The key to shifting limiting beliefs or healing money blocks is to treat mindset like an ongoing self-care routine. Like brushing your teeth or taking a shower, women entrepreneurs can commit to a healthy money mindset. One that serves them, their business and their lives.
One that moves them from burnout and overwhelm to falling in love with their passion and vision all over again. A money mindset that sets them up to win at every level in their business.
Because the same (somewhat sophisticated) blocks manifest themselves at each new level, doing the internal work to shift and heal our relationships with ourselves, money, others and boundaries can challenge and motivate heart-centered entrepreneurs to recognize and deal with any issues that show up.
Business is 99% mindset and 1% strategy, tools and skills.
You won’t be using/applying any tools, strategy and skills if your mindset is less than par. As we’ve discussed in Parts 1 through 3, if you look deep enough, you’ll find that every self-sabotaging act, indecision, procrastination, overwhelm, fear is tied to mindset.
Learning, owning and shifting the disempowering stories are the ticket to a powerful life and business vision, as well the courage, passion and commitment to take action, step into greatness and see it through.
In Part 1, we defined money blocks and their egalitarian essence.
In Part 2, we discussed the first of the 3 blocks; under-pricing and how to shift it.
Part 3 looked at guilt and/shame; and Part 4 addresses the third and most common block many service-based entrepreneurs, especially coaches, face.
Money Block No. 3 – Self-Sacrifice
Self-Sacrifice is one of those money blocks that ties up several familiar areas including:
- Not Feeling Good Enough
- Lack of Boundaries
- Not Feeling Ready
- Perfectionism
- Insecurity; and my ultimate favorite…..
- I just want to help people… I’m not trying to make money.
There is this one critical truth many women entrepreneurs, especially coaches avoid. If you’re running a business, you’re trying to make money. Helping people is the tool you use for the flow of money energy. There’s nothing dirty, dramatic, scary or wrong about it.
It’s totally ok (in fact its highly recommended for a business to continue as a going concern) to get paid doing what you love. And its beautiful and fulfilling when you get paid well doing what you love.
Changing lives, helping others and making a huge impact in the world are great things. And they are not mutually exclusive to building a lucrative business that gives you the opportunity to live your dream life.
Let’s look at how each of the components of the self-sacrifice money block manifest themselves in life and business.
Not Feeling Good Enough shows up with women entrepreneurs who feel like imposters in their business. In my personal and professional experience, women self-sabotage by procrastinating moving along with their vision/goals because they don’t feel like they belong. They believe they can’t win, create clients or do the work if they are themselves. They must develop another persona, dress differently; being themselves is not an option.
A common way this shows up with coaches is that whole shiny course syndrome. They need to take one more course, get that other certification, or get 5 more years of experience before they can coach. They need that next degree to be good enough to open their business.
“Comparititis” kicks in and becomes the new “stop” keeping them from moving in the business.
I’m intimately familiar with this one. Suddenly all our past education, experience and skills go out of the window because we convince themselves that everyone else knows more than we do. We make a subconscious commitment to playing small, and end up devaluing our services, under pricing, over delivering and falling directly into resentment, burnout and overwhelm.
Lack of Boundaries – If you have a hard time saying no at home or anywhere in your personal life, then you’re going to have a hard time saying no in business. The blocks and limiting beliefs that show up when we are running a business are not exclusive to our businesses. They show up everywhere, sabotage us everywhere and affect the key areas of life.
When working with coaches, a common area this shows up is enrolling clients who don’t pay on time or ever. Clients who don’t show up for their calls or clients who don’t really commit to take the action necessary to achieve their intended results.
A biggie? Offering a lot of free coaching or over delivering. There is nothing wrong with freebies, but giving services or products away in a way that does not serve you or your business requires more than just a passing glance.
Learning the gracious art of saying no and creating boundaries that serve you and your business do more than just help you build a lucrative life. It gives you peace of mind everywhere else, and that is priceless.
