In 2013 I joined a financial services provider feeling excited, inspired, and determined to do good in the world by helping people with their money.

I had left a career in marketing for an online gaming company (read casino) where I experienced the spark in my soul starting to dim as I felt that I was taking vulnerable people’s money. Whilst I understood that paying for entertainment online as a way to be part of a community and find joy in a life where one is limited (our clients were mostly disabled or retired women) was not a terrible thing, it still didn’t feel like I was helping to make the world a better place in a way that felt meaningful to me.

So in January of 2013 I started studying my first Financial Planning certification, and by October I began my career as a Paraplanner.

What followed was a fast-track experiential journey of exploring and understanding the world of financial services in South Africa. I quickly became a client-facing Wealth Manager, and shortly thereafter the Chief Operations Officer where I was fortunate to learn how to run and manage a financial services provider.

I will be eternally grateful to my boss Stuart who not only saw the potential in me to succeed in this world, but who also gave me the freedom and opportunity to jump in feet-first and learn all the things. Thank you Stu!

What I quickly learned was that there were many people with both a little and a lot of money, who were not sure what to do with it, or how to make it work towards their goals. I would spend hours with these clients talking to them about themselves, their families, their careers, their hopes and dreams. And it felt that there was something missing in the way financial advisors traditionally approach clients, with the best of intentions, to help them make good choices with their money. Clients just didn’t listen or do what financial advisors told them to do. Why?

Man’s Eternal Search for Meaning

What I sensed was that there was a lack of meaning and purpose in people’s lives that made it hard for them to make good choices for their money. They lacked clear goals, a strategy or plan to turn these dreams into reality, and the motivation and commitment to follow through.

My personal hunger to learn and grow saw me signing up for a Professional Coach Certification that would change my life. I spent a year immersed in everything to do with human psychology and development, deepening my understanding of what drives people to believe what they believe, and do (or not do) what they do.

Along this journey I was blessed to be surrounded by incredible mentors in the financial services industry who were starting to talk about a different way of engaging with clients and offering them help with their money. They spoke of creating client experiences where we would take a client on a journey to better understand their relationship with money, articulate their Life and money goals, and then craft a financial plan that they would commit to, to help them turn these dreams into reality.

What followed was that I began to see how the combination of coaching with financial planning and advice could really be of service and support to people and ultimately, change their lives.

Begin with The End in Mind

And so my own vision for how I desired to serve people and offer my growing gifts to the world was born. In May 2017, after a year of planning and a ton of paperwork, I ventured out into the world on my own – with sparkling eyes and the determination that I was going to lead the change of financial services in South Africa. My financial services provider was officially approved by the legislative authority and I was ready. Or so I thought!

The last eight years have been the most rewarding, and the hardest, of my Life. I was given the wisest advice, had the best mentors along the way, and it still wasn’t an easy journey to get to where I am today.

And today I am in the process of leaving the financial services provider I birthed and invested so much blood, sweat, tears, time and money into.

Start with Why

Why you might ask? Because I’ve learned many things about entrepreneurship, myself, and the humans I desire to serve through this journey.

And what I’ve learned is that I exist to serve, not sell.

And more specifically…

I exist to activate those I call Change-Makers, to Soul-Aligned Money & Life Strategies so that they might contribute their gifts and skills to positive change in the world, whilst living a juicey, delicious and abundant Life!

The truth is that the financial services provider of the future is evolving and requires a team of people to be able to offer the most supportive experience to their clients. And instead of pouring more time, energy, blood, sweat and tears into building that myself, I have opportunities available to me that I am embracing instead.

• As a result of my own experience and learning I am now mentoring and coaching financial advisors on how to structure and build the financial services provider of the future. One where there is a team of humans working collaboratively to support their clients, giving them world-class quality experiences that enable them to achieve their dreams and goals. This allows me to have a bigger butterfly effect as in helping these entrepreneurs, I’m also helping thousands of the clients that they serve.

• I am choosing to focus my business on financial coaching and financial planning where I take my clients on a journey to explore their relationship with money, craft meaningful financial and life plans, and take the actions needed to get them from where they are to where they want to be. I get to coach and serve, not sell. I get to facilitate mindset transformation, and habits creation that result in my clients being able to live meaningful, purposeful as well as juicey, delicious and abundant lives.

• I also continue to coach and mentor leaders at all levels in corporate, or as entrepreneurs in their own businesses, through the journey of developing themselves to be leaders of the future, today.

I have chosen to focus my attention on work that sets my soul on fire. To follow the desire of my soul to make a positive difference in the world, through helping those on a mission to do the same too.

Living a Soul-Aligned Life

I call this living a Soul-Aligned Life. One where…

Purpose = Being and embodying who you are on a soul level, as a human.

In everything I do, the way I move through the world, engage with others, and the work I do.

The result is that I’m feeling more free, abundant, and filled with joy since making the decision to let go of my first-born business.

And my clients are loving it too. We’re having so much fun exploring who they are, what lights them up, what they feel called to birth into the world, and then collaboratively crafting strategies to manifest their dream into reality.

So although I’m leaving my financial services provider, I’m not going anywhere. My creativity is flowing, and I’m birthing more ways for people to figure out this money thing and align their money with their Life. Money Alchemy is my most recent creation where I’m offering online and in-person MasterClasses and Group Coaching Journey’s where we’re approaching money from a mental, emotional, spiritual and practical perspective to create Soul-Aligned money and life strategies.

I’m also still offering My Journey 2 Freedom Coached Financial Planning Experiences for entrepreneurs, individuals and couples to help you strategize your money and your life.

True Financial Empowerment

What about the financial products? Don’t we all need to save, invest and insure ourselves and our lives?

Well, yes, those are still important. I’m choosing not to facilitate the sale of them any longer, however I am able to educate you on what is available out there, and support you in deciding what would work for you and how to get it.

My clients love being able to understand what financial products they have, how they work, and being able to not only talk about them around the fire at a braai with their friends on the weekend, but click the buttons on websites to invest and insure themselves. To them it feels empowering to take control of their money and tell it what they want it to do for them, instead of having a financial advisor be the one in control.

And for those who are less keen to click the buttons themselves, I’m happy to partner with your existing financial advisor, or help you find someone that can facilitate the financial product stuff on your behalf – all whilst ensuring that you are the one empowered with the knowledge and understanding of what it is you’re buying or investing in so that you’re the one driving your decisions.