The Mindset of Abundance: Unlocking Your Financial Potential

Aloha, inspired money makers. Welcome to another episode of Inspired Money, the Livescream podcast, where we explore the intersection of wealth, happiness, and purpose. Today, we're diving into a fascinating topic that can truly transform your financial the mindset of abundance, unlocking

your financial potential. For some of you, this may feel a little bit woo woo, but studies by Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck on the concept of a growth mindset have shown how our beliefs about our abilities can significantly impact our success. When we adopt an abundance mindset, believing that opportunities and resources are limitless can really open ourselves up to greater possibilities, not just in our personal growth, but also in our financial well

being. I'd like to share a quick story. I once performed music and attended a father Damien street dedication in New York City. We're parking is pretty impossible, but I decided to think positively about finding a parking spot, having gratitude about getting a parking spot, in believing that one would open up for me. And you know what? I found a perfect free parking spot just a couple blocks near the event. Was it a coincidence? Was it the power of having an abundance mindset?

Perhaps it was Father Damien smiling down at me. They could have been all of the above. But today we're going to explore how adopting a how adopting an abundance mindset can positively impact your finances. We have a fantastic panel of experts, so stay tuned over the next hour as we discuss how shifting your mindset can unlock your financial potential. Before bringing in the panelists, I want to say that this episode is brought to you by my financial

advisory firm, Runnymede Capital Management. And rather than having my usual typical CTA, I want to dedicate this episode to Joan Anti IO Cabanos, a significant figure in the New York Hawaii community. We just celebrated her life this past Monday in Manhattan, and I got to visit her while she was in hospice about a month ago. Her advice to me while there was it's all about relationships. We really got to talk about, you know, she got to reflect as

she entered, like, this transition in her life. At the end of her life, what really matters and Auntie IO came to New York as a teenager, dancing hula as a performer at the Lexington Hotel hawaiian room. I think she performed there roughly around 1966. She was there for four years, and at the time, it was the place to be. Movie stars would go there to get live entertainment, live music and hula. And I just wanted to share

that takeaway. Anti eo reflecting at the end of your life, her advice is that it's the relationships that you keep that matter and as we celebrated her life, that was evident. So many people came from near and far to celebrate and I had the honor of playing music at her memorial service. So with that, I want to bring in our amazing panel of

experts. We've got a great one today. Let me start with Gaye Hendricks, renowned psychologist, author, speaker, best known for his work on personal transformation, relationships and the concept of the big leap into a life of abundance and fulfillment. Gay, welcome back. Thank you very much. Andy. Great to be with you. So great that you're here. Doctor Noah St. John

is known as the father of afformations. He's a successful coach who helps Hollywood celebrities, professional athletes and CEO's achieve extraordinary financial results in just twelve weeks. He's the author of 25 books including his latest, the seven Figure Expert. Welcome, Noah. Thanks, Andy. Great to be here and thanks for inviting me. Fantastic. We have Cliff

Ravenscraft back on the show. He is master business strategist and a mindset coach who empowers individuals to overcome limiting beliefs and behaviors, guiding them to achieve their dreams through purposeful work and personal transformation. Cliff, I'm so glad that you can make it. Andy, thank you so much. It is an honor to be back on your show. We're going to have so much fun. And

rounding out our panel today we have Rachel Marie Martin. She's an author, speaker, influencer known for her empowering messages on resilience, motherhood and finding joyous with a global audience through her website, finding joy and her best selling books like the Brave. Let's see if I can get this right. The brave art of motherhood. Mom, enough. And the newest book, which I think dropped yesterday,

congrats on. Get your spark back. You're not at home right now because you're doing like pr on national tv. I am. I'm in New York City right now, so not very far from you. Staying at a friend's place and we make it work. Where were you this morning? On GMA. So I was on GMA about a week and a half ago. I was on television in Long island and yesterday I was in Times Square because there's a billboard with the book on it. So that was pretty fun. And my face, so I did do the little

cheer and dance. Rachel got to see her name and face in lights in New York City, so I did. Well, I'm so excited to have each and every one of you here. We're going to have a fantastic discussion on abundance and mindset and money. So let's jump right in to segment one. An abundance mindset believes in limitless resources and opportunities for everyone to succeed. It focuses on positive outcomes, collaboration in recognizing the potential

in every situation. Key principles include seeing endless possibilities, maintaining a hopeful outlook, and being open to new opportunities. In contrast, a scarcity mindset is driven by the belief that resources are limited. This leads to competition, fear and a focus on what's lacking. People with a scarcity mindset feel threatened by others success and are often stuck in negative thinking patterns. To develop an abundance mindset, start by

reframing negative thoughts and practicing gratitude. Embrace a growth mindset, which involves believing in the potential for personal development through effort and learning. Surround yourself with positive influences and set clear, actionable goals that align with your values. By cultivating an abundance mindset, you can enhance your financial and personal well being, creating a more fulfilling and prosperous life.

This approach not only promotes individual growth, but also fosters a collaborative and positive environment for all. Yeah, you want to kick us off. In your book the Big Leap, you explore concepts like upper limit problems. How do these psychological barriers intersect with a scarcity

mindset? Well, most of us learn kind of by osmosis, certain beliefs about life as we grow up, and a lot of these beliefs are already in place by the time we pick up our little lunchbox and teeter off to kindergarten when we're five years old. So a good example in the big leap, I identify three or four key limiting beliefs that I've found in people, even highly successful people I've worked with, like CEO's or award winning actors and things like that. We almost all seem to come into certain

limiting beliefs. And the biggest one that affects so many people is a general belief that I don't deserve to have the good things of life, like love, abundance, good times, good health. There's some belief inside that says I don't deserve that. A second belief that I've uncovered in even very successful people is the belief that I

don't deserve to be in the spotlight. It's okay for me to be on the sidelines helping somebody in the spotlight, but I, for one reason or another, don't deserve to be the star of my own life. And that's a particularly troublesome one, because almost always as you begin to be more successful in life, you get called upon to be more public about it. And I remember after I wrote my first book, which is now goes back 50 years ago, I went out to give my first professional

lecture that was based on the book. And after it was to a group of 150 teachers. And afterwards a guy came up to me and he said, I just wanted to thank you for your presentation. And I. Oh, okay. And he said, it wasn't so much what you said, it was how you said it. And I said, oh, what do you mean by that? And he said, well, your voice shakes just as badly as mine does when I try to speak in public. So I've come a long way, fortunately, since then.

