Are you ready to transform your money mindset and finally feel confident managing your finances? In this episode, Financial Coach Sherry Andrew joins Jeanne Willson and Doug Kohn to explore ADHD money management and financial coaching for entrepreneurs who want to build financial freedom and consistency.

Discover how to manage money with ADHD, create smart budgeting strategies, and overcome money shame while building a profitable and balanced business. Sherry shares practical budgeting tips for ADHD adults, guidance for managing variable income and taxes, and steps to achieve financial empowerment for women through better organization and mindful money habits.

This episode helps you build consistent income as an entrepreneur and find peace with your finances through coaching for financial freedom.

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Welcome to Blueprints for Brilliance Coaching Insights, a

podcast by coaches for coaches.

Our guests share their hard one wisdom to help you grow your coaching

business and create a life of success.

So get ready to unlock the blueprints to your success.

Welcome everyone to today's episode.

I am thrilled to have you here and I'm also thrilled

to have Sheri Andrew with us.

She is a financial coach.

Her company is Money Mindset, so I can't wait to learn more about that.

So welcome to the show, Sheri.

It's lovely to have you.

Thank you so much for having me.

I'm looking forward to this conversation.

It's gonna be good.

So let's start out with, um, how did you become a financial coach?

How was that journey for you?

It wasn't even on my radar.

I didn't know the profession existed.

I was just going along, doing my thing, working in factory life as

a supervisor, working shift work.

And then one day, almost 17 years in, somebody decided that I didn't have a job.

Anymore and got notified on a Monday morning and went through all of the

emotions, shock, overwhelm, stress, and then quickly pivoted to, okay,

things have to change with our money pretty quickly because our household

income just dropped significantly.

So what can we do?

And before I got fired, I thought we were budgeting.

What we were really doing was tracking our spending, and I, either a blessing

or a curse could work overtime as much as I wanted to, to help offset increased

spending so that we weren't budgeting.

I was managing my overtime to align with our spending.

And then fast forward, my husband's on a salary.

We didn't have the ability to increase income, so.

I spent a lot of time diving deep and cutting everything that wasn't

a hundred percent essential to align our income to our expenses.

And then through the, through the support of a career coach, that was the first step

into realizing how powerful coaching was.

She challenged me to think about what my next step would be, and we

were doing interviews and resumes and all of those traditional things

to get back into the working world.

After a pre-planned trip prepaid for trip to Peru to hike the Inca Trail

with a bunch of strangers, I realized on that trip that people were vacationing

for the joy of vacation and not to escape their careers and their lives.

And that was the first time that had ever crossed my radar and having

that realization with my career coach, she then has like said.

What does that look like for you?

What is something that's a career that you enjoy?

And I'm like, I don't know.

I really enjoying this money stuff, learning about it.

Is there a career in that?

And I immediately dismissed it and she's like, no, no, no.

We're gonna do some homework.

So I did the homework and found first financial coun counseling and then

financial coaching, and decided to take the leap and invested in some

education and started my business about 11 months after I got fired.

It was a journey that went fast, but I'm so grateful for it.

Yeah.

Sometimes you know, you get to the lowest lows and you think Ugh, and

then you kind of step above it and you think, well, hang on a minute.

Yeah.

What is next?

And maybe I can decide what's next.

And I love that you got a career coach.

'cause as you know, we are big fans of coaches.

We are coaches and big fans.

So, um, that was a really smart move because you can try and do a

lot of research on your own, but.

Having that person there to help guide you and to help you make decisions

that you're have trouble making on your own is, is so smart, and I love

some of the distinctions you made.

Budgeting versus tracking your money.

Two totally different things that people would think are the same,

and then people on vacation for the joy of being on vacation versus

an escape from your everyday life.

That's amazing.

I think some people do need to go to Peru perhaps to figure

out what they really wanna do.

So that's fantastic.

So tell us a little bit about, um, your business.

Tell us like what you do, what kind of people come to you for help.

How do you help them?

I focus mainly on helping folks with A DHD, having been late diagnosed myself

and going through the how am I able to manage my money successfully with A DHD.

And yes, it's a hyperfocus and a passion, but when I started to understand it more,

looking at the systems that I have and the things that I do from a financial

management perspective, they align with.

What the challenges are for many A DHD folks with their money

and focusing a lot on helping service-based entrepreneurs as well.

Because when you are an entrepreneur, that complicates the money so much more.

And then when you add in entrepreneurship with A DHD and money

management, it can really be chaotic.

Being able to have, okay, when I do this, I know I have to do this, this, and this.

Or even better, we're automating things.

So I'm helping my clients see budgeting differently so that they understand

that it's telling their money where to go and putting it where they want it to

go, versus it being about restriction and not being able to do the things.

They love you.

