Do you love your business, but it’s not bringing in the sort of income you thought it would? Worse, maybe you’re barely getting by, or your significant other is gripping about how much time it takes and the poor returns it seems to bring. You could even start resenting the business that you had so much passion for.
That’s why episode 65 of Life Boss: Becoming Unstoppable Podcast is about money mindset and cultivating abundance!
In this episode of Life Boss Podcast, I am sharing the importance of 5 money mindset steps that will transform your business and I give you actionable steps you can take right now to set actionable goals that will allow you to cultivate abundance day in and day out so that you can achieve the results that you want.
Some of the talking points I go over in this episode include:
- Challenge Your Money Beliefs
- Change Your Mindset from Rigid to Flexible
- Change Your Negative Tapes
- 5 most common money mistakes and what to do about them
- Attaining unbreakable confidence & unstoppable momentum
Remember to get the resources mentioned in this episode:
(1) The Abundance Journal For Highly Creative Woman
(2) Book by Jody Jelas LadyBalls: Live Your Ultimate Lifestyle And Build A Business You Freakin’ Love, Just By Being YOU!
(3) One-to-one 90-minute Planning Session with Karem – Use code 2021VISION before January 31st 2021 to get your session at only $195, get the recording plus 7 days of email support to clarify anything discussed. Details here
(4) EP 63 – HOW TO SET GOALS IN TIMES OF CRISIS
(5) EP 64 – GET UNSTUCK, FIND MOMENTUM
Are you ready to start setting the systems you need—to successfully run your business without becoming overwhelmed and overworked?
Then, be sure to tune in to all the episodes to receive tons of practical tips on how to hack your body and mind to squash the overwhelm, stop glorifying stress, and design a business that brings you joy, and to hear even more about the points outlined above.
Thank you for listening!
If you enjoyed this episode, take a screenshot of the episode to post in your IG stories and tag me @karemmieses.official ! PLUS don’t forget to subscribe, rate and review the podcast and tell me your key takeaways!
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Episode Show Notes
Whether or not you are a new entrepreneur or have been running your own online business for a while, if you are here, you know already that you need to take steps to transform your business—and your income.
You may love your business, but it’s not bringing in the sort of income you optimistically anticipated. Worse, maybe you’re barely getting by, or your significant other is gripping about how much time it takes and the poor returns it seems to bring.
These are common scenarios among online entrepreneurs—particularly coaches, who tend to be caring people who put helping others first. But here’s the thing: There’s absolutely no need for you to deprive yourself while helping others. In fact, that’s counter-productive—and, what’s worse, may make you feel like a fraud.
You feel caught in the proverbial “catch 22”, where the harder you work, the more you spin your financial wheels.
You feel stuck. And that’s why you’re here.
We’re going to take a look at five simple money mindset steps you can take to get the ball rolling again and break that cycle.
And to step it up and make this episode very actionable I created a special Abundance Journal for Highly Creative Woman
So let’s get right to it …
1. Challenge your money belief system
When you first planned or set up your business, did you stop and think about your money belief system, and how it was going to affect your ability to reach your financial goals?
Did you make specific financial goals? Do you know how much you have to spend on your business, how much you need to make, and how much you want to make?
If you answered “no”, then it’s time to revisit what you believe about money. If you answered “yes, but I’m frustrated because I’m nowhere near where I thought I would be financially”, that goes for you too.
Let’s take a look at common money beliefs that trip people up—every day—as well as common money mistakes. See how well you can actually answer the following questions. I’m including multiple-choice answers to help you get going and stretch those money muscles.
o What do you believe about “getting rich”?
□ It only happens to others
□ It’s immoral
□ The Universe can supply enough for everybody
□ I can’t wait to be rich!
o Which of the following describes your internal “deserve level”?
□ I never seem to have enough. The Universe hates me.
□ If I get money, something bad happens to take it away.
□ It’s amazing how I just get by with enough to meet my basic needs—but not a penny left over
□ I feel like a fraud, so I don’t charge what others charge for the same services
□ I’m ready to step up and make enough money to reach all my goals—and have some left over to help others with
o Which of these statements feels most true for you?
□ “Money is the root of all evil”
□ Money is something that other people have
□ Money isn’t important: Helping others is all I really care about
□ Money is something I make easily—but I never seem to have enough for my needs!
□ Money is usually the last thing I think about—until I need to pay a bill
□ Money is a game to me; not a goal
□ Money is a powerful tool that helps me through life
□ Money allows me to help people—including myself
Before you ever plan to earn a dime, sit down and really think about your financial belief system. In addition to answering the previous questions for yourself— write down all the common mantras you find yourself using, whenever you think of money—for example, “money is the root of all evil” or “I’m not as good, so I can’t charge as much as other coaches” or “I’m new. I need to give discounts”.
