IEP034: Eliminate These Six Money Blocks

Brigit:                  Welcome to the Intuitive Entrepreneur Podcast. I'm your host, Brigit Esselmont, intuitive business strategist and mentor. As the founder of Biddy Tarot, I turned my love for tarot into an abundant seven figure business, the secret to my success, making intuition and strategy, my entrepreneurial superpower and now, I'm inviting you to do the same.

Brigit:                   In this weekly podcast, I'll be sharing advice, tools and real-life examples from some of the best intuitive entrepreneurs to show you how you can trust your intuition, align with your purpose, and create a positive impact through your work. Let's make it happen.

Brigit:                  Hello and welcome back to the Intuitive Entrepreneur Podcast. So today we are talking about money and this comes off the back of the last two interviews that I've done with Jen Bro and Sarah McCrum, both two fascinating people and particularly the way in which they look at money and I believe that this is the new way, the new way of looking at money as entrepreneurs and intuitive entrepreneurs.

Brigit:                   And what I want to do today is continue that conversation and talk about these money blocks or limiting beliefs that often come up for us as intuitive entrepreneurs and how we can overcome some of those blocks.

Brigit:                   Now, here's the thing. I mean, as business owners we are naturally going to have a relationship with money because businesses are almost like this conduit for money, money is almost like the lifeblood of the business and as owners and custodians I guess of this money in this business, it's really important that our energy is in alignment so that we can receive money, so that we can give money and we can allow that flow of money to really happen with ease.

Brigit:                   So, that's really why I want to talk about this relationship with money today because it is so important and your personal beliefs about money, your personal stories about money, will all have a really direct impact on how money flows through your business.

Brigit:                   So, the more that you can become aware of these stories that you have around money and these beliefs, then the more that you can allow wealth and abundance to really flow through your business.

Brigit:                   For me personally, I feel that I have a really healthy relationship with money, but even then, I can often, I can see those times when a belief comes up that I know is impacting our business's ability to receive or hold wealth in it as well.

Brigit:                   And so, even if you are feeling like, "Well actually, I'm doing all right. Thanks very much Brigit." I really encourage you to listen deeply today and just drop in and ask yourself like what are your stories around money and how might these be impacting you when it comes to wealth and abundance in your business?

Brigit:                   All right, so let's get started with the first one of these six money blocks and that is, it's not spiritual to make money. Now, if you've listened to me on the video tarot podcast, you will know that I have some pretty strong views around money and spirituality and being the intuitive entrepreneur and here's the thing, I've copped it, I've copped it through Biddy Tarot where people go, "Oh, you're charging too much." And, "How dare you make money off something so spiritual as tarot." And, "You should be offering all of this stuff for free." And, "Oh my goodness, it makes me so angry."

Brigit:                   And the reason it makes me angry is because I absolutely believe in the value of what we are creating through Bitty Tarot. Yes, it might be in the spiritual space, but that doesn't really matter because I believe that money is energy and money is a representation of value that is created.

Brigit:                   So, in a business, you are typically creating value for your customers and in order for your customer to appreciate and acknowledge that value, they pay money. It's very simple and so even if you are offering a spiritual service, you might be a healer, an intuitive, a coach, an astrologer, a tarot reader, whatever it might be, you are creating value for your clients and the money that you're receiving is an acknowledgement of that value.

Brigit:                   So, when it comes to so-called not being spiritual to make money, oh, it is so far out of my space of thinking because I really do believe that we can be in a very spiritual place and also receive financial abundance.

Brigit:                   Absolutely and I encourage, I actually really encourage spiritual entrepreneurs to be thinking about how to make money, how to make money in a way that really honours the soul of your customers, the soul of your business that really creates a sustainable business for the long-term.

Brigit:                   I have some pretty ambitious goals for Biddy Tarot and a lot of that is about how do we create a business that's sustainable in the long-term that can also have a huge impact on the community? And so I would love to see spiritual entrepreneurs thinking about generating money through the business to then support an even bigger impact in the work that they are doing and to be able to sustain that in the long-term because here's the thing, if you aren't thinking about how to make money in your business or how to create profit in the business, it's not sustainable unless of course you're operating a not for profit, but that's not what we're talking about here.

