127: Wealthy and Fulfilled with Portia Jackson
Everyone can be great with money and deserves a wealthy and fulfilled life. This is one of the core beliefs of today's guest, Portia Jackson. Portia will admit that she is obsessed with all things Enneagram, money, and manifestation.
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Show Notes
Everyone can be great with money and deserves a wealthy and fulfilled life.
This is one of the core beliefs of today’s guest, Portia Jackson. Portia will admit that she is obsessed with all things Enneagram, money, and manifestation. After leaving her corporate job as a rocket scientist, she completed a certification in Personal Financial Planning, got her CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ Professional designation, and helped hundreds of Fortune 500 employees as a Financial Wellness Coach at PricewaterhouseCoopers. After leaving corporate, Portia transformed her love of personal finance, organization, and personal development into a step-by-step system to help online business owners take the money their business makes and use it to be, do, and have whatever they want in life.
I met Portia a few months ago when I heard her speak about wealth management and how it can work with your personality. As a coach and financial planner, she brings a wealth of experience when discussing the importance of money, wealth, and coaching. I think you’ll appreciate her down-to-earth approach to money and the sense of ease and grace she brings to an often taboo topic.
Topics covered
- Portia’s journey from aerospace engineer to Certified Financial Planner for entrepreneurs
- Highlights and challenges during the transition of becoming a coach
- Finding the magic in your unique approach to coaching your clients
- Giving yourself room to integrate your experiences
- The differences between types of financial professionals
- Money mindset work is so empowering
- The best time to start thinking about wealth building is now
- Why coaching allows Portia to go deeper than a traditional financial advisor
- How the Enneagram helps Portia’s clients to reach their wealth goals
- Why it’s critical to have a customized wealth plan that’s aligned with your personality
Resources mentioned
- Portia Jackson’s Website
- Schedule Your Free Wealth Health Call with Dr. Portia, CFP®
- Coach with Clarity | Episode 101: My Favorite Coaching Assessments
- Coach with Clarity Collective
- Coach with Clarity Quiz | Discover Your Coaching Style!
- Coach with Clarity Podcast Facebook Group
- Connect with Me on Instagram
- Email Me: info@coachwithclarity.com
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TRANSCRIPT
Well hello, my friend. Welcome to the Coach with Clarity Podcast. My name is Lee Chaix McDonough and as always, I'm so honored that you are joining me for today's episode. And we have something really special in store for you. I am delighted to introduce you to my friend and colleague Portia Jackson. I met Portia a few months ago, actually, we are in the same mastermind program. And I heard her speak to a roomful of hundreds of people about wealth management and how it can work with your personality. And because I knew that she was trained as a coach and financial planner, and brought with her a wealth of experience, I could think of no one better to bring on to the Coach with Clarity Podcast to talk to us about the importance of money, wealth and coaching. So I think you are going to be absolutely delighted by our conversation. I know I was. And I really appreciate Portia’s down to earth, laid back approach when it comes to all things money, because as we know, money can be something of a taboo topic, and Portia just approaches it with a sense of ease and grace and immediately makes people feel right at home. So a little bit about Portia, she will admit that she is obsessed with all things related to personal finance, designing your fulfilled life and the Enneagram, which we will also talk about during our interview. She has transformed her love of personal finance, organization and personal development into a step by step system to help online business owners take the money their business makes and use it to be, do, and have whatever they want in life. Doesn't that sound amazing? I think so. So let's get right to it. I am thrilled to share with you my conversation with Portia Jackson.
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Lee: Well, hello, Portia, thank you so much for being a guest on the Coach with Clarity Podcast.
Portia: Hi, Lee, thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here.
Lee: I feel the same way, I have been looking forward to our conversation for a while because I absolutely love your spin on financial coaching, and how we bring personalities into that. And we're gonna get to that in our conversation today, for sure. But let's start things off with learning a little bit more about you and the work that you do for the world.
Portia: Yeah, so I'm a certified financial planner and wealth coach for entrepreneurs. So coaches, course creators, agency owners, people in the online space, and essentially, I help them get their wealth plan together so that they can live their dream life, right? Making that dream life, their reality without having to really be like, tied to their business all the time, or having to become like this financial expert to figure out “What do I do with the money once I start making it?” And I do that through my signature, Wealthy and Fulfilled Blueprint.
