Ep 120 Transcript: What It Really Means to Be Rich Beyond the Numbers with Kalee Boisvert

This transcript was auto-generated and may contain errors in spelling or inaccuracies in the spoken words.

Shauna Lynn Simon (01:49.976)

Hello, and welcome to the Real Women Real Business Podcast. I am your host, Shauna Lynn Simon. And today's guest is Kalee Boisvert, a financial advisor, author, and speaker who helps women build wealth while staying true to themselves. With over 15 years in finance and an MBA in finance, Kalee blends practical money conversations with honest reflections on identity, self-worth, and what it really means to create a life that feels good to live.

So we're be talking about why money is really just about money and how to redefine rich in a way that supports your business and your capacity. So Kalee, welcome to the show.

Kalee Boisvert (02:25.666)

Thank you. Thank you so much for having me.

Shauna Lynn Simon (02:27.982)

I'm so excited to have you here because money conversations are my jam. This is something we talk about quite often on this show. And I don't think we can possibly ever say enough things about it. So I want to dive in right away to something that actually came up in your bio there. And that is that you say that money is rarely just about money. Tell me what you mean by that.

Kalee Boisvert (02:48.408)

I think it's like kind of my own progression through the journey through being a financial advisor, kind of where I started to where I've gotten to today. So when I started in this industry and working with people in their finances, it was very technical based. And it was about like the investing and the numbers and planning and showing them, okay, you need to save X amount of dollars to retire at this date and whatnot. And then what you find is like

The numbers don't necessarily align with life is what I realized. And so that's kind of the funny thing. And I think I was so in that technical, the analytical, the numbers piece for so long because that was sort of my training go through like school and all the courses you have to take. And that's what's sort of drilled into your mind. And what you're finding though is when you're meeting with real people and learning about their lives and their own journeys that

it's not just about the numbers and it things change all the time because like life happens and things come up. And one of like the really impactful, I think, like turning moments for me in my career was I do work primarily with women and one client in particular, she had been a single mom for the majority of her adult years and her kids were now grown up, but because of that, she just felt like really behind as far as like her savings for retirement, things like that. So she was always saying, like,

You know, I may will never be able to retire or I'm never gonna have enough. And then very sadly, she passed away before she even hit her retirement age. And to me, it was just like mind blowing because it's like, well, what is enough then? Because if you never make it to retirement, you don't get to enjoy that peace anyway. And it's sort of like redefined

And completely changed my mindset then on what it even meant. Money in the numbers. And I was like, money is nothing in itself because it can't help us avoid situations like that. And any amount of money or her sort of always feeling behind and never being there, she didn't get to use any of those retirement funds. So that was like really a turning point to me where it became more about

Kalee Boisvert (04:50.526)

what money is as a tool and and how it can like support our lives, but not that it's like a definition of us. And and so from there it was like kind of everything started changing with how I viewed money on a very different level of like, well, what is enough? And and even people that had multi-millions and people that didn't, it's almost like the people with multi-millions still sometimes felt like they're behind and they have some catching up to do.

versus like maybe someone who didn't have that much and said, Well, if you had this much, would you be okay? And they maybe say yes. But then it's like, then they get there and they're still say thinking they're behind. So I'm like, the answer is not the number because I've even seen celebrities talk about like the hustle they go through and feeling like it's never enough and and go, go, go, and I just need this much more. So it's it's not money. Like it's not the number and it's not money. And that's not the answer to everything. And I know people will probably hear that and be like, yeah, there's a big difference between though like

you know, living below the poverty line or something and having a certain amount of money. And I agree because there's an element of like safety and being able to like feed yourself and things like that. But there comes a point where it's definitely money is almost it's just this tool for something else. And we have to look at what the something else is. And then how do we achieve that? So it was when that kind of happened, I became the advisor that is encouraging people to

leave the jobs they hate, whether they're financially set up for or whatnot, to leave the jobs they hate, retire early. Like I'm the one that's, you know, when I talk to women and they're still working but they hate their job. I'm like, retire. Like let's run the numbers and maybe those supporters let's look at different ways of seeing this. And so that's what I became is like the person who says go on that trip and have fun. Do the things and don't feel the guilt along the way because that's also kind of robbing you of the joy. And

let the money and the numbers work itself out, but let's change kind of how we feel about it.

