You don't need to take a vow of poverty to be a spiritual practitioner.
It is really common to think, or be told, that any spiritual work you do should be done for free. And as people who are motivated by the desire to help people, sometimes accepting money for what you do can be hard. Money doesn't grow on trees, right? And besides, you don't love the money, you love the people! And doesn't Christianity tell us that the poor in spirit are blessed and will inherit the kingdom of heaven?
The truth is, our society doesn't take care of their holy people like they used to. You probably don't have a village at your back to care for your physical needs as you care for their spiritual needs. In short, you don't just need to make money, you deserve to make money.
This week we are talking to Monica Shah who is a business coach and energy worker. She helps people clear the beliefs that keep them from living their dreams. And yes, money is a big block for most people.
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YOU DESERVE TO MAKE MONEY feat. Monica Shah
Julia: [00:00:00] Hi, everyone. Welcome to Becoming Divine. I am your host, Julia Wesley of Divine Realignment. And today we have Monica Shah with us. She is a seven figure business coach who helps entrepreneurs build businesses that support their ideal lifestyles. After receiving her MBA from the Kellogg School of Management and working in marketing for L'Oreal Paris, Monica left corporate to start her first company. And then her second company Revenue Breakthrough. Today, she takes her clients step-by-step through building, growing and expanding their businesses. She combines her business acumen with her intuition and healing abilities to help her clients get unstuck, eliminate self-sabotage, and move through fear.
She's also the author of Getting Rich: You're Doing It Backwards. Pause: 52 Questions that Lead to More Money and Time. And The Breakthrough Planner: A 90 Day System for Entrepreneurs. So thank you so much for being with us Monica.
Monica: [00:01:07] I'm so excited to be here.
Julia: [00:01:09] So going through your bio, you have healing abilities.
Do you consider yourself an energy worker?
Monica: [00:01:16] Yeah, I do. I've always been able to see blocks in people and see where the blocks started. And and worked with them to help clear those blocks. I want people to be able to generate money, to succeed in their businesses.
And we all have so many blocks around that. So we want to help them do that.
Julia: [00:01:38] Ooh. I love that. I love a good energy clearer, especially when it comes to money. Because I think especially if you're someone who's spiritually inclined and you like the woo, we have a lot of blocks around money. Do you find that to be true?
Monica: [00:01:50] Yes. There's whole categories of blocks for people that are energy workers and spiritual folks. It aligns with things like, if I'm spiritual, I can't make money. I can't charge for my gifts. But there's not just individual beliefs. But also within the healing community and within the spiritual community, it's like the artist community, where it's oh, I'm allowed to be broken, creative and grumpy. Cause I know my husband is a creative and he's creating a TV show and I was laughing at him yesterday, cause are you going to turn into it? Like the grumpy creative tomorrow? And I was like I'm not ready for that. I was like, I want you to know you don't have permission to be that way. That's why we're in Costa Rica, so I'm not grumpy.
But what I think is interesting about the spiritual community is it's almost like a badge of honor to be spiritual and broke. To not charge for what you do and to give everything away. And be working insane amounts of time.
Sometimes I have to convince my clients like to take their session times back. Like some of them want to spend 90 and 120 minutes with every single person. And I think it comes from this place of, for me to serve spiritually I have to give everything with absolutely no boundaries.
And that's one of the other things that I think is interesting is that when you're in that sort of community, there's judgment to that. A lot of my clients are worried about what if I get judged? Because I'm charging so much. What if I get judged because I have a business and I'm not giving every hour to it.
And that happens too, especially on social media.
Julia: [00:03:19] Especially I think this is probably one that comes or may come up a lot is the idea of how can I be of service, but still take people's money from them.
Monica: [00:03:28] Exactly. Yeah. How is taking money, a part of that conversation of being of service?
Yeah.
Julia: [00:03:34] Yeah. Ooh, that's a good one. I think this is probably a good time to jump into your core values and on your website, I see that you have, I think four core values. And one is isolation is the enemy of wealth. And we believe that when you're trying to grow your business, you can't do it alone. So I love the second statement, but isolation is the enemy of wealth is really interesting because not even just in spiritual circles just even in the muggle world.
So to say the idea that you're supposed to keep your money quiet, we're not supposed to talk about it.
Monica: [00:04:06] Yeah. So it's interesting. In my circle, and the Revenue Breakthrough Family, we talk about money. And we talk about money both in the sense of celebrating a win, celebrating a $10,000 a month or a $20,000 a month.
But we also talk about money in the sense of the quiet desperation that can happen if you look at your bank account and there's not enough there, or if a client backed out. And the reason I think we need to talk about it is because for most of us, we carry a low level, chronic worry, about money every single day. It contributes to anxiety. It contributes to desperation and depression. It contributes to weight gain and health issues. And I find that if we don't talk about it, it will continue to get worse for everybody. And that's one of the pieces that I aim to change is part of my mission is to change the money conversation on the planet.
