More Money Podcast - 271 Using Your Dollars to Keep Her on the Map - Larkin MacKenzie-Ast, Chair of the Business Women’s Network at Coast Capital Savings

Episode Date: March 11, 2021

With International Women’s Day happening this past Monday, I’ve partnered with Coast Capital Savings on their Keep Her on the Map campaign to put a spotlight on the disproportionate social and economic impacts that the COVID-19 has had on women, and women-owned businesses, and hopefully inspire action. To discuss this more in-depth, I have Larkin MacKenzie-Ast on the show, who is currently the Chair of the Business Women’s Network at Coast Capital Savings. Throughout the almost 6 years of this podcast, I’ve tried to emphasize the importance of using your dollars as votes for change. Of course it’s important to be frugal and find deals to save money, but it’s also important to be mindful of what your spending says about your values and realize how big of an impact your spending has on the bigger picture. For instance, maybe instead of using Amazon for everything or always going to the big box stores, seeking out local, women-run businesses instead. Especially since they’ve been the hardest hit during this pandemic. To get some ideas about how you can be part of the change, you find more resources and info about Coast Capital’s Keep Her on the Map campaign on their website. Also watch their quick video about some startling statistics about how women have been affected by the pandemic. For full episode show notes, visit https://jessicamoorhouse.com/271 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome back to the Mo Money Podcast. I'm your host, Jessica Morehouse. This is episode 271 of the show. Thanks for joining me for this bonus episode. I love doing two episodes in one week. It's a lot of work, but I still love doing it because I love being on here talking to you, sharing some great information and interviews. And today is no different. So if, I mean, unless you've been, you know, living under a rock, then you would know this past Monday that just happened was International Women's Day, one of my favorite days of the year. Also my dad's birthday.

Shout out to my dad. So on International Women's Day, it's a great time to celebrate women, actually highlight women, and talk about some issues that women are dealing with. And that is why I've recently partnered with Coast Capital Savings, because they are doing this campaign called Keep Her on the Map, which is awesome in my view. I mean, anything to do with bringing awareness to basically the disproportionate social and economic impacts that women have to face, especially in light of COVID-19. I mean, I'm all for. And so for this episode, I have joined with me Larkin McKenzie Ast. She is the chair of the Business Women's Network at Coast Capital Savings. And in her day job,

she's the director of business integration and Loyalty Credit Cards. And before joining Coast Capital, she was the Executive Director of the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs, which is a national charity focused on education and mentorship for women business owners. So she is super passionate about helping women and also women business owners. I am obviously also a woman and a woman business owner. And as such, I know how important it is to get the message out there to support women and also women in business. And that is something that I'm so passionate about and what I try to do on International Women's Day and what I try to do honestly on this podcast. Because if you haven't noticed, I mean, obviously I try to have a good balance of guests, but honestly, I try to make sure to have a lot of women on the show because typically,

especially when we're talking about personal finance, we don't really sometimes get a seat at the table or have a platform to speak. So we have a lot to discuss in this episode, talking about how, as women, can we not just survive, but thrive? How can we deal with the lingering pandemic? We're still in it. How can we support our fellow women and women entrepreneurs? And some tips to help you get through, I think, the rest of this bizarro year. So I think you're going to like it. Definitely make sure to check out the resource, and we do mention it in the episode, coastcapitalsavings.com slash keeper on the map. Lots of great resources to help support women or just find resources to help you in terms of your mental, your physical, emotional health, and a lot of good stuff on there. I will, of course, include that link and

some other resources in the show notes for this episode. Go to jessicamorehouse.com slash 270. But without further ado, let me get to that interview with Larkin. Welcome to the More Money Podcast, Larkin. I'm so excited to have you on the show. Thanks for asking me to be here, Jessica. I'm also really excited. Yay. Okay. You're so welcome. So, so, so you have a lot of different, I have your bio in front of me. You've accomplished a lot. It's obvious. And some of your current roles include chair of the business women's network at Coast Capital Savings, and also the director of business integration and loyalty credit cards at Coast Capital. Let's focus a little bit on the, I'm so curious about what does it mean to be the chair of the business women's network? What does that entail? What's that look like?

