Today is the last Friday of the month and my regular listeners know that on the last Friday of the month, I host happy hour on the podcast where I gather great friends with me to drink cheap drinks and talk about money topics.

We are right in the middle of the summer, and summertime is usually a time for vacations. However, we’re also right in the middle of a pandemic, so I’m checking in with my friends to see how the pandemic has impacted their vacation plans and how they’ll vacation when this is all over.

For more information, visit the show notes at https://martinisandyourmoney.com/show-notes/vacations-during-the-pandemic-with-the-happy-hour-ladies

If you’ve been listening to the show for a while, you’re going to be very familiar with my guest today, Melanie Lockert, who is a regular on our monthly happy hour episodes and a long time business bestie of mine.

Over the past six years, Melanie and I have been part of a mini-mastermind group each encouraging and helping the other navigate the crazy world of running a business. Melanie joins me today to talk about her latest business endeavor, Mental Health and Wealth dot com and the Mental Health and Wealth Show. She is literally tackling two of the most taboo subjects out there and doing it in my opinion, amazingly. She joins me today to share more about this important business she is building and why two topics that seem very scary can actually be fun and empowering to dive into.

For more information, visit the show notes at https://martinisandyourmoney.com/show-notes/mental-health-and-wealth-with-melanie-lockhart

Before I get into the introduction for this show, I want to address some views that have come up since I’ve shared more diverse topics and conversations in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. Something that has become clear to me in the multitude of conversations I’m having on and offline is that racial sensitivity is not exclusive to the black community, and microaggressions can happen no matter what you look like or how you identify. As these arise, I think it’s really important for us to have honest conversations across the board and to have them from a place of compassion and empathy, with the goal of education and enlightenment. We’re all walking in completely different shoes on different journeys and the more we can share our truth and receive other people’s truths, the better we’ll all be. I won’t always get it right and neither will my guests, but like I tell my team, all we can do is get better every day, and growing in compassion and empathy, I believe, is a way for us to get better every day.  

Now onto one of my favorite podcasts I record every year. Three years ago, when we were actively trying to expand The Gym for the first time, we thought it would be a good idea to record a show about our clients’ experiences with The Financial Gym and how it fits into their lives. We gathered three clients to share their stories, and if you haven’t heard them, links to their shows are below. Every year since we’ve checked in with these same three clients to see where they are in their financial journeys.  

Joining me today for the third time are Kelly, Maria, and Jenn, to share where they are personally and financially and why three years later they still think being a Financial Gym member makes all the sense in the world.  

For more information, visit the show notes at https://martinisandyourmoney.com/show-notes/client-happy-hour-three-year-review-with-maria-jen-and-kelly

To say that the last four months have been a challenge for me as an entrepreneur is truly an understatement. The degree of immensity of the problems I’ve had to address and the speed at which I’ve had to address them have left me with a lot of battle wounds. When you’re in the bunker, though, it’s always nice to have other people to inspire and help you see through it and Cate Luzio is one of those founders. 

Cate is founder and CEO of Luminary, a premier collaboration hub in New York City for women and women-identified who are passionate about professional development and expanding their networks. Cate joins me today to talk about what the last four months have looked like for her and how she plans to lead her business to an even stronger place, despite all of the challenges.

For more information, visit the show notes at https://martinisandyourmoney.com/show-notes/collaboration-with-cate-luzio

I sent out a message from the CEO on June 2, where I promised to utilize my platforms to bring light to, and make positive changes for, the black community, specifically where wealth is concerned. Today, in the first of what will be many future episodes specifically utilizing my platform to amplify black voices, I’m speaking to Ornella and London, two trainers here at the Financial Gym, about the racial wealth gap, some of the challenges they see in the black community as far as narrowing that gap, and how we can work to decrease the gap and make changes for this and future generations.  

For more information, visit the show notes at https://martinisandyourmoney.com/show-notes/black-wealth-with-ornella-and-london