Uncovering and Rewiring Your Money Mindset – Peggy Vandeplassche: NYN E8 Transcription:
Steven Pesavento 0:00
Hi, I'm Steven Pesavento, and welcome to the name your number podcast presented by the investor mindset. As someone who comes from a challenging childhood, I've spent my life seeking financial security, personal growth, and ultimately freedom, the freedom to not wake up worried about the next paycheck, but rather with the confidence of knowing that my passive income pays my bills without the need to think about it. When you name your number, that you'll learn passively, that creates your ultimate quality of life that I believe you've achieved real freedom. Welcome to my show, it's time to name your number. If you then don't have and create some of the self awareness, to understand what are some of those old beliefs that kind of come up through the cracks, and show their head or create a reaction in a moment with a spouse or a loved one or a co worker that is around some of these beliefs around money, then it can be difficult to know what the problem is. Welcome back to the name your numbers show presented by the investor mindset. We're on a mission to create financial freedom for over a million investors. And when you name your number, the number that you want to earn passively, every month that creates your ultimate quality of life, then I believe you've achieved real freedom. And if you're ready to name your number, and create a passive investment plan that you'll follow step by step to get there, then head over to investor mindset.com/number To download your free guide to get started. And for those of you who are ready to build that plan together with me and the like minded group of investors that you'll be invited to schedule a call with one of my top advisors. Now let's get into the show. today. I'm excited to have Peggy Vonda flash on the on the pod today. How you doing today, Peggy?
Peggy Vandeplassche 1:53
I'm doing great. Thank you so much for inviting me, Steven, it's really a pleasure to chat with you and with your audience.
Steven Pesavento 2:00
Yeah, I'm excited to have you because you've got a unique background, you worked in FinTech and in the VC World Financial Services and Technology for 20 years. And now you've really pivoted your focus towards energy on, you've really pivoted your focus towards psychedelics, and I'd love for you to share with the audience a little bit about what it is that you do and why you made that shift.
Peggy Vandeplassche 2:25
And thank you so much. You know, like, maybe I will start with why I made that shift was going to be probably a bit more self explanatory. As you mentioned, I was in the finance industry for 20 years, I was investing and advising investment funds on FinTech investments. And, you know, I love that I love finance, that's fine. But that's, that's really something I'm excited about. And the big challenge is, I've been struggling with a lot of anxiety, a lot of depression, you know, mental health issue for most of my life. So much so that I didn't even realize that I have challenges because it was something I had since I was a kid, you know, and, but just Yeah. And I'm not gonna go for all the reasons why. And oh, it came, it came to be I started micro dosing psilocybin. Psilocybin, for people who listen to us is magic mushroom. So I started micro dosing simply to help me, again, with depression, with anxiety with all this nice stuff. But also, and I mean, you know that a lot of people in the tech and finance industry actually microdose for performance and focus. So it was not my first goal, but I was quite happy to get a kick of performance and focus as well. And my experience with microdosing was so amazing. I think there is no other words, especially for my mental health that I started talking about it. So I had a newsletter I had, you know, several channels. And people were very surprised, as you can imagine, because we're still a bit of a stigma when it comes to psychedelics, but the questions of interest was just overwhelming. And I thought, Oh, well, that's interesting, but people are really looking into that and further was the only one with depression and anxiety. You know, I didn't realize that actually, of my network was in the same in the same place. And at the same time, because I'm a finance person, I started digging more and more into the industry. And sometimes people confuse a bit psychedelic with cannabis. Cannabis has not been a great space for investors, where returns have looked extremely good at the beginning and when that was Big nosedive psychedelics is very different because it's healthcare related, it's not recreational related. So it's why your take?
