As a business owner, sometimes spending money can seem like you are losing money when actually it could be a solution to get more money. In today’s episode, Michelle House teaches about how we can come over money blocks and how we can change the way we think about spending money. Michelle teaches us to stop and think about why exactly we are paying that bill or paying for another business expense.
Bringing Business to Retail
Overcoming Money Blocks - Michelle House
Bringing Business to Retail podcast, episode 15, with Michelle Haus. Welcome to the Bringing Business to Retail podcast on SelenaNights.com. Stay ahead of the competition by opening your doors to business experts so you can learn, grow, and be inspired. Passionate about bringing business strategies to independent retailers. Please welcome your host, Selena Knight. Hey there and welcome to another episode of the Bringing Business to Retail podcast. I am so glad that you could join me today. Now before we jump into the episode I just want to remind you about my current offer. Customers are the lifeblood of your retail business and every customer has a life cycle. The key to a successful and profitable business is to ensure that you have more customers coming in than you've got going out. Now I've opened a series of retail stores over the past years and I learned so much from growing those stores and I want to share my experiences to help you become less overwhelmed in your business, work less hours, and have so many more customers. Whether you want to double your sales, your revenue, and your product range, or grow your store and be ahead of your competition, perhaps you'd like to have extra money coming in or maybe you want to open a successful store from scratch, or maybe you just want to put some money away for your kids' education. The 21-day boutique bootcamp challenge can help you achieve all of these things and for a limited time I'm offering it to you, my Bringing Business to Retail Peeps for free. That's a saving of a massive $197. Head over to selenenight.com/21dbb and sign up for instant access. Now on today's episode I'm interviewing the money maven Michelle Howes. I originally approached Michelle to come on the show to talk about money, well specifically cashflow, but as often happens when you start chatting with someone the topic of conversation ended up going down a completely different path. We started talking mindset and how we can subconsciously put blocks in place that stop money flowing into our lives or send out more money than we have coming in. In this episode you'll hear me talk a lot about my experiences. Money mindset is something that I have struggled with for a long time. I grew up in a family where everything had to be justified, where holidays were extremely rare and going out for dinner just didn't happen. Actually, my mum worked in a restaurant so we did go out for dinner but it was at her restaurant and we actually quite often had to fold napkins while we were eating dinner. But subconsciously I have always struggled with money flow. I've done a lot of work on my own mindset but it's a continual challenge but you know what life is exciting because of the challenges. You don't have to grow up poor to have money blocks. In fact I know some women and let's be honest this seems to be a woman thing. I never hear about blokes having money blocks but I know some women who grew up in quite wealthy families that still have money blocks and one of the questions that I was told to ask is would it be easy for you to spend 30 million dollars? Now we all say yes straight away but really if that money was sitting in your account would you be okay with spending it or would you struggle? That's a money block. So what are money blocks and what do you do about them? In this episode we're going to chat about the feeling of money and our beliefs around money and we discuss how what drives or makes you successful is also the thing that holds you back. In business we desire a certain level of income and once that's attained in my experience fear and anxiety, anxiety kicks in on how to maintain it. How do you get to that place where you can trust that financially you will be okay? How do you trust and take your hands off the wheel? Well let's jump into today's episode with Michelle Howes and find out. Welcome back to the Bringing Business to Retail podcast. I'm really excited about today's guest. One she has a super cool name the Money Maven and two she's talking about a subject that is really close to my heart. I had an experience which I probably have blocked about in which last year 2014 I really really struggled with my money beliefs and I actually went to the no it's not again I'm losing my voice again. One more drink of water. I lose my voice all the time it's terrible I need to find some exercises. Oh you need to scream into a pillow. Is that what you do? I was watching something the other day with the straw. You can scream into a pillow three times before you get ready to speak that can sometimes help. Alright, setting again. Welcome back to the Bringing Business to Retail podcast. I'm super excited to have today's guest on because one she has a really cool title the Money Maven and two she's talking about a topic that is very dear to my heart and that is limiting money beliefs. So please welcome to today's episode Michelle Howes. Hi Michelle. Hey Selena thank you so much for having me. I'm really looking forward to our chat today. Oh so this is this is a topic that is really really like passionate in dear to my heart because I really struggled with money beliefs up until about sort of the middle of 2014. So tell me what a Money Maven does. A Money Maven it sounds so magical doesn't it? It's so it's such a cool title. I need to come up with something way better than retail be strategist. I feel like I need one of those cone hats with the big flowy you know that like a medieval princess. Yeah yeah with some chew on the top. Oh wow so what I do is I work with people in their life also in their businesses and as family units kind of dealing with their money stuff on a practical emotional and intentional basis. So what I've found in my experience with people and money is that some people are really really good at getting the practical stuff underway but then they get stuck on how to make money or they're still not achieving the dreams that they thought and that's for the emotional and intentional aspects come into it. Some people are really good at being intentional. I have an intention that I will make a million dollars and then they sit on their butt and wait for it to fall on their lap. That would have been a little bit of practical support in that area. And you've got some experience in this. You've been in business for a while now haven't you? I have. I've actually been in business since I was 22 and my first business