An Inspired Chat with Lisa Chastain of Las Vegas

We recently had the chance to connect with Lisa Chastain and have shared our conversation below.

Lisa, we’re thrilled to have you with us today. Before we jump into your intro and the heart of the interview, let’s start with a bit of an ice breaker: When was the last time you felt true joy?
Oh I love this — I’m a full-blown roller coaster fanatic.

This summer my husband and I took our teenage boys to Glenwood Springs and Elitch Gardens in Chicago — we laughed so hard we cried. There’s nothing like being fully in it with them… hands up, hair flying, not a shred of “adulting” in sight.

And then my friend Sonia and I kidnapped our best friend Gail for a 24-hour surprise trip to Six Flags Magic Mountain — because joy is sometimes grabbing your people, hopping in the car, and choosing play, presence, and wild memories over routine.

Life is meant to be felt — every fast drop, sharp turn, and scream-laugh included.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m Lisa Chastain — a financial empowerment educator, bestselling author, and creator of transformational money coaching programs for women. I’m not a “traditional finance” coach — I help women heal their relationship with money so they can build wealth without shame, scarcity, or self-sacrifice.

My work is rooted in the belief that money is emotional before it’s mathematical. We don’t change our financial reality by tightening a budget — we change it by shifting identity, nervous system safety, and financial self-trust. That’s why my approach blends emotional intelligence, NLP, neuroscience, and practical financial strategy — because confidence is the real currency.

I grew up in a blue-collar Las Vegas family and saw what it looks like to work hard but still feel financially limited. Today, I teach women how to break those generational patterns and step into wealth with freedom, ownership, and integrity — not guilt.

Right now, I’m leading a 10-month Money Coaching Certification Program training the next generation of transformational money coaches, and I’m also launching a 4-day immersive intensive designed to help both men and women radically rewire their relationship with money so they can create insane impact in their lives, their families, and the world.

My mission is simple: to help people remember they are already worthy, already powerful, and already capable of building a rich life on their own terms.

Okay, so here’s a deep one: Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
Before the world told me who I had to be, I was a barefoot, big-dreaming girl who believed life was supposed to feel joyful, safe, and full of possibility. I trusted myself. I played. I created. I wasn’t trying to prove anything — I was just *becoming.*

Then the world layered on rules:
be responsible,
be the good girl,
don’t want too much,
shrink your dreams,
earn your worth.

I traded authenticity for achievement.
I learned to perform instead of feel.
I became who I thought I *should* be,
instead of who I actually was.

The work I do today — and what I teach — is about finding my way back to her:
the girl who knew she was enough before she ever accomplished a thing,
the one who believed she could build a beautiful life just because she was alive and worthy of it.

That’s the invitation of my work:
to come home to the you that existed *before shame had a name.*

What have been the defining wounds of your life—and how have you healed them?
The defining wounds of my life came through loss — not just of people, but of parts of myself.

One of the first was when my grandmother died.
I had pulled away toward the end of her life, and the guilt of “not showing up enough” wrapped itself around my nervous system like armor. I didn’t just lose her — I abandoned me. I internalized the belief that love meant sacrificing yourself so you never disappoint anyone again.

Then came my divorce.
Leaving my alcoholic husband after 16 years wasn’t just an ending — it tore open an old wound I had layered over with perfection and resilience. I had been holding a family together by force, not by truth. Walking away shattered the identity I had built… and yet it also became the doorway back to myself. Raising my son through that — helping him feel whole in the aftermath — meant I had to learn wholeness inside myself, not just model strength from the outside.

And then, later, when my stepson’s mother died at 37, our entire family system was cracked open. There was grief, identity collapse, anger, disorientation — and eventually, rebuilding. We didn’t “bounce back.” We reassembled ourselves. We became a new shape. That season taught me more about compassion, nervous system repair, and unconditional love than any book or certification ever could.

These weren’t just painful moments — they were initiations.

I’ve healed by learning to stop abandoning myself in the process of caring for everyone else.
I’ve healed by letting grief grow me instead of bury me.
I’ve healed by choosing truth over image, and alignment over obligation.

The deeper lesson?
Wholeness is not created by avoiding pain — it is created by metabolizing it into wisdom.

And it is why I can sit with other people in theirs.
It’s why I can teach emotional safety around money.
It’s why I understand transformation from the inside, not as a concept, but as a lived experience.

Because I’ve lost everything I thought I had to be…
and found the woman I actually am.

I think our readers would appreciate hearing more about your values and what you think matters in life and career, etc. So our next question is along those lines. Is the public version of you the real you?
Not at first.
The public version of me today is real — but it took years of *unbecoming* to get here.

In the beginning, I was performing what I thought a “successful woman” was supposed to look like — polished, put-together, strong, unshakeable. I was selling the version of me I believed the world would approve of, not the one I actually *was*.

The real work wasn’t becoming someone new — it was stripping away everything I wore to be acceptable:
the pleaser,
the caretaker,
the good girl,
the woman who carried everyone else’s needs while abandoning her own.

It took grief, divorce, motherhood, rebuilding, forgiveness, nervous system healing, and learning to tell the truth about my own story — *out loud* — for my public self and my private self to finally match.

So yes — today, the public version of me is real.
But she is the result of years of unlearning,
unmasking,
and remembering who I was before survival became my personality.

I didn’t build a brand — I came home to myself.
And now I let people meet *that* woman.

Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. When have you had to bet the company?
Every damn day.

I’ve bootstrapped this from nothing — no safety net, no silent investors, no Plan B. I’ve traded “security” for conviction. I’ve carried credit card debt, taken out loans, and continued to hire people who are smarter than me because I believe in building something bigger than my comfort zone.

I don’t cling to what isn’t working — I scrap it and reinvent. I keep iterating until the mission matches the impact. I have bet my entire future on this company, not because it’s the easy thing to do, but because it’s the truest thing to do.

Is it smart? On paper, maybe not.
But it’s honest. It’s aligned. It’s mine.

Most people live with the regret of never fully going in.
I’ll never have to wonder what could have happened if I didn’t leap.

I risk — that’s what makes me, me.
And I’d do it again tomorrow.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://lisachastain.com
• Instagram: @savvymoneywithlisa
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisachastain/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/savvymoneywithlisa
• Youtube: @lisachastain

Image Credits
Casey Jade
Highest Self Photo