Synchronistic Shift #6: The Money Shift
{An Excerpt from Selling with Synchronicity}
“If you want one year of prosperity, plant corn.
If you want ten years of prosperity, plant trees.
If you want one hundred years of prosperity, educate people.”~Unknown~
I remember the first time I realized that most bestseller campaigns, even New York Times bestseller campaigns, were driven by powerful marketing campaigns. I always thought they happened because people naturally sold a lot of books. Well, that DOES happen for some people. Just not for most.
My belief, though, was that bestseller campaigns were expensive and you had to hire a company to do it for you. Plus, you would have to pay between $10,000 and $35,000 for the campaign. Whew! I didn’t believe I had THAT kind of money.
“Well, I wonder if there is an easier way? A faster way?” I pondered to myself.
I decided to take my own teaching and turn it on myself. I always tell my clients to ask themselves, “What is the fastest and easiest way to reach your sales goal?” When they ask that question, the ideas just start to flow.
“What is the fastest and easiest way to design a bestseller campaign?” The answer to that question was so clear, so easy, but it required me to go outside my comfort zone and ask my core community to purchase multiple copies of my books. But when they asked me, “Why not ask us to purchase ten, fifteen or twenty?” I was forced to look at why I hadn’t asked for more in the first place.
So I shifted my belief and allowed myself to ask for help. I asked people to purchase multiple copies, and I was shocked by how many people came forward to get involved with the campaign.
The Big Table
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n 2010, I attended Loral Langemeier’s 3 Days to Cash course. I was excited to go, but the timing was terrible, as we were only one week out from my second annual Sales Coach Now-LIVE event where Loral would also be speaking. Luckily, we had been selling and promoting the event for months, and we had almost two hundred people registered by the time the 3 Days to Cash class rolled around. And yet, I understand “no-show” rates and that, like the airlines, we needed to overbook the event to ensure a full room.
With this intention, I decided I would simply sell Sales Coach Now-LIVE at 3 Days to Cash and continue to fill the event while I was there. When I arrived, I found out there would be a sales contest. This caused some anxiety because I knew that I’d have to win if I was to retain my “Sales Expert” status, especially considering Loral would be speaking at my event the following week! On the other hand, the sales contest was exactly what I needed to overbook my event. I set my intention to win.
Throughout the three days, we had a few updates regarding how everyone was doing in terms of their sales goals. Most people were struggling, and I found myself helping them whenever I could. I also bought a lot of stuff that weekend! On the third day, when Loral announced the winners, I was thrilled to learn that I had won in the volume category.
Going into Loral’s class, I kind of knew that I was going to sign up for her mastermind. I just hadn’t really admitted it to myself or my husband. I had alluded to Tim that I might, and I remember a little cloud moving across his face as he realized that I might be signing up for yet another class and spending yet another $10,000 or more. And yes, the day I texted him for his blessing, there was a long pause. I wanted to call him, but I was still in the middle of selling and attempting to win the sales contest, which he also knew I needed to do. He finally sent his blessing back, and I let out a big sigh. While I do not need my husband’s permission to do everything, we do have a rule when it comes to certain amounts of money: we both need to be in on the agreement. Loral’s Big Table exceeded that amount.
The money shift is about pushing outside of your belief zone about money, especially your relationship with money. How willing you are to invest in yourself and your business will tell you a lot about where you stand in that relationship.
Investing in other high-end programs, products, or services will allow you to test whether or not you are ready to sell your own high-end products or services. If you aren’t willing to invest in a high-end products or services for yourself, then you probably aren’t ready to sell them. Whenever I have taken large leaps in investing in myself and my business, I have always taken large leaps in terms of the amount of the services I felt good about selling and what I charged for them.
After I signed up and the initial excitement of it wore off, I wondered what in the heck I was doing. Was this yet another synchronistic step, or a cog in my wheel? Yet, having Loral speak on my stage at Sales Coach Now-LIVE reinforced that it was the right thing to do. We had a blast sharing the stage and the day together, and I grew just being around her and watching how she made decisions and how she thought about business.
