Learning and Growing from Change

In this episode of learning and growing from change, Laura Lynch discusses the changes happening in her life and the changes coming for the Less House, More Moola Podcast. She also talks about the psychology of change and the different phases people go through when contemplating and taking action on change. Laura shares her plans for future podcast episodes, including interviews with guests who have built container homes and alternative building techniques. She also announces the launch of a new offering, the Financial Freedom Calculator plus Consult, to help people take action towards their Alternative American dream.

For full show notes and more information visit: https://bit.ly/3URqB3D

Go to AltAmericanDream.com

Transcript

0:05

It takes a brave and independent mindset to go tiny. If you are trying to figure out your tiny pivot, this podcast is here to inspire and connect you with the other unconventional, gritty, inspirational people within this community. I am Laura Lynch, your tiny house friend and host. On this show, we are always going to come back to money because as a financial planner, this is the question I hear the most. How do I make this work for me financially? Well, that's my jam, so jump in, let's go. New episodes drop every Thursday. Hey everybody, Laura Lynch. This is Less House, More Moolah episode number 52. As I mentioned last week, we are wrapping up the first year of Less House, More Moolah podcast, and I am super excited to talk about some of the changes that are happening in my life, a little bit about change more broadly, and then talk about some changes coming for the podcast. So thanks for joining me today. I'm super excited to be continuing this journey with you. You know, so far stats in April, we had about 6 ,000 download or views on YouTube. Every week the subscriber count is climbing. So things are definitely growing. If you've ever started a brand from scratch and tried to, grab attention in the attention economy. It is a lot of focus, I guess, to create something from scratch and figure out all of the bells and whistles that you have to employ in order to get some traction with SEO and with searchability. and what hashtags do you use and should I be using Google ads? It has been a learning journey for sure. And as you all know, I'm middle -aged, so I definitely needed some help and also have read a lot and tried to learn as I grow. So if you have shared the podcast with a friend, thank you so much. If you have not yet subscribed, please do so. It does help us grow this movement of helping people think about the tie between financial autonomy and tiny living because we know that there certainly is benefit beyond just lifestyle in tiny living. And so we want to continue to explore that and let people know that they have a right to consider something other than the American dream and that they're all. are alternative paths available that could possibly create so much more wealth in their life beyond just accumulating home equity. So let's continue to share the news and I'm doing everything that I can to get that message out there. And so if you can share that message, that would be so great for helping others see this as an alternative option. So as you, for anybody watching on YouTube, you may notice that I'm in my closet. So I'm in my closet today because life is about to really change for me. So we are about three -ish weeks from moving to the tiny house in New Mexico full -time. And so I'm standing in my walk -in closet because the table that I was working from got packed. And so here I am, kind of moved my studio into what is a pretty empty closet because there's been a lot of downsizing and packing going on around here. So we are starting a new year of less house more of a little podcast. There are some exciting new changes coming up. We're going to talk about those at the end of the episode, but I wanted to talk some today about change more broadly. So, You all may have caught on that I'm a little bit of a psychology nerd from time to time. And in my master's program, I studied organizational change too. And it's really interesting to watch resistance points to change, be aware of them and kind of learn about yourself and how you operate in change. And so I was just thinking back to a moment in my life where I I kind of finished up high school. I didn't know what I wanted to do with myself when I grew up, as so many people don't. And boy, I was just really stuck at that moment. And I remember, you know, my dad not having a ton of patience with me as I was trying to figure out my next step forward. And so whenever we're dealing with change, our family members are dealing with change, we have to just remember that... Change can be so terrifying and figuring out how to take those first steps forward can be really hard. In addition to the very early parts of it being hard, another part that's really hard sometimes for me is staying in the change. I love change a lot of the times, but kind of sticking with a project. over a long period of time after sort of the excitement of the beginning is something that requires some discipline and some focus on the outcome that you're trying to achieve. So not only is getting started hard, but sticking with a plan is also hard. There's this beautiful theory about the phases of change. Pre -contemplation, this is the phase where we don't know what we don't know and we essentially don't know why, you know, what change might look like or what change should be happening or whatever. This is for folks that are really like they haven't even acknowledged that there might be something better out there. So really an unaware phase. Then after pre -contemplation, maybe we become aware that, hey, there might be a. better way of doing things or a better lifestyle or a better job or you know whatever it is and so we start to get into contemplation well what might that look like what would that process be how risky is it this is the contemplation