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Welcome to Easy Money. I’m Jill the Money Coach. I know what it’s like to push through to white knuckle it to put in the time and get no results. I know what it’s like to wonder what’s the right way, and to constantly worry about doing it all wrong. I’ve learned a whole lot from doing things the hard way. That’s why I help coaches go from doing everything the hard way to making money easy. You want to create your dream life and dream business. That’s all about being free to do what you want. Spend what you want, and build the future you want. And do it all with ease. In this podcast, I bring you Simple Strategies for Success for your business that make money easy. So it’s time for Easy Money. Are you ready? Well, then let’s go. 

Hello, and welcome back to Easy Money. I’m Jill Wright. And I hope you’re having an absolutely amazing summer so far. I know. It’s just the beginning of summer, but it goes by so fast. I want to make sure that you take the time and just enjoy the time that you have. The summer and or holiday weekend is upon us. So I hope you have a happy and safe holiday weekend if you’re in the US, or celebrating Fourth of July weekend Independence Day. So I am so excited to introduce today’s guest. Tricia Zody is a Christian woman who has a passion for creating freedom for her Christian sisters, so they can live out their God designed purpose. Her unique approach mixes the power of Biblical faith with brain science, our faith is powerful. Isn’t that the truth? The combination of the two is unimaginable. And that’s what she uses to create another beautiful life. So here’s how she describes what brought her to coaching. She tells this powerful story. In 2017. After the tragic death of my husband of 30 years, I found myself in a place of despair, overwhelm, and vulnerability like I had never experienced before. I had no idea how I would go on much less believe I could live a beautiful life again. I grew up in the Christian church and dedicated my life to Christ at an early age. Yet when my husband died by suicide, I questioned everything I believed about God. I had a quote quite crisis of faith, unquote. It was then that I heard God whisper quote, Trisha, you can have another beautiful life. Follow me. Isn’t that beautiful? You are absolutely going to love this conversation with Tricia. Enjoy. Hey, Tricia, it is so great to have you on the podcast. I’m so glad we finally made this happen because I love chatting with you.

Yes, me too. Jill. Thank you for having me. It’s such a privilege to be here with you and your listeners on Easy Money Podcast.

Yeah, that’s great. So what I usually do to start us off because I’ve already shared the the official bio, but what I like to share with people is something about you that they might not know or something that you know you do for fun or something interesting that you love about yourself.

Oh, something interesting I love about myself. Okay, so now we’re gonna get into the value part of right of living, right? What value about yourself? Only the easiest question anybody can answer right? So no, I. So a little bit about me. I have spent most of my life in women’s ministry. And I’ve had the privilege of teaching Bible study mentoring women. I’ve had the privilege of raising my three beautiful children. After my first child was born, I left corporate and stayed home to raise my kids. So I’ve had the privilege of volunteering in their classrooms, and then any kind of volunteerism, I chose to do. I just had the privilege of doing that and supporting my husband. He had his own business and was able to do that so I lived such a beautiful life. It wasn’t easy, right? Like it’s not easy with it always comes with challenges, but I really felt like I was living the dream being living the dream I have had amazing experiences in my life, I have had an opportunity to record three music albums, Christian worship out albums, and been in the Nashville scene for a while. So right there where you are just absolutely love Nashville. And so I’ve had to so many amazing experiences in my life. Just I feel just so I don’t know, full and blessed of just the opportunities that have come my way and the support that I’ve received from that. And then the just the open doors that I can say only were opened by God’s grace, by his design. In fact, sometimes it looked crazy. Some of the things that happened, I once I wrote a song that won a songwriting contest, and then went on to a bigger songwriting contest and one that when and then when another one. And so it kind of exploded, and then gave me an opportunity to have a lot of my music sung around the United States, picked up and sung in some churches, even across in the UK, they were singing some of my songs in there isn’t that kind of crazy how it worked. So, and that was just honestly, it was, I want to say it was a fluke it was so God, it was just everything that happened and transpired, all the doors that were open, for me in that season, was just by his design, and I just kind of, I just kind of rode on that wave, it was just so much fun. So I had an opportunity to go and do a lot of singing. You know, and do I did women’s retreats, I’d lead lead worship there. And then that led into speaking events. So I’ve just, I don’t know, I’ve just had said, a really cool life, actually, I’ve had a lot of fun with my life. And then now I am a recent widow, after 30 years of being married to my husband, my college sweetheart, and, and then after his suicide, I’ve found myself in a completely different place in my life. And I’ve just described to you and I’ve had to learn to live another beautiful life, I had a beautiful life then. And I’ve had to learn to live another beautiful life. And I’d love to share that story how I even came to that that was just by God’s power in his moving in my life to tell me at that time, when I was feeling most desperate, and most just weary, feeling like I didn’t want to go on I couldn’t go on like my life is over, right? I can all with the dreams and the desires that I’d had for our future. They were gone when he passed away. And it was then that the Lord so graciously, you know, stepped into that dark place and said, you know, Trisha, you can have another beautiful life. And it may not look like the last 30 years that you had with your husband or what you even trained to have in the future. But it can be beautiful, and it can be good. And so that’s when I decided that yes, we’re going to make this good and stepped into that. So it’s unfolding, you know, my husband’s been gone now for August will be five years. So it’s a journey. I haven’t all figured it out yet. It’s it’s just, you know, it’s just one step at a time.

