From Burnout to Balance: Healing, Money, and Reclaiming Your Life with Michon Covington

When Not Yet Becomes Right Now (00:00)
Welcome to When Not Yet Becomes Right Now, the podcast where we dive deep into the moments of transformation, the times when not yet shifts into right now and everything changes. I'm your host, Jen Ginty and this podcast is all about those pivotal moments in our life journeys. You know the ones, when the hesitation fades, when we take that first step, even if it feels like a leap. It's in these moments that growth and healing begins. Each episode will explore stories of resilience,

moments of clarity, and the sparks that ignite real change. From personal experiences to expert insights, we'll uncover how people navigate the complex journey we call life and come out stronger on the other side. Whether you're searching for that spark in your own life or just curious about how change unfolds for others, you're in the right place. We'll discuss the ups and downs, the breakthroughs and setbacks, and how to embrace the right now, even when it feels out of reach. Because sometimes,

The hardest part of the journey is realizing that the moment you've been waiting for has already arrived. So take a deep breath, settle in, and let's get started.

Jen (01:09)
Hello and welcome to When Not Yet Becomes Right Now. Today I have a wonderful guest for the show and her name is Michon Covington. She's a former VP of Finance and HR and CFO who experienced burnout and a health crisis despite her corporate success. Her turning point came when she chose to prioritize her wellbeing through therapy and nervous system healing. Now, as a financial wellness educator and mindset mentor,

Michon empowers women to reclaim their lives in peace of mind with intentional money strategies rooted in self-trust. Creator of the signature course, Pay Off Your Mortgage, she guides women towards financial freedom as a pathway to wellness and personal sovereignty, helping them fund their healing without shame. Welcome.

Michon Covington (02:03)
Thank you. I'm so excited to be here and connect with your community. I appreciate you having me.

Jen (02:09)
thank you so much for being on the show. I am so excited for this conversation.

Michon Covington (02:14)
I'm excited to share. I'm always all about sharing because I think it serves other people when we hear stories, you know, and we hear other strengths, it reminds us what the strength we have inside of ourselves. And I think that's why we go through things. We're here to share and grow together. So.

Jen (02:30)
Yep, that's what this pod is all

about. yeah, tell us your origin story.

Michon Covington (02:37)
Okay, well, you know, you gave a little bit of my background. So I'll just start. I've always been a type A personality. I call myself a recovering type A because I think that was part of the reason I hit such a health wall. And we'll get to that. But I've just always been just a type A push hard hustler.

I was raised by a high school basketball coach and so it was grind, grind, grind. And I really embodied that mentality. So that's kind of like my upbringing is I just was push, push, push. And then I went through, got an accounting degree in MBA, ⁓ went right into corporate. I was ⁓ managing teams on both sides of the pond for an international ⁓ hosting company actually.

⁓ So that's kind of where I started and then I moved over to a software company and that was my home for 13 years and we did amazing things. We had the most incredible team and it was my absolute dream job. Like when I pictured what I wanted to do, it was that job. I was doing everything I wanted to do and it ⁓ was so fulfilling, but it started not to be.

And that's kind of where the story kind of falls off a little bit, unfortunately, is in 2015, I started to deal with pulsatile tinnitus, which meant that when I laid down, my ears would pulse. And it was really scary because I would get yanked awake. I'd lay down and kind of start falling asleep, get yanked awake. And I did all the rounds with the doctors here.

I'm in Northern Utah. So I did all the rounds with the doctors here. No one could really come up with anything. They thought, you know, maybe it's allergies, maybe it's this, maybe it's that. I'd had a couple of sinus surgeries by that point and nothing was really closing that gap. But fortunately for me, my body seemed to calm down. Things were okay for a little bit. My career continued to grow because I had at the...

