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Rachel Rodgers - Plan Your Year Like a Millionaire

Self-Conscious with Chrissy Teigen

Thu May 08 2025

Summary

Podcast Summary: Rachel Rodgers - Plan Your Year Like a Millionaire Self-Conscious with Chrissy Teigen | Release Date: May 8, 2025

Introduction

In the episode titled "Rachel Rodgers - Plan Your Year Like a Millionaire," Chrissy Teigen welcomes Rachel Rodgers, a bestselling author known for her book "We Should All Be A Woman's Guide to Earning More." Rachel shares her insights on wealth-building, goal setting, and overcoming systemic barriers, drawing from her personal journey from financial insecurity to becoming a millionaire. The conversation is a deep dive into strategies for personal growth, financial empowerment, and creating a ripple effect of economic progress within communities.

Rachel Rodgers' Personal Journey to Financial Success

Rachel Rodgers begins by highlighting the connection between entrepreneurship and social justice. She quotes Maya Angelou, stating, "when you know better, you do better" (01:58). Rachel reflects on her early days of financial struggle, emphasizing the importance of leveraging natural talents and courage to overcome systemic barriers. She established her company, Hello7, with the mission to "close the wealth gap one entrepreneur at a time." Rachel's approach involved maintaining a full-time job while gradually building her law practice, demonstrating the viability of balancing employment with entrepreneurial pursuits.

Defining and Setting Ambitious Goals

Rachel challenges conventional goal-setting practices, advocating for larger, more ambitious goals. She explains, "When you set a goal that's uncomfortable, but you're also excited, fear and excitement come from the same place" (05:44). Rachel shares her personal example of setting an audacious target for her business to reach $100 million in revenue by 2028. This bold approach has revitalized her team's creativity and motivation, contrasting sharply with mundane targets like "let's just try to break even again next month" (07:21).

Importance of Support Networks

A key theme in Rachel's discussion is the significance of building a strong support network. She introduces the concept of a "million dollar squad," a group of cheerleaders who encourage and assist in achieving ambitious goals (08:13). Rachel emphasizes the transformative power of surrounding oneself with like-minded, ambitious individuals, citing studies that show accountability groups increase the likelihood of goal achievement by 95% (08:28). She contrasts this with the negative influence of detractors, advising listeners to seek out supportive and resourceful peers.

Wealth Building vs. Earning More Money

Rachel delineates the difference between simply earning more money and building sustainable wealth. She critiques the traditional personal finance focus on budgeting and cutting costs, advocating instead for strategies that allow individuals to earn beyond their expenses and achieve their dreams (10:22). Rachel asserts, "Can we not have joy?" when discussing the importance of spending on things that bring personal happiness, such as avocado toast or iced coffee (10:48). She encourages listeners to aim for financial goals that enable them to thrive, not just survive.

Critical Barriers for Marginalized Individuals in Wealth Building

Addressing systemic issues, Rachel identifies access to capital as the primary barrier for marginalized groups seeking wealth (15:06). She points out that less than 3% of startup funding goes to women and people of color, leading to a predominantly white, male-controlled business landscape. Additionally, Rachel discusses the "Superwoman" syndrome, where women feel compelled to handle everything alone, hindering business growth and sustainability (15:50). She also touches on imposter syndrome and the erosion of self-belief as significant obstacles.

Strategies for Overcoming These Barriers

Rachel offers practical advice for overcoming financial and psychological barriers. She encourages declaring uncertainty as a strength, which can open doors to assistance and collaboration (16:40). By being transparent about not knowing everything, individuals can invite support and expertise from their networks. Rachel also stresses the importance of regaining the ability to dream and planning strategically to bridge the gap between current financial status and desired goals.

Time Management and Setting Boundaries

Effective time management is another critical area Rachel explores. She underscores the necessity of setting boundaries to reclaim personal time, especially for women who often shoulder the majority of domestic responsibilities (17:58). Rachel advises having hard conversations to delegate tasks, thereby freeing up time to focus on personal and professional growth. She emphasizes that "reclaiming your time is a really important part, so you can use part of it to make your dream happen" (17:58).

