Did you hear the big news?

Studio Secrets is now officially a 12-month business coaching program. That’s right. I’ve expanded it from 6 months to 12 months to give you more time to implement what you’re learning & offer more coaching along the way. I couldn’t be more excited! So, I’ll now be opening the doors twice a year. Get ready. Open enrollment for the next round of Studio Secrets will be May 17th - May 26th.

If you regret missing the opportunity to join us last November & thought you had to wait a whole year, well surprise. Now you don’t! I am going to limit the seats this time so if you are ready to grow your business, but want to make sure you are a good fit for Studio Secrets, let’s book a clarity call. If you’re good to go, you can go ahead & claim your seat & get early access. Or you can wait until doors open & see how many seats are left. There is a link to book a call on the Studio Secrets waitlist page. You can do that at www.seniorstudiosuccess.com/studiosecrets.

I want to share a few of the latest wins from inside our Facebook group so that you actually know what is possible inside this program. These are real stories from real people getting real results & I couldn’t be prouder of them! You can see the actual screenshots & any of the links I mention in the show in the show notes at www.seniorstudiosuccess.com/podcast.

I’m so proud of this lady! She was a little frazzled when she first joined Studio Secrets, overworked and stressed beyond belief. But she’s raised her prices and really getting a handle on her business. She’s going to do big things!

This is huge and all of this back end work on systems pays off when the clients do start rolling in at a more consistent rate. And Margaret is really starting to put herself out there and work to bring business in. I love it!

If y’all know Craig, you know this is a big deal. His work amazes me every time he posts something. He’s running 2 studios and is going through some growing pains. So his big priority is getting his client management system up and running so that his business can run smoothly. It’s a huge project and I’m super proud that he’s tackling it.

Tosha is a new mama again. Her one year old just started walking so she’s got her hands full at home and in her business. She’s got a great model team going but booking new clients with new pricing is always a big deal. You got this mama!

This is a big deal for Julie. She’s been wanting to get back to running and has adjusted her schedule and set her boundaries to make that happen. Plus, how about that sales average? Way to go girl!

I love Fridays inside Studio Secrets! And I hope you love hearing these wins. Here’s why I share them. These are their stories, not mine. And I want you to know that it’s possible for you too.

If you want wins in your business & in your personal life just like these, get in this room where your success is inevitable. If you’re not sure if Studio Secrets is a good fit for you, head over to www.seniorstudiosuccess.com/studiosecrets to book a clarity call with me. I would love to chat with you & help you make the best decision for you & your business.

Ok, today’s episode is all about money mindset. This is definitely something we go deep into inside Studio Secrets, but I want to start the conversation with you here today & give you some good tips for creating a more abundant mindset.

Let me start right here. This is something that I say on repeat because at times we feel guilty for even asking for money, like we aren’t worthy of it for some reason.

Money in the hands of good people can do good things.

Money is not evil.

Money is a tool. It’s just an exchange between 2 people - something valuable for something else valuable.

If you think of money as something negative or nasty, then you certainly won’t attract much of it because your brain will try to protect you from things like that.

You see, your life will align with your beliefs, not the other way around. You can’t believe things after they happen, after you book the clients, after you make the big sales, after your calendar is full. The belief has to be there first.

So if we go back to that first thought or belief that money in the hands of good people can do good things then we can assume that we would also think that money is a good thing and that it’s worth it to try to get more of it. You will book those clients. You will make those sales. You will fill up your calendar. Because you have the belief first.

But if somewhere deep down you believe that money is evil, that it’s bad to have too much, that rich people are selfish people, then you will have a much tougher time booking the clients, making the sales and filling up your calendar.

I’m gonna say it again. Your life and the results you get from your business will align with the thoughts in your head, the beliefs you’ve built up over time, the stories you tell yourself day in and day out.

Ok, money out vs money in. My gut tells me that you have some pretty strong feelings about both of those scenarios, so let’s go ahead and hash that out.

How do you really feel about money? Let’s talk about money going out. Spending it. Swiping the card. Watching the balance in your account go down.

Let me tell you about a story or belief that I had to rewrite for myself. We all have those monthly subscriptions for our business, right? Well, I was just going about my day & up pops a notification on my phone for a $15 subscription that just hit the bank. Y’all it $15! You know what my first reaction was? Ugh. Just what I needed today.

