Bonus: How to Become a Millionaire

How can I become a millionaire? That’s the number one question I get asked by clients, colleagues, journalists, and pretty much everyone I meet. You know what? I love this question because if there’s one thing I’m obsessed with discussing it’s how to generate more money and gain economic power.

That is why I founded my company, Hello Seven, and that is why I started The Club. That is why I host this podcast and that is why I wrote a book called We Should All Be Millionaires: A Woman’s Guide to Earning More, Building Wealth, and Gaining Economic Power which is being released on May 4^th, 2021 and you can go pre-order the book right now wherever books are sold. You should definitely pre-order the book because we’re giving out amazing perks to say thank you to people who pre-order. I will tell you all about that later in this episode.

Welcome to the Hello Seven Podcast. I'm your host, Rachel Rodgers, wife, mother of four children, a 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.

So, if you’re fairly new to my work then you might not have much context about my backstory. You look at my Instagram or you visit my company’s website and everything looks very glossy and luxurious and beautifully branded. And it might seem like, “Oh wow, Rachel has a professional photographer and a stylist and a website designer and a whole squad. She’s got serious resources. Maybe she was born into a wealthy family or maybe she just always had a natural knack for making money.” Nope. Not even close.

In fact, that is absolutely laughable. Sometimes I joke that I’m a very unlikely candidate to be giving out financial advice. Here’s the 20-second summary of my childhood. I was raised in a low-income household where we had some good years and we had quite a few bad years. I have memories about workers from the utility company arriving at our door threatening to shut off our power. There were some tough times. There were long periods when my parents were unemployed. There was substance abuse. There were times when I couldn’t even afford a meal at McDonald’s. Have you ever dumped all the loose change out of your purse and you didn’t even have enough for a Big Mac? Not a good feeling.

But I was scrappy and hard-working and managed to go to college and law school. While this may seem like a victory, and it was, it also came with a high price to pay, literally, a very high price. After law school, I struggled for years with crippling six-figure student loan debt. I struggled financially for many years, in fact. I used to have a 400 credit score, you guys, 400. It doesn’t feel good.

At one point I was so broke I had to practically beg a bank teller to expedite a check deposit so I could afford to put my youngest child into daycare. Not cute. Definitely a low and embarrassing point in my life, but also a turning point. On top of all of that I happened to be a black woman and we all know that America has never been a kind, welcoming place to people who look like me. I have been discriminated against in blatant ways and subtle ways. I have had many doors shut on my face simply because I’m a woman or because I’m black or both, why not?

Yet, despite all the odds stacked against me I have managed to build a thriving company, generate millions in revenue, pay off a massive amount of debt, take care of my household including four kids and even purchase a ranch with a private hiking trail and a pool and actual ponies. I know, what the hell?

Many days I feel like, “Pinch me. Is this even real?” I share this background info because I want you to know if I can do this, if I can build wealth despite all the circumstances stacked against me then you can do it, too. So, returning back to the original question, “How can I become a millionaire?” There is a long answer to this question and a short answer. For the long answer read my book, We Should All Be Millionaires. Did I mention the book is available for pre-order? Shameless, shameless plug. The short answer is this, you have to stop making broke ass decisions and start making million-dollar decisions. Let me repeat that. If you want to become a millionaire then you have to stop making broke ass decisions and you have to start making million-dollar decisions.

So, what exactly is a million-dollar decision? And what do these terms mean? Let’s discuss. A million-dollar decision is one that creates time and energy, frees up mental space, reduces piddly nonsense and creates space for the stuff that matters to you. It allows you to feel strong and secure and free. It creates options instead of eliminating options. It’s that feeling that your life is expanding instead of contracting.

As you can imagine, a broke ass decision, a.k.a. a bad, is one that does the opposite. A broke ass decision is one that steals your time and energy, depletes mental space, increases piddly shit and prioritizes it above your greatest desires. It makes you feel weak, insecure, and trapped, and eliminates options rather than creating them. I will give you some examples.

A broke ass decision would be you make dinner for your spouse and kids every night of the week even though you work hard just like everyone else in your household and even though being the household cook makes you super tired and resentful. Okay, on the other hand, a million-dollar decision in this scenario would be you make dinner once or twice per week and invite your spouse and your children to make dinner the other nights while you put your feet up and relax. Voila, resentment is instantly gone.

Here’s another example of a broke ass decision. You spend five hours looking for ways to cut your expenses. You clip coupons, you spend an hour on the phone with the cable company and skip those two lattes that you really wanted. You save a grand total of $82.

Then, here’s a million-dollar decision you could make instead. You spend five hours researching ways to make more money, you dig into different side hustles, choose one and get your first client. And now you’ve made $782. Do you see the difference here?

