Episode 11: Women, Let's Talk About Earning Money
This week on Courage Is Calling I want to talk about the importance of women making money.
I want you to know that me feeling comfortable talking about making money in my business is something that has been about 4 years in the making. I took on a coach to help me with this stuff, I started opening the conversation in my community about money and I’ve learned a huge amount about the massive importance of being money literate and assured in my business so I want to share some of that with you in case you’re in that position too – where making money or talking about your work or selling or pricing feels hard. You’re not the only one, trust me.
In this episode I'll be talking through why we find it difficult, why it matters that women feel safe to earn well and get comfortable pricing well for their work. I hope you'll find something in this pep-talk to empower you to ask for what you want and trust yourself to go get it.
+ Click here to read the transcript
Hello and welcome back. how are you? I hope that your week is going well. Um, in this episode, I just want to jump straight in. I want to jump straight into my topic today because it's something that actually really excites me to talk about money and specifically women making money from the work that they do. But I have not always. Definitely not always felt excited to talk about this. Let me just say that. I know that this topic is not something that is overly comfortable for so many of us to talk about for lots of reasons. And I want to preface this episode by saying that this helps slightly has been my experience. So when I first started running my business, the money stuff was for sure the thing that I buried my head in the sand, about the most, um, and this was coming from decades of working in the nonprofit sector. So to go from having a set salary and, you know, applying for funding for different causes that I worked in to this kind of real stark contrast of creating products and offers of my own, where I was asking people to pay me. It was such a big leap, a really big, uncomfortable, hard leap and change. And I had to learn pretty quickly, um, uh, about money because the truth is if your business isn't making money, it's not a business. And more than that, if your business is not making money in strategic, Ongoing ways it's not sustainable. And that is a really hard place to operate from when you feel like things are really unstable, um, financially and that's often when we feel like. Need to scramble or undersell ourselves or change or contort what we do at every whim to suit what we think people want. Um, so I just want you to know that may feel uncomfortable talking about making money. And my business is something that has been about four years in the making. I took on a coach to help me with this stuff. I started opening the conversation about money in my community, and I've learned a huge amount about the massive importance of being money, literate, and assured in my business. So I want to share some of that with you just in case you're in that position, to where, you know, making money or talking about your work or selling or pricing feels hard. You are not the only one trust me. I think a large amount of our hesitation or fear of money conversations comes from women having been kept out of money conversations for many, many, many years, and it really, really is a new phenomenon. And Western society that women are able to earn good money on their own terms and have economic autonomy. And it's only in the last 40 years that we've been able to even have our own bank accounts or mortgages that are in our names without having a male signatory. So I, I imagine even if you look down your family tree, there probably only a few women before you who've been able to access the opportunities that women like us now have. To run our own businesses or work their way up in terms of earning. So even though we have more access to earning money and having a financial say in our own lives, it really does make sense that it feels to taboo or new for women to be talking about this stuff, because it is still so new in terms of our access. And when you've been kept out of the conversation for as long as we have. We will naturally feel timid about entering into it or feeling like we have any authority to do so. And many of us have complicated relationships with money as well. Don't we? So maybe it's to do with poverty or deaths, or maybe even guilt about our own privileges or our upbringing. Um, many of us women likely carry all of those experiences and feelings into our businesses, maybe subconsciously, and maybe when we face them, we can recognize how they're having an impact in the way that we show up, how we price ourselves, how we ask people to buy from us success. I really believe that in order for us to get more comfortable with all of those things, with showing up with pricing, with selling, asking people to connect and buy from us, we have to face them. We have to acknowledge and own them as part of our story. And also believe that it's important for us to be paid for our work and to earn money with autonomy. And another thing to note is that our culture sends women messages about our relationships with money all the time, too. Right. And like, it plays us off as the spenders, the shoppers, and really demonizes women's relationship to money and all these really patronizing ways. We also know that women who are financially successful on the other hand are also scrutinized more. Um, the conflation of those things rests in our mind that being a woman who makes money means that you're going to be perceived as being less likable. And we know how much like ability can be a real safety leaver for us. So we can see how women are likely to shrink when it comes to money. Because the risk of not being liked feels too much. We're also monitoring the reality of seeing high money and power works in the world around