Why Power Changes How Women Talk About Money with Emily Weber

You don’t need the “right” background to make real change.

Today’s episode is a powerful reminder that leadership doesn’t come from perfect resumes or polished pathways. It comes from lived experience, values, and the courage to step forward when something isn’t right.

We’re joined by Representative Emily Weber, who represents Jackson County District 24 in the Missouri House of Representatives. Emily shares her journey from growing up as an adopted kid in rural Kansas and earning an art degree, to becoming the first Asian American woman elected to Missouri’s General Assembly.

Emily opens up about what pushed her into politics, how imposter syndrome almost stopped her from running, and why representation truly matters. We talk about money, power, confidence, and what happens when women stop waiting to be “qualified enough” and start showing up anyway.

This conversation is honest, grounding, and motivating. Especially if you’ve ever thought, “Who am I to do this?”

If you’ve been feeling stuck, frustrated, or unsure where your power actually lives, this episode will meet you right there.

Join us for next week’s Money Talks, we’ll talk about “His, Hers, Ours: Setting Up Shared vs. Separate Accounts” Click here to register for FREE and bring your questions!  

Want to take this conversation one step further? Join us for our next Money Talks, a free 30 minute live session where we’ll dig into a question we hear all the time from women business owners: Budgeting for Businesses to Offer Benefits. Click here to register for FREE and bring your questions! 

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Transcript

Maggie: [00:00:00] Mama, you ever think about running for any political office in your spare time?

Barb: No, I've considered it in the past, Really? 

Barb: well, yeah, I always think that we have to do something, however, my time has been spent on the school board, so that's kind of a stepping stone, right. To get on a board. I've also been on several other boards, so I've felt like that's kind of my contribution to my community and we all do need to.

Barb: Do something for our community. So being on the school board, being on a nonprofit board, couple of those as well has been a great contribution and a great learning experience. How about you?

Maggie: I never thought about it, not once. 

Barb: about now? 

Maggie: Now I feel like I need to do more. It is still not run, I don't think that's for me. But I think there's more ways I can be involved get some stuff done, to see the change I wanna see in the world.

Barb: Well, you know, everyone thinks, oh, why aren't those people doing this? Or why aren't those people doing that? And the realization is it takes all of us, right? You can't [00:01:00] count on everyone else to do the work. And we all need to do our fair share and step up and it's tough out there.

Barb: I will tell you, even being on the school board, there's a lot of people that will point fingers and tell you what you're doing wrong. But yet when you say, well, if you'd like to. Run for the school board and have your voice be heard in that way. We'd love to have you. And of course everyone says, oh no, I have no time to do that.

Barb: So, we have to honor those people that are in these positions and really respect that they're doing the best job they can. And you can. counterpoint all day long. And that's fine. We all need to have our opinions. We need to have critical thinking and really challenge our thinking and challenge one another so that we're doing always the right thing.

Barb: But we all need to take a role if nothing else, if we haven't learned anything else to this date on this day, we all need to step forward and play a role in our political arena.

Barb: Well, and you don't need an attorney. You don't need to be an attorney to do it like people think, I need all these qualifications.

Maggie: well. I [00:02:00] feel like. Now taking a zoom out, it's kind of like your political advocate is like the face of the business. You know what I mean? Like it's like if you looked at Facebook and think of like Mark Zuckerberg, like, he's not doing it all. He's just the face of the business, maybe has the final say, but like there's thousands of people under him putting in the work. And that's kind of like a political person as well, is like, yeah, but they can't do it all. They have a thousand people under them and they're just kind of the face, they're the. Yeah, ideally they are doing a lot of things, not just the face, but it takes a lot.

Maggie: It's not just them as the team. They have a full team. And sometimes that team needs help and we gotta be helpful because that's part of what this country is kind of built on is having that say. And it is kind of interesting. How some people are like I don't really wanna vote. I don't like either person, which is I saw this thing one time.

Maggie: This is kind of a sidetrack, but they're like, voting is like taking the bus. You are gonna take the route that's gonna get you closest to where you wanna be. But so [00:03:00] many people treat voting like an Uber where you wanna get to that exact destination and nobody's gonna take you to that exact thing that you want on all those things.

Maggie: But you wanna get as close as you can. So you're gonna take the bus.

Maggie: And I thought that was a really good analogy.

Barb: Yeah, because you're not gonna believe a hundred percent in what that person is doing. Every single vote that they make and all of that. But what's gonna get you as close as possible when you only have a two party system? Right. And the thing about voting is voting matters. People think, oh, it doesn't matter.