But part of that change is first having one. We have to be willing and open to talk about it. But there's another aspect to that value that is also important. And that is that I've just noticed we all go through this cycle and I call it like the cycle of quitting.
And what happens is that every 60 days, 60 to 90 days, no matter how great your business is doing, you just fall out of love with it. And it's not really even related to anything real. Meaning it's not directly related to, oh, this client came on or this client backed out, or we just did this launch and it was amazing.
Or we did this launch and it wasn't amazing. Although those things happen. You could have just had the best week in your business ever. And there just comes with this feeling of wanting to throw the baby out with the bath water. Like wanting to just kill everything. And the reason you bring that up is because I think when we go through that alone as entrepreneurs, it's really scary.
And we're like, what is wrong? And I don't understand. And why do I feel this way? I used to love this and I started this because I loved it. And now everything is it's all backwards and upside down and I don't know what to do. And one of the things that really helps with that is to be with other entrepreneurs, to get inspiration from them because they may not be at that place.
They may be in the excited places. And the cycle, if they are in the wanting to throw everything out, at least you can see it and have some sort of validation with them and we can talk things through together so that it doesn't feel so horrible in moment.
And that's one of the reasons in my programs we do a lot of live events together. Now they're virtual but it used to be in person. And whether it's virtual or in person just being on live where we can talk about all of this and really be with each other and talk about business together helps to keep you out of the cycle. And it also helps to keep you from making bad decisions when you're in that place.
Julia: [00:07:02] So making sure you're not isolated is really about finding a community.
Monica: [00:07:07] Yeah. Finding a community that you can talk openly with about business and about money.
Julia: [00:07:13] Okay. I was thinking, making sure you're building your business with other people and I'm like, that might be hard for someone who has no idea what they're doing, like building a team and.
Monica: [00:07:24] Yeah. I don't recommend that at first.
Julia: [00:07:27] And so the second value is money loves attention. And I think I may have jumped ahead in my questions a little bit, but this is another one that seems. Like counterintuitive. And also from a spiritual perspective, the more that I talk about my money, the more egotistical I must be.
And the more, I must just be in it for the money than in it for helping people. Do you run into that?
Monica: [00:07:51] Yeah. I love that you've looked at these and I love your takes on them because you're right. I do think a lot of people think the more attention I give to money the sort of more evil I am, the more greedy I am.
And I love that you're bringing that up. I think that we are all trained in that way, to hide. To be silent about money and to hide celebrations and to not talk openly about how much you have, or don't have. The way I like to describe it is through a story.
So the very first group program that I ever did, I had seven people registered for it. And I wanted 10 people registered for it. So I needed three more people in that registration. And immediately I started to go down this downward spiral of I'm never going to fill it and everybody else can fill their programs.
And why is this so hard and why can't I ever get what I want? And I must be bad at business. And I really started to believe it. And I started to take myself out of the game. And then there was this voice that kind of came in and it said, Monica, pay attention to your numbers.
Money loves attention. And I was like, huh. Okay. And then I really started to think about it and I realized, okay if I want three more people in my program, I have a conversion rate of roughly around one out of three. So I'm going to need about nine sales conversations. Which means I just need to meet nine people in the next two weeks who I can connect with.
So when my husband came home, that was a Friday, he said, Monica, what are we doing this weekend? And I said, we are accepting every invitation. We are going out. We are seeing everyone. And he looked at me. He's like, who are you? And where is my wife? I'm a total introvert. And normally when he asks me that question, I'm like, it's you, me, and the cat, babe.
So we did. He's a movie maker. He had a lot of stuff planned on that weekend. And so we went to a bunch of brunches with friends in the movie party, and I ended up meeting one person at the brunch. The next week I went to three BNI meetings instead of my normal one BNI networking meeting and met two people there.
The next weekend, I went out to even more friends and more networking events, and I ended up putting two people into the program before the program started. I kept going during the first two weeks of the program and I ended up putting my 10th person in two weeks after the program started.
And the thing that was really great about that is when you give money attention, it takes you out of emotional business management and puts you into strategic business management. So it takes you from EBM to SBM is what I like to say. Emotional business management is what I was doing before. Oh, I'm not good enough.
And that's why this isn't happening for me. And I'm not I'm not going to be able to do this anymore. And it happens for other people. And strategic business management is when I started looking at the numbers. And said, okay, here's what you need. You need nine more conversations. You can do this.
And when I was able to land in the strategic business management category, I stopped beating myself up. I stopped allowing my inner critic to run the show. I started to get excited again. I saw hope. I saw possibility and I ended up hitting my goals. And that's why I love money. That's why I love numbers.
