MONEY MINDSET WITH MICHELLE MANUEL & HEATHER PRINCE

Hello and welcome to this live today where I have the most wonderful guest with me who I met when I was in Athena Networking, the lovely Michelle Manuel. Welcome, Michelle.

Hi, Heather. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with your tribe and join you here on Facebook.

Yes, we're on Facebook, we're on YouTube as well. We're live. Um, and for those of you that haven't met Michelle Manuel before, as you can see, um, she's from Her Wealth IQ. She's a financial coach and financial mentor. She believes in having a new mindset which will result in new results. So if you've ever heard that women shouldn't really talk about money or all of those taboo things Michelle says talking money and everything else is what levels the financial career and life playing fields and is exactly what financially intelligent women do. And we're going to have a conversation about that, Michelle. So tell us a bit more about women and what they think about talking about money.

Yeah, well We all— money, that's very, very big to our emotions. And the bottom line of it is money is simply a tool. It's simply a tool for getting the things that we want in life and creating the life we need. So it sounds very simple, but it's not easy. And it's not easy because we've created this whole emotional story around it. And, you know, I think the bottom line of it is that The whole money, our ability to operate and manage our money is really only 80%. It's 80% what we believe about money and only 20% about the actions we take. So, if there's a whole mishmash of things going on in our belief system, it's very, very difficult to apply those right actions. And I think that's why it's very fundamental to first uncover those limiting beliefs before trying to implement the actions, because else it's a very difficult and a very unsuccessful task to try and achieve. And we'll talk about why that is today in terms of what those limiting factors are. You know, I think we've talked about it before, a lot of our belief systems, and you'll talk about where they come from, we've built up these things as to why we don't deserve money. We've linked it into our value system. We've created these checks and balances that consistently actually repel money away from us in terms of how we believe, what we believe, and the actions we take. As much as we want to accumulate more money are contradictory to that. We start doing things that don't support having money. For example, you know, some of us try to avoid money, so we don't open the bills. We don't go and look at our accounts. We don't want to understand it. We're very willing. To give away that power because we're too scared to open that whole Pandora's box of what money is to us. And that's like one aspect of how we repel money. Another aspect is, and we see that it comes out often in the things we say, is how much value we've placed on ourselves. And there's, I think there's many sayings where people say you're only valued externally by how much you value yourself. So in our careers, Potentially, we accept earning less. We don't negotiate higher salaries. We assume that what we get is what we deserve, even though we understand somewhere maybe in the back of our minds that the sort of value we're placing on the table is a lot more value than what we're getting paid for. We won't argue that because we don't acknowledge that that is our value, our value set in the world. It totally limits our ability to build wealth. And for women, this is a big thing because we've tied of our emotions into money, you know, whether it's an experience in when you're growing up that you didn't achieve something and you assign a value to, well, I'm not worthy of having something, or somebody said something to you, you know, maybe your spouse before you were— when you were getting divorced, well, you never do anything in the household, why should you have any money? And again, you've put that thing on, well, I don't deserve to have money. And in the back of your head, the whole time you're telling yourself, I don't deserve it. I don't deserve it. So the words you're putting out to the universe typically support that. You'll say to people, well, I can't afford that. I'll, you know, I'm not able, I'm not clever enough, I don't understand money, I'm bad with money. All these things you put out support that belief system around you not deserving it. We take all these actions around money that are all based on this very flawed belief, and until we start uncovering what those are, and open ourselves up to learning new ways of managing money, we're never going to manage our money very successfully. I don't know, Heather, if you've got some input there in terms of how to clear those money blocks.