Barb: I'm one vote. Voting matters. It matters. That's your right in this many other countries don't have that, right. 

Maggie: Women fought for that, right?

Barb: Right. Exactly. We need to make sure we're standing up, getting in that car, we're walking over to that building or whatever it might be, and really casting our vote in a way that makes our voices be heard.

Barb: Otherwise, you have nothing to complain about if you didn't vote.

Maggie: And so I'm so excited to have this guest on today. I think Emily is a powerhouse. I think [00:04:00] she's an inspiration and I think she really shows that any of us can, step into that political power if that's something that we're interested in doing and wanna see that change. So I think we should just dive into this episode 'cause it's a good one.

Barb: It's a really good one.

Maggie: All right. Let's get started.

Gloria Steinem once said, we will never solve the feminization of power until we solve the masculinity of wealth. Barbara Provost and Maggie Nielsen are the team at purse strings that will help you navigate the ins and outs of financial independence so that you can be financially fearless. This is women in money, the shit we don't talk about.

Maggie: All right. Today I'm very excited about our guest. I met her through a networking event at Innovate her kc in Kansas City, Missouri. For those are not as familiar but I met Emily Weber and I'm so [00:05:00] excited to have her on the show today. So, Emily, before we dive in, can you share a little bit about who you are and what you do?

Emily: Yeah, definitely. So, I'm Emily Weber. I am the state representative for District 24 here in Missouri. That is in Kansas City. It's the midtown, downtown area of Kansas City. So if you've ever been to any of the things you most likely have visited my district. Now in my sixth year as a state rep.

Emily: So that is three terms. Technically we can serve four terms. So I'm in my last third term right now. It's been a wild ride. You know, I ran during. Pandemic. I was elected during the pandemic. I was also elected during the stop Asian hate, so that was going on as well. So it's, it's been very interesting.

Emily: I was raised in rural Kansas, so I have an agriculture background adopted from South Korea, so I did grow up with white parents. It's been, you know, my [00:06:00] upbringing has been interesting because I never. Never knew that it would actually prepare me to come down to Jeff City and, and deal with a lot of the things that, that I think small towns have dealt with.

Emily: And maybe some confusion as well in stereotypes. And then also having the ag background as an urban rep is, has always been a good one to actually have coming into the house.

Maggie: Yeah. Are you gonna run again? You get one more term. Is it too early to ask?

Emily: now, well you'll probably be hearing in a, few weeks here maybe this week if everything goes correctly this is going to be my last time in the house, so this is my last year. I'm not gonna seek reelection. I am running for Kansas City City Council forth at large in 2027. So that's what I'll be doing.

Maggie: I love it. Good for you, Emily.

Emily: Thanks.

Maggie: And so I'm excited to like dive into all of this, you know? You didn't come from a traditional political background. I think your [00:07:00] degree was in marketing, is that correct?

Emily: graphic design. I went to Kansas City Heart Institute.

Maggie: okay, great. And so how did you go from Art Institute to take us back to that moment where you're like this isn't for me.

Maggie: Maybe I should go into politics.

Emily: Yeah, my upbringing, my parents always raised us kids to give back to the community whatever that looked like. Now granted I am a different party than my parents,

Barb: now that's interesting.

Emily: Exactly. and they taught us, to give back to the community, I don't think they realized what I was gonna give back to and the organizations I was volunteering for.

Emily: But it was one of those where, you know, graduated from Kansas City Art Institute. That's what. Led me to, fell in love with the Kansas City and just stayed after graduation 'cause I wasn't gonna move back to my small town. And really I think it was probably, I used to say this,

Emily: which is it kind of naive looking back on it, but I used to say I wasn't political. I'd vote, but I wasn't [00:08:00] really political. But then you look at all the organizations that I was donating my time to, I was a patient escort with Planned Parenthood for years. I volunteered my hours to organizations that I aligned with.

Emily: And that used to be anything from animal rescues to reproductive healthcare, to unions and environmental issues. It was basically everything in between, but I didn't really give my time back to candidates or, things like that, I'd vote, but that was about it. And 2016 happened the day after the 2016 election.

Emily: I was in a grocery store and I was told to go back to where I came from, China all. So we knew that was going to happen. We knew that was the rhetoric. It was just more of a slap in the face because it was literally the next day. So that was my realization that voting wasn't enough because I'm the type of person that.