Lee: Excellent, I definitely want to dive in and talk more about that. Because lately, I have been thinking a lot about why am I in business? And business, of course means you know, bringing in revenue and making profit. And then it's what do I want to do with that money that I'm bringing in? How do I want it to support myself and my family and my community? And I imagine that's definitely part of a wealth plan. So I'm really excited to talk more about that with you today.
Portia: Absolutely.
Lee: I'm curious. So have you always done this kind of work? Has financial coaching always been your thing?
Portia: So I'm gonna say yes and no. Yes because when you look back over your life, I can look back and see that I have been a financial coach, like literally, since I was like six. I was that kid that would read a book, but back in the day when we used to actually go to libraries. And I learned about like, this envelope system about saving and spending and things. So I had that and was like teaching my family how to do it. So yes, I have been a financial coach my entire life. But no, because classically, I was actually, my education is in aerospace engineering. So, I went all the way through my bachelor's, master's, PhD, got that in engineering, worked in the aerospace industry for years. And during that time, I just had this very strong pull that I was meant for something more. I enjoyed what I did, I worked for a great company, I had great coworkers. But it was just that feeling, where it’s like, I’m meant for something more.
And even to solidify that during that time, when I was working as an engineer, I was also teaching financial classes and personal financial classes for my church, for my sorority, because that's just what I love to do. And so with that, I was like, I want to go past what I was just teaching from books, and really want to get into it. So I was taking some classes to get my certification. And in the midst of that was just networking and meeting people. They're like, “Well, you might as well become a Certified Financial Planner.” I'm like, “Well, what is that?” I had no idea. Like when I was growing up, it was doctor, lawyer, engineer. It was never anything with wealth, even though that's what my natural inclination was towards. And it all worked out, like having a background as an engineer really gets me comfortable with numbers and data and really just being solution focused versus just rather than just looking at the problem. So long story short, I started off as an engineer, became a certified financial planner, in the midst of that with the career change, it's a big drop in income from going from, you know, basically a rocket scientist to a financial planner, bridged that gap by learning online marketing. I ran a multiple six figure digital marketing agency for a while for coaches, for online business owners, narrowed that down to financial planners. And then I was like, let's just smoosh all this experience in this 20 page resume that looks like a plate of spaghetti into what I do today, which is Wealthy and Fulfilled. And I'm so excited about what I'm doing right now. I love my clients. I love what I do.
Lee: What an incredible journey. I absolutely love that while on the surface, it may look like what you went from being a literal rocket scientist to a financial planner. But when we go further back, your love of wealth and educating people and helping people started at a very early age. So really this it feels almost like it's just coming full circle.
Portia: Absolutely. Yeah. And then really, when I look back to the underlying motivations of why I was doing everything, I love teaching, I love being a tutor. In college, I was a tutor for different things. And that's why I wanted to get my PhD. I wanted to be a professor because I thought you just teach people all day. Turns out you actually write grants and do a lot of research all day, which was fun, but not really what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. So that teaching component has been the underlying thread of everything as well, kind of running concurrent with the wealth building. So it's always been there. It's just it's, it's poked its head out in different ways along the way.
Lee: Yeah. You know what I find so interesting is that most coaches I know and most coaches that I work with, whether in the collective or my certification program, many of them come into coaching as a second career, or even a third career or maybe a fourth career. But coaching doesn't typically tend to be the starting point, it tends to be something we evolve into. And that transition from the previous career into coaching can sometimes be challenging for people. I'm curious what that actual transition was like for you. And if there were any particular high moments or tough moments that you went through, as you were moving into coaching full time.
