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Prosperity Unveiled by Angela Duncan's Inspiring Saga
7 Plays10 months ago
Have you ever wondered how a shift in your financial mindset could unlock a life of freedom and generosity? Journey with us and our inspiring guest, financial guru Angela Duncan, as she shares her remarkable transition from a childhood marked by hardship to becoming an entrepreneurial powerhouse and acclaimed author. Angela's story isn't just about monetary success; it's a testament to the transformation that happens when you tackle the negative self-talk and work relentlessly toward understanding and mastering money matters.
This episode is a treasure trove of wisdom on living a life unshackled by debt, enriched with cultural experiences, and dedicated to community enrichment. We discuss the nuances of defining personal success, the impact of gratitude, and how giving back can elevate not just your life, but those around you. Angela and I also dissect the practical aspects of achieving financial stability, from the empowering steps of money coaching to celebrating the victories of those who have conquered their debt demons. Tune in for a conversation that might just be the catalyst for your journey towards financial literacy and a life lived on your own terms.
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Transcript
Introduction of Angela Duncan
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the Jimbo Power Show. Today, we have a special guest, Angela Duncan. She's a money host, podcaster, speaker. So she does it all. OK. And, you know, she's also a serial entrepreneur at heart, a best selling author. So, you know, she has covered a lot. And, you know, I think she worked in an insurance agency
00:00:27
Speaker
You know, she has a finance degree. So again, a lot of interesting things going on. And we're going to get into that during this show. So yeah, let's bring her up.
Overcoming Challenges and Mindset Shift
00:00:36
Speaker
How are you? I'm doing awesome, Jimbo. How are you? I'm doing excellent. So can you tell me a bit about yourself? I notice you have quite the background back there in pink. Is that OK? Just go over some of that.
00:00:52
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, you talked a lot about my accolades, but, you know, I had extremely tough upbringing. So I am a survivor of childhood abuse and trauma. My mother was an alcoholic. My stepfather abused me. We lived in poverty and we moved around so many times I cannot even count. So when I was 18, I moved out of that situation. It was not favorable for me. And I knew that I needed to learn more about money because I always thought if I had money,
00:01:20
Speaker
then all of those problems would go away. So yeah, so you talked about some of the things that I've done in my life. But what I truly have found out from myself is the fact that it's not just about the money, it's about the freedom that it creates. And so I want to help teach other people to use money as a tool so that they can have freedom in their life and whatever that looks like to them. So I really appreciate you having me on the show today. And how are you going to prove that? May I ask?
00:01:50
Speaker
You know, that people can make money, that they can overcome these tough and challenging situations like you have. Yeah, I think really it comes down for me personally, it was mindset. I wasn't taught about money as a kid. A lot of us are not taught about money. I've done exercises when I do my speaking events and we talk about like some of your
00:02:09
Speaker
early childhood ideas. What were you taught as a child about money? Most times you hear things like money doesn't grow on trees or you don't need that. And so all of those things that we think about as a child, we actually carry into our adulthood. And so you really just have to kind of unpack that and figure out what were you taught and where do you want to be today?
Networking and Personal Growth
00:02:31
Speaker
And that's kind of where the focus is, because if we can change that mindset,
00:02:35
Speaker
then at least we can figure out what is it that makes you happy today? What is it that is freedom for you today? We've got a point that we're going to make. Now we just need to figure out a plan to get to it. So how did you start changing your mindset and developing a plan to transform your life?
00:02:53
Speaker
It has taken a long time. I have been studying money for over 25 years and I still say that I struggle personally still with money mindset. But for me, I wanted to make sure that I start getting around people that knew something that I didn't know.
00:03:10
Speaker
I like to feel like I am in a room, right? If you go to, I do a lot of networking events. I'm here in Miami. If I go into a room, I want to feel like I'm the stupidest person in the room. Because if I feel like I'm the smartest person, then I'm not going to gain knowledge. I'm not going to be able to get information that I will be able to share with other people. So really, I challenge myself on being uncomfortable and getting into rooms and around people where I feel like I just don't know what the heck they're talking about.