Thank you. And it's very near and dear to my heart. So I'm really happy to be here chatting about it. So Coast Capital, in our continued commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, we have six affinity networks at Coast. And the Business Women's Network, we are in our third year of existence. I have been the chair for the last two years. I'm thrilled, I should say, to be the chair of the Business Women's Network. It's essentially a volunteer opportunity in and amongst my everyday job. So we are a group of, oh, I should remember this off the top of my head. We are nearly 400 members strong, which is amazing considering we have 1800 employees at Coast. So 400 of them are members of the Business Women's Network. We as a core committee meet every couple of weeks. And what

we do is we put on programming for everyone at Coast, not just women. We put on programming for everyone at Coast, but definitely with that gendered lens of topics that are near and dear to the women of Coast's hearts. And each year we choose a theme. So this year we actually chose the theme of thriving and surviving COVID. And it was my two vice chairs at the time who came to me with this theme because, you know, last year was a very obvious, you know, women and finance, and this year I said, okay, what are we going to do this year, and our vice chair said, well, what about talking about the impact of COVID, and at first, you know, you start to do a little bit more research into it, and you start to stop and think about how COVID has affected your own life and realize just how much life has changed. And

I'm not just talking about, you know, not getting to hug your best friends. I mean, as a woman, so many changes that have happened over the last year. So all of our programming this year is focused on thriving and surviving COVID. So really making sure that we have a lens on the financial or economic, on the mental health, and on that work-life balance piece at the BWN. And so that tails beautifully into this initiative that was also happening at the executive level at Coast, where they were having the same conversation around the impact of the pandemic on women. And so we are launching this, or we have launched, I should say, this campaign called Keep Her on the Map.

And really, I say campaign, but truly, it's an initiative that we launched. Yeah, it's not just because, you know, I'm so happy to be kind of a part of the campaign. But yeah, when I was having conversation, like this isn't just for like International Women's Day, this is for like, for this is a kind of a more long kind of term thing. And that's the other thing, too. When you're talking about International Women's Day, I'm like, it really shouldn't just be a day. It should be like maybe the whole month or just like it should be always, you know, well, just like so many other important, you know, initiatives and movements like Black Lives Matter. I'm like, this shouldn't just be like a day or a month. It should be like consistently talked about, consistently part of the conversation.

But it's important to have a day to kind of, you know, maybe jumpstart it, give it a little bit of energy and stuff like that. So I was so fascinated also because, you know, I work with a lot of financial brands. This is the first time I feel like I've really worked with one on a campaign that is really focused on, I really like the name of it, Keep Her On The Map. And it's really focused on just helping women, but also women business owners. And I'm like, I'm a woman, I'm a woman business owner, you know, and I have tried so hard, especially in the last few years, talking to so many other women business owners or, you know, entrepreneurs, freelancers, what have you, you know, women in this space,

it's like we really realize we need to support each other. Because not only is it difficult just being a business owner, but only is it difficult just being a business owner, but it is really difficult being a woman business owner, especially depending on what space you're in. I mean, I'm in finance, not like, you know, historically super women's friendly. So, uh, but it's, it's, it's really cool though, that more conversations are happening and there's a lot more community in helping each other. I mean, that's what I love. You know, the other day was international women's day and it was so cool to be able to

share some of the businesses that are run by women that I love other people doing the same. And just, there's so much love and support and it was really exciting to see. So, well, I, I completely agree with you on,

on so many levels. So the, the first being, I would love to see not not needing to have a day for International Women's Day, just like I would love to see there being more awareness for all diversity and inclusion every day. But the beautiful thing of a day like yesterday, of a March 8th, is that it does kickstart a lot of conversations. And I love that COAST isn't a one and done tick. Okay, now it's March 9th,

and now we're going to be talking about this. Again, it's that commitment as a purpose-led organization. We really are committed to ensuring that while of course we're doing business, but we're also doing good. And we're committed to building community. And we're committed to ensuring that we're supporting and really partnering with our members. So agreed, it doesn't feel like working at a traditional financial institution most of the time, even though, as you said, my day job is in credit cards. It doesn't feel that way because Coast is all about doing good and doing well. I want to actually touch on, you touched on how, you know, Coast is a different financial institution. That's true because it's a credit union. And I feel like I get a lot of

questions. I'm not sure if I've ever, well, recently, I probably haven't really answered the question. What is the difference between a credit union and a typical bank? I don't know if you know this and most people probably don't know, but, you know, originally from Vancouver and actually I used to bank with Coast Capital. I love them. And I really liked that you could feel, you can tell the difference between a bank and a credit union. And like you said, it is purpose-driven. Can you kind of explain for people who don't really understand the kind of ins and outs, what is the difference between a credit union and a traditional bank? Absolutely. Thanks for asking. So credit unions are member-owned. So everyone who banks, and I'm putting air quotes, everyone who banks at Coast