law enforcement software company, I started out actually as a part-time accountant, worked up to ⁓ director of finance, then VP of finance. So it might, my obviously with those titles, your responsibilities tend to increase, right? So the buck was kind of stopping with me and my body was starting to show it. ⁓ And so about, I think it was about 2019, 2020, my pulsing ⁓ came back with a vengeance. And on top of that,

my body starts blowing up. Like I don't recognize who I am. I don't feel like myself. I just felt it was like almost out of body. Like who is this person? I wasn't sleeping. was anxiety like crazy. ⁓ I had tons of like migraines just like right through here. I would go home and just hold my head. I have three kids. ⁓ My husband stays at home with the kids. And so I'm the sole breadwinner and I'm like trying to power through, but my body is screaming. Unfortunately,

I thought it was a weight problem because like I said, my body was blowing up. I didn't understand that that was a symptom of larger issues. And so instead I started working with a coach and she was doing what I asked her to do, but we were off based on what I needed. ⁓ And so I started working with a coach. She was actually out of Florida. She cut me down to 1200 calories, had me lifting heavy and my body just...

It was like, it was like a balloon. just kept like almost floating. It was insane. And I'm just like, who is this person?

Jen (06:16)
I'm really, really interested about that, that your body was like blowing up. But is this particular tinnitus, is that something that's common or is that like something that's pretty rare that not many people know about?

Michon Covington (06:31)
It's pretty rare. Hence, the doctors had a tough time. They're like, well, and a lot of people say, it's the ringing in your ears. And I'm like, no, no, no. We're not ringing. We're pulsing. So it's like I hear a heartbeat in my ears. And to be honest with you, it's still going on. But we have some solutions. And I'll get to that. But we have some solutions that have been helping. ⁓ But yeah, it's a really rare thing that a lot of people don't deal with. So.

Jen (06:33)
Okay.

Wow. mean, that's like,

so if somebody were to have these symptoms, what are exactly the symptoms that you would say brought you to the doctor to get this looked at?

Michon Covington (07:12)
Well, it was me pulsing. mean, being yanked awake night after night after night ⁓ made me realize like something is not right. And it kind of all ties in with, like I said, I was kind of chasing weight loss, which made it worse. And that's when I realized I met ⁓ a functional nutritionist here. He's incredible. He's on Instagram as fitness Dane. Dane saved my life.

I didn't realize how far gone I was. My body was screaming at me. I'm in this career, like just loving my life, but like so sick. Like my job was incredible, but you're one whole person, right? And so it wasn't working. And so I run into Dane, I'm explaining to him what I'm doing. And, you know, we kind of joke that like he was biting his tongue so hard that it was like gonna bleed because he's like, what you're doing is never going to work.

this is not a weight loss problem. And that's where we can kind of start talking about what happened because I don't want to make this about weight loss. It's about kind of finding your way and finding your journey and loving your body enough to allow yourself to do it. And so I start working with Dane. At the point I started working with Dane, I was VP of Finance at the law enforcement software company. ⁓ Me and two other gentlemen, incredible. know, I kind of joke that they're my older brothers.

love, love, love them. We were running the day to day operations of the company and I loved what we were doing, but I was falling off. was, I was just so much pressure, so much anxiety, just really, really struggling. So I start working with Dane. Dane finds out that I am with the pulsing. I had been ⁓ prescribed muscle relaxers, you know, several Xanax. I was taking Nyquil. I was taking Benadryl, like you name it. I would, I would take like a handful of whatever I could find in my cupboard.

don't advise that. And then I would kind of fall asleep for a couple of hours, wake back up, take more because like that's how I was holding on. And then I had an incredible ⁓ administrative assistant who she was helping. We thought she was helping me, but it was making it worse. She would sit at 44-ounce diet coke on my desk in the morning and then again at lunch because I had to have that caffeine to like even...

function as a human because I was only getting a couple hours a night, you know, sleep and it was kind of drugged sleep. And so it wasn't, you know, really restful.

Jen (09:40)
a lot of people who are in high stress obviously have sleep deprivation. Do you feel like it was the stress that from the job or do you think it was like an amalgamation of the different things that were happening?

Michon Covington (09:53)
I it was an amalgamation. It was a lifestyle problem in that I was push, push, push, push. And then, yes, the stress of the job just started to really weigh on me. I I handled all of the finance, ⁓ the operations of the company. did kind of the legal side. I did the HR. And we were a multimillion, well, they are. I left a multimillion dollar company. And so that was a lot of pressure. So Dane completely strips me off of all this cold turkey.