00:03:37
Speaker
So that's part of my journey and how I help myself grow so that I can now turn around and teach other people very similar information to help them grow as well. So another question I have is, you know, how do you sort of inspire hope through financial literacy?
00:03:55
Speaker
The way that I inspire hope is working with people one on one and just showing them that we can put a plan together. And even if they're not achieving their goals as quickly as they want, maybe they have some setbacks.
00:04:10
Speaker
but really allowing for themself to give themself grace because I can give them the tools. I can teach them, but I want to be there with them side by side so that when they're taking their own action, we can talk about it.
Mindset and Media Consumption
00:04:23
Speaker
You know, what did you do today? Are you working on your goals? What are three things that are important for you today? And then it's almost like being, I don't know, a cheerleader being by their side so that I can help them celebrate when we win.
00:04:36
Speaker
and help pick them up when they're feeling like they're getting a setback. So for me, inspiring hope for other people is to be there with them and to help them achieve what they're looking to achieve, but also making sure that they're not being so hard on themselves when they don't achieve those goals, because we have a lot of that self-negative talk.
00:04:56
Speaker
And so when you have someone who's with you who's helping you to recognize that talk and kind of turn that mindset around, then it just will help you to get to your goals that much faster. Speaking of all that self-negative talk, you know, the mindset, what did you go through during your childhood? Do you think maybe your experiences as a survivor may have influenced some of that mindset even beyond the financial stuff we discussed?
00:05:24
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And I think you know, I'm not naturally a positive person. I have had to work really hard on
00:05:32
Speaker
how I start my day, how I end my day, what kind of information is around me every day. Because I do believe from that childhood experience that I have a lot of negativity that I still carry with me that I will just like, you know, I would compare it similar to being, I don't know, an alcoholic or a drug addict. You're always going to be that, but you have to work on it every single day so that you can stay in the version of yourself that you want to be.
00:05:57
Speaker
So I have to control what comes into my mind. I don't do the news. I don't watch any TV. I don't have any TV subscriptions other than YouTube. And most times I'm doing YouTube just to do.
00:06:09
Speaker
podcasting and getting more information. So when I challenge people about changing their mindset, we really want to look at what you're doing every single day. What is it that you're allowing your day to start with? How are you ending your day? What information is coming in? Who are you surrounding yourself with? Because if you want to make a change, then you've got to change some of that outside information so that what you're consuming is helping you to reach the version of yourself that you want to be.
00:06:35
Speaker
So you mentioned avoiding the news. So can you go a bit more into that? So why do you not look at the news? Well, if you think about if you're watching your news, say you tune into the eight p.m. news, there's no such thing as a positive news network.
00:06:50
Speaker
The news is meant to sell. It's meant to capture you. So the information that they're giving to you, yes, it's current events, it's things that are going on, but a lot of it is opinionated too. So you're just being cautious about what you're putting in. Now, if your, if your business, your career is something that has to, you know, and involve the news, then maybe you're just going to limit that information. But most of the information you're seeing is, you know,
00:07:14
Speaker
the wars that are going on. Yes, we know that that's there. I can read about it if I need to. I don't need to visually see it in here. So I'm choosing when I'm gaining that information, but most of that information is meant to be negative. And so when you absorb negative information, your output is also going to be negative. It's very hard for you to be extremely positive.
00:07:37
Speaker
when you constantly are consuming negative information. I definitely agree with you halfway there because the majority of the biggest news networks out there are extremely negative. And they have very, very small news networks actually. I find this interesting because they do have news networks online like Good News. And I think one of them actually might be positive news network, but no one really looks at it too much. It's small, but you know,
00:08:04
Speaker
It's one of the few places where you could find positives. But that's a tough thing. You are so right about that. And are there any other things that you might do to get the reverse effect in a way, like take in more positivity? How do you kind of take in positivity? I think we talked about blocking out the negativity, if you will.
00:08:24
Speaker
So the way that I start my day is I start, I have two dogs. I live in Miami. So thankfully the weather's usually pretty nice every day. So I start my day by going outside and I sit with my dogs outside and I journal. What is my focus that I'm working on right now? And I list the top 10 things, whether they're short-term, midterm, long-term, whether it's personal, whether it's business, I'm writing it down so that I can visualize what are my goals right now.
