I'll tell you what it was in a minute, but let me set the stage first. See, I'd been a coach and trainer for a while. My list was healthy and growing pretty quickly, and I did a good job of listening to my audience and making offers they would buy. I felt pretty good about my ability to serve my audience.
Until the day I ate an entire carton of chocolate ice cream.
Yup. The WHOLE thing.
See, it was launch day for a new program I had created. I'd put hours into it, and I just knew it was exactly what my audience needed. But I struggled to price it correctly. I settled on a price that wasn't too scary for me, and that I thought my audience could afford.
That was my first mistake.
I had carefully read and re-read the email I was about to send. Making sure the links were working, and making sure that my copy was strong. I just knew this would be a game-changer for my clients. I just knew this program was really going to make a difference in their lives.
*click*
I sent the email. Within minutes, orders were coming in, which was great because I needed that money to pay bills that were due that day.
That was my second mistake.
See, I'd logged into my bank account earlier in the day, only to find that I had forgotten to write down a bill I'd scheduled for autopay - and it was deducted that day! If I didn't do something to get money in the account, I'd be overdrawn the next day.
This wasn't the first time something like this had happened. I'd kicked myself many times in the past for letting bills fall through the cracks. And the funny thing is that I'm not some kind of scatterbrain. I've been an entrepreneur for decades, and I was a financial advisor, helping other people make good money doing what they love, but for some reason, there was always something that would happen to throw my money out of whack.
When I saw my bank balance, my anxiety sent me into orbit. The only thing that could calm my nerves was a scoop of cool, creamy chocolate ice cream. And then another. And another. And then another, until I realized I'd eaten the entire carton of ice cream!
GULP!
When I checked in with my coach later that day, we didn't celebrate my sales. Instead, my coach told me I was demonstrating classic symptoms of underearning, and if I didn't do something, I could look forward to more stress-filled days, sleepless nights and empty cartons of ice cream.
You might be thinking "I never have enough money. So yeah, I'm an underearner!" Or maybe you're thinking "I make good money. I'm not an underearner." But I'll tell you this: being an underearner has nothing to do with the amount of money in your bank account.
I've seen people making six or seven figures who are classic underearners, and I've seen people consciously and intentionally earning less who are not underearners. In fact, there are 5 core symptoms that most underearning creatives demonstrate. Do you see yourself in any of these?
Overcoming Underearning for Creative Entrepreneurs is a 5-week introductory program that can help you establish foundations for financial freedom and re-train your brain for financial stability and success. These are the same lessons I had to learn, and the foundations I had to put in place in order to reclaim the power I'd given away over the years. This is a self-paced, multi-media program (Audio, video, text), with weekly email support to help you stay on track. During our time together, you'll get to know...
Week 1: The Voices of Underearning & how to receive - There's a difference between having, getting, and receiving. You'll learn about all of them, and how each impacts your ability to earn more.
Week 2: How Shame triggers Underearning behavior & how to re-train your brain by building shame resilience
Week 3: Truth-Telling, Saying Yes (and no!), and The Importance of Celebration - Until you can drop the unnecessary judgement and own your financial truth, you'll continue to struggle. You'll create an initial action plan you can stick to for the next 30 days and beyond.
Week 4: Authentic Pricing (raising your rates) and Gathering Support for ongoing success - Underearning isn't something that's easy to beat on your own. It takes courage and support to ask for more money. Here, you'll learn how to create a "practice space" for yourself so you can build your confidence, raise your rates, and ask for more of what you need (money, time, freedom, etc.)
Week 5: Raising Your Threshold of Belief & Committing to Growing Your Income - You'll learn a simple "evidence gathering" technique that will help you maintain the changes you've been making and reinforce the learning of the past few weeks - so you can move forward with confidence and clarity.
That's over 6 hours of training, including worksheets, guided exercises, and community support! All it "costs" is your email address!
Become a member of the Rising Tide and access this course in the FREE Learning Library!