Develop a Healthy Relationship with Money

Episode 913: Develop a Healthy Relationship with Money, with Erin Bradley

Develop a healthy relationship with money and grow yourself as an entrepreneur. Learn how to develop a healthy relationship with money today.

In 2007, Erin Bradley became self-employed in pursuit of “freedom and flexibility.” Unfortunately, she did so with no game plan and no safety net to speak of. By 2008, she was so broke, she had to ride her bicycle to meet a new client as she didn’t have money for gas. When Erin’s card was declined for a small coffee as the client walked through the door, she realized something had to give…

Erin spent the next 3 years studying the habits of highly successful entrepreneurs, and ultimately developed a strategy to promote her value in a way that felt authentic, easy and FUN! She also started investing in real estate, which now affords her the opportunity to live her dream life, in her dream home. (It’s easier than you might think!) All this wouldn’t be possible if she didn’t start to develop a healthy relationship with money.

By 2012, she had gone from broke to 6 figures… and she promptly burned out. Erin had no systems in place to manage the growth and found herself trading her time for money. Pregnant with their second child, she was drowning in life and in business. She tried convincing herself to be “grateful” because they finally had money to pay the bills, but she was ready to throw in the towel altogether.

Luckily, Erin didn’t quit! She sought help, built systems, and started hiring. By 2015, the business had doubled again. Today, their business continues to grow and Erin does much less in order to do much more. She focuses on the essentials and shows others how to do the same!

What you will learn from this episode on how to develop a healthy relationship with money:

• Erin shares why she became self-employed, and she shares her powerful story of realizing she had to make changes to her strategy after hitting financial rock bottom
• How Erin’s limiting beliefs about money held her back from growing as an entrepreneur, and how she got past that roadblock
• How to develop a healthy relationship with money and start enjoying your dream life
• Why Erin had to learn to accept that she deserved the success she earned for herself, and why finding the right coaching was the key to that realization
• Erin explains the difference between viewing money as “tangible” versus “intangible”, and how the way you view money impacts your goals
• Why eliminating financial stress and attaining financial freedom were Erin’s primary goals for herself and her family
• Why Erin chose to move into thought leadership and creating content through her writing and her podcast
• How Erin grew and scaled her business after realizing she couldn’t do everything by herself
• What the “25% rule” is and how it has helped Erin focus on the right priorities and guide her business strategy
• How Erin plans her day with a careful balance to help her maintain a positive level of energy throughout the day
• Why setting boundaries and staying present in the moment are important pillars of Erin’s success
• Why your team also needs to develop a healthy relationship with money and how it can benefit your organization

Resources:

• Website: www.pursuingfreedom.com
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: @pursuingfreedomofficial
• Pursuing Freedom Podcast: www.pursuingfreedom.com/podcast
• Erin Bradley’s Live Workshop: www.pursuingfreedom.com/webinar
• Pursuing Freedom by Erin Bradley: https://amzn.to/2QnzeTW
• Learn how to develop a healthy relationship with money and start building wealth through real estate

Additional Resources:

• Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
• Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
• Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
• Learn how to develop a healthy relationship with money to avoid these costly mistakes

 

 

Develop a Healthy Relationship with Money: Full Episode Transcript

 

Get ready to find your recipe for success especially on how to develop a healthy relationship with money from America’s top business owners here at Onward Nation with your host, Stephen Woessner.

 

Good morning. I’m Stephen Woessner, CEO of predictive ROI and your host for Onward Nation, where I interview today’s top business owners so we can learn their recipe for success, how they built and how they scaled their business. In fact, my team at Predictive ROI, well, I’ve been talking about this now for several months, and I’m hoping that you’re coming back to visit because we’re continuing to build and rebuild our free resources section on PredictiveROI.com.

 

So you can now download free practical and tactical guides for how to create your ideal client avatar, how to land your dream clients, and even our new B2B podcasting for Profit Secrets e-book. Plus, there’s other success strategies that we have compiled from the brilliant insights shared by our very generous guests. Just go to PredictiveROI.com/Resources to get everything you request. We will send it right to your inbox.

 

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Develop a Healthy Relationship with Money: Erin Bradley’s Introduction

 

Before we welcome today’s guest, Erin Bradley. Let me share some additional context. Why when Erin and I first started talking about having this conversation, why I was so over the moon, in fact, to say over the moon doesn’t even do it justice. Why? I was so over the moon. Then Erin said yes.

