262 | Creating Possibilities–and More Money–in Your Life (7 Steps to Wealth, Step 5: Earn)

Hilary Hendershott: Well, hello, Money Lover! Welcome to my 7 Steps to Wealth podcast series. If you’ve already heard this introduction to the series and you don’t wish to hear it again, please just fast forward about two minutes. If you haven’t heard it yet or want to hear it again, here we go.

Hilary Hendershott: Many years ago, as I was digging myself out of financial oblivion and creating healthy money habits for myself for the first time, I realized that if I could master this thing called money, I would have something very valuable to share with the world. I mean after all, there is plenty of information about money out there in the world, yet most people still struggle with it. So obviously something is missing in the zeitgeist about money.

Hilary Hendershott: And there came a time in my financial life where I started to look more financially healthy than damaged. There came a time when my bank accounts started to contain 6- and 7-figure balances. There came a time when I could set big, really abundant goals for my business, work toward them, and reliably achieve them.

Hilary Hendershott: The way I would say that now is, I got into right relationship with money. I stepped into having power and influence with money. So as part of sharing the lessons I learned with money, I looked back on what I had accomplished–from where I was now, with a high credit score, a multi-million dollar home that my husband and I own, and a multiple 7-figure net worth–and I asked myself, “What are the exact steps I took to get here?”, “What specifically did I do differently to change my financial reality?”, and “How exactly did my money mindset and financial beliefs change?”

Hilary Hendershott: And I created a framework called the 7 Steps to Wealth. I’ve published that framework many times, in many formats. Episode 208 of this podcast contains the entire framework in one episode; it’s a great audio resource. There’s an interactive, multimedia eBook you can download if you go to the show notes for today’s episode. And I would love for you to do that. We talk about the 7 Steps in my Money Love Notes newsletter, which you can also subscribe to in the show notes.

Hilary Hendershott: But what I’m doing now is an entire episode on each of the 7 Steps. The 7 Steps in order are: Decide, Plan, Speak, Ask, Earn, Invest and Protect. I’ll publish this series with the steps in order, but not necessarily every week. So the point is to do a deep dive on each individual step because knowing the steps makes no difference. You have to actually put them to work in your life. So if you’re looking for a different step than the one I’m talking about today, and that step comes BEFORE today’s step, just look around in the recent episodes I’ve published. If you’re listening to these as they air, and you’re specifically interested in a future step, it’s coming.

Hilary Hendershott: Well congratulations, Money Lover. You are more than halfway through the 7 Steps to Wealth.

Hilary Hendershott: Once you’ve reached this step, Step 5, I can almost guarantee you’re a different person than you were at Step 1. Can you feel it? Can you feel it? Do you feel different? Are things moving around that weren’t moving before? At this stage, you’ve made a bold decision about your life and becoming wealthy. You created a plan for your money that provides the blueprint to reach your financial goals. You’re talking about money out loud in ways maybe you never have before, and you’re asking for things that are actively building the life of your dreams.

Hilary Hendershott: Feels big, right? It really is. So now you’re at the step I call Earn. Earning money is exciting. It creates possibilities, and I promise you will find possibilities everywhere when you start looking for them. This is the step everyone likes to talk about, because having more money seems like the obvious solution to financial problems.

Hilary Hendershott: But it’s futile to talk about earning if you haven’t covered the previous four steps and don’t cover the next two. Most people who earn a high income don’t retain or grow their wealth, unfortunately, because they’re missing the other steps, and if you earn a lot of money and then spend it all–as I did, so proudly in my past–you’re no closer to your financial freedom at the end of the month, and that’s the real goal here.

Hilary Hendershott: But don’t worry, because you won’t be one of those people. You are a Money Lover, which means you’re already looking after the first four steps, which are episodes 258, 259, 260 and 261 of this podcast, if you want to go back for a refresher. And, you’re good to take care of those increased earnings, thanks to steps 6 and 7 which are Invest and Protect. Those are coming up next.

