Sarah Nadler’s journey is a powerful testament to resilience, determination, and the transformative power of mindset. From overcoming the stigma of homelessness to building a successful wedding business and then transitioning into a thriving coaching career, Sarah’s story is one of relentless perseverance. Despite facing enormous challenges, including living out of a truck with her husband, Sarah never lost sight of her goals. Through the use of affirmations, a strong belief in her destiny, and an unwavering focus, she turned her hardships into stepping stones for success. Today, as a six-figure coach, Sarah is dedicated to empowering other women to break financial barriers, build wealth, and create lives of purpose and abundance. Her story is an inspiring reminder that with the right mindset, no obstacle is insurmountable.
How did you manage the emotional and practical challenges of being homeless while starting a new business?
At first, the biggest challenge was overcoming the shame. I felt a lot of embarrassment at having left a comfortable career and knew my family and former friends wouldn’t understand… and for the most part I was right. Having that confirmed, verbally and in the body language of people I loved and respected when I told them, was the hardest part. But I felt a determination that is hard to describe: I just had this certainty inside me that this was the right move and that I was destined for something more. Leaning into that feeling and allowing it to drown out the mortification and fear of what the future might bring allowed me to stay hyper focused on my goals instead of wallowing in the misery and depression that I felt.
What role did affirmations and mindset play in your journey of overcoming adversity?
I would say that affirmations meant EVERYTHING in how I got through the day. At that time, I had no funds or resources for counseling or self-care, and so many people in my life were shocked and dismayed, and trying to advise me against my plans. I became obsessed with reframing my thoughts. “I can’t do this” became “I AM doing this”. “I’ll never make it” turned into “My success is inevitable because I refuse to give up”. Every negative mindset and depressing thought, I simply flipped the script and repeated the positive one until I FELT it. Until I believe it. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done–to convince myself not to give up, and to believe in the impossible. But I knew that if I allowed myself to wallow in those thoughts…I was so close to starvation and failure, even one slip could have been the end of all my hopes and dreams. So I just refused to let the thoughts win.
Can you share more about how you built your successful wedding business from scratch?
I had owned a business previously–a residential cleaning company in Colorado ten years before. So I repeated my successful actions from that time: hitting the pavement to network with other wedding vendors, and finding where engaged couples hang out online so I could be in those spaces. Many people when they’re starting a business make the mistake of being too pitchy: I avoided that at all costs. Instead, I focused on being a resource. I’d chosen the wedding industry because I’d been ordained since I was 19 and had performed weddings for free for years for family, colleagues and friends. So I was able to answer questions in Facebook Groups from couples who were engaged for the first time and swimming in the overwhelm of planning a wedding. For vendors, I leaned on my background in advertising to be a helpful friendly resource on any questions relating to how to find clients, etc. I offered to refer couples to them down the road. My approach was neighborly, not pitchy, and I made friends. Some of those friends referred me couples down the road.
I had no money for advertising in the beginning, but I had lots of time, so I used social media and knocked on doors of other prominent wedding vendors in town until I landed my first jobs. As soon as I could afford to, I started running ads online and that is how I really made a name for myself.
What was the most significant lesson you learned from your experience of living in your husband’s truck?
I think the most significant lesson was the value of having a spouse who will stick by you no matter what. We left LA together, and to wind up in a situation like that solely due to our own choices could have broken either of us… or driven us apart. Instead, it brought us together. I think we both had the feeling, “If we don’t stand together, we’ll both fall together.” That helped us work as a team to find jobs and build the business we did. Soon the business was making more than the jobs were…and that was an incredible feeling.
How do you continue to nurture and strengthen your mindset now that you’ve achieved success?
As soon as I could get access to it (and afford to) I paid for spiritual counseling. I’m straight edge, so no medications or drugs, and the traditional Western mental health system really scares me, its so full of abuse and violent treatments. But working with a certified spiritual counselor helped me actually heal the trauma around money, my past career, and my relationships with the people I cared about. That helped far more than affirmations had, and I would encourage any woman who is trying to heal herself without the help of a professional to get the help she needs. Affirmations alone won’t support you forever.
Today, I still work with the same spiritual counselor I have had for years. He is incredible, and our conversations these days are more about growth mindset and adding abilities than healing the past.
How did you transition from overcoming personal struggles to growing your coaching brand to six figures?
When COVID hit, my wedding business was affected. I stuck it out for a while, but I had already been ready for a change; I had wanted to step into the coaching space and even went back to school to get certified. So we made the decision to sell my wedding business and our home in Oregon, and hit the road as digital nomads. We traveled for two years, seeing family across the US and Canada, and I quickly scaled my coaching business into my full time income. The past experience of having built and sold two successful businesses made that possible. In January of 2022, I started shifting my focus from broad “business coaching” to my micro niche of finance & money coaching for business women. Niching down like that is what helped me to hit our first $6-figure year.
What future goals do you have for your coaching brand as you aim for the seven-figure mark?
My current focus is to add to our team. I’ve brought on three other money coaches in the last few months–they are in training right now and one has started to build her client base already. That is the biggest thing my coaching business needs in order to scale: I can’t be the only one who can coach clients. Since we work in financial services, pure group coaching is not an option for us. We have to be licensed in the state where the client is located in order to give financial advice, and I want to always be able to support our female entrepreneur clients with the financial products she needs to feel financially secure and to build wealth outside her business.
Another goal as we aim for the $7-figure mark is to host more in person events. I’ve seen this trend since 2020 of coaches moving into the purely digital space, but retreats and conferences provide a level of support, self-care and spiritual/mental healing that you just can’t get over Zoom. We purchased a 16-acre farm in Kansas and are in the process of renovating to turn it into a retreat and event space for just that purpose.8.
What kind of impact do you hope your story and coaching brand will have on other women?
Up until the 1970s, women really didn’t even have a presence in finance. An hispanic woman like me would never have been welcome on the stock exchange floor. So many women I speak to who own their own full time business built it by bootstrapping–without a penny of outside funding, and today women are still experiencing discrimination when applying for bank loans; despite the fact that women-led business are on average more profitable than businesses in the same industry that are male-led. My only hope is that my story and the Fierce Feminine Finance brand will empower women to do great things in the world of investing and business. That it will allow widows, single moms, and divorcees to put food on the table without having to work 50+ hours in her business to do it. That couples who own a full time business together will sleep a little better at night because they know we protected their kids, employees and each other in case the worst happens. That we will inspire and give hope to victims of domestic violence to escape their situation, because she has confidence in her ability to financially support herself without her abuser. The best part is, we already have stories like these…and many more. That’s truly the only legacy I care about leaving behind me.
Facebook: @sarahnnadler
