Uncensored Money Season Eight: Why I’m shutting down a 7 figure (annually) program in my business

Melissa Browne: Ex-Accountant, Ex-Financial Advisor, Ex-Working Till I Drop, Now Serial Entrepreneur & Author, Financial Wellness Advocate, Living a Life by Design | 21/05/2026

Show Notes

After more than a decade, 6,000+ women and many of their partners, and more financial transformations than we can count, Mel is closing the My Financial Adulting Plan. For good.

Yes, she’s closing rather than selling her continuing her 7 figure business.

You might think she’s crazy (she does a little too, that’s OK.)

But in this episode, Lawsie turns the microphone around and asks Mel the questions everyone has been too polite to ask. Why? What did it cost her personally to keep going? Was there a moment she almost changed her mind? And what does she hope the 6,000+ women who've been through MFAP actually walk away with?

This is an honest, unscripted conversation between two people who built something together and are figuring out in real time what it means to close it. No sales script. No polished answers. Just Mel and Lawsie the way you love them.

If MFAP has ever been on your radar, there are two rounds left. This conversation is the best reason to stop waiting. You can check out MFAP here: https://www.melissabrowne.com.au/financialadulting

For more tips and resources, visit us at melissabrowne.com.au, on Facebook, Instagram or TikTok @MelBrowne.Money or send us an email at hello@melissabrowne.com.au.

Links mentioned in the episode are below

My Financial Adulting Plan at https://www.melissabrowne.com.au/financialadulting

Finally, if you love this episode please make sure you subscribe, share it with a friend and leave us a review.

Transcription

Lawsie: So let's talk about MFAP Boss. Yay! Sense of deja vu.

Mel: Again, we have been talking about it a lot for the last six years, but we've also talked about it recently about my decision to shut it down. ⁓ And I know people have questions or they were confused or they were like, and I I've received DMs going, this isn't real, is it? I think people think it's a marketing stunt. So we thought we wanted to actually release another episode explaining it. if you're like both for a business owner to understand the rationale between behind doing something like that, but also for the curious and for someone's got that thinking, okay, so do I do MFAP now that you're this is the very last one? ⁓ We will answer all of that today. Exactly, it's beautiful.

Lawsie: Isn't that the perfect hook? Stay tuned into this podcast episode. I need to stop shaking my head. Alright.

Mel: I don't think we have to give an ASIC warning because we're not talking about shares, but we're giving one just in case that this is your ASIC warning, that we are general advice only. If you want financial advice for your particular circumstance, make sure you speak to a financial advisor.

Lawsie: And I'll add that because you're talking about this in a business side, talk to an accountant as well. Yeah. And you know how things going in business. All right. So take me back to the very beginning. What was the problem you were actually trying to solve when you built MFAP

Mel: Yeah, if you want to talk about tax. So we were financial advisors and accountants and we became financial advisors initially because we wanted to keep talking about superannuation, particularly self-managed super. And you and I very much struggled with referring people on. I feel like there's more great people doing financial advice now. Back in the day, we really struggled with referring people on to people that we really trusted.

And particularly for people that had sort of Gen X, Gen Y. And our own experience in the industry was people saying, yeah, they're not worth it. And you'll just, you will get them by have because we've got their parents anyway. It was just that really lazy marketing. So that's why we became financial advisors. But in the process of becoming financial advisors, best interest duty was in, and what we quickly realized was you kind of had to charge a decent sum of money just to make money from being a financial advice if you didn't want to charge commission, which we didn't want to do from the get-go. We were very clear, no, that's not something we wanted to do. So we had to charge a few thousand dollars even back in the day. And I sold my accounting business but didn't sell my financial planning business, just shut that down and didn't really know what next I'd played with courses before really I would kind of create something and not market it because accountants are terrible marketers traditionally. So I had done the online courses before but that's it and then COVID hit and what I really realized is that I just needed to get over myself and start delivering just giving away information and I remember showing up every day sometimes no makeup sometimes who knows what, just distilling this is what's going on in the world at the moment. And through, yeah, on Insta. And through that, I realized that I loved teaching, like love, love, loved it. And the introvert in me loves it because I can, you know, I don't love one-on-one. don't love, you know, when I was an accountant and financial advisor, if I saw, and I know my team, including you, were perpetually frustrated with me.

