Live Your Passion, Money Mindset

Cracking the Money Code: How to End a Money Drought Make Money that Flows and Flows and Flows

Cracking the Money Code

It would be nice if I could say I only have great things to write about us fast-thinking, creative, driven, “Selfish Witch” entrepreneurs. And before your ears prick up, no I’m not about to write something awful.

But there is this thing we tend to do, and it can be pretty damn detrimental to ourselves as well as to those who we are supposed to impact.

I’m talking about the trap of pursuing money. No, I don’t mean ‘money for money’s sake’ and nor do I mean chasing money by means of trying to scam people or without giving value in return.

I don’t have to tell you – we hold ourselves to an incredibly high standard of performance and if anything we err on the side of OVER delivering value with everything we sell, rather than under-delivering. We care deeply about how others regard us – maybe too much, okay definitely too much! – and we go out of our way to devise products. services and offerings that people will LOVE and that will also result in profit for us.

But here is where it goes oh-so-wrong, and where the desire to create a wildly profitable business and do good in the world while at the same time living your damn TRUTH turns into an exhaustive pursuit of money –

Are you ready? It’s really freaking simple.

You try too hard.

You try too darn hard to do what will work and what will make money, you give it your ALL, you are the very best student you can be of marketing, and sales, and strategy and you create sales pages and email sequences based on all of the ‘right’ tricks and techniques, and you create free gifts to lead people into buying your paid thing, and you set up ads, and you post on social media, and you do your follow up, and you HEAP on the bonuses and value so that people simply won’t be able to RESIST you, and you really don’t miss dotting an ‘i’ or crossing a ‘t’, but for some reason, for some God-forsaken reason that you just can NOT seem to figure out, and despite the fact that time just keeps on passing and you THOUGHT things would be getting better by now, in fact you SWORE to yourself that they would be –

It just ain’t working.

People don’t seem to want what you’ve got, and when they do buy it’s like pulling teeth.

Every cent you make is FOUGHT for. Hard won? More like won by blood, sweat and tears, by dying what feels like a thousand deaths for every launch you go through.

And I want you to know that if you’re thinking YES, that’s true!

You’re not alone.

It’s so not your fault.

And you’re not a bad person for pursuing money.

Your “problem” if we must call it that is that yes, you do try too hard but also you care too much.

Do you remember when you first had a serious crush? You LONGED for that person to notice you, you thought about them constantly, devised elaborate fantasies of how you might end up together, they were the first thing on your mind in the morning and the last at night. You told all your friends about them, doodled about them, maybe even wrote love letters or songs to them!

And then what happened when you were around them?

You became shy, awkward, clumsy. You weren’t really yourself. Perhaps you managed to put on a good front and act ‘cool’, but inside every part of you was screaming that there was no WAY this person was going to want you, that you were being RIDICULOUS, that you were making a FOOL of yourself to boot and that if you weren’t careful then everybody would find out and you’d be DONE FOR!

[pq] Chasing money can be very similar to chasing that first date or even first bit of attention. The more you want it, the more DESPERATE you are for it, the more your chances of getting what you want will escape you. [/pq]

Nobody likes the attention of someone who desperately wants a piece of them. It’s uncomfortable, awkward, and embarrassing for both concerned. It is absolutely the opposite of sexy or appealing and the more you PUSH for that attention the more it WILL escape you.

Don’t you see? Money feels the same way when you’re desperate for it.

The faster you chase it and demand it be yours, the more it will run from you, as though screaming “get thee away from me!”

You simply can’t have something when you crowd it, demand it, obsess over it constantly and basically insist it be yours. It doesn’t work that way.

So if chasing money- no matter how great your intentions to provide value and help people may be – has kinda been your thing (and perhaps you’re only realising that now), then it’s time for a change, wouldn’t you say?

I can tell you that I spent years being the desperate chaser, and it DID work to an extent. You jump up and down loud enough, you’re bound to get attention. But it was damn hard going, felt ‘icky’ even when I tried my hardest to create stuff I knew was awesome for my people, and it just seemed like a never-ending demand of my energy and emotion. I knew it was possible for making money to be effortless, easy, fun – even in BIG amounts – as I had friends in the online business world who were doing that. But for me it seemed it was doomed to be a fight to the death, or at least that’s what I thought for a long while.