You could spend five hours of your life scrimping and saving and then save $82 or you could spend five hours of your life creating and expanding and you could generate $782 or more. It’s five hours of time either way, but one is a broke ass decision and one is a million-dollar decision. Do you see the difference?

So, let me ask you a big question. Out of the last 100 decisions that you made how many were million-dollar decisions and how many were broke ass decisions? Your answer to that question will tell me a lot about your present financial situation and your future. Look, you probably make at least 100 decisions a day, decisions about what to eat, what to wear, how to spend your time, who to include in your social circle, what to do during your work day, what to charge for your services, how to handle chores around the house and more.

From this day forward, for the rest of your life, I want you to start making million-dollar decisions only. No more broke ass decisions. We’re done with this non-sense. No more bads. It is time to stop settling for piddly crumbs and start demanding more. If you start making fewer broke ass decisions and start making more million-dollar decisions your life will change rapidly. You will feel more confident, you will carry yourself differently, you will have more energy, you will sparkle during meetings with colleagues and clients. You will glow from the inside out. You will bring more money in the door. You will unleash your inner millionaire badass. Your life will never look or feel the same.

I want to give you a personal example about the power of making a million-dollar decision and how one MDD can create a change reaction of prosperity in your life. Years ago, I decided to splurge on getting a really nice haircut. At the time, this was something I would almost never do. I just didn’t allow myself to treat myself to nice things like that, but just this once I did. I got a nice haircut and I stepped out of the salon feeling cute AF. What did I do next? I took some selfies, of course, because, hello, I want to be seen with my cute haircut.

I posted on social media, I emailed a few potential clients, I scheduled lunch dates and video meetings. I put myself out there in a bigger and bolder way. That new haircut gave me life. It gave me that extra edge of confidence that I had been needing and it propelled me into making some boss ass moves. You know what? I booked several new clients as a result of all that activity. I got more money flowing in the door, thousands of dollars, and it all started with a haircut that cost me $150.

So, in this particular instance me spending that $150 on a fancy ass haircut was a million-dollar decision. It’s a decision that brought me confidence. It brought me a feeling of power. It lifted my energy and it led to thousands of dollars in revenue from those clients that I had lined up.

Here’s another example of a million-dollar decision that really changed my life. My husband and I used to argue constantly over who was making dinner. We were always going back and forth and waiting each other out and seeing who’s going to crack and go make dinner. Whenever it was my turn and I had to make dinner I would passively aggressively bang all the pots and shove the food around and really not cooking with love. I was doing the opposite of cooking with love. I was cooking with resentment.

This was a pattern that went on literally for years and we got to a point where I was like, “If we can just be you and I against this problem and put our heads together we could come up with a solution.” We figured it out. We realized that cooking for ourselves and for our children took up so much time every week and it was something that neither one of us enjoyed and, in fact, both of us really resented it. It was something that needed to happen, obviously, every day.

Of course, we really cared about the health of our children. We would order out a ton and that food wasn’t healthy and we got sick of eating it, so we said, “What if we took the money that we use to order out all the time and hired someone to come and cook for us?” So, I asked around and found out, lo and behold, I had a couple of friends who had a chef. Tell me more. How did you make this happen?

I got some tips and then I went out there, put together a job description, advertised it, interviewed some people and hired a chef. That chef has become a part of my family. She is like an integral part of our lives and she has changed our lives for the better. We eat so much more healthier but even more than that we have beautiful mealtimes together. Literally, every day my family and I eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner together and we treat it like a special event. We never, ever miss it. We don’t book other – running errands or appointments during breakfast, lunch or dinner times. We always sit together and enjoy those mealtimes. It’s meant so much to our family.

It also means that I don’t have to work a long work day and then come home and chef up dinner when I really don’t feel like it. When what I really want to do is sit down on the couch and watch The Great British Bake Off, obviously. What I want to do is relax and recharge so that I’m ready for the next day. So, that decision has made my quality of life better which is an expansion of my life. It has made my relationship with my family better, and on top of that it has made me a lot more money because it released so much stress and anxiety and improved the relationship that I had with my husband because we weren’t arguing all the day. We’re all just so much more happier, and of course, we’re making more money.

There are so many kinds of million-dollar decisions that you can make. Making a million-dollar decision does not necessarily mean you are purchasing something like a nice coat or a haircut. In fact, many million-dollar decisions cost nothing. Asking your kids to respect your boundaries and leave you in peace while you are working, that is free and that is a million-dollar decision. Decluttering your office so that you have space to dream and think expansively, and you feel happier at work – decluttering is free and that is a million-dollar decision, too.

Deleting that app from your phone because it’s distracting and exhausting or turning off notifications so that you don’t get pestered with incoming emails all day long, those can also be million-dollar decisions. Look, we’re all aware that very few women ever become affluent. Very few women become millionaires.

