When everything around you feels like it’s changing—algorithms, offers, pricing, the economy—it’s easy to spiral into “I should be further ahead” or “what am I doing wrong?”

In this episode, Aimee walks you through a different perspective: the difference between strategy and principles, and why confusing the two can keep you stuck in cycles of starting over, second-guessing yourself, and chasing the next “right” move.

This isn’t about finding a better budgeting app or a new financial system. It’s about understanding the foundational principles that actually create stability so when things shift (because they always will), you don’t lose your footing.

Inside this conversation, you’ll hear a grounded, honest look at:

• Why strategy will always change and why that’s not the problem
• How financial principles create consistency, even when income fluctuates
• The emotional patterns (shame, guilt, “I should be further ahead”) that get triggered when things feel unstable
• What it really means to feel safe and confident with your money

This episode is here to help you slow down, come back to the basics, and reconnect with a way of doing money that feels steady, sustainable, and supportive of who you actually are.

Money Mindset Playbook: https://aimeecerka.com/mindset

For the full transcript and all links mentioned, see the blog post: https://aimeecerka.com/250

Ready To Take Action: https://aimeecerka.com/podcastlinks

All right.

The economy shifted, the algorithms changed.

Someone launched something that looks just like yours, but it's

like half the price, and all of a sudden everything feels unstable.

But what if it's not about the specific strategy?

What if you didn't learn the principles?

To begin with, we're gonna get dive into today, like the difference between

principles and strategy and what is the difference because especially

as we live in this evolving world, things are constantly changing.

As the strategy changes, we can feel like everything's broken.

I dunno what to do anymore.

I should know this by now.

What's wrong with me?

Why am I not farther ahead?

All of those stories, and if we can recenter, look at the center,

like these principles are still the same, we'll learn the strategy.

I've got this, but principles aren't changing.

You're gonna feel so much more solid and more equipped to cut through all of that.

Mind frick that's showing up when something changes like that.

This is Money Simplified, the podcast where I help female

entrepreneurs go from stress and struggle to unstoppable with money.

Money is more than just budgeting and p and Ls, and we're gonna

take you through all of it here.

We blend proven financial strategy with mindset work and energetic

alignment, so you can create unstop.

Finances, build an unstoppable business and truly enjoy your unstoppable life.

It's time to take my wisdom and my expertise to help you simplify

money and go beyond the numbers.

I'm your host, Aimee Cerka.

Welcome.

I'm so glad you're here.

Welcome back to Money Simplified.

We are gonna talk today about the economy and some of those things, but

from a little bit of a different lens.

We're also gonna kind of get into the difference between entrepreneurs

and employees because these are like the principles where this shows up.

Okay?

So.

I had a client the other day we were on, I just created a new resource

for the Unstoppable Experience.

It's called the Unstoppable Snapshot.

I'm pretty excited about it.

So essentially what I've given them is a self-diagnostic tool

to see like where they're at when it comes to the really overall.

But specific strategy, like what systems do we actually have in place?

Are they the type of systems that we want?

But here's the thing, it's built off of the principles.

It's not about you've gotta use this software, you've gotta do it this way.

You've gotta do it that way.

You've gotta have X, Y, and Z. Um, look just like this.

It has to be the picture, perfect color coordinated.

You only can use green, red, black.

Like those things like we're not doing that.

It's built off of the principles.

So your personal budget can be set up in a way, whatever works for you as long

as it files the financial principles.

Well, here's the thing.

When just having the conversation with the client, we've got office hours set up.

So once you've completed your snapshot, like you can bring it to the office hours,

and you and I work together to create a game plan, we've got it set up like once

a quarter that we do these things, but.

She was like, we need to, I wanna tackle this, I wanna tackle this.

And I feel like I should have been like, I'm nowhere near where I need to be.

I should have been farther along.

And she was talking about like just overall financially.

Like from this point when she hit this age, she thought she

should be farther along and you hear all the shoulds in there.

Right.

Well, here's the thing, like a lot of the stories we were sold.

Were sold to us, like with a different era.

We don't exist.

Like the world doesn't exist in that same way anymore.

That's not how life works.

We had the sales pitch we were given, and our parents did the

absolute best they could, right?

Like they did the best they could with the information they had, and

like all of those things are what they are, but the world's changed.

Since they learned it, the world's changed since I've learned it.

It's a continual process.