Because if I saw a day of appointments, I would run a run and hide and I'd probably make them cancel half of them. And you and I were just having a chat where I said, like, this has been a big week for me with people and I'm, I feel really spent. So what it made me realise when COVID hit was here is a beautiful opportunity to teach people something they need to learn, but to do it in a way that actually works for me and at a price that people could afford. And that's why we started MFAP. Like the MFAP that we did back then is not the MFAP that exists today. You know, we learned, we took it apart, we added, we made it more and more robust. We just kept adding to it, think, didn't we? Until it is the gorgeous product that you and I are so incredibly proud of today. But yes, that is how the My Financial Adulting Plan came to life.

Lawsie: Hmm. And when did you know that it was working? Like was there a moment, a specific woman, a specific thing that someone said and you were like, yes, MFAP is the right thing.

Mel: Yeah, I think it was two things. One, because I'm purpose and profit. it was and Clare, who works for us now, I remember we gave her a scholarship into the program and I remember her just being so lit up by what was possible and the education she was receiving and the change she was making. So I knew I was worried that having that not hands off approach, but here's the cause, do it. Wouldn't work, wouldn't really be a great thing, like people wouldn't do it. And we've now made it so it's not hands off, which is almost problematic. Like there's weekly Q &A's, there's accountability groups, there's workroom, there's text. Like we've really, you and I are so active in the Facebook group. We nag them and we show up for them. So we've made it so it's not just a course that you take and you just do it your own leisure and you forget about.

Lawsie: We nag them, nag them to make sure they do the course.

Mel: So when I started to receive the feedback and probably the very first online survey that we did in probably 2021, I ⁓ was like, ⁓ okay, look at the change. And that first filming that we did in 2021, we hadn't really been in front of anyone because of COVID. It was the first time really that we were in the room with our alumni. And that film still lives on our homepage. And I am so incredibly proud still of that it still gives me I can still put myself into that room and listen to the stories the very different stories of all the women that turned up that day and told their story like it was just goosebumps and I remember Chris Kirsten who was there that had organized it sort of turned to me and went look at what you have done like I really really felt that but it was also

So it was that, but it was also, think that was the very first six figure launch where I was like, I can make money from this. Like this isn't like the online courses that I did before where I did it didn't really sell it. This one, we followed Tina Towers system. I brought you on because you were the detail person a couple of days a week at the contract. And it was, let's run this. Like, let's really give it a shot and see if we could put a system behind marketing and selling it so that it actually does the thing it's supposed to and gets in the hands of people. And I think when I was able to say to you, hey, I can bring you on more now because I can see like I've hit targets that I didn't think I would hit quite so quickly or even at all. those, yeah, the transformation and the dollars because we're not in business, this isn't a charity, to make money. But my thing is profit and purpose. ⁓ I wanna make money, but I also want to make a difference. And I genuinely feel like MFAP has done that.

Lawsie: And I think to add to that too, its purpose in terms of the people that are coming through the course and the lives we've been able to change throughout MFAP by people actually taking control of their finances and then being able to put, you know, that into play in their world. But it's also because the business is profitable, it enables you to give back, which I know is something we don't talk about a lot because it's something you just go, this is just what I do, this is who I am. ⁓ But it's also having that purpose as well. How comfortable are feeling that I just threw you under the bus for that?

Mel: Yes. Yeah.⁓ I hate talking about giving back. Yeah, I mean, I talk about it, but then I'll throw I'll say it is that's why I work. Totally. Yeah. And so I give a lot of dollars back. So I donate a lot of money. But also, it's meant that last week, we went and spent half a day too good. And I ran a workshop for them for the cohort like that. I'm as proud of that as I am of anything else we do in the business. So, yeah.
Lawsie: But it is part of the purpose, yeah. Yeah. So given that, you know, in fact ticks the purpose and the profit of boxes, ⁓ why are you closing it? And we want the real answer, not just the, here is my polished speech.

Mel: I'm not Albo, I'm not a politician, which is why I could never be one. I've got the blurt factor, the bluh factor. Look, it's a complex answer because there's just no one reason. I 100 % still genuinely believe that MFAP is the best vehicle of whatever we could build to, for people to educate themselves while they have access to two genuine experts. And the ax-
access you and I give them through weekly Q &A's, through the accountability groups, through the amount of time we spend in that closed Facebook group, to the workroom and more is a lot. And because of that, it genuinely makes a difference. But the problem with that is that takes a lot of time. And so we have to charge a particular fee for that. And what I've been wrestling with over the last 12 months is with the rising cost of living and rising interest rates, inflation and more is one I would like to claw some time back and we spend a lot of time launching and it's almost as though launching takes as much time as the program itself. ⁓ It's not a passive thing.