Capital is a member of the credit union. So we don't have shareholders. We don't sell stock the way that the big five banks would. And so we're not accountable to shareholders. We are accountable to our members. And everything that we do is focused on our members. So every time we have a decision to make, we stop and we ask ourselves, is this the right move for our members? Because really, they are who owns Coast Capital Savings. So it really is a very different mindset from that perspective. We're always thinking about who our members are, who they are today, who they're going to be tomorrow, and what they need. We're constantly talking about the, you know, where are members at in terms of their life cycle? When we're designing a product, are we thinking about the member that

we are designing this for? Do we understand what their needs are? To the point where, you know, we have behind the scenes, we have names for our members. We have, you know, each type of member. It's important to understand when we're thinking about this person, do we understand what it is that they want and what's going to make their lives better? Yeah, I think that's a really important thing for people to understand, just that there are different institutions out there. And so when you're designing, where should I, you know, put my money or where should I do my day-to-day banking? Just understand what your options are and what the difference between, yeah, like the big five banks and a credit union are. So diving back into the conversation about, you know, the big five banks and a credit union are. So diving back into

the conversation about, you know, women and the pandemic. Now, I know a ton of, you know, surveys have come out recently, some studies that have now that we've had some kind of time to kind of see what's happened in the past 12 months. It's actually really sad and shocking, quite honestly. So just some stats that I know, a study that I saw recently. So women lost their jobs at a rate of 60% greater than men at the beginning of the pandemic. Working mothers between the ages of 25 to 55 lost six times more work hours than fathers each week due to increased family responsibilities. I mean, it is kind of shocking, but also not a big surprise because typically this is what happens when there is some sort of crisis.

It's usually women and also people of color that are the ones that are more heavily affected. So I'd like to get kind of your perspective on that once, you know, because I'm sure you know the exact same stats. How did that kind of, what did that make you feel? So as I was getting ready for International Women's Day and having conversations just like this one, it can become very disheartening. It can be, you know, you sit there and you think of all of the work that we've put into any advancement with respect to gender equity. And another stat that I really don't like is true, but it's a good one. It really brings it home, is that this last year,

one year has had an impact on our journey towards gender equity by between five and 10 years. So there's that stat that they talk about, and I don't even follow what the final stat is anymore, because it depends on who you're asking. And also sometimes it's up to 125 years. So if you look at that stat in terms of how many years it will take for us to get to gender equity, well, now you have to add five to 10 years to that, depending on who you talk to. So for one year to disproportionately affect women to that extent is really unsettling. And I also, I look, so there's that stat around women losing more hours per week because of family responsibilities. And that is, we all know the challenge of suddenly teaching our children while trying to balance a workday, taking care of everything that before

we would have had support around us to make that easier. Well, all of a sudden, it was right back to having to do it all that, you know, once upon a time, we wore that superwoman badge, like, well, I do it all. I'm such a rock star. But we've realized how incredibly, what a toll that took on so many women and how unhealthy that was and how it also really has a huge impact on women in leadership roles. So right now we're focused on, you know, when we talk about that, how many years to gender equity or we talk about how the job loss that we've seen over the last year. But I unfortunately predict that we're going to see quite a ripple effect in the next five years when it comes to women in leadership roles. How many women opted out over the last year that were on a career path where they were headed, you know, to that next level on the org chart, that all of a sudden they

decided to take a step back because of the pandemic or because their role maybe didn't make as much as their partners. And so they decided to be the ones that opted out. And maybe now that they've stepped away for a year, how do they get back in? It's incredibly daunting to get back into the workforce once you have exited it, as anyone who's done so can understand. So I'm concerned very much around that impact on leadership. I think that that's going to have a big impact. Yeah. And we've been, I feel like, working so hard at this. I feel like we've been

talking about this for the past decade. And I was just, yeah, I think I optimistically thought, oh, well, things will get better in the next five to 10 years. But it definitely seems like we have so much more work to do. And then things like this happen and they set us back and then we're just, you know, you know, have to start from scratch a little bit. So what are some things that we can do? Like, is there anything that we can do? I mean, goodness, I don't know. Yes, absolutely. And you know, I mean, there are great stats around women starting businesses and there are great stats. I mean, I think we will see a lot of those women that did exit the workforce, the traditional workforce, hopefully starting up side hustles and side gigs,

as the millennials call them, and how those can grow into businesses that we can continue to support. So what can we do? We can continue to tell the story about women-led businesses and we can continue to tell the story about women-led businesses. And we can continue to amplify the messages. When you come across a great business that is owned by a woman, take the time to follow them on social media.