Yeah, that’s so that’s such an amazing story and such hope for people out there that are struggling, whether they’re widows or whether they’ve experienced breakups or divorce, or just any life events, you know, those tough events that just make things really hard. And I think a lot of my audience can probably relate to some of that as well, because the things that brought them to coaching, you know, we’re things that were just really tough times in their life and and we can all suffer tough times even and, and I think as coaches I mean, really as people, we tend to, to look at what we’re struggling with, and maybe compare that to what somebody else is struggling with. And maybe say, Oh, well, that’s so minor, you know, like, I might be struggling emotionally. But I might not have a real apparent reason for that struggle. And I might look at somebody who’s lost their husband and say, Oh, well that’s the she has at least has a good reason to be struggling. I don’t even have a reason to be struggling. And so then piles on the layers of judgment and then what we start believing about ourselves, if we feel this way when we don’t have quote a reason or we don’t deserve to feel this way. And so you know, part of that speaks to how we value ourselves. You know, do we deserve that dream and hope for another beautiful life, regardless of what brought us to our current struggles, or the struggles that are still unfolding for us?

Yes, absolutely. And I love that. Because there have been so many times when someone has come to me and shared what they’re struggling with. And they preface it by saying, and I know, it’s not as big of a deal as you losing your husband, I know that you know. And so what I always tell people is, it doesn’t matter what it is, if it’s your pain, it’s your pain. If it’s your pain, it’s as big as my pain is, it just doesn’t matter. So we know, we do need to stop comparing, you know, events, pain struggles, that sort of thing. And just own the fact that if it hurts you, it hurts. And it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s valid, you know, it’s not something to be shoved under the rug. Because, yeah, it because it’ll get it will get us in trouble if we don’t, if we don’t attend to it, and I’d love you know, we’ll get into the mindset part of life, but it does remind me that, you know, there may be someone out there that’s listening, that literally hasn’t have had a life change or a trans needed transition. But here’s the beautiful thing, you can just decide to make a change to reinvent yourself as you would or to just decide, I’m going to have another beautiful life, and it’s just going to look different than I’ve had before. And it’s just a choice anyone gets to make it, which is a beautiful thing. So I I had a choice in my situation, I was I was forced to make a choice. But you know, I could have chosen not to have a another beautiful life. I could have chosen to sit and wallow in the pain and the sorrow and the suffering and the loss and the grief for the rest of my life. And sadly, I do know people who have chosen that. Yeah. So I, you know, my encouragement, yes, this to anyone is one you could choose it even if you haven’t had this life change, but to if you’ve had a life change, it’s beautiful. On the other side, it may not look like what you wanted, but it is beautiful. And it’s good to use it. It’s so much better than where you are right now wallowing in the mud and the muck and the mire of all of the pain. Right in the struggle. Yeah.

So I would love to get into a little bit of the how, how do you choose that for yourself? What? What is it for somebody who maybe hasn’t taken that step and somebody who has a hard time believing that? What they want is possible for them? Whether it’s a business, whether it’s another beautiful life, whether, you know, whatever that another beautiful life looks like for them? How? How can they make it easier on themselves?

Well, for me, I’m a woman of faith. Alright, so believing what the Lord says about me and for me, and believing His promises are is really first and foremost in my life. So faith is the assurance of things that are hoped for the conviction of things not saying, right. So faith is where the magic is. It’s where the supernatural shows up. And that is, it’s living a life of extreme adventure, where you don’t know how something is going to work, or something’s going to show up. You just know it is and that is exciting life. So for me, when I’m in this darkness, and this deep darkness, and literally Jill just thought, you know, I might as well have just died right there by him. I just I’m done. I’m over, I have nothing more to live for. And in that darkness is when when God said no, no, no, you can, you can, but but he was giving me an opportunity to make a choice. And I just had to say yes to it. I didn’t need to know how I just needed to believe that I could. I needed to have faith that he was saying I could that I certainly could. And all I needed to do was take one step, and then the next step and the next step. Because especially if you’ve had a traumatic event, you’ve had something that’s pushed, you forced you into making this choice. It’s very daunting to think how do I create it? What do I do that, in fact, a lot of times you don’t even have the strength or the wherewithal to do the next thing. So sometimes just by saying yes to the faith piece of it, like I have no idea how it’s going to happen, but I trust that it’s going to and whatever you lay before me, I’ll just take that next step. That faith begets all kinds of opportunities and open doors and an opportunity for your eyes to see with a new through a new lens, new perspectives of things that you may have never been able to see before. And new opportunities, new possibilities in your life. And that’s just that’s, again, kind of going back to the mindset piece. When you say yes, you open up your mind to those possibilities. When you say no, you’ve closed it off, you’ve filtered everything else out. So just by saying, Yes, you are privy to all kinds of things that you’ve never seen before. So that’s just the first step. So that’s what I would say to that person. That’s, that’s wanting that next. Another beautiful life or create something new is just say yes. And just believe that it’s possible. You might not know how but believe that it’s possible, open up your mind, to the possibilities and watch it unfold. It’s just so be it is exciting. It’s an adventure for sure. Yeah.

