Navigating Financial Trauma: Overcoming Insecurities and Building Financial Empowerment - Feat. Rahkim Sabree

 In this episode of the "I Should Have Learned Sooner" podcast, host Tim Winfred sits down with Rahkim Sabree, a financial trauma specialist, to explore the concept of financial trauma and its impact on individuals' relationship with money. Rahkim shares his definition of financial trauma and explains how it exists on a spectrum, ranging from major traumatic events like evictions and job losses to smaller traumas like receiving poor financial advice.

Drawing from personal experiences of growing up in poverty and later transitioning to entrepreneurship, Rahkim discusses the profound impact of financial trauma and the motivation it can create for achieving financial success. He also delves into the challenges and mindset shifts involved in transitioning from relying solely on investments to living off those funds.

Join Tim and Rahkim as they navigate the complexities of financial trauma, discuss strategies for overcoming insecurities, and emphasize the importance of financial empowerment.

Connect with Rahkim and learn more about financial trauma at https://rahkimsabree.com and https://rahkimsabree.substack.com/

For transcriptions of this episode and more, visit https://learnedsooner.com.

Follow Tim Winfred on Twitter and Instagram at @contimporary (it's like "contemporary" but more fun)

Transcript

00:00 Financial trauma is any instance observed or experienced that has a negative impact on the way that you view, interact with, or believe about money. That's Rakhim Sabree's definition. Financial traumas exist on the spectrum, right? 

00:14 There's big t trauma like experiencing an eviction or repossession or job loss, and there's little t trauma like getting some bad advice on what stock to invest in or crypto coin to buy, right? Hello. 

00:30 Hello. Welcome to the I should have learned the sooner podcast. I'm your host, Tim Winfred. Together, let's take a dive into amazing stories of personal growth as my guests share their answer to the question, what is something you know now that you wish you had learned sooner? 

00:48 From overcoming impostor syndrome, investing money lessons, and more. Join me and my guests as they share their stories of challenges they faced head on and how they came out on top. Today's guest is Rahkim Sabree, a financial trauma specialist, which, if you've never heard of that, you're not alone, because I hadn't realized how much financial trauma I had in my own life until talking with Rahkim in this episode. 

01:18 So it's the idea of if you've ever had any financial insecurities or any sort of really financial trauma. If you think about if you had any food securities and you were worried about putting food on the table because food costs money or paying the light bill, anything like that, it could even be you had money. 

01:40 Money. And you grew up with money and then maybe your family lost it. Or you were put out from your family and had this sudden shock to your financial situation. That's the sort of conversations that I dig in today with Rahkim, and it is such. 

01:59 This conversation today is so beautiful in so many ways, and everything Rahkimtalks about is just I took so many notes, and I'm going to listen to this episode over and over again, so I hope you enjoyed as much as I did. 

02:15 Without further ado, let's jump right in. Hi, Rahkim. Thanks so much for joining me. Thank you for having me. Tiffany suggested that you join me. She was my first guest this season, so I'm really excited to have you. 

02:28 Thank you. Tiffany, if you're listening to this, for anybody who is unfamiliar with you, can you give us a little overview? Yeah. So my name is Rahkim Sabree. I'm a financial coaching consultant. I focus on this moment. 

02:41 I focus on the intersection of wealth, mental health, and race, which are arguably three of the most uncomfortable topics individually for people to talk about. I am an author, Ted speaker. I contribute to Forbes under the personal finance vertical. 

02:56 There's a list of things right? But mostly I'm passionate about financial empowerment and kind of breaking down what are the mental health barriers to what financial success looks like. I find that in my time in the financial services industry, which has been over a decade now, a lot of the narrative that's pushed is the math of it, all, right? 

03:20 The one plus one equals two. If you do this, then this will happen. Right. And we don't take into account how people feel or what they believe about money and how huge of an impact that has on the behavior to follow. 

03:35 Yeah. You talk a lot about financial trauma, right? Yeah. Can you give a little overview of what that means? Yeah. So financial trauma is any instance observed or experienced that has a negative impact on the way that you view, interact with, or believe about money. 

03:51 That's Rahkim Sabree's definition? Financial trauma. Exists on the spectrum, right? There's big T trauma like experiencing an Eviction or repossession or job loss. There's little T trauma like getting some bad advice on what stock to invest in or crypto coin to buy, right? 

04:09 And so all of these things that exist in between these two ends of the spectrum likely will show up in all of our lives because we all have to interface with money, right? And we don't just arrive here knowing how to play the money game. 

