172 | A Simple Year End Money Review Exercise for the Female Entrepreneur

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As 2025 comes to a close, I encourage you to reflect on all you have created through a simple, grounded review that turns data into identity shifts. Instead of judging numbers or rushing to “fix” anything, this episode invites you to choose what to keep, what to release, and how to move forward from faith rather than pressure so 2026 aligns with who you decide to be.

In this episode, we explore:

• Starting with what worked to build sufficiency, stability, and gratitude
• Mapping thoughts, feelings, and actions across both business and money
• Practicing faith, surrender, and trust as daily, embodied behaviors
• Choosing identity first so actions naturally follow
• Creating time, space, and systems as tangible results
• Closing the gap between intuition and action with clarity and boldness

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From my soul to yours,

Erin

Chapters

• 0:00 Set The Frame: What Worked, What Didn’t and What Will You Do Different
• 1:00 Start With What’s Working
• 3:40 Evidence Lists And Gratitude
• 6:20 Thoughts That Drove 2025
• 9:45 Faith, Surrender, And Trust
• 13:30 Scarcity, Pressure, And “I’m Behind”
• 17:20 Feelings You Lived In
• 21:00 Actions Reveal Beliefs

Transcript

Erin Gray: 0:00

Today I want to reflect on 2025 and also use a term that I got from one of my coaches years ago. Not sure where she got it. Maybe she created it from her mind, or maybe she got it from another coach, but I feel like that it's helpful when you're reflecting on things. And I suggest doing this weekly or monthly for your business, your money, your life. Like you can do this in all areas of your life, but I suggest you get in the habit of doing this on a more consistent basis so that you can gain more knowledge and information and data. So we are going to talk about and look at what is worked, what didn't, and then what would you do differently? And then shift into who you want to be, right? What do you want to move into 2026 that you love about yourself already? What do you want to let go of as you move into 2026? So I like to always start with what worked because I believe that everything is always working. Like what, and I know I talked about we're going to talk about what worked, what didn't, and what would we be doing differently. And I do think that that has its place when you're going to sit down and you're actually going to look at some things from a neutral place. But also I want you to look at it as like, I'm always thinking, everything is always working. What do I want to tweak? Because when I think of something isn't working, if I'm moving from the energy of it's not working, I'm creating more of it's not working. So I want to really have you hone in and first focus on what is working because I believe that has us coming from the place and feeling of having, of moving from the place of sufficiency and gratitude. And it really conditions our minds to focus on the good things. And Emma, you're quoting the good things first, right? That really has us focusing on what are the things that are happening to give us that evidence list. And, you know, when I first started this work back in 2019, I was so, I would call it in the negative, right? Like I was always thinking about all the problems because that is how I was taught growing up. Like, what are the problems? We got to fix the problems. I didn't know, and I don't think my parents and people around me knew that like focusing on the problems creates more problems. You know, it's kind of like always focusing on our expenses. We're creating, we're focusing on, you know, more expenses versus what is working, focusing on our income, having gratitude and praising the income that we have generated. So make a list in your journal. This is one of those podcasts that pause it. It's really going to be like get in the weeds, really pause it, do it, come back to it, listen to it, you know, keep going back and forth versus just passively listening to this episode. I said podcast, but I meant episode. So make a list in your journal. Or maybe you're a Word document person. I personally like to sit down with pen and paper and use my journal, but that's me. Whatever feels good for you as to what did you love? Really start to get into that framework and that feeling like, what are you so proud of yourself for for 2025? Like just rattle them all off. And you can break this down in several ways. Like, what were you thinking the most, like most of the time that worked and that you loved and that you want to lean more into in 2026? You know, I think a lot of us sometimes are like, oh, this isn't working. So I'm ready to change all this. But I want you to start with like, what do you love about yourself? What do you love about some of the qualities, your self-concept that you already have? What are the things that you did in your business that you loved and that that worked and you want to continue and you want to focus on those in 2026 and expand those? Think about your feelings. What were you feeling on a consistent basis? What was some of the action that you took that you loved and that you want to continue doing? So, like, think about it from that place of like, what is already working and where do I want to double down on that? And think about those results that you created in your business and with your money. What are those things that you loved about what you did? And so you want to do this for each area, right? So do