Why Successful Women Make Money but Don't Build Wealth

So welcome to Dawn of a New Era, the Billionaire Brain podcast, and we have a gorgeous guest today with us, Michelle Taylor. She is the founder of Women in Wealth and host of Talk Wealthy to Me. She's a licensed wealth manager who specifically works with business owners. Now, I met Michelle on my travels, I think way back in 2024 when we were in Ladies Networking Group.

So, Michelle, tell us a little bit about when your journey started. How do you get into financial services, and particularly working with women? Yes. So it is definitely not a straight line.

I started off thinking I wanted to be an orthodontist, and yeah, after I went to school, realized that was probably not the way I wanted to spend my time. And after doing a little bit of reflection, I realized what I really enjoyed about that was that my uncle was a dentist, and I was really wanting the life he had, not necessarily the career he had. And so I grew up always knowing I had wanted to be an entrepreneur. And after coming to that realization and thinking, what am I going to do to enjoy every single day, I moved to Italy.

I had a failed business venture. It was a great idea, but unfortunately timing was not on my side because of the economic crisis in the States. And so I pivoted to something else that was, I developed a product for women's shoes, and I pivoted again. Life has a funny way of doing that, and realized that a lot of the lessons I had gone through with some of these ventures.

Had really put me in a place that I was uniquely equipped to become a wealth manager and help other female founders and just women in general learn how to build wealth in a way that was meaningful to them. So, you know, women are really good at sharing resources with each other. And so I never went into this thinking I would just work with women, and I still don't. I have about 15% of my clients that are the gents, but it's just evolved over time that working with business owners, one woman led to another, and now I spend my day mostly with female founders.

I love it. I mean, you work with a lot of successful women who are brilliant, brilliant at making money, but they might not be as brilliant at building actual personal wealth. And I see this a lot with founders who've scaled quite quickly. There's often a disconnect to what's actually happening in the business and what to do and when to start investing some of the profit.

So talk to me about what is the disconnect that you see, and is there a perfect time for founders to start addressing personal wealth? Because I'm always an advocate for start as soon as you start the business, because I started investing just like $1 in gold when I started my business, and every Friday I buy digital gold. It's just a habit I have, and I started investing that way because there was never going to be a perfect time, and I never knew when that profit would be hitting. Well, this is two issues that I think are important.

One, we are living in a time where more women than ever control the spending. They are starting businesses at a faster rate than men are, and this is new. And I think we're all coming to the table and saying, I have this idea. I'm going to start my own business.

And a lot of times I feel that women don't give themselves enough credit, so they'll start something and very quickly it evolves into something really meaningful. And then they say, How did I even get here? You know, this was something that maybe was something part-time. And I think that that— In that realization, it becomes, well, what the heck do I do?

So I think that women need to do a really good job of evaluating the situation that they're in and saying, who are the people I need seated at my proverbial board of directors table, making sure that they've been where you want to go. And then additionally, having that shift in mindset of now you have a successful business, but your retirement plan or your wealth-building plan cannot be that business. You have to be building wealth outside of your company and, of course, inside the business at the same time, which is a little bit daunting and scary because you pour so much into your business, it becomes like a baby. And now we are saying, okay, now take some of that and put it over here on the personal side.

And sometimes that's not so easy to understand. So you have to start immediately and then allow what you're doing on the personal side to grow and keep up with what you're doing within the business. But you have to start at the very beginning. Cannot wait.

Yeah, because even incremental, I mean, I used to kind of gamify it slightly with the apps and see, like, how quickly I could meet, like, certain goals and things like that. But even doing, I mean, I remember in my twenties just doing Roundups and just having automatic money that was going elsewhere that you didn't have to consciously attach to. But for me, having a cathartic period at the end of the week and just knowing that I was doing something at that point, and then obviously, you know, that allowed me to go into property and various other things. You talk about money, obviously, as a job, you know, and this is something that I'm very passionate about.