Steven Pesavento 5:09
Well, I found that it's it's such an interesting space, because when people hear about using psychedelics in order to increase performance, or in order to, you know, support with mental health, a lot of people because we've been taught for so long that these things are kind of hands off, do not touch them, they're really not good for you, that a lot of people, when I first used started using them many, many years ago, for some of the same reasons, I ended up getting so much benefit out of it. But I didn't tell anybody, I kind of kept it to myself in my little tight circle, because in technology was quite well accepted. And, and, and talked about quite a bit. But in the general world, it wasn't. Now I don't use them every day. But we'll talk a little bit about the protocol and some of the other things you're doing. But before we do, let's start back on a personal note by looking back at earlier in your life, what events or influences from your childhood shaped who you are today, and how did that play a role in your money in your investing journey
Peggy Vandeplassche 6:11
in finance, not in a very good way, by my parents, like most people, and I grew up in a family that was led by a single mother who was struggling a lot. And so my beliefs around money were extremely limiting, and extremely negative. And that's something I also want to put the on faces to your audience is, if you're really struggling with saving, managing your money properly, and even if you want it, you know, you're listening to Stephen, everything he says makes tons of sense. You're like, yeah, I want it, but you can not do it. Well, maybe you need to dig into what are these limiting beliefs that might be preventing me unconsciously, to actually do it. And I'm just even you see that very often with your clients, but we know what to do, you're explaining them, but they don't seem to be able to do it. It's like following a diet, it's kind of, you know,
Steven Pesavento 7:13
well, it's one of those things where I've found in my own life, which is why I've used tools like mindset and in therapy and coaching and, you know, tools, like the ones that you're talking about using as well, in order to kind of release yourself from some of those, those things that you're holding on to because, you know, I see it every single day, there's clients that they want to take action, they want to invest, they want to create that vision and go and create that life that they want. But something is keeping them rooted in the current place and space that they're at, they don't want to let go of those beliefs, they don't want to let go of those things. Because those things, allow them to feel safe, although they know that they're not as happy with them as result, have you experienced that yourself as well working in technology, and then eventually making this decision to step away from a very lucrative career.
Peggy Vandeplassche 8:07
And well, listen, for me, what was very interesting is that I was able to make a lot of money, but I was managing it very poorly. So the belief was not so much about earning the money. It was about managing it well. And, you know, I was discussing with my husband yesterday was also in finance before saying finance. And I was saying, Oh, it's funny, because I do a lot of tapping, meditation and MRP to explain that a bit a bit further. And I was doing a tapping meditation last night, and I got this memory of my mother being literally disgusted with me, because I loved money. When I was a kid, I just love you know, I didn't fall in finance for nothing. I always loved money. But you know, as a kid, you know, like, you just love to count it. It's fun, you know, like, there is no notion of greed, it's innocence, you know. But my mother with a lot of emotional anger was very disgusted by my behavior. And I interiorized that shame. That money was bad. If I had money, I was a bad person. If I was saving money, I was a bad person. So I was making a lot of money, but I was like spending it as fast as I could. So I knew that there was something wrong here. Because when it happens once, twice, three times, you're like, Okay, there's a pattern here, and very something to be solved invent something again, for your audience to be very aware. Am I constantly coming back to the same place? If the answer is yes, maybe you should dig deeper.
Steven Pesavento 9:45
That is such a great example. Because that set of beliefs, you didn't know where they came from. You didn't know what that internal connection was until you had that moment of Self Realization and self aware is to be able to see that, hey, this particular belief might be impeding me from making good decisions with my money. And I have to say, I mean, there are 1000s of listeners who are making millions of dollars a year, and they're spending millions of dollars a year. And if you're making millions, and you're spending millions, then you have nothing left. In order to invest, you have nothing less in order to grow. And you're in a position where you have to continue on that, that treadmill, because you can't really stop, you can't hit the stop button, take a rest, or to go spend more time with your family or be able to make those choices. Because somewhere in your mind, you're deciding that you need to spend this money in order to meet whatever feeling or whatever emotion that you're trying to meet. And so when you're going through that experience, Peggy What did you realize along that path?