Lawsie: Yeah, not this passive thing that used to be sort of that rumor that was sort of around from us like, I have an online course and it's so, you know, just takes all in the background. I'm like, no, no.

Mel: No. The amount of work we do on the launch itself is massive. We do so much work on that. And it's four times a year, which is a lot because we want to give the feedback that we had from people is we want more opportunities to join like twice or three times a year. That's that might not be right for me. So it's part I like I genuinely still believe it is the best thing. But we are entering a time where not as many people can afford that. And where I also at the same time want to do less. And I don't mean less as in only run two launches, because I genuinely thought about that, because I believe in this product so much that I went, what if I just ran two launches? I could probably handle that all by myself. And that would mean I could work a whole lot less. I'd have to shed team and not do as much. And I kind of looked at it went, ⁓ But that's not right either for what I want. ⁓ And ultimately, what I came to the conclusion is that whilst MFAP, I believe is genuinely the product that if I had absolute, like if it was just me, I probably would say, no, let's just keep going with that. But I just feel like it's.

We're coming to a moment with AI and hyper competition and also where I'm changing what I want to do is that I think a different solution is needed. And I think what people are willing to pay is also changing, which is where, like this is, don't get me wrong. This is still a seven figure revenue stream annually in my business. Like this is something that is doing incredibly well.
But I'm also looking at what's coming and going, you know what, if we don't change what we're doing, I believe that it will be problematic. And if I want to keep all of my team, if I want to continue to grow as a business and not just plateau, if I want to ultimately have long service leave and do less, then we need to change up what we're doing.
And that's where I think business owners, other business owners would really get that. Where just because something's working and just because you love it and just because you believe fundamentally in it, which I 100 % do, actually doesn't mean that it's right anymore. And that for me has been the hardest thing where I know you said, why don't we just like make a call, shut it down and go. And I said, I actually need two rounds to do it because I need time to let it go. I know, but I also need time for people to jump in because I know I feel like it would be unfair if I went, right, there's one round, get in or too bad, so sad. If I genuinely mean it when I say that this, even with what we are building next, if I genuinely believe MFAP is still the best way to learn and to create change with finances, then I really need to give people every opportunity to jump in. Because what we're building next, you will not get as much of this. You just won't. There will be no accountability groups. There will be no closed Facebook group where we're jumping in. There will be no ⁓ weekly Q &As with me. Like all of that is going. There will be a whole lot of different things. But the thing that I, that access to experts that access to I kind of like an MFAP is you get to learn but then you need you get to turn up and have coffee with your girlfriend who explains it to you and you can ask you questions like that aspect will have to go be gone away with with what we are building next. ⁓ So it is and the teacher in me is kind of sad about that because I love that like the Toni always says to me on a Tuesday night when I finished my call, he goes, how'd you go? And I go, ⁓ great. Like I love, I love having my brain picked. I love that Q and A. Like for me, that's just easy. It's like breathing. ⁓ And I just find that really enjoyable. It's like when I give a keynote and often the organizer will say, do you want the questions ahead of time? Like, no, like just throw them at me. I'll tell them, I'll give them the ASIC warnings. I'll let them know if they're trying to ask for personal advice, because I cannot answer that question. But if you want ⁓ education and questions answered on the fly, let me add it. ⁓ That's my happy place. yeah, long answer. But yeah.

Lawsie: Butit is, it's a two, it's a sort of multifaceted thing because you're going, is hugely successful. It's got the profits. It's the purpose. It's making it and delivering change to the people that go through it and beyond and into their communities. But then the business side of it is, you know that stuff has to change within the business. You don't want it to be, you know, we all remember the Kodak story, like, you know, this where people failed to evolve and things. And, you know, they were so successful. Like it's you know, as a business owner, it's that thing of going, I've got to be doing what's right for you personally, because we need a good leader of our little ship. ⁓ but also to be making the right choices. So the business continues to be what you want it to be but then also, you know, then balancing it with, how can we still make a difference? And when you're already looking at it going with all the other things that it's getting more expensive, you know, cost of living, all of those things, but still wanting to make an impact because now more than ever, people need help with their finances. It's then looking at it and go, how can we continue to have that impact? Yes, we have to change the way that we're doing it for a host of reasons, but yeah.

