Journey To Launch

This week on the podcast we are joined by Dr. Kemi Doll, a physician, surgeon, researcher, double board-certified gynecologist and oncologist, and founding director of the Gynecologic Research and Cancer Equity Center at the University of Washington. After 16 years of training and over $200,000 in student loan debt, she turned her personal and professional experience into a mission to change how Black women are treated in gynecologic care. In this episode, Dr. Kemi breaks down how conditions like heavy menstrual bleeding, endometriosis, and fibroids are not just health issues; they are career and financial ones. Women with endometriosis can miss up to 60 to 65 days of work a year, while women with heavy bleeding often show up to work functioning far below their capacity, a phenomenon called presenteeism. She shares the clinical signs that your period is not normal, the exact language to use at your gynecology appointment to be taken seriously, and how to find a provider who will actually listen. We also get into her own story of resilience, how she used the NIH Loan Repayment Program to eliminate her debt while building her research career, and why she started a coaching company after discovering she was being paid 30% less than her colleagues. In this episode, Dr. Kemi shares: How untreated womb conditions like fibroids and endometriosis silently drain Black women's productivity and earning potential The clinical signs that your period is not normal and what you can do about it How to advocate for yourself at a gynecology appointment, including the exact phrases that get doctors to take your symptoms seriously How she paid off over $200,000 in student loans using the NIH Loan Repayment Program while building her research career + more What's New in the Paperback Edition of Your Journey to Financial Freedom: A bonus chapter: When Life Happens: Staying on the Path to Financial Freedom Through Setbacks, Shifts, and Uncertainty A book club and discussion guide with prompts, exercises, and action steps Updated corrections from the original hardcover Exclusive bonus The Fire Starter Course The Find Your FIRE Number Worksheet Other related blog posts/links mentioned in this episode: NIH Loan Repayment Program: lrp.nih.gov Check out "A Terrible Strength" by Dr. Kemi Doll Check out the FIRE Calc Get your paperback edition of Your Journey To Financial Freedom if you haven't already. Apply to Share Your Journeyer Story, here. Join the Journey to Launch Book Club to dive deeper into financial freedom with guided discussions and resources here! Join The Weekly Newsletter List to get updates, deals & more! Leave Your Journey To Financial Freedom a review! Get The Budget Bootcamp Check out my personal website here. Leave me a voicemail– Leave me a question on the Journey To Launch voicemail and have it answered on the podcast! YNAB – Start managing your money and budgeting so that you can reach your financial dreams. Sign up for a free 34 days trial of YNAB, my go-to budgeting app by using my referral link. What stage of the financial journey are you on? Are you working on financial stability or work flexibility? Find out with this free assessment and get a curated list of the 10 next best episodes for you to listen to depending on your stage. Check it out here! Connect with Dr. Kemi: Website: Kemidoll.com Instagram: @KemiDoll TikTok: @DrKemiDoll Connect with me: Instagram: @Journeytolaunch Twitter: @JourneyToLaunch Facebook: @Journey To Launch Join the Private Facebook Group Join the Waitlist for My FI Course Get The Free Jumpstart Guide

In this episode, I sit back down with Cody Berman, entrepreneur, real estate investor, and author of the book Retire by 30. Cody first came on the podcast in 2018 at 22 years old. By 25, he had reached financial independence through scalable online businesses, strategic real estate, and intentional spending. He quit a corporate banking job after seven months, tried over 30 side hustles, and grew his income from $96K to over $400K in three years, all while keeping expenses under $24,000 annually. His new book lays out a menu of approaches for reaching financial freedom, not a one-size-fits-all formula, but a roadmap built around your own values, income, and life stage. In this episode, Cody shares: Why defining your values and aligning them with your spending is the foundation of a truly free life His four-bucket framework for thinking about side hustles and which type created the most wealth The exact income, savings, and investment numbers that got him to financial independence at 25 How he and his wife kept lifestyle creep in check while still traveling and enjoying life What's New in the Paperback Edition of Your Journey to Financial Freedom: A bonus chapter: When Life Happens: Staying on the Path to Financial Freedom Through Setbacks, Shifts, and Uncertainty A book club and discussion guide with prompts, exercises, and action steps Updated corrections from the original hardcover Exclusive bonuses when you purchase the paperback, including: The Fire Starter Course The Find Your FIRE Number Worksheet Other related blog posts/links mentioned in this episode: Check out Cody's book: Retire by 30 Read the The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss Check out the FIRE Calc Get your paperback edition of Your Journey To Financial Freedom if you haven't already. Apply to Share Your Journeyer Story, here. Join the Journey to Launch Book Club to dive deeper into financial freedom with guided discussions and resources here! Join The Weekly Newsletter List to get updates, deals & more! Leave Your Journey To Financial Freedom a review! Get The Budget Bootcamp Check out my personal website here. Leave me a voicemail– Leave me a question on the Journey To Launch voicemail and have it answered on the podcast! YNAB – Start managing your money and budgeting so that you can reach your financial dreams. Sign up for a free 34 days trial of YNAB, my go-to budgeting app by using my referral link. What stage of the financial journey are you on? Are you working on financial stability or work flexibility? Find out with this free assessment and get a curated list of the 10 next best episodes for you to listen to depending on your stage. Check it out here! Connect with Cody: Website: Codydberman.com Instagram: @CodyDBerman Facebook: @CodyBermanPage Twitter: @CodyDBerman Connect with me: Instagram: @Journeytolaunch Twitter: @JourneyToLaunch Facebook: @Journey To Launch Join the Private Facebook Group Join the Waitlist for My FI Course Get The Free Jumpstart Guide

