As the host of the Real Money podcast, I’ve had the privilege of witnessing how women entrepreneurs are redefining what financial freedom truly means in business. Instead of getting caught up in the hustle of endless productivity, more women are aligning profit with purpose—creating growth that supports not only their goals but also their overall well-being. It’s a powerful movement toward freedom that challenges the old belief that working harder is the only path to success.
Megan Hale is a perfect example of this new way forward. A former psychotherapist turned fintech innovator, Megan has developed a method and technology that empower women to set meaningful financial goals and build sustainable businesses. Her work inspires women to go beyond traditional financial tools and embrace strategies that truly honor their capacity, ambition, and values
The State of Women-Owned Businesses
Revenue Performance Snapshot
Only about 7% of women-led and female-owned businesses generate more than $250,000 in annual gross revenue, and fewer than 10% of female coaches surpass $100,000 a year. These figures highlight a significant income gap that continues to limit financial independence for many women entrepreneurs.
Despite these numbers, many women view this space as a field of opportunity, an open area for growth rather than a closed ceiling.
Many women business owners face time constraints, financial pressure, and cultural expectations that encourage constant overwork. The rejection of “hustle culture” has become a defining shift, as more entrepreneurs seek to build wealth in ways that respect both profit and personal well-being.
Key challenges include:
- Limited working hours due to competing responsibilities
- Lack of tools that align business strategy with personal financial goals
- Pressure to follow rigid profitability standards that don’t fit individual needs
Innovative approaches now emphasize aligned growth, where success is measured not only by revenue but also by sustainability and fulfilment.
Only a small percentage of women-led businesses surpass $250,000 in annual revenue, yet this gap signals opportunity, not limitation. Redefining success means aligning income goals with personal values and capacity instead of external standards.
- Clarify financial goals that support both life and business needs.
- Design business models that honor time, energy, and profitability.
- Measure success by sustainability and fulfillment, not just revenue.
How Constant Work Affects Health and Balance
Hustle culture often glorifies nonstop effort, but its toll shows up in exhaustion, guilt, and limited capacity. Many women feel pressure to work beyond their available hours, believing rest equals failure. This mindset erodes creativity and well-being, leaving little space for personal growth.
Choosing to slow down allows entrepreneurs to make decisions from focus rather than fatigue. It shifts business growth from survival to sustainability.
Setting Realistic and Lasting Income Targets
Designing revenue goals begins with understanding what is truly enough. Entrepreneurs often adopt numbers from others without assessing their own needs or dreams. The process starts by identifying the cost of living, business operations, and desired lifestyle. Once these figures are clear, the next step is planning how to reach them in a sustainable way. Not all income is healthy income, growth must align with available time and energy. The goal is to create a business model that supports consistent profit without burnout.
The Dream Money Method
Framework Overview
The Dream Money Method introduces a structured approach to earning with purpose rather than pressure. It rejects the idea that success must come from constant hustle and instead focuses on building wealth through clarity, alignment, and sustainability. The method combines financial insight with mindful business design to help entrepreneurs create growth that matches their personal capacity and goals.
Core Elements of the Dream Money Approach:
- Define revenue goals that reflect personal and business needs
- Design business models that honor time and energy limits
- Partner with coaches and professionals for tailored financial insight
Key Focus Areas for Success:
- Ease: Shift away from overwork by embracing intentional planning that prioritizes balance and efficiency.
- Integrity: Ensure income goals are aligned with your personal values, creating a business that feels authentic and meaningful.
- Profit: Focus on building consistent, sustainable earnings that support long-term growth and stability.
Defining Personal Income Goals
This stage emphasizes identifying revenue targets that are both realistic and meaningful. Entrepreneurs assess how much money they truly need to support their life and dreams rather than chasing arbitrary figures.
Steps include:
- Calculate the real cost of personal and business needs.
- Define the timeline for funding future goals.
- Set revenue targets that balance ambition with sustainability.
This process ensures that financial decisions reflect individual priorities, not external expectations.
Refining the Business Structure
After defining clear financial objectives, the focus shifts to designing a business model that supports them efficiently. The method encourages evaluating how each revenue stream contributes to profitability and personal well-being.
Core principles:
- Prioritize sustainable income sources.
- Adjust operations to match available time and energy.
- Use data-driven insights to guide strategic growth.
By aligning structure with purpose, entrepreneurs can reduce burnout and create a business that grows steadily while honoring their capacity.