Yeah. So say yes to the possibility. Because no, closes the door. So I’m like that. So yeah, and it reminds me a little bit of my journey. When I found coaching. It was I was just in I was really, in a life event transition so much as I had come to this kind of place. In my corporate career that I was like, you know, I’ve tried a couple of different things, and I never have felt like it. I have really belonged here. And in a way that was like, there just always felt like there was supposed to be more and I know a lot of people can relate to this. So it and a lot of that, of course is our thinking. And, and so it was my thinking that made me miserable in my corporate job, not necessarily my corporate job. And I learned that after I found life coaching, but after I had already made the decision to leave corporate for life coaching, just in that journey, but you know, one of the things that led me is I was we have a group of women in my neighborhood that get together to do Bible studies together. And we were doing at the time we were doing personal shires, the voice of God. And that as I was going through that study, is when he began to make clear to me this next path, this, this thing that he was asking me to say yes to, and the way you described, it, was exactly how I experienced it. And I’m getting childrens, just thinking about it again. But that’s exactly how it happened is he? I knew he had closed a couple of doors like I had started. I had started looking for other jobs, and I had applied for a couple one was was Dave Ramsey’s Dave Ramsey solutions I had applied for a job there, which I was perfectly qualified for, but they didn’t even interview me was like, to me, that was clearly God saying, No, that’s not for you. I mean, it felt pretty, it felt pretty clear to me. And, and when I did that, I also felt him saying, no, just stay right where you’re at just bloom where you’re planted. Just be patient. And so when I started doing this study about the voice of God, I started seeing things happen. I started feeling things happen. And it was just as you described, I would just hear him call me to the next step. And I can’t recall this was flipped five years ago, around five years ago. But I, I would take that next step, not having a clue what lie beyond that next step. It was pure faith. And then I would take that next step, and then he would light up almost like stepping stones, he would light up the next stone in that path. And I again, I wouldn’t see beyond it. But I would take that next step out of faith. And he would light up the next one. And that’s exactly how that whole transition happened for me, was just he would light up the next step. I would take it and he was light up the next step he would take, I would take it. I just kept saying yes to whatever he prompted me to do out of faith, and everybody kept telling me Oh, you’re so brave and stuff, but I didn’t feel brave. But, but now that I look back on it, I’m like, okay, I can see what they’re talking about now, but I didn’t feel Don’t worry about it’s just like, it was just it just felt so clear to me that what I needed to do and how I needed to respond to his promptings so good, I love that story. And you know, a couple of things that came to mind when you were saying that Jill is, you were talking about feeling the discomfort in your job, right? That discomfort is made to move us. A lot of times we think we think, Oh, this is this is happening to me, and this is awful. But what if it’s happening for you? Like, what if that’s what God is using to get you to move out of your job, right? You’re thinking, Oh, this is miserable, I’m miserable. I’m a, I’m a loser. I’m a failure. I can’t keep this job or whatever. And in fact, is the Lord really making things uncomfortable for you, so that you will step out and move to the next thing, sometimes he needs to create that situation. We don’t just we don’t hear him very clearly, we’re not listening very clearly. And he’s like, Alright, let me do something to make some discomfort, right. So social, want to move out. So I do love that I love I love even being able to see, you know, in the midst of discomfort, being able to kind of pull back as that as that observer and say, How is this happening for me and not against me? Right? And then and then opening your eyes to the possibility of whatever might be next, because that’s exciting. Right now, you’re new, you’re in a completely different energy now.

Right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it makes me think, you know, just when the change, when the pain of staying the same exceeds the pain of changing, that’s when we change. And so it’s almost like he was facilitating that, that pain to, to make me willing to say, Yes, Lord, whatever you have, right, you know, and I do it forward. Yeah, I don’t want to encourage your listeners to really even take a look at their, their own life. Because I remember my husband, he was working for someone else. He was the only salesman in the country, he was making a ton of money for this business. And he had been working all these years and and he really had come up in the industry as that man that everyone wanted to work with no matter where he is going. His customers would follow him. So you know, I said, you you start your own business, you realize this, you you can start your own business, and the money that you’re making for this other company for this other family, you can actually make this for our family, right? And because he was only getting paid a fraction of what he was bringing in for that for that company, right. So but he wouldn’t do it he wouldn’t do it he wouldn’t he was such a loyal loyal or and and there’s probably some fear there. He was the sole breadwinner, you know, we there was five of us, you know, me and three kids. And he was he was responsible for us right financially. So it was probably some fear, and he liked the stability. But what ended up happening is that family sold the business to a company up in New York and they didn’t know anything about Brian, they didn’t realize that he really was the one that was you know, making all the money for the company. And so they cut his commissions by half and then he went and you know, talk to him like, Hey, this is not this is not good. And then and then they cut it by another quarter and he was like what he says so obviously they’re trying to push me I was like maybe they are so then we had this whole the he had this whole deal with the first company that if they ever sold the company that he would get assets from some of their equipment when they sold it. So he he ended up he had to go to court but he ended up getting that money. And I’m telling you Jill was like we had this money from the sale of this you know, couple $2 million boat and a barge and well it was about and push boat. And I’m like, um do you think the Lord is telling you now that you can you know that you could leave you’ve got this money the safety net now and that you could start your own business and it literally it took the Lord pushing it using someone else to push him out to do what he was called to do. And he started his own business that was just beautiful after that, so yeah, sometimes what we see as super painful or just a real downer or being rejected even is really God’s it’s God’s doing it’s his protection. It’s his you know, moving you it’s his discomfort to get you to to the next so yeah, love that.