You can do everything, but you can't do everything right

now and you can't have seven.

Priorities when you get focused on one or two financial goals and have the systems

to make managing your money easier.

And it, it can involve tracking.

If you tell somebody with a DHD, oh, you have to track every dollar that you

spend, they're going to quickly rebel against that and it's not gonna work.

So having those strategies that allow you to spend, spend on the

things you enjoy and have some.

Rough boundaries around things, but not brick walls around your spending.

It's like, you can never do this.

I love that.

Um, my son has a DHD and, and I've tried the budgeting with

him and it just doesn't sink in.

He's like, Uhhuh, Uhhuh.

No, that's not gonna happen.

Love him to pieces.

But um, yeah, and I think he brought up a good point as well, that

budgeting doesn't have to be just.

Have to, so you can put a little bit aside for fun or for, you know, breathing room

for, you know, so you don't feel deprived.

And I think that's a really important piece of it.

A hundred percent.

Having money that you have permission to spend on whatever you want can

be so freeing and can be outside of what people think of budgeting.

And budgeting isn't about just spending on whatever I want.

Well, it can be if you've got money set aside and you automate putting a little

bit of money aside every time you get paid, and as an entrepreneur to take that

a step further, having a system where you get paid consistently, not with the ebbs

and flows of your month to month business income because that, that really is the

main source of chaos for entrepreneurs.

Like I had a great month.

I'm gonna go spend like crazy and then the next month I didn't have a

very great month, and now I'm gonna have to pinch and scrimp and not do

anything and maybe add to my debt.

It's, it's so much stress, but it doesn't have to be.

Yeah, no, I totally agree.

And, and also we work with real estate agents and it's the same thing.

You know, you can't predict how many transactions you're gonna do in a month.

So you and, and there are gonna be ebbs and flows in the different seasons.

So you absolutely have to plan for that.

And I remember reading a book and it was a story about, um, a girl whose dad was

in the construction industry and she said, you know, he would build neighborhoods.

And so when he signed a contract, we'd be living large, we'd be going

out to eat, we'd be going on trips.

Then by the end of the contract, we're eating ramen noodles again.

So, you know, it's important to, let's level that out a little bit.

Real estate agents, bless their hearts, real estate agents,

can be the most challenging.

I've worked with a couple, and it's the extreme highs and lows of income.

When you compare it to a coach who, yes, the income's gonna be variable,

but it's probably not gonna be as variable as a real estate agent who.

Maybe you get a commission of $50,000 this month and you don't get any next month,

and that can create even more challenge.

But with the right systems, it doesn't have to.

You can be in a consistent salary from your business and dare I

say, excited to do your taxes because you've got money saved.

And I focus on helping my clients save a little bit more than

we think they're gonna need.

So picture tax time, you get your tax bill and you look at what you've already

paid in installments, and you look at what you have still saved in your tax

savings account and there's $3,000 extra.

You can pay yourself a $3,000 bonus, and it's a reward for

saving and getting your taxes done.

And it's such a shift from people who typically avoid getting their taxes

done because they're worried about the stress and all the extra work, but.

If I do the taxes, I could get $3,000 or maybe even more.

That's motivating.

I love that.

Yeah.

Um, we, have you heard of the book Profit First?

Yes, I have.

I have it right here.

I haven't.

Right.

And, and it is the foundation of the system that I use for my business

financial management with some tweaks that make it easier and lower lift

and a lower time commitment than.

Then they're traditional recommendations, but they're very similar.

Yeah.

I love the idea that, you know, you pay yourself first and then it's like, oh, oh,

okay, well, but now I've gotta save enough to pay everybody else who works for me.

Right.

Good stuff.

We actually, my business partner and I joke that, um, almost all entrepreneurs

are some form of a DD or a DHD.

'cause we, we jump in, we like to get involved in all these different things.

We do have trouble staying focused on one thing.

'cause, 'cause we're enjoying ourselves so much.

So, um, yeah, there is a very high percentage of folks with A DHD that are

entrepreneurs because we do like to take a step and do things that are challenging

and we don't like to be told what to do.

And all of those things of traditional employment, rigid schedules,

they don't really work for us.

And on the financial side, there's something really powerful.

When you tell an entrepreneur with A DHD to save for taxes, cover your

business expenses, pay yourself the salary that you know you need to do to

cover the personal side, you need to earn this much on average per month.

Sometimes it's a shock because it's not much higher amount than they

anticipated, but very often they're like, okay, let me figure it out.

And then a month or two months down the road, they're

like, oh, I exceeded that by.

25%. I see it so often with my A DHD entrepreneur clients.

They're like, oh yeah, I had, um, the best month I've ever had in my business.

It's like, well, how did that happen?

Well, I, I knew what I needed to make and I got focused.

I love that.

Yeah.

