Martinis and Your Money Podcast

Out With The Old and In With The Collective Wellness Revival!

Hello, Martinis and Your Money listeners! Whether you just found the show or were a longtime listener, I wanted to hop on here and share what's been happening in my life since I stopped recording new episodes at the end of 2024. As many of you know, in 2013, I founded the company Financial Gym and ran the company through good days and bad days until March 15th, 2025. On that date, I had the unthinkable happen to me, at least what was unthinkable to me. I had a mental health breakdown that led to me being taken from my home, pantsless, and in handcuffs. Yep, you heard that right. This type A overachiever had something unthinkable happen, and this was never a scenario that I had on my life bingo card. But yet, there I was, and that was the hand I was dealt. After three days in the institution, I knew I needed a break from work, so I put in for a mental health leave until May 1st. Immediately while I was on leave, the investors of the company decided to sell Financial Gym to a wealth management company run by two men.    For those of you who don't know me, I left Merrill Lynch in 2013 to create something different, and now all of my 12 years of life focused on serving the underserved and bringing change in their lives was erased, and I was being asked to move backward in time. It was a gut punch to say the least, but it was also an answer to prayers I had been praying, and that was the opportunity to take Financial Gym and financial wellness in a different direction.   It gave me the freedom to leave and start Collective Wellness Revival, a truly one-of-a-kind wellness company that I think we all need in our lives. I spent the last 12 years of my life in the most intimate way possible, diving deep into people's money habits and behaviors, and while I was doing that, I kept noticing the interconnectedness of financial wellness with the other areas of wellness, predominantly your physical and your mental wellness. There were many times where I almost felt it was wrong to offer people financial wellness, while also not offering them mental and physical wellness.    Well, three days in a mental institution actually also reminded me there's a fourth area of wellness, and that is your spiritual or soul level wellness, the area deep down inside most of us that we never get to attack because we're like hamsters on a wheel just trying to get through the surface level areas of life. But we are all beautiful and connected souls here for a reason but life “lifes” us, all of us really hard. And especially the last few months and our souls get lost in the process. I've realized that I've been on my own soul discovery journey for the past 17 years. And in the past five months, since I left my Gym journey, I've been given the gift to truly learn, know, and understand the soul behind Shannon. I knew I wanted to create a company like this for years, and I'm grateful for three powerhouse women stepping in and stepping up to help me launch the first stage of this company, which is a one-of-a-kind, one-on-one coaching program.   For one monthly fee, you can work on any area of wellness you choose. Every wellness journey is unique, and now you can explore all areas of your wellness: mind, body, money, and soul under one tent. And coaching is just the beginning. Our big goal is to grow a collective of like-minded women and our allies to support and encourage each other through these crazy and chaotic times we live in. This is the perfect time for everyone to work on the most epic project of our lives. And that's us. I think of the revival as the perfect place to work on Project YOU. Who are YOU? Why are YOU here? What do YOU want to do in life? Most of us are living who we think we are. Daughters, sisters, mothers, partners, co-workers, bosses, CEOs. But none of us, none of us are really these roles. They're just roles we get to play in this life. They're not really who we are. If you want to explore YOU deeper and work with me as a coach, you should check out the Soul House for what I'm calling Pneuma or Soul Level Coaching. If you liked my money coaching philosophy, wait till you discover my Soul Level Coaching. But also, if you loved my money coaching philosophy, you can still access it through the Revival and our Money House, led by my new friend Melanie and some other familiar faces.    Anywho, I hope you'll support me and the ladies by joining and taking advantage of our offering and helping us build this new collective. Martinis and Your Money listeners will always have access to founder member pricing, which starts at $100 a month. But we have limited spaces for this launch. So head over to or send friends to collectivewellnessrevival.com/coaching to sign up today.    And until next time everybody, cheers!   SIGN UP TODAY!!  

Final Episode!

For more information, visit the show notes: https://www.martinisandyourmoney.com/show-notes/episode554-The-End

Celebrating Friendships & Special Shoutouts

After 10 years of podcasting and 554 episodes, we’re coming down to the final episodes of Martinis and Your Money. These final three episodes before Happy Hour will be a chat between me and you. When I was thinking about how I wanted to end this podcast, all I could think was, “I have to make it epic for my fans and listeners,” who have supported me for almost a decade. I have shared so much with you over these past 10 years, but I’ve also held some things back.    My intent with these final three conversations with you is to answer all of the questions, spill all of the tea, and share all of the lessons I’ve learned not only over the past 10 years but also over the past 46 years I’ve been on this earth.    I am splitting the final three episodes before Happy Hour into three categories: my personal experiences, my work and professional experiences, and my blogging and podcasting experiences. You can listen to all three, one or none.    I know that many of you have come here for years for money-related advice and guidance, and I will have that in these final episodes, but I’ll also have more. My intent in sharing all of this with you is in the hopes that my journey and the lessons I’ve learned can help you or someone you know who has been on a journey. I have faced a great deal of challenges over my life, and I would face all of them again if I knew that my story could help just one person. For more information, visit the show notes: https://www.martinisandyourmoney.com/show-notes/episode553-podcasting-blogging-friends

