Money Mindset with Allison Henderson
Allison Henderson is an international business coach and Instagram expert for ambitious coaches who are looking to grow their businesses through social media. In the past three years Allison has worked with nearly 200 female coaches in a variety of industries teaching them how to make money and get clear on their sales and marketing strategy. She founded the Social Media Sales Blueprint with the mission to help women build the life and business of their dreams.
On this episode we discussed:
-
Why is it so scary to invest in yourself?
- How to overcome the fear that no one will invest in your offer?
- Best practices for setting your pricing.
- Why “skin in the game” is necessary to achieve results?
Links:
Join our Facebook group to learn more about becoming a Certified Sleep Consultant.
___
Transcript:
Intro: Welcome to Becoming a Sleep Consultant! I’m your host Jayne Havens, a certified sleep consultant and founder of both Snooze Fest by Jayne Havens and Center for Pediatric Sleep Management. On this podcast, I’ll be discussing the business side of sleep consulting. You’ll have an insider’s view on launching, growing, and even scaling a sleep consulting business. This is not a podcast about sleep training. This is a podcast about business building and entrepreneurship.
Jayne Havens: Allison Henderson is an international business coach and Instagram expert for ambitious coaches who are looking to grow their businesses through social media. In the past three years, Allison has worked with nearly 200 female coaches in a variety of industries, teaching them how to make money and get clear on their sales and marketing strategy. She founded the Social Media Sales Blueprint with the mission to help women build the life and business of their dreams. Allison, I’m so excited to be chatting with you today.
Allison Henderson: Thank you for having me, Jayne. I’m excited to be here.
Jayne Havens: So, I wanted to have you on the show to discuss money mindset. When I was thinking about this topic, and we were chatting a little bit offline before we got recording, I was thinking about it in like sort of two baskets. When you think about money mindset, I think a lot of entrepreneurs will think about the fear of investing in yourself, and then also the fear that no one will invest in you. Right? Sort of hoping that we could unpack those two money mindset baskets. Let’s talk about fear of investing in yourself first, because I think a lot of listeners are probably struggling with that. What do you think that’s all about? Where do you think it stems from, and how do we get over it? I know that those are really loaded questions.
Allison Henderson: Yeah. Well, I guess to start, we always have to understand like where our money story comes from. Why do I have this big fear of investing in myself? A lot of it has to do with, “I’m not going to make my money back.” All right. When there is this like, “Okay. Allison, I want to join your program,” or, “Jayne, I want to sign up for your certification program,” there’s this big fear of trust. When we don’t trust in ourselves to get the results, we then project that through this investment.
Of course, I want to do this. I want to sign up for this. I really want this business. But also, do I trust in myself to actually put in the work, and to do the homework, and to actually get the results that I really, really want? So, there’s this lack of fear inside of ourselves that like, “I’m not going to do the work. Therefore, I’m not going to make this money back.”
Jayne Havens: I think what we do as scared humans is, we blame our fear on the program, right? People will say to me, you know, “If I take your course, how long will it take me to get a return on investment?” That’s a question that I get asked all the time. I don’t know the answer to that question. It depends on you. Like, that is not a reflection of the program that I offer. I would love for everybody to hit the ground running and to really get going.
Allison Henderson: Get clients tomorrow. Yeah, of course.
Jayne Havens: Of course, that is my wish for all of my students. But, you know, are you out there talking to people? Did you get a website up? Did you launch a social media? Did you get on a Zoom and chat with anybody today? We can’t control that, right? So, there’s so much stuff in there. There’s so much depth to all of that. We all do this. We’re all guilty of it. We love to sort of like place the blame on something, right?
Allison Henderson: Yeah. At the end of the day, if I don’t have the money in my bank account that I want to have, it’s 100% my responsibility and reflection of what I did for the past six months realistically. If I sit there and can say, “Okay. What have I been doing or not doing for the past six months?” Well, I was planting seeds. My first year of business, it was like planting seeds, planting seeds. The next year, I was like, “Now I see all these seeds blooming.” You see the flowers of, whatever you want to call it. That’s really what it comes down to. So many people expect immediate, instant results when they sign up for programs and being like, “Oh, I didn’t realize to build like a million-dollar business, it might take me five years, or it might take me 10 years.”