 

So back in 2007 Onward Nation, she decided she made that very important decision to become self-employed. This was her pursuit of freedom and flexibility. Well, unfortunately. And she’ll go on to tell this story. She was going to take you behind the curtain. So you really hear this story. Unfortunately, she did that without any sort of game plan. And she will tell you no sort of safety net.

 

So Onward Nation, during our time together with Erin, I’m going to ask her to tell you that story about the time that she had to ride her bike, her bicycle to meet a new client because she didn’t have enough money for gas. Well, then she reached her breaking point, as we all have experienced that at one time or another in this wonderful journey of business ownership.

 

She knew that something had to give. She had to make a change. And yeah, they were radical changes. And she did that. She buckled in and did it. So I’m going to also ask her to walk us through what that transformation looks like. It’s never easy. But she did it with grace. She did it with grit. And she did it because on the other side of it, this is who Erin is today.

 

She is now living her dream. She and her family live in their dream home, and she has the freedom and flexibility that she once craved. So without further ado, welcome to Onward Nation, Erin. 

 

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Develop a Healthy Relationship with Money: The Journey of Making a Change

 

Thank you so much, Stephen. I’m so happy to be here. I am just well, like I said, over the moon, excited that you said yes.

 

Thank you for saying yes. So super, super excited for you to take us behind the curtain and tell us your story. If you don’t mind. Let’s start there. Take us there. Tell us more about that decision first in 2007 and then take us into that coffee shop, because that was a monumental thing. And when that happened, you needed me.

 

You knew you needed to make a change. So tell us first about the decision in ‘07. Okay. So, thanks again for having me. I’m really excited to share the story. It’s not pretty, but it is. It’s a good one. I was, gosh, I don’t know, 26 years old or so, and had fallen to working for a mortgage company in Denver, Colorado.

 

And, I was working at the desk doing the desk job thing, and after a while, I realized that I wanted to be like the salespeople because they were, you know, doing yoga in the middle of the afternoon and showing up in jeans and a t-shirt and then putting on a suit when it was time to go to closing.

 

And they just seemed like they had so much freedom of flexibility. And I had always been after freedom of flexibility, let’s put that first and foremost. Like I just had traveled Europe for a couple years after college. I was kind of avoiding the real world and had that kind of limiting belief around money in general of like, I only need so much to be happy, and I only need so much to get by, which, if you’ve ever had that limiting self-talk and you know that it’s not a great strategy, especially for entrepreneurship.

 

So when I went 100% commission in 2007, in pursuit of this idea of, I love the idea of being able to work from anywhere, I always was interested in travel, so I saw that as a loan officer in the mortgage world, I could, work from anywhere, you know, visiting family in Philadelphia or family in the Florida Keys or whatever the case might be.

 

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Develop a Healthy Relationship with Money: Getting Mortified During a Client Meeting

 

So that was very attractive to me. So I decided to take the leap in 2007, and I’ll never forget the summer of 2008. It was promptly about a year later, and I had a referral for a client, and I was so broke, maxed on all my credit cards that I really did not have enough money for gas.

 

So I rode my bike five miles to this client meeting, and I got there early because I wanted to, you know, wipe the sweat off and make sure that it’s all put together before the client got there. And, I even remember the outfit I was wearing because it’s like, what can you wear that’s professional and works for riding a bike five miles.

 

So I got there and got to Starbucks, and I was ordering my coffee, and unfortunately the client got there early too. So he walked up as I was, as my card was being declined. Oh, no cup of coffee. Yes. The worst part was that he’s like Erin. And I’m like, okay, you know, my coffee just declined and I actually don’t know which credit card has $2 on it.

 

So rather than try another card and have him see two cards be declined for a cup of coffee, I just lied and said it was my debit card and I was going to have to call the bank. And then he bought my coffee and I remember just being mortified. This is like rock bottom for me financially, although I had a bike, so I wasn’t totally broke, right?

 

I still had a bike, so that was good. But it was actually a month before our wedding, and I remember thinking that I was so glad we had planned a big wedding because I was banking on the wedding gifts, the money from the wedding gifts to pay our bills. And I called my dad at the time and I said, you know, my dad had made the leap to entrepreneurship and he’s old, probably mid to late 20s.

