[00:00:00] Jan Morrison
We were taught to stay quiet, stay in the background, don't get too loud, don't get too big, don't get too anything. Stay invisible. Make sure everybody else is okay. They're making the career or business goals possible for their partner because they're at home. Yes. Joking, not joking, when I was, uh, working full time with three children, what I needed was a wife.
Yeah. Yeah, I think every woman needs a wife, don't they? I think, I think so. Absolutely.
Money Secrets Intro
Are you a small business owner who'd love to be making more money while making positive change in the world? You're in the right place, friend. Hi, I'm Fi Johnston, a chartered accountant and money coach obsessed with small business. In The Money Secrets podcast, I share strategies that you can use to make more money without working harder. You'll hear successful small business owners share what they've learned about money and business, and I'll help you to think differently and shift your [00:01:00] perspectives about money so you can grow your business and your impact. My mission is to get more money into the hands of good business owners, like you.
Acknowledgement of Country
This podcast episode was recorded on the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation, and I'd like to acknowledge them as the traditional owners and custodians of this land and water that I live, work, and play on. I'd like to pay respects to elders both past and present, and note that sovereignty has never been ceded. This always was and always will be Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander land.
Fi
All right. Well, today on the Money Secrets podcast, I'm really excited to welcome Jan Morrison. So welcome to the podcast, Jan. Thank you, Fi, and thank you for inviting me. It's a pleasure. Mm-hmm. Thanks for being here. Jan has spent 40 years in finance, and that has taught Jan how [00:02:00] money works. Working with people taught her how the mind works, and her own journey showed her they're inseparable because it's never just about the numbers.
What Jan learned along the way now forms the foundation. I agree with that so much. So many people- Yeah ... ignore the mindset, the thoughts, the brain stuff- I know ... and they think they can move straight to the strategic part of money. Mm-hmm. Um, so yeah, I love that you incorporate both of those. Tell me a bit about your career history.
What's, you know, what gets you- All right ... here, 40 years- Yes ... in the finance world? Yes. Tell me more. Indeed. Well, way back when, my happily ever after didn't actually turn out to be a happily ever after, and I found myself a sole supporting mom of three children. Got it. So I had to become savvy with money pretty quickly.
Mm-hmm. So at the same time, there was an organization that I belonged to called the Women's Investment Network- Mm-hmm ... and I was attracted [00:03:00] to that purely because it's the Women's Investment Network. And this is- Yeah ... back in the '80s. Mm-hmm. So it was the first AFSL that, um, was run by women and independent and Australia-wide.
And I opened up- And does it still exist? No, it was sold. And when it was- Okay ... sold, I, I left because it was sold to an institution, unfortunately. But- Got it ... that happens. And- But it, it was good when it, g- good when it was around. It was a, it was visionary, it was exciting, it was brand new, and some funny, funny experiences along the way.
So in that role, I did a securities institute course, I did have ... done two diplomas from Deakin University, and I learnt about money. Alongside of that, I also have always been curious about why we do things, why I do things. Why do we do what we do? So to that end, there's another path that I was taking that was all about the behavior and [00:04:00] people's behavior and how our minds work.
So started with NLP, and I ended up doing the master certification for that. Then in the mid-'80s, I read something about, um, epigenetics- Mm-hmm ... and also neuroscience and neuroplasticity. So that even got me more excited about how the brain works and how we can work with the brain. Mm-hmm. Um, at age 65, I decided that I would not stay in the industry, um, any longer, that I wouldn't retire in the industry.
And I knew that something would come my way. And what I did was actually research four different modalities over 12 months and got involved with four different modalities. And at the end of it... So there was non-violent communication, NVC, which is a great, um, Tom Bond, was a fabulous modality. Um- Mm-hmm ... the tapping.
Mm-hmm. Um, I... [00:05:00] RTT and I also checked out where NLP was up to. And at the end of the day, RTT was the way I went. And from there I had a session and thought, "This is just amazing," 'cause it utilized through hypnosis how to effectively work with your brain. And so did the studies there, got the certification for that.
Did my clinical hypnotherapy as well. And then I thought, "Well, that's it. I'm gonna leave the money world and I'm going to now just deal with belief systems," et cetera, et cetera. Mm. Mm. And then the penny dropped And I got it. I got the fact that money by itself, the numbers by themselves, without having a mindset, without having resourceful beliefs around it, I realize it's those, those three things that work together that make- Mm
the outcome get the positive outcome. And voila, here I am- And here you are ... doing it. And here I am doing it. Yeah. [00:06:00] Mm. So through the early stages of your career, you're working as a financial planner or financial advisor, helping people- Yeah ... to kind of make financial decisions. Like- Correct ... what kind of decisions were you helping people make in that part of your career?
We actually sat... Yeah, we actually sat down with them and, um, worked out, you know, they started with the, the basic budgeting, goal setting or intentions. What do they want to achieve? Their understanding, financial literacy, investments, explaining the whole thing, and we, we actually did workshops back then.
