Financial Savvy for Women

Hey everybody. In today's episode, we have Melissa Friedman. She is incredible and you are gonna absolutely love her. She is the founder of the Wealthy Women's Community. That's a private mastermind for women with 6 to 7 figure portfolios who want to elevate their finances, mindset, and impact while connecting with aligned purpose driven peers.

Her journey from debt to private equity investor and respected industry super connector fuels her mission. See why I love her? She has worked alongside top cryptocurrency leaders in Miami, Austin, Puerto Rico, and The UAE, drawing insights from some of the world's most innovative wealth builders.

Her background spanning entertainment, Coinbase, Hashflow, tons and tons of really cool stuff. She now blends her holistic strategy with intentional financial guidance to help individuals build wealth that reflects their values and vision. Here is Melissa.

Hello, and welcome to the Power Up Your Life podcast powered by GoBundance Women. I'm Mandy McAllister. And I'm Kelly Resendez. And today, we have an investing lady powerhouse, Melissa Friedman. Hi. Melissa, so glad to have you here.

Hi, ladies. Thank you for having me.

Well, before we dig into all of the stuff and how your brain works and how you got to to where you're at, why don't you tell us a little bit about your journey in your own words?

Yeah. I mean, just like every other person on this planet, I've had my financial ups and downs, and so I really had to learn and create a financial education and investment education on my own.

I didn't have a traditional financial education, and so I was really fortunate that I made the effort to seek information and to go out and find all the resources that I need in order to create wealth. And now I'm so happy that I get to share it with other people along their journey.

I love that spirit of, you know, we get two arms for a reason. Wanna pull yourself up and wanna pull other people up with you, and that is that is what you do with women.

I I would love to know. You know, you've got this whole, group of women that you get to lead in their financial growth, in their mindset financial growth. Right? So is there a common thread of those who are most successful, in growing their finances?

It's just consistency. Women who are consistently looking at what their whole financial picture is. And it's funny because I know we'll probably get to this, but I'd like to say the secret sauce is just understanding where you are first, ground zero, in order to get to the tactical steps that you need to take in order to actually create the situation that you desire in your wealthiest life.

Yeah. That's awesome. You know, one thing I've noticed in in talking about money is there's a lot of fear of numbers when it comes to women. And like you just said, like, start with where you are. Like, what is what does that actually mean? Like, do you recommend they do a budget? Like, what do you actually have them go through to be able to know where they are? And then how do you get them to be able to feel as if they've already created, you know, more in the future?

I know you ladies work with a lot of entrepreneurs. So just like your business is a business, your finances should be a business. And so sitting down and actually looking at your whole financial, I would say, personality, basically, like, what is your risk tolerance? What are your timelines? What are your goals? Like, what are the things that are incremental and important to you is going to set you up for success to accomplish those things. Right?

We don't go into creating a business and saying, oh, we're just gonna figure it out as we go. We have a plan, and we know how we're spending our money, and we know where the money's going, and we actually know how much we have to bring in to cover our costs.

So, you know, whether it's sitting down and doing this in partnership or doing this alone, it can be really scary. Like you said, a lot of people are afraid of looking at the tangible numbers, but, really, they're just numbers. And so if you could sit down and say, once I know the reality of my situation, then I have the capacity to improve it, that's where everything really happens and the magic takes place.

It so rhymes with the way that I look at things. You you made your money largely in crypto. I I made mine in in apartment building buying. And whenever I'm helping people start that, I talk about you gotta put truth to the problem. Right? So that's that's start where you're at and have a little calculator or a plan to know what the problem looks like from the beginning, and then just think next right step. I I absolutely love that.

In these women's journeys that you get to to that have the 6 and 7 figure portfolios, there's got to be, you know, common areas where people get stuck. So for when you get stuck, for when they get stuck, what are ways that you've seen or or ways that you clear those barriers of being stuck for yourself or for others?

I think just like anything else, like, there's steps that we don't wanna take in our business to expand our business. There's steps that you don't wanna take in your finances to shift your finances, whether that's really understanding what your options are when it comes to, like, debt or credit, and making yourself a really viable, you know, credit, like, lender, basically, somebody who can be get get access to a lot of credit and a lot of lending, or whether it's really sitting down and, you know, looking at what is the investment strategy, how am I breaking down, what I'm investing in, what timeline, where, why, is super important because I think knowing yourself first is ground zero.

Yeah. And just having that awareness makes such a big difference too.