When I started coaching, I knew I had an issue with boundaries. Consistent with my many money blocks, I just wanted to help, serve, create change. I got real spiritual about the money and didn’t care if I got paid. After all, its ok to do the whole self-sacrifice thing as long as everyone else is happy, right?
Well, that didn’t last long. Running my business do the ground did not pay the mortgage or any of my other expenses. After working my coaches to identify, shift and heal my disempowering stories, I routinely stay on top of my mindset. I for one, cannot run a coaching or fashion business if I’m saying yes, yes, yes to everyone and everything or working with clients for free.
I’ve stopped feeling tired and irritable all the time because I’m not committed to pleasing everyone. I sleep well and have time for me, my family and the things and people I treasure in my life because I’ve created boundaries that serve me.
Not Feeling Ready and Perfectionism complement each other beautifully. I can’t do X until Y happens. I cannot coach until my business cards and website are ready or I can’t launch my site until my About Page is perfect.
How does this usually show up? Giving freebies and not charging until you get everything lined up and just right. Over delivering because you believe you should give more to compensate for the lack of business cards. Professionalism becomes the new stop and self-sabotage that keeps us from moving forward and growing our businesses.
When I started my coaching and fashion businesses, I lived in the “getting ready to be ready” mode. I was always doing one more thing to get ready. One more course. One more class. One more training.
Making the 20th prototype of the necklace before releasing my line. Sewing 10 versions of the skirt to see how I make it perfect, especially if someone was going to be paying their hard-earned cash for it.
At a higher level of this block, many women entrepreneurs spend time reinventing the wheel and making things harder than they have to be. This way, we can stay stuck in our fears, doubt and resistance to showing up fully in the world. We take a vow to stay unseen.
Few years, later, and after doing the WORK, I’m with NIKE. “Just do it[,]” already! Take up your space in the world and be seen. Make that impact you’re so ready to make and go change the lives you’ve committed to changing with your business.
Insecurity – We touched on this when discussing guilt/shame money blocks. The idea that we don’t deserve to show up and do our work or create our magic because there are others in the same space. We forget what we have to offer. We forget our life experiences, talents, skills and all the tools and strategies we’ve learned along the way.
It blends in easily with Not Feeling Good Enough but stands out when we forget the power of Choice. Someone out there is looking for exactly what you have. I’m not going into the whole “You’re Unique” story, but you get the idea.
I dated every other coaching niche before finally deciding to screw my insecurities and train to be a Business and Money Mindset Coach.
Why was I insecure? My finances were a mess and I had enough money blocks to ground a plane. Who was I to talk to other women entrepreneurs about their money blocks? Who was I to coach women entrepreneurs making high six figures or seven figures about business?
Didn’t you have to make 8-figures to do that?
Prior to this, I was a relationship coach. Prior to that, I was a relationship coach for women going through divorce, separation and breakup. I felt like a fraud being a relationship coach because my disempowering stories included being in a great relationship before coaching others to create the same.
I thrived in my whole divorce/breakup coaching niche. After all, I was in riding my relationship breakdown, so I figured I knew enough about that to support others going through it.
Until I realized that most of my clients were women entrepreneurs who deserved great money mindsets. I could support women entrepreneurs to create an amazing money mindset, grow their businesses, live their dream lives and build amazing relationships.
At the end of the day, those were all just fears, limiting beliefs and stories I was using to stay put in my business. Growing and moving forward meant I’d actually create the life and business I wanted. It meant I would have to become a business coach; the area of coaching I was most passionate about, highly trained in and skilled in. That to me was scarier than anything else in my business plan.
Do I still coach my amazing women entrepreneur clients on relationships? Yes. But it is an “in addition to.
I Just Want to Help People. Ah, I love this one. That recurring allergic reaction to making money. As a Transformational Ontological Life Coach, I am too familiar with this one.
I’ve already mentioned that at some point in both my coaching and fashion business, I felt I was too spiritual to make money. I just wanted to give.
But alas, those darned bills showed up and I realized being a coach was being a business owner. And being a business owner meant running a business. Which in turn, meant I wanted to make money, build a fabulous life and happily continue to serve others.
