Welcome to the Six Figure Business Mastery Podcast, where every week

Kirsten and Jeannie dive into the essential topics to fuel your business

growth, from copywriting to course creation, mindset to video marketing.

Welcome everyone to our latest episode.

We appreciate you being here and we also appreciate having our special guest.

Her name is Lisa Marie Heintz and her business is called Life After Debt.

So welcome to the show, Lisa.

We're happy to have you here.

Thank you so much.

I thank you Jeannie and Kirsten to just have me come out here today and just talk

to our business owners and our ladies that are all like minded and we want

to be able to come together and just do the best so that we can be the best.

So thank you for having me.

Thanks, Lisa Marie.

I really do feel like as a business owner, you have to be very careful

because you can end up with business debt and personal debt.

And I think we heard someone today refer to debt as cancer.

It's a cancer for your business.

It's a cancer for your lifestyle.

And I know that you are so committed to helping people get

out of debt and stay out of debt.

And you have so many awesome stories.

But first of all, tell us, how did you get into the business of helping people?

Regain financial security by getting out of debt.

Well, that is a great question.

And I know that you did allude to those feelings of what that may feel like.

And all of my life, I've always done so many focuses that really helped

people and being in an industry where.

I was in a direct sales company.

It was all about helping people.

I grew up in a family of just achievers and entrepreneurs, which always at the

top of the list of helping others money.

Wasn't really the focus.

It was helping others and that would always follow but when about 5.

Four years ago, five years ago.

Now we were in a place where we got hit with our country of this whole COVID

thing, or even over the world, I took a step back from what I had been doing for

15 years and just took a little pause.

I call it a sailor.

We just take a little pause, a little breath and fast forward

to just a little bit ago.

I was introduced to my daughters, somebody that she was working with who did have

this company and she was looking to.

And so when I listened to her, and I felt like we had the same values and

ethics and really about helping people, she started this business in 2008 with

that same desire to help others because of her personal story, and it has

grown just exponentially and knowing what the national debt rate is, and

knowing that there's so much debt that's inundating us every day from every

corner that we turn by this, um, Do this.

Do that.

Keep up with the Joneses.

You hear all the different statistics that we hear.

I thought, oh, my gosh, I love what she's doing.

She has a heart of others and I wanted to help her and she was in a place where she

was expanding and we just we hit it off.

And I feel like even as women in business.

We have connections with other women and some we have better connections with and

when we have those connections, we can say lock arms together and really become

more powerful and we can attack these different statistics and these different

things that we see each and every day.

So, I was introduced and here I am just helping her along this journey

and have been so elated with hearing people with their voice just express.

Relief and that is what it's all about.

It's freedom.

It's relief about around a topic.

That's really quite toxic to be perfectly honest.

So I'm just excited to just go in and out of conversations and just help

people understand that it is just a tool.

A money is our tool and sometimes it gets away from us, but we can pull it

back in and we can have just that freedom again at the other end of the tunnel.

If you will.

I bet you have a lot of conversations with people who emotionally

just beating themselves up.

They're stressed out.

They have so much anxiety about the future, maybe depression and stress

about what's happened in the past.

So.

Is that usually where you start talking with people about where they are and

what's going on and how they got there?

Because I feel like people sometimes want to share that story.

Is that true?

Oh, I'll really back up a little bit.

I think 1 of the most shameful things, very few at the top of the

list of topics is financial shame.

How did I get here?

What happened?

Let me put my head in the sand.

And the only reason I can speak so clearly to that is because I was in

that place of hoping and praying that the bills are going to get paid or

take the money from here and you put it there and you move things around.

So we did as a family lost considerable amount of money in real estate.

I'm going to talk about the real estate back in the real estate crash again, 2008,

when all the craziness happened with the mortgages and everything we owned at 1.

11 properties and it was not a conversation.

We were talking to our best friend about it was something

that was shameful and fearful.

How is this going to work out, but turning it around and having the

ability to come to the table to stop the bleeding, if you will, was really

a hard and I speak from my heart.