But no matter where you are, where you start, there's got to be a point where you say, okay, I can transcend these limitations. And that's what the big leap and other books I've done is all about. That compliment will make you think a little bit, Noah, how can affirmations help somebody to dismantle these long held scarcity beliefs, and how do you replace them with thoughts of abundance? Well, absolutely. As you mentioned in your introduction, I'm actually the father

of afformations, not affirmations. Just so to let you know, we're using a new word here, it's afformations. Aff. O r m a t I o n s. That's something I invented 30 years ago. It's a methodology of using empowering questions rather than statements. As a keynote speaker and an executive coach, I do presentations for teams, companies, organizations all across the country

and around the world. And everybody that I've ever met or spoken to has heard about affirmations because that's what we've been taught for decades. Back in 1997, I invented this methodology called afformations that I just showed you, and it's about using the embedded presupposition factor of the brain, which is just a fancy way of saying that when you ask an

empowering question, your brain searches for the answer. So instead of saying something like, I'm happy, I'm rich, I'm successful, and your brain goes, no, you're not. I invented instead the process of afformations, which is asking empowering questions like, why am I so happy? Why am I so successful? Why am I feeling so great today? Now, when you ask an empowering question, what it does is it immediately changes the subconscious thought patterns in your brain. And this

is something I've been teaching my clients for over 30 years. And so we have so many stories of people who have made more money and started their business, grow their business. I had one client who went from $60,000 in debt to a six figure income in less than twelve weeks, and many, many stories like that. So that's how powerful this my afformations method is. But hey, if you like afformations,

you can keep using them. But for those people who are frustrated with their old way, the affirmation way, you can always try the new way, which is afformations. Okay, so today we'll be talking afformations and why not? Sounds good. Rachel, in your life, you've had to break free from survival mode. Can you share? How did shifting to an abundance mindset help you move from surviving to thriving? Yeah, I would love to. Well, first I started

out having to recognize that I was in survival mode. And that survival mode wasn't the methodology or the way that I wanted to teach my kids to do something. There's nothing quite as powerful for at least me, and I know many others. Then what type of legacy am I going to leave behind? So for me, switching the mindset from survival to abundance meant that I first had to recognize where I was coming from. And then I needed to actually take kind of control of the thoughts that I was having.

I wasn't trying to make it do. There was always an opportunity. That was one of the biggest things that I shifted would be thinking, could anybody in my situation that, could somebody in my situation who has the same resources, same mindset, could they figure a way to thrive in this, not even to get out? And switching it to, is it possible? Changed it from there's no possible way? And that little subtle shift

of wondering, I love that question. Thought of, I wonder what I could do, helped me move from surviving to completely to thriving and then to wondering what's next that I can do. And have you seen not only in your own life, but you've seen that in your finding joy community, too? Definitely. Definitely. I've, what I like to say is that finding joy, joy is something that is a choice. It's a conscious choice to look for something good in

the circumstances that you're in. It doesn't mean that life is perfect. But when you choose to look for joy, when you make that choice, then you're actually opening up other doors. You're allowing your brain to see that there's a possibility. And I believe over the last 15 years that I've been writing, I've been spreading this message of let's look for something good. And when you start to seek that in the crevices of life, then that looking for good, looking for opportunity, gets larger.

Cliff, you have come from a place where this could be viewed as woo woo or nonsense. Can you share a story from your own life where adopting an abundance mindset really, like, drastically changed the outcome of a challenging situation for you? Sure. So, first of all, back when I was first introduced to materials in the self help personal and professional development category. I came from an upbringing where everything that was opposed to

what I was brought up with seemed woo woo. And I can tell you right now, on the other side of a lot of growth and, and expansion of my old beliefs, I have come to embrace all things woo woo. I think there's more in the metaphysical world that we don't understand in our physical reality, that I have fully understood that the pattern of our thoughts creates our reality. And so for me, I used to struggle with all sorts of scarcity, mindset related things such

as, there's not, there's never enough money. Uh, there's only so much to go around. There's only, you have to work hard for your money. And if you have, if what you're doing is not difficult, if it's not challenging, if you have not worked hard, if there hasn't been a bit of pain, there's, then you're not worthy of the gain. I had a lot of limiting beliefs about adding value and receiving any form of wealth, whether, whether it's

monetary or otherwise. I felt like there was, I had to be in action, and I had to do and perform to be worthy of anything good. And so it left me with a lifetime of ups and downs, of my energy levels, burning myself out, working at the, you know, working so hard that I'm burning the candle at both ends of the stick, only to suffer a lot of health consequences and mental consequences and relationship consequences as a result of it.

And when I finally said, you know what? Okay, I'm going to start reading books like think and grow rich, and I'm going to read, ultimately, books like the big leap gays on here. And one of my favorite questions, I got so angry at gay when I read this one question, are you willing to have your life go well and feel great all of the time? And I'm like, what a stupid question, that, of course I'm not worthy of, that I'm not.

That's not even possible. And I struggled with that question that I literally set the book down and said, I'm not going to do anything. And that question wouldn't leave me. And what happened? The biggest change, the mindset shift for me was that I realized he wasn't asking, are you willing to make that commitment right now? He simply said, and I had to go back. If it were possible, would you be willing? And I'm like, oh, wait a second. And the answer was still no. The answer was still no.

