From Hustle To Harmony: Money That Supports Your Life with Whitney Morrison

To schedule a session visit catiaholm.com or call/text 956-249-7930

We explore how female entrepreneurs can shift from reactive money habits to intentional, values-aligned strategy. Whitney Morrison, CFP, shares practical tools for pricing, boundaries, hiring, and reframing money as a neutral guide rather than a measure of worth.

• common money patterns among service-based women
• fear of hiring and being seen financially
• moving from hustle to intentional flow
• pairing purpose with a practical plan
• pricing as a math problem, not a worth problem
• boundaries for scope, time, and invoices
• outsourcing timelines and seasons of growth
• the relief of simple financial systems
• money dynamics in partnerships and personal power
• teaching kids about money without shame
• first steps to clarity: know your numbers

Show Guest:

Whitney Morrison has long understood the profound role money plays in shaping a life. While others her age dreamed of fame, she was driven to decode the forces behind financial stability and identity. Motivated by her family’s early struggles, she pursued finance straight out of college, earning her Series 7, Series 66, and Certified Financial Planner® credentials. Her true transformation came when she began examining the emotional roots of money—beliefs around worth, scarcity, and success—ultimately shifting from a negative net worth to millionaire status while building her business from the ground up.

Today, Whitney serves as a strategic CFO and financial advisor to women entrepreneurs with a rare blend of rigor and reflection. She helps founders understand their numbers, make powerful decisions, and build profitable businesses that support the lives they’re creating. Her philosophy is simple yet revolutionary: money isn’t just transactional; it’s a pathway to meaning, agency, and wellbeing. To work with Whitney or learn more about her approach, visit her online and take your next step toward building wealth on your own terms.

You can find Whitney at: Holistic Money and on Instagram

Transcript

Speaker 2: 0:00

Welcome to Couch Time with Cat, your safe place for real conversation and a gentle check-in. KWVH presents Couch Time with Cat.

Speaker 1: 0:10

Hi friends, and welcome to Couch Time with Cat, mental wellness with a friendly voice. I'm Cat, therapist, bestselling author, TEDx speaker, and endurance athlete. But most of all, I'm a wife, mama, and someone who deeply believes that people are good and healing is possible. Here in the Hill Country of Wimberley, Texas, I've built my life and practice around one purpose to make mental wellness feel accessible, compassionate, and real. This show is for those moments when life feels heavy, when you're craving clarity, or when you just need to hear you're not alone. Each week we'll explore the terrain of mental wellness through stories, reflections, research, and tools you can bring into everyday life. Think of it as a conversation between friends, rooted in science, guided by heart, and grounded in the belief that healing does not have to feel clinical. It can feel like sitting on a couch with someone who gets it. So whether you're driving, walking, cooking, or simply catching your breath, you're welcome here. This is your space to feel seen, supported, and reminded of your own strength. I'm so glad you're here. Let's dive in. What if building wealth didn't mean sacrificing your life, your values, or your rest? What if you could move from reacting to your money to intentionally creating it? So your business, your relationships, and your everyday life felt aligned, supportive, and soulful. I'm Cat and this is Couch Time with Cat. In today's episode, Money in Motion, Building Wealth with Soul and Strategy, Whitney Morrison is going to help us unpack all that. Imagine this: a female entrepreneur, she's been hustling for years. The clients are coming in, the nights are long, the invoices are paid, and she wakes up every morning with a knot in her chest. Wondering, is this all there is? Is this moving me toward the life I actually want? Today we're exploring how money and motion can feel different. Not a frenetic hustle, but a fluid aligned strategy. Not reactive scrambling, but intentional creation. Because when you bring soul to your business and strategy to your soul, you begin to build wealth with life instead of for life. Whitney Morrison is a certified financial planner. Her journey into financial strategy began early, and today she stands at the intersection of numbers and nuance, helping female entrepreneurs and service-based businesses design profitable models, pay themselves well, and build wealth in a way that supports their life, not drains it. Hi, Whitney. Welcome back.

Speaker: 2:58

Hello, it's so good to be here again.

Speaker 1: 3:00

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're so excited. Listener, um, Whitney is my BFF. She doesn't know yet, but she is. She just learned that right now.

Speaker 2: 3:12

I am so honored.

Speaker 1: 3:14

She's like, okay. She's like, okay, is this where this is gonna lead?

Speaker: 3:20

No, I think I'm we're vibing, Catya.

