— a share that has not changed during the past twenty years. And despite generating $1.6 trillion in revenues in 2016, 7.9 percent of women generated between $100,000 and $500,000, while only 3.3 percent of women-owned businesses generated more than $500,000 in revenues.
What Holds Women Back?
This brief snapshot provides an opportunity to get to the root of what holds women back. Working with my clients, I have identified several reasons that women may not be doing as well as they could be. For one, often their self-confidence does not match their skill level. Despite their talents, accomplishments, and expertise, many women still question whether they are truly good enough, smart enough, and worthy enough to succeed and prosper financially.
In fact, I have witnessed that regardless of age, educational background, and income level, many women privately struggle with valuing themselves and their worth. This in turn can impact their ability to succeed or grow their business or advance in their career. As Sheryl Sandberg has so famously claimed, women hesitate to “lean in.” I have witnessed that women experience a disconnection between:
• what they’ve accomplished and their level of self-confidence.
• what they really want and what they settle for.
• valuing what they do and valuing their self-worth.
• the determination they show on the outside and the fear and doubt they feel about themselves on the inside.
In my work I encounter many accomplished, talented, and motivated women who are visionary change makers. They want to make a significant contribution to the world and be richly rewarded for the value they provide through their life’s work. Deep inside, these ambitious and goal-oriented women want to make a sizable income, make a large impact, and achieve outstanding success. This is inspiring and admirable.
However, what many women actually experience is the opposite. Thus, high-achieving women at various income levels and stages in their business or career seek my help because they want to develop money mastery to achieve success and fulfillment on their own terms. They want to own their fullest worth and express their brilliance. They also want income growth. They are frustrated with their earnings when they do not match the bigger vision they have of their potential. Their income also does not allow them to fund their dreams and social mission or the legacy they want to leave behind.
Some of the challenges these women face include:
• struggling to break through to the next level of income and success.
• feeling anxious about not being able to achieve and exceed their past success, revenue, or salary.
• finding that no matter how hard they work, they are stuck with the same income.
These challenges have puzzled and fascinated me. What was holding these otherwise successful women back from making a meaningful difference doing what they love? Through my training and experience in the area of women and money, as well as my personal journey, I finally realized what the root cause of this issue is. What holds many women back from making the kind of income they desire and deserve has little to do with their intelligence, motivation, or spirit — but much to do with their relationship to money.
This was the missing piece of the puzzle. I realized that somehow these women were giving away their personal power through money. This included engaging in self-sabotaging actions that led them to experience money-related stress and anxiety, which impacted their results.
Perhaps what I’ve described resonates with you. At some point you may have experienced financial challenges or engaged in similar disempowering actions with money.
If so, one way to address these challenges is by connecting money to your emotions. The most profound and lasting solutions to the challenges you face can be discovered by looking within. I have found that keeping a journal enables me to do so. I also ask my clients to regularly chronicle their emotions and experiences in a journal, which often produces clarity and insights. Writing makes it easier to notice the external obstacles that surface from the deeper emotions of fear and doubt, since they will show up as lack of income, failure to progress, and lack of opportunity. However, it is vital to understand that these external obstacles are simply symptoms of what is really “running the show” — your unconscious feelings and emotions regarding money. These symptoms form the basis of your internal obstacles and emotional blocks to money and wealth.
Since emotions come from within, they are generally harder to recognize on the outside, and harder to overcome. Therefore, these internal obstacles and emotional blocks can keep you from having what you really want and enjoying it once you attain it. In truth, your thoughts and feelings about money are critical factors in determining how much you will make and keep in your life. In other words, your emotional state will ultimately determine your financial state.
Why I Wrote This Book
So why focus on women and their relationship with money? I focus on women and money because it is the fastest way to get to the core of why women hold themselves back. Money is simply a tool to help us uncover something deeper — an opportunity for a breakthrough and transformation in all areas of life.
To put it simply, money is emotional currency for women. Money is tied to our sense of self-worth and self-confidence, and our feelings of safety and security. These emotions can often turn into self-limiting decisions. And the effect can be profound, in terms of either moving you forward or keeping you stuck.
We are all faced with many decisions every day, and those decisions are likely impacted by money. Since you deal with money daily, you can clearly see that your relationship with money plays a decisive role in your success. In fact, your intimate, ongoing relationship with money determines whether you will prosper or struggle in your work and the rest of life. If your relationship with money is left unexamined, you can stay stuck, experiencing a cycle of money drama that acts as a barrier to realizing your full potential and your purpose in life.
My own journey with money has taken me from being a young single mother living from paycheck to paycheck to becoming an award-winning corporate executive and a successful global entrepreneur. I share the details of my own journey with money to let you know that whatever your past or current challenges with money are, they do not define who you are or control your future. You are in charge of your destiny. You can make powerful choices at this moment to create the life you desire.
At a deep soul level this book is really about a rite of passage — an awakening for women to take action to reclaim their feminine connection to money as a source of empowerment, love, wealth, fulfillment, and success. The phrase feminine connection to money points to an understanding that there is a natural connection between women, generosity, and leveraging money to help others. And when women reclaim and embrace their feminine connection to money, the results can be remarkable. When women are empowered with money, they become “difference makers.” They create better lives for themselves and their families, give back, contribute to the economy, change the world, and transform lives.
Therefore, the sooner you empower your relationship with money, the sooner you can take bold actions to claim your wealth and be a force for good. You have a unique mission to fulfill in this lifetime. That mission is to make a difference in your unique way. This may include changing the lives of others for the better. You are meant to fill a place that only you can fill.
You are meant to make an impact that only you can bring about.
Perhaps you are like me and did not start out with the intention of becoming an entrepreneur. Maybe you have experienced a high level of success in the