That's why money loves attention. That's why it's so important is because everything is numbers driven. And when you allow yourself to look at the numbers, you don't beat yourself up and say things like, this is about me. I'm doing something wrong. And instead it gives you something to go after.
What are my numbers here? And I find that for most entrepreneurs out there, if you don't have training, if you're not working with us at Revenue Breakthrough or another numbers oriented expert, then you're running your business from an emotional place. And when you live from that place, it is just exhausting and overwhelming.
Julia: [00:11:53] I like the aspect of focusing on the numbers and so that it's not a personal failing or failing when you don't hit your mark. That is really useful. There is a little part of me though, where, when you bring up the numbers and like, oh, I always hated math.
Monica: [00:12:10] Totally. And I think that's true for a lot of people.
I always hated math or I wasn't good at math or. That was, don't like my numbers. I don't like to look at them. I don't like the details. And here's what I have to say. It doesn't have to be hard. It doesn't, none of this is hard. It's only hard if we make it hard. And fundamentally, what it comes down to is every successful business owner on the planet, every successful CEO, he's actually running her business through the numbers.
She's not actually, doing the hope and pray method. And so if we want to be part of the exclusive club of people that have successful businesses that are actually supporting them, like in a consistent way, to be able to create a lifestyle that is worth living, it's time to let go of the belief that you're not good at numbers and the belief that you can't do math because all of that is just a decision.
And it's time to make a different decision. And the decision is I am good at numbers and numbers are simple. Numbers are easy, numbers are fun, but most importantly numbers are you're going to set me free because that's really what they do. They set you free from the burden of wondering what was wrong or feeling futile, feeling helpless.
Which a lot of entrepreneurs are really running their business from that place.
Julia: [00:13:32] Yeah. I would agree with that. What do you say to the people who think that focusing on the numbers makes it feel so impersonal? Like now your clients are numbers and not necessarily like people. And so do you ever run into that?
Monica: [00:13:48] I think that there's a time and place to focus on the numbers. And then the rest of the time you're focusing on the people. So really the way that I'm thinking about numbers here is to give you direction and guidance as to what you're supposed to put your energy and your attention on. And then once you're clear about that, the rest of the time they're people, and frankly people who are just looking at a sale, of this person is just a number, they're not very good salespeople anyway. It's very difficult to have a high conversion rate, if you're not touching someone. If you're not resonating and connecting with them.
So it's interesting because everyone has this fear of oh, what, if people become a number. But the truth of the matter is, it's almost impossible for you to build a large business as a small business owner, unless you are resonating and building connections with people as you're selling to them. So it's like the two don't even go together.
Julia: [00:14:47] That makes more sense. So if I'm understanding you correctly, it's we focus on the numbers to make sure that we're meeting our goals.
They're like goalposts, but in order to meet those numbers, we're still having to interact with people as if they're people. It's not just another number.
Monica: [00:15:02] Yeah.
Julia: [00:15:03] Okay. And that feels way better because you're talking to someone who. When she applied herself was good at math, but I would much rather read a book and write an essay.
I was all about the feels and, the words and, making connections and I'm just like, oh man math, really? And I think that's probably when you're talking to Spiritual business owners. That's probably gotta be the number one thing where they're just like, I can't wait until I can hire an accountant.
Monica: [00:15:29] And I think they should hire an accountant or a bookkeeper right away, FYI. I tell people that a bookkeeper is going to be your best friend as soon as you can afford to hire her, because I'm not saying that you need to look at all your numbers and figure them out. I'm saying you should know them.
I think a bookkeeper is a great asset to every business owner, as soon as you possibly can get started with it. But what is interesting about understanding your numbers is what people don't realize is that it's choose what you're going to worry about.
You may think to yourself, oh, like I'm not good at numbers. I'm not good at math. I was much better essay writer and what, but no matter what you are good at, if you're running a business, you're worrying about money. Yeah. Like you are, there's a low grade, chronic money worry. So I always say it's work either way.
It's work either way, you choose your path, you can worry about money and really and avoid looking at things like the numbers and how they're working for you. Or you can look at your numbers and let go of your worry.
Julia: [00:16:34] Yeah. Yeah. So the more we were talking about this, the more I'm like, oh, I have the block when it comes to focusing on numbers.
It's not that they're impersonal and evil and awful. It's just that I just would rather not, there's nothing wrong with it. And it's actually the way that you're describing. It sounds like a very grounded way of dealing with a business that may seem pretty ungrounded to people.
Monica: [00:16:57] Absolutely.
Absolutely. I think that most especially spiritual entrepreneurs I work with are overworking. They are over-delivering in their boundaries. They are exhausted. They always feel like they're giving more than they're receiving, especially when it comes to monetary sources. And there's sometimes debt, involved in their businesses.
