Money Management Transformations with Karina Follet, Rachel Rennie and Glenn Stevens

Transcript

What is money management? Money management is managing your money. It’s about learning to understand what’s coming in and going out of your business, and when, and being empowered to make decisions using that knowledge inside your business. Today I am so excited to share with you some money transformation stories from previous clients of mine to demonstrate for you the power of up-leveling your knowledge in money management.

You’re listening to the Clare Wood Podcast, where we talk all things business, finance, marketing and mindset for entrepreneurs, sharing practical tips and actionable advice to help you take your business to the next level. Introducing your host, me. I’m Clare Wood. I’m a numbers geek, a travel lover, and a reality TV addict, and I’m here to empower you to create an extraordinary business and an amazing life, because I believe you don’t have to choose between the two. Now let’s dive right into today’s episode.

Money Management Transformation with Rachel Rennie

Clare:

Today’s first guest is Rachel from Frankly Write. Rachel is an incredible website copy writer and I have personally used her to write the copy on my very own home page and about page. I can’t wait for you to listen to the incredible transformation she’s had in her business. She has grown from earning less than $2,000 a month to being on track to her six figure business this year. Let’s go listen to the first money transformation chat.

Clare:

Hello, lovely, how you doing?

Rachel:

Hello. I’m good, how are you?

Clare:

I’m good. I was just telling everyone what a fabulous copy writer you are and how you are the person that I always recommend when it comes to web copy, and that I have used you myself to write the words on my home page.

Rachel:

Yes. Thank you.

Clare:

Please go and check out Frankly Write. She’s your go to girl for web copy, conversion, SEO, all of those magical things. And today I want to chat to you about money magic, if that’s okay.

Regardless of whether you join my program or not, I just want to talk about the power of doing money work and what difference it makes to people in their business. It’s probably the biggest tool that I use with my coaching clients is teaching money management, and hand in hand with that is money mindset. So maybe you could track right back to when you and I first met.

Rachel:

Absolutely, yes. What a difference.

Clare:

So maybe if you could share a little bit about where you were at when you first reached out to me.

Rachel:

So when I first reached out to you, I was just pregnant with my now 10 month old son and I was at a stage where I greatly undercharged for my services and my time. I didn’t understand how there were other copy writers actually making a decent living from their job, because I would look at their work and I would look at my work and I’d go, “My work’s good, maybe better. Sometimes. Different styles.” And I I want to be quite open with figures, is that cool with you?

Clare:

Yeah, that’s great.

Rachel:

So I think I came to you and getting your services was a big investment for me at the time. I was lucky if I had a 2K month in terms of total revenue turnover. And I saw copy writers, they were opening little studios and they had a team and I was like, “How?” And that’s where I was at. And I wanted to grow my business to a place where it could make me a decent living, like actually have a career out of this whilst still being a mamma and having time for my kids.

Clare:

And so, let’s talk about what you were actually doing at the time for that $2,000 a month.

Rachel:

I was doing all the things, social media management, which I really hated, but it seemed like something I had to do for some reason, because it was a service and I was in that area. I was doing a lot of blog writing, a lot of blog writing. Most of my leads were off Facebook groups where I was competing with 20 other copywriters.

Clare:

Let’s put some numbers on these things. So what were you charging for a blog?

Rachel:

It was between $35 and $50 for a 500 word blog, which would take me a good three hours to have a nice blog. And I didn’t ever put a word count on it, so they might get 800 words. Those are really still brand voice, I still wanted it to feel like them and sound like them and all that kind of stuff, so it was about $50 a blog. And I think wrote someone’s entire website for like $500, which I remember being absolutely stoked with. And at the time that was really great, I was like, “Wow, someone’s paying me $500 to write? Bring it.” It didn’t matter that it took me two weeks.

Clare:

So I remember that when you first came to me and told me some of these numbers and I was like, “What the hell are you doing?” And I looked at some of your work and I think that was a big thing too, because I was like, “Maybe she’s not a very good writer.” And it was totally the opposite and I was like, “Why are you not charging more?” So talk to me about why weren’t you charging more money at the time for your work, especially when you knew that you were really good at what you did?

Rachel:

So a big thing for me and I’m still finding this even now, I worked in education before. I did have a degree for advertising, marketing, and then I got a degree in education. In New Zealand, as management or governance in charge of 20 staff, hundreds of children, parents, you’d get maybe 35 an hour if you’re lucky. So I had also worked on the marketing in education, for various businesses that I worked for, for free, because that was what you were expected to do in education. So I was used to working really long, really hard hours. Nobody would crack $40 an hour regardless of 10 years experience, licensing, all these ridiculous requirements. You just didn’t make a lot of money.

On top of that, when I think you work in a creative field, yes you work really hard at your skills, but you also might have natural talent at something. I didn’t think that I could charge people for the talent side of things. It didn’t occur to me, I just went, “I’m good at this, so why would I charge you for it?” There was no connection there, I thought I could only charge for this skill like, “Oh, I have a degree, because I do. I have a degree in advertising, so maybe I can charge for that bit.”

Clare:

When we first got together and I was like mortified that someone as talented and clever as you wasn’t earning more money and I said to you, “You could be making …” I think I said at the time, “What if I was to tell you, you could make 10 to 15 grand a month?” And you were just like, “Whoa. No, that’s crazy.” And I’m like, “Well, let’s take your business to six figures.” Do you remember having that conversation?

Rachel:

Yes, I absolutely do.

Clare:

And what was coming up for you at the time?

