Speakers: Joyce Marter, LCPC, Financial Therapist, Speaker & Author, Joyce Marter Enterprises, Inc.
Joyce Marter, LCPC: Hi there. I'm Joyce Marter. I'm a licensed psychotherapist specializing in financial therapy and the psychology of money. I'm a national keynote speaker and I'm also the author of the Financial Mindset Fix.
Joyce Marter, LCPC: I signed up for Spencer's Mindful Advisor Retreat because I'm continually working on my money mindset. And I always joke that we therapists, we tend to specialize in our own issues and I've dealt with fee integrity problems. So in my public speaking, sometimes I'm so mission driven that I don't adequately advocate for myself. And I let my financial boundaries become compromised even though I'm a specialist in this. And I just feel so aligned with Spencer and his work and his application of mindfulness to money that I was excited to see how his retreat could help me.
Joyce Marter, LCPC: Spencer's retreat really helped me with my fee integrity through the individual and group exercises. So throughout the retreat, there's a lot of time for introspection and reflection and journaling and listening to Spencer and his teachings. And then we have the opportunity to have group exercises. And one of my favorite things was really the caliber and quality and consciousness and compassion of the other group attendees. And so having conversations with them allowed each of us to support one another in our areas of growth. And Spencer also generously sat with me and did a role play exercise, which was shockingly very embarrassingly uncomfortable for me in which he was asking me to state my speaker fees at a much higher rate than I currently charge. And actually what is probably more appropriate for me to charge. And it was really difficult and he kind of step by step, guided me through how to use different words and express myself differently. And I came home and I immediately adjusted all of my pricing sheets for my speaking. And from that point forward, really have maintained my finance boundaries and I'm so much happier. And what's interesting was I was afraid that I was gonna lose some clients by charging more. But actually, what's happened is the clients that have said, no have said we will work you into our budget next year for the bigger event. So really the retreat helped me tremendously.
Joyce Marter, LCPC: I highly recommend Spencer's Mindful Retreat to really anybody. I know he calls it the Mindful Advisor Retreat, but I am a financial professional as a therapist. And I found it extremely helpful and I really think each and every person, regardless of profession could benefit from his retreat. It's really an opportunity to be mindful. We are in nature, and we exercise, and eat mindfully, and it's just really part of the whole experience. So it not only helps with your financial mindset but also your holistic health and wellness. Of course, everything is interrelated. So the more mindfully we live, the more mindful we're gonna be in our financial lives as well. So I wholeheartedly recommend Spencer's retreat for every professional and I really hope and intend to attend it again because he has a different theme each time that he offers the retreat.
Joyce Marter, LCPC: I've actually noticed a few differences in myself since attending Spencer's retreat, I would say number one, my meditation practice has become more routine and regular. I had sort of fallen off the wagon a little bit, and having the opportunity to participate in some guided meditations with Spencer and the group, and I also was able to participate in a guided two-hour-long meditation at the Green Gulch Center at the San Francisco Zen Center, and that was amazing. So that really reinstated my passion for meditation. Also eating mindfully during the retreat and eating really healthy food caused some reflection on how my lifestyle had moved into a less healthy direction. So I've been working at eating mindfully and feeling really good about that. And Spencer talks a lot about "enoughness" and I like clothes, ? I like to dress nice for my speaking engagements, and so it really gave me the opportunity. I came back, cleaned out my closet, got rid of things that I don't wear anymore and took them to dress for success to donate so somebody else could enjoy them. And I've deleted my retail apps and really focused on "enoughness," that I have enough and I don't need to be spending that money on more clothing. And when I don't spend the money there, I have more to give to my charity donations and to people of need, which makes me feel much better. I also have really worked on my fee integrity and seeing an increase in my business - it's actually been pretty dramatic in the last couple of months. My income is about $7,000 higher the past two months than it had ever been prior to that.