And I'm like, why? And that opened up all sorts of things. And then all of a sudden, I began to expand. Is it possible? And then all of a sudden, it's not only possible, but I think it is actually the way that I'm called to live. And then eventually I got to the place that, yes, if it were possible, yes, I am willing to feel good and have my entire life go

well. And then I also, over the next three months, made it all the way to the place where I am absolutely fully committed to have to feeling good and having my entire life go well. And I've experienced that mindset of abundance ever since. I see gay applauding. Yes, I'm really pleased. I love hearing stories like that. I always say I have the best inbox in town because every day I get, people send me stories like that about how they went from one place to another by

applying one of the principles. And I'm my own best customer. With the big leap I started, I thought about this stuff for 30 years before I sat down and I wrote the book. I was lucky, though. I got. I was sitting next to a kid when I was 14 years old. I tell about this in a book I wrote called Conscious Luck. I was sitting next to a kid that I called Danny, and he was in my class, but I didn't know him real well. And we were at a movie and I don't know, for some reason they were having

a drawing and it was a full house. And so there was like 250 people there. And I, they put all of our tickets with our names in it into a goldfish bowl, and they were going to draw three prizes. And the top one was a wristwatch. Was a pretty cool thing in 1959, you know, a wristwatch. Wow. And so Danny nudged me and he said, watch this. I'm going to win one of the prizes. And I said, what? Anyway, they went right into the drawing. He won the wristwatch. And afterwards I said, how did

you do that? And he said, I just made up one day that I'm one of the lucky ones in life. And I remember thinking, you can do that. And he said, yeah, it's real easy. You just do it by changing your thoughts. And I don't know where he got this crazy idea, but I just did it right there in the moment. I decided, okay, I'm going to be one of the lucky ones because there's lots of smart people around, but there's not a lot of people around that are both smart and incredibly

lucky. And so if you're going to work on some dimension of life. Open up a dialogue with making yourself luckier too, as well as making yourself more loving, more generous, and more grateful. That is very cool. Unconscious luck. So we're going to go to segment two and talk about transformative mindset practices. Transforming your mindset can significantly enhance financial success. Start by practicing gratitude. Reflect daily on what you are thankful for to foster

a positive outlook on life and finances. Promoting smarter financial decisions. Visualization is another powerful tool. Spend a few minutes each day picturing your financial goals vividly. This mental imagery helps embed your aspirations in your subconscious, making them more attainable. Practice positive affirmations. Statements like, I am worthy of financial success and I attract wealth effortlessly should be repeated daily to reinforce

positive beliefs. Place them where you'll see them regularly. Practices like meditation and deep breathing can reduce financial stress, helping you make deliberate choices. Overcome financial fears by identifying and in challenging limiting beliefs. Through journaling and visualization, set clear, achievable financial goals to provide direction and motivation. Invest continuously in your financial education. Books, workshops and courses can help you recognize

opportunities. Fostering an abundant mindset. These strategies collectively pave the way for greater financial success and personal well being. Rachel, in your book get your spark back, you talk about reclaiming joy. How can reclaiming joy directly impact financial success? And what small steps can someone take

to start the process? Well, one of the things I identified in my, in my book and in my writing and throughout the years was that I had a money mindset of which I heard from my grandfather, and maybe it was right or wrong, but he would always say, what do you do to keep the wolf from the door? And I realized for many years I lived with this mindset that this other shoe was going to drop. Something was going to take away what I

had. Like, I wasn't worthy what we've been talking about. And so for reclaiming joy, it meant going back and re examining those mindset that, those thought processes that I had about money and joy and worth. Because if, like we've been talking about, if you don't think you're worthy of it, then, then you're, you'll, it's almost, you'll self sabotage. So I became very consciously aware of the steps that it takes to, to change that thought process, to

find joy, to look for joy, and to say, you know what? I'm worthy of this now. I'm worthy of living a life of joy and abundance. Yeah. And watching the video, like, telling yourself that, oh, I'm going to be wealthy or going back to gay's example and telling myself I'm going to be lucky. I feel kind of silly sometimes, or it feels funny. Do I just have to get over myself? Like, Noah in the seven figure expert, you discuss habits for financial

success. Can you talk about, like, do I have to get over myself? And then, like, which daily habits would you say are most crucial? Absolutely. It's a very, very important topic. And, yeah, something I've written 25 books about. So, yeah, that daily habits are so important. I mean, I grew up poor in a rich neighborhood. So I know that sounds like a total cliche,

but it's true. I grew up in this little town called Kennebunkport, Maine, which is one of the wealthiest communities in New England, in fact, the entire country. But my family was dirt poor. I mean that literally because we lived at the bottom of a dirt road in a draft, unfinished house that my parents ended up losing to foreclosure. So the point is, I grew up with this scarcity mentality like we've been talking about. So it took years and years and years

reading and going to every seminar and reading all the books out there. And that's when I realized that highly successful people are actually doing these habits every day, but they don't even know they're doing them. So I created something that I call the power habit system, the power habits of unconsciously successful people. Because I realize that highly successful people, yes, they're doing these conscious habits, but it's just like the iceberg principle. 10% is visible above the surface, 90%

is below the surface of consciousness. They don't even know they're doing it. And so that's why, you know, one of the unconscious habits that highly successful people do is, ironically, they are using my afformations method without even knowing it. They're asking empowering questions like, why can't I do it? Why am I able to do this? Why am I so lucky? Right? And they're asking these questions without even knowing it, and therefore they can never teach it to you. So that's

why, yes, you got to have the conscious habits. You got to do everything that people talk about. But it's also important to understand what are you doing unconsciously to hold yourself back from the success you're capable of. By the way, you know, one of my clients said that, you know, by not having these habits in place, it was costing him a million dollars. And he decided to hire me. I made him 1.8 million in ten months just by putting these habits in place. What an investment.