Ok, I was already having “one of those days”, had lost a lead earlier in the day & was just grumpy in general. But then I caught myself & corrected my thought. I told myself “You know what Jena? That $15 subscription does you so much good. It helps you to communicate better with your clients. It gives you the opportunity to warm them up. It brings you business. Be thankful for it!” And that completely changed the way I felt about it. Now I think of that $15 notification as an investment in my business, as a tool that brings me business, instead of “just another expense”.

You will attract more money or less money by the way you think about it. If you believe there is not enough (like I did in that moment), there won’t be & you will not attract more of it. But on the other hand, if you believe there is plenty of money to go around & that the perfect clients are out there waiting to give it to you, that money will find you.

And if you hold onto it too tightly (again, like I was in that moment), you will also have a tough time receiving it. If you’re always looking for a deal, for a coupon code, waiting until the very last minute to invest in something, have resistance or frustration when paying a bill, then again, you attract those same type of clients - the ones who are looking for a deal, the ones who don’t want to spend, the ones who wait until the last minute to pay a bill.

Ok, now the opposite. We’ve talked about money going out. Let’s talk about it coming in & receiving it.

The way you think and feel about money is what you might assume others think and feel about money. If you think there’s not enough, you might think that your clients feel that way too. If you feel like it’s hard to come by, you might feel guilty asking for the sale. But I learned a long time ago to stay out of my clients’ wallets. They have their own money stories and beliefs. It’s not my job to impart my own beliefs about money onto them. That’s not fair. Obviously they value what I do and believe in and want it enough to pay for it.

I had to change the way I thought about that. I am not taking from them. They want to give me their money for something they highly value - portraits of their children.

Honestly, it’s selfish for us to judge our clients and put our own limiting beliefs on them.

So how do you feel when you are on the phone with a prospective client, maybe in a consult, and it’s at the end of the conversation? You know you have to bring up the topic of money. What comes up for you right then and there? How about in the sales room when you bring out your pricing? When you are going through products and helping a client narrow down & come to a decision about what they want to order?

Are you confident that they will say yes? Are you scared to bring up money? Do you feel guilty for asking? Do you try to talk them into a smaller collection? Do you apologize for the price or feel the need to justify it?

I just want to remind you of something real quick. You aren’t “taking” their money. It is their choice to give it to you. And if you believe that there is plenty of money to go around, then you will think about it differently.

That client is going to give you money. And then you are going to give that money to the labs. And the labs are going to sponsor the educators. And then the educators are going to give right back to you. Money is always flowing. It doesn’t just stop and then there isn’t anymore left. That client will make more money. And they will spend more money. You will make more money and you will spend more and give more.

Money flows. James Wedmore describes money like a river. It has to have somewhere to go, but there is always an abundance of it coming right back down from a stream into that river. It’s always coming in, so it is always going out too. If you allow it to go out, to invest in yourself and in your business, not holding onto too tightly, then you make room for more to flow back in. You are trusting that it will come back to you.

That’s the difference between an abundance mindset and a scarcity mindset. If you believe it will come back to you, that’s abundance. If you believe when you spend or invest that you’ll just be watching it float away & it will be crazy hard to replace or make more, then that’s a scarcity mindset. You can insert clients in there too. It’s the same concept. Do you believe there are plenty of people out there who want to work with you? Or do you believe that when someone doesn’t book a session, that your world is crashing down & you’re never going to hit your goals & it’s going to be so hard to get more leads. That’s scarcity.

All of these thoughts and beliefs around money came from somewhere, more than likely our own childhood stories and ones that develop over time throughout our lives. Think about yours. I’m about to tell you mine. But here’s the point. We weren’t born with these beliefs. We had to learn them. You know what that means? We can unlearn them. We can change them!

My story is that I hold onto money too tightly. I am so much better than I used to be & have grown leaps & bounds over the last 2 years. But I’ve been very guilty of this & sometimes I still am. I still have a long way to go with some very deeply ingrained thoughts about money.