 

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Develop a Healthy Relationship with Money: Doing Whatever It Takes

 

I’m the youngest of five kids and I called him. I said, how did you do it? How did you get 100% commission? Because this is so much harder than I thought. And he said, let me ask you something. He said, do you think you’re going to be good at this? And I said, yeah, I do. I actually think I could be pretty good at this.

 

And he said, well, then you do whatever it takes. Wow, that you weren’t born yet. When I made the leap from my engineering, you know, safe job to being a stockbroker, financial planner. He said you weren’t born yet, but your mother and I had the electricity shut off. We had the bill collectors calling, and he said, you know, if you want it bad enough, you’re going to have to do whatever it takes.

 

And he went on to become a sales trainer to, to salespeople in his company up and down the East Coast. And he said, well, I don’t want to say it because my dad never cussed, but he cussed, and he just said that he used to tell the salespeople that there’s a reason that, some salespeople can generate a greater income than, you know, lawyers and doctors or whatever traditional industries there were back then.

 

And he’s like, because it’s really hard and, and I’d never heard my dad cuss. And he said that to me over the phone and it made me feel okay, like, this is really hard and I’m going to do whatever it takes. I remember opening another credit card and buying internet leads and doing whatever it took, and then a check came in the mail for $2,000 from my dad to help with the bills, and it said, pay me back when you can.

 

And I did eventually. But yeah, it was a turning point for me because I just when I see people that are struggling in entrepreneurship, I always encourage them to just keep going because it’s not supposed to be pretty. And I certainly wasn’t prepared. I’d gone from making $900 a month cash under the table in Barcelona as an English teacher working part time, and I used to sell beers on the street, corners it at music festivals to get rent money, and so I didn’t have anywhere to go but up, you know, so some people come into it with a savings account and things like that. I didn’t have any of that. 

 

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Develop a Healthy Relationship with Money: Hiring a Business Coach

 

So I went into debt. But, you know, you just have to keep going. You just have to never quit and know that however long it takes, if you decide and then you show up and you keep showing up day after day, eventually something’s going to click and you’re going to find success. So that wasn’t the last time I failed.

 

It wasn’t. It was one of the first, but it wasn’t the last. I failed a lot of times and so do you think it was? Do you think it was this? Well, let me rephrase that. What role, if any, do you think the lack of safety net played in that transformation? Well, I think it comes down to one thing, is that I was determined there was no version of me ever wanting a clock in, clock out 9 to 5 with a steady paycheck.

 

Like, the interesting thing about it, though, is that back then, even for years, I mean well into 2011, I continued on with the limiting beliefs around money. So, you know, even when I say I did whatever it took in 2008, you know, 2009, I hired a business coach. I hired my first business coach. I continued to have coaches ever since then.

 

I would like, be coached and learn to push through my fears and push through my comfort zone. And I kind of would go through the motions and check the boxes and do the things they told me to do because I wanted it bad enough. You know, I was determined, but I didn’t know what I really wanted other than freedom and flexibility.

 

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Develop a Healthy Relationship with Money: Goal Setting Time

 

And so the financial peace to that was a struggle for me. And, it was interesting because my first business coach ever in 2009, they did a personality profile test where they talked about, well, we’re one of the results of the test is your relationship with money. And I think this is really interesting, especially as we’re in goal setting time of year for next year.

 

To know what your relationship with money is and whether it’s tangible or intangible. So if your relationship with money is tangible, you’re someone for whom you feel safer, stronger, happier. You have an emotional relationship with money when your bank account is growing and when the paychecks are coming in. So you can truly be fired up and excited by the size of the paycheck, the revenue, the income, and and that’s valid.

 

And if you’re someone for whom money is intangible, like me, then money is just a means to an act. And so when you’re doing your goal setting for the coming year, you should be setting your goals based on the experiences that the income can afford you. So there’s an anchor there for your goals and why you want what you want.

 

For someone like me, if I was to say I want to make $500,000 yet next year because I don’t have that tangible relationship with money, there’s no real anchor, there’s no emotion, there’s no connection there. And so I have to say, I want to spend a month traveling Europe with my family, or I want to hire another person or whatever the case might be, because then I know that the volume and the revenue goals will afford me the experiences that that anchor in my heart.

