Christine Schlonski [0:02]
Hey, Gorgeous. Welcome to episode number 273 with the Amazing Wealth Chef Ann Wilson.

Ann Wilson [0:10]
Hi this is Ann Wilson and you are listening to the Heart Sells! Podcast with Christine Schlonski. Enjoy.

Christine Schlonski [0:17]
Well I am so excited you are here today you are tuning in, we are going to discuss one of my favorite topics and that is wealth and wealth creation because I do believe the wealthier we are, then the more we can give. And wealth is not just money even though money is a big piece of being wealthy. For me, being wealthy also means being healthy, being happy, being fulfilled, going for our dreams, and really being in flow while supporting others on that journey. So I am so super excited to have Ann Wilson on the show today. She is the best selling author of the book “The Wealth Chef”. She is a wealth expert on the hit channel for TV Series, “Safe Well Spend Better”. She’s a trainer, speaker, entrepreneur, and Financial Empowerment activist. And she helps people to master this vital life ingredient called money and use it to create freedom of choice so that you guys can live a life that you really desire to live. So this is just up my alley. I just love the topic I’m so excited to bring Ann to you today. So I hope you have fun verses episode and it will be inspiring and motivating. And while maybe a little bit challenging or triggering with some of the things we might be discussing, and I would love to know what you are thinking so please feel free to always reach out to info@christineschlonski.com with your questions, with your comments. We are here for you to support you on your way and for my sales and mastering the art of sales. Selling from your heart is a piece of wealth creation. So let’s tune right in with the wonderful Ann Wilson.

Christine Schlonski [2:19]
Well, I am so super pumped. You’re here today Ann welcome.

Ann Wilson [2:23]
It’s such a pleasure to be here and nothing is sexier than to talk about money and freedom.

Christine Schlonski [2:30]
Oh, yeah. Like, you know, money, freedom, sales like these are my favorite topics. Because we can do so much when we get that hurdle out of the way that we feel like we do not have enough money. Right? Because money gives choices. Money creates freedom, and money helps us I personally think that money helps us to become better people.

Christine Schlonski [2:56]
Absolutely. And I, you know, I love what they’re diving right into this core foundational element, and there’s so much has been going on, boy, what a crazy time and yeah, and I think everybody’s been given this extraordinary opportunity as a lot of fluff and noise is stripped away to see what are these foundational elements that we have in place almost these what does our root system and how healthy is? And I think you know the ability to bring in money so sales, conversion, do you have a mechanism to actually enable money to flow into your life? And then what do you do with it? How do you structure it? Do you have a direction? Is there leadership? And how do you manage it, you know, if it just flows straight out in your business and your life, there’s also no freedom in that there’s no resilience? And I think so many people arising in this relationship, you know, we can think sales, money management, having investments, it’s nice to have whatever they sick of it or they’re things that we’ve just got to do as a burden. But if we really shift and see these are core elements for us to be able to survive, then thrive, and they really build up you know core pillars and foundational elements of our life. So yeah.

Ann Wilson [4:09]
I’m with you These are so key.

Christine Schlonski [4:13]
They are and, you know, for me like talking about money, thinking about money, and yeah, really shifting my mindset that has been quite a journey. It’s I don’t really believe that I was brought up in a way where money was like a scarcity thing, but it was definitely not a topic. Right? You did not really talk about it. And I remember like, you know, one time I really wanted ice cream and you know, they had the choice like big ice cream, small ice cream. And I remember also was my best friend and she got that one German Mark from her parents to get the big one right. You know, my dad just would give me like the 50 cents for a small one and I was so upset and I still remember that today. It came up with some money mindset training where I remembered, oh my goodness like that has cost actually, for me to not feel as valuable as my friend like she got the big ice cream and I love ice cream. So that’s another challenge. And I feel in entrepreneurship when we start selling when we overcome that fear of sales and the business that’s thriving, oftentimes people then also start sabotaging themselves because of those of the money mindset of the limiting beliefs that they are not even aware of.

Ann Wilson [5:38]
And this is so vital. You know, I think when we come to a new dress, address so beautifully in sales and receiving, being able to ask it clear, use our voice, but we have to deal with our own stuff our baggage and get clean on it because if we take those into our conversions or our sales, conversation, we project all that stuff on so this really being able to dive in and feel safe to explore with curiosity not here to judge like, wow, that’s interesting. You know, could this possibly not be true and just have that curiosity, and then when it comes to keeping money converting it to the concepts of investing. I’m so passionate about the sort of backend. So we go yeah, and fixated by the assets on the backend. But it’s really going because it’s one thing to learn how to bring money in our life on it, bring in the revenue, but there’s a whole another thing of creating wealth. Yeah. How do you what do you actually do with that money?