04:24 So I like that I can approach this from such a wide spectrum, if you will, because it touches on so many different people's experiences and from my observation, anyway, that it gives validity to the experiences of people that maybe some of the traditional content around financial education does not. 

04:46 It acknowledges where they are in that moment, rather than projecting when we see this, often projecting where they should be or using guilt or shame to get them to do the thing, whether that's the right thing or the wrong. 

05:00 Yeah, definitely. From your personal experience, what were some of your traumas financially? I'm experiencing one now. I grew up experiencing aspects of poverty. So my parents were young parents. We grew up in West County, New York, and when my parents separated, I became an administrative arm, if you will, in the household, and that included helping manage the finances. 

05:23 So I became conscious of the fact that we had Section Eight, that we had food stamps, and I was involved in the budgeting of what that looked like. There were days that I'd come home and I'd seen eviction notice on the door because we couldn't pay rent, or the power was out because we couldn't pay the power bill. 

05:39 So learning how to navigate that environment in very much a survival modality has had a profound impact on me. As I get deeper into this space, I realize continues to have a profound impact on me. Some of the biggest financial accomplishments that I have are a result of that trauma. 

05:58 Right. And having this desire to put so much distance between that lived experience and the experience that I have today. And when I look at some of the goals and things that I've done right, like purchasing a home, getting the 800 credit score, buying a new car, like, all of those things were motivated by, like, this desire to remove myself from that situation aggressively. 

06:21 And so maybe the accomplishment in and of itself was a positive one, but the motivations behind it could not be. I think in this day and age, right in this moment, the biggest financial trauma that I'm experiencing is the trauma of entrepreneurship. 

06:35 Right? So I left my corporate job in May of 2021. It was literally everything that I knew. And over the course of the last we're approaching two years now, I've had to experience the bumps and bruises, figuring out how to make money online or offline, how to create systems, how to create processes, how not to take no as a final answer. 

06:58 The follow up, how do I want to make money? Right? Because I've made money in ways that I'm like, this is not how I want to make a living. And while all of this is happening kind of internally and things that are within my control, but I have to kind of learn what I don't know. 

07:13 We also have the pandemic. We have the recession. We have people are experiencing layoffs and job loss. So there's so much outcome in the media, right, externally, that influence how you feel internally about your ability to kind of make it work. 

07:29 That I've had to constantly, as I've learned in this process, check in with myself and acknowledge the small victories that I've experienced. And the biggest small victory is survival. Right. Lasting this long and being able to sustain myself financially for two years off corporate salary. 

07:49 Awesome. Well, first of all, congratulations. Thank you. A hard thing for a lot of people to do. Did you go into it with a financial position that gave you a runway? Absolutely. So when I was working, I was very aggressive saver investor, if you will, as I was learning about financial education tools and products, I was also an aggressive credit person, right? 

08:13 So I would increase my credit limits and make sure that I had those available to me. So the last two years has been a combination of generating income, but supplementing that income with the drawdown on some of my investments, which is kind of scary, was kind of scary because it's like, man, I work so hard for this and not see the balance decreasing in my account. 

08:35 But I also kind of remind myself, like, this was a choice that you made, right? Like, you believe in this vision, you believe in this mission, then keep doing what you're doing. Otherwise go back to work. 

08:45 And so that's kind of what keeps me sane, if you will, when I look at those balances. But certainly just the knowledge alone was enough. But definitely what I had saved, invested and credit that I had available to me. 

09:01 Yeah, it's a huge lesson for myself as well, is how to reduce your risk whenever making financial decisions. I found myself, as you said, in mental states where I've been afraid of the economy that were at the end of last year with all the recession talk and tech layoffs. 

09:21 I'm in tech, and so I have my emergency fund. But then I also realized, well, I have some money invested in the stock market if I need to pull that out. And I have have if I really needed to credit availability that I could pull out as cash. 

09:38 Something that you said that I know a lot of people who either go to work for themselves or go fire and retire early, have a hard time doing. Is drawing out on their investments and pulling out whenever they've been in 100% investing mode. 

09:56 To go from that to living off that in some cases, what was the hardest part about that, and how did you shift your mindset in order to be able to comfortably pull out that money? It was several conversations that I had over the course of not only making the decision to leave my job, but being in it, right? 

10:16 So a couple of people who were what I had put away, and they're like, well, you have that, right? That's what you did it for. You prepared yourself without knowing for this moment and so use it. One conversation in particular I had with my mom's fiance, and he's like, okay, you made this decision. 