Shauna Lynn Simon (06:43.432)

Yeah. And there's a few different things that you touched on there that I kind of want to circle back to as well. So one of the things that you mentioned was just talking about no matter how much money you're making, it can often seem like it's never enough. And this is something that I find that comes up often. So I actually part of my background is I was a home stager for 15 years. I operated one of the top producing home staging businesses in my region. And one of the things I always taught my team members whenever they were working with their clients is helping them to understand the money element that's associated with.

selling the house as well as buying the house. And one of the things we had to teach every seller that we worked with is when it comes to your buyers, no matter what price point your house is at, there are buyers who are purchasing at the top of their purchasing power to buy that house. Obviously different areas are going to have different price points as to what's expensive, what's not. But let's say at that time, you know, a half a million dollar house was kind of an average low-end home that might not seem like much. And but at the same time to the person who's purchasing it, that was all the money they had.

They were putting everything they had into it. And we're constantly buying things at the top of our purchasing power, like this. We're maxing it out basically. And that's a a great expression for life in general, because we do feel like we're tapping things out. So the lifestyle that you've curated for yourself needs to be supported by the amount of money that you bring in. And it's the old adage of more money, more problems. But sometimes that is true is that the more money you make, well, you have more expenses now that come attached to this because.

As a business owner, for example, you've got more staff, you've got more responsibilities. Perhaps from a personal level, you have upgraded your living accommodations, you've upgraded your car, you've upgraded certain things so that if you have a bad couple of months, it takes a harder hit than you would think. But again, you're not making any money, but you need that certain level of money. So I think that it's really important for people to understand that it's all relative. Like no matter who you are, where you are.

It is all relative. But the one thing that you really touched on was what I think so many women can relate to. And that is this woman that you're talking about, where she's like, I'm behind. I think every woman feels like they're behind in terms of where they quote should be. And it doesn't help, in all honesty, when all of the messaging that's out there about financial stuff is telling you that you're behind essentially.

Shauna Lynn Simon (09:05.024)

And saying that in order to be able to retire at this particular age, here's how much money you have. And you're like, you're looking at your bank account, like, well, that doesn't look about right. If I don't have the money in my bank account, I don't have it in a savings account, I don't have it in an investment fund. Like, where am I supposed to get this money between now and when I retire? And so what happens when someone comes to you and they're saying like they're feeling behind? So to your point, like this woman didn't get to enjoy that, but at the same time, what if she had lived longer? Like, what are some things?

That we can be doing to make it not feel like we're so behind or we're actually making progress. Cause I know it, it can almost feel like if you're trying to lose weight, for example, if you've got a lot of weight to lose, it feels like you're never going to get there. So you lose the first five pounds, you're like, great, but it's only five pounds, and I've got like another 75 to go. I feel like saving for our future and building that wealth can kind of feel the same way sometimes. Like, cool, I put five dollars aside, but I'm gonna need a whole lot more of those five dollar bills.

Kalee Boisvert (10:02.337)

Yeah.

Shauna Lynn Simon (10:03.224)

So how what do you say to someone who's like, I'm already behind? Like I should I just not bother? Should I just give up? Should I just go and live life, go to Vegas, see if I can triple my money? Like what should I do here?

Kalee Boisvert (10:11.862)

Yeah, there's I think there's like a a happy medium with that because it is you're right. We always feel like crap about ourselves with money. So if you feel that way, you're not alone. If you're listening to this and and you have felt that way, or you currently do, like please know you're not alone. And you're right. The whole world and industry always makes us feel behind or but think about how that translates to everything. It's like women we're always, you know, not skinny enough. We don't look young enough. Like we're always feeling like we're we're trying to sort of like.

catch up to this like unrealistic sort of standard that they've created. And that's by design, because it's all to make us spend money. So it's this whole vicious cycle of making us spend all this money, but then over here saying like we don't have enough money saved, but they don't want us to save money. They want us to spend the money. So do like realize that that is so strong that messaging everywhere. And so first off it's about like feeling good where you're at, I think is so important. So that's like the conversation

I want people to like have a conversation with me and leave feeling better, not feeling worse, because what have we accomplished if you just feel like crap about it? You're right. It's then like, okay, let me just go blow all my money then, or you know, there's no point. And then you give up and you do nothing. So that's not helping anything is like feeling bad or that guilt and shame, which again, many external forces are are to blame for helping that happen. But what we can do is kind of

Internally decide, well, what is it that I want? What is it that I want? And try to block out that noise. It's very, very hard, but again, going back to yourself and what is it you want. So it's that feeling better with where you're at right now, having that perspective, really like letting go of comparisons, because comparisons are huge in finances and money. And we're always going to be like comparing.

To some sort of level above ourselves. Even as we move up and and we progress, it's like we're never going, wow, you know, I own a home now, and I never thought I'd even be able to own a home. And things like that. It's like we're saying, well, that person has, you know, a vacation home and this home, and they go on multiple vacations a year, they have multiple vehicles, da-da-da-da-da. That's always what we're gonna do, is that comparison, and that's gonna steal a lot of that joy away too.