Portia: Yeah, a bunch of the up and down. I mean, it looked like the stock market, right? At any given time, it goes up, it goes down. The high moments for me were along the way, understanding what coaching really was. And my first run of being a coach is actually as a business coach. And looking back, I can tell why that was so difficult because it's out of alignment with what my real motivations and what I wanted to do was. So that, I would say that that was a high and a low, it was a high because that's where I actually learned my coaching skills, right? Active listening, and, you know, pulling things out of people not necessarily telling people what to do, which is my natural inclination. But it was also a low because like, why is this feeling so difficult when I feel like I was called to this? Well, I was. It was just the wrong lane of coaching that I was called to. And then also the other bump along the road was the comparison-itis right? The imposter syndrome that you have from looking at everybody else. And it's like, wow, like even listening to like, sample coaching calls was like, “Wow, she was eloquent.!” Exactly. Eloquent, elegant, I'm just going to make up my own words here. And that's not really my style. I'm just definitely more. You know, like, let's get to the heart of the matter. I'm more of a strategist, right? So I'm more of that Strategic Coach, according to your quiz, which it told me. If you haven't opted in for that, you should, because I thought that was, I was like, “Ahhh! This makes so much sense.” But when you're comparing to someone who might not be that strategic type of coach, you start to feel like your style is not good enough. You start to feel like you aren't good enough. And then it's like, is this what I really meant to do? So just navigating that journey, especially coming from a very academic background, where it's like, you take these classes, you get this degree. Now you're getting into coaching, and it's not necessarily so laid out about you do these, you do this, or you ask these questions, and your clients gonna get this result, or your business is going to look that way. And I would say that was probably the biggest hurdle I had to get over was, it's not so black and white anymore. And as Enneagram one, which I'm sure we'll get into in a little bit, I like it to just be black and white, no gray area, everything laid out. And that's not exactly, actually that's not exactly at all, how entrepreneurship goes, and especially coaching once we're getting into all the nuances of being a very proficient coach. And so working my way through that was, was bumpy, but at the same time kind of gave me the chops I have today to work through some of that with my clients as well.
Lee: I think you've really hit on something that's so important, which is just how nuanced coaching is. And I know a lot of coaches and myself included, especially when I first started out, I wanted a guide. I wanted to know exactly what to do and what to say when, and it came from the perspective of wanting to serve my clients powerfully.
Portia: Exactly, mmhmm.
Lee: I wanted to show up and give them their money's worth, and make sure that they were getting what they needed from the relationship. And so I was looking outside myself to, you know, the top 10 coaching questions, and here's how to structure things and…
Portia: Have you seen my email inbox? That’s where I started too.
Lee: See and I think a lot of us do. And so that's why I'm really appreciative of you sharing your journey and your story because it normalizes the fact that it's, this is something that we crave. I think as humans, we like having that structure, we like knowing what's coming next. And the trick and coaching is to figure out how to blend that external knowledge, all of the templates and guides and toolkits which I not only do I appreciate, I mean, I create them for my own clients. But I never want them to feel like they are stuck or limited by them. I want them to be a springboard so that they find ways to incorporate their own personality, their intuition, their experiences, so it becomes uniquely theirs. And that's where we really move away from that black and white and into the gray.
Portia: Absolutely.
Lee: And that gray can feel a little overwhelming sometimes. And yet that's exactly where we need to be as coaches.
Portia: Absolutely it is in the gray where I took all these different pieces that like you said before don't seem to fit together as far as like the background and create my own little piece so I'm not a full on financial adviser. I’m not a full on coach. I'm not even a full on like personality and like life coach type specialists, like it's all come together in a way that works for me. And it actually really benefits my clients more than it could if I was saying “Here's your plan,” and that's it or “Here are these questions I'm going to ask you when,” that's it or other things that I thought I wanted. Having to figure out what my style was and how that works with what my clients need and what they want is really where like the magic, you know, kind of happened. And it's just like, wow, this is way better than I thought it could be. Even my little template in mind that likes to put everything in a box. Having that little messiness in the middle is actually what forced me to figure out how to make this messiness, the messiness I can appreciate and how it can benefit the client. At the end of the day, we're all looking for results, right? We're looking for that transformation. And so that that's, it's it's been a journey, but it's been one where I can look back and be like, “I'm glad I went through that.”
Lee: Yes, it is amazing how that messy middle can transform into that magical middle, when you give yourself permission to be uncomfortable, and to figure things out, and to release that desire to want to be perfect or do everything right, and just understand that this is all part of the growth process. And it's natural to want to know exactly where we're going and how to get there. But sometimes we do need to have some adventures and have some tangents and, and all of those experiences are going to help us figure out who we are and how we want to serve our people. And it sounds like that has been your experience as well.
