Hey, Hey everyone! Welcome to Episode 2 of the Bold Leadership Revolution podcast and I am your host, Tara Newman.
Today we are diving into some ways you might be blocking the flow of money or sabotaging making money in your business.
I don’t hold myself up to be some money guru but I do know how to make money and over the years, I have worked with hundreds of business owners helping them to understand what’s working and what’s not working in their businesses.
Often times they are surprised at what they find when we do a deep dive into their money psychology.
When I ask my clients, entrepreneurs and executives, how satisfied they are financially there is always a pause.
These are people who are already making 6 figures plus either as a salary or as business revenue. As they feel into this question, they realize they aren’t rocking out a 10 on the satisfaction meter.
Their response is usually starts with a sigh and leads to “I’m making good money but I want more.” Fair enough.
And it’s not that they want more money per se but they definitely want more of what money can offer,
They want to…
- pay their bills with peace of mind.
- add more to their savings account.
- invest in their retirement.
- make a greater contribution to charitable organizations.
- take their families on a trip of a lifetime.
- to hire a house cleaner.
In their businesses they want to…
- Make an impact by doing work that matters in the world.
- Lay their heads on their pillows at night knowing they are making a contribution to the greater good.
- And they want to do this all while feeling more joy, ease and freedom than ever before.
SO, if this sounds like you, I want to share with you how you might be standing in your own way by sabotaging your ability to make more money.
I’ve done all of these myself and it wasn’t until I worked through them that my business started to take off and I began living with greater financial peace of mind.
As a matter of fact and as some of you know, over 10 years ago, my husband and I started a business. We invested multiple 6 figures into starting up a manufacturing business. It went horribly wrong and it was a catastrophic failure that left us bankrupt. Literally.
The trauma from this failure took years to move through as we rebuilt our lives. When we look back at this time, we can see all the reasons that contributed to our lack of success. Some were external factors but those aren’t the ones we focus on because they are so far outside our control.
It’s the internal factors, like the ways we subconsciously sabotaged making money in our business.
Can you relate to any of these?
YOU’RE DISCONNECTED FROM DESIRE
This might be my favorite as I struggled with this one until about two years ago. What do you want? Deep down, on a soul level, when you aren’t concerned about FOMO….what do you want? We tend to logically know what we want but still remain disconnected from our truest desires.
Usually because of fear or stories.
I remember very clearly the day I started telling myself the story around desire. I was 18, just entered college and was working in the family business. On this particular day I was wearing white shorts, a black and white checked halter top, heels, and my 90’s curls were flowing.
Since we were at the tail end of the grunge era, I was proud not to be wearing ripped jeans, a flannel and doc martens. I looked feminine.
But one look at me and my cousin said “Tara, you are NEVER going to get a boyfriend dressing like that. You look way too high maintenance.”
What I heard is no one is going to love you if you are high maintenance. I translated high maintenance into wanting things. And so began my deeply held belief that playing small, not wanting more, and shrinking my desires would bring me love.
It wasn’t until I started declaring what I wanted on a bigger and bigger level did I start achieving all those hopes and dreams I have secretly harbored for myself.
Any messaging that went like “if you want to succeed, you have to REALLY want it” triggered me to no end. In Think and Grow Rich, one of the first chapters and steps in Napoleon Hill’s process is DESIRE. I can’t tell you how many times I have read that chapter and written desires that were the desires of other people. Maybe I was trying to fake till I could make it. However, that doesn’t work.
YOU HAVE TO WORK HARD FOR YOUR MONEY
This one is a long standing belief that has been passed down from generation to generation. All of us have been exposed to this in some form or another.
Someone just said to me “Well, if it were easy, everyone would be doing it” as they referred to entrepreneurship. So, it doesn’t surprise me that this person has a hard time turning a profit in their business.
What if entrepreneurship wasn’t hard or easy? What if it just was? It’s different. It definitely comes with a level of responsibility that isn’t for everyone. For some, like me, I can’t think of making money any other way than through running my own business. I like having control over how, when, and what I do to earn money. That feels easy to me.
And when things don’t go as planned, there is nobody that I would rather rely on to “right the ship” than myself.
What if you believed making money was easy?
Maybe you have a job working for someone else that fits you like a glove. It plays to your strengths and you get to lead at your highest level by making a contribution to something way bigger than you ever imagined.
Celebrate that unapologetically. Be grateful for it. Think of all the ways that this job brings you joy and freedom. Don’t poo poo it for being the greatest source of flow. Don’t down play it because people around you sit around and bitch about their bosses and the grind. Don’t try to complicate it so you feel like you have really earned it.
When you do that, you will block the flow of more abundance in all forms.
YOU ATTACH MEANING TO MONEY
Money is a lot of things but it is not an indication of your self-worth. Money is not good or bad.
Money is energy. Money is feedback. Money is a tool. Money is a relationship.
I know this is a tough one to wrap your head around. It took me a long time to fully embody this notion. But once I did, I started to experience greater financial freedom.
Many of my clients use money as a gauge of how enough they are or how worthy they are. When we receive a paycheck or payment from a client, it is merely feedback for the actions we have taken. It is not feedback for how good or bad we are..
If money is flowing in, the actions we are taking are producing the result we want. If money is not flowing in, we want to go back and review our actions and our thinking.
Your greatest financial results will come when you can practice non attachment to money. When you’re attached to money and give it meaning, your energy around money is often needy. You need the money to validate your sense of self, importance or success.
This where people look at me like I’ve lost my mind. It’s ok. If you’re someone who is listening to this and thinking I’m full of crap or maybe you simply don’t understand what I’m talking about, you’re not alone.
The first step to not attaching meaning to money is to understand all the ways you attach meaning to money. In order to do this, you need to become radically curious. When you receive money, what do you feel? What’s the story? When you don’t receive money or when money feels tight, what do you feel? What’s the story? When you go in and ask for a raise, what’s the story? When you are on a sales call, what are you thinking?
And the last way you might be blocking the flow of money is …
YOU HAVE YOUR HEAD IN THE SAND
In other words, you are not being fully present to your money situation. This looks like not looking at your bank accounts, avoiding entering expenses for months at a time, or only looking a select pieces of your finances like your checking account.
In other words, you aren’t in an honest and open relationship with your money. Imagine what might happen if this is how you showed up with a romantic partner?
Being in relationship with our money requires the same amount of vulnerability as being in a romantic relationship.
If we don’t show up for our money, our money isn’t going to show up for us. If we aren’t empowered with our money, our money isn’t going to empower us.
The reason I wanted to share this podcast episode with you today is to help you start to work through any one of these barriers that might be showing up for you. These aren’t immovable blocks, they are merely hurdles that require a short hop to overcome.
Often times people think they have a sales problem, when really they biggest factor is the person’s energy around their money.
Yes, you need to know how to sell and deliver value to make money but all the leads in the world aren’t going to help you if you’re energy or beliefs are funky.
SO, there you have it. The 4 Ways you’re blocking the flow of money.
- You’re disconnected from desire
- You have to work hard for your money
- You attach meaning to money
- You have your head in the Sand.
As always I want to continue this conversation with you so hop on over to Instagram, that’s my favorite place to hang out these days and comment on my Instastory or send me a DM.
I’ll catch you back here next week for Episode 03 where we are talking about the 5 Activities you must have on your calendar every week to grow your business.
With this episode, I’m gifting you a worksheet that is designed to help you go deeper with the content in this episodes. It will guide you through specific questions or actions to help you gain awareness and insight into your thinking and behaviors.
Make sure you head on over to the show notes to download the worksheet.
