Podcast 249. WelcomingTawnya Schultz as New Co-Host of Average Joe Finances Podcast

Average Joe Finances: Hey, welcome back to the Average Joe Finances podcast. I’m your host, Mike Cavaggioni. And today we are reintroducing a guest that we had from episode 77. All the way back to January of 2022, Tawnya Schultz. But today she’s not just a guest. She is the new co host of the podcast. So please join me in giving her a warm welcome as our new co host for the average Joe finances podcast.

So Tawnya welcome back to the show. To now. Your show as well. I’m glad to have you here. 

Tawnya Schultz: Yeah, I’m super excited. I’ve obviously been following what you’ve been doing since I’ve been on the show years ago and super excited to now be a podcast or be on the podcast and be able to help more people through, this channel.

Average Joe Finances: Yeah, that’s awesome. We’re definitely excited to have you here. But for those that have not listened to episode 77, shame on you, by the way. Can you introduce  yourself and just tell us a little bit about yourself and your story and how you got to where you are today? 

Tawnya Schultz: Yeah I go by the money life coach on social media. So you might’ve seen me from there and it’s everything’s under my name, Tawnya Schultz, but my life coach is how a lot of people know me and that’s my website. I’ve been doing financial coaching. For going on almost four years now. And it really started on my own personal finance journey. I was not a finance major.

I was like terrible at math, growing up as a kid, that was the last thing subject I want to do in school. And so About, 10 years ago, now I was in a relationship or I went into a relationship and I moved in with him right away. And that was basically because my finances because my financial situation I was in.

And I basically instantly got reliant on him financially, and I felt really trapped and stuck in a lot of ways I had debt I wanted to pay off. There was a lot of things I wanted to be better at in my life.  And so I started just educating myself on all things personal finance, and through that, started actually budgeting.

Doing a lot of things just to learn and feel financially empowered around my finances. And through that I was able to pay off my debt, get out of debt, eventually get out of the bad relationship I was in, but now be able to teach this, what I learned to people through coaching, through my online course and through content on social media.

So that’s how we found each other on social media and yeah, just something I love to be able to educate and empower, especially women around personal finances. 

Average Joe Finances: No, that’s awesome. Yeah. I found you in between like crazy cat TikTok videos and stuff as I was going through cause every now and then a, like a personal finance or real estate TikTok would show up because, it was going off of what I was looking for.

You always had those weird TikToks that would pop up and then you have the stuff that you’re actually looking for. And I saw yours pop up. And I remember I’m like  I was like, she knows what she’s talking about. And I like how she does these videos. I like how she explains things.

I want to have her as a guest on the show. And I remember reaching out to you, I think on Tiktok and, and said, Hey, I’d like to have you on the show. And we just started talking, we exchanged emails. And then, yeah we got you on the show. And that episode was fun, but I think what’s even gonna be more fun is having you as a co host now.

And one of the things I want to point out for everybody listening right now. There was a lot of interest when I said I was looking for a co host. So for me I just, so everybody knows what was going on. Like I wanted to take a little bit of a break because I had been doing this podcast for three and a half years straight without a break.

And just episode after episode, just constantly releasing content. And it was it was wearing on me. So I was worried about like my mental health and things like that. So I, I. I said, I got to take a step back and take a break. So I did while I was on that break. I said, what might be helpful is if I had a co host on the show to, to help me out with this.

So I just  threw a feeler out there on social media. And it was probably one of my most popular social media posts. I’m like, Oh, cool. All right. A lot of interest. So I sent the email out to my email list and had a lot of interest there as well. And I sent out an application form to see who was really serious.

I had eight people fill out that form and I interviewed all eight of them and I gotta tell you It was a really tough choice to pick, you know a co host but I felt that after talking with Tawnya that she was the perfect fit to be the co host for the show I guess like the yin and yang, right?

Because she’s very focused on being debt free and I focus on leveraging debt. So I figured, we could probably butt heads a little bit, but it’ll be fun. But yeah, Tawnya, so I am super excited to have you here and I think this is going to be great. So thank you for saying yes to being co host.

Tawnya Schultz: Yeah, I think just, what you’ve already built so far and the interview style and, the type of people you bring on and what you’re teaching is super important.  And a lot of this information, can be overwhelming right now where people find the information, but I think having one place, especially having the dynamic of a female, having both places.

