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Ever wonder why success doesn't always equal fulfillment?
Join Tim Salmans on "Powerful and Unpolished" as he challenges the status quo with this question: what if the key to fulfillment lies in recognizing and breaking free from energy-draining patterns? This podcast isn't just about success stories; it's about the unspoken challenges that high-achieving individuals face. Tim Salmans will unpack the complexities that cause frustration, offering tangible strategies to navigate personal challenges within professional landscapes while maintaining your authentic self. Subscribe now for a transformative journey - where authenticity meets success on your own terms.
Good day, everyone. Welcome to Powerful and Unpolished. I'm Tim Salmans, your host. For some of you, welcome back, our loyal followers and listeners. Today I’m excited. I have a wonderful guest, someone I consider a dear friend, and we always have great conversations.
Amy Westbrook has graced us with her wisdom and presence. Hi Amy, thank you for joining us today.
Thanks for having me.
A little background about Amy before we begin exploring her work, her specialty, and her wisdom. Here is her background in case you didn’t know it. Amy Westbrook is a transformational wealth coach and creator of the NeuroWealth Success System. She combines advanced personal development with smart financial strategies to help individuals and couples discover their purpose, fund their passions, and secure their future.
Unlike traditional one size fits all money advice that can derail your goals, Amy offers personalized mentorship, drawing from her own journey building a multimillion euro portfolio, not from selling financial products. Her mission is to help more people achieve holistic wealth and freedom.
If you want to simplify retirement planning, make your money work harder, or design strategies to earn and save with ease, Amy can help. She also helps reduce stress, build confidence, and create alignment with your spouse, your financial advisors, and most importantly your vision for your life.
I like that. It’s a powerful awareness.
Amy: In that sense, I think we’re aligned. That’s why we get up and work with people, to help them create a better life.
We’ll jump into a few topics in a moment, but let me start here. Where do people struggle with money?
Amy: A lot of places. Many people can identify with two or three of them. Most of us were never taught much about money, so we never developed good habits. Without that background, many people made poor financial decisions they still beat themselves up for today. That leads to lost confidence.
The marketing around money makes it sound complicated, as if you need to pay people a lot because you’re not smart enough to do it yourself. If you already have some indecision, that message stacks right on top of it. On top of this, your brain has faulty wiring around money. I’m fascinated by how the brain perceives value and how it can lead you in the wrong direction.
There are cultural mantras like time is money or you must work hard to deserve money. Across the board, people are being steered off their wealth path. That leads to negative experiences, which creates beliefs that block wealth building. Add two people into the journey and it gets even more complicated.
People show up with different expectations and assumptions.
Absolutely. Money is a magnifier. If you have personal issues or hangups you haven’t resolved, money magnifies them.
Amy: A hundred percent. Statistics show lottery winners often go bankrupt in five to seven years. They overextend themselves and the money magnifies the struggles they already had.
Do you think part of the financial industry muddies the waters to make themselves seem essential?
Amy: Yes. You’re asking if they purposely make it sound complicated. Absolutely. I read a lot of marketing material from financial firms. The message is always the same. The market is dangerous and unpredictable and you need them to achieve financial freedom. Yet even Warren Buffett tells people to buy an index fund and stay invested. It’s not about timing the market, it’s about time in the market.
Studies show fund managers rarely beat the market consistently. Often returns are lower because of churn in the account. So the idea that we need these people to beat the market is not supported by evidence. And it's never a win for consumers when the goal is to make someone feel inadequate.
Do you think some people treat the market like gambling, trying to time it?
Amy: Absolutely. People ask me for hot stock tips, but that’s not what I do. Most people are not successful at day trading. Research shows women tend to be better investors because they’re more patient. Most individuals don’t have the time or skills to vet companies the way Buffett does.
That’s why people hire planners, but I believe most people can learn enough to manage their own investments. That belief is how I ended up money coaching. Quick backstory.
I became a certified life coach after my corporate career because I loved mentoring people. I was part of a women’s leadership group and became the person others asked for help. People would say they heard I could explain their 401k or how much they should contribute. I enjoyed numbers and had taught myself to invest in rentals and build wealth. I liked it.
After becoming a life coach, I heard people say they had dreams they could never afford. I saw people put on the brakes because of money fear. That’s when I realized I needed to combine money skills with personal development. I absolutely believe the inner work plays a huge role in how you handle money.
We agree fully. It’s not just about gathering information, it’s about applying it. Most people think that thinking about something is the same as doing it, but it isn’t.
Amy: Absolutely. People fall into two camps. Some do no research and want someone to hold their hand, and others sign up for every newsletter, every resource, and create complexity they can’t navigate. Over research becomes another obstacle.
She shares an example of someone who exited the market from fear, stayed out for ten years, and later realized it cost him four million euros.
Amy: Many people react to fear instead of following a plan.
She also shares examples from her time at Capital One, where even employees avoided investing due to trauma from 2008.
Amy: One colleague said she refused to invest because she didn’t gamble with her money. But investing isn’t binary. Some investments are riskier and some are safer. Her entire financial identity was shaped by 2008.
I share a story of a couple experiencing early signs of the 2008 crash. The wife resisted using coupons because she thought it looked cheap. Yet she contributed to her company match because it was free money. Coupons are also free money. She had never seen it that way.