Because here’s the thing, and I want to try and share this realisation with you as openly as I can. It cost me 2 years of not being TRUE in my business and of limiting my income, my joy and my ability to truly impact people. 2 years is not a long time in the scheme of things, but if I can save you even that (and that’s assuming it hits you the same way it did me, and that you don’t just crack it over frustration at the endless STRUGGLE) then why wouldn’t I?

In order for me to properly share this story with you, I have to go back in time a little.

When I first started online, I didn’t really have grandiose dreams of making money. Sure I always wanted to make MONEY – hey, I was born to be a millionaire by 30 remember?! But as far as my blogging, writing and online ‘business’ went, I didn’t really have those big plans. I just thought that being online would help me leverage my OFFLINE business as a Personal Trainer – help me charge more, get my name out and so on. So indirectly I was in it for money but really I guess I was just drawn to the idea of leaving my mark on the world and certainly I was excited about the idea of somehow becoming known for my writing.

I set goals for my blog but they were predominantly to do with getting my message out to more people. In the back of my mind I hoped I could make some money as well, for example from my first ebook. And eventually I did! After a few years online, which I admit was tough going as I didn’t really know how to get the traffic or growth I wanted, I started to make money with my first book. Just over $400 on the day it went live, and a few grand before the year was out. It was exciting, to be sure! But still I wasn’t truly aware of what was possible online, and my focus was on my Personal Training for my income.

Fast forward 18 months, and after fumbling around with a few online ventures I kind of hit the jackpot. I created an eating plan, and then a training plan, that my “Woman Incredible” audience (which was my first truly profitable online venture) just lapped up. I literally went from making peanuts a month online just pottering around, to making over 30k per month online by the end of that year.

Now if you want to know how or WHY I made so much (for me at least!) money so fast, I can tell you absolutely –

I gave my community something they desperately wanted and needed, and I gave a lot of ME with it. My passion shone through in everything I was doing, and I brought the real essence of me to all of my products and the way I wrote in them, spoke about them, or marketed them.

Problem + solution + passion + genuine care + my absolute desire to be doing what I was doing = unstoppable. Or in my case = practically 0 to 30k+ p/month online in under 12 months.

So what did I do?

Why it’s obvious, isn’t it? I proceeded to f^&k it all up as best I could!

Now here’s where you need to pay extra close attention –

It’s not as though I set out to take advantage of the good will and trust towards me.

It’s not as though I wanted to make money at the expense of passion, or joy, or genuine care.

I truly thought I was still bringing all of those things to what I was doing, and I WAS however what happened over the year that followed this first ‘big’ year is that my DOMINANT focus shifted from “how can I best serve, excite and thrill people” to “how can I make more money?”

You see, I’m like you – I’m the kind of gal who, when she sees something working, wants to push it to the max. Make it bigger! Better! Faster! And more exciting as well. If I can achieve something great without really planning to or thinking about, imagine what I can do if I REALLY set my mind to it!

That was my thinking in a nutshell.

It was a pretty subtle shift, and one I was entirely unaware of at the time. After all, everytime I sat down to create something new for my community I really THOUGHT my first thoughts were “what do people want and most need and how can I best help them in a way that is awesome for them AND me?”. The ‘me’ part being money, yes, but also joy, passion, the soul satisfaction of knowing I was doing my best work and making a difference in the world.

But when I look back now I can see it was more like “what can I create that will make great money that people will want and need to learn/get from me and that I know how to deliver so it is successful?”

I thought I was doing the right thing because I WAS still focused on what people wanted and needed. But not only had I started putting the money side of things BEFORE that, I left out altogether what was really the most important element of my previous success.

I left out me.

I stopped basing my creations on what did I genuinely really freaking WANT to do, what got me excited, what would I actually care enough about to massively over-deliver on. At some point I decided that doing things that worked for money was more important than satisfying my own deep needs as a creator and passion-fuelled leader.

Now if you’re thinking that the next part of this story is that I made no money that way, you’d be wrong.

For a short time I actually made MORE money than ever before. My income kept climbing and I felt like I’d really figured it all out. I didn’t really notice that I no longer looked forward to each next day with massive enthusiasm and energy. I didn’t really notice that what once felt effortless, free-flowing and fun was now hand over fist WORK. I didn’t really notice that I no longer had the same soul satisfaction I used to from my products and offerings.