Rachel:

Just absolute disbelief. I think I laughed and was like, “Yeah, all right, Clare.” I was like, “All right. I mean, you seem to know what you’re doing, I’ll listen.” I think I was always just like, “Is it really possible? Maybe there’s some magic formula, someone’s doing something else. Maybe they have digital … I don’t know. Something else is happening for those copy writing superstars that are making really good cash.” I just was like, “Okay, sure.”

So it was like, I’ll do it because that’s what I had you there for, but there is this absolute disbelief that it’s actually not possible. It’s a bit weird. It’s like you want to get there, you want to do it. Who doesn’t want to make six figures? But it seems almost impossible, especially as a creative I think.

Clare:

A lot of the work that you and I did was unpicking a lot of that and me showing you evidence of this is what it can look like, this is how much this person charges. And I guess too, being a coach, I can roam behind the scenes of a lot of business owner’s businesses. I’ve never shared businesses, I keep that all confidential. But I was saying to you, “Hey, just to let you know, this is what the copy writers charge for a blog.” And you were like, “What?” And I’m like, “Yeah.” But we didn’t just go, “Okay, open up, we’re going to put your prices to there,” because that wouldn’t have felt at all aligned to you.

Rachel:

No, and it would have felt really uncomfortable. I wouldn’t have sold it ever.

Clare:

We kind of bought your business on that journey of hacking through some of those money mindset things, but also changing the services that you were offering, because when you’re doing social media management, oh my gosh, it’s so much work and especially for the prices that you were charging. It just wasn’t-

Rachel:

I think it was $30 a week.

Clare:

Yeah.

Rachel:

Or, $50 a week for full social … I’ll write your posts, I’ll organize your visuals, which is not a strength of mine. Great at writing, not great at visuals. And then all the engagement and stuff. I think it was $50 a week.

Clare:

That’s incredible.

So maybe if we share some of them we’ve gone through. And then one of the other big things that we started doing was intensive money management. I started really talking a lot to you about numbers, about money. Do you remember?

Rachel:

Yes.

Clare:

We were like, “Let’s set a target. What’s your target? What does that look like? What do we need to do to get your business there?” At the start it was like, “Ah.” So why were you not that interested in getting in the detail of the numbers?

Rachel:

This is hard in retrospect because I’ve learnt so much from you about how important it is the look at your numbers and I enjoy that side of it now. But I think A, it can feel really scary, B, it can feel really boring, which is weird, like I’m here to make money and yet I’m bored looking at the figures. Yeah, probably those two things, boring and scary.

Clare:

Yeah. Well, I’m so, so proud of you because you massively embraced it and I know that was really uncomfortable for you when you started doing that work of getting into the numbers. But I would love for you to share what’s happened through coming on that journey, learning to manage your money. Would you mind sharing what the transformation looks like now compared to … What was it? 18 months ago? Is that about right?

Rachel:

Yeah, not that long. People are like, “How long have you been doing this?” And I’m like, “Three years.” And then I’m like, “No, because my son’s only 10 months old. So it can’t be three years, that’s impossible.”

To have money coming in, I had to be comfortable with money going out, that’s the biggest thing for me. And so I at first was very, very scared of any overheads, I was like, “I want it to be me and my laptop, that’s it.”

It has to flow and you have to be comfortable with it flowing in and flowing out, and flowing in and flowing out, as opposed to just going, “I just want it to come in and I don’t want any of it to go out.” It just doesn’t work that way, it needs to flow. That’s still scary, the numbers get bigger and you’re going … And then you realize that you’re just paying larger bills like that because larger bills are coming in.

Clare:

I find that even now, like when bills come out and I sort of have this like, “Oh my gosh, that’s a massive bill.” And then I catch my thought and I go, “Hang on, the more that I invest, and the higher level people that I work with, then the more will I find that things seem to flow in as well as they’re flowing out.” Does that make sense?

Rachel:

Yeah, absolutely. And so, I have another writer now, who’s still a secret but she’s sitting right there, but it’s a secret. I haven’t introduced her yet. But she’s a really, really talented writer. She’s got a master’s degree and she’s got marketing and SEO knowledge. When I first started looking at outsourcing, I would be like, “Who’s the cheapest?”

I mean, sure, maybe I was cheap and I was good, but that’s probably a rarity I think. You just end up spending more time fixing mistakes and it’s better just to pay more and get someone’s who’s really good at what they do, 100%. It just saves so much time and so much money in the long run. It feels like you’re paying more but you’re not, you’re actually making more from this girl.

Clare:

And I remember when you first brought this other person into your team and you were like, “She’s like another me.” And you were so excited because you were like, “I don’t feel like I’m compromising on the quality and the value that I add back to my clients.”

Rachel:

Not at all.

Clare:

And I think for you that was a really, really big shift.

Rachel:

That’s the biggest shift I think for creative services where you’re selling like … So the business has been built kind of on that talent of mine and me, me. Hello, I’m the face. So if I give a client work from anyone else, first of all, I’m really transparent and ethical about that. There’s still a certain style, so there’s still a Frankly Write style and that’s really important to me. But yeah, I mean, with my secret writer, she’s ridiculously talented, probably … I’m going to say better than me and she’ll go, “No, because we’re the same,” but she’s top tier.

Clare:

Amazing.

Rachel:

And yeah, she can just do her thing.

Clare:

So you shared before that you were comfortable to talk about some dollars.

Rachel:

Yeah.

Clare:

So you shared at the start you were pushing two grand on a good month.

Rachel:

Yeah.

Clare:

Let’s share where your business has grown to now.

Rachel:

So I sat down with my accountant and it looks like if this trajectory continues … So it’s going like this at the moment. I mean, it could always level out, but it’s definitely looking like it’s going to hit six figures this year.