Kalee Boisvert (12:28.204)

Like, can we go back to that idea of, you know, this is your life, life is short. Let's have fun and enjoy it. And what is it that really matters? And have that be the driving force. And then money's just this tool in the background. And that's kind of how the game is played. And money happens to be the currency that we use to do the things. And let's just decide that that's what money is. But let's go back to what is it I want? What do I want?

How do I want to feel? And I'm sure everyone kind of wants to feel better about their finances. So step one is feeling better and just by getting rid of comparisons and going kind of within to decide what it is you want. If you know, knowing that scenario of someone was saving up, they never felt like they had enough and then they passed away, it's like you don't ever want to see that play out. You want people to enjoy life, be happy. So it's like, well, what is it that if I said, you know, today I'll give you five million dollars now?

What do you want to do? Like a lot of times it's it's very simple what people want. They want like to feel more secure. They want more like flexibility and freedom. As women, oftentimes, if we're like moms, that like idea of flexibility and freedom is huge. It means like if our children are sick or something like that, then we can, you know, be there to

Help them and then get back to work when we're able to, and things like that. So at the core of it, the things we actually want is very simple and we need to spend more time in that. And I think that's gonna really help. So it's like getting rid of the comparisons, going within and spending more time on the values that we want to achieve. Because it's not the fancy car you want. It's something else. And those things are just like the surface level, I would say. So it's going deeper and saying, is it that?

I just want security. I want to, you know, maybe you grew up in money or or you didn't have a lot of money. And there was moments where like not knowing if you're gonna be able to like have groceries was, you know, like that's something that was feared or whatever as well. Like, so then it's like that safety element is that what you're looking to fulfill? I think there's a lot of just going within and having that balance and deciding like the why behind when we make those comparisons, what is it that

Kalee Boisvert (14:43.886)

though we want from that. I don't think, you know, we look at billionaires and think they have it so easy. You're like, well no, they still go through like life things and life events and they lose people they love and they go through heartbreak. Like it's not like above everyone and there's not a problem in the world.

Shauna Lynn Simon (14:59.0)

Money can't buy happiness, so to speak. Yeah, exactly.

Kalee Boisvert (15:01.122)

So it's like what will like what does make you happy? What lights you up? And I think that like is so powerful, especially as women, because I myself was like a people pleaser for so many years. And just like little things about being able to say no to especially when it comes to things that cost money is really empowering and helpful for your finances. So I think it's things that we can do that

are more within and and not about money. And that's kind of, yeah, what we talked about at the beginning is it's not the numbers and the money. It's what is some of the like within things we can kind of go deeper.

Shauna Lynn Simon (15:35.192)

Well, and one of the things that you touched on, I thought was really interesting, was you talked about how we're throwing all these things of be healthier and in various different ways. So there we've gone through different iterations and evolutions of what this looks like for women, where it was just a matter of like buy the Thigh Master, for example, versus get plastic surgery versus buy all these fancy creams, you know, buy the latest workout routine, follow the latest influencer and pay money for all the products and

And supplements that they use, that there's just all these different things that are getting thrown at us. So we're constantly finding this, you know, how do I keep up with all of the expectations of who I'm supposed to be? And all those things happen to cost money. And then at the same time, we're supposed to also save money and then add on top of that that historically women have been labeled as being bad with money. So now we've got, okay, well, you want me to spend my money on all these things, but I'm supposed to save my money and then

I also don't want you to think that I'm bad at managing my money. So is it irresponsible to spend my money on these things, or should I actually spend my money on these things? And then just this constant cycle. And I mean you mentioned earlier that you work predominantly with women. And I would imagine the conversations they're having with women are very different than the conversations that men are having with their advisors about money management. And I mean, women are battling with these constant, and don't get me wrong, I'm sure men have also challenges of.

conflicting things that they need to be spending their money on, and especially if they feel like they're a provider of sorts. And, you know, I get that there's different responsibilities there, but I can only imagine how women, like you said earlier, like there's a lot of stigma attached to things. There might be single parenthood at play here. There might be some childhood associations with money and scarcity. And I think that women's whole association with wealth and wealth building is very

different often than it is with men. And that's not to say that every woman falls into that category, but I think so many women that I talk to, I mean, I've talked about this on this show before. So this is not a new conversation, but if one more woman tells me when I ask them, what do you want to do? How big do you want to grow? How much money do you want to make? And I always often get the same answer from them, like, I just, I just want just enough, you know? Like I don't need a lot. I just need, just need enough. I'm like, why are we settling for just enough? Yeah.

