Why Your Nervous System Blocks Wealth & Success

So welcome to Dawn of a New Era, the Billionaire Brain podcast with myself, Dawn McGruer. And today we have got the amazing Tiffany Cohen, the Billion Dollar Healer, who I've had the privilege of spending time with, working with. She came on my retreat in Marrakech as well, and we met only a few months ago, but I feel that we have had a real affinity and connection, which is amazing in the world of founders because we all need support. So when you find people in your lives, I truly believe that it's important to connect and spend time and in a wise way with these people.

So I've invited Tiffany on today to talk about, obviously, her journey. And a lot of people, Tiffany, will probably say, Well, look, you call yourself a Billion Dollar Healer, but what actually needs healing before someone can hold billion-dollar success? And where does this title come from? Yeah, so I think first, Dawn, thank you so much for having me here.

I'm so excited to be here and speak to your community. And I think it's important, and when we look at the billion-dollar energy, it's about dreaming big, right? That is what that is about. And to say million-dollar healer, that doesn't really have the same energy behind it, right?

I mean, it doesn't because there are so many millionaires, and hopefully everybody listening here right now has either achieved that or is looking to achieve that. Billionaire, though, billion dollars, like that feels something that is something huge to aspire to and this, like, big, huge dream that we can actually let ourselves wrap our minds around if we let ourselves really go there, right? And sometimes it's giving it the push to go there. I truly think that there is a capacity in everybody to hold whatever energy they want, right?

And I would say that someone who is really looking to make a big difference in this world and to just hold this big energy really should open up to what is your billion dollars. Does it have to actually be the physical billion dollars, or does it... Feeling like a billion dollars, like what is that, right? And just let yourself open up to the capacity to hold whatever vision you have for your life.

Yeah, and I think this is a really important point because with a billion dollar or billionaire brain, obviously this is something that I talk about. It's my third book, you know, it's entitled, and it's controversial to a point because people are sort of saying, well, you know, do I want to be a billionaire or what does this actually mean? For me, a billion dollar brain is more around thinking better and feeling richer. And this doesn't necessarily mean in the true financial sense or wealth sense, but wealth can have a lot of connotations across, you know, health and happiness and living a really enriched, gorgeous life.

So when you hear the term, you know, think bigger or, you know, looking at people's ambition, what is it about the healing or the nervous system that your work can really change? Because a lot of people will think strategically, but where do you come into the mix? Yeah, so I see this all the time, and I work with a lot of seven- to nine-figure founders heading towards that. They want that billion-dollar status.

And what happens is, you know, we all have a story, okay, every single one of us. And that story is not separate from the business that you're building. That is your business, and your business is an extension of you. So it's wonderful to have all of the strategies and all of the logic-based things that build the business, and you need them; they're necessary.

But what I see happens the most is that people, you know, our founders basically are leaving behind the part that is the energetic part. It is the emotional part. It's the part that really is sitting underneath the surface. And when we just push that down, push that down, we can only go so far.

Your emotions, your stories, the experiences that you've had, they will actually act as an anchor for your dreams. And so we have to really shed light on the things in our lives that are, you know, that were things that we want to not bring light to, like we don't want to see them anymore. These parts of ourselves, these stories, they could be things from when we're kids that really, you know, we think that because they're in the past that they have no bearing on the future or no bearing on who we are today, but they have everything to do with it. They're shaping you in ways that you have no idea.

So when it comes to the nervous system and the subconscious mind, that is really the sweet spot that I work in. I believe that there is a correlation between the two. You really can do this subconscious work, which is the things, the stories that are going on underneath the surface. You know, we are living 95% of our lives from our subconscious mind.

That is such a scary number when you think about it, because you're basically awake, but you're like asleep. And so we want to, yeah, and so we want to wake up to what are the stories that are actually driving our lives? What are the things that are going on that are really the fuel for our day and our belief systems? And we are really asleep to our belief systems.