Emily: If something like that happens, I get upset. And I have to do something. I don't wanna just sit back. I [00:09:00] have to do something. So I started really focusing my time on trying to, figure out what to do because this was something that I've never done before. Who do I talk to? Who do I have conversations with?

Emily: What am I supposed to do? And so I started really focusing on going to Greater Kansas City Women's Political Caucus. They were really big at the time. Still are, but they were, they were actually on Rachel Maddow because they had the largest meeting ever. But so I went to their meetings, I became a board member.

Emily: I helped with Women Politics Foundation and then really I started. Looking at candidates and what is it that I can do on the candidate side? And at that point, Cherise, Davids on the Kansas side, was running to flip a congressional seat, which he did. But I started helping her do all of the things, whatever that was you know, time, energy events.

Emily: It was a [00:10:00] lot of things that we had to do. And I started from. The start to the finish. I was there at her announcement when we found out she won and flipped that seat. So it was really that, that got me motivated to help not only folks on the Kansas side, but also folks on the Missouri side.

Emily: And I just started door knocking for all the candidates that I believed in.

Barb: Boy, you really took action. It's so impressive. I mean, I get it. You know, how are you gonna make change if we don't do our fair share. Right. Our part. So that's amazing. And you know, as we see in the political arena, there are more women coming in and that's exciting. Right. But you know,

Barb: you don't need to have the right background, like a political science degree or connections. Do you think stepping in it was complicated for you or like, I didn't fit here. I'm a marketing degree, I'm an artist, you know, type thing. Like, take us into what that feels like to step into that position.

Emily: [00:11:00] Yeah, a hundred percent. So I mean, again, this is something that I never thought I would. Do I never had an ambition to run for office. So when I knew that my state rep, Judy Morgan was getting ready to be termed out, I started trying to figure out who was running for receipt, who could I help or get to know as being my next state rep, and that nobody was chiming in at the time.

Emily: So that was an issue. So I'm like, we have to get somebody to run. We need somebody who's gonna stand up. And that's when the community started looking at me and they're like, Emily, it's you, you run. And I looked and I was like, I can't run. Like in my head, I told them, I was like, I'm not an attorney. I literally have a fancy art decree from Kansas City Heart Institute, still paying off my student loans. You know, I'm like, I never interned in the capital. Like this isn't something that I am, looking at to do. And then after a while I started thinking about it and it was, you know, I have. Because I did [00:12:00] have that imposter syndrome.

Maggie: How could you not?

Emily: Exactly, this is insane. Like, you people are crazy. You want me to run and be your elected official? And it was interesting because after a while I sat down and thought about it and I have been paid less than a man for the same position I've been without healthcare. I've had to work multiple jobs because when I graduated from KCEI, it was when the market tanked and there wasn't any jobs for graphic designers. So you really had to kind of figure out how to make ends meet. I've used Planned Parenthood, not for an abortion, but for just general healthcare because I did not have health insurance.

Emily: At the same time I looked at it, I'm a minority woman in the state of Missouri, and at the end of the day, I can come here and make laws and fight for good solid legislation that helps people because I've lived it and I understand it. Then of [00:13:00] course my ag background came into play when I won a three-way primary during the pandemic with 69% of the votes. And it was one of those where my minority leader at the time, crystal Quaid. Called me and we were talking and she kind of asked like, what committees are you looking at? And things like that.

Emily: And I told her AG was one of them. She's like, I'll give it to you, but why? And I told her, I was like, I have an ag background. I'm a four HR. I grew up in rural Kansas. My dad owned Weber search dairy equipment. I'm probably the only urban rep that can milk a cow by hand.

Barb: Wow. Put that on your resume.

Emily: know, like I'm a minority woman who represents a very blue district in midtown, downtown. The agriculture community won't see me coming. The rural reps won't see me coming, and I hear time and time again. The rural reps don't understand the urban reps and [00:14:00] vice versa, and I understand both.

Emily: So it's been a really good way for me to come in and build alliances and bridges across the aisle. Granted, we don't agree on everything and we never will. But we can have some tough conversations and a lot of the real reps have learned from either my experiences because they trust me. Because a lot of this has to do with relationship building and trust.

Emily: You know, we file bipartisan bills together. We have a bipartisan bill that I file with a retired veterinarian who in my district, I have Azi Village for black women. And it's mama Hakima runs it and it's one of those, or started it, I think she's officially retired now.

