Meet Money Goddess, Viktoria Chervenkova, Author of the gorgeous, brilliant book, Unleash Your Inner Money Goddess – Ancient Female Wisdom for Modern Wealth.
Viktoria Chervenkova is our 50th Featured Mompreneur! Woohoo!
Money Goddess | Viktoria Chervenkova | Video Interview
Money Goddess | Viktoria Chervenkova | Podcast
Money Goddess Interview – Transcript
[00:00:00] Lauren Kinghorn: Morning everyone, to all of our Inspiring Mompreneurs out there and welcome, welcome to this chat. Today I am interviewing the beautiful Viki Chervenkova. (I hope I’m pronouncing your name right).
Yeah. Viktoria is actually her full name. Viktoria is an author. She’s also a wife and mom of two daughters, and she embraced entrepreneurship about 15 years ago when she left a corporate career to pursue a new career in freelancing, long before working from home became a thing. After about 20 years in marketing, she decided it was time to pivot into what truly brings her joy and excitement, sharing her knowledge and experience in managing personal finances with other women.
Unleash Your Inner Money Goddess
Her journey led her to write her first book, Unleash Your Inner Money Goddess – Ancient Female Wisdom for Modern Wealth, which we are gonna chat about today.
So welcome, welcome, Viki. It is so good to have you here.
[00:01:15] Viktoria Chervenkova: Hello Lauren. And hello to everybody watching.
Thank you so much for having me here. It’s a real pleasure.
[00:01:22] Lauren Kinghorn: And it’s such a pleasure to have you as well. I absolutely devoured your book. I adore it. I had that first Zoom call with you before I read it before I knew about the book.
And I was sure when we had our first little chat on Zoom that I was gonna only identify with one of your money goddesses – because you told me on that day that you had five. But then I found I identified with every single one of the five.
And initially Lakshmi, the Money Goddess, was my favorite. But then as I kept reading, I thought, no, this one’s my favorite. No, this one’s my favorite. They’re all so cool. And honestly, it’s the kind of book that I wish I had written myself because Viktoria has done everything, everything, right. When you go through the book, the Kindle format. I’ve got the Kindle format. Viki, you’ve got a copy of the real (printed) book. [Viki shows her copy.]
Everything in the Kindle version is just done so perfectly. The editing and proofreading, honestly, I’m an editor and proofreader, and when I read a book, I always find mistakes, even in printed books that have been printed for years. This is the first book that I can remember reading that I didn’t pick up one mistake.
Also, it’s gorgeously presented. In the one that you’ve got there, the printed one, does it also have those lovely little goodies on the side, like little columns on the side? Because it’s so pretty.
[00:03:05] Viktoria Chervenkova: Yeah, it’s my Athena archetype speaking here because, just like her, I always try to have everything done as perfect as possible. So that’s Athena’s shadow side when you go for perfection. I’m slowly trying to learn to go with progress instead of perfection.
But when it comes to the book, I said, no, this has gotta be done right to the very last letter and comma and full stop. So thank you so much for your appraisal from a viewpoint that comes with this detailed eye to spot mistakes or something that doesn’t stand right because I’m like that as well. When I read a book and I find typos, I get so frustrated.
[00:04:00] Lauren Kinghorn: I know I wanna go and help them. I wanna go back to the author and say, can’t I just help you? ’cause you’ve got typos, yeah. But it’s not only that, other than the fact that it’s beautifully presented, every page is really clean and neat, and it makes for really easy reading.
But it’s also that it’s really engaging. It’s got these fascinating stories of the goddesses and then it’s got also real life, modern-day stories that kind of drive the lessons home, but also bring the stories to life. So it’s not just like this ancient wisdom that we are getting, but you’ve made sure that you give a modern-day story that somebody can relate to.
So it’s relatable as well as ancient. And then you followed with practical advice and affirmations and it’s literally got everything that I would wanna put into a book. So that’s why I say it’s like you’ve bundled it all up into one book and you absolutely nailed it. You made those ancient myths come alive for me because I don’t know much about ancient mythology actually.
It’s quite new for me. I don’t know, a lot of the Greek myths, the Roman myths, I don’t know the Indian myths and it was just wonderful to learn about them from you because it wasn’t boring. It was actually fascinating. You made it interesting. You didn’t labor over things, it was a quick, easy read with lots of quick wins in it. And then what I felt I really wanted to do when I finished the book is I wanted to go back and go to all of those exercises. And then you said to me, well, I’m putting together a program, which is a total win. That’s what people need after reading the book.
Helping Women Along Their Personal Finance Journey
[00:05:41] Viktoria Chervenkova: Thank you. Yeah. Well, my idea for, creating the book was really to have something that women can start with, they can use it as a stepping stone on their own personal finance journey. And the way that we do it with the stories, not just real life stories, but the goddesses stories, their myths, and the lessons that we can extract from them and put them in a financial, modern financial perspective.
So that’s a really great way for people to understand that money is not just numbers, it’s not spreadsheets, it’s not, statistics or keeping a close eye on the stock market and seeing all those prices go up and down. It’s not that. Money is in its essence, just like everything else in this world.
It’s pure energy. It’s a frequency. And when it comes to understanding the energy of money, at first we think it’s a male energy because we are used to seeing the financial industry, the way it is built and presented to us from a male perspective. When you say finances and money and management, instantly you get this image of a man in a suit yelling at the New York Stock Exchange, buying and selling and making phone calls.
And it’s all that aggressive energy. It’s all that logic and pure male thing. But, that’s just at first glance when you dig deeper and you start to think and feel the energy of money from a different perspective. And when you realize that money is just a tool, like a lot of tools available to us out there, it’s just a tool that serves a greater purpose that helps us achieve our goals.
And those goals are usually connected with growing a family, taking care of others, creating abundance, wealth, making this world a better place. And from this point of view. It’s all feminine energy because all these activities are aligned with what women do, what we carry deep inside of us, all that ancient wisdom that we can learn from mythology and yeah, it’s all about nurturing.
