#81 Regaining Financial Control After Trauma with Cherry Tung

“I really believe in regaining control of our lives and starting with money because money is a foundation to a lot of things.” – Cherry Tung

Overview of the Episode

How do you bounce back after hardship and trauma to regain financial control?

Well, today I’m excited to have in today’s episode 81 of Meaningful Work, Meaningful Life podcast, Cherry Tung. She’s a wealth coach who still has a full-time job and 16 income streams. She helps people to build wealth beyond their nine to five with multiple income streams.

In this conversation, Cherry shares how she realised that her dream 9-5 job with a Big four consultancy firm, was not, in fact, her dream at all. We discuss how she used her struggles and successes of breaking through the corporate income ceilings to help other employees just like her do the same.

From being homeless and living in her car to building stable and diversified wealth, Cherry’s story will inspire you and bring you hope.

Here’s a snapshot of a few things we talked about

Cherry shares the traumatic experience that led to her discovery of the importance of taking control of her finances.
She talks about how she helps 9 to 5 employees to build their online coaching businesses through her online course that has already brought her a $10K month.
How having a strong ‘Why’ is a driving force in being able to build 16 streams of income without giving up or burning out.
Scheduling time with yourself and ensure you have strong boundaries helps to maintain your identity outside of work.
The necessity to reframe and overcome our scarcity mindset is crucial to shift how we view, spend, and earn money.
Cherry revealed how associating her self-worth and identity with her 9 to 5 job led to her living in her car for several weeks.
The four steps to building a successful coaching program that brought Cherry a $10k month are: Clarify, Create, Connect, Convert.
The two keys to converting audiences from viewers and followers to sales
Bursting the myth of having a large following to generate sales
We can live a rich life by being able to let go of the attachment to money.
The 16 income streams are YouTube Ad revenue⁠, Corporate Salary⁠, RSUs⁠, Affiliate Marketing⁠, Course Sale⁠, 1:1 Coaching⁠, Group Coaching⁠, Interest Income⁠, Dividend Income⁠, Capital Gains⁠, Merch Sale⁠, Rent Income⁠, Designer Bag Flipping⁠, Sell Belongings⁠, Bank Account Churning⁠, Credit Card Churning⁠

Fire Questions and Answers

When you travel, do you select your flight by the cheapest flights or by the duration?

Cheapest flight unless it’s a five-day trip then it wouldn’t make sense for me to take like two days each way to travel.

If you had just one laptop and a hundred dollars to start making money today, what would you be doing?

Assuming I know what I know now, I would probably use that $100 to hire a VA. I would be able to finish some tasks without trading my time for money by delegating some tasks to my VA and get things done more effectively. I would also consider investing in a software or program to host a webinar and be able to sell a masterclass or course. The third thing that I would do is advertisements. I would invest that money into ads and be able to get more eyeballs onto my services in a short period of time.

What is financial freedom for you?

Financial freedom is being able to have a choice; the choice of whether or not you want to work, the choice of where you want to live, and the choice of whether or not you want to get married or not. Financial freedom is just being able to have the choice and being able to have that control.

What is your definition of Meaningful Work, meaningful life?

Meaningful work and meaningful life to me mean that I am working on a dream that’s bigger than myself. So right now, my dream is to help more 9-5 employees finally feel free from their job, and work can finally be optional. So in my opinion, that is a dream that is bigger than myself, and it is something that I would stay up until like 2 am, 4 am, to keep working towards because it gives me so much motivation, passion, inspiration.

Last piece of guidance to do more meaningful work and live a meaningful life?

I think the most important lesson that I’ve learned is that you always want to keep taking action. I think a lot of people are stuck in their little box, for example, the box that their job has given them. If their job is just to clock in, clock out, 9 to 5, and they are stuck in that box they’re not taking any action outside of it.

If you’ve been listening to a podcast that’s great, but don’t stop there. You have to actually take action.

What do you feel compelled to do right now? Do you want to just be a 9-5 employee as your only identity? Or do you want to do something outside of it? If you want to do something outside of it, start taking action. It will be really uncomfortable and really scary. But it is going to be rewarding.

Think about it. This is the last day of your life. What would you regret less, would you regret taking action, or would you regret not taking action? Growth is always scary and painful, but it’s so rewarding, so worth it, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything else.

Quotes by Cherry Tung

Growth is always scary and painful, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything else.
The most important lesson I have learned is to keep taking action.
Holding on to money is like holding on to sand; it will prevent you from living a truly rich life.
If you’re not investing in yourself, you’re being counterintuitive. The most important investment you can make is in yourself!.
Show up even when you aren’t selling!
Clarify, Create, Connect, before you Convert.
Figuring it out wasn’t 16 days long, figuring it out was 6 years of experience plus 19 days.

Action points

What is your key takeaway from this episode? What are you committed to doing today to find more meaning in your work and live a more meaningful life? Share your thoughts on my Facebook page.

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