Absolutely. You know, most people just assume that to stop being broke, you need just to change your financial habits, but there's more to it than just that. And that's why it's important to learn what these blocks are and how to remove money blocks. So you might be asking, if you're watching this, well, what is a money block? Um, it's a series of thoughts, it's a mindset, it's a feeling that gets in the way of you accomplishing financial success. It could be getting out of debt, saving a ton of money, increasing your income streams, or affording the lifestyle of your dreams, which we keep being sold on social media every day. So why might you have limiting beliefs about money? Um, were you conscious of how scarce money seemed? If you grew up this way, chances are that this is the root cause of the limiting beliefs about money that you hold today. Alternatively, if you lost a lot of money in the past, it could be you believe you don't deserve money anymore. Now, there are ways to fix some common money blocks. Um, and as Michelle's just spoken about limiting beliefs, so have you ever found yourself thinking, I have to be a millionaire to afford that, or there's no way I can save all that money, or how will I ever pay off all of this debt? Well, those are classic examples of limiting beliefs, many of which we may have even learned in childhood. believe it or not, we have hundreds of them running through our minds every single day. And you might think that you don't have any of those limiting beliefs about money and still aren't wealthy or receiving the money that you want, uh, but don't be mistaken because most of our beliefs are operating deep in our subconscious. We're like a computer and we've got a program and it's running in our subconscious that we're not even aware of. And soon as we accept a belief, it becomes part of our reality. Um, so you might be running those beliefs, and they need to be shone a light on. And often it can be changed in, in a moment. It really can. And it just shifts everything. And we can replace those old beliefs with new beliefs, which is where Michelle, you come in when you're working with a client. Perhaps you can explain a little bit more what that process might look like.

Yeah, so the first step is, you know, when we have these limiting money beliefs, and the first thing is actually uncovering them. So what do we have going on in our minds that, that's creating this limiting belief? So the, the next thing from our limiting belief is we create scripts. We literally have the same thought and do the same things related to money. You know, there's certain people who have a, you know, they tend to be a spendthrift. They literally don't want to keep money. As soon as money comes to life, they want it out. For whatever reason, they feel like money is evil, money is going to bring unhappiness, whatever, they get rid of it. That's one of the items. So there's a great money psychologist, Dr. Brad Klontz in the US, and he's got actually a brilliant YouTube channel. And him and his father have done studies of people who he terms as sort of financially challenged. And they came up with various scripts that we run based on our limiting beliefs. And the first script is money avoidance, which we've just talked about. And these are people who believe money is literally evil. And so they will avoid it. They're the people who don't look at their bank accounts, who try and avoid it. They will do— they take on careers that don't necessarily earn them money. So they'll become volunteers or whatever as opposed to earning money. So whatever they do in life, they do not want money. And so what happens? They don't have any. And for them, you know, it's a continuous struggle. It's not forward-looking. They're just always in the history, whatever happened in the history or whatever's happening, you know, what they worry about in the future. But they literally don't set themselves that big goal of having money because they don't literally want it.

So second, So do you think, Michelle, that comes from, um, the, the adults around them when they're growing up, that money is the root of all evil, um, or that they, the fat cats that are very wealthy are greedy? Um, do you think it comes from, from that area?

Absolutely. I, I've got a story. I had a client and, um, her parents had— they weren't married. Her father had tons of money and her mother really struggled financially, and her father used the money to manipulate her mother. And she'd see her father come to visit, to come collect her, to take her out. And, you know, her mother would have to ask for money, and he would, you know, bring out that whole challenging thing. She'd have to practically beg him. And she saw this every time. So every time her father visited and he left, her mother would be left in tears and broken and whatever. And so what went on in her head was that, number one, the rich are greedy and selfish, and number two, money brings pain. And so for her, she just couldn't hold down a job. She hated— as soon as she started earning money, it had to go. And she felt most comfortable when she was doing things that didn't, you know, didn't— she didn't get paid for. And you can see why. And it's exactly that. It's the history and what stories you've taken away from that. You know, there's— you mentioned the other stories where, um, somebody grew up with scarcity and their parents are forever telling them, well, money doesn't grow on trees. So straight away in their mind, it's you know, there's no money available for me. There's a scarcity in the world. And these people actually develop what Dr. Brad Klontz, um, terms the, the 4th, um, script, which is money scarcity. They totally believe that there will never be enough money. And it can go 2 ways. Some of these people start hoarding their money. They refuse to invest it, and so they'll keep it in the bank account. They hate spending money. They're very fearful of spending money because who knows, tomorrow there's there's no money. Money is a scarce resource to them. You know, there's no ability to make any more. Once you have that little scarce resource, you hold on because it could go. You then have the mindset of those, sort of the second script that he talked about was money worship. And there, these people have got it in their heads that money will solve all their problems. Now, there's so many sayings or things around money won't make you happy. Yes, money will, you know, make life a lot smoother. It's a tool. It's a tool. But unless you've cleared those mindsets around the tool, it's going to be practically worthless to you. It isn't going to bring you that happiness. And in fact, when we look at our lives, money is not the scarce resource. Our true resource that is scarce is our time. So all we want our tool to bring us is more of that. We want more time. We don't want to be spending our time unhappy chasing this money thing that's gonna make us happy and wasting our one scarce resource on that. So that's that money kind of, you know, worship. And the irony is the people who worship money this way, they haven't defined how much money makes them happy because there is no definition of that. You know, until you define what the thing is that's gonna make you happy, money is irrelevant. And so they're continuously chasing happiness in money that doesn't exist, you know, they're obviously not going to find it.