Hilary Hendershott: If you’ve listened to the other steps in this series, you know that limiting beliefs create limiting behaviors. So the only limitations to your income earning are the limits you place on yourself.

Hilary Hendershott: The purpose of this step is to start to think about earnings as an intersection between your thoughts and your choices. That doesn’t mean that your earning potential comes down to meaningless or knee jerk positive thinking, or really anything woo that doesn’t actually impact your real life conversations about money with the people who pay you.

Hilary Hendershott: Your earning potential comes down to the decisions you make and the actions you take as you open yourself up to new possibilities.

Hilary Hendershott: So earning money, for most people, really begins when you start to work and exchange the value you offer for the compensation someone else can offer. In other words, you have something I want, and I have something you want. So let’s find a mutually beneficial agreement here. So you begin where you are, with what you have, because everybody has a specific set of talents, skills, and ways of contributing that can be leveraged to earn money.

Hilary Hendershott: One thing you’ll probably be happy to know is that if you want to make more money, maybe you can just be patient, because the good news is, people’s income tends to go up over time. On the whole, people in their fifties earn more money than people in their twenties. Between raises and career changes and other life events, there is usually a natural upward trend when it comes to earning.

Hilary Hendershott: But if you want to get on a steeper climb over your lifetime–and if you’re listening to this podcast, I do think it’s safe to assume that you do–you have to take a series of carefully strategized steps to get there. And, not every action you take will lead directly to more income, so you’ll need to be willing to take consistent action over time.

Hilary Hendershott: The idea is that, over time, you’ll start to relate to yourself differently, and so will other people around you, and your amplified earnings begin to grow and compound.

Hilary Hendershott: Earning money is a really exciting prospect for people, but I find that few are willing to roll up their sleeves and do the hard work to get there. So, no matter what role you’re in, you can ask yourself, “How can I create more value here?” And then develop the skills, systems, and processes to make that happen.

Hilary Hendershott: I, of course, can’t physically go through all the ways everyone listening to this podcast can earn more money. It’s so individual to each person. But I will, in this episode today, share some stories that hopefully you can relate to and get inspired to increase your earnings. I can’t wait to hear what you come up with.

Hilary Hendershott: As a sidebar, it is really interesting to me to watch how the thread of the Money Operating System® weaves its way through conversations about earning.

Hilary Hendershott: I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve said to people–after they say to me, “I want more money. How can I grow my wealth, Hilary?”–I will say, “If you want more money, you’re gonna have to grow your business. You’re gonna have to increase profits.” Or, “If you want to make more money, you’re gonna have to leave the job you have now, and go get a new one with a company that pays you more.”

Hilary Hendershott: And people protest! They give me the reasons I’m wrong or the reasons they’re already trying, or the reasons they’re stuck in that role, or they can’t do anything differently.

Hilary Hendershott: This tells me two things. It tells me we have a Money Operating System® problem. And it tells me that that person hasn’t yet decided to be rich. So they have to go back and work on Step 1. Because the big idea of Step 5 is that if you want to earn more money, you have to make a change.

Hilary Hendershott: I do think there’s a misconception out there that unless you’re self made, like Elon Musk, or you’re born into wealth, or experience a windfall through an inheritance, that you can’t become rich.

Hilary Hendershott: That if you’re just a hardworking employee of a company, you can’t build wealth because your income potential is limited, or you don’t have wealth building opportunities available to you.

Hilary Hendershott: But that’s not the case. I mean, I work with people doing that every day. The truth is that anyone can build wealth–and lots of wealth. But you do have to take control of your money and realize that the only thing limiting your earning potential is you.

Hilary Hendershott: So people build wealth in three primary ways.

Hilary Hendershott: One, as business owners. Two, as employees of a corporation. They work for someone else. They’re W2 employees. Or three, they inherit it from family.

Hilary Hendershott: Lottery winners are in that third bucket. Lottery winning is a complex topic, because it turns out lottery winners are more likely to make messes with money because they really don’t have the skill sets to preserve wealth when they get it.