Shauna Lynn Simon (17:53.858)

Like, give me my piece. I want mine. I don't want to just have enough. Like, I have found ways to downsize certain elements of my lifestyle because it makes me happy. And then that happens to also afford me more luxuries because of how I've shifted some of my expenses. So I'm not saying we should just be spending money as though it doesn't actually matter, but there needs to be a point where, to your point, we're identifying what is it that we prioritize.

Like for myself, for example, anyone who listens to this podcast knows I'm a runner. There is no secret about it. I talk about running on practically every episode. And running is known as this "inexpensive sport." It's not inexpensive. I can't even tell you what it costs me just to fuel myself for one run. If I'm going for a 15, 20 kilometer run, there's so much food I need to consume, not to mention the supplements and then the electrolytes and then the shoes and then the running vest and then the reflectors that I have and then my soft flask water bottle. And like it all adds up.

and it becomes this very expensive hobby of mine, essentially. But I spend my whole thing if I have extra money or what I'm saving for is always the next race I'm going to do. And I usually travel to do them. So I don't usually do them locally. So they're usually instead of just paying a couple hundred dollars as the registration fee, I'm paying about a thousand dollars to go and travel and make it a whole adventure. But these are things that I have prioritized for myself.

And again, if that means that I need to downsize other areas of my life in order to afford that, that makes sense for me. But I'm not doing it because someone else was like, Well, you need to be skinny or you need to be doing this. You this is what makes me happy. This is what I'm gonna do. Yeah. Yes. Which I love.

Kalee Boisvert (19:29.108)

And it's you're right, like there's so many moments where we have those like again that guilt that women have of and just being like, okay, then I shouldn't ask for too much. And I want women to like let that all go. Cause again, let's just say money is nothing in itself. Let's just say it's like play money, like Monopoly. And when you play Monopoly, you just want to win the game and have the most money. And you're like, who cares? So it's where it starts is like, let's stop judging other people.

people and then because when we judge other people with how they spend their money and women, we do this. We're guilty of it. I do it too. So when I look at something and be like, you know, you see the fancy purse or the this or that. And you're like, does she really need that though? That has to stop because when you're judging someone else, that means you're judging yourself. So the minute you stop judging other people, you're gonna stop judging yourself and you're gonna let go of those limitations. Cause let's just decide that you're not gonna receive let let's say that

You know, the bank account number is limited when you do that. That's how I see it as I believe a lot in that idea of like manifestation and abundance. If you're saying I just need this, then guess what? You're gonna just get that. Why like why don't you deserve more? Why don't you deserve it all? Why don't you deserve to be the billionaire too? Why does you know the the Taylor Swift or someone else deserve to be a billionaire, but you don't? She's a human being just like you are. So let's get rid of those. Cause if you want to

Have more abundance for whatever reason to like fulfill your passion to be more giving, whatever it is, to have a giant house. I don't care. If you want that, you have to be open to receiving it and you have to stop limiting yourself. Like that's something I had to work on first when I was working on my relationship with money. As I grew up really poor and we didn't have much, and I knew I wanted to change that, but I wasn't able to.

Earn more. Just like literally, you can just tell yourself, you're like, I'm open to receiving millions of dollars. Like, let's go. Like, even something like that. Like, I don't care how you frame it or what you do, but you have to do that. Like you have to be open to receiving, stop judging what people do with their money. We don't know the whole story. And we we can't be the best person to tell someone what they do with their money. We're not someone's mom. And you know, let people live their lives.

Kalee Boisvert (21:41.524)

Do the things that bring you joy, like you said. Like I drink Starbucks and it's expensive. And if I'm like, I'm gonna cut out my Starbucks to, you know, do better in the future. No, like I like the Starbucks, but I I don't like things like expensive persons and stuff. Like I go on lots of trips with my kids because I love experiences and I do that. But it's just so like, I don't know, again, it has to go back to like what it is that you want, and then decide that there's nothing wrong with that.

And stop thinking like, I only get, you know, this amount. Again, a lot of it's like conditioned in how we're made to believe. But do you think that billionaires felt like, I, you know, I I just want enough to get by and just a bit more? No, they probably were like, I I'm open to anything and and let it all come in. So you're you're blocking your own kind of energetic flow when you do that. Those phrases like you say when women say, I'm not good with money.

You know, all those things that we're taught to believe. What if we just go like that's silly? Like, I'm gonna stop believing that and letting that influence my relationship with money starting today. Boom. Like you can say anything and change it. There's two paths. Like I always tell people, there's two paths. You can say, you know, I'm never gonna get ahead of the game. I'm never gonna be, you know, in the place I want to be financially, or you can be like,

I'm gonna do well and excel and all my financial dreams are coming true. Like you can go either way because you can find proof for both. So there's no right or wrong because none of that has happened yet. So neither is right or wrong. So which way do you want to go? Like which path? And so many people go the negative way because there's so many negative influences and we're hearing the information. And so we're always kind of taking that on. And I don't know why that's our default. I guess it's still that fight or flight response and it's very much like safety based, but

Let's take that other path. Like I don't know who wants to go that way. I don't.

