Office Hours: Cash Flow Drama

Welcome to The Million Dollar Badass Podcast. I'm your host, Rachel Rodgers, wife, mother to four children, lover of Beyoncé, coffee drinker, and afro wearer, and I just happen to be the CEO of a seven-figure business. I am on a mission to help every woman I meet become a millionaire. If you want to make more money, you are in the right place. Let's get it going.

Hello, friends. Welcome to October Office Hours. This month, I’m showing you behind the scenes in my Million Dollar Badass Mastermind. Every week, I get together with a group of ambitious, intelligent, brave women and deliver a motivational pep-talk, sometimes in the form of a kick in the ass, okay. And afterward, I answer specific questions from members who need help on strategy, hiring, marketing, working with clients, getting more clients, all of the things that come with building and scaling a successful business.

So, to get access to that good stuff, make sure you join my email list on helloseven.co. You’ll be the first to know when I open enrollment for the next Million Dollar Badass cohort. Until then, grab some tea and get ready to take notes. It’s Office Hours.

—

Hello, lovelies.  I literally just woke up, as you can tell. My hair is crazy. But I wanted to respond to you guys about the conversation that we’re having about financial stress. And I want to tell you how I handle that and how I’ve handled it over the years as well, and basically how to respond to that energy or that feeling of stress.

So the first thing that I think is important to know that, as an entrepreneur and as a human being, financial ebbs and flows are completely normal and you’re not broken and you’re not a bad entrepreneur and you’re not a terrible professional. You’re not bad at adulting because you have a tight month. That is completely normal.

And even as an entrepreneur especially, because of the ebbs and flows of cash flow – for example, even just for us, this month is – like, we tend to spend more money right before a retreat, so August and September, my profit margins aren’t as high as they are at other parts of the year because we just spent a lot of money to produce the retreat.

And I used to freak out every time it was a retreat month because I just felt like all my money was gone. I felt like I had to write about 1000 checks and it would stress me out, you know. So you can respond that way and say to yourself, like, okay, I’m doing this all wrong, or you can just recognize, like take a step back and don’t just be in it, but have an out of the body experience and just imagine that you are standing outside of what’s happening with your life and your business and just watch and see what’s happening.

And it allows you to be more pragmatic because, here’s the problem, we create so much drama around money and a huge part of that is that our culture is so dramatic and there’s so many ridiculous messages sent about money and what it means to make money, what it means to not have money, what it means to have a surplus, what it means to have debt.

It’s like, take all of the drama out of it, take all of the things that you’re making it mean that you have debt. Like, I see some of you guys talking about, well I have debt and I’m freaking out because I have debt. And it’s like, it’s not time to worry about debt. I’ll just be honest, make minimum payments or do what you have to do to, like, just keep things afloat. But don’t stress yourself about debt.

You’re in get money mode. Get this money. You can’t be in hyperbolic exactly. It’s ridiculous how much we exaggerate. We are like, oh my god, my house is on fire, and it’s like, no, you just have like $5000 credit card debt, it’s fine. It’s just debt, right? And you know what, we’ll solve it.

And I’ll tell you, the truth is that, for me, I pretty much ignore it. I put my student loans on – and I’m not saying this is the only way or this is the best way, and remember, I am not a personal finance guru. What I will tell you is how to stay focused on making money.

And so if you allow your feelings about how much money you do or don’t have today and how much debt you do or don’t have and whatever else around money is stressing you out, how much you haven’t saved for retirement or whatever, you’re not going to get yourself into – actually, I’ll talk about that – but you are going to get yourself into this fucked up state of mind where you’re not going to get on sales calls and kill it. You’re not going to be killing it for your audience and creating amazing content. You’re not going to be putting your best work out there because you’re stressed out and you’re allowing these feelings about money to get in the way of actually making money, right?

So, what happens is our fear that we’ll never have money and we’ll always be in debt and that we’ll always be broke, we make it true by indulging that fear and not fucking doing the work that’s going to make the money. So let’s stay focused and so think about, what can I do right now to clean up my thoughts and to get focused on my money-generating capabilities?

Because you all can make money, you all can make money whenever you want to, and that’s the magic of being an entrepreneur, right, is that you can produce income when you need it. One of the things that I used to do is Handled, right, my one on one.  I’m not doing that now, but in the past, I’ve sold a VIP day to generate some extra cash because I’m like. Hey we could use some extra cash, I’m going to sell a VIP day.

I’ve done launches with Small Business Bodyguard, my digital product. I was like, hey this money’s tight, let’s do like Four-Day Cash Machine, which I talked about on Office Hours the other day. It’s a perfect little mini launch that you could do to generate some additional cash, and I’ve done that many times to generate an extra 10K, 15K, 30K, wherever it got up to.