Actionable Steps: Plan Your Year Like a Millionaire

Rachel introduces a three-step framework for financial planning, titled "Plan Your Year Like a Millionaire," which serves as a practical toolkit for listeners:

Million Dollar Vision (20:45)
- Exercise: List all desired life upgrades across various categories, assigning a dollar amount to each.
- Objective: Calculate the total monthly cost of achieving the dream life, identifying the financial gap between current income and desired income.
- Example: If the desired income is $200,000 annually and current income is $65,000, the gap is $135,000 per year or approximately $10,000 per month.
Million Dollar Value (25:06)
- Self-Assessment: Utilize personality and strengths assessments to identify natural talents and skills.
- Reflective Analysis: Recall childhood strengths and skills recognized by others to uncover potential business ideas.
- Life and Career Audit: Document past experiences and skills to identify marketable services or products.
Million Dollar Offer (30:19)
- Scalable: Ensure the offer can grow beyond one-on-one services, such as developing a course or expanding a service-based business.
- Enjoyable: Choose a business idea that is personally satisfying to maintain motivation.
- In Demand: Select products or services that address existing market needs and desires.
- Transformation: Clearly define the transformation or value the product/service provides to customers.

Rachel's structured approach provides a clear roadmap for listeners to transition from financial uncertainty to wealth creation, emphasizing actionable steps and strategic planning.

Conclusion

The episode concludes with Rachel Rodgers affirming the power of ambitious goal-setting and strategic planning in achieving financial success and fostering economic empowerment within marginalized communities. Chrissy Teigen and Rachel celebrate the transformative potential of entrepreneurship and supportive networks, reinforcing the message that "when black women win, we all win." Rachel's insights offer a comprehensive guide for listeners seeking to elevate their financial status and contribute to broader social progress.

Notable Quotes

Rachel Rodgers (01:58):

"Entrepreneurship is a path to social justice."
Rachel Rodgers (05:44):

"When you set a goal that's uncomfortable, but you're also excited, fear and excitement come from the same place."
Rachel Rodgers (07:21):

"That's how so many people do it. And now you've got an asset that you can build, that you can grow, that you can sell."
Rachel Rodgers (08:13):

"Have a million dollar squad and your squad is your cheerleaders."
Rachel Rodgers (10:22):

"We need to know that you can get the house that you wanted to provide for your kids or for me."
Rachel Rodgers (10:48):

"Can we not have joy?"
Rachel Rodgers (15:06):

"Access to capital is the biggest issue."
Rachel Rodgers (16:40):

"Sometimes I think people should just declare to the world, I don't know what I'm doing because it'll just take all the power away."
Rachel Rodgers (17:58):

"Reclaiming your time is a really important part, so you can use part of it to make your dream happen."
Rachel Rodgers (20:45):

"What am I doing here? And we run some numbers."
Rachel Rodgers (30:19):

"There are four key elements of a million dollar offer: scalable, enjoyable, in demand, and provides a transformation."

Timestamp References

Personal Journey Introduction – 01:58
Setting Ambitious Goals – 05:44
Balancing Jobs and Entrepreneurship – 07:21
Building a Support Network – 08:13
Impact of Accountability Groups – 08:28
Earning vs. Wealth Building – 10:22
Spending for Joy – 10:48
Barriers for Marginalized Groups – 15:06
Superwoman Syndrome – 15:50
Declaring Uncertainty – 16:40
Time Management and Boundaries – 17:58
Reclaiming Personal Time – 17:58
Million Dollar Vision Exercise – 20:45
Self-Assessment and Strengths – 25:06
Creating a Scalable Offer – 30:19

Listen to the full episode here to gain comprehensive insights and actionable strategies from Rachel Rodgers on planning your year like a millionaire.

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Transcript

Chrissy Teigen (0:03)

You're listening to Self Conscious with Chrissy Teigen, an Audible original podcast. Join me as we explore the cutting edge of health, wellness and personal growth with the world's leading experts and thinkers. From inspiring stories to actionable insights, our conversations aim to help you lead a healthier, happier and more productive life. In a world where money equals influence, gaining a controlling wealth becomes a powerful tool for social justice. My next guest, Rachel Rogers, is the best selling author of We Should All Be A Woman's Guide to Earning More. Her work goes beyond teaching individuals how to increase their income. She also tackles the systemic barriers that have historically hindered Black women and other marginalized groups from achieving financial success. Drawing on her personal journey from financial insecurity to becoming a millionaire, Rachel inspires others to dream bigger, set ambitious goals and create transformative wealth that can uplift lives and and communities. In her audible original Plan youn Year Like a Millionaire, Rachel presents a roadmap for anyone seeking to build wealth, whether starting from scratch or looking to elevate their financial game, and is a call to action for those who have been told to settle for less, urging them to break free from those limitations and reclaim their financial power. On today's episode, listeners will learn how to set goals, effectively manage time, build a strong support network and focus on increasing income. More importantly, Rachel will demonstrate how these strategies not only impact personal finances, but also contribute to a larger movement of economic empowerment and social progress. Rachel Rogers, welcome to Self Conscious. So Rachel, can you share your personal journey that led to the creation of Plan youn Year Like a Millionaire?