10:38 Now understand that some of the values and ideas that you had around money are going to change. And I kind of was like, yeah, whatever. He doesn't know what he's talking about. And as the months and the weeks begin to go by and then turning into years now, I realized, like, oh, yes, some of those values did change. 

11:00 Like, some of the things that I thought that I had very hard stances on financially, particularly as it relates to paying yourself first and investing and credit, how and when to use those things, were things that I compromised. 

11:14 But the most recent conversation was a conversation with my brother. And the situation was I had leased a vehicle. It was time for me to return the lease. So in returning the lease, I had the decision to make, right? 

11:26 Do I want to buy out the car? Do I want to get a new lease, or do I want to just walk away altogether? And where I'm at, you need a car to get around. So walking away with nothing was not an option. And so the biggest dilemma for me was do I take out this money? 

11:41 Do I sell my stocks to buy this car? Or do I get a new one? And I'm talking to my brother about it, and I'm stressed. Hold on a second. You have enough money in stocks to buy out the car. And I'm like, I have more than enough. 

11:56 And he's like, that's a good problem to have. He's like, that's what the money is for. What are you stressing about? And that connected the dot for me because I was like, wow. I look at the success of other people financially, and what I have invested, even still to this day, is a drop in the bucket for some people, but I realize that it's also this mountain of abundance for others. 

12:23 And they're like, I wish that I could have that. And so being able to kind of take yourself out of the comparison to somebody else's journey and recognize where you are in your own journey, how comfortable you feel in this, and really, what's the reason for doing this, right? 

12:41 I left my job in corporate America because it was having a huge impact on my mental health. It was having a huge impact on my comfort and progress in building my personal brand. And I wanted to kind of try to do this thing for me. 

12:57 So there's values, there's reasons. It wasn't like, rage quit or a knee jerk decision. There's something underlying that keeps me going. And so when I remind myself of that, it's just kind of like, well, what are you willing to sacrifice, right, to make that thing happen? 

13:11 You hear so many stories, so many success stories about people they experienced homelessness or they were living on somebody's couch or they were working in the garage, and nobody believed in them. Until boom, something happens. 

13:23 And I'm like, well, why can that thing not happen for me? So in full transparency, over the last two years, I've thought about applying for jobs. Many times. I've applied for jobs many times. I've been on job interviews. 

13:36 But when it came down to it, in terms of compromising my values relating to this work that I'm doing, I've always said no. And I'm only now starting to. Realize the benefit of that as I start to see people recognize me and the work that I've done or equate my name with this niche right. 

13:57 And talking about financial trauma, I'm like, okay, it wasn't for not right. I've been here. I've made a splash, and now I got to kind of keep that momentum going. Yeah. Thank you so much for sharing all of that. 

14:08 It's really beautiful. And I know a lot of people, including myself, like you, who've come from lower income situations and had those financial insecurities whenever we were younger and then come into more money as we get older. 

14:24 There tends to be a little bit of shame and fear, because, as you said, the money you have is a drop in the bucket to some people, but it's a mountain of money to other people. And so people start to see you as someone who is above them. 

14:42 And it's almost a little scary to feel like you have something that other people don't and you want to be able to give back to people. But you're not entirely in a position, too, because you're still trying to dig yourself out of that hole you found yourself in from a younger age. 

15:01 All right, I could keep going and just FREEBALL the questions and totally disrail the three. But I do want to get into, I guess, the first question for the podcast, which is the big question. What is something you know now that you wish you had learned sooner. 

15:17 When it comes to this work? Right. I had a conversation with friends who are recently right. And the issue that was surfacing for me, that continues to surf surface for me, is, in this space, there are a lot of people who don't act very ethically. 

15:33 Right. There are people who will take advantage of other people's lack of knowledge or access to information. They'll put a price tag on it. And then they'll kind of leave them out into figuring the rest out. 

15:47 And I've been a victim of that probably two or three times now. So there's this idea of investing in yourself that is often used and marketed to say, like, hey, buy my course, buy my product, buy my program. 

16:03 This is an investment in yourself. But then the outcome isn't exactly me, what maybe you thought it was or would be going into it. And so I'm having a conversation about Monetizing with this mentor, and I'm like, I want to I know that I need to. 

16:18 I know that doing a lot of the free that I do is not going to generate revenue, which is not sustainable, which will put me back in a position to need a job. But integrity is my highest value, right? 

16:33 It's the priority for me. So how do I balance the two? And he's like, is the issue integrity or a limiting belief? Right. Do you believe that you deserve to make money off of this knowledge and the skills and the money and the time that you've put into learning what it is that you've learned? 

