Financial Feminist - 274. How to Shift Your Money Mindset and Earn More in 2026 with Mimi Bouchard

Episode Date: February 5, 2026

Try Mimi’s app, Activations, with a free 14-day trial and exclusive discount at activations.com/financialfeminist If you’ve ever felt like you’re doing all the “right” money things on paper but still feel anxious, stuck, or behind, this episode is for you. In today’s conversation, I’m joined once again by Mimi Bouchard––trailblazing entrepreneur, motivational speaker, and author––to break down how to shift your money mindset in 2026 by changing your identity, your beliefs, and the way you relate to yourself long before the numbers change. We talk about the psychology of money, why not all of your thoughts are true, how to stop bracing for financial disaster, and how small, daily mindset shifts can completely transform your financial behavior. Tune in to learn how to rewire your brain to see opportunity, rebuild trust, and start showing up like your future wealthy self so you can create lasting financial security and freedom this year. 00:00 Intro  01:40 How your brain filters opportunity 03:50 Why mindset matters more than being good at math 06:10 How beliefs drive behavior before numbers ever do 08:30 Not all of your thoughts are true 11:50 The "why not me?" mindset shift 17:30 Women and the fear of wanting more 20:50 Identifying limiting beliefs in everyday moments 28:20 Bracing for impact - the low-grade money anxiety trap 35:10 The bounce back rate vs. perfectionism 42:50 Building trust with yourself around money 47:30 Adding positive habits instead of restricting 50:30 Getting comfortable with having more money Visit https://herfirst100k.com/ffpod to see the show notes and read the transcript of this episode! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The truth is your mindset is sabotaging your money goals. Here's how to fix it. Because so many of us are doing the right things on paper but still feel stuck, anxious, or like something isn't clicking when it comes to money. My guest today is Naming Bouchard, and she's here to break down what actually happens when your identity around money starts to shift, from how your brain filters opportunity to why not all of your thoughts are true, to how small mindset changes can completely change your financial behavior.

In this conversation, we talk about the psychology of money, why women are taught to fear wanting more, how to rebuild trust with yourself after messing up, and why real financial growth often starts long before the numbers actually start to change. Today's episode will literally help you rewire your brain, stop your negative thoughts around money, and give you an incredible practice for getting back on track that I am immediately adopting into my everyday life. Mimi is the founder of an incredible app called Activations, and this is her second time on the show. We loved having her the first time. Activations is this incredible new kind of audio. It's not a podcast.

It's not a meditation. It's something more than that. It's like getting a personalized pep talk for wherever you're at in your life. And at activations.com slash financial feminist, you can hear the ones that are my favorite. I've used Activations for a couple of years. I love listening to them while I'm on a walk

or doing chores around the house. And that offer is only available for their website. So if you go to Activations.com slash Financial Feminist, you can see a list of my personal favorites to jumpstart your 2026, but also get a 14-day free trial and the biggest discount. We appreciate Mimi offering that to our listeners.

Let's get into it. But first, a word from our sponsors. This newly independent podcast is brought to you by Squarespace. Squarespace was the first investment we ever made in her first 100K, and it is the thing that I probably recommend most to business owners when they ask me what tools I should use. You need Squarespace because you need a beautiful website that works. You also need SEO tools so that you can get discovered and your business can get out there.

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learn the principles of improv in your life with Amy Polar. You can turn your commute or workout into a classroom. And I love audio mode on Masterclass. You can listen to Masterclass, but you don't have to watch it if you can't at that point. Right now, our listeners get an additional 15% off any annual membership at Masterclass.com slash FFPod. That's 15% off at Masterclass.com slash ffpod. masterclass.com slash ff pod. Okay, Mimi, so what's the first thing that happens when someone's identity around money starts to change? You start to see opportunities that always existed, but your RAS is now programmed to notice them. So the RAS is the reticular activating system in our brain, and that's essentially

a filtration system that we all have in our brains. And when our identity changes, our thoughts and beliefs change, and that actually reprograms the RAS and all of our brains to start seeing opportunity that was already there, but you just didn't notice it. So that's the craziest thing. Okay, so you're telling me I can literally reprogram my brain by doing these things. I absolutely am telling you that you can reprogram your brain. And when you do, you literally start to notice things that were always there that you weren't seeing. So the very basic example is the red car example. Yeah. When you're thinking, about buying a red car. You start seeing it everywhere. It's not because it's getting manufactured more.

No, it's because your RAS is filtering it as important information to serve to your conscious mind. If we didn't have our RAS, our brains would literally explode. There is so much information around us at all times. And it is being filtered by importance. Our subconscious mind will take in all this information and only present the important things to our conscious mind. So if we start telling our that we are wealthy, okay, we are going to be wealthy, we are going to be successful, we are good in business, we deserve that raise, we've been working so hard, you know, we are financially, you know, secure and stable and working towards this better future for ourselves, and we're going to start seeing reasons why that's true and seeing opportunities. Maybe you'll be at a party

and you meet someone that you might want to collaborate with that has this cool business. You know, maybe you are more confident when you're at that meeting with your boss asking for a raise, they literally will give you more money because of this self-assured identity of I deserve this. I'm so excited to have you back in the show. We got such good feedback on the first episode. And one of the things we talk about on financial feminist all the time is that everyone associates being good with money with being good at math. They think, oh, I have to be good with numbers or I have to look at spreadsheets all the time in order to be good at this. When in actuality, this is a lot more about mindset. So talk to me about the how

important your mindset is and understanding your emotions around money before you even start to look at your numbers. It's everything. It's absolutely everything. It's our identity. It's how we see ourselves. It's how we see the world. It's how we see our potential in life. Because if we deep down don't believe that we are ever going to find financial freedom, how are we going to become the version of ourselves that has financial freedom? It doesn't, the math isn't mathing. You know, And I can tell you, you know, from personal experience, I've never been a numbers girl, a math girl. You know, I'm a little bit more of a creative type of person. And I've absolutely been able to create wealth for myself, to invest my money, to, you know, be logical when it comes to finances.

