Lauren has a ton of insight to share on a variety of topics including both personal finance and building a business, but today’s episode is actually pretty special because we’re not really talking about any of those things, Lauren is actually sharing something a lot more personal and a story she’s never told publicly before.

You guys, this is a story you most definitely need to hear and I just want to start before we jump in by applauding her in the courage it took to open up and share some of her hardest lessons over the past couple of years with so much honesty and so much vulnerability.

Highlights

[04:45] – Lauren and Ruth go way back to the days of coupon deal blogging.
[05:37] – Lauren is a personal finance consumer savings expert. You can find her work at LaurenGreutman.Com which was formerly IamThatLady.com. She started as a coupon deal blogger and then evolved into budgeting and personal finance.
[06:13] – She also tackles a lot of the psychology behind why we spend.
[06:54] – She has also been on the Today Show, Rachael Ray, Fox News, and many other big shows.
[07:14] – Lauren also wrote a book on personal finance and getting your budget under control called The Recovering Spender.
[07:28] – Recovering means that she will always struggle with spending.
[07:48] – In 2010, Lauren started here website as a means to get out of $40,000 in debt. Out of necessity she started learning how to coupon.
[08:33] – She used to spend and hide stuff and make excuses for her spending.
[09:20] – Your why has to be greater then why you spend your money. When you figure the emotional stuff out the spending follows.
[11:09] – To get over the aspects of emotional spending, you need to understand your weaknesses.
[13:05] – Lauren shares an example of where she still struggles with making decisions based on her why.
[16:29] – Lauren is actually a recovering alcoholic as well. In 2017, her life fell apart. She was on a book tour, her social media and web presence were perfect, but she was drinking herself to death.
[17:06] – Lauren embraced the mommy wine culture, but the problem was that she doesn’t drink like other people.
[18:01] – When life got hard and it was too much, she started drinking again. She started hiding her drinking and going to different liquor stores, so people wouldn’t know how much she was buying.
[19:19] – In 2017, she realized that enough was enough and checked herself into rehab. She then went dark on the Internet.
[21:24] – She was in rehab for 35 days and then lived in a halfway house.
[21:57] – Lauren shares a story about how she was almost too drunk to be on the Today Show.
[23:41] – Her kids were 11, 7, 5, and 3 years old.
[24:30] – Lauren was completely broken and wanted the darkness gone.
[25:02] – The best and worst part about getting sober is that you get your feelings back.
[25:39] – She did a lot of therapy and really tried to simplify life.
[26:52] – She was still keeping busy in order to try not to feel.
[27:19] – She has been sober for two and a half years now and is just finally getting back to work in the last 3 months.
[29:54] – Lauren got divorced, met a new guy, and got engaged. There was no rule book for how to share all of this with the public.
[34:41] – You can only share your part of the story online.
[39:23] – You are worth getting help, and you can’t help other people unless you help yourself. It’s hard to give yourself permission to say I need help.
[40:37] – Having so much shame can put you into deep denial.
[41:29] – You have to take care of yourself regardless of what your husband or your kids think.
[42:55] – Everyone has their own journey. You have to figure out what is best for you.
[44:35] – Lauren now works from the backroom in her house. She has shared custody of her kids with her ex-husband.
[45:32] – She also started saying no to TV.
[47:04] – Her business supported her while she was in recovery. Her job is such a gift. She gets to share what she loves with people and spend time with her kids.
[49:13] – Lauren spent some time discovering the things she loves doing and the things that she hates doing. One of the things that she hates is writing.
[50:04] – She loves video creation, so she is focusing on YouTube.
[51:11] – She has someone write articles about her YouTube videos.
[53:39] – The best piece of advice is that you aren’t that important. Focus on other people’s lives and how you can be of serve them.