Rachel Rogers (1:58)

I think that entrepreneurship is a path to social justice. Maya Angelou says, when you know better, you do better. Yes, I started out low income, with no resources, no network, whatever, and so I had to figure out how I was going to make it happen. All I had was my natural talent and my skills and whatever courage I could muster, right to go do the things. And I'm not the only one. There are many people that have done it. There is a pathway to do this. So I think this is such a great opportunity to equal and level the playing field when it comes to money. And so my company, hello7 our tagline is close the wealth gap one entrepreneur at a time. So, so we're teaching entrepreneurship to people to say the corporate job is not working for you. You're tired of the boss, maybe got laid off and you're looking for options. The options, as corny as it sounds, is within you. You have the skills, you have the talent and it's just being in the kitchen, Right? Okay. I need to go make dinner. And I got pasta, salt and basil. And I need to make that a meal. And that's what we have to do. We have to take stock of like what do we got? And how can we mix those ingredients up to make a better meal than the one we have right now? Because right now we're selling our skills to the man or a corporation. But how can we instead take those same skills? And we could still, like, this might be a slow process where you keep the full time job. That's what I did. Right? You can keep the full time job. I still was working at a law firm when I started my practice. I had a part time job, A part time, crappy job at a law firm. So I did that while also building my law practice. And I couldn't just quit cause I needed the money. And so we can keep the full time job, do this on the side until this scales up. And now you can quit the job. Right. So that's how so many people do it. And then now you've got an asset that you can do, build that you can grow, that you can sell. And what you have is true job security, true financial security, which comes from. I know how to take the skills I have and make money. I can take the skills and the talents that I have and turn it into money anytime I want. When you can do that, you have the ultimate job security and financial security. And that's what I want for people who are struggling, for people who are low income. And now all of a sudden they've got their own business and they're thriving. There's so many stories like this and it's amazing. We have a foundation and so we provide money for doulas for black women.

Rachel Rogers (12:20)

Personal finance all teaches just budgeting, and it's save, save, save. It's very like discipline focused and it's not very exciting. And you're not going to have a massive change anytime soon. I don't want to wait 25 years from now to live my best life. I want to live my best life today or as close to today as possible. So if we want to have a better life sooner rather than later, then all the research shows entrepreneurship is the way to go. And you can do that right now. I believe in budgeting. I have a budget. I believe in personal finance tools. I think they're important. But we overemphasize saving, cutting costs. Don't buy your latte, don't buy your avocado toast. Stop buying anything that brings you joy. You know, only spend on Necessities. It's like this austerity life. Who the hell wants that life? Nobody, you know? So why are we so focused on that? There's only so many ways that you can divide up a paycheck. Okay? We've talked about it. It's handled, right? We don't need 1,000 more books about how to divide up your too small paycheck to start with. Right? Let's talk about how to earn more. Right? And that's so much more empowering, recognizing that. And also, too, it's what motivates us, right? Knowing that you can get the house that you wanted to provide for your kids or for me. I was like, I wanted to be able to pay my mom's rent. I wanted to be able to take care of her. So there was a dollar amount on my goals list of, once I get here, I know I can start taking care of my mom. There were different things, and sometimes it was just, I really want that really cute Chanel bag, whatever it is, right? You just have the goals that you have, and then they motivate you to go earn more rather than saying, no. Having all those goals or wanting more is bad because I think we have shame about desiring more. And that desire, it's actually really amazing, the desires that we have. And it could be the most frivolous thing if a desire for something that I want motivates me to get up and go create a business. Right? Or go sell a service. And now that service is helping these people. So now I'm doing important work that's helping people because I'm motivated by my own desires. In that case, your desires are getting you to do the work of helping people. So it's not a bad thing. I actually think it's God's design. Our desires are leading us to the place we're supposed to be, of service in the ways that we need to be. So I think we have to stop thinking about desire as a bad thing and telling people to cut every cost and stop wanting stuff. We're not gonna stop wanting stuff because we're human, and humans are designed to want things. And that's what's motivating us to go build things so that we can have the things that we want. And now we're making the world a better place.

