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Choose Fun And Bliss Through Life’s Toughest Moments With Monick Halm

 

The road to success does not have to be miserable. No one stops you from bringing even a bit of fun to your journey! Moneeka Sawyer joins best-selling author and REI mentor Monick Halm to discuss how she chooses blissfulness in her personal and professional lives, making her overall experience equally purposeful and fulfilling. She shares how “fun interruptions” make her life more exciting and get rid of the dullness. Moneeka also talks about her so-called “blissiplines” that let her prioritize joyfulness above anything else and how it can lead to greater success. If you want to experience bliss amid your toughest moments, this episode is for you.

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About Monick Halm

Monick Halm is the founder and CEO of Real Estate Investor Goddesses, a company dedicated to helping women create passive income streams and achieve financial freedom through real estate. With over 19 years of experience in syndications, buy-and-hold, and fix-and-flip investments, she has supported thousands of women in building wealth and designing lives they love—on their own terms.

Her mission is to empower women to begin real estate investing in a way that feels aligned, confident, and grounded in feminine principles. Through live events, masterminds, coaching, and a vibrant sisterhood of supportive investors, Monick teaches women how to grow their wealth using her signature WEALTHY framework.

She offers both online and in-person real estate investing courses that are approachable, effective, and tailored to meet the needs of beginners and seasoned investors alike. Whether someone is looking to close their first deal or scale their portfolio, Monick provides the tools and guidance to take the next step with clarity and confidence.

A TEDx and keynote speaker, Monick is also the host of the Real Estate Investor Goddesses podcast and the author of two bestselling books. She has been recognized as an Enterprising Women of the Year Champion (2021) and honored by the Los Angeles Business Journal Women’s Council Awards in both 2017 and 2018. In addition, she is a licensed real estate agent.

Monick believes that women deserve to build wealth with joy, ease, and community—and she’s passionate about helping them do just that.

 

Choose Fun And Bliss Through Life’s Toughest Moments With Monick Halm

I was on a friend of mine’ show. It’s called Getting Real Live and the show is done by Monick Halm, who you have heard on this show many times. Anyways, the conversation was so good that I wanted to share it with you. Also, I just wanted to let that I am going to be at Monick’s upcoming summit. It’s called the 7-Figure Lifestyle Summit. It’s on September 4th and 5th. The topics that we’ll be covering are wealth expansion, conscious money, feminine embodiment and energetic alignment, sustainable aligned leadership, boundaries, visibility and self-expression and lifestyle design for high earning women.

Anyways, I thought it’s the perfect summit to talk about all of the things that are so important to our bliss. I’m honored to be a part of this summit and I would love for you to join me. If you want to come and hear me, Monick and the other amazing speakers, just go to BlissfulInvestor.com/Monick. I hope to see you there and I hope you enjoy this episode. Bye.

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This is a show where we get vulnerable, honest and most importantly real about building wealth, creating impact and living life on your terms. In this episode, it’s a very special one. It’s not just an interview. It’s a real conversation. One that’s going to touch your heart and inspire you to choose fun and joy no matter what is going on in your business for your life and who better to invite to this conversation more than my soul sister and bliss, Moneeka Sawyer. Moneeka is known as the blissful millionaire and we’re chatting about how we can choose bliss, joy, fun even when things are tough and how that can lead to greater success. Moneeka, I am so excited to have this conversation with you. Welcome.

Me, too. Thank you. To let everybody know, I called Monick and I was like, “We need to talk about this because this is so good.” Thank you for being a yes and for sharing me with your audience, too.

Choosing Fun And Bliss In Life

Share with everybody why you thought this conversation was so important to have.

I have a show called Real Estate Investing for Women and we focus on being blissful investors. We want to build lots of wealth, massive wealth but we want to do it in a blissful way. We talked a lot about building wealth. It’s very similar to you, which is why we get along so well. The bliss piece is a very large part of what has made my business what it is. Over the last few years, there have been challenges. In 2023, I probably had the toughest business of my 32 years in real estate.