Yeah, yeah, just you know, we just have to trust His perfect plan. Right. And it’s hard

when you’re when you’re down on yourself when you’re beating yourself up, right when you’re, when you’re saying oh, I can I can’t keep or I can’t work with these people or I can’t keep this job or they’re or they’re booting me out. What if my, what if my husband had said, they’re pushing me out? Because I’m not a good enough salesman? Right? What if he had decided to take that thought on? Yeah, then it would have changed everything he would have, you know, he’d hunkered down. It’s like, alright, I deserve this cut, I deserve the pay, I’ll just, you know, we’ll just, you know, batten the hatches. And we’ll just be you know, I mean, it just everything is life would have just been completely different. Had he adopted that thought. And so it just having a different mindset, having a different perspective allows you to open yourself up for the possibilities, right, yeah, everything new in front of you.

So yeah, believing that you are worth the possibilities that you’re worth those opportunities. Yeah, and I call myself a money coach, but really for, for lack of a more concise way to describe it, because I really what I really do is Coach around value. Because when you don’t truly value what you’re worth, as a coach, you know, speaking to my clients, and for your clients, we can talk about this too. It does make it hard to step into those opportunities, step into those possibilities and say yes to them. And believe that you’re worth it, believe that you deserve it, believe that you’re valuable enough. And for coaches, you know, to sell yourself, right, it’s hard enough to sell yourself. It’s hard enough to write offers to write good compelling offers, and to go out there to sell and in know what to say and all of that. But it’s 10 times more difficult to do that when you don’t really believe in yourself or when you don’t connect to the value that you truly offer. And I see this so much. And I imagine even for your clients, it’s difficult to step into those possibilities and to say yes, when they maybe don’t see their life, as valuable as it once was when they had the hope and dreams of the future to to look to yeah.

Oh, I have so many things to say about this. Okay, I can’t wait. It’s like, which direction do I go first? So, but I so I’ll pick up on that last, that last thought. I truly believe that everything that we go through has a purpose. I do believe that even the hardship that I’ve experienced has a greater purpose in this world. And so you know, for anyone that’s out there and listening, thinking, Oh, I don’t have what I used to have, how can I be valuable or worthy? Right? I don’t I can’t do what I used to do. Maybe someone’s now a paraplegic. I can’t do what I used to do. You know, how am I value valuable and worthy. And I kind of liken it even to some of my clients who are now stay at home moms that are empty nesters like they’ve been raising their children all the time, they’ve been caring for children, and now their children are not there. Well. Now, what do I do? Who am I? What value? Do I actually have to offer this world? If I’m not doing that any longer? Right? So it could be that it could be you know, I’m no longer a spouse, right? I’m no longer two. I’m just one now, who am I? It’s all the identity piece. And and so, you know, it really comes down to the belief system, what do you believe about your value and worth? And where does that come from? Right. And if we, if we do believe, which I do believe that each one of us are made for a particular purpose, we have a God given purpose, that purpose, and it’s going to be different for all of us, that we have something to offer this world and to offer God’s kingdom, right for His glory. That if if that’s the case, then I don’t have to worry about actually being someone, I just have to be me, I just have to do this, right don’t have to create some sort of persona or have some sort of platform or write or be popular have enough likes on Instagram or friends or whatever. I don’t have to do I just have to be me. I just have to do me. And then let that be an outflow of God’s purpose. Because one thing I do know, and I see this with my clients all the time is an eye coach Christian women. And yet they are stuck in a corner somewhere out of fear and anxiety, right and mild depression or just just worry, they’re worried to death when they’re stuck in a corner in a room and they’re not able to walk out their God given purpose because of that fear. And, you know, just because they’re Christians, we know this does not mean mean that they’re free of all the, you know, bad thinking, the lie base belief that they have grown up with and, and believed to be true, they’re just believing these lies because they’ve lived with them for so long. And all they if they could just get a new perspective and that’s what we do as life coaches, right is open up their little brains kind of like an onion, we start peeling and apart to get down to the root of things and and then we find what do you truly believe? Like your thoughts are going to be fueled completely 100% out of your core belief system? So if you say, Well, I’m not worthy, or I’m not enough, I don’t have enough, I don’t, you don’t have what I used to have, I don’t have a spouse anymore. So that makes me less than or whatever it is. Then, then you’re saying, I’m not enough, I’m not worthy enough. And then yet you tell me you try to tell me that you believe that you’re worthy and valuable, because God made you in His image in Makkah day that you are that he loves you and named you even and saw you even before you were in your mother’s womb, if you’re trying to convince me of that. And yet you you think I’m not valuable and worthy that I’m not enough, then I know that you’ve got intellectual understanding. And it’s not hit your heart yet. Right? So with me with my clients as we take that whole, you know, thoughts, feelings, actions, results, but we go straight back after that, it goes straight back to the core belief system. And if it’s outside of align with what God’s Word says, And what Jesus would say, if he was sitting right there talking to you about you, then that’s where that work is. Because that’s going to change every single thought that you have after that. Yeah. And I can’t remember if you said something else, there’s,