The way to really get yourself out of all of that is to say, okay, let me look at things like numbers and what I need to create, because that'll help me to be happier in every aspect of my life. And finally start living from a place where I'm receiving what I deserve.
Julia: [00:17:38] Receiving what I deserve. Yeah. And I bet that's another little thing. I deserve. Cause again, that sounds entitled, but you're absolutely right. You're doing the work. You're helping people. We, you need compensation if you want to keep having a business.
Monica: [00:17:52] But you also need your container full.
So if you're an energy worker, for example, and you are giving energy nobody wants to receive energy from a depleted cup. Yeah. So if given a choice, nobody wants to be, if I'm paying you $75 an hour and in doing that, it is not enough. And you are going home every night and worrying about paying rent and having to tell your 13 year old that she can't go on the class trip.
Then I don't actually want to hire you, because I don't want to be receiving from a depleted cup. And I think that in the spiritual world, there's not enough conversation about giving from an empty cup. And the quality of service that you were providing to somebody when you are giving from an empty cup. I think that there's an integrity there around, I have to fill my own cup so that the quality of service that I provide it's actually in alignment with what I want it to be.
Julia: [00:18:52] I think that's a beautiful point. I would love to segue a little bit into that conversation before we get onto the next value. Because when you bring up, there's an integrity issue and not being able to serve to your best ability when you're running on that deficit.
I think that is an excellent point. I've never seen it really brought up before and in a serious let's make a change on this kind of a way.
Monica: [00:19:17] Yeah. Listen, we don't even have to look in the healer field for this. The easiest example is to look at doctors. I'm Indian, first-generation Indian.
So a lot of my friends are doctors and to watch residents go in and do 15, 17 hour shifts on little to no sleep scares me. Yeah. Like it scares me that I might be the person that ends up reaching them in their 15th hour. And that's an extreme example, but I honestly have met spiritual practitioners who aren't that far off from that, like their exhaustion may not be coming from a 15 hour shift.
It might be coming from the fact that they woke up at 6:00 AM, got the kids ready, send them to school then did stuff for their house. Then did a practice all day, and then, it might be related to their life. But there's that sort of exhaustion and not receiving enough feels like, what kind of services am I really receiving in that scenario?
Julia: [00:20:12] Exactly. My cousin is a nurse and some of the things that she has described to me, I'm like, that's terrifying. Why do you do that? She's it's consistency of care, less turnover between nurse and doctor. I'm like, yeah, but if you can't see straight, what good is that again?
Like what is the level of care that I'm giving? And you're so right when you apply that to an energy worker, or a medium, if you're not feeling compensated energetically, even if you're not getting sleep, if you're constantly worrying about something, how much of your energy can you actually be giving to the work that you're doing?
Monica: [00:20:49] Yeah. And if you're not hiring help, if if for your business, et cetera. And I can speak for myself on this, like I, there's a huge quality difference between when I'm doing healing work, when I can even perceive, what a person needs when I'm tired. And often when I'm tired, I just won't, I won't do it.
I will stop my day or reschedule the conversation or whatnot, because even the quality from where I'm pulling from, it gets a little fuzzy. Yeah. It gets a little less clear and I don't want to be engaging on something that's going to not be clear for my client.
Julia: [00:21:29] I completely agree with that.
I know that when I have felt overtaxed and I'm talking with a potential sitter or a client, and I'm like, yeah, now's not a good time. Just because I don't feel as if we'll be mainly focused on you. A lot of my energy right now is worried about what am I going to make for dinner?
Or, I wish I would have taken that nap this afternoon or what are my numbers. And It's also, I think if you're someone who's sensitive to energy like that when you have a sitter who's coming to you and they've got that frantic, anxious energy on something, and you just know that no matter how good of a job I do, no matter how well I show up, it will not be received by the sitter.
Because they're looking for something very specific or they're too panicked to get the information. And so the reverse is true, right? If you, the reader are panicked or not in a good situation are only able to accept a certain amount of money, no matter how open the sitter is to receiving, they're not going to be getting much just because you're the fountain from which this information is coming from.
So I think that's an excellent point, Monica. And thank you for bringing that up because I've never heard it explained that way before.
Monica: [00:22:38] Yeah. And it does lead to a business problem though, right? Because the next question is, okay, Mon, I get it. But if I only can do realistically four 90 minute sessions a day, for example, or three, for example, then how am I going to pay my bills?
And my response to that is this is why you have to look at your numbers. Yeah. This is, this goes back to our original conversation. And then the next question I get is great, so if I look at my numbers and I raise my rates, then nobody comes? And then I say that's why you need to learn to market and sell.
