Podcast for Singers 
Overcoming Fear to
LIVE LARGE - Unapologetically!

Transcript

Mel Lathouras 0:03
Get a welcome to the Fearless Singer podcast, I am so excited. I have a dear colleague with me Alpha Schulte. And she is the founder of Money Made Simple and she helps women go from overwhelm to empowerment. She was a tax accountant. And then she yeah started to see, no, I have a bigger mission and service here to help women succeed. And the reason why she's here is she's here to empower us feeler singers who may experience you know, in our 3d reality, we experienced this kind of undervaluing of what we do, and it does affect our self esteem. And it does reinforce that idea of, you know, the starving artists, but alphas here to say, we don't have to buy into that. And then there are mindset tools that we have access to. However, there are also very practical tools. And that's what I love about your alpha is that you've managed to merge, you know, the spiritual and the mindset work, but with the practicalities of money management. So welcome. Thank you so much for being here. And speaking with the feeler singer community, I'm so excited to have you.

Alpha Schulte 1:21
Thank you, Mel. And yeah, I'm very, very happy to be here. When I first met you. I didn't know there was, I feel like I've known you for so long. I don't know.

Mel Lathouras 1:29
I feel like yeah, it was like to go to school with alpha.

Alpha Schulte 1:36
I didn't recognise I don't know, there's just maybe it's just an energetic. Yeah,

Mel Lathouras 1:39
it could be also the European thing as well. Take us take us back. Oh, gosh, my setup is wobbling at the moment, I keep knocking my keyboard. So apologies if you currently feel like you're on the Titanic. So take us back to being a tax accountant, when when was that sort of pivotal, pivotal moment for you when you realise actually, you know, I want to be doing more?

Alpha Schulte 2:09
Well, because I fell into the tax accounting, it's like, it's not really something you kind of go as a teenager, oh, that's what I want to aspire to be. But I grew up with, you know, I'm first generation. So my family came from from Europe sort of post war and have that very sort of scarcity, paranoid kind of mentality, like you've asked me to university, you must get a good job. And I really didn't know what else I wanted to do. So I just sort of went down that path. And I kind of fell into, you know, accounting and tax specifically, as a graduate. And then I realised I really didn't enjoy the work. I enjoyed the people and the consulting world allows you to really kind of deal with people and that part I liked. And then I started to move into other roles. And I did it, I literally got to the point where I was sort of in my late 20s. And I was just fed up with not being happy. And and I suppose I still didn't really know what I wanted to do. So I ended up taking a risk and joining a small consulting company that a friend of a friend was working for, and they needed a technical writer. And I'd done some writing study because I love writing. And it's funny when I learned my values, all of this stuff starts to make sense, but and so the personal development journey that kind of happened, and then the financial side, I got a financial planner, because like, well, you know, I'm hitting 30, I need to do something with my money. And yeah, so that's sent me down that path. And I've always been really like a curious person, like, if I don't know something, I want to find out how to do it. And that's where I was like, well, there's something wrong with the way the financial planning process went, and the answers and the lack of visibility and the lack of control that I had over my own finances. And I was paying like three different layers of fees. So that's when I started studying it, and adapt, like adjusting my own world. And I've taken I took all of my finances off the financial planner, and manage myself and I had friends asking me what I was doing, and I realised there's all this education that just doesn't happen and you don't even realise you're not learning it because we're getting stuffed full of so many things when we're a child, that you don't even know what you're not learning. Sure, like how could I possibly fit any more in his brain? But then you realise there's so much more to life and if you can learn the things that you're passionate about, which is why I really admire like I I play piano growing up and I taught myself saxophone I played in a jazz band for a while and I know that about you. Yeah, so I love music, and I love the theatre. So it was when when the whole COVID thing happened. I was like devastated for the industry, because I know there is that you do need you need an audience. And if you're prevented from having one it just it's more tricky. But then I started seeing sort of different musicians online and they would I've seen orchestras perform online and it still sounds amazing. So I'm getting a bit off track here. But yeah, so that's sort of how I ended up doing what I'm doing is just a general desire to share information. I think that's

Mel Lathouras 5:11
probably why we've attracted is because you have that, that musicality, you know that music within you, but also to you're very creative. And I love that aspect of YouTube. Because the stereotype with, you know, the person in finance, or you know, tax or the, you know, the left brain dominant individual is, you know, that they don't have that creativity, which I think is a load of bullshit, because obviously, we have access to both lobes of our brain. But I love that you were you were your creativity with all your beautiful jewellery. That's fantastic. So coming back to because you mentioned that values play a big part in how you manage your own finances, and you're starting to then merge the personal development work with with financial literacy, which a lot of financial professionals don't tend to do. It's very sort of masculine here that here are the facts, but don't actually take into account the various personality types and tendencies. And so when did you discover Oh, god, there's a real gap here. And you know, I can really help people with this.