So I think just debunking that, if that's someone's belief, that limiting belief of, oh, I'm not that good at numbers, I could never, you know, create this portfolio for myself or this financial stability for myself. It's just not true. You can really work on your strengths when it comes to earning money, saving money, investing money. The joke I always make is, like, I majored in theater and I'm a multi-millionaire. Like those things on paper don't make a lot of sense. But I think it's when you look at your day-to-day decision making around money, even just spending money at the store, right? How many of those decisions are made because you are in an emotionally heightened state? Right. You had a bad day at work. You are ravenous.

And so you go to the grocery store and you buy everything in sight, right? It's the same thing with those bigger decisions. You're more likely if you're in scarcity mode to make a decision that doesn't serve you about where you live, how and where you work, whether you are going to start that business or not. Because if you haven't done that mindset work, everything convinces you that it won't work out or that you're not good enough or that it's just not in the cards for you or that you're not worthy of money. And so all of it links back to mindset. And how can you expect yourself to take the action necessary to get to where you want to be if you don't

believe it's even possible for you? The most empowering thought is I can actually have some sort of influence on my future. You know, having that self, you know, empowerment really inside of you and leaning into that, we all have that little voice inside of us that says, hey, you could do more. You could live a bit of a better life here and be happier and feel more confident and self-assured and abundant and in love with life. You know, we all have that little voice if we stay in this quiet state enough to hear it. We all are meant for a bigger life, I believe. And it's just listening to that voice, leaning into it and starting to see that potential. And listen, that potential doesn't

need to be making a million dollars a year. That potential can be truly feeling in love with life and working a job that feels extremely fulfilling and having relationships that feel good with people that treat you well. You know, it doesn't have to be this like crazy extreme goal. It could just be feeling like you are spending your one shot at life, feeling happy, feeling alive, in tune with yourself, in tune with the best version of you, being authentically yourself. And that's what the work is about, really. But making money is great because it gives you freedom. It gives you, an ability to design your life and give to the people and the causes that you feel passionate about. And that's the most important thing about money, I think, is being able to have that ability.

Totally agree. And I hate to bring out my feminist soapbox this early, but it's one of the things we're like told as women at a systemic level is, yeah, just stay in your place. Don't ask for too much. Don't want too much. And that's what the system is built on is, you know, women staying controlled. and having the bare minimum, and I want the maximum for everyone listening. I want you to have a beautiful, full, healthy, stable life, and money gives you the options to get that, absolutely. How defiant are we being women, you know, trying to be, you know, are the most abundant financially wealthy versions of ourselves?

I think it's so powerful. I love what you just said, and I'm totally on the same page. I love defiant. How defiant are you? I'm like, I'm very defiant. Watch me. So you talk about beliefs and how they drive behavior before those numbers ever do. So for someone listening who says, I don't think I have money beliefs, but also nothing is changing,

how can they actually identify what belief might be running the show? It's such a great question. And it happens in those little moments. I always say that transformation is not this big thing that happens one day on your calendar, five months from now. Yeah. It happens in those everyday little moments. these thoughts that we repeatedly have, the actions that we repeatedly take, it's those little

little things. So the same thing goes when it comes to recognizing those thoughts and limiting beliefs that have held us back, these limiting ideas of ourselves, of our identity, of how our life is going to turn out, these limiting thoughts that keep us small, right? And we all have them, I think especially women, because we've been told our entire lives, you know, maybe this isn't possible for you. You don't look like typical, you know, tech founder. Like, I, was told that so much. People are surprised when they see the business I've built because I don't look like the typical tech bro. And, you know, I think it's very important that we create this ability to self-reflect, okay, because it's in the small moments, those thoughts that come into our brain,

if we can just be aware of them and think, wait a minute, is that thought true? Because a lot of the time it's not, our thoughts are not true. If we create meaning towards something that is completely, you know, a lie and we believe it, it affects us. For example, if we don't get that raise, we think, oh, it's because I'm not good enough. It's because that person doesn't see potential in me because I don't have potential because I'm a failure. You know, if that's the reason, maybe it's because that business is not doing as well as you think it is, or that person, you know, doesn't think you're confident enough to actually ask for what you're worth, okay? It could be so many different things, but we put this meaning towards what happens to us as a reflection of our identity.

