#27 - Women, Wealth, and Real Estate Investing with Caytie Langford

What happens when you reach the pinnacle of your career, only to realize it's not your true calling? Join Caytie Langford and me for an inspiring conversation with a powerhouse who walked away from a six-figure salary to empower women in real estate and wealth creation. 

We delve into her journey of self-discovery, the courage it takes to pivot, and why now is the most crucial time for women to step into their financial power.

Key Highlights:

1. Courageous Pivots: Learn how to recognize and act on your true calling, even when it means leaving a seemingly perfect career.
2. Empowering Women in Wealth: Discover the importance of women's involvement in real estate investing and wealth creation.
3. Aligning Passion & Purpose: Understand how to build a career and business that reflects your authentic self.
4. Embracing Calculated Risk: Gain insights on overcoming fear and taking bold steps towards your financial goals.
5. The Wealth Transfer Opportunity: Explore why this is a pivotal moment for women to secure their financial future.

Discover how to align your career with your passion, embrace risk, and seize the opportunities of the greatest wealth transfer in history.

Caytie Langford, a real estate investor and empowerment advocate, champions women in finance. As General Partner at Selene Brighthouse, she drives education and community for women investors. Founder of Trailblazers: Women in Real Estate Investing, she aims to boost female participation in the field. With 20+ years empowering executives, Caytie inspires confidence and resilience, sharing her own journey of transformation.

Caytie's Links:

Website: https://www.selenebrighthouse.com/  

Listen to Caytie's Ted Talk

Always and Never About Money Episode Links:
Video Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@MoneyMasteryWithChelsea
Socials: https://linktr.ee/the_money_whisper
Money Mastery Website: www.moneymastery.work
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/AlwaysandNeverMoney/

Transcript

  Oh, 

I am very proactive about taking care of it. So it should be. It better be amazing. It looks amazing.  Thank you. You look amazing too. Thanks, lady. I'm in my classic crew neck. I'm, like, known for just always showing up in a crew neck of some sort. I just love sweatshirts. They're my thing. Right along with my nails.

My nails and my crew necks. I love that. Well, I, um, I'm typically in pink, and then somebody told me that I should wear more of this green recently, so I started doing it, but we've been rolling out a new, um, where we, we asked our community to vote on a new logo, and I didn't realize how many women like have an aversion to pink, but they're like, but the pink makes sense for you.

And so it's hysterical. And then the one they're choosing, I'm like, that's my least favorite. Anyways, it, it, it sparked energy, but when people are known for things, they're like, yeah. I mean, I showed up at a conference one day, not in pink and women were like, well, I'm supposed to take a picture with you in pink.

Like they got mad. They're like, are you wearing pink tomorrow? I'm like, Oh, I didn't know this was really expecting this pink Yeah, they are. They are. So, which is funny. I mean, my phone is pink. My Stanley is pink. Like, it's a thing. Okay. Pink and green go great together. So you can match the two. There you go.

Yeah. I wear a lot of blue too. Yeah. No, I find myself wearing our brand colors just in everyday life too. It's like, I'm taking on the brand, but we are the brand, right? You are. I mean, when you're the CEO of it, when you're the leader of it, when you're, when it's your baby and it's your, You know, your best.

And I was leading a conversation last night with a bunch of investors who,  you know, aren't really understanding that their business is an extension of who they are and that they're not like, they don't get that they're allowed to have it that way. And, uh, in fact, I had a woman email me this morning and she was like, I'm new to your community.

I don't really know what this is about, but like, I don't get it. And I'm like, Oh, okay. Like, yeah, that's perfect. Because so much of us, we're not, we are not.  We either have never been given permission or we don't take the permission to say this is what I want, so therefore this is what I'm going to build. 

Yeah, yeah, I think it like when you embody your brand, it makes it yours. And it also, I feel like it's It's a sign that you are in alignment with what you're doing. And there's this old school line of thinking like separation from church and state, you know, that type of thing. But when you're the owner, and I talk about this with money too, because separation of church and state doesn't actually exist in money because we are the owner.

We manage our business money the way we manage our personal money and we have, we're the same person. So we have to make it all work together. We have to do something that's in alignment with who we are, what we're passionate about, because that passion is what's going to get us through those really tough times that are surely going to come.

Yes. guys. Yes. Yeah. And I think that's a perfect segue into our conversation, because after talking with you, I was really looking forward to today. Me too!  Because I feel like even from the beginning of your story, which I'm going to have you introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your story, but even from the very beginning of your story, you seemed to have this like,  divine calling through all of the phases that you went through to get you from where you started to where you're at now.

And I'm also excited to have somebody that specializes in real estate because it's never been like an interest of mine talking about alignment. I always feel so ick and I don't want to do it. Me and my ex husband had a few real estate properties and in the divorce, I was like, I don't want anything to do with it.

I don't want to manage that. I don't want to be a part of that. So I am happy to have you on because I am admittedly biased and it's not like in alignment with who I am.  No, I love that though, because  Yeah. In a lot of ways, it's not in alignment with who I am. Like I  don't like managing rental properties.