Speaker 1: 3:24

It's so fun. Okay, let's work with some the emotions behind money. And Whitney, you work with so many service-based women who are brilliant at what they do. But sometimes there are women in business, female entrepreneurs, maybe they're therapists or massage therapists or doctors or what have you. And they struggle with pricing, boundaries, rest, scaling. It's a lot. It's a lot to contend with. What are the most common financial patterns you see in female entrepreneurs?

Speaker: 3:58

I would say, especially in business owners, you are wearing so many hats. You're trying to be the service provider, you're trying to be the operations manager, you're trying to be the HR person for your team, and you're also trying to be your finance person as well. And I find that finances can be one of the easiest things to avoid or let go of or not look at. And so what I traditionally find with the female business owners that I work at, work with is they're really good at their trade. They're really great doctors, they're really great therapists, they're really great at what they do, but the money doesn't feel like a strong suit for them. So of course it's the first thing that they let go of. So I see that often in the work that I like to do is just helping female entrepreneurs understand their numbers and understand how to use them as a friend and a partner in their business decision making.

Speaker 1: 5:09

Why do you think we think we can do it all?

Speaker 2: 5:12

I mean, that's like a one-man circus.

Speaker: 5:15

I know it's because women have been shown that we have to do it all for a very long time. And I also think that starting to outsource and hire people to help can also be really vulnerable and scary. So it can be feel like a safer option to try to do everything by yourself.

Speaker 1: 5:36

What's scary about hiring somebody? Well, I can answer, but what do you think?

Speaker: 5:40

I think spending money on someone else to do something, showing someone your full financial picture and having them walk in and potentially judge you. I think confronting something that has been pretty easy to just put to the side for a very long time, I think those can all be reasons why it's vulnerable to bring someone in to support you with numbers. And believing that I should, I should just be able to do this. Why do I need to why do I need to hire someone to come in and help me do this?

Speaker 1: 6:16

Yes. If you're listening and you're thinking, mm-hmm, those, you know, you check those boxes. I used to check those boxes too. And in the last year, I've um become Whitney's client. And so she helped me get my entire life in order in so many ways. And also I hired somebody to do social media for my company. And I've never felt better. I've never felt better because it allows me to really focus on my clients, which is what I want why I got into being a therapist in the first place. And so if you want a little insight into what it's like from the other side, as a female entrepreneur, I did work my butt off. It is an uphill climb, but it's not an uphill climb forever when you outsource. I think it's a good six months of being very dedicated and committed to this uphill climb. And then you can kind of coast a little bit. What do you think about that, that time frame?

Speaker: 7:27

I think it's really fair, and I think that it does require working your buns off, like you said. And then when you do start to build your team, it is so relieving to have support. And I think that as you grow, you'll go through the season of feeling more relaxed and more supported until you go through your next growth spurt, and then you'll do your next round of hiring. So I think, and I think that is gonna be your trajectory too. Thank you. Right now you feel supported, and then you're gonna feel busy again, and then we're gonna explore the next thing you need to do for your business.

Speaker 1: 8:09

More uphill climb, is that what you're saying? Uh-huh. Get ready. Listener, she's telling me to lace up my shoes. Whitney, how do you help your clients shift from hustle mode to aligned growth? So sometimes just because you're busy doesn't mean you're making progress. Can you give us some insight into that?

Speaker: 8:36

Yes. I find that hustle really comes from the way that you feel when you're doing something. And I think a lot of people will associate hustle with I'm doing too much, and the solution is just to not do as much. I actually don't think that that is necessarily true. It could be one option, but there are other options. And I think the other option is to change the your change the way that you feel when you're doing the thing that you're doing. And I think that because the truth is to build a business, to grow a business, to have a team, you do got to work your buns off. It's not something easy, but the way you feel in the process of working your buns off will determine whether or not it feels like hustle or whether or not it feels like intentional flow. And I believe working on your relationship to yourself and working on your relationship to money in your business will actually help you with that shift.

Speaker 1: 9:48

You're listening to Couch Time with Cat. I'm Cat, and today we're talking about money in motion, building wealth with soul and strategy. And we're talking to Whitney Morrison, certified financial planner from Holistic Money. And we're talking about how to shift from a what feels like a grind without a purpose to more aligned action. And something else I want to add to what you're saying is if you have a this sounds so cliche, but a why a why? I know that sounds like some type of hashtag. But knowing that you are staying up until midnight, invoicing clients, because this is gonna help you get your books in order, which is going to help you create more ease the next month, which is going to create space for XYZ, which is eventually going to help you um reach more people that you want to help. Like for me, it has to have, I have to have the 10,000-foot view and also like I have to have the macro and the micro. What do you think about that?

