8 Aug 2025
Out With The Old and In With The Collective Wellness Revival!
Hello, Martinis and Your Money listeners! Whether you just found the show or were a longtime listener, I wanted to hop on here and share what's been happening in my life since I stopped recording new episodes at the end of 2024. As many of you know, in 2013, I founded the company Financial Gym and ran the company through good days and bad days until March 15th, 2025. On that date, I had the unthinkable happen to me, at least what was unthinkable to me. I had a mental health breakdown that led to me being taken from my home, pantsless, and in handcuffs. Yep, you heard that right. This type A overachiever had something unthinkable happen, and this was never a scenario that I had on my life bingo card. But yet, there I was, and that was the hand I was dealt. After three days in the institution, I knew I needed a break from work, so I put in for a mental health leave until May 1st. Immediately while I was on leave, the investors of the company decided to sell Financial Gym to a wealth management company run by two men. For those of you who don't know me, I left Merrill Lynch in 2013 to create something different, and now all of my 12 years of life focused on serving the underserved and bringing change in their lives was erased, and I was being asked to move backward in time. It was a gut punch to say the least, but it was also an answer to prayers I had been praying, and that was the opportunity to take Financial Gym and financial wellness in a different direction. It gave me the freedom to leave and start Collective Wellness Revival, a truly one-of-a-kind wellness company that I think we all need in our lives. I spent the last 12 years of my life in the most intimate way possible, diving deep into people's money habits and behaviors, and while I was doing that, I kept noticing the interconnectedness of financial wellness with the other areas of wellness, predominantly your physical and your mental wellness. There were many times where I almost felt it was wrong to offer people financial wellness, while also not offering them mental and physical wellness. Well, three days in a mental institution actually also reminded me there's a fourth area of wellness, and that is your spiritual or soul level wellness, the area deep down inside most of us that we never get to attack because we're like hamsters on a wheel just trying to get through the surface level areas of life. But we are all beautiful and connected souls here for a reason but life “lifes” us, all of us really hard. And especially the last few months and our souls get lost in the process. I've realized that I've been on my own soul discovery journey for the past 17 years. And in the past five months, since I left my Gym journey, I've been given the gift to truly learn, know, and understand the soul behind Shannon. I knew I wanted to create a company like this for years, and I'm grateful for three powerhouse women stepping in and stepping up to help me launch the first stage of this company, which is a one-of-a-kind, one-on-one coaching program. For one monthly fee, you can work on any area of wellness you choose. Every wellness journey is unique, and now you can explore all areas of your wellness: mind, body, money, and soul under one tent. And coaching is just the beginning. Our big goal is to grow a collective of like-minded women and our allies to support and encourage each other through these crazy and chaotic times we live in. This is the perfect time for everyone to work on the most epic project of our lives. And that's us. I think of the revival as the perfect place to work on Project YOU. Who are YOU? Why are YOU here? What do YOU want to do in life? Most of us are living who we think we are. Daughters, sisters, mothers, partners, co-workers, bosses, CEOs. But none of us, none of us are really these roles. They're just roles we get to play in this life. They're not really who we are. If you want to explore YOU deeper and work with me as a coach,
