Help you understand your financial situation.
I'm Olivia Sblendorio.
I created Land in the Net financial wellness coaching as a non-judgmental, safe, and playful haven to foster your relationship with money. Why?
WHY #1: I've come to believe that many of the choices people feel stressed about in life would be improved if they were happier with their relationship to money. I also realized if I, travelling performer and non-stop creative, of all people, could learn to enjoy and feel confident about money, then truly anyone could.
ALSO WHY: I have always found myself in taboo conversations with people, from topics of race to sex to money. This is the first job I've had where our work together touches on all those aspects of being a human.
HOW?: Oh, how sweet of you to ask.
Here's a LOT of the story (I hope you'll feel free to skip to the inspirational end):
Many money coaches come from the corporate world. I come from the circus world. Yup: normal little Brooklyn girl, grew up in NYC public schools, went to a fancy college (thank you, grandpa, for leaving me student debt-free [financial transparency is another of my passions]), then ran away and lived on a train and flew on the trapeze for meager pay (I dare you to ask me how much). I street performed and couch-surfed in foreign countries. Never paid more than $587 on rent, and never stayed anywhere longer than a year. Taught circus somewhere, then went back and forth to living with my parents off $180 a month (Thankfully mom is a great cook. Oh yeah. Thanks, mom! And dad!).
Ms. Pretty Smart in a San Francisco hospital, working as a medical clown. I infuse play into every coaching session, because I believe we change and heal with every laugh of fresh air.
My own behaviors ran the financially un-healthy gamut. Sabotage, lack of focus, lack of goals, creating debt, then digging myself out of it. Over and over. I'd finally pay off my credit cards, then not pick the best insurance for a rental car and end up $3,000 back in debt. I canceled my health insurance because I didn't want to tap into my savings, and just THREE DAYS LATER ruptured my spleen and watched all those savings go to pay off a $36,000 medical bill (circusing is dangerous). These are just two examples of patterns that went on for nearly two decades.
Luckily? Libraries. And?
Ladies who wrote about getting SMART about money.
I WAS smart.
I mean, pretty smart.
(My actual performance name is Ms. Pretty Smart; so what WAS the problem?)
Enter Barbara Huson (nee Stanny of Sacred Success) and Carrie Friedberg (SF Money Coach). each of whom helped peel back layers of my beliefs about money. And transformations began in my own life:
I asked for (and got) raises. I created girls' and young women's self-empowerment workshops. I took circus camp director positions on both coasts. I had no idea how to handle insurance and tenants, but I stretched my beliefs about myself and bought a rental property! None of this was in my plan, but that led to getting married, taking a super weird job that'd let us save money, not only getting approved for a mortgage but then closing on our amazing beautiful gorgeous I-love-it-so-much house!
I could not have done this without the help of other women who have studied and researched so intensively. I was so inspired by what accountability and support could result in, that I decided to study how I could help others achieve what I used to think was impossible for myself. Work with those two women eventually led me to my trainer Karen McCall (Financial Recovery Institute™), where I've had the opportunity to be trained and certified by Karen herself, who is a true pioneer in the financial wellness conversation.
As a result of my own deep dive through the Financial Recovery™ process, I am still surprised and delighted when my monthly plan works, and it is with consciousness that I receive each moment when I see I have enough to paint pretty stencils on my porch, go out to eat, AND contribute to retirement!
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NOW I GET TO HELP OTHERS DISCOVER WHAT IS THEIR DEFINITION OF ABUNDANCE
For me, my personal financial success is when I can enjoy life, support others in my community, continue being creative, and be of service. I volunteer as a mentor for a local entrepreneurship support program. My business participates in a local currency program which helps foster our local economy.
I believe financial wellness is about choosing to spend money in ways that improve life for all. Throughout my financial journey, my husband and I were paying extensive legal bills to keep seeing my stepchild, I bought and paid off one of those fabulous expensive self-help classes ($14,000 [transparency, yo] for the School of Womanly Arts and--plug here--I could not recommend it highly enough), and we had the added pleasure expense of chicken food for raising my chicken (and now duck!) passion. To be able to feel good about every expenditure has changed my life.
I had fun first, then learned money habits to help me maintain that fun, and I can teach YOU to match up
YOUR MONEY + YOUR FUN
= YOUR IDEAL LIFE
With my years of practice in prioritizing fun and adventure, I help people inject that into their loves and lives.
I couldn't do it on my own, and despite what the patriarchal culture tries to beat into me, I don't think it is best for us to try to do these things on our own. In our work together, I draw from many arenas of experience (Reiki healing, EFT practices, non-violent communication), and pair it with the results-driven, proven system of Financial Recovery™. I am fully certified in Financial Recovery Institute™'s World Class Money Coaching program., and look forward to working with you, whether you are a small business owner, a couple, a single, a family, or a unique creative combination of many things.
It would be an honor and a pleasure to learn
what's alive inside YOU, and then help you share that with the world.
giving back
No everyone can afford money coaching. It's important to me that I do what I can to help education and financial literacy be available on a wider basis.
Minimum of 10 hours yearly free coaching for under-resourced populations.
Volunteer mentor for E4All Business Accelerator Program.
Sliding scale for seniors and others on fixed incomes.
Free library events: financial literacy offerings for families and teens.
Please let me know if you have suggestions about avenues to give back.