Hilary Hendershott: So I’ll leave that topic for another day. If you’ve won or inherited your money, you’re technically already in a position of having quote unquote, earned it. So, at that point, you need to focus on managing your spending. You need to take the time to understand what that money makes possible for you. Because paying for today and paying for tomorrow are two different things.

Hilary Hendershott: So if you haven’t done this already, make sure you check out episode 259, which is about planning for your money. And in that episode you can learn about the cash flow automation system that I swear by, and that I use with clients. And then keep your ears and eyes peeled for steps 6 and 7 which come after today’s episode, because that’s really where you need to be focused. So for now I’m speaking to the remaining two-thirds of you, and we’re going to start with employees, wage earners.

Hilary Hendershott: So people who work as employees earn their wealth by working for corporations that offer pensions–those are more and more rare these days, but they do exist–by working for private companies that offer good employee stock ownership plans. And employee stock ownership can come in many different forms.

Hilary Hendershott: They work for companies with lucrative employee stock purchase plans, they work for companies that go public, they are executives for companies with generous compensation plans that are a combination of cash and stock, and also as employees where either one person in a couple has a high income or two married people have good to high incomes. And they just keep spending really, really low over time. So there’s a number of ways you can get to where you want to be.

Hilary Hendershott: You can increase your earnings as an employee by learning how to better advocate for yourself, by getting additional training or professional designations, by asking for a raise, by shifting into a different role that opens up more opportunities. Or you can look for another job.

Hilary Hendershott: Each of those choices becomes another step in your wealth building journey, and every dollar does count.

Hilary Hendershott: There are, of course, other creative ways to find additional income outside of your paycheck. You can earn more money by getting paid, or you can earn more money by trimming your overhead. Both methods add more numbers to your bottom line. This podcast used to be called Profit Boss. And I would talk about how the magic of owning a business is the profit, and that even if you’re a wage earner, the profit in your life is the difference between what you earn and what you spend. So either one of those methods, as I said, adds more numbers to your bottom line, and every contribution brings you one step closer to financial freedom.

Hilary Hendershott: When I was digging myself out of incredible amounts of debt, tens of thousands of dollars in debt, I was unmarried and I didn’t have kids. I was single and childless. And I did not have a cat. So I moved into my mom’s guest room. I drove a barely roadworthy car, and I ate–so funny–I ate beans and lentils. I did. I ate canned food. I didn’t buy coffee, folks. I did not buy coffee. I lived on a food budget of $7 a day for maybe 18 or 24 months.

Hilary Hendershott: So I may not have been increasing the dollars on my paycheck at that exact moment, but I was absolutely increasing the amount that stayed in my bank account. I was making it possible to pay my bills, and that was the point.

Hilary Hendershott: I mean, I kid you not, I coached someone who was at a ceiling with her earnings at work, and instead of getting discouraged, she took a hard look at her accounts. She asked herself what she really wanted to spend her money on, and she managed to cut $1,300 a month in subscriptions and recurring expenses.

Hilary Hendershott: Oh, my goodness! I think that’s the highest number I’ve ever seen. Once that money was freed up, she could allocate that money in a way that better aligned with her values, supported her long term vision, and helped her build wealth. And she’s so much happier for it.

Hilary Hendershott: I mean, these numbers do add up. Over the course of five years, which can pass so quickly–ask any parent–that amounts to $78,000 spent on stuff she genuinely did not want or care about. She didn’t even notice it. When it comes to subscriptions and recurring expenses, the cost creep is real. To this day, I loathe the feeling of signing up for a subscription. And I absolutely refuse to let them take money out of my bank accounts. I always set it up so I’m paying them so at least, if I want to stop it, I can.

Hilary Hendershott: So if you cut down on yesterday’s promises, which is your overhead, where you can, you can watch your future earnings grow.