I get banned on Instagram all of the time about talking about money. But for a founder who's generating strong revenue, how should they think differently about the cash that they're creating instead of continually putting everything back into the business? Because this is something I see, there's a fear. of losing control.

And when you start, you kind of, you may be in the feast and famine, then there's a consistency. But when you are successful, the fear comes back in. How do you condition people to think differently about the wealth side of things? I talk all the time about the difference between living in an and universe and an or universe.

So in the very beginning of someone's wealth-building journey, we're talking about saving and investing and paying off debt. You can't do an or; you have to do and. The same thing goes once you're established to personal and with the business. And I feel like a lot of times we are given advice around spending money within the business for a tax strategy.

And although we want to do that, you also don't want to spend a dollar to save 30 cents if you don't need to, right? So it's very important that as a founder, you're thinking, okay, I need to be in an and mindset, and I need to be filling both cups. So it's really helpful to have an operating account, and that operating account needs to have a floor. And I think about this when I, you know, play blackjack, when we go out of town or do something fun, you've got that floor.

And just like gambling, over time, you want to keep that floor. But once you start to build a little bit, you want to take that off and put it in your pocket. And it's the same thing with personal investments. You want to allow yourself the freedom of saying the business is healthy.

I am safe. There's nothing we need to spend to allow for growth and scale. So we're going to take this off the table, and I'm going to deploy this on the personal side to grow and scale wealth there. So having that floor of the operating account and really understanding what that is, is really the first step.

And then just remembering and instead of or. I think what you did is great. You want to automate that. So at the end of every, you know, week, month, or quarter, look at that operating account and say, what's there?

Check in with the business, but ultimately you need to be giving it the same attention as the personal side, and then moving some over and giving it a job, whether that's paying for education or investing or buying real estate or gold, whatever it is. Give every dollar a job so it's working while you're sleeping. Yeah, and I think this is so true. Being conscious about figures, a lot of women that I meet are a bit feared of the numbers.

And, you know, I have met founders who are seven-figure plus who don't even know what the operating costs of the business. And then when we start to look at profit, there's a bit of a shock. I mean, for me, I'm fascinated about the whole wealth identity and the psychology behind money. I always have been.

But what changes internally in a founder when a woman stops thinking like someone earning a good income and starts thinking about someone who's building this serious wealth? I mean, it has to come from unpacking the money stories that you've told yourself, the wealth identity, because there does come—and I will use this as a personal example. For me, I'm a childhood, well, teenage years leukemia survivor. And for me, there came a point where building the business felt fruitful and solid, and then building the personal side, I was almost fearful of building too much because it felt like, I don't want to chase this big thing because I've already been given my health, so I don't want to ask for too much.

I have a great life.

And then when you start to realize what you're doing, that is so huge. And I think that female founders, you know, we carry a lot of those things. We take things throughout our life and carry them in our backpack when we don't need to. So really understanding, okay, why am I chasing this?

Is it important to me or someone else? And giving yourself the permission to go and build real wealth, you have to figure out where it's coming from. You know, it's easy to say, what is your why? Because as women, how often do we say our children or our families or someone else?

But really discovering what is the why and giving yourself permission to feel it, and then building towards that, I think is the difference of both scenarios. Yeah, I agree. I mean, one of the things that I ask founders to do, and they always think it's a bit quirky, is actually writing a letter to money, establishing what your relationship is going to be with it. Because we're not consciously attached to money in necessarily a positive narrative all of the time.

We've experienced different feelings from money, whether it's good or bad. And often when someone does that and they chart out an intention towards what that's going to be, it's no different than having a relationship with a person. You know, you're inviting money in in an abundant state. When we think about money long term, you've said your business shouldn't rely on, you know, this whole let's get to the retirement plan or succession, etc.

What are the smartest founders doing in 2026 to build wealth outside the company that they're actually scaling? So alternative investments are getting a lot of attention, especially with women, which I'm really excited about. Yeah. You know, I like to tell someone, how do we replace your income with mailbox money or passive income?