actually ended up being a million dollar enterprise where we were turning over up to 10 million dollars and that was massive. I mean for a 22 year old I was there from 22 to 28. That was a pretty big deal and I was I had a business partner and she was in charge of the marketing and the sales area of the business and I was in charge of the finances and I was really really good at it. And we had to be really good at it too because our clients were big corporate organisations with shareholders so we had to always be providing very accurate information and forecasting. And so from that business we had and I sold that one and also with that was a materials handling company and then myself and my husband started up a property maintenance business where we were providing handyman services and you know all those kind of finishing off the DIY projects that the husband started on the weekend kind of jobs. So we built that into a nice little business and had a couple of employees with that and then I ended up with this one that I'm doing now which is all about money and I you know I've always had my hands on the money if you like from a business perspective but what I noticed being a business owner as well was sometimes you can be really good in the business area of your life and really crap in your life area so there's and there can be a blurred line between what money is coming in in life and what money is happening in business so I had to get really clear about I suppose my money personality if you like how I am in my personal life as and how I am in my business life and get them to merge nicely. And what sort of you just said that and I don't know if you have an answer for me but what types of personalities are there? Oh I don't know if I have an answer I'd like to have an answer I think you know I think that there's two very distinct types of people when it comes to money it's you're either a spender or you're a saver and the trick is especially if you're in a relationship the trick is to because there's usually one of each in the relationship the trick is to find the harmony you've got to spend you've got to negotiate and if you're the spender you've got to be prepared to save a little bit if you're the saver you've got to be prepared to spend a little bit and I think sometimes too that can work in business because our minds are really good at tricking us into things which you would know from your own money beliefs that you were talking about that when you're in business you can sit and be really good about I know how much money I've got to bring into my operation I know when so many people walk through my door I can expect that I'm going to generate this kind of money and you can make you know make a really good weekly income for your business and then if you turn around and spend that all personally in your personal life there's a there's a glitch there so finding that glitch is really important because you need both both of those money personalities to continue to grow not to take from each other does that make sense it does it does and oh you were just saying that and it's bringing all mine my fear it's back I had this thing where when I paid a bill it felt like I was I don't know like losing money it's the most irrational thought in the world like paying a bill is not losing money paying an invoice that you got you know you receive stock for it's not losing money but I really really struggled every time I had to press the pay button internet banking and that my coach at the time was saying you need to like you know kiss this check and go thank you universe type thing thank you for giving me this stock that I've been able to sell to grow my business and I really struggled and I still to this day it's one that comes up all the time as well as I go to press the pay button it's really interesting because that that is such a common money belief if you like because underneath that somewhere along the line in your your history your life so you would have seen or heard somebody complain about paying a bill oh that was my whole I make no bones about the fact that I did not come from a very well-to-do family whatsoever so I think you know that was where all my money fees came from was every every cent was hard earned and everything that was purchased had to be thought about and justified and this is something I still struggle with now and I is like justifying to myself I shouldn't have to justify buying a new office chair because the one I've got is broken you know it's it's a thing that you need but I mean they're my beliefs and it's interesting how those beliefs continue to run our lives until we clear them and it's you know they and they continue to be a challenge I grew up in a family where my parents would fight about the electricity bill coming in so you know I didn't come from a well-to-do family either and money was tight and money was often argued about so one of the money beliefs I had to overcome was very similar to yours that you know it's not and even it's not so much as we don't have and this is going to take this conversation on a totally different tangent but sometimes you have to do well not sometimes all the time you have to come from that space that you were talking about that your coach suggested to you is money is an energy we only put a value on it based on our own history and our own life story so for me growing up in my world and in my life anybody that had a million dollars must have had a good life so for me the idea of wealth is one million dollars but to you you may have been around people with one million dollars and go no no one million dollars isn't it 10 million dollars is it you got to have 10 that's where the happiness is so can you see how the value of money is completely different for me than it is for you yeah definitely yeah so you always need to come from that space of i'm great i'm grateful and appreciative of whatever the exchange is and not the dollar value does that make sense it does so i guess my first question is how do you know what those limiting beliefs are like you and i were a little bit more aware but to the person who hasn't been through this before what would you suggest that they do to work out why the money is not flowing in or it's flowing out faster than it's flowing in yeah okay so it it's an awareness thing and the trick to being aware is um is also a trick is to is to trying to get present and i know that is banded about a lot lately about you know get present get mindful um but without being in the space of what is in front of me to do next you actually can't see the wood for the trees because all you can see in front of you really is all of your beliefs if that makes sense because the next thing you take on might be i'm going to pick up those invoices and get ready to pay and oh my god i hate paying the bills you're not actually present to the fact