Like they're all related. I think that sometimes as spiritual entrepreneurs, we think, oh if I'm just good enough, then they'll come. But you really see why you need to learn business from a different angle, like an integrity perspective about the kind of energy that you want to keep.
Julia: [00:23:30] And especially when it comes to marketing, if you're just sitting here being like, I'm open for business, but you're not telling anyone about it or you're not putting yourself out there-- energetically, you're not open to receiving business. Cause you're not telling anyone about it. You're just sitting there and expecting it to fall into your lap.
But energetically like you're inside you're like, no, I'm not really ready for this to fall into my lap. So taking that step of marketing and actually being in integrity by raising your prices is part of that energy work that is required probably in any business, but in particular a spiritually based business.
Monica: [00:24:08] Absolutely. Yeah. I think it depends on your belief system and whatnot, but if you're looking at what does the universe want from me, what's does the divine want from me? I think part of the answer is operate at your highest, operate at your highest. And what does that mean? I think operate at your highest is different for every person, but it definitely does bring boundaries and raising your rates and into the equation.
Julia: [00:24:33] Yeah, I'm interested what you think about combining the idea of having good boundaries and also raising your rates as the same energy?
Monica: [00:24:43] Yeah, I think they're the same energy because both of them come from the same place. Both of them come from taking care of you. So that you can take better care of others.
So when I say boundaries here, I'm referring to things like, if your sessions are 60 minutes, keeping them at 60 minutes. Having a cancellation policy where people can't cancel within 24 hours. If you are working on certain things, not allowing people to distract you. For example, I just ran an event and when people are funny they'll raise their hand and be like, can you explain all of sales?
No, I, can't. Not in not of 90 seconds. I can give you pieces of what you want, ask me a question, but again, it's like keeping your boundaries around what you can and can't do during your sessions and being very clear about that with people. And I could go on and on with boundaries, but also like boundaries with yourself.
Like what time am I starting my day? What time am I ending my day? What is important for me to get done today? What can wait till tomorrow? And I think that is so important. And the reason I think it relates to money is because raising your rates is just another boundary, right?
This is how much money I need in order to keep my business open and be able to take really good care of myself, so that I continue to be a really healthy, open channel.
Julia: [00:26:05] And I think sometimes what your prices are also requires you to be in integrity with yourself, as you said before, but it also comes down to what type of client am I looking for?
Because I do know people who are happy to charge oh, $25 for a 30 minute session. And I'm like, I couldn't do that because that's so out of integrity with the service that I'm trying to provide, how much work it requires me to put into a session, how I expect the sitter to show up, how I want them to be ready.
And anytime that I have infringed on that boundary and lowered my prices, I end up getting clients who are not ready to do the work. And so I see that as a boundary as well. And also with being in integrity with what it is that I'm trying to provide and how it is that I want to serve.
Monica: [00:26:55] I love that. You're deciding the quality of clients that you want and their commitment level is a big part of this.
And I think you also said something that I want to reiterate, because we are talking about pricing and whatnot here. And you also said something that is important, which is that it's individual to the person, and evaluating the amount of energy you're putting in and what you need right now.
And I say that because I think everybody starts in different places. So this is not a conversation where I, by any means mean to create shame. If you're starting and you're charging anything that you want to charge in order to inspire people, to walk through the door, in order for you to get experience, in order for you to get confident, in order for you to raise your comfort levels-- I have no problems with that.
And I think we all started there, myself included. But I think that the conversation we're having now is if you're not at that place and it's been a minute. And you don't actually need practice. And you're feeling exhausted, and overwhelmed, and overworked, and maybe even a bit bitter-- then it is time to think about those rates and other boundaries as well.
Julia: [00:28:06] I completely agree. Thank you for bringing up bitterness because I've seen that happen. That type of burnout, where you actually start to almost resent the people that come to you because your boundaries aren't that great. And so that's why I think you've been talking a lot about it and, when you have such a low ball number, like say the bar is at $25 for an hour reading, let's say. The people who show up for $25 for an hour reading, it's going to be like a novelty. And you're like, oh no, this isn't really what I'm here for.
I want to do deeper work. And so I, yeah, it's exactly just honoring what is it that I want to provide? And what does that look like? What does that demand of me? What does that demand of my sitter? What is an equal exchange of energy? And so I think when you bring something like the money conversation into it, you understand just how practical it is and not even how practical is it, how necessary it is in order to sustain your business monetarily, but also energetically and integrity wise.
Monica: [00:29:12] Yeah, I agree with all of that. And I do want to add one point here is about the general notion of raising prices. So I want to say this. No one ever wakes up in the morning and is excited to raise their prices. No one has ever been like, oh, today's a beautiful day. And I get to raise my prices, never in the history of the world.