Two months later, we went to Tahoe for the first Big Table. Tim and I drove his truck up the back way (Highway 395), and it was gorgeous! Snow covered the mountains, and the sun shone brightly. It was exactly what we needed. It was our first time in Tahoe, and I believe it is one of the most breathtaking places on earth. I completely understand why Loral planted her roots there (not to mention the tax savings in Nevada!). On our way up, I listened to the CDs Loral had given out to prepare us for the program. I was excited because I knew we weren’t just focusing on the business; we were focusing on overall wealth and what we wanted to create in our lives. Although Tim wasn’t directly participating, my business plan included our plans as a couple.
We stayed at an adorable bed and breakfast beneath massive evergreens next to large piles of fluffy snow. The owners were terrific. They openly shared the main cabin, hosting wine tastings with delicious cheese plates; and their homemade waffles were out of this world. I think Tim ate at least five a day!
Feeling nervous the first time I walked into Live Out Loud, Loral’s headquarters, I reminded myself that being nervous was normal, since I was once again living outside of my comfort zone. I had pretty high expectations regarding what was going to come out of our two days together, and I wasn’t disappointed. I left with a powerful 120-day plan and a new mastermind group that I was going to be meeting with weekly for accountability purposes.
I knew my investment in myself was going to yield some big returns.
Money is Just Energy
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ome people estimate that only 4% of all of the money in the world is actually in physical form. The rest is held electronically in checking, savings, retirement, and other accounts. Considering that there is very little money just lying around, it is surprising that we have such strange beliefs about money.
In the United States of America, most people struggle with beliefs in scarcity. As a country of immigrants, perhaps beliefs and fears about scarcity were passed down from generation to generation. Coming out of the last great “repression” (recession + depression), many of those beliefs were strengthened for people. The belief that there isn’t enough money just isn’t true; however, people’s beliefs hold that thought to be truth.
Over the years, I have read several books on manifesting more money, primarily because that is what I teach my clients how to do, and it is something I am very passionate about because it is tied directly to my mission. And what I’ve discovered is that it’s not difficult to create money when you expand your beliefs about how much you want to make and what’s possible for you.
Growing up on the farm, we didn’t have a lot of money. Yet, looking back, we were very prosperous in terms of the food we grew and the fact that my parents had little or no debt and they owned a lot of land. My experience with physical money was extremely limited, though, and somehow I created a belief that you have to work hard physically to make a lot of money. I didn’t understand the “big picture” of all of the wealth we actually had on the farm, and the belief that I created did not serve me well as I took on my first career in sales. My beliefs were that there wasn’t enough money, I had to work really hard for it, and I could never stop working that hard because if I did, the money would stop coming.
When I attended the NLP-Institute of California, I learned a lot about our beliefs about money, how they were formed, and how they get in the way of our success. Beliefs are just thoughts that we repeatedly focus on and look for evidence to prove that they are true. In other words, when it comes to money, if you believe that there isn’t enough, you will look for the evidence that there isn’t enough in the form of bills and more bills. When you shift that belief about money and truly believe that there is more than enough, you will focus on the evidence that there are more checks coming in, or more clients, and then you will continue to look for and be aware of more opportunities. I can tell you from my own personal experience that this is true.
During the last great “repression” over the past few years, my husband and I lost a lot of money in real estate and a separate business venture. In fact, we almost lost everything that we had. We had to make quick changes, and we had to challenge all of our beliefs about money to dig out of that hole quickly. I was talking with one of my dear friends one day and she said, “Ursula, even though you are going through very difficult financial times right now, you don’t show it. In fact, you are grace under pressure.”
Why was I able to maintain my composure in the midst of so much stress? Because I chose to shift my focus to what was coming, not what was. If I had focused on losing so much money, I would have lost my mind. Instead, within a year — without filing for bankruptcy — we paid off almost $100,000 in debt, mostly to investors due to real estate deals that had gone bad. Was it easy? No. But because I stayed focused on the future, and the money that I knew was coming, we slowly climbed our way out.
Another thing that helped me stay focused on paying the money off came from Access Consciousness. They teach that instead of calling it “debt,” refer to it as “past expenditures.” Why? Because when you say past expenditures, it allows you to take responsibility for the money that you spend. YOU made the decisions or took the risks. It is not about blaming yourself; it is about accepting responsibility. When you take responsibility for creating past expenditures, you can take responsibility for creating money as well. Isn’t that powerful? So much about creating money is about responsibility and managing your thoughts. The way in which you focus on money creates or prevents it from getting to you. Which will you choose?
Remember, money is trying to get to you. The question is, How are you blocking it? What do you need to shift to let it in?