that wow look at all this stock that i've bought jib wiz i must be expecting myself to do an amazing month this month you know like putting a different energy and a different feeling around it and i think that might be the the biggest no the biggest clue is always how you feel if when you open your wallet you feel like crap then just pause and go why why do i feel like crap when i'm opening my wallet and i and i only see a 20 dollar note what is that and really start to pull it apart and investigate it it might be why do i hesitate um opening this letter from westpac um because you know behind it is your credit card that you spent you know i'm laughing because you know i've been there but it's like i um i one of those people who for very long time just didn't open the credit card bill i just shredded them it'll get paid off somehow someday oh look i had to look at it when i had to go you know and do my my quarterly accounts and things like that but in the meantime i was just living in a daydream land yes and it's really easy to get into daydream land because we're so busy i mean how fast does a month fly by these steps it's you know one month goes and then the credit card statements there again and then it's there again and oh my god it's there again it's still sitting on my desk from last month so taking the time out to actually pause and you know maybe even if if it's if something triggers you around money and it's your invoices if you keep your invoices in an invoice book perhaps something as simple as printing out a picture of a pause button you know like a little icon and sticking out on the front of the invoice book to remind you that when you go to open that invoice book you're just going to pause for a moment and i'm going to think if i've got any money stuff around this and you know what when you take that time to be actually present to that something will pop in and how irrelevant you think it is it might be gee whiz i got really annoyed when um billie stole my tux shop money from me in grade three take that because and what do we do with it what do we do with it well look at that and then associate the feeling and then go okay why why did i get so upset that he stole that money you know why i got so upset that he stole that money because i had worked so hard for that two dollars i had to vacuum the house or i had to this or i had to that so one of my money beliefs is around um working hard to earn the money you got to work your ring off to earn the money now here's another another trick for me a trick for me and a trick for everybody trick tip whatever you want to call it is sometimes it's really hard to um be okay with whatever that money belief is it might bring up um lots of negative emotions and that's where in my experience where i have had money beliefs that just continue continue to pop up month after month after month i know that on some level i have to energetically have that shifted and by energetically having that shifted i mean through um like like kinesiology meditation um eft some people i don't know if you've heard of eft oh i'm an eft yeah every now and then so my every now and then and you know what i've got a toolbox of things that i use for myself sometimes i'll eft and it just won't work because i don't know it just doesn't work so then i you aren't you aren't responsive to it and for those who are listening eft sometimes called tapping i'll put a link in the show notes so you know exactly what we're talking about but sometimes you'll see people they uh tap on their face or they'll tap on certain parts of their body to release the energies that are related with that experience or that emotion yeah so that's based around things um similar to acupuncture so when you have an acupuncture needle it's too um clear the blockage there and the tapping is essentially doing the same thing you're tapping it and shifting that blockage through um another way some other suggestions could be um raky i know some people use um use that to move things through but for me it totally is a combination i find that i have to um get the awareness of whatever the belief is look let's pick a really common belief that people have i can't afford it now i know that as a mum i've said that to my children yeah respect to the justification isn't it's that whole justification thing yeah so one of the things you can do there is even just flip it around and go how can i afford it and if that's like deal stopping you then you go okay let's go and look at the money belief behind it so maybe step one is if you can hear yourself repeatedly saying something like i can't afford it i can never afford it how come they can afford it and i can't afford it you know when you start comparing yourself to everybody else turn it around and turn it into more of a possibility kind of question like how can i afford it and even do i want that you know what i mean like it's so easy to get caught up in what somebody else has and i remember i remember of all people and some people who have this thing may have heard this story before i remember one day the cleaner and like the cleaner who did the building for our shop he came in he's like oh hi how are you i went oh just just next question please like and he said oh what's wrong oh look nothing's wrong i'm just having one of those days and he said oh someone will make you happy then and i didn't have an answer but it's that same thing i was like i remember thinking that same day i was thinking oh it's not fair that that person could do something that i'd seen online and then when he said that to me all of a sudden it was literally like a slap in the face of everything but i don't want that thing like why am i getting jealous because i don't actually want to do that thing that that person do yes yes or even you know now we have social media and we're watching all of these beautiful fabulous wonderful lives these people are living all the good stuff and um you know seeing them tripping around all over the world and you're going oh i'd like to do that oh i'd like to do that and they go actually i don't know if i really would like to be on a plane for that long doing that much travel i much prefer doing what i'm doing right now so definitely definitely actually the question do i really want that for sure that's a really good one but in behind that is a money belief because there's something underneath that that is saying you have in order for you to be of any value you have to have what everybody else has so that's something about your own self-belief going on in there as well i wonder how many people who are listening to this are just thinking that's me and i know if i was probably listening to this before i was aware i would probably be crying right now and just thinking oh my god is my brain that screwed up it's actually not that screwed up it's just the way that we are and i and