Alpha Schulte 6:23
Yeah, I think I noticed it when I could see the resistance that people had when we were going through some of their things. And I knew I literally, it's, it really started, when I had my daughter, I was a contractor. So I knew I wasn't going to get maternity leave. And I didn't know how long it would be until I work again. And so I really double down on becoming a lot more conscious of spending and what was going on in and outs of the finances. And so then I started helping other friends who are going to become mums with their sides of things as well. And I could I could start seeing that there were these walls who were sort of hitting, and I'd gone down on my I was angry, I still am on my own personal development journey. And I thought, the whole idea of we we know, consciously and like cerebrally what we should do, but the thing that holds us back is not logical. There's an emotional aspect to it. And so when you actually go to somebody and say, Well, what do you want to do? You know, the oh, here's what you need to do, here are the buckets that you need to put your money in, you need to do that you need to do blah, blah, blah. And they're like, well, a, why do I need to do it. And secondly, how I, there's there's just a disconnect that happens because we're very emotionally driven beings as humans. And if we don't understand what our values are, and my my primary value is creativity, interestingly enough, and then also have discernment and control as them as well. And that plays out in in different ways. That the creativity is always an overarching one that kind of defines it dictates everything I do. And if I can't be creative, I literally feel like I'm suffocating. So I have to say, my apologies

Mel Lathouras 7:57
for No, no, no, go for it. But you can see that in everything that you create and do. So if you go on to alphas website, so it's money made simple.com.au That's actually money. dashmesh Oh, sorry, money dash made simple. I'll also put a little pop up here on the screen as well. It's just it's like this beautiful, colourful oasis. So I always think that, you know, your website is an extension of view. And, you know, yeah,

Alpha Schulte 8:25
well, the business books will tell you, Oh, it's too colourful, or everything's pastels. And I was like, but I'm not passed up. I don't like pastels, bright colours. I don't always walk around with big earrings like this, but I sold them and I just couldn't resist.

Mel Lathouras 8:38
Oh, they're beautiful.

Alpha Schulte 8:41
But yeah, so it's, it's very much figuring out who you are. And as as an artist as well, especially as a singer, you have to find your voice. You don't want to emulate somebody else, sometimes you might want to but at other times, you want to be able to have your voice. And everyone's life is unique to them. And the desires that they have are unique to them. But there's a lot of external influence that comes up oh, you should be doing this at this age. Or you should want this or you should want enough with assurance. And we've had we have so much that comes on us like I had my last car for 2020 years and it was a 22 year old car. I used to get teased a lot my dad got I was embarrassed to come in my car because I had no hubcaps the paint was peeling and it was but as it mechanically was fine. Eventually did die. And I bought another secondhand car. But it was one of those things where it's like I don't really care. Like it's it's a car. Yeah, yes, I do like nice cars, but it's gonna get me from A to B. There's other things that are more important to me like travel. So I'd much prefer to spend my money there. But it's doing this consciously without having like concerns that you're going to be disappointing somebody, almost ultimately you don't want to disappoint yourself. Absolutely. So understanding how that plays out.

Mel Lathouras 9:55
And do you find that working with women in particular, it's a I mean, we can't compare, we don't know the experience of, you know, living through a man's experience. But do you find that there is even way more unpacking to do with that?

Alpha Schulte 10:09
Yeah, well, and this is to be honest, when I started, I was like, everyone needs to know this, this is so important. But whenever I would talk to male friends, or even my friends, husbands, they would just ask me about investing and specifically crypto. And I was like, No, that's not what I'm talking about at all. I'm talking about like fundamentals, you know, before you even get to the investing, how everything else is set up. And you know, you do understand your superannuation, and you know, what, what your needs are financially? And what kind of lifestyle do you want? What do you value? What are your beliefs around money, because if you don't get them sorted, you're just going to have the same patterning repeat itself. It's like relationships, just keep attracting the same bad guy.

