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In today's episode I sit down with coach and author Amina AlTai to talk about what she calls the Ambition Trap and how it can push us toward stress and burnout instead of a life we actually enjoy. We share our own stories of chasing “perfect” success in work and money, getting sick and tired, and then slowly learning to listen to our bodies, heal old hurts, and make choices that fit who we really are. Amina explains how big goals, toxic work culture, and doing everything alone can hurt women and especially women of color, and we talk about building community, setting kind boundaries, and creating careers and businesses that support both our health and our wallets.

About our guest:
Amina AITai (pronounced AH-MIN-UH) is an executive coach and leadership trainer, proud immigrant and chronic illness advocate. A leading coach to notable leaders, executives, and founders—Amina's mastery is in connecting us to our brilliance and teaching us to live and lead from it each day. She is the bestselling author of The Ambition Trap: How to Stop Chasing and Start Living, with Penguin/The Open Field.

Amina has partnered with progressive companies such as Google, Meta, Roku, Snap, Outdoor Voices, NYU and HUGE. She's an Entrepreneur Magazine expert-in-residence, a Forbes contributor and was named one of Success Magazine’s Women of Influence. Additionally, she's been featured in goop, Well+Good, The New York Times, Yahoo, NBC, Adam Grant’s Next Big Idea Club and more.

Amina AlTai's Website
The Ambiion Trap by Amina AlTai

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In today's episode, I talk with Angel Mathis about how she paid off a big debt, saved a lot, and made work optional as a nurse. We share simple steps you can copy, like tracking your money, using your benefits, and investing a little each month. Angel also tells the real story of burnout and how clear boundaries and a plan helped her heal. We talk about buying a home with cash, taking time off to hike and travel, and building a life you love without fancy math.

About our guest:
Angel Mathis is the founder and CEO of Nurses Investing For Wealth. She’s been a nurse for 23 years and an NP for 17. She’s served as President of the King County Nurses Association in Seattle, WA and is a former American Nurses Association Advocacy Institute Fellow. Her work has been featured in journals like the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, and Journal of Infectious Diseases.

When Angel became a nurse, she started building her own money method with a singular goal: to break her family’s generational poverty cycle. Even though her first nursing job paid her just $16/hr, she was able to pay off $200,000 of debt, buy her home in cash, cars in cash, and make work optional by her mid-thirties. She’s so glad she did, because the realities of nursing left her exhausted, and she took 5 years off to recover.

Now she has turned her money method into a State Board of Nursing Continuing Education program, called Ultimate Nurse Investing. In it she teaches nurses how to fund their future using small portions of their paycheck so they can work less (and still retire early) if they want to. You can learn more, and even get her free training on her website at https://learn.nursesinvesting.com/

Fellow Nurses: How to Become Work Optional in One Hour a Month

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In today's episode I sit down with Terry Kirk to talk about money lessons from the 1929 market crash and the Great Depression. Terry tells real stories from his book Pitfall and from life on the Chicago trading floors. We break big ideas into simple steps you can use today like how to stay calm when markets drop how to protect your savings and how to keep a long term plan. We also talk about mindset shame and starting over after a loss. By the end you will know what went wrong back then what still happens now and what you can do to be ready.

About our guest:
Terry Kirk holds a Juris Doctor (Law) and a master’s degree focused on tech innovation. After practicing law and several executive leadership roles, Kirk plunged into Canada’s fintech and innovation sectors. As a Founder & CEO of three investor-backed ventures, she oversaw capital raising and shareholder exits into large-scale companies. She also served as a Director, Private Capital Markets Association of Canada, and was named Top Female Innovator and Entrepreneur by the Advanced Technology Alliance of Canada. Following the sale of Fundingportal.com, Kirk has achieved success writing fast-paced historical fiction stories about cataclysmic events. Her debut novel, Pitfall, was published in June 2025, named A Top Book to Read by CBC Books, and is for sale on major book-selling platforms, including Indigo and Amazon. Her second novel, Plunder, expected to hit bookshelves in 2026, follows the character in the build-up to World War II. Kirk, a popular public speaker, has appeared on BNN-Bloomberg’s The Pitch, delivered a TEDx Talk on financing innovation, and is presenting Pitfall on podcasts and morning television and at literary and financial events Canada-wide.

Her author site is: https://www.TerryKirkBooks.com

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Please join me here, and follow me on social media, Instagram, and Facebook.

Need help getting started on your path to financial freedom? Start Here

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Oh and please subscribe and leave a review on whatever app you're using to stream this podcast.

Get my book Smart Money