Episode 454: What I’ve Learned (Patterns, Mistakes & Hacks) From Helping Hundreds Start Their Financial Independence Journey

Jamila Souffrant 0:02

The internal work you need to do to get you to where you need to be is more work than the external work. So the external work is going to ask for that raise, right? It's the product of how you feel inside, but you're not going to go ask for that raise or feel confident enough to show up to make sure you are earning what you should be earning if you don't feel you deserve it.

Jamila Souffrant 0:26

Welcome to the journey to launch podcast with your host Jamila Souffrant as a money expert who rocks her talk she helps brave journeyers like you, get out of debt, save, invest and build real wealth. Join her on the journey to launch to financial freedom in 54321,

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if you want the episode show notes for this episode, go to journey to launch comm or click the description of wherever you're listening to this episode in the show notes, you'll get the transcribed version of the conversation, the links that we mentioned, and so much more also, whether you are an OG journeyer or brand new to the podcast, I've created a free jumpstart guide to help you on your financial freedom journey. It includes the top episodes to listen to, stages to go through to reach financial freedom, resources and so much more you can go to journey to launch.com/jumpstart

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to get your guide right now. Okay, let's hop into the episode.

Jamila Souffrant 1:34

Hey, hey, hey, journeyers, welcome to the journey to launch podcast. It's your host, Jamila Souffrant, and if you are listening to this in real time, that means this episode is coming out November, 26 2025

Jamila Souffrant 1:48

then it's right before Thanksgiving. So if you are actually like listening before or during your Thanksgiving break, thank you. Thank you for choosing me to spend your time with. I do not actually take that lightly, because time is so precious, right? How we spend it, our energy, where we put it. So I just appreciate you. I'm thankful for you the listeners. This is going to be a solo episode, and if you actually happen to be listening to this before the doors close for the release of my coaching program, that is going to be end of day, December 1 2025

so I'm closing doors to the map your path to fi course and program, and there are three levels for you to join. You can just one. Do the solo course by yourself, self paced, so you automatically get the course and it's information and the 10 steps where you can map out your own path to financial independence. The second option is a group coaching call, a 90 minute group coaching call with me, so you get the course and you get personal time in a small group setting with me on December 2 at 7:30pm Eastern Time, and that's for people who want community, who want just a little bit more touch with me and a connection to also interact with other journeyers. And addition to getting the course, and then the third option is, if you really want me to hold your hand and get feedback and a customized plan with me, I help you with your plan, you can choose option three, which is the course plus two, one on one sessions with me. So if you're interested in learning more, go to journey to launch.com/fi

course. Now I do want to impart on you just some things that I've seen over the years, not only with my own journey, but with other people, all the people that I've helped, whether it was through the podcast or book, your journey to financial freedom and then my coaching, whether it was the money launch club, shout out to my money launch club members, when I had my community and when I had my programs open, and just the recent interactions I've had, right? I want to just distill some patterns that I see over and over to hopefully help you on your journey, and then also mistakes people are making over and over. So that's what we're going to talk about in this episode. So let's first go over the patterns I see over and over on this journey that I've actually also done myself. Pattern number one, most people think that their challenges are unique, but they're really normal. So most people maybe you think that whatever you're going through right now is just a you problem. Maybe you feel like you're behind. You should be further, you're bad with money, or you're just embarrassed to start. You don't know where to start. These are all common struggles that people have. It's not unique just to you. I hear that so many times, you know, I'm afraid. I'm embarrassed to even ask the question, so therefore I don't start. And so the lack of clarity, confidence and consistency is something that I see from people where it doesn't matter.

