Takeaways: Jen Sincero and You Are a Badass at Making Money

Jen Sincero's You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life came to me at a time when I needed a shove in a new direction. Despite packing up and moving everything to California two years earlier, I started to feel stuck. I knew it wasn't due to a lack of opportunity, but rather getting stuck in my own head which led to staying home instead of attending networking events and keeping to myself instead of reaching out to others. California was a big risk I jumped at and all too soon the newness and excitement wore off and I got comfortable, back into my ways.

52 Book Challenge

When 2018 rolled around, I decided I needed to set goals for myself. Challenges that were attainable, that I would stick to, and would open my mind. Problem was, I just didn't know where to start.

Jen's first book, You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life, sat on my reading list for a good majority of 2017. It was one of those books that I really wanted to get to, but I just didn't "have the time." The universe knew better, and on January 1, per the recommendation of Patti Murin on Twitter, I drove to Target and walked out with a copy in hand.

It. Changed. My. Life.

I've never believed in all that "woo woo" about energy, the universe providing, law of attraction, etc. You get the picture. What that book did first, however, was get my butt in gear. There are certain things that I wanted out of life and when things got too hard, I quit or moved on - "So often, we pretend we’ve made a decision, when what we’ve really done is signed up to try until it gets too uncomfortable." One thing I learned from Jen is to stick with it, no matter how hard it becomes - if it's what you want you'll find a way.

A Whole New World

You Are a Badass opened my world to female entrepreneurship. After I finished the book, I scoured podcasts and YouTube for interviews or speaking engagements and the first podcast I came across was the She Did It Her Way Podcast. I loved the interview with Jen so much that I subscribed and went back through the archives. From She Did It Her Way I discovered other podcasts, books, companies, influencers, and more (read my post on my favorite podcasts here).

You know what else it did? Exactly what Jen intended: it opened my mind to new experiences, to take chances, to get out of my head and live my best life. My anxiety still rears its ugly head, but I have much more power and control over it. I've set goals that I would have never set 6 months ago. I'm literally flying halfway across the country tomorrow to attend a summit with other female entrepreneurs.

You Are a Badass at Making Money

Jen followed up You Are a Badass, with You Are a Badass at Making Money which was the focus of her most recent book tour. She uses the same no-nonsense humor as in her first book to identify changes that you need to make in your mindset, environment, and calendar to generate income, live the way you want to live, and ditch your 9-5 if that's your ultimate goal.

At her book signing and interview at WeWork in Downtown LA, Jen highlighted the core of changing your money mindset. Here are my top 8 takeaways from the event:

1. Make the decision to make money
Making money has has to be a conscious decision. Once you make that conscious choice to make money, watch what happens. Do you see opportunities emerge that were right in front of you all along? Perhaps, like Jen you were "too busy clipping coupons" to notice. I've been there. I spent countless hours earning points for taking online surveys that earned me a whopping $10 to notice that I could be earning much more for my passions and actual skills: writing, proofreading and editing, designing this website, and sharing stories. Making the decision to make money may be all it takes.

"It's impossible to focus on one thing and see another."

2. Surround yourself with the people who will support you
Jen was brutally honest - the people that support what you're doing probably won't be the people who are like you. Think about it, how many times have you shared something with your closest friends or family and you've received an "Oh that's great" or "That's nice, but is it going to work?" Sometimes the people in our inner circle who think like us may not provide needed constructive criticism, play devil's advocate, or give their absolute honest opinion. Sure, they'll be supportive, but it's often not in the way it's needed. Join entrepreneurship groups in your area (or even on Facebook) and get involved. Participate and share your business, ideas, blog, etc. You'll receive constructive criticism, support, motivation, and out of the box ideas that my have never occurred to you. Those groups have been the best support for my own business, and I encourage you to try them too.

3. Create a mantra - don't say "I can't afford it" say "Money flows to me easily and freely"
Yup, we got into "woo woo" mantras and meditations. Like myself, Jen also scoffed at the thought of mantras. But it works. She stopped saying "I can't afford it" and started saying "Money flows to me easily and freely." And guess, what? It happened. While I haven't experienced it to the extent she did (to be honest, I haven't put it all on the line yet), just slight changes have brought about random extra income right when it's needed.

4. Shift your energy
This goes in to the Law of Attraction (all that "woo woo" stuff). What you put out is what you attract. So if you're putting out negative vibes and saying "I can't afford it," or "I can't do this" then guess what - you can't afford it and you can't do it. Shift your energy, put out positive vibes, and watch what happens.

"What comes out of your mouth comes into your life."

5. Do what you love, create a viable income stream, and the money will flow
There's usually a lot of pushback with the advice "do what you love and the money will follow." Most people do what they love and expect the money to follow without applying any kind of viable income stream, sales funnel, marketing or business plan, etc. And that's where they fail. You can do what you love and make money, but you have to put yourself in a business mindset and make sure you have a conceivable way to make income from that passion.

Here's a great article from Entrepreneur to help you get started: 5 Steps to Help You Turn Your Passion Into Profit

6. Get clear on your priorities
This is the key for being successful at anything, nevermind making money. What is it that you want? What is important to you? What do you have to do to get to that goal or achieve that dream? List out what you have to do to get there, decide what is most important to what is least important, and do them. Don't let anything unnecessary come in-between those tasks (save for legit emergencies). It sounds easy, but when you get into the nitty-gritty of it, it's definitely not -

7. Do not try to do more than one [business] when you're trying to get it off the ground
Jen likened this to a jet plane using 80% of it's fuel on takeoff. You're putting all your energy and resources into the take off of your business, so why spread yourself thin between businesses? It's only going to lead to one, both, or all businesses failing because you're not going to have enough energy or resources to give to each and every one of them. "Everything else is going to look so much better and easier when the challenges come," but don't give in to quitting and trying something else. Put your all into one until it's so successful that you can launch another.

"If you're all over the place, you're half-assing a bunch of different things instead of kicking ass at one thing."

8. Make time
You're never going to have enough time, especially when you have a full time job, pets, kids, and other obligations. If this making money and starting your business is what you want, you have to find the time - whether its an hour or a half hour, set that time aside in your calendar for whatever it is you want to do. Create a habit of sticking to that same time for the same amount of time every day, and astounded at what you can accomplish.