Shauna Lynn Simon (23:39.062)

Right. But it's it's like the old saying, you know, whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right. So like it's it really is. And there is something that you said in there that I think is actually the secret to unlocking all of this. And I'm gonna circle back to that right after the short message.

All right, welcome back to the Real Women Real Business Podcast, where I've been speaking with Kalee Boisvert. and she is a financial advisor and wealth specialist. And one of the things that she mentioned before the break that I don't know if everyone caught it, so I really want to circle back to this, that I think is probably one of the biggest triggers that is keeping women stuck in the just enough mindset.

And what you mentioned, Kalee, was that, and this goes for not just money thoughts, but this goes for everything. And it circles around judgment. And here's what's really interesting about this. I was someone who was judged quite a bit growing up. I was always a little bit different. I was always a little bit unique. I didn't start dyeing my hair pink until about 20 years ago, but nonetheless, I was always still a very unique character. I would say I dressed a little different, I acted a little different. I was just my own person, as we all should be. But

This was at a time where, you know, I guess there was some benefit potentially to conforming. There was an expectation of standardizing things and conforming to a certain extent. And I remember when I moved out of the house for university and I was able to finally embrace who I really was. And that was really important to me. And I remember thinking, I never want to feel like I'm in a

Shauna Lynn Simon (25:54.306)

Position where I'm being judged ever again. So I'm going to surround myself with people who aren't judging me. And what I realized was that the secret to that was to ensure that I was not judging anybody else. And so I rewired my brain to stop judging anyone else. So I was always a big people watcher. I loved watching people walk down the street. And I'd always like kind of be curious about, I wonder what's going on through their head when they're doing X, Y, and Z. And like I would see someone walking down the street.

Talking to themselves or singing a song and dancing, whatever. And there was a version of me way back in the day that might have looked at that person, been like, what the heck? Who do they think they are? What the heck are they doing? The version of who I am today and the version of who I turned turned into in my early 20s is the person who looks at someone like that and says, Man, they look like they're having a blast. Good for them. And you celebrate that. And I think that if we can do that with everything, and I'm talking everything, stop judging other people.

Because to your point, the judgment you're putting out there on someone else, you're also reflecting back on yourself. If you are saying that it's not okay for someone else to do something, then it's not okay for you to do that thing. So if you're putting those barriers up and you're saying it's not okay that that person's making a lot of money, what you're essentially telling your brain is it's not okay for me to make that amount of money. And that is going to cause that block. So going back to whether you believe in manifestations or not, you've got to believe in.

what that psychological block will do the next time you're presented with an opportunity to charge more money, or even going back to the people pleasing element of things that you kind of touched on as well. And that is like maybe it's a matter of you might have this opportunity and you say to someone, that's okay, I'll just do this for free, or I won't charge you for this, or it's a great opportunity, it's great exposure. Don't worry about give me any money. That's because your brain is trained for that. But if you're training your brain to say that you deserve the money, the next time that opportunity comes up, like, that sounds wonderful.

Sounds like it would be really great opportunity for both of us. I think I can do that for X number of dollars. How does that sound? And those are two very different conversations. And I had I did a whole podcast episode about this earlier in the year about how I spent one month tracking those micro decisions of I was going to give this away for free or I was going to discount this. No one had asked for any of these discounts or free things, but just there's a trigger in my brain that said, like, be nice, be accommodating, be all these things.

Shauna Lynn Simon (28:08.098)

And when I added up at the end of the month, that was an extra four thousand dollars I made by not doing all of those things. And it's not that I wasn't still nice. All the people I helped, they're still pretty happy I helped them. I just made my own money doing it too.

Kalee Boisvert (28:18.986)

I know we just bought like a hot tub and on the weekend when we walked in I'm like, I want a hot tub and that was the plan. I was gonna buy a hot tub. And the guy's going on and on forever and he's throwing in all this free stuff and we left and I was like I said to my daughter, I'm like, Man

That guy gave us all sorts of stuff. I'm like, he had me sold the minute he just showed me the hot tub that had all the like had like a screen projecting on the cover and stuff. And I was like, boom, in my mind, I was like, sign me up. But he like and add this and this and this off. I'm like, I don't know if he just felt in the mood to give away a lot or like, yay.