Ann Wilson [6:40]
So there are these two pillars. This is a deep mindset, the deep behavioral element of meaning we’ve given to what, how we believe it relates to ourselves, our identity, our worthiness, and there’s a practical how-to, because one of the things that break my heart is a lot of people do mindset stuff, which is fantastic, and that’ll stop getting it through. But if you still have no idea. Okay, so what do you do? You know, how do you invest in index trackers in the stock market? How do you manage your money flow in both your business or your personal life in a way that isn’t limiting and restricting and overwhelming? How do you do set up a portfolio? What are the practicalities? So here’s this beautiful combined pillar of almost logos and Eros, that curiosity and the framework of the how which has to be brought together.

Christine Schlonski [7:35]
Yeah, totally. And let me just ask you because you have lived on in six countries on five continents, right? So you’ve been around the block,

Ann Wilson [7:45]
We could either say freedom is a very high value of mine or lack of commitment. So I used to be an engineer, civil engineer. I built railways around the world. That was how I initially you earn my money, but I learned that what to do with invest which then my assets and my investments gave me the freedom to really go what I want to do. And this has helped people with their money side, hence when I created the wealth of business, but this has been fascinating because this has also given me a really unique insight that there are core common themes with money around the world.

Christine Schlonski [8:19]
Yeah, yeah.

Ann Wilson [8:20]
Yeah. And also when it comes to investing, and just being giving money leadership, it really is the same, often said, you know, money is tofu. It’s like it’s amazing protein, but it’s pretty flavorless. We as humans give all sorts of meaning to it, you know, and it’s, it’s this, we deserve it or it’s power or it’s excellent. But it isn’t just a very powerful value-based, your protein and we need it. We need it in our life. So there’s this core element, how you manage it, how you invest, it doesn’t matter whether you’re in Puerto Rico, in Portugal in Papua New Guinea. It really is the same thing. Money has no value judgment. It doesn’t care whether your German or South African. But then we as humans add all sorts of interesting cultural, and meanings to it. So so this is what’s fascinating when we started looking at the behavioral and the money mindset aspect, that we have to appreciate there are various layers to this truly cultural stories and myths that we take on.

Ann Wilson [9:30]
So there’s a, there’s a cultural relationship with money from being German, you know, French, European as another wider section as opposed to Anglo Saxon, as opposed to say, American, the mythology the story of success, completely different from Southeast Asia. So I think we’ve also got to be able to look at our cultural boiling pot in water. We’ve taken on from there, and then it goes into our family of origin, our parents, and then it could also be our religion, our schooling. And then also I think there’s a huge element of use it, what are the stories that we made up through our experiences with money are not just made up the stories that happened with the meaning we gave them, as they experienced that I grew up in the hard house of apartheid in South Africa.

Ann Wilson [10:26]
And I really got to see experience haves and have nots and crazy sort of relationship with identity, who you were what that meant you could or couldn’t have poverty and having it and this created huge confusion in me and also the sense that for me to have money meant that somebody else did without, for me to have money, so I almost had to hide it. It was shameful because it was this guilt around what it meant. And so and weaving these and having that curiosity to look these various layers, and then just go, does this or doesn’t this serve me in living the life because there’s no one set of money rules, money mindset believes we should have I think it’s just saying, Ha, can I be curious about, oh, this is fascinating. This is what I’ve taken on. And does this particular belief does this particular relationship actually serve me living my fullest, greatest life because, at the end of the day, it’s not about it’s not having money in itself that we’re after is what you spoke about. It’s about this freedom of choice, freedom of purpose, freedom of expression, this liberation. So moving away from, you know, trying to work harder for money, believe we need more money to go here to this extraordinary input this enabler. To free me up, to live life fully. And I think that that at its core is why not only should we do this, but we must do this so we can absolutely liberate ourselves and bring all of us to this because I truly believe if we’re not financially empowered, we will be overpowered. If we’re not financially empowered, we cannot bring all of ourselves all of our voice all of our expression, all of our creativity to the world. That’s why Yeah,

Christine Schlonski [12:11]
I agree. There’s, there’s always that little fear, like what happens if because at the end of the day, like, each person thinks, like, well, how can I feel safe? How can I function in this world? I mean, if that basic need isn’t taken care of, then it’s really difficult to express yourself or to support others. I see that quite often and you know, in the world where people really want to give to others where they want to contribute, but they don’t have anything to contribute. They can’t give money because they, you know, they block themselves and receiving money. So what’s a little bit of your personal journey? Like how did you breakthrough?

