I’m Teresa Romain . . .

Even though we haven’t met, I want you to know that I care about you.

I care that you have the resources you need to fully live the unique life you were created to live – with more freedom, joy and ease. I care that you have the resources to generously share the gifts you’ve been given with our world – gifts our world needs.

Those resources include money. But also support, connection and community.
Most of all, they include respect, compassion and love.

It breaks my heart when beautiful, capable, caring human beings live with a constant—sometimes secret—sense of “not enough”…

With money. With life. With themselves.
They believe in abundance but they’re just not experiencing it—despite all they’ve done and the success they’ve achieved.

I know this pain well. It’s what I experienced for much of my life.  And so have my clients.
Perhaps you, too, can relate.

Where it all began…

In 1981, I entered college planning to major in Accounting because my brother, Bill – whom I idolized – was an accountant. And my mom approved.

Then, as a freshman, I took a class called “An Introduction to Theology.”
I LOVED that class. I loved the invitation it gave me learn about and question God’s relationship with the created world—and ours with God.
It felt meaningful. Alive. Grounding.
It resonated with my soul and lit me up inside.
It spoke to who I was, not just what I could do.

I no longer wanted to be an accountant. I can still remember my next trip home, sitting at the dinner table, excited to tell my parents the news…

“I’ve decided I want to major in Theology.”

I can still see the look of horror on my mom’s face. “Oh no, Teresa. You can’t do that. You have to make money. You’re going to have student loans to pay off.”

I didn’t understand…
 “Can’t I do that AND be a Theology major?” 

Mom simply shook her head.

After that, I didn’t argue or push back. I took as many theology classes as I could – because I loved them.  I even went so far as to tell people I was a business AND theology major.  Most people thought it was a strange combination.

I didn’t.  Business, to me, was about dealing with the practical realities of life – including money. Theology was what gave life meaning and purpose.

I understood, even then, that the spiritual was meant to be the context for all of life.
And that money belonged inside that context—not separated from it.

But I didn’t know how to trust that knowing so, in 1985, I graduated with a business degree and a corporate job.

At the time, it didn’t feel like betrayal.
It felt like being responsible. Like growing up. Like choosing reality over idealism.

Three years out of college, I was making $100,000 or more a year.
I LOVED having all that money. I loved being seen as successful.

The problem was that I did not love my job. But I didn’t dare quit.  I had absorbed my mom’s (and the world’s) message…

“I need to make money.”

Little did I realize that, in doing so, I was making money more important than me.

More important than trusting and following my heart – than honoring the unique human being I was created to be.  Without realizing it, I had learned to override my own dreams and desires in the name of being practical, safe and responsible.

The pattern I couldn’t see…

This pattern of self-denial and self-betrayal quietly shaped the choices I made for decades afterward.

The way I measured success. The pressure I put on myself. The choices I made around money – both how I made it and how I spent it. I thought it was what I was supposed to do.

I thought life required an either/or choice…

Money or meaning. Money or God. Money or joy.
Money OR me.

It would take many years—and a lot of heartache, pain, frustration, fear and shame —before I could finally see that this either/or way of living was the problem.

“This Isn’t Living!”

When I finally left my corporate job in 1994 to start my own business, I truly believed I was choosing a different path. I was finally going to do work that made a difference in people’s lives. And yes — I still wanted to make good money doing it.

At first, it felt like freedom.
I was doing meaningful work. I was helping people.

But without realizing it, my life was still driven by the need to make money.

I worked constantly — believing success required it.
I also spent a lot of money — money I didn’t have — trying to make even more money.
Most of the money I made went toward payments on the debt we (my husband and I) had accumulated.

I kept telling myself that once we got ahead — once I made enough, saved enough, paid it all down… then I could relax. I’d feel secure. I’d finally be able to enjoy my life.

Money first… Then me.

But that moment never came.