Hilary Hendershott: All right. Now let’s talk about building wealth as a business owner. As an entrepreneur, there really is no shortage of ways you could increase your earnings. Right? You have ultimate control. You can raise your prices, you can trim your operating expenses. If you have the profits in your business bank account, you can pay yourself more. A lot of business owners are terrified to pay themselves. I once had a coaching client, she had $900,000 in her business bank account.

Hilary Hendershott: I said, “Pay it to yourself. Take it out and pay it.” Now, it worked in her accounting right? It was an appropriate piece of coaching for her. It took nine months for her to actually do it. It was really like surprising. We had lots of Money Operating System® conversations as a result of her not wanting to pay herself $900,000.

Hilary Hendershott: If you want to turn the dials, you can hire more people, so that increases your capacity to earn more profits and pay them to yourselves. You might be someone who runs a company, you could take it public.

Hilary Hendershott: You could partner with someone to bring in more expertise, so you can add more value. And you could even have a liquidity event. You could sell your business. Lots and lots and lots of ways to make money as a business owner.

Hilary Hendershott: Make sure you check out the show notes for this episode at hendershottwealth.com/262, because we’ll include links to other episodes about creative ways that business owners have increased their earnings and built meaningful wealth. I’ve done lots of those episodes on this show.

Hilary Hendershott: So just remember, the only long term limits on your earning potential are the ones you put in place. The goal is to get you earning more, and then to manage that money that you have coming in wisely so you can invest it and grow it and eventually earn income from those investments.

Hilary Hendershott: That’s the picture we’re putting in place. That’s the picture we’re painting here. But to learn more about how to invest it, you’ll have to wait until the next episode. So for now let’s get into some stories of what this looks like in practice from people at the Earn step; stories of people successfully earning.

Hilary Hendershott: There are obviously seemingly limitless ways to earn more money. But today, my intention is that we leave you inspired to think outside the current box, because you can find new, creative ways to increase your earnings and build wealth.

Hilary Hendershott: I reached out to my team members. I asked for examples of ways they’ve seen our clients earn more money, and let me tell you, their stories did not disappoint. Buckle up and get ready to be inspired.

Hilary Hendershott: Let’s talk about a gal named Michelle, who’s a friend of one of the CFPs who works on my team. Michelle had been working in the same type of role her entire career. So she works for a nonprofit, and obviously nonprofit work can be really fulfilling, heart-centered work, right? And that’s important. Her skill set is strong and she does love her work. But recently she started to feel stuck and she wanted more for herself. She wanted more responsibility and more money.

Hilary Hendershott: So she decided to see what else was out there. She did a bunch of research on what it could look like for her if she made a lateral move to apply her skill sets elsewhere, probably in the for profit sector. But when Michelle thought about leaving her current employer, she was surprised to discover that something just didn’t feel right about that. Her organization has a really close-knit team, which is unique and special and valuable. And she didn’t want to leave. She has strong relationships and connections with the executive team, and she felt she could really navigate getting what she wanted from her current employer rather than looking elsewhere.

Hilary Hendershott: So, instead of searching for a new job, she drafted a proposal to redesign her existing job description to include a title change and an increase in salary. And her employers approved it. So we’re marrying the Ask and the Earn Steps to Wealth. Right? I mean, they’re not always completely separate, and it’s amazing what you can get if you ask.

Hilary Hendershott: So, I think the theme here is being uncomfortable can turn into a good thing if you let it lead to advocating for what you want.

Hilary Hendershott: Michelle’s bosses at her nonprofit wouldn’t have known she was unhappy unless she said something about it, and that takes willingness to self advocate, and it takes a lot of courage.

Hilary Hendershott: So Michelle applied her knowledge of the organization to her desire for more, and asked for something that the team decided to say yes to. Brava, Michelle.

Hilary Hendershott: Next, let’s talk about Amanda. Amanda’s a real estate agent who is a friend of another of my incredibly talented CFP® crew. Amanda makes great money, but of course, one of the things that’s true about working on all commission is that you will have months where income is high, and you also have months where income is zero. We refer to that as lumpy income, and you do have to plan for it.