And you and I had talked about, had another gentleman on your show that had dealt with suicidal ideation and things like that. And that's where I was at that point, because like my body's going, I'm not sleeping. Where did all my meds go? What is happening? And I would go to work. ⁓ I'm gonna tear up. I would go to work and tell my husband I'm not coming home. I couldn't because I didn't feel like myself.

Jen (10:30)
Yes.

Yeah.

Michon Covington (10:50)
and I was scared and I didn't know what was going on in my body. It was like out of body. ⁓ Luckily, Dane kind of held my hand through that. My husband, Colin, was incredible and like propped me up, basically force fed me and made me get through it. And so I've been with Dane for two years and ⁓ we are still working on a lot of things, but.

He pushed me really hard to leave actually that ⁓ company because he said like the stress, everything that's happening, your body's not gonna heal in that environment that's making you sick. Although it was a wonderful environment, we were doing incredible things, like I said, and that's why I emphasize, like I was living my dream life. It was what I wanted to do and still I miss it so much, but he said, we're never gonna heal until we make some changes. We've got to step back a little bit.

Jen (11:46)
Yeah, you know, it's hard when you have this idea of exactly what you want in life and you're striving for it and you've reached that and you feel like, I don't know if I'm putting words in your mouth, but it's the, you've reached that perfection of where you wanted to be and it's actually tearing you apart. And so one other question, what is Dane's background? What exactly is he?

Michon Covington (11:46)
Well

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Jen (12:15)
as a coach.

Michon Covington (12:16)
So ⁓ he's a functional nutritionist. He's trained out of MMU. He works closely with Vince Pitstick. A lot of people know who he is, but he approaches health in a different way. So we did a lot of, I mean, like flushes and things like that, ⁓ kind of from a holistic point of view. Western Med has its place. I have a brother that's a doctor. I love Western medicine. It's incredible.

But I also think like you can do both you can have this functional side that can you know because I've been a million places and no one could tell me what was going on and I think you kind of need both they need to marry both to heal.

So as I'm working, let's see, right before I started working with Dane, they did an angiogram, a venogram, and a lumbar puncture and blew up balloons in my head trying to find a construction for the pulsing. And they couldn't find one. They decided to do this experimental surgery. They had warned me it's experimental. We don't know if it's gonna work. And I was like, put me out of my misery. At least I'll sleep while I'm under. So they put bone paste in my right ear and ⁓ it didn't work. It didn't work. ⁓

So I'm recovering from that. I'm being stripped off of these meds. And I'm, you like I said, I had a lot of suicidal thoughts. I called myself like a rabid raccoon because I would be up all night going through things, you know, because I just I was not sleeping at all. And I was scared to death of what my future held. And I was holding on to this job with white knuckles because I loved it. ⁓ And so I would go to work and push, push, push. And I'd come home and basically die. Like I just could not. I was not functioning as a whole human.

And so, finally, Dane, a year into working with him says like, we've got to change the environment. And I was really fortunate to have a CFO position. I came across that through an old contact in a previous life. And she was allowing me to work from home and manage a team remotely. It was fabulous. I moved into that position and that helped a lot.

It helped a lot because I could do some more of the protocols and things that Dane was asking me to do from my own home because I didn't have to because before I was like carting all this stuff to work to my office. Unfortunately, I had a nice big office. I was really spoiled that way. I had plenty of room for all that. But like I'm carting all of this all over all the time, trying to heal. Well, I I worked in that CFO position. It was a at a company called Integrated. they they do.

front office, so payroll, taxes, bookkeeping, know, insurance, all of the things. I've done business with them for years and then I got to go work with them, but they do all of those things for like the service industry, for construction, for you know, various services. So that those people that are running those businesses can shine in their genius and then we can do all the kind of the nasty stuff that no one wants to do. I love it, but I mean, most people don't enjoy that.