When we think about overnight successes, when you actually listen to their stories, it was like, “Oh, I’ve been doing this for a decade or more.” One of my mentors, he said it’s like almost like winning the lottery. Overnight success is as if like you just won the lottery. Because a lot of people will never have an overnight success or build the business they want to build in a month or two. You know what I mean? But really, it comes down to you staying super consistent with the business tasks that you need to be doing. I think a lot people don’t even know what those are, right? That’s the unfortunate part.
I see a lot of people come out of certification programs, or even just like life coaching, or whatever. There’s like, ‘But now what?” Like, “What do I do now? I’m certified, and I have this talent, and this education, and all this knowledge. But now what?” So, it’s like, “Okay. We just need to look at your business foundation.” When that’s all laid out and that looks great, then a lot of the confidence is built. A lot of people who have like really great businesses, you can tell they just have a ton of confidence in themselves. They take action and messy action every single day. That’s the biggest thing.
When I hear, “I don’t have a client. I don’t know. I’m just so discouraged. I don’t have any clients,” I’m like, “Okay, girl. Hey, listen. What have you been doing all week? Tell me. Since the minute you wake up in the morning and the minute you go to bed, what action steps are you taking?” It’s like, “Well, on Tuesday, I wrote a piece of content. On Wednesday, I did, I message like five people.” I’m like, “How about messaging five people every morning before you even do anything? Then you message five more people at lunch, and then you’re going to message five more.” People think that they try it once, like, “Oh, I tried it five times. No one messaged me back.” I’m like, “Try it 5,000 times, and tell me what the results are.” 5000. Don’t just base it off of five people that didn’t return your message or didn’t return your call, or anything like that.
Try it over and over and over again. Repetition is going to be your key to success for sure. That’s just a part of all this, too. It’s like, it’s action steps that are uncomfortable. It’s not action steps that feel amazing that are going to get us the results.
Jayne Havens: Yeah. I think I love that you said… What did you say? Like, messy and uncomfortable. Is that what you said?
Allison Henderson: Yeah, it is. This whole business thing. For sure.
Jayne Havens: I think that that is so spot on. I think a lot of people are so scared to put something out there into the universe that is messy.
Allison Henderson: Because that doesn’t make us feel good, right? It’s like, Oh God. Someone says it sucks. I’m like, what if somebody says it sucks?
Jayne Havens: Yeah. It’s very, very hard, you know. Sometimes I sit down at my computer, and I realize I haven’t sent an email out to my email list in weeks. I don’t even have anything great to say. I’m like, “What am I going to say?” I try and come up with some content. I’m like, “Is this going to bomb,” or, “Is this going to be great?” I just do it anyway. Because showing up is better than not showing up, right? I think that getting back to the whole money mindset thing, I think a lot of people sometimes feel that you can like throw money at a problem. Like, if I’m struggling in my business, I’m just going to like pay an expensive coach.
Allison Henderson: Yeah. She’ll do the work for me, and she’ll just get me the results I’m looking for. What happens is… I tell everybody this in the program. It’s like, I’m going to lead you. I’m going to tell you what the strategy is. But I also am going to put you in an energy to do the work. You usually don’t do that for yourself. I can help you get momentum by putting you in this energy. That is why hiring coaches is so great. It’s because they’re literally putting you in the energy to get the work done that you would never normally do, right? We would most likely not stay consistent unless we had a coach being like, “Hey, girl. Did you get that? Did you do that today?” Like, “What’s going on?” You’re like, “Crap. I got to get back.”
As entrepreneurs, we don’t have a boss. And that sucks. We have nobody telling us to do all of the uncomfortable things that we have to get done. Therefore, our to-do list just keeps getting longer and longer and longer, and then nothing happens. Then once again, you start complaining, “I don’t have any clients. I don’t know what to do.” It’s like, “Okay. Let’s go back to the foundation. Let’s go back to the… Let’s look at where you’re at energetically, too.” Jayne, I talked about energy all the time, you know. It’s just like that. When someone puts you in that energy of momentum, you’re way more likely to get the work done, and you’re way more likely to get the results that you’re looking for.