I was fortunate that it ended on December 29th of 2023, then I went into 2024 with the intention for recovery and like, “What’s next?” I also know that you had a very challenging year in 2023 for your own reasons in your business. I watched you as you and I stepped into 2024. Both of us went into the next phase.

I was so inspired by the choices that you made and how you helped me, too, to be more blissful even though this is the thing that I do, teach and practice. Still, you inspired me so much to try some new different things. I wanted to talk to you about those things that I have now added in my arsenal. You and I share together how this helped us to build our business further in the next year or two, that we’ve been going through.

Why Blissfulness Seem Unimportant

I’m so excited to have this conversation. I think I’ve shared some of what I’ve been doing around funds, specifically. My fund challenge on the show but let’s go deep because often, it’s reaching for joy or bliss or fun, especially in our culture, both in the US. It can seem frivolous and unimportant. It’s like, “No, you got to hustle. You got to grind. You got muscle through.” It’s like a Puritan work ethic. You have a struggle. It’s like the more in the struggle, the better. If it’s doing here, it’s not childish. It can be taboo.

It feels sometimes revolutionary to do that, to reach for pleasure, joy, and fun, especially when things are serious and difficult and challenging. That’s when it’s most important and most makes a difference. That’s also part of the feminine. It’s to move with pleasure as opposed to trying to muscle through, so let’s get deep. Let’s start.

I have practices that I have implemented into my life that integrate bliss and joy into every single day. No matter how bad the day is, I’ve got these practices. I walk the dog and watch his goofy little tail and allow it to make me laugh. I meditate. I make eye contact with my husband. I connect with women each day that inspire and uplift me. I watch inspiration videos first thing in the morning. I have got practices that are part of my life that keep me uplifted.

I call those bliss-ciplines.

That’s exactly right. Some of the other big bliss-ciplines that I’m privileged to be able to do is I go on great vacations with my husband. He and I have been to 70 countries together. We’ve only been married for 30 years but that’s our thing. We went out to have nice fine dining. There’s things that we enjoy together. There’s the day-to-day then there’s the big picture. What was interesting was that it happened in 2023, and there was a buildup. It wasn’t just 2023, but there was a thirteen-year build up to this ultimate climactic whatever heck happened here.

What I realized is that there were all of these things that I integrated into my life that kept me uplifted. Now when I was in a situation that was pulling me down, bothering me and challenging me. I continue to do all of those things and thank God because it kept me resourceful and creative. It helped me to get through the problems. I got to be a hero again and fix everything. We came out ahead. I made choices based on my integrity and my values, rather than what was easy.

I did all the right things that I had to do with my practices but the thing is I lost the fun and the joy. Even though there were all of these things that kept me uplifted, kept me going and creative. By the time I got to January of 2024, I was exhausted. I literally slept for two months. I would get up for meals. I didn’t even go for walks with my husband in the morning during that time. I went down and it was a privilege. It’s like I had set up my business that way. I knew that that was important.

As a bliss coach, that’s what I would tell myself to do, like, “Take the rest that you need.” It was a privilege and a gift that I could do that. When I woke up again and we entered life, I had my practices. I still smiled. I was still a joyful person, but I couldn’t find the fun. I couldn’t step back into the playfulness of life that makes everything feel so worthwhile. I did a lot of healthcare and went to a lot of coaches. Monick, you and I talked quite a lot. I did all of those things but in August, you and I had a conversation that completely changed everything for me.

You did what I call a fun interrupt where you just decided that you were going to have this intention that every day you were going to interrupt your day. This wasn’t a part of the plan. This was a program. This is what’s in your schedule. You were going to interrupt your day to insert fun. I love to do that. I get to be a part of that. We got to play together. We were doing that towards your birthday. I know and then you decided, “We’re just going to go and we’re going to do this for a year.” I know I don’t post very much. You started a Facebook group and I know you’ll talk about that.