00:08:52
Speaker
And so when I'm a transaction during the day, I'm always focused on what is it that I'm currently working on? The other thing that I love to do is I do a gratitude. And what I mean by that is I'm envisioning these goals. Like, for example, you know, you mentioned I have a podcast. I would love to be top 1% internationally as a podcast host. So that's my goal. And then
Defining the Freedom Lifestyle
00:09:14
Speaker
I write a statement saying, I am grateful for being the number one
00:09:18
Speaker
podcast hosts, where I get to interview amazing people and share their stories. So I write a statement as if it has already happened, and that helps me stay positive as well. And I do silly exercises that most people would probably laugh at. But for example, living here in the US, I can go to a gas station. I have a credit card to pay gas. I have a vehicle that gets me to places.
00:09:43
Speaker
so much of the world doesn't get to experience that and as Americans you know sometimes we don't understand how really truly lucky we are in comparison to the rest of the world. I've traveled a lot and I've seen what other people have and what we have is such a blessing. So I'll do exercises when I'm feeling negative. I will go out of my way to say like
00:10:02
Speaker
Thank you, Carr, for giving me the opportunity to drive somewhere. Thank you, Gas Station, for being available here with gas that I can buy in order to go help more people. So I know it seems like they're very silly, trivial type of tasks. But when you really look at what you have, then be grateful for that. It helps me to just feel positive energy. And then I can be able to share that with other people, like if you're at the store,
00:10:29
Speaker
say thank you. I mean it's little things like that where we can share that positivity with other people that helps us keep that positivity as well. And do you think keeping that positivity might help influence your financial ability and maybe help empower you to maybe work better or
00:10:49
Speaker
make more money. I'm not sure what the goal is with the money, so maybe you could clarify that a bit more. Sure. So for me, yes, I do have income goals. I have a certain lifestyle that I want to live, but when I'm grateful for what I have, it just helps me feel more abundant, which gives me the creativity and clears my mind
00:11:08
Speaker
so that i can go and you know i'm doing more podcasting so that i can share their stories and some of that creates income for me to help my lifestyle and when i'm showing what i'm doing then people reach out to me and ask me to speak about these topics so that i can help empower other people and give them ideas that they're gonna do.
00:11:27
Speaker
to help their lives which also obviously creates an income for me but for me starting with the gratitude piece of it helps me be positive and it really helps me to clear my mind and be creative so that I can find other avenues to help other people and what I find in my life is when I'm being helpful and having that positive abundant mindset then the income kind of just finds me
00:11:52
Speaker
And I know that that's not going to be the case with every person. But when you really focus on what your goals are, and you're positive about it, and you share with other people, to me, the universe finds me. And it finds ways for me to accomplish those goals, to help other people, and then I'm able to live the freedom lifestyle that I choose. And what's your definition of a freedom lifestyle? Did you kind of go a bit more into that?
00:12:18
Speaker
Yeah, so my definition is one, I live in a home that I paid off cash. I don't want to have the stressors of worrying about paying my rent and, you know, for the audience to. It's taken me a while to get here. I've been in business for over 25 years, so this is not something that I would expect anybody to do overnight.
00:12:37
Speaker
The freedom to me is having a home. It's paid off. I have a car that's paid off. I really don't have any debt at all. So that stress of having debt, no credit card debt, all of that has been taken care of with the multiple businesses I have built and sold over the years.
00:12:52
Speaker
I want to be able to travel. I love going to new countries and learning about other cultures, because again, it just helps me really appreciate what I have back home. And I also love being able to go to church and to be charitable to my church. So that to me is freedom. So all of those things involve the tool that we all call money.
00:13:12
Speaker
But in order for me to have that freedom, I have focused on my businesses for many, many years, and I still do that today. So I don't think I'm going to retire anytime soon. But as I've gotten older, what's important to me, what freedom looks like, what that mindset looks like has really shifted to more being gracious and gratitude for what I have so that I can help teach other people that same mentality as well.