Mel Lathouras 10:50
That's it. I remember you saying, so we're, we're alpha and I are part of the business community. And you're, you're speaking with one of our colleagues, who were saying, you know, this is, this is what I want, I want, you know, $300,000. And, and you said, That's great. That's great. But you asked her to reflect on. So why is it that you you want that, like, well, you know, what is the purpose of that are to give me this, this and this. And your philosophy was? Well, if we can start actually really connecting to those values, now, we're going to find that once we get to that amount, it won't feel like there's more, you know, there's more to spend on kind of thing. I don't think I eloquently articulated that. You said it way more impactful. But yeah, just take us through that. You know, we say that, you know, we wanted to have these million dollar, you know, musical businesses, but we know, a lot of women in particular that reach those milestones and still feel like they don't have this the freedom that they were craving, and the reason why they you know, begin their businesses and you know, the first place, and maybe are spending way more money than what they've ever done before as well. So effectively, even though they've reached these financial milestones, they're not really living the experience that they they wanted in the first place.

Alpha Schulte 12:13
Yeah. And that's because a lot of the time we live our lives just somewhat unconsciously. So we just we just kind of head down a path. And if we even stopped to reflect or look, or how do we forget here, is this where I wanted to go? Where do I want to go? And as soon as you start asking yourself those questions, it's sometimes a bit confronting, which is, which is why, if I'm going to be really stereotypical, it often tends to be women who are a little more courageous in this space. And then men are, they're very much focused on the metrics and the steps and the goals and all of that. And then when they get somewhere, then the level of unfulfillment kind of kicks in, but they just keep powering through it. But generally speaking, a woman will start to kind of go, Okay, well, if I'm here, and I'm unhappy, why is that, and there is so much unhappiness, there's so much depression, there's so much anxiety and I look around, I was going, we really shouldn't like the kind of opportunities in the kind of world that we live in. I mean, I've been to third world countries, my family comes from a second world country, and I've seen the way they live, and a lot of them are happy. They don't have all the stuff we have, they also don't have all the problems we have. Because you know, there's, like you say, the more money you make, there's there's different problems that took up, you know, there's more responsibility or more expenses, or more management and all of that. But it's understanding consciously, what sort of lifestyle do you want? Why do you want it? And also recognising that your goals have to keep moving and progressing with you? If they stay stagnant? And then you reach it, you'll get there and you'll be alone? I just didn't feel like I thought it would feel. So what am I doing now? I've seen that happen so many times. So it's very much being conscious, being in the moment, being creative, being adaptable, and recognising that you change which means that your goals, desires and lifestyle will change as you grow, and being comfortable with the fact that things will change.

Mel Lathouras 13:59
Can I give you a scenario by the way, I just want to validate validate that that was amazing. Beautiful. Can I give you a scenario? So I'm a singer. And, you know, I, you know, we know that there's we're living in a housing crisis at the moment and, you know, inflation is, seems to be out of control. So, you know, I'm paying a big rent. Hang on, am I describing myself right now? You know, I've got I've got a sign up to a couple of agencies, you know, I get booked gigs, for gigs here and there. But I'm finding that gigs are getting cancelled, you know, last minute, there's no, you know, there's no guarantee that I'm always going to reach a certain, you know, income level. So makes it really tricky. To get a plan in place. When you feel like well, I'm just kind of haphazardly grabbing bits and pieces from here and there. What would you say to that singer who does have You know, a real desire to create something in terms of you know, that financial stability for one, and also even even get on the housing market. You know, that's a, that's a real issue at the moment, you know, who would like a little property even if it's just a unit somewhere, here in Brisbane, or wherever you're living? So how would you take that singer through your process.

Alpha Schulte 15:24
So, I always start with income. Because without that, it's very difficult to do anything else. So we'd sort of look at the style, like what sorts of income they're currently experiencing, is there a way to have something more stable. And that might mean getting sort of maybe just a part time job while you're building things. And in terms of housing, it might be necessary to try and find a group like maybe two, one or two, depending on on how much of a household you'd like to live in other people to flat with just while you're building. So it depends what stage of life that you're in, because obviously, when you're younger, you have a bit more tolerance for that, as you get older, probably slightly less so. But it's trying it is trying to build a little bit of stability in that if you can go, excuse me, direct sorry, to a particular place where you commence, maybe try and instead of going through an agent, I get in the beginning, you probably need that foot in the door. But if there's a way to get a regular booking, or maybe going to an event company, and then looking at being like a singer, or a performer, in a band for weddings, or corporate events, even charitable events, just some way to build that income up. And it's it's yeah, the way the current climate is in that space, I don't know, because everything costs COVID seems to have changed. And there is a lot more of that cancellation. In terms of the spending side, then I would definitely look at ways to be as frugal as possible. And definitely living with other people is one way to share the cost of living and being able to do that collectively, you've got income pool to be able to then go to a landlord and say, Look, you know, there's three of us, here's our income, we'll be, you know, pulling the, the our income to pay the rent. And in terms of then the budgeting, I tend to work on buckets. So rather than trying to look at every single line item, we then go okay, well, let's, here's where you're, here's overall where your income is, your expenses are roughly this much a month. And even if you can just say $5 a month, it's better than nothing. And it helps with the momentum of seeing money grow. The other aspects, to be honest, before all of that is where all the values and beliefs start to come in. So while we look at the income at the start, it's also then looking at patterns of things that are happening. So if you're getting a lot of cancellations. And I know this is gonna sound really woowoo, but it often has a tendency to be the energy that you bring. So if you're, if you're half in, in the music industry and half out that energy will be there. Or if you aren't comfortable being on stage, that hesitation energy will be there as well. And if that's played out in other parts of your life, where people just cancel on you all the time, either just get used to it and move on. Or look at why and what energetically Are you just generally holding yourself back. And the beliefs that you have are actually negatively impacting you, if that makes sense. So it's it's not a tangible thing. But it quite often when you start to look at your values and your beliefs, you see patterns. And it's it's a hard one to say because in your life, and they're like, but I don't want to bring this on myself.