So that’s one thing I really want people to understand and reconsider next time they hear financial industry. It’s not about numbers, it’s about feminine energy and how you nurture this flow and let it grow and bring you abundance.
[00:08:36] Lauren Kinghorn: I love that. That is such a different perspective and that really comes through in the book as well.
So I’d love to know how you came up with the idea for the book, where did this inspiration come from?
[00:08:49] Viktoria Chervenkova: Well, the story of how the book was born is actually pretty laid out in detail in the introductory portion of the book. And in fact, anyone can read that on Amazon if you click on the preview, you get access to those first few pages.
But just in brief, let me start with the fact that I’ve always been interested in finances and personal finances in particular. And I’ve been educating myself on how to manage my own money, how to invest, how to budget, and all of that. So interesting stuff. You get the irony, I guess, for many, many years.
And a few months ago I was attending this online seminar, that had financial speakers. It was all about how to manage money and invest and new ideas, new funds, new industries that have quite a good potential for future growth and all that stuff. And then one of the speakers, was Morgan Housel, who is the author of Psychology of Money, which is by far my most favorite book on personal finance because it doesn’t have anything to do with numbers.
It’s all about psychology and the way he presents managing money is through stories. And those stories are so relatable, you can easily understand what people have gone through and how that reflected on their wealth, on how they thought about money, how they acted with money. And when I heard him tell those stories in the seminar, the thought just occurred to me, well, that’s how you should talk about money.
And especially to women, because that’s a way to relate, to understand on a deeper level, not just logical, not just using our brain, but to feel those lessons. And that was the first part of the story, how the book was born. The second part is that while I was attending that seminar, at the very same time I was reading a book, Carol Pearson’s, Persephone Rising, which is about how we can personify different gods and goddesses archetypes into our own lives.
And I’ve been fascinated with mythology since I was a very young child. I’ve devoured all of Greek mythology and I was especially fascinated with Egyptian mythology. I do believe that in some past life I must have lived in ancient Egypt because it just feels so close to me. I don’t know. I haven’t done any.
How is it called? Digressing?
[00:11:57] Lauren Kinghorn: Regression – past life regression.
[00:11:58] Viktoria Chervenkova: Regression, yes. Yes. I haven’t done it, but I have the suspicion that something like this will come up, if I do. So, I was reading this book, I was attending this seminar. I was thinking how we can talk about money to women with stories, and then it was like a divine download.
It just came right through. And I heard this instinct or inner voice that just told me that’s how you do it. You use mythology, you extract those archetypes and how they relate to modern day financial strategies, and you tell these stories to other women so they can start learning how to manage their money, because that’s such a huge part of our lives and this is such an important power that we have.
Most of us have willingly given someone else. And it’s time to reclaim it, I believe.
[00:13:06] Lauren Kinghorn: I’d love to know, after you got that divine download, how long did it take you to actually write the book?
[00:13:12] Viktoria Chervenkova: It felt like the book was already written and I just had to put it down on paper. Yeah. It was so quick.
It was about a month or a couple of months, which is super quick for a book. It was like a flow. I was just, channeling, if you prefer to use this word, it was just channeling through. And that’s how I knew that this is really something that needs to get done because the call was so strong and so powerful and the flow was so easy.
I believe that if you have these two components, then it’s definitely something the universe wants you to manifest into reality. The universe, God, goddess, whatever you wanna name it.
[00:14:01] Lauren Kinghorn: Amazing. And then what made you decide to also add a program? To take people deeper from the book to a deeper understanding of this and experiential knowledge. Is that what you wanna do with the program?
[00:14:14] Viktoria Chervenkova: Yes, yes. That’s definitely, what I want to help women with. Once you get to know your archetype, you get to know your money mindset. Most of us ask, okay, then what? Right? Yeah. What’s next? So it’s just so logical, to have this follow up program so that you can continue on your journey and really equip yourself with the tools and the actual practical financial knowledge and literacy that you need to go through your journey.
And my sincere hope is that at the end of the program, women will not only be empowered, but also take those steps and actually start investing by themselves, which might sound scary at this point. But, I’ve designed the program in such a way as to take you a little step by step to get you to this final state where you can go, yes, now I’m clear.
Now I’m confident I can do this. I know you can do this because I’ve done it and I’m like living at this small corner of the world where nobody ever taught us financial literacy. We didn’t have access to financial markets for such a long time. Wow. Yeah. In Eastern Europe, we’ve gone through this long history of socialism, communism.
Nobody was talking about money. Our parents didn’t know how to manage their money, and all of this leaves a legacy of confusion and frustration, and you just don’t wanna deal with it. You just put it aside, let it be what it is, but you don’t take control of it. And I’ve grown in such an environment and I’ve done it myself, and that shows me that anyone can do it, right.
[00:16:10] Lauren Kinghorn: Amazing. Sure. I love that. I think you’ve already answered this, why you think it’s important to read the book and what they’ll get out of it? Is there more you want to add to that?
Who Manages the Money in Your Household?
[00:16:21] Viktoria Chervenkova: I do actually, and it’s something I heard in a podcast episode a couple of weeks ago. So that was long after the book was born but it just brings this message, makes it so clear as to why it is important for women to claim back their financial power. The guest speaker on the show shared that there was a recent study, according to which 70% of millennial men share that they are the person in the family who manages the money.
And that’s 70%. So that’s a huge number. And 68% of respondents said that they want to be in charge of the family money just to be on the safe side if something happens and they get a divorce.
So that puts women in a very, very dangerous place. And you can imagine that if we don’t know how to manage our money, what to do with our finances, we are so vulnerable.
And when we have given up this power, we become even more scared. We don’t know where to start. And this is where books like this, and there are so many others as well, but that’s where they come into the picture, to help women really start their journey. Because it’s all about, that first step, that first baby step that you take.