Always interrupt your day to insert something fun. Share on X

I don’t post very much, but I’m doing it every day and I’m inspired by you every day. I’ve been studying this for many years like this mindset of bliss and we all need a community to support us. We all need a community to inspire us and help us to see our blind spots. All of those things that I’m so grateful to you for being that for me.

I just want to talk about how you got there, what it was that inspired you to do that, to keep it going? It’s not easy. I will say trying to be playful and fun every day can be exhausting on its own. You’d say it’s another thing. It is odd but it’s so worth it and so fun. It gives you joy and a reason like, “What do I get to do now?” To be creative for fun. That was a long explanation but that’s what I want to hear. What inspired you to do that and to keep moving forward with that?

How Moneeka Started Her Life Of Bliss And Joy

This is March of 2024 and I am at the Enterprising Women Conference in Orlando. I brought my daughter because they also have a young enterprising woman focused on like high school girls and STEM, which she is. We’re sitting at a table with somebody else and I’m talking about the fact that somehow it came up that I was going to have a milestone birthday in October. That year was going to be this birthday and this lady and my daughter were like, “What are you going to do for fun? What are you going to do for your birthday? How are you going to celebrate it? What are you going to do?”

Before my previous birthday, I’m not saying the number because I’m just 35 forever. Let’s just say that. I did 40 days of outrageousness and I thought, “That was fun. Maybe I’ll have 50 days of fun.” I looked at the calendars and said, “August 13th, that’s when it starts. That’s 50 days before my October 1st birthday, so I’ll just do 50 days of fun.” I shared it on Facebook just so have that accountability around it and so it began. Every day, I was like, “What can I do for fun?” Some days, it would be late at night and I’m like, “I have to have my fun. What am I going to do?” The little things, big things or trips.

Some of them were silly and creative. It ran the gamut but every day, I did something fun then my birthday hit. I spent my birthday in Mexico with my husband and I realized, “This has been so profound doing this thing.” When I was focused on outrageousness the previous time, for some reason, it didn’t have the same vibrancy. It was great but there was something that happened this time with these 50-days. I fell deeply in love with my life. I found so much gratitude and I saw all the richness that I had, the people, my family, my friends and this beautiful world. It just turned me into the abundance and richness I have in my life.

It was very powerful and very profound. I decided that I didn’t want to stop, so I said, “I’m going to just do a whole year. We’re at 50, let’s go 365. Let’s do it.” I kept going. It’s day 232. I have continued on this journey and it’s been very powerful and very fun. At 50, I invited others to join me, if they wanted to. I said, “I’m going to be doing this. I think it’s awesome. Please come and join. We’re going to do monthly challenges to do each month or do the year. Do what you want.”

I have created a private Facebook group. It’s called Fabulous Fun Trip Around the Sun. If you find it, you can request to join and play along. All are welcome. The more people having fun in the world, the better. Like you, I had my bliss-ciplines. I had pleasure practicing but there is something different about fun.

Creating Fun Interruptions In Life

In 2024, early in the year I went to Africa and that’s one of my bliss-ciplines as we do these awesome trips. At least once a year, my husband and I have this big adventure. We went to Africa and I gave a talk soon after that. That Africa ruined my life because I had so much fun. I was so in tune with danger and I was doing something that was so close to my heart. It’s so aligned to who I am and I realized that I was not looking forward to going home. There wasn’t enough fun at home to attract me back.

I came home and I did this two months of sleeping because I was like, “Oh my gosh.” When you talk about fun, it’s so important because pleasure, our bliss-ciplines and staying up lifted, all of those things are ways of life. There is a way of being and showing up in the world. They help us in our relationships. They help us in our businesses. They make us who we are and happy to look at ourselves in the mirror. They’re all very good but they’re not fun on their own thing. It’s that fun that brings us, that makes us real like, gratitude is one of my bliss-ciplines.