Mel Lathouras 18:37
Well, we do. So, Alfred, this is a Whoo, safe space because I talk about this stuff all the time I talk about that I'm on a journey of shadow integration work. Because the last and this was the last episode, because on some level, we kind of get off on the cancellations. We love it. Because maybe deep down inside you just want to be on the couch watching Netflix with your cat dinner. I mean, it's

Alpha Schulte 19:05
yeah, you're putting yourself out there to be critiqued when you're on stage.

Mel Lathouras 19:09
Oh, that's it. That's hard. Yeah, there's definitely a lot of resistance around it. Even if you're the most amazing singer and you've been doing it for a while, you'll always find a new layer of of resistance, you know, for me, I convinced myself particularly in the hotter months that ah, you know, it's not I love performing but you know, it's it's really it's really hard and it feels you know, yeah, no, I don't want to be out driving in this and setting up and all the rest of it. So there's a little bit of that but then I when I really looked at it, I was like you know, there's there's actually some body issues there, you know, that like rocking up to an event and feeling like your makeups all askew and you know, because of the sweat and you know, people are judging you on your appearance and, you know, maybe because of whatever conditions are happening, you know, you don't Feel confident with your voice? You know? So yeah, starting to go underneath and checking in with that, because I just want to add to what you said, I find that when I create different products that I go, you know, they seem like a really good idea. But I don't 100% want to carry them out there is, you know, I no one no one will will get them even free stuff that I put out there no one if I go a little bit, you know, wishing it no one, no one will if you're not 100% You'd have bought into your own. Whatever it is that you do. You can't No one is like maybe a couple but you won't be they won't.

Alpha Schulte 20:42
Yeah. Yeah, that that holding back energy. And I think in the beginning, we're for it from a performance point of view, I think we've kind of we're scared to put ourselves out there. And we're also still trying to find our voice. And it's, it's very much like, when you're in your 20s you still trying to figure out who you are. And being going into business. Because even being a performer, you're, you're in your own, like you have to sell yourself, you have to sell your skills, your services, your your music, and it's really difficult to figure out who you are while doing that as well. But you figure yourself out while doing that. So it's this whole like, chicken egg thing. And if you Yeah, and if you hold any of yourself back, that comes across, and I've noticed this in business as well. In the beginning, I was just like, oh, well what do I give? Like, I think I was giving probably too much and was overwhelming people in the beginning because I can be really passionate about this and be like that and I think all the people what there's a bluey episode, I was watching with my daughter last night and it was literally like bla bla bla bla bla word, blah, blah, blah, blah at work. I think that's how I came across in the beginning. But at the same time, I don't want to hold things back either. So it's it's really trying to figure out that that balance. So when you're putting something out there for people to not get overwhelmed, but also for it to get in the right way so that they actually get it and have a light bulb moment because that's ultimately what you want. You want people to succeed. You want them to grow, you want them to then they can then powerful pay it forward and spread the word even just by being that way. You'll see that we're like with my daughter and how to how to demonstrate the way to be so that she can learn it for me. I don't always get it right. But yeah, I've had some technical issues in the last couple of days. And I haven't exactly been, you know, ray of sunshine. But that's