So you are an entrepreneur and so when you see that you’re not making enough this month to make ends meet, go get that money. Just go get more. There’s endless amounts of money available to you. You have skills and a service to sell or products to sell. Go sell some shit and take care of those issues, right?

So for me, I’ve never not gone to an event because I didn’t have the money. I will put that shit on a credit card in a heartbeat and then I’ll be like, okay, so I just spent $1000 booking my hotel and airfare to go to this event, now let me go find $1000. Let me go find a new client. Let me go talk to my old clients and see if they want to work with me again. Let me go sell some product. Let me go do this quick little Four-Day Cash Machine. Let me go do some promotion on social media and get me a quick one on one client. Go get that money, okay.

So stop thinking like – no one else has control. This isn’t happening to you. You are happening. You are the one that is happening to your money. You are the one that is happening to your business. So you have complete control to turn it around.

And the way you start is by changing your thinking around it and stop attaching this meaning, like this money’s going to be tight. Like, I still have months – in a multi-million-dollar business – I still have months where I’m like, hey we’re not going to reach, like, that monthly number that we’re trying to hit every month. What are we going to do?

And I just chat with my team and I chat with my team and I chat with Britney and Grace and we’re like, oh let’s turn up the dial on this thing that we’ve already got planned, let’s go do some more Facebook Lives, like, Rachel, get dressed, go pimp yourself out a little bit, go show up. Let’s send some emails, let’s do X, Y, Z.

And we just get more sales calls booked and we enroll more people and we solve that problem. So that’s all you have to do. And if you do that every month and don’t wait until it’s a shitty month, then you’ll stop panicking about it because you’ll realize like, I can reach this goal every single month, all I have to do is say, hey my goal for the month is $30,000. I currently have let’s say $7000 of recurring income coming in for the month. So what I need left is $23,000. I know I have two clients who have signed up who are going to pay me by this date, so maybe that’s another five, so now I’ve got $18,000 that I need to make. How many clients do I need to make $18,000? Alright, let me go out and get those clients. The end, right? No drama. Just got do the work.

And honestly too, drama is a distraction from the work. So if you are finding yourself being very dramatic and wanting to hide under the covers because you’re so upset about your money situation, that’s you indulging the drama instead of doing the work. It’s a total distraction from the work that is going to make the extra money come in. so stop allowing yourself to get dramatic about your money and just go do the work, that’s all there is to it.

And here’s the other thing I want to tell you about financial stress; that’s where momentum comes from because what I have found over working with women entrepreneurs for nine years, and my own experience, when shit hits the fan, when you’re like, oh I’m not going to be able to pay this bill or I’m not going to be able to participate in the things that are important to me or my kid’s private school bill is coming up, I need to get this money – nothing puts you into momentum like a fire lit under your ass.

So for me, when my clients say, “I’m under financial stress,” I’m like, “Great, I am so happy about that. Do you know why? Because you’re about to do some work. You’re about to get to work in a way that you haven’t before.” Because we get comfortable. We get comfortable and we start chilling.

We’re like, I hustled last month so now I’m going to chill this month. Well, guess what, if you chill this month, next month’s going to be tight. You don’t chill. You stay in momentum, and that’s why systems are so important. That’s why the marketing system we teach you and demonstrated for you in the Call Your Fans challenge, you’ve got to keep that momentum up all the time and systematize it so it doesn’t feel stressful, so it doesn’t feel like hustle, so it doesn’t feel like work.

So, send emails, just set it up so that you’re sending emails three times a week always inviting people to book a call with you, always, not just during launch time. Literally, every day of the week you should be inviting people to book calls with you. Systematize how you’re showing up on social media and bringing people into your community. Systematize the content that you create in your Facebook group. Nurture your people all day every day because the people you’re nurturing today are going to be your clients tomorrow, so you can’t take a breather because when you take a breather then your money’s going to take a breather.

Trust me, I speak from many years of experience. I’ve had many times where I’m like, I need to make $17,000 in the next 48 hours. I’ve had times where I was like, I need to make $78,000 in the next 48 hours. And I make that shit happen, but it’s stressful as hell. What’s way easier and what I do now and what I’m teaching you guys how to do is set up an automated webinar funnel, have that shit rocking and rolling every day, have a Facebook group going every day where you’re having conversations, where you get to showcase your expertise and how you help people.

Bring the people in every single day and invite them to book a call with you every single day. Sales calls are your friend, not your enemy. That’s the path to generating income and to letting your customers know what’s possible and how you can work with them.

So don’t do the challenge last month and be like, well I’m chilling now. You’re not chilling, girl, get back to work, Facebook lives every day. Just make it a part of your day. Maybe it’s like, at noon every day I go live, or at noon on Tuesdays and Thursdays I go live in my Facebook group and I send emails on Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Create a cadence and a system to it and just be done with it. It doesn’t need to be complicated.