If you are listening to this and the knowing has sparked in you that you need to raise your prices, the first thing that's going to come up as no, like strong. Yeah, it's strong fear, strong resistance. And in fact I always tell my clients, you often need a cheerleader, or even a bully like a loving bully, to get you to raise your prices. Because it's often your coach, every time I've ever raised my prices, it was because my coach said, okay, Monica, charge this.
I was like, okay. And you think no one in the planet is ever going to pay that. And then the very first time somebody does, you're like, whew, I can't believe I didn't do this earlier. This is awesome.
So I just want to say that because I think people, they're waiting for the moment when it's going to feel right. And it's never gonna feel right. It's never gonna feel comfortable. It will get comfortable as you start charging them and you will start seeing your clientele shift. And actually in my experience, there's three phases of raising your rates.
Phase one is you raise them scared and worried. And then for that first phase, people are coming to you and not only can they not pay your new rates, they couldn't pay your old ones. And you're like, what has happened? Like I have clearly done something wrong and there's a real desire to want to go back to your old prices, but really what's going on.
Is that your vibration is so all over the place, you're attracting all over the place, these people, right? Like it's quite normal. So stick with it. And then you go into phase two. And phase two, as you start attracting people that are like, okay, I can pay you that rate, but I have to put it on three different cards. And then we have to like dance in the moonlight together to make it work. And you're like, all right, where are we dancing?
Cause you're just so ready to get one person willing to say yes that you're like, okay, just give me your cards and name the date. And at least it's in phase two, you've got some yeses and that makes you feel better.
And then you finally get to phase three and you find that first person who comes in and says all right, sounds good. Here's my credit card. And people always say to me, Monicawill it then be phase three forever? And unfortunately, no. Bounce back between phase one, two, and three all the time.
But what will happen is that three becomes more and more predominantly true. And not only that, but that when phase three comes into existence, when you get a phase one person, you're not too worried about it anymore because phase three exists. So the phase one person, it's fine.
The person that can't pay it, you'll create something else for them or you'll let them go with love. But it becomes okay, if I just hold out, if I just am clear, there'll be somebody that can pay this. The reason I'm speaking about all of that is I don't know that people will directly experience it if you're just selling session to session, but for those of you that are out there that are selling programs, like you're selling like three month or six month commitments, and you're charging upwards of 2, 3, 4, $5,000 for your work at once.
That this really applies more so to that.
Julia: [00:32:35] Yes. And I think it's worth mentioning that there is a feeling when you're talking about money, that it's like just mercenary. But I think what we've been trying to get to here is that it's just energy, right? So we're talking about energetic reciprocity.
We're trying to say, this is where I am, are you willing to meet me here? And if that's really all it is. And I think that takes the charged emotional energy out of conversations about money. And for, and spiritual businesses in particular, when you're talking about prices.
Monica: [00:33:08] Yes, it is. It's an energetic exchange and money is an energy. And there's a lot of energy workers who are going to be listening to this. And and it's interesting because it does require some level of attention and energy, just like everything else.
Julia: [00:33:23] So let's get back to your core values. So number three is where we left off and it is, there are no cookie cutter dreams. And I love that. And I was thinking more big picture. What little section of the workplace do I want to get into? But you get more into whether that's traveling the world, impacting thousands of lives, or having an amazing life with your family.
And I think getting into the more micro perspective of that is probably more enriching than what I was going with it.
Monica: [00:33:51] Yeah. I find that every business owner is different, and this actually is really a nice segue from the money conversation. Because every dream is different.
So there are women out there who are wanting to make three or $4,000 a month to supplement their families. And then there are women out there and men out there who are primary breadwinners in their families. There are folks that want to build a legacy and folks that are trying to create enough to send a kid to college.
And I think that every dream is different. And so therefore how you're building your business is different. And the reason I say that is because we often compare ourselves to the people that are making six figures or making seven figures, or working lots and lots of hours.
And I think we need to allow ourselves to be okay with what we need in the moment now.
Julia: [00:34:46] And that's a really great point that you're making. Not everyone wants to be a millionaire.
Monica: [00:34:51] Yeah. And I don't think that there's any badge of honor just because you are. Yeah. Like I've been making a million dollars in my business since 2013 and that, there's no reward, right?
No one is going to give me something special because I've done it. Ultimately everyone's values are very different. And I tell this to my clients all the time, if you're in a time in your life where you've got little kids at home and they are your priority, then that is what is most important to you.
And it doesn't matter, none of the other stuff matters. So it's whatever your particular values are and really staying in your own lane. Blinders on, in your own lane.
Julia: [00:35:28] I like that. I think I know for me in particular, I don't really have an urge to be a millionaire. Might be cool to experience if it all of a sudden happened to me-- I'm not going to burn the money. But it's not necessarily a goal. And so I think keeping that in mind when you're focusing on your numbers is don't strive for something that you don't even need. I think is what you're trying to get at here.