16:53 Because people are not paying you for information, they're paying you for access. And and I was just like, wow. For me, there's no shortage of confidence in that. I believe that I deserve abundance. Right? 

17:07 But it's how do you connect the dots to demonstrate your value? As you don't even have to be the expert, right? You just have to be on the next chapter in the same book. How do you demonstrate your value and assign a value to that thing without coming off as, like, scammy or taking advantage of ripping people off? 

17:27 And so as we continued in this dialogue, he's like, you don't have to worry about being a scammy, not demonstrating integrity, because that's who you are, right? So stop focusing on that and focus on making some money. 

17:42 And I've had multiple people over the years share that with me, but for whatever reason, it just wouldn't click. I wish that that was the thing that clicked for me sooner. But I'm also grateful that it's taken the scenic route for me. 

17:55 Because over the last two years, I think being in the position, certainly a position of humility has taught me how to connect with my audience in a way rather that is meaningful, in a way that is human, in a way that is empathetic. 

18:11 Now, when there is that ask right for reciprocity, I can feel good about the fact, like, I've given, I've given, I've given, and now I need to receive. Yeah, like I was saying, coming from a place where there's insecurities, it's very easy to fall into those traps of those people who have a live webinar going. 

18:37 And it's not actually live, it's a pre recorded I've fallen into one of those, and I'm a web developer and dug into the code, and I was like, all of this scaling number of people who are joining this webinar while I'm here, it's a coded thing to just go up and whatever. 

18:54 So yeah, there's a lot of scams out there. I have had the same question. So first of all, thank you so. Much for sharing that. I feel like I need to send you some money for that advice right there because that was definitely a struggle I have had myself. 

19:11 And whenever there are so many people out there who are sort of treating it like, how can I get the most money out of all the for lack of better phrase, uneducated, stupid people. I don't want to say any names, but I have some off the top of my head. 

19:26 But yeah, there's people it feels like they do it for the clicks and they don't do it, like you said, with the integrity and the empathy and. It's just so easy to fall for those schemes and want to better yourself and come out the other end and have spent $300 and be like, found all that stuff online for free on YouTube in an hour, sort of thing. 

19:51 But now here I am and you gave me this certificate or whatever. And do you have plans you mentioned to launch a course or some sort of monetization for your content? Are you thinking of doing a full course or what sort of content are you hoping to do? 

20:08 Yeah, I'll back into this one. I rated a course because I hired a coach who told me that that was the best thing to do and there wasn't the amount of support from a marketing perspective, or rather marketing strategy perspective, from user experience perspective from just like, I recorded some videos, I uploaded videos and I'm like, okay guys, I have a course. 

20:33 And so sales fell flat. So that content still lives somewhere and I still sell it, but it's not like my proudest work. I am in the process right now of creating Courseworkbook that companies the Course with another creator. 

20:49 So it's a joint project there. But my focus right now in terms of monetization is definitely my newsletter. So I have a newsletter that I run on substac. And substac allows for you to offer free and paid subscription services. 

21:03 So I do that. I have a weekly free newsletter that goes out, have an article for people to kind of look at, click, decide if they want to subscribe and get more from me. And then behind the paywall, there are monthly $10 fee for access to interviews. 

21:23 I just recently started doing office hours, so I'll schedule a time between this time I'll be available here on Zoom, and if you guys want to click in, you can ask me anything. So. My focus right now is to continuously find ways to add value within that medium. 

21:41 I also know that it's scalable to a degree, and certainly $10 a month is not going to be able to pay my mortgage, right, unless there's a ton of people subscribed. So figuring out how to then layer on an additional service or product to that $10 a month where I can make more money is a focus of mine. 

22:05 But as I shared earlier, I'm still wrestling with the idea of, like, well, what is that product or service? Is this being created with the highest integrity, or is this just a money grab? And I think for somebody in this entrepreneurship space, right, who's trying to make a living off of their knowledge or their experience and combination of all those things above while you're in it, it's kind of like going grocery shopping while you're hungry, right? 

22:32 A lot of the advice that I've seen post firing my boss, right, is build what you need to build while you're working so that you're not going into entrepreneurship, trying to take every opportunity that comes your way because you're hungry and it's a little too late. 

22:48 That bridge has been crossed for me. But I try to, in those moments, focus on abundance and saying, like, yes, you're hungry, but you're going to eat, right? You still don't have to jump at every opportunity that is coming because you're going to eat. 