Like- Yeah ... I'm talking '80s. It was just so, you know, wild. It was so brand new and very exciting. So the workshops covered all of that financial literacy, and then they were far more empowered to make decisions. I mean, how do you make a decision if you don't have all the information in front of you, including what different investments do, what d- different investments have [00:07:00] different risk profiles, they have different timeframes appropriate for them, and also understanding debt, good, bad, and Bloody awful debt- Mm-hmm
that's around, and, and r- risk, uh, having a understanding risk, and there's several layers of risk. So emergency fund, having, um, income protection if you need it, life cover if you need it, or dropping it if you've got it and you don't need it. And also other general insurance, like house, car. Once again- Yeah
making the decision about whether you self-insure or you outsource it to another company. Having an understanding of those basic, basic principles gave them the groundwork to then feel comfortable about making a decision. Yeah. Yeah, I love that, Jan. I think, um, you know, so much has changed. I mean, if you were working in financial services in the '80s, like, uh, the amount of things that have changed in that time for women and, um- Absolutely
for marginalized people. Like, we now have [00:08:00] the ability to invest in just about any company in the world. Correct. We have mobility with our money. We have mobility with our- Yes ... careers. Yes. The internet means that you can pick up your work and take it wherever you want. So- Yeah ... women are more empowered than ever in terms of being able to take control of our careers and take- Yes
control of our money. Yes. And I keep hearing these things in the media that tell me that women make better investors than men, which I- Yes, they do ... don't need any, any evidence to prove that to me, because I see it every day in my work. Yes. But tell me what you've seen as kind of trends- Yes ... in that time around, you know, women getting closer to the decision-making and being more empowered to actually invest and grow their own money.
That is a great question, Fi. If I think about the '80s, in the early '80s, the first cash management trust that was launched was launched by Hill Samuel. Mm-hmm. Now Macquarie Bank all those- Mm ... decades later. So that was the first. Uh, there's a [00:09:00] unit trust that invested in bonds and government bonds and corporate bonds and all, all sorts of things like that.
But what was exciting was that that structure enabled individuals, not individuals with a lot of money, every individual to be able to invest in that. And unit trusts allowed that. So whether- Mm ... it was a unit trust that invested in, um, property or shares, all of a sudden the average person that didn't have hundreds of thousands of dollars could also invest in shares, international shares, Australian shares.
So that was a very exciting time to actually witness that happening. And more and more products have become available to us. We've got index funds, we've got ETFs, we've got all manner of things available to us. And I think almost that is the problem now. It's- Mm ... overwhelming. It's like- Yeah ... how, where do I start?
Yeah. There's so much to choose from. It's almost [00:10:00] like it's too much to choose from, and we don't do anything. So- Yeah ... the underlying, there are more women that are getting involved with investments, that are becoming more confident and competent with the whole notion of investing, but that's not the majority.
And I think there's still, certainly for my niche is 50, 40 plus, 50 plus, and certainly for my generation, I guess, we were taught to stay quiet, stay in the background, don't get too loud, don't get too big, don't get too anything. Make sure everybody else is okay. Leave yourself first. Stay invisible. So th- that can also impinge on taking risks on
I looked at an interesting statistic I've heard recently, that 3.5% of the population are SMEs run by women. 3.5%. Not a lot. No. 50% of the successful [00:11:00] failure rates, whether the SME, of SMEs in the first five years is 50/50, whether they're run by a male or whether they're run by a female. The outcomes are still the same, 50/50.
So there's not an issue with capacity or capability But there is an issue with, with women actually participating. Yeah. And also I think that cascades down to the investment level as well. Yeah. What I see in small business, Jan, and when I say small business, I mean small and medium business- Correct
which is what you're mentioning, too. So- Yeah ... I think of small business as being anywhere probably up to even $20 million turnover. Yeah. To me, that's a small or medium organization. Yeah. Beyond that, it starts to get into the ... It's a different kind of league. Yes. But if I look at the businesses that I have interacted with in that space- Mm
what I see is that there's a huge gender revenue gap. And it's the same- Yes ... with investing. So we talk a lot- Correct ... about the gender [00:12:00] pay gap. Yes. But the gender pay gap is measured on employed people. It's not measured on self-employed people. My observation over- Mm-hmm ... 25 years, so it's not a short observation- Mm
is that women are not making as much revenue as their male counterparts. It's definitely starting to change- Yes ... because the internet has democratized the business world to a degree. But I think the same thing is happening with women growing businesses. They are managing all sorts of other things at home, families- Mm-hmm
um, aging parents, all of these different societal things that are- Absolutely ... are happening for them. And then the same thing is happening with investing. So if your- Mm-hmm ... business isn't making enough revenue, it doesn't leave enough profit for you to be able to invest in the long t- your long-term future.
So- Correct ... I feel like th- there's a lot of societal things that are playing a role in women either [00:13:00] not having the time, capacity, or trust, that sort of faith in themselves to be able to invest- Yeah ... whether they're self-employed or they're employed. Totally agree with that, and self-trust is a huge thing So that's, that's where that final, the blocks, and that's where money beliefs or sabotaging beliefs come into play.