Background, like we hear a lot of finance on the men’s side, white guys, and that’s just like how it’s naturally been. It’s changing a lot in the last, five to 10 years, but I think just being able to have more of a voice and speak from a woman’s perspective is really important to bring, engagement in that audience and excitement for women because finance, I think should be fun and should be exciting and it shouldn’t be the stress and anxiety that so many people feel around it in their life.

Average Joe Finances: Absolutely. I love that. And, and your story is a testament to that, right? Explaining how you felt locked into this relationship that wasn’t good for you because you were reliant on him financially. So you were able to take control and get yourself out of that situation. And what I’m hoping here is that, you already have a wide reach with your social media, but I’m hoping to help expand that reach.

And maybe you can reach out to other women that have not heard you heard about you or heard about your story. That might be in a similar situation and you can help get them out. Because that’s the whole point of the show is to put good information out there that’s going to be helpful to people and and help change lives.

Cause the way I’ve always looked at this is if I can impact one person and I did my job, then I’m super happy about it. I’ve done a lot of great things for myself, so I want to give back. And I see you doing the same thing. And that’s why I was like, this is going to be a good fit.

With that being said, Tawnya I’m not really going to interview you, but I want to talk about some of the things that you do. So people have a better understanding. You’re very big into personal finances. So can you talk me through how you put together like a budget? Like you were talking about before, like what’s, what is the money life coach?

Tawnya Schultz: Yeah, 

Average Joe Finances: but that 

Tawnya Schultz: I’d say it’s a combination of the, how the practical side of money and then the tactical. So both like your mindset around money, your habits, where your beliefs and patterns came from, because that’s a huge part of being able to shift your behavior on money. So I focus on that as a coach and in my online course, but I also focus on.

Like, how do you actually put this together? Like the habits for looking at your monthly overhead, a lot of people that I’ve known, they set up a budget or like they’re tracking, like they’re looking at, they know what they need to spend, but they don’t track consistently throughout the month to actually have a plan with their money.

So I give them a system to put together, which is through an online, it’s basically like a Google Excel sheet, which I know that doesn’t sound fun and exciting. And I’ve, will be the first to tell you I’m like anti I just, I do not like spreadsheets, but I like organization and feeling like I have control, right?

I want control more than I care about putting in a spreadsheet. So I put together this system for people or show them how to use it. That makes it more manual because I feel like with your money, you need to have a handle. Like you can’t let an app or something do it for you. You actually do need to be more hands on.

So just getting that foundation, like your foundation in place of where’s my, the planning going into each month. So at the end of the month, setting up a plan with the money that you have coming in, where’s all that money going and then being able to look to the future. So really clear on goal setting, because I feel like in order to stick to a budget.

You need to have very clear goals on where you want to be in three, six, nine months a year. Like, where am I going? Because that’s going to help you be able to stick. To the budget plan. So yeah, it’s a holistic approach to money. I’m not, I’m not a financial advisor, my financial coach, so I’m not focused on investing, but that is where you want to go, right?

A lot of people I work with have consumer debt. They’re trying to pay off a lot of their income every month is going towards debt. So how can we pay off debt as fast as possible, but also still have a life, like not have to restrict your entire life? Still be able to take, I’m all about, still being able to do the things you want to do in life.

But making it sustainable because it’s like dieting and exercise, it’s very similar habits. Like you can’t restrict everything because you’re going to fall back into the same patterns. Yeah, 

Average Joe Finances: it’s yeah, if you take something away from yourself, all it does is make you desire it more.

To the point where it’s like unmanageable and you just You fail, right? You go for it. It’s funny because like I do the same thing because, I also financial I’m also a financial coach. And I don’t talk with my clients about like investing strategies or anything like that.

I said, just go listen to the podcast, right? You want to hear about that stuff? Go listen to the podcast. But same thing, like it’s about being effective with your money, but also not being so strict to the point where that is like your only focus in life. I’m always very big on when you have those small wins, go out and celebrate, go out to dinner, go do something.

So you’re not just okay, cool. I paid off a credit card. Let’s get right into the next one. No, go celebrate that. That’s a win, right? That’s huge. But  you had mentioned something and I really like that you go down this path is, putting emotions, having that relationship with money, so how does someone’s emotions. impact them when it comes to their finances? 

