You’re pretty badass. You can watch horror movies without flinching, try an exotic (and often times weeeeird) new cuisine without blanching and negotiate with sales clerks like it ain’t no thing.

But should your mind unconsciously flip up the word ‘money’ … well, all bets are off.

Your hands get clammy, your throat closes up and you get that nervous, gross feeling in your belly like there are a bunch of French guys stomping grapes in your intestines.

Deep breaths, lady. I understand. Oh buh-lieve me, I understand. Because it doesn’t matter who you are, everyone has money blocks.

From the start-up that thinks that money is the root of all evil through to the been-there-done-that biz that thinks that their income is capped … if you’re running a biz, you’re also likely running an entire football team of mental money blocks.

But just because you have ‘em, doesn’t mean you have to keep ‘em.

Let me share a story with you.

One of my biggest money blocks….

When I started out, I had this idea in my mind of what running a successful business should look like. 

Spoiler alert: It included 50-hour weeks, a truck load of caffeine and more stress than one mortal woman could possibly manage.

I thought that I had to be stressed and run myself into the ground before I could be financially successful. Because in my mind, money was something you had to work really, really frikken hard for.

Cue some of the longest and most difficult years of my life.

Until one day, I questioned what I thought I knew. I questioned my beliefs and – finding them less than ideal – decided I would choose a better, easier, path to financial success.

Cue four-day weeks, working smarter (not harder), REAL work/life balance and the type of lifestyle I’d always craved (but never thought was possible).

Now, I’m not saying it was an overnight transformation.

Overcoming your money blocks is something that you need to work on every damn day.

But if you’re willing to put in the time, and effort, you can cultivate a money mindset that matches your unique values and attracts that type of success you’re craving.

Some other common money blocks are –

“I wouldn’t pay that much for a service, so why would anyone else?”

Can you spot the flaw in that logic? I hope so. See, the thing about that particular money belief is this: WE ARE NOT OUR OWN IDEAL CLIENT! The gifts that you have to share with the world likely come quite easily to you.

Which isn’t to say you don’t work hard at them, just that they play to your strengths… Which actually makes it really easy for you to devalue them in your own eyes.

For me, as a designer, picking out colours and dreaming up logos is… well, kinda second nature! ‘Why would anyone pay for that?’ I used to think to myself.

BOY am I glad those days are over. Here’s what I realised: I am not my ideal client.

And people need top-notch graphic design and branding to create a successful business. Aaaand my ideal client sees the value in what I do. How cool is that?!

That was my first step in learning to charge what I was actually worth: recognising that even though my gifts mightn’t always seem that great to me, they are needed and valued by other people

another common money block is….

“I want to be flooded with work, therefore my price needs to be cheap”

This is an awesome way to burn yourself out and make you hate your business. Not great, huh?

The key to a successful, sustainable business is providing a valuable service, and you can’t do that if you are churning out loads of low-priced shizzle while slowly grinding yourself into the ground. With cheap comes fast, and you cannot create high quality products quickly in high quantity. You just can’t. So the key is to streamline your business, limit your one-on-one contact with clients (because that stuff takes time) and instead charge higher prices for less clients and then allow yourself the time you need to create an amazing service/product.

oh and one more money block I hear all the time….

“I just need to make it PERFECT before I can start selling it.”

There is no such thing as ‘perfect’. Thinking that if you had more time or money you could make your product 100% perfect is not realistic. You are not perfect and that’s okay. Your tribe wants the authentic you – that is the essence of your brand, remember.

So less perfecting and more doing, please! Launch it, learn on the fly, and start bringing those dollars in the second you’ve got something that’s shippable.

How to cultivate a positive money mindset

When I was cultivating my money mindset, the first step was relatively simple (if not easy): I had to recognise what my money blocks were and then be willing to chip away at them every day.

For me, that meant a heady dose of gratitude and inner work to figure out where my beliefs were born.

Now, different strategies work for different people. My advice would be to explore them all and see what feels right for you.

You could try reading up on manifesting, practice meditation or kinesiology, or create some simple statements each day like “I am an awesome design and I am worth more money”.

But whatever you try, I want you to know one thing:

THE MATHS OF MONEY IS SIMPLE…

High self-worth = Money magnet
Low self-worth = Stuck and small

I know which equation I’d rather be living!

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