Worked out well. Cliff, you often emphasize the importance of mindset in achieving business success. How do you personally, do you use affirmations or affirmations or similar practices to really stay focused? Well, I've not read the book affirmations, but I will tell you that the principle of asking yourself empowering questions, one of the earliest things that I learned about the subconscious mind, that it is actually required to answer

any question you ever ask it. So if I were to say, man, why am I. Why do I always fail as a husband? I'm always going to get answers from my subconscious mind. Those thoughts will flow, whereas what could I do to be more consistent as a husband and father, those conversations will always constantly flow. So I

do. One of the practices that helps me in a mindset of abundance, abundance is to make sure that I understand and remember and never forget that the quality of my life will be dependent upon the quality. The questions that I ask myself. As far as affirmations are concerned, yes, I'm a huge believer in affirmations. Now, what I recognize is that there are

many people who have said affirmations just don't work. And it's much along the lines of, well, I'm saying I am a wealthy person, I am a wealthy person, and yet there's some voice inside that says, no, you're not. The one thing I will say is affirmations absolutely will not work if you consistently repeat to yourself something that you don't believe to be true. So for affirmations to actually work, it needs to be something that you believe that there's no

resistance to internally. So one of the things that I like to do when I'm working with clients is help them come up with an affirmation that they would like to be true for them and find out if we can. Number one, can we word it in a way that actually is in alignment with what they currently believe? And the most important work that I do, I have this belief that all beliefs have consequences, either good or bad, depending on what our outcomes are. But every belief we have,

have, has a consequence. So if there is something that we would like to affirm that we believe could be true for us, the question is we need to ask the questions. What's currently going on? What would I have to believe to feel

such resistance about the truth of this statement? And if we can get into some inner dialogue and some self reflection to find out what are some of those beliefs that we've adopted along the way that are in conflict with this new subconscious programming code that we want to install sometimes we have to. Actually, I come from a day I taught myself how to program basic computer language back in

1984 or something like that with the Commodore Vic 20. And if you have a line of code that says do this, but then you later down have another line of code that says do something else, that code that came first is going to take priority and the new code is going to be ignored because it conflicts or you may get a syntax error

or something of that nature. And that's really what we're dealing with here. So when an affirmation doesn't work, when you're like, this feels wrong, this doesn't feel real, the question is, let's go layer deeper and find out what's, what's in the subconscious programming code of my life that is conflicting here. Let's go and change that, pull that out, and then we can install the. New I remember basic and logo. So I'm right there

with you. Okay. Can you talk about like, how does visualization play a role, your personal practice? Well, I'm a golfer, for one thing. So visualization is very important to me as a golfer because, well, I've to give you the context. I've been off the golf circuit for a while now because exactly a month ago I had the genius surgeons at Cedar Sinai put a new hip in me. And so I've been kind of off my

game for a while. So I've been practicing a lot of golf in my mind, there's a certain hole that I'm working on getting a par on out there. And so over and over again in my mind, I practice on hole number three at the Ojai Valley Inn Golf Club, where I've been a member since the paint dried on the walls many years ago. And. But I'm visualizing every day pretty much making this perfect golf

shot. Now, if you're not a golfer, forget everything I just said and realize that most of us are going around using visualization all the time, but we're using it in the service of some old, unconscious limiting program. So you're visualizing failing at something, or you're visualizing losing money in the stock market, but you're visualizing a thing and you don't really realize that you are proving the power of

visualization. So what needs to happen is they're kind of like changing channels on a television set or going from sitting down to standing up or standing to sitting down. It's a kind of a phase shift where something happens that was different from the moment before. So if you can shift to thinking, for example, like a vivid example just popped into my mind. There was this really brilliant young psychiatrist. He was about 35 years old, 36 years old, had a great practice and colleagues

gathering around him and that kind of thing. So his life, in one way was going well, but I had him ask a more empowering question. He came in and he said, I want to find out why all the relationships I get in, I ultimately seem to mess up. Well, like one of our colleagues just said, if you pose a question like that, you know, if you pose a question to

your unconscious, why am I such a miserable screw up? It will sit there and just come up with one after the other and even wake you up in the middle of the night to tell you some more. So what we need to do is shift a channel and ask a more empowering question. Like the one I asked this young man to adopt was, how can I get the maximum love that I want and need, and how can I grow that love every day? How can I get the maximum love that I want to need, and how can I grow that love every

day? And you can always tell when you hit upon the right question or the right thing for the right person, because they get what I call an all over smile. You know, you may see their face smile, but their body kind of goes. It's like slipping into a comfortable pair of jeans or a pair of shoes.

It just fits right. And so I've practically worn my neck muscles out, bobbing up and down, agreeing with what everybody's been saying today because we actually use here we have a whole segment in our training that goes back to 1989 on how to ask the most empowering question. And so a lot of, I think, as we get closer and closer to the truth, our paths may overlap a lot. But just about everything everybody said so far are things that I actually do every day. Like,

I do visualize every day and I do meditate every day. In fact, I have a. I'll brag about this a little bit. I have a 52 year daily meditation streak going. I started meditating over 50 years ago when I was a graduate student at Stanford. And I. It saved my life, I think. And being able to drop out of the craziness of trying to be a dad and be a grad student and, you know, publishing all those kinds of things

are the most stressful time in my life. So being able to kind of drop out of that into spaciousness for an hour a day was life changing for me. Those are great questions. Gay has convinced me to stop visualizing three putting on the golf course for sure. A recurring problem. I have a storehouse of those that I could draw on easily. Rachel, did you have something to add? I wasn't sure. Oh no, I was just agreeing.

I completely agree with the meditating. Meditating has transform my life and without that moment of pause I talk about take the pause I often, even before an interview, will just take 30 seconds and clear my mind and let go of what I don't need to bring with me to the interview. Otherwise I'm coming in with all that baggage and it's the same for meditation. So I fully, fully agree with that. All great practices we're going to jump

into segment three. An abundance mindset can transform how we make financial decisions and plan for the future. It starts with adopting positive money scripts, seeing money as a tool for achieving goals rather than a source of stress. This mindset encourages strategic saving and investing, fostering financial stability. Emotions play a significant role in our financial choices. Fear can lead to impulsive

decisions like prematurely selling investments. While positive emotions like gratitude can encourage prudent spending and saving, financial literacy is crucial. Risk tolerance is another key factor. Knowing how much risk you can comfortably take helps align your investments with your long term goals. Balancing analytical decision making with intuitive insights can lead to better outcomes. Mindfulness practices like meditation and journaling help manage financial stress, leading

to more thoughtful decisions. Embracing an abundance mindset fosters proactive financial behaviors, paving the way for lasting financial well being. Clip when you work with people, what advice do you give about balancing analytical decision making with intuitive insights? Hmm. Well, I guess what I would say about that is there's something to be said about following your energy, following your heart, and recognizing that what rationally we believe is the right answer or the

responsible thing to do. We have to always ask ourselves, does the path that I'm considering right now, does it have a heart? Because there are many times when it seems like based upon what we've been taught, what we've heard from others, what we've been conditioned to believe, and what we've been taught is important by others, really, in fact, is nothing more than a bunch of beliefs and made up paths that other

people have agreed upon. And whether or not a lot of people come to me and say, cliff, I need to know which direction is the right direction for me to go down. And what they'll do is they'll tell me, hey, there are these two paths, this divergence that I need to go on. I should either go down this path, which seems to be more responsible, lots more money involved. There seems to be more job security and all this other stuff.

