Lately I’ve come across the word guru a lot, and it got me thinking about what it actually means. I’ve even had a few people try to attach that word to me, which I have to very sternly refuse. I am not a guru in any sense of the word, and I even went and looked it up, just to make sure.

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According to Wikipedia – which is what we use nowadays instead of a dictionary –

A Guru: a teacher, guide or master, an exemplar, a spiritual guide who helps students to discover what the guru has already realized.

I feel like the idea of a guru is someone who has kind of gone through a trial by fire in some way, has figured it out, has the answers now and can pass information on to others which they have learned themselves, kind of like a yogi. There are these different stages in yoga, not that I know this by experience, because I’ve never done a whole lot of yoga, but I did read Big Magic and Eat, Pray, Love, so I know that you can get to a certain level of attainment in yoga where you then become the yogi. You’ve attained enlightenment and now you’re able to pass that enlightenment on to others.

I feel like guru is more than just teacher, it’s more than just helping someone out, it’s more than just teaching someone what you’ve learned, it’s when you have really mastered it and lived by example this thing that you’ve become.

That’s definitely not me. I am definitely still learning right along with everyone. I like helping to start conversations, that’s my big point with this podcast and a lot of the things that I do, because I feel like that’s where a lot of us learn.

I learn most by talking to other people about things, and sometimes even by talking to myself about things. Sometimes I listen back when I’m editing an episode and I think, oh, that was a pretty good point, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s had this experience.

We teach best what we most need to learn – Richard Bach

I have heard people say before that the best way to learn something is to teach it, because in order to teach it to someone else, you really have to understand the fundamental concepts. So doing this has helped me a lot, talking to you all about money on this podcast has really helped me become way more aware of my own money, and way more aware of what I do with it day to day, especially because now and then I get that creeping fraud feeling.

I’m sure we’ve all had it! Because I now talk to other people about money, every now and then I’m like, oh gosh, they probably think I have no debt at all, which isn’t true, I have debt, I’m working on it, we’re paying it off. We have investments and plans, but I can’t say I’m by any means an example to hold up to other people. Other than, I keep trying to learn.

How To Get To A Guru

When I think about gurus out there in the world, I think about the way in which we normal people get to interact with them, and here’s what I came up with.

• You can buy their books, either real published books or online books or e-books or things like that.
• You can watch their TED talks if they are that level of expert.
• You can buy tickets to their talks or events.

With each of these steps, your financial investment goes up a bit, and joining a higher priced mastermind they may offer or a course or program is probably a bit more, then usually to work one on one with a guru we’re talking a pretty high priced investment.

I’m not saying there’s not a place for that, because there totally is, and a lot of people get a lot out of working with the gurus and the people who have made it to the level they want to make it to. Doing that helps propel them forward into the place they want to be, whether that’s in terms of business, money, health or visibility, whatever it is. There are plenty of people who do get real value out of doing these programs and masterminds and working one on one with people.

And Now, The Goonies

I just want to bring up the 1985 movie, The Goonies, right now. I was nine years old when The Goonies came out, and I loved pretty much everything about this movie. I was a bit younger than the characters which meant I was definitely looking up to them and kind of obsessed.

Just in case you haven’t seen it, I’m definitely showing my age, and you can easily add up if I was nine years old in 1985, you know exactly how old I am right now! If you haven’t seen this movie you can check it out on Netflix, and please do, because it’s such a good movie. I loved it and Cyndi Lauper was my hero back then.

The movie’s about this rag tag group of kids that call themselves The Goonies, and they all have really interestingly varied talents, and as the movie progresses they go on an adventure. One of the best things is the kids are totally dedicated to each other and they get totally dedicated to a cause altogether. They want to save the house, they want to find some way for the family not to get evicted, and they discover a map and they go on a treasure hunt adventure. It’s awesome.

The interesting thing is, every single character in there, even those that seem to have no talents at all at the beginning, all of them contribute to the adventure in some way. If any one of those kids hadn’t been there on the adventure, they might not have made it all the way through to the end. Instead, they all helped and supported each other, hilarity ensues and different things happen, but one thing they didn’t do was they didn’t train and they didn’t do research.

They didn’t become experts and they didn’t learn everything you could ever learn about going on a treasure hunt with an old pirate map before they went. They saw the opportunity, they knew they only had a certain amount of time, and they just jumped in and went for it. And they saved the day, hooray, go Goonies!

While I feel there’s definitely this place for gurus and there’s definitely time to refer to the experts and find out what other people have done to get past any sticking point or roadblock you can’t seem to get by in your progress, either with your business, your finances, your health, whatever it is, there are always times to go to people who know more and who have studied and researched and who are the experts.

Sometimes you just kind of need a Goonies-like band of comrades, of friends, of people who are right in there with you doing it together at the same time.

That’s something that I’m really dedicated to, that’s totally why I started this podcast, and even more that’s why I started my Mastering Money Matters group.

I’ve mentioned this briefly before, but I realized I haven’t really explained the ‘why’ behind it entirely. It’s because I want Goonies myself.

It’s All About the Talking

I want other women that I can sit and talk to, we discuss the ups and downs, we discuss how hard it is to get a mortgage when you have self-employed income, and how much more you have to prove, and how hard it is when your kids are sick and you’re trying to work from home.

Don’t get me wrong I know it’d be hard if you had a job and had to come home and use up your sick leave for your kids to be sick too, but when you’re working from home and have a deadline, you don’t really get the time off because your kids are sick, you still have to figure out ways to do it.

We end up doing calls in the bathroom in between things while kids are watching TV, and hoping they’ll stay quiet while we finish it. So there are just all these different things that go on, and sometimes you just need to go into a group and say what happened and have someone else go, oh yeah, I totally know what you mean.

That’s totally what I’m trying to create. For women and money, I’ve talked about this before and I feel like I have this discussion with someone almost every day, fear and shame and confusion and not wanting to let other people know that you are afraid and ashamed and confused. It’s a lot to keep up when there are these moments when we’re like:

• Am I doing the right thing?
• Should I buy this house right now?
• Are we going to go bankrupt?
• Should I take this next step?
• Should I do this thing?

Especially for women in this entrepreneurial world, working outside the nine to five, we have to make a lot of those decisions where people who are working in employment often don’t. You’re doing what other people are telling you to do and you’re not having to figure it all out for yourself.

Not only are you having to figure out the decisions about your business and what next steps to take and when to make certain investments and so on, or when to pay off one debt versus paying off another, you also have to make the decisions about your families and your time and what kind of life you really want to live, what’s worth it and what isn’t.

Sometimes just talking it out and telling somebody else, writing it down, knowing someone else is going to read it, sometimes clarity comes just in that, just in sharing something.

Want Some Goonies?

So while I would never pretend I have all the answers, I am not a guru or an expert, I am just someone who is trying to go along and have conversations along the way, and I want us all to know that we aren’t alone, we’re in it together. I want you to feel that way too.

If you like the podcast, I have just started a new free group on Facebook called Financial Fluency, because I would love to continue some of these conversations that we start on the podcast with the listeners in the group.

You can join that group, and if you want some Goonies, some comrades, some people who are ready to really get in there and talk about pretty much everything we’re doing along the way, we can talk about families and kids and clothes and food and finances, we definitely talk about finances. If you want some people to be in there by your side, then join Mastering Money Matters.

Thank you so much for listening today. I hope you enjoyed this episode and I hope the idea of Gurus vs Goonies is as funny to you as it was to me. Don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode. Thanks so much.