The Journey of Building The Financial Gym

After 10 years of podcasting and 554 episodes, we’re coming down to the final episodes of Martinis and Your Money. These final episodes before Happy Hour will be a chat between me and you. When I was thinking about how I wanted to end this podcast, all I could think was, “I have to make it epic for my fans and listeners,” who have supported me for almost a decade. I have shared so much with you over these past 10 years, but I’ve also held some things back.     My intent with these final three conversations with you is to answer all of the questions, spill all of the tea, and share all of the lessons I’ve learned not only over the past 10 years but also over the past 46 years I’ve been on this earth.     I am splitting the final three episodes before Happy Hour into three categories: my personal experiences, my work and professional experiences, and my blogging and podcasting experiences. You can listen to all three, one or none.     I know that many of you have come here for years for money-related advice and guidance, and I will have that in these final episodes, but I’ll also have more. My intent in sharing all of this with you is in the hopes that my journey and the lessons I’ve learned can help you or someone you know who has been on a journey. I have faced a great deal of challenges over my life, and I would face all of them again if I knew that my story could help just one person. For more information, visit the show notes:  https://www.martinisandyourmoney.com/show-notes/episode552-FinGym-friends

Personal Relationships

Side Hustles and Entrepreneurship with The Happy Hour Crew

From Side to Full Hustle with Cadence Dubus

We are officially in the second to last month of the podcast. So, I decided my final topic would be around side hustling and entrepreneurship, which, you can imagine, are subjects near and dear to my heart. The Financial Gym has taken me on an 11-year entrepreneurial journey, and it would have started as a side hustle if I was allowed to coach people on the side from my day job as a financial advisor. In August of 2013, I made the wild decision to jump full force into an entrepreneurial journey without testing it via a side hustle. While I’m thankful for the journey, I would advise everyone else to start with the side hustle before it becomes the full hustle.  So this month I’m going to share with you stories from side hustle through full entrepreneurship and everywhere in between. Joining me today is Cadence Dubus, who combined her love of dancing and her need to make money into a career in fitness that started from instructor to multi-gym owner to virtual business owner. Like me, Cadence didn’t set out to become an entrepreneur, but she’s become an amazing one in her own right. I am inspired by Cadence’s strength and tenacity, and I hope you are too. For more information, visit the show notes: https://www.martinisandyourmoney.com/show-notes/episode549

Accidental Side Hustling with Amanda

We are officially in the second to last month of the podcast and it’s my final month of guest interviews. So, I decided my final topic guest interviews would be around side hustling and entrepreneurship, which you can imagine are subjects near and dear to my heart. The Financial Gym has taken me on an 11-year entrepreneurial journey, and it would have started as a side hustle if I was allowed to coach people on the side from my day job as a financial advisor. In August of 2013, I made the wild decision jump full force into an entrepreneurial journey without testing it via side hustle, and while I’m thankful for the journey, I would advise everyone else to start with the side hustle before it becomes the full hustle.  So this month I’m going to share with you stories from side hustle through full entrepreneurship and everywhere in between. Joining me today is long time podcast listener and long time Financial Gym client, Amanda, who has recently launched an HR-based side hustle called Now What HR. She joins me to share her journey to side hustling and why she decided to start one now, especially when it was never a destination on her financial roadmap. And now here’s Amanda.    For more information, visit the show notes: https://www.martinisandyourmoney.com/show-notes/episode548

Side Hustles with with Gala Aranaga

We are officially in the second to last month of the podcast and it’s actually my final month of guest interviews. So I decided my final topic guest interviews would be around side hustling and entrepreneurship, which you can imagine are subjects near and dear to my heart. The Financial Gym has taken me on an 11-year entrepreneurial journey and it would have started as a side hustle if I was allowed to coach people on the side from my day job as a financial advisor. In August of 2013, I made the wild decision jump full force into an entrepreneurial journey without testing it via side hustle, and while I’m thankful for the journey, I would advise everyone else to start with the side hustle before it becomes the full hustle. So this month I’m going to share with you stories from side hustle through full entrepreneurship and everywhere in between. Joining me today is Gala Aranaga, a lifelong creative who allowed her creative energy to lead her to various side hustles from composing music to buying a theater. Gala joins me today to talk about her journey, about why the word hustle gets a bad rap and why you should never be afraid to try anything once.  For more information, visit the show notes: https://www.martinisandyourmoney.com/show-notes/episode547

August Recap with the Happy Hour Crew

Today is the last Friday of the month, and my regular listeners know that on the last Friday of the month, I host the happy hour on the podcast, where I gather great friends with me to drink cheap drinks and talk about money topics. This month, I’ve talked about a number of topics with my Financial Gym teammates, and we’re talking about them during happy hour. You’ll hear our thoughts on buying vs. renting, the financial challenges we’ve had as pet owners, and our biggest learning lessons from investing our own money. As usual, this is a great conversation and there will only be two more Happy Hours after this one.   For more information, visit the show notes: https://www.martinisandyourmoney.com/show-notes/episode546