Jayne Havens: Right. I also think it’s really important to note that, I think, a lot of people are driven by money. They want to increase their income, or increase their sales, or land that first client so that they can get the first payment into their bank account. That’s what’s motivating them, rather than like showing up to serve for your prospective clients or your prospective whoever you’re servicing and your business. I think people get into a little bit of a mindset. It’s sort of like a desperation mode where you’re just out there trying to get the next sale, rather than actually showing up with the mindset of like, “I’m here to offer my expertise. I’m here to serve people in the best way that I know how.” When you come at it, from that perspective, I think that’s when the money drives in a little bit. Would you agree?
Allison Henderson: It’s almost like when you get unattached from the money, that’s when it usually comes in for sure. I think, yeah, a lot of times. I’m guilty of this, too, when I started my business. You should see my notebook from, like, five years ago. I was like, “Allison will be a millionaire in one year.” It’s like, “Oh, God. Allison. Slow your roll here.”
I had these big dreams of making a lot of money in this business. Because when I first started, I wanted to get out of my corporate job. I was able to get out. I’m like, “Okay, now I need to make money, though.” Coaching, I thought, was this avenue to becoming this mega millionaire or whatever. I just had to sit there. Of course, one of my coaches was very much just like, “Allison, you’re making this all about you when your business has… Yes, you’re a part of this. But really, you’re here to help. You’re here to give, and you’re here to solve somebody’s problem. If you can just focus on the value, money follows value.” I tell my coach, all of my clients this every single day. Just imagine. If you did a live every single day, and you gave a ton of value in this live, or you did a post every day, and you gave a ton of value, the likelihood of your business blowing up in the course of a year is really highly likely. Because you’re giving a ton of value, and people can see that. But if you’re just constantly… I love selling. Don’t get me wrong. I will tell you every day to sell as well. But the likelihood of people just buying your stuff naturally just because of who you are is a lot more likely. They’re like, “What are you selling?” Like, “Tell me more about your offers just because your value is so amazing, and I’m learning so much. Your energy behind this is so magnetic.”
Of course, it’s totally fine to want more money. I’m all about abundance. It’s out there for everybody. I want everybody to dream big, to build wealth inside of their lives, inside their businesses–not just for themselves but for their families and all that sort of fun stuff. It’s such a ripple effect. Money makes you more of who you actually are. Give somebody $1,000, and see what they do with it. It’s, “Hey, I want to help out my family,” or, “I want to buy groceries for the needy,” or, “I don’t know. Whatever.” You’re just going to see somebody become more of who they are when they’re given a lot of money.
If you are in debt right now or you’re feeling like I have a ton of expenses, that’s great. You just need money to live. That’s okay, too. But over time, you’re going to have the security because you’re making a lot of money. What happens when you have security, and you don’t have to be in desperation mode anymore? A lot of people want that time and financial freedom, right? When you have the financial freedom, you start to realize that, “Wow! Who am I? What can I do with this sort of wealth?” That’s where I’m like, “You got to dream big. Because that why, that beyond, when you’re really thinking about financial freedom, that dream, that’s every day when you wake up what I want you thinking about.” It’s not just to pay your bills, or, “I have to get this next client,” this feeling of desperation. It’s, what is this big, huge thing that you want to accomplish in this lifetime?
I’m always encouraging people to think beyond the day-to-day. Think like, “What do I want in five years from now? What do I want in 10 years from now?” That energy that you bring to your business, that’s what I want. I want that energy, that passion, and just that you’re fueling that vision that you want for yourself. Does that make sense?
Jayne Havens: Yeah, it’s fabulous. Let’s shift gears. Let’s move to that sort of second basket. After you’ve sort of gotten over that hump, and you’ve invested in yourself, like you’ve decided, “I’m going to start this business. I’m going to pay somebody to make me a really beautiful website. I’m going to buy myself some business cards. I’m going to sign up for Acuity, or Calendly, or whatever the little business expenses may be,” then you got to show up and find that first client. What you’re hearing is, “I don’t know if we can spend the money.” Like, “I don’t know if we have it. My husband doesn’t think we should do this right now.” Then you’re coming up against all of these money objections. How do we get over that as a brand-new entrepreneur? I feel like that is so hard when you finally gotten yourself to a place where you recognize the value of investing in yourself, and here you are asking others to invest in themselves and to receive support from you, and you’re coming up against that money mindset block again. How do we move past that?