And so when we start to really look at those beliefs and what are the stories that are shaping who we are. I think what happens is we start to become way more self-aware, and now we can make decisions that we won't act from that place any longer, those beliefs, but we have to see them first. And so these stories and these things of the past actually create an energetic knot in the field. And what happens is we go, you know, what I like to do energetically is go into that knot in the field and open it up.

So not only are we looking at the subconscious, the things that are going on underneath the surface in the mind, but we're also saying, okay, what is the energy attached to this, and let's let that go. Once we do that, the anchor goes away, and you can actually break through a ceiling that you didn't even know was tied to this belief. It's absolutely amazing to see it happen. And this is so true because I work with founders who have got some of the most amazing business minds.

They are, you know, the most inspiring world leaders doing great things, but there's always subconscious success barriers that are holding them back from that next level. So I truly feel that a strategy I would give one person would not work for another because people think differently, they feel differently, and they live differently. And I think when we take all of these three factors into play, which is the ethos of the Billionaire Brain, there's a layer of understanding the mind that we don't go into on a day-to-day basis. So do you feel that someone can consciously want more money and success while their subconscious is very much kind of trying to prove them wrong or protect them?

Where is your view on this? Oh, absolutely. This is where, because logically we know that we are open and available to everything that we want. There is a logic for most of us that says, like, of course I can have it, right?

But then every time you almost get there, you find yourself self-sabotaging. You find yourself going backwards. And the thing here, multiple things are happening. Realistically, what happens is the nervous system's job is to keep you safe.

That is its job. And so whenever you're going into territory, whether it is a physical territory or whether it's like a mental territory, energetic, money, it doesn't matter what it is. If that thing is unfamiliar to your nervous system, your nervous system will immediately stop you from going there. Immediately, because it is not safe to the nervous system to do something that is not familiar.

It would rather have you stay stuck in something you didn't like, but it has a known future, versus have you go somewhere that is unfamiliar. The second that you make the unfamiliar familiar, that goes away. That won't be a problem anymore. Your nervous system will start focusing on something else.

But we have to recognize that we have this system that is built within us for safety that is kind of working against us, right? And it doesn't think it's working against us, right? It's actually thinking it's doing good for you, but it's not, especially when you're dreaming big and trying to do new things. And so the more that we can be aware of how this shows up, the more we can actually Hit those goals, hit those targets, and really step into the life that we know and business that we know that we're meant to live.

I actually just told this on my stories this morning on Instagram because I am noticing this, and this doesn't just show up with money.

Business, right? Like I'm noticing this because I'm on this fitness journey, and now I'm seeing how my consistency is compounding and how things are, you know, I'm feeling so much better in my body, and I'm noticing that my clothes are fitting differently. And so now I'm getting into new territory. And all of a sudden, I find myself really not wanting to go and do my workouts, and I'm finding resistance in my body to do those things.

And because I'm aware of it, I don't let those things stop me because those things become excuses, right? And so if we can just push past it and see it, we can actually let ourselves prove to the nervous system that it is safe. That's all that it wants. And this is what I talk about in my book.

I call it the beautiful prison. We are great at coming up with the validation, the reason, the excuses. And quite often, I will see founders turn to four, six, eight different people until they find the piece of advice that they're actually looking for to keep them within that beautiful prison. I think it's quite difficult sometimes to push somebody out of that beautiful prison because it's a place of safety.

And when you think about a thermostat, and I talk to people about what their upper limit is, I feel that the upper limit is constantly moving because we've all had a point where we just want to get to X, Y, and Z, or we hit another. Where do you feel that people sit once they've achieved incredible success, but then feel very disconnected and are often in a period of real unhappiness? How can that be processed or addressed in the healing world? Yeah, I think that this is such an incredible question because this is something that kind of catches everybody off guard, right?