Tawnya Schultz: I think that’s one of the number one things that impacts like it’s, why people tend to overspend. Or get in these situations, it’s because we make emotional decisions and not really, and that’s not always a bad thing, but a lot of our emotions is tied to, feeling sad, feeling lonely, feeling bored, or even on the opposite of that, feeling happy.

We spend money, we’re around our friends and everybody’s having fun. We just put our credit card down, so it’s like understanding where’s the. Why do I feel like I need this thing? Why am I up late on Amazon shopping every night? Am I trying, what am I, what it’s saying to why people overeat a night, right?

Like what void am I trying to fill and where is that coming from? So it’s more like trying to get curious and be in tune with when you have those impulses or triggers, as people like to call them, like, where’s that coming from? And being more proactive versus reactive with our money.

Like I talk about this a ton in coaching and in the videos I’ve put out, like We are so reacted to everything in life, like money, like it’s like this and we’re always reacting like this thing happened by car. This is due. And it’s we know these things are coming up and we know these things might happen, but we don’t plan for them.

So it’s I’m trying to be more proactive than reactive, like having a plan that it might not be a perfect plan. We’re human things are going to happen, but at least having a plan like. What’s the saying planning to fail, like failing to plan is planning to fail. Like at least not having some sort of plan in place is going to set you up for failure.

Average Joe Finances: Yeah, absolutely. Totally agree with that. 

Okay, Tawnya. Got where you’re at with personal finances and. And how you go through your process of building a budget and just and doing it in a way that you can still  live your life and still be effective with paying off your debt.

So now I want to go off script here and say off script, like I even have a script, but anyway, I want to just go off topic here and just be like so 

what excites you most now about being able to co host this show? 

Tawnya Schultz: I think just reaching more people, my main goal has been to be able to connect and reach and talk to as many people as possible and whether they resonate with it or not it’s all just.

For me, this was one of the number one things was assuming the podcast reading books and this information I was getting online that really helped inspire me on my debt free journey. And now on my wealth building journey and, the life I’m creating for myself. So the more people that we can help, and even if it’s like the littlest, tiniest thing that they take away ah, that, that really hit me or maybe I’m going to look into not, maybe I should try to budget.

You know what I mean? If you can just. Ship somebody’s behavior a little bit and help them in some way, especially when it comes to money, I think is like one of the most important things, for me, and that I think, a lot of meaning in our lives, like for you and me is being able to impact people in a positive way and use what we’ve learned to help people to help as many people as possible.

Average Joe Finances: Yeah, I love that.

Tawnya Schultz: Yeah. 

Average Joe Finances: Awesome. So, just so everybody knows too. So Tawnya is also going to be doing solo episodes with doing interviews as well. So it’s not going to be just her and me together. I’m also going to be doing solo episodes too, like the way it was in the past. But also every single person that I interviewed, I told them that I would welcome them all back to, to guest co host this podcast anytime.

So you might even see me with one of them one day, or you might see Tawnya with one of them one day. Or I might even let them just host an episode one day because every single person that wanted to do this was amazing. And I had a really good time just talking with all of them and trying to figure out why they wanted to do this.

But one of the things when I was talking with Tawnya is like, she was going to start a podcast anyway. So she’s Hey, you’ve already got this. Thing done and ready to go. And, we already, we’re talking the same kind of topics. We’re talking to the same kind of people. But she adds, she’s going to add that touch, that we didn’t have here, a different perspective, to hopefully reach another side of this audience. So I’m really excited about that. But yeah, so Tawnya, I hope you’re ready for that. So hope you’re ready for the, having other guests, co hosts and just some of the interesting people you’re going to talk to because, you We already have a line of people asking to come on the show.

It is bonkers. It always has been, right? I’ve always had a lot of people wanting to come on the show. But now ever since I’ve announced Tawnya as the co host and not many people knew about it. Cause I only, I talked about a little bit on social media and I think I sent out an email and that was it.

But there’s a lot of people trying to book the both of us, right? So it is based on off of our availability when we’re both available together. So right now we have it down to one day a week, but we’re both we both have time on the calendar to do co hosting episodes. But we’re also going to be able to do the separate ones as well.

So I’m really excited about that. I don’t know, Tawnya, tell me your thoughts about what you’re thinking about especially for like solo episodes. How excited are you about that? 

Tawnya Schultz: Yeah, I think You know the interview style I think is great because you get other people’s perspective, right? It’s like just limiting yourself to one or two people’s point of views.

