Can your money mindset directly impact your business revenue? Money mindset gurus like Sandy Forster and Denise Duffield-Thomas say yes.
As an avid follower of both of these women for the better part of a decade, I decided to do a deep dive into their thoughts and lessons around money. Consider this post my summary of all I’ve learned about using your mindset to boost your business bank account.
Why is a good money mindset so important for a business owner?
Your beliefs about money will shape the decisions you make and how you manage finances, which can determine whether your business succeeds or fails.
A good money mindset encourages ownership over financial decisions, allowing you to take control of the situation instead of feeling helpless and hopeless when it comes to managing your finances.
Having a positive money mindset helps provide perspective into what constitutes success when it comes to running a business. A healthy attitude towards money also allows entrepreneurs to prioritize investments that will benefit their businesses in the long run.
Sandy Forster: From welfare to millionaire
Sandy Forster was on welfare in the early 1990s. A newly single mom of two young kids, she went from getting $15,000 per year from the government to earning more than $150,000 within 12 months. Shortly thereafter she was earning enough that she quite literally went from welfare to millionaire.
Since that time she’s gone on to found the Inspired Spirit Coaching Academy, wrote a book called How to Be Wildly Wealthy Fast as well as a companion workbook, and she hosts and produces the Wildly Wealthy Women Podcast.
Sandy was also featured in Oprah’s Aussie Secret, and is a member of Jack Canfield’s invitation-only Transformational Leadership Council.
Sandy’s money mindset tips
Now that you know a little bit about Sandy’s background, let’s get into what you came here for — the money mindset lessons that can directly impact your business revenue.
1. Stop focusing on what you don’t want
One of the biggest problems that a lot of entrepreneurs and business owners have is that they are too focused on the things they don’t want. Sandy admits this was a problem for her in the beginning. She was already on what felt like a sinking ship, and things only got worse after a business she tried to start failed miserably leaving her $100,000 in debt.
And thinking all those negative thoughts won’t help you get anywhere. If anything, it’s like sending a signal to the world that you can’t see any way to make things better. That negative energy is debilitating. How can anyone get rich from a constant place of sorrow?
Sandy recommends saying yes to prosperity.
I get that this might sound a little woo-woo, but it’s been proven that people who get clear on what they want and write their goals down are more likely to achieve their goals.
"If you don't know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else." –Lawrence J. Peter
After all, how can you go after what you want with vigor if you don’t know what it is in the first place?
Sandy says if you change your focus, you can change your life.
2. Define what “wealth” means to you
This is actually a money mindset tip that far too many people get tripped up on because they keep defining success as what others think it should be. Consider for a moment what true wealth would look like to you.
Some people might say it means having an exotic sports car, designer clothes, eating at the finest restaurants, and traveling the world. Others might say wealth means having enough in retirement, a modest home that is paid off, the ability to take care of their family, and being surrounded by a tight community of people they enjoy the company of.
Others still could define success as giving everything they earn away and working every day to make the world a better place.
"If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much."
– Jim Rohn
Just like knowing your goals and focusing on what you want, knowing what success looks like in your mind will help you get clear on what you’re trying to achieve.
3. Look for proof things can work out
On a practical level, Sandy says to look at what other people are doing — especially the people that are doing the things you want to do.
She says, “Don't let that scare you. Don't let that freak you out, [and] don't let that make you go into comparison mode of ‘I'm never going to be that good. I don't know why I even bother starting.’ Don't go down that path. Just see what's possible, get inspired.”
If Tom in Idaho can start a successful Facebook ads business, and you want to do the same thing for yourself, Tom is your proof that it’s possible. Gina in South Dakota is selling Cricut designs like hotcakes? Perfect! That’s proof there’s a market for selling Cricut designs!
Allow yourself to become inspired as you look for proof things can work out. Then, on the mindset side, consider that if others can do it, you can too. Sandy says to visualize yourself just as successful or more successful than the people you are watching. Start thinking about the actions you need to take to make your business revenue dreams a reality.
4. Take Inspired Action
Sandy says if you want to earn more money, you can’t just sit on a pillow meditating and visualizing your dreams coming true.
She says, “Oh my gosh, this is the thing that most people miss.” She admits she loves the book The Secret by Rhonda Bryne, but that too many coaches took it too literally. They teach the law of attraction and affirming and visualizing, but they forget what The Secret was based on.
She said, “[The Secret] was inspired by another book that was written I think over 120 years ago by a man called Wallace Wattles. The book was called The Science of Getting Rich. And it's written in very old fashioned language, but there's one phrase in there that I absolutely adore. And it is, ‘By thought that thing you desire is brought to you. But by action, you receive it.’”
Sandy explained that having the thought allows it to just sit out there in the metaphysical, but once you take action, that’s when the magic happens. This is why she’s a huge advocate of combining body, mind and spirit — combining your thoughts, feelings, and actions is what makes dreams actually come true.
5. You might have to fake it at first
Odds are you have heard the phrase “Fake it til you make it.” Sandy says there’s some business benefit to doing just that. She said that when she first started working on transforming her life to go into business for herself, she would constantly affirm to herself it was possible to become a millionaire.
For a while, she would say “I am now a debt-free millionaire.” Inside she said her mind was screaming “Liar, liar! Pants on fire! That is not true.” But she said the more you say something the easier it is to believe.
Sandy told me that faking it until it becomes real is a lot like watching a scary movie in a lot of ways. You watch it, and you’re so scared. But then you watch it again, and you're less scared. Before you know it, it can just be playing in the background and not even phasing you.