But there's this one thing over here. I can't get to sleep at night because I'm so distracted thinking about this thing and how much I would love to do this thing. And what I recommend is that you find out what is. What is it about this that you love, the thing that keeps you up at night just dreaming and visualizing of what could be? And is there an element that can, can bring about some of the certainty and some of the security and some of the other things? Is it

impossible that you could have both? Is it possible that you could bring something that you love to the responsible path that you feel is the logical choice? But ultimately, in the end, what I definitely encourage people to do is not just follow and choose what seems to be the rational, logical decision. That seems to be something that I don't think anybody in my family or anybody else that I know in my friend circle or anything like that. These people won't question if I go down this path.

So many people choose that path and reject the thing that their heart is saying. And there was a teaching, I think it was the teachings of Don Juan or something like that, by Carlos Castaneda. And one of the teachings of Don Juan was this teaching that does the path that you're on have a heart? And so there's something about that intuition that I think should not be

ignored. And I know there have been a number of times in my life that I've gone really far down the rational path, only to recognize that at some point, I left my heart somewhere behind. And I've never failed in life. Whenever I've chosen to follow my heart. No, I want to know. I want to get a little insight into what types

of questions to ask. Like, if you have somebody who has negative money scripts that are driving scarcity based financial decisions, what are the right questions to be asking oneself to make a change? Well, when we're talking about my afformations method, we are looking at specific, a specific formulation of empowering questions. There are, of course, many, many different types of empowering questions, but my afformations method deals with a specific formulation. So, you know,

as I mentioned, growing up poor, I had scarcity thinking. It took me years and years and years to realize, number one, that I was doing that. Number two, how to break out of that, you know, so when I discovered AFF formations in 1997, I'm like, oh my gosh, I can't believe it. This is so powerful, and yet it's so simple? Because I've been thinking really very disempowering thoughts my whole life. Like, why am I so stupid? Why can't I do

anything right? Why does nothing ever work out for me? And the point is, because of the embedded presupposition factor of the brain, you're going to find the answer to those questions. And so when I flipped the script and I said, why am I so smart? Why am I doing the right thing? Why am I in the right place at the right time? Then I started to actually have those things

happen. So when you're looking at those, one of the things I like to do with my clients is look at where we've been, where we are, and where we're going, because there are always trends that are happening. The economies go up and down and so forth. And as Warren Buffett has famously said, you don't get to see who's

swimming naked until the tide goes out. For the last few years, online business, where we've been, you know, online business has been really great, you know, and I have an online business, have one for 30 years now. And, yeah, it's great, you know, because people are staying home. They didn't have anything to do. Right. Well, now that the pandemic's over, that's where we're at, and people are making a lot. They're taking a lot more time to make

decisions. You know, before, it was a lot of impulse buying. I'm not saying people don't do that. Of course they do, but they're taking a lot more time. And where we're going is you really need a lot more touch points for those people who are in the service industry or in the expert industry. You're going to need a lot more touch points to really have people trust you. Why? Because, of course, so many of us have been ripped off by the gurus. I paid them over half a million dollars only to

find out there's no there. There. Are. The point is, people, because trust is so low, you have to really do a lot more work, frankly, than we ever had to to earn people's trust. And money follows trust. So that's really the kind of questions and the kind of formulation that I help my clients with. Yeah, trust and money certainly are linked. Rachel, how do you help women and mothers to shift their financial mindset to see money as a tool for empowerment rather than a source of stress?

Well, I believe women need to know their finances. It's one of those things where I grew up, and I kind of defaulted on it. I didn't take it as my role for so long in life. And then I went through tremendous financial issues that I ended up documenting and sharing how I moved from this place of hidden poverty to becoming where I am now. And one of the tools is for women is you have to know, you have to know your

starting point. You have to know your money. You have to be comfortable talking about money, because that's another thing. Growing up in the eighties, money was one of those things where we don't talk about how much we earn. We didn't talk about that. I learned very quickly it was a hush hush topic. And I wanted for women that it became a place where we could dialogue and we could dialogue about money without shame, because as soon as shame is put on with anything and money

specifically, it's that negative mindset. It's limiting, it's disempowering. And so I wanted to. Let's start the dialogue. I'm going to start. I'm going to share where I came from so that you can see where to go next. One of the most empowering things I've taught women, or that I've learned was from, I believe it was Ken Honda where he talked about saying arigato, which is japanese for thank you

anytime you exchange money. And I started adopting that practice as I was getting myself out of debt, rebuilding my life. This was in my single mom years when all the financial burdens was on me. And I started, instead of having that nervousness in giving money, I started saying, arigato, thank you. I was exchanging the money and I was teaching this to other women. And then when I would receive money, it was the same thing. Arigato, thank you.