Yeah. And the other thing too is that if we go back to the actual practical aspects of it, the women that choose to have children are then out of the workforce. They could be out of the workforce anything between 5 and 15 years, and that's a huge gap that has an effect on the retirement funding at the end.
Yeah. So, yeah. And often what they're doing is they're making the career or business goals possible for their partner because- Yes ... they're at home. Correct. But that contribution is not measured in dollars, and therefore it's very difficult to- No ... kind of attribute, hey, the reason why this business owner who's a [00:14:00] man has been so successful is because- Yes
everything outside of his business has been managed by his partner. Correct. And I can remember joking, not joking, when I was working full time with three children, what I needed was a wife. Yeah. Yeah, I think every woman needs a wife, don't they? I think, I think so. Absolutely. Yeah. Um, yeah, so getting back to the how do we change that.
I, uh, I'll just share something with you. Uh, back in the '80s, once again at the Women's Investment Network, and clients would say, "But there's no money left at the end of the day." And that was a, a huge problem and a huge issue for them. And then I came across a book called The Richest Man in Babylon. Yeah.
What, what it suggests is you pay yourself first 10 to 20%, and we introduced that as a concept in our training and workshops that we were doing, and amazingly they did that. If they automatically put 10 [00:15:00] to 20% away and survived on the, on, not survived, but managed the balance- Yeah If you got a pay rise, you, the savings didn't automatically go up by 5%.
No. No. No. So it had nothing to do with the actual money, but it was, it was the intention, and it was setting the intention that actually flipped also the psyche behind managing money, saving money. Yeah, it's, it's this, this is the sequence. It goes from spending to saving to managing to investing. Mm. And to that end, I introduced four, um, financial stages, and it starts with the spending, being on the financial roundabout.
The more you earn, the more you spend, the more you need. I was on that many years ago, and a totally unresourceful place to be. Yeah. The next one is financial self-sufficiency. So that's where your money, the m- money that you work [00:16:00] for, it's what we call active income. You're working to generate that income, and you've got...
You're generating enough to meet your needs and a bit of lifestyle. Yeah. Then there's financial wellbeing. That's still active, but you also have been, you're putting money aside to invest, and you could be generating a bit of income from your investments, whether that be a rental property from shares, dividends from shares.
That introduces the concept of passive income. So now we have two incomes. One's active, that's being generated by self. The other is passive, being generated by your money. So it's you working, and it's also getting your money to work for you Yeah. And then financial freedom is when you have enough passive income to cover your l- your lifestyle cost, your surviving cost, just living life the way you want to [00:17:00] live, and you don't have to be working.
And it can be a quantum leap to go from being on the financial roundabout and then somebody saying, "Yeah, well, you could have financial freedom." It's like, "Yeah, really?" Yeah. "How do I do that?" It's just too many steps ahead. Too... It's too big- Yeah ... to sort of absorb that. And our, our nervous systems can't handle it anyway, 'cause we've- Mm
got to do it in increments. Because along the way, this is where managing risks comes in. You actually train your nervous system to stay calm. An overwhelmed nervous system can't make decisions, can't think clearly. Yeah. So you can't put that load on yourself and expect not to have some ramifications.
Yeah. Mm. I see a very similar cycle happening inside of the businesses that I work with. So often- Okay, that's interesting ... yeah, someone comes to me and they are on the roundabout. So- Yeah ... they're making money, but all of it is being spent. Correct. And generally, the first thing that we'll put in place is a, um, system [00:18:00] called Profit First, which it sounds like you would be definitely aligned with- Yes, absolutely
where we actually stop making profit a kind of- Maybe, okay, like, i- if there's money left, then we've made a profit. Correct. We flip it and say, "Well, I'm making a profit. Therefore, say I wanna make a profit of 10%." Mm-hmm. That means I can only spend 90% of what comes in. Mm-hmm. Absolutely. So it's that flip that says, I don't need to be generating millions of dollars in profit straight away, but gee, it'd be good to be able to pay myself well, build up a little profit bonus, and then get- Correct
off this roundabout. And then the next phase, as you say, is where you're starting to build passive income. So in the business world, the wor- the term passive income is very loaded. I like to call it leveraged income, which is where- Mm-hmm ... you're making money from work that you did in the past, not from work- Yeah
that you're doing now. So that might be that your systems and tools are strong enough- Mm-hmm ... that [00:19:00] it allows you to make more money while working less, because those tools are there, or it might be that you've built up resources in your business that you can sell. Yes. Or it might be that your brand has built to a strong enough position that you can employ people- Mm
to be making money- Yeah ... within your business. Mm-hmm. And then that final stage, which is some of my business clients that I work with are in this phase, is their, their business is generating profit almost on its own. You know? Yes. They've built up such a great legacy of what they're doing in their business that it is building up a profit, and it is kind of sustaining itself.
Self. Mm-hmm. They're able to hang on to that kind of whatever money they've got in the bank account kind of stays there, and the business is able to continue to grow. Mm-hmm. So I love that thinking, Jan, of saying- Yeah ... you know, I think a lot of people are on the financial roundabout in their personal life.