this first and foremost for what worked. Do it for what didn't work because you're gonna have thoughts and feelings around what worked. You're also gonna have thoughts and feelings that created around what didn't work. You're also going to have thoughts and feelings around what would you do differently, right? Because you're gonna take the things that you didn't feel like were were working. And then, so then what were the thoughts that were creating wasn't working? And then what do you want to do and think and feel differently to create what would you do differently? And so ask yourself what thoughts drove most of my decisions in 2025? Were they thoughts of faith? Were they grounded in trust? Like I continue to read the book. I was just reading it again, God works through faith. Faith in God Changes Everything by Robert Russell. Like this book, Power of Awareness and Working with the Law, I probably read, I definitely read like each one of them, one of them, a certain one, you know, every day. But I just think it's like I was reading it again today, and I just was like, oh my goodness, like such at a such a deeper level. And I was reading around, like basically he was saying surrender, you know, and he was talking about letting go of your needs and wants and your ambitions and your aspirations and your fears and your worries and your obligations and your responsibilities and your claims and your desires in perfect trust and abandonment, knowing that God takes hold when you let go. And when I read that this morning, I was like, oh man, that's so good. Like, how can I let go even more? How can I like just allow it and just know that it is done and that it is already on its way to me and that I am just the vessel and I am here to, you know, have God work through me and to serve humanity and like just being in joyful anticipation of like, how is it going to show up? Okay, I know I got on a side tangent, but I just I wanted to say that because I think so often we say we have faith, but we actually don't embody faith. Like we think about it intellectually, but we don't actually do it. So think about what were your how often were you in the feeling and the thinking of faith? How often were you in trust? Were you assuming? You know, I talked about the law of assumption on a couple of the past episodes. Were you thinking or power of assumption? Were you thinking that it was assuming that it was going to work out? Or were you assuming that it wasn't? Think about how you were, if you were feeling pressured or urgency, or like how often were you in scarcity? You know, if you're thinking things like, I need to catch up, I need to hurry up, it's taking too long, I'm behind, I have to hurry up and figure this out. That's not coming from the place of it's done. It's not coming from trust and calmness and confidence. So those thoughts matter. Like being aware of that, it matters because they shape how you feel. And then they create whether they create more pressure or they create more behind being air quotes, being behind. I don't believe anyone is ever behind. But like if you're thinking that, you're gonna create more of that. You're gonna create more of like, I gotta catch up, versus hang on a second, how often was I saying that to myself? Which actually isn't even true. Behind who? Like, we only have ourselves that who we're comparing ourselves with. Like one of the things I've really been talking to my daughter about lately is because she, her little sweet ego, does want to know, like, well, well, how did I compare to someone else in the class? I'm like, I don't care. I don't care about anybody else in the class. I care about you. And not that I don't care about anybody else in the class, but I care about you. I care about you comparing you to you. That's all that matters. Someone else in the class needs to compare themselves with themselves, right? It's all relative to how we are doing, not to somebody else. So really start to think about what are those thoughts that you were thinking about in 2025? What are the thoughts that you loved? What are the thoughts that you want to keep? What are the ones that you want to, you know, change? Think about your feelings. What was your emotional state that you lived in the majority of the time? And I am gonna be honest here with you, right? Like, I don't think I'm in ease and calm 100% of the time. I don't think that that's normal or, you know, what is even normal. But I don't think that that is like the human, the humanness in us, like we're gonna have ebbs and flows. That's just part of it. Like the goal, I envision the goal for each of us is to not just feel calm all the time, right? I don't want to feel calm when my daughter is having frustrations with her friends. That's not calm, you know. I care, right? But allowing myself to feel the feelings and then decide, okay, how do I want to respond to this? So think about your primary emotional state. Like, what are the top three feelings that you were feeling on a consistent basis? Or maybe you can go to five or 10. Like, were you mainly calm and confident? And then sometimes you would see where scarcity or doubt would creep in. Okay. Or were you primarily in doubt and worry and fear, right? There's a difference between those two. So, what were those, what I call like, what were the feelings that you bathed yourself in? You bathed your nervous system, you bathed your cells in this year. Were you feeling feelings of gratitude and love and compassion and joy and ease and fun? And like, oh my gosh, this is gonna be so fun. I can't