Mel Lathouras 22:24
demonstrating that, you know, humaneness. Yeah, yeah, I just want to add to that to just the that aspect of still finding your voice isn't just you know, when you're in, in your youth, like, you'll get to 30 and still be finding your voice, you'll get to 40 and still be finding your voice and, and really the journey is so beautiful. If you allow it to be I'm still finding aspects of my voice, you know, as I go on this path. And I think though as women and particularly Australian women, because we we do, we are unravelling, and doing some conditioning around, you know, tall poppy syndrome. Americans think whenever I say that they think I'm saying tall, Poppy. Really? Don't get it at all. Poppy. No, they don't. Yeah, we're on we're really unravelling that within ourselves. Because there is that as as thing as in performance creatives. We do we are our product, and we do need to be 100% invested in ourselves and really believe in ourselves and so that we're not holding back. But then there is that fear of Oh, I know that they'll think I've got tickets on myself, you know. So it is it's this constant juggling act, you know, between what is true, which is we are so loved, you know, by our higher self or universe or God will however you perceive it. We are these little twinkling stars in a big sea of stars. And yeah, just really believing in that and finding new ways to love ourselves even when we having those technical difficulties. And alpha can totally identify with you because most of my you know, my fellow singer membership. They I go on and tell them everything about what's happening. There's been times where I've felt like hurling myself over the veranda. It's too much too much. But you know, the Greek the Greek drama queen. Flight. Oh, that's beautiful. So I think what you're saying is really it doesn't matter. You know, where you're at financially, there are ways to be resourceful. And if we are doing that inner work, you know, and uncovering some of that resistance around you know who we are what we do and also connecting to values. We are way more attuned to see the opportunities to one be resourceful, resourceful, but to to even create Ah, you know, so and the reason why you're here as well is because you've just created such a beautiful, you know, group of products to help women and you've done that because, one, you are very good you're a such a gun with the knowledge that you've acquired, but you're very good with people and getting the best out of people. But mostly, you're a creative here and you know, and as creatives, which, by the way, I believe everyone is a creative, you know, really, there is a, there's an opportunity to think of something that you think may help other people finding a need for other people. And you can create a product so and if you are a singer, it doesn't have to look like teaching either. As Alpha said in the beginning, alpha loves music and your during COVID you're accessing concerts online. So there's, you know, that you can grow a community around your actual music and and have your community support you through Patreon or your own version of that. So Pay Pal me or Yeah,

Alpha Schulte 26:11
so even even YouTube, like it's it's really interesting, when you see like, I follow Hauser, the cellist. And then you Yeah, and then with Carolyn, I can't remember her last name, but the violinist as well. And you, you see that and they build profiles on online. And it's it is about sharing and getting out there. And not everyone and this is the other thing to not everyone's going to love you. And that's okay. And this is where the beauty of when you grow older, like your ear tend to be a little bit self conscious when you're younger. And that is the thing that you embrace with age is the I am who I am. I'm coming from a good place. I'm bringing my heart to this and if you don't like it, okay, all right, would I like you to okay, but there'll be others who do and they who could really connect to it. I remember Andre Weir was always quite a quite a divisive, like my grandmother was classical, you know, she was always very much Haydn and Wagner. And you know, she was Austrian, so very, you know, very much has to be the proper classics. And I had a colleague who absolutely loved Andrea and my mother, my grandmother was no he's not he's just a he's just an entertainer. I was like, What's wrong with that? Like, that's brilliant. He's bringing it down to Strauss. You know, that's fantastic.

Mel Lathouras 27:25
He, he is a master entrepreneur, he's created a real out like otherworldly experience.

Alpha Schulte 27:34
Yeah, well, audiences, like JK Rowling brought reading back to, you know, the love of reading back to a lot of people who hadn't either hadn't discovered it or forgotten it. And I feel like Andre sort of did that as well, to a certain extent, and other, everyone has that capacity in them. And it just takes a little bit of courage and confidence and self belief to do that. And this is where the beliefs come in, and understanding your values and what you stand for, and the things that you're willing to do. Because sometimes it does take some sacrifice in the beginning. But if you have a real goal, and you have your why it makes it a lot easier to stick to the things you're going to do with the fact that you also still have to be adaptable, because things will change as well.

Mel Lathouras 28:15
Absolutely. That's one full year. So working on those beliefs, values, to then start to see opportunities where you can grow a community with your music, and, and create something of value so that your community will support you. And because we know now that you know, we like CDs are a bit of a dying art, maybe they'll come back one day, you know, like record of CDs. Yeah. So anyway, but you know, so then that might be like spending a little bit of extra investing in getting some vinyl made and getting a beautiful artwork, you know, for that as well. And my best mate who is a musician who designs T shirts, yeah. Oh, that's so cool. And so that's another income stream. So you can she's a musician, primarily, but she's also an amazing artist. But yeah, you could be designing websites for other musicians or even other creative entrepreneurs, I just designed a website for one of my dear friends who was a singer. So there's different there's different opportunities, it's a matter of really starting to expand. And we can only do that through uncovering those beliefs so that we can start to see them on another topic, and I don't know we could talk for like hours and hours and hours and hours. But can you talk on the fact that you really don't need a lot of money to get started in one money management and to investing?