Amy: People avoid coupons because they don’t want to look cheap. They want people to know they can afford the expensive purse. It’s about proving worth.
She shares stories of real estate agents driving expensive cars because they believe they must maintain a certain image. Meanwhile, some struggle to cover food. It isn’t a budget decision at that point, it’s deeper work.
Amy emphasizes she isn’t shaming purchases. People should buy things that genuinely bring joy, not things that compensate for unhealed wounds.
She explains that the deeper issue isn’t the car or the purse, but what someone believes it proves about their worth. Buying something because it’s beautiful or meaningful is completely different from buying it to fill a void or meet an unspoken expectation. The real work is understanding the relationship behind the purchase.
The conversation moves into values. Values shape how people spend their money, time, and energy. When people disconnect from their values, it costs them everywhere in their life. It affects who they spend time with, the opportunities they choose, and the ones they abandon. When spending aligns with values, decisions become easier. The yeses feel clear and the nos feel grounded. It helps avoid fear of missing out and impulsive decisions.
She shares an example of being invited on trips she didn’t actually want to take. She agreed because she didn’t want to miss out. Later, she realized she spent thousands on experiences that weren’t meaningful to her. That clarity only came once she understood her values. Misalignment creates unnecessary spending and wasted resources.
The discussion shifts to freedom. Many people say they want financial freedom, but they haven’t defined it. Without a personal definition, they chase an image they don’t even want. For some, financial freedom is time freedom. For others, it’s being debt free. For others, it’s the ability to travel or pursue creative work. Freedom must be defined personally to be meaningful.
After going through bankruptcy, freedom became linked to being debt free and having the ability to travel to places that inspired the soul. Even at the hardest times, there was always shelter, food, and some form of support. Gratitude made the path forward possible. Small acknowledgments built confidence, and confidence built momentum.
Freedom looks different for everyone. Some people have financial freedom on paper but cannot experience it because of fear. They have money, but they fear losing it. They don’t believe there will ever be enough. Emotional scarcity prevents them from feeling actual freedom.
Listeners are encouraged to sit quietly and reflect on what freedom means to them. What does it look like? How will they know when they have it? What does it feel like in daily life? Clarity reveals the path.
The conversation returns to self compassion. Parents often try to hide financial stress from their children, but children feel everything. They model everything. Children pick up emotional patterns long before they understand logic. Hiding fear doesn’t protect them. Vulnerability and growth set stronger examples.
Instead of dwelling on past mistakes, looking forward helps. Guilt and shame live in the past. Relief starts with one small step taken today. Even something as small as reading a book from the library can shift momentum. The point is to start moving.
Gratitude becomes a central theme. Gratitude raises energy. Money responds to energy. A gratitude practice shifts how a person views themselves, their circumstances, and their possibilities. It can take only a minute. It doesn’t need to be grand. A barista’s smile, a warm moment with a friend, a small piece of good news, all can anchor gratitude. That shift affects how a person makes financial decisions and how they perceive opportunity.
The discussion turns to mainstream financial advice and how it harms people, especially women. Many women search for money guidance online and find pretty budget sheets and methods focused on shrinking and restricting. This approach reinforces the message that wealth comes from cutting back rather than expanding capacity. Saving a euro is helpful but limited. Building wealth requires attention to earning, managing, and investing. Most advice focuses only on the second category, ignoring the first and third.
Three wealth buckets are described: income, management, and investment. Income is money coming in. Management is organizing and allocating it. Investing is how money grows. People need clarity about which bucket is their bottleneck. Sometimes budgeting isn’t the issue. Income is. Or investing is. When people misunderstand their bottleneck, they focus effort in the wrong place.
The conversation returns to identity. People are often taught to focus on doing, not being. They chase tasks and tips without understanding the identity driving them. Identity shapes thoughts. Thoughts shape actions. Actions shape results. If people don’t work at the identity level, they repeat patterns regardless of how many new financial tips they try.
People often identify with past experiences. Someone who went broke may unconsciously identify as the person who fails financially, even after life improves. Someone told in childhood they were bad at math may believe they’ll always be bad with money. These identities become limitations. To change results, identity must shift. People are not their past or their circumstances. When identity changes, behavior follows naturally.
The conversation emphasizes that no one is stuck permanently. Some individuals face harder circumstances, but no one is defined by them. The path forward is created one decision at a time, with clarity and support.
As the conversation closes, there’s appreciation for the depth of the discussion and acknowledgment that more topics could be explored. Amy is invited back for future episodes.
Listeners who want to reach her can email her directly at amy at amywestbrook dot com. She answers her own emails. Her social media is at livethecapitallife, and her website is amywestbrook dot com.
She also offers a Financial Flow Assessment. It works as a diagnostic tool to identify where someone stands financially and emotionally. It helps people understand the best place to begin improving their financial life, without focusing on past mistakes. A link will be included in the show notes.
The episode ends with thanks, encouragement to share the episode, and a reminder that the show remains true to its name: powerful and unpolished.
Thank you so much, Amy. Much love and appreciation to you. And to the listeners, if you found this useful, I hope it was insightful and entertaining. It’s definitely unpolished at times, which is what we like about it. If you need to reach out to Amy, reach out to me and we will support you in your creative growth.
If you found this valuable, hit like and share it with your friends. Until next time, we wish you all the best.