Life Lessons
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Lifting the Veils of Confusion

The class was titled “Women, Money and Power” and I took it over 30 years ago.

I had attended countless financial classes, read countless money books but this one class changed forever my relationship with money–and, much later, my approach to teaching it. 

On the first day, I remember sitting in a circle, in the middle of which was a clump of white netting, like a bridal veil, flung carelessly on the floor.

The instructor walked over to the netting, scooped it up, and announced: “This is what we’re going to do in this class. We are going to lift the veils that cloud our understanding of money.” 

Underneath the netting was the Wall Street Journal, which (ironically) I’d recently subscribed to. I couldn’t understand a word of it and I was about to find out why.

“To lift the veils,’ the instructor continued, “We have to get in touch with the decisions we’ve made about money, most of which were made early in life and are now unconscious. These decisions are like veils that get in the way of our financial understanding.”

She patted her head. “The more we can see in here, the more we can see out there.” She pointed to the newspaper. 

The instructor was speaking from experience. Although she was the director of the University’s MBA program, had a degree in economics, and an extensive background in financial services, she had a long history of financial neglect in managing her own money.

“I had all the technical information to act in a responsible way, but I wasn’t doing it,” she told us. “I realized that I may have some deeper issues and I better start working on them.” 

Reflecting back, I asked myself: Why does the mainstream, male dominated financial industry still  takes a strictly intellectual, left brain approach? 

Why don’t they get that, regardless of IQ, education or experience, many continue to behave in disturbingly irresponsible ways with money?   

The industry focuses solely on changing behaviors. Yet our behaviors are not the problem. They are symptoms of something deeper. And we aren’t likely to find the solution “out there’, in a conventional finance class or book. 

If you see yourself exhibiting self-sabotaging behavior, keep this in mind. While you’re learning the facts you also need to examine your blocks. While you’re exploring the difference between a stock and a bond, you also need to delve into your attitudes, beliefs and early messages about money.

Unless you do the inner work, shifting your behavior will be a constant struggle.

Have you done The Inner Work of Wealth? What early beliefs about money did you uncover? Leave me a comment below.


Get the support you need to create the Wealth you desire in my virtual community of women supporting women, The Wealth Connection. Join the conversation today!

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How Does One Become Wealthy? Part 4

I’d like to share a story that Sharon Salzberg, an author and meditation teacher, tells about a yoga retreat she attended. 

 

“Every other student in our class,” she wrote, “was far more limber, easily flowing into pretzel-like poses. Almost worse, they all seemed to know the traditional Sanskrit name for each move. 

 

One day as my teacher, John, was demonstrating a pose, he made an awkward-looking movement, then rebalanced. Coming out of it he asked, “What just happened?” 

 

One by one, my classmates offered a Sanskrit name for that extra little twist.

 

Finally, John turned to me and repeated his question, “What just happened?”

 

I replied: “To be honest, I think you fell.” 

 

“You’re right,” he said. “I fell. Then I started over. That’s good yoga.” 

 

Those words, in a nutshell, sum up the “good yoga” of wealth creation. 

 

 “It’s about honoring your intention,” Sharon explained. ”If we fall, we don’t need self-recrimination or blame or anger—we need a reawakening of our intention and a willingness to recommit… once again.” 

 

And that’s precisely how you will turn your intention into a reality. When you fall, go back to your intention, recommit, and take one tiny action step…again and again and again. 

 

As Sharon points out, “Often we can achieve an even better result when we’re not afraid to appear less than perfectly polished. We learn and grow and are transformed not so much by what we do but by why and how we do it.”

 

I’d love to hear from you how the fear of not being perfect, or making a mistake, was getting in your way, but you overcame it. Share in the comments below.


Get the support you need to create the Wealth you desire in my virtual community of women supporting women, The Wealth Connection. Join the conversation today!

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How Does One Become Wealthy? Part 3

According to success guru, Jack Canfield, “Everything you want also wants you. But you have to take action to get it.”

I thought of that quote when a woman, in one of my groups, recently posted: “Even though I say I want to create wealth, I keep signing up for more courses that kept putting me deeper in debt.”

I hear this all the time. Taking endless classes feels like you’re taking action, but it’s actually an act of self-deception. So I responded with a question: why don’t you want wealth?

When an unconscious desire—say, to conform to family patterns—is stronger than your spoken intention—to be wealthy—you’ll stop yourself at every turn.

You’ll water down your efforts, make misguided choices, and justify your actions with a variety of excuses. You may say, and believe, you want to be wealthy, but that’s not the message that’s reaching your brain.

There’s a story about two caterpillars that spy a butterfly high overhead. One turns to the other and says, ‘You’ll never get me up in one of those things!’

In many ways we’re like that caterpillar. We get a glimpse of what’s possible and immediately get cold feet. We may say we want something, but deep down, a muted voice is convincingly arguing, ‘No you don’t.’ 

I’d love to know if you’ve struggled with an internal conflict: part of you wants something, part of you doesn’t. Leave me a comment below.