Expand Your Plan
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have been speaking full-time since 2005. Everywhere I go, I share the principles of Selling with Intention, hoping that those who hear me will be inspired to take action and implement the principles that I teach so they can enjoy a fruitful sales career or profitable business.
One of the biggest problems that I see over and over again is very small thinking. Most entrepreneurs and sales professionals do not ask for more than they “think” they can sell. The sales goals that we set are often tiny and not even worthy of all of the effort we are putting in.
Recently, I was coaching a client and she shared with me that she didn’t feel good about the new package she had created. She couldn’t seem to connect the value with the price. So, I had her create a list of the top ten benefits that clients would receive when they purchase that package.
I met with her after she completed the exercise, and as we were talking, I could still feel that she wasn’t excited about selling her package. Then, I had a hunch. Because I am learning to just go with those hunches, I asked a bold question. “What if your package (the exact same package) was $5,000? How would you feel about it then?” I know this will sound crazy, but $5,000 was ten times MORE than what she was charging.
Her entire face changed. She suddenly looked happier, lighter. And then she admitted that the new price, charging ten times more actually felt better. In an instant, she had expanded what was possible for her. She had expanded her plan, and suddenly had prices that were more in alignment with her value and the value she is bringing to her clients.
Is this true for everyone? No. Sometimes people are overpriced. More times than not, though, I find that people, in the service industry especially, are underpriced. When they expand their pricing so it is in alignment with how they are showing up in the world, their sales dramatically increase.
Expanding your plan doesn’t come without effort. It takes work to become great at what you do and to be able to solve your clients’ problems. However, the better you become, the more your sales plan can expand, and the more money you will make. The key is to have a sales goal that is worthy of you.
Expanding your plan also relates to increasing your sales projections and effectively using a tool to track your sales pipeline.
Ready to do it?
First, you have to set a Quantum Sales Goal. You can create that by writing down your original goal for the year. Then double it, and then triple it. Now, look back at your original goal. How does it look? Small? What has changed? Nothing — merely your perspective on what’s possible. You have successfully started to expand your plan.
Next, create your projections by working backwards from your Quantum Sales Goal. Doing that allows you to project your expected sales as well as your expenditures. This is a great way to stay on track and to figure out how much you will be paying yourself as well as how much profit you will bring in. Next, create a budget for your business. How will you spend the money (in addition to your business expenses)? Tithing/Giving? Insurance? Savings? Vacations? etc.
Third, you cannot grow your sales if you do not know what is in your pipeline. Either use a Customer Relationship Management tool to track your sales (remember, garbage in, garbage out) or create a simple Excel Spreadsheet to track Prospects, 99% closed and Closed Sales. If they are a “Prospect,” you haven’t met with them yet but they meet all of your criteria for a target client. “99% closed” means that you have met with a prospect, but they haven’t signed up for your product or service yet. “Closed” means you have received their payment for your product or service. Our clients use our Work in Progress Report that easily tracks those three areas. We include more extensive information about the Work in Progress Report in Selling with Intention.
Finally, I recommend that you add tithing (or giving, or whatever you call it) to your plan. There are many books written about the power of tithing 10% of your gross sales to your church or charities that you care about. Remember, my mission is to help entrepreneurs and sales professionals make a lot of money so they can live a great life and give back to their favorite charities. Giving back is a very important part of Selling with Synchronicity because it gets the money moving in your business. Why? Because when you give, you have a belief that more money is on the way, or you’d never be able to part with it. It is a powerful way to shift the flow of money in your business and is a powerful way to expand your plan.
One of my clients grew a multi-million dollar business over a very short amount of time. When I asked him how he did it so quickly, he said he had a solid plan. But his plan wasn’t just about bringing in sales; it included how he would spend the money as it came in. He had plans on how to spend it in his business, marketing, sales, personally, and also how he would tithe. It was a very clear plan. He summed it up powerfully before we parted, “When I am a good steward with my money, God gives me more.” Brilliant.
My encouragement to you is to do it now. Don’t wait to expand the flow of money in your business! Napoleon Hill once said, “Do it now! It can affect every phase of your life. It can help you do the things you should do but don’t feel like doing. It can keep you from procrastinating when an unpleasant duty faces you. But it can also help you do those things that you want to do. It helps you seize those precious moments that, if lost, may never be retrieved.”
What are three things that you could take action on today?