identity. And it's the same in dating. If somebody turns you down, you think, oh, it's good, but maybe it's something about them, you know? So we need to have the most empowered view of ourselves, because that will help us so much in life and it will also make going through life more enjoyable. And it will make it more likely for you to actually find that success is just believing in yourself more than anyone else and having the strong sense of self. What you just said, I heard for the first time a couple years ago, which is not all of your thoughts are true. And I know somebody out there just had their mind blown because I remember the first time I heard that. And it felt like, I don't know, just this like radical gift to me because I used to even have like ugly

thoughts that I was like, oh, what's wrong with me that this just like flashes through my head? And it's like, no, it's the same way I'm driving sometimes. And my brain goes, what if you just turn the wheel and like hit that pole? You know? And I'm like, I have no interest in. doing that. I have no interest in getting in a self-imposed car accident today. And like, when I think about that, I'm like, yeah, of course not all my thoughts are true. I don't, I'm not interested in that, but still my brain goes, what if you just, just turn the wheel a little bit. So there are

constant thoughts that we have around money or around our own self-worth, because that's really what we're talking about here. So much about being financially wealthy, financially whole, and I don't mean, you know, a certain amount in your bank account. I just mean stable enough you get to make your own choices is about your own self-worth, is about realizing, yes, I am worthy of money, yes, I am worthy of a situation that respects me and that respects me and compensates me fairly with that respect. And I think that, of course, not of all of our thoughts are true, because that's just not possible. Yes, it's not possible at all. And what if we could all realize that we are very responsible for our thoughts? We are very responsible for our self-

image. And what if we could understand that our self-image, our identity, it can change. We can mold it. Our brains are malleable. You can fire and wire new neural pathways in your brain that make thinking a new thought easier. So think about it this way. Think about it like these old limiting thoughts have, you know, been going through your brain so many times over the years that they are essentially like a big paved road in your mind. Okay. It's easy to take this road because it's nice and smooth and paved and there is a big road here that you can take. And then when you start to decide to think a new thought, think about it like it's a bunny trail. Off the side of this paved road, there is a dense forest, okay? And there's this tiny bunny trail. It's hard to walk down this trail because you have to

keep, you know, moving branches aside. There's cobwebs. But every time you take this bunny trail, this new thought begins to implant itself into your brain. And it actually becomes easier to think over time than this paved road thought, right? So the first few times you think this new thought, and it will feel uncomfortable, it will feel, you know, icky sometimes. It will feel, you know, embarrassing sometimes, you know, especially if you're listening to, you know, visualization audio that, like an activation that tells you, like, I am destined for big things. I am, I am deserving of being wealthy. Sometimes that can be like, oh, you know, me, really? It can feel weird, right? But that's because that is a funny trail still. And the more you

think it, and the more you embed it into your brain as a new belief, this bunny trail becomes its own paved road. And then soon enough, that old paved road has cobwebs and branches and, you know, trees growing on there. It's not fun to take anymore. So you can rewire your brain and start taking that bunny trail. And every time you take it, it gets easier and easier. And it will change your life. You will start to think differently. And when you think differently and you have a new self-image, you're going to start acting differently. You're going to start showing up like your future self, the version of you that you can just tune into. That is the most confident, abundant, happy, opportunity-seeking version of you that has your best interest at heart that can create the life that you desire.

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So when we think about your work and when we think about the common money beliefs people are coming up against, What are the most common ones that are sabotaging people, even if somebody's doing like everything right on paper? A lot of us have this deep down belief that it could never happen to me, that these other people are special and it couldn't happen to me. And this is a very sad belief. Listen, I had this belief in a huge way before I went through my transformation journey and committed to this work. And I think that belief in itself was probably the one that me back the most. It's like, it can't happen to me. It can happen to you, but not me. And then I started telling myself reasons why it couldn't happen to me. And it was this like self-fulfilling

prophecy because I believed it couldn't happen to me. So I wasn't doing anything that could actually help me get there. And then when I decided to radically change my life and radically change my belief system and I committed to these new thoughts of, you know what, I'm responsible for my life. I can create something really amazing and maybe I look different to the typical tech founder, maybe I, you know, some people won't take me seriously. I'm too young, whatever it is. Those beliefs I decided just to shove to the side. And I'm not going to give them any attention I chose in this moment. This was about, you know, eight years ago. And I thought to myself, why not me? I started doing the opposite. If that person can do it, why not me? You know,

I actually took a screenshot of this quote the other day. I was like on TikTok. It says, how unrealistic can it be if other people have it? Yep. You know, it's like tell yourself the opposite. What harm does that do? It just gives you this motivation and this intrinsic belief that, you know what? Maybe I can. Because when you have that belief, you're going to start doing more, taking more action,

putting yourself out there. You won't have the confidence to ask for that raise to put yourself out there and pitch to a new client, you know, to start posting on social media, whatever it is. you're not going to have that confidence. It deep down your identity does not align with someone who can actually succeed. And everybody has their own privilege and their own story, of course. I also do think we're in this age where it is so, and again, everybody listening, you know my work, you know that there is so many systemic barriers that prevent us from building a life and building wealth.

Period. End of story. New paragraph. And then new paragraph. And also I think, as women, we are constantly told you're not good enough. You're not special enough. Somebody else has something you don't. And I'm sure you would agree with me. We don't have anything that somebody listening doesn't. Like, yes, we all have our own privilege. We all have her own story. But like, I don't have something in my DNA that makes me predisposed to be able to run a business better than somebody listening or to, again, be better with money. These are all learnable, teachable skills. these are things that you can say, I'm going to try and see what happens. That's why her first 100K ended up being a success.

That's truly it. Is I said, you know what? I want this and I'm going to figure out how to do it, even though I know nothing about how to run a business. Like, nobody in my family is a business owner. No one knew how to do this. And there are parts of my story, absolutely, that gave me financial foundation that somebody else might not have.