Portia: Absolutely, even my first experience as a financial advisor. Like officially after leaving my engineering job, because I had to leave the job because I need to get the three years of full experience to become certified and I couldn't do both at the same time. The first job was at one of those bigger broker dealer that you know, you would probably see them on TV. I was like this is out of alignment. This is not what I want. But it wasn't a mistake, because it helped me learn, this is what I don't want. Now, it took me a few years to kind of reframe that to be a positive thing. So I'm like, “Aw, man, what a waste. I can't believe I threw away this engineering career to try this passion or whatever,” right? But every stop along the way has led me into what I love. So I don't see anything as being a mistake, or an error or something I regret. But again, that took some time to get there to reframe that. So especially for the career changes, nothing is wasted, nothing's wasted.
Lee: I agree wholeheartedly, I believe very generally, that you cannot make a mistake. That these experiences are here to support us, to teach us to help us grow. Now, when we're in the middle of those experiences, or immediately following them, to your point, we may not be ready to make meaning of that. And to integrate it sometimes we have to sit in our feelings for a while and be sad or disappointed or angry. And if we try to rush that process and rush into making meaning, then we can actually bypass a lot of that integration that needs to happen. So I think the fact that it takes time is actually a good thing. And that it's absolutely okay to be in that uncomfortable place, even though it doesn't feel good. That's a part of the process as well. And once we work our way through that, then we can look back with some distance and some perspective and see how whatever that moment in time was, it was happening for us, not to us.
Portia: Exactly. Yeah, I love. One of my favorite shows is Chopped, even though I'm not, I'm not a great cook. I mean, I can follow recipe, but it's not my, it's not my inclination. But one of the things on there was like, when people cook a steak, they're like me, take it off the heat, you have to like, sit there and let it rest. Like you don't want to cut into it right away. And like that's how it is with some of these experiences, right? Like you're coming off the fire. You're like, “Whoa, like, whew. That was, that was a tough situation.” But sometimes you have to just let it sit, right? Before you like kind of cut into it and dissect and try to figure out what does this mean for you, because you could end up losing some, I guess the juicy, the juiciness of like the situation right? Sorry, if you guys are like vegan or vegetarian, it just doesn't work the same to say that I'm talking about like, bok choy. But you have to like, let it sit there and rest. And even with my experiences and even with my clients when we're talking about their relationship with money and things like that. I'm like sometimes you have to just go through the situation and come back to it later to figure out what was the lesson? Because you might not know right away that might just be one part of this big ol long string that's going to be stopping at different points before you look back and realize “I needed that to happen because I met this one person,” or “I found about found out about this one term,” or “I needed our paths to cross.” And this quote unquote, “mistake” air quotes that you can't see me, actually is what aligned that for the next step. And then that next step led me here. So it's just one of those things we just can't plan it. Like as much as I love being a control freak. It just doesn't always work out that way.
Lee: Yeah. Sometimes we just have to trust the process, which is not easy,
Portia: Yes, it’s not.
Lee: And so necessary. And I'm gonna use that metaphor about the steak because I really liked that, at least for my carnivore clients.
Portia: Yes! I love steaks.
Lee: Yeah, me too. Oh, a good medium rare steak. Yes, please. All right, but let me ask you because we've used a couple of terms already. We've talked about financial coaching. We talked about financial planning, financial advising, and I want to make sure that we're all on the same page. So, from your perspective, I'm curious, how do you define financial coaching, and how does that differ from some of the other approaches out there? Planning, advising and so forth? Like, what are we really talking about?
Portia: Yeah, so I call myself a financial coach, because I do have that financial background as a financial planner, I also have that life planning background or life coaching background, so I am a certified coach as well. I also bring in the Enneagram, and the personality perspective of it, as well as like the mindset part, because to me, I feel like you need all four components to really create a wealth plan, that is one you're going to stick to, and one that's motivating, and also is going to get you the results that you're looking for.
However, in that I have let go of all of my licenses as far as selling products or anything, because I also like the fact that I can tell my clients, this is a true unbiased, I don't wanna say recommendation, but guidance, and it's not altered because I'm gonna get a commission, or anything off of that. There's nothing wrong with that, as long as people are upfront about that, but that is my personal view. I learned that I like to educate and empower people.
