granddaughter that’s five. And that’s because Chloe’s a Yorkie and my daughter told me from day one, “That’s not your baby. That’s my baby. That’s your grandchild.” So I affectionately just refer to her as my grandchild.

Jen: I love it.

Patrice: Even though I do all the things. So I often say to my daughter, “What kind of mother are you? Has Chloe been out?” She’s like, “I think she went out, maybe.” I’m like, “Okay, this is type of mom you are, got it.”

Jen: Yeah. Well, a good thing she has grandma. Well, I want to welcome you to Vibrant Happy Women by the way. I didn’t say that before. So glad you’re here.

Patrice: I’m glad to be here.

Jen: So you guys are renovating. You have workers in your house and hopefully we won’t hear them. Is that right?

Patrice: That is right. That is right. This started as a kitchen renovation. And I don’t know if you’ve heard of Diderot’s Effect. But Diderot’s Effect, it’s a financial story that people use all the time in the finance world about this guy, Diderot, who was a writer and he was poor for a really long time. But then he had this manuscript that made him rich overnight. And he goes, “Well, now that I’m this acclaimed writer I need a new writing desk.” And then he gets the writing desk and he goes, “Well, all great writers have a great writing coat.”

So he gets a writing coat and then he goes, “Well, my writing coat doesn’t match the drapes in this room.” So he gets drapes and then go on, and on, and on. But Diderot actually ended up dying poor after all of that. I hope this story is not really awful, guys. But I’m not on that path but it was a kitchen renovation that has now turned into the never ending saga of 2021. So when people say, “When are you going to be done?” I’m like, “Any time this year would be great at this point, any time in 2021 would be awesome”, because this was definitely an eight week project.

Jen: Yeah, this is your year, yeah.

Patrice: Yeah. So I mean any time now. So yeah, I tried to get them to stop knocking. It sounds like I succeeded so we’ll see how this goes.

Jen: Well, I don’t hear anything. We’re good. So how did you get interested in finances, Patrice?

Patrice: So I have been interested in personal finance pretty much my entire adult life. I got into real estate at 19 years old as a sophomore in college at the University of Southern California. I was introduced by a family friend at that time and just loved, loved it. I just enjoyed the whole idea of working with different clients and the flexibility and all those things. And during my senior year in the business school I had a project we were supposed to do. And I actually turned that into a business.

So I got my real estate and mortgage broker’s license at 21 during my senior year in college and started the business. And that turned into a seven figure business by the time I was 25 years old.

Jen: Nice.

Patrice: Yeah, I literally really got into the personal finance piece as a way to grow the business. I was fascinated by it but being in Los Angeles and working with so many people, in particular I will say women of color who were single moms or head of household. And didn’t really know about basic personal finance, they just knew they wanted a home. And they didn’t know about budgeting. They didn’t know how to improve their credit. They didn’t know about debt elimination. And so I started to teach more the personal finance education that I had been learning privately.

I started to teach my clients, which is how I developed such a great name. And I would go out and teach at churches or non-profits, or wherever I could. And I saw it as a way to market the business. And I thought I would do that forever. We hit seven figures when I was 25, turning 26 and I was like, “Whoa, Jen, why don’t people do this sooner.” I’m like, “This is the life, I love this”, until the recession hit. And the recession hit at the beginning 2007 when it really started to rear its ugly head.

I actually was pregnant. And I had taken a fall down the stairs at 20 weeks pregnant and it sent me into pre term labor. I got to the Emergency Room and they said, “Ma’am, I’m so sorry but this baby is coming any minute now.” And I was only 20 weeks pregnant.

Jen: Oh no.

Patrice: And I started to do the only thing I knew to do in that moment which was pray for me. And I started to call other people and just ask them to pray. And what was supposed to be any minute now turned into me actually getting admitted and being on hospital bed rest for 10 weeks at Cedar Sinai in Beverly Hills.

Jen: Oh no.

Patrice: 10 weeks on medical bed rest. Around five weeks in I’m watching the news and every day the banks that I work with are closing down. They’re closing down. To the point where one day I even saw an office that I used to call on my office, a mortgage company, they had closed their doors and their workers didn’t even know. Their employees didn’t know until they got to work that day with handwritten notes on the door that said ‘sorry’. And I’m watching the news and I’m seeing people that I actually know in real life and I just kind of lose it.