Once you have that number, sometimes that's all it takes.

So tell us a little bit, you said you work with A DHD, um, clients and businesses.

Is there any other.

Commonality between them.

Percentage are women, but it's, there's not a, a strict focus

for me one way or the other.

I think it's just female entrepreneurs tend to feel more connected with me.

I do a lot of sharing in a vulnerable way on social media and help people feel

comfortable with me, which is important.

And I also feel like a lot of women have had situations where they've.

Reached out to financial experts and come away with a really bad

taste in their mouth and didn't feel comfortable asking somebody questions.

And I really want to create a safe space for people when women, specifically

to have somebody they can talk to and have those open conversations

about money, where they, they walk away feeling better about themselves,

having a clear understanding, and really feeling comfortable.

I love that we, we actually have an outsourcing program helping, um,

women outsource their bookkeeping.

And it's interesting because when we were doing the research beforehand,

we reach out to entrepreneurs to ask them, what are your challenges?

And there was a woman who is a multi seven figure business owner who said, I

don't like reaching out to my CPA because she, Mel always makes me feel stupid.

Or bad, and it was like, oh my gosh, you know, you are successful.

You shouldn't be not afraid of this person, but afraid to talk to them

or uncomfortable talking to them.

So, um, it's great that there are people out there like you who can help

other entrepreneurs feel good about it.

Uh, I failed to introduce my co-host.

I apologize.

Doug Cone is here.

It's lovely to see you.

Doug.

Hello, Sherry.

Hi, Jeannie.

Nice to connect with you.

Yeah, I didn't know if you had any questions for Sherry.

I I have one question.

Um, you just made a comment that I would summarize by

saying people are goal oriented.

Do you have a particular style or strategy as to how to get someone who is a DHD

to change the way they think and say, yeah, I'm gonna work towards that goal?

Or do they usually re, are they very receptive because

there's a trust factor in that?

I'm sure it can be a challenge for you.

I'd love to hear a little more about that.

Yeah.

A lot of it is accountability when they know, I've told Sherry I'm going

to do this thing, or I've put out into the world or told their spouse

that they're gonna do something.

But really.

This sounds a little old me wouldn't have believed this.

This sounds so cheesy, but when you have somebody that believes that

you can achieve something, you are much more likely to work towards

that goal and stay motivated.

And I often see with my clients.

When we first start working together, we sit down and we talk about their goals and

what's important to them, and then we work to put a plan together and we talk about

the systems that go along with the plan.

And the first thing is having that clarity.

That clarity lifts a weight from their shoulders.

They're like, oh, this is a reasonable plan to manage my

money that I believe will work.

But then the extra piece of it is like, you're believing me that this will work.

There's a financial expert.

That believes that I can achieve this plan that gets me to my desired

financial goal at a specific timeline.

And that is so motivating for somebody to be like, oh, you think I can do this?

Wait, let's figure out how to do this.

And then, yeah, checking in and meeting regularly with my clients, mainly I work

with clients for at least nine months where we're meeting consistently because

that's what somebody with a DH ADHD needs.

They don't just need a plan and, uh.

Go forth in good luck.

They need that support and they need somebody to be there for them when it

goes off the rails, not if it goes off the rails, 'cause it will go off the rails.

We lose our dopamine when something's two, three months old and we

stop getting excited about it.

But when we've got that, oh wait, I've invested in this and I'm still working

towards this goal and I'm still working with my coach, I'm gonna keep going and

work through the hard parts and figure out what adjustments need to happen.

Because Sherry's gonna ask me about this, so I need to make sure that I do it.

She has a unique set of systems in her business that help her remember what

you said you were gonna do, and a unique set of reminders in her phone for.

If you said you were going to reach out and follow up with her every Monday, she's

got a reminder if she doesn't hear from you by Tuesday and she's gonna reach out.

I love that.

So can you tell us about maybe some of your clients that you've worked with?

We don't need any names, obviously, but you know, maybe where they

were when they came to you and then after you worked with them.

What happens, the biggest shift is in how they feel about their money.

And that shift happens surprisingly quickly in the first month or two.

And those feelings go from shame, stress, overwhelm, and I've actually

had two women that I've met with in the last three or four weeks openly

ask me, am I too big of a mess?

Is there any coming back from this?

And they were in very different situations.

For me personally, I don't think there's anybody that's in too big of a mess.

There's solutions, there's options, but it's having that shift from

that overwhelm and embarrassment and shame to clarity and confidence and

avoidance to seeing your real numbers.

Because we're in, we're, when we're in avoidance mode, we create.

Things because our brains go a million miles an hour.

I probably have $20,000 worth of debt.

It was 10 last time I looked, but I'm sure it's doubled at least by now.