And at the same time, I think it's easy to just write off a goal or a dream because you're like, oh, somebody else has already done it or somebody else has something I don't. No, no, it's waiting for you. Yes, we can acknowledge the injustice that happens in the world, but we can also have that while empowering ourselves to create the life that we deep down desire. You know, and both can be true. We all start on a different playing field.

That's just life. We can't change that. Some people are way luckier than others. Some people are so much more privileged and we can't change that. But what we do have control over is how we act and our habits and how we feel about ourselves and what we decide to create in our lives. I like to say this thing called E plus R equals O. The event plus the response equals the outcome. The event, the situation, we often cannot control at all. Okay? We have no control. over that. But 50% of the equation is our response, right? What are we going to do with that? Are we going to let it empower us and give us even more grit and excitement? Like, Tori, the fact that my parents struggled a huge amount with finances when I was growing up and how there were bankruptcies in the family, remorgeting the house every five minutes. We couldn't afford a lot. My parents are artists. And I grew up in a very financially insecure household. That fact, I actually think, has helped me become the person I am today with the business I have today, because it gave me a taste to what I didn't want in my life. And it gave me even extra motivation. So it's all about how

we decide to frame the situation we're in. And if we need extra proof, there's always going to be a story of someone who started in a worse place than us that created the life that we wanted. So looking at those people, and it was hard for those people. You know what I mean? And even just you having your platform, it's such an inspiration to every single woman listening out there because it gives everyone this taste of like, oh my gosh, if she can do it, I can do it, right? And it gives this momentum in society women creating wealth for themselves. And that, I think, is so cool. So it's like we have to do our best because we can inspire people that the next generations.

Like, it's up to us. Yeah. And while we work to change the system that exists, The thing we can control is, you know, how we build wealth, how we take care of ourselves and our families or in our communities. Absolutely. So a lot of our audience feels this kind of low-grade anxiety about money. It's not crisis level, but it's never fully calm either. I see this a lot when I talk to women, when I speak or when, you know, they write into the show and they say, I'm always afraid the shoes going to drop.

Like, I'm always afraid, even if I feel stable now. Now something's going to happen. Shit's going to hit the fan. So what do you think keeps people stuck in that middle ground for so long? Maybe even after they're secure on paper. We have this addiction to feeling like we're bracing for impact. I think a lot of us women feel this way. Listen, including myself, I've had to work on this so much within myself, even having

the business I have and employing the people I employ. I'm constantly actually feeling this feeling of bracing for impact, waiting. for that thing to go wrong. And this is something I'm actively trying to work on a huge amount in my own personal life because I thought it's a big limitation. It's so hard. It is really not easy. And, you know, it's not good for our nervous systems either.

And our general joy level day to day, right? So the first part is acknowledging it. I think with everything in life, with anything that you want to improve within yourself from your personal development, you know, it's really understanding what it is and acknowledging it as number one. And number two, the step number two after that is realizing that there can be a different way to live, right? So this is something I'm genuinely working on.

I'm journaling about this pretty much every day at the moment. So it's funny you bring it up. But it's like, why do I need to feel like I'm breathing for impact all the time? You know, how can I release that anxiety and just feel that genuine, deep, positive belief of I'm going to be okay. You know, I've done everything I can. Sometimes you just need to understand that you've done everything you can. Give yourself a little pep talk. You know, we have to parent ourselves of time. We have to give, you know, the little young version of ourselves a hug and a kiss on the forehead and tell her, you're going to be fine. You're doing great. You know,

we have to do that sometimes. It's a huge important part of self-development, of falling in love with ourselves, right? And giving ourselves that love and that safety that we need. I think anyone listening to this podcast has a level of, you know, responsibility, you know, towards their own finances. They feel, you know, if they're listening to a finance podcast, that means that they have an interest to improve and maintain their finances. I think that alone shows that you're the type person that is actually going to be okay. You know what I mean? You're not ignoring problems. You are actually trying to improve yourself. So just give yourself some slack, you know, like, cut yourself some slack and realize that we don't have to be so hard on ourselves all the time

anymore. We do that as women. We're hard on ourselves. And we can just acknowledge that, yes, maybe we're not exactly where we want to be yet, but we can improve in those little tiny moments in our day. You know, we can start to do these consistent things, whether it's waking up, you know, 20 minutes earlier to just have some time without your phone. maybe sitting outside and having your coffee with silence or journaling a little bit or listening to an activation or listening to a motivational podcast. Maybe it's, you know, whenever you are making your coffee in the morning, you add a little scoop of collagen to balance your blood sugar a bit more.

Like it could be the most tiny details that could just help you improve your life, whatever that looks like for you. And when we start to lean into these tiny little things that actually make a huge difference in our lives, we're going to start to notice the compound effect take place. Just like how the compound effect takes place in our investments and our finances, the same thing goes with our personal habits, whether that is stopping a thought in its tracks when you're looking at yourself in the mirror and you're like, oh, like, I have to change this about myself. No, stop. That little moment of you telling yourself, no, Mimi, Tori, I'm not going to do this. We're not going down that road.

It's just these tiny moments that you can reteach yourself, you know? And that's the biggest emphasis that I would like to make in this podcast is transformation is not this big thing that happens one day. It's something that you do every single a day in a small way that will actually compound into huge changes in your life. And you will not even recognize yourself after a year or two of really just committing to small things. You're going to be happier and more fulfilled and feel more like yourself.

