It’s with much excitement that I announce the re-brand of Ms. Fiology! It’s been a wild ride already but it’s time to evolve.

As many of you know, Ms. Fiology is all about transformation and the blog is no exception to that. So without further ado, let me introduce my new blog…

Recovering Women Wealth

Ain’t it grand? Well, let’s get into what makes this so grand. I’m a woman who got sober from drug addiction back in 2010. Once I was able to take the necessary steps of reconciling with my past and forming new habits, I started helping other women in recovery.

It’s just the way it works. People who’ve trudged the road are equipped to walk beside and assist others coming up behind them. There are many benefits to this but I’ll share the two main ones:

1. The new person is more likely to take advice from someone with experience
2. By helping a new person, I’m keeping myself sober

My Audience

I find it rather amusing that it took a year of writing at Ms. Fiology for me to come to re-recognize who my most captive audience is…women in recovery. I know, shocking, right?

My thinking, as I started out writing at Ms. Fiology, was that I didn’t want to narrow in on one group. I wanted to be able to speak to everyone with my story.

It seemed to make sense to a novice blogger like me. Then I went to my first FinCon in 2018 and heard Emma Johnson say that we should narrow in our niche. Once we find that, she said, we should narrow in even further. Well, that didn’t fit in with my initial goal!

I did contemplate rebranding at that time but I’m so glad I didn’t because it would’ve been mostly for the wrong reasons. Moreover, I needed to gain the experience of writing about personal finance and meeting others in the community for me to realize my distinct purpose in writing.

If I had rebranded then it would have been premature.

Timing is Everything

So after my first FinCon, I kept writing with more gusto than ever at Ms. Fiology. As time went on I found myself being overly concerned with what others thought of me. Sure that can be a normal human thing but let’s face it, it’s ineffective!

A wise person told me early in sobriety that it’s none of my business what other people think of me. #Wisdom

As I was busy getting caught up in my reputation I had an epiphany in prayer. Here’s basically how the conversation went down:

Deanna: “God, I’m exhausted at pleasing everyone. I need your help.”

God: “Deanna, who are you writing to anyway?”

Deanna: “I’m writing to women in recovery who want to get their finances in order.”

God: “Um, well, your blog doesn’t say that in the title.”

Deanna: “Ohhhh!!!”

Yeah, this is typically how my prayer life goes. Keep in mind that I don’t hear an audible voice when I am praying. It’s rather a soft still voice which I feel in my heart.

So with that, it became obvious that a rebrand was in order. Furthermore, I wasn’t doing it to please anyone. I was doing it because it’s what I’m called to do. It’s my ministry.

The time was now.

The Name

This year, I started teaching financial literacy at a sober women’s house. Additionally, I joined a team of long-time recovering women who started the New Life Serenity Center. The center is for women in recovery who need to go deeper on certain areas. I’m teaching in the financial sector.

The founder of New Life Serenity Center, Renee, has many years of experience in marketing. Renee spent a three-hour brainstorm session with me to come up with the new name. She gave me some great exercises to narrow in on my niche:

• I drew a bullseye with the main target audience in the center.
  • Then I drew rings around the bullseye and wrote in other audiences I wanted to reach but with less intention.
  • The closer to the center, the more I wanted to reach them.
  • Then she had me repeat this exercise several times until I had it just right for me.
• Next, we brainstormed names.
• I was determined to have the word finances or financial in the title but Renee challenged me to come up with other words for finances.
• Wealth was thrown out.
  • Renee had me write down all the things which came to mind when I thought of wealth.
  • Once I did this I was sold that this was the word I’d use for money. It’s such a rich word with deeper meaning.
• Recovery or recovering was the next quandary.
  • We both liked recovering because it implies that it’s a process (which it is!)
• Women was an obvious choice.

Voila!

The Tagline

The first tagline I came up with was, “A Journey to Wealth for Recovering Women.” It sounded good but the more I thought about it, the more I realized it was missing something.

One day I was playing around with potential taglines and came up with, “Sober Women Managing Money and Mental Wealth.” It encapsulated everything my site is trying to accomplish. Additionally, I fell in love with mental wealth for so many reasons. Wealth is not just about our pocketbooks. Wealth is also about embracing an abundant mindset.

Women in recovery work on mental health so that is a big part of my writing and particularly with my Brain Health series.

As I thought about it, I realized that when you have mental health, you have mental wealth!

There it was and here it is.

Financial Independence?

I’m so glad I was introduced to the concept of financial independence through my favorite podcast, ChooseFI. I’m still going for financial independence but I’ve discovered that the purpose in my writing is different.

Financial Independence may not be for everyone & that’s ok.

It’s really rather clear to me now that the purpose of my writing is to teach women in recovery about money management and mental wealth.

Moving Forward

Anyone can read my blog (and I hope you do!) but I’m writing specifically to the ladies in recovery. Women, if you are new on your journey or have been on this road for a while, get a cup of coffee and settle in.

I may push you out of your comfort zones at times, but remember we are in this together. We grow as we are stretched.

Here are the things you can expect in my writing:

• Personal experience
• Stories
• Humor
• Truth
• Sometimes sadness
• Joy
• Brain health
• Interviews
• Inspiration
• Financial sense
• Debt payoff
• Credit score improvement
• Budgeting
• Investing
• Retirement planning
• Tax optimization
• Travel
• Triumph
• Mistakes
• Growth mindset

And most of all, I’m here to help all of us find our purpose in life. The road which leads to purpose is often messy so put on your boots and get ready to trudge the road of happy destiny with me!

Closing Thoughts

I’m like goldilocks right now feeling like everything is just right. Life is a fun journey that has many twists and turns, valleys and mountaintops, and even plateaus.

I’m learning that if I can hang on in the valley and ask God what the lesson is, I’ll grow. And not only will I grow, but I’ll begin to walk more in my purpose.

My hope is that you will too.