yeah, I love that. Because, yeah, it really does start with that and in and I love that you peel back that onion like that, because any of those things that we’re seeing any of the evidence that we’re seeing in our lives, how we’re feeling that can point to what you’re truly believing. Because, again, you talk about you might have the intellectual belief, you might have the intellectual understanding, yes, I believe this. But I remember, back when I was coming back into a relationship with God after many, many years, I, I knew that I wanted to trust him. I knew that I could trust him. But actually trusting him with my heart. I trusted him with my mom. But trusting him with my heart was very difficult for me. And it wasn’t until I started following Byron Katie, that I started to really understand what it was like now she doesn’t necessarily use the word. God, she uses the the term universe, but to me, I mean, my universe is God. So, so I kept turning it okay. Yeah, what’s, what’s the worst that can happen? sort of thinking? Yeah, the worst that can happen is I trust him, I die. And then I live on with him forever. Oh, yeah, that sounds so bad, actually. So I started playing around with this, but um, I kind of got off on a tangent, I’ll come back. But yeah, it was, it was through sort of that challenging that questioning process that I came into a stronger faith. And actually, that was around the time that I started going back to church. And when I really started developing a stronger, just more powerful relationship with God, it was around the same time that I was entering the coaching world, which was really interesting. Because everything I was learning about coaching, it’s like, okay, if I truly believe that, then that has to show up in my feelings that has to show up in my actions before it, it can actually before I can actually embody it. So, you know, I would, I mean, I heard our pastor give a sermon a few weeks ago, where he talked about, you know, it’s, I mean, and we’ve heard this in different places, as long as you’re breathing as long as you’re still on this earth, God’s not finished with you. God has a purpose for you, as long as you’re still here. He left you here for a purpose and, and so believing, even if you can’t quite step into your value yet, like, that’s one of the stepping stones. Maybe that’s the next step for you is just believing. You know that intellectual truth, as long as you’re still breathing as long as you’re still here. God meant for you to be here for a reason. And just starting there.

yeah, and I love that too, because It especially for me, I have to remember that the gifts and the talents that I’ve been given are not from my own merit, right, they were not given to me, because I was more special or worthy than someone else. And he’s given us all gifts. And the problem comes when we start comparing gifts, like we say, Oh, someone who’s up on a platform, well, their gifts are greater than my gifts of service, right? Or that sort of thing. And so, so if I, for me, if I can remember the gifts that have been given to me, I that I’m special, because God gave him to me not for any other reason I have. I mean, I just didn’t, didn’t earn any of it, right. So whatever he gave me, I can step into with confidence, knowing that it’s that was his design, that was his plan. And I just let him play it out the way he wants to play it out, right. So if someone else who has the gift of you know, crocheting hats for new babies, newborn babies, or, you know, refugees that you know, come across, whatever, whatever it is, if they can just understand that that is a beautiful gift that the Lord gave them for a purpose, then they can be content and settled in who they are, without comparing themselves to someone else in their gifts. I just know that that that has that has really been very important to me, and knowing that I can step into whatever, whatever it is next, if God’s given me the ability to do it. And now I will say that, again, going back to someone who crochets. And they may feel like oh, this is not a big gift, or somebody who serves, you know, behind the scenes, this is not a big deal. It is a big deal. But you get to choose whether or not you use that gift, you hone that gift, you make that gift even better, or you choose not to because you think it’s less than so you get to choose how you use your gifts. There are many, many people who have gifts that have not honed them, that have not paid attention to them, because they don’t think they’re worthy enough gifts, and they’re going, you know, useless. But God has given those to you for a purpose for this kingdom, right? We all can’t be speakers, we all can’t be life coaches, we all can’t you know, there’s, we need a variety of people to make the world go round. So I think it’s super important to understand our values, just, you know, embrace who you are, who you are, right, embrace who you are, and how God has made you and, and let that play out in your life. And again, going back to every time you say no, you’re just closing off the doors every time you say no, you know, you say yes. And the opportunities, the possibilities just start opening before you.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it makes it I mean, think about, you know, opposable thumbs, I mean, in and of themselves are not all that impressive. But what would we do without them? Right? Exactly. You know, there are so many parts of our bodies that that seem like, they’re not significant, but they contribute something. And the same is true of the Body of Christ, you know, we each have a gift that contribute something to the entire body. You know, some of those things we don’t think about on a regular basis, you know, we don’t think about breathing until we can’t breathe. You know, those gifts we take for granted? Until we don’t have them. So, right. Yeah. So, how, how did your identity How did that identity plays piece play into your journey? Over the last several years?

