Archive for the ‘Money Reflections’ Category

Our first responsibility when tackling our money demons lies in the importance of being willing to look at your money beliefs and habits. Wasn’t being willing to look at this issue as liberating as I told you it would be?

Being willing to face your Money BS is an important first step.  But in order to have the kind of Money Breakthroughs that will keep you moving in the right direction it’s imperative that you tell yourself the truth about what you are examining.

Make Sure You Tell Yourself the Truth

Thinking back, I realize that I didn’t always tell the clear and simple truth about my money habits.    Oh, I had been honest about the situation but that is very different than telling the truth about something.

When you are honest you share your thoughts, feelings, emotions, judgments and even how it made your feel in your body. For example, “when I saw all that I had purchased at the store today I was thinking, you fool, you did it again.  I was literally sick to my stomach.”  That’s an honest statement.

The truth would sound something like this, “I purchased four blouses at a total cost of $200, two pairs of pants for $120, and two pairs of shoes for $175.  It was $400 more than I said I would pay.”

No emotions, no judgments, just the plain and simple truth.

Now I want to be clear. I am not saying you shouldn’t be honest in your assessment of the situation.  Honesty is a very necessary step; it clears the way for the truth to be revealed.

What I am saying is just revealing the honesty of your predicament isn’t’ enough.  But here’s the thing – it’s easier said than done.

Our first reaction is to reveal the honesty; to spew out all the emotions, the feelings and thoughts, the rationalizations and justifications.  They come pouring out when we are honest; it’s human nature.  The situation is emotionally charged and that’s why we behave this way.

But peel back the honesty and what’s left is the truth of our behavior. The truth is our responsibility in the mess we have created.  And that my female friend is much harder to disclose.

Remember my story about creating a huge amount of credit card debt and my possible bankruptcy?  I had many honest moments discussing what had occurred in that financial disaster. But when I got truthful I realized no one else made me buy those clothes and shoes and home goods and gosh knows what else.  It was me, it was all me.  That was the truth.

So I want you to get truthful about your past Christmas spending.  A word of caution – do it with a big dose of compassion.

Being willing to look at the situation and being truthful are two very important steps in helping you move towards an even bigger breakthrough. In that breakthrough you will be able to take the kind of action that will help you create new money habits.

What will those actions be?  What are you afraid of if you don’t spend like crazy?  We’ll explore this next time.

During this season of gratitude I’d like you to reflect on the concept of giving your money away or “tithing”.

Did you know that giving your money away actually expands money?  Robert Allen said it best when he wrote, “Giving literally magnifies, multiplies, and exponentializes money.  Conversely, the tighter you squeeze your money, the more compact it becomes.”

People who have been fortunate enough in life to have large sums of wealth understand this concept perfectly.  They understand that by giving their money away they stand to gain far more money in return, so they give generously.

So which are you?  Do you squeeze your money or give it away?

The outside of our business often has an uncanny ability to mirror for us what’s up for us on the inside.  That’s why when my business is experience a lull I immediately see the truth for what it is; an opportunity for a breakthrough.  Typically that breakthrough involves money.  So when there is a lull in my business that lasts beyond a few days my first step is to realign myself with my Money Goal.

Things that you can ask yourself to help you through this lull are:

• Is your money goal big enough?  Maybe you made your money goal a while ago and it no longer is big enough to hold what you really want.
• Does your money goal still hold meaning and significance for you?

• Are you passionately connected to the bigger why of what the money is for?

• By creating a breakthrough about money, which belief are you challenging?

Having the courage to answer these questions completely and honestly will help you get your business out of any slump that you are in.
My challenge to you is to answer each of these questions and if you feel comfortable drop me a note on my blog

Each and every day I am lucky enough to impart extraordinary information to help my clients move from frustrating five figure income into six and even high six figures.  Most of what I share with my clients is about the money mindset shifts one needs to make in order to be a successful entrepreneur.

Mindset in combination with using my keen intuition and facing my fears are the foundation for the success me and my clients have had in our businesses.

Now, just to be clear, mindset is more than just reading some fancy, squishy feeling affirmations every day.  Your mindset is those deep rooted beliefs that you hold near and dear to you and would take an atomic bomb for you to let go of.  These beliefs help you through all of your challenges both business and personal.  Ultimately, your mindset helps you to make the decisions that change your life.