So I worked in that job for about nine months and my heart was being called to do something different and do something more. And I knew it, I felt it it was kind of eating at me. And my health still wasn't like getting up over that hump. I still was pulsing, I still was having flare ups, my immune system still kind of messed up. It's always heightened. My nervous system was dysregulated.

and I had tons of inflammation still dealing with the pulsing. And I knew that I needed to do something that was more aligned with me because that job was still a lot of pressure. I still managing a team, meeting with clients one-on-one, all those things, which I super enjoyed, but the buck stopped with me in that job as well. And it wasn't allowing me to step back like I needed to. So.

I'm not sure why I thought this was a solution, but I decided to step into my own company and launch my own company. Now, of course, that's really stressful as well, but it was stressful on my terms. It was a different kind of stress.

Jen (16:21)
Yeah, yeah, no, I get that. I'm

a career entrepreneur and I've worked for others in the past and I feel like I think I've had the same kind of experience where it feels like, you know, there's not enough control. Even though you have all of this responsibility, there's not a lot of control there for your own life and lifestyle, as you said. So yeah, I get that.

Michon Covington (16:36)
Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Yeah, so I stepped into a role as a financial mentor. I'd been helping people around me for years and years and years. That's kind one of the soft services I would offer at the law enforcement software company is I'd have my team members come in and we'd look at, I had someone ask me, do I pay off debt? And someone asked me.

⁓ what's going on with this tax thing and what can I do here? And so I just had all these inquiries and it very naturally came to me. as my husband and I got our master's degrees, we came out with no debt. We paid off our house at age 36 on an average income, single income with three kids. It's a 3,000 square foot house. Money just came easy for me and I was like, that means I'm supposed to share it. That means I need to share.

how I see money, how I use money with the world, because there's so many people struggling with that. And I think money can help. Not I think, I know money helps heal. Because if not, we have this like stress. But we have this stress constantly and people suffer from it because they're stressed about money. And I've connected with so many people making

you know, several six figures and they're still stressed about money because a lot of us don't get that training. And so that's what I started to do. Yeah, see.

Jen (18:07)
Yeah, no, I didn't. Yeah, I never

got that training. I wish that in school, that was one of the major parts of like high school, was at least one financial ⁓ study at least a year so that children can better understand going out into the world, right? I have no idea how to balance a checkbook when I went into college. I had none of those experiences.

Michon Covington (18:29)
Exactly!

Jen (18:36)
So having someone like you would be an incredible addition for someone. And again, you take away stress in that sense because you understand finances.

Michon Covington (18:47)
And I think we're all here to share our genius. Whatever that is, we all grow together. so, yeah, exactly. felt, you know, kids come out and they're in college and they get hit with, you know, get this credit card, get this credit card. And then so then they build up this credit card debt. Meanwhile, they're building student loan debt. And then they come out of school and they've done this incredible thing. They've earned this degree, whatever they've done. They've learned so much, but they've got all this weighing on their shoulders. And and I thought.

How can I help people with that? And so I started, ⁓ you know, it's, ⁓ I have digital courses where I teach people, you know, pay off your mortgage, like you had mentioned, ⁓ pay off your credit card. I have a signature course called Cascade Method, which allows you to see 12 months of your expenses. You look at your burn rate, you look at any patterns that you have in your spending. We talk about emotional triggers and those habits and just really stepping into your power.

And because I think that the money is energy and we have to use it and use it for what we're aligned with. Every time we spend money, we're kind of voting for whatever we're spending money on. And when we do that, that relieves a lot of the stress as long as we're aligned, right?

Jen (20:04)
Absolutely.

Michon Covington (20:09)
And so I try to work on those things with people as like, let's kind of work on some mindset pieces and bring down that stress, recognize some of our stress triggers. Let's also work on the actual mechanics of how do we pay off a credit card? What does that look like? How much is the interest costing us? The mortgage, how can we get through our mortgage? Because a lot of people look at it as a life sentence and I'm here to tell you it's not, it doesn't have to be. so that's me trying to spread that healing message of

Let's let our finances support these dream lives because we have all these incredible people out here, like I said, living in their genius, doing these amazing things and they still have this going on and we've got enough stress. We don't need more.