Allison Henderson: Well, of course, hearing no feels really horrible. Because we’re making it about ourselves. They’re saying no to me, right? A lot of times, it’s not the case. When we hear no, I want you to unpack that a little bit. It could just be on the sales call. Maybe you didn’t sound super confident in delivering what that big transformation is going to be.
When I’m on a sales call, I like to keep people in their heart space. Meaning, they called and they got on this call with you, because there was something about you that they either desired, or there was something about this program that was super compelling. They got on this call with you, because there’s something going on. From their heart, they booked this call, right? Of course, we want to keep them in their heart space as much as possible. But a lot of times, when we start talking about money, our mind–that’s not from our heart anymore–our brain starts to go, “Can I afford this? Oh, my God. I have bills to pay. I got my student loans, all these things.” Our logic starts coming up. Therefore, we got, “I have to think about it. I have to think about it.” Of course, on that call too–especially with any sort of coaching program or business–there’s a part of us that goes, “Is this the right time? Can I actually get the results that I’m looking for?” It’s the same thing, right? Like you buying a program, it’s the same conversation. On that call, we want to make sure that we’re bringing them back to why they got on the call. You said at the beginning of this call how–not necessarily desperate–how much you really needed this. Pretty much, what changed from 20 minutes ago to now?
I know a lot of times, we have this big fear of, “Okay. What if somebody says no? Is my prices too high? Maybe I should lower my prices. Nobody wants to buy this.” When realistically, it could just be you’re not necessarily in the right… You don’t have the right audience. That could be it. When I say stay-at-home moms, I’m not saying… I guess I don’t want to shame any stay-at-home moms. If you’re constantly trying to book stay-at-home moms, well, guess what? They don’t have, possibly, money of their own right now. Their husbands are working. So, they have to go, “Okay. I have to talk with my husband. He’s probably going to say no to this because spending maybe $500, $2500 right now is kind of a no.” All these things, that would come up. It’s a fear inside of them saying, “Okay. I have a fear of talking with my husband about money.” They have their own money insecurities that you know nothing about, right? That’s a whole other thing, right?
There’s that woman on the other end and you. You kind of have to coach her through this. That’s why sales calls, I feel, are so, so important. If you don’t want to do sales calls, if you’re like, “Allison, I don’t do sales calls anymore,” that’s totally fine, too. Your content has to talk a lot about that. Your content is so important in doing the convincing for you. When you get on a sales call, there should be zero convincing that you’re the coach for them or zero convincing that this is the right program. It’s for them to share more about what’s going on. Bring them to their vision, and then answer any questions that they have. But confidently, you have to say, “Hey, this is my program. This is how amazing it is.”
A lot of times, people, when they can feel that energy behind that dollar amount–it’s in their mind–they can sit there and go, “I can justify this. I know buying this program is going to change my whole life, and everybody else around me.” That’s, I think, what the amazing thing that sleep consultants do. It’s such a ripple effect. It’s not just the mom that gets transformed–the dad, the baby, the other siblings. Then therefore, you’re like, “Dad, you got to work so much nicer. All these fun things when you get a full night’s sleep and all those things.”
Kind of going back to what I was saying, it’s like when you’re trying to convince somebody on a sales call, you’re doing it wrong. The convincing is usually done way beforehand. Sometimes they just need that point of contact to answer some questions and to feel your energy behind this. Are you confident talking about your services? If you’re not, practice. Practice it over and over again. Have all those really crappy sales calls at the very beginning, so you can figure out how do I actually deliver talking about my deliverables. How do I actually talk about money? Does my tone go up? Does my tone go down? Do I just immediately go, “Oh, you can’t afford it. Okay, great. Well, it was great talking with you. If you change your mind, let me know.” Are you saying, “Hey, let’s talk more about why you can’t afford it. Let’s have a really open and honest conversation about this.”
When someone can actually unpack it a little bit of why they can’t afford it, I don’t ever want you leaving that sales call not knowing why they can’t afford it realistically. I’m not saying you want to like get too personal with somebody. But a lot of times, it’s like, “Hey, you might just right now have to talk with your husband. That’s fine. I respect that. But what do you think he’s going to say about this?” Like, “Have you talked to him about this? Does he actually understand what you’re going through?”