After all, I was still helping people, right? I was still sharing from my own personal experience and knowledge? Maybe this was just the way it worked – making money can’t be all butterflys and sunshine forever, right?

I accepted that this was what running a grown-up business was like.

Clearly I was too stubborn or stupid or just blind to really stop and think about WHY things felt so hard going, and it was going to take something bigger to stop me in tracks, because what happened next was something I eventually couldn’t ignore –

The money started slowing down.

It got scary. I started pushing harder to Do More Things That Would Make Money. I pushed HARD.

It slowed down more.

I got even more scared. Started juggling balls all over the place to pay bills, to run fast enough to stay afloat, constantly promising myself and my (then) husband Enzo that things were going to be fine, that such and such program was going to “go off” and there’d be plenty of money by next week, for sure!

And for a while there, everytime I thought I’d hit rock bottom and that SURELY things couldn’t become any worse, they’d drop down another notch, and I started to seriously wonder if the breakthrough would ever come.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not as though we ever got to the point of having to live on nothing but 2-minute noodles, or risking losing a roof over our heads. By worldwide standards of wealth, we were doing just fine. But when you’ve built your business up to the point that it’s making over $30,000 each month and then all of a sudden you find yourself with $11 in the bank, or stuck in an underground carpark without the $17 available on your card to get out, or logging in to check your accounts on another day and seeing $0.04c on one account, $0.18 on another, $3.89 on the other one … well. It feels pretty horrible.

Add to that the obviously INSANE (!) fact that this was all happening roughly 4-5 months before our planned 1-2 year ‘laptop lifestyle’ trip around the world. Enzo kept asking me if we should cancel our plans, and to be honest I hadn’t even told him how bad it was! I’d given him an idea, but I just felt that he couldn’t handle it in the way I could. I know this will sound somewhat arrogant, but the entrepreneurial spirit does run very strong in my blood, and one of the greatest benefits of that is I’m able to withstand high amounts of stress and pressure, particularly around success and money. One of the most important traits of any successful entrepreneur is tenacity, and long-sightedness. If you can’t have INCREDIBLE faith during times of immense worry, then don’t get into this game in the first place. I really felt as though it was up to me to emotionally carry us as well as to pull us out of the practical financial hell-hole we were flailing around in, and each time I did try to speak with him about it resulted in me feeling more stressed as well as having to fight a bit holder to hang on to my positive/faith mindset.

Enzo understood the concepts of creating your reality and getting what you focus on because I’d shared them with him over and over again, but his default when times got tough was to be ‘realistic’, and he probably erred more on the side of ‘what if things get worse’ rather than ‘how can we fix things’. I’m not judging this – it’s the normal way of thinking; it’s how he was raised, in fact how most people were raised including me!

But for whatever reason, I don’t think that way.

Even in the darkest of times in my business and financial history, I have ALWAYS been sure I’ll pull through in the end, and I’ve always been certain that my destiny is one of incredible financial wealth as well as widespread international recognition as one of the world’s foremost transformative authors and speakers. Yes – I dream big and I see myself as being the best at what I do! It’s a big part of the reason why I have been able to have that breakthrough moment again and again, and why I’ve been able to stick with it during times of uncertainty and repeated failure.

So although our money situation just seemed to keep on getting worse, and at times I couldn’t even afford to buy a bottle of water when out with my daughter, and things I was banking on or was SURE would work again bombed and as I gradually but oh so surely used up ALL my savings, and then even pressed play on my final FINAL backup plan for money and eventually had to face the fact that I had literally pulled out ALL my stops and accessed all possible money available to me, maxed out my emergency credit card, in fact the ONLY thing I had not done/used up was to touch the bank accounts I have set up for my kids, despite all of that?

I still had faith.

And one of the greatest things which did get me through this time was one many would deem irresponsible, foolish, plain ridiculous, and that was this –

I refused to really face up to how bad it was.

I ignored bills, did not respond to final notices or debt collection threats. Refused to discuss the idea of cancelling our laptop lifestyle travel plans; in fact I pretty much LOST it at Enzo each time he mentioned it. Which looking back was not very fair to him, as he really did need that sense of security and certainty more than what I do. Refused to discuss whether he should go and get a job to tide us over. I was basically like one of (well, all of!) the 3 monkeys – hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil.