 

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Develop a Healthy Relationship with Money: Working Through a Kind of Relationship

 

And so for years I struggled because I didn’t have that. I wanted freedom and flexibility, but I didn’t really find financial freedom for quite some time. It wasn’t until I read secrets of the Millionaire Mind, and I realized how limiting my beliefs were around money and the whole idea of having a thermostat where if I say I only need to make $75,000 to be happy, but I really want to enjoy all my free time freedom.

 

And then things come up like friends are getting married and you’re buying plane tickets and hotel rooms and oh, I want to travel, but I’m not paying attention to the money. Next thing you know, you’re in debt again. So it wasn’t the first time or the last time I was in debt in 2008, because I really had to work through all that.

 

I had to work through that relationship of being willing to receive, being open to having abundance in my life, and feeling deserving and worthy and capable of having that. Does that make sense? So it makes total sense. This was literally no joke here. Huge for me. You’d giggle if you saw my notes. I literally just wrote a huge for me and underlined it.

 

Because when you just talked about intangible, intangible and I think about goal setting and I’m thinking about that through the lens of Onward Nation business owners, I suspect that that was an for them too, of, of like, oh, I want to have a $10 million business next year. But then if they have an intangible relationship with money about the experiences that that affords, that is huge.

 

That is really, really big. So let me make sure that I get the genesis of the. So is it the intangible tangible? Was that from secrets of the Millionaire Mind, that book or is that different? No. So that was from business coaching with Buffini and company. Brian Buffini, he has a very successful real estate coaching organization.

 

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Develop a Healthy Relationship with Money: Writing Goals While Paying Attention to Money

 

That’s really amazing. Okay. They have a proprietary personality profile test that they do with all of their new clients. And so, that was actually unique in terms of us all. I’m sure most of the listeners at some point or another have done a personality profile test. Right. So this particular test result was unique from anything I’ve ever done since.

 

And it’s stuck with me because I just, I realized that, you know, even as I lead business planning workshops now for real estate agents and lenders, I always encourage people to think about that relationship with money before they write their goals, because we tend to write our goals from our head, thinking about what we should do based on what we’ve done before or what’s realistic based on what we’ve done before, instead of what’s really in our heart and what we really wish for and dream of, even if it’s unrealistic and improbable.

 

And so when somebody sits down to write their goals for the next year and they’re not paying attention to their relationship with money, and they say, well, because I did 30 million this year, I should do 35 million next year. And there’s no anchor there, then it’s hard to find that motivation to prompt you into activities to make those results inevitable versus, you know, improbable, if that makes sense.

 

It makes total sense and is literally big. As I’m thinking about my own business planning, it’s like, sure, putting together a performance on that kind of stuff. Yeah, you should do that because that’s, you know, good sound business management. But then when something comes along during the year and let’s say it’s a big thing and in it Predictive ROI, we might need 30,000 or $50,000 to fund it.

 

And it’s like, well, geez, you know, I have $50,000 in extra cash flow laying around. You know, we’ve got a team, we’ve got investment, you know, all that kind of stuff. Where are we going to get the money? And typically my answer is, I don’t know. I’ll figure that out. And then something happens and we’re able to figure that out and like boom, you know, you’re able to fund it.

 

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Develop a Healthy Relationship with Money: The Idea of a Thermostat

 

And so when you’re talking about intangibles, I’m thinking, well, maybe that’s me. Yeah. No. So the secrets of the millionaire mind digs into this idea of a thermostat. So in your home, if it’s summertime and you set the air conditioner to set the thermostat, let’s say for 68 degrees. Okay. And when, when the temperature of the home goes above 68 degrees, then the AC kicks on and it brings it back down to 68, but it won’t go below 68.

 

And same with your heat. If you set your heat to 72 degrees, then the heat will kick on when the room temperature drops below 72, but once it gets to 72, it kicks off right. So if your thermostat is set for example, to a certain income, your financial thermostat is set to $100,000 a year, for example, it’s going to be very hard for you to make 150.

 

And if you do, you might find a way to sabotage it without realizing it and you get it back at 100,000. Wow. And so it was like, you know, for the person who I had been self-employed for four years already when I read that, but I had been experiencing a lot of ups and downs, so I had a good year.