Less than 2% of female entrepreneurs ever crack the 7-figure ceiling, but what about the ones that manage to do it, the ones like me? What is their secret? As a woman how do you beat the odds? How do you become the exception to the rule? As a woman, as a woman of color, as a trans person or any other marginalized group, what is the secret to becoming a millionaire?

The secret is that you have to start making million-dollar decisions and you have to do this every day of your life. You have to make decisions that create time and energy that free up mental space, that reduce nonsense in your life, decisions that create options instead of eliminating them. You have to do this even though you live in a world that tries to convince you not to make million-dollar decisions. You have to do it anyway. That is the secret. That’s how you beat the system.

Everything within our male-dominated, patriarchal system is designed to convince women to play small. “Don’t be too ambitious. Don’t be too loud. Don’t be too big. Don’t eat too much food. Don’t grasp for too much money. Be obedient. Be small. Be satisfied with what you got. Don’t be greedy. Don’t reach for more.”

But when you start making million-dollar decisions that is an act of defiance. This is you saying, “I live in a world that is designed to keep me emotionally broke and financially broke, but I refuse. I reject the script. I will not conform. I won’t be obedient. I will not. I choose more for myself.”

Here’s what I want you to remember from this episode. Every day you have opportunities and choices to make. You can make broke ass decisions or you can make million-dollar decisions. The more million-dollar decisions you make the faster your financial situation will change. As a woman, and especially as a woman of color, making a million-dollar decision is a radical act. It’s an act of defiance. You are rejecting the cultural norm, rejecting the unfair systems, rejecting all the bullshit, and you are saying, “Despite everything that is designed to make me feel unworthy, I choose worthiness. I choose power. I choose strength. I choose to do something right now to create prosperity in my life.”

You might wondering, “Okay, Rachel, so what kinds of million-dollar decisions should I be making?” There are so many options. There are a zillion things I could do, so where should I start? Well, guess what, I made a list for you. I call it The Daily Seven. The Daily Seven is a list of seven million-dollar decisions you can make immediately, decisions you can make daily, consistently, regardless of your current profession, life situation or income level.

You’re working part-time, struggling financially, and pregnant with your next kid? You can do these seven things every day. You’re going through a messy divorce and trying to finish grad school and you have zero spare time? You can do these seven things every day, too. You’re running a company that’s generating good money and overall, you feel pretty great? Awesome, you can do these seven things every day and hit your next level.

The Daily Seven applies to everyone and that includes you. I guarantee if you start doing The Daily Seven consistently you will start generating more money and you will feel different. The Daily Seven will change your life. Are you curious to find out what The Daily Seven are? I’m sure you are and maybe you’re wondering what’s on that list. What are the seven million-dollar decisions that you need to be making every day? To find out, all you need to do is pre-order my book. When you pre-order We Should All Be Millionaires we also send you The Daily Seven as a special gift before the book even comes out, like an early treat.

Go to helloseven.co/book to see how to pre-order and get The Daily Seven. Again, that’s helloseven.co/book and you will see instructions there. It’s super easy. Go to weshouldallbemillionaires.com to see how to pre-order and get The Daily Seven. Again, that’s weshouldallbemillionaires.com and you will see instructions. It’s super easy.

My goal is to get at least 30,000 pre-orders before the book comes out next May because if we hit those numbers then it’s very likely that this book will become a New York Times Best Seller and I really want young, black girls to see a black woman’s face on the cover of a book about money and wealth in The New York Times. This will be a historic moment, something that has not happened before that I know of. You can help make this happen. We can make history together.

Again, go to helloseven.co/book to learn more about the new book and pre-order and get your Daily Seven gift. Again, go to weshouldallbemillionaires.com to learn more about the new book and pre-order and get your Daily Seven gift. And most importantly of all, go make at least one million-dollar decision today. Do it, it will feel amazing. It will generate beautiful things in your life and one million-dollar decision tends to snowball into another and another and another.

First, you invest in a haircut and give yourself some love. Then, before you know it you are raising your prices and contacting potential clients and hiring your first employee and writing a book and creating a strategy to dominate The New York Times Best Seller List. What? And it all started with a haircut. That’s how it happens, friends. You connect with your inner-worthiness and you claim more power and you change your financial reality one decision at a time. The path to becoming a millionaire is paved with million-dollar decisions. Go make one today.

This year is coming to a close. Have you scheduled a date with your money yet? I'm talking about your annual money review, and it's something you need to do if you want to make serious money moves in the year to come. My team and I have created an annual money review workbook to help you do just that. You'll work through the great million-dollar decisions you made this year, and you'll work through the broke-ass decisions you may have made too, plus you're going to make a plan to make more money and start living the life that you want next year. Grab your workbook for free right now, at helloseven.co/review.