And I kept saying, this is very powerful because it takes off that emotional energy that's negative with money. It makes it an exchange, this resource, this positive thing. And that one mindset shift along with, you know, figuring out where I was coming from has really helped along with teaching these women. Teaching women, you need to know, you need to be empowered. You need to understand money, and not out of place of fear,

but out of a place of, you know what? I can work with it and I can be grateful with it, and I can say thank you with it, and all things are possible. I like that saying thank you to your money. Gay, I want to ask you, it's inevitable that we're going to make financial mistakes. What strategies do you suggest to people to reframe financial failures as opportunities for growth? Well, the metaphor I like to teach our students is that use the metaphor of the

automatic pilot on an aircraft. You put in some coordinates, you say, I'm going to fly from LaGuardia to LAX. And yet what happens actually second to second, minute to minute, is that it drifts off. The airplane drifts off that coordinate, and then it has a program in it that says we're drifting to the right, let's correct to the left, and then it drifts little to the left and it has a program that says, let's

correct back to the center again. And so it goes along doing that literally thousands of times a minute those computations are made. And that's important because the automatic pilot gets you to the destination by being wrong most of the time because it has a singular capacity to recommit. And so we say here that it's recommitment that will actually get you there. Not just commitment, but you have to be willing to take the

drift and make the shift. That's the slogan we use here. Notice the drift and make the shift, because everybody's going to be having fear come up, or it's the very nature of business that things are going to come at you that you hadn't expected before. And you kind of expect that if you're a serious business person that things are going to come along that require you're engaging a whole different type of thought process to transcend whatever the given limitations are of the

moment. So helpful. Well, I want to thank everybody for joining. If you've just joined us, you're watching our live stream, the mindset of abundance, unlocking your financial potential. Please drop a comment where you're watching from and appreciate you sharing this live stream with somebody who would appreciate it and enjoy it. And we're going to move to segment four. Overcoming barriers to an abundance mindset is essential for financial success.

Many of us grow up with societal messages that resources are limited and competition is necessary. These beliefs lead to a scar scarcity mindset. Past financial traumas like growing up in poverty or experiencing significant financial loss reinforce this mindset, creating deep fears about money and success. Cultural narratives often depict wealth as difficult to achieve,

further limiting our beliefs about financial potential. To shift to an abundance mindset, start by reflecting on your beliefs about money. Journaling can help you understand and challenge negative thoughts. Set realistic financial goals that align with your values, breaking them into small, manageable steps. Practicing gratitude daily can foster a positive outlook. Embrace challenges as opportunities for growth, using positive

affirmations to reinforce this mindset. Surround yourself with supportive people and seek advice from financial experts. By adopting these strategies, you can cultivate an abundance mindset, enhancing your financial well being and overall life satisfaction. Noah, what strategies do you recommend for somebody who's experienced financial trauma and struggling to adopt an abundance mindset? Well, that would be most humans. I think so, yeah.

It's very, very common. It's pretty obvious just mathematically that more people are in poverty than have a lot of money. I mean, that's just math on planet Earth right now. And so by far, that's the majority of humans. So the point is, you know, this is something that I help my clients with all the time. One of the most important things that you can do is surround yourself with people who believe in you. I'm sure we've all heard that phrase, that we are

the average of the five people that you hang out with the most. Well, the problem is one of them is you. And so the point is you're probably beating yourself to a pulp every single day. So what we have to do is we have to surround ourselves with people who do believe in us. And there's a great example of this. One of my clients who, as you mentioned earlier, that I help people make more in twelve weeks than I did, than they did in the last twelve months. We have a program called

the twelve week breakthrough for that very reason. And one of my clients named Katherine, she's a business owner in Pennsylvania. And she was doing well. You know, she was doing six figures in a business, but she just kept hitting that ceiling, couldn't break through. And so she, you know, was doing the program. We got through it in week five. She sent me an email and she said, no, I just want you to know something. I just raised $185,000 today in one day because

of what you taught me. And she said, and this was the best part of what she wrote. She said, because you believed in me. Now I believe in me again. And that is the most valuable thing that you could have given me. So I'm like, wow, that is so powerful. It often takes, if we are our own worst enemy, it often takes somebody else's perspective, hopefully close to us and nearby. Gay. I want to ask, in your experience, what are the most common mental blocks that you

see keeping people anchored in a scarcity mindset? And how can they begin to dismantle those limiting beliefs? I would really call it a set of mental, emotional blocks, because fear is at the basis of the upper limit problems. In other words, you're going along and something good happens and it elevates you. And then that fear kicks in about, do I deserve this? Or is this taking away from other people? And then we use that fear to pull ourselves back down under, into the cloud again.

And so fear, you really have to make friends with fear if you're going to transcend it. You have to greet it, you have to understand it, you have to learn to be with it, and ultimately learn to love it as it is, because it's at the root of so many of our upper limit problems. So become a master of your own inner fears. Find out what the names of them are. Get comfortable with where you feel it in your body, and

here's what will happen. The more you open up to your fear consciously, the more it becomes a fuel source for your transformation, because it's just another name for energy. And energy is doing a particular thing, but energy can be transformed. So you can transform the energy of fear or shame into becoming an attractor field for abundance. I will start naming my fears. Rachel, how do you think that confronting and moving past financial fears to embrace abundance is different for women and

mothers? It goes back to that role thing that at least I was taught. Again, rolling growing up was when you think, this is not my role to take care of the finances. Or then there's this elevated fear. Am I capable thinking back to even the stories learning that women could do when I was younger? So it's confronting that. I love the concept of confronting the fear because I've often said that when there's that fear that's coming in, it often means I'm on the right track.

It means that I'm doing something, pushing myself out of comfortable. And that old pattern is saying, uh uh, uh, you should stay back where you are. And so for women, I really teach and embrace that same philosophy of where there's fear, it's not necessarily a place to stop. It might be that you're on the brink of doing something new, and your brain has got those old patterns that are like, you should stay here, you should stay small, you

should stay safe, and it's trying to keep you there. And when fear arises, it's that moment where you're like, you know what? I am breaking out. I'm creating a new pattern. I'm developing a new mindset, a new neuro pathway for me to follow. And so for women and moms, I want them to say, fear isn't necessarily a negative. It's not saying you should stop. What if just like gay was saying, what if you started to say, hello, what is this? What are you trying to

teach me? And then often on that other side is this lesson of endurance and courage and bravery, and that tenacity to keep on going. And with it can come a great deal of self empowerment. When you start recognizing it's just this dialogue, and it doesn't necessarily mean stop, it might actually be saying, keep on going. I love the. Maintaining that openness to it. Cliff, can you describe a turning point in your life where letting go of scarcity led to a significant breakthrough? Oh, goodness.