Terrible. I hate it. Hate it. Um, I don't like designing new properties. Nope. Like we have a rental house right now that we bought for cash for like really almost a dollar back in the day. And we've held it for, I think, 12, 13 years. We are renters that just moved out. They had lived in it for 10 years. So happy.

They bought their first house was huge thing for them. Most. Real estate owners would be like, oh my god, your renter's moving out. I'm like, oh my gosh, my renter's moving out because they now can go buy their house. That's so exciting. But we are potentially going to flip it, um, to get our cash out of it and to go invest in something that's actually more passive for us.

We're going to go do something a little bit bigger and maybe put it into a fund or a syndication so that someone else is doing the day to day work, but we're still making money off of it. So that's the part of real estate that like fires me up. I'm like, wait, I can do that. Like. Yes. Some people love fix and flips.

They love picking out things like that just stresses me out. I hate picking out paint. No, thank you. Call Sherwin Williams. What are the top five colors right now? Great. I'll take seven gallons of that. I'll love that. And Pinterest. Yes. Just do that. Sounds good.  Awesome. Well, yeah. So selfishly, like I'm also very personally interested in this conversation because I have a natural aversion to it, but I think there is maybe a place for me.

I'm just need to get past that. So I'm so happy to have you here. I'm really excited. Tell us a little bit about what you're doing now and how you show up for women in your space. Sure. So right now I'm just completely honed in on the fact that I am a catalyst for women and their biggest, boldest dreams. 

I have a unique strength about me to see something in women and to point it out in them. And I've, I've been studying this a lot about myself over the last decade, but really the last probably Just a few months since we've gotten into 2025, I've started to think, what does that look like? Where does that come from?

And one of the things that I realized, Chelsea, is that not everyone had a mom like me, who said, you can be anything, you can do anything, you have to work for it, but you can get there. And so, one of my favorite things to do is to understand what makes you, as a woman, tick. And then to help you. Amplify that turn that up.

And so right now we're doing that in two ways. Um, well, I have two companies that I run that this is how I'm doing it. One is through a real estate investment fund and an investment firm and it's called Celine Bright House. We specifically raise money from women and get them into real estate funding deals.

And so what I love about that is. For years, women have been ignored in the real estate investing space. They, you know, we, when we, when it comes to residential,  the numbers are ridiculous. Like it's like 90 percent of realtors are women, 90 percent of designers and decorators are women, but only 31. 6 percent of investors are women.

So we decorate them and we sell them, but we don't own them. And when we look at commercial real estate, the numbers are even more. Like, abysmal, disgusting, gross, and so what I like to do is help women uncover, like, how can they take the money that they're making, either through a job that they're acquiring through a business, and then make that money make more money.

Because as you know, we work really freaking hard, and we're trying to do it all. And why would you not take this thing that can actually reproduce itself if you only knew how to do that? So that's one way that I want to be a catalyst for women. And then the flip side of that is  Because so many women have gotten into real estate investing, right?

Online education is huge. Join this mentor, join this guru, learn how to fix and flip, learn how to wholesale, learn how to, uh, do a burr method, house hacking, like all this stuff. Women go and they start in these education programs and they teach them strategy on how to do one specific thing, but they don't actually teach the women how to align that with their unique proposition with their strengths.

And so, That's what we're doing inside my other business, which is called Trailblazers. And that's where we support women who are business owners, specifically in real estate investing, they're making active income off some kind of real estate investment, investment project.  So yeah, it's,  it really all comes down to a couple of things though.

It's about getting really clear on what it is that you want. Then it's about having the confidence and belief that you can actually have it. Then it's about taking the action to go get it. And.  My strengths do not lie in underwriting deals or managing the day to day operations. Um, and I will tell you that for years, I actually used to pray that God would just take my strengths away.

Because they're so scary to me. It's scary to me to sit on a, on your, your show and in front of your audience to say, Yeah, I'm really good at sparking things in women. But when I step back and I look at what I'm really good at, That is my gift and it is the thing that fires me up. And so when we talk about money specifically, how we make money, how we invest money, how we use money, I want that to be fully aligned with who I am.

And so I make money because I can show women how to be confident in themselves and then do the damn hard thing because it's hard. It's hard. It is. But we can do hard things. Yeah. And I love a few things about what you said and it's perfect. For this podcast and our mission to reach women specifically around money around wealth and I mean, it's no secret It's very true that real estate holds a ton of wealth potential And so I love that you because you're right when women hear about real estate investing Our minds automatically go to like I have to get a rental and I have to deal with tenants and if they get mad at Me they're gonna pour concrete down the drain and then i'm gonna lose a bunch of money, right?

But already you've mentioned things that I'm sure it's the first time people are like, Oh, I can get involved with real estate and not actually do that thing that makes me feel ick.  Um, and you know, you're so accomplished and for you to sit here and stay, say, no, I still get scared sometimes because this is scary and, but it is a superpower.

And the timing could not be more perfect for women in this world because of where we are at in the financial evolution of women. Just in the past 50 years being able to be truly financially independent. Um,  and so I want you to share because I was so hit by your journey and where you started to get to where you currently are.

So can you share with us what that journey looked like? Yeah. So  I was the first generation in my family to go to college, to graduate from college.  And. I will say, kind of just backing up just a little bit, because it's so part of my story, my mom had me very young. She was 17 when she had me.  And by all intents and purposes, I should not be where I am today.