us. And it doesn't take long to observe that the accumulation and the distribution of wealth is so screwed up and so toxic and has resulted in an individualized, patriarchal capitalist society. And it's likely because of what we see now. And high things are now that our associations with money are that it can be really detrimental and corruptive rather than it being something that allows us freedom and greater opportunities to be generous, to change systems or create new and better ways of working. And so with all of that, all of that, it's natural that we have this kind of fear of money or fear of what having money or asking for money. Well bring up, well, it lump us into the cm patriarchal capitalist society that we know is absolutely not good for the world. Will it show us to be unlikable if we ask for things or if we desire more, what is crucial to know is that actually women operate really differently from men when it comes to wealth or money and research shows. That women are naturally more generous, better at handling money than man and more attuned to using our money wisely on for good. We're more likely to give to charity to give to more charities on gift. More often research shows that households headed by single females give 57% more to charity than those headed by single man. Men seemed to tend to favor charitable contributions for their tax advantages. Whereas women seem to give largely out of empathy and connection to certain causes. Women in the top 25% of permanent income status give 156% more than men in the same category. And one quarter of high net worth women support causes or organizations aimed at benefiting women and girls. How awesome is that, and they say that their number one motivation for this and forgiving is their belief that it is the most efficient way to solve societal problems. Investing in organizations and causes aimed at benefiting women and girls, see women tend to view money as a means by which to articulate their value set. So do you know what this means? I'm so excited by this information. It means that we are to be trusted. Women are absolutely to be trusted with money. And the only way that we can turn things around in terms of how money is shared in the world is if we harness our courage and are brave enough to ask for what we want to put our hand up and say, I'll have that. I can trust myself to earn this or to ask for that. We have an opportunity to reimagine how the world could look. If we had more women earning money, creating new solutions to the world's problems and getting paid for it. But to do that, we have to be willing to step into our own space and ask for what we need. And even better by doing this, we can begin to show younger women coming up in the world. How women can earn money, have autonomy shift inequality, and use their earning power for good. And if we continue to shrink around money. Neglect to offer our work out and keep our heads buried in the sun, the bite, this stuff, it's going to be harder for us to create a new collective narrative of the importance of women having equal earning power. Here are some other reasons why it's important for us to care about money and getting paid. One, so we can offer the best and maintain our integrity. So when we get paid for what we do, it allows us to bring ourselves to our work in a different way or energy. We show up differently when we feel like our work is valued well, right? So always doing stuff for free or discounted eventually is going to lead to resenting your work and losing. The second thing is it's also important because women need to be more integrated into economics spheres. We need more women in boardrooms, making decisions for fairer worlds, investing in good, sustainable ways. Having a seat at the table, we need more women using their money to create change to even things out in our unbalanced world. And I call it Nomi. Thirdly, another reason it's important for us to care about money and get paid for what we do is this reality. If you don't, you will not have a business or an offering to enjoy and serve. And it's plain and simple. If you continue to undercharge, not ask for what you want, not be clear about your money situation, you won't be able to continue doing the work that you love because you won't be able to afford to. Forthly,we really need to remember that when we offer our work, I, to people, we are giving other people the opportunity to invest in things that might solve their problems or help them because someone out there really needs and is ready to invest in you and whatever product or service that you have to have. So shrinking from money conversations is actually denying people, the opportunity to get the thing that they might really need from me. Don't patronize people by playing small with your gifts and skills, assuming they won't pay for them. You may have just what someone needs really and truly. And finally this conversation is important because you are absolutely to be trusted to earn good money. You can trust yourself to remain the amazing, generous creative person that you are. If you ask for what you want. Selling what you do offering your product out to people pitching for business, calling in clients, earning money in ways that you never imagined does not change your goodness. You can be trusted to do that. In fact, we need you to do that. I wonder if any of this is stirring something in you right now, or if you're feeling a shift with how you've been feeling about earning money or asking for what you want in your business. I really hope it injects a little courage into your soul today. And I would love it. If you would pass this podcast episode on to a friend who needs that too. I also want to remind you that if you want to submit a question or a dilemma, uh, that you need some courage for, then you can do that through the link in the show notes. I would love to hear from you. Thanks again for listening. I am always so grateful and I will see you next time.
