You Are a Bad@$$ at Making Money

This was a book that I picked up from the Library because I was intrigued by the title.

With its focus on mindset as well as verbal “declarations” and the idea that your inner world creates your outer world, it reminded me quite a bit of T. Harv Eker’s Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, although in a head-to-head comparison I would take the latter.

If you’ve already read Secrets of the Millionaire Mind and are looking to read something else along the same lines, I actually did enjoy this book quite a bit.

Here are my notes:

• “When it comes to having sex and making money, you’re supposed to know what you’re doing and be all great at it, but nobody ever teaches you anything about it, and you’re never supposed to talk about it because it’s inappropriate, dirty, not so classy.”
• “If I’d put the same amount of time and focus that I put into freaking out about not having money,  cutting back my expenses, finding deals, haggling, researching, returning, refunding, re-routing, rebating, into actually making money, I would have been driving a car with working windshield wipers years before I actually did.”
• “Time spent rationalizing the mediocre could be time spent creating the magnificent.”
• “Rich: able to afford all the things and experiences required to fully experience your most authentic life. While the amount of money you need will depend on who you are and what you desire, ain’t nobody riding for free. No-bod-y.”
• She says that since becoming the best version of yourself will inevitably require money, it is your duty to get rich.
• “Snobbery works in both directions. If you’re rich, thinking you’re better than those who aren’t is equally lame as being broke and thinking you’re better than those who are rich.”
• Her suggested money mantra: “I love money because I love myself.”
• Like T. Harv Eker, she asserts that our subconscious minds have been programmed since childhood to hold certain money mindsets.
• The three basic attributes of the subconscious:
• 1) It is primal, and primarily concerned with survival.
• 2) It is sneaky. You are aware of your conscious thoughts, but are ignorant to the ways your subconscious controls you.
• 3) It doesn’t want to be dethroned.
• “The walls of your comfort zone are lovingly decorated with your lifelong collection of favorite excuses.”
• She gives an example of a though process that holds people back: If I start making more moeny, life will get more complicated with things like insurance, taxes, investments, etc.
• She says that it was a mistake to give her pals the “friend discount/freebie” on her coaching services: “Devaluing my work gave them an easy excuse to devalue your efforts.”
• Practice saying “thank you” every time you receive money.
• “This is the feel you’re going for when you make a huge leap in your life: equal parts excitement and terror.”
• One of her favorite expressions: “A wise man once said nothing.”
• You need to do everything you know how to do, but to be open to whatever opportunities come your way.
• “You can have your excuses or you can have success. You can’t have both.”
• “Worrying is praying for stuff you don’t want.”
• She says that if you are prone to worry, the good news is that your focusing muscle is in great shape and all you have to do is focus it in a different direction.
• She says that you can’t be positive and bubbly 100% of the time (in fact trying would just make you feel like a failure), but yu can’t wallow in negative emotions. You need to experience them and move on.
• “How determined you are determines your outcome.”
• “If you sell something you love, you just sell love.”
• “If you’ve made a backup plan you haven’t made a decision.”
• “You can’t do anything if you try to do everything.”
• “If you feel like you have all the time in the world to do something, you will take all the time in the world. If you have twenty minutes, the task will take you twenty minutes. Chunking down your time and demanding that you focus on one thing, and one thing only, creates urgency, maximizes your productivity, and frees up more time for you to do other things. Time comes to those who make it, not those who try to find it.”
• “Getting rich is not necessarily about working harder. In fact, it’s usually about working less because you’re making smarter choices.” Example: hiring an employee. Even if you start working less had with the employee around, the two of you will likely get done more than you did when you were solo.
• She says that you should come up with a “bottom line” –a minimum amount that you want in your bank account. Every day that you are close to getting below that amount, you go make more money. You should routinely increase your “bottom line.”
• She says that you should routinely make a decadent, indulgent purchase to remind yourself that money is a renewable resource.
• She says that we are “energetic” beings and that we need to make sure that we aren’t putting ourselves in environments that bring our energy down. She says that if you aren’t satisfied with where you live, make some effort to spruce the place up. Do some painting, hang curtains or beautiful pictures of places you visit. Where you live, what you wear, and the food you eat should all make you feel the vibrancy and joy of life (my note: it’s okay to start small with this advice. Spruce up just one room where you spend a lot of time or work. I actually started with upgrading my messenger bag and the stuff in it. Feeling good about my equipment = feeling good about sitting down to work)
• “The most important part of your environment to be conscious of is the people you surround yourself with.”
• “Not living your life is no way to live.”
• “We waste so much time letting our fears push us around and half the time our fears and doubts never even freaking pan pan out. You’d think we would have caught onto that one by now.”
• She suggests making a “vision board” with places you want to go, people you want to meet, things you want to do, and then look at it often.
• She also suggests creating a list of things that you either need to give up or withdraw from to accomplish your dreams.
• She makes the point that although the usual wisdom is that the true mark of a friend is one who is there for you when times are tough, there s something to be said for a friend who is supportive when things are going really well for you but not for them. The friends who are there for you in the tough times get to see themselves as heroes, the ones who are their for you in the tough times need to swallow their pride and let go of being the hero of the story.
• “If you’re in business, you’re in the business of sales.”
• She is a huge believer in finding a coach. She says that the best Olympians have coaches and the most broke people in the world think that they can make it on their own.
• Go out of your way every day to do three nice things for people
• She says that you need to “remove yourself from the negotiations”  meaning those moments when it’s time to do something important like email potential clients and you think “what if I checked Facebook first?”
• To keep yourself on-track, identify with your new habit: “I am a successful person who gets stuff done. Not someone who screws around on Facebook.”
• When doing something scary, anticipate the discomfort and learn to associate it with progress.

I listened to the audio book on this one. It was narrated by the author and I very much appreciate books narrated by the author, it gives you a feel of getting to know the person. Here’s where you can get the book: