Here’s what we’ll cover
Today I’m talking with fellow business coach Clare Wood. Clare has recently developed a love for, and a deeper understanding of all things money mindset transformation. She has spent a lot of time learning about the topic of money mindset recently so we are chatting about what it means to have a great money mindset and what it can do for you and your business.
We talk about having healthy money conversations with your spouse as well as your accountant and how your mindset can impact your pricing with discounting and undercharging.
I recently read a quote from money mentor and expert Marla Diann – ‘How you do money is how you do everything!’ I love those words, they are so true in business and in life. So let’s get Clare’s perspective on the money transformation that can happen when you elevate your money mindset.
Links and Resources
- Checkout the Simply Smarter Numbers website HERE
- Checkout the Podcast HERE
- Checkout the Instagram page HERE
- Checkout Clare’s Free Downloads HERE
- Checkout Clare’s Podcast HERE
- Checkout Clare’s Instagram HERE
Keep Listening!
Here’s the shownotes
Jen Waterson
Today I’m talking with fellow business coach Clare Wood. Clare has recently developed a love for, and a deeper understanding of all things money mindset transformation. She has spent a lot of time learning about the topic of money mindset recently so we are chatting about what it means to have a great money mindset and what it can do for you and your business.
We talk about having healthy money conversations with your spouse as well as your accountant and how your mindset can impact your pricing with discounting and undercharging.
I recently read a quote from money mentor and expert Marla Diann – ‘How you do money is how you do everything!’ I love those words, they are so true in business and in life. So let’s get Clare’s perspective on the money transformation that can happen when you elevate your money mindset.
Welcome to the podcast Clare Wood, tell us a little bit about yourself.
Clare Wood
Hey Jen, thank you so much for having me on here.
Like you said, my name is Clare Wood and I am a business coach and a money mentor. I help business owners scale their business through money mindset and money management, which I know is what you do a lot of, so I am super excited to dive into it today and share a little bit more.
Jen Waterson
Yeah I’m really keen to have this conversation.
What we are going to talk about today, money transformations and money mindset, it is not something I am really familiar with, of course I know it is all out there and it is an issue but I would love to dig in with you and get a feel for what it is you can do, what your opinion is on some of this stuff and just generally let the audience know what is a money transformation?
Clare Wood
Yeah great question.
So my background, I am actually an accountant by trade, I did a bachelor of commerce majoring in accounting then I went on and did post-grad qualifications and completed my CPA.
For the first chunk of my career I worked as an accountant and when I moved into the space of business coaching I was really focused in that space and then one day I started to learn a little bit about money mindset. At first it was really hard for me to wrap my accounting brain around it because as you can imagine it’s quite different to the training we have in the finance space.
Essentially what money mindset is, is it is having a belief that something is possible and because you believe something is possible you set around creating it. In the early days I was quite sceptical, but I started to do a lot of this work on myself and with my clients and the results are absolutely incredible, hence the money transformation take place.
Jen Waterson
You are so onto it. I have the exact same accounting background and when you spend so much time learning accounting and spend so many years doing the study behind it, they don’t speak about anything like money mindset or any of that, it is a completely separate field.
With our analytical minds as accountants, it’s hard to wrap it around the concept of money mindset.
Clare Wood
And I was a real doubter, let’s be clear, I didn’t first hear it and think full steam ahead with this, but over the years’ time and time again, I now know that this work is the work and this is really where the big quantum leaps, like when you take big leaps in your income, it starts with what you’re believing so I have definitely become a big believer.
Jen Waterson
Yeah I love the conversations that we can have, you’re going to talk through some examples here but the thing that I find when I have conversations about money mindset with people is that so much of it does play out in real life.
In my past as an accountant and the conversations we would have with clients around simple things like getting your tax done, keeping up to date with the boring stuff, cashflows and things like that. There are so many people who are so good at burying their head in the sand and so on and you would have seen a lot of that over your time as well, and I guess it is all coming back to that basis of their mindset around money.
Clare Wood
100%. Lots of people are terrified of money and lots of people get awkward and uncomfortable when we talk about money and you’ve hit the nail on the head Jen.