Clare:

Isn’t that incredible?

Rachel:

Yeah, it is. And the months go up and down because sometimes projects come in. I’m a lot better at managing cashflow now, I think because I’ve got an admin as well and I’m always like, “Cashflow. Cashflow. Cashflow.” You have to have this cashflow, so sometimes it goes up, comes down. So I wouldn’t even say, “Oh, we’re doing 10K months or 20K months,” because it completely varies on projects.

Clare:

Can we safely say that $2,000 months are a long, long way behind you?

Rachel:

That’s like gone, gone, gone, beggars. Yeah, absolutely.

Clare:

Yay for you. And I’m so proud of you.

Rachel:

Very exciting.

Clare:

So, so proud of all the work that you’ve done. You were so deserving of this and truthfully, for me, this is just the beginning for you. I know that your business is going to grow and grow, and especially as you start to introduce more scalable products, which is something you and I have chatted about, like your revenues are really going to go up from there. More claps for you, yay.

When we talk about money management, let’s sum up the key things that like if someone’s watching this and finding this super inspiring and they’re wanting to shoot their business to the next level, how would you sum up the key things that we’ve spoken about today in terms of what has changed?

Rachel:

The biggest thing is getting comfortable with money has to go out in order for it to come in, I think. If you’re growing, you can’t grow without investing in yourself, so however you choose to invest in yourself. And if you don’t have money to invest, invest time so you can get your skills up, which is I think what I did at the very beginning. Or, if you’re going to invest, go with quality, go with the Clare Wood coaches, go with the Frankly Write copy writers.

Go with someone who’s very good at what they do and is going to actually deliver the results because if you’re investing low quality, you’re not going to get it back, and it’s going to end up feeling a big waste of time and you’re going to be like, “But that was a lie, they lied.” But it’s like, “Who did you work with?” So get used to money going out in order for it come in.

Rachel:

And then also just from a creative’s point of view, which I think is really important because I myself work with a lot of creative clients, just to charge what you’re worth, which is a hard thing to do in this sphere. It’s very difficult, we all struggle with it. But if you’re getting good feedback from your clients … If you can start small, I think it’s totally okay to start small because you’ve got to build a portfolio and prove you can do what you can do, but once you know you can do it, you have to charge your worth. It’s very hard for anyone with artistic talent to do, but it’s possible, it’s totally possible.

Clare:

I actually did a podcast episode about this last week. If anyone’s listening to this and going, “How do you …” It’s called Why Shifting Feels Shitty, and it’s talking about-

Rachel:

Oh, 100%. I saw that and I was like, “Yes, Clare, it does feel shitty.” I had the most awful week last week, I just felt terrible, I was like, “Yeah, it does, it feels awful.” It’s so uncomfortable and you’re like, “Am I making the right decisions?” All of that stuff.

Clare:

Yeah. But whether that is to your point, like investing in a team, investing in working with someone, investing in a new website, whatever, at the time when you’re like, “I’m going to make that decision and pay that money up,” oh my God, it can feel like have I made a massive mistake? Is this too much money to be putting into something? And then you start to question, and I talk about this in the episode like, “Is this my gut telling me this is the wrong decision? Or is this fear that’s holding me back?” And you’re like, “Maybe my intuition’s telling me to step back to stay safe.”

Clare:

And there’s no right or wrong, sometimes it is your gut, but you have to learn that regardless, moving, shifting, changing, it does feel uncomfortable. And I say this to people all the time, this process of learning money mindset and getting familiar with your numbers, it’s not easy. And you’ll have days where you hate … It makes you feel so uncomfortable, the thought of putting your prices up or even talking money like, “Ooh.” It can feel really [crosstalk 00:24:30]-

Rachel:

Yeah, like the thing I said in my story when I did this, I was like, “I feel weird talking about money, but I don’t want to be weird about it.” You don’t have to be weird about it. You don’t have to share your figures, like you probably heard I didn’t give you my exact this is how much I’m earning now per month, because I’m not comfortable with that yet. I saw Denise D-T, that was cool. She was like, “Here’s all my figures.” I was like, “Whoa.” But we’re in business, we’re not doing this for free. Yes, I love my job, but I got to pay the bills and I want to make money. I want to get my nails done. I want to buy an outfit or something, you know?

Clare:

Yeah.

Rachel:

And it’s okay.

Clare:

The mindset work, it’s really tough. It is a tough decision. I know sometimes like you go to pay for something and you’re like, “Gosh, am I overpaying for this?” And I know exactly what you’re saying, your ego is then going, “Well, they’re not worth that much money,” or, “I shouldn’t have to pay …” Sometimes when I tell people how much a good, new website will cost them, their mouth physically drops, because I’m like, “You’re going to need to pay this much for copy.” They’re like, “Copy?” And I’m like, “The words on your website.” And they’re like, “I’ll just write them myself.” And I’m like, “You can’t just write them yourself.”

Clare:

And the photography, again I’m like, “There’s no point having beautiful words if you’ve got shitty stock images. We’re going to need that. And then we’re going to need an amazing designer because trust me all of these elements work together and people’s mouth drops.” Then on the flip side, when they’re having $30,00, $40,000, $50,000 months and I’m like, “That wouldn’t have been happening without that website.”

Rachel:

Without that beautiful work, yes. You still have to be smart about it. You don’t just go like, “Ah.” You have to be like, “I’m going to look at their reviews. I’m going to make sure their style … I’m going to see whether I like them.” Does it feel like a calculated investment? And then, if they are charging top dollar and that’s the process that they work through with you, you have to have the testimonials to back you up, like you have to work slowly to build up like, “Yeah, I can actually do what I say that I’m doing.” So then making those higher investments isn’t as scary because you can look and see they actually can do good work.