And just like I was telling Sonia in Office Hours on Tuesday, she was like, “I’m going to do another live webinar because I need to close some more people.” And I’m like, “Why don’t you just, instead of doing another live webinar, set up the automated webinar funnel, let it run for you every day.”

I’m delighted every time that I get emails from people who have watched the webinar because I’m like, I forgot we had that. You know what I mean? Like you totally forget it’s out there existing. But it is existing. It’s out there existing, bringing you clients in.

So this is why I recommend that you follow this structure. This is why I try to beat it into your head, to book sales calls and to get that funnel going and to make sure that you’re in your Facebook group creating engagement every single day and show up every single day and invite people to work with you every single day. It’s not like when it’s launch time, it’s every day.

So, that’s the stuff that helps and, like, listen, if you’ve got to put something on a credit card, put that shit on a credit card and don’t feel bad about it at all. And what you’re going to do then is just say to yourself, okay, how can I replace this income in the next 30 days? How can I pay off this bill in the next 30 days? Let me think about it. Because what we need is time, right?

You don’t want to be in a place where you’re like, I need the money today. It’s hard to make money today. You can do it. I’ve done it. I’ve done make money in the next 24 hours, 48 hours, 72 hours, trust me, many times. But it’s way more comfortable if you can buy yourself some time and say what do I need to make in the next 30 days, and that’s the financial planning that you need to do as an entrepreneur, always at the top of the month.

And remember, I gave you guys a spreadsheet for this. I forget the name of it, but you could post it in the tag. There’s a spreadsheet that shows you how to look at your cash flow every month and just see what’s coming in and how much you need to generate to reach your financial goal for the month. So that’s how you want to approach it every single month so that you hit those goals every single month.

You guys are awesome. You guys are all fully capable of making more money. You’re entrepreneurs. So if there’s a money challenge, get excited about it. Get excited about solving that problem because you have the ability to do that. You really do. And all the tools to do it are right here in this group, so just go make it happen. Do not indulge the drama of it all. Do not attach meaning to, I have debt, I’ve saved this much for retirement, I’m only making this much. Like, don’t attach meaning to all that shit.

It doesn’t matter. These are just numbers. Your self-worth has nothing to do with how much you make. My income doesn’t determine my value. You know what determines my value? You know, what I’m much moiré excited about is what my kids say about me and what my husband says about me, what my clients think of me, am I making an impact on the world, am I helping people? That’s much more interesting.

Listen, money is important, but it’s not the end all be all and your self-worth has nothing to do with how much money you’re making; nothing. So detach that and stop thinking, like, I’m going to be happier, I’m going to be more fit, or I’m going to be more sexy when I make X amount of money. No you’re not. You’re not.

You’re just going to wake up and be like, so I’ve made a million dollars, amazing. And it’s going to feel exciting, like it will feel good to have accomplished your goal, but you’re not going to be any happier. You’re not going to be inherently happier because you have a million dollars, you know what I mean?

That happiness, that joy, capture that today. That’s available for you right now in this moment. It’s not when you reach this milestone that you can be joyful. It’s not when you reach this milestone that you can be worthy. You’re worthy today, you can have joy right now. It’s a choice. So choose to have it today because joy creates more momentum and joy is going to give you money. It’s going to help you reach your goals.

So if you’re approaching your day and you’re trying to create content and you’re trying to drum up business and you are stressed out and desperate, trust me, that is going to repel your clients and it’s not going to bring them in. So get yourself into a space of joy and happiness and excitement that – like, the internet exists and you’re an entrepreneur and you can go out there and get some more cash if you need it. Get excited about that.

Alright, I’ve got to go get dressed for the second day of this conference. I’ll talk to you guys later.

—

Alright, guys, that’s all I can share with you today. The Q&A section is where I share my top strategies and help my clients work through their challenges. That part of Office Hours is exclusive to members of my Million Dollar Badass Mastermind.

Before you go, I have a question for you. Are you ready for revolution? I’m ready to create a world where women can have the freedom to live happy balanced lives, and the only way to that freedom, wealth, unapologetic economic power, okay. Having money is awesome, but being able to live on your own terms is priceless.

I know you’re ready to play by your own rules. You’re ready to scale your business to seven figures and really build serious wealth. I am now opening enrollment for my Million Badass Mastermind for a limited time. Join now and you will learn the exact strategies I use to scale my business to seven figures and to help tons of women entrepreneurs scale their businesses as well.

You also get access to a team of badass expert coaches and amazing community support. The next cohort begins December 3^rd. If you’re ready to make bank, create freedom, and have a real impact, there has never been a better time to join the Million Dollar Badass Mastermind. Go now to helloseven.co/apply. I will see you there.