Melissa Browne

And it was this sabotage loop, though, because one thing was built.

I was almost straight away looking for the next thing to take my attention.

And it was only when I chose to start working with a coach and my thoughts were I'll work with a business coach so that I can break that sabotage loop.

And I was a member of entrepreneurs organization for a number of years.

And in EO, they look at the five percenters.

So both in business and personal, those things that you don't share with everyone else.

And of course it was only a couple of sessions into this coach.

I'm like, Oh God, I was here for business and you just going to want to go the personal, which I didn't love.

But what I,

came to understand is that by not facing so many things that I'd grown up with, where I'd been taught by so many kids and so many Western Sydney kids, I think, that came from tough upbringings, that you just put on the public face and shove it all down and go out there and do what you can.

But I just didn't face a lot of things that had happened, particularly traumas from when I was younger.

What I came to understand is it's the same for our finances, that a lot of people are trying to do money without facing the stories that have defined them or facing the money myths and messages that they believe.

And they don't understand why they're caught in a sabotage loop and they're perpetually frustrated at themselves.

And so what the reason I wrote this book and the reason that I do the work

that I do is to break those loops, is to rewrite those stories.

And I believe through the work that I've done,

with myself is that if you don't start with your financial awareness, if you don't start with your story and maybe even facing those things you didn't want to face, then you aren't ever going to be able to do money well, never mind whole of life well.

And it seems strange to be on a finance podcast talking about whole of life wellness, but I truly believe that.

I think that most people want a seven step plan, but really it

they're missing that vital first step, which is financial awareness.