Emily: But it's one of those, it's about doulas and it's about you know, they treat the black women who come in there and really help with their pregnancies. And so we have a bipartisan build together to help [00:15:00] that. And, you know, representative Hayden had no idea what. Doula is never been here.

Emily: Learned a lot and understood a lot and came back and said, yeah, this is gonna help. It's not only gonna help them, it's also gonna help real areas as well. So it's been a way that we can work across the aisle and build alliances on a whole bunch of things, I mean, back to this, it's just been, you know, I would joke that my upbringing was just getting me ready for this position in Jefferson City.

Barb: That's fascinating. Yeah. You don't realize when you were milking that cow, the value it was gonna bring to you in other areas. Right.

Emily: Exactly.

Maggie: it's so interesting and I love how you're in that room with so much energy. Like, who's gonna do it, who's gonna do it? And you're like, okay, I guess it's me now with all the

Barb: took a step back and you were there, right? You were in front?

Emily: I'm the chosen one

Maggie: I think when I first heard you talk, I've never thought about going into politics ever, but I was like, [00:16:00] wow, she did this with, you know, an art degree. Like I always thought you had to be a lawyer and had to have all this stuff, and then you kind of zoom out and you look who's serving and you're like, ah, that makes sense that you don't, but like you hold these people kind of to this high standard of like, they have all this depth of knowledge and you know, all these things, and you're like, they're just kind of this

Maggie: the same as you and me, you know, but like, have a passion for this and a drive and they're gonna do the thing. You know, you're good with relationships. You have a little spite in you, so you're willing to put up the fight. I mean, hardworking, like those are the qualities that you need, right?

Maggie: And it's not just being a lawyer in graduating law school.

Emily: And women have those best qualities. 

Barb: Yeah, for sure. It's so funny, like I see these funny TikTok videos or whatever that say, you know, why aren't women leading, men can't even plan a party. They can't even plan a vacation. Why are they planning anything? You know, we give it to the women who can multitask and get things done with, you know, doing 10 other things.

Emily: [00:17:00] Exactly.

Barb: yeah, it's pretty funny.

Maggie: So then I know, you know, running forces you to talk more openly about money, how much is raised, spent, needed, all these things. Of course, as you know, women in many ways are taught to avoid the conversation of money. And so how did this kind of experience change your relationship with money, confidence, power, all of those different things?

Emily: Yeah, that has always been interesting because of course, yes. We were never taught to talk about money at all, and I was not comfortable talking about money up until I ran for office. And then that's all you talk about as a candidate, you know? So it has really allowed me to feel a little bit more open and comfortable talking about money and talking about how much you've raised or how much you have to spend.

Emily: You know how much something costs, whatever, and openly talking about it because you have to defend how much money you need. And how much money you have to spend as a candidate. And then of course, [00:18:00] all the state reps when we get together from, you know, there's a lot of different conferences that we go to where it's state reps from across the United States and we play a fun game of where are you from?

Emily: And how much money do you make? Because we openly talk about it all the time because each state is completely different. We don't make the same. And so each state is completely different. And we always ask, you know, how long do your sessions go as well?

Emily: Because that's completely different too. So we always, I mean, every table I sit at, that question comes up once, and then you'll just see a round robin of people go say their state, how much they make. And then it's something that a lot of us have gotten used to.

Emily: I don't think I would be comfortable ever talking about finances if I didn't run for office at some point. 'Cause it was very uncomfortable.

Barb: Is there pay inequity between the men and women in the same positions?

Emily: No. So this is the sad thing too. This is probably the first sign that's been equal pay.

Barb: [00:19:00] Wow. Yeah, I was wondering.

Emily: So we all make the same. We all make the same salary. We have a per diem as well. And then the mileage is different because it depends on where you're from. 

Barb: So as the first Asian American woman elected to Missouri. How does that feel for you being the first Asian American woman from your experience in, I think you said, the grocery store and how someone spoke to you then, how do you show up now and how do you see yourself in this position?

Barb: Because it's kind of like you made it in the way that you are representing them now. Those people in the grocery store, for the most part, right.

Emily: Definitely, definitely. So, we didn't know that I was going to be the first Asian American woman to be elected. We had no idea up until probably half through the campaign. And then somebody made a comment about it. We did some research. We're like, oh, it didn't even dawn on us. I got elected at a time where it was the pandemic and it [00:20:00] was a lot of Asian hate that was happening.

Emily: I think that I was elected at the perfect time because during my first year here as a freshman with your mask on half the building's not wearing masks we're having the pandemic COVID vaccine fight. You know, the insurrections happening, things like that. And so it was great times.