Helping Clients Define Success
00:13:37
Speaker
So you mentioned traveling quite a bit. I'm just interested to know what are some of your favorite traveling trips or which ones influence you the most. You mentioned gratitude and your car. So I'm just thinking in my head, so what types of maybe more third world or more struggling areas did you go to to kind of discover a lot of this stuff?
00:14:01
Speaker
Yeah, so I've done mission trips with my church. We've been to Mexico. When my daughter was in high school, we took my daughter with us because she's always grown up in the US. And, you know, as people of the US and Americans, we have an idea of what the rest of the world might look like. Well, when we went to Mexico, we did the mission trip and we volunteered at an orphanage. And these are kids that were removed from their home because it was not a safe situation.
00:14:30
Speaker
We went to the orphanage, we pulled weeds, we painted fences, like we did real manual labor for free, of course, because we're volunteering our time, but allow us to not only interact with the children and go to church with the children, but these kids, they're just so happy. They have a bed, they go to school, they live in a safe place, and they get food every day.
00:14:51
Speaker
And if that doesn't help us to be able to understand the true meaning of what it feels like to be gratitude and to have gratitude for life and be very happy and gracious for what we have, I wanted her to be able to see that type of lifestyle. And not only did we volunteer at the church, but we are at the orphanage, but we also walked around the neighborhoods and saw how other people live. And so when you come back and you're not so concerned about stuff, right,
00:15:19
Speaker
I do have a car. I do have a house. But I don't need to earn money to buy more stuff. I want to earn money so that I can give back more. I want to earn money so that I can maintain this freedom lifestyle that I want to live. And so when you're able to see other cultures, it really just brings back and instills in you what the meaning of life really is for me. And it's going to be different for everybody. But for example, I've traveled to Europe.
00:15:47
Speaker
Europe doesn't necessarily have huge houses. They have these smaller apartments. They walk everywhere. They take public transportation. Maybe the cost of living is a little bit lower because they don't have all the extra stuff that we have here in the United States. I've been to Japan, and Japan really is super clean, but they take care of their older people, right? So like
00:16:09
Speaker
the elderly, the grandma, the grandpas, they all live together in the same home, but it just shows you different lifestyles. And so when I'm speaking with my clients, I really want them to decide for themselves, what's important to you? What makes you happy? What is your definition of freedom and success?
00:16:25
Speaker
And then when we have that idea, then we can build a plan around it. And so when I incorporate all the different things that I've learned about different countries, I can give them other ideas and help them to decide what could freedom look like for you. And so that's part of why I just love traveling and being able to take some of that experience and information and bring it back here to my clients as well. So what is your definition of freedom and success?
00:16:51
Speaker
Yeah, well, we kind of talked about that a little bit about being debt free. I don't want to have any stress about worrying about paying my bills. So that was kind of a goal that I had was to get completely out of debt, which I did accomplish. For me, I also want to be able to, you know, just have some freedoms to be able to, you know, I want to go out to dinner one evening, I have a budget line item every month that I do for
00:17:15
Speaker
eating out. I have budget lines for giving back to my church this time of year during the holidays. I have budget items to be able to go buy toys for kids or, you know, go volunteer. So that's just part of my definition of freedom is being able to not have the stress of debt, but also having the free time to be able to give back as well.
00:17:36
Speaker
Now you mentioned before giving back and kind of being a missionary and doing those things.
Intentionality in Achieving Goals
00:17:42
Speaker
Why do you think it's important to not only show gratitude, but to also give back to others? I think it's important for us to be an example. You know, if the world is creating abundance for you, I think you have a responsibility to give back and it doesn't necessarily have to be with money. You know, you can volunteer at a soup kitchen on the weekend. You can go and sort canned goods for the local pantry.
00:18:04
Speaker
You can go and mentor or tutor. You can go to a retirement home and you can sing Christmas songs to them. And I think when we just focus on that positivity, it really helps everybody around you. You're inspiring hope around you and giving them hope. You know, maybe they're going through a tough situation financially.
00:18:24
Speaker
maybe they had a medical issue. And when you can just bring happiness and positivity to them, I feel like that we can just solve many issues that are around us. You know, we've got mental health issues, and if we can approach it in a different direction, then maybe we can stop the next generations from having similar issues because we're approaching it from a different perspective.