Now there are financial advisors, anybody can call themselves a financial advisor. So I always say to look out if you are looking to work with someone to look for their credentials, right? So look to see are they a CFP, which is a Certified Financial Planner. Do they have any other type of credentials, there's going to be certified, you know, divorce specialist and private wealthspan specialists and things like that. Some of them will get paid through commissions, if they're selling you a product. Ohers might get paid from what's called AUM, assets under management, meaning if you invest a million, they might, their fee might be, let's say, 1%. So every year, they're getting paid $10,000 to manage your $1 million. So you'll hear this as financial advisor, wealth manager, all sorts of different things, life insurance consultant. So it really just depends on what their specialty is. My specialty is helping people look at the big picture of what their wealth building framework is, so that they can understand which of those products to put plug into it. And so that's why I call myself more of a coach, because I'm here to guide you and walk alongside you to create that plan, as opposed to just saying, here's the one way to do things. I'm like, no, no, it might be one way. And I'd be the best way for that person. Maybe that doesn't work for your situation. So that's where the coaching part comes in from the financial side.
Lee: That makes a lot of sense. And I think a lot of people, myself included, didn't know at first that anybody could call themselves a financial advisor, much like anybody can call themselves a coach. And so it really is on the client, on the consumer to do their due diligence to check education and training. And, and that's not to say that there aren't wonderful coaches out there who aren't certified. Certification is one path. And it's one marker of someone who knows what they're doing. But at the, really, it comes down to asking questions, getting to know the people you're investing in and wanting to partner with, to make sure that they have the chops to support you, but also that there's that connection there. When you're working with someone on their wealth plan, that's a very intimate experience talking about money, and debt, and future planning. That's really personal. And so I would think also, in addition to making sure this person knows what they're doing, there also needs to be that connection, so that you feel safe and comfortable talking about all of these tough topics with your financial coach.
Portia: Absolutely. And that's why I value the coach training and the education that I've gone through. Because that's not necessarily what you're taught when you're learning to be a financial planner, or on the process of getting certified. Yes, you have the experience. But a lot of times it will be. And what I've even seen looking for my own advisor before I was one was, here's our signature program, we're going to stick you into this program. It's like well, what about what I like and what I fear and what I desire, you know, things like that. And so for me, since people are more willing to talk about their sex life than they are about their money for those reasons that you mentioned, it comes with a lot of shame, embarrassment, fear, anger, regret, like all like the negative emotions are a very short distance away from a conversation talking about money. So learning how to go in there with empathy, with a neutrality where it's like this is a safe space, asking the questions that brings it out of people is what I'm most proud of when it comes to what we do here at Wealthy and Fulfilled because when I look over testimonials, and just what clients have said, in the past and present, is that how comfortable they feel talking about this. And for me, I'm very proud of that because that's not something you typically hear in the financial space. Usually it's like, “Oh, my husband takes care of that.” “Oh, my,I don't even touch the money, my wife takes care of that” or like, “Oh, I haven't looked at my money for years. We just assume we're okay because our accounts not at zero.” And it's just like having these conversations where you can have that openness and not feel judged or feel ashamed. Or even if you do feel that, being able to work through that and get to the root of that is very, very powerful. Because once we can get to the root of it, like everything just like blows open and like the progress that people can make, once they get past these internal beliefs and fears, and I don't want to say blocks, but just challenges that they will have, when it comes to money, talking about money, what they learned about money, it just opens up, like every bit. Like the whole possibility of what they want in life just just becomes more real and more attainable. And then that's when you can see the light bulb click on you're like, “Yes, let's do it.” And that's so exciting.
Lee: That's so true. And one thing I have found in my own money journey, is that how I was showing up for money was how I was showing up in other ways of my life too. In my relationships, in my business. And so when I was doing some of the true healing work around money, even though I was focused on this one sphere of my life, it bled into every other aspect of my life. And so it is so powerful to rewrite some of those beliefs that haven't necessarily supported us around money, because then there's this ripple effect. And all of a sudden, you see not just what's possible with your money, but you see what's possible with your life.
Portia: Absolutely.