You think that when you hit that goal, that it is like going to be this massive celebration, I did it, and then you hit the goal and you're like, All right, now what? Right? And it's this, if you don't, if you haven't been doing the work prior to leading up to that, it actually hits you really hard. And when I say do the work, I mean doing the inner work, the energetic work to really hold that, because we can achieve something and then let it go, let it slip through our fingers, and that happens for many different reasons.

And the inner work is what really will dictate if you hold it or not. Because what jumps in here is worthiness to have. It is those subconscious belief systems that are going to kick in and tell you whether you are worthy enough to have that. If you're, and this is going to sound crazy, but this is what happens.

Here's what happens. Our subconscious mind is holding, is like a holding, like you said, like a prison, right? It is. It is this beautiful prison.

It is holding all of our stories and trying to help us, again, it's always trying to help, but it's trying to help us by not letting us experience negative situations that have caused those belief systems in the first place. And so if there's a part of us that doesn't believe that we are, or maybe there's a part of us that believes that we need protection because now we're maybe seen a little bit more and it's not safe to be seen, and maybe you learned that a long time ago, that is going to really start to kick in. If you feel like you need to be punished, if there's a punishment aspect happening, which is a big one, and that's something I think that sounds crazy, like why would we punish ourselves? Because there's a part of us that we told a long time ago that we're not worthy enough to hold something like that.

And so you can't fight against what you don't know. It's like that unknown enemy. Like, you don't know where these things are coming from until you really dive deep into it. Because then, when you, if you've been doing this work, when you come into that place, okay, of achieving the thing that you want, what happens, regardless of whether you've been doing the work or not, you're going to be in a messy middle.

That's what I call the messy middle. You have one foot in an old life and one foot in a new life, and you're trying to figure it out. And if you have been doing the work, though, it's going to be easier to step into that new life. You're going to recognize the patterns.

You're going to recognize how your nervous system is kicking in and keeping you safe, and you can really clear that out, and it's an easier transition. But I always think of, I always just, I always think of like rock stars, right? There's so many, you know, rock stars that we've seen that we love that, you know, they achieve massive success, right? Like all of a sudden they can be like this overnight success, and you see them like on stages and traveling the world and doing all these things, and then you end up seeing them, you know, in rehabs, and you see them like turning to drugs and to alcohol because they can't hold the frequency of what they've created.

They don't feel worthy of it. And so they let it all go. And you see that with lotto winners. I mean, there's so many things where lotto, they'll win the lotto and then they let it go.

They end up just exactly where they were because that's where their thermostat capacity allowed them to be. So doing that work really shatters the ceiling on that and lets you hold it. And I think there's a certain conditioning behind the narrative that we're told that, you know, growth is, you know, uncomfortable. So when we've gone through the hustle and the grind, it's almost like a validation, like, well, you know, I've put the work in and I've had the pitfalls and, you know, I've built some resilience.

We tend to kind of feel, well, because we've done all of that and it was difficult, then it's worthy. But this overnight success thing, I see this a lot when founders scale really quickly, and They've gone from a feeling of scarcity into a feeling of, well, money isn't a problem now. What do I think about? And then they start to reel into different patterns and thought processes because the brain says, well, you have to worry about something.

So I'm curious about the fact that there's this huge conversation online about manifestation and being in alignment. So where do you actually think that manifestation ends and action begins? I think they're intertwined. You can't manifest without aligned action.

You, like, it is just a thought and a wishful thinking if you're not actually taking action on it. And so you have to. You can't just sit back and do the vision boards and sit back and dream and meditate and visualize the life that you want and then go about your day as you would have before. You have to then say, how then does this translate into the action I can take to meet my, you know, because we co-create.

So I want to co-create this with the universe. So how do I take those steps in order to do that? And the language of Earth, of this 3D world, is action. It is action in order to build, right?

You need to take the inspiration that you receive and actually create it, right? You can't just receive it and then hold it in the body. You need to bring it to life, and that takes action. So we have to take action, and it has to be aligned action.