Because once you do that, most founders that I talk to, and I'm sure you would be the same, they don't think about retirement because our brains never shut down. Because I love what I do, so for me, I don't know what my purpose would be without running something because it's my joy. That's right. So, yeah, you have to unpack and say, okay, we're not talking about a retirement plan.

That we can leave for the good old boys club. We're talking about the financial freedom to live your life on your own terms truly, and understanding what that money is and then how do we replace it? Well, of course, you know, there are the traditional ways with investments in real estate, but there are some other really fun alternative investments like private credit, private equity, you know, those things that are starting to get some attention, and they're meaningful numbers. So I think that the wealthiest or most successful women that I'm working with are starting to ask questions and look outside of the traditional tools that are in a toolbox and saying, what comes next?

What don't I know about private credit? What don't I know about, you know, some of these venture capital, private equity offerings, and how do I find out about those and partake in them? Because it's a bit like you're seeing people take these principles of, like, the family office model, and you're evolving it sort of into this new era. And for me, one of the things I started doing in business was taking equity in clients' businesses when I was an integral part, like almost a virtual business partner.

And because I knew the founders, because I knew the business, and I'd been with them from the start, it became a very different way of making money, but in something that I was already passionate about because I'd worked with the business. Where do you see wealthy women putting money right now? Obviously, there's the investments that you've talked about, but is there a particular... Industry that is popular right now that a lot of founders are leaning towards.

So I see a lot of people asking questions. You know, AI has already happened, you know? So the question that more of us are asking is, what is the infrastructure that supports the AI growth? I think there's a lot of interest there.

I also think, as far as an industry, that that's really driving the charge at this point. I think that outside of industry, I think the private credit space is where a lot of people are getting really excited. Just for an example, if you have a $250,000 investment and you would put it somewhere for a year, but then you were getting back 20%, and that's monthly mailbox money, you can kind of see the light bulb turn on for the clients that say, Okay, wait a minute. So if I'm putting, you know, X amount over there and I'm bringing home 30% of what I need, that's fantastic.

How do I do more of that? And then how do I add my passive income from real estate or from my bond portfolio? And suddenly you see them saying, Oh my gosh, I get it. Now I'm bringing in what I need, and now I'm feeling like I'm, you know, running on all cylinders.

Yeah, and I think that's when someone starts to feel like a true investor because they're actually reaping the benefits. A lot of people have done investments, but they see it as just this long term. I love what you're saying about the immediate returns. I see this a lot in clients who've invested in, like, property expansions, and then they start to get a return on their money.

If you could give a woman building her first million-dollar business or million dollars of personal wealth just three rules to live by, what would they be? I would say find someone who has been where you want to go. I think we live in a time where there is so much advice being given everywhere. I would challenge anybody to ask, does that person live the life that I want to live?

And not in the way that, well, they have a lot of followers on social media, so they're successful. No. I want them to find people that are actually living the life that they want to live because they have personal experience. That's really important.

The second thing is women have been told for far too long that we are conservative, and we now self-identify as conservative investors, and that is just simply not true. If you are conservative, that's okay, but check in with yourself. Ask yourself if that really is the case, because some of these other things that we are discussing do take a little bit more of an appetite for risk. Don't exclude yourself from something because of something you believe you should be, not because of what you are.

And I think the third thing, and this is what I see with so many women, is don't sit on too much cash. This happens all the time. I compare it to, you know, having a kid that you send to college and they do all the right things, and they come home and they live in your basement. Cash is the hardest—I'm sorry, is the most expensive place to hold money because of inflation.

And women, nine times out of ten, are sitting on far too much. And truly, cash is the gunpowder that's going to grow and scale your business and your personal wealth. Why are we sitting on it? What true emergency is a hundred thousand dollars?

You know, in your personal— I always say this. I was like, do you know what? Like, ten thousand could probably solve most things. Like, if you look in business, there's not things that are a hundred-thousand-dollar problems on a day-to-day basis.