Lee: And it is really empowering.
Portia: It is, because I mean, at the end of the day, the things that we use, the tools that are used to get through money blocks, or the limiting beliefs are the same. It's the same process to get through any belief that's holding you back, and [unintelligible] your health or your marriage, or parenting or your business, it's the same process. It's just, I feel like it's a little bit easier to see with money because it's a little bit more tangible. But at the end of the day, it's all the same thing.
Lee: It is. And so let's talk a little bit about timing, then. Because I know, I am one of the people who's guilty saying, “Well, I'm not really sure I need to be super focused on wealth management or wealth planning, because I'm still actively trying to make money. And so I'll just handle that later once I actually have money to invest.” But um, I'm wondering if that's really the best route like, is it ever too soon to start, you know, really thinking about your wealth plan and doing that kind of work with a financial coach?
Portia: Yeah, I say the best time to start thinking about wealth building is always now, right? It's like the whole analogy with the tree, like the best time to plant a tree. It's like, you know, 20 years ago, it's like, the second best time is now. And the reason is, a lot of times people think, “Oh, I have to have a certain level of money.I need to have a certain amount in my bank account. I need to be out of debt before I go approach someone.” And I think all that is false. And I don't think it's people's fault that they believe that because that's kind of what is taught in mainstream media. It's like you get out of debt, and then you invest, or you do this, and then you do the next step. It's like, well, actually, a lot of times, it's gonna work better for you, if you get clear on what your goals are. And then that plan for some people might be sequentially, some people might be okay, yeah, you do need to finish, you know, do one part of your plan, and then the next.
But the thing is, it's almost like saying, “Let me get myself fit and then I'm gonna go ahead and get a personal trainer.” It's like, but do you actually really know how to get yourself fit? Like, do you actually know the correct foods to eat, the correct combination, the timing, the exercises, like you know, things like that. It's like you could try to figure it out but you'll probably have much faster results and better results and a better experience, if you're working with that personal trainer.
And I feel the same thing works for financial coaching. It's like, yes, you might feel like you need to get all this other stuff done first before you work with someone. But what if you actually have that whole picture in place first, and then you can start to see what you're doing now, how that fits into there. If you're a beginning coach, just trying to get your first 5-10k month it's like, “Oh, I need to get 10k a month before I work with someone.” Nope. What if we actually design your business in a way that is going to help you get to your financial plans faster than maybe how you thought you're supposed to get to your 5 or 10k month. So it really all fits together but I say it starts with getting that plan in place first, and then everything fits into that plan, as opposed to saying, “Oh, I need this one piece first, or this piece, and then I'll do it.” I feel like that's a little bit backwards of an approach.
Lee: No, that makes sense. It's like you don't wait to get healthy before you go see your doctor.
Portia: Exactly.
Lee: No, your doctor can be a part of your, your plan, part of your approach. And so I can see how that's the same with money. And it also goes right back to what we were talking about earlier about why it's so important to have a sense of trust and respect with the financial coach you're working with, because especially if you're starting earlier, there may be still those challenges to work through, some guilt or shame around, “Am I making enough?” or I” have debt.” And so that doesn't have to be a block to working with someone. And in fact, the earlier you get in the better.
Portia: Yeah, and that's, again, that's I think that's a drawback. I mean, I love working within financial services. But I do think that's one negative of the industry as a whole is like, a lot of times you will go to an advisor, and they will say, “Oh, well, you need to have this amount of personal, you know, assets to work with me.” And I'm like, “Well, how are we supposed to get there?” It's kind of like when you're a freshman in college, and you're trying to get an internship, they're like, “Well, what experience do you have?” I was like, “Well, none! I'm a freshman in college, like, I'm here to get the experience!” Right? And I feel like that's why financial coaching is so important. Because how do you think you're gonna get to that point where you have a half a million dollars in assets? I mean, outside of having maybe a 401k from work or something? Or you just stumbled into it? Why not have the plan, getting to that 500k? What if you can get there faster? And that's where I think everyone should have access to a financial coach, to help them get to that point. And not just the people who already have the money. It's like, you know, only healthy people get to see a doctor like, well, what kind of system is that? That doesn't make any sense.