Rachel Rogers (20:45)

So the first step I call Million dollar vision. And in this exercise, this is where we figure out, like, what the hell are we doing here? And we run some numbers. I love numbers. I love math. Math is useful. Cause that's how you count your money. So Million Dollar Vision is all about listing out what is everything that I want, what are the upgrades that I want to my life? Whether it's I want to send my kid to a nicer school or the private school, or I want to be able to take care of these family members. I want them to literally write down every single thing that they want in every category of life. What do you want to learn, what do you want to experience, et cetera. Then once they list everything that they want, then next to it, I want them to write a dollar amount. What is the monthly cost of having that thing? I want them to actually run the numbers on what does it cost to have their dream life. So if you want the personal trainer, and it's $500 a month. Write in $500 if you want a nicer house. Figure out how much a mortgage is on a house like that. And then if it's $5,000 a month, plug in $5,000 a month. And the reason why I do it per month is because we think of things as, oh, I can't buy a $2 million house, but can you afford a $7,000 a month mortgage? Right, because that's what a $2 million house costs approximately. So it's just actually running the numbers instead of immediately saying to yourself, I can't do it, it's too expensive. Let's actually do the math. What does it actually cost? So they're going to add it all up, okay, I need to make $200,000 a year in order to have the dream life that I want right now. And maybe right now only make $65,000 a year. And so, okay, what is the gap? So the gap is $135,000 a year, okay? So that's our number. That's our target that we're working towards. So we don't need to create a $10 million plan. We only need $135,000. And if you break that down over a year, it's a little more than $10,000 a month, right? When you break these numbers down, they become a little less scary and a little more attainable. So then you're going to take that list and you have that number, and then you're going to go Brainstorm. What are 25 ways, at least 25 ways that I could make another $10,000 a month so that I could have the lifestyle that I want. And you just write down every idea that comes to you, even the terrible ones, right? Because you're going to get the terrible ones out, but there's going to wind up being something in there that is good, that is a good idea. And it could be starting a side hustle, right? It could be buying a piece of property and renting it out. What could you sell, right? And brainstorming that. And so brainstorm all of those ideas of how could you generate another $10,000 a month? And then you go start working that list. You choose three things off the list that you're gonna go take action on, and then you start doing it, and before you know it, maybe you're making a thousand dollars more a month, then you're making $2,000 more a month, and then slowly but surely, you're gonna make that $10,000 a month, you're gonna close that $135,000 gap, and then you're gonna do this exercise again for the next goal. So that's what I start with. That's the million dollar vision, where you just get the party started. If people are struggling with the brainstorming part, where they're coming up with ideas to make more money, maybe they're like, girl, I don't know what to do to make more money. That's why I'm listening to this podcast. Help a sister out. They can do step number two, which is. I call it million dollar value. And that's really taking stock of the value that we add. Right. And the value that we can be adding to the marketplace in exchange for money. What you do in this exercise is you're really just taking stock of where you're at. Do some assessments. Some of these assessments are free, and some of them cost money. Maybe $20 or $25. Probably can get them at the library for free. But the assessments are like, you can do strengths finders. You can do Colby, you can do disc. There's personality assessments that you can take. And really what you're doing is studying yourself. Who am I at my core? What are my natural talents? What did you know? So you're gonna take these assessments, and then the second thing is you're gonna do. You're gonna ask yourself, like, what did people always say to me as a kid? What did they always praise me for? What did they always ask me to do? And, like, remembering that childlike knowing that you are good at something and getting back to that, bringing that back forward. I've listened to Tiffany Haddish has talked about. She used to work for tsa. She worked in the airport, and she'd be like, cracking jokes over the loudspeaker, cracking jokes with customers. That's who she was. And so she just needed to tap into that and turn it into something that could make her money. And, of course, it was quite a journey, right? It always is.