It's very relevant there, Michelle, because happiness is within our core. Happiness is within our core. I know I've worked with women, you know, that have gone out and they've bought the designer shoes and they were so happy and it lasted for a short time and then they were looking for the next fix. What could I buy now to, to go up that vibe of feeling happy, of feeling joy? when actually it, it's already within our core. So money doesn't fix that. Money is purely an energy. It's, um, it came about many, many years ago, and, and it's a fascinating story if you visit the, um, the bank in London, of how, you know, people bartered years ago. You know, I'll give you a chicken and you give me some carrots and onions. And then, you know, money was invented because you were— it was an exchange of something. Um, and, and it's okay to exchange it for something, but you know, as I mentioned just now, people believe they need to be a millionaire. Do they really need to be a millionaire to have the kind of level of lifestyle that would suit them? Um, not necessarily. people think they need far more than, than the reality of it once you work it out on paper. Do you find that with your clients?

It's true. There's another really great author, he's got a comment, there's none of us want to be a millionaire, we just want to spend a million. And that's that pursuit of happiness. And you don't realise, you know, ultimately they've done an analysis in the US, and I think it's a bit outdated, but basically the bottom line is Once you hit an annual income of say $75,000, which I guess is about wherever we are in the exchange rate, about £60,000, you're happy. Your utility, the value of money doesn't go up.

Yeah.

So if you haven't determined your values and what's important to you, and I think Heather, you pointed out that the happiness is within you, you're not gonna find it externally. And that's a problem. Money detracts that from taking a look at ourselves. I mean, half the time I think it's something external to us that we've kind of create value on because we don't want to take a look internally. But until we resolve that, you know, your level of utility of money isn't there because you're not chasing the right thing, is, is the bottom line. So I think that's why we need to determine, as regards money, is our values around it before we can literally start, um, getting to the point that it means something to us. It's not just this, you know, emotionless kind of thing we're trying to base either happiness on or the 3rd money script that Dr. Conz pointed out, we use money to give us self-esteem, to give us status. Because we haven't done that work internally and cleared out those thought processes that are creating that negativity, we look externally for that self-esteem. And it's easy because money, you can see it, you can put a value on, like you were saying, you know, clients who go and buy shoes. Okay, there's my value. If I have that £400 worth of shoes, I'm happy. But then you get that £400 worth of shoes and nothing's changed internally, and it's, it's an external material thing. It doesn't provide that happiness. So this is the, the other script we have running that I can buy my self-esteem. And the problem with that is it drives a lot of people into a lot of debt because they're chasing self-esteem. You can't buy self-esteem. It's what you need to work on internally. I'm sure you found this with your clients when you work through those blocks.