Clare:

And the other thing too, that I’m like, “Be realistic, too.” And that’s why I love to pull my financial accounting background into the mindset stuff as well, don’t go and get into a situation when you’re financially distressed. I mean, you can go work with Tony Robbins, the business coach, and he charges a million US dollars a year and I’m pretty sure you get great results if you worked with him I guess. But are you going to go and take out a mortgage to?

Rachel:

Exactly.

Clare:

I think that that’s a thing too that I say to people like, “Be sensible with your investments. And yes, sometimes you’ve got to lean into a bit of an uncomfortable level maybe with it, but at the same time, don’t send yourself bankrupt in the process of trying to … You know?

Rachel:

No, exactly. In incremental steps, right? So maybe you might take a course on how to maybe start writing your own copy and then you’re like, “Well, in six months or three months time, I’m going to get a copywriter to do it.” Or, “I might join a group coaching, but in three months time, I’m going to get one on one coaching because that’s when I’ll be at that stage.” So it’s like yeah, incremental-

Clare:

Yeah. 100%.

Rachel:

Aim for the best, if you want to make money. If you don’t want to make money, do whatever you want.

Clare:

It’s something I’m always really transparent with people as well, I think that a lot of people look at my website with the beautiful words and the beautiful images on it now and they’re like, “Ah.” And I’m like, “But let’s be clear, my first website, I built on Wix, with a 99designs logo and I had the most horrendous copy that I wrote myself,” but that was fine because that was appropriate for me at the time.

Rachel:

100%.

Clare:

I didn’t have the money to invest. I didn’t even know if this coaching business thing was going to work, but hey, I took that leap, I started. And then as my business has grown, I’ve gone, “Cool, I can go and get a professional web designer”

And I can go and hire an incredible copywriter like Rachel to go and write my home page and my about page and actually help convert the clients that land there into paying clients. But no offense, I wouldn’t have paid you that money back then because I didn’t have that much money.

Rachel:

So you’ve got to be smart about it, be calculated about it, but yeah, it is hard to be like, “Is this fear?” I need to go listen to that podcast, because I saw you posting it and I was like, “Yes, I need to listen to this today, because it feels shitty.”

Clare:

I think that people think that money mindset is something like, “Cool, Rachel’s hit a six figure business now, she’s done with money mindset.”

Rachel:

No. No.

Clare:

Every level, the little devil pops up again and is like, “You’re getting a bit too big for your boots. No one’s going to pay that. Are you sure you should be spending this much money on a website, a coach, a program, a course, whatever it looks like?” And you’re constantly having to do, I know I am constantly having to do the work and every new stage just brings in a whole new bunch of money blocks, money challenges.

Rachel:

Yeah. I mean, it goes from being like, “Do I even pay?”, from outsourcing to being like, “How much can I …” That next block for me, for getting writers on board was like, “Okay, I’m going to pay more.” That was a block. And now I’m like, “This is fantastic. Let me at her, because you’re so good.”

Clare:

A really good thing that I love to do with businesses when we first start working together is do a budget. And I find that I’m calling it targets these days because people don’t think the word budget’s sexy.

Rachel:

I know.

Clare:

But we set targets and soon as I start to say, “Hey, if you could sell five of these a month, then you can more than cover the cost of that person.” And they’re like, “Oh my gosh, I’m already selling more than that.” And so, when you’ve got a bit of a plan for it, it doesn’t become so overwhelming because you’re like, “Well, I know that if I do that or hit that, then I’ll see the benefits on the other side.”

Rachel:

The anxiety of the unknown is actually far, far worse than just looking at your numbers. The anxiety of being like, “What’s it going to be?”, it’s so much worse. When you actually look at it, you’re like, “Ah.” And come on, you own a business, put your big girl pants on and be across your numbers. It just doesn’t make sense to not do that.

Clare:

And I know first hand, I went through a really rough time about two years ago, financially. My business was doing really well at the time, but we’d just turned a bit of a blind eye to the personal financial side and ended up in a really awful situation. I’ve shared about it on the podcast.

Ignoring something and just being like, “Oh no, it’ll go away and we’ll manifest our way out of it,” it doesn’t work. You do need to go, “Okay, cool. Let’s have a look, let’s come up with a plan of attack.” And even if it’s not as rosy as you hoped it would be, at least you’re empowered to make a decision. You can go, “Okay, cool, what can I do from here to turn this story-”

Rachel:

Yeah. I was going to say it’s like ripping a band aid off, but it’s not, because it’s not actually that bad. There’s no pain in it, for me anyway. If I’m worried about finances in any way, shape, or form, if I sit down and look at it, if I do my cashflow, if I reconcile, if I do everything I’m like, “Ah, this is manageable. Maybe I just need another client this month. Okay, I’ll just go and put some extra work into my marketing.” Or, “Is there a referral I can pull on or something.”

Clare:

Well, I’ll wrap it up now, but this has just been incredible. I’m so, so proud of your success, but mostly, you were so, so deserving of this. And actually, you’re so deserving of so much more and I know that it’s coming your way. I can’t wait to continue to watch your journey, watch your success.

Rachel:

Thank you. Same.

Clare:

And if anyone needs web copy, SEO work, please reach out to Frankly Write, she’s my girl. Thank you so much for joining us. Thanks for chatting money with me and chat to you soon.

Rachel:

Thanks. See you.