 

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Develop a Healthy Relationship with Money: It’s Okay to Fail

 

But then I remember in 2011 we had our first child. In 2010, my husband went back to grad school and quit his job, and a year later, 2011, and I had that financial mindset of I only need enough to get by. Well, a year after he quit his job, we found ourselves 35,000 in credit card debt again, coincidentally the exact same amount as his income.

 

It’s like, I guess we didn’t adjust our spending, but we also had a kid and you know, anyways, we clearly like to have fun. But, I remember having this turning point then where I told myself, enough is enough. I don’t want to live like this because freedom and flexibility is not enjoyable if you can’t afford it.

 

And the stress of financial stress and ups and downs is too much for me to want to live like that because it was robbing me of enjoying the freedom I was seeking. And that was, a time where I decided, okay, I am going to get serious about this and I am going to create something amazing. And when I invested my energy, attention and emotion, etc. in 2011 into my business, it more than doubled from 2011 to 2012.

 

And again, it almost fell apart because I was unprepared. Unprepared for that level of growth. And I didn’t have any support. And I was pregnant with my second child, and I was burning out, and I started selling skincare with a multi-level marketing company. As my exit strategy. I was literally ready to quit and throw it all in because it was just like, well, now I’ve lost all my time in exchange for money.

 

And that wasn’t the way to live either. So now I’m all about helping people identify the reality that you can have it all. You can have financial freedom and time freedom with appropriate planning. And you know, visioning and identifying your gifts and scaling and leveraging and all those things. So, that’s why I say I fail many times, well, okay, so and not some, like, you know, trying to sweep that under the rug.

 

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Develop a Healthy Relationship with Money: The Intentionality Around Thought Leadership

 

We all fail, right? We all learn from that, though. If we’re smart and so is it important to fail? Sure. You know, do we want to lose our house because we failed? Of course not. But those lessons along the way, I mean, I’m a firm believer that failing is a law of nature.

 

I mean, for Pete’s sake, when you go to the gym. Yeah. Everybody accepts the no no pain, no gain type of mentality. But then we think when we get into business, there should all be some signs and rainbows and it doesn’t work that way. So take us into the business today. One of the things that I really admire about you is the intentionality around your thought leadership.

 

You’ve written a book. You’ve dedicated yourself to a podcast. You’re creating all of this great content. So where did all of that intentionality come from? Like, why did you decide to start doing that work? Because that’s not easy either. Well, so in 2011, when I read The Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, I also had a friend give me the book The Go Giver.

 

You haven’t read The Go Giver and you’re hearing this. You need to read it. There’s a whole series of books by Bob Berg and John David Mann and and it’s basically a strategy, a business strategy around the idea that if you can give more value than you expect to receive and payment than the law or law of reciprocity will ensure that you will find success.

 

And I remember thinking, after all these years of having coaches and doing the work and checking the boxes and kind of grinding it out, but not really finding joy in the process, I realized that, wow, that was my moment. Like, hang on, I can just focus on giving more value than I expect to receive and payment. Like if I can focus on figuring out what’s really going on with you today, even get to the bottom of what’s going on in your life, your business, and figure out somehow, some way that I can be a resource to you.

 

I don’t really have to talk about mortgages. Mortgages end up coming as a byproduct and from other avenues, because I’m kind of figuring out that I can get into activity. I can make quote unquote sales calls, and I can send handwritten notes and do events and all that stuff, but I can the whole purpose of my activity was, if we want to call it the technical terms right, for sales like that purpose of my activity is to figure out what’s going on with you and be a resource to you.

 

And the byproduct is that I close mortgages and that’s where my income comes from. So I started, building this referral directory of trusted local service providers so that I could be the person who’s got a guy for everything so that if you, my friend, my client, have a need, whether it be health and wellness, financial, home services, whatever then I can say, I’ve got a resource for you and I’m going to connect you with this person.

 

And then I’m giving value to what I refer to as my tribe, my tribe of trusted local service providers. So I’m giving value to my village, which is my database. I’m giving value to my tribe by sending the business. But then I’m going deeper with my tribe. Like what’s going on with you and your business and how can I be a resource to you?

 

Maybe I recommend a book, maybe I recommend training. Maybe I will connect you with a coach. And so it’s always this idea of like, if I can just give value to every person I meet, that’s going to be enough. 

 

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Develop a Healthy Relationship with Money: Growing The Business

 

And then from 2011, like I said, in 2012, the business more than doubled. And then I started teaching that strategy to real estate agents.

