Rising Stars: Meet Trudi Kayser of Life Made to Order Financial Phoenix LLC

Today we’d like to introduce you to Trudi Kayser.

Hi Trudi, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Back in 2013, I was a financial disaster. Zero retirement, high anxiety, and a diagnosis of COPD that left me wondering how I’d afford to breathe in my old age—literally. I had accepted that I’d work until the day I keeled over. I mean, who saves money when they’re just trying to survive?

Then someone invited me to a money workshop. I ignored her (as one does when they’re broke and prideful), but the seed was planted. I finally dragged myself there—and that room lit a fire in me. I left that day with hope. Real, tangible, I-can-do-this hope.

Next day? I got life insurance with Living Benefits. A few weeks later? I joined the company because I knew if someone like me could change, others could too. That’s how I started my journey with Five Rings Financial and eventually built my own agency, Life Made to Order Financial Phoenix—because life should be made to order, especially your financial one.

But wait—plot twist. In the middle of growing this business, I started baking sourdough. Like, obsessively. It was therapy. It was art. It was sacred. I launched a home bakery called Sourdough Made to Order, and during the pandemic, it took off.

Eventually I closed the bakery, but the dough never left me. I realized: sourdough and money are the same damn thing. Both require patience, understanding, timing, and the right ingredients. That’s how The Dough Retreat was born—where we bake, talk money, rewrite our stories, and rise. Literally and metaphorically.

Now I lead money workshops, run a national agency, host fun local events and soon teach weekly Beyond the Dough baking & money classes. Because no one said money healing had to be boring.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
HA. No. It’s been a glorious mess with detours, demons, and dough flying everywhere.

I grew up poor, internalized every “we can’t afford that” message you can imagine, and carried deep shame about money well into adulthood. I struggled with addiction, became a mom young, and truly didn’t believe I was worthy of any kind of success—especially financial.

I got sober at 38. That’s when everything shifted. I had to rebuild from scratch. Starting a business with those old “not good enough” tapes playing in my head? It was brutal. But I did it anyway. I learned to change my language. I stopped apologizing for wanting more. I started helping others heal too.

And here’s what I’ve learned: you can’t spreadsheet your way out of shame. That’s why I do this work differently. That’s why I created The Dough Retreat and my weekly kitchen-table workshops—to teach people how to handle their money while also handling their emotions around it. With snacks. Always snacks.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Life Made to Order Financial Phoenix is a fee-free, education-first financial agency where we teach regular people how to make their money work without the confusing lingo, pressure, or quotas. We’re virtual, nationwide, and deeply human.

Our bread and butter (pun fully intended) is Living Benefits life insurance—which lets you access your policy while you’re alive if you get sick, instead of waiting for someone to read your will. We also help people build tax-free retirement strategies and protect their 401(k)s from market nosedives.

But we’re not just finance nerds with pie charts. We also get our hands dirty—in dough.

This year, I launched The Dough Retreat: a weekend escape in Pinetop, AZ where we blend baking, breathwork, and badass money coaching. We knead through your scarcity stories and rise into a new relationship with wealth, one crusty loaf at a time.
We host a money class called Money 101 and a women’s networking and empowerment event called Wine, Women and Wealth®️in Maricopa every 3rd Monday.
We also added a fun event to the lineup called Dice, Dames & Dough Bunco – we host that the 2nd Saturday of every month and it’s so much fun! Learning about money can be fun!

And starting soon? I’m bringing it to the Valley with weekly Beyond the Dough workshops—small, local, in-home or in a community kitchen experiences where we bake bread, learn money basics, and laugh until we cry. If therapy and a financial consultant had a baby over a sourdough starter—this would be it.

Do you any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
Playing in flour while my mother was cooking and baking. Ironically here I am in my 50’s (the same age my mother was back then) playing in dough. It’s funny how things turn out huh?

Contact Info:

• Website: https://lmtophx.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifemadetoorderphx/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/trudi.kayser
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trudikayser/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@EverythingDough
• Other: https://thedoughretreat.com

Image Credits
Diana Lopez with Sincerely Photo AZ for headshots. Rights released by attendees of our workshops. Money 101, Wine, Women & Wealth, Dice Dames & Dough Bunco and Beyond The Dough workshop.