Having the fun makes it so much more natural because you become more grateful for life when it is more fun. That’s just the way that it is. Fun is not a word that we talked about in our society like you were saying Monick. People think it’s frivolous. I’ve been called all kinds of interesting names like a hedonist. I don’t know if you’ve ever called that. I’m like, “Do what that means?”

What do I need to do for people to call me a hedonist?

For me, even though I call it bliss, for so long the focus was fun and I lost that. I didn’t lose my desire but I lost my capacity to search for that in a way. It got lost in the shuffle. It’s been so good to have you remind me, “That thing. That’s important, and that’s what makes us so excited to wake up in the morning. That’s what brings us back home when we’re away or inspires us to have a big adventure of life and do all the amazing things that we can and want to do, but having fun through all of it.

 

It reminds me, because I’ve had several travels. I’ve gone to Mexico, Italy, and England during the past 232 days. I’ve had those trips as well and I think that is fun. It’s made and looked for. I’m being very conscious about, “I have to do something fun, specifically.” It’s helped me almost be like a tourist in my own city. As I’m looking for adventure or play, a couple of the days have been to do touristy things in LA. I went to the Mann’s Chinese Theater, and I did the hand prints in the bottom and foot print. I just went by myself and I did this super touristy LA thing.

I’ve done some other things like that. It’s helped me to see the familiar and unfamiliar ways. Sometimes, it’s even finding the fun just with my family. My kids just played this game high low buffalo, where it’s asking that, what’s a high that you’ve had? What’s a low or a challenge? What’s a buffalo? It’s something random or funny. We all went around and we shared. It got us deep. Teo, my son was like, “This was fun. We need to do this more. We need more conversations like this more.” It’s because I was looking for fun, it deepens and makes what you might take for granted. What I was often taking for granted, it’s helped me to mind it for what is special.

I had a conversation with another girlfriend of mine and she’s like, “Sometimes, I’ve been having a bad day. I look up and I see a rainbow and I’m like, ‘A rainbow.’” She goes back to her bad day but it uplifted her just a little bit. My thing to her was, “Kudos to you for looking for the rainbow.” There are a lot of people that were driving on the street having a bad day that didn’t look at the rainbow or didn’t allow themselves to get affected by the beauty or the pleasure that could provide. Having this intention of, “I’m going to look for things that are going to uplift me.”

The fun little things can add so much playfulness and newness to life. Share on X

That’s something that I do very naturally, but the intention to look for something that I could do that’s fun, I just took for granted that my life is fun. Sometimes, it’s not. That intention to look for it, to not take everything around us for granted and to look for the unexpected in what we think is expected. All of those fun little things, that new intention, can add so much playfulness, joy and newness to life.

How To Prioritize Fun During Tough Moments

I’m going to ask you because part of the conversation you said you wanted to have was about how and why we want to do this. One thing isn’t possible when life happens or when things seem to be falling apart. Some people are happy with what’s happening in government. Other people are thinking that the sky is falling and there’s so much angst.

Sometimes, it feels pretty revolutionary for me to be reaching for fun in the middle and to be posting as opposed to like, “This sky is falling,” but do you know what I did? I made a blanket for it.Anyway, this is what I’m posting and sharing about. It’s silly, but let’s talk about your thoughts, like reaching for the joy, the bliss or the fun when things are very tough.

There’s a lot that happens in the world that we can’t control. We can’t control the government and what’s going on. We just can’t. Things happen to us frequently that we can’t control. I live in Midtown Sacramento and there are homeless people everywhere. When I first moved here, every single time I would see one, it just completely broke my heart. I don’t want to say that I’ve desensitized to that because I never want to.

One of the things that I can say to myself is, I need to get rid of homelessness. That’s not something that I have any control over, but I can be kind to this person. I can donate to that group. There are things that I can do even in a situation that I have no control over. That’s true. When we look at fun, that’s the thing that we can do. No matter what is going on out there in the world, we can do something that is fun.