you know we need to not be hard on ourselves about things either we everything is happening for us in perfect time and you know i'm i'm a wise 43 year old now and i can kind of go i can't believe it took me till my 40s but anybody younger listen listen listen yes i'm i'm nearly 40 in a few months so i appreciate exactly where you're coming from it's like you get this all of a sudden i'm wise now oh yeah and this sense of yeah you know i understand why that happened when i was in my 20s because if it had happened any earlier or any later you know i wouldn't have listened or i wouldn't have been paying attention so everything is actually unfolding for us in perfect time i'm a big big believer in that and if you know if you're sitting listening to this podcast and you're having upset about you know how all this stuff's going on your mind perfect time it is and i find i found when i did a very similar exercise i remember it was a podcast that i listened to and that brought it all up and same thing i remember thinking i got to write this down like i don't like i was crying and i didn't know why i was crying and i just was like what exactly like why do you really still still want to know why didn't i get tux shot when i was in you one that day and i'm just like oh my god and you know it was one of those things where you think am i a nut case yes yeah so what do we do with that feeling what are you what's your tips for that if you're feeling if you're listening to these and it's all these things are popped up into your brain because i'm guaranteeing that some sort of money belief you've got some sort of limiting money to believe and when Michelle mentioned billion is two dollars you immediately thought of something very very similar so if you leave that emotion yes if you're having a money meltdown if you're having a money mount what i would recommend is that you just stay with us and listen to the end of the podcast but um take some time today to actually like 10 minutes 10 minutes of sacred time that you are just going to pay attention to everything that came up for you today so don't worry now about oh my gosh i need to write it down it will all be there when you've got your 10 minutes later today to bring it all back in because all you need to do is just be still be quiet no distractions and just re-listen to everything that happened in your head and listen girl that they said something about tuck shop oh that's right and i started to feel this with a pen and paper just go berserk and just you know if you need to write oh i hated him he was such a little turd for doing that whatever it is that you need to get out without judging yourself just get it all out on the paper even that is one step closer to clearing something for you and the key thing that you said just then was you don't actually judge yourself while you're doing this so what's the next step so then the next step would be so let's stick with i can't afford it and billy can only because he stole my money um so is then start and start to think of other experiences in your life that may be so i would i would go past present future so what was something in my immediate past that i said i can't afford it and now you and then think about that and go you know what i was walking past office works and i saw a beautiful chair and i went oh i can't afford that and it was a one off one off thing but write that down as a little um as a story i went to office works and i said i couldn't afford the chair maybe there's something going on for you today right now i can't afford to do a program or whatever you know i really want to grow my business and i can't afford to do a program write that down and then go something about your future so in the future um let's see what could we go oh i'd like to have a holiday in some exotic location oh you know where they i've seen it on um facebook where they have those glass iglo glass igloos in the snow have you seen oh yes yes yes so you know i mean i'm sure that is ridiculously expensive and i would probably say to myself i can't afford that or maybe it's i can't afford a helicopter ride or i can't afford um you know something that is limiting you that you're thinking about in the future so if you've been doing some planning around your vision board or thinking about um what your goals are for this year and you haven't written something down because you were stopped by a little voice in your head that said no don't put a picture of a helicopter down there you wouldn't be able to afford that so start looking at what you the story that you are already telling yourself and then i would look at it so what are we up to step three or four i think three we we'll have to get you to write these down for us in a cheat sheet would you do that i sure would i sure thank you so um then i would look at each one and read and look at it as a story of you and your life and be honest with yourself and go is this the story that i want to be living really do i want to be living in this rectangle of a4 paper saying i can't afford that i can't afford that and i can't afford that or do you want to ask yourself the question what is possible how can i afford it how can i afford it what is possible and immediately just in saying that i'm and i'm making this up none of these things are my visions but i immediately i feel a shift going oh this sounds exciting i wonder how i could plan on how to do that and it's funny because i'm just going to cut in again and tell tell everybody a little tiny story which was i had on my i have a goal book because i don't do the board thing and i keep it just a little a5 book and i stick pictures in there of things that i want to achieve or that i would like and one of the things that i wrote down was i really really wanted a piece of art from an artist who was also a friend but i love her art in any way she just invited us to decor exhibition exhibition yeah i'm so totally not interested and her paintings were really really reasonably priced and i'm talking like two figures we're not to be under a hundred dollars for the thought that i chose and i remember seeing it and just going i want that for my office and i bought it i was just like you know i want it my husband said to me it was biased like 90 dollars and i was like yeah yeah i'm gonna buy it so i did and it's framed and it's i just got it back this week from the framers and it's hanging on my wall above my desk but the whole key to that story was it was in my goal book for 2016 and it's only 2015 awesome i didn't i didn't know how much it was going to cost i didn't like i didn't have any concept i you know i was expecting a piece of art that's this beautiful to cost me eight or nine hundred dollars and it didn't... oh you're going through turbo charge and and and and i didn't know that i was going to be invited to this exhibition it was all the last minute