Gratitude: The Secret Ingredient to Financial Success and Joy

In this episode of Chat with Nat: Conversations That Count, host Natalie McPhie Kim shares practical strategies for cultivating gratitude as a financial, mindset, and life asset, especially during Thanksgiving week. She introduces her consulting service for business owners, then explores the “Five F’s” pillars—Faith, Family, Finances, Fitness, and Fun—offering actionable tips for each. Natalie emphasizes that true gratitude requires action, encouraging listeners to make positive changes in their finances, relationships, health, and joy. She closes with a call to finish the year with gratitude and intention, inviting feedback and connection.

What you will hear:

• Introduction to consulting services for business owners regarding financial statements
• Importance of understanding financial documents for business health and decision-making
• Theme of gratitude during Thanksgiving week as a financial and life strategy
• Practical tips for cultivating gratitude in finances
• Exploration of the "Five F's" pillars related to gratitude: Faith, Family, Finances, Fitness, and Fun
• Faith as a stabilizer during uncertain times and its role in gratitude
• Family as the primary source of identity and strength, emphasizing the importance of relationships
• Stewardship and intentional action in managing finances with a gratitude mindset
• The significance of health and fitness in enjoying wealth and overall well-being
• Encouragement to create joyful experiences and memories, especially during the holiday season