I have 16 loan officers and real estate agents by that time, they are losing their deals. Their clients are threatening them. Agents are threatening to sue. I mean it was ridiculous. And here I am on hospital bed rest with a belt around my waist monitoring the baby every day all day. And I’ll never forget the day that my doctor walked in, Jen, and she said, “Patrice, I don’t know what you’re stressing about but if you don’t stop, you’re going to leave here two years in a row with no baby”, because the year before I had a son pass away prematurely after five hours in my arms.

And that was the moment that I had to make a decision to surrender. So one of the things you and I were talking about before we started recording is that I don’t really watch the news. And this is why, this is why, because 2007 when I was there on bed rest I was letting the news just overwhelm me and suck up all any energy, any positivity that I had. And it was just depleting but I was stressing my baby out. And I asked them to have the maintenance people come in the room and take the TV off the wall because I didn’t even want to be tempted to watch anymore.

And my husband took my laptop and brought me a journal, a Bible and an iPod filled with praise, and worship, and Gospel music. And that is how I spent the last five weeks in the hospital. And my daughter was born at 30 weeks. She was 3 pounds 2 ounces. Well, don’t say aw, Jen, because she’s bossy now. Now she’s like she’s here. She’s here, she’s strong and she’s a Leo and she’s very bossy. Such a blessing that she made it safely, and by the time she made it out of the NICU, which she was in the NICU for three plus weeks.

Between my hospital bills and then her hospital bills we left that experience with almost $400,000 in medical debt because my insurance had dropped me at the beginning of my hospital stay.

Jen: I can’t believe insurance companies are allowed to do that. Are they still allowed to do that? That’s insane.

Patrice: I mean I hope not anymore. I hope not anymore.

Jen: They just drop you, yeah.

Patrice: Yeah. So that was my 2007. And over the next year or so I ended up laying everyone off. We exhausted any savings we had. We owned 13 pieces of real estate and we had a lot of tenants that were losing their jobs and couldn’t pay rent. And all the things at that time, it was a nightmare. And now you fast forward, I’ll just get to when I really shifted into who I am today. I’ll never forget, it was March 9^th, 2009. We had foreclosed on our 16,000 square foot home in Southern California and we lived in a 600 square foot apartment in Metairie, Louisiana.

Jen: Wow, big change.

Patrice: Big change. Big change. We sold everything we could on Craigslist and literally went to Louisiana. We had one piece of property, a rental property. We thought, okay, if we take the last little bit of cash we have, finish this property, get it sold. We can make it for a little while. Well, we got there and realized that the contractor had been sending us pictures of a property that was not ours.

Jen: Oh no.

Patrice: Yeah, that was not ours. So they’d been taking our money and not doing any of the interior work. So got there devastated, move into this little apartment in a seedy neighborhood. And I will never forget the day my husband took my daughter to the store, a quick run or something. And I just got in the bathroom mirror and I was like, “God, why? Why? I’m very frustrated. I’m beyond. I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired. I’ve been a good person. I try to treat people well. I do my best to operate in integrity. I did what the people said do, go to school, get good grades. You’re supposed to be set. What the heck is this?” And it turned into me arguing with God almost. I guess I was arguing with myself, but talking to myself in the mirror. And then it turned into an ugly, nasty, bawling, snotting cry. And then it turned into – have you ever ugly cried, Jen?

Jen: Oh, all the time. That’s with the door locked, yes.

Patrice: Yeah, that ugly cry. I ugly cried until I ended up on my knees and then balled up in fetal position on the floor. And that was the moment where I just, I lost it. I was done. I was over it. I was tired. And I heard what I call a still small voice and I felt prompted to get my Bible. And I ended up finding a scripture, it was Proverb 17:16. And it said, ‘what good is money in the hands of a fool if they have no desire to seek wisdom’? ‘What good is money in the hands of a fool if they have no desire to seek wisdom’?

And to this day my Instagram handle is seek wisdom. All my social media is seek wisdom. It’s my reminder of that moment because it’s the day that I was like, well, wait a minute. I’ve been a great test taker. I’m relatively smart I think. It’s easy for me to get these certifications and to do these things. So I’m smart, I’m wise. And I started to look at, well, maybe there’s a difference. And then I realized through looking it up, dictionary, knowledge is information and education, that’s great. But wisdom is knowing when and how to apply it.