Yeah. There's been so many of those opportunities. I'm trying to think of one right here off the top of my head. So letting go of scarcity, I'll tell you something for me, was very helpful, was the very first time I decided to not do everything on my own in my business, but instead invest in the help of others who are more qualified and more capable of doing something that is something that they're excellent at. So I did a conference

called the free the Dream conference. And my idea was to bring about 300 people and teach them about how to rediscover their ability to dream big dreams, to visualize something positive and something exciting, fulfilling life that's beyond what they have been conditioned to think is the right thing for them. And in this event, my idea is that the original way that I would have done this in a scarcity mindset, is that I need to do every single aspect. I need to hire. I need to take care of

hiring the venue or reserving the venue. I need to choose all of the vendors for the table setup, the caterers, and all this other stuff. And this was a time in my life where I had some other people who were already doing events, some people who were doing everything on their own, and I saw how that impacted them. And I'm like, I don't want that. And then I saw people who were more successful than I, who were doing it and using somebody who was an event coordinator.

And so there was this exact event that was my vision of exactly what I wanted, but just with my audience in a different niche. And I went to the event coordinator and I said, hey, do you mind if I ask you, how much would it be, total cost, total expenses to hire you to do exactly what you did in this space for 300 people? And they said, cliff, it would be approximately $60,000. Now, I will tell you, it was a major, giant

leap for me to say, you know what? I am going to do this. My goal is to have 300 people, average ticket cost at a. I'm going to have a $60,000 expense. I signed a contract with them, I hired them to do everything. And the most exciting thing about this is that that event went off like a charm. I rolled into town and everything was already set up. I got on stage, did a soundcheck with

my speakers and everything like that. Went out to dinner with them, and I got up the next morning, went straight in, everything's all set up. Everything. I mean, for everything. And then when I ended the conference, it was two and a half day conference. I got off stage, everybody was packing up, everything was being torn down behind me. And by the end of the afternoon, when we close things up, they say, cliff, here's the key to your car. Everything that goes home

with you is in your car, ready to go. It was amazing. Now, the fun thing is, I didn't sell 300 tickets at an average of $1,000 a piece. I ended up selling about $66,000 in tickets and I had about $65,000 in expenses. So I made a whopping profit of $1,000. But there were 87 people at this event, and the transformation that happened in their lives was amazing. But most importantly for me, as it relates to your question, is that I had this major block that was removed. It's like, you know what?

This is worth investing and having other people do things so that I can free myself to be fully present. There were 87 people at this conference. I literally had a minimum of a 15 minutes conversation with all 87 of them through that two and a half days. And that would have never happened had it not been there. And by the way, financially, the results of what came as a result of the relationships that were built there more than made up for just the very low ROI on the event itself. Glad

to see the silver lining. We're going to bring it home and go to our last segment. Living abundantly goes beyond financial wealth. Start by nurturing relationships with family and friends. Be present. Show appreciation and practice forgiveness to enhance emotional support and well being. Pursue a fulfilling career that aligns with your passions and values. Set career goals that provide personal satisfaction and growth, not just financial rewards.

Work with personal life for long term fulfillment. Vibrant health is crucial. Maintain regular exercise, a balanced diet and sufficient sleep. Manage stress through activities like yoga for a healthier, abundant life. Find purpose in daily activities. Engage in hobbies. Volunteer or pursue spiritual practices that provide fulfillment. Align actions with personal values to ensure a rich and meaningful life. While financial stability is important,

true abundance involves a holistic approach. Combine financial planning with a focus on non material wealth. An abundance mindset fosters positive financial decisions, reduces fear and can lead to better outcomes. By embracing these principles, you can cultivate a life rich in experience, relationships, and personal satisfaction, demonstrating that true abundance transcends monetary wealth. Rachel, what does living fully and abundantly mean to you

beyond financial wealth? RACHel well, you know, I love this question, first of all, because I'm going to bring it back to the book that I just wrote, get your spark back. There's one chapter in that book about money specifically, but the rest of it is this holistic approach about being in alignment with your true self, your true soul. Because I think for a lot of us, we get off track at a certain point, we start following the expectations that we think we're supposed to do or that others

have told us. And then there comes this moment where you're like, I don't know who I am, or I don't know what I love, and I don't know what I'm even doing anymore. What's the next chapter of my life supposed to look like? And abundance to me is really deciding, I've got one shot on this earthly planet. I've got this one time here, and I'm not going to waste it trying to fit into all these other steps and boxes and all that. I

want to live it alive, and I want to leave that legacy of joy. And when you step into that abundance mindset, the finances are part of it. But part of it is the holistic taking care of yourself, taking, not feeling guilty about taking time to do the things that you love. I grew up, my parents spent a lot of money on piano lessons for me. Lots and lots of money. And they also spent a lot

of time sitting next to me on that piano, making sure I would practice. And in fact, a funny story is one time my dad was sitting next to me and I thought I was just going to spite him. So I played the same song for 45 minutes, just played it over and over again. And when it was done, I mean, I was tired of it. My dad said, I bet you didn't think that was the way it was going to work, because he knew I was the one that was really suffering. Here. I thought I was going

to try to try to really stick it to him. Anyway, all those piano lessons led to me. 20 years of piano lessons, to loving the piano. Piano is where I think. And one of the best things I do now that gets me into my own space is I'll play the piano. Well, the cool residual part about this abundance thing is my family, my kids, my husband, everybody likes it when I play piano. Because it's me not being mom, not being an entrepreneur, not being

busy around the house, all of that. It's something that fills me with joy. It's something that's this gift of artistic development. It's me being able to think. And abundance means taking those times, taking that time, playing it. And then what happens is you spark, you ripple off that joy, that abundance to everybody around you. The piano won. It did. Noah, what role does personal