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Transcript

0:03

Hey friends, welcome back to chat with Nat. Conversations that count. This week's episode is brought to you by Natalie Kime Consulting. Are you a business owner staring at your financial statements and wondering if they're speaking a language you haven't learned yet? Do you even have financial statements? Do you truly know why you need those numbers? Or how they can reveal exactly when it's time to scale up, trim down, or hold steady in your business? If those questions resonate with you, I'm here to help. I'm Natalie, and after 20 years in corporate accounting and finance, I've turned my expertise towards helping business owners like you to decode the story behind your numbers. Let's unlock the insights hidden in your financials so you can confidently decide your next move. Whether it's expanding, streamlining, or staying the course. From now until year end, I'm offering a special discounted rate on a business financial review. Just check the link in the show notes or. Connect with me on LinkedIn under Natalie McFee Kim to get more information and secure your session. I only have a few spots open and I hope to see you fill one of them. Let's make your numbers work for you and head into the New Year with clarity and confidence. Now let's get back to the show. It's Thanksgiving week, one of my favorite times of the year the food, faith, family, fitness we need. After going back for seconds and thirds. And yes, the fun that reminds us that life is meant to be lived with the people we love most. But today, I want to go a little deeper because gratitude isn't just something you feel, it's something you live. It's a financial strategy, a mindset strategy, a life strategy. This week's money tip is your gratitude is an asset because grateful people make better financial decisions. Here are some of the ways that gratitude can help your money. You save more consistently. You spend less emotionally. You make clearer long term decisions. You avoid panic buying or reactive investing, and you see the opportunities instead of fears. Here's three things I want you to do this week when it comes to your finances. Number one, write down three financial blessings from this year. Review or increase your automatic savings and cut one unnecessary subscription. Like, get that sucker out of there. And you know what? I'm going to throw in a fourth one. Celebrate one financial win that you haven't given yourself credit for. And all of these things can be small. They don't have to be huge. Because the truth is, small steps still move us in the direction that we're heading. Okay, I want you to remember that gratitude turns what we have into enough. So focus on that this week. Now I want to jump in, of course, to the five F's. When we talk about gratitude, when we talk about being thankful and what better week to do that. Number one, faith. It's the foundation. It's where gratitude begins. The stabilizer. When life feels chaotic, it reminds us that even in the valleys, God has not missed a moment. Gratitude strengthens trust during uncertainty. Faith reframes setbacks as setups. Gratitude invites God into your daily choices, and faith produces endurance when seasons stretch you. And if you're listening to this, you've been through one or all of those at some point in your life, because that is life. In Psalms 91 it says, I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all of my heart. Faith isn't believing God can. It's knowing he will. I want you guys to take time. And if it's not, your faith isn't rooted in God like mine is, whatever it is rooted in. I want you to take time to sit still and be thankful for the things that stayed this year, the things that left this year, and the things that are still on their way. As we shift into number two, which is, of course, family, our first economy. You know, I'm Polynesian in culture. My mom is Polynesian, my dad is white. Um, and this last weekend I went to an event in Salt Lake City. And I've spoken at a lot of the different events for and in my financial services business about different aspects of my story. The work that I do, all of those kind of things. But this event was a little different. I actually spoke on the wealth that we can find in our communities through our culture, through our people, and how we enhance that by building financial wealth and pouring that back into our communities and our people. And what a blessing it was to reflect on on that culture, on that heritage that I have on my family that's come before me, and how all of that's led me to where I am today. But in the Polynesian culture, family is absolutely our first foundation of wealth. It's our first community, our first identity, our first source of strength. Family, whether by blood, by choice, or by calling, is wealth. You can't buy, you can't replace, and you can't replicate. You see, when you focus on gratitude in this category of family. It helps you see the good in imperfect people. And y'all, we are all imperfect. Family helps shape our why. What fuels us? What's important to us, the reason we're doing whatever it is that we're doing in this world. Hard family seasons can deepen compassion and connection if we allow them to. And gratitude promotes forgiveness, healing, and unity. You know, there. There were years that there was separation in different relationships within my family. Um, even with my parents for a period of time. And those those were really difficult years, at times, lonely years and at times emotional years as well. But I can tell you that in every one of those situations, as we worked our way through it, which family, I think more often than not tends to do. We set aside the differences or the what happened or the anger, resentment and hurt and found gratitude that we had come back together and we could build better moving forward. And so if Thanksgiving for you is a, is a is a day filled with turmoil or tension in your household, I challenge you. Not necessarily your household, but but with family extended family that you might be spending time with for this holiday. I challenge you to wake up and focus on gratitude first thing that morning, and carry that in your mind and in your heart throughout the day, and see if it doesn't impact that contentious situation a little bit for you all, or even guide conversations in a way where that tension doesn't come up and you're talking about the things you're grateful for And you're sharing fun stories, and you're not digging into those topics that can sidetrack any family meal. So that's my challenge for you guys this week. If you're facing something like that. And I want you to remember families. Family is not an important thing. It's everything. That was something that Michael J. Fox said. And as far as I'm concerned, your family is wealth that can't be taxed. Lean into it. Be grateful for it, no matter what it might look like. Section three finances that third pillar. This is all about stewardship and action. When you appreciate what you have. You steward it better, you utilize it better. And what what you steward well grows. Let's be real. This economy has stretched people this year, but the ones who stayed focused, educated and intentional, their ending stronger than they ever thought they could. And that is a blessing to be grateful for. So if you're one of those people, go back and write that down as one of the financial things that you're grateful for this year. From the money tip that I shared in the beginning, gratitude can reduce that emotional spending. It's going to help shift our mindsets from scarcity to abundance. It can promote discipline and intentionality and inspire long term planning over short term impulse. Y'all, let's be honest. Right after Thanksgiving and honestly, most people have already started. I know so many people who have already decorated their homes for Christmas who are well into their Christmas shopping. We're on our way there. In my household, it's so easy to overspend at Christmas because you want to make it perfect and you want you want to get the kids or the grandkids that exact right thing. But if you take the time at Thanksgiving to be grateful for everything, you have to focus on gratitude in your finances. And if you haven't already, sit down and make that Christmas budget and then stick to it, because that just right gift doesn't have to cost a fortune. There's so many other ways to go about Christmas, and I know a lot of