A lot of people just choose to put their hand in the sand and pretend it’s not happening and hope it will go away but money is a reality of life and for me I talk a lot about money in my business and the reason I love money so much is because it has the power to change lives and anyone who has ever struggled with money will know how much it sucks.
I’ve been there, and I’ve definitely had periods of my life where I’ve had so much disposable income but I’ve been able to do whatever I wanted and I know which path I would rather choose.
Jen Waterson
Yeah and when you say money transformation, what are you referring to exactly?
Money transformation being the way I felt about money pre as compared to post? Is that what we’re kind of talking about when we’re talking money transformation?
Clare Wood
Yeah you’ve hit the nail on the head Jen.
So a lot of the work I do with my clients is showing them that anything is possible and quite often when we’re going through the process of setting their budgets and someone will look at their history, okay I’ve grown 5% I want to grow 5% more, I allow them to unlock a possibility that what if we double it this year and you can imagine the initial reaction, well that’s not possible, and I say well what if it is?
That’s the foundation and people often want to know, I had clients last year who doubled their sales and tripled their sales from the prior year and they were already running six-figure businesses or multi six-figure businesses and it can be really hard to wrap your head around but essentially it’s having a different belief around what is possible.
When we have the framework, let’s call it the ‘be, do, have framework’, ‘have’ being you want to have something, you want to have lots of money in the bank so often how people start the journey is they do things, they start Facebook ads or do Instagram more often, without actually looking at the ‘be’, the person they are which is the person that believes it is possible for them, the person that is in alignment with those kind of results.
Let me give you a non-business example, when people want to lose weight, so someone who has always been a bit bigger starts going to the gym and they start eating healthy and they lose weight and start to achieve their goal, but because they don’t really identify as a slim person they might lose the weight for a short period of time and then go back to old habits and put all the weight back on.
As compared to some people who literally transform their thinking and identify that this is the new me now. I guess when I talk about money transformations, that’s not a reality for me anymore.
Jen Waterson
Yeah it’s actually really interesting that you say the ‘be, do, have’ thing. I remember about 10 years ago my husband and we did this ‘be, do, have’, listing that out, who do you need to be, what do you need to do in order to have ‘x’ and that I guess these days is called money mindset to a degree like back then money mindset wasn’t really a thing, but the ‘be, do, have’ I remember distinctly.
That was a really good way to pull it apart and make people think about the person who they want to be and the things they need to think about and do before they get in and start changing things on the outside.
Clare Wood
Exactly.
Another example of this might be with pricing. I remember the first client I had I was so nervous thinking is someone really going to pay me for this, and once you get to the point where you have multiple clients it just becomes well of course someone will pay that money to work with me because I can help them change their business.
I never when I’m talking to a client now question if someone should pay me to work with me because of course, I’m aligned to the fact that I earn income for working.
So that’s what I guess the shift is and then when we’re unlocking transformations and growth, we need to identify with someone who says yes a $50,000 month is possible and yes a half million dollar business is possible for me. The first time it happens it sometimes feels like a fluke and people freak out and go back into scarcity mindset, but then it becomes a new normal.
That’s where my business sits now.
Jen Waterson
Yeah and it’s the confidence that comes with that, once you’ve experienced that level of success with the growth, and the confidence is there, you stop questioning your ability.
I think people question their ability and their self-worth a lot as well which can lead to creating that position of scarcity that they’re coming from and creating those issues that can just spiral.
Clare Wood
You’ve hit the nail on the head and I did an episode of my podcast last week and I interviewed this amazing guest, Ellie Swift, and we were chatting about the relationship between self-worth and wealth, and how if you believe you’re worthy of something you’re more likely to achieve those kind of results.
That is why quite often when we see people grow up in wealthy families, they find it so much easier to create successful businesses because they’re aligned to earning that level of income and that certain level of lifestyle. Perhaps they have a bit less fear around investing and taking chances because they have an underlying belief that everything is going to work out okay.
Jen Waterson
Yeah what about things like boundaries with money? Some people are really good with money, some people are not so good with money, how does that come into play with our money mindset, is it just another element of money mindset?