Jen (20:53)
Yeah, you know, I

am famously known for being terrified of finances. have, yeah, I have a fear of specifically, you know, taxes, even though I'm very specific, I do everything I need to do, I have this incredible fear like they're the financial authority. So, and for me, authority figures are very frightening.

Michon Covington (21:01)
Okay.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Jen (21:20)
And this stems back to when I was young and my own trauma. But like you said, there is an emotional side to money for people. Can you talk a little bit more about that? Some of the examples that you've seen of emotional, ⁓ just fears that come around money.

Michon Covington (21:20)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Well, yes, and I see it all the time. Like you're definitely not alone, right? Taxes are scary for people because they don't really understand them. And then we've got the IRS out here and it's always like this looming older brother that like could come in and audit you, what could happen? you know, something that I don't appreciate is we have a lot of people right now playing on the tariffs and really fear-mongering. And I'm like, hang on, people are already stressed enough.

Jen (21:50)
Thank

Michon Covington (22:09)
If people can live with clarity and really decide what they want their dream life to look like, we can align their spending with that. So I walk through that with people. In fact, I was on a podcast yesterday and the gal shared that she has a client that was spending $500 a month on DoorDash. And so when we talk about that, OK, so the emotional side of it, I said, yes, I look at the five whys.

Why is she doing that? Why? Why? Why? And really, why? Probably because that woman has a super stressful job. I didn't get to talk to her, so I'm talking, you know, third hand from from yesterday's podcast. But this woman has a super stressful job. And when she gets home, she needs a convenience. She needs she and maybe she takes comfort in that food. OK, so how do we relieve that? That's how money is is tied to those emotions, because how do we deal with that? How do we deal with that super stressful job?

so that then we're not spending on DoorDash that, mean, we all love a little DoorDash, but $500 a month adds up real quick. And so how do we deal with that? And so I like to get to kind of your root cause of what's going on and use money as a healing tool. So that's how I approach that. I've seen people just really struggle under debt and feel so much shame and so much frustration and something that I try to message to people. I feel like,

You know, this is a weird, I mean, it's a made up statistic, but I'll say based on the people that I have helped, 99 % of people didn't get debt because they're out spending frivolously and whatever. It's because they're fighters. It's because they're fighters and they made it through hell and they use that as a crutch. And now they don't need to be shamed. They need help.

Like you said, like they, the financial education piece was missing. So they use that as a crutch. And now people are telling them, my gosh, you've got so much credit card debt. You'll never get out of it. Look at all this interest. No, no, you can get out of it and someone can help you. can help you. that, because that's my, my genius. That's where I can help so that they can live here and it gives room for healing or whatever it is they need to do because they just fought like hell.

And that's why they have that debt. I just, I very rarely come across someone that hasn't been through it, through life. know, life rings our bells. And, you know, I don't see people really abusing the credit card that way. And so I like to approach it with no shame, no guilt. And in fact, like, let's celebrate you and celebrate what you've made it through.

And let's get this paid off so you don't deal with that stress. So this isn't back here anymore because that's one more thing that's going to block you from living your dream life. So let's get you through it so that you are then open to receiving this dream life because you deserve it as much as the next person. And so that's kind of that. That's how I approach finances is just a little bit different. I'm not here to shame to fear monger. None of that. I want to align people with what the dream life they want and let's go get it. And I'll show you how.

Jen (25:24)
Yeah,

yeah. What are some of the other questions that you have for people?

Michon Covington (25:30)
⁓ Other questions in terms of finance or?

Jen (25:33)
Yeah,

when you say you ask a few questions, the why does she do this, you yeah, you said there were a couple of questions that you have.

Michon Covington (25:42)
Yes, so I like to look at emotional triggers. So something that I move through in my digital courses is we'll look at what triggered that. Was it a late night? I'm really, you know, anxious or something. So I'm on my phone at night and I'm on Amazon and I'm buying these things. People don't realize how quickly that adds up. So it's like, you know, it does add up quick. And so that's something I advise. say if it's not an emergency, which it usually isn't, put it in your cart. You leave that for a week.