Peggy Vandeplassche 10:54
What are the you know, for me, it was layer upon layer of limiting belief, you know, like, it's rarely just one thing. And, you know, like, the easy connection was, well, listen, I was raised by a struggling mother, I was raised in sponsored housing. So no wonders, no wonder whether you have a scarcity mindset, you know, but then you dig a little bit, and you realize, I grew up in a very Catholic environment, I went to Catholic school, from kindergarten to my master. So 20 years of Catholic upbringing, which is usually not super supportive of making money, you know, so I realized that, you know, like, it was really layer upon layer upon layer. So you find one, and you're like, great, and then pathways, another one that's popping up, you know, so it's not overnight, right, you're gonna be able to aggregate depending on your level of trauma related to money. But usually, we have multiple layers. So it's rarely overnight that things disappear. But every it's like a video games, every time you're going one level, you know, so things are getting better and better and better, it might not be perfect, but it's getting better. Every, every day, every week, every month, every year, I have better belief now than I had last year, 10 years, 20 years ago. Well, it's
Steven Pesavento 12:18
it's one of the one of the first sessions that we do in the name your number program, we're actually at the end of it, we're coming out with this passive investment plan and this vision for your life. But one of the first things that we go through is actually sitting down and answering some questions about what your money beliefs are, just so you can start to become aware of them. So for all the listeners out there, I encourage you to sit down and ask yourself some questions. You know, what do I believe about money? What do my parents believe about money? What are the emotions around money, and when you can sit down and start to bring those things from deep down within up to the surface? And then if you have great coaches and mentors, or you're working through therapy, are you working through any type of, of supportive process for discovering this and pulling this information out? You can then start becoming aware of it. And Peggy what happens once you become aware of it?
Peggy Vandeplassche 13:13
Well, you know, for me, it took a while to be aware of it. But once you're aware of it, obviously you're like, Okay, well, I want to get rid of that. And very often, that's where, at least for me, and some people I coached in the past who problem start because you get very frustrated because you know what the problem is, but you're not able to get over it. And that's also why I started you know, the regimen, we were talking a bit about offline, the microdose diet, which is a combination of micro dosing psilocybin, but also modalities such as tapping, because you really want to amplify both. I love the fact that micro dosing really MQ rewire your brain, but I really want to be in control of what I'm rewiring my brain with, and also to do it very fast and very deep. And I think that's very important when people know, okay, well I found my nugget, I found one of the blog and one of the limiting beliefs that prevent me to have this life to have this passive income to have a life I desire when now or do I get rid of it and whatsoever will drum stuck in very often I find it's all about awareness. That Okay, great, I'm aware and so what what do I do now? You know, so but I focused more on the solving the problem versus the awareness because that's where I was stuck for so long,
Steven Pesavento 14:46
actually. Yeah, it's like it's really kind of like a two step process because you, you can identify the problem yet until you become aware of what's causing it where that stems from what that connection is. It can be difficult to overcome. Now it's quite possible for you to simply, you know, adopt the the investor mindset, the seven Rules for Living the investor mindset, it's, it's possible for you to learn these ideas and start thinking to yourself, hey, well I'm an investor myself, I'm gonna invest in assets, I'm going to focus on creating a vision for my life and everything I do is going to go towards funneling and fueling that and, and you can go through this process and reprogram your mind by having a new set of beliefs and connecting a deep emotion to them, and really installing that inside. But even while doing that, from this, this productive, intentional setting, if you then don't have and create some of the self awareness, to understand what are some of those old beliefs that kind of come up through the cracks, and show their head or create a reaction in a moment with a spouse or a loved one or a co worker that is around some of these beliefs around money, then it can be difficult to know what the problem is, because we all have that motivation that we want to create this better life. But sometimes when we have these old toxic beliefs, they get in the way. And what you've found, it sounds like is you've really used this type of medicine in order to help rewire your brain, and to become aware while being intentional about the kind of life that you're trying to create. So what I'd love to talk a little bit about, as you've been in this position, you were in venture capital, you were advising, you know, million or billion dollar funds. And you're making a ton of money doing it. But it sounds like there was some lack of fulfillment that was happening there. So talk to me about as you step out of that, as inspiration for all those people who are in a career they don't love, or are trying to find love within the career that they're in, what is that vision for the life that you're working on creating today. And then separately, I want to come back and talk about kind of how you went through that process of discovering and deciding to step into this new life.