Well, you know, I have always been a and I don’t know if it’s because of, you know, how I grew up my family of origin or, you know, the patterns that I’ve lived through in my life, but for whatever reason, or how I’m wired, you know, I mean, I’m an Enneagram three, the overachiever and so I’ve always been now whether that’s been because I’ve been designed that way by God or because I’ve been made that way by my you know, my past experiences and and that sort of thing, my environment. Either way. I am. I’ve always been a hustler. I’ve always been a you know, task oriented, purpose driven person. What happened when my husband passed away was I quickly realized that I was a human doing not a human being. Because i Something came up in me that I all of a sudden I felt the slack. I felt like I was not a part of anything any longer. Right. I’m not a part of a marriage. I was just by myself my my kids. As my three kids were adult, grown adult children out of the house, living their life creating their own life. So I felt very lost. And I felt very it was it was almost like that identity thing. I just, I needed to figure out who I was, again, who am I now that I’m single, right? And so this, this whole task oriented, purpose driven thing came back to slap me in the face where before it was really it just served me well, because I got stuff done, right, I got stuff done. And I was always the, you know, if there was a organization I was in, I was always in top leadership or leading something or creating something and let let it and then pass it, you know, it’s just like, whatever it was, I was, you know, doing the thing. And I loved that I loved that gift that the Lord gave me, but all of a sudden now I’m like, Oh, who am I? What what, you know, who am I now? And so I very quickly found out this task oriented, purpose driven person was looking for what can I do to validate the breath that I’m breathing today in the space that I’m taking up on the earth today. And I found myself needing to do things like I haven’t mentioned this in one of my podcasts. I mean, all after he passed away, my kids came to help kind of work our businesses for a while so I could stay home and, and just kind of heal. And they would come home. They were they all came and lived with me. It was so sweet. That they came and lived with me for a little bit, and they’d come home from work and I’d be like, Oh, look what I did. I clipped all the bushes, and I trimmed all the oak trees and I bundled all the sticks up and I put it out. I mean, just like I had to give them account of what I did in the day. Right? And it really the Lord really brought that to my attention to like, Trisha, you don’t have to validate your being you are worthy and good just because you are just because you exist because you are my child not not anything that you do so really brought me back to the human being. Yeah, not the human doing. So that was a huge lesson for me. And it’s something that I teach. It’s interesting as a life coach, like I attract a lot of people a lot a lot of my club coaching clients are like me, I guess we probably do that we attract those that are like us, they still have Your vibe attracts your tribe. Yeah, my vibe is attracting my tribe because I have a lot of clients that are having a hard time giving themselves 10 minutes of appreciation and quietness. Without you know, just completely being still and not doing anything not going to help someone else or you know, that they’re to really understand intrinsically who you are, and just the value of you. Which also always does that give your brain a break Can you give your brain 10 minutes just to do nothing, you’re just quit running from one thing to the next thing your brain needs to at least catch up time okay behind to your brain. But so, but that’s what I was trying I was having to learn I was having to learn how to sit still. And I remember very clearly one time the Lord is like Trisha let’s just go sit down on the backpack and love my back patio. And let’s just go sit out there and sit for 30 minutes together it’s just sit just you and me. So if you meet Jesus, okay, you’re we’re gonna sit and I’m sitting out there. Oh, look at the birds. It’s so lovely out here. And it’s just the landscaping is so beautiful. Oh my gosh, look at those weeds.

I need to go pull those weeds. Right. And I start to get up and I really I feel as if Jesus were so tangibly right there like put his hand on my you know, on my lap, stop, stop, sit, be still be still just just calm. Just you don’t have to do anything right now you just have to be. And that practice still was so transformative for me. Understanding my identity, who I was my value and worth was not in what I did what I produced, what I even, you know, conjured up or just created just had or accomplished nothing. Nothing was as important as just being and appreciating who I was in him and in a relationship with Him. Understanding that a love relationship with him was going to be better than life which brought brings me to if I can share my very favorite scripture, Psalms 63 Three that says, because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. And as I was just rehearsing that scripture, one time the Lord was like Tricia in that blank life, like what would you put Well, how would you define life? Be cuz your steadfast love is better than blank. My lips are crazy. What what do you think is life? And well, let’s see the vacation we took to Grand Cayman, that was amazing. And I really like my wood blinds and my granite countertops. That’s, that’s really great life. And you know, I mean, I’m naming all these material things that were supposed to be life to me. And that’s when he was like, Trisha, my love or relationship with me is going to be better than anything you could put in that blank, it is going to be more satisfying, more gratifying, more fulfilling, it is going to be more it you are going to feel the feel the value and the worth, that you have been made just by being in my love. But just by having this love relationship with me, that’s where it’s all gonna come from. Everything else is just going to be an outflow for from this relationship. And so that was, you know, fortunately, that was a scripture that he had given me, and was teaching me prior to my husband’s death because he knew how desperately I was going to need it. When he was gone.