And- Yes ... this idea of living within our means sounds so unsexy, but it is so ... It is the most radical [00:20:00] act of self-care to live within- Yes ... your means. Yes. And we have so many tools to help us do that now. Absolutely. But it starts with wanting it. Correct, and understanding how your mind works. And if we can spend just a snippet of time- Yeah
because there's three elements that I work with, and one's, like, emotional EQ, which is your- Yeah ... mindset attitude. Yeah. And we tend to get mindset attitude from the messages that we heard as we were growing up. And I'll give you an example- Yes. Tell me more- ... for me. Yeah ... 'cause this is something I love unpacking.
Yes, yes, yes. Yeah. Um, my family, um, my parents were both migrants. They came to Australia with absolutely nothing. They met in Australia, actually. Really? Didn't have language, had nothing. worked, had to work, worked hard. So I grew up with, you have to work hard for your money. Yeah. And also, those wealthy people probably didn't do everything right.
Yeah. There's something dodgy or- [00:21:00] There, there's something- ... unethical about them. Yeah, there's something, how can somebody have so much money? Because it, that, that, that's wasn't conceivable for them to think you could be a good person to have so much money, 'cause they're good people and they had to work hard.
Mm. Totally understa- totally got it. But at one point I thought to myself as an adult, now I can understand why they had those beliefs, but do I need to think that way? Is it resourceful for me? My background or my upbringing was totally different to theirs. Because of them, I had a lot of resources available to me, and those attitudes towards money didn't serve me.
So how do we then change something like that? And we can. We can work with m- our minds. Marissa Peer, who's the founder of RTT, coined over 20 mind rules, and three of them I'd like to go through with, with you now- Great ... if that's okay. Yeah, yeah. Can you just tell me what RTT is for myself and my listeners?
Sure. Yeah. Rapid [00:22:00] Transformational Therapy. Got it. So it, it's, it's really looking about reframing things. Mm-hmm. Great. Thank you. So... You're welcome. Um, how to work with the mind and understand that we can work with our own mind. It doesn't control us, we can control it once we know that, have some tools and have an understanding of how it works.
So one of the, the mind rules is your mind will take you away from pain and bring you to pleasure, because we are wired to be lazy. We're not lazy, but we're wired to be lazy. Mm-hmm. So any time that the mind perceives that you're in pain, which is, could be overwhelmed, overstretched, anxious, worried, it goes, "Oh, I don't like you being there.
Let's take you away from there." How it manifests is called procrastination, avoidance, stuck, all those words. But the mind's doing what it's supposed to be doing. It's keeping you safe and secure. [00:23:00] That's its job- Yeah ... is to keep you safe on the planet. The next thing is it'll take you away, mind will take you away from what's unfamiliar to what's familiar.
Same reason, same motivation. So it says, "Uh-uh. No. This is, looks uncomfortable for you, so let's move you away from-" Back to what's familiar. Now, the trick with that is just to make what's unfamiliar familiar. Yeah. And we do that through repetition. Yeah. And retrain the mind and s- and say, "This is what I want as an outcome," and getting comfortable with that.
And the last thing is that, um, our minds are like a search engine. So, so the millions of bits of data and information that, that land on us every second of the day is filtered, and it's filtered by a thing called the RAS. And it's a ve- very specific bundle of nerves that filter it, and it filters by what we believe [00:24:00] or what it believes is important to us.
So what instructions in our words and the pictures that we create in our minds create the blueprint that the mind will stick to. It has no choice but to stick to the blueprint that we've created for ourselves. Yeah. So if we're saying things like, "I'd like to have a successful business, but I don't want to be away from the family.
I would love to have a strong body, but I can't find time to exercise. I'd love to have love in my life, but it's too scary to put myself out there." The but is a negator. Yeah. It negates everything up before it, and the... what happens after is what the mind carries through. So if that, all those things feel too uncomfortable, unfamiliar, it will then put us into that space of procrastinating, getting stuck, not moving forward.
So if our minds, if they're actually search engines, we can use that as a tool [00:25:00] for ourselves. Mm. So the, mm, so the search engine or the RAS will then filter out all the information that it believes is important to us as individuals, and that has been set up by the blueprint. Yeah. And then it blocks everything else.
Mm. That's what our brain does, and the prompts that we, that we use are the words and pictures- Yeah. I'm smiling because this aligns 100% to what I'm talking about in Good Money Club every single week. And most of this is happening in our subconscious, so most people- Correct ... don't realize that this is what happen- is happening.
And I think this is why a lot of people who haven't worked on their mindset over a long period of time- Yes ... they don't realize what it's doing to their behavior. Correct. And I think I hear, um, in the sentences that come out of my clients' mouths and the stuff I hear on the internet [00:26:00] around, um, you know, what happens when we try to do something that we rationally know is good for us, like put our- Correct
prices up or- Yep ... invest money in our super or- Yeah ... buy a share or whatever. Yeah. But because our body and our brain doesn't have anything to sort of con- there's no context there for it to kind of- Correct ... try to connect with, it just says danger. Danger, danger, danger. Correct. Correct. So it says, "This is unfamiliar or boring or hard or somehow annoying.
