Trying to grow a business when you can’t get to the money you need? That’s not a personal failure—that’s a design feature of our financial system.

In this episode of Disrupt Your Money, Meg talks about access to capital: who gets approved, who gets shut out, and why “just build your credit” is a lot more complicated (and biased) than it sounds.

Meg walks through the receipts on how banks, credit scores, and venture capital decide who’s “worthy” of funding—often before anyone even looks at your business. Then she shifts into strategy: how to build business credit on purpose, where to find community-based capital (like CDFIs, co-ops, and community rounds), and what it looks like to push for fairer systems while still surviving inside the current ones.

⏱️ In This Episode:

00:00 Access to Money vs. “Merit”

01:23 What the Data Says About Funding Gaps

02:23 Venture Capital & Double Standards

05:23 Strategy #1: Learn How Credit Really Works

05:43 Building Business Credit on Purpose

06:00 Strategy #2: Community Capital, CDFIs & Relationship-Based Lending

06:42 Strategy #3: Co-ops, Community Rounds & Lending Circles

07:33 Getting Your Business “Lend-Ready” (Separation, Records, Support)

08:26 The Thin Credit File Catch-22

09:15 Policy, Advocacy & Pushing for Fair Lending

10:21 Building Credit and Community as Acts of Disruption

🔗 Mentioned in This Episode:

👉 Federal Reserve Small Business Credit Survey (funding gaps by race & gender)
👉 Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) & mission-driven lenders
👉 WeFunder – community round / crowdfunding platform for small businesses → https://wefunder.com/
👉 National Urban League → https://nul.org/
👉 Latino Economic Development Center → https://www.ledcmetro.org/
👉 Association for Enterprise Opportunity → https://aeoworks.org/

💬 Connect with Us:

🌐 Website → https://equitablemoneyproject.com
📸 Instagram → https://instagram.com/equitablemoneyproject
🎧 Podcast → https://equitablemoneyproject.com/podcast

🚀 Your Next Step:
Ready to make your money match your values and help build new paths to capital? Download our free Wealth is Resistance Action Kit → https://equitablemoneyproject.com/kit

If you’ve ever been told “if you can’t beat the system, join it” and felt your whole body go NOPE—this one’s for you.

Meg digs into a hard truth: most of the systems we move through every day—money, tax, healthcare, education, “justice”—were never designed to make space for us. They were designed to protect wealth, maintain power, and then gaslight us into thinking our struggles are personal failures instead of predictable outcomes of a rigged game.

In this episode, you’ll hear how that rigging shows up in credit scores, redlining, business funding, healthcare premiums, and student loans—and what it really means to “burn it down” versus “build something better.”

⏱️ In This Episode:

00:00 The System Was Never Built for Us

01:35 The Economy Built on Stolen Land & Labor

02:42 Playing a Rigged Game: Credit, Banking & Redlining

03:00 Entrepreneurship Under Biased Systems

04:53 Healthcare Costs, Premium Tax Credits & the Price of Freedom

06:48 Mutual Aid, Co-ops & Building New Systems

07:59 What You Can Control vs What You Can’t

08:41 Our Own Systems: Lending Circles, Rest & Ethical Wealth

10:52 Anger as Sacred Fuel & Building What Comes Next

🔗 Mentioned in This Episode:

👉 Mutual aid networks & community care
👉 Cooperative business models & community banks
👉 Worker-owned companies, credit unions & local businesses
👉 Informal lending circles, bartering & community markets
👉 Community investment funds, universal healthcare, debt forgiveness & fair lending as policy goals

💬 Connect with Us:

🌐 Website → https://equitablemoneyproject.com
📸 Instagram → https://instagram.com/equitablemoneyproject
🎧 Podcast → https://equitablemoneyproject.com/podcast

🚀 Your Next Step:
Ready to make your money match your values and help build the next system, not just survive the old one? Download our free Wealth is Resistance Action Kit → https://equitablemoneyproject.com/kit

When you hear “DIY entrepreneur,” what do you picture? Because somehow it’s scrappy and admirable for some people, and reckless or “unprofessional” for others.

In this episode of Disrupt Your Money, we’re unpacking the double standard baked into entrepreneurship: why marginalized business owners are expected to bootstrap forever, learn everything themselves, and “just Google it,” while others are encouraged (and funded) to outsource, scale, and get support early.

We talk about how the glorification of DIY culture is deeply tied to capitalism, white supremacy, and respectability politics, and how it quietly keeps people underpaid, overworked, and burned out. This isn’t about shaming DIY paths (we’ve all been there). It’s about naming the system, reclaiming choice, and deciding when DIY is empowering—and when it’s a trap.

Because building equitable wealth shouldn’t require you to suffer, struggle, or do everything alone.

So grab your tea and let’s disrupt the lie that you have to DIY your way to exhaustion to be taken seriously.

⏱️ In This Episode:

00:00 The Myth of Entrepreneurship

00:40 The Harsh Reality of Self-Employment

01:33 The Double Standard in Entrepreneurship

02:39 The Challenges Faced by Marginalized Entrepreneurs

03:54 The Inequity in Access to Capital

04:38 The Cultural Pressure and Systemic Barriers

06:51 Redefining Success in Entrepreneurship

09:57 Building Businesses on Your Own Terms

11:02 Collective Entrepreneurship and Solidarity

13:17 Call to Action: Support Equitable Entrepreneurship

🔗 Mentioned in This Episode:

👉 Wealth is Resistance Action Kit – use your money as a tool for change → https://equitablemoneyproject.com/kit

💬 Connect with Us:
🌐 Website → https://equitablemoneyproject.com
📸 Instagram → https://instagram.com/equitablemoneyproject
🎧 Podcast → https://equitablemoneyproject.com/podcast

🚀 Your Next Step:
Ready to make your money match your values and navigate this new tax law on your own terms? Download our free Wealth is Resistance Action Kit → https://equitablemoneyproject.com/kit