Trust your own intuition. Trust your skills and experience. You are more powerful and more capable of generating the income you want than you think.
Start by making a commitment to throw out negative money beliefs and replace those harmful, untrue mantras with positive, new ones.
2. Change your mindset from rigid to flexible
If you have tried to change your money beliefs and experienced nothing but resistance from your subconscious, the most likely cause is a rigid, inflexible mindset. That’s not something you consciously decided. It’s just that you’ve developed and embraced one way of handling finances, and you’ve done it that way for so many years, it’s hard to step sideways and try something else.
How this manifests when it comes to money habits and beliefs: You find you just can’t get past that negative, self-defeating mantra—even though your conscious mind totally sees that it’s faulty and ineffective. (Childhood mantras are particularly hard to transform, because they’re really ingrained and impressed into our psyches.)
Any good psychologist will tell you, it’s never a question of being stuck between a rock and hard place: It’s a question of looking for alternate exits that consist of neither and making the conscious decision to try them.
It’s not just about changing your money beliefs: It’s about changing your responses to money matters and decisions. Doing this consciously, noting the results, and repeating new reactions, mantras, or habits until they become your new normal.
3. Correct these five most common money mistakes
There are five certain money mistakes that new or struggling entrepreneurs seem to make, over and over again. Let’s take a look at them—and what we can do to avoid or correct them.
The most common—and it’s a surprisingly simple mistake …
Not creating a separate bank account for your business
Even if you use one of your existing personal bank accounts, keep that account dedicated to your business. Don’t write personal checks or interact out of that account for personal expenses. Instead, write yourself a paycheck, cash it, and do all your personal spending out of that. More about this on TIPS TO DO THE BOOKKEEPING FASTER FOR COACHES and THREE MONEY-SAVING TIPS FOR BUSINESS
Not budgeting or tracking expenses
Another surprising mistake many entrepreneurs make: Not really tracking their expenses. Usually, the reason for this is that the entrepreneur is so focused on tackling a problem and finding a solution, or on reaching a particular goal, that tracking falls by the wayside. But there’s a real downside to this: It’s just so easy to cut into profits by overspending on production, staffing, marketing, and promotion when you don’t budget and track carefully.
A typical example: Spending on courses to learn how to do a task, and at the end of it, still not being able to do the task, because you never have time to actually devote to the course you bought. So what does the average new entrepreneur do? You guessed it: She buys another course!
A better solution might be to outsource that particular task or automate it. But you’ll never know if you don’t track your expenses and create a working budget.
You need to know not only how much you need to make every month in order to meet your goals, but also how much you have to spend.
Only when you know both can you hope to start strategizing your financial goals efficiently and correctly.
Doing it all yourself
While it’s a good thing to have a strong grasp of where you are financially, and it’s an even better thing to record and track your finances daily, it’s a mistake to isolate yourself in financial decisions that you make. Talking to an accountant or a business advisor should be a first step: Not one for “down the road”. You need to know what categories to create, so you’ll know which receipts to save and what expenses you can claim.
A bookkeeper can be a great asset. Finding one that specializes in online businesses is an even better strategy decision. Ideally, a bookkeeper prepares your financial records for your accountant, who makes the final tax preparations, so you need both; but once in a blue moon, you will find a bookkeeper who is able to prepare taxes too and either submit them electronically for you or save you serious money on accountant fees.
It can also be a wise strategy to hire a business coach for yourself, so you can discuss financial decisions with her.
Even if you can’t yet afford ongoing sessions with a coach, you can usually always arrange for a one-time consultation—and this can in the long run be a real money-saving, mistake-avoiding option. (Many coaches also offer free strategy sessions: But as a coach yourself, you are aware that these are usually followed by a pitch for an ongoing commitment, so if you’re uncomfortable saying ‘no’, pay for a consultation.)
Whether you ultimately decide to do your financials yourself, or outsource it, make sure you:
o Know what receipts to keep and have a system for recording them
o Make a conscious decision on your financial strategy and routine
Don’t just spend first, then try to figure things out “later”.
Not realizing the relationship between cause and effect
Here’s how this particular mistake usually manifests, financially.
You have a dream. You want to buy an island and live on it. You’ve been specific. You’ve created a vision board, which contains photos of the type of island you want in the location you love; the type of house you’re going to build on it. You’ve added other things to your vision board to help inspire you.
Meanwhile, you wish you had enough money, at the end of the month, to afford a night out at the movies.