And then a month later, you've doubled it again in your mind, and then you go

and you look, you're like, okay, it is more, it's 13, but it's not 20 or 30.

So pulling back and looking at your numbers, while it feels stressful

when you're in avoidance mode, it can often be like, oh, it's not as

bad as I built it up in my mind.

I love that.

Um, so if, uh, the people who are listening, if they're thinking, yes, I

feel like a mess, and I'm grateful that Sherry said I'm not, and then I'm not,

you know, beyond hope, what could be, what would be one thing or one step forward

that you could suggest to them to just get them started on that more positive path?

The first step really is seeing what your true reality is.

Right now, so you stop catastrophizing it in your mind.

Set a timer for 10 minutes, 15 minutes.

Sit down with a notebook or with a spreadsheet, whichever way

you prefer to go and look at exactly where you are right now.

Write down all of your account balances, and then go and write

down all of your debt balances and then just take a deep breath.

That's it.

That's all you have to do.

That's created that actual picture of where you are versus.

What you've been thinking about where you are, and that can be the

first weight that lifts from your shoulders to be like, okay, I'm here.

And then we can take it a step further.

We've started something, we've taken the first step, okay, how can

I make these things more positive?

How can I increase my savings, decrease my debt?

And A DHD brain have a very good way of figuring things out.

I love that.

Yeah.

And I think sometimes we don't recognize, especially in business, sometimes

things that we've signed up for.

That we don't need anymore.

Maybe it was a $25 a month something, or even a $7 a month something, and

you start, you know, chipping away at those things and all of a sudden, oh

wow, I've now got extra money in hand.

So, yeah.

I love that.

Any final questions from you, Doug, before I wrap up?

No, no.

It's wonderful.

Very informative.

Yeah, Sherry sounds like she's doing some great things in the

world for some people who need it, so we appreciate coaches like you.

Um, so, uh, second to last question, how would people who are listening,

like I said, who are thinking she, I gotta reach out to Sherry,

she, Sherry's gonna help me.

I know she can.

Somebody's gonna believe in me.

So what would be the best way for them to reach out to you?

They can connect with me on social media and then through social media

they can find my website and all of those things if they want to

explore options and connect and.

When somebody is considering working with me, it's very important to me to

make sure that we are aligned, that we've got that good vibe, we are gonna support

each other, we're gonna be a good fit.

So the first step, if somebody's interested in working together,

is to have a, a free chat.

Just no pressure.

There's no homework.

We're just talking about where you're at, where you're at, seeing if we're a good

fit, and then if we are talking next step.

So I'm sure you'll share.

The link to the My Instagram account in the comments, but it's

money mindset, and then F as in Co financial, and then C as in coach.

So money Mindset, FC on Instagram.

So come and find me, and I share a lot about my day-to-day life and my stories.

I'm vulnerable, I share.

When I screw up with my money, I share about so many different things and client

wins and situations because I just want people to know that they're not alone.

We live in.

A world where social media shows us the highlight reels of so many

people's lives, and people come to me like, I'm so far behind this person's.

I have the unique ability to see where people are financially.

And I know that it's not a success highlight for everybody.

Lots of people have challenges and making people understand that they're

not alone, and that having shame around money is only holding them back.

And no matter who you are, where you're at, you don't suck with money.

You just haven't.

Found the strategies that work for you to be successful

with managing your money yet.

I love that yet.

And I also love that you pointed out, um, because you know, we put our best

face forward typically on social media.

So you know, yes you might see someone go on this amazing trip, but you

don't know that they're $20,000 in debt 'cause they went on this trip.

So, you know, it's not always what it seems to be.

So I love that you are open and honest and yes, we will put links

to your Instagram for sure, and your website and things in the show notes.

So people can reach out to you real quickly.

And then last question I have for you is, if you could provide

the world one tip to make it a better place, what would that be?

That tip would be to not judge others for how they're spending their money or

living their life because we don't know.

What somebody's true life experience is.

And you might see somebody buying something that you think is ridiculous.

And we tend to default to thinking about, well, why would they do that?

That doesn't make sense.

But we don't know.

Maybe that was a lifelong dream, or maybe they spent more in a

car than you could ever imagine.

But that car connects them to an experience with a relative in the past,

or like everybody has different priorities with how they spend their money.

And if you just focus on yours.

You are gonna be a lot less stressed and the world will be a much better place.

That goes for a lot of things.

Focus on what you're doing, not what other people are doing.

That's great.

Exactly.

This has been so fun and educational and, um, you've inspired us all to, to make

sure that we're looking after our money and that we have somebody in our corner.

So thank you so much for joining us today.

Thank you for having me.

It's been such a pleasure.

Thanks for joining us today on Blueprints for Brilliance Coaching Insights.

We hope you're leaving this episode with inspiration to take your coaching

business and your life to the next level.

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