fulfillment play in living an abundant life? And I'm wondering, how do you guide clients to find joy in their non financial pursuits? Well, one of the ways that I do it is by stories and examples. You notice I've been giving a lot of stories and examples in this interview. And one of the things that I talk about in my new book like seven figure expert or the seven figure machine is how your life can change in just twelve weeks. And in the middle of the

pandemic of November in 2020. I had a vision that we were supposed to move. My wife and I, we were in a nice house, you know, there's nothing wrong with it. And I just had this vision that said we're supposed to move. And I'm like, that doesn't make any sense. What are you talking about? But I've learned enough that I need to listen to those interpromptings, right? So I got up, I started searching on the Internet and I found this incredible home. And I'm like, oh my

gosh, this is amazing. And they just had a price drop. And there's an open house tomorrow. And I'm like, honey, you want to go see a house? So she said sure. We drove up to the house. We were riding up the driveway here. And she turns to me, she says, I'm packing tonight. 84 days later, we moved into this house, our dream

home. It's a 6000 square foot mansion on a hill. And because of what I teach my clients and all the frameworks and formulas that I use, I've been able to actually pay off the mortgage of this house 27 years early. So that's an example of when you listen to your inner promptings. Even though it didn't make any logical sense. It's like, we don't need to move. What's the problem here? But I'm like, well, there's something there. And if I wouldn't have taken that

action, we wouldn't be in this incredible home. And what's so great about this home? There's so many things great about it. But one is we have a koi pond in the backyard, and it's got waterfalls and there's like 70 fish back there. And my wife and I, we just love to just stop working, shut the computer off, sit in the backyard, listen to the birds,

watch the fish. These are the kind of things that, yes, you can't say money can't buy it because, yeah, money bought this, but it's still something that is greater than money, and that's really what abundance means to me. Beautiful. Sounds like you found the perfect

oasis there, Cliff. I want to look at it from a different angle because we've been talking about, I think largely it's like those who want more money, but I think if we take it from a different angle, what advice do you give to those who struggle to find meaning and purpose in their lives beyond the financial success?

Yeah. When people come to me and they say, I want to achieve, insert any number of goals, whether it's professionally or monetarily or whatever, one of the things that I try to work with people is to under help them understand that that is not actually what they want. What they want is whatever they believe that the attainment of having that thing will cause them to feel. They have some sort of belief about, if I fill in the blank, I will feel desired, emotional state of

being. I will feel safe, I will feel free, I will feel at peace, I will be less stressed. All of these things. So one of the things that I try to do is to say there's nothing wrong with having all sorts of goals, all sorts of desires, things to attain and to achieve. But if you believe that any of those things will give you

that thing that you. That emotional well being that you state is, is what you will get when you have this, if you can't have it now, without that, chances are the attainment of that is not going to give it to you, at least not sustainably. So my. My work that I do is I certainly help people in business strategy, coming up with strategic plans to attain the

goals and things of that nature. But I mostly work for, first and foremost, with the deep mindset, work of what is it that's currently blocking you from the natural well being? What is currently blocking you or limiting you from feeling peace, joy, love, freedom, abundance, connection right now, here in the situation where you are, even if maybe that situation is because of the pandemic,

your business was disrupted. And as a result of that, you had a major loss and you owe the IR's a couple hundred thousand dollars and they're coming to do another audit and all this other stuff what is keeping you in your current situation from experiencing peace and an overwhelming sense of this is all going to work out and I'm going to learn and I'm going to grow, and this is an adventure. And if you think that, well, if I could just get out

of this, I will finally be happy. I will finally be without stress. I'll finally get beyond. It's like, well, you know what? There's no doubt in my mind you'll have some good emotional feeling states whenever you cross the finish line, whenever you achieve a thing. But if your natural habitual way of thinking and feeling is anxious, I'm stuck. I'm tied to something. I'm obligated, I'm overwhelmed. It won't take you too long to get back to your homeostasis of those

emotional states. So I try to help clients first attain the emotional well being that is naturally theirs. And then from that state, go create whatever they want. Not because they will be more happy, not because they will have more peace, but because it's what they desire, it's what they want to contribute, it's what they want to give, it's what they want to experience, but not because there's. Something lacking, that's a great thought.

We're going to leave it there. I want to thank all the inspired money makers for joining us and watching and listening as we wrap up today's episode. I hope you're feeling as inspired as I am by our conversation on the abundance mindset. What's your big takeaway today? My big takeaway is the way that we think about money and opportunities really can shape our reality. So be open to things that may

be unfamiliar. And by choosing to embrace an abundance mindset, we open ourselves up to new possibilities, financial growth, and a more fulfilling life. Before you go, I want to leave you with just one simple action that you can take this week. Start a daily gratitude practice, but make it all about your finances. Each day, write down three things that you're

thankful for related to money. It could be a financial opportunity that comes your way, or a lesson you learned, or even the fact that you were able to pay some bills. This small habit can help to shift your mindset from scarcity to abundance. And once you've given, once you've given it a try for a few days, we'd love to hear how it's going. Share your experience on social media. Tag us with the hashtag inspired money,

or send us a message at inspiredmoney FM. Andy we're excited to see how a small change can make a difference for you. Gay Hendricks had to drop off because he had another call, but you can find Gay at hendricks.com. Doctor Noah St. John, you can achieve extraordinary financial results in just twelve weeks. Check out his book, the seven figure expert, or one of the other 24 books. Very impressive, Doctor Noah. You can find him at noahstjohn.com or 7figureexpertbook.com.

and Rachel Marie Martin, she's an author, speaker and influencer. Find her at findingjoy.net. Definitely check out her new book and you'll see if you go to her social media, you will see her in Times Square and on national tv appearances, which is very exciting to see. And Cliff Ravenscraft, thanks again for returning to the show. You can find Cliff at cliffravenscraft.com so thank you to all our guests, our panelists who make this

show special and what it is. The next inspired money episode will be the psychology of spending, unraveling the influences behind our financial choices. Join us next week, September 4, at 01:00 p.m. eastern. Until next time, do something that scares you, because that's where the magic happens. Thanks, everyone.