thing it was just a text oh we're having an exhibition do you want to come down there's free wine please bring the family yeah and and that's what's happened so it's not your job to work out how you're going to do it is it no it is not your job to work out the how it really isn't and you know i've got another story exactly the same well not exactly the same wasn't about art but it's a similar kind of thing i also have a book and mine is actually a display folder based on the book the winners bible by dr kerry spakman um i was just right that i'm just writing that down so i can put that in the cheat sheet it's about creating like a goals book about what you want to achieve similar thing to you and i um was cleaning up my office and found it the other day and remembered it and went oh my goodness look at that and i had all the material stuff i could actually tick off that yeah and it was things like i mean this was from 2010 so it was a dyson vacuum cleaner a front it doesn't it doesn't have to be an amazing thing doesn't have to be an amazing thing a front load washing machine anyway i was ticking it all off and i got really excited i went oh my god that's right this stuff works it's quick quick do another one and i did another one and it was um uh i i need new oven and a new stovetop and i need a new fridge and the money belief that came up for me which was one i haven't had was don't be greedy which was another interesting one that you know i'm actually still working on that one and you know what i've got to the point where i've turned it around enough and written it out enough that i actually need to shift it on a cellular level because i know that it still comes up for me and i know that and i know why because i'm talking to you about it and my eyes getting all squinty and cringy it's making me so we've written it down and we've got the feelings and we're going to sit with it and move it on and we're not going to we're not going to ask the universe how we're just going to write down what we didn't get to that part but obviously we're going to write down what we would like to have or achieve or do or be yeah and and don't limit yourself based on your money belief and you'll you'll know what money belief it's not that hard i think people get a bit oh it's too hard to find out what my limiting belief is it's such a big concept it's not it's really not if you quiet your mind you will hear that negative Nancy will pop her head up and say hey don't you be greedy hey i can't i can't imagine if there is if you are listening to this right now and something has not popped into your head i want you to go to my blog and write it in the comments because you are probably the only person who this has not brought up something oh and i want to know i want to know what it's bringing up for people that will be really interesting that would be yeah so if it does bring something up i also want you to go to the blog and tell us what your little story is what what do you think your limiting belief is so head on over to Selena night.com and if you it'll always be on the front page of the current episode but if you listen to this a bit later just type in Michelle house and you can tell us all about what your limiting belief is and what you're going to do to clear it excellent now okay back to you okay so what will we have to so writing it down uh yeah and start creating um creating something you know if it's around your business maybe it's something along the lines of you know you're only bringing in i don't know what it is for retail Selena but maybe you're only bringing in ten thousand dollars a week and you would like to be double you'd like to double that now it's not realistic that that's going to happen in the next for in the next seven days you still have to be realistic about that and again if you tune into it you will have a knowing or a feeling that will go or six months would be doable put down the six months this i can't stress enough when it comes to this kind of thing you really have to get quiet and you've got to turn that noise off in your head one of the things that i do um when i'm getting ready to do stuff like this is i actually have um people people who know me would laugh if they heard that i do this by the way um i would i will get my little essential oil that's called gratitude i've got a little um affirmation that says financial security puts me at ease and makes me feel good about my future so i write that down i put some nice music on on my spotify playlist and i will also um light a candle and all of those little tiny actions will make me make me will help me get to that moment of quiet it's almost like you've got to kind of sweep the patio so you can sit down and have a cup of tea so do that little ritual and get yourself to that place of okay universe what's next i'm also going to find for your listeners there's this great youtube clip by denzel washington where he's talking to a group of um young actors and actresses and he's talking about from um his highly religious so he's talking about from a god perspective when the dream lands in your mind god already knows and i say universe the universe already the universe is planted at there you haven't planted it there the universal god has planted that idea that dream in your mind so the universe has full belief and knowing that you can carry it through what you need to do from an action perspective is create the goal so you've got the dream and this beautiful dream of a wonderful retail outlet i'm picturing in my mind my my clothing outlet that i love um i've got this beautiful clothing outlet that services all the lovely ladies in the area what's the goal the goal is that i'm going to create that retail store by this date and i'm going to get there with discipline can and consistency so you actually to get that dream you do have to break it down and take the action but it does start with a dream and the dream lands in your mind when you're quiet and listen have you ever haven't you ever felt that and experienced that before i do and do you know it are you saying that and the thing i'm thinking is i know i've done this on a couple of occasions it's that feeling that you get and and you can tell me if you've had this day and feeling maybe it's just being where it's kind of like you know you're destined for bigger things like you know this thing is going to be big yep it's like you're standing on the edge of the cliff not to jump but you're standing on the edge of the cliff excited about what's on the other side but you don't it's kind of excitement and fear and this dream that there's this big thing but you don't know how to get there you don't know how to get there and then also what comes up in all of that is um you're limiting beliefs because you can be standing on there on the edge and going oh my god this is going to be massive this is