You kind of can coach her a little bit when she has to actually go and talk about money to somebody else. Even like what I said about your audience, if you’re just talking to stay-at-home moms in your content. Okay. Well, maybe we need to make a little bit of a shift. Do you actually love working with working moms? Because they have to have a good night’s sleep realistically, because they have to go to work and focus, and actually maybe give them presentations. It’s a totally different vibe when that mom has to get a good night’s sleep to actually make a living. Maybe this is like a little bit of an audience shift that you need to make and just talking more about that in your content.
Jayne Havens: Let’s talk about setting pricing. Because you mentioned that when you’re feeling like you’re getting a lot of noes, it’s very quick to say like, “Well, maybe I’m too expensive.” I think I have this conversation with almost every single student that comes through my program. They want to know how to set their pricing. What’s too high? What’s too low? I’m curious how you feel about this.
The two things that I always say when somebody asks me that question is, number one, it needs to be a dollar amount that you’re excited to show up for. Because if you’re pricing yourself so low, then you’re going to resent the work that you’re doing. You’re not going to enjoy your work. You’re not going to show up passionately. You’re not going to show up the way that your clients deserve to have you show up, like being fully present and supportive for them if you’re feeling undervalued.
Then the second thing I always say is that you have to be able to say that number out loud without wincing, without feeling insecure about it. I can’t tell anybody how to set their pricing. I can’t tell people charge $500, or $800, or whatever you want to charge. But you need to actually be excited when that dollar amount hits your bank account. Because if you’re not excited, then how are you going to show up and do a good job for them?
Allison Henderson: Absolutely! Yeah, I think I’m with you on this. I agree with you 100%. You have to confidently say a dollar amount. At the very beginning of your business, maybe it is $200, or maybe it’s $300. Just don’t charge something just because somebody else is charging that sort of amount.That’s my biggest thing. It’s like what can you confidently say and something that you said. It’s like, are you excited about that? If $300 came in your bank account right now, are you going to be excited to show up for that client today? Because if you’re not, the likelihood of you getting them results and making them feel really, really excited about this as well… I mean, that’s what you really want. You want them leaving your program being like, “Oh, my god. That was amazing. She is awesome.” That’s how you’re going to get more clients. If you’re under charging… It’s normal at the beginning. But over time, you have to sit there and go, “Okay. $50 more. $50 more.” Then all of a sudden, you’re at that price where you’re just like, “This is my dollar amount. I’m going to stay here for a while until like I don’t feel good about this anymore.”
I think that, for me, is totally intuitive. I don’t really listen to other coaches when they’re like, “Okay. Raise your prices.” I’m like, “No.” Because I don’t feel comfortable about that yet. I know I will, but right now, I feel really comfortable charging this. I feel good energetically. We both feel good about that. I think that just takes time, and that’s something that… Don’t rush to raise your price just because everybody else is charging something else. Do what you feel is good always. Trust your intuition on that always. Like you said, too, at the end of that sales call when you’re like, “Okay, it cost this much,” how are you delivering that? If you’re immediately just getting off the call with them when they say no, well, you probably have to do some work. You probably have to do some work with that.
I’ve had a sleep consultant that like, “I don’t even talk. I don’t even talk about the price, because I’m so scared. I literally just send them an email after with the pricing.” I’m like, “I’m sorry. What? No!” On the sales call, you literally have to tell them so you can coach them through that. I think that’s one of the biggest things. It’s your money mindset has a lot to do with how much you’re going to be charging in your business. Really unpatching some of that… It’s like, where does that come from? Do you even have a fear of talking with your spouse about money? Then maybe we really need to talk about all of the things with money, and managing money, and just how you feel about it.
If you just have a fear of looking in your bank account… I know maybe some people are watching this or listening to this, and you’re like, “Okay. I’m kind of in the negatives here. I have a lot of credit card debt. I hate looking at that.” I want you posting that dollar amount in front of you and just literally say, “I’m not afraid of you. I’m not afraid of my debt anymore. I’m not afraid of investing in myself.” Because I know that, eventually, you will make this money back. But you really have to believe that. That’s a whole thing. What are your beliefs around money? Do you believe that you’ll never make money back? Ever? Because that’s not true. There’s always a flow of money in your life, usually. It’s just trusting so much in yourself that you’re going to be able to make that money back.