 

And I saw moments like this one specific strategy can get people away from the fear of picking up the phone, thinking, I’m picking up the phone to get a deal, which feels very self-serving and results in inertia. Nothing happens. We don’t do the work because we’re feeling really like we have an agenda behind everything we do.

 

And shifting that to, I’m picking up the phone to call my friend and tell them that I’m building this referral directory and ask them for a referral of a service provider they think should be part of my referral directory, that I’m connecting with that person. And I’m in activity, I’m in flow. And that I saw people resonating with that strategy and getting results.

 

So then in 2016, fast forward five years, the business continued to grow and I started hiring team members, and I started my own branch of the company. And then I saw the importance of scaling the business and having help. And I then put this strategy into a book called Pursuing Freedom, which is really more like a pamphlet, and I give it to people for free because I just want to help people because I know I’m not alone in this.

 

And, and so that happened. And then in 2018, we turned it into a podcast, Pursuing Freedom, where we specifically interview folks that can bring value to real estate agents and the real estate community as a whole. For real. Basically, I’m just on a mission to help other people succeed far faster than I did, because clearly the struggle is real.

 

And it wasn’t pretty. So nobody can help other people then, you know, that’s my purpose. That’s why I’m here. And that’s such a lovely perspective. And about being helpful and so, you know, writing a book no matter what the length. It’s hard. Takes discipline to do. Having a consistent podcast like you have done now for, what, about 18 months?

 

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Develop a Healthy Relationship with Money: Reaction Of the Community

 

I think if I remember the timeline correctly, that’s not easy. That’s hard. And you’ve had some excellent interviews, including when you interviewed Bob. And so what is the response? I’m not talking about dollars and cents, but what has been the reaction from the community. My guess is that they feel like you’re they’re like they now feel part of a tribe of commonality.

 

But tell us what is the reaction from the community? Well, when you say community, I think it’s important to touch upon something that a coach told me one time that has stuck with me that I think is a very powerful thing in life and in business, and it’s the 25% rule. So he told me years ago that 25% of people will love you no matter what, and 25% of people will never love you no matter what.

 

And the 50% in between are fair weather friends, and you can have a happy life and a successful business if you just focus on your 25%. And so whatever industry you’re in, you know you’ve got clients and some clients say yes to wanting your services and some clients pass on you. And because of the 25% rule, I can remove the negative emotional attachment to losing a client, so to speak, because I can say not my 25%.

 

But when I talk about my community, I’m thinking about my tribe. I’m thinking about my 25%. So it’s only 25% of the population that I think is going to resonate with my message and my message is more about how to take that go giver strategy and implement it into your life and business so that you become a lighthouse that attracts your tribe, as opposed to somebody who’s out there pursuing and seeking because the go getter philosophy.

 

But does it resonate with me and the thing is, if it could be that if I was someone for whom money was tangible, I would be more motivated by deals, dollars, transactions, etc. but because I’m more motivated by experiences and freedom and time, the human connection to me is what fuels me. It’s what fills my bucket and I just know that I’m not alone in that, and that there are successful salespeople out there that struggle with that connection between I need money to survive, and I want to have an abundant life, but I feel there’s like a negative association with me hunting for dollars and cents, and instead they want to pursue the emotional, the relationship and have the dollars and cents come as a byproduct. 

 

And so that the response from my community is overwhelming because people feel like, yes, that’s enough. Like that’s enough. I can go out every day and intend to give value to every single person I meet. And that includes the people you bump into at the grocery store or at the coffee shop, etc. it’s not just like having an agenda behind every interaction you have, because if you’re someone for whom money is intangible and you can be fueled by those human interactions, then what happens is you get energized by the experience of giving value.

 

And because you’re energized, you’re more enthused. There’s a ripple effect with every interaction you have. And, and in, in such a way that you’re a magnet that you, you literally will magnetically attract what you’re seeking because you’re on purpose. You’re passionate, you’re enthused, you’re energized, and you’re not like checking boxes and doing what you think you should do to get the deals. Does that make sense? It does make sense. 

 

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Develop a Healthy Relationship with Money: Creating Content to Build Your Brand

 

You’re giving some excellent mentorship here for not only a broader business philosophy and mindset, but also I’m thinking I’m running that through the filter of a content strategy. You know, when you’re able to create content in your podcasts, you’re able to create workshops and webinars and all of the stuff, and you’re able to focus that on the 25% who you know where you can be super, super helpful.