going to be huge i can see how this is um i'm actually going through this myself at the moment so i'm a normal human ordinary person by the way and i know for me i'm about to launch launch something and we're ready to go and i am already i can just see little snippets of it it's not as big as what it would have been 10 years ago but i see little snippets of nobody said i want that oh yep there are so many people already doing that what would they want to do you what would they want to do you just correct my website i think money would somebody pay for that yes yes so there you go there's three limiting beliefs that need to be unraveled in the past present future and then change it to a past present future that you know that you can have because you've had the knowing anyway so it's not hard um i really think that writing down our goals setting our intention um creating a life that we love doing a design map people go oh it's so hard i haven't got the time i've got to keep doing my business i've got to keep this i've got to keep that you really do need to take the time out to live your life intentionally i have dealt with far too many people over the last 10 years who have come to me with issues in their relationship because somebody's got credit card debt and the other person didn't know about it um the business is losing money um you know whatever the money issue is that has brought them to me and i can tell them after our first session and they totally get it after our first session that it's never about the money it's about them not creating an intention not living their life deliberately not living their life on purpose not knowing their purpose so you have to take the time to create this beautiful life that you've been given and stop just going from one day to the next to the next to the next to the next in an unhappy way take the time out get intentional about how you want your life to be and then live it from a day to day basis and my big thing about this is if you don't write it down somewhere you can write down stick it in your draw like you're saying you you came across your book again is if you haven't written it down at no point do you have the what's the word i'm looking for like the goal post where you can go back and say oh my goodness i actually achieved all of those things that were important to me at the time yeah and that inspires you it not only does it inspire you it uh tops up your self-belief which i think is important because i think self-belief is not something that i don't know anybody who's mastered self-belief i've met god yet maybe he has all right so after we've written it down now what do we do well after you've written it down then you have um the plan so the plan is with with discipline and consistency you do what needs to be done so in in relation to um the limiting money belief i can't afford it uh i'm just trying to track all that down now so limit i can't afford it and then you look at how ways you can afford it that will tie back into your business at some point by the way because you may want a beautiful trip to the igloos over in iceland that's going to cost ten grand so how are you going to get the ten grand through your business that's going to pay you to have that trip does that make sense it does and i was just thinking taking that back to recent ten thousand dollars so you said if that retailer had ten thousand dollars a week coming in and they wanted to double it and we've you know we've worked out that you've taken that feeling and you think you can do it in six months which is fair enough you know ten percent per month and a little bit allowing for slow time so so you've gone okay you've written down i want to make twenty thousand dollars a month by this date which is six months from now and then the universe is and let's just put this make this clear the universe is not going to go right you've written it down here's the answer no don't expect that to happen we don't want you to get the wrong idea here no and it's also very much tied into feelings and how you feel about it as well so an example um an example may be uh for me one of the ideas i had last year was that we were going to move to the coast and i wanted to move to the coast because of the um the sunshine the great neighborhood the um all of the feelings about it you know it was friendly it was whatever from a feeling point of view so six months later we haven't moved and i got a bit despondent about that and i went oh how can i go and tell people to set goals when i can't get i when i can't achieve a goal and um a good friend of mine we were chatting about it karen smith and we were talking about how you can put your desire out there and your dream out there and the consistency about the plant you know the consistency for me was going and looking at places blah blah blah but if the universe has something else in mind for you right now you have to wait now what happened what unfolded was my dad has actually um become really unwell if we had moved to the coast it would have been painful for me to drive backwards and forwards down to visit him in hospital so the universe actually has kept me here in by the way all of those feelings we live in a beautiful neighborhood we've got a beautiful home we've got beautiful um neighbors where it's free the kids can play cricket on the street all the things that i wanted at the coast we actually do have here so the universe doesn't the universe is moving with my feelings about things there'll be a point in time when i need to shift from here and where the house is not big enough and maybe that's when we'll end up at the coast but i needed to take away the dream of the coast the dream wasn't actually the location the dream was the feeling that i wanted for myself and my family does that make sense it it it does and i only that we've been talking for so long i would tell you my story but i will do that on another podcast but the exact same thing happened to me essentially the same thing i wanted to go on a holiday and the universe conspired against said holiday but it turned out that the time that came when the holiday was supposed to have been planned for the world sort of fell apart in the sense nothing drastic but i i would have needed to be here to fix all the pieces that fell apart and no one was hurt or anything like that but it was just a series of incidents that required my attention to be in the exact place where i was to get them fixed so yes the universe said don't holiday with you but the and the universe there's that beautiful saying the universe once you put the intention out there the universe conspires to make it happen well it certainly does but within its time because it's working it's magic in a in a way you know to have me move to the coast required so many lives to be aligned for that to happen does that you know like it wasn't actually