Peggy Vandeplassche 17:12
And I think a lot of that comes down to authenticity. And what was your authentic self, my authentic self, your gentle, authentic self, before they were conditioned, brainwashed by all that crap from their parents from the society and all that. And for me, what was very important was to look at doing something I was very passionate about. And still, you know, I'm still the same person I am. I think, at my core, my authentic self is driven. Love success and loves achievement. That's just who I am. As a person. We're all different. And I don't think that's all people should be. I know, that's what society raise. But I don't think everyone is like that. And we should align with what's important for us. You know, I don't have children. I never wanted a family. I know many people want children, which is why it's so important to have exactly the plan. You're talking about. Passive income, spending time with your family spending time on what's important for you, people like me, my husband, we love working, we love success, we have a different lifestyle. So you need to know what's good for you. And I think that's really what is the most important for people who are listening. What's good for Steven is not what's good for BP and it's not what's good for you. So and that's very important, what is your authentic self and you know, as much as I loved what I was doing, I love Ribisi words should be fun, I love finance investments, or buy great stuff, which I would still do, but insight psychedelics, while in the past, I was doing that in technology. So I still keep that angle because I really like the intellectual exercise. So I just love that. It's just that I found that if I can help people around me, to, you know, overcome the challenges I faced, it keeps saying that, you know, like, every day, I'm having people asking me questions, oh, can I do this? You know, you seem to have found something that works. You know, I explained me or do you do that? And, and it's very interesting to see how many of us are not really living the life we want, but we are not capable of getting out of that, you know, and honestly, I add the knowledge that I have now in terms of this magic combo, and I'm f cutting for people listening and not seeing a video of micro dosing psilocybin and tapping. If I learnt that 20 years ago, my life would I be widely different and widely more pleasant. So if I can help people, whether they're 2030 4050 6070, listen, I'm trying to help my parents were in their 70s. You know, want, that's worthwhile. So I, my goal is to combine what I love finance with helping people. And that is under psychedelic purview, basically, I know that sounds a bit difficult maybe for people to connect with us. But that's, that's always I look at it.
Steven Pesavento 20:35
What I love about this, and for the audience, to recap, some really important things that you can take away when you're creating your vision, right, Peggy is in a position where she's had a lot of success. She knows what she likes, she knows who she is. So she's clear on that she's passionate, she's driven, she loves achievement. But it sounds like Peggy and correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like you really enjoyed what you're doing, and you've dedicated your life to it. But maybe there was a lack of fulfillment. Or maybe there was a realization that you could be even more fulfilled and have even more meaning by going through the process of helping directly support other people that have this same realization that you've had. And I want to just say that, that is one of the things that I found most highly successful and happy people have people who are both successful, and happy are doing it, because they found something that works for them. And they want to help as many people through that process. So it's inevitable that you'll get wealthy when you're going down a path and you do something you love, and you help a lot of people doing it. But it's not inevitable that you're going to be happy unless you have that component where it's more about the meaning, and the fulfillment that comes from helping support others. And I've personally found that myself have made a lot of money, I've had a lot of fun doing it. But the process of being able to deliver this information back out to you is because I've had a personal realization, based on the struggles that I experienced growing up and going through my own development to get to this point. And so for all of you who are listening, you have an opportunity to sit down and create a vision that's going to really excite you, because I don't know if you can see it and feel it the same way that I can. But Peggy is excited about life. And that's exactly the place that I want everyone to be.