So here’s a list of mindset secrets to help you succeed in business and become that high six figure entrepreneur!

• Face your fears; never let fear influence your decision making ability
• Use challenges to spark your creativity and solve problems
• Never tolerate excuses from others or from yourself
• Believe “Where there’s a will there’s a way”
• Understand there’s real power in asking for help
• Knows that obstacles are a reason to strengthen your commitment to your bigger why
• Graciously welcomes new learning opportunities from teachers, mentors and coaches
• Know you can do, be and have anything you want
• Never, ever play the victim
• Holds firm to boundaries and stand solid in your personal power
• Knows that “NOW” is the right time
• Understands that fear and doubt are not truth
• Let’s go to grow
• Appreciates the growing and learning process and see the results in the transformation of your business
• Practices the attitude of gratitude
• Invest in the best mentoring and coaching

Print out this list and put it on your cork board or wall and reflect on the mindset secrets every day.

How you do money is how you do everything.

I posted that in my money reflections section of my newsletter last week.  I didn’t get one question or comment about it which I thought was kind of strange.

Could it be that everyone understands this statement?  I honestly didn’t think it was possible that everyone understood the statement so I decided to write a piece today that digs deeper into the statement.

Because we live in a universe that is made up of energy it’s safe to say that money is energy too.  Makes sense, right?  Which means if this energy is everywhere and money is energy too, our relationship with money is a symbol of our relationship with everything in our lives.

When you work at improving one area of your life usually other areas are improved as well.  So it’s safe to say when we improve our relationship with money other areas follow suit and get better and better.

So, how you do money is how you do everything.

Think about it this way…

• Do you feel like you ever have enough money? Do you have enough time?
• Do you have a tendency to waste money?  Do you often feel like you are wasting your time?
• Do you know how much money you have in your bank accounts?  Do you have an adequate picture of your physical health?

The goal here is to wake up and start recognizing where we are unconscious and to start changing our habits and beliefs to ones that better suit us.  By doing so we can start to conduct ourselves and stand more powerfully in our lives.

Money and the energy associated with it allows us to do just that.

When you enter into a contractual relationship with another person and then demand a refund when no refunds are clearly stipulated are you acting with integrity?

This just happened to a friend of mine.  She has a line in all her contracts that clearly state NO REFUNDS.  Yet she is often asked by people who either haven’t fully thought through the decision  for a refund or from others who feel that just because they ask they should get one.

So how should you handle this sticky money situation?

Before I answer that question I want you to remember one thing:  How someone does money is how they do everything!

Keep that in the back of  your mind as you read on.

1. Avoid The Remorse

Often times people will have buyer’s remorse after they have purchased a product, program or service.  Typically this remorse comes from fear. Fear that they just made a huge commitment either in themselves or their business.  And, it’s this fear of moving forward that wants to then jump ship.

The problem is that’s not a good enough reason to ask or get a refund.

The fact of the matter is that if someone asks for a refund they are  not honoring the commitment they made to themselves or to you.    If they cave into the fear they are feeling they are just playing small – real small. And that’s never good for anyone.

2.  If you give this refund are you standing in your power around money?

Probably not.  Truth be told most of us don’t want to deal with the hassle’s that come when someone starts asking or worse yet, demanding a refund.

Sometimes giving the refund just rids you of the negativity that comes when people start demanding refunds and the associated bad behaviors.

But if you have clear boundaries and have clearly stated no refunds, then what happens if you renege on your own policy?

I know this is a tough question for many of you to answer.  On the one hand you want to keep your customers happy but on the other hand you did clearly let them know that no refunds would be given.

3. Provide a Guarantee

Providing a guarantee is a great way to reassure your buyer.  If you don’t offer a guarantee of any kind than it makes it more difficult for the buyer to make the decision to buy.

But more importantly, with a guarantee you are clearly outlining under what circumstances a refund will be given.  It’s a great protection for your buyer and for you as well.

So back to the original question…do you give the refund?

Sorry, but that’s up to you to decide.

Last week I wrote a post and talked about how money is a reflection of what’s going on inside of you...a reflection of your own self worth.

Today I want to share with you the last two mirrors for you to reflect on.

1.  When developing your packages do you overload them with lots and lots of your  time, goodies, bonuses – so much so that in hindsight it’s way too much?  Do yo feel you HAVE to offer so much or no one will buy from you?