Most people learn about money the hard way. In this episode, I sit down with Beth Kobliner, personal finance journalist and New York Times bestselling author of Get a Financial Life: Personal Finance in Your 20s and 30s and Make Your Kid a Money Genius (Even If You're Not), to talk about how to build a strong financial foundation before the real world hits. Beth shares her journey from ghostwriting for pioneering personal finance columnist Sylvia Porter to writing for Money magazine, and why the core principles she has taught for decades still hold up today. From avoiding credit card debt to grabbing your 401k match, the fundamentals matter more than ever. She also breaks down the new threats facing young people, from buy now pay later traps to online gambling and social media money influencers, and shares her current passion project bringing a free financial literacy curriculum to New York City public schools. In this episode, Beth Kobliner shares: Foundational money moves for young adults, including high-yield savings accounts, index funds, and 401k matching The biggest updates in the new edition of Get a Financial Life and why the basics still win How to protect yourself from modern financial traps like gambling apps, buy now pay later schemes, and crypto hype Why financial literacy education in high schools is more urgent than ever and how to bring it to your school for free + more! What's New in the Paperback Edition of Your Journey to Financial Freedom: A bonus chapter: When Life Happens: Staying on the Path to Financial Freedom Through Setbacks, Shifts, and Uncertainty A book club and discussion guide with prompts, exercises, and action steps Updated corrections from the original hardcover Exclusive bonuses when you The Fire Starter Course The Find Your FIRE Number Worksheet Other related blog posts/links mentioned in this episode: Get a Get a Financial Life: Personal Finance in Your 20s and 30s and Make Your Kid a Money Genius (Even If You're Not) Get a Financial Life NYC curriculum: getafinanciallifenyc.com Student Loan Simulator: studentaid.gov High-Yield Savings Account Comparison: bankrate.com NerdWallet: nerdwallet.com Check out the FIRE Calc Get your paperback edition of Your Journey To Financial Freedom if you haven't already. Apply to Share Your Journeyer Story, here. Join the Journey to Launch Book Club to dive deeper into financial freedom with guided discussions and resources here! Join The Weekly Newsletter List to get updates, deals & more! Leave Your Journey To Financial Freedom a review! Get The Budget Bootcamp Check out my personal website here. Leave me a voicemail– Leave me a question on the Journey To Launch voicemail and have it answered on the podcast! YNAB – Start managing your money and budgeting so that you can reach your financial dreams. Sign up for a free 34 days trial of YNAB, my go-to budgeting app by using my referral link. What stage of the financial journey are you on? Are you working on financial stability or work flexibility? Find out with this free assessment and get a curated list of the 10 next best episodes for you to listen to depending on your stage. Check it out here! Connect with Beth: Website: bethkobliner.com Instagram: @BKobliner Facebook: @BethKobliner Connect with me: Instagram: @Journeytolaunch Twitter: @JourneyToLaunch Facebook: @Journey To Launch Join the Private Facebook Group Join the Waitlist for My FI Course Get The Free Jumpstart Guide