It has to be an energy that's not frantic, that's not in a victim mindset, that's not in this neediness, this scarcity. It really needs to be from a place of like, I believe that I can bring this to life. I believe in, you know, my ability to bring this thought into fruition, and I know that I can do it. And the more that you can sit in belief, the quicker I believe that it comes to you.

And on the flip side of this, there's a lot of people who are very connected to their spirituality. But when you talk about it could be symbols or numbers or signs, you know, how do you address the skeptic? And you must have met many who just can't connect with what you do or see the validation in it. Yeah, I mean, listen, it's okay to be a skeptic at some point, but at some point you have to let it in, right?

Like at some point, what will be the thing that actually makes you a believer? And the thing with manifestation, the thing with spirituality is that there is faith, right? And it's faith. But I believe, I think that a lot of, you know, religions—and I'm not a religious person—but I think, like, religions and even, you know, spirituality and these things, it relies on faith on the outside first.

I actually think you have faith on the inside first. Yes. And then you see. Then you can see, oh, well, wait a second, I do—like, your outside world will mirror back what's going on inside.

So if you don't have faith within, it's going to be really hard to have faith outside of yourself. And so what I would say to the skeptic is, do you have faith in you? Because the outside world is just going to be your mirror. And so I get it, right?

Like, I get why maybe you can't have faith in something that's bigger than you, because you don't have faith in you yet. And so I would say the first place to kind of go is within, and then watch what happens outside, and you'll see that it's here. It doesn't have to make sense to everybody, but everyone has to have their sense that makes sense to them, and.

I think belief in themselves is number one, and belief in whatever else you want to believe in is another. I think when I look at boundaries, one of the biggest areas of concern that I see is that we are painted a picture online of what success actually looks like. And one of the things I talk a lot about is that success is very subjective, and it's very bespoke to each person. And it's not just about money.

So when you or I are talking online about making money or becoming successful and becoming wealthy, what would you say in terms of your own success? How would you qualify what success means to you? Yeah, I mean, for me, what does success mean to me, or in general, how does somebody find what their definition is? You and in general.

Yeah, so I think that, you know, in order to find where, like, what success means to you is, like, first you can start with what do you not like in your life? What does not feel successful in your life? Like, if you're going into a job that you hate every day, you could be at the top, you could be the CEO of that company, but if you're dreading going in every day, is that actually success? I don't know, maybe on paper, but the feeling inside, and to me what success is, is to love.

Your life is to feel so good in all parts of your life, and that doesn't mean that it doesn't come with challenges. Of course, life is life, and you are meant to have challenges. Those challenges help you to grow. But if every day you are waking up like, Well, this is just how life is, right?

There's something there that is very low vibration, and that you're just accepting the life that has been handed to you. And I don't accept that in my life. I lived that life, Dawn. Like, I went into corporate America every single day, and I was very happy in my home life.

I was a mom to an infant and a toddler, my husband, the love of my life. I had wonderful friends, wonderful family. Like, I had all those things. But every single day, I was waking up not wanting to go to work.

And I was making multiple six figures. I climbed that corporate ladder from the bottom. I was, you know, told on paper that I should be happy, and I wasn't. And every day I was leaving crying for six months.

I left crying every day, and I stayed in a corporate career for 17, 18 years that I did not like. So tell us then the transition from corporate to spirit and soul. Like, tell us the background, how it started, and what you're working on now. Yeah, so, I mean, from that moment, like I had a, I had like, you know, a moment where I had a fight with my boss, an argument, and I just knew in that moment that this was, I will not choose this life anymore.

And I heard my soul for the first time speak through, saying, How the hell did I get here? And from that moment, even though I couldn't just walk out the door because I supported my family, I energetically did walk out the door. And I started going down an entrepreneurial path, which, you know, I followed the breadcrumbs, followed the breadcrumbs of that path, and that led me into food blogging and event planning. And then it ended up leading me into where I was actually meant to be, which was me opening up Spirit and Soul Studio and really guiding and helping people to transform their lives.