It is not easy to make those steps to just have a conversation with somebody

and in life after debt, the people that we talk to people talk actually to me.

It's not somebody being bounced around to everybody else to have those very,

very difficult conversations person.

Bringing it to the point where you just said that emotional toll that

it takes on us takes over on and through us is shame and the guilt.

And again, how did I get here?

But for us to have that conversation, it's really difficult, but I

feel like once we do, you've made decisions in our lives where we

have the conversation we talk about.

It's like breaking the seal and we feel that physical weight

come off of our shoulders to know that we can do different things.

There's options out there.

There's places that we.

Can go whether again, it's business debt, whether it's personal debt, whether

it's a combination of the 2 having that weight lifted off your shoulders.

It's actually correlated to even health and fitness health and fitness and

debt all have that same energy when you release some of it when you get

yourself moving and that emotional feeling of, oh, my gosh, this is

a better way that we can do this.

It's just refreshing for, I think, everybody.

And we care for money.

We do, but we need to respect it.

Maybe a little bit more.

Um, and then really hone in.

I've got some tips and tricks that we can do to really bring that to the surface.

So hopefully that answered that question.

I love the fact that people get to have that conversation with you and

you said a release is done because they stepped in and start talking about it

because you've got to acknowledge it.

And then often seek help in order to fix it.

Right.

And a lot of times we can't do everything on our own.

So after you've had this conversation, what are the next steps you do with people

who are really ready to get out of debt?

So the, the first steps that we really do is I offer a free 15 minute conversation.

It's called a clarity call.

And with that clarity call, the clarity call is to just bring clarity.

It's as simple as that.

It's completely anonymous.

It's completely confidential, and I always say it's never too late

to break free and take control.

So, with that first conversation, it's about, let me know, how

did you get where you are?

What's the scoop?

What happened?

And just being in a compassionate place to know you're not alone is

so, again, it's so powerful to, um, just, you say the power of words.

We're here in a compassionate place.

To give people direction.

I should make this disclaimer.

I am not a financial advisor.

I'm not an attorney.

I'm not an accountant.

I'm just a real person.

It's just me who's been through the same situation you've been.

The only difference is I might have some tools that you don't have in

order to have that conversation.

So the 15 minutes is really just to break the ice to see what every situation

has to offer your personal scenario.

Every scenario is different.

So to tell you all right now, this is what we would do.

A, B, C, D. Yes, there are tools, but you might not need C, you might not need

A, you might need B. So to really hear you out and hear what your situation

and scenario is, we can go from there.

I love that if that one size fits all.

Not at all.

Not at all.

And it sounds like a confessional.

I could come to you and say, Lisa Marie, I didn't do it right.

Help me.

Help me get back on track.

So let's step into the next step.

So the next step would be to really have that, again, that conversation

and to find out what's going on.

I often suggest.

A diary, a financial diary, before you can make a fix, you have to

get what the fix needs to be.

So the best way to do that is either whether it's business, whether

it's personal, take an account of exactly what you're spending.

So I'm going to give you a little history of my family.

We've got four children.

They're awesome.

They're incredible.

They're all grown.

They're having their own families.

Now they all live very close to us.

And at one point as a mom of four kids, they were going and doing.

Every single thing that you could think of and I was like, man, we are

pouring money out of this family.

Nobody's business.

Let's take an account of what's going on.

And I physically put a huge piece of paper up on sliding glass doors and we

wrote down a personal and financial diary for the next week and we wrote every

single thing that we spent money, whether it was the electricity bill, whether

it was the water bill, whether it was.

Putting up their sports feet, the fees with their sports or

their knee pads, whatever it was.

And oh, my gosh, you talk about clarity.

They were like, wow, we really spend that much money.

So, to scale that back into the notebook, you got a notebook,

write it down, grab your phone.

Make an account of every single thing that you spend and a lot of times it would

be like, oh, I don't have any any money.

But then you look and you see, I went to a special coffee shop and I spent

300 in the last month on coffee.

There's different things that we can do to scale back.

So that's the 1st thing understand what it is that you're spending.