Therefore, I'm going to give you all of these things in your mind, all of the reasons why you shouldn't do this thing." Yes. "Because then you get to stay in the familiar zone-" Correct "... even if the familiar zone feels like absolute shit." Correct.
Good Money Club Ad
I'm gonna guess that you are a small business owner who really cares about making money and impact.Me too. It's why I designed Good Money Club, which is a place for [00:27:00] female small business owners to come together and learn about financial literacy, how to make and manage more money, and how to think differently about money so that you get different results. We talk about money every single week, and I promise you, it doesn't feel gross. The more you learn about money, the more you immerse yourself into the kind of strategies that work for small business owners. You are gonna see yourself feel calm with money, and that is gonna lead to you making more revenue, paying yourself more, and really thinking about money in a whole different way that feels good. Check out the link in the show notes to find out more about Good Money Club, and we would love to have you in there.
Fi
An analogy I use with my clients in Good Money Club is, I like to think about trying to sort of throw yourself into the... not into the deep end, into the shallow end. Mm. But I [00:28:00] like to think about it as though the visual that I put in my mind is a three-year-old learning to skateboard, right?
So this child falls off, gets back on, falls off, gets back on, falls off, gets back on. Yes. That child doesn't see themselves as failing every time they get off the skateboard. Correct. And the only way to get good at riding a skateboard is to fall off 1,000 times and get back on 1,001 times. And- And repetition
repetition. So every- Repetition ... time that you practice something- Yes ... whether it's putting your price up, investing money in shares- Mm ... or maybe saying no to going out for a lavish dinner with a friend because you'd rather- Yes ... put that money into, you know, investing- Exactly ... or into educating yourself or whatever it might be.
Yeah. Every time you do that, you desensitize that part of your brain that's telling you, "No, this is dangerous-" Yes. "... this is scary." You're- Yeah. So I love that ... you're rewiring it. Absolutely. Yeah. I want to have a successful business, and [00:29:00] I can have balance with my home life. I want to have a strong body, and I can find five minutes a day to exercise.
I want to find love in my life, and I can put myself in places where I feel safe and still meet people. Yeah. So the difference in energetically is you support... and you're also giving clear instructions to your mind. Yeah So the RAS can do its job according to what you set out for it. I did a wisdom circle, it's called a wisdom circle, um, about a month or so ago, and, uh, the chrysalis came up and the, the pupae going through metamorphosis, and I love that as a n- a metaphor because it's all about the transformation.
And, and to coin your phrase that I love from Ripple Festival is the sexy, messy middle bit. That's where it all happens. See, it starts with the caterpillar attaching itself to the, the leaf, then it builds this thing around itself that becomes [00:30:00] the chrysalis, and you look at a chrysalis and you think, "Wow, that's beautiful," but doesn't look like anything's happening in there.
Mm. In actual fact, the caterpillar has broken down completely. It is going through a metamorphosis that's actually quite messy, and anywhere between two weeks and three months, soon some wings will start cracking the chrysalis shell- The butterfly will dry off its wings and fly away- Mm ... until the next iteration.
So that sexy, messy middle bit is where everything happens. That's where the learning happens. And if we overlay that with a learning cycle, and in NLP, that's called conscious incompetence, which is the most uncomfortable place any of us can sit. Mm-hmm. And it's in that space, in that difficult space, I guess, Eva, and I'm thinking about individuals or business people, maybe the 50% that quit- Yeah
or the 50% that grit it out. [00:31:00] And then step by step increase their capacity, increase their capability, which increases, increases their confidence to take them to the next level. It's not done in a quantum leap. It's done incrementally. And- Yes ... by doing it incrementally your body, your nervous system can also hold it.
So that's how you increase capacity. Yeah. It starts in your mind. Yeah. And, uh, I have some very unpopular advice that I give to my clients, which is that I don't actual- I want to hear it. I don't want to see them growing more than 25% a year, their revenue. And I'm very specific about this. In certain circumstances you can actually grow more than that, but not for too many years in a row.
You know, if you double your revenue one year, that can be manageable if you have the emotional and physical capacity to manage that. Yeah. If you grow by a lo- a large amount again a following year, [00:32:00] again, your body, your mind, everything is gonna be fighting against you because it doesn't know what this feels like.
So if you've taken your business from 200,000 to a million in two years- Yeah ... your body is having a lot of trouble keeping up because it's constantly needing to reposition itself as this new place that we're in. Yeah. So the reason I like to slow down revenue growth is because I know that if you grow too fast, you will burn out.
And you'll be making decisions that don't align with your long-term goals. Yes. Whereas if you can slow your business growth down to an amount that's manageable, it means your nervous system, your mind, your spending behaviors, your attitudes can all slowly get used to the feeling of, okay, I went from being a $200,000 business owner to a million-dollar business over, over five or six years.