Take the time to leave that Yelp review that is going to tell their story in a great way. And also make sure that we're supporting each other. So having conversations just like this one, having conversations like we have with anyone in our lives where you stop and connect and ask, well, how has this last year been for you? Because someone like my role has not been impacted. I haven't lost my job. I still, I'm working from home,

but even then my kids are in school and I have a really wonderful partner who's very supportive. But to stop and ask each other, how has your year been and how are you feeling is incredibly important from a mental health perspective. Do the same with women who are running businesses. Ask them, how can I help you? I always, and we had this conversation just a couple of days ago at the Business Women's Network. And I made a point of saying, now, once upon a time, I ran a charity for women entrepreneurs called the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs. So I'm very passionate about supporting women-led

businesses. One might say it's a bit of my soapbox. But I made a point of saying, oh, whenever I'm given the choice, I will always choose to support a woman entrepreneur. And I do my best to keep tabs on women entrepreneurs in my community, in Canada specifically. And if I can, I'm happy to pay that extra couple of dollars to support a woman and to support Canadians. So that's a way that I'm very mindful in how I spend my money. And I try to tell people that. I mean, I'm a little bit probably annoying to some extent if a business comes up and I say, oh, that's owned by a woman. Oh, that's woman-owned. Oh, that's a great business then.

Oh, you know who you could use is this great entrepreneur who I know in Toronto and, and, and. So I actually don't think that I am annoying. I think that people appreciate it. But taking, taking that time to call out how you are supporting a woman entrepreneur when you can is incredibly helpful. Yeah. I feel like that's definitely been something I've been more aware of. And I think part of it too, it's growing up in like, you know, 80s, 90s, early 2000s, I feel like everything was like big box stores. I also grew up in the suburbs, that probably explains a lot. So shopping local, that was never a concept that I didn't even understand

that that was an option. And so growing up, getting older, and then that becoming a little bit more prevalent. And then also like adding in the personal finance aspect of, you know, it's not always just about finding the thing for the cheapest price. It's also about understanding who are you buying that item for? So, you know, I talk a lot on the podcast about when you're investing, it's also important to understand what companies, if you're buying a fund, what are those companies in that fund? And does that make you feel okay? Or are there some companies that actually don't align with your personal values? And maybe you should do something about that, that the exact same concept, you know, more directly with your dollars for buying stuff.

And so, you know, one example, and I thought this was actually really cool. So, you know, Christmas time, me and my husband generally don't do gifts. But this year, we were stuck here. So let's do some gifts. And he just actually took the time to research local businesses for some of the things that I asked for. And also like women-led businesses. He's obviously a feminist, so big fan of my husband over here. But it was really cool that he did that. And then not only, so he got me some candles from this one Toronto-based candle maker who's local and she's wonderful. And then I'm like, wow, these candles are great. I'm going to keep on buying from her. I'm going to keep on buying from her.

I'm going to continue to get my candle. So it's just like a little thing you can do can have actually a big impact. And same, you can share that. You can tell people and friends like that, sharing all that information. Because sometimes I think maybe we don't know where to find some of these businesses.

So I guess, yeah, that's a question. You seem to know a lot of women that how do you actually do your research how do you find all these so you can continue to support and spread the awareness so with this keeper on the map i was amazed watching watching social media and watching all of the i was going to say women but not just women all of them on social media who started sharing their favorite women-led businesses, mostly local, just like you're saying, because it's been such a fascinating year from a consumerism standpoint of being more mindful about supporting Black-led businesses in the summer, making sure that we're

supporting diverse women-led businesses, making sure that we're supporting our locally owned businesses. I think we're all taking more time to think about how we want to spend our money. So yesterday was incredible because my Instagram was just flooded with new women led enterprises, which is fabulous. So I'll just tuck those in my back pocket. At Coast, so part of the Keeper on Your Map campaign is actually it leads to a resources hub. So what we've done is we've highlighted all of our women-led businesses on our website to make it easier. And I also grew up around the same time as you. And I also grew up in the suburbs for the first part of my life.