And it sounds like it's a simple task, but let me tell you, I challenge you to do it.

It's not as simple as you think.

And then the other things to think about are, we can throw more out

the window with a spoon, then we can take in with a shovel.

Right?

So, what does that mean?

Little tiny chunks of money going out the door, going out the window,

going out of the checking account.

More than the paycheck, bringing it in because you think it's simple.

It's only 10.

It's only 2.

So we really want to just hone in on what that looks like.

And then, of course, we want to take an account of our emotions.

Where do we sit when it comes to money?

What were we taught all of our lives where we taught?

Oh, money doesn't grow on trees.

Oh, you can't have that.

So, is it a lack mentality?

Or is it an abundance mentality?

Again, this is a tool.

Money is our tool.

So if we can really pull it in and understand it in our mind first,

see it on the paper second, then we can go ahead and attack the debt.

The 3rd thing I will say.

Is that sometimes you need to take a very hard shift to get out of debt.

Just a few years ago, we realized personally ourselves that our home

was much larger than we needed now that our four kids moved out.

So we decided to right size.

And when I say right size, we got into a home that felt more comfortable for us.

A home that was using up all the space, had enough space for the kids

to come over and hang out, but we weren't paying the huge mortgage or

all the bills that go along with it.

To make that change was huge and sometimes you're going to have to

make changes that don't feel good.

They feel icky.

They feel like, oh, I'm so comfortable here to make that real

hard shift to get out of that.

Right?

Oh my gosh, I'm going to do it.

I'm going to do it.

I'm going to sell the expensive car and maybe downsize.

So it's really understanding that.

Taking all of those things into account and then making those changes will just

catapult you into a much better scenario that even though it doesn't feel great.

And sometimes we have to find places to have extra income.

There's no question there.

And then it's just a matter of just taking the time, understanding that.

All this money that I'm putting towards my just minimum balances,

which that's another whole scenario.

Oh, my gosh.

Minimum balances.

That's not going to really get you out of debt if your debt is excessive,

but once you get out of that debt, and then you start thinking about those

minimum balances going into a savings vehicle or a place that can grow.

Oh, my gosh, it adds up fast.

We see it add up fast in a negative way.

Can you imagine it see it add up fast in a positive way?

Your life can be totally different.

Totally different.

Very quickly.

I might add.

I love how you were talking about paying attention to your expenses for a week.

I know, I don't know, a year or two ago, we looked at, for business, there

are a lot of subscriptions, a lot of software and things that you sign up

for, you intend to use, then it either gets obsolete or you forget about it.

When you go back and look at that, that might be a really good start

at least to say, I don't use this.

Why am I paying for this?

Absolutely.

Yes.

If you don't pay attention to your finances, you can't catch those things

and you can't make different decisions.

So, staying on top of your bookkeeping for your business and your personal finances.

So, I love the fact that I guess, because we both track our expenses we have for

a long time using you need to budget dot com the software is still surprises me.

How many people don't track their spending?

So, I guess it's just so 2nd nature to us.

Jeannie, would you say.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

And I've taught my kids how to do it as well.

So there, we're going to get them on track because like you said, Lisa

Marie, your first step is to figure out where, where is this money going?

Am I spending needlessly or am I actually spending it on utilities and things,

and I just need to bring in more money.

Those are two completely different things.

Right.

Absolutely.

Right.

And it's, you get down to the point where you ask the question,

do I need it or do I want it?

And that's a very quick answer.

Yes, I need it.

Do I want it?

And like you said, we spend money on so many things that

are running in the background.

Maybe you may not be necessary after we get through all of that.

And again, it feels icky, but then my hope is that it doesn't feel icky

anymore that it feels encouraging.

It feels empowering once you get a handle on that.

So, what do I do?

That is a great question.

So, with life after debt, what we do is we are in a position

where we can look at your debt.

So, typically people who have at least 6500 dollars or more in debt.

And it's unsecured debt.

What does that mean?

Some people aren't really clear on that term.

Unsecured debt means it's a credit card.

It's a personal loan.

It's maybe some medical debt.