Alpha Schulte 29:50
Yeah, so it's, it's so much more accessible now than it ever used to be. And also, I was money management first is you have what you have And you can do like if you if you think about like, well, if I think back to the income I started on, versus the income I have now, I mean, you have to time adjust it. But you know, strictly it's been how you live in, oh my gosh, I managed to survive on that. And I was still having fun like I would even even to the point where I would eat before I went out because I didn't want to miss out on catching up with my friends. So when I went out, I might just order an entree or a drink. And I didn't feel like I was being deprived at all. It's just it's an how you frame it. It's like I'm spending time with my friends that is more important than whether or not I can afford to buy entree, main dessert and you know, a couple of cocktails or whatever, I'm more of a water drinker, I've always got a glass of water near me. So that's just how I am anyway. But it's understanding then what's actually important to you. And then making your money fit to that rather than just try you trying to fit inside whatever is supposed to be appropriate for for that. And there's so many different ways to live life and experience life without having to spend a whole lot of money. So I think it's trying to take the fact that you need to spend money in order to be happy or to have a good life, and be creative and how you can do things differently, but not see it because I can't afford it. The languaging with that become so with money management, I find languaging it's extremely important. If you come from a perspective of I can't afford it, then there's a lack there, rather than I am choosing to work for that instead of that, because I like that better. It just has a different energetic field, and you're not coming from I don't have enough for that. I mean, I even have to teach my daughter that she's nearly eight. And you know, we went to fun hearing on Saturday, and there's all these rides, and they are quite expensive. And I said to her, I said you can have three. And after she had her third, she's like, oh, I want another one. I was like I told you, you can have three, I mean, I could have bought her another one. But I didn't want to I wanted her to experience the fact that you value what you have, rather than lamenting the thing that you don't have. So it's it's the perspective that you have. So that's that's the money management side, the investing side, there are micromanaging apps or micro investing apps around now, which is so easy to access. And you can you can dabble with those, like I have an app which literally rounds up my my, my every time I spend something I connect my credit card and my bank account to it. I spend something it rounds it up it holds on to that till it's got to I think is that $10 And then it pulls the money with other investors and invests on my behalf. I started I've literally I started it five years ago, and it's got $5,600 in there now. And that's literally just cents. Yeah, if you're actually investing dollars, and you can start to play this ethical investing in options in there as well. And there are a number of different platforms. Now, when it first came out, there was one, and there's still more or less one that does round ups. But there are others out there. Then even at superannuation, I really and I realise for, for artists, it's probably something you don't want to really think about, but it's really important. Oh, gosh,

Mel Lathouras 32:55
I don't want to limit on the negative, but I've seen way too many ABC documentaries about women that get out of ousted out of a relationship and screwed over by you know, their husband that they've been with for so many years. And they've got nothing they don't have super, you know, and also they you know, also technology literacy as well, you know, to crack into the workforce again. Yeah, yes, super is. Yeah, so important. And I'm lucky because I had a career in you know, in the government for many years and also as a teacher, a high school teacher, so there's still some leftover but I'll tell you what, I got a notification saying if you don't keep paying yourself super you're gonna lose your insurance by December. So yeah, okay.

Alpha Schulte 33:45
Yeah, yeah, sorry. No, it's and to be honest, that the biggest thing about money and that there's, it's so this is why I called my business money made simple, even though it's quite a common name out there. But at the time, I was like, oh, yeah, this is such a great name. Anyway, not that uncommon. It's consistency. And yeah, it's literally it's not sexy. It's not exciting. You can't sell it to anyone because it literally is you just even if it's just $5 a week, you just keep doing that. There's a gentleman I ran a he was he was he was a janitor and a high school. He'd been a janitor his entire life, but he consistently saved from the age of like 25 He was a millionaire by the time he retired, literally just by consistently putting small amounts of money into the share market. And it's not about picking stocks either. This is the other other misnomer people think oh, investing, I've got it I've got to know how to buy and sell. That's trading. Trading and investing are actually two different things. People can trade I actually started to learn about share trading and candlestick charts and, and all of that and I was just like, oh my goodness, my cousin was a day trader he was constantly stressed and he was up at all hours of the night being open for whichever markets and forex trading and all of that and I was just like, that's just that just that No, no, not for me. Because either no. So I invest in these days as well I invest in index funds, and I just like buy, regularly buy and hold, buy and hold. And it's it. So it's, it's, it's getting into that that level of consistency. And whatever percentage of your income that you can put in there, just, it's non negotiable. You have to make that commitment and be disciplined and go, this is just going in that that's it. I'm not changing that. And that's, that's really, that's money management. And investing is just that it's consistency and discipline.