And I used to use them interchangeably, they’re not the same. And I realized okay, you’ve been running doing all the things that you thought would be enough. And the truth is you don’t know how to ask for help. You don’t tell anyone when you’re going through anything. You suffer in silence. You don’t seek wise council. You haven’t had a habit of seeking wisdom at all. And that was the beginning of changing everything. And I was like, well, if I’m ever restored, I’ll do what I can to share this message with other people.

And since March 9^th, really since March 10^th, because the next day I started a free blog spot which has turned into all the things that I’ve done in these last 12 years now from writing my fifth book now, Redefine Wealth for Yourself. But the podcast, four years on a nationally syndicated radio show, all of the press, all of the media, all of the coaching, all of the speaking all over the world, all of those things only happened because of that bathroom floor moment where I made a commitment. I just didn’t want other people to feel how I felt.

And if I could help restore hope, even when I wasn’t, you know, I wasn’t restored the next day. I was broke. I was fighting off the power man to keep the lights on. I was facing eviction notices at that time, all the things. I was not in a great place. But I made a commitment that I would use my life to help other people and that’s what I’ve been doing for the last 12 years.

Jen: That is so cool. This is the epitome of turning your mess into your message as they say. I love this. So a lot of people listening get afraid. I think they have a visceral fear response when you talk about the word ‘budget’, or ‘credit reports’. So let’s assume some of our listeners out there are like that. What advice would you have for them to just chill out and enjoy this topic today?

Patrice: Well, I would say to anyone who is afraid, frustrated, annoyed by the constant conversation around budgets and credit reports. Girl, I get you. I am too and I’m known as a finance expert. But I truly understand where you’re coming from. And I want you to know that the budgets and the credit report and any of the skill set pieces are really only 20%. So even if you’re listening and you’re going, “Well, I’m a creative person. And I’m not really into all the things.” The thing is that we all have to be into it to some degree.

But the way that I go about helping people improve their finances really is not about harping over which budget app you use. Or being OCD I would say about checking your credit every day, or checking account balances every day. There is so much more to helping you build wealth and be better with your financial life that really has nothing to do with money. And so I teach from the six pillars of wealth. And people are always very surprised that money is the very last pillar.

I believe that there’s so many other areas of your life that you have to really focus on, declutter, become present with before you can even really dive into what you should do with your budget or any number of things. And I say this because I used to counsel people in Atlanta. When I ended up moving to Atlanta, I worked with a financial education non-profit. And my job was to counsel hundreds of people one-on-one for 12 months at a time. And so I got to see exactly what was needed to shift people’s financial life.

And I’ll tell you, Jen, 80% of the time we never talked about a budget. We didn’t have to because we were plugging the money holes in the other parts of their lives. There were other things that were causing the leaks and it wasn’t necessarily it’s because you’re bad at budgeting. It had nothing to do with that. And so that’s where I really got my philosophy from, not just in rebuilding my own life but also helping hundreds of people improve their own finances in life.

Jen: Awesome. So those six pillars, you talk about them in your book, your new book, Redefining?

Patrice: I do. The whole book is based on the six pillars. And I can run through them really quickly.

Jen: Yeah. That would be great.

Patrice: And then you tell me where you want to dig in. So really quickly here are the six pillars. The first pillar is fit. And fit is about becoming your best self. And usually people are annoyed. When I was speaking on stages pre Covid, I would see the brows furrow from the stage, Jen. They’d go, “Oh God, here she goes. What is she going to say?” Well, fit is about becoming your best self physically and mentally because we say that health is wealth. And I think this year has shown us how important our health truly is and how much it impacts in our lives.

We say health is wealth but then we also live in a culture that really glorifies the hustle mentality and it glorifies burnout. It’s like you sleep when you’re dead. No, I’m going to sleep tonight.

Jen: Yes. I like that.

Patrice: I would like some rest tonight actually. And I say this because we have all these lofty goals for retirement, or whatever your vision may be for your life. But if you have a vision for your life you have to remember, you only get one vessel. You only have one vessel that’s going to help you execute that vision. And we can’t run our bodies into the ground especially as women, and I’ll have to say as a mom, and many of my friends and clients who are mothers. We are so good at putting everyone else first and then moving ourselves down the list.

