Money-Making Challenge for #PriceLikeAGirl, with Mary Schiller

Hello there, it's Mary Schiller with you here in our Price Like a Girl group. It is 7 PM as I am online with you here in Paris, and if you join me, just give me a little shout out in the comments or just let me know with a thumbs up signal or something like that. Excuse me, I need to cough. Sorry about that. I'm still getting over this cold a couple weeks later. I've got a little bit of a lingering cough happening, but other than that, I'm doing great, and I'm really happy to welcome you to our 3-day money-making challenge. It's been really fun for me to see everybody's posts so far and how much money they'd like to make in the next Hey, Rebecca, Laura, Jill. Hi, everybody. And I'm not sure how to pronounce your name. It's lovely though. Nianis? I'm not sure. I'm probably getting that completely wrong. So sorry about that. So I want to just give a little bit of introduction to the challenge and— hi, Audra. Hi, Anca. And just encourage you all to keep posting your goals today. And I created this challenge because I think— hi, Vivian! I think that we have this idea that making money is hard, that making money takes a lot of effort, and that making money isn't necessarily fun, and that it's, you know, it's work, because after all, work seems to equate to making money in our culture. Hi, Sarah! Hi, Mimi! And I just think that's a really interesting cultural phenomenon that we seem to have this idea that— hey, Lena— that making money has to be sort of a slog, you know, that it can't be fun and simple and easy. And of course, right now someone outside is making a tremendous amount of noise. Hey, Jeff, maybe you can close that door because it sounds like it's coming through there. Oh, it is. Naturally, when I go live, you know, there's just noise. But anyway, so I wanted to set up this challenge to make it really fun. Hi, Suzanne. To see if you could set a goal, a quick turnaround money goal, have fun with it, you know, earn the money for something that you really would like to do or have or, you know, help someone with and really see how much power you have within you to create money quickly. Now, some of you— Hi, Tonya. Hi, Jill. You can't— Oh, you can't hear the noise. That's good. Yeah, I'm just hoping that we close the door and a window, so maybe that won't be so noticeable. You know, we all— Hi, Judy. We live in close quarters here in these— in the city, so that's just life, right? So, one of the things that I have learned— Hi, Laurie. Bonjour. Bonne nuit. Bonsoir. One of the things that has been really fun for me to see in relation to money is that money can actually be a really fun and creative thing to play with. And to say that that is new for me over the last year or two is an understatement. I used to see money as this really big, scary, horrible thing that was kind of always in the background or sometimes in the foreground of my life. It's really hard for me to explain how much stressed-out thinking I had about money, like all the time. It didn't even seem to matter how much money I had or how much money I didn't have or how much debt I had or how much money I didn't— or debt I didn't have. I was just always seeing money as a real focal point of life. It seemed like this thing that unless I got it right, whatever that meant, and that my life was kind of in tatters all the time. And I would get really angry because I saw people around me who were able to make money really easily and were doing really well financially. And it wasn't like I thought money was the be-all end-all of life or anything, although in some ways I think in the back of my mind I almost did. Sometimes it did have that sense of, you know, this is a life or death kind of thing. And I had a realization that started a couple of years ago and really started to gather steam about a year and a half ago, that, you know, money was scary only because I was listening to a lot of scary money thinking. That money in and of itself had no emotion attached to it, that it was simply a medium of exchange, and all of the perception that I had about money was from made-up stories in my head. And if, Jeanette says, fun is good. I agree, totally. And if you have read my book, How to Price Like a Girl, you'll know that I tried a lot of things in the past to kind of change the way that I thought about money. You know, I tried to change my money mindset and I tried to manifest money and I tried to attract money and I tried all these different things and nothing worked. And I can see very clearly now that the reason why they didn't work was because they kept me locked into thinking about money all the time. And one thing that has become clear is that the less thinking that I have, the less thinking that I'm listening to about any topic, including money, the easier that thing becomes. So one parallel that I'll draw for you is the area of weight. So, uh, I have never had an issue with my weight. And one day a few years ago, I was thinking about that. I was like, now why is it that so many people close to me and so many people have issues with their weight and I don't? And I realized it's because I never have thoughts about food except when it's time to eat. I literally don't think about food at all. It's not something that is a preoccupation. I never think about my weight. I rarely weigh myself. I guess I do at the doctor once