I continued to go about day after day, literally counting my pennies, juggling things around, hiding just how scary it was from Enzo and even from myself to an extent, basically just metaphorically covering my ears and humming loudly any time the idea of scarcity or lack or ‘what if things don’t improve’ came anywhere near me.

And through it all, and bearing in mind that my MINDSET was the most powerful thing here (or at least at first, as I’ll explain in a moment), here is what I did practically speaking to do maintain that faith –

  • Every single day I trained my mind towards abundance. I did this by reading at least one chapter of a book related to money. I don’t mean a budgeting or even ‘how to make money’ book. I mean stuff around money mindset. Abundance. Woo-woo stuff. And as many stories as I could find of women (and the occasional man) who’d been in massive debt and turned it into incredible wealth.
  • Every day, I wrote out my money goals as though already true. I spent sometimes 30 minutes on this, so between this and the reading we’re talking an hour of my daily work time. Crucial time, considering I really only had 4 hours as my upper limit for ‘work time’ on most days. But I knew that to get the practical results I wanted I had to get my mind primed for success AND I just needed it on a soul level in order to be able to go out into my day and take action again, when things at the time just kept on not working.
  • The way I would write out my money goals: “I am so happy and grateful that I am now/have now/can now ________”
  • I took daily time when I did this to be grateful for the good things that I already had. I was grateful as much as I could be for every $1 spent or received, even when I was at times receiving only 10% of what I thought something should make – I actively fought to not be pissed off or upset about this and instead to give thanks for what I had. I was also grateful IN ADVANCE for things I was believing in that were not yet true, or nowhere near true.
  • I wrote out my future. I wrote a story of how my life is, writing as though it were already 100% true, of the financial wealth and freedom I had, and I even wrote out exactly how I’d gotten out of massive debt and scarcity and how it had all turned around almost in an instant when it did. And that is exactly what ended up eventuating, by the way!
  • I constantly brainstormed ways of making more money, even though I wasn’t always implementing them I kept my mind focused towards how I can create more money.
  • Without being foolish with my spending, I kept acting ‘as if’ everything was just as I wanted it to be. In my head I took time whenever I could to imagine how it would feel/look/be to have the wealth I desired.

Now I’m not going to lie, there were many times when I felt that I WAS being foolish, had my head in the clouds, or as though all of the positive thinking and affirming I was doing was just a ridiculous waste of time and there were times when I became angry, despaired, felt truly scared, days when I really just couldn’t pull myself together or feel motivated, when I really let it grip me.

But those were the exceptions. For the most part, I kept my head high and my eye on the prize, even though there remained an undercurrent of fear that I had to constantly fight to push away.

When idea after idea that I was “sure would make money!” fell flat, I relentlessly kept moving forward. Just one more step. One more step. Keep moving forward. Don’t look back. Don’t look down. I felt as though I was on robo-pilot mode at times, as though I couldn’t afford to face my feelings, as though I just had to grit my teeth and keep pushing. The thing I can most liken it to is giving birth – I had an 11 hour labour the first time, and 22 the next (I hope that doesn’t mean 44 hours for my third!) and the thing with giving birth of course is that once you start you can’t stop. But nor can you try and look ahead to the end. You can’t think beyond the moment you’re living in, you just have to block out EVERYTHING around you and focus on moving through just one more moment of pain. The more you can focus on that one moment, that one breath, that one push, and forget about everything you still have to face, the more readily you’re able to handle it.

This was exactly the same.

Now I truly believe that in my particular case what I went through was something I HAD to go through. I believe I had to stare into the eye of the beast and face my deepest fears before I could turn things around, and for that reason I also believe I had to first do all the mindset work before I could take ALIGNED practical action. Because while I was in the thick of it, the actions I took were not very aligned, were based purely on “OMG what will make me money this week“, certainly did provide value to those who invested in them but were not my best work and not what I would ultimately want to base my business on.

It just wasn’t possible for me to operate from a place of true passion and purpose before I went through that fire, or at least that’s how I feel about it.

I am also damn grateful that I fought this money battle, because without it? I might still be ‘happy enough’ making money in my business, still making a difference and doing what I know and am good at but I would not be waking up each day doing what I LOVE and am PASSIONATE about and is absolutely what I am MEANT to be doing.