And you're right. We weren't as thoughtful about the money that we spent. And Big Box was the way that we all went. And it's really been interesting over the last couple of years with, say, an Amazon where, yeah, you can get Prime. If you order something through Prime, you can have it dropped off tomorrow. You can get your diapers and your toilet paper and all of that through Amazon. But you can also support a local business around the corner if you just walk to the store. Or you can order something through Amazon. Or you can find someone nearby who you actually make a difference by buying from them.

And to me, that's a really big difference. And it's worth the extra pennies and dollars that that adds up to. And I know that it's not always feasible. But when you can, I think it's wonderful. Yeah. And I think, yeah, especially in the past 12 months, that was definitely something I realized at the beginning of the pandemic. You know, everyone was panicking.

And so you're looking for them. Like, you'd go to the grocery store and you're like, I'm looking for detergent and it's all gone. And then you panic. And then, of course, you go to Amazon. And I was realizing how much I was actually, I was buying so much from Amazon. And then the other kind of element is like the footprint. I mean, oh my gosh, all of the transportation, all of the boxes, all of the stuff that I had to throw out, packaging and all this stuff. And I'm like, I don't feel great about all of this.

So it took me a little bit to kind of step back and be like, what am I doing? I think as spenders, we're very unconscious spenders. It's very natural. Online or in the store, you're just tapping or putting in your details and you just don't even really realize. And it's really important to, like you mentioned, the mindfulness aspect, really, really important to practice mindfulness, not just on how much are you spending, but how are you spending it? Who are you giving that money to? What will the overall impact be? I feel like some people also have, it might be harder to kind of think about how, you know, how can we spend money? Everything's kind of shut down. And so it's also about being kind of, you know, mindful of like, okay, how can we support some of these businesses that may have closed? And it sucks. There's a couple of great places that are women-led, mainly like beauty salons. I haven't had my hair done in it like since July. I haven't had my eyebrows done since September because everything's still shut down here in Toronto. And I can't wait until they open up. I'm going to spend a ton of money at my local salon. Yeah. And that's sort of what they're saying, right? Is that as when, you know, they're now giving us these glimmers of hope that when

society opens up this magical summer that's coming our way, that we'll be, you know, that we'll see it, the swing back to being able to get back to regular life and that we'll just be whooping it up with our hair and our makeup and going out, et cetera, et cetera. So it will be interesting to see. And I found it interesting in early days of the pandemic. You will remember, do you remember the pictures of the positive impact that the pandemic was having on the environment? Yes, I remember the photos from Italy and there's dolphins. You're like, whoa, this is a great, this is great.

And that's the last good thing I heard about. Yep, and we were all so inspired. Well, yeah, you're right. The little asterisk to those pictures was a follow-up article that was saying what we're not paying attention to is how much we're ordering online, how much more takeout we're ordering and the waste that goes hand in hand with that. And I, I saw that article and I read the byline and I thought, Oh, so we're not, yeah, solving the problem of the environment just by locking down. We're actually just finding another way

to create waste and stuff like that. Oh yeah, I've been reading a lot of stuff about like recycling. I've had, there's just more recycling I find because yeah, there's more boxes, more whatever. And yeah, just reading the data that actually most of that stuff that you're recycling actually isn't going

and getting recycled. And you're like, oh great. So now it's about again, changing habits and be like, okay, it's just about not trying to find things that aren't packaged and stuff like that. So yeah, it's across the board. We all need to just be more aware and mindful as consumers and be more conscious of it. I want to kind of switch gears and talk a little bit about, I know we can support women-led businesses and I think that's so important. You know, obviously there's other effects that women are dealing with, you know, kind of the mental toll, I think is a really important thing to

talk about. I think, I mean, mental health has luckily been more in the conversation the past, I'd say five-ish years, but this year has definitely been something that we need to pay attention to. I know there's some resources on that website or the landing page that you mentioned, but what are some things that, you know, we're still in, I mean, depending on where you live, I'm pretty locked down still. What can we do to kind of continue to just, I guess, survive so we can thrive? Well, it's such a timely question and such a challenging one all at the same time. So it comes down to, to me, starting to have those conversations when it comes

to mental health, to making sure that we're asking each other those questions. Years ago, I was having dinner with a friend and I looked at her and we were sort of at the five-year point in each of our marriages. And you'll remember that when everyone's getting dating and getting engaged and getting married, it's so exciting to talk about your relationships and then you get married and it's just not as interesting. Well, I said to the friend, how is your marriage? And they stopped and they looked at me and we had a great conversation. And at the end of it, they said, I don't think anybody has asked me that in a really long time. And to me, it was a great moment of reminding us to stop and ask really careful questions and to listen and to push a little bit more.