Things are continuing to change, but what changes is the

strategy, not the principle.

So how we go about these things change.

But if you have the foundational principles, like there's not a behind,

something knocks you off, you get knocked off, you get back up.

You got this, you've still got the foundation, you're gonna bounce back

that much stronger because it's not like you had to reestablish that.

Okay?

Like your foundation's still solid.

So we keep overhauling everything, looking for the perfect strategy, but

we're not looking, we're not getting any traction because we haven't

looked at the principles behind it.

So if we're jumping from budgeting app to budgeting app.

Um, I know Monarch got really popular in 2025, so if you were jumping on the

Monarch bandwagon because, oh, it's the new thing, and somebody said like,

this works well, and this does that.

I'll tell you which app I use and recommend and why I use it and recommend

it is because of the customization you can make it fit your life.

This is not about you fitting in a box.

But if we're jumping from thing to thing to thing, we're not getting to the root.

We're not looking at the principle of what the budget is designed to do.

And your expense tracking app isn't even a budget.

Like quick caveat there.

That's one thing I always get into.

So we have to have the expense tracking in place to be able to even have a budget.

But if you don't understand the principles behind expense tracking

and the habits, which can vary.

We go through phases.

Um, one of the clients we were doing, again, on the Unstoppable snapshot, it

was like, I think we need to implement the daily money minute for you because

we have to desensitize, for lack of a better word, the emotional trigger around

looking at the bank account balance.

So we wanna do it every single day.

Look at your bank account balance.

Go look at the thing you're working towards.

Is it a trip?

Is it being able to hire somebody?

Is it a new house, a new vehicle?

Like what are you looking to buy?

We're tying it in together, but you don't need to do it every day for

forever because once we've built that muscle, once we've worked on this part,

we've got that principle in place.

We can kind of relax at some.

We're doing, we're still doing the visualization work about like where

you wanna go and all of those things.

But the principle there that we were working on.

It doesn't matter what's in my bank account, I can still

achieve the thing that I want.

Like the thing that I want is still mine, doesn't matter what's in the

bank account, but until we can get to that point, you can't build a

budget because you're avoiding it jumping from thing to thing to thing.

We're trying different strategies because we haven't learned the principle of we've

gotta be able to do this without getting caught up in all of the shame and the

guilt and the mind frick that shows up.

What's wrong with me?

Why is this like that?

I made this mistake again, judging ourselves like what we've talking,

been talking about the last several weeks now all the shame, and then we

go do the another strategy, which is what we talked about last week, right?

The strategy is the how.

If I can teach you the why and the what, the principles, like, then you're good.

It doesn't matter.

Like the how can change, we can learn the new how.

Most of us weren't taught that.

Most of us weren't taught the business principles because we grew up in a

society that was creating employees.

So as an employee, we don't have a problem going to work and

getting the paycheck like work.

Work for money Balance.

Good.

Not a problem.

As an employee, you become an entrepreneur and all of a sudden

somebody's saying no or you not.

Hitting that income level means you are a failure.

Didn't mean that when you were an employee.

It just meant you were underpaid and you were frustrated about it, right?

Like we complained about that part, but you didn't feel like you were a failure.

It's different, and if we don't learn the principles behind

it, we can't get out of it.

The value created.

Value received, it, it, it's not a conditional thing.

They're not tied together.

They're separate.

We're holding more of the risks so we can have more of the reward.

I saw a real the other day that was like, um, I don't go to a

nine to five anymore, so I can.

Work my 136 hours a week, like whenever I want.

And I had to laugh.

I laughed for like five minutes straight at this because I know

I went through a phase of that.

It was like I, and I still don't like, I, I'm an entrepreneur through and through.

Like I love having my own business.

I could not think about it.

I'm so glad we have employees.

Like, let me just preface this.

This is not like bashing people who are employees.

I'm so grateful.

We have people who are employees.

We need it.

I'm so grateful.

Not for me, but I went through that phase.

You know, as well, like I was working nonstop.

We have to train our CEO brain.

We hadn't learned it, so we're learning the principles because all

of the shoulds and the guilt and the shame and all those things that

we're bringing in, because that's all the programming that we have, right.

This is what we were taught.

Go to school, get good grades, get a good paying job, and

you're gonna be set for life.

Right?

Not how the world works anymore in general for employees.

That it's not how the world works much less as entrepreneurs.

And when the shoulds build up like that, I should be doing this.