Hilary Hendershott: Amanda realized that she did have months where there was zero income coming in. And whether that’s because in this particular market houses are moving slowly, interest rates are up, or maybe she just wasn’t doing enough marketing.

Hilary Hendershott: So she got creative. She decided to solve her own income earning problem. She started hosting webinars for her current clients and their friends, and she brings in experts like financial advisors or CPAs or construction contractors who are experts on remodels to talk about strategies that people can follow when selling or buying a second home.

Hilary Hendershott: Reason for this, Amanda lives in an area where most of the homes are second homes–it’s like a vacation place. So by anticipating what her potential clients might be interested in knowing about, or what might be profitable for them, like gifting a home to your kids while you’re alive, or selling that home and giving cash in a way that doesn’t generate gift tax, she is getting herself more exposure and kudos from her current clients and prospects.

Hilary Hendershott: Amanda says that hosting these webinars has been huge for her financially, really helped her solve that lumpy income problem; led her to close to twice as many transactions over the last 12 months as she thought she would have otherwise. So how you can learn from Amanda’s success is to really think about how you can bring more value to the people who currently pay you.

Hilary Hendershott: We’re always doing this at my firm. Right? We’re just thinking about, What are the clients talking about? What do the clients want and need now? What are they concerned with? What are they trying to create in their financial life? What can we provide that solves a problem they have? Right?

Hilary Hendershott: That is how you solve customer problems. That’s how you create customer value. And that’s how you run a great business.

Hilary Hendershott: So my podcast production team is actually an example of this. Charlie over at PodPost Media cold emailed me with a couple examples of how his team could market my podcast–this was years ago–better than the folks who were doing it at the time.

Hilary Hendershott: I was happy with the other production team. In fact, I think I deleted his email. And then I thought to myself, “Why did I delete that? I should at least look at it.” I really wasn’t looking to replace my existing team, but I loved what Charlie sent, and I eventually decided to move over to working with him and his team. And it’s been several years of a very successful relationship. I love those guys. And this is all because Charlie offered it to me. That’s a win-win.

Hilary Hendershott: All right, let’s talk about Katie. Katie’s really the hero of today’s episode. Katie is a friend, and she’s also a client. Katie and I met in our late twenties. So I’ve gotten to see her in many phases of life. I interviewed her years ago on this podcast because I had watched her really take the reins of her own earnings, power, and career satisfaction, by the way.

Hilary Hendershott: Her career started in Public Works. She was working as a program manager for a city in the State of California. She was not happy with her trajectory, or what was possible coming out of that role, and she wasn’t happy with her earnings.

Hilary Hendershott: So did Katie complain about it for years and years, and make everyone around her dread asking the question, “So how’s things at work?” No, that’s not Katie. She didn’t do that. Katie rebranded herself by altering and changing how she talked about her career experience, both verbally and on her resume or Linkedin.

Hilary Hendershott: She asked people she knew to connect her to people they knew, for informational interviews and recommendations for how she could make herself more attractive to employers she was interested in working for.

Hilary Hendershott: Soon she had transitioned out of working for local government and was working in corporate America, where she had doubled and tripled her total comp.

Hilary Hendershott: And she actually shared with me that she has increased her income by 300% in just the last ten years! This is high annual comp. This is a financial life worth pursuing. And yes, Katie is a badass.

Hilary Hendershott: However, you, too, can learn from the principles Katie says she embodies when it comes to what she’s willing to work for. So I did a mini update interview with her, and I’m about to pass her multi-million dollar secrets on to you. You might want to get a notepad and a pen, because notes should be taken.

Hilary Hendershott: Here we go. Katie says she curates three mindsets when it comes to money: intentionality, curiosity, and being okay with being uncomfortable.