[00:18:06] Lauren Kinghorn: That is really powerful because it’s not only divorce. I looked what happened to my mom. When my dad got diagnosed with dementia and had to go into frail care, my mom had never done the books before. So her whole life, my dad had been in charge of the money. So it’s also kind of an old thing.
I’m surprised that millennials are still there because, back in the day, that’s how it was done. The men controlled the finances, right? Yeah. So with my mom’s generation, it was totally understandable, but it was really difficult for her. She would be so frightened just to go on internet banking in case she made a mistake, because she’d never done any of that.
She’s never done a budget in her life and Excel spreadsheets, she didn’t handle finance at all. He would take all the money. And it’s not that she wasn’t earning money, in many months, she outearned my dad because she was an entrepreneur, but she gave him all the money and then she would have to ask him if she wanted to buy a lipstick, something that small. And those kind of things stay with you, they become family patterns.
Yeah.
And it’s really hard to break out of them. I don’t think it’s just Eastern Europe. I think it’s worldwide, women are not handling the money and like you say, thinking it’s a male thing.
Yeah.
So yeah, I think that message is crystal clear now and that is definitely a reason for us to read the book and do the program. I’m so excited to do the program.
[00:19:36] Viktoria Chervenkova: Me too. It’s starting soon, so.
Money Goddess Athena
[00:19:39] Lauren Kinghorn: Yay, I can’t wait! So in the book you also shared that your personal primary goddess archetype is Athena. So, tell us how you implemented Athena’s energy in your own financial journey.
We wanna hear a little story from you – a personal one.
personal.
[00:19:55] Viktoria Chervenkova: Absolutely. So, yeah, just like Athena, when I was looking at finances, I would always look at it in a logical way, trying to put everything into the most complicated spreadsheet you’ve ever seen.
[00:20:12] Lauren Kinghorn: Sounds familiar.
[00:20:13] Viktoria Chervenkova: I had all of these columns and all of these rows with buckets of where savings should go, percentages of how much we earn and how much goes into investment and into insurance and to our kids college funds, even though we don’t even know if they will go to college.
But anyway, we saved for that, just in case. And this was like the most complicated spreadsheet I’ve ever seen, and I created that. All out of Athena strategy and Athena archetype. I realized that a little bit later, but, yeah, Athena is about planning, about creating strategy, pulling the resources and just putting everything with a structure and solidity.
So it’s a little bit more male power combined with a female archetype because a lot of us have those, all of us have both male and female energies, and it’s a matter of balancing and living in your primary female energy, of course for us, for women for most of the time, but then allowing the others to come in when necessary.
So the story of how I got to that complicated spreadsheet was quite interesting because, since university I started in this corporate career, then moved to freelancing. And we’ve always had quite sufficient amount of income coming in. We did well, we went to vacations, we partied, taking care of the kids and kids are expensive to take care of, we all know that.
And it’s not that something was missing, but there was always this constant buzz in the background of my mind that was bothering me because even though we had money coming in, going out, we never actually knew how much exactly is coming in.
How much exactly are we spending and on what and why. That’s a big question, why you’re spending on this particular thing. And this buzz started getting louder and louder up to a point where I said, okay, that’s enough. Let’s take a look at where we are. Let’s pull the bank statements and the credit card statements and whatever documents we could put together and just get clear on what we are doing.
And that’s all I needed at that point. I just wanted to make the buzz go away and get done with that confusion. And just be clear. And once you get clear, that’s the interesting part, once you get that clarity, the next steps just follow so easily, so logically, because we knew how much we were spending, we knew how much we were saving.
And in some months I was so happy to see that we were saving more than 50%, of the net money that was coming in. Yeah. And now the question was, okay, what to do with it? So that’s where investments came into the picture. I educated myself on many different strategies, where to put your money, how it will work for you, different ways to diversify your portfolio.
And yeah, that’s how I got on my journey. And that’s where we continue to go.
[00:23:57] Lauren Kinghorn: Amazing. Wow. I love your story. And I am definitely not there. I’m not saving 50% of what I earn. My goodness. That’s impressive.
[00:24:09] Viktoria Chervenkova: And my sincere hope is that I can help you get there.
[00:24:13] Lauren Kinghorn: Yay. I’m so excited about that idea.
So how do you also pick and use elements from the other goddesses in your financial life?
[00:24:21] Viktoria Chervenkova: Yeah, yeah. That is very important, because what you said in the beginning of our call today, it’s not about finding just one archetype and sticking to it because we all have personality traits that correspond to all of the goddesses in some way or another.
And the tricky thing is to okay, identify your primary goddess archetype, but then also take some lessons from the others so that you can design your own personal story, your own personal approach to how you want to manage your finances.
And for me, while I was this Athena, strategic logical spreadsheet and numbers, I was all about that and I realized that I was missing that abundance mindset.
Money Goddess Lakshmi
I was missing this… [Lakshmi], yes, Lakshmi in goddess archetype names. But all that flow of money was making me feel nervous, especially when I was parting with money. That was like a piece of me getting ripped and pulled apart. I just couldn’t get over it. And I realized, okay, you need to stop thinking about money as something that you need to just pile up and store and lock and use for yourself.
Because it’s all about flow. It’s about learning to invite abundance. It’s learning about allowing this flow to come into your life with ease and go with ease because you know more is coming and more is going around. And so my lesson was to learn to live more with Lakshmi’s energy. And yeah, I think I’m getting a little bit, step by step.
As I said, it’s baby steps, but it’s a beautiful journey, and you can learn so much from each of the goddesses.
[00:26:37] Lauren Kinghorn: I probably have the flip side of the coin there. I’m very Lakshmi, I was like, Lakshmi, I love you. You’re so me. I so resonated with her. And the strategy one, I was like, oh my goodness, yeah, she was powerful. She’s powerful, very strategic, like a warrior. And I was like, I don’t know if I have a lot of that energy. So you are gonna really help me balance that out as well. And then the other goddesses came and I was like, oh, I like that idea as well. They’re absolutely gorgeous.
