Journey To Launch

Starting late, giving things up, and changing your mind halfway through are three of the biggest worries that keep people from moving forward with their money. In this solo episode, recorded on the road in Houston after a fireside chat hosted by Janet of The Good Lounge, I answer the questions I hear most often, at live events, in your messages, and on social.

I break down why it's never too late to start, even in your 30s, 40s, or 50s, and why compound interest still works when you have decades ahead of...

A single Instagram post asking whether the FIRE movement lost the plot sparked a conversation that is still going. In this episode, I sit down with who wrote it, Ashleigh Evans, a U.S. Navy veteran, Yale-trained nurse midwife, and real estate investor.

Ashleigh explains why equating personal finance with scaling an eight-figure business leaves most people out. Her own path started on a Navy destroyer, where she vowed never to be trapped by a W-2 again. A year later, she spent her $5,000 in savings on a tax lien in Atlanta, which became...

Diana Isern's "new" clothes came out of donated garbage bags, and the money message she grew up with was: we don't have it. In this episode, I sit down with Diana, a former New York City assistant principal and author of Money Talks: An Educator's Guide to Teaching Financial Empowerment.

Diana started teaching at 21 with student loans, no savings, and a habit of leaving bar tabs open. A two-week no-spend challenge and an honest look at her statements turned things around, and soon teachers, students, and parents were bringing her their money questions...

Access to capital can determine which entrepreneurs get the opportunity to turn their ideas into successful businesses. In this episode, I sit down with Arian Simone, founder and CEO of the Fearless Fund, to discuss her work investing in women of color, why access to funding remains a challenge, and what it takes to build a venture fund focused on closing that gap. We also talk about her journey as an entrepreneur, investor, author, philanthropist and more.

In this episode, Arian shares:

A 7% interest rate looks like a wall to a lot of buyers, but Erika Brown sees a market where deals are landing $45,000 and even $150,000 under asking. In this episode, I sit down with Erika, a real estate investor and serial entrepreneur whose portfolio generates over six figures a year, for an update five years after her first appearance.

Erika left banking, got her real estate license, and built a team. She went on to acquire almost 40 rental properties, start a nearly seven-figure landscaping company, and co-found a Georgia brokerage with over 250 agents. It...

Financial independence started as a formula: save and invest 25 times your expenses, then step away from the job. In this solo episode, I respond to an Instagram post from Ashley Evans asking whether the FIRE movement has lost the plot, as more of the conversation shifts toward making more money, growing businesses, and owning more.

I explain the 25 times rule and the 4% draw down math that first drew me in 12 to 13 years ago, and share the comment I left on Ashley's post. I reached my goal of leaving my nine to five in 2018...

Health insurance is one of the biggest questions standing between you and leaving your job, and for a lot of families, it's the reason one spouse never does. In this episode, I welcome back Jordan Grumet, hospice physician, host of the Earn & Invest podcast, and author of Taking Stock, The Purpose Code, and his newest book, The Healthcare Heist.

Jordan lost his father, a physician, when he was seven and made it his mission to become a doctor like him. Once he got there, he burned out fast, and financial independence became his...

Kristy Shen and Bryce Leung left their lucrative software engineering careers to enjoy world travel and freedom. Both retired in their early 30's with a 7-figure portfolio and have complied their secrets to success in their book Quit Like a Millionaire: No Gimmicks, Luck, or Trust Fund Required. Kristy and Bryce are financially independent, self-made millionaires who hail from humble beginnings and learned along their journey how to follow the money so they could afford to pursue their passions.

In this episode we discuss:

Simplicity and the concept of 'less is more' can be beneficial in much more than finance. The tiny home movement has proved to be a great new option for a lot of people looking to live a simpler, more abundant life. This week's guest, Jewel Pearson, is not only a tiny homeowner but she is also an advocate and community leader that shares her tiny living experiences and assists others in achieving their tiny living dreams.

Over the course of a decade, Jewel worked toward downsizing her life and in 2015 she built the...

You may think that you need a traditional education to reach Financial Freedom, but on this episode, Tinian Crawford is here to tell us otherwise. He shares with us how lucrative a job in the Trades can be and why more people should be looking to a trade career and building their DIY skills to help them reach their goals of Financial Independence.