23:03 And focusing on abundance for me over the last two years has resulted in abundance. I mean, I've been able to eat, right? Over the last two years. I've been able to make 100% of my mortgage payments on time. 

23:14 And I think that's a huge accomplishment for me. Looking at the variety of expenses that I have, I'm like, all right, at least I can make sure I have secure housing. We can talk about this all day. There's just what that trade off looks like between being ethical. 

23:28 And taking your time and building these bills that keep showing up. Right. Okay. I need to make money tomorrow, or I need to make money yesterday. So I'm very intentional about what I put my name on. 

23:40 I'm very intentional about what and how I build. And to a degree, I think the perfectionist in me will prevent me from launching the MVP as opposed to, okay, I want to just have everything bells and whistles, perfectly packaged and sent out there. 

23:57 So I'm going back to that initial course that I created that was the MVP. Right. And so now I need to just optimize what's out there. Something that I thought facebook years ago, I was there doing a training with the company I was with. 

24:12 There was a poster on the wall. And I live by this now because I'm a perfectionist as well. That type a personality is done is better than perfect. And it's either get it out and it's not perfect to your intention what you would want it to be, or you never release it. 

24:30 So, yeah, I definitely live by that. And I get where you're coming from wanting to do it in a way that feels intentional and ethical and keeps your integrity intact. You said something that really stood out to me a little earlier that I wanted to follow up on, that it is an issue of your limiting belief for me, I've called that unlearn. 

24:52 That as impostor syndrome. And I think it's a common thing for people who maybe are succeeding or finding themselves in a position, as I mentioned earlier, where you're sort of stepping out of the crowd of the people that you surround yourself. 

25:06 How have you found your relationships as your beliefs have changed? How have those changed for better and maybe in some cases, not so much. Yeah, great question. There are people who kind of rise with the tide, right. 

25:23 For me. So as I grow and. Explore different thoughts and approaches to not even just entrepreneurship and money, right, but just life as a whole, because they're all interconnected the people who are, like, hungry for that. 

25:37 There are some people who are starving for that. And while that may be flattering at first, where I've arrived to in this moment, it has put me rather into a very defensive posture, energetically. I can feel that so many people want from me. 

25:57 So I have to be more intentional than I already am about my time, about who I say yes to, about who I say no to, because it's not all just good vibes, right? Some people want to be associated or affiliated or want from you for their benefit and without any intentions of giving anything back to you. 

26:21 And some people want to be around so that they can witness the downfall. That's unfortunate reality. I know there are people who are out there who just don't like me, who can't stand me for no other reason than because I've done what I said I was going to do. 

26:38 And they stick around because they're waiting for me to slip up. And so they can say, oh, well, look, he messed up there. And it's not something that I can point to Tangibly and say, like, here's my proof, right? 

26:50 It's just a feeling. It's just the knowing that you have. But going back to your question, there are people in my life who have been in my life who have witnessed these changes, who have known me from the version of me that I talked to you about experiencing poverty. 

27:04 Right. With the food stamps and a Section Eight all the way to now. Who can appreciate the journey, who can remind me of all that I've accomplished? And I value those people so much. There are people who have been on the journey but had to get off at a particular stop, and that is a more recent kind of painful realization. 

27:21 I've had to end certain relationships or at least change the direction of those relationships, to say, you know what? You can't go beyond this point with me. I still have all the love in the world for you, and I hope that you have all of the love in the world for me. 

27:35 You can't move beyond this point. And then there's new people who come into my life who have demonstrated to me in various ways that they don't want anything from me, but they want everything for me. 

27:46 And that's a new experience and sometimes foreign and sometimes really hard to accept, especially when you have fought your way out of this survival mode, because and I grew up in New York, so I'm suspicious of people just in general, right? 

28:03 So it's kind of like, why are you showing up in my life now? And Why do you want something for me? What do you get out of this? My grandfather used to say to me all the time, you don't get something for nothing. 

28:13 So I've carried that with me in my interactions. And it's just like, well, you have somebody who's investing in you, whether that be through time, whether that be through money, whether that be through expertise. 

28:23 Like, what do I have to give up on the other end of this? And what I'm learning is not necessarily to abandon that approach, right? Because I still believe that you don't get something for nothing. It's just the law of exchanges. 

28:34 But to accept that there are people out there who just identify with your mission or your vision or the work that you've done, and they want to help you to further that off the strength of. And so I'm approaching 33 years old right this month, actually, and I'm just learning to have more grace with myself, have more grace with the people that show up in my life, understand that I don't have to walk around on the defensive, but I also have to know how to defend myself. 

