468: How Side Hustling Nurse Naseema McElroy Paid Off $1M in Debt
Side Hustle Pro
Nicaila Matthews Okome | Side Hustle Pro Media
4.8 • 1.8K Ratings
🗓️ 25 June 2025
⏱️ 62 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week in the guest chair we have Naseema McElroy, author and the founder of Financially Intentional, a platform about personal finance and living life intentionally. Starting with just under one million dollars in debt, Naseema taught herself financial literacy, paid off her debt, and started side hustling as a consultant teaching others to do the same.
In this episode she shares:
- How she created an intentional budget that didn’t leave her in a place of lack
- Why she believes everyone can take control of their finances, and how to actually do it
- The different income streams and resources she uses to stay financially free, and much more!
Highlights include:
00:00 – Intro
01:15 – Becoming a nurse after working in healthcare administration
06:00 – What made her realize she was “broke” despite earning $200K+
09:30 – Creating a zero-based budget to pay off $4K–$9K/month in debt
11:00 – What made up nearly $1M in total debt
14:00 – Launching Financially Intentional on Instagram
17:30 – Why she still loves nursing and hasn't gone full-time entrepreneur
22:00 – Using her job to fund her passions
24:30 – The true meaning of financial independence
28:00 – How she makes time to build her brand
Check out this episode and others on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube
Links mentioned in this episode
- Naseema’s Website:https://www.financiallyintentional.com/
- Naseema’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/financiallyintentional/
- Financially Intentional Podcast: https://www.financiallyintentional.com/podcast
- Travel Nurse Housing Rentals: https://www.furnishedfinder.com/
- Podcast Moguls: https://www.sidehustlepro.co/podcast-moguls/
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | And then what gets me and what gets most people is like those little things that you spend a hell of money on that you don't need to spend money on. |
| 0:07.6 | Like when you go to Target or you go girls with your child, are you lost, |
| 0:11.0 | I knew you were trying to come from me like this. |
| 0:13.6 | I knew you were going to start talking about this. |
| 0:18.7 | You're listening to Side Hustle Pro, the podcast that teaches you to build and grow your |
| 0:24.3 | side hustle from passion project to profitable business. And I'm your host, Nikaela Matthews |
| 0:29.9 | Okome. So let's get started. |
| 0:34.6 | Hey, hey, friends. Welcome, welcome. Welcome back to today's episode. It's Nikaela here, back with another episode with an awesome guest. Today, I'm delighted to bring in someone who actually know in real life. That's not always the case, but I had the pleasure of knowing Naseema now for over four years. And she is is just awesome and today's episode took so many different |
| 0:56.7 | turns because there's so much that we can talk about right she's a podcaster she's actually a podcast |
| 1:01.9 | moguls alum she's also a nurse and she's a full-time side hustler she continues to be both a nurse |
| 1:08.6 | and she's built her own platform which we'll hear about in the |
| 1:11.5 | episode. So let me go ahead and read her official bio so you can learn more about her before we |
| 1:15.7 | jump into the episode. So Naseema is a published author and the founder of Financially Intentional, |
| 1:21.4 | a platform about personal finance and living life intentionally. Nesima discusses how taking |
| 1:27.4 | control of her finances has enabled |
| 1:29.7 | her to overcome bankruptcy, divorce, and break the cycle of living paycheck to paycheck. |
| 1:36.5 | She shares her lessons along her path to help others benefit from the freedoms of financial |
| 1:42.0 | independence. Outside of encouraging people to get their financial act together, |
| 1:46.9 | Naseema is a mother, labor and delivery nurse, and so much more. |
| 1:51.4 | Though making six figures for years, she actually struggled with money, |
| 1:55.0 | and I'm sure so many of us can relate to that, right? |
| 1:57.7 | Finally, she realized that she couldn't out-earn her financial ignorance. She knew she |
... |
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