Really your income. Obviously, having a high income helps, and let's just be real, right? The more money you make, the more you can get ahead on this journey. But honestly, people who actually earn a lot of money that does not absolve from these same issues with clarity, confidence and consistency and just starting doesn't matter your background, doesn't matter your age, you can all face these issues. And I think there's relief in knowing you're not the only one, you're not the only one feeling it, you're not the only one going through it. So just hopefully knowing that gives you some relief and makes you feel normal. I can guarantee there's a friend, a person in real life, more than one family member struggling with the same thing you're struggling, struggling with when it comes to money or your job or just how you're feeling on this journey. Pattern number two,

financial independence, the wanting to take the step, to create some waves and to do the work, usually starts with a transition, with a realization when you are fed up with something or something is happening where you can no longer ignore it. So that can include a career shift, a burnout, maybe becoming a parent. I'll talk a little bit about, like my shift into wanting something different for myself. Maybe you're dealing with debt and it's crushing you, a move, a breakup, something that shakes you, that wakes you up and you now, I mean, you've always known you wanted more control over your life and your time and your money, but usually it's something that happens that you can no longer ignore, that you're like, Oh, I got to do this. And I've seen this countless times, and it's been part of my journey, too. I talk about this story where I was able to deal with the commute, the one and a half, two hour commute. I mean, I didn't like it, but I dealt with it when I was in my 20s, and I wasn't married yet, and I didn't have any kids. Like, I was like, I can do this. You know? Can make it work. And when I started to realize, okay, we're going to get married, this is my then fiance, now husband, and we are planning our family, I said to myself, wait a second, like, how is this going to work? How am I going to leave the house at 6am every morning and then come home at 7pm you're working. I'm working. How does that work when we want to have a family and kids? And then I got pregnant with my first and I was like, Oh, this is not going to work. I got to figure something out, and I knew that it would take time. So this is where my research came in, and my googling of how to quit my job, and all this stuff came up about financial independence, but I knew that it wasn't going to be an overnight success or thing that would happen. I would I knew I wasn't going to be able to quit my job right away, but being inspired and knowing I almost had like a deadline with babies and having babies, right, God willing. That, you know, I'm blessed with three beautiful kids now, each one set me on a path to push myself into learning more and making a change financially, and so maybe right now, you're in that position, whether there is something happening, there's something bubbling, and you can no longer ignore it. I'm just saying this is a call if you're hearing my voice this, this is a perfect time to start getting serious and making the changes, creating a plan for yourself. And then pattern three that I see mostly everyone, everyone, basically is there's always a deeper why

people, when they are attracted, including myself, to the fire movement, the financial independence, retire, early movement, it relates kind of to the pattern two is that there's a big life change. But deeper than that, it's not necessarily that you don't want to work ever again. I mean, I think I feel like you might feel that way. You're like, I don't want to work, but ultimately, you want to have control over your time, your energy, what you do for work. You want, and not necessarily to be productive in society, but to be a member of the society, of your community, to contribute whatever that is, the bigger why for your life, and maybe you're still finding that out is ultimately, we all want safety, we want stability, we want freedom, we want options, and you don't want to feel like you can't control those things. And so there's a deeper Why is really important for you to figure out whether that's going to be tied to your your family or yourself, or your community or a cause, whatever that is, the why is going to continue to help push you throughout this journey, right? Because it is a long journey, and it's not going to happen overnight, but the why will keep you going so you want to connect to that deeper motivation, because then the journey itself becomes the reward as you hit your milestones and goals. So those are just three patterns. Again, I'll quickly repeat them. Most people think their challenges are unique, but they're normal pattern. Two fi usually finds you and you're ready to make changes when you're going.