So I wanna dig into crypto. It is something that we have not talked a lot about on here, and I'm guessing that our listeners have a wide range of understanding. Some people are like, I don't get it, so I'm not gonna invest in it, which I don't think is the best decision.

So if you are talking to me like I'm a kindergartner, right, tell me a little bit more about crypto because the truth is a lot of people have made a lot of money and lost a lot of money. And and if you believe it's a really great strategy, like, how do you explain what crypto is, tokenization is, how it really works?

Yeah. So, crypto is basically, like, it's a token on the I don't I'm I'm trying to keep it as simple as possible. It's on the blockchain. And, basically, what it is is, you know, just like you would, you know, maybe invest in an ETF, you're not actually, like, holding the the physical asset itself. You know? Like, you're not actually gonna have be able to tangibly hold crypto in your hands, but you have access to a pool of funds that, are going to, you know, change and shift based on the supply and demand. Right?

So what we've seen over the landscape of crypto is that crypto is going up and down a lot based on market sentiment. So it may feel scary to some people. But what what it really is is it's a new way to transact funds and to add value. It's created a whole new asset class for people that basically, you know, may not have access to certain currencies or access to certain funds or credit. And so it's an easy way to transact even, like, cross borderly or cross business wise.

There's so many different types of tokens that you can invest in. I would say, like, the benchmark is Bitcoin. Everybody talks about Bitcoin like they would talk about the US dollar. So, basically, when you're talking, like, the price of crypto, people are referencing the price of Bitcoin. And, you know, Bitcoin is accessible now to everybody in ETFs. It's accessible in in pensions, like statewide pensions and government pensions. It's accessible in the physical token that you can buy on a centralized or decentralized exchange.

Basically, the the price of of Bitcoin and other tokens will go up based on supply and demand. I would say if you're you're really nervous about investing in crypto, talk to somebody who's very knowledgeable about investing in general, like a financial adviser. They'll tell you based on your risk tolerance to, you know, make 10 to 40% of your portfolio a crypto allocation because they see it as a increasing asset that you can hold over a long period of time. And just like gold, you would wanna maybe put a portion of Bitcoin or Ethereum in your investment portfolio.

Yes. I'm very heavy in crypto, Mandy. That is how I created my wealth in addition to tech stocks. And so that is because I'm incredibly risky investor, and I don't advise most people to invest based on how I invest. I tell them to invest based on their risk tolerance, and I think that's super important, and that creates a lot of value.

But I continue to see I know we're in, like, a weird situation right now with crypto and Bitcoin in particular where everybody's expecting it to be much more inflated in value than it is. But at present, it's just you know, it's an asset that I think that you would hold in your portfolio for an extended period of time. Maybe it's a legacy asset that you would wanna pass down to the next generation in my eyes. So it's something that I I definitely advise everybody to at least get, like, 5% of their allocation in cryptocurrency, whether that's an ETF or the token, itself.

I do really feel like as much as we don't want the world to go digital fully and for us to have digital currencies, it's happening regardless. So I think we all have to partake.

Yeah. I think it's the it's the single most truthful way of recording what has happened. I think it's undeniable that that blockchain will change how things are recorded in the future. I personally, bought some that were were backed by stuff. The the thing about Bitcoin that made me nervous is that it's not backed by anything. So I I love what you're doing, and I love that you do more of what you know, the the tech stocks and the double down on the stuff that you know. Like, it's the Andrew Carnegie saying, you you know, I I don't put I do put all of my eggs in one basket, but then I really watch that basket, you know, and I've I've really done the same in multifamily.

You know, let's let's change gears just a little bit and go back to women and investing. The, there's a stigma. Not only do I not like to look at the numbers, there's a stigma about talking about money. There's a stigma about, you know,

stating a net worth and that's implied and you're a sweet little girl, honey, sit down. You know?

Talk to me about the mindset work that you do with your women and maybe some, like, actionable patterns that you see for yourself or others. I think the stories I hear over and over because you talked about how, yeah, basically, it could be a male dominated industry. It feels like investing is really challenging because there may be a barrier to entry for women, but it actually doesn't exist anymore. Personally, I feel like we're perpetuating those stories more than men are these days.

I could be wrong, but I am it's my belief that sitting down and saying, okay. It's fine that you're you didn't get a traditional education. It's fine that you're afraid and you're in fear that maybe if you actually invest, you will lose it all, but working through that regardless. And so I like to say, like, move despite. Move despite the fear. Move despite the negative self talk.

