Hello there. And welcome back to the jury. HSA said podcasts. I hope you had a restful full belly holiday weekend. If you did any cyber Monday, black Friday sales baby, I hope your Stripe account was to cheating back to back to back touching. Should shingling. You get what I'm trying to say, But today's episode is for those of you who have achieved, what once felt impossible, earning good money, building financial security, maybe even hitting milestones you only dreamed about.
And yet something steel fills off. Do you ever look at your bank account? You know, see the numbers add up and wonder why doesn't it feel as secure as it should, or maybe you've hit every major financial goal you set for yourself, but there's still a little voice in the back of your mind saying what if I lose it all? And it just doesn't feel like it's enough. Where did the money go?
If you've ever felt this tension between financial success on paper and insecurity in your heart and mind at this episode is specifically for you. We're diving into the reasons why money. No matter how much you've made. Doesn't always translate to a feeling of safety insecurity in your body. And more importantly, what you can do to change that. Here's what we're covered today. How a scarcity mindset shows up in both your thoughts and your body keeping you in a loop of not enough.
The hidden reasons why financial success doesn't always feel secure. Even when it logically, should. And practical, actionable exercises to help you shift your mindset, calm your nervous system, and finally feel the security you've worked so hard to build. We'll also dive into the stories. We don't often talk about publicly, you know, the guilt and uncertainty that can creep in, even when you're managing your money responsibly.
I'll share my journey of making a million dollars in profit in a single year. That was probably one of the wildest years of my business and realizing that no amount of money could fix the pressure and insecurity. I still felt. And we'll talk about a client of mine who is experiencing the exact same sentiment, earning more than she ever has, but struggling to feel like it's enough.
By the end of this episode, my hope is that you'll have tools to really transform and rethink your relationship with money from something you fear, losing to something you can trust and feel secure in. So grab your tea, your journal, or maybe your heating pad, because that's what I'm sitting on right now, while I record this episode or whatever makes you feel grounded and let's dig into the real work of building financial peace. To be totally honest with you. Money mattered is so much to me.
It mattered a lot until I had made enough of it. Before I took the leap into entrepreneurship. I was very intentional about building a bridge. I wasn't going to leave the safety of my corporate engineering job without a solid plan in place. Partly because my grandma would have tow up my tail if I had dead, but I made sure I could replace my salary.
I made $150,000 on my own in the business before I finally decided to go full-time and entrepreneurship and leave behind my good benefits and the prestige that comes with having an engineering job. At that point, I had achieved what my grandma had dreamed of for me. A steady salary. Great benefits, stability. But deep down, I knew there was something more for me. So I took the plunge into running my own business full time. And then growth came fast.
Each year after that, my revenue doubled the speed was exhilarating, overwhelming, and surreal all at once. By my fifth year in business, I had made a million dollars in profit in a single year. Big P profit. Okay. I'm not just talking about revenue. From the outside. I had everything, a booming business, more money than I had ever dreamed of. And the ability to create opportunities for others. But here's the thing. No one tells you. And here's the thing that I did not know.
Is even with all that money sitting in the bank, a part of me still did not feel safe. The growth was fast. But with the speed, it came this immense pressure. I had accidentally became the breadwinner. The safety net for my family. And despite the success, there was a nagging feeling of insecurity that money that just couldn't fix. And this isn't specifically unique to me. Like I recently spoke with a client who had earned over $400,000 this year, her highest income yet.
She's done everything right with her money saving for her future, maxing out her retirement accounts. Investing at her first home, and yet she feels stuck. She told me I should have more to show for this. When we dig deeper and dug deeper with her, we realized that the problem wasn't in how she managed her money, because let's be honest, She was incredibly responsible with her finances.
We realized the problem wasn't in how she managed her money, but in how she was experiencing her new found wealth. She wasn't allowing herself to feel the rewards of her hard work. She still budgeted as if she was in survival mode, afraid to let go of a tight grip she'd had on her finances for so long. And she didn't have a clear benchmark to know if what she was doing was quote, unquote good or enough. Okay. So why do so many of us experienced this feeling? Even when the facts.
Say we're financially secure. It often comes down to two things, mindset and our nervous system. So let's get into the mindset and beliefs aspect of it. Many of us have a deeply ingrained scarcity mindset because many of us grew up in survival mode. And it's the constant thought that no matter how much we achieve, no matter how much we earn or how matter, how much money is sitting in the bank, no matter how many raises or promotions we get, no matter how big the launches, it's never enough.
Even when we've reached success, our minds will whisper, but what if I lose it all? And then there's a nervous system and safety aspect to all of this, but it's not just in our head. It's also in our body. When we operate in survival mode for years, our nervous systems adapt to a state of constant vigilance. Even when we're financially secure on paper, our bodies may still feel like they're bracing for the next emergency.