I grew up without a lot. My parents worked so hard to give us what we needed, but that’s what we had - the things we needed. I remember having only 2 pairs of jeans my 7th grade year. That was tough, especially at that age. I watched my parents struggle to make ends meet. I watched my dad work 2 and sometimes 3 jobs. I listened from the other room as my mom sobbed talking on the phone with debt collectors.

So to say I have some money mindset issues is an understatement. But we all have our own stories. I may have been taught that “money doesn’t grow on trees” or that “there’s never enough”, but I also learned the value of hard work and integrity. And I am forever grateful to have been taught those lessons.

So I was the poor kid. But poor is relative. And so is rich. In comparison to what, right? I would have been considered rich in a different environment honestly. And some of my friends who I thought came from rich families, really didn’t. They were just a little better off than me. But in my very immature brain, I thought they were gazillionaires. Meanwhile, I would get in trouble for opening the door in the summer. I can still hear my mom yelling “you’re letting all the air out!”. That always confused me by the way. Sorry mom. Haha!!

So you can see that I have a lot of these poor stories in my head. I have had to fight hard to get over those. And they still come back to get me sometimes. And I have to really watch myself with my own kids. I am really working on that lately because I don’t want them to have these same stories in their heads.

Here’s what I’m learning. The money that I spend out in everyday life - at the restaurants I like to eat at, at the salon, at the little boutique - it impacts real people. That money helps to keep their dream businesses open. It helps to pay their employees and their rent. And it helps those people buy groceries to feed their families or college loans. The money that I spend in my business - on software, on educational courses, on products with my lab, on pretty packaging, with my editor, with my assistants - that impacts real people too. A lot of time we are too scared to outsource or get help in our businesses, thinking we can just do it ourselves. That’s scarcity. That’s holding onto it too tightly. And what happens when we do that? When we don’t let it go, it doesn’t come back.

Remember, money in the hands of good people can do good things. All of these businesses, all of these people, do good things. So when I think about it like that, I don’t mind spending. I think about my clients paying me too. I don’t feel guilty about what I charge for my work because I know the impact that it makes. That money trickles down and helps all kinds of people in my life.

But I have to let it go out in order for it to come back in. That’s some really big lessons to learn & wrap your head around. I still struggle with it. I’m not going to lie. My old stories still come up so I will continue to work on them daily. I hope you will too.

If you struggle with this, right now you have the opportunity to choose to write yourself a new story and to choose different beliefs around money. And you will probably have to do this over and over and over again. And just when you think you’ve changed your mindset and all is good, something is gonna hit you just right, out of nowhere, and all those old beliefs will come up. You’ll be scared to invest in your business. You’ll not want to ask for the sale. You’ll get frustrated when you lose a lead. It happens to me too.

Here’s the thing though. Our thoughts become our reality. So we have to keep them in check. If you want to have different results, you have to think differently. And not just think differently, but believe it to be true. You’ve probably heard me say this before on the podcast, but this is how it works. The things we think will drive our emotions. And our emotions will drive our actions. What do our actions cause? The results we ultimately get. So do you see that circle? It all starts with our thoughts. Our results will always mirror our thoughts. We create our own reality you guys.

Alright, I’m gonna leave it right there today. Send me a DM & let me know how you’re feeling about this. I’m happy to help you through it. Or just let me know you're listening! Take a screenshot, post it & tag me in your stories so we can connect!

And if you really wanna connect on a personal level, join me in the next Business After Hours. That’s where we sit down in a small group over zoom to chat about an issue you might be having in your business. We can even talk about this. You can find the links to all the things I talk about here on the podcast in the show notes at www.seniorstudiosuccess.com/podcast.

If you’ve found this podcast helpful for your business, would you hit pause & take 2 minutes to leave a rating & review wherever you listen? It helps so much with getting the word out about what we are trying to do here - create a better situation for all of us, pushing you to build a more profitable, productive & purposeful business so that you can spend more time doing what you love with the ones you love.

Because you guys are so awesome, I’m going to be doing some giveaways for those reviews left in March & April. Is it gonna be you? I sure hope so!

Ok. let’s continue the conversation over in the Senior Studio Success Facebook Group. I’m always up for a good business chat. Or you can find me over on Instagram. Send me a DM there. Have a great week y’all!