Yes. That's giving your body time to get used to that. People don't love that advice because it [00:33:00] sounds like I'm trying to slow their growth, but actually I'm trying to grow their business for the long term. Yes. And it's that same concept of nervous system regulation. Absolutely, and it's sustainable because that's what we want- Yeah
to grow a sustainable business. Um- Yeah ... so I totally agree. I support you. You, you just tell them they can't do that. Now- Jan said it's okay. Um- And yes, I said it's okay ... I wanna tap into this concept of, you know, we all spend money, time, and energy making money. Yes. But then what do we... Like, how much energy or effort are we putting into what to actually do with it?
And I- That is such a powerful statement. Yeah. Yeah. And I think it leans into this concept of women not trusting themselves- Correct ... with money. Correct. So I've got the money. Mm-hmm. What the hell do I do now? That, that, once again, a very, very good question. Um, and there isn't one, one size fits all because it totally [00:34:00] depends on the level of trust, the level of financial literacy.
So many of my clients are single women. If they're single women from choice that have had their own careers, they tend to be... They have a greater level of trust of themselves. If they are, say, women that have been through a divorce after a long marriage, or their partner's died and they're left now with making all the decisions- Mm
and quite often not even contributing to the decision-making process along their life's journey. Um, so that's totally different, um- Yep ... scenarios. The lack of self-trust is a big one, and that actually brings into play the last element, which is money beliefs. And mindset and attitude we can deal with by logically, by affirmations, by using your words properly, by using appropriate words, positive words, setting up that [00:35:00] blueprint that's going to help empower you.
If there's a childhood where there's a lot of criticism, maybe trauma or disapproval, then there would be beliefs that are held in the subconscious that- And they're held really deep down, aren't they? Deep down, deep down. Yeah. And quite often, so these beliefs tend to be things like I'm not worthy, I don't deserve, I'm not good enough.
Really deeply held feelings and beliefs that will manifest in your life somehow. They can manifest in health, relationships, money, host of things, careers. Hmm. And that's how you get to see whatever the, the scenery is outside, whatever your life is presenting you with, that gives you an indication of what's going on at a much, much deeper level And this is where hypnosis and RTT comes into play, and that's the third element.[00:36:00]
All three elements are absolutely vital. Miss any one of them, and you won't achieve the financial security or empowerment or freedom that you want. But that's the last one. Is- So remind me about, of the three, just so we can make sure- Yeah ... we've got, we've got it. Yeah. The first element is money EQ. It's your mindset attitude.
Yep. The second element is money IQ, which is your financial literacy. Yep. And tho- those six pillars are cashflow management, debt, goals or timeframes, investing options, risk management. But you do have to have an understanding of those basics. And the third one is the money beliefs, sabotaging or negative money beliefs.
Mm-hmm. And those three together then create... I call it the, uh, y- your money story audit. Yeah. If you go through that process, that's your audit. That will tell you where your strengths are, where your weaknesses are, where the gaps are, [00:37:00] what needs to be attended to. So to speak with somebody, a woman that's, um, never had to make decisions, has got half a million dollars sitting in the bank and it's been there for 10 years.
Of course, if it's been sitting there for 10 years, it's not that it's she's lost money, but in actual fact she has because- Yeah ... the purchasing power of the dollar hasn't been maintained. So understanding that concept is important. So need to make sure that the investments at least maintain inflation.
What I do is sit down and talk to them about where they're at. One of the, the biggest beliefs is, "I'm really no good with money." Oh, yeah. That one's very popular. "I'm not good with money." Yeah. Not good with numbers, not good with money. Not- I've never been good at this. My- Correct ... year five maths teacher told me that I was no good at this, and therefore I'm not.
Correct. Yeah. It's very popular, that one. Are they... And i- and, in actual fact then, once we establish where [00:38:00] along... And it could be a little bit of each section. You know, a little bit of mindset work that needs to be done, which is done in coaching. The financial literacy, I've got a course for that. Or an RTT session to just reframe, to change the perspective.
Because once again, that block is there for a reason. Mm. It would've probably been created there w- within the first seven years of a child's life And it's there for a reason, usually to protect. For safety. But find out. It's safety. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's, it's created a behavior or belief to keep you safe.
Yeah. Yeah, I love how you framed it, that we've got the money mindset, which tends to be a little easier to sort of surface in our mind. Right. Right. We've got financial literacy, you know, the bank account, the investments, the mortgage, the home- Right. Yeah ... your revenue, your profit, that sort of stuff. Right.
And then there's this deeper level- Mm-hmm ... mindset blocks. And I love that you also brought up the word trauma, because I think that it's really important for people to [00:39:00] recognize that- Yes ... the way that people behave with money isn't always o- like rational to other people. I think it's important to honor and to acknowledge- Right
that there are people who have deep money trauma, and that's not- Right ... the sort of thing that can be helped with a 10-minute coaching session on Instagram. Um- Absolutely not ... I feel like one of the entry points to understanding what's going on in your mind around money is by witnessing your behaviors.
Correct. Because not all of us can actually tap into the deep stuff that's behind all of the layers of our brain that are keeping us safe, and they're deep down because they're supposed to be. So they're supposed- Correct ... to be keeping us safe at the most fundamental level. Mm-hmm. I think that looking at the way that you behave can be a really great way of trying to access, "Well, if I behaved that way, what might I have been thinking?"