Hilary Hendershott: Okay, so the first mindset–intentionality–she mentioned, is the importance of the words she uses. Obviously, I’m on board. I’m on that boat; I’m on the words train. That was the whole episode about Speak. And we talk about that on this podcast all the time.

Hilary Hendershott: So Katie specifically said, instead of “I can’t afford that.” She would say–or taught herself to say, “I don’t want to spend my money on that right now.”

Hilary Hendershott: And instead of saying or thinking, “I can’t make that kind of money.” She blends intentionality and curiosity by coming up with, “I wonder how I can make that kind of money?” And she did talk a good amount about getting curious. “How can I learn about the world and earning more money?” “How do I make that kind of money?” “Would I have to change careers?” “What careers out there are interesting to me?” And Katie really is a fan of doing informational interviews with friends to see what they’re doing in their careers, and she loves to ask questions around salary, which I know is pretty unique.

Hilary Hendershott: One thing Katie said, that I thought was a real quotable is, “Is that a wealth building choice or a wealth reducing choice?”

Hilary Hendershott: And then Katie talked about building a muscle around being uncomfortable.

Hilary Hendershott: She talked specifically about negotiations. Obviously, unless, you know, you could say for me as a business owner, I ask for a job frequently. Every time I interview with a new prospective client, I’m asking for a job. But if you work for a company, you have one negotiations conversation, maybe every 6 or 12 or 18, or maybe even 24 months, and that determines your money for a good amount of time. So that negotiation conversation is really like a fork in the road.

Hilary Hendershott: So Katie really understands the importance of that conversation, and she said that she really forced herself to request and negotiate for a salary that she wants versus asking for a number she thinks they’ll say yes to.

Hilary Hendershott: I think that’s revolutionary thinking. I think it’s genius, and I think you should steal from Katie and do the same. So these three principles she embodies translate naturally to the things she does differently. So instead of thinking, “I can’t have that,” Katie will think to herself, “How could I have that?” Again, it’s a slight shift, but, gosh, it makes all the difference. So for her it’s not, I can or I can’t. It’s, how can I?

Hilary Hendershott: She gave an example of a friend who was negotiating for a salary. Katie was coaching her friend, and the friend said, “I can’t. I just cannot go back and ask for a higher salary.” And so Katie’s coaching to her friend was, well, ask for a signing bonus.

Hilary Hendershott: A great quote from Katie about money. She says, “I believe money is a really powerful tool. I work hard to earn it. I use it. I spend it. There’s enough out there for everyone. There are a lot of ways myself, and my husband can continue to build our wealth.”

Hilary Hendershott: She mentioned imposter syndrome, which is something that a lot of us grapple with over our lives at various times. She says she joined a group of colleagues who are all consultants. So they’re doing similar things that she’s doing. And they talk about how they create new deals, and they talk about their rates. So Katie is super transparent about money. She loves talking about it. She’s assertive about talking about it. She loves asking questions, and she’s very candid.

Hilary Hendershott: You know that that is not how everyone is about money, right?

Hilary Hendershott: So Katie knows that sometimes people get uncomfortable with her conversation. And she’s okay with that.

Hilary Hendershott: I know from my own experience, talking with people about money, that that’s true. Katie still deals with it. So I’m just mentioning it here because I know this isn’t going to be a cakewalk for you. If you take this coaching to heart and go talk with people about money, some people will be uncomfortable. But no one wants to raise your income more than you. So that makes you naturally a bit of a lonely warrior over there.

Hilary Hendershott: I mean, you have this podcast; you have this community to come hang out with, and we’ll always pat you on the back because, atta girl for talking about money, in any space.

Hilary Hendershott: What made the difference for her was understanding the market, and knowing what a reasonable number is. If you listen to my interview with Kelly Thompson. She talked about this as well.

Hilary Hendershott: Katie talked a lot about how much she currently values the fact that she took the time to get comfortable asking for the number she wants versus the number she thought that they would pay. She said, “Look, the worst they’re going to say is ‘no’.” However, at that point, if someone’s offering you a job and you’re in a salary negotiation, they actually want you to come work for them. So the more likely thing they’re going to say is, “How can we meet in the middle? What would that look like?” Right?