Brigit:                   It's not sustainable in the long-term and if you're not creating wealth and money through your business, you can't do that over a longer period of time and you also can't necessarily have the bigger impact that you want to create because bigger impact means more investment, more resources, more team, and you really do need money to support all of that.

Brigit:                   So, when it comes to not being spiritual to make money, I just, yeah, I think that's ridiculous. And also, the other thing I wanted to touch on here is that we become custodians of money and the more money that we create in our business, the more that we have leverage of what we want to do with that money and as an example, Biddy Tarot, we are a corporate sponsor of One Girl and one girl is helping girls and young women in Africa to get education and to create their own businesses.

Brigit:                   So because we have money flowing through the business, that means that we can be a sponsor and a significant contributor to the One Girl organization and we also make contributions to Kiva and which is a micro finance loan set up and also, the Smith family where we're sponsoring children in Australia to go to school.

Brigit:                   So, that one, it's not spiritual to make money. Gone. All right, let's move onto the second limiting belief when it comes to money and this is as long as I have money in the bank, I'm okay and so this is what I've heard from a number of entrepreneurs is that their concept of keeping track of money is often just making sure that there's enough money every month to pay the staff and that's that.

Brigit:                   Maybe there's a reserve of three months and as long as everyone's getting paid, including the owner, then everything's fine. There's no problem. We don't even need to look at our money just as long as everyone's getting paid.

Brigit:                   Phooey. Sorry, I hope that didn't hurt your ears, but seriously, that's not enough. I believe that in order for you to be a responsible money earner, money holder, money attractor, it is really important that you understand how to read a profit and loss, that you are tracking the movement of your money, that you know where your money is at any given time.

Brigit:                   You know how much money you're making, you know how much your expenses are, how much money's coming through your bank in terms of revenue or turnover, and then how much money you are keeping each month because it's not even just how much money you're making, but really how much money are you keeping in terms of profit?

Brigit:                   What is the profit that's coming through the business and also getting a really good oversight as to, "Well, yeah sure, I'd love to selling t-shirts and little candles, but do they actually make me money or does it .... Is it just something where I'm putting in a lot of effort, but I'm not really getting anything in return?"

Brigit:                   Whereas maybe it's an online course where you can actually have a huge impact. You can reach a lot of people, you can have a transformational result, and you're also making profit from that.

Brigit:                   So, when you understand that, then you can make much better decisions in your business and you're creating again, a long-term and sustainable business model that will serve you and your customers in the long run.

Brigit:                   Now, you also need to know how that money is moving through your business as well as the profit and loss, but where is it moving through? Do you have enough money in each of your bank accounts?

Brigit:                  Is it growing at the rate that you would like it to? Do you have enough money saved over for tax? Something that I did just about maybe six or 12 months ago was I set up my own account just for tax savings.

Brigit:                   So now I've always got at least the next quarter's worth of tax ready to go so that I don't get that sort of surprise, particularly now when the tax bills are getting quite large. I want to make sure that I'm ready to go and that that's all there and ready.

Brigit:                   Now, that obviously comes from knowing where the money is and what money is owed and how it is flowing through the business and these are these basic things that as business owners and receivers of wealth, we need to know and we need to be tracking.

Brigit:                   There's no way around it. You can't bury your head in the sand. You can't just be like, "Oh well, as long as there's some money in there, it's all good." Nah, I don't think that that's being very responsible.

Brigit:                   I think there's more space to be more responsible and more accountable for the wealth that you are bringing into your business and here's the thing, just give your money love. I go and check my accounts probably every day, if not every day, every second day and I just have a little look. "Oh, there's PayPal. PayPal's looking really good. Nice. Okay, let me check my bank, my transaction account. Oh yup, that's looking good. Credit card? Oh, probably ready to put in another payment so I can get back to a zero balance."