Speaker: 11:01

I think it's valuable, and I can see how that is really supportive in the things you're doing in the moment, because it helps you feel different while you're doing it. I think for me, the other thing that helps me not feel frantic and hustle is a plan, which it which may be very similar to your description of a why. When I understand how the SEP is in service of the bigger plan or the bigger why. So I think we're saying the same thing, that can be really useful.

Speaker 1: 11:37

So you're talking about, I think both of us are saying the same thing in a a little bit of a different way. We're doing things with a purpose.

Speaker: 11:44

And with a plan.

Speaker 1: 11:46

With a purpose and a plan. What are some strategic moves female entrepreneurs often miss? Let's say they're working on their own, right? They're trying to do it themselves and they're so busy with all the tasks. Do they forget things like paying themselves or setting pricing appropriately or forecasting or rest? Like what are what are some pitfalls that you see happen often?

Speaker: 12:13

When you don't have a plan?

Speaker 1: 12:15

When you don't have a plan. Mm-hmm. Exactly.

Speaker: 12:19

For me, when I'm working with um a female entrepreneur, I find that her tendency, just like you described, is I want to do the most, be the most, be available, I want to please everyone. And so there's no boundary approach to building the business. There's no boundary approach to client relationships, to terms of invoices, to scope of work. And you can often find yourself over-delivering, under-earning, and then feeling very confused as to why. And to me, numbers really do ground me. They are, I feel like people have different skill sets. Some people are really great creatively. I am really great with numbers, and the world makes sense to me through numbers. And it's the perspective that I get to bring to my clients. But I really do look at things in terms of numbers. How much time is available in the day, how much time I'm willing to work, how much money I want to make, how much I need to charge to make that money, how much I need to pay my client, my team in order for them to deliver the service I want. And then how much I need to mark up to my customers to be able to pay my team and pay myself. And because I look at it that way, there's a logical formula to the destination that I want to get to. And I think that's what I can what I help female entrepreneurs see is the formula behind the desired outcome.

Speaker 1: 14:04

Yes. So for example, you wouldn't advise a therapist to set a price based on maybe what that person can pay.

Speaker 2: 14:16

Right.

Speaker 1: 14:18

Right. It's a and even though, listener, you may be thinking, oh my God, that's so like uh rude. You're leaving people out, or you you overprice, or whatever it is. Something that I've noticed that I shared with Whitney the other day is the more boundaried I have become in my approach, the more I have been able to give. So I donate my time different places. I donate my time at the YMCA, I donate my time to other people and places pro bono as a therapist. When the floods hit, I was able to say 50 sessions on the house. Like I'm giving that to crisis workers. 50. Like what? That's a lot of income. But because I was boundried before, then I was able to show up in that way. Had I not been boundaried before, I would not have been able to show up in that way.

Speaker: 15:16

I totally agree. And even this idea of trying to give someone what you think that they can pay, it's there's it's very problematic because unless you're in somebody's checkbook, that's I feel like a million years old saying checkbook. I still write checks. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Pocket book. Unless you're in someone's pocketbook, you don't really know. And we're all making decisions around money that um represent what we actually value. And what matters is how you value yourself, and then also that you're very clear on your cost of delivery. Because a lot of times when we are offering services, we're not considering the expense to us emotionally, physically. And then if you have a team and if you have overhead and if you have an office, that you have to pay in addition to giving your direct time. And for B, pricing has become so much more neutral because of that, because it's a math problem for me.

Speaker 1: 16:26

I say here's not a worth thing.

Speaker: 16:28

It's not a worth thing. It's here's how many hours this person, I think this project is gonna take or this service is gonna take. Here's the expenses I know I'm gonna have to pay to deliver this, here's my overhead, and here's the amount of profit that I want to make to make sure that my family, the the people that I show up for every day, is taken care of and we can live well. And so when I go to price, the number that I give has been created from those things. And it feels very fair to me. And if somebody can afford it, then I'm happy to work with them. If it's not the right time and right fit, then I'm also very okay with that too, because it's in the highest service of that person to do what's best for them.

Speaker 1: 17:14

Most definitely. And as you're speaking, you said, you know, you're not in somebody's pocketbook. I'm thinking we each have to make decisions financially on what's best for us. And we're valuing different things at different times. And so one day I may really value organic oranges, and I may want to spring for organic oranges. And HEB doesn't care what I'm valuing. It's like, here's all our goods.

