The Money Mindset Shift We All Need
Most people are confused about how to earn more money because they think it’s all about budgeting, cutting back, working harder, or making sacrifices. But here’s the truth: money doesn’t care about your effort. Money follows value.
The real source of value isn’t what most expect. It’s not about hustling for 16 hours a day. The true value comes from vision – the vision we create and the words we speak. Wealth grows from our conversations, connections, and how we serve those relationships.
I’ve found that even before you have resources, being resourceful is what matters. If your vision is bigger than your problems, you’ll find a way through. But if your problems overshadow your vision, you’ll spiral into debt and despair.
The Three Steps to Building Wealth
When I coach entrepreneurs and individuals on building wealth, I focus on three essential steps:
- Make more money – But not by trading time for money. Focus on developing exponential skills like sales, marketing, communication, hiring, and training others.
- Keep more of what you make – Without budgeting or cutting back.
- Grow your money – With emphasis on cash-flowing investments.
The problem I see repeatedly is that most people aren’t pursuing financial independence – they’re chasing retirement. What’s the difference? Financial independence means creating assets that generate recurring income. Retirement typically means accumulating a lump sum that you hope will last.
When you focus on building a nest egg without learning how to create cash flow, you’re setting yourself up for stress later. You’ll eventually need to figure out how to generate income from that lump sum, but without the skills to do so.
Growing Yourself Is the Ultimate Investment
The most important aspect of building wealth is growing yourself. This means managing your energy, maintaining a high quality of life, and continuously educating yourself in all aspects that help you become a better steward of your resources.
Growing yourself could mean developing emotional intelligence or financial intelligence. It’s a lifelong journey – not something that ends when you finish school or start your career.
I’ve seen too many people get defeated by age. They say things like, “I’m getting old” at 43! That’s not even halfway through life. Growing ourselves means expanding our perspective and examining our beliefs.
If we have beliefs that don’t serve us – myths, stories we tell ourselves, or limiting industry “truths” – they prevent us from living our best lives. The words we choose and the stories we tell can limit our prosperity.
The Power of Vision and Rhetoric
When I talk about growing ourselves, I’m talking about developing a vocabulary of prosperity and using rhetoric effectively. Not the manipulative kind politicians use, but rhetoric with truth and commitment.
Think about Martin Luther King Jr. saying, “I have a dream,” or JFK declaring we would land a man on the moon within the decade. That’s rhetoric – speaking something into existence before it exists. It catalyzes and inspires action.
Many people are afraid to use rhetoric because they worry about calling their shot and missing. What if they say something and it doesn’t come to fruition? Does that make them a liar or a failure?
This fear creates a ceiling on what people will declare, limiting them to what feels predictable and safe. But rhetoric is one of the most powerful tools we have because words cast spells and language builds wealth. Wealth is built through conversation.
If you don’t achieve your stated goal as you declared, it might just be a timeline issue. As humans, we’re terrible with timelines – we overestimate what we can do in a short period and underestimate what we can accomplish over the long term.
Building Relationship Currency
When you don’t have money to hire coaches or mentors, you need to be resourceful. Think of relationships like bank accounts – you can’t make withdrawals without first making deposits.
How do you make deposits? It could be:
- Offering support or becoming an intern
- Creating value through your skills
- Buying and sharing their books
- Being genuinely curious and complimentary
- Making meaningful connections for them
I remember when I met Dan Sullivan of Strategic Coach. I found out what was important to him – referrals – and hosted an event that introduced 170 people to his program. I’d made so many deposits that we developed a real relationship.
The key is finding someone’s currency. Not everyone values money most. Some people’s currency is acknowledgment, flexibility, purpose, or connection. The way to discover someone’s currency is through conversation – asking questions and genuinely caring about their answers.
If you’re too busy to invest time in relationships, you’re missing the point. Carve out time to learn and grow. When I was at my most financially stressed in 2008, I woke up at 3:30 AM to study and write before addressing my business challenges.
The notion that “it takes money to make money” is just a story that prevents people from being resourceful. There is time – we just need to acknowledge that it takes work to create value. You can do things the easy way and life gets hard, or you can do things the hard way up front and life gets easy.
