Let’s talk passive income! One of my favorite things about being a money mindset coach is that I get the opportunity to see what’s hiding under your bed. The dirty socks. The Gremlins. The Money Stories. The Money Blocks.
Many women entrepreneurs dream of creating a profitable and sustainable business that gives them the freedom and flexibility to build the life of their dreams – one where they make a lot of money and a lot of difference in the world.
If you’re a woman entrepreneur or coach, you may have thought about creating passive income and making money while you sleep (after your marketing is in place, of course). Or perhaps you are already ringing in the cha-chings on your website.
But creating multiple streams of income isn’t easy for everyone. Taking your expertise and turning it into something that makes you money on repeat can be scary for many visionary female entrepreneurs with a big heart.
Let’s take my client Alison (we’ll call her that here) for example. She wanted to create a relationship course for divorced women with children who wanted to date again. She enjoyed the work she did with her clients, but wanted the opportunity to help more women other than just those who could get on a skype call with her.
She wrote her course and then when it was time to publish it on her website, she hit the freeze button.
First, she wanted to wait until she made sure she had nothing else to add. Then she wanted to make sure it was perfect so that she didn’t turn potential clients off.
But later, she got honest and identified the real reasons for the delay.
I’ll discuss those two reasons soon, but let me back up to those gremlins, money blocks and money stories or dirty socks I referred to at the beginning of this post.
The Two Top Money Blocks that Keep Women Entrepreneurs and Coaches Stuck
You might be thinking, “only 2? I have 10.” I hear you. I have 20, and I’m working on them every day.
Let’s get back to Alison for a moment.
You see, her dad worked 12 to 15 hours days, 7 days a week to support his family. They had a great middle-income life and her dad reminded Alison and her sisters every day that one has to work really hard to make money; especially if they wanted to make an honest living. According to him, easy money was probably dirty money.
This stuck with Alison. So, what do you think Alison thought about the passive income she’d be making from her relationship course? The easy money she’d be making in her sleep if she sold her course?
You got it.
Money Block #1: Making Money Has to Be Hard
“This is too Easy,” Alison kept telling me. She felt bad that someone would willingly pay her $297 for something she enjoyed doing and that didn’t take much time. She talked about how the ease of the whole thing made her sick to her stomach.
How could she feel like she had earned it if she didn’t do anything to get the money?
It’s amazing how we women entrepreneurs often forget how hard we’ve already worked to create the product. Even if it’s in our zone of genius. Even if it took only five minutes. You already put in the work (sometimes a lot of work), especially the crucial marketing that goes into selling on repeat.
Whether you’re an author, a song-writer, a coach, a plastic surgeon or yoga instructor, hear this….please.
You already did the work. You created the product. You didn’t steal someone’s course/song/workbook. You put in the time and put in the effort.
Just because you’ve chosen to wear someone else’s dirty underwear aka limiting beliefs that easy money is not honest money or that making money must be hard, doesn’t make it true.
That’s the unworthiness and not-enoughness rearing its ugly head.
The ugly feeling that ‘I have to earn it” because “I’m not worthy or I’ don’t deserve it or I’m not enough.”
The belief that nothing great comes easy. “If I don’t work hard and suffer for this, I’m not worthy of receiving money.”
And we know how we do money is how we do anything. How is that unworthiness showing up in your romantic relationships? In your family relationships? In your business?
Do you have to earn his love? Do you have to twist yourself in a pretzel and sacrifice your dignity and soul for you to get the promotion?
Here’s the deal. Just because it’s easy for you doesn’t mean it’s easy for your client. Your zone of genius is unique to you.
Your client wants to pay you for your amazing ebook/course/song/product that will transform his or her life.
Look, you, Alison, me, we all go through this. (If you haven’t already, watch the video to hear my own story and for tips on shifting this money block).
This brings us to the next money block that Alison was struggling with during that time.
Money Block #2: I feel like I’m Stealing Candy from a Baby
You know, the one where you feel like a thief because you’re making money selling something that you’ve already been paid for. It feels like double dipping.
How can you get paid for the same thing twice? 20 times? 100 times? 1000 times? After all you did the work only once, right?
You bad, bad girl.
How dare you get out of your own way?
How dare you make money without killing yourself first?
You’re running a business. You deserve to get paid doing what you do. It’s safe to make money doing what you love. Staying stuck in analysis paralysis trying to figure out if you should add a passive income stream to your business is hurting your ideal clients. Those clients who have a specific problem and need your specific solution to solve that problem.
This money block is not unique. It has come up for 99% of my clients. And it still comes up for me. I’ve had times where I’ve thought of just giving my ebook for free because it has had X sales or I’ve argued that I’ve already made the investment back that I put into it. But that’s not the point. It’s an ebook for sale.
Just like Alison, I too had to get over myself and realize that the fact that I don’t have to go rewrite the book every time someone else buys it does not make me a thief. And no, I’m not stealing candy from a baby. What’s the baby doing with candy, anyway?
The great thing about being an entrepreneur is the option to make money every minute I’m sleeping. The option to not have to rely on my employer to determine when I get a pay raise, a promotion or whatever else. The option to shatter any income ceilings that could keep me stuck and broke.
The option to transform lives by creating products that solve problems; that help and support others to get to their next big level.
So how do entrepreneurs shift these limiting beliefs? How do we step into our greatness and be the women leaders we truly want to be?
How to Shift and Release Money Blocks that Keep Women Entrepreneurs from Earning Passive Income
We do the transformative work to release the blocks. Simple, intuitive, painless work. We ask the questions that go deeper than why or how?
Here is an example of a journaling exercise that is helpful in creating powerful money mindset shifts to release these two and other similar money blocks.
- What do I believe about making money in my sleep?
- Is it true?
- What do I have to believe about myself for me to know that I am worthy of making money in my sleep?
- Am I willing to believe this?
- Is it safe for me to make money without working hard?
- Whose permission am I waiting on?
- What belief do I have to put down to create passive income?
- Am I willing to put down the dis-empowering belief and lead with the one that empowers me?
- Now that I have this empowered belief, what am I committed to regarding creating passive income?
You don’t have to sing the ebook to the client to feel like you’ve earned the money (Yes, I considered that – watch the video to hear that story).
You deserve to get paid because it’s your business and people need what you have.
Cheers to your fabulous success!
I’m MiMi Dabo and I support Women Entrepreneurs who struggle with Creating Premium Clients and Charging their Worth, to Confidently Package, Price, Market and Sell their Services to their Ideal Clients in a Profitable Niche.
I help them to ditch the crappy Money Blocks and stories, and package their services into irresistible high-end offers for their ideal clients, raise their prices or charge what they’re worth, and market and sell with ease so they can radically increase their income – while changing the world in the process. Visit www.lifecoachforwomen.com.
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