Peggy Vandeplassche 22:26
And that's Thank you, Steven, that's an amazing quality, you know, like, it's not, you know, making tons of money is amazing. We all want to make tons of money, because it makes life more exciting. If you can travel to places if you you know, money gives you access to experiences. So it's important to have money because it does give you access, at the same time it needs to come and you mentioned it from a place of joy, from a place of excitement from a place of feeling you are at your right place. And it has nothing to do with how much you have in your bank account. It's more having to do with my living variety life. So I had a conversation last week among boards of companies and one of the board member at the same company is asking me to go for lunch. And I know when people do that they're like, Okay, they want to know more about oh, we can, you know, work my regimen or microdose diet and and wonderful individual I would have never, you know, guess but he was so unhappy, so anxious, so depressed, and so on. And he told me so he's a CEO of a very large company is also chairman of even bigger company is like, you know what, my dream has always been to be an artist and my father as well. But you know, what we were in business in my family for like, I think five or six generations, something like that. And, and I just did it. And you know what the goal is not for him to microdose and tap his way out of this success. That's absolutely not valid, people are afraid maybe oh my god, I'm going to transform too much and I'm gonna sell baskets on a beach in Hawaii. That's not That's not what I'm saying that you know, you can, you can find joy and excitement and peace in what you're doing today. So for the people who are listening to us, what is very important is also where you are right now doesn't have to change overnight. You can also find more joy, find more authenticity where you are. And I think that's really what's gonna get you more excited. And as Steven was saying, most successful, you don't have to change everything tomorrow hope to be able to get to where you want to be. It's different approach.
Steven Pesavento 24:54
It's such a good point. So what I'm curious about is you know, you've had this success, you're advising large investment funds, you're now on this journey and helping tons of people have some realizations that can really help improve the quality of their life. From a financial independence perspective, talk to me about where you're at? And what are some of the strategies that you've used up until this point to be able to create passive income, or be able to create that safety net to know that you can then step out and go after kind of this life vision or life mission that you have?
Peggy Vandeplassche 25:30
Yeah, so So the first thing is, and when I say we, my husband and I, because we manage our money ourself, we invest, we don't gamble, we don't trade, we invest. And what I'm trying to say is that we don't jump into the crypto craze, we don't jump into the last Mims stock. So it's very important to keep your head cool, and to not listen to what's happening around you. And we're surrounded by people in finance, and a lot of them are actually institutional investor, that can be surprised with peer pressure. People are so afraid of missing out. That's why you see all the stupid investments. And you know, like, with banks falling after one after another, is because also people have their full. So okay, yesterday, I was at a cocktail party, my neighbor said he was investing in one stupid company, I cannot understand why. But if he's doing it, I'm gonna do it. Don't do that. So be really strategic, be very disciplined, and stay away from the trends stay away from the trends unless you understand a very strong momentum behind that. And you know, like, the fundamentals are strong, and you understand all valid business can be profitable of a piece of real estate, you know, so So for me, that's probably the most important thing, invest, don't gamble, don't trade.
Steven Pesavento 27:08
Yeah. And so really, what you're saying is, be disciplined, be intentional, have a plan, have a purpose behind that plan, be strategic in those decisions that you're making. But it really stems off of having the knowledge, right, if you're hearing some friend of yours, talk about something that they really like, but you lack the knowledge to evaluate that opportunity. It's something you likely shouldn't get involved in, in order to get involved in that opportunity, you first have to gather and gain a bunch of knowledge to then have the confidence to make that decision.
Peggy Vandeplassche 27:42
Exactly, you know, jumping in the bandwagon, because people do something that other people get can't. You know, it's a mixture of greed, and misunderstanding. Yeah, so someone is selling you returns, but don't really make much sense. But you really want them your friends are doing then you have no clue that person can do that. Listen, if people are pitching you returns that are extremely good. Pay something illegal in it, markets are efficient, you know, like no one can
Steven Pesavento 28:18
increase your interest primarily in the equity markets. It sounds like you're talking about equity, like stocks and things like this, that is your primary, your your vehicle,
Peggy Vandeplassche 28:29
whether it's private or public, you know, it's the same rationale if it's too good to be true. But I mean, that can be the same thing. If it's too good to be true, it's probably because it's extremely risky. And the chance for you to get your return is very low. And that's one thing I want to mention in this for your situation. What is your age? What can you afford to lose? You know, like, if you want to do speculative investment, that's great, but that should just be a very small part of your portfolio for rest should be, you know, capital preservation capital appreciation, and then speculation, that speculation 90% And you know, capital preservation, so you need to understand that, Oh, you were investing five years ago is not all you're gonna invest in 15 years, because you're gonna, hopefully more money, you're also going to be closer to retiring, you're so so you really need to be very strategic and mindful of what makes sense for you.