Rachel Rogers (25:07)

But step one, take the assessments. Step two, look at your childhood and think about what are the things that people talk to your parents, talk to people in your life that knew you when you were young, and remember those natural talents that you had, what people were drawn to you for. And so that's another source of information. And then the third thing is, do a life and career audit. You're just going to write down, like, what are all the things that I've done? I was student body president in college. Right. I used to babysit all these people's kids or when I worked for, I was an assistant for this guy and I planned all these parties and I helped him write his speeches, right? And people don't know that I did that. Whatever it is. It's like taking stock of your skills that you have, things that you've done in your life experiences that you've had in various jobs. And then you're also going to look at your life like maybe you've been divorced and can help other people who are going through a divorce, right? Maybe you are really good at making furniture look beautiful and maybe that's something you can help people with. Maybe you're really organized and you can help other people get organized. Looking at those life experiences, looking at your childhood and looking at these assessments and like you're doing sort of a 360 view. Because here's what it is. You are the stock, right? And the price is about to go up, right? So you need to study the stock and, and figure out like what buttons do I need to press to get this stock to go up? And so that's why you're doing it. And then from there you might discover, oh, I used to get in trouble all the time for talking too much. Oh, what, what professions or businesses could I start where I talk for a living? Maybe I could be an emcee or a host for events or conferences. Maybe I could become a public speaker, right? Maybe I could join a radio show and be like a disc jockey, like any number of things. Use this as a way to brainstorm the value that you can add. And then from there you can start to come up with some offers that you could create in a side hustle. So that's million dollar value. So how you're going to make money from it is do step number three, which is million dollar offer. So creating a million dollar offer is how you build a million dollar business, right? What is the product or service or the thing that you're going to put out there and invite people to buy, right? You're offering something in exchange for money. And so there's four key elements of a million dollar offer. As people are taking their like million dollar value stock and their brainstorming list from step one and they're like, okay, I don't know what offer to put together from this. Look for an offer that has these four elements. First element is that it needs to be scalable. So we need an offer that we could turn into a real business eventually, right? So any, almost everything is scalable if you think about how to do it. I'll give you an example. One of my good friends in college was a babysitter and she was like the most sought after babysitter. Everybody loved her because she entertained the children and they loved her. But then she'd be like, oh, I'm already babysitting for the Collins. And they'd be like, oh, no, we wish you were available. Oh, I'll send my friends. So she'd go find her friend and send her. And this happened so often that she was, oh, wait a minute, this is a nanny agency.

Rachel Rogers (27:59)

Exactly. So she created a nanny agency and that's how she funded her whole way through college, running a nanny agency, which she doesn't do anymore. But that was the skill that she figured out. So you could take something like babysitting and it's, and it is scalable. If you use, you can scale it with other people or you can scale it by selling a one to many things. So maybe you are good with finances and good with like budgeting, for example, and you want to help other people budget. Cool. And maybe you're starting at one, one on one. But eventually to make it scalable, you could turn it into a course where you film the whole thing and then you sell it to people all the time, right? So that's scalable. So just think about something that eventually could become scalable. And then step two, it needs to be enjoyable. And people are always surprised by this. It cannot be something that bores you to actual tears, because if it does, you're never going to do it. Right? So it has to be enjoyable on some level to you, the person who's doing it. That's why you take stock of what am I good at, what am I drawn to, what are my natural talents. Because you're trying to find something that will be enjoyable for you. So it needs to be scalable, it needs to be enjoyable. Then the third thing is, sadly, it needs to be in demand. Like it has to be something that people actually want to buy. And people want to buy anything that's going to make them happier, help them to feel better, help them to be more energized, help them to have better sex, have them, help them to have better relationships. People want, give them better snacks, right? Like people want all of those things. So make sure that it's something that's in demand and something people will actually want. And then the very last element is it has to provide a transformation and you have to know what that transformation is, that's really the crux of a business. If you buy a Chanel bag, you're buying it because you want to be more chic, right? Or look fancier, right? That's the transformation, right? Or if you go to like a fabulous hotel room, right? Maybe you feel like a celebrity or you feel really important when you are treated really well by the staff. Any product creates a transformation. If you create the best to become ever, you're like transforming mothers lives who are fucking annoyed by all the shit spilling all the time that they have to clean up. So like now you're, you know, changing, you're transforming this stressed out mom to like a happy mom that doesn't have to worry. So identify the transformation in your offer and that's the fourth element. So that's a million dollar offer. It just has to be something scalable, something enjoyable, something that's actually in demand and something that can create a transformation, however small, for people.