There’s something powerful that happens when we speak honestly about money, especially with someone who truly gets it. In this conversation with Marlene Schmidt, we unpacked what it means to manage your finances from both a practical and energetic lens, and how the smallest shifts can create real, lasting impact.
Marlene is a certified spending planner and money mentor with years of experience helping women in business take control of their finances. But what makes her work unique is how it blends structure with self-worth, clarity with care. Together, we explored the link between values and money, how women can rebuild trust in their ability to earn and manage money, and why separating personal and business finances isn’t just logistical, it’s energetic.
This piece is a reminder that your relationship with money is a relationship worth nurturing.
EPISODE 73: Listen using the player below, or click the links to your fave platform to subscribe and listen over there:
Common Money Challenges for Women in Business
So many women start their businesses from a place of passion. They’re driven by purpose, a desire to make an impact, to help, to create. But often, the financial side is something they avoid, or simply don’t know how to approach.
Marlene shared that for many of her clients:
- Income can be irregular, making it hard to plan
- Business and personal finances are often mixed, creating confusion and stress
- There’s a lack of confidence in managing money and understanding financial needs
- Many women feel overwhelmed by old stories, beliefs like “money doesn’t grow on trees” or “I’m not made of money,” that still influence their decisions today
What stood out in our conversation is that none of this is a character flaw. These are learned patterns. And they can be unlearned—with awareness, support, and the right systems in place.
Creating a Financial System That Feels Supportive
Marlene doesn’t teach traditional budgeting. Instead, she helps women set up spending plans, forward-facing, flexible frameworks that give you clarity on where your money is going before it leaves your account.
That shift alone changes everything. Instead of tracking every cent after it’s gone, you begin planning intentionally, choosing how you want your money to support your life and business.
A few of the systems we discussed included:
- Setting up separate bank accounts, for business income, tax, savings, and personal wages
- Creating a buffer account to support you during natural income dips or rest periods
- Paying yourself something, even $100/month, to begin building the habit of receiving as the CEO
- Saving for tax from the beginning, even in small amounts, to reduce future pressure
These aren’t just strategic moves, they’re energetic ones. They tell your business, your money, and yourself: I take this seriously. I’m showing up. I’m creating safety.
Why Profit Matters More Than Sales
One of the biggest myths Marlene challenged was the obsession with six or seven-figure business goals. So often, those numbers refer to gross sales, not profit. What we don’t see are the massive expenses, ad costs, team overheads, and personal sacrifices that can eat into the bottom line.
It’s so easy to compare your income to someone else’s without seeing the full picture. But what if your business doesn’t need to be high-revenue to be high-impact?
We talked about the importance of asking:
- What kind of business do you actually want?
- How much do you need it to pay you to support your lifestyle, and your wellbeing?
- Are your spending habits aligned with your values, or with someone else’s expectations?
There is no one right number. You get to decide what success looks like for you, and build your systems to support that.
Awareness Is Power
As we reflected on our own journeys, both Marlene and I came back to one core truth: awareness changes everything. When you’re conscious of how you’re spending, what you’re prioritising, and how money feels in your body, you begin to relate to it differently.
It stops being a source of stress or avoidance and starts becoming something you honour.
We shared our own experiences of:
- Living on tight budgets and finding creativity in constraint
- Letting go of instant gratification and choosing intentional purchases
- Making empowered choices even without external income, and seeing those choices ripple into business growth
- Understanding how managing money is deeply tied to our sense of worth and energetic alignment
This isn’t about restriction. It’s about clarity. It’s about choice. It’s about trust.
Final Reflections
Your money isn’t just numbers in an account. It’s energy. It’s permission. It’s a possibility.
When you start treating it with care, when you start setting up systems that support your values, everything begins to shift. You feel safer. More confident. More capable. And your business starts to respond to that energy.
You don’t have to get it all perfect. You don’t have to master it all at once. But the moment you say yes to learning, yes to trying, yes to honouring your money with love, you’ve already changed something powerful.
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