It’s the same with earning more revenue in your business. If you start telling yourself you can succeed, you won’t believe it at first. It might even feel scary. However, if you keep telling yourself you can earn more, eventually, it becomes background noise and doesn’t even phase you. It becomes your reality, and you don’t have to fake it anymore.
Sandy also said if it’s too hard to believe what you’re telling yourself, you can add qualifiers for a while. For example, in the beginning since she didn’t believe “I am a debt free millionaire,” she would say something like “I am now in the process of becoming a debt free millionaire.” Over time she would drop the qualifiers and then she became a debt free millionaire!
6. Go on a negativity diet
Interestingly enough, two different business coaches and my therapist have suggested this idea to me. So I found it interesting that Sandy mentioned it, as well. She said she filters out a lot of negativity to keep her focus on what she wants. A negativity diet can mean staying off social media or not watching or reading bad news.
For Sandy, it means not having a TV connected in her home for several years. She said, “The media, TV, Netflix, all this stuff, like garbage in, garbage out. You've got to be mindful of what you allow into your life because that is creating your life.”
Instead, read inspiring books like autobiographies of people that have gone against the odds and achieved their dreams. Journal about your desires and how good it will feel for them to become your life. Drink plenty of water and get outside and exercise to bring in all the good elements your body and spirit need to help you perform in your work.
7. Never give up
Imagine, for a moment, that you live on Myrtle Beach in South Carolina. You’ve always wanted to see the beaches of California. If you walked out of your house and started walking towards California, eventually you would get there.
Sure, it will take you a long time to get there on foot, but eventually you will get there.
Luckily, today there are so many shortcuts to starting a business. Just like you could take a bus or train or drive to California to get to the destination faster, you can start a business fast and start working towards your goals.
Will it be hard? Yes. Will there be bumps in the road, and moments you want to give up? Also, yes. But should that stop you? Only if you don’t want to get to the destination. Otherwise, to quote one of the cheesiest space movies of all time Galaxy Quest “Never give up! Never surrender!”
Denise Duffield-Thomas: Chill & prosper
Denise Duffield-Thomas was actually one of Sandy’s followers and won a free seat in Sandy Forster’s Inspired Spirit Coaching program. Since then, she won a six-month luxury travel competition where she and her husband Mark tied the knot 87 times all over the world. Denise’s first book was self-published and in it she shared how she manifested that travel competition win.
In her follow-up book Denise shared her methodology of going beyond manifesting big wins to bring in big income. The lessons in her first two books became the basis of her Money Bootcamp where she spills everything she knows about busting through money blocks.
Her first two books have since been republished along with her latest book Chill and Prosper through Hay House. She is also the host and producer of the Chill and Prosper Podcast.
1. Make space to receive
One of the very first things Denise does anytime she is trying to bring something into her life is declutter. She said in a recent podcast episode that when she and her husband decided they wanted to move into a new home they immediately came to their current home and began getting rid of excess stuff so it would be easier to move house.
For your business this might mean closing down services that no longer generate revenue. For example, if you’re a personal trainer that no longer does nutrition and meal planning, take it off your website. This will prevent the random customer from signing up for that service so you can focus on the things that are making you money in your business.
Additional ways to make space to receive in business might look like:
- Letting go of employees that are not pulling their weight/meeting sales quotas
- Deleting old client files (or at least moving them off site or to a backup cloud storage solution) so you don’t have to keep scrolling through them to get to your current clients
- Removing outdated pricing sheets so you’re only charging your new prices
- Discontinuing software purchases that you’re not using
- Transitioning from physical offices to remote working
- Eliminating your store front in favor of an eCommerce shop
2. Decide how much money you want to earn
One of the biggest reasons that we don’t go after what we want according to Denise, is we’re too scared to ask for it. We think we’re not worthy of it, or that we’ll come off as a mean person for asking for that much money.
Denise often says that when it comes to money, especially for women, we think we can have money OR happiness, but never both. This isn’t true though. It’s a lie we tell ourselves.
We need to decide what we want, and then get comfortable with the amount of wealth we want to earn.
3. Share what you know and make offers
Denise says that these are the only two real strategies you need to make money in your business. That’s it. Everything else is just noise. The truth is, some people make it really hard to give them money, and Denise believes it’s because they have blocks around money that are preventing them from asking for the sale.
But, if you can focus on the two steps to making money, you can make hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars like she did.
One of the things I’ve heard Denise talk about a few times is something she did during the pandemic. As businesses were closing and people were struggling, she decided that she wanted to spend $5,000 on businesses in her community.
She decided to buy courses from people, and ended up actually spending well over $6,000. She even covers this in greater detail in episode 19 of her podcast “Make it Easy for People to Give You Money.”
What she found is a lot of people made it way too hard to give them money. She couldn’t find the “buy it now” buttons, sales pages were messing, and for some websites there were too many steps to keep someone focused enough to get to the purchase page.
What Denise says is if you make it hard for people to give you money, they won’t give you money. It sounds so simple, but it’s what holds so many people back from actually earning in their business. So, if you want to make money remember her two step strategy:
- Share what you know
- Make offers
Conclusion & next steps
I hope this post has inspired you to work on your money mindset. I truly believe that having a positive money mindset can directly impact your business revenue because just by believing what is possible, you can achieve the life of your dreams.
I’m not a millionaire (yet), but I believe that by following the advice of Sandy and Denise, and doubling down on my own business goals, it is possible to become one.
So what’s your next step? Ask yourself what success looks like to you. What do you want to see in your own business? Is it scaling up so you can take more time to travel? Maybe it’s downsizing so you can enjoy more of the hands-on work in your business.
Or perhaps it’s licensing your product so it can become a global brand. Whatever your business aspirations are, your money mindset and inspired action are the keys to make them a reality.
Go forth and prosper!
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