Ericka Barnes first appeared on the Journey to Launch podcast in 2019 to share how she reached financial independence in her mid-30s. Since then, her life has looked nothing like a straight line; divorce, layoffs, a new marriage, and a second retirement later, she's back to share the full story. In this brand new episode, Ericka walks us through what she's been up to since our last conversation, from rebuilding financially after a divorce, to reaching chubby FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) in 2023. The financial foundation she had built; real estate, index funds, and a prenup, turned out to be more than a wealth strategy. It was the infrastructure that protected her when life got complicated. Today, Ericka and her husband are fully work-optional, house hacking in St. Croix while splitting time between Atlanta and the US Virgin Islands. This episode is a powerful reminder that financial independence isn't just about retiring early, it's about having the stability and options to navigate whatever life brings, rebuild when necessary, and ultimately design a life on your own terms. In this episode, Ericka shares: How she rediscovered her love of creative writing and the two books she is publishing this year How a prenup protected her financially and emotionally through divorce and why every couple should consider one Why she went back to work after lean firing, what chubby FIRE actually feels like, and the key difference between the two The case for geo arbitrage in a US territory and how she and her husband bought a home in St. Croix with a built-in tenant to offset the mortgage What's New in the Paperback Edition of Your Journey to Financial Freedom: A bonus chapter: When Life Happens: Staying on the Path to Financial Freedom Through Setbacks, Shifts, and Uncertainty A book club and discussion guide with prompts, exercises, and action steps Updated corrections from the original hardcover Exclusive bonuses when you purchase the paperback, including: The Fire Starter Course The Find Your FIRE Number Worksheet Other related blog posts/links mentioned in this episode: Ericka's first episode on the podcast: From Making $35,000 A Year To Being A Millionaire with Ericka Grant The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins: jlcollinsnh.com Afford Anything Podcast: affordanything.com Check out the FIRE Calc Get your paperback edition of Your Journey To Financial Freedom if you haven't already. Apply to Share Your Journeyer Story, here. Join the Journey to Launch Book Club to dive deeper into financial freedom with guided discussions and resources here! Join The Weekly Newsletter List to get updates, deals & more! Leave Your Journey To Financial Freedom a review! Get The Budget Bootcamp Check out my personal website here. Leave me a voicemail– Leave me a question on the Journey To Launch voicemail and have it answered on the podcast! YNAB – Start managing your money and budgeting so that you can reach your financial dreams. Sign up for a free 34 days trial of YNAB, my go-to budgeting app by using my referral link. What stage of the financial journey are you on? Are you working on financial stability or work flexibility? Find out with this free assessment and get a curated list of the 10 next best episodes for you to listen to depending on your stage. Check it out here! Connect with Ericka: Website: freelennial.com/about/ Instagram: @ericka_sojourner Email: [email protected] Connect with me: Instagram: @Journeytolaunch Twitter: @JourneyToLaunch Facebook: @Journey To Launch Join the Private Facebook Group Join the Waitlist for My FI Course Get The Free Jumpstart Guide

Doing everything right at work and still getting passed over is not a personal failure. It is a pattern, and the data proves it. In this episode, I sit down with Stefanie O'Connell, award-winning journalist and author of The Ambition Penalty: How Corporate Culture Tells Women to Step Up and Then Pushes Them Down, to dig into the data behind the very real costs women face for simply being ambitious. Stefanie spent years reporting on personal finance stories where people did everything right and still came up short. That pattern led her to a deeper investigation into systemic bias, and what she found is both eye-opening and infuriating. From salary negotiations to promotion pipelines to the way overwork culture is weaponized, the research reveals a compounding bias that plays out quietly, day in and day out, across the full arc of a career. Rather than placing the burden on individual women to work harder or ask better, Stefanie makes the case that the most powerful response to systemic inequality is collective action. In this episode, Stefanie shares: What the ambition penalty is and how it quietly derails women's careers through modern, hidden forms of bias How race, ethnicity, and motherhood intersect with gender to shape who gets penalized and how Why trends like the Trad Wife and the Soft Life share the same flaws as the girl boss era Why collective action, not individual optimization, is the real path to closing pay and leadership gaps + mores. Watch the video to this episode, here. What's New in the Paperback Edition of Your Journey to Financial Freedom: A bonus chapter: When Life Happens: Staying on the Path to Financial Freedom Through Setbacks, Shifts, and Uncertainty A book club and discussion guide with prompts, exercises, and action steps Updated corrections from the original hardcover Exclusive bonuses when you purchase the paperback, including: The Fire Starter Course The Find Your FIRE Number Worksheet Other related blog posts/links mentioned in this episode: Check out Stefanie's book; "The Ambition Penalty: How Corporate Culture Tells Women to Step Up and Then Pushes Them Down" How to Build Your Network, Thrive In Entrepreneurship, & Leverage Your Skill Sets To Make More Money w/ Stefanie O'Connell Bonus Episode- Coping w/ The Impact to Your Income & Career Due to the Coronavirus w/ Stefanie O'Connell Rodriguez Check out the FIRE Calc Get your paperback edition of Your Journey To Financial Freedom if you haven't already. Apply to Share Your Journeyer Story, here. Join the Journey to Launch Book Club to dive deeper into financial freedom with guided discussions and resources here! Join The Weekly Newsletter List to get updates, deals & more! Leave Your Journey To Financial Freedom a review! Get The Budget Bootcamp Check out my personal website here. Leave me a voicemail– Leave me a question on the Journey To Launch voicemail and have it answered on the podcast! YNAB – Start managing your money and budgeting so that you can reach your financial dreams. Sign up for a free 34 days trial of YNAB, my go-to budgeting app by using my referral link. What stage of the financial journey are you on? Are you working on financial stability or work flexibility? Find out with this free assessment and get a curated list of the 10 next best episodes for you to listen to depending on your stage. Check it out here! Connect with Stefanie: Website: TooAmbitious.com Instagram: @StefanieOConnell Facebook: @StefanieOConnell Connect with me: Instagram: @Journeytolaunch Twitter: @JourneyToLaunch Facebook: @Journey To Launch Join the Private Facebook Group Join the Waitlist for My FI Course Get The Free Jumpstart Guide