Money can feel heavy, stressful, and deeply personal, especially when you’re building a business and carrying more than just the numbers. This episode of The Finance Cafe Podcast with Shauna Frederick and Shannon Pestun talk about our connections with money, and why it sometimes feels so hard or overwhelming to be better with money.

This conversation invites you to step away from discipline-based money advice and instead look at financial management through the lens of financial wellness. You’ll explore how your relationship with money is shaped by safety, security, and freedom of choice, and how those feelings are influenced by lived experience, systemic barriers, and the stories you’ve carried with you long before you became an entrepreneur.

If you’ve ever found yourself overworking, underpricing, avoiding your numbers, or constantly feeling behind even when revenue looks “fine,” this episode helps you understand why. These patterns aren’t failures, they’re survival responses. And until safety is present, making clear, confident financial decisions can feel impossible.

We encourage you to reflect on your own money story: where it came from, how it shows up in your business, and how it may be quietly influencing decisions around pricing, debt, growth, and planning. Financial management is reframed not as pressure or another to-do, but as a supportive tool that can create clarity, reduce panic, and help you trust yourself with money.

This episode is for you if you want to stop trying harder, start feeling safer engaging with your finances, and build a business that truly supports your life, not just your revenue.

In this episode of The Finance Cafe Podcast, host Shannon Pestun welcomes Laura McDonough, Associate Director of Insights & Knowledge Mobilization at the Future Skills Centre. Laura leads national research and knowledge-sharing efforts that help shape evidence-informed policy and practice across Canada’s skills ecosystem. With a background in research and evaluation at United Way Greater Toronto and a deep commitment to making data accessible and actionable, Laura brings a unique lens that bridges research, lived experience, and real-world workforce development.

The conversation focuses on why skills development has become a critical growth lever for small and medium-sized businesses. Laura unpacks what it means to be future-skills ready, emphasizing both in-demand technical skills and the often-overlooked soft skills that are essential for effective leadership, strong management, and high-performing teams. She challenges traditional SME mindsets around productivity, encouraging business owners to invest in their people, develop managers’ capabilities, and move away from burnout-driven approaches or over reliance on technology alone.

Shannon and Laura also explore how skills development intersects with equity, highlighting programs that support women and diverse communities in building transferable, high-value skills. The episode closes with a look at the growing role of AI, and why building skills and confidence around AI now can help businesses stay agile and resilient as the workforce continues to evolve.

This episode is a must-listen for SME leaders and women entrepreneurs who want to grow their businesses by investing smarter in skills, people, and the future of work.

FSC Bluseky: https://bsky.app/profile/fsc-ccf.bsky.social

FSC LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/company/fsc-ccf/

FSC Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/fsc_ccf/

Future Skills Website: https://fsc-ccf.ca/

Finance Cafe Courses

https://thefinancecafe.ca/women-entrepreneurs/

Starting a new year as a woman entrepreneur is not about hustle or vague intentions. It is about making clear, intentional financial decisions that support both your business growth and your long-term wealth.

In this episode of The Finance Cafe Podcast, co-hosts Shauna Frederick and Shannon Pestun kick off 2026 with a practical conversation about financial goal setting for women who are running revenue-generating businesses and are ready to scale with confidence. This episode focuses on building clarity, consistency, and momentum without financial jargon or intimidation.

Shauna and Shannon walk through five foundational goals to start the year strong: creating a simple 90-day cash flow plan, scheduling a monthly money date and actually putting it in your calendar, building a lending readiness folder so you are prepared before you need it, reviewing pricing and margins for 2026 to ensure you are not leaving money on the table, and paying yourself something consistent, even if it is small.

Beyond the tactics, this episode gives permission to build wealth intentionally and to develop personal and business strategies that support both financial security and a life you want to live. It is a reminder that scaling is complex, learning is ongoing, and women belong in every financial conversation.

This episode is for women entrepreneurs who want to start 2026 with clarity, confidence, and a financial foundation that supports sustainable growth.

The Finance Cafe Courses: https://thefinancecafe.ca/

WEOC: https://weoc.ca/