You know, we always say to each other, how are you doing? How are you today? How's your day going? But how often do you stop and look at someone and say, and, you know, through the Zoom, how do you look at them and say, how are you doing right now? How are you feeling? How is work and how is home? And how are you feeling about your work-life balance?

It's a great start. And to create that safe space, because I think that a lot of people feel the need to be positive and to be optimistic about it. And that's great. If you're thriving during COVID, that is wonderful. And I am very happy for you. But I also want us to all make sure that we're creating space for that person that isn't. And by that, I mean those many people that aren't doing well, and ask them how you can help or how you can be

there to support them. So, you know, there, like you say, there are a lot of resources online about and definitely Keeper on the Map is one of those hubs, where we talk about finding that balance with work life. It's particularly challenging because right now you could say that we're at home, but we're actually living at work. We're all at home, you know? Yeah. I mean, it's something that I've had to personally experience before the pandemic for three years.

But I will tell people this is not what normal working from home feels like. I do feel Lord's craft in my house because I don't feel as excited to go outside because there's this, what's going on. So yeah, it's really like work-life balance is hard in normal circumstances, but in a pandemic, your work is your home, your home is your work. Absolutely. And you can't go to the gym. You can't go to yoga. You can't go and get your hair done. You can't go and grab a coffee and meet up with another woman entrepreneur that you might know that you regularly, it's a great time to find yourself a mentor because people have more time than they maybe ever did before. So a quick connect on a Zoom call with someone that you think could help you with whatever you're struggling with, it's a great time to reach out and ask them for mentorship, little tips and tricks for COVID, for thriving in COVID. Yeah. I'd say just in general,

this is something that I, I know I'm bad at and I need to get better at is reaching out to people. I think we are all like, we all think that someone will reach out to us, but if we all think that that no one's reaching out to anybody, uh, I, I learned that a little bit more once I moved from Vancouver to Toronto and realized, Oh, I'm the one who moved away. So in order for me to keep contact with my friends, I need to actually initiate it because they're on with their lives. They're doing their own thing. So I'm the one that's not there. So I need to reach out. But yeah, especially during this time, I feel like I know there's still that Zoom fatigue, which I totally get. So sometimes when someone's like, let's do Zoom, I'm like, oh my gosh, it's so exhausting. I don't know why it's more exhausting than a phone call. So sometimes maybe it's like, let's just do a phone call. I love phone calls. But anyways, yeah, super important for everyone just to reach out to

people. That is how we can kind of get through the rest of this bizarro time and just make it not so terrible. And yeah, I think it's all about surviving, but also trying to thrive as much as we can in whatever capacity that is. And that could just be little baby steps. I know for me, the best thing I did this year was for sure, really pay attention to my mental health and try to slowly do things. I'm not perfect. I have a list of things literally on my whiteboard of these.

This isn't your morning ritual. Have I done it every day? Absolutely not. But I have it on my board, workout, meditate, read, journal, and I'm trying. It's all about trying. And all that we can do is try. And then if we don't succeed, we need to forgive ourselves and try again tomorrow rather than just give up completely. Yeah. I think forgiving ourselves is huge. Yeah, absolutely. We need to be kind. your, I know that's another thing. It's like, be kind to yourself, be kind to Jessica. You know, you gotta be nice to yourself and give yourself a break. That's what I'm telling so many people. Like this isn't, if you, especially too, if you're on social media, cause there are a lot of people that are thriving right now.