Mel: Yeah. And I run for any business owner that's listening, I run every single year a few different exercises like stop, start, continue, ⁓ and things like that religiously. But every other year I run an exercise and we did it for the accounting firm when we went cloud based and really like sprinted cloud based. I run an exercise called how to cool your company.

And the question is, if you were going to start something tomorrow and kill your company, what would you do? And I answered it in January this year. And launches are really wearing. I don't find the business wearing at all. I love the teaching side of it. I love the delivery side of what we do. But the full launches, like the launch process, it's hard, isn't it? Like it's it actually can be difficult. And for someone that isn't good with having that cortisol sparks, you know, it's not, it's not kind. So for me, what I looked at when I looked at what if I was to build a business tomorrow and look at putting me out of business, when I wrote down what I would do, I remember looking at it going, ⁓ I want to do that. And I talked to Tina Tower who it's good to have a sounding board for someone sometimes and I just, you know, we talked through some stuff and initially it wasn't quite as savage as what we ended up doing. It wasn't a close-in fact but it wasn't anything like that.

Lawsie: Kind of evolved to get to your final decision. Yeah.

Mel: Yeah, exactly. ⁓ But I think it started with me writing it down and going, ⁓ I want to do that business. And I don't even know, like, we don't know exactly what the next business is. We're kind of building the plane as we are landing the current one. As we're landing, we're building the next plane. But I'm excited by it.

Lawsie: The MFAP one? MFAP Express?

Mel: But for a whole different reason. Like it's, it's still, it's like that early stages of MFAP where you hope that it's going to be a good thing versus something that you know works, that you're excited by. And there's a heart of me that's like, are you an idiot? Will you just next year go, screw it, I'll just resurrect MFAP. And you know, we're business owners. We're able to do anything.
But I don't, I genuinely don't think so, because I think the world is changing. think with AI, think with hyper competition, if businesses don't evolve and take scary risks, and this is a big risk, then yeah, as you said, you end up the danger is that you are at Kodak where you missed a moment. And I genuinely believe that playing with building someone else is going to do it.
I genuinely do. And I said to myself, I would be so pissed if I saw someone do that and go, ⁓ that was my idea. Like I would be so angry. Not at them. I would be angry at myself. And that's where I'm like, no, we need to do it. Yeah.

Lawsie: Yeah, to sign that it's right. it's, yeah. Sitting right in your guttosaurus as Clare would say.

Mel: Yeah, yeah, it totally is. And I think you and I are both kind of feeling the same about launching and about the non-deliverable part of NFAP. We love the deliverable part still. Like you love your one-on-one coaching. You enjoy the other parts of it. Like I love the Q &A. We like interacting with the community, but it's the launching part that's hard. It's the business side.

Lawsie: 100%, yeah. It's the business side as opposed to the actual delivery of what we're doing that's, yeah, needs to change. Yeah, so I guess like we've got like we've discussed that then really that there was a version of you that wanted to keep it going. But yeah, it's just. Yeah, and just one of those things where it's yeah, as a business owner, it's I think where you've had to.

Mel: Yeah, exactly. Absolutely. Yeah. Really wrestled with it. Yeah.

Lawsie: Follow that through, work that through to then figure out what works for you, what works for the business and then, yeah, ultimately we can do.

Mel: Yeah. And as I said, I genuinely sat down

and went, and you said to me a couple of times, you know, why don't you just suck everyone? Like I genuinely sat down and went, okay.

Lawsie: I mean, I've told you for a long time that I will retire before you, so I was just trying to expedite the process.

Mel: Okay, genuinely sat down and went, okay, so if the issue is working less, ⁓ then what if you just run two launches, you don't need as much stuff for that. And also I want the business to make a certain profit. So therefore I would get rid of more stuff, but then that would mean I wouldn't be able to do some of the things I really want to do. Like I could, but I would have to potentially put in capital. Yeah.

Lawsie: Mm. Who you're stepping back in when you're...

Mel: I don't want to do that. yeah. ⁓ God, I hate details, as you know. So I think I think it was really good to look at, well, what would be the alternative of just doing this? Because I also could have sold it.