And so the actionable things that I do with clients are just I really love certain modalities like emotion emotion freedom technique, like, you know, emotional freedom technique, EFT, where you do, like, tapping on acupressure points on the body. It gives oxygen to the body and oxygen to the brain so that we can move faster. I really love, like, NLP reprogramming, neurolinguistic reprogramming. I also which Tony Robbins does. I'm sure, like, a lot of women in your network are very familiar with NLP.

And then other things I would say is, you know, finding the support system and the people that really are going to help you get educated. And it's very easy. There's so much information out there. It's incredibly accessible. And ask the questions. There's the the biggest thing that I did for myself was put myself in rooms where I was super afraid and super vulnerable, but I asked anyway. And now I'm excited to say that I am in rooms with men all the time, and I'm the only female and the only one asking all the questions. Questions. So it's been a great experience.

That's amazing and so so important to do that. You know, getting outside of our comfort zone is what's gonna get us to the next level.

So talk a little bit about, you know, the power of proximity. We've heard that. When it comes to wealth, that's also one of those things that I know some women have struggled with. Like, I know a lot of our women in go abundance feel like they're too much. They might be the most successful person, and that could hinder a little bit.

How important is it in to to find a community? And, like, what's the main reason why you ended up, you know, creating your own? You coulda just done this on your own continuously. Instead, you decided to invest in supporting other people.

These are great questions. Yeah. I I decided to create this community because I woke up one morning, and my investments were what I never anticipated they would be. I was wealthier than I'd ever been before. I didn't understand how to preserve and grow this wealth even more. And I looked around me, and I was all alone.

And I was like, the money means nothing if you're not next to the people that you love and around people that you wanna share with. Am I right? Oh my gosh. Yeah. Yeah.

So for me, it was, okay. If I'm going to do this, I wanna do this around incredible women who also want the same thing. Because when women have money, it multiplies. It benefits communities. It benefits families. And so I'm a big advocate of making sure that we're all growing together. And so that's what really drove me to doing this work and creating community.

And then on top of that, you know, really, sorry. Can I wanna go back to your first question, Kelly, because I know it was, like, a double double question, and I was trying to remember? Figure out yeah. I mean, the the biggest question is just how important is this power of proximity Oh, yeah. In making yeah. In making you feel like you've been

in making, yeah, in making you feel like you belong.

Thank you for reminding me. I'm it's just that day. You know? I needed a refresher. Power of proximity is really important. They say all the time, like, peak performers do even better when they're in work environments next to other high performers.

And I I've worked in tech companies. I've worked in blockchain companies. That's why I became an investor in tech and blockchain because I was working in those environments. I was aware of what was happening in the industry. I, you know, was able to ask people around me, questions and get educated. And being next to a CEO, a CFO of the companies that I was working for completely changed the way that I showed up. Right? It's the proximity of being a peak performer is amazing.

When I, you know, hosting these women's groups here in Austin, these gatherings, and it's just incredible to see all these women being uplifted in a physical room with other women. I know you ladies experience it at your conferences. If if you are a peak performer and you feel like you are performing and accelerating beyond your your current community or your current network, I would say, like, you know, put yourself in different networking rooms where you're going to meet other people, and they will expand your consciousness in other ways, whether it's, like, getting knowledge about an industry that they're working in that you never experienced before or, you know, a new way to optimize your business or your investments that you never experienced before.

There's information circulating faster in smaller groups than it is actually in, like, larger capacity on, like, ChatGPT and, you know, Google AI. And what I'm seeing for us is, you know, when I I want referrals and I want information, I'll go into my WhatsApp groups and my private communities, and I'll say, can you refer me to somebody? You know? Like, who's doing this? Who's doing that? And I'll take a referral from a personal, connection or somebody that's in proximity to my connection even faster. So being in proximity of these, like, smaller communities are what I think accelerates us even faster.

I I just did a women's panel. I know, Kelly. I'm, like, giving you so much I have no idea. Answer to this question. I just did a women's, a women's conference a few weeks ago, and I was on a panel and I said, we need to stop doing all the things and putting our energy into the things that we are not an expert in.

And so the funniest thing is I feel like us as women, we're always trying to improve all of our shortcomings and all of the things that we know we need to work on versus actually leaning into the things that we do really great and outsourcing all the things that we don't do great to get support because that's gonna move us even faster. So as a peak performer, if you're not physically in those rooms or you can't physically be in those communities, start leaning in and focusing on the things that you are an expert in and start, like, pushing everything that you're not an expert in that you think you need to improve over to outsourced resources to get help.