Yeah. Huh. That’s so beautiful. Just speaks so profoundly to how much he loves us and how much he possibility he sees for us. As in as even though the worst of situations that something so beautiful. can come out of that. Absolutely. Yeah. Wow.

That’s, I know, he’s been good. I tell you, I, yeah, after. I don’t know if I shared with you how I got into life coaching. But after Brian passed away, after his suicide, I really started learning, diving into studying the cognitive relationship of the brain and the body, and efforts to understand how this very smart, very strong, very spiritual man could do something like take his life. And then I came across something that blew me away. And that was that chronic pain quite literally changes the makeup of the brain. And then I got more curious about it. And I found out how, and that’s with neuroplasticity. And that is that our brain is wiring and rewiring itself constantly. And so with that is what I understood that it I could even though I felt sad, and, and I felt such a loss, and I was in such grief, I could still and have another beautiful life. Like I was understanding the power that I had over my mind just by changing the thoughts that I had. That created the way that I experienced my life. Now, of course, nothing changed. I mean, I didn’t have my husband back right to have another beautiful life. It didn’t get to have that back. I didn’t have the security of his money either back right, I still have my same circumstances. But being able to see things from a completely different perspective is what created an experience of having another beautiful life. Like I am living a life now as happy independent woman right? I guess I still have the tension of longings right I still long for love i still long for you know, to be even be in another relationship. I long for that. But at the same time, I’m also extremely content. Right? So so I’m living, I’m a living I’m literally living an abundant, beautiful, exciting life. Because I know that I can choose to, I literally can choose to and now there are days that I feel sad. Yeah. And in fact, the other day, this is so this is how I tried to hack my brain. The other day, I was in my backyard. I hung up a hammock between my two pillars on my patio, and I was just swinging in it and I was like, Man, I am bored. I am bored stiff, it’s a Sunday. Other people other couples are out, you know, holding hands walking through the park or they’re going they’re having lunch or they’re having dinner outside, you know, or they’re doing things together bike riding or whatever they’re doing or maybe they’re just reading together watching you know, Astros baseball, whatever they’re doing. They’re doing it together and here I am in the second stupid hammock swing in here all by myself bored, bored, bored, bored, poor fit pitiful me and then all of a sudden it’s like okay, we got to reframe the story because This is going downhill fast. First thing I thought of was, who would love to be bored right now? Who is it that would love to be in this hammock all by herself was no one grabbing at our colander mommy asked in there to, you know, get the frog out of the saying or you know, you know, or the husband, hey, what’s for dinner, you know, or just whatever I who would just love to be in this hammock right now. And I started thinking of several of my friends who just would have, you know, really have loved that quiet time. And it completely changed my perspective. I mean, in a minute, I had a new understanding of the beauty and the privilege that it was to lay in that hammock in peace and quiet. It’s just completely different perspective. But this is what we get to do. And if you don’t understand that your thoughts change, just by changing your thoughts can literally change the way you experience your life, you will continue to go down this sad, poor pitiful road, and it will lead to misery, misery. But the minute you understand that you have a choice and that you can change your thoughts that will change your experience of your life. Man, the world is your oyster. Yeah, absolutely. will change everything for you preach.

Yeah, I love the Instagram posts. You had where the hammock and you were in Mexico? Yes. But you were still in your backyard. That was definitely. Like you had me convinced. Yeah. I didn’t know she was going to Mexico. Right. I want to go. You can go. Everybody, not just in my backyard. That’s right. That’s right.

I had put on my there’s a an app, you know, that has the sounds and I put on the ocean sound you know. And so the ocean was what I could hear the ocean as if it was right there at my feet. And the I had my fan antique fan blowing the wind at me. And oh, yeah, I was in Mexico. Close my eyes. And I was there was beautiful.

Yeah, so it’s based on what you focus on? Because, yeah, when you focus on what do I have, then? That is the experience. That’s what you experience. So you focus less on what I don’t have. Because when you focus on what you don’t have, that becomes your experience. Yeah. When you were focused on being bored, you were experiencing?

Yeah, bored. Yeah. And lack. I mean, there was Yeah, I was feeling bored and lack. Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. And then you just turn that around. And it’s like, I have abundance. Are you kidding? This is amazing. You know, I read. It reminded me I do remember there were some times where I had three children under the age of five that and I’m like, can I just have a break? Can they just go away for a bit?

Everybody? Like, would it be like to be bored right now?

And those three little kids, can they just go away for a bit? I just need some quiet sound. Yeah, it really is. It’s all about perspective. Love that.