Lawsie: Can you imagine all the details, my goodness? Use flash.

Mel: If we've got MFAP in this gorgeous structure and community, we've also got a membership that sits behind MFAP, which is recurring revenue. I could have sold this business for seven figures easily, but I would then be annoyed because again, I would probably be restricted from talking about personal finances. I'm not done yet. I'm not done talking about it, helping, educating, building. ⁓ Totally. And I know too.

Lawsie: Bing on your soapbox. ⁓

Mel: I wanted to be a lesson in like I am 53 as I've publicly come out and got I look and feel that today. But I like I think it's also I also kind of want to be able to say I did this at this age. Like we don't have to be going deep, going gradually into the night. Like it's what if I built the next thing at this age? Like what?
And I actually saw someone in the last 12 months where she's I was telling her about everything I was doing and she goes, God, Mel, I thought when you sold your business, you were going to slow down. Like who's who decided that? Like, why do people think that? And I think, yeah, like there is I want to I'm really excited to do this next thing. Part of the reason why I want to slow down, funnily enough, is not to go camping like you do. Like I

Lawsie: Missing out, missing out, woman.

Mel: I know. I wanted to, Harvey and I want to take long service leave after the Olympics, but also I want to do my PhD. And I want to do that before 60. So I've already started researching who and what with, et cetera. So I need time for that as well, which means I have to be doing less. So it's an arch, I'm genuinely nerdily excited about that. Yeah.

Lawsie: Yeah, I did refrain from calling you a nerd, but I'm glad you said it. Nah, always boss. No, it's always boss. Not even boss, Brianne, just boss. Boss, boss.

Mel: I know. I can't wait for you to call me doctor one day. I'm going to make you. I've already told Tane. Everyone's calling me Dr Browne.

Lawsie: Yeah, but I think that's it is very much and I think for anyone listening it's like yes still loving the program and all the things that we're doing but it's also the Doing you know walking the walking the talk. Yes walking the talk around designing the life that you actually want and you run your own business You should be able to make that business Serve you and what you're wanting to do and if you're wanting to be able to change and move from doing things where it's like I've gone from having the accounting firm I've now been doing, know finance education. I want to go and do my piece HD. Good. Like that's my reaction for you as a friend, as a employee, as someone looking in, like I am all like, I'm such a huge support of people just actually knowing what they want to do and then taking the, yeah, taking the path to get there.

Mel: Yeah. Totally love building so the idea of building the next plane lights me up and I think Clare actually said to me last week my gosh it's nice to see you excited again and it's not that I'm not excited about MFAP like I genuinely am it's just I am a creator like I love creating things so now that I've made this decision that there is time for the next thing like I think if I was to keep this I would have to hire someone to run the launches so that we kept MFAP so that I could then create something else. If we did that, I'd be so happy. But I don't want that because you and I, as you and I know, I want more people. I don't want more people. So it's that tension, right? Of what's right for you as a person, what's right for the business, what's right for your community. But I also want to help more people.

Lawsie: Bye.

Mel: And I can do that at scale as long as they get less of me, which is newsflash with what we're building. You get a whole lot less of us because that's the trade off, which is where if you want more of us, you've got to jump into the last round of the My Financial Adulting Plan because you just simply will not get this much access in the new plane that we're building. And I think we're keeping doors where we're not.

Lawsie: Yeah.

Mel: We're launching it very differently this time. I don't think we're to do free webinars. We're certainly not doing a waitlist. You can just jump in now and get access to all of the ⁓ bonuses so you can start binging on stuff. And we're only allowing 200 spots because we're going to reach out to our ⁓ partners and offer 200 scholarship spots. And because 400s the most that I want in any round. That's how I want to go out in the last round. Yeah, which you will like, now what the hell are you doing?

Lawsie: With a bang. On a high. ⁓I did question it. You love me challenging your decisions. But.

Mel: Yeah, but it also means there's such limited spots, which we've already had people jump in from last round because May wasn't right. So they've pre booked their spot on the next one. So this one will 100 % sell out. I can say that unequivocally. But that's how I want to go out for the last one. I feel like that's profit and purpose personified is being able to do that for the last round.