Going through a life transition, and when you can no longer ignore what's making you uncomfortable about your situation. And three, there's always a deeper why, and it's really important to understand that, because that will help you on your journey. So three patterns. Now the second thing I want to quickly talk about before I let you go enjoy your week, your Thanksgiving or whenever you actually listen to this is mistakes people make. Because I also find that this comes up, often, often, often, often, mistake number one, trying to do everything alone. Now I get it financial independence, and especially if you are one of those people who are, you know, watching your money. Don't necessarily like to spend money. It attracts a lot of DIY, and part of it is like that is the one of the foundational principles of, I believe, this journey is you become self sufficient, you become adaptable, you become creative. And because you're trying to save money, you're trying to maybe decrease expenses, you want to do things yourself, which I get, I think a lot of things actually can be done yourself, and you can make a lot of progress by yourself, but a lot of it also gets stuck in consuming information and then not implementing or overthinking or not investing in certain things, whether it is programs or courses or maybe whatever, even outside of your financial journey that you need to help you, that will alleviate stress for you, right if it can be fit into your budget and so doing this alone, Whether it is tapping a friend, joining a community, just reaching out and investing, whether you are doing that with someone else or investing your emotions almost right you're being vulnerable with someone else on this journey is important. I just think that while yes, you have to do some things on your own, there is a big, big plus in figuring out how you can get help and what will help you get to where you want to be. Not only you can make that choice, but you don't have to always figure it out by yourself. Start joining communities, start talking to people, especially when you can find like minded people. It's important, because that will help inspire and get you started on your journey.

Hey, journeyers, if you are loving this podcast, then you will love my book, Your journey to financial freedom, a step by step guide to achieving wealth and happiness. I wrote this book for you. This book is for you if you want a clear and enjoyable path to having more money, options and a rich life. This book is for you if you hate your commute and the fact that you need to seek approval or permission from a boss. I hated that when I worked. This book is for you if you weren't born into wealth, you didn't marry rich or won the lottery, but you still want freedom. This book is for you. If you're at a crossroads, a major decision or event is imminent, maybe a career change, marriage, starting a family, pressures are reaching a tipping point, and the discomfort and the desire for more can no longer be ignored. And this book is for you. If you find yourself zoned out at meetings, looking out the window or daydreaming about the life you truly want. So go pick up your journey to financial freedom.com. So I can show you how to map out how to get from where you are today to where you ultimately want to be. And enjoy the journey while you're on the path, head over to your journey to financial freedom.com. To see where you can pick the book up. It's available on Amazon, bookshop.org, Barnes and Noble, your local bookstore everywhere go to your journey to financial freedom.com. To get the book now,

okay, mistake number two, starting with tactics instead of clarity. Now, you know, I love a good plan. Planning is important, and I do believe you should, you know, take the step, especially once you feel energized or the moment is upon you, right? Because sometimes you can wait, and then you don't feel like doing it anymore. But there's a lot of questions that you can ask yourself, and you can over, ask yourself and then get stuck in not doing anything, whereas clarity, understanding why you are on the journey, understanding your fi number, right? What is it going to take for you to reach your fi point? How much do you actually need to survive and be happy right there? I'll call this. This is also something I talk about in the book, and then in the course where I help you, it's if you just had a standard bare bones budget of your life. But you know, it's still a good life. What does that look like? And then what does it look like if you actually add in the extra.