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I had just launched my book and I was just tired. And there were so many thought patterns that were not helping me and were frankly just mean. Like we're not kind to myself. Yeah. And you run that road to your beautiful metaphor enough. And you just realize I'm really tired of this. And so rather than every time running that road, I'd realize, okay, I'm halfway down it.

And I'd just stop and I'd go, okay, we're not going to do this today. And then I would just turn and take a different road. And that was a constant practice. But then over time, that road didn't exist anymore because I knew that going down that road didn't serve me. not helpful, it was not kind to myself. And one of the things that you teach is, I think, so helpful is what you call the bounce back rate, which is like how fast you recover from mistakes. Can you talk about how someone can apply that to, oh, I went and spent money I didn't have? Let's give that as the example. I went and, you know, overspent from my budget and now I

feel like shit. Like how do we use that bounce back rate? And also, how can we employ those mindset tools to not beat ourselves up. 100%. I love this bounce back rate concept that I kind of coined a few years ago. I write about it in depth in my book. So essentially it is the anti-perfectionism belief, which is perfect because I definitely have struggled in my past with perfectionism and thinking this all-or-nothing mentality. You know, if I fall off the bandwagon starting all my goals on Monday. Doesn't matter. Yeah. All it's over. Yeah. Exactly. So, the bounce back rate is really quite brilliant when you think about it because it does not put

perfection on the pedestal whatsoever. So many of us think that to create a better life for ourselves, we need to be perfect. We need to do it perfectly, right? That's actually completely false because not one human being on planet Earth has ever even had one perfect day. Your perfectionism is fear. Like, it's just fear. Yeah. Yeah. It's holding you back, right? This is the ultimate thing to tell perfectionist. Your perfectionism is making you not successful, right? Because it actually is holding you back. It's quite literally true. And again, we live in a society that is told women you must be perfect. So we've already set a standard that is actually completely unrealistic. And I know there's people out there that are going, oh yeah, well, that's unrealistic for other people, but it should be realistic for me. No, like perfectionism is

just fear. Your fear is the thing that's holding you back. And that fear of failing that fear of growing up, that fear of maybe you're not good enough. That's what your perfectionism is doing, and it's not serving you at all. Totally, totally. And the bounce back rate is a new measure to measure how successful you are being, right? And it is, it trumps the perfectionistic view. Because when you start to focus on just how quickly you bounce back to getting back on track after you fell off the bandwagon, just that bounce back rate, the rate at which you can bounce back, of feeling like your best self and doing the things that you feel good doing, right? If you just focus on how long it takes to get back on track as opposed to how perfect you were, this will expedite your

results like crazy because you're not going to get into this mentality of, oh, you know what, I messed up. I might as well spend the rest of my bonus because I, you know, spent it on this silly thing. So I'm just going to spend the rest and then we'll start next month. I'm obviously I can't change. So here we are getting back into this old pattern of overspending if we want to use money as an example. If we want to use our health goals as an example, oh, you know, if you tell yourself that you want to go on a walk every single day to get fresh, you know, air and sunlight and then you miss a day, you know, why would you then stay home all day, binge watching TV and not go outside and get your fresh air and your walk just because you miss that morning walk, right? It's that same mentality of

all or nothing, you know, eating one cookie and then eating the entire box, no, just be okay. with, you know, eating a treat or be okay with missing a morning of your morning walk. That's okay. You're normal. You're human. That doesn't mean you have to go down this other extreme. And that's what perfectionism causes. It causes extremes and extremes will hold us back. If you can just be more consistent and focus on how quickly you can bounce back and just be casual about whatever that quote slip up was, then you're going to get there so much faster. not one person on planet Earth is perfect, right? And there have been the most successful people out there that you look up to that have never had one perfect day.

So that's obviously not the solution is perfectionism. It's not. What those people do differently is they have a quick bounce back rate. You know, maybe they do something that doesn't make them feel good or they broke a goal that they had. Instead of dwelling on it, they just get back up and go back to what they know that they want to be doing. And when you identify yourself as the type of person that you want to be, if you start to show up as her and you feel like your future self, I call it, the person you want to be, the identity that you want to embody,

if you can continuously do that, you'll notice that your bounce back is actually a lot faster and easier because it's just aligned with your identity. If you identify yourself as someone who is quite responsible with her finances that likes to have a certain amount in her bank account, doesn't like to go below that, you know, feels very positive about the investment she's making, the savings she has, how she's spending her money. If you identify as that version of you, it's going to be harder for you to overspend

and make these, quote, bad money decisions because you won't want to. It'll feel weird doing it. It'll feel uncomfortable. And that's the goal, is to I first shift our identity to align with who we want to be, with the life we want to live, because then it makes doing those things and taking that action quite a lot easier. I want everybody listening to go back about five minutes and listen to that again because I love thinking about tracking success, not, I've done this 15 days in a row, but rather, okay, on the 15th day, I wasn't able to. And rather than just saying, okay, I'm going to wait to the first of the month. Again, screw it. Or I've already messed up my New Year's resolution. So I'm just going to put the whole thing in the garbage. It's like, no, rather than tracking how many days