And so if something’s wrong with my daughter I am quick to make an appointment. But I have to be very conscious of the fact that sometimes I will limp around and try to diagnose myself, Jen, on WebMD and we know that’s not good. We’ve done it, but if it’s our significant other or someone important to us. “Oh my gosh, you need to rest. You need to do this.” But then we’ll do things to the point of exhaustion in the name of purpose because my tagline is chase purpose not money.

But even in the name of purpose we think that that means super early mornings, super late nights. I worked right through lunch. I’m pumped up on caffeine all day. I haven’t eaten. I haven’t had any water. I haven’t taken time to move my body. Well, how many people are dropping dead earlier and earlier, I mean 20s, 30s, 40s? Because they have not paid attention to the signs, listened to their body and taken care of themselves. And I don’t care who you are, if you truly want to build wealth are you looking to make money so that you can pay for prescriptions in retirement that you can’t pronounce?

Jen: Exactly. Isn’t that the truth? I would rather be poor and well rested than wealthy and exhausted. But let’s be honest, I’ll choose also well rested and wealthy.

Patrice: Yeah, or go for well and wealth.

Jen: Well and wealth, yeah.

Patrice: So that’s one of the first things that we talk about as being physically fit. And then, Jen, I have to say, mentally fit. So what people didn’t know about me until the last couple of years since I started the podcast was that I grew up feeling very, very ugly. And I was the person who was teased a lot in my family. I don’t mean just at school, I mean in my family. And I felt ugly. I became addicted to achievement to really have some form of validation because I didn’t feel validated by my looks. I was never identified as the pretty sister, or the pretty one, or whatever.

And so there was a lot going on there. And I remember being in the bathtub as a kid scrubbing my skin because I wanted to be lighter like other people in my family. I was ashamed to be so dark or tucking my lips in because my lips were too full. Or slouching a lot because I was 5’10 at 11 years old, I was super tall. I’m the same height by the way, but I was super tall and I wanted to slouch and be shorter like the other girls. It was always something that I picked apart.

And so it wasn’t until I got into therapy around 22 years old, after two or three years of intense weekly therapy is when I could finally look in the mirror without cringing, when I could finally look at myself and not feel I wish I looked like someone else. Therapy is what taught me to forgive people. And it taught me that hurt people hurt people. So even the people in my family who said very mean things to me, they were clearly hurt in their own way and they didn’t know how to deal with that.

And I share that because I think we also live in a time where we’re such information hoarders. And people are like, “I need another degree. I need another certification. I need to listen to more podcasts. I need to read more books.” It’s constantly something outside of themselves but the truth is a lot of us don’t have the confidence to go for what we see out there and what we truly want because we’re probably dealing with unchecked childhood trauma.

Jen: Yes, for sure. By the way I think you’re beautiful. You guys can’t see Patrice, but she has on this gorgeous red lipstick. You’re stunning. I can’t believe you didn’t like how you looked at one time. Well, we all do it I think.

Patrice: Yeah, first 25 years of my life. So I was that person longer than this person now. But I always share that because when I do look at my life now and all the national media, and based on your books, and being on stage and now how social media is such a big thing which wasn’t a thing back in the day. When I look at all the things now I realize that there will be no way for me to step into what I was being called to do if I hadn’t dealt with that trauma.

Jen: Yes, it’s so true. It’s so true for sure. I think people feel your energy even on a podcast, in a book; it all comes across so yeah for sure, me too.

Patrice: I agree, yeah. So I always feel like that’s foundation but that’s the thing that people want to skip. They’re like, “No, I just need another degree.” No.

Jen: You may do your work, yeah, do your work ladies, it pays off.

Patrice: Yeah. So do the work. So I really believe in starting with that inner work and making sure that your vessel mentally, physically is in a good place. And then second is people, in the people pillar we talk about creating relationships that matter. People have asked me for years how I got certain opportunities. And it’s the same thing over and over. I just now got a PR person in the last month. And I’ve had such a great career over this last decade. This is the first time and really just because I’m kind of shifting. I feel my purpose evolving a bit.

And I wanted support in what that could look like but the relationships in my life are what have actually brought such great opportunities. And I always share the story, this idea, do you remember, Jen, everyone was like, “I just need to get on Oprah?” That was the marketing plan.

Jen: Are we all still wanting that?