a year or whatever. I just check to see if my clothes are still fitting, basically. And I just don't have much thinking about food. And I realized that the people in my life who do have issues with weight, it's constantly on their minds. They're counting calories and they're doing all these things and they're really focused on food. And I started to realize, you know, I think there's something here for me to see about money. The people in my life that I was close to who didn't struggle at all with making money or having enough money or doing a lot with whatever amount they had didn't really have a lot of thinking about it. They certainly weren't obsessed with it. The way that I was, where I would literally go to bed at night thinking about it. I would sometimes dream about it, and then I'd wake up in the morning and I'd have stressful thinking immediately about money. It was really crazy-making. And I thought to myself, now, how can I have less thinking about money? How can I, you know, make this more of a game? And so what I did was pretty simple. Anytime I had a thought about money, I ignored it. I realized that whatever it was telling me, it wasn't true. So if it was telling me that, you know, if I had a thought that said, oh, you're never going to have the kind of wealth that you would like to have because, you know, nobody's going to pay you for what you do or anything like that, I just wouldn't listen. You know, those thoughts would come in and they still do sometimes. I just don't listen anymore. Because I now understand that those thoughts don't reflect anything about me and my capabilities. They are thoughts that come through kind of randomly. I don't even care why they're there anymore or what kind of feelings they bring with them. I know for a fact that they aren't telling me anything true and that what's really true, as you and I are talking about, is that we have a tremendous creative resource at our disposal, and that is us, really who we are. You know, anytime we have thoughts that show us some kind of limitation, we are free to dismiss those thoughts because they are not reflecting the truth. Because the truth is we have an endless supply of creative ideas. So when you guys were you gals, for putting your money goals in that thread and saying how much you wanted to make in the 3 days of this challenge. You have every resource available to you in order to do that. You don't have to look to anyone for advice. You can simply listen to the ideas that come to you as you're thinking about, you know, what would I like to do to make that money. And what's really fun, and this is really the fun part for me, is that that supply of ideas has no end to it. You know, it might, um, you might start out with one thing that you're trying to make money, and as you're in the midst of that, something else will appear that will seem really obvious, and you'll go, wow, why didn't I think of that before? That's what happened to me that I talked about on a recent Facebook Live in here. Where I had this money goal that I wanted to make €5,000 in a week to pay off a debt because I didn't want to take it out of our savings. I just wasn't going to go there. And I had an idea come to me that was so obvious, it was like, why didn't I think of this before? You know? And we were able to make the money even faster than that. I think we cleared it in 4 days and ended up exceeding that goal. In a week, which was incredible. And it's really been interesting because as I have ignored my money thinking, especially anything to do with limitations and, you know, you can't do this or you shouldn't do that or whatever, I've noticed that it has started to fade into the background. And what's taken its place in the foreground is this sense of fun, the sense of creativity, this, this sense of wanting to experiment with things. And I find myself asking questions like, you know, I wonder if I could, you know, or what if I could make X amount by X date? Wouldn't that be cool? And just really kind of playing, uh, with this whole idea instead of seeing it as this big, heavy, serious horrible, life-and-death-threatening topic the way that I used to. So what questions do you guys have? Please feel free to post them in here as I'm talking. I'm happy to make this a dialogue instead of a monologue, so feel free to post questions. You know, one of the reasons that I started this group and I started to look in this direction to help people is because I know myself how frustrating it can be if you feel like you're kind of on a money merry-go-round where it seems like, you know, you never have enough money or you keep doing things that you don't enjoy doing in order to make money. That was me for sure. I had a job for 7 years that I just hated, frankly, because at the time It looked to me like it was the only stable choice I had to make money. And now I can see very clearly that that just wasn't the case, that if I had ignored that kind of thinking that was telling me I needed to stay in that job because that's the safe and secure and stable thing to do, I am positive I could have seen innumerable ways that I could have improved my financial standing. At that point. And it's just really interesting to be looking at things from this perspective. Tanya says, so you're saying kind of just let loose and do it legally? Yeah, basically, yeah. Like, you know, we have so many rules and