Jen (26:02)
I do. I do.

Michon Covington (26:12)
And if you come back and you're like, no, I need that thing, buy it, buy it. Because we have our cake and we eat it too over here. But we got to decide if that's a cake we want to eat. ⁓ so I really there's, it's more about the why always about the why we just always dig and dig and dig to the why to the very core of what's going on. Why was, you know, why did that person have that trigger? What habit is has been formed so that they are, you know,

experiencing that trigger like that woman with the door dash what's going on there and so I those are the kinds of questions I ask my clients just why why why and and I kind of make them it kind of gets to kind of a tough spot sometimes for people like I maybe they don't want to explore that but when we can explore their money story what's going on because really money like I said is energy and when we can get to the root of that they can kind of they can let it go

or they can start recognizing that behavior and either stop it in its tracks, you know, or, you know, play into it if they need to, but they recognize it. And I'd like to arm them with that and arm them with the confidence that they have the control. They're not out of control. They are infinitely powerful and they can choose.

And if you do choose to get DoorDash or order Amazon at 11 o'clock at night, there's a reason and I'm not here to shame you. We deal with that too. We deal with that and we address that deeper issue and we get you back on the path where you want to be.

Jen (27:46)
That sounds amazing. there really is that real emotional trigger for people. And it can be just about anything, right? I'm sure you've seen run the gambit of different triggers for people.

Michon Covington (27:48)
So.

Yes, yes. Well, and for me, where I've lived that healing story and I'm still in it, I can relate to a lot of things. It's been very, very humbling as I've worked through that and notice what my triggers are. know, as I was so sick, I was willing to spend money on conveniences and things like that. And of course, we get charged for the convenience. Like, so that's that's kind of how I marry the two. Like, you know, I've walked through fire.

someone else's walk through fire and we're here and we're going to get your finances in order and we're going to do it peacefully with no stress, no shame, and we're going to just show you how much control and power you have. So that's just always my approach is arming people with that confidence because I think when we have that confidence, we make different decisions. So.

Jen (28:47)
Absolutely.

Yeah. Yeah, it must be a hard road for many people he work with, though. I can just see myself resisting. Do you get a lot of resistors?

Michon Covington (28:58)
haha

I I do. you know, it is delicate because money is very personal, right? It's very personal. And that's why it's approached without like the pressure and the shame. It's approached with like, I am here to help you and I can help you find that confidence and that power and you're loved. Like you're okay, we got this. And I think if we can start from a place like that.

that changes the conversation. Because then, like you said, the resisting, the walls aren't as high. They're still going to be there. They're still going to be there and we're going to work through them. But the walls aren't as high. Those walls, you know, we start to lower those walls because there's trust. And it's like, I have your best interest at heart. I really, really, really want you to win in this. I've had incredible coaches, just like Dane coached me with my health, still is, coached me with my health. And that's his genius.

and he kind of held my hand through that, that brought down my resistance. I try to replicate that type of behavior. I also work with an energy healer and she does incredible things that way to help me deal with some of the trauma and responses like that. And so she has helped me understand a lot of that and I try to pass on that type of approach to my clients and then through my digital courses as well.

Jen (30:24)
So let's say a woman comes to you and she's just so overwhelmed. She doesn't know what she's looking at when she looks at her bank account or the bills that are coming in. How do you start working with her?

Michon Covington (30:39)
Okay, so first thing I would do, I have, so I mentioned I have that cash cascade method ⁓ tool. And so it has several different tabs, but the main thing is, is that you can see, we would lay out her cash. So we would go through an intentional spending plan. We'd say, okay, where are we at with things? What are we spending on now? And I don't ever say we're doing a budget. Budget sounds like diet. Nobody wants that, right? Like nobody wants that.

Jen (31:05)
Yeah, that's right.

Michon Covington (31:06)
And

Jen (31:06)
Nope.