took me a while but it wasn't actually about getting to the coast it was about the feelings so what right about now i can hear all these people shouting out at me you're a bunch of weird pieces you know it's not where we're hippies for me and that's what i said people would laugh at me about the you know the whole or essential oils and the candle lighting for me lighting a candle the actual it actually makes me because i love this that sounds terrible sound like a primaniac i love fire i love looking at the fire i'm watching myself light that candle it's a little bit of magic it doesn't matter if i let a candle or if i made a cup of tea whatever it is that gets me present to that moment um and you know we were hippie spiritual i don't know what i know works for me is that i need to get my practical stuff sorted then um i get the emotional stuff worked on and then i can set my intention and that you know you're talking to somebody who's lived 20 years of married the guy that i wanted to marry had the three children that wanted to have had the businesses that you know really my life has turned out pretty much the way i thought it was going to i've had wonderful overseas holidays i've got a wonderful beautiful home you know i think um yeah you know worst worst case scenario what's it going to hurt for you to write some stuff down and think about your feelings when you are doing stuff like really we're not asking for any money here we're not you don't have to go out of your way you just have to set the time aside you just have to set the time aside and you know it's i think it's oh gosh you've really really raised something there about we were from it i think that we are smart enough to know that we taught ourselves how to walk you know something went on that beautiful little miracle of a baby that we actually didn't think about but we ended up walking you know there was no we were involved just got up and walked it was a kind of magical thing how how that actually occurs it's the same here with us i don't think we take this take the time with ourselves to let ourselves do that kind of magic anymore how do we know what's possible when we can't sit down and be quiet for 10 minutes and that that there'd be a lot of people who can't even do that bit yeah well get up 10 minutes early or go to bed 10 minutes later cut yeah cut your lunch break out okay by 10 minutes so that you can do it it's important so is there anything else we need to know and i i am so looking forward to win these episode airs because i really really want to read what this episode is bringing up for people yeah yeah me too me too because what will be interesting is there's probably only half a dozen money particularly money believes that limit people limit people anyway it's not like there are you know somebody will post and go oh well that happens to me all that happens to me you know and there'll be 100 people it's like um we're all we're all living this a similar kind of experience we're not that different from each other that's nice so is there anything else we i'm just taking it all in and i'm trying i'm actually sitting here with my pen and bit of paper writing down things as they come up so even in this interview it's bringing up things to me that i was thinking oh i need to work so is there anything else that we need to be doing or saying if i can say to anybody the the goal book or the the vision board all those whatever you want to call it however you want to do it even if you put a screen saver up it's it's such a big thing it just it's not going to hurt you to do it cut out a couple of pictures and stick them on a piece of paper and it's setting that intention it is it's setting that intention and if you look at um some people will look at an athlete and see an athlete really successful because they got a gold medal well they didn't just wake up one morning and go oh gee i'm going to be the gold gold medal person for skiing i might just go for wrong yes the dream landed so you can imagine they're watching you know i've heard the stories of swimmers that are watching the Commonwealth Games and they got got so excited about watching Lisa Curry swim in the thing that's what inspired them to be a swimmer so there's the dream the dream has landed then they had to set a goal so this little teeny-year-old girl goes well if i'm going to be at the olympics i've got four years so my goal is four years from now then what's required persistence and commitment and dedication to turn up to training every day so that's that's all it is it's not it's it's it's not as hard as we think it is and if everybody out there's listening and going i just need to get my practical head onto something i'm the most practical down to earth person you've ever met the book that got me over the line with manipulating and changing my neural pathways in my brain was the book by Dr. Kerry Spachman the winner's bible while we've been talking Selena i very sneakily had a quick look through my my book because i've redone the material stuff but i haven't redone the business stuff yet so this is 2010 and this was your gold book so this is my gold book my winner's bible and i um i don't know if you know but since the beginning of this year i've been the regular money saving mum for channel nine's mornings program and yeah so i've probably you forgot to mention that there you go so um one probably once a month i've done a story for them about saving money and i don't know when i started talking about the winner's bible see this is how it happens the thought dropped in go and quickly have a look at that book i have opened the book and it says i will be on television each week sharing positive stories about me and the difference i'm making i will be the regular money lady at least one of these shows and i've oh my goodness today breakfast shows sunrise today's night and mornings wow so you know even that just putting that out there then and not looking at it what are we five years later i'm going what well i'm looking at mine and one of the things that i had stuck in mind was fresh flowers every week and do you know what i now buy fresh flowers every week they could just be a ten dollar bunch from the grocery store but i still have fresh flowers every single week beautiful beautiful it doesn't have to be big it can be a ten dollar thing it doesn't have to be the ten thousand dollar holiday but i which makes me think straight away it is all these people who are out there who are going i did that i wrote my goals down and bugger the bloody universe because i'm still waiting what advice have you got for those people oh that's a really good question so you've got i would look at um how connected you are to the goal i've dealt with plenty of people where i've gone oh really you want to fly in a corporate jet and they go no i saw somebody else wanted to do that so back to what