Meet Sam Hernandez | Lesbian Money Coach

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sam Hernandez and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sam, what is the most important factor behind your success?
I identify as a demisexual lesbian and I coach the queer community on how being gay affects their finances. I officially began my business in October 2020, but a couple of months prior to that I tried to be a “money coach.” I did not have an ideal client in mind and I was trying to reach the masses. In doing this, my business was not personal at all. It felt like I was hiding myself. In October, I decided to share more about my sexuality and began to understand how being gay affected my finances. Through this process of being true to myself, I have created a brand that I love and is super successful. I created an IGTV series called “Broke and Gay” that dives deeper into this issue (IG @themoneyinstitute). The success I have seen has come from being true to myself, and embracing my sexuality within my business.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
I am a Sagittarius and I love to travel. As I was reflecting during the pandemic, I realized that what was truly important to me was time, location and financial freedom. If I could achieve these 3 things, I would be living my dream life. As I set out on my journey to financial freedom, which has been a struggle, I became obsessed with learning about personal finance. This process made me realize that I could teach other about money, be able to live wherever I wanted and create my own schedule. From that day in February 2020 I had 1 goal, start a business. It was never easy, I originally made a 2 year plan where I would become debt free and saved 1 years worth of salary. By September 2020 I was mentally drained. I had no energy to run a business AND work my corporate 9-5. It was time to make a decision. Either stick to the 2 year plan and re-start my business in 2 years or quit my corporate job and take a huge chance on myself. I am the betting type, and I chose myself. I embraced all aspects of me, including my queerness and began building a community of queer people faster than I could have imagined. When I quit my job 7 months ago I had 1 paying client. Since then I have coached 7 amazing queer individuals.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
My favorite spots in the city for brunch are Rose Cafe, Huckleberry Cafe and Blueys Market. I would highly recommend the Abbey in WeHo for my fellow gays wanting a night out. If you are into crystals and candles, you’ll have to checkout House Of Intuition. They have several locations, but my favorite is in Santa Monica.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would like to shoutout the entire queer entrepreneur community, but that would take all day, so I want to recognize the founder of the Queer Impact Collective. Megs Pulvermacher is THE Queer Connector (IG @megstheconnector). She has created a safe space for queer entrepreneurs to gather multiple times a week to discuss whatever is going on in our lives that week. This group has made me more confident in showing up as my authentic self and has lead to many partnerships and clients. Without Megs, I would not have seen my success as quickly as I did!

Website: https://www.themoneyinstitutecoaching.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themoneyinstitute/