constraints that we have created for ourselves that really don't make any sense. And Now that I can sort of spot those things in myself, you know, rules about how I'm supposed to make a living or rules about, you know, how much money I can earn in a year, and now that I can see those for what they are, which are thoughts that I've had that have no basis in fact or truth, then yeah, I can kind of let that creative force loose into the world. Hi, Sherry. Jeanette, do you have more of those questions you were playing with, like what if I could— yeah. Well, what if I could do X, you know, what if I could make X by X date to do, you know, something with, or— this is a funny one and it's gonna sound bad, but I'm gonna tell you anyway. Sometimes I'll say, I wonder what I can actually get away with here in terms of like pricing, you know, like I wonder if I could get away with charging 'X amount for this particular coaching service. Let's see.' And I put the price out there. If nobody bites, then I know that maybe the price isn't right, or I didn't frame the offer correctly in a way that people saw it as valuable. I don't see it as a mistake necessarily, but I kind of like the idea of playing. So I'm always looking for ways to to facilitate that in relation to money. So it's like, you know, what if I could— what can I get away with here? Let's see. Another one is really focused on giving myself permission to earn money doing only things that I like to do. That was a decision I made a year and a half ago when I got fired from a job and was kind of like, okay, now what? I decided that I was only gonna do things from then on that I wanted to do. And I didn't really care if I ended up in the poorhouse. I just wasn't going to do work that I didn't enjoy anymore. And exactly the opposite has happened. I have not ended up in the poorhouse. And in fact, a lot of my lifelong dreams have come true since then. Hey, Sherry, I'm glad to see you here. Mimi, thanks for having faith in us. How long did it take you to see results when you started knowing your money thoughts? That's a great question. I would say it took me about a week, honestly. I decided after I got fired from my job, I decided at that time I'd been coaching people for free for over a year and I just decided, you know, I'm gonna start charging for coaching because I didn't have any other source of income and I didn't wanna do things I didn't enjoy anymore. And at first I was a little nervous about putting prices on it because I hadn't done that before. And I kind of waffled on what the price would be and I was like, should I put this on my website? I don't know. And then one day I was just like, oh, the hell with it. I'm just gonna put any number up there that came to me. So the number that came to me was $600 a month and I put that up there and then I got 2 people who signed up the same day that I put the price up. And then I put up another package that was, I forget what it was, it was like $1,800 for something, I can't remember. And I had somebody sign up immediately for that. And I thought, you know, this is where I was like, wow, why didn't I do this before? You know, why didn't I just ignore all that kooky money thinking before? I probably would've been a lot further ahead financially at that point. And I wouldn't have been doing work that I didn't care for. Uh, hi Marina, I can't really think of a money goal. There isn't just this feeling that it would be good for me to earn more money since I earned so little. What can I make of that? You know, I think you should just pick a number, kind of like I was just saying. Pick a number for this challenge and make it a number that's somewhat meaningful in terms of like what it could buy for you. You know, something— maybe there's some extra thing that you'd like to have in your life, like a massage or facial or something like that. I don't know, I'm just making that up. And, you know, find out how much that is and just say, okay, that is the amount of money that I'm gonna make in these 3 days. And just have fun and see what happens. Sonia, hi Sonia. I was wondering if you could say something about if one has lots of ideas but no contact list, email list to send it out to. Ah, very good question. Well, one of the things that I was thinking about today in relation to this challenge is the fact that there are opportunities everywhere in front of us all the time. I can't remember, there's some famous person who talks about that. It's like a, it was a speech that was given and then it was put into a book and I'm forgetting his name and the name of the speech, but I'll look it up and post it for you. But it's basically saying, You know, you don't have to look any further than right in front of you to see opportunities to, well, first of all, help people, and second of all, earn money for helping them. There's just— it's just when we are able to stop listening to all that wonky thinking, it's like the smoke clears and we can see what's right there. And that's pretty much what happened with this €5,000 that I wanted to make. It was, now I did have a list, but I had developed a lot of contacts and it was like, wow, there's a lot of people who need websites finished or they have books sitting around that need editing and, you know, they might need somebody to help them finish those projects quickly for them. So let's put that offer out there. And that's