Steven Pesavento 29:32
With that knowledge, you can be in a position to know what phase of strategy you should be using your portfolio. If you're, if you're young and you have a small pool of investable assets, you probably need to be focused on growth, speculation being things like crypto or some kind of SPAC or something that is high risk, high reward that's one to 5% of your portfolio or less. But if you're a young person, you're focused on growth. If you're somebody who is later in your career, or you have a big pool of money, then preservation is probably a large focus point, making sure that you can create the income that you need to be able to create your life, if that's the path that you're going. So, Peggy, for you, are you using investments in order to create passive income that allow you to live the life you're living? Or is everything that you've been focused on from an investment standpoint, been about growth and appreciation for the long term, that someday maybe in the future, you'll be able to, you know, live off that cash. At some point, it's,
Peggy Vandeplassche 30:34
it's a mix of both, you know, so we have some investments like real estate, which is really about capital preservation, some appreciation, you know, in Toronto, the market has been so odd, even if you're just doing it for preservation, it ends up being appreciation, you know, which is good, I like it. And of portfolio is growth, slash preservation. So it's, we're doing it you know, I don't believe in huge risks, I think you lose if you go for huge risks. And keep in mind that mindset is different by countries as well, American, very various focus, various focus, can agenda and friendship. I live in Canada, but I'm French, European, Canadian, way more conservative. So you also see different type of investments based on the tutorial on recruiter or mindset. So something that might be seen a risk for Canadian might be average risk for an American. So you also have a bit of history of this difference. So we are measuring risk for Canadian, which might be minimum less for one America? And let's put it that way. Yeah.
Steven Pesavento 31:52
Yeah, absolutely. Well, this has been really great. I've got one more question for you. But why don't we pause for a moment, share a little bit about how people can get in touch, or follow along on your journey if they're interested in in, in connecting?
Peggy Vandeplassche 32:06
Thank you so much. So people can follow me, you know, on LinkedIn, my name given the pledge. So it's not, it's not an easy one. They can also check my resources on my website, the microdose diet.com, I have a newsletter as well. So, you know, very, very much looking forward to be helping you folks who are listening, and we want to, you know, combine what Stephen is doing, which is really, really important with even deeper connection to your authentic self and connection to you know, we're moving obviously, meeting belief so you can really show good charge was Stephen is teaching you I think that's really a combo that's important for you guys.
Steven Pesavento 32:51
Yeah, that it's such such great advice. So kind of finishing on this. What What advice do you give to somebody who's listening to what you're sharing, they're in a place, they're in a position they want to make change in their life? And they're not exactly sure where to start? What would be one of those first steps that you'd recommend leaving folks with, so they can go start making that type of change real?
Peggy Vandeplassche 33:12
Yeah. So you know, it's always about taking an action, whatever action it is, you want to tell your brain you're ready and you're off autopilot. My first action is always clearing, clearing everything removing the or the Arby's, removing your knickknacks removing, you know, the people who are toxic in your life who start clearing things, you cannot add anything if you have not made space in your life for new things to come up. So clearing, clearing, clearing, even if you just clean your garage, you're already starting something.
Steven Pesavento 33:50
That's such great. That's such great advice. Well, Peggy, thank you so much for joining us today. It was amazing. Being able to hear about your story and your experience. Absolutely. You guys go follow Peggy. And, and we'll see you all on the next episode. Today's episode is sponsored by von Finch capital. If you're interested in investing alongside me in the same type of real estate opportunities that I personally invest in that head over to Vaughn Finch capital and join their private investor network, you can do so at Vaughn finch.com/invest. Join me on that next deal. I look forward to seeing you on the inside. Thank you for listening. If you liked what you heard, make sure to rate review, subscribe and share with a friend. Head over to the investor mindset.com to join the insider club where we share tools and strategies from the top investors and entrepreneurs and take it to the next level.