29:03 And so I think when you move into a space like that, specifically to your point around limiting beliefs, right, understanding, like, when you trust yourself, you'll know, when you have to detach, when you have to avoid, or when you have to accept kind of what people are showing up and giving. 

29:20 I don't know if that's a 30s thing, but there's a lot of clarity in this decade of life that I didn't have in my 20s. For myself personally, it comes for me of understanding more who I am and what I want in my life and what I will accept from other people. 

29:46 There are certain people in life, as you said, I have a saying, which is people come into your life for a reason, and people leave your life for a reason. And sometimes, as you mentioned, you sort of have to guide that in one direction. 

30:01 Whenever those beliefs of the other person, maybe they're bringing you down, or they don't align with who you are anymore in your 20s. For myself, it felt like I was more looking for other people to accept who I was. 

30:17 And as I've gotten into my 30s, it's more I'm looking to accept myself internally as opposed to externally. There have been a lot of people who, as you said, the rising tide brings them up with you, and they stick with you and they support you and cheer you on. 

30:36 I saw a meme the other day that was something like, whenever you're in the thick of it, there's nobody behind you, but as soon as you have hit that success, everybody's there to congratulate you. And that's whenever you find those people who are coming out of the woodworks, people who make it on TV shows or whatever hit the lottery, and it's known. 

30:58 It's like, whoa, Margaret From, I haven't seen you in 30 years, and here you are congratulating me on success. So the next question that I have for you, the second primary question since we're sort of coming up on time. 

31:16 Is there something a book, a quote, a person, a song, a city, a job, anything, really, that's impacted your life? Yeah, my life is the summation of all of those experiences. Right. Book, songs, quotes, people in the past. 

31:33 When I've been asked this question, I usually just kind of defer to my grandfather, and I think I'll stay there. But I'll add that since my grandfather's passed away, my dad has kind of, like, taken up in this season of my life, a lot of the space that my grandfather did in terms of encouraging me, in terms of believing in me, in terms of just reminding me who I am. 

31:57 Right. And I love to kind of reflect on the succession, like, who we are. Right. My dad is a reflection of his father, and I'm a reflection of my father. Right. And so there's this connection that exists even though my grandfather is not here with us physically anymore, that still links me to him through the interactions that I have with my father. 

32:19 And I hope to be a dad one day. I believe that I'll be linking my child to my grandfather through kind of the same ideologies and philosophies about life and what our mission is. And my dad shared a post of mine on Facebook this morning, actually, and then tagged me in it, but I just happened to see it pop up. 

32:39 So I write for Forbes. And yes, last night I shared that in the month that I've been contributing to Forbes, I have five articles written. And I used to dream about writing for Forbes, like, I wanted it so bad, and then I made it happen, and now I'm five articles in. 

32:56 So a little bit of an accomplishment for me. And I share the the link to the archive of my articles. So my dad reshares this link to the archive of my articles, and he captions the post with, you are your ancestors wildest dreams come true. 

33:12 And so when I think about this answer that I just gave you right. And just kind of the connection backwards to all of the work and the sacrifice and the lessons and the experiences that have shaped me arriving to this point. 

33:25 I don't believe in self made right. I couldn't have done it all by myself. I had to stand on the sacrifices, the people who come before me, whether they're related to me by blood or not, but specifically the people who contributed to me literally being here. 

33:40 And so I just say my grandfather first, but definitely my dad as the person who has been passed of baton, so to speak. Wow. I found myself smiling through all of that. Especially whenever you said I stand on the sacrifices of the people that came before me. 

33:59 My mom is my best friend. She's probably going to listen to this podcast sort of thing. Anytime something good happens, I want to call her first. I want to let her know like, hey, all of that insight and even if it wasn't intentional insight that you gave me growing up and through my life, I'm succeeding. 

34:18 And it feels like it's for them and it's for me to continue to our parents and our grandparents wanted to do for their children is to make it better, I don't know, make a better world for I don't know if I will ever have kids. 

34:33 So for me, that drive is sort of my niece and getting to instill some of that passed down history and knowledge of what you've learned. Is there anything in particular that either your dad or your grandfather has shared with you that resonates or something that you think of a lot whenever you're making decisions or going through life in general? 

34:59 Yeah. This question makes me smile because I am the third generation of Mala's name. My grandfather changed his family name. And then my father took on that. I took on the name. And my younger brother has children, so he's created the fourth generation. 

35:15 Right. My grandfather used to say a sabri is somebody who perseveres until the job is done naturally. The name sabri comes from an Arabic word that means perseverance. And so in the thick of these moments, navigating entrepreneurship. 