[00:27:07] Viktoria Chervenkova: And most of the programs and the books that I’ve read so far, they usually focus on one type, especially books and courses developed by men, they’re so Athena. If you are Athena, yes, go there. Perfect. It will work for you.
Then there are those programs that work only on the manifestation side, like learning to love this energy. Go with the flow, that’s all Lakshmi. Okay, perfect, if that works for you. If you’re Lakshmi, go with it.
Money Goddess Isis
But there’s not a program to teach you all of these things into one and get a balance because we need a balance in order to be more focused, more productive, and more clear, just clear on what each frequency brings, what each type of energy brings.
I love for example, Isis because, she has this unique capability of bringing small little pieces that are scattered all around your life. Just bringing them together and creating something magical out of it. [The Alchemist].
Yes, yes. Total alchemist. So, yeah, that was another reason why I want this program to have everything in it, and every participant can pick and choose, for example, the exercises or the homework that they wanna do, depending on, okay, what do I need to work on at this moment right now? Is it strategy, is it mindset or is it just figuring out what resources I have in my life and how I can make them all work together and make them rise?
So, yeah, that’s my goal.
[00:29:06] Lauren Kinghorn: I love it ’cause I totally resonate with what you say because it ties in with the five sage powers that you learn in Positive Intelligence. You have these five sage powers, you’ve got the five goddesses and they all are different. And also what you’re saying about being Athena, it’s called the Stickler Saboteur in Positive Intelligence.
So if you go one way, so a strength that we have, any strength that we have, when we overuse it and abuse it, it becomes a saboteur. That is how we self sabotage. So when we use it as a strength, when we’re using it in sage, it’s perfect when it’s in balance. But as soon as we overuse it, then it can start to actually work against us instead of for us.
So it makes so much sense. You’re gonna love working with your saboteurs when you then come and do the positive intelligence program and you’ll see how the saboteurs are at play in your life. And how you’ve actually already started turning them around by being so whole brained, it’s really about being whole brained, isn’t it?
Because you’re looking now to be more well-rounded. You’re looking at all five goddesses so that you can have a much more well-rounded approach to your financial situation and life. Yeah. I mean, how would you say that the goddesses also relate to other aspects of life, other than your finances?
[00:30:25] Viktoria Chervenkova: Yeah. Oh, well, that was something I realized not long ago.
Money Goddess Hecate
So as I said, being an Athena, I wanted to work on my Lakshmi mindset and bringing her ancient wisdom, more in line with my personality. So that I could connect heart, brain, even intuition if we apply Hecate wisdom.
But, working with these energies, working with these archetypes, helped me not only in finances, but in another very unexpected area (laughing), so let me start like 30 years ago or more.
When I was growing up, I became a teenager and I started having this self-image and comparing myself and my body with other girls, in the dressing room before PE, or on the beach. No, we look at others and we compare ourselves and that’s how we build our own self-image. Mm-hmm. And that was the period when I started thinking that there is a part of my body that I don’t like that much. You know? I like my hair, I like my legs, I like my breasts. A lot of things I did like, but this one thing just kept bothering me for 30 years. And that’s my belly. I’ve always had one, my mother had one, my grandmother had one.
And so I thought, okay, it’s genetics. I’ll never get over it no matter what I do. And I did try. I went to the gym, I exercised, I did everything I could, but it just would stay. And I never had a flat stomach and things got even worse after two pregnancies. Mm-hmm. So that’s when I gave up and I said, okay, I have it, I still don’t like it, but, I’ll guess I’ll just live with it.
And then, a couple of weeks ago, just before I go to the bathroom to take a shower, I take a look in the mirror, I see my body how it is, and I see my belly, my tummy, and I look at it and I hear this inner voice telling me, you are not supposed to look like a model for a cover of a fashion magazine.
See Yourself as a GODDESS
You are a goddess and goddesses look like that. And then I remember all these Renaissance pieces of art where you see these goddesses with their curvy forms, and they’re just being gorgeous in how they look. And they all have tummies!
And that’s why I realized, oh my God, this work with the archetypes, helps you not only in finances, it can help you in any other area of life, if you just let it sit with you, let it grow with you and let it speak to you in those moments where your consciousness is open and willing to receive those messages from the subconscious. And that was something I was really, really surprised to find out, and I felt so good, and it just feels so empowering.
[00:33:55] Lauren Kinghorn: You could finally accept your body. That is amazing because I think that is something every woman can relate to. Every woman looks in the mirror and they see the things they don’t like.
When a man looks in the mirror, I’ve seen this often, they will stand there just like a child, like my son, they’ll look in the mirror and they’ll see what they like. And they will focus on that. They’ll go, oh, I’m so fine, men have a totally different perspective of themselves in the mirror, but when a woman looks at themselves, they always zero in on the thing they don’t like about themselves.
Yeah. If we could just see ourselves, as you say, as goddesses and just know that goddesses come in all shapes and sizes.
Yeah. And they have all different, they have magic, they all have this magic about them. Yeah. It could be transformational in the deepest possible way, and those things affect your money journey as well. Everything affects everything else, doesn’t it? I mean, your confidence and self-esteem affects everything.
The Lost Goddess
[00:35:01] Viktoria Chervenkova: Sure, sure. And it’s interesting that the last week I attended a seminar where the speaker was talking about the lost goddess. And I kept thinking, that, with the way the world has evolved in society and global civilization, we have lost touch with that feminine power and that feminine energy and those goddess archetypes to a point where it’s so hard to dig deep inside of us and find them there.
Because they’re still there, but they’re so buried under layers and layers of myths, society myths. Someone may wanna prefer using the word, the matrix that we are all in, and all those lessons that we’ve been taught, the programming that we have been taught. But there’s always a way and I really hope more and more of us get on this path to self-discovery, digging up those goddesses inside of us and help them help us.