That’s only like what they’ve learned. And so I feel like it’s a really good thing to always just be interviewing. And that’s why I’m excited to be here too, to get my perspective and my background. But yeah, solo episodes, I think, it’s funny because it’s this full circle moment for me, because as a kid, all I wanted to do was like be on like a TV show and be a entertainer, be on stage, I was a dancer growing up and all this stuff.

So it’s funny, like now, you can have your own show and do whatever you want to do. And I think like I said, I never thought I’d be helping teach people to educate on finance, but I think there’s just so much to be able to share. From what I’ve learned, especially in the last 10 years in my thirties and now into my forties and how I’m setting my life up and how much I’ve been able to just help.

And I’m a big proponent of I don’t just want to build wealth. I want to be able to give back, like giving back and being able to, whether it’s. For free, like things like this or financially with my family and my friends that’s a big part of personal finance for me. So as many people as I can help to be like, money’s not evil.

Money’s not bad. What we’ve, you’re not bad with numbers, like a lot of women grow up with these beliefs and so do men too, depending on how we grew up. But I think there’s a lot of that psychology around money and that side of money that we don’t often think about, we just think of like I said, the how to like, how do I actually invest my money and things like that? But there’s so much more to it than that, that I want to get into and help people with tools and resources to be able to break through and not feel stressed and anxious about money.

Average Joe Finances: No, I love that. And it’s funny as you’re sharing your story about, growing up and being in dance and wanting to entertain like that, it makes me think about my youngest daughter, like last night she was up late.

She’s trying to like, She wants to be a songwriter, right? So she’s writing all these lyrics. So last night before she went to bed, she’s like reading me some of her songs. And it was like, some of this is pretty good. I’m like, okay maybe there’s something here. But she’s always about she, she loves to be in the spotlight. But it makes me think about that because believe in her, right? I believe that she can do whatever she wants to do. Same thing with my oldest daughter. And I feel like having somebody. Back you up with what it is you want to do is so important. So I’m hoping that this podcast becomes an avenue for you to do that.

And I want to be able to give you the backup that you need to get your message out there and also have you back me up, and that’s what I’m excited about is I’m not doing this alone anymore. I can’t wait for us to interview our first guest together where we get to have this different dialogue of the two of us asking our own questions based off of what they’re talking about.

Right? And you already know the interview style. It’s one of the things you said you like about the show is I love for people to share their story with me. And then just pick at that and base the interview off of that. And I like to let the guests drive the episode, right? Let them take it where they want to take it.

And I’ll ask those follow up questions to keep it moving along in that specific direction. But also the things that interest me That I get curious about, I get to ask them. And that’s one of the beautiful things about this is now, we can ask them whatever we want to learn about, right?

And I use this podcast as an opportunity to learn, right? And I’m hoping you will do that too. And I’m sure you will. But as you learn from the guests, you’re teaching, you’re helping teach And facilitate teaching the audience, that’s listening. And I, that’s one of the things that I love about it is like, this is like a double benefit, right?

We get to learn something interesting while sharing that with an audience that, it can reach thousands of people, which is amazing to me. 

Tawnya Schultz: Yeah. I think that’s what’s really cool too, is like what you’re saying is. Education is one thing. And I think getting that learning and growing is super important.

One of the most important things for me is I’m always doing some sort of coaching program or something to learn and grow more. But, Actually giving them action steps, being able to help you be like, hey, since we talked about this in this episode, here are some ways to actually take action on this material, because it’s like one thing to listen and hear us talk, but it’s another thing to actually do something with that information.

So I think that’s a really something, where we can push you guys that are listening a little bit more. To think about your own situation and how, you might try something new or just take a little bit of action in your life and your life this week in a positive way because you never know for me, podcasts and education, it did propel me on a path.

Because I wanted to get out of that situation so bad to change my entire life. And now it’s my career, which is wow. Yeah, 

Average Joe Finances: I love that. And it makes me think about the, when I’m a guest on other podcasts, I talk about my four pillars to being successful at anything. And that’s education coaching and mentorship, networking, and then the fourth one is action.

So when you talk about taking action, it makes me think about that because that is the most important step. Even though it’s the fourth step, it is the most important because you can do those other three all day, every day, for months, for years. It doesn’t matter. 

Tawnya Schultz: It’s like we’re reading about I give this like example of it’s you can like, read about swimming. But if you never go in the water you actually don’t know how to swim. You don’t know how to swim. So it’s yeah, you can’t just listen to something.

