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Hey there, Maureen China here, founder of the Mindsites Academy, neurocoach to executives, leaders, entrepreneurs, and a neuroleadership trainer using insights from neuroscience to help you deliver results by learning to work smarter, be in control of your brain, manage yours and others' emotions, change behaviors, flourish, and exceed expectations. Welcome back to another episode of Lead to Excel Podcast. I'm so thrilled to be back after the summer break and so excited about the podcast that we've got lined up with a lot of interesting guests and powerful topics. Topics that will really help you understand how you can rewire your brain to thrive in every aspect of your life. Today, my podcast is titled, Is your relationship with money hindering your progress? So let's get into this podcast. Get your drink, whatever that might be, relax, put your feet up and listen in. I'll start by asking you a question. Is your relationship with money hindering your progress? There's a quote that says, if you want to change the fruits, you will first have to change the roots. If you want to change the visible, you must first change the invisible. I grew up hearing people misquote the Bible by saying, money is the root of evil. It actually reads, the love of money is the root of all evil. How you acquire, manage, spend, and model money behaviors is unique to you and largely dependent on your nurturing as a child and how your brain is now wired about money. So as you listen to this podcast today, I suggest you start by doing some serious source searching to examine your own true beliefs about money. You see, your relationship with money will lie between a focus on financial security and being extremely frugal and concerned with the lack of it. So even though you want to make money or become wealthy, you might have some serious fear of failing, fear of success, or fear of losing it all. The fact is, your current financial situation is the result of your past decisions, which is a result of your thoughts and mindset. Your thoughts might be holding you back from achieving your goals or living the life you desire. I've always been one that values quality over quantity. So when I opened my hair and beauty business in 2002, I created a high-quality salon with the tagline relax and be pampered. That was our mission, to ensure that everyone that came felt pampered and you guessed it, it wasn't cheap. I was so shocked when a lot of people said that they preferred cheap and not bothered about feeling pampered. They literally just wanted to come have their hair done and go. This was my first big lesson in business. When doing market research, make sure that you target the real people that you want to come into your business. Know your business avatar thoroughly, inside out, because that whole experience really backfired on me. And back to the story. And this really opened my eyes to the fact that too many people are not actually prepared to treat themselves or take care of themselves or even invest in themselves. When it comes to spending money or acquiring money, it really boils down to your beliefs, your mindset about money. As a child, you might have heard this said so many times. Money doesn't grow on trees. We can't afford it. Be content with what you have. This might have led you into believing that money is scarce and that you need to be afraid of spending any money at all. Feeling stressed with issues relating to money. So what do you do? You avoid dealing with money issues. In fact, you have so many people that actually bury their heads in the sand when it comes to money. A lot of women I know leave everything to do with the finances to their partners, and they don't really have much idea about how to manage money. Some people are in so much debt and don't even want to face it. Or you might even believe that having a lot of money is wrong, which also causes you to self-sabotage and indulge in behaviors that will prevent you from making money. Like not asking for a pay rise when you know that you deserve it. You've worked so hard for it, but you hold yourself back from asking. Also, for some, it's also not having a retirement plan. It could be that you find yourself overspending consistently, and this is part of the self-sabotage. I've mentioned that another thing a lot of people do is stay in debt or avoid increasing your prices as an entrepreneur. And your brain comes up with a lot of reasons why you shouldn't. Oh, will people buy it? What if I lose my customers? And a lot more reasons that our clever brain comes up with to keep us where it believes that we should be. But the reality is that that is what we've wired into the brain, so that's what it knows. I have read someone say money issues are often a symptom and not the actual problem, because most of our money education comes from our surroundings, such as parents, friends, neighbors, as well as conversations we've overheard or what the media have led us to believe. We unconsciously create beliefs about money, and these beliefs form our money identity or money mindset. This is why it's so important to honestly examine your decisions and habits surrounding money to help you begin to challenge your mental approach whenever you find yourself thinking in financially negative or counterproductive ways. Your mind can be your greatest asset to success or your biggest obstacle. The key is to find out which it is and start rewiring your brain as required. And if you want to know more about rewiring your brain, I've actually done a podcast on this, but to really go deeper into you personally to understand how you're currently wired, get in touch. I'll put my details at the bottom of this podcast. Get in touch, and I would really love to speak with you. Getting in tune with your financial beliefs is one of the very best ways to start repairing your relationship with money. So the question is: who are you? What are your beliefs about money? What are your habits and behavior around money? Do you truly believe that you deserve wealth? Can you take actions in spite of fear, worry, or discomfort? T. H. Ecker said, Your income can grow only to the extent that you do. This is so true because your behavior, your thoughts, and your beliefs will determine the level of your success. He also said in his book, Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, most people are unconscious. I love that because what he's literally saying is that most people are leaving their subconscious brain to run their lives, to run their finances, to run their decisions. But what you want to do is to become more aware of what is already wired into your subconscious. Why? Because a lot of the wiring, the memories that