I've been on. Let's track how many days it took me to get back on. Cool. I did this in a couple hours or I did this. It only took me two days. My bounce back rate was two days. And that is very similar to what I see people talk about of trying to get rejections. I'm sure you've seen this. There was actually a woman literally going viral in TikTok as we're recording this who was like, my goal this year is to get a hundred rejections. And I've already gotten Dutch citizenship. I've gotten like this speaking engagement and I've gotten like a $10,000 client and also I've heard no 20 times. So it's like that's the that's kind of what we're talking about here is rather than tracking how many yeses you've gotten. It's like no, I'm going to go for it and it's not going to be perfect. But I am going

to track, okay, we're going to get back in the bandwagon. How much time does it take me to do that? Yeah. Yeah. Just focusing on that because there's one very simple solution. Just getting back on track. the moment that you realized you fell off, if your brain immediately goes to, okay, bounce back right as my success tool, as my measure of success, then you're just immediately going to want to just bounce back. If your measure of success is perfectionism, then once you realize you fell off track, you're just going to feel shame, guilt, self-hatred. What the heck is the point of that? What? That doesn't benefit you at all. That's a waste of your precious life is feeling that way about yourself. And sometimes we've all had to feel that way a lot for a long time to realize

that we're just tired of feeling that way and that we our life is too short and too precious to feel that way. We have to come back to our why when it comes to this work a lot of the time. And I don't know about you, but my why is life is short. We have one shot at this thing. I want to feel the happiest I've ever felt. I want to feel the most fulfilled and the most abundant. And I want to tune into my potential. You know, I want to be the best Mimi that I could possibly be. When you think about someone building trust with themselves around money again, what is the smallest behavior change that actually restores that trust? Not feeling fear when you look at your bank account, you know?

I think that's a big one. We often try to avoid looking at things that make us sad or uncomfortable or realize we need to change. So stop avoiding. That's a really big one. And start to actively like take control of your finances. We actually just launched in Activations, this seven-day money mindset challenge that people have been obsessed with because it's more of a pragmatic kind of logical challenge we have. I was mentioning to off air. We have a new script writer for the activations and she writes some of the most compelling content that we've ever. had on the app. It's very pragmatic, very practical. I'll tell you some of the activation titles just so you can get a feel of like what this is. So it's a seven-day money mindset challenge. The first

activation is feel motivated to improve your finances. So starting off with this rush of motivation and like your why. You know, the next activation is release money anxiety and feel hopeful about your financial future, seeing a new future for yourself. Okay. The next next one is own your money story and rewrite what comes next. And then we have one called stop mindless shopping and spend in alignment. That's going to be a good one. Yeah, I knew that one. Take radical accountability for your finances. Shift out of lack and feel abundant, you know, starting to condition yourself to think and act and feel like the abundant version of yourself, like the version of you who has the financial future you desire.

And then the final activation in the seven-day challenge is take a line to action towards your financial future. So really ending it off on an action-oriented, you know, frame where you can actually just start to take action out anything, whatever feels sticky to you, something actionable, something doable. And that's what activations do. So many people write in saying, oh, my gosh, you know, since listening, I've increased my income by X amount. And it's not the activations that magically make money poof into your account. we know this. It's not what it is. What it is is who you become when you listen to this type of visualization content that helps you reprogram your mind, right? So Activations is just a tool in your toolbox that you can use. If you don't want to do activations, you can also journal. You can

also have a friend that you work on with these new beliefs and you can check in every day and have some sort of accountability with them. I think journaling is a very important one as well that I like to lean on. Me too. And there's so many different persons. development practices that you can lean on. Activations is kind of just like a shortcut audio tool for people that like to listen to things on the go. But you can do this, whichever way that feels most aligned to you, the intention is to create new thoughts and to tell yourself that these old limiting thoughts are actually not the truth. And it really helps you to step into this new identity, this new way of being, of living. Mimi, is there a way that we could actually hear

and activation, I want people to, like, experience it and be able to, you know, continue on their learning right now. Sure. If you want, we can send you like a two-minute sample activation. You can plug it into the podcast. Okay. That's so cool. Okay. Q money activation right here. Picture that number. A specific dollar amount. See it clearly. Maybe it's a monthly. income or a yearly salary, whatever it is, get specific, and get ready to call it in. Feel the security, the freedom, the confidence that that number brings, see the number in your account. It doesn't matter that it hasn't arrived yet.

You can take actions toward that number now. You can embody the energy of the future you that has that amount now. Ask yourself, why do I want this number? How could this amount of money change my life? What action today aligns me? With that number, breathe it in. Allow yourself to revel in it. This number is pop.

It's not if. You have to truly, deeply believe it. And then start showing up like someone who is worthy of it. And let this be the moment you choose clarity, empowerment and unlimited possibility with your financial future. The savings you want to build, the debt you're steadily reducing, the income that feels aligned, that sense of security that you're craving. Feel the spark of possibility.

Can you feel the shift? Feel the abundance coming. Feel that motivation inside of you. Igniting. You know you can do this. You are capable. You can create wealth. You are deserving.

Your financial future is waiting. And you are ready. to meet that version of you that has it. Okay, Mimi. So if anybody listening is like, I want more, where do they go? Well, we created a special little link for you guys, if you want.

It's activations.com slash financial feminist. We are offering your listeners a 14-day free trial and a humongous discount, the biggest discount we offer. But we can only do that on the website because the app store doesn't let you do discount So if you want the best deal and a 14-day free trial, you can try over 800 activations,

just like that one for any moment of the day, any topic that you can think of. Just go to activations.com slash financial feminist. And Tori, we can put a list of your favorites on that landing page two if you want. That would be so cool. I do have, there's so many that I love, especially the ones that, yeah, I love feeling like the main character in a movie, and that is the theater degree in me. And it was like, oh, wait, you're going to have. Okay, being the center of attention, we're going to talk about how to be in the spotlight.