Oh, okay. Who's not gonna help? Somebody else will love the thing that you hate, for sure.

And that data that you were referencing, that if you're next to a peak performer, you're gonna perform better, well, the converse is even more true. I think it's 15% greater output if you're sitting in 25 feet with from someone who is a high performer. Well, if you're 25 or 25 feet from someone who is a poor performer, you go down 30%. So get rid of those people who are toxic.

So you are you've gotta be unconventional to, you know, lean into crypto in the way that you have, to to be a female investor in a room where there aren't a ton of of females. What are some other unconventional strategies to life, to leadership, to investing that you believe to be true that other people might disagree with?

I believe that it's it's more important for us to actually know ourselves, and then, like, strategize and create our reality from who we are versus trying to listen to the external chatter. So I think there's so many people that are, like, you know, going to a financial adviser, and the financial adviser would say, invest in x, y, and z and do this, this, and that. And they're not necessarily asking what we want out of these desired results.

And so it's really saying, you know, here's the blueprint to who I am, going to a financial adviser or a wealth manager and saying, like, now this is what I've done. How do we optimize it and make it even better? Because I think using that opportunity to to really get to know ourselves first and start from, like, who we are and then sift through information and everything all around us in the external environment after that is gonna completely change our lives. And just, like, for me, I'm I'm, like, you're on an upwards trajectory with that.

Oh my goodness. And that's so important, just that that awareness because I think we hand over our wealth to other people because we don't think that we know enough rather than starting with what we really desire.

So I'm sure you've really seen people make a lot of mistakes when it comes to their wealth and their money. What are some of those top mistakes that you see people make, and what would you tell them to do instead of that?

I think people right now, a lot of people are very excited by opportunities to multiply their wealth that are, you know, circulating all around the Internet. People get excited. Even incredibly intelligent wealthy women come to me and say, I invested in x, y, and z. I didn't realize it was a scam. You know, how can I get a 10 x multiplier out of this in the next year?

And there are ways. There are ways to do those things. It's really sitting down and saying, are you willing to take those steps to do those things? Because sometimes the risk is a lot higher.

And I think it's really understanding how to sift through information is our biggest asset in the future that we're going into in this world because we are inundated and overwhelmed by information. Mhmm. So understanding how to really sit down and, like, weed out all of our options, weed out all the information that's coming to us is going to be the biggest asset that we can have in surviving this, like, AI boom and this next generation that we're gonna experience.

Mhmm. Yeah. You've gotta be your own filter, and you've got to the ultimate luxury, the ultimate win is being able to trust your own judgment.

Gosh, do I love that, Melissa. You just have a lot of stuff here that I have written down. My first my couple favorites were, move despite. Move despite the fear. Move despite the, you know, whatever that thing is, you you need to be moving to to move forward. And then the put yourself in a room and ask the question. You know?

So I I think that this this is incredible, and this is the reason why all of us create these rooms and this Women's Wealth Symposium that we'll be having in Dallas on International Women's Day that there you know, that is our goal for that is to get women in the room asking questions, and we're gonna be excited to to get you to be a part of that. Kelly, what were your favorite parts?

Yeah. I mean, my my favorite part is just really truly that you have to have self awareness and knowing what you really desire before you go hand over things. And then also being real about where you are right now. You know, really looking at where you are and where you wanna go so that you can create those steps. I think avoidance around money and wealth has been the go to rather than just being radically honest with yourself.

So, you know, you have been a wealth of information, and the one thing, Melissa, we love doing here on the Power Up Your Life podcast and in Go Abundance Women is really finding ways to support our guest as well. So what is a resource or connection or, you know, anything that we can do to support you in your life?

I'm so grateful for this opportunity to share my work and my passion for life on this podcast. So just spreading the word about, you know, the fact that I want more women to be in rooms, having more conversations about growing their investment portfolios, growing their wealth. And so thank you for asking. That's that's awesome.

How can our listeners get ahold of you?

Yeah. I am on Instagram at Melissa Lindsey Friedman, or they can go to wealthywomen'scommunity.com.

Beautiful. We will make sure that those are in the show notes. Melissa, you are a gem. I see it feels so completely aligned with all that you have going on. Thank you for joining us today.

And everyone who is listening, if you are a woman or you know a woman who needs to really step into her voice and and learn from the inside out what wealth means to her, share this episode. Make sure you're liking and subscribing so that we can get into more ears. And if you want to power up your business, go to power up your life now and look for all those resources that we have to help you, in supporting that. So we will see you next week. Thanks.