Patrice: We’re like, “If I could just get on the Oprah show.” Well, Oprah left her show, ended her show. I mean now she has her network and all the other things but it was the entire marketing plan. And when I was on The Steve Harvey show I remember when people would say to me, “Oh my gosh, all I need to do is meet Steve Harvey. I just want to meet Steve Harvey.” And I remember there was someone I actually introduced to Steve Harvey. And when I tell you, he blew it. I was like, “Oh my gosh, never again.”

He was not actually ready. He wasn’t ready to create a true genuine connection. He went after it with a what can I get mentality as opposed to what can I give. And that was the difference maker. I always say in my community, “There’s always someone watching you who has the power to bless you but who are they watching you be?” And the problem with this guy is he wanted to impress Steve Harvey but he wanted to be disrespectful to all the other people who worked around Steve Harvey.

Jen: Oh no, no, no.

Patrice: Yeah. And so he blew it because the people who actually had Steve’s ear were like, “Well, that guy was obnoxious in the elevator.” Or, “This person was rude in the hallway.” I mean creating relationships that matter have gotten me so far. I have other people that are pitching and doing things on my behalf that I don’t know anything about. I just get a random call or an email.

And I say that to say that I don’t think that we understand the power of really preserving relationships, giving for the sake of giving, not always giving with the expectation that someone has to do something for you. That actually goes a long way. And we live too in a time where people are trying to pass on mediocrity. I’m in the coaching space.

So in this personal development space people have been coached to death and they’re like, “No, I deserve a $100,000 to be mediocre. Absolutely, because I want it and I’m going to manifest it.” And it’s like, “Listen, treating people well still goes a long way.” There is so many other things that you can do. I’m going to say this loosely, but without pimping the relationship, just treat people well and so much can come. And I learned this professionally but also personally.

When I first started really speaking and really getting out there was around 2013. And I had a lot of mom guilt because I felt like I was gone so much. And I wanted Reagan to know that as much as I was called to be her mom, I was also called to be the Money Maven. And so I felt I am supposed to do what I’m doing because it brings me such joy and I feel so fulfilled. But then I would get home sometimes and feel like but does she know that I love her? Or does she know that I’m doing this for her?

And I remember one day scrolling on my phone probably on Facebook or something and she was telling me a story. And I was nodding my head and smiling as if I were listening to the story. And she’s like, “Mom, why are you smiling? This is not a good story.” She was six or seven and I said, “Oh my gosh.” I was so connected to the phone I was not focused on her. But then I will play the mom guilt game with myself.

And I had to shift and go, if you were just present when you were present you wouldn’t have to carry this guilt every time you got on a plane, if you were present when you were in her presence. Because I’m thinking I’m here so that’s good enough. And that was such a great lesson for me early on because as my career has grown I have learned how to be more present with my family. So that when I am doing things like this, Jen, I am fully here with you. I’m not looking around. I’m not checking my phone.

I don’t know if you’ve ever interviewed someone, I have, where you could tell that they were doing something else. And you’re like, “Let me help you bring this back in.”

Jen: They was like petting their dog, yeah.

Patrice: Right. You’re like, “Okay, I don’t know if you’re all the way here.” But it was such a great lesson because as I became more present in my home life I felt more confidence when I went out to serve because I realized, I don’t want to be a public success and a private failure.

Jen: Yes. So it sounds to me like, Patrice, that these pillars and we’ve heard about two of them kind of help us fix our energy in our lives so we can attract abundance, not just financial but all abundance into our lives. Is that accurate for you?

Patrice: Absolutely. This second iteration of my life, owning a business and building a brand and all these things, I have truly learned that it’s not just about the struggle, the stress and strife that I once thought it was. It really does not have to be I work 20 hours a day, and I do all the things, and I am constantly in hustle and grind mode. I really prefer to do things with grace and ease. And I have learned through what I teach, what I’ve been sharing now with Redefining Wealth, I prefer peace, Jen. I like peace. I like grace. I like ease.

And I’ve learned that you can still build wealth from this place. It doesn’t have to look like a very – I don’t know, especially a male dominated energy.

Jen: Yes. Well, you’re doing it from that feminine yin energy which I also try to work from. It’s so much more comfortable. I think the entire world is actually shifting more to some of that feminine energy. And it’s about time because we were burning ourselves out.

Patrice: Yeah, unnecessarily, and to do what?

Jen: Right. Well, so I know you have a freebie for us. So tell us really quick what the other four pillars are and where we could get the handout that would help us know more about those?