Lee: Exactly. One of the things I really love most about your approach, Portia, is that, as you've mentioned, it's not one size fits all, it's really attuned to the individual person in front of you. And one of the things that you really focus on in your work is the influence of personality, and how our personality affects our relationship with money. And, specifically, I know that you bring the Enneagram into a lot of what you do. We've talked in a past episode about some of my favorite personality assessments, and I've mentioned the Enneagram. I'll drop a link to that past episode in the show notes. But I would love to hear more about your work with the Enneagram and specifically, how you find it serves your role as a financial coach.
Portia: Yes, so I love the Enneagram. I got exposed to it a few years ago. And when I got my specific type of an Enneagram One, I was like, this makes so much sense. And then of course, the next step was I made my husband take it. And so we found out his number. And I was like, that also makes sense. And then I started to dive into where our synergies are, where our areas of conflict are. And I was like, “Oh, my goodness, like they had been a fly on the wall in our house, like this makes so much sense!” And then I was starting to think, I'm like, wait a minute, if this is working for me, it's working for us as a couple because it literally improved our relationship, like within a couple of weeks, because we were understanding our key motivations and drivers and things. I was like, “I wonder what it's going to do for my clients.” So I just kind of dabbled in it for a little bit to test it out on a few and I'm like, “This is amazing!” And then I was like, “That's it. That is what we're going to. That's the first step I'm going to do with all my clients. This. Moving forward.”, And that's the first step of our Blueprint is understanding your money personality through the lens of your Enneagram number. And I just think it's so important because we are all so different, you know, and it's not that you can classify billions of people to nine numbers, but just the nuances of everything that goes into the Enneagram really does impact your view of money. So for example, as a One, I, as we talked about, I love things that are very black and white, my core motivation is to be right, to be you know, just. To just do everything correctly. So give me a good color coded spreadsheet, and I am on my way. However, my husband who is an Enneagram Seven, so the more fun loving type, the adventurous, I just want to seek out, like “how can I get the most out of life.” He's looking at this color coded spreadsheet, like, I know, you're excited about this, and I care about this because I care about you. But this spreadsheet right here is not doing anything for me. So if I'm trying to get him on board to save or invest or something, the motivation is not going to come through a number projection of where we're going to be in 10 years, it's going to be for him the motivation of, “Hey, when we save this much, you know, per month or whatever we're doing, it's now going to give us the options to do this vacation, this home addition, this investment property or this whatever.” It's like he's motivated by the options and not being boxed in by anything.
So understanding that now we can approach the same goal; saving and building our wealth, investing, but I'm coming from a “We should be doing this type of thing.” and he's coming from the perspective of “This gives us options.” Different motivations, same goals.
And that has helped tremendously with couples. Because I can tell you right now, one of the top three reasons people get divorced is because of money issues and communication issues. And the Enneagram has really helped my clients really work through that and see things from the other person's perspective of, “Oh, you're a Six! I get why you want to have 3 years of savings in our account, when you know, Portia’s saying maybe we only need 6 to 12 months. It’s because you value security, right?” And so if we can approach that and talk about that, from an understanding, empathetic point of view, versus an accusatory of, “Ugh, why are you always trying to save this much money! And we could be doing…” Like the conflict thing, or conflicting point of view, really helps us to have – [phone vibrates].
Really helps us to have more fruitful conversations when it comes to money. More productive conversations when it comes to money, especially when it comes to couples, and doing money together. Because it's very rare that people have married, that people marry someone who's exactly like them, right? Like at the beginning, the differences are cute, and like, “Oh, he's so fun loving!” Right? And then a few years later, it's just like, “Oh my gosh, I wish he would just be more like me.” And so it helps us to, like really take advantage of how we are together versus apart. And for everyone who's single, it really just helps you to understand like, “Oh, I get it, I get why have not been able to stick to any budget for the last 15 years,” or however long you've been trying to manage your money, regardless of the you know, 20 different apps that you try because budgeting might not [unintelligible], right? Or I understand why I have all these books on investing, I love reading about it. But I've never pulled the trigger. It's like, well, yes, because that's not your personality, you're inclined to bring in information, but not necessarily act. So then you're looking for someone who's going to help you actually take action, on all the knowledge that you have in your head.