[00:36:19] Lauren Kinghorn: Mm, I totally agree with you. Oh, and your book is the best place to start. I can’t recommend it enough. It is absolutely gorgeous. Now completely different, what is the one lesson that you get in mainstream financial books out there, teachings that readers are not gonna find in your book?
What Mainstream Money Advice is NOT In Your Book?
[00:36:38] Viktoria Chervenkova: I would say there are two main lessons that are in other books, but you won’t find in this one, and one of them we already talked about, having all of those books or programs being designed and delivered to match one specific archetype. And they usually give you this one size fits all way of thinking and strategy, that just doesn’t work because we are not one archetype.
We have so many different aspects in our personality, and we need to work with all of them. To get this balance that we were talking about. So that’s one.
And the other one is, and this one comes especially from men writing financial books for women, where they will teach you how to cut expenses and live under your means.
Live under a very strict budget so you can accomplish goals in the future, which is fine for a specific type of women who can do that. But what I don’t like about this strategy is that focusing on cutting expenses and giving up your favorite things brings this contraction energy, this reduction, that feeling of scarcity, that’s not very helpful.
Yeah. Instead, you can learn to manage your money in a way that feels more abundant and more expansive. And yes, you can control your expenses, but with that energy of, okay, I am buying this because it brings me value and this is how it enriches my life and makes me feel more abundant, expansive, and makes me go with the flow.
And they speak about the same thing, but from a totally different perspective. [Got it.] One is contraction. And the other one is expansion.
And for me, it’s much better for us to go with expansion because it brings also so many other opportunities and so many other doors open within our consciousness and working with law of attraction if you want.
Many of those things just open up when you look at managing money from this perspective. Instead of, okay, let’s cut this expense. Let’s, forget about this trip. That way of reducing expenses.
[00:39:21] Lauren Kinghorn: That makes so much sense to me because as soon as you start pinching off and feeling like you’re having to… it’s almost like the idea of going on a diet and restricting what you eat.
You’re gonna stop eating all your good things and then what happens is you do that for a while and then you land up yoyo dieting because you’re like, aah, no, I wanna eat it all because you’ve missed it so much. And you’re desperate for those bad things that you’re not supposed to have.
Right? There is a way to eat where you can enjoy your food and have the most amazing tastes and wonderful sensations while still not putting on weight. And in the same way, I think that would work with money? Yeah. That you could still have a good life and go out there and do the most amazing, wonderful, expansive, incredible things, but not be a shopaholic and putting yourself into huge debt.
For some people it’s like they have to have their coffee. A lot of women will say, I have to go out and have my coffee, without my morning coffee, I don’t feel good. Mm-hmm. And if you take the morning coffee away from a mom entrepreneur,
[00:40:31] Audio Only – All Participants: she doesn’t do well. [You’re killing her!]
[00:40:36] Viktoria Chervenkova: Yeah. And the other thing that’s so bothering about managing expenses like that is, like with dieting, when you are on this diet and you know you’re not supposed to eat this, but your mind is all about, oh my God, I want that so much, but I have to stick with it. And your whole energy and your whole focus goes there instead of focusing on what you need to do.
Exactly. So this separation of wanting something and you knowing that you have to stick to another regime, that depletes your energy and makes you feel so miserable.
[00:41:17] Lauren Kinghorn: It makes you feel miserable. And isn’t the whole idea, it’s joy, right? Why do you want the things you want, things to create more joy, to create more expansion, as you said, to make you feel like you’ve lived a good life.
And that doesn’t mean that you have to go out and shop every day but you can still buy yourself treats that make you feel good? Yeah. Somewhere in the book you mentioned, I think it is about Lakshmi, where you said, she will spend, and she’ll have beautiful things, but they don’t have to cost a fortune.
But you wanna have beautiful things around you ’cause that’s what makes a woman feel good about themselves. Yeah.
[00:41:54] Viktoria Chervenkova: Beauty is a frequency that helps with wealth and abundance, so yeah, have it in your life, but have it in a very conscious way. So when we are spending, spend in a conscious way and really making sure that what you’re spending on is aligned with your values, it’s aligned with the goals that you have set for yourself and why you want to achieve those goals.
So it’s just really about bringing more consciousness into our spending habits. It’s not about contraction. It’s not about cutting everything that brings you joy, but just being more mindful of those expenses.
And the more mindful you become, the more value these things that you bring into your life.
We’ll have for you and you will enjoy them more in the long term because how many of us are spending money on dresses or makeup or something else that yeah, we love it. We put it once or a couple of times and then it’s in the wardrobe and it’s done. And no more joy.
[00:43:05] Lauren Kinghorn: Yeah. A bit like in the old days when everybody had to have a Royal Dalton tea set and that little tea set would sit there looking pretty, but nobody would ever drink out of the tea set.
It’s pointless.
[00:43:18] Viktoria Chervenkova: Yeah.
Yeah. If you’re not using it, if it’s not bringing you the value that you paid for, then it was a bad decision. But everything can be fixed. So it’s a little bit of work and yeah, being more, more mindful.
[00:43:37] Lauren Kinghorn: I’m all for luxury ’cause luxury can really make you feel wealthy and that can really actually generate more income for you and looking wealthy and I know that if I dress up, it’s about stepping into that you, that you’re becoming.
Right. And there are ways to do that on the cheap.
[00:43:57] Viktoria Chervenkova: Yeah. But you can still have the same effect on your mindset and the way you feel about it. I’ll go back to the Law of Attraction because you are the expert.
When you feel, how you feel if feel wealthy and abundant and then your actions are aligned with that, then the law of attraction works and you actually bring in more of what you feel. So it doesn’t have to be crazily expensive, as long as it makes you feel wealthy and abundant.
[00:44:30] Lauren Kinghorn: Exactly. I love it. Yes. And that’s really good advice for all of us, just feeling that. You wanna feel how you’re gonna feel when you have everything that you desire?