Like, the numbers were against me. I'll never forget. You know, I was a latchkey kid back in the 80s and 90s, coming home, watching Oprah, and I remember there was this episode about teen pregnancy, and it said that 80 percent of children who are the result of teen pregnancy will then go on to become teen parents.

And I remember I was like 10 to 12, like somewhere in that tween age, and I remember thinking that would not be me. That will not be me. So I was very fortunate and very lucky. I did go to some of the best private schools in Dallas. Um, my, my parents, my grandparents wrapped their arms around me and they're like, this, this girl is going to make it.

And so I went to college, but I didn't see myself as a business person. I didn't have that in my life. So I was very aligned towards nonprofits. A big thing at the school that I went to was around service and helping others out. And so I was, Put into non profits at pretty young ages. And so I thought, oh well that's just what I'll do.

I'll go work at a non profit. So I did. I accidentally found a job. I graduated on Friday. I went to work on Saturday. And I became a fundraiser. Not knowing anything about how to raise money. Not knowing anything about how non profits worked. But I have a tenacity about myself to just go for it. And  Again, going back to what I do now, I encourage people to do things.

I was really great at encouraging other people to raise money. And so because of that, I got promoted very fast. By the time I was 24, I was leading a team. I was already a director. My company was sending me all over the country to teach other fundraisers, who had way more experience than me, how to actually raise money.

And then after that, I just kept kind of getting better. Tapped on the shoulder. So  I went from that first job, that first promotion, then I went into a larger organization. I was tapped there specifically to lead a women's giving group. So here I am 28.  Years old,  you know, you think back to when you're 28, you think you know everything.

You're like, you don't know anything yet. Like you don't know who you are. And that's not to say anything to the 28 year olds who are listening to this, because keep listening. But you have so much growth that's still to happen. And so here I am. I am the director of this women's giving society, where women are giving 10, 000 gifts in their own name. 

When it first started, leaders of the organization thought it would be like the wives of philanthropists. What it wound up being is all these corporate women, and all these women who are executives. Now this is in 2008, so 10, 000 back then was a whole lot more than it is now, right? 10, 000, yes, I'm not saying it's not a lot of money, but, you know, the equivalent would probably be like somebody giving 30, now.

And so here I am, sitting in rooms.  All of these women  who are like my mom's age and older, they're all my friend's bosses. That's the other thing, like, for real, my friends works for these women. They're like, how do you know my boss? I'm like, your boss is amazing. They're like, you see a different side of her

Um, but I was in these rooms and I was like, oh, this is it. This is, I am meant to do this work. And um, so I, I had all these women take me under their wing and just say like, what is it that you want outta your life and your career? And I knew that I wanted to be a CEO of a nonprofit. That was where I was going.

The nonprofit that I worked for, which at the time was the United Way here in Dallas,  the number two person was a woman. She became my mentor. We had breakfast every single month for five years. She's been the CEO of the organization for 13 years now. And you know, I was always positioned in these great places, but then the Women's Foundation tapped me on the shoulder.

So I went there and I started learning more about women and girls and what was happening to them. And then I was tapped on the shoulder to be a chief development officer at another girls organization. And so at 34 years old,  I'm not even kidding. I have a corner office. It's so cliche. Uh, my office was on the second floor of our three story building.

I'm sitting in the corner. I have my desk and my conference table. My assistant sits right outside my office. Like it was working girl. I mean, it just totally was.  And I hated it.  And  at the time I was crying in that corner office every day. I would get there and I would just shut the door and I would just cry  because I was out of alignment with what I was doing.

I had been around so many powerful women and I thought at a young age, Oh, if you want to make a difference in the world, you work for the organization that makes the difference in the world. And I'm not saying that's not true, it absolutely is true, but being around so many powerful women in my late 20s and early 30s showed me that if you go and make money, if you become a powerful woman, you can get a seat at the table that real change happens at. 

And so I turned 35. And I've been in this role for 10 months and I'm hating every second of it.  I'm like, I can't do this.  And so  I quit.  I quit without a job. I quit without, I left my six figure salary. I had worked so hard for that title. Like the next step was literally, I was going to spend three to four years there and then be a CEO.

And I, I just quit.  And luckily we were in a position where I could do that. Um,  what's crazy is I'm coming up on my 45th birthday, probably by the time this airs, I'll be 45 and the last 10 years has been a journey and I would love to tell you that it's been easy, but it hasn't.  It is not. And so when I left that, I took six months off to think about what I wanted to do.

And I decided that I wanted to pour into women and become an executive coach. So I went and got certified. I did all of my training. And funny enough, I thought I would coach women who were business owners. That's what's also real weird about where I am today. I was like, I'm going to coach these business owners having never been a business owner.

Well, women were coming to me and they were saying, you got promoted really quickly. You got tapped on the shoulder for these amazing organizations. They came to find you, um, you pivoted, you left, like teach me and help me do that. And so for about eight years, that is what I focused on was women in corporate America had some entrepreneur clients, but it was really around helping women get promoted, move from the director level to the VP level, the VP level to the C suite level, helping them switch jobs.