This is why some of us still feel tight about spending money, even when we've done everything right. And there's more than enough in the bank for us to actually experience the joy, the desire and the pleasures that we have. And again, I'm no therapist. And I'm not trying to sit here and, you know, diagnose all of us with this, with this label. But I just, from someone who has personally experienced this and really struggled with this in my own journey and having gone through therapy and.
Getting some language to name what the emotional experience was I was having was really, really empowering to me. And I think too, like for myself, and I think something similar with what my client has been going through and what you might be going through is that when you've had to be the responsible one, Make the responsible decisions do the responsible thing for so long.
When you start to experience success in the business and you start to make all this money and all of the above, I think sometimes we can focus on still playing that responsible role, but we. Typically lack giving ourselves permission to open ourselves up, to receive the joy and pleasure because we're so focused on maintaining control and being the responsible player at hand. I share all that because it's like, you know how to be responsible, but do you know how to celebrate?
Have you yet taught yourself how to indulge, how to. Go buy the thing that you want, how to not keep pushing yourself for more, but to feel that safety and security and enoughness. And that is something that has taken me quite a lot of time and a lot of. Ed to intention to actually be able to learn how to do for myself. And we'll talk about this a little bit more in the episode, but the solution isn't. To add more money to the pile. Typically, you know, it's to address these deeper layers.
Retraining our nervous system to feel secure in reshaping your mindset to actually trust what you've built. So, let me go back to that client. I mentioned earlier, she felt guilty for spending. Six figures on lifestyle expenses this year. Things like rent, groceries, and with the cost of avocados and olive oil bay. A hundred thousand dollars does not go to the lengths that it used to go.
And even, you know, just taking family trips and doing vacations, like she was still very much living below her means, but here's the thing. She also was able to save substantial amount of her income. Which was absolutely extraordinary. And I think that this is what I see happening with a lot of my clients who kind of, um, really. Relate to this topic is that they will stockpile their money.
They will live a lifestyle as if they are broke and on the tightest budget possible, and they will stockpile. Tons of cash, almost like they're screwed or something from. Um, what is that show from back in the day with Scrooge and the other little ducklings? I can't even think of the name of the show right now, but that is what they'll do. And then they will have this feeling of, oh my gosh, I don't have enough. I'm hustling. I'm working so hard.
Like. I feel like I should have more to show for it. And I personally also deeply relate. To that sentiment, but when we broke it all down, We realize that her guilt wasn't coming from overspending. It wasn't coming from this place of being irresponsible. It wasn't coming from not actually legitimately having enough money, but it was coming from a lack of clarity on what enough actually looked like for her.
And what she needed to feel safe given where her nervous system was, she was still carrying the belief that she needed to do more, save more and spend less to feel secure, even though her financial foundation was rock solid. Okay. So one of the most powerful ways to shift from scarcity to security. When it comes to this financial relationship dynamic that we're talking about. Is to make your wealth tangible.
I think too also is just to start to accept this new identity that you are somebody who is a wealthy woman. That you are somebody that has more than enough that you are somebody that. You know, has an overflow in abundance. And I think that even just seeing what comes up for you when you name that identity, when you put that identity on yourself, Like, how does it feel to say that I am a millionaire? How does it feel to say I have six figure sitting in a bank account?
How does it feel to say I have more than enough every single month? And when you put that identity on yourself, one maybe evaluate whether or not that is your current truth. And maybe you're just not claiming it. Even if it's something that you aspire to be really start to pay attention to, what are the beliefs, the feelings, the bodily reactions that you have with assuming that identity.
Okay. The other way to really make your wealth tangible is when you see your numbers, clearly what's coming in. What saved what's invested. You can begin to feel the security that you've built. So one of the biggest things that helped me feel secure was getting super clear. On my numbers and creating a level of visibility for me around my finances. Knowing exactly what I have and where I stand financially helped me shift my mindset and feel the security I had been looking for.
And that literally meant for quite a long time, that sometimes when I was feeling super overwhelmed or feeling like I just didn't have enough, all I had to do was pull up my net worth spreadsheet and actually look at it or open up my bank account and just be like, Hmm, the money's still there. Like you are more than safe. Sometimes I would just need to like run my financial models in my projections just to be like, okay, You have more than enough, your runway is clear.
All of that, but let me walk you through a few exercises. That can help you do the exact same. So one is actually calculate your runway. And what I mean by that is if you didn't make another dollar starting today, Based on committed revenue to be collected and money in the bank. How long could you sustain yourself? What does that runway look like? And how does it feel for you? The reason why I recommend that you do this is so that you one know what your burn rate is actually know.