Speaker: 17:44

Yes.

Speaker 1: 17:45

Take what you want, take what you value. We're they're bringing HEB for president, you know, they're bringing their best, and I'm going to shop based on what I value. There's no emotional exchange there. And I can't make decisions for somebody else on what they should or shouldn't value. That's up to them. That's their own autonomy. I've gone to service providers and thought, you know, one day I was looking for family photos, a photographer, and somebody said I charge X amount. And I just said, I can't afford that. I don't want to, I don't want to invest that much money. Sorry, I'll wait. Great. It wasn't there wasn't there were no hard feelings. That was her price. Great. I didn't value it for that price. Okay.

Speaker 2: 18:39

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 18:39

And then we just walked away. It's fine. It is fine. It's fine. Listener, I'm gonna invite you to draw two columns. On the left, business as usual, and on the right, business with intent. And under each, jot down two to three behaviors or habits that you currently have in the usual column. Maybe it's um wavering on your price, maybe it's um unintentional marketing, maybe it's showing up to work late, maybe it's not responding to emails fast enough, or maybe it's whatever it is, business as usual. And then under business with intent, what would change? Would you work weekends? Would you protect your Saturdays for rest? Would you wait 24 hours to respond to an email just so that you can do all at one time and not, you know, from your pantry as you're trying to make pancakes in the morning? Like what would shift for you if you created a more boundaried approach, so a more intentional approach to running your business? Whitney, what kind of entrepreneurs do you work with?

Speaker: 19:55

I work primarily with females. I think it's just the nature of being a woman in business. I attract women in business. Uh I work primarily with women that are offering services.

Speaker 1: 20:11

Um architects. Architects. That's amazing. Okay, I'm gonna repeat every time you say it because I wanted to get double the time. Okay, architects.

Speaker 2: 20:20

Architects. Interior designers. Interior designers. Therapists.

Speaker 1: 20:25

Therapists.

Speaker: 20:26

Online entrepreneurs.

Speaker 1: 20:27

Online entrepreneurs.

Speaker: 20:29

Like coaches, that kind of thing. Doctors. Yes. I have I work with holistic medicine doctors.

Speaker 1: 20:35

Holistic medicine doctors.

Speaker 2: 20:37

Med spas. Med spas. Mm-hmm.

Speaker: 20:41

Uh gyms. I actually have a client. Yeah, a new client. It's actually a franchise. It's my largest business that I'm working on currently.

Speaker 1: 20:51

Cool.

Speaker: 20:52

Gems. Yeah. Nice. So but the the commonality between all these businesses is it is the owners of these businesses are providing a service to someone else, whether they're helping them with therapy or helping them build a home or design a home. And there's a lot of subjectivity to their work and their worth and how much to charge in order to offer this service. And so that's really my sweet spot is helping them with the mental and emotional side, but also the very practical.

Speaker 1: 21:56

And it's like they've built enough heat in that fire. What results do you see in their life? Are you privy to that? Do they share with you, like, oh my God, now that I'm out of debt or now that I have this set up, I can X, Y, Z.

Speaker: 22:15

I can breathe. I can relax. I can focus on other things. There is so much stress tied up in finances. And when you have a financial system that works and that you know is getting you to where you want to go, it's just, it really is night and day with your like felt experience and your work and your business. Speaking from personal experience as well.

Speaker 1: 22:45

Yeah, it just feels like air, just a space, relief. Yeah. Yeah. It's so um it's a it's a gift to to give yourself and to give the people you work with this financial literacy and stability and sturdiness. I mean it it really does. If you can build a financial scaffold, then you can you can attack so many other things. You will feel more competent in life. Yeah. I was like, I know what that means. Abita. Yes. I had a client one time say, Do you know what that means? I said, I sure do.

Speaker 2: 23:36

It's like, yes, I do. That's a financial term for anyone that's listening.

Speaker 1: 23:42

That was not a lisp. Okay, let's end or let's kind of land the plane with something that's a little bit more nuanced, but I just want to, or a lot more nuanced actually, but I want to give the the listener a little insight into it. We're talking about finances and business and female entrepreneurs and building a business. A lot of female entrepreneurs are in partnerships. Complicated. This gets much more complicated. Talking about finances with a neutral third party, you or a financial planner, or you know, someone of this specialty, is different than talking about it with somebody who you live with or building a home with. What are some, I mean, her eyes right now, folks, are really big. She's like her eyes are saying, yes, girl, this is this is a lot. So what are some insights into how we can even, I'm not even gonna say talk to our partners. I'm not even gonna say that. Start to think about talking about finances in our relationships. How do we do that? How do we think about starting to do that?