phase then after we contemplate if we decide that we might want to move in the direction of change we go through a preparation phase. Now my tiny pivot lifestyle change has been in preparation for 20 months. So it has been a very long preparation phase. And this is where things start to get a little tiring after a while of continuing to prepare and prepare. But preparation is really important. And that's really what I help clients do is kind of get prepared for their tiny pivot and then take action on that tiny pivot. So this is where we actually step into the change. And that might be a change of geography or a change of career or a change of relationship. It might be just changing a behavior habit. It might be changing our schedule. It's anything in life when it comes to making a switch from the status quo is a change process. And by the way, we have this amazing status quo bias that likes to keep us locked in what we have always done because that is the familiar, whereas the unfamiliar can be scary. So we tend to stay. stuck in the mud and rooted in where we are just because we know it, it is what we know. There's that expression, if it ain't broke, don't fix it, right? That is the quintessential kind of being stuck in the mud. And even though there might be something better out there, we get kind of stuck in that status quo because we know it. So back to the phases. So if we're taking action, that can be really exciting. I am super excited about the action taking that's gonna happen in a few weeks for us. And that would be to get on the road for the final time and head over to our tiny house full time. But the maintenance of that is of course, like anything, you get normalized to the change over time. And so perhaps it doesn't feel as good after you've been in it for a few months. And so there is a possibility of relapse, maybe longing for a previous state or the grass is always greener or maybe thinking about another change that might be better. I tend to do that lean forward into the next change instead of being in the moment and staying focused on. achieving what it is that you are trying to achieve and being content in that space. So definitely relapse is possible, but also is possible that we gain a lot of self -efficacy, which is self -confidence or belief that we can do the thing again. And there is nothing about change that we don't learn from and if we can learn that we can succeed at small changes that can enable us to make bigger changes or if we can learn confidence that we can succeed at a new skill set in the change or adopting new attitudes or new belief systems or new knowledge. then that really allows us to walk into a next level up in our lives. So change is just a very amazing iterative process going round in a circle, starting with a place of not even being aware of change, and then moving through that self-reflection of what did I learn from that and how can I use that to make another change that might be better in my life. So I'm curious about where you all are in your tiny home change. Are you in the, you know, contemplation phase? Are you maybe starting to take action, but you're feeling a little stuck? Are you already in that lifestyle? Super curious where folks are and really what you need in order to get to the next phase. The mission of this podcast is truly to help people take action on moving towards the tiny lifestyle that will enable them to create more time autonomy, more choice, more freedom in your life, and by the way, more security and resilience too. And so I'm curious what you need and how you're stuck. If there's something that you, a guest speaker that you would like to hear from or a particular topic that you would like to hear about, I would love it if you would go to this episode's page on your podcast player and click the text Laura button. This button will allow you to send me a direct text message. This is a new feature in podcasting that I just learned about and I'm super excited. So if there is something that you would like to hear about or someone you would like to hear from, if you know somebody who you admire in this space, I would love to try to reach out to them and get them on the podcast. So I'm definitely looking for input and your needs so that we can. get those topics and those guests on the podcast. So once again, you're just going to click in to the episode in your podcast player. And there should at the very top of the show details be a button that says to text me. And when you push that button, it's going to go into your text app and it will have a code in there, which is the code for my show. So don't delete that. It says there, don't delete and just put in a message to me. I would love to hear what you would like to hear about. So as we're moving into the second year of the Less House, More Moolah podcast, every Thursday releasing new content for you to keep you moving in the direction that you wanna go, I wanna share with you some of the changes and exciting news that's coming up. So I have a wonderful conversation planned that will probably be released in July with... another financial planner who's just launched a firm and she has an amazing story of how she did a self built container home. And this was just like me to enable a career pivot, enable sort of a partial early retirement, enable a downsized lifestyle. And she really switched her priorities away from keeping up with the Joneses, so to speak, and really onto her values. So this will be a wonderful conversation bringing in a new format of tiny living of the container house. So I can't wait to hear about all of those details. I'm going to, I'm pinging people all the time, looking for guests, sharing stories about of course, their van life story, their tiny house story. I'm also working on scheduling an episode on another alternative building technique a couple episodes ago. I shared the Earthship story, so I have another piece that I'm working on on Adobe Building, which is something that is done all over