That doesn't have to be your dream.
Monica: [00:35:53] Not at all. Several of my clients, their main dream is to just be location independent. Meaning they travel the world and work, and then work three hours a day. I have another client who takes three months off every summer to be with her kids.
Like it's very different and it's all based on planning and getting clear on what you want so that you can create that lifestyle that works for you.
Julia: [00:36:14] I really like that. So this is the last value, and I find it maybe the most interesting, is faith plus action equals results. I find that interesting.
You say we love spirituality in all forms and understand that results are created in more ways than one. So I have a few questions. One is that, do you find that incorporating any faith into money is helpful in, manifesting or making money? Or do you find that sometimes you really have to work through the blocks that come from faith in order to start incorporating it into your business?
Monica: [00:36:50] That's interesting. When you say the blocks that come from faith what do you mean by that?
Julia: [00:36:55] So I come from a very Catholic background. I grew up Catholic. There is a really pervasive idea that you're supposed to be a pauper. If you're a good Catholic, you're poor. If you're a good Catholic, you don't have a lot of money, you give it to the church.
Which, examining it now-- I can make fun of it a little bit cause I grew up Catholic. If you can just take a look at the Vatican, it's dripping in gold. So it doesn't make much sense. But if that's your conditioning, right? Like it's going to be hard to incorporate money and faith, and you might even divorce them entirely.
Like I know people who flagellate themselves for every dollar that they make, because they're almost like recreating the idea that in order for me to make money, I have to suffer for it. Or if I have money, I have to suffer for it.
Monica: [00:37:42] Oh, wow. It's such a beautiful. It's a beautiful topic that you are bringing up and I love that you're bringing how you grew up with it, into it.
Cause I think that's so pervasive for so many people. I think. Okay. So I'll tell you what I based that in, and then I want to go back to what you said is that I think being an entrepreneur is scary. And every single day you're learning something. New every single day. And that's not just one thing, multiple things. From I need to problem solve how do I do an opt-in page? How do I get on Facebook? How do I do a live? How do I do a social media post? How do I do a newsletter? Every single day, you are learning new stuff at a rapid pace.
So I say it's like going, you know how, when we were all little, we went to swimming lessons. And when I was little, I did a swimming lessons and they start you as like a tadpole, and then you become like a fish, and then like a shark, and then then a whale, although who wants to be a whale. But anyway like we move through the levels of swim class. And I remember I would move through those levels. And every time you got to a new level, you like to learn all these new strokes.
And it was like scary and hard. And the only reason that I would go back was that they would give us these super large gumdrops at the end. And my mom purposely never bought gum drops at home because she knew that the only place that would get them was swim class. And I would literally look forward to my gum drop every day.
Every time I went to swim class and you have to jump in the cold pool, like it was like over chlorinated and all kinds of stuff. And I feel like every day and entrepreneurship is somewhat like jumping into a cold pool, like being uncomfortable, not knowing what you're doing, having to learn new stuff.
And we don't have a lot of gumdrops. A lot of entrepreneurs don't necessarily give themselves any accolades. And what's worse, for a lot of entrepreneurs, you get the opposite of a Gumdrop. You get okay, now that you've worked your day, make dinner, take care of the kids. Like you get no understanding of what you just did all day long and, learning new stuff.
And sometimes it's even worse than that. Sometimes you get like misunderstood. So they ask you like did you get a client today? Did you make more money?
And mind you, I think that this experience is, for those of you that are listening, more attributable to that first three years I think it gets easier after that because you're not learning as much as you are during the first three, sometimes five years of being in business. But I call those years the crying years.
And during that time, there's always fear present. And I have found that the only way to really deal with that period and all of it in your business is faith. And when I say fate here, trusting that you are not alone. Trusting that everything is going to be okay. Trusting that no matter what you're doing, there is another force on the other side that is looking out for you. Trusting that even if something goes wrong, now you're going to learn from something and that everything is always moving towards greater joy and greater good and ease.
Now. Given what you talked about with Catholicism, and I think most major organized religions, you have to actually rework your definition of faith to believe all those things. You have to examine what does organized religion teach? More specifically, what has organized religion taught me?
And I work on, oh my gosh this is, I work on this a lot with my clients. Because if you believe, for example in a lot of Christianity, there's a belief that bad things happen after good things, right? If good has been happening, then there's going to be a bad thing coming. There's also a belief that God gets angry with you.And so if you do something wrong, God is angry with you.
And that just goes back way back, right? To like when the crops died, it's because. God was angry with you and you did something wrong. So if that is your belief, then faith, isn't actually going to support you. Because when things go wrong in your business, you're going to go straight back to what did I do?