In order to kind of make that my behavior Yes. Yes, because [00:40:00] the mindset or beliefs, whichever, the more surface one or deeper one, will create and generate a behavior, and that will generate an outcome. So if we want to reverse engineer that, what are the outcomes happening at the moment? Am I happy with them?
Are they resourceful? Mm. Is it what I want? And if it's not, then reverse engineer back to, what could it be? And unfortunately, quite often deep-seated, um, negative beliefs are blind spots. Yeah. And it's- Yeah, we don't know they're there ... we don't know they're there- Yeah ... or we don't know why they're there.
Clients often coming out of a hypno session go, "Wow, I had no idea that that and that and that led to that." Having that awareness then shifts everything. The perception shifts, therefore that shifts their behavior, that shifts the outcomes. That's the- Yeah ... easiest way to put it. But, um- Yeah ... yeah, it's- Love that
um, it's very exciting work. Yeah. Mm. So [00:41:00] Jan, before we wrap up this conversation, I want to- Yeah. Absolutely ... I wanna just focus a little bit on the money IQ. Mm-hmm. So tell me a couple of foundational things- Yes ... that my listeners could take away from this conversation around building their financial literacy.
Yes. Not just their literacy, but their wealth. Well, okay. So what are the things that we women can be doing to increase our tangible wealth? First thing is to commit to 10 to 20%. Pay yourself first, numero uno, after the tax man. So that's going into savings. After the tax man. Okay. So tax man first, and then 10% - Tax man first.
Goes into an account automatically. Y- y- you'll be amazed putting away that 10, 20%. Start with 10%. Start with 5%. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter the amount. It matters more about the whole psyche of doing that for yourself. Putting aside that having an emergency fund, really important. If you're [00:42:00] an employed person, at least three months' worth of costs, um, put aside in an accessible bank account.
It's money that you can grab out as quickly as possible. If you're self-employed, then six months minimum. Yeah. Six to 12 months. 'Cause that'll give you the space to, if you lose your job or you're not well or whatever the circumstances are, that'll give you breathing space to, to realign yourself and reorganize yourself.
Having done that, have an understanding of and embrace the notion of creating passive income. I know you call it leverage income. It's, it's just your money working for you. So while you're at work making money, have your money working for you as well. So that could be investing in property or shares or other businesses, that sort of thing.
Exactly. Understanding that there's investments that create income and growth. So take, for example, a house. [00:43:00] You've got an investment property that the tenants will pay you rental income, but that asset will also grow in value, so that's the growth component, and different investments will suit different time frames.
So if you're going to have a holiday in 12 months' time, you wouldn't put it in shares. Mm. You'd leave it in a bank. That capital needs to be safe and there for you to go on your holiday, or it could be a, um, a deposit for a house. Whatever it is, you don't want to risk the capital going down in value in those 12 months, 'cause share markets do this.
Yes. If you're making an investment in shares, you're not wanting to access it in the next couple of years. No. It's something that you're happy to put away for the long term- Seven plus years ... and allow it to grow. Yeah. Seven plus years. Compounding interest, understanding compounding interest. That's when you have an investment and the interest then is added to the capital.
That new capital is generating [00:44:00] income That income is added to the capital again. That's, uh, with compounding interest, your money's making money. It's money making money. Yeah. Continually. So an example of that would be that you've invested in shares or ETFs, and you're allowing the dividends to be used to purchase more shares- Mm-hmm
and just letting it sit there. Mm-hmm. And not only is the original share investment growing, but also the dividends or the interest being added to it is also growing. Right. Exactly. Love it. Yeah. And dollar cost averaging, one of my favorites, and Warren Buffett loves those two concepts, compounding interest and dollar cost averaging.
Dollar cost averaging is automatically happening in your superannuation account. But you can have it also, you can create it for yourself outside of super with a normal investment or your share portfolio, let's say. So dollar cost averaging, what it means is each fortnight or each month, each payday now that's going to come in in July, [00:45:00] yes- Yeah.
um, part of the money goes into the inv- into your superannuation account. Just mention here too that most people, 90% of people, have got their money in super in the default. They don't actually go in to see where their super is investing, and there's a range going from ultra-conservative to a high growth.
So you need to check that 'cause it, it, it, it may not be a default fund that suits you. Mm. It mightn't have enough growth in it. So you need to actually make a decision and change it. The monies going into that super fund will, on that day, buy shares. Now, if the shares are down in value, that means that $10, let's say it's $10, um, and the share yesterday was $2, but today it's $1.
You're going to buy 10 shares that go into your portfolio. In the next pay cycle, [00:46:00] the shares have now gone up... Simplified, but the shares have now gone up to $2. Well, then your $10 will only buy five shares. Yeah. But rather than trying to time the market to decide when's the best time to get in, dollar cost averaging, it means that the cost of getting into the share market is averaged out.
