Episode 6: What is money to you?

Dawn McGruer:

Welcome to Dawn of a New Era, the podcast, Chronicles of a Serial Entrepreneur. And we’re now into episode six, and I’m super excited to announce that we’ve not just hit the charts, but we’re in the top 20 of entrepreneurship and we are climbing. So thank you so much for your support. It has been absolutely amazing. It took me a long time to do this podcast because really being able to share my true life experiences is quite different to showing up on my other podcast, Dynamic Digital Marketing Show. Because this is about me, and this is about sharing my inner thoughts and feelings, and things that have happened along my journey, and quite personal stories. So thank you for the support. And this podcast is for business owners, by a business owner. And everything I share is about really helping to empower you as a business owner and entrepreneur to scale and grow your businesses in a way that you want to, to grow a business that you wanted.

And in particular, this podcast today, we’re going to be sharing some ideas about money. And this is really, really a difficult subject for many. When we think about what is money to you, this could be the hub of a really, really big barrier in terms of how you move forward with your business. Because if you don’t have positive feelings about money, this will reflect in your energy towards your business. And what do I mean? Well, when we think about it, we have to think about what money is to you and how money is going to serve you. At the end of the day, when you set up your business, it’s because you had a passion. You wanted to turn that passion into profit, and ultimately experience the gains that that gave you. Now, these rewards come in different forms, from freedom, to security, to comfort, happiness, power, status, whatever it is for you.

Now, when we think of money, we’re going to talk about money in terms of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Now, many of you may have heard of this, but if you haven’t, it is basically all of the essential needs that we as individuals need to survive and be successful in our life. And the first section of our triangle, the first root of everything, the foundation, the hub, is the physiological aspect. So this is about actually eating, being healthy, having shelter and stability. And then also looking at things like your social needs, your friendship, your belonging, your communities, and your businesses. And this is all about how we kind of bring everything together to get this contentment, to feel happy in what we’re doing. 

So when it comes to money and business, when we think about the physiological side of things, this is about having enough money to do what you want in terms of having the health, the nourishment, the shelter that you ultimately need. Now, when we move to things like safety, this is all about having the security, being free from danger of threat of money. If you feel that every month is a struggle, there is stress around that, that will be creating not only physiological health problems for you, but it will change the way that you are about every action that you take in your business. 

Now, when we look at the third section, this is about belonging, social connection. This could be affecting the whole sort of feeling of status and power of where you feel you are. And then when we look at your esteem, if you feel that you’re not earning the money that you truly deserve and desire, again, you will have a negative feeling about money. And self-actualization is the top. Many say that we never get to this point where we’ve reached everything. And this can be often when you get to a stage where you’re earning enough money that you are a philanthropic kind of person where you’ve got all this money that you can give back to charity. You’ve got million pounds here. Those are great things, but these could be mini micro-actions. These could be random acts of kindness where you support, you work on helping, inclusion, diversity, you help empower people in your team. And this is something you should be doing every day. 

So these five stages, when we think about money, we have to think about what money is to us. Now, one of the exercises I want you to do is really think about what money you want to earn. And this is not just the base money that you can survive on. This is money that you actually want to take home. And this is something that it is a difficult topic for many to talk about, because you don’t want to appear greedy. You don’t want to appear that you’re demanding too much in life. But you set this business up. You made this decision. And you deserve to make money. And the sooner you understand that, if you’ve got a positive feeling around money, the energy will flow. Everything will feel easier. If you remove the stress of money, this is a big chunk because the stress of money doesn’t just impact what you do in your business. It affects relationships too outside that, and many arguments in relationships in couples is about money. 

You imagine removing this whole entity and having the energy and the power to remove some of the constraints that you have, and being able to act in a way where you are free from hindrance and restraint, and that you have the opportunities to really seek inner contentment. Now you might be thinking, “Well, money isn’t the root of contentment.” Well, money does go a long way because what it can do is help you make more choices, or help you have more choices. Because if you don’t have any money after paying your bills at the end of the month, then your choices are dramatically limited. 

If you remember, in the last podcast, one of the things we talked about is adventure. Adventure in your life is critical. We all strive to have an escapism from the mundane, the nitty-gritty day-to-day that we go to work, we come home. We need some freedom from that. And being able to be empowered to choose a holiday that you really want to do, go somewhere that you really want to do. I’m not saying everything costs you money, but lifting this whole heavy cloud away, you have to sit and think about what do you feel about money. And this is an exercise whereby you really need to sit down and ask yourself a couple of questions. 

