We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Marisa Mae. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Marisa below.

Hi Marisa, thanks for joining us today. What’s something you believe that most people in your industry (or in general) disagree with?

In the past, the financial literacy and personal finance space has been heavily occupied by coaches, gurus, and influencers who leveraged shame and blame as driving forces to push humans towards change. That never worked for me. The ‘crash budgets’ and ‘radical changes’ these coaches pushed were never sustainable for me and further harmed my relationship with money and confidence in my abilities. I knew there had to be a different way that would support me and others better.

I firmly believe that empowering humans through shame-free education and focusing on mindset shifts beyond just the numbers is a better way to promote long-term sustainable changes. I was able to achieve my financial goals and reach success when I focused on improving my relationship with money, my mindset, and giving myself the permission to set sustainable goals. I would so much rather set a plan to achieve a goal that will take longer but I will actually stick to, than a plan that looks better but will be thrown out the window in a month’s time.

This more realistic and sustainable approach has supported dozens of my clients to actually stay on track towards their goals because the shifts are deeper than just numbers and are rooted in research into their individual habits to create a long-term sustainable plan.

Marisa, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I went from broke to badass and now help successful humans who have lost control of their finances gain back confidence through shame-free personal finance education, money mindset work and intentional financial re-organizing. This is the Financial Badassery story…

Full transparency, I used to be a total financial hot mess! I was stuck living in overdraft and paycheque to paycheque and would avoid opening my bank account for weeks. I would get to cash registers at grocery stores and just hope the transactions would go through because I had no clue what would be in my account. I was completely stuck cycling in and out of credit card debt and didn’t know why! I would pay off my card just to rack it all up again and believed I would never be able to stay out of debt. I was completely lost, ruled by my ADHD, confused and embarrassed.

Finally, I decided enough was enough and gained back control! I paid off all my consumer debt which was over $10k and got out of overdraft and the paycheque to paycheque cycle. That was a big one! I built an emergency fund, started investing and got myself on track to retire a millionaire! All this was finally possible because I focused on shifting my mindset and relationship with money for the first time while also doing tangible work.

Through this process, I built a system and a framework to gain back control and confidence in my finances that worked in today’s world and for my ADHD brain. I am now passionate about supporting others in doing the same for themselves. I had to walk from my point A to point B and now I get to be a vehicle to help others get there so much faster!

As impactful as it was to achieve my goals for myself, it’s equally as rewarding to now support my clients in achieving their goals and getting back on track in their finances. I’ve worked with dozens of humans and have supported them in paying off entire debt accounts, getting on track to being consumer debt-free, fully funding weddings and getting out of overdraft for the first time in years. I support my clients in building sustainable systems and goals to set themselves up for long-term success instead of the crash budgets we’re so used to. There’s some real badassery happening!

The Financial Badassery brand, content and my coaching style are firmly rooted in making personal finance education shame-free, approachable and an empowering experience! Most of us weren’t set up for success by our families, education systems and the traditional finance world, but now we can be in the driver’s seat to change our financial futures and that’s what I am here for.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

TikTok! While the eventual game plan is to have omnipresence across multiple platforms, TikTok has been my sole lead generation source to date and has served me well. The lead generation capabilities TikTok currently has supported me in growing my business. I posted my first video in February of 2022 and quickly grew my account to over 30k followers which gave me the leads required to quit my job to run my business full-time in April, only 3 months later.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

I have found a lot of success in leveraging my Facebook community to collect my warmest leads and nurture them with content and resources to truly overdeliver for them. This allows for easier community building, communication and sales when I have coaching offers available. I know some people say Facebook is dead, but I disagree.

Contact Info:

• Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/financialbadassery
• Other: TikTok – @financial.badassery

Image Credits
Michael Graeme – @themichaelgraeme