Ann Wilson [12:50]
So I was absolutely you know, specifically as you found that we didn’t really speak about money it was more hinted at it was more subtle. It was more, don’t be greedy. Don’t ask too much. Don’t click over that big size, if the medium size will do, there was also very much a story of men with managing more than money staff. So as a woman, there was also this disconnect in this relationship. I was wondering, I’m number five and six kids. My father did the hard work, and that was his job to provide and I think, you know, still so much of that legacy still sitting out there.

Ann Wilson [13:27]
And my mom, you know, looking after the family, but my dad died relatively young. And then I got to watch my mom struggling with the longer-term financial well, being shared always looked after the short term, you know, the budget of the house home, and not knowing who to trust what to do, and I just never thought I never wanted to be that vulnerable, but the only lesson I’d been taught about safety, security, and well being got a good job and work hard, that would make you safe, that would make me viable and I looked around, it seemed like the men had this money stuff sorted, they seemed to project feeling more confident, safer in life, then when I looked around a lot of the woman who seemed deeply vulnerable and more reliant on others, so I did the engineering not because I give a damn about it because that’s what men did.

Christine Schlonski [14:24]
And you were really, really good at it. Right? I mean otherwise, you wouldn’t have.

Ann Wilson [14:28]
You know, fortunately, I’ve realized that you know, I wasn’t really good at engineering I realized very quickly that the details don’t ask me to design anything but the structure and problem solving and large concepts of bringing large complexity together. So I ended up working in what’s called megaprojects, and that’s what took me around the world did very strategic planning, and so I’m very grateful for that career. But you know, the first 10 years it was all about work hard, and I thought, okay, I want to be able to have some freedom and travel and do fun things. So what’s that recipe? If I can work really hard if I can earn more than also if I can save so all I initially got myself in a debt hole managed to climb out of that, but okay, don’t do that again. So then it became more about how can I deprive myself if I can control my desires if I can not be greedy if I can really let see how little I could live on and if I could save in some point in the future, I would, there would be enough and then I could do what I really wanted.

Ann Wilson [15:34]
But all of it was vague. It was all like this, not even 50,000-foot level 500,000 foot vagueness. I had no idea what there was. I had no idea how much enough was. I only knew saving. So I thought it was just about trying to hold on to money. And this deprivation was just devastating. So there was no life in it. It was all about, what I couldn’t do, what I couldn’t have felt like as an ultimate policeman, and I was also to that, and I was married, and I also became that in our relationship, and that became really stressful. Because I became everything we couldn’t do. No, we can’t do that this or that, you know, and there’s just no life in that no vitality. And you know, I just think back and it’s so devastating because we’re not taught this stuff. I was just doing the best I could because that was the only thing I’ve ever been exposed to. And so it all blew up in a big messy money drama. The marriage broke down, and my hubby walked out the door with the money I’ve been holding on to and I was like, oh, whoo, okay, this is not, this is. yeah, and obviously the fast-paced.

Christine Schlonski [16:45]
Yeah, what I find so sad is that most of the relationships like statistically do break up because of money.

Ann Wilson [16:54]
And it’s, yeah, it’s cited as the number one stressor in relationships. Because we’re not taught how to also have clean conversations. It’s not just about managing it, but we’re not taught. How do we actually speak about it without charge? Because often the only thing we’ve been modeled is money is only spoken about in a charged situation. There’s, something’s come up, there isn’t enough or there it is. So just how to, if you say you use grub hub, we didn’t really speak about it. So how do you have those keen conversations? Yeah. Which is enormous. So yeah, it was really at that point, that I sat and went, Okay, I can, you know, just try and work hard. I can try and do these things, but that obviously isn’t working. And I had heard about investing I’d heard about the stock market, but it just felt like a completely different world. If one, it felt like a work world for men. And it was, you know, gray men and weird suits with pointy, shiny shoes. And I felt very foreign. I had no idea how to get into but I thought to hang on, you know, I am might be blonde hair might be a woman but let me, let’s break through all that bias. And maybe it’s not because I’m stupid here maybe there’s just fundamentally something I have been learned and I’m very grateful that somehow have been given that lesson that every single thing is learnable.

Christine Schlonski [18:15]
Oh, and I love that let’s just repeat that every single thing is learnable that’s so important. Because you know, people listening might be totally overwhelmed right now.

Ann Wilson [18:27]
Completely.

Christine Schlonski [18:28]
Yeah.

