Prosperity Unveiled by Angela Duncan's Inspiring Saga

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. She's also a serial entrepreneur at heart, a best-selling author. She has covered a lot. I think she worked in an insurance agency. She has a finance degree. Again, a lot of interesting things going on and we're going to get into that during this show. Let's bring her up. How are you?

I'm doing awesome, Jimbo. How are you?

I'm doing excellent. Can you tell me a bit about yourself? I notice you have quite the background back there in pink. Okay, just go over some of that.

Yeah, I mean you talked a lot about my accolades, but 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, 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, prove what 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 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. And that's kind of where the focus is, because if we can change that mindset, 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?

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. 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. 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?

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 but really allowing for them self to give them self 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. 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 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, 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.

I'm 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 Influence some of that mindset, even beyond the financial stuff we discussed?

Yeah, absolutely, and I think you know I'm not naturally a positive person. I have had to work really hard on 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. 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, you know, podcasting and getting more information. So when I, 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.

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 8 pm News there's no such thing as a positive news network. 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 to. So you're just being cautious about what you're putting it. Now, if you're, 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 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, you know, 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 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, you know, 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 you know, you know it's one of the few places where you could find positives, but you know that 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 taking more Positivity? How do you kind of take in positivity? I think we talked about blocking out the negativity.

If people so the way that I start my day is I start. I have two dogs. I live in Miami, so thankfully, the weather is 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 ten 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, and so when I'm in transaction during the day, I'm always focused on what is it that I'm currently working on? The other thing that I'd love to do is I do a gratitude, and what I mean by that is 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 I write a statement saying I am grateful for being the number one Podcast host 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 you know, 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 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 thank you, car 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 still like 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, just 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 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 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 it can help empower other people and give them ideas that they're going to do 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. 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?

Yeah, so my definition is, when 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. But 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've built and sold over the years.

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. 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 you know, 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.

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 that you go to to kind of discover a lot of this stuff?

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. 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. And if that doesn't help us to be able to understand like 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, 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. 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 elderly people right. So, like the elderly, the grandma, the grandpa, 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, 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. You know, 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?

Yeah, we kind of talked about that a little bit, about being debt-free. I don't want to have any stress about, you know, 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, if I want to go out to dinner one evening, I have a budget line item every month that I do for 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.

Now you mentioned before giving back and kind of being a missionary and doing those things. 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, 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, 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.

And I'm and again, I'm not happy all the time. It's not like I wake up and you know 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 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 desire to become, sort of this money coach?

When I got a lot of questions about what I'm doing.

Yeah, so when people start asking you, 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 asking questions one, that should be a sign that maybe this is your gift or this is your strength. And two, if you're thinking about becoming an entrepreneur and a business, then maybe this is a business that you might wanna 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 gonna 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 that you might be an expert at, and this is your ability to give back and empower and change the lives of other people.

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 work with?

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 and she didn't wanna 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? 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 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 to her lifestyle, 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.

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 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 being empowered control. I'm getting all of these words from you. Those are all big words and I just find it interesting how people can almost be paralyzed and you mentioned planning being a big key to getting people out of that paralyzed nature. But can you 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?

Yeah, what I find is when you feel paralyzed, it's because it is something that is not your gift. 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. 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 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 your self-grace, it's OK 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, 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 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.

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?

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 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 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. 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 pique your interest, to be able to ask more questions and to give you some simple 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 an ability for me to reach more people and to, you know, again, pique 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 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 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 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?

Yes, so empowerhermoneycom 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 and powerhermoney and I'm constantly giving out free information in all of those platforms.

Okay, 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?

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.

Thanks.