00:18:47
Speaker
And again, I'm not happy all the time. It's not like I wake up and the audience knows Mary Poppins, like I don't wake up super happy and go to bed super happy every day, but it's something that I have to work on every day and I'm very intentional about it because it's important for me. And so if it's important for you to work on something, then you need to be intentional. You got to make sure that everything you're doing during the day
00:19:09
Speaker
is going towards that goal and whatever that means for you. But you have to figure that out for yourself. I'm not going to be able to tell you what financial freedom is to you. I'm not going to be able to tell you to be positive all day if that's not important to you either. So I think we're going in quite a bit on the clients here. So when did you realize that you wanted to become maybe or you desired to become sort of this money coach? When I got a lot of questions about what I'm doing,
00:19:38
Speaker
Yeah, so when people start asking you or, you know, first people kind of watch you and they're trying to figure out what you're doing. And is this a hobby or is this who you are? And they start to question it a little bit. But then as they watch you and they see the success that you're having and whatever it is that you're working on, they start to be curious. They start to ask questions. And so when you are noticing that people are around, you're asking questions, one, that should be a sign that maybe this is your gift or this is your strength.
00:20:07
Speaker
And two, if you're thinking about becoming an entrepreneur and a business, then maybe this is a business that you might want to start because if people are coming to you, they're already seeing you as an expert in that field and they're asking you questions. Now you have the ability to help them and whether you choose to help them for free or you're going to create a business from this and charge to be able to help other people, you have to decide what's right for you. But when people are coming to you asking questions, that's kind of when you know that there's a need for whatever it is that you feel like
00:20:36
Speaker
that you might be an expert at and this is your ability to give back and empower and change the lives of other people.
Empowering Clients with Expertise
00:20:43
Speaker
Now you mentioned changing the lives of other people. How do you think you've changed other people's lives and do you maybe have specific examples of specific clients you've worked with?
00:20:54
Speaker
Yeah, for example, I had this one young lady that I had met from church. She had just finished school and was becoming a nurse. And she was kind of embarrassed to go to her parents because she was really far in debt, credit card debt. She was not able to afford the apartment she was living in.
00:21:11
Speaker
And she didn't want to go to her parents to ask for help because they paid for school. And so she came to me and she said, I'm just overwhelmed. I don't know where to start. I don't even know how to get out of debt. And so we put together a plan. I looked with her. What is your income? What are you taking home? What are your expenses that you have to keep?
00:21:31
Speaker
And so we adjusted one. When her lease was up, she found a roommate through church who she absolutely loves living with. So that cut her housing costs down. And then we started to tackle that credit card debt. We helped her to set aside a budget. She had some weddings that she was coming up that she needed to go to. But once she kind of realized where her money was going, it just helped her feel better. She was afraid to open that credit card statement. She was
00:21:57
Speaker
excited to start tackling some of that debt because we would build out the spreadsheet so that she could see that that debt was actually going down. She picked up extra hours at work. She was very conscious about bringing food instead of going out every Friday and Saturday night with her friends. She was more intentional of having people come to her house and doing potlucks instead of going out. So just changing a couple little minor tweaks for her lifestyle.
00:22:22
Speaker
She was able to get out of credit card debt within a year. And then she didn't have to worry about going and telling her parents, you know, this is what happened. This is what I did. I just want to share my story with you. And she was no longer embarrassed anymore because she was in full control of where her money was going. Whereas before she just didn't know and she didn't know where to start. And I think a lot of times when we tackle projects, especially when it comes to money, we don't know where to start. So we just don't move. We get so paralyzed.
00:22:50
Speaker
and thinking that I'm in debt, there's no way out. But there is. But you actually have to put in the work to do it. And when you can set a plan in place and work on it every day with intention, it is possible. So that's one example of a young lady that I helped to get out of debt. Now you mentioned, you know, being empowered, control, you know, I'm getting all these words from you. Those are all big words. And I just find it interesting how people can almost be paralyzed.
00:23:20
Speaker
You mentioned planning being a big key to getting people out of that paralyzed nature, but can you kind of go a bit more into how people can maybe get some control and maybe learn how to better plan their finances in a generalized way?