more abundance to me, but I'm like, he kinda did more than he had to. So yeah, so how many times is that like that, you know, in the real world? And I think women, instead of saying like we're bad with money, I think we should say things like, We have amazing skills that work well in finances, like our sort of like inner like intuition and when we're being that authentic self, like the flow it creates, I think is magical. Like when COVID happened, my business just like

Skyrocketed. I went from thinking I had to like do do push push. And I was learning all these like sales strategies from these very masculine type like formulas or training or whatever they were teaching. And it felt so like unnatural to me. And then that hit and all of sudden I was just sort of like just in more of I don't know, sort of just do my thing. And you know, you're just trying to get through it. But what was happening was all these people were coming my way and there was this amazing flow where I didn't have to like

hustle and things like And I would realize like hustling and that it doesn't come naturally to women because it's not feminine energy based. And so when we're in our feminine energy, when we're authentic, and again, that's getting rid of things like the judgment and whatnot, like that's where the financial flow happens. So like women should stop saying we're bad. We're like amazing. We could have this abundance and make it easier than those sales training and that masculine do do go go be productive. We're just like we can sit back and just like allow.

Kalee Boisvert (30:12.0)

and use our intuition and it all just happens really naturally. So I think that really needs to change and we should be like, women are amazing with money and building finances and like how much more productive is that when you don't have to do anything and it just loads in.

Shauna Lynn Simon (30:27.934)

Exactly. Yeah. I think just reframing it in our own minds. Because it's so true. I think that when women are being their natural and authentic selves, we attract people who want to work with us. We attract people who respect our expertise. We attract the wealth essentially. But if we're constantly saying we're not worthy or we don't deserve things, you know, I've had Rusty Osborne on the show and he deals with neurolinguistic programming and speaks to mindset often.

And talks about those subconscious thoughts, like they might seem like they're pretty deep in there, but they're manifesting in different things that you do. We're seeing how they actually come out in everyday activities in life and the way that you respond to things. Even if you just kind of think that thought of the back of your head, but you don't say it out loud.

Well, that still planted something in your subconscious that says you don't deserve things. It's a daily practice. I think it's an active practice that we need to release. And you know, I'm all about affirmations. And whether you're someone who does affirmations or not, there's a couple of different schools of thought I know on this, but the reality is so that we're training our brain, we're training ourselves what to think and what to feel. And sometimes if you're not quite feeling something, an affirmation helps you to feel it. So in an affirmation,

Just saying the words of an affirmation does not change things. But if we can start changing our inner thoughts, we view things differently. We talk about the energy that we're putting out there. Don't think of it as something abstract. Think about it as how you would reframe things in your mind if you had a different lens that you were looking through. And that's what you were training those internal thoughts to do is to help us to reframe how we see things. And that's where the magic happens.

Kalee Boisvert (32:00.298)

Yeah. When I'm saying this to you, it's like I truly believe. I'm like, yeah, women are awesome with money. I feel that in me. I'm like, yep. So I don't know what has changed, but yeah, like I just I'm like, that's truth, that's real. So when you're feeling it, you're right. It's just like it comes more naturally. So I think

Women we can do that. And again, it's by seeing the things that we aren't told are those skills that very much are. For some reason, we think like the inner workings of the stock market, like that too. How many women think that they're like, Well, I'm just gonna I'm gonna read some books about it. Once I learn a bit more, know a bit more, then I'll be better with and dah-da-da. I'm like, you don't like who needs to do that? Who like when you take your car, there's something wrong with your car, you take it in, they fix it. You're not like, Can we break down exactly what that was? Let's you know, open up the hood and

I want to know exactly what happened in all the systems and everything. Like, no, like no one wants to do that or know that level. And for some reason, women think they have to like dig that deep sometimes into like the world of investing and whatnot. And that's what's holding them back or they're not taking steps because of that. And they'll be like, once I learn more, then I will and da-da-da. And I'm like, just jump, like just dive in, stop. Like, please stop. I know you're not gonna read the book. Like it's boring. Let's be honest.

Shauna Lynn Simon (33:15.47)

Overanalysis paralysis.

Kalee Boisvert (33:19.502)

Just do something and know you're never gonna know it all. And you don't have to, and that's okay. But anything is better than nothing, and taking steps in the right direction of saying, okay, I'm going to set some money aside for future me. But I'm gonna balance that with living my life now. And so it's all like working for you and what you want. And investing just helps build and grow and compound. Are you gonna need to know exactly how to do it? No, there's lots of tools out there.

That really simplified it, that are like baskets of different stocks and things like that. Cool. I don't have to try to figure out which one to buy and go through all the inner workings. And I can stop using that excuse. I'm gonna read this sort of financial manual because I know I'm never going to. Like stop doing that and say, No, let's just do something and that's better than nothing, sitting on the sidelines. That's women's kind of again, an area that I could.