 

Honestly, several times I’ve posted in your group and I felt guilty, Monick, like, “I’m having fun. This is a bad day and blah, blah, blah.” I’m having fun and I feel a little guilty. That’s the thing. There’s no reason to feel guilty because you’re making a choice to uplift your own life in a way that makes you more present in all the things that you can do to improve your life in the world. For me, reaching for fun is making the choice to do what you can do.

You’re all so uplifting others around you in the sharing of it and the energy you bring. I try to invite people to come play with me as much as possible. Sometimes, they do and sometimes they don’t and I’ll go out and have fun by myself. That’s all good, too. You always say, “Happy wife, happy life or Mama is not happy, nobody is happy.” I know that taking the time to make myself happy and tap into my own fun and pleasure, that helps others.

Hopefully, as I invite other people to have fun and it uplifts them and their lives. My kids are seeing my fun, especially the first 50 days. Allie was very helpful. She created a ChatGPT list of things we could do for fun. It’s like, “I have to do this fun thing.” Even though it wouldn’t have been her first instinct to go and do it, she’s like, “Alright, let’s go do your fun thing.” It allows us to spread joy. I also think that in tough times things are challenging. There’s like, where do we put our focus? We focus on, “This guy’s fun.” Everything is horrible or, as you said, we can focus on what we can control and what is around us that we can be grateful for.

We can focus on finding the fun and the play in all of it. They’re like despite it. When we are in a challenging time like reaching for fun, it retrains our brain. As you said, it’s like a fun interrupt. It’s a pattern interrupt that we can or I can find myself stuck in the negative spiral. It’s just like you’re stuck in it but when you do interrupt that pattern, that spiral and focus on something else, focus on what can I do for fun, play and on, I have all of these opportunities and all these wonderful things that are in my life. It completely transforms where you do and then I come back to my problem so much more creative and so much more resourceful. It gets me unstuck and able to think more clearly and creatively. I’ve found a lot of value in it.

Using Fun To Defeat Burnout

That’s part of what happened for me, which is why I went through such a big burnout. I hadn’t interjected enough fun. I had interjected what was needed but I didn’t take that extra step to find the fun even through all the drama of what was going wrong. It was fascinating for me when the magic happened through this year of trauma. Let’s just call it that. I had been pushing and pushing. I was doing it the masculine way.

I was pushing, active and solving problems. I was calling the right people and doing all of the things that needed to be done. Granted, they do need to be done but it was doing it in a very masculine pushing way. I was still doing my bliss-ciplines but I will say, that was not very fun for me, that whole process then I went on a vacation. I’m trying to remember what it was that I did. I think it was David. We went on a vacation for our wedding anniversary. That’s in August.

I remember thinking, “This isn’t working. I’m just going to let it go. I’m not going to think about it.” It’s off limits as far as being a topic at the table for dinner or for the whole weekend. We’re not talking about this. We’re not thinking about this. It was five days. We’re not going to do anything about this. I need to just let it go and we did that, which is very hard. When I came back, it was fascinating because I was so much more grounded, more relaxed and we had so much fun.

He was much more joyful and I started calling people again. Now, I was in a joyful place. When I called them, I was giggling. We had good conversations. It was like, “How are you doing?” Rather than, “What’s going on with this thing?” Even the opening of the conversations were kinder, funner and sweeter. Literally within a week, we had a solution to the problem. It still took five months to iron it out and make it work. The point that I’m trying to make, when we are having fun, when we allow ourselves to interrupt, as women, we also become much more attractive to the solution. I often say that I am the boots on the ground for God.

When we are joyful, we allow ourselves to do these fun interruptions. Share on X

We’re like, that pushing isn’t necessary for us women. We can attract what is good, right and possible solutions and then we can move with grace towards making those things happen or not. Weeding them out is going to be the next thing. They all can happen with that sense of attraction, which happens much more when a woman in this feeling of play and joy. We attract so much more. We’re able to affect other people through the conversation to start with, how are you, rather than what’s going on with that loan?