Mel Lathouras 35:31
But let's make it sexy. Let's make it six for five seconds. Because yeah, consistency is the key word. But the spiritual reframe around that is the power of momentum. Yeah, and making those just those tiny, little incremental, you know, investments. And then there's also the law of incremental upgrades. So like this every now and then just do tiny little upgrades, like, for instance, and gosh, this is TMI, but, you know, maybe it's time to throw out those holy underwear. And you know, even if you go to Kmart and get like, you know, the nice bamboo, you know, just making those little upgrades. Also, those tiny investments over time, it does create momentum, and you will start to find that Oh, my God, I've got $10,000. Where did that come from? Yeah, and

Alpha Schulte 36:22
it's better to start now than wish you had 10 years later. Yeah, momentum is such a better way. Because, you know, the, my technical brain goes compounding bit momentum sounds much better than compounding.

Mel Lathouras 36:33
It says, it's marketing. But also to there's spiritual truth in that as well. But yeah, it's it's merging those two worlds worlds. Yeah, their compound. And it's not just momentum doesn't have to just be what you see physically. But it's also the feeling that you have inside of you of expansion. It opens you to way more opportunities.

Alpha Schulte 36:58
Yeah. And with when you said the the upgrades, one of the things I always suggest to my clients is to have a fun challenge. You don't have you can call it whatever you want. Mine's actually called a travel and photography fund. And I just put sort of little bits of mounts in there regularly, so that when you do want to go have a bit of a splurge or a bit of an upgrade or a bit of fun, you've got the money sitting there do it. So you don't sort of have to feel guilty because that's the other thing a lot. It's a really destructive emotion, guilt. It's yeah, so if we can try and minimise the that feeling through just being a little bit prepared. It just makes it so much easier. And then you start to feel oh, wow, I'm doing this, I'm in control. This is where the empowerment kicks in, you're like, wow, I've created this, I've managed to bring myself from there to hear. Which means if I've done that, I can do more. So you then that momentum builds and that confidence builds at the same time. And then off you go, you know, that doesn't mean you won't have those setbacks, because we all do, but that's human. Yeah, I've experienced Yep, that's right. And we just then have to have the mental tools to then go, okay, get back on track, don't just, it's a little bit like, Oh, I've blown. I've eaten something bad today. So blown my diet for the entire week, Khamees will just let go and like, no, no, no, you just have that one setback, briefly for a day, then you can just keep going back on get back on track again. Same thing goes.

Mel Lathouras 38:16
Yeah, you just create, what is your default, you know, your default behaviours, and you know, get that into balance. And then every now and then, you know, things will happen. But you always snap back into that, you know, a lot of thought leaders are calling it your thermostat, you know, finding where your thermostat is. Now, most importantly, by the way, I'm so signing up to work with you. The first session I love you so much. Yeah, and I love those two, like even though it is an investment working with you. It's not it's not inexpensive by any means. But I feel like it's also accessible. You've created an assessable Yeah. Have you done that on purpose?

Alpha Schulte 38:58
Yes, yeah, I didn't want it to be because because to be honest, a lot of financial planning is out of people's reach financially. So I thought, well, I don't want to just be another person like that, where it's so expensive. So but at the same time, I still wanted it to be valuable. Yeah. And now for people to really go okay, well, I'm investing in this I'm really going to take it seriously. I'm going to commit to it. And I'm going to make that commitment more to myself than anything else.

Mel Lathouras 39:21
And that's so powerful. I know that in myself that you know, so. I pay $600 a month to Tina Tower to be in her empire builders, but holy moly, I show up to every show live even if I'm still in my pyjamas I put myself like take my screen off because nobody needs to see that me on a Tuesday morning or Thursday morning. But it's amazing what that does. And it you know, paying a little bit of extra for Kajabi you know, just to have everything working at such a high, you know, high functionality. You know, it's it's amazing what it does to you, it really does, like opportunities do come with, like financial opportunities, because you're making these investments in yourself. Not only financial, but it's time. And it's also, you know, you're, you're consuming not only this content, but you're implementing it, and all the rest of it. So yeah, I would feel giving you that, you know, that monthly rate that you charge, I would feel like no, I'm going to show up, I'm going to, I'm going to make the most of this and set up some really strong, you know, infrastructure for my future, because that would be the goal of that that coaching container that you offer.