And God's angry with me. And this isn't okay. Now this is where you have to start to really shift into a more, I don't know, a different set of beliefs. That are around no matter what's going on in my present moment, everything is okay. That God is never angry, that everything is happening in your best interest.
That it's all a learning experience. That it's all moving towards something better, that everything is positive and that God isn't a vindictive. And that you don't, and this relates to what you're saying about money, right? That's the original belief, is that God has opinions and gets upset. And so if you have money, you have to give it away or you'll have to self-flagellate, or you have to work really hard, or you have to make it hard.
Otherwise just like the crops, God will take it away. Just like sending a hurricane or a tornado, God will take it away. That's where it all comes from. Is that as early humans, we didn't know how to explain nature. We didn't know how to explain fire. We didn't know how to explain why things happened.
So we decided it was because of something that we did. So that led to this whole ancestral belief system around I am wrong. And if something goes wrong, it's because I was wrong and money related. So that meaning if I don't operate well with money, if I have too much money, if I don't give it away, then God's going to get angry with me and I won't have continuous it's success.
And it's literally in ourselves. And it doesn't matter, or whether you're Christian or not, frankly. Like if you can be, I'm Hindu, like it's in all of our ourselves. Because almost every major organized religion has some aspect of that in its mythology and its stories and its testaments.
And so I think it's it's one of the most important things early on entrepreneurs have to do is examine and shift, make different decisions about who God is or what the universe is or what your faith is. If you want to use faith as a remedy for fear, right?
Not everybody is going to be into this. Some people are going to be like I want to believe my religion and what my religion is telling me. And then in that situation, you are going to need to choose something else to help you with that fear.
Julia: [00:44:06] That's an excellent point. I didn't think of that.
That sometimes if you choose the, I want to call it the punishment or like the thorn, really, of the religion, then you're going to have to find something else to help you. That sort of seems to break down the whole paradigm of why we even do religion. It's supposed to be there to help us.
Monica: [00:44:24] Yeah. It's not supposed to be there of the sort of vindictive parent. And I, again, this is so touchy I don't. It's very sensitive in the sense that anybody who's listening, I don't, I'm not opposed to organized religion. I actually think there's so many parts of it, like going to church is such a beautiful thing.
Like every Sunday coming together in community. In the Jewish religion, keeping Shabbat, like there's so many beautiful elements of it. I just think it's important to pick, and to choose to look at how is the older stuff affecting us now, in our fears. And I see it a lot.
One of my clients just wrote in our Facebook group it seems like whenever I have success, then something bad happens.
And she then went on to make a list of when I did well on my business, then my partner got sick. And just now she was like, I was starting to do really well on my business. And then I got a migraine and I was like, that kind of cause and effect is biblical. It comes from the Bible. And it's not like, that's not actually true. And things happen and it has nothing to do with you.
One of my favorite places to rework this, is Michael Singer has a program. He wrote a book called The Surrender Experiment, and he has a program on Sounds True, all About Surrendering. It's like an eight session series. And one of the series, he literally goes back to the beginning of time and he explains like everything.
And at first you're listening to it and you're like, why do I need to know what happened in the paleolithic period? And like, why do I need to know like where plants and animals came from? And then finally he gets to this point, which is, do you really think that you're controlling any of this?
If you really think if the universe was able to create all of this that you actually caused. . . ?
It's a really beautiful kind of like combination of you realizing like stop. Stop attributing things to things that aren't there and lean in to what is happening, surrender to it.
Julia: [00:46:22] Yeah. That's really beautiful. Thank you so much for speaking on that. I appreciate it. And Monica, we want to be mindful of your time. So I just wanted to give you an opportunity to tell everyone where they can find you and work with you.
Monica: [00:46:33] Sure. My company is called Revenue Breakthrough. And if you would like to connect with us, one of the first things that I recommend that people do is download our marketing calendar.
And it's it's a done for you kind of calendar that just helps you with knowing what marketing activities to do. Especially if this moved you and you realized you could learn some more. And that's at revenuebreakthrough.com/marketingcalendar.
And if you are somebody that would like to learn more about what we do, you can email us at support@revenue breakthrough.com. And then we do an event in May called the Master Your Money Event. And we really talk a lot about the deep money stuff that Julia and I went into over a three-day period.
And I think it's a must attend event for any entrepreneur looking to shift their money and experience. So you want to check that out? It's it, we do it in May and it every year, and it's at masteryourmoneyevent.com.
Julia: [00:47:28] Thank you so much for sharing all of that.
I will have those links and everything else in the episode notes for everyone so that they can take a look at that. I just wanted to say thank you, Monica. I really enjoyed this conversation and we'll see you next time, everyone.
Monica: [00:47:41] Thank you.
Julia: [00:47:42] Thanks.