Get the support you need to create the Wealth you desire in my virtual community of women supporting women, The Wealth Connection. Join the conversation today!

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How Does One Become Wealthy? Part 1

I’m often asked this question: I want to become wealthy, but how do I do it? 

 

I am tempted to respond with a line from Hope for the Flowers by Trina Paulus:  

“How does one become a butterfly?” she asked pensively.

“You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar.”

In other words, you must want to soar so much, that you’re willing to give up playing small and staying safe. 

 

Because creating wealth is about far more than amassing riches. It’s about becoming the powerful woman you were born to be, soaring higher that you believed possible.

 

But you must want…really want…to soar.  You may say “Oh Yes, I truly do,” but face it. Soaring is scary. If your fear is stronger than your longing, you won’t let yourself do it. 

 

But if you’re willing to go for it, I go back to Hope for the Flowers.

“Yellow decided to risk for a butterfly.

For courage she hung right beside the other cocoons and began to spin her own.

‘Imagine, I didn’t even know I could do this. That’s some encouragement that I’m on the right track. If I have the stuff inside me to make a cocoon—maybe the stuff of butterflies is there too.” 

Let me assure you, you have the power inside you to live an incredibly prosperous life. A good place to start is by finding others on the same path, learning from their examples, avoiding their mistakes.  Before you know it, you’ll indeed realize that the stuff of wealth building is inside you too. 

 

I’d love to invite you to join my online community, The Wealth Connection, where you can metaphorically, hang out with other “cocoons” as we transform into butterflies. 

 

Do you really want to soar? What’s holding you back? Leave me a comment below.


Would you like to try out coaching with me? For a limited time join The Wealth Connection for six-months—Only $297 and get a 30- minute private coaching session with me! (The coaching alone is a $300 value.) JOIN TODAY!

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What REALLY $cares Us About $uccess!

What scares us most about financial success is not that we may fall short, but that we may actually take flight and discover that we are, indeed, “powerful beyond measure.”  For many of us, that’s the very thing we’re trying to avoid.

When we claim our power, we raise the stakes. Power insists that we become responsible adults—the primary authority in our life— autonomous and accountable, too big to ignore. That’s precisely what’s so scary!

A woman afraid of her power is like an eagle afraid of its wings. We were born with power. It’s who we are, why we’re here, how we create our lives.

I am reminded of a story of a Zen monk who, when asked the secret of Buddha’s smile, replied, “It can only be that he smiles at himself for searching all those years for what he already possesses.” 

We, too, may smile at ourselves when we finally figure it out. Financial success is really about reclaiming our power—power that lies dormant within—by realizing our potential, expressing our passion, owning our value, and being well compensated.

Have you conquered your fear of being a powerful woman? Share your story in the comments.


Looking for a supportive, active community where you can learn to take charge of your finances (and your life)? Check out my virtual community, The Wealth Connection. **Special Pricing Now Available—Only $47/month.**  Learn More!

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The 3 Questions. (Everything You Need to Know About Creating Wealth)

I’ve recently had a number of conversations that centered on 3 questions.

  • What is Wealth?  
  • How do you create Wealth (without becoming a workaholic?) 
  • Why is creating Wealth so scary?  

Today, I’d love to share my responses. Let’s begin with the first. Simply put, Wealth is having more than you need…so money ceases to be a source of stress and becomes a tool for living life fully.

But like any tool, you must understand how to use it skillfully and wisely to get maximum benefit with minimum risk. Which brings us to the 2nd question.

Creating Wealth is actually quite simple.  Just follow these four rules: 1) Spend less; 2) Save more; 3) Invest wisely; 4) Give generously. In that order!!! The first 3 are the How’s. The 4th is the Why.

If it’s that simple, why is it so scary?Because the 3rd rule feels r-r-r-risky. But as Warren Buffet once said: “Risk comes from not knowing what you are doing.” 

In other words: The biggest risk you take, in investing as in life, is making decisions based on fear, ignorance or habit…rather than knowledge (knowledge about investing AND yourself).  

The more you understand the way investing works AND what makes you tick, the easier it is to separate from the herd, manage your emotions, and make informed investment decisions.

Now it’s your turn.  Do you agree or disagree with my responses? Leave me a comment below.


Changing your mindset about Creating Wealth can be a challenge…but you don’t have to do it alone. Join my virtual community The Wealth Connection for the support you need to Become a Savvy & Confident Investor! Join today for only $47/month

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Does It Ever Get Easier?

I’ve begun another journey. And I’m wondering: do the first steps ever get easier?

A few years ago, I birthed a new body of work:  ReWIRE: Mind Training for Wealth + Well-Being, combining neuroscience with personal finance. Last week I finally finished the book proposal.

My agent is shopping it around. Even after writing 7 books, I have to say: beginnings are a bitch. Let me tell you why. Perhaps you can relate. 