what, what was able to help us out. So even if you don't have that, there's still a lot of things that are sitting right in front of you. And it just takes a moment of kind of quiet for it to become apparent. So I hope that was helpful. If not, let me know. Hi, Judy. Does having a lack of trust in the source of your creativity interfere with being able to access it? No. You know, this doesn't affect— this doesn't have anything to do with trust because it's there, period. That creative force is just there. It is natural. It's who you are. You are using it all day long and all night long while you're sleeping even. It's always at work, so you don't have to trust in anything. Oops, sorry, my computer just went weird. You don't have to trust in anything. You can just know because you can see evidence of your creativity in every aspect of life. You can see it from having a simple conversation with someone to, you know, the home that you've created for yourself, to being here online with me. And it isn't a matter of trust, which is one reason I like this particular conversation, because I don't really have time to trust. I just want things to be ready for me to use. It's not awful, but that's just how I am. Uh, Sherry, you don't have to look any further than right in front of you for opportunities to help people and to make money. It's so true. It's absolutely true. You know, I think that we, we have this idea, and this is kind of bouncing off of that and is maybe going to come around to your question a little bit more, Judy. We have this idea that money is somehow like out there somewhere, and we have to like, I don't know, bring it towards us or something. And the way it looks to me right now is like it's already here. You know, everything that I want in terms of money is already here. I just am not seeing all of it yet. And as soon as something becomes obvious, then my creative self can access it. That's all there is to it. So the source of money, the true source of money, isn't a client or a customer, it's actually you. You are the source. And it's a matter of kind of experiencing that a few times, and then all of a sudden it just seems very natural to say, oh, okay, well, I need X amount of money, so how can I do that? And it just doesn't seem like such a big deal anymore because you realize that you are the creative force and the creative source. Of money and of all kinds of other things in your life. Oh, great, Vivian, thank you. I appreciate that. So what other questions can I answer? I, you know, one thing that is really key, I think, is realizing that when we can set sort of a, I want to say, a specific target like we're doing in this challenge, there is something that happens. And I know you've had this experience, maybe not with money, but maybe with money in the past, that you've really wanted something and you're like, I'm just going to get that thing no matter what. You know, that's just it. It's just going to happen. And it's like all of the power that you have is suddenly funneled into that. And obviously, it doesn't guarantee an outcome. We can't guarantee anything. But wow, it's our best chance of having something occur. One of the things— oh, I'll answer that in one second, Mimi. I'll give you an example that doesn't relate to money. So a few years ago, I was really determined to write a book. I just decided one day I'm going to just write this book and nothing is going to stop me from writing this book except if I die in the process of doing it or something. And it was just a decision and a commitment that I made. And I feel that there's something in that about money too, that it's not such a big deal. All you have to do is decide and make this commitment and commit yourself to this goal and it marshals all of the creative forces within you and kind of all of the forces that are around you, and it's your best, absolute best chance of meeting that goal. I don't know what realistic means, you know. For me, €5,000 in a week seemed a tad unrealistic, but it didn't matter. I still surpassed it by, I think, €3,000. I think we ended up making €8,000. In 6 days. And so, and in actuality, I was looking back over this past 4 weeks and I've made more in the past 4 weeks than I ever have in that period by double. And so your definition of realistic starts to shift when you start to kind of push past what looks realistic to you, if that makes sense. So now the idea of making €5,000 in a week seems totally doable because I've already done that and more. So now it's like, I wonder if I could do 15. Could I make 15K in a week? Probably, because I've made more than I thought I could already. So let's pick a bigger number. You know, sometimes we can, we can pick a number and we'll hit that and we'll think, gosh, I wonder what would have happened if I'd picked a larger one. Could I have hit that? So So, I guess my answer would be, don't pick a totally realistic number. Pick something that's a little bit past what you think you might be able to do because you might surprise yourself. In fact, I bet you will. I mean, should you feel like you'd be able to do it? Well, let's put it this way. When I set that goal to pay off this debt of €5,000 in a week, I had a real reason, and this answers your question, Mimi. Oh, cool, Tanya. I had a real definite reason. We owed this money to this company. We'd been paying them off over time, and they decided