Maybe you don’t overload your packages but you make yourself available to your clients morning, noon and night – sound familiar?

Then after you have given and given you feel resentful because you think you’re clients don’t respect you? And worse yet, you attract the worst clients in the world.   They use and abuse you, demand your time and attention and are clients no one really wants.

If any of these scenarios sound like you then you are reflecting issues relating to what you feel you deserve. Your deservability is at stake here.

2. You make money, plenty of money.  The problem is…you still don’t have any!

No matter how you try you just can’t seem to hang on to money.  You secretly are ashamed of having more than you friends and possibly your parents.  You have rollercoaster months whereby one month you bring in a ton and the next nothing hits the checking account.

Approval is really important for you and your approval button  gets pushed alot when you money is reflected back at you in this way.

Now why am I telling you this?  Because you want a money breakthrough so you can rid yourself of these thoughts, feeling and behaviors – right?

If you are looking for a money breakthrough then I encourage you to contact me today to learn about my new 2010 – 2011 Mastermind Program forming right now!  The No Secrets, No BS:  The Nuts and Bolts To Increasing Revenue In This Economy was developed to help you achieve all the money breakthroughs you need so you can start attracting and making all the money you want in this economy.

I did it and so can you.  So call me at 978-794-4991 or email me at maureen@daretobephenomenal.com today to learn more.

“My clients won’t pay more!” Have you ever said that?

I did… A long time ago before I started working on my money mindset issues, I used to say it quite frequently when I would start to even consider charging more for my services.

The fact of the matter is we never really know what someone is willing to pay for our services and we definitely don’t have the right to assume anything about our clients. And truth be told most, not all, will pay more for your services.

Now this isn’t true in all industries but it does hold true for some. If you’re a coach, consultant, or other service-based entrepreneur it will hold true.

But that’s really not the point. The point of the matter is what you believe about money and your ability to make more is what’s at stake here.

Change your mindset and you change how much money will flow to you. It’s really that simple.

Did you know how much money you make and how much you charge for your services is a reflections of your self worth?

It’s true.

I know for some of you that statement conjures up all sorts of feelings.  And you know what, I understand how hard it must be to realize that the small amount of money you’re making is in direct correlation to your self esteem.

That’s a hard pill to swallow.

But it doesn’t have to be that way forever.  You can do something about that money reflection that’s staring back at you in the mirror.  You can change it!

But first I want you to consider a few things:

1.  Do often offer discounts?  Do you even offer them BEFORE your even asked?  This type of behavior is often reflected in a person who has poor money boundaries.

You make an assumption that your perspective client can’t afford your services so you jump to discounting without having all the necessary information.  Sound like you?

The reality is that if your services are seen as valuable to the client they will buy from you.  But that’s another article.

Do you barter or trade?  That’s another indication of poor money boundaries.  Money needs to flow.  When you barter you block the natural energy of money from flowing to you and back out again.

Please don’t barter, ok?

2.  When was the last time you raised your fee?  If it’s been two ore more years or if you raised your fees but only by some minuscule amount of money then you lack money courage.

You’re typically  the person who likes your fees somewhere in the middle.  You don’t want to be the cheapest out there, but you definitely don’t want to be the most expensive.

The bottom line…your afraid to raise your fees and because your afraid, you don’t.

Fear is your primary motivator behind every excuse you make for why your fees are they way they are.

Check back later this week as I reveal two additional money reflections and some tips for helping to conquer your money self-saboteur.

If you enjoy what your learning here come to the Diva Toolbox Conference for Women where I will be revealing even more information and exercises you can do to put your money self-saboteur away once and for all.

If you’re like most women entrepreneurs you may have a hard time charging what you’re worth.

Want to eliminate self-doubt so you can confidently charge more?

Here’s something to think about…

If you are focused on features rather than benefits, you’re focused on the wrong thing. Instead, I want you to focus on the results and the impact that it creates.

I recently submitted a proposal to an international company to coach two of their executives. The proposal was focused on benefits and the impact my coaching will have, not only on the two people being coached, but of the ripple effect that will be felt throughout the company.

I’m being hired to provide a service that is going to make a dramatic impact for many people. Because of that impact, I am confident in what I’m doing and its importance to the overall success of the company.

Because of the above, I confidently charged what I am worth…and got it!

Want to be able to confidently charge what you’re worth and get it?

Then start focusing on benefits.