Emily: We had a representative on the other side of the aisle who was also a freshman who continued to scream about the China virus whenever we were talking about Covid or vaccines. And it was constantly the China virus. I knew that this rep has introduced himself as the farthest of the far right.

Emily: So in my opinion, I went to my leadership at the time because I'm like, this has gotta stop. This is the fourth time he's done it that I know of. We all boo and whatever, and a lot of us are upset about it, but I'm like, what can I do, you know? [00:21:00] And there was a few things I could do. I could point of order him which would make him halt if I was on the floor. But that would be me doing it. It's not always gonna work. I could file a charge if I want to. So what I did was I did an HR complaint and then I did a press release stating why I did an HR complaint against this rep.

Emily: And the HR complaint was mainly, it wasn't to apologize publicly, it wasn't to resign. It was literally just these were the reasons why you need to stop your language because it hurts people to look like me. This is the people's house. If anybody who was of Asian descent who came into this building and heard China virus being screamed on the floor they would feel attacked and nobody should feel attacked in their own home.

Emily: So, because of that I started getting death threats. Mainly from his [00:22:00] district. So we got death threats for probably about three years off and on. I would say the other side also thought that I was exaggerating or being too sensitive, or this was about me, all those words.

Emily: And then a week after I did this, the Atlanta shootings happened at the massage, the parlor. And when that happened, a lot of the people on the other side came to me and said. We didn't know, like, like I understand now, but looking back even, you know, and talking to my own caucus you know, they were upset about it, but they probably wouldn't have gone to the, the means that I did.

Emily: Just because, you know, I think it takes, you know, representation matters. And I think it takes a lot of representation for somebody like me to stand up and say, this is not right. This is not okay. Because, you know, I am the only Asian American woman here. At that time, we did have a [00:23:00] half Asian, half black representative that was on the Democratic side as well. And then of course our speaker, Jonathan Patterson is of Asian descent on the other side as well. But nobody was really going to chime in, so that was one that believe I had to push.

Emily: So representation matters on why we do this. A lot of the times, I don't think anybody from my caucus would've gone as hard as I did on this issue mainly because, I mean, they weren't Asian. We all hated it, but I think it took somebody who is being really affected by it to say, Hey, this is not gonna happen and I'm gonna do something about it.

Maggie: Do you have any like words of wisdom, if any other non-white woman is thinking about running and to me I think Missouri, you know, out of all the places Missouri, you know, it's so red. What words of wisdom would you give?

Emily: I would say if any woman wants to run, they should. And especially any minority woman wants to run, please do. We need more women in office. If you look [00:24:00] around, even the women on the other side of the aisle, we are extremely hard workers and just like you say, we multitask, we know how to multitask many things at the same time and it's not an issue.

Emily: We're the ones who can organize as well. So, you know, when we go and have our bill hearings and everything else, you can tell that we are the ones that can really, really work. We work the floor, we work the committee rooms. So we definitely need more women in office. We often laughed on the dim side.

Emily: There's way more women of course, than the republican side and the Republican women at one point, the new freshmen were looking at our side and they're like, oh my God. Like, you guys just have so many women over there. And we're like, you can come over anytime want.

Barb: Yeah,

Emily: Like, we could have conversations.

Emily: You can come over anytime you want. You can switch parties.

Barb: There you go. You know, we're talking to you at a very critical time right now, right? The [00:25:00] nation is so upset and angry and sad and concerned, and people are just kind of stopped dead in their tracks. They don't know what to do. They don't know if, should I go on with my daily life when all of this is happening around me.

Barb: Like how do I make sense of it? Why isn't somebody stepping up and taking control? You know, people are protesting and you're wondering, yes, I love to see the masses of people out there, but does it move the needle? Call your congress people and you know, I'm in Illinois, so I do call, but we're all aligned here, so do you suggest, Emily? What are you saying to your, constituents around how do we manage in this time of chaos like we've never seen before?

Emily: I would say first and foremost, please take care of your own mental health first, because it's extremely overwhelming. It's really hard to watch a lot of the videos. You know, it's hard on people's mental [00:26:00] health. So I would say first and foremost, take time for yourself to make sure that you are okay.

Emily: Get involved. Of course. Protests are great. I love them. I love the rallies, but at the same time, I would say that Missouri is a red state, but we're also a non-voting state, and that's the issue. If we would vote in elections, we could flip some, we could definitely flip the state, but the issue is a lot of the districts have extremely low voting turnouts, and that's a problem.