You know, I'm a big fan of. If you don't like where you are, move your feet. Yes. Like, stop staying stuck. And, again, so many women don't have either the internal voice. I say sometimes my internal voice is my mother. Like,  they don't have the, if this doesn't work, you can, you can pivot, you can change. But also, like, you get to do this thing called life once.

So why are you going to do it in a way that makes you miserable? If you hate your job? Find another one. If your boss sucks,  quit, leave. Now, I'm not saying necessarily quit without a plan, but That part, yes. Right. Um,  but again, it was all about, even in coaching, it was, how do I help women see something in themselves?

tease that out of them so they'll go do the thing that they want to do. And it's kind of funny because now I am actually coaching women business owners because I became one and then I learned how that was and I'm like, Oh, that's hard and scary too. Just like getting promoted to all the other ways.  Yeah.

I, I truly believe that I was put on this earth to help women become  the best version of themselves.  And I love it. It fires me up. It's,  I liken it to, because I've been asked so much, especially since I've been in real estate investing, like, why? Like, why women? Why do you care? And I say that it's like,  it's like your friend who's the animal lover.

Like, we all have that friend. We all have the friend who's like, I stopped, right? You're picturing her or him, right? We all have that friend who's like, I saw a turtle on the road and I had to stop and help it, right? We all have that friend that when animal services, like, when things are getting rough, they're like, go adopt the dog, right?

Um, and they don't, they can't tell you why. They can't be like, this is why I care. They're just like, I love animals. Like, that's how I feel about women. Like,  I don't know why I'm drawn to helping women. It's just so completely who I am that I can't separate it from who I am.  Like, listening to your story, and I can 100% Like, I'm nodding my head when you're like, I was put on this earth to help women.

I'm like, listen to your story. Yes, you are. Like  two things that really stood out to me after we talked was  the way that you grew up with such strong women leadership and mentorship. You were around all of these. Corporate women who at the time were the first, like they were the ones to use your words.

These are the women that were shattering the glass ceilings and like you were there,  you were in the rooms, you were working with them, you were making connections with them. They mentored you. Like how amazing to just be in that place. Oh, it was crazy because again, I grew up in the eighties and nineties.

I came of age in the early aughts. That's when I graduated from college and started working. And here I was in the room with women who were, You know, one of only two women in their law school graduating class, the, the first female partner in accounting, the first female partner at her law firm, um, you know, this was,  this was before the data had come out that says, you know, when we have at least three women on an executive team or three women on a board of directors, the companies do better.

Like, this was still at the beginning of all of that. I remember having conversations when I was at the foundation with women who were like, Oh yeah, I hid my pregnancy. I had to lie to my bosses. I could be fired for saying this or fired for doing that. I'll never forget this one woman, Kay. She was like, Oh yeah, I, um, I was fired because they found out I was pregnant.

And I was like, What?  Like that's, so it was. I was just. far enough away from them. And then even my mentors, um, who were kind of the, so those were maybe the baby boomer mentors that I had. And then the older Gen Xers. So I'm at that very cusp at the end of Gen X. My older Gen Xer mentors, they were the women who,  um, bought their first suits at Brooks Brothers and they were Navy suits and they were designed and tailored to look just like men's suits.

Again, going back to working girl, like this was. Absolutely a thing. And they had these little red bow ties that they wore with him. And the idea was you couldn't be who you were. You had to be a version of the man. Correct. Correct. Because the man was allowed to be there and you somehow got there, but we weren't really, they weren't really ready.

You know, I had mentors who were like, Oh yeah, I had to wear closeted shoes and pantyhose. And here I am in the 2000s and I'm like, Oh, it's so different. Like, and it's, it's funny cause I do look back and we talked about like what we wear and like our nails and bright colors and all that. Like part of the reason I'm so obnoxious when it comes to wearing colors is because  in the mid 20 teens, I was told.

Wear a black suit. Wear a gray suit. You can have a small pop of color. When I cut my hair into a bob, I had a CEO say, I like this look. When I wore bright red nail polish, that didn't get as much attention in terms of, we like this, as bubble bath did. Right? So I was still told, tame it down. And now I'm like, tame?

What the hell is tame? We don't have time to be tame. Especially when we're talking about money, and our careers, and the life we want. Like, no way. But yes, having that, having that seat. And I wouldn't even say it was a seat at the table, because my seat was, my seat was in a chair behind the table, that's literally where I would sit, and I would watch these women be at the table, and, um,  so it's exciting, and it's exciting to see what young women are doing too, because, I mean, now I look at them and they're like, what do you mean you can't wear bright green nail polish, like, obviously.

And this was all in our lifetimes, like the, and that's what I'm saying why it's so powerful, because you were with the women fighting at the front lines, the ones cooperating? Just so they could stay there and pave the way for future generations. And I just, that is so powerful if you really just sit and think about that and take that in. 

And the second thing that I really admired about your story is  your ability and the courage that you had to say, Oh my gosh, I'm where, like, I have arrived, right? This is where seemingly my journey has been bringing me and I'm here. And I'm in this wonderful place and I have the corner office and the view and the assistant outside my door, but I'm not happy, I'm leaving.