Brigit:                   And I just send all love. I just have a look at my little babies, my accounts, my bank accounts, and I give gratitude to for the money that we're receiving throughout the business.

Brigit:                   All right, so let's move onto the third money block that intuitive entrepreneurs often have and this is that I need to save every dollar. Now, when you first start business, you typically start by bootstrapping and that's exactly how I started Biddy Tarot.

Brigit:                   I never had to take out a loan. I was able to just do the work, create the cashflow, and then use that cashflow to reinvest in the business and I was very careful about where I was spending my money.

Brigit:                   I would make sure that I was just using the free accounts in my business. I would make sure that I was only hiring one person at a time and cheapest resources available at that time, or at least having some resources on the team that were a lower dollar per hour rate and of course, having others who are maybe higher and, but perhaps closer within that system.

Brigit:                   So, I was saving every dollar. I was making sure that I wasn't making any kind of rash decisions and started to get into, I guess a bit more penny pinching. It's like, "Whoa, what? I need to spend $1,000 on that? No thanks. I'm not doing that. Let's figure out a hack."

Brigit:                   And I actually got to a point like it's taken me until this year where I thought, "Hang on a second, there are parts of my business that I am still doing this bootstrapping penny-pinching model. Uh-uh (negative), that doesn't fit any longer."

Brigit:                   And an example of that was with Trello, we're on the free account and then we started having to do all kinds of hacks in order to make it work, with Slack to our team messaging board.

Brigit:                   I was on the free account and it just meant that we were losing messages that would be deleted after a certain period of time and, but we'd just get by and I just got to a point where I think, I thought, "Hang on a second, we are a million dollar company and I'm not wanting to pay for these tools? Like come on Bridget, it's time to move out of that bootstrapping mentality."

Brigit:                   And so, we switched to the Slack premium and then Trello to Asana, but my point with this is that there comes a time when sort of free or cheap is no longer of service to you or to your business.

Brigit:                   In fact, it can start to become a detriment to your business and you're better off actually investing in some of these things more than you have done in the past. Same with the team.

Brigit:                   We got to a point, we were hiring virtual assistants in the Philippines who really contributed at that point in time and were a good decision at that point in time, but we got to a point where we realized, "Actually, you know what? We're sinking a lot of time into these team members and not always getting the results that we really want and that we really deserve."

Brigit:                   Because that's what it comes down to, your business deserves more and for us, we decided not to hire any further team members from the Philippines, certainly not as the core team and instead, we would hire from the US or Australia and so on.

Brigit:                   So, for that to happen, I really needed to let go of this concept of having to save every single dollar that was coming in the business and it's okay to spend money. In fact, there are times too when spending a lot of money can actually be in service of your up-levelling and an example of that was, well, I guess it was almost two years ago now when I said yes to being part of the collective mastermind.

Brigit:                  Now, this collective mastermind was a group of 30 amazing female entrepreneurs who were just doing great things in their businesses and part of this mastermind meant going to Sir Richard Branson's Private Safari, what do they call it? Reserve, Ulusaba in South Africa and also going to Richard Branson's private home of Necker Island and that was huge.

Brigit:                   That was a huge investment, huge and it took a lot of time for me to really think about that and go, "Oh, do I really ... Do I really want this? Do I really value this?" And I've got to say, I probably got the most value out of when I said yes to it because in that moment that I said yes to this huge sum of money, what I was saying yes to was to myself and to my business.

Brigit:                   I was saying, "Yes, I deserve this. I am worthy of this. My business is worthy of this." And that was a huge up-levelling I saw myself and my business in a very different way after I said yes to that mastermind.

Brigit:                   Now of course, I built up some amazing networks and friendships out of that and spending time on Necker Island and Ulusaba was just out of this world, like literally out of this world and I got so many deep learnings from that process, but I think in this case, this is where sometimes you do have to pay a fair amount of money sometimes.

Brigit:                   You can't just save every dollar. There's a point at which making these investments in your business and yourself will have a really positive long-term effect. All right, so the next money block is I have to work hard to make money or money comes from effort, right?