Speaker: 25:10

There's so much here. Can I answer, can I make one comment before I answer that question?

Speaker 1: 25:16

Yes, please. Okay.

Speaker: 25:18

You mentioned that talking with your finances with a third party is very different than talking about finances with your spouse. And what I've noticed is, especially with a lot of female entrepreneurs, is a lot of them will rely on their spouse to be their the financial backbone of the house, of their finances. Um, and then when they get into their business, they also try to lean on that relationship for their business as well. But I often see that it doesn't work because the partner has their own thing that they're trying to work on. So this is actually an entry point for me to actually get in and start to work with women. And then eventually I work with couples because of the relationship I have with the women. That's just how all my couple work has happened. So it's it's it's it's really kind of a cool thing. But what I want to say about that is it is so important for women to be financially literate. And I think we've often believed that it's a man's job to provide financially and take care of the house, but things will change dramatically in your relationship when you let that go. And when you can show up and step into your power. Step into your power. And it's that's not yeah, it doesn't have to be a like a masculine thing. There's very feminine ways to be in your power with money. Um and so I I I think that that's really important because that's that's what will bring you to the table and actually allow you to have better conversations with your partner, is when you yourself you've done your money work.

Speaker 1: 27:22

There is a gosh, a statement out there, a quote, a evidence-based thing. This is not science, this is a radio show. So I'm sorry that I don't have it at the ready, but it's something about please forgive me for butchering this. Um when women in third world countries get micro loans, they transform, they build businesses and transform their whole village. Like money in the hands of a woman. I mean, not all of us are the same, but you know, I'm speaking generalities. Money in the hands of a woman benefits the whole village. When a woman is financially illiterate, it it will benefit her whole family. And I'm not here to say that doesn't happen with men. I'm here to say it can also happen with women. Yes. So um I think that that's so inspiring. Like you want to take good care of your people, learn about money. Like, be powerful in it, be comfortable in it, teach it to your daughters. Say things like budget, afford money, earn. Great. You know, like remove the shame and the secrecy. The other day I was checking out at Gap with my 11-year-old, and my 11-year-old said, Can you price match what's online, please?

Speaker 2: 28:58

Ooh.

Speaker 1: 28:59

I said, Yes, girl. And the clerk was so impressed. And my daughter said, Well, last time we did it, we saved 50 bucks. And I said, Yes, thank, yeah, great, yes, cheered her on. And the clerk said, When you turn 16, come back for a job. Oh, she's like, I'd love to have you here.

Speaker 2: 29:23

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 29:24

And so she wanted to save money. They had a little conversation about money, then come back and earn money. And it was all a positive.

Speaker: 29:34

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 29:35

Yeah. Whitney, before we close, do you have any parting wisdom for our listeners who are ready to move from being reactive to intentional with money?

Speaker: 29:45

Yes, first and foremost, get to know your numbers. Sit down, understand what you're earning, understand what you're spending, spend a little time to understand if you like where and how you're spending your money. This would be from more of the personal finance side. When it comes to business finances, it's something very similar. But I think you also have to understand what your business is costing you to run every month. And if you really are charging enough to afford that.

Speaker 1: 30:20

Yep. So pull the curtain back, look at the numbers, take a deep breath. You're gonna be okay. The awareness and your familiarity with it is going to maybe be uncomfortable or sting at first, but it is a necessary step to get to the other side, which is clear and empowered. Yes. Whitney. Thank you for being here. If listeners want to connect with you or reach out, where can they find you?

Speaker: 30:50

You can find me at my website, www.holistic dash money.com, or on Instagram at holistic.money.

Speaker 1: 31:00

Listener, thank you so much for being here. Take good care of yourselves, and I'll see you next time. Thank you for spending this time with me. If something from today's conversation resonated, or if you're in a season where support would help, visit me at gattyaholum.com. That's C-A-T-I-A-H-O-L-M.com. You can also leave an anonymous question for the show by calling or texting. 956-249-7930. I'd love to hear what's on your heart. If Couch Time with Cat has been meaningful to you, it would mean so much if you'd subscribe, rate, and leave a review. It helps others find us and it grows this community of care. And if you know someone who needs a little light right now, send them this episode. Remind them they're not alone. Until next time, be gentle with yourself. Keep showing up and know I'm right here with you.