If those people aren't making you feel good and they're actually having a negative effect where you don't feel you feel demotivated or worse off, unfollow them, mute them. It's okay. Who cares if they notice that you unfollow? It's all about you and what you put into your sphere that is so helpful. I mean, that's something that I've done and I'm so glad I did it because most of my feed is I actually go on Instagram. I feel good. And that's, you know, before I used to just feel bad about myself because I wasn't doing this or whatever. Or I wasn't invited to that or, you know, how come I'm not out doing that with my friends, family, peers, whoever? Yes, agreed, agreed. Hopefully we are learning that this year to be a little bit kinder to ourselves. I think so. Kind to ourselves, kinder to our neighbors all around, kinder, and we'll get

through this. Yeah. If there's one thing you can do from COVID, be a bit kinder to yourself, connect a little bit more with those around you when you can, forgive yourself a little Netflix binge now and again. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And realize, you know, it's not about, especially too, when it comes to like personal finance, it's really not about trying to keep up with somebody or match someone else's financial life or, or reach perfection. Cause as I get older, I'm like, Oh yeah, I don't even, whatever you think perfection is, we actually don't know what that person's actual life is. And it's not true. Like we, perfection does not exist. So you really need to take a good look at your life and, uh, and, and kind of, yeah, take a good, it's, it's time to be introspective and really get

focused on what are your needs, your values, how can you take care of yourself during, uh, during this trying time? Um, so before I let you go, you mentioned a few resources, um, but, uh, I do want to kind of give you this time. So is there anything else you'd like to share to the audience? I mean, this has been a great episode, I think. A nice kind of way just to take a think about, hey, what are we doing? I talk a lot on the show about practical how-tos and whatnot, but it's good to assess just our lives and really take a think, wow, we survived 12 months of this pandemic and we're not done yet.

What would you like to tell listeners? Well, a couple of things that I would that I'd just like to share is I appreciate the conversation that we had around a credit union versus a bank, because it's clearly very, very near and dear to my heart to work at a purpose led organization. And again, it's it's really one way that we can support organizations in our communities that are committed to our community and building our community and bolstering our community. I'd love for everyone who's listening to just take a moment to go to coastcapitalsavings.com slash keepheronthemap to take a look at the resources that we do have there. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for taking the time, Larkin, to be on the show. It was a pleasure having you on and having this discussion with you. And that was episode 271 with Larkin McKenzie Ast, the chair of the Business Women's Network at Coast Capital Savings. As we mentioned throughout this episode, make sure to check out

their kind of resource hub, coastcapitalsavings.com slash keep her on the map. You can also check out my social media feeds on Instagram and Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn even. If you want to check out, I did a post on International Women's Day sharing some of my kind of top women-led businesses that I want to support. So check them out, support those businesses or tell your friends and family, start the conversation and see if they have any suggestions for great women-owned businesses that maybe you want to support. Because it's one of those things you do have to actively do and kind of organize some of these things in a list or something so you can know and also be able to share with other people. Because to really put your dollars where your values are, it is a bit of an effort,

but it does have a huge impact, a positive impact. So I highly recommend that you do. And yes, definitely a message I want to keep getting across on this podcast is not just all about budgeting and being savvy, you know, being super frugal and financial independence. It's also about remembering that your dollars are your vote for so many different things um how you want to see the world change basically so that's what i've got to say on that so thank you so much for listening to this episode i will of course be back next wednesday with a fresh new episode of course a few things i just want to mention just uh to remind you in case you didn't hear it from yesterday's episode next tuesday march March 16th at 6.30pm Eastern Time, I'm doing a Twitter chat in combination or in

partnership rather with the CDIC, the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation. So it's kind of like a trivia night. I'm going to ask some questions. You got to answer them and four lucky winners will walk away with a $50 gift card to Amazon or I guess electronic gift card. So yeah, so join me. It's a lot of fun and you'll learn something and hopefully win some prizes. Also, if you don't know, I do have my investing course. It is open for enrollment or you apply to hopefully enroll. So you can find out more information about that course at, well, you can

go to jessicamorehouse.com slash shop. There is a link there or just go directly to kind of the application page, jessicamorehouse.com slash WBB. Lastly, just to remind you, I'm still doing my book giveaway. I do have more authors coming on the show in, you know, the future week. So I'll be adding new books to the book giveaway. But again, if you haven't put in your name, put your hat into the ring. Is that right? Who knows? I'm so bad with sayings. You know what I mean though, right? If you want an opportunity to hopefully win a book from me, then go to jessicamorehouse.com slash contest to enter. Okay, that is it for me. Thank you so much for listening.

See you back here next Wednesday on the More Money Podcast. This podcast is distributed by the Women in Media Podcast Network. Find out more at womeninmedia.network.