Like, how much courage does that take? And how can women get a taste of that? Like, give us permission.  Yeah, um,  courage was absolutely what was needed, and I will tell you, it's a real mind eff when you are sitting at the corner of everything you've ever wanted, and this isn't it at all.  And part of the permission that I'll give to any woman is that  we're ever growing and we're ever expanding, and part of life is about  evolving. 

And so you can also wake up at the corner of, this is everything I said I wanted, and this isn't it at all.  Admitting it to yourself is actually the hard part. The quitting wasn't the hard part. The admitting it was the hard part. Because when I admitted it, I had to be okay with, what are people going to think of me?

Of course, that  And I will tell you,  one of those women that I had a seat at the table with, who was a baller, I mean, her resume is like, ridiculous, called me on the phone, and said, you're making the biggest mistake of your career. Really?  Yeah. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Like  I choked back tears, got off the phone with her, cried.

Like, I've spent money on therapy to get over how she said that to me. Like, the worst possible thing you could ever see happening. The worst possible thing. Because here I'm thinking, I'm taking control of my life, and a woman who I adore, who did break glass ceilings, who literally became the first woman at a Fortune 5 company.

She worked at a Fortune 5 company. And in fact, that company was many times the number one company in the world, okay? So, baller. Said, you're effing this up.  So it's not necessarily the courage to quit. It's the courage to admit it. And it's the courage to say,  I actually think there's something else for me and I'm gonna be okay going to chase it.

I'm gonna go pursue it.  And one of the things that I will also say to you is this, I've been out of this game for 10 years, right, the fundraising game.  Um, I truly believe that if I needed to get a job in fundraising, it would take me less than 90 days.  Cause it's still a skill I have. It's still something I know how to do.

I've consulted a couple of times since I left with some, some nonprofits. So I'm actually not worried. And now that I'm far enough away from it, I'm like, Oh. I can always go back,  but if I hadn't done what I did, I wouldn't have what I've had over the last 10 years. And that actually scares me more.  So a lot of times giving yourself permission, even like when it comes to a job, when it comes to finances, right?

The thing, when we talk about like money, money is risky. Jobs are risky. Career is risky, right? Because you're, you're putting yourself out there and saying, this is what I want. And so we think, Oh, mitigate risk at all.  Signs that it's coming barreling towards you. And what I'm saying is, go into the risk, admit the risk, see where you can mitigate it from a plan, right?

So maybe you're not like me, you don't just quit. Now I will say, I couldn't be the number two person at an organization and figure out what I was going to go do. Like, it would have been very unfair to the organization. So that's why I quit. Um,  so, it really is though about,  And I've been studying a lot, um, recently about why we actually do things.

And we are more apt to do something for our future self than our current self. So  when you think about your future self, and I think we're also in this very unique time period, because we're now five years. From the start of COVID  and for a lot of people, they think, Oh, five years seems so long or five years doesn't seem long enough, right?

But we all have this time capsule where life completely changed where you could look back and say, okay Five years ago my life looked completely different then everything changed then I kept going and so when you think about how scared you might be or nervous or anxious or worried or fear of failure or Not confident or fill in the blank with whatever your limiting belief is  What I want to say to you is the five years will pass Right?

Like, we're all very clear that  the world shut down, we lived through what we lived through, and now it's five years later. And so, when you think of yourself now, five years from now, ask yourself, Do I want to be where I am today, and where that person is on her track? Or, am I willing to risk something a little bit bigger, or a lot bit bigger? 

Because I know five years is going to pass anyway.  And courage is one of those things. And confidence, and I speak a lot about this. Um, I've done a TEDx on confidence. Typically what happens is we think, Oh, when I feel confident, I'm going to go do the hard thing. And in fact what we have to do is we do the hard thing, and then our confidence builds. 

It's just like working out.  It's just like working out. I would love to tell you that my biceps are getting stronger, but I haven't worked out in three weeks. So guess what, they're atrophying. Right? I gotta get back in the gym this afternoon, back in the gym tomorrow, I gotta get back in it. Because I can't just think about my biceps getting bigger.

I gotta go do the hard work, and then they get bigger. So that's the same with confidence and courage. It's about taking the step. What's cool, though, is that you've actually been doing hard things your whole life. You just have to remember it. Mm hmm. I was thinking that when you brought up COVID, like, if that is not proof and a testimony for each of us individually that, like, we can get through hard things, we can be sitting in  uncertainty and be scared and terrified and make it.

Like, there is, there's your timeline of proof for yourself right there. And I think this is the perfect segue to talk about, like, why now? At this point in history and with the great wealth transfer that is being whispered about like why is right now so important for women to  exercise that confidence and be okay with risk and really embrace everything that you've talked about to this point.

Yeah, so we're at a critical juncture in human history. We are about to experience and we are experiencing already. It's already happening. Um, we are experiencing the greatest wealth transfer in human history. Ever, ever, ever, ever, ever.  So there's a lot said right now about where, where wealth is, who holds wealth, all of the things.

And I'm not here to debate any of that, right? We are where we are  and baby boomers hold a lot of wealth and baby boomers. Are their life is coming to closer to the end. You know, our oldest baby boomers are in their older seventies. Um, we obviously still have people in their eighties and nineties living, but as we look at how much money this generation holds, it is going to transfer and specifically.