Clare Wood
Great question.
In terms of being great with money, there’s different ways we can perceive this.
When we talk about if someone’s great with money, I used to believe when I first got started in business that for me to be great with money I had to have a business with a really high profit, very low expenses and be very conservative, not waste any money and to tick along as easily as I could without investing too much in my business.
Jen Waterson
Even things like not going into debt, that is a question that people can ask themselves, what does being great with money look like to them? If being great with money looks like ‘x’ is that realistic? Is that going to take you to the places you want to be? It’s that kind of conversation isn’t it?
Clare Wood
Exactly. Sometimes the way we use money isn’t serving us, so for example you might have heaps of money in savings which some people say is a great thing and you’re great with money, whereas some people may think they’re inhibiting their long term growth because they’re not investing it. Think about it like the share market, if someone has a cash account and has hundreds of thousands of dollars sitting in a cash account earning less than 1% interest, maybe that’s the right decision for some people, I’m certainly not giving financial advice here.
Other people may have the perception of you could be getting a large return if you spent some of that money investing it and getting a higher return.
I had a big ‘uh-huh’ moment in my business when I had grown this comfortable coaching business, I had lots of clients and wasn’t spending barely a cent on my business, then I was watching these other coaches leaping and having these massive launches, scaling their businesses significantly and I started questioning, what are they doing, I’m a great coach, why am I not achieving those results?
Rather than falling to the victimhood around it, I started to really observe what they were doing and I noticed they were getting a beautiful new website and gorgeous branding and investing in these really expensive business coaches and masterminds, doing course after course and hiring SEO specialists and working with great accountants.
That’s when I had the ‘uh-huh’ that if I really wanted to achieve incredible growth, I couldn’t keep operating in my scarcity mindset and I would have to lean in and invest in my business to achieve some big growth.
Jen Waterson
It’s a great point that sometimes you do need to lean in and invest, it is important and I think going back to that question, what does good money management mean to you, and if it is skipping on as many expenses as you could possible, then is that really serving you and your ideal outcome?
Clare Wood
Exactly and it’s different for everyone right? But I knew for me that I had big goals and that’s what I do with my clients, unlock people who are wanting to achieve massive things, incredible growth and be able to create the lifestyle they dream of.
That’s why I believe money mindset work is so powerful.
Jen Waterson
What are the other benefits of having a good, positive money mindset?
Clare Wood
I guess it allows you to make decisions from a place of ‘abundance’, if you want to make lifestyle choices and business growth choices, you can confidently make them trusting that the money will continue to show up.
An example of this is quite often when business owners are running really successful businesses, feel like they’ve got to work harder and harder, because they don’t have the belief the money will keep coming, they can’t make decisions around taking a holiday.
I worked with one client who had not had a holiday in 10 years, so I really supported her and said it’s safe to take a break and work less hours in your business, and that’s definitely the point I’m reaching in my business where I don’t want to be working all the time anymore, I want to be able to have client contact downtime and be able to do strategic work and take time with my kids.
That’s another thing that your mindset allows you to do.
Jen Waterson
It’s really important and before we jumped on we were talking about the fact I take every January off which is the time of year I love, doing things other than working and I’ve always felt that way but being able to take that off isn’t always as easy as it sounds, even if you’re doing well throughout the year it is hard.
It’s one thing to say no I’m going to shut up shop for the month, It’s one thing to decide it and it’s a completely different to follow through with it and stay out of the emails and the social media, in order to actually give yourself that break.
Clare Wood
Yeah 100% and that’s why money mindset is so important. When you’ve got the right mindset around it you know you’re not going to compromise on what it is that you desire.
Jen Waterson
I guess one of the other positives about having a great mindset around money is healthier conversations about money. I find that people who do have a good money mindset and those who have the ability to have a true and frank conversation about money and the position that they’re in and that their businesses are in, it allows themselves to move forward so much quicker, do you think?
Clare Wood
Yeah definitely and I do think that money is such a taboo topic and often people can avoid it and find it uncomfortable. Even talking to their accountant about it they might be very vague, glaze over and put their in the sand and pretend it’s not there.