So it really just depends on the number. But that's why I love incorporating it. That's why I love making this our very first stop on this, you know, Roadmap to Wealth, because we need to understand how do you see this? Because we don't want to make – we can make the best plan in the world but if it's not aligned with who you are, intrinsically, it's not going to work for you.
Lee: That's what I think is so brilliant about your use of the Enneagram, is that you are really focused in on the core motivators, and fears and desires of each type. And then using those to help you create a unique wealth plan for that person or for that couple. Rather than just kind of going off of a superficial understanding. You're really customizing it not just to their needs, but to what's going to feel good. Because when it feels good, we're going to be more likely to keep doing it.
Portia: Absolutely. Absolutely. Yes.
Lee: I.. Oh my gosh, I, you and I know we could talk all day about the Enneagram and money and all things. But because this is a podcast, what I would love to do is encourage everyone who's fascinated by this conversation to go check out you and your work. Because there's so much more to learn about this topic, and you are just one of one of the trusted people out there that we can go to.
Porta: Oh thank you.
Lee: You’re welcome! So what is the best way for people to connect with you?
Portia: Yeah, so the hub of everything that we do is at wealthyandfulfilled.com. So you can learn more about our philosophy, my background, things like that. And then would love to offer all of your listeners a free Wealth Health call. You can get that at wealthhealthcall.com. It's a 15 minute call. And my promise is that you will always leave with the next best step for you to take in your finances.
Lee: Well, what a generous offer. Thank you so much. We will have links to both your website and where to sign up for that call in the show notes. Definitely go check that out. And, you know, I just want to close by saying thank you, Portia. Thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing your wisdom with us.
Portia: Thank you so much for having me. And I just hope everyone just takes to heart what was shared because everyone can be great with money and everyone deserves to have a wealthy and fulfilled life.
Lee: Yes, yes, everyone has what they need to be wealthy and with a financial coach like you in their corner cheering them on, then they can really go from good to great. So I love that.
Portia: Absolutely.
Lee: Thanks, Portia.
Portia: Thank you
Lee: I had such a fun time talking to Portia. That was one of those interviews where I blinked and all of a sudden 30 minutes had gone by and it was time to wrap things up. So I hope you enjoyed our conversation as much as I did. Again, Portia, thank you so much for coming on the show. We have links to her website, and where you can book that call in the show notes. So definitely take advantage of that.
Now, if you are listening to this episode, the day it drops, then there is still time for you to participate in the live training that Portia is providing to the members of the Coach with Clarity Collective. She is the August 2022, guest expert trainer, and she will be walking us through her Wealthy and Fulfilled system so that we can start to get a handle on our own wealth plan. I know it is going to be a fantastic presentation, I'm super excited to share it inside the Coach with Clarity Collective. So if you are not already a member, do me a favor, head on over to coachwithclarity.com/collective and check out all of the amazing benefits you can receive when you are a member of the Collective; including four live calls a month, one of which are the guest expert training calls. And that is what Portia will be providing for us this month, you won't want to miss it. And the great thing about being a member is that you have access to every single past training, coaching call and q&a call that we conduct. So even if you can't catch Portia live, you will always have access to her training whenever you need it on demand.
So head on over to coachwithclarity.com/collective to join today and then I hope to see you at Portia’s training for our community.
Now, during our conversation, Portia made reference to my coaching quiz, and that she is a Strategic Coach. If you have not yet discovered which of the five coaching types you lead with, well head on over to coachingquiz.com and take a short seven question quiz. It will help you identify which of the five coaching styles you most identify with, how that serves you as a coach, and maybe the pitfalls you might want to watch out for as well. So head to coachingquiz.com to learn more and to take the quiz.
Well, my friend, that is it for me this week. But I will be right back in your podcast feed next week with another brand new episode of the Coach with Clarity Podcast. So make sure you don't miss out. Go ahead and follow or subscribe to the show. You can do that for free wherever you listen to your podcasts. It may say follow or subscribe or it may be a little plus sign, just click that and then you will be subscribed to the show which means you will never miss an episode going forward. So I'll be back in your feed next week. Until then, my name is Lee Chaix McDonough reminding you to get out there and show the world what it means to be a Coach with Clarity.