But yeah, I think there’s a whole…. It really comes down to your childhood, society. I’m totally fine talking about money. But my parents… We grew up, and it was not okay to talk about that sort of stuff. I now like shout it out loud and proud when I have a really good month. I’m like, “Hello. I’m so excited.” But not everybody is comfortable celebrating some of that stuff. Also, celebrating, “Oh, crap. I had a crappy one. Whatever.” Just acknowledging some of that sort of stuff, too, is like… I know that I’m going to make money again. I think we always have to remember that. Immediately, you get a client. Then your mind goes to, “I have to get another client. Because, oh, my God, I have this fear that I’m never going to get a client again.” It’s like, “No. Trust that your client is going to come.”
There’s a whole thing around consistency, too, in making your business predictable and all. You just have to trust that if you put in the work and you stay consistent, your business is going to stay consistent. But a lot of times, we get all these clients and then we stop doing all the sales and marketing. Therefore, we’re not consistent anymore. You’re like, “Well, what happened?” Well, some of the sales or marketing stuff needs to be automated when you are very, very busy.
Jayne Havens: Yeah, actually, when you were just talking a minute ago, I was having a flashback to my week last week, where I was having a “slow week”–I’m going to put air quotes–in my business. I was comparing the way when I look at my Stripe or like all my credit card. All the money that comes into my business comes in through Stripe largely. I can see it month over month, and where I was the first week of May versus the first week in June. June was seeming so slow, and I was so down in the dumps. I had to check myself and say like, “Hey, Jayne. Chill out. It’s June 5th. Simmer down, and get to work.” Rather than seeing something that didn’t excite me and my bank account and freezing and panicking, what did I do? I got to work, which was no different than what I had been doing June 1st through 5th. Because I am committed to every single day showing up in my business, regardless of what comes of it. That is a commitment that I’ve made to myself.
You know, it’s so funny. I was sort of like a little recluse in my own brain last week. Then the next day, I was like all down in the dumps. I was so bummed. I was having a horrible start to my month. Then literally, I woke up one morning, and I had two new people enroll in my programs–people that I had never spoken to, people that just had been lurking and listening to my messaging. Maybe they were on my email list. Maybe they found me on Pinterest. I don’t know. But they found my messaging, and they heard it loud and clear. They trusted in me. That all happened while I was in my own stupor. It’s like a roller coaster of emotions that is never ending in entrepreneurship. It does not matter whether you are in your first month of business, or you’ve been doing this for 10 years, or anywhere in between.
I think success is all relative. Financial success, however you want to define success, it’s all relative. I think those of us who are really into our businesses and into growth, we’re just always trying to grow. There always feels like there’s more to do. There’s more to gain. There’s more to learn. There’s more to receive. We just have to keep our minds in check during all of it, because it’s enough to really drive you crazy.
Allison Henderson: Yeah. That’s a lot of reason why people stop. It’s like this big… All of your deepest, darkest fears come to light when you start a business. I’ve told people this many times. It is the best form of self-development for you. You’re going to face everything when you decide to start this business. It’s not to say that you shouldn’t do that. Because you need to. You need to. If you want to grow and you want to be at that success that you want to be at, you have to face all of this.
The day-to-day mindset stuff is so hard. It is so hard. I think we downplay it so much of like how many… I can literally wake up and have that payment notification come in. Then, no joke, by noon, I’m like, “This is just so hard. Why am I doing this? Maybe I shouldn’t be a coach anymore, blah, blah…” It’s like, “Oh God, Allison. Relax. Just chill.” It’s just like you’re constantly talking to yourself. It’s like giving yourself these mini little pep talks. It’s just like, yeah, this entrepreneur rollercoaster of emotions is so real. Everybody, every single person is going through it every day. Everybody’s doing the same thing. You’ll get better with it over time because you know. You just know. It’s just that deep inner knowing that you’re going to be okay, and you’re going to have more payments come in. It will happen. But it’s just at the beginning of your business, it is so, so hard. I always say go through the growing pains. Go through the growing pains. You’re going to come out a way more expensive, healthy entrepreneur. It’s just a part of this. I don’t think a lot of people want to talk about that part.