 

They’re going to find a lot of value in it. They’re going to love you for it, and they’re going to feel, you know, honored to be a part of the tribe and a part of the community. Awesome. As opposed to, you know, I’m going to create this business planning workshop, and I’m going to run non targeted Facebook ads because I want to be able to serve every business owner, the 28 million business owners in this country, and try to be that. That’s not a thought leader.

 

You’re a thought leader because you’re so focused on the 25%. That’s smart. Well, the other thing with that is that a lot of folks in today’s day and age know that creating content, social media, and video is obviously an important part of building our brand. And a lot of folks get stuck on what to say or what to do because they’re so hung up on what they’re trying to get from the content.

 

And if you can shift your message in every interaction online or in person or over the phone or whatever the case may be, you can shift your focus to how do I provide value in a way that I’m educating, that I’m empowering or I’m supporting or whatever the case may be? You will find that the content that flows from you more easily because it’s flowing from a place of authenticity to serve.

 

And I think most human beings are wired to serve first and foremost, and it’s really just a matter of if you’re someone who’s listening and for you, money is tangible, then by all means your focus, your goal setting should be anchored in volume, units, income, whatever the case might be. And there’s no right or wrong. Just knowing that about yourself is going to give you better results from your own goal setting.

 

Learn how to build wealth through real estate and develop a healthy relationship with money

 

Develop a Healthy Relationship with Money: Focusing On Your 25%

 

If you know how to set your goals based on your DNA. But if you’re not, if you’re someone for whom money is intangible, then everything you do should be anchored in how you make people feel and the experiences that the money affords you. And you should still have financial goals. Don’t get me wrong, like I have big, crazy, hairy, audacious goals and I set them and I put them over here and I write them down.

 

But my energy and my attention, my focus, my activity is all towards the experiences that I’m either providing for people or that I’m getting to enjoy myself with my personal life, professional life, all the things. Right. And it’s interesting because like when you get clear on your 25%, you know, for example, as a mortgage lender, most lenders are advised to go cold call real estate agents every Monday and convince them that they should have coffee with you and get to and then send you their deals.

 

And I’m like, wait, well, just because you’re a job title realtor doesn’t mean you’re my 25%, right? So if you get clear on your 25%, you can be more of a sniper rifle, which makes you more efficient and more effective. And you don’t have to feel like you’re taking the shotgun approach to growing your business, and you’re throwing stuff against the wall and hoping it sticks.

 

You get really clear on what kind of people do I want to serve, what kind of clients do I want to have to hang out with? Who do I want to refer business to and receive referrals from? And you can get hyper focused and you can cut the fat, and then you’re not on the hamster wheel because you can have a really efficient, effective work day and then have a lot of fun around that, which is what it’s all about.

 

Right? Well, it is, and a really powerful lesson. I’m so glad that you took us there, because you know that that’s the difference between abundance, the abundant mentality and then scarcity or lack and you just did a great example of explaining how you can have abundance by actually trimming down and really focusing on your 25%.

 

I know that we are quickly running out of time. And I want to be respectful of your compressed schedule. So, before we go, before we close out and say goodbye, any final advice that you’d like to share? Anything that you think we might have missed? And then please tell Onward Nation business owners the best way to connect with you, Erin.

 

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Develop a Healthy Relationship with Money: Muscle Through When You’re Not at Your Best

 

Sure. So, it’s a good thing you’re going to cut me off, because I could talk about this stuff as a whole. So, I need somebody to put a cap on me. Anyway, I will tell you that the biggest thing I got, the best advice I ever received was to do less, to do more, do less, to do more.

 

And what that means is, if you need help with this, read the books free to focus by Michael Hyatt, and he helps you identify what activities you are doing throughout the day that you are good at and they move and you enjoy it. So proficient and passionate. What activities are you doing that you are good at but you don’t enjoy?

 

I know everybody can think of activities like that. What activities are you doing that you enjoy? But they’re not moving the needle for you. That’s a distraction. And then the last thing is drudgery. You don’t enjoy it. It’s not moving the needle for you. And so what happens is as you start to identify these activities in your day, you can start to pay attention to what it does to your energy level.