we were saying before is it something that you truly desire with all your heart is it so so let's go back to that that retail person and go okay they written down that they're going to do that they're going to double their income in six months and they've done a bunch of strategies to try and fix that and nothing's happening okay so if they have done a bunch of strategies and if they have honestly if they can honestly say well you know part of me achieving that ten thousand dollars in six months was i had to i don't know i don't know what it is for retail but i had to um you know maybe even get rid of somebody maybe and if you and if you haven't there's a question around that because there'll be belief there i didn't want to let that person down or whatever it might be could be something from that could be income related where an extra ten thousand dollars a week what did you say it was two thousand sorry ten thousand dollars in six months oh no thousand a thousand dollars a month no ten thousand dollars or whatever it wasn't you're asking me no whatever it is they say you it's an extra thousand dollars a week you're looking for and if you honestly have been persistent and committed and dedicated to saying whatever it is you said you would do to bring that in there's this i would suggest that there is something about your own belief in there that you don't think you're good enough to get it something's stopping you about yourself that and it could even be i don't write down goals they never work and maybe you were saying that to yourself as you wrote down the goal so this is where i'm saying get really clear and inflow and just let it come out and just go yeah i actually really would like an extra two thousand dollars this week and i guess that person could then like you were just saying is if they take some quiet time and see what pops up yes what what's your brain what comes up in the i haven't met the goal that i wanted to get what have i done no not what have i done wrong but what have i missed what what can i do to make this thing work and see what pops up yeah yep really great point okay we need to leave this on an up not a day now oh look i i promise you that if people look back at their life they will find something that they set out to achieve that they've achieved something and it may have may even have been my goal this year is as you know as somebody in grade seven oh my goal this year is to stand up in front of the class and to give a talk about Egypt that may have been the goal and you may have achieved it just go with that and go you know what i can actually achieve things that i put my mind to i've done it before i did it when i was in grade seven that's right and i felt really good and it's so easy you've just you've just said something and it's brought something it's so easy to overlook those things so another thing in my goal which i'm not going to flick the pages again in front of the microphone but the other thing in my goal book is being merely 40 and a woman the universe conspires to make you have to exercise to not get really really large so if you enjoy food so this year in January i took up running and one of the goals i had was to be able to run five kilometers and it has taken me a long time but today was my first day when i ran five kilometers without stopping oh congratulations you just said that and i was like i remember i was actually listening to a podcast on the way which was Celebrate the Wings and i was running down the street going with my hand in the air i've just run five calling with that stopping yeah and that's that okay here's the high celebrate the wings and be grateful not with chocolate not with chocolate and gratitude you know we went to um we have a show an echo carnival up here in Brisbane um i think like the royal show in Sydney and stuff like that and my daughter said to me she's 12 she said gee we've had such a good year this year mum we've done this and we've been there and we saw those people and we did that and i said you're right when we go home we're going to get out the butcher's paper stick it to the wall and write down all the great stuff that's happened this year because we forget it's so easy to forget and you know you might be sitting here going well which i was just about to do um before i've got a telephone bill that they've got wrong and i've immediately had all this negative thing around it and i went okay i'm just going to put that aside i'm not ready for that right now what am i grateful about and get to that point of gratitude and then go and look at the bill kiss the check as you pay the supplier voices for blessings already received well thank you so much for all of that that's it's been so much fun and as i said i've i've written down some things i probably need to go and sit and think about and i'm sure everybody else's has been you know struggling with some things that have popped up and if you're crying right now that's okay i promise you i have been there they are they are not tears of sadness they're tears of probably gratitude for finally being aware of the fact that it's not you it's not your fault that your brain sometimes works the way that it is yes so if we would like to learn some more about you michelle where can we find you uh you can find me at michellehouse.com.au and you can also follow me over at facebook at michellehouse international and if you're into periscope and twitter my handle is michellehouse09. and michelle also has her own podcast called epic entrepreneur that's a silly word no one ever says that probably can't spell it. it's a bit of an entrepreneur. epic entrepreneur? i'm actually getting a new website designed at the moment so they'll be sitting off on their own and they'll be really easy to find. great all right well thank you so much for being on the show today uh a great lot of information and lots of feelings and so much that i've just taken away even though i already know all these stuff it's always been for a lot of patience always good for a reboot thanks so much today. thanks selena. i hope you enjoyed this week's episode of the bringing business to retail podcast you can find all of the show notes over at selenanight.com if you found something that you heard today particularly useful i'd love it if you could leave me a review on itunes or stitcher and of course feel free to share this episode with someone that you think could benefit by listening to it. want more retail business strategies? you can watch the bringing business to retail tv show where each week i'll answer a question or provide you with a simple actionable retail business strategy that you can implement in your business right away. if you have a question or a gift i'd love to hear from you drop my team in email at podcast@selenanight.com and i'll see you on the next episode have a great week you (upbeat music) [ Silence ]