families out there are probably challenged to do that this year. The truth is, sometimes those Christmases that aren't about how much we spent are the ones that mean the most moving forward. Charles Spurgeon said, it's not how much we have, but how much we enjoy that makes happiness. And I want you guys to remember that stewardship is gratitude in motion. All right. Let's jump into our fourth pillar, which is fitness. A strong life starts inside. I did a what we call a match up appointment with a client and my mentor the other day, and the the gal that we were meeting with is fixing to start a supplement company. She has developed some amazing products and she's really excited to get him out in the world. And for a few minutes we were talking about the importance of our health and fitness. Because the truth is, my job is to help people increase in the financial realm, whatever, based on whatever their goals and dreams are. Right. But what good is it to create that wealth, to create that dream life from a financial perspective, and not be healthy enough or strong enough to enjoy it? Fitness isn't just your body. It's your emotional health, your mental resilience, your spiritual alignment. It touches on every aspect. That's why These five F's are the five pillars that I built this podcast on, and that I talk about all the time. Gratitude literally strengthens you from the inside out. It can reduce stress hormones, improve focus and sleep, help regulate your emotional responses, and it supports resilience and self-care. Years ago, I was really involved in the The Hollis Company, Rachel and Dave Hollis back in the day, and I participated one year in their personal coaching program and their business coaching program. This was my first full year in my business and I was still part time during this time frame. Okay, but one of the things that they always talked about that I'm forever grateful for is gratitude journaling. And I know a lot of people out there aren't gratitude journals, journals, and maybe aren't journaling at all. But I tell you what, I start my day in gratitude by writing down four very simple things. Not the big, crazy, audacious things that, of course, you're grateful for. The little simple things that you have to remember happened throughout the prior day to write them down. The simple things that make life what it is that make you who you are. And I start my day with gratitude in in what the previous day provided for me. And the reason I do it is because it roots me in gratitude throughout the day so that no matter what comes my way, no matter what punches life throws at me that day, or what challenges I face throughout the day, I can remember to be grateful that I'm in a position to experience those things, and it just lightens that load a little bit more. A healthy outside starts from the inside, and gratitude is the most underrated wellness habit on earth. I'm going to repeat that again. A healthy outside starts from the inside. That's actually a quote by Robert Urich. And I want you to remember, gratitude is the most underrated wellness habit on Earth. All right, that fifth pillar fun. This is probably my gosh, I love all these pillars. But this is my favorite because fun. Just the word fun. The thought of fun just puts a huge smile on my face. And I want you guys to remember that joy is medicine. Fun is gratitude expressed. You're doing something you enjoy. And you're pushing gratitude for being able to do it. To have the time, the experience, the people you do it with. If there are other people involved, adults forget to play. But y'all, joy is a sign that you're alive, aware, and grateful. So I'm going to challenge you this Thanksgiving week, and I think it's the perfect opportunity because a lot of you are traveling to spend focus time with family for maybe a few days. So I want you to go make a memory, laugh hard, eat the pie for sure. I'm going to be eating the pie in my household. I'm going to be baking it, and then I'm going to be eating it. But joy is spiritual warfare in a world that wants to exhaust you, especially this time of year. So make sure you take time for that so that you can balance a little bit of the craziness of Christmas and the holiday season. I want you guys to remember fun, boost creativity, and restores energy. I relate that to the idea of getting up early and moving your body. It gives you more energy for the day, so doing something fun has that same impact. Laughter truly strengthens relationships, and it lifts the weight of whatever you're carrying off your shoulders a little bit more. Rest and joy improved mental clarity. You know, when I was in Salt Lake this last weekend, the event I went for was Friday evening and all day Saturday and into the evening. But I stayed until Monday. I didn't fly home till late Monday morning and Sunday. I just spent the day with my brother and sister in law, and I've been to when people have been asking me this week, how was your trip? The event was amazing. I loved everything about it, but I talk a lot about getting to spend that day with my brother and sister in law, because I don't remember the last time it was just the three of us before my mom and dad came to live with me. When I traveled home to Utah, I was usually staying with my parents at their house, and of course, I'd see my brother and sister in law and their family. But there was always something going on in activity dinner, cooking, a whole house full of people. It wasn't that focus time with just me and them. And since my parents have come to live with me, the times I've gone back to Utah, I'm usually taking them with me. And so there's taking care of mom and dad and trying to make sure everybody's okay. And again, just a house full of people. But this last trip, we just sat in their living room all day. Not one of us got out of our comfy, cozy pajama clothes. We sat all day and we binge watched Lane Man. I had never seen the first full the first full season, and the second season just started. And so they decided to rewatch season one with me. And then we watched the first episode of Stephen Season two, and a lot of people may think, man, what a waste of time. If I did that all the time, I'd absolutely agree. But I hadn't seen that season because I haven't had the time, because I'm focused on my family and my business in regular life and I. Gosh, what a blessing. What a blessing that time with them was. What a blessing it was to just sit still and do something that I don't get to do very often, and be able to just interact with them. We DoorDash, eat whatever we ate that day and it was wonderful. It filled my cup fuller than I realized I needed it to be. So take that time to rest, to relax, to do something that doesn't force you to move and take action every single minute during this holiday season, because there's more action to be taken than normal. And remember that fun keeps life light when life gets heavy, which it does for all of us all the time in different ways. George Bernard Shaw said, we don't stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing. And I want you to remember that joy is gratitude wearing its best outfit. All right. As we wind this episode out, y'all know it's time for Nat's hot take and a call to action. So here it is. If gratitude doesn't change your behavior, it's just a pretty quote. A real gratitude requires action. Real gratitude requires action. I want you to be grateful for your money and then protect it. I want you to be grateful for your family and then plan for their future. Be grateful for your faith and then walk like you trust God. Be grateful for your fitness and honor the body that God gave you. And finally, be grateful for joy and go create some moments that are worth remembering. Your future deserves more than leftovers and you deserve to walk into next year, Not just grateful, but positioned. Protected and prepared. So before you slip into that turkey and pie, that little coma you're going to get on Thanksgiving Day. I want you to click the link in the show notes that says contact show or contact Natalie and leave a review with me. Tell me what you thought about this episode. Tell me what you like about the show in general. Share what your thoughts for finishing in the year for finishing the year in gratitude. Ah, let's build on that gratitude. Let's build peace, protection and connection with the ones we love most this season. And until next time, protect that peace. Protect your people and protect your wealth.