On this episode you will learn:

Arlan Hamilton was homeless when she launched a venture capital fund dedicated to minimizing funding disparities in tech. In 2015, she created Backstage Capital, a venture capital fund that invests in high potential founders who are people of color, women, and/or members of the LGBT community. Today, Backstage Capital has raised more than $7 million and invested in more than 130 startups companies led by underestimated founders.

In this episode of the Journey to Launch podcast, Arlan and I are talking about the mindset, confidence, and self-care that led to Arlan's ultimate success. We also...

Mabel Nunez is the founder & Chief Education Officer at Girl$ on The Money – a stock market investing education company targeted toward individuals who are underrepresented in the investing world. Mabel grew up in the South Bronx as an immigrant from the Dominican Republic, with limited resources & a strong emphasis on education from her father. She learned very little about personal finance or investing while in school until she was in college, where she took an investing analysis class which began her passion for investing & personal finance. Mabel holds both a Bachelor of Science and an MBA in Fi...

In this week's episode, Brian Portnoy simplifies the complex world of money. Brian has over two decades of experience in the personal finance space, and he's also an investor, educator, writer, and entrepreneur. In his book, The Geometry of Wealth, he tackles the challenges of making better investment decisions and how money fits into a joyful life.

In this episode, we go beyond the numbers and talk about the behavioral science behind your relationship with money. Learn how your behavior impacts your ability to become wealthy and why your brain chooses survival over...

Ramit Sethi is New York Times bestselling author and founder of I Will Teach You to Be Rich. After 16 years in the personal finance space, Ramit is still teaching people how to set specific goals for themselves and their money. He has a unique way of talking about money and challenges the normal points of view you often hear from other personal finance "gurus".

In this episode, Ramit shares tips on how to; save you money, earn more, and live a rich life.

In this episode you'll learn:

Myra Strober, labor economist and Professor Emerita at Stanford University and Abby Davisson, social innovation leader and career development expert, join the Journey to Launch podcast to discuss how to make conscious decisions about money with love as the primary framework.

We chat about the intellectual roadmap for life's biggest decisions, why we need to have difficult conversations before we're ready and how love and money are intertwined in all of life's challenges and phases.

In this episode, you'll learn more about:

Fernando Espuelas has spent three decades building companies and shaping conversations at the intersection of technology, business, and public life. In this episode, I sit down with him to talk about his path from an immigrant childhood in Uruguay to becoming one of the internet's early pioneers.

Fernando immigrated to the U.S. from Uruguay at age 10 and grew up watching his mother clean houses and work nights so he could get an education. He worked gas station and pet store jobs before eventually co-founding StarMedia, the world's first pan-Latin internet portal and...

Cindy Zuniga went to law school to make an impact in her community. After three years in law school and $215,000 of debt later, Cindy realized the real cost of her decision. Her first year out of school she paid $24,000 towards her student loans. However, only $4,000 went towards her loan's principal balance, and the other 20,000 paid off just the interest on her loan. That's when Cindy said enough is enough and devised a plan to pay off all of her debt in 48 month. Find out how Cindy paid off $215,000 in 48 months and kept her expenses low while living...

What if the biggest risk you take is the one that changes everything? In this episode, I chat with Teri Ijeoma, trader, entrepreneur, author, and founder of Trade and Travel, an investment education company that has taught over 40,000 students how to actively invest. Teri left a toxic career as an assistant principal, taught herself to trade stocks while traveling the world, and built one of the top investing courses. Now she's back with her debut book, The Risk Worth Taking, and she's sharing the full picture of what the journey has actually looked like.

Getting rid of six-figure debt is no easy feat but Takiia Anderson is proof that it can be done. After graduating from law school, Takiia had accrued more than $150,000 of debt. As the single mother of a 2-year-old little girl making only $34,000 a year, she knew that something had to change.

Takiia went on to save over $500,000 and pay for her daughter's college education at the prestigious Spelman College. She shares all of her tips, tricks, and personal finance advice on her blog, The Frugal Bitty.

In this episode...

Jill Schlesinger, money and media legend, joins the Journey To Launch podcast to discuss how you can reset your life, her new book, "The Great Money Reset," and how to use her Fab Five framework to discover where you really want to be on your journey to financial freedom.