I should be better.

I should have this like you started your business because

you love it, hopefully, right?

Like you enjoy the thing.

Maybe you love the freedom that it has, it.

That, that it's provided you.

But most of us didn't go out to be like, I'm gonna go start this type of business

'cause I wanna have this type of business.

It was like, we enjoy this thing.

Oh hey, I can make a business out of it.

Or we wanted to be an entrepreneur and we went and found the thing that

we wanted to have the business about.

Okay.

But when the shoulds take over and we beat ourself up because we are not standing

on those foundational principles slowly.

The thing that you love, the thing that you love to do, that's the whole

reason why you started your business becomes like it's a checklist item.

We quit enjoying it because we get back on that shame loop of beating ourselves

up over the strategy when the, how does it matter if we know why and what we're good.

When you have those financial principles of the money flows, when you're

solid in this and you feel safe, and you feel confident, and it's not,

it's not all of the rollercoaster.

Your income can fluctuate, but you've gotten off the dang rollercoaster of all

of the guilt and the shame, the emotional rollercoaster that comes with it because

you're standing on the principles.

Not saying emotions aren't gonna come up.

They will like all the time, but we know what to do with them now.

We have to integrate and acknowledge the human, the

nervous system as an entrepreneur.

So you as the CEO, have to learn the principles.

It doesn't matter the strategy.

You're not behind.

Things have changed.

The how's always changing, right?

Like we had.

Periscope.

We've done the Facebook Live craziness.

Then I think reels were next.

Instagram reels, TikTok.

TikTok might have been first, and then Instagram reels.

I never really got on TikTok.

Instagram reels.

Let's see.

We had threads, I don't even know what Substack might be.

The latest craze.

School went through a thing for a while, like all of the strategies.

And they all still technically work.

Some of them work better for others, like your individuality, like

that's where the strategy differs, but the principles don't change.

And it's the same thing with our money.

If we stick to the financial principles, I'll help you build the specific strategy

that works for you and where you're at.

But we've gotta be solid.

You have to feel safe, clear, and confident with your finances, not

in survival mode, and be able to handle the financial principles.

All right.

I think that's where we're gonna leave that.

If you feel behind, if you're frustrated, if you feel like you should

be further along, just know this.

Like the strategy can shift and you can learn that and you can learn it

very quickly if you are solid on the financial principles that you're standing

on and the principles in general.

Again, this is the deep work that we do inside Money Mastery Academy and

the Unstoppable experience with both.

Like in that portal, you've got all of my strategy, like all, there's

four major financial systems that you should have within your business.

We've got step-by-step strategy on all of them, but it's built on the principles.

And I tell you within there, like we, this is the part you need to have.

You might want this right now.

You might want this right now.

You might want this right now.

Like this is what it could look like.

We'll figure it out for you.

When you've got the solid financial principles, you take the reins and

you run like, you've got this because we're following the rules, the

principles of why these things work.

We're not looking for the flashy strategy and we're not putting it off till later.

'cause keeping avoiding it hasn't worked this far hasn't.

All right.

That's where I wanna lead this one.

If you're ready to dive deep with me, I'll put the link in the

show notes for the Unstoppable Experience and Money Mastery Academy.

They're on the same page there.

Money Mastery Academy is the tier one of my three tier program.

It is an absolute amazing place to get started, and that's why I have it there so

that you can jump in, start to go to work, start to put these principles in place.

Of course, I'd love to welcome you into the higher tiers, but all right,

links in the show notes for that.

Would love to welcome you inside.

That's what I've got for now.

Remember, you've got this and I've got you.

We'll see you next time.

Bye for now.

Thank you so much for listening to Money Simplified.

My favorite place to hang out is on Instagram.

You can find me at Aimee Cerka to catch all the behind the scenes of my stories.

Send me a message to share your biggest takeaway or just to say hi.

I love hearing from podcast list.

Nurse, when you're ready to take action on your mindset, your money, or the

systems behind it all, I'm here for you.

Whether you're snagging a free resource, exploring a mini course, diving into the

fundamentals with Money Mastery Academy, getting in-depth support inside the

unstoppable experience, or scheduling a complimentary bookkeeping consult to

finally get hands on help with your books.

Your next step is waiting for you, Aimee Cerka.com/podcast

links has all the information, and of course, that link is hanging

out in the show notes for you.

We'll see you next time.