04: Starting the Money Mindset Journey
Money mindset is a concept we see and hear a lot about these days and this episode is about how & when we started to explore our money mindset, and how that transformed our financial reality.
It’s important to get real about the money conversation, especially as a couple in business as your history around money growing up will most likely be different, and if not, you still will have subconscious thoughts and beliefs around money. And what we are not aware of (until we become aware) is those subconscious / conscious money beliefs can be the engine driving your current financial reality.
Money issues is one of the top divorce reasons, so as a couple in business it’s important to talk about it and work through your money mindset. Financial stress and woes can be debilitating for any marriage and when your two minds in business together are subconsciously / consciously sending mixed messages around money, it can get in a very frustrating place, it creates stress on your business and relationship. You also don’t realise how much you are stopping abundance and goodness in your life!
Changing your money mindset is powerful and can bring positive change, but we share how it can be challenging at first, but greater awareness is liberating and helps to propel you forward together in business and life.
So, what is money mindset?
Money mindset is the attitude and thoughts you have around anything related to money, some thoughts are conscious (obvious thoughts, the way you talk about money) and subconscious (not so obvious) and these thoughts can impact your everyday financial decisions.
This is a favourite topic of ours as we are continually filtering through our money mindset and we’re still on this journey. There is a lot to cover, but for the purpose of time in this episode we share about our feast and famine money experiences. We accepted it as normal, however it was incredibly frustrating. Even with all our action plans and spreadsheets, we still felt limited, and nothing changed in our finances.
Around the 10 year mark we had hit an all time low in our finances and had generated too much debt. In a desperate measure, we reached out to a business coach which was a risky investment considering where we were at, but knew it was the only way forward. Part of the process of our coaching experience was delving into some deep questions around our belief of money.
We were asked to ask ourselves these questions:
- The reason I believe I can’t achieve financial success is because I think I am:
- The reason I believe I don’t have the financial success I want is because I am:
- The reason I believe I’ll never have enough financial success is that I think I am:
Delving deep into these questions was confronting but it was the beginning of our shift around money. As a couple in business we both spent time talking about our individual answers to those questions. For example, Sarah shares how she was afraid if not having money, but also afraid of having too much in case she loses it all, and Scott shared how he was not educated enough or smart enough to know how to manage money smartly.
The big eye opener for us was having conversations of our childhood and how our parents influence us positively and negatively around money. Even though we have been together for 20 years and know a lot about each other’s childhood, we still learned new things that pinpointed why we have the money belief and how it is impacting us in business.
Did you grow up with your parents saying any of these?
“I’m not made of money”
“Money doesn’t grow on trees”
Comments like “That’s expensive!”
“Money makes the world go round”
“Money doesn’t bring happiness”
“The love of money is the root of all evil”
We did and we realise now how conscious we are talking about money around our own kids. The great things about recognising these is that those core beliefs underpinned our money blockages, as was the fear of failure (and success) and once we had more awareness, they were easier to recognise and call out and change that to “that is no longer my core belief, or truth”. We began to create a new truth around money, which is still an ongoing journey.
Here are some tips to start the money mindset journey.
Talk about money, your fears, your upbringing
This is important to do together to get a greater understanding of how the other person thinks around money, as it then becomes less of a blame game, but compassion and awareness to why your partner believes certain things around money. As soon as you have a conscious conversation about it (and it’s ongoing by the way), it brings those limited beliefs to the light, so you can call them out and change that belief and move forward together, and watch your money grow!
Shifting the focus off the negative
We felt like we were in a rut and blamed everything for our current money reality, we blamed ourselves, the economy, our staff and customers. We had to make the conscious shift of welcoming new opportunities and being grateful for every change, big or small. Together make a commitment to start speaking positively around money. Being grateful and celebrate every increment.
Read some books around money mindset transformation and practical advice
Our initial journey lead us to great books and resources. Sarah loved Denise Duffield-Thomas’s work and Marie Forleo.
There are some great science around RAS (reticular activating system)
We loved The Secret
Think & Grow Rich Napoleon Hill
Our business coach who helped us on the money journey was Rob Kropp from Pravar Group
Action!
Nothing happens if nothing happens. It is important to action all that you learn in this process and be prepared to change and get help where needed. We have worked extra hard to get ourselves out of the debt pickle, and it paid off.
So, what results did we see from that money mindset change?
Over 12 months of hard work, working with our coach, learning more about money and our money mindset, we paid off $70,000 debt! Plus, once we saw the power of our changed mindset, we started to make plans to move to the beach, which we had pushed aside as a long shot dream (more on that in another episode).
If this is also new for you, we recommend you start with scheduling quality alone time together to start to have a conversation about your upbringing, and have a go of those questions posed to us at the beginning as it will start to open up more. Being a couple and in business together can be extremely rewarding and when you start this journey around your money mindset, you can start to see amazing change, like we did, and build the business and life of your dreams.
Good luck!
Credits:
Ryan Butler (Music)
Wes Butler (Logo & Branding)