We discuss events that shaped Jill's impressive career, why everyone should have a pink notebook and how life is about so much more than money.

Jill is a CFP and Emmy and Gracie award-winning business analyst for CBS News. Her...

Financial independence isn't just about reaching a number, it's about designing a life you actually want to live. In this solo episode, I'm taking you behind the scenes of what life looks like now.I share a candid life update on everything from my current workout routine and newfound hobby of gardening to navigating one of the busiest parenting seasons of the year with three kids. I also open up about the intentional trade-offs I'm making by working less, earning less, and embracing a slower pace, because the flexibility I've gained is worth more to me than...

This week on the podcast we are joined by Dr. Kemi Doll, a physician, surgeon, researcher, double board-certified gynecologist and oncologist, and founding director of the Gynecologic Research and Cancer Equity Center at the University of Washington. After 16 years of training and over $200,000 in student loan debt, she turned her personal and professional experience into a mission to change how Black women are treated in gynecologic care.

In this episode, Dr. Kemi breaks down how conditions like heavy menstrual bleeding, endometriosis, and fibroids are not just health issues; they are career and financial...

In this episode, I sit back down with Cody Berman, entrepreneur, real estate investor, and author of the book Retire by 30. Cody first came on the podcast in 2018 at 22 years old. By 25, he had reached financial independence through scalable online businesses, strategic real estate, and intentional spending.

He quit a corporate banking job after seven months, tried over 30 side hustles, and grew his income from $96K to over $400K in three years, all while keeping expenses under $24,000 annually. His new book lays out a menu of approaches for reaching financial freedom, not a...

Most people learn about money the hard way. In this episode, I sit down with Beth Kobliner, personal finance journalist and New York Times bestselling author of Get a Financial Life: Personal Finance in Your 20s and 30s and Make Your Kid a Money Genius (Even If You're Not), to talk about how to build a strong financial foundation before the real world hits.

Beth shares her journey from ghostwriting for pioneering personal finance columnist Sylvia Porter to writing for Money magazine, and why the core principles she has taught for decades still...

Ericka Barnes first appeared on the Journey to Launch podcast in 2019 to share how she reached financial independence in her mid-30s. Since then, her life has looked nothing like a straight line; divorce, layoffs, a new marriage, and a second retirement later, she's back to share the full story.

In this brand new episode, Ericka walks us through what she's been up to since our last conversation, from rebuilding financially after a divorce, to reaching chubby FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) in 2023. The financial foundation she had built; real estate, index funds...

Doing everything right at work and still getting passed over is not a personal failure. It is a pattern, and the data proves it. In this episode, I sit down with Stefanie O'Connell, award-winning journalist and author of The Ambition Penalty: How Corporate Culture Tells Women to Step Up and Then Pushes Them Down, to dig into the data behind the very real costs women face for simply being ambitious.

Stefanie spent years reporting on personal finance stories where people did everything right and still came up short. That pattern led her to...

There is a reason you know what to do with money and still struggle to do it. In this episode, I sit down with Rahkim Sabree, financial therapist, accredited financial counselor, and author of Overcoming Financial Trauma, to talk about what is really driving our money behaviors and why the answer goes much deeper than budgets and spreadsheets.

After more than a decade in the banking industry, Rahkim walked away from it all to build something on his own terms. That leap eventually led him to the financial therapy space, where he now...

Most people spend their entire careers waiting for the day they can finally stop working. In this episode, I sit down with Brian Herriot, author, speaker, financial advisor, and entrepreneurship coach, to dig into the concept of time freedom and what it really means to build a life on your own terms.

Brian spent 14 years in corporate consulting, chased the early retirement dream, and hit the $1 million savings mark right before COVID wiped out 35% of it. In that pivotal moment, his wife asked him a simple but life-changing question: "What would you do...

What happens when you've achieved the financial success you once dreamed of, but something inside you starts asking for more or different? In this episode, I sit down with Tiffany Aliche, also known as The Budgetnista, for a real and layered conversation about evolution, grief, purpose, and what it looks like to transition into a new season of life.

Tiffany shares her journey from being in deep debt and rebuilding her life from scratch to creating a multimillion dollar business and financial legacy. But more importantly, we talk about what comes after success...

Have you ever felt a pull toward something that didn't quite make sense logically, but you couldn't ignore it? That inner nudge to try something new, take a risk, or step outside the expected path?