Now, number one is all about what money do you want to take out of the business each and every month? And then number two, can you actually feasibly take that money? If not, what could you take? What could you do? Because paying yourself first is critical. Then number three, what would you need to do in your business to actually be able to take this ideal sum of money? Now, this could be looking at different products and services, bundling items together, upselling, cross-selling. There could be a variety of ways. It could be doing a launch to really kind of invigorate the interest in a product or service. It could be looking at adding in an extra upgrade. One of the things that sells particularly well for us is our fast track signature course.

Now the fact that it has a book that goes hand in hand definitely helps, but there is an upgrade on there which quite often is taken. And the difference is, is the upgrade is only a couple of hundred pounds to do an actual qualification and to graduate with a diploma. And the thing here is, is that many people will take that option. And probably about 80% of people. Now, a few hundred pounds in addition to each order makes a vast, vast impact on the bottom line. So you have to think about your pricing. Now, I want you to answer a question which is about is your pricing correct. Because many struggle with pricing. I think it’s one of the questions I get asked so many times. How should I price my products and services? 

Well, look at it differently. I always think about what is the value. What does my training course, my product, my service, give my customer. So when you think about it this way, if I can guarantee that by doing my fast track course, you’re going to save 30% of time, that’s a massive amount of value to somebody. So it has to be priced accordingly, and people need to see what the value is. Now, do not fall into the trap of pricing your products and services around features. What we want to see is what the benefit is to them, because many people will pay a premium for your product or service because of the value that it gives them. At the end of the day, everyone has a pain, a challenge, an obstacle they want to overcome. And if you can actually solve that and build that bridge for them, you imagine what they’ll pay for it. And this is not about ripping people off. This is about giving genuine value. So think about how you price your products and services. 

Now finally, when you think about your money, think about where you could save. Now, every day, if you wake up with a I can save and earn mentality, this is something I really want you to go and try. Every day, if you can save money on something, then that frees up more money for guess who? You. So this is a case of going through your personal and your business statements, looking at what you’re spending. I mean, honestly, sometimes I have gone through my own personal statements and found things for App Store, or Apple App Store, that I didn’t even know I was paying for. So these things all add up. And every day, if you just do a little micro task, which is to save every day. 

Now, earning every day is about thinking about your time in the day. So many people say to me, “Dawn, there’s not enough time in the day. I do all these things. And then I’m trying to sell later in the day.” Selling, for me, has to come first. Earning is the number one priority. So switch your day up so that the morning is always focused on sales first. Think about what you could do to take anybody in your current pipeline and turn them into a paying customer. This is absolutely the number one thing that you need to be focused on because nothing else matters. At the end of the day, if your business is bringing in enough money to pay for you, your staff, your team, your suppliers, and come out with profit, then nothing else matters. There is no activity that is more important, because serving your customers and generating more of them is the essence of successful business.

And the art to an entrepreneur who is successful is understanding that the whole ethos is that if you can save and earn every single day, then you’re getting closer and closer to your nirvana, whatever that means. Whether it’s taking more time off, spending more time with friends or family, having more fun activities per day, and just taking the stress and strain around money away from you. So empower yourselves today, and think about really seriously going away from here and changing the way you think about money. 

Now, I really hope you enjoyed this episode. It is a difficult topic, but it is something that honestly, it’s a game changer. So even if you just invest five minutes now, please, please, please, go and download the spreadsheet. Go to dawnmcgruer.com, download the spreadsheet, fill it in, and come and join me in the Facebook group. We have a Facebook group full of entrepreneurs and business owners who are there, ready to support each other, give feedback. And also, I will be there and I will be giving you more tips, more advice in terms of what you can do for growing your business.

So go to Facebook, Marketing, Motivation, and Mindset, Business Consort free group. Make sure you come and join it. Now, if you haven’t already, please subscribe to the podcast because yes, you will absolutely help me in my journey in obviously getting my podcast to as many people as possible, but also it is super important because you’ll get a lovely email from me with some extra tips in, and I transcribe all my podcasts and give you a worksheet each and every week. So come and join me on social media. Remember, head over to Dawnmcgruer.com, and you can get a copy of all the other podcasts and worksheets, and you can download everything straightaway. 

So have a great week, and I will see you on next week’s podcast. And any feedback that you want to give me, feel free to head over to iTunes, and I would really appreciate a little rate and review whereby you can tell me what you think of the podcast, and it will definitely help others find the podcast too. So take care and have a super week. Bye now. 

I hope you enjoyed this week’s episode, and don’t forget, I’m going to be with you each and every week. So download and listen on Dawnmcgruer.com, or on iTunes, and come and join us in our Facebook community too. All the details are on the website and I’ll see you next week.