Instead, I was exhausted. Living under the constant pressure of “not enough”.
Secretly, I felt ashamed. As I saw it, I was an Abundance Coach who wasn’t very abundant.

Eventually, I reached a breaking point. We couldn’t keep up with the bills. We decided to file bankruptcy. I felt even more ashamed.

With the debt gone, I told myself I no longer cared if I made a lot of money. I scaled my business and our lifestyle way back. If we spent less, I didn’t have to work so hard.

I was finally off the hamster wheel. 

I finally had time to rest.  To read books I loved.  To take long walks and play in our garden.

I had time to be still and reconnect with my soul.

The pressure was gone. I convinced myself I was happy – that I was living the life I wanted to live.

Then came Monday, April 25, 2016…

That was the day I woke up feeling like a shrunken shell of the person I wanted to be – and knew I was created to be.

In tears, I called my coach…
“This isn’t living, Pat!”

And once I said it, there was no going back.
I didn’t know what was wrong.  I didn’t know where to go next. And I didn’t know what I was missing.

I just knew I had exhausted the only two options I knew… 

Do more, make more, achieve more, have more, be more.
Or settle for less.  Less than I wanted or needed.
Neither worked. 

I knew I could no longer live in the either/or, more OR less world I had been living in.

I was no longer willing to settle for less than being fully alive, whole, loved and free – with the resources I needed to grow and thrive.

And I didn’t want anyone else to have to live that way either. 

I didn’t have language for it yet — but I finally chose to listen to and trust what my soul knew back when I was in college.
When business and theology were connected (not separate) worlds.

I could feel that something bigger than me was at work. Something deeper was wanting to emerge.

And that moment — when denial was no longer possible — is what opened the door to everything that came next.

Guided Into a New Way…
More spacious. More alive.

That moment didn’t give me answers.
It gave me the courage to be honest. 
To admit that what I was doing wasn’t working.

That moment opened me to something I hadn’t been able to see or embrace before.
I began listening for – and being guided into – a new way of living.  A new way of relating to money.

A way that honors the fullness of who we are – human AND spiritual.
As people living real lives in a world where money matters.

Over time, that listening revealed something I hadn’t been able to see before.  My experience was not a personal failure. Nor was it due to a lack of discipline or faith.

I realized that the model I had for abundance could never give me the experience of abundance I longed for.

That model for abundance doesn’t just fall short — it quietly perpetuates scarcity in our individual lives and in our world.

Seeing that changed everything.

• It changed how I understand God – the Source of All Life and Abundance.
• It changed how I relate to myself and my own inherent worth.
• It changed how I relate to the world around me.
• And, most of all, it changed my relationship with money.

Why I care so much…

This is why I care so deeply about the work I do.  It’s why I will sit with someone in their fear, their confusion, their shame — without trying to fix them.

I know what it’s like to believe in abundance — but not experience it. 
I know what it’s like to be successful — but not free.
To seem confident, capable and happy — only to feel empty inside.
To do everything “right” — and wonder why it didn’t work.

I’ve come to understand that scarcity is not a problem to solve.
It’s an invitation and catalyst for healing and growth — for wholeness.

Scarcity is what had me discover and embrace a new understanding of what abundance really is – and a new model that supports me to experience it in my life.  Not one day, when I have more… but this day, with what I already have.

I know what it’s like to live caught in The Abundance Trap… and I’ve experienced how different life can be BEYOND it.
How much more joyful, free, fulfilling and magical life becomes when we stop working so hard FOR abundance and practice living IN abundance.

You’re important… to us all…

This is why I care so deeply about you — even if we’ve not yet met.

I care that you come to know — and trust — that you do not have to deny or betray yourself to access or deserve those resources.

If something in my story resonates with you, please know this:

I’m here to support you.
To inspire, stretch and encourage you.
I’m here to guide you – even as I walk with you and learn from you.

I’m here to help you liberate yourself from The Abundance Trap and say “YES!” to the life – and resources – that await you beyond it.

Life IN abundance.