Maybe it's there's a few other things, but it's really debt that isn't behind.

Something isn't behind that debt, like a car or a home, something

that could be taken away from you if you don't pay that debt.

So, we take that debt, we do, we suggest freecreditreport.

com to see exactly where you stand.

And you talk about all of these different things that we have running

in the background, subscriptions and things, but quite honestly, you could

have debt in the background that you're not even aware of for whatever reason.

Who knows?

So checking out your debt once a year to try to see where you are in the

whole picture is really powerful.

Gives you an idea of where you stand.

And then we have a great team that we work with, and they can

actually, we say between 30 to 50%.

We can.

Look at your situation, and you may qualify for some of the

programs that we have where we actually slash the debt in half.

It's on average of about 42%, but when you look at a nut of 10, 000 dollars,

and we can work with you to bring it to 5, and then we give you a plan to run

on to get that paid off very quickly.

Again.

It's just freeing and empowering.

And a lot of people don't realize that those programs are available to them.

And that's some of the tools that we use to help you.

To conquer that debt a little bit more quickly, there's many, many

programs out there that you can hear about all the credit cards and

consolidation and things like that.

And that might be a little bit more popular to talk about, but there's also

programs that will slash your debt.

So that's where we come in and what we do to the next steps to really help you.

To to move swiftly, shall we say, so that's where we go.

And then we keep up with you.

I keep up with you.

I want to make sure that you're telling me all your celebrations

and when debt gets paid off and a credit card is no longer under your

name with the big heavy load on it.

So, we're there to celebrate and to to encourage and to show that there

are different ways that we can.

Also bring in some income as well as paid off simultaneously, bringing those debt

payments down those monthly payments down.

And then also talking about doing the minimums anymore, pulling

that up a little bit so that we're not in debt forever and ever.

I love how you talk about a credit report.

I remember way back when I had a credit report pulled and

it showed credit cards like.

Her department stores that I didn't even know I had.

I never use them anymore.

I cut them up, but the account was still open.

So it was really, really important to take ownership of that

and make sure that if you're.

You don't need it.

You're not using it to make sure that you write to them and you close that.

Absolutely.

Yes.

And even so, just that's something that you are responsible for.

You did it, but who knows?

There could be something on there that you're not responsible for.

It's very telling.

The credit report is very telling.

So we recommend that people at least do that.

Once a year, it is free to do it.

So need to take advantage of those.

Those tools, and I feel like as Americans, especially, we're

so busy doing so many things.

We're so distracted.

We're on, you both are in a business to help people to hone

in on what their goals are.

So for us to really take a step back, take a breath and really see what our

financial picture is here about people who spend more money planning a vacation

than they do planning their future.

So we really want to be in that place where we want them to know it's an

important thing to take into your life is to know what you're doing financially.

Again, money is a tool.

Can live a lot better with more of it than we can with less of it and it's

so funny because they made me think about the fact that because Jeannie and

I really focus on helping our clients outsource, which is very, very affordable.

It gives business owners the support that they need so that they can focus

on making money and figuring out how to manage their money better.

And then also, like, software work with people who have helped them

save 500 bucks on software monthly.

And he said, I think some new tools come out, people want to try them.

And it's really easy to just spend money.

You really don't need to spend.

And I know for us, we both hold each other accountable to if we

get this, are we going to use it?

And if not, let's cancel it.

And it's really funny because 1 of the things we try to live by right now is.

AI, everything's changing so quickly.

So Jeannie and I are the type of people that we will usually subscribe to

something and pay for the full year, just so it's, it's usually cheaper.

So we would do that, but now it's like, no, let's try this for two to three

months and see, one, are we really going to use it or two, is there a better

tool that's going to come out tomorrow?

Right?

Because that's what happens.

So, I think as business owners, we have to be more nimble with what choices and

how we choose to spend our money because things are ever evolving and changing.

And it is very easy to pay for things for a whole year that

you don't use hardly at all.

So it's just being conscious of that.

And luckily, there's 2 of us in the business.

So we kind of hold each other accountable to that, but we've definitely

wasted money in the past for sure.