Essentially, it’s all about the feeling, and that is what law of attraction is about. Yeah. And then your actions will align with that feeling. Mm-hmm. So let’s get into a few questions that are more about you as the mom entrepreneur. Is this your first entrepreneurial pursuit? Have you done anything else as an entrepreneur other than writing a book and doing a program?
Viktoria’s Entrepreneurial Journey
[00:45:05] Viktoria Chervenkova: Well, I started as a freelancer, which [Oh yeah] is all about entrepreneurship. I’ve been freelancing for 15 years, I believe now.
[00:45:15] Lauren Kinghorn: And doing what as a freelancer? Freelancing what skill?
[00:45:18] Viktoria Chervenkova: Marketing, marketing expertise. I would help companies and individuals around the world craft their marketing strategy and execute on it.
So in my journey, I’ve led teams for others. I’ve been on the strategy side, also on the execution side. Hello, Athena again? Yeah. [ Your natural strength. ] Yeah. That’s what I did for a very long time up to a point where I felt depleted. Like what you said when you overuse this, it just creates a block and you need to overcome that. And this was the moment where I decided to pivot into something that brings me much more joy and works with my passions for mythology and personal finance. Yeah.
[00:46:11] Lauren Kinghorn: It’s all coming together beautifully. It’s amazing. I love it.
Daily Rituals for Work Life Balance
So, let’s talk about your daily rituals, because you are a mom as well as being an entrepreneur, so do you have any daily rituals that you have in place to make sure that you also get self-care, that you’ve got a good work life balance and you get time for your children, time for your work?
How do you block out your day? What does a day look like for you? A day in the life of Viktoria…
[00:46:37] Viktoria Chervenkova: It looks very different actually, every single day.
[00:46:41] Lauren Kinghorn: Every day. Yes, me too.
[00:46:43] Viktoria Chervenkova: Yes. The trick that I found that works best for me is having everything laid out in my calendar, the blocks of time that I will work, I will do deep work, blocks of time that I will interact with others, build relationships.
And then there are the blocks of time that I need to attend to my duties as a wife, as a mother, as a caregiver and homemaker. Mm-hmm. Like cooking and doing the dishes and whatever it’s doing, the laundry, all that stuff. I need to make sure that it’s done but what I am working on is trying to ask for help where help can be given. And that’s something my husband actually has been trying to teach me for years because I want to be in control of everything and I want to do stuff on my own just to prove that I can handle everything. Now, mamas don’t do that. It is exhausting.
And he has been trying to teach me how to bring the girls to help me, one of them can do the dishes, the other one can take out the trash, they can do the laundry. They’re old enough to take up some of those tasks. And that’s something that I’m actually learning to accept and allow into my life.
I’m already seeing really big rewards here. The other thing that I’m working on is, I have this new ritual that I wanna share with you because it’s been working so great for me. I have a set of tarot cards and a book on how to read those and what each one means. So I would start my day with a coffee and some time for myself to tune in to the day, and then I would draw a card.
Just one for each day. I would draw a card and see what my subconscious is trying to tell me and once I understand the message, I go online and I search for a specific meditation, like 10 minutes, 15 minute meditation that would help that message that I got from the card, like really ingrained in my mind and set my day so I know what activities to engage with, and what kind of interactions I want to have in that day.
And that’s why I say every day is so different. One day it might be all about focusing entirely on my work, on my program. The other day may be all about going out and connecting with people and exchanging ideas and bouncing ideas off of each other, just communicating and establishing relationships.
So it’s a beautiful ritual that has been working quite well for me, and I just wanted to share it in case anybody else wants to try it.
[00:49:49] Lauren Kinghorn: I love that. And of course my entrepreneurial brain goes, imagine how amazing it’s gonna be when you have your own deck of cards related to your goddesses and you put up meditations related to those so that after they’ve read it, they can click there and go off and do the meditation related to that card.
That is gonna be awesome. Like an extension of your program.
[00:50:16] Viktoria Chervenkova: Yeah. You won’t believe this, but I was thinking about the exact same thing this morning. I mean, talk about synchronicity here.
[00:50:26] Lauren Kinghorn: Because you know that story about you give the present that you wish you had, something like that, you give what you want, so you’re gonna put out in the world something you wished you had, that’s a gap in the market.
That’s what people want. You want it, so others want it.
[00:50:41] Viktoria Chervenkova: Yeah. Yeah. I was thinking about the exact, except for developing my own set of cards, I didn’t think of that. But yeah, just having, I don’t know if it’s an app, we’ll see what comes but, yeah, having that combination of starting your day with the right message from the universe, your subconscious, whatever powers you believe in, and then having a meditation that’s helping you move into that frequency and have the day just unfold the way it is supposed to unfold for you, instead of you pushing through trying hard and just go with what the universe is bringing your way.
For that specific day.
[00:51:23] Lauren Kinghorn: Yeah. I love it. I love it. You’re gonna love the Positive Intelligence program ’cause it’s gonna bring it all together so nicely for you. You’re gonna get so many tips and it’ll all come together, but you have to have your own deck of cards.
[00:51:34] Viktoria Chervenkova: Okay. The goddesses.
[00:51:35] Lauren Kinghorn: It’ll go so perfectly with your goddesses and I’m sure you can add to the goddesses, I’m sure there’s other goddesses, that over time you’ll develop more. It sounds amazing. I think that’s gonna be really awesome.
[00:51:46] Viktoria Chervenkova: Yeah. I love it. I love it.
[00:51:47] Lauren Kinghorn: Because what happens is, as more and more people read your book and go through your program, they’re gonna want more of your product. ’cause that’s what happens, right?
They get into it and it’s like, oh, wow, this stuff is amazing. I wanna use this now. Like the angel cards. Yeah. They’re beautiful. Yeah. I can see it all. I can see it all coming.
[00:52:06] Viktoria Chervenkova: Oh, beautiful.
