This Week at The After Party: Your Rich Life, Rewritten

 🥂 Opening Toast 

“To the ones who got serious about money, because the soft life costs money.”

Let’s not romanticize it:
The soft life is a luxury.
Not in the aesthetic sense, in the actual sense.
It takes money to choose peace.
It takes money to say “no.”
It takes money to stop surviving and start living.

We talk about rest, travel, healing, spaciousness, creativity… But none of those things are free. And that’s the part we’re not posting about.

Here’s what we are posting about:

• “Leave that toxic job” → But 58% of U.S. workers live paycheck to paycheck, including 40% of people making six figures (CNBC)

• “Stop letting them waste your time” → But money trauma and scarcity can make us overstay in jobs, friendships, and relationships that drain us (The Entrepreneur’s Therapist)

• “Be your own boss” → Yet less than 2% of VC funding goes to women founders. (Forum Ventures)

The truth we rarely say out loud: Many of us were never taught how to have money — just how to chase it, fear it, or feel shame around it.

Some of us were raised by survivors who could stretch $20 for a week, but never learned to invest. Some of us are still unlearning the belief that wealth is only for “them,” not “us.” Some of us feel guiltier about having money than we ever did about being broke.

And meanwhile, the world spins.
The cost of living rises.
The emotional tax of staying small gets heavier.

So this is a toast to the ones who are done playing small.

• Who stopped feeling bad about wanting more

• Who decided to charge what they’re worth

• Who are learning how to hold money, not just chase it

• Who finally saw that financial freedom isn’t about spreadsheets, it’s about power, peace, and choice

You don’t need to become a financial expert overnight.
You don’t need to have it all figured out.
But you do need to start telling the truth: 

“I want ease. I want overflow. I want a rich life — on my terms.”

So let’s say it together:

“Getting serious about money doesn’t make me greedy. It makes me free.”

“I am not here to prove my worth through struggle.”

“I am worthy of wealth in every form — emotional, financial, relational, spiritual.”

This isn’t just a newsletter. It’s a reclamation.
This isn’t just a vibe. It’s a resistance.
This isn’t about flex culture, it’s about freedom culture.

And that’s what Your Rich Life, Rewritten is all about.

A new story.
A new season.
A new relationship with money, power, and self-worth.

We’re not just stacking coins.
We’re building capacity.
We’re breaking cycles.
We’re backing ourselves, with receipts.

And this is your invitation to make it happen.

💣 Truth Bomb

Let’s be clear: income is not the same as wealth.

You can make six figures and still feel broke.
You can get the raise, land the client, launch the business — and still feel like you’re drowning.
Because wealth isn’t just about how much money comes in.
It’s about what that money makes possible.

Wealth is about agency.
It’s about ownership, of your time, your choices, your future.
It’s about walking away from what no longer serves you without asking for permission — or panicking over rent.

Wealth is sleeping well.
It’s being able to take a break without spiraling.
It’s knowing you could leave that job, that city, or that situationship today — and still be okay.

And if you weren’t raised to believe you could have that?
You’re not alone.
But that doesn’t mean you’re not worthy of it now.

Wealth isn’t just income.
It’s ownership.
It’s agency.
It’s the freedom to say “no” and mean it.
It’s walking into a room knowing the table needs you more than you need it.

🔍 Ask Yourself

• Take five minutes and reflect on these:

  • What did you first learn about money growing up? Who taught you that?

  • Do you believe financial peace is for people like you? Be honest.

  • Where are you still waiting for permission to raise your prices, ask for more, or opt out?

  You don’t need to have the perfect answers.
  You just need to stop pretending these questions don’t matter.

✍️ Challenge of The Week

Audit Your “Financial Power Leaks.”
Look for the hidden places where you’re giving away financial agency — without even realizing it.

Examples:

• Undercharging because you’re afraid someone won’t say yes

• Splitting costs you can't afford to “keep the peace”

• Ghosting your bank account because shame feels easier than clarity

• Playing small to avoid outgrowing people who aren't growing with you

📝 Grab a journal or notes app and write down:

• 3 places your money energy is leaking

• 1 action you’ll take this week to seal the leak

📚 Want To Go Deeper?