Brigit:                   So I know that this plays out for me a fair bit. I wish it didn't, but it does. So, I think we all come from this place of thinking that you make money by the hour basically. When we start our jobs as teenagers or in our early 20's, we get paid by the hour and we get paid like a salary, work 40 hours and get paid your salary for the week and we are indoctrinated with this concept that work effort equals pay or money.

Brigit:                   Even in some of these like elite careers like surgeons or lawyers or management consultants or investment bankers, whatever it might be. Oftentimes, that equates to insane work hours at 70, 80-hour weeks and so we have this idea that in order to make a lot of money, you've got to work a lot of hours, but it's not actually true because effort does not directly equate to money.

Brigit:                   Instead, money comes from where you are creating value and lasting value in your business. Now, sometimes like that could come through an idea that comes to you in a shower. I mean, I think about our Biddy Tarot certification program, which is one of our highest revenue earners for the business.

Brigit:                  That came to me while floating around on an inflatable Flamingo in Bali with a gin and tonic and a great business coach and it's just amazing where these things can come from and it's not by unnecessarily working harder.

Brigit:                   It's actually by allowing yourself the spaciousness and that creative freedom for these ideas to really flow and here's the other thing too. When we're in this kind of work hardest state, it could be that you're pushing, you're striving, you're even forcing things to happen, and it's in that energy that things don't happen.

Brigit:                   That's when things start to become hard and difficult and you don't necessarily see the results. So, this concept of having to work really hard to make money is a little bit off, particularly when it comes to the entrepreneurial space and I think this is where, this is one of these things that I personally struggle with.

Brigit:                   I seem to have a very strong work ethic which actually means that I am mostly thinking, I think a lot about work and I keep thinking that, "Oh okay, if I want my company to grow, I've got to just work harder. Okay, I'll work right now. Let's go."

Brigit:                   But it's not always the way, right? In fact, there are times when I might take a break for a couple of weeks and that's of how a company can earn lots and lots of money. Granted I have a team available, but they actually work better when I'm out of the business and they can take charge and really lean in and make things work really well.

Brigit:                   So, this concept of having to hustle is a little bit off and a little bit out of alignment in my opinion. That said, please do not think that you can just laze about and just hope that money will miraculously appear.

Brigit:                   Money comes through our intention and our will and our desire and lining things up in certain ways and it doesn't just magically appear out of nowhere so sometimes you do have to put in the effort and you do have to put in the hard work, but it's about putting it into the right areas and putting your energy into where it will have the biggest impact.

Brigit:                   All right, we are two more money blocks to go. So, here's one that probably is something that I'd say a lot of intuitive entrepreneurs feel and it's certainly something that I feel and it is this, I feel guilty about making more money than others. I feel guilty about making more money than others.

Brigit:                   So, I have been through many, many sort of feelings of guilt with my parents. I make more money than my parents ever did combined. When I talk with my mum who is a psychologist, she's been psychologist for most of her working life, she studied at university. She has a master's degree.

Brigit:                  Mind you, I also have my master's degree in human resources, but I remember my mom saying to me, "Brigit, how is it that you can make, I don't know what it was, like $350 an hour reading tarot cards and I'm a trained psychologist and I can only make $160?"

Brigit:                   I just looked at my mom and I said, "Mom, you could actually increase your prices if you wanted." I don't think she really appreciated that comment, but apart from her making a choice about whether she wants to increase her prices, I also realized that her aspirations and my dad's aspirations when he was alive, he passed away about five years ago, they were different, they were different to mine and I think also, the environment is very different.

Brigit:                  They didn't have the internet. I think these days having the internet has just opened up huge possibilities for how we can generate an income and make money. So, while I did have those feelings of guilt that, "Oh, maybe it is bad that I can earn more money reading tarot cards than my mum can earn being a professional psychologist."

Brigit:                  But I started to ... When I started to unpack that, I realized actually, "No there's a few layers here and it's just two different stories." Now, another place where guilt can come up for me is with my team and I have those moments of thinking like, "Oh man, I feel a bit guilty that I'm earning more money than my team."