But there's a figure that psychologically gives safety, but I think that that's a large safety net that we probably don't need to do. So I always say to people, well, look, half it, invest the other half, and still, you know, do you still feel safe at 50? And then maybe another 10, and then if that's as far as you can go, that's as far as you can go. But at least you've got 70% of it working for you and actually generating income and personal wealth.

So if you look at the wealthiest people that you have encountered in your life, and I guess you've worked with a lot of different celebrities, huge founders, etc., but what is it that they understand about money that other founders or everybody else doesn't see instantly? I think that they understand that money is a tool, and we have to take the emotion out of it. And people say to me so often, they come and they'll say, Oh my gosh, you're going to yell at me, or This is a mess.

And I say to them, just because it may be not ideal, so many of the people I work with are saying the same thing. So you never know what, you know, someone else is saying, despite them making a lot more or being worth a lot more. I think ultimately the goal has to be that you have to take the emotion out of it. It's easy for me to do what I do because I look at it like a big puzzle.

And if you can learn to do that and check in with yourself on that and understand, okay, why am I sitting on this much? Let me deploy it. This investment, it's probably come to fruition, and although it feels safe, I know that I can take this and do something bigger with it. Pretend—I think what they do, and it goes back to the family office dynamic, and that's how I approach my client relationships.

Listen, I don't expect you to know all of the things. Let me be the financial quarterback, like with any family office, because I am collaborating with a lot of the different professionals. And what they understand truly is taking the emotion out of it is the first step, and then the second step is just because they can doesn't mean that they do. Give those jobs to other people to take care of.

They're the experts, and you go be the expert at what's going to grow your personal wealth and your business. Love it. So, is there a particular podcast or book that you have read or encountered in your journey that really kind of inspired you or had an epiphany moment? I love to listen to podcasts and read, and I think that there hasn't been one in particular.

I think the one that is so easy, anything obviously Mel Robbins does is great, but also The Compound Effect I really enjoy because it gives you an idea. You know, we grow up hearing how bad debt is, and the book doesn't even specifically target this, but I think that when you look at it through the lens of compounding is beautiful when you are the one collecting the interest. We all grow up so afraid of it. We're told to be afraid of it, but leveraging debt is how true wealth is built.

And not being afraid of that, I think understanding how numbers compound and it works in your favor, that was just very, very eye-opening for me to look at it through a different lens. You know, they talk about the behaviors and how doing something for 10 minutes a day over time, you now are separating yourself from your peers just because of the reps that you're getting in. I think that for anybody that hasn't read it, that has a really great way of simplifying it. So that you can tackle everything in your life with the approach of having compounding numbers or data working in your favor.

Yeah, and it's like honing a skill. It's like what you don't understand yesterday, you start to make sense of today, and it's the ripple effect. It's like, you know, when people talk about investing, I remember being in my twenties, I kind of like conditioned myself to think, Oh, well, that's not me. That's not me.

You know, I'm starting out. I'm 21. I've got my first offices. I bought a house at 19.

I, like, you know, I was already investing. And then when I started to understand that there wasn't many 19-year-olds who'd bought a house that had made quite a lot of money in that first year, I started to change my mindset around this: what is wealth and what is investing? And it was more around decision-making. So what has been the best wealth decision that you've ever made?

Oh my goodness. I think it was probably either getting, when I first decided to get into real estate, because that was the first time I felt passive income. And also, I would say the private credit piece. When you get a taste of passive income and what that does, it's hard to ever not get excited about something like that.

So now when you look at a chunk of money, or when I do, I think, Oh, what can I send this to go do to make me money? Before it was very different, but once you taste it, it's hard to go backward. And if people want to find out more about investing and come to you for the advice, where is the best place for them to find you? It would probably be on social media, on Instagram.

Either it's Shell Taylor, that's my personal brand, and then at Women underscore in underscore Wealth. Obviously, I have the Talk Wealthy to Me podcast, and then the website, which is just womeninwealth.co. Amazing.

Now we've come to my favorite part of the interview. We've talked about the amazing founder success and the good and the bad and the ugly, and I always like to close with a funny story or an embarrassing moment from your entrepreneurial journey. So what have you got for us, Michelle? Okay.

