In this solo presentation, award‑winning personal‑finance expert Dominique Brawley examines how deeply ingrained negative money narratives shape our relationship with wealth. She argues that societal messages—portraying money as evil and the rich as villains—create limiting beliefs that can trap people in poverty. Brawley contrasts two primary mindsets: a fixed, pessimistic outlook that views financial circumstances as immutable, and a growth‑oriented mindset that embraces learning, optimism, and proactive action. She outlines the traits of each mindset, explains how a growth mindset fuels confidence and better financial decisions, and cites the book The Game of Life and How to Play It to illustrate the power of thought in shaping both health and finances. The talk culminates with a motivational quote—“If you believe you can, you can. If you believe you can’t, you can’t”—and a call to subscribe, like, and share, encouraging viewers to adopt a growth mindset toward money.
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Money is the root of all evil. Oh, you're just my little broke best friend. Have you realized that since you were a kid, we've been hearing all of these like negative money affirmations? And it's honestly attributing to many of us having really, really, really bad relationships with money. And for many of us, we are literally thinking ourselves into poverty and thinking ourselves to brokenness, if that's even a word. But anyway. My name is Dominique Brawley, an award-winning personal finance expert, and I want to talk to you today about our mindset. And believe it or not, our mindset can keep us complacent and broke, but our mindset can also be the thing that helps us get to the next level, to believe in the wildest dreams and to be able to start to feel like there's something better for yourself, or that you can reach these bigger goals. And unfortunately when it comes to money historically or societally we have been told that we're not supposed to talk about money and if we do talk about it it's a bad thing and that the rich people are the bad guys. If you ever think about even Scrooge McDuck, you guys remember Scrooge McDuck? He would sit in his like bank and he'd be like, "Hahaha," and he was like the mean duck with all the money And even Mr. Burns from The Simpsons, they would say that he's the bad guy because he was the mean rich guy, but he was literally employing everyone in Springfield. So like, he can't be that mean, right? So historically, we've just been taught that the rich people are bad, that money is bad, and if you want money, it's a bad thing. But let me tell you something, there's nothing wrong with you having more money, especially if you are doing good with that money. There's nothing wrong with you having positive thoughts about money. And honestly, the more positive your thoughts are when it comes to money, the more confident you will be and the more likely that you'll be able to change your current financial situation or improve your financial situation. So, let's talk a little bit about 2 different types of mindsets that can hinder you and one that can help you grow. So let's start with the, with the bad one, the fixed mindset. And there are 2 main types of mindsets. We have people that have a fixed mindset, and we have people that have a growth mindset. So the people that have this fixed mindset, they a lot of times are also very pessimistic, right? They really feel like, oh my God, life is just constantly happening to me, I just can't get out of the situation, that failures are these setbacks, and that means I need to stay away from this. And, you know, they're also constantly always just scared of potential scams, and they're scared of taking risks and just scared in general, right? Um, they often are just really, really good at wasting time. Um, they also, you know, just don't do anything to help themselves grow, right? They feel like, I was born with this set of whatever and this is all I got. I can't learn anything new. This is just my financial situation. It's not gonna change. It is what it is. And we've all met people like that, and we all have people in our family like that. And maybe sometimes we have those moments where we're like that. But believe it or not, those fixed mindsets that we often have and those fixed attitudes that you may even surround yourself by can also be hindering you even if it's not your own thoughts, okay? And we want to make sure that if you're sitting here, you're like, "Oh my gosh, that has been me lately. I've been like, 'Oh, woe is me. I can't do this,' etc., etc." Then you need to change that, okay? So, let's talk about a growth mindset. And this is what I like to think that I have. But I will say, there are definitely days where I'm just like, "Oh my God." I have fixed moments. But never let those fixed moments turn into fixed days, okay? Don't forget that. So, that growth mindset. When you have that growth mindset, you literally feel like you can do anything. That you can develop any set of skills that you need to develop. That you have the ability to learn new things. You love to learn new things. You also really just enjoy the process of seeing yourself grow. You are open to not letting other people put their set of fears on you. And honestly, you are just open to growth in general. You are open, you are optimistic, you are a glass half full person, not a glass half empty person, right? You're like, you know what, it's cool, this is not going well, but I'm gonna take this little piece out of it and run with it and see how I can improve things from there. Those people with that growth mindset, they tend to be the ones that end up becoming successful. They tend to be the ones that end up just honestly walking around and creating the life that they want. They design their lifestyle and they're like, you know what, I'm not going to let whatever situation I was born into, I'm not going to let whatever has transpired to define who I am and to keep me who I am, okay? One of my favorite books that I've read is called The Game of Life and How to Play It. And it talks so much about the power of our minds and the power of our mindset and how you can literally think yourself sick. There's some people who literally thought themselves into illnesses, and it's also, believe it or not, been scientifically proven that you can heal yourself with your thoughts. Now, if you can do things like that, I know that you know that it can also apply to your finances, right? Even a lot of the goals and things that I've accomplished to to this point, I've thought of, I've dreamed about, I have put strategy and growth activities in on a daily basis to get me to those places, right? You have to make sure that you're having growth-oriented activities, you're making decisions to get closer to those goals every single day, as this going to be key. Now, before I wrap this up, I want to leave you with one of my favorite quotes because this literally explains and summarizes this entire video. I probably could have just said this one statement and did not have to do the whole video. One of my favorite quotes is, "If you believe you can, you can. If you believe you can't, you can't." And that truly is all how it basically boils down to with our mindsets. As soon as we start believing that we cannot do something, we won't be able to do it. As soon as we start saying, I can do this, I can do this, it happens. So I know a lot of times when I'm in the gym and I'm just like, oh my gosh, I can't do this, I don't want to do this, then I won't do it. I'll stop, I'll do less reps, I may even just go ahead and end the workout. But as soon as I say, you know what, I can do this, I can do this, I may not want to do this, but I can do this, I can do this, eventually you're telling yourself, I can do this, it signals to your brain, this is something that we're doing, we can do this, let's do it. It's the same exact thing when it comes to any goals in your life, any— anything that you're trying to reach when it comes to your finances in general. So, I'm going to end this video with like my favorite quote. If you believe you can, you can. If you believe you can't, you can't. And I know that you can hit that subscribe button. So, do so. Also hit the like button. Share this with a friend because we want to make sure that everyone in our group has a growth mindset. See you soon.