Money Management Transformation with Glenn Stevens

Clare:

My second guest today is Glenn from the Functional Movement Club. The Functional Movement Club is a sports chiropractor based in Sydney, Australia. But, they also run online programs and Glenn has created an E-book to help people all around the world with back pain. Glenn is an inspiring business leader and is a mastermind client of mine and I can’t wait to dive in and chat all about money with him today.

Clare:

Hey, Glenn, how you doing?

Glenn:

I’m very good, how are you?

Clare:

I’m good. I’m good. Before we get into it, maybe if you could do a quick intro to who you are and how you help people.

Glenn:

I’m Glenn Steven, the owner of The Functional Movement Club. Basically, we’re a company designed to give you a better level of healthcare. So we help health obsessed entrepreneurs get the most out of their body and exercise as much as they want and recover as quick as they can. And so, we started off as a chiro clinic, but expanding into the online realm with My Mobility stuff as well as now.

Clare:

Yeah, amazing. And so, maybe you could share what it is that you’re doing in the online space at the moment because you’ve got a challenge going on right now, don’t you?

Glenn:

We do, yes. So it’s a very busy time for us, we’ve just hired our first associate chiropractor to come and help me out. We’re also going through and we’re about to kick off the Bye-Bye Back Pain challenge. So it’s a three day challenge starting on Wednesday evening at 8:00 PM, and basically, it’s just three little 10 minute mobility routines you can follow along with live with me. So you can ask any questions about the exercises, where you’re meant to feel them, if you want some progressions or regressions to suit your level. So it’s an exciting time.

Clare:

Yeah, amazing. And I have bought your book. I worked through your book because I love going to the gym, but unfortunately, gosh it must have been over a year ago now, I pulled something in my back. And it’s one of those things that I’m sure a lot of your clients are the same, you can kind of ignore it for a while, ignore it for a while, keep training hoping it goes away, and then it just keeps flaring up again and again. And that’s definitely what happened to me, which is why I grabbed a copy of your book. And I’ve given you this feedback privately, but fantastic and it was so interesting for me. It was such a rethink about pain, where it comes from. And yeah, highly recommend if you do get back pain, please go and jump in the Bye-Bye Back Pain challenge because Glenn really knows what he’s talking about.

So anyway, the reason I invited you to come on today wasn’t to talk about sore backs, as much as we love to talk about it, it was to chat about money. So I wanted to dive in today … I shared before you joined in that you used to be a private client of mine, you’re now in my mastermind, and I wanted to talk a bit about money and the transformation that’s happened for you. So first of all, maybe if we could start with what’s your belief around what money mindset is?

Glenn:

It’s funny. So I had started looking into this just before I first met you and I’ve always been a big believer in fate. And the two big jumps that I’ve really seen in my business is when I step back, I’ve invested in coaching with you and it’s really just changed my money mindset.

And so, the first big step that I did was transitioning into more of an online platform, so then that allowed me not to necessarily leverage my time for money, but then I can actually be making money passively while I sleep. And then, I hit a bit of a mental block, I had to do some work. And then we’ve come back and it’s got to be recently, since we’ve started the mastermind, I’ve gone from just being me with a 50% full diary to being fully booked, hiring another chiro, launching an online program as well.

And to be honest with you, I see it all just comes down to mindset. It was a shift in the way that I thought about money, the way that I invested my money, in the way that I treated my money. And I think it’s a massive thing in terms of just achieving your goals and working towards them and seeing them come true and manifest.

Clare:

And definitely I found the same for myself on my own journey is that when you start to have people that challenge your limitations around money, it’s that uncomfortable feeling of why don’t you bring someone into your team or why do you go and invest into this, or why don’t you fill out your business or go online. It’s scary when it’s happening, right? It feels uncomfortable. It feels a bit weird while you’re going through it.

Glenn:

I think that was the biggest thing for me is like I didn’t even realize this until I was rereading a book that you recommended for the second time by Denise Duffield-Thomas and it was about working through our money block. Basically, I left my chiro job three years ago. I wanted a pay raise, my boss wasn’t willing to give it to me and he said, “How much do you think you’re worth?” I gave him a figure, he said I wasn’t worth that much, so I decided to go out on my own and test the waters.

And it’s funny, I didn’t realize until working with you and stuff, the figure that I said I was worth was what I’d earned for the last three years. And that’s even though I’d gotten busier with more clients, that’s even though I’d increased my prices, I was still stuck at the exact same money barrier, and I’m talking like to the $1,000 over the course of the year, so it’s crazy.

Clare:

Yeah, and it’s literally just like when you think something is possible or isn’t possible, you’re inadvertently starting to create that, right?

Glenn:

Oh yeah, 100%. And so, I didn’t even realize, it’s until you start doing that self-work and you look internally and you realize you do have all these belief systems and then the belief systems then determine your behaviors. So if you think you’re locked at a certain level, then your body will consciously work to keep you at that level. And as much as I like the woo-woo stuff, obviously I’m very scientific based being a healthcare professional and it’s actually a natural part of our brains called the reticular activating system.

So we’ve got this little area in our brain called the reticular activating system, and I think of them kind of like the guards who are sitting on top of a castle to our mind and it basically tells us what our brain should focus in on. And so, it’s that common analogy you’ve heard where your friend tells you they’re getting a red sports car and then all of a sudden you start seeing all these red sports cars in that particular make and model popping up everywhere.

And it’s not that they’ve magically just made a heap of those cars and they’re flooding the market, it’s because your brain’s more aware of them and takes notice of them. And the same thing happens with your goals and your money mindset. If you focus in on a certain target and you set yourself a limit, then that’s what you’re going to achieve and that’s what you’re going to end up with. I hope that makes sense.