[00:52:07] Lauren Kinghorn: And the way you do things so perfectly, they’re going to be gorgeous. It’s gonna be gorgeous. Love it.
If you were to die tomorrow, would you feel you’ve lived a full, happy, meaningful life?
So, if you were to die tomorrow, would you be at peace knowing you’ve lived a full, happy, meaningful life? Or would you feel like you were dying with your song unsung? Where are you on that spectrum right now?
[00:52:33] Viktoria Chervenkova: When it comes to personal life, like family, like relationships, like having meaning in my life, I can die right here on the spot feeling absolutely content with what I’ve got ’cause I’ve got a treasure and I love it and I appreciate it and I value it so much.
So on that side, there’s nothing more I could want. Everything’s complete. God bless the kids. I wanna watch them grow up, have their families have their own path in life.
When it comes to what more I can bring into this world, I think I’m just getting on that path right now with this pivoting and this whole new world of goddess energy intertwined with financial literacy. I just feel there’s so much more than I can give, but even if it’s just the book that I leave today, that’s good enough as well. My husband always says that the purpose of one’s life is to leave something meaningful behind.
And when the book came out and when it came in the paper format at home, he was like, this is your legacy. This is what you leave to the world. And yeah, I started crying. It was so sweet and so powerful. So even if it’s just the book, I’ll be happy, but there’s so much we can do.
[00:54:07] Lauren Kinghorn: There’s so much more to come. I can feel it as well. Yeah. You’ve got so much more to give to the world. It’s gonna be amazing. And the program is gonna really land things for people, I just know that. And so if you had a message that you would wanna share with the world, what would that be?
Viktoria Chervenkova’s Message to the World
[00:54:27] Viktoria Chervenkova: Well, now women are my focus. So my message to women is that you can manage your money with ease and with grace ’cause that’s how we’re supposed to do it as a goddess. And if I can do it, living in Eastern Europe, being raised in a mindset that’s avoiding at all costs, conversations about money.
If I can do this, anyone can do it. And so I just want every woman just to know they’re in the right place and they can claim back their power and start managing their money like a goddess.
[00:55:15] Lauren Kinghorn: Oh, I absolutely love that. And you mentioned that there was another book that you read, the book on money psychology.
Is that the book that you feel has had the hugest significance or meaning in your life? Or is there another book, song or movie or something you’d like to mention that has really made an impact for you?
[00:55:36] Viktoria Chervenkova: So, I would put Psychology of Money on the top of my list. Top of my list. Okay. For sure. I’ve read so many financial books, all of them were really interesting and each one of them gave me something that I implemented in my life.
Another person who hugely influenced me in my thinking and my way of being more in the world instead of doing more and more and more, is Eckhart Tolle and his works and his books. I would recommend those to anyone who is interested in shifting from a state of action and doing, all that male energy, again, male archetypes, into a state of presence and being and just feeling, which is all about female energy and archetypes, except for Athena but yeah, we already talked about that.
[00:56:43] Lauren Kinghorn: Interesting ’cause positive intelligence is all about mindfulness as well and learning how to drop into that presence in an instant and both of them came through a man. Positive intelligence is through Shirzad Chamine, he’s male, and Eckhart Tolle is also male and they both created something that is very feminine in its aspect, just being in this mindfulness.
[00:57:08] Viktoria Chervenkova: So you’re right. We all have both and it’s interesting that, also when I was listening to Osho’s teachings, again, a male. There was something that he was saying that goes in the lines of his trust to bring change and more consciousness in this world lies with women and awakening feminine powers and energy. And that stood with me for a very, very long time. Again, coming from a male, but tapping into this stillness, this mindfulness, this being state and all of that being female energy that we need to bring more of into this world.
[00:57:54] Lauren Kinghorn: Because the world is very masculine at the moment, and it is shifting though. There is a massive shift happening. There’s a spiritual shift and a shift inwardly. Where it’s been very outward-focused and all about, like you said, the action.
In Positive Intelligence we also learn to take action, but it’s inspired action, you first go within and then you take the action and then it’s a very different kind of action that you’re taking ’cause you’re taking action from sage rather than from saboteur. ’cause a lot of saboteur action is driven by fear.
So it’s literally the difference between fear versus love. So when you’re acting out of fear, out of stress, out of anxiety, out of pressure, out of, have to get things done, that is a very different energy, that push energy, to a much easier pull energy, allowing, flowing, going, you’re still in action, but you’re in action with a very different energy, with a completely different energy.
And yeah, it’s beautiful. It’s beautiful. So, oh, you’re gonna love it. You’re gonna so love it.
[00:58:56] Viktoria Chervenkova: I can’t wait.
Viktoria Chervenkova Mentors
[00:58:58] Lauren Kinghorn: Would you say Eckhart Tolle you would see as a mentor or have there been other mentors in your life? Sounds like your husband has been a mentor to you?
[00:59:06] Viktoria Chervenkova: Absolutely. He has been teaching me life wisdom, for so long and it just comes naturally to him, I need to read this in a book. I need to see it on someone being interview or someone teaching something. Yeah. And he’s like, babe, I got that.
I know that. And when I shared with him about my goddess self being absolutely fine with my tummy finally. And he is like, I’m very happy for you. It took you 25 years to realize what I knew like 25 years ago.
[00:59:46] Lauren Kinghorn: Oh, that’s so beautiful. He loves you just the way you are. I’ve got the same kind of husband. He loves me just the way I am, he doesn’t ask me to be any different. It’s so amazing. And never says anything about weight and he makes the most amazing food.
I should be way bigger than I am considering what a good cook he is. When he cooks, I just wanna eat more and more of it. But anyway, I love that you dedicated your book to your husband because you’ve spoken about him quite a few times and you’ve always spoken about him so highly, and I can see that he has been a leading force in your life.
How long have you been married as a matter of interest?
[01:00:23] Viktoria Chervenkova: Well, we’ve been together for 25 years, married for 17.
[01:00:30] Lauren Kinghorn: Amazing. Amazing. So he’s your life partner.