the world and is so self-builder, owner -builder friendly. This is a technique that we are going to be using on my studio greenhouse building. coming up in 2025. So I'm super excited to dig into, you know, that particular technique a little bit in case you're curious. I'm also just really beating down the doors trying to get together a tiny house insurance, meaning homeowners and liability insurance episode because this is a super important topic, especially in the financial planning aspect. So working on that. And most importantly, I wanted to let you know that starting with this episode, I am counting down 10 days to the launch of a new offering, which is a financial freedom calculator plus a consult. This is kind of a very quick and easy way to. jumpstart that sort of take action piece that I was talking about earlier as we are contemplating change. Sometimes the hardest part is just taking those first little steps of action. And we know that as we're scrolling through social media or we're researching or watching other people create their amazing unconventional lives that we are sometimes stuck in watching others doing it and not able to take action ourselves. So if you would love to buck the system and quit your nine to five job and park yourself outside while you work towards your early retirement or your financial autonomy or whatever it is that you're trying to do in the long term, but you can't seem to get past step one, which is money. Then I have this offer for you and we are launching a countdown 10 days from today we're going to launch this. So if you have a vision for your alternative American dream and unconventional life something different maybe it's tiny houses maybe it's RV maybe you're not sure which format maybe it's van life maybe it's you know traveling around the world, whatever it is that your vision of your Alt American dream that looks different than the traditional path, then I'm going to offer this financial freedom calculator. This is a tool. It's going to help aggregate all of your numbers together so that you can for, you know, for the first time, see where you stand from an income and expense perspective. Also from a net worth perspective, how much savings do you have, how much debt do you have, you'll be able to see this on a dashboard. And I will be there to walk you through what these numbers mean in a one -time consult. And so we will book this consult so that we can look over these numbers and we will create an action plan for you to take that leap of getting started. So the financial freedom calculator will be free. I'm super passionate about this because I think this knowledge is power and I'm really here to help people get started at a low price point that's affordable for you to get started. I don't want to just continue to help people that have already achieved wealth. I want to help everybody get started on this alternative American dream. Obviously, you know that I have put my money where my mouth is. I walked away from my six figure salary in order to start this podcast and to start my firm in order to help people do this kind of hard thing of, you know, going tiny and creating an unconventional lifestyle. We know that there's not a huge system out there to support this. There's not a multi -trillion dollar mortgage industry to help you live in a tiny house. So we have to ourselves take action and responsibility in order to create this. So I am here. I put my, you know, stake in this, my flag in this ground and I am here to help you. And I really want you to be able to fix this money part where you're stuck. So this offering is going to be for you. If you don't know your net worth or how to calculate it, you don't know. what money move to make next. You don't know what your income is. You don't know what your expenses are. You don't know how much savings you might need to take a sabbatical or a year off or make a career pivot or get into a tiny house. But you dream of having this fabulous life on your terms. It's also for you if you want to feel confident about your money overall and you're seeking a permanent solution and not a one -time motivational boost because this change that we talked about, once you get that ball rolling, it is much easier to start moving ahead. It's just sometimes we get stuck at the very beginning. And so if you're also wanting to learn from, you know, someone who shares your values, that is, this is the offering for you. So it's counting down 10 days to the launch of the Financial Freedom Calculator plus Consult. This is a very, you know, a small ask of you to get started and take action of moving towards what is super important to you instead of continuing just to, you know, collect influencers and images and ideas. I want you to be able to actually move forward. So you'll be able to get started with this in 10 days. You can go to altamericandream .com in order to sign up and get on the wait list. This is altamericandream .com. So again, thank you so much for being a part of Less House, More Moolah podcast in year one. I'm looking forward to hearing from you about what you would like to see in year two. I'm looking forward to being here supporting you on your change process. And so I'm bringing a new offering to you this year to help you to get started. Hey, I'm honored that you listened to this episode of Less House More Mola. I hope something in it will help you continue to move toward a life aligned with your values. Every algorithm out there is trying to tell us what to prioritize, but we get to choose. If you haven't ever identified your key values, I have a free resource on my website to help you. Just have to go to thetinyhouseadviser.com. It's the tiny house. adviser .com. At the bottom of the page, you can grab the Tiny Life Values Worksheet. When we design a life around what is our core truth, we shortcut to deep fulfillment. See you next Thursday. Please see the show notes for important disclosure regarding the tiny house advisor LLC and this episode.