Michon Covington (31:06)
so we're not doing that. We are literally just logging what's been happening. So I say pull out three months worth of statements. Let's just pick through this. And then we get it on the cash cascade. And what they see on the next tab is I call it the burn rate. So it's the amount of cash they're burning through. And it lines up your spending over like the 12 months. And you can see where maybe we have some things that maybe don't align with our goals.

I also like to look at people's paychecks. Where I worked in HR, I was finance at NHR, the law enforcement software company. I cannot count the number of people that did not pay attention to what's being deducted from their paycheck. There's so much money there. People will celebrate getting a tax return and I'm like, oh good, so you gave someone an interest-free loan. No, we don't do that. That's money coming out of your check that could get you closer to your goals.

And are we investing in our retirement? If so, are we doing that in the right container? There's the traditional versus the raw. So I like to walk people through their deductions as well, because people just assume that their employers are looking out for them. And they might be, but a lot of employers are cutting the check just according to the information you gave them. And if you did not take the time to make sure that you fit those deductions into your goals, or maybe you didn't understand them, maybe they weren't, you know,

⁓ discussed the right way for you, you're losing money every month out of that paycheck. And so like there's that top level. And then we look at credit card spend and, we identify credit card spend targets because I don't like that we have that like the emotional piece removed when we swipe. It's like, we don't feel that pain. And I want you to feel pain every time, but there's that, that removed piece where people aren't

filling that resistance of, I'm handing over a $50 bill, right? We don't live in that world anymore, but we have to look at what's going on the credit card and make sure that we're really looking close that it aligns with what we want. Are we voting for the right things? So that's where I would start is lay her out on that, lay all her finances out, go through that intentional spending plan. And then, you know, I do case studies in some of my courses in the Cash Cascade Accelerator.

We have a case study on a real life family and like, how do we make a family with hobbies, with debts, with careers, all these things, how do we make that family work through some of these things? And we go through and we say, okay, this family wants to pay off their credit card. They've got $5,000 of credit card debt. Okay, well right now they're not even meeting their needs because they're overspending. And so we go through and we just pinch a little here, pinch a little here.

We don't say never going on vacation and never do, no, life is meant to be lived. We just pinch a little bit. And that's what the model does is it shows us, okay, how much more do we need to take so that we can meet our obligations? And do we need to turn a little more off and turn around and put that towards our credit card? Because then that relieves stress. And so that's what it is, is it's basically just shining a light on things and creating a map so that you can see where you're at. And I don't want people going on diets.

Because what happens when we go on diets? We go in the pantry and we eat all the Oreos because we've been starving for a week, right? And then that just undoes all the work we've done. And so we don't do that. That's why I said we have our cake and we eat it too. I want both. We're going to live this really fun, exciting, rich life and meet our financial goals. It can be done. I've helped several clients do it. I've done it myself. And I want people to know that there's that peace out there and that finances can be that healing piece for them.

Jen (34:36)
Right.

Michon Covington (34:53)
It doesn't have to be a stress.

Jen (34:55)
Well, you are a quote, wealth of information on financials. Wow. It's incredible. Well, your outlook is incredible. It, it, it makes sense. And I think that's what a lot of people are looking for, how to make sense of money in general. How do we understand our own selves through money?

Michon Covington (34:59)
Yeah, I'm passionate about it.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. It is an.

Jen (35:22)
It's crazy, right? So you are

that, you are that like beacon of hope.

Michon Covington (35:29)
Well, I hope

I hope I can't, you I know I've helped a lot of people and I just would really like to reach even more because I just see so many people struggling and I'm like, it doesn't have to be so hard. Let someone help you. I feel like that's what we're all here for. Right. And, you know, I can't remember if we were recording when you and I talked and I said, I'm here to share my story because like stories help each other. We're all here to grow together. And so I walked through hell. Someone else has walked through hell. You know, we talked about

the gentleman that you had on that talked about the suicidal ideation, things like that. Your episode with him helped me because I've lived that and I have people close around me who are living it now. And so like he shared that story that lifted me up. I'm sharing my story. I hope that lifts someone else up and sharing the finance piece and how we can let that serve and get us out of situations like I've helped people leave toxic situations because we armed them with their finances and with the confidence so they're.