Patrice: Yes. So the third pillar is space. It’s about setting up your life to support you. The fourth pillar is faith. It’s about believing in something greater, not that it’s a specific religion but understanding that there’s just more to this, that nothing is happening to you, it’s happening for you. It’s just a different way to look at resilience and hope I think. The fifth pillar is work and it’s about living your life’s purpose. And we talk a lot about the difference between passion and purpose. I truly believe passion is just for us but purpose is about serving others.

And then there’s finally from the money lady, the sixth pillar is money. And it’s about attracting the prosperity you desire. But that’s actually where we get into the nuts and bolts of the personal finance stuff that my work has been based on for many years. But I truly have felt like, Jen, if I don’t get you to shift your behavior, your limiting beliefs, your ways of thinking in these first five pillars it’s so hard to get you to commit to a budget, or to get you to commit to really following a financial plan because you’re usually so distracted by other things in your life.

And it’s been incredible to see how it’s all come together for not just myself but for so many people out there. And the freebie, the freebie is at patricewashington.com/starthere. So patricewashington.com/starthere, I think the freebie will be great. It’s just a quick audio training that breaks down the pillars and what we believe in, some quick starter steps you can take to start to improve your life in the pillars.

Jen: Awesome. We’ll also put that link at jenriday.com/275. I feel like this is revolutionary. If you think about financial training, the things I learned about finances in college, it’s just your sixth pillar, it’s number six, the nitty gritty of the nuts and bolts. But if you haven’t cleaned up all the rest, thoughts, your body, your relationships, your space, your faith and figured out your purpose and passion, well, why would you even bother with the wealth? It makes perfect sense what you’re doing. I love this. And is all of this in your book, Redefine Wealth for Yourself?

Patrice: It’s all in the book. And in the book each section is based on a pillar. But I give very practical exercises that folks can start to do. If you’re struggling in this pillar here are 15 or so exercises that you can specifically do. And you can pick up the book at any time on any page and go, “Okay, I’m just going to do this thing today. I’m going to focus on this thing this week.” So it’s definitely a guide you can come back to over and over again.

Jen: Well, this is amazing. And this feels really aligned for me. I’ve found exactly what Patrice is saying to be true in my life as well. The more I clean up all the other stuff, the finances, they just come. It seems to be something that follows everything else instead of coming first. We think if I could just be wealthy then I could fix my body, or my relationships, or find my purpose. But I think it goes the other way around and so I love this.

Patrice: I agree.

Jen: Yeah. Well, Patrice, this is great, great, great stuff. Where can we follow you so we can be in your world?

Patrice: Yes. So you can find out about all things Patrice Washington at patricewashington.com. And my favorite place to play online is Instagram. And my handle there is seekwisdompcw.

Jen: Okay. Cool, this has been amazing. I wish we could keep talking. I think I’ll have to have you back again someday. Thank you so much Patrice.

Patrice: Thanks so much, Jen.

Jen: Take care.

So my friends, there was a point in this episode where Patrice said, I was sick and tired of being sick and tired.” Is that true for you? Are you sick and tired of being sick and tired? Well then go get Patrice’s book, Redefine Wealth for Yourself. Wealth is so much more than money, although that is a great part of it. We do require a certain amount of money to be happy. There are correlational studies that show a certain amount of money actually does correlate with happiness.

But there are all these other things that we need to work on first to stop feeling sick and tired of being sick and tired like our mental and physical health, creating relationships that matter, having a space that nurtures us, working on our faith with whatever that means for us. Cultivating passion and a purpose that allows us to make the world a better place, these things, this kind of alignment is how we are meant to live. When we live in this kind of alignment doing what feels right for us and not someone else’s agenda, not the shoulds from someone else.

But when we live in alignment with what is right for us, wealth and abundance become our birthright. I truly believe this. I know it to be true. The more aligned I live the easier all kinds of abundance feel for me. So I hope you enjoyed that and I will be back again next week. Until then, stop being sick and tired of being sick and tired, do what it takes to make your life feel aligned, and vibrant and happy. Take care.

If you enjoy this podcast, you have to check out the Vibrant Happy Women Club. It’s my monthly group coaching program where we take all this material to the next level and to get you the results that will blow your mind. Join me in the Vibrant Happy Women Club at jenriday.com/join.