And from there, it was building this incredible business and then working with founders who were, I kept seeing that were coming into Spirit and Soul that were stuck, that were doing these amazing things, but they, like, wouldn't let themselves get to the next level because new levels, new devils, you know? And so that's how I got into working on, you know, my own healing process, which was Billion Dollar Healer, and going from there. And it's been amazing since, and it's really been such a blessing in my life. And Dawn, for anybody that's listening and, you know, this is resonating with them, I would love to, you know, really offer your listeners a gift.

So if you want to follow me at I'm Tiffany Cohen on Instagram, just DM me the word Dawn, and you will get a free gift to start seeing, it's a subconscious, you know, patterning to see what's going on underneath the surface and just see, like, kind of what's there. So it's a really great, like, recoding process that we can do. Yeah, and I think for anybody who hasn't worked with someone in the spiritual or healing space, this is a great introduction to really experience what it's like, what it feels like, and what it means to them. So thank you for that gift.

So we can't leave without saying you have something very exciting in the works at the moment. Tell us about that. Yeah, so I am at the very end process of writing my book, The Best Life Code. It is coming out in the fall, and I am so excited.

It is all about, you know, my formula for creating your best life, which is healing, the healing process, manifestation, and living intentionally, and that will create your best life. So I'm excited for that. Fabulous, fabulous, yeah. And there's nothing better than being able to get a book and read through and then experience this, you know, in your own time, in your own way.

So we are now at the end of the podcast, and as you know, my favorite part of the interview is always to find out what your most embarrassing moment has been or your funny story. So, Tiffany, what have you got for us? Oh my gosh, I have been trying to think about this, and I don't know why I can't think of anything, and I have so many. I mean, I guess the one that is, it's so silly, but it's, like, coming up because my sister just told this story that there was somebody—I have a physical location—and there was somebody that came into the shop, and they had left.

They kept coming in, and they were leaving, like, items on the table of, like, against what we were doing, and I was getting so upset about this. And so I saw him in the—I saw him walk in because we had him on camera, and I just walked in, left some things on the table that he shouldn't have, and walked out, and I literally ran after him. I ran after him. My husband was standing on a ladder fixing something.

He's like, What are you doing? My sister comes out, and I just handed it back to him. I just handed it back, and I was like, and he had it in his hand. I'm like, I think you forgot something.

And then I pulled him close to me. I don't know what I was thinking. This man could have attacked me right there in the street. I pulled him close to me and I said, I don't ever want to see you in my shop again.

And then he's like, Oh, sorry, and he ran away. And I turned around and I was like, like I saw my husband standing there, my sister, and I'm like, they're like, Are you okay? And I'm like, I don't know what I just did, but I don't think he's going to come. Don't mess with Tiffany.

Don't mess with me. But the thing is here is like, you know, he probably won't come back, but he would have continued doing it. And he was looking for someone to say no, like put a boundary in place. So you gave him the boundary.

So I love it. So we know how to connect with you. We know that if you message Tiffany, my name, Dawn, you will get an amazing free gift. And Tiffany's book is going to be coming out in the autumn as well.

So please go and follow Tiffany. Her work is magical, and she is just as gorgeous on the outside as she is in the inside. So I hope you meet Tiffany on your travels. You're going to be speaking at lots of events coming up.

Is there anything in the calendar that anyone can see you at? Well, we have so many things that happen at Spirit and Soul Studio. So I run classes here, workshops, and I do have some exciting opportunities coming up to work with me. We have like VIP days and things like that.

But I have some, if you're looking for like a community to really work with us, I would love to see you inside the communities that I have coming up. So they're launching very soon. So remember to follow Tiffany, and thank you so much for spending time with us today, and thank you very much for the special gift. Thank you so much, Dawn.