STEP FOUR: ASK
Wanting your life–and your wealth–to get bigger and better requires asking.
The first three steps in our journey–Decide, Plan, and Speak–have a lot to do with your inner money work.
The inner work is important. Identifying what’s going on within your personal Money Operating System® will help make sense of your money journey so far… and clarify what needs to be done to get on the wealth-building path you want to be on.
Step Four is where leverage begins. 📈
Now, when I say it’s time to start asking, I’m talking about the kind of asking that comes with the expectation of delivery.
After all, you need to actively pull in, or call for increasing money and wealth over time. (Unfortunately, it doesn’t always just happen.)
Sure, you could manage this by consistently asking for raises, but it’s about more than that: This is about taking on the view; the desire; the commitment that makes asking for things come naturally to you.
So many people limit their abundance because they never ask for more.
The goal here isn’t to develop a sense of entitlement or expectation that the world provides for you without your participation.
It’s to recognize–and utilize–the fact that there are things in life that require the partnership or support of other people to accomplish.
We all have the same amount of time in a day, but the people who produce incredible results with their efforts know and accept that anything worth giving their life to or being really proud of takes a partnership, a team, or a community. It takes other people.
You can accomplish much more in the world when you're not on your own.
The people who lead organizations, efforts, teams, and partnerships make a difference by working with other people. This step that I call Ask is really about you asking for, wanting, and expecting your results in life to get better over time, and knowing that you can’t do it alone.
Here are some ideas for inspiration of things you can ask for:
- Ask for a raise or increase your rates.
- Ask for partnership in building a new business collaboration.
- Ask for training opportunities to increase your technical skill set.
- Ask for someone to mentor you.
- Create a nanny share with another household to decrease monthly childcare expenses.
- Call your credit card company and ask for a lower interest rate.
- Ask a venture capitalist (or your aunt!) to invest in your company.
- Ask your partner where the investment accounts are.
- Ask your friend to make something you can sell at the charity auction.
- Ask someone to refer you business in exchange for an affiliate share commission.
- Ask someone to carpool with you.
- Negotiate a lower price for your next car.
If you aren’t yet comfortable with asking (a common reservation amongst women, in particular… but that’s an article for another day 🙃), my suggestion is to make it a game.
Let’s call it “The Expansion of Wealth.” You win when you get 100 no’s.
That’s right. The goal isn’t to get 100 yeses–although you will get plenty of those along the way! The purpose of this game is to flex your asking muscle to get more and more comfortable with asking… and to learn how to be okay with hearing “no.” (I promise you: “No” is not the end of the world!)
Here’s a tip with all this asking: Your odds of getting a “yes” will increase if the ask is a win-win scenario. If you know the person you’re making the ask of will be better off by saying yes… they’re more likely to say yes.
For example, if you were to take on a business partner and that partnership enables the two of you to build a company that’s 10x more profitable than what each of you have now, you’re both better off.
Likewise, if getting a discount on your phone bill makes you more likely to continue on as a customer, that’s a win/win for you and your phone company.
The more you ask for, the better practiced–and creative!–you’ll be in how you do it.
Story time!
One of my favorite things about seeing The 7 Steps to Wealth put into practice is witnessing the ingenuity that people have, and the ways they’re able to create more value for themselves.
A great example of this comes from a couple of my team members:
Last summer, they wanted to get tickets to a certain someone’s record-shattering concert tour but weren’t able to secure them during the original sale. This meant they had to pay exorbitant resale prices if they wanted to get in the stadium.
They didn’t have that kind of room in their spending plan, so they committed to finding a way to bring in extra money for the sole purpose of getting concert tickets.
Because they’re both freelance writers and had worked closely together in the past, they decided to partner up and offer a “one-time” service to finance their concert experience with cash instead of credit card debt.
They did the math, found the number they needed to buy two tickets, and then put together an offering they thought would be valuable to business owners.
But they didn’t just sit on that service and hope someone found it… they started asking.
They made an agreement that they would each reach out to five business owners to share the service and ask for referrals. If they sold the amount they needed, they would buy the tickets and go to the concert.
And they did!
This initiative wasn’t about long-term wealth building in the moment, but it was about creating the kind of life experience they wanted to have–and they followed the first four steps of the 7 Steps to Wealth to make it happen:
They decided to go to the concert, made a plan to bring in the cash, spoke about their idea with people who could support it, and then made direct asks that reached the right people.
(…and their ask was so mutually beneficial that they still work with me today. 🙃)
Remember, asking is conceptual. It’s about wanting your life to get bigger and better, and to expand and improve.
And, it’s also tactical. The conversations you have with other people are the catalyst that lead to opportunities and projects that expand your possibilities… and your wealth.
That brings us to the next step…
Put your asks into action.
Download The 7 Steps to Wealth. It’s our free, written + audio guide to achieving more wealth in life.
This PDF delivers the 7 Steps in bite-sized pieces, with accompanying audio to help you embody the concepts and journaling prompts to bring the lessons to life.
When you expect to reach financial freedom, you’re more likely to go out and ask for what you need. (And it’s never too late to start!)
All written content in this article is for information purposes only. Opinions expressed herein are solely those of HWM, unless otherwise specifically cited. Material presented is believed to be from reliable sources and no representations are made by our firm as to another parties’ informational accuracy or completeness. All information or ideas provided should be discussed in detail with an advisor, accountant or legal counsel prior to implementation.