From Psychotherapist to Fintech Innovator
Megan Hale’s Career Evolution
Megan Hale began her professional life as a psychotherapist, guiding clients through personal and emotional growth. Over time, she transitioned into life and business coaching, helping entrepreneurs align their goals with their values.
Her work revealed a recurring challenge, many women were working hard but still struggling to build sustainable wealth. Megan saw that traditional business metrics and financial tools failed to support the kind of ease and integrity she wanted women to experience in their businesses. This realization became the turning point that led her toward technology and financial innovation.
The Creation of Dream Money
Megan founded Dream Money to replace spreadsheets and rigid financial systems with a platform that helps entrepreneurs make purposeful financial decisions. The app focuses on identifying true revenue goals, personal financial dreams, and sustainable business models that match each user’s capacity.
Instead of tracking every dollar, Dream Money emphasizes clarity around spending needs and long-term objectives. It connects financial planning with meaningful strategy, showing users how to earn more without burnout. Megan’s shift from therapy to fintech represents a practical evolution, one that merges emotional intelligence with financial strategy to help women build wealth on their own terms.
Beyond Traditional Financial Tools
Gaps in Conventional Financial Tracking
Standard profit-and-loss statements and typical budgeting tools serve accountants more than entrepreneurs. They show where money goes but fail to reveal whether that spending supports sustainable growth or personal well-being. Many business owners, especially women, find that these reports lack the context needed to make strategic choices about scaling or aligning income with life goals.
Entrepreneurs often chase revenue targets set by external standards rather than determining what is truly sufficient for their own financial dreams. This approach can lead to burnout and misaligned priorities rather than meaningful profit.
How Dream Money Stands Apart
Dream Money replaces rigid budgeting with a framework built around clarity and sustainability. Instead of tracking every transaction, it helps users define personalized revenue goals, identify true financial needs, and design business models that match their capacity.
The process begins with identifying how much it costs to operate a business, support a team, and live comfortably. From there, the platform guides users toward strategic decisions that honor both profitability and well-being.
Key distinctions include:
- Focus on strategy over restriction
- Emphasis on alignment between income and personal values
- Integration with coaching partnerships for tailored guidance
Dream Money’s approach shifts the focus from managing numbers to designing a financial path that feels both achievable and purposeful.
Collaboration and Community
Working with Coaches and Industry Experts
Megan Hale highlights the importance of collaborating with experienced coaches and financial professionals to develop personalized strategies that align with each woman’s unique goals. These partnerships move beyond one-size-fits-all solutions, focusing instead on tailored frameworks that honor individual capacity, values, and definitions of success.
By fostering financial clarity, women can define revenue goals that align with their lifestyle needs; through strategic design, they can create sustainable business models that reduce burnout; and with professional partnerships, they can integrate mindset work with financial tools for a more holistic approach to growth.
Creating a Network that Empowers Women
The Dream Money community encourages women to share knowledge, tools, and encouragement. Participants exchange insights about running profitable businesses without subscribing to hustle culture.
- Shared learning: Members discuss revenue strategies and financial planning.
- Peer accountability: Regular check-ins help maintain focus on sustainable growth.
- Mutual support: The network promotes confidence and transparency in financial conversations.
By fostering open dialogue and connection, the community helps women strengthen their financial leadership and expand opportunities for collective success.
Redefining Perspectives on Money
Moving away from hustle culture empowers women to approach wealth creation with intention and integrity, focusing on what financial success truly means for their unique circumstances rather than chasing arbitrary profit margins. This shift replaces pressure with purpose, encouraging smarter, more personal strategies. Steps toward a healthier money mindset include identifying what “enough” means for individual goals, replacing generic profitability rules with customized financial planning, and partnering with tools and professionals that prioritize clarity over complexity.
ABOUT LISA CHASTAIN:
Lisa uses many tools that she used throughout her money journey and invites you to try them as well. As a first step, she recommends reading her book, Girl, Get Your $hit Together in which she helps women tackle their financial story and shares her entire story. After reading the book, she invites listeners to join the Stop Budgeting System– the very method she used to gain financial freedom and clarity.
ABOUT MY NEW BOOK:
I’m beyond excited to share that Stop Budgeting Start Living is officially here! This book is the culmination of years of working with women who are ready to rewrite their money stories and step into financial confidence.
Inside, you’ll find strategies to uncover the roots of your money mindset, break free from limiting financial patterns, and create a new path toward wealth and independence.
This release feels especially powerful as we honor the progress women have made financially—and the bold steps we’re still taking together. I can’t wait for you to dive in, apply these tools, and start building the financial future you deserve.
Your journey to living fully, without the weight of restrictive budgeting, starts now.