My Money Makeover: From Debt Relief Program To Wild Plot Twist (+ Tool To Expand Your Wealth)

What if your “worst” money decisions were the tuition that built your future wealth? Krystal opens up about burning through savings, juggling single motherhood with two startups, and pouring more than $100K into coaching while chasing a magic fix that never came. 

The turning point wasn’t a new tactic; it was a new lens on the situation that ended up changing everything. 

We talk:

• childhood budgeting and debt-avoidance habits
• the leap into single motherhood and two startups
• overspending on coaches and chasing a magic fix
• making peace with debt and redefining ROI
• the creator field and money beliefs
• practical reframes to harvest lessons
• simple rules to invest in... and a wild plot twist 

If you share a screenshot of the Conscious Glow Up podcast or Rumble channel on your Instagram or Facebook story, tag Krystal @krystal_baller and send her a message to receive a free copy of Rise and Thrive, her manifestation and self-care / habit tracker e-journal. 

🎬 Rumble: https://rumble.com/user/theconsciousglowup
🌐 www.krystalward.com

Transcript

Welcome And Bold Intent

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Do you ever get the feeling that you're destined for an even bigger, bolder, more magical life? Welcome to the Conscious Glow Up. I'm your host, intuitive energy healer and coach Crystal Ward. My goal is to help you create the life you fantasize about by teaching you energetic spiritual laws of the universe and neuroscience tools. I'll share how I utilize these teachings in my own life with stories of single motherhood, entrepreneurship, finances, and relationships. Let's dive on into the depths of consciousness and glow up from the inside out. Hey and welcome back to the conscious glow up. Because this is only episode number two, my brain is like, do some more intro-y stuff, but my heart is like, no, just go for the gold. Literally. So we're gonna talk about finances. One of my absolute favorite topics, and not because I'm a millionaire yet. They say it's common to hit rock bottom before massive financial success. Here's my story. My finances were in the trash. Like if you looked at a credit score, mine either got to the high 400s or low 500s. It could have been lower, but after a while I just got scared to look. I ended up consolidating$30,000 worth of debt at the end of 2022 because I could not keep up with my monthly payments. And that is not including the tens of thousands of dollars I wiped out of my IRA and other investment accounts before that. But it was a little crazy to me because pre-giving birth, which was 2019, I was very good with money. And I mean very good. My dad and stepmom taught me how to budget from an age that really, to be honest, annoyed the crap out of me when I was younger. Well, I started budgeting at like age seven. So every dollar I got for Christmas, birthday, whatever, every dollar I got in my possession got broken up into smaller envelopes with funds. It was like gift fund, spending fund, vacation fund, church fund, charity fund. Uh, there were some other funds. Uh, and it showed me how damn fast money goes as well. And my mom showed me the beauty of avoiding paying interest whenever possible. So by the time I was flying solo out in the real world, in like college, and you know, early days after college, I knew how to save, and you better believe I paid everything off as early as possible. Um, for example, I got a new car in 2017 and paid the entire thing off in a year and two months, only paying$35 interest on it. So, how the hell did I end up at national debt relief going from six credit cards to one? One I might add that I literally do not touch anymore. I will tell you how. Determination. A fuck ton of determination. Determination, you might ask, and going broke. Probably seems that way, but determination to be successful. I wiped out my investment accounts within three years because when I had my daughter, I chose to be a stay-at-home mom, which lasted three years until I got a job because I really needed money again, um, to be a stay-at-home mom and start my own business. And I chose to open not only one business, but two businesses at the same time. One was intentional, which was the coaching business that I still have, and the other was a candle hobby that turned into people offering me money for candles. I still have that business, but I do not focus on it nearly as much. I mainly just make them as gifts for people. Um, and what I learned from that whole experience is that when I go in, I go in. I told you guys I'd be honest here, so here you go. I calculated what I invested in my candle business alone in the first two years, and I shit you not, it was nearly$5,000. I actually remember calculating$6,000, but here I am, but today I'm like, no, it couldn't have been$6,000. So I was like, maybe$5,000 is more accurate, but I do remember calculating$6,000. My brain is kind of like, why the hell did you do that? Anyways, uh, that was the price I paid for premium supplies like pure beeswax and wooden wicks, along with the pounds and pounds of natural crystals I topped the candles with, and the gallons of fragrance oils I was addicted to buying. Also, testing candles is an insane process, and instead of buying a pre-made candle making kit like normal people do, I decided to curate my own blend with beeswax and coconut oil and add fragrance and put in a jar, which is not common, I learned for a reason, but alas, thousands of dollars and lots and lots of frustration and pulling my hair out. Uh lots of lots of money and time later. I have a pretty amazing product. The other reason I blew through all my funds and racked up debt, and the main reason is the coaching business. The initial fee I paid for a dual health and life coaching certification was$6,500. And that is when the investment fund really began. After I graduated from coaching school, I hired my own coach after coach after coach. The first one I hired was because one of my peers was like, oh my gosh, this lady helped me so much. She helped me, you know, do XYZ. I was like, whoa, I want that. And then, you know, 45 minutes later, I had spent$3,000. And then I became addicted to doing that. And because I didn't make a million dollars or anywhere close to it with one coach, I'd be on to the next coach to save me and my business. And none of them gave me what I wanted, which I'm pretty sure was just a magic wand. Go figure. By this point today, I've invested at least$100,000 into my business. But these days I am not hiring advice. I'm investing in skills like intuition, mastery, and energy healing. And really, I used to beat myself up about getting into so much debt because I still don't have a business that provides me a full income to live off of, so I still wait tables at night. And that is where your first lesson from this podcast comes in. You have to make complete peace with financial decisions you have made in the past that did not have the ROI you'd hoped and dreamed it would. Womp womp. How did I make peace even while I was still paying for my mistakes? By realizing that even though none of those coaches had the magic formula for me to make consistent money in my business, because lo and behold, the magic formula was actually in me the whole time, more on that in later episodes, what those investments did was keep me in the game. 85% of life coaching businesses fail in the first one to two years. 