that all the people in this building who had been paying them off over time, it was time to collect. The bill was due then. And I was like, I don't want to take it out of our savings. I want to earn this money put it in the bank and write them a check and hand it to them in 1 week. That was what I said. And so that did sort of feel unrealistic to me because I had never set out with a goal like that before. And it was just like, no, I'm making this decision. I'm totally 100% committed and I'm not going to kill myself doing it. That's another big thing. I was not going to work myself to death. I wasn't going to be, you know, sitting in front of my computer 24 hours a day during the week doing that. That was another thing in my mind. I was like, I'm going to do this in some way that I can still have a life and have fun at the same time. And it was amazing how quickly the idea for the project finished, as I called it, came to me. It came to me probably within 30 minutes of making that decision. And it's been really fun. It's been a fun, fun project to work on. So, um, all that to say, You know, I think that it does help to have a goal for the money, and it doesn't really matter whether you think you can or can't do it, because you can. So that's part of what I'm trying to get across here, is that whatever you think makes no difference at all. What you think is beside the point. You have the resources within you already to make as much money as you want to make. There's no limit to how much money you can earn. If there were, then there wouldn't be people with billions and billions of dollars. You have the same resources that those people have. So let me know if that doesn't answer your question. Uh, Sherry, oh, thank you so much. Judy, I've had many examples in my life what you're talking about. I feel like what's happened is I've gotten older, as I've let go of many of my dreams, oh, as unattainable Feels like you need to start dreaming again. Yes, and let me say something to that. So I'm going to do a small plug here and then I'll move on, but I am releasing a program later this week called Let's Make Money, Honey, and I hope you guys like it. I really do because it's been really fun to put together, and one of the videos that I do is called Dream On, and I just did the video over the weekend. And it's so important to give yourself permission to dream whatever you want in terms of money or anything else, but we're talking about money here, because there is no reason for you not to allow yourself that freedom. And, um, you know, I can only say from my own experience and from some of the people that I've worked with that when you just let that inspiration come through you, when you, you know, really allow yourself to be who you are, you listen to what's going on within you and you don't consider it, you know, too lofty or too frivolous or too whatever, it's amazing what you're actually able to do. I firmly, firmly believe, because I've seen this too many times for it not to be true, that if a person has a dream for something, that means that they can achieve it. There is no— like I was saying, there's no guarantee because there's a lot of things that we can't control. But I really believe, Judy and everybody, that if you have an inspiration to do something, if you're inspired to do something, to create something, to earn a certain amount of money for a certain reason, you have everything you need to make that happen. Uh, let's see. Sherry, I think it doesn't matter if you think you can or can't, because you can. Yeah, exactly. Like, I used to believe my thinking that told me I couldn't do this stuff, and, you know, that told me, oh, you'll never be able to figure out a way to earn your living remotely, you know, so that you could go live in France if you want. Well, obviously that wasn't true because I'm sitting here right now doing that very thing. So it was really helpful to me when I stopped listening to that. I think that it gave me the facility to be able to make this happen. Um, Mimi, thanks, Mary. It makes total sense. Just have to go for it. Yes, absolutely. And you know, there is nothing stopping you. There is absolutely nothing stopping you. Even your thinking can't stop you. And that's where I think I really take a left turn from a lot of other people who are talking about money and money quote-unquote blocks and, and all these other things is I don't think any of that matters one whit. You know, I can have any kind of thinking that I have. It has no bearing on my capabilities. And I'm saying me, but I mean you too. It has no bearing on my capabilities. I have— and I'll bet you, you've had this happen too— I have been in horrible states of mind sometimes And I've still been able to create stuff. You know, I've, I've still been able to write things. I've still been able to earn money. And I have seen no correlation whatsoever between the state of mind that I happen to be in and my creative abilities. They do not seem related at all. Sure, they might not— it might not feel so great, but it doesn't seem to have any connection to what I'm capable of. So that in itself is quite freeing because it means that you don't have to be in a particular state of mind to go do stuff. You can just go do stuff. And that's kind of what I'm talking about in this program that I'll be releasing. It's like, you know, we can just go make money