What are your fixed lifestyle and business expenses. How much do you actually need to make, to cover what you need right now for day to day? And just get clear on what your current present state is. And based off of how much money you have coming in, how much money you have committed, how much money you have saved, what is your runway like? What type of, you know, financial security currently exists for you? And really seeing that timeline and being able to actually visualize it.
Look at those numbers on paper can often create a sense of relief and spaciousness. Showing you how far you've already come and how safe you actually are. If that gap is not where you want it to be, it also gives you very clear, realistic in real targets versus your fear taking over and really amplifying a situation that may or may not be as big as what your emotions can create. The second exercise that I'd recommend is identified the unreal money.
And what I mean by that is, is look at the money you've earned, saved, or invested, but you're treating it. Like it's not real. Because I know you are probably doing that. I know. And if you're not, I've had so many people share this with me of like, oh, that money didn't count. You know, maybe it's money set aside for retirement for maybe a house down payment for a wedding.
Um, whatever it is, that's just maybe sitting in a savings account, but I want you to ask yourself how much is really there. And what are you not counting as real money? You know, for so many of us, once we quantify this unseen or unrealized money, it becomes clear that we're probably a lot more safe and secure than we are giving ourselves credit for. The third thing that you can do is determine your safety cushion.
Now, this is going to look different from person to person, but it's important for you to know, like, what is your risk tolerance? And what do you need to actually feel safe? And I want you to think about what type of savings would allow you to exhale, to feel calm. To, you know, Unclench those butt cheeks that are probably tight into release your jaw muscles, like just to relax. Is it three months, six months, one year.
Like, I want you to start by defining what enough actually looks like to you. And break down exactly how much that number is. Seeing that number can provide a realistic target. Rather than this endless pursuit of more unnecessarily. The last exercise I'd recommend that you do is actually review your longterm investments. Uh, take a look at your long-term accounts.
If you didn't contribute another dollar to your 401k, your IRA, your stock and brokerage account, whatever it might be based on an average compounding and growth rates, how much would be there at the age that you ideally would like to quote unquote retire or either just reduce. Your reliancy on having to work. And if you want to add to it, calculate the minimum. Annual contribution to reach a number that feels secure. Often the pressure to perform eases.
When we see that reaching that number, isn't as intense as we thought. Whenever I do this exercise with clients. And they often realize they already have what they need or that the extra is so attainable that the pressure isn't necessary anymore. It can completely shift how they approach launch goals or business growth because their goals start coming from a place of possibility, spaciousness, and enoughness rather than scarcity and fear.
So let's take a moment to kind of reflect and pull all this together. Where do you feel financial distress in your actual body? When money problems start to come up, start to pay attention to where you actually. Feel it in your body. Are your shoulders tight? Is it in your lower back? Like the reason why I'm recommending this is just so that you can start to get out of your head and get into your body and have that experience and kind of notice what's coming up for you.
What's one way you can experience your wealth this week. Whether it's treating yourself upgrading a part of your life, or simply just acknowledging how far you've come. You know, we worked so freaking hard to build these businesses, become these entrepreneurs, run. These businesses, serve these clients. Like you. You know, typically, like when you, if you were working this hard in a normal nine to five job, you'd have a boss or a peer or somebody that would say, Hey, you're doing a good job.
Hey, let's go celebrate that, that major promotion that you just got, or just like, Hey, I noticed you, I see the good work that you're doing. Keep it up. When you're running your own business, you don't have that outside validation or just somebody else to just recognize you. And so we have to do that. So let me take a moment first to recognize you because you are doing a damn thing. And I'm going to say it like it is. The effort you have putting in is not going unnoticed.
You are doing a great job and you absolutely deserve to celebrate how far you've come and the progress that you have made. So just think about how can you experience the wealth that you've already created for yourself? How can you celebrate and bask in the joy of the answered prayers that you're currently living in this week? And lastly, if you knew you were already secure, how would you approach your money goals and growth goals differently?
And I think that as we're coming into the new year, or as you're maybe doing some planning for the business, Kind of formulating and getting a really clear picture of where your financials are, where your emotional nervous system is in relation to the wealth that you have created and are in the process of creating can really help anchor you and ground you when it comes to setting growth goals for the business, moving forward.
Okay. So I want to really close out this episode with an affirmation that I have been reading to myself lately, whenever I'm having these thoughts and kind of struggling with my own enoughness when it comes to money. So repeat after me. My wealth is secure and I am safe in the success. I've built. My wealth is secure and I am safe in the success. I've built. Remind your body, not just your mind that you are safe. Thank you for joining me today.
And for listening to this episode, here's to building not just financial security, but a life of peace and significance. I can't wait to chat with you in the next episode.