85%. And what is failing? Giving up. Giving the fuck up. So yes, I got into a lot of debt, but that is because I didn't give up on myself. I spent five years investing in my business before I really saw much return at all. So that's your bonus lesson in case no one's ever told you before. Don't give up. Please don't give up on yourself. The world needs you. But the first real, real lesson here is make peace with what you look at as financial mistakes because real returns on investment come in lessons, and lessons cost money, time and money, and a lot of it. And while I may have been seeking specific monetary returns on investment at the time of hiring all those lucky coaches, I have a whole wealth of knowledge of online business and coaching that I would not have had otherwise, which is going to pay off for the duration of my career. Okay, so why make peace with investments that didn't pan out? Because when you come into what we call fair exchange, you can buzzword here, manifest unthinkable things. For example, I knew that I had to come into fair exchange with that whole debt thing because I had been beating myself up about it for three years, which was the duration of my consolidation program. So one day I really thought about it and I realized what I just told you that spending all that money on coaches kept me in the game. And while at the time it did feel like I was failing because I wasn't bringing in consistent income, which is what I was paying them to help me with, I wasn't quitting. So by my own definition, I wasn't actually failing. And I shit you not, and this is the most mind-blowing thing I may have ever experienced in my entire life. I was supposed to graduate my debt relief program in October of 2026. I had been paying the same bi-weekly installment into my debt relief account. My debt negotiation homies made deals with the creditors, and through the money that accumulated in my account through my payments, they paid off the creditors. Here's the I shit you not part. A miracle of all miracles, not weeks after coming into fair exchange with myself about that whole situation, I got a call from National Debt Relief on December 29th, 2025. And he said, I'm calling to let you know that all of your creditors have been successfully paid off and you only have one more payment to make on January 6th for the rest of the fees. I swore he had the wrong person on the line, so I think I said something like, huh? So he said, Uh, well, aren't you happy? You're debt free. Congratulations, Crystal. I still thought it was way too good to be true, so I waited to get excited until January 6th, and lo and behold, the guy was not lying to me. Magical things happen when we make peace with ourselves from the past. Money wants to feel like it's growing, but I had been retroactively making my money feel like I burned it for three years straight. But when I finally realized that what I had done with that 30k and beyond was actually what I needed to do to turn it into millions over time, because each step led me to the next step, which led me to where I am now. The universe blessed me almost immediately by saving me 10 months of debt relief payments, which added up to over$6,000. Everything is an investment, even our investment mistakes. I say in air quotes. Wealth doesn't come from standing in front of the bathroom mirror every morning for 10 minutes saying, I love money and money loves me, or I am a millionaire. When in reality, you're terrified of money and you're perpetually in your overdraft account, talking to myself in the past here. And at some point in the future, I'm sure I will explain the science of why affirmations don't actually work, anyways. But wealth comes from the actions we take with money, making our money grow and coming into fair exchange, aka piece, with all of our past investments. Wealth is also created in many other ways, but these are the main lessons of this particular episode. And if you take what I'm saying seriously, you should make some great progress with your finances no matter where you're at right now. And here's the science behind why this whole fair exchange thing is very important. We have something called a creator field, and it is the electromagnetic field that radiates off of our body like a script telling the universe and other people how to talk to us, how to treat us, and how to behave with us. This field includes our thoughts and beliefs, and money is no exception. Our money beliefs and actions are written in our creator field. So if we have I make bad investments in our field, then other people subconsciously, intuitively, pick up on that script, and if they read bad investments, it lets them know that you don't feel like you are responsible with money, and therefore, I'm talking to you, especially fellow business owners, they won't feel responsible handing you money for your services. And it's usually not something they consciously are saying in their head, but it is a subconscious, intuitive thing. We all have the gift of picking up from other people. Everything is an investment, including how you talk to yourself and what you believe about yourself. So those shitty things you feel never paid off from your past, get out your thinking cap or pen and paper, and let's make peace with them today. What did you gain from those investments? How is what you received perfect? Maybe you didn't get exactly what you wanted, which led you to an even better program, but you wouldn't have found that better program had you not invested in the first program. Stretch your brain, expand your perceptions, and soon your bank account will expand. Money is energy. Treat it as such, and you will be amazed at what can happen. By the way, I will be hosting an expansion lounge live on Zoom with a community on finances sometime in the next few weeks. So if you would like to know when that is going to happen, send me an email at Crystal K-R-Y-S-T-A-L at CrystalWard.com and I will add you to the newsletter where I send out workshop dates and details. And this is a new platform, so any love helps me grow. If you share a screenshot of the Conscious Glow Up podcast or Rumble channel on your Instagram or Facebook story, tag me and send me a message, and I will send you a free copy of Rise and Thrive, my manifestation and self care slash habit tracker e journal that I spent way too much time on a couple of years ago. So it is actually very cute, super long, and I think you will have a lot of fun stuff to work through there, including money mindset. All right. Thank you so much for listening, and I hope you have a great morning or evening.