Lawsie: Yeah. And going out on a high, it's like, you know, the Olympians, the elite athletes where it's like, I've reached the top. I've achieved the things that I want to do. And then I'm stopping doing this on my terms rather than, uh, it is, you know, numbers wise, proper wise, I should keep doing this and all of that. And that's when you run the risk of things becoming a bit stale, a bit more of a drag. Like you've already identified, or we have identified from the business side of things where it's more taxing. Whereas being able to do this is then a really nice.

It feels like putting the little star on top of the Christmas tree, it's a way to sort of, you know, wrap it all up to go, well, actually this is what we've done. We've helped over 6,000 people through the course, you know, it helped them to, you know, change their finances now, but also to give them more choice and options in the future, which is, yeah.

Mel: Yeah. Yeah. And this last round, I'm just going to get the best of us because we want to go out with a bang. I am like I when I did the Q &A last night, I just had to think where we were. I actually I said to Tone after, oh, my God, that's my second last one of those ever. Like I'm already feeling sad about it. So like I just know like I'm already thinking of Ooh, what could I be doing in my final Q &A is just to really like, what do I, what do I want to put in there? Like it's just, I'm getting, I know that's how it feels. I'm like, oh my God, I'm gonna like, it's like, it's a beautiful way as you said, to finish it. I look at athletes or different ones, as you said, that finish the way they want to finish. That's how this feels. Yeah. Yeah.

Lawsie: You've got eight closing ceremonies, my friend on their terms. Yeah, which is exciting and such a nice place to be. Like it's not even having to close it from a thing of it's not working. It's working. It's yeah, we get to do that. What would you say that you're most proud of? Like not the numbers, but the thing that makes you sort of think about and go, yeah, in fact, it was something that mattered. Like we've made a difference.

Mel: No! Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Mmm. ⁓I it's the stories that I don't even know. So when I wrote Dare to be Wealthy, we had, we put a call out for, if you'd like to be in the book, you know, we'd love you to send us your stories. And we get people DM and email us all the time proactively with their stories. But I just read ones up from women, because we have so many women in the program and I might. ⁓

I'll absolutely know so many of their faces and names because the Q &A is a meeting style, so I see people if your camera's on. But I don't know your individual stories, so to receive that was just so, ugh. So it's always that. At a conference last year, we had a real women, real voices panel, which we will not do again. So we're not doing that this conference. ⁓

And it was really special. I remember Sally Obermeter was in the room and she went up to Clare after who was on the panel and just went, wow, like I should have been here all day. But this is incredible. And to hear those stories, know, Lisa was on that panel and I'm only going to use first names for her. And I know she won't mind me telling this story because she's in the book. But, you know, Lisa at Best Year Yet came up to me and said, Mel, I don't think you realize this, but you saved my marriage. You know, I think they have so many kids. think they have four kids. And she said her husband just said, I feel so alone with this. And finance was something that was really hard for them. And she's just sent me a message where she's going to miss conference this year because she is taking the entire family, including her many kids, to Canada, not on credit. They've saved up for it. It's not a financial stress. Like it's just that...

It's individual people that I am incredibly proud of because I know their stories and I know the difference we've made. And that might not seem like much, but my gosh, to remove the stress of that pin of exploding in your marriage and also to do such a big thing. it's just, yeah. There's all of those stories. Women that have contacted me and said, I'm 53 and I've bought my my home and I never thought that was possible for me. I bought my first lot of shares or just I feel more confident. It's because we don't, it's only financial education, but that financial education matters because we don't often get that anywhere else, especially in such a focused way. Cause if you listen to a podcast, you can't ask questions. ⁓ So it's because you get that support through the education that I think we're able to see such a difference to those stories.

Lawsie: And the community with, yeah, like, because even for people going, I've never faced this, and you know that they're overwhelmed when they start. And then they go, you know, there's the alumni within the left. I'm all right. We were there. I was worse than you. This, that and the other. And just that sense of support, which then makes everyone feel not as alone, which is, yeah, it's been really interesting to see that evolve. Because, yes, it was something we always wanted as part of it. But it's really nice seeing that that's actually happened and where people meet up in person.

Mel: I love their sharing. Yeah. What are you most proud of? You hate that word because proud. What do you love seeing the most?