Yeah, in fact, when I work with the Fearlessly Moving Forwards method, um, an aspect of it is working on self-esteem, um, because people misunderstand exactly what self-esteem is. And from that, I've got a spin-off, um, online course about self-worth, because people think it's about their job title, they think it's about how much money they've got in the bank. People kind of measure people by, oh, you know, he's really rich, He's a millionaire. Really? Maybe he owes a fortune in debt. Have you seen his bank statement? People make assumptions. They jump to conclusions. But I think that when we're in the right headspace and we're thinking the right thoughts that don't limit what we can achieve, we're motivated. We're motivated and we're more inclined to achieve financial success. success. And we need to monitor our thoughts. We need to monitor the words that we're putting out into the world. Um, and we can say something like, money is a resource that does good in my life and for others. Because I've got a happiness app, it's a meditation for happiness app, and in that app I share that the greatest pleasure that we as individuals gain the joy, the happiness, is when we're giving. So it's all about doing well, earning, having a great lifestyle, and then giving back. And money is good because it can do good for others. And we've got to be careful of negative self-talk, um, and just be mindful of what you're saying, because what you say becomes your reality. And if you catch yourself saying something negative immediately adjust what you're saying and shift it into a positive light, because your words and your thoughts are very much related. And the more you say something, the more you think it, and the more you think something, the more likely you are to say it. And both combined, your thoughts and your words tie deeply into your motivation, your mindset, your actions, and perseverance in all situations, including accomplishing financial success. Would you agree, Michelle?

Absolutely, and that is actual steps you take once you've got identified what those limiting beliefs are. The first thing is to contradict them, you know, find evidence that contradicts what you're saying. You know, we have all these beliefs around I'm bad with money, okay, so there's this concept, but now think about a time in life where you weren't, where you had made a good money decision or you'd made some other good decision. Or money doesn't ever come to me, well, think about a time in your life where you found some money, you were given a gift of money. There's always a contradiction. And I know it's always challenging because obviously humans are by our nature quite negative because we, we're looking for the danger. And so it's quite hard to try and change your mindset to find the positive. But that's the challenge, because as soon as you start challenging yourself to think more positively, it, it opens up those whole synapses in your brain. They start having to think that way and it starts training it. It's like exercising. As soon as when you start and you're unfit, it's really hard. But you keep going, you keep going, and it starts becoming so much easier. And that's how that's sort of contradicting those negative kind of statements. So the second thing to that is exactly what you've said, the language. You know, when you find yourself saying, I can't afford that, change it. Say, I'm saving for that, or I don't want that, I don't value that right now, it's— I've got other things I'd like to spend my money on, or money is hard to come by, or I'm not good with money. Turn that around. Money's hard to come by. I'm taking the steps to learn how to get money. Oh, I'm taking the steps to learn to be better with money. Just you change that language, reframe what you say in terms of language. And then I think we're talking about this earlier, Heather, the big part of that, and you mentioned it, is gratitude. Unless you recognize all the good things that have flowed to your life and start acknowledging them, they don't flow because you're so busy acknowledging what you don't have. And what we focus on is what we get. So if your focus is on that lack, that's what you get. And once you've got that picture together, it's then trying to uncover what are my values with money, because that's ultimately what we as women want. We want our money to give us one thing, and that is freedom, that financial freedom. But you've got to know what that freedom means to you, and for every single person it means something different. You know, we've already talked about that self-esteem. That's not part of having money, you know, that's part of something we'll work on internally. But what does, what in your life will change if you have money and what changes for the better? And you've mentioned a big part of that for a lot of women, it's our nature, is we want to give. So you want to have enough money that you can support yourself, live happily, and do those, make those positive changes in the world. That's important to you. That is your financial freedom. My financial freedom is I can live well, I can have a good life, I feel stable with my money, and I can then take what I have extra and make that difference in the world. Once you've defined that, it becomes so much more meaningful why we take certain actions around money. And then what we do is we outline what actions we take around money to build that freedom, and it's so much more meaningful. It becomes a living, breathing thing because all you're doing, you're not accumulating wealth, You're creating your freedom. And I think that is the biggest thing that any woman can have, is control of her life.