Ann Wilson [18:29]
And this has just been such a key thing for me to realize. Nobody popped out the womb, a financial genius. Nobody popped up with knowing how to invest. Nobody popped out the womb knowing how to have empowered heartfelt sales conversations. No one popped out the womb knowing how to put an automated autoresponder sequence on their email service provider. Whatever that is. I mean, hell, we don’t even pop out the womb knowing how to walk. So, you know, this self-compassion and then, you know, a second part just with that belief that it truly is a deep part of belief and it’s grown the more it’s proven to be true for me it’s become a very strong belief so I do go Hmm you know, I’m there’s pragmatism with it. I know that I’m never going to be a six-foot-seven tall black basketball player is also going to be practically what I could be, but I could learn how to play basketball but maybe not become an NBA. Yeah. But I can still add up.

Christine Schlonski [19:32]
Yeah, if it was your heart’s desire, you would be interested and curious that you would learn it

Ann Wilson [19:36]
Exactly! So then that next thing is that curiosity and that really led me to start reading books and then the next key thing actually implementing so I started with the stock market. And I’m so grateful because it’s the easiest asset class investing class to get started. When you’re busy when you’ve got a business when you’re full time. I mean, little did I know but the internet is completely different. First asset classes investment class at the Internet democratized. And so this was the late 90s. Internet was rarely moving on and, and so I was able to get in pretty early as a retail investor in these things called index trackers. And then I went into property investing. And I just went and I learned many lessons along the way every week and I have a whole podcast just on that but really getting out there are these cumulative things, consistency is the thing that’s going to get me there not trying to find this thing that to rescue me. And this was a huge, big lesson for me Christine and it still is. And I think maybe you also experienced this when you’re teaching people about sales and in business. I really had also broken out of this myth and the story that one I needed to be rescued in this area of money. And I think there’s this insidious story that we are still fed as women that right from fairy stories to the chick flick,

Christine Schlonski [19:57]
The Knight on the White Horse

Ann Wilson [21:05]
Absolutely pitching her Chicka Chicka Chicka

Christine Schlonski [21:07]
Ala Julia Roberts is gonna come

Ann Wilson [21:09]
Exactly Pretty Woman, whichever ready is at this you know it’s going to kiss us and then oh my God, Thank God we never have to deal with this money stuff again we’re going to be looked after. What relief and that somehow money and our financial well being is this burden, that is a problem to be solved if we could just find that one business that one investment that one thing that you know we share with that person or that thing that we never have to worry about this again. And I think that is also devastating. Because it also makes us very vulnerable to get rich quick schemes, I guess find that quick solution or that person, you know that rescue and I’ve got to be kidding, you know, that can this can be in our business is our life. I’m very, I’ve really had to have self-compassion. with myself that even in my business, I’ve got to be careful. There’s a part of me that wants to believe that there’s a unicorn that will save me from the shit that I don’t like.

Christine Schlonski [22:11]
Yeah, I think we all have that going on, and especially in situations that are not comfortable, like, it would be nice if someone could just come in like the deal could go through or this person could show up or

Ann Wilson [22:25]
Yeah.

Christine Schlonski [22:25]
Like how to get relief from that and what is the situation?

Ann Wilson [22:29]
Yeah, absolutely. And I think this is a fine line between delegation versus abdication. Understanding how we get systems and supporting this, but knowing that something as primal and vital as our financial well being is nothing it is something we can never outsource. And it’s about understanding how to bring our wealthy living and our relationship with money into our lives in an everyday way. Stop trying to look for the thing. That means we’re never going to have to look at it again. So that was a huge thing breaking out of this kind of lottery mentality. I just won the lottery. I just got this big payout. You know, I wish I had a, you know, a great uncle that had lots of money that day that I inherited then that that part of my life will be sorted. When we let go of that story and go, No, this is a vital part of living a great life that I need to learn how to, you know, incorporate in it was a huge relief. You know, and then the second part of this was also letting go of the concept that it’s complicated, because we also fed that story by the financial industry.

Ann Wilson [23:37]
Told that this is difficult and complicated and it’s almost subversive. And especially for us when because it goes hand in hand with that you need to be rescued. It’s also will don’t dabble here because I truly believe that any person that is financially empowered and also empowered in who they are is in their identity. And then they and they almost have their own back and just be okay, this is who I am in the world, they almost become unstoppable. And so I think with woman, when you bring these two energies, you can almost call it deep sexuality of being dropped into their body, the ownership of what they loved, wealthy for them their own self-expression, then with financial empowerment. So when we bring that together this deep power, you know, as you said that the first layer and role of money and being able to bring it into your life and keep it is safety. I think the second layer is power. Yeah, the energy of being able to then create express. And so these two things have been big, big lessons for me.