Are you likely to achieve that dream of living on your island in a beautiful house?
No, because there’s a huge disconnect between what you are doing now every day, and what you need to do to get there. In reality, you repeat the same actions, charge the same fees, and run your business the same way, day after day. And at the end of each month, there you are again; wishing you had enough money left over to go to the movies.
I call this type of dreaming, “little-kid dreaming”, because it has about as much relation to reality as when a nine-year-old dreams of finding themselves at Hogwarts, with wizardly powers. Not gonna happen. It’s just fiction. It’s fun. It’s a wonderful daydream … but it’s fiction.
What you need to do is:
2. Analyze where you are now
3. Analyze specifically where you would like to be:
o At the end of your journey (when you achieve your Big Dream)
o Next month
o In six months
o In a year
o In five years
4. Decide what you are doing now that is not moving you towards your goals (towards both the little steps and big goals)
5. Figure out what you need to:
o Drop
o Do differently
6. Figure out what one rewarding thing you would like to achieve in your business and/or income:
o By the end of next month
o By the end of six months
o By the end of the year
o By the end of five years
7. Figure out what specific steps you need to take, to achieve each milestone and mini-goal
8. Make a plan
9. Make a commitment to following your plan
10. Start following it, and stick to it!
That’s the way you propel yourself towards any goal. That, and being financially specific. (It’s not enough to say “I want to buy a 2021 BMW by next September”: You need to say “I need to save $25,000 to buy a 2121 BMW by next September the 1st.”)
Undercharging clients and underpaying yourself
This final mistake is a biggie, because it afflicts women entrepreneurs in particular. It’s all tied in with your life experiences and your “deserve level”.
Deserve levels have nothing to do with what a person is worth: Instead, deserve levels have everything to do with what people THINK they are worth.
If you constantly find yourself undercharging … if your clients get rich, but your fees are still stuck at entry-level … and especially if you feel like a fraud while providing services that get results for clients … then you definitely have a low ‘deserve level’. And if your clients are happy, experiencing transformations and getting results, then that ‘deserve level’ you’ve set for yourself is about as justified as the over-entitled narcissistic that’s full of herself.
In other words, it’s not about what you’re worth at all: It’s about how you feel.
A big clue that you might be suffering from an abnormally low deserve level: If you find yourself ‘feeling like a fraud’. That’s got a name: It’s called the ‘impostor syndrome’, and it occurs when women are conned into thinking that they ought to feel as perfect as their own icons and ideals seem to feel.
Talk to any top expert, however, and you’ll find that they too often suffer from ‘impostor syndrome’: They have just learned how to name it and set it aside, and go for what they want.
Even if you are just starting out, never undercut your own value. Don’t discount prices: Instead, run time-limited “introductory specials”—and really stress that time limit. Or offer your introductory rate to ‘the first XX people who sign up’. Make sure people know any lower rate you set is strictly time-limited, numbers-limited and introductory. Focus on your clients—not on your own low deserve level—and make it a privilege to be one of the first few to experience your coaching. (Or whatever other service you provide.)
You need to fix your ‘deserve level’ before you set any monetary goals … and before you go any further!
4. Change your negative tapes
Undercharging can also come out of unrecognized, negative mantras (the leftovers of old money beliefs that no longer serve you and that are most likely not even valid).
For example, the thought “I’m a newbie online” can instantly create a low deserve level when it comes to setting prices. That’s when it is important to change that repetitive negative tape or thought and replace it with one that is more realistic and more positive.
Psychologists used to call this “changing the tape”, back in the days when people used recording machines with actual tape; and what they now call re-framing.
Re-framing refers to taking a negative thought and belief, and transforming it into a more realistic, healthy and positive thought: One that inspires action, rather than depression.
Here’s a little mental trick you can apply, every time you catch and identify a negative ‘tape’.
1. Name that ‘old tape’ thought
2. Take the emotion out of it and describe the situation realistically
3. Change that message into a positive, reality-based message
| Old ‘Tape’ | Reality | Re-framed Thought |
| “I’m a newbie. I can’t charge big bucks yet.” | “I am capable of providing what is needed, but people just don’t know me yet.” | “I deserve to charge what my services are worth as much as any other expert in my field.” |
One final tape you must change before you can start achieving bigger financial and life goals is the tape that identifies change as “fear”. Ask any top Olympian if she is nervous before a race, ask any stage actress if she is nervous before a performance, and the answer is most likely to be a variation of “yes”!
It’s not that top performers don’t feel fear; it’s that they equate fear with living; with being alive; with excitement.