Alpha Schulte 40:42
Yeah. So I have I have an online course, which I used to offer as a programme. But I've because I've been getting more sort of questions about private coaching. But I've also just launched a membership. So I do I have tiers, I suppose. So where you know, I have some lower lower end products, which people can access, and they can run on their own. But I found it is a bit tricky to do on your own, which is why the membership is there. Because what actually triggered the concept of it is I go see a healer. And there would always be like, oh, you know, all these things I want to talk to her about and I'll have my session. And then literally like a week or two later, something will blow up. And I was like, I could do a session right now. But I had my session two weeks ago, I don't have another one for six months. So I thought it never seems to happen when you need it. So if you have a regularity, like you know we have with Tina, yeah, then you can you can check in and you can ask questions, and you can you can get the things that you need when you need it not having to like wait for whatever session somewhere. So that's, that's and then fast tracking the whole thing and making a lot more personalised is where the private coaching comes in. So I've sort of tried to cover off in different scenarios. Oh, that's

Mel Lathouras 41:46
brilliant. So how, how can people reach you? I know I mentioned your website at the beginning. But let's let's mention it again.

Alpha Schulte 41:53
So yes, my website is money dash made simple.com.au. And I'm on social. So on Instagram, it's Alpha money made simple. And on Facebook, it's m m s money made simple. And yeah, so you can message me on any of those platforms, my email, I'm having technical issues, so I'm not gonna say my email is not working right now.

Mel Lathouras 42:13
That's okay. They could they can go on your website, and you've got a form or I've got a contact as well. Yes. Also, you have a, like a load of beautiful, free products as well. So, you know, you could get started, there's a guide that you can download, and it was five, you know, money management tips there. Yeah.

Alpha Schulte 42:34
So I basically took my online programme and condensed it into a 20 minute video. So if you want to get a taste for all very, I've packed full of ideas, and it's literally a summary of all the things that I teach in the paid programme. So you can get that for free. And then I have a limiting beliefs, Kickstarter, or kick, kick them out of your life checklist, and then some of micro investing. So you can you can absorb all of that. And if that you can definitely roll with that. But if you'd like more personalised help, obviously, that's when the coaching is.

Mel Lathouras 43:06
Oh, fantastic. I feel really inspired. And galvanised like, yeah. Money. Yeah. Really wanted.

Alpha Schulte 43:15
It's an energy and it's a tool. Yeah, we placed too much of our self worth on it. It's

Mel Lathouras 43:20
just that's been my biggest lesson is Yeah, separating myself from dollar value, because there was a couple weeks back where I was negative $16. And in the past, I was like, this is a real testament to how much work I've done, because in the past, that'd be enough to go oh my god, you're a fucking loser. And you know, really be super, ridiculously hard on myself right now. And it's like, alright, it'll turn around again. I even know this love. But the thing is, yeah, when you sort of start, see I, I believe in the principle of this quantum energetic field. If I focus on this right now, then I'm going to limit myself to, you know, what is there, which is abundance, and if I but if I connect Morrow into this, and then be really grateful for what I have, when I look around, and I go, Oh, my God, I'm Liberace. I have three pianos. I've got the world's most beautiful cat. And then I started to really, you know, I mean, those are superficial things. I've also got a beautiful family, friend and friends and community. So it's like, when you really connect to those things, and you start to feel the joy. It's like, oh, somebody signed up for a pack of 10 sessions, or, you know, or, Oh, my God, my brother sold property and put $1,000 in to my bank account, you know, so it's, it's, it's amazing how quickly those 3d, the 3d evidence just turns around.

Alpha Schulte 44:43
Yeah, and like you said, it's that focusing on what you do have rather than what you don't because either way it builds. Yeah. So it'll be all either what you don't have will build or what you do have will build just, which one do you prefer to focus on?

Mel Lathouras 44:55
Yeah. And my whole mantra is Create, Create, Create, Create It's um, so that's my top value tip. I really connect to that. Yeah, it's creation community connection. The three C's.

Alpha Schulte 45:09
Yeah, like alliteration as well.

Mel Lathouras 45:13
Oh, Alpha you honestly, you're such a incredible beacon of grace, knowledge, empowerment. I just want to thank you so much for, for sharing your wisdom with the feeling of community. And lots of love to you.

Alpha Schulte 45:31
Thank you right back at you, man. Thanks. Thanks,