Jen Waterson
I’ve had people shrivel up in the corner and you could physically see the discomfort they’re in when they talk about money, and as an accountant over the years you have to learn how to make people feel comfortable and be okay to talk about those things in a non-threatening environment but it really does do things to different people.
That level of comfort is tough but you have to get to it before you can open up and have these conversations with your spouse, with your family, the conversations that the kids hear you have with your spouse is another way to make sure your kids end up growing up with a good money mindset too I guess.
And having good conversations with your clients about the dreaded pricing and discounting and that sort of thing. Have you got any advice to give to people on what they can do today to get them around the difficult conversation someone may have with a client who is asking for a discount for example?
Clare Wood
Yeah well again this is why that money mindset work is so important because what you are believing is how you’re going to show up and the energy that you’re going to show up to these conversations in.
I actually did a great episode of my podcast around five mistakes people make with pricing and I might share them here if that’s alright with you Jen.
One of the mistakes people make is they ask potential clients what they think they would pay for something and they go I’m going to ask my market what’s going on and the problem with that is people aren’t going to tell you well I would pay this. I’m sure if your hairdresser asked how much would you pay me to cut my hair you’d say 20 bucks.
You might not volunteer the amount that it turns out we are happy to pay.
Jen Waterson
Then on the flipside of that, they also might because they’re not literally handing the cash over they might give you a price that’s too high, maybe there is a price that’s too high and it’s beyond your comfort zone and at what level are they going to put their hand in their pocket and hand the money over? It’s not until they’re going to do that, that you start to get a feel for what the market will pay.
Clare Wood
The other thing too that I learnt is that a lot of it isn’t around what someone wants to pay, it’s around how you’ve delivered the value around what that money could cost.
An example of this is I chatted to a potential client several years ago about private coaching, in my private coaching package you get weekly coaching sessions, support between calls, and this client thought about it decided that they weren’t going to invest at that point in time they didn’t have the money, I said I totally understand. I then saw on Instagram that they had joined a mastermind which was 70% more expensive than private coaching with me.
So not only had they come up with the amount of money they said they couldn’t afford to pay me with but almost doubled it and that was my first real ‘uh-huh’ moment when it came to pricing, is that you have to realise people aren’t paying the price it’s because they’re not seeing the value. Obviously sometimes people literally don’t have the money and I never encourage people to invest money they don’t have.
But a lot of the time it’s simply that you haven’t sold the value that is sitting there.
Jen Waterson
It’s critical to be able to articulate the value, if you can do that with the value you can provide somebody in whatever it is you do, you’re three quarters of the way there.
Clare Wood
Yeah and I think it’s another misconception in the small business space that people think of course you can charge that price because you’re a coach and I’m like hang on, this is in any service-based business.
There are hairdressers who are being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a year who are at the top of the game and respected as that person in their industry, so it’s really about how you’re positioned in the market, who is your dream client and then how much are they willing to pay?
Jen Waterson
Yeah benefits versus features.
So that’s one of the great tips for people. What else do you have around pricing?
Clare Wood
One is definitely don’t ask your target market.
The second one is don’t look at the market because you can look around and think no other accountant is charging this so no one will ever pay it, which may not be the truth because maybe no one else is as good at your craft as you are. Maybe no one else has positioned themselves as a market leader. Maybe you serve a certain section of the market that is happy to pay a premium price and I definitely know in certain things that I invest in I certainly don’t want the cheapest person whose doing something.
An example is if you need to get surgery done you don’t want to go to the cheapest surgeon.
It’s all down to perception and those dream clients. Again, sometimes your pricing will be dictated by the capacity of your market, you could do a job working in a global corporate but maybe that’s not something that lights you up so there may be a cap to what those dream clients are willing to pay.
Jen Waterson
Start-up businesses that are strapped for cash, there is potentially a cap for what they may be able to spend on a new website or something like that so if that’s the market you’re going after then you need to cap pricing that’s realistic for the market.
Clare Wood
The underpinning message that I got across in that podcast episode was saying that all pricing is, is a value exchange that feels good for both parties.