Absolutely, absolutely spot on, Michelle. So for people that are watching this, um, and you're watching the replay, could you please put hashtag replay and share with us anything that you felt that you've gained by watching Michelle and I today? And Michelle, you have got a 4-week program that I understand is £400. What would somebody get when they come into your 4-week program?

So I want to start off with the fact that they will get a bonus, which is you and having that clearing, because I think that's— as I've mentioned earlier, that's 80% of what makes you good with money is clearing those limiting beliefs as a start.

Yeah, so that would be a 90-minute session on Zoom that you can attend or just receive a written email report, uh, to clear any blocks to income, to debt, to savings, to income goals, to toxic money. We'll look at the emotions in your nervous system, programmed beliefs, habitual self-talk, all what Michelle and I have been sharing here today, and clearing all the negative stuff away for Michelle to then work with you and replace them with positivity and with the actionable steps forward. So what would that look like, Michelle?

What we'll do is we'll figure out your goals, we'll develop what your financial freedom looks like, and then the steps that we need to take to get there, be that getting out of debt, starting a savings and investing plan, understanding money. I mean, I think that's an element of it. We all feel so, so much shame around the fact that maybe we don't necessarily understand money. Well, guess what? We didn't understand language when we were born. We had to learn it. So we don't come out of the womb knowing about money, and we should not feel shame. We never felt shame as a, you know, when we had to learn how to walk. We didn't feel shame when we had to learn how to talk. I don't know why we should feel that way with money. It's simply another thing that we have to learn, and it doesn't matter what age you're learning it. It's the fact that you take the steps to learn it. And so that's what we do. We make sure that you know what your goals are, what the actions are, and you understand why you're taking those actions. And I think that is the key, because so many women don't understand that money situation, and we can fall into the trap of, you know, people taking advantage. So I feel every woman who empowers herself by building that knowledge, by understanding her freedom, has created the life and started to create the life that she wants. And it's very powerful, I think.

Absolutely. And that certainly is a kickstarter, Michelle, because I believe you also do a 12-week deep dive program to really work through everything that needs to be addressed. And that is £1,200, which is an absolute bargain for a 12-week deep dive to shift you. If you're watching this From not understanding, being fearful, feeling shame, whatever emotions are coming up for you, to a place of empowerment. I mean, you can't put a price on that, can you, Michelle?

Well, that's how I feel. You know, boot camp, you find a lot of women are getting just the overview and they want the support. You know, it's, it's very easy. It's exactly when you're learning a language, you're not going to learn it in a month. You'll know what you potentially don't know, but you need that hand-holding. And that's what my 12-week is, a deep dive of total hand-holding to make sure that we get all the different portions of it in place and we have the time to do that. But once again, we have to start with that clear, you know, the clear identifying the limiting beliefs and getting clear on those. And so Heather's very kindly offered to provide the bonus in this as well.

Yes, which will be part of your— of the program with Michelle. It's a freebie. From Michelle to offer my 90-minute service, um, and that would clear all blocks. And whether or not you're open to past life stuff or not, it doesn't matter. A lot of people have had a past life in a religious role and they've taken a vow of poverty. They've got no idea that they've done it in the current life, and once we revoke that vow, everything shifts. So that's another element that might have come into play, um, which is quite common. Thank you so much, Michelle, for sharing your knowledge today. Um, and I'm sure that the people watching this will have gained an insight into why they've been focused on lack or why their bank account isn't where they wish it to be. So if that's you, Please don't hesitate to reach out to Michelle. How can they contact you, Michelle?

Yep, so I'm going to post my— to my social media and my, um, the comments below. And also, you know, if you're not ready to sign up for a course, sign up for my newsletter. Comes out on a weekly basis and keeps us informed about all those things that make us financially fabulous, because that's what I wish for every woman is to have the choice to choose how she wants to live her life and to have the finances to do so.

Yes, that's wonderful. Thank you, Michelle, and thank you to all of you for watching this video, and we look forward to your comments. Take care, everyone. Bye-bye.

Bye.

Bye.