Brigit:                  And that can also sometimes make me go and work like in overdrive and I think, "Oh, well maybe if I work more hours than everyone else, that will prove like why I earn more money.” This is warped thinking my friends. But this is where money blocks and money stories can really show up.

Brigit:                   So, the thing that I talk myself through in terms of my team is there's a real difference between the business owner and the business employees or team members. So, team members get paid no matter what.

Brigit:                   It doesn't matter if you hit your goals or you didn't. It doesn't matter if there's a tax bill of $150,000, it doesn't matter if you did or didn't get the grant that you were expecting for the year, you still get paid. But as a business owner, there are no guarantees whatsoever.

Brigit:                   In fact, you are just riding the wave of risk basically in your business and sometimes, you're going to come out a winner and other times, you're not, but you as the owner need to be in that space of risk.

Brigit:                   The other thing is that as the owner, you hold the energy of the entire team and the entire business and I really don't think you can put a price on that. It's a huge job. It's a huge undertaking to hold the energy of the business and it's very hard to quantify that as well, what price do you put on that?

Brigit:                   And equally, a team member can quit at any time. Things get too hard. "I think I'll just resign and I'll find a different job." Which is fine, that's great. Good on him. But as a business owner, the decision to quit has huge implications.

Brigit:                   It's not as easy to go, "Oh, I think I would just resign." Because the entire business will shut down effectively unless you sell the business. So these are things that I use to help me reframe that potential feeling of guilt about making more money than others.

Brigit:                   But here's the underlying thing. If you are experiencing this feeling as well in your work, in your business, maybe you're earning more money than your partner, maybe you're earning more money than your friends and you're feeling that sense of guilt about it.

Brigit:                   We all are operating on our own story, our own journey. We all have different ideas, different needs, different expectations, different beliefs, different possibilities, different ideas of what potential looks like and that influences how we bring money into our space and I don't think it serves anyone really to be in that state of like, "Oh, well I feel bad because I'm making lots of money and this person is not making much at all."

Brigit:                   Maybe they've chosen that. Who knows? Maybe they get to enjoy a beautiful life of just getting to hang out with their kids all the time instead of working late or holding stress or whatever it might be.

Brigit:                   So if you're feeling that guilt, just know that everyone has their own journey, their own story with money and you have yours and be proud of what you are creating and be proud of what you are attracting into your life and just know too that there is plenty to go around and money is not a finite resource, it's infinite. It's infinite.

Brigit:                   Okay, the final money block is this one. I can't raise my prices because my customers will never pay or they can't afford it. Now, I've heard this plenty of times with tarot readers and I've also heard it with my coaching clients where we talk about pricing and I'm always there going, "Mm-mm (negative). Nudge it up a little. Go on, see how that feels."

Brigit:                   "Oh, I can't do that because Betty down the road doesn't charge prices like that. She charges this." Or, "I want to be able to serve everyone and I want to help everyone and I don't want to like charge prices that people can't afford."

Brigit:                   Oh dear, so that's beautiful. However, often times, the price that we actually charge for our products or our services also speaks to the level of investment, energetic investment and commitment that we are asking our customers to make.

Brigit:                   So, if you are offering cheap services, maybe it's a tarot reading for like $10, I'm guilty of this so when I first started reading professionally, I'd charge $10 for a 10-card reading that would take me an hour to do, right? But what would happen is people would just ask cheesy questions like question they didn't even really care about, it's only 10 bucks. Let's just try it out and so the exchange didn't feel as crisp and as clear, but once I started to raise my prices to $100 to $200 to $300, then things really started to change.

Brigit:                   The investment was really different and the type of client was different too. If you're putting down two or $300 for a reading or for a one-hour consult or whatever it might be, you're going to show up differently.

Brigit:                   As a customer, you're going to show up listening and ready to really receive value out of that session. You're not just going to listen and go, "Oh, yeah that was interesting. Nah, I'll forget about it."