Jody Jelas addresses this in her 2015 book, LadyBalls: “We all know that the most rewarding things yet to be done in life give us two feelings… EXCITEMENT and FEAR!”
Consciously change your old tape from “fear” responses to “excitement”. Consciously change your old tape that identifies your glass as “half empty” to “my glass is half full”.
Do this for any old tape that holds you back, or keeps you stuck at the same income level; or gives you that ‘doomed’ feeling: Thoughts such as “others become superstars, but it’s just not in me”. CHANGE THE TAPE!
The most important step you need to take, however, is to faithfully follow the tape-busting sequence we just discussed, every time you catch yourself running one of those ‘old tapes’. And above all, don’t miss the second step—transforming the old negative thought into a reality-based statement. Without that specific step, your new, re-framed thought is likely to be over-optimistic or off-kilter: And, what’s worse, you won’t believe the new thought without a firm grasp of the reality behind both the old and new thought.
This second ‘reality’ step is what grounds the new re-framed affirmation, and gives it the sort of emotional weight that will stick!
5. Find a goal that transforms and inspires you
The final step to take, when changing your money mindset for the better: Find a goal that lights you up like a Christmas tree.
Find a goal that is going to obsess you, possess you and above all, inspire you: Something that makes it hard for you to go to set it aside and go to bed: And something that makes you eager to wake up and bounce out of bed again in the morning, so you can work towards it.
It should feel as if every morning is the first day of a dream vacation; as if you’re playing, not working.
Now, the reality is that no matter how much one loves one’s vocation, every day is simply not like that. There are boring tasks to take care of, difficult moments to face, hard decisions to make and days when the routine feels stressful rather than empowering. But there are ways to minimize these and revitalize your business.
If your passion is something you work at, that’s a huge plus on so many counts. Research has proven that when we believe in what we are doing on a deep emotional level, we do more, we achieve more, and we work harder and enjoy it more on our way to our goals.
So if you don’t have a goal that transforms you; that makes you committed to your own success, so you can reach that goal, find a way to tailor your current life towards that.
People don’t make commitments to things that don’t inspire them. It’s as simple as that. Oh, they may think they do, and firmly mean to do so; but the fact is, if someone hates what they are doing, or doesn’t believe in it, or it bores them before they even start, it won’t be long before they find ways to:
o Procrastinate
o Avoid tasks related to the goal
o Distract themselves
And then the new resolutions fall by the wayside.
In extreme cases, people have been known to make themselves ill, not even realizing they are doing so, or have breakdowns.
In less extreme cases, constant stress, depression and feelings of failure make every day a chore.
If you believe in something strongly enough, you’ll do the yucky parts that you would normally avoid. And when you get into the habit of investing in action, you not only move forward, you create momentum—kind of like running down a hill.
Or think of downhill ski racing. You start at the top of a hill, and you push yourself off. You start off at a good speed, but momentum soon makes you gather speed, and you have to focus and concentrate on controlling it and reaching the finish line.
That momentum is what makes every money mindset and business habit easier and easier to practice, every time you repeat that habit. Or mantra. Or action.
And that’s what people who are “stuck” often don’t realize: That it’s always hard at first to break a pattern or change a habit, but the truth is, every time you repeat that particular mantra or habit, it becomes easier and easier, and is naturally self-reinforcing.
There’s another, even better side effect of breaking out of old, comfortable but negative patterns: You start to experience success—and success builds confidence.
The truth is, although there are steps you can and should take to deal with old negative patterns, it’s really not all about ‘fixing’ your self-confidence first, then going out and succeeding at something. It’s about taking action.
It’s about making a commitment that helps you to step out of your comfort zone, gritting your teeth and performing the action—then surprising yourself with success.
Because success breeds self-confidence. And it’s not the shallow self-confidence of repeating some “I’m worth it!” type affirmation: It’s the confidence of knowing you can do something again because you did it before.
It’s the confidence of seeing a good result from your action.
And you are more likely to make that commitment and take that action if you have a goal that drives you, inspires you and ignites you. Something you can’t stop dreaming about or envisioning.
Just remember to be specific about the financial part, when you make your goal-reaching plan!
Let’s go over our five Money Mindset steps and summarize what we just covered:
1. Challenge your money belief system
2. Change your mindset from rigid to flexible
3. Correct the five most common money mindset mistakes
4. Change your negative tapes
5. Find a goal that transforms and inspires you
I won’t guarantee you a house on an island, but I do guarantee that if you make a commitment to doing this, and tackle each of the five steps to the best of your ability, you will see positive changes begin to happen very quickly, if you give the changes a fair chance, and persevere.
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