Is right. Having those different budget numbers to understand how much you need, then will allow you to know how much you need to bring in, how much intensity you could bring to your financial journey with saving and investing and paying off debt. But you need to know that. So the clarity of knowing your numbers and knowing why you're doing this before you do and get started right and just jump in is really important, because then it will help map things out. And of course, things are going to change along the way, and that's okay. Things have certainly changed for me as I've gone on this journey. But the important thing is to at least have a starting point and know where your end point is, despite the end point changing eventually, because then you can get started to work towards these goals. Mistake number three, believing you need a perfect plan. There is no perfect plan, but there is a plan that can get you started and that you can adjust and change and be flexible with as you go. One of the major things that you know, when I started my journey, I said to myself was, oh, I'm going to retire and I'm going to work in this job for the next seven years and invest and save as much as possible. And then as I started to do that on my journey, I had my plan out. It's I did my calculation, my I call the fire Calc. So this is a tool you also get when you join, if you join the program that helps you plug in your own numbers. So when I first started, I plugged those numbers in because I was like, I'm going to work in this job. I'm going to be able to save and invest X amount a year, and this is how I'm going to reach my number. Then as I started the journey, I was like, Oh, this is not going to work. I cannot work in this job for another seven years. I might be able to do three or four. So what does my journey look like? If I can invest this aggressively for three years, then perhaps change jobs or have my business be the pathway to financial freedom? What does that look like? So I changed my plan. But if I would have waited to say, You know what, I don't know what exactly I want to do yet. I don't know how I'm going to get there. So I just, I just, I got to wait until I know more information then I would not have started. So you need to have a plan first and then be able to adjust as you go. So don't wait until your debt is all gone, or when the race comes, or, you know, waiting for someone else to give you permission to do something, or when, yes, the holidays are chaotic, or when it's over, right? The holidays are over, or something else like you have to create the plan with the information you have now so that you can start and then adjust as you go. The financial independence and financial freedom journey is not built on perfection. It's the complete opposite. It's the mistakes, and it is the wind. If you listen to my previous episode on the biosphere experiment, where I talked about scientists creating this globe of a biosphere where they had these trees that were grown. And I won't go too much into it. It's a couple episodes before this one where there was no wind in this environment. It was a perfect environment for these trees, but because they didn't have wind, they were not able to grow to full capacity, they fell down before they could really establish its roots. Because the wind is helpful. The wind helps you figure things out. So the wind in this situation, instead of the trees, is whatever obstacles you have in your life right now, and so those things that will come up for you on the journey will allow you to adjust. See what you like, see what you don't like. It is preparing you for your next step. Okay, so the plan doesn't need to be perfect. Things are going to happen, because this is life, but these small steps that you're going to do will help you adjust as you go. And then I would just say the last thing, maybe mistake I see often, is ignoring the emotional side of money.

Money is math, right? But it's also a big mindset. It's so much mindset, I think it's the internal work you need to do to get you to where you need to be. Is more work than the external work. So the external work is going to ask for that raise, right? It's the product of how you feel inside, but you're not going to go ask for that raise or feel confident enough to show up to make sure you are earning what you should be earning if you don't feel you deserve it. Or the act of investing more, right? And finally putting more money into that Roth IRA, or opening up the account, okay? And investing, it's not going to happen if you don't trust yourself, if you don't trust yourself, that okay, I can make a mistake and I'll still be okay. So all that internal work,

it's a lot, okay, but it's important. Numbers are logical, but your decisions are emotional. You can have a lot of money right now, maybe in your emergency savings, and maybe you just don't feel comfortable spending it when an emergency comes up, or you don't feel like you ever have enough. So

all these emotions tied up with money and how you interact with money, spending and or not spending it, is shaped by so many things, our upbringing, our call.

Culture, shame, fear, insecurity, all these things impact what we do with our money. And so I think even when you think about how you're navigating your financial life now and the changes you want to make, doing that internal work is is really important. You can't just jump into the work because you might be self sabotaging yourself without understanding the maybe emotional patterns that are impacting why you're doing what you're doing.