35:32 Right? I think about that. Like, giving up for me is never an option. It's not something that I consider, how do I make this work? There's no plan B. Just keep at it. And so a lot of the advice that I've been given by people who are relatively successful, or at least successful in my eyes, is just keep doing what you're doing. 

35:53 Like, don't give up. And I'm like, giving up is not a question for me. The question for me is how do I make money so that I can keep doing what I'm doing? Great. That focus on perseverance, remembering why my grandfather chose that name and how proud I am of carrying the name is something that definitely sticks with me. 

36:14 I mean, above many other lessons that he's shared, my dad reminds me of that as well. So in one of my season one episodes, I was in debt Free Journey and that was what was driving me. And all I could see I was blinded by the driving factor in my life, was do everything I can to get out of debt. 

36:38 I had a friend on the podcast who sort of I asked him a question about his motivation behind because he comes from a wealthier, your family. And it was hard for me to imagine how somebody could have so much motivation like he did and not have that driving factor of trying to overcome an obstacle. 

37:03 So as you've persevered and as. You've come into a place of abundance, what is your motivating factor, what keeps you going? And what makes you not want to give up? Yeah, another great question. I think in the beginning it's that hunger, right, that you're talking about, where you're trying to overcome. 

37:26 At least I thought that's what it was. Right? But I realized that even without money or material wealth, that the values that were instilled in me, charged me, groomed me for, I'll call it greatness. 

37:42 Right. And I don't want to speak this into existence, but even if the reverse of what I'm working towards comes true, I still think that at the end of the day, I'll be able to rest my head and know that I lived a good life, that I was intentional about maintaining my integrity, right. 

38:03 Being a good person, of helping others, of teaching others, of having an impact. And there's no dollar amount in the world that is going to either take me away from that or erase that. So the mission, if you will, and the work that I do is not necessarily driven by money. 

38:22 Certainly I believe that I should get paid for the work that I do. Right. For showing up for the impact that I have. And of course, the greater impact, the greater the dollar. Right. But I think the abundance comes from my intentions being very pure in nature, right. 

38:39 Like leaving a legacy behind, of teaching, of serving, of helping. And to me, I think that is abundance, right, is richness. I use this analogy recently with a friend of mine. I said there are people whose physical bank accounts are full and I'm looking at what they demonstrate on social media and in the conversations that we have. 

39:03 Based off of their full bank account. And I said, but my mistake has always been in chasing those numbers in my physical bank account because my spiritual bank account is full. And I said, my physical bank account is going to catch up. 

39:18 But some people have a full physical bank account and are completely bankrupt in their spiritual bank account. And so what has the more value? You right. Like you're not even comparing apples to oranges in this point. 

39:31 You're comparing apples to state. Right. As long as I stay focused on maintaining and growing my spiritual bank account through the good deeds and the intent and the work that I do that I'm always going to be taken care of, I'm always going to be good. 

39:50 The funny inside joke kind of that we shared was that I'm just waiting for that transfer to take place, right? Like for the balance of that spiritual bank account to start manifesting in my physical. 

40:00 Like I said in the beginning, I've been hungry. I know what that looks like. But I don't think that if I was to have that hunger completely removed by having all of the wealth in the world, that it would change what drives me in terms of purpose. 

40:14 And I think based off of the example that you gave, there's probably something similar happening there. Like it's so much bigger than money. So much bigger than money. Yeah. That's really beautiful. I was going to ask you about when it would be enough for you. 

40:29 I think that answer, the teaching, leaving that legacy of serving, I think that is as long as you're doing that in your life, it sounds to me like that'll be enough. Whatever money comes, as long as you can pay your bills and help out the people you need to, it sounds enough. 

40:48 Does that sound right? Oh, yeah. I had a conversation recently, I know we're kind of running short on time, but friend, I said, do you want to be a millionaire? And he's like, no. And I'm like, no. Why not? 

41:00 And he goes into all of these different reasons about why he doesn't want to be a millionaire. And I was just like, I've never had somebody give me that response before. So certainly where I'm at, I still would like to be a billionaire. 

41:10 I'd like to be a multimillionaire. But I think by him questioning me in that moment and sharing his perspective, I was like, well, we need to start having conversations with people around why is the millionaire the goal? 

41:24 What do you you then do with that money? When do you recognize, like you said, that you are safe and that maybe a million is more than enough, maybe 500,000 is enough. Right? Like, I learned in two years that I've been surviving, that I didn't need to make as much money as I was making in corporate to survive. 