Brigit:                   You're actually going to sit there and you're going to take notes. This reading is going to have an impact for you, right? So I believe that when we start to increase our prices, we actually increase the commitment and the energetic exchange too in that product or service.

Brigit:                   Of course, there's always a tipping point and I found that with my tarot readings, I think I got to around the 300 US mark and that was my tipping point. I felt if I went much higher than that, the expectation was too high and it just felt really out of alignment.

Brigit:                   So, I do think there's that point where you don't go further beyond it, but for most people, we can charge a lot more than what you're already charging. The other thing is that if you do increase your prices, sure there's going to be customers who are upset and complain and maybe just completely fall away, they unsubscribe, they get mad, they get upset, they don't like you anymore, but there are also many new customers that you'll start to attract into your business who really value what you have to offer and who are willing to show up and pay for it and then it also serves your energy flow as well, and it allows that flow to really happen around the business.

Brigit:                   So, if you're thinking about raising your prices, but you're worried that people are going to get annoyed or they won't be your customers anymore, I say just try it. Just experiment, feel into it too, choose your price and just feel your energy.

Brigit:                   You want that kind of, that spot that's a bit like, "Oh, that's a little bit much. Okay, I'll try it anyway." Not the point at which you like, "Whoa, that's not, that feels gross, that's not good." But just that little edge of way like just gives you a little bit of butterflies in your tummy and you think, "Yeah, I could probably do it. Okay." So just do it, experiment and try it out.

Brigit:                   So, they have it. Let's do a quick recap of these six money blocks. So, number one, it's not spiritual to make money. So it is, in fact, I think that spirit and the universe wants you to make money so that you can have a sustainable business and so that you can reach more people and have a really big impact.

Brigit:                   Money block number two, as long as I have money in the bank, I'm okay. Well maybe, but there's so much more potential if you can track your money and you know that you are making a profit and that you know how your money is moving through your business, that is what it takes to be a responsible money owner in my view.

Brigit:                   Number three, I need to save every dollar so bootstrapping, a good way to start the business, but not necessarily how you have to continue your business and there will be times when making a more significant investment in your business will actually signal to you that you are up-levelling and that you are worthy of so much more in your business.

Brigit:                   Money block number four, I have to work hard to make money or money comes from effort. Well, not always. Money comes from directing your energy and your attention into the things that have the biggest impact and that create the biggest value for your customers, and that doesn't necessarily equate to ours.

Brigit:                   Number five, I feel guilty about making more money than others. Just remember, we all have had different stories with money and we all want different things with money. Money is not important to some and it is to others.

Brigit:                   Some people feel really clear with money, others do not. So just follow your story with money and make that a positive story and then finally, number six, I can't raise my prices because my customers will never pay or they can't afford it.

Brigit:                   Well, that might be true for some, but you'll probably find that you start to attract new customers who are even more in alignment with what you have to offer. So there you have it, those are the six money blocks that you can eliminate from your business so that you can allow that flow of financial abundance to really come into your business and so that then you can be that good custodian of your wealth and direct it in ways that you know will serve the community in really positive ways.

Brigit:                   So thank you for listening today and I hope too that you listened deeply and you were able to open yourself up to where you might be creating some money blocks too, and I want to leave you just with an invitation to take some time now and ask yourself like, "What are my stories around money? What are some of the limitations that I have? What are my limiting beliefs? What are some of the things that I think or feel that are getting in the way of me being able to receive wealth? What messages was I told as a kid? What messages do I believe now? What do I think I should be doing versus what I know is in alignment?" Oh, so many things. All right my friends, I'm going to wrap it up here. Thank you so very much and bye for now.

Brigit:                   Thank you for joining me for today's episode of the Intuitive Entrepreneur Podcast. If you love this episode, please leave an honest rating and review on iTunes. It really helps to get the word out, and of course, I read every single comment, and if you want weekly inspiration to help you trust your intuition, align with your purpose and create huge business success, then head on over to brigit.me and sign up for my free weekly emails. That's B-R-I-G-I-T.me. See you there.