You have to be able to implement it. And a lot of people, we get stuck in our indecision, like doing the wrong thing doing, making the wrong decision is the wrong time we make excuses. So how can we. Just make it as simple as possible. Taking small actions, it doesn’t have to do this massive thing, but it builds and stacks over time and compounds. So.

Average Joe Finances: Yeah, makes me think back to my childhood, right? We always talked about being street smart, right? Where I grew up in New York. So it was like, you could be book smart all day, but if you’re not street smart, like you’re not out there actually in it, you’re, you don’t, you’re not going to know what you’re actually doing.

You can sit here and say, oh yeah I know about this and I know about that, but I’ve never done it before. No, one’s going to want to listen to you. Nobody’s going to want to hear what you got to say about that. I think it’s important that we we actually do the things that we’re talking about and that we, that we show people that it can be done, right?

I think that’s, seeing somebody else do something makes it more palatable to people to see that they can do it too, right? I tell anybody, anything that I do, anyone else can do because I’m not the smartest person. I’m not the bravest person. I just, I go and do the things that I feel like might be best. And it’s working out so far. 

Tawnya Schultz: Yeah, as long as we have to do the things we don’t want to do to get to where we want to go, like a lot of people when I helped them are helping them get out of debt and even for myself, like I didn’t want to work an extra job, like I was tired.

You know what I mean? But I was like, this is temporary. And sometimes. There’s like mindset shifts and different, coaching techniques that I use, like looking at this isn’t forever. Can you work an extra job to make $500 more a month for six months to propose, it’s like looking at things in a different perspective, because we think of we don’t want to do it.

We’re innately lazy people. It’s like our, we have to sell find ways to self motivate and set ourself up for success. But yeah, I think the taking action part is like a good. Something good. We can like add to the podcast at the end here’s how to take action. Here’s what we recommend on tips on how to do this, because for me, okay, that’s going to, now you’re holding someone accountable, which is what a lot of people need.

They need that accountability to push them to go do the thing. 

Average Joe Finances: I love it. I love it. It’s a different take and it’s. It’s that fresh perspective that we’re looking for. Okay. So Tawnya I’m super excited again to have you now co host the show with me. And what I’d like to do now is go ahead and share all of our information.

So for me, you can find everybody knows where you can find me on social media, right at Mike Cavaggioni. The podcast is podcast.averagetofinances.com and I also have averagetofinances.com and also to keep it simple, everything else you could find everything on mikecavagioni. com. But Tawnya, where can people find you and and information about the money life coach?

Tawnya Schultz: So my main website is the moneylifecoach.com. That’s pretty simple. Everything is there and everything’s under my name. Tawnya Schultz, a little bit weird spelling with a W in my name, but under every, if you look up the moneylifecoach on social media, you should find Tawnya Schultz. Just make sure it’s the right account because there are a lot of fake accounts in my name on TikTok and on Instagram.

So make sure it’s the real one, which you should be able to tell that if I have stories on my feed or whatever it is just making sure people know that because there’s a lot of fake people messaging people nowadays. Yeah, those are the two main sites. And then, yeah, never hesitate to message me, email me, Tawnya at themoneylifecoach.com. And comment, on our podcast, on our YouTube, and we’ll be answering your questions and figuring out the best ways to help you guys too. 

Average Joe Finances: Awesome. Yeah, I’m super excited. Again, Tawnya, like I said, thank you. I also want to thank all of my, actually all of our listeners for joining us, and listening to the Average Joe Finances podcast. This is our reintroduction, right? Kind of starting fresh with a fresh perspective. Now as a new show, it’s still the same podcast name, but it’s a new show. And I’m super excited to be part of this new show with Tawnya. So I’m really excited.

I really hope that the audience is excited as we are to to put this out there. But yeah let’s let’s keep this thing moving and looking forward to us doing our first interview with a guest. I wish everybody well, aloha from Hawaii. 

Tawnya Schultz: Aloha from Lake Tahoe. 

Average Joe Finances: There we go. And see, she’s got her Hawaii license plate back there too, which is awesome.

Tawnya Schultz: I just, you guys know I’m on the other side, but I’m in the mountains. And I love to surf, wake surf and breakers. We’ll see you guys soon. for listening and make sure you share the podcast. And let us know how we can help. 

Average Joe Finances: Awesome. See ya.