 

And we all know we have things we have to do throughout the day that sap us energetically. And for me, I know drudgery is email. So, for example, if I’m somebody who’s always checking my email all day, when my energy level gets depleted and I bring forth a version of myself that’s a little bit flat, a little more low energy, and it’s fine, right?

 

We can all muscle through even when we’re not feeling our best. And what happens is our results will match whatever kind of energy we’re bringing to our encounters in our life, in business. And so I try to pay attention to what activities are in that, what he calls the desire zone. So proficient and passionate. Like I enjoy it, I love it, and I know it’s moving the needle for me.

 

And I try to delegate, automate and eliminate the rest. And then if for like I try to spend 70% of my day in that desire zone so that I’m intentionally managing my energy so that I bring the best version of myself forward, and that I result in a magnetism that attracts my success.

 

Learn how to build wealth through real estate and develop a healthy relationship with money

 

Develop a Healthy Relationship with Money: Final Advice from Erin

 

Like I said, as a lighthouse, rather than like a hunter. And, and then plan out, when am I going to do those other activities that I know I have to do? But I also know what they do to me energetically. So I map out my day with intention and not allowing responding to emails, incoming tags, all this other stuff to hijack my day, my energy, my productivity.

 

Because I want to feel. I mean, we all became self-employed. If you’re listening and you’re an entrepreneur, most of us, we’re in pursuit of something, right? Freedom and flexibility. And I see far too many people go out into the world as entrepreneurs, and whether they’re hungry and they’re trying to build, they find themselves working around the clock and available all the time and constantly plugged in and turned in and turned on.

 

And they’re exhausted and they’re energetically flat, right? Or they’ve achieved some level of success and they’ve never put boundaries in place, so they don’t even know how to. They just feel like I’m going to pat myself in the back and tell myself I’m grateful. And I’m lucky because the money’s coming in, and I remember how painful it was to be broke and hungry.

 

And I don’t ever want to go back there. So the fear propels us to stay on this hamster wheel as a trade off for success. And I just see too many people suffering, whether they’re successful or they’re hungry, they’re suffering because they have not yet realized how to plan their day and then permit themselves the freedom of flexibility that they were seeking to begin with.

 

So you were after something then. You don’t actually allow yourself that. You don’t allow yourself to put your feet up and read a book. You’re always looking at emails, always on social media, never fully present, like physically present with our kids and our spouses and our loved ones and our friends, but mentally preoccupied somewhere else because we haven’t set any rules for what winning the day or winning the week looks like.

 

And we’re not setting boundaries, and it’s just very pervasive in our society, in our country, in our entrepreneurship. And, I really highly encourage people to pay attention to what activities you’re allowing into your day and what they are doing to your energy, and how that is affecting your results and your happiness, which ultimately is the most important thing is our happiness rate for real.

 

Love your take on how to develop a healthy relationship with money. And that’s why you’re all about pursuing freedom and flexibility, I love it. Best way to connect with you. 

 

Learn how to build wealth through real estate and develop a healthy relationship with money

 

Develop a Healthy Relationship with Money: How to Connect with Erin

 

Probably the easiest way would be to follow me on Instagram at Pursuing Freedom Official and DM me there. You can also email me at [email protected], you can visit PursuingFreedom.com to find resources and the podcast and all good things.

 

And I am always, always happy to chat with anyone about anything and be a resource because I truly believe that everything that you ever dreamed of is available to you. It’s already here, it’s available. You just have to decide, and then you need to decide how you’re going to go about living your life and let your business be a vehicle to support that vision and not rob you of it.

 

Okay, Onward Nation, no matter how many notes you took or how often you go back and relisten to Erin’s words of wisdom, which I sure hope that you do, you need to take what she shared with you the strategies, the recommendations, the action plans, the advice, the stories take that knowledge that she so generously shared with you.

 

Take it and apply it into your business right away and accelerate your results. And Erin, we all have the same 86,400 seconds in a day. And again, I was over the moon excited when you said yes. Thank you very much for coming onto the show to be our mentor and guide to help us move our businesses onward to that next level.

 

Thank you so much, my friend. Thank you, I appreciate it. Thank you. And, I appreciate all of you for tuning in today so this episode is complete. So head over to OnwardNation.com for show notes and more food to fuel your ambition. Continue to find your recipe for success here at Onward Nation.

 

Learn how to build wealth through real estate and develop a healthy relationship with money