Clare:

Yeah, exactly. And it’s so funny because I’ve done a lot of work on money mindset throughout my time as being a business owner and you think, “Oh, my money blocks have gone away.” But the truth is, is that every new level, new blocks come up again. That’s just the nature that it is. And I know even when I had Denise Duffield-Thomas, queen of money mindset, I had her on my podcast and she said that one of her blocks was that she could never charge people for speaking at events because she thought, “Well, I’m getting in front of your audience, why should I get paid for that? I’m basically marketing myself.”

And it’s funny how every new level has its new block. Blocks can look like not charging people enough. Not charging people at all is a big thing that I’ve found. It’s like, for example, like a best friend, we might go, “I’m not going to charge you,” or vice versa. There’s lots of different ways that money blocks can show up in your business. And to your point, I think that when we’ve got the limit around what we think that our business can make, we’re essentially creating that by the fact that we’re like, “Well, I can’t grow my business any further than what I have now.” So super interesting that you shared that about your money mindset.

You started off at the very start by saying the big shift that’s happened in your business, as a result of doing the money mindset work?

Glenn:

Yeah. Well, it’s interesting. So obviously, you first brought me up to speed with it and how to practice it a little bit more. And then, it’s weird, I was listening to this podcast when COVID hit. So we actually shut down for a couple of weeks and it was the James Wedmore podcast and he basically said, “You need to start acting like the business owner you want to become.” And so for me I was like, “What does that look like?”

I have big, lofty goals of turning The Functional Movement Club into a full functioning health club, and I was like, “Well, that means I have to hire a coach. I need to invest in upgrading my website. I need to get serious about my marketing.” And so, I made the decision to go out and … a lot of money. Instead of taking the safe route and trying to ride COVID out, I was like, “No, I’m going to double down and I’m really going to start …” Not spending money, but acting as if I had a whole heap of money and I was acting at next level already. And it’s funny, the clients start calling up. I’m noticing everything has a funny way of working out for the best.

Clare:

And I remember when you were invested in buying the gym equipment. So your dream is to have this fully end-to-end gym where people can train, they’ve got all their health needs met in one space. And you went and invested in that way and you’ve now got clients who are paying you to train with you, right?

Glenn:

Yeah. Well, that’s the other crazy thing is it hit home as well. It got to the stage where I was telling people about my dream, which I was always very reluctant to, because that was me holding onto my limiting belief. But you start telling people that and they go, “That’s awesome. I already want to do it.” And so then that gave me the confidence to go out and spend the money and deck out our gym, buy gym flooring, buy more weights, buy more kettle bells, buy more dumbbells.

And then as soon as you start doing that then more people are like, “Ooh, this is really good. It looks like a gym.” It opens up a conversation, “Why don’t you come and train with us?” And then yeah, all of sudden you have three, four, five clients coming in and training with you on a regular basis and it justifies the money you just spent. So I think yeah, it’s a massive thing to act the way that you want to be perceived and act, the way that you would act if you were at that next level.

Clare:

Yeah. And if you’re watching this and going, “What are they talking about?” Money mindset is definitely a skill that you can learn. And I know the first time when I heard about it I was like, “What? That doesn’t make any sense.” I lent into the process anyway and it’s incredible how much when you start to lean into some of these things and go, “Do you know what? I’m going to give it a try anyway. I’m going to go for it and see what happens.” And it’s incredible what started showing up for me when I just went, “I’m going to lean into this process.” So really cool that you shared those stories.

The other thing that I want to chat to you about and I’m going try and make it a fun way of talking about it is the money management side. So my background … Glenn already knows this, I’m telling you guys this. My background is that I’m an accountant, I’m a numbers girl, I love talking about money, but when you’ve started to focus in on the money side of your business, have you seen a shift in your actual results? And if so, what does that look like for you?

Glenn:

For starters, when I first came to see you and started working with you, I didn’t have a budget in my personal life or in my business, which you made me realize was something that I was lacking and something I wanted to get on top of right away. And then the really nice thing is as soon as I … Full disclosure, after you made me implement a budget into my business, I was like, “Why don’t I do this for my actual life.” And so, it’s changed my personal life, not only my business life.

But in terms of my business life, it’s being able to set aside those tasks, predict how much money’s going to come in, then I can predict how much money that I want to spend, or how much money that I want to take back and reinvest in myself or reinvest in the business. So it’s just taken a whole heap of pressure off, because you know the money’s coming in, you’ve got solid data to back it up, and then you can make good decisions moving forward.

Clare:

Yeah. People often ask me, they’re like, “How do people start growing? How do their businesses start growing when they work with you?” And obviously there’s strategy work, there’s things we put in place, all of that stuff. But two of the biggest things that I think is firstly the money mindset, having the belief that it’s possible.

But the other big thing is literally the process of setting objectives and setting targets, in its very self starts to move you closer towards that goal, because otherwise what you’re doing is you’re showing up and you’re like, “Yeah, I’m just taking as clients as I can fit in.” And not really going, “Well, hang on, I’m chasing down a number of X for the month.” And as soon as you start to set those objectives and start to go, “Well, how am I tracking to it?” Your brain starts to think differently, it’s like, “Well, what do I need to do to move closer? How do I start to move myself from where I am to where I want to be?”

Clare:

And I’ve definitely seen this of you, Glenn, that you put the number down and you’re like, “How the hell is this going to happen?” But then once it’s there, more often than not, you find a way to close the gap, right?

Glenn:

Yeah, definitely something we’ve been working on and pushing that boundary so that you do step out of your comfort zone. But I think that’s definitely one thing I’m very grateful for is that extra challenge. I come from a sporting background, and so I’m used to setting goals outside of my business, but also setting goals inside of the business obviously makes sense once you know it. But until you know it, it seems very foreign. And yeah, it’s crazy what you can start to achieve. And then as you get the confidence that just starts to build that momentum, you can set bigger goals, you reach bigger goals, you surprise yourself again and it just keeps snowballing from there.