Jayne Havens: No. People do not like to talk about it. Another thing that’s coming to my mind is like skin in the game. I’m talking about investing, either we’re investing in ourselves as entrepreneurs or when we’re expecting our clients or prospective clients to invest in us. One thing that really helps me grow my business is continuing to invest in myself, continuing to have skin in the game. Every single time I write a big check–whether it’s to a coach or a strategist, or I hire a Pinterest manager, or somebody to help me blog, or whatever it may be–every single time I swipe that credit card or write a big check, for me, that is reinvesting in myself and in my business. And it’s skin in the game. It lights a new fire under me to work harder, work smarter, be more strategic, be more thoughtful about my next move.
I think that sometimes people who are afraid to invest in themselves, they’re afraid to have any skin in the game. If you don’t have any skin in the game, you’re not in the game.
Allison Henderson: If you want to hit that level of success–which I know a lot of your listeners do–it’s making big, bold moves all the time. I’m not saying you need to throw down like 20 grand right now to make the money you want to make. Because that’s not always true. Make a wise decision. But yes, the coaches who are continuing to succeed in this business is because they’re constantly investing to learn more. How can I make this easier? How can I make this better? How can I make this more automated? How can I just get better at sales and marketing, so that I don’t have to do more sales and marketing, right? That’s the biggest thing. It’s like, “I just want to get so good at this one part, so I don’t have to do a lot of it anymore.”
Jayne Havens: Yeah, and then we expect that of our clients, too. Right? We always talk about it inside of Center for Pediatric Sleep Management. Some of us, when we’re first getting started, will take on pro bono clients, will offer to help them for free in exchange for a testimonial and good word of mouth. But you know, what happens with those free clients is, they don’t show up. They’re not fully committed.
Allison Henderson: Absolutely!
Jayne Havens: Right. So, it’s the same thing with our clients when they don’t have any skin in the game. It’s hard for them to have results when they don’t have skin in the game. Same for us as entrepreneurs. When we don’t have skin in the game, it’s like you have nothing to lose. When you have nothing to lose, you have nothing to gain either, you know. You just sort of stay stuck.
Allison Henderson: Absolutely! That’s such a great way of putting all this. There has to be like something that shifts inside you when you swipe that credit card or whatever it is. It’s the same thing for your clients. $500 to Jayne and I might be like, “Oh, 500 bucks is not a huge amount.” But if we say $5,000 or $50,000, there’s something that literally is going to change inside of you when you spend $50,000 on a coach completely. That’s a huge energy shift. But if I said $500, it’s like, “Well, I could probably pay that back next week or whatever. Tomorrow.” It’s a totally different thing. Every client that you have, $500 to them might be like, “Oh, no big deal.” Like, “I have that money right now. I spend that much money every weekend just going out with my girlfriends.” It just really all depends on the person.
That’s why I was saying earlier, it’s like finding the right audience for you. Does this audience, does this certain mom buy like the Honest brand diapers? Does she love organic food? That might be the type of mom that you want to be targeting instead of the mom, like I said, who’s kind of a stay-at-home. She’s couponing, penny pinching. She doesn’t know how much money they have in their bank account. She has a fear of just investing, because she doesn’t actually know much about money.
When it comes to sales and marketing, it’s really making sure that your audience is filled with people that you would consider ideal clients that can and really love spending money. People love spending money. I think that we have to all remember that. People spend money every day. They spend money on getting their nails done, going to the movies, whatever that is. Why not invest it in you? That’s the big question. It’s like, “People are already spending. Why aren’t they spending money on me?” It’s like, how are you showing up? Are you showing up as the leader where people are constantly investing in them? Are you just posting…? When I talk about social media stuff–just because I’m a social media coach here–are you showing up as if you already have the audience of your dreams? Are you showing up as if you already have the business of your dreams? Are you showing up as a somebody who’s brand new?
I think we all have to kind of up level ourselves. Sometimes it is hiring a coach to kind of get us to that level of confidence that we need. I love when people come to my program. Literally, every day, I’m like trying to explain their comfort zone. We got to get you out of this comfort zone so that you can make the money you want to make. Because if we’re constantly just hiding, we don’t post, we don’t talk about our services, and when we do talk about our services, it’s not very confidently. There are all these things that come up. We call them the limiting beliefs, right? What are these beliefs that you constantly are fighting within yourself? We need to acknowledge them. Acknowledge them fast and get over that. We need to move on, so that you can have this business of your dreams and have the life of your dreams.