Lawsie: For me, it's, it's definitely I think it's it's all of those things. I think it's a community and seeing people talk so openly about money because in you know, like it's really common in our world, obviously, but in the outside world, there's still such a thing. You don't talk about money. It's very gentle about politics, whether all the things, ⁓ politics, money can only talk about the way that that kind of vibe. So the fact that people are so willing and open to share, but I think it's for me to it's the stories like, yes, I work with a, you know, a lot of people one on one, which I love and I get to see it even sort of more so than you I think in some regards all being I will just be there and just see that realization when it clicks with them because it's, yeah, once they, once they get that click and go, I get it, I see it, then they can kind of just hit the ground running. And then of course, like you'll hear the beats of like, Oh, I've done this and this and this now. And I think sometimes I get to be a bit more involved in that bit of them being able to go, yes, I can do this thing and then do it, which is, yeah, it is just like, don't take that for.
Granted, and it's such a nice, you know, can compare it to being accountants and we get to complete someone's tax return and go, Oh, you're getting $233 back or sorry, you've got a $760 tax bill. Either way, the humans behind those tax returns were lovely, but really it's not that exciting. Whereas he, get, you get to actually see the real difference. And I think it's being able to work with so many people that doesn't matter if you are a low income earner to a high income earner. It's all just educating people so they can make decisions with, you know, the best decisions they can with what they've got. And seeing that, I think, yeah, that doesn't get, that doesn't get old. We love that.

Mel: Ha!⁓ You're dating a massive tech school, please turn her into us.

Lawsie: Anyway, you are not meant to be asking me questions. especially ones like that with that word proud. Is there anything that you do differently? ⁓ is there anything that you wish MFAP had been or done? yeah, there hasn't.

Mel: No. ⁓I I wish that I, because I'm very much, and think a lot of business owners can relate, you're always looking at the next. And I wish that I had stopped and recognized how much, the milestones that we had in it. And I think that's just me. And I think I'm getting better with that in time, you're looking at me like, no, you don't. ⁓ But I think that's definitely something that I would do differently. Yeah. And the other thing that I did looking back is that I stopped trusting myself. So I'm an accountant and a financial advisor. And I often get asked, my gosh, who thinks up your socials or who does your marketing or who does this and that? I'm like, that's... Hi.

Lawsie: No, you're-

Mel: I'm the problem, it's me. And yes, we have a socials person that does graphics, et cetera. Now Bella, who does a great job. ⁓ But primarily it's me. And I think people are surprised by that. But I think I didn't give myself enough credit that I am very creative. And I kind of liken it to, I was a lefty and I got swapped to a right-handed. And I voraciously read studied four unit ⁓ English, four unit, ancient history, modern history, like I love, I just love stories and writing and all the things. And then I think that because I didn't have a marketing degree, I just felt like I just needed to keep paying consultants to help me. And for the lion's share, and I mean, this is my own learning of, I think, for the lion's share, they weren't particularly helpful and that's not on them. words don't get me wrong, but it's more on me not trusting myself and paying others and them being frustrated. So I think I had a rule that I implemented probably about two, was it maybe 12 months ago or 18 months ago or something where I said no more, no more consultants. I'm not paying for any more help because I need to start trusting myself that I actually know what I'm doing, which might seem ridiculous to someone outside. And maybe if you're in business and you're looking at my stuff going, really? Maybe that's a good thing for you to hear because I think it's really easy not to trust yourself or to have that narrative of, I need to hire and help for this because I'm not great at that. mean, AI just now means it's so much easier to get help with that. ⁓ But yeah, that's, they're probably my two biggest things with it. Yeah. And probably also looking over at other people too much and compare myself when I don't know how they're doing. I don't know. You know, just run your own race. Just be and and you know what I know and I've always known is that the pie is big enough for everyone. But I'll always come back. ⁓ that's the Western Sydney chicken me that went through so much. I'll always compare myself to other people and find myself lacking. So what I've had to do is mute a lot of that so that I don't. So I wish that I'd done that earlier. Yeah.

Lawsie: Yeah. And that makes sense. So we've got one more round to go. Like you're in your second last one, doing your almost warm up to closing ceremonies for the final one. ⁓ And yeah, like, we've said why, like you, obviously you wanted to be able to have that. So people did have choice and chances to either jump into the round that we're in now or for the last one, but for anyone that's not in the one that is running now.

Mel: Mm, I know. Bloody hell. Mm-hmm.

Lawsie: Literally, it's one more. One more to go.