So okay, I'm going to also now share what I believe works consistently over time. Okay? And I've seen people transform themselves really. I mean, this is what helped transform my life, and honestly, one was community and accountability. So whether it was my fi journey in the beginning, or even starting my business, and at first it was just something on the side, it wasn't really a business, but in each of those areas, whether it was my financial life or when I was starting journey to launch, I had a small group around me, or I was looking to someone that I felt inspired by, and where I could update, hey, I'm doing this, or I can get it updated from them what they were doing. So that accountability, that community, helped push me so so much. Because when you feel alone, you don't take action when you see others making progress, I believe it helps push you also. And accountability is so important. I always say, when I started journey to launch, one of the reasons why I started it as a blog and then a podcast was, if I start telling people what I'm doing, then it'll be I feel like I'm holding myself accountable, because for the five people who read the blog and the five people who listened to the podcast way back then, I was like, okay, if I'm saying I'm doing this, I gotta come back and say if I did it, so that accountability helped me so much. So community and accountability, big number two, a simple, personalized roadmap that can be adjusted. So yes, there are generic things we should do, and it's not necessarily what other people tell you to do, but it's just generic, right? Like you got to spend less than you earn. You want to invest. We know these things. We want to make income, and we want to pay off our debt, do all these things, but what is the roadmap for you, it's going to be different. Everybody has a different starting point, different privileges, different levers they can pull on this journey. So what is it for you? What's going to help you move you from A to Z? And so that roadmap is important to figure out, because there are frameworks which I think are important. I share that in the coaching program and in the course, map your path to fi and that's what it's meant to do. Be a framework. So then you can plug in and plug out things that impact you or don't plug in your numbers and the certain situations in your life, but it has to fit your life, key, key term your life, right? And so you know, if you need to pivot or something else changes, you can make that adjustment. Number three, celebrating small wins. I don't care how small is important, because the big payoff of financial independence and you one day quitting your job or reaching that magic number is most likely not close, right? And so we're going to set these small milestones as you go on your path, so that you can be excited about what's going on. Because the small wins build confidence. The confidence builds momentum, okay? And then the fourth thing is mindset shifts and grace. Going back to mindset, your mindset and who you are, how you feel about yourself is so important. I'm not saying you you know it's always going to be positive talk, and you're always going to know what's going on, because it's not like that for me. But letting go of shame, giving yourself permission to pivot, to say, You know what, I don't understand and I don't know what I'm doing right now. That does not define who you are, like the money in your bank, the money in your investments, how much debt you have, all those things do not define your self worth, how you feel about yourself, the value that you feel about you, not what other people are telling you that is what defines you. That is you are your best asset. You are your greatest asset. And so that mindset and getting yourself to a place where you can feel proud of yourself no matter where you are, is so important because then it helps you to make choices that are scary, to make mistakes, to keep going when things get tough. So having a strong mindset, continuing to work on it, and giving yourself Grace necessary on the journey. Okay, so I hope that was helpful to you, whether you're listening to this in real time, when the episode comes out, or years later. That's what I love about podcasts, is that I often have people say, like I was I started listening from the beginning. And you know, this was episodes I published in 2017

And it's currently 2025, and it still applies. So whenever you're listening to this, I hope that it helps you, if you are interested in joining the program, because you recognize that maybe some of the things I just mentioned are things you need help with, or you want clarity, you want focus, you want coaching, then maybe you need to check out the program, go to journey, to launch.com/fi

course for more information, I hope to see you in there. And if you happen to listen to this and the doors are closed, get on the wait list. Maybe when I open up again, you can join. But either way, I am appreciative of you. I'm thankful for you, and I hope that you have a

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restful maybe, I don't know about restful around this time of year, and you are giving yourself love and with people that you love this holiday season. Okay? Journeyers, until next week. Keep on journeying. Don't forget. You can get the episode show notes for this episode by going to journey, to launch.com or click the description of wherever you're listening to this, and you can still grab your jumpstart guide for free to help you on your journey to financial freedom by going to journey to launch.com/jumpstart

if you want to support me and the podcast and love the free content and information that you get here. Here are four ways that you can support me in the show. One, make sure you're subscribed to the podcast wherever you listen, whether that's Apple podcasts, that purple app on your phone, your Android device, YouTube, Spotify, wherever it is that you happen to listen, just subscribe so you are not missing an episode. And if you're happening to listen to this in Apple podcasts, rate review and subscribe there. I appreciate and read every single review. Number two, follow me on my social media accounts. I'm at journey to launch on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and I love, love, love interacting with journeyers. There three, support and check out the sponsors of this show. If you hear something that interests you. Sponsors are the main ways we keep the podcast lights on here, so show them some love for supporting your girl four. And last but not least, share this episode, this podcast, with a friend or family member or co worker so that we can spread the message of Journey to launch. All right, that's it until next week. Keep on journeying. Journeyers. You