Um, even if we don't even think about it transferring from generation to generation, when we look at couples who are in, um, you know, a traditional male female relationship, we know that the data tells us that women outlive their partners by an average of seven years, right? Um, so  I don't know about your grandparents.

I don't know about your parents, but like I take my grandparents, they were 12 years apart. They actually died 13 years. Um, so they were around the same age, but my grandmother lived 13 years without my grandfather, and, uh, this is going to continue to happen. So money is going to transfer to the woman, and then to children, and sometimes it'll just skip and it'll go straight to children, right?

Um,  when we look at this amount of money right now, women in the U. S. control 14 trillion.  We are about to acquire 30 trillion dollars before 2030. So we are more than doubling  the amount of money that we are going to control in less than a decade. Plus, that number is shifting. I read a report the other day that it might be 38 trillion dollars.

And I was over in Paris for a meeting, um, late last fall. This isn't just in the US. This is happening in Europe as well. It will happen in parts of Asia as well. This is a worldwide, global thing for first world economies. Okay? So the money is coming. And here's the thing, going back to what you said in the beginning, Chelsea, and you and I are both fired up about this, cause we're like,  how are we not further along?

Uh, cause only 50 years ago we could have gotten a credit card in our own name. Again, my grandmother, who I adore and love,  was my best friend, died in 2021. In 2021, her credit card still had my grandfather's name on it. He died in 2008.  When they bought their house, she could not be on the loan.  Right? If she was a business owner, she could not have gotten a business loan as a woman until 1988. 

K? 1988. All of us Taylor Swift fans, remember Wait, she's born in 1989? So like, you could be a year older than Taylor Swift? And like, that's how long a woman could get a business loan in her own name. Okay, that's nothing. In the scale of time, that's nothing. Of course we're behind. Of course. But here's the thing.

The money is coming. And big banks are paying attention to it. Big financial institutions are freaking out about this. And I'll tell you why they're freaking out about it. They're freaking out about it because they don't know what the hell we're going to do with it.  Other stats that I think are just absolutely mind blowing is that when a woman, um, either through a divorce or a death of a spouse, um, gets control of money, within 24 months, 90 percent of them make a change in their financial advisor. 

And many of them, up to 80%, do it in the first 12 months.  So here's the thing, okay? So, Bob dies, Sally gets the money, Sally recognizes she doesn't have a relationship with Steve, the financial advisor, because guess what? Steve hasn't really given a shit about her for the last couple of decades. And she goes to sit down with Steve, and she's like, you don't understand what it's like to be me, Steve.

And Steve says, oh, well, when I worked with Bob, and I don't know about y'all, but I'm like, I don't really care what Bob did. I'm going to go do my own thing. And so they leave again, move with their feet and they take their money. And so 30 trillion  just in the U S right now, the banks are like, is this money going to lead us?

Leave us. Is this money going to walk out the door? Are we still going to have it? Because in the world of finance, it's all about resources under management. Assets under management. A U M. That's what they care about. Goldman cares how much money they're controlling for you. Bank of America cares how much money they're controlling for you.

So when you Google the Great Wealth Transfer and you see all these CEOs and all these head of investment banks and all these head of, um, wealth management teams talking about this, it's because they're nervous.  And rightfully so. Absolutely. And I think that's an amazing thing for women to be just aware of, about how corporate has always focused on profit.

That's their main focus. Right. And historically for 99 percent of the life of money that has been men haven't been worried about us. And now they're like, you said, like, Oh shit, we've been ignoring women all this time and they're about to hold all this wealth. So be aware marketing, advertising, subliminal messaging.

And like you mentioned, find somebody who is a good fit for you. Know what you want, what's important to you and find your fit. Not. People adapting to profits fit. Right. And so one of the things that has happened, um, and I love how you brought up marketing, is that all of a sudden it's, we're going to market different to women.

But here's the thing, women invest money differently.  We know that we know how women treat money differently because that data and how we've been measuring that has been happening for decades. And so the World Bank actually knows that when you give a woman a dollar, whether she earns or it's given to her, 90 cents goes back into her family and community.

When you give the same dollar to a man, 30 cents. Maybe 40 cents goes back to his family and community. So when we talk about things like the stock market, when we talk about investing in real estate, private equity, venture capital, when we talk about, um, you know, and we won't go into all the other alternatives like crypto and oil and gas and things like that, but when we talk about major drivers of economies, like fortune 500 publicly traded companies.

Right? What shareholders want when we talk about real estate, venture capital and private equity, we want different things. We want to see a different impact. Women actually care about the community impact and they want to know what it's making, what it's doing. So like the real estate fund that we run. We specifically, um, invest in smaller strip centers.

So, not a power center like where your Home Depot or your Target or your Walmart is, but the local strip center that is five minutes from your house, where your nail salon is, your hair salon is, the ballet place where your kid takes, um, you know, maybe your insurance guy's there, right? They're smaller local businesses.

And one of the reasons why we invest in them is because when we make those centers better, we actually drive more business. And why do we care about that? Because they're small business owners. And how many of those small business owners are also women business owners? Quite a lot.  And so we want the place down the street from your community to be safer.