Absolutely.

Yeah, I love that.

And again, it's just having bigger eyes just knowing that.

Yeah.

We have choices.

We don't have to be pulled in by all the marketing saving 2

if you pay for the whole year.

That's a great tip when it comes to having debt again.

It's just something that we have to start the conversation.

We do like, this is our conversation right now.

And you've said some things that pop some memories in my mind and I've

said, hopefully some things that.

Have really triggered some things in your mind, and if we have the conversation,

it can be a normal conversation.

It doesn't have to be surrounded with all the things that we talked about when

we first got on our call here together.

It doesn't have to have the shame.

It can be a conversation of empowerment.

This is where I was, this is where I'm going to be.

And won't we be surprised to hear that we're not alone, right?

That there are so many people that carry that same feeling of, oh, my God, how in

the world am I going to get out of this?

I could give you an example of one of our clients that I

worked with not too long ago.

And I got, I got the call, the 15 minute clarity call and oh boy, it was a big one.

And she was contending with 20, 000, just a little bit over 20, 000 in debt,

had gone with a company, had gotten into a program six years previous

to our conversation, was still not seeing any relief six years after.

And so when we had the conversation, the program that

she was in was one that would.

Allow her to pay for way too many years.

The point being her 20, 000 after she paid it off on the track that

they put her on would have been 104, 000 for a 20 plus 1, 000 debt.

So, we flipped her script.

We call it all the time.

We talk about flip the script, get out of the red and she was then seeing

her payments come down a month, 200 and she would have been out of debt.

She will be out of debt in 48 months.

So, just to give you an idea now, that's 1 person.

That's 1 scenario.

If everybody talked early, everybody doesn't fit the same, the same mold.

But for her, do you believe that she had some relief off of her shoulders when we

freed up some money per month that she can now do whatever she wants with her money.

And then we always suggest you find a place to save it.

You start saving, start putting money aside that you then

that's another whole story.

But I'm like, gosh, just having that 1 example and there are many examples I

could talk to you about all day long and they've got letter after letter of debt.

That's been just gone, which is really again encouraging.

So we call those settlements.

It's just phenomenal and my hope and my prayer is that we can help other people

to go down that road and feel that relief because my goodness as powerful women.

What could we do different if that wasn't hanging over us?

Right?

Yeah, absolutely.

Well, how can people reach out and get in touch with you?

So I am at CW dot Reduce my debts.com/lisa, and it's the best

place to go because that's my website.

You can go on there and click and get a clarity call.

So that's the most important thing to do is just start the conversation

once the conversation is started.

You are free reign to do whatever you wish, but I have found that if somebody

works with me, great, that's awesome.

But sometimes it just gets the conversation going where they're

getting out of debt on their own.

Just because of the conversation is now not feeling as heavy anymore.

And there's hope and there's light at the end of the tunnel.

So reduce my debts.

com forward slash Lisa is going to give you great free resources.

It's going to give you that debt diaries in there, so you can click on that.

And that's kind of cool too.

I am not yet launched, but I'm launching a free Facebook page.

That's going to have great.

And you have to be invited in because we want to have people that are on the

same page with, with different topics and conversations, but it's going to have

everything that we can do to let that conversation be light and airy and not.

Icky and stressful.

So lots of questions to be answered there.

So that will be coming up soon.

We're working on it.

It's coming together beautifully, but we'll be launching here very soon.

Well, when you have that Facebook group all set up and you're ready

to invite people, let us know and we'll put it in the show notes with

a link to where people can find you.

So Lisa Marie, this has been so phenomenal.

I love the positivity that you bring because it's such a hard emotional

burden that people carry when it comes to debt and not feeling financially free.

So.

You've given us great places to start and great places to go.

So thank you so much for joining us today.

It has been nothing but a pure pleasure and I look forward to connecting with

you soon 'cause I know that we'll see each other in the community and we'll

just be able to, again, lock arms and just make this world a better place.

Just with all that we can contribute as amazing, powerful women.

Thanks for listening to the six Figure Business Mastery Podcast.

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