Yeah. Yeah. So this has been so awesome. Is there anything that you want to share? Before we wrap up, anything you want to share that you’re doing these days in your program? Anything that you’re helping people with that you just want them to know about? Well,

I am right now. I’m, you know, I’m a life coach for Christian women. Specifically, I integrate brain science with biblical faith, it’s very important to have because I have two decades of mentorship behind me, I’ve been mentoring women for that long, but life coaching is very different. So mentorship really is a biblical based. I’m going to walk through your life kind of thing, but I’m going to tell you what to do about it. But what we’ve what we know with brain science is if your brain comes up with the answers, your it’s a more lasting, more fulfilling, more solid kind of follow through answer, you know, it’s not just a band aid, it’s definitely the healing part. So integrating both the brain science with the Biblical faith is really where my focus is. But I think my messaging right now today is that because I’ve had several young several women that are young in the faith come in and say, you know, I, I’m a Christian, but I’m still doing XYZ or I can’t get over blah, blah, blah, or you know, so I think there’s such a misnomer that once you become a Christian that you should never have these problems again right. Anger should not be an issue for you. You should not be yelling at your children you should not be you know, telling your husband what to do. 24/7 You should not be you know, talking behind it but you should not be wanting to have an affair. You should not be like watching pornography, you should not I mean like all of that. These things I, you know, I hate to burst anybody’s bubble, but this is going on in the Christian community for women. Okay? So I want to I don’t want to normalize them, I want to normalize the fact that we have sin. And we can’t we need to, we need to find out what it is, that is keeping us stuck. And, and in a lie based belief, believing that we can’t get out of the sin. Because we have as Christian women, we have the Holy Spirit in us, we have the power and the ability to be free from this sin. But there’s this brain science piece that we I think when in Romans 12, two, when God through Paul wanted us to hear that we should be transformed by the renewing of our mind that God is telling us that we probably need to write, but that we can, and he should have, he should have just put a little ellipsis in there little dot dot dot that says and by the way, get a life coach to help you. That’s probably what needed to happen. Because what we don’t understand is that we all have blocks, we have blocks in our brain, that are lie based beliefs. And they’ve they’re coming sometimes as a young child, and we’re living in them today. We don’t even we think this is normal. We think this is who we are. And it’s just a lie. And and I think this is Satan’s tactic to keep us like I said in that corner, and so that God can’t use this in our in for His purpose. So I, you know, I’m very adamant. There is, for me, there is zero judgment for anyone else. And I’ve heard it all, I’ve heard it all. And I’ve seen it all, there’s not a thing that somebody could come to me that I haven’t already heard about, or that somebody else is not already dealing with. So I want to you know, I want to open up this space for a Christian woman to be able to say, I’ve got this problem. And it looks outside of my beliefs in my values that are as a Christian, which is why I’m afraid to come forward with it. But if you will just believe that there’s, there’s something that’s hindering you, and you have the power through the Holy Spirit, we just, I can help you, I can help you get past that block so that the Spirit can do all of his good work in you that he needs to do. So I feel like I’m I’m working with the Lord in this. I feel like he’s bringing me his daughters. I feel like that he told me that not long ago that I’m bringing you my daughters for freedom so that they can walk out their God given purpose.

Yeah, I love that love that I’m bringing you my daughters. Yeah. Yeah. So that you can help set them free. Yeah, yeah. And just to add on to that, I mean, that’s basically what I’m doing for money. Like that shame keeps us in the dark. And so many people have shame on in judgment around money that they’re afraid to talk about, that they’re afraid to look at. And with the clients that I’ve worked with, it’s never as bad and I’m sure you can attest to this with your clients is never as bad as we think it is. It’s, it’s, you know, it’s just something that we can hide, or we can deal with. And dealing with it is never as as difficult as we think it’s going to be never as much judgement, as we think there’s going to be and especially in the space of a life coach who is trained to hold that, that space for you.

Right. And especially because we also know that anything that we’re not willing to admit or speak out loud has power over us. Yeah. And the minute we do at least share and they’re there didn’t doesn’t need to have have anything else happen other than the space to be able to share with a listening ear and empathetic ear with no judgment. There’s so much transformation that can happen just in that the power is just gone from that thing that you feel so tethered to so tied to yeah, yeah. Well, thank you so much, Tricia. It’s been amazing. I knew it would be. And so thanks for coming on Easy Money Podcast. And yeah, we’ll put all of your information in the show notes so that people can get in touch with you. Your website is https://www.triciazody.com/ Right.

Correct. That’s correct. Yes, yeah. And my podcast, Another Beautiful Life

Podcast. Yeah. found on the podcast everywhere you anywhere you would find easy money. That’s where you’ll find Another Beautiful Life.

Yeah. And I’ve listened to some of your episodes, and they’re just beautiful. The message that you share and the insight and the wisdom that you bring to those podcast episodes are just phenomenal.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Well, thanks. And we’ll do this again. Some absolutely appreciate your listeners as well.

Thank you. Isn’t she fantastic? I just she’s so grounded in her faith and I love hanging out with her. I mean, it’s just such a pleasure, such a delight. She’s just such a beacon of light. I just don’t know what else to tell you about it. Just yeah. So be sure to check out her podcast Another Beautiful Life and go follow her on Instagram @triciazody 

I look forward to my next conversation.