Here are a few thought-provoking reads that reinforce this week’s theme:

1. 🔗 “Wealth Isn’t Just for the Wealthy” – Ramit Sethi / IWT
   → Breaks down what it really means to design your “Rich Life” — and how to start small.

2. 🔗 “The Impact of Limiting Beliefs on Financial Health” – Mindful Innerchange

🪞 Mirror Talk

“I am worthy of wealth in every form.”

Let’s break it down:

• Financial (obviously)

• Relational (no more emotional debt)

• Energetic (protect your peace like it’s crypto)

• Spiritual (abundance isn’t just in your bank account)

👑 The Guest List

Arlan Hamilton — Investor. Activist. Disruptor. Blueprint.

Before she was raising millions in venture capital, Arlan Hamilton was sleeping on airport floors, cold-pitching investors from her laptop, and refusing to accept a system that said people like her didn’t belong in the room.

Let’s be clear:
She wasn’t just trying to get into the boys’ club of Silicon Valley, she came to burn the table down and build her own.

No Ivy League degree.
No wealthy family.
No insider access.

Just raw conviction, a vision, and a refusal to stay small.

She is:

• Founder and Managing Partner of Backstage Capital, a venture capital firm that’s invested in more than 200 companies led by women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ founders

• Author of “It’s About Damn Time,” part memoir, part manifesto on betting on yourself when no one else will

• One of the first Black women to build a venture capital firm from the ground up, with no background, no trust fund, and no connections

• Named to Fast Company’s Queer 50 list, and featured by Forbes, Fortune, and Inc. Magazine

Because Arlan is what money power looks like… redefined.
Not the inherited kind. Not the hoarded kind. Not the polished-and-podcast kind.

Her power is earned, scrappy, and radically inclusive.
She didn’t wait for a seat, she bought the damn table and opened the doors.

Arlan launched Backstage Capital in 2015 with a single, disruptive mission:

To invest in underestimated founders, not in spite of their identity, but because of it.

Because while 90% of venture capital still goes to white men, Arlan saw what others refused to: Brilliance lives everywhere, it’s just underfunded.

Today, her portfolio includes over 200 startups and a community of founders who are breaking molds and building wealth on their own terms.

Because it’s not just about celebrating success, it’s about deconstructing the systems that tell us who’s allowed to win. And Arlan? She’s been flipping the narrative since day one.

What we’re learning from Arlan:

• How money follows belief, not the other way around

• Why representation in capital allocation isn’t just optics, it’s economic justice

• What it means to build wealth without assimilation

• How to be fearless and underfunded, and still make history

🎧 Want more Arlan in your life?

📖 “It’s About Damn Time: How to Turn Being Underestimated into Your Greatest Advantage”
From a Black, gay woman who broke into the boys’ club of Silicon Valley comes an empowering guide to finding your voice, working your way into any room you want to be in, and achieving your own dreams.

🎧 Arlan Hamilton on the Kara Goldin Show podcast
Who builds a VC fund from the ground up while homeless? Learn about Arlan Hamilton’s story about what led her to starting Backstage Capital.

📰 How To Make Your First Million Dollars (This Year): Arlan Hamilton on The Calum Johnson Show
Arlan shares how you can make your first million starting from zero.

 🎁 Party Favors

📚Read it! We Should All Be Millionaires: A Woman’s Guide to Earning More, Building Wealth, and Gaining Economic Power by Rachel Rodgers — This book details a realistic, achievable, step-by-step path to creating the support, confidence, and plan you need to own your success and become the millionaire the world needs you to be.

 👚 Buy it! Anti-Wrinkle Retinol Overnight Serum by Juice Beauty — Advanced serum with 2.5% Bio-Retinol + Retinol helps minimize the appearance of fine & lines wrinkles, dark spots & discoloration and promotes smoother-looking appearance overnight.

🧘‍♀️ Use It! Best Budgeting Template & Spreadsheet by Ramit Sethi — When it comes to mastering your finances, having the right budgeting system in place is a game-changer. Conscious Spending Plan (CSP) is perfect for those who want a simple, stress-free approach to managing their money.

📣 Last Call…

Before we turn the lights up...

What if this next chapter isn’t your second act, but your real debut? Hit reply and share what your messy middle has taught you.

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Until next week,