Shauna Lynn Simon (34:01.759)

Right.

Kalee Boisvert (34:13.303)

the that women need to work on or move past that that men are more into diving in and when women assume that that's because they know more that men are, you know, investment gurus or something. They don't. Like I can tell you from what I've seen through my years of working with men and women, again, mostly I work with women, but I see them both. And if anything, women are better. Like men have this overconfidence that doesn't work in their favor. So

There's my inside scoop on it too. From everything I've seen, women are actually better investors because they do are they able to kind of just maintain their path and da da da men like to tinker and try to like beat the markets and this and that and that and and women don't necessarily do that as much. So now I'm telling you women are actually better investors too, and we're gonna get money.

Shauna Lynn Simon (35:03.628)

I think it's helpful to have women like you who they can come to though too, because I think there's a bit of an intimidation sometimes for women to speak to a man. They they tend to downplay what their level of knowledge is or they assume that they don't actually know as much as they do. I mean, my mother and I, when my dad passed away a couple of years ago, my mom essentially inherited everything that every investment that he had. He had life insurance, you know, different things. And I'm not saying that she's filthy, stinking rich by any means, but

It was a different money management system now that she was used to because he was always responsible for that. He was a retired accountant. He knew numbers. It was his thing. And so I was really proud of her when I saw her stepping into this role, asking these really intelligent questions of her advisors. And I'm still a part of pretty much every conversation that she has financially, but I've said to her, I'm like, Mom, like you're you've got a really good handle on this. And I'm constantly reinforcing that for her because I think it's so easy.

I mean, she's almost 80 years old. She's comes from a whole different generation where again she married my dad. They were married for 52 years. He handled all the finance stuff. And now here she is stepping into this role. And she's done absolutely phenomenal with it. And today, you know, now it's been almost a couple of years. You can tell that she's got a different level of confidence. Like she's like, I'm gonna go and ask this question. Like, yeah, go ask that question. That sounds like a great question to ask. Whereas at first I could tell she was a more timid asking some of the questions. Now she's like, No, I know what I'm doing, I can do this.

And it's so great to see that. And I would say that one of the biggest things that I try to do is validate it and reinforce that, like, yeah, you're crushing it, Mom. Like you're doing a great job at this. But she does happen to have two male advisors, which we are quite happy with, to be clear. I'm not saying that they're all terrible or anything, but I could see that level of intimidation that she had initially of not wanting to say the wrong thing or ask a stupid question or whatever. And I think that so many women.

are probably censoring themselves a little bit more and shrinking a little bit more around their advisors if they feel like they don't have that level of confidence to be able to be open and honest with them. And so I think having more and more women in the field is going to be a massive shift for women to be able to feel more comfortable. But to your point though, still like women, you're amazing at money. You're you know what you're doing. Just go out there and get it.

Shauna Lynn Simon (37:15.798)

And so one of my favorite phrases that Shell Brodnax's, who I had on the show a couple of years ago, she's one of my favorite humans in the world. And I remember one time, I can't remember what exactly the group was, but it was we're talking at kind of like a mastermind type group. And she made the comment about how she was sick of people complaining about money. And she said something along the lines of like, there's a whole lot of money out there. Go out and get some. And I just thought it was just the most brilliant way of putting, like, yeah, that's so true. Like, just go get your share, go get some money. And so if someone wants today, start redefining.

Rich. Like we talked about how like money isn't always about the money. And like what if money was just this tool? Like, where do they start if they want to start to kind of redefine what rich means beyond those numbers? Where do they start?

Kalee Boisvert (37:58.744)

I think it's like little things. It's like, what would you do? Let's say you won the lottery and you got $10 million right away. Like, what would look different in your day? How would that look? And there's little things that you realize you can do right now. Like, I saw some woman's TikTok or something, and she said, Like, I'm just gonna do more of the things I want to do. So I'm gonna just start not doing the things I don't want to do as much. And I was What? That's so simple. Like, literally from day to day, she's like.

you know, this comes up, this opportunity or whatever, or someone invites you there and you just don't want to and you're just like, No. I'm like, well that's

Shauna Lynn Simon (38:31.038)

No is a complete sentence. Yes.

Kalee Boisvert (38:34.334)

With anything is like, is it just little things like that? Cause I bet you can make those changes in your life. Like maybe there's, you know, you felt guilty because there's this like trip you're supposed to go on with your family or whatever, and financially it's just not gonna work for you and you don't want to da-da-da. What if you're just like, nope? Like don't do the things you don't want to do. And what's gonna happen is it's gonna open up more of like what you do want. Cause I think we all need to take time.