Clare:

And this is one of the things about money mindset is it’s that innate belief that it’s coming and I know that you’ve got that. I know that you’re like, “I know that I’m going to make a lot of money. I know that my business is going to be hugely successful.” And every step that you’re taking is moving you closer and closer towards that. And that’s such a shift. And it might seem like a subtle shift for some people, but it’s such a powerful shift because it’s this inherent knowing that it’s coming. And that’s when I talk about Million Dollar Money Management, it’s about first of all going, “Well, how can I actually even believe that this is possible for me.” And then once you do, it’s coming, that’s done, it’s just about now the steps to start to transition towards that.

Clare:

Anything else that you want to add about money or money management or any of your learnings in this space?

Glenn:

I think it’s funny, in life, I played a high level of AFL growing up and we always had coaches and mentors and people in different realms and I think it’s really important to have that in your business sense as well. And so I’m very grateful that I found you, Clare, because you are my guiding light and you can help grow me.

Clare:

Ah, thank you.

Glenn:

And then it’s also sort of like the other thing I notice is like there’s a lot of things that I’m good at but I’m not great at. And if I can pay someone to do that and let me focus in on my zone of genius, it makes my life way more enjoyable. But it’s investing in yourself and investing in your business and then that’s like the best investment you can make. It always pays off and you’ll continue to grow and you’ll continue to see progress and success.

Clare:

Ah yeah, amazing, and I definitely agree with that. If what we’re talking about today is resonating with you, if you do want to learn more about money management, about money mindset, please make sure you go and check out Million Dollar Money Management. The link is in my bio. I share all of the money management techniques that I use, as well as mindset hacks to help you start growing your seven figure business.

If you have back pain, if you want any help in the health space, please make sure you go and give Glenn a follow at The Functional Movement Club. He not only shares lots about pain, but he also shares lots of really transformational life tips and advice. So please make sure you go and check him out and reach out if you do want any help with your back pain because he’s got this really cool challenge going on at the moment. Glenn, a massive, massive thank you for joining me today. I’m so, so grateful for your time and I hope you have an awesome rest of your day.

Glenn:

Awesome, you too, Clare. I’ll speak to you soon.

Money Management Transformation with Karina Follent

Clare:

And my third and final guest today, chatting all about the power of money mindset is my beautiful mastermind client Karina Follent. She is the director and founder of Pro-Assist, who offer virtual administration and consulting for Allied Health professionals. I can’t wait to dive in and share Karina’s story with you.

If you are a health practitioner or if you know someone who is a health practitioner, please make sure you mention to them about the organization Pro-Assist, because this is a medical practitioner’s dream. Because lots of people are good at what they do, but mainly they don’t have all that techy back end knowledge, they don’t really understand practice management principles, and this is exactly what Karina and her team do. So if you are one and you’re watching this, or if you do know someone who is in this space, please make sure that you do mention Pro-Assist to them because Karina and her team are absolute guns at this.

Clare:

Hi, Karina. How you doing?

Karina:

Hello.

Clare:

It’s so wonderful to have you here. And I don’t need to ask you to do an intro because I shared a little bit about Pro-Assist, about what you do. If there is anything more, if there’s something that I left off, maybe something you want to expand on a bit more, please do share, otherwise-

Karina:

Awesome. No, I think you covered it all. Yeah, you did great. Amazing.

Clare:

So Karina and I met … We actually met in person because we live in the same city, in Brisbane. Usually I do most of my coaching, via Zoom, but we actually met in a coffee shop. You were pregnant at the time.

Karina:

So pregnant.

Clare:

Very pregnant. You were really overworked and you were just overwhelmed and just really on the verge of burnout I would say.

Karina:

Yeah.

Clare:

And in our first session what we did, we looked at everything in your business and the biggest thing that I just said is I’m like, “Karina, you aren’t charging your worth.” Do you want to share a little bit about what that looks like at the time?

Karina:

Yeah. So back then, our primary service was virtual reception. And I think our customers, for full-time reception support, I think they were charging $97 a week for amazing Australia VAs to answer their phones, Monday to Friday, 8:00 to 17:00. I had this big dream of having all these clients, making all this money, and I thought, “I’ll just charge a really nice, reasonable price, I can’t afford to charge much more.” I was trying for myself to compete with overseas VAs and other virtual reception services, but it just wasn’t the right fit for me. And like you said, Clare, I was almost on the verge of burnout because myself and the team were working so hard. I didn’t feel like we were worth asking for more money and that’s how I come to you, something had to change.

Clare:

Yeah. And do you know this is such a big thing I find especially as women, there’s such a money block because we want to help everyone, right? And you’re such a beautiful human and I know for you that you’re like, “I want to help all these people, I want to be able to support them.” And so, you have a lot of guilt around putting those prices up. I remember you told me this story, was it someone you worked out that you charged them $15 for the week?

Karina:

It was less. It was like $9 a week I think, because I charged her pro-rata for the time that we spent on phone calls. So yeah, and that particular contract, we started at 6:00 AM and finished at 7:00 PM, so $9 a week. It was just crazy.

Clare:

Oh my goodness, but it happens a lot.

Karina:

It was really crazy. It’s almost embarrassing.

Clare:

It happens a lot and you start out … When you say that, I’m like, “It sounds really reasonable that I pay a virtual receptionist by the minute, right?” But then when you’re looking at it from your perspective, you’re like, “This is really not profitable for me as a business.”