We want to put in lighting. We want to make it prettier. We want you to be able to park there after seven o'clock at night and not feel like this is a dangerous place, right? And we want Our business owners to do better. So they make more money so they can go open another location or they can send their kids to college where they want or they can buy their dream house or whatever it is that they want for their life.

And so when we look at this, the scary part though, is that this money is coming so fast.  It's coming so fast. And if we don't prepare for it, what will happen is it will become like winning the lottery  or like an athlete getting sign on bonuses or big contracts.  And so, not only do women have a huge opportunity, um,  We have to do right by it.

To do right by it.  To do right by it. Because someone in your family has either earned or acquired that money. So now you can either take it and make it bigger for the rest of your family. Or you can lose it. And I'll just give you an anecdote around this, and this is kind of the thing that scares me as someone who's finally paying attention to finance.

Because I will say this. I'm not a finance person.  Let me tell you why I want to make money. Because I got big things to do in the world. Because I have seats at tables that I want to be at. So I want to make money so I can do that. I wanted to make money because there's parts of the world that I want to explore and experience.

So that's why I want to make money, okay? So every one of us has a different reason why we want to make money. Understanding that is a huge piece.  But the thing is,  if we're not prepared, it could be gone.  I have a girlfriend who's sister Wait, wait, wait, quicker. Girl. I have a girlfriend whose sister got divorced, had a sizable financial, um,  package.

Is that what you say? A package? Uh.  In her settlement, she got 750, 000. In three years, that money was gone.  And that story is so  common.  And, and that's, that's why I asked that question. And I think you answered it so well of like.  We have to be prepared as women. And I know that's one of my missions. It's obviously one of yours because you're already doing the things, right?

Um, we have to be prepared. If we really want to leverage this, we have to do right by that. And what that means for our listeners is educating yourself, not only on financial literacy, but in opportunities like with you and your program, and that is going to require of you women listening to this podcast right now to be comfortable being uncomfortable, to do the hard things, to be unsure, and.

Do that knowing that you always have resources and opportunities. There is always a way, there's always a person, there's always a YouTube video. There's absolutely nothing, I need you to hear this, that you cannot learn  right now, today. And so,  we just may have to embrace that inner badass. Yeah. Like you say.

We have to. And so, as we wrap it up, tell us how we can do that. How can we embrace that inner badass? So that women across the globe, I got goosebumps when you said that. Like, this is not just the United States, this is everywhere. Like, we have a huge opportunity here. How can we embrace our inner badass so that we don't squander it?

Yeah. So, two things. Number one is, don't listen to the lies that you've been fed by Madison Avenue and advertisers. Okay? Here's the thing. You can get the 750, 000 and go buy the handbags and the car and the house and the whatever, get the Botox, the boob job, whatever it is that you want, but I don't want you to take that money and use it to do that.

I want you to take that money, invest it, make more money, and use that money, okay? Because part of the way that I think that women Screw up is actually not our fault. I believe for and I've I've actually been talking about this for as long as I think probably since high school We are fed a load of garbage when it comes to you're not pretty enough thin enough Tall enough your money's not big enough.

Your skin's not young enough. You don't live in the right place. You're not the right You don't drive the right car You know, like, uh, my friends, I was talking to a friend the other day, you're a stay at home mom, you're screwing up your kids, you're at work, you're screwing up your kids, right? Madison Avenue, like, go back and watch Mad Men, for real. 

Advertisers are designed to tell us that something is wrong with us, and the way we fix it is by buying more stuff.  Whether it's physical, or it's having a service done to your body, your face. Listen, I'm not gonna lie, like, uh, yeah, me too. I love Botox. I need to get mine redone, right? So I'm not saying don't do it.

I'm saying wealthy people get wealthier because they invest their money and they only spend what comes off of it.  Okay? So if wealth is coming to you, if money is coming to you, and there's a lot of different numbers out there that says what it could be, I don't care if you're getting 25, 000 from somebody, or you're getting 250 million, most of us will get more than we think, because we don't actually know, because we don't actually talk about it, and the way that we're actually getting more, is through real estate because baby boomers have made their wealth through real estate because they bought a house 40 years ago, right?

There's a meme going on right now that said this sums up my life. And one thing, somebody bought a house in 1999 for like 112, 000. And today in 2025, it's worth 3 million or something crazy like that. That's where the wealth is coming from. Okay. So, so it's there  is you've got to invest the money, like act like you don't have it when you get it. 

It's not in your world right now, so how do you make it bigger? So that is one thing. Don't buy into it. And the way you do that in your inner badass, your inner badass is about knowing that you are enough  without all of those things.  It's about knowing that the dreams and goals you have for your life For your children, for your legacy, like they're worthy.

And going back to the hard thing, there are so many easy buttons that we push.  Embracing your inner badass is not about pushing the easy button. It's just like I said earlier, the courage for me wasn't quitting the job. The courage for me was admitting that I didn't want to be in it.  Investing your money is not the hard part.

I promise it's actually not. There are amazing people who can help you. There are funds like us who are turning up every day, who, like, we're talking about different things. We're teaching you in a different way. The courage. Where you find your badass is by saying I'm going to delay some gratification and dopamine hit right now Because I'm going to go for what is most important. 