00:23:36
Speaker
Yeah. What I find is when you feel paralyzed, it's because it is something that is not your gift. You know, when it comes to money, I like looking at numbers. I love doing spreadsheets. I like diving into credit card statements and getting all that information because this is my gift. This is something that I've really been working on for many, many years. You know, for example, for me, I'm not a technology person. AI scares me because I don't understand it. It's not my gift. I would rather hire someone
00:24:06
Speaker
to do that in my business than for me to learn it. So understanding that that feeling of being paralyzed is a normal thing. And again, given yourself grace, it's okay if it's scary to you. If it's scary to you, then you need to get help. You need to find an expert to help you get through and understand as much information as you want to know. But perhaps you don't even want to look at it at all. So you can hire a bookkeeper for your business, for your personal life,
00:24:32
Speaker
And what they can do is present to you the information so that you can make choices. And I feel like when you have that control, then that's when you feel empowered. It's not necessary that you're going to have to learn every piece of financial information, how credit cards and interest rates and prepayment penalties. You don't have to learn all of that if you don't want to, but you can find the right person, the right expert and hire them to help you
00:24:56
Speaker
get the information that you want and help you to reach the goals that you're looking to get to. So don't think that you have to learn all of this on your own. Seek help and find someone that can help explain everything to you and give you the information that you want to receive so that you can work towards that goal.
00:25:14
Speaker
Now, just to kind of jump around here, you're also a best-selling author, podcaster, speaker. So I think we talked a lot about personalized coaching, but how do you use your books, your podcast and your speaking ability as another platform to, I don't know, what do you use those platforms for? Is it the same message or is it a different type of message?
00:25:37
Speaker
very similar. So right behind me is the copy of my book that's the best sellers called empower your money. And I typically will use this book and give it away. So for example, if someone's going to book me for a speaking event, then instead of maybe
00:25:53
Speaker
you know, paying a higher fee, I'll ask for them to purchase the book to be able to give to the attendees or I'll make it as part of my speaking package. I've also done a lot of charity work with the book because it talks about money tips. Oftentimes, you know, people that are in financial hardships, they don't understand money. They've never been taught money. So I give the book for free to different charities to help promote financial education.
00:26:19
Speaker
So that's kind of why I wrote the book is it's 101 simple tips just to get you started on your financial journey. It's not a big textbook. It's not overwhelming and scary, but it's really meant to peak your interest to be able to ask more questions and to give you some simple
00:26:35
Speaker
action items to create income, reduce expenses, and create your own financial success. So that was the reason why that I wrote that book this year. The speaking event is just the ability for me to reach more people and to, you know, again, peak curiosity with these people that are sitting in the audience that want to know more about money so that maybe they'll come to my Instagram page, empower her money,
00:26:59
Speaker
and they'll see the tips that I'm giving every single day. Or maybe they're going to come to your podcast and be able to get more information because they're curious about the subject. So when you're picking different platforms and delivering the same message, it's just so that you can reach more people because we all consume information
Conclusion and Closing Advice
00:27:17
Speaker
differently. I'm a huge podcast person. I love listening to podcasts. That's how I consume my information. But that's not going to be the same for everybody. So when you have a business and a message you want to deliver, it's important for you to choose
00:27:29
Speaker
multiple platforms if you want to reach more people. Excellent, okay. Now this has been an excellent interview and I just want to get into maybe a few more things. Do you have a website and any direct services or products you're offering right now besides your books?
00:27:50
Speaker
Yes, so empowerhermoney.com is my website. I do speaking events. You can hire me as a coach. If you don't have the money to do so, then follow me either on Instagram or YouTube, empowerhermoney. And I'm constantly giving out free information in all of those platforms. OK. All right. Well, thank you again for being on the show. Do you have any closing words you'd like to give to the audience right now?
00:28:18
Speaker
Yeah, just don't be afraid to start. If you're feeling paralyzed, take one tiny step and then start moving forward from there. That's how you're going to tackle your financial success. All right. Thank you again, Angela, for being on the show. And I'd also like to thank everyone else for watching us. I'll see you next time. Thank you.