So some of the work that we did together was very uncomfortable, let’s be honest, for you at the time. I was really sort of saying to you, “Karina, we need to put these prices up.” And the other thing that you were doing … So you’ve obviously got your team that were doing a lot of the virtual stuff, but Karina, you’re … She is the most amazing gun, like systems, practice management, literally doing high end consulting work for these practice managers. So she’d come in, give them all the advice, tell them what systems to set up. And what were you charging for your service at the time?

Karina:

So if I charged at all, it was $55 an hour, GST inclusive, what a bargain.

Clare:

Yeah. And I was like, “Karina, there’s so much value in what you do. You literally transform the lives of these business owners.” And a lot of times when I do have these uncomfortable conversations with people around this money mind set work, you were really, really resistant to increase your prices. So do you want to maybe share what was going on for you and why you were hesitating at the time?

Karina:

Yeah. I guess like all businesses, some clients are very vocal about what they can and can’t afford and I was just worried that if I increased prices everyone would leave me and I’d have to start from scratch. I guess starting the VA business was such a process to do, lots of noise to get through. The biggest fear was just having to start from scratch, having to go and find a job somewhere and have a boss and work 9:00 to 17:00. Yeah, so that was a big part in not wanting to raise prices.

Clare:

Yeah. I actually did a whole podcast episode about this last week, I called it Why Shifting Feels So Shitty. It was basically talking about when we do change … And look, honestly same thing happens with me. When you move into offering a new service, when you put your prices up, it feels horrible and I experienced that myself. So I can totally relate to all of those feelings that you were feeling. But I am so proud of you because you did the work, you pushed through the discomfort of it, and maybe you might want to share a little bit about where you’re at now with your mindset and things like that.

Karina:

Yeah. So one of the first coaching sessions that I had with Clare was around increasing my prices and we decided on putting together a premium offering, how can someone work with me for a premium. And we put together a practice planning session. It was two hours. I could meet with them in person or via Zoom and we would just map out all of their business processes, help them map that to software, and basically give them a checklist of everything that they need to do, the services they need to engage.

We set that price at $440 Australian and I think Clare commented on my face during that whole consult. I was just like, “No, it’s not going to happen. I’m so nervous about it. No one’s going to buy it.” And you know what? Someone found my website a week and a half ago, it’s the first thing that stood out to them on the website. They bought it with no questions asked. We had the consult just yesterday actually and they were just blown away by the value of the session.

So it just feels completely crazy that this product that we put together at this $440 price was just such a … The person was just so happy for it. And honestly, there was a lot of background work that goes into putting that together. But yeah, selling something like that and offering that kind of service has literally blown my mind, it’s been so good.

Clare:

Ah, amazing. I’ve had these conversations with you around showing that money shame, that is still a fraction of what you should be charging for the value of your services. Like I said at the start, Karina literally comes in, looks at everything in a practice, streamlines it, saves them money, takes administrative work off their team and there’s just so much value and transformation that you offer and that’s what people are paying for. They’re not paying for the time that you spend with them, they are paying for the transformation that happens inside their business. So it’s so cool that you have come on that journey so far and that we’re going to continue to go on that journey with your business as your business grows.

On that note, I did want to say though, when I talk about money mindset, I’m not just talking about stick your prices up, that is not what money mindset is. Money mindset, it’s the work, it’s the underlying belief that you need to do behind, whether it’s increasing prices, whether it’s creating a new product suite, or a new product offering like you did, whether it’s moving people along in the team, whatever that looks like. And there’s a bunch of different tools that you and I have used together and that we use inside the mastermind all the time. So if you’re sitting and watching this thinking, “Oh, I can just stick my prices up,” it’s not quite that simple. It really is-

Karina:

It’s a starting point, yeah.

Clare:

Exactly. And it’s having the confidence around the strategy behind it as well, which is what I’m super excited to be sharing in Million Dollar Money Management, which is why I created the program. Another big thing that we do a lot in the mastermind is we go, “Where are your numbers at? What’s your target for the month? Setting objectives.” How do you feel that’s helped you in your business?

Karina:

I think just checking my financials has been a big thing. So we set targets every month myself. I think one of the months I blasted the goal out of the water and could increase it mid month. But I think it’s just putting my attention on that aspect of my business has been such a big thing. I can now tell you how much is in my bank account, what are our expenses, profit. I have a lot more clarity and visibility over my financials. Yeah, so I think that’s been the biggest change. Before I was kind of just looking at my bank account going, “Oh crap, I’ve got wages due next week, what am I going to do? All right, I’ll hustle. Let’s get some post out.” Now, there’s a lot more strategy behind it. It’s a lot more planned, a lot more in control.

Clare:

Yeah, I think that’s a big feeling isn’t it, sometimes? It’s just like a feeling of a going, “Cool, I know I’ve got a plan and I know that I’m moving towards it and that feels really exciting, expansive,” and to your point, gives you that bit more confidence.

Karina:

Definitely.

Clare:

Yeah. I am so, so grateful for your time, for popping in, Karina, having a chat with us. I just wanted to share your story with everyone, because I just think it’s so incredible watching you just grow and bloom, watching your business blossom. Like I said, if you are watching, need some help in a practice management space, Karina is your girl at Pro-Assist, so please do reach out to her. But thank you so much for joining us today and it’s been such an honor joining you on your journey so far. And I can’t wait to see what lies ahead for you in your business. So thank you so much for taking the time today, Karina.

Karina:

No worries, Clare.

Clare:

Thank you so much for joining me for these money transformation chats today. I hope you’ve enjoyed listening to the power of money mindset and the power of money management.