Natalie : Today on the show I?m speaking with Melanie Nicolas who talks about some incredible workshops that she?s doing, teaching children the value of money and how to create wealth. So stay tuned.

Hi I?m Natalie Ledwell and this is the Inspiration Show. And today my special guest is Melanie Nicolas, how are you Melanie?

Melanie : I?m doing great Natalie, how are you?

Natalie : Great. Great thank you. Now the reason I have Melanie here is that she has this, she runs this amazing camps that actually teaches children about money. We?ll get more into that in a little bit ?coz the work that she?s doing is just incredible but Melanie first what we might do is just start with your story.

Melanie : Okay Natalie. You know I just wanted to start off with my passion. I have this really amazing passion for children, I have four children myself, these are my four kids. I have a 9, a 6, a 5, and a 4 year old and growing up I never really have the men?s course that I do right now. You know when I was born here in the US my parents brought my brother and me to the Philippines at 2 years old, when I was 2 years old and we were raised by a 20 year old nanny and you know by time I was 7, I came back to the US and realized that you know I didn?t really have anything of the values that I have right now, it?s sealed in me and we all know that you know as a, kids that?s when we need to learn values and leadership skills, and just the belief systems because by the time we?re 5 years old we have pretty much 50% of our belief system in us and then by time we?re 8 years old we had about 80% of that. So growing up I never had any of that. I always knew I had this entrepreneurial real spirits. My mom was a nurse who taught me how to gather great education and a stable job and hence, I became a nurse myself, an operating nurse. My father on the other hand, you know he was actually a construction business, he had a construction business and he knew how to make money but he never knew how to keep it and manage it. So you know growing up we had all these instability and when it comes to finances I always watched my parents you know fight about money, one day we have, we?d be living a million dollar home the next year we?d be living in like a you know a one bedroom apartment and so I took it upon myself to dedicate my life to teaching kids about money and entrepreneurial ship so that they don?t have to go through what I did and so that?s basically my story and why I put up kid?s wealth in a national club.

Natalie : Right. So how do you go from nursing and then getting to randomly scanned. So what would that steps?

Melanie : You know so so you know one of my mentors you know they always say a lot times you know they talk about financial freedom. Sometimes you know entrepreneurs have this thing where hit "I?ll just quit my job and you know start a business" right? And that really doesn?t really work. So what I did was I actually got my real estate license as well as my nursing license at the same year. So I actually started my business as a realtor and started investing in the real estate market and this was back in I was about 21 years old when I purchased my first property and through that, my investments, I started replacing my nursing income and then I also bought a home care business and that you know totally replaced my nursing income and to a quite there I just you know I made more money in to real estates and running the business with my partners and so I was able to actually let my you know my job go in 2006. So been a nurse for about 17 years and during those years, I basically built you know enough passive income to replace the nursing income and then I went in to what I love to do you know which was to teach kids about money. So then you know after about 2008 that?s when I start thinking okay this is what I really want to do and so I put this business together in 2010 and since then you know I still do some investments on the side and that basically you know funds, everything, basically you know my new business. And so that?s how I jumped into nursing into running these camps. I went to just you know you should just quit your job and go to your passion because that just say transitional period and it takes you know some planning around it.

Natalie : Absolutely. So what are the age of the children that you worked with?

Melanie : So we basically worked with 6 to 9 years old, 10 to 14, we just started off actually with 10 to 14 years old with our quick money smart camps. However in our area we have about 10 thousand kids around 5 mile radius. And so a lot of them were young actually and our quits together in equal amounts with one of my friends and I was running that group and I realized that there were a lot of younger kids and so last year we just have our 6 to 9 and we actually have more kids come through that. And then we also have 15 to 17 year olds which is business building camp and with that we take the children gone through our money smart camps and who are interested in running a business and becoming an entrepreneur. We teach them basically the steps in building a business.

Natalie : Alright that?s awesome. So you?ve got like you know 10 year olds starting businesses?

Melanie : Yes. Exactly. I started with my daughter, she actually bought her first book when she was 7, it?s called Mind with Yourself How to be a Winner from Inside-Out. And from that she actually you know put her financial freedom funds and you know putting this book together and then she sold her books and then basically made up for you know for her books. So these are just?kids are just so creative. I mean I think that, I believe that is when we need to start that you utilize the creative nature and build businesses because by the time you know when we?re older we have a lot of limiting beliefs saying oh we can?t, that?s I called it a well drop monkey, it?s like talking to us as adult "you can?t do that" but it?s kids, they just think that they could do anything and that is basically what I love to reach with them when it comes to you know running a business because they are pretty much you know so powerful at that point and we just need to really encourage them.

Natalie : Right. So what are some of the important thing that you teach kids about money?