now, okay? We don't have to wait around for some particular state of mind to be in. Vivian, oh, thank you, great. How much will your Let's Make Money, Honey program cost? Ah, great, that's your money goal. It's gonna cost, $297, and that will include 4 weeks of video lessons. This is pretty, pretty cool, I have to say. 4 weeks of video lessons. It'll be dripped out week by week, and then you'll have access to it forever. And I have weekly assignments in there, and I'm gonna have a Facebook group just for people who enroll that I'll be facilitating, and I'll be doing lives like this in there at least through December, maybe longer, because I have a lot of fun doing that. So the early bird launch price will be $297, and you will get a ton for that. So thank you for asking, Verena. I really appreciate that. Um, and I wanted to make it at a price point so that, you know, it was kind of a no-brainer. And it's fun that that'll be your money goal. That's cool, Verena. Uh, Lori— oh great, thanks, Laura. Um, so I will share information about that. It's not quite ready for you yet, but it will be by, I think, Wednesday, I'll be able to put the link up for you guys to enroll in that. And I'm super excited. I've had so much fun creating it for you. And it will take what we're talking about here in this challenge and expand on it and give you a little bit more perspective and support if you really want to change your financial reality, which is essentially what we're talking about here. Uh, you'll have to increase your money goal, Mimi. Okay, go for it. That's awesome. So, um, I will be on here for like a couple more minutes and I want to just check in. Does anyone else have any questions or comments about anything that we've talked about? Um, thanks, Linda. I appreciate that. It's been so much fun talking with all of you. I really appreciate your enthusiasm and your participation. And I really, you know, My husband was asking me the other day, he's like, you know, what is your kind of main goal here? And I said, it's really about lightening up. You know, I just want to lighten up on this topic and I want to help people see that this is a creative endeavor that can really be fun and it can be really exciting to see the ability that you have to create a change in your money situation and you can do it quickly. And I really hope that you get that from the challenge this week. So, anybody else? Oh, Laura, any thoughts about how to cope with a spouse who has a lot of money stress and stressful thinking and shares it? Oh, it feels contagious. You know, I'm not one to give advice, but what I would say is, just say, "Thank you, can we talk about something else?" Because that's— going to help them and it's also going to help you because that person is looking at their thinking like I was before, like I said, and is really believing that it's real. And the way to sort of stop someone from doing that is not to say, you know, that's all in your head, right? You don't have to listen to that. It's more like, oh, that's nice, thanks for sharing, and then just change the subject. And eventually, probably quicker than you think, they will stop having those kinds of conversations because you won't be kind of feeding into the story that they're listening to. Does that make sense, Laura? Uh, Sherry, bring such wonderful spirit of joy to making money. Oh yeah, I'm so glad you're here too, Sherry. Linda, let's just have fun and make money. You have the same spouse situation. Well, I would love to hear from you how that works, if you can kind of just you know, nice, gently say, you know, that's fine, but let's talk about something else. Because I have found— good, Laura— I have found that even myself, like, I noticed, this is before I kind of had these realizations about money, that most of my money talk was negative and limiting and, you know, was not fun at all. And when I started noticing that, I was like, oh wow, you know, I'm really kind of locked in this weird spiral around that, and I don't have to do that. I can just not talk that way about it anymore. I can make a different decision. And you can help the other person not by telling them that specifically, but just by not engaging. It will sort of move them out of that way of thinking, and they will begin to see a different aspect of themselves as a result. Good, I'm glad that was helpful. Any other questions or comments? Gosh, this has been fun. I hope you guys have had a good time. I'm going to take a sip of water really quick. Hang on. Alright, well, I guess we will sign off for now, and I may pop on here tomorrow for another live. It won't be in the evening tomorrow because I am going to a U2 concert with my husband. We're very excited about that, uh, one of our favorite bands. So we're going to be celebrating our anniversary, uh, we had a couple weeks ago by going to this show tomorrow night. But I will be in the Facebook group all day, and, uh, like I said, I'll probably pop on live just to say hello. Uh, thank you, uh, Tanya. Thanks for being here. I appreciate all of the comments and questions And just keep posting and sharing your goals, and we're just here to support one another, and I feel all the love and support. So thank you so very much. Thanks, Mimi. Thank you, Jane. Really appreciate it. All right, I will see you guys tomorrow. Have a great day or evening wherever you are, and much love to you. Bye-bye.