They don't

Jen (36:28)
That is so important.

Yeah, you know, when you're looking at ⁓ a person who's in maybe a domestic situation where they are being financially abused as well as other abuses, it's important for them to feel not the victim in it, that they can pull themselves out and get the money they need to leave if they have to.

Michon Covington (36:52)
Mm hmm. It's I think it's key and it just I actually was on with because I also do small business. So I was on with a client earlier and ⁓ I said, you know, when I arm you with the confidence, you can act like you have that confidence. Right. Like like when you know your finances are in order, you have it just makes you feel like you have more power. You have that confidence. And so it's like, how do we

how do we give people that? So like if someone needs to leave that hard domestic situation or someone needs to leave a toxic job or whatever it is, we can arm them with that confidence and that peace because it's already hard enough. They don't need to worry about finances on top of everything else they're going through. So let's arm them with that confidence so that they at least have the peace with that. They know they're not gonna be on the street, that they're gonna be okay. Because I mean, a lot of times in a domestic situation, mama's got babies with her too, right? And she's got to make sure she's got

they're fed and they're taken care of. So I just, when you arm them with the confidence, they can get out there and act with that confidence and it just spreads.

Jen (38:00)
Yeah, it

does. And that's beautiful. That's a beautiful thing to be able to give to someone who is in such a pressure situation, to give them hope that they can survive outside of a relationship or outside of a job that is toxic to them. It's great. ⁓

Michon Covington (38:16)
Mm-hmm. Yep,

that's why I say we're all here to share our gifts. And if we do that, then we can help each other grow. I mean, you're here podcasting, right? Like, and you're sharing these incredible, impactful stories. That's so powerful. It's so powerful because people, this is giving people a chance to share those messages and enhance everyone's lives. And so it's when we share that genius, we all get better together.

Jen (38:21)
That's right.

That's right.

Yes, we do. Tell us where we can find you.

Michon Covington (38:47)
Sure, so I have a website, it's michoncovington.com. We'll have to drop the link because my parents blessed me with this name that no one can spell. But we'll drop the link. man, so I always have to spell my name. But so I have a website where you can find all the information about me. You can see how to work with me.

Jen (38:55)
I'll be sure to spell it constantly in the show notes. I'll keep putting it in there.

Michon Covington (39:10)
I'm also on Instagram, of course, and I'm Michon P. Covington because believe it or not, someone had taken Michon Covington. I thought who else could possibly have that name? But anyway, it was taken. So we're Michon P. Covington over there. And I share a lot of insight there as well. I'm on LinkedIn as well as Michon Covington. And I just I will say I'll invite you. I love hearing from people I love. You know, even if it's a little messy, let's chat. Let's get through it together.

So I love hearing from people. I would love to hear where you're at with things, whatever's going on with you. It's not an assistant answering my stuff. I'm very passionate about making sure that it's me answering and talking to people and supporting them. So.

Jen (39:56)
Thank you so much. And that that's what we all need out there in the world. We need people who are willing to listen and to give us a little help when we need it.

Michon Covington (40:07)
Yes, absolutely.

Jen (40:08)
Well, thank you so much for this conversation. was, again, quote, a wealth of information. And you are, you know, you're beautiful for sharing that part of things that can be so scary and messy for others.

Michon Covington (40:25)
Well, thank you. I appreciate you having me on. It's so fun to connect with people.

Jen (40:29)
It is. Yes. Thanks.

When Not Yet Becomes Right Now (40:34)
Thank you for joining us for this episode of the podcast. This show is produced by Phoenix Freed LLC, and I'm your producer, Jen Ginty We hope you found today's conversation insightful and inspiring. If you have a story of your own about when a not yet moment became a right now, we encourage you to reach out and share it. You can find more information about being a guest on our show at whennotyetbecomesrightnow.com. Remember, you are not alone on your journey, whether it's a journey of healing,

growth or transformation. Every story matters. Thank you for listening and we'll catch you next time with another inspiring episode.