we have in our brain, we're put in there passively. It's things that, like I've explained earlier, things that we've downloaded from parents, from teachers, from society. So you want to make sure that you become conscious about your beliefs. Examine them and make sure that they're truly what you believe. In my masterclass titled Neuroscience, the Female Leader's Secret Weapon, I teach participants how our unconscious brain drives about 90% of our actions. So it's critical to become self-aware of your beliefs and mindset. And I'm running another masterclass like this end of this month. I'll put the link in the description for anyone interested. It's run over four days and it's for just one hour a day. The joy and benefit of this is you've got me for four days. And we can really dig deep into a lot of these issues that keep a lot of female leaders stuck. And female leaders could be whether you're in corporate or whether you're an entrepreneur, whether you're running your own business as a business owner, but mainly senior leaders in corporate and business owners. So check out the description below, and I would love to see you because it's truly, truly life-changing. One of the greatest challenges that a lot of female leaders encounter is being able to negotiate a pay rise. Or for entrepreneurs, how to increase your prices. And the honest truth is that what prevents a lot of women from achieving this is what's going on in their brain. So it's important to understand your view of money. And I'll give you a few tips in this podcast of things to do. View money as a tool. You can either use a tool just as you would with a paintbrush to create beauty in a room or to destroy your walls. Think of money the same way. Learn to use it to create the life you want. Another tip is challenge your thoughts. What was your experience with money as a child? Identify what that was. Think about it. Now it's time to challenge those limiting and deceptive perceptions that you have about money. Ask yourself: what did you learn from what your parents said about money or how they handled it? This might actually bring up some thoughts like money is hard to get, or only certain types of people have the ability to have a lot of money. Then what I want you to do next is ask yourself if you really believe these thought patterns. And then I want you to then create some positive money. Change your thoughts and language around money by creating affirmations that you can repeat to yourself daily to help change your mindset and beliefs around it. Here are some suggestions. I'm capable of overcoming any money obstacle that stands in my way. And you just need to keep repeating this. Another is I'm just low in wealth right now. That is changing. I am working to achieve and exceed my money goals. Next, realize that your money situation can change. You might not have much money at the moment, but dedicating your time, energy, and finances in ways consistent with enhancing your net worth will make a huge difference to your wealth accumulation. A new job role, investing, regular saving, a pay rise, increasing your prices, and planning as you spend wisely could make a huge difference in getting you off the earn and consume treadmill. Stay positive and be aware of your mindset. T Help said, Rich people believe I create my life. Poor people believe life happens to me. So don't be a victim of life or of your circumstances. Make that decision now and take actions with all these tips to create your own reality. Create the life you want. Be the person you want to be. Believe in what you truly believe in, not in what people have made you believe or conditioned you to believe in. Next, be committed. A quote, I'm not quite sure who said this quote, says the person who doesn't know where his next dollar is coming from usually doesn't know where his last dollar went. I think that's a powerful quote. You are more likely to achieve what you want when you are committed, not just when you want it. Most people will say that they want to be wealthy, but because their subconscious brain has so many negative information about money and wealth in its memory, such as money is not important or there's something wrong with being rich, these people find themselves taking actions that keeps them lacking or prevents them from taking actions to help them build and keep wealth. So now, what are some of the possible negative beliefs that you have around money or being rich or being wealthy? It's also worth paying attention to your spending habits, your saving habits, and how you feel when you spend or how you feel when you help others. Because understanding how your choices impact on your mental and emotional well-being would also help you build a positive relationship with money. Denise Doffil Thomas recommends in her book titled Get Rich Lucky Bitch. She says, make a commitment to track your money every single day for at least a month because what gets measured gets improved. And this is great advice. Many people don't get what they want because they don't know what they actually want. So it's important to take time to evaluate your goals, not just with money, but also with your life as a whole. To achieve your financial goal requires knowing first what the goal is. Be committed to living like no one else by living a sacrificial, highly focused, purposeful life when it comes to your money. So now you understand that the amount of control you have over financial matters is reflected in how you feel about money matters in general. The question is, are you willing to change? Change is uncomfortable and requires sacrifice. Any change that truly results in growth or improvement has an element of pain and or discomfort associated with it. So, my friend, take charge today by taking action. And that action that you need to take is unique for you. And I'll end with this quote from Coco Chanel that says, There are people who have money and people who are rich. I've had some great guests on this podcast discussing money and wealth. So have a look through the podcast and just listen to them because they will really help you and enable you to build a positive relationship with money so that money will become an enabler for you and not something that hinders your progress. Okay, three things before we finish today. Have you subscribed to this podcast? If you haven't, make sure you click that subscribe button wherever you listen to this podcast. Because once you subscribe, you will not miss an episode. And as usual, if you have a topic you would love me to speak about or bring a guest on, do let me know by leaving a review. Finally, do have a fantastic week and remember that you are limitless. So I look forward to seeing you in our next episode. Bye for now.