Mel: Got one chance at less than 200 spots because we've had a bunch jump in either while we were launching last time or since. So and because we're only offering 200 spots because we're going to to organizations to offer those scholarship spots, which is a beautiful way, I think, finish as well. It means it's really limited. So if like if

Lawsie: Mmm. Which is exciting.

Mel: If you are someone that is like, I just don't have money to spend on this, wait for what we're building next. However, if you ask someone that's like, I just need two experts, like I know that if it's just information, that's not going to cut it for me. Like I need more help than that. I need that financial bestie to. Because I've got ADHD and I just need to be in a workroom with Lawsie or I need to ask questions as we go. Otherwise, I know I'm not going to do it. Rather than just being overwhelmed with content, if it's just drip fed, so it's like carefully curated. A reason, even the financial plan template, the financial plan template in MFAP, you won't get that in the new thing. So it is, if you want that, then that's when you need to jump into that route this round because that's simply going to be unavailable to you going forward. But if you're someone that's looking at going, can't stretch to MFAP and I'm worried I'm going to miss out, there is something else coming for you. ⁓ And whilst... Yeah.

Lawsie: Yeah, we're closing that part, in fact, we're closing that part of the business, but it's not the whole thing. Mel Browne Money won't just disappear. It's being reborn.

Mel: No, we will disappear for a while and then later in the year, surprise. We'll be surprised as well. And then we'll figure out what the hell's happening.

Lawsie: Yeah ⁓

Mel: Surprise for you, surprise, surprise for us. And Lawsie's laughing because not a truer word has been spoken. However, do you know what it reminds me of? The very first round of MFAP, we were selling it, we launched it ⁓ before it was built. So we were building it as we were launching it. I remember you, I did, because you were freaking out.

Lawsie: She knows it's true. Yeah like to say you because if it was we there would be a little more organization that would have happened

Mel: So there is more organisation for the plane that we're building this time, but it is very much, yes, it is 100%. Yeah.

Lawsie: But it is how you operate. mean, for anyone that knows us and knows the dynamic you are, the big picture, you love the creating, and I'm forever chasing around trying to get all the details to pull something together.

Mel: Yeah, totally. I drive my team mad. But the good thing with this is we've got time. We've got time to create. We are. Yeah.

Lawsie: Yeah, I mean, we're behind the deadlines of what we've said, but we've got time. We've got time. So I guess if there is, you know, if you were, there's one person that's listening, that's like, ⁓ you know, I do have the dollars I wanted, but I'm not sure. what would you say to them?

Mel: Knowing what's coming to some respect, like I've got the outline of the plan and knowing what we've done, if I could afford MFAP, I would do that because you get the financial momentum club after that, which is going to give you access to whatever we do next anyway. But what you won't get that you'll never get access to again, that you'll get even beyond the last round is we are keeping open the closed Facebook group. We will continue to answer questions in that. You will get the Q &A, you will get the workroom. So I know in this round even there's people that said, ⁓ my gosh, I've watched for a couple of years and when I saw you were closing, I'm like crap, I need to jump in. So it is that I promise you this is not a marketing stunt. Like this is not a shut the doors and then surprise, surprise, it's back open again in Jan. Like it is genuinely shut, unless the next thing doesn't work, in which case it might open again in October next year. But I promise you it's going to look very different if we do. And that's not the plan. ⁓ But yeah, it's not a marketing stunt. Like it is genuinely going away. And it is, I believe, I genuinely believe that it is the best financial education that you will currently receive in the way that we are doing it. ⁓ So if that is something that you have been looking at for you, then jump in. We have a money, we have a 14 day money back guarantee that starts from when you get access to the content. So we definitely have de-risked it and we don't ask any questions about that. It's just sure, no problem.

Like usually we say, you want to, are you busy? Do you want to defer to a future round? You won't get asked that question this time. It'll just be sure. No problem. Here you go. Um, but yeah, I would say anything is scary that you don't know, but we're in a time at the moment with rising inflation, with rising interest rates, where people need to, uh, with more and more products being created and people are defaulting to things.

Lawsie: There ain't no future round.

Mel: Because, to doing things because they haven't, they don't have that basic financial literacy. know, half of Australians are financially illiterate and the job of the program is to help solve that, to put you back in the driver's seat of your finances and you feel confident because you have learned a plan and that you're excited to implement.

Thanks, Law-Dogg

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