Hilary Hendershott: Katie gave an example about a job offer that she had actually accepted at one point. This was a couple of years ago, and the number was less than what she actually wanted. So she left the negotiation having accepted a particular salary.

Hilary Hendershott: She talked to a colleague and they both agreed, look, the money is just a little off.

Hilary Hendershott: She said, “I feel like this salary number should actually be 10% higher.” Her friend, who knows the market, says, “That number that you’re saying, that’s 10% higher than what you accepted? That feels like the right number.”

Hilary Hendershott: So Katie called the CEO back. She said, “Look, I’m super excited to join the company. Here’s what I know about the market. And here’s what I can bring to this role. And this is a number I would be happy to work for.”

Hilary Hendershott: And the CEO said, “Okay.” So Katie had this huge realization… I can still make these requests when I’m sweaty and uncomfortable and it seems like it’s too late. So, even though all the conversations in Katie’s head are saying, don’t go ask for that. Katie’s like no, you know what? I’m gonna ask for that.

Hilary Hendershott: Katie knows now that she’s willing to take action in the face of fear. She’s bold, she’s not willing to settle, and if it doesn’t feel right, she’s going to go back and try to fix it. And she’s not going to wait until she feels comfortable asking to do the asking.

Hilary Hendershott: That’s pretty powerful stuff there.

Hilary Hendershott: All right. I have shared stories throughout this episode that have undoubtedly inspired you with actions you could take to earn more for yourself.

Hilary Hendershott: It’s here that I want to remind you to think about earnings as some kind of intersection between your thoughts and choices. You need to think differently, and you need to take different actions if you want different results. You can decide to earn more money, but you have to be willing to make changes, sometimes radical ones to make that happen.

Hilary Hendershott: Those changes might look like asking for a raise. Yes, asking can change your life. If you’re in a dead end career, you might have to switch to a more lucrative industry.

Hilary Hendershott: It might look like building your technical skill set so you can climb the ladder in your current industry, or it might look like a side hustle consulting on the side within your current industry.

Hilary Hendershott: This is where the rubber meets the road.

Hilary Hendershott: Earning is unique to each individual human being. Only you know and create your possibilities. And every change you make might produce a little more income or a lot. It really depends on you and your vision for extra sources of income and your commitment to seeing it through.

Hilary Hendershott: Really, so much of building wealth is about confronting the possibilities for your life that you inherited or showed up to today with–and the fact that you can expand them in your future.

Hilary Hendershott: Your potential to earn more income can open the door for more possibilities. But you have to know what you’re working towards, so that you can get clear on the choices you have to make to get there. So what could happen in your life if you change your choices and your thoughts?

Hilary Hendershott: Honestly, one of the biggest struggles I’ve seen clients and friends face in the Earn step is overcoming strongly held beliefs about what’s possible for them. I’ve seen people languish for years with income that wasn’t satisfying.

Hilary Hendershott: It’s not joyful to earn less than you want or think you’re worth, right? Don’t subject yourself to that. All you have to do is be willing to make a change.

Hilary Hendershott: Overcoming these mindset struggles and taking the actions to create more income is worth it. I know it can be uncomfortable. It’s always uncomfortable to do something you don’t know how to do, but it’s worth it, not only because empowering yourself to create more wealth has a positive ripple effect throughout your life, because you’ll start to own your power and relate to yourself as a person who can make things happen.

Hilary Hendershott: And, the bigger bank account and investment account balances that follow are the cherry on top!

Hilary Hendershott: Truly… alter your thoughts, alter your choices. Possibilities are everywhere around when you start looking for them.

Hilary Hendershott: So is there a change you’re going to make so that you can earn more? If so, I would really love to hear about it. Send us an email at hello@hendershottwealth.com, and tell me how you’re going to earn more money so you can get closer to your financial goals.