41:44 Right. I've made significantly less. But certainly there's a goal for me to make more. And so I think standing on that line of kind of figuring out what is enough versus what do you deserve is important. 

41:57 And so if that looks like a million dollars, if that looks like multiple millions of dollars, that's a billion dollars. How do you get there is important. I lead with my integrity. So whatever that looks like, that looks like beautiful. 

42:10 I have a third question for you to sort of be present and future looking. You sort of mentioned a lot of you've answered this question and multiple times over, I feel like, already in the questions we've talked about. 

42:25 But very specifically, is there something you're working on learning now? Great question. So my focus right now is definitely within the field of financial therapy, financial psychology. And the reason why I'm to answer this question this way is because a lot of the work that I've done that I've been recognized for has been based off of experience. 

42:50 So the magic for me over the last year has been in connecting. My experience and this intuitive approach to financial therapy with academia and clinical approaches to these issues. Right. So I get the terms and the vocabulary and the strategies and the research, the journals to validate a lot of the things that I've been saying based off of my own experience and observation s that makes me more of a credible person in having these conversations. 

43:26 So right now I'm in the process of studying for the AFC, which is accredited Financial Counselor. I think the trajectory in my future is likely going to be CFT, which is certified Financial Therapist. 

43:39 And I've spoken this out loud a couple of times now, so have that energy out in the universe. I think I'll go back to school and get my PhD just so that I am also producing research and teaching on these topics, not just from the perspective of my experience, but from a perspective of academia. 

44:02 At any point, people will refute what they don't agree with, but it makes it harder for people to kind of disagree with the science, if you will. Right. Well, we're getting short on time. If you have something to share that is a financial hack, I'm sort of throwing this on at the end. 

44:23 Tiffany, as I mentioned to you before we started recording, gave me the Eisenhower Matrix in episode one. Is there something that you've used for a predictivity hack? Yeah, I think writing things down has been huge, but more specifically than writing things down, it's like writing your goals down in advance of undertaking them. 

44:45 And that can look like as a daily practice, maybe. Before you go to bed, listing out, what are the tasks that I absolutely want to accomplish tomorrow? And you can get even more granular and say, what are the tasks that I want to accomplish tomorrow by noon? 

44:57 Right. So I noticed that I'm a lot more productive in my day, particularly as an entrepreneur, when I write down the things that I need to do, and I'm able to kind of cross them out. And if there's anything that I haven't crossed out, I can kind of circle it and bring it into the next day. 

45:13 But seeing it on paper instead of just kind of relying off of your memory or even relying off of your phone makes a huge difference. I've tried to input things like reminders in my phone, and I've gone without looking at it again. 

45:27 So writing it down kind of, like, reminds you that it needs to be done, but also you can look at it. Okay, I need to check. I'm looking at a list of right now. So definitely I would say planning your day for the next day through writing down these goals. 

45:42 Awesome. Well, thank you so much. We're at time. Before we go, for anybody who wants to follow up with you, check out your projects, and subscribe to your newsletter, where can they reach out to you? 

45:54 Yeah, so my website is Rahkimsabree.com. Plus my name. All of my social media is my name as well. The substac is rahkimsabree.substac.com. If that is too long for people to remember, they can just go to my website, and it's literally as soon as you open up the page, there's an embedded opt in my website. 

46:13 Again. rahkimsabee.com. Awesome. And I'll make sure to have all of those in the show notes. Thank you. Thank you so much. This was great. Yes, I enjoyed it. All right, I'll talk to you soon. 

46:29 All right, take care. Thank you so much for listening to that episode. It was so packed with amazing, inspirational motivating. Uplifting beautiful stories from Rahkim. I want to listen to him speak every single day after having that conversation. 

46:54 And I did sign up for his substac already, and he produces really amazing content, that's vulnerable, heartfelt, and comes from a place of true under standing of himself, and it comes from a place of just genuine heartfelt desire to help people. 

47:17 Rahkim, if you're listening to this, I know you're going to continue to thrive, and I am 100% on your team and I am going to raise your voice up every chance I get. Thank you so much for doing this. 

47:31 Don't forget to follow Rahkim all over social media and check me out on Instagram and Twitter at contemporary. It's like Contemporary but more fun. And stay tuned for next week's episode on Monday. Until then, I'll talk to you soon. 

47:48 Take care. Music for this podcast comes from FilmMusic IO Acid Trumpet by Kevin McLead, Incompatech.org. Licensedbycreativecommons.org licenses buy 4.0.