wait to see how this is gonna work out. Or are you like, oh my gosh, I know it's not gonna work out? Like, what was the energy that you were in? Are you feeling proud of yourself of what you've created and accomplished? Are you feeling successful and a leader? Like you are the leader of your business, whether you are a solopreneur or you have employees, you are a leader. You know, were you coming from the energy of feeling confident, or were you feeling more anxious or rushed or avoidant? Or maybe you were inconsistent. Like just really start to get micro here and really start to write down and gain that awareness so that you can make changes. And then from the action place, from that state, right? Like, what did you do? You know, your actions are always going to reveal what you believe about yourself. If you believe that something will not work, you will not take action towards it. It's okay to say, I, you know, I want this to work out. I'm taking steps and I still feel a little like my nervous system feels a little shaky right now. It feels unfamiliar. That's okay to feel that way, right? We don't want to gaslight ourselves. But when you're just already stopping the train before it even starts to go on the tracks, like what are we doing here? Like, really start to pay attention to our language. So if you've been feeling pressure, if you are coming from pressure, you're probably gonna be rushing your decision-making skills or decision-making, I should say, you know, your decision-making process. You know, when you feel pressure, it's like hurry up and get this done. It isn't, hey, let me sink into my intuition even more. If you're feeling doubt, you're probably going to be waiting. And waiting creates more waiting, or you're going to be hesitating, or you're going to say, maybe next time, or I'll wait and see how it goes, or not yet. Now's not a good time. Why not? Like, make yourself answer these questions. Why is now not a good time? What we only have now. So really start to be like, how much am I allowing fear and worry and doubt? Run the show. And listen, I'm not sitting over here over on my high horse saying, like, I do this perfectly. No, I don't. I noticed where I was not traveling as much this year. Like I kind of did this whole, I did what this podcast is about, right? And I'm like, you know what? I say that I'm a world traveler. I haven't been traveling as much as I want to. Like, no, right. So I've already gone through the first three months of the year and made, you know, decisions and taken action of like, where am I going for those first three months? And so when we say, like, as our identity, when we say we are something, we move from that place. So where are we not in congruence? And it's okay if we aren't. It's the awareness and noticing, okay, this is where I'm not, I'm not honoring that, and I am going to take action from that place. So look at all of this information objectively, right? This is not a place where we are now pile on the shame and the guilt. This is all just data. Think about what are the thoughts, what are the feelings, what are the actions that worked? What are the thoughts, the feelings, the actions that didn't work? You know, what are the things I'm going to do differently? What am I going to think differently? What am I going to feel differently? What am I going to practice? Like, this is a practice. This is a constant coming back to. Like, this is not a, oh, set it and forget it. Like, this is a constant evolution of what we have to come back to. Of like, where did I kind of go off? You know, I always make the analogy of like when the pilot puts his GPS to go to Hawaii, he doesn't go in a straight line, right? He's constantly off course. But what he does is he constantly comes back to and be like, okay, I'm going back. And then we end up in Maui. And so where are we just needing to guide ourselves a little bit back, continue to go back and back? You know, when I say continue to go back and back, what I mean is like continue to make decisions and thoughts and feelings and actions to course correct. That's the word I'm looking for. To course correct. Like the pilot is constantly course correcting. And that's what we're doing too. But we have to be aware so that we can course correct. And then finally, just look at like all of like, just do almost like a gratitude rampage of like all of the things that you created in 2025. Like 50 things. I don't care if it's money. I don't care if it's clients. I don't care if it's, you know, more time and more space, like in your calendar, like that is creation. I think so often in the business world, we think like creating is money and revenue and clients and business and all of this. And yes, that is true. And also creating more space, creating more space in your home, right? Like clearing out things. That is creation as well, right? In order for more things to flow in, we have to, you know, expand and allow things to move out. And so, did you create more time for yourself? Did you create more time in the calendar? Like one of the things I've recognized is like I like 15 minutes in between my client calls, you know, so creating that system so that, you know, if I have an 11 o'clock, then I have a 1215. I want to get up, I want to go move my legs, I want to go to the restroom, I want to grab more drinks. So create what are you, what have you created this year? Like just list all of it and just be in just pure gratitude and satisfaction and appreciation for what you have done. And if we take ownership for everything in our lives, then