[01:00:33] Viktoria Chervenkova: He is, absolutely.
[01:00:34] Lauren Kinghorn: He’s gone through everything with you that, that’s amazing.
[01:00:37] Viktoria Chervenkova: All the ups and downs, everything we’ve shared together.
What do you love most about being a Mom Entrepreneur?
[01:00:41] Lauren Kinghorn: Oh, I love that. And what do you love most about being a mom entrepreneur? It’s a little different being an entrepreneur to being a mom entrepreneur. You have to wear a number of hats all day long. Like you said, you’ve got the house and you’ve got the children, and you’ve got work.
What do you love most about it?
[01:00:58] Viktoria Chervenkova: The flexibility. That’s absolutely what every, I think, well, I can’t speak for, for everyone, but I believe most entrepreneurs, really appreciate the flexibility that they have and the ability to be with their family, their child, whenever they need to.
Even if it’s something on the spot you have, you can react, respond right away. But, it’s what I love and hate the most about this because when everybody else knows that I can respond instantly, they of course ask you to take charge and the worst moment when you are focused on something so important that you wanna do, and somebody comes in and I need this and I want that, pay attention to me right now.
So yeah, it’s both the most rewarding and the scariest part of being a entrepreneur because you can pay attention but at the same time, this division of attention, is quite costly in terms of time, productivity, and focus. So it’s all a matter of putting in the right boundaries and sticking to them.
And that something I have trouble with, and I’m working on. [I relate.] Yeah. That’s difficult, but it’s a learnable skill, so I’m optimistic I’ll get it.
[01:02:26] Lauren Kinghorn: Yes. And that again, the program’s gonna help you with that, you learn productivity in a completely different way and you will learn to get those boundaries in place and work with those saboteurs that are getting in the way.
My tendency is to be a people pleaser and initially I swung the other way because you go from like, oh, I’m just gonna do everything for everybody all the time to realizing, oh, well that’s not really serving me and I’m not being that productive in my own work, and that’s why I’m not getting things done.
And then so it was like, no, I’m not doing anything. I abdicate. Just leave me alone. This is my time. And I had to learn how to be softer and still be my loving, kind, generous self, but have boundaries in place. Yeah. And I’ve been doing the work for over a year and it’s still a work in progress.
Everyone’s used to you saying yes to everything, and you’ve now gotta start saying no sometimes, it’s quite a shift, and for everybody, the whole family struggles with it.
So what has been the greatest challenge for you to overcome in your career as a mom entrepreneur?
[01:03:33] Viktoria Chervenkova: Setting those boundaries was a big one. And then the other challenge was how to balance my motivation to work, my desire to put myself out in the world and help those businesses market themselves better, and how to balance that with stepping away from that role and stepping into my personal roles as a mother, as a wife and dancer and sister and whatever else that you put yourself in.
So yeah, because my drive to be that professional who brings results, who brings in quality leads and does this amazing work was so strong. And that’s something that I also had confirmed when I had my human design done for me. They confirmed that it’s just. Within me that I have this inner, push to be out there and to deliver and to create something and manifest things in the world.
And how do you balance that with a personal life and taking things slowly? That was huge. That was huge. And now I’m seeing patterns of this appear now in my new work, with the book and the program and all of these ideas keep coming up and I put them down ’cause I will work on them someday.
And again, my husband tells me you need to find a balance. Remember to find the balance. Remember, don’t push yourself too much.
So, yeah, his support again is really vital to me being able to be as productive as I can and relaxed as I can.
[01:05:26] Lauren Kinghorn: Yeah, you’re right. I have that with my husband as well. He is just a gem. What would be your parting words of wisdom that you’d like to impart as we close out the interview? And could you also give where people can connect with you?
Where would someone connect with you and what is the last thing you wanna say? So you can have the last word?
[01:05:48] Viktoria Chervenkova: Well, for my last word, I would really like to cite someone that I really like, and the quote that I would use is really something that I believe in and I do it every day.
And that thing is, remember that you can figure out everything and you can do everything that you set your mind to, because everything is figureoutable. It’s not magic. It’s not a black box, including personal finances, but anything in your life, it’s not a black box that, you don’t know how it works.
There is a way, there is a system, there is steps that you can take and just let yourself go onto the path that your heart goes, and believe and trust that this path is figureoutable, step by step. Right? Yeah. And yeah, people can connect with me on Facebook. We have our Money Master Moms Facebook group of women from all over the world where we discuss personal finances for moms.
Any woman is welcome of course, even if they’re not a mom. And the website that , I use to publish my blog posts and articles is evemma.eu, which is e v e m m a dot e u. And that’s named after my two girls. That’s why it’s not Money master mom.com.
And the book is available on Amazon. We’ll put a link to it in the description. But yeah, if you just search in Amazon for Unleash your Inner Money Goddess, you should come up, with the search results.
[01:07:39] Lauren Kinghorn: Gorgeous. Yeah, I love that idea. It’s kind of the idea of a leap and the wings will appear, you’re gonna figure it out. It’s all going to happen. I love your message.
[01:07:50] Viktoria Chervenkova: My meditation today has exactly that notion, taking a step and the wings will manifest and they will take you to wherever you need to go.
So I love it. We’re so synced. It’s gorgeous. Amazing.
[01:08:07] Lauren Kinghorn: Thank you so much for your time, Viki, it was just amazing chatting with you. I love every moment we’ve spent together, our previous conversation, this conversation, reading your book, you’re amazing.
[01:08:19] Viktoria Chervenkova: Thank you so much for having me here, Lauren. I appreciate so much your support and your kind words and your loving presence and kindness. You’re amazing and I can’t wait to work further with you and collaborate, and I know we have so many things we can do together, so I’m just impatient to see how will that go?
[01:08:42] Lauren Kinghorn: Lovely. Thank you so much.
How to Connect with Money Goddess, Viktoria Chervenkova
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