How does this show up? It usually involves the whole “Selling is sleazy” conversation. Feeling bad about charging for services and of course, lack of boundaries.
When this shows up, think about what exactly you’re focusing on. It’s great to want to help our clients, but when we end up making our work more about us, we do more harm than good.
Take coaching for example, I used to make it about me and how I felt when enrolling clients. It didn’t work. I struggled and found it hard to create ideal clients, find a viable niche or know what packages or programs to offer. When I realized that coaching was merely a tool that clients used to invest in themselves, my life and business changed.
If a client was deciding to invest in herself or her business, it had nothing to do with me, and everything to do with the value she believed she would get, and how I could help her change her life, relationships and business.
Yes, it’s not about me. And it’s not about you.
Now that we’ve discussed several money blocks and how they show up in our lives and business, we can move forward busting those blocks, kicking them to the curb, and creating an awareness about their triggers.
And we can give ourselves permission to create and grow the life and businesses of our dreams. We can stop waiting for someone to say its time… and take charge of our own lives.
How?
Well, one way is to feel the fear and do it anyway. At some point, you will ignore the fear and just do it.
There are few things scarier than stepping out to build your own to start a new business or step out of resentment and burnout to grow an existing one. Don’t believe for one moment you’re the first woman entrepreneur to be afraid. Check the woman next to you. She’s scared too.
And so am I. But guess what? If you truly want this, you can make the journey as easy as you want. Invest in a powerful money mindset by investing in a coach that you enjoy working with. Your life will be better for it.
Investing in a powerful mindset means you must take full responsibility to be the person who creates the change, and the person who takes the action. This requires accountability and support; two more benefits of working with a coach you trust.
At the end of the day, you decide what you want for your life and business. Your business vision and goals are limited to how you’re able to shift your money blocks.
Without a powerful money mindset, you’ll miss out on being the business woman who:
- Creates a Powerful Vision.
- Nails a Viable Niche.
- Creates a Unique Brand.
- Turns Her Services into a Signature System.
- Creates Premium Packages that Sell Themselves.
- Owns Her Value and Charges What She’s Worth.
- Enrolls High-End Clients Who Want to Pay Her in Full.
Healing money blocks or shifting limiting beliefs is not merely about making money or profits.
What happens when women make more money? They invest in their families, their communities and the world. They change lives on a larger scale. They make a bigger impact. They save lives.
What do you want in your life and business?
What money blocks, if any, resonate with you?
What impact does your money mindset have on your business?
How to Work with MiMi
When you DECIDE to 10x your life and business,
AND you’re truly ready release these subconscious blocks and limiting beliefs that are holding you back from getting the results, clients, profits and impact you desire,
AND you’re FULLY committed to doing REAL, fun, interesting and transformational (inner + outer) practical work and learning tools and strategies to 10X your business, life and relationships, I am happy to fully support you.
Choose the option you believe you want and contact me to determine which will serve you best:
The 10X Money Mindset Mastery and Wealth Workbook for Women Entrepreneurs & Coaches (Self-Coaching PDF/downloadable workbook to use at your own pace), or
The 10x Money Mindset Circle for Women Entrepreneurs & Coaches (Exclusive Monthly/Annual Membership Site), or
The 10X Money Mindset and Flow Mastery for Women (90-Day Private 1:1 Coaching Program)
Let’s do this!
Cheering you on to a 10X Money Mindset,
MiMi Dabo, MBA, CPA, JD
Founder, 10x Money Mindset Circle for Women Entrepreneurs and Coaches
Business and Money Mindset Coach
www.lifecoachforwomen.com
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I help women entrepreneurs and coaches create successful businesses without burnout and overwhelm, create ideal clients, signature systems and high premium packages in their viable niche, and get over their money blocks to confidently charge premium prices, and double, triple or 10x their income with less work, less guilt and a bigger impact.
Take the FREE Business Success Quiz at www.lifecoachforwomen.com AND get immediate access to the FREE 7-Day Business Success Mindset Mini-Course.
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