we truly get to embody our power. So if instead we see something that we wish were different, it's not something that we need to beat ourselves up around. It's just data, it's just info. We get to look at it neutrally and we get to decide, okay, so now I know this. Who am I going to be that's different to create something different? And it are always starts with the who. Who over the how. Who we are being is what creates what we want. Yeah, I was having this conversation with a client last week, and she was like, okay, you know, I really need to focus on the what. I'm like, no, you don't. You need to focus on the who, because the what and the how will work itself out if we talk about and we work on the who. The who is our identity, it creates everything. So as we are returning back to ourselves in 2026, I always think it's like not who we're becoming because we already are who we already are, right? We're just peeling back the layers and letting go of the of the things that really don't serve us and taking them into 2026. And like I mentioned, you don't have to wait until January 1st. You can start today. So ask yourself these following questions. What do I believe about myself? Not just in my business, but with money, with my energy, with my identity. Because when we shift our identity, our actions are going to naturally follow, right? Like I'll give you an example. This is what I used on a client the other day. I was like, listen, you we either are or we are not. There is no in-between. You know, I am not a smoker. I've never smoked a cigarette. No shame on anybody that has, but that's just me, right? So if someone were to ever ask me, do you want to smoke? I mean, I can't even be in the same like area of people smoking. It bothers me, my lungs and stuff. But like, if someone were to be like, Do you smoke? I wouldn't answer them with, well, sometimes, because sometimes is a smoker. So I'm not a smoker, right? That is my I that is one of my identities, is I am a non-smoker. I am a non-drinker, right? That's okay. And it's okay if you are, it's okay if you aren't. But what I'm saying with that is like standing in it, right? The identity, identity of someone who is bold is someone that speaks their mind when they ask themselves, does this need to be said? And if they get a yes, then they speak up. So think about what would you love to continue? Maybe it's structure, maybe it's more consistency, maybe it's boundaries that you set in place that you loved that supported you, you know. Is it continuing with CEO time? Is it you loved how much you slowed down? Is there ways that you can slow down even more in certain areas? What ways can you support yourself even further? And think about also like what have you outgrown, right? Maybe it's proving energy, you know, which that always comes typically from a feeling of inadequacy. You know, if it's undercharging, same thing that might come from inadequacy or just lack of like capacity to receive more, you know, there could be several things, but like just think about like what are you over? What are the things that you're like, you know what? I'm gonna leave that in 2025. So if you are someone that has been making decisions from fear instead of moving from confidence, this is the time to really start to look at and change your identity. You know, one of the things like I mentioned before is like one of the things I wanted to embody this year was being more bold. Like that was a self-concept I wanted to embody. Bold with my words, not beating around the bush, bold with my actions, bold with clients, like just saying, like if a client, I've always, you know, talked to clients in a very loving way and also called them out on, you know, where their ego is. And also, you know, when if I've had clients that are just were kind of repeating the same thing, like being more bold, being like, listen, this is what's happening here. You're not taking steps. What's going on? You know, so just think about in every area of my life, so I wanted to be more bold. So when we say we want to be more bold as an example, we have to take action from that place to fuse the belief. I can't say that I want to be more bold and then not speak up when I feel like I need to. That's not that's not in congruence. So I think that the biggest thing that I want To take away here and that I haven't yet said is that how connected are we to God or source? How much are you moving from that space? How much are you listening and following your intuition? And are you closing the gap between when your intuition speaks and when you take action? Or are you still letting your intuition, you know, say what it needs to say? And then your brain is driving the bus and you're not taking action. Like you've really got to be on to yourself and start asking yourself, like, why am I not doing that? Why am I, if my intuition is saying do this or don't do this, why am I not? Okay, I'm so stoked for 2026 for all of us. Take some time to do this work. Pause this episode, journal on it, journal on the questions, get into the weeds here. Like you're gonna have so much insight. This is like hours of coaching with me. Like, saves you hours. Just get into the weeds here. Like, do this work. You're gonna have so much clarity when it comes. Like once you've like done it and when you go into 2026, and then what you want to do differently and all the things, think about all the things that you loved about 2025, and you want to take them with you into 2026. Okay, I love you. I'm rooting for you, and I'll see you in the next episode.