Great. And I love those, especially when I'm on my morning walk. I'm like, oh, look at the sunshine and look, like, Han Zimmer scoring my life. It's so great. He's the literally my, I'm obsessed with him as a composer. So good. Like such a mode of music. But I love how you like the main character ones because I'm obsessed with those too.

I would really highly suggest anyone listening, try that seven-day money mindset challenge. Even if you just take advantage of the 14-day. free trial, do that seven-day challenge and then like cancel if you don't like it. But trust me, that seven-day challenge is so good if you want to just reset your finances for 2026 and feel that level of like inspiration and motivation while also mixing in that practical, logical side of things. When we think about the ability or the power of habits in our daily lives, my friend Liz Moody, who's been on the show before, we've talked about habits with her. How does thinking about incorporating things in your life rather than taking things away make more consistent behavioral

change? Oh, I love that question. And it's so spot on. When you add positive things, instead of focusing on removing, you know, the negative things, it's just psychology 101. It's more enticing and more exciting to do that, just like with healthy eating. You know, if you want to eat healthier, add more veggies and fiber into your meals instead of trying to restrict and take everything bad out. It's not realistic. We want to create a life for ourselves that is maintainable and it just becomes who we are. Right. So I think really focusing on that positive, anything positive that you can add into your life without overwhelming you, you know, you don't need to do it all. Just do those things that really allow you, you know, to show up in your life in a way that you want to be showing up.

right? You don't need to wake up at 5 a.m. and do a two-hour-long morning routine to transform. I saw more change in my life by not doing that and by simply, you know, listening to a visualization audio like an activation on my daily walk. The walking activations were what changed my life. Before I ever released these to the public for years, I was creating them for myself. And that's what changed my life is listening on my daily walks. But for someone else, it could even just be a motivational podcast that they listen to every night. when they're getting ready for bed or just whatever it is for you. Just be consistent. That's the message. Be consistent. Try to just do a little bit for yourself every day. Whether you even like to

meditate, that's amazing if you can stick to that. Try doing that for five, ten minutes every day. Whatever you are drawn to, whatever feels realistic for you, exciting for you. Lean into that and be consistent because if you just do that, you're going to see a change. Yeah, looking at your money, rather than saying, okay, I'm going to avoid it and everything's going to be fine. It's like, no, how can I make this fun for myself? And what Mimi's talking about everybody is, she hasn't used this word, but it's like habit stacking, right? She's like, okay, I'm listening to this thing.

Well, I'm also going on my walk. I was doing this last night as I said, okay, I haven't got my walk in today. I pulled out my walking pad and I had some work to do. And I just sat there and I did the work I needed to get done while walking. And I felt better afterwards because, of course I did. Now, did I want to walk? I did not. I did not, but I knew I'd feel better.

And that's the other thing we've talked about on the show a million times is that self-care is hard shit. Self-care is stuff that typically in the moment you don't want to do. Like, you don't want to go to therapy and, you know, have a hard conversation about your patterns. You don't want to eat a salad. You want to eat pizza all the time. And again, we're not victimizing pizza.

But, like, there's certain things that we do that feel uncomfortable in the moment, but make future use life better. looking at your money, right? Probably uncomfortable in the moment, but ultimately it makes future use life better. And this is what we're talking about is like the things that actually make a difference in your life and creating time to do those things. And one of the most amazing things to do as well is getting very comfortable and familiar with the feeling of having more money. A lot of us feel limited. We want more money, but we feel uncomfortable with that amount of money. And that kind of rejects it from us. You know, if we don't deep down feel comfortable with that amount of money,

how can we expect to really take the action necessary to get there, to take the risk necessary, if it feels unfamiliar and uncomfortable? We have a whole category in the app called targeted visualizations. This is money-focused visualizations. It's a little bit more on like the woo side to some of the other activations we have. So pragmatic, money mindset challenge, if that's for you, but if you are into a little bit more of that, like, aligned with the energy of the level of wealth that you desire type of verbiage, our targeted visualization category is really quite amazing when it comes to that. And it helps you familiarize yourself with that level of money. For example, you know, we have everything from manifest $1,000 all the way to

millions and millions, whatever that amount is that you want to familiarize yourself with. And it helps you get into the energy of how it would feel to be earning that amount. We have an income category to be earning a certain amount in an income. It's all about getting familiar with it and just trying on how it feels. Kind of like you're a method actress and you're kind of, it'll help you walk around throughout your day like you're already embodying this version of you that has a certain level of income or amount in her savings. And it's a very fun exercise. It feels really good to do. And it also, it just like makes you, it gives you the sparkly feeling of potential, right? Of this like goose bumpy, what if?