We rarely feel certain that we’re actually ready to begin. If anything, beginnings are a disturbing blend of excitement and fear, optimism and despair. (What if every publisher rejects me? What if I still need to learn more, be better prepared?)

And beginnings are scary. In order to start one thing, you have to let go of something else. For me, I’ve had to stop giving workshops and retreats in subjects I know and love to find the time for studying a brand new subject.  

Beginnings are also frustrating. They are full of interruptions and false starts. I began working on my proposal last summer. But fear, resistance, and various distractions kept delaying my progress.  I kept worrying I wasn’t doing it right, that I’d never finish. 

Yet beginnings can’t be rushed. They must emerge. The key is to stay focused but surrender control, allowing one thing to lead to another. For example, I spent months trying to find just the right agent. I’d been spoiled by my old one—a razor sharp editor—who’d quit the biz.  As I’m about to give up hope, I find out she’s back. And she whipped my proposal into shape, just as it needed.

Now I wait. Will my baby find a good home? Beginnings are mired in uncertainty. Then I read this on social media: “Be okay with not knowing for sure what might come next, but know that whatever it is, you’ll be ok.”  

And I sigh with relief! It may never get easier. Yet I know, I’ll be fine, regardless of the results.

How do you handle the beginnings in your life? Join the conversation here.


It’s not too late to join me and an amazing group of women in the Spring 2019 session of my 5-month ReWIRE Mentorship Program. Click here to learn more!

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5 Things $mart Women Do

There’s an old joke. Why did God create economists? To make weather forecasters look good.

The truth is, no one knows what the economy, or the various markets, are going to do.

I used to think there were a list of secrets that smart people, mostly men, knew. And if I could just get my hand on that list, I’d finally understand money.

But as I grew smarter, it became apparent. There are no secrets. But there are smart things that smart people do.

Here are five of them that really helped me.

1. Trust your intuition—most smart women tell me they made their worst mistakes when they didn’t trust their better judgement.
2. Learn from your mistakes—too many women become paralyzed by their fear of making mistakes. But smart women told me their biggest blunders were actually their best teachers. You can minimize those mistakes by following the next 3 suggestions.
3. Go slow—take time to educate yourself and develop a game plan,
4. Start small. Invest regularly. Diversify broadly.—invest small amounts of money, on a regular basis, among various categories, or asset classes, putting only what you can afford to lose in any single investment.
5.Understand what you’re buying—never put money in anything you don’t understand. Not only do you not know what you’re buying, but you won’t know when it’s time to sell.

What’s the best investment advice you ever received? Leave me a comment.


There’s still time to join the next session of my 5-month ReWIRE Mentorship Program!  Click here to learn more.

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Gambling vs Investing

I’ve often heard people say: “Investing is no different that gambling.”

Au contraire. There is a big distinction between gambling and investing.

Gambling looks like this:

  • Buying stocks or bonds willy-nilly
  • Following a hot tip
  • Purchasing the hottest fund
  • Trying to time the market (buying when it’s high, freaking out and selling when it plunging)
  • Deferring decisions to another and sticking your head in the sand

Investing, on the other hand, looks like this:

  • Creating a financial plan based on your goals and risk tolerance
  • Building a diversified portfolio, based on the plan
  • Adhering to the plan until something changes
  • Making decisions supported by your plan not your emotions
  • Taking a long term approach (gambling is all about rapid gains)

Having a plan is the key distinction. If you don’t have an idea of where you want to end up, it will be far more difficult to make the right decisions.

Do you have a financial plan in place? Leave a comment below.


Did you miss my free call, The ReWIRE Response: Mind Training for Wealth & Well-Being? I shared 3 simple steps to train you mind to rewire your brain. Click here to listen

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An Eye-Opening Exercise

Having trouble getting a handle on money? Try this eye-opening exercise. I call it The Sacred Wealth Circle.

On a blank piece of paper, draw a large circle. Inside the circle, write the names of people you can talk to about money.

Then, outside the circle, write down the names of people you are close to, but can’t discuss finances with because they tend to be naysayers or aren’t interested.

What did you discover?  If you’re like most, there’s not many names inside your circle.

Finding support is critical to gaining financial savvy—from friends, family, mentors and role models. While no one can do it for us, we cannot—should not—do it alone.  

The world needs more supportive communities of women talking openly, candidly about topics that have been taboo for centuries: money, wealth, and power.

That’s why I created my online community,The Wealth Connection—a safe place to talk about money, as women. If you’re interested, click here to learn more.

I’d love to hear what you discovered from doing this exercise? Leave a comment below.


Did you miss my free call, The ReWIRE Response: Mind Training for Wealth & Well-Being? I shared 3 simple steps to train you mind to rewire your brain. Click here to listen

Meet Barbara Huson

When a devastating financial crisis rocked her world, Barbara Huson knew she had to get smart about money… and she did. Now, she wants to empower every women to take charge of their money and take charge of their lives! She’s doing just that with her best-selling books, life changing retreats and private financial coaching.

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