Christine Schlonski [24:46]
Yeah. Awesome. Well, time with you just flies. So really looking forward to the next conversation that we already have set up. But you brought us something that can really give us the first amazing steps to take in the situation to claim our power to get empowerment with “The Savvy Investor”.

Ann Wilson [25:07]
And absolutely.

Christine Schlonski [25:08]
Yes, let us know that.

Ann Wilson [25:10]
Yeah, so here’s a free training. It’s a webinar where I take you through “The Savvy Investor”, How To Actually Start Getting Investments Working For You because this is really important. No amount of money that you earn will ever create your freedom, we have to have this thing called assets that work outside of our investments if they are the only thing that will truly give us freedom, financial freedom, and that freedom of choice. And so in The Savvy Investor Webinar, takes you through this the six-step roadmap to freedom, what is an ecosystem, there’s not this one cutting thing, the ecosystem of how to then get money working for us what to put in place a system to create this healthy wealthy environment. So there’s free training so check it out, what to invest in, what are the other elements that really enable us to feel safe Then powered by this thing called money.

Christine Schlonski [26:04]
Awesome. Well, thank you so, so much, I will definitely put the links in the show notes and the resource section and also all the links that lead to you so people can connect. Because I truly believe when you get that, especially if you are an entrepreneur, and you want to have this big impact in the world, you need to learn how to take your amazing gift and talent, how to package it and offer it to the world in a way that feels amazing to you how to get amazingly rewarded so that you are excited and it keeps you going. And then once you have money coming into the door, how to really invest it so it’s not running through your fingers. And it really gives you choice, freedom, and the capacity to you know, support others in a much, much bigger way that you could not be doing if you wouldn’t have any money.

Christine Schlonski [26:59]
Absolutely and perhaps in the second-ever, we can really explore some of the risks that entrepreneurs need to be aware of when they bring that money in, you know, some of the fatal mistakes that I see happening over and over with entrepreneurs. That just keeps him in the cycle.

Christine Schlonski [27:16]
Oh, awesome. That’s, that’s a really great one. We will go for that for sure. But thank you so much, and for sharing your wisdom with us and your journey. And I think it’s so inspiring to see that you can start with basically nothing, right, coming from a big family, not really having had those conversations, like creating what you have created and just you know, I was blown away. And you are one of the few women on the planet basically, who is teaching the way you are teaching and provide so much value and I would also say like hope for other women who have not caught on to the idea that they can be 100% independent, that they can be thriving creating the life of their dreams. By putting these pieces into place,

Christine Schlonski [28:09]
Thank you so much. But you know, it’s deeply, deeply part of my mission, my purpose, and I’m so grateful that I’ve got the money part sorted. Because it does exactly that it gives me the energy and the power to be able to use my voice to be able to do this and contribute. And I think the more of us who are able to be conscious creators who have the resource of economic empowerment and money flow behind us, this is how we start changing the world for the better. And if there’s ever been a call for us to step up and get this part of our life sorted, this is it. And you know, for me, it’s no longer a nice to have it a call for each of us to sort this out and come forward. So I’m so grateful to you to be a part of this, this movement of heart-based conscious creators, creating the skill sets that we need.

Christine Schlonski [28:59]
Awesome. Thank you so much. And I’m so looking forward to our next conversation.

Ann Wilson [29:03]
So am I.

Christine Schlonski [29:04]
Well, I hope you had a ton of fun Gorgeous and you got maybe triggered a little bit here and there I for sure have. And you know, I was always like thinking well how was I brought up? What was my belief system? How did I free myself from certain beliefs that did not serve anymore and as we have seen and has her personal path to creating the freedom she has created, to be able to be fully empowered and now helping others on that journey? So I hope you took some notes I hope you have made some decisions on where you want to go in your life and what you want to do in regards to wealth creation. hop on over to christineschlonski.com to check out and the amazing gift called “The Savvy Investor”. I have a link for you right in the show notes in the resource section, as well as all the links that lead to Ann, it’s just one click away. So hop on over to christineschlonski.com find the podcast tab and then you have the episode with everything you need, including the transcript, the three key points of the episode, as well as the show notes, the resources we talked about and all the links to Ann as well as your amazing free gift, “The Savvy Investor”. Thank you so, so much for having tuned in. I hope I see you for the next episode or you are tuning in for the next episode, where we talk about don’t just make money, create wealth, and how that works. Have a wonderful day, wherever you are in this beautiful world and I’m saying bye for now.