Show notes
You've done everything right. The degree, the career, the salary that finally exceeds what your parents made. You're checking all the boxes. But if you're honest, you still feel broke. Not because your bank account is empty, but because you never feel safe with money. You're controlling, budgeting, tracking every dollar, and somehow it still doesn't feel like enough. That constant financial anxiety? That's not about your numbers. It's about the unworthiness conversation running underneath every money decision you make.
Lisa Chastain grew up blue-collar on a dirt road in Las Vegas, watching her dad never make more than $60,000 a year. She did what good girls do: got the degree, landed the job with the 401k and health insurance, bought a house at 24, married at 25, had her kid at 28. She was winning. Until she wasn't.
When her husband lost his job nine months after she left her career to stay home, everything unraveled. The $100,000 in her 401k? Drained trying to hold it all together and start her financial advisor business. The perfect marriage? Hiding active addiction and chaos. The life that looked so good from the outside? Completely unsustainable on the inside.
Lisa spent years trying to control her way to safety—budgeting harder, fixing her husband, making herself smaller, believing if she just did more, it would finally feel secure. But control was never the answer. The real work was healing the "not enough" conversation that made her use money to prove her worth, use debt to fill voids that weren't fillable with things, and stay in toxic situations because leaving felt like failure.
Through divorce, a public rebound relationship with another addict, and what she calls her "come to Jesus moment," Lisa rebuilt her entire relationship with money. She stopped budgeting. She redefined success beyond bank account balances. She learned to use debt strategically instead of shamefully. And she made it her mission to help other women do the same—because financial shame keeps successful women stuck in scarcity longer than actual money problems ever could.
Today, Lisa is a nationally recognized personal finance coach, bestselling author of Stop Budgeting, Start Living, host of The Real Money Podcast, and the woman teaching thousands of women how to stop controlling money and start trusting themselves with it.
In this raw, vulnerable conversation, Lisa reveals:
Why budgeting is actually a control mechanism designed to keep women feeling ashamed of their financial decisions (and what to do instead)
The hidden cost of financial control: how trying to manage every dollar keeps you feeling broke no matter how much you make
Why debt isn't the problem—the unworthiness conversation driving your spending is
How men are championed for using debt strategically while women are shamed for having $5,000 on a credit card
The real reason successful women still live paycheck to paycheck despite good salaries: they're banking out of emotion, not data
Why money amplifies who you already are (and what happens when you put money on top of an "unworthy" story)
How to build self-trust with money through financial forecasting instead of white-knuckling a budget
The generational shame women carry around money ownership and decision-making (and why it wasn't even legal for women to own their own accounts until less than 100 years ago)
What redefining success actually looks like when you stop attaching it to external markers
The exact moment Lisa realized she was the problem—and also the solution
This episode is for you if you've ever:
Done everything "right" financially but still feel like you're one emergency away from falling apart
Felt successful on paper but broke in your nervous system—constantly anxious about money no matter what your bank account says
Controlled and budgeted your way through life only to realize you still don't feel safe with money
Carried shame about debt, spending decisions, or financial mistakes that men would be championed for taking
Made good money but somehow still felt like it was never enough
Used spending or debt to fill a void that wasn't actually fillable with things
Known you should feel more financially secure than you do, but the anxiety won't go away
Realized you're trying to control money because you don't trust yourself with it
Guest Bio
Lisa Chastain is a nationally recognized Personal Finance Coach and bestselling author with over 20 years of experience helping women take control of their money. Featured in CNBC, O – The Oprah Magazine, Fortune, Business Insider, and Forbes, Lisa is known for her fresh, no-shame approach to financial empowerment. After burning through $100,000 and nearly going broke, she rebuilt her life and made it her mission to help women fix their finances—without rigid budgets.
In 2016, she launched her coaching business to teach women how to track money intentionally, invest wisely, and create sustainable wealth. Today, she's the host of The Real Money Podcast and the bestselling author of Stop Budgeting, Start Living, which challenges outdated money rules and inspires financial confidence.
Lisa's work focuses on money mindset, leadership, and financial emotional intelligence, guiding clients and organizations to achieve long-term stability and freedom. She has been featured in Cosmopolitan, NBC News, MSN Money, Fortune, and Entrepreneur Magazine, and was named one of Las Vegas Women Magazine's "People to Watch."
Find Lisa:
Website: lisachastain.com
Podcast: The Real Money Podcast: https://lisachastain.com/podcast/
Book: Stop Budgeting, Start Living: Transform Your Money Mindset, Transform Your Life (available on Amazon)
Instagram: @realmoneywithlisa
90-Day Money Bootcamp launching quarterly
4-Day Intensive Healing Retreats
Ready to stop controlling money and start trusting yourself with it?
If Lisa's story hit close to home, it's because you're carrying the same pattern: doing everything right, checking all the boxes, making good money, but still feeling broke, unsafe, and like it's never enough.
Here's the truth: That anxiety isn't about your bank account balance. It's about the unworthiness conversation running underneath every financial decision you make. The shame you carry about debt. The belief that if you just budget harder, control tighter, manage better, you'll finally feel safe. But control is never the answer. Self-trust is.
You're exhausted from white-knuckling your way through your financial life. You're collapsing into bed at night, mind racing about money, even though objectively you're doing fine. You snap at your partner about spending. You feel guilty every time you buy something for yourself. You've built a life that looks successful on the outside, but inside it doesn't feel congruent.
The Congruency Audit is where we look at the gap between the financial success you've built on the outside and what you're actually feeling on the inside. We'll identify the exact patterns keeping you stuck in financial control instead of self-trust, the wounds driving your relationship with money, and what it's going to take for you to finally create success that feels as good on the inside as it looks on the outside.
This isn't about budgeting harder. This isn't about more spreadsheets. This is about healing the "not enough" story that's been running your financial life since childhood—so you can finally step into the version of you who trusts herself with money, makes decisions from abundance instead of scarcity, and redefines success on your own terms.
Book your Congruency Audit: lisacarpenter.ca/audit
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