Emily: So I would also tell folks those rallies are great. But at the same time, we're in an election year you could either stand at those rallies and scream at the top of your lungs, and that's your mental health strategy as well do it. But at the same time, you could also help and volunteer for candidates that need help.

Emily: You have to think of Canada as almost like a small business or nonprofit, I guess, let's call it nonprofit, because they need volunteers. They need volunteers for a lot of different things. You know, we're gonna [00:27:00] talk about door knocking and things like that

Emily: and events, they're gonna need all of the help that they can get. So I would suggest finding candidates. And of course also, I always say this, district 24, district 25, you know, Midtown, downtown, area of KC Plaza, Brookside area. They're gonna be fine. They're blue seats. Look outwards, look at the seats that we need to flip.

Emily: Look in the suburban areas. Look in places like Independence, Missouri. You know, look at those places where we can flip the needle and start helping that way.

Maggie: I love that idea of how it is gonna be up for elections. So we have to get out there and have boots on the ground in that way. How do you recommend kind of people getting connected in that area? Just kind of searching online? I know there's like the UCLA.

Emily: Of course you can reach out to me. I'm more than happy to help and assist in any way I can to navigate you. Mo House dims is also a place for just state reps in Missouri. You know, that's a good area of resource. You have the [00:28:00] minority leader if we're talking about kc, you have the minority leader that lives in kc, ashley Ani.

Emily: She lives in Platte County. So you have a lot of tools necessary. I would say the biggest for folks, reach out to your local elected officials. We will get coffee with you, we will meet up with you. We will add you to our newsletter or campaigns and you will get information from us that way.

Emily: But I have a ton of coffee meetings when I get back home and it's constituents wanna sit down and they wanna talk. And then during that time, I can kind of figure out where they wanna help because door knockings not for everybody. They get scared. I get it. But there's other ways you can get involved as well, and then I can pinpoint you to a lot of the candidates that really need focus.

Maggie: How do you do it all on a day? Emily? Aren't you exhausted?

Emily: It's a lot of coffee. It's a lot of coffee.

Barb: You need the coffees now.

Maggie: I'm just like everything that you do and then you're like, just talk to me. [00:29:00] Like you, I feel like I should talk to your assistant or something. You're a busy woman.

Emily: We have amazing staff. Our staff is the bread and butter that keeps everything glued. So we have amazing staff. My legislative assistant, Allie, she's absolutely amazing. She keeps me going. She makes sure my calendar's all good, but she also helps a lot with constituent outreach and services and making sure that we're helping district 24 when I can't be available at that moment.

Emily: I think also this is why I enjoy being the public servant because your day to day is so different. And I think that's what I really enjoy. It took me a minute to get, you have to. Flip your mind very quickly, especially when you are the elected official, there's times where I have to flip my brain from talking about the anti L-G-B-T-Q-I-A legislation that continues to go through this building. Legislation to let's say VLTs, which video lottery terminals.

Emily: And I have to flip it very quickly and sometimes I gotta take a [00:30:00] second because your mind has to get there. But I like the fast paced motion of everything like that. So I love this, which I also say I am a glutton for punishment too.

Maggie: Well, Emily, I think this has been an amazing conversation. There is a question that we like to ask everybody on our podcast. So, you know, looking at your entire journey from being, you know, adopted to becoming an elected official. What does financial freedom mean to you now?

Emily: That's a really good question. So I'll be very honest. This is also me coming from a place where I'm going through a divorce too and being completely dependent on myself for the first time in a very long time. So it's been exhilarating, I would say. I've become this, budget nerd.

Emily: For my own personal finances. I've figured out different ways to pay off debt to make sure that debt's paid [00:31:00] off quicker or just, looking at different means that I have for myself. So it's been, really interesting journey for me because the past three years I've been separated and completely on my own.

Emily: I'm not gonna lie, it was scary at first. You know, it's me. I don't have anybody really to fall back on if I get in a crunch or anything like that. But it's been absolutely amazing and I truly love it.

Barb: Yeah, there's life on the other side and sometimes it's the best place to be, right? This has been fantastic. I'm honored to have spent this time with you, Emily.

Maggie: Yeah. Thank you so much for coming on. We're excited to get this message out and excited for all our listeners to just take some more action in their community. I think this is just a great story of we can all jump in and do something and just finding your spot of what that something is. So thank you Emily, for coming on today and sharing your story, and we're excited to get you voted in for the next election.

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