In this episode, I sit down with Damali Alexander, someone I've known for years and always admired for the way she moves through life with intention, courage, and trust in herself. From starting as a teacher to building multiple businesses, investing in real estate, and even moving to Brazil, Damali shares how following her intuition has shaped her journey.

We...

What does it really look like to build a business from the ground up while balancing family, finances, and faith? In this episode, I sit down with sisters Wendy Jules and Carla Nelson to talk about their journey from nursing careers to founding a thriving med spa in Brooklyn.

They share how they started with limited resources, leaned on community support, and turned a single machine in a basement into a profitable, purpose-driven business. We also talk about the financial realities of entrepreneurship, the flexibility and power of nursing as a career, and...

From homeless to bartending at Coyote Ugly, today's guest has gone through it all when it comes to working the service industry. Barbara Sloan is author of "Tipped: The Life Changing Guide to Financial Freedom For Waitresses, Bartenders, Strippers and All Other Service Industry Professionals," and a personal finance expert.

She's spent two decades working in every imaginable position in the service industry, in addition to owning and running a woman-owned construction company in Manhattan. Now, she helps other service industry professionals map their way to financial independence.

We...

In this episode, I sit down with Drew Lee, a former engineer turned personal finance content creator, who made a bold decision to walk away from a six figure career more than once to pursue a life of flexibility and purpose. Drew reached Coast FI, where your investments grow on their own to fund retirement, in his late 20s, and shares how that freedom changed the way he thinks about work.

We talk about the realities behind quitting a stable job, navigating uncertainty, and what it really takes to pursue your passions, especially when you...

In this episode, I'm joined by Amanda Holden, who has built a powerful platform making investing feel truly accessible. She's now bringing that same approach to her new book, How to Be a Rich Old Lady.

We dive into what it really takes to build wealth, why so many people get stuck before they even get started, and how investing isn't about being perfect, it's about taking action.

Here's what we discuss:

In this episode, I'm excited to welcome back Kristy Shen and Bryce Leung from the Millennial Revolution. Since the last time they were on the show, they've become parents and recently released a new book called Parent Like a Millionaire (Without Being One). In this conversation, we talk about how their perspective on money and financial independence evolved after having a child and how parents can raise financially resilient kids without feeling pressure to overspend.

Kristy and Bryce share how avoiding lifestyle creep helped them accelerate their path to financial independence, why financial...

Sahirenys Pierce joins the Journey to Launch Podcast to break down the money system that completely transformed her financial life: the High Five Banking Method.

In this powerful conversation, Sahirenys opens up about how navigating the 2008 recession, walking away from corporate finance, becoming a mom, and preparing for her son's open-heart surgery forced her to rethink everything she thought she knew about money. What emerged wasn't just a budgeting tweak, it was a structured banking system built to create clarity, stability, and peace of mind during life's most overwhelming seasons.

This week on the Journey to Launch Podcast, I'm joined by healthcare compliance expert and entrepreneur Keisha Wilson for a powerful conversation about career pivots, betting on yourself, caregiving, and building financial flexibility before you realize you'll need it.

Keisha shares how she transitioned from corporate leadership into entrepreneurship, how that decision gave her the flexibility to care for her mother through stage four cancer and a devastating home explosion, and why preparation, advocacy, and hard financial conversations matter more than we think. This episode is about resilience, faith, and creating options that...

In this episode, I chat with Lee-Ann Pinkard, who was born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica, and later moved to the U.S. for college at Howard University. She built a career in construction project management and, years later, purchased a beachside property in Jamaica that she now runs as a short-term rental, a property I personally had the pleasure of staying in.

We explore what it really takes to buy property in Jamaica, the realities of managing an Airbnb from abroad, how she balances corporate life, motherhood and her long-term plan to...

Burnout is often treated like a personal failure but what if it's actually a signal that something deeper is out of alignment?

In this episode of the Journey to Launch Podcast, I'm joined by executive coach and organizational change strategist Dr. Kerri Ann Peart for a powerful conversation about burnout, boundaries, identity, and what it really takes to grow into higher levels of financial success without sacrificing your well-being.

We talk about how burnout actually shows up in high-achieving women, how perimenopause and work stress can overlap, and why...