So I've talked about this prior, but it was truly mortifying, but also the catalyst to the changes that needed to happen in my life. So I mentioned that I had been sick, and I think that I was trying to become what I wanted to be before I'd earned the right to be there. I was shopping a lot, trying to fill a cup, get that dopamine hit. And when I moved to Italy, one of—in the States, magazines are very inexpensive to buy.

But back in 2007, I loved a good Vogue or, you know, InStyle, those, and I didn't buy them when I was there because they're, you know, 15, 20 dollars. And so when I moved home, I remember being so excited to be able to buy some magazines again. And my poor money decisions while I was there led me to coming home, landing in Philadelphia, and going in to buy my magazine, and I swiped one card and it was declined. And then I swiped another and another.

Dawn, I had not one penny to my name. I had swiped every card I had, and I had my best friend who'd moved there with me. She came over and bought it, and she said, What are you doing? Like, what are you doing?

What would you have done if I hadn't been here? And I joked back and said, Well, I wouldn't have bought the magazine. But also, truly think about how dangerous that was to be in another country and coming home and having nothing. And in that moment, I thought, okay, something has got to change, because who can't buy a four-dollar magazine at 26 years old?

It was me. And so I took all of those lessons in that moment and kind of thought, I'm going to do better, and I'm going to figure this out, and I'm going to make sure that I never feel like this again. And that is probably the most mortified I've ever been in my wealth-building journey, and it led me to Women & Wealth and becoming a wealth manager that helps women figure out their own money journeys and creating generational wealth. Do you know what the crazy thing is?

Is out of hundreds of founders that I've interviewed, I would go as far to say as 80% have had a similar story, and it's the relationship with money. And people say, Oh, I haven't got, you know, money mindset issues. Like, we've all got a money story and a money narrative that runs through us, whether it's the indulgence. I mean, we all like fashion, and I remember, like, living at 21, I had a house, and I was still spending like I didn't have a mortgage.

And I remember, like, hitting one day and thinking, How am I going to pay the mortgage? And it was that kind of, like, shock that I needed to go and do it, and I had to go and borrow some money from a friend because I'd put myself into that situation. I was living the lifestyle of a champagne budget, but didn't have that to go with it because you get caught up with it. So if you were to say one piece of advice to our listeners, just to kind of motivate them today to get them on the personal wealth journey, is there any one thing that they can do today to start investing?

Talk about money. Yes. Talk about money with your friends, with your peers. Why is it the three things that move the needle most in this world: money, politics, and religion?

We've all been told, don't talk about those things. And if you think back to some of the shows that we've seen of, you know, let's say the 1800s, after a meal, what happens? The women, they go into one room and they drink tea and gossip, and the men talk about money, politics, and religion. We have to change the narrative.

So even if you're not sure where to start, talk about money. Ask your friends, what are you investing in? What are you reading? What are, you know, what are some things that you're doing?

And it doesn't have to get, you know, boring for your friends that might not be on the same page as you. But if you are the friend that starts asking the questions, you'll be amazed at what may come of it, because rising tides rise all ships, and talking about money is the first step. You don't know what you don't know, and you never know what your girlfriend sitting next to you may also not be talking about that could change her life and yours. Yeah, and the thing is, it's always someone who's got tips on, like, places to get clothes, fashion.

It could be health and wealth. It could be all of the topics, but we all love to give advice, don't we? And I think sometimes we're too frightened. Now, when we think about money, I want to end today's podcast with just a reminder of how to find Michelle.

Remember, go and listen to our podcast, find her on Instagram, on the socials, go and visit the website, and make one choice this week, which is to invest, even if it's one dollar, and it's into a digital investment. Start now. It could just be an automatic investment, right, I guess, into a savings account or something that is just index funds, anything like that. Yeah.

Amazing. Well, thank you so much for joining me on today's episode. And to all the listeners, if you've enjoyed the podcast, obviously reach out to Michelle, and remember to give us a quick rate and review as well.