Yeah. So you average the lows and the highs, and you'll average out to whatever the average will be over that period of time, over the 12 months. Yeah. So that is automatically happening with your superannuation. If you're employed, your employer's putting in 12% of your salary into your superannuation. If you're, um, in business, you're doing the same thing for your employees and yourself- And hopefully for yourself too
and yourself. Absolutely. What we're saying is that if you're wanting to invest for the long term, so say seven years or more, shares or [00:47:00] ETFs is probably a great idea. Yeah. But probably the best thing you can do is just lose the login and never look at it- Correct ... and automate the amount being invested- Correct
so that it just comes out once a month, once a week, whatever it is. This is actually what I've done with my shares, is it just- Perfect ... goes out every week and they invest in- Yeah ... ETFs for me. I never- Yeah ... touch it. I just let it sit there and compound. So- And you don't look at it I try not to look at it too often.
And so the other thing to note is that the earlier you invest, the better. Correct. So compounding interest, which is how the rich get richer- Correct ... as a general concept, is the more money you have, the more money you have. Yes. So if somebody is unclear about whether they're ready to start investing or not, you don't wait until you feel ready.
You, uh, you do it as soon- You just do it ... as you can. Correct. Yeah. Yeah. Because time is your asset, is the most valuable asset. Yeah. Mm. And it doesn't matter if you're 20 or 70 or 35 or 90. Yeah. The sooner you [00:48:00] invest, the better. I think that- And it's never too late. Yeah. Never too late. Yeah. Mm. So I think one thing that we need to remember when we're thinking about our long-term financial future is how much we earn.
You know, having more money means that you'll have more money to invest. Yes. So yes, we can try to reduce our expenses to live within our means, and I- Mm ... wholeheartedly agree that that's a great thing to do. Yes. But what we can also do is say, "Well, how could I earn more?" Correct. So if you're an employed person, often the best thing you can do is get a job in a new company, right?
Mm-hmm. That is often the best way to actually increase your salary, is to move locations or move workplaces. Yeah. And I think the same is true with small business owners, is that often we actually need to start working with a new type of client in order to increase our revenue. So- Yes ... I think that's worth noting, that if there's more coming in, that 10% that you're investing is going to be bigger if it's, uh, starting from a bigger pool.
So- [00:49:00] Absolutely. Yeah. And I think, I think you and I have both witnessed that women in business tend to undercharge and over, over-deliver. It's, uh- Yes ... I've seen it time and time again. Yeah. So, and it gets back to that whole- I deserve, I'm worthy. That's, that's where that fits in, that underlying, um, belief Yeah, yeah- Yeah
that runs through all of our waters. Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's so deep we don't even realize that it's not true. No, no. We think it's so true that it's become part of our identity. Correct. Yeah. Correct. Yeah. Yeah. So I think some of the great things we've talked about today is that there are different levels of financial freedom from the roundabout through to being at, uh, that free stage where your passive income is enough to pay for all of your living costs.
But- And you can choose to work or not work ... yeah. Yes. But if you wanna get from the roundabout through to that financial freedom, it starts by looking at your mindset- Yes ... [00:50:00] increasing your financial literacy, and then if it feels safe to do so, exploring some of those deeper blocks. Yes, yes. Um, I think women make great investors and- Yes
um, you know, there's lots of information available to people online. But how would people get in touch with you? What are the ways that they might be able to build their financial EQ or financial IQ with you? Yes. Tell me, tell me how they can work with you, Jan. Well, the first start is a discovery call. So it's 30-minute- Right
conversation, um, a free conversation and just, just tease out w- what they're wanting to achieve. And that could then be directed to either a money coaching session- Mm-hmm ... which is dealing with the logical mind, or the Money Makeover program, which is your money story audit. That could be a great start. Got it.
Um, or an RTT session if th- those two things are in, in place and they're comfortable with them, having, looking at [00:51:00] any sabotaging behavior that might be going on. There's a free five steps to financial freedom booklet on my website, and on the very last page there's a lovely surprise. There's, um, a discount on the Money Makeover program- Awesome
if they want. Love that. Yeah. Um- All right. Well, we'll make sure we get all of the links to your website into the show notes. Okay, done. Thank you. And Jan, what's, what's one thing that somebody listening to this conversation, what's one thing that they could try to do in the next week that might take them a little bit closer to their financial goals?
That they are worthy, that they are enough, and they deserve. Yeah. That starts. Hallelujah. Yeah Love it They deserve it. They deserve it Yeah Yeah We need you to start realizing that you deserve to have anything that you want to- Exactly ... and you can achieve any of these things in your life. It just starts with understanding, what are my goals, and then working out how to go and achieve them.
Correct, and where the [00:52:00] gaps are. Awesome. Yeah. Correct. Thank you for being with me today, Jan. Thank you, Phoebe. I hope you enjoyed being on the Money Secrets Podcast. I loved it. That's ... And I, I l- I, I love your work. Thank you so much. I love what you do, what you're doing in the world. Love what you're doing too.
Okay. Thank you, Jan.
Outro
Thank you so much for listening right up to the end. I hope you enjoyed this episode of Money Secrets, where we talk about the money secrets of successful small business owners. If you enjoyed the episode, I'd love it if you subscribe to the podcast, could leave us a review, or share this episode with one of your friends. I hope you learned something, I hope you got a new perspective, and I really hope you enjoyed the listening experience.