To go like, what do I really want? And a lot of people do not know because we've been so like in the day-to-day, you can get so caught up in just like work and kids and you're doing task, task, task, task, task that your whole day is scheduled out that you don't even stop to say, like, what would an ideal day look like? And you can start designing your life that way. And then you know what rich is and what wealth is. Cause for me, it was that flexibility and to like.

go on like trips and explore the world. I felt like I hadn't done enough of that. And so like my business I realize is a lot more like not location dependent as it used to be. And so I'm able to like travel and work from other places. And I already feel like I'm retired. So I work and I have my business, but I feel retired right now. Like wow, how do you design that? Because we all say like

When I retire, when this happens, well, that's not guaranteed, and we know that from the story we started off. So if that was today, that when I retire, how can we start making our life look like that today? And it's sometimes very little things that aren't going to cost you money or anything that you can do right now that's gonna start getting you more towards that. Cause if it is just that freedom, maybe it is all of a sudden you're like, I just need a job with more flexibility, and and that's it. It's not

I need more money or you know, I need a big raise or something like that. It's just like I want to be able to work remotely and be in other places and stuff. Okay. And then maybe an opportunity comes up for that. And so again, it's not how much you're paid necessarily, or you don't need five million dollars in your bank account for that to happen. So people always think again, money is the answer. It's not. So it's just what's like, and again, maybe it's as simple as like day to day, you just go like, okay.

Kalee Boisvert (40:47.372)

You know, I'm just gonna do things I don't wanna do today.

Shauna Lynn Simon (40:51.022)

I actually think that that has so much value that I I hope people aren't underestimating that because it is so true that I think we can start living today in a in a way we want to be living in the future. Start living that way now. And to your point, it doesn't always necessarily cost money, but it could be simple, small decisions, what starts off as small decisions of the things that you're just going to say no to, to allow you the time, the freedom, and the money that you can save to do the things that you want to do. And sometimes that means, you know, saying no to grabbing drinks with some friends because

They're not the people that you want to hang out with, and that's not where you want to spend your money. And you'd rather, like personally, I'd rather spend some money out of Starbucks after my run with my running buddies than go out binge drinking on a Friday night. Not that anyone at my age is actually inviting me out to do that, to be clear, but just to give a bit of a context there. Like, I would love to spend money on a beautiful glass of wine, but I'm gonna be honest, I'd actually rather spend that money on an electrolyte drink or a Starbucks most days. And it's not to say that every once in a while I'm not gonna say I'm gonna splurge on that glass of wine.

But there was a time where that was what I wanna spent my money on. And this is not trying to throw shade on anyone who is spent spending their money on that. I'm saying that this is where my own priorities have shifted so that I have the money to do the things that I want to do. So I think if we start looking at things in terms of saying no to the things that we don't actually want to say yes to and not feeling that responsibility or obligation, it's amazing how we can find ways to say yes to the things that do matter in a in a way that makes us feel rich and fulfilled.

even if the actual numbers themselves aren't necessarily changing. Honestly, Kalee, like I feel like we could talk about this topic for hours, but we do need to wrap things up. So for the person who's listening to this and they're thinking like, okay, this all sounds great. I'm going to start making a change tomorrow. Like, what's maybe one permission slip, so to speak, around money that you want to leave them with?

Kalee Boisvert (42:40.93)

I guess like allow, like open yourself up to the possibilities. Think outside the box. So we've always been in this box of like, maybe I could be the manager or the boss, or thinking that's like the upper level, but like what if it's way beyond that? Like really get crazy and and and go outside that box and allow yourself to. And I think that's kind of where the magic happens. So I love it. Amazing.

Shauna Lynn Simon (43:05.58)

Well listen, if people want to connect with you, what's the best way for them to connect with you?

Kalee Boisvert (43:08.886)

You reach out on my website. So it's just kaleeboisvert.com and there's like a contact thing right on there that they can reach out to me.

Shauna Lynn Simon (43:15.842)

Amazing. Perfect. Well, Kalee, I think I can't thank you enough for joining me on the show. I've truly enjoyed this conversation. Thank you so much.

Kalee Boisvert (43:23.118)

Thank you so much for having me. Thank you, everyone.

Shauna Lynn Simon (43:25.366)

Amazing. And if you're listening to this episode and what we're saying today has been resonating with you, definitely reach out to Kalee. But also don't forget to subscribe to us wherever you get your podcast. Leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform. And as always, the best way that you can show your support, not only for our podcast, but for your fellow women entrepreneurs is to take this episode and share it with the woman in your life that you know isn't looking at money the way that she should be. Share this with her. I know that she'll thank you for it. And of course, we would be ever so grateful for it. Until next time, everyone, keep thriving.