I would have continued down the path of making money, without even questioning it!

What I went through forced me to question it, because I really did give my EVERYTHING to making things work again by pushing and by implementing great money making ideas and in the end it failed. So in the end, after so many attempts, after so many times picking myself up, I gave in.

I decided to just give up.

No more pushing to make things work, not like that.

No more doing what ‘is sure to succeed’ for money.

Instead, I decided to stop fighting, and to just return to the me I used to be. Messy, disorganised creator, putting stuff together at the last minute, completely unplanned, on a wing and a prayer, and throwing it out into the world.

No more chasing money.

No more following the rules.

No more trying to beat life at its own game.

I was done, I was going to start doing exactly whatever the hell I pleased in my business and to hell with the rules OR the consequences.

I figured that if I was going to go down anyway (and end up having to move my entire family into my parents spare bedroom rather than take off and travel the world!) I might as well go down in a way that was fun for me. I might as well do what I loved. Do what came naturally. And the rest of it, ALL of it, could f^&k off for all I cared.

As soon as I made this decision, something within me lightened.

And I can tell you that it happened in a MOMENT. I actually felt something inside of me shift from one minute to the next, it was almost like an audible ‘click’.

And as soon as that happened, I just knew –

It’s all going to be okay.

Later that same day I received a completely unexpected $1900 from the Australian Government – a childcare rebate I’d long ago forgotten.

And within 4 weeks from that time I’d generated several tens of thousands of dollars of new income; actual cash in the bank.

So what did I actually DO?

Honestly, I wish I could explain it more clearly, but really all I did was just start being 100% me in all areas. I started creating new things off the cuff, throwing together really haphazard but from the heart and passion-fuelled sales pages and emails for them, PUSHING myself like I’d never pushed before but doing it from a place of passion and creativity not “I must make money”. I started engaging more with my community again. I realised that so much of what I’d been doing in my business was what the various ‘gurus’ I followed had taught me, and not at all true to me. I pretty much went back to operating out of the exact non-structured, don’t know what I’m doing but will do it anyway framework that I’d first had when I started out online.

The same messy, fly by the seat of my pants approach I’d had when I took my business from pennies a month to over 30k a month, if you recall!

And it seems so obvious now. But honestly, I could NOT see how far I’d shifted until I went through all of this. It was an essential process for me.

The other thing that happened was because I WAS being so authentic and passion-based, my creativity exploded. I couldn’t keep up with myself. And my natural energy, already pretty good, went through the roof. I was WANTING to stay up all hours, get up early, create more, do more, be more. I couldn’t hold myself back; it all just came pouring out of me! Book after book, new products, new courses, new offerings but all ALIGNED and just TRUE, rather than done for money.

And for a while there I thought “MAN! I should have just started creating more sh*t sooner and none of this would have happened!”. But the truth is that no, that wasn’t possible. I could have pushed to launch heaps of stuff sooner and I DID do that but it was all the wrong stuff. Coming from the wrong place.

So here is my message to you. My gift to you, to help you crack the money code I know you so desperately want to crack.

You have to stop trying so hard to make money.

I know it sounds odd, even impossible, but you can NOT create wealth from a place of the wrong service.

You cannot create wealth from a place of the wrong service.

You cannot create wealth by DEMANDING it, either. It doesn’t work that way. The more you chase money the more it WILL run from you, hands in the air, and looking back over its shoulder in horror.

You cannot create wealth by pushing so damn hard to Make. Things. Work.

You cannot create wealth by following all of the RULES, no matter how freaking awesome those rules are and no matter how well they work for others, unless in following those rules you are doing so from a place of pure alignment and PASSION. The very best lead gen, sales and marketing strategies in the world are NOTHING when they don’t have the essence of you.

Here’s what you can do instead.

You can actively believe that you do have what it takes.

You can actively seek to manifest the reality you want, to set goals, give thanks for things real and yet to come.

And you can start to do what your heart is telling you to do but when you do? Do it with BALLS. Don’t be shy. Don’t be gentle. Be OUT there. Be MESSY if need be. Be FAST, FURIOUS. Be a creator who damn well creates what she is born to create and then get your creations out into the world STAT.

Stop waiting for perfect.

Stop lining your ducks up.