Sometimes someone won’t be willing to pay a certain price and they’ll just say sorry that doesn’t feel like a good fit to me, other times both parties are saying this is great, I’m happy to work for that amount and this client is happy to pay me that amount so we have a fit.
When we remove the emotion around it and consider it as a value exchange and ultimately at the end of the day it comes down to a value exchange that two people agree too, and if they don’t, they can go somewhere else or you can lower your prices and make it a price they are willing to exchange the value at.
Jen Waterson
Yeah I guess then if you’re going to lower your prices always remove some of the value there as well, never just go straight to a discount, if you’re offering something of value and you feel you’re articulating that value, but you really want that client for whatever reason and they don’t want to pay that kind of money then take something away I think as well to justify the lower price.
I think the other thing too is when you’re quoting for things, there are times where if somebody is quoting me for something and it comes in less than what I expected it to be, I’m going to judge that business on that low price and think woah maybe you’re not quite as good as I thought you were. I expected more than that, not that I want to pay more but I might judge that business by the price that they’re putting forward.
Clare Wood
100%. That can work both ways of course.
Sometimes someone will give you a price and you think that is absolutely ridiculous there is no way I’m paying that, but conversely I have also had that experience where it has turned me off working with someone because my perception is if they are only charging that much, maybe they are not that good at what they do.
Having that belief in yourself and charging appropriately will really position you as a market leader that will be able to build a thriving and successful business.
Jen Waterson
Well thanks so much for that Clare, I feel like we covered quite a lot when it comes to sorting out somebody’s money mindset.
Let’s say there are two or three things that someone listening could go away and do right now to help improve their money mindset and work on it today, do you have a couple of things people could do, even if it’s just a thought they could change?
Clare Wood
Yeah a couple of things.
I would invest into learning about it and I just mean investing time, go and listen to some epic podcasts about money mindset, obviously my podcast ‘Clare Wood Podcast’, ‘Manifestation Babe’ podcast, ‘Mind Your Business’ podcast, and immersing yourself in that knowledge and understanding.
A couple of my favourite money mindset books are ‘Get Rich Lucky Bitch’ and ‘You’re A Badass At Making Money’. So immerse yourself in learning around it.
I have also invested in multiple courses on money mindset and I continue to invest in them all the time. I would much rather invest in a money mindset course than in learning a practical skill because for me I know this is how the quantum shifts happen. So investing into courses and training into how to take that knowledge and understanding even further.
The other thing I would say on the practical side of money is to develop a fantastic relationship with a great accountant or the financial people in your team and again that will help you with the comfort around talking about money, looking at money and being real around it.
Jen Waterson
There is some really good accountants around, I always say to people if you’re out there and looking for an accountants it’s really worthwhile not to just take the advice of someone else but going in and having a meeting face-to-face with the person you would be working with on an ongoing basis and get a feel.
Your gut feeling will tell you whether or not you can have a conversation with this person, if you feel intimated or like you can’t ask the dumb questions then you’re with the wrong accountant.
That’s a quick gut check when it comes to finding yourself an accountant you can have these conversation with and it will make a big difference and Clare and I know all about that. That’s my little added tip there.
Clare Wood
Don’t be scared of numbers, money can get a bad rap and there’s lots of stories people have around money and greed but turning a blind eye to it is not going to help so I think the more you learn to love your money, your money will love you.
Jen Waterson
Great advice and a great way to end it on.
Thank you so much Clare, where can people find you?
Clare Wood
The ‘Clare Wood Podcast’ is my podcast, go and check it out and my website is just ‘clarewood.com’ or come say hi on Insta, I’m pretty active on Instagram so ‘clare_wood_coach’.
Jen Waterson
Thanks so much for coming on the podcast it’s been great having this conversation with you and for anybody out there listening I hope you’ve got something you can walk away with and if at the very least you just want to learn a little bit more, I’ll put some of those references to the books Clare mentioned and the podcasts in the show notes as well so you can spend some time and have a look around and get a feel for what is your money mindset right now and potentially what you could do to improve it.
Thanks so much Clare, I’ve really enjoyed you on the show and wherever you are in the world, we will talk again very soon!