Melanie : So a part... Some of the important things that we teach kids about money it really starts with the mindsets so we have what we call are a quick wealth nuggets you know and you probably heard unless you of all like a financial freedom is your choice. You know it really takes a decision to choose to be financially free and also it?s a matter of creating the right habits which is like paying yourself first where some you know adults pay their bills first, they pay their mortgages, you know. I teach kids that you know paying themselves first is so important even if it?s just you know, I don?t know a dollar a month or you know whatever it is, it?s just a habit of paying themselves first. And one of the things I really love and I know that you do Mind Movies is basically the mindset behind it. So our thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes just really determine our potential. So whereas you know a lot times you know kids are like we can?t?like a parents say something like "we can?t afford that" you know I pretty much encourage them of saying "how can we afford of something you know like that?", "how can we run a business?" so really getting their minds to start thinking as just they should really think? As supposed to you know just shutting down and just you know saying we can?t do it because we know that you know as kids, again, they?re so limitless at that point. We can just... with leadership skills, we have that ideas that create like teamwork and just really having fun around it. One of my favorites you know from when it comes to you know working with the mindsets, we actually have you know our system, because a lot of times it turns out to me like you know what do you do? You just you know a lot of parents say "do you save the money? Do you spend the money?" you know they have the save, give, you know spend. I love actually you which I earning six jobs of money and you know from there, we actually allocate learn how...the kids learn how to allocate their funds through these six jobs. ?Coz they know that you know at the end of the month they have you know enough money to actually you know do their living expenses, financial freedoms, save, save education play, and donation, right? So in million composes a lot more than just spend and save. So that?s really important, my kids they have their you know their jars, and it?s so funny because a lot of times you know even my 4 year old you know we teach them how whether what and ate it. So a lot of times is like okay when mommy had want that so its mommy?s money it?s interesting because they?ll just go and spend it right? When it comes to you know to their funds its like they actually think about it and you know like "no I don?t want it so much" because they look at what you have and they start making decisions at such a young age as a close to us as parents making all the decisions for them. So there are some of the things you know. And we also have our many camps with the parents and that?s what?s really interesting because you know there we actually teach a parent on how to model the right behaviors for their children and how to speak to their children or change their conversation about money to again encourage them as a host to create a limited mindsets and just to really watch how they experience money you know I don?t want that they were fighting about money what my parents said because that?s really takes a lot of undoing as the kids grow up. Yeah so those are some of the things you know just set the mindsets behind, having a system, and having the mentors you know the parents who actually you know encourage their kids and really in still the right values to their children.

Natalie : It?s fantastic because you know we?re in such an age of instinct gratification. Like we wanted, we buy it. If our child wants something, we just buy it for them. So it?s fantastic that you?re doing this because it really you know ?coz that?s the thing you don?t I mean I know that I don?t really have you know I grew up in a big family. So you know we never have enough money. And so my and I know I actually tell story that I have these massively beliefs going around money I didn?t even realized that I had them ?coz that?s just what the situation that I grew up in. But been able to reach children at this age which they ask so questionable as we just said and been able to instill these right values about money cause you know money is I think it?s you know money is... we get focused on money it?s not really the money, it?s the lifestyle, it?s the you know the changes we can make, the things that we can do with the money that?s really it and being able to instill these values in them so early really gets them to see that which was amazing. So when you run camps Melanie, where are they?

Melanie : Right now we are actually in Naperville, Illinois, we random over at Safety Town which is you know Mayor Pradel, the mayor of Naperville actually put together back in ?70s. So we run about like 1700 kids goal through Safety Town in the summertime. And so, yeah, so this is where you know we... those are you know 4, 5 year olds from there you know I just got nominated as a Treasurer at Safety Town Commission and so this was really a great way for me to you know start them right off you know from when they?re young and it?s been such a great adventure and journey for me this is just something that I love so I want to reach out so many, as many kids as I can, there are many parents as I can so that?s where we random and then we also partner up with different businesses around the area like banks and schools, we sponsor a lot of you know children such a can we should, programs, and because I do a lot of speaking around the US actually. I?ve had some people who wanted our camps to be out there so basically we have someone in Boston that was looking to putting a group of kids together and I set by all means I?ll go out there and teach you know because I just love to teach and this is my passion is. The many more kids in region actually reach with our camps and what we teach in our camps, the more our economy... they will create our economy actually. We will really change you know how our world is going financially.

Natalie : Yeah. Wonderful. So Melanie if people want to find out more about you and the camps and everything that you do, where can we send them?

Melanie : Well you know basically you can send them to my website which is www.kwickids.com K-W-I-C-K-I-D-S.com and KWIC stands for Kids Wealth International Club and over there we actually have a free report for you if you like to have a report its called The Number One Secret to your Kid?s Financial Success and it really talks a lot about the basics of starting a financial foundation for your children.

Natalie : Wonderful. Melanie thank you so much for joining me today, you are an inspiration and truly worthy of being on the show so thank you so much for that.

Melanie : thank you for having me, I truly enjoy this.

Natalie : Wonderful. Now guys I encourage you to share this video and the information in it. And you can do that by clicking the Facebook and Twitter share buttons above. And if you haven?t done so already make sure to put your e-mail on the box above there, if you put your e-mail on the box above there we?d love to send you Manifesting with the Masters video Echoes, it?s got masters like Bob Proctor, John Assaraf, Joe Vitale, it?s valued 87 dollars and I?d like to send it to you for free. So make sure that you put your e-mail on the box above there. And don?t forget if you just click on the banner to the side there you go straight to Melanie?s site in there as well. So guys until next time remember to live large, choose courageously, and love without limits. We?ll see you soon.