The way that we react and interact to people and to solutions and to possibilities is going to be completely different. Literally, everything turned around and was so counterintuitive. Do a weekend away where you don’t talk about it. You don’t have the intention that a solution will come. You don’t tell your subconscious mind to work on this. I did none of that stuff. I was just like, “I’m done. This is out of my brain, out of my space, and out of my conversation. It’s gone and I’m going to have fun.”

That fun interrupted and changed everything. What if I had been doing that the whole time? Might we have found a solution sooner? Maybe. Would I have gone through this incredible burnout that I went through? Probably not. I probably would have had a much easier time of it if I had focused on doing a few more of those fun interrupts.

Answering Rapid-Fire Questions

With the fun and pleasure, we are attracted to our solution. We can be repellent to it. We’re going to do a quick fire joy round then we’ll do our trinity. What’s one thing that always brings you joy?

My husband’s smile.

What’s your favorite bliss boosting morning ritual?

Going for a lovely walk to get coffee with my dog and my husband and having that time. It’s walking, going to coffee and relaxing. Taking some us time.

What’s a book or quote you live by?

There’s so many of them. I can’t come up with one right off the top of my head. Sorry.

There’s so many but since we’re talking about playing a game, I think for me, The Game of Life and How to Play It by Florence Scovel Shinn is one of my favorite books.

One of the chapters in my book Choose Bliss is, Play is the Way. Frequently, I will just repeat that to myself.

Get In Touch With Moneeka

I love that. I know you and I could talk for hours but we’re going to have to wrap up. Where can people find you, learn more about where you are and tap into your blissful wisdom? You did mention your book.

BlissfulInvestor.com is a place to go. You can be a blissful investor. You’ll get to find out about all my books there and I’ll be posting. I post my show there, what’s new and what’s coming up. All of that stuff will be there. You can also go to MoneekaSawyer.com. It’s easier to spell Blissful Investors.

It’s just like me in the sense that we each have very unique names.

It’s just weird.

We spell our names weirdly.

The other thing is, we have the same mission to help women to empower them. The other place that you can find me and you guys should check this out is at Monick’s Facebook group.

The Fabulous Fun Trip Around the Sun.

We can connect there, too.

Trinity: Moneeka’s Brag, Gratitude, And Desire

Join us. Have fun with us. Let’s close out with trinity, which is a brag, a gratitude and desire. What is one thing you are celebrating? What’s your brag?

I just completed another screenplay that I think is very good. I’m super excited about it. That’s my brag.

What’s one thing you’re grateful for?

I’m just grateful for this life. I worry about so little and have so much. I can’t even think of just one thing. I’m just so very grateful to be living this life.

Last but not least, what is one desire?

I want my screenplay to be picked up. I want to sell it. That’s my desire. If anybody reading, knows producers or whatever, contact me. I want to sell my screenplay.

Much better than you can ever imagine under grace and perfect place.

Thank you.

You are welcome. Thank you for being the impetus for this fun conversation and for sharing your energy, your wisdom and your bliss. That was such a powerful conversation. To our readers, I want you to remember this. You do not have to choose between success and joy. You can have both. In fact, they must come together because success without joy is not the best in my opinion. When you choose joy, bliss and fun, success comes much more effortlessly. If this episode spoke to your soul, please share it with a sister who needs it. Also, please subscribe so you’ll never miss another episode. Until next time, get real, stay real and let joy and fun be your compass. Bye.

 

Important Links

• Monick Halm on LinkedIn
• Monick Halm on Instagram
• Real Estate Investor Goddesses
• BlissfulInvestor.com/Monick
• Fabulous Fun Trip Around the Sun
• The Game of Life and How to Play It
• Choose Bliss
• Blissful Investor