A lot of times, we’re just so scared to acknowledge all that. A lot of us has this money mindset. It’s like, how do I feel? How do I really feel about money and swiping my credit card on something that I have no idea if it’s going to give me results? I have no idea if I’m actually going to get my return on investment. I don’t know. But it’s trusting. It’s the trust inside yourself.
You guys can trust Jayne and I all day long. I trust Jayne. She’s amazing. But do I trust in myself to get the results? That’s where a lot of people don’t invest, because they lack this trust inside of themselves. But you can do it. You can definitely do it. I think that’s the biggest thing. It’s like getting you over that hump. Just think back to all the other times that you invested, and you got your money back. Think back to all the times that… It’s even like going to school. It’s like you spent money for the school, and you didn’t think twice about it. You got the results. You got those. You got the knowledge that you needed.
I think every coaching container–no matter if you get the results or the ROI, or whatever–you, at least, got what you needed out of that program. I 100% know that for every single client that has come through, whether they get a client or not get a client. I always have them come back at some point saying, “I didn’t get a client when I was in your program. I have clients now, but you kept telling me to trust. You kept telling me that the clients were coming.” It’s just so hard for coaches to always tell them that. Investing in yourself, like guaranteed results does not exist. But just know that you’re always going to get exactly what you need out of every investment. Always.
Jayne Havens: Yeah, I think that’s exactly right. I mean, I think back to every recent things that I’ve spent money on in my business. They haven’t all been like the best decisions, but I’ve learned something from every single one of them. I’ve grown as an entrepreneur from every single experience, and that’s not money wasted. That’s a part of the journey. It has made me a better business person. It has made me more savvy for my next decision, and, you know, onward and upward.
Allison Henderson: Always. Yeah. Because every business decision that you make, yeah, it could be a flop. Absolutely. I’ve definitely made some horrible, horrible investments. When I sit there and go, “What did I learn from this experience? What did I learn from this?” That’s huge. That’s a huge learning experience for me. I can never, you know… I honestly think everything is meant for you at some point, whether I know what it is today, or maybe it’s a year from now. It’s just one of those things for me. Investing and just spending money has a huge fear around it. But always, you’re going to come out a different person. That’s what I love about entrepreneurship. It’s just like constantly learning about yourself. This road down to success is you becoming the best version of yourself. No one wants to really highlight that, but that’s what it is. Investing is somebody else is trying to help you see that, see the best version of yourself that you can’t always see.
Jayne Havens: Love that. For those that are listening to this and are thinking, “I want to invest with Allison. She knows her stuff,” where can everybody connect with you? Where can they find you online?
Allison Henderson: Yeah, I hang out pretty much just solely on Instagram. So, if you want to come hang out with me, I’m allisonhenderson_coach. I’m sure Jayne will put that in some show notes and stuff. Then I have a bunch of freebies and stuff that you guys can take a look at. I recently did a money mindset challenge, where I really got you out of your comfort zone, gave you some action steps, but also kind of gave you some knowledge around money. So, check that out too. Yeah, the sooner that we can get you over some of the mindset humps around cash, we want to get it flow into you as fast as possible. So, yeah.
Jayne Havens: Amen to that.
Allison Henderson: Come hang out with me on Instagram.
Jayne Havens: Thank you, Allison. It’s always a pleasure chatting with you, and I will leave all of her links in the show notes. She will be back around soon. Allison and I reach out all the time. So, thank you again for chatting with me today. I can’t wait to do it again soon.
Allison Henderson: Bye, Jayne. Bye, everyone. Thanks for listening.
Jayne Havens: Bye bye.
Outro: Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Becoming a Sleep Consultant Podcast. If you enjoyed today’s episode, it would mean so much to me if you would rate, review, and subscribe. When you rate, review, and subscribe, this helps the podcast reach a greater audience. I am so grateful for your support. If you would like to learn more about how you can become a certified sleep consultant, head over to my Facebook Group, Becoming a Sleep Consultant or to my website thecpsm.com. Thanks so much, and I hope you will tune in for the next episode.