And that's personally what I love about this work is like you feel that like sparkly aliveness feeling, you know, when you when you think about everything that you could become. And it's one of those things that uniquely women feel. We feel guilty if we're not doing well enough with money. And then we feel guilty if we feel like we're doing too well. And I think that again is back to the mindset or back to the beliefs that have been ingrained in us by society is feel shame about your debt, feel shame about your spending, feel shame that you don't have enough. And when you start doing well, you have all these new problems, which is the same shame, but in a different way that's going, who are you to have more money? Who are you to be the person that is doing well while other people aren't? Which is a real thing I think about all the time. And I think one of the, the, outcomes of that is that when you feel shame that you're not doing enough and then you feel shame that you're maybe doing too well, shame lives in shadow. So we don't want to talk about it. We don't

want to talk about it with our friends because they might judge us for being in debt or it feels very personal. And then on the flip side, I don't want to talk about that I got a raise at work or that, you know, I'm investing and that my business is doing well because then what if they judge me for having too much money or being out of touch or being like it's so common with women on either side. And to me, that just tells me we can't win. So you may as well get in a good relationship with your money because no matter what, society wants to make you feel shame, wants to make you feel shame about either not doing enough or doing too much. So you may as well do the amount that feels good to you and pursue money because, again, it gives you those options

and those choices. You're so spot on. I actually have never thought about it that way, but that is so Isn't it crazy? I wrote a whole book about it. But no, it's wild. It's like, it's wild. And that shame and judgment is, you know, it's cultivated. It's on purpose. Like, you know, society has built that shame and judgment so that we don't pursue money. And so when you're talking about, you know, activations and mindset, like this is proven in the research. This is proven in the data where we exist in a system that tells women you shouldn't want money. That's gauche, that's greedy, that's in polite. You shouldn't pursue it. You shouldn't want to be rich. And that's one of the reasons I am so unabashedly using that terminology in our social media and on the pod is like, I am going to tell you, I want you to be rich. I want to be rich. I love being rich for all of the options being rich affords me.

100%. Yeah, I totally agree. I think when we feel comfortable saying that, I want to be rich. I want to have six figures in investments. I want to earn this amount of money. When we tell ourselves that and we feel, empowered with that thought and we feel okay sharing that with the world. Right. That becomes part of who we are. And then we're more likely to actually get there because it's just we don't feel shame around it. It's not as scary anymore. It's not as like this thing on a pedestal somewhere that we can't have. It's like, no, the more I think and the more I hear somebody in my ear tell me that this is possible for me, again, just like listening to the show, I'm telling you this is possible for you. it's no different than that. Okay, my last question for you, I could talk to you all day. But what is one thing that anybody listening could do this week that could actually change

how they relate to money even before the numbers change? Get crystal clear on who your future self is, on how much she earns, on how much she has, in investments and savings, on how her relationship is with herself, with money. In every area of her life, actually, in my book, I talk about. about the five pillars of your life, mental, physical, financial, social, spiritual, those five pillars. If there's one thing that you can do this week, especially harnessing that new year energy, grab a journal, grab a pen, and just go through those five pillars, okay, mental, physical, financial, spiritual, social, those five pillars, and just do an audit. Rate them. The current life

you're living, rate it out of 10, 1 to 10, how are you feeling in every single pillar of your life. And then get very clear. I spoke about this in the first episode we did to worry on how clarity is incredibly important when it comes to creating your dream life. So get very clear. And I think putting pen to paper is a very effective way to do this. If you want something more guided, we have a ton of writing activations on the activations app, but you don't even need that. You can just do this yourself with a piece of paper and a pen and just brain dump on paper, everything that you want to improve in your life. create a vision of your future self, the version of you that has the life that you desire, okay?

Start to see it in your mind. Start to feel it in your body. How does it feel to be her? Okay. And then you have that clarity. You have a roadmap. Once you have that clarity, then you can tune into being her now in everyday moments. While you're doing your everyday life, programming your brain in these everyday moments,

whether you're habit stacking, whether you're sitting down on your laptop about to work, Just remind yourself from Post-it notes, from listening to an activation, from listening to a podcast, from having a check-in with a friend, remind yourself who you want to be, who is she? How does it feel to be her? And how can you be her now in everyday moments? Start acting like her, thinking like her, believing the same thoughts that she believes in. And you're going to then find yourself in a gray area, having one foot into the old life and one foot into the new life.

And then that's a really beautiful place to live. And then if you stay consistent, you're going to become her. will happen. Mimi, that was so helpful. I'm so happy to have you back on the show. Thank you so much for being here. Oh, Tori, it was a pleasure. I always love chatting with you and I love your audience. And yeah, thank you so much for having me on again. I hope that we can make 2026 the best year yet and everyone listening can feel that inspirational energy that we're trying to inject into this episode. I love it. Thank you. All right, team, if you've been waiting for a sign to finally become the happiest, healthiest, wealthiest

version of yourself, this is it. So whether you're looking to improve your confidence, upgrade your money mindset, just feel better about your thoughts and emotions around money. You can join the hundreds of thousands of users, including me, with Activations. And maybe it was so generous. So just for Financial Feminist listeners, there is a special limited time offer. You can get a massive discount, but it's only available through our exclusive link on their website. So you could go to activations.com slash financial Feminist to download it and get that 14-day free trial. Also, there's a playlist there of all of my favorite activations. So if you're wondering what's in my headphones, what I'm listening to,

you'll get access to that over there. Again, that's activations.com slash financial feminist. Thank you for listening to Financial Feminist, produced by her first 100K. If you love this show and want to keep supporting feminist media, please subscribe or follow us on your preferred podcasting platform or on YouTube. Your support helps us continue to bring this content to you for free. If you're looking for resources, tools, and education, including all of the resources mentioned in this episode, head to herfirst00k.com slash s-spod.