That's how you do that  Oh mic drop  and as you're saying this I'm thinking about the beginning of our conversation where you were like, listen I know that a lot of women did not grow up with a mother like I had and I think that that is a lot of the struggle especially because you know, you said it's about being okay without all of those things so I want to maybe throw you a curveball, maybe not, but  to close this out, can you embrace your mother and how she showed up for you and speak to the women who are listening right now that did not have that mother and  tell us what we need to hear.

Gosh, Chelsea, you're going to make me cry. Um,  yeah, every day when I was a kid, my mom would  sit me down and it was always at bedtime and she would say, you can be and do anything that you want.  You can be and do anything that you want. You have to work for it.  Lady, if you're out there and you're like, really me.

Like, yeah, you. Like, you get to do this one time, and there is a reason why you are here, and maybe you don't know yet. Maybe it hasn't hit you the way it's hit Chelsea and I, and that's okay,  but there is some purpose that you play in this greater,  there is some purpose that you play in this greater thing that we call life. 

I truly believe, I truly believe, because there's only one you, that the one and only you is destined for greatness.  And if you have to get up every morning and look at yourself in the mirror and say this crazy lady named Katie Lankford says that I can do it and you have to keep saying Katie believes I can do it, I believe I can do it, until you actually start believing you can do it, like do that. 

Because if there's ever been doubt put in your head, I want to tell you that you can replace that doubt  with belief. Because just like my mom told me, you can be and do anything. Anything. Y'all, I have a degree in Recreation, Park and Tourism Sciences. I got it before Amy Poehler did that silly show.  Okay?

My mom, that actually is the one time my mom, I called her when I changed my major, she was like, what in the hell did you do? Are you going to be a camp counselor for the rest of your life? Right? Um, I had the woman who was my mentor, who literally said, you're making the biggest mistake of your life. You know, crazy things happen.

You just have to believe it. And the cool thing about your brain is, if you talk to your brain enough, your brain actually rewires itself through neuroplasticity, where you do believe it. So every morning, get up and be like, yeah, I believe in my biggest goals and dreams. High five yourself every time you go to the bathroom.

I believe in my biggest goals and dreams. I believe in my biggest goals and dreams. Do it over and over. Just one day at a time. Just like the biceps. Just like going out and doing my bicep curls. My, my arms get stronger every day when I do that. And every day you tell yourself that,  whether it's my voice, your mom's voice, your voice,  borrow my mom's voice,  it will work.

It just does. I don't know how. I'm not a brain scientist, but I can tell you it works. Oh my gosh, that was perfect. We don't even need to put you to sleep.  No, come back for that. No, that is amazing. Um, this was just as powerful as I thought it was going to be. So, thank you for showing up and being you and bringing you to the table.

It is so much appreciated. Thank you.  Like, I think the thing is, not to just go on for a second, but even I didn't have the courage. Like, when I say I was praying for God to take away my gifts, I literally remember sitting in my bedroom just a few years ago, kneeling down, which I'm not a kneeler in prayer, like, that's not me.

I went to Catholic school, but it's not, like, that's not who I am. And I remember saying, God, just let me be able to do spreadsheets. Just let me be able to, like, just, this, this gift you've given me is too hard.  So if you're feeling that, if you're like, damn, this scares me, this is too much, it's too big.

Like, if you're like, it looks so much easier for that person. It doesn't. It doesn't. It is hard for all of us. It's just not.  You just have to keep going. You just have to.  You know, and now I think, oh gosh, like, how boring would it have been for me if God was like, okay, or the universe or whatever you want to call it, was like, great, now you're an Excel master.

I'd be like, y'all, I opened an Excel. Take it back, hold on. Take it back. Get back.  But if you are an Excel master, there's a way for you to use that gift to do what you're supposed to do.  Exactly. Excel nerd. There you go. Yeah. That was one of my favorite classes in college, and I did not like many classes in college, so that says something.

I literally changed my major so I could talk about play all day at school. I was like, um, yeah, taking a class about golf courses, that sounds fun. Let's do that. Wee. 

Oh, amazing.  Where can people go if they want to hear more of you, see more of you?  Yeah. So, um, Katie Langford is my handle on everything, Instagram, Facebook.  LinkedIn, YouTube. I'm actually working on,  I'm working with a team right now to not be as quiet as I have been. I don't think I'm quiet, but there's a lot of people who are like, people can't find you.

So, um, so I'm, I'm busting out with some new content over the next couple of months, and it's gonna be talking more about this and what this all looks like. But, um, Katie Langford and then my, the firm that I'm a part of is called Celine Brighthouse. And, um, and then if you're a real estate investor who's a woman doing business and you're like, Oh my God, I don't want to do this by myself anymore.

We're Trailblazers Women in Real Estate Investing.  You heard it, ladies, and all of those links will be attached in the show notes. I'm also going to include your TED Talk because I love TED Talks. So Yeah, talk about a, like, dream. Like, again Right, but I'm still waiting my turn.  Oh, lady, I can help you get that. 

See? Live opportunities. If you just ask, something will come. Yeah!  Like, on my bucket list.