Stop implementing systems, and strategy, and tweaks and that new plugin, and getting a copywriter or improving your SEO or your About page or ANYTHING until you are firstly creating, creating daily, putting it out there for your people, and doing so with soul.

The truth is you were born to succeed, to make a lot of money, and to live life 100% on your terms. But 100% on your terms? That doesn’t mean doing stuff for money. Yes. It can be hard to tell the difference, when even the ‘stuff you do for money’ IS stuff that you’re good at and that helps people.

So here is how you tell –

You stop trying to think about it.

You just feel it instead.

Because the truth that we BOTH know is that you already DO know. You know what your true message is. You know what your one day dream is. And you know what you’d be doing if you truly gave your business your heart and soul and ALL your passion.

Right?

Now go live it gorgeous!

26 responses to “Cracking the Money Code: How to End a Money Drought Make Money that Flows and Flows and Flows”

  1. Kali says:

    Very cool blog post. Thanks, Kat.

  2. Eme says:

    This is what I needed to hear. (Understatement!)
    Thank you Kat!

  3. Benya says:

    Once again an e-mail that has a powerfull impact on me! You’re so right about passion and money, if I chase after numbers, then I get totally uncreative.

    I’ll try to follow your inspiration now and be 100% me!

  4. Marina says:

    Phew! What a ride, Kat.
    Love your story and your delivery!
    Thanks for sharing, it helped with my mind-set stuff.

  5. Angela says:

    Thanks Kat, a great post which comes at a great time for me. Like you I have spent the last few months doing things that I thought would make me money. I learnt from the best (including you) and followed all of the steps that should have made me lots of money. But each one failed. Just this week I decided to stop focusing on chasing money and doing what I love to do, which is speaking, and trust that this is where my success lies. Within 3hrs of making this decision I had 3 confirmed speaking gigs and 4 more which we just need to confirm dates. It is amazing what happens when you are in flow with your true self. Love your work.

    • Kat says:

      Wow I’m so damn excited for you Angela! I don’t know why any of us get caught up in NOT doing what we love … it just happens so gradually. Congratulations on your new gigs 🙂

  6. Thank you Kat for this amazing post. I recently went through a tough time and have come out of the other side knowing what worked for others isn’t always the best course of action for me. I also have a deep sense of knowing I needed to go through everything I went through for clarity and am much happier, aware and self-accepting for the whole situation.

    Thank you for your honesty, it’s so refreshing. I learn so much about myself from reading about others experiences and knowing others go through similar situations is comforting in times of doubt. I aspire to share my own life experience in such an inspiring way 🙂

    • Kat says:

      You are so welcome- I’m so very glad this helped Leah. I know I would have loved to read this sort of honest stuff because I know that it is really common, and so many people hide it out of fear or shame.

  7. Kerri says:

    Such an amazing post to stay true to ourselves! I’m finally realising that being true to myself will ultimately make me happier in all areas of life. Thanks xx

  8. Kira says:

    Great post Kat! I needed that. I’m about to launch my business in the Middle East, and I’ve been so stuck in the fear that the people here are not going to like it or accept it. I’m definitely holding back on what I know I can give and what my true message is. Thank you for the inspiration to stay true and authentic knowing that whatever success is supposed to come will do so from that place of truth.

  9. Katie says:

    This was such an amazing post! This is exactly what I’m going through right now – trying way to hard to make this thing work and worrying about money and forgetting about my passion for what I do. Loved reading your story. Hopefully I will be able to let go of all the stressing over money soon too! 🙂

    • Kat says:

      I hope your breakthrough comes soon too Katie! Get back to passion and creation x

      So glad you enjoyed the post!

  10. Lauren Dufey says:

    Thanks kat,
    I am just starting out in this exciting/ scary new chapter.
    It is so important for me to hear this now, and absolutely gives me the confidence to go ahead but stay true to ME, and not just follow the ‘rules’ to get the ‘sales’.
    Thank you , thank you, thank you
    x

    • Kat says:

      You’re so welcome Lauren! The only way to not reach your dreams – in biz or in life – is to give up on them OR to get side-tracked by bright shiny